Chapter Two

"What did you think you were doing?!" Finn shouted, hurrying over to the huge scorch mark on the uneven ground, massaging his shoulder as he did so. "He gave you orders to stay on the ship, Piper!"

She wished Finn would quit rubbing it in. "I know." She said simply, kneeling beside Aerrow's unmoving form sprawled amongst the ash as the two other Storm Hawks approached. Piper spared a glance at the phoenix crystal that she had kicked out of the Sky Knight's hand only moments ago before returning her gaze to him.

"He knew what he was doing!" Finn continued, crouching at his other side and Radarr jumped up behind his shoulders. "Why didn't you trust him?"

Piper was fuming, but she was not angry at Finn, she was angry with herself. "I was worried, okay?!" She rounded on him, "And now he's hurt and it's my fault."

Finn made to move Aerrow onto his front, but the Sky Knight groaned and did so himself, breathing heavily. "Ow."

"Are you okay?" Piper asked hurriedly, "I'm really sorry. I didn't think it would-"

He shakily waved a hand in her direction to silence her. "I'm fine; j-just… give me a minute."

Radarr whined at his best friend and scurried over Finn's shoulders so that Aerrow could stroke the top of his head.

Piper watched him lie there feeling terrible. There was still a lot she needed to learn about the Binding and from what she had just witnessed, some crystals acted on their own accord. If she'd known he had been after the phoenix crystal to scare away the nightcrawlers, would she have gone through with it? Piper hated not knowing.

"We need…" Aerrow wheezed, attempting to sit upright. Finn got there first and supported him. "We need to get out of here." He flinched and his sight wavered to his ankle.

"Can you even stand?" Finn inquired, glancing his leader up and down.

Aerrow shook his head. He looked like he was in so much pain; Piper could swear she felt her heart drop into her gut with guilt.

"Piper, help me move him." Finn requested shortly, laying one of Aerrow's limp arms over his shoulders. She leapt to attention, taking his right arm and did the same. The pair lifted the Sky Knight to his feet with Radarr overseeing the entire ordeal. "Stay with us, dude." The wingman urged, giving him a nudge as his head lowered, red hair falling in front of his eyes.

Aerrow breathed roughly through his teeth to let them know he was still conscious, if only barely. His feet brushed against the floor, completely useless. It was the combined effort of Finn and Piper that kept him standing.

Piper placed a finger to her ear and contacted the Condor through her earpiece. "Stork, you're clear to bring over the ship. Aerrow's hurt and we need to get him checked over."

"I'm fine." He insisted with a tilt of his head. His eyes were closed, evidently exhausted. The Binding had drained him instead of her. "H-help Finn."

"I'm good, dude." Finn assured him, attempting to meet Aerrow's eyes under the mess of red hair. "Sure, the nightcrawlers roughed me up a little, but it was nothing the Finnster couldn't handle."

Piper looked to the sky as the great carrier ship loomed overhead. "Junko, round up the skimmers and the weapons. I need to take Finn and Aerrow to the med bay for a patch up."

"I said I was fine, Piper." Finn insisted. He shot her an annoyed scowl. "Aerrow's the one that needs the help."

Aerrow shook his head. "N-no."

Piper sighed in annoyance. "You two are both as bad as each other. Finn, the cut on your lip is going to need stitches and Aerrow-" she shifted his arm around her shoulders and he screwed his face up in agony, "-need I say more?"

"And whose fault's that?" Finn said spitefully.

Aerrow gritted his teeth. "Finn…"

She groaned. "I know I messed up. Let me fix this."

"You wouldn't need to fix anything if you just did what he told you to do!"

"Well, maybe Aerrow would not have needed saving if you were a better wingman!"

"Piper…" Aerrow warned, barely surpassing a mumble.

"If you did something about the navigation, navigator, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place!"

"Guys!" Aerrow shouted. His voice came out considerably hoarse. "Cut it out! Th-that's an order!"

The squabbling squad members glanced down at their friend with ashamed faces. Piper could not explain it, something about the way Aerrow had spoken unnerved her. He sounded almost…angry. He was angry at her, she knew it. Finn was right, she had been no help at all since they crossed over to the far side and she hated herself for it. The least she could do was make sure she mended the damage she had caused.

"C'mon." she instructed, shifting Aerrow's weight on her shoulders. She and Finn began carrying him towards the Condor's open hatch with Radarr at their heels.

