A/N: Greetings all, and welcome to my new 'Storm Hawks' Cyclonis-centred fanfic! :)

This story is going to be a short one admittedly, roughly three chapters in length – which might or might not become a recurring thing with my future fanfiction projects.

For anyone who's wondering: this story isn't canon to my 'Storm Hawk and the Dragon' pair of crossover fics – this takes place in its own continuity separate from them. However, I did write this story to be a kind of spiritual midquel for the TSHatD version of Cyclonis that can give folks a good idea of what happened to TSHatD!Cyclonis inbetween Cyclonia's fall and her reunion with the Storm Hawks on the Far Side years later. This fic also uses the same version of the Far Side of Atmos that I world-built for TSHatD (where the Far Side is known to the indigenous peoples as Ionos). So, if you're not familiar with TSHatD, you can check out my worldbuilding 'World of Ionos' journal/posts on my DeviantArt journal (SciFiLover2) or in my Tumblr (Zerm1v0hg).

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction using the characters and world-aspects of Nerd Corps' 'Storm Hawks;' and I do not claim any ownership of said world and characters. This story is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of 'Storm Hawks' canon. I am not financially profiting from the creation and publication of this story; it is for entertainment only and is not part of the official storyline. I am grateful to Nerd Corps and all associated cast, voice cast and crew who worked on the aforementioned franchise; for without them, this story would not exist.

So now, without further ado…

A Raven Under the Sunlight

Chapter 1

Month #5 on Ionos

The cave was a quiet place, a sickly green glow emanating from deeper down the tunnel where the system split into forks, casting lights like the frozen ripples of a swimming pool on the rough walls. This system extended for quite some length further, forming many twists and turns before it got to the chamber where tools and features brought in by outside forces were located. The shadows in this chamber were thicker at the walls, despite the shaft of light that filtered in from somewhere vertically up. The walls were decorated with many metal structures of various kinds, most of them spindly and sharp-looking with a cruelness that outweighed even their chrome metal's coldness – past those crude metal devices lining shelves, several odd crystals and devices lined shelves carved into the rock walls.

Within the chamber was a study of cheap make, a vast tome laid open atop it, and a crystal-staff was resting against the study. A metal staff with a jagged crown resembling a spider's legs, a purple crystal glowing in that crown as the faint electronic sounds of some machine being handled whispered quietly from a spot in the chamber near this desk.

The girl with lanky, dark hair – half-invisible from behind due to the mane of cruel, prickly-looking spikes that surrounded the back of her head – was waving her dark-clothed and pale-skinned hand, making the purple-tinted hologram shift from the original paragraphs of glyphs to one view after another depicting a vast, transparent complex's schematics from a different perspective.

When Master Cyclonis had first arrived on Ionos, the Far Side of the Atmos, she'd been expecting it would only take her several months at most to rally support from the sentient natives that lived beyond the Emerald Valley's confines. In hindsight, that was stupid, foolish. Foolish girl, she'd scolded herself. She'd had little besides intimidation to back her claim, and the rogues of Ionos didn't care for intimidation on its own as much as the rogues of Atmos did; the free peoples were just as moral and self-righteous as the Sky Knights, and she knew that if she dared go to either of the more authoritarian states of Ionos with nothing but what she carried on her back, she would be swiftly assimilated by Kitaneikuk or Gonksia's own autocratic machines to suit their purposes alone. It hadn't helped that Cyclonia didn't have a positive legacy among the natives of Ionos from the colonial era long past when Cyclonis' ancestors had put the Far Side doors to their intended uses. So Cyclonis had been forced to spend the meantime accumulating resources, often scavenging Ionos technology. Like a hermit, or a dog… She promptly pushed that train of thought from her mind's forefront, focusing herself.

The third and fourth images which the girl scrolled through were intrinsic dissections of a door's locking mechanisms, and details of the cubic-shaped cages housed on a single floor.

Cyclonis' dark-rimmed, amethyst-purple eyes narrowed slightly as she casually shut the small book she'd had open near her chin, one corner of her mouth on her pale face curving higher than the other corner.

In short time, the Master's body clad in her dull-red royal bodysuit was sweeping across the chamber, picking up her crystal-staff as a grey cloak fluttered behind her.

A sky-blue aurora rippled through the cerise sky – the facility below had softly-curving geometry, various colours but mostly sickly greens, and serrated spikes on the roofs, in line with the architecture of those who had built this place.

