This chapter is early! Yay for you!

Thanks goes to people. You know who you are.

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"Still no power?"

I opened my eyes and blinked sleepily, awakened by the sound of Aerrow's voice.

"If there were, would we still be on this horrid Terra?" Stork's voice answered, sighing exhaustedly.

Sitting up, I rubbed my face, eyes focusing on my surroundings. A light morning sunshine poured in through the windows, illuminating the room. It felt a lot nicer than seeing by the dim light we had the night before, though there's nothing wrong with the beautiful glow of a crystal.

Aerrow sat across the room from me, running a hand through his bright red mop. He had just woken up, too, apparently. Junko's snoring had died down considerably, and Finn's had stopped completely, though he was breathing loudly, drool covering his face, and had somehow managed to twist his body into one of the oddest sleeping positions I had ever seen.

"Good morning, Piper." the skyknight smiled.

I returned the greeting. "'Morning."

Stork really hadn't moved much since last night, as far as I could tell. He looked stiff...but then, he usually does.

"How are ya holding up, Stork?" I inquired.

"I'd be better if I could check on those engine crystals," he grumped. "they should be done charging anytime now."

His irritation was mutual. I was tired of being in this room. I missed working with my crystals. My back hurt from sleeping on the floor, I just wanted to be alone in my room and sleep in my own bed. And, if that was how I felt, I knew it had to be worse for Stork.

After a still moment of quiet, Aerrow suddenly brightened. He stood and jogged to the bathroom, not doing a very good job of concealing a scheming grin. He emerged a few seconds later with a bottle of hair gel and a tube of toothpaste. I watched in mild surprise as he kneeled down next to Finn and motioned for me to join him, a mischievious expression plastered across his features.

"No, Aerrow," I warned.

"Come on, what could it hurt?"

"Um, his feelings?"

"This is Finn we're talking about. He'll probably just be upset that he didn't pull it off."

Ooh, how I wanted to do it. After he doodled in one of my experiment progress journals last week, it was incredibly tempting. Something told me that I shouldn't, that it would not end well, but my desire for revenge started winning out.

"Well..."

"It'll be fun! Besides, it's not like we're doing anything permanent," he rationalized. "Finn can wash it all off after he wakes up."

That was all I needed to convince myself that it was okay. I crawled over next to the redhead. "I'll take the toothpaste," I grinned. "you do his hair."

Stork surveyed the scene with interest. "Oh, that's brilliant." he muttered. He could pretend all he wanted to, but I was sure he found it amusing, or entertaining, at least.

Uncapping the toothpaste, I wondered what I'd do. Classic mustache and facial hair combo? 'Idiot' on his forehead? Full facial? I decided to wing it. I began with a few dots sprinkled all over his face, and one mistake near his eye gave me an idea.

When we finished, Aerrow and I inspected each other's work, covering our mouths to keep from laughing too hard. Aerrow had taken the front and sides of Finn's hair and made horns, and had pushed the back straight up and forward, curling under. I had given him goofy eyelashes, lined the outside of his lips, and made two big circles on his cheeks, all accompanied by pimplesque dots.

I fell onto my side, trying so hard to muffle my laughter, and Aerrow wasn't doing much better. Stork just smirked.

"Hey, guys," Junko yawned, waking up. "what's so funny?" His eyes widened when they fell upon what we had done to Finn, and his jaw dropped. His expression only fueled our mindless hilarity, and we both lost it.

Finn stirred, then blinked groggily, looking confused. "Huh?"

We laughed harder, clutching our stomachs. It wasn't that funny, but it was a relief from the boredom and drama we had been through. Soon, however, we realized that the price we would have to pay for this entertainment wasn't worth it.

The marksman lifted an arm and touched his face, smearing a bit of the toothpaste, then felt his hair. The look on his face changed from confusion to surprise, then to hurt, then anger. "You guys think this is real funny, huh?"

