The last time that Guyver III had paid a visit to the Arizona base, he had almost left it in ruins. And that had only been one Guyver III; his counterpart had been off conducting her own battle with the aid of the Libertus and the Thunderbolts' Proto-Zoalord.

"Indeed. I am starting to think that it is pointless for me to remain here; the Pillars of Heaven have not been under any kind of abnormal threat. And, to be honest, I am more concerned with the central seat of Chronos than I am about our holdings in Washington. I have a bad feeling about this."

"So, Gigantic Dark and those Thunderbolts of his could be coming here soon? Do you think Makishima's counterpart will be fighting with him?"

"There have been reports of Makishima's counterpart being involved in her own battles with another group of Thunderbolts. However, I expect that both of them will participate in any major attacks made against Chronos installations like this one. We cannot be so careless as to let the central seat of Chronos be unguarded for any reason. At least not until the Ark project has been completed and we have a viable fallback position. Circumstances being what they are, I will return to this facility shortly. In the meantime, I would advise you to strengthen the defensive lines and keep a closer watch on anyone trying to leave or enter the facility."

"Yes, Dr. Balkus, I will make sure to do that. And we await your return with pleasure, sir."

Dr. Balkus 'hmm'ed slightly in response, then the screen flickered off as the transmission was ended at the source. Gustav paused for a moment, pondering how best to carry out the orders he'd just been given. The voice of one of the lower-level Zoanoids - just a grunt, really - broke into his thoughts and gave him something else to think about.

"The VIP transport helicopter is about to land; I'll open up the cliffside landing pad now, sir."

"Wait," Gustav said. "Tell me who's on board."

"The passenger data lists him as a Dr. Chan," the Zoanoid said. "Part of the Development Department; he was one of the overseers for the construction of our large base in Australia. He was expected to return today."

Gustav considered that for a moment; it might have been just his own paranoia getting to him, but the fact that he now knew that Guyver III and his counterpart were coming back to make another attempt to attack the Arizona base was wearing on his nerves. Maybe it really was just stress that was making him so uneasy about the impending arrivals.

"Should I delay the landing until we can get re-confirmation of who's in the transport?" the grunt asked, evidentially seeing the indecision writ large on Gustav's face.

"No, I'm sure everything's fine. Open the hangar and notify the Hangar Five personnel to be ready to receive Dr. Chan and his crew."

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Aboard the transport helicopter, Agito and Akane Makishima were waiting with their regiment of Libertus troops. And with Shizu Onuma, who functioned as their Zoalord commander. But, at the moment, Akane's mind was not on the impending attack. She was thinking about something odd that she had remembered.

It was not so much the fact that she remembered it as the fact that she had never experienced it in the first place that was troubling her. The "memory" was of Agito as a child – a child that she had never met – and her twin. That was simply not what had happened, and she should not have been thinking of Agito that way.

Agito was not someone that she could trust; he was a temporary, uneasy ally at best. The only reason that neither of them had tried to take command of the Thunderbolts for themselves was the fact that none of them could afford a power struggle at this time. Turning on one another for their own personal gain would only make it easier for Chronos to snap them up once they had inevitably depleted a substantial amount of their recourses.

It would not do to tell Agito about what she had been "remembering"; not only would it make her appear weak and mentally unfit for command, it would give Agito something to hold over her.

Feeling it through her legs when they landed, Akane moved toward the landing ramp. Their Libertus army was prepared to move out, Agito was at the head of their attack force, and Akane moved to join him.

+How much resistance do you think we can expect from the personnel of this base?+ Akane asked.

+Not enough to give us any substantial amount of trouble taking what we want.+

+Of course not,+ Akane said, standing beside Agito as the transport helicopter settled to the ground.

"Dr. Chan, on behalf of everyone here at the Arizona Central Command Base, I would like to welcome you to the central seat of Chronos."

Agito smiled thinly. "Akane, do you know of anyone named Chan?"

"No, Agito," she said, moving to stand more closely beside him, smiling down with predatory pleasure at the now-visibly-cowering Chronos personnel. "I don't. Though perhaps that was the name of the man we killed when we appropriated his transport."

"You really didn't have to go to all of this trouble just to welcome us into your midst," Agito said.

"Who are those two?" the taller Chronos scientist asked, looking between her and Agito.

Surreptitiously reaching into her right pocket, Akane closed her hand around the grip of the .45 she had brought with her for just this sort of attack. True, it was not designed to work on Zoanoids, but the unprocessed humans that were a part of Chronos' scientific division would be affected well enough.

