Shoulders heaving as he fought to catch his breath, Spear berated himself for allowing Cain – allowing Saber – to distract him so completely. He could not afford to be sentimental, not when facing the full force of a pair of murderous traitors, no matter what kind of familiar faces the both of them had been wearing. Resolving himself to this new course of action, Spear transformed, in order to match the power that Saber was now bringing to bear against him and Sam.
He needed to get Sam as far away from this place as he could; Saber and Slade clearly had no mercy left in them. Something that the humans had done to them, something about being away from the Empire, something about being away from their family for so long had caused the pair of them to lose the loving compassion that Spear could clearly remember Cain and Ness showing to all of their friends and family. The simple fact remained that he could not allow the traitors to take one more member of his family from him.
He could not allow the pair of them to cut Lord Darkon's forces by even one more person.
Soaring into the sky, Sam beside him, with Saber and Slade now firmly on the other side of the invisible but very much stated line that now separated the remnants of their family, Spear resolved himself to his next course of action. Their family; the family that Slade and Saber had been actively hunting, Spear reminded himself as the four of them clashed in the air once more. The pain of having his right hand sliced open by Saber's efforts was…
Forcing thoughts of what had happened aside, Spear rejoined the battle in the air once more.
01001001001001
Heart in her throat as she watched Slade and Saber fighting Spear and Rapier, ranging through the air in a way that seemed almost calculated to frighten anyone and everyone who cared enough about them to be watching, Star clasped her hands and prayed silently. She'd been doing that more and more lately, after everything that had happened.
"It looks like Spear has some kind of cloaking device," she said, chewing her lower lip as she watched the four of them all fighting in the air.
"It looks like he's faster than last time, too," Mac said. "Rapier doesn't seem to be keeping up as well as he did the last time we saw them fighting."
"That's true," she said, biting her lip as she watched the smallest of the three be kicked down towards the ground, and then be driven away from Spear as the pair of them tried to come together again; she tried not to think about how scared that little boy must have been.
Rapier wasn't a little boy; not anymore, not after everything the Radam had done to him.
"I'm just wondering where Ringo and Balzac are," Maggie snapped, though Star could tell that the other woman was just as concerned as she was and was just trying to mask it so she didn't have to feel so much.
She'd done it often enough, herself, and both of the men that they loved were out there fighting against the sheer power that Spear and Rapier – though not so much Rapier, it seemed – could bring to bear against them. Star knew why Maggie was so worried, because it was the same reason that she was so worried.
"Whoa!" Tina exclaimed. "I've run an analysis of him; it's showing a thirty-percent increase in his energy levels!"
"Incredible," Maggie said, though she didn't sound any happier than Star felt, at the moment. "But, come to think of it, if Spear went through the same kind of transformation as Saber and Slade-"
"I don't believe he has, Maggie," the Commander said, before the redhead could start speculating too wildly about things that didn't seem to have happened; things that Star could only hope wouldn't happen. "These changes we're seeing seem to be self-generated. Most likely as the result of physical training."
"Yeah, and it looks like that training has paid off," Mac said, leaning forward to try to get a look at the display Tina had pulled up for herself.
1101001001001000
Stomping Rapier out of the air as the little Teknoman tried to get the jump on Ness, Cain quickly dodged out of the way as Spear nearly sent a searing bolt of lightning crashing down on him.
(Are you still trying to keep Rapier out of trouble?) he mocked, as his lancer clashed with Spear's for the entirely-too-many-th time. (And here I thought Radam didn't like weak soldiers. What do you think Darkon's going to do, if he finds out how you keep coddling one of his frontline fighters?)
Spear didn't respond, not with anything but more lightning, but Cain knew he'd managed to get under Spear's armored skin; the hissing and snarling he could hear even over the clash of their respective weapons told him all he needed to know. When Spear staggered in the air, thrown forward by a familiar blast of energy directly to the head, Cain laughed as he tapped Ringo's comm.
"I see you managed to make it out here, Ringo," he said, feeling his changed face stretching into a grin. "Fashionably late, as usual."
"Better late than never," Ringo called back, clearly just as pleased to see the two of them as they were to see him.
Cain laughed. "You would put it like that," he said, finding himself grinning all over again at the reminder of just how much he and Ringo really had in common.
When Ringo buried Spear under a massive ice cliff, and Balzac had driven Rapier off with a hail of shots from that huge cannon that both Tekno-suits seemed to have been equipped with, Cain found himself and Ness being not-so-gently escorted back to the Command Center.
