Chapter 4

The throne room doors blew open ahead, stopping the Dark Ace in his tracks. A Talon officer's temporary flight halted as he collided with the wall on the opposite side of the hall. The Master herself stood in the open doorway with her crystal staff raised and a murderous expression on her face, the officer cowered beneath her gaze. Just then Cyclonis noticed the Dark Ace standing down the hallway, she lowered her staff and her face calmed.

"Leave." She directed to the Talon, her anger just held in check. The officer wasted no time in following orders and ran for it with barely a salute.

Master Cyclonis glanced at her commander once more before walking back into her throne room. Dark Ace took the hint and followed behind.

"All of you leave." She said more calmly this time. The two guards inside bowed to her, fist to chest and walked out, closing the large double doors behind him.

Cyclonis leaned her staff against her crystal work station and sighed, running her fingers along the keys before sitting down in her high backed chair. The Dark Ace watched it all silently from a respectful distance away. This isn't like her, it must be something big. Dark Ace had heard news concerning a Patrol Carrier and had seen the damaged ship at the docks himself. But something more than just a ruined carrier was bothering her.

Cyclonis was still facing her machine, slouched with her head supported in one hand and the other gripping the chair arm tightly. Dark Ace stood uncomfortably in the silence and opened his mouth to speak when she interrupted.

"What do you fear?"

Dark Ace stood dumbfounded for a moment, mouth still half open. "Master…?"

"Death maybe? The unknown?" She contemplated philosophically. "It's human nature to fear the unknown, the unnatural. But death is a natural process, the only constant in our lives is knowing that we will all, someday, die, but yet we still fear it, it is an unknown." She mulled this over for a bit. "What lies beyond the veil, maybe if we knew, we wouldn't fear it." She said quietly, lost in her thoughts.

Dark Ace cleared his throat loudly. Master Cyclonis got up suddenly and strode towards him purposefully.

"What do you fear Dark Ace?" She stopped in front of him and stared up into his face. Her violet eyes were bottomless.

The Talon Commander may have towered over her, but couldn't help but squirm ever so slightly under her intense scrutiny. More than a bit confused he tried to avoid those eyes. "Master I –" He halted as her expression darkened.

"Everyone fears something." She said softly, searching his face.

The Dark Ace decided to play along. "What I fear…" he searched his thoughts for an appropriate answer. "Failure." He said flatly.

Cyclonis laughed, and a smile lit up her face. "Ah, but if you die, you also fail!"

"Is there a point to all this?" He said, a little annoyed

The smile faded from the girls face. "Do you know of the Therans?" She asked as she turned away, walking slowly back to her machine.

The Commander's crimson eyes narrowed suspiciously. "The Therans are a species that lives on Terra Skythern, now controlled by The Empire." He had actually been to the terra a few times in his… past.

Cyclonis reached her machine and picked up her staff. "One of the locals has escaped and found their way past the border troopers." She stroked the crystal held within the staff. "And now my sources tell me that the Theran is now with the Storm Hawks." Her grip tightened on the staff and she whipped around, anger once again twisting her delicate features. "I want that Theran captured or killed!"

"Of course Master." The Dark Ace inclined his head. "But why go to all the trouble for just one runner?"

Cyclonis loosened her grip on the staff and turned away from him. "I'm sure you remember the Warders?"

A lump caught in his throat. "Yes." He said hoarsely.

"The Empire cannot afford there presence again." She turned back to him, her face once again a measure of calm. "Find the Theran."

Dark Ace saluted, fist to chest, and bowed deeply, "Yes Master." then walked back towards the great double doors.

"And Dark Ace…"

He stopped and half turned to face her, she was once again sitting in the large chair with her back to him.

"…don't fail"

The Talon Commander left without a word.

