A/N: To Madame Lady and .PhaerynTao – the Ace/Finn argument was originally Ace/Piper (hence the confusion). And 'Phae, don't worry about it, dear. Best of luck towards your scholarship essays!
Lady with the Lamp
( chapter 03: the fling )
Standing in front of the mirror, Piper adjusts her orange headband and wipes her palms on her hands. She inhales deeply through her nose before expelling the air from her lungs. Staring at her reflection, she blinks and prepares her speech for the umpteenth time.
"Hi, it's me again. Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you've made up your mind yet. You know, about my offer."
Piper frowns and drops the line immediately. It still doesn't feel natural, to introduce herself like an old friend. She massages her temples and tries again. She squares her shoulders and takes a step towards the mirror, her face a mask of seriousness.
"Dark Ace. I'm here from the Storm Hawks and I want to know if you've made your mind up."
Nope. Not that one either. Too stiff - she felt like a prison guard. Ruffling her hair in exasperation, she leans against the bathroom wall and eyes her reflection critically. Dark skin, blue hair and tangerine eyes. A teenager. She hardly looks like a prison guard, and definitely not his friend.
It's been two days since she gave Dark Ace the medallion. Tomorrow, she will go back to the hospital and ask him what his answer is. She hopes he will take their offer, but wishes she isn't the one to relay the information he's missed out on. But where to start? How to approach the subject? If he could still see, Piper would gladly write a letter and present the unfortunate news that way; she was much better at communicating through words than speech, it came with her job experience.
So far, the team has to get four very important points across to the Dark Ace: One, tell him Master Cyclonis is alive. Two, inform him his hospital time is almost up. Three, if he doesn't agree to take on a guardian, he will be sent directly to jail. And four, if he goes to jail, he will be executed within the month.
The question is, why save a hanged man? Why indeed.
A knock on the door breaks Piper's internal monologue and she gladly welcomes the distraction. Junko raps again and asks if she's done using the bathroom, he would like to take a shower after working on the Condor's inner mechanics. The girl's slender fingers wrap around the metal handle, and she pushes it down.
"Sure, Junko. Hop right in. I was just using the mirror to practice my speech." Giving him a toothy smile, she moves past him gracefully before noticing the towel and the yellow plastic duck in his hands. "Taking a bath?"
"Yeah!" The wallop grins, wiping his cheek with a grease-coated hand. "I like to take a bubble bath sometimes with Rubber Ducky. It's relaxing."
Back at her cot, Piper paces the floor and waits for inspiration to strike her mind. Instead, she accidentally bumps her hip against her desk chair and quickly rescues a pencil that rolls off the table. Tapping the eraser against her taut lips, the navigator absently stares at the ceiling.
Why did it have to be so hard? Maybe if her teammates accompany her, it will be easier to talk to the Dark Ace, knowing her friends are literally standing behind her for support. He won't notice, right? He won't be able to tell…
"Of course he can tell!" she shouts and smacks herself on the forehead. Just because he's blind doesn't mean he's deaf! Besides, everyone arriving at once is intimidating, especially to a hospital patient. Too many Storm Hawks and Dark Ace's sensibility might short circuit and cause him to rally up his Talon hostility. And frankly, not everyone on the team is eager to see him. Nope. Piper volunteered to be his saving grace and now she has to confront him alone – although one other person to escort her might be nice.
She wonders how he'll react when he hears about Lynn.
What Piper needs is a well-thought out plan. She's good at that sort of thing, right? She breathes. Focus. The next step? Convince Dark Ace to help them find Aerrow and Radarr.
When she thinks about it, everything boils down to a straightforward equation. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. This isn't one of their old missions from the war, when they could slip through enemy lines, fight some Talons, then head back out for a breather; they were dealing with human lives. Lark needed her sanity back, and despite the efforts of multiple doctors, they couldn't stabilize her condition. She's unable to hold onto old memories, and she can't make new ones. Lark can't remember who she was, and she keeps forgetting who the Storm Hawks were.
In the end, Aerrow came up with the idea to have Dark Ace help Lark.
