Storm Hawks 1. A bird in the darkness

Cyclonis watched pitilessly as her prisoner fell to his knees, he coughed up in the dirt before taking a few gasping breaths. The young man tried his best to get his breath back, having just been put through yet another five minutes of hell. This had been going on for too long and now she was beginning to get tired. She was frankly amazed that he still had any fight left in him. Still, it wouldn't be the first time that she had underestimated a Storm Hawk, although she was certain to make it the last...

Summoning what remained of his strength, which by now couldn't have been much, he managed to turn over to look at a group standing to his right. There were five figures, their faces obscured in the darkness. His vision was somewhat duller and blurrier than usual however he could make out their eyes only too well. They looked at him with a distant coldness that he was not accustomed to and he was certain that he would never be used to receiving it from them.

"Guys..." He managed wheezing slightly. "Please! Fight it!"

"Begging oh mighty sky knight? Now that doesn't sound much like the stories, I've heard so much about." Cyclonis taunted him, a cruel smile tracing itself on her lips. "Aren't you tired yet?"

"The only thing I'm tired of is hearing your voice." He replied with venom unexpected from one so injured.

"You wouldn't find me so bad if you gave in, like your friends over there did."

The man frowned in anger. Letting rage cloud his thoughts once more. Words couldn't describe how much he wanted to kill her. If only he had enough strength to get to his feet and march over to her. With this much anger, he was fairly certain that he could snap her neck like a twig. Sadly, precautions had been taken to ensure that he wasn't in any shape to do so.

Still, he tried. His arms and legs screamed at him, telling him not to move. His entire body felt as if it were on fire. He succeeded in raising his head and propping himself up somewhat although it felt to him as if his body might break at any moment. How long had he been enduring this? He couldn't have said. All he knew was that he was growing weaker by the hour and he wasn't sure that he would be able to hold out for much longer. Which was of course the intention.

His eyes drifted slowly onto the dark crystal in Cyclonis' hand, every now and then, it would pulsate and glow ever so faintly red. It's mere presence caused his hair to stand on end and a shiver to run down his spine.

Cyclonis came a little closer. Lowering her staff so that it virtually touched his nose. The sky knight looked up at her defiantly. She frowned activating the crystal once more causing a dark aura to form around the young man. With it he felt as if something was trying to get inside of him. As soon as it did, he forced himself to battle it with what remained on his strength. He knew what would happen to him if he stopped fighting even for a split second, his friends were an only too real terrifying and real example of that.

It lasted for about ten seconds, for every single one, he struggled to prevent the force from getting inside of him. It wanted his mind. He could hear it whispering to him; telling him that all would be well if he only gave in. He could though... He wouldn't... Cyclonis couldn't maintain the energy field for that long, he supposed he should be grateful for that much. Then again, the pain he was put through before she tried using the crystal on him was pretty much comparable.

"Why do you still resist?!" She asked him annoyance creeping into her voice.

"I'd rather die than end up your slave..." He muttered weakly but still managing to channel his determination through to her.

"A noble thought, that's why it will be all the more fun to break you." She walked over to one of the other figures and out her arm around their shoulders. "Your squadron said exactly the same thing, I managed to convince each and every one of them the opposite."

"Piper..." The young man called out his friend's name in a whisper. "Please- Fight it!"

"Why Aerrow?" She asked him, her voice cold and emotionless. "If you do as she says. Then, we can be together again; the Storm Hawks united."

The red haired sky knight lowered his head to avoid having to look at his friends. He lay with his face against the hard concrete floor trying to tell himself that this was all a nightmare and that he would awaken to find himself in the Condor and Atmos the same as it had always been. Sadly, he had been nursing that faint hope for too long now to believe in it any longer. He let out a sigh, a sharp pain struck his sore ribs as he did so. He struggled to hold back some tears, not because of the pain, he could deal with that. It was his friends the cause, he imagined what they would say if they could see themselves now.

God, he hoped that they weren't aware of what they were doing but if that was the case, then why was he still trying to appeal to their better nature? He always came to the same conclusion; that he tried to break through to them out of fear, he couldn't bring himself to think of his friends as being gone and so kept on trying to find them. He asked himself, the question when he was lying in his cell at night and wondering if he was going to live to see another day. He now increasingly prayed that he would not...

"Guys... Please..." His voice broke slightly as he called out to them once more.

"Storm Hawks, it looks like your fearless leader might need some more persuading." Cyclonis told them smirking slightly.

Aerrow instinctively closed his eyes knowing what would come next.

He could remember when he had first been lead in here. When he had first laid eyes on his squadron. At first, he had assumed that they were the same as he had always known them but then they had turned on him without so much as a word's warning. He had been struck down. A simple test of Cyclonis' to see just how loyal her new puppets were. The answer was very. They showed no remorse as they attacked him, not once as he called out to them had they so much as hesitated.

He knew that if she hadn't called them off when she had, they would easily have killed him and that hurt. It hadn't taken long for the sky knight to realize that Cyclonis' crystal only worked on those who didn't fight back. He wasn't too sure if she hoped that being beaten by his own friends would weaken his body too much for him to be able to resist it's effects or whether the master of Cyclonia believed that eventually his will to fight would give out.

She might not be all that wrong about the last one... The longer he spent here suffering at the hands of his friends, the more he found himself wondering why he was still fighting. All of them; Piper, Finn, Junko, Stork even Radarr had fallen pray to Cyclonis' control. Now, he was the only Storm Hawk with free will remaining; words couldn't describe how much that hurt. More than any wound that was for sure.

He couldn't have said how long it was before the Storm Hawks were told to stop attacking him by their new master. It felt like an eternity. Every blow from them seemed to hurt ten times more than it would have coming from anyone else in the Atmos and he had a lot of them. Every beating added new injuries to the old ones. In his cell at night, he would struggle to find a position in which to fall asleep which didn't hurt him. Last night he had been unable to and had only managed to get to sleep through sheer exhaustion.

"Still not willing to give in Storm Hawk?" Cyclonis repeated her usual question.

Her prisoner wished to snap back something witty as a response but found himself lacking both the physical strength and the mental capacity to do so. Everything seemed rather dull and faint, as if it were all happening a considerable distance away. For a few moments, he drifted in and out of consciousness. Each breath he took felt like it could shatter his chest, a broken rib or two was to blame no doubt. He didn't care to know the exact nature of his injuries; he knew that that they hurt and that was enough for him.

Cyclonis waited a few moments but seeing that she wasn't going to get a response let out a frustrated sigh.

"At this rate, he'll be dead before he turns..." Cyclonis muttered with annoyance as she sat back down on her throne.

"Should we take him back to his cell?" Junko asked looking down at his former leader.

"Perhaps you should feed him to the Sky Sharks..."  
"I've always found it unbearable how childish you are if you don't get what you want Cyclonis."

Despite his current state, Aerrow found himself opening his eyes in search of the new voice. He recognized it, although found himself unable to associate a face to the words spoken. A split second later, a small ball with yellow crystals sticking out of it landed at the Storm Hawks' feet. They looked down at it wondering what it was. By the time they realized just what it was, it was too late. Out of the little device came a powerful electric shock. Their old leader couldn't help but wince as his old team mates let out yells of pain before falling to the ground unconscious.

It was one of the few times that Aerrow had ever seen Cyclonis look truly surprised. Usually, she always seemed to have planned for everything and therefore was never taken aback. Maybe, with her victory pretty much complete she hadn't been expecting any resistance. Her dark eyes scowered the room but were unable to locate the source of the voice. She held her staff tightly, occasionally brandishing it in the direction of a shadow. After a few moments more of fruitless searching, she finally paused by the injured sky knight's body.

"Let me guess... A friend of the sky knight's?" Cyclonis asked the darkness before pointing the end of her staff at Aerrow's throat. "He can't have many of them left... Show yourself before I end his miserable life!"

"You'd be doing me a favour..." He managed weakly.

Cyclonis looked down at him darkly. No sooner had she done so that something shot out of the darkness. She had just enough time to raise a shield around herself. Aerrow turned his head, his vision was still blurry but he could make out a figure in the corner of the room. He let out a weak groan feeling very tired all of a sudden. Cyclonis took a couple of steps towards the intruder, her staff raised ready to blast them to oblivion.

"You?!" Cyclonis sounded surprised for the second time. "They told me you were dead?"

"I'd have thought that you would have learnt by now, sky knights don't die that easily!"

Struggling to remain conscious, Aerrow listened as he heard a fight begin. So the other person was a sky knight? Why couldn't he remember who that voice belonged to? Gathering his strength, he managed to open his eyes and take a look at just what was happening. He could make out Cyclonis' furious energy blasts echoing around the chamber but also the figure of the sky knight dodging them. Whoever they were, they moved with unbelievable agility and speed; then again they would need to if they didn't want to end up being vaporized.

Suddenly, they charged towards master Cyclonis. The blast that came from the staff skimmed the intruder's shoulder but didn't make contact. The other sky knight dealt the leader of Cyclonia a harsh blow to the face. She fell backwards in shock. Despite his dull vision, Aerrow made the blood coming down her face out all too well. It was likely just a flesh wound but then she wasn't all that used to those...

Seeing that their foe was currently incapacitated, the sky knight rushed over to the leader of the Storm Hawks' side. He found himself being gently shaken. He groaned in pain before narrowing his eyes slightly in an attempt to make out just who his rescuer was. Now he was a little closer, the features seemed more familiar.

"Aerrow! Aerrow!" Came a familiar British accent. "You need to pull yourself together!"

"S-Starling?" Aerrow only just managed to get out.

"Well it was never going to be a Murk Raider now was it?" She looked around concerned for a moment. "Come on! We have to get out of here now!"


	2. Falling from the sky

_**Sorry for the massive delay but with Christmas and stuff I didn't get around to writing any more. Anyway, here it is. Thanks for the reviews!**_

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Aerrow heard Starling's words although for some reason, his body was less than willing to obey his commands. When he tried to move his arms, only the tips of his fingers budged. He let out a cough before taking a deep breath of air. He had to summon whatever strength he had left in order to raise himself to his feet... His muscles ached and screamed as he slowly and stiffly turned himself over. His arms physically shook as he struggled to brace himself. Starling attention was briefly taken away from him by Master Cyclonis who was showing signs of coming to.

"Aerrow come on! We need to go!"

She grabbed him by the arm pulling to his feet roughly. She ignored his unwilling complaint, acting as his support when he was finally standing. The red haired sky knight's head was spinning and without his friend, he would doubtlessly have fallen over. Starling didn't give him much time to recover, beginning to walk before he was even completely sure that his legs were going to bare his weight. She walked briskly despite the fact that she was having to help her injured friend by preventing him from falling.

He tried to recall the last time he had walked like this or even stood up of his own accord. A few days ago that for sure. Since then, he'd spent most of his time being dragged around by Cyclonians of one type or another. It was safe to say that what little strength he had left was barely enough to sustain his own weight, let alone continue at this pace. He found himself stumbling and several times he almost dragged Starling with him. She caught him however, pulling him back to his feet and allowing him to lean against her for support.

They made through the long and seemingly endless corridors. There didn't seem to be many Cyclonians hanging around, maybe that was because the most of them were away taking part in the conquest of what remained of free Atmos. That might have been the only good to come of the current situation. Starling gave him a concerned glance, she could sense only too well that her friend was severely injured and needed medical attention soon. Unfortunately, the middle of Cyclonia wasn't where they were going to get such things. So they had to keep on moving, even if she knew that the strain was likely only worsening his condition.

A couple of feet further down the corridor, Aerrow's legs buckled beneath him and he collapsed. This time, Starling was too slow to catch him only managing to hold him back somewhat before he hit the floor hard. He lay there gasping for breath and struggling to keep himself from slipping back into unconsciousness.

"Starling- Starling." He raised his voice as much as he could. "Leave me here please."

"Not a chance!" She replied in a stern tone. "I didn't risk my life coming here to abandon you half way there! I'll carry you if I have to!"

Starling gripped him firmly, pulling him back up to his feet. They continued walking once more. Aerrow was barely aware of it anymore. He found himself wondering if he was dying. Strangely, the thought didn't scare him that much. Many times recently, when he was lying on the floor in his cell he had found himself almost wishing for it. It would be a chance to escape the torment that he had been put through these past few weeks...

They eventually came to a hangar. Two sky bikes were waiting there. He frowned slightly recognizing his own. Starling guided him over to it. There was no way that he was going to be able to fly this thing. Not in his current shape... Yet she still helped him onto it.

"I can't fly this thing."

"Don't worry, I've got that one worked out." She assured him.

Starling was less than sure that her plan would work but she didn't want to let her severely injured friend know that. He had enough to worry about as it was without knowing that her escape plan was risky at best. Still, it was all they had. It wouldn't be long before Cyclonis had some of her lackeys chasing them, if they weren't already. With a wounded sky knight to look after, she wasn't all that likely to be able to hold them off for long.

Quickly reaching into the large backpack that she had brought with her, she got out a chain and attached her bike to Aerrow's. It was primitive but their only chance. She had backed on the Sky Knight being in better state than he was and as such had hoped for an ally capable of helping her out in a fight. As it stood, she was going to be lucky if he didn't slide off of the bike. She tested the chain a couple of times to ensure it wouldn't give way before starting Aerrow's skybike and placing a small crystal over the commands.

"Whatever you do, don't let go!"

She got a weak groan as a response. She struggled with the urge to go back and check on him once more but realized that they didn't have the time. Some Cyclonians were bound to turn up sooner or later and she didn't fancy their chances if they were caught out in the open like this. She revved her bike once before starting up. It came as something of a relief when Aerrow's bike followed her without it's passenger having to do anything. Thankfully that trader she had bought the autopilot crystal from hadn't being lying...

The two bikes took to the skies at quite a clip. Amazingly, there were no Cyclonians currently on the horizon. Her intel had been spot on, the first patrols were yet to return, whilst the second had just left. Now, she just needed to keep heading south if she wanted to avoid a confrontation. In truth, she didn't know where she was really going. Every last terra without exception was now under cyclonian rule; some had been conquered but after a few had tasted the wrath of Cyclonis' forces many had simply surrendered in order to protect their peoples and cities.

Starling honestly couldn't find it in her to begrudge them that...

She let out a deep sigh as she contemplated the vast expanse of red skyline. She had always hated the color of the skies around Cyclonia. The sky was their home, they had fought to protect it so very hard and for so long and now, they had lost it. As she flew away, the skies behind her would never be hers to fly in again... They were Cyclonis' now and what killed her was that she couldn't immediately see of a way for them to change that.

When the Storm Hawks had stood against Cyclonia, there had been hope. Even as one by one the other squadrons had fallen to the power of her crystal and had turned against those who they had once called flood. Even, when they had stood alone against all the other squadrons somehow that group of youths had still managed to inspire others to believe that all was no lost but now... Now, she had the last of the free Storm Hawks with her and he was only just clinging to life.

They flew for hours, uninterrupted through the skies. Starling would periodically check behind her to ensure that her friend was still there behind her. He was lying slumped against his bike, seemingly asleep. She was well aware that her friend would need medical attention sooner rather than later but she wanted to ensure that they were a good distance away from Cyclonia before daring to stop.

"Starling, where are we?" Came Aerrow's weak and raspy voice in a whisper.

"The hell if I know..."

She was no longer familiar with this part of the Atmos, for a while now the terras had been replaced by large jagged pieces of rock which would have been impossible to land on. The sky had changed to a darker and cloudier colour as if night was falling. Supposing that they had headed in a strictly straight line, then they were currently in pretty much uncharted territories. Good and bad; at least Cyclonians were less likely to be out here but on the other hand there was no saying what sort of hidden terrors could lie beyond their maps.

"How are you holding up?" She called back to him.  
"I don't know." There was a pause for a few seconds. "Starling- I can't see..."

"You can't?" She asked trying to mask her concern. "Well, I can't say that you're missing out on any great view."

She made an effort to try and hide the seriousness of the situation from Aerrow and perhaps if she was honest, from herself also. She didn't want to have to confess that she had no idea where they were going or even the true extent of her friend's injuries. Although she had never had any professional, she had a fair amount of practical experience when it came to dealing with wounds sustained in battle and she knew that loss of sight was never a good thing.

She turned around in order to try and speak some comforting words to her friend and tell him that all would be all right. Instead, her eyes fell upon something more sinister. A metallic glint in the distant horizon. She narrowed her eyes trying to make them out, she knew deep down what they were already and who they belonged to. A clean getaway was maybe too much to have hoped for... She looked down at her skybike for a moment and cursed, she was far too low on energy to be able to get into a fight and that was without even taking Aerrow into account.

"What is it?" Aerrow asked somehow sensing her concern.

"If we're lucky Cyclonians or Raptors." Starling replied contemplating their options. "And you want the really good news? We're pretty much running on fumes."

"Take my power crystal then." The injured sky knight suggested. "It's not as if I'm going to be much good in a fight."

"How many times?!" She raised her voice growing somewhat angry. "I'm not letting you die! Either we're both making it out of this or neither of us is!"

Just then, some fire from the sky bikes behind them skimmed past their bikes. Thankfully, their enemies were too far away and not skilled enough to be able to hit them but it wouldn't be long before they were in range. Starling ran over their options a couple of times; fighting was going to be impossible which only left two options : surrender – frankly, she didn't like to imagine what Master Cyclonis would do to them – or death. Neither were particularity appealing. Another volley of fire missed them although the gap was slightly narrower this time.

She turned to look in front of her, hoping for a miracle of some kind. What she saw might not be a miracle but it was at least a chance.

"Aerrow! There's a storm front right up ahead!" She called out. "I'm going to see if we can lose them in it!"

She didn't get an answer or maybe she simply couldn't hear it for the low grumbling of thunder. What they were heading for could best be described as a wall of thick black cloud. She could make out the occasional flash of lightning originating from inside the weather front and the winds were already becoming more violent. Ordinarily, she would have avoided such a storm; anyone with any sense would. Hopefully that included the Cyclonians following them...

Almost as soon as she entered the cloud, something went wrong. Her systems cut out abruptly causing her to have to start her bike again. The dials began spinning frantically. Both skybikes were buffered from side to side by strong wings. The rain drove into her eyes blinding her. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..._ She thought to herself. Remembering her friend, she looked behind her to make sure he was still there. Despite the harsh conditions, she thought she could just about make out his read hair resting against his bike.

Another shake more violent this time knocked her systems out once more sending both bikes spiralling downwards. The Sky Knight struggled with her machine trying desperately to pull up but to no avail. Panic settling in, she called out as loudly as she could, unsure if Aerrow would be able to hear her over the storm :

"Brace yourself! This is going to be a crash landing!"


	3. Broken wings

_**Thanks for the reviews. I'm going to try and post about a chapter per week. Sorry about any delays. **_

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Starling opened her eyes. She was laying face down in the mud. It was raining heavily, her clothes were already drenched. Gathering her strength, she managed to prop herself up on her elbows and look around. They appeared to be on what could be in a plain of some kind, just on the edge of the terra. They had been lucky, a couple of feet less and they would have crashed right into the rocky cliff of the terra. As it was, her eyes instinctively looked around for any sign of life, by which she meant potential enemies. She could just about make out a forest and some mountains in the distance but there was absolutely no sign of any civilized life to speak of. For the moment, considering how vulnerable they currently were she was going to consider that a good thing; when they needed food however her opinion could rapidly change.

Her attention then turned back to her friend and their vehicles. Both sky bikes seemed to be in a rather bad shape. She would have to see if they could salvage anything from them tomorrow. Right now, it was more her human companion which concerned her. Aerrow had been thrown quite far by the crash and was currently lying on his back several feet away. She instinctively ran over to him to ensure that he was all right.

He still had all of his limbs, she guessed they could be grateful for that much. His eyes were closed tight but he was still breathing. Starling looked around, she had to get him out of the rain. In his current condition, it was important to keep him as warm and dry as possible. Ideally, he needed a hospital and a qualified doctor, now of course that was impossible so she was going to have to use some inventive thinking. First, thing was first... They needed shelter.

A bolt of lightning momentarily illuminated the sky for a few moments. Long enough however for Starling to spot a cave on the side of a mountain. It wasn't ideal but then nothing about this was, they needed shelter and that was the only place here which seemed to offer it.

"Aerrow, do you think you can stand?"

He let out a weak groan as a response. Slowly, his eyelids drifted open. Starling helped him to his feet, he could barely stand and so put virtually all of his weight against her. She managed to support him as they both set off towards the cave.

They moved at a painfully slow pace, thankfully, the forest provided them with some shelter from the storm. It was a veritable hurricane which was baring down upon them. The trees were virtually bent over backwards and the rain was gushing horizontally. In a way, Starling was grateful for the lightning because without it, she would never have been able to see where she was going and find her way through the forest and towards the cliff. All the time, she was trying to carry her friend as he only just managed to put one foot in front of the other.

She couldn't have said how long it took them to reach the cave, half an hour maybe. Far longer than it would have ordinarily that was for sure. The cave itself wasn't that deep but at least it offered some shelter from the wind and rain. She lead Aerrow inside, perhaps sensing that he had done his walking or maybe simply lacking the strength to take another step forwards, his legs suddenly gave way beneath him. She helped him down gently to ensure that he didn't smash his head open on the hard stone ground.

"We're here now. You can rest." She informed him in a gentle voice.

She didn't get a response. Aerrow was in that odd place between consciousness and sleep. If he was aware of what was going on, he certainly couldn't comment on it.

She let out a sigh and decided that it was probably about time to start dealing with her friend's injuries. She started by simply making him comfortable. She had brought some supplies with her although now, just looking at him, she found herself wondering if they would be enough. The first thing to do, was to keep him warm. She got a blanket out of her bag and covered him with it. He was still shivering however, Starling let out a sigh, it looked like she was going to have to light a fire. Then again, she certainly could do with the extra light.

Back out into the rain, the good news was that the storm had caused several dead branches to snap off of the trees. Allowing Starling to gather them as best as she could and carry them back to the cave. It was always going to be raining like this, nothing could ever be easy or simple for them; maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, after all it had caused both of them to become the sky knights they were.

She made it back to the cave and dumped the load of wood in a neat little heap. She cast Aerrow a glance, he was still awake but only just. His dull eyes contemplated her with a mark of curiosity. She offered him a faint smile which he failed to return, she guessed there wasn't much for him to be smiling about. It was then that she remembered what he had said about loosing his sight, it was unlikely that he was looking at her, she wasn't sure that he was even aware of her presence.

Light fire, give Aerrow medical help. That was her current list of priorities. She went back to her bag and pulled out one of several crystals she had acquired – or perhaps better put, stolen from Cyclonis' vault. Ordinarily, the wood would have been to wet to light, fortunately she was willing to bet this particular crystal would he able to help out. She wasn't much of a crystal expert, unlike Piper and Master Cyclonis, Starling only had an extremely basic grasp when it came to this sort of thing.

That might have explained why she almost incinerated herself. Flames shot out of the crystal at an almost uncontrollable rate, far more than she had initially expected. It was a good thing that she had taken the precaution of keeping it away from her. Starling let out a curse, allowing the gem to fall to the floor. She noted with a certain amount of satisfaction, that despite the near disaster, the fire had none-the-less been lit.

"Starling? What was that?" Aerrow asked in a weak and raspy voice.

"Just me almost frying myself." She picked the crystal up before putting it back into her bag. "That phoenix crystal sure packs a punch."

"You've got the phoenix crystal?" The wounded sky knight asked surprised before wincing in pain.

"Well, I certainly couldn't let Cyclonis get her hands on it." She replied kneeling next to him. "Hang on, I'll give you something for the pain."

She was confident that she knew more about medicine than she did about crystals. She suspected that Aerrow was suffering mainly from exhaustion but it was hard to tell and there was no saying what that witch had been doing to him whilst he was a prisoner. She'd definitely seen him looking healthier. He was pale and freezing to the touch. First thing was first, she propped his head up as gently as she could, creating a pillow out of what had been her parachute should she ever fall from her skybike.

"Chew this." She told him handing him a root. "You'll see, it will ease the pain."

Aerrow obliged. The root was found on many terras and could be used as quite a powerful painkiller. She felt her heart sink a little upon taking note of the Sky Knight's injuries, almost every single inch of him was black and blue from the numerous beatings he had been given cutesy of his possessed friends. The bruising alone must have caused him agony, ordinarily she would have applied some ice but in this case there was simply too much of it and she didn't want to make him any colder than he already was.

She prayed that none of the damage was internal. If it was, well- she didn't have the right equipment or knowledge to treat him with; the outcome if that was the case would be rather predictable and not a happy one. She maintained some hope however as Cyclonis hadn't intended to kill him but instead merely to break his spirit. Therefore his wounds, although painful might not actually be life threatening.

"Feeling better?" She asked him.

"It doesn't hurt so much." He replied horsely.

"Here, you must be thirsty."

She handed him a flask. His trembling hands were unable to grasp it however let alone carry it to his mouth. She held it for him allowing the injured sky knight to take several gulps of water. He paused only to gasp for air. When was the last time had drunk anything? A while ago, she was willing to bet. Deciding to play it safe, she took the flask away from him; it was possible to kill yourself from drinking too much especially if he hadn't had any for a while.

He continued to shiver somewhat, whilst the storm continued battering the terra outside. Every now and then a flash of lightning would illuminate the sky for a split second. It would be followed by a deafening clap of thunder which seemed to cause even the cave the shake. Aerrow would every now and then shudder or let out a groan of pain.

"Starling..." His voice was almost an inaudible whisper.

"I'm here." She assured him.

Unable to help her friend any further than she already had. Starling did the only thing that she could, she took his hand in his and remained by his side. Keeping silent vigil all night. All the time, she uttered a silent prayer that her friend would be all right and make a full recovery.

She couldn't bare to loose anyone else...


	4. Waking up

_**Sorry... It's been so long since I last wrote anything for this. If I was to list all of the reasons it would take me so long I'd never finish the story. Again, so sorry.**_

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Aerrow awoke to the sound of birds singing and the smell of something roasting. His nose twitched slightly, whatever was cooking smelt rather appetizing. Suddenly, pain struck all over his body. He winced and attempted to open his eyes. Above him, the ceiling appeared as a dark spinning blur. He let out a groan as he attempted to recall just what had happened.

His mind had a dreamy feel to it which made remembering pretty much anything a rather difficult task. Then, like a dam bursting, memories came back to him like a flood : being captured, tortured, Cyclonis and her crystal, Starling's daring rescue, the storm... Had all that really happened? It could have been a dream. He found himself praying that when he opened his eyes he would find himself in his room in the Condor with all of his squadron ready to great him. Instinctively though, he knew that wasn't the case; his senses told him this was not their ship but somewhere a little more dingy.

It took him a good few minutes before finally, he dared try and figure out where he was. He could remember up until the cave although due to the state he had been in at the time, he found those memories to be somewhat faint and chaotic, so much so that he wondered if they had actually happened.

He looked around, yep, this was a cave all right. Dark, damp and dingy much like a cyclonian cell. He knew which one he would rather be in. His green eyes caught sight of a figure sitting by a fire at the entrance to the cave. It was Starling, the sky knight seemed to be cooking something over a small fire looking out over their new home, it didn't smell half bad. He attempted to sit up, only for his entire body to start screaming at him that this was a bad idea. He let out an unwilling cry of pain, which drew Starling's attention.

"Don't try to move!" She snapped at him visibly concerned before her voice softened. "You're hurt..."

The obviousness of that statement was practically mind-blowing. His body was only too eager to let him know that he was injured. He closed his eyes for a moment, struggling with the urge to fall asleep once more. For a couple of moments, he felt himself drift in and out of consciousness. When finally he mustered enough strength to open them again, he found himself starring at a pair of brown boots. Although he had regained some of his vision, it remained dull and blurry preventing him from making out anything clearly.

What felt like a wet cloth was applied to his forehead. He let out a sigh, relieved by the cool soothing sensation it brought. He closed his eyes once more, allowing himself to be lulled back to sleep by the pleasant sensation.

He awoke again. It felt as if some time had passed although how much he couldn't have said. He was feeling somewhat better than he had done the first time he had awoken that was for sure: a little stronger and there was less pain. He found it easier to keep his eyes open and things seemed to be somewhat less faint that they had been. He let out a groan once more as he desperately tried to pull himself too. Summoning what little strength he still possessed, Aerrow managed to turn his head slightly. Starling was sitting a few feet away, she had a collection of crystals at her feet which she seemed to be kicking around in frustration.

"Every single bloody one!" She cursed to herself aloud.  
"Starling?.." He managed still sounding like he had a frog in his throat.  
"Oh, awake again are we?" The young woman asked getting up and coming over to him. "You with me for good this time?"  
"What?" His voice was broken and raspy to an extent that he hardly recognised it.  
"You've been drifting in and out of consciousness for about an hour now." She explained her voice level and calm.

Aerrow frowned somewhat. He couldn't remember any of that. His mind was foggy, the events of these past days still seemed somewhat unreal. There was a sense of timelessness to them which almost reminded him of dreams or nightmares… Were his squadron really gone?

He tried to sit up but found that all of his strength had left him. He wasn't sure if he even managed to move. Secondly, a sharp pain struck him making him wince. He got little sympathy from Starling who simply shook her head disparagingly as if he was some kind of child. He couldn't recall having ever taken a beating this bad in his life: he wasn't sure if it was simply the nature of his injuries or rather the fact that he hadn't had access to any decent medical attention but right now it was as iff all of his body simply wouldn't move and should he really insist it felt as if he might shatter and break at any moment.

"What happened?" He eventually managed to ask her.  
"What do you remember?" Starling questioned unwilling to tell him things he already knew.  
"We were captured..." The sky knight winced thinking back to it. "I remember the Dark Ace and the Rex Guardians. Then I was in a cell… Cyclonis had this crystal... The others!"

This time he actually succeeded in sitting up causing Starling to stand back. There was something very simple inside of him which said that his squadron was in trouble and that they needed his help. It was strong enough to make him forget about the ordeal he had been though. Well almost, no sooner had he sat up than what felt like every single bone and muscle in his body screamed at him letting him know just what he had suffered and what he was yet to feel should he try to move any further than he already had.

"Easy there." Starling pushed him back down not even attempting to mask her irritation. "This is the last time I'm telling you this: you're hurt! Keep it up and you can forget about recovering!"  
"You saved me..." He muttered as his memories slowly returned.  
"Yes and killing yourself seems like a pretty lousy way of saying thanks!" She snapped back at him, apparently not taking any pity on his injured state.

It was strange how as soon as she reminded him of it, everything somehow became so much clearer. Well, up until a certain point anyway. There were parts of the ordeal when he'd only just been able to remain conscious. Understandably, they were far hazier and he doubted he would ever be capable of recalling them perfectly. Everything much past the beginning of the storm they had entered he couldn't remember. Although, just by looking around, he could guess what had happened and how fortunate he had been that Starling was one of the most stubborn people he knew.

"Thank you..." He muttered after a few moments. "You saved my life."  
"I thought you were going to die a couple of times last night." Starling declared showing an impressive lack of emotion.

It was a curious thing about Starling. The way that she spoke and her mannerisms could make her incredibly hard to read. The young woman had mastered the art of concealing what she felt behind a veil of British charm and seriousness. She was pragmatic to an extent which sometimes made her seem cold. You knew when she was angry, she would frequently abandon her self-control in favour of fury if you had succeeded in irritating her enough but when it came to somewhat less violent states of mind, Aerrow sometimes found that he just couldn't tell.

The way that she had just said that she believed he might die was so casual and relaxed that she might have just told him that the sky around Cyclonia was red or that the Rebel Ducks seriously needed to change their name. She talked about death – his own – in such a mundane fashion, that it caused the red haired sky knight to wonder if she even remotely cared.

"Oh, and do you want the really good news?" Starling continued on a mixture of frustration and a strange sense of bitterness marked her voice. "We're trapped here."  
"The sky bikes..." He recalled the crash and couldn't help but wince a little as it felt like for a moment he was reliving the impact.  
"Are recoverable..." His fellow sky knight replied before showing him a crystal. "These however are dead. Every. Single. One."

She had punctuated the words for effect. Despite his blurry vision, Aerrow could clearly make out that the crystal his friend was holding, although he couldn't identify it, was unusually dull and now resembled more of a pretty rock than anything else. That must have been what she was going about when he had initially woken up. It certainly posed a problem. Pretty much everything they used required crystals: their bikes, any electrical equipment Starling might have thought to bring along, even their weapons wouldn't work without their power… That left them rather defenceless. He frowned however as he remembered some of the other events of the night before.

"The phoenix crystal-" Aerrow began.  
"Gave its last breath lighting that fire." She let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm guessing it was only working because it was so powerful. It's like they've all been drained."  
"Is there anyone here who could help..."  
"Not that I've seen…" Starling shook her head negatively. "I haven't been able to explore that much yet but as far as I can tell, this terra's uninhabited."

On one hand, that suited them quite well. Cyclonia was currently taking over every single piece of land that they could in the Atmos. They would want to subjugate populations and crush what precious little resistance remained. Unpopulated terras might very well be over-looked which when you were trying to lie low as they were was useful. That being said, with nobody else around that would mean they weren't exactly likely to find any help which given that they had no supplies as far as he could see and with no power wouldn't be able to get their bikes back into the sky would likely mean a slow death sentence.

He let out a sigh, trying not to dwell on that idea for too long. Uninhabited didn't necessarily mean hopeless.

There was a silence which passed between them. Aerrow took advantage of the situation to simply attempt to regain some strength. His mind kept on travelling back to the events of the past few days and weeks. It all seemed so alien to think of Atmos as now belonging to the Cyclonians. All of those years of fighting, all those deaths had they really been fruitless? The young sky knight struggled to remember when everything had started to change. He remembered things getting dark. Terras and squadrons had started to fall. Only a few initially, then more and more… One day, they had received some news. He believed that was the day he'd really realized that they might be about to lose.

"They told me you were dead..." He muttered turning to face the young woman sat only a few feet away from him.  
"Well, obviously I'm not." Starling replied.

There were more open and warmer people he could be trapped with. It had been raining when they'd received the news that Starling, the last of the Interceptors, was dead. Cliché in all the worse ways possible. Reports were a little hazy but witnesses had claimed she'd been shot out of the sky by the Dark Ace whilst attempting to protect a terra who's resident squadron had already been turned. No body or bike had ever been recovered as she'd apparently fallen straight into the wastelands. Even the Storm Hawks, although they had cried for their friend, hadn't been able to question it any more than that. Aerrow remembered the cold sense of dread and a feeling that soon that might very well be him.

Starling's explanation didn't quite satisfy him however. It left far too many questions unanswered. Least of all how she could possibly still be alive and as far as he could tell, baring a few cuts and scrapes which had likely been caused simply by their escape. After staring at him for a few moments, his fellow sky knight let out a reluctant sigh sensing that she might have to explain herself a little bit better than she had:

"I was hoping to be able to grab that crystal from Cyclonis and smash it. End all of this madness…" She muttered turning away from him. "So I faked my death. The time it took me to infiltrate right into her guard... I couldn't help the others."

He closed his eyes at the mention of his squadron. The last thing he wanted to do right now was remember them. What had been done to them and what in turn he had seen them do. There was still something unreal about the whole experience and how he wished that it wasn't true. Even now, Aerrow prayed that he would wake up from this terrible nightmare on board the Condor, that he would find all of his crew: Piper, Junko, Finn, Stork and Radar there with him.

Still, right now lying on a cold stone floor in all this pain, all he could remember was the cold looks in their eyes as they had stood there pitilessly watching him suffer. He could still hear their mocking voices and occasional bursts of laughter. It wasn't them, the sky knight tried to tell himself. He didn't know if there was anything left of his squadron or if the crystal had erased them completely, leaving them as empty husks for the darkness which now occupied them. Every blow they had dealt him at the behest of their new master seemed to sting once more as he thought back to it.

"Did- Did-" He struggled for a moment. "Did they really betray me?"

Starling looked over suddenly, her eyes wide. Aerrow let out a sigh realizing that this time it was his turn to explain himself. In particular his choice of words. They were harsh, particularly when referring to his own friends. Friends who at any other time in their lives would gladly have died by his side as he would have done the same for them. He would never had doubted that fact before. For many years, he had staked everything on it. Yet at that particular moment, for no reason that he could think of, for the first time in his life, he found himself doubting its truth.

"I- I fought of the crystal." He managed as an explanation. "Why couldn't they?"

Starling shook her head slowly looking down at the stone floor beneath her feet. She said nothing, letting a heavy silence hang in the damp cave. It had never occurred to him until right now. He had been able to fight off the crystals effects, he had done so for several days, despite torture and knowing that ultimately it was hopeless, they had lost. Yet his friends had been turned and before him. There was a small part of him but one which had somehow won over the rest of him that could only ask: Why hadn't they fought like he had?

"Doubt, Aerrow."  
"What?"  
"Doubt." Starling repeated her voice a little bitter. "She told them you were dead. That fear. That doubt. It was all it took for the crystal to take control."

He couldn't have said if she was right or wrong. He had been kept separate from all of his allies for days after they had been captured. By the time he had been allowed to see them again, they had all been turned. He felt a sharp pain in his chest as he realized once again that they were gone, they weren't here any more. Regardless of whether or not they had given up in the end, they were his friends and he wanted them back. He was their sky knight, their leader, he should have protected them.

A rough and calloused hand gently took one of his own. He turned surprised to look at Starling. For a moment, the coldness and reserve which could usually be found behind her green eyes was replaced with a warmness and a sense of compassion which he had rarely seen. She squeezed his hand ever so slightly but said nothing. In all, he could only have seen past that barrier she had made around herself for a moment. Then, without even blinking she pulled away, setting about packing up the crystals into a satchel.

Suddenly, the smell of something cooking drew his attention. His nose flared slightly.

"What's that?" He asked nodding in the direction of the fire.  
"Okay, so the terra's not entirely uninhabited." Starling responded packing away the last crystal. "As far as I can tell, you can hardly take a step without standing on a chicken. Why? Are you hungry?"  
"A little..." He confessed.

A small smile graced Starling's lips. It was a start.


	5. Tranquility found

A pair of green eyes surveyed the terra in the mid-morning sun. It was quite beautiful actually. There was something unspoilt about its wilderness which gave it a strangely peaceful feel. It was quiet, unlike most of the Atmos, only the birds seemed to own the sky here flying around carefree apparently unperturbed by the recent human additions to their home. Their songs punctuated the day, seemingly never ending. The sky knight looked up at them longingly, how he would have liked to have been able to fly up there with them right now.

There were other noises too, belonging to the creatures which roamed through the forests. He was yet to get more than a passing glimpse of some of them but they looked a lot bigger than chickens to him.

