A Unique Beginning Part One

by Princess Peregrine

Cyclonis had her fun as Lark, but that time led her to a mistake. And that mistake is one she is going to have to live with, with Piper. this story is based off A Unique Start by PariahDark. This story is a Cyclonis x Piper fic. please review and help with errors.

Just know I will be taking liberties in the order of episodes and how much time it takes between each one. I'm doing this to make the story smoother and because for the most part continuity doesn't matter until the ending episodes with the doorway. I will be starting right after episode three, best friends forever. This story is mainly inspired from a story by PariahDark, called A Unique Start. Also everyone is aged up so Piper is 22 and Cyclonis is 21 because not aging them up is creepy, so is aging them up to 18, cause that's the bare minimum of aging up. This goes for every character. I'm trying out a different format I've seen others do. Might as well join in on the bad fan fiction writing style. The change is headings when locations or situations change.

Following Cyclonis

She had made a mistake, Cyclonis knew that for sure. How big of a mistake is something she didn't know, which was why she was heading to the royal library. The oblivion crystal should have sent Piper to oblivion, but that didn't work. She was too cocky, she knew just as well as Piper that the crystal wouldn't do anything. She was just hoping it would work, anything to be rid of one less Storm Hawk. But now she had a problem on her hands, she used the oblivion crystal on a friend.

Friend, something about that didn't sit well with Cyclonis as she made her way down the dark corridors. While it's true that she and Piper were friends even for a brief moment, she didn't know the limitations of being a friend. In retrospect Piper probably thought of her as a friend from the moment she saved her from the storm. But Cyclonis at the time didn't realize this. She knew now she was being too friendly, she just kept adding on layers of niceness to keep up the facade. Doing something that let either of them think they were more than friends might very well have been the case. That's where the problem came from.

There was a consequence for using an oblivion crystal on more than a friend, but what that was escaped her. But she knew it would be bad news for her as much as it would be for Piper. Which is what led her to stand in front of the large doors in front of her. Any other day and she would just walk in without issue, but this time was because she had made a mistake, still being human, any mistake to her was a blemish she didn't want others to see.

The doors swung open slowly with a creak revealing an almost empty room. Being such a large room the creak echoed and raised the head of the single person in the room.

"Ravess?" Cyclonis said as she walked to the pink haired girl at the table, intently reading something from the fiction section.

Ravess immediately sat up straight and wiped any enjoyment she was previously having off her face. "Master Cyclonis, is there a job you need me to do?" She asked.

"Not right now." Cyclonis told instantly relaxing Ravess. "What are you reading?" She might as well pretend to act interested, Ravess almost raised her as much as Dark Ace. Courtesy prevents uprisings as her mother used to say.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was reading fiction, I should be studying." Ravess began.

"Actually," Cyclonis cut off. "I'm going to be doing some studying, and I don't remember what book I need, you can stay here with your book while I go look for it."

"Yes Master." Ravess said as Cyclonis walked off towards the section where the book she needed lay. She lied about not knowing, anything to get Ravess to stop being creepily soldier like. As much as she demanded everyone in her presence treat her with the respect she deserves, Ravess took this too strongly and did more than just salute.

Cyclonis grabbed the book and walked back to sit across from Ravess. The silence that brewed as Cyclonis and Ravess flipped through the pages created it's own echo in her mind. She was used to the silence of being left alone, but silence with other people was what got her. She did her best to focus on the words on the pages and how important it was to fix her mistake. She focused on how she infiltrated the Storm Hawks and what she would've done differently now that she has hindsight. Firstly she'd check everything to not be too obviously friendly, second she'd had actually from that monkey in place instead of just making it invisible. She had to keep focusing on something, the silence was only a reminder that sooner or later someone would say something to break the silence, and when that happened it was going to be like dropping a nail.

"Can I ask you something?" And there it was. And shockingly it was her to break the silence. Ravess immediately grew a smile on her face, which was actually looking pretty blushed. Something that seemed normal but clashed with her hair.

"Anything Cyclonis." It was obvious she was waiting for a job to be done, or to do anything. All she ever did was practice one song. And it was the only song she knew, sometimes she would invite Cyclonis down to hear a new song, or call it a different emotion, and then play the exact same song. The monotony had to be getting to Ravess.

"It's about," This would have been so much easier if she actually bothered to have friends when she was younger. Although she doesn't regret not having friends, all the people she grew up with that were her age were probably screwing in bolts on Snipe's newest ship. "making friends." Ravess listened on, waiting for her moment to answer a question. Cyclonis still spoke with her uncaring malevolent voice no matter how many things ran through her head. "In your opinion, what is the limit to being friendly?"

"Master Cyclonis, may I speak frankly?" Ravess said as she placed a bookmark in what she was reading and pushed it away. The only response Cyclonis gave was a small nod. "Well I'm actually glad you asked, I actually expected you to ask sooner. Although I guess you never had time for those emotions with all your studying." Cyclonis kept listening, waiting for when she would finally get to the answer. "Is the reason you're asking because of someone else or something that happened?"

"I don't see how that's relevant." Cyclonis said, trying to shut that down.

"So you're asking because of someone?"

"Let's go with that if you're going to insist on asking that question. Yes, I'm asking because of someone else." Cyclonis could almost see the glimmer in Ravess' eyes when she said that. "And no, you may not ask who."

"Very well. But because of that, I'm going to assume that you tried to make a friend and went to far?" Cyclonis said nothing and almost held her breath in anticipation for where this conversation was going. "After all these years I can read you pretty well. I suppose that when trying to make friends it's important to be nice first and foremost. "Cyclonis lowered her head and continued looking for the page about the oblivion crystal.

"But that's pretty obvious, you did ask about the limits of being friendly. I suppose things that could make someone think you're trying to be more might be constant eye contact," Cyclonis began checking off things that Ravess said, that was check one. "lots of touching," Check two. "constant interest in their interests," Check three. "and, um, oh yeah, laughing at all their jokes." And that's a double check.

"Okay, maybe suppose I were to do all those things, what would they think?" Cyclonis asked glancing up from her book. She was taking everything Ravess said with a grain of salt, after all she was just reading a romance novel. She wished she didn't have those kinds of fiction books in her library, but Ravess was the only other one that actually read in her tower.

"Probably that you were flirting with them." Oblivion crystal chapter found, why would it need a chapter, most crystals get a few pages at most. It was also odd to see a rare crystal with history that was so long. Cyclonis was trying to skip most things to find it's effects on humans.

"Cyclonis, if I might be so bold to ask." Cyclonis was barely listening now keeping all her attention on the information in front of her. "Did you ask this because you were flirting with someone?"

"Uh-huh." Cyclonis said automatically, it didn't matter, the information on the page was her top priority. If what she was reading was correct then her mistake might be a bigger problem than before.

"Can I ask who it was?"

"Oh fuck no!"

On the condor after escaping the black gorge

"Anyone know a shortcut to Terra way?" Aerrow asked with a smirk.

"Sh-Shortcut?" Stork said, faking the fear in his voice like always.

"He's kidding Stork, although I could really use a trip to a market Terra. I could really go for some Murk cabbage." All eyes in the ship turned to her.

"Say again Piper?" Aerrow asked, shocked at what she said.

"Even I wouldn't eat Murk cabbage." Junko said in disgust.

"I'm just wanting something to eat and that's what came to mind."

"Um Piper," Stork began, "you wouldn't have been feeling nauseous lately have you?"

"A little, nearly puked when I woke up but I didn't, why?" Piper asked wondering where Stork was going with this, if she knew Stork it would probably be mind worms.

"Mood swings? Lack of balance? Nausea? Odd food cravings? Constantly empty stomach? Weight gain?" Stork leaned close to Piper to whisper in her ear the last part. "No periods?"

"Um," Piper began as she pushed Stork away a little. "a few of those things, and yes to the last one. What do you think it is." Piper prepared herself for him to come to the conclusion of mind worms yet again.

"Well normally I would say mind worms." So he wasn't going to say mind worms this time, a little odd. "Back at my childhood home there was an outbreak with all those symptoms happening to everyone on my Terra, they're symptoms of noxious fumes that eat away the second layer of skin." Creepy. "That or you're pregnant, but I doubt that."

"Wait, pregnant?" Piper asked confused. "How is that even possible?" She looked around at the faces of her friends in the room, almost all of them looked confused, Stork was still being paranoid.

"Well it's not, so I recommend that we all wear these gas masks until I can find the source of the gas." Stork said pulling out a box of gas masks. "As for you Piper, you'll have to be placed in quarantine." Stork said not seeing the small craft coming towards the condor.

"Um, Stork?" Piper began, trying to get the topic off of her when she saw a figure heading for the condor. "What's that?" This caused Storks attention to the dash and see what was heading for them.

"Just seems to be someone out on their bike, probably just having fun."

"But what about," Junko pointed at the side of the craft. "that Cyclonian symbol?"

"Cyclonian?!" Aerrow said, jumping back and grabbing his daggers preemptively. "Piper, Finn, come with me, Junko and Stork will stay on the ship, let's go."

"Might want to wait on that, Aerrow." Stork said.

"Why?"

"Because, she's here." Stork said as a thud hit the front of the condor leaving a pink haired girl holding on to the glass without a bike. Everyone looked at the odd image before the girl pointed to Finn and mouthed help.