"What's the idea, Ringo?" he asked, letting his transformation fade as the sense of Spear and Rapier slowly faded.
He didn't know if they were going to be gone for long, but just having them somewhere else made things easier. At least a bit.
"You have to know that this isn't the end of things, Ringo," Ness said, though he did transform back when Cain gave him a look; neither of them would be much good to anyone if they exhausted themselves when they didn't need to.
"Sorry kids, but the Commander said he wanted you both back on the ground, pronto," Ringo said. "He needs to talk to you."
(That's weird,) Cain said, as he allowed himself to be hurried along back to Comm. One alongside Ness.
(Yeah. I wonder what got into his head?) Ness mused, his brother's agitation carrying clearly over their mental link. (He has to know that Spear won't stay away for that long.)
(Yeah, and that we're the only ones who can handle him,) Cain continued his and Ness' train of thought.
Ringo or Balzac probably could have handled Rapier, but that would depend on the little Teknoman being left to fight alone, and that wasn't happening as long as Spear lived.
When the four of them made it back to Comm. One again, Cain could only be grateful that he hadn't sensed either Spear or Rapier making another approach into the Command Center. If that had happened, he and Ness would have had to go back out, new orders or no orders.
"What's this all about, Commander?" he asked, as the four of them all made their way into Comm. One again. "Spear might have pulled back, but you know he's not going to stay away for long."
"I know how persistent your brother is, Saber, but the fact remains that allowing the pair of you to remain in your respective Tekno-modes would have been extremely detrimental to you both."
"Detrimental how?" Ness asked, and Cain had the distinct sense that his older twin's patience was wearing substantially thinner than his own.
"As long as either of you remain in your transformed state, your memories with continue to degrade," the Commander said, making his way over to where the pair of them were standing.
Sharing a Look with Ness, Cain found himself wondering if the Commander was worrying over nothing; he didn't think the Commander was the type to play a joke, at least not under the circumstances, but he and Ness didn't know the man all that well.
"What're you talking about?" Ness asked, eyes narrowed, as Cain looked around at the faces of the rest of their fellow Space Knights.
All of them seemed to be taking things seriously, so this situation probably wasn't one that the pair of them should make light of, tempting as it was in the face of what seemed like a whole lot of pointless negativity.
"Is there a reason you're saying that?" he asked, studying the faces of his and Ness' fellow Space Knights as they all faced each other.
It was kind of strange, how no one quite seemed to know what to say for a long moment, before Ringo came up to the pair of them, a worried expression on his face.
"You mean, you can't remember what's happening to you?" Ringo asked, looking from him to Ness and then back again. "You don't remember anything the Commander talked to you about?"
"The Commander's talked to us about a lot of things," Cain said, shrugging; Ringo did seem pretty worried about their present situation – whatever it actually was – so Cain didn't want their friend to think he wasn't being listened to.
Ness, however, had always been the more impatient of them. "Look, I'm sure you think that whatever you're trying to tell us is really important, but Cain and I have a lot going on already," his older twin said, grabbing Cain's right arm and pulling him along back to their respective rooms.
He couldn't help but wonder about the expressions on the faces of their fellow Space Knights as he and Ness left the room, however. It really did seem like all of them were genuinely concerned about what might have been happening to him and Ness. Whatever that might have been.
"I think you might have been overreacting a bit, Nessie," he said, once the pair of them were far enough away from the rest of their fellow Space Knights that Ness had stopped outright dragging him. "They really did seem to be worried about us."
"I know," his older twin said, heaving an almost explosive sigh as he leaned against a nearby wall for a long moment. "I just- It all feels a bit too overwhelming, you know? I mean, we haven't known these people for that long, and they're already acting like an entire flock of mother hens."
Cain laughed; Dad had always said that the pair of them had quite the talent for colorful metaphors, and here it was again. "I guess you have a point," he said, as the pair of them continued on their way to their room.
He and Ness had doubled up on occupancy, both since it made dealing with Spear easier if they didn't have to constantly meet up on the way out of their respective quarters, and because there was something unsettling about being alone after everything that had happened. Because, as much as Cain didn't like to think about it, the others still had each other.
00100010011100
Sighing, as she looked out at the expanse of the Space Ring in front of her, Sword felt a familiar presence pressing against her mind.