The Storm Hawks found out early on that the girl formerly known as Master Cyclonis no longer existed. After the last battle at Cyclonia, after Dark Ace destroyed the necklace around her neck, an explosion of astronomical proportions rocked the citadel and knocked everyone within range at least thirty feet backwards. It hurt. The entire building began to tumble apart like a tower of loosely held bricks.
Both Master Cyclonis and Dark Ace were unconscious, having received the full impact of the shattered crystal. Once Aerrow got a hold on his bearings, he leaped across the chasms that used to be the floor and called for the rest of his team to help. The girl wasn't breathing and the Dark Ace's face was a bloody mess. Scrambling up the redhead's shoulder, even Radarr had to force himself not to gag at the sight.
Junko hauled the older man over his shoulder while the boys carried the girl between them. Sneaking a sliver of the broken crystal into her pocket, Piper stuck two fingers between her lips and whistled as loud as she could. The Condor answered, emerging from the blackness, and Stork waved frantically from the main deck before turning the airship around.
Metal groaned as the hangar opened, and Lynn flew out on her ride, towing her teammates' skimmers behind. She waited with bated breath as Piper got on her heliscooter and the boys secured Master Cyclonis on the seat behind her.
The team made a quick getaway, just in time to watch the last supports of Cyclonia's palace collapse onto itself. As the ancient masonry fell apart, a large dusky cloud appeared over the ruins, a great beast of the shadows, and shrieked into the night before it shot up into the black clouds and disappeared like smoke. Piper immediately turned to her sky knight.
"Aerrow. Did you see that?"
He frowned. "Yeah, Piper. I did."
Stork flew them to the nearest inhabited terra. Finn rushed Cyclonis and Dark Ace to the hospital. Aerrow stayed back at the Condor and reported to the rest of the sky knights. Once he turned off the broadcast, the redhead laid a hand on the merb's shoulder.
"You did a good job, Stork. I'm proud of you."
"Yeah, I guess so. But there was only so much I could do." Stork did his best to patch up Dark Ace, but his strength lay in prevention, not healing. However, most of the blood was carefully cleaned off and the wounds were bandaged to the best of his ability. Sighing, the pilot collapsed on the floor, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. There was so much he had to learn.
But there was no time to rest now. Incoming calls flooded the ship's communication system as both the council and the other squadrons radioed Aerrow to confirm his report. Where were Master Cyclonis and Dark Ace? At the hospital? Good. The council just dispatched the remaining squadrons in the area to round up the last of the Talons.
It all happened very quickly. The detached Talon commanders were no match to Atmosia's united front, and Cyclonia's civilians were immediately placed under the protection of the council as a measure to establish order and prevent public riots in the streets.
When Master Cyclonis came to, she had no idea who she was. After a brief panel review from the council and a handful of sky knights, they all agreed that her memory loss was genuine. She was just a teenage girl now, she could be spared. Her guardianship was turned over to the Storm Hawks; Atmos had other matters to deal with, such as the execution of the Dark Ace. That man was another matter. Unknowingly, he opened a can of worms.
His last act of bravery, as Aerrow called it, sent a ripple of uncertainty amongst the squadrons. If his report was true, then the Dark Ace served his master to the end and was responsible for her condition. But more importantly, what was that thing he released from his master's neck? What sort of crystal sorcery had she been using? They knew the empire was slipping like water from the girl's hands during the last months of the war, and they were aware of the breaking solidarity amongst the Talons – so much that various factions actively sought to assassinate Cyclonis. Dark Ace was still a murderer, and murderers die. However, when the doctors approached the council and announced that the Talon in question lapsed into a coma, the came to see him on the operating table. There so many bandages over his face and upper body that it resembled a body cast. The man that every squadron feared lay immobile on that table. Bloody. Unconscious. And willing to die.
In her room, Piper stops pacing and places a hand to her neck. She felt sorry for the man then, and Aerrow felt it as well. Such an act of sacrifice made him human, right? Maybe they were wrong, maybe even the worst of people could be granted a second chance for redemption. Frowning, she purses her lips, remembering how Aerrow's proposition was handled.
