Slade ran through the halls and corridors of the Space Knight Command Center, not knowing just where he was trying to get to. The only thing he could see at the moment was the image of Saber, lying helpless and injured in the medical center. If I hadn't been so weak Saber wouldn't be in this situation. If I hadn't been so slow, I might have been able to do something to help him. All these thoughts and more were running through Slade's mind as he ran, and when he finally managed to make himself stop and look around, Slade was only mildly surprised to find that he was standing just outside the gym.

Walking inside, Slade found that he was the only one there at the moment. That suited him just fine. Slade strode over to one of the weight machines. Moving the selector pin to the highest possible weight setting, and then taking off his padded vest, Slade sat down and began to methodically pump iron. He had soon gotten himself into a comfortable rhythm, and was even able to put the image of Saber lying unconscious in the medical wing out of his mind.

Once Slade had tired of working out on the weight machine, he went over to one of the punching bags and started beating on it. Slade hadn't bothered to get a pair of gloves or even to wrap up his hands, so the rough material of the bag had soon taken most of the top layer of skin off of his knuckles. Slade was too focused on the image burned into his brain; that of his brother lying unconscious in the med bay, to notice the splatters of his own blood that now decorated the punching bag.

Slade's shoulders were soon heaving with exhaustion, but he forced himself to go on, working through a kata that he knew by heart. Running though all the martial arts katas that he could remember, Slade tried again not to think about how badly he had failed. Saber, I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you. I should have been there for you; we're brothers. And you're the only family I have left now. I'll do better next time though, I promise.

After a long time, even Slade couldn't deny his failing body the rest it needed. Leaving the gym, Slade made himself a promise to return early tomorrow. As he made his way back to his room, Slade really felt all the aches in his body for the first time since he had started working out. By the time he had gotten back to his quarters, Slade was more than ready to collapse into bed and sleep for the rest of the night.

1010001

Slade woke up earlier than he had planned, driven from sleep by another nightmare. Slade had never asked Saber if he ever had nights where he couldn't get to sleep; nights where his fears and uncertainties kept him awake into the small hours of the morning or else made him wake up earlier than he ever would have wanted to, because they simply weren't the type to talk about such things.

Slade breathed deeply, steadying himself and reminding himself that it had only been a dream. Saber was strong, a small wound like that wouldn't be enough to kill him. Besides, if there's one thing I know about my brother, it's that he's just as stubborn as I am. He'll probably be up and around in no time. Keeping that thought in the forefront of his mind, Slade got up to go take a shower.

Once he was done, and dressed in a clean uniform, Slade tried to decide whether he would prefer to go down to the cafeteria and have breakfast first, or just go back down to the gym and work out some more. A persistent growling in his stomach made the decision all the easier for Slade, so once he had gotten out of his room, Slade made for the cafeteria.

As he walked, Slade tried to remind himself not to think about the fact that he would have to eat alone today. Saber would normally be there, just to keep his brother company. It made the days just a little less lonely somehow. Slade, knowing that he would have to do without that comfort for today at least, made up his mind not to let anyone know just how much it affected him.

Slade had learned a long time ago that there were very few people in the world that he could share his weaknesses and insecurities with. With Saber gone, at least temporarily, that number had gotten even smaller. Walking out of his room, Slade put on his usual mask of stoic indifference. Walking down the halls without his brother by his side was an experience Slade wasn't at all eager to repeat.

11001001

In the cafeteria Slade sat as his usual place, at his usual table, and tried to make himself forget that Saber wasn't just up getting some food for himself. It was better if he didn't think about things like that, Slade had learned. Saber was really the stronger one when it came to dealing with messy things like emotions, or maybe it was just that his brother wasn't one to let his emotions control him.

Either way, it didn't change the fact that Slade needed his brother to lean on, even if he wasn't going to admit it out loud. Once he was almost finished with his breakfast, Slade heard the familiar sound of the alert. He had long since learned how to distinguish between the so-called 'general-alert' and the 'emergency-alert'. This was the former, which meant that Slade was due in the briefing room.

Since he had already had enough time to finish his breakfast, Slade made his way down to the briefing room. All of the other Space Knights were sitting at the table, apparently having waited till Slade joined them to start the meeting. There was a discussion of the battle that had happened the previous day, one that Slade wasn't at all interested in joining.

Going through that battle once had been more than enough for him, and to make it all worse, he was still dealing with the aftermath of that battle. Commander Jamison was the first to notice Slade's silence, or at least he was the first to comment on it.

"Listen, Slade. You've no cause to brood over this business," Jamison said, taking in Slade's slumped posture, hopeless expression, and general air of dejectedness. "No one blames you for the damage to the Blue Earth, or for Saber's injuries."

Ringo, who had been sitting quietly after having given his report, looked over at Slade with an expression that said almost as clearly as words 'I do'.

"However," Jamison went on, unaware of the wordless exchange between two of his Space Knights. "Your sudden loss of strength is still a mystery. What happened out there, Slade? Can we expect something like this to happen the next time you transform into Teknoman? For that matter, should we now expect something like this to happen to Saber?"

Just then, the main screen activated.

"Greetings, Space Knights," General Gault said in his usual solicitous tone, and with his usual arrogant smile.

"General Gault again," Maggie muttered. "That man makes me nervous."

"Quiet," Mac said urgently, covering her mouth with both hands. "He's not deaf, you know."

"I observed your last battle with interest. I'd like to congratulate you on a hard-fought victory. And a costly one, as well. I heard what happened to Saber; such a tragedy. I guess your Teknoman Slade still has a few glitches, eh?"

"General Gault, what can the Space Knights do for you?" Jamison asked.

"You've already guessed that this isn't a social call," Gault said, a small smirk still in place. "As usual, Commander, you've assessed the situation perfectly."

"Go on," Jamison said calmly. "We're all ears."

"As you must know, our manpower is stretched pretty thin, so the Allied Earth Military is assigning you another mission," he smiled in that arrogant way of his. "I'm sorry to have to interrupt your R&R this way," he leaned forward, setting his chin on his folded hands, his smile seeming all the wider for his more casual posture. "But you recall that Radam construct you intercepted last time? Well, more of them are coming. A whole cluster of them, in fact."

"No," Slade muttered, too low for anyone but Saber to have heard or taken notice of; if his brother had been there with him, if he hadn't failed so badly… "Not again."