Letting out a sigh, Aerrow shifted slightly. Although they remained tense, his muscles no longer screamed at him as soon as he even remotely attempted to move. That had allowed him to at least move around some which lead him to now sit on a rock at the entrance to their cave looking out over this strange terra they now found themselves stranded on. He slowly rubbed one of his bandaged arms. Starling had tended to his wounds as best as she knew how but to use her words: it was up for his body to do the rest.

He was recovering. He could feel it. With every passing day his strength was slowly returning to him and with it, a sense of everything that he had lost. His only companion, Starling, now ventured further and further away from the cave from increasing periods of time as she attempted to scout around and find supplies. Aerrow knew it was necessary but every time that his friend departed, he couldn't help but have his heart in his mouth, fearing that she wouldn't return: if she encountered any trouble out there, there was no way that he would be able to help her in his current state.

Starling was a survivor. The last of the Interceptors knew how to stay alive and was prepared to go to great lengths in order to remain so. Whilst like him, she agreed that this wasn't an ideal situation, as far as the sky knight let on, she hadn't given up hope yet. She would bring them food and had found a source of drinkable water. Although by no means a medic, she had also been the one to help bandage some of his wounds. He owed her a lot but his thanks seemed to fall on deaf ears. They'd been together for some days now and still she maintained an almost businesslike attitude with him.

He didn't know what, if anything, he'd been expecting. Perhaps for her to suddenly open up and talk about herself a little. Aerrow wasn't a fool, nor was he insensitive, he was aware that there was pain there and he believed quite a great deal of it. Still, her ability to remain so calm, cool and distant in such a situation was something which he both admired and found difficult to bear. Perhaps it was because he was comparing her to his old squadron, his friends who as soon as they sensed that something wasn't quite right would hassle him until he eventually broke and told them what the issue was. Then they would be there for him, were it comforting words or maybe just a hug; they would know what to do.

With Starling, it was different. He got the distinct impression that she didn't want to know about his troubles. Not that he'd actually attempted to voice any of them. The young woman wasn't exactly the sort of person he was immediately inclined to confide in. Not because he feared that she would spill any secrets that he told her – who would she tell out here at any rate? - but simply because he imagined she would view such things as whining and simply tell him to pull himself together. He supposed that she'd lost her squadron, that must have made feeling anything else rather difficult. Not that she even mentioned it.

"Can you walk?"

His friend's voice caused him to turn around all of a sudden. Starling was a master at creeping up on people it would seem. He didn't know if she did so intentionally or if she was simply naturally and unintentionally stealthy but half the time she practically seemed to materialize out of thin air. She stood there with a bag slung over one shoulder full with some kind of fruit which she had managed to pick.

Aerrow raised his eyebrows somewhat curiously. He had to think about his answer. Over the past few days, he had offered to help Starling on a number of occasions, she had made it abundantly clear that she would not carry him back up the side of the hill to the cave should he prove to be too weak to keep going. Reluctantly, he had acknowledged that he wasn't ready yet.

"I depends how far." He replied as honestly as he could.  
"We can stop along the way if you want." She offered surprising him somewhat.  
"Where are we going?" The sky knight asked uneasily getting to his feet.  
"About a mile away, it looks like this place wasn't always uninhabited." Starling replied gathering together what few supplies they had in the cave. "There's a house. It will be drier and more comfortable than here."  
"A house?" For a moment excitement crept into his voice. "Does that mean?"  
"Its resident passed away some time ago, I'm afraid." Starling shook her head negatively. "I sill haven't had time to explore the whole terra but after four days? I think we would have noticed if anyone else were here."

Aerrow nodded solemnly in agreement. If there had been any locals, it was a fair assumption that one party or the other would have stumbled upon each other by now. According to Starling, the terra wasn't all that huge, not big enough to be able to conceal any settlements that was for sure. Up until today, they hadn't seen or heard any trace of life much above the level of the resident chickens. Both of them had kept their eyes fixed upon the sky, simply searching for skimmers or other ships. They had seen none.

Their theory was a simple one: it was to do with the clouds which seemed to surround this terra completely. They didn't know how but one thing was for sure, it had brought their skimmers down and likely those of the Cylonians following them given as they had never seen them again. They could see only a few miles around them, after that it was all simply a dark and stormy cloud front. Stretching too high for them to possibly fly over and seemingly going down deep into the wastelands. If that was the case, then it would mean that this terra was well and truly cut off from the rest of the Atmos: both a blessing and a curse.

"Well at least there aren't any Cyclonians around." Aerrow declared preparing himself for the walk to come. "I guess we can count ourselves lucky for that much."

Starling grunted in agreement as she slung the last of their supplies over her shoulder and set about guiding him to this fabled house.

It was a rather steep climb down the side of the hill. Aerrow found himself wondering how he'd ever made it up here in the first place, he would likely wouldn't have been capable of it were it not for Starling. She must have had to virtually haul him up the side of these rocks at some points. Getting down the side of the hill was somewhat more arduous than he initially thought. It wasn't the distance so much as the action of bracing himself to avoid tumbling down put strain on muscles which weren't quite ready for it yet. Fortunately, his guide seemed to sense this and slowed her own pace to accommodate for him.

He was grateful when they reached the less steep and rocky forest which seemed to cover much of the terra. The climate here was currently pleasantly warm. He didn't know if it would change throughout the year but if this was the norm, he could certainly get used to it. They were following one of Starling's trails through the rather dense vegetation. She had been making many these past few days, each of them linking to a spot of interest: a source where they had been getting their water from, the cave, the edge of the terra where their skimmers still lay… She certainly had covered a fair amount of ground.

Their walk was in almost complete and utter silence. Every now and then, Aerrow would have to request that they stop for a moment take a break. It wasn't just his injuries the problem but it had been a while since had last been on his feet like this. In the Cyclonian cell even if he'd been in a state to walk around, shackles had prevented him from doing so and after that he'd been too badly hurt to even try stretching his legs. Despite the fact that in the scheme of things he hadn't travelled all that far, the sky knight found himself to be tired none-the-less. He would have to stop to catch his breath and let some of his strength return. Starling was patient, waiting without saying a word until he felt that he was able to continue on.

In all, it must have taken them almost two hours to make a journey that he suspected he could easily have done in half an hour were in he in good shape. What he found surprised him somewhat. It was more of a hut than a house, cobbled together out of wood and some pieces of metal. Just looking it, he could tell that it hadn't been inhabited for a while. Again, supporting their theory that they were all alone out here.

"Looks like it was made out of what's left of a ship." Aerrow replied knocking against one of the walls which was made out of a large piece of scrap metal.  
"I think it was made out of whatever Bob could find." Starling replied putting the bags by the side of the hut.  
"Bob?" Aerrow raised an eyebrow wondering what his friend was going on about.

"I'll show you."

He followed Starling. Whoever had built the hut had done so on the edge of the terra, the ground here was soft and grassy. It would have been a good place to try farming, he could understand why somebody would try setting up here. By the looks of things, they had done a pretty good job.

Slowly, the two sky knights approached a pit in the ground several yards away from the house. The makeshift shovel that had been used was still planted in the ground next to it. Aerrow found himself compelled to stop as he saw way lay at the bottom of it. It was approximately six feet deep. At the bottom, lay a skeleton, that of a man long dead. For a moment, the sky knight could only stare in horror. He turned to his friend. Her face was stoic, he wondered if had been when she'd made this macabre discovery.

"This is Bob?" He turned to his friend in a mixture of confusion and horror.  
"That's what I'm calling him." Starling replied pulling a piece of wood out of her pocket. "He forgot to mention his name."  
"What's that?" Aerrow questioned frowning as he noticed the words carved into it.  
"I found it by his grave." His fellow sky knight informed him. "He knew he was going to die and left a note. Doesn't say much really… Just that he crashed like us and was stranded here."  
"Stranded?" The red haired young man looked back at the body in the pit imagining himself in its place for a moment. "For how long?!"  
"Uh..."  
"Starling..."  
"Fifty years..."  
"Fifty?!"

For a moment, the sky knight tried to imagine what it must have been like for this poor soul. Aerrow was someone who needed a little company, as a child, after he had been orphaned and before he had found his friends, he felt that he had spent enough time scared and alone to last him a lifetime. The Storm Hawks had been more than just his squadron in that regard, they had been his friends, his family. Since meeting them all those years ago and baring a few exceptional incidents, he had never found himself without company. It was almost impossible to imagine for the young man what this stranger must have felt like, out here, cut off from the world around him for half a century.

His friend handed him the wooden plank. Aerrow's best guess was that the man hadn't been able to find any paper or a pen to write it down conventionally so had been forced to carve his message into some wood. Starling was right, it didn't contain much information of any interest to them. The stranger had crashed some fifty years ago after his ship had mysteriously lost its power. After that, he had set up camp here. He was kind enough to inform them of where they could find drinkable water and a good place to catch food. Apparently, the land was pretty fertile so if they put their minds to it, farming shouldn't be an issue. Frankly, he hoped that they wouldn't be trapped here long enough for it to become a necessity. It ended with a note about him getting on a bit and his time coming to an end. He had dug his grave and asked that those who found him be kind enough to bury him.

Aerrow looked back down at the body for the man. He must have passed away some time ago. How long had he waited here for a rescue? He'd spent decades here before dying. Only for two lost sky knights to come by years later and baptise him "Bob". What a strange world they lived in…

"Relax. We won't be stuck here that long." Starling assured him before with some effort pulling the shovel out of the ground. "Rest a little if you want. I'm going to fulfil his last wish."

He could only nod finding himself already out of breath. It was hard not to feel a little guilty that he couldn't provide any assistance. It was hard work. The pile of earth that Bob had left upon digging his own grave now had grass growing over it and had condensed down making it difficult to shift. Starling didn't complain or even pause for a break until it was done however. She only finished once the ground was as level as it was going to get. The sky knight planted the shovel back into the ground leaning against it for a moment as she wiped some of the sweat off of her brow. She was flushed from the effort and looked as if she could use with a drink.

Getting to his feet, he headed over to their supplies and offered her a gourd of water which she had filled in the stream on the way to the house. She thanked him, taking several swigs to quench the thirst that she had managed to work up. After a few moments, Starling allowed herself to fall down at the base of one of the house's walls. She rested her head against the wood of the hut, closing her eyes for a few moments before letting out a heavy sigh.

"I need a shower..." Starling muttered eventually.

Aerrow grumbled. He understood her completely. He imagined that neither of them smelled particularly great. It must have been well over a week since he'd last had a shower and he imagined that the same must have been true for his companion. That was to say nothing of the dirt and grime that they had accumulated since then.

They said very little for the rest of the day. Aerrow found that the comparatively short walk had taken more out of him that he had initially thought that it would. He spent much of his time sitting around trying to recuperate. From time to time, he would get to his feet and move a little to avoid getting cramps but otherwise found himself too tired to be able to contribute much to many of the activities.

For much of the day, Starling stuck around the house. He wasn't immediately sure what she was doing. A couple of times, he would ask, she would answer that she was cleaning or trying to see if Bob had left anything which could possibly be of some use to them. He had left a few tools, things that he'd managed to salvage from his ship when it had gone down no doubt but asides from that they still found themselves woefully unprepared for the situation which they were now in. Were their situations reversed and it were the Interceptor who could scarcely move, they would definitely have been in trouble. Thankfully, she seemed to have much more skill than he did when it came to surviving in the wilds.

That night, they sat by the fire. A couple of empty tin plates by their feet. Aerrow pulled his legs close to his chest as he watched his friend sitting opposite him listlessly poke the wood and embers with a stick. Neither of them had talked much, perhaps trying to ignore the hunger or sense of abandonment which this terra gave off.

Aerrow's mind kept on travelling back to his friends. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help but think back to all of them. Cyclonis would look after them, of a fashion: she had no invested interest in letting her pets die. That's all they had become, her pawns. He clenched his teeth with rage as he thought back to how they had attacked him without pity or remorse. His anger wasn't directed at them, his friends would never have hurt him ordinarily, but rather that the woman who had done this to them.

"What's on your mind?" Starling questioned not taking her eyes off of the flickering flames, stirring him from his thoughts.

"Why is she doing all this anyway?" He asked aloud as much to himself as to his companion. "What has Atmos ever done to her?"

"She's a child." Starling dismissed the now practically lord of Atmos with a simple wave of the hand. "She's angry and when she throws a tantrum she sends in her Talons, that's all that's different about her."

Aerrow looked back at the fire, wondering what could possibly be so fascinating about it that caused Starling to fix it in such a manner. She seemed to be a little lost to just into them absently, as if there was something there which only she could see.

Could it possibly be so simple? That the infamous Master Cyclonis, a mere teenager capable of spreading fear into the hearts of even the bravest of warriors, someone so powerful she had likely be now brought most of Atmos to its knees, the individual responsible for tearing him from his beloved friends could she just be some spoilt brat as Starling seemed to claim. He didn't quite know what to think if that was the case. He loathed her, as much as every sky knight in the Atmos quite naturally did. Yet at the same time, he feared her, no matter how hard he tried not to or ignore the feeling of terror that her name brought, he found himself unable to do so.

"Starling..." He spoke quietly, as the air seemed to turn a little colder. "What are we going to do?"

Never before had he felt so lost. Out here all alone – well, almost – with no skimmers, no weapons, or rather no crystals to power them. They were trapped. The worst thing was that it wasn't as if either of them could simply sit tight and wait for a rescue. The rest of the Storm Hawks were gone. There were no other squadrons which could come to their aid and even if they could, he doubted that anyone knew they were out there in the first place.

Right now, what he really needed was for Starling to say something encouraging, preferably inspiring. For a moment, she didn't move simply starring into the fire. After a few moments, she grumbled pensively before letting out a sigh.

"For the time being, we stay here." He declared solemnly after a few moments reflection. "We need you fighting fit before we can go anywhere. After that, we'll find a way off of this rock. Then, we destroy that damn crystal."

"Would that bring the others back?" He asked hopeful.

"I couldn't find out much about that crystal she was using..." Starling confessed after some hesitation her voice low as she spoke. "I'm not a specialist… I can't guarantee that destroying it would bring back your friends. If Cylonis is controlling them, then logically it should free them but if it does something else, something worse..."  
"You're saying that even if we managed to destroy the crystal..."  
"There might not be anything left of your friends or any of the others to save."

That one thought struck terror into every fibre of his body. The idea that his squadron, his friends could be gone forever seemed to only intensify the feeling of complete and utter helplessness. He hadn't been there to witness their change, hadn't been able to help or even just comfort them. All he'd known whilst they suffered had been a set of concrete walls. He prayed that his friends were conscious of what they were doing, that that part of them was sealed away somewhere unaware of what was going on. If they knew what was being asked of them, what they had already done… It would drive them insane. The uncertainty of simply not knowing was painful enough.

He found himself thinking back to them. All of them. He remembered the good times. Back when Cyclonians were something that they laughed at as much as feared. For a moment, he felt as if he was back on the Condor with them. He was standing there listening as Stork was complaining about some bizarre problem, be it an imaginary rash or a poisonous cricket. Someone had made the mistake of letting Junko cook again. It felt as if Radarr was on his shoulder a perch he'd claimed for himself a long time ago. He could practically hear Finn strumming his guitar and Piper… Oh Piper… He spent a while in his mind. It was a pleasant escape from the world around him. Even if he knew deep down it was an illusion nothing more, his memories offered him some form of sanctuary.

"You loved Piper, didn't you?" Starling's soft voice awoke him from his daydream.  
"How did you-?" He paused clearing his throat as he felt the heat rise to his face. "What makes you think that?"  
"I'm not completely heartless..." There was a slight hint of amusement as she spoke.

He didn't say anything to confirm or deny her question. He already knew the answer deep down inside of him but had never voiced it to anyone. If anybody asides Starling had suspicions, they had never brought them up, at least not in his presence. The silence returned for a few moments between them. He continued to think back to his friends and in particular Piper, his memories turned out to be a rather pleasant place to be. It was an escape from a world which right now he simply didn't want to face.

Sitting there, he found himself beginning to doze off. He would like to have known how much time he'd spent sleeping these past few days, probably more than he had proportionally done so in his whole life. He felt a soft hand on his shoulder which caused him to look up. Starling's green eyes were gazing down at him.

"Come on. You're falling asleep." She informed him.

Aerrow nodded in agreement. He followed Starling to see just what the sleeping arrangements were. After several days of sleeping on rough stone floors of one type or another, he was beginning to become a little accustomed to it. That wasn't to say that he would pass up a more comfortable set-up.

The hut was very basic inside. Its primary purpose was evidently to provide shelter. They had found what looked like some rudimentary stove as well as a variety of home-made tools. There was a second room, slightly separated from the rest of the hut. In there, was a single mattress. It wasn't much but it would certainly be more comfortable than the hard ground. Tired, Aerrow gawked at it for a few moments. He wanted desperately to just flop down there and fall fast asleep. He would have had it not been for the presence of Starling. His fellow sky knight folded a cloth a couple of times, forming a little pillow for herself. There was a torn and battered rug of some kind to prevent her from actually resting on the floor but it was never going to be all that comfortable.

"You can have the bed if you want." He offered aware that she was unlikely to accept his offer but doing so to show that he cared none-the-less.  
"Not until you're fully-healed." She replied patting down slightly where she was preparing to sleep.  
"Thank you." Aerrow replied waiting a moment before adding. "For taking such good care of me..."

"Well I was hardly going to let you suffer." She answered simply.

Aerrow smiled to himself for a moment. It was as much of a "You're welcome" as he was going to get from her. He settled down. It was probably just his imagination or the fact that he had become accustomed to sleeping on hard and cold surfaces but the bed seemed to be far more comfortable than anything he had ever encountered before. He supposed a mattress was something that he had always taken for granted up until that point. He made a mental note not to do it again.

Starling was only a few feet away but in the darkness of the night, he could scarcely make her out. There was a window in the side of the hut which allowed some moonbeams through. It cast a silvery light down on the floor separating them but otherwise all that he could make out of the other sky knight were her green eyes. He lay there for a few moments, one arm resting on his chest and the other just above his head. Despite his exhaustion, sleep seemed to take a little while to come to him. He listened to the sounds of the night and Starling's steady breathing for a few moments, allowing it to gradually lull him into a world of dreams.

"Goodnight..." He muttered.  
"Goodnight." Aerrow only just managed to cling to consciousness long enough to hear her reply.

They didn't have any clocks or watches on their little terra. Even if they had had some, with no energy left in their crystals they wouldn't have been able to use them. As such, Aerrow didn't know what time it was when he was woken up, before sunrise that was for sure.

For a few moments, he couldn't tell just what had disturbed him. Then, as he gradually emerged from sleep and his senses tuned back into the world around him, he became aware of a strange whimpering sound. Quickly realizing that the noise had come from his companion, he turned over to see just what was wrong. Despite the darkness, he could make out the form of Starling. The young woman appeared to be shivering, shaking perhaps would be a better way of describing it. Every now and then, she would let out a little cry or distressed noise. He frowned instantly snapping awake as he realized that something was wrong.

He hesitated a couple of seconds before calling out her name. If anything, that only seemed to exasperate things as she seemingly became more restless upon hearing it. Now genuinely beginning to worry, he rolled off of the mattress and headed over to his friend. A little closer, he could make out a pained and distressed expression on her face, although she still appeared to be asleep.

"Starling… Starling..." He muttered. Gently trying to shake her awake.

He wasn't quite prepared for what happened next. Almost as soon as he carefully put his hands on her shoulders. Her eyes shot open a look of pure wild rage occupied them. Starling was lethally fast when she put her mind to it. Before Aerrow had even had the time to blink, he found a crystal at the end of his friend's nun-chucks pressed to his throat. Even if they were powerless, they were as sharp as a blade. Any more pressure and she was going to cut something important. For a few moments, as he looked deep into those ferocious orbs, he realized that she plainly didn't know who he was. Slowly however, realization began to creep into them and she came to.

Letting out a sigh. She slowly lowered the tip of her nun-chuck away from her neck. Finally, she breathed. They were rapid and shaking gasps for oxygen as the young woman struggled to regain her calm. Aerrow backed off as a precaution, allowing her some space to regain a sense of herself. For a few moments, Starling appeared to be completely lost. Despite the darkness, he could make out her eyes travelling around the room as she held herself close. After what seemed like a painful eternity but was actually probably only a few seconds, the sky knight's breathing gradually became more regular.

"Are you okay?" He asked more than a little shaken, when he believed that she had calmed down enough to be able to both understand and reply to his enquiry.  
"Yes..." She replied after some hesitation before her coolness and self-control returned. "It's nothing to worry about."

The young woman took a single deep breath. It was apparent that she was shaking slightly. He wasn't too sure if it was from fright or simply the adrenaline rush of waking up in a situation where thought that she was under attack. Starling ran a hand through her long purple hair which she had undone before initially going to bed, she wasn't accustomed to it hanging so loosely around her shoulders. Aerrow stared at her, still a little in shock himself. She seemed to be gradually regaining her composure. It was what had caused her to lose it in the first place which concerned him.

"I thought you were sick or something." He informed her looking down at the sheets of his bed.  
"No. Not sick..." The sky knight muttered.

"You're sure?"

"Yes. I uh- I had a nightmare..." She confessed pulling the sheets over her shoulders. "It happens."

Instantly, Aerrow's gaze softened and all concern he'd had disappeared to be replaced purely with compassion. He could imagine only too easily what someone like Starling with her history was likely to have nightmares about. It had been three long years since the interceptors had been wiped out. For some, that was a long time, the red haired young man himself wouldn't have even formed the Storm Hawks back then but it would seem that the scars still marked his friend. Even if most of the time she tried not to let it show.

She avoided his gaze for a few moments, choosing to look at the floor and wind some of her hair around her finger. He didn't know what to say. He knew precious little of what her relationship had been like with her squadron, it wasn't written in any books and the last Interceptor was hardly likely to mention it herself but if it was anything like his had been with his own team, then he imagined it must have felt rather a lot like losing a family. What could you possibly say to someone who had survived something like that? _"Sorry"_ didn't quite seem to cut it.

"I did..." He muttered without really knowing why. Perhaps, in some odd way trying to let her know that she wasn't alone and that he understood some of what she felt.  
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Somehow, she seemed to understand none-the-less.  
"More than anything."

He sat there in silence for a few moments with his back resting against the wall behind him. If the days were warm here and pleasant, so far the nights had proven to be a little chilly. He was capable of seeing his own cool breath and he breathed out as well as that of Starling's in the night. Those few seconds were unusually calm as a form of understanding seemed to pass between the two sky knights: they were both hurt; one still bore the bruises and wounds, the other's had never healed over. For the first time however, Aerrow found himself wondering if there might be something more:

"Did you?"

He surprised himself with his own bravery. Usually, he would never have dared to ask Starling such a personal question. Despite its apparent ambiguity, he knew that she knew what he was asking. It would seem that the nightmare had drained her somewhat, making her a little too tired to raise her usual defences. Instead, she sat there in silence for a few moments before finally raising her eyes to meet his. He almost said sorry and told her not to bother: the fire and cold steel was gone, instead, her gaze seemed unusually dull as if all the fight had been sucked out of her. She spoke before he could apologize however.

"Yes..." She confessed letting out a sigh. "A long time ago..."

For a moment, the Sky Knight felt as if he should say something but nothing seemed to come out. He didn't know why he'd asked her that question. Bizarrely enough, it was never something that had ever occurred to him before. Starling's personal life was nothing to do with him he supposed and he'd never really been sort to pay much heed to gossip. Still, to hear her say such a thing struck him with compassion. If she had loved someone once, her tone left no doubt, that she didn't any more or perhaps more accurately he suspected, they were no longer around.

Silence settled in between them once more. Just sitting there, Aerrow fixed the ground beneath his feet as Starling did the same. It felt as if even a word were to pass between them, it would break something. A couple of times, the younger sky knight would dare to raise his eyes to see what the young woman was doing. She would barely have moved, still sitting there with that tired expression on her face.

"Who-?" He began once more when the silence became almost unbearable.  
"Please. Enough."

Those two words were all that it took to get him to be quiet. He knew better than to push the subject any further than he already had. It looked as if Starling had just about recovered. He didn't think that the could say or do anything else, so he lay back down and pulled the covers back over him. It wouldn't be long until he found sleep again, he only hoped that his friend would be the same. Sometimes a single nightmare once had could prevent sleep for the rest of the night.

"I'm sorry..."  
"I don't need any of your sympathy, Aerrow!"

The reply was angry. She was upset and so the sky knight didn't answer. He heard her settle back down, intentionally turning away from him. He let out a sigh and looked out the window up to the dark and starry sky. The sky had never felt so far away.


	6. Alone together

Starling stayed angry for a while. Two days in fact.

It wasn't so much what she said as what she didn't. The young woman became almost unbearably quiet. Any attempts to start up a conversation were met with a cold shoulder. If the matters that he had to speak of were too important to be ignored, then you could be sure that she would answer in as few a words as possible. After a little while, Aerrow twigged that the best thing that he could do was give her his own space and hope that she could come around eventually.

He didn't know for sure what he'd done to upset her so. She hadn't reacted too badly to him asking about her personal life, telling him perhaps deservedly to shut up when the pain became too much to bare. It seemed to be the rather mundane act of expressing his sympathy and saying that he felt "sorry" for her which had done it. The red haired sky knight couldn't understand it. It wasn't as if he had openly mocked her and the other Interceptors or said anything that he perceived as being insulting. Given her current mood, he wasn't inclined to ask.

It was a cold couple of days that he spent on the terra with Starling. It wasn't the first time he had upset someone. Usually though, there would be some escape: he would be able to go somewhere to avoid them and would have someone else to talk to until he waited for it all to blow over. Right now however, he found himself alone asides the one person who seemed to be mad at him about something. It made things almost unbearable as he was forced to spend time with her when his presence so obviously irritated her. He had learnt to be quiet and avoid drawing her attention as any remarks she would make would be hostile.

So it was, that he found himself sitting down that evening staring into the flickering flames. Starling was finishing the last of her food. She had managed to find eggs which served as their main meal for the evening. It was enough to keep them alive and healthy. He could get used to it. After all, if he could stomach some of Junko's monstrosities then he could make good of anything.

The Interceptor placed her bowl in a small bucket of water which they had been using to clean their dishes and scrubbed it without saying a word. Aerrow realized that they owed a lot to Bob who seemed to have been able to salvage a lot from his own ship as well as they presumed others which had crashed over the years on this forgotten terra. Tools, plates, dishes and even some basic crops had been left behind by the mysterious man. All of which had allowed them to have a much easier time surviving than they would otherwise have had.

After she'd finished her task. Starling got to her feet without saying so much as a word. He expected her to go to bed. Usually, once darkness fell that was all they could do here: sleep and wait until the sun came back up. Tonight however she was heading in the opposite direction; away from the hut and the light of their fire. She was in danger of disappearing into the darkness. Becoming somewhat concerned, Aerrow prepared to call after her not caring that she was likely to simply snap back at him. Instead, he heard her pause and a moment later call after him:

"Aren't you coming?"  
"Where?" The red haired sky knight asked a rather surprised.  
"You'll see."

He raised an eyebrow curiously before getting to his feet and quickly running after her. Starling wasn't the kind to wait for him to catch up and he knew well that if he lost sight of her in this darkness he would be unlikely to find her again. They were fortunate, the full moon above and cloudless sky illuminated the entire terra in a silver glow. It allowed them to see where they were going.

Starling walked briskly but not so much as to leave him in the dust. Aerrow followed whilst keeping a respectable distance from her, still unsure if she was angry at him or not. Every now and then he would catch a glimpse of her face. The anger and disdain seemed to have left her, replaced by a strange serenity. The walk was in silence. Every now and then, something would move in the wilderness around them. A creature, stirring but never threatening them. Whilst they weren't considering themselves completely safe, they had both come to the conclusion that if anything here could or would harm them, then it would have already.

Aerrow could only follow, not having a clue as to just where he was being lead. Starling wasn't about to clue him in that was for sure. He almost asked her just what was going on as they gradually began to climb up the side of the rather steep mountain that formed the heart of the terra. Still, he forced himself to bite his tongue even when the climbing became difficult, something that his muscles still weren't quite ready for. This was rather unlike his friend, usually, she didn't have time for these sorts of mysterious outings with little to no explanation.

Finally, as he found himself heaving himself up onto a stone plateau. His patience ran out.

"Starling where are we going?"  
"We're here." She announced stepping to one side so that he could see the pools.

Aerrow's eyes widened as he contemplated the pools. The water was somewhat murkier than he would usually consider healthy and seemed to be bubbling. Add to that the distinct odour that it was giving off and he found himself coming to the conclusion that it most definitely wasn't good to drink. His gaze fell back upon Starling. He gave her a questioning look wondering just what all this was about. Naturally, the sky knight was a little suspicious. He didn't see what was so special about these things that she couldn't have shown him in the daytime when they could have seen better and things would have been far less dangerous.

"Hot springs." She informed him after a while noticing his confusion. "Don't tell me you've never been in some."  
"No. I haven't." He replied honestly contemplating the waters somewhat dubiously.  
"You don't realize what you've been missing." The sky knight told him with a smile.  
"It's just like a warm bath, right?" The youth questioned walking over cautiously and inspecting the waters.  
"Why don't you hop in and find out?" Starling suggested.

The sky knight hesitated. The smell of the water put him off somewhat, causing him to wrinkle his nose. On the other hand, a warm bath certainly wouldn't go a miss. He didn't even care to remember the last time that he'd had a decent wash. He was aware that he was a little icky, they both were considering that for over a week now, if you included time spent in Cyclonia, neither of them had had access to a bath or a shower. Cautiously, he put his hand in the water to test its temperature and found it to be pleasantly warm. He let out a sigh, telling himself that if he got a nasty surprise he could always jump right out again.

There were a lot of things which Aerrow found himself regretting that he didn't have with him stuck out here, newest on the list was his swimwear. He supposed his underwear would have to suffice after all, given the climate on this terra they really should dry out quite quickly. He gave Starling one last glance, she only nodded encouragingly.

Summoning his courage, the red haired sky knight took the plunge. He had no idea how deep the water was going to be but found that it only came to about midway up his chest. Initially he regretted it as all the cuts and scratched that he had accumulated over the past week and a bit stung like hell as if felt as if someone were rubbing salt into them. He gasped in pain. It took a lot for him to stop himself from climbing out of the waters. It was as he turned around to do so that the pain suddenly faded. He stopped instantly as he felt what could best be described as a soothing feeling pass through him. The itchiness which had been plaguing his skin for ages now slowly began to die down. His muscles no longer felt so tense as the warm water worked its magic. He stayed frozen still for a moment, trying to process just what was happening. He turned to Starling who smiled knowingly.

"Feels nice doesn't it?"  
"You can say that again." He replied relaxing completely. "Man I needed this... Thanks Starling."

The sky knight smiled softly lowering her gaze to fix the waters beneath her feet. She had taken off her boots and now seemed to be content just letting her ankles dangle in the water. Sometimes Starling looked so sad it was beyond words. Right then, with her eyes lowered to fix the water, the look of melancholy on her face was only too plain to see. Aerrow really didn't know what he could possibly say or do to make it better – if anything could be done at all that was. She'd already let him know that his sympathy was not welcome.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you." Starling declared after a couple of moments. "It was wrong of me."

Aerrow's gaze softened as he understood just why she had dragged him out here in the first place. It was her way of saying 'sorry'. He wished he knew just how to tell her that she didn't need to. He understood better what she felt than perhaps she gave him credit for. An orphan himself, he knew all too well how tempting it could be to lash out at the world around you from time to time because it wasn't fair. Nobody should ever have their loved ones torn from them: it didn't matter how it happened, be it betrayal, a war or even just a sickness. Sometimes, he found himself just wanting to scream the world around him, especially now that the Storm Hawks were no longer with him.

"No need to apologize." He told her in a soft voice.  
"Mind if I join you?"  
"Of course not!"

He hadn't exactly thought through what that declaration would entail. The sky knight found himself turning a bright shade of pink as the colour flushed to his face as Starling stripped down to her underwear in order to bathe herself. He let out a contented sigh as she relaxed in the warm waters. He averted his eyes not knowing where to look. In the scheme of things, she was quite far away, right at the opposite end of the pool. Aerrow dared to glance back once she was in the waters.

His eyes were attracted by a large red mark on her right shoulder which marked a stark contrast with the rest of her skin. It was a wound, an ugly one. What struck him most of all was how recent it looked. The skin was still far from healed, it had scabbed over but that was about it. Judging by both the width and length of it, she had been lucky to keep her arm. The younger sky knight thought about all the work that she had been doing whilst he recuperated, she must have been in quite a deal of pain. He only glanced for a moment before he found himself blushing once more and obliged to look away.

"What happened to your shoulder?" He asked keeping his eyes fixed on the water in front of him.  
"That?" She gingerly touched it before wincing slightly with pain. "A parting gift from the Dark Ace. I misjudged it a little, only meant him to get a little cut in."

He nodded nervously. Try as he might, he couldn't quite ignore the sky knight's presence. He would have liked to have been able act like nothing was up. It was times like this that he would occasionally regret not having a more average youth. He'd seen Finn play the womaniser many a time, albeit without much (if any success) but found himself lacking the confidence to do so much as raise his eyes to look her in the face. At least not for any amount of time.

"If you blush any more you'll be the same colour as your hair." She informed him with a teasing smile.  
"Hehehe..." He laughed a little nervously unsure what else he could do. "Yeah, I know. It's just- I've never seen you or any girl-"  
"I'm hardly naked." Starling responded decidedly amused by his awkwardness. "It's the same as wearing a bikini. Didn't you and Piper ever go to the beach?"  
"Yes but she had a swimsuit." Aerrow snapped a little irritated.

That seemed to strike Starling as funny as she let out a short but controlled laugh. Trust her to find his embarrassment and awkwardness amusing. She was right of course, he really shouldn't be that bothered by it. Given the strange colour of the water, all he could really make out of her was what was above the water that was to say her shoulders and face. He had two issues: number one was that he didn't want her think that he was being indecent. The second was that she was very pretty. Letting out a sigh, he tried to relax as much as possible.

"For what it's worth, I've seen you in a bath before." She told him after a while.  
"What?! When?!" Aerrow asked practically screaming.  
"Relax would you!" She held back a laugh. "Honestly, you're acting like I'm sort of bloody stalker or something. It was a long time ago. Let me think… Really, you must have been about two years old."

Aerrow blinked a couple of times. He couldn't even remembering having a bath as a child, it had always been showers for water efficiency. In fact, he couldn't remember much from before the age of about four or five years old period and that which he could was too blurry to be of much use to him. What surprised him more was the fact that Starling hadn't thought to mention that she had known him when he was that young. It both confused and somewhat irritated him. Before he had the time to question her any further, his fellow sky knight continued:

"The son of the great Lightning Strike, you used to wail the place down." Starling recalled with a distant smile. "Even your father couldn't get you to shut up."

The mention of a familiar name drew Aerrow's attention. He'd heard of Lightning Strike of course. Although the man's features had become blurry in his memory, he could still remember bits about him. Most of it though came from history books. It surprised him how despite the fact that the events which had separated him from his father. He supposed that she would have been old enough to know him. Although it had been ten years, Starling herself must have been rather young at the time.

"You knew my father?" Aerrow asked surprised.  
"Kind of..." Starling paused for a moment. "I was only a little girl when he died."  
"But you did know him." The red haired sky knight pressed eager for any more information that she could possibly have about his mysterious father.  
"As much as an eight year old can know the leader of the mighty Storm Hawks." Starling replied closing her eyes for a moment. "Like I said, it was a long time ago..."

A strange smile made its way onto her face. The young woman fixed the water for a few moments, her gaze distant. Aerrow knew how to recognise someone lost in their own thoughts and imagined that Starling must have been remembering some of those events all those years ago. He closed his eyes himself and for a moment tried to recall his father. For some reason, his features always appeared blurry. He could look at an image of his father and a matter of moments later when he looked away, he would begin to fade.

"Wait…" Something occurred to Aerrow causing him to do some quick mental arithmetic. "You can't have been that young, I mean… That would make you..."  
"Just how old do you think I am?"

Aerrow hesitated aware that guessing too far either way would likely be perceived as an insult. He had read about Starling in some of the magazines and newspapers which talked about sky knights. Curiously enough, he couldn't recall ever reading anything which gave her actual age. Piper, the fan girl and font of knowledge that she was would have known. He would have to try and work it out for himself. He doubted that she would take offence for a couple of years too old or too young. She was older than him, that was for sure but how much? The Storm Hawk rubbed the back somewhat awkwardly as he tried his best to guess.

"I dunno..." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "23. 24?"  
"Nope."  
"27?" He plucked the number out of his imagination randomly.

Starling simply shook her head. Aerrow frowned. He couldn't quite decide if he was being made fun of or not. Still, he found himself relaxing somewhat. Forgetting about his earlier awkwardness as he found himself too wrapped up in the task at hand to be that bothered by it any more. It both fascinated and confused him. She should have been in her early twenties, that was an age range which would tie in to what little he knew about her life.

He had given up guessing. After a few more seconds of somewhat bemused staring at him, his companion sensing that he had given him smiled. Starling held up three fingers.

"Nineteen. I'm nineteen years old." She spoke softly with a gentle smile before frowning. "Actually. I must be coming up for twenty. Depending on how you count it I'm three or four years older than you."  
"No. You can't be." Aerrow shook his head going over the facts in his head. "You joined the Interceptors five years ago. That would have made you-"  
"About the same age as you were when you formed the Storm Hawks." He replied giving him a knowing smirk.  
"But they don't accept Sky Knights that young!" The Storm Hawk reminded her. He wasn't sure what he was doing. Trying to catch her out in some loophole of her logic? "Remember the trouble we had?"  
"Did you seriously never think to lie about your age?"

Aerrow smiled but didn't answer. It had sort of occurred to him that they could potentially have lied although somehow he doubted that it would have worked. The council had noticed quite quickly that the would be Storm Hawks were a good few years younger than was the norm for a squadron. Too young in fact to be accepted. They could have lied, told them that they were older than they were, although somehow he doubted that it would have worked. After all, even as an unofficial squadron, as far as he was concerned, the Storm Hawks had done more than a good job. After all, at the end of the day, the only difference was a piece of paper.

"I take it you did." He guessed suddenly beginning to piece things together.  
"I always looked older than I am." She shrugged her shoulders innocently. "No harm in taking advantage of that."  
"No. I guess not." A thought occurred to him. "But the other Interceptors, didn't they know?"

Starling laughed softy. It was one which didn't quite manage to mask its sadness but he doubted that she was trying. She let out a sigh, rubbing her forearm. A short silence followed. Unlike the others though it wasn't awkward, perhaps because he understood it better. She was thinking back to those times, which he imaging judging by the faint smile on her face must have been more pleasant for her. Aerrow didn't feel like disturbing her, so let her be for a little while ignoring the fact that she hadn't yet answered his question. He was certain that she hadn't forgotten about it.

