A/N: You said you wanted it, folks. Here you go. And I feel like I'm getting the hang of the characters now. There's probably one more chapter to come. At least I haven't planned on anything more at this point.

Repton leaned against the cliffside, glaring at the crumbling stone ledge beneath his feet. The purple haired Sky Knight across from him narrowed her eyes as she glared at the raptor. They were perched on opposite sides of a shallow ravine, formed by the sudden avalanche that had interrupted the fight and separated them from their respective teams.

She'd lost her weapon, he was injured, and they both were shaking with sheer exhaustion.

The silence stretched, broken only by their ragged breathing, and the last few clatters of falling stones. Finally Repton cocked a browridge at the human. "Are you gonna try something?"

Starling glared at him and kicked a small stone off the ledge she was standing on, and watched as even that pebble sent another small shower of stones rolling down the unstable slope and over the edge of the terra.

"I think I'll stay right here." she bit out dryly.

"Good."

With that, the raptor eased himself down into sitting position, leaning his back against a rocky outcropping and starting to inspect his equipment for damage. At first Starling was surprised at his boldness, but then realized that they couldn't currently do much harm to one another. Even though they were separated only by some ten feet, they were both perched rather precariously on narrow ledges over a canyon filled with jagged rocks, and there was no way to tell how solid the ground was anywhere around them. Any sudden movements were liable to send them both tumbling into the ravine below, not to mention cause another avalanche.

Feeling oddly relieved, she allowed herself to relax enough to give in to her trembling knees and sit down. Though stubborn pride made her perch on a nearby rock, rather than slump down on the ledge she was standing on, to keep herself at least symbolically on higher ground. Repton paused for a mere moment in what he was doing, glancing at her from the corner of is eye and the corner of his mouth tugged upwards.

The Sky Knight crossed her arms and turned away pointedly. She hated how that reptile sometimes seemed to read her every move.

A small grunt caught her attention, and turning around, she saw the raptor picking at a bleeding cut on his arm. She couldn't suppress a wince as she watched him pull a long shard of stone from the wound, sending a fresh trail of blood running down his arm. Repton examined the blood-slick sliver with a look of mild disgust before flicking it away into the ravine below, and then leaning back with a sigh.

Feeling a sudden surge of reckless energy, she spoke up. "Did that hurt?"

The raptor turned to look at her, incredulous, but she simply cocked her head, feigning a keen interest.

"…Yes." he said at length, tentative, testing the waters.

"Good." she nodded, with a tiny smile of triumph.

He blinked in surprise, before chuckling, and surprisingly it wasn't a sharp, hissing sound. It was more like a rolling rumble that seemed to vibrate from his chest rather than his throat. "You truly are a vicious, spiteful thing."

"From you, that must be a compliment."

"Trust me, it is."

Starling rolled her eyes, but somehow the raptor's sudden amiable mood seemed to be contagious, and she found herself relaxing. The silence that settled over them for the next few minutes was almost comfortable. But in the absence of words, she found her mind turning to memories instead. Not surprisingly, she found herself going over the few earlier times when she had been so close to the lizard man on the opposite side of the canyon without actually fighting him. There was something niggling at the back of her mind…

"Hey…"

When Repton turned to look at her, she immediately froze. Stupid, stupid, why had she opened her mouth? But some slightly insane part of her mind pushed on, saying she might as well go for it, now that the raptor seemed for once liable to answer any questions.

"That time… On Terra Prima, when I was captured with their Sky Knights…" she fished for words, trying to think of a way to phrase the question as not a question. But the exhaustion was weighing her mind as heavily as her body by now, and after a moment, she gave up trying to dress up her thoughts into any fancy word games.

"You don't like him. Dark Ace, I mean." she huffed bluntly.

His eyes strayed to the side and his face twisted in a sneer, very much like the one he had worn on the day she was remembering. "Not any of them."

"But you joined them."