"Our tactical fighter-wings are barely holding their own against the squadrons of Spider-crabs the enemy's throwing at us," Gault said, his demeanor becoming more serious. "Losses are reaching a critical stage. The fighter pilots can't be expected to withstand that onslaught, and deal with whatever it is that the Radam have descending toward the planet. That's where you come in: you're to intercept and destroy these Radam constructs. There's no time to waste; you are to patch up the Blue Earth and get into position at once. I understand that you will only be at half-strength during this mission, but that's no excuse for slacking off. Oh yes, one more thing I almost forgot," he grinned down at them, his demeanor jovial again. "I sincerely hope that your sole remaining Teknoman performs better than he did last time, or I shall be forced to take the both of them off your hands."

"Like he'd really be heartbroken," Mac said derisively. "That way, he'd break up the Space Knights and get his hands on the twins at the same time."

"What would be gained by your taking Slade and Saber under your command, General Gault?" the Commander asked; and Slade almost thought he could detect a note of warning in the man's voice, but maybe he was just imagining it.

"We might be more capable than you of bringing out their full potential as a fighting force," Gault said, and Slade wanted to throttle him; the bastard. "We'd hate to see them go to waste. Meanwhile, Commander, best of luck on your mission."

The meeting broke up not soon after that, and Slade left quickly; he wasn't really in the mood to deal with people more than he had to today, and he knew that Commander Jamison would call him when it was time for him to hear about the specifics of whatever operation they were going to launch to deal with those teknopods the Radam had been sending down. He just wanted to go back to his room, just to lay in his bed and try not to think of anything. Not sleep; too many nightmares awaited him there.

Hearing someone fall into step beside him, Slade made a concerted effort to ignore them. It was either Star or Ringo, and he didn't want to deal with them, for one reason or another; Ringo would be taunting him, and he wasn't in the mood to deal with Star's mothering at the moment.

"Slade?"

It was Star after all. He moved faster, not wanting to look like he was running away, but also wanting to get away from her if he possibly could.

"Slade, wait," she said, catching hold of his arm as he was just about to turn a corner. "Why don't we go see your brother?"

"Why?" he demanded, pulling away; he didn't want to spend the time staring his failure in the face, despite the fact that he knew that he would be doing so sometime later.

And probably not so much later, either.

"I think it'll be good for you," she said, reaching out for him again; this time he let her, since it was obvious that she would keep trying until she got ahold of him. "Just to see that things aren't as bad as you think."

"Fine." Saber would have sighed under the same circumstances, trying to throw her off with humor and exaggeration. "Let's go."

She smiled, and he let her lead him back through the halls toward the infirmary. The door slid open in front of them, the same way that every door in the Space Knight Command Center did, but what was behind them was something that he hadn't honestly wanted to see for at least a few more hours. Saber lay there, a breathing-mask fixed over his face, and the not-entirely-reassuring beep of the heart-rate monitors loud in the silence. Everything else was the same as he had seen while Ringo was taunting him: the white bandages that contrasted so sharply with Saber's black hair, the slow, even breathing through the tube that provided his brother with oxygen. Everything was just like last time; nothing had changed.

He didn't want to see this; it was his failure that had caused Saber to end up like this, and he had wanted to at least avoid confronting this for the morning, to at least have time to wake up properly before he saw this.

"See?" Star said, turning to smile at him. "It's not as bad as Ringo makes it out to be; your brother's going to be fine. He'll be up before you know it."

"I hope you're right," he muttered, staring down at the injured, unconscious form of his brother as he continued to breathe slowly.

Sticking his hands in his pockets, not wanting to make this situation anymore real than it already was, Slade just stared down at Saber. He knew that his brother was beyond him; out of the reach of even their telepathy, and he would have given anything to make that not be true. He just wanted to have it be yesterday, and not today; to have the last of his brothers back by his side.

Hearing the general-alert was almost a relief; knowing that he wouldn't have to think so much anymore, that he could just do things. Knowing that there would finally be something to take his mind off just how badly he had failed. Even facing Ringo wouldn't be so bad, with the promise of something to take his mind off of Saber.

When they both arrived back in the Space Knights' comm. room, Commander Jamison nodded to them. He seemed to be waiting on someone else, though. When Ringo brushed past them, with a smile for Star that turned into a leer when he passed by into Slade's line of sight, the Commander nodded and went to the computers.

He'd obviously activated some sort of battle-sim, since the next thing Slade saw on the holo-screen was a figure that he took to be himself, and a ship that seemed to be the Blue Earth, orbiting one of the teknopods while shooting at it. The simulated teknopod was soon reduced to nothingness.

"We'll launch tomorrow at zero-twelve-hundred," the Commander said. "The Blue Earth will remain in reserve and will not engage the enemy. Slade, that means that you will have to carry the load this time."

"Slade, you don't think you'll have the same problem again, do you?" Maggie asked, drawing his attention with a hand on his left shoulder, and then clasping her hands under her chin. "I mean, I'm only thinking it would be such a shame to let them break up the team."

"Sure, why let them do it, when Slade's doing such a good job of it, himself."

"Ringo!" Star snapped, an obvious warning in her voice.

"What? Even I have to admit that the guy put on a really good act." Slade tried not to let Ringo's words get to him; he was an idiot, and a jackass, and he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. Saber would have said just as much, if he'd been here to hear any of this. "I bet Saber didn't suspect a thing. Ow!"

"Shut up, Ringo," Star hissed, her fist still slightly raised from hitting Ringo's hard head with it. "It wasn't Slade's fault; he and Saber were both unconscious in the back of the Blue Earth, if you can recall that far."

"Heck of a swing you've got there, Star," Ringo said, still rubbing his head; he knew when someone was playing dumb, and Ringo was obviously determined to do so.

Best to ignore him, then; nothing would be resolved if he let himself get dragged into a fight, despite the fact that Ringo was so obviously trying to provoke one.

"That's enough of that, Ringo." Commander Jamison's voice was calm as ever, yet it had the undertones of a harsh reprimand; almost reminiscent of… someone else. "We're all sorry about what happened to Saber, but nobody's to blame. He has yet to regain consciousness, but Sickbay reports that his condition is stable, and the prognosis is encouraging. I have every hope that he'll be back with us soon. Obviously, though, not in time for this mission. So Slade, you will have to perform this mission on your own. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." I guess, he thought but didn't say.

"Good," Commander Jamison said, with a nod to him. "Mac? How long will it take you to install a laser-cannon or two and wire them into the ship's guidance systems?"

"No time at all," Mac said, sounding pleased. "Been wanting to do that for awhile now."

"Yeah, it's about time, sir," Ringo interjected, obviously pleased himself. "Give the Blue Earth the means to fight for herself, and we won't need those Teknomen anymore. Not even the one we still have."