"They encouraged me." She told him eventually.  
"Starling..." Aerrow hesitated for a moment. "If you don't mind, could you tell me more about my family?"

She looked up at him suddenly. For the life of him, he was unable to guess just what she was thinking or how she would respond. He was asking her to go into a part of her past which would likely be painful and only for his sake. He seldom came across someone who had really known his father. He knew that Harrier had been somewhat acquainted with Lightning Strike although the sky knight of the Rex Guardians was hardly his favourite person in Atmos and not someone who he would go to where such personal matters were concerned. Starling was someone he knew a little better however and prayed that she might be able to answer some of his questions concerning his parents.

"I suppose so." She let out after a few moments. "Baring it mind that he died when I was eight."  
"How did you know my father anyhow?"  
"Your mother died when you were really young." Starling frowned thinking back to it. "The Storm Hawks would often team up with the Interceptors for missions. They were pretty close. So, my mother would sometimes help your father look after you."

The young sky knight tried desperately to think back to it. What had happened when Starling was eight had happened when he was four at most. He couldn't even remotely remember her mother or any of the other Interceptors for that matter. He knew that the squadron had been brought down a year before he had formed the Storm Hawks with his friends. They had been a major inspiration for the team, until they were slaughtered leaving only Starling that was. Still, he couldn't see even one of their faces from those days.

There were some things he could remember. One such thing was looking out at the sky from a ship, flying high over the clouds, he believed that his father had been there that day. Starling herself struggled to remember certain aspects of what had happened back then.

"I remember that he was very busy." She recalled closing her eyes as if it helped her concentrate and get a better mental image. "Tall and strong. His eyes were darker than yours and his hair was a little longer. He had a low voice but one you just had to listen to. I remember him playing with you whenever he could and talking to my mother, he did that a lot too."

She told him everything she could remember from the few times she had met Lightning Strike. Some of it, he found stirred some very vague and distant memories. He could just about recall the strong man with the fire red hair and warm laugh tossing him up in the air. The more he thought back to it, the more he found himself remembering how much he had loved that man. Although as Starling had said; he was often 'busy'. Oddly, he could almost feel the frustration he had felt back then when his father had been trapped in a meeting, no doubt as it turned out planning how they would free Atmos from the Cyclonian threat. With hindsight, it all seemed rather childish now.

With more stories and memories however came more questions, some of which he asked outright, others caused him to hesitate. The last thing he wanted to do was stumble upon a very sensitive subject or otherwise upset Starling, not when for once she was being comparatively open.

"Did our parents, uh-" He wondered how he could ask the question diplomatically. "Like each other?"  
"They were definitely friends." Starling replied in a neutral tone. "Couldn't say if there was any more to it than that. I was too young at the time."  
"Did you ever actually talk to him?"  
"Yes. He used to call me 'Star'".  
"What about your mother? Did I know her?"

Starling became silent. There was a slight tell when the subject became something which pained the young woman. It was almost unnoticeable but after the best part of a week in her company, he believed he had started to twig what it was. Her eyes would cloud over. It was very sight and only for a second but those olive green eyes of hers would darken, just a for a moment as if the weight of everything that had ever gone wrong in her life would somehow cast a shadow over them. Depending on how she felt, she would either respond or remain silent. If it was the latter, it was best not to push things any further.

"You did." Starling recalled in a low voice. "I remember being jealous sometimes because I thought she was spending more time with you than she was with me."

Aerrow strained himself trying to think back to her, to anything from back then. It was so hard, for him to think of it and be sure that they were actual memories more than things that he was simply fabricating thanks to his imagination building images and scenes from what he had been told about by others or that he had read about in books. For some reason, however, right now, he found himself seeing his father standing there with a woman with short purple hair and azure eyes.

"Your mother..." The sky knight's voice trailed off for a moment as he found himself thinking back to those days which seemed so far away now that he wondered if they had ever happened at all. "Did she have blue eyes?"  
"Yes!" Starling smiled somewhat excitedly.  
"I remember her!" He declared with a warm smile as a friendly woman's face resurfaced in his memory. "She used to sing lullabies sometimes..."  
"Yes. She had a beautiful voice." Starling acknowledged.

The older sky knight raised her gaze to the sky above. Aerrow followed it. There was no light here. Nothing which could interfere with that which shone down from the moon above or that glittered in the form of thousands of little stars. The sound of some water splashing attracted his attention, Starling slipped out of the pool. He watched her for a moment, she lingered out of the water only long enough to register the slight coolness of the night, shivering somewhat. It must have been quite the temperature change compared to the warm waters of the springs.

She quickly slipped her clothes back on. Considering that they didn't have any towels here, he guessed they were both going to have to put up with being a little damp for a while. Starling took a couple of steps away in an almost trance-like and absent state. He frowned, if she travelled much further she'd disappear into the darkness and on this terra that would mean that he likely wouldn't be able to find her until the sun came back up. Aerrow contemplated allowing her to stroll off none-the-less, he was fairly confident that both of them would be able to find their way back to the hut from here and knew that she might have decided that she needed some space yet again.

Finally, after a few seconds debating it with himself, he decided that he had better at least check to make sure she was okay. Even if knowing her she would just sending him packing.

The waters had certainly done wonders for his muscles. They barely even creaked as he pulled himself out of the spring. He knew better than to assume that he had been completely and utterly healed as if by magic. He would still be taking things slow. Carefully, he slipped his clothes back on as he sensed the stark contrast between the steaming pool and the cooler air. All the while, he tried to keep track of where she had gone. His clothes stuck to his wet body rather unpleasantly as he began moving.

In this darkness and with the long grass, he was far from sure that he was going to be able to find her again after all.

"Over here."

Or maybe not. It took him a moment to spot Starling sitting on a rock. Sometimes, he wondered what went through her head. She didn't appear to be upset, which made him question just what had prompted her to walk off in the first place. He could barely even make her out in the darkness. Still, there was a strange warm about her presence at that moment which made him feel as if she might have been smiling.

"It's a nice night." She declared in a soft voice.  
"It is." He nodded slowly. "Why did you walk off?"  
"I wanted to see the stars a little better." Starling confessed her gaze travelling upwards.  
"Well, they are beautiful." Aerrow acknowledged as a faint smile occupied her face.

Starling lay down in the grass. He did the same, lying head to head. They chatted idly about nothing in particular. It was a pleasant distraction, a good way to forget just how close they had come to dying on so many an occasion. The pain of the loss of his squadron still hurt but for some reason, as he lay there, the stars somehow seemed to be able to block out that knowledge and the memory of what had been done to them and what they had done to him.

"Me and my mum, we'd lie outside some nights and just look up at the stars." Starling told him. "I miss those days."

He didn't respond. There was nothing that could be said or done to make it any different. They could find some solace he supposed in memories. Pretend just for a moment that their loved ones were still with them. The young woman reached out and gently took his hands in hers for a moment. He smiled. It brought some warmth and comfort to know that she was there with him. Somehow, with Starling, everything would be all right: she knew what to do and how to survive.

"We're not going to die here, Aerrow." She told him.

He just smiled. For a moment, for the two sky knights, the world seemed to be a slightly kinder place. The rest of Atmos felt very far away as they looked up at the stars hanging in the sky.


	7. Lost and found

He was underwater. How had this happened? Oh yeah, that was right. He had fallen out of the sky like a brick.

One minute his skimmer had been fine (if pushed to its limit) the next he had flown into a storm and then found himself losing altitude at an alarming rate. There had been pain and a moment's blackness. Had he lost consciousness? Everything seemed to be faint and fuzzy around him. His mind was working in slow motion as it refused to yield any information concerning just what had happened to him and how he had ended up in this strange and unpleasant situation.

Well, he supposed he could worry about that later. For the time being, if he didn't do anything he was going to end up feeding the fishes. Forcing his eyes open, he tried to get his bearings. Up above him, he could make out a dazzling light. Now either he was in worse shape than he thought he was or that was the sun. Judging by the pain still radiating through his body, he was going to go with still being alive however as his lungs promptly reminded him that wouldn't be the case for much longer as he less he got some oxygen. Despite his aching muscles, the man clenched his teeth as he summoned both the strength of will and determination to swim up to the surface.

As soon as his head was above the water, he gasped for air. Oxygen filled his lungs bringing with it much needed relief. For a moment, he contented himself with just getting his breath back and treading water to stay above the surface of the pool he found himself in.

It was only after he began to recover that he began to look around and take in his surroundings. He had landed in a deep pool of water, for that he could be grateful. The surroundings themselves were green and luscious. Very different from what he was accustomed to and the sky… The sky was the bluest he had seen it in oh so very long. He couldn't look away for a few seconds, as if compelled to take it all in.

"I've missed you old friend." He spoke softly to the blue kingdom he had once almost called his own.

Suddenly, a painful memory of just how he had ended up in the situation in the first place came back to him. He was far from out of harm's way. Quickly swimming to the edge of the pool, he took shelter under the trees. His eyes surveyed the air for any sign of company. Everything was silent. All he could hear was the sound of water flowing from a spring in the form of a waterfall. The other sounds which came from all around were those of wildlife not skimmers. He would have expected his arrival to have attracted some attention…

He stayed put for a while. He knew how to stay hidden from both above and the same level. Sheltered in a bush under some dense trees, he was as well hidden as he was going to get. It also allowed him the opportunity to check himself over. Given the fire fight he had been in just moments before, he was thanking his lucky stars that he was still alive in the first place. Gradually, a dull pain in his leg informed him that one of the energy shots had made contact leaving him with a rather nasty burn. Other than that, his first guess was mainly exhaustion and a fair amount of bruises. Not exactly pleasant but fortunately not life threatening.

Sitting there, he retraced in his mind everything that had happened which had lead to him sitting here and sheltering in the shade of a tree in some forgotten terra. He was lucky to still be alive. As much as he hated to admit it, they had come terrifyingly close to killing him. Had it not been for that storm cloud which had brought him down but so far at least in such a way that his pursuers hadn't been able to follow or at least locate him, he would likely either be dead or on his way to a good old fashion Cyclonian jail cell. He supposed that he could be grateful for that much.

He spent a good few hours sitting there, recuperating his strength from the battle he had just fought. Although, sleep was tugging at his eyelids, he forced himself to remain awake. The day rolled on and still no signs of any skimmers or other ships. Hunger was beginning to nag him but he knew how to ignore it, at least for a while. What counted for the moment was ensuring that he wasn't spotted. He found it unlikely that his pursuers would have given up the chase so easily. Least of all when he was the target.

Still, as time went by, the more he found himself believing that somehow he had managed to evade them. Perhaps they believed he had perished in the crash when his ride had gone down. Although he would have thought them to be a little more cautious than that: they would want to be certain and for that they would require a body.

Eventually, a mixture of curiosity and the need to know just where he was prompted him to break cover. Very carefully initially, it had to be said. He walked slowly through the forest, taking his time to take in the surroundings. There were some very faint traces of life: trails and paths through the undergrowth which had been trodden down. It could have been caused by a relatively large animal or of course by people. It was the second scenario which concerned him the most. He now had so few allies, the chances of him coming across friends were few and far between. People who would turn him over to Cyclonia in a heartbeat however, that would be more likely.

Ironically, he came across his skimmer. It had crashed in some of the denser parts of the forest. It had taken quite the smashing but still looked as if it might just fly. He headed over to it and picked the machine up, examining it. It would need a little fixing but nothing which he couldn't deal with. At least, he told himself he shouldn't be stuck here for too long. The dense forest continued on for a while until he came out near the edge of the terra which was rather more exposed. It was a pretty place, seemingly untouched. He decided that he would be better off leaving his ride there for the time being, at least until he was certain that he was alone here. He hid it as best as he could in a bush before continuing with his exploration.

His stomach grumbled as he walked along. The burn on his leg continued to sting causing him to limp slightly. Asides from the occasional bird, the skies above him remained empty. Perhaps this place truly was uninhabited. No… His eyes raised themselves to see a small plume of smoke. It wasn't much, likely only the result of a small fire but he knew that where there was fire, you could often count on finding a few individuals capable of making it.

Acting instinctively, he drew his blade. To his surprise, there was not the red glow that he was accustomed to. He tried again. Still nothing, the energy field simply wouldn't activate. Curious and a little frustrated, he checked his weapon's pommel. The crystal was a far duller colour than usual. He'd spent enough time around mages to know when he was out of power. Yet this was the first time he had ever experienced the problem. Whilst it was true that skimmers and ships tended to burn through crystals quickly, the energy required by average weapons was such that it was seldom a problem for them. He had noticed no signs that his crystal was about to give out during the fight that he had been in not all that long ago.

Strange… And worrying…

He would have to trust in his hand to hand combat skills should he encounter any hostiles. As such, he adopted a more cautious approached as he made his way towards where he could see the smoke.

Eventually, a small house came into view in a small clearing. Even from afar, the man could tell that it was rudimentary: made out of scraps and what little its builders had been able to cobble together no doubt. Still, it was a hut. Only one though. Could he have landed on the least populated terra in all of Atmos? Well, this might work out for him after all. Fewer people meant that the odds would tip just slightly more in his favour.

He approached slowly, none-the-less. As he drew nearer, a pleasant smell caught in his nostrils and caused him to sniff the air. That was food. Good good. Fresh food as opposed to the stuff which came out of cans he had been used to. His stomach decided to rumble once more, reminding him that he was very much hungry. Slowing down to an almost crawl, he tiptoed around the house. Keeping his eyes and ears open, ready to either run or adopt a fighting stance he made his way around to the front of the house.

The fugitive spotted a small pen inside of which were locked quite a few chickens. Boiling away under a fire was a pot of some form of stew. That of course was what attracted him the most; the promise of something nice to put in his stomach. He made his way carefully over to the pot. Inside, he could make out what looked like pieces of egg and several other herbs and plants. It was simple, no doubt made out of the limited ingredients which were available to them. Still, the smell… He cast another glance around, nobody seemed to be present.

He took the ladle which had been left to rest in the stew and dared to sample the food. Blowing on it to cool it down somewhat, he took a small sip at first. It warmed his throat and brought a soothing sensation to his starving stomach. He quickly finished it before taking another spoonful.

It was as he helped himself a third time that he found himself stopping dead. He had the distinct feeling that there was a pair of eyes just behind him. He slowly turned to look over his shoulder. Standing right behind him was a young woman with long purple hair tied up in a ponytail behind her. She was carrying on her shoulders a pole and two buckets filled with water. There was a look of shear and utter bewilderment on her face as she simply gawked at him. He got the impression that if her eyes were to open any wider they might pop out.

"Uh… Hi..."

The expression of shock suddenly changed. In a matter of seconds, her brow creased and her face conveyed nothing but pure rage. He made a reach for his sword, not to attack her but simply to make sure he could keep her at arm's reach if the need arose. Before he could do so however, he found himself on the wrong end of a powerful kick.

There was a sharp pain for a moment and then the world simply turned black


	8. Ruffled feathers

His head was still ringing even as he woke up. As he regained consciousness, he found himself rather confused. He could remember bits and pieces of what had happened but not quite the order in which they had occurred and certainly not any of the details. For a moment, he actually thought that it might have happened up in the sky.

Slowly, as his body began to come to and join his mind in the world of the awake, he became aware that he was very much in trouble. As he attempted to shift, he found himself prevented from doing so by robes which tied his wrists behind his back and to a wooden pole. Aware that he had been caught, he instinctively started to struggle against the restraints, testing them. It was no good, whoever had tied him here knew a fair amount about both ropes and knots. He cursed under his breath. For a moment, he had made the mistake of thinking he was going to make it out of this one alive. Apparently that had been wishful thinking.

"Wakey wakey..." Came a woman's voice with an unmistakable English accent.

Still disorientated, he turned to face a pair of adults. He couldn't have guessed their age, not much over 25 either of them that was for sure. He recognised the young woman first, she had been the one to knock him out. He could still feel the impact of her foot against his head. He hadn't forgotten that one and if he was allowed to live long enough would ensure that he never forgave the stranger for it either. Despite everything, he shot her a cold glare. There was a time when he would have had her head. Sadly, those days had passed him by a while ago now. She didn't seem phased by any of this in the slightest perhaps she didn't know who he was or judged that he wasn't a threat to her.

Her companion on the other hand simply looked angry, enraged even. Behind his emerald green eyes was only contempt. It looked as if he was struggling with the urge to smash his face in. The prisoner frowned as he starred at the man's features, they were familiar. That messy red hair brought back more than one memory. They were both a little scruffy looking: both their clothes and skin which was littered with scratches and scars spoke of the life which they had been forced to live here.

The urge to groan with frustration and curse the fates for the hand that they had dealt him mixed bizarrely with a sudden desire to simply laugh at the irony of it all as the man slowly came to terms with just who he was before.

"Out of the entire Atmos…." He cackled to himself for a moment, just thinking about it. "I would of course stumble upon the last sky knights… How have you been Aerrow?"

The red haired man tensed up somewhat at the mention of his name. His nose wrinkled with disgust. He had certainly grown since the last time he had laid eyes on him. How old would he have been back then? Sixteenish… The man imagined. Still a boy, in the past few years he'd had the time to mature into a young man who bore an increasingly striking resemblance to his father. That would explain the hatred… His attention turned to the young woman. Although he was less familiar with her, now that he had ascertained her companion's identity, he could wager on just who she was.

"And Starling, as radiant as ever I see..."  
"Shut up Ace." I was level but cold and curt enough for him to get the message. "What are you doing here?"

The Dark Ace laughed once more unperturbed by their hostility. Now that he knew whose company he was in, he could relax. These two had the reputation for being two of, if the not THE, greatest sky knights in all of Atmos and as such, they wouldn't dare harm their prisoner, no matter who he was or how much they hated him. It also removed from his mind some of the concerns that he had had about Cyclonia. His amusement at the entire situation only caused the two to become increasingly irritated. Folding their arms and brows creasing as they visibly struggled with the urge to kill him or at least cause some physical damage and that special 'code' of theirs which stood against such things.

He had forgotten how much fun they were to toy with. Still, he could only take advantage of it for so long given how things had changed.

"Funny thing really..." He allowed his voice to trail off, enjoying their frustration for a few seconds longer. "I'd wager the same thing as you."  
"I really doubt that." Aerrow spoke through gritted teeth, his voice a little deeper than it had been the last time that they had met.  
"Oh? Aren't you hiding from Cyclonis?" The Dark Ace questioned the two sky knights. "Or is this just a prolonged vacation."

Aerrow and Starling exchanged a glance. She seemed to be rather more relaxed than he was of course it was hard to tell. Unlike her companion, the Interceptor tended to hide her true intentions and feelings making her difficult to read, that made her both a formidable opponent and an intimidating human being. He trusted that he could know how to handle the Storm Hawk, he would be a little more wary where she was concerned. If one of them was likely to snap and do something unpredictable it was her.

The red haired sky knight clenched his fists and took a step forwards, just barely managing to contain himself.

"You're her lapdog." He snarled, eyes narrowed to near slits by hatred. "Why would you be hiding from her."  
"You're right…" The Cyclonian allowed his voice to trail off. "I was her loyal servant." The term 'lapdog' seemed a little offensive to him. "I would have given my life for her. Until she discarded me that was."

That earned a reaction. They raised their eyebrows. Sometimes, a look could communicate as much any number of words. The Dark Ace felt that he knew enough about these two and what they believed in to know just what they were thinking. Their relationship was such that by definition, pretty much everything that he said would automatically be viewed with great suspicion if not instantly dismissed as a lie or an attempt by him to mislead them. For some reason, that only made the fact that he was actually telling the truth strike him as more ironic.

"Yeah right!" Aerrow was the first of the two to speak. "You're not fooling anyone?"  
"Really? And why then do you think I would have come to this miserable terra by myself?" He asked the younger sky knight. "I was shot down! By Cyclonians!"

This time, he was able to make out their concern comparatively easily. The Dark Ace guessed that neither of them had seen his skimmer go down. They had been too surprised by his presence and he trusted that they would have gone to investigate had they actually seen him crash. Up until now, the fact that they hadn't been a little more battle ready lead him to believe that they had thought he had been alone: perhaps an advanced guard or maybe a discrete assassin sent to finally silence them. Whatever the case, the mention of Talons caused both sky knights to instinctively look to the sky, an expression of dread around them.

There was a somewhat unnerving silence for a moment as the pair searched the horizon for any sign of their old enemies. Nothing but a slightly reddening sky as the sun began steadily set. It was quite a beautiful sight really but one which he had forgotten how to appreciate long ago.

"I'd suggest we leave as soon as possible unless you want me to lead them to you." He declared finally breaking the silence. "Quite by accident might I just add."  
"You weren't shot down..." Starling muttered after a moment. "Same as we weren't."  
"What do you mean?" The former Talon asked a little confused.  
"Those clouds out there-" The young woman pointed out the storm front which seemed to surround the entire terra. "They drain the energy from crystals."

He thought back to the events which had lead to him being tied up here like some vulgar criminal. Now that he thought back to it, he couldn't actually recall being shot. He had flown into the storm trusting that his skills would be superior to his pursuers and that they wouldn't dare chase him in there anyway. His systems had suddenly gone haywire and he'd began to lose attitude rapidly, he had assumed it to be battle damage. Now that he knew about those clouds' particularly however, he found himself cursing his own recklessness. He was fortunate to have landed here and not nosedived into the wastelands.

"Hang on?" A terrifying thought suddenly came to his mind. "Does that mean that we're-?"  
"Trapped here?" Aerrow filled in for him. "We've been stuck here for the past three years!"  
"And here I thought you were dead." A small smile traced itself on his lips. "We all did."

Starling and Aerrow said nothing. He suspected that they must have guessed as much. After all, neither of them were fools. Their disappearance would only have meant two things as far as Cyclonis was concerned: either she believed them to be dead, in which case they had little to worry about as unless she wanted corpses, she wouldn't be looking for them. They would likely have been more concerned about if she was actively searching for them but seeing as they had gone 3 years and as of yet hadn't seen any sign of her, they must have dismissed that as unlikely some time ago.

The Dark Ace glanced around once more. This was far from the luxury he had become accustomed to over the more than a decade he had spent in Cyclonia, yet he could see that it was homely enough. There were worse places these two could have ended up and by the looks of things, they had made the most of a bad situation. They had been cut off from the outside world however he was willing to bet that they had wondered every single one of their days here just what was going on out there. No doubt they were dying to know…

Sure enough, a few seconds later the inevitable questions came:

"Talk. What's going on out there?" Starling demanded her voice letting him know there was no room for debate.  
"Out there is Cyclonis' world." The Dark Ace informed them, nodding vaguely in the direction of the clouds. "Her word is law. Her enemies are killed or turned into puppets. All of Atmos has fallen. Does that paint a pleasant enough picture for you?"

The sky knights' wrinkled their noses with disgust. Oh, he could tell them horror stories about what their precious Atmos had become. How all of their losses, trials and tribulations had ultimately been for naught as the very people that they had tried to save now suffered under Cyclonian whips. This isolated terra was a veritable paradise compared to what the rest of their world had become. They had been shielded from all that. Yet deep down, the former Talon knew how much it would wound both of them to know that truth. That was simply their nature.

They were silent for a few moments. No doubt trying to process what they had just learned. The Dark Ace wasn't too sure what they had been expecting. Surely they hadn't imagined that the world would miraculously set itself right whilst they were away? The Storm Hawk was perhaps predictably the first to speak and only in order to take a pot shot at him:

"And you got chased here running away from it all." Aerrow muttered his voice brimming with loathing and contempt.  
"And that makes me different from you how? Hiding away out here? You ran as well!" The Dark Ace reminded them. He left a brief pause before adding in a low voice. "Besides, I wasn't running. I was looking for hope."

This time he found himself greeted by genuine surprise. Perhaps he had better tell them his entire story although he doubted that either of them would believe it. He wouldn't have believed it were their positions reversed. In fact, a couple of years ago, if you had told him that he would have taken his skimmer and set off by his lonesome in search of something as pathetic and futile as hope, he would likely have laughed at you, just before he had some Talons under his command through whoever was foolish enough to even imagine such a ridiculous scenario into the wastelands at soonest possible convenience.

Yet here he was faced with two of his oldest enemies. On the run from the one he had devoted much of his life to serving and protecting. How ironic…

"What do you mean?" Aerrow demanded.  
"The residence, such as it is, can't stand up to Cyclonia." He explained trying to remain calm despite the other man's obvious anger. "They needed help. Warriors powerful enough to face a squadron, sky knights..."

Their reaction seemed to be a little slow in coming. For a couple of seconds, they simply gawked at him, blinking occasionally. It was as if his words hadn't quite reached their brains to register or more likely were just taking a long time to process. He didn't expect him to believe him much less trust him. Despite that, he had told them the truth aware that he had nothing to lose and likely nothing to gain.

Finally, it was Starling who broke the silence. She let out a dry but cold laugh. It wasn't so much humour that marked it or but more of a condescending amusement.

"So now that your master no longer wants you around, you decide now is the time to get all noble? You make me sick!" She practically spat the last part.  
"I never claimed to be a man of great moral fibre." The Dark Ace snapped back before regaining his composure. "However I am a survivor and I know that if you two don't come back with me. We can kiss goodbye to the rest of Atmos and sooner or later, maybe not for years but one day, Cyclonis will find you and when she does, you two will wish that you had died fighting."

Perhaps that sounded a little too much like a thread but he wanted to get the point across none-the-less. If they thought they were safe here, they would be sorely mistaken. Cyclonis was an unstoppable force. This little haven would only shield them for so long and once she found them– well, they were her two worst enemies. Some of the few remaining. As much as he disliked them, he didn't particularly want to imagine what fate would await them should she get her hands on them.

They would know all this of course. They weren't stupid. Perhaps they had been deluding themselves these past few years concerning their relative safety. That he could believe, people could convince themselves of the most ridiculous of notions to preserve themselves from a particularly terrifying reality. Aerrow let out a frustrated sigh, turning to Starling.

"What do you think?" He asked through gritted teeth.  
"We always knew that one day we were going to have to leave." She looked back to him. He shook his head.  
"No. Not with him!" The younger sky knight snapped. "After everything he did? Even if this is true – which I doubt – how could we possibly trust him?"

Starling let out a sigh running a hand through her hair. Without saying another word, she walked a few steps away starring out over the terra and towards the storm clouds in the distance. As the light began to fade with the arrival of night, that barrier which had kept them trapped here for so long was barely even visible. It appeared simply as a slightly darker line on the horizon. She starred at it for a few moments lost in thought. When she turned back to face her companion, something must have passed between them. Something which the Dark Ace couldn't read or understand.

Aerrow stepped back, putting some distance between them. He shook his head with disbelief.

"You can't be serious!"  
"Aerrow, we need to go back. After all, it's what we've been planning." Starling remained calm despite her friend's outburst.  
"Yes but not with him!" He pointed towards their captive as if he believed she might have forgotten about him.  
"Think about it for a moment." The young woman requested trying to calm him somewhat. "We know nothing about what the world out there's become! We need a guide. I'm not saying we hand him all our weapons and follow him blindly but I think we do need his help."

The Storm Hawk turned his gaze back away from the young woman. For a moment, his eyes rested upon the Dark Ace and through those emerald green orbs of his, the former Talon saw all of the hatred, resentment and contempt that he held for him. Were Aerrow almost any other man in the world, then the prisoner knew he would have been killed by now. There weren't too many people who could suffer what he had suffered and still remain capable of enough self-control not to kill their arch-enemy when he was at his most vulnerable.

Still, even the red haired sky knight had his limits and what was being asked of him right now was pushing them to the extremes already. It was one thing to be unwilling to kill someone you hated, another to be placed in a situation where it was being asked of you to trust them, at least to a degree.

"I lost both my parents and my squadron in this damn war." Aerrow glared down at Ace once more. "Because of him!"  
"We have that in common." Starling informed him.

Aerrow frowned but said nothing. He fixed the young woman for a couple of moments before his expression suddenly changed. The anger vanished replaced by a pain. He closed his eyes, taking several steps away from both of them. He obviously wanted to put some distance between himself and the others: both physically and perhaps emotionally. The Dark Ace frowned somewhat deciding once again to test the strength of his restraints. A cold and stern look from the Interceptor was enough to convince him that it wasn't such a good idea.

She went over to her friend. Walking slowly and taking her time so as to allow him some to calm down. Even when she reached his side, she remained silent for a few moments before finally speaking. The former Talon strained his ears to hear their conversation but found himself unable to make out most of it. They must have either been whispering or at least speaking softly preventing him from hearing whatever private things they had to talk about. Well, up until a point at least. He didn't know just whom had said what to whom but the atmosphere changed very suddenly to one of hostility. All attempts to keep their exchange quiet were abruptly abandoned.

"Heroic nonsense." Starling spoke bitterly as she shook her head.  
"That's the sort of thing that the Storm Hawks stood for."  
"And look where that got you." Came the curt reply.  
"The Interceptors stood for the same thing and you know it!"

Even from where he trapped, the Dark Ace managed to make out Starling tense up at the mention of her old squadron. In a way, he had to admire Aerrow's bravery. Not many people in the Atmos could have brought up the Interceptors in such a way in front of their former leader and not expect to be given at best an express ticket to the local hospital. Very few would dare to. Even the former Talon knew that that was the kind of thing only someone looking for a fight would mention. He didn't think that was what the younger sky knight was trying to do however, the Storm Hawk would never be so cruel.

Whatever his intentions had been, there was no denying the results. Starling covered the few feet separating them in a matter of seconds as if she had been stung by a bee. Practically standing on her tiptoes, she raised herself to her maximum height although still fell a little short of her companion who had grown to be rather tall. The anger behind her eyes was unmistakable. Raising her finger, she almost stuck it under Aerrow's chin, a cold look in her eyes which made him feel as if not even he was safe from her potential wrath. Yet the Storm Hawk didn't so much as flinch.

"Let me make this absolutely clear." Her voice was low, dangerous. "You, Aerrow, are never to mention my squadron like that, ever again!"  
"And you don't mention them enough."

The boy must have had a death wish. Such a comment would have been for almost anybody else on the planet. Starling just seemed to gawk at him for a moment, maybe (almost certainly) a little hurt and contemplating whether or not to break his nose.

The Dark Ace let out laugh causing both of the sky knights to forget about their momentary bickering and turn towards him. After a couple of seconds, they slowly came over wondering what on earth had gotten into their captive no doubt. There were many things he should have been doing right now, panicking, praying, thinking of a way to escape were just a few examples but not laughing. There shouldn't have been anything funny here and yet to him there was.

"A couple of words and you're already at each other's throats." Dark Ace chuckled to himself once they had come over. "How have you lasted this long without killing each other?"

It seemed like a pretty valid question to their captive. Not many people could survive out here alone. Even if there was two of them, with nobody else to talk to or interact with it must have been maddening at times. If he was trapped for too long with Ravess and Snipe, he could find himself internally screaming at some points. Just how these two had coped out here was beyond him. His best guess was that arguments like the one that he had just witnessed had to be a rarity. They couldn't have accomplished what they had if it wasn't.

Starling and Aerrow exchanged a look. Something passed between the two of them. Whatever it was, it caused all the tension and even the hostility which had existed between them only mere moments ago to simply vanish.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Aerrow asked her raising an eyebrow.  
"Unlikely but I can probably guess..." She replied with a knowing smile.

The Dark Ace protested vividly as he watched the two sky knights calmly and sedately eat their dinner. He was certain that they were both deliberately taking their time and eating unbearably slowly to torment him. Despite the helpings he had taken from the pot before being knocked out cold curtsy of Starling, he remained very much hungry. The smell alone of the food was rather intoxicating and being denied it was something of a torture in itself. Unfortunately, the curses he continued to utter were muffled by the gag they had stuck in his mouth.

Every now and then, one of them – usually Starling – would cast him a brief glance to ensure that he was staying put. There was little chanced of his escaping; whoever had tied these ropes was a master of knots. The restraints were more than sufficient to keep him trapped. The former Talon had given up trying to free himself a while ago, all he was doing was hurting himself.

"Don't you just love a nice peaceful meal?" Starling asked her companion.  
"Yeah. Especially when the food's so darn good..."

Their prisoner's quip was lost, rendered inaudible by the gag which was the intention of course. He eventually settled for simply glaring at them every time they turned around and occupying himself with something else for the rest of the time. If was puerile and ineffective but given the current situation he didn't exactly find himself faced with much of a choice. The two of them were now barely even acknowledging his existence and were talking about seemingly mundane things such as how their little farming operation was doing.

When the fire started to die down. The two departed, briefly cleaning down what they had used to cook and eat their food with a bucket of water. He watched carefully their procedure, no doubt after so much time spent here they had gotten used to a routine. Starling waited patiently by the door of their little house for Aerrow to finish dousing the last of the embers before both of them retired leaving him tied up out there like some vulgar dog.

Time passed, with fire now out he discovered a certain chill to the night. It made sense, it was winter in the rest of Atmos, there was no reason why this place would miraculously be spared the passing of seasons. He shivered slightly pulling his legs closer to his chest in an attempt to keep a little warmer. Despite the gag, he managed to let out a sigh looking up at the stars above, it had been a while since he had last been able to see at them so clearly. He had forgotten how beautiful they could be and how fortunate they were to be so high up there. They could rule the sky without ever having to worry about someone trying to steal it from them.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention as they came towards him. He looked up to see Starling coming towards him. She walked slowly carrying a blanket. She dumped it down on him without ceremony before slowly bending down and pulling the gag out of his mouth.

"You wake us up I swear I'll throw you off of the end of this terra."  
"Charming as always..." He muttered trying to avoid spitting in her face.  
"I don't pretend to be." She replied narrowing her eyes. "Could you take us to this resistance or whatever it is if we got the skimmers back up and running?"  
"Yes. I think so." He told her hesitating for a moment before reminding her. "But Aerrow won't have any of it."  
"Don't bet on it." Starling muttered quietly looking back towards the house. "He's already agreed to coming… He just doesn't want to admit it."

The Dark Ace frowned wondering just what the sky knight could possibly mean. He decided not to ponder it too much, as far as he was concerned whatever went on between them was their business and theirs alone. So long as they eventually released him and now it would seem come along to help him, he didn't particularly care. There were some aspects which he still had some questions about but for now, they could wait. He was more inclined to just sit back and wait. Letting things pan out could be quite a good plan when you didn't know what else to do.

There was one question he would ask right now however as he saw it as both a major and unavoidable one:

"Just how are we going to get off of this rock?"  
"Oh… You didn't think we'd just been working on our tans these past three years, did you?" She asked him with a knowing smile.


	9. Taking to the air

_**Thanks for the reviews! **_

_**/**_

The Dark Ace watched though somewhat tired red eyes as Aerrow struggled with his skimmer. The two sky knights had been up early – or at least he presumed it was early, with no watch it really was impossible to tell – as soon as the sun had even begun to light the sky. They had eaten a little bit of food and gone their separate ways. The red haired young man had gone into the terra's forest to retrieve the former Talon's ride. He had returned a few hours later wheeling it along, leading its owner to believe that it might not actually be in such bad shape after all. Since then, he'd been working on it tirelessly: fixing it but also making some modifications which the prisoner hadn't quite been able to identify.

The Interceptor was yet to return from wherever her outing had taken her. They'd been too far away at the time for him to hear just where they were going and what they were planning, so he wasn't sure whether she would be back any time soon or if it would only be when the sun set that they would be graced with her presence.

That left him alone with Aerrow. Two old enemies, trapped on this forsaken terra in the middle of nowhere. A few years ago he would have laughed. A part of him still wanted to at the thought of the bitter irony which had forced them together like this. He held off however. With the old Storm Hawk, the one he had known before all of this, he wouldn't have been so reserved. The man that he had become was another kettle of fish however. The Dark Ace knew better than most how much hardship could change someone and the sky knight had known plenty of that. In truth, he knew very little of what he was now capable of. That meant that some caution was called for. At least when Starling wasn't around; he knew her well enough to know that as formidable as her bite was, it took a lot more than a bit of mocking humour for her to unleash it.

He hadn't slept particularly well last night. It wasn't so much to do with the cold. Thanks to the blanket that they had (very kindly) provided, he had been able to stay warm enough. Being tied to a post however was not exactly a very comfortable position and his muscles were currently letting him know that he was going to be in for some serious cramps when he was finally let free, whenever that may be.

Some footsteps drew his attention. Starling had returned. With her, she had a collection of gourds as well as a small pouch. He frowned wondering what she could possibly have gone looking for. Now that she was back, at least he might be able to ask some questions and trust her to keep Aerrow in check if his temper were to flare up.

"So what's this ingenious plan of yours to get off this heap of rock?" He asked causing the sky knight to look up from the bike.  
"We're going to need rides." Aerrow replied simply. "And if you think you're getting one with weapons and that's faster than ours, then you're dreaming."  
"He couldn't out-race Red Streak even on his best day." Starling replied dropping the pouch next to him. "I got them. All seven."

Aerrow stopped what he was doing to carefully open the pouch. He pulled out a crystal. It was a pretty simple one; a fuel crystal, as common as could be. What he did notice however was that it was glowing. Unlike every single other darned crystal on the terra, it still had power. That made it as far as he was aware unique. It also changed things a fair bit. It gave them a method of aireal transportation which they would otherwise have lacked which in Atmos was practically a death sentence in itself. There remained a few issues of course which were so blindingly obvious to him that he believed they must have already occurred to the sky knights.

"And just how are we going to use them?" He questioned the two of them. "As soon as we hit those clouds their power will be drained the same as all the others."  
"Not if we avoid the clouds." Starling replied with a knowing smirk. "They begin to break up a bit before the wastelands."  
"You're still going to have to march through them!" The Dark Ace reminded her somewhat alarmed by the plan.  
"Do you have a better idea?" She answered in a curt tone.

The former Talon didn't respond, choosing to look at the ground instead. She was right of course. They were faced with a very simple choice: go through the wastelands and risk their lives or stay trapped here until their either died from old age or the inevitable happened and Cyclonis' reach finally extended out here to this forgotten part of the Atmos and she found them. He would sooner die – even if it was in the wastelands – than have to face that second scenario.

Content with his silence, the two sky knights got back to work. Starling wheeled their rides over whilst Aerrow finished whatever modifications he was making to the Dark Ace's. Cautiously, she placed a fuel crystal inside of her skimmer's engine. When questioned by their captive as to just how and where they had gotten actual working crystals from. They had told him that they had mined them themselves after discovering a vane in a local cave. It had taken them the best part of two years to dig them out. It would have taken professional miners a few days at most but without the tools and know-how they had struggled for much longer.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to their prisoner. Starling came over she walked slowly, not attempting to hide the contempt that she felt for him as she drew nearer.

