The four of them had arranged themselves carefully in the back of the Jeep, and Takaya had made sure to thank Aki when he'd gotten settled down next to Shinya. He could sense that his younger twin hadn't woken up yet, but he'd still kept his mental barriers slightly lowered so he'd know when that happened. O'Toole had been kind enough to give him some of the rations he'd had stored in his own transport, and Takaya was grateful for the consideration.
Now, that just left the question of why O'Toole, of all people, had been the one to come and meet them out here.
When their newly-expanded group drove up the ramp and into the Green Earth's hold, Takaya blinked as everyone started getting out. He leaned a bit more on Aki than usual as she helped him up, laughing softly as he watched Levin carrying Shinya away to their sleeping quarters aboard the cruiser, and half-closed his eyes as Aki led him back to their own sleeping quarters.
He was tired enough that he felt like he could sleep for a week, but at the same time Takaya wondered if he'd get the chance; the Radam were always waiting in the wings to attack.
Still, he, Shinya, and their fellow Space Knights all made it to bed without an incident, so that was nice.
The next morning, when the Green Earth was filled with light and sound, and everyone was starting to get up, Takaya was tempted to stay in bed for at least a few more minutes. That probably wasn't a good idea, since they were going to be moving out again, and they'd probably encounter at least some Radam monsters on their way to whatever their next destination was going to be. And really, if he wasn't up at his usual time, the others would start to worry about him.
Not to mention the way Shinya would tease him.
Levering himself up and out of bed, Takaya searched briefly for the mental signature of his younger twin. Smiling as he felt Shinya's presence wash over him, knowing that his younger twin was also happy – and suspecting he knew at least some of why that was – Takaya made his way out to the Green Earth's eating area to pick up some breakfast. Watching as his and Shinya's fellow Space Knights all began to gather at the table with their trays of food, Takaya tried not to yawn; he still felt like he needed a bit more sleep.
He could tell that all of them were happy to have something besides potatoes; the thought almost made him laugh, but Takaya stifled the urge, since he didn't want to end up getting food down his trachea. For what felt like a long few minutes, Takaya was able to sit and relax while he ate his breakfast. He had no way of knowing just how long this peace would last, or what he, Shinya, and their fellow Space Knights would end up needing to do – or else being asked to do – by even the end of the morning.
Will all of the other Space Knights gathered around them in the same room, Takaya felt comfortable enough to relax. Then he felt Shinya nudging him; O'Toole had apparently been talking to the pair of them. Nodding to show he'd noticed that fact, too, Takaya gave at least some of his attention to the man he and Shinya had met all those months ago. Just months, Takaya reflected wryly; there were times it felt like so much longer.
Of course, there were also times it felt like he and Shinya had met the man yesterday.
"Isn't that right, lads?" the man asked gently, though there was a trace of worry in his eyes that Takaya didn't know quite how to react to.
"Ah, yeah. Brother and I helped him," he said, working up a small smile for all of his and Shinya's friends; it took a bit more effort than usual, for some reason. Noticing the warm weight leaning against his left arm, a bit too warm to be any of the others, Takaya nudged Shinya. (Shin-chan, are you getting tired?)
(Yeah,) Shinya said, with a sleepy sort of amusement.
"I can understand if you boys are depressed," Noal said, apparently getting an entirely different sort of idea from his and Shinya's silence. "Since Wraith ran away, and you couldn't even get Axe's crystal."
"At this rate we'll never get a crystal, even if we do manage to defeat the other Tekkamen one of these days," Levin said, shaking her head as she made her way over to sit down next to Shinya, smiling as she reached for the food his younger twin had left unattended as he rested briefly. "Say 'ah'!"
"Lev-chan-" Shinya started to say, the tired amusement in his younger twin's voice echoing all the more strongly as Levin popped Shinya's spoon back into his younger twin's mouth, smiling contentedly as she did so.
"The Moon just seems to be getting farther and farther away, doesn't it?" Balzac groused, bringing Takaya's attention firmly back from where it had wandered.
"All right," O'Toole called, a smile on his face. "Why don't I cheer you people up?"
Without waiting for anyone to say anything, O'Toole shoved the disc he'd been carrying into a reader and played… a message from Chief Freeman.