"Wait, I've heard of these two," the rotund scientist said, beginning to seem genuinely frightened at last. "That's Agito Makishima! And Akane; reports stated she's his sister!"

+Well, I was wondering what Chronos would come up with to explain away the fact that both of us look identical,+ Agito commented.

+Yes; rather a convenient ruse, considering the circumstances.+

"You mean those two are the Makishima twins? The leaders of the Zeus Thunderbolt resistance force?!" one of the anonymous, jumpsuited Zoanoids in the back of the room demanded, sounding as if he was on the verge of a panic attack.

That would have been an interesting sight, Akane thought, with a soft chuckle.

"We must get word to Dr. Balkus at once!" the rotund scientist shouted, staring in fearful shock at them and their Libertus troops. "Hurry! We must send the reports while we still can!"

Before any of the Zoanoids could make so much as a move toward any of the hangar's many exits, Shizu had stepped forward and taken command of every Zoanoid in the room. Even – surprisingly enough – the taller, more slender Chronos scientist. Without Balkus there to hamper her efforts, Shizu was easily able to take control of the Zoanoids in the immediate area.

"Now you are cut off from Chronos' aid; everything seems to be going according to plan, eh sister?"

Akane met Agito's gaze, wondering if he too was starting to remember things that had never happened. "Indeed it is, brother. What do you propose we do with him? He certainly won't be controllable the way that these Chronos-made Zoanoids are."

"Easily taken care of."

A uniformed Libertus soldier brushed gently past her, inclining his head in a gesture of respect as he made his way down the landing ramp and onto the concrete floor where the Zoanoid stood holding the sole human in the room in his grip.

"Finish it," Agito said with cold satisfaction.

Akane took a moment to watch as the man's head imploded under the pressure that their Libertus applied to him.

"Let's move out now," she suggested. "It won't take long for Balkus to arrive, and I for one would prefer to keep him unaware of our presence for as long as possible."

"Shizu, gather our forces and follow me," Agito said, walking just slightly ahead of Akane. "We'll take the main freight elevator."

It was simpler to let him take command; to make the majority of the decisions in the campaigns that they conducted. It would be easy to learn his style of command that way, what contingencies he thought to plan for; which would make dealing with him all the more uncomplicated when the time came. There was still the matter of Shizu, but for the moment Akane was content to wait.

Shizu's presence wouldn't be a factor forever.

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As they made their way onto the freight elevator, Agito could not help but watch his counterpart surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye. She was starting to become something of a non-presence, carefully secluding herself when she was not developing some new weapon, standing back while he himself took command of their combined forces. And all the while growing ever more observant.

Frankly, it was starting to unnerve him.

Both the fact that his counterpart was watching him so closely – she had to be planning something, because he would have been planning something in the same situation – and because his own mind was starting to betray him. Not in the sense that he could no longer remember his goals, but in the sense that he was starting to remember things that had never – and could never have – happened.

Glancing back at Akane; Agito found that he could remember her not only as the young woman she was, but as a young girl with her hair tied up into two pigtails, fussing over his younger self as she wrapped a bandage around his scraped left knee. He could remember that Shizu had enjoyed braiding Akane's hair, then combing it out and putting it up in pigtails because she thought it was cute.

He could also remember Akane's patient endurance of Shizu's ministrations. Only none of it had happened, so why the hell was he remembering it so clearly?!

Deciding to think about that later – or never, since bringing it up with Akane would only signal that he was weak, and then she would try to take command of their forces – Agito turned his attention back to the group of Libertus that he was commanding, just as the elevator they were all standing in game to a sudden, grinding halt.

"It appears that Balkus has finally noticed our arrival," Akane said calmly.

"Yes," Agito glanced around at the waiting Libertus. "We'll exit here, then. Libertus, move out!"

They leapt from the elevator, even as he and Akane called their respective Guyvers.

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With Hayami securely on his back, Sho continued on his way up to the laboratory where Aptom and Yukari were most likely being held. At least according to everything that Hayami had said. Once they had reached the top of the shaft, Sho set Hayami down and landed.

There was another air vent in front of them, and Sho paused in front of it to consult with Hayami.

"We're on the ninety-seventh floor now; Aptom and Yukari should be here, right?"

"They should be," Hayami said, nodding. "If not, I have a few other ideas. But let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Sho nodded, silently echoing the sentiment. "If we come in through this air duct, we should be able to bypass the security that they placed around the laboratory."

