Um, I have excuses as per usual: Studying for exams, Dreams about exams [there was a Nightcrawler in street clothes and we were both about 7 yrs old and we had to take a social sciences exam in my grandmother's spare bedroom, weird huh?], Stress about exams, Writer's Block resulting from the stress of studying...the whole picture, y'know? I just now broke through that box and it may not be so good but...here you go.

Piper walked slowly onto the bridge, her head deliberately held high, aware, however, that her eyes were still red and puffy from crying. She'd forced herself together long enough to make sure Harrier was physically fine and see him to Starling's spare bedroom, where he lay still, almost comatose, before she locked herself in her room and let her emotions take over. She'd allowed herself a good half hour of crying before pulling herself back to the present and locking all emotion behind a thick mental wall.

She looked around the room without speaking, taking in the others' hopeless expressions. Radarr chirped softly and padded over to her; she laid a hand affectionately on his head before helping him onto her shoulder where he clung a little too tightly to her neck.

"So-" her voice cracked and she swallowed past the lump in her throat, "so, um, I thought maybe we should head back to Atmosia and…ex- explain…what happened."

Finn turned to stare, eyes wide and wet and Stork nodded but she got no other reaction. Piper walked over to the round table, Radarr jumping down to sit next to her, and pulled out the scroll on which she'd written everything she remembered the Head of Council saying about the Darkness and its history. She scanned the document once and then closed her eyes against an onslaught of fresh tears; Aerrow was dead. There was nothing she could do to fix him, no way to save him; was there a point to fighting now?

Of course, she forced the doubts and depressive thoughts away; they were a Sky Knight squadron. There was always a possibility that one of them could…but she had always forced those kinds of thoughts away. Of all of them, she had expected Aerrow to walk away from the war unscathed, but it wasn't as if she had considered any of the others to die either.

Radarr whined and rested a hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. Piper gave him a weak grin and forcibly wiped away the hot tears; she'd had her half hour to mourn. Now, she needed to find a way to defeat the Darkness. As she ran through everything she knew about it one small, venomous thought wormed its way into her mind: where would the Darkness go when they sealed it, now that they had no host?

0o0o

Cyclonis stared down at her fingers, poised on the keys of her crystal machine, seeing but not seeing.

"-a lonely girl who desperately wants a friend."

"I don't have time for friends; I have a world to conquer!"

A world to conquer; it was her duty, her destiny. It was her destiny to destroy the free Atmos and raise it up as part of the Cyclonian Empire. It was her duty to defeat the Sky Knights and take control of the world, to complete the task set by every other Cyclonis before her.

No, she didn't have time for friends.

Cyclonis sighed and glared at the keys as if it was their fault she had had a life she didn't want scripted for her. She clenched her jaw and forced the thoughts out of her head; she needed to focus…focus…on what? Another scheme, another plot to get rid of the Storm Hawks, to clear the way to total domination of the Atmos; it was her duty.

She took her pale fingers off the machine's controls and held out a hand. The machine sensed the motion and dropped a single crystal within her reach. She grabbed it and the machine let it go, retracting the metal arm; Cyclonis stared at the crystal, analyzing the dark veins in the green stone.

Hypnosis might work. It would take the Storm Hawks out of the way and, even more fun with its slightly ironic twist; force the Sky Knights to wonder why the Storm Hawks had betrayed them right before they're eliminated. Perfect, she thought (1).

Cyclonis whipped around, an angry scowl contorting her face as the throne room doors banged open. A single Talon soldier staggered through, gasping and sweat soaked.

"Master," he croaked, "there's…an intruder…in the South quadrant."

She almost rolled her eyes, "So, send out a squadron and bring him to me or make sure he gets a nice trip to the Wastelands."

"But, I did, Master. They haven't reported back and their skimmers aren't showing up the radar."

This caught her attention, "How many intruders did you say there were, for sure?"

"J-just one, Master Cyclonis."

"Hmm, and you're sure it's not the Condor?"

"Um…no Master, but it doesn't seem big enough to be an airship cruiser."

"That ship isn't exactly huge."

"No Master, but-"

"Fetch Snipe and tell him to take care of our unwanted guest. And don't interrupt me unless it's absolutely important."

"Yes, Master, of course, Master," he turned and scurried off, the door slamming shut behind him.

