Fanfic / Flesh and Blood (Cyblade Silver)

Flesh and Blood is a Teknoman AU written by Cyblade Silver that involves both Slade and Saber being rescued from becoming servants of Darkon. With 43 chapters so far, each chapter corresponding to slightly more than a full episode of the series, it's a fairly long read, so consider setting aside a weekend if you want to read the whole thing.

The series is also posted on Archive of Our Own: "https://archiveofourown.org/series/22737"

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Flesh and Blood provides examples of:

• Affably Evil: Spear, once more, though several of the other Radam Teknomen have shades of the trait when around each other.
• And I Must Scream: A situation shared by all Radam Teknomen.
• Asleep for Days: Saber, after taking a shot from Spear's Reflector.
• Alone in a Crowd: The twins, before they became a true part of the Space Knights.
• Alternate Universe Fic
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Ness and Cain are noticeably more openly emotional than Slade and Saber.
• A Shared Suffering: Slade and Saber at the beginning of the story.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Slade and Saber's double Tekno-bolt with Pegas.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: When they need to deal with a particularly large group of Spider-crabs, Slade and Saber often use this method.
• Badass Abnormal: Every Teknoman, without exception.
• Badass Family: The Carters, and Ringo's own family, as well.
• Bash Brothers: The twins themselves.
• Battle Couple: Spear and Sword are the Radam's version of this.
• Beam Spam: Saber's Tekno-bolt can function as this, in addition to the standard beam attack.
• Being Human Sucks: What all the Radam Teknomen seem to believe.
• Beneath the Mask: Saber, when things are particularly serious.
• Berserk Button: For both twins: the other being attacked, captured, or hurt.
• Beta Couple: Saber and Maggie serve as this.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Saber; whenever he smiles after something bad happens to either him or Slade, watch out. The same holds true of Star, as well.
• Big Brother Instinct: Slade and Saber both have this towards each other. To say nothing of Spear, of course.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Both Saber and Spear have these.
• Boisterous Bruisers
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Slade, Saber, Star, and Spear.
• Cain and Abel: Inverted; Saber's birth name remains Cain, but he and Ness have a closer relationship than in canon.
• Can't Stay Normal: None of the Space Knights can, much as they might wish otherwise.
• Chef of Iron: Spear is implied to be this.
• Children Forced to Kill: Teknoman Rapier, aka Sam Carter, is only 14 years old.
• Classical Antiheroes
• Cool Uncle / Evil Uncle: Grant Goddard / Teknoman Axe functions as both.
• Combat Pragmatist: Most of the Teknomen, with the exception of Spear.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Spear; on the one hand, he loves his younger brothers and wants them to be safe; on the other, he's fanatically loyal to Darkon and the Radam in general.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Slade does this with Saber in chapter 4.
• Cover Blowing Super Powers:
  • Glowing Eyes
  • Healing Factor
  • Innate Night Vision
  • Super-Reflexes
  • Telepathy
  • Super-Toughness
• The Cynic: Saber, Slade, and Ringo all qualify, to almost the same degree.
• Danger Deadpan: Ringo and Saber both indulge, and Slade sometimes responds in kind.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Saber.
• Deadpan Snarker: Both twins have elements of this, but for Saber it's a way of life.
• Death Is Dramatic
• Determinators
• Deuteragonist: Saber becomes this.
• Disappointed in You: Spear often says this; he's ignored just as often.
• Don't Look Back: Slade and Saber both try not to think about their Dark and Troubled Past.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Said often by Spear; ignored just as often.
• Dramatic Shattering: Happens to Slade's teknocrystal in chapter 6. And Saber's in chapter 35.
• Dying as Yourself: Fritz / Gunnar.
• Earn Your Bittersweet Ending
• Eating Lunch Alone: When Saber is injured, Slade does this; he isn't particularly happy about it.
• Emotion Suppression: Spear falls victim to this when fighting Slade and Saber at times.
• Even Evil Teknomen Love Their Younger Brothers
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones
• Evil Mentor: Grant Goddard / Axe
• Evil Virtues: Spear's familial love and devotion, even to Saber and Slade.
• Extremely Dusty Home: The Carter house, when Slade and Saber return to it.
• Family of Choice: Slade and Saber with the Space Knights.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: They do this for fun.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Sanguine (Saber)
