AUTHOR: Djap
LANGUAGE: English
PAIRING: mainly Dark Ace x Aerrow, but also Finn x Stork, Junko x OFC, and a surprise pairing
RATING: NC17
BETA: De Ore Leonis – thank you for your great work
SUMMARY: What if the storm Hawks come back through the gate, bringing their enemies as prisoners with them, only to discover, that their own world has changed so much that they didn't know anymore what was the right or the wrong side of their former war? Look inside and find out!
DEDICATION: I got inspired by a fanfiction which is called "The last letter". The story made me think about the Cyclonians as a nation (not just the 'bad guys') with history and an own language and stuff. I wanted to thank the author for such a great story, which I did in my own way – by writing a new story as a thank you for the fandom.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, and I won't make any money with them. Pity.
PART 1_3 – if you want more, write a review! I LOVE reviews! ;)
SO TAKE A GLASS OF WINE, LIE BACK AND ENJOY
YOURS DJAP
*~*~*
Doing the right thing
A Djap story
*~*~*
PART ONE: Discoveries
*~*~*
The former Master Cyclonis was sitting in her room on the Condor and waited for the Storm Hawks to come to her. She knew they must have passed the dimension door by now, which they had produced with her help.
She awaited her fate with as much dignity as she could muster, although she felt fear rising within her. She wasn't the same since the Storm Hawks had found her on that Terra in the other dimension. In that new world and far away from her earlier duties she had discovered parts of herself, she hadn't known existed.
Even when Dark Ace, whom she had believed long dead, found her, she couldn't get back to what she'd been born to be. Somehow, by getting defeated and losing her home Terra she had changed. Suddenly she felt free, and she could make her own choices for the first time.
She had loved her parents, with all her heart, and knew that they had returned these feelings too. But she had been the only heir they had – she had no choice but to be prepared for her destiny.
But by fleeing to that other world, she could discover for the first time who she really was. She had actually made friends with people there. With the exception of Dark Ace, whom she considered a dear friend since he had become her bodyguard when she was still very little, and the brief episode she had with Piper right at the start of her life as ruler of Cyclonia, something like that had never happened before.
She had lived with those people just as any other teenage girl, doing all the normal things she'd always dreamed of doing. She had been delighted when Dark Ace found her, and had invited him to do the same. She still wasn't sure about it. Although he had still kept watching out for her, he also seemed to have enjoyed their freedom in that new world.
But like everything good that happened to her so far, this had been doomed all along. She knew that, she had just hoped her luck would last a little longer. But then, finally, the Storm Hawks had found them. They were going to bring them back to their respective trials which undoubtedly waited for them in Atmos.
Dark Ace had wanted to fight for their freedom, but she had sighed and stopped him. The little freedom they'd had was already tainted by The Storm Hawk's appearance. She didn't want to fight anymore.
So she made her own decision and told Dark Ace to do the same. She let herself get captured without a fight and was slightly surprised when her former servant did the same. It wasn't in Dark Ace's nature to go down without a fight and she told him so. He had just looked grim and answered that for such a long time, his only reason to live had been to protect her. He wouldn't leave her now.
*~*~*
At first the Storm Hawks had been suspicious of their prisoners but after half a month in which nothing bad had happened, they started to relax.
One day, Piper had stood right in the door of the room which Master Cyclonis considered her cell, and held a bracelet in her hand, inset with different crystals. She came into the room and gave it to her. Without another word of explanation the former Master Cyclonis needed about 30 seconds guess its function.
"It's a transmitter. With that you'll always know, where I am."
"Yes." Piper nodded. "Will you wear it? It has a lock you won't be able to open yourself, so it will be permanent, but I won't force you because you have been cooperative so far and I believe you'll keep being so."
She didn't hesitate for even a second. She just took a breath and put it around her wrist without another word. Still, she was curious why they hadn't given these out earlier, so she dared to ask the girl:
"Why should we start wearing these now? We haven't tried to break out, have we?"
"Because you weren't allowed to leave your room before. But since you've cooperated so far, we thought we could give you a little more freedom. We all think that being in the same room on the Condor must be driving you mad. After all, it would drive us mad. Besides…"
"Yes?"
"I can't yet figure out a way to bring us back to Atmos without your help. I probably will, but the longer it takes…"
"The longer we have to stay here imprisoned on this ship. So you're giving us a treat in exchange for me sharing information with you about how to get back."