He just knew that Ringo was leering at him, or else he had that sickening grin on his face; Slade wasn't going to let himself be dragged into a fight. Not here, and not with people who'd taken him and his brother in when they didn't even have to. He wasn't.

"Stop it, Ringo, right now!" Maggie snapped.

"Just drop it," Star said, clearly at the end of her tolerance for Ringo's antics; she wasn't the only one. "This doesn't do anyone any good."

"I can't believe you two," Ringo said, his voice quivering with barely suppressed mirth. "This guy's own twin brother is lying unconscious because of him. And if things don't go well, he might never wake up. I hear head injuries are really touchy that way."

Saber would have kicked him in the shin, or stomped on his toes in passing; Slade just turned and left.

11100010

Watching as Slade walked away, his shoulders hunched, and tense as any number of whipcords, Ringo had about a second to feel the change in the air before Star belted him right across the cheek.

"Oww," he said, reaching up to touch his stinging cheek. "Star-"

"Not a word, Ringo," she all but snarled; he might have gone a bit too far with that last dig. "Not. One. Word."

"Leave," Maggie added; okay, he'd definitely gone a bit overboard if Maggie was looking at him like that. "Just leave, Ringo," she snapped, when he started to open his mouth to apologize.

"If you think you're going to get out of this by apologizing, think again," Star informed him flatly. "We're not the ones you should be apologizing to, Ringo."

No one would speak to him after that; heck, even the Commander was giving him the gimlet eye, so he turned and left. He knew where Slade was bound to be headed, and as much as he didn't actually want to do it, he knew that no one would be particularly happy with him until he'd made up with Slade. Still, thinking back on the expression he'd seen on Slade face, just before the kid had turned to leave, he started to feel like a bit of a heel.

Slade and his brother had protected them from some pretty horrible things; the Radam and those weird Teknomen of theirs being foremost among them, and he'd gone and mocked the kid after his twin brother – someone who was closer to him than anyone else – had been injured. It hadn't even been the kid's fault; he'd been conked out just like his brother, dead weight in the back of the Blue Earth's cockpit.

He hated to say it, but he just might have been a bit too hard on the kid.

When he reached the infirmary, he went to the observation area outside Saber's room. He didn't want to crowd the kid, but he also wanted to see just what Slade was doing. He might have misjudged the kid, but then again he might not have; he wanted to take the measure of the kid before he said anything, and the best way to do that was to just let him be himself when he thought he was alone.

Switching on the audio-receiver, he waited to hear what Slade would say to his brother. He didn't have to wait that long: "I'm sorry," he heard, followed by a quiet sigh. "You ended up here because I wasn't fast enough. Because I wasn't good enough to stop you from getting hurt. And I know now why that was; what started going wrong."

Ringo nearly laughed; it looked like he'd been way off base, this time. Slade was one of those types; the ones who wanted to take the world on their own shoulders, no matter if it broke them in the end.

The sad monologue continued: "I know what I have to do now, though. Before I hurt anyone else, I'll sacrifice myself. I just wanted you to know that; I'll miss you, brother."

He saw Slade tuck his brother's right hand back under the covers, and sighed as the kid left. And I usually consider myself such a good judge of character, he thought, with a subdued chuckle. Nothing for it now, though; he'd have to make some form of amends, or else he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

Sighing again, he walked into the treatment room where Saber was convalescing.

"Sorry, kid," he said, wanting to get the easy part over with first. "I guess I might have misjudged your brother a bit," he sighed again, listening to the deep, rhythmic breathing of someone who might as well have been a coma patient. "And you, too. I admit it; I was kind of bull-headed about… well, pretty much everything where you boys were concerned. I'll make it up to you, though: I won't let your brother die out there, no matter how much that lunkhead might think he has to."

His piece said, Ringo turned and left the infirmary in search of Slade. It was time to flagellate himself in service to the greater good…

0001001

When he'd found himself wandering the halls of the Command Center, trying to avoid anyone and everyone – especially Ringo, who'd seemed to be following him for some reason – Slade had decided to go hide himself in Saber's room for awhile. It wouldn't have done him any good to shut himself up in his own room, since anyone who was looking for him would check there first.

Besides, he needed this; needed to be surrounded by the reminders of his brother, what few there were in this room, so that he didn't forget just what he had done. Or who he was really fighting for.

When he started to feel trapped in that room, too, Slade decided that the best thing for him would be to go outside. The fresh, brisk desert air might do him some good, or at least take his mind off of his problems for awhile.

Levering himself up and out of Saber's bed, Slade opened the door and checked the hall on both sides. He didn't want to deal with people in general, and Ringo in particular, and the best way to not have to deal with people was to not encounter them in the first place. He knew that better than most, having encountered his fair share of people who he would have just as soon avoided.

It was always better to be out of sight when you wanted to stay out of mind.

Making his way out of his brother's room, Slade quickly and quietly made his way through the corridors of the Command Center. He didn't have any particular destination in mind; he just wanted to be out in the open air, to try to clear his head before the battle tomorrow. Finally making it out of the now-stifling air of the Command Center, he found that true night had just started to fall.

The moon was just starting to rise to its apex in the sky, and Slade found himself looking up at it, and trying not to think. It was almost like being back home; though their house was far enough away from the lights of the city that you could have seen about a million stars in the sky while the moon was out. That wasn't the case here, though, but he could still pretend…

He could pretend that, if he turned to look back over his shoulder, he would see their old, comfortable two-story house; that if he scuffed his feet against the ground, he would hear the soft rustling of the grass; that if he just waited long enough, one of his siblings would come out to tease him about his mind constantly wandering and then tell him he was late for dinner… he could pretend all of that, but none of it would be true. So, all he did was to continue to stare up at the moon. There was something about the moonlight; something that soothed and unsettled, something that simultaneously drew and repulsed, him at the same time.

It was almost like there was something he should know, but didn't; he was probably over-thinking things again, though.

"Slade?"

Turning to look behind himself at last, and breaking the illusion that he was anywhere familiar, Slade faced Star.

"Hey," he said, not sure if he was grateful for the interruption or not.

"Penny for your thoughts," she said, as she walked up to stand beside him.

"A penny?" he asked, playing the role of the amnesiac that he and Saber had made for themselves; Con-he had been an avid collector of old coins, back in the day, and one of the prizes of his collection had been one of the last pennies that had ever been minted; all shiny copper, and sealed in a plastic case so it would stay that way. "What's a penny?"

"I'm not really sure, myself," she admitted, not sounding particularly concerned. "It's an old expression," she sighed. "That's not what I really wanted to talk to you about, though."

