Unexpected

Aerrow

I tried to console Finn but no matter how I went about it, the boy refused to speak to me. I knew something was wrong, and if I needed to, I would get the truth out of Kai.

"Aerrow, if I may suggest something… I think Kai is in need of more comforting than Finn is."

I glanced toward the robot. "Aren't you supposed to be with Piper?"

"Yes, but frankly, I'm quite afraid of her. I overheard her and Kai talking… She said she has to wipe my memory… If they do that, I'll lose Lora forever…"

I smiled. "You really do care for Lora, don't you?"

"I fear for her, as well. Lora has made some bad choices in her life. She was a violent, angry person before Ace, but after he took down the Storm Hawks… Aerrow, the Lora you saw was not the Lora I knew. Physically, she was the same, but mentally she was quite tormented."

I nodded. "What happened to her, anyway?"

"Well…," he sighed, fidgeting his hands. "When Lora was younger, Cyclonian Talons from the first war had invaded Mesa, killing her mother in the process. Her father became a drunk and enforced a violent and angry lifestyle onto her. Ace brought her back with him after a supply trip to Mesa and she joined the team.

"It was supposed to be kept a secret to keep Lora safe, which was a brilliant idea in the end. Once she was part of the team, however, things changed. Just before Ace's eighteenth birthday, he started acting odd, locking himself up in his room for hours on-end. Lora grew very suspicious of him. That's when the anger started to show, not too unlike Kai's fits of rage.

"At one point she cornered Ace and threatened him with his life. Striker managed to pull them apart just in the nick of time. She was never the same after that. Lora grew very introverted and secluded herself to conversing with Striker, Ace, and I, no matter how much the others tried to pry."

V2 looked down, scratching a rusted spot of metal with his hand. "I got to hear a lot about her in those two months… She told me a lot of things that she wouldn't even tell Ace. They grew very close in those months, but they also grew very distant. Ace began keeping more secrets from her and she knew. She was too smart—Ace could hide the truth, but not the fact that he was lying.

"Lora… had a bit of a violent fit one night after one of his lies. She stormed out of his room and in following after her, Ace got the brunt of her wrath. I… was caught in the cross fire. The next thing I remember was waking up in a dark room with Kai and Lora six years later. I'm sorry, Aerrow, but I know nothing more of the attack."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it, I just wanted to know about Lora." It was very interesting to hear about Ace from someone that experienced it all first-hand. I only wished he knew more about how he took down my father…

"I do, however… have something that might be of interest to you. Your father left a lot to you, in the event of his death. Information, rather. He knew you would need it, his dream was that you would fight alongside him as a Storm Hawk, and in case he couldn't be there to see it, he wrote notebooks, at least ten of them. They're all filled with sky logs, battle tactics, everything. I don't know if they survived the fire, but if I did… maybe they did?"

I smiled. "That's incredible… but… I can't. I don't want to know." I felt like if he couldn't be there to teach me himself, I wasn't meant to know.

"That's… all right. I understand. Listen, I have to go… I won't be back…"

I knew what he meant. Piper would wipe his memory and the V2 we knew, the V2 Lora knew… he would be gone forever. I nodded and wished him well, shutting my room's door behind him.

Only an hour later, Piper came after me. "Aerrow?" came a knock on the door. "I'm having issues with V2's recovery and I can't find Kai."

"She should be in her room," I told her with a smile.

She nodded. "Listen… Can I talk to you? J-just… for a minute?"

"Sure, Piper. What's up?"

She shut the door quietly, her gaze staying off of mine. "Aerrow…" Something in the air changed. Piper wasn't concerned about V2 anymore. "I've really been thinking lately… about you… and me…"

I raised a brow. What exactly was she getting at?

"I…" Piper stepped forward, nearing closer to me with each step. I began to back up, but eventually ran into my desk. I gripped the edge, watching her.

That's when it hit me. I knew what she was trying to do.

Piper stood up on her toes, trying to kiss me. I reached out and stopped her. "Piper, hey, what the hell are you doing?"

"I… I just… I thought, well…"

"No, no, Piper, you don't understand," I laughed, nervous. I gently pushed her back a few steps so I could stand comfortably. "Piper, I thought you knew… I… I like Kai…"

She looked away, angered and hurt.

"You made so many remarks... I knew you were jealous, Piper, but I thought you knew." I rubbed my neck, watching as she stood there in silence. "Piper," I called, resting my hands on her shoulders. "I tried to get somewhere with you a year ago… I was interested in you and I got nowhere in trying to show you that… I thought you weren't interested, so I gave up."

She nodded, still looking away from me. "I have to go." She brushed my hands from her shoulders, leaving the room silently.

I fell back, sitting in my desk chair. I tried to put everything together… I felt guilty, not pursuing her longer. How long had this interest in me existed? She only truly started showing it when I showed interest in Kai! Maybe that was it… Maybe the fact that she couldn't have me brought her feelings to the surface…?

I closed my eyes, sighing. Everything was coming together so quickly and I was taking the brunt of the stress. Finn gave up the bet, I hurt Piper, and now Kai was left in the middle of it all. I felt terrible... But there wasn't much I could do. I could be there to comfort her, but did she even really know what all was going on?

There was no doubt Kai was interested in me as well—she wouldn't have done what she did on Tranqua if she didn't. But was it right to act on my feelings after what just happened?

ooo

One week. Just one more week. I rocked back and forth from my toes the my heel, anxious. I stared out the window, thinking.