"You think Snipe will be able to handle it alone?" The Dark Ace asked, slightly sarcastic, stepping calmly through the recessed doorway to the left of the crystal machine.

"What's the matter Dark Ace? Are you jealous that I sent him instead of you?"

His eyes widened before he managed to compose himself, "Of course not-"

"Were you questioning my order?"

"No Master-"

"Then I suggest you stop talking before you dig that hole any deeper, Dark Ace."

He bowed his head and leaned back against the wall, watching her work.

Cyclonis growled mentally, she hated having him watch her work; it made her feel like he didn't trust her, like he was watching and waiting for her to slip up.

Like earlier, she thought, and then rebuked herself. It was a single moment of weakness, a stupid, teenage reaction. It wouldn't happen again.

She grabbed a piece of parchment and a pencil from a closed container built into the crystal machine and unrolled the scroll across the keyboard. Holding the red pencil loosely in her right hand she began to sketch the Hypnosis crystal, hammering out details of her plan in her head before she wrote them down.

Cyclonis looked up even before the doors were thrown open a second time, "Master Cyclonis!"

She turned around to face the same Talon as before, "More bad news? Let me guess, Snipe failed."

"He stopped registering too. And the three others that went with him!" he started rambling, "Just like before, they just vanished! Nobody just vanishes like that! It's-"

"Quiet!" she shouted, startling the man into silence, "If you can't handle something as simple as this, go pack your things and get out of here. Otherwise, go get Ravess. Tell her to remain in constant radio contact. I want to know who or what this thing is. Go!"

Dark Ace stepped forward, "Master, Ravess is hardly capable-"

"Patience Dark Ace," Cyclonis held up a hand, cutting him off, "Ravess is merely a distraction; she is disposable and you, however, are not. Follow me."

She led him down several gloomy hallways lit by red crystal lanterns and then three sets of stairs, leveling off near the middle of the Terra. She swept along, shoes clicking against the metal floor, her staff clutched tightly in her hand, a pink-purple crystal already loaded and faintly glowing. Cyclonis stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned to look at the older man; he raised an eyebrow. The young Master reached out with the hand not holding the staff and pressed against a metal plate on the wall. The plate moved back, working like a handle and a small section of the wall swung inwards, revealing a secret room.

Awed, the Dark Ace followed his Master into the hidden chamber where she immediately went over to a spongy wooden desk and picked up the speaker on a brand-new looking radio.

"Ravess?" she demanded, fiddling with the frequency dial.

Dark Ace tuned her out, eyes scanning the rest of the room. It wasn't made of metal plating like the rest of Cyclonia, but was carved from the Terra itself, the stone walls damp and slimy explaining the rotten table. Other than the desk and the radio, the only other equipment in here was an equally rotted chair in front of the desk and a periscope sticking through a circular passage in the roof. He walked over and rubbed tiny beads of moisture from the eyepiece before looking through it. It took a moment to focus and another to find Ravess, but he watched as she and her squadron flew out to meet their intruder. He tried to zoom in, see who it was but it was too far away, the magnified image nothing more than a hazy black smudge.

"-an't believe- Master, it's-" the radio lost reception for a moment, distorting the sharpshooter's words into impossible mumbling.

"Master!" Dark Ace interrupted as Cyclonis ordered Ravess to repeat what she'd just said, he stepped back, offering her the periscope.

Ravess and her Talons had split into two groups, surrounding the intruder and yet were forcing him closer to Cyclonia as if aware that Cyclonis was watching, waiting. Ravess had her bow aimed and ready but he still hadn't seen who the intruder was before he'd offered the periscope up; more static and garbled words burst from the radio, and he was itching to take another look.

"No…" Cyclonis murmured, more to herself than to him.

Something that sounded like a scream erupted from the radio.

Cyclonis took a step back, shaking her head, and then as if she couldn't bear to look away moved back to the periscope,

"No…" she repeated, "It…can't be…"

"Master?"

"It's the Sky Knight…its Aerrow...but- impossible."

Eyes still glued to the periscope, the obviously-not-Aerrow in range, Cyclonis saw him turn and smirk right at her.

(1) 'History' anyone? No? Meh.

Remember (did I even say this?) I started this trying to explain why Cyclonia was evil in the first place (Ave), but...-Just forgot what I was gonna say...

Anyway, Cheers, and let's all hope the next chapter comes faster!