"Now I'm going to cut you free. Try anything and I swear it will be more than the ropes I use this knife on." She told him, her voice low and dangerous.  
"Don't worry." He assured her. "I won't try anything."

He was genuine. Not only would he be unlikely to succeed in any sudden attempts at backstabbing them – not that he hadn't briefly considered it. Even if she was alone, Starling would prove to be a ferocious enemy of that he was certain and in any case, Aerrow would be upon him in a flash. Besides, with an Atmos pretty much under Cyclonia's thumb killing off two of the last freewilled sky knights (which he doubted he could do) would hardly be beneficial to him. Like it or not, he needed their help.

It came as something of a relief when the sky knight cut the ties which had been keeping him in the same position for the best part of a day now. He stretched carefully not wanting to spook her. Starling took a few steps back. The Dark Ace got to his feet perhaps a little too quickly, what felt like every single muscle in his body complained in the only way they knew how: in the form of massive series of cramps which practically brought him to his knees.

Starling and Aerrow said nothing but didn't exactly seem to relish in his pain either. They exchanged glances for a couple of moments. He caught his breath as best as he could before stranding back up, slowly this time to give his muscles some time to become accustomed to bearing his weight. They waited patiently for him to pull himself together before heading over to their skimmers. He followed uncertainly, stopping by his own ride. It was rather scratched but if first impressions were anything to go by it looked like it would still fly.

"No weapons and you won't be able to reach maximum speed." Aerrow informed him as he examined the modifications. "So don't count on slipping away from us."  
"Why would I do that?" He asked a little frustrated.  
"Once a Talon. Always a Talon." The Storm Hawk muttered bitterly.  
"Come on. We'd better get a move on if we want to get out of the wastelands before dark." Starling declared beginning to wheel her bike along.  
"And how do you plan to get down there in the first place?" The Dark Ace questioned.

They didn't respond, instead wheeling their machines all the way to the very edge of the terra. As they drew nearer, he was able to made out some sort of strange contraption. It looked like a platform of some kind comprised of chains and some primitive cogs. The whole thing didn't exactly give off a feeling of stability or reliability as much like pretty much everything on this forgotten piece of rock, it had been made out of what little its builders had been able to salvage and craft themselves.

Starling carefully wheeled her skimmer onto the platform, checking it out a couple of times to make sure it was stable. She raised her head to look at her fellow sky knight and nodded once, signalling that it was all okay.

"You're going down with her." The Storm Hawk told him pushing him forwards slightly. "Try anything. You'll regret it. Understood?"  
"Yes sir..." The Dark Ace muttered bitterly as he joined the Interceptor.

Aerrow headed over to the giant pulley system and using a fair amount of strength, pulled the lever. Instantly, the platform they were standing on began to lower itself down. The Dark Ace had enough time to catch one last glimpse of the apparent paradise he had landed on only a few hours ago before it disappeared as they were lowered into the abyss bellow.

He turned to face Starling. The young woman looked a little haggard. The years that she'd spent trapped here hadn't been a walk in the park. Littered all over her tanned and rough skin were scrapes, scratches and the occasional scar. Nothing too severe and all to do with the fact that for the past three years she had been forced to survive out in the wilderness. A few of them of course he presumed would be old war wounds, some of which were likely even done by his hand. Ultimately, he didn't sense much of a change in the Interceptor.

It was the Storm Hawk whom he was more curious about.

"Aerrow seems a little..." He paused searching for the right word and one which wouldn't get him pushed off of the platform and to his death. "Uptight."  
"Oh. I'm sure it's just a phase..." Starling replied with bitter sarcasm. "I think having your entire squadron and friends be turned against you and then beaten half to death by them can have a bit of a detrimental effect on a young man's psyche."  
"You haven't changed." He noted looking up to the top of the terra which was becoming increasingly far away. "Still that dry sense of humour. You always were cruel for a sky knight."  
"Having your squadron killed right in front of you can have that effect on you..." She replied turning away from him slightly.

He smirked. They must have hated this. He was under no allusions, just because right now they happened to have a common enemy and even more bizarrely actually needed his help – as he needed theirs – that didn't make them friends. He wasn't going to give them an excuse to kill him, that would be counter productive in the extreme but that didn't mean that he had to play nice. The Dark Ace intended to have a little fun with the sky knights and it looked like they might have some waiting to do whilst they waited to reach the wastelands and then for Aerrow to join him with the other skimmers.

"You must hate this." He remarked unwilling to let things drop so easily. "Hate me, am I right?"  
"Frankly, Ace… I want nothing more than to shove you right off of this thing into the wastelands." She replied deadly serious.  
"Think you could win?" He asked raising an eyebrow as he stood a little straighter to boost his height in an attempt to intimidate her somewhat.  
"Yes. Easily." Came the simple response.  
"How's the shoulder?" He asked with a teasing smirk.

She shot him a glare which was enough to discourage him from pushing her any further. He could read people well enough to know when they risked snapping and they were still a little too high up for his liking for him to risk taking a chance.

Still, the former Talon couldn't help but think back, not necessarily fondly to the day he had shot her down. Well, he hadn't exactly shot her down. It had been more like a coup de grace. The sky knight had already been put through her paces by the numerous foes who had attacked her. As usual, she'd been doing noble: protecting a terra that was nothing to do with her. Her skimmer was in bad shape and she'd been wounded. Basically, the Interceptor was in no shape to be taking on the Dark Ace. The end result had been a sword which had gone clean through her shoulder. After that she'd spectacularly nose-dived into the wastelands. Had he been thorough, he would have gone down to find the body, especially given Starling's sly nature – they should have suspected that it was all a ruse. Then again, with Cyclonia practically ruling the skies, they hadn't seen much of a point.

The platform reached the wastelands and not too soon for the Dark Ace's liking. He didn't much care for such makeshift contraptions dangling them hundreds of feet above pits of lava. Starling waited until he was off before wheeling off her skimmer. The platform began it's long ascent back to the top of the terra leaving the two of them in the barren and lifeless land below.

The Dark Ace's eyes instinctively scanned the surroundings. There was a good reason why Atmosians chose to live above the clouds, not least of which was because of the beasts which lurked below them. Given that their weapons weren't charged, he could only pray that they didn't come across some fire scorpions or other niceties which the wastelands seemed to specialize in. He didn't want to appear overly nervous in front of Starling – no doubt she would have some cruel and teasing words for him if he did – but it was common knowledge that if you were for some reason trapped here then you wanted to spend the least amount of time possible in the one place. Moving quickly and silently was your best chance for survival.

Unfortunately, they had to wait around for Aerrow and the other two skimmers. It must have been a good five minutes which in the wastelands felt like a hell of a lot longer before the Storm Hawk showed up. He unceremoniously handed the Dark Ace his skimmer before they set off. The group said nothing as they trudged through the almost apocalyptic landscape. They preferred to keep all of their senses alert, even if things did seem to be, so far at least, rather pleasantly quiet.

Sure enough, in the distance, the Dark Ace saw what the sky knights had been talking about. The storm, for some reason which he couldn't even being to comprehend didn't seem to reach down to the ground. Perhaps the heat from the lava and burning inferno prevented them forming properly. He wasn't a scientist. It did allow him to guess that Starling and Aerrow had already ventures down here. No doubt looking for a way to escape this place. He just hoped that they'd gotten it right this time and that they weren't about to drain the power of the only fuel crystals that they still had left.

Frankly, the idea that he could potentially be stuck with these two for the rest of his life was a truly terrifying one and one which he really didn't want to face right now.

Finally, after what he guessed was an hour. They reached the edge of the terra. Starling looked back to them.

"Well… Here goes." She declared before setting off under the cloud.

Aerrow was quick to follow but not before ensuring that their captive was moving also. They weren't about to let the Dark Ace out of their sight, that much was certain. The clouds were a fair way above them yet there was no telling just how far their power draining qualities could reach. If their crystals were completely drained then that was it, they were done for. It struck the former talon as they walked through the desolate landscape that all of this was essentially relying solely upon hope. He doubted that either of the two sky knights had any sure fire way of knowing this would work.

How he hated uncertainty. Naturally, circumstances had often forced them to act under it in Cyclonia but knowing exactly what was going to happen and how events were going to unfold, even if it was just theoretically was a lot better than this stab in a dark of an expedition.

"After we pass through the clouds." Starling spoke without turning around to face him. "Where should we be heading?"  
"We need to rendez-vous with the Resistance." That much he presumed was fairly obvious. "They move around a fair bit so it's not going to be easy."  
"Atmos is a big place and we don't have a lot of fuel." The young woman reminded him. "Care to be more specific?"  
"They follow certain paths." The Dark Ace replied gazing up uncertainly at the storm above him. "Avoiding Cyclonian controlled areas mostly. I was due to meet them somewhere between terra Rex and terra Neon."  
"Well then..." The Interceptor came to a stop. "We'd better get moving."

They had reached the edge of the storm, although it continued to rumble in the distance. Starling climbed aboard her skimmer and in a moment which had all three of them with their hearts in their mouths attempted to start it. There was a roar as the engine sprung back into life. Its owner's smile was as clear as day as she revved the bike. Aerrow and the Dark Ace were soon to follow as the sky knight took back to a sky which she and her friend had been forced to abandon some three years ago.

At first, he could see they were a little uneasy. Despite how much the inhabitants of Atmos relied on air travel and were accustomed to it even from the youngest ages, suddenly finding themselves back flying through the sky must have been a mixture of liberating and a little scary. They didn't have enough fuel to be able to preform any tricks or even to travel all that quickly. Skimmers could cover a fair amount of ground, it was true but not as much as a carrier that was for sure. If they ran out of power out here, it would mean either tumbling back into the wastelands or being trapped somewhere this time in Cyclonis' Atmos.

There was one thing that was bugging him however. It was his skimmer. Your ride was meant to be yours alone. He had become accustomed to how it felt and handled. To have had it suffer Aerrow's modifications - even if he could understand the logic which had pushed the sky knight to do so - felt like something of a violation. He tried to ignore it at first but when his bike refused to bank and much as he would have liked or indeed once would have, the former Talon was unable to contain a complaint:

"You've made this thing almost impossible to steer!" He yelled at the younger man.  
"You'd be riding in the side-car if I felt I could trust you!" Aerrow snapped back as a reply.  
"Like we said Dark Ace..." Starling flew a little closer so as to be able to join in the conversation or rather argument. "Frankly, after all you've done. We don't trust you. So it's this or nothing..."  
"Fine…" The sight of something ahead caught his attention. "But don't blame me if I can't help you with these morons."  
"Huh?" Aerrow turned to look ahead, following the Dark Ace's gaze. "Starling! We've got incoming!"

The young woman raised her head instantly to turn and face what he was warning her about. Before them, a group of about five or six skimmers had appeared on the horizon. They were closing in quite rapidly but remained far enough away to not be entirely visible. As it was, their rides appeared simply as glints on the horizon which caught some of the dull light. The skies here were no longer blue, the fumes from the numerous factories which had been pumping out fumes into the air whilst they worked on constructions for their new ruler. It would seem that both Starling and Aerrow had been sparred that fate in the little corner of paradise that they had somehow stumbled upon.

No doubt, the former Talon mused to himself, that they would be truly horrified when they saw just how much their beloved Atmos had changed.

If they survived the next few minutes and that was by no means a certainty.

"You think they've seen us?" Aerrow asked taking note of the formation.  
"Almost certainly. Yes." Came Starling's neutral reply.

It would have been fool's hope to assume anything else. Those skimmers were closing in fast. There was little chance in an empty sky such as this that they hadn't been spotted. A better question would have been just what they were doing here in the first place: were they just patrolling borders or was this a more coordinated search party? No doubt Cyclonis was still searching for him. Much like with the two sky knights who had evaded her, she would want a body.

He turned to face his two companions as they shifted slightly on their rides. The incoming squadron weren't quite in range yet but would be soon. Until then, there was little point in acting. With little fuel and no power for their weapons, this fight promised to be complicated if nothing else. Ordinarily, such odds would have been so bad he might have considered running but that wasn't an option here. They would have to rely on their (theoretically) superior fighting skills. Starling was still squinting, trying to make out just who they were going up against. After a few more seconds, she let out a frustrated sigh.

"The Rex Guardians..." She muttered somewhat distastefully. "It could be worse."  
"How so?" Aerrow questioned looking uneasily at the approaching formation.  
"Could be your friends." The Dark Ace finished for her.

Starling adopted a clearer fighting stance, drawing herself a little nearer to her skimmer as the squadron drew ever closer. Sure enough, he could make out its various members more easily now. Harrier was still flying? He'd been old fashioned fifteen years ago. Any other day, going up against the Rex Guardians, he would have laughed. The Dark Ace had already proven that they weren't a match for him, not even when he was on his own. So with two of Atmos' best sky knights with him? This should have been a walk in the park. Sadly, they were woefully unprepared for battle.

"Remember we don't have any parachutes or gliders so try not to fall off or get shot down or else it's the wastelands." Starling reminded them as they shifted trajectory so as to be charging the attacking for head on.  
"You're one hell of an optimist." Ace noted dryly.  
"Only when it's warranted." The Interceptor replied.

A sudden volley of fire disrupted them causing the Dark Ace to swerve or at least try to. He was bitterly reminded of Aerrow's modifications. It was simply adding another level of difficulty which quite frankly, right now he wasn't entirely sure that he could handle.

The Rex Guardians raised their swords as they charged into battle. Of all of the squadrons in the Atmos, they were by far the most out of date. The fact that they relied so heavily on their traditions and even right now in their state of psychological imprisonment he knew that they would follow that darned Code of theirs. It made their actions almost painfully predictable. No doubt that was what kept them alive. Any other squadron from the Sub Zeroes to the Rebel Ducks and they wouldn't have stood a chance but with these guys? It was possible to predict their attacks easily enough and to react accordingly.

For the Dark Ace, the fight quickly degenerated into a game of cat and mouse. With no weapons and a skimmer whose manoeuvrability and speed had been greatly reduced pretty much all he could do was try to stay out of the way of his enemies and the occasional bursts of laser fire which lit up the sky. He kept an eye on the rest of the battle as best as he could whilst trying to shake the young man who was following him relentlessly as he attempted to get a clear shot in.

The sky knights were faring rather better than he had dared hope.

There was a time when this wouldn't have been a contest. Any one of the tree of them could have taken down the entire squadron (Harrier included) without even breaking into a sweat. How the tides had changed. Now, they found themselves truly fighting for their lives with less fuel, no functional weapons, outnumbered and for Starling and Aerrow out of practice to boot. The fact that they were rusty was painfully obvious, the Storm Hawk more than the Interceptor it had to be said. She was older, more experienced had more battles and conflicts (both that she'd witnessed and participated in) under her belt. He was a sky knight who for the first time in many years found himself in a battle and no longer had his trusted and noble squadron to back him up.

A howl of pain cut through the sky as Aerrow was shot in the back by a laser. For a minute, the Dark Ace thought that they had just lost the young redhead. Fortunately, he seemed to pull himself together having sustained the injury on to part of his left shoulder and the back of his forearm. Starling barely responded, he couldn't even read the slightest trace of concern on her face. He had to hand it to the Interceptor: she was a practical woman and a cold soldier when she put her mind to it.

Aerrow clenched his teeth fighting the pain as he went. Standing as best as he could on his ride, he managed to catch up to one of their attackers. The Rex Guardian lunged at him with his sword. It was his loss. Acting quickly, the Storm Hawk dodged taking advantage of his enemy's loss of balance to grab his sleeve and pull him off of his ride. A second later, his parachute deployed saving him from the fatal drop into the wastelands. Above him, Starling pulled off a trick that the former Talon could recall Repton going on about after she had used it to take down two of his Raptors. He watched as the Interceptor leapt from one craft onto another and knocked both of their pilots clean out of their seats before jumping back onto her own ride. An impressive feat although he didn't have much time to wonder if he would be able to match it as another volley of fire skimmed right over his head.

Thanks to his two allies they now outnumbered the two remaining Rex Guardians. Harrier slowed down somewhat as the fact that the odds were no longer in his favour seemed to register. His eyes darted over his three enemies.

"Those who fight with honour always prevail." The sky knight snarled as he looked at his foes.  
"No." Starling shook her head negatively. "Otherwise we would all have won long ago."

The Dark Ace raised an eyebrow curiously at the sky knight's statement. It wasn't the sort of thing that he expected from one of them. Then again, Starling had suffered far more than many others. That had left a bitter mark. He imagined, when like her you had seen her entire squadron being shot down, it made one a little sceptical of all things to do with a code of honour. The leader of the Rex Guardians glared daggers at the Interceptor who only looked back blankly. There was no anger on her face, only a look of strange acceptance, perhaps a little bit of sadness.

Suddenly, a horn tore through the silence which had settled in. The sky knights turned around concerned as three massive shapes became visible through the clouds.

"You haven't heard the last of this..." Harrier hissed before turning tails with his remaining ally and beating a quick retreat.

Aerrow hesitated a moment but chose to return to his allies rather than give chase. Somewhat out of breath but still rather relieved to still be alive, the Dark Ace joined them. He could see the pain etched on the youngest sky knight's face. The Storm Hawk would likely need some medical attention but it shouldn't be too severe. Right now however, their attention was focused on something else entirely; namely the new arrivals. The tree massive ships had emerged from the clouds becoming entirely visible.

"Murk Raiders..." Starling muttered frowning at the sight of the ships. "We can't outrun them and we certainly can't fight them."  
"We don't have to." The Dark Ace informed her coming a little closer.

She raised an eyebrow. Ordinarily, at this distance they would have been shot down or captured already. Yet the Murk Raiders seemed to have just stopped. It was as if they were waiting there for something. In some circles, the pirates were actually considered to be worse than Cyclonians which truly was saying something. He could see the unease on the two sky knights' faces as they hovered there; no doubt expecting to be shot down at any moment. Perhaps it was time to ease their nerves.

"Meet the Resistance." He declared taking a satisfied look of their shocked expressions.


	10. A Sky without birds

_**Thanks for the review! Sophie Starlight, I like your idea but will I put it in the fanfiction? - Who knows? - **_

_**/**_

Starling felt a certain amount of relief as her skimmer touched down. The fact that the feeling came across inside of a Murk Raider's ship still struck her as ironic. Then again, she'd just fought alongside the Dark Ace, if that wasn't proof that someone somewhere had a twisted form of humour, she didn't know what was. The sight which greeted them however threatened to put all that into a new form of perspective.

Never before in her life had she laid eyes upon such a varied and mixed group as the one which was before her. Ordinarily, she would only have expected to see only Murk Raiders here. They weren't exactly reknowned for their hospitality after all but then neither were Raptors, she could see quite a few of them here as well. Those she might have somehow expected, other factions which had once lay claim to parts of the Atmos and who now found themselves being pushed back by the tidal wave which was Cyclonia. It was more the civilians which she found surprising.

She called them "civilians", she couldn't see what else they would be. They ranged in ages from obviously newly born babies to elders who could only stand with the use of canes. These people would have been useless in a fight. No doubt that was why they were here, sheltering in the last place which might have offered them a sanctuary. They were from all races, from all over Atmos: blizzarians stood along side raptors and merbs. One look told the sky knight that many here were all too accustomed to the reality of living in a world ruled over by Cyclonis: they were thin, pale and their eyes were wide with a mixture of surprise and a terrible fear which seemed to have become common place.

Slowly, she dismounted from her skimmer. By her side, Aerrow did the same. He winced with pain slightly, no doubt the wound he had sustained was causing him some suffering. A few mutterings were exchanged in the crowd. They had been recognised. It had been a few years but if the Dark Ace had recognized them, then it was a fair bet that some of these people would also. Her gaze scanned the crowd, regrettably the only familiar faces she came across were those of her enemies.

For a moment, they simply stood there. The three of them gawking at the crowd and being starred back at, unsure what to say or what to do. No doubt, these people had expected more than two slightly scruffy sky knights who had only narrowly avoided being shot down but on the other hand, they were the leader of the Storm Hawks and the last of the Interceptors. Two titles which still held a certain amount of power over desperate hearts.

"Dark Ace?"

The voice carried a certain French accent to it. From the crowd came a young woman. People seemed to part to allow her through. They did so, she could tell out of respect. For a moment, the Interceptor wondered if she might have been looking at the leader of the Resistance. Starling guessed her to be about Aerrow's age. Probably a little younger, although her thin face spoke of many hardships. She walked slowly, almost uncertainly with a cane in front of her. It only took her a moment to realize why.

The stranger stopped a few feet in front of them. She hesitated a moment before turning towards Aerrow and Starling.

"You brought friends." It was a declaration more than anything else.  
"Dove?" Aerrow asked in an almost trembling voice.  
"It has been a long time Aerrow." The young woman declared with a knowing smile.  
"What happened to your eyes?"

Perhaps an insensitive question but one which Starling guessed more for Aerrow who so obviously knew this person. She turned away at the question for a moment before looking back at the sky knight. There was a thin milky veil in front of her eyes. It was obvious to Starling that she was blind and had been for a while now judging by how she seemed to be still relatively confident on her feet. No doubt this was something new since the last time the two of them had met considering Aerrow's reaction.

"A gift from Master Cyclonis." She declared bitter hatred marking her voice. "To serve as an example."  
"I'm sorry..." The Storm Hawk let out in a sigh.  
"Don't be. I got off lightly compared to the others." Dove informed them sorrowfully.  
"The Rebel Ducks?-" Aerrow couldn't quite complete the sentence.  
"Puppets." The young woman virtually spat. "Almost every squadron Atmos has to offer are now under her control."

Starling didn't respond. She'd been free for a little longer than Aerrow had. She knew how bad the outside world had become after the Storm Hawks had been defeated. When she had gone undercover, there had only been a handful of squadrons remaining, most of them were running scared and practically none would dare to oppose Cyclonis. She supposed that some of them had hoped to be spared the fate of becoming her slaves, the Interceptor doubted they had been successful but couldn't begrudge their reasoning.

"Perhaps it's time for you to see the grander picture." The Dark Ace suggested before looking behind him and whispering in a quiet voice so that he wasn't overheard. "These people are desperate enough, no need to scare them further."  
"Of course..." Dove agreed with him before turning to the sky knights. "Come. You must meet the other commanders."

Aerrow and Starling exchanged a look. It wasn't as if they had anything immediately better to do. Whilst they were here, they had might as well get to know who was in charge of this rabble. Perhaps they would be greeted by some other more familiar and friendly faces, although neither of them were holding out too much hope. After seeing Dove and her now sightless eyes, they almost wished not to see the state of any of their old friends.

They were lead through the ship up to what was the command deck. Both sky knights instinctively froze as they saw just who was there to greet them. Given that they were in the company of the Dark Ace on a Murk Raider ship, Starling supposed that they shouldn't exactly have been expecting model citizens but the group which were standing there were something else entirely. Captain Scabulous, she was hardly surprised by, this was his craft after all but the Colonel and a large wallop chieftain weren't exactly a pleasant sight to behold.

They looked rather surprised to see the two sky knights standing there. For a moment, nothing was said as they simply gawked at each other. Instinct told both groups that the others were their enemies and yet circumstance had decided the opposite. What a strange world they lived in.

"Sky knights..." The Colonel scoffed after a little while. "Well this is a surprise."  
"To all of us, I'm sure..." Starling muttered stepping forwards into the room.

She said nothing as her eyes fell upon a series of maps and charts which were laid out upon the table. They showed the Atmos. One which she seldom managed to recognise. Where once there had been many different terras in various colours, now there was nothing but a few large blobs all belonging to the same one or two factions. She ignored the fact that she was approaching people whom she would once have considered enemies, focused instead on what her eyes were telling her about the new world which they now found themselves in.

"Not quite the world you remember, eh?" Asked Captain Scabulous.  
"Not really..." Starling replied starring down at it. "I'm guessing this isn't good."  
"Everything that's red is Cyclonia." The Colonel explained waving his hand over it on the map.  
"That's a whole lot of red..." Aerrow muttered looking at the massive sways of territory. "And the yellow?"  
"Terras subjugated to Cyclonia." The captain of the Murk Raiders informed them. "No troops but that only makes them more dangerous to us. They're fighting over themselves to 'prove their loyalty' to the witch."

Starling examined the map intently. Red and yellow pretty much covered the entirety of the known Atmos, perhaps all of it. Her green gaze ran over all of the charted lands, so many had fallen now that it was hard to imagine just how they could possibly find a way to fight back. In a way, she told herself that she shouldn't have been all that surprised or at all really: Dark Ace was right, this was Cyclonis' world. They had simply missed most of the part where she had claimed it. So many friends must have been gone now.

Despite everything, the Interceptor couldn't help but search the map for one particular place that she knew all too well and yet she couldn't find it.

"Terra Mesa is gone." The Dark Ace informed her noticing that she was searching for something.  
"What?" It was Aerrow who spoke rather than her.  
"Cyclonis took that scratch rather personally." He turned to Starling who hadn't raised her gaze from the map. "You're top of her hate list. When she couldn't find you, she took it out on your Terra."

Starling fixed the empty spot of the map for a few moments. Terra Mesa wasn't much, too small to pose much if anything of a threat, its inhabitants were a fairly peaceful bunch making their living for the most part off of the fertile land. It was a simple place but one which she had called home. To imagine it gone proved to be a difficult task for her. For a few seconds, she couldn't help but stare at the emptiness of the map and feel that something else had just been torn from her.

"Its inhabitants?" She asked after a few more moments silence.  
"Dead or scattered." Came Dark Ace's stoic reply.

She closed her eyes briefly. She had been expecting as much. Deep down however, Starling couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. She was the sky knight of the Interceptors and Tera Mesa had been their responsibility. For decades, she and those before her had kept its inhabitants safe from all manner of threats. Although her intention when she had left to infiltrate Cyclonia had ultimately been to protect her people, it had also failed and she had left them at the mercy of Cyclonis' bitter revenge. She had failed them and by extension the memories of her squadron.

There was nothing that could be done. Save to avenge them. Starling opened her eyes turning back to those in the room.

"How many squadrons does she have under her control?" She asked seeking to know the extent of their enemy's strength.  
"All of them." The Colonel informed her casting his gaze out of the windows for a moment.  
"All?!" Aerrow questioned not even attempting to hide the shock.  
"We picked up a few stragglers." Dove let out in a sigh. "Literally one or two who had managed to escape their squadron's capture but that's it and certainly no sky knights."  
"Were they all turned?" Starling remained fixing the map as she attempted to work out just how many squadrons they were talking about.  
"Yes. I'm afraid Cyclonis has become rather proficient at turning people into her puppets." The Dark Ace told them. "Now it only takes her a few minutes."

Yet more good news. At least when Cyclonis had first got her hands upon that damn crystal it used to take her quite some time to turn even one person. It would seem that she was simply getting to grips with it.

It had taken the sky knights quite some time to figure out just what was going on. Initially, it had been a couple of squadrons who had been captured by the Cyclonians. Whilst this was concerning in itself, it wasn't exactly something unusual. In the past, the Sky Counsel would simply mount a rescue party. It wasn't necessarily a clean operation but it tended to free the prisoners. This time though, the rescuers had found themselves being attacked by those whom they were trying to save. After that it had been like dominoes, the more that fell to Cyclonis' power, the larger her army grew and the more easily they overpowered others who would almost inevitably end up being turned as well.

Still putting the pieces of the puzzle which was the new world Atmos together, Starling turned back to the other Resistance members.

"And you're the entirety of the Resistance?" She asked them.  
"There are a few other cells scattered around the Atmos but we're the bulk of it." Captain Scabulous admitted not even trying to hide how dire the situation was.

Starling frowned looking back at the map. Even if they assumed that it was only the squadrons of the terras now under Cyclonis' control who had been turned against them, that still left them hopelessly outnumbered. That was to say nothing of the fact that from what she had seen, most of the people on board this ship hadn't fought a day in their lives, they were refugees, not soldiers. Many of them physically wouldn't be able to fight so it wasn't as if they could train them. That of course was to say nothing of the rest of Cylonia's might. They had been a formidable force even during the best of days, the sky knight dreaded to think what they might have become unopposed.

As she saw it, unless the Resistance was concealing something from her (and she couldn't see why they would do that) they were outnumbered, outgunned and likely running out of time. Sooner or later, Cyclonis was going to find these ships and she would do so with enough men to bring them crashing down into the wastelands and all those on board with them.

"I'll be honest." She declared looking back at the map. "I've seen better odds."  
"So have we all." The Dark Ace responded fixing her with his cold red eyes which she loathed. "But beggars can't be choosers I'm afraid."  
"There has to be something we can do." Aerrow declared stepping forwards.

He stopped suddenly, his wide with pain and let out a sharp hiss as he tried to avoid yelling. No doubt his wound from earlier was beginning to hurt now that the adrenaline from the fight was dying off. Stubborn, the younger sky knight straightened himself attempting to mask his discomfort and began coming towards them once more. Starling rolled her eyes, somewhat exasperated. There was a time and a place for heroics, right now, she doubted that the Storm Hawk could contribute much to the conversation – well, nothing that couldn't be said later of that was.

"Go and get that wound of yours checked out." She snapped at him. "There's no point in you standing around in pain."

Aerrow lowered his gaze but said nothing before slowly leaving the room, hopefully to go and seek out an infirmary or at least someone to tend to his injury. She turned back to the others in the room who were starring at her with somewhat surprised expressions, asides Dark Ace who seemed to find all of their interactions amusing in his own twisted way. She didn't care to find out why. The man was scum as far as she was concerned. There was little else that could be said here that she could think of. Basically, they were in trouble and were going to have to think of an inventive solution that didn't involve brute force if they wanted to stand even half a chance of defeating their foe.

"Basically… We need a plan." Starling muttered eager to get things moving once more.  
"If you happen to have one little Missy..." The Captain spoke not trying to hide his scepticism. "We're all ears..."  
"Where exactly have you been all this time?" The Colonel questioned leaning forwards slightly.  
"Trapped." Starling replied thinking back strangely fondly to the terra. "We've been completely cut off from the rest of Atmos these past three years."  
"She's telling the truth." The Dark Ace spoke simply.

Starling looked at him out of her peripheral vision for a moment. There were many questions she would like to ask the former Talon, least of which was just what he was doing here. She grasped that he'd been kicked out of Cyclonia but Starling was also aware that up until the last time she had seen him, he had been Cyclonis' favourite and lost loyal servant. What had changed in that time which had caused him to now be acting actively against her? She would have to ask him at some point but not right now.

There were a couple of things which she could suggest to help the Resistance, starting with the large number of civilians they appeared to be carrying around with them.

"Correct me if I'm wrong..." She started looking at the group before her. "But you seem to have a lot of people here who can't and frankly will never be able to fight."  
"They are running from Cyclonis." Dove explained gesturing once more towards the map. "Not taking them in would be a death sentence."  
"Yes but they are going to make fighting more complicated." Starling replied keeping her calm.  
"So what would you suggest?" The Colonel questioned.  
"The terra where Aerrow and I were stranded, it's not much but it's safe and off of Cyclonis' radar for the moment." She declared looking back out at the sky before turning back to them. "That way, at least they'll be able to rest and you won't have to worry about them getting caught in the crossfire."  
"I don't suppose you could guide us there." The Captain seemed genuinely interested in her proposal. Perhaps having all these people on board the Blood Crow was beginning to grate on his nerves.  
"I can." The Dark Ace declared stepping forwards.

Starling soon found herself no longer required and came up with a quick reason to excuse herself. She wouldn't have thought it but being around other people again felt… Strange… With only Aerrow for company for the past three years, seeing so many faces and hearing so many voices came as something of a shock to her. She would get used to it, it was only a matter of a few hours maybe a day or so but until then, she found herself longing for some time alone.

Dove was kind enough to give her directions to a cabin which she was going to have to share with the young woman and a few others whom Starling didn't know. It was better than sleeping on the floor she supposed. With any luck, nobody would be there at this time and she would be able to gather her thoughts a little. God knew, she needed to.

On her way there, she passed by a room and caught sight of a familiar mop of messy red hair. For a moment, Starling considered leaving him be, aware that she had snapped at him and shouldn't have. She fixed the young man for a few moments, eager to ensure that he was alright none-the-less. He was standing up in what she guessed to be an infirmary, struggling with some bandages and his wound. Se hesitated for a moment, wondering how he could be having so much difficulty performing such a seemingly simple task. Pushing the door open somewhat, the sky knight entered. So far, Aerrow appeared to be largely oblivious to her presence, too busy trying to tend to his wound to notice.

"Couldn't you find anyone?" She spoke out eventually.  
"The nurse is on one of the other ships." Aerrow replied not turning around to face her. "I'll cope..."  
"Not very well..." She declared softly heading over to him. "Let me see..."

Delicately, she undid the bandages which he had succeeded on applying to his upper forearm near his shoulder. She could already see some of the injury which he hadn't managed to wrap up. It was quite a nasty burn: not life threatening by any means but painful enough to cause him a fair amount of discomfort. Cautiously, she touched the wound aware that it would cause him some pain but eager to see just how he had treated it. The Interceptor only maintained the contact for the briefest of seconds as she noticed Aerrow grit his teeth in a poor attempt to hide his suffering. She let out a sigh feeling the heat which was still originating from it.

Without saying another word, she got to get feet and headed over to the sink. Her eyes trailed around the room looking for things that she could possibly use. This was hardly the best stocked infirmary that she had ever seen. She found a bucket which looked clean enough and set about filling it with the coldest water which would come from the tap. A drawer yielded a cloth which actually looked hygienic. With the bucket full, she came back over to the injured sky knight who sat patiently on the bed.

"Honestly..." She muttered somewhat exasperatedly wetting the cloth. "Did no one ever teach you how to tend to a burn?"  
"Piper and Junko were the ones who always used to deal with the injuries." He muttered in a the quiet voice which he adopted when thinking back to his old friends. "I never really had to."  
"This is going to be cold." The Interceptor warned him without responding to his initial comment.

Aerrow nodded almost imperceptibly bracing himself somewhat. He tensed up from a mixture of pain and shock as she applied the cold and wet cloth to his exposed wound. Whilst she did that, with her free hand, she set about undoing the bandage taking note of the rather poor job he had done of it. Maybe if she ever had time, she would teach him how to properly treat such injuries.

She had to keep on reminding herself as she had been doing these past three years that he wasn't like her. Aerrow had always had his squadron, in essence his family to fall back on when the going got tough. She had been stripped of that chance early on in her career as a sky knight. When he got injured, the Storm Hawk could turn to his friends and they would patch him up and if the need be protect him until he was back on his feet. Since the terrible day that had seen the last battle of the Interceptors, Starling had been forced to tend to her own injuries, mending them as best as she could with nobody to help her through the pain. There was a lot which being alone had taught her which he plainly didn't know because it had never been required of him.

The two of them sat there in silence for a few minutes. The Rex Guardian who had got the luck shot in certainly hadn't missed. A few more inches and Aerrow would have most definitely regretted it. It was an ugly thing and would likely leave a scar or at least a mark for quite a few months. The younger sky knight shifted slightly but kept his eyes fixed firmly ahead of him.

"We're going to help them. Aren't we?" He asked in a voice so quiet she had to practically strain her ears to hear him.

Starling didn't initially respond. There were two questions there. The first one was obvious: were they going to do anything? The answer to that, she didn't feel needed to be given. They were both sky knights after all, that gave them both a responsibility and an obligation to help those who turned to them. The second matter was rather a lot more delicate. It was a question which she didn't particularly want to answer because she didn't know if she could do so truthfully. For the life of her, Starling didn't know if they could actually help these people in the sense of defeating Cyclonis. It was a big ask by any standards and so far their efforts had been in vain to say the least.

"Why do you always turn to me for answers, Aerrow?" She asked him in a quiet voice dabbing the wet towel against his skin once more.  
"When I do, it's because I don't have them." He explained looking down at his feet. "I wish I did but I haven't known what to do for a long time now."  
"Welcome to the club." Starling muttered a little bitterly.

The red haired sky knight shifted slightly, his gaze came to rest upon her through his peripheral vision. She tried not to take any note of the young man's green gaze as she got up and retrieved a bottle of antiseptic from a cabinet. It was clear to her that he was thinking, pondering her words and wondering if there was any truth behind them or if she was simply being pessimistic. There was a time when Aerrow would never have accepted defeat, when he would have fought tooth and nail in order to gain back the Atmos, even against impossible odds. Sadly, without his squadron, much of his fighting spirit had been taken from him.

"This is going to sting." She warned him.

The young man braced himself aware that it was going to hurt a fair bit. In Starling's experience, sometimes antiseptic could actually sting more than the wound itself. With a burn like this however they had little choice, they were notoriously prone to infection which was something which he couldn't afford. Aerrow tensed up as she sprayed the product onto his injury. She could see him biting his lower lip to avoid physically screaming; letting out a hiss of pain accompanied by a curse instead. She prevented him from swatting her away or touching his wound which would likely only exasperate the pain.

After a few moments, he seemed to calm down as the stinging sensation slowly faded away. He must have been in a considerable amount of pain as she heard his rapid breathing gradually return to normal. It allowed her to slowly get back to bandaging his injury properly this time.

"I think we have to at least try." He declared breaking the silence which had settled in. "If we don't do anything, then nobody else will."

Starling smiled softly. Something which caused Aerrow to frown wondering just what on Earth she could find so amusing that warranted such a gesture. They had very little, if anything to be smiling about: most of the world was now turned against them, they had almost no allies and those that they had were former villains which they would once have clashed with willingly. Everything about this situation struck them as both wrong and not very promising for their futures. Yet she was smiling; a gentle and kind smile which he had trouble placing.

"What is it?" He asked after a few moments.  
"You..." She muttered maintaining her soft smile. "You've grown up."

For a moment, this only confused him further. She should have noticed that considering that they had been trapped together for three years straight. He was what, nineteen now? Hardly the bold kid who had initially formed the Storm Hawks, perhaps that was what she meant rather than the physical details although he was aware that he had grown in both height and stature since becoming trapped he got the feeling that that wasn't what she was referring to.

Starling wondered if he cold see the change himself: the boy who had become a man. Tragedy was a hard way to grow up. She'd discovered it herself, now that she thought about it, they had both been torn from their squadrons, the last of their family essentially at around the same age. Too young to have to deal with such pain. Despite that, they had grown up; leaving behind their childhood along with their loved ones. Maybe it had made them stronger, maybe it had left them fragile. She couldn't have said but it had made them survivors. The small smile which she noticed on her friend's face told her that he had understood.

They spent a few moments in silence with only a smile passing between them. After a few seconds however, Starling cleared her throat, averting her gaze suddenly.

