Leaning against Cain, as the pair of them were surrounded by the rest of the Space Knights and escorted away from the remnants of Spaceport Eight, Ness couldn't help thinking about the place he and Cain had come from. Maybe it was just because they were currently making their way out of the very spaceport where they'd begun the journey that had ended with the rest of his and Cain's family falling into the hands of the Radam.

And nearly him and Cain, too, but Ness tried as hard as he could not to think about that.

As Star and Ringo talked to the repair crew that was going to be at least making an attempt to fix Spaceport Eight, he turned to Cain.

(What's on your mind, Nessie?) his younger twin asked, as the pair of them fell in with the rest of the Space Knights, on their way back to what passed as home for the pair of them.

Still, he and Cain had had another home; the place where the pair of them had grown up. The one place that he and Cain could go that they would be able to recover from everything that had been happening to them.

(I'm thinking we should visit the old house again,) he said, reaching out for Cain's left hand as the pair of them walked together.

(You really think that's the best idea?) Cain asked, as their small group of Space Knights all made their way back to the control center so that they'd be able to make their way back down the remaining elevator.

Ness could only hope that it'd at least stayed reasonably intact while he and Cain had been fighting what was left of Kathy.

(Yeah, I do,) he said, thinking back on everything that had happened to them; what might have been happening since before he and Cain could even remember; anything else that might have been lost to what seemed to be some kind of slow, creeping amnesia. (After all, it's not just the Earth that we're trying to protect. We both still have people we care about, here.)

(Sounds like you've been thinking about this a lot,) Cain said, and Ness got the feeling that his younger twin was smiling at him under the EVA helmet he was wearing.

Before he could say anything else, though, Ness found his attention drawn back to the Space Knights accompanying him and Cain back to the last of the Space Ring's elevators.

"What are you two thinking about?" Star asked, falling into step with him and Cain as the rest of the Space Knights turned to look back at them.

"I'll tell you when we get back to Earth," he said, wanting to have more time to discuss things with Cain, before he told Star the idea that had been steadily solidifying in his mind since he and Cain had managed to drive Sword off.

"All right," Star said, though it was clear from the look on her face that she was almost curious enough to ask again.

She was polite enough not to, so that was nice.

010010001001001

When she, the twins, Maggie, and Ringo had made their way back to the Command Center to make their report to Commander Jamison, Star found herself paying more attention to Slade and Saber as the pair of them gave their own reports to the Commander. She was still wondering just what Slade had wanted to say to her, what kind of things he and Saber had been talking about, back on the Space Ring and then on the elevator that they'd all returned to Earth on. Still, it was plain to see that neither of the twins had been ready to talk to anyone but each other.

Star couldn't help feeling sorry for the pair of them; they'd lost so much, been forced to give up nearly every part of what actually made a human being human, and yet the Radam were still here, and so neither Slade nor Saber were going to be able to step back from the fight. They were going to have to go farther, even though each and every transformation cost both twins more and more of the humanity that they were fighting to preserve for everyone else. Even though it was clearly going to cost them the last of their family, in the end.

Still, the four of them had been ordered to take the Blue Earth out on another reconnaissance mission, to see where the Spoor trees were beginning to bloom and report it back to the Commander so that he could update the plans he and the remnants of the AEM were making to evacuate the Earth. As the four of them all made their way out to board the Blue Earth, Star couldn't help but watch how close Slade and Saber were to each other.

Even when the pair of them were forced to separate, settling down into their respective seats, Slade held Saber's hand for as long as he could.

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Once they'd finished with the recon mission that Commander Jamison had sent them out on, he reached back for Cain's hand, even as he turned to look over at Star where she was sitting. She'd been kind enough not to pester him or Cain for more information before they'd been ready to give it, so Ness was feeling more kindly disposed toward her at the moment.

"Star, we've finished our reconnaissance, so can we make another stop?" he said, reaching out to give Cain's right hand a squeeze, taking comfort in his younger twin's presence, even as he felt an echo of that same comfort over the link he shared with Cain. "It won't take long."

"We don't have much time," Star reminded them; she'd taken over Ringo's piloting duties, so Cain was manning her navigation console. "Is it important? Or, is this what you and Saber were thinking about while you were with the rest of us on the Space Ring?"

"Yeah," he said, turning to look back at her. "It's… It's somewhere that means a lot to Cain and me."

Smiling kindly at the pair of them, Star winked and tossed off a cheerful salute. "You got it!"

The feel of the Blue Earth changing course, as he gave Star the coordinates and she took the three of them to back to the place where he, Cain, and the rest of their lost family had begun the journey that would ultimately lead them to encounter the Radam. And yes, it would be painful, seeing a place that he and Cain could never truly return to, but Ness thought that the pain would be good for them both.

It would help remind the both of them that they were still alive.

