Reunions
"Welcome back," said the enchantress. "Dark Ace."
The face twitched at recognition of his name. He looked down at his translucent hands, outlined in a red glow. Then he looked back at the young empress.
"Master Cyclonis," he recognized, a scowl on his face. He had known it was her calling.
"How are you feeling?" she asked pleasantly.
"You…..you killed me!" He shouted outraged curling his hands into fists. His form seemed to glow brighter . " You little-"
"Relax Dark Ace." She interrupted in a bored tone.
"Relax?!" He repeated his movements sharp and angry ."Relax? Thanks to you, I'm just a…a...a spirit!"
"It's hardly my fault," she countered annoyed by his accusations. "You said yourself 'More! More!'. I merely assumed you could handle it. Once again, I assumed too much of you."
The Dark Ace grimaced.
They both recalled the incident well. Ace remembered the power, the wonderful power! Then...the burning. Too much power. Overflowing inside him. Killing him.
"Well now what, Master?" He hissed the last word. "I don't even have a body anymore."
"A minor setback." She admitted with a slight shrug.
"A mino-minor setback?!" He bellowed. "I'm dead in case you haven't noticed! I'm…" Suddenly the full force of the events hit him. He began to think about what he was actually saying. His own death. Shock finally caught up to him. If you live you win, and I never lose! Never…?
He looked down at his translucent ghost of a body.
"I'm…"
"More powerful than ever?" Offered Cyclonis stepping forward.
The Dark Ace looked at her. Then he remembered it. Felt it again. The power.
"Yes." he admitted. He held up his curled fist feeling the energy course through him. Then he looked to the rocks that surrounded them in a perfect circle. He aimed his hand towards one, felt the power run and gather…
Light erupted from his arm, sped to one of the rocks and-
BOOM!
It exploded. Little bits of rock went tumbling through the air and on the ground.
The Dark Ace looked surprised for second. He stared at his arm, marvelling at his new strength.
Cyclonis smiled.
"You lose some.." she said her hand outstretch to the Ace. Then she motioned towards the rumble heap he'd just made. "…You win some."
Cyclonis herself, although she barely showed it, was actually much relieved to have been able to summon the Dark Ace's spirit. The whole first day she'd gotten back to the Farside had been spent trying to locate him without any such luck. The Dark Ace had always been a constant in her life. For as long as she could remember, he had been Cyclonian's prided warrior. There was a distant relationship between them, but it one of the few relationships she had at all.
She explained to him that the crystal energy she'd been feeding into him had proved too much for his body to contain and it had been destroyed. The crystal on the other hand had imploded. Aside from that though, the 'binding' had greater rewards.
She also explained that there were three small reasons she had been able to 'resurrect' him. One was that he had not truly, or at least, not simply died. His body had not been able to contain the full power of the crystal-but the binding had been successful, and furthermore, it was permanent. The crystal energy had infused with his essence-(whatever that actually was)-rendering him into a creature more energy than organism.
"It is," she said. "Binding in the very sense of the word."
The second reason was that the few remaining shards of the crystal served as a link to his being. Using those crystals as well as a spirit stone given to her by the Krystallions she could summon him. The final reason he had returned was specific to the atmosphere of the Farside-it's plentiful crystal energy made it possible for his spirit to reside at leisure.
"Anyways," she continued, "Your new form may have it's faults but now, on the plus side, you are one of the most powerful beings in the entire Atmos, and beyond."
A slight grin crept on the Ace's face. "More powerful than you?" he asked trying to sound causal.
Cyclonis sneered.
"Don't count on it." She said with ferocity. She produced from her cloak an oblong red crystal that looked somewhat damaged. "See this? It's a part of the crystal thats I bound to you." She lifted it up and it began to glow softly. The Dark Ace felt his form straighten and ache.
"See? I can also unbind you or bind you to other physical vessels. Should you even think of betraying me I could very seperate the crystal energy from your soul and you would simply cease to exist."
"I wouldn't dream of betraying you," he said earnestly. You brat.
"Good," she said sealing the conversation and lowering the crystal. "Because I'm going to need your help."
Oh , he thought, she needed his help? What else was new?
"But first things first," she said turning around and walking out of the clearing. "We're going to have to find you a new body. If you hadn't been so foolish with the Suit Of Untold Vengeance it would have been the perfect replacement. But since you botched that too, we'll just have to make do with something else." She smiled wickedly.
The Dark Ace was still frowning at her second remark about his failures.
"Something...else?"
He was not looking forward to the Master's plan at all, but after a day or so of floating around as a spirit he was growling ever restless.
They had their chance the day before, Aerrow and the girl Piper, had been on the deck, alone and vulnerable. But Cyclonis had told him to wait. Another opportunity soon presented itself.