Amongst the organic corridors within, Gonksiesh clothed in dark-blue with muscular-looking proportions roamed about on duty, their visible bits of skin pale and rubbery, tentacles undulating from their hoods.

One of the brawny Gonksiesh workers lumbered along a corridor to another, stationary Gonksiesh which lifting a hand and uttered the hisses, rasps, wheezes and clicks which formed the Gonksiesh tongue. The approaching Gonksiesh responded with their own vocalisations in kind, and the first, seeming satisfied, inputted a code into the keypad on the wall behind him without taking his gaze off the visitor. The three-fold door which the guard was posted at promptly slid open, and the visitor Gonksiesh stepped inside.

It was only as the shadowed doors were closing behind the Gonksiesh visitor that a ripple like a faulty Crystalvision hologram briefly flickered across their face's features. The visitor's new surroundings were thick with shadow, though as the Gonksiesh stepped forward, things grew brighter. One of the two sole sources of the chamber's illumination, specifically the source not coming from overhead lighting, was from the many cages spread out in formation across the hangar-wide floor, every one's walls composed of buzzing, cyan grids of electricity. The Gonksiesh advanced between the cages, turning their head left and right as they passed row after row. Some cages held Mikonosuinesh, some held ferocious-looking warriors, and some held scrawny, shrewd or completely innocent-looking figures with misery written across their faces. Some prisoners were given the freedom of limited movement in their cages while others were restrained from moving anything at all. The Gonksiesh even tilted their head towards a vast, triangular-jawed and winged Bahojo such as the one which the Cyclonians had utilised centuries ago. The Gonksiesh stopped, turning their head towards the cage they were directly adjacent to – and then as they lifted their burly arm towards their collarbone area, the hologram-flicker returned, and in a blink, the image of the Gonksiesh dissipated to reveal the pale human girl underneath. Wearing a dull-magenta bodysuit with brown, thigh-length boots, a collar of spiky prongs like a deadly flower forming a mane around her head and neck, a tiny purple crystal-pendant around her neck held in her raised hand.

In the cage which cast Cyclonis in dark silhouette, the occupant was curled up in a ball, and was mostly covered in beige, single-piece cloth except for some black and white which poked through. Cyclonis' formerly-smirking face had turned neutral as she lifted a spidery, black-nailed finger, and she tapped three times against the cage's elevated metal base. At the sound, the ball-shape began uncurling with an almost snake-like motion, moving its head away from the embrace of its four spindly arms –slit-pupil orange eyes, as they blinked open, at first appeared quite tired and weary, though they rapidly lit up as the shallow, beak-shaped mouth curved into a thin smirk.

"Good evening," Cyclonis bid in her silky, almost raspily-low voice. Then she quirked a heavy eyebrow fractionally as she inquired, "Phoenix the Orange, I take it?"

"Perhaps," the white, four-armed figure murmured as he fully unfolded himself into a sitting position, an oddly-pleasant smile forming on his fleshy beak. His body was mostly covered in snow-white hair or down, save for dark tattoos decorating his face: two thick, decorative lines along the sides of his neck, and a smaller, horizontal black line decorating his brow, like a blue jay. "Why, who's asking? You're not looking to claim my head, are you?"

"Master Cyclonis, Empress of the Cyclonian Empire," the girl replied.

"Oh, snap!" Phoenix all but exclaimed. He stood up and strode towards the laser bars separating the girl from him. "I've heard titbits of you. One of the natives of Atmos who came here nearly half a year ago. Well, what brings you here? Your Majesty." Phoenix spoke charmingly but with a bit too much energy to be forcing his current demeanour, bowing his lower body. "My history of the ancient Cyclonian colonies which came to Ionos with their doors in ancient times is somewhat lacking, but I presume that on your side of the world they still greet royalty with a bow?"

"It's a simple proposition, really," Cyclonis purred almost like a tomcat, smirking, while Phoenix listened with a neutral face. "I break you out of here, in exchange for your indefinite servitude." Phoenix hummed, holding the short talon of one of his four hands' fingers by his chin in thought – his hairless hands were bumpy like a crow's.

"That's all?" he asked.

