Author's Note: I'm going to attempt to keep these chapters a bit shorter than in my normal style of writing. Hopefully it will pick up a bit more with this chapter and the upcoming ones as well.

Chapter Two
The Plans of Good and Evil

The faint clatter of armor echoed throughout the large hallways of the palace. A tall man took long strides within one of the larger corridors of Cyclonia, his jet black hair hanging slightly in his face. His perfectly armor held true to his form, the Talon's seal almost shining within the low light of his surroundings. Upon his back was his sheathed blade, ready to be removed at a moments notice. His helmet was tucked under his arm as he continued to walk, cold red eyes focused forward.

Outside, the skies were their normal tinge of blood red, while beams of strong lighting would occasionally flash, illuminating the sky. Rolls of thunder would follow shortly after as large cruisers flew in and out of docking bays. A few skimmers encircled the castle on guard patrol, keeping a careful and watchful eye out for any unwanted guests.

And still he walked as if all noise was blocked out from his thoughts. Coming to the end of the long hallway stood two double doors. A guard on each side, they watched as he approached them, not even slowing his pace. The two scrambled from their positions, racing to place their hands upon the handles of the doors. They opened them at the same time, allowing the man to continue walking without a word or a falter in his step. He brushed past the two foot soldiers as if they were nothing, entering the room.

Cyclonis' lab had been rebuilt into its once former glory. Large marble pillars surrounded the large circular room while upon the floor was the symbol of Cyclonia, the red Talon. Beyond the seal, stood the large crystal converter. Its mechanical arms were moving about in a frenzy, grabbing and moving different stones to other hands. Below the massive machine stood a small figure of a young woman, cloaked in her elegant purple robes, her back turned towards where the man came to a halt.

Placing his fist to his chest, the man bowed deeply, "Master Cyclonis. You summoned me?" he spoke firmly, showing no fear towards his leader.

The girl did not even turn from her work. Keeping her figures connected to the keyboard before her, she straightened up a bit, "I have a job for you Dark Ace," she spoke, her voice quiet and yet could strike fear into any man's heart. "Something I think you'll enjoy."

The man smiled at the words, "I am at your command master." He spoke, raising his gaze to the girl.

"Good," Cyclonis said flatly. Holding up one of her hands, the machine reacted. A small crystal came from the storage unit within, coming into the woman's hand. Turning to face her knight, the hood of her cloak spread opened, revealing her stern gaze and sleek black hair. Raising the stone up before her, she looked down at the man. "Do you know what this is?" she questioned, causing the man to straighten himself up.

It was the strangest crystal he had ever laid his eyes upon. Though glowing red in color, within its core was a black and swirling smoke. Small sparks of yellow lighting seemed to flicker within, almost mimicking the storm outside. The stone was small, smaller than most average crystals, for Master Cyclonis held it between her thumb and index finger without any stretch or strain to her delicate fingers.

Not waiting for him to answer her, she smiled her twisted grin, "This is a stone of my own invention. I call it a controller." Stepping away from her machine, Cyclonis approached the Dark Ace, the crystal still outstretched, "When placed into a weapon, all one must do is stab their victim and the crystal will enter their body. Then, whenever I call upon it, they will come and act upon my command."

For once, the man did not let his surprise be hidden. His eyes widened as she came closer to him, drawing the stone back into her hold. "Impressive," was the only word he could find to speak at that very moment.

Smiling even more so at his awe, Master Cyclonis glanced away from him. "That is only the beginning," she muttered, causing the man to focus once more. "According to my scouts, the…Storm Hawks are heading in the direction of our mining route in the east. I believe you are familiar with that territory," she shot a stern glare back at him, "…am I correct?"

The Dark Ace stiffened slightly, then gave a large grin in return, "Yes. Very familiar."

"I also understand that you are on familiar terms with their sky knight," she continued on, keeping her tone abrupt. She turned her back to him once more, letting her grin become even more twisted.

"Yes," he answered again, seeing where the plan was beginning to turn.

Spinning quickly upon her heels, Cyclonis let her narrow eyes glow with excitement. "Take him down with this. Separate him from his squadron and use this crystal on him. When the time is right," She spoke, her tone malicious as her eyes pierced through the knight. "…he will be the one to destroy the Storm Hawks." Holding out the crystal to him, the smile faded slightly from her lips, "There is no room for error. And I will not tolerate failure."