When Star landed the Blue Earth on the hill where the empty Carter house stood, Ness sighed softly as he felt Cain taking his left hand to help him out of the seat, smiling up at his younger twin as the pair of them made their way out of the ship to meet up with Star. Breathing deeply of the fresh air at the top of the hill, Ness smiled as he felt Cain squeeze his hand more tightly, and the pair of them made their way up to the gates of their old home.

"What is this place?" Star asked, seeming both curious and a bit worried.

"This is where Cain and I used to live," he said, reaching to pull open the gates with Cain's help.

As the three of them made their way in through the front doors, Ness leaned on Cain as he caught his first glimpse of the inside of his and Cain's old home in… He didn't even know how long.

"It's just like how we left it, the day we left for the Argos," he muttered, taking his first steps into the foyer.

"Kind of a shame about the plants, though," Cain muttered, and Ness found that he couldn't quite hold back a sigh.

He couldn't remember if Father had asked anyone to look after the plants Sam and Shara had been so enthusiastic about bringing into their house, if only so that they could have something green and growing even when it rained or snowed – the miniature lilac bushes in particular – but, even if he had, whoever it was wouldn't have bothered to come once the Radam Spider-crabs started falling from the sky. If they'd even survived the invasion in the first place, anyway. It wasn't a happy thought, that, but the sight of the dried, brown, almost burned-looking plants tipped over in their pots wasn't exactly conductive to happiness.

"Hey, are you two all right?" Star asked, the genuine worry in her tone bringing a soft smile to Ness' face.

"We're okay," Cain said, giving Ness more time to compose himself; he gave his younger twin's right hand a firm squeeze to thank him. "It's just kind of strange being back here, after so long."

"Yes, I guess it would be," Star said, sympathy plain in her voice.

Ness wasn't paying much attention anymore, though, so he was glad to have Cain to keep Star's attention off of when he found himself getting lost in memories. As Ness found his gaze settling on the empty table, he also found himself remembering the last celebration the Carter family had all gathered together for, before they'd left for the Argos.

It'd been Father's Day; Ness could remember how happy all of them were, celebrating Father and the relationship all of them had had with the man.

(Still with us, Nessie?) Cain asked, the gentle amusement in his younger twin's tone bringing a soft smile to his face.

(Yeah, I'm still here, Cain,) he said. (Just thinking.)

"Are you two all right?" Star asked, bringing Ness' attention back to the fact that, as much as she clearly wanted to be a part of the conversation, he and Cain had ended up excluding her without even thinking about it.

"We're fine," Ness said, smiling gently at the woman who had been so willing to being them here when he'd asked. "I just- I guess I was thinking. Sometimes, it seems like you take memories for granted, until you start losing them."

Looking up, Ness found that his wandering feet had brought him into the study where his and Cain's father had spent so much time working that – when Ness was younger – he'd actually thought Dad slept there.

"This was Father's desk," he said, making his way over to the desk set just in front of the wall-sized bookshelf that still towered over it. "I'd almost forgotten what it looked like, and yet Cain and I must have seen it every day while we were growing up. Father would sit here, puzzling over his equations, smoking his pipe."

Cain chuckled softly, leaning down to pick up the pipe that he'd apparently noticed, too. "You know, Dad kept saying he'd lost this thing aboard the Argos, but it turns out he didn't even bring it," his younger twin looked more closely at the pipe in his hands, sighing.

Making his way over to where Cain was standing, Ness wrapped his right arm around his younger twin's shoulders, letting Cain lean more heavily on him, as the pair of them stood in the remains of their empty home. Surrounded by ghosts and memories, Ness closed his eyes and breathed with Cain for a long time while the pair of them regained their composure.

"Are you two really sure you still want to be here?" Star asked, an expression of obvious worry on her face; Ness couldn't help wondering what he'd forgotten about their relationship, for her to look at him like that.

"It's all right," Ness said, grabbing onto his composure with both hands.

"It hurts, sure, but it's good to be here," Cain said, taking a deep, shaky breath. "Radam's Teknomen don't feel, and they sure as hell don't mourn. This pain, it really helps to remind us that we're still human."

"Cain's right," Ness said, smiling wistfully. "Sometimes… it helps to be reminded of what we're both fighting for."

000101000100000

"What all of us are fighting for," she said, stepping up to Slade and Saber where the pair of them were standing. "Ringo and I are a part of this, too. All of the Space Knights are here to support you boys," she said, not wanting either of them to feel as alone as it was clear they did.

"Thanks," Slade said, smiling gently as he and Saber wiped their eyes and exchanged watery smiles. "That means a lot, Star."

"Why don't you two show me what this place means to you?" she said, wanting to help. "Help me see it the way you both do."

That, finally, got the both of them to honestly smile for the first time since the three of them had come all the way out to the empty Carter house, and Star was grateful that she'd managed to help the pair of them at least that much. The three of them spent the rest of the day touring the empty house, with Slade and Saber taking turns showing her something that meant something special to one or the other.

