Later that night, while they were all having dinner together, Star found herself hearing the story of just what Slade and Saber had been doing while the rest of the Space Knights had been searching for them. As she sat there, listening to the twins speaking about their plans for the future and their need for another pair of teknocrystals, Star found herself thinking of her encounter with Sam in that forest of Radam teknoplants. She'd been fully willing to kill that little boy, and would have done so if it hadn't been for Axe appearing.

She didn't know how either of the twins would react to finding that out, but she wouldn't have felt right keeping it to herself now that Slade and Saber were back with them.

"So, what happened to your uniform, Saber?" Tina asked, and Star chuckled softly; Tina had always been the one to ask silly questions like that.

"I had some… issues with my transformation, you might say," Saber said, sounding like the whole thing amused him.

But then, he usually sounded like that, unless it was something particularly serious or anything to do with the Radam. While the conversation around the fire they were using in lieu of wasting power they couldn't really spare on a camp stove began to wind down, turning toward the few mundane topics of conversation that could still be found during times like these, Star turned to Slade – she was happy that Slade had chosen to sit down next to her, especially after the conversation they'd had just before dinner – and gathered herself for what she was about to say.

"Slade, I don't know what you're going to think of me after I tell you this," she said, gathering her composure as she looked into Slade's deep green, softly glowing eyes. "So I'll just tell you now, before things go too far between us: I met your- Sam, just outside a forest of teknoplants. I had a gun, and I would have shot him in the head if Teknoman Axe hadn't come along."

"Rapier," Slade said, his tone as gentle as the expression on his face. "The Radam named him Rapier," Slade clarified, before she could have asked what he was talking about. "And, thanks for telling me about this; I don't want you to go around picking fights with Radam Teknomen, they're more dangerous than any of them look, but I think it was very brave of you to try to protect everyone when Saber and I weren't there to help."

"Thank you, Slade," she said, smiling in relief even as she felt his right arm wrapping around her shoulders.

"I'm glad you came out of that confrontation all right, Star," Slade said, and she turned slightly as he softly kissed her left cheek. "Just, try to stay safe in the future, all right?"

"I'll do what I can, Slade," she said, though they all knew that no one could really keep themselves safe under these kinds of circumstances.

That was probably why he hadn't asked her to promise him anything; no one liked promises that couldn't be kept.

When dinner had wound down, and they'd broken up camp for the night, she smiled softly as she saw Saber and Maggie kissing and leaning their heads together as the two of them fell into step with each other. Hearing Slade's soft chuckling from just a bit to her right, she turned to smile at him.

"That's my brother for you," Slade said, the edges of his glowing eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled. "There's not many things that can get him down."

"Yeah," she said, smiling back. "But don't sell yourself short, all right?"

She couldn't help but remember Slade as he was during that dark time when the AEM had held both Slade and Saber captive in their old headquarters; he'd had such a hard time back then, and there were times she couldn't help but think that Slade would have been so much better off if he had more of Saber's natural irrepressibility. It couldn't be healthy for him to take so many things so personally the way he seemed to.

0010100100101

When she and Saber had made their way back into the Green Earth at last, Maggie found herself not wanting to leave Saber's side even for something as seemingly trivial as sleeping; she knew he'd understand, since the two of them hadn't seen each other in months.

"Hey, you think you'd mind staying with me for tonight?" she asked, smiling as he turned to look at her with those softly-glowing bright blue eyes of his. "You know, since you've had a good few months cuddling with Slade for warmth on those cold, lonely nights?"

"I'd bet you'd have just loved seeing that," Saber said, and she grinned at the teasing smirk he was wearing.

"Well, yes, but I have it on good authority that you two look adorable when you curl up to sleep together," she said, grinning a bit wider as Saber chuckled. "So, do you think you wouldn't mind too much?"

"I think I could spare a night," Saber said, his smirk becoming a gentle, knowing smile as he wrapped his left arm around her shoulders.

As the two of them made their way to the Green Earth's sleeping quarters, at least the berth that Maggie had claimed for herself when they'd all been deciding who got what place during their trip, Maggie looked from the small, pull-out bed to Saber as the Teknoman laughed softly.

"Well, looks like we're going to be getting pretty cozy," he said, the irrepressible grin that she so loved coming right back to his face like it'd never been gone at all. "I take it this was the basic idea?"

"Something like that," she said, grinning back at Saber as he began to take off his shirt, belt, and shoes – so different from the red Space Knight-issue boots that she'd seen him wear on every other day, or even the slip-ons that she'd seen him in once when Star and Tina had convinced him to go to the mall with them that one time – and folded the shirt neatly before setting it atop the small shelf just over where he'd slipped off his shoes.

As she guided Saber to the – admittedly narrow – bed where the two of them were going to be sleeping for tonight, Maggie found out just how true what Star had said was: Teknomen were warmer to the touch than any other person she'd ever touched in her life. Reluctantly pulling away for the minute it probably took her to disrobe for herself, Maggie kissed Saber lightly as he came up to hug her from behind.

She could still see his bright blue eyes glowing softly in the darkness, and that combined with the way Saber's body radiated heat like a soft furnace, let Maggie know that she wasn't dealing with someone who operated under the same constraints as a human. Still, it wasn't Saber's fault that the Radam had turned him into a Teknoman; just bad luck that he, Slade, and their family had been the ones to encounter that ship.

As she helped Saber to get settled in the narrow bed that they were going to be sharing, probably just for the one night since it was bound to be more than a bit awkward to have two people who were both about the same size sharing such a narrow space, Maggie smiled as she felt Saber's warm, strong arms wrapping around her shoulders. Tucking her head into the crook of Saber's neck, so that the two of them wouldn't end up breathing in each other's faces the whole night, Maggie closed her eyes as she let the soft, steady beating of Saber's heart lull her to sleep.