The Dark Ace strode out of the throne room ignoring the Talon guards still in the hallway. He walked down the hall with his hands clasped behind him, lost deep in thought. Warders… damn. He shrugged his left shoulder uncomfortably in memory, the hydraulic pump attached shifted smoothly with him. He did not relish the idea of facing a Warder again; the last one may have been half dead but look where that got him.

o o o

His vision was still blurry from the hard hit he took to his left eye, so he didn't see the crystal charged blade until it tore into his left shoulder. His nerves felt as if they were on fire. The teenager screamed in pain and desperately shoved his attacker away, stumbling backwards into the far wall to lean against the cool surface. The faint smell of ozone aggravated his nose as he clutched his shoulder. Blood coursed down the useless limb to pool on the polished floor. He looked up, trying to focus past the pain, to his attacker. The man was kneeling where he had fallen with hands splayed out on the floor in front of him, he didn't rise further. Blood dripped out of his mouth and his breath was laboured, and even the simple act of raising his head seemed an enormous effort.

The man stared across the room at the younger with hurt in his deep green eyes, his bloodied lips managed to form a single word; "Why?"

The young man staggered over to the forgotten sword and picked it up with his still working hand before approaching his foe. The man stayed on all fours and dropped his head, to weak now to keep it up. The youth raised the glowing blade above the man's neck. "You wouldn't understand." He said quietly, and brought the sword down with all his strength, the double bladed sword buried into the stone floor with a metallic clang.

o o o

A loud bang jolted The Dark Ace out of his thoughts and stopped him in his tracks for the second time that day, sounds of machinery echoed faintly throughout the large hall; he had wandered near the loading docks. He raised his left hand to run his fingers through his dark hair, and the pump mechanics creaked in response, sighing he dropped the hand back to his side, there were some things in life he wished he could forget, unfortunately this couldn't be one of them; every time he so much as twitched his left arm when he had the pump on he was reminded, or when he looked into the mirror; his eyes were no longer his own. He continued on to somewhere quieter, trying to shake himself out of his dark thoughts and focus on the problem at hand. The Warders may not have returned yet, but if worse came to worse he did not want a repeat performance. He needed information.

A thought occurred to him and he changed course to the Officer's Barracks. Finding the right room was another chore entirely, but after asking around a bit he was steered in the right direction. He didn't understand why the old retired general continued to live down here; he had enough honours to live comfortably on his own terra for the rest of his life, but he choose to live in this dump. Dark Ace grimaced when he found the rusted steel door he was looking for and knocked on the cold metal. Maybe he couldn't leave, he did advise Master Cyclonis during the War and now his daughter called for him on occasion.

"Who is it!" a voice called from within, muffled by the door.

"Your Commander, I request your council." The door opened with a soft whoosh and face that had seen better days greeted him. General Gavin Corvus fought in the old war and survived more encounters with Warders than anyone, but not without injury.

"Ah, the Dark Ace!" He exclaimed in a raspy voice. "Please come, come in." The General stepped aside to let him in. Dark Ace assumed the ragged scars across his throat were what caused the rasp in his voice he could only guess what caused those. The blazing scar on the right side of his face on the other hand, could only have been caused by an energy weapon, taking his eye as well as a hand. As the General lead him away from the door The Dark Ace remarked that in spite of his greying blond hair, and his back beginning to bow, he still moved with a strong purpose. They entered into what looked like his sitting room which consisted of a couple chairs and worn couch around a crystal powered furnace all facing a large window that stared out across the haunting beauty of Cyclonia. Ok, maybe it's not such a dump.

General Corvus gestured to one of the chairs. "Sit, sit. Make yourself comfortable, it's not every day The Dark Ace comes to my door." He eased himself into the chair across from the commander. "Now, what is it you want to know?"

The Dark Ace leaned forward, arms resting on his knees and clasped his hands together. "Tell me about the Warders. Everything."

"Warders?" Corvus's expression darkened. "Now why would you need to know anything about Warders? I say let their memory die with them."