"Oh, far from it," Cyclonis all but chortled. "In return, there will be untold riches to start." She was subtly reaching a hand into the grey cloak wrapped around her bodysuit. With a sudden flash of movement, she threw her arm upwards, lightning-forks shooting forth from the crystal she held with a deafening crack. A torrent of lightning collided with the energy-bars of Phoenix's cage, the six-limbed figure taking a light step back. Lights across the ceiling fluctuated and flickered. Then the lightning from Cyclonis' crystal cut. All across the prison, laser-cages were deactivating one-by-one, their occupants looking around in surprise or bewilderment before realising they were free and rushing out. Cyclonis' face was glaring darkly, her attention on only one prisoner as she lowered the crystal.

"And I'll promise not to double-cross you once I have claimed what is rightfully mine!"

Not a moment later, red lights flashed and shrill, otherworldly Gonksiesh klaxons wailed, Phoenix's slit-pupiled eyes shifting and his birdlike neck shifting only slightly to observe the sound. Phoenix, standing on a now-unbarred podium as prisoners began rushing about around him and the girl, had only one thing to say.

"You officially have my interest, Master Cyclonis."

Month #8 on Ionos

The figure's spidery, black-nailed fingers were moving like pistons over the keyboard in the dimly-lit room, causing the pink-hued holographic display to transition from one image to another whilst the holographic glyphs scrolled ever downward.

Five-point-two million sky-yen, Master Cyclonis mentally observed. Cyclonis' lips slowly parted into a deadly grin as she thought further to herself, A few raids' worth of plunder more, enough to recruit a few dozen mercenary armies, and this should give the peoples of Ionos the first glimpse of their new Master…

A knock at the door made purple eyes with only the slightest flecks of surprise in them lift up.

"Enter," Cyclonis boded in her silky voice, and the door was practically thrown open – the visitor was a Kitanen rogue dressed in grey-and-black haphazard garb.

"Commander Cyclonis, he's at it again!" the Kitanen said breathlessly. The purple-eyed girl scowled slightly.

The commander, as she was being called by most of her underlings for the time being, emerged from her personal quarters, the Kitanen skipper on her heels, no doubt wanting to see this perceived slight be checked for the sake of his own sanity. She was no longer wearing the Cyclonian royal mane, instead she was wearing a long overcoat with red,-magenta-and-purple patchwork atop her old bodysuit. The vast carrier ship which she had obtained by force consisted of several opaque-walled facilities at the aft, whilst the deck onto which Cyclonis now marched was a vast platform, almost a mile in length, with an oval, transparent dome encasing it under the aurora-decorated skies of Ionos. It was only a temporary solution, Cyclonis had told herself the first several times she'd seen this ship's deck for herself in person – she had no intention of being a petty sky pirate-lord indefinitely.

Cyclonis, and the Kitanen pirate at her heel in turn, stopped as she saw the source of the commotion ahead – the pale, raven-haired girl had absolutely no facial reaction, save for a tremble in the corner of her mouth as it rapidly curled upward, purple eyes' pupils gradually dilating. Down a shallow flight of stairs in the deck's floor, half-a-dozen members of Cyclonis' crew, of various Ionos-native species and builds, were gathered in a congregation of merry laughter, their bodies obscuring the focus of their attention from Cyclonis' sight although she already knew what it was.

"Oh, do it again, Phoenix!" chortled Ekthos, the burly, beaver-like and pot-bellied yet spirited Oesaon-Bang's signature laughter threatening to make Cyclonis pop a vein.

"Oh, come on, Ekthos, there's plenty more tricks in the sea!" Phoenix countered good-naturedly, the tall, four-armed avian assassin casually shuffling a deck of bladed cards between all four arms as he spoke.

"Ooh, can you do something cool with these anti-grav snowflakes?" barked a toothy sky-pirate who often cleaned out the head, holding out the arm-sized, refracting crystalline snowflake levitating above his hand.

"I don't know." Phoenix shrugged, cards disappearing behind his back. "I mean, all I can do with those is this." Casually, Phoenix grabbed the floating snowflake, and with a flurry of his hand, dozens more anti-gravity snowflakes appeared in a flash above Phoenix's head. Dazzled ooh's and ah's. As Phoenix whistled that tune of his which his company had grown accustomed to, a couple of the sky-pirates at the congregation's rear quickly parted with bows and left as they saw who was approaching.

