Minako: So, here's chapter three!! Let's get started, shall we?
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Disclaimer: read the others
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Chapter 3: Questions
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"Can you blame me for being worried? Even if she's a weapon, there's no way she can go against two cruisers - she doesn't even have an air skimmer!" Finn snapped, looking at the others.
"Yeah, and she's been trying to help Aerrow, too." Junko added, albeit more calmly than his blond-haired friend.
"However, you have to take into consideration the fact she easily took out every person that once worked in that building." Starling reasoned, though part of her was agreeing - there was no logical way for her to win against however many Talons those cruisers were carrying.
"How about this - we head back," Piper started, being interrupted by a scared "meep" from a certain merb and the incredulous stares of everybody in the room, "and just see how she's faring. If Dawne seems to be doing fine, that's that, we leave. If not, we can step in. But keep in mind, she was created a weapon."
"Umm, keep in mind...she did say there were two Cyclonian cruisers coming this way." Stork said, eye twitching. "If we're seen, it's most likely certain doom."
"So we do our best not to be seen." Piper countered. "Drop us off away from the cruisers, then hide the Condor using the terra."
"And what if the Cyclonians detect us anyway?" Starling asked, eyes slightly narrowed. "It's as Stork said - there is little chance of escaping two cruisers, and if you remember what Dawne said, they know the area better than us."
"Let's just...think of something on the way, then." Finn suggested. "Besides, she's done a bit to help us - it's only right we help her out a bit, too."
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Dawne panted harshly, trying to regain her breath - the battle was going on far too long for her liking.
Anymore of this, and I won't be able to control her... she thought, violet eyes scanning the area around her.
But, we both know you need my help. a second voice said in her mind, demonic in tone.
Save it, Kira - I'll let you out if I need you.
Fine, though I doubt you'll last much longer without me. And with that, the voice faded away, leaving Dawne to her own thoughts. She quickly leapt out of the way of a blast, narrowly escaping the red beam. She knew she couldn't keep this up for much longer. Sighing, the experiment resigned to the truth.
Don't cause too much damage, Kira... she thought before undoing the mental locks on her other half. A demonic snarl was her answer as their minds switched out, Dawne receding to the back as Kira took over...
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"See, nothing to worry about!" Piper exclaimed as they ran to Dawne's location. "The cruisers have already left!"
"Either they captured her, or she somehow managed to scare them off..." Starling muttered. The group sped up when they saw the lone figure standing ahead of them...
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I thought I told them to leave! Dawne mentally snarled, still half-way between herself and Kira. Sighing, she forced Kira back into her mind, hoping the Storm Hawks hadn't seen what had just occured...
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"Dawne!" Piper shouted as they ran over.
"What on Atmos are you doing here?" Dawne asked rather coldly. "Did I not tell you to leave?"
"You did." Starling replied calmly. "We thought we'd just come back and check your situation." The silver-haired woman's response was far from what they expected - she laughed.
"You should've just left!" Dawne said through her laughter, turning away from them. "You'll find out why if you keep going ahead." she added, pointing in front of her before leaving. "Consider this my last act of good-will for all of you." her voice said from pretty much out of nowhere.
"She's gone..." Finn murmured, walking forward - they were apparently on a hill. "What the--!!" was all they got from him after he could see beyond it.
"What's wro--" Starling paused upon the scene they came upon. "Oh my...What on Atmos happened here?!" Really, they had every reason to be startled/shocked/disgusted - the maimed corpses of close to two hundred Talons lay strewn about the field. Most looked like they'd been sliced with a razor-sharp blade, but others...looked like they'd been shredded by some wild beast.
"D-D-Did sh-she do th-th-this?" Junko questioned, eyes wide as he looked over the battlefield.
"She's...the only one who could have done this..." Starling replied. "Seeing as how...she was the only...other person here..."
"Let's...Let's just go back to the Condor..." Piper suggested - nobody argued that one, as if they stood there any longer, the stench of blood and gore would surely kill them as well...
--Thirty or so minutes later, on the Condor--
"Stork?" Starling called out upon not finding the merb on the bridge. "Stork?! Stork, where are you?!"
"Maybe he went to check up on Aerrow." Finn said.
"I had..." came the pilot's voice from the doorway, "but he told me to leave...the pillow being thrown at my face helped my decision to make a quick escape."
"He's awake, then?" Piper questioned.
"Yes...but he's not in a good mood...Might be whatever trauma he experienced in his past...or it might be mindworms - they can cause sudden personality changes sometimes, you know." The others mentally groaned at that - trust Stork to link an odd behavior to some random disease. "And before you try to see him, don't bother - he's locked the door to his room and refuses to even let Radarr in."
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Aerrow sobbed into his pillow, face buried into the cushion as to hide his tear-streaked face. He had gone so long without those memories returning - so many years since it happened! - for it all to just collapse like this. Right now, he just felt like dying.
At least death...would mean I wouldn't have to deal with these memories anymore... he thought sorrowfully, curling up tighter on his bed.
"Don't even think it, kid." a voice said, alarming Aerrow as he was immediately searching for the owner of that voice.
"H-How did you..."
"Get in here? It'd take too long to really explain it." Dawne finished and replied, walking over to the teen.
"What do you mean?" he asked softly.
"Your were thinking of killing yourself, weren't you?" Dawne retorted - the look of pure shock on Aerrow's face gave her the answer. "I take it that's a yes?"
"So what if I was?"
"Because that isn't the answer." the woman answered, sitting down next to Aerrow. "I don't know...exactly what they did to you there." Aerrow tensed a bit at that. "But...death doesn't solve anything...At the most, it just brings more problems."
"Tch, you would know that..."
"You think I asked to have my face posted across Atmos as a murderer? Seeing as how it was those bastards at ATLAB, I'd say I was doing them a favor."
"Wait..." Aerrow sat up and looked at her, green meeting violet. "All those "murders"...they were all ATLAB related?"
"Every employee and security personell in the building you were in recently to bring back your memories?" she clarified. "Yup." She was about to say more when she picked up footsteps heading their direction. "Aerrow...Perhaps I'll come see you again..." In a mere seconds, she was back to the shadows, slipping off to who knows where, leaving everyone's favorite red-head with a few new questions.
Those posters...They said she'd killed innocent people...If she's telling the truth...Can I...really blame her? They killed so many more than she had...But...she's wanted, and I'm a Sky Knight...Can I actually bring her in, knowing who it was she killed? Aerrow sighed, falling back onto his bed - his head was starting to hurt now.
"Aerrow? Aerrow, it's Starling - may I come in?" was heard through his door.
"Not right now...I just...want to be alone..." he replied loud enough to be heard through the metal.
"Alright, but please, just let us help you any way we can." Starling said before leaving.
"Thanks for the offer...but there's nothing anybody can do...Not right now, anyway..." Aerrow muttered before falling into a dreamless sleep.
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Minako: Jeesh! He wakes up, then goes back to sleep? Oh wait...I do that, too...Nevermind! So, review please! I'm trying to make the chapters longer, really I am, it's just hard to at 4:20 in the morning, y'know?