"I think she's asking for you Finn." Junko said with a smirk.

Finn gathered some more confidence before saying, "Obviously, she crashed because she was taken in by the Irresistible Finn Charm."

"Sure she did." Piper said as Finn walked away to get his bike.

It was an awkward experience watching Finn get super close to the condor and try and help this girl onto his ride. It was during this that Aerrow recognized who it was.

"I know her." Aerrow began, bringing the attention to him. "I destroyed her bike back when we tried to get the Aurora crystal back from Cyclonis. I'm pretty sure she's a general."

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Piper asked. "She wasn't wearing a hat or she didn't have a mustache?"

"Kinda, she was the only one with pink hair, that must be a sign of rank."

"Odd conclusion."

"Seriously?!" Stork screamed. "Are we just going to let that Cyclonian dog onto the condor?!"

"I'm sure Finn is making sure to be super careful." Junko said. "Oh, here he comes now."

Finn walked into the room with Ravess laughing the whole way.

"You? An orphan? No way, you must be kidding." Ravess said with a smile as Finn walked her into the room.

"Yep started with nothing, now look at me." Finn said, gesturing to himself. "And this is everyone." Finn said gesturing to everyone else. "Everyone, Ravess. Ravess, everyone."

"Finn!" Stork screamed stomping over to Finn. "You brought her onto my ship?! Why?"

"Oh be a little nice, I'm only a messenger today." Ravess said coming in between Stork and Finn.

"Prove it." Aerrow said raising a dagger. Doing this cause Ravess to reach into a pouch the others hadn't noticed before and pull out a parchment of papers.

"Master Cyclonis ordered me to hand deliver this to Piper. I'm not too sure why, but I assume it can't be good."

"And why would you say that?" Piper said as she grabbed the paper from Ravess and began unrolling it to read what was on it. "A letter from Cyclonis and a," Piper's face lit up with glee at what she saw next. "an entire page all about the oblivion crystal! All the others had very little information on the subject. You see an oblivion crystal was first discovered four centuries ago, it's one of the earliest crystals to every be discovered in all all the Atmos."

"Piper," Finn started, "please stop." Somehow this worked and Piper improvised by reading the paper.

"Um well," Ravess began, trying to recover from what Piper just rambled off. "she's just been really jittery, looking up on the laws and things she doesn't normally do."

"What's considered normal for Cyclonis?" Junko asked.

"Hard to say. Well, I've done what I needed to, I need to get back to Cyclonia." Ravess said walking away to leave. "And don't worry about the bike, I had another soldier follow me just in case." She said as she left.

"Dude," Finn started. "I think she likes me!" Finn exclaimed as he high-fived Junko.

"She did seem to enjoy your conversation." Aerrow said. "But more importantly, Piper, what's in the message? Is it a threat? A warning?" Aerrow turned to see a stunned Piper. She held the papers as if saw through both of them, staring at nothing.

"Um, I should really go review these in my room, I need to compare this information with the rest of mine. I'll be right back." Piper said as she slowly made her way to her room. Aerrow gave a concerned look but shook it off, trusting Piper to be the smart one. With that thought, another one came to Aerrow.

"Hey Finn, looks like the gorge madness is gone."

The moment Piper got to her room she collapsed on her bed. What she read couldn't be right. It couldn't be, it just didn't make sense. The pieces just weren't there. The information about the oblivion crystal looked official. But there was no way. She looked over the paper once again.

'At first the oblivion crystal was called the fertility crystal as when used on a loved one it would impregnate the intended female target. Scholars theorized that it combined the genes of the one using the gem and those on the receiving end of the gem. They became outlawed when it was discovered that if used on someone that had no interactions with the other, it would instantly vaporize those on the receiving end. There have been no experiments with this gem due to it's two known reactions.'

That last line gave Piper hope, that maybe she wasn't pregnant and instead she was the first one to receive an unrecorded reaction of the gem, of doing nothing. Piper lifted the message from Cyclonis to begin reading. She had crossed out the first attempts, Piper gave it a chuckle despite her demeanor.

'Dear Piper. Piper. Dear Piper. Piper of the storm hawks. Piper. No doubt you have read the information detailed on the other sheet that I sent you. You should receive it almost a month after the day you met myself disguised as Lark. While I failed that day the effects of being friends with you may have created a larger problem which if it is true would become my responsibility. According to Cyclonian law, if the effects of the oblivion crystal is what I fear then you shall be taken into Cyclonian borders for protection. You have a month until I take you into my borders, or you can come of your own volition, the end result will be the same. Know that no harm will come to you within the reach of my power. If you come on your own you will be welcomed with open arms.'

Piper read the paragraph over and over again. She couldn't believe it, Cyclonis was sure she was affected by the crystal. And with the way that she spoke in the letter, it left Piper feeling odd. There were almost no threats, the only threat offered her safety. She half expected Cyclonis to send fleets just to get rid of her. Why would she allow her royal blood and a storm hawks blood to mix. Piper turned the paper and found something written on the back.

'Ravess is under the Impression that I am writing to a friend out of endearment. She insists that include something "friendly" in this message to you. No doubt when I tell her who to send it too she'll stop with that attitude. But if I must. Hello Piper, how are you doing? How are you feeling? You should stay out of trouble. Here's how I am. Fine. You should come over and visit. How was that? At least I'm done. I couldn't not include it, somehow Ravess can tell when I'm lying.'

Piper finished reading that to find a smile on her face. She immediately stopped to frown and contemplate on her options. Even if she did smile like an idiot every few seconds thinking about Cyclonis trying to be friendly. She eventually chuckled at how terrible she was at it. Then she sighed at realizing she was going to have to tell the others.

"How about we hit up terra deep next?" Finn suggested as Stork returned to piloting the ship again.

"Finn, you ask that every time we don't have anything to do. Isn't there anything else you want to do?" Aerrow asked.

"Why would I?" Finn said as Radarr ran up Finn and onto his arms to comically agree with Finn. "The surfing!" Radarr pretended to use Finn's arms as surfboards. "The sun!" Radarr pretended to tan. "And not to mention the hot babes! What else would I want?" Finn high-fived Radarr as he hopped off Finn's arm.

"Oh I don't know," Stork began. "bat repellent, wombat repellent, sky shark repellent, monturk repellent, anti-"

"I have a feeling most of what Stork wants is just stuff that gets rid of other stuff." Junko said.

"Oh, I have a list." Stork replied with a raspy giggle.

"A list of what?" Piper asked as she walked into the room, holding a sheet of paper.

"Piper, you're back," Aerrow said what was obvious to everyone in the room. "we were just going over Storks Christmas list."

"Um," Stork started. "Actually, that's a different list." everyone stared at Stork for a few seconds until he turned and said. "I have a lot of lists."

once again everyone didn't say anything for a few seconds until Aerrow turned back to Piper. "Anyway, what was in the letters? Should we be concerned?"

"Yes and no." Piper said walking over to Finn. "I summarized the long and short of it on this paper." She said nervously holding the paper up.

"What's in it?" Aerrow asked.

"Well I'd love to tell you." She was lying. "But I thought that Finn might be the best messenger for the news."

Finn shot up with an offended gaze taking the paper from Piper. "Fine, but if this is more than two sentences I'm out. And you know I'm bad with long words." Finn said as he started to read what was on the paper.

After a while Piper spoke up. "It's only one sentence, I didn't think it would take this long." She said gesturing confusion to the rest of the crew.

"Oh, I get it." Finn said. "Sorry, that's kinda a long word."

"Finn, what does it say?" Aerrow said almost facepalming.

"Oh yeah. It says that Piper's pregnant." Finn said as he put the paper on the table and walked away.

No sooner had he gone two steps away before yelling. "WHAT?!"

Following Cyclonis

"Any minute now." Cyclonis said as she waited in her throne room for Ravess' return. She had been worried about one of her top generals being captured a while after Ravess left. Somehow it hadn't occurred that sending a Cyclonian general into the arms of the storm hawks was a bad idea at the time. She just didn't want a repeat of when happened when she tried to deliver the message herself.

"And." Cyclonis said in anticipation, waiting a full minute for the door to open, when the door didn't gain a consciousness and open itself she relaxed into her throne with a sigh. She knew that with this added time she should be thinking about her plans and what she was going to do about Piper. But for some reason learning that she may have a child of her own on the way completely threw her train of thought out of the window. She found it impossible to focus on her plans when she could focus on how running the edge of her fingers against a desk at a certain angle felt. She was told that some people threw themselves obsessively into their work when they had problems, but the only reason she was so focused before is because she didn't have a problem.

The door creaked open slowly raising Cyclonis' hopes of anything happening. Unfortunately for her a mere soldier came in and informed her of dinner being ready, she ordered him away and went back to sulking in her chair over her laziness. She decided to take a few minutes to really relax herself before dinner and slid down in the throne. She angled her head up and closed her eyes, maybe some day dreaming would help.

Sadly, no day dreams of ruling the Atmos or fighting or finding a healing crystal inhabited her mind. She just wondered about what she was actually going to do about Piper. It's been almost five full weeks now and she no doubt already suspected something, or at the very least thought she was sick. How was Piper going to react? Knowing the storm hawks she'd probably come in with a small army of her own to get revenge. Although what she knew of Piper through her time as Lark was that Piper was smarter than the rest. After reading the papers she'd understand the misunderstanding and how I only intended to kill her. With what I'm going to have to do when she gets to Cyclonia that last point might be a rocky subject when it gets brought up. How was she even going to tell Piper? Why did it have to be Piper, the only sky knight she might have spared.