Piper nodded earnestly.
"What makes you think, Piper, that I would want to help you? If you bring us back, there won't be that much of a change in Dark Ace's or my situation. We'll stay prisoners and it's no difference to us if we're here or on Atmosia in cells, don't you think?"
Piper just shrugged at that and refused to answer.
The Former Master Cyclonis sighed again.
"So let's get to work then, shall we?"
But Piper wasn't finished yet. "First we should go over to Dark Ace's room, to give him his own bracelet. I came to you first, because I feared he wouldn't react well if I tried to talk to him alone. He has been unresponsive so far and Aerrow said that this situation must be even more depressing for him, since he was born to fly like Aerrow himself. He had tried his luck earlier, but like always he was simply ignored."
The former Master Cyclonis had to smile at that and stated confidently:
"Well, he can sure be obstinate and he pouts nicely when something goes against his will."
To her surprise the other girl giggled at her words and she returned the smile baffled.
"So come on Cyclonis, I'm sure he won't keep pouting if it's half an order from his master."
That made the former Master Cyclonis sad. Her features darkened again before she stated as sincerely as she could: "I'm not his master anymore. He decided to stay at my side out of his own free will, not because I ordered him to."
Piper gave her an odd look at those words, but the former Master Cyclonis ignored it and continued in earnest: "And I would ask you to not address me that way again. At least not as long we're still in this world. I know things will change when we get back to Atmos, but I would like to get called by my real name."
"And what name would that be?" Piper asked, curious.
"You know it already. I'm pretty sure you haven't forgotten it, because you're too bright for that." The former Master Cyclonis looked slightly embarrassed at what she had just said, but she defiantly refused to take it back.
"I didn't think you had told me your real name, Lark. But now let's see about Dark Ace, he should get some fresh air too."
*~*~*
The imprisonment on the Condor hadn't been as bad as they had feared it would be. They had gotten rooms right beside each other and they had been able to talk with each other through the energy fields, if the doors stayed open. They had gotten plenty to eat three times a day, and each of their cells had a tiny bathroom they could use. After a third day with nothing to do, they had even gotten some books from their wardens, so they could even read.
And that was how Piper and Lark found the other prisoner, when they opened the door to his room. He lay on his bed and held a book in his hands, seemingly engrossed by the story. Both young women knew better though, and after he heard the clear voice of his master he looked up, lifting a questioning eyebrow in surprise.
She motioned towards her wrist and he understood right away. They explained the deal to him, but he just snorted and got back to reading.
"I'm not interested. Go away."
Then he heard something jingle and his curiosity got the better out of him: In Pipers hands dangled the keys for a skimmer and while he wasn't sure what that would mean, hope still reared its ugly head inside of him.
"Aerrow told me you probably would like to take a ride. These are the keys to our spare skimmer, but I think it'll probably suffice. After all you are known to be the best fighter pilot, to ever fly in Atmos. So what do you say?"
He really wanted to get left alone, but the damn girl was right. At this point he'd die for the slightest chance to fly, even for just a few seconds. So he stood and took the bracelet and the keys.
He tried to be haughty about it, but failed miserably by nearly running to the skimmer bay. When he felt the wind around his head and his eyes water from his daring manoeuvres, he thought that the deal was worth it – at least for the time being.
*~*~*
Lark had been able to move around freely on her own (at least during the daytime – at night, with just one watch, they asked her to go back to her cell, but she didn't mind, she needed a room to sleep in as well, so why shouldn't she use this one?) for about three weeks now, but now she had finally hid herself in her room.
She feared the trials and the return to Atmos. They could do much more than simply send her to prison: they could sentence her to death –she tried to be brave in the face of imminent life danger, but somehow she wasn't in the way she wanted to be.
As she had expected it was Piper who finally came looking for her. But when Piper arrived, Lark could see that something was wrong right away.
"What is it? Did something go wrong? Were our calculations wrong?"
"Not directly. We… I… Lark, I'm sorry, I really am. But I can't tell you what's wrong. You should really come and see for yourself."
So she braced herself by taking a deep breath, stood and followed the girl.
*~*~*
"Oh my god!"