(Lord Darkon, did you want my report?) she asked, knowing that there was little chance of the Warlord contacting her for anything else.
(Your concern does you credit, Sword,) the Warlord said, and Sword was startled to hear the sincerity in his mental tone; the pair of them hadn't known each other for all that long, and while they were both Radam, Darkon hadn't ever been human. (These are the last two members of your clan. Do you wish to go to them?)
(Don't you need me here?)
(I can monitor the growth of the Spider-crabs for a time,) Lord Darkon said. (If you wish to depart, to support the remainder of your clan, you may leave and I will maintain awareness of the Spider-crabs.)
(You're certain it won't be any trouble?) she asked, all while finding herself feeling much lighter than she previously had, when she thought that there was no way for her to offer her support to Conrad and little Sam from where she was.
(I'm certain I will be able to handle things in your absence, yes,) Lord Darkon said, and Sword could have sworn she felt the slightest thread of amusement from him; it was strange, and she wasn't about to call attention to it, but it made her feel a bit better about what was going on.
(Thank you, my Lord,) she said, sweeping a deep bow to Lord Darkon, even as she held her teknocrystal close.
"Tekno-power!"
The familiar rush of her transformation enveloped her, as Sword turned her gaze toward the nearest air lock. Wait for me, my love; I'll be with you soon.
110100010001111
As he sensed Sword's presence departing from the humans' constructed ring-system, Darkon found himself musing upon just what his own next course of action. The knowledge that both of the traitors had survived the Harrowing and were even now steadily growing into their own power as Generals… Darkon had remained a General himself, up to this point, given the simple facts that he had valued his freedom of movement – even so limited as it had currently become – and those serving under him had been simple soldiers up to this point.
Now, however, with a pair of rogue Generals in play, there was little choice, he was going to be in need of the added power and authority the secondary transformation would grant him. Particularly in light of the traitors' continuing hostility to the Empire. Allowing his transformation to lapse, Darkon felt the stagnant air of his ship with his whiskers for the first time in a great long while.
He also felt the slight prodding at the back of his mind that he'd been without long enough for it to become rather unfamiliar. Kaura, I'd nearly forgotten about you, he mused, making his way steadily down, closer to the ship's main computer. There was a procedure for what he was going to need to do, but it would also require his entire focus.
He would be comatose for a great deal of it, as though he was undergoing the Harrowing once more, and considering the current state of war, and the fact that for the moment both of the traitors remained bound to their protectorate planet, Dakonith – called Darkon by those on this planet – could afford to take at least a little more time.
00010010010010
Rolling his eyes as he found himself and Cain intercepted again, Ness folded his arms and glared.
"We can't let you go! It's suicide! Don't you see that?" Maggie demanded, though it did kind of look like she was more focused on Cain; that was kind of weird, but Ness wasn't thinking too much about that.
Whatever was in Maggie's head, she could keep it there; he and Cain had more important things to do.
"Listen, I know you guys are worried about us, but it's our decision," he said, hoping that he could at least get through to Mac, since Maggie seemed bound and determined to keep them there. "And you know what's going to happen when Spear tries to attack again and Cain and I aren't here to drive him off."
"Yeah, he's not going to let being buried under an ice cliff stop him for long," Cain said, folding his own arms and sighing. "Besides, he's been calling us nearly since Ness and I made it back into the Command Center."
Maggie and Mac both turned a look that Ness couldn't quite interpret on each other, seeming almost to communicate without words; not quite the way he and Cain could at the moment, but the way they'd done before they'd met the Radam. When they'd only had words to communicate with.
"Hey," Balzac called, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him along, then glancing briefly over at Cain. "Let's talk about this."
Sharing a dubious look with his younger twin, Ness followed Balzac out into the corridor just outside the dry-dock that held the Blue Earth.
"You kids don't have to worry, I'm not going to try to stop you from going out there," Balzac said, clearly aiming to be as reassuring as he could; which probably wasn't as much as he hoped, what with Spear and Rapier still loose in the area. "You and Saber can both count on that."
"You do remember that my name is still Cain, right?" his younger twin asked, sounding about as annoyed as Ness was starting to feel; it couldn't be that hard to get someone's name right, particularly when you were so allegedly concerned about them.
"Yeah," Balzac said, seeming more than a little uncomfortable with the subject. "It's just, we've always called you boys Saber and Slade; takes a while to get used to anything else."