Star didn't pay a lot of attention to the specifics of what they were talking about, simply enjoying the way the twins' face would light up when they found something from their shared past that they'd loved when the pair of them had lived in this house with the rest of their family. It was clearly helping the both of them to heal, even if only a little.

Still, eventually the time came when the three of them needed to return to the Command Center; time for Slade and Saber to leave the warm, faded nostalgia of their empty home, and return to the real world.

Thoughts of the Command Center in Arizona naturally brought with them the memories of Shara's last stand against Spear and the forces that Slade and Saber's brainwashed older brother had brought with him. The memories were even sharper now, after having seen the pictures of Conrad Carter all around the house. He'd looked like such a kind person, in all the photographs that the family had taken.

Given the way that Slade and Saber had talked about him, he'd sounded like a kind person, as well. With a shudder, Star found herself remembering the way the three of them had been stopping in each of the rooms for Slade and Saber to pay their final respects to the members of their family they'd both lost. All of the other rooms in the house had looked normal, even under the obvious signs of disuse without the people who'd lived in them; Shara's room, Sam's room, and even the double-sized room that Slade and Saber had shared with each other had been normal looking, though that same lonely, empty feeling had pervaded every one of them.

Spear's room, however… Vines had burst in through the windows, and teknopods had grown across Spear's bed, across the floor, and even up to the desk that Spear had had in his room. Star had found herself wondering, for those few, lingering moments that she and Saber had been able to stand looking into the violated room where the twins' older brother had once slept, how much like their father Spear had once been.

Before the Radam had twisted him into the monster named Teknoman Spear, Star wondered what kind of person Conrad Carter had been.

Still, once the three of them had returned to the Command Center, there was no more time for Star to wonder about things besides what she, Slade, and Saber might need to do next. Though she was still grateful to Saber for the way he'd stopped Slade from seeing what had become of his older brother's room; as soon as he'd caught a glimpse of the inside of Spear's room, Saber had barred the door with his left arm and wouldn't move for anything. Star herself had only caught a brief glimpse, before Saber had firmly closed the door, but that had been enough.

Seeing how shaken Saber had been, it had been more than enough.

"Where's Commander Jamison?" she asked as she, Slade, and Saber made their way back up from the Blue Earth's launch bay.

"He's been holed up in the Research and Development lab for the last two days," Tina reported, a worried look in her eyes, even though the younger Space Knight seemed to be trying to sound as cheerful as ever. "He's given orders that he's not to be interrupted for anything."

"I hope those orders weren't unconditional," Saber said, smirking in that morbidly amused way she'd seen more and more often on even Slade, as their war against the Radam wore on.

"No, Saber, the Commander did add conditions if we were attacked," Tina said, smiling slightly. "Anyway, he said he was working on some kind of a secret weapon."

The sound of the doors on the room's right opening suddenly, allowing Commander Jamison himself to make his way into Comm. One with the four of them pretty much precluded any further attempts at conversation, but it did at least give them the opportunity to find out what he'd been doing.

"It's done," the Commander said, without preamble. "I finished it."

"Sir!" Tina exclaimed, as the four of them hurried over to the Commander.

He honestly looked like he'd been working for the last two days straight: with bags under his tired eyes and two days worth of unshaved stubble on his chin.

"So, what's that blaster of yours supposed to do?" Saber asked, before anyone else could.

"This Counter-flux Polarisor can create an energy-field that destabilizes the Tekno-transformation process," the Commander said, some of the energy he'd clearly used during the two sleepless days seeming to come back to him as he spoke. "It should stop any enemy Teknoman in their tracks. Of course, it's only been tested under laboratory conditions, in a controlled environment."

"That thing could stop Darkon?" Slade asked, sounding about as eager as Star had been expecting, considering how long he and Saber had been forced to fight the family members that Darkon had taken from them.

The ones he'd turned against them so long ago.

"Theoretically, yes, but we won't know for certain until we use it in the field," Commander Jamison said, the concerned expression on his tired face clearly edging into worry.

"I have complete confidence in your abilities, Commander," Star said, both because it was true, and because she wanted to reassure the man who had done so much for the Earth in general and the Space Knights in particular during their war against the Radam. "I'm sure it'll work."

"Sir, the Blue Earth's launch catapult should be finished in another couple of hours," Mac reported over the comm., his grinning face projected on the large screen for them all to see.

"Excellent," the Commander said.

"That'll make Ringo and Balzac happy, once they hear it," she said, glancing briefly at the fierce grins that Slade and Saber shared with each other. "They've been itching to go, too."

11101010011110101

Once he'd gotten the news from the Commander, Ringo couldn't help but feel a bit conflicted. Sure, they were going to have the chance to get back in the fight with the remains of Darkon's forces, but the fight itself was costing their kids everything. And not just because the rest of their family was on Darkon's side. Every time those kids of theirs transformed, they risked losing the few memories they'd managed to hang onto, even after everything that'd happened.