"Calm down, Finn, it's just a joke." Aerrow said, our amusement dying down to a chuckle.

"I'm not laughing!"

"Why not?" I asked. "This is the kind of thing you'd do."

"Only to bug you! I wouldn't do this to make fun of someone!" Finn shouted, and suddenly everything was quiet.

Aerrow blinked. "We didn't mean it like that..."

"How did you mean it?"

"We were just bored, and---"

"Decided to take it out on me? Yeah, thanks." He stormed to the bathroom and slammed the door.

We shared a guilty, unsure look. Stork raised an eyebrow, and Junko just sat there, not knowing what to do. What was up with Finn? I had been afraid that he would be upset over this, but whining was the worst I expected from him. Instead, he had blown up at us. It's not like we did it to be mean...okay, I might've done it to get back at him a little, but I hadn't meant to hurt him or anything.

When he didn't come back out, Aerrow and I stood at the door.

Aerrow knocked lightly. "Uh, Finn, you okay?"

The door opened and the sharpshooter appeared, face red and tousled hair dripping wet, glaring at us.

We stepped back. "Hey, look, we're sorry," the skyknight began, but Finn interrupted.

"Mmhmm. Sure." He leaned against the doorway.

"We are!" Aerrow persisted, but he just continued his glare.

"Finn, you're being stupid." I told him. "He just apologized to you, what more do you want?"

"I don't wanna hear this from you," Finn shot back. "you were laughing just as hard as he was. I'll bet the whole thing was your idea, too."

"What makes you think that?" I squeaked indignantly.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you think so little of me."

"Finn, it was my idea," Aerrow broke in, speaking calmly, trying to cool us down. "Piper didn't even want to, but I convinced her that you'd be okay with it."

"Why would I be okay with it?" He straightened up. "Just because I always have to take all sorts of crap from you guys doesn't mean I like being made to look like an idiot!"

"Yeah, you're pretty good at doing that yourself," I spat. I shouldn't have added that, but he had me riled up again. Finn had the ability to do that to me easily.

"Well, maybe you should leave it to me, then!"

"Fine, I will!"

I turned to put as much distance between us as I could in this room, but stopped when he continued. "You know what? I have a hard time believing you grew up in an orphanage. You act way too spoiled."

Marching back up to him I pointed a finger in his face. "I could say the same thing about you, you...ungrateful, unappreciative, whiny brat!"

"You're the brat!" Finn slapped my hand away and prodded my shoulder, causing me to step backwards in surprise, but only for a second. I shoved him back by his shoulders, and he yelped in pain. In my rage I had forgotten about his wound.

"That's enough, both of you!"

We halted, somewhat shocked. Aerrow had never had to use that kind of stern, reprimanding, angry tone with us before.

"If you would just stop for a second, you'd realize that you're both being brats! Can you hear yourselves at all? We've only been here a day, and we'll only be here for a little while longer. Do you think you could have some self-control and put up with each other until then, at least?"

I looked away, ashamed. Finn, however, recovered quickly.

"Hey, who made you the dad? You're no older or more mature than any of the rest of us! Didn't you just say that it was you who thought up the 'lets make Finn look like a loser' party? Or were you just covering for Piper 'cause she's your girlfriend?"

Aerrow stiffened in surprise. "Wait a minute, girlfriend? Who told you that?"

"I don't need to be told," Finn crossed his arms. "anyone can see how you two act towards each other. It's always 'is it okay with you, Piper?' and 'whatever you want, Aerrow'," he mimicked. "it's almost sickening."

What? My face felt warm with embarrassment, but I stood my ground and argued back before our skyknight could say anything. "We're friends who respect each other, Finn, that's all. And for good reasons." I put a hand on my hip. "I think you're just jealous of Aerrow because you can't act serious or do anything right!"

The look on the blonde's face told me that my last accusation had hit him hard. I took in the expressions of my teammates, Aerrow still looking surprised. Stork appeared awkward and uncomfortable, but said nothing. Junko was so upset that it almost hurt to look at him.