"Really?" he asked, having expected something like that to be the case. "What is, then?" he asked over his shoulder, turning to look at the moon again.

"Don't you think you should try to get some sleep tonight, instead of spending all your time staring up at the moon?"

"I can't help it, Star," he said, not looking away from the satellite, large and full in the sky above him. "This just might be the last time I see it."

"Is this about what Ringo was saying to you earlier?" she asked, and he turned to look at her as she put a hand on his left shoulder. "Because if it is, you shouldn't let it bother you like this. He was completely out of line."

He was touched; he hadn't given the Space Knights in general much reason to care about him, and here she did anyway. It was kind of a nice feeling; too bad it couldn't last. "No, it's not that. It's just…" he tried to think of a gentle way to say what he had on his mind, but in the end he decided that – just like Saber had demonstrated in the battle yesterday that had landed them in this whole sorry mess to begin with – sometimes it was better just to be blunt and get things over with. "If someone told you that you would have to kill me, could you pull the trigger?"

He was looking her in the eyes when he asked, so he could clearly see the expression of dawning horror on her face; he could also feel her fingers digging into his shoulder as she gripped it harder. "What are you saying? This is hardly the time for gallows humor, Slade."

He sighed, looking back up at the moon; he shouldn't really have expected her to understand. Not that, anyway. "It's not that." He turned to look her in the eyes again, wanting to convey the full seriousness of the situation. "In the last battle with the Radam, I wasn't just losing my strength, Star, I was losing what makes me a human being." He could remember it more clearly now, now that he wasn't the only thing standing between the last of his brothers and a cold, lonely death at the metaphorical hands of a bunch of Spider-crabs. "There's a kind of a time limit. For up to thirty minutes, I'm in complete control of my powers. But, after that, the tekno power takes over. The evil that made me what I am gets the upper-hand on me. I can feel darkness overwhelming me; turning me into one of them."

Glaring down at the inoffensive steel-plating of the Command Center's floor, he breathed deeply. Not so much from all the talking that he'd just done, but to avoid the gaze of the one Space Knight who had seemed to actually accept his presence and that of his brother. What must she think of him now? He'd just revealed that Ringo had been perfectly right to mistrust the two of them when they had first appeared: they were just as dangerous as any of the Radam, when you got right down to it; maybe even moreso, since they could convince people by their actions that they were all on the same side, and then they could turn on them with almost no warning.

It would have almost been better if they'd just been the enemy, with no pretense of being on the same side in the first place. No; they should have just left when they first had the chance, and dealt with the consequences on their own. That way, there would have been no one to suffer the consequences of their own actions.

No one to be hurt if they failed.

"Slade, you don't mean-" Star sounded worried; he looked back at her, and saw that it wasn't fear of him, the way he'd honestly been expecting, but fear for him. It didn't make any sense. "Will this happen to Saber, too?"

"Yes," he said, closing his eyes; this had to be said, he had to say it. "We're the same, Star; anything that happens to me will happen to him just the same," he looked her dead in the eyes; she had to know how important this was, she had to understand. "So, if the battle against the Radam lasts longer than thirty minutes, you've got to tell Ringo to blast me out of the sky." Not that he's going to have much of a problem with that, added a sarcastic voice in the privacy of his mind, one that he could have easily mistaken for his brother if he hadn't had so much experience with their telepathy. "Tell him to kill me, before I become one of the Radam's monsters. And tell him." A second of hesitation, before he forced himself to go on. "Tell him that the same goes for Saber."

"Slade- I…" she looked stricken, and for a moment he almost stopped; but this had to be finished.

"Promise me!" he locked gazes; eye to eye, willing her to understand at last.

"I…" she took a breath, looking down for a moment, before clenching her fists and planting her feet. "I promise," she said, her voice holding a small quaver, but the gaze she locked on him was nearly as firm as his own.

"Thank you," he said.

Touching her right shoulder in passing, he turned and made his way back into the Command Center. He didn't want to stare up at the moon anymore; Star was right, he was going to need all the sleep he could get. Especially since he was going to be alone out there this time.

10010010

It felt like someone had pulled the world right out from under her; knowing that Slade had just asked her to kill him; even if Ringo would be the one to pull the trigger in that situation, she was going to be the one to give the order. That made it just as much her responsibility. Looking up at the moon for a few moments, she wondered briefly what Slade had found so enthralling about it. It was almost like he'd needed to see it for some reason; that didn't quite make sense, but then again, not much about the situation did.

She certainly hadn't seen any evidence that Slade was… losing himself to his powers. He'd just seemed to be exhausted, and later dispirited by the loss of his brother's constant presence. Still, it wasn't as if she could conclusively say what Slade was overreacting; he knew much more about his and Saber's powers than any of them, and as much as she might dislike the conclusions she had to draw from that, it didn't make them any less likely to be true.

With a last look up at the full moon, Star turned and made for the comfort of her own room. She needed sleep, and then she needed to think. Neither of which would happen if she just stood out here under the moon.

00100101

The night passed with varying degrees of ease; Slade, as he settled into his bed, was troubled by visions of what might happen to his brother; Star and Ringo, slept comparatively well. Though Ringo moreso than Star, since he didn't know what she knew. Eventually, however, all of the Space Knights found their way to a restful sleep.

001000101

Once he had regained enough awareness to recognize his surroundings, which didn't happen until he had thrashed himself out of bed, Slade stared at the wall for a few moments, before pushing himself up off the floor. He'd called out for Saber in his sleep, or at least he remembered doing it. Maybe he'd just been dreaming that, too; there was no real way for him to know, since he was cut off entirely from his brother.

About the only thing that he had completely accepted as a benefit of working with the Space Knights was the fact that his quarters had their own bathroom. That meant that he could easily get in a shower before he went out to have breakfast. Or, sometimes just when he needed to relieve some stress.

Once he'd finished with his shower, and toweled himself dry, he threw his old clothes in the hamper on the wall by the door, and left his bathroom to get himself a new uniform. Dressing quickly, not in the mood to linger over things, and having no one else to talk to during his morning routine in any case. Sooner than usual, or else all too soon, Slade was ready to leave his room in search of breakfast.

Doing so without a look back, Slade made a decision; he would go and see Saber afterward. This might end up being the last day that he was alive to see his brother, and he didn't want to have any regrets. Ringo would know about his problem soon enough, and he would probably be more than willing to pull the trigger at the slightest hint of trouble.

Slade wasn't quite sure how he felt about that; he wouldn't want to end up killing any of the Space Knights if something happened to him, but no one in their right mind would relish the thought of dying.