So yeah, he was definitely having some mixed feelings when he'd heard the news.

"Finally," Balzac huffed, clearly not on the same page. "I can't wait till this madness is over, and I can get back to the farm again."

"I guess," he said, continuing to pull on the flightsuit he and Balzac wore under their respective Tekno-suits.

"Come on, you can't tell me you don't want all of this over and done with just as much as I do," the former spy – and current Space Knight – said, turning to Ringo with the kind of look on his face that suggested he hadn't been thinking nearly as hard as Ringo had about what was happening to those kids of theirs.

"Each time they go out there, those kids of ours are going to lose more and more of themselves," he said, narrowing his eyes, even as he finished getting his flightsuit on, and began making his way to where the both of their Tekno-suits were stored; because, even as much as he didn't want to, Ringo knew that Slade and Saber would head right back into battle with or without them. Even after everything that'd already happened to their boys, he knew that was still true. "And, sometimes it feels like all we can do is try to drag them home before they're too far gone."

The sight of something colorful fluttering to the ground drew his attention, just before Balzac crouched to fetch the photo of him with that woman and her kid brother.

"I'm sorry," Balzac said, glancing down at the photo for a long moment, before seeming to force himself to focus on the here and now. "I guess I keep forgetting how much this has been costing all of you Space Knights."

"You're a Space Knight, too, you know," Ringo said, stopping just before he'd made it to his own Tekno-suit.

"Yeah, but I wasn't here from the beginning," Balzac sighed. "Not like the rest of you. Besides, even if those two don't remember everything I did to them, I still do," Balzac narrowed his eyes, right hand pressed against the photograph he'd tucked into his flightsuit for safekeeping. "After what I did to those boys, I still haven't forgiven myself."

"Circumstances were a lot different back then," Ringo said, turning and making his way back to where Balzac was standing, narrowed eyes clearly looking back into the dark past that the former spy had left behind; and sure, while there had been a few parts of him that'd hated Balzac for everything he'd done, it was clear to anyone who paid attention that no one regretted those early days more than Balzac himself. "We've all changed, and it was definitely for the better, in your case."

"I guess," Balzac said, then seemed to force himself to grin widely; it was an eerie reminder of what Saber would do, when he thought people – his dolt brother in particular – were getting too down and needed some cheering up. "But hey, why're we being so serious? It's not like this is going to be a suicide mission, or anything. We're all going to make it back here, and those kids of yours will be right as rain if you give them enough time," he said, reaching into another pocket in his flightsuit. "Here, take some gum so your ears don't pop while we're out there."

"All right," he said, knowing that it wouldn't do much good trying to talk Balzac back around.

It'd never done much good for Saber when he was in these kinds of moods, after all.

1010011110101001

"Looks like Maggie's done her job up on the Space Ring, sir," Tina reported, as more and more screens began lighting up all around them in the Command Center. "Everything's coming back online."

As the last of the screens in the console in front of them activated, the woman herself appeared on the wall-sized screen in front of them, and Cain found himself wondering about the wistful expression on her face as her eyes locked with his for a long moment; had they really meant that much to each other? Still, the moment passed, and Maggie turned her attention to the other Space Knights.

"Commander, are you there?"

"We read you, Maggie," Tina said, her tone a bit more cheerful than Cain could quite account for.

"The good news is that I've got the global communication link up and running," she reported. "But, the bad news is those Radam spoor trees," Maggie said, a worried expression on her face, even as Commander Jamison asked her what was going on. "I'll feed you what I'm getting from our monitors, so you can see for yourselves."

The images that replaced Maggie's face on the wall-sized monitor were hardly hopeful, for all that he and Ness had been given more than a few reasons to expect them: the Radam spoor trees had all bloomed. Each of them now looked like a huge, grotesque crimson parody of more than a few kinds of flower from Earth. All except for the crystal-spire in the center of the bloom, and the tendrils arrayed around the "petals".

The central spire was large enough to fit a fully-grown human inside, one in each of the fully bloomed spoor trees, and the tendrils would serve to capture that person; it was one more thing that the Radam had forced into his mind while they were trying to transform him into Teknoman Saber. Catching Ness' eyes, Cain could tell that his older twin was thinking just the same.

"So, it's started," Ness growled, narrowing his eyes as the spoor trees on the screen whipped their tendrils out to capture anyone unfortunate enough to be standing inside their deceptively long range.

"Looks that way," Cain muttered, finding himself uncomfortably reminded of that damned Radam ship and all of the teknopods that had descended on them there.

Even though those ship-bound versions looked about as different from the ones that he, Ness, and Dad had all been confronted by, they were all the same in the end.

"Maggie, open the global communications network! Give me every channel you've got!"

For a moment, Cain was surprised to hear Commander Jamison yelling, but if there was ever a moment for that, this was certainly it.

"Right," Maggie said, nodding sharply as the image of her that'd just reappeared vanished as quickly as it'd come.