Lark felt like crying, and as Aerrow reached the bridge of the condor with Dark Ace, she heard his sharp intake of breath and knew he was as shocked as her.
Finn was the one who finally started speaking again:
"But we were gone for about what? 14 months? There's no way…"
He didn't know how to finish the sentence and Lark couldn't blame him. It touched something deep inside her that even the Storm Hawks seemed to grieve for what they saw. Somehow she had expected that if they saw something like this, the Storm Hawks would react with laughter and malicious pleasure. But they didn't and although she was sure there was nothing what could make this better for her, she somehow felt touched by it.
She hadn't known she was shivering until she felt a reassuring touch on her shoulder. She knew it was Dark Ace, trying to be there for her in her grieve, but she felt herself dying inside.
Yes, she had never cared much for her home Terra, because it had held too many obligations for her, but it had still been her home and her inheritance. She might not have thought so when she fought against the Sky Knights and tried to rule whole Atmos, but she was thinking so now.
"Uh guys?" Stork spoke into the silence and interrupted their musings. "You should probably look at that." He pointed to the clock and all of them gasped in shock.
"This can't be!" Aerrow jumped to the clock and lightly knocked on it, trying to shake it. But the time pulse wasn't lying and finally Lark was able to speak:
"I expected there to be a difference, but I hadn't thought it would be this much."
"But ten years! That's impossible…" Finn couldn't believe it and continued babbling until Dark Ace cut him off: "Obviously, it isn't. It's always dangerous to work with crystals. I thought you would have learned that by now."
Lark knew this remark wasn't meant for her, but still she shivered as she heard it. Dark Ace, whose hand hadn't left its place yet, gripped her shoulder in what she understood as an excuse for her. She shook her head slightly to show that she had understood how he had meant it. She took some steps towards to the windows of the bridge and touching the glass with her hands. She pressed her face to it to get a fuller view.
They had returned as she had calculated at the same spot where they had left right in front of Terra Cyclonia. But there was nothing even resembling a Terra anymore. Half of the Terra seemed to have been blasted away by some really strong energy weapon and with it, all cities.
Her castle had gone as well, although there seemed to be at least some walls left. The rest lay in ruins, seemingly dead for many years. The Storm Hawks felt as if they looked again at Terra Deep and somehow expected Murk Raiders to appear on the horizon.
When finally a ship did arrive – to them out of nowhere - it was big and made them gape like fishes out of their precious water. Stork wasn't sure how he had been able to overlook such a large cruiser, but when he checked his instruments again, he realised that the ship didn't show up on his instruments. He instantly started to panic: Had mind worms gotten him after all?
"How can this be?" Aerrow was dumbstruck and ordered Stork to escape as the strange ship hailed them. This was just too creepy to believe. The ship wore the typical Cyclonian colours, red and dark green and it looked exactly like the battle cruiser Snipe had built for himself before they had completely trashed it.
But all of them were sure, that this couldn't be, since Cyclonia must have fallen 10 years ago. Then they saw the Flag and couldn't believe it anymore: It wore the signs of the Sky Knights of Atmosia.
But even more unbelievable was the thing the ship did when the Storm Hawks finally tried to answer the hailing: they opened fire on them.
*~*~*
"I can't believe it!" Aerrow was still agitated about all this. "Why did they fire on us? We're Sky Knights too, after all."
"Yeah, but they probably didn't believed us, since we disappeared more than ten years ago." Piper pointed out reasonably.
"Be that as it may, why start to fire? Why not come and talk to us at first? They knew the Condor was no match for them."
He was right about that. Only Stork's abilities to fly the Condor, Lark's abilities to use a disappearing crystal and the fact that they had had some damn good luck allowed them to escape the ambush at all.
Now they landed on the surface of the battered Terra, still invisible to the battle cruiser's radar. They hoped the battle cruiser wouldn't find them here, as long as Lark could keep the shield up. Dark Ace was watching over his master, because the production of such a large shield was tiring, even for her.
Finally, when she just couldn't hold it up anymore she grabbed for Dark Ace, who went instantly to his knees and caught his falling master, ready to fold the small figure in his arms. She was glad she had held out long enough for the Sky Knights on the Battle Cruiser lose interest in them.
Just as Lark collapsed they vanished faster than anyone of them had seen a ship do so before. Obviously ship technologies had developed a lot over the last ten years in Atmos.
