It's great to be back on the road again, Tina reflected, then smiled as she turned to look back at where Slade and Saber were sitting. Especially since all of us are back together now. Sure, the Space Knights weren't quite all back together, since the Commander and Mac and all of the others were trying to repair the Arizona Command Center, but it was nice to at least have most of the main team back together after everything that had happened. Maggie and Star looked especially happy, Tina couldn't help but notice.

Maggie and Saber were pretty much attached at the hip nowadays, and even Star and Slade seemed to be getting closer; Ringo and Saber never missed an opportunity to tease them about that, of course.

All in all, without any of those evil Teknomen chasing them around, things seemed to be going a lot better. Of course, the fact that they were chasing a pair of evil Teknomen – one of them actually the same age as she was, which was really weird to think about – it made her almost feel like things had flipped on their head, just a bit. Before, it'd always been the evil Teknomen who'd come to them, and the Space Knights had been the ones holding them off from the Command Center. Now, Axe and Rapier were moving around the countryside, while she and the rest of the Space Knights who'd been assigned to patrol in the Green Earth tried to track them down.

It was just so bizarre when she stopped to think about it.

"We must be getting warmer," Star said. "It looks like this place has been attacked recently."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I can still see it smoking. Maybe the rumors were true, and Teknoman Axe and Teknoman Rapier have been through here."

"It's possible Axe attacked someplace else, but this seems more like Rapier's work," Slade said, his narrowed eyes scanning all around them.

"Yeah, he was always a fan of the subtle approach," Saber added, and Tina smiled slightly as she saw Maggie curling up next to him and leaning in for a kiss.

No doubt about it; those two were made for each other.

"Great, as if it wasn't enough dealing with a pair of Radam Teknomen, we have to deal with one who likes to be subtle," Ringo groused, with none of his usual heat.

He'd been more than a bit subdued ever since they'd come into this part of the city. Ever since they'd come onto the outskirts, really; Tina was getting worried for him. But, Ringo would probably talk to Saber before he talked to her, since the two of them were such good friends.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder just what was getting to him in this of all places; it wasn't like they hadn't all seen the destruction that the Radam had left behind them wherever they traveled.

The Green Earth's bulk rumbled on, and Tina braced herself as they rode over what felt like a pretty large piece of debris. It wasn't something she was going to waste breath complaining about, since there really wasn't much anyone could do about the debris in the road, but it was something she couldn't help but notice all the same.

"The roads are getting a bit too cluttered for the Green Earth to make it through," Ringo said, his tone taking on a bit more of its old liveliness, but probably only because he was getting annoyed. "Looks like we're going to have to break out the Jeep again."

There was a general, resigned sort of agreement on that point, and Tina stepped out of the way as the older Space Knights headed down to where the Jeep was parked so that they could get it ready to travel again.

10010010010010

Once he, Star, and Saber – because there was no way in hell he was going to risk heading out into even this place if there was still the smallest chance of that pint-sized thug of a Radam Teknoman being anywhere in the area – had piled into the Jeep and set off on their trip, Ringo found himself thinking about how much he'd have really, honestly preferred not to come back to this place under these kinds of circumstances. Still, after he'd been pretty much disowned by his father after choosing to join the Space Knights rather than staying in the AEM like his father had continually demanded – politely, yes, but no less insistently for his diplomatic phrasing – he couldn't honestly say that he'd been looking forward to coming back here, of all places.

He wondered for a moment just how Saber would have been doing, if it'd been his hometown they were all paying a visit to; not that he was insensitive enough to actually ask, not since he knew just what it was those kids of theirs were facing every time they went out into the field.

"Watch out for speedbumps," Saber scoffed, as the Jeep he was driving rolled over a broken piece of debris lying in the street.

He chuckled a little, though even he couldn't help but notice how subdued he was; no chance that any of the others had missed it. "Sorry. Road isn't what it used to be. You sensing anything, Saber?"

"No," the kid said, then sighed softly. "If Rapier is here, he's shielding as strongly as I've ever sensed."

"Well, let's hope he's not, then," he muttered; the last thing anyone sane wanted to face was a Radam Teknoman, even that pint-sized thug. Of course, he had particular reasons for wanting to avoid that Teknoman in particular, but no one could've said they weren't valid.

"Yeah," Saber muttered, but the kid seemed to be distracted by something. "That's a pretty strange name for a street."

"What?" he asked, side-eyeing his fellow Space Knight since it wasn't like he could actually take his eyes off the street.

"Vereuse Avenue," the kid muttered, even as he was forced to pull to a sudden stop for a crashed bus in the road. "I wonder what Vereuse means."

Turning to look over at the fallen sign that had once marked the street where his family lived, Ringo's gaze locked on it for a long moment. It was that, more than anything else, that let Ringo know that – whatever he saw when he reached his home – he wasn't going to like it. Backing up the Jeep, noting and then ignoring Star's exclamation of surprise, Ringo ramped the bus and landed on the other side. He got the distinct feeling that Star wasn't too happy with him, but the sound of Saber's amused laughter coming loud and clear from behind him brought a subdued sort of grin to his face.

"Well, now that we're done with the stunt-driving portion of this trip, do you think we could actually start looking for that energy-dump you were talking about?"

"I think I could manage that," he said, smirking a bit for Saber's sake; he was honestly starting to wonder if this was what it'd been like for Saber himself, every time he'd had to put on a brave face so that Slade and the rest of the Space Knights wouldn't worry about him.

Any way you sliced it, he had to respect Saber for his efforts.

They continued up the road in silence, following the leisurely bends that took them slowly to the top of the hill where his old house stood. Sighing as the building itself came into view, and briefly wondering just how much sooner Saber had been able to spot it, Ringo stopped the Jeep just outside the gates of his former home. Just before they would have passed under the stone shield that held his family's crest.

"Saber, you think you'd be interested in a little trip?" he asked, aiming a look over his shoulder at the kid where he sat in the right-side passenger seat.

"I think I could manage," he kid said, and Ringo saw him smirk. "Do I even have to ask where we're going?"

"No, I think it's pretty obvious," he said, leaving the Jeep behind and opening the door for Saber just as his fellow Space Knight would have opened it for himself. "Come on, I'll give you the five dollar tour. And no, I won't charge you for it," he said, catching the just-beginning-to-be-amused look on Saber's face.