"It's not much, just a cheap illusion, can't touch or anything, but- Oh, Master Cyclonis!" Having turned around, Phoenix did that quick but admittedly-perfect bow to her. "I was just, ah, keeping up morale! Not that the morale wasn't great to begin with, just, every sky-yen helps." Cyclonis was glaring as he spoke, the raised corner of her mouth curling higher.

Cyclonis said nothing but glared. Were he any of the other pirates, or even one of her Cyclonian generals or underlings back on Atmos, Cyclonis would have thrown Phoenix with a crystal or a wave of her staff, and the temptation was certainly still there, especially at moments like these. But she couldn't. Phoenix the Orange was renowned among the underworld of Ionos, including the pirates she'd been forced to gather in the absence of better minion candidates, as one of the most fearsome and respected assassins and martial-artists in Ionos, whereas her reputation wasn't nearly so fearsome, and her power and resources were still but a pale ghost of what she and her ancestors had been on Atmos. Even in the astronomically-unlikely event that Phoenix would let her overpower him despite his capacity to break her like a twig, Cyclonis would receive some unwanted attention for such a feat from her crew and from other players in Ionos' underworld which she wasn't yet objectively ready to defend herself against. Cyclonis blinked, and just like that she was able to school her expression as she simply pointed the crown of her crystal-staff towards Phoenix, not too close as to seem like she was overplaying his authority yet not too far away as to seem weak.

"You should know that I don't enjoy uncalled-for laughter on my ship, Phoenix," Cyclonis murmured softly, while Phoenix's own expression was fairly respective. Cyclonis suspected that Phoenix knew all about what kept her in a stalemate with him when he bent her rules, in fact she suspected he was revelling in the stalemate underneath that jovial, friend-making smile of his – in fact, she'd already implemented counter-measures and was constantly updating them, in case Phoenix ever tried to usurp her authority over the crew or any of Cyclonis' future forces. "Try to rein yourself in." The most threatening honest message she could convey without weakening herself had been communicated, and Cyclonis turned on her heel and began sauntering past her cowed crew towards her quarters.

Cyclonis was inputting codes at her study's holographic display, lifting her gaze to watch the images play out: tourists' pictures and three-dimensional models all of them depicting Terra Bundarlika's barren and industrialised landscape from different perspectives. She'd been thinking about attacking I for a while – besides the technology that could be stolen and sold for parts, a successful attack on one of Ionos' primary infrastructural manufacturers would earn her crew some much-needed elevated regard in the underworld, which could in turn earn them more resources and chances to expand. Even if acclaim for successfully attacking Ionos' primary manufacturer of crockery and food utensils would be slightly inelegant for lack of a better word. After that, there wouldn't be very many more steps to go before Cyclonis was on her way to rebuilding a new Cyclonia capital here on Ionos, and then restoring the empire which had belonged to dozens of her ancestors and now was rightfully hers. Though the hologram flickered, Cyclonis felt only mild annoyance that it might not be up to what standards she could still afford-

BLAM.

The whole ship shuddered around Cyclonis, making the empress-pirate's purple eyes widen.

Cyclonis was almost-immediately sprinting out from her quarters onto the deck, purple eyes widening at what she beheld. Her pirate-crew were running about the deck in varying states of panic, some newer blood less coordinated than the older ones who were attending to various stations and terminals – Cyclonis' speedy-fingered Láckjang technician was frantically inputting codes at a terminal, and Ekthos the Oesaon-Bang was hauling a metal chain that lifted the transparent dome's emergency metal shields one measly foot at a time. And above all their heads, past the dome's flickering lights, thick, dark-green clouding was broiling and rolling over the ship as if it were trying to suffocate it, flashing with lightning and grumbling thunder. A shape like the skeleton of an eel swam through the cloud, followed by another criss-crossing over the first one.

At the sight, Cyclonis scowled but she didn't lose her cool. Her gaze shifted as the Kitanen skipper who'd previously reported Phoenix's shenanigans sprinted straight up to her, straightening his back as soon as he came close.

"Commander, we are under attack by Bone-Wraiths, approaching from the south!" he said in his ever-breathless manner that Cyclonis had since grown accustomed to. "Requesting orders?" Cyclonis gestured with her arm, and her crystal-staff flew from her quarters straight into her grip before she slammed the tilt to the floor. A ripple ran out from the impact out through the deck – the younger pirate-blood who'd been running about or crying about halted when that shockwave ran under them. All attention was now turned to the crew's commander.