"Is she alright?" Piper and Aerrow had both come to the Cyclonians and offered their help. Dark Ace ignored them and stood without help, taking Lark in his arms. "She'll be fine. She just needs rest now. I'll bring her to her room."
"Yeah of course. If you need anything, just tell us, okay?"
The tall man nodded absently, his attention divided between Aerrow and sorrow for his master.
"Oh, and Dark Ace?"
"Yes?"
"If she sleeps you can join us here, if you want. We need all the help we can get, for this."
He nodded and then turned abruptly to see to his master.
*~*~*
"I still don't understand why they were using a Cyclonian battle cruiser of all things. I mean, the war should be over, right? There should be no need for them." Finn didn't know what else to add and just punched his fist into the wall. The pain helped to relieve some of his tension.
They were talking in circles until Dark Ace spoke up. He had been sitting quietly so far, listening to them.
"Is it really so hard for you to believe, that there could be another force who wanted to rule all of Atmos? Is it really so hard to believe that there could have been Sky Knights fallen to their own Dark side?" He smirked knowingly before he continued: "It has been known to happen before."
He crossed his arms and kept smirking while protests exploded around him. Nearly all the Storm Hawks were protesting that this would never be happen, even Radarr was chattering and growling at him, with one exception.
To the Talon Commander's surprise it was their leader Aerrow who was silent and finally made them stop the babbling by yelling at them: "Quiet now! All of you! Screaming and arguing won't be able to help us in any way. Besides, he has a point. I find this all highly suspicious and I don't think we should try to contact them before we have gotten more information."
"But how can we get more information? They tried to shoot us a minute ago." Junko pointed out.
"Good question. Any suggestions?"
"Guys?" Again it was Stork who brought them some interesting news.
"What is it?" Aerrow was instantly on his feet and went over to his helmsman.
"The Terra probably isn't as dead as it looks. Since the cruiser disappeared I got some really interesting readings from my sensors. At first I thought I was imaging things, but I'm pretty sure now that there are people living here in these ruins."
"We should investigate that." Aerrow was instantly on his way to the hanger when he suddenly stopped and turned to the rest of his team with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I know…" he started saying "this might be the worst idea I've ever had, but I think, Dark Ace and Lark should come with us. This is their home after all, and I think they have a right to say goodbye to it before we give them to the Atmosians."
To Aerrow's surprise everyone seemed to be okay with that, probably because they all were still shocked by the state they had found this Terra in. Even Stork didn't take the chance to point out impending doom. Aerrow signed for the rest of them to follow him to Lark's room to see if she would be fit enough to come with them.
*~*~*
"This place is really creepy." Finn shuddered, his crossbow wobbling while he held it nervously in front of himself.
He was right – the ruins were really creepy. But even more disturbing were the looks on the usual stony faces of their prisoners. They went at the centre of the group because the Storm Hawks hadn't been stupid enough to give them any weapons. They seemed to be in agony over the look of their beloved home Terra. They had given the impression that they had changed and they behaved differently on the other side of the dimension door – every Storm Hawk had felt it - but faced with this they looked downright human.
Human and weak and hurting very deeply but none of the Storm Hawks commented on it, although they would have had enough reason to do so in the past. Instead they just kept exploring the ruins and got directions over their radios from Stork, to where he'd seen the latest life sources.
Somewhere along the way they stumbled over something which looked like a mass grave and Finn actually retched at the view, not able to hold back, while Lark burrowed her head in Dark Ace's chest. No Storm Hawk would have been able to point out how weak she looked like that because they were occupied with their own sense of impending horror.
The grave looked as if someone had wanted to bury the bodies, but had been disturbed while doing it – probably dying only seconds after. They were only bones left, but it was still a horror to look at, since most of them are still wearing their clothes – their civilian clothes, no uniforms there – and they could even see the skeletons of children lying around.
They passed it as quickly as they could and headed for something which looked like a big cave entrance. When they went inside they found it was more along the lines of a cave system, because it was surely made by human hands. They got deeper into its shadows, with only some crystals as light sources.
Somewhere along the way the cave branched in several directions and when they followed one, they kept finding more and more. Stork's voice grew thinner and thinner, as they proceeded deeper under the surface of the Terra.
