My Reason

Monster

Well, time for me to pluck the ol heart strings again. This time around it's Lark that gets to tell her story. This was a very hard chapter for me to write because A: I'm a dude, and we have no idea how the female mind works, it's mysterious and quite frankly, scary to us. B: I wanted to make this as cold as possible. My assessment of Lark is that she is cold and calculating, but at the same time, she's not totally incapable of feeling, so I had to make it a mix of cold confusion.

Oh, and in this story, she's twenty four. I got that number form the episode with the Oracle stone, since it was foretold that Cyclonia would win the war in ten years. She's fourteen now in the current series, so you do the math. Also, any part that's not in quotation marks (meaning it's spoken, or in this case, thought) try to imagine the sound of three people walking down the hallway of an empty school, that's the sound I was going for.

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks, and never will. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, however I DO own this story.

"Thought"

Sound

Three figures walked the dimly lit hallway. The one in the center was noticeably shorter than the others, but at the same time, it carried an air of authority that made it actually seem taller.

The three spoke not a word, nor did they make a sound. The only noise that could be heard was the echoing of their footsteps on the cold stone floor. Each held their gaze ahead and level, not looking to the side, not looking around, not even looking at one another, only straight ahead.

"My name is Lark Cyclonis, and I have done many terrible things."

The young woman's face was cold, devoid of any emotion as she walked down the expansive crystal lit hallway.

"For the last ten years, I have followed in my father's footsteps by continuing the war with the terra's of Free Atmos, which he began twenty years ago today."

The three came to a stop at a set of large wooden doors with two guards. The man to her left saluted the two men before turning around and leaving with the other man who had accompanied her, while the other two opened the doors and continued down the dimly lit hall with her.

"I have been called many things in my life. A demon, a sorceress, a creature of Oblivion, and a monster. I guess that Sorceress would be an adequate enough title, given my powers. But I am not a creature, nor am I a demon. A monster however, yes, I am a monster. That is something I have come to accept in my life."

The young woman closed her eyes for a second, but continued her march with the two men flanking her sides. None of the three seemed to notice the single tear that fell from her eye, not even the one who shed it.

"A Sorceress, is a woman who invokes powers beyond what is understood. I was trained in many things by my grandmother, and how to harness the powers of crystals was but one of them. So I find no fault with that name, as it, and I are one and the same. But a demon, or a creature of Oblivion, are completely different from a monster, and thus completely different from me."

"A creature, such as the Spiny toothed horn sloth of terra deep is truly a frightening thing to behold, but it is not a monster. Also, while I am unsure if there is actually anything native to the realm of Oblivion, am I positive that I would have nothing more in common with it, other than at most, basic composition. A monster on the other hand, I have much in common with."

The woman took a deep breath as she continued down the hall. Memories from long ago flashed to the forefront of her mind, but she dismissed these as quickly as the steps she was taking.

"Not many know the difference between a creature of fright, and a monster, but I do, I know because I am one, and because I have dealt with monsters for almost my entire life."

"A creature, no matter its appearance, is a creature. That is because it was born as such. But a monster? A monster is not born, a monster is created. Therein lays the difference between the two. A creature can only be created by two of its own species, but a monster can be made by anyone, from anything, and that is exactly what I am."

"The blood that flows through my veins, is no different than that of any other human. If you were to strip away every scrap of clothing from my body, you would see no difference between myself and any other human female. My hair is made of keratin, just like anyone else; my skin looks the same to the eyes, and feels the same to touch, just the same as anyone else. I have two eyes that see, two ears that hear, a nose that smells, a mouth that speaks, two arms to hold with, two legs to run with, ten fingers that hold and ten toes to stand, just like anyone else. This is because I was born a human."

"A human however, I was not allowed to remain. A normal life, I was not allowed to have. My mother died in childbirth, so I only had my….father, a man who wanted nothing to do with me. He wanted a son, an heir to take the throne after he died, a male to lead his nation, and unite all of Atmos under his family's crest as it had been so long ago. What he got, was me instead, a human daughter."

"But as I said, I am not a human, not anymore. I was born a human, but made into a monster. What does it take to create a monster you ask? It's a simple recipe really, one that my father taught me when I was very young. It takes thirty five liters of water, twenty kilograms of carbon, four liters of ammonia, one point five kilograms of lime, eight hundred grams of phosphorous, two hundred and fifty grams of sodium, one hundred grams of niter, eighty grams of sulfur, seven point five grams of fluorine, five grams of iron, three grams of silicon, and less than one gram of fifteen other elements. All things that can be bought at a local market with pocket change, that's all it takes to create a monster, that's all that I am."