"Sure, I believe you," Saber said, tilting his head in that way he did when he was amused and wanted everyone else to know it, too.

The two of them made their way up the path toward his old house, and Ringo idly wondered just when Saber was going to ask the question that had to be on his mind. He knew that the kid had to be thinking about it, since anyone would have been wondering under the circumstances. And while no one could say that Saber wasn't polite to the people who'd earned it in his eyes, but even a polite person would have to be wondering just what in the hell was so important about this particular building.

Out of any place they could have gone into in the remains of this once-peaceful neighborhood.

"So, this is your old home, huh?" Saber asked, turning slightly towards him with a gentle, knowing sort of smile.

"I guess I don't have to ask how you know that," he said, smirking slightly, but feeling more reflective than anything.

He could guess why Saber, of all people, had picked out this place as being his home; Slade would've probably been able to spot that kind of thing just as quickly as his brother, but it was a toss-up if he'd say anything or not.

As the two of them made their way into the empty, crumbling building, Ringo took a moment to ask Saber if he could sense any other Teknomen in the area before he started calling for anyone else who might be taking shelter in there. Because, there was no way in hell that he was going to risk the lives of anyone who might be staying here, just because he wanted to know what might have happened to the remaining people that he cared about. Once Saber reported that, as far as he could tell, they weren't about to be jumped by that pint-sized thug and his somehow even more thuggish teacher, Ringo began to call for anyone who might have still been hiding inside the building.

His father in particular, since he didn't know if anyone else would have had the sheer, mule-headed stubbornness to stay in this place even in the face of the Radam's all-out invasion; that was just the kind of thing his father would have done, though.

Finding his way into the living room, with Saber's light, almost catlike footsteps trailing just behind him, Ringo bit the inside of his lower-lip as the wind blew up a pair of sheer, lilac curtains. Following the curtains' path lead his gaze to the marble fireplace on the other side of the room, and from there to the mantelpiece. There was a collection of photographs up there, all of them neatly set atop the mantel, but Ringo's gaze was drawn to the one that had been placed face-down.

Out of all of them, that one held the most sentimental value to him at this moment.

The feel of Saber's hand on his right shoulder brought him back to the present, and Ringo smiled softly for the reminder.

"It's my mom," he said, answering the unspoken question that hung between the two of them. "I didn't know her very long; she died when I was just a kid."

Saber's sudden, bittersweet chuckle cut off anything else that Ringo could have thought up to say. "Something else we have in common, I guess."

"Yeah?" he prompted; this was something he hadn't been prepared to expect when he'd started this conversation, but if Saber felt comfortable enough around him to reveal something so personal, then he wasn't going to interrupt.

"Yeah," Saber muttered, his bright blue eyes locked on the framed picture that Ringo still held in his hands. "She died in a house fire, back when Slade and I were just five."

And before anyone would have ever thought to call you kids Saber and Slade in the first place, he wasn't going to say. It wouldn't help anyone if he tried to bring up just who those kids had been, back when they'd actually had family to call their own; both since that kind of thing would have been incredibly rude, and because it didn't matter much in this particular case. Saber and Slade were what those kids wanted to be called now, so he'd honor that.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Saber," he said, watching as Saber's bittersweet smirk slowly melted into a gentle, subdued sort of smile.

"Thanks. I'm sorry about your mother, too, Ringo."

"Thanks." He wrapped his left arm around Saber's shoulders before the kid could think to step away from him, and smiled at his fellow Space Knight when Saber raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, I'll show you my old room."

"All right."

So the two of them made their way down the empty, debris-strewn halls of his old house, sometimes ending up having to walk over large sections of the ceiling that had collapsed into the house itself. He didn't like looking at them, or passing under the resulting holes that poured sunlight down into the interior, but he was at least glad that it wasn't raining. Pushing open a pair of double-doors in front of him, he led Saber into his old room.

The spread of photos on the wall, just above the shelf filled with trophies that he'd won, greeted them first, and Ringo smiled slightly.

"So, I guess I don't need to waste time asking what your favorite pastime was," Saber said, and he turned an amused smile on the kid, who was watching him with one of his own.

"Yeah," he smiled in bittersweet nostalgia, picking up one of his old trophies. "I was MVP back in the day, you know?"

Saber grinned at him in that way he had, and Ringo pretty much had to laugh at himself: because of course the kid wouldn't know. He'd never talked to Saber about his old life; even when they'd had a quiet moment, some kind of crisis seemed to be hanging over their heads. That was life in the midst of an alien invasion, Ringo mused.

"Those were my old teammates," he said, indicating the largest photo on the wall in front of them with the point of his chin. He was just about to say more when Saber, who'd stepped a bit closer to the trophy shelf than Ringo himself was currently standing, suddenly snapped his head around, eyes locking on the doors that they had just come in through.

The kid's bright blue eyes, no longer eerily glowing the way they had been when he and Ringo had passed into the darker sections of his old house but bright enough all the same, were narrowed at whatever it was that he was looking at. It didn't seem like Saber was worried about anything, though, so that put paid to the thought that it might've been Rapier or Axe. He could be relieved about that, at least, if not entirely happy.

Subtly signaling for his fellow Space Knight to follow his lead, Ringo turned and nonchalantly headed back toward the door. Making like he just wanted to go back through it, Ringo instead yanked the thing open and grabbed the guy on the other side.

"All right, you! You've got some nerve, traipsing around like-! Barnaby?" he cut himself off, having recognized his family's old butler just as he'd really started building up a full head of steam.

There were tears in the old man's eyes, just starting to fall as Ringo released the grip he'd had on Barnaby's suit-jacket and let him stand back up to his full height. It wasn't that impressive, since Barnaby had never really been a tall man and had only gotten frailer during the intervening years, but Ringo figured that he at least owed it to the old man after the way he'd probably scared him when he'd first shown up.

"Master Richard, I had honestly begun to believe that I would never see you again," the old man said, and Ringo couldn't quite hold back a wince at the sheer, sincere longing in his voice.

