Chapter Text
Cyclonis quickly descends from the sky, landing heavily as she pants, tears streaming down her face as everything that happened races through her mind. It was gone, all of it. Her throne, her empire, her Dark Ace.
She’d lost everything.
How had it all gone so wrong? How had she lost everything she held dear? She’d had them! The sky knights trapped in her crystal, forces rampaging across Atmos like an unstoppable typhoon! Then those Storm Hawks…
As if summoned she hears the portal behind her fluctuating, widening, the teen staggering in horror. No, no no no! They weren’t supposed to follow! They shouldn’t be able to! Backing away as the Condor comes into sight, Cyclonis can only do one thing. Run.
Fleeing into her ally’s stone fortress (built to guard the door to Atmos, they said, servants of her family they’d said) Cyclonis searches desperately for any sign of the forces that had once roamed the halls during her last visit with the Nightcrawlers. She can hear the telltale sound of skimmers coming for her, her heart clenching when she turns to her right only for the one person she wanted most in the world to not be there. Because he’s gone. She’d killed him. Barely swallowing a sob the empress (no more, what’s an empress without an empire?) raced further into the castle. Where was he?!
“Zoek!” She screamed, running as fast as her legs would allow, not daring to look behind her when she heard footsteps in the distance. Nothing had gone to plan today, there’s no army here ready to support her, just her own desperate cry echoing in the distance. “Zoek!” She needed him, anyone, someone! Finally someone answers. “Master Cyclonis?” Following the voice, she soon enters the castle's throne room, the elderly man hurrying from an antechamber to the side. “What’s wrong?”
“Summon your men! Sky Knights are chasing me! We have to hold them off!” Turning to face the door she quickly assumes a defensive stance, charging her crystal. Zoek hesitates, shuffling back slightly as he seizes a crystal on his belt. Hopefully it’s a communication device, or a weapon to defend them. Just as the Storm Hawks burst in, Cyclonis unleashed a wave of crystal energy. Or she would have, had a blast not struck her in the back, the teen collapsing to her knees with eyes wide in shock.
Zoek looks on the verge of hyperventilating, looking rapidly from Cyclonis to the teens with their weapons drawn. “Please… please take me away from here! You can do what you want with the girl but please! It’s not safe! She can’t follow to Atmos, I beg of you! Please!” Shuffling forward reaching for the teens, the old man hardly looks like a threat, even with his seemingly ornate clothing that makes him look like some kind of beetle. Caught up in the thrill of ending this war, winning the war and bringing Cyclonis back to answer for her crimes, Aerrow agrees. Right as Piper is preparing to use her crystals to yank Cyclonis’ staff from the gasping young ruler, the air shifts.
Zoek blanched, "It's her! Please! Save me! Please!” He tries to run, almost falling when he turns to look at the tall figure that had seemingly materialised in the swirling mist now creeping across the floor. Suddenly, in time with a sharp lift of the figures head, Zoek collapses to his knees screaming.
Piper rushes back to her friends, watching in horror as Zoeks skin begins to crawl. Literally, writhing until suddenly he dissolved into a pile of scuttling beetles. Cyclonis can barely move, head tilted to the side to watch the grisly spectacle. This was nothing like anything that she’d ever seen, Zoek claimed he was a crystal mage, an expert, like herself! How could he have died so easily?
Striding through the mist, a slender woman with porcelain pale skin comes into view, the Storm Hawks flinching as one. She looks like Cyclonis, but grown. Dressed all in black with a long feathery cape behind her, a delicate hand taps once on her staff. It’s wooden, looking almost like a roughly hewn branch until the swirling coils at the top where it looked as though a crystal should sit.
“Look, we don’t want any trouble. You have no idea what Cyclonis has done, we’ll just… take her back and get out of your hair.” Aerrow tried to be nice, but he was tired. Tired of living on the run, tired of fearing for his friends' lives, once Cyclonis was brought to justice this would all be over! Unfortunately for the young knight his words seemed to amuse the terrifying woman, her cold lilac eyes narrowing as a familiar smirk graces her features. “No.” That was it, another faint lift of her head had all of the Storm Hawks weapons wrenched from their hands, flung far into the corridor behind them. For a second no one moves, then Finn and Junko go running for the weapons. Piper grabs another crystal, shooting a beam of energy at Aerrow. “Falcons flight!” To their horror, within seconds of Aerrow being airborne from their Binding the woman just lets out a brief huff of amusement. “Cute.” A tilt of her head has the energy dissipating immediately, sending Aerrow plummeting to the floor in a sprawl. They’re helpless in the face of this… this witch.