It was hot in here, and the air was musty and dry, but finally they saw the first signs of life. There were new footprints to be found in the sand of the floor and they hurried up the trail.
*~*~*
"Stop there, you filthy Sky Knight scum. You won't be able to beat us this time!"
They came to an abrupt halt when their enemies closed in on them. Suddenly they were everywhere and it was a real surprise to the Storm Hawks to find how quietly and efficiently they had been surrounded.
Still no Storm Hawk activated their weapon. Somehow they didn't expect their enemies to hurt them. That might have something to do with the fact that they were looking at children, with no grown-ups to in sight.
All of them looked really scared. They were dirty and gripped their weapons (which consisted of mostly stones, clubs, which were made out of wood and old fashioned crossbows) clearly fearing for their life. They didn't wear anything resembling real clothes only some rags and some of them looked ill.
The boy who had spoken looked about ten or eleven years old. He had brown hair and eyes and looked defiantly at them.
"Don't move or I'll swear we'll kill you this time!"
Aerrow lifted his hands and slowly made his way forward before he spoke to the leader:
"Please wait. We're not here to harm you in any way…"
The boy snorted and looked grim before answering:
"Yeah, sure. Stop right there or you'll regret it!"
Aerrow did as he was told and tried to look as small as he could make himself while the boy continued:
"You say that every time and still you're here again to take our leaders away. We won't allow it to happen anymore!"
"But…"
But before Aerrow could say anything a new group of people arrived in the passage and this time they all looked more like teens.
"Sev, what are you doing there? Stop it right now. I won't allow you to endanger any more children!"
The boy turned around and instantly started defending himself while all the other children started to flee.
The Storm Hawks watched silently while the leader of the new group, a girl with blonde hair and green eyes, started scolding the boy, which she had called Sev.
"Stop babbling, Sev. You promised not to do something like that again. You know that this will nothing change. Only children will get hurt and I won't allow it anymore. We have to accept our fate, and someday soon you have to do the same, when it's your time's to lead us."
Suddenly the boy ran to her and hugged her tight, burrowing his face in her rags and trying to hide the fact that he was bawling his eyes out.
"But I don't want you to go! I won't let them take you!"
"Shush, it's not my time yet. And now go, we have to do our duty."
Finally, the boy sniffed and nodded his head, before leaving as he'd been told, but not without looking one last time at the Storm Hawks with his eyes full of hate.
The young girl finally walked towards them and bowed deeply, which wasn't easy for her, since she was obviously pregnant.
"You are early, Sky Knights, we expected you to come back in two months. I hope very much you won't want to kill the boy for his behaviour. When it's his time, I'm sure he'll be a good slave to you, so if you want revenge, I beg you to punish me instead, but of course it's your decision how you punish us for our misbehaviour."
Aerrow made some steps to her and tried to help her up, but she flinched right away, obviously expecting to get beaten, but trying desperately not to show her fear and her wish to shelter the unborn life she was carrying in her belly.
The Redhead understood his fault by trying to help and instead tried to reach the girl with words:
"Please, you mistake us for someone else. We don't even know who you are and why these kids tried to attack us."
"But, I don't understand…" The girl seemed at a loss for words, so one of her companions, a teenage boy with black hair and black eyes continued for her: "Aren't you Sky Knights? You wear the right uniforms…"
Piper came to Aerrow's help and smiled as nicely as she could at them: "Yes, we are Sky Knights – at least that's what we have been called years ago."
"If you're Sky Knights, you must be here to take the old ones."
Aerrow started talking again: "Listen, we really don't know who you are. Something very strange happened and we haven't been in Atmos for the last ten years. We really don't know about any other Sky Knights except that they attacked us with what looked like a Cyclonian Battle Cruiser. When we saw that someone was still living here, we hoped you could help us explain why our beloved Atmos has changed so much."
They could see that they didn't believe a word, but they still lead them back to their village. The Storms Hawks and their two Cyclonian prisoners looked around impressed and depressed at the same time.
The village consisted mostly of children and the oldest people around seemed to be the teenagers they had met some minutes ago. There must be over a hundred of them, and all of them seemed petrified of the newcomers. All of them looked the same with filthy rags and many of them ill. The caves were illuminated by a few crystals and all around were some kind of sheds where the kids seemed to live.
