Piper bolted upright. Her first impression was that of her room, and she glanced around herself to find that she had been in bed. Before she could register what had happened, a blonde girl with green eyes leaned over her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Stop," the girl instructed. "And calm down." Her voice gave away her identity immediately.

"Lark?" Piper asked confusedly. Cyclonis' disguise was almost exactly what it had been when she had masqueraded as 'Lark' aboard the Condor originally. Minus the hair, anyway – it was straight rather than in ponytails.

"You fainted when you touched the crystal," Cyclonis said without a hint of emotion in her voice. She sounded cool and calculated to Piper, more like the Cyclonis she had encountered before. "I saw it glow. I know something happened. What was it?"

Piper blushed immediately. "Well, it's funny you should ask. I, er, didn't exactly want to tell you earlier, but it shows me… things." She glanced around and tried to think of something else to say, some topic she could switch the conversation to. "How did you manage to get another disguise?"

"I had plenty of time to make that Chroma Crystal when you were out cold for several hours," Cyclonis said in a grim tone. "Although, I spent most of that time making sure you weren't going to die. Now explain what 'things' the crystal shows you." Cyclonis reached for her collar and the disguise faded away. Her usual grim, purple eyeliner-rimmed eyes were revealed, as was her pale skin and her dark hair.

Piper paused for a second. She didn't really want to mention the scenario to Cyclonis, but since Cyclonis was obviously immune to experiencing the crystal-driven episodes, she decided to come clean. "Visions. Little glimpses of other worlds, or realities, or whatever they are. I just… take over my alternate self and sit them out for a while. Sometimes I learn things."

Cyclonis' mouth formed a surprised little "o". She turned away slowly.

"That's remarkable," she murmured. "I had no idea that the Infinity Stone could produce such an effect… I merely thought it was a tool through which great power could be generated, not something like this."

"Don't get any funny ideas, Cyclonis," Piper warned.

"I might have to get a few funny ideas," Cyclonis said with a slight grin. "After all, it's ten at night, and I can't leave the ship for fear of running into your now-returned teammates. Plus, it's still pouring outside."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Piper asked with a glance at her clock. Eleven fifteen. She figured she knew where Cyclonis' argument was going.

"If you wanted to be polite, you could invite me to stay," Cyclonis said in a matter-of-fact tone.

It was then that Piper registered what Cyclonis was wearing.

"You're wearing my pajamas!" Piper exclaimed.

Cyclonis smirked. "Yes, I am. They even have little sheep on them."

Piper sighed rather embarrassedly. "Fine, you can stay. But where are you going to sleep?"

"My options are limited," Cyclonis said with straightest expression as she seemed to be able to muster. She gestured to the only bed in the room with a tilt of her head.

Piper stood up, face burning, and grimaced.

"Well, it's not like there's another place to sleep on this vessel, unless one of us wants to sleep on the floor when there's certainly enough room for us both to –"

Piper interrupted her. "Okay, okay, I get it," she said in an exasperated tone. "Just… turn around for a bit while I change into something else."

Cyclonis shrugged and faced the door to the hallway, hands limply at her sides, while Piper shuffled to the closet, pulled out her other set of nightwear – dark green, flannel ones – and hurriedly changed out of her usual uniform into them.

"Alright, I'm done," Piper said flatly.

"Do you often go to sleep around this time?" Cyclonis asked as she turned back around.

Piper shook her head. "Honestly, no. I've been a bit bad about my schedule. I spend a lot of time experimenting, and usually not enough sleeping, so I don't often get into bed before midnight."

Cyclonis nodded. "I'm a bit bad about that sort of thing myself. I've spent many a night toiling away on a particular formula only to look at the clock and realize it's very, very late," she said as she casually made her way to the bed, and seemed to slither in.

"I also haven't been able to sleep very well as of the past few months," Cyclonis added while she adjusted the sheets. She poked her head above the blanket and gave Piper a pointed stare.