(I was wondering when we'd hear from the Chief again,) Shinya said, the tiredness that'd been dragging at them both plainly obvious in his younger twin's mental tone.
(Yeah, I was, too,) he said, knowing that Shinya hadn't wanted to distract any of their comrades from listening to Freeman's message any more than he had.
It seemed that Freeman had had the idea that the rest of their comrades would be able to find him and Shinya if he sent them out on a mission. So, he'd sent the rest of the Space Knights out to determine the condition of the Radam trees, and also to find a usable spacecraft, with the hope that their two groups would meet some time during the eight months they'd had on their deadline. However, it sounded like something had changed.
It was something good, at least: Honda and the rest of the engineers who'd stayed with the Chief and their group of Space Knights had nearly finished repairing the Blue Earth. So, it looked like they were going to be headed back soon.
"So, I came after you people to deliver this message," O'Toole said, once said message had finished playing. "I guess that kind of makes me a carrier pigeon," he said, grinning in a way that seemed calculated to lighten the mood.
Shinya might have said that O'Toole reminded him of Takaya, but there were a few times he'd found that the man reminded him of Shinya, in turn.
"I guess this means we can go to the Moon without a crystal," Milly said, sounding more honestly relieved than Takaya could find it in himself to feel. "Isn't that great, D-Boys?" she continued, after getting confirmation from Levin.
"Yeah, it's great," he said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, tired as he was, just as it started to look like some of the others gathered in the main room with them were getting worried. "Would you mind if brother and I went to bed? We're both kind of tired."
I
When those two lads had departed, ostensibly to catch up on their sleep for the night, O'Toole watched them carefully for signs of the instability that the Space Knights' Chief Freeman had told him about. He insisted that the other Space Knights should leave them to sleep, even in the case of a Radam monster attack, and let himself out of the Green Earth to think.
The other Space Knights seemed to think those two were still just tired from having to face off against that big fella Axe yesterday, but he himself wasn't so sure. Yes, he hoped it was only a bit of lingering fatigue from all the fighting they'd clearly done just the other day, but given what he'd learned… O'Toole took a long drink of whisky, and hoped that he'd just been worrying for nothing.
He honestly doubted that that'd been the case, but he hoped for it all the same.
"Sergeant O'Toole, what did you want to talk to me about?" Noal asked, making his own way out to the fire.
"Right, we did need to talk," he said, still looking out past the fire, even as Noal made his way over.
"I know the Blue Earth's on track to be fixed soon, but what about the catapult?" Noal asked, and O'Toole found himself pleased to know that the pilot hadn't lost any of his knack for thinking like a flyboy even while he'd been grounded for such a long time.
He supposed the knack never truly left people like them, honestly.
"Even though it's a piece of junk compared to what you had in Arizona, you'll be using the catapult at the Northern Alaska Headquarters," he said, still looking as closely as he could to the fire without completely destroying his night-vision. "Even though no one's used that thing for about a hundred years."
"It's still there, even after so long?" Noal asked, sounding about as incredulous as Bernard figured anyone might have been.
"Since there are no power plants that far north, the Radam have never attacked that area," he continued, though everyone who knew anything about the Radam knew that that was soon to change. "It's been our one blessing, working there."
"So, the Space Knights' new base is going to be in Alaska?" Noal asked.
"Right," he said. "But, we have a detour to make along the way."
"What kind of detour?"
"We're manufacturing weapons to use against the Radam on the Moon," he said. "There's a special programming chip for those weapons stored in a facility in Iceland. After we get our hands on that chip, we'll be heading for Alaska. Understand? There's just one more thing," he paused; sometimes, he wondered if all of the Space Knights had come by their fussiness honestly, or if it came of having to look out for those boys of theirs for so long. "I'm telling you this because I think I can trust you; the thing is…"
And so, Bernard told the man what he'd seen, only the night before last: of how he'd walked past the window of those boys' room, and caught sight of D-Boy getting up to get a glass of water. He told the man about how, just as D-Boy had been about to grab the glass, the lad had seemed to suffer some kind of full-body spasm, and when D-Two came in to help him – the way anyone who'd spent any time around those lads would have expected – even he hadn't quite been able to catch the fragile glass before it'd fallen to shatter on the floor.
The lad had also looked surprised by the fact of that, something that Bernard made sure to mention when he was recounting what he had seen.