11101001001

As the five of them gathered together in this abandoned house that Axe and Rapier had managed to find for them, Lance found his attention drawn back to the unconscious form of their leader. Spear, for all his power, was helpless now; Lance didn't know what to make of such a thing. True, they had faced the full fury of a Teknoman's self-destruction, incomplete as Dagger had been when she'd died, and then Spear had put himself between that fury and the four of them who had managed to retain consciousness in the face of it; he was, in fact, the only reason that the four of them retained such consciousness in the first place.

And yet, the sight of their stern, implacable leader lying so still in the bed where Sword had placed him still unnerved Lance on levels he was not particularly eager to think about.

The rumbling of his stomach prompted Lance to make his way to the kitchen, and he settled down at the simple, wooden table that had had a simple meal – though still substantial enough for the four of them to satisfy the hunger that they were all prey to – set out on it. Lance had been seated next to Sword, while Rapier and Axe had taken the chairs just opposite them.

As he continued eating, Lance found his gaze almost naturally settling on Rapier, directly opposite where he sat; the smallest and weakest of their number, a pale thing of thin limbs and colorless hair.

True, Rapier was perfectly capable of killing any number of humans, but humans were of little consequence to any Teknoman. The child's defeat in his first battle with Saber was proof enough of that, though Axe claimed that such was simply due to the fact that Rapier had had a lesser amount of combat training than Saber himself. And yes, it was a fact that Rapier was four years younger than either of the traitors, but a fully-completed transformation should have still told in the end.

It was perfectly plain to Lance that Rapier was a weak, helpless little thing; it was only fitting that Axe had named him rabbit.

Finishing his meal, Lance rose from his seat, all the while savoring the feeling of being satiated, brief as he knew it would be. Turning to the room that he had selected for his own use, Lance followed Sword with his eyes as she returned to the room that she had elected to share with Spear. The way she cared for their leader, while an admirable show of dedication to their cause, was nonetheless disconcerting in and of itself: they were Radam, they were not meant to need caring for.

And unlike Rapier, Spear had been the greatest of their number: patient and cunning, always taking the lead in combat, and completely willing to bring his full power to bear against any of the insignificant humans who dared to challenge them. Yes, the fact that he still maintained a sentimental attachment to the traitors Saber and Slade was a flaw in his reasoning, and likely why he had ended up in such a sorry state as he now was, but in all other matters Spear was every inch the proud, fearsome lion that Axe often likened him to.

Lance considered such matters for a few moments, and then resolved himself to his next course of action: when next the opportunity presented itself, he would kill the traitors himself, and so spare their leader such an onerous task.

110100101001

When she woke up the morning, with the feel of warm, strong arms wrapped around her and the muffled sound of a powerful heartbeat close by, Maggie looked up at Saber's face with bleary eyes and smiled.

"Morning, Mags."

She smiled, feeling the reverberations from Saber's voice through his neck and chest, even as she felt his warm breath on her face.

"Good morning to you, too," she said, smiling even as Saber pulled away and stood up. "I guess you're going to want me to show you the shower unit, not to mention the bathroom, right?"

When Saber caught her grin, he grinned back. "I suppose you'll be wanting to join me?"

She laughed; he was such a tease. "I think the shower unit's a bit small for that kind of thing, otherwise I'd take you right up on that offer."

The two of them shared a laugh, and Maggie led Saber to the Green Earth's general washroom after a short pause to let him put his clothes from yesterday on.

"You know, since we'd all been hoping to find you two, we brought along some of yours and Slade's spare uniforms from the other supply depots," she said, looking Saber up and down again. "Not that I object to seeing you in something new for a change, but it's just kind of strange. You know?"

"Yeah, I know," Saber said, smiling. "It was kind of fun, though; wearing the same old thing day in and day out does get kind of boring."

The two of them shared a chuckle, before they made it to the shower unit and she showed Saber how to work the thing. Leaving Saber to his shower, Maggie continued on her way to the launch bay where Pegas had been stored. Meeting up with the others had been great and all, but there were still things that needed to be taken care of before they could honestly say they were all in fighting form. Even though Mac had said he'd been teaching Slade and Saber to run some basic repairs and maintenance on Pegas, that kind of thing still didn't compare to having full access to a repair bay and its attendant technicians.

Finally making it to the main launch bay of the Green Earth, Maggie took a good, long look at Pegas for the first time in a long while; it was like greeting an old friend.

000101001001

As Star made her way down to the loading bay of the Green Earth, which was probably going to end up becoming not only Pegas' storage and maintenance room but also the launch bay for the twins when they were inevitably forced back into combat against the Radam and their uncountable armies of Spider-crabs, she smiled briefly. Slade had given her a brief, soft kiss on her right cheek, after she'd shown him to an unoccupied sleeping berth, and the memory of that kiss still made her feel warm inside.

She knew that it was probably nothing like what Saber and Maggie had shared before the two of them had gone to bed, but for all that Saber and Slade were twins they truly were different people in the end.

When she finally made it to the loading bay, Star wasn't surprised in the least to find Maggie there, already starting to check Pegas over for damages – or even just normal wear-and-tear – the way she and Mac had done so many times at the Arizona Command Center. Calling out to the other woman with an inquiry as to whether or not she could be of any help, Star found herself directed to one of the stationary computers in the back of the loading bay.

"How are things looking?" she asked, glancing from Maggie to the towering form of Pegas at the back of the loading bay.

"So far, everything looks in order, but I'd like you to help me run a few, last tests on the internal systems."