"Work on it," he said, not feeling particularly impressed with the sentiment; it wasn't like any of them were facing the kind of upheavals that he and Cain were facing.
It wasn't like any of them were hunting down the last remnants of their own families.
"Yeah, I'll make sure to pass the message on," Balzac said, expression going serious again; almost grim. "What I'd like to know is why you boys seem bound and determined to throw the relationships you have with Maggie and Star away. What, do you think women like that come around every day? Come on," he said, gaze turning wistful as he looked down at the floor; or back into the past, since that was where his mind seemed to be going. "I did the same thing to someone who cared about me; like an idiot, I left her behind to go fight in this war. I've been kicking myself for it ever since, so I thought I'd give you boys the chance to learn from my mistakes."
(I have no idea what he's talking about,) Cain said, clearly having enough self-restraint not to actually say anything, but needing to express the sentiment all the same.
(I think he's gotten entirely the wrong idea,) Ness said, as Balzac turned to walk away from the pair of them. (We might want to talk to those two later, though.)
(Yeah, after we handle things with big brother, we should get this all cleared up,) Cain said.
(Yeah.)
101010101100101
Narrowing his eyes as he observed the Space Knights' Command Center, Spear turned slightly as he saw Sam making his way over to stand beside him. Reaching down to cup his baby brother's armored cheek, Spear forced himself not to think about the words Saber had been all but spitting at him the last time the pair of them had encountered each other. They had clearly been aimed to distract him from his mission long enough for that troublesome human to drive him off.
(Big brother, are you okay?) Sam asked, looking up at Spear as the pair of them stood on one of the icy cliffs standing sentinel over the Space Knights and their irritating Command Center.
(I'll be fine, Sam,) he said, patting his little brother's head, and wishing for a moment that he could have ruffled Sam's hair.
The comforting gesture would have served to calm the both of them down, under the circumstances. Still, at the moment there was nothing for it: he was going to have to find a way into the Space Knights' Command Center, and he was clearly going to have to force his way past Slade and Saber to do so. Calmness wasn't, strictly speaking, a necessity at the moment.
True it did help, Saber's efforts to aggravate him and their results stood in mute testament to the fact, but of all the things Spear could have possibly needed for this moment, calm and patience were truly the least of them.
(What's the matter, Spear? You end up under one little ol' ice cliff and you just run away? I thought you and Darkon were trying to kill us, here,) Saber's annoying, intrusive voice broke into the thoughts he had been having, and Spear found himself steadily growing all the more furious at the thought of having his resolve challenged by that particular traitor.
(You may rest assured, Saber, that I will be coming back for the both of you,) he snarled, right fist clenching around the haft of his namesake weapon.
(Aw, you're not calling me by name anymore, Conrad?) Saber taunted, and Spear would have ground his teeth if he'd been remotely capable of the activity.
Still, he knew that infuriating him was what Saber ultimately wanted to do, and so Spear was determined not to give the traitor the satisfaction of getting under his skin the way he had clearly been aiming to do.
1111010001001111
"All right, it looks like he's coming," he said, glancing briefly at Ness as the pair of them made their way to the main entrance of the Command Center so that the pair of them could let themselves out without any of the other Space Knights trying to stop them.
"That figures," Ness said, a smirk tugging at his lips as the pair of them – along with Pegas, who never seemed to leave Ness' side – made their way out of the Command Center to meet Spear in combat before he could come stomping into the base after them, the way he and the rest of the Teknomen he'd been leading had done before. "Let's get going."
"Right," he said, narrowing his eyes as he sensed Conrad's presence drawing steadily closer to the new Command Center.
Ness leaped easily into Pegas as the mech came out to meet them, and Cain hopped up onto its back, transforming as Pegas launched itself out and headed for where the pair of them could sense the approaching forms of Spear and Rapier. Though the both of them seemed to have been stopped by something or other.
(If Ringo and Balzac are out there, I swear I'm going to kick both their asses,) he grumbled, as he felt the surge from Ness' transformation under his feet.
(I'll help,) Ness responded, sounding about as annoyed as Cain found himself feeling.
When the pair of them finally did manage to make it out of the Command Center, sure enough, Ringo and Balzac were both getting their asses firmly kicked by Spear and Rapier. Of course, most of the work was being done by the smaller Teknoman, while Spear hung back and watched. Either because he thought fighting Tekno-suits was beneath him, or because he was keeping a lookout for Ness and him.
