Author's Note: Hey guys! This was supposed to be earlier but alas, I was unable to log in. Alot of you have some questions and luckily I have answers!Long drawn out answers. To go with a long drawn out chap.

To StormPanther:The way Piper does the binding is different from how Cyclonis does the binding. Originally Piper didn't know how to do it so she ended up sick till she became 'perfectly attuned' with Aerrow. Cyclonis and the DA were not 'perfectly attuned' but Cyclonis never became sick so I assume her method doesn't require any 'deep connection' with the partner. Assumingly, she can use it on anyone.

Starhunterz: Real Piper and Radarr action is coming up BUT first we have to go through stuff happening on this side of Atmos. You'll see why :)

Romanticist Caveman:Yes, I have noticed I tend to rely heavily on dialogue so for this chapter I tried to stay away from that. And I failed miserably. Actually I think it's almost all dialogue O.o I blame it on Finn. Sorry if the perspective shifts are confusing- and heads up there will be more of them. Many. As for the 8 days ago flashback, (I'm suprised you're the only one who asked about that) it take place right after they're ambushed by Cyclonis and Piper is just waking up.

Enjoy you guys!

Part 10: Rude Awakenings

"Finn! Wake up! You lazy-!"

The covers around me tightened and pulled, and suddenly 'FLOP!' I was on the floor entangled in my bed sheets. My eyes flickered open.

"Huh- What? What's happening? Are we under attack?" Finn desperately tried to untangled himself. Piper stood menacingly over him.

"What were doing in my room last night?!" She accused.

"What?" Finn replied dumbly. What time was it anyway? Way too early for Piper's nagging.

"Someone was in my room last night!" she shouted angrily. She pointed a gloved finger at me. "What were you doing?"

"Sleeping a couple minutes ago-" He responded irritably.

"Argh! I meant in my room you-"

"Hey! I wasn't in your room!" He shouted trying to get up, but fell down again after his foot got caught in the blankets. Piper freaking was one thing; Piper freaking when he hadn't even DONE ANYTHING was another.

"I know it was you, Finn." she hissed my name. She held out a clenched hand way too close to my face for my eyes. "I found this!" Finn pulled away from her and stared at the thing in her fist. It was a lock of blond hair.

"So? That doesn't prove anything."

She growled and threw the hair on the ground, then advanced. "You had better tell me right now what-"

"Piper!" Aerrow was suddenly in the doorway.

Piper froze, then looked at the ground, still clenching her fists. She froze, and without another word or even looking at Finn she marched away.

"What's her problem?" Finn irritably asked Aerrow.

"Someone was in her room last night." said Aerrow arms folded over his chest. He looked Finn in the eye. " Did you do anything?" he asked narrowing his eyes.

"No!" Finn responded, "Sheesh! Can't a guy at least have breakfast around here before being arrested?"

Aerrow shrugged nonchalantly before turning back down the hall. Finn sighed. So much for sleep. He looked at the blond piece of hair on the floor and curiously picked it up. He walked over to his mirror and then held up the lock of hair. It did look a lot like his hair?

The real trouble started later that afternoon. Finn was walking down the halls headed to the kitchen, hungry for some leftover pizza (do you know how rare it is to have leftover pizza? There's usually never anything left over ) when suddenly he was forcibly grabbed from behind and thrown into a room.

He landed on my face of course. The floor and I were well acquainted that day.

"Alright," he murmured into the ground pushing myself up . "What's the big - Junko?" He looked up at the Wallop standing in front of me. He smiled bashfully and helped yank me up. He turned around to see Stork and the door hissing shut behind him.

"Stork!" Finn said. "You can't just grab people and -" The Merb jumped forward and clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Shh!" he said putting his finger to his lips. His eyes then darted from left to right and he looked around the room as though someone else might have been there.

"Keep your voice down," he said "we don't want anyone else to hear."

They all stood in a circle. Well triangle really cuz there was three of them so like three points and that makes a triangle not a circle and -what? It's relevant. Anyways…

"What I'm about to tell you is very disturbing but critical," said Stork twiddling his fingers. Junko and Finn looked at each other. Here we go again with the mind worms.

Stork looked around the room again before leaning in close to us, lowering his voice to a raspy whisper. " I think…" They leaned in expectant. "I think…Piper. Is . An impostor."