Sure, he hadn't been too keen on coming back once his dad had decided that being in the Space Knights wasn't remotely good enough for any son of his, but he couldn't help admitting that he hadn't been thinking about just how that kind of thing would have affected the other people back at home who'd cared about him. People like the old man who was even now looking up at him with such hopeful, welcoming eyes. He almost hated to disappoint Barnaby, but he and the others were going to have to be moving on soon.

As much as he'd missed the old man – facing him here and now, Ringo couldn't avoid admitting that, if only to himself – there was no avoiding the fact that, more than ever, the Space Knights were needed.

"Come, Master Richard," Barnaby said, bowing slightly to the pair of them. "I am certain that the others will be wanting to meet with you, and your young friend, as well." Barnaby's attention turned to Saber, then; the kid having been as patient as anyone could have expected of him under the circumstances. "Master Saber, was it?"

"Yeah, that's me," his fellow Space Knight said; only Ringo or one of the others who'd been close to him during the course of his and Slade's long war against the Radam would have been equipped to understand the few seconds of hesitation between Barnaby's question and the kid's answer.

He wondered, briefly, if the old man had even noticed the slight pause.

There was an expression of subdued curiosity on the old man's face, but Ringo didn't honestly know if it was because of Saber's admittedly weird name – weird for a human, anyway – or because he had noticed the pause and was wondering about the cause of it. In either case, though, Ringo knew he wouldn't ask. Barnaby was too polite for that kind of thing.

"So, how has everyone else been doing?" he asked, knowing it was probably a stupid question but needing to ask all the same.

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances, Master Richard," Barnaby said.

Ringo sighed inwardly; he had asked. "Yeah. I guess none of us are doing quite as well as we'd like."

"Indeed not, Master Richard," Barnaby said, as he continued to lead the three of them into the back section of the house and from there out into the spacious back yard. "I do apologize for not having anyone out here to greet you and your friend, Master Richard, but as I did not recognize you at first, I was forced to act in what I saw as the best interests of those still living here."

"I'm just glad that the people here are still all right," he said, as Barnaby began to make his way to the pool for a purpose that Ringo was starting to suspect that he knew. "Speaking of which, is Father in there?" he asked, being a bit more formal than he otherwise would have been; Barnaby was kind of a stickler for decorum.

Probably came with being a butler for as long as he had.

"I am sorry to be the bearer of such news, Master Richard, but your father – the General – has not been here in some time. He ordered the servants into the shelter, while he himself stayed above to deal with the invaders."

Sighing, knowing that pretty much anyone who tried to stand up to the Radam without having access to the kind of power that the Wonder Twins had provided for the Space Knights was basically doomed, Ringo decided to forgo asking any more questions. Turning slightly as he noticed Saber trying to catch his eye, he saw that the kid was smiling softly at him.

He smiled back; after all, this was just one more thing that the two of them had in common.

Looking up as he began to hear the sounds of whirring motors and grinding gears, Ringo found himself watching the specially-built shelter as it rose from the depths of the long-since emptied pool. Once the shelter had fully risen from the depths, and the people standing inside it had begun to cheerfully file out, Ringo found himself feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of it. And, even though he knew it was kind of stupid for him to feel anything like that, Ringo found that he still felt a bit ashamed of feeling so good.

There was Saber right beside him, one of the kids who'd lost pretty much everything he'd had to the Radam, and he had to stand and watch as these people – who'd been almost as close as family to Ringo – gathered around him in profound relief. No matter how many times Ringo tried to remind himself that Saber wouldn't blame him for embracing this moment now that it'd come, Ringo couldn't stop feeling like a bit of a jerk.

He knew damn well that neither Saber nor Slade would have ever said anything about it, but Ringo couldn't quite help feeling the way he did, what with everything that was going on.

101001001001

"Pegas, you hearing what I'm hearing?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly; there was someone following them, but he wasn't getting the sense – either active or passive – that it was either Axe or Rapier.

"Affirmative; I have been tracking the unknown presence for several minutes. Identity unconfirmed, but suspicious."

"Sounds about right," he muttered; Maggie was clearly confused about what the two of them were talking about, but she'd find out when he did. "Let's get a look at them, Pegas."

"Affirmative," the mech said, letting loose with a carefully-controlled burst of firepower, calculated to drive their mystery stalker out of hiding while at the same time having very little danger of injuring whoever it happened to be.

Crouching, Slade leaped easily into the air, landing just behind their not-quite-so-mysterious stalker – he was getting the impression that this was a man, from what he could see of the figure's build through the cloud of debris that had been thrown up by the miniature explosions – Slade grabbed whoever it was in a quick half-nelson. He didn't know if they, whoever they turned out to be, would have been able to fight off Ness Carter. But then, he wasn't really Ness Carter anymore.

"All right, out with it: why have you been following us?" he pressed, controlling the man's movements the way he'd been taught to do when he restrained someone.

"I'm sorry!" the man said; his voice higher-pitched than Slade had yet heard from a man; maybe it was just because he was frightened. "A case of mistaken identity! I thought you were someone else!"

Slade let the man fall to the ground, standing over the man as he rubbed his neck. "Who, exactly?"

"I thought you might be one of that bunch that tore up this town!"

"Were there two of them?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. "A short, stocky man with close-cropped brown hair, and a young albino kid?"

"No," the man said, looking confused by the descriptions. "It was that motorcycle gang, the Hyenas! They're the ones who did all this. They're the real monsters!"

"You mean to tell me that all of this damage was done by humans?" he demanded, not knowing what to think.

Yeah, Saber would probably remind him that some people could be complete and utter assholes, but Slade would have at least thought that the threat of complete annihilation – or subjugation, which would really amount to the same thing in the end – by the Radam would have at least curtailed the worst excesses of those kinds of people. Apparently, he would have thought wrong.

"Yeah, as human as you or me," the man said; Slade swallowed a chuckle of bittersweet amusement. "They're the worst kind of people! They just attack whatever happens to be standing in front of them, and none of them even think of all the harm they're doing!"

There wasn't really anything he could say in response to that, but there was at least something he could do…

010010010110

When the four of them, plus Sophia of course, came to the old church that she used to teach the kids who'd lived in the town – both those who'd been born to the people who worked around here, and those who'd come in with various groups of refugees – Ringo had to smile. It was just like her; she'd always said that she wanted to be a teacher.

