"The Storm Hawks and the Condor were destroyed. The alliance quickly crumbled.
Cyclonia won.
The traitor was rewarded. Soon, he would be known across Atmos as the Dark Ace.
With the Storm Hawks and the Condor gone, all hope was lost."
She dodged around the guards at the door, giggling at her imagined stealth, and stole into the room.
The two armed men looked at each other and rolled their eyes, grinning, before turning their attentions back to the empty corridor. Kids would be kids, and it wasn't worth their time to chase her all over the palace.
The young girl peered around the nearly empty room from her position behind a tall potted plant. She couldn't see very much in the dark chamber as smoke curled lazily through the upper half of the room, just above her head. But she spotted her target anyway; sitting as he usually would be, bent over the glossy counter that ran along one side the room.
She smirked a child's smirk and bent down to her hands and knees, inching out from behind the plant. Then she crept across the open space toward the bar, making sure to keep directly behind his back. Last time, he'd seen her coming from the side.
Hand, knee, hand, knee she slunk closer, eyes fixed on the back of his head, ready to freeze should he turn around. She got to within three feet of his chair and he hadn't spotted her. The girl grinned in triumph, straightening up and raising her arms over her head, ready to scare him. She took a deep breath-
"Hello Ana," he said without turning.
-and let it out again, face slipping into a pout. She walked around to the stool on his left, labouriously climbing up the side to sit next to him.
"How did you know I was there?" she demanded, grabbing the counter's edge so she wouldn't slip sideways.
"I've been sneaking around for a long time; I know what to listen for."
She pondered that for a second. "I wasn't making any noise," she argued after a moment of thought.
"Shouldn't you be studying, Ana?" the man asked, staring into his glass of what looked like water.
"Studying's boring," she complained, "I'd rather play with you. You're my friend."
This earned her the usual glare, "I am not your friend, little Cyclonis," he growled at her.
Ana knew to be quiet. She'd learned from experience that pushing him about friendship would make him leave, and he would ignore her for a while. But she stubbornly refused to believe that they weren't friends. He was the only adult that wouldn't send her away, and occasionally he even brought her treats after a mission. Besides, why wouldn't he want to be friends?
She let her eyes wander the room as he glared at the wall across from them and took a gulp of his drink. She'd wait for a minute, and then bring up a new topic. As her gaze drifted down, a glint of metal caught her eye. Something round and shiny was hanging by a tiny chain to his belt.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the medallion.
The man seemed to start. He set his glass down and put a hand to the medal, unclipping it. Ana leaned closer, staring curiously at the emblem of a blue bird with its wings spread wide.
"What is it?" she repeated, reaching over slowly to take it from him. His long fingers wrapped around the pendant before she could touch it, and he moved it closer to his chest, as if to protect it.
"Storm Hawks," he said quietly, almost regretfully Ana thought.
"But they were the enemy," she said, confused, "why do you have that?"
His fist clenched around the medal and his brows slipped lower into a glare. "They were my team," he growled, "before the last battle."
"What?" The revelation froze the young girl as she stared at the top commander of the Cyclonian army. He was Atmosian?
"But…" she didn't believe it, "how could you be Mother's most trusted officer if you used to be a Sky Knight?"
"Some things change, Ana," he said, 'I stopped caring. She knows that."
"But that would make you a traitor. You're not a traitor, even to the Sky Knights! You're not like that!"
He laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "I told you I wasn't your friend Ana. You don't know me."
"Please?" She felt tears in her eyes at the betrayal, felt her bottom lip quivering.
"Tell me," she begged him, "what happened?"
He looked down at the little girl, his expression stoic, "You don't want to know."
"I do!" she wailed, "Tell me!"
The man glanced around the room and saw the other occupants were all staring curiously at them. They didn't know his history either. He sighed, putting a hand to his forehead.
"You want to know?"
She nodded. The Talons inched closer.
"It's not happy," he warned her, "maybe in the beginning, but not in the middle, and definitely not in the end."
She nodded, staring determinedly through the tears still gathered in her eyes.
"Fine," he relented, twisting the bar stool to face the room but keeping his gaze on the girl.
"It was ten years ago, almost to the day," he began, "the battle to end all battles…"
Ana for Anarchis, the original name for Cyclonis.
Came up with this while listening to Placebo's version of 'Running Up that Hill,' and Billy Talent's 'Rusted from the Rain.'