"Yes," Hayami said, nodding. "Sho, can you try to sense what's going on on the other side of this wall?"

Sho focussed the Guyver's hyper-sensors forward, scanning deeply to see just what the situation was in the deeper areas of the ninety-seventh level. "There are guards, positioned every ten meters, along all of the corridors. There are also two agents in place at the entrance to the fourth laboratory."

"Only two? That's kind of strange," Hayami muttered. "What other kind of defenses are in place?"

"The walls of the laboratory are made of a special kind of steel that's four-hundred millimeters thick," Sho said, continuing his scan. "And there is a net of varying types of alarm systems protecting the doors themselves."

"I guess it's a good thing we're not going in through the doors, then," Hayami muttered. "What about the setup inside the laboratory?"

"I can sense a figure in the center of the room that might be Aptom," Sho said, trying to make the mental image resolve but only succeeding in frustrating himself. "I can't make it out all that clearly, so I think it might be petrifying quickly. There's also something else in the room..." Sho trailed off as he looked deeper into the laboratory; what he sensed there made him feel as if someone had rammed a dagger made of ice straight into his entrails. "There's a processing-tank in that room!"

Hayami started violently. "Are you sure?"

"I'm almost positive," Sho said grimly, scanning more deeply just so he could be absolutely sure about the matter. "There's only one of them, but there's someone inside it. There's also something else..."

"What is it, Sho?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "It's been happening ever since we came into Cloud Gate; I keep getting this distortion in the Guyver's sensors. I can't seem to see through it."

"I'll admit that I don't know very much about the Guyver's sensor system, but do you suppose that there could be some interference from the electronics inside the building?"

"That could be it," he said, nodding. "Anyway, we should go rescue Aptom now. And try to find where they're holding Yukari."

Climbing into the vent, Sho started forward. Once he'd gotten his body fully inside, he heard Hayami climbing into the vent behind him. Through the grates, he could see a few of the Combat Agents that Chronos had placed throughout the corridors on this floor. Once they had made it to an unguarded area at the back of the laboratory, Sho carefully lifted the grate free from it's moorings and lowered himself to the ground. Hayami did the same, managing to set the grate back in place before he settled himself to the floor.

"The Fourth Laboratory is just on the other side of this wall."

"Right," Sho nodded.

Sending a burst of concentrated sonic energy at the wall in front of them, Sho trusted Hayami to tell him if there were any Zoanoids coming. As the wall in front of them buckled and slowly collapsed, crumbling into metallic dust, Sho stopped screaming; that stopped the sonic waves. Nodding to Hayami, Sho stepped through the hole and into the laboratory.

What he saw there frightened him; it was like nothing he'd been expecting. Aptom was there, still frozen in stone like he'd been expecting, but it wasn't Aptom that drew his attention. What Sho was focussed on the figure in the processing-tank. It wasn't a Zoanoid, but it was... it was...

"Yukari..." reaching out to touch the shell of the processing-tank, Sho found himself almost overcome with rage.

Chronos had performed these sick experiments on his father and on Mr. Murakami; they'd done the same thing to Yukari's father, and to Ms. Murakami. He was not going to let them do the same kind of horrible things to Yukari as they had done to so many other people! Raising his fist, Sho prepared to bring it down hard on the processing-tank.

"Sho! You can't!" Hayami shouted, grabbing his wrist. "If that's the kind of fluid I think it is, then any sudden changes to her environment could kill Yukari instantly!"

Sho relaxed, appalled at what his anger had almost made him do. He couldn't afford to be reckless; not when the lives of his friends hinged on his actions.

"Then what can we do, Hayami?" he asked, looking between the frozen, stone form of Aptom and the unconscious form of Yukari. "Is there anything we can do to help them?"

"There should be a... Good, I found the controls," Hayami said, after a minute of searching. "I should be able to alter the composition of the fluid; and deactivate whatever traps they've set on those wires attached to Aptom."

Sho felt slightly guilty for forgetting Aptom in his urgent worry over what – he hoped was not – being done to Yukari. Still, Aptom wasn't in so much immediate danger as Yukari was now. Listening to Hayami type, Sho tried not to fidget so much. Hayami would find a way to save them, both Aptom and Yukari, and then they could all go back home.

Or, at least back to the place that functioned as a home for all of them.

The sense of something on the edge of his perception startled Sho out of his worried contemplation. It's happening again. Why do I keep sensing that there's something in the room that I can't see? I've felt this ever since we first entered Cloud Gate, but never as strong as now. What's so special about this room?