The sky council scoffed at his idea and called him idealistic. He was too young. He didn't know all the personal histories associated with the Dark Ace. Did he know one of the elders on the council had a granddaughter who was on a squadron? No? Well, Dark Ace killed her and her sky knight. This all happened before Aerrow was old enough to ride his skimmer.
Old men held old grudges, and it was time to lay this one down. Dark Ace will be sentenced once he returns to full health. Then the council will bring him to the table, sentence him before the panel, and be executed as soon as possible. This was all to be done covertly, to avoid public inquiry – Dark Ace had just as any enemies in the public as he did amongst the varying squadrons. He was the right hand of Cyclonis, and therefore, public enemy number two. And since the girl could no longer be held responsible, he had to pay her price.
But Aerrow protested, and said it was wrong. He even got some of the sky knights to listen to his side of things and asked the Council to reconsider. But they wouldn't relent. Someone had to die.
Then the Dark Ace emerged from his coma and realized he'd gone blind. The doctors couldn't do anything; there was neural damage in his brain. Such bright light at close quarters did more than damage his retina; it short-circuited his entire visual system.
The medical report changed some of the opinions on the council. Rather than stare at his strange milky eyes, the Council sent him away to a quiet terra to fully recover until they figured out what to do with him later. Questions started coming in. Could they execute a blind man? Because he didn't die, was his sacrifice still valid? Was the Dark Ace harmless now?
To compensate for lost time, the council seized everything that the Dark Ace possessed: his financial assets, his Switchblade, his weapon – everything.
Then they turned their attention towards crystals in general.
The Storm Hawks went back to see Lark. Even if she was the villain, she was still just a girl – someone who was their age. Piper tried to connect with her, and showed her letters of their correspondence during the time of the war, back in the days when Lark's personality was becoming more defined. Did she remember writing to her dark-skinned friend? This was her handwriting; she slanted her letters exactly the same way, and her X's were always a little more curved.
"Do you remember how the crystals you were experimenting with started to react strangely to you? You told me you started getting tired easier, and sometimes you'd wake up with lapses of memory." The girl looked at her as if she were crazy. She can't be serious, right? They've never met before. If this was some sort of strange kidnapping, or even worse, a joke – she wasn't buying it. They must have drugged her.
"I'm Piper, your friend. Don't you remember me?"
"No."
The female Storm Hawk told her even though she did some bad things in the past, things were better now and she could start over again, become the person Lark would have wanted to be, and make friends. She was a friend, and Aerrow was one too. The violet-eyed child even allowed Radarr to sniff her hand before the blue creature licked her fingers in approval.
"Are you really my friends? Are you here to see me?"
"Yes."
"Then I'm glad. It's lonely here."
The following day, they went back to the mental ward to visit her, Junko even brought a tin full of Piper's homemade cookies. But Lark stared at them as if they were strangers, and visibly cringed when they approached her. She asked them what their names were, and if parents were coming to take her home. She'd like to go home. Please.
What could they tell her?
So, after much contemplation Aerrow decided that the best thing for Lark was to have someone to look up to, a father or an older brother figure, someone like the Dark Ace. Stork argued it was crazy to even suggest it, but the sky knight pressed the issue even more, especially if it saved two lives instead of one.
It was a hard idea to digest. Friendships were stretched thin, especially the Merb's. He'd gotten close to Starling, their similar personalities of practicing caution in their surroundings and hesitation to place trust in the wrong people, plus the closeness in their ages formed a tight bond between the sky knight and the pilot. He didn't want to place his faith in people who could die so easily.
One afternoon, after a group meeting on the subject, Aerrow confided in Piper about his conflicted feelings. She was tidying up, rolling the maps on the table when Aerrow walked in, rolling his left shoulder painfully, and sat down on the couch, but not before nodding towards her.
"Hey."
"Hey. Where have you been?"
"Relieving some stress. Sparring with Finn. Getting into an argument." The girl walked over to the couch and sat down beside him.
