[Message from KC]: Wow! I actually updated Overture for a change! Holy crud! Anyway! So I particularly like Aida's story. Don't know why...just do. Anyway give it a read. give it a review. good to be back! Also of you haven't checked my dA page, go do so, I'm interested in running a Regiment of Twilight contest (a writing contest and I want to know if there is interest for it. So drop me a comment there in deviantArt too. The link is on my author's page :P so drop by and drop a comment! enjoy this long awaited and much needed chapted of overture!

"And right through here," Aida began, opening the large hatch before him, "Is the botanica!" The room was enormous, but then again, the ship itself was vast on its own. I'd never seen something so beautiful and so calming in my life though. It was almost as if I had been lead into the garden of Eden, "Impressive isn't it?"

"It is," I nodded, turning towards Aida, "It's beautiful actually…but…what is the purpose of this greenhouse?"

"None in particular," Aida replied with a slight shrug, "Advent likes the outdoors. Seeing as how we don't get too much outdoor experience here on the Tempest, Advent decided to bring the outdoors to the ship. It's a great place to be alone and relax. And trust me, on this ship, you'll want to be alone…a lot!"

"I can believe that," I replied quietly, with a slight smile. It remained silent between the two of us then for several moments. I could hear the sounds of bird's calling, echoing off of the walls of the botanica, along with the sounds of waves lapping against the shore, "What's that sound?" I inquired, turning to him.

"The water?" Aida asked, "Yeah, there's a man-made lake in the center of the botanica…I'm not sure why, but I think it's a nice touch."

"Hmm…" I thought, looking around the botanica. I took a deep breath. The air was fresh and clean, rather than the stale smell of oil and metal that filled the rest of the ship. Without realizing it however, I had been standing silently, looking into space for quite some time.

"You okay?" Aida asked, snapping me out of my trance. I nodded, but noted that Aida was standing still in front of me, "You don't really want to be here…do you?"

"No," I replied immediately, because he was right. I didn't really want to be there, and he saw right through me, "I don't…but what choice did I have?"

"You always have choices Starling," Aida responded promptly, "Don't kid yourself on that. True, like all of us, Advent didn't give us much of a choice, but she did give us one."

"I suppose that's true," I nodded in agreement. After all, I did choose to come, much to my own dismay, but I made the decision none the less. I let out a sigh, and tucked a strand of hair out of my face, "Aida, if you don't mind me asking…" I began, breaking off from my train of thought for only a few moments.

"Hmm," He asked curiously, turning to me.

"How is it that you came to be here," I began, looking over him. It wasn't as though I took a deep interest in him as a person, but of he did happen to be invited into the fabled Twilight Knights, as I was, I did wonder a bit as to how and why he was inducted.

"My story?" He asked with a slight smile. He gestured me to follow him, and the two of us walked deeper into the botanica.

"I mean…" I stated, laughing slightly, "I just want to know why Advent invited you. Not really your whole-"

"I hate to say it," He interrupted as he scratched the back of his head, "There's no 'bare-bones' or 'in a nutshell' version…If you really want to know, you've got to hear the entire thing. Besides you don't really want to hear my whole story anyway…being the brother of the Dark Ace and all…It's kind of a downer…"

"I understand," I nodded with a sigh and a slight smile after a few moments of silence. I figured it would be best not to offend or upset anyone on my first day. Aida smiled back at me and took a deep breath, but I could tell his story wasn't a happy one or a good one, just by the look I saw in his eyes when I brought it up.

Chapter II

Aida and Anteres

Like I said before, my story, it's a bit of a downer. It's certainly not the biggest tear jerker on the tempest though. Wait till you hear about Nikolai and Zelkovitz. What they went through makes what happened to me seem like a cakewalk. But still, I supoose everyone has baggage.

My story begins on June thirtieth, twenty four years ago. It was a quiet day in summer, just as any other on my parent's estate in the Caylo isles. A pretty place, the islands floated above the terras of tropica. Now naturally, I don't know much about what happened on the day I was born, only from things that I've been told.

The streets of the Caylo Isles villages rang out with joy and celebration on that day as the townspeople cheered and shouted: Lord Caylo had bore a son! Sounds totally and completely lame and cheesy right? But apparently it's true. The day Anteres, or er…should I say the Dark Ace, and I were born, the people who lived in the villages below our family's estate celebrated for days, rejoicing in the fact that my father now finally had a successor.

However, technology wasn't quite where it was today, where it was twenty four years ago, if you catch my drift. My parents didn't quite anticipate there being two little bundles of joy inside my mom, and about ten minuets after Anteres was born, out I came. And truthfully, no one quite really knew what to do with me. That should have been taken as a sign. For what? That I was doomed to be a problem child.