Of course, knowing Spear, it was probably a mix of both.
As he and Ness dove in, Spear turning to meet them as soon as the Radam Teknoman had sensed their approach, Cain raised his lancer- and was forced to dodge to the left as Ness went right and Spear slammed a crashing bolt of artificial lightning down between the pair of them.
(Nice greeting,) he snarked, righting himself in the air and steadying his lancer as he prepared for whatever else Spear was going to try to throw at them. (Happy to see you, too, big brother.)
The only actual response Spear gave him was a flash of his crimson eyes and another bolt of lightning, but Cain knew he'd managed to get under Spear's armored skin with what he'd just said. So, good points and bad points. When he caught sight of the pair of their fellow Space Knights who'd come out there before them, even seeing Ringo and Balzac's Tekno-suits buried in the snow the way they had been didn't soften Cain's current feelings toward those two idiots.
"I hope you know that Ness and I are both going to kick your asses when we make it back to the Command Center," he said, connecting briefly to the radio link between the pair of Tekno-suits.
"Kid, you and Slade have to-!"
Cutting the connection before Ringo could really annoy him with his insistence on trying to fight off a pair of Teknomen with only a Tekno-suit to protect him, Cain returned his attention to Spear and Rapier as the pair of them clashed again.
000100100111000
"We have to get back out there!" Ringo snapped, craning his neck as he watched their kids clashing with their brainwashed brothers in the air high above him and Balzac.
"Yeah, because we did so well before," Balzac snapped, clearly not particularly happy after everything that the both of them had been put through when Spear and that vicious little thug he called a baby brother had shown up to fight them.
"I know we haven't been having the best time here, but those are our kids out there, and you know what's going to happen if we don't get them back to the Command Center."
"Yeah, I know," Balzac said, sounding impatient even as he forced himself back to his feet again. "Still, it's not like we're really going to be able to do much, stuck down here like this."
"We can't focus on that," he snapped, more worried than ever about what was happening to their kids up in the air; Slade and Saber weren't even supposed to be out here, considering what was happening to the both of them each time they used those damned powers of theirs.
1110101000111101
Stomping Rapier out of the air as the little Teknoman came around to try attacking him, Ness glanced back at where Ringo and Balzac were still struggling in the snow. He didn't know just what in the hell had been in either of their heads when the pair of them had gone to try and confront Spear and Rapier, but he was fully in favor of Cain's idea to read the both of them the riot act for something so utterly stupid. After being put down but good by just Rapier, he could only hope that the pair of them would appreciate just how close they'd been to being killed before he and Cain had come out here to save their idiot asses.
As he grew steadily more annoyed with the whole situation – with Ringo and Balzac, who'd come out here with no real chance of protecting themselves from anything but a few wandering Spider-crabs, with Spear and Rapier just for being brainwashed in the first place, and even the Radam themselves just for showing up on Earth in the first place – Ness found himself feeling some strange kind of pressure building up inside him. He also had a strange sense of Cain, one that seemed to be growing steadily stronger as the pressure built. Ness tried to ignore it, as he and Spear clashed again and he saw Cain slamming Rapier to the ground out of the corner of his right eye, but it was still there.
It was still present, crawling out from the back of his mind where he kept shoving it, and as hard as he tried Ness still couldn't quite manage to ignore it.
Narrowing his eyes as he shifted out of the way of another bolt of lightning from Spear's lancer, Ness turned at the sight of Cain trying to ram Spear out of the air. With his and Cain's brainwashed older brother distracted, Ness quickly landed on one of the few nearby ice cliffs that had been left left reasonably intact. Narrowing his eyes as he focused on the mental trigger for his Tekno-bolt.
However, the strange pressure that he was still feeling seemed to respond to even that, building all the faster until Ness felt like his insides were boiling from the energies of his own Tekno-bolt. Gritting his teeth as he tried to keep an eye on Cain, Ness saw his younger twin stagger in the air, without even one of Spear's lightning bolts hitting him, Ness tried to step forward but quickly found himself overwhelmed by the pressure that seemed like it was actively trying to break him apart…
001001001110000
Shaking his head, Slade narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of Saber righting himself in the air. It seemed like his counterpart had recovered, and so Slade turned his attention to Rapier, the smallest and weakest of the enemies he and Saber had been set against. Drawing his lancer, Slade rammed it firmly through the back of Rapier's head. Kicking the corpse free, Slade turned at the sound of an enraged shriek from behind him and to his left.