"Prioritise defensive manoeuvres over evasive and redirect all power as affordable to non-essential areas of the ship," Cyclonis ordered after barely half-a-second's pause, thinking on her feet – this ship was tough, but old, and she had no intention of losing it. Not again.

In less than ten seconds, the cannons along the dome's exterior were firing off yellow energy-bolts, sending a barrage of lights into the inky, dark storm which rolled around the ship. Young and old sky-pirates were sitting at those cannons' controls just inside the deck's dome, faces hard. One energy-bolt struck a Bone-Wraith, the skeletal eel-fish screeching for a split-second as it disintegrated. More of the Bone-Wraiths appeared in glimpses through the storm every time lightning struck, some of them fully emerging from the clouds' cover to thrash their tails against the ship. In those brief glimpses, Cyclonis' purple eyes caught sight of the dark, industrial-looking collars which reminded her of home, clamped around the eels' necks. Kitanen tech, belonging to the empire of Terra Kitaneikuk which opposed the free terras and states of Ionos, although Cyclonis noted that the lack of lighting on the collars' bulbs meant they were likely offline. These slobbering beasts were probably among the Kitanen Empire's pets that had escaped their labs.

The Bone-Wraiths slammed their tails hard against the ship's done, a visible pulse rippling outward as their bodies briefly flashed from the collision. As the pulse crawled along the deck's transparent roof, lights fizzled out, and minor systems audibly shut down around Cyclonis with a whir. This was how Bone-Wraiths attacked – they manipulated electromagnetic fields powerful enough to create storms and disrupt technology, shipwrecking vessels so they could feed on the remains. Parts of the ship were going dark one-by-one as the power was rerouted, agitated sky-pirates craning their heads whilst light and darkness flashed and danced madly across the ship. Amid the hail of cannon-fire, more of the razor-toothed, screeching Bone-Wraiths came bearing down, slamming their bodies into the dome and letting loose more pulses which caused more power problems. Soon, more than a dozen silvery skeletal bodies were writhing atop the ship.

"ABOVE, ABOVE!" a sky-pirate bellowed below the infested dome.

Thunk, thunk, THUNK!

The transparent roof shattered under that last Bone-Wraith's impact, shards glittering in the flashes of light and shadow as they rained down. Two seconds later, a Bone-Wraith was descending inside the ship, getting its bearings before it wailed and shot forth. Straight towards one of the crew who must have looked miniscule to the beast as they ran the other way, the beast running them down-

BLAM!

The energy-bolt knocked the Bone-Wraith clean out of its course. Yelling, Cyclonis wheeled her crystal-staff to fire more energy-bolts, whilst the Kitanen skipper on her flank bellowed in his ex-military voice. More Bone-Wraiths came sweeping onto the deck with the howling gales. Several flew with screeches towards the cannons lining the deck's sides but were promptly shot down. Cyclonis didn't see the Bone-Wraith's glowing eyes as it slunk forth behind her, jaws aimed straight at her back – a split-second before a chain lassoed around it and it screeched as it was immobilised, making Cyclonis spin. At that chain's other end, Phoenix the Orange was holding the chain with all four hands, eagle-like double-jointed legs rooted firmly down and black-and-white marked face wearing that soldier look it wore on tight missions, before he lashed the chain hard. The Bone-Wraith was whipped through the air, swinging in an arc and crashing into a terminal with a crunch, light fading from its eyes.

Another overhead Bone-Wraith opened its jaws, glowing eyes on the back of Phoenix's head, whilst the avian martial-artist's catlike eye shifted. In a sudden burst of movement, Phoenix spun and sprinted along the hangar floor as if the heavy chain he was still carrying barely weighed anything – he jumped, fluidly planting his eagle-taloned feet and hands that were free on a pillar before launching off. Phoenix shifted his body, and the length of the chain which was thrice his own full height spun above him before he threw.

CRASHK.

It smashed into the encroaching Bone-Wraith's neck junction, the creature screeching terribly as its neck visibly fractured.