"That's quite enough of that." She declared standing up. "We're going to drop off the civilians on that backwater of a terra we were stranded on. That should free up those who can fight a little."  
"Good thinking..." Aerrow muttered looking down at his feet a serious expression on his face.  
"You should rest." She advised heading back towards the door.  
"I plan to." He declared as she left the room. "Starling… Thank you."

She smiled softly before leaving. She stopped outside. Hesitating slightly as she glanced back towards the door to the infirmary. No… This simply wouldn't do… She wasn't going to make the same mistake again.


	11. Paths chosen

**_Thanks for the review. I might be mistaken but I'm pretty sure Cyclonis' motivations are never explicitly stated: her grandmother, maybe? _**

**_/_**

It proved to be rather a lot easier to get the civilians back to the small terra where they had been sheltering than Aerrow had initially hoped. When Starling had first informed him of the plan, he had been dubious. True, even he could see that they needed to find a safe place for those who couldn't fight but it was more getting there that caused him some concern. In the back of his mind was a nagging worry about what would happen if one of the massive ships happened to venture a little bit too close to the clouds and had all of its energy leached as a result. It would likely mean the deaths of almost everyone on board. It had been close but the Blood Crow and her sister ships had managed to slip under and had now moured by the side of the terra where the crew helped the weary passengers to disembark.

He guessed that there had to be a couple hundred people of all ages and races from all over the Atmos here. He along with Starling and the Dark Ace helped some of the weaker passengers off or aided in carrying some of the supplies which they would need. Aerrow supposed that in the long term, it would be possible to set up a colony of some kind here. The land was rich and if they were careful and responsible, they could keep it that way. He and his companion hadn't known really what they were doing and they had been able to set up a self-sustaining little settlement for two. If the right know-how, this place could be lovely.

There was something which cast a dark shadow over the Storm Hawk however. It was the realization that they had been able to sneak under the clouds. Cyclonian vessels weren't any larger than the Murk Raider's crafts and therefore it stood to reason that they would be able to make it through just as easily. They really weren't safe here… If Cyclonis hadn't found them yet it was only because she didn't know where to look. Sooner or later, she would discover even this isolated little place. He would rather not think about what would happen then.

They spent the best part of the afternoon setting up small makeshift tents and making sure everyone had somewhere to sleep. It struck Aerrow that despite the desperate nature of the situation, everyone was eager to help out in whatever way they could, even if they were rather ill-equipped to do it. He guessed that must have been what had allowed them to survive the way that they had. After all, they were all in the same mess, which was to say on the wrong side of Cyclonis. Even the Dark Ace, the cruellest and most merciless the Talons had to offer didn't complain when it came to carrying a small child who was too tired to walk.

They set up a series of fires that night. With darkness upon them, the fighting part of the Resistance decided that they had might as well stay on the terra to ensure that all was well before departing at first light.

Aerrow instinctively sat next to Starling feeling decidedly unnerved by the company. With Eyeball to his right as well as half a dozen other hooligans and thugs gathered in a circle, he was still struggling with his natural instinct which told him that these people were trouble. The young woman for her part simply contented herself with slowly eating the stew which some of the Murk Raider chefs had prepared for them (he was rather grateful that someone had managed to convince the wallops that their help was better suited for the heavy weight lifting than the kitchen). Despite the presence of a rather large Raptor to her left, she didn't appear to be overly bothered by the company.

"Nice place you two found here." Captain Scabulous declared looking around. "Stumbled upon it by accident, did you?"  
"As we've already said." Starling spoke a little bit or irritation creeping into her voice. "We crashed through those clouds and got stranded her for three years. Hardly a picnic."  
"Better than many of us had it." The Dark Ace snapped back as a reply.

Starling raised her gaze to meet his. There were few people in the Atmos who could manage to not look at least somewhat intimidated when the Interceptor glared in the way that she currently was but the Dark Ace seemed to be one of those who could. For a moment, the two of them exchanged such a cold look of hatred that it made those around them feel somewhat uneasy. Aerrow readied himself should one or the other suddenly snap and lash out. He didn't doubt that they both had the temper and temperament to do it.

"What about you Ace?" Starling asked eventually, breaking the silence. "What did you do to get Cyclonis to kick you out of Cyclonia?"  
"It's not what I did." He informed her straightening himself somewhat. "It's what I wouldn't do."

Aerrow's head perked up somewhat. He had been as surprised as Starling to discover that the Dark Ace was no longer a Talon. Out of all of them, he was the one that the Storm Hawk had assumed to be the most loyal. He could have believed Ravess to be capable of scheming behind her master's back, Snipe frankly he doubted had the brains and Repton was a rogue first and foremost so had no real allegiance to her in the first place. For all of his faults and for they were appalling, he had always seemed somewhat above all that, truly devoted to his master, no matter how insane she might be.

"Care to explain?" Aerrow requested eager for an answer.  
"Very well." The man made no attempt to hide his exasperation. "Once Cyclonis had taken over Atmos, instead of simply settling down as ruler, she became increasingly paranoid. She only trusted those puppets of hers. She even sent away her guards. Finally, she insisted that her commanders allow themselves to be turned to prove their loyalty."  
"And you refused?" Starling raised an eyebrow.  
"Is that such a surprise?" The former Talon asked quite genuine. "I value my independence."  
"What happened to the other commanders?" Aerrow asked eager to avoid a fight and get the whole story.  
"Ravess was executed when she refused." The Dark Ace replied shaking his head. "I don't know about the others. Dead, turned or in hiding I imagine."

Figured. Cyclonis was someone Aerrow would never have wanted as a friend or ally. Even he could tell from the comparatively few times that he'd encountered her that she was a volatile soul, constantly on teetering on the edge and threatening to drag everyone with her. He suspected that those who had sided with her – perhaps excluding the Dark Ace – only did so out of fear and a desire to save their own skins more than an actual belief in whatever Cyclonis' great plan was. If she even had one beyond "Lets take over the Atmos" that was. Despite all the years that he'd spent fighting, he was still none-the-wiser as to just why the Cyclonians had started this darn was in the first place.

He prayed that it would end and soon. Too much had already been lost.

A silence settled in. It would seem that now that Starling had her information, she was content with simply eating and no doubt pondering the world around her. She seemed a little quiet tonight. Initially, he had put it down to simply being to do with the company but found himself reasoning that the Interceptor was unlikely to be intimidated so easily. Something was on her mind. He wanted to ask but found himself both fearing her reaction and considering it to be impolite to potentially embarrass her in front of the crowd.

"Still no luck with that plan?" The Colonel asked them.  
"What plan?" Aerrow blinked a couple of times confused.  
"To stop Cyclonis and save Atmos." Starling replied not turning to face him.  
"Oh yeah… That's kinda important, isn't it?"  
"Just a little bit..." The Interceptor responded.

As nice and relaxing as it was on this terra, Aerrow was pretty sure that there wasn't a soul amongst them who was naïve enough to believe that they were safe and that they could stay there forever. It was a practical place to unload those who wouldn't be able to fight whilst those who could came up with some sort of miraculous plan to defeat Cyclonis and free the rest of Atmos.

The task was a daunting one. They were outnumbered, outgunned and lacked any allies who might come to their aid. There was always the off-chance that the terras currently subjugated under Cyclonia might rise up against her if they saw an opportunity in the form of the Resistance launching some kind of counter-attack but even then it was a stab in the dark, the Storm Hawk found it much more likely that they wouldn't want to risk incurring her wrath by standing up to her. He couldn't really blame them for that not when their children would be the ones to suffer for it. That did leave them painfully alone however, fighting a war which they couldn't possibly win.

"We can't fight Cyclonia head on." Captain Scabulous declared looking down at the ground beneath his feet. "We don't have the fire power or numbers."  
"So whatever we do..." Aerrow's voice trailed off as he pondered the issue. "It would have to be sneaky."

'Sneaky' might not have been the appropriate term for such a debate and he was sure there was a proper one but he felt that it summed it up nicely. By all accounts, a full on attack would be suicide and there weren't enough of them to be able to afford to suffer even a small amount of loses. That meant that whatever they did would have to be under the radar and avoid the bulk of Cyclonis' forces. That would not be easy given that she controlled half of Atmos and would likely have eyes everywhere.

Aerrow had never imagined that any of this was going to be easy and he was almost certain that Starling who was that much more mature and had been fighting for somewhat longer than he had been was even less likely to be so optimistic as to believe that it would be an easy feat. After all, it had been three years (technically a little more depending on where you considered that things started to go pair-shaped) since Cyclonia had taken over. That had given them ample time to settle in and make sure things were being run there way. With little opposition remaining, their forces had only grown stronger with the passing time and were now anchored into many strategic positions around the Atmos which made day to day life for the Resistance almost impossible. The Storm Hawk dreaded to think what it must have been like for those who lived under Cyclonis' reign.

There had been revolts and attempts to fight back. Apparently, a good number of the Resistance had been chased off of their terras for starting up trouble of one sort or another. According to the Colonel, after the sky knights and their squadrons were under her thumb, Cyclonia had set her sights on purging the Atmos of all those who would or even potentially could oppose her. It had eventually lead to her turning against her own generals, demanding that they allow themselves to become her slaves or else to face the consequences.

Those who had once been considered outside the law such as the Murk Raiders and the Raptors had found themselves hunted. It was all part of some insane quest of the now ruler of Cyclonia. If the Dark Ace was to be believed, it's logical conclusion would involve only her and her puppets remaining in the whole of the Atmos.

Starling and Aerrow could only sit in silence as they heard tales of what Atmos, their home which they had protected for so long had become. A part of them almost wished that they had never left this terra, at least that way, they were able to lie to themselves and pretend that it might not have been that bad outside. It was a lie which they had silently told themselves but one which had allowed them to sleep at night. Now, any traces of an illusion had been stripped away. It was blindingly obvious that she had to be stopped before it got that bad. It was painfully apparent that that was going to be an uphill struggle, bordering on the impossible and would likely cost all those to partake in such a quest dearly.

If this had been easy, the Resistance would have won without their help a long time ago. Atmos would never have fallen in the first place…

Aerrow looked up at the sky as he listened to the others talk about possibilities. He thought back to his old squadron. He missed them so much. If they were here, there would have been some hope, if nothing else. No matter how dark the times had become, his friends had always managed to bring a smile to his face and make him feel that somehow they would succeed against all the odds. Back when they had been with him, the sky had never been the limit. They could do anything and feared nothing, not Cyclonis, not her loyal attack dog the Dark Ace...

"I have an idea!" He declared jumping up suddenly.

Everyone instantly turned to face him. The looks on their faces varied from the surprised, to the excited and the sceptical. Somehow as he thought back to those good old days with his friends it brought back memories which he had forgotten or perhaps more accurately chosen not to think about since he had become separated from the other Storm Hawks. Alone, they wouldn't have meant much but as he put them together, some of the rusty cogs in his brain had began to turn, clicking into place.

The end result was an idea. A very dangerous idea and one which he was far from sure the others would think was sound, much less accept to go along with.

"Care to share it with us?" Starling requested raising an eyebrow.  
"Of course..."

He set about telling them just what had occurred to him. He tweeked a few of the details as he went when he realized that they needed to be modified. The others at least as far as he could tell listened carefully. Seeing as they didn't interrupt him, he guessed that there must have been at least some merit to the idea. Politeness and restraint weren't something that anyone here was especially bothered with: if they thought that his plan was doomed to failure they would have told him so from the start and not allowed him to waste his breath and their time.

When he was finished a deafening silence settled around their fire. All that could be heard were the loud chattering voices from those around them, happy at being somewhere other than the inside of a Murk Raider ship. The Storm Hawk turned back to the others who were still pondering his plan, no doubt going through it in their own minds.

"That..." The Dark Ace's voice trailed off for a moment. "Could actually work… But it's insanely dangerous! For all of us."  
"Do we have a choice?" Aerrow asked looking down at the ground for a moment.

He received no answer, at least not for a few moments. Next to him, Starling sifted slightly drawing a few pointless shapes in the dirt using a twig she had acquired from somewhere. She was definitely somewhere else tonight, just where he couldn't have said but it encouraged him to ask her when there weren't so many people about. The others allowed his comment to linger in the air for a while. In truth, he suspected that they all knew the answer. It was just accepting it which was a little more difficult.

"Well… I for one don't mind giving my life." Starling declared after a while. "If it means the end of the witch..."  
"And I guess for what it's worth, neither do I." Replied the Dark Ace earning a dubious look from the young woman.

That left the others, the bulk of the Resistance. It was a big ask. Aerrow didn't know just how willing any of these guys would be to risk their lives. Naturally, existence in Atmos presented its own challenges and was by no means safe but there was a big difference from actively asking them to potentially sacrifice themselves for a plan which they were far from sure would work. If they had stood against Cyclonia up until now, it was because they didn't have a choice. If they went through with this, it would be them choosing to put their fate in others' hands.

Finally, it was a raptor whom Aerrow didn't even know who spoke up.

"If we don't do anything… Cyclonia'sss going to find usss." He declared in a quiet and somewhat unsure voice. "I would rather die at leassst trying to ssstop the witch."  
"Aye..." Captain Scabulous muttered after a few moments. "We don't have much of a choice. My crew will go along with your plan."  
"As will my men." The Colonel declared.  
"We will have to leave some of the able-bodied here to take care of these people." Dove informed them, her blind eyes none-the-less seemed to be fixing the two sky knights. "But most of the rest will follow."

Aerrow and Starling nodded slowly in agreement aware of what this meant. They would have to move quickly. The more of them that were gathered on this terra, the more likely they were to be noticed. They could afford a few days but not much more. That would allow them to ensure that the people here had been settled in properly. They would need to show them where the water was and the food whilst leaving them enough supplies to last them at least a few weeks. It would also allow those who would take part in their plan to prepare themselves and for their injured to rest enough to be able to fight once more.

"We can't do any more tonight." The Dark Ace declared after a while. "We should rest and start our preparations in the morning."

He earned few complaints from those around him. Everyone was tired. It had been a long day and somehow, those storm clouds were enough to lull some into a sense of security, as misplaced as it might have been. Some chose to go back to the ships where they had bunks and beds. Many had already set up little tents and sleeping bags. It was a strange sight to behold, so many people sleeping in the one place over the ground. Aerrow hesitated a little uncertain what to do. He found himself searching for Starling, eager to ask her if she was alright.

Eventually, after asking Dove, the young woman told him that she believed the other sky knight had walked off in order to find some peace and quiet. That sounded very much like his friend, especially given the odd mood that she appeared to be in at the moment. It didn't take him that long to track her down. All he needed to do was think back to his time alone with her on the terra and recall her favourite spots if she was trying to have some time to herself. Once he had a mental list of them, his discarded those which were currently occupied by some of the Resistance and tried to think like the Interceptor. Even if she wanted to be alone, Starling was smart and practical enough to stay within earshot of the camp should a situation suddenly emerge where she would be required. That only left a handful of places.

He found her on his second guess. She looked up as she saw him slowly approach.

"You're getting to know me better." Starling noted in a slightly amused tone which unless he was mistaken also carried a fair bit of sadness with it.  
"Well, it has been three years." He replied coming over. "I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't, now would I?"  
"Friend..." Starling's voice trailed off for a moment. "I haven't had one of those in a long time."

Aerrow frowned somewhat. He hadn't forgotten the young woman's constant refusal to join the Storm Hawks. It hadn't been pride which had prevented her from doing so but rather he suspected a fear of reliving the same terrible events which had stripped her of her previous squadron. Considering the events which had lead both of them to be here, he found himself wondering if she might not have been a little bit right about that last one.

Sitting there, with legs drawn against her chest in part to keep warm but also he suspected to provide some comfort, Starling looked… Well, he didn't really know what to make of her. Aerrow let out a sigh and shook his head. In the years he had known her, Starling had had many nightmares. Her pride prevented her from ever admitting that the loss of her squadron still hurt. More often than not, she simply hid the pain behind her cold and formal attitude. There was one time when she was unable to raise the mask however and that was when she slept. Whilst asleep, she was obliged to drop her defenses and then, sometimes the pain would bleed through. When she was awake though, it was much harder to say just what was wrong.

Cautiously, he sat down next to her. She didn't react much past briefly glancing at him out of her peripheral vision. They spent a few moments next to each other, just looking out at the fires which were beginning to die back slowly as everyone drifted off to sleep.

"Is something wrong?" He asked tentatively. "You're not yourself."  
"It's nothing you need to worry about." She spoke softly pulling her legs a little closer to her chest. "I've just got a lot on my mind at the moment."  
"You always do." Aerrow informed her looking her dead in the eyes. "If you have anything else in there, you won't be able to lift your head." The comment earned an amused snort. "You know… It's okay for you to talk about it sometimes."  
"Oh I know..." The sky knight nodded slowly in agreement. "But for the moment, it's my burden."

He let out a sigh. Sometimes, when he felt like he practically understood the young woman and knew where she was coming from, she would do something like this. To be fair, all she was doing was informing him of what she did anyway. Starling was never the type to openly express her feelings, past or doubts. Instead, she preferred to keep such things to herself to an extent which he didn't quite believe to be healthy. Still, it was a part of her which he was aware was unlikely to change. No matter how much he wished otherwise.

"It doesn't have to be." He replied after a few moments. "I wish you would let me in sometimes. You don't have to hurt alone."  
"You don't understand..." Starling's voice trailed off for a moment. "That's why I can't let you in."  
"No… You're right." He let out in a sigh. "I don't understand."


	12. The last Interceptor

**_Phew! Longest chapter yet! Thanks again for the review!_**

**_/_**

The Dark Ace walked slowly through the ship. It would be dark soon and time to get one last night's sleep before they set Aerrow's plan into motion. He just prayed it worked, otherwise it would be all of their necks. The former Talon drifted listlessly through the ship, the quiet before the storm as it were made him uneasy. Unlike the other members of the Resistance, he wasn't the sort to try and find some comfort amongst friends, not that he had any here anyway. Equally, he found it impossible to rest. With nothing else to do, he simply wondered.

It was pure chance which took him by the makeshift training room. He would have simply walked past the door which was somewhat ajar were it not for a flash of familiar purple. He paused interested and carefully peaked inside.

Starling was practising some of her moves. Alone. There was no trace of Aerrow. Try as he might, the Dark Ace couldn't quite understand the relationship which existed between the two former sky knights. There was a way which they looked at each other: more than friends but still some strange barrier there which meant that they gave the impression of being more distant than they should have been. It was a longing which he found odd; both wanting something more but being unable to take the necessary steps to make it happen. Strange indeed.

He watched with interest as Starling brought her nunchucks down hard on a wooden doll which was evidently supposed to represent a Cyclonian of some sort. There was a loud snapping sound as the wood split falling apart. She and Aerrow had been lucky enough to find some crystals for their weapons and were now truly combat ready. Ideally, they would have had longer to train but circumstances prevented them from doing so. A mixture of bored and curious, the Dark Ace stepped into the room.

"The thing about those things is that they don't fight back." He declared drawing her attention.  
"Really?" Starling muttered not attempting to hide her disgust upon seeing him. "They put up more of a fight than you ever did."  
"Touché." He smirked stepping forwards. "Care to back that up with actions?"

Surprise flashed across her face for an instant before she narrowed her eyes into a cold glare. Instantly, she accepted the challenge dumping her weapon and adopting a fighting a stance. The former Talon smiled, it had been a while since he'd been able to flex his muscles against someone whom he trusted would be at least something of a match. At least he hoped so, despite her display of strength, he was aware that she had spent a long time in isolation and no doubt would be a little rustier than she would otherwise have been. Still, it promised to be more of a challenge than most of the locals could give him, that was for sure.

He hadn't really had the opportunity to fight Starling that often. She was a degree of unpredictable which he didn't much care for. At least with Aerrow and the Storm Hawks, whilst they frequently were able to pull a rabbit out of their hat as far as their fights were concerned; ultimately he knew what they were capable of. Even if that was, much to his dismay, being a match for him. The Interceptor was something else. She was crafty and sneaky and he most certainly wouldn't put it past her to pull a fast one on him or any other opponent she would face and play dirty if she thought it would lead to her victory.

As such, he was more inclined to let her come to him as he adopted a fighting stance of his own. They both began to steadily circle each other. Keeping a careful eye on their opponent's each and every move and daring them to strike first. No words were exchanged which seemed to cause every other sound no matter how quiet to seem exaggerated, as if it were shattering some eerie silence. Even the sound of Starling's bare feet moving on the mat seemed to be disproportionately noisy as she shifted steadily.

Suddenly and with no warning, she lashed out. She moved so quickly that her fist practically seemed to be upon him before he'd even had time to blink. He was only just fast enough to block. Instantly another jab followed forcing him back somewhat if he didn't want to be hit. It only took him a couple of seconds to realize that whilst the young might not be as physically strong as Aerrow, she made up for it with her almost blinding speed. One of those blows would definitely hurt.

He danced around for a few moments. Avoiding her fists as best as he could as well as the occasional kick which came in his direction. He was backing on her tiring. He doubted that she could keep this up for long. Then, after that, hopefully he could try to land a blow or two of his own.

The Dark Ace's eyes widened abruptly as the punch which he had initially assumed to be coming from her right never came. Before he knew what was going on and had a chance to react, the blow came from her left and smashed clean into his jawline. Starling wasn't pulling her punches. He staggered back in genuine pain and a little shocked to boot. Instinctively, he brought his hand to his mouth as a bitter copper taste filled it. He wasn't too surprised to find some blood there originating from a cut lip.

After a few moments, he turned back to face the young woman. She stood there still with her fists clenched but thankfully no longer on the attack. Slowly, the Dark Ace regained some of his composure, straightening himself as he stood before her.

"You fight dirty..." He muttered wiping the blood away from the corner of his mouth. "You don't even pretend, do you? You're not like the other sky knights or the Storm Hawks."  
"I'm no Storm Hawk." She declared low and dangerous.  
"Of course not..." The Dark Ace smirked somewhat. "You're Starling, the last of the Interceptors."

The mention of the young sky knight's squadron was like a red flag to a bull even on the best of days coming from someone she liked or at least didn't mind. He was expecting her to lash out as soon as he brought them up and of course she did. Her blows weren't as calculated as they had been before and came across as angry more than anything else. He could fight her like this.

Block. Block. Jab. Block. Jab. Jab. There wasn't much of a rhythm to it as both simply tried to get a blow in whenever they saw a potential opening. A part of the former Talon was curious as to what would happen if the two of them suddenly were to take to using weapons or even better an areal battle with their skimmers. That would be a real fight rather than this… Which he felt was almost closer to choreographed dancing. The only thing to keep it interesting was the genuine anger which was both impressive and if he was honest rather intimidating to behold behind her eyes which let him know that she was taking this very seriously. Interesting, if a little puzzling…

A fateful jab made contact with her right shoulder. Instantly Starling backed off, gritting her teeth in genuine pain. He stopped a little surprised. Sure, the blow would have hurt but he could tell that this was disproportionate to how hard he he had hit her. It took her a few moments to regain her usual calm and controlled composure but even once she had, he could tell that the simple action of clenching her fist was painful.

"Your shoulder is hurting you." For once, there was no mockery or smugness there but perhaps some genuine concern.  
"It's a little stiff." Starling conceded rubbing it slightly.  
"You should get that looked at." He advised instinctively thinking back to the time the steel from his blade had plunged through her flesh and bone.  
"No need..." Her eyes narrowed.

She attacked once more with one of her feet coming dangerously close to his head. The Dark Ace fought back as best as he could. He wouldn't have liked to have said if he would have been able to win in an ordinarily situation. The former Talon wasn't inclined to push things to far right now however considering that come tomorrow they would likely be facing Cyclonis' herself and that if he unintentionally made the sky knight's shoulder any worse than it already was then rightly or wrongly, he was for the high jump. They were both tiring anyhow. The worst of the damage had been dealt and now it was more both of their stubbornness which prevented either party from calling it a day and in their eyes conceding defeat.

There was one thing which continued to puzzle the Dark Ace however. It was the anger which was being directed at him. From what little he knew about her, it was out of character for Starling to fight in such a way. She was usually calm and controlled, planning every move out before she made it. This seemed much more… Enraged.

"Why do you hate me so much?" He asked a little breathless. "Aerrow I can understand but you? I actually tried to help you."  
"That misplaced attempt to help me was no such thing!" She snapped at him suddenly. "You were just trying to ease that guilty conscience – such as it is – of yours."  
"Maybe..." He saw no point in lying as he found himself briefly taken back to the day he had witnessed two of Atmos' greatest sky knights lose their lives. He only regretted one. "But you could still have saved them."  
"That wasn't a choice you gave me!" Starling snarled aggressively. "How could I possibly chose to save my squadron knowing what it would mean?! How could any of us have ever agreed to that?!"

He let out a sigh. This brought back memories of an argument he had had with the then much younger sky knight Starling. She had been furious, she had hurled some of the worst insults at him and he had seen it behind her eyes, she had been scared. The day he had told the Interceptors they were going to die had been one of the worst in his life. Because their last member was right, he had known that despite his warnings, they would pay no heed and head straight to their deaths like lambs to the slaughter. More like lions, not even their enemies would say that the squadron had gone down easily and they certainly had taken quite a few Raptors with them.

Starling lunged back at him. She was still angry but fortunately for him it would seem, she was a little more distracted that she had been before, no doubt thinking back to that fateful day. He made no attempt to hit her, contenting himself with blocking her attacks.

"You think you could ever make up for what you did?" She hissed lowly as one of her fists came dangerously close to his head again. "Do you know how much people have suffered because of you?"  
"Yes, actually." He replied taking no pride in the statement or the knowledge of what he had done.  
"Because of you, Atmos suffers." He managed to grab one of her wrists hoping to put an end to the conflict before it got out of hand. "We all did!"  
"What's this all really about Starling?" He asked struggling with her for a moment. "Where is all this anger coming from?"

She must have been getting tired. He managed to grab her remaining wrist as she attempted to free himself. Whilst she persisted in struggling, it wasn't as well thought out and constructed as her initial fighting had been. All he was trying to do was get her to calm down. Whilst he might not know the young woman that well, he was aware that this was out of character for her. She needed to calm down and fast. Already, he could see on her face that by keeping this up she was causing herself a fair amount of pain as she strained her shoulder. After a few more seconds, she raised her eyes to meet his more by accident than anything else.

It was then that he saw the pain behind her eyes, not just physical but also emotional. He wondered for a moment, what could possibly be the cause of it. Was it just her squadron or… Something more? His mind raced trying to think of what he could possibly have done to her to cause her to lose control in such a fashion. The list of his crimes was long of course but for the most part, he didn't believe them to be anything which she would abandon her usually calm reserve for. Then it hit him, that the one life that had been taken that she truly blamed him for was ironically the one whose blood he himself had not wanted to see flow.

"I didn't kill her!" He told her trying to avoid yelling in frustration.

Starling's eyes narrowed suddenly. Without any warning, she kicked him as hard as he physically could in the groin. Letting out a sharp and much higher than he was used to shriek, the former Talon released her. The sky knight staggered backwards slightly simply starring at him almost in shock for a moment. The Dark Ace fell to his knees gasping for breath and praying that the pain would ease up quickly. It wasn't the first time he had received a blow to that particular region of his body but every time it happened he found himself surprised (and somewhat horrified) by just how much it hurt.

"Starling?.."

It was Aerrow. Standing in the doorway, he could have been there since the beginning and neither of them had noticed or alternatively he could just have arrived, the Dark Ace wouldn't have liked to have said. He stood there somewhat in shock for a moment. The Interceptor's gaze rested upon him for a few moments. Slowly, the anger drained from her face, replaced instead with an almost painful look of realization on her face, as if she had only just realized that she had gone too far. Now a man was bloodied on his hands and knees in pain because of her. Slowly, she backed away.

"I'm sorry..." The young woman apologized to Aerrow as she pushed past him.

The Storm Hawk was still a little too taken back by what he found himself faced with to react. Had he been given a few more seconds he would no doubt have either tried to stop his friend or chased after her. Instead, he found himself just standing there dumbly as he gawked at the Dark Ace. Starling was long gone by the time he was in any state to react which left him only with the still crippled man to talk to in the hopes of getting some answers, although quite frankly the mind boggled.

Shaking off his stupor, Aerrow marched over to the Dark Ace. Still in some pain and a little shaken from the blow, the man could only look up with his red eyes as the Storm Hawk grabbed him by the collar and physically heaved him onto his feet.

"What did you do to her?!" Aerrow demanded enraged.  
"Why is it I get blamed for everything that goes wrong with either of your lives?!" The Talon asked struggling a little. "I didn't do anything… Well… Maybe I provoked her a little but she wasn't exactly herself even before that! Or hadn't you noticed?"

Aerrow frowned but as much as he wanted to found it impossible to find a justification to adding any more injuries to the man's face. Instead, he simply let go allowed the Dark Ace to slump back down. Leaving him there to recover.

He marched off to find Starling, wherever she had gotten off to. After a bit of asking around, he learned that she had retreated to her room. Now that the civilians were settled on the terra where the two sky knights had freed up some of the rooms so that they were no longer all sharing. It made sense that she would retreat to hers as it was probably the only place on the entire ship she could get away from others and have some of that time to herself which seemed to be so precious to her.

"Starling..." He knocked on the door. "Are you in there?"  
"Yes." Came the reply from the other side.  
"Care to let me in?" He spoke softly but loud enough for her still to hear.  
"Not right now..." The young woman replied. "I need time to think..."

He couldn't quite hold in the exasperated sigh which escaped him. Why was he not surprised? Starling locked herself away one way or another all the time. More often than not, Aerrow was inclined to leave her alone presuming that she must have known what was best for her. Tonight however, something told him not to let things go so easily. The sun would be setting soon, a painful reminder that come morning, they may very well be heading to their deaths. He would be lying if he said that the thought didn't frighten him somewhat. He told himself that the Interceptor would have had to have had a heart of stone if she wasn't at least a little intimidated herself. Whatever the case was, she shouldn't be spending what could easily be her last few hours on this Earth alone.

He frowned. He wasn't about to try and force the door down. If nothing else he was far from convinced that he would be able to do so. So instead he looked for an alternative solution. His eyes suddenly fell upon a rather large air vent. A knowing smile appeared on the sky knight's face.

It proved to be rather a lot harder than he remembered it to both get into the air vents and then to crawl through them. Back when he had been with the Storm Hawks, they had routinely navigated the narrow passageways often using them to avoid direct confrontation and sneak past their foes. He found himself coming to the conclusion that those on board the Blood Crow must have been smaller than the standard size. He forced himself to try and remember just where Starling's room should have been and to try and get there. She wouldn't thank him for this but he felt that it might very well be the only way to reach her.

Suddenly, as he struggled on through the vents which only seemed to become increasingly narrow, he heard something. A song from so long ago it cut at his heart. For a moment, he just stayed there. It was as if the melody had sent him to some far off place to which he had already been but could scarcely remember. The voice singing felt so familiar to him as well. It carried the melody beautifully but with such a sorrowful and lonely tone that it threatened to bring tears to his eyes.

As if driven by the melody, he found himself struggling towards the light of the room and the grid. He glanced out through the metal and made out the figure of his friend. She was standing by the window looking out at the red clouds which now covered most of Atmos' skies. With her arms folded across her chest as if she was holding herself, Starling looked perhaps the most lost that he had ever seen her. He struggled to move forwards only to find that half of his body wouldn't comply. Putting a little more force into it, he let out a silent curse as he realized to his dismay that he was now stuck.

Of course this was going to happen. Oh well… They would just have to call off the attack on Cyclonia on the grounds that he was now trapped in the Murk Raiders's air vents. He struggled some more acutely aware of the noise that he was now making. Starling had stopped her singing, looking around in a mixture of confusion and alarm to see if she could make out where the noise was coming from. Aerrow instantly stopped his trashing around as he noticed her coming towards him, a mixture of embarrassment and fear made him unwilling to have her discover his presence. Unfortunately…

"Aerrow?!" She didn't even try to hide her shock or fury. "What are you doing there? Get out!"  
"I… Can't..." He muttered struggling briefly. "I'm stuck!"

Starling rolled her eyes but said nothing. She spent the next five minutes removing the grid. Once that was done, he was able to get his arms through into the room but still remained otherwise stuck. He struggled for a moment kicking in an attempt to free himself. Exasperated, the Interceptor grabbed a hold of his shoulders and began pulling him also. Despite that, he didn't budge. Perhaps this particular part of the vents was a little narrower or it could have been that he had simply managed to get himself into a curious position which completely blocked him in there.

"Honestly..." Starling muttered through clenched teeth. "What possessed you to think you could wriggle through the air vents?"  
"I used to fit fine!" He complained wondering just who in Atmos had decided to shrink the standard air vent size in ships.  
"_Used_ to!" Starling hissed as she struggled. "Aerrow you're not 14 any more! I'm not entirely sure I could fit through one of these things."

She was right there he supposed. He had simply neglected to take into account the fact that his body was no longer that of a wiry teenager but rather that of a young man. In truth, he hadn't really noticed. He had felt a slight change when he'd sat back down atop his skimmer which now seemed to fit him somewhat better but otherwise he told himself that it was difficult to actually see yourself age. Whatever the case, he was certainly paying the price for his rush of blood to the head. This wasn't exactly the talk he had been hoping to have with his friend.

Finally, after a few more minutes of humiliation and Starling threatening to go and fetch Eyeball for help, with a 'pop' Aerrow was abruptly free. He shot out of the air vent with quite a bit of force colliding with the young woman as he did so. The impact was enough to knock the other sky knight clean off of her feet and send them both crashing into the dirt. A little dazed, the Storm Hawk found himself starring into the eyes of his friend. They both stayed like that for a moment, catching their breath but for some reason unable to look away from the other one. It was only when the Interceptor cleared her throat that it brought him back to his senses.

"Sorry..." The red haired young man muttered as he got up and offering her a hand which she declined.  
"What were you thinking?!" She demanded brushing herself off as she stood up.  
"I was worried about you." He confessed looking down at his feet. "I've never seen you act like that."  
"What did I tell you all those years ago, Aerrow?" Her voice trembled with anger. "I don't need your sympathy."  
"You might not need it…" His voice trailed off for a moment. "But you've got it and you know what? You're wrong! I've hurt to, I lost my squadron, I lost my parents… If I kept on going it's because I had someone with me, because I had you."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Starling simply starred at him, her mouth hung half open as if she wanted to say something but the words simply wound not come out. Her gaze seemed to drift over him for a moment, searching for something but not finding it. In all, she looked confused. It was true, usually, she was the one to have the last word in one of their arguments – mercifully they had been few over the years but not today. There was one time he wouldn't back down from a fight and that was when the welfare of someone he cared about was concerned.

"I was right..." Starling muttered finally after a few moments. "You really have grown up."  
"Please, Starling..." He spoke softly to her. "Let me in…"  
"Okay..."

He had been expecting a little more, like the beginning of an explanation to her bizarre mood swing and just what had caused her to attack the Dark Ace in such a way. As much as he hated the former Talon, even he would have drawn the line at actually injuring him, at least when he was notionally their ally. She simply remained silent however fixing him with a pained and somewhat lost expression. It took Aerrow a moment to realize that she expected him to ask the questions. Many of which he had already put to her but which she had always refused to answer. Now though, it looked like he might finally be about to learn a few things about his mysterious friend.

The Storm Hawk decided to start with the most recent as it was arguably what puzzled him the most.

"Who did the Dark Ace mean when he said that "he didn't kill her"?" Aerrow asked tentatively hoping that Starling didn't resent the question.  
"My mother..."

Aerrow's eyes widened. Asides his own very hazy memories, he could scarcely remember the Interceptor's first sky knight. All that remained of her now were the faintest images of a kind face and the scattered remnants of a few lullabies. Only Starling could tell him more and she seldom did that. He'd caught her out a few moments earlier which had allowed him to briefly travel back to the time when it was her mother singing those songs. He knew that she disliked the subject as it brought back painful memories which the young woman would rather not have resurface.

"Did he?" Aerrow eventually dared to ask.  
"No. He didn't..." Starling muttered quietly. "For once in his slimy life, he's telling the truth..."  
"Then…" The Storm Hawk's voice trailed off for a moment acutely aware that he was on thin ice. "Why were you so angry with him?"  
"Because… It's still his fault!" The Interceptor snapped suddenly.

There was no mistaking the anger or emotion behind her voice. It made Starling sound uncharacteristically vulnerable. Aerrow realized to his dismay that perhaps for the first time since he had known her, she was talking with her heart without filtering its contents. There was a reason why she never spoke openly and kept things pent up inside. It must have been unbearable at times and yet she soldiered on. As an orphan, as the last Interceptor, alone… For a moment, the Storm Hawk felt like telling her to let it go and not to bother since it was upsetting her. After a few seconds however the young woman let out a sigh, seemingly reclaiming a sense of herself.

"My mother was killed trying to stop him." He let out after a few more moments. "He didn't even raise a hand against her..."  
"Then who-?"  
"Just a random Cyclonian..." The young woman cut him short whilst somehow maintaining a quiet voice. "When the Dark Ace betrayed your father. My mother and some of the other squadrons tried to take him down. I know that she jumped onto his skimmer to challenge him. Some Talon just got a lucky shot in as she stood there."

Aerrow closed his eyes and looked away, he knew enough about what had happened that day to not need any more details in order to imagine the events which had taken place. History chose to remember it as the day that the original Storm Hawks had fallen, least of all their mighty sky knight Lightning Strike. Of course, there had been far more casualties than just that. There was a reason that the rest of Atmos had never dared to launch another direct attack against their old enemies (barring the time when the Aurora Stone had been stolen and that was only out of absolute necessity). So Starling's mother was yet another name on the list…

He felt somewhat ashamed to not be able to remember her better, not even so much as a name. There were so many people now in his life who were becoming increasingly like ghosts. Their voices and faces gradually faded in his memory as it became ever harder to tell truth from his imagination. Even his old friends, the Storm Hawks were getting further away. All he had left was Starling. Starling who was sometimes like a stranger to him.

"You were shouting before that." He reminded her carefully.  
"Just how much did you hear?" Starling asked narrowing her eyes as she turned to face him.  
"Quite a lot… I was wondering where you'd got to." He admitted thinking back to what he had eavesdropped from the other side of the door. "I heard something about the Dark Ace helping you?"

The disgusted huff which Starling let out told him that he had touched a nerve. He was under no allusions; whatever had happened between her and the former Talon, she loathed him for it and most definitely didn't consider it 'help'. The Dark Ace did however which in itself was strange. He was merciless and cruel, not the kind of man to try to aid one of his sworn enemies. Not unless he thought he could get something out of it that was. Although, unless the Interceptor had changed vastly in the time he had known her, she would never have been willing to accept any bargain he would have offered her. Surely, he would have known that.

After about half a minute's worth of silence, Starling finally sighed and looked down for a moment. She raised her gaze back to meet his a few seconds later.

