"Visitor," the guard called.
The young lady sat cross-legged in the center of the cell with her hood drawn, facing away from the bars. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap atop a book. She didn't move when the door to her cell creaked open and then slammed shut.
"Cyclonis." His intonation of her name was sharp and filled with controlled fury.
Cyclonis took a deep breath, but didn't move. "I knew you'd come," she said, words tarnished to the point of sounding rusty, worn down from lack of use and lack of interest.
"I want to talk to you. Now."
"By all means, talk. I'm a captive audience," she replied, voice laced with sarcasm. She still hadn't moved, even though she could tell by the sound of his footsteps that he was standing directly behind her.
"You killed all of them…" His voice was wavering now, and that brought a smile to Cyclonis's lips.
"Did I?" she asked in an innocent tone. "Well, I suppose I did."
"I have to know…" he muttered with open disgust evident in his words. "Why did you do it?"
His question hung in the air like a creeping mist until Cyclonis blew it apart.
"Why did I do what, Storm Hawk? Kill all of your little friends? Or do you mean 'it' in the general sense of attempting to conquer all of the Atmos?" She paused to breathe in. "You should be more specific, or I might just ignore your questions."
"My friends!" he shouted.
Cyclonis continued sitting with her perfect posture. She casually flipped open her book – a piece on crystal science – and continued from where she left off. "Why did I kill your friends? That's an interesting question. I'm sure you think I killed them in the way I did because I wanted to show off to the other knights and their squadrons what would happen if they chose to continue their attack… or maybe I did it to dishearten you specifically."
There was a period of silence.
"Perhaps the latter option makes more since in this instance," Cyclonis mused, turning to the next page. "After all, I may have expected you to be incapacitated mentally after something as traumatic as losing all of your friends in such a short, short time. That would've rendered you unable to lead the Sky Knights from all the reaches of the Atmos against Cyclonia. Obviously – judging from the way the situation panned out and the way the situation is now – that didn't work."
He was about to reply when Cyclonis interrupted.
"Then again…" she trailed off, turning the page again. She grinned, face partially obscured by shadow. "Maybe I did it… just because I could."
The base of his boot slammed into Cyclonis's back. With a small grunt she collapsed forward, sprawled out on the cold stone of her cell. After a few seconds of stillness on the ground, she calmly shuffled to her former position and began flattening out a newly-bent page of her book.
"The Wallop begged for mercy. That was hilarious. I had no idea that the brawn of your group was actually the most cowardly until that day," Cyclonis said with a chuckle. Her chuckling ceased when a balled hand slammed against the side of her head, causing her to lean to the side with her mouth hanging open. After a few ragged breaths, she assumed her usual position.
"Don't talk about Junko like that, you psychopath," he snapped.
"Fine, then I'll talk about the little blond-haired one," Cyclonis hissed. "He cried. He actually cried. It was the first time I'd laughed in ages."
He grabbed her book roughly and flung it against the wall. It hit the floor with a shuffling sound and pages flew out in a whirlwind of knowledge.
"That wasn't necessary," Cyclonis remarked.
"Screw you."
"I shouldn't even mention your little pet's demise. What an inconsequential little imp," she muttered, rocking back and forth, teeth clenched. She braced herself for the next attack which slammed into the other side of her head, knocking her to her side. "And th-the Merb… ha! He killed himself in his cell!" She gasped when firm hands found purchase on her collar, dragging her to her feet. She suddenly found herself hoodless.
"You're a monster."
She broke free of his grasp and spun around, narrow purple eyes filled with flinty hatred. Suddenly, her expression relaxed and a wide smile spread across her face.
"I insisted on taking care of Piper myself."
He was dead silent.
"She was my best friend forever, after all," Cyclonis noted with a small, acknowledging nod of her head. "I had this wonderfully sharp blade, and her hands were tied behind her back. Once she was on the table, I pressed the knife against her neck and sawed, and sawed, and sawed…" She started laughing hysterically. "She was screaming louder than I would've thought possible! Well, at least she was until they were more like feeble gurgles than screams. Cleaning up all of that blood must've been a pain."
He slammed his right fist into her jaw, causing her to stagger to the right. He punched with his left one into her stomach and she doubled over, coughing horribly. After smashing her head with his fists a few times, she fell back into the wall, propped up against it with her back. There were two trails of blood coming down from her left nostril and the right side of her mouth. The lines of red contrasted sharply with the colorless white of her skin. She was still grinning.
He grabbed her by the hair and pushed her against the wall, switching his hold to a firm grasp around her neck. He shook her repeatedly, slamming the back of her head into the hard stone wall. Her face was beginning to turn slightly red, and her eyes were getting foggy.
"Ech… you know… Aerrow… you're following my plan perfectly," she squelched out from past her choking. "…My life s-sentence… ends today."
Aerrow either didn't pay attention to her words or didn't care, because she slowly sank down near the floor, barely alive. His hands were still tight around her throat.
"But…" she hissed, using the last of the oxygen remaining in her body, "…y-you're in prison… until the day you die." Her purple eyes remained fixed on his green ones and her small smile remained until she went limp in his grip and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Aerrow stared at her body for a few minutes before the guard went past and saw what had happened. No one would blame him for what he did, and he certainly wouldn't be punished – but Cyclonis was right. Aerrow would be in a prison for the rest of his days, even if it wasn't a physical one.