He was no different. Leaving those morbid thoughts behind him as he settled down at an empty table at the far end of the cafeteria, Slade began to eat methodically. He didn't hurry, since that would have caused more problems than just a bit of unease on his part about the delay. So he ate at a normal pace, steadily working through the large meal he had in front of him.

He was going to need all the calories he could get, if he was going to be any good to the Space Knights on this mission; especially since he was going to be fighting alone this time.

When he started to hear footsteps, Slade dismissed them initially. He'd been hearing footsteps ever since he'd sat down; just the normal comings-and-goings of the people eating here. When the footfalls drew closer to him, he just figured that they were heading for one of the few tables nearby. There hadn't been any real way to completely avoid the people in this room, but he'd separated himself from them as much as he could.

He didn't particularly feel like dealing with anyone at the moment.

"Slade?" Looking up from his meal, he saw Star just settling down into a chair opposite him.

Saber would have sarcastically offered her a seat at the table, or else just given her a Look as she settled herself down; all he did was to watch, and then turn his attention back to the little food that still remained on his plate. Once he was finished, he could leave; he could go say what might be his last goodbye to his twin brother.

"I wanted to talk to you about what you said last night," she said.

He could have ignored her, and just left, but she had pushed over a bowl of food just before she had finished speaking; the smell of it was making his mouth water. He hadn't even known that beef taquitos were an option here, much less that they could be served for breakfast. In a way, he almost felt nostalgic, before he ruthlessly quashed the feeling; now wasn't the time to think of home, and it probably never would be again.

Relaxing his legs, having tucked them up under his body in preparation for getting out of the chair he was sitting on, he stretched back out.

"What did you want to say to me?" he asked, touching the side of the bowl; it was still a bit too hot for him to hold comfortably, which might have been the whole idea, but then it could have been just the way the food was cooked.

He wasn't going to jump to any stupid conclusions.

"I just wanted to let you know, no matter what happens out there, I'm going to do my best to ensure that all of us make it back home safely."

He sighed. "That's a nice sentiment, but you know what could happen if my time-limit runs out. You know how dangerous I am now, Star," he said firmly. "Don't try to pretend everything's still the same."

11010110

Slade was looking at her with that intense expression of his; he was clearly still troubled by their discussion last night, and just as clearly, he wasn't going to talk about it. He'd finished eating by now; he'd seemed to have enjoyed those taquitos, so that was something to remember in the future.

"Where are you going now, Slade?" she asked, though she thought she could guess.

He paused for a moment, as if he was going to say something, but then he continued walking without another word.

Gathering her own tray and dishes, Star left the cafeteria. Slade would prepare himself for the coming battle in his own way, and so would she. It was the only thing they really could do.

11010100

Standing in the treatment room, listening to the soft sound of his brother's breathing, Slade squeezed Saber's hand. He wanted his brother to know that he was still all right. Since he knew that his brother was beyond the reach of their telepathy, he didn't waste his time calling out to him that way. He was already facing his failure, he didn't need any more reminders of it.

"I wish you were coming on this mission today, brother," he squeezed tighter briefly. "I wish you hadn't been injured at all," he admitted.

The door hissed softly open; he thought it was one of the doctors, right up until the new person spoke: "I was wondering when I would finally manage to pin you down, Slade," Ringo said, with a soft chuckle. "I'd swear you can almost walk through walls when you want to."

Saber would have said something, probably something sarcastic, to get Ringo out of the room; more than that, his brother probably would know just what to say to get Ringo to leave. Saber was good at reading people like that. He just stayed silent, hoping Ringo would leave him alone.

"You don't have to say anything," Ringo continued, after a few seconds of silence. "Just… I want you to know that I'm sorry about what I said yesterday," he sighed. "I was out of line. I admit it, and I apologize. If it means anything to you, I'm going to do my best to make it up to you. I just wanted you to know that, Slade."

That… really hadn't been what he had expected at all, and as he turned to watch Ringo's departing form vanish behind the sliding door, he sighed. It wasn't likely to last, this new acceptance that Ringo had for him; once Star told him the truth, things were likely to go back to the way they had been when he, Saber, and Ringo had met for the first time. Only now, he would have a valid reason for mistrusting them, rather than doing it out of spite the way he had seemed to be before.

He wasn't quite sure he liked that thought.

0001001

Seeing Slade so depressed, where it would have given him a certain degree of satisfaction, only made him realize just how important the kid's brother was in his life. Those two must have gone through one hell of an experience to have bonded so closely; probably not a pleasant one, either, with the Radam's invasion and their constant rain of mutant space crabs.

Checking his watch, he figured that now was as good a time as any to start heading for the Blue Earth's hangar. He still had about eight minutes or so, but there wasn't really anything he could do in eight minutes. At least, nothing that wouldn't also run the risk – however small – of absorbing his attention and making him miss his launch deadline. He didn't intend to miss this or any chance to inflict pain and devastation on the aliens invading his home.

On his way to the hangar, he met up with Star, and the two of them walked side-by-side for awhile. She seemed preoccupied with something, so he didn't disturb her. When Slade joined up with them, there was a look of resigned sorrow on his face; his twin brother was still flat on his back in the infirmary, though, so Ringo didn't look to closely at him.

He probably still wanted to be alone.

When they finally made it inside the Blue Earth, with nothing but the sounds of their own footfalls accompanying them on their way through the corridors, Ringo settled gratefully down into the pilot's seat. Now wasn't the time for distractions; now it was time to go hunt down whatever it was that those stupid aliens were trying to drop on them, so Slade could fry it and the three of them could head back to the Command Center.

And so Slade could go back to watching over his brother.

The last wisps of atmosphere vanished from the cockpit windows, he let out the deep breath he'd drawn. The launch itself was always exhilarating, especially in the Blue Earth, and he relished it. Not for long though; Star's next words reminded him that they weren't here to sightsee:

"I've got a pinger at T Mark 20," she said. "Must be that teknopod. Locking on to intercept."

"I've got news for you, Star: that's more than just a teknopod," he said, with a definite feeling of apprehension as the large, lumpy purple shape became visible outside of the left-side window. "Geez, looks like some sort of a Spider-crab convention out there. Must be at least a hundred of them, just hanging out there waiting."

He knew full well what those mutant space crabs were waiting for; and so did Slade, since the kid was out of his seat like a shot and heading for the aft section and their main air lock.

"Slade," Star said, pinning him with a look, even as he stopped to look back. "Be careful out there. And try to wrap things up quickly, all right? I'd like to get back to the Command Center before lunch."