"You mean, you've already made sure there are no structural damages?" she asked.

"Yeah; everything was as well-maintained as I could have asked for, considering the constraints that Slade and Saber were operating under while they were separated from the rest of us."

"That's good," she said, relieved to know that, even in spite of everything that had happened, Pegas had at least made it through all right; at the very least, Slade would be happy to hear that.

Turning her attention back to the computer in front of her, Star tried not to wonder about just what they were going to be able to do next. She'd heard Ringo grousing about the state of the Green Earth's energy cells – more specifically the amount of charge they contained – and the fact that they hadn't been able to find any signs of a city, or even an outpost, lately was starting to honestly worry her.

00100100101

Turning away from the unchanging landscape outside the Green Earth's windows, Slade narrowed his eyes slightly; the constant, low-level sound of Ringo's grousing, combined with the thick forest of teknoplants they were passing through, wasn't really putting him in the best of moods at the moment.

(So, you want me to go over there and kick Ringo, or would you like to?)

Chuckling deep in his throat at Saber's efforts to cheer him up, Slade allowed himself to relax a bit. (No; we'll leave him until he stops somewhere, and then we both kick him.)

He and Saber both laughed, Saber's amusement projected clearly over the link that they shared; he'd been making a point to keep his mental barriers at least semi-lowered, so that he'd be able to better track Axe and Rapier when they inevitably showed up again. It was kind of interesting, feeling echoes of Saber's emotions when the two of them spoke even without using their telepathy. Kind of like the days before the two of them had managed to develop their respective shields.

When Maggie and Star came into the Green Earth's driver's compartment, Maggie was the first one to speak: "Good news; we've finished scanning the Teknobot and Tekno-suit."

"And we're selling them for scrap, right?" Ringo snarked; he and Saber both gave him an unamused look.

"Quite the contrary, Ringo," Maggie said, clearly ignoring the feeble joke that Ringo was trying to make. "They're both functioning remarkably well, considering what they've been through."

"That's nice to hear, right Slade?" Tina asked. "A little good news, for a change."

"They're not in perfect shape by any means," Maggie said hurriedly. "They've both sustained considerable damage, both structurally and systemically. The most serious damage being to the Emerald Crystal in Pegas; it's going to have to be replaced. Either with the crystal you take from Rapier, or the one from Axe."

"Try to see if you can get Rapier's, eh Slade?" Ringo asked, and Slade turned to see his fellow Space Knight's sidelong smirk. "You know, for old time's sake?"

He chuckled darkly. "I guess I could try that." He sobered. "Still, your grudge-match with Rapier aside, Saber and I are still going to need those crystals if we're going to have any chance of getting to Darkon's base on the far side of the moon."

"Hold on," Maggie said. "First things first, Slade; if we did install a new crystal, I'd want to run some tests on it first. Back in my lab at the Arizona Command Center."

"What?" he asked; that was news to him, and he could sense that Saber was just as curious. "I thought the Command Center had been completely destroyed."

"It was," Tina said.

"The effort to rebuild it is being overseen by Mac and Commander Jamison," Star said. "Back in Arizona. The damage is so extensive, there's no saying when – or even if – it'll ever be fully operational."

"Have they at least given you guys some sort of progress updates?" Saber asked, speaking out loud for the first time since all of them had gathered together here.

"I'm afraid not, Saber," Ringo said, actually sounding apologetic about it. "We haven't been able to make radio contact with them for the entire time we've been out here. The only thing we've had a chance to do for the last two and a half months is running around like a bunch of blind mice, trying to find a shuttle, a ship – hell, a blimp – anything to replace the Blue Earth. And meanwhile, our friend Darkon has been one busy little bee, turning our planet into one giant hothouse for these spore-plants of theirs."

"The spores are everywhere, and they're getting ready to bloom all over the planet; that's what your sister Shara was warning us about," Star said.

Slade narrowed his eyes, considering just what had been happening lately. "I know; still, it feels like there should be more to it than that."

"Well, if anything comes to you, you kids make sure to let us know, all right?" Ringo asked.

"I'm sure we'll keep that in mind," Saber said, his tone one of gentle teasing.

"Still, the one thing we can be sure of, is that the only way Saber and I are going to be able to get to the Moon is with one of those crystals."

Settling back into his seat, Slade sighed softly; there were times when this fight of theirs could start to seem hopeless, like nothing they did made any real difference, but it always helped to have a goal in mind. He'd learned that even before all of this began.

Tina was the first one to spot the town in the distance, but Star seemed fairly enthusiastic about it, too. Both of them for different reasons, but those reasons really boiled down to having the amenities of civilization again. Slade supposed that he'd have been more excited for that kind of thing, himself, if he'd been stuck in this rolling fortress for over two months rather than moving from pillar to post with Saber while the two of them were hunting Axe and Rapier.

Ringo piped up with what was probably one of his usual sarcastic comments, given the sense of amusement he got from Saber and the conversation he was just barely paying attention to. Continuing to stare out the wide windshield of the Green Earth as it trundled slowly forward across the uneven, teknoplant-forested terrain, Slade could begin to see glimpses of the town Tina and Star had seen.

The surrounding landscape was almost entirely free of teknoplants, so Slade allowed himself to relax. Just slightly, of course, since there was always the chance that they were going to end up confronting Sword, Axe, Lance, or Rapier sometime in the near future. Though Rapier and Axe did seem to have been assigned together, or else it was just that they worked together better than any of the other four who were actually conscious to work.

Sam had been one of Mr. Goddard's students along with the rest of them, unlike Shinji or Katherine; so that fit with the relationships that had been there in the past.