Finally they reached a bigger shed and when they went inside they were greeted by another group of teens. They looked a little older than the one's they had already met and all of them bowed deeply to them, before one of them muttered:
"We waited for you. There are ten of us like you wanted, nine of us seventeen and one sixteen. We are ready to follow you as quickly as you wish."
Again, Aerrow tried to explain their situation and that they weren't one of those Sky Knights they seemed to expect. They needed hours to finally convince the teens that they wouldn't want to take them away.
*~*~*
They soon learned about their situation when the blonde girl, which went by the name Anna, started explaining things:
"When our leaders left us and got defeated by the Sky Knights the downfall of Cyclonia began. At first they started killing everyone they could find. Our last leaders, which were called Ravess and Snipe, had been executed in public on Atmosia." At that Lark made an exhausted noise, but Dark Ace kept watching out for her, so the Storm Hawks just looked on.
"Then they started to catch the remaining Cyclonians and sold them as slaves for their own profit. They got really high prices for them, because there were obviously a lot of people who seemed to hate us enough to want their very own Cyclonian to punish. They left us children here, because they couldn't make money with us, and probably just wanted us to die here to spare the energy needed to kill us right away. They might think we deserved no easier end – at least that was what they told us.
"In contrast to what they believed would happen, we somehow managed to survive with the older kids taking charge. They watched out for the younger children and so we kept living our own lives down here in these caves, because you can't live anymore on the surface of Terra Cyclonis, because it's too dangerous now.
"But when they came back patrolling our Terra and found us still living they decided to make some money again. They didn't kill but condemned us to give them ten of the older teens for slaves every six months, so they could sell us in exchange for our survival. This has been going on for over ten years now, and I don't think this will ever change again.
"The Cyclonian nation still survives here in some twisted kind of freedom, but after living for seventeen years here, every one of us had to pay the price for it as a slave for the rest of his or her life."
Anna stopped there and absently stroked her belly, which held a new Cyclonian child. She smiled grimly.
"When my son is born I'll have to go too, because I'll be one of the oldest by then, but at least I know a part of me will be free for a while. That will be worth living for."
*~*~*
They had gotten some food from the teens after the first hours of talk. All of the Storm Hawks and their prisoners were silent and kept to their own thoughts. They have been left alone, while the older teens went to feed everyone else. They wouldn't be back for another hour or so – at least that was what they'd told them, so Aerrow finally spoke up:
"Guys, tell me, what do you think of all this?"
He looked around them and waited patiently for their answers. Piper was the first to answer his question:
"I feel deeply sorry for them. No one deserves to live this way."
Aerrow heard Dark Ace snort. He still held Lark in his arms. She looked like crap and hadn't left his personal space since they had passed the unfinished grave on the surface. He seemed to be the only constant she still had, which kept her from falling apart.
She sat on his strong legs while she looked dully to the front as if she noticed nothing around her anymore. Dark Ace didn't seem to mind that and somehow didn't even seem to notice it anymore. It looked as if he'd done it countless times before and didn't even seem to register it as odd behaviour.
It was odd to the eyes of the Storm Hawks since they'd never thought to see her this weak and see him this caring this way. But that's not the only thing they were thinking about it: Especially Piper and Aerrow, their two leaders, felt something else about it, but both were not able to pinpoint exactly what their problem with it was and why they were feeling so strange about it. They had to focus on other problems as well, which the former Talon Commander pointed now out:
"I don't believe you. These kids are Cyclonian children after all. Why should you feel sorry for them?" His eyes shot daggers at his captors, and Finn wanted to assault him for it, when Aerrow held him back:
"Stop it Finn. He has every right to be bitter about this. Still we're really not to blame for this, Dark Ace, and you know it."
The man still looked angry, but he nodded grudgingly, before accusing him in another way: "I still find it hard to believe you care for some Cyclonian kids. We hurt helpless people on other Terras, as I'm sure you know."
"Be that as it may, but we're not you." Piper said, sighing. "We have always wanted to be the good guys, and doing the right thing can't be executing people or letting children pay for things that happened while some of them weren't even born."
"It's never right to hurt children – whoever they are." Junko said and crossed his arms stubbornly. "And we should help them. It's the least we could do – especially if they are telling the truth and the Sky Knights have turned to be the bad guys here."
"Don't you fear that if you help them, they could become the same monsters you fought only months ago?" The Dark Ace looked at them daringly.