Piper sighed and crawled in as well, maintaining a space of about a foot away from Cyclonis. Cyclonis broke off eye contact and lowered her head a bit when Piper flipped off the light.

Piper folded her hands above the blanket and sighed. A few days before then, Piper would never have dreamed of even holding a conversation with Cyclonis, but now they were inches apart, figuratively and literally, and coated in rain-muddled moonlight.

The situation itself was terrible. No matter how Piper sliced it, this was a doomed relationship. While she was committed to trying to find a solution that would make the relationship viable, she couldn't help but question her motives. Was it the crystal that had shifted her thoughts toward the young dictator? Probably. Was this all a trap, and was Cyclonis somehow using her? Potentially. Piper didn't quite know how she would react if faced with betrayal.

"I would be lying if I didn't admit that this was a bit awkward," Cyclonis mentioned casually, clutching the blanket all the way up to just under her chin.

Piper frowned. Cyclonis must be acting genuinely, right? After all, Piper had approached her, not the other way around. It was surprising that Cyclonis had reciprocated her feelings.

"A bit, yes," Piper agreed. She sighed and braced herself for asking a hard question. "Cyclonis, how do you propose making this whole, uh, thing work? I mean, I'm not going to run off with you. I couldn't."

"I know. You made that clear earlier," Cyclonis murmured, looking at the ceiling. Piper could just make out the outline of her face.

"Do you think it would be possible to… maybe I'm going too far here, considering who you are… I mean, would it be possible to end the whole war?" Piper asked softly.

Cyclonis was silent for a moment. "Piper, a long time ago the Cyclonian Empire owned much of the known world. Cyclonia brought order and civility to a number of warring terras, but rather than realizing that the Cyclonian banner brought with it more good than it did bad, those terras who had benefited from Cyclonian rule eventually rebelled and threw off what they interpreted as shackles."

"People should be able to decide how they want their people to be ruled… they shouldn't have it dictated by some imperial authority," Piper responded.

"I'm of the opposite view. If the imperial authority brings order and prosperity, then it is a superior system," Cyclonis argued. "In any case, once the Cyclonian Empire was beaten back to a shadow of its former self, and the independent terras like Terra Rex, Terra Mesa, Atmosia, Gale, and others found themselves free, or at least no longer having to fight us, what better use did they find for their newfound freedom than to fight each other in petty squabbles for the next hundred years?"

"They had legitimate differences, and many people tried to resolve them peacefully," Piper reminded her. "And if I remember correctly, they formed inter-terra alliances and councils." She hadn't exactly wanted to get into a debate, and with as intimidating an intellectual adversary as Cyclonis – coupled with how strongly Cyclonis felt about the subject – she wasn't sure that she would be able to hold up her own argument, much less try to persuade the Queen of Cyclonia.

"That may be, but there were a number of bloody skirmishes over relatively benign issues that could have been prevented. Then, when my grandmother and her great-grandmother before her tried to bring Cyclonia back to its former glory, they restored two terras to our empire before being bogged down in this miserable conflict."

"Nimbus and Bluster are on rations and have state-appointed jobs to keep your war machine going," Piper pointed out in a grim mutter. "That's hardly an example of Cyclonian achievement."

"If we hadn't stepped in, they would be at war. We brought stability to the entire quadrant around Cyclonia," Cyclonis stated. "And my point is, the terras that you think so highly of might be united right now, but that's only because they're fighting us. If the threat presented by Cyclonia disappears, then they will inevitably resume their infighting."

"You can't make that kind of generalization," Piper shot back. "You basically just said that either you take over, or they collapse, and that's just not true. I know plenty of people from these terras, and I don't think they would turn on their friends if Cyclonia stopped the war."

"Maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually," Cyclonis stressed. "I just want things to be the way they used to be."