Finn snorted and laughed. Stork looked at him reproachfully. Junko just looked confused, maybe worried.

"I 'm serious Finn," He growled and grabbed the sharpshooter's shoulders.

"C'mon Stork. An impostor?" Did he hear how ridiculous he sounded?

He growled exasperated.

"So she's not herself lately," Finn admitted. "So what?" People get out of sorts for all kinds of reasons. Girls especially.

"She's not herself because she isn't herself." argued Stork. "Haven't you noticed the way she's been acting. Aloof. Angry. Cold?"

Finn paused. He didn't know what aloof meant, but he had notice a bit of dip in personality. But how could he really tell? She hadn't been around much.

"But Stork," asked Junko timidly. He looked upset. "If you really do think Piper is…not Piper….why isn't Aerrow here? Shouldn't he know too?"

"Think about it," said Stork tapping his head. "In the Farside, Aerrow and Piper went on recon together. If anything had happened to the real Piper, don't you think he would have noticed?"

"Wait- you're saying Aerrow's an impostor too?" Finn said incredulous. It was really too much.

"He hasn't exactly been himself lately either." replied Stork.

"Well duh!" Finn exclaimed. "In case you're forgetting what happened to Radarr-Of course he's not his usual self."

He looked ashamed or something for forgetting that Aerrow had been closest to Radarr and therefore, most affected by his…um...passing on.

"Maybe." he admitted. "Maybe not."

"Umm Guys?" interrupted Junko quietly.

"Stork, you've had a lot of crazy ideas but this takes the cake. "

"Crazy? Huh." he replied. "What's so crazy about it? Remember Princess Peregrine?"

"Guys?" Junko said, louder this time.

"That was only for a little while! We noticed the switch right away. " Finn mentioned. Yeah. Okay, so they had noticed right after the ship's crystal energy source failed and they nearly fell out of the sky.

"Guys!" Junko shouted.

"What?" they said in union.

"Umm…I'm with Stork on this one." he gave Finn an apologetic look. " Aerrow and Piper have been acting...kinda weird lately." said Junko. Finn frowned. Why had't Junko mentioned it to him? Friends don't keep suspicions of friends from friends right? " But, um, how can we prove their impostors?"

"With this," replied Stork before Finn could argue that there was nothing to prove. From his pocket he pulled out a familiar pale green rectangular stone, that had some metal warped around it. It glinted mutely.

"Piper's blocking crystal" Finn exclaimed at the sight of it. "So you were the one in her room last night! Dude, I got blamed so badly for that!"

"Had to keep her off my trail somehow." said Stork without apologizing. " So I may have planted some misleading evidence."

"You cut my hair?"

"Details." Stork shrugged.

"So how do we use the crystal?" asked Junko looking at the stone. "Should we use it on them while they're asleep?"

Finn couldn't believe this. Already they were planning a mutiny. "Wait wait wait," he interrupted . The others looked at him. They were both forgetting some very important information. "We saw Piper do the Binding last night." He explained. " How many other people could have faked-" He stopped suddenly. "….oh."

It finally dawned on him.

"Exactly," said Stork. "The only other person who can do the Binding is-"

"Master Cyclonis." said a voice from the doorway.

They all jumped, practically hitting the ceiling. There was Aerrow (thank Atmos it wasn't Piper) looking at them from the threshold. They hadn't even heard the door open. How oblivious were they? And how long had he been standing there?

" Aerrow!" said Stork surprised and somewhat afraid.

"Relax guys," he said walking into Stork's room. "I'm on your side." he added.

The door closed behind him and I made a mental note to listen for it in case it opened again.

"How much have you heard?" inquired Stork.

"Enough." Aerrow replied. "I know that you think Piper is an impostor….I know you guys don't trust me either."

"Then," replied Stork darkly. " You understand what we have to do?"

Aerrow nodded.

Stork stepped forward, and they were all quiet. They held our breaths. The tension rose. It was so dramatic!

Suddenly Stork thrust the crystal forward in front of Aerrow's chest, shutting his eyes as though expecting a great burst of light.

Nothing happened.

Zilch.

Nada.

Stork looked at the crystal and then Aerrow.

"Well, Stork," Finn said, a little, relieved. "So much for your conspiracy theory."

"Just because he's the real Aerrow doesn't mean Piper's really Piper."