"Aerrow," Piper whispered, laying a hand on the sky knight's shoulder. "I think you really need to take some time and think about what you're asking your team to do. This is a big favor you're asking from everybody, and we have to know the reasons why you want to do it. Do you really want to save the Dark Ace?"
Sighing wearily, the redhead looked down at the ground before searching her face for reassurance. Was he doing the wrong thing? How do you deal with the man who murdered your parents? How can you let someone like that live?
"Do you think he should die, Piper?" They settled further into on the couch and the boy held his head between his knees. "I mean – what am I thinking? The guy killed my parents and made me an orphan – and now I'm asking the Sky Council not to execute him? What kind of reasoning is that?"
The girl patted his back comfortingly and leaned back against the seats. "What do you believe?"
"I'm confused. Some part of me believes the person my father trusted is still there, deep inside. You saw how he protected Lark - he was ready to die for her. I can't ignore that."
"Even if he might have done other bad things."
"Piper. We know he did those other things." Leaning back against the seats, the redhead leaned his head against her shoulder. "What do you think? Am I still your sky knight?"
"Yeah, you still are. But that doesn't make this any easier." He chuckled and gave her a lopsided grin. They were getting older, nothing was getting easier. "But I'm still your First Officer. I'll agree with what you say. Now, you better get Finn in here so we can work out our next mission. I hope you didn't beat him up too bad." She remained seated while he got up and stretched his back muscles. Damn, his body was still sore from the training session.
"Thanks, Piper. I appreciate you listening to me like this. The other guys, I don't know how they'd react if they saw me less than a leader. Lynn, especially."
One week before Piper gave the Cyclonian medallion to Dark Ace, the Storm Hawks gathered on the main deck of the Condor after their meeting with the sky council. It was a disaster. The men on the panel questioned where their sky knight was, and Finn had to lie about Aerrow and Radarr's whereabouts. They were on a mission to retrieve something from an old acquaintance. Where? At Terra Gale. The proof? The Condor's log book. It says right on this page that their leader would be missing for several days; they even had a record of Dove's broadcast confirming his arrival.
But never mind Aerrow. Have they changed their decision regarding Dark Ace?
"No."
But they were a squadron. It was Aerrow's idea from the start.
The elders shook their heads and gestured towards the door. They were still too young for decisions like these. It was better if they voiced their concerns as a public complaint, rather than a pose as a sky knight.
Lynn lost her cool. She accused the council for exploitation of the Storm Hawks. If they were treated like a squadron, then they should have the rights of one. And this talk about casting your vote with the public eye? Rubbish. Their opinions on the matter held as much importance as the Screaming Queens, or the Rex Guardians. They were a squadron, not civilians. Treat them like one.
Unfortunately, the girl's reproach was ill received. Finn had to drag her out of the lobby before she further embarrassed herself with her forthright manner, even if her brashness retained the core of what they all kept in their minds.
"Why didn't you tell them!" she shot back when they returned to the Condor. Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms, clearly irritated. The youngest member of the team shot daggers at the rest of her teammates. Why didn't they object to the council's decision? Wasn't that what the Storm Hawks were all about? Fighting for a free Atmos? Saving people? They broke the rules by forming a squadron and joining the war effort, so why play the silent card now? They were cowards. She looked towards Junko for help, but the wallop merely shrugged his shoulders and stood behind the blonde, silently making his stance known.
"Traitors! All of you!" she shouted.
Stork broke the ice and reprimanded her behaviour. It wasn't cowardice, it was necessary.
"It's all up to Aerrow," stated Piper glumly. "Once he turns eighteen, he can register as an official sky knight. Then we can be a real squadron."
"Then why doesn't Stork take up the idea and register for all of us? He's the oldest one here." The merb rolled his eyes dramatically as his black hair fell across his face.
"Like Piper said, it has to the sky knight who registers the squadron. I registered the Condor with my pilot's license. They're two entirely separate identities."
"Okay, then Finn. He's our acting sky knight."
"Nuh-uh, Lynn. It's not that easy. First off, I'm not even eighteen yet. And it's more complicated than that."
"Pfft. I'm starting to get the idea that everything's complicated around here." Sensing the girl was ready to ditch the conversation at any moment, Piper decided to play the Mom role.