  • Choleric (Ringo)
  • Melancholic (Slade)
  • Phlegmatic (Star)
• Friendly Rivalry: The twins, again.
• From Dress to Dressing: Saber uses strips torn from his shirt to bandage Maggie's leg.
• Gen Fic: Has mentions of romance, but focuses on the Space Knights' war with the Radam.
• Good Is Not Dumb: The Space Knights in general, with Ringo, Saber, and Slade all demonstrating that Good Is Not Nice at various times.
• Guile Hero: Saber, and to a slightly lesser extent, Slade.
• Headbutt of Love: Slade and Saber often do this.
• Human Pack Mule: Saber, during his trip to the mall with Tina and Star.
• I Am What I Am: Slade declares this at the end of chapter 19, almost verbatim.
• I Can Still Fight!: This is the twins' go to response to injuries, exhaustion, or both.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Saber is said to be paler than Slade, with finer eyebrows and a different hair style.
• Identity Amnesia: Both Slade and Saber start to suffer from this after undergoing their secondary transformation.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Spear of all people tries this with Slade and Saber when he first meets up with them. It... doesn't work out.
• It's All My Fault: Part of Slade's Guilt Complex.
• Kill the Ones You Love
• Knight in Sour Armor: Both twins to some degree, though Saber more than Slade.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Spear, in spades.
• Lap Pillow: Slade uses Saber as this whenever he has a bad day.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Saber, to Slade.
• Living Ship: Darkon's ship; implied to be true about all of the Radam's ships.
• Lonely Together: The twins at the beginning of the story.
• Love Makes You Evil: Sword, though there are extenuating circumstances.
• Love Is a Weakness: Slade and Saber both believe this at the beginning of the story. They get better.
• Master Race: The Radam clearly believe themselves to be this.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Saber and Maggie.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: The Carter family: Conrad / Spear, Ness / Slade, Cain / Saber, Shara, Sam / Rapier.
• Meat Puppet: Spear, and by extension all of the evil Teknomen, thanks to the Radam mind parasite.
• Menacing Stroll: As in canon, a staple of Radam Teknomen.
• Mindlink Mates: Sword and Spear, on the Radam's side.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Slade, after he nearly strangles Saber to death.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Spear all over, for obvious reasons.
• Mythology Gag: Saber goes to the mall with Tina and Star, and ends up in an outfit almost completely identical to the one he wore in the anime.
• Necessarily Evil: How Spear sees himself.
• No Badass to His Valet: Ringo, though he is very much a friend to the twins, doesn't think of either of them remotely the way that the AEM does.
• Neural Implanting: What the Radam do to their Teknomen, leaving them with a more comprehensive understanding of the Empire and their place in it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Balzac gives Saber one of these after Marlowe dies.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Saber accuses Balzac of this, while standing right behind Slade.
• Now or Never Kiss: Maggie, with Saber, at the end of chapter 16. Doubles as The Big Damn Kiss.
• Only Friend: Saber to Slade, at the beginning of the story.
• Original Flavour
• Patchwork Fic: uses the US dub's names for the characters, but refers to the invaders as the "Radam" instead of the "Venomoids".
• Phlebotinum Rebels
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Slade to Saber in chapter 18.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Sometimes strays into this.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Saber makes references to old movies and TV shows; Slade does as well, but not nearly as much.
• Power-Strain Blackout: Saber falls victim to this once his crystal is cracked.
• Preemptive "Shut Up": Slade gives more than a few of these to Saber, over the course of the story.
• Properly Paranoid: "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Slade and Saber, respectively.
• Repeat What You Just Said: Saber asks Balzac to do this, then punches him in the face.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Saber goes on one, alongside Ringo and Star, when the military captures Slade.
• Running Gag:
  • Slade: "Slacker" Saber: "Spaz"
  • Saber says something sarcastic, or acts overly literal, Slade: "Wiseass."
• Sad Clown: Saber comes off as this, sometimes.
• Sarcasm Failure: When this happens to Saber, it generally means that something has Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Security Cling: Slade, to Saber in chapter 18, coupled with Cry into Chest.