He concluded his account by telling Noal about how those lads had seemed all too keen to keep this latest development between the pair of them; something he couldn't allow, considering how it was poised to affect each and every one of them in the most immediate of ways.
"No, that can't be true!" Noal exclaimed, a stricken expression overtaking his face.
"I didn't believe it, myself, but it's true," he said, turning so he could face Noal more squarely. "After seeing the way those lads were acting. There's no telling when we'll run into the Radam again, so we'll be counting on you when we do. All right, lad?"
II
As he made his way back into the Green Earth, Noal tried not to think too hard about what might have been happening to the Gemini Boys. Those kids of theirs were supposed to be indestructible; sure, they'd both taken more than their fair share of hard knocks, but they'd always seemed to bounce back from it. Still, as he made his way back into the Green Earth, Noal took a moment to hope that D-Boy and D-Two's condition was as temporary as O'Toole had suggested it might be.
As he made his way down through the still-lit corridors of the tank, Noal stopped short when he found the pair of them curled up on the couch together. D-Boy had his head tucked against D-Two's collar, and D-Two was gently stroking his brother's hair. It was kind of a cute scene, but Noal couldn't help wondering just what the two of them were actually doing.
"Hey, shouldn't you boys be sleeping?" he asked softly, catching D-Two's eye.
"D-kun says he couldn't get comfortable."
"Sitting in the dark like that can't be good for either of you. Come on," he said, hoping that he could at least get D-Two to see sense.
D-Boy was probably a lost cause, given what was happening and how much D-Boy would want to hide something like that. Still, D-Two could usually talk his twin around when D-Boy was being particularly stupid, though the kid had his occasional bout of stubborn bull-headedness, too. Still, on the whole D-Two did have his head screwed on tighter than D-Boy, so he was the one you wanted to talk with when you needed his twin to see reason.
Or, on occasion, to have reason smacked into his thick head.
Turning to watch the pair of them as D-Two helped D-Boy climb up into his bunk, Noal felt himself tensing almost to the breaking point when he saw the way D-Two was forced to catch his twin when D-Boy missed his grab and nearly fell out of his bunk. It wasn't something he'd been at all prepared to expect, even considering the subject of his and O'Toole's conversation not so very long ago. Still, the pair of them made it into their respective bunks eventually, and Noal paused for a long moment to watch as D-Two slumped into bed, himself.
D-Two hadn't quite managed to get his boots off, and while he did seem to sleep on his side sometimes, Noal couldn't help the thought that he wouldn't really be comfortable that way. So, making his way over to D-Two's bed, he took off the kid's boots, and tucked him under his blankets.
"Goodnight," he said, beginning to make his way out.
Still, when he looked back at the glittering remains of the shattered glass on the floor – the few that one of the twins had managed to miss when they'd clearly tossed out the larger shards – Noal couldn't help the thought that this wasn't supposed to happen; they were the good guys here. Weren't things supposed to go right? Chuckling bitterly once he was far enough away that neither of the Gemini Boys would end up being disturbed by the sound, Noal shook his head.
Really, when does anything go right for those kids of ours? he mused, sighing deeply as he made his way back into his own room for the night.
III
When he woke up the next morning, telepathy a bit tangled up with Takaya's, but not badly enough that the two of them couldn't tell just who and where they were – even thinking about the possibility of that had woke Takaya from more than his fair share of sound sleep, leaving Shinya to have to reassure his twin so that the pair of them could actually get some of the sleep they'd be needing to deal with whatever the Radam were going to throw at them next – Shinya stretched out, looking up at Takaya's still-slumbering form. Really, he wished that he could have just let his brother sleep for even a few minutes longer. Still, it was plain for anyone to see that, just because he and Takaya were starting to wear out a bit faster than usual, that didn't mean the Radam were going to let up on them.
If anything, those bastard aliens were probably going to come at them all the harder, once one of the others reported to them.
"A facility in Iceland?" Aki asked.
"This is a blueprint for the factory," O'Toole elucidated, once he, Takaya, and their fellow Space Knights had all been assembled in the main area of the Green Earth for breakfast.
(What is it, Shin-chan?)
(He's talking about a factory in Iceland, Ta-kun,) he reported, keeping his eyes firmly on the presentation that O'Toole was making; he'd started providing visual aids when Aki first had asked him where they were going, even as Shinya himself had been keeping his twin informed about all the goings-on of the Space Knights while he got what rest he needed. (It sounds like we're going to be going after something underwater.)