They crossed paths with Junko half way up the ramp; he looked to them with concern as they passed by. "Need some help?"

"It's okay." she smiled. "Thanks for the offer, but the guys need medical attention. Just get the skimmers inside and we'll leave as soon as possible. Radarr, do you think you could give him a hand?"

The furry creature saluted and zipped off after the wallop.

At the top of the ramp, the trio exited the crate storage room and entered the first door on the left, the medical room. It was fairly bright in this room, but the light was obstructed by the blinds covering the large rounded window on the back wall. Below the window, a long counter had been installed with a sink in the middle and plenty of storage space for supplies. Two beds were against the left wall. Piper and Finn pulled Aerrow over to the one nearest the door and carefully supported his weight between them as they laid him on the sheets with Finn lifting his legs up over it.

Aerrow had lost consciousness on the journey to the ship, which was not a good sign. Piper perched on the edge of the bed and placed her hands on his armoured shoulders, shaking him. "Aerrow, you need to stay awake."

She watched his green eyes flicker open beneath his messy red hair and study her with difficulty. "Piper…?" he murmured, completely out of it.

She pressed her hand up against his forehead. He was extremely warm. "Hey," she smiled down at him. "We'll get you fixed up."

"Where's…where's Finn?" he moaned, attempting to sit upright, but was held down by Piper.

"I'm right here, dude." Finn assured him, standing with his arms crossed on the opposite side of the bed. The blood that had been dribbling down his neck from the gash on his lip had dried up, yet it was still bleeding.

"Help Finn." he insisted.

"Fine." Piper frowned, unwilling to disobey the Sky Knight. Aerrow clearly was not going to accept any medical attention until the other had been taken care of. She stood up and pointed to the empty bed beside her. "Finn, sit down."

"Best order I've received all day." he said in amusement, pacing over to where Piper was pointing and plonked down onto the mattress. "Can you fix the handsome face?"

Piper bit her lip. "It might leave a scar."

"What?"

She heard Aerrow groan behind her, so she turned and found him sitting upright. She made to stop him, but he held out his singed gloved hand to signal off her intrusion. The Sky Knight directed his next look to Finn. "Sorry I put you through that." He croaked. "I should've thought it through."

Finn blew roughly between his lips to express his lack of concern, firing blood everywhere in the process. "'Not your fault. 'Sides, a scar would be cool."

"How're you feeling, Aerrow?" Piper asked him, rummaging in the drawers for supplies to clean Finn's wound.

"Fine." he insisted. Finn leant forward and poked Aerrow's arm. "GAH!"

"'You sure about that?" he grinned smugly, only raising the left corner of his mouth as it would not disturb the cut on his lip.

"Leave him alone, Finn." Piper tittered as Aerrow rubbed his forearm, falling back into the pillow, groaning. "He's been through enough as it is."

She walked around the bed and knelt before Finn and dabbed at his bloody cut with a cloth she had damped at the sink. "What happened to you?" she winced, studying the cut. It was shallow, but split a large portion of the right side of his bottom lip in a jagged diagonal slash.

Finn shrugged. "I was clobbered by a nightcrawler – OW! Piper, not so hard!"

Piper had a small sapphire crystal clutched in her other hand and she tapped it against the wound, making his flesh go numb.

"Wat wus dat, a pawaliser?"

"Yep." She nodded, pushing the cloth into his hand. "Here, hold this against it." She wondered back over to the counter to prepare a needle.

Finn did as he was asked and Piper could feel both of the boys' eyes on her as she worked. "Did you manage to extract any information from the nightcrawlers?"

Finn gave out a grunt of disavowal. "Aewuw mighuve dow."

The other's silence told her he was considering something. She glanced at the Sky Knight over her shoulder to find him led back in the pillow with his arms crossed, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Aerrow?"

He did not respond right away and silence lingered for a few moments. Piper would have given anything to know what he was thinking right now, he was awfully still.

"This doesn't add up." He spoke, more to himself than either of them. It always fascinated her when Aerrow got like this; he was far more insightful than she normally gave him credit for. She still did not quite have him figured out.

"What doesn't?" She asked, returning to her work.

"How could they know?" Aerrow pondered, still leaving her with cryptic answers. He was always the quiet one of the trio, only really taking charge when she and Finn got into a fight to smooth things over. Upon gaining the title of Sky Knight, she had hoped he would be more open with her.