• Series Fic
• Settle for Sibling: Maggie with Saber.
• Sleep Cute: The twins after a particularly bad day; Ringo even compares them to kittens.
• Siblings in Crime: Two of the five Carter siblings.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Slade is thirty minutes older than Saber, though this doesn't often come up in conversation, Slade is still clearly aware of it.
• Sibling Team: Arguably the point of the 'fic.
• Sibling Yin-Yang
• Softspoken Sadist: Spear, though not so much the "sadist" part.
• Someday This Will Come in Handy: Saber's learning to break out of handcuffs before the Carters and the rest of the Argos crew met up with the Radam subverted, as they don't escape from the Military even in spite of that.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: A great deal of Saber's interactions with Ringo are like this.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Slade and Saber, respectively.
• Student–Master Team: Teknoman Rapier and Axe.
• Super-Strong Child: Rapier
• Superheroes Stay Single: Slade believes this at first, though he gets better.
• Switching P.O.V.: Nearly every named character gets a section from their point of view.
• Relative Button
• The Apprentice: Rapier to Axe, and to a lesser extent all of the other Teknomen, as well.
• Team Dad / A Father to His Men: Commander Jamison, though he's more reserved than most.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Star thinks this about Spear; it kind of freaks her out.
• Tears of Joy
• Tearful Smile
• Tender Tears
• They Call Him Spear
• The Dutiful Son: Spear thinks of himself this way. Really, he's more of a Tragic Villain.
• The Family That Slays Together: What Spear wants; he's... not likely to get it.
• The Fettered: On the good side: Slade and Saber's loyalty to each other, as well an Ringo and Star's; as well as that of the Space Knights in general to Earth. On the Radam side: Spear's loyalty to Darkon and his worry for the rest of his family.
• The Matchmaker: Ringo and Saber for Slade and Star.
• The Only One I Trust: Saber and Slade were this to each other, before they warmed up to the Space Knights.
• The Stations of the Canon: Even with Saber alongside him, Slade's life isn't that much easier.
• The Social Darwinist: All of the Radam Teknomen have elements of this.
• The Right of a Superior Species: All of the Radam shown believe this.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The evil Teknomen; all except for their eyes.
• The Promise: Slade and Saber's is to protect each other. Though originally, Ness had promised their father that he would protect Cain.
• Thicker Than Water: Why Spear wants Slade and Saber to come fight for the Radam.
• Tranquil Fury: Spear's usual style of fighting. Also applies to Saber, when he gets particularly angry.
• Trickster Twins: A bit more tame than most, considering the circumstances.
• Title Drop: By Spear, in chapter 12: "Do you think I enjoy having to hunt down my own family? My flesh and blood?"; and again by Star in chapter 19.
• Tragic Dream: Teknoman Spear's fondest desire is to be reunited with his family, aboard Darkon's spaceship.
• Tragic Monster: All of the Radam Teknomen, but Spear in particular can come off as this.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Slade, after he pushes Saber away so that Saber can fight the Radam Spider-crabs without him.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Teknoman Rapier's attack on Ringo. The interrogation could also count.
• Twin Banter
• Twin Telepathy: Used frequently, both in and out of battle.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Saber mostly, though Slade gains elements of this as the story progresses.
• Undying Loyalty: Slade and Saber to each other, and Spear to Darkon.
• Villain by Default: Spear, due to the Radam mind parasite.
• Villainous Valour: Both Spear and Axe have shades of this, to a greater or lesser degree.
• War Fic
• Weather Dissonance: Star finds herself thinking about this, while she, Ringo, and Saber are fleeing from Slade after he goes over his thirty-minute time limit.
• We Used To Be Family: Spear's constant refrain, and the reason he doesn't fight the twins as hard as he could.
• What If?: Saber was freed from the teknopod, the Carter family has a fifth child, and Conrad becomes The Dragon instead of the Big Bad
• You Are Not Alone: Saber says this to Slade when his brother is strangling him after he goes over his thirty minute time limit and succumbs to the Radam influence.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Even if they win, neither Slade nor Saber are the people they used to be.

Tropes exclusive to Gemini:

• Sacred First Kiss: Shinya mentions this to Levin in chapter 17.

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