"Yeah," he said, winking. "Remember, you've got someone waiting for you back at the Command Center."

Slade gave him an inscrutable look for that; it was gone too quickly for him to make heads-or-tails of it, but given the way he'd treated the kid and his brother while they were trying to settle into their new roles, he guessed that he shouldn't really be expecting anything else.

11101010

Standing in the air lock, alone with the sound of his own breathing, Slade made a concerted effort to ignore the pangs in his heart. He was going to have to focus on what was happening in front of him, not back on what he was wishing hadn't. It was the only way that he was going to be able to do anyone any good.

Especially now, when he was going to have to fight alone.

"Tekno-power!" he shouted, all the louder, to distract himself from the sound of his own voice; and the lack of his brother's.

Flying free into the void of space as he transformed, Slade took a deep – though admittedly unneeded – breath to steady himself. He knew what he was facing now, he knew the dangers, but he also knew that if it came down to the worse case scenario he would be able to count on Ringo to do what was necessary. Somehow, though, that thought didn't comfort him as much as he had been expecting it to.

"Teknoman Slade!" he exclaimed.

The Spider-crabs were on him before he had finished speaking, and he drew one of the halves of his teknolance and started slashing. Normally, he would have been joking and bantering with Saber while the two of them slaughtered their way through Darkon's legions; but now he was fighting alone, and he didn't feel anywhere near in the mood for levity. The Spider-crabs came at him in silence, and they died in silence.

It didn't feel quite right, but then nothing about this situation really was; things hadn't been right for too long, and there was no reason to believe that they ever would be again.

When the Spider-crabs started to spit streams of sticky venom at him, Slade gritted his teeth and hissed in fury. This was the same thing that had caused him so much trouble before, and had nearly ended up getting him and Saber killed. It might still end up getting him killed, if he got caught by them and ended up being forced past his time-limit.

Dodging and weaving through the swarming mass of Spider-crabs, he growled deeply in his throat as one of them managed to latch onto him. Drawing the other half of his teknolance, he jammed it into the thing's head deeply enough to kill it, then joined the two halves together and slashed another one in half before it could make another aggressive move. Pausing for a moment to collect himself, he flew back into the fray with renewed purpose.

This wasn't going to end until he ended it; and he had to do it quickly, for everyone's sake.

Slashing, hacking, and thrusting with his teknolance, Slade abruptly decided to take more drastic measures. There were too many for him to deal with using conventional methods, at least with any degree of confidence that he would have time to do so. So, it was time for more unconventional methods.

"Convert to Tekno-battle Mode!"

His armor folded down, rearranging itself into what felt like a much sleeker, more dynamic shape, and he felt energy almost literally exploding out of him. Slamming his way through the onrushing ranks of Spider-crabs, he felt a dull sort of satisfaction as they exploded or were burned out of existence in his wake. But, when he turned around to deal with the teknopod, he found himself facing rank upon rank of fresh ones.

Cursing under an unnecessary breath, he raised his lance. He didn't have the energy left for another secondary transformation. And this time, he was on his own.

11001001

Watching Slade as he fought the advancing swarms of Spider-crabs, swarms that never seemed to end, Star knew that she would have to do something. He'd been out there for twenty minutes; understandable considering what he was facing, but if he stayed out there too long… She didn't like to consider the possibilities, but Slade had certainly sounded sincere when he was speaking to her.

At the very least, he had believed what he was saying to her.

"Ringo, we can't just sit here anymore," she said, turning to look back at the man who Slade had chosen to trust to kill him when… if the time ever came. "We have to do something to help him."

"There's really nothing we can do, Star," Ringo said, sounding like he was trying to be reasonable; heck of a time for him to start. "We're not to engage the enemy; those were the old man's orders."

She was just about to say something, maybe bring up a few of his more hair-brained stunts back in the day, when the Blue Earth was rocked by a sudden, harsh impact. The face of a Spider-crab, looming outside the forward windows, gave her no possible doubt about what had hit them.

"I don't think we have a choice anymore," she said tersely; then, as electricity crackled over the panels in front of her, she screamed. "Losing power! Controls not responding!"

"Yeah! And look what it's doing to the paint job!" Ringo shouted, sounding more indignant than anything.

She didn't know quite how to respond to that, so she figured that it was better not to say anything.

"Time to check out these pea-shooters Mac installed," Ringo said roughly, and she heard the hums and beeps of the targeting-computer locking on. "Counter me!"

She could see the lasers as they were fired, burning through the intervening space and driving off the Spider-crab that had attacked them.

"That's not bad," he said, with a relief in his voice that she couldn't feel a bit of.

"Ringo, listen to me: no matter what the Commander says, we have to go help Slade now," she said; she'd been hoping that this situation wouldn't come up, that she wouldn't have to tell Ringo what might happen, and to have him worry the way she herself was doing. "He's almost out of time."

"What? Out of time?" he looked just about as confused as she had felt, last night while Slade was telling her nearly the same thing. "What are you talking about, Star?"

"Slade told me last night," she said, taking a deep breath and trying to steady herself; it didn't work very well, but then this wasn't really a normal situation. "He has this time limit; he can fight for thirty minutes, no more."

"What's this time limit you're talking about?" he demanded, starting to sound like he was becoming irate. "Is something going to happen to him that I should know about?"

"After thirty minutes, he…" she trailed off, unable to continue for a moment, but then she forced herself onward. "He'll become evil; he'll become one of them. He made me promise to kill him before that could happen."

The only upside that she could see to Saber's not being there at the moment, was that she didn't have to tell Ringo about what might happen to him. She wasn't entirely sure how he would react. Especially with Saber helpless in the infirmary the way he was now.

1110101

He was starting to sympathize with Saber now, now that he was starting to become weak and dizzy. When he felt something slam into the back of his neck, he only realized that it was Spider-crab venom from the way it wrapped around his neck. That wasn't all of it, though, since the next part of his body to be coated with venom was his left arm, and then his stomach and his left and right legs.

He tried to slice through it with his teknolance, but all that accomplished was to give the Spider-crabs a chance to snare his right arm with their venom. Screaming curses that went unheard in the airless void, Slade began to feel the now-familiar, hated disorientation that meant that he was nearly at his absolute limit. Trying to brute-force his way out of their trap with his thrusters didn't seem to be working, so when the Blue Earth's new laser cannons sheared through a good deal of the strands holding him in place, he was both pleased and relieved.

Cutting through the remainder, he jetted away; kicking his legs over his head in a backwards flip, he landed atop the Blue Earth and gratefully let it carry him closer to the teknopod.

