A/N: Do you want to know why Cyclonis hasn't taken over the world yet? It's because she's too busy canoodling with the Dark Ace, that's why! That's also why she hasn't shown up since freaking episode six. Damn, I miss her... Anyway as you can see the Dark Ace is slowly gaining the right to have a romance in this story again. Hmph.
OoOoOo
"I have a present for you, Master."
Cyclonis looked up from her desk, protective goggles not hiding how she blinked in confusion. It took her a moment to drag herself away from the crystal experiment in front of her and turn around in her seat, one arm draped over the back of the chair and the other still inching towards a tool. Her thick goggles couldn't hide her irritation, either, and definitely not the way her lips turned down in a definite frown.
The Dark Ace stood in the doorway to her private study, hands behind his back and a devilish grin on his face. Neither of them said anything, both waiting for the other to speak. Cyclonis's irritation grew, and she was the first to bend.
"Well, get on with it," she said after a moment of this, waiting impatiently to get back to work.
"Guess."
"Chocolates and flowers." The overlord of the Cyclonian empire said, voice dry as Terra Saharr and completely void of humor. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to get back to her project, and lover or no, the Dark Ace was rapidly gaining rank in her "To Kill" list.
"No," he said, shark-like grin widening to a leer.
This was no innocent smile, she realized, but the face of a killer. So she had to assume according to this that this was no innocent gift he had brought her. Her interest finally roused, she stood up and tore her goggles off, taking a few eager steps forward, eyes trying to peer at what the Dark Ace hid. "What, then?" she said. "Is it one of the Storm Hawks?"
With any luck, he had Aerrow's head hiding behind his back.
"Someone a little older, and just as important." He sidestepped, motioning to the open door. His hands were empty. "Why don't you go out and see?"
Glancing at him curiously as she passed, she stepped outside to see two guards holding a female prisoner between them. She had already been beaten severely, and hung now with her head limply falling against her chest. The only thing keeping her from falling to the floor were the iron grips of the two Talons who smirked smugly at her now, expecting praise and reward.
Cyclonis moved forward, taking a handful of purple hair and lifting Starling's head up so that she could look into those foggy green eyes, flickering in and out of lucidity. "Well well well," the Master said, smile spreading across her face. "You've caught a little birdie for me to play with. Well done, Dark Ace."
"I knew you'd be pleased."
"Much better than chocolates, that's for sure." She examined Starling's face for a moment before turning around to smirk at her servant. "And prettier than a flower." The Dark Ace lost his smirk for a half a second, and Cyclonis laughed. "Don't tell me you're jealous. What?" She put a hand on his chest. "You want me to call you pretty too? Hmmm?"
"No, of course not," he said, quite obviously sulking though he tried to hide it. The two Talons looked at each other in bewilderment, having never seen this side of their leaders before. "I just don't want you calling anyone else pretty."
"My pretty boy, you're so easily wounded." She kissed him, a brief peck, before shooing him away. "Now leave me to have fun with my new toy. She doubtless has information on the whereabouts of the Storm Hawks, and I intend to find out everything I can."
"My Lady, I've already tried-" he started, but she shut him up with another kiss, this one a bit more lingering. She pulled away, waiting for him to try and say something else.
"...All right," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck and stalking away.
Cyclonis grinned at his retreating figure before turning to the two Talons. She cleared her throat, straightening her face and her voice to something more commanding and less like a lover. "Take her to the dungeon- a private room, if you would."
"Yes, Master Cyclonis."
OoOoOo
Starling was rudely awakened by a bucket of water dumped over her head. She gasped at the frigid temperature, so cold there had been chunks of ice flowing over her. Broken and battered, it took all her willpower just to sit there and gather herself long enough to take wheezing, short breaths. Her head was still lopsided, vision blurry, but her ears could pick out the sound of Cyclonis's voice in the dungeon room loud and clear.
"Ahh, you're up. How nice. I was beginning to think you were dead."
Starling didn't respond- couldn't respond. Instead she lifted her eyes up to that pale, lightly smirking face, still panting with the exertion of staying alert. She found she still couldn't move her head and so was forced to follow Cyclonis with her eyes as the overlord moved across the room. She stopped to pick a toxic green crystal up from a table full of unmentionable tools of torture. Speaking, the teenager walked back to Starling, grin widening as she tossed the crystal from hand to hand.
"You can't have expected any less than the greeting you received, Starling," Cyclonis said, pressing the crystal up against the Interceptor's face. Miraculously, Starling felt her throbbing headache and stiff muscles loosen and the pain drain away. Cyclonis pulled the crystal away when she was fully healed and Starling stood up, still a little woozy but otherwise fine.
"...I was... apprehended," Starling said.
"Oh? I hadn't noticed."
"I'm sorry for being careless enough to get caught, Master."
Cyclonis sat down on a nearby chair, snorting once. "Just be sure it doesn't happen again," she said. "I can't guarantee that you'll miraculously "escape" next time. And keep those reports coming in. If those Storm Hawks so much as breathe the wrong way, I want to know. Understood?"
"It'll be hard. Your talons often intercept my messages..." Starling rubbed her wrists as Cyclonis undid the handcuffs. "...No pun intended. And I'm constantly ducking suspicion."
"Ah, well, such is the life of a triple agent, my dear."
Starling averted her eyes and made to get up, but Cyclonis lifted one foot and planted it firmly against the woman's chest, pushing her back into the chair. "Ah, Ah, Ah," she said, waving one finer from side to side, reprimanding.
"What? I thought I was going to 'miraculously escape'?" Starling demanded, nervous tones creeping into the edges of her voice.
"Double traitor, you flit from side to side without ever truly winning anything..." Cyclonis shook her head, filled with false pity. "That should be punishment enough, but I don't think so."
Suddenly, the metal cuffs on the chair latched onto Starling, gripping her legs and arms tightly to the chair. Cyclonis laughed and reached for another crystal, this one bright red and pulsing. "And after all, if I let you out without a few scratches people might begin to suspect something."
Starling felt the blazing heat of the crystal, dangerously close to her cheek.
"This is going to hurt, dear. And consider it a warning, not to ever be caught again.
"Next time, I won't be so lenient."
The sounds of Starling's screams were mostly muffled by the thick iron door, but not entirely so...