“Retreat.” Aerrow grabs Piper's arm on the way out, the Crystal Mage still gaping at the woman in absolute disbelief. She's dragged away, the Storm Hawks fleeing in the face of this new enemy.
Soon enough, it’s just them.
Cyclonis struggles to breathe through the pain, whatever Zoek had done hurt, especially after her recent battle. She’s feeling alarmingly lightheaded, enough so that she doesn’t even notice the woman had moved until a hand gently lifts up her chin to stare into that eerily familiar face. It should have been disturbing, looking at what seemed to be an older version of herself. That’s not what makes her heart twist, the way their noses look alike, the point of their chins, the colour of their hair… it’s her expression. Cyclonis had never seen such a tender look in anyone’s eyes, especially directed at her.
Except, she had. Dark Ace, her loyal servant, her confidant, the only person in all Atmos she could trust. Who’d reassured her endlessly that his loyalty was to her, never her grandmother. The closest thing to a real friend… to a father that she’d ever had, her own died when she was so young.
She’d killed him.
She’d lost everything.
“Oh my darling.” Being pulled into an embrace by a stranger shouldn’t be comforting, but Cyclonis can’t hold on anymore. It was gone. Her life, her hopes, her dreams, her only chance at being good enough, being worthy of her grandmother's legacy. She screamed, her rage, her shame, her anguish, her loss, it all came out, desperate sobs soon following in its wake. All the while the woman simply held her, kneeling on the cold stone floor to cradle the young queen as she shattered to pieces.
Cyclonis isn’t sure how long she’d cried, feeling woozy when her broken whimpers trail off. A hand is stroking her hair, the woman pressing her lips to the top of her head. It’s such an intimate embrace, something she’s never had before in her waking memory. None had dared be so familiar, none but Dark Ace and even then Anarchis had made it clear he was to observe certain boundaries else he’d never see the princess again. Seeming to sense she’s done, the woman presses a kiss to her forehead, pulling back to smile softly. “Come my Lark, it’s time to go home.”
Too wrung out to ask how she could know that name, to admit that her home was gone, Cyclonis didn’t argue, grabbing her staff from where it had fallen during her breakdown. Helped to her feet, Cyclonis can’t do much but lean against her saviour. Between one moment and the next, suddenly the world shifts around them. Not once does it feel like they move, as though they were static and the planet itself had readjusted itself around them. Gone was the empty cold throne room Zoek had claimed during her visits, in its place an open homey living area. There’s no corners, it’s as if they’re living inside a tree, it’s all so organic. Before she can make out much more she’s gently herded towards a door that’s opened to reveal a bedroom. It looks… like everything she’d ever wanted. Pinks of varying shades with purples strewn throughout, a double bed snug in a corner with countless pillows. And a doll. Just like hers.
She barely registers the woman making her sit, peeling off her boots, cloak and utility belt to drape over the end of the bed. It takes barely any prompting to crawl onto the bed, Cyclonis immediately latching onto the doll to hide her face in its hair. A soft blanket is pulled over her, humming filling the air as she’s carefully tucked in.
Exhausted, Cyclonis drifts asleep, praying today had been one long vividly horrific nightmare.
Sashaying into a study containing all manner of crystals and devices, the woman stops before a huge crystal, taller than herself. It’s gorgeous, yellow orange at its centre bleeding to red then a deep purple at the very edges. Pulling a crystal necklace from beneath her armour, she kisses the small matching crystal that pulsed almost insistently before pressing it against its larger companion, watching with satisfaction as a powerful bolt of energy transfers to the large crystal to coalesce at its heart. “Soon dear, soon. I have her, all will come together in time.” Placing her hand against the cool crystal surface she grins as the light flares beautifully, something taking shape. “Soon.” She promised, smiling ominously. Everything was going according to plan.