Before Spear could dive on him, the way he'd clearly been planning to do, Saber rammed into him from above, kicking him down to the snowy, bloodstained ground.
(Thanks, Saber,) he said, just as the sense of one of the remaining enemy Teknomen came roaring in, nearly drowning out Spear's incoherent screaming with their thrusters.
(Looks like Sword wants a turn next,) Saber said, but the only thing that Sword actually did was to grab Spear around the chest and attempt to pull him back and away from their battlefield.
He and Saber made an attempt to pursue, but before they could even try to lift off, Slade felt a sudden wave of lethargy crashing over him. Stumbling, even as he reached for Saber's hand, Slade shook his head as the ground seemed to rush up to meet him…
11010010010111
"Kids!" Ringo shouted, as he and Balzac hurried over to where Slade and Saber had slumped to the ground, still in those "super Teknoman" forms that had been causing them more and more trouble lately. Scooping Slade up out of the churned-up snow all around them, Ringo looked up at the sound of Balzac's voice.
"At least that's one less of Darkon's Teknomen we have to worry about," his fellow Space Knight said; weird as the path the former spy had taken to get there was, he'd still gotten there in the end.
Looking down at Rapier's sad little corpse, tossed aside like a broken toy, armored head surrounded by a grisly halo of blood, Ringo couldn't help wishing that things could have been different. If only just so that Slade and Saber wouldn't end up having to live with the fact that they'd had to kill their family and friends from the Argos to save the people of Earth.
"Yeah, I guess there's that," he said, knowing that Balzac would be waiting on at least some kind of a response from him.
Before the pair of them had gotten Slade and Saber halfway down the corridor that would take them down into the Command Center's infirmary – a place that Ringo couldn't help but feel had become entirely too familiar with – both of their armored forms glowed brightly in the colors that Ringo had thought of as theirs for nearly as long as he'd known the boys, and quickly returned to being just plain Slade and Saber again.
Relived of a lot of the twins' respective weights, he and Balzac were finally able to remove their Tekno-suits and head into the actual infirmary, since there wasn't much any of their medics could have really done for a pair of Teknomen, in the end.
Once he and Balzac had gotten Slade and Saber nestled snugly in a bed that was at least reasonably comfortable, Ringo allowed himself to relax as he waited for the pair of them to wake up. Sure, he knew that the Commander wasn't going to be particularly happy with them, and he wasn't particularly happy with the kids either, but he'd at least try to get the Commander to take it easy this time. It couldn't have been easy, having to kill another member of their family because they had been brainwashed by the Radam.
001001001010001
Finding himself laying on something soft, surrounded by the warmth of his body, the first thing Ness noticed when he opened his eyes was Tina, standing over him and looking down in surprise when he opened his eyes.
"I think Slade's waking up now, too, Commander," she reported, and he briefly glanced down at the radio she held in her right hand, before she leaned over him with a gentle smile. "How are you feeling?"
"A little groggy, but I'll be all right," he said, sitting up so he could get a better look at the room around him. "Nice flowers," he said, glancing down at the vase with its four white blooms and a bud, attached to thin, green stems. "Did Cain ask you to pick them for him?"
"I was actually waiting to ask you that question, big brother," Cain said, sounding more than a little amused.
Before he could say anything else, however, more of the Space Knights came into the room with them. Star was at the front of the group, and Maggie was right behind her, and for a handful of seconds Ness found himself wondering why those two in particular seemed to eager to get to the infirmary, of all places. Still, when he saw the way Star was looking at him, Ness thought he could hazard a guess.
She was being a bit forward, though, looking at him that way when the pair of them barely knew each other.
"It was nice of you to try sprucing up the room like this, Tina," he said, deciding to shelve the matter of Star and whatever feelings she thought she had for him until the pair of them could find a moment to themselves. "White flowers do kind of go with the theme, here."
Smiling over at Cain, as his younger twin chuckled, Ness made himself as comfortable as anyone could be in an infirmary bed.
"So, are these lilies, or something?" he asked, curious about the flowers that Tina had brought in for him.
Cain laughed, drawing his attention before any of the other Space Knights now gathered in their room could say anything.
"Cala lilies, which I think is what you had in mind when you asked that question, have a single, large petal wrapped around their stem," he gestured to the white flowers in the elegant vase sitting on the table between their beds. "Whatever kind of flowers these are, they have a lot more petals than just one."