"Master Cyclonis?" Ravess' voice spoke up, breaking Cyclonis out of her myopic trance. Cyclonis jolted from her position and gracefully regained her regal position upon her throne. "Sorry for disturbing your nap."

"It's no problem. I've been waiting for your return all day. How did the delivery go?" Cyclonis said, somehow keeping her menacing tone even when her throat was dry.

"Very well," Ravess said, sighing as she remembered something interesting from her trip before regaining her composure. "It went well Master Cyclonis. Both documents were successfully delivered."

"That's good." Cyclonis said looking away. Now that Piper knew, was she going to come of her own accord or was she going to come here against her will? If she came of her own choice it would shock Cyclonis. But somehow please her. As she was trying to figure out why she would be happier with her coming on her own her thoughts were interrupted.

"Can I ask a question?"

"Ask away Ravess." Cyclonis said standing up, it was time she ate some dinner. They were heading to the same room, they could walk down together.

"Well, when you were writing the letter-" Ravess turned to walk alongside Cyclonis as they started out the door and down the hall.

"Is this about me putting something nice in the letter?"Cyclonis said with a smirk that came across as somehow intimidating. She couldn't deny that the memory made her embarrassed.

"Um, sort of." Ravess said. "It's just that when I delivered the message to your girlfriend, I remembered that you were looking through the laws about royal marriages within Cyclonia. Are you planning to marry the storm hawk girl?"

Cyclonis looked down at the floor and had her cloak curl around her head to hide herself. "I'd rather not talk about that situation until she comes here and I have to deal with her."

Ravess said nothing for most of the rest of the trip. It was only when they were opening the doors of the dinner hall that Cyclonis noticed something.

"Did you call her my girlfriend?" Cyclonis said in a sneering voice, eliciting a snort from Ravess as they walked into the dinner hall.

"What's so funny?" Snipe asked as he stuffed his face with ham. The table was almost entirely empty, that was until Cyclonis and Ravess took their seats. The Dark Ace was gone for some reason. Ravess took her seat next to her brother while Cyclonis sat at the end of the table.

"I'll tell you later." Ravess said as she picked up her fork.

"If you value not living the rest of your life in the wastelands you wont tell him anything." Cyclonis shot.

The rest of the dinner was mute. The only sounds in the room were clanking of silverware and and chewing when Snipe forgot to close his mouth.

Cyclonis decided that everyone could have an early day off due to her eating too much by accident. She absentmindedly ate too much during dinner when she couldn't focus on anything and therefore didn't think of anything. She could practically hear the look Ravess gave her when she stood up. The look was the one of "Did you eat lunch?" which she had. Although that had been particularly small.

Of all the rooms that Cyclonis knew of, the quietest one was her room. It provided her perfect focus and no outside distractions when she needed to get something done. Usually a law or deciding whether or not to kill the old men that would give her ridiculous complaints as an actual political problem.

Although it was a good thing she decided to come here early. Now she had as much time as she needed to figure out what everything was going to mean when it happened. She knew one thing, she promised safety, but how would she get that across once Piper got here? There was a lot to think about. First off, why she was thinking like this instead of seeing it like any other plan she had.

On the condor with the storm hawks

"So you mean to tell me that you're pregnant with Cyclonis' kid?" Aerrow asked, Piper merely nodded. "And that you'll be taken back to Cyclonia during your pregnancy because the kids gonna be royalty?" Piper nodded again. "And you plan on leaving in a week?" Piper nodded more hesitantly this time. "Why? We could keep you here safe."

"It's not that simple Aerrow." Piper said. "Even if I stay I'll be taken back to Cyclonia anyway."

"We have the condor, we can outrun them for years."

"Aerrow, listen. We go on too many adventures to be able to keep me safe."

"We can go into hiding." Aerrow said throwing his hands onto the map table. "I Just don't think that you should leave us in your situation."

"Aerrow," Piper started with a sigh, "I'm not just worried about the fact that I'm pregnant, I'm worried by the fact that I'm pregnant because of a crystal, and Cyclonis is a girl, and I don't know how that's going to affect the kid or me. Cyclonia is the only Atmos that has old enough history books that details the effects. It's the best choice."

"So? We, um." Aerrow stopped and looked down frustrated trying to think of anything to say. After a moment of struggling he let out a sigh and relaxed. "Fine. I don't like it, but if anyone here is smart enough to make decisions for themselves, it's you."

"Hey," Finn spoke up, "I can make smart decisions too!"

After a second Junko looked up and said, "Um, yeah. What he said."

"I still think we should quarantine her, just in case it is the fumes." Stork said with a smile. Everyone gave him a look of disapproval. "I just think we should be skeptical."

"I am being skeptical Stork." Aerrow said. "But Piper has enough reason to go." Aerrow turned back to Piper. "In a week right?"

"Yep, a week. Plenty of time to do something fun." Piper said with a smile.

A week later in Cyclonis' throne room

"Master Cyclonis!" Dark Ace yelled as he strode into the throne room. "I have news on the storm hawks."

Hearing this Cyclonis perched up from her books. Asking Ravess for help just because the only other girl around was not the best decision. The first thing Ravess did was talk about one of the storm hawks she had met. And after that had only written down book recommendations from the fiction section. And so far the only piece of advice she actually got was to go with the flow. And she was pretty on edge, Piper could arrive at any time and she had no idea how to deal with her when she finally got there.

"What? What news? Are they coming early? Are they here?" Cyclonis questioned with malice, she was getting irritated from all the waiting, maybe she should have just gotten Piper once she got the news. If she hadn't tried that already and ended up looking the worst in her life.

"Yes and no, master. The storm hawks were seen flying through our territory moments ago." Dark Ace began to explain.

"They didn't stop? Or even slow down?"

"No, but we did receive a message at the border. And as you ordered, there were no interference from any of our troops." He continued. "The message says that they needed to use our airspace to get something across the Atmos called rozen yoga."

"What?"

"Same reaction. But the second part of the message should interest you. It's about," Dark Ace took a pause and held a face of disgust. "Piper."

"Grow up Tanner. What's the news about Piper?"

"Well, they plan on using the airspace again later, almost within minutes, and Piper plans on coming here tonight."

"Well," Cyclonis thought it over for a bit. She actually wasn't planning on Piper actually coming on her own. "it's a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. When the storm hawks are finished with whatever it is they are doing with rozen yoga, seriously what is that?"

"I have no clue Master."

"Well anyway, whenever they get done with, whatever that is, if the storm hawks arrive before dinner they will be guided to the dinner hall. And they will be treated like guests."

Dark Ace was visibly upset, his irritation with the situation almost radiated around him. "Understood, Master Cyclonis. Anything else?"

Cyclonis stopped to think. There was one thing that Ravess had recommended that didn't seem like that bad of an idea when it came to having private conversations. But if they were to arrive and be present for dinner, it might not be the best idea. But she had never been in this kind of situation. "When the dinner hall is being prepared, place an extra seat next to mine."

And Dark Ace had left. Leaving Cyclonis to wait. Which was torture. She had been waiting all week, she could only barely distract herself from Piper. If it hadn't been for her laws then she wouldn't be so focused on her. Cyclonis decided that she was going to go wait by the window with a book. Although she really didn't like the book she was reading. Ravess had given her what was supposed to be a romance story but so far the characters hated each other.

Cyclonis barely got through one chapter by the time dinner came around. She had spent the entire second half of the day glancing up waiting for the storm hawks. They had came through the airspace again and gave a very expressive message that Dark Ace actually cracked a smile when he read it.

"Rozen yoga was freaking frozen yogurt!"

At least the mystery was over.

Now she was walking into her dinner hall slightly disappointed. She had built herself up to expect dinner with her worst enemies. And now she was going to have to eat peacefully. She was about to open the doors when a soldier with a scar over his face raced to reach her.

"Master Cyclonis!" He yelled as he doubled over panting.

"Yes?" Cyclonis said, somehow coming across irritated when she was only tired. Had she always sounded so irritated when she was the least bit tired? That would explain a few things.

He took a few moments before finally standing up straight with a large inhale. "Thank you Master Cyclonis, the storm hawks Piper was seen approaching on her sky ride."

Finally some good news. "Only Piper? None of the other storm hawks are with her?"

"No Master, only Piper. Should we restrain her?"

"If anyone attempts to restrain her then they will be sentenced to a very painful and humiliating public execution. No one touches Piper, I made that very clear when I discussed the situation surrounding the storm hawks arrival. It seems a few of you weren't listening." Cyclonis said approaching the soldier causing him to take a few steps back.

"I apologize Master Cyclonis, it was a mistake, it wont happen again." The soldier stuttered out.

"It shouldn't have happened in the first place, but I'm in a good mood right now so all you will have to do is deliver this order to the rest of the soldiers." She knew exactly what to order, she had been mulling over the possibilities all day.

"Of course, anything you want Master Cyclonis."

"Tell the soldiers that when Piper arrives you will all treat her and fear her the way you respect me. She will be escorted to the royal dinner hall. And this is the most important part. Piper will be treated like a fellow Cyclonian, no harm or mistreatment will come to her, if I find out that she had any trouble arriving then the entire squad in charge of her arrival with suffer the consequences. Is that clear?"