"Aerrow!"

I jumped. "Kai!" I smiled.

"What's going on?"

"Anxious," I told her.

"…What are you doing?"

"Breathing!"

Kai put her hand on my face, her markings beginning to glow. "Aerrow… can you think, now?"

I nodded slowly, feeling a cold sensation run through my veins. "My… My birthday is in a week. I'm so excited."

She giggled. "Just now you've decided to tell me this?"

I nodded. "I don't like to get others involved—I tend to celebrate alone."

"Why? I mean, I can see how that would be fun…," she joked.

"Oh, ha ha, I didn't mean it like that."

Piper walked into the room, sending a chilling depression though the air.

"Hey, Piper," Kai smiled.

"Fuck off."

Stunned, Kai took a step back. "What the hell crawled up her ass?"

"She's going to be like that for a while," I laughed, though it was probably inappropriate. "She's always like that when an experiment goes wrong," I lied.

"V2?"

I nodded.

"Ahh… She's having issues wiping his memory, then…"

"She said she needs your help… but I don't think that's an option right now…"

Kai nodded. "We got a radio call about… ten minutes ago. There's a Cyclonian attack on some Sky fishers north-east of here."

"Starling's headed out that way… She could probably handle it."

"Aerrow. They're asking for the Storm Hawks."

I blinked.

"They don't trust anyone else."

I led the way back to the comm. room, adjusting our signal. "Is there any way this could be a trap?"

"Call them. You'll believe it, too." Kai stepped forward, tapping a piece of paper with their signal numbers on it. I adjusted the frequency perfectly and called out.

"This is Aerrow of the Storm Hawks, I read your distress signal and we are on our way. Are there any fatalities?"

The cries that came in return, filled with static, confirmed what Kai had said. "Yes! We have two men down, repeat, two men down! Four-One-Oh-Six-Nine!"

Kai looked at me, confused.

"Listen, Get everyone below deck except for four men. Get four men out on Skimmers with nets. Tie nets like a force field around your ship with at least five-feet of distance between you and the nets. This will keep the talons out until we arrive.

"This is just a drill," I tried to convince him. "Do you understand me? Just a drill."

"This isn't a drill," Kai spoke quietly, looking at me.

"I know…" I hung up the receiver. "If we can convince them it's just a drill, they won't panic and they will follow orders. It should take us about an hour to get to their location, but we can't take the risk by bringing the Condor. Knowing the territory, we'll be fending off more than just talons." I left the comm. room, bringing Kai with me.

"We have to leave now. I'm taking you with me, Kai. You're the most formidable on the team as of right now, and this will mainly be hand-to-hand combat. I can't rely on anyone else."

"No worries, I'm on it."

"Stay right here." I rushed into Piper's lab, maneuvering my way around her. I reached for a crystal I had locked up, unlocking the box. I stole the crystal and made my way out of the room when Piper's voice picked up.

"A-Aerrow?"

I turned around, grasping onto the doorjam.

"I'm sorry… about earlier… and for insulting Kai."

I smiled. "Don't worry about it, Piper. It's fine."

She smiled, returning to work on Kai's gloves.

I rushed back to Kai, who was picking at the prototypes on her hands. "Hey," she breathed, fussing with the metal.

I set the crystal down, prying the metal off her hands. "You won't be needing a govern, anyway."

She looked at her hands, then up at me. "Aerrow, no, I can't do that." She knew what I was asking.

"The fastest way if things go wrong is for you to kill them." I picked the crystal back up. "You should know what this is."

She looked away. "Ace's Firebolt… I'm not going with you if that's what you want me to do."

I gently placed the crystal into her hand, curling her fingers around it. "If you don't, Kai… they will die…"

"One life for another may seem fair, but I… Aerrow, I can't kill a human being. I just can't." She gripped the crystal tighter and I watched as it turned to dust. "Don't make me do this, Aerrow." A flow of light like a wave crawled up her arm, her eyes glowing with rage.

"Would you rather a bunch of innocent Sky fishers died in the place of Talons?"

"I rather stop the attack and prevent any deaths?"

I sighed. Kai was always good at heart, no matter where her future took her. Taking another look into her eyes, I knew there was no changing her mind. "…Okay. Could you at least paralyze them? Anything to get the fishers free from the talons unscathed…"

She nodded slowly, glancing towards the bikes. "We should get going."

Walking over to my bike, I stuffed a few other supplies into the compartment under the seat. "It's going to be dangerous, Kai…"

She nodded. "Can't be any worse than the Swamp Eels."

"Snapping Eels, Sky Sharks… I'm actually fearing for my own life," I laughed.

She stepped up to me, hugging her sides. "Then why are you letting me come along?"

With a smile, I replied, "Because I know you can handle yourself."

"Huh… I think this is the first time you haven't worried about me." She brushed her hair from her eyes, watching me closely. "You think you can remember that?"

I shrugged. "I suppose… I have a pretty good memory."

"Good," Kai smiled. "Can I at least have a hug before we go?" she asked quietly.

"You don't have to ask anymore…" As I began to wrap my arms around her, I noticed she wasn't entirely interested in a hug.

Kai rested her arms on my shoulders and posed a sly grin before giving me a kiss.

I must've been blushing, considering Kai began laughing. "W-what?"

"Let's go."