Laughing softly, Ness shook his head. "Well, aren't you just a fount of useless botanical trivia."
Yelping as Cain bashed him over the head with the pillow he'd previously been leaning against, Ness grumbled as his younger twin laughed at him.
"Real mature, Cain," he groused, glaring at his younger twin for a long moment, until the rest of the Space Knights who had all gathered in the infirmary room with him and Cain; probably because they were worried, judging by the looks on all of their faces.
"They're actually Amaryllis flowers," Tina said, looking between him and Cain as though she couldn't decide just who she was more worried about.
"They were your younger sister's favorite flowers," Star said, though her attention seemed mostly on him, for whatever reason.
He and Cain shared a speaking glance, neither of them wanting to worry the Space Knights – who'd been nothing but kind to the pair of them, though a bit overbearing when all was said and done – but neither he nor Cain could actually recall telling any of them just what Shara's favorite flower had been. And sure, fussing over them when they were unconscious was one thing, but going so far as to find out something personal like that…
That was pushing it.
"You kids are starting to forget that you were the ones who told us that, aren't you?" Ringo asked, though from the tone of his voice, Ness got the feeling that the question itself was meant rhetorically.
"Do you boys understand now?" Commander Jamison asked, stepping forward for the first time since all of the Space Knights had arrived. "That strange transformation you've undergone may have saved your lives, but it also caused your memories to become undependable. What's worse, is that when either of you transforms into your respective Tekno-mode, your conditions worsen at an accelerated rate for reasons we are presently unable to understand."
"Great news, everyone! We've finished repairs on the Blue Earth!" Maggie exclaimed, cutting into the slowly-building tension in the room, likely without even being aware she was doing it.
She really did remind him of Cain, that way.
Of course, when she went over to Cain's bed, plopped herself down on it, and leaned in for a long, passionate kiss, Ness turned to look at the rest of the Space Knights. All of them seemed to expect her to do what she'd just did, and while Cain did seem to be responding well, Ness could feel the unease that his younger twin was currently prey to. Neither of them knew quite how to react to the Space Knights anymore.
It was becoming clear that he and Cain had had previous relationships with this group of Space Knights, only neither of them could recall what those relationships were or had been, anymore. It was an eerie thing to think about, that they were starting to lose the very memories that made them them, but that did seem to be what was happening. Ness didn't like it, but it seemed to be the truth.
He could only wonder, now, just how far things were going to go, because he also knew that the Radam weren't going to give up; Spear was going to be back, there was no question of it.
110100100011101011
The walls were still echoing with Conrad's anguished screams, even as Sword held her dear lover in her arms, feeling him sobbing and not just hearing the sound of it as it bounced off of the bare walls of the room where their dear, departed Sam had once slept. The Argos was a place of mourning, now, with the loss of yet another of their own.
Sword would have hardly believed that Ness could be so coldly cruel, if Conrad's own mind hadn't been so open to her in that terrible moment: watching as the traitor's wickedly-barbed lancer penetrated the back of poor Sam's armored head far enough to pierce out through his left eye, his tiny body going terribly limp, falling to the snow with a horrible finality. There was no way for them to even recover Sam's body, since Conrad's dear little brother had fallen far too close to those wretched Space Knights for any of those remaining to risk it.
And so Sword held Conrad in her arms, letting him weep, letting him recover from the horrors he had just witnessed, all the while wondering just when Lord Darkon would call upon them again; it was inevitable that he would, given the new abilities that Conrad's traitorous brothers seemed to have developed.
(Sword, Spear, are you in a position to speak, now?) Lord Darkon asked, almost as though Sword's own curiosity had summoned the Warlord to them.
(I don't-) she began to say, when Conrad seemed to force himself to stand back up again.
(I'm well enough, my Lord,) her dear love said, though Sword could sense that he was only holding himself together by forcing himself not to so much as think of poor little Sam and just what had happened to the little boy. (I wasn't able to overcome the traitors, however.)
(Yes, and it seems as though one more of our own has been taken from us,) Lord Darkon said, sounding as though he was attempting to be sympathetic, but each and every one of those remaining understood the responsibility he still labored under.
He was still the leader of the Radam forces in this area, the one who all of them should have held complete loyalty to.
(What happened to them?) Conrad asked, and though her love was clearly attempting to regain his composure, Sword could clearly sense just how off-balance he still was after everything that had happened.