"Y-Yes, Master Cyclonis!" The scar faced soldier said as he scrambled to make his way to where Piper would be arriving at.

As bad as it was to threaten her soldiers like that who didn't know if she was telling the truth or not, it seemed to be the only way to actually get the point across. The best part was that Piper was finally there and she could stop dreading her arrival. Now if only Ravess acted like a general instead of, herself. Cyclonis didn't think she could make it through dinner if Ravess decided she was ready to die.

Cyclonis continued into the dinner hall and made her way to her seat at the end of the table, receiving a stare from both Ravess and Dark Ace. She ignored the looks and sat down, flowing her cloak as she sat down to make herself comfortable. The fact that she now had a chair next to hers did unnerve her, it was a change she decided she might have to get used to. She noticed that the stares continued, Dark Ace looking the most confused of the two. Snipe just continued to eat, barely giving Cyclonis a passing glance.

"Do I have something on my face Dark Ace?" Master Cyclonis asked with a light voice, which surprised her. She didn't sound as tired as she did in the hall.

"No Master." Dark Ace said and looked ahead with his normally irritated expression.

"Then why were you two staring?" Cyclonis said again, intentionally lowering her voice to sound deeper and more normal.

"No offense Cyclonis," Ravess spoke up. "but you don't usually come to dinner looking so pleased."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"You're smiling." Snipe said, somehow not putting down his food. Everyone gave him a look presuming he wasn't paying attention. "You don't smile, like, ever."

Cyclonis sat back in her seat and looked down at her plate, and noticed there was a plate next to her own where the other seat was. At least the cooks knew to make enough plates for each seat. "Thank you Snipe."

Almost instantly the doors to the room were opened by a soldier leading Piper.

"And this is where you will be having dinner, Cyclonis made it very important you be brought here." The soldier with the scar over his face said as he guided Piper into the room. "If you need anything at all from me you can just call me scarface. That's not my actual name but I think you'll remember it." He said making Piper give an awkward smile.

"You may leave." Cyclonis said standing up causing her seat to be forced back making the room eerily silent.

Scarface froze for a second before silently removing himself from the room.

Piper was here, Piper was finally here. Cyclonis could finally stop feeling anxious about this whole thing and everything would be dealt with tonight. Afterwards she could finally get back to her original plans.

Piper just stood there, rubbing her arms not knowing what to do with herself. Now that she was there how was she supposed to start things?

"Oh," Cyclonis said to herself realizing what she should do. Cyclonis walked around to the back of the chair next to her and pulled it out. Normally she would have some servant do the lowly action but she could tell that she should be doing it. "Please sit, have some dinner."

Piper dropped her arms and made some gesture Cyclonis could tell was just to move. "Um, thank you." She said as she walked over. "Cyclonis." Piper strained as she sat down in the chair pulled out for her.

Cyclonis sat down next to her and proceeded to eat her dinner. Piper began to eat too, but slower. And only after a few moment her nerves must have gotten to her because she started to talk to the others.

"So, Ravess was it?" Piper asked, pointing her fork at the pink haired girl.

"Um," Ravess put down her silverware. "Yes, I'm Ravess, why?"

Cyclonis just continued eating, although she did keep glancing at the both of them as they spoke.

"Well, I've been hearing your name all week, it's not like I could forget it. Finn wouldn't shut up about you." Piper said as she ate. The comment caused Ravess to smile and lean forward.

"Yeah, he wouldn't shut up about you." Was all Piper said about the subject, which caused Ravess to lose her smile a little.

"What did he say?" Ravess asked, trying to get more details out of this conversation.

"Is this everyone who usually shows up for dinner?" Piper asked Cyclonis without turning her head to face her.

"Yes, Dark Ace usually doesn't show up half the time but yes, this is it." Cyclonis said and continued eating. Thank goodness they didn't look at each other or else they might not have been able to talk to one another.

"So are you guys married or something?" Snipe asked, shocking everyone at the table, causing even Cyclonis to drop her fork.

"Snipe, you can't just say things like that." Ravess said, half scolding Snipe.

"You will be told of the current situation later." Was all Cyclonis could say before picking her fork back up. "I'd like to eat the rest of my dinner in silence." Which seemed enough for Snipe as he finished shortly after and left without a word. Soon followed Dark Ace. And the last to leave being Ravess. Until all that was left was Piper and Cyclonis sitting side by side in an empty room at the end of a long empty table. Cyclonis was starting to regret not putting Piper's seat at the other end of the table, in hindsight that would have made things so much more comfortable.

Saving herself having to be asked to move, once Piper finished eating she moved to a different seat. She decided to sit on the side of the table instead of at the other end which caught Cyclonis off guard. She expected to talk to Piper the same way she would talk to a begging beneficiary. Cyclonis spoke first.

"These walls are soundproof, we can talk in privately now."

"Good." Was all Piper's reply. Cyclonis continued to stare at the other end of the table, wondering why she hadn't taken that seat. "I guess we have a lot to talk about." Finally.

"Yes, we do. Um," Cyclonis had no idea how the air actually made itself so heavy. She always thought that was just an exaggeration. "Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?" Cyclonis decided to begin rubbing the chairs armrest to distract herself.

"Let's start with the bad news first, I'd like to end this on a good note." Piper said placing her hands flat on the table, scratching at something that stuck out from the table. "I'm sure I should try to stay positive if I'm going to stay here for a while."

"Okay then, bad news first." Cyclonis held her breath before letting out a sigh. Nothing else she had done would affect her, her plans, and her terra as much as this, and it was all an accident. "Well the bad news had to do with the laws of Cyclonia. And how that affects me as much as you."

Piper looked up confused slightly. "You? Can't you just ignore the laws? You do on all the other terra's." Piper said snidely, slightly grinning to herself.

"Not if it's laws that I am expected to enforce, this may come as a surprise to you but I try not to rule my own terra with an iron fist." Cyclonis said, half expecting those kind kind of comments. "But it's concerning Cyclonia's laws when it comes to, having a kid."

Cyclonis straightened her back and remembered what she read about the law. "For normal citizens, when someone gets pregnant, both parties are required by law to provide a form of support, monetary or otherwise." Cyclonis looked over and saw the gears turning in Piper's head. "I know what you're thinking, that can lead to some pretty bad implications, sometimes the situation gets elevated if there are issues and things are worked out."

"Okay," Piper said letting out a small sigh. "I was thinking that was a pretty terrible law. I mean, it still sounds bad, just not as bad."

"Well it gets worse when it comes to royalty, which only applies to me." Cyclonis said placing a hand on her chest.

"Yeah, okay." Piper nodded along, thinking of this part as educational.

"And applies to you." Cyclonis said gesturing to Piper. Out of everything She wanted to get over with, this was it. She could talk about it, and be honest with how terrible this is.

"And why does it apply to me?" Piper asked with a smirk. "You know, besides just the entire," She gestured to her stomach. "situation? You aren't gonna say something crazy like,"

"Like what?" Cyclonis interjected. "Something like you are a queen of Cyclonia?" Cyclonis said with a smirk that twitched slightly.

"Yeah, something crazy like that." Piper said through laughter. Cyclonis held her smile as she waited for Piper to end. When Piper didn't stop after a few seconds Cyclonis cleared her throat.

"According to Cyclonian law," Cyclonis continued. "because I have, impregnated you," She said with a hint of disgust. "I am required to wed you and look after the child and raise it as an heir as the next ruler of Cyclonia."

Pipers laughter stopped and she looked away, placing her hands to her stomach. "You're not kidding." Piper said, realizing the joke that Junko and Finn had been making all week had actually been true. It was all, at least you aren't marrying her. Now she was going to be forced to. There was no way to get away now, she had told the guys she'd be fine, and now she was all alone on Cyclonia just because she was convinced by a letter. Aerrow really had too much faith in her. "Does that mean, what it normally means for, other marriages?" She asked.

"Don't freak out Piper. The marriage is only legal, after the ceremony you will be free to go back to whatever it is you do with your childish friends." The news brought a smile of relief onto her face. "That was actually part of the good news, for you anyway, bad news for me. After our marriage you, as a ruler of Cyclonia will have partial control of all royal decrees. And I assume you'll be wanting a peace treaty."

"Would I actually be able to do that?" Piper asked hopeful.

"Unfortunately, yes. Although I doubt either of us will enjoy the drawl until the marriage."

"Why? Can't we just get this out of the way as fast as possible? I'd really prefer to spend as little time here as possible."

"Once again, laws come in to play here." Cyclonis said irritatedly. "I can't marry you until the kid is born. And you are forced to be kept under care and watch until then."

"So you're telling me, that I have to stay here for the next eight months in Cyclonia?" Piper said shocked.

Cyclonis did a double take at what she was hearing. "Did you not listen to what I just said? You must have because you just told me the exact same thing I told you!"

"Well excuse me princess if I have a little bit of a hard time understanding this, I only found out I was pregnant a week ago!" Piper snapped back. Cyclonis was about to retort when she processed what Piper said and made her giggle. "What? What did I say?"

"It's nothing." Cyclonis waved off her spurt of laughter. "It's just, you mentioned princess, and hearing those words come out of you reminded me of something." Cyclonis said, reminiscing about her mistake making her laugh more.