Removing the crystal from her slender fingers, the Dark Ace stared at it for a moment. Placing it into his side pouch of his uniform, he then bowed once more to the young woman. "As you command, Master Cyclonis." He spoke without falter.

Letting her hood return to its closed state, Cyclonis moved back towards her crystal machine. The sounds of the man leaving the room made her smile even more so than ever. "I do not tolerate mistakes," she muttered to herself, letting her hands come back to the keyboard. "And you, Dark Ace, are on your last leg."

The small clusters of Terras in the east were almost two hours from where the team had set out from. Finn and Junko had retreated to the hanger to work on the skimmers and to refuel them for the mission. Radarr had joined them, touching up and fixing up parts of Aerrow's skimmer, knowing that his pilot was working on some kind of strategy with Piper. The three blasted Finn's music loudly through the large area, doing more joking than work. Stork had kept himself up in the bridge, making sure they managed to stay on course while keeping watch for any kind of danger or Cyclonian look outs. Though not the Merb's favorite choice of activity, he was good at being able to keep a sharp eye out for anything that wasn't a friendly force.

Piper and Aerrow had moved into the girl's crystal lab, trying to figure out a game plan for them to get down onto the small Terras below them. Aerrow had found himself sitting on the girl's bed, watching her pace back and forth, trying to think of some strategy. He knew that she was always like this before a big mission, trying to analyze every possible scenario that could happen and a way to get around it if need be. Back and forth she moved, rambling things that made little or no sense to him. On the rare instant that she would stop, Piper would place her hand to her chin in thought, complete silence for about five seconds, then continue on her ramblings.

And all the while, Aerrow sat with his head resting on his hand, letting his green eyes follow her back and forth. He knew that everything she was saying was important, but never the less, he couldn't help but want to zone out a tad. As she made herself stop for a forth time since she had begun her rambles, he let his eyes wander up to the ceiling for a brief moment.

His thoughts began to drift back to the dream he had that morning. The notion of his home were lingering in the back of his mind since he had managed to crawl out of bed. His mother's sweet voice still hung in his ears, making a feeling of discontent come over him. The thought was from that night. No matter what he did, it would never be gone from his thoughts. And yet, for some reason, most of it seemed fuzzy and blurred, as if he didn't want to have it be remembered. Whatever had happened after his mother had given him that embrace had been long since cleared from his thoughts. And no matter how hard he tried, no memory would come back to him.

"So, if you're able to find out what kind of crystals they're shipping, we could figure out what Cyclonis is up to." Piper told happily, closing up one of her notebooks in her hand.

Shaking out his wandering thoughts, Aerrow straightened himself up a bit. "What?" he muttered, sounding somewhat dazed and mildly confused.

Placing her hands to her hips, the girl looked him over once with frustration, "You weren't even listening to a word I said, were you?" she inquired, tossing the book back to her work desk.

Rubbing his neck a bit, Aerrow let his eyes cast away from her and to the floor, "Sorry. Just didn't sleep that well last night." He admitted quietly, trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"Radarr kicking you in his sleep again with his dream about running away from that chicken?" she asked, sounding like she was trying to lighten the mood from the one-sided serious discussion they had only moments ago.

Looking up once more, Aerrow watched as the girl moved over to sit at her work desk. Her back was turned to him as she placed down a pair of goggles over her eyes and reached for some purple crystal that he had never seen before. There was a small bowl in front of her filled halfway with crystal dust that was a dull red color. She leaned over the substance, slowly bringing the rock to hover above it.

A smile came to his lips as he watched her slowly lower the crystal and then raise it to recreate a small column of red dust. It wasn't as if he hadn't noticed her before, seeing as he saw her every single day. And yet, Piper seemed all the more amazing every single time she would speak to him. She was brilliant and quick to keep them in line when Aerrow would even slip up. She was always there for him, backing him up in no matter what situation. He would never admit it to her or any of his other teammates. Not even Radarr knew that he thought that way about her. If she didn't feel the same way in return, it would be awkward for the whole squadron. Not to mention he wouldn't hear the end of it from Finn and Junko if they ever found out.