"To this day, I am unsure if he even knew that I was a girl. Never once did he say anything to prove that he did, nor did he ever say anything to show that he cared. I remember very little of him, since he died when I was so young, but to this day, I still remember what he put me through. The training, the lectures, the endless drills of combat and politics."

"Most children, when they are five, are only afraid of their parents spanking them if they misbehave, but me? If my father was displeased, I went without food, locked in my room for up to a week. After that, my training would be doubled for a month, and that was if he was in a generous mood at the time. Never once was I taught how to speak to people as anything more than dogs, never once was I taught how to dance, and I never once had a single friend. The closest thing I had was my grandmother, the previous Master Cyclonis before my father took the throne. Though she was still powerful, she had no way of getting me away from her son. He sat on the throne now, and she was but his advisor. Without her, I probably would have become just like him, cold, ruthless, heartless, and devoid of any emotion."

"Instead, I became what I am today. I am cold, but at the same time I can feel it, I send people into battle by the thousands knowing full well that there is little if any chance that any of them would be returning, but I feel guilt for doing so, I have a heart, but I can't hear it, and I have emotions, I can hear them, but I don't understand their language. I am a monster, but I am still human. If this makes me better, or worse, I still don't know. A monster does horrible things, as do I, but does a monster feel pain? Is the pain that I feel what makes me human? Or is it what makes me a monster?"

The three reached yet another set of doors. These were much larger than any of the others she had passed through on her journey, but she looked upon them in the same manner as though they were any other set of doors she had passed through in her life, even though she knew what lay behind them, nobody who saw her would have known.

"My grandmother died when I was eight, and my father soon followed in that same year. I was heir to the throne, but I was still six years too young to take it, so the one known as Dark Ace, a former Sky Knight Squadron member, stepped up with a will, claiming that he was to hold the throne in trust, until I came of age. For six years, he sat on my family's throne, something that had never happened before, but in that time, my life only improved marginally. True, I no longer had to worry about punishments as severe as my fathers had been, but that was the only improvement. Everyday I had lessons; everyday for me was one combat drill after another, one lecture on military tactics after another. The scant free time I had, I spent poring over my grandmother's journals, immersing myself into the world of crystals, my one, and only escape."

"But that was long ago, a lifetime ago, and no longer of any concern to me."

"I have seen to the construction of countless war machines, and built many weapons that could cause destruction on a scale never before dreamed by man. With a single order, I have watched entire terra's be burned to the ground, destroyed entire cultures, and decimated the face of this world. I have caused the deaths of countless people, young, old, warrior, soldier, and citizen alike, but to me, they're all the same. They are but faceless multitudes that I never spoke to, never met, or even seen in person."

"My name is Lark Cyclonis, and I have done many terrible things, but perhaps the most terrible of them all."

The two guards opened the doors before her, and grabbed her by the arms before guiding her to the podium in the center of the room. Taking a brief moment, the young woman scanned her surroundings, and saw the many who were seated around her, who surrounded her. Young, old, human, merb, blizzarian, wallop, all wore expressions of anger, all had eyes that burned with barely contained hatred.

She did note however, a single pair of crystal blue eyes that held more grief and sadness than she had ever seen before, a pair of eyes that belonged to the one person in her entire life she had considered a friend.

"Is that I have absolutely no regrets."

End Chapter.

An: I gave a lot of thought to this chapter, and wanted to make it more cannon that my previous one, but had a difficult time doing so. The information provided states that Dark Ace betrayed the Storm Hawks ten years prior to the series beginning, and that the previous Master Cyclonis died around the same time. The information I have on the hologram from the episode: 5 Days, states that the woman with Lark was her grandmother not her mother. Also I have yet to see the episode, so I don't know how old she looked. I did my best to piece together a feasible and plausible timeline, even though it does conflict with the previous chapter by a factor of five years, it's the best I could do. I hope it was endurable. Like I said last time, I'll visit this story from time to time, but not as frequently as my other works. This is where I come to blow off any emo steam in my system. Anyways, hope you liked it, and please review!