When the Green Earth began to close in on the town, their discussion quickly turning to just who was going to go into town and who would end up staying behind, Slade allowed himself to relax a bit.

"Saber, why don't you stay here," he suggested. "We're probably going to end up negotiating with the people there, and I know that kind of thing bores you out of your skull."

"Well, thanks for thinking of me, big brother," Saber said, grinning at him with the amusement that always seemed to be lingering around him except under the worst of circumstances.

"No problem," he said, smiling back at Saber. "You guys just try not to have too much fun without us, all right?"

They all had a pretty good laugh when he'd said that, and Slade was glad to know that he'd managed to defuse the tension lingering in the air before it could really start to build up. Turning to leave for the town with Ringo, Slade found himself wondering just what Saber, Tina, Maggie and Star actually would end up doing to pass the time. It wasn't really anything more than an idle musing, however, so Slade allowed himself to forget he'd even thought of it.

1000100100101

When Slade had passed out of the range of vision of anyone who wasn't actually a Teknoman, Saber turned his attention back to the people who'd also elected to stay behind alongside him. He was just about to ask what the rest of them had in mind – since the Green Earth hadn't exactly been provisioned for a pleasure cruise when it'd been stocked – when Maggie came up and gently touched his left shoulder.

"Why don't we go get dinner started?" she smiled. "After all, we're all going to be getting hungry soon."

"Sounds good to me," he said, smiling back as he turned to follow Maggie back into the Green Earth.

They all made their way through the cruiser, and soon Saber found himself standing before the shelves of provisions that the Green Earth had been stocked with. There seemed to be a particular abundance of potatoes, and for a few moments he wondered if that had been by design or if nearly all of the other types of food – aside from the bread that he could also see – had already been eaten. He supposed it didn't really matter, so when he, Star, Tina, and Maggie all picked up sacks of potatoes, and Maggie even took a small bag of rolls, Saber smiled slightly as he followed them back out. Slinging his bag over his back, Saber tagged along behind Maggie as she made her way to what turned out to be another storage area inside the cruiser.

Those of them that had hands free, a number that of course included him, carried out the supplies they would need to start making dinner. He was the one that ended up carrying out the folding table that they would all most likely be using to prepare their food before they set it out, so he let Maggie and the others go out ahead of him, since carrying the table even in its folded state was still a bit awkward.

When the four of them had made it outside of the Green Earth, Saber took a few moments to set up the table he'd been carrying, and then emptied out the bag of potatoes he'd been carrying alongside Star, Tina and Maggie.

"Well, let's all get started peeling," Maggie said, smirking slightly at all of them while they were still gathered around the table. "The sooner we get this scutwork done, the sooner we can eat."

"Sounds perfectly logical," he said, smirking right back at her.

"Let's get started, then," Star said, picking up one of the potatoes and a nearby knife with a bit more eagerness than Saber would have honestly expected from someone looking at a pile of unpeeled potatoes.

However, when he saw how Star was holding the knife – where it was going to be aimed when she made her first slice into the peel – Saber turned to her and gently grabbed her hands before she could start peeling.

"If you do it that way, you're going to end up slicing your own fingers off before you manage to peel even one of these," he said, smiling gently to put her a bit more at ease. "You want to cut away from your hands, not towards." He demonstrated for her, and then handed the knife back to her while he picked up a potato and a knife of his own. "See?"

"I see now," Star said, smiling at him. "Thank you, Saber."

"Where did you learn to peel potatoes so well, Saber?" Tina asked.

He smiled slightly, even though this particular memory wasn't quite the happy one it'd been in the past, considering everything that had happened between then and now. "It was something Conrad taught me."

He could still remember his and Slade's eldest brother's large – they had seemed so huge back then – hands cupped around his own as Conrad had showed him how to peel a potato without cutting his own hands in the process. No one really had anything to say after that, but when he subtly looked around, all of them seemed to be focusing on their own work, so it didn't seem to be anything he'd said that'd prompted the silence. Saber could at least be glad for small mercies.

0100100100101

As he and Ringo made their way down into the town, Slade wondered briefly what Saber was getting himself up to back with the Green Earth. Then, as he and Ringo continued on their way through the sparse crowds in the town whose name he hadn't bothered to learn – since it wasn't likely they'd be staying around long enough for it to matter – Slade decided that Saber could take care of himself. He'd find something to do; Saber was good at making his own entertainment.

For now, he and Ringo had things to take care of; those batteries on the Green Earth weren't going to be able to recharge themselves.

When he and Ringo managed to find their way into the office of the mayor – well, that's what the people in the town called him, anyway – Slade found himself facing a large-framed man in a white jacket and a dull, grayish turtleneck. He wasn't exactly helpful.

"For the last time, the answer is no," the man snapped; he had the deep rasp of a lifetime smoker, and Slade finally realized what that scent was that'd been bothering him since he and Ringo had come into the man's office. "We have barely enough power-reserves for ourselves, without doling it out to every stranger who wanders into town."

"Yes, but we only need a little," Ringo said; Slade narrowed his eyes slightly, he wasn't having many good feelings about this guy. "Just enough to-"

"Well, a little's more than we can give you," the man snapped, cutting Ringo off before he could even finish his intended sentence. "We're not a welfare station for wandering beggars. As it is, we can only power up our generator for once a month. Once, that's it. And even then, for no more than five hours. That's so the Spider-crabs won't have time to find us. So you see stranger, even if we wanted to help you – which we don't – we can't, so we won't. Now get out of here, before I get angry."

"Mister, you don't know who you're talking to," Ringo snapped back, starting to sound as annoyed as Slade had been feeling for some time. "We're Space Knights!"