"You know about how the Interceptors were shot down." He wasn't too sure if it was a question or a declaration.  
"Yeah..." He recalled flatly finding himself compelled to look away. "You were ambushed by the Raptors whilst trying to protect that medical supply ship."  
"The Dark Ace tipped me off about the attack." Starling told him her voice completely level and flat.  
"What?!"

Aerrow regretted his tone of voice and how loudly he had spoken but surprise had taken over. The fact that Starling had known (after being told by the Dark Ace no less) about the attack on her squadron changed literally everything. Suddenly, he found himself wondering if he really wanted answers to all of his questions. Despite her sudden confession, Starling kept her green eyes firmly locked upon his. He could only admire her for that. Whatever had happened. She accepted it and wasn't about to back down from her part of responsibility. Not even when faced with the astounded and perhaps somewhat hurt expression on her friend's face.

"He told me that the Raptors were going to attack that ship and that it was just a ploy for them to get the Interceptors." The sky knight continued as if nothing had happened.  
"You went anyway?" Aerrow couldn't help but ask as his mouth drew a little dry.  
"If we hadn't, that ship would never have survived and the children on Terra Mesa would never have received the medicine." Starling reminded him. "It wasn't a choice really. Any sky knight would have known that."  
"Did the others know?" That was perhaps the question he was most afraid of or rather the answer.  
"Yes..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "We were supposed to all go down together. Going to our deaths as friends, as a family but-"  
"You survived." He filled in for her.  
"Not by choice..." She all but whispered the last part.

With that the sky knight turned away heading slowly over to the window. She lingered there for a moment starring out into the clouds which now covered much of Atmos curtsey of the Cyclonian factories and mines which occupied almost every terra. This particular part which they were about to pass through however was a storm. Aerrow could hear the rumbling and see the occasional flash of lightning in the distance. There was one thing which persisted in bothering him however.

"But the Dark Ace?" Aerrow remembered him suddenly.  
"Why did he warn you?"  
"Guilt I guess..." She replied with a disinterested shrug. "I think he was rather fond of my mother. Maybe the creep didn't actually want her dead but how should I know? I'm no backstabbing murderer."  
"Ever thought to ask him?" It seemed obvious why she wouldn't want to but he was still curious.  
"In all honesty no but I'd rather have as little to do with him as possible." The sky knight declared still not turning around to face him. "Whenever he shows up. I lose something… I don't have much else to lose. My father left when I was a child, my mother is dead, my squadron - my family shot down in flames because I knowingly lead them into a trap. I wanted to die with them but I survived and I have to live with that… It's my burden."

What a burden. More than anyone else he knew of that was for sure. For years she had soldiered on alone. Starling was one of the bravest people he knew. Able to look Master Cyclonis herself in the eye and not even so much as bat an eyelid. She would stare down death itself because now, she had nothing to lose and all he could feel was pity for her. For a moment, he hesitated wondering if it might not be better after all to leave her alone. After all, surely if anyone knew how to make it better, it would be her. On the other hand, how could he possibly leave her here knowing just how much she was suffering?

He stood there undecided for a moment as he fixed his friend. She simply gazed out of the window, apparently barely even registering his presence. Maybe it was a sign that she wanted him to leave now. He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, still completely unsure what to do. Starling was so complicated it made him feel entirely inadequate when trying to deal with her. After all, what could he possibly do or say to make it better or at least to ease the pain.

Cautiously, he came a little closer so that he was standing next to her starring out at the storm. She didn't object to his presence, keeping her eyes firmly fixed outside at the skies which now seemed very unfamiliar to the two of them. Leaning against the windowsill next to her, he stayed silent for a few moments just allowing emotions to die down a little. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he dared to speak, aware that she might not like it. The last time he had offered her sympathy, she had made it perfectly clear that she neither wanted nor needed it.

"I know it's not worth much..." He muttered in a quiet voice. "But I'm sorry..."  
"Coming from you, Aerrow..." Starling spoke so softly he could barely even hear her. "It means a lot more than it has done in a long time."

He smiled softly and to his great surprise found that the Interceptor returned the gesture. There was some sadness behind her eyes too but for the first time in maybe forever it didn't feel like she was hiding or holding anything back. It was amusing in an odd way to think just how far they had both come and yet he couldn't ever recall her looking at him in such a kind and genuine way before. There was something oddly comforting about her presence. A gentle reassurance which she gave off and which gave him the urge to be ever closer to her. It struck him at that one moment that they were rather close, very close in fact. The younger sky knight looked into her olive eyes for a few moments becoming lost in them.

He wasn't immediately sure who did what or how exactly he happened, indeed it took him a moment to register just exactly what was going on.

His mind was rather blank as he kissed her. It didn't feel bad though. Quite the opposite in fact. What it was was brief. Only a few seconds before Starling's eyes shot open and she gently pushed him away before backing off herself. The young woman simply gawked at him for a few moments as an awkward silence passed between them. He stood there uncertain for a moment, still a little stunned and bewitched by what had happened. Then fearing an angry outburst. He didn't know who had started it as it had happened in a flash but realized that if it had been him then she had every reason to be angry.

"I shouldn't have done that..." She shook her head and averting her gaze.  
"I don't mind..." Aerrow informed her hoping not to sound too eager or lovestruck.  
"Aerrow..." She started letting out a somewhat frustrated sigh. "I just can't-"  
"Hey..." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "I understand."

She smiled gratefully. A sudden rumble of thunder caused him to jump. Outside, the storm was picking up and beginning to make itself felt for those on board the Blood Crow. The two sky knights starred out of the window side by side once more. Silence settled in again although a more comfortable one as they simply starred out at the weather front. No doubt they were going to be in for something of a rough ride once they were into it. For now however, both were content to simply stare somewhat in awe at the power of the lightning as it briefly lit up the sky in flashes.

"The Storm's getting closer." Aerrow muttered glancing out the window, in truth they were pretty much in it by now.  
"A pity… I was hoping to see one last sunset before tomorrow." Starling declared still remarkably calm.  
"I thought you preferred sunrises?" He recalled their time together on the terra which now felt painfully far away.  
"I do but I know that we're not likely to get one in Cyclonia. Not one worthy of the name anyhow."

Of course, the attack tomorrow. Aerrow hadn't exactly forgotten but it was something which he would rather not have had on his mind anyway. His eyes fixed the horizon, somewhere out there was Cyclonia and its master. He found himself heading towards it with an Interceptor much as father had done many years before him. He just prayed that he wouldn't meet the same fate as him given that they were travelling with the man responsible for Lightning Strike's downfall in the first place. He felt himself shudder a little at the thought.

"Are you scared?" Starling asked him in a soft voice.  
"Terrified." He replied honestly looking down at the floor. "You?"  
"No. Not at all..."  
"I'm jealous." He confessed looking out at the storm once more.  
"Don't be." The young woman advised him.  
"I don't want to lose all this. To lose you..." He told her as he sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling a little weak legged all of a sudden. "Knowing that I could… It's actually pretty terrifying. Like waiting for my dad to come home..."

Starling's gaze softened. He could remember all too well what it had been like waiting on that terra for his father and the rest of the Storm Hawks to return. He'd spent hours scanning the sky and expecting a victory parade. It had never come. It had taken a long time for the little boy with red hair and green eyes to realize that his father was never coming home and somehow, when people had told him it, it had never seemed real. Too young to remember his mother, it had been the first time he had experienced loss. Then, a few years ago, his squadron had been torn from him. As his family, that had hurt. Now, he found himself in the company of perhaps one of his only remaining friends, a woman he had somehow in one way or another come to love and realizing that he could lose her come sunrise.

For the first time, he felt that he might have had an idea of what it was like to be Starling, to be the last of the Interceptors.

She sat next to him on the bed without making a sound. Gently, she took his hands in hers squeezing them slightly. Aerrow raised his eyes to meet his friend. She smiled somewhat sadly before speaking softly:

"Do you think you could keep me company a while longer?"

He could only manage a weak nod. Yes. He could manage that.


	13. Where birds don't fly

**_Well, this one didn't take so long. Thanks as always from the review, they mean a lot._**

**_/_**

Aerrow awoke that morning from a pleasant and dreamless sleep. He pulled himself together, gradually becoming aware of his surroundings which as ever seemed strange to him. He would have liked to be able to drift back to sleep such had been the pleasant night's rest he had had. After three years of sharing a hut with Starling, being back in a somewhat larger bed on board a ship felt somewhat unreal. He groaned softly trying to bury his head in the fabric and pillows desperately trying to ignore the fact that it was no longer night time so as to be able to have just a few moments more asleep.

A gentle hand touched his shoulder, bringing him to slightly. He opened half an eyelid, starring up at the form of a young woman with olive green eyes and purple hair.

"Come on. It's time to get up." Starling informed him in a kind voice.  
"That time already, huh?" He muttered still not willing to leave the warmth and comfort of the bed especially now that he remembered what awaited them.  
"I'm afraid so."

Aerrow let out a sigh, sitting up in the bed for a moment. He wondered how long his friend had been awake. He hadn't noticed her get out of bed but by the looks of things she hadn't quite had time to get herself smartened up and ready for the day ahead. She was just finishing slipping on her boots. The Storm Hawk cautiously placed a hand atop where he could last remember seeing her lie the night before. It was still warm, she hadn't been up for long.

The storm had passed or perhaps more accurately they had passed through it. It had shaken the ship a little and the flashes of lightning had illuminated the room at times but asides from that they had no damage to show for it. Now, they were beginning to get into rather more familiar skies. Aerrow just wished that he didn't know them so well. He'd spent many an hour after being locked up in his cell by Cyclonis starring out at the red horizon which existed around Cyclonia. It was as if the sky itself seemed to reflect the evil that lurked in the terra. There was nothing pleasant or warm about the red glow, only sinister and spine chilling.

"I take it you slept well." She continued picking up a towel. "You certainly snored enough."  
"I snore?" He asked a little surprised.

Starling just nodded with a knowing smile causing him to blush slightly. He still wasn't too sure just where they were after last night. A lot had happened. Neither of them had exactly been themselves and so had acted in ways they otherwise probably wouldn't have. Had he really kissed her? It would seem he had unless his mind had been playing serious tricks on him. That might have been a mistake, she had been upset and emotional, to an extent so had he, not really a good time to get into such things. Still, he told himself that she didn't seem to be actively hating him right now, so he was going to guess that she bore him no ill-feeling for what had happened.

"I'm going to go and get freshened up. Okay?" She declared heading for the door. "You just pull yourself together. After all, we're due to be off in three quarters of an hour."

He nodded slowly but said nothing as she left. Getting up, the sky knight walked silently over to the window.

How to forget? In a matter of hours, they might all be dead or Cyclonia could have fallen. It really was all or nothing. Making it even worse was the fact that it was his plan meaning that if things went pear-shaped he could only blame himself. There was too much uncertainty involved for him. When Piper had come up with plans she'd always sounded so confident, so sure of her intel… Even if the chances of success were slim, he had always had faith in her judgement. Now though, things were different. He felt painfully alone. He let out a sigh gathering his courage for what he knew lay ahead.

He left Starling's room quietly intent on going to get a shower and to fully prepare himself for the fight to come. He got only a few feet outside having closed the door that an irritatingly familiar voice called out to him in a taunting manner:

"Enjoyed yourself, did you?"

He turned around to see the Dark Ace leaning against the wall. He was sporting a cut lip from the evening before but one which Aerrow couldn't help but think he had deserved it. Just how long the former Talon had been standing there he didn't know. He hadn't heard any commotion when Starling had left and he doubted that their old enemy would be so stupid as to try and provoke her after the licking he was given only the evening before. It was rather tempting for the young sky knight to try and get another blow in himself. Unfortunately for his plan to work they still needed his help which he might be somewhat less willing to give if both of his supposed allies had waded into him only hours earlier.

Instead, Aerrow forced himself to remain calm as he replied:

"We shared a bed. That's it..."  
"That's further than most men get with Starling..." The Dark Ace replied with a sly smile.  
"Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Aerrow questioned eager to get his old nemesis as far away from him as possible.  
"I already am." He gestured at his sword strapped to his back. "I just came to make sure my two dear trusted allies hadn't slept in."  
"Go and do something useful Dark Ace!" Aerrow snapped abruptly losing his cool, he just couldn't deal with this right now.

The older man smirked. Although they were notionally allies fighting on the same side, the former Talon seemed to take a particular pleasure in pushing both their buttons. A rather dangerous pastime where Starling was concerned as he had discovered. It made being around the Dark Ace an especially gruelling and painful experience when all of his natural instincts made him want to do was to tear his old enemy's throat out. He suspected that was largely why he did it, to see just how far he could push the two of them before they lashed out. Aerrow found himself already nearing the end of his rope.

"Tell me..." The Dark Ace continued ignoring the sky knight's warnings. "Did you know that Starling had a boyfriend?"  
"Yes, actually I did." He declared hoping that would dash any hopes the other man had of making him jealous.  
"Tragic what happened to him." So he had died… "Did she tell you about that?"  
"No but I don't have to know." Aerrow sped up his pace hoping to be able to get away from the man.  
"He was killed by Repton himself." There was almost a tone of amusement in the Dark Ace's voice which made him feel sick. "Right in front of her."

Aerrow clenched his fists abruptly. His temper got the better of him, he turned to face the former Talon. Before the man could react the Storm Hawk had him pinned against the wall. Whilst his adult body might not allow him to crawl through air vents any more, it had given him some more strength, mass and muscle to work with and which he planned to use to his full advantage. Evidently, the Dark Ace had also underestimated his strength as he appeared to be genuinely surprised as he was slammed against the wall. He struggled for a moment attempting to free himself but to no avail, the red haired young man had him pinned.

"What is your problem?" Aerrow hissed under his breath as he struggled with the urge to wrap his hands around the man's throat. "Do you just like seeing us suffer? Is that it?"  
"Sometimes..." The Dark Ace conceded lowering his gaze for an instant. "But not right now…"  
"Then why tell me that?" Anger marked each of his words.  
"Because for the first time since I have known her, Starling had opened up to someone." The former Talon replied somehow maintaining his calm. "Now you and I know what she's like when her heart's made of ice but now that it's starting to thaw? There's a lot of pain there for her to suddenly be feeling again. Do you think that she can still play her part?"  
"Of course." Aerrow tried to sound as convinced as possible.  
"Well then… I'll see you in the hangar."

The Storm Hawk loosened his grip ever so slightly which was all it took for his old enemy to pull away and head on down the corridor without so much as a second glance. He stood there for a moment simply facing the wall as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. This was the last thing he needed before going into battle: confusion and uncertainty. He would have liked to have been as confident as he sounded when he told the Dark Ace that he was certain Starling was up to the task she was going to have to preform. The truth was he didn't know if any of them were. All of this relied on precision and courage the likes of which he didn't know any of them could muster.

Before last night, he would have said that of the three of them, Starling was the one he had the most confidence in but now that he'd seen the other rather more vulnerable part of her, he saw that just like he and the Dark Ace, she was human. She got scared, felt pain and missed her friends as much as he did. He had always looked up to and admired the last Interceptor one was or another. He shook his head, there was no sense in doubting her now. If anyone was going to cause this thing to go belly-up it would be either him or the Dark Ace.

He made quick work of grabbing a shower and a clean set of clothes. He told himself that if he was about to head off to his death, he might as well smell good. The others were waiting patiently for him in the hangar. They took the opportunity to give their skimmers one last check over before heading into battle. For obvious reasons, they had decided to fix the Dark Ace's ride back to its original state so that he could both keep up and take part in any eventual battles. Dove and the Colonel were there waiting to see them off.

"Good luck..." The young woman wished them as she saw that they were finally ready to depart.  
"Thanks. You too..." Aerrow offered them the most confident smile he could. "You remember the plan."  
"Of course…" The Colonel replied. "We await your signal eagerly."

Aerrow nodded once before climbing on board of his bike. His two companions gave him a thumbs up to tell him they were both ready as well. It struck him as somewhat strange as they took off that he was flying alongside the Dark Ace and Starling. A few years ago, if you'd have asked him who would be his allies when going to face Cyclonia for what would be one way or another the last time, he would have said without hesitating the Storm Hawks. Now ironically he found himself allied with his old nemesis knowing full-well that he might be about to have to face his old friends in battle. Strange the way that things somehow worked out… He thought to himself as he glanced over his shoulder to see the Blood Crow slowly disappear behind him.

They didn't chat or exchange pleasantries as they flew along. Initially, they chose to dive down low so as to fly as close to the wastelands as possible. It was the one place that you could almost always count on their being little to no Talons and who could blame them, only truly gifted pilots could fly at such low altitudes over the dangerous terrain and only mad ones would dare to do in the first place. Too much chance of encountering lava up close and personally.

They were following the Dark Ace. The former Talon knew these skies and lands better than either of them did thanks to his years serving their ruler. As such, they had been forced to put their faith in him as he assured them that he could guide them to an entrance which was rarely guided by more than a couple of simple foot-soldiers. It would be the easiest and safest place to begin their infiltration of Cyclonia. It went without saying that neither sky knight was all that happy at having to put their trust and consequently their lives in the hands of their old enemy but found themselves with no other viable option. It wouldn't be long before Cyclonis was too powerful to be stopped, it was a case of now or never.

"When we're there, you realize that as soon as Cyclonis knows we've infiltrated Cyclonia, she'll send some of her pets to take us down?" The Dark Ace questioned them as the terra drew ever closer.  
"I would have been concerned if she didn't." Starling replied flying a little closer so as to be able to hear. "Any idea what we'll be facing?"  
"Well… Some standard Talons." He paused for a moment before letting out a sigh. "The surprise good news is that she tends to keep most of the squadrons she's turned in the rest of Atmos to keep it under control… Except for one..."  
"Let me guess..." Aerrow muttered his voice trailing off for a moment. "The Storm Hawks..."

All he got was a nod for a reply. The sky knight let out a sigh. He had been under no allusions when he had set off that it might be required of him to fight his squadron. Indeed it might actually be inevitable if he wanted to save them. He didn't particularly want to encounter his old friends. It had been three years. A long time by most standards. He had changed so much since losing them. It stood to reason that they would have as well. Aerrow couldn't have said if that thought made the prospect easier or harder to face. On one hand, if they had changed out of all recognition then it might make them easier to face. Conversely, it might mean that there was precious little of them left to save.

"Hey, you okay?" Starling asked him softly.  
"As good as I'm going to get." He replied honestly trying to put on a brave face.

Starling didn't push things, no doubt at least understanding partly where he was coming from. They became silent as they drew nearer to the terra. The long shadow which the fortress cast was an oppressive one which only brought back bad memories and a feeling of impending doom. The thought that Cyclonis could potentially be up there gazing down at them was enough to send shivers down the Storm Hawk's spine and he was pretty sure that the same could be said for his companions.

The Dark Ace's so called secret passage turned out to be a very small one indeed. He explained that it had been used in the past as a means of evacuating waste although he stressed that that was no longer the case. They had little option other than to trust him after all. The shattered pipe was just about large enough for their skimmers to fit into although they had to do so in single file. Once inside, Aerrow could easily believe the former Talon's story about what this place had been used for. Much of the stench seemed to have lingered. He found himself gagging a little as they road along, even Starling wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Maybe being shot out of the sky wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all..." Aerrow declared glancing around his surroundings as they stopped.  
"We're almost out..." The Dark Ace told him placing his sleeve over his mouth and nose to try and muffle some of the stench.  
"No guards..." Starling muttered looking around with a hint of suspicion. "If Cyclonis knows this place exists, why is no one here?"  
"Oh, she tells them to guard it but would you want to protect a place that stinks like this?" He asked them showing them to a way out.  
"Fair enough..." The Interceptor conceded.

They weren't too sad to see the back of the pipes. Instead making their way down some of the quiet corridors which made up Cyclonia. Aerrow remembered the first time that he had ever come here. It happened to be where had first met Starling, well, the adult Starling at least. In a way, they were some of his fondest memories. Granted, it hadn't been an unmitigated success: the Aurora stone had been destroyed but it had been the day that the Storm Hawks had well and truly been reborn in the form of his squadron.

Things were quiet. Too much so. There should have been guards, patrols… Something, instead they found themselves wondering through the corridors but were faced with no opposition, not even so much as a requirement to hide. That instinctively caused Aerrow to be somewhat on edge. He didn't like the unexpected or the unusual on missions and whilst he wasn't so much one for detailed plans as Piper had been, this uncertainty didn't suit him well. Even, the Dark Ace seemed somewhat on edge which given that he was meant to be their guide was hardly encouraging.

"This is too quiet..." He declared after a little while longer in a hushed tone.  
"I know..." Starling replied her eyes scanning for something. "Down! Now!"

It was a good thing that Starling moved faster than Aerrow could think as she roughly shoved him to the ground just as an arrow whizzed mere inches above them just where he would have been standing moments before. Had she not, there was little doubt in his mind that he would have been dead. Shaken, the sky knight looked around for the source of the attack whilst the Dark Ace quickly drew and powered up his blade ready for the fight. A rather high pitched laugh echoed through the corridor. One which the red haired man felt he knew.

It had changed a little but not a lot. Not enough…

"Storm Hawks..." Starling hissed under her breath getting up. "I hope you're ready."  
"Lucky dodge, next time you won't be so lucky." Came the voice from the darkness of the corridor.  
"Finn..." Aerrow muttered feeling a certain amount of pain as he did so.

Out from the shadows stepped the figure of thin young man with blonde hair. In the scheme of things, Finn hadn't changed that much since he had last time Aerrow had laid eyes upon him. So much so that he had recognised him easily. His clothes were different, no longer the ragtag things they had worn but rather a new set more reminiscent of typical Talons, strangely with the emblem of the Storm Hawks emblazoned upon it for all to see. No doubt Master Cyclonis enjoyed showing off the fact that her once sworn enemies were now nothing more than her puppets.

Joining Aerrow's old squadron's marksman came the figure of a huge behemoth. It was hard to imagine that Junko could have gotten any bigger than he already was. It would seem that he could. It was probably just a trick of the light but to the sky knight his old friend seemed to take up most of the narrow corridor by himself. The kindness had vanished from his eyes. In a way, Cyclonis' influence was much clearer than it had been with Finn. There was no trace of the gentle giant he had known. Now all that stood there was a brute. It was enough to make anger begin to swell up inside of him as he saw what had been done to his friends, his family. Behind them, cutting off their retreat appeared both Stork and Radarr. Oddly, they didn't appear to have changed at all. Well, asides the hostile growl that his former co-pilot gave him. That hurt. Not to mention the decidedly sick smirk which occupied the Condor's helmsman's face.

They were outnumbered. That much was clear. Instinctively, the three allies stood back to back with their weapons drawn. Ordinarily, three sky knights (well, two and whatever Dark Ace considered himself to be) would have been able to walk a fight like this. The Storm Hawks however weren't just any squadron. They happened to be arguably the most formidable in the Atmos. Nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of one of Finn's arrows, a powerful blow from one of Junko's fists, Radarr's teeth or Stork's… Well, Aerrow knew what had happened to that one Murk Raider who had succeeded in infiltrating the Condor.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still as they simply stood there starring each other down. Both groups daring the other to move. In his head, Aerrow was attempting to formulate some kind of plan, not that it would mean much he suspected once the full carnage of the inevitable fight took over. Yet for some reason, the Storm Hawks were taking their sweet time making their move…

"What are you guys waiting for?" Aerrow asked finally a mixture of his patience reaching its end and his nerves running out.  
"Impatient to die are we sky knight?" Came a sinister voice he knew only too well.

Dread filled the Storm Hawk's heart as he noticed a final figure emerge from the darkness. Three years had passed, Cyclonis was taller and had matured somewhat although still maintained a paled complexion which caused the scar which decorated her face from the top of her right brow to the bottom of the left corner of her lip and had broken the nose in between. He had to hand it to Starling, she had definitely done a number of the master of Cyclonia's face. It was strange how much terror she could still strike into him simply by being present.

Still, he told himself, it was rather practical that she was. After all, they were here to stop her and put an end to all this madness.

Behind him, he sensed Starling begin to turn slightly so as to face their foe. With both Finn and Junko flanking her, it was clear that there was more danger with Cyclonis than there was Radarr and Stork. They would have to rely on the Dark Ace to deal with them whilst he and the Interceptor tackled the other three.

"You didn't think I hadn't noticed your skimmers did you?" The Master asked coldly. "Since your last visit, I've had some extra security installed."  
"So much for your intel Ace..." Starling muttered through clenched teeth.  
"Oh, you don't know the half of it." He replied calmly.

There was a sudden shriek from behind him which caused him to instinctively jump. He turned just in time to see Starling's body crash to the floor, motionless as if someone had just hit the off-switch. The Dark Ace stood with a wicked smirk plastered across his face, clutching a bluish-green stone. Sensing a trap, Aerrow pointed his blades at his old nemesis before remembering about his enemies behind him. To his horror, he found himself surrounded, with his only real ally down and the other one having betrayed her. He didn't quite know who to face as he turned around quickly wondering who was most likely to begin the final attack first.

When it took some time coming, Aerrow's eyes instinctively fell upon his friend. He half expected her to be dead. She certainly wasn't moving and had abruptly become as stiff as a board. It was only after a couple of moments that he noticed that she was both still breathing and her eyes were flickering around. It would appear that she was stunned or more likely paralysed but mercifully still alive. Slowly, anger and hatred began to swirl in the pit of his stomach almost all of it directed at the Dark Ace. The Storm Hawk realized that if he was going to die, then there was one person in the world he wanted to take down with him and it wasn't Master Cyclonis. Taking a step forwards, he readied himself to attack his arch-enemy, aware that it would likely be the last thing he ever did and was unlikely to be something he would even succeed in doing.

"Uh uh…" The Dark Ace lowered his blade so that it pricked at Starling's neck. "Move and I'll slit her throat."

Instantly the anger died down. He wasn't alone here. Were it only his life, he wouldn't have thought twice about it, instead he found his gaze drifting back down to the young woman lying on the floor. She was truly helpless. The Dark Ace would barely have to move to kill her and she would likely be unable to do so much as blink. Aerrow hesitated a moment, turning back to the ruler of Cyclonia. The woman smiled cruelly. No doubt she already knew what he was going to do. It was a no-brainer really as far as he was concerned. Chuckling his blades away to the side, he raised his hands showing that he was no longer a threat.

"Traitor." He couldn't help but spit at the Dark Ace.  
"Oh… I was never on your side Aerrow." He replied stepping away from Starling to point his blade at the young sky knight. "Didn't you know? My loyalties have always been and will always be to Cyclonia."  
"So they are Dark Ace..." Cyclonis declared smiling knowingly. "I should never have doubted them. It is good to have you back..."  
"Master..." He offered her a bow.

She slowly made her way over to Starling who still lay paralysed on the floor. Aerrow attempted to step forwards eager to be in the way of his helpless friend and the master of this place who hated her enough to have destroyed her entire terra. The Dark Ace with his sword prevented him from doing so however caused the Storm Hawk to simply watch through a pained gaze. Cyclonis approached slowly, part of her no doubt fearing a ruse from the cunning sky knight. She was in no danger however. With the tip of her staff, she turned the Interceptor's head to face her, a cruel smirk appeared on her face.

"You caused me much grief." She declared with pure contempt marking her voice. "Allow me to repay it to you, with interest."

Cyclonis kicked as hard as as could the sky knight in the ribs. Aerrow could only wince for her. He could just make out the pain that flashed through Starling's eyes but otherwise the master of Cyclonia got no other reaction. Had this been a fight, one on one, things would have been different but it wasn't and the Interceptor was completely helpless to protect herself. Strangely however, she didn't receive another blow. Instead, the young tyrant simply wrinkled her nose in disgust before stepping away.

"Shall we execute them Master?" Finn asked after a brief pause.  
"No..." Cyclonis' voice trailed off. "Take them to the holding cells until she's recovered. After that I'll have my fun. There's no point if you can't hear them scream..."


	14. Through the cage

**_Hey! Thanks for the reviews again! Seeing as we're getting into the holiday season, I should warn you that updates may get a little slower._**

**_/_**

Aerrow let out a heavy sigh as he rested his head against the stone wall behind him. Who would have thought that after so much time and effort that he would find himself back in a Cyclonian cell. His wrists were tightly held in a set of solid iron shackles which prevented him from travelling any distance away from the all. He'd already tried to break free; it was a long-shot but one which had already proven itself to be fruitless. There was no escape from here. This was exactly the same situation he had been in when all this had all started. They were back to square one.

Minus one in fact…

His gaze slowly traveled back to the figure which lay on the floor opposite him. Starling was still out cold. Her friend wasn't too clear if she was actually unconscious or merely paralyzed. Whatever the case was, she hadn't moved since being dumped there rather unceremoniously by the Cyclonians. Despite her rather pathetic state, they had none-the-less decided to take precautions, namely by ensuring that she too was shackled. It had been some hours now that she had simply been lying there in a somewhat awkward manner. He could only imagine the pins and needles she was going to have when she finally came to and tried to move. Try as he might, he physically couldn't reach her, even stretching to an extent which was painful, his fingers didn't even brush against the other sky knight. He had spent long enough trying to have finally given up.

After a while, he turned his attention back to the red skies of Cyclonia. He had spent many hours starring up at them when he had first been dragged here. They reminded him of his loneliness and desperation during those dark times. He'd assumed that he was either going to end up the same mindless puppet as his friends or be killed before it could happen. Now, he didn't know what fate awaited him. Nothing good, that was for sure.

In truth, it was more for Starling that he was concerned. Cyclonis seemed to have developed a particular hatred for the last of the Interceptors. It was bad enough to be moderately disliked by the Master of Cyclonia (as much of Atmos had discovered) but to truly be hated? The young tyrant's vengeance would no doubt be something to be feared and his friend was likely to be at the receiving end of it. If that kick was just a taster of what was to come then actually being cooped up in here might not be so bad for either of them. Time seemed to be trickling by almost unbearably slowly. Had he miscalculated how long it would take for the effects of the paralysis crystal to wear off?

No… A quiet groan drew his attention, he turned to see Starling. It wasn't much but her fingers were most definitely twitching slightly. It looked as if finally she was coming to. It took a good few minutes from when he had first spotted some very slight movement and signs of her regaining control of her body for the older sky knight to manage to turn herself over so as to lie on her back. He said nothing, simply looking at her sympathetically for a moment. He could tell from her somewhat laboured breathing that she was in a fair amount of pain, no doubt from the blood rushing back to the limbs that she had been lying on in such an awkward way for a few hours now.

"Those paralysis crystals sure pack a punch..." Starling finally muttered after what seemed like an eternity.  
"How are you feeling?" He asked not knowing what else to say.  
"I can't give a polite answer to that." She replied turning her head to look at him.

He got a weak smile. Good, at least she could manage that. Although even with Starling awoke that didn't change the nature of the situation. It still made him feel somewhat less alone. No doubt she was aware of their predicament as much as he was. It wouldn't have taken her long to feel the cold steel of the shackles against her wrists or feel the clattering of the chains every time she attempted to move her arms. If nothing else, the set of solid bars would prevent them from escaping. He suspected the fact that they were chained up was either the Cyclonians being over cautious or them trying to make some sort of a point about birds in cages and gloat a little bit. Probably some of both.

Aerrow remained silent unsure what he could possibly say if anything. He didn't like the quietness but was unsure how he could break it. Maybe they were birds… Wild ones which when caged up lost their ability to sing. He knew that behind bars, he always felt like a part of him had been taken away. It was the same part which felt nothing but joy as he soared through the sky.

"So this is it..." Starling muttered finally after what seemed like an eternity. "All or nothing."  
"This is it..." He agreed looking her in the eyes. "I just wish there was another way."  
"Well, we're here now." The Interceptor replied brave as ever. "Like it or not, we've got to make due with that."

Just how she could be so seemingly calm was beyond him. Surely, she must have known what was coming. Now that she was awake, it wouldn't be long before Cyclonis decided to have some fun. Until then, he supposed that they had best take advantage of what could easily turn out to be their last few peaceful moments together. Fear caused him to wish that they could be closer; physically but also emotionally. Despite everything that had happened, he still felt as if there was something of a barrier between them. Now that he found himself scared, he wished that it was no longer there.

The silence felt painful. It allowed him to think about everything which was at stake. They were allowing so much to ride on such a slim hope. Not only was it the fate of the Atmos but Starling had placed her trust entirely in him. She was going to suffer one way or another because of his plan. That one fact stabbed at him more than any dagger ever could. So he did whatever he could to avoid thinking of it, perhaps trying to convince himself that his friend also needed her mind taken off of what was coming.

"It almost makes you miss the terra, doesn't it?" He asked her looking out the window.  
"Didn't you like it there?" Starling questioned raising an eyebrow.  
"I did..." He muttered thinking back to it. "It was a beautiful place… It's just-"  
"You missed your friends." The young woman filled in for him. He nodded in agreement. "I understand."  
"Did you like it?" The younger sky knight asked genuinely curious.  
"Yes. It was peaceful. I like that..." She let out a sigh closing her eyes as she lay back for a moment. "Just being able to shut your eyes and forget about everything. It's nice… Not exactly a luxury I've been able to afford much."

He smiled softly aware of the hardships that she had had to endure. For a moment, he closed his eyes allowing himself to think back to those days when they had lived together on the lost terra. It had been sedate, in a way, the most tranquil he had ever known. Despite the fact that there had always been the nagging knowledge in the back of their minds that out their Cyclonis was ruling unchecked and unopposed, they had known no real conflict. When they hadn't been trying to improve their farming or get those darned crystals out of the rock; when they had managed to momentarily forget about the rest of Atmos and all that they had lost, those few golden seconds that were left had been some when he had truly felt at peace.

He remembered the feeling of the warm sun on his skin sitting outside of their little hut. Some might have called it an idyllic lifestyle: self-sufficient and left alone by the rest of the world. Of course when you had as little choice as they had in the matter, he begged to differ. Still, sometimes, as he had sat there watching Starling sitting a few feet away as she contemplated the setting sun and soaking up the last few rays of dying light. All things taken into account, it hadn't been so bad. Not so bad at all in fact.

There was a lot which still needed to be said, maybe one day he would know just how to say it. He let out a sigh, struggling to cope with the fear still lodged in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't so much himself that he was worried about however...

"Star..." He started although was unable to finish as the words caught in this throat.  
"Yes, Aerrow?" She half opened one of her eyes.  
"I… I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

The Interceptor frowned as she stared at him. It was pretty clear to the Storm Hawk that he was going to have to be a little bit more precise if he watched her to understand. Although the somewhat puzzled look that he earned was amusing in itself, he hadn't really intended it to be. An awkward silence settled in as Starling fixed him, still visibly perplex and trying to work out just where he was coming from. He wanted to add something in an attempt to clarify what he meant but in the time he thought of what he could possibly add, she spoke:

"I should hope not..." The little laugh she gave him let him know that she hadn't completely missed the message that he was trying to get across.  
"What I'm trying to say is-"

He was cut short by the sound of the lock in the gate. Instinctively, both sky knight's heads snapped around as a group of four Cyclonians came in. They were the regular guards which Aerrow had been more accustomed to dealing with before Cyclonis had gotten herself a new group of far more capable pets. By the looks of things, she still called upon these goons for the grunt work. The group entered cautiously, taking no chances with their prisoners it would seem. No doubt their master had informed them about just what would happen if either of them escaped. One pointed his staff at Aerrow crystal glowing, ready to blast him should he move whilst the other three approached Starling.

The Interceptor looked up at them calmly. The Cyclonians exchanged glances before one nodded to the other.

"The master wants a word with you..." One of them informed her.  
"I doubt that's exactly what she wants..." Starling muttered not taking her eyes off of them. "Still… Best be done with it."

Aerrow watched as they unchained his fellow sky knight. Who simply contented herself with watching them quite calmly and sedately. When both of her restraints were removed, the soldiers were quick to raise their weapons, practically pricking her neck. Still, she didn't even flinch keeping her gaze firmly upon her captors. The Interceptor stood up slowly but ensured that when she did it was to her full height with her back straight. A pair of handcuffs were rapidly slapped back on her wrists keeping them behind her back. Still, Starling didn't so much as bat an eyelid as they began to lead her away.

Her entire demeanor spoke of all this being a little beneath her. Starling could have given them hell yet she didn't put up even half a fight. The contempt which she showed them however was unmistakable. She did stop however for a moment just in the doorway caused the guard who was following behind to almost crash into her as she dug her heels into the ground. The Interceptor slowly turned around to face him. A small smile traced itself on her lips as her eyes met his, one which spoke of sadness. For a moment, he wanted to scream out her name and beg them to take him instead. They could do whatever they wanted to him, so long as they left her alone.

She was gone a moment later. The guards didn't even have to push her or order her to get moving, she simply began walking once more of her own accord. For a moment, all he could do was sit there and stare at where she had been struck dumb by her courage and his own powerlessness.

"Starling..." He whispered softly in such a quiet manner that even he strained to hear it.

There was a lot that he found himself wanting and wishing that he could have said to the Interceptor.

Without her. His cell seemed to have quadrupled in volume, all of it empty and he suddenly felt very alone. He tried not to dwell on where she currently was or what was likely being done to her. She was both on Cyclonis' hate list and currently completely at her mercy; neither were enviable positions. He buried his head in his hands for a moment, trying to block out the world around him and all the thoughts that enveloped him. A part of him just wanted to wake up from this nightmare that he seemed to be living.

The sound of the gate unlocking drew his attention. He turned around a little perplexed only to see the unpleasantly familiar figure of the Dark Ace coming towards him. He walked over slowly but purposefully. Aerrow didn't even bother to raise his gaze to meet the red eyes of the Talon commander.

"Given up hope already have you?" He asked coldly.

Anger rose for a moment inside the Storm Hawk. He shot his old enemy the coldest glare he possibly could trying to convey all of the hatred and disdain that he felt towards him. Most people had some admirable character traits, in all honesty, Aerrow couldn't have listed any of the Dark Ace's. The older man smirked as he raised his sword above his head. It took all of the youth's courage to avoid looking away and showing fear; a satisfaction he really didn't want his foe to have. Like Starling, he was going to try and be brave. Especially given the circumstances…

The blade came down cutting through the steel as if it were butter. Instantly, his wrists fell free from their restraints. Aerrow couldn't help but let out a slight gasp as he saw how close the blade had come to actually taking his hands off, no doubt deliberately in order to try and spook him. Wasting no time he got to his feet.

"I certainly hope not." The Dark Ace continued his earlier sentence. "After all, this is all your plan."  
"Starling needs help..." Aerrow declared beginning to rush towards the door. "Did you give the signal?"  
"Of course… The Resistance is launching their attack right now and Cyclonis intends to meet them head on full force."  
"They'll get slaughtered..." The Storm Hawk muttered thinking back to their allies. "We'd better move."  
"After you..."