But what do I mean by all this you might ask? Well for starters, when Anteres came sliding out of mommy dearest, immediately my father saw that he was in fact, well, a son and bequeathed to him the family name, Anteres Caylo the sixth. A proud, sturdy, somewhat pompous name that I have come to resent. This brings me to myself. Well my parents then had this second baby boy that they weren't anticipating on.

They had plans for Anteres. They knew what he was going to do with his life, what his name was going to be, everything for him was pre-charted. But, now there was another kid thrown into the mix, and truthfully, neither of my parents even knew what to name me. And that's how I got stuck with my repulsive name…Aida. Yes. In case you were wondering, it is a woman's name. She was my ancient ancestor, Aida Caylo the first…technically speaking, making me Aida Caylo the second, but who's counting right. Anyway, now you know what I mean by, I was doomed from the start. We have the first son who is destined for greatness, and the second son who is practically the boy named Sue.

Although I can't deny that for a time, life was okay. It wasn't good, it was just okay. Anteres was always the favorite, and I was always just good enough for my father, but I was never praised, and every time I did go above and beyond, it was swept under the rug. And truthfully, we didn't have much of a childhood. As kids, the both of us were constantly in being forced to study. Anteres was busy learning how to be a lord, and all the proper etiquette and graces that comes with it, and I had to learn to do so as well, along with learning all of the academic studies and the modern languages. Its what neither of us wanted, although, we were children, how could we have possibly known what we wanted to be when we were adults. Although, Anteres always did.

"I just don't want to be a Lord!" He grumbled, kicking up a pile of sand as the two of us walked along the beach that lined our parents estate. We were only nine at the time, and our only distinguishing features were our eyes, "How about this…you can be the Lord!"

"I don't wanna be a Lord either!" I whined, sitting down in the sand, "What if the new baby is a boy! How about they can be the lord of the terra! And we can do whatever we want! What do you wanna do anyway…I mean…if you don't wanna be a lord?"

"To be a Sky Knight!" Anteres replied boldly, looking up to the sky.

"Why do you wanna be a Sky Knight?" I asked, a little nervously, "You know dad doesn't like them!"

"You don't say wanna Aida, you say want to," Anteres replied, correcting me, as always, "And who wouldn't want to be one!" He sighed, laying down in the sand and staring up at the sky, "To fly all day! Defending the terras from tyranny and evil! It's like the bedtime stories that mom used to read us when we were very little, about the Twilight Knights! Wouldn't you want to be a hero just like them?"

"I'd never be brave or strong enough to be in the Twilight Knights," I replied bashfully, laying down beside my brother, not realizing how wrong I was.

"Well the Twilight Knights aren't real," Anteres replied, rolling his eyes at me, still looking up at the sky, "But to join a real squadron-"

"Like which one?" I asked, looking over to him. At first he was angry, he didn't like to be interrupted. But then he thought for a moment.

"I don't know," He replied, with a slight smile, "Anyone that would take me I guess."

"Well you're going to have to learn to fly then," I added with a slight sigh.

"Oh yeah…" Anteres replied, a little sadly, "And I don't really know how…"

"We're kids," I replied. And I was right for once in my life, after all, at the time we were only nine, "You shouldn't know."

"Aida," He asked me, after several minuets of silence. I turned and looked to him, "What if the new baby…that mom is having…what if it's a girl…"

"I don't know," I replied, "We'll figure it out."

"I just really don't want to be a Lord," Anteres began, burying his head into his knees as he began to cry, "I hate it!"

"You won't have to be," I replied, looking over to my older brother.

What I didn't know was, that I was presumably wrong in that moment of time. I say this, because a few months later, my mother went into labor. It was late one October evening, and once again, not only was the Caylo estate buzzing with anticipation, but so was the village. You see, we governed half of Dol Donnis, so marrying into our family meant controlling part of part of one of the largest terras on Atmos. So if my mother was having a daughter, it would be fortuitous for a lot of people, but not for my father. However, having another son would have alleviated a lot of problems, for me, Anteres, and my father. Sadly, this was not the case.

On a cold an rainy October seventeenth, at eight thirteen P.M. Lady Alara Caylo bore not one, but two daughters. Alinai and Aldese.

"What do you mean our new baby sisters?" I asked, as my father angrily paced the floor outside of my mothers room.

"Don't be so foolish Aida!" He shouted, turning to Anteres and I, "Your mother had twin girls! Just like you and your brother! Girls! The very notion of it!" He shouted, storming out of the hallway. Anteres didn't say a word. He just sat outside of the door as he listened to the sounds of our newborn sisters cry on the opposite side of the door.