(We haven't done anything underwater yet,) Takaya muttered, and Shinya could plainly feel the shadow of the same exhaustion he himself was determined to push past in his twin's mental voice.
(No, it'll be something new for us. Though it sounds too cold to swim,) he said, smiling gently even as he felt the room seemingly tilting beneath his feet.
"Oi, are you and D-Boy okay, D-Two?" Noal asked, clearly having seen the signs that he'd been keeping his twin posted about the new developments going on while he was out of it.
The sound of the door opening drew most of the Space Knights' attention, but the first thing Shinya really noticed was Levin, as she curled herself around him on the opposite side of Takaya.
"Oh, I missed you when you took your morning shower," she said, snuggling him even as he chuckled softly.
"Well, everyone's here now," Shinya said, smiling for the other occupants of the main room. "I think we can start."
"No, I think the two of you should go take a nap," O'Toole said, nodding seriously.
"Come on, we're not going to be making any plans, and even you can barely keep your eyes open," Noal said, hurrying over to his side before Shinya could make more than the most cursory of efforts to lever himself up and out of his seat.
"All right, Noal-kun. I guess I can't argue," he said, offering his fellow Space Knight a good-natured smile as the pair of them made their way out of the main room and down the hall toward the room he and Takaya had claimed for themselves.
"Oi, D-Two, what's wrong?" Noal asked, as Shinya tried for the umpteenth time not to trip over his feet as the floor seemed to jerk and see-saw underneath him.
"I guess I am more tired than I thought," he said, knowing that Noal would badger him unmercifully if he said it was nothing, but not wanting to worry the man, all the same. "Thanks for your concern, Noal-kun."
IV
"Yeah," he muttered, knowing that D-Two wouldn't say anything else even if he did try to grill the kid about what was really going on, but not happy about it in the slightest.
Still, it was a damned sight more than he'd have ever gotten from D-Boy, so Noal knew that he should probably just be grateful for small favors and try to move on with his life. It wasn't like they really had time for any of this crap in the first place, what with the Radam still out there waiting for them. So, holding back a sigh through sheer force of will, Noal turned and made his way back to the Green Earth's cockpit.
If he was going to be stuck brooding over their current situation, then he was at least going to do it somewhere with a view.
V
When he sensed Shinya's presence in their collective room again, and more than that when he heard his younger twin climbing back into the bunk he'd claimed for himself, Takaya allowed himself to relax from the state of alertness he'd been holding himself to just in case the others needed him. And yeah, it looked like that was going to be the case a lot sooner than he would have liked, so Takaya knew that it would be best for him to get what sleep he could while he could.
Still, there were a few things he needed to know before he let himself do anything like that.
(So, are they making plans?)
(Nothing so far; Noal-kun said we should sleep.)
Knowing that, connected as their minds still were – if only by the sheer necessity of having their telepathic senses primed to detect any of the remaining Tekkamen that Omega had left to send after them – Shinya would know what he was planning as soon as he did, Takaya sighed, letting himself relax the rest of the way.
(I guess he's looking after us, too, then.)
(That's what it seems like, Ta-kun. He really is acting like a big brother.)
Knowing the exact moment when his younger twin managed to relax, just enough so that the pair of them would be able to get what rest they could, but also manage to respond to any situation that might call for the kind of help that only they could really give, Takaya closed his own eyes. It truly did seem like Noal's promise meant as much to him as any of theirs had always meant to him and Shinya.
VI
When they'd all arrived at the Icelandic facility that held the microchip they were all searching for, Aki was disappointed – though by no means surprised – to find it in ruins. Given how determined each and every one of the Radam's monsters – whatever they ultimately looked like – were to cripple each and every means of defending themselves that humanity might try to employ, it would have taken a genuine miracle for this place to have remained even slightly intact aboveground.
Still, knowing that something was true was quite a different thing than seeing the proof of that right in front of your face.
Of course, if there was one thing even worse than being forced to face the results of the devastation that the Radam and their horrible monsters kept raining down on the Earth and all of her remaining people, it was seeing D-Boy and D-Two offering themselves up to go and get the chip from wherever it had ended up within the underwater part of the complex. Even in spite of the way that anyone who so much as looked at them for more than a handful of seconds could see that they were suffering. It had to be something the Radam had done to them.