The two of them began running though the corridors. He let the Dark Ace head out a little in front, partly because he knew the layout of the building far better than Aerrow ever could having spent much of his life here but also because the Storm Hawk still wasn't inclined to let him out of his sight. It was something that the former Talon noticed no doubt as he shot the younger man an annoyed look.

"Haven't I already proven enough to you?" He asked not attempting to hide his frustration.  
"Sorry Dark Ace but you're just a little too good at playing the traitor for my liking!" The Storm Hawk replied not slowing down.  
"Well… As I've said. I never claim to be a man of moral fibre." He replied with an almost proud smirk. "It's simple maths. Sooner or later, Cyclonis will have her doubts about my loyalties again and I'll be back to square one. With you two, I stand more of a chance. I look out for myself and no one else."  
"Really? Then why did you warn Starling?"

A surprised look caused any trace of arrogance or that unpleasant smirk he usually sported to instantly vanish from the Dark Ace's face. Instead, it was replaced by visible irritation as if the implication that he might have acted out of something other than self-interest offended him. Aerrow was aware that the answer was a mystery likely to everyone except the man in question. Even Starling could only theorize about his seemingly random act of kindness (if it could be called such a thing). Now was his chance to hear the answer from the horse's mouth.

The dark haired man's mouth formed itself into a frown. He looked away for a moment but didn't slow down for all that. Aerrow was getting to the stage where he no longer believed that he was going to get a response, when finally his old enemy answered:

"I didn't do it for her..." He muttered finally in a hushed tone. "It was for her mother."  
"Starling guessed as much." Aerrow informed him. "But why?"  
"She was kind to me…" The former Talon answered with a sigh. "When few others would be. I never intended for her to die..."  
"My father wasn't exactly cruel to you either." The Storm Hawk reminded him.  
"True but then nobody offered me rank and position for _not_ killing him." He replied offering the man's son a cruel smirk.  
"If it had been Starling's mother, would you still have killed her?"

He received only silence for a reply which in a way surprised him. He had been expecting some cruelly witty come back from the man who seemed to take so much pleasure in their suffering. Instead, he got no reply. The Dark Ace simply seemed to focus more on the point ahead of him. Aerrow found himself wondering if there was anyone in the Atmos whom he hated more than this man. Master Cyclonis herself maybe although it would be a close run thing. Both had caused him endless amounts of pain and had been responsible one way or another for tearing him from his family blood or otherwise.

The only difference was that as luck and the irony of fate would have it, he happened to be on the same side as the infamous former Storm Hawk who had betrayed his father and killed him. That was only because the traitor had realized that he had as much to lose as anyone else by Cyclonis' continued rule.

"Why don't we keep the chitchat to a minimum." The Dark Ace suggested speeding up slightly. "I doubt that Starling is enjoying herself right now."


	15. Into the cuckoo's nest

_**Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm not sure if I'll get another one in before Christmas but I'll try. In case I don't: Happy holidays!**_

_**/**_

Starling fell to the floor roughly as her legs buckled underneath her refusing to bear her weight any longer. The young woman bit down on her lower lip to avoid screaming. Still, her attacker didn't stop. She wasn't entirely sure what manner of crystal was being used against her but there was no doubt in her mind that it was one who's sole purpose was to inflict pain. It felt as if she was currently on the receiving end of a couple hundred volts of electricity and had been for quite some time now. The only thing truly preventing her from crying out was the knowledge that that was precisely what her tormentor wanted and the last Interceptor wasn't about to give her the satisfaction.

Fortunately, it ended after a few more seconds, allowing her to catch her breath. Not for long of course, although Starling supposed that she should be grateful for the fact that using crystals for any amount of time also resulted in tiring their wielder as well which allowed her a few moments rest.

"You'll kill her if you keep that up." Came a woman's voice from the shadows.  
"Oh… We can't have that, now can we..."

Despite her pain, Starling managed to raise her head to look at the master of Cyclonia. She hoped that the woman could make out all the hatred in her gaze. Were it not for the shackles, the Interceptor would have been rather tempting to try and let her _feel_ just how much she loathed her. Unfortunately, the sky knight was fully aware that she was the helpless one here. Cyclonis was making sure that she was aware of that. Her response to the glare was to kick in the face as hard as she physically could. Although the young woman wasn't exactly a warrior well-versed in close combat training and usually relied on her crystals rather than brute strength, it still hurt.

All that Starling could do was try to put on a brave face and pretend that it didn't. Although a little dazed, she still managed to look back ignoring the blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth from her now cut lip in order to give the woman a mocking smirk.

"You're going to have to do better than that." She informed her tormentor.  
"Oh trust me… I'm just getting warmed up." Cyclonis declared lowering her staff to point it at the sky knight so that it virtually touched her nose. "I intend to make you pay double for what you did."  
"For that little scratch?" Starling raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that you would have thanked me. After all, it's an improvement."

Her reward for the remark was another bout of pain. She gritted her teeth reminding herself why she was doing this. No matter what happened, she had to stay strong and buy them all some time. Aerrow's plan was dangerous, least of all for her, although she was fairly sure that the Storm Hawk had never intended for this to actually happen to her. Knowing him, he simply hadn't thought through the fact that Cyclonis would likely want some payback and she would be one of the first on the list.

The Interceptor tried to convince herself that it wouldn't be long now. After all, this was only a diversion. The Dark Ace would have signalled the Resistance a while ago, they would be preparing their attack which would mean that Aerrow and the former Talon would be joining her soon and they would have a chance to end all the madness once and for all. All she needed to do was keep holding on for a while and avoid breaking. She had survived the Trials in order to become the sky knight that she was. She had suffered worse pains through all that she had lost surely she could weather out one last storm. The pain eased up after a few more moments as Cyclonis needed to rest once more.

"I'm still not impressed..." She managed weakly through gritted teeth. "If you're trying to kill me. You're going to be here a while."  
"Oh… I don't intend to kill you." Cyclonis replied a cruel and dark smile appearing on her face. "That would be too easy. What I intend to do is simply to make you suffer, until you beg for death and then… I'll kill your friend."

Starling frowned feeling anger well up inside of her. She would have lashed out at her were it not for the restraints. Her reaction seemed to suit Cyclonis who smiled down at her. Just how anyone could end up as bitter and twisted as this young woman seemed to be was beyond her and at such a young age to. The Interceptor reminded herself that the master of Cyclonia was roughly as old as Aerrow and had to the best of their knowledge always been as violent and sadistic as she was right now. Perhaps something had happened that had changed her or maybe she was simply a "bad egg" for lack of a better term. Whatever the case, the sky knight doubted anyone would ever know, maybe even the tyrant in question.

She wondered just how long she had been plotting her vengeance. Given how vindictive the young woman could be, Starling was willing to bet quite some time. Yet for all that, she didn't regret in the slightest the scar that she had given the young woman. It was a small victory but knowing that for a moment she had reminded the girl about just how mortal she was made all this worth while. The Interceptor braced herself for yet another few moments of pain as she saw Cyclonis prepare her staff once more. Instinctively she readied herself. It wouldn't change much but at least if she could avoid crying out then it wouldn't give her tormentor more satisfaction than she already had.

Fortunately, it never came to it. A panicked Cyclonian charged in with so much as knocking causing his master to look around irritated to say the least. He had just enough time to bow down so that his nose was practically touching the ground. Still out of breath, he announced:

"Master Cyclonis! The Resistance's fleet is heading right for us. They're preparing for an attack."  
"No doubt they got wind of their failed assassination attempt." Cyclonis muttered looking down at her prisoner for a moment. "Send our forces to great them."  
"I'll send six squadrons, that should be-"  
"Send all of them." Cyclonis declared turning to look out the window.  
"All? But that will leave the terra undefended."  
"Who's going to attack us?" The Master snapped angrily. "I want rid of the entire Resistance. Not one of them is to survive! Do you hear me?!"  
"Y-Yes master..."

He didn't have to be told twice quickly dashing off to go and scramble the troops no doubt. Starling hoped that her relief wasn't too plain to see or else it might arise suspicion. She had to pretend and keep up appearances. An attack on Cyclonia with the Resistance's meagre forces would be suicide. A last stand, a desperate stab in the dark, no doubt that was what she would think. Maybe it was, in the depths of her heart she knew that they wouldn't be doing any of this if they weren't incredibly desperate.

Silence settled in for a moment as she looked out of the window towards the horizon. Starling struggled to see from the floor but she thought that she might have been just about able to make out the glint of ships on the distant horizon. They must have been terrified on board. She let out a heavy sigh. _Please get here soon Aerrow…_ She thought to herself. Now everything would be a matter of seconds… With each of them passing another life was potentially lost.

Without warning, she found herself being flung backwards by an unseen force. It knocked her into one of the pillars causing her to cry out in a mixture of pain and surprise. It would seem that despite the threat of an upcoming attack, she wasn't about to give up her fun. Starling shook her head trying to pull herself back together. Apparently she was going to have to put up with this for a while longer yet. Done with the electricity it would seem, now it was time to be flung around the room like a ragdoll. Once, twice… She swore she heard something crack. At this rate she wasn't going to be much if any use when it was time to fight.

Suddenly, a bright light cut through the darkness. The lightning claw! Starling breathed a sigh of relief as the attack struck Master Cyclonis' staff causing it to shatter. She knew the weapon and its wielder well enough to know that it was far from permanent damage but hopefully would buy them a few seconds.

"Starling!" Came the call from down the hall.

She raised her head to see the forms of Aerrow and the Dark Ace running towards her. Thank goodness, they both definitely knew how to make her wait for them… Letting out a sigh, she summoned the strength which she had been trying to keep in reserve for the fight that she knew was about to happen. It was enough to let her get to her knees although with her wrists still cuffed together behind her back it was about all she could manage without help. She offered them a smile, attempting to hide her fight. None of them could afford to lose any time fussing or worrying.

The Dark Ace was quick to position himself between them and his old Master. Cyclonis stared at him for a moment her eyes wide and visibly somewhat shocked. He kept his blade raised as a warning whilst Aerrow went to the Interceptor's side.

"You okay?" He asked setting about freeing her from her restraints.  
"I can fight." She replied getting to her feet.  
"You traitor..." Cyclonis muttered more disgusted than anything else.  
"Stand down Ma- Cyclonis." Her former right hand caught himself. "This needn't end in bloodshed."  
"Oh… I think it does." She replied with a cruel smile. "In fact, I'm positively looking forwards to it."  
"Three against one..." Aerrow reminded her as he handed Starling back her nunchucks.  
"No… She's not alone." Starling informed them getting to her feet as she turned to face the darkness.  
"You're not the only one who has _friends_..."

A sense of dread came over Aerrow as he turned to look into the shadows were Starling had currently turned her attention to. From them emerged, an oddly familiar figure although for a moment he struggled to believe it could possibly be who he thought it was. They obviously had the same stylist (or had been forced to more likely) as Master Cyclonis herself. It was a dark look obviously modelled after the tyrant. One glance in her friend's direction told Starling that he wasn't ready for this, despite his claims.

"Piper..." He muttered.  
"Hello Aerrow… It's been a long time."

Starling let out a frustrated sigh before placing herself between the two of them. There was no way that the Storm Hawk was going to fight his old friend, a girl he had once and perhaps still did have a crush on. They needed at least two to take on Master Cyclonis, ideally three but evidently that wasn't going to be an option here. She would have to pick up some of the slack and hope that the boys could deal with the ruler of Cyclonia by themselves. She clenched her teeth trying to block out the residual pain.

"I'll deal with her. You two take on the witch..."  
"Starling..." Aerrow muttered visibly unsure.  
"I'll be fine. You two will have your hands full with her."

As if to confirm her statement, Cyclonis snapped her staff back together from the pieces which had been scattered on the floor. Before either Aerrow or the Dark Ace could even react, they found themselves being flung backwards through the air. Fortunately, they were both still in one piece as they quickly got back to their feet. It was all of the attention that she could afford to spare them as she quickly found herself under attack. Fortunately, she'd been expecting it and managed to roll to the side just in time to avoid the flash of energy which was fired in her direction.

She narrowed her eyes facing Piper before straightening herself. She adopted a fighting stance and carefully began circling. This wasn't going to be an easy task: physically or emotionally. The younger shy and sometimes a little awkward Piper, she was fairly confident that she could have beaten in a fight. Now though, with her body still aching from the pain she had been put through although she desperately tried to cover it up. She now stood facing an adult Storm Hawk and one whose power and abilities she didn't fully know. No doubt Master Cyclonis would have taught her a few new tricks. There was a part of Starling which almost refused to fight. This was wrong on so many levels. They had been friends, perhaps not all that close but still having to fight and therefore hurt her felt wrong.

Still, it had to be done and frankly she didn't think that Aerrow was likely to be capable of it. So she was going to have to deal with the issue as best she could. No matter what that meant. Piper shot at her once more. She was ready and managed to deflect the attacks. They exchanged a few blows like that. This wasn't really her preferred method of fighting, up close and personal was more her style. To make matters worse, her opponent was a clever one and rather good at anticipating her moves. It was far easier to fight impulsive idiots. She managed to close the gap between them a couple of times but no sooner had she done so than either her opponent would step back or manage to force her to back off. She had to keep up her own attacks or else it gave the crystal mage the chance to change crystals which made her all the more formidable.

Another issue was that like it or not she had to hold back. If she didn't and lashed out with all of her strength. Their was a chance that she could do some serious damage and something told her that Aerrow wouldn't thank her for caving in his old crush's skull.

Out of the corner of her eye, she managed to make out both the Dark Ace and Aerrow's attempts to stop Master Cyclonis. Both were visibly struggling. They were both skilled there was no denying that and had their enemy been using a sword their fight would almost certainly have been over. The fact was that the ruler of Cyclonia hadn't stayed in that position by being weak and her mastery of crystals was second to none. With a blade you could parry, it wasn't so easy when you had bolts of energy and periodically flames coming in your general direction. They were only just coping. It was clear that their enemy wasn't holding back and was aiming to kill. They would need help which would mean that she would have to finish the fight herself.

She waited carefully for an opening. Finally, when Piper lunged at her, she thought that she saw one. Starling rolled to side, quickly jumping back up. Her best chance was her move, with that, she might be able to do something and land a knock out blow. She got roughly half way through before a painful burning sensation struck her right side causing her to gasp and fall to her knees. Given that her opponent hadn't gotten any actual blows in, she figured that she must have been more severely injured than she had initially thought. Of course, her foe wasn't about to take note of her state and show any pity. She promptly found herself starring at the tip of yet another staff.

"Starling!" Aerrow called out noticing that she was in trouble.  
"Keep your attention on the fight!" The Dark Ace yelled at him.

It was too late. Cyclonis' took advantage of her enemies disarray and confusion to attack. Aerrow had just enough time to turn his head and see the bolt of energy coming towards him. It was travelling too fast for him to ever possibly dodge or deflect given that in his moment's distraction he had lowered his guard. Instinctively, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the blow which might very well kill him. Something shoved him aside, knocking him down onto the ground. For a dreaded moment, he thought that it might have been Starling who had saved him but as he opened his eyes he discovered a completely different and somewhat surprising truth.

The Dark Ace was knocked flying backwards by several feet. He crashed against the hard ground rolling a few times before coming to a stop. For a moment, the Storm Hawk thought that his old foe might very well have been dead. The older man let out a slight groan but that was all the signs of life that they got from him and in their current predicament, neither of his allies could afford to go and check to make sure he was alright. The former Talon's action seemed to have surprised his old master if nothing else who just starred at him for a moment.

Then without warning Cyclonis turned back to her puppet and yelled:

"What are you waiting for! Kill her and help me with the last one."

Yet for all that Piper seemed to hesitate. In an ordinary fight, against perhaps any other enemy in this situation, Starling knew that she would likely have been dead by now. So why wasn't she? She looked up into her old friend's eyes. Those orange eyes of hers were simply starring down but with ever so slightly the faintest trace of recognition. Cautiously and very slowly, the Interceptor took a chance and got to her feet yet her enemy didn't even attempt to strike. She stood in front of the map expert for a moment not really knowing what to do.

All these years, they had presumed that there was nothing left (at least not anything capable of acting) of those under Cyclonis' control but something was clearly stopping Piper from finishing her off. Perhaps there was some of their old friend left in there still and part of her which was rebelling against what it being made to do. Still… Now was not the time to question such things.

"Sorry about this Piper..."

Hesitating no longer, Starling bashed her friend in the side of her head. It wasn't hard enough to kill her or even do any serious damage (she hoped) but with any luck it would suffice to keep her at bay until they could end this. Sure enough, she fell to the ground with a thump. Unconscious but still alive. That made one down on both sides, hopefully with her help Aerrow would-

She didn't have enough time to think any further as her friend was thrown into her sending her in turn crashing to the ground. She dreaded to think what her doctor would have to say about all this or the bruises that she was going to have in the morning. Provided they lived that long that was. She groaned in pain as her body persisted in reminder her that it really wasn't designed to take such a beating. Her vision was a little blurry as she turned to face master Cyclonis who was slowly making her way towards them. Aerrow struggled to his feet adopting a fighting stance. Summoning the last of her strength, the Interceptor managed to make it to stand next to him.

"The last sky knights..." Cyclonis muttered as she walked towards them. "Did you really think you could challenge me?!"  
"Well somebody had to..." Aerrow muttered wiping away some of blood from the corner of her mouth.  
"And you thought it would be you? Still playing hero..." Cyclonis' expression clouded over suddenly. "All you are is a thorn in my side. One which I will soon be rid of. I think Atmos has run out of time for _heroes_..."

Aerrow risked giving his friend a glance. She gave him a small almost imperceptible nod before gently brushing her fingers against the back of his hand giving him some much needed courage. In a flash, both sky knights adopted a fighting stance aware that in the next few seconds, it would likely be the fate of all of Atmos which was decided upon. Cyclonis raised her staff once more as a dark energy began to pulse originating from the crystal at its end. This time it wouldn't sting or knock them backwards there was little doubt in their minds that she intended to kill them if she could regardless of her original rather sordid vengeance plans.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment as they faced each other down. Both parties simply daring the other one to dare move. Aerrow clenched onto his weapons a little harder. One wrong move and it would be curtains for the both of them. On the other hand, if they didn't do something then this stand-off could very well last all day. He took in a deep breath readying himself.

A shrill cut through the air as a sword pierced master Cyclonis' chest. Behind her, the Dark Ace simply closed his eyes with a look of pained reluctance on his face. For a moment, she seemed to simply be stuck there unable to move or process just what had happened. Shock gave way to a couple of her gasps. Her former ally withdrew his blade causing her legs to buckle underneath her. She fell to the floor but was caught before she actually hit it by her own murderer. It was at that moment that all were reminded that despite all of her terrible deeds she was still no older than Aerrow. As the young woman lay there bleeding out as gasping for breath. The two sky knights watched as the man they presumed to be heartless held her hand.

Ultimately, she didn't last that long in the scheme of things. The strike had been well placed and obviously designed to kill. In total, her suffering couldn't have lasted more than half a minute. When it was over, the Dark Ace carefully closed her eyes before looking up at them a desolate expression marked his features:

"She wasn't always like this." He informed them in a hushed tone.

Both of the spectators simply stood there in silence as they watched him carefully retrieve a crystal which Aerrow knew well from the master's cloak. He walked slowly over to the two of them before holding out the small rock. The Storm Hawk couldn't help but stare at it and remember all the pain that it had caused. A powerful anger swelled up inside of him as he stared at it. There was only one thing to be done with it. He carefully took it from the former Talon. He gave Starling a brief glance, she nodded slightly in agreement. Placing the crystal on the floor, he combined his blades before bringing them back down on top of it as he once had done with the Aurora stone many years ago. There was a blinding flash of light although fortunately the energy involved didn't nearly match that of the last crystal he had destroyed.

When he dared to open them again, all he could make out were a few shattered pieces on the floor. Nothing around them appeared to have changed. He turned back to his comrades.

"Is that it?" He asked them in a quiet almost hushed tone. "Is it over?"  
"I don't know..." The Dark Ace admitted before pulling something out of his pocket. "I'll contact the others and find out."

That was if there was any of the Resistance left to contact. They had taken a terrible risk by agreeing to act as decoys. It was no secret that they had been up against at least three times their numbers and several possessed squadrons. With the odds stacked against them to such an extent, no doubt they had suffered at least some losses. All that remained to be discovered was just how bad the cost had been.

There were a few moments worth of silence and static which only caused the tension to mount before finally Dove came through on the other side of the radio. She was out of breath and sounded like she'd just been through hell but was still alive. She also bore good news. Cyclonia's forces were in full retreat. Apparently, it had started almost as soon the squadrons had stopped. A few minutes ago, it was as if someone had hit the off switch. All those under Cyclonis' control had simply stopped dead fixing blankly into space ahead of them. Then, a few seconds afterwards they had fallen unconscious. It had been a nightmare ensuring that none were injured but apparently they reckoned they had managed. It had taken much more for the Talons to figure out that something was seriously wrong and to start scattered.

That left them there alone and in all honesty a little lost. Aerrow stood by the window looking out over the stormy clouds. Did this mean that the war was finally over? For as long as he could remember, he had dreamed of nothing else and yet it was all he had known. Now, he found himself asking himself a single question: what next?

"Aerrow?" Came Starling's hushed voice as she drew nearer to him.  
"Sorry..." He muttered not knowing what else to say. "It's just..."  
"I understand." She told him reassuringly. "It's over now."

He turned to face her. He wanted to thank her but for the life of him couldn't think of just how to do so. She had saved him, in more ways than one. There was a lot that he wanted and perhaps needed to say and yet he just didn't know how to do it. They simply stood there looking into each other's eyes for a few moments. Then without warning, Starling slowly came forwards and rested her head against against his shoulder. A little surprised, he didn't quite know how to respond for a few moments before slowly wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. They stayed like that for a little while feeling comfort from the other one's presence.

Of course, it was too good to be true and the Dark Ace had to be the one to break the news to him.

"Aerrow..." He spoke in a hushed tone as he starred in horror. "She's hurt."

He should have noticed that something was wrong. The young woman was heavy in his arms and slumping against him slightly as her legs were just barely supporting her own weight. He reacted quickly easing her down to the ground. She let out a weak groan. Her eyes were closed but he got the feeling none-the-less that she was still conscious. He instantly spotted what the Dark Ace had been referring to. There was a wound right side from which blood was trickling out at a fairly alarming rate. It had already stained her clothes and the volume which she had already lost was no doubt enough to explain her sudden bout of weakness. What concerned him most was knowing just how severe the injury was.

The dark light made it almost impossible to make out clearly. They would need to get her to a doctor as soon as possible. That was if it wasn't already too late. Panic began to take over as he wondered if he might currently be losing her. He couldn't lose anyone else in his life. Not now, not after so much had been sacrificed for their victory. He fought the tears which threatened to fall down his cheeks.

"You just hold on Starling." He requested taking her hand whilst the Dark Ace radioed for immediate medical assistance. "You're going to be alright."

She looked at him through half open eyes already beginning to cloud over with unconsciousness. He let out a strangled sob unable to do anything else but hold her close and pray whilst they waited for a rescue to come.

He couldn't lose her now. Not after everything they had gone through. Not when they had achieved so much. Not when he still had so much to tell her...


	16. After the storm

**_Hey! Got this one up just in time. Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks again for the reviews! _**

**_/_**

Aerrow sat with his head in his hands. He didn't know what to do. What to think… All he wanted was for this to all be over. He felt so unbelievably tired and yet try as much his stinging eyes couldn't and wouldn't find any sleep. His exhaustion was both physical and emotional. The doctors had checked him over. He had taken quite a bashing during his fight against Cyclonis but that would likely only be limited to a few cuts, scratches and some bruises. In short, he would be in a little bit of pain for a few days but along with the Dark Ace would recover fully and in theory quickly. Frankly, he couldn't have cared less about that.

Starling had been taken in to be operated on some time ago. He had quickly lost track of time as each minute that she was in there seem to be double that. She had lost a fair amount of blood and had slipped into unconsciousness as the doctors had taken her away for surgery. It had hurt him to be separated from her but he understood the necessity. What was worse was not knowing. She could be dead or dying in there and he would still be none the wiser. He was quite close to pulling at his hair from the stress, a nervous tick he had developed quite some time ago and one which never failed to get him told off by someone in his entourage (namely Piper or more recently Starling) who would tell him something along the lines of he'd become bald if he kept it up.

Right now. He didn't care. He just wanted to know that she was alright.

The sky knight was aware of the Dark Ace looking down at him. The man was strangely quiet. He had been expecting some more sarcastic or ironic comments. The sort which acted like a cold dagger and stabbed at his heart. Instead, he hadn't said so much as a word. A cynic would have said that he was simply recuperating from the beating that he had taken in the battle and was feeling a little too rough for his usual cruel sense of amusement. Something told Aerrow however that it was something else, perhaps something a little more. His old foe had been _off_ for a while now and he didn't quite think that he was close enough to Starling to be that bothered about her current situation. No… There had been no denying the look of sorrow and regret in his eyes as he had held the hand of Master Cyclonis as she died however. He suspected that that was more likely to be the source of the former Talon's silence.

He was a little hazy about just where the Blood Crow was right now. Still flying through the sky but as to their exact location he didn't know or particularly care. The Resistance had spent much of the past few hours ferrying the wounded and dead to various terras better equipped to deal with them. Now though, they just seemed to be flying and hadn't stopped off to pick up or drop off anyone else in a while. He needed the bustling activity. Just sitting here in the quiet allowed his mind to focus on what was going on with Starling and inevitably begin imagining the worst possible scenarios.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a blizzarian doctor stepped through the door. There was some blood on her overalls but it looked old. Instantly, Aerrow sprung to his feet anxious for any possible news good or bad.

"How is she?" He asked before the doctor could even open their mouth.  
"She's fine, eh..." The doctor assured him in as calming a voice as she could muster. "It looked worse than it was. We patched her up."  
"Can I see her?" Aerrow asked trying to catch a glimpse of her through the door.  
"Of course. She's a bit sleepy though." She warned them nodding in the direction of the door. "Probably won't be talking for a while."  
"Thank you." He replied heading towards the room.

Although he found himself somewhat reassured by the doctor's words, he would still rather see for himself. Only then would his mind truly be eased. At least he hoped.

He stepped inside slowly bracing himself slightly. He was aware that his friend would no doubt be a little the worse for wear. Actually, he found himself thinking at she didn't look quite as bad as he had been preparing himself for. A little pale maybe but otherwise pretty good for someone who'd been through the relative hell that she had only a few hours before. They were still a little hazy about just how Starling had sustained her wound in the first place. She'd had enough time to lose a fair amount of blood so it had likely been as their fighting had started up or perhaps a little beforehand. All he knew was that it had been some of the most terrifying hours he had spent in his life and he was very much glad that it was over now.

He came a little closer. Starling was still unconscious or at least asleep. She did look peaceful however sleeping soundly and apparently at least, no longer in pain. There was a drip feeding some fluids into her body but otherwise she seemed to be largely free from medical apparatuses. The sky knight approached slowly, treading silently as he did so until he was by her side. She showed no signs of waking up and he certainly wasn't about to deprive her of any precious sleep. She needed her rest, so much so that he would wait.

Carefully and as gently as possible, he took her hand hoping to give her at least some comfort and reassurance if she needed it but also seeking a little for himself. She had scared him more than he thought anyone was capable of doing and even now that she was safe and seemingly out of harm's way, he found himself wanting to protect her. He sat in a chair by her side. Staying there as a silent vigil, simply waiting. She had all the time in the world to sleep as far as he was concerned, she had earned it and he certainly wasn't about to wake her up. The Dark Ace chose to stay standing. From time to time he would shift around the room or glance out of the window but Aerrow paid little attention to him. All he cared about was Starling. For the next hour or so, although time seemed to be passing almost imperceptibly now, the only sound to come from their room was that of the Interceptor's steady breathing as she slept recovering some of her much needed strength which she had spent saving the Atmos.

Finally, a soft groan shook him out of his almost trance like state. He sat up a little straighter noticing that his friend was moving once more. It wasn't much, just a grimace at first. Enough to let him know that she was gradually coming to and that her senses were beginning to kick back into gear. It was a good few minutes yet however before she managed to muster the strength and presence of mind to open her eyes. For a few moments, she peered around the room with her eyes half open, no doubt a little confused. Every now and then, they would flutter closed once more as she briefly drifted back to sleep. He didn't push her, aware that she needed her own time to come to fully and that it was be pointless to try talking her until she was fully back with them.

Eventually, her eyes remained open and instinctively seemed to fall on him. He offered her a soft and gentle smile which she struggled to return. It was only a few moments after that that she was conscious enough and capable of speaking.

"Hey..." Her voice was a little raspy and frail sounding but it was so very good to hear it.  
"Hey yourself..." He responded not knowing what else to say. "You okay?"  
"Not exactly but I'm still alive." She took in a deep breath as if to confirm the fact wincing slightly as she did so.  
"You gave us quite the scare..." Aerrow told her relieved to see her looking a little better.  
"I figured as much..." The young woman looked down for a moment. "Sorry..."

He shook his head dismissively. There was nothing to apologize for as far as he was concerned. It wasn't as if she had intentionally been injured. Relief was beginning to take hold now that he was able to talk to her. Although it was clear that she was still very weak and he suspected that she would likely be out of action for a while, simply hearing her voice once more was enough to calm down the last of his nerves. He gave her a little bit longer to pull herself together and regain a little strength. He knew what it was like to take a beating and how drained it could leave you feeling and wasn't about to start pushing the Interceptor. Instead, he found himself waiting patiently for her to start speaking once more when she felt like it.

"How long have I been out?" She asked after a few moments more.  
"A few hours." Aerrow replied not entirely sure himself. "You're on board the Blood Crow..."  
"I suppose only Captain Scabulous has this sense of décor..." She muttered looking around. "Have I missed much?"

Aerrow shook his head. She hadn't missed very much at all really, not in the scheme of things, not unless he had missed things or hadn't yet been informed of them. From what he had gathered, things were still very confused. It was taking quite some time for the message to spread across Atmos that the tyrant who had been ruling them for the past three or so years and threatening them for much longer had fallen and that now they were free. Then there was the other matter of all those who had been under her spell coming to with from what he'd gathered very little if any memory of just what had happened since they had become her puppets. He'd spent almost all of the time since defeating master Cyclonis waited for Starling to wake up and recover and was still a little hazy about just what was going on outside in the rest of the world.

He told her that much and she listened to all of it without interrupting him even once. Once he was finished, she groaned slightly as she shifted. She was in a little bit of pain whenever she moved, that much was obvious but he would have been surprised had it been otherwise. After a few moments, she asked in a quiet voice:

"So that's it then… It's finished."  
"Yes." He replied softly following her gaze out of the window. "It's over now. Atmos is free."

Starling let out a sigh causing him to turn back to her. It was hard for him to get his head around not having to fight Cyclonia any more. They had been such a major part of his life for most if not all of it: the war had taken from him his father, it had given his friends and squadron and most recently it had lead him to fall in love even if he was yet to tell the subject of his affections. To suddenly find themselves without their major enemies left something of a hole in his existence, one which he was sure that sooner or later something or someone else would come along to fill but for the moment they found themselves without a foe to have to concern themselves with.

The Interceptor shifted once more so as to look him square in the eyes. He could see that she was now fully awake albeit still rather weak.

"You should go to your squadron." She declared suddenly. "Where are they?"  
"Back on Terra Atmosia." He informed her before frowning. "But I'm not leaving you."  
"Aerrow..." She smiled gently somewhat amused by his concern for her. "You've been by my side these past three years. I think I can cope if you're not here for a few hours. Your friends will be worrying about you. Go to them..."

He hesitated a while longer despite her words. She was not dissimilar to him with her tendency to act tough and try and shrug off when she was hurt (be it physically or emotionally). So, for a moment he contemplated ignoring her request and staying anyhow based on the fact that his friends had done perfectly well without him for the past few years (okay they'd been possessed by that was a detail). It was only when he thought about it for a moment that he realized it would mean him sitting here with an irritated Starling who didn't want him there which would likely be only pointless and stressful.

Reluctantly, he got up. He cautiously took her hand earning a slight smile as he did so. He'd learned over the years to know when it wasn't worth arguing with her.

"Okay but if you need anything don't hesitate to call."  
"I won't..." She muttered letting out another sigh. "Besides… Ace is here aren't you?"  
"It's not like I have anywhere better to go." He grumbled from his seat.  
"Strangely… That doesn't make me feel any better." Aerrow replied earning an amused snort. "Seriously though… I won't be long. After that..." He hesitated for a moment wondering how to phrase it and if now was the right time. It wasn't. "There's something I'd like to talk to you about."  
"I look forwards to it." She replied with a tired but kind smile.

He gave her a smile before beginning to leave. A glance ensured that the Dark Ace got the message, that joke as they might, he had better make sure that nothing happened to the last Interceptor whilst he was away. It was hard to leave her alone but he forced himself to do so. She was recovering gradually and might actually benefit from being given some time alone to get better. Besides, it wasn't as if they were going to be separated for long and it would give him some time to think about how best to 'talk' to Starling.

His mind was elsewhere as he mounted his skimmer and set off. They weren't that far away from Terra Atmosia as it turned out. The whole place was in a certain amount of disarray as they had just finished attending to the still confused and disorientated squadrons who had up until then been under Master Cyclonis' control. Among them were the Storm Hawks and that thought truly terrified him. If he was honest with himself, there had been another reason why he had been reluctant to part company with Starling, although admittedly not the primary one and it was something which truly made him feel ashamed.

How could he possibly face his old friends? It had been three years since he'd last seen them. Three very long years where an awful lot had happened. The last time they had really talked (excluding their possessed ramblings that was) had been a few minutes before the squadron had been captured, after that they had promptly been separated. He didn't know what if anything they could remember but they had hurt people, maybe even killed. One of their numerous victims had been their former leader. He still bore a few scars from that terrible time both physical and maybe a few psychological ones. At the back of his mind, there was the nagging fear of what they would say when they saw him once more. What would he say to them? He didn't want to have to admit that he had pretty much given up hope where they were concerned once or twice.

He forced himself to keep on going regardless. If he didn't go to his friends now, then he felt that he would never have the courage to rejoin them. Starling was right. He had to do this. He owed it to the Storm Hawks and by extension his father's memory. Asking around, he was both quickly recognized and given directions to where his squadron was recuperating.

As he approached, his eyes fell painfully upon each of them. They seemed to have changed out of those Cyclonian style garbs they had given (something which he fully understood) and were instead wearing some plain clothes. He stopped several feet away, simply contemplating them from afar. They hadn't noticed him yet. It was strange, they didn't seemed to have changed in the slightest as he watched them standing there and chatting with some of the other squadrons, no doubt wondering just what had happened. For a moment, he couldn't help but stare. He had never thought that he would lay eyes on them like that again.

It was Stork who spotted him first. The murb slowly raised his hand to point at his former leader. Slowly, everyone turned to face him. They eyes were wide with surprise. For a moment, he wanted to turn and run. Perhaps fortunately, his legs remained rooted to the spot and refused to move.

"Aerrow..." His name escaped from Piper's lips as a whisper.  
"Hey guys…"

What a stupid thing to say but it was the only thing that he had been able to think of. For a moment, he simply stood there continuing to gawk at them. There was so much he wanted to tell them. Least of which was simply how much he had missed them. Instead, he remained frozen to the spot. His brain running so quickly that he wasn't even too sure that he was thinking again. There had been times he had dreamed of being reunited. Others nightmares where for some reason his friends had turned him away. Now, he just didn't know what to do. His friends were so close and yet they felt miles away.

Suddenly, something warm and furry hit him. There was a series of loud chirping/yapping sounds which he hadn't heard in so long… He found himself holding onto Radarr as tightly as he could without strangling him.

"Aerrow!"

Before he could even react, he found himself being practically knocked over by his friends as they rushed to give him a hug. Not only did it take him by surprise but the force of impact made him struggle to avoid falling. For a moment, he simply didn't know what to do. He was torn. A part of him couldn't help but remember everything that had happened since they had first become separated all that time ago. He would be lying if he said he hadn't been angry and maybe even for a few seconds hated the fact that they hadn't been able to fight what had been done to them, even if in his heart of hearts he had always known that they couldn't have helped it and weren't to blame. Yet despite all that… This felt so… Right…

The Storm Hawks, his friends, his family were back together and that was all that mattered. Very slowly, he wrapped his arms back around them and pulled them all in close for a hug. This was something he had only been able to think back to longingly to or dream about as an abstract concept. The warmth, the comfort that their presence brought him was something that he had missed dreadfully and the lack of it had weighed heavily upon his shoulders in the darkness that he had known. For the first time in years, he felt as if everything might just be about to turn out right. He felt a couple of tears trickle down his cheeks as he held them close. It was as if the weight of everything that had happened suddenly came crashing into him. He didn't particularly care if anyone saw him. He had to let some of what was inside of him out, one way or another.

After some time, he finally pulled himself away from his friends' embrace. They looked at him sympathetically for a moment as he tried to regain some composure before them.

"Hey buddy..." Finn offered him his most comforting smile.  
"Hey..." Aerrow responded wiping away some of his tears with the back of his hand.  
"Are you okay?" Junko pressed visibly a little concerned.  
"Yeah… It's just-" He let out a sigh before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. "It's been three years."

They exchanged a series of uncertain and uneasy looks. No doubt they were aware of at least some of what had happened since they had fallen victim to Cyclonis' mind control. If nothing else, Piper must have been wondering what had happened to her head as she now sported a bandage thanks to Starling's rather forceful conclusion to their fight. There was a lot to tell them and he was almost certain that they wouldn't like much of what he had to say. He didn't however see that he had much in the way of a choice. After all, it was either that or lie to them. He cast his glance back up to the clouds, hopefully the Interceptor could wait a while longer…

"Come on guys..." He declared. "You've missed a lot."


	17. A new dawn

_**Thanks again for the reviews and Happy New Year 2017!**_

_**/**_

Speeches weren't really Aerrow's thing. That was why he had asked Piper to write this one for him and she had been kind enough to oblige. He fancied that he was okay when it came to speaking from the heart and motivating people but this was different. This wasn't encouraging others to follow him into battle. He let out a sigh reading over the text written on the paper in his hands once more. He was fairly certain that he had memorized it almost entirely. It definitely sounded good as far as he could tell and he had better deliver it well as there were quite a few people out there who had come a long way to be here and listen to him.