"Sisters?" He asked in disbelief, looking up at me, "Sisters Aida! What are we going to do now? Father will never let a woman run the terra…"

"I don't know what to do," I replied, crying slightly as I sat down on the floor next to him.

Although, for Anteres and I, life went on. Anteres never entertained the idea of being a Sky Knight since the day of our sisters' birth, or at least he never spoke of it. Although I did catch him staring out of the window during our studies, looking up at the sky, perhaps wondering what it would be like to fly.

Four years went by, and with the four year passing, something came with it, technological advancements, which is where I finally found my love of something. Engineering and mechanics, and with the rise of Cyclonia at the time and the coming of war, there was a demand for advancement everywhere.

Now, my father always had armed forces stationed around the villages on the isles, but never like this before. For the first time in my life, as a thirteen year old, I had finally seen a skimmer.

"Their Switchblade Elites," My father began as his personal militia drove through the streets of the villages below, "Talon grade…"

"Wait…" Anteres began, turning to my father, "But the Cyclonians pilot Switchblade Elites!"

"I know," My father replied coolly and with a dark smile, "The Caylo isles specifically has sided with Cyclonia in this war…I believe their resources could better benefit our people in this time-"

"Father!" Anteres exclaimed. Even I was surprised. I had never seen Anteres stand up against my father about anything, "The Cyclonians are…are…"

"Are what Anteres?" My father snapped, looming over him, "They're a military super power and they're interested in our terra personally. They're even interested in building a base on Ciel."

"You can't let them do that!" I shouted, "Skyler and her family live on Ciel! Their our friends dad-"

"I've let those bohemian creatures leech off of this terra for long enough," My father replied darkly, "Now both of you be gone! You're both trying my patience!"

"How could he do this!" Anteres shouted, practically screaming as the two of us headed though the streets of the town that our estate overlooked, "How could he side with Cyclonia like that!"

"Just relax," I replied, trying to get him to calm down, "Listen…dad is a jerk, we've known that forever, I mean just look at how he treats Alinai and Aldese and they're only four!"

"It's just that…" Anteres began, leaning against a nearby wall, "I'll never get off this terra now…and I'll never be a sky knight…and even if I do…I don't want to be a talon…"

"Maybe you don't have to be!" I chimed, my face lighting up. I seized Anteres by the arm as something caught my attention across the square. I pulled him through the streets to one of the new garages that were built, where the sentries could have their rides repaired. Out front, I saw the most wonderful old and rusted Air Skimmer III Ultra. It looked like it had seen better days, and definitely needed work.

"How much for it!" I demanded, looking to the mechanic, He turned to me and scoffed, "I'm serious! How much for it!"

"Kid…that thing doesn't even fly," The grease monkey laughed turning back to his work.

"Aida come on," Anteres replied, pulling me away from the old skimmer, "It's not worth it okay?"

"If it doesn't fly…then give it to me," I demanded, pushing the mechanic for the ride. He turned to he and shot me a nasty look.

"What's a kid like you want with a ride like this anyway?" He scoffed, looking me over, "Too scrawny to be a talon…what's your angle?"

"It's not for me," I snapped, not bothering to look at the mechanic, just looking over what needed to be done to the skimmer. Thankfully, unbeknownst to everyone else, I already had some working skimmer parts at my disposal that I had been working with for just such an occasion. I figured, I didn't have a dream, so I could at least try and help Anteres with his.

"Two gold keys and it's yours," the mechanic replied sternly with a nod. I gave him a quick look and nodded.

"Done," I replied, turning back to the ride.

"Aida are toy crazy!" Anteres exclaimed, "For this hunk of junk! It doesn't even fly!" I just turned to him and smiled as the two of us wheeled the skimmer away from the garage.

"Trust me," I replied, "In no time…you'll be airborne."

"I sure hope you're right," He added, looking down at the ground, "Where are you going to keep this thing anyway? I mean…dad's not going to be happy to see you working on it…remember how he freaked out when you started messing with that old radio transmitter in your room?"

"Right," I nodded, remembering that I hadn't really thought this through, "We can hide it down by the beach! In the brush! We'll put a tarp over it. I can work on it by night."

"You are going to work on this at night?" Anteres asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I just smiled and nodded at him as we wheeled the bike further towards our destination, hoping not to be seen by our parents who might have decided to go for an afternoon stroll, "Well you're not going to work on this alone…I'll help."

"No," I replied immediately, shaking my head, "Sorry Anteres…but this is my thing…just like being a Sky Knight is yours…let me do this on my own okay?"

"Okay," Anteres replied with a slight smile, "But wait…I'm not a sky knight yet."

"But you will be," I smiled.