"Tina."

"Ready when you are, Commander," Tina said, catching on as quickly as Cain had expected of her.

"Attention, all citizens of Earth: This is Commander Jamison, of the Space Knights. It appears that the last phase of the Radam invasion has begun," the Commander said, his forceful, reassuring tone carrying to anywhere that was still covered by the global communications network; though Cain couldn't help wondering just how many people that actually was, after all the damage the Radam had done. "It is vital you avoid contact with the Radam spoor trees. Go to the nearest space-transport facility, and we will try to evacuate as many people as possible to the Space Ring as soon as we can. All planes, and any private vessels, capable of reaching the Space Ring are requested to provide assistance to the evacuation efforts being carried out."

The Commander sighed heavily, as he signaled Tina to cut the connection. "Tina, your best-case projection? How many can we save?"

"Maybe twenty percent, sir," the younger Space Knight said, and Cain couldn't quite keep himself from wincing.

Ness came over to squeeze his left shoulder, and the pair of them leaned together for a long moment, even as he heard the Commander muttering to Tina. Twenty percent wasn't going to be good enough for any of them.

"We're not out of this yet," Ness said firmly, the arm he'd wrapped around Cain's waist drawing tighter with his older twin's resolve. "There's one sure way to stop this nightmare, and that's to find Darkon's base on the far side of the Moon."

"Yeah, since he is the one in charge of this invasion, killing him should at least stop those spoor trees from actively capturing people, the way they are now," Cain said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to recall at least something useful from the information that the Radam had forced into his mind.

However, none of that information dealt with the end of an invasion; it might have just been knowledge that only Generals and Warlords were "privileged" to have, or else it might have been information that he and Ness had lost to the amnesia steadily creeping up on them each time they transformed. Whichever it ultimately was, however, the only thing that Cain could say was that he didn't have it. He and Ness were flying blind from here on in, and Cain could only hope they'd be able to come out all right.

00010010000010100

His heart was pounding, energy thrumming in what felt like every cell of his body, but Spear wasn't in the least amount of pain. Truly, he felt energized on a level even beyond what he'd ever felt at the height of his powers before this new transformation of his.

(Was this what it was like for you, my Lord?) Spear asked, once he'd managed to regain full, conscious awareness of his surroundings and hence could remember where he was.

(Yes, my General,) Lord Darkon said, seeming pleased, nostalgic, and amused at once. (It's rather a different perspective than that which you once possessed, yes?)

(It is,) he mused, narrowing his eyes as he felt his awareness steadily expanding.

Even as the teknopod that had encased him for so long burst, dropping Spear back to the floor of Lord Darkon's vessel, Spear found his attention still drawn to a pair of familiar mental signatures. Ness and Cain- rather, the traitors Slade and Saber. Rogue Generals that it would be his duty to dispose of.

Spear knew his duty, and more than that, he knew just what kind of a threat that a pair of disloyal, uncontrollable Generals would pose to the Empire if either of them were allowed to live. Slade and Saber would have to die, before he and Lord Darkon could fully establish this new colony of theirs. The traitors would have to die, before they could kill the last person in the cosmos that Spear truly loved.

Narrowing his eyes still further, as he found a mental thread that almost seemed apt to lead him to the pair of them, Spear cut it off behind a mental barrier before either of the traitors could have become truly aware of his scrutiny.

And, while it was entirely possible that one or both of the traitors had somehow become aware of Spear's new circumstances in spite of how swiftly he'd acted, that would be a problem for later. For the moment, however, Spear wished more than anything to meet up with Katherine again.

(If you've no more need of me here, my Lord-)

(Go, my General,) Lord Darkon said, a note of understanding to his mental tone. (The energies of your transformation have had ample time to stabilize, and I fully trust that you will be more than a match for the traitors whenever they attempt to confront you.)

(Of course, my Lord,) he said, bowing slightly as he turned to depart from the main chamber of the ship at last. (Thank you.)

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Panting, even as the sense of just where and what Conrad was now finished washing over him, Ness reached out for Cain's comforting presence even as their fellow Space Knights stared at the pair of them. Their reactions weren't so important to him; not now, not in the face of Conrad's new, powerful presence. Not with their older brother's telepathy echoing through their minds.

Not with what Conrad was actually saying; the challenge that their older brother had just issued.

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Eyes narrowed, even as he finished dressing and made his way back to the air lock to take off, Spear transformed and met up with the mount that Lord Darkon had bred for him. The traitors might very well think that he'd sent them identical messages, and so intended to meet the both of them in combat at once, but Spear wasn't such a fool. He'd tried that tactic more than his fair share of times, when he still held to the hope that his younger brothers were not traitors.

Before he'd been driven to understand that Slade and Saber were just as much traitors as their father, and likely for the same reasons; before he'd been forced to accept that Ness and Cain were lost to him forever.