"Yeah, I thought as much," the portly man scoffed, not sounding impressed in the slightest. "I got news for you: Space Knights aren't too popular around here. It's thanks to you guys that we're in the fix we're in. If you'd have done the job you were paid for, there wouldn't be any Spider-crabs, would there? Now leave me alone, you're giving me a headache!"

"Hang on!"

"No," he snapped, wishing for a few moments that he had tried to convince Saber to come with them; if nothing else, watching the ensuing verbal evisceration would have been more than worth the price of admission. "Save your breath, Ringo."

The bastard in charge of the town seemed to take that as a sign of submission, and for a few moments Slade was sorely tempted to flip him the bird or tell him to go fuck himself. Still, cathartic as doing that kind of thing was, it would probably be more trouble than it was worth. Ringo wasn't shy about grumbling under his breath as they left, of course, and Slade smirked slightly as he heard some of the very uncomplimentary terms Ringo was using for the man they'd just gotten out of a – he hesitated to call what had gone on back there a meeting, in any but the loosest sense – discussion with, fruitless as it had turned out to be in the end.

He stopped when the two of them came out of the building, but not for very long.

"Friendly little burg, isn't it?" Ringo asked, though they both knew the question was a rhetorical one. The two of them continued on through the crowds, and Slade could almost feel the waves of hostility and mistrust being directed at the two of them. It wasn't like the sense he had of Saber or any of the others; not something he could block out with just a mental barrier. "Look at these guys: I'd feel more welcome walking in on a Spider-crab slumber party."

He could understand the sentiment, but: "Can you really blame them? Their energy's the most precious thing they've got."

"Yeah," Ringo conceded, though he didn't sound particularly happy about it. "Well, maybe we'll have a bit better luck in the morning."

Slade considered that; sure, there were some people who would reconsider their positions if and when they were given extra time to think about just what it was that they'd said to another person and how it might have been taken, but Slade honestly doubted that would be true in this case. The man who oversaw this town seemed entirely too full of himself to take any kind of criticism to heart. To say nothing of the continuing, low-level hostility that Slade couldn't help but take note of; it pervaded the town, but Slade wasn't quite sure if it was directed at newcomers in general, or if these people did indeed recognize him and Ringo as Space Knights and hated them for that.

Before he could start telling Ringo not to get his hopes up – since it was unlikely that this particular asshole would ever reconsider his position, particularly after the kind of reception he'd given the two of them – Slade found himself facing a small girl.

"Mister, would you like to buy some flowers?" the little girl looking hopefully up at him asked.

Ringo's sidelong grin, coming just after the girl had finished speaking, nearly prompted Slade to roll his eyes. Really, he could fully understand why Saber and Ringo got along so well; and he could only continue to be grateful that his younger twin hadn't decided to come along on this trip.

"You know, Star loves flowers. Why don't you buy her some?"

He sighed softly, then chuckled just as softly. "Between you and my brother, I'm never going to get any peace, am I?"

"'Fraid not," Ringo said, a wide and unrepentant grin on his face. "After all, it's our sworn and solemn duty as your friend and brother – respectively – to do everything in our power to bug you about your romantic prospects. And in our case, to make sure that you – dolt that you are – don't go messing things up with Star."

"I don't think there's much chance of that anymore," he said, feeling the smile on his face shrinking slightly; he and Star were getting as close as any two people could really risk during these uncertain times. "Still, you really think she'd like these?"

"I think she would," Ringo said, after a few, long moments spent staring at Slade's face.

He didn't quite know what his fellow Space Knight was searching for, but after a little while he nodded. Deciding to forgo any further discussion until the two of them had made it back to the Green Earth, Slade paid for the flowers and received a bright smile from the little girl in return. Giving her one of his own, though he didn't know if it quite matched the intensity of hers – funny how some people could still manage to find things to smile about during times like this; it reminded him of Saber, really – but she smiled widely all the same. As he and Ringo left, Slade couldn't help taking a last look over his right shoulder.

The little girl grinned widely, waving at him even as he tried again to smile for her; he didn't know if it came off any better than the one he'd given her the last time, but since she didn't seem to mind, Slade wasn't going to drive himself crazy thinking about it.

000101001001

(So, how did things go?) he asked when he began to sense Slade, presumably with Ringo still in tow, coming slowly closer to where the four of them who'd elected to stay behind with the Green Earth had set up their camp.

(You'll get the full story when Ringo and I get back, but the bottom line is pretty much that we're not going to be getting any extra energy here; not unless something drastic happens.)

He chuckled deep in his throat. (I guess you're glad I wasn't there, then.)

The sense of Slade's amusement carried clearly over their link. (Well, I admit that it would have been kind of fun to have you there, but yeah; I don't think it would have been very productive.)

Grinning into his bowl of potato soup – it was kind of like eating watery mashed potatoes; which had good and bad connotations, since it reminded him a lot of all those old Thanksgivings that the Carter family had spent together – Saber settled back into his spot at the fire and waited for Slade and Ringo to arrive.

Dinner was a fairly subdued affair, though there was a bit of excitement when Maggie, who hadn't been particularly happy with Ringo after the way he'd handled the whole debacle with the village headman – Saber was fairly amused to learn that the man considered himself their mayor – splashed some of the still-hot potato soup on Ringo's left hand when he'd finished telling her what had gone on during the two of them. The act itself wasn't funny in the slightest, since he knew as well as anyone would want to just how much being splashed with burning liquids hurt, but the face that Ringo made – as well as the joke – was funny enough that Saber allowed himself an audible chuckle. Still, nothing they were doing right now would solve their current problem.