Looking around, and scanning to see if he could locate the source of the distortion, Sho stabbed out with the Vibration Blade on his right arm. Aiming at a patch of what looked like empty air, Sho was rewarded with the pained scream of whatever it was that had been following them. The blood that splattered over the floor, along with the just-beginning-to-become-visible severed arm lying on the floor amidst the pool of blood, let Sho know that his instinct had been right.

I knew something had to be following us! The Guyver's sensors were picking something up, I just wasn't able to tell what it was that they were detecting.

"Sho! What the hell's going on here?!"

"That thing was following us, Hayami," he said, pointing at the Zoanoid that had just appeared before the two of them.

It looked like some spectacularly odd cross between a lizard, some animals that Sho couldn't identify, and a human wearing some sort of mask. Sho didn't know just what kind of Zoanoid this new creature was, but there was no doubt in Sho's mind that it was dangerous. All Chronos-produced Zoanoids were; it was just a matter of finding out how dangerous they were and then dealing with them. That was what he had always done, what Yukari had done, up to the point where Mr. Murakami had... taken her.

"How the hell did you find me, Guyver?! My disguise was supposed to be flawless!"

"I couldn't see you," Sho saw no harm in admitting. "But the Guyver's sensors kept telling me that there was something just out of my range of perception. And the strange thing was that the feeling got stronger all the time that I was in Cloud Gate, but I only realized that there was a Zoanoid following me when Hayami and I entered this laboratory. That was when I knew that you were after me."

"Sho, do you mean to tell me that this Zoanoid has been following us ever since we first entered Cloud Gate?!" Hayami demanded, sounding sick with worry.

"That's right!" The Zoanoid crowed, laughing. "And now it's too late for the both of you! My masters will never let you escape! I was sent to make certain that you didn't encounter any resistance to your entry here," the Zoanoid laughed. "This laboratory is about to become your tomb!"

There came a sudden, ominous crackling sound then. Like something electronic was slowly starting to overload. Turning to look behind him, since that was where the sound seemed to be coming from, Sho found that it was indeed the sound of electrical equipment overloading. The processing-tank that held Yukari was starting to vibrate, rattling and even starting to crack in places. But what was worse, what was so much worse was what was happening to Aptom.

His body was starting to crack apart, crumbling into pieces and falling to rest on the dais he'd been suspended over. Screaming, Sho ran at the dais, wanting nothing more than to pull Aptom down and try to save him in any way that he could. Burning pain lanced through his body, and Sho screamed as agony set fire to his nerves. Out of the corner of his eye, Sho saw Yukari sagging almost to the floor, held up only by the cables and monitoring devices that had been attached to her body.

She looked like a puppet with tangled strings, and Sho made up his mind about what he was going to do: if he couldn't help Aptom, and it certainly seemed that way, then he would at least make an effort to get Yukari out of that horrible tank that Chronos had put her in. Who knew what kind of things Chronos was planning to do to her?

"Hayami, please try to help Aptom," Sho called, even as he hurried over to the shattered processing-tank and started tearing off the monitors that had been attached to Yukari's skin.

Hayami had said that she might die if taken out of the processing-tank too soon, but she was a Guyver. She had to survive; she had to survive so that they could defeat Chronos, and so that they could be reunited with Mr. Murakami and his sister. She had to be all right. She just had to be!

"Yukari?" Sho called, gently brushing some of her soaking hair out of her eyes. "Yukari, please wake up."

The sound of stone shattering drew his attention the way nothing else could. Gathering Yukari in his arms, Sho turned to look at Hayami. "What's going on?!"

"Something's wrong! I can't cancel the sequence!"

"Aptom?" he breathed, watching in horror as the frozen form of his friend crumbled into irreparable shards and clattered onto the dais.

Hugging Yukari's unconscious form almost convulsively, Sho stepped forward to stare in numb shock at what remained of Aptom. He wanted to do something; fall to his knees, scream, maybe start sobbing, but the fact remained that Yukari still needed him. He'd have to be quiet, for her sake at least; she would be weak from spending so much time asleep.

Chronos had probably put her in some kind of stasis so they could interrogate her later. That was probably what the processing-tank had been for; it was the only way they could hope to keep her from waking up without having to constantly drug her. That was probably it.

The feel of warm flesh pressed against him reminded Sho that there was one thing that he had to deal with before he could get Yukari out of this horrible place: he would have to find some clothes for her to wear. Or at least something to wrap her in so she wouldn't get cold.