Elsewhere, the Láckjang crewmate was screaming as a Bone-Wraith descended upon her station – a second later, blood was spraying. When the momentary shock passed, Cyclonis' purple eyes were blazing brightly as she yelled, firing an energy-bolt which made that Bone-Wraith screech as it was cut apart like butter. Hearing another Bone-Wraith, Cyclonis' eyes widened before she wheeled around to summon a forcefield which took the segmented beast's jaws not a moment too soon – with a push, she shoved the Bone-Wraith backward, then with an uppercut-motion from her crystal-holding arm, a ray of light sliced vertically into the Bone-Wraith.

Phoenix meanwhile was sprinting in a blur towards a corner and then running vertically up, along the dome's side, before leaping off. He sailed through the air practically in slow motion, before landing squarely upon a low-flying Bone-Wraith's back. The creature squealed and bucked in response, but Phoenix didn't stay atop it long, pouncing off to, in mid-air, throw a pair of glowing crystals which violently exploded in a giant purple surge, engulfing two Bone-Wraiths.

Another Bone-Wraith was menacing one of the younger crewmembers, when a cybernetic spear skewered its eye, and it recoiled in audible agony. Ekthos holding onto the shaft of that spear as he bared his ferocious teeth, leaping to avoid a deadly swipe of the beast's tail.

The Kitanen skipper threw his old double-bladed energy-weapon like a boomerang, cutting down another Bone-Wraith even as more of the ship sparked and flickered.

More hissing and flickering all around Cyclonis, and now the ship's entire deck was fluctuating between half-lit and near-total darkness. Standing close together amid the flickers of lightning and artificial light interspersed with darkness, Cyclonis and Phoenix craned their heads.

Several Bone-Wraiths were wriggling against the intact parts of the dome like tadpoles against glass, each one generating a new wave of glowing EM pulses to which lightning forked through the stormclouds in tune. Several more flashes – then all light across the storm-wreathed ship just vanished, and the ship immediately began to almost lazily dip, even the stormclouds' lightning seemed to stop.

The deck tilted rapidly, all the remaining crew sliding one-by-one in the same direction. Cyclonis was in freefall above the sloping deck, eyes shifting left and right, before with an outward gesture of her arms she flared with purple light and her momentum slowed. She touched down fluidly on the dome's now floor-adjacent side, then without missing a beat, she stretched out her arm – one of her falling crewmembers had their trajectory telekinetically adjusted and they safely landed on the dome, but another wasn't so lucky, his scream trailing after he fell through the new fracture in the dome and disappeared in the stormclouds. Cyclonis' face was dark, before her purple eyes widened at the sudden sound of a Bone-Wraith. Even with the deck now dark as night, she still clearly saw the beast cut downward towards her. Eyes devoid of sympathy, Cyclonis fired her crystal-staff. The Bone-Wraith's trajectory was completely reversed, but another one promptly came flying straight towards Cyclonis, jaws open – then Phoenix leapt on it seemingly from nowhere, twirling two rods between before he drove them into either side of the beast's head, the Bone-Wraith only getting out a half-screech before Phoenix twisted and CRACK. The beast's neck broken, Phoenix leapt off, before the dead-eyed giant bone-eel smashed to the dome-wall a few metres from a wide-eyed Cyclonis. Another shriek drew Cyclonis' gaze – across the diagonal deck above her, a Bone-Wraith was ripping two of her crew apart, a lightning-flash behind it making it look like a demon for a moment. Not three seconds later, Phoenix was on Cyclonis' side, the shift of her purple eyes toward him the only sign she'd noticed.

"Master Cyclonis," the four-armed assassin said, his voice taking on that tone it had during a few serious life-threatening incidents in the time since Cyclonis had met Phoenix; "I urgently recommend that we abandon ship." Cyclonis' gaze darkened as she looked back into the overrun ship, at the mutilated remains of her crew, some of which stained the deck floor like spilled sauce. She didn't know if there was anyone left at this point to hear her – if there were, she certainly couldn't see nor hear them anymore.

In its descent through the swirling blackness, the ship tilted back into an upright position again.

Phoenix fluidly caught Cyclonis from behind as their surroundings shifted, then he began fluidly leaping and tiptoeing from structure to structure with her, Cyclonis moving her feet to keep from being dragged down as the four-armed martial-artist held onto her. With a powerful kick in his double-jointed legs, Phoenix launched them off a terminal, and through a doorway off of the deck, a Bone-Wraith's jaws smashing against the doorway just behind them. Cyclonis didn't waste any time in the new chamber Phoenix had guided them too, shoving handfuls of the glowing coins, jewels and precious items into a rucksack hurriedly.