The Commander's lips tightened impatiently. "They may not be as dead as we hoped." He relaxed back into his chair. "Now, Theran Warders, how do you fight them?"

A hoarse laugh escaped the General. "You try not to. They are wicked fast and deadly accurate, and they are certainly not afraid of using those claws of theirs" He said seriously, rubbing the scars on his neck.

Dark Ace found his hand creeping up to his own neck and quickly put it back down. "You survived though."

Corvus snorted. "Barely, it was mostly luck." He raised his right arm; it ended in a stump about halfway down the forearm. "Though I'm not sure how you can call this luck."

Dark Ace was again reminded of his own injuries, which didn't seem as bad now. "They must have some sort of weakness."

Corvus rubbed his chin in thought. "There is something, I don't know if it could be called a weakness, but…" The old General stared through the dead furnace in front of him.

The Dark Ace sat as quietly and patiently as he could.

Corvus turned his solitary grey eye to him. "Every Warder, be they Theran or otherwise, is bound to their Sky Knight; they will do anything to protect them, whatever the cost."

"That doesn't sound like a weakness." The Commander said aloud, more to himself than the General.

He nodded expectantly, "as I told you."

The Dark Ace leaned back into his chair and crossed his left arm over his chest, using his right hand to rub his face tiredly. Perhaps there is some way to exploit it. Resting his chin in his hand he thought back to his own encounter. "What if a Warder failed? What if their Sky Knight died?"

"Then they have nothing to lose. They do not fear death because they have already died once."

Dark Ace was reminded of his strange conversation with Master Cyclonis. "What do you mean?"

The General gazed off into the distance. "You can see it in their eyes." His voice quieted with the memory. "It's like they can see into your very soul."

The Dark Ace leaned forward again. "How does this happen?" He whispered back. "How do they become Warders?" He asked eagerly, staring at the General.

Corvus focused back on The Dark Ace's crimson eyes. "It is not known to many, the Warders hold their secrets tightly."

"How was it you found out?" He asked curiously.

A smile pulled at the old one's lips. "Let's just say, next to fighting them, getting a Warder drunk was one of the more challenging things to do."

The Dark Ace smiled wryly.

"Speaking of which," The General levered himself out of his chair, "how about a drink?" Not waiting for an answer he disappeared into the next room.

"No, thank you" he called out to him over the clinking of glass.

Corvus came out with a full glass of amber liquid "Suit yourself." He returned to his seat and took a sip. "Now where was I?" he tapped his glass with a finger. "Ah yes, the Trials."

Dark Ace sat back patiently and tried to get comfortable; hooking one arm over the chair back and resting one ankle on the opposite knee.

"Now, the Ancients of Skythern" he began "had an arch, or 'gate' you could say, built that was made of many different types of crystals working together. That Gate was used to help choose those who would be Warders by pitting them against trials to prove their worth."

The Commander considered this as the General took another drink. "How was it they knew who to send into the Gate?"

"The Ancients didn't." He said after swallowing. "Somehow it was the Gate that would call the potential Warders to face the Trials."

"These trials, what do they consist of? Are they anything like the Sky Knight Trials?"

"I do not know the details, what I do know is that they are supposed to test knowledge and wisdom, power and skill, and courage and loyalty."

Not much help there, The Dark Ace thought of his next question as the General finished his drink. "Why is it that most Warders are Therans?"

Corvus looked to the bottom of his drink and sighed regretfully. "Warders have been represented by almost every species on different terras throughout history, but yes, the majority have been Therans. I have wondered that myself but have never come up with a clear answer." He turned to the window and watched the blood red clouds roll past. "It was the Theran's contribution to the protection of Atmos and is their legacy." He turned away from the window to face The Dark Ace. "You will have to ask them."

The Commander walked towards his quarters, he had left the old general wondering if he gained any useful information from the visit. Finally he decided he did; when I find the Theran perhaps I'll try to get them drunk before tossing their body into the Wastelands. He thought with a smile.