Now, knowing that truth and accepting it for what it truly was, Spear knew also how he would proceed. The only thing that Slade truly cared about, aside from those useless humans who were due to die in any case, was Saber. Truly, Saber had always been Slade's unyielding bastion of support, the one thing that allowed Slade to fight beyond even a Teknoman's considerable power. The one thing that allowed Slade to stand up so many times, so soon after being knocked down.

Without his dearest, most ardent supporter, Slade's resolve would inevitably crumble.

Spear even knew just how he was going to rid himself of Saber: just as Slade had done to his poor Sam, he'd drive his teknolance through Saber's head, then leave the corpse on the Space Ring for Slade to find. If at all possible, he'd even make certain that Slade bore witness to Saber's death personally, from too great a distance to ever be of help. Just as he'd been forced to bear helpless witness to Slade's murder of poor Sam.

His resolve fixed in mind, and his plans as flexible as he could make them, Spear headed for the Space Ring; it was past time that he finished things with Saber.

11101001001111010111

Star had insisted on coming with them, and Ness had in turn insisted that she stick with him, as the three of them made their way into the Space Ring. Cain could fully understand why, of course: Ness wanted to make sure that he was the first one to encounter Conrad, so he'd gone on ahead. Cain hadn't liked it, but with Conrad hunting them and Star's stubborn insistence on tagging along, none of them had had the time to argue.

Besides, with how uncomfortable Star's mooning over him had been making Ness, Cain was actually glad that he'd managed to convince her to stay with him.

00010100010000010100

Glaring down at the riven ground being displayed beneath her – cleaved open by the raising of yet another of those absurd launch catapults that she, Spear, and their dearly departed comrades had destroyed some time ago – Sword found that she could no longer afford to wait. Yes, she was fully aware that Conrad desired to meet up with her again, now that he had been reborn with the power to finally end the traitors once and for all, but Sword also knew her own duty to the Empire.

Lord Darkon, while he was not nearly as vulnerable as he had been while he had been in the midst of merging with the craft that had brought him into contact with the Argos – and by extension the people of Earth – to begin with, still required at least a modicum of protection from the traitors who had somehow been given the power of Generals by the humans they seemed so annoyingly determined to stay with. And so, Sword had given her regards to Lord Darkon and left to deal with the humans who had proven to be so irritatingly obstinate on their own. Yes, she knew that such qualities would make them worthy servants of the Empire once this new colony of theirs had been fully established, but the colony itself would first have to be established before any of that could happen.

As she drew closer to the Space Ring, Sword felt Conrad's regard, their thoughts intermingling for a moment as she made her approach to the structure. And then, for a long moment, Sword could have sworn she felt Conrad's embrace, she could almost feel her love's lips on her own, she was filled with the love Conrad felt for her, and then she passed over the Space Ring and found herself alone within her mind once more.

(I've had ample time to develop my telepathic abilities while I've been away, Kathy,) Conrad said, and for a moment Sword could see her dear love's smiling face clearly in her mind's eye.

(I truly look forward to exploring your new capabilities, my love,) she said, feeling a wide, contented smile stretching her face under the armor she was wearing.

(When we meet again, I'll be certain to show them to you,) Conrad said, and Sword could feel, for just a moment, the sensation of her dear love's hand combing through her hair and stroking her neck in passing.

(I eagerly await that time, my love,) she said, smiling under her helmet as she briefly pressed her armored fingers against the part of her facemask that covered her lips.

With the warmth of her love's regard filling her, Sword was calmer, she was able to fly faster, and thus to catch up to the useless humans in their absurd little ship. Narrowing her eyes as she caught sight of yet another one of those worthless guns that the humans had emplaced on that vessel of theirs, Sword scoffed. However, the fact that the humans were using a weapon that had been concealed within the "neck" of the ship, rather than the two nose-mounted cannons that Conrad had described to her was rather a curious thing.

A simple matter to deal with, yes, but curious all the same.

Throwing herself into a thruster-aided charge, Sword slammed her lancer into the body of the ship, carving through the cannon and damaging the ship, before coming around again to finish the job. However, it seemed that the human piloting the ship was rather more clever than Sword had been anticipating; annoyingly so, since the pilot managed to evade her long enough for one of the two false-Teknomen that her love had reported on to emerge from the vessel itself.

Narrowing her eyes, Sword subtly changed her course so that she would slam into the annoying human with the full force of the corona of energy she was now surrounded by. Scoffing at the sight of whatever pitiful weapon that the false-Teknoman had just fired at her, Sword screamed as she felt the energies inside her fluctuate wildly for a long moment, knocking her off course for longer than Sword would have tolerated under ordinary circumstances.

However, it seemed that these were not ordinary circumstances, and even as she shakily forced herself back on course again, Sword could admit that it was indeed better for her to bide the danger of this new weapon the humans than either her love or her Lord. She already hated the thought of her beloved Conrad having to suffer this way, and she'd no desire to fail Lord Darkon to such an extent that he would have ended up facing down the product of whatever deranged, desperate mind had devised the little horror that that false-Teknoman was aiming at her.