That was something each and every one of them agreed on: they would either need to find a way to get the headman of that nameless little town to give them what they needed, or else they would need to find an alternate source of power, and either way they would need to do things quickly. They wouldn't be able to last much longer with the meager dregs they had right now, and they wouldn't be able to travel anywhere unless they were able to get at least a half-decent charge.

They all went to their separate bunks with this knowledge firmly in mind, and Saber made a personal vow to skip his morning shower when he woke up next; no telling how long the remaining power they had was going to hold out, and he wasn't going to be the one to overtax them. He'd done without his creature comforts in the past, after all.

000100100101

Just before she began to settle herself down for the night, the first thing Sword did was hurry into Conrad's room to check on her love. He was still unconscious, yes; she'd not sensed the return of her beloved's agile mind and reason, and she knew also that the first thing he would have done – aside from making contact with Lord Darkon as any of them would have done – was to tell her that he had returned to her side. So, Sword was not surprised to find her dear beloved slumbering in the bed where she had lain him, but she was not particularly pleased, either.

When she made her round of the room where Conrad slept, Sword found the carafe of freshly-prepared broth that Axe had always set out for her to give to Conrad while he continued to slumber. Settling herself down next to the head of his bed, looking down into the slumbering form of the gentle, forgiving man that she planned to marry as soon as the two of them could manage to find some time to themselves, Sword began to gently arrange Conrad's slumbering form so that she would be able to feed him all the more simply.

With her beloved's head resting lightly in her lap, and her own back pressed against the far wall to support her weight as she would need to concentrate on what she was going to be doing rather than merely how she was sitting, Sword opened the carafe and began slowly, carefully spooning it into her beloved's mouth.

Watching as he swallowed slowly, gently nudging his jaw open a bit wider, Sword breathed more deeply to try and calm herself. No matter how many times she'd done such things in the past – three times per day – Sword always found herself uneasy while she fed Conrad his meals in this fashion.

She would always find herself hoping that he would awaken sooner than later, during these times in particular.

1101010010011

Finding that he couldn't get to sleep nearly as easily as he'd been hoping to, Slade briefly considered just letting Saber sleep while he went outside to get some air, but he knew that his younger twin would give him that look if he tried it.

(Saber?)

(Couldn't sleep either?)

(No,) he didn't chuckle, but Slade was fairly sure that the amusement he felt at their respective situations came through loud and clear.

When Saber came into the main area of the Green Earth, a wry smile clearly visible on his younger twin's face, Slade tilted his head and offered the same in return as the two of them made their way out of the tank; that was what the other Space Knights had called it, anyway, though it didn't seem all that tanklike to him. The two of them continued on their way after that short, non-verbal exchange, Slade took the lead as the two of them made their way outside.

There was a full moon up tonight, and even though he knew full well now just what that kind of thing meant, Slade still found himself wanting to spend time under its light; he didn't think it had anything to do with Darkon's mental call, at least he hoped not, but since he'd deliberately been weakening his mental barriers he had no real way to know that kind of thing. Still, as he and Saber climbed up to sit on top of the rock that he'd spotted while he and the other Space Knights had been eating dinner, Slade found himself wondering whether or not that was true.

Leaning into his younger twin's left side, feeling the heat of Saber's body as it radiated through both of their clothes, Slade's eyes flicked downward as he spotted motion around the Green Earth. It wasn't something that he liked discussing with Saber, to say nothing of the other Space Knights, but something else that Slade had been noticing about what the Radam had done to his senses was that he was much quicker to pick up on movement than he'd ever been.

It turned out that Star was the one moving around outside the tank, and Slade waved down to her as he saw her looking up toward the rocky spire that he and Saber were sitting on either side of.

She came over quickly after seeing that, smiling all the while as she did. Slade still didn't know just how he'd managed to earn the love of someone like her, and even after everything they'd both been through he still found himself worrying that he might do something stupid to drive her away, but for now Slade put those thoughts out of his mind. Saber would tell him he was worrying too much, the way he always did, and come to think of it Star probably would too.

She seemed to agree with Saber perfectly concerning things like that.

"I've been working to compile the profiles of the survivors of the Argos' mission, just so none of us are surprised by what they look like outside of their armor anymore," Star said, seeming hesitant for a few moments, but slowly gaining confidence as she spoke.

"That's a good idea, thanks," he said; he'd been worried about that, a bit, since while he and Saber could sense the others when they were close, anyone else would have to look them in the eyes to know just how dangerous they were. And that had its own set of dangers.

Anyone who'd seen them in battle knew how little regard any Radam Teknoman had for the lives of not just the people who opposed them – which in its own way was bad enough – but humanity in general. It would be good to know that no one else would be fooled by any of the others if they attempted to sneak into any of the Earth's remaining bastions of defense. Not even Spear, whenever he woke up. It was good to know that, but even as he had that thought, Slade found his gaze settling on the small tablet that Star had brought out with her.

He could see the profiles she'd been talking about – those that detailed the appearance of Mr. Goddard, Sam, Conrad, Katherine, and Shinji; the ones that his and Cain's father had helped to compile and then submit to the OSDA before they'd even set foot on the Argos – on the tablet's screen. He knew that reading them wouldn't do him much good, knew that nearly everything listed in those profiles had been twisted by the Radam's brainwashing, but Slade found that he couldn't make himself look away…

"Star, do you think I could have a look at those?"

00100101001000

The next morning, just after sunrise, Ringo had opted to use the last dregs of their energy to park the Green Earth just outside of the town whose generator they were going to need to use before they could make it anywhere else. Saber wasn't sure that that'd been the best idea, but he'd tried to talk to Ringo about it and his fellow Space Knight had insisted on doing things this way. He'd relented then, since that kind of thing wasn't something they could afford to waste time on right at the moment.

