After all, the more soldiers that were available to them, then the easier their future plans would become. Though there was now the complication of their being two of them, but since Agito knew Akane's motives and fighting style, he thought it would be easy to deal with her if it ever came to that. The two of them had discussed what they knew about Chronos, though Agito suspected that Akane hadn't told him all of the information that she had gathered while she had worked for them.

He would have done the same, after all.

As the two of them made their way into one of the many hidden bases the Zeus Thunderbolt utilized, Agito entered the code that would let him into the facility. All the while, he wondered if his own code would work, or if he would end up being required to ask Akane for assistance. As it turned out, though, his entry code did indeed work on this door. Of course, that left Agito wondering if Akane's code would have even worked on this door.

It would be interesting to find out, at a more convenient time of course.

"Sir! Glad to see you're back from- Ma'am?" Jeffries looked from him to Akane and then back again, twice. "What's going on here?"

"We can explain that later," Akane said offhandedly. "For now, we would appreciate it if you gathered all of the personnel here into the mess hall. It will be more convenient for all of us if Agito and I are only required to explain the situation once."

"Yes, ma'am," Jeffries saluted, hurrying off to gather the other members of this branch of Zeus Thunderbolt.

"Well, now I suppose we'll find out just how this event effected our forces," Agito said.

"Yes, I suppose we will."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Yukari, having been awakened from yet another nightmare by Sho's comforting presence, buried her face in Sho's chest and shivered. It had been two and a half weeks since the two of them had fought the Murakamis, and neither Sho nor Yukari had managed to forget the battle long enough to get any real sleep. Yukari was starting to nod-off at odd moments during the day, since she slept so little at night.

Tetsuro had said that Sho had been having the same problems, and Yukari had said that she was sorry to hear that. She really was; maybe she could warm up some milk for them before they went to bed tonight, the way that her father had always done for her when she couldn't sleep. Thinking of her father, Yukari felt the usual slight pang of sadness. She and Sho had talked about their respective fathers, and how they had died.

She thought it was sad, how much those parts of their lives were the same. Well, a lot of parts of their lives were the same, but Yukari had still held out hope that Sho's life would have been better than hers in that respect, at least. Turning her head so that she could rest the side of it against Sho's chest, Yukari sighed.

"Do you want to get up now, or should we try to get some more sleep?" Yukari asked.

"We're not really doing anything today," Sho said, sounding just as tired as Yukari felt. "And I'm still tired," here, Sho yawned. "I think we should try to get some more sleep."

"Wait here," Yukari said, climbing out of the futon.

"Where are you going?"

"Well, I... I kind of have to use the toilet."

"Oh," Sho blushed, turning away from Yukari as she left.

When she was out of Sho's room, Yukari finished what she had had to do, washed her hands thoroughly, and headed for the kitchen. Maybe some warm milk would help them both sleep, the same way it always had when she was younger. Yukari just hoped that they wouldn't be woken up by nightmares again. Even with what had happened to the Murakamis... even though she was still sad, Yukari knew that she was losing too much sleep.

It was a good thing that they didn't have any attacks on Chronos planned, because Yukari could barely function with how little sleep she had been getting lately. And from the way he was acting when she saw him, Yukari knew that Sho was having the same problems as she was. Yukari hoped that this would help them both to get at least some rest; she hoped, but she didn't really know.

Pouring a little more than two glasses worth of milk into a small saucepan, Yukari heated the milk on the stove until it looked like it was warm enough. Shutting off the burner, Yukari poured a little bit of milk into her glass and tasted it. It was nice and warm, so she poured half of the milk into her glass and half into the glass that she had gotten for Sho.

Picking up the glasses, Yukari carried them over to the table and set them down again. Then she soaked the saucepan. Since it would have taken too much time to wash it, and since she wanted to give Sho the milk before it got cold, Yukari picked up the glasses and headed back to the room that she and Sho shared.

She would come back to clean the saucepan later.

Once Yukari had made it back to the room that she shared with Sho, she handed him one of the glasses.

"What's this?"

"Warm milk," Yukari said. Then, seeing Sho's confusion, Yukari elaborated. "Father always brought it for me when I couldn't sleep, and it's always helped me."

"Oh. Thank you," Sho said, sipping the milk.