The next day- oh it was so convenient- the two separated themselves from the group, a recon mission to the city- alone.
"What now Master?" he asked. "We cannot allow them to reach the city."
"And we won't," replied the cloaked girl. "This is the opportunity."
"Will this really work?" commented the Dark Ace as the two Storm Hawks , who were small dots in the sky at this point came closer.
"I am assured of it," she replied. "We have the element of surprise on our side. And I've been sending Piper's some little overnight messages. She's a little tired from the lack of sleep." She said amusedly.
The Dark Ace grimaced, happy she hadn't been in his head.
"But does it have to be him?" the ghostly warrior groaned.
"He will be the most useful," she countered. "Besides, it's not permanent, unless," she looked back at him, "You want it be."
His grimaced depended. "No."
Cyclonis smiled, and stepped back behind the rocks. She held out her hand.
"You can have the first shot."
The Dark Ace smiled and floated forward. "With pleasure," he replied stepping out from behind the rocks to get a better view.
"Aim for Piper," said Cyclonis.
The girl then, though dark Ace, adjusting his position. He raised up his arm, aimed, fired and hit. The heli-scooter engine exploded, and the vehicle spun out of control, leaving behind a trail of smoke.
"Piper!" Aerrow yelled and quickly manoeuvred his skimmer after her.
Piper's scooter plummeted downward with her on it. Luckily the blast hadn't her. Unluckily she'd forgotten her parachute.
Cyclnis smiled gleefully.
But Piper wasn't finished yet. She jumped on top of her seat and crouched and just before the scooter hit the ground she lept off careening away from the wreckage and onto had solid ground.
"Piper!" Aerrow yelled again. The skimmer slid to a halt and the SkyKnight jumped off and ran towards Piper who was slowly getting up.
Another blast erupted, hitting the ground before Aerrow, causing him to halt. He glanced confusedly into the shadows and brought out his blades.
"Show yourself!" he demanded.
From the dark, out stepped darkness herself. Cyclonis. Aerrow's eyes widened, then narrowed.
"Figures," he spat scowling.
"My, my, Aerrow. Is that any kind of a proper greeting?" She whipped her staff and sent a purple blast towards him. Naturally he leaped away and Cyclonis advanced floating up into the air.
Aerrow jumped back and Radarr growled behind him in defense.
Cyclonis laughed, and to Aerrow's displeasure he noticed that her staff looked different. New glowing crystal were attached and several metallic whirling and twisting parts had been added. Upgrades.
She fired again.
Aerrow jumped and threw his own blast. Cyclonis blocked it easily. Way too easily.
But Piper was getting up. She turned her attention to Cyclonis and smiled, crystals in hand. Aerrow smiled, knowing Piper would catch Cyclonis off gaurd.
What happened next caught both Piper and Aerrow off gaurd.
From behind the rocks came another blast straight into the navigator. Piper flew off her feet, smashing into a rock formation, then slumped to the ground in heap.
"Piper!" Shouted Aerrow watching her slump to the ground. Oh crud. He looked to Cyclonis who just smiled. Of course she hadn't come alone, he thought irritably, and suddenly wished that hadn't come without the rest of his team. Why had they decided to go alone?
"Your turn," Cyclonis said grinning.
Aerrow threw an energy slice at her then ran towards Piper's body. He made it halfway across the clearing a voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Aerrow, so nice to see you again."
His breath froze in his chest and his stomach twisted into a knot. He hadn't been expecting to hear that voice again.
"No…" he whispered.
"Oh yes." The voice replied back.
Aerrow turned around slowly. His eyes widened even more.
"It can't be…"
The glimmering red outline of the Drak Ace, prized warrior of Cyclonian stood- no- floated before him. For a moment he could only stare and gape.
" How..? And…what?" he voice barely above a whisper.
"Really Aerrow, did you think I could be killed so easily?" the Dark Ace replied.
"But this ..is impossible," said Aerrow. " You... I saw it. ..you're… dead though." said Aerrow, unable to comprehend the scene before him.
The Dark Ace floated forward.
"How about we trade places?"
A/N: Half of this is from August and the other half I finished editing seconds ago- yeah I'm kinda breaking my 'never just write and publish rule' - though technical, I did edit and re-read several times.
I should wait till morning but I want to publish- and sleep. Which I will do. After I publish. The beginning part with Ace and Cyclonis feels kind of weird to me- rushed? Nah-I have to stop dragging things out so much. I kind of like this chap though. I used a lot of quotes from the original show.
Writing about Aerrow and Piper isn't too hard, and writing about DA and Cyclonis is fun, but writing about all of them in the same scene is difficult. Too many focus points!
Reviews would be very nice. Very , critique, etc.
Edit: Updated July 3rd 2014