"Yeah, What's so funny?" Piper said, losing all irritation in her voice, now just wanting to focus on anything else. Everything they were talking about could be thought about before she went to sleep. Granted, that would get rid of most of her actual sleep, but thinking of anything else right now felt like a better decision.

"Well, earlier, before I had the letter sent to you, I was given some advice from Ravess, you remember her." Cyclonis began.

"Yeah, nice lady, very pink hair, is it natural?" Piper asked.

"It is actually, weirdest thing. But she told me to go find whoever it was that I was needing to talk to, at the time I didn't tell her it was you. And I found you, sorta."

"Um, you don't mean that in a weird way, do you?" Piper asked.

"No, I mean I found someone who looks exactly like you. Same face, same hair, same hight, same skin, same," Cyclonis stopped her listings to gesture to Piper's chest. "size boobs."

"Hey!" Piper sat up straight in her chair covering her chest.

"I got you pregnant, I think we're past being embarrassed by me just being close to you." Cyclonis said, reminding both of them of their situation and the fact of who they were cause a solid awkward silence to fill the air for a moment. Almost immediately after the silence set in Cyclonis regretted even trying to make a joke like that.

"Um, anyway." Cyclonis said trying to continue her story. "I ended up trying to bring her back to Cyclonia when she turned out to be a princess. An actual princess, I was honestly surprised. And she refused to shut up until I explained everything to her."

"Maybe we can wrap up soon? I'm getting tired, and I'd like to find out where I'm sleeping if I have to stay." Piper said pushing her chair out getting ready to stand up. Completely pulling Cyclonis' story to a halt.

"I, I suppose." Cyclonis had been waiting to tell that story to anyone and now she might never get the chance to finish it. That might irritate her as much as how tight her clothes are around her shoulders, if she didn't think she looked so good she would ask to have it changed.

"That might also be part of the bad news." Cyclonis said as she stood up with Piper. "You'll be sleeping with me."

Piper gave a fake laugh before responding. "There is no way I am sleeping with you," There was an audible split second pause before she continued almost on instinct. "on the first date." Which made both of them crack a small smile at the joke.

"Well there are literally no other rooms with enough space. Good thing I have such a large bed." The both of them smiled a little larger able to tell what the other was thinking. Almost as if the joke was something installed in their blood and everything about their situation led to this single conversation.

"Oh yeah?" Piper barely got out through her smile. "What size is you're bed?"

Cyclonis could barely believe her ears or herself as her lips started to move on their own. "It's a queen size!"

Both of them couldn't help but to laugh at the joke they had made. Both tumbling over with giggles, Cyclonis having to rest a hand on Piper's shoulder. Everything was far too tense and they couldn't take themselves seriously throughout their situation. It felt nice for both of them to laugh and finally ease the tension they had been feeling up to that point. To Cyclonis it was like there had been a glass wall in between the two making their voices strained to talk to the other. But now, it was like it went away in a loud crash, suddenly shifting how they felt. That was, until they looked at each other.

Cyclonis raised her head to see Piper, but she was doing the same and their eyes matched up with each others and the first thing they both felt wasn't to laugh more, but saw that they were looking like fools. They both stopped laughing, filling the silence with coughs and clearing throats.

The next seven seconds were extremely tense, Cyclonis knew, she counted, it was all she could think to do. Aside from looking at the walls directly around Piper.

"Um," Piper started, pulling Cyclonis' attention back to Piper for the second time. "could we get out of here now?"

"Yeah, follow me." Cyclonis said, turning and walking toward the door. "We can talk about arrangements on the way."

"Arrangements?" Piper asked as they reached the doors.

"Yes, well, I wasn't kidding when I said you'd have to be sleeping with me." Cyclonis explained. "And I do have a rather large bed, I was thinking we'd just place a hanging sheet between us."

Piper let out a forced chuckle before responding. "And I wasn't kidding earlier when I said I wouldn't sleep with you." Piper said aggressively trying to get the point across.

"Piper, I'm not asking you to lay with me, we'll just be on opposite sides of the bed."

"I mean," Piper said, really laying in how serious she was with her voice. "I don't want to be in the same room as you when I sleep, I don't know about you but I don't trust you enough!"

"Piper," Cyclonis began as they made their way down the halls. "you already have my child, I thought I made it clear in my letter that no harm will come to you."

"Well I'm not so sure if that's the truth. I mean, last time I saw you, you got me pregnant!"

"I didn't know that you'd get pregnant! I happened to forget that little tidbit when we were dating for a day! I was just trying to kill you!"

"Like that's any better." Piper said to herself as they kept walking.

Piper was surprised how quiet they had gotten. They kept walking down the dark hallways that supposedly we're leading them to Cyclonis' room. The sound of their footprints against the the stone ground being the only accompaniment. Piper stopped looking at the walls, the boring dark walls had nothing to focus on anyway. No decorations in sight. She now decided to focus on what it was that Cyclonis was wearing. Her shirt seemed like it was too tight on her, and her pants were obviously skinny jeans. Which was normal enough, but then there was the matter of her cloak. She wasn't wearing it now, but that looked pretty cool to Piper, the way it actually frayed like an animal.

"We're here." Cyclonis said stopping in front of large double doors that blended in with the rest of the walls.

"Oh, how long were we walking?" Piper asked confused, all the halls looked the same, she couldn't get any reference.

"Only eight minutes if I had to guess." Cyclonis said opening her doors.

"I still don't have a reason to actually sleep in here and not somewhere else."

"Fine," Cyclonis said, keeping her hand pressed against the half open door. "here's the reason. One, you're going to marry me and I figure we might as well get used to sleeping in the same bed. Two, there are no other rooms with enough space, unless you want to sleep with the new recruits." Cyclonis listed. "Three, I was told it was a good idea by the only other person I asked for advice from. And finally four I'm tired and I have a very busy day tomorrow."

"HM," Piper hummed, rubbing her chin in sarcastic thought. Now that she actually thought about it, she didn't really have a choice. "Fine."

"Good, tomorrow is going to be a long day for the both of us." Cyclonis said, finally fully opening the door to walk inside her room.

Piper could agree with Cyclonis about one thing, it certainly was a large room. Although, the only things actually in the room was the bed, a few desks, and a lot of books and crystals. Piper walked over to one of the desks and saw tons of scattered designs and blueprints.

"I recommend going to bed now." Cyclonis said, lifting her shirt over her shoulders. Piper seeing this was only a little shocked.

"You do remember saying I wouldn't sleep with you? Right?" Piper asked trying to look Cyclonis in the face, and failing. The shirt was skin tight.

"Yes, do you remember how I said there was a dividing sheet?" Cyclonis said pointing to the bed where a large sheet was in fact splitting the bed in half. "I'm not about to change the way I sleep just because you're here now."

"Right, I guess that's better." Piper said.

Piper just stood there, instead of going to the other side of the bed she just kept watching as Cyclonis took off her pants, which were also skin tight she noted. Piper didn't exactly focus on any part of Cyclonis, she just watched the scene play out in front of her. Maybe she was more tired than she thought.

Cyclonis noticed and smirked. "I'm not against sleeping with you if you change your mind."

Snapping out of her daze Piper instantly raised her hand to shield Cyclonis. "Still no." She said as she made her way to her side of the bed.

She contemplated for a while whether or not to do what Cyclonis did, or to sleep with her clothes on. On one hand, nope.

"You know what?" Cyclonis said through the divider.

"What? Don't tell me you walk in your sleep?" Piper said tiredly.

"What, no. I was just going to tell you something to pass the time easier around here. It's pretty fun." Cyclonis said with a smile in her voice.

"What?" Piper groaned out as she fell on top of the sheets.

"Well, I was just going to tell you that now that you are royalty you officially outrank everyone but me, so you basically have a castle of servants at beck and call." Cyclonis offered.

Piper thought it over for a minute, also dedicating a thought to how big this bed was. She was spread out like a starfish and wasn't falling off or touching the divider. "Thanks, but I'm not too sure I'm comfortable with the idea of having servants."

"Okay, that's fine." Cyclonis said.

Both of them were quiet for a long time. The silence being crushed by shifting of sheets every so often. Piper was half asleep when a question she had stuck itself at the top of her priority over sleep.

"Still awake?" Piper asked softly, not expecting a response.

"It's only been two minutes, so yes."

"Really? It felt like ten."

"What do you want? And after this don't talk to me, I would like to sleep eventually."

"Um," Piper thought how to present the question over. "when it comes to the storm hawks,"

"It's over, you are now Piper Cyclonis, queen of Cyclonia." Cyclonis made a tired laugh at her own response.

"I'm not changing my last name." Piper said. "But what I wanted to ask is, am I still able to talk to them? They probably already got themselves eating Junko's food by now."

Cyclonis was quiet for a bit, worrying Piper that she had fallen asleep. "Yes, you can still talk to them. Whether it be by letter, by visit, or by just plain inviting them here."

"Really?" Piper said hopefully, of all the kinds of things she expected out of Cyclonis, being generous was not one of them.

"To be honest I was expecting to have the entire ship of storm hawks for dinner. I'm glad I didn't, dinner was hard enough with just you."

Piper kept quiet for a few seconds, processing everything. "That's nice, thanks Cyclonis." Cyclonis hadn't said anything in response.

