"I see that you have failed to defeat the Storm Hawks once again."
Master Cyclonis's so-called champion merely closed his eyes in defeat at her frigid tone.
"Tell me, Dark Ace," she murmured, "do they just overpower you or do they outsmart you as well?"
"Neither, my queen."
"Then you will not admit that you are incompetent."
"That's because I'm not incompetent."
"Then what are you?"
Silence.
"Don't tell me you're thinking about your past." She turned away from her machine to glare at him. "That time is gone. You promised to serve me. You made an oath and sealed it with blood. You are mine; do you understand that?"
"I do."
"So what is this? A moment of weakness?"
"No," he snapped, causing her to raise a delicate brow.
"No? Then why do you become so angered?" As she traced a clawed finger down his cheek, he refused to meet her penetrating violet eyes. "My dear Dark Ace, you are determined to be the best, but you cannot always win. An occasional loss is acceptable. It is merely," she whispered sweetly, contradicting her voice with her hand, which now left a trail of blood where her fingernail dug into his face, "these consistent, repeated failures that are intolerable." She removed her hand and gazed at him, a patient, benevolent goddess and an irate tyrant all at once. "So tell me why I should keep you on."
He turned to look at her, forced himself to stare her down. "I am the only person you trust."
Malevolently, she smiled at him. "I'm beginning to suspect that my trust might be misplaced."
"Rest assured that it isn't."
She returned to her contraption but did not dismiss him. "I suppose the pesky Sky Knight is a bit like you were at that age. Young, inexperienced, stubborn. Talented and determined to prove yourself. But nobody would give you any respect."
Her smirk could be felt rather than seen, and it froze him solid, stopped his heart.
"Not even your squadron. One day, poof! They were gone. You saw them later being led by an older Sky Knight, a war veteran, and you were angry."
Her smile widened, he could tell.
"Oh, I know all about you, Dark Ace. I know that you were considered the youngest, most promising Sky Knight the Academy had ever seen, but your professors just couldn't coach that stubborn, unyielding, angry determination out of you. And I know that you killed them all. Your old squad, your old teachers, and anyone who tried to stop you. You finally proved that you were better than them all, didn't you? But of course, still no one would accept you. You were alone, wandering, living off what you could steal and salvage. Your mind was just waiting, listening for my call."
He closed his eyes, fisted his hands, and refused to be goaded.
"And here you are," she continued, that ridiculous grin still decorating her narrow face, "fighting the newest, youngest, most promising Sky Knight the Academy has even seen who also has stubborn, unyielding, angry determination. You see a lot of yourself in him. But he has friends, he has a squadron, he has respect and praise. You envy him. You want to be him. Deny all you want; you know it to be true. And now you wonder, what if, what if..."
He sucked in a sharp breath when she turned back to him, smiling still.
"You know the old expression: if you can't beat them, join them. Yet you don't join them, because you know you also cannot defeat me. Above all that, your reputation would never allow you to return, never allow you to make amends. So you stay."
She passed a crystal over his face, healing the cut she had left into a puckered scar that left him marked as hers, just another way to show her possession of him, no longer a person, merely an object.
"Now the question is: what will you do?"
He focused on her again, let her look at the darkness within, a quality they shared, a quality she already knew about. "I'll kill them."
Smiling and donning the goddess half of her persona, she pressed her lips to his cheek as a reward for his obedience. "Good boy."
He sensed the dismissal in her tone and turned to leave, but at the last moment he asked, "When will I ever get something back for my efforts and trials?"
That wicked smile graced the room again, sent the fingers of chill down his spine. "I suppose," she replied slowly, "when you do something right."
The door shut behind him noiselessly, and the room was silent, as though he had never been there at all.
-----End-----
This occurred to me after I wondered why the Dark Ace had a fancy Sky Knight-esque move. I enjoyed every minute of writing this.