"Thanks, Ringo," he said, tapping the Blue Earth's radio through some means he wasn't in any mood to look too closely at. "Pretty nice shooting back there."

"Yeah, it wasn't half bad," he heard the man respond. "Okay, wrap it up, Slade. Time to punch out and hit the showers."

"Not yet," he said, raising his teknolance and bisecting a pair of Spider-crabs that had tried to approach the ship; it was possible that they'd been so concerned with his welfare that they'd forgotten the reason they'd come out here in the first place, he didn't really believe it but it was possible. "Look up ahead."

"It's the teknopod," he heard Star gasp over the radio. "It's huge! It must be some kind of hive, or a colony for the Spider-crabs. All right Slade, deal with them, but you'll have to be fast. You hear?"

"I hear you, Star," he said, smiling in passing even as he flew off the Blue Earth and began charging up his Tekno-bolt. "And thanks," he said so that only he could hear.

With the energies roiling inside him, he fired the Tekno-bolt he'd been holding back and watched with grim satisfaction as the teknopod burned. The last of his energy spent, he lay still while he tried to summon the reserve energy to move. He could hear Star calling for him, and she sounded worried enough that he wanted to answer. He wanted to, but his body just didn't seem to want to respond.

He needed a bit more time to recoup, that was clear.

When the Blue Earth fired on him, though, he managed to tap a heretofore-unknown reserve of energy to get himself out of the range of those laser cannons. "Better luck next time, Ringo!" he shouted, irately tapping the Blue Earth's radio. "I guess Star must've told you about my thirty minute time limit, but it hasn't been that long. I was just taking a little breather. If I were you, I'd get a better watch."

Landing in the main air lock, his energy all but gone, he let his transformation fade and forced himself to stay on his feet. He still had a bone to pick with Ringo.

"A little fast on the draw, weren't you?" he panted, standing at the threshold of the cockpit. "I mean, come on." He had to be quick; he was starting to feel faint. "I know you're not crazy about me, Ringo, but my time wasn't… up…" he fell to his knees, "Yet…"

Slumping to the floor as his consciousness deserted him, Slade thought he heard Star calling for him.

0001011

With Slade conked out in the back of the cockpit, and Star fussing over him the way she tended to, Ringo knew it was up to him to get them all safely back to the Command Center. He was a little disconcerted by what Slade had said; Star had seemed perfectly sincere about what she was saying, and he knew her well enough to know that she had believed what she was telling him. That only left Slade; he didn't know why the kid had told Star that he would need to be killed if he went over some arbitrary time-limit, but he figured it probably had a lot to do with his personality.

He hated dealing with the self-sacrificing types.

The flight back to Earth was blissfully uneventful, at least if you didn't count Star's fussing over Slade the way she usually did. She was back at her station before he could ask her to do so, though, and she had even strapped Slade in so there wouldn't be the risk of something like what had happened to Saber happening to him. Reentry was as smooth as he could ask for, which was good, since he didn't feel much like dealing with Spider-crabs at the moment.

What he really needed, what he was keeping in the back of his mind for when they all got back down to Earth, was the fact that he needed to talk to Mac. If Slade hadn't gotten out of the way when he did, then he would have ended up breaking his promise to Saber just a day after he'd made it. Sure, it hadn't ended up happening, but he didn't want to be the kind of guy who broke his promises like that.

Even if he had thought it was necessary at the time, he still wasn't particularly happy about it.

Once the Blue Earth was back in the landing bay again, he helped Star get Slade off and into the care of the medicos, and then went off in search of Mac. He found the man puttering around with his kites, something he did when there was nothing else impinging on his time.

"Ringo!" the large mechanic said jovially. "Have you come to return my watch, lad?"

"You wish, Mac," he said, with a chuckle. "I won this baby fair and square."

"If you just came here to gloat, I'm going to ignore you," Mac said, waving an admonishing stick at him. "And you mark my words, lad: I am going to win my watch back from you one of these days."

"Of course you are, Mac. You just keep telling yourself that," he laughed, but then quickly sobered. "I was just wondering if you could take a look at it for me; it's been giving me some trouble lately."

"All right," Mac said, with a somewhat bemused expression. "Sit down, and I'll get my jewelers tools."

Waiting while Mac gathered his things, Ringo leaned against the wall, folded his arms, and hoped that whatever was going on with his new watch would turn out to be something innocuous. He hated to think of what he might have done if Slade hadn't been awake enough to dodge that laser blast, or coherent enough to berate him for what he'd been perfectly within reason to see as an unprovoked attack. Still, if that lousy Spider-crab hadn't smashed into the Blue Earth, he would have been able to take care of the watch himself.

"Hmm," Mac said, after he'd removed the back of the watch, and was tightening some loose bit with his little jeweler's screwdriver. "That explains it. The gear's out of alignment; it's running about five minutes fast," when Mac looked up, the expression on his face quickly changed from curious to annoyed. "All right, laddie," he said, his Scottish accent thickening the way it always seemed to do in these situations. "That's never happened before. What the heck did you do to it?!"

"What're you talking about?" he asked, inwardly cursing; five minutes, he'd tried to kill Slade when he had only been transformed for twenty-five minutes. The kid had been exhausted, no doubt about that, but there hadn't been a chance of him going evil on them.

He was really going to hate himself awhile for that little near-fatal screwup.

"You did something to this watch," Mac said, starting to sound honestly angry.

"Give me a break," he said; of course, there had been that time with Slade… the kid had run out of the room like the hounds of hell were on his heels, or like he just couldn't stand to be there for even another second. Although, after what he'd been saying to the kid; he'd landed on his wrist after Slade had broken his hold, but he wasn't going to try blaming Slade for that. "Well, now that you mention it, I might have forgotten to wind it once or twice."

"You did more than that," Mac said, lunging out of his seat with a raised fist.

"Well, what's the use of it if it's so delicate you can't even handle it?" he asked.

He had a brief moment of oh crap, when Mac brought a truly huge double-ended wrench out from somewhere under the table he'd been working on his kites, and then cleared off to work on the watch. "Idiot!" the mechanic shouted, the wrench held up over his head. "That watch is hand-made! A priceless antique!" when he lunged out from behind the table, wrench still in hand, Ringo got the feeling that it would be best for him to be somewhere else. Somewhere very else. "Delicate. Well, let's see how delicate your skull is!"

"Hey, knock it off, Mac," he called, having moved a bit closer to the door; one last effort at reason, then it was time to run like hell.

"I'll knock it off!" Okay; time to run like hell! "Get back here, flyboy!" He heard Mac shouting from behind him. For someone with his girth, he was pretty spry.