There was no other explanation.
"From the looks of it, the probably destroyed the underwater elevator, too," Milly said, as all of them gathered outside the Green Earth, looking at the devastation the Radam had caused.
"The question now is, how do we get to the facility at the bottom of the lake."
"We'll go!"
O'Toole gasped, as their entire group turned around to look back at the Green Earth standing behind them. And to see the pair of stubbornly determined figures making their way out of her. Aki felt her heart wrench in her chest, watching the way the pair of them were forced to lean so heavily on each other, just to be able to get across the snowy tundra.
"Oi, are you kids sure?" Noal asked, in spite of the obvious fact that neither of them – not even D-Two, who seemed to be allowing D-Boy to lean on him for stability when it was clear that he was having just as hard a time walking as his brother – was in any way all right.
"Wait!" she called, desperately rushing over to where the pair of them had stopped in the snow, D-Two's entire body tight with tension as D-Boy's went slack against him.
She could see a slight flush, all the more obvious for being on D-Two's pale cheeks, and when she put her hand on the foreheads of first one twin and then the other, she found something that she hadn't been expecting.
"You're… really warm," she said.
It was something that she'd grown used to, the fact that Tekkamen like Blade and Varis ran hotter than normal people, but this was too much to be just that.
"It's probably just the cold," D-Two said, in a tone that was clearly aimed to be reassuring, but seeing both him and D-Boy barely able to stand, let alone walk, put paid to that.
"You should go back inside," she suggested, hoping that D-Two would at least take her words in the spirit they were offered.
"Yeah," Noal added. "Go get some rest, little brothers."
"You really are acting like a big brother now, Noal-kun," D-Two said, smirking in a way that Aki couldn't help but think looked more tired than amused.
"We're just going down to get the chip," Noal said, his returning grin seeming tired and even a bit forced to Aki's eyes. "We're not going into battle or anything," her friend and fellow Space Knight continued. "Go on, little brothers. Get some sleep. We can take care of it with the Sol Tekkamen, right Balzac?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Balzac said, though there was something uncertain about his manner; she couldn't put her finger on why, but she hoped that it wasn't something that would cause problems for them in the future.
"That's right! Those Sol Tekkamen will make fine diving suits! Now, come on," Levin said, nodding as she came over to wrap her arms around D-Two from behind, allowing him to relax, even if only slightly. "I'll take you inside, and I'll even tuck you in and give you a kiss, my sleepy D-Two!"
She could only hope that D-Boy and D-Two would listen, or at least that D-Two would, so he could convince D-Boy not to do anything rash. Anything that would let the two of them feel comfortable with staying behind where they would be able to rest up and heal, while Noal and Balzac took care of retrieving the computer chip that they would need to finish the upgrades on the Blue Earth. Anything that would mean that Aki didn't have to sit back and watch as D-Boy and D-Two threw themselves recklessly into deadly danger again.
Anything so that she could know one of the closest friends she had made, and the man she had fallen in love with, would be getting the rest they needed to cope with their clearly deteriorating conditions.
Sighing with relief as D-Boy and D-Two allowed themselves to be gently chivvied back aboard the Green Earth, Aki fell into step with them as their group made their way back onto the all-terrain transport. Noal and Balzac, naturally, split off from the main group so that they could head for the Green Earth's launch-bay to retrieve their Sol Tekkamen, while she, O'Toole, Milly, Levin, D-Boy, and D-Two all headed for the cockpit, so that they could observe the operation in some semblance of safety and comfort.
Wrapping her left arm around D-Boy's waist as he started to stumble, Aki tried not to shudder as she felt the increased heat of D-Boy's body through his clothes. There wasn't much of a chance, at least not as far as she was concerned, that this kind of thing could be just the product of D-Boy and D-Two's bodies overreacting to the cold they were even now surrounded by. Even if she didn't know much more about a Tekkaman's physiology than what D-Boy and D-Two had told her, Aki couldn't help the feeling that what she was seeing wasn't natural even for a Tekkaman.
Helping D-Boy to get settled in one of the chairs near the back of the cockpit, Aki turned to look over at D-Two when she heard his weary sigh.