"Look, Lynn. I know you've been with us for almost a year, but you still need to learn some things. There will always be certain situations we have to go with, even if we don't' like them. If someone else, say Finn, was turning eighteen soon and he wanted to register us as a squadron, he could. But that means he has to become our sky knight. Do you understand? If Finn was going to become our sky knight, then Aerrow couldn't. it would take forever to get him back into the group. We'd all have to sign a document agreeing to hand leadership over to Finn."
"In other words, its legitimized mutiny," Stork added gloomily.
Stork remains with the Condor. Junko and Lynn wait in the lobby. Piper and Finn enter the ward.
They're back in the hospital, surrounding his bed, two people against one. And still they're losing.
Dark Ace clenches his fist, making no attempt to curb his disapproval and tries not to think of the medallion hidden in the drawer of his bedside dresser. He thought about the girl's offer for two days, turning the metal disc about in his hands until he memorized every ridge and valley on the emblem, and almost came to a decision early that morning when the Storm Hawks arrive and dash his belief to pieces.
She was alive. She was alive all this time.
"You lied, Piper. I didn't think you had it in you to deceive, but you did. You gave me Master Cyclonis's medallion and asked for my help. Now you tell me that you want my help finding Aerrow? What do I care for that kid? Nothing."
"But finding Aerrow will help Lark!" He raises an eyebrow at her.
"Explain."
"Don't you want something more than just this?" Piper exclaims, throwing her hands forward in exaggeration. "What will you do once you're out of the hospital?" The older man grunts.
"Piper, both you and I know that I'm just here to heal and bide my time. It's only because I'm blind that I'm not dead yet." Still not satisfied, the girl chomps on her lower lip and the boy narrows his gaze. That's it then. He's made up his mind to just sit here and wait to die. The infamous Dark Ace just lies in his bed, forks deep-fried noodles into his mouth, and waits for his execution date.
But Finn has to give Piper credit for having the guts to confront Dark Ace. She's in her mode of righteousness, and he knows she wants an answer.
"You weren't supposed to know, no one knows apart from the Sky Council and a few of the sky knight squadrons. She's alive, but she's living in a mental institute now." She glances at the Cyclonian, and Piper quickly turns her gaze towards her hands. "She's healthy, but she doesn't remember who she is."
"It's better if she doesn't remember who she is. You girls can be friends again, my master always wanted that."
"That's exactly why you have to come with us. If you help us, you can help Lark. If you allow us to become your guardians, we can take it to the Sky Council and ask them to reconsider your execution date, maybe even push it back indefinitely if you work with us. A lot of sky knights want you dead, but there are a few who think you deserve to live. Maybe not a free man, but you'll be treated well. Think about it, please."
She exchanges looks with Finn and the blonde shakes his head. Everything is a mess. Aerrow believed the Dark Ace should have a second chance. But Dark Ace is slated for capital punishment. Aerrow's birthday is coming up, and once he turns eighteen he can register as the official sky knight of the Storm Hawks. Then, as a team, they have a better chance to oppose the council's order. Dark Ace doesn't have to die; he can stay close to Lark and help her get through her new life. Both of them can have new lives.
But Aerrow is missing; their trump card is gone. They need a new plan. The team can't wait for their leader to miraculously reappear, fearing if they wait too long the council will implement the Talon's death sentence. They have to guard the Dark Ace now, and the only way to achieve that is if the older man is with the Storm Hawks. No other squadron will take him in.
"You're just pulling those excuses out of your ass." Dark Ace cuts through all their excuses with a single statement. "I get it. You just can't bear to see me die." Piper loses her control.
"You're a coward. I don't know what happened to you on that operating table, but they must have messed with your brain. The old Dark Ace would never give up this easy. He would have done everything to protect Lark."
"Master Cyclonis," he corrected her, his voice low and dangerous. Piper shouts right back at him.
"Lark! Her name is Lark!"
Finn grunts at the man's stubbornness, and Dark Ace's sightless gaze snaps onto him.