01010111

She had come into the treatment room on something of a whim, just wanting to see how Saber was doing so she could have something to talk to Slade about that wasn't as morbid as their last two conversations had been. It was plain luck that she'd seen Saber's eyelashes fluttering, but it had been her choice to stay, to see if he was actually starting to wake up and not just shifting in his sleep.

When his blue eyes opened at last, though, she smiled.

Just a few seconds later, the door slid open to admit Slade, who had an expression of such complete, utter relief on his face, Star almost felt like she was intruding on a private moment just by being in the same room. When Slade looked at her for the first time, his green eyes slightly distant, she felt the weight of his gaze on her, and she knew that she was indeed intruding on an intensely private moment. Was about to be, at least; neither Slade nor Saber had actually done anything, but there was a subtle tension in the air.

As if they were both waiting on her to leave; they really were such intensely private people.

"I'm going to go get the Commander, and tell him that your brother's feeling better, Slade," she said, smiling at the expression of subdued relief that spread across the faces of both twins.

"Thanks, Star," Saber said, smiling softly back at her.

0100010110

Once Star had left the room, with the door hissing shut behind her, he wrapped his arms around Saber, buried his face in his younger twin's chest, and shivered. He had come so close to losing him, in more than one way, that he found he couldn't help the tears that were running out of his eyes.

(I'm sorry; I'm so sorry. I should have been faster, I should have been better. You almost died out there, and I-)

(Relax, brother mine,) Saber said, his tone only slightly chiding. (I'm still here, and I feel a lot better. Though I hope you didn't get too bored without me here.) There was a definite undertone of teasing in his brother's voice, and when Slade looked back up at his brother's face, he saw a ghost of Saber's teasing smile.

"Feeling better now, brother?"

"Yeah," he said, standing back up and wiping the tears of relief from his eyes with the long, black cuff of his Space Knight uniform.

And not a moment too soon, as it turned out, because the door hissed open just then, letting the Commander, Star, Ringo, Maggie and Mac into the infirmary's treatment room. Ringo, after looking over Saber as if to make sure that nothing was wrong with his brother – as strange a thought as Ringo worrying about either of them was – before heading determinedly for Slade himself.

"Hey," the blond said, sidling up to him. "I was wondering if I could have a bit of a chat with you? You know, in private?"

Taking in the expression on Ringo's face; one of honestly, and a bit of trepidation, Slade decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He'd earned a bit of trust, though Slade had to admit that he was still fairly annoyed with him for jumping the gun the way he had. He wanted an explanation for that, at least. If nothing else, he wanted to know if he could actually trust Ringo to watch his back without trying to put a laser-bolt into it, or if it was just going to be him and Saber.

Either way, he'd at least know where they stood.

00101110

"I'm glad to see you looking so well, Saber," was the first thing that the Commander – the first thing that anyone who wasn't Slade – said to him.

"Yeah," he said, with an airy smile. "Me, too. Nothing really bad happened while I was out, did it?"

"Not at all, lad," Mac said, with what he took to be a reassuring expression. "The Blue Earth went on another mission, but it's fine."

"Your brother is, too," Maggie said, grinning at him. "I'm sure you're glad to hear that."

Something in her tone of voice prompted Saber to smirk. "It sounds to me like you're the one who's most pleased to hear that."

"Yeah," Tina said, laughing softly. "The way you go on about Slade, people might start getting ideas."

"Let them, why should I care?" Maggie said, making a brief noise of derision. "The man's gorgeous, and I'm head-over-heels crazy about him. And, you know," she continued, giving Saber an exaggerated once-over that he couldn't help but be amused by. "You're not so bad-looking yourself, Saber."

"Thanks," he said, grinning at her; she was kind of fun, he had to admit.

"We're all friends here, Maggie," Tina said, the look on her face slightly teasing. "Don't be shy. Tell us how you really feel."

"You've got to learn to stop holding back, lassie," Mac said, his accent a little more pronounced than he'd heard it before.

(Hey, brother. How are you and Ringo getting along? I saw you leave with him. Anything I'd want to know about?) he asked, even as he joined in with the laughter echoing around his bed.

(Just seeing where we stand, brother.)

110101011

As Saber's presence retreated to a warm glow at the back of his mind, Slade turned his attention back to Ringo. He wasn't too pleased with the idea that a malfunctioning watch had nearly cost him his life, but willing to overlook it since Ringo had said he'd gotten it fixed. There were other, more pressing issues on his mind at the moment.

"When that moment came, and you thought you had to blast me out of the sky, tell me: you didn't hesitate to pull that trigger, did you?" he asked, facing Ringo under the light of the second full moon of the month; he wanted to think it was some kind of auspicious occasion, but the moonlight still had that same, unnerving effect on him as it had before.

"Not for a minute," Ringo returned; he didn't really know what to make of the smile on the other man's face, but on Saber, he would have said that it was a teasing one. But he didn't know Ringo enough to judge his facial expressions, so he wasn't going to try. "Let's get one thing straight: I never trusted you, and now that I know what you're capable of becoming, I trust you even less. I'm always going to be watching you, with my finger on that trigger, ready to do what I gotta do."

There was a moment of silence between them; Slade let it stretch.

"I will keep my watch in good condition, though; I wouldn't want anyone to think I didn't give you a fair chance, if worse ever came to worst."

"I appreciate your honesty," he said, turning to face the moon as Ringo left for the lighted interior of the command center.

(So, what's the verdict, brother? Where do we stand?)

(The same place we did when we got here, I guess,) he responded, with a soft sigh. (Alone.)

(Yeah; I guess it figures. Still,) Saber continued, sounding like he was considering something else entirely. (It's nice to have a place to stay, at least.)

(Yeah,) he said, glancing back at the moon a last time; he wished he knew what it was that made him so eager to be in sight of it, and yet so unnerved by it at the same time. (It is at that.)

That was really all there was to say.

0001010011

Buried with his ship on the dark side of the moon, shielded from the humans and their spacecraft by the surface of the satellite itself, Darkon considered again the problem of his traitorous little escapees. That they were tenacious and determined, even going so far as to fight alone when the mood struck them just to keep themselves sharp, would have been a great asset if not for the fact that they were fighting for the very species that he was trying to subjugate. It was an annoying situation, to be sure, and all the moreso because he did not quite know how to handle it.

Perhaps he needed to consider different tactics, if he was to deal with the two little half-humans properly.

"So, it seems you have chosen to make your stand with this little planet," he muttered, speaking aloud solely for his own benefit; the silence here could truly become oppressive at times. "It will be your last stand, fools."