Piper sighed in irritation. She slammed down the needle onto the worktop and turned to glower at him. "Aerrow, I need to know what's going on."

"I'm thinking, okay?" He retorted, not meeting her gaze.

"Can we talk it over?" His lack of co-operation was upsetting her.

Aerrow met her eye, clearly picking up on the distressed tone of her voice. "They were different than the nightcrawlers on the other side." He elucidated, sitting upright as the two edged closer to him with interest. "My blades couldn't make a dent in their armour. They're protected by some kind of unknown crystal."

"Are you sure it wasn't a shielding crystal?" Piper cut in, sliding into a seat next to Finn on the edge of the bed.

He gave a nod. "Positive. I've never seen anything like it. The one that attacked me spoke as if they've been here all this time, yet they knew who we were. It doesn't add up."

"Wait, are you saying that the nightcrawlers are from the far side?" Piper gasped.

Aerrow shrugged. "It seems so, but then it means that the gateway has been opened before if they've crossed over and teamed up with Cyclonis."

"That's the answer then." She smiled, believing she had Aerrow's dilemma worked out. "They knew about us because of Cyclonis."

Aerrow shook his head. "They weren't working for Cyclonis."

"What?" She and Finn said in union. The two exchanged glances.

"They told me we were trespassing." Aerrow explained, talking with his hands, like he usually did. Piper was glad to see he was still so animated after what had happened. "We must've crossed over into a safe zone. That solaris tower has to be the only defence against the nightcrawlers. It proves this place is inhabited. If we can somehow locate where they're hiding, we'll be able to formulate a strategy as to how we're going to track Cyclonis."

There was a great rumble as the Condor's engine lurched to life. Piper quickly glanced out of the gap in the blinds to see the ship rising. The landing gear folded into the hull with a loud mechanical creak.

"And ow egsactly ahwe gonna inedem?" Finn garbled through the cloth pressed to his lip.

Aerrow went silent as he deliberated. "I have no idea." His sight wavered in her direction. "Piper?"

She hated having to let him down yet again. "Sorry, Aerrow." She turned to the sharpshooter. "Finn, any ideas?"

He looked blank for a few moments before lifting the cloth from his cut. "Look?" Satisfied with his suggestion, he pressed the damp material back against his lip.

Aerrow smirked at this obvious proposal. "Sounds like a plan. I say we keep going." He rubbed his hands together. "Piper, can you cloak the ship?"

He was smiling at her, his eyes shining with confidence. Perhaps he was not holding anything against her, after all. She knew he still believed in her, it was foolish of her to ever think otherwise. "That, I can do." Piper confirmed. "But I'm taking care of you two first."

Her earpiece buzzed to life as Stork contacted her from the bridge. "Continuing course?"

Piper placed two fingers to her ear. "Yeah, Aerrow's just given the go-ahead. Be sure to use the cloud cover and be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Junko and Radarr will have to be our hawk-eyes until Finn is back in the picture." She stood up and made her way back towards the counter to retrieve the needle. "I hope we don't make a habit of this."

Finn let out a murmur of agreement as the navigator knelt before him. "Ee gentle."

There was silence as Piper began suturing Finn's wound. The boys clearly assumed the slightest distraction would throw off her concentration.

"How's that feel?" She asked when she had finished, admiring her handiwork. She had done a decent job, considering her lack of experience in this area. Aerrow was the Storm Hawk that got roughed up the most, but his injuries were usually energy burns and fractured bones.

"Can't eel a thing." He reminded her. "Thanks, dow." He made to touch the stitched gash with his fingers, but Piper caught his hand in hers.

"Don't touch it." She frowned. "It won't heal. Just get out of here and be lookout."

"Yes, mom." He tittered, getting to his feet and left the room.

There was an awkward silence after the hatch closed behind Finn. She found herself unable to meet Aerrow's eyes now that they were alone.

"So, um…" Aerrow finally spoke up. "At least we know never to try that again."

Piper knew right away what he was referring to. "I'm sorry." She bit her lip.

"Don't be." Aerrow smiled. She was staring at her hands, but she knew he was smiling. "I'm sorry I made you worry."

Piper stood up and paced to the other side of the room, her back to him. "I could've really hurt you."

"Nah," he responded, "you don't need to worry about me."

