Aerrow stood in front of the Sky Knight Council's desk, his head down, arms folded in front of him and locked with crystal handcuffs. He glared down at a patch of the red carpet a few feet to his left as one of the old men read off a list everything he'd been charged with and then continued on to his sentence.

"Banishment?" Piper repeated in surprise, standing a little ways off to the side with the rest of the Storm Hawks and Starling, "You can't actually banish him! He stopped Cyclonis from taking over the Atmos!"

"After he almost took over Atmos himself! That was plan B wasn't it," the man shouted, looking back at Aerrow, "you couldn't finish what you started so you tried to convince everyone it was a misunderstanding by turning on you master! You are worse than that Dark Ace!"

That was a low blow and Aero flinched but he didn't try to defend himself. He stayed quiet and turned his head into his shoulder, closed his eyes.

"That's not true!" Junko spoke up, his voice strong, steady.

"But it is Junko," Aerrow said quietly, the Council man grinned, "I did try to take over Atmos. And I captured the Sky Knights…and I hurt Starling. I'm just like him."

"You're not Aerrow! The Dark Ace did those things of his own free will, you were being controlled-"

"It was my free will Piper," he said harshly, "you know that. All Cyclonis did was change my mind."

"She Changed your mind, it wasn't really you!"

"Are you trying to get yourself banished?" Finn yelled.

There was silence, not even the Council spoke. After a few minutes Aerrow whispered "No. I only wanted it made clear that I won't forgive the things I've done, in my right mind or not" he looked up to glare at the old men seated at the tall desk, "but if I'm being banished, then you are coming with me" he raised his bound hands and pointed at the Head of Council.

Everyone froze at his words, a few of the men gasped; no one ever talked like that to any of the men, it was inconceivable, even more so to hear Aerrow saying it.

"You are threatening-" someone started in a low voice.

"Not threatening, just making sure that you serve justice to everyone equally. If you're charging me with betrayal to Atmos, then I'm charging him as a Sky Knight with assisting the enemy in trying to take over the world. You all know that, so deal out the proper punishment. Don't get lenient with the rules just because he's a member of the Council!"

"This is different, boy" one of the men hissed.

Aerrow shrugged, "Oh, don't explain to me," he turned and pointed to the camera crew poking through the door, "explain this difference to them."

"Yeah, Aerrow!" Piper whispered, smiling wide.

He fought down a smile and turned back to the Council, looking up expectantly at them. His eyes danced as he saw the conflict raging in each of them, as they struggled for words. And then, after another minute of silence, first on and then another of them spoke up, "Yes, I see your point."

"No one will be banished today. All charges against you have been dropped, though your Sky Knight privileges and duties are suspended until further notice. We'll be keeping an eye on you."

This last sentence was a whisper intended only for him and he kept his face neutral as a page unlocked his hands. But as he turned to leave, his face stretched into a wide, smug grin.

*

"Aerrow, I just thought of something," Piper said, catching up to him as he stepped around the excited camera crew, "Aerrow, what if we get called on a mission? You're not going to sit back and ignore it. Are you?"

"Of course not," he said, beaming at her, "I'll just say I'm helping as a friend. As long as I don't wear the Storm Hawks insignia, they can't touch me."

The others caught up with them a moment later and all seven left the Council Hall, down the streets of Atmosia, and back to the Condor.

"It's good to have everything back to almost normal, huh?" Finn said, clapping Aerrow on the back.

"Yeah Finn, and what's almost normal?"

Well that took an insanely long time didn't it? It did for me -.-

And it took a completely different turn than I thought it would! I had originally planned...*whisper* for Aerrow to die.

Oh my gosh, how tragic right? The main character and everything! He wouldn't have actually stopped living though, there would have been a sequal, blah blah blah, it's 12:04 AM.

Cheers!