"You always did want to be a teacher, didn't you," he said, smiling at the woman who had been so friendly to him when the two of them had been younger.

"Yes, but our school is in shambles," Sophia said sadly. "We have no computers; we don't even have books."

"These are hard times for everybody," he conceded, as a lumpy, lop-sided bag that the kids were playing with in lieu of using the ball they clearly didn't have, rolled to a stop at his feet. Kicking it up, he dribbled it while he spoke; he was showing off a bit, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. "But they're toughest on the kids, I guess. Here ya go, little guys," he said, bouncing it back into the hands of the kid who'd lost it in the first place.

"The main problem is boredom: there's so little for them to do," Sophia said reflectively. "Richard, I wonder?"

"Huh?" he prompted, turning to look back at her.

"You used to play soccer, do you think you could teach them how to play?"

"Come on, this is no time for fun and games," he demurred. "We happen to be in the middle of a war, here."

"How can I forget," she muttered sadly. "And that's precisely why I think it's so important: I think there should be more to life than mere survival. Now, more than ever, they need to have fun. They need to have something to fill their days with besides chaos, burnt-out homes, and brutality."

"But, where would your playing field be?" Star asked; he would've asked the same if she hadn't. "There isn't a patch of ground anywhere in town not covered with debris."

"Yes, I'm afraid that's true," Sophia said sadly.

"It's not exactly safe out there, either," he said, turning slightly to see if Saber would be interested in contributing to this little discussion of theirs.

Their kid looked a bit more interested in watching what all of the other kids were doing, though; Ringo smiled slightly. Really, Saber was one of the oldest kids Ringo'd ever had the pleasure of meeting.

"Especially with the Hyenas still around," Sophia said, the expression on her face becoming both sad and afraid. "That crazy bunch of animals might return any minute to finish the job they started."

"So Slade wasn't kidding when he reported that all of the damage here had been done by humans and not Teknomen," Tina said, still sounding a bit surprised.

Hell, it was fairly surprising to him, and he was really no stranger to how horrible people in general could be.

"I guess you never really can get away from those types of idiots," Saber muttered, showing that he'd been paying just as much attention to the conversation as any of them.

It was nice to know, and it wasn't like he disagreed with the sentiment. "You've got a point there, Saber."

"Yes, and that's the point: I don't want these children to become like them. I want to give them something besides violence to hang onto. Something good and healthy, and pure. And civilized."

He almost had to smile at her passionate declaration, even as he caught the makeshift ball, and tossed it into the air so he could balance it on his head as he spoke. "Okay, Sophia; you've convinced me. We'll set up a playing field on my father's estate. But I'll only do it on one condition."

"Anything, Richard; just name it."

"Stop calling me Richard," he said, smiling. "Nowadays it's Ringo, to my friends."

10100101001110

When they had all moved out to the grassy field just inside the boundaries of Richard's father's estate – it was hard to think of him as Ringo, after all the time that she had known him as Richard – and Richard had lashed a rope around the remains of an old shed and used it to pull the building down, Sophia smiled as the old building collapsed on itself.

"We have a soccer field!" Richard called happily, as the children around him cheered.

Smiling as she turned to the group of Richard's friends, in particular the strangely-named young man that had stood beside him on the opposite side of his female friends Star and Tina, she wondered for a moment why he had been so silent throughout the day. He had seemed happy, though, so she didn't worry so much that he was troubled by something, but there was something that she wanted to speak with him about.

Finding him wasn't so difficult, since he was off by himself and merely observing the activity occurring around him. There was a wistful expression on his face as he continued to watch, and for the few moments that it took her to make her way over to him, Sophia wondered just what he could have been thinking about. Making up her mind to ask him about that after she had satisfied her curiosity about the life that Richard had lead since he had chosen to leave them, Sophia found herself standing next to the near-silent young man who had watched them all with such sad blue eyes.

"Saber? Would you mind walking with me?" she asked, knowing that anyone who had gotten so close to Richard as this young man had would have known the value of discretion.

And yes, it was also likely that the two of them had bonded over shared pain, if they were as close as they had seemed to be.

"Sure," Saber said easily, turning to follow her as she made her way back to the church; there was something special that she had kept there, for a long time.

"Saber, would you mind telling me something? About yourself, I mean," she clarified, as the young man turned to look at her as the two of them continued on their way.

"What would you like to know?"

Saber had a wary sort of expression on his face when he asked that question, and that fact more than anything let Sophia know that he and Richard had indeed bonded over a pain that the two of them shared. "If it wouldn't mind too much, could you tell me your name? I mean, I don't think your parents would have actually named you Saber," she continued, seeing the considering expression that the oddly-named young man turned on her after she said that.

"Ringo really trusts you that much, does he?"

It seemed like a rather odd question to ask, and for someone who hadn't clearly been such close friends with Richard it would have seemed rather defensive on his part, but any friend of Richard's would clearly have something more in common with him than outward appearances would suggest.

"Richard and I were friends when we were children," she said, observing the way Saber's expression became less wary and more curious as she spoke to him. "Though, the two of us did slip out of contact after he left."

"That makes sense, considering how you reacted to him," Saber said, his tone and the expression on his face making it clear that he wasn't thinking of anything happening at the present moment.

Sophia wondered what he could have been thinking, but the two of them reached the church before she could think of a diplomatic way to broach such a likely-delicate subject, and Sophia proceeded Saber back into the building as he opened the door for her. Thanking the oddly-named young man for the favor, she lead him over to the desk where she had kept the ball that Richard had used to win the last soccer championship that he had been able to play.

"Did you have that ball all this time?" Saber asked, a curious expression on his face as he watched her take the ball from her desk.

"This is the ball that Richard won his last soccer championship with," she said, not even trying to hold back the wistful smile that emerged on her face as she spoke.

For a moment, as the two of them left her office and made for the main room of the church once again, Sophia was almost certain that Saber would question her further along that line, but the young man's attention turned rather abruptly to the windows in front of them. His left hand was a blur, as he caught the throwing knife that would have otherwise imbedded itself into the pew on that same side.