"You're welcome," Yukari said, drinking her own milk. The feel of the warm liquid sliding down her throat made her feel better, nice and sleepy instead of jumpy and wide awake like she always was after she had nightmares.

Setting the glass down on the floor far enough away from the futon that she wouldn't accidentally knock it over in her sleep, Yukari turned over to look at Sho. He'd finished off his milk by now, and so Yukari took his glass and set it down next to her own. Rolling over to sleep on her left side, facing Sho, Yukari smiled and closed her eyes.

She really hoped that they both had a better time sleeping after this.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

There had been a rather thorough head-count, and after that, both of them had gone over the personnel files for all of their organization. It had taken a great deal of work to get through the safeguards that they had both installed in the system, and their many and varied password-protections, but eventually she and Agito had managed to do just that.

There had been thirty members of Zeus Thunderbolt that had been duplicated in the same way that she, Yukari, and the Zoalord Hikari Mirabilis had been. Most of those had been the members of her and Agito's respective inner-circles, but Akane was never one to look too harshly upon something that could be used to her own advantage.

"I suppose the next thing we should think about is what to do next," Agito said, once they had finished with their investigations.

"I have a few ideas on that front," Akane said calmly, folding her hands on the table.

"Oh?"

"I know that the two of us would never be able to work with each other over a long period of time," Akane said reasonably. "And I'm not so naïve as to suggest that we share control of this world."

"And so? You're not going to suggest that we fight over this, are you?"

"No," Akane said sharply. "There is too much at stake now for us to be engaged in a power-struggle, and likewise there would be nothing to gain from such a thing. I was thinking of something else."

"What?"

"Have you heard about, or managed to gain any information on, Chronos' "Ark Project"?"

"No; though it sounds like a vessel of some kind."

"Correct," Akane said, producing a data CD from one of the pockets of her darkly colored jacket and setting it on the table between them. "This is all of the data that I have managed to gather on Chronos' Ark. Feel free to look it over."

"I will," Agito said, taking the CD and looking at it thoughtfully. "Still, I am interested to know just how you managed to smuggle this vital piece of intelligence out of Chronos' headquarters?"

"That's one of my more brilliant tactics," Akane said, chuckling. "After all, there are very few men that will think to look closely at the contents of a box of tampons," Akane smirked, "Or inside a woman's brassiere."

Agito raised an eyebrow. "That last one sounds rather uncomfortable."

"One does what one must," Akane said.

"Yes; and I commend you willingness to do so," Agito stood up. "I will take a look at what information you have gathered about this Ark of Chronos'. Then we can make further plans."

"I look forward to that," Akane said, rising from her seat and leaving the room.

After pocketing the disc that Akane had given him, Agito left the room as well.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Picking up the glasses, Sho looked over at Yukari again. She really did look cute when she was sleeping, and since Yukari had been the one to bring them the warm milk in the first place; something that Sho was grateful for since it did help him to get to sleep last night, Sho decided that he would wash them for her. It was only fair, after all.

Leaving Yukari to sleep, Sho quietly opened the door and then quietly closed it again once he was out of the room. Yukari might have been a pretty heavy sleeper, but Sho though she would have appreciated his consideration. He would have, if their positions had been reversed. Walking to the kitchen, Sho set the glasses gently in the sink and proceeded to wash them.

He also washed the smallish saucepan that Yukari had presumably used to heat up the milk in the first place. Drying them and putting them up, Sho hung up the towel and left the kitchen. He saw Tetsuro, yawning and generally looking like he'd only reluctantly dragged himself out of bed, and would be returning to the comfort of his nice warm bed as soon as possible.

Watching as Tetsuro poured himself a glass of water and drank it quickly, Sho smiled. They would eventually have to find some way of starting their attacks on Chronos again, and then they would probably end up facing... them, but for now they could rest. For now, they didn't have to worry.

For now they were as safe as they could be, at least.

"So the Ark that Chronos has been creating, or rather recreating, is in fact the engineered remains of the Relic," Agito commented, folding his hands beneath his chin. "Interesting. With that in our possession, we would be able to do far more than simply rule this world."

"Yes," Akane said, nodding. "There would still be the matter of obtaining it, something that would doubtless prove both very difficult and dangerous. Still, with the proper planning we should be able to procure at least some new information about the project."