Still, giving the people in this middle-of-nowhere town even more reasons to dislike them didn't really strike Saber as being particularly intelligent.

As he and Maggie, one arm wrapped around the other's shoulders, made their way closer to the crowd of particularly unfriendly people, Saber couldn't help the thought that getting the power they would need to move on was going to be a uniquely annoying experience this time. Just our luck that we ran into these assholes when we're all back together.

He could at least hope that the other people his and Slade's fellow Space Knights had had to deal with to obtain the power that the Green Earth needed weren't the bunch of complete assholes they were being forced to confront now. At the moment, seeing all of his and Slade's fellow Space Knights surrounded by a pack of jumped-up, rifle-wielding idiots, it was all Saber could do to keep himself from punching the nearest of them in the face.

He knew that it wouldn't have solved any of their current problems, and more than likely it would have invited all new ones, but it was times like this when he could at least begin to understand Shinji's oft-stated desire to have all of the stupid people on Earth shipped to some other planet.

"Come on, we only want enough power to make it to the next outpost," Ringo said. "You wouldn't even miss it."

Sighing as the idiots tending to the generator continued holding them at gunpoint in spite of the fact that – if they were the type to do things like that – he and Slade could have just taken the power they needed to sustain the Green Earth and moved onto the next outpost like they were already planning to. Still, happily for this pack of idiots, none of them were about to start using the Radam's methods to get what they needed.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Saber found his attention abruptly drawn back to the overweight form at the front of the group attempting to threaten them. "Aren't you going to try telling us what to do with our generator?"

He grinned blandly at the man. "Up yours, fatass," he muttered, carefully keeping his jaw as still as he could while he spoke.

No sense in buying trouble they didn't need.

"Come on, let's just go," Ringo sighed disgustedly, turning away from the gun-toting "soldiers" still gathered around them in what was probably some pathetic attempt at intimidation that was doomed to fall flat in the face of everything they'd seen and done during the course of the invasion. "We're getting nowhere fast." When Ringo brushed past him, however, there was a small grin on the pilot's face. "Wiseguy."

Saber grinned more widely.

There was a general sort of agreement, both for the sentiment and Ringo's clear desire to leave these idiots behind. Before any of them were tempted to do something drastic to get what they would need to sustain themselves and keep moving the way they needed to if they were going to get where they needed to be. Him and Slade just as much as any of them.

When they had all settled themselves into their respective seats aboard the Green Earth, Maggie blew out a long, hissing breath between her teeth as she leaned heavily – almost wearily – against his right shoulder.

"I can't believe the nerve of those greedy bastards," Maggie groused, lacing the fingers of her left hand together with his own. "It's not like we would have taken all of their stupid power, or anything." Maggie heaved a deep, gusty sigh. "I'm starting to wish you'd transformed back there."

He pretty much had to laugh at that. "Yeah, I can just see that working out."

"Idle revenge fantasies aside, at half-power we should be able to make it to the next outpost before we need to refuel," Star said, sounding like she would have honestly disapproved of his and Maggie's topic of conversation if either of them had been making actual plans.

(Saber, are you getting the same bad feeing from that town we just got out of as I am?)

He chewed the inside of his left cheek, turning Slade's words over in his mind for a long moment. (Yeah; I guess you're right. It's like they didn't know Spider-crabs can burrow, or something.)

There was a modicum of bitter amusement in his older twin's mental tone when he answered. (Maybe they don't.)

Before he could make any kind of response to that, since it was a distinct possibility that not everyone was aware of everything that the Radam's near-mindless cannon fodder were capable of. They'd perhaps been a bit spoiled by the Space Knights' research staff, and Commander Jamison's willingness to pursue whatever knowledge of the Radam that he could reasonably obtain. It was funny, Saber reflected, the things you didn't think you'd miss until you found yourself without them.

Maggie's shouting about an attacking Spider-crab didn't come as much of a surprise under the circumstances, but Saber still found himself sighing in annoyance. Sure, it would be something to hold over the head of that asshole running the town, but on the other hand it meant they were going to have to go back to that town and all of the assholes therein.

So, there were clear good and bad points to what they were going to be doing.

"Yeah; looks like they started up that generator too soon," Ringo groused. "That thing's gonna suck up every drop of power they're pumping out down there."

"I'm taking us back."

"C'mon, Star, why should we go helping those deadbeats after the way they treated us?"

"It's our job," Star countered firmly. "We can't just go turning our backs on people who need us, no matter how unfriendly they've been."

"We'd better get moving," Slade said, though there was a definite undercurrent of amusement to his older twin's tone. "Still, you're welcome to stay behind if you want to, Ringo."

"Nah," the Blue Earth's pilot – though they didn't currently have the Blue Earth for him to fly – said, rolling his eyes in that long-suffering way that had never failed to amuse Saber every time he'd seen it. "I'm not letting you two kids have all the fun."

Things moved quickly after that, of course; with him and Slade jogging back to where Pegas had been stored in what had unofficially become the Green Earth's launch bay, and Ringo along for the ride since he was going out too. He and Slade transformed just a second apart from each other, leaving Ringo to catch up when he could, and Saber landed on Pegas' back just as the big mech had started leaving the shelter of the launchbay.

He sensed the rush of energy when his older twin had finished transforming, and so Saber stepped back just enough so that Slade could land in front of him.

(Another day, another Spider-crab, eh brother?)

He sensed more than heard Slade's amused chuckle. (Yeah, pretty much.)

"Star's on her way to help with the evacuation now," Maggie said over the radio, and Saber smiled slightly under his helmet. "Tina and I will coordinate the attack from here."

"Good to know you have our back, Mags."