Shocked, by the action almost as much as the fact that a small group of Hyenas were standing right in front of her, Sophia forced herself to keep her attention on them. Yes, what Saber had done was rather odd in and of itself, but the threat posed by the Hyenas wasn't something that anyone could safely ignore.

"You know the way you meet some people, and then you instantly realize that you're not going to like them?"

It wasn't a question that called for an answer, and when Sophia looked his way she saw that he had merely said that to provoke the Hyenas and draw their attention to him; another thing that Richard would have done in this same situation.

The Hyenas closed in around them, and when Saber stepped in front of her, Sophia couldn't help but be reminded of Richard; it was just what he would have done in this situation, too.

0001010010011

As he, Star, and Tina made their way back to the church where Sophia and Saber had gone to get the ball that Tina had told him Sophia had said she would take care of, Ringo wondered why the two of them hadn't made it back yet. When he saw the broken window, with the edges of the glass shards stained with blood, Ringo knew just what had happened. He didn't know where either of the two of them had gotten off to, but he wasn't going to stop searching until he found the both of them.

However, before he could make good on his intention to find both one of his oldest and one of his newest friends from whoever it was that had been stupid enough to threaten them, Ringo abruptly found himself facing a large group of idiots on various vehicles – some of them even looking like salvaged hardware from the AEM – wielding weapons that would have been a hell of a lot better suited to fighting off Spider-crab incursions than whatever this bunch of yahoos happened to be using them for. Sure, Ringo liked to think that he wasn't the kind of person who judged other people based on their appearances, but there were ways to make a good first impression and this was most certainly not one of them.

Star and Tina were right beside him as he faced down the idiots who'd just decided to make themselves a nuisance when he wasn't in the best of moods already.

"All right, so who are these buzzards?" he asked no one in particular; he knew that neither of his fellow Space Knights would know, so there really wasn't any point in asking loud enough for them to have heard.

The only thing he could tell right off the bat about the motley crew of assholes was that they seemed to be armed like some crazy militia, and they could have easily been argued to be worse than the Radam. After all, the Radam brainwashed their Teknomen to be loyal to them; Slade and Saber were good examples of that: the kind of people who only fought when they were called on to do so, rather than fighting because it was all that they were good for. He didn't know just what these bastards were planning, but hell if he was just going to let them run roughshod over his old hometown the way they seemed to have been doing for who knew how long before he came back.

1110010010111

Ducking another knife as it was thrown at his head, Saber resisted the urge to transform and deal with these idiots. It would be a waste of the energy that he was probably going to need later, when the Radam inevitably showed up in response to what these morons were doing, and he wasn't going to start using the Radam's methods of dealing with humans they ended up in conflict with. He wasn't a monster.

A trio of broken knives, their hilts and blades cleanly snapped apart, lay at his feet, and as Saber glared out at the idiots surrounding him, he couldn't help but notice the way they were staring at him. Not a one of them seemed to properly understand just how much he outclassed them, and since he wasn't going to waste any of his time explaining things to them, Saber knew that he was just going to have to demonstrate.

Leaping onto the hood of the truck – or Humvee, at this point he could've cared less about the distinction – Saber kicked the driver under the chin hard enough to drive his head backwards into the headrest of his seat. While he was stunned, Saber pulled the passenger – who seemed utterly stunned by his previous action, so that was pleasant – out of his seat and threw him headfirst to the ground.

Hopping lightly back to the ground, Saber caught sight of two more of those idiots attempting to harass Sophia. Running over there at nearly his top speed, since it was long past the point where he cared about keeping his secrets, Saber knocked the closest one to the ground with a palm-heel strike to the face, and then round-house kicked the other one hard enough to send him skidding back several feet from where his fellow idiot had landed.

"Somehow, I don't quite think we're welcome here anymore," he said lightly, smiling to put Sophia at ease; there wasn't much to smile about otherwise.

"Yes," she said, giving him a look of recognition that Saber almost wished he had more time to stop and interpret; there'd probably be time for that later, though. "We should leave as fast as we can."

"Well, if you don't mind a few bumps, you might be surprised how fast that can be."

"What do you mean?"

"Will you trust me?" he asked, already hearing the sounds of the gang members gathering themselves for another attack.

She looked back only once, seeing just the same thing as he'd seen if the expression on her face was anything to go by, then sighed and closed her eyes.

"I trust you."

"Thanks," he muttered, closing his eyes briefly, before snatching her up by the waist and laying her on his back.

Sophia grabbed on as quickly as anyone could have asked of her, and Saber ran off as quickly as he could manage with her still back there. Eyes narrowed against the wind from his speed, Saber continued along the path he'd been taking. Sooner or later, though Saber would have honestly preferred sooner, he and Sophia would be able to meet up with Slade and their fellow Space Knights.

What would happen after that, Saber really couldn't have said.

100101001110101

Of all the times for there to be a Spider-crab attack. Star didn't know just who she was honestly angrier at; yes, the Radam were horrible for continuing to attack them the way they always did, but the Radam were aliens – they brainwashed all of the people forced into serving them – and these people, just as human as her or Ringo, or Tina for that matter, had chosen to make themselves into the terrors that what few parents there were in a place like this probably told their children about to get them to stay home at night. The Radam might have been the monsters in the darkness – and in the daylight – that came without warning, but these people were worse than even that. The Radam forced the people serving them to become monsters; these people here had a choice.

And, anyone who would willingly choose to become a monster was beyond any reasonable forgiveness.

"Have you heard from Saber?" she called, turning to look up at Slade as he swooped down to impale one of the descending Spider-crabs with his lance.

"He says he's coming," Slade reported, not glancing away from the swarm of Spider-crabs falling all around them now.

It was just as well he didn't, Star knew. Before she could start to wonder too much about where Saber had gotten himself off to, she saw the burst of turquoise light that heralded Saber's transformation into his own armored form. Star was glad to see him, but she couldn't help wondering just where he'd been while he was gone.

"So, this is what you and Richard have all been doing while he was gone."

Star turned to look over at Sophia, as the other woman came up to stand beside her and the two of them continued to watch the Spider-crabs attempting to descend to the ground all around them.