She had to get rid of it, even if it cost her life in the end. Conrad would understand; they all had their duties to the Empire, after all. And so, scrabbling for purchase on the wings of the ship she'd been flying over when that worthless human had shot her, Sword forced herself back to her feet. Throwing herself into another thruster-aided charge, lancer aimed forward to impale the infuriatingly dangerous false-Teknoman who had stepped forward to confront her with that terrible weapon, Sword braced herself for whatever was to come.

She needed to destroy that weapon, even if it cost her own life in the process.

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Feeling the sudden wrench of his right shoulder as that crazy Teknoman threw herself at him again, Balzac ripped Jamison's disrupter – or whatever it was called – free from his useless right hand, firing with his left even as he found himself torn free of the Blue Earth and knocked into space. He didn't even know if the lifeline had managed to hold through the crazy maneuvers from both Ringo and that crazy dragon lady who still hadn't stopped trying to kill him even after he'd shot her so many times with Jamison's disrupter.

Still, he couldn't think about anything that wouldn't help him survive the crazy dragon lady who he'd been shooting ever since she'd first shown her armored face, so Balzac tried to fly back to the Blue Earth. However, it seemed like his lifeline had snapped, the same way his right arm had snapped, and the way his right leg felt like it was about to snap. Half-blind with pain, trying in vain to catch back up with Ringo in the Blue Earth, Balzac only found himself falling into the Earth's gravity well.

Catching a glimpse of the dragon lady, falling into the Earth's gravity well right alongside him, he felt a sharp pain in his already-broken leg. Gritting his teeth, fully aware that that crazy dragon lady would rip him to pieces if she could, Balzac stopped quick-firing Jamison's disrupter. It didn't seem to be doing much more than stunning the dragon lady while she tried to kill him, and while that had kept him alive this far, Balzac doubted it was going to do any more than delay what would otherwise be inevitable.

So, holding his next disrupter shot for as long as he dared, even as he saw the bright red light of something that reminded him entirely too much of that last attack Spear had made on the group he'd been leading on the Space Ring, back when he'd been Gault's man; before he'd met Rachel and Rick, before he'd been given his second chance. Holding the memories of Rachel close to him, thinking of the small family that he'd been welcomed into, Balzac fired the disrupter shot he'd been holding for so long. After that, everything seemed to go a bit… hazy…

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(I'm sorry, my love.)

The sudden, forceful wrench as the mental connection he'd shared with Kathy for so long was abruptly torn away from him nearly caused Spear to stumble in the wake of it. Finding his right hand clenched around the teknocrystal he'd been given at the beginning of this campaign, the singular lifeline he still actually possessed, Spear ground his teeth. Yes, he'd known that both he and Kathy, currently on the front-lines of the Radam's colonization efforts, were the most at risk from those who still stood against them. It was infuriating, the loss of the woman he'd loved most in his life, but in the end it was just one more thing that the humans owed him for.

He'd begin by eliminating Saber; he'd destroy Slade's will to fight, and then he'd finally do away with the last of the traitors.

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They'd lost contact with the Blue Earth only a handful of moments after their sensors had detected the approach of one of the last of Darkon's two remaining Teknomen – either Sword or Spear – and while he and the rest of his Space Knights were mainly concerned about the fates of Ringo and Balzac, Commander Jamison remained fully aware of the fact that the loss of the Blue Earth might very well make it impossible for any of them to make it to Darkon's vessel.

Likely even Saber and Slade would be constrained, considering their respective time limits.

It was hardly a situation that Jamison would have wished to face, but then he and his Space Knights were hardly being given the choice. The Radam's forces had to be driven off as soon as possible, before Darkon would have the chance to begin making use of those people who had been unfortunate enough to live in the areas that had been most heavily forested by teknoplants. The same teknoplants he'd brought to Earth in the first place.

Still, with Slade, Saber, and Star out of contact for the moment, Hamilton Jamison could only wait for word from the Space Ring about what those three were doing.

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She hadn't wanted to do it, but Slade had been too fast, and with Saber more focused on her own safety – hers in particular, since for all that he didn't seem to remember much about her, he was still clearly protective – Star had been forced to limit her search for Spear to when Saber wasn't actively looking in her direction. Still, there was at least one advantage to having one of the twins so close by:

"Saber, have you been able to sense Spear anywhere close?"

"No," Saber said, sounding more than a little frustrated. "Still, he could be shielding, not wanting either of us to find him before he's ready," Saber barked a humorless laugh. "Big brother might be planning to ambush us."

"I hope not," she said, putting a hand on Saber's right shoulder, trying to offer what comfort she could, even to someone who didn't remember much about what the pair of them had once meant to each other.