Agito nodded, returning his attention to the data that Akane had gathered on Chronos' Ark and where it was most likely being developed. Getting inside Chronos' well-guarded and highly top-secret Dead Sea Plant would be a decent challenge, but with Akane's knowledge of Chronos' facilities and procedures added to his own, Agito was certain that they would be able to turn this new development of Chronos' science to their own advantage.

It was only a matter of how.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"You think she's ever going to come out?" a large, nondescript man wondered aloud, looking over at the Odagiri mansion from his place on a nearby rooftop.

"That's not for us to worry about," said another man, just as average looking as his counterpart. "We're just here to watch."

"Yeah, and not get eaten by Aptom," grumbled the first, who was not really a man but a Zoanoid.

"That's pretty much a given," the other Zoanoid said, chuckling darkly.

With nothing to say in response to that, the two Zoanoids turned back to their rather tedious surveillance duties. There were small pockets of them all over the city; Zoanoids that were specifically bred to track the scents of certain humans, even in large crowds. They were able to pick out and then follow a single human scent through even the largest crowd or the densest forest. They were all in the city for a far more specific purpose than keeping an eye on the human population: they were meant to learn the habits and tendencies of the Guyver girl Yukari Fukamachi.

They had been assigned to discretely keep tabs on her, learning where she went and what she enjoyed. Her Excellency Hikari had made their orders abundantly clear when she'd given them, and none of the Zoanoids wanted to disappoint her. To say nothing of the fact that Her Excellency was a Zoalord, there was just something about her that made it seem like sacrilege to so much as disappoint her.

She was Hikari, after all, the Holy Mother of Chronos. At least, that was what a lot of the guys called her. Sure, she could be kind of intense at times, or a lot of the time, but then a lot of the Overlords were like that. And none of them were as cute as Her Excellency, anyway. There was the mild weirdness of them not really being sure whether Her Excellency was really His Excellency Lord Imakarum's sister or not, but then again this wasn't really something any of them thought about very much.

It was just what they had to deal with.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Are you really certain that this is going to work? I thought that Fukamachi was the only one who was able to pilot the Relic."

"I am fairly sure that the reason neither of us was able to pilot was because we resisted when it was attempting to create the link between its main computer and the Guyver's Control Medal. That might not be the case for the Ark."

"I see," Agito said, folding his hands under his chin. "Still, there is the matter of the Ark being in Chronos' possession. How would you suggest that we infiltrate the Dead Sea Plant to gain control of it?"

"I think that reaching the Middle East without being detected will be our largest concern for the moment. We can plan for contingencies once we have a clear idea of what opposition we're going to be facing once we find a way inside."

"I suppose that's a fair point," Agito said.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Yukari and Sho had volunteered to wash the breakfast dishes once the meal was done, and that was just what they were doing at the moment. Though they did occasionally playfully flick soapsuds at one another. Mizuki came in during one such time.

The first thing that gave Mizuki away was when she started giggling at the sight of her friends playing in soapsuds like they didn't have a care in the world.

"I swear, you two act more like a married couple than my parents," Mizuki giggled as Yukari and Sho blushed. "You two aren't going to start dating now, are you?" she asked teasingly.

"I don't think so," Yukari said, still slightly blushing. "It would be too much like dating myself. I mean, I like myself, but I don't think I'd like to date myself, really," Yukari sighed. "Did that make any sense?"

"Not much," Mizuki said, chuckling. "But I think I understood it anyway."

"We should really get back to washing the dishes now," Sho said, smiling. "It was really nice talking to you, Mizuki."

"It was nice talking to you, too," Mizuki said, going over to give Sho a one-armed hug before she left.

"You're lucky to have her, Sho," Yukari said, rinsing the bowl that Sho had handed to her.

"You have her too, you know," Sho said, as he washed another plate and handed it to Yukari.

"Not like you do, though," Yukari said. "At least, I don't think I do. After that night, though..."

"What happened then?"

"Oh!" Yukari exclaimed, not having realized that she had spoken that last part out loud. "It was nothing; nothing at all."

For about ten seconds, Sho looked as if he was going to probe more deeply about what Yukari had been talking about, but then he just shrugged and turned back to his washing. Yukari sighed in relief; she wasn't sure just why Mizuki had done... well, that; but if she and Sho were already involved, Yukari didn't want to do anything to come between them. It would have been less confusing if she and Akane hadn't ended up here in the first place, but they had.