Piper shot him a stern look over her shoulder. "I could've killed you, Aerrow. Just like what happened to Dark Ace. Do you want that?"

She could pick out the exact moment she knew he understood. Aerrow's smile faded and he looked to her with concern in his eyes. "You're not Cyclonis."

Piper sighed and turned away. "I'm not so sure."

"You're not." Aerrow insisted. "You're nothing like her."

It was time he knew. "I've been keeping something from you, Aerrow."

"Piper, I-"

"I can feel her inside my head."

"What?"

"We're connected somehow. Cyclonis knows it too. What if I'm…evil?"

Aerrow was quiet for a moment. "Why didn't you say something?"

Piper turned and looked him directly in the eyes. She could feel her eyes glistening with tears. "I didn't want to distract you. With everything going on I-" She wiped her eyes on the back of her glove. When she looked up, her eyes met with a pair of green. Aerrow was standing before her. With difficulty, but he was there all the same.

"Hey-"

"Aerrow, you shouldn't be-"

"It's okay."

"It's not okay. It's never been okay."

Aerrow put his arms around Piper and she cried into his shoulder. She clutched at his armour and ran her hand over the hawk etched on the metal.

Aerrow tilted his head and whispered in her ear. "No more secrets, okay? We're in this together."

Piper nodded and laid an arm over his shoulder, shaking with tears. "I could've killed you, Aerrow."

"You didn't." He assured her. "It's fine. I'm okay. You're okay."

The war with Cyclonia was still fresh in their minds. It was hard to believe that it was only hours before that she Aerrow were out on the landing strip practising using the Binding. Piper had never fully explained what had happened. Cyclonis had somehow contacted her through the power of the Binding. Her daunting words were echoing in her ears.

"Keep practising. It'll make you strong, help you win and in no time at all, you'll be just like me."

The Dark Ace's last few moments played out in her head, but his image was fading and she could see Aerrow in his place. "I'm so sorry." She repeated over and over, clutching the Sky Knight tightly. She could feel him shaking due to his lack of energy. She could feel his heart beating against her chest.

"Piper," Aerrow started, pulling away to meet her eyes "nothing that happened was your fault. I should have been straight with you."

"Are you okay?" She sniffed, wiping her eyes.

"My ankle's not, but the rest of me is fine."

Piper looked down at his feet. Aerrow was leaning too far over on his left leg. She noticed how his right foot stuck out awkwardly and how he refrained from putting weight on it.

She frowned, taking his arm. "Again?"

"I was tackled by a nightcrawler and fell over fifty feet. What do you expect?" Aerrow clarified as Piper directed him back to where he had been sitting. "Besides, it was my other foot last time."

She assisted him lifting his legs back up over the bed and Aerrow led back into the pillow once again as she removed the armour from his right leg and pulled his boot off, tossing it to one side. She rolled back his trouser leg and what she saw made her inhale between her teeth. Aerrow's ankle was already swollen, inflamed an unpleasant shade of purple where bruising had occurred.

"That doesn't sound promising." he pointed out, running a gloved hand over his forehead. "How long am I going to be stuck here?" This had become routine. Aerrow had been injured so many times; he had given up complaining a long time ago. He would simply request to know how long he'd be out of action and then spend the entirety sulking.

"Two days in here and after that, you're not leaving the Condor for a week."

He gave out a groan that turned into a yawn. "Now I'm wishing we still had Gundstaff's crystal."

"Well," Piper began, pulling his sweaty sock from his foot "a couple of days in bed will do you good." She ran her fingers over the irritated skin in an attempt to figure out exactly where the sprain was located. "Did you even sleep last night? You must be exhausted." She could tell he was already dozing off due to the lack of response. She looked up at him to find he had in fact fallen asleep with his left arm laid over his eyes.

Piper wanted more than anything to let him rest, but there were bigger priories right now. She nudged his thigh to get his attention. "Aerrow, I need you awake for this."

He jerked upright, fleetingly glancing around at his surroundings. "Who - wha - Wusahstatus?"

"Calm down." Piper hushed, putting an arm out to stop him getting to his feet. "You fell asleep."

He looked confused for a moment as he massaged his forehead. "How long was I out?"

"It's only been a few minutes." Piper assured him, inspecting the heel of his foot. "Tell me if you feel anything." She ran her hand over his foot, stopping every so often to prise her fingers around the bridge.