"Nightmare," he finally spoke after the few moments of silence.

Pulling back at the stone to make the small tower of dust settle again, Piper rose up her goggles. She turned quickly to look at him, her face softening slightly. "A nightmare?"

Aerrow could only nod. The thought made his stomach churn and his skin crawl. His face felt as if it had drained of all color as he quickly clamped his slightly trembling hands together. He knew that he had kept things from the rest of his squadron. Things that he knew were truly none of their business to know. At least, not now.

Although he tried to conceal his sudden turn, Piper was sharper than that. She rose from her spot at the desk and hurried to his side. Sitting herself down beside him, the girl leaned in a bit, trying to get a better look at his green eyes.

"Aerrow?" she asked, a calmness in her tone that the sky knight had never heard before in her voice. "Do you wanna talk about it? Sometimes that –"

"It was just a nightmare. Nothing to be concerned about." He spoke quickly, trying to end the conversation then and now. He mentally slapped himself for letting that slip out. Sky knights were not supposed to show weakness. Not to their enemies and never to their squad. Shaking his head a bit, he forced out a smile. "I'm fine."

But Piper's eyes narrowed at him. Reaching over, she placed a hand to his. Watching her do so made some of the color quickly return to his face, suddenly feeling slightly flushed. Aerrow felt her grasp on him tighten for a brief moment, then relaxed once more. "If you're fine, then why are you shaking?" she questioned, looking up at him.

"Its stress," he quickly spoke, trying to force his hands to remain still. "Ya know, the mission and everything."

Once more, Piper was not convinced. "But, you're never nervous before missions. You're the one most likely to be the first to your skimmer and out the door before the rest of us are ready to go." As she spoke to him, her voice was soft and calm. It was this kind of conversation that was a rare one on board the Condor. One that was few and far between with any member in his squad.

Sighing slightly, Aerrow let his shoulders slump a bit. He leaned forward on her bed, resting his arms to his knees. Closing his eyes for a moment, he let his hand run though his messy hair, trying to relax himself once more. "It was just…unsettling." He admitted quietly.

"I could imagine so," she said, keeping her hand upon his own. "When Radarr came onto the bridge before you, he looked kinda shaken up as well." She told him, causing his eyes to meet her own for the first time. "He seemed to be upset that you kicked him in your sleep."

Remembering the mess of sheets when he had awoken made the red head realize what must have happened. With all of his tossing and turning, he must have either rolled onto or hit his poor co-pilot. He never wanted to do something like that to his friend. There would be no way that he would. The thought made him feel even lower than ever.

Sliding a bit closer to him, Piper let her grip tighten upon his hands once more. They were shoulder to shoulder, letting some of her weight rest upon him. In all the years that she had known Aerrow, she had never seen him so unnerved about something. Normally, he was the happy and determined sky knight that they all knew and respected as a leader. Even when he went through the trials, there was not this much uneasiness in his being.

"I know you think that you have to do everything yourself Aerrow," she muttered quietly, letting her head rest slightly on his shoulder. "But you don't have to put so much weight on mind. It's not good for you." Reaching up to his face, Piper took hold of his chin. Turning his head so that her orange eyes could meet his green, she smiled. "We're all here for you. And we're a squadron, which makes us a family."

Taking in a sharp breath, Aerrow quickly rose to his feet. Piper moved back slightly at his sudden rush to stand, seemingly alarmed at how quickly he had pulled away from her. He stood himself as tall as he could, taking in a deep breath as he did so. As much he wished he could bring himself to tell her, there was no possible way. He moved for the door quickly, not even bothering to turn around to face where Piper was still sitting.

He could feel his heart racing in his chest. If any of the color was gone from his face, it was most definitely back in a ten fold, nearly matching his hair. To suddenly have her so close to him made Aerrow feel a wave of dizziness and an unsettling feeling in his stomach. But, it was in a good way. A way he had never really felt before.

"I'm…going out for some air. Have Stork call me when we're close." He spoke in his normal authoritative way. Before there was any rebuttal or call from the girl could be heard, the sky knight was already out the door and set off down the hall at a quick jog, hoping not to run into any more of his teammates until the flushed feeling left his face.

Author's Notes: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Lots more action coming in the next chapter. Don't forget to read and review!