"And you, what are you doing here? Can't work up the courage to face me unless your girlfriend's here?"
"Hey, she's not my girlfriend."
The older man laughs. "Sure, because we all know she's waiting for her boyfriend to come back from the dead."
"Aerrow's not dead!"
"And a sky knight that runs away from his squadron isn't a coward. How long has he been missing? You never told me. Is this the first time he's disappeared - or maybe you're lying to me again? You're wasting my time, Piper, go take your little crusade elsewhere."
He must have struck a chord. Cheeks flushed, Piper turns on her heel and marches right out of the room. The boy's eyes flash in anger.
"Don't you dare talk to Piper like that," Finn warns him, pointing a finger in his direction. "Nobody talks to her like that."
"And what are you? Aerrow's replacement?"
"That's none of your business."
"Then keep out of mine. Don't tempt me, boy. I may be blind, but that doesn't mean I'm helpless."
He's angry. Good. He should be after giving up so easily on the one person who needs him the most, Lark. Piper wants to save that girl just as much as Aerrow wants to save him.
Finn opens his big mouth. "Oh, really? Because you're not just helpless, you're pathetic. Last time we were here, Piper just talked to you. But I could see you through the windows – you were just sitting there, all mopey and the like. Betcha you can't fly anymore. You're all talk and you can't even back it up. You couldn't even stand having one girl around you, and all she did was ask you for help. Some big shot you are, so caught up in your little bubble of misery."
Dark Ace hisses through his teeth and lunges forward. Being younger and faster, Finn quickly jumps out of the chair and moves beyond his reach.
"What? Angry now? Whatcha gonna do, hit me with a pillow? Ooo, I'm really scared now!"
"If you don't shut up, I'll do far worse than that, little boy."
Harder, Finn has to push harder.
"Little boy? I have a name you know. It's Finn. But do you have a name? I guess not. You're not really the Dark Ace anymore, are you? Maybe we should call you the Blind Ace. Look at you, you're a joke. No one takes you seriously anymore."
"Shut up!" He stands up and jumps off the bed, his hands ready to grab his throat and choke the brat to death. Annoying whelp. He'll kill him with his bare hands and prove he's not helpless, not by a long shot. But in his haste, he knocks over his tray of food and it clatters onto the floor loudly. Water splashes all over his bed and his clothes as the glass topples off the tray and smashes onto the tiles. With his sharp eyes, Finn notices Ace isn't wearing shoes.
"Wait! The glass-" Too late. In his blindness, Ace steps down. His foot crunches against the shards, the glass slitting open his skin, and he shouts in pain. Damnit. Stumbling backwards, his back collides against the bed before he slides down to the floor. Several nurses come to their aid immediately and push the blonde aside. Piper rushes in through the doors with the rest of the Storm Hawks, desperately hoping Finn hasn't come to any harm.
"What happened?" The girl's eyes widen in alarm as she takes in the scene. Two nurses heft Dark Ace back onto the bed while another one starts cleaning up the bloody shards on the floor. "Finn, what happened?"
"Um. I kinda made him angry?"
In the hallway, Piper is barely able to contain her anger and the rising urge to slap the blonde across the face. She isn't the only one. After hearing a brief summary of Finn's antagonizing, the nurses aren't too impressed with him either. In fact, his visiting rights have been banned for an entire week until he learns to keep a lid on that mouth of his.
"I had to do it. He wouldn't snap out of his melancholy."
"But that doesn't mean splitting his foot open! Finn! What were you thinking?!" He shrugs. There's no way out of this one, and even he admits he might have gone too far with the insults. Still, he was just trying to get a rise out of the guy. Piper sighs wearily – it's bad enough Dark Ace doesn't want to cooperate, even worse to have one of her own teammates physically injure the only person that might be able to help them.
"That's it. Junko. Lynn. Do you think you can take Finn back to the Condor for me?" The individuals in question nod, flank the blonde on either side, and grab him by the upper arms. The one in the middle opens his mouth in protest.
"Hey! What's going on here?"