Aerrow gave out a whimper of pain. "Yep, definitely felt something."

"Can you wriggle your toes?"

He did so, but it looked like it hurt judging from his expression.

Piper leant towards the unoccupied bed and snatched up the pillow, placing it beneath Aerrow's foot. "You've held up well for someone who fell over fifty feet."

"Don't I always?" He groaned, suppressing a yawn. He fell back into the pillow again.

"From what I can tell, it's only a light sprain. You'll have to keep off it for two days at the least and maybe get some shuteye." She instructed, walking over to the window and began rummaging in the cupboard for the icer crystal she had been keeping for just such an occasion.

"Aerrow?" She suddenly spoke up.

"Hm?" The Sky Knight responded.

"I've been meaning to ask – how's the squadron log working out for you? Is it helping?"

He let out a grumble.

"Y'know," Piper began, reaching for the bright blue crystal from behind a can of disinfectant solution "writing down what's bothering you helps keep your mind open to more important things. A good leader needs to be focused."

"It's hasn't been making me feel any different about our situation, if that's what you mean. Logging the day's events does nothing but remind me that I'm falling short."

Piper stood upright and began forming ice on a clean rag with the crystal in her hand. "No one is asking you to do anything more than your best."

"It's not enough." Aerrow argued. "Piper, I barely held up out there, if you didn't notice. I'm afraid I'm going to get you all hurt. It's something I have to live with every day. I have this one chance to get it right and I'm blowing it."

"So, you and Finn got a little banged up, big deal." Piper smirked, tying a knot with the four corners of the rag to conceal the newly formed ice. "There's only one person we trust to lead us and that's you, but it's not your place to feel guilty about every little thing that doesn't go according to plan. Forget what Stork would tell you, there's no way you can prepare for everything."

"That doesn't change a thing, I'm still blowing it."

"You're learning. We're all learning. It's a learning curve. If anyone expected you to venture into a world unknown and know exactly what to do and where to go, that would be silly. I don't need to tell you that."

Aerrow sighed heavily in frustration. "Piper, I don't expect you to understand. I know you're doing your best to find a solution and I appreciate it, but this is something I'm hoping you'll never have to deal with."

"If we just talk about it, I'm sure-"

"No." He cut her off.

"But I-"

"I don't want to discuss it."

"I was honest with you, Aerrow; it's the least you can do!"

"No, Piper. Y-you don't understand. I-it-"

Piper swivelled around and frowned at him. "I can only understand it you let me."

Aerrow buried his face in his hands. She watched him curiously, but it was starting to become clear that he was done talking.

Piper picked up the ice pack and took a seat on the bed next to Aerrow's. "I thought you said we were in this together. I hope you're not keeping anything important from us."

Aerrow ran his fingers down his face. "It's nothing like that. Can we drop the subject?"

She leant forwards and placed the ice on Aerrow's injured ankle. "No more secrets."

"Please, Piper. This is making me uncomfortable."

She rose to her feet. "You think I didn't feel the same way? What do I have to do to get you to open up?"

Aerrow closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not keeping anything from you, I swear. I'm just not keen on talking about my feelings."

Piper gritted her teeth in defeat. "Why can't you be more like Finn? He has no problem expressing himself." She turned and made her way back to the counter to track down a bandage roll.

"That's the last thing I'd expect to hear from you. If memory serves me correctly, you two have been at each other's necks since the day we met."

Piper could sense how Aerrow was slowly getting more and more irritable as the conversation progressed. He was overtired, she knew. Retrieving the roll of dressing, she returned to her former position and stood over the redhead. She gently placed her hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Get some rest."

Straightening up, she walked around the bed and knelt at the opposite end to get closer to Aerrow's damaged ankle. She removed the ice and there was not a word from either of the two as Piper began supporting the sprain with the gauze. Her sight kept wavering to his rigid form in an attempt to work out if he had fallen asleep. Aerrow's messy hair had fallen over his eyes, leaving them in shadow, so she could not tell if he was watching her. He was surprisingly quiet and remained in that still position with his arms folded, the only movement came from his steady breathing.

Piper secured the bandage with a tight knot and rested the ice back upon his ankle. She spared Aerrow one last look of curiosity and whispered his name softy. She waited, but there was no response. He was out.

Piper smiled to herself and got to her feet. She watched the leader of the squadron doze for a moment before she turned on her heels and left the room.