Once again they had gone quiet. Piper was very close to sleep when Cyclonis spoke up with a question of her own.

"What even is your last name?" Cyclonis asked, somehow sounding offended.

"Um," Piper started, trying not to yawn her words, she still ended up yawning her words. "don't have one. Orphan." Piper said as if she was answering the next question Cyclonis was about to ask.

"Oh." Cyclonis said in understanding. But bringing another question to her mind. "Are all the storm hawks orphans?"

"All except for Junko, he was orphaned. And Stork claims to be an orphan, but we kinda met him when I was a teen, he was about as old as I am now."

"Very detailed for a girl almost asleep." Cyclonis said sarcastically at the detailed description Piper was yawning out.

"Go to bed."

They both eventually fell asleep that night. Piper fell asleep fully clothed, and on top of the sheets.

Cyclonis was something she wasn't usually, nervous. Today she would have to announce to the people of Cyclonia that their queen would be getting married and having an heir. Which is why she was pretty upset that Piper wasn't awake yet. They had went to sleep at the same time, and fairly early, and she was as asleep as a baby. Actually she had no idea, she hadn't been around too many babies.

Cyclonis had woken up almost an hour ago and was working since. There were maids standing quietly in the corner waiting for their signal. Their job being to prepare Piper for what they would be doing all day, standing in front of rich people, camera's, and signing autographs if Cyclonis was up for it. She never usually was.

But because Piper wasn't awake yet, or even looked close to it, is why she had waited so long.

"Piper?" Cyclonis said softly standing over Piper, who looked rather odd sleeping fully clothed. "Piper." Cyclonis said again after getting no response. Shockingly, this was enough to jolt Piper from her sleep. She stood up quickly much to Cyclonis' surprise and to the surprise of the maids.

"What-" Piper said as she prepared herself to run out of a door that wasn't there before realizing where she was. "Oh, right." Piper said rather dejectedly looking around the room.

"We have a very busy day Piper," Cyclonis started. "and you happened to sleep in."

"I'm sorry but," Piper stopped to yawn very loudly. "yesterday was very tiring, with the whole frozen yogurt thing." Piper said as she lowered herself back down onto the edge of the bed.

"I meant to ask about that." Cyclonis said absentmindedly before coming back to focus. "But that can wait. The maids here will help you get ready. I'll call for a night walker to guide you to where we will be having our meeting."

"Can't I eat first?" Piper said, looking over Cyclonis to look at the three maids.

"You slept through that." Cyclonis said as she made her way towards the door. "I hope you learned how to sit still through your years as a storm hawk. I'm going to be doing most of the talking today. I also arranged for a doctor's visit tonight. And I picked out your clothes, sorry but the colours of the rebels wouldn't sit well on Cyclonian television." Cyclonis said as she exited the room.

Closing the door behind her she could already hear the chattering of the maids she left with Piper.

"Well what do you girls want?" The first maid asked to the others.

"Wait, want?" Piper asked confused.

"I call hair."

"I call nails!" The other two said. The three maids started over to Piper completely ignoring her.

"Her skin is just so dirty, I'll get the soap I guess." All three of them pulled Piper to her feet and led her into a room off to the side.

"Hey wait, soap?" Piper said as she took in her new surroundings. It was the largest bathroom she had ever seen. Which would be more of a compliment if it had more than just dark colours. Although, she did appreciate how she wasn't blinded like usual when she woke up.

As she was admiring aspects of the bathroom she hadn't noticed how she was already almost fully stripped by the maids.

"Hold up!" Piper pushed herself away from the three covering herself with her arms. "What do you think you're doing? I know how to take a bath."

"There isn't enough time for a bath." One of the three said.

"Yeah, Cyclonis said she wanted us to be done soon. We kinda don't have time to just sit around and talk."

"Okay," Piper started. "but I'd rather not have help with this kind of thing."

"If Cyclonis gets upset that you aren't there soon, she might punish us for that." One of the maids said. Piper tried telling them apart but they looked so similar. Not to mention, they looked like other people she had met on almost every terra.

Piper thought it over for a second. She didn't want anyone to be in trouble because of her, especially not here. She had heard about how ruthless Cyclonis was and she didn't want that to happen to anyone.

"Fine." Piper said with a sigh of resignation.

The Three maids made quick work of themselves. Impressively covering most of what she would do in twenty minutes in just one. One of them already had completed her nails on one hand and was already moving to the other. One was still doing what she could with her hair. And already she felt like she had taken two showers. She was actually more shocked by how nice it felt being tended to hand and knee.

"You're nails are terrible." One said frustrated. "What have you been doing? Pottery with rocks?"

"Um," Piper thought it over. Feeling really awkward to be talking right now. "no?"

"You should try dealing with her hair." The other started. "Her split ends have split ends, I think I'm getting scars from just touching it."

"You guys got the hard jobs then." The one holding soap said. "There isn't too much problem here, it's like she wears her armor all the time."

Piper gave a giggle at that. "That's because I do."

"Say again?" The one working on her nails said, moving to her feet.

"Well, my armor, I wear it all the time." Piper said, trying to get comfortable with talking in this situation, unfortunately the more she talked the worse it felt. "It's either my armor or my swim suit and I can't just walk around in my bikini on a ship full of guys can I?"

She felt the one working on her hair stop. "You poor thing."

Everyone decided to stay quiet after that.

When they were done one of them left the room to get the clothes that Cyclonis had supposedly picked out.

"Can't I just wear my armor?" Piper asked.

"You're kidding right? That armor smells like it hasn't been taken off in a week." One said. Piper was trying her hardest to tell them apart and it was hurting her to look at more than one at a time.

"Well, Yeah I," Piper decided to stop talking, she could feel that she was about to say something that would probably make her look bad.

The one that had left the room came back carrying a dark set of clothes with a cloak looking cloth in one hand and shoes in the other.

"Cyclonis had these tailor made for you. Did you know every storm hawk has their measurements publicly documented?" She said sounding impressed.

"No, no I didn't." Piper said getting a closer look at the clothes. They were definitely her size all right. They looked similar to what Cyclonis wore but were a brighter purple, almost red colour.

Piper went limp as the others started to put the clothes onto her.

"This would be easier to put on if you helped a little." One said. Piper instantly felt embarrassed and put some effort into putting the clothes on, she hadn't had help with this before so she had thought going limp would be the right thing to do. She really hoped this wouldn't be a daily thing.

After they had helped put on the clothes Piper grabbed what looked like a small cloak and put it around her neck. The cloth reached down past her shoulders but they seemed too short to be a cloak of any kind. At least, she knew it was too short to be a cloak once she had heard the giggles from the others.

"It," One started, having trouble getting the words out through their laughs. "It goes around your waist. Like a skirt."

Piper quickly fixed her problem and put the cloth around her waist making what looked like a miniskirt. Feeling a little irritated from being so tired and having all this happen so fast she turned to the maids who were all giggling in their little posse.

"Maybe you could be just a little less rude to your queen." Piper said without thinking. The knowledge that she was now a ruler of Cyclonia working it's way into her speech rather quickly.

The others shut up at this and their looks of ease transformed into looks of worry at the new information. Causing one of them to step forward.

"What?" She asked with worry in her voice. What did they think she was?

"Um, I'm sorry, I'm just irritated, it was just a slip of the tongue." Piper said frantically, doing her best to control the damage she might have done.

"Is that why you were in bed with Cyclonis?" One asked.

"I thought she was a prisoner that hadn't been sent to the dungeon." Another said.

"Are you like Cyclonis' sister or something?" The questions came.

The questions didn't stop for a while. It felt like for ten whole seconds there was a barrage of questions, none of them being right, for about five seconds. Before they all stopped and what she assumed was the lead maid asked. "What do you mean queen?"

"Um." Piper thought it over. Technically, she didn't care about Cyclonis, so if telling them made trouble for Cyclonis that was to her interest. Thinking about this made Piper grow a smirk. "If you must know, me and Cyclonis are getting married."

Hearing this the three held a breath before growing huge smiles on their faces which shocked Piper due to their reactions earlier.

One spoke up first with disbelief in her voice very apparent. "Really? When are you getting married then?"

At this moment, Piper felt one emotion. "Oh crap, I've said too much."

Following Cyclonis

"Keep the camera's off for a while, we'll be getting our star in a moment." Cyclonis directed to the camera man. She had decided the broadcast should take place in her throne room, setting was important after all. And for her news, the throne room seemed like an appropriate setting.

"Master Cyclonis." A technician hesitantly walked up to her. "Which channel do you want this on? Cyclonia only or on the big broadcast?"

"What's the range of the big broadcast?" Cyclonis asked, thinking the technician must be new, the big broadcast didn't exactly sound like an official term.

"It can reach past Atmosia Master Cyclonis."

"That one then, the more people my news reaches the better for all parties." Cyclonis turned and walked towards her throne and began up her steps. She mentally noted that she would have to add a seat by hers and that she should bring it up with her contractors. "Dark Ace!" She called halfway up her steps.

"Yes," Dark Ace paused for dramatic effect as he walked away from whatever he was doing. "Master Cyclonis?"

"Catch." Cyclonis said as she pulled a paper clipped bundle of small note cards and tossed it towards the Dark Ace. "After a while I will signal for you to start reading those in the order I gave them to you. Practice your lines." Cyclonis said snidely.