"Cyclonis, it doesn't have to be like that anymore. The old Cyclonian Empire is ancient history. Besides, I'm a Storm Hawk. The Storm Hawks stood for peace and cooperation, and as the new Storm Hawks, so do my friends and I. We'd never let another war spring up after this one ends."

"I'd like to believe you, but I've seen how people act," the empress said softly. "People are cruel, illogical, and selfish."

"Not all people," Piper reminded her.

Cyclonis turned on her side and stared at Piper. Piper could make out her two purple eyes in the dim light.

"It goes beyond that. I won't be able to stop the war for the same reasons my grandmother was unable to. The Cyclonian Empire as it stands now has adapted almost entirely to supporting the war machine, as you said. Stopping the war would put many people in Nimbus and Bluster out of work, inflation would skyrocket, and the crystal industry operated by Cyclonia would collapse. I can only imagine the political and social fallout – mass unemployment added to negative public opinion regarding the war would turn those unemployed masses into angry rioters, and with me as the sole ruler, I think you know what the then-unemployed military would do."

"You think the military would rebel if you declared peace?" Piper asked, taken aback.

"Of course. They might be afraid of me, and although a few of them might actually be unerringly loyal, I would expect a massive schism that could tear apart the entire empire if I were to suddenly end a generations-long war. At the most, I could expect a coup d'état and a quick execution."

Piper looked away from Cyclonis. It was a troubling problem. Ending the war might bring peace, but it would destroy Cyclonia, and if the Cyclonian military and people really ended up rebelling against Cyclonis, then it ultimately wouldn't end the war at all. The Cyclonian Empire was locked into war, and if Cyclonis stopped it, not only would the effort be futile, but Cyclonis would lose her head over it – literally.

"Maybe now you've gotten a glimpse inside my mind," Cyclonis murmured. "I've run through many possibilities. It is a difficult problem."

"I wish it were easier," Piper said weakly. "I'm sorry."

"I'm going to try to go to sleep. Good night, Piper," Cyclonis said before turning to her right, facing away from the now-puzzled pilot.

"Good night," Piper responded.

She turned to her left and closed her eyes, when she heard – well, no, not heard, maybe felt – a voice.

It wasn't meant to have ended happily. She was meant to have betrayed you.

Piper opened her eyes and looked around, but, seeing nothing, she placed her head back onto her pillow.


When Piper woke up, most of her vision was obscured by black. She blinked a few times confusedly, but then remembered the previous awkward evening, and restrained herself from gasping when she realized she had managed to close the gap between herself and Cyclonis. More specifically speaking, Piper had pressed against Cyclonis at some point during the night, and her left arm was draped casually across the monarch's midsection.

Piper froze. While it wasn't altogether unpleasant, she didn't really want to be caught in such a position, if only for the fact that it seemed as though their relationship had been going much too fast, and she wasn't sure if there was going to be any way to make it work.

She pulled away from Cyclonis as slowly as she could and turned to her side. She slowly snuck out of bed and onto her feet, and then pondered what to do next. She couldn't work on her next project until she picked up the metal from the blacksmith, and she definitely couldn't leave Cyclonis alone in her room to do so.

Glancing at the clock, she could see that it was getting to be around nine, and she briefly wondered whether or not someone would barge into her room to make her come to breakfast. Probably not, but they would definitely come knocking and wonder why she was late. Making a decision, Piper pulled one of her uniforms from the closet. While putting it on, she wondered how upset Cyclonis would potentially be if she woke up alone, with no idea what to do.

Once her uniform was presentable, Piper grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from her desk and scrawled out the message "Going to breakfast, will bring you something". She left it in the center of the worktable from yesterday, just beside the Infinity Stone that was still atop it.

She eyed the sparkly object ambivalently. While she was grateful for the information she had gleaned from her visions and the slight, slight possibility that she could prolong the relationship with Cyclonis, she couldn't help but resent the object's interference in what had been, until a few days ago, business as usual. She had gone after it expecting one thing, but she had received quite another.

She shrugged and left the room. She hoped that there would be waffles.