Over the past few days, squadrons and people from all over Atmos had been arriving on terra Atmosia eager to hear the Sky Counsel's words and to know if the rumours were true and if the war truly was over. They were out there now having the story confirmed. Cyclonia was gone. Its master was dead and her followers scattered to the winds. The darkness of her crystal had ended and now, the word could slowly begin to return to the way it had been. Something which would be neither a quick nor an easy process. After three years, there was a lot to put right. It didn't help of course that many of the authority figures had little to no memory of just what had happened which had lead to a lot of explaining needing to be done. Even now, Aerrow wasn't entirely sure that everyone had the same version of events as many fictionalized events and frankly lies had already began to circulate.

He cast his glance back up to the clock. He didn't have long left to get this all in his head. The problem was that a lot of it didn't want to register. He found himself approaching the balcony of the building where he and his friends were currently being put up and looking out over the expanse of the sky. He was no politician, he belonged up there in the skies defending Atmos, not down here about to deliver some kind of a speech.

He felt his grip on the paper tighten as frustration began to take hold. This all felt so wrong: like some lie and he was going along with it. He read over the lines, once, twice, three times more. Each time they only seemed to cause his anger to grow. It wasn't Piper, she was perfectly blameless in all this. If he was honest it was more himself whom he blamed along with Starling. Letting out a brief cry which he attempted to keep as quite as possible so that nobody else would hear, he scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it off of the balcony, down to the foot of the building well out of reach. Taking a few deep breaths, he attempted to calm himself.

"Got it all memorized have we?" Came a voice from behind him.

He turned around slowly scarcely able to believe his own ears. Standing behind him as if nothing was up was the last of the Interceptors herself. He wondered how she had possibly found her way inside and if anyone else had noticed her arrival. He blinked a couple of times unsure how to react and for a moment too surprised to say or do anything. Just how she managed to move so silently was beyond him. Interiorly, he found himself torn between relief, joy and anger. Whilst he had been longing to see her for about a week now, on the other hand he was far from amused by the fact that she had disappeared in the first place. He decided to leave the next move up to her, unsure if he would be able to react reasonably.

Without saying anything else, she cautiously approached the balcony. He noticed that she was limping slightly or rather walking in a slightly odd manner favouring her left markedly. No doubt it was a trace of her injury. She drew nearer to the balcony and stared out at the assembly not all too far away for a moment. They would be expecting him soon. She contemplated them for a little longer before turning to him amused:

"Quite the crowd you've drawn."  
"There's not all here to see me." He replied a little curtly before frowning as he got to the point. "Where did you go."  
"We needed to rest up for a while." Starling declared letting out a sigh. "Me included I'm afraid."  
"I went looking for you." He informed her frowning.  
"I know."

She let out a sigh and seemed to tense up for a moment. He stepped back a little giving her some space. Over the years, he had gotten used to the Interceptor's evasiveness for lack of a better word but that didn't mean that he agreed with it or thought that it was a sensible or appropriate way to go about living her life. Least of all when she'd frightened him half to death with her disappearance and seemingly couldn't be bothered to even give him a half decent explanation. He wasn't too clear if she was taking him for granted or what but Starling didn't seem to be all that bothered by the fact that she had simply abandoned him with no clue as to her exact whereabouts.

She stood there in silence for a moment. It was only after a few seconds that Aerrow noticed that his fellow sky knight wasn't just leaning against the balustrade but was in fact actively bracing herself against it.

"Is it alright if I sit down?" She requested a few seconds later.  
"Of course..." He muttered a little preoccupied to properly be able to think about it.

She must have been in some pain if she was openly asking. Slowly, Starling turned around and made her way to a small chair which occupied the room. He was close to offering to support her but she managed to cover the distance before he could offer any more of his help. It was fairly clear was the source of her suffering was, no doubt her wound wasn't entirely healed up yet. At least it wasn't good enough for her to be walking around like this. Although it hadn't been all that severe in itself, he knew from personal experience that it could take a while before they no longer hurt especially if there had been some muscle damage. For a moment, he simply contemplated her from afar as the last his lingered anger slowly dissipated.

Sympathy took over replacing any of the remaining resentment which he might otherwise have felt towards her.

"Do you need anything?" He asked coming over slowly.  
"No. Thank you..." She muttered softly looking down at the floor. "Rest is the best thing for it apparently."  
"Which is why you're doing so much of it." He replied shaking his head slightly.  
"Well, I was hardly going to miss you and your squadron being named "protector of Atmos" now was I?" She looked up giving him a smile.

The mention of the honour was enough to get him checking the time. Ten minutes before he was due to turn up and make his speech. He wasn't exactly looking forwards to it. He should have been thrilled. It wasn't exactly a title which was handed out everyday to just anyone. Yet he felt no pride and no joy as the time of his nomination drew nearer. It wasn't just him of course, although he was the main recipient, his squadron, the Storm Hawks were also being awarded the title. If he was going through with this it was for them more than anything else and maybe in part to give his father some of the recognition he deserved. He'd put on a front for the press and to a degree for his friends but now with Starling, he felt that he could finally open up and confess some of his doubts.

He let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as he wondered how best to phrase what he had to say. She waited ever patiently.

"It doesn't feel right..." He muttered eventually. "I don't deserve this."  
"What are you talking about?" Starling raised an eyebrow leaning back slightly in her chair. "You saved the Atmos."  
"But I didn't, did I?" He thought back to the events. "Not alone. You were there and the Resistance. It was the Dark Ace who-"  
"Aerrow..." Starling muttered seemingly amused. "For starters the entire Resistance can't become protectors of Atmos, it's a position for one sky knight and their squadron."  
"Fine. You become it then-"

Starling pressed her finger to his lips, silencing him in an instant. A soft smile spread across her face as she did so, taking note of Aerrow's surprise and exasperation. He knew that maybe he was making a little bit too much about this but it was none-the-less something that he felt rather strongly about. As he saw it, others were suffering a terrible injustice: the Resistance had struggled against Cyclonia whilst he had had it relatively easy trapped on a terra, Starling had suffered terribly in order to buy them some time and even the Dark Ace had been the one to deal the final blow and end the tyranny.

Still, the Interceptor managed to shut him up easily and remain charming whilst doing so. After a few seconds she spoke once more:

"Let me finish." She requested maintaining a smile. "You're best suited for this. I don't want it. I've always despised all these 'honour' things and lets face it, the Dark Ace doesn't deserve it."  
"But..." He started once more only to silence himself as he took note of the other sky knight's expression.  
"You and your Storm Hawks, you've done so much for this Atmos…" She told him looking out to the sky for a moment. "How many years were you fighting when many of us had grown tired of this war? You are heroes and this is your chance for a reward."

He shook his head. Her words didn't sit very well with him. He didn't really know why. After all the years the Storm Hawks had spent fighting for recognition, they were finally being offered it (and then some). He should have been glad. Starling's arguments were logical and made sense but they still struck him as being terribly unjust. He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair and turning away for a while. Aerrow wished he could make her understand. He wanted to find a way to express what he was feeling, his doubts, his fears but found the words lacking. As such, what came out sounded rather childish:

"I don't want it."  
"Which is why you're perfect." Starling declared looking him dead in the eyes. "Nothing safer than a man with power who doesn't want it."

He wasn't entirely sure that he agreed with her on that one point. Still, she might have been right about those who actively seeking power being a little more dangerous than those who didn't want it in the first place. He wouldn't win this argument. He could tell. Maybe, it would be for the best of his squadron and the Atmos, he had better accept this charge. After all, he might not have to hold onto the title for that long. It could be that in a few months time, the world would have gotten its act together and no longer need a protector.

Silence settled in as he stood there listening to the sound of the seconds ticking past. Someone would come looking for him in a little while. Just to ensure that he wasn't late. For the time being however he was going to take advantage of Starling presence and enjoy the peace and quiet. Sometimes the silences between them could be awkward but others they offered a strange serenity which allowed him to think with a clear head. There was something comforting about the other's presence. He looked up to her. She would be better suited to this position than he would. She was wiser, braver… He didn't know what to say or do about the young woman. He cared for her too much to simply lose her again.

"Aerrow..." Starling's voice suddenly cut through the silence.  
"Yes?" He asked turning around to look at her once more."Are you really going to make your speech like that?"  
"What's wrong?" He asked looking up and down at himself.  
"What's wrong is you look a shambles."

He turned his gaze to a mirror for a moment. Starling might have been right about that one. He wasn't usually all that bothered about appearances, least of all his own but he had to admit that he was a bit of a mess. Piper had ensured that he was wearing his best clothes and actually looked suitable for giving a speech in front of such a large crowd. Unfortunately, his fretting and stress threatened to undo all of her careful work and selections. He let out a sigh finding himself longing for the simpler days which he now feared were long gone. Suddenly having to deal with Cyclonians didn't seem quite so bad.

He turned back to Starling, she was still sitting there. It struck him at that moment that she looked to be rather tired although she had mustered the strength to give him a bemused look.

"Come over here." She requested gesturing at him to come back over to where she was sitting. "I'll sort you out."

He obliged walking over slowly whilst also keeping an eye on the time. He still had a few minutes. Besides should he cut things too close Piper would likely come along and hassle him. He bent down slightly before deciding to simply squat down in front of her so that Starling didn't struggle to reach him and have to strain herself. She smoothed out his collar and gently with the tips of her fingers brushed his hair back into a position where it looked as if it might have been intentionally messy rather than simply hadn't been brushed. He kept his eyes fixed firmly upon the floor, deep in thought only just appreciating the gentle care that the other sky knight was taking.

After a few more seconds, she raised his chin slightly so that he looked at her. Starling tilted her head slightly from side to side as if trying to get a better view of him before smiling to herself.

"There you go. Good and smart." She declared with a certain amount of satisfaction.  
"Thanks..." He muttered taking note of his appearance once more in the mirror.

The close proximity with the Interceptor reminded him of some of the things that he had been intending to say to her before she preformed her disappearing act. Now, wasn't the time to talk about them. Not when he would have to leave in a few moments. It did remind him though of the fact that he very much did have to get all of this stuff off of his chest. It was one of these things which he really didn't know how best to phrase or even how Starling would react. Unlike with many of his other friends, he didn't like to try and guess how she would react to a given situation simply because he found the task to be impossible. He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure what to do or to say now.

"Starling… I-" He hesitated for a moment. "There are some things I need to say."  
"I hope they can wait." She replied nodding in the direction of the door. "We have company."  
"Starling!" Piper's excited cry disrupted the two of them. "Great to see you!"  
"And you too Piper…" She hesitated a moment before adding. "Sorry about the bump."  
"Don't worry about it."

He loved his friend. Honestly he did but sometimes he had to curse his own bad luck and her sense of timing. He wouldn't have had time to say everything he wanted and needed to say to Starling but he could at least have started explaining himself. Unfortunately, he suspected that he knew the reason for her turning up. It was almost time for him to make his speech and be named protector of the Atmos. If she wasn't hurrying him along more it was because of the presence of the Interceptor whom Piper was something of a fan of. That and she hadn't seen the younger woman in over three years and had believed her to be dead for a while before hand.

For a moment, Aerrow simply stepped back allowing the two to interact. It had been a long time but Piper still seemed to be something of a fan of the sky knight. It amused him slightly, reminding him of his squadron's early days. The good news was that she didn't seem to bear any ill-feeling for the bash on the head which she had received during their fight.

"Oh! I am almost forgot!" Piper exclaimed after a few moments more of chatting. "Aerrow, you're about due on for your speech."  
"Right. Thanks Piper… I'll be right there."

He turned back to face his fellow sky knight. She looked up at him and gave him an encouraging smile. Despite the reminder, Aerrow found himself hesitating. The Sky Counsel wouldn't appreciate him being late, not when they were giving him an award. Still, he found the same lassitude and reluctance to go along as he had done earlier. He still had a lot of things that he wanted to say to Starling and definitely not enough time to say them. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Piper looking back and forth between the two of them.

"I'll give you two a minute..." She declared edging towards the door.

That would never be enough… He gave her a soft smile to show that he appreciated the gesture none-the-less. Unfortunately, with her no longer in the room, a strange awkwardness seemed to settle in. He didn't quite know how to act or what to say. All those things which he had intended to tell her just evaporated as he found himself alone with the Interceptor. He wondered if she could sense his uncertainty and sudden nervousness. For once in his life, he would have liked things to be both easy and clean cut. Somehow however he doubted that that was ever going to be the case.

He rubbed the back of his neck somewhat nervously before taking a deep breath to give himself some courage.

"I've got a lot to say..." Aerrow informed her before clarifying. "To tell you."  
"All in good time, I'm sure." Starling said with a knowing smile. "You should get moving or else you're going to be late."  
"Will you watch?" He asked the Interceptor.  
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." She replied uneasily getting up. "Now go on. Knock them dead."

He didn't dare linger any longer otherwise he really would be late and nobody was going to thank him for that. He offered Starling one last smile before disappearing out of the door and hurrying on his way towards the steps of the Sky Counsel building from where he was meant to give his speech. As he grew nearer, he could hear the counsel's representative make a speech of his own. Although by the sound of things, it was already nearing his end. His squadron were already waiting for him, they were all looking their best (Piper had insisted upon it). He tried to force a smile, naturally they saw through it in a matter of seconds.

"You okay Aerrow?" Asked Finn making an effort to keep his voice down so that nobody could overhear them.  
"Not really." He saw no point in lying. "It's Starling… I- She- It's complicated."  
"You sure you want to go through with this?" Stork asked glancing outside a little nervously. "They all seem to be… Clapping."  
"Yeah..." Aerrow muttered stepping forwards. "After all, Star's going to kill me if I don't."

There were no more arguments. He couldn't tell if that was because they agreed or simply didn't want to risk being on the wrong side of the last of the Interceptors. A few moments more, they received their cue to come on out. Somehow now that he was faced with them, the crowd seemed to have doubled in number. A loud cheer erupted as he walked out accompanied by his friends. It was rather different to how they had first appeared on these steps. All these people were free now, he reminded himself. He had had a part to play in that, it was true but as he had told Starling, he didn't quite feel that he deserved all the recognition he had been given.

A little nervously, he stepped up to the microphone. Gradually the crowd died down as they realized that he was about to speak. A couple of seconds before he did so however he caught sight of a familiar figure on a building opposite. He allowed himself a soft smile as he saw his friend looking down at him from a distance as she had promised.

Starling watched from afar as Aerrow gave his speech. She smiled softly. Yes, he would do just fine.

"Finally… The protectors that Atmos deserves." Starling muttered more to herself than anyone else. "Good on you Aerrow..."  
"Can we go now?" Came the complaint from behind her. "This applause and self-congratulation is making me sick!"  
"I don't care much about that." Starling replied turning back to face him. "But you're right… Lets go..."


	18. Of hawks and songbirds

**_Thanks once again for the reviews! Here's the penultimate chapter._**

**_/_**

Aerrow starred out of the Condor's bridge out into the vast expanse of the Atmos. These skies were beginning to become familiar. He'd been forced to navigate using only his memory. Still, it looked as if the move had pulled off. It would have to. This was their last chance. He turned back to face his squadron, all of them were busy doing what they did best. The Storm Hawks working together on yet another mission. He couldn't help but smile somewhat, it was as if nothing had happened and they hadn't been so violently torn apart for three years.

Piper slowly approached him glancing out of the window herself. Not one of them had complained about this mission, no matter how fruitless it might prove to be. They'd simply gone along with it. Even if after three days, it had yielded precious little results. Just how anyone could pull such an incredible disappearing act was beyond him. Their final destination was one last stab in the dark, their last option before even he would be inclined to call it quits and admit that they had been defeated.

"There's nothing out here on the charts..." Piper informed him looking out at the seemingly never ending sky. "Just rock, wastelands and clouds..."  
"That's what kept us safe." He reminded his friend. "Nobody knew there was anything out here for us to be stranded on."  
"Kind of makes you wonder..." Junko muttered joining them. "What made the Dark Ace crash there and find you?"  
"Dumb luck I guess." He replied not knowing else what else could possibly explain what had happened. "It's a good thing he did though..."

The rest didn't need to be said. Radarr perched on his shoulder turned to him confirming that they all understood. It wouldn't have taken much for him to be still trapped on that terra and for Atmos to be in a very different situation. As it was, they could all count themselves lucky that some force be it pure chance or destiny had caused the Dark Ace to crash on that lost pile of rock and found them when he did. For a few moments, the sky knight's gaze continued to scan the horizon until finally it found what it was looking for.

"There! Stork! Two o'clock." He called out to the helmsman.  
"Already on it!" Came the reply as the Condor steadily changed course.  
"Those are leech clouds." Piper told him squinting slightly so as to be able to make them out. "No wonder they drained your crystals."  
"We always thought of them as a mixed blessing." Aerrow told his friends as he thought back to his days there. Some of the memories were actually rather fond ones. "They might have drained our crystals but they did keep us safe."  
"And you think Starling might be there?" Junko asked him.

Aerrow let out a sigh. It had been almost a week since Starling had pulled her disappearing act once more. They had spent three days now searching the Atmos for her. So far, nothing. As a solo sky knight, she was a natural survivor and that meant that being able to disappear for a while was pretty much part and parcel of the whole deal. Unfortunately, it also made things incredibly difficult for any friends and allies who might potentially want to seek her out. He had no idea what drove the Interceptor to act the way she did but knew that it would only be by confronting her directly that he would ever get any answers.

"Honestly I don't know..." He told his friends not seeing any point in lying. "But it's our last chance."  
"You know…" Finn started looking a little uneasy as he searched for the right words. "Starling's never really been the most social sky knight in the world. Maybe she, like, doesn't want to be found..."  
"She doesn't." Aerrow confirmed his friend's theory. "And that's exactly why I want to find her."

He didn't know if the others understood or even could understand. He himself struggled to come to terms with it and doubted if he would be able to explain things even if they asked. If they had any questions or reservations, they didn't let it show.

With the information that he had given them, the Storm Hawks knew to lower their altitude and approach the clouds from down below near the wastelands least their crystals have all their energy sucked from them and they end up crashing once more. He was somewhat more confident now that they knew that the Blood Crow – a much larger ship – could safely pass under. Stork was, despite his peculiarities, a very fine pilot and in that department Aerrow had no concerns what so ever. He was a little more worried about what, if anything, they would find on the little terra he had spent so long trapped on.

They soon realized that something was up however. Namely the fact that there were still a couple of Murk Raider ships docked next to the terra. Aerrow's eyes widened. He would have expected them to have returned to Terra Deep and the various other terras which the members of the Resistance came from. Instinctively, he began to worry as he wondered if there had been some sort of incident or other issue which had prevented them from returning to their respective homes. They glanced up at the Condor as it landed but didn't seem to be panicking or overjoyed to see the Storm Hawks. In fact, their arrival barely seem to register with a good number. They all seemed to be preoccupied with various other tasks such as moving large boxes and by the looks of things building some shelters.

"Let's see what's up..." Aerrow declared his curiosity abruptly spiked.

The squadron cautiously made their way off of the Condor. Outside, he found himself faced with a busy collection of workers from all over the Atmos. For a moment, he simply starred at them wondering what they could possibly be doing. It was only after he spotted the growing number of huts in the distance that it dawned on him: they were setting up shop. It was fair to say that he hadn't expected this. They had put the civilians here so that they were out of harm's way and now he found them attempting to colonize the place? It didn't bother him exactly: after all, nobody had lived here before them (asides Bob). He had just expected that they would all have somewhere… Well, frankly better to be.

The Storm Hawks made their way through the crowds. It was quite impressive to see everyone pulling together, despite their differences. In the space of a week, they had already accomplished a fair amount and were beginning to turn this into a real little settlement. The question Aerrow had to ask was: why? And where was Starling? He had it in his mind that she was here somewhere. She had to be.

"I thought you said nobody lived here." Junko spoke after a few minutes.  
"They didn't! Not when Starling and I were here!" He got out of the way as a Raptor carried past a box of tools. "These guys seemed to have set up shop. Really quickly… By the looks of things."  
"Impressive isn't it?"

The sound of an English voice caused them all to turn around. Just how and when Starling had come up behind them, Aerrow didn't know. The good news was that she looked a little better and steadier on her feet than she had done the last time he'd seen her. Her injury had no doubt healed up a fair bit since then. His squadron looked a little unsure for a moment, exchanging glances as they stepped back giving him a little bit of space. For a moment, all he could do was gawk at the last of the Interceptors.

"There's just no getting rid of you, is there?" She continued more to Aerrow than to the others.  
"Afraid not..." He found himself smiling none-the-less. "Not until we've had our talk."  
"Very well..." She looked down at the floor for a moment. "Would it bother you if we talk alone for a while?"  
"No." Piper spoke for the entire group. "Take your time..."

Even Radarr hopped off of his shoulder. Aerrow hesitated a moment before following Starling. There wasn't any privacy here for them to really be able to talk. As such, they needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the seemingly new inhabitants and his friends. Fortunately, they had both spent long enough here to know every part of the terra. Soon, the Storm Hawk found himself on a hill overlooking the little settlement in construction. Just when and how they had decided to set up here he didn't know but he suspected that his old friend might have had something to do with it. For a moment, he just stood there taking in the sight and wondering where to begin.

"You ran away again..." He reminded his friend earning a sigh.  
"I know I did." She replied not turning to look at him.  
"What is it?" He asked still confused. "Why do you run?"  
"Aerrow, just leave it." She requested a little dryly.

He watched as his friend turn away once more and begin walking off. For a moment, he just stood there helplessly. He cared for her, surely she must have been able to realize that. So why did she persist in being so distant? Was standing next to him so unbearable that she felt compelled to run away as soon as she did so? Try as he might, he simply couldn't understand the other sky knight's motivations. He had never been able to. He felt a certain degree of pain as he saw her walk off. A part of him felt as if it would be better to leave her alone. On the other hand… He could see that there was a fair amount of sadness there.

"Please don't give me the cold shoulder." He requested causing her to stop. "If I've done something, just say. If you don't want to be with me, I'll understand. We can go back to how we were."

She stood there motionless for a few seconds no doubt allowing his words to sink in. In the past, she would simply have shouted at him and told him to mind his own business. Perhaps their recent interactions had allowed her to open enough to for a few moments actually consider what he was saying and not to instantly dismiss him. He waited patiently for a few moments before slowly, she turned around to face him. The Interceptor starred back at him for a few moments, it wasn't a glare but there was something about her expression which gave him the impression that she was checking to make sure he was serious.

"I..." She began speaking hesitating a moment as she looked down at her feet before timidly raising her gaze to meet his. "This is going to sound strange."  
"Be strange." Aerrow offered her a warm but somewhat faint smile hoping that it would encourage her.

For a few brief seconds, the shadow of a smile seemed to flicker across her face at his comment. It vanished quickly however and her expression became grave once more. She looked painfully uneasy as she stood there before him awkwardly. It was somewhat unsettling to see her in such a state, usually she was the cool, calm and confident one. He wondered what she could possibly have to say which could make her look so flustered. Still, he waited patiently for her response not wanting to make her feel as if she was being pressurised.

"I honestly thought I was dying back there in Cyclonia." The young woman hesitated before clarifying. "Thought I was going to die..."  
"You're safe now..." The sky knight began.  
"Let me finish." She requested, not angry but still somewhat more emotional than he was used to seeing her. "All these years, I've never been afraid of death. As in 'never', I'm not just saying that. I actually mean it."

He thought about her words for a few moments, he could remember her telling him that she didn't fear death. It wasn't something that he could understand although he did envy it. He liked to think he was brave but even he got scared in battle, sometimes downright terrified. The idea that somebody could fly potentially towards their death and not feel even the slightest bit of fear? It was both impressive and maybe a little bit frightening in its own right. He contemplated her for a few seconds before asking in a quiet voice:

"What was different this time?"  
"You were..." She answered as she raised her eyes once more to meet his, this time not looking away. "I was frightened because I don't want to lose you."  
"You won't Starling." He promised reaching out to take her hands in his own. "I'm not going anywhere."  
"And what about me?" She pulled away from him. "These lives we lead, they're dangerous! I know what it's like Aerrow! I know how much it hurts. How much it burns to lose someone you care about like that, someone you-"

She stopped herself realizing that she was getting emotional. It was a strange thing but to her she seemed to consider it to be a show of weakness. He simply starred at her unable to speak for surprise. That was the difficult thing about seeing his friend like this when he wasn't used to it. He had absolutely no way how to react or what to say if anything at all. The last thing that he wanted to do was to manage to offend her through a poor choice of words or actions. The end result was him just standing there gawking at her. Finally, after a few moments, Starling seemed to be able to pull herself together and continued in a hushed tone:

"Love..." She let out a heavy sigh, shaking somewhat. "I don't want you to be hurt like that."

Again, he struggled to react. What she saying what he thought that she was saying? He hoped that he wasn't getting the wrong end of the stick but he did believe that she was confessing her love to him. What could he do or say now? The Storm Hawk simply stood there, his mind was both blank and busy processing far too much information to be able to speak.

Slowly, he thought that he might have been able to understand why Starling had run away the way she had. The mental image of the Interceptors, although he had never known them passed through his mind as he imagined what it must have been like to see her entire squadron shot down, in short to lose the people that she loved. The Dark Ace's words came back to him as he reminded himself that the Interceptor had been in love before and lost him also. Suddenly, he found himself realizing just why she would want to run away. It was to protect herself and him as well from ever having to potentially feel that pain once more.

He could understand but found himself compelled to disagree. He just hoped that he could get her to see his point.

"You're right. Our lives are dangerous..." He conceded slowly walking towards her. "But how is that different from anyone else's? Nothing's safe." He paused for a moment before chuckling to himself. "Especially not falling in love."

She looked up at him uncertainly. At the end of the day, the words had come out surprisingly easily. It was as if gradually he could feel the tension begin to fade away. Despite everything, the sky knight found himself feeling strangely at ease as he stood there. A stark contrast from the few times beforehand that he'd contemplated telling the Interceptor how he felt and had ended up more embarrassed than anything else. Starling said nothing as she looked at him, her expression was strangely hard to read but it didn't appear to be hostile or sad. If anything, it was rather pensive as she contemplated him.

"Aerrow-"  
"Please Star..." He cut her short. "I'm willing to have my heart broken if it means being with you. I'm asking you if you want to take the same risk?"

Silence hung heavily in the air. All Aerrow could hear was his own heart thumping rapidly in his chest. He wished he knew just what his friend was thinking as she stood there. Her green eyes were riveted upon him, barely even blinking. The Storm Hawk knew it was a big ask. She had been hurt too many times before and he sensed that growing attached to anyone be it friends, family or romantic interests was something that she had for a long time avoided. It made her run away. He just hoped that she was going to stop fleeing. All he could do was stare back and pray.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity. Starling stepped forwards slowly and cautiously, as if she thought he was made out of glass and might shatter at any moment, she reached out and gently took his hand in hers.

"Okay..." She spoke softly in a whisper so quiet he had to strain his ears to hear her.

He didn't quite know how to respond to that one. His heart felt as if it had just skipped a couple of beats and seemed to jump inside of his chest. Aerrow stood there a little uncertain how to act. A part of him, it was somewhat childish and he was aware of that fact but he simply wanted to shout out and jump for joy. He wanted to be a little bit more in control than that and appear to be a little bit cooler and no longer like the foolhardy kid that Starling had first known. So he found himself simply standing there with a slightly goofy smile on his face. It caused the Interceptor to laugh softly.

"Still the same Aerrow..." She declared with a fond smile. "Don't change, I like it when you smile."  
"You do?" It was maybe a daft question but he was so elated right now he wasn't quite aware of it.  
"Yes. It feels like everything's alright in the Atmos." The Interceptor told him. "Listen, there's something that I need to talk to you about before you get ahead of yourself."  
"What is it?" He asked instinctively growing concerned.  
"I can't come with you..."

He frowned wondering what she could possibly mean. It wasn't as if she had Terra Mesa to protect any more. A soft but somewhat sad smile graced her lips. Slowly, she walked a little higher on the hill until they had a good vantage point over the entire terra. It allowed him to better take in and appreciate the work that had been done. It struck him suddenly as he watched them build all of their little houses and set up other structures that these people looked as if they were very much planning on staying. Slowly, the realization of what Starling meant began to dawn on him. He turned to face his fellow sky knight finding himself almost able to guess her words before she had even spoken them.

"You're staying here?"  
"Yes..." She let out in a sigh. "These people have lost everything Aerrow. Their jobs, their homes, for many their loved ones… This is their chance for a fresh start and it's a chance for mine."

He understood at that moment just what she meant. He looked back to the group still setting up their settlement, their new lives… He tried to imagine what must have been going through their heads. True, they had lost much, in some cases everything but now Cyclonis was gone and they were here. If nothing else, there should have been at least some hope. In a way, Starling was no different from them: no terra and no squadron. Perhaps she needed them as much as they might potentially need her to lead and protect them in the coming days which he was certain, despite everything he sensed wouldn't be easy.

"I understand..." He let out in a sigh. "Can we still be together though?"  
"I don't know." She looked down at her feet for a moment. "I would be happy to give it a go. Although we probably won't be seeing that much of each other."  
"You know..." He allowed his voice to trail off for a moment as he gently took her hand once more. "I think you're worth it."  
"Please, I think I'm going to be sick."

Both turned to face the Dark Ace. He sat on his skimmer, looking at them with his harsh red eyes twisted with a sarcastic amusement which they had began to know well. He certainly had a knack for ruining – well, pretty much everything… No matter how hard any of them tried, he seemed to always be able to turn up and make their lives a misery. Aerrow felt like hurling some abuse in his general direction. It was a mystery to him why Starling had even tolerated his presence this long. Had their places been reversed he would likely have kicked the man out as soon as possible and told him to be on his way.

After all, now that the Atmos was free, all debts were off. Was there any particular reason they were still putting up with his presence?

"I'll be on my way now." He declared revving his bike.  
"One minute, Ace." Starling stopped him causing him to glare coldly at her. "Just what do you plan to do once you leave? You're not the most popular man in Atmos, you know. You haven't repaid your debt, not by half."  
"What are you getting at?" The man asked narrowing his eyes.  
"Stay here. Protect this terra. I know it's not exactly your idea of fun but it will give you a safe place to stay and the rest of us peace of mind knowing that you're not getting up to any trouble."

Aerrow just stood there and starred at her with almost as much surprise as the Dark Ace did. He couldn't begin to understand what was going through her mind. Despite everything, very little had changed. This was the same man who had killed his father and shown precious little remorse (if any) about it. If that wasn't bad enough he seemed to take actual pleasure in watching them suffer. In a way, the Storm Hawk could see some of the logic behind Starling's arguments but it still seemed like one hell of a gamble. He waited with great interest to hear just what the former Talon would have to say about it.

Right now, he seemed a little too surprised to be able to respond. It was true that Aerrow hadn't given too much thought as to just what would happen to the Dark Ace after the war had ended. Perhaps because he didn't care so long as the man stayed well away from him. Starling however it would seem had put a little more thought into the matter.

"Are you serious?" He asked her after a few moments in a somewhat quieter voice than Aerrow was used to hearing.  
"Perfectly." Starling replied calmly. "I won't stop you from leaving if you want to though."  
"Hm..." He hesitated for a moment, visibly weighing up his options. "I suppose then, for the time being… I will stay. I warn you however if I don't like it. I'm leaving."  
"Fine by me."

Starling turned her back on the man heading back over to the edge of the hill. The Dark Ace hesitated a moment, truly looking confused as if he didn't quite know what to do with himself. Then slowly, he set about slowly riding his skimmer back to the little settlement. Aerrow kept his eyes on him for a little while, unwilling to let the man out of his sight. He wouldn't mention it to Starling as he was certain that she was more than aware of it but she wouldn't be able to take her eyes off of him for any time for fear of being stabbed in the back.

Slowly, he rejoined the Interceptor as she looked over her new home. It had potential. He couldn't deny that but it would need a lot of work. Fortunately, if there was one person in the Atmos to do it, it was Starling.

"So… The Dark Ace?" He asked her after a few moments.  
"I hope I'm not being too idealistic about this whole 'new chances' thing." She replied with a somewhat bemused smile. "But yes, even him..."

Aerrow said nothing, instead he gently took the Interceptor's hand as he glanced over the settlement. Yes, it was definitely worth a shot.


	19. Epilogue

**_Well... This is it. The final chapter or rather the epilogue. It's only short I'm afraid. Antway, thanks for all the reviews and likes. _**

**_ Sophie Starlight I think Starling has long hair, I mean she has a ponytail but I gave up trying to understand the physics behind Atmosian hair a while ago. They must need gallons of hair gel..._**

**_/_**

The Condor flew silently though skies which were pleasantly familiar to its crew. A man with flaming red hair and a slight beard stood on the bridge looking out eagerly into the distance. Night had fallen quick and fast, fortunately they hadn't far to go and their destination was now visible on the horizon. The locals would still be awake, asides the very young who needed a little more sleep. They never missed a drop-off or a visit from the legendary Storm Hawks, it was something of an event for the little piece of rock cut off from the rest of the Atmos.

"This is the Condor." Spoke a woman into the radio. "Approaching now."  
"Rodger..." Came the slithering voice of a Raptor from the other side. "Opening the gatesss."

They dived under the thin layer of wispy cloud approaching a small tunnel usually guarded by gates. It allowed fast and direct access for even the larger ships such as those of Murk Raiders so that they could pass through without having to risk getting caught in the far more dangerous leach clouds. The young man couldn't help but smile as they passed through the tunnel. It had taken the best part of a year (and a few mishaps) to built but had proved to be more than worth it. He knew all too well the sight that would greet them on the other side and could barely contain his excitement as they approached.

They emerged next to what had become the terra's somewhat makeshift shipyard. The helmsman carefully landed, they'd learned to hard way that due to the somewhat poor lighting, they needed to keep an eye out to ensure that they weren't landing on anyone's head. Once they had touched down, the entire squadron headed towards the cargo bay of the ship as they opened the main door. Waiting to greet them were a number of the locals eager to say "hello" and help them unload.

The crates they carried with them were filled with various supplies which the little settlement needed to survive. Every year, things were getting better and they were practically autonomous now. The young man had to hand it to them, they were a tough and resilient bunch who had fought to make this place their own so that they might have a second chance at life. There had been a time when they had needed to have a fair bit delivered, now they found themselves largely able to make do only requiring what they themselves couldn't make or find. He helped them load some of the boxes onto trolleys for a moment before the young woman called out to him:

"Go on Aerrow! We've got this!"  
"You're sure?" He turned around a little hesitantly, unwilling to leave his squadron to do all the heavy lifting.  
"Yeah!" Finn who was standing a little closer told him. "You got better places to be bro!"  
"Thanks..." He muttered as he headed for the door.  
"We'll catch up once we're done!" Junko declared as he picked up a box which two Murk Raiders had failed to lift with one hand.

Aerrow gave them a grateful smile before hurrying off. Most people recognised him as he passed them and would give him a little nod or a "good evening". There weren't really streets in this place, there weren't enough little houses or perhaps a better term would have been 'huts' for that. They had however managed to light the place, hanging strings of lights rather a lot more like fairy lights than anything else. The effect was rather pretty and served to light the way well enough for the young man. He knew full well where he was heading anyhow, he'd spent enough time there.

He arrived at his destination, a small building somewhat separated from the others. It had been fixed up since the first time he had ever laid eyes on it but managed to maintain some of its rather eclectic charm. He smiled softly, slowing as he drew nearer. This place was home to many of his fondest memories now and was tied with the Condor for where he felt most at peace.

Instinctively, his eyes fell upon the young woman standing on the porch. She was truly beautiful standing there in the moonlight. He approached slowly, unable to hold back his smile as he took note of hers. There was a warmth and familiarity there which he found himself longing for on a daily basis whenever duty called him and his squadron away from this place. Without saying a word, he gently wrapped his arms around the woman's waist and pulled her close as she returned the gesture. For a while, he said nothing, simply taking comfort from her presence.

"Hey..." He spoke softly pulling away after a few moments.  
"It's good to see you." She informed him.  
"Yeah. I came as fast as I could." He let out a sigh regretting how long they had been apart. "Life's been pretty hectic."  
"I can imagine." She answered with a warm sky.  
"So how's Atmos' second best sky knight?" He asked her with a smile.  
"Oh, I'm fine." She assured him gently brushing some of his hair behind his ear.  
"And its first?" He raised an eyebrow knowingly.

Something abruptly jumped onto his back, grabbing him round his neck. A little surprised for a moment, he quickly realized just what it was and laughed. He struggled with the attacker for a few seconds, carefully bouncing him up and down slightly so that he could get a better hold and more importantly stop unintentionally straggling him. A child's laughter sounded after a few moments and even the green eyed woman put her hand in front of her mouth the muffle a few giggles. The child slipped off of his neck after a few moments, Aerrow could only smile warmly at the lad.

"Hey there champ!" He greeted the boy.  
"Dad!"

The purple haired child rushed forwards giving him a hug. Aerrow smiled pulling him a little closer. It seemed that every time he came here the boy had gotten a bit bigger. It was only to be expected he supposed, he just wished that he could have watched it first hand. Starling smiled from a few feet away, looking at both of them proudly. The Storm Hawk was used to receiving such a warm greeting from the five year old, it seemed as if it was a personal challenge for the boy to try and send his father to the infirmary every time he saw him out of sheer joy.

"Has he been behaving himself?" Aerrow asked the boy's mother knowing full well he wouldn't get an honest answer out of the five year old.  
"Well enough." Starling replied eyeing her son knowingly.  
"I've been good!" He declared pulling away for a moment. "Honest!"  
"I'm sure you have Jay."

Actually he wasn't but right now wasn't the time for scepticism.

After a few moments, they settled in a patch of grass not too far from the house. Aerrow sat next to Starling who rested herself again him as their child sat in between her legs. The boy was eager to hear the tales of the adventures that he has his squadron had been on since the last time he had seen them. He listened attentively and with such obvious delight that it made the Storm Hawk smile with pride as he told his stories. He could only tell the five year old about the exciting stuff, he doubted that the youngster would be all that interested in the political side of the new Atmos. He could tell the Interceptor later about all the developments for the time being, he was going to take the advantage of the family time whilst he had it.

At five years old, Aerrow could see bits of both himself and Starling in their son. The boy had a mop of unruly purple hair which he had no doubt inherited from his mother. Those green eyes were his though. Although he couldn't remember the boy's mother when she was younger, he seemed to have developed a more energetic and mischievous nature which the Storm Hawk found himself blamed for. Whatever the case was, the father found himself sometimes struggling to grasp that his son was no longer a baby and was slowly growing up.

Starling undid her hair allowing it to fall freely for a moment. She smiled softly as she noticed a rather big yawn distort her son's face.

"You're falling asleep." She told her son.  
"No I'm not..." He replied struggling to avoid drifting off as she snuggled up in between his parents.

Aerrow and Starling exchanged a knowing look. Neither of them were going to argue over another give minutes.


End file.