"You two should really go lie down," she said, knowing that it probably wouldn't do much good – not only were the Radam still out in force, but there was also the matter of how neither of the twins had seemed to react well to bouts of forced inactivity; it was as though the pair of them thought they had to be moving, even when they didn't seem to have anywhere to go – but feeling like she had to say it, all the same. "Neither of you look well at all," she sighed, hoping at least D-Two would choose to listen, since that would make it easier to talk D-Boy around.
"Noal-kun and Balzac might need our support, and we have to be here to give it, Aki-chan," D-Two said, smiling wearily up at her.
VII
As he watched the monitors that the youngest of the Space Knights had been assigned to oversee, Bernard also made certain to keep an eye on D-Boy and D-Two, since those two lads had stubbornly insisted on staying put at the back of the Green Earth's CIC. True, it was entirely too likely that they'd end up needing the assistance before the day was out, but the sight of those two, D-Boy's face beginning to become noticeably flushed where D-Two's had been in such a state for the last day and a half, both of them slumped in the chairs in the back of the CIC, made something in Bernard' chest contract almost painfully.
That was what made the transmission from Noal all the more of a relief, knowing that he and Balzac had completed their mission successfully and would soon be returning to their transport.
"You did a good job," he said, smiling with both the relief of a job well-done, and the knowledge that he wouldn't have to ask one more impossible thing of those lads in the back of the CIC than he'd already done.
"Come on, there's no need to thank us," Noal said, the man sounding as though he wore the same, relieved smile that Bernard could feel stretching his own face.
All that remained, now that the hardest part was over and done with, was to wait for Noal and Balzac to return to the Green Earth.
"Are you boys going to go to bed now? Looks like it's all over but the shouting," he called, turning to look back over his right shoulder to where D-Boy and D-Two sat, each with their respective lover close enough to wrap an arm around them.
Before either of them could say a word, however, Noal's voice crackled over the comm, sounding distinctly less hopeful: "Wait, some Radam monsters just showed up underwater!"
D-Two's bitter chuckle seemed to encompass the mood of the CIC well enough, as well as the words he spoke. "No, Bernard, I don't think we're going to be going to bed soon."
"This is the first time we've seen the Radam swimming like this," Balzac paused, sounding like the man was attempting to regain at least some of his composure.
"Are you guys all right?" Milly asked; Bernard wondered the same thing.
To say nothing of how those lads would come out of the fight they might very well find themselves embroiled in all too soon.
"The Fermion Gun?" Levin echoed, sounding dismayed; Bernard knew enough to know that when an engineer of Levin's caliber was worried by something, any soldier with a brain and any ambition of keeping their limbs intact needed to sit up and take notice. "No! Don't shoot!"
Evidently, those underwater beasties were just as dangerous as the land-dwelling sort, because Noal had clearly tried to fire on them.
"Noal, are you all right?" Levin called over the comm..
"I'm all right, but the Fermion Gun's messed up," the man said, though he sounded quite a bit worse for wear, to Bernard's experienced ears.
"That's why I told you not to shoot," Levin said, not sounding entirely pleased. "There was an underwater explosion, caused by the Fermions reacting with the water molecules!"
Holding back a sigh through sheer force of will, Bernard tried as hard as he could not to look back at D-Boy and D-Two where they sat. It almost felt like fate was conspiring against them; like some force of the universe wanted those young lads of theirs to head back out into combat, in spite of what it would do to the pair of them if they did.
"That means we have no chance of winning. We'd better run away," Balzac said, sounding more than a little harried by all of the underwater beasties he and Noal had to be facing.
"Right!"
VIII
"At this rate, we're going to be Radam food!" Balzac snapped, after a few long, breathless moments spent listening to Noal and Balzac struggling to make their way back to the surface. "D-Boy, you and D-Two had better do something!"
"We'll be right there," he called over, he and Takaya helping each other back to their feet.
No matter how weary they both felt – and Shinya could personally attest that the pair of them felt pretty much like shit, currently – they'd both made a promise. Not only to be there for each other, but also to protect anyone who couldn't protect themselves from the depredations of the Radam Empire. That, of course, included their fellow Space Knights.
"I know it's hard for your both, right now, but…" Aki said, worry clear on her face as he and Takaya linked arms so that they'd be able to move more quickly; and without so much risk of falling, too.