"Cyclonis!" Ravess yelled from the doorway drawing her attention as she sat down. "Your friend is here." Ravess gestured towards the now present Piper. Cyclonis also noted the night crawler moving it's way up the walls to be out of the way. She made a mental note to congratulate those troops on their ability to follow orders. Cyclonis looked back to Piper who was now dressed in an almost skin tight gown of red and black. She wondered if Piper even knew what a gown was, she would have to ask later. She doubted it, living on the condor after being an orphan probably didn't give her much in the sense of fashion.

"I can understand almost everything about this outfit," Piper started, walking up towards the throne. "but was the miniskirt really necessary?"

"What's wrong Piper? Years of only wearing armor take away your appreciation for real clothes? At least like this you almost look attractive." Cyclonis said to Piper, looking down at her from her high throne. Cyclonis didn't notice until a second after it happened that the room got much quieter after she had said that. Followed by the rapid footsteps of Ravess making her way up to the throne as fast as possible.

"What is it Ravess?" Cyclonis asked, concerned by the sudden approach.

Ravess, now next to the throne, leaned down to whisper. "Remember that whole flirting thing I tried to help with about three days ago?"

"Yes." Cyclonis snapped, the memory not being a very fond one. Her voice softened when she realized what had happened. "I'll keep to a minimum Ravess, thanks." Cyclonis said as she shooed Ravess down the steps. Piper and Ravess passing each other on Piper's way up.

"Those maids sure did a good job." Was the first thing that Piper said when she made her way to the top.

"And you have a frame of reference?" Cyclonis asked the still standing Piper.

"Well I don't think my head has ever felt this nice. It's weird not having it full of smoke and dirt, and slime," Piper's list went on for a while. "And I don't even know how they got that thing out of my nails!"

"That's great and all Piper, but we're about to be on live television." Cyclonis said stopping the very enthralling story about Piper's hair and nails and the small of her back having what she thought was a birthmark. "So I think we should go over how the rest of the day is going to go before we start airing."

"Can I get a place to sit first? My knees are killing me right now." Piper asked.

"I discussed that earlier with the camera crew, the consensus was that you should be sitting in my lap." Cyclonis lied with a smirk. "Can't have you getting those perfectly clean clothes dirty now can we?" Cyclonis brought her attention back to her clothes. Was it even a gown? Did it count if only the top was part of a gown? She had pants so does that eliminate it being a gown if it doesn't have a skirt? She made yet another mental note to bring that up later with her tailors. She should really make a list.

"You have to be kidding." Piper folded her arms.

"Well you could sit on the floor and get your clothes all dirty." Cyclonis suggested, making Piper look down at herself.

"Well, these do look really nice on me don't they?" Piper said.

"We're starting in a minute!" One person around the camera's yelled.

"No time to talk about our schedule today then." Cyclonis said as she grabbed Pipers arm and pulled the girl onto her lap.

"What, am I supposed to just sit quietly and look pretty for the camera?"

"That would be nice until the questions start, if I could get my announcement out of the way before you can say anything it would be appreciated." Cyclonis said trying to position herself comfortably with Piper on her lap and also being the focus of the camera.

"Fine, but I'm going to make this terrible for you." Piper said before looking back to the camera's. She saw a worker that looked like she was in charge start to count with her fingers and felt Cyclonis sit straighter.

"Citizens of Cyclonia," Cyclonis started jarring how quickly she was able to just start talking to a camera. "you know I am not one for long speeches and am more inclined towards action. Which is why I have already started a plan that will benefit Cyclonia along with the rest of the Atmos. I have decided that a peace treaty would benefit us more than continuing to fight with the other Terra's." Piper looked around the room to try and gauge the reactions of those in the room, most were simply shocked or at a loss for words. However the most interesting reaction came from the Dark Ace who from what she could tell was doing his best to stand still as his blood turned to lava. No doubt he had known of what was being said and already didn't approve.

"Now of course you may be wondering how a peace treaty could be made after so many years of war. Well, I decided a more tradition form of politics would be suitable for this matter." Cyclonis raised her hand to gesture to the dark skinned girl in her lap. "This is Piper, who you may know from a group of sky nights calling themselves the storm hawks." Piper awkwardly waved to the camera, not really knowing what she was supposed to be doing right now. Although she did hope she was covering Cyclonis' face from the camera just to be rude.

"In a matter of months she shall be a fellow ruler of Cyclonia by my side." As Cyclonis said that last sentence she could hear a machine off to the side. She found the source of the noise on the other side of the room where what she could only assume was a fax machine was spewing out questions about what Cyclonis meant by all this. She assumed that the machine working was only a courtesy as there was no way Cyclonis was going to deal with citizens just abusing their way to talk to the queen.

Cyclonis went on and on about the treaty and the future of Cyclonia, after listening for only a few seconds she realized that Cyclonis was just filling time by saying the same things over and over again differently. After she had picked up on this she had started to get bored. And when it continued for longer than anticipated and she was slouched over with her head on her hand she began to get irritated.

"Could we move on from this?" Piper interrupted with the most whining bored voice she could muster. "It's been like an hour and you have really bony legs." Piper said shuffling taking note of the pain in her back.

Cyclonis paused looking at the camera and back to Piper. Leaning in to whisper Cyclonis said. "You think that I'm not bored? This is killing me, not to mention that I'm still thinking over what I'm going to say after this. And I'm bony?" Cyclonis whispered offended. "My legs are going to be covered in bruises thanks to your bony ass."

"Listen up pipsqueak." Cyclonis let out a fake gasp at the shot to her hight. "It's not like I want to be on TV unprepared. You're the one who wants to get it out of the way as fast as possible, so why don't you just get this thing over with so we can go eat lunch?" Piper finished by stretching her back until it gave a loud snap that went throughout the whole room. Piper could have sworn she heard an echo. "Great acoustics." Piper said under her breath with the relief that her popped back offered.

Cyclonis cleared her throat before continuing. "Her highness has spoken, I suppose we should move one with this and get into the questions that were made before going live." Cyclonis said, turning and jerking her head at the Dark Ace as his signal. To which he walked closer to the camera clearing his own throat.

"Is this within the laws of Cyclonia?" Dark Ace began, reading off of the first card in the stack he held. Piper remembered something when he started, Cyclonis said that it was okay for her to speak during the questions. This made Piper a little more attentive now that she was actually not restricted from saying whatever.

"I reviewed the laws many times leading up to this, not only is it legal, it would be illegal if I didn't make this decision." Cyclonis said, revolving around the fact that they had a kid on the way. Cyclonis waved the Dark Ace on to continue the questions.

"Piper, do you want to marry Cyclonis?"

Piper looked between Cyclonis and the cameras in reaction to the question. Piper knew Cyclonis wanted to get all this over with as fast as possible but making her answer that question live was basically forcing her to say yes. She looked back at Cyclonis and only received a smile and a nudged chin to urge Piper to answer.

"Um," She just had to get this over with right? Easy enough, all she had to do was just say words without thinking. She could do that. "not at first." There was a pop near the camera's as she talked but it didn't slow her down. She went so far as to put on a fake smile and put her arm around Cyclonis. "But I don't think I could say no after how much Cyclonis grew on me."

"Cyclonis, how did you meet?"

"Well we had fought at first but after that I just knew I had to meet her again. We had our first, date, at a crystal mine." Piper wasn't sure that the camera's could pick it up but Cyclonis definitely spat the word date. She knew everything Cyclonis said was a lie, and that was when she remembered she could be answering. And she could use this power to totally embarrass Cyclonis.

"Don't be silly." Piper said with a high pitched voice, surprising most people in the room, especially Cyclonis. "I tell the story much better."

Cyclonis let out a chuckle. "What are you doing?" Cyclonis snapped under her breath.

"I'm just going to tell them how we met." Piper said with a devious smirk.

"I only had that question because of how much people like any news on celebrities. I'm trying to get it over with so we aren't in the papers for the next few months."

"Couldn't be any worse than Cyclonis takes another Terra as the headline." Piper said before turning back to the camera's. "We met during a heavy storm and we spent the night in a cave, it was so romantic that Cyclonis here practically didn't leave my side for the whole next day." Piper said with the largest fake smile she could muster.

"Next question." Cyclonis snapped at the Dark Ace.

"When will the wedding be held?" This question made Piper grin only a little smaller than before. She thought back to her conversation with the maids earlier. Surprisingly they were actually really into weddings and wouldn't stop asking about hers.

"The wedding is planned to be held in,"

"Three months." Piper finished, cutting off Cyclonis and leaving her shocked as well.

"I'm sorry, what?" Cyclonis asked with a forced smile.

"Next question please?" Piper asked instead of answering.

"Right. Will this affect taxes?" Dark Ace asked before Piper could continue.

"Yes, Taxes will change to benefit the citizens more than they do already, which means more benefits." Cyclonis said, glaring at Piper.

To everyone's surprise, Ravess jumped in front of the camera. "Sorry, but this broadcast is being cut short due to technical difficulties." After she said this the camera's were immediately turned off. Piper looked around and was surprised she didn't notice all the people that relaxed and were helping with the camera's.

"Ravess, what's happening?" Cyclonis asked.