This prompted Aerrow to finally make the decision:
"Then we should not only help them, but teach them to become better Cyclonians. I'm sure with your help we could do that."
At that, Lark looked up for the first time. Her violet gaze still held tears, but obviously she couldn't even cry anymore: "I don't think they would want my help. You heard them: Their leader left them alone in their misery and they are right about that. I was thinking about myself alone and not about my people or my obligations to them. I don't deserve to be their master anymore."
"No one said you should become their master again." Piper bridged the space between them with some steps and finally touched her lightly on the arm "We said you could assist us in helping them. We want to give them their freedom back and the possibility to become better people. Everyone makes mistakes, so don't be so hard on yourself."
"I would really like to help them, if they want me to, but I'll do it as Lark."
All Storm Hawks nodded thoughtfully at that, only the Dark Ace, who still held her on his lap asked softly:
"Are you really sure about that, Master?"
From one second to the other Lark's posture changed and the Storm Hawks could see that pieces of the arrogant, former ruler of Cyclonian were still inside her. Although that should have been creepy, it made them all less worried (Stork was still on the Condor waiting for them to report, so he couldn't point out impending doom) because it was at least a constant they were used too, since so much else had changed.
"Stop calling me that, all of you, at least until I deserve to be called that way again. That rule goes double for you, Dark Ace. I was very serious, when I set you free. You can make your own decisions now."
The look on Dark Ace face was unreadable, but most of them could see that he would have preferred to have this conversation in private. Still, he answered her:
"That's not as easy for me as you might think, mas… Lark. Of course I will help those children. They are Cyclonians and I'll help them at your side, because that's where I rightfully belong. But I'll still be your humble servant, like I swore years ago whether if you like it or not. There is no other place for me anymore and I won't give this up easily."
While the Storm Hawks watched the discussion without interfering, Lark looked as if she wanted to protest, but then she shrugged. She finally stood from his lap, realising for the first time where she'd been sitting, and sat on her own, trying to be as composed about it as she could and changed the topic.
"So how will you try to help them?" That question was sent Aerrow's way, but one of the Storm Hawks decided to answer.
"There are so many things which should be thought over." Piper started. "They obviously need help against those Sky Knights. They can't keep loosing their leaders as slaves. So they need training, weapons and other machines to defend themselves."
Finn added after some thought: "A lot of them look sick. They need better medicine and some of them need to learn how to heal."
Piper continued: "And they should learn more about crystals too. A lot of those crystals could be used better and more efficient than how they've been using them now."
"They should learn to play more. They all seem so earnest, but they should be allowed to be kids. What's all the freedom in the world worth, if you're not allowed to be happy?" Junko looked more earnest than ever, which was a strange look on the usually happy and easy to please Wallopp.
Everyone nodded at that, before Dark Ace asked finally, somehow lacking his former hostility: "What about their history? Do you want them to know who they are? Or do you want to teach them to be someone else?" He looked suspiciously at them, but Aerrow had expected something like that from the man:
"I think they should learn to be Cyclonians. I think after everything they've been through they won't want to rule the world ruthlessly. I think they'll be happy if they get a chance for real freedom. So what exactly did you have in mind?"
"I… I heard some of them talking in Cyclonian to each other and I could barely understand them. They've nearly lost their own language. I don't think they could write it anymore or even read old texts. Furthermore today should be celebrated, because this has always been a holiday at our Terra. But they don't even seem to know about that anymore. Cyclonia has had a long history, and not all of it has been what you would consider bad. They should know about being one of the oldest nations of Atmos."
Aerrow nodded. "Sounds good to me. And I think we should look for ways to help them to get better food. The stuff they gave us was awful and it didn't only taste bad: I'm pretty sure that stuff wasn't very nourishing."
Lark took it from there and continued: "That's because they have to let these vegetables grow in caves, illuminated only by the light of crystals. That's actually an old Cyclonian tradition, since our Terra has never been very fertile. But they don't seem to know the right vegetables to use or the right crystals. I'm sure we could teach them a lot about this."
Aerrow grinned broadly as his team started to chatter wildly around him.
"So it's settled then?"
"Of course!" they answered as one, all of them glad they'd made a decision. It just wasn't in their nature to not getting things done.
*~*~*
End of Part one – please review