The sound of something scraping against the metallic floors of the laboratory caught his attention then, and when he looked he found that the Zoanoid who had been leading them into this room – this trap – had disappeared again. He could also sense something else, something that made him a lot more hopeful.

"What- how could this have failed this badly?" Hayami asked, his voice rough and hollow. "How could this have happened?"

"We haven't failed yet, Hayami," Sho said, holding Yukari close as he stared at the broken stone shell that had encased Aptom.

A grunt and a scream of pain came from behind him just before he could start to wonder where the remainder of Aptom had gotten to. He and Hayami both turned, just as the Zoanoid that had been hiding in the laboratory with them was forced back into visibility, struggling against some unseen opponent. Though Sho had a feeling he knew just who that "unseen opponent" would turn out to be.

It's good to have you back with us, Aptom, Sho though, holding Yukari close as a humanoid arm forced its way out of the stump that was all that remained of the Zoanoid's left arm.

"What- what the hell?! What's happening to me?!" the Zoanoid demanded, looking terrified of the hand that now stuck out of his arm. "I can't move!"

Sho knew how the Zoanoid was feeling, he knew it and he didn't care. Those monsters had murdered countless thousands of people, they worked for the organization that had all but murdered his father. These ones, the ones who worked for Chronos voluntarily, didn't deserve his pity or sympathy.

As another blob of flesh grew out of the Zoanoid's neck, slowly taking the shape of Aptom's head, Sho wished for a moment that he could smile physically instead of just mentally. Aptom was going to be back with them soon, Yukari was safe; this was a good day.

"How did he manage to survive, though?" Hayami asked, finally breaking the awed silence.

"I think that there were some cells of his that managed to survive," Sho said. "Or maybe there were only a few dormant cells that were alive inside that stone casing, and the electricity provided them with enough energy that they were able to multiply to the point where they could move on their own. And since this Zoanoid was close enough to be sensed, that's what Aptom used to regenerate himself."

The Zoanoid's head dissolved slowly, melting into Aptom's neck with a soft sort of scream.

"Aptom," Sho said, relived at the sight of his friend starting to look more like himself.

Even the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes, like he had been the first time Sho had actually gotten a clear look at Aptom's true form, didn't disturb him. Hayami and Yukari were in the same state; and Aptom had never really seemed interested in wearing clothes in the first place.

"Aptom, are you feeling all right now?" Sho asked, when Aptom continued to stand completely motionless for over a minute. "We should really get out of here quickly if we want to avoid Chronos' patrols."

Aptom raised his hand, and for a moment Sho wondered just what he was thinking. Then he found himself roughly shoved backward, even as he felt Yukari being pulled out of his arms. Then, before he could even start to think of something to say, Aptom's hand clamped down on his face.

"A-Aptom, what are you doing?" Hayami demanded. "Don't you even recognize us?!"

"Stop! Aptom, please! You have to stop this!"

Sho, feeling as if the skin of his face was being peeled off layer by layer, started to get an inkling of what it was that Aptom was trying to do. He's... trying to absorb the Guyver? Is that even possible? Yukari! He could be trying to absorb her!

Without a Guyver to protect her, it was possible that Aptom would be able to absorb Yukari the way he was trying to do with him. He had to protect her, no matter what happened to him!

When the tingling in his forehead that always preceded the Control Medal's activation surged through his brain, Sho saw Aptom stagger backwards, his eyes wide and his mouth open in a silent scream. Yukari's limp, unconscious form dangled from his left arm, and Sho couldn't help but wonder how badly she had been worked over by Chronos to be so tired.

Maybe they had... but no, that was impossible.

"Are you all right, Sho?"

"I'm fine, Hayami. When The Control Medal detected Aptom's invading cells, it activated one of its defense systems."

"Do you think this is really the Aptom that we know? Why would he try to attack you, and why would he take Yukari like that?"

"I don't know," Sho said, just as Aptom's right hand began to distort into a kind of bio-weapon that Sho had never seen before.

"What the- Look out!" Hayami shouted, just as Aptom fired.

Sho threw himself to the ground, just as Aptom's blast burned the air over his head. Wondering just what was going on, Sho looked up just in time to see Aptom's shot burn through the reinforced steel of the laboratory wall, and kept on going. He didn't know just how many walls Aptom's beam punched through on its way out, but he ended up being able to see dark sky and bright stars through the hole Aptom had made.