I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped, wishing I hadn't said all that. I wanted to take it all back, or to just do the whole morning over differently. It was all I could do not to cover my face and hide in a corner for the rest of eternity, or at least kick myself in the head a couple times. Why couldn't I control myself? Why couldn't I be the calm one? If I hadn't gotten angry, if I had just let it go, Finn would've cooled off eventually and everything would be fine.

"It'll always be like this, won't it?" Finn blurted out bitterly. I started to apologize, but he ignored my effort. "I'll always have someone picking on me, beating me up or making me feel like crap. There will always be someone telling me what do to, and never anyone to back me up. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I guess not."

Junko started bawling into his hands, and I had to resist the urge to join him. "I'm sorry, Finn!" he cried. "I just don't know what to do! You're all my friends!"

Now it was Finn's turn to look ashamed. "I don't mean you, buddy. You never treat me like that."

"Hold on," I remembered, "last night, you made it sound like you and your 'crew' all but ran the home you lived in. What's this about being bullied?"

"Like you care," he muttered.

"Finn, I'm sorry." I said earnestly. "I do care about you. I just...can't help myself sometimes when you make me mad. If I didn't care, why would I get so upset?"

He thought about this for a moment, and Junko's tears subsided.

Finn sighed. "Okay, I guess I kinda lied to you guys. The friends I told you about, well, they weren't really friends. I made that up so I you wouldn't think I was a loser. That stuff I said we did, I never got to do. They never let me come along. I was just the annoying little skinny kid they thought was only useful as a punching bag or someone to blame things on."

"Didn't you ever tell anyone?"

"That only made things worse! The overseers didn't care, and I got beat up for being a tattletale."

"Why didn't you just tell us the truth?" Junko asked, looking hurt. "I would've understood."

"Yeah, well, you had it a lot better than I did," Finn said, looking down.

"How? There's no way your bullies were as tough as mine. Mine were wallops!"

"But you had someone who cared. My parents left me at the home because they didn't want me. Do you know what that did to me when I found out?"

I could imagine. Every kid who grows up in an orphanage wants to believe that their parents loved them. That anyone loved them. Finding out the truth is a huge thing, and many girls I knew while growing up never wanted to know. They would rather stick to whatever belief they made up, because it was easier that way. I hadn't been one of those girls. I had to know, whatever it was.

"Yeah," I almost croaked, choking on my emotions. "I know."

Finn turned to me. "...What about you?" he asked quietly.

I took a deep breath. "Mine told the home that they couldn't afford to keep me. I couldn't totally blame them, but I...I did some research, and they got out of debt and were financially stable a few years after they left me."

For a moment, we locked eyes. I had never felt this kind of connection to him before, sharing a common sympathy and brokenness. I had tasted it before, when he admitted where he had spent his childhood, but nothing this strong. It was a bit strange. But, it had felt really good to say it out loud, and I didn't have to tell him any more than that. He knew.

I broke eye contact when I felt tears welling up. I wiped them away, getting a hold of myself. "I'm sorry," I apologized again. "I shouldn't have said all those things to you. I get carried away, and it's hard to stop."

"Me too." Finn confessed.

Junko, turning on the water works again, came over and embraced us. I was glad at least one of us could cry. Nobody else would. Stork stood like a statue, again staring out the window. I didn't expect him to show any emotion over this, but I knew he had to be feeling something. Aerrow gave me a weak smile, and I returned it to reassure him that we'd be fine.

That was when the lights blinked on, and the Condor whirred back to life.

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What? Angst? Gasp, is it true? I know I said I didn't wanna get too angsty or anything, but this happened. xD Hope ya don't mind.

Just so you all know, the next chapter will be the last. Thanks to everyone who has been following this story this far. (Oh, and for those wondering, Aerrow's still getting a turn. It's not over yet.)