CRASHHH!

Another violent shudder.

"We're leaving!" Cyclonis shouted at Phoenix.

Then she shed her overcoat, and the machinery on the back of her old bodysuit and on the back of Phoenix's began reconfiguring around them like Atmos sky-rides.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Phoenix bellowed as their shifting gear unfurled a pair of metal wings on either of them. A gesture of a hand, and a blast of crystal-energy fired from the reconfigured armour-suits' back-mounted thrusters, and Cyclonis and Phoenix were rocketing on their gilded metal wings through a tilting corridor.

The domed ship rapidly sank from sight through the swirling storms, several Bone-Wraiths chasing downward as the ship descended to its fate: an unmarked grave in the Misty Wastes. A few miles away on the sky, so tiny they looked at a distance like mere insects, two winged figures were flying away from the storm, the wreckage and everything that went down with it.

Cyclonis and Phoenix only slowed to a hover once they were in a patch of clear sky where the aurora was visible, cast in blue light by the sky. Cyclonis glanced back. Back to where the sky's floor was already closing over her ship's point of descent, erasing all evidence that it or its lost crew and valuables had ever existed.

Phoenix's shallow-beaked face was hard if a little torn as he all but glared down at where their ship and all his shipmates had been lost, and his feline eyes softened to a more neutral expression as he glanced over in Cyclonis' direction. The girl's pale and sharp face was almost torn as they waited to see – see if anyone else would come flying away on the emergency lifeboats or other sets of wing-gear.

Eventually, the pair moved on.

Month #9 on Ionos

"Are you impoverished? Feeding on vermin? Desperately looking for employment to a noble cause? Just so annoyed that food doesn't come on time?" Phoenix's voice played over the video montage of homeless and impoverished residences before the feed cut to him, a black mask disguising his identity. "Because there's another way out. Now, I'll bet you're thinking, 'Oh, I've heard that line,' but have you ever heard it from this face? If I can be so devoid of humility just for a moment!"

Phoenix was watching the holographic recording he'd compiled, eyes narrowed and head subtly bobbing as he watched analytically. He felt like he was practicing for stage performances in front of a mirror once more, like in the days before he'd been the Orange. The avian martial artist had exchanged his original attire for a dark-orange, overcoat-like robe and black pants some time ago. The advert wasn't bad, but he thought it could do with some tweaks, maybe look at the camera like he was a little more solemn-

BOOM!

The sudden blast made Phoenix's head snap around to the cave-mouth behind him in surprise.

Moments later, Phoenix was navigating through the shaded cave tunnel to the mouth. On the stalagmite table that hosted his Master's latest experiments, nothing remained but a black soot-mark. The young former-empress, who had shed her pirating overcoat but had added reinforced shoulder-pads to her dark-red bodysuit, was none worse for wear, save for the shadow of soot on the forearm that had shielded her face, a deep scowl forming on her face. In the time since the entirety of Cyclonis' pirate-crew sans them had fallen with their ship, Cyclonis had doubled down on her efforts to replicate or hybridise her native realm's crystals, which she was more used to wielding than Ionos-native crystals. As Phoenix watched, Cyclonis with a harsh sigh opened her holographic scroll, pressing both her palms on the scroll. Eventually, feeling that familiar desire which often prompted people to rub the backs of their necks, the avian assassin made a throat-clearing sound.

"Master," he said while bowing respectfully, earning a glance in his direction. "The crystal experimentation continues to perform poorly?"

"As deductive as ever, Phoenix," Cyclonis all but barked – the icy, low tone she might have once accentuated that sarcastic reply with was absent. Phoenix hummed softly, before his beaked mouth formed a bright smile which contrasted his Master's demeanour starkly.

"As a former monk of Budhamka-Ghor, I can provide you some of my expertise on Ionos crystals that few others know about," Phoenix said, in a tone that he intended to sound not too patronising at all as he stepped into the cave's makeshift laboratory area. "After all, the life of a pirate was hardly the most social." Cyclonis cast him a vaguely curious yet suspicious look, which prompted Phoenix to move a hand to the back of his head and chuckle slightly, though he didn't dare break eye contact. "I know, Phoenix the Orange, the assassin who Kills Without a Single Stone, who has a Hundred Enemies. But I wasn't always that way, and even so, I still learned much about them. So please, Master – if I may?" Cyclonis' purple eyes narrowed fractionally.