"Pretty much," she said, feeling a bit sad for the devastation that was being wrought on Ringo's old neighborhood, but not at all sure just how any of them were supposed to go about stopping it.

Every one of their battlegrounds – those places where the twins would make a stand against the Radam's Spider-crabs – had been left in ruins by the time the battle was over; to say nothing of what happened to those mercifully few places where one of Darkon's Teknomen would attack them, forcing both twins to defend themselves with everything they had. It was a sad thing, to see that kind of devastation visited on a place that had managed for the most part to remain free from the destruction that the Radam had inflicted on the rest of the planet at large. Still, what was happening here was a stark reminder that not everything about humanity was so far removed from the Radam.

As much as she didn't like the thought, that didn't make it any less true.

When the last of the Spider-crabs had been brought down, by the combined Tekno-bolts from both twins, Star turned to see the devastated landscape that had been left behind. She… well, she didn't particularly want to see this, but it felt like this was what she needed: to be reminded of what they were all fighting for; what their long struggle against the Radam was ultimately about, in the end. It wasn't about glory, or fame, or anything so fleeting as that; it was about serving the cause of humanity.

It was about protecting the people who couldn't protect themselves, whether from the Radam, or from scavengers like that gang who had unfortunately become more and more prevalent as the war seemed to grind on without much hope of ending. Or at least not ending happily for anyone who'd been born a human and was still fighting for their chance to live free.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your home, Ringo," she said, as the two of them met up with each other and the rest of their comrades, sans Maggie who was back at the Green Earth prepping it to move out again. "It was a beautiful old building. It was nice of you to donate the land to the school; it's nice that the kids finally have a place to play."

"I'm sure your father would've been proud, seeing what you did today," Saber said, and Star smiled as she saw him and Ringo standing so close together, an arm over the other's shoulders; both lending support in his own way.

"You sure you're not going to miss it?" Tina asked.

"Nah," Ringo said as he and Saber continued to lean on one another for what was clearly mutual assurance. Considering how similar the two of them had turned out to be, Star wasn't at all surprised that the first person that Ringo had looked to under these trying circumstances was Saber. "It's just a place. Home… it's not really a place, you know? Come on."

"What?" Tina asked. "Why?"

"I hate long goodbyes," was all Ringo said, as he turned away from Sophia and all of the children who had been taken into the care of that kind, gentle woman.

"That's good to hear," Maggie said, before any of them could say anything else in response. "Because there's no time to waste: I picked up a distress call from sector Blue-Tango 12; they described an infiltrator who had been prowling around the city, getting into every place he could manage. The intruder fits the physical description we sent out of the Teknoman Rapier."

She couldn't help tensing at that; she'd long since come to understand the fact, much as she didn't like it, that where the Teknoman Rapier went, Teknoman Axe was never far behind. It couldn't have been because the Radam were worried that such a young boy wouldn't be able to fight on his own, both since those horrible aliens didn't seem the type to worry about even one of their own, and because she'd seen for herself the kind of damage that the Teknoman Rapier could do when he set his mind to it.

"Well, looks like we don't have time for long goodbyes, in any case," Saber said, his smile fading away to the kind of grim smirk that he wore far too often for Star's comfort.

And probably his own, much as he didn't seem to like worrying people with what he clearly considered his own problems.

There wasn't a lot of talking, as the six of them moved to get settled inside the Green Earth once again, but Star couldn't rightfully begrudge anyone their silence, least of all Slade and Saber. She already knew how difficult they found it, going on day after day when they both knew that they would always end up having to fight against the remnants of the Argos' crew that had been unfortunate enough to survive the rigors of the Radam's transformation process. Each of them coming out of it a monster.

101001001001

Once they were all moving again, Slade found Star settling in next to him. "What is it?"

"I don't want to cause you any pain with this question, so- you can feel free to ignore it if it hurts too much to think about, but do you know why the Teknoman Axe and Teknoman Rapier are working so closely together?"

He sighed, not particularly wanting to think about how things had been in the past – since the past was dead, and all he and Saber really had anymore was the future – but knowing that Star was the kind whose curiosity would eat her up if she didn't get some satisfaction for it. Still, maybe opening up this particular old wound would actually help him start to get over it.

"He was Goddard-sensei's last student; the two of them were still training together when the Argos was taken," he leaned back in his seat, forcing himself to relax again. "I guess Axe and Rapier still think that way."

"Oh; I suppose they would."

There wasn't really anything either of them could say in response to that, so Slade turned his attention back to the road they were traveling on; it helped not to think of what might've been at the end of it.

"Looks like it might just be Rapier on his own," Maggie said, as the six of them continued on; driving into the night the way it seemed they always did these days.

"Sure seems quiet enough," he muttered; still, there wasn't much chance of things actually staying quiet.

Once he and Rapier encountered each other, or Saber did likewise, the younger Teknoman was bound to contact Axe, and then all hell would inevitably break loose on whatever lonely, empty – or even not so empty – patch of ground that they finally managed to corner him on. That wasn't a particularly happy thought, but when he spotted Saber and Maggie cheerfully making out in the seat right next to him, Slade rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"Get a room, you two," he said amusedly, even as the Green Earth hit a particularly large bump in the road – that could have just as easily been a rock – jolting his brother and forcing him and Maggie both to hang on a bit tighter to the other than they already had been.

"Star," Maggie said, her tone taking on that teasing lilt it always would when she was giving Star a hard time just for the sake of it; no doubt about it, she and Saber were definitely soul mates. "Just because you aren't getting any, that doesn't mean you get to take it out on the people who actually are."

"Funny, Maggie," Star muttered, then turned a narrow-eyed expression back on all of them. "But, this isn't a joke. Look up ahead." Joining the surge of his fellow Space Knights toward the front of the Green Earth, Slade sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth as he saw just what it was that had drawn Star's attention so completely even in light of all the things that they'd been seeing on the course of their wanderings. "Someone's really burning the midnight oil up there."

He narrowed his eyes, not particularly pleased to see just how irresponsible some people could be, not only with their own lives – which was bad enough on its own – but with those of everyone around them. Sure, some people might have found it more than a bit hard to keep hope in the face of everything that was going on, but that was hardly an excuse to be stupid; not the way these people were doing.