Lashing the Spider-crab in front of them with the energy-ribbon of his teknolance, Saber caught sight of Ringo landing on the ground in front of the fat man in the white suit. There was a momentary look of stark terror on his face, since all of his men had run off when the huge Spider-crab had roared at them, but then that same pissy look he'd had on when they'd all been confronting him outside of the Green Earth came right back.

Some people just had no sense of self-preservation.

Hacking at the Spider-crab in front of him, in concert with his older twin as the two of them had done so many times in so many battles before this, Saber saw to his annoyance that their respective lances didn't penetrate nearly as deeply as they had on any of the others that he and Slade had faced.

(Looks like this one's a bit tougher than the others,) he mused, and would have rolled his eyes if he hadn't been wearing his armor and hence having his face rearranged by such.

(Yeah; that's kind of what I was afraid of, with this one being so much bigger. Seemed only natural that it'd be tougher, but I was at least hoping to be wrong this once.)

(The unappreciated burden of being a genius,) he snarked, smirking under his helmet even as he took another swipe at the Spider-crab they were dealing with.

(Wiseass.)

They pushed the Spider-crab steadily back, causing it to topple backward into the hollow mountain that was clearly hiding the generator that these people had been using. The one that had ultimately drawn the attention of this Spider-crab in the first place. These people were just lucky it hadn't drawn the attention of any Teknomen; well, at least not yet.

(Saber!)

Before he could even begin to wonder what Slade was so panicked about, the mental image of a little girl, crouching in the remains of a ruined building, appeared in his mind. It was times like this when Saber found himself appreciating his and Slade's telepathic link all the more.

(Don't worry; I've got this.)

Tossing Slade his teknolance, Saber stooped on the little girl like a falcon; he could see her surprise as he dove down to meet her, but then she smiled as he scooped her up in his arms and got her settled as best as he could manage in his armor.

"Wait, mister," she said, pointing to something on the ground to his left. "I lost my flowers. Could you get them for me?"

Turning slightly, Saber found that there was actually a bouquet of flowers that had fallen onto the dirt road, and so with a mental shrug he knelt down and scooped them up; even though they looked pretty sad and trampled. The little girl was happy, at least, and as Saber dropped her off with Star and the group of evacuees that were making their way out of the town in the wake of the attack, he waved to them as he turned back to check on his older twin.

However, with no one in the line of fire, Slade had managed to line up and fry the thing with a Tekno-bolt, so that only left Saber with the less arduous task of supporting his older twin as the two of them made their way off of the spent battlefield. He could only hope that those stupid ingrates would be less stupidly ungrateful now, or he really would start punching people this time.

"All right you two, you've done enough here," Star said kindly, smiling at the two of them as he and Slade made their way over to the Jeep she was standing next to with the girl that Slade had pointed out to him. "Go get some rest."

"No objections here," he said with an unseen, weary smile.

Letting his transformation fade as he climbed into the Jeep himself, Saber yawned deeply once he was out of his armor and could actually move his jaw in the required fashion. Climbing the rest of the way into the jeep, Saber slumped into the back seat and half-closed his eyes. He was peripherally aware of the little girl climbing into his lap, and he thought he smiled for her, but by that time he was already beginning to fall asleep.

0001010010010

When she looked back to Saber, after seeing Slade on his way back to the Green Earth, Star found him resting in the backseat of the Jeep with the little girl curled up in his lap. Smiling, and swallowing her amused laughter at the adorable image the two of them presented together, Star pulled out a small camera that she had taken to carrying with her so that she could preserve moments like this and quickly took a picture of the pair of them.

Tucking the camera back into an interior pocket of her vest, Star smiled as she climbed back into the Jeep herself and started it up. She knew well by now just how deeply either one of the twins would sleep after they had just participated in a battle and been forced to transform. So she wasn't worried about waking Saber while she pulled the Jeep around and drove back to the waiting Green Earth, but she still made sure to be careful as she drove back to the tank to park the jeep inside the cruiser again. Even though both of the twins were such deep sleepers that she didn't have to worry about being careful during times like this, Star knew she always would be.

It was just common courtesy, really.

When she arrived back at the Green Earth, Maggie was the first to come out to meet them just like Star had been expecting her to. With only a wink over her shoulder, Maggie gathered Saber up in her arms as the little girl climbed out of his lap. Star found herself chuckling softly at the antics of her fellow Space Knight.

"Miss, where are they going?"

"They're going back into the Green Earth so that Saber, that's the man who rescued you, can get some sleep now."

"Oh," the adorable little girl said, turning to look the way that Maggie had gone. "He's going to be okay, then?"

"Yes," she said, smiling at the little girl's concern. It was nice to know that he'd won over another person with the kindness that she had watched him reveal over the time that he and Slade had worked with the Space Knights. "After he gets some rest."

"I'm glad," the little girl said, smiling widely. "He was really nice."

"Yes," she said, smiling back. "He really is."

11101001001011

Ringo was more than a little smug when some of the techies started hooking up the energy-siphons that the Green Earth used to the generator; after all jerks in this city had pretty much lined up to shoot at them when they'd first come in here needing what power they could find. Not that he was going to actually act like it, both since it would be incredibly petty of him, and it would end up being entirely counterproductive. Still, it wasn't like he could help the way he felt after everything that'd gone down in the past couple of days.

The updates he was getting from Star, from her place monitoring the energy-levels in the tanks as they slowly rose to the point where the Green Earth would actually be able to move again, Ringo smiled. It looked like things were starting to look up for them again. Even if it would take the Space Knights who knew how much longer to complete their real mission, having the power they needed was an important first step.

One more step on their thousand-mile journey.