"Finn. All of you are going back to the ship and wait with Stork until I get back. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to go back in that ward and talk to Dark Ace. If I don't fix this problem now, he might never talk to us again and he'll never help us. I need to do this on my own, all right? Now, go." Junko looks back over his shoulder, and Lynn follows suit. Piper gives them a smile and waves towards their retreating backs.
"It's all right, guys. I'll see you in a bit."
When her friends are out of sight, Piper paces across the hallway and picks apart her mind for something to say to Dark Ace. Clearly, they underestimated his abilities and while Finn might have the right intentions, he went about it all wrong. Now it's up to her to clean up the mess. Again.
"Gaaah!"
So complicated. Everything has to be so complicated.
Scrunching up her eyes to banish the evil, negative thoughts from her mind, Piper pushes open the doors leading into the ward and stands at the edge of his bed, resisting the urge to grab the metal frame for support. He's propped up on the pillows, his face a disgruntled mess, and the girl sees the bandages wrapped around his right foot. She winces at the sight of blood, but doesn't feel all that sorry.
"I'm sorry for what Finn did to you. He's a real idiot sometimes, but he's sorry for getting you injured."
"If he was sorry he'd say it to my face." Then he could wring the scrawny kid's neck. "And by the sounds of it, I'd say you're actually glad to see me hurt." She ignores his last remark; it will do no good for either of them to lose their temper again. Without words, Dark Ace nods at her and agrees. He'll try to be rational – try being the optimum word.
"I sent Finn away along with the rest of the team. He lost his visiting rights for one week by getting into an argument with you." He grunts, she was part of that argument too. "Anyways, it's just me now."
Ace laughs. Finally, the girls have done something right. The boy Piper brought irritates him, and he tells her he's glad the nurses kicked him out. As for her, it's the most sensible thing to do. If she swears not to lose her temper, then he won't either.
Flexing his toes, he can still feel the open wound, and it stings. If cutting himself is the payment for getting a rise out of these kids, then it simply isn't worth it. Maybe his destiny is to become lame as well as blind. What does she think of that?
Piper cuts off his self-pitying speech. "I have to get back to my teammates soon, but I have to know if you're going to help us or not."
"What makes you so sure I'm going to answer now? I could choose to say nothing and leave you with no answers." She shakes her head. Why was he taking everything so lightly and making it into a joke, as if it didn't matter to him at all? He just insulted her friends several minutes ago, she saw his anger flare up, and now he's back to being sedated? Piper's voice is a desperate whisper.
"Why won't you say yes? If you don't agree, you're going to get killed!"
"And why should you care? Are you afraid to see me die, Piper? Afraid it'll damage your innocent mind?" To his dismay, she leaves his bed and disappears without saying goodbye. He didn't anticipate that. What was she doing, trying to give him the cold shoulder? Report his bad behaviour to the nurses? Dark Ace stews over the girl's rude ending to their conversation. No one brushes him off like that.
By the time Piper returns with a nurse there is a definite frown on his features. Her aura's changed, and her anger has dissipated. Instead, there is a spark of something bright in the air – optimism? No, more like the smug smile of someone who has just one-upped him. He hisses at her like a bitter snake.
"What's this all about?" he demands, and the girl answers.
"I wondered why you were grumpy all the time, so I decided to talk to one of the nurses to see what I could do about it. Then I got an idea." He could hear the smirk in her voice, and he opens his mouth to tell her off. However, a woman cuts through his tirade before he can even start.
"So, Piper here tells me you want to go out walking." Dear god, it's Abigail. "Personally, I didn't think you were the type to take strolls through the garden, especially after your incident with the glass." He feels the nurse's hands on his leg as she slowly lifts his foot and inspects his bandages. "But she says the angry fellow with the bandage over his eyes has a lot of pent-up frustration. And since the nurses know you're the stubborn type, we're forcing you to go outside. You may be rude to us, but not to your visitors."
She places his foot back down and winks in Piper's direction. "It's not too bad off, your foot. The other girls must have reacted quickly. I'll just put on your shoes and you can go outside – but you have to take your cane."
"No."
"Hm? What was that?"