And hell, if Rapier wasn't here scoping this place out for Axe, he'd eat his boots with whipped cream on top.

"Geez," Ringo gasped. "What'd you think it is?"

"A big waste of energy, I can tell you that much," he groused, folding his arms as Saber came up next to him.

There wasn't much of his younger twin's habitual good-humor lingering about him, but then this wasn't the occasion for it in any case. "Not to mention completely stupid. They'll be lucky if all they get is a Spider-crab swarm raining down on their heads."

The Green Earth lurched into motion again, as Star gunned the accelerator and sent them flying along the road to what was clearly their next destination. Slade was all for it; not only was that kind of place basically inviting the notice of any and all Spider-crabs that might have been making a flyover of the area on their way to some other destination, but that kind of thing would be bound to draw Axe and Rapier's attention like a magnet. There would hardly be a better place to look for the two of them, as morbid a thought as that so obviously was under the circumstances.

Particularly considering what happened to anyplace unfortunate enough to draw the attention of Radam's Teknomen.

When they all arrived at the town, much quicker than they would have if Star hadn't been so thoroughly determined to get them there as quickly as she could manage, Slade fell into step beside Saber as the six of them made their way into the town. The lights were almost painfully bright to his dark-adapted eyes, but Slade only had the moment it took to actually notice the slight not-quite-pain before it was gone. One of the many things that set him apart as a Radam Teknoman.

Some people might even have called it an advantage of being such, he supposed; didn't make up for everything else, of course.

"Look at it," Tina said, sounding like she was stunned by the spectacle in front of them all. "This place is lit up like a giant birthday cake."

Saber laughed; it wasn't a particularly happy sound. "Well, if there's one place you'd be practically guaranteed to find Rapier, it would have to be here."

He sighed; harsh as Saber's words were, there was ultimately nothing he could say to dispute them. "Come on, let's go shut off the power."

Before he could take more than a step or so in the direction of the bar – either nameless or just named "Bar"; something that he'd have been a bit more amused by if the situation they were all in wasn't particularly serious – Ringo stepped out in front of him and grabbed his right arm. "Hey-hey! Take it easy, kid! Easy! We don't want to go in there half-cocked."

"He's right, Slade," Maggie said. "Whoever's in charge around here might not be in the mood to talk."

"In the mood or not, everyone here is putting themselves in danger," Saber said, not a single trace of humor lingering around him; he'd never been one to take endangering innocent people lightly, neither of them had, but this was worse than either of them had ever wanted to see. "The adults might deserve what they're setting themselves up for, but if there are any kids here-"

"Yeah, I get ya," Ringo said, the man shuddering briefly as he cut Saber off before his younger twin could properly get into just what kind of things could happen – would happen – to any kids caught in the Radam attack these people were pretty much inviting to come to play with all of this crap they were insisting on lighting up all around themselves. "Still, the kind of people who would do this don't seem like the kind who'd keep kids around to get underfoot."

"You know I hope you're right, Ringo, but you have to know what'll happen if you're not," he said, narrowing his eyes as he looked from Ringo to the rest of the Space Knights.

"Well then, let's hope those people are at least as sensible as Saber," Ringo said, grinning.

"Very funny, Ringo," he said, turning away as Ringo chivvied the others back toward the Green Earth.

0001010010000

(Goddard-sensei, this town doesn't seem to have anything of interest, aside from some energy that our Spider-crabs might want to gather up. However,) he narrowed his eyes slightly, as a very familiar group of humans turned to leave the nameless town at the urging of a particular blond that he recognized rather well. (Ness, Cain, and some of their allies just passed this way. I've a feeling they'll still be here when we want to look for them.)

(Nicely done, my little rabbit,) Goddard-sensei said, and Rapier could tell that he was pleased. (You've done good work mapping the layout of that city; head to the outskirts and rejoin me in the air. You deserve some fun, after all your hard work.)

(Yes, Sensei,) he nodded his head sharply in lieu of a bow that Goddard-sensei wouldn't be present to see. (Thank you.)

Pushing himself firmly away from the wall he'd been leaning against while he had been observing Ness, Cain, and the small group of humans who seemed to have attached themselves to his older brothers; most likely for the protection that both Ness and Cain seemed to provide. He would have wondered about that, if it hadn't been for the obvious fact that thanks to their traitor father, Ness and Cain were still prey to human sentiment. It wasn't right, and Rapier didn't like the fact that he was essentially forced into open combat with his own older brothers, but this was what Conrad had had to deal with for all of the many months he'd been the only one holding the line against Ness, Cain, and their Space Knight allies.

He couldn't do anything less, in light of that.

"Hey," the sound of a human's heavy footfalls coming towards him had been the first thing to alert Rapier to the fact that he was no longer entirely alone with his thoughts, but he had to admit to once having a hope that he wouldn't have been forced to deal with any humans before he met up with Goddard-sensei again; clearly a futile hope, that. "What's a kid your age doing so far away from the evacuation-point?" When he looked up at the human in askance, playing up the confusion and apprehension that a human of his age would most likely be feeling when being confronted with an adult asking such questions, Rapier was rather surprised at the reaction he was presented with: the human's eyes widened, looking over his features as if trying to match them up to some kind of memory that he held in his feeble human mind. "Wait, you're that Teknoman!"

Well, this is new, Rapier mused, raising his right eyebrow even as he dashed forward to intercept the human attempting to flee and warn the others of his kind; naturally, he was able to catch up to the human before he'd taken more than two and a half steps in the direction that he'd been trying to go. Backhanding the human's head clear off, Rapier landed easily back on his feet as the man's head bounced against the pitted surface of the wall he'd been standing in front of, trailing blood and gore as it did so. I'll have to tell Goddard-sensei about this.

He might not've liked the thought that he'd been spotted by a human, but he wasn't about to allow a potential problem to go unreported simply for the sake of his own pride; Goddard-sensei would have been so disappointed with him for that.

1101001001111

Once they'd all managed to get settled onboard the Green Earth for the night, Saber tried to put aside his thoughts of who might be alive or dying in the town down in the valley they'd pretty much left to their fate. Which was just a nicer way of saying that they'd left the people there to the Radam and anything at all that the Spider-crabs – or worse, Axe and Rapier – were doing to them even while the six of them sat around and waited for news. Sighing as he looked down at the food he was eating – something like a TV tray that had been filled up with various colored kinds of mush, Saber tried to put that out of his mind, too.