Perhaps that was why Lord Darkon himself had chosen to appear before them in person.
(It appears that the pair of them, having willfully cut themselves off from the stabilizing influence of the Empire as a whole, are being forced to undergo the secondary transformation that every one of those of our own given our own Deep Scout and tasked to expand the borders of the Empire undergoes,) Lord Darkon said.
The sight of Lord Darkon in the flesh, having the ultimate authority over herself and her love standing before them, was not quite what Sword had been expecting. For one thing, Lord Darkon's armor was a shining white, though without the patches of red that marked the traitors. What struck her most, however, was instead the form of Lord Darkon's body.
Especially as their lord shed the armor he had previously been wearing, revealing his seven-foot frame, and every detail of the body he had been concealing underneath it. And, while it was true that Sword hadn't truly expected him to be human, seeing a Nandorian standing among her and her dearest love was still surprising, in the end.
"There's a secondary transformation?" her love asked, bringing her attention back to their present situation, and all of the upheavals therein.
(There are three stages that one of our own might be said to go through, during the course of our lives,) Lord Darkon said, turning his long, rabbit-like ears toward where her love was standing.
Truly, Sword could only come close to describing Lord Darkon's form by comparing him to the animals that she had seen before: his face had the predatory shape of a wolf, while being the size of a horse. His ears were long and mobile like a rabbit's, but they had a more catlike air to them than any rabbit's that she'd ever seen; his nose was the most rabbit-like part of all, though it sat neatly between long, catlike whiskers.
His tail was a long, sinuous, almost snakelike thing, always adjusting slightly with the minute movements of Lord Darkon's body, providing an equal and opposite counter-balance to the way Lord Darkon's form leaned forward, a predatory air lingering about him even as he clearly attempted to comfort her dearest love in the wake of everything that had been done to him by the traitors.
"Three stages?" Conrad asked, once more bringing Sword's attention back from contemplating Lord Darkon's alien form.
(When one of us joins the Empire, that becomes our new baseline, the first stage of our new lives,) Lord Darkon explained, his long ears aimed toward Conrad in the still air of the ship where the three of them were speaking. (The secondary transformation, the one that the traitors appear to have undergone through some unknown means, is undertaken when one of us is selected to go beyond the borders of our the territory the Empire presently claims. The secondary transformation is meant to give one of our own command over the next group of soldiers they will be creating,) Lord Darkon paused for a moment, and Sword could sense that their lord was searching for the words to explain the nature of the new lives they would live. (That is the stage that I remain at, even now. However, there is a third stage: one of our own merges with the very ship they traveled upon, gaining the extra power they need in order to command not only those at their first stage of existence, but also those who have transitioned to the second.)
"Do these other stages have names, Lord Darkon?" she asked, curious and also wishing to distract the three of them from everything that had happened.
(The first stage you know well,) their lord said, seeming pleased to hear the question. (The second stage might best be defined in your language as General, and finally Warlord.)
"You're a General, then?" Conrad asked, clearly beginning to come back to himself, now that he had some new line of inquiry to pursue.
(Yes,) Lord Darkon said, leaning over to nuzzle the right side of Conrad's face, clearly attempting to comfort her love, if the way he was purring was any indication. (As you must now become, Spear.)
"Yes," Conrad said, expression softening as Lord Darkon reached up to gently stroke his hair, comforting him even as Sword moved to embrace him from the opposite side.
"I suppose this means that you are going to be undertaking the tertiary transformation, Lord Darkon?" she asked, wanting to understand what was going to be happening soon, so that she could prepare herself for what was to come.
(Yes, and so the both of us will be relying upon your protection, Sword,) Lord Darkon said, the sense of the regard their General had for her; how much he and Conrad were going to be trusting her, from now on.
"I won't disappoint you," she said. "Either of you," she continued, looking to Conrad as her love stood back upright, seeming to have left behind the sadness that had been shrouding him ever since the pair of them had returned to the Moon.
"Thank you, Kathy," Conrad said, turning to embrace her for a long moment, pulling away with a certain amount of reluctance.
(I've given commands to the ship to prepare itself,) Lord Darkon said, after giving the pair of them a moment to regain their composure. (Come.)
"Yes, my Lord," Conrad said, falling into step with Lord Darkon as the pair of them left the chamber where they had been speaking.
Sword followed in their wake, curious to know what was going to happen next, and what role she was going to play in it.