He slaps his thigh to get the message across. He's not a dog, he doesn't do walks. "You cannot force me to go outside."
Abigail's voice is firm and she stares down at her patient. "You have to start walking sometime."
"I will walk when I leave this place." He sets his jaw and Abigail places his hands on her hips, ready for a confrontation. Piper watches this subtle battle of authority and wonders how much power a nurse holds over her patients.
"Ah, I get it now. You don't like that cane." Smirking, Abigail beckons to Piper and places her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Well, if you don't want to use a cane, Piper will be your guide. You are going for a walk while I change your bedding. I wouldn't want any splinters to accidentally poke you while you're sleeping, right? Go on, take a walk. I insist that you do. "
They go outside.
The girl tries her hardest not to laugh at the sight of his white hospital-issue rubber shoes and the look of consternation on Dark Ace's face. True to his word, he's not using a cane but as a replacement, he has her. Walking slowly but surely, his hand is entwined in hers as she leads him outside into the gardens. To his relief, she stays close to his side and pretends she can't feel the crackle of insecurity surrounding him. There are only a few shreds of his pride left, and he has to protect them. Feeling and looking like an invalid is an image he wants to avoid at all costs.
The girl is persistent. She wants him to say yes.
Dark Ace halts for a moment and covers his mouth with a hand, while his brain tries to pick apart Piper's motives. In his lifetime, in his profession, the Cyclonian had to lie. Sometimes, lying was the only way to get out of a sticky situation. Dark Ace has been lied to before as well. It was how the Talons worked.
But Piper? No. Not once did he imagine the girl whom Master Cyclonis wanted to be friends with, would lie to him. Never. Aside from himself, the only person his mistress trusted during the last weeks of the war was the dark-skinned girl.
He stops when she stops and fights to suppress his questions when she doesn't let go of his hand. Can he trust her? Why should he?
"Guess what time of the year it is." He turns his head to her before lifting his face to the sky and feels the warm heat beat upon his skin. The light starts to irritate him quickly, he's accustomed to the artificial lights of the hospital, and the bandages across his eyes start to get hot.
"It's mid-summer." He hears her chuckle. He's wrong.
"Late May. We've got an early summer this year so the weather's been really nice for the past couple of weeks. I can't believe it's getting this hot already." Whether she's aware or not, her fingers squeeze his hand. The tea roses are blooming already, and she wants to smell them. "Don't you want to feel this? Breathe the air, walk around freely?"
So, this is her new tactic. If she can't tell him, she'll show him.
"Sorry to burst your cute fantasy bubble, Piper, but I'm still the bad guy. I don't walk around freely on the streets."
"But you can, you know. If you agree to help us, you could step out onto the grass and feel safe."
"Are all kids these dense nowadays? It's not about safety, it's about freedom. I don't have that luxury anymore. I'm a murderer. People don't want to see me on the streets unless I'm paraded around with shackles around my ankles. As far as Atmos is concerned, I'm dead."
He stumbles after her when she leads him away from the stone paths and his shoes hit the soft grass. The change in sound is immediate; his right foot doesn't hurt as much when he stands on the spongy grass. A miniscule wave of panic rises in his chest when Piper releases his hand to smell a pink bloom. The smell is very fragrant and delicate.
"So you really want to die."
"No. I don't want to die – but it's inevitable. I'm only breathing because the hospital hasn't been stormed by an angry mob carrying pitchforks and torches." Piper stretches her back and slips her hands into his again, before leading him further into the gardens. She looks up at him frequently, reading his face for signs of physical discomfort and a change of mind. There is a little of the former, but none of the latter.
"I'm not doing this just for you. I'm doing this for Lark. She deserves another chance, but she needs someone to look up to. She needs a big brother."
"So I'm the only other person besides the Storm Hawks who is close enough to her to get her to remember what exactly? I think you have your priorities mixed up. First you want me to find Aerrow, now you want me to save Lark. You tell me I'm going to be executed, and you can't have that. Anyone can see that you don't really have a plan, Piper. Don't tell me what Aerrow wants, or what the council wants. Tell me, what do you want?"
"I want you to say yes."