"Uh-huh." And I'm not the real Finn."

"Stork has a point." said Aerrow,"I think he's right about Piper."

Finn looked at him surprised. "You don't really think..?" Aerrow started to explain.

"When were in the Farside, Cyclonis and an army of these strange warriors attacked us. We were completely outnumbered and Cyclonis disappeared behind some rocks- but it was only for a minute. That was when, um, Radarr….well." he looked down at the ground before continuing. "I was distracted. When Piper reappeared we were so overrun by the army we had no choice but to get back to the Condor. I never thought much of it…till last night after we did the Binding."

"What about the Binding?" Junko asked, worry building.

"It just…didn't feel….right, I guess. Different somehow."

Now Finn was freaked. Everyone, even Aerrow, was suspicious of Piper.

"So…what do we do now?" asked Junko.

"Let me talk to her first," said Aerrow. "I want to make sure of this before we try to prove anything."

They all nodded.

"If anything's out of place I'll call you onto the main bridge. "

Fifteen minutes later they all standing on bridge waiting for Piper to arrive. Aerrow had talked to her and decided that this was quote 'a necessary precaution.' Finn was trying to act cool and skeptical like he expected this all to fail. Mostly because, more than anything, he wanted them to be mistaken. It was better than being right.

He tensed when the door opened.

Piper walked in causally, smiling of all things.

"What's up?" she asked, cheerfully.

"Oh nothing much," said Stork as Finn and Junko moved so they stood somewhat behind Piper, blocking her nearest exit. She noticed them surround her.

"Is everything alright?" she asked in what was probably supposed to be nervous She didn't really sound nervous though. She sounded suspicious.

"Well," said Stork. His hand was clenched behind his back. "That depends…"

Her eyebrow raised and and she looked amused. "On..?"

"This!" he shouted thrusting the crystal forward as he had done with Aerrow.

Something happened this time. Piper began to glow, her form flickered, torn between that of our navigator and-

"Master Cyclonis." The words involuntarily came out of Finn's mouth, and even worse, he realized, he sounded afraid.

Piper was gone. She had never been here to begin with. Standing here in their midst, dressed in usual ugly purple tights and stubby cape was Cyclonis herself, grinning.

"What took you so long?"

Automatically, Finn brought out his crossbow and aimed. The rest of the crew took on fighting stances. Cyclonis didn't look worried at all.

"Where's Piper?" demanded Junko, knuckle busters at the ready. "What did you do to her?"

"Me?" she said in a false tone of innocence. "I didn't do anything. You're the ones who left her in the Farside."

Finn, Junko and Stork clenched their teeth.

She chuckled.

"It wasn't hard you know- fooling you." she said, although nobody had asked her. " I had to use a very specific array of crystals to attain Piper's impression. A work of art really. But, seeing as I am the Master after all…" She smiled, so wholly impressed by herself.

"Although," she continued, taking advantage of our angry silence. " I'm still surprised you didn't catch on to me sooner." she looked Finn right in the eye. "Some friends you really are…"

Ouch.

"I don't know why Piper was so fond of you all," she went on in her wispy voice ." Perhaps if she'd known how really pathetic you are, she would have joined me when she had the chance. Perhaps then," she laughed lightly, "She could have lived."

"Liar!" Finn shouted and pulled the trigger, forgetting entirely that his bolts were about as efficient as paper-airplanes against Cyclonis. She merely lifted her hand and the arrow halted in mid-air before dissolving into nothing.

"Don't make me laugh," she hissed, and from behind her back she pulled out her crystal staff, topped with that pink-purple jewel. Slowly her form began to glow and she rose above the floor. "The four of you at your best couldn't beat me at my worst. As we speak my empire is already rising from the ashes and you and your precious Atmos are going to pay dearly for what you did." her voice took on a demonic edge at the last bit, thoroughly confirming Stork's belief that she was part Raptor.

"We'll never surrender." Aerrow announced.

"No," she mused. " Of course you won't. You don't have the brains for that. Besides," she added. "what fun would that be?" she smiled slyly at him.

Then she threw her arms into the air and her crystal staff shined brighter and brighter, till it erupted in a flash of light, blinding them.

When they opened their eyes she was gone.

Radarr was gone.

Piper was gone.

And everything else was about to go too.