"Yeah. We'll be all right," Takaya said, as he wrapped his own left arm around Shinya's waist, just above Shinya's own right arm.
"Stop right there! Stay right where you are, little brothers!" Shinya looked up, startled, at the sound of Noal's voice over the comm.
(Is he crazy?) Shinya wondered, in the breathless moments of dead air after Noal's transmission.
(We have to go,) Takaya said.
(Yeah,) he said, allowing himself a deep, fortifying breath, before the pair of them began moving forward.
It was a struggle to even start, and Shinya found himself passingly grateful for whatever transmission from Noal had drawn the attention of their remaining fellow Space Knights away from them. At least for the moment, anyway. Levin and Aki in particular, since neither of them would have been particularly happy if they'd seen what he and Takaya were aiming to do.
"Noal, what do you mean?" Aki asked, clearly continuing the conversation that had drawn attention away from them in the first place.
"Come on, Noal-kun. A bunch of Radam monsters aren't going to kill us," he said, working up a good-natured smile to try to break the smothering tension in the room.
When O'Toole turned to face them squarely, wearing a stricken expression that Shinya had never thought to see on the man's face, he had the distinct impression that his little joke had hit much closer to home than he'd been aiming for.
"Listen to me, lads," O'Toole said, the expression on his face slowly shifting into what almost looked like a finely controlled sort of despair. "Your bodies aren't working the way they used to, anymore."
"The way they used to?" Milly echoed.
"What do you mean, old man?" he asked, feeling a distinct chill; something that couldn't be mistaken for the bouts of increasing vertigo he was subject to, and also feeling a shiver of that same uncertainty through his link to Takaya.
Neither of them quite knew what to make of what they were hearing, but he couldn't help the suspicion that whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.
"You're both suffering from tissue breakdown, and it's advancing," O'Toole said, seeming like he was struggling to keep facing the pair of them, but also too stubborn to turn away.
Shinya could respect that, but…
"Tissue breakdown?" Aki asked, as Shinya felt another wave of vertigo pass through him.
"According to the results of Freeman's research, every time you lads transform into Tekkaman Blade or Tekkaman Varis, it degrades the cells of your bodies," O'Toole said, the weight of his words almost physically pressing down on them all. "Like how a boxer who's taken too many blows to the head becomes punch-drunk," the man paused for a moment, hard eyes fixed on the pair of them. "If the both of you keep turning into Tekkamen, then sometime in the near future," O'Toole ground his teeth, and Shinya could understand the man's sentiment completely. "The both of you are definitely going to die."
"All right, but if we don't go out there, Balzac and Noal-kun are definitely going to die," he said, smiling for the rest of the Space Knights that stood in the CIC with them. "We can't let that happen. We won't!"
"Please, don't leave," Levin said, presumably having come over to him when his and Takaya's attention had been taken up by what O'Toole had had to say. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, I don't know how I could live without you!"
"You'll be all right, Lev-chan," he said, smiling gently for his girlfriend; she really did remind him of a more innocent version of himself. "You're strong. You'll be fine."
"D-Two," Levin said, what sounded like a strangled laugh struggling out of her throat.
"I love you, Lev-chan," he said, leaning his forehead against hers as the pair of them stood together. "I won't die out there, I promise."
There was that same, strangled-sounding laugh out of Levin, before she latched onto Shinya almost desperately, kissing him and holding on as though she never wanted to let go. He could fully understand the sentiment, considering that he returned it completely, but he knew – better than anyone except Takaya – just what was at stake if they left Noal and Balzac where they were.
"Don't come down here, either of you!" Noal shouted from the comm. – Shinya knew that it would have been the height of hypocrisy for either of them to call the man out on his self-sacrificial attitude, but he couldn't help finding the whole thing funny – as he and Takaya turned around, both of them pulling each other toward the Green Earth's launch bay. "Stay away, little brothers!"
(It's funny, isn't it, Ta-kun,) he said, smirking slightly as the pair of them made it into the hangar-bay.
(It is, Shin-chan,) Takaya said, his mental tone carrying the same weariness that Shinya could feel pressing down on him.
(You're not getting tired, are you?) he asked, gently nudging Takaya, as the pair of them stared up the length of Pegas' impressive bulk.