They had, and now they would have to deal with what they found here. Yukari sighed again and returned to her rinsing.

"Is something wrong, Yukari?"

"No," Yukari said, shaking her head as she rinsed another dish and set it on the drainer to dry. "I was just thinking. It's really strange how we're all here together now, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Sho said, as he finished washing the last of the dishes and handing it over to her. "I'm glad you did, though. With... everything that's happened, it's nice to have someone to talk to."

"Yeah," Yukari said, putting the dish in to drain with the others. "It really is."

Patting Yukari's shoulder as he turned and left the kitchen, Sho felt Yukari wrap an arm around his waist and squeeze lightly before she strode out of the room beside him. Once they had made it back to the main room, Yukari and Sho found another surprise waiting for them.

"Akane! Agito! I didn't expect you two to be back so soon," Yukari said, happily surprised. "You missed breakfast, though."

"We ate before we arrived," Akane said offhandedly.

"Oh, that's good, then," Yukari said. "We'll just leave you two alone, then. Welcome back!" Yukari called over her shoulder as she left with Sho.

"Do you ever wonder where they keep going when they leave like that?" Sho asked, looking back they way they'd come.

"I've learned not to ask questions about that anymore."

Sho nodded. "You kind of have to, I guess, after they just keep ignoring you like that."

"Or telling you to back off because it's none of your business," Yukari said, also nodding.

"Yeah, that too," Sho paused for about half a minute, gathering himself. "Yukari? Do... do you want to take a walk somewhere?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to leave the house," Yukari pointed out reasonably.

"I know that," Sho said, fidgeting slightly before calming himself down. "I just feel like the walls are closing in on me. We could always put on disguises before we leave."

"Do we even have disguises here?" Yukari asked, warming to the idea but still wanting to be cautious.

"I think we could find something that would help hide our identities," Sho said, sounding hopeful.

"Maybe," Yukari was still dubious. "But we should really tell the others we're going to go before we leave. And, I don't think Akane and Agito are going to be happy."

"No, I think you're right," Sho sighed. "I know neither of them will be happy with us when we tell them, but I just... I feel like I'm going crazy stuck in here. I think it would be safe for us to just go out into Odagiri's garden for a while."

"I think I'd like that," Yukari said, smiling.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Akane, having just settled in to read, was interrupted by someone knocking at her door. Looking up, slightly annoyed at the interruption, Akane decided to ignore the person outside her door in the hope that they would get the message and go away. Planning ways to appropriate Chronos' Ark for their own use had been an interesting mental exercise, but now what Akane wanted most was some time to herself. Surely that was not too much to ask.

Apparently it was, since the knocks were repeated rather more loudly than Akane appreciated. Frowning as she left the chair where she had been sitting, Akane slipped a bookmark into her novel and set it down on a nearby table. Striding over to the door with an air of mild annoyance, Akane opened the door.

"Yukari. What are you here for?"

"I just wanted to tell you that Sho and I are going to go out to Prof. Odagiri's garden for awhile."

"Very well, just try to keep out of sight. You know that there could be Zoanoids watching this place."

"Yes, Akane. I know; I'll be careful, and I'll make sure to tell Sho to do the same."

"Good. Then enjoy yourself," Akane said, shutting the door as Yukari turned and left.

She certainly hoped that Yukari knew what she was doing. The girl could be subtle when she put her mind to it; it was just that Yukari didn't usually bother. That was usually a trait that Akane encouraged, since it meant that Yukari would not examine her actions or motives too closely, which in turn made Yukari easier to manipulate since Akane knew how to handle her. However, it also meant that Yukari was ill prepared to handle things of this nature.

It would be rather... inconvenient if they were forced to deal with a Zoanoid attack on these premises.

Still, Yukari could always be counted upon to value the lives of her friends far more than her own, which made it very advantageous that Yukari's friends were all gathered together in this place. That meant, of course, that Yukari would never do anything that would endanger this place; a sanctuary for her friends. That was why Akane wasn't worried so much.

Yukari would keep herself out of trouble, if only to ensure that Chronos did not strike at her friends.