"Moments ago a power crystal burst lowering the range of the broadcast. I was informed that if they didn't stop soon all the power crystals would burst." Ravess explained, making Cyclonis groan with frustration. "But on the bright side, there's still time for a late lunch." Ravess said with a smile.

"Late lunch?" Piper said shocked. "How long were you talking for?"

"That hardly matters now." Cyclonis said irritated. "What was that?" Cyclonis asked gesturing around them.

"Which part?" Piper asked sarcastically. "The part about how we met? Or the part about our wedding date?" Piper asked, using her hands as scales.

"All of it!" Cyclonis was coming closer to just pushing the tall dark girl off her lap.

"Oh yeah," Piper grabbed one knee trying to look smug. "Well me and the maids were talking earlier, and I was just so excited that I was marrying you," Piper sneered. "that I decided that we should just get everything over with as soon as possible." Piper said snidely throwing that in Cyclonis' face. "And three months just seemed like the right time."

Cyclonis let out what she assumed was a growl, which would have been intimidating to anyone else that didn't have Piper's situation. Because of Piper's situation the growl only seemed childish and kind of pathetically cute.

"Fine, whatever, I'll deal with it later." Cyclonis said trying to nudge Piper off her lap. "You can get up now." Piper's smirk persisted.

"Now is that any way to speak to you're wife, dear?" Piper felt disgusting saying these things but also was doing her best to not burst out laughing.

Cyclonis took a second. She had to look Piper in the face and actually think about what was happening. Sure enough, there was a huge smile just waiting for her response. "Fine," Cyclonis said through gritted teeth. "You can get your bony ass of my lap now, dear."

"Better." Piper said as she stood up from Cyclonis' lap and felt the tingling in her legs. "Oh, legs are asleep, that hurts." Piper said as she started walking in place.

"Yeah, same here." Cyclonis said, not standing up. She could almost feel the blood flow back into her legs. She massaged her legs getting ready to stand up.

"Am I really that bony?" Piper asked, shaking her foot trying to wake up her ankle.

"Surprisingly, you are. I knew that you had a tiny back, but I thought it would be muscle, not just nothing." Cyclonis said, still not standing up.

"Sounds like you've actually put thought into my," Piper paused a second. "butt."

"I had plenty of time to think about it when you were digging into my thighs."

"Well, it's good to know if you ever get in trouble I could just sit on you." Piper said.

Cyclonis paused before responding. "You know, that sounds like it should be more intimidating than it sounds."

Cyclonis finally stood up and stretched, causing Piper to see how much taller she was than the pale girl.

"So," Cyclonis began as they walked towards the exit of the room. "what do you suppose we did in the cave all night that made me so infatuated with you?"

"Oh," Piper almost forgot about the answers she gave. "well, you know."

"Oh I think I can think of a few scenarios." Cyclonis said with a giggle. "Maybe we can recreate the romantic night in my room tonight." Cyclonis said as they reached the door and walked into the hallway.

"I liked you better when you were Lark." Was all Piper said in response, trying not to imagine anything that Cyclonis implied.

"That hurts Piper, I thought after a lovely day of me telling you we'd be getting married that you would become infatuated with me." Cyclonis said sarcastically.

"Oh, ha ha." Piper folded her arms. "Do you wanna talk about something else or do you want me to keep trying to ruin your reputation?"

Cyclonis actually took a moment to think over her answer. It took a few seconds but she actually did want to ask Piper about something.

"Actually yes." Cyclonis said, walking slower. "What exactly was the whole deal with frozen yogurt?"

Hours later, Cyclonis and Piper prepare for bed

"And that is how I learned to never put Finn or stork in charge of a citrus crystal." Piper said smoothing out her side of the bed.

"Wow." Cyclonis said in amazement. "Did they ever figure out how to the the orange out of that helmet?"

"No, the helmet actually fused with the orange because of all the acid and glue." Piper giggled out.

Cyclonis sat down in a chair at the end of the room. She glanced at the papers on her desk and remembered something important.

"Crap." Cyclonis let out quite loud enough to get Piper's attention. "You remember about the entire thing where you announced that our wedding would be in three months?"

"Yeah, I think it's a funny prank." Piper continued to giggle.

"Well now I'm going to have to send out an order tomorrow to change anything written about that to strike it or replace it. Which isn't easy I'll have you know." Cyclonis said imagining the future frustration that's going to happen tomorrow.

"Good thing I'm not queen yet, I don't have to do anything like that." Piper punched the air as a little celebration that she wouldn't have to go through the crap that comes with being a royal.

"Whatever, at least you can appreciate it. Meanwhile, I'm going to have to set up a dinner with the storm hawks." Cyclonis said under her breath.

"Really?" Piper said slightly shocked, Cyclonis couldn't talk quiet enough to keep Piper from hearing her. "Why do you have to do that?"

Cyclonis let out a groan before explaining. "Wedding ceremony in Cyclonia is different than on any other terra. Cyclonia still practices gift exchanging to parents."

"But neither of us have parents." Piper stated pointing out the obvious problem.

"But the storm hawks are the rest of your," Cyclonis put up air quotes. "family, so I have to, by custom, give the storm hawks something of value in exchange for you."

"Do I have to do the same thing for you? For like, Snipe, Ravess, and the Dark Ace?"

"Yeah, seems about fair." Cyclonis waved the conversation off. "Do you know his name?" Cyclonis asked, changing the topic.

"Who?" Piper asked sitting down on her edge of the bed.

"The Dark Ace, it's a title, not his name. His real name is Tanner." Cyclonis said stifling a small chuckle. Fortunately, Piper almost guffawed at this news.

"Seriously?" Piper said through laughter.

"Yeah, Tanner, the Dark Ace. Tanner, leader of the Cyclonian armies." Cyclonis said joining the chuckles.

"That is such a terrible name!" Piper half screamed through her laughs.

The next minute was dedicated towards making light of the Dark Ace's very serious name.

"So," Piper said, slowing down from her laughs. "What are you going to give me?"

"What?" Cyclonis said, not understanding the transition from their good fun into whatever Piper was talking about.

"Well, you have to give a gift to the rest of the storm hawks, what are you going to give me?"

"Oh, right." Cyclonis stood up and walked over to Piper. "I was going to give you this next week but I guess now is fine." Cyclonis said.

"I always like presents." Piper said with a smile.

"I think you're going to like this." Cyclonis said as she stopped over Piper and leaning over.

Piper was only left perplexed as Cyclonis quickly pecked her on the lips. "Seriously?" Piper said almost laughing as she considered how pathetic that was.

"What?" Cyclonis said, voice actually faltering.

"I mean," Piper began. "was that supposed to be a kiss?" Piper didn't even have to laugh, her voice gave it away.

Cyclonis only hissed to herself as she left to the other side of her bed.

"Haven't you ever heard of practicing with a pillow?" Piper continued to lay in. "I mean, I know you're naked over there, maybe you could get better at some other things."

The only thing Piper heard out of Cyclonis for the rest of the night was the same growl she had heard before.

On the Condor with Stork and Aerrow

"I don't like this Stork." Aerrow said talking over the drone of Cyclonis who had been talking for almost two hours about the same thing. The only reason they were even watching the broadcast is because of Piper. Finn and Junko were busy doing something else that wasn't so boring.

"I must admit, I don't like this either." Stork said eating popcorn. "I mean, she should really get on with it."

"Not that Stork," Aerrow said glaring at the TV. "Our Piper is sitting in the lap of that literal dark witch." He turned back to the TV and tried focusing on what Cyclonis was saying. "But yeah, she's been going on like this for a while. Even Piper is bored."

"Look." Stork said pointing to Piper's face. "I looks like she's getting fed up with this as much as we are."

"I doubt it." Aerrow said grabbing another handful of popcorn. "At least we get to eat during this."

"Could we move on from this?" Piper's voice said, silencing pretty much all other sound.

"That can't be good." Stork said. They both leaned closer to the TV to try and hear what the two on the screen were now talking about. "This isn't working." Stork pointed out the obvious when neither of them could hear what they were whispering.

"Her highness has spoken." Cyclonis said.

"Is Piper really going to be a queen of Cyclonia?" Aerrow asked Stork who looked confused at his question. "Well, Cyclonis is actually doing what Piper said. For all we knew this could have all been a trick by Cyclonis."

"If this was a trick would you really have let Piper go all the way over there?" Stork asked.

"I don't think I would have been able to stop Piper if she really wanted to."

"Piper-" The Dark Ace said. Causing Aerrow to shush Stork and listen intensely. "-do you want to marry Cyclonis?"

Stork and Aerrow leaned in closer, anticipation building waiting for Piper's answer. After a solid moment of staring unblinking at the screen Piper started to answer.

"Not-" Then the screen went to static.

Stork could almost feel the air change around Aerrow. He had a sense for danger and he wasn't feeling very safe next to Aerrow anymore. After a second he turned to see Aerrow sitting still but very tense.

"Stork." Aerrow said without looking at him. "Set a course for Cyclonia, we're getting Piper back."

This is all I have right now. I'm stopping here for now because I'm bad at time skips and the original wasn't structured that great in the first place. I feel I made it long enough for now to be able to post this and expect actual feedback. This isn't the final draft. If I made any spelling errors please tell me and please tell me what I can do to improve this story. Also, anything you think I did terribly, please tell me. I'm not sure how this one turned out so any feedback would be nice.