Not that it wasn't tasty mush, at least, but it was still kind of weird for Saber to find himself eating mush when he had long since passed the age when he'd have found the stuff palatable.

"I can't believe we just left them there to carry on like that!" Star snapped. "Saber's right, it's incredibly irresponsible!"

"Hey, give me some credit, Star. I have a hidden purpose, here," Ringo said.

He smirked, tilting his head slightly. "Ah, so you have a plan? Well, why don't you share with the rest of the class?"

Ringo smirked back at him, before adopting what might have been termed a standard lecturing pose by anyone who was present to see it. "You see, all of the energy from that honky-tonk dive is bound to draw the attention of Axe and his little crony Rapier, or any of the other Teknomen who might be in the area. And when they do show up, we'll be right here waiting for them."

"Well, it certainly beats traveling around, looking for them under every rock," Maggie said.

"Right," Ringo nodded, looking pretty pleased with himself. "On top of everything else, we'll save fuel."

"Are you really suggesting we use those people as bait?" Star demanded.

Saber didn't know just how he felt about basically leaving those people to their fate; on the one hand, he and Slade were trying to keep as much of humanity alive as best they could under the circumstances, but on the other…

"Who cares about that bunch of bums?" Ringo snarked. "They deserve what they get."

"You mean, we'd be there to intervene before anyone got hurt, don't you, Ringo?" Tina asked, in a more sarcastic tone than he'd ever thought to hear from her.

Then again, Ringo was being a bit more of a jerk than usual.

"A Teknoman trap," Slade said, tilting his head slightly; the two of them shared a look.

"Yeah; I think it might be worth a shot," he said, tapping his right pointer-finger against the spoon he was still holding.

"I think we might not've been the first to think of that," Maggie said, turning and making for the fold-out computer on the left-hand side of the room. "I just remembered; there was a small AEM outpost near this area," she began typing away as all of them watched, bringing up a map of the surrounding countryside. "The computer says that there's a ninety-man mechanized-mortar squad posted about five kilometers to the west of us."

"The military's here?" Tina asked, sounding about as surprised as he felt.

"You think those voices coming from that bar were soldiers?" Star asked, though at this point the question seemed a bit rhetorical.

"They might've had the very same idea we did," Maggie said seriously.

"So, they're trying to get the Radam's attention!" Star exclaimed.

"Well, we already knew those people were stupid when we got here," he groused, shaking his head.

"Yeah; I take back what I said about 'em: those guys aren't bums, they're more like a bunch of suicidal maniacs," Ringo snarked.

"Maybe not," Maggie said. "They might have a carefully worked out plan that we know nothing about. It's possible that, by involving ourselves, we'd run the risk of jeopardizing their whole operation."

"Maggie, I love you and all, but think about what you're saying," he said, stepping closer so that he could rest his right hand on her right shoulder. "You've seen the kind of damage that the Radam can do to the people who try to stand up to them."

"Hate to break this up, you two, but if those incoming pingers on the monitors are what I think they are, then the situation's out of our hands," Star said.

Saber turned his own attention to the monitoring screen, already knowing exactly what he would see before he looked: flying Spider-crabs, the Radam's piranhas of the air.

1110010010010

As he and the Spider-crabs he was commanding descended on the nameless town full of idiot humans who had been so brazen as to call them there almost by name, Axe smiled under his helmet as he draped his arms around Rapier's armored – though still at this point rather narrow – shoulders as he brought his halberd forward to throw a blast of bright red energy into the midst of the insects who were still attempting to stand against the Radam.

(Remember what I taught you, little rabbit: be swift, be merciless, and be efficient,) he said, giving Rapier a gentle push off of the nose of Spear's borrowed mount. He grinned wider. (Run, rabbit, run.)

(Yes, Goddard-sensei.)

Turning his attention back to the humans, pitiful though their efforts at attacking him and his student were, Axe wondered for a moment just when Ness and Cain would be paying them a visit. Not only were the twins dedicated to protecting these insignificant human insects, but Rapier had reported their presence in the area. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before the twins made their appearance.

And then, he and Rapier would handle them; though he couldn't help the hope that those stubborn boys would put aside this silly little rebellion of theirs.

(Sensei, they're coming.)

(Yes,) he smiled softly. (I thought they might be.)

(This is his fault, isn't it.)

He sighed, Sam had always been rather perceptive; it seemed to be a family trait, that. (Yes; they would have been ours, if not for him.)

Rapier didn't answer, but when he looked over to see how his student was doing, Axe found him engaging the human in the armored suit. He only had a moment to consider that, before Axe found himself the target of both Ness and Cain's attacks.

(We've been looking for you, Axe!) Ness growled.

(How nice for you that you've found me,) he retorted, knocking Ness' armored form free from the back of Spear's borrowed mount, even as Cain swooped in to attack him in turn.

Still, as pleased as he was – in a perverse sort of way – to see his two missing students so closely again, Axe knew that this was neither the time nor the place for the kind of reunion that they needed to have. If Ness and Cain were indeed so determined to follow in the footsteps of their traitor father, then he would simply have to show them both what lay at the end of that road. And, further, he would have to show them well enough that they would both fully understand the lesson.

(Running away, you coward?!) Ness demanded, once he began to withdraw from the battle in earnest.

(I suppose you'll just have to catch up with us again, sometime,) he offered, leaping back up onto Spear's borrowed mount. (Sam, withdraw.)

(Yes, sensei.)

Gently guiding Rapier back to the younger Teknoman's place in front of him, Axe flew off with only a single look back at his two most wayward of students. The time when they would all meet in combat was coming, yes – no one who knew their duty to the Empire as he did could refuse to carry through with the plan that he had made – but such a thing could be delayed for a time. Time enough, perhaps, for Ness and Cain to realize just what it was that they were truly missing by siding with the humans as they had.

He didn't honestly hold out much hope for that, however; all of their good qualities aside, those boys were terribly stubborn when they put their minds to something.