(No,) Takaya said, just a little too quickly for Shinya to take him completely at face value. (Are you?)
(No,) he returned, smirking.
"Pegas, Teksetta!"
"Teksetta!"
IX
Grinding his teeth, knowing that those two idiot kids of theirs would be coming down into this death trap that the Radam had laid for them, Noal tried not to hold it against Balzac; hell, if circumstances hadn't been what they were, he'd have been the first to call the Gemini Boys down to help them out. Still, as he watched Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis' armored forms jetting through the water, chasing down those half-fish Radam monsters that had pinned him and Balzac down, Noal swallowed the harsh words scraping at the back of his throat. He knew that, for all of the times he'd called D-Boy a self-sacrificing idiot, D-Two was just the same, when it came to their comrades.
"Noal!" Blade shouted.
Noal closed his eyes. "You shouldn't have come, little brothers," he muttered, wishing that there had been at least some way of keeping those crazy kids of theirs from diving into the water.
Something that would have kept those crazy kids of theirs from basically killing themselves, just to get him and Balzac out of a tight spot.
X
As he connected briefly with Varis' mind, the both of them having had the thought that getting two pairs of eyes working on the problem of their respective – and entirely too sudden – difficulties with double-vision, Blade staggered in the water as his – as their – thoughts tangled with each other. He – they – needed to surface. Yanking as hard as he could on his own mind, Blade managed to mentally isolate himself, looking over at Varis as his younger twin quickly made for the surface just beside him.
Shuddering, he sighed in relief as the pair of them finally surfaced, both helping to pull the other out of the water.
Hearing Varis panting harshly beside him, Blade forced himself to stand up, if only so that his younger twin would be able to lean on him the way he seemed to need to. The sound of their armor clattering softly together, even amid the shouting of some of their fellow Space Knights and the familiar hissing-roar of charging Radam monsters, almost distracted Blade from what he and Varis were going to need to do.
(Just one more thing,) Varis said, his mental voice sounding about as exhausted as Blade felt.
(Yeah,) he said, smiling softly even as he forced himself back to his feet.
"Voltekka!"
Almost before the last word had left his mouth, however, Blade found himself overwhelmed by a pain that – while it wasn't nearly as bad as what he'd felt when Dagger had used the Spectrum Disruptor crystals on him, and it couldn't hold a candle to the pain he'd felt when he was being transformed in the first place – caused his vision to white out briefly, and left Blade with a sort of crackling sensation that made him feel like he'd just had raw lightning shoved down his throat. Varis' groan from beside him reminded Blade that he wasn't the only one who felt that way.
Grabbing his younger twin around the waist, even as he heard and saw the sounds of intense, pitched battle all around them, Blade struggled to stay on his feet, even as the vertigo that Varis had been dealing with on-and-off for the past several weeks slammed into him like a fully-loaded transport convoy.
"Thanks," he muttered, as his fellow Space Knight came to support him, just like he was supporting Varis.
"Of course, little brothers. I've got you," Noal said, his tone a little too grim to match the smile on his face.
"Yeah," he said, smiling even though Noal couldn't see it.
It was true, after all; even if not all of them knew what they'd done for him and Varis, all of the Space Knights had helped to save them in more ways than either of them could really repay. And, as he heard the rest of them – Aki and Levin in particular – calling his and Varis' names, Blade smiled all the wider. Sure, he might've done himself more than his fair share of damage – and he'd have been lying if he said he was okay – but at least the people he could still allow himself to care about were safe.
For the time being, at least.
As he let himself be guided back to Pegas' interlock chamber, a familiar flash of turquoise light shining briefly in the right corner of his field-of-view, Blade finally allowed himself to relax while Noal told their fellow Space Knights about his and Balzac's success. The familiar rush of energy left him alongside his armor, and Takaya found that he felt all the more normal in the wake of its departure.
"Sorry about that," he said, smiling as he tried not to look as weary as he knew he felt. "It's just-"
"We couldn't… just…" Shinya said, picking up his fairly obvious cue as Takaya himself stopped speaking.
He didn't hear anything else that anyone might have said, however, because a rush of that same, horrible, world-bending vertigo that he and Shinya had both been dealing with came up suddenly, making it look as though the ground itself had reached up to smack him in the face… but his surroundings faded into blackness before he fell more than what felt like a foot… Shinya…