Vic Viper
Near the end of the game, the Vic Viper encounters a spacecraft in a Bacterian facility and is unable to destroy it. A study of the spacecraft reveals that it is exactly the same one that tried to smash into Gradius. Now realizing that the other Vic Viper's pilot was himself from the future, he activates a space-time portal and travels to the past in order to aid in its destruction alongside his past self. This time, the Bacterian core controlling the spacecraft speaks, revealing itself as a small part of a creature once called Venom (possibly Dr. Venom, a recurring antagonist of the "Gradius" series) and that the Bacterians will always return before dying. His mission done, the pilot flies the Vic Viper back to his present era.