Saber looked back over his shoulder for a long moment, a curious look on his face, almost as though he was actually trying to remember who she was; or, at least who she had been to him. Patting Saber's right shoulder, wishing that either of the twins could be able to remember her but knowing that the world wasn't that kind, Star sighed softly. Sure, she knew that the Space Knights had a duty to the Earth and what was left of humanity, but she couldn't help wishing that her close friend and the man she still loved could remember her.

Still, she knew that the price she and the rest of the Space Knights were paying to save the Earth couldn't possibly compare to the price that Slade and Saber were paying.

As she and Saber continued on their way through the Space Ring, Star couldn't help but wonder just which of them were going to encounter Spear first. She almost hoped that it would be her and Saber, if only to spare Slade from having to fight his and Saber's older brother for as long as possible. But, there was also a part of her that wanted to spare Saber that burden, too.

Really, that was why she'd brought the gun in the first place: while she might not have been able to spare Slade the anguish of having to kill his and Slade's youngest brother, Star was at least going to do what she could to help the twins against their eldest.

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Keeping in contact with Cain, even as he continued on his own way through the darkened corridors of the Space Ring, Ness found himself growing steadily more agitated as he passed from one empty room to another. He couldn't so much as sense a hint of Conrad's presence, and from everything his younger twin had told him, Cain was in just the same situation.

About the only thing he could be grateful for was that Star, whoever she'd been to the both of them, wasn't fretting too much; she seemed just as determined as Cain was, in her own way, which did lend credence to the idea that the three of them had been friends. As sad as that was, now that she was the only one who could really remember it.

Still, as he pressed onward through the empty rooms and corridors of the Space Ring, calling for Conrad to come out and face him, Ness couldn't help feeling that the both of them were treading on the edges of a clever trap.

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The sound of Star's footsteps as she kept pace with him was suddenly swamped by the sense of Conrad's presence. Holding out his left arm to block Star from moving forward, even as he himself stopped in his tracks, Cain narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of his and Ness' older brother approaching the pair of them.

"So, this is where you decided to show up," he said, allowing his mouth to curl into a small, bitter smirk.

He couldn't take the risk of contacting Ness, since Conrad would both see and sense the action, but there were still things that Cain could do on his own.

"Did you really think I was going to let you escape?" Conrad asked, and there was a distinct sneer in his tone.

Cain hadn't heard something like that from his and Ness' older brother, but he supposed it did kind of fit, what with Conrad being nearly the last of the Radam's Teknomen; the last one standing in their path. And, considering what had to have happened to Sam, to keep their youngest brother out of these last battles that he and Ness had been fighting in these last days of the Radam's invasion, Cain supposed it made sense.

He wouldn't have been particularly happy, if anything like that had been happening to him and Ness.

Before he could say anything in response, Cain heard the sound of Star doing something behind him, something that drew not only Conrad's attention, but clearly his contempt, as well. Not that that was hard, considering how much the Radam despised humans in general and anyone who defied them in particular. Star, being both, pretty much just had to exist in his presence for the thing that Conrad was now to hate her.

The sudden explosion of a gunshot – loud enough to sound almost like it was coming from inside his head – nearly caused Cain to jump out of the way, but he managed to restrict himself to jerking in place. He still wasn't particularly happy, though.

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"You could've warned me!" Saber snapped, and Star found that she couldn't quite keep herself from wincing.

"I'm sorry, Saber," she said, even as she took aim at Spear and fired again.

Spear dodged, of course, but Star could at least say she'd done something against Slade and Saber's evil older brother. Still, the meaty slap of Saber grabbing Spear's right wrist as the evil Teknoman tried to make a grab for her in turn forced Star's attention back onto the creature in front of her.

"Look, Star, I really appreciate the moral support," Saber said over his left shoulder, as he turned to grab Spear's left wrist when the evil Teknoman made a second grab for her. "But we're both fast enough to dodge bullets, and the only thing you're actually doing is pissing him off. You'd really be better off getting back to the elevator."

Shuddering, unable to risk closing her eyes because of the danger that she and Saber were both in with Spear not only in front of them, but bearing down on them with the same mercilessness as any of the Spider-crabs that had attacked the Earth, Star took a shaky breath. She knew that Saber was right, but she couldn't bring herself to leave him without doing at least something.

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"Come back to us," Star said, after wrapping her right arm around his neck and actually kissing his cheek.

"I'll do my best," was all Cain could say in response.

With Conrad restrained, at least for the moment, he nodded to Star as she turned to run off, heading back down the corridor the way the pair of them had first come. Bearing his teeth in a fierce grin, once Star was far enough out of sight that he didn't have to worry about taking his eyes off of her, Cain turned back to Conrad again.

"Don't think I'm going to let you get away from me, Saber," Conrad snapped, his red teknocrystal appearing in his right hand as the pair of them each took a step back from the other.

Cain only grinned wider in response. "Wouldn't dream of it, Conrad."

The wings of his sky-blue teknocrystal snapped open, and Cain felt a rush of very familiar energy…