He snorted in what sounded like disgust. "Better to ride the storm than be swept away by it." When he noticed her arching an eyebrow, he added: "The Cyclonians were approaching Terra Bogaton. You think they would've just passed us by if we refused their offer? If we hadn't joined them as allies, they would've taken us as slaves. Simple as that."

Repton turned sharply away and glared somewhere to the horizon. "So now we play the part of their hired grunts, while they treat us hardly any better than if we really were just slaves!" He spat down into the ravine to show what he thought about that.

Starling shifted, uncomfortable suddenly. "What about…on Terra Arboreus? That whole rant about killing, where did that come from?"

"That? You just annoyed me. All that talk about justice and vengeance and being so darn righteous about it all. Like you being a Sky Knight justifies anything and everything."

She flinched, stung more than she really wanted to admit. "If someone killed your brothers, you wouldn't stop at anything to avenge them!"

"Damn right I would." The raptor turned to regard the Sky Knight intently. "But I wouldn't go about spouting about how avenging them was my solemn duty or my right. I'd do it, not because the revenge was what either I or the killer deserved, but because I want it, and not make any damned excuses."

Starling floundered, trying to come up with a comeback. The conversation was so not going the way she had thought.

"Who says I wasn't planning to do it just because I wanted it?" she crossed her arms with a huff.

"You didn't. You didn't plan, period. You just reacted."

Repton threw his head back and laughed as the human was reduced to sputtering indignation. Finally the girl gave up trying to make an excuse and turned away, seething and muttering to herself. The lizard man couldn't help but feel a twinge of appreciation for her spirit. Put a few scales on her and she'd almost pass for a raptor woman with a temper that vicious.

"But in all honesty, if there was a single Sky Knight who could see the difference between what they want and what's their right, and have the guts to pursue both, that would have to be you." He offered her surprised face a toothy grin. "That's the one thing I always liked about you."

The stunned face that compliment earned him wasn't quite as amusing as the angry sputtering, but still somehow gratifying. They lapsed into another silence.

"I didn't mean to kill them, for what it's worth."

Starling's head snapped up and she stared at the raptor, not sure if she had heard that correctly. Before she could ask, he continued without turning to look at her:

"Beat them within an inch of their lives and take them for prisoners, sure, but I didn't go into battle that day meaning to kill your squadron. But it was still a battle. They were coming at me with the intent to hurt, so what was I supposed to do? Then that spiky haired one… I never did learn his name – he thought he had blindsided me, but I was quicker than he'd thought."

A painful clench formed somewhere between her heart and her gut. He went on:

"I didn't even realize how deep I had cut, until he hit the ground. And when he did, the other three came at me in rage. Like any fighters who've seen their brother in arms fall. And from then on, all I could do was try and survive, fighting for my life." There was a faint edge of awe and respect in his voice. He turned to look at her, and she was shaken to see the certainty of experience on his face, as he spoke:

"That's the reality of a warrior. Sometimes dying just happens."

The purple haired Sky Knight tried to speak, but her throat closed painfully around the words, letting none escape. Her fists were clenched to the point of pain at her sides, but she barely could feel it. She had to say something. She couldn't let the raptor have the final word in this, but the words flicked back and forth like shadows cast by firelight in her mind, and she couldn't seem to grasp any with a meaning.

Suddenly, he looked up, into the sky. Without thought, she followed his gaze and saw a group of dots that soon grew into the silhouettes of a group of teenagers on their skimmers.

Aerrow came to a stop with a joyous shout, hovering above the ravine, and Radarr dropped a rope ladder down. Gratefully, both her body and mind reeling with exhaustion, she grasped them and hauled herself up to sit behind the younger Sky Knight.

Aerrow glanced down at Repton, who was now standing up, his posture tense. "What should we do about him?"

She glanced down, seeing the raptor watching her. "Let the Cyclonians come and gather what's theirs."

Anyone else would have missed the way the lizard man's jaw clenched at her phrasing, but surprisingly, she felt no joy for that small victory.

"Works for me." the red haired boy nodded and sped away, the rest of his squadron following.