"Go on?" she said softly. Phoenix's tattooed brow furrowed slightly as he glanced about.

"From what I've seen in my time with you, it appears that the natives of Atmos use crystals by subjugating the crystal's will and nature to their own." Cyclonis subtly arched a heavy eyebrow. Phoenix's gaze hardened ever-so-slightly. "With Ionos crystals that won't be enough. They do not yield to pressure from the crystal-mage or wielder, at least not to perform whatever objective the wielder wishes. The first and foremost step to mastering an Ionos crystal is to harmonise yourself with it." Cyclonis' face darkened at that in that defiant, defensive way of someone who was used to winning solely through climbing on top being outraged at the idea of making theirself naked and vulnerable. Seeing it, Phoenix shrugged. "Or, Master, you can continue trying to control crystals the Atmos way." Phoenix didn't glance at the soot-marked stalagmite table, suspecting that would push his Master's temper too much – Cyclonis however looked directly at the table. A few months ago, she would have only briefly flitted her purple eyes to the table before returning them to Phoenix, rather than seem so open in front of even her closest underling. Cyclonis almost clenched her jawbone, purple eyes boring furiously into the table. Then she sighed, the teenage witch suddenly looking so much closer to her true age for that one moment, and she turned her gaze back to meet Phoenix's.

"Then teach me," Cyclonis all but sighed. Phoenix nodded, then, glancing toward the cave wall, he reached out and gently pulled a protruding yellow raw crystal loose in his charcoal-coloured, taloned hand, holding it out.

"I recommend beginning with this, Master," he said neutrally, respectfully. "Lift your hands towards it. But don't touch it. That'll be inappropriate." Cyclonis just curled the corner of her lip slightly at his quip, her hands with spidery fingers already lifted.

"Now, be calm. Regulate your breathing." Cyclonis' breathing slowed – she was used to meditating, just not the specific type that Phoenix was providing. In. Out. In. Out. With each rhythmic inhale and exhale and with her visual centres free of distractions behind her closed eyelids, Cyclonis felt her mind start to detach from her body yet stretch out to the void at the same time. "Yes, like that, Master." A long pause passed as Cyclonis' breathing remained regulated, her palms perfectly cupping a square-foot radius around the crystal. The peace and the calm which came at the onset of meditation was familiar to her, but she was used to letting it give way as her will surged forth in a red tide, directed toward and through whatever crystal was her conduit. To allow the peace to linger felt… strange. It almost felt like she was standing on the precipice of a cliff overlooking a dark abyss, lingering there longer than she needed to despite something inside her calling her to move on to rejoin the familiar path. But still, she ignored it, she persisted on hanging there, in the calm. She felt the crystal, thrumming, throbbing like a gentle orb of light amidst the void, but she didn't summon her rage to seize it as she would have once done.

"Now think of a thought, a happy memory," Phoenix's voice said. "It cannot be an ambitious one, it has to be something that made you feel… positive."

Cyclonis almost had to pause there. The very first thing which came to mind was the time she spent tinkering with crystals, at her dais in her home or at her makeshift lairs on Ionos, but she checked it as her need to forcibly reach out and grasp swelled with those dominant memories, and she scoured her mind for something else. She had to check a familiar though loathed bitterness as she searched her memories for something else that made her feel happy which she could use. What, besides crystals, had ever made her feel positive? Hm. Then it came to her.

The crystal suddenly lit up, burning bright-yellow.

"Yes, like that!" Phoenix exclaimed, his face lighting up as the glow cast warm shadows on his face. "You have it, Master!" The crystal shone ever brighter. Cyclonis' eyes opened and widened at the sight in her hands, a gasp almost escaping her.

"Excellently done!" Phoenix said, a warmth in his face that surprised Cyclonis as his catlike orange eyes met her gaze over the glow. Cyclonis stared, stunned, her wide purple eyes flitting back to the crystal in hand.

She and Phoenix sat there in companionable silence for some time, the crystal radiating warmth and yellow light in a circle around the two, and the time spent… Cyclonis would later admit that it was worthwhile time if nothing else.

"What did you remember…?" Phoenix asked softly.

A/N: So that's the first chapter. Please comment and tell me what you think. ;)