Larry Foulke was sitting down with a woman by the name of Jessica Flechazo, enjoying a cup of hot coco to warm him against the chilly October air. As he lowered the cup with his slightly built arm, he caught a glance at a long scar running along the bottom of his right arm and his face let out an unnoticeable frown as memories of a bitter past returned to haunt him. As he looked up to avoid those memories, he found himself looking into Jessica's face. Larry smiled at her as he took in the beauty of her brown eyes and strands of blonde hair dancing in the gentle breeze. When she looked back at him, she returned the smile and opened her mouth as if she was about to talk.

Larry was quick to react, "Yes?"

Jessica let out a small giggle as she spoke, "You're never going to let me speak first, are you?"

"I'm sorry Jessica; old habits die hard, but they'll go away someday." Larry laughed, "Anyways, what did you want to say?"

"Well, I was going to go to the skate park with my friends after my shift at the hospital was over tomorrow, but I found out that I couldn't make it so can you pick me up tomorrow?"

"Of course flechazo. You know, if I didn't know you better, I wouldn't believe you skate."

"Why? Because I don't have the scars to prove it?"

"Not really," Larry said, "I was thinking that you just didn't look like a skater; you have always appeared to me as a model."

She blushed a little as he said that and then said, "Larry, you know that I'm a skater at heart. Ever since we met in high school in our freshman year of '87, I have always been skating."

"So what did you do before you moved from Sapin?" Larry asked.

"Pretty much the same thing. Out in the open desert though, there's always enough room to see how fast our cars could go. My mom and I would sometimes take the family car out onto the highways and see how fast it would go. We pasted a cop doing 110 and he couldn't catch up with us, so we never got caught."

Both laughed. Today couldn't have been better: they were sitting at a table decorated with a white cloth not too far from a cathedral enjoying their storytelling. Jessica's tan almost blended into the light brown stone that covered the church and her dress fitted right along with the table cloth; really only her hair and eyes would tell him that she was right there across the table from him.

"At least you fixed up your hair nicely." Jessica said, holding back a giggle.

Larry let out a brief laugh at the commit. He never liked fixing up his hair to what he had it now; he is a practical man, all he would normally do was to comb it out so that his hair was straight and looked decent and that was it. This morning he spent fifteen minutes to fix it up just perfectly for the event that he went through. He offered the hot coco to Jessica and she gladly accepted it since she was just as bit as cold as he was.

As they continued their conversation, the rest of the crowd disappeared as they returned to their normal life routine: work, home, kids, etc., but Larry and Jessica stayed. They soon caught the noise of a car driving down the street towards them and they watched as the car pulled up next to the café that they were at and came out an elderly couple. They didn't look as elderly as most people would think, but the man was 58 years old and the woman was only two years younger than him. He had white hair and she had grayish-brown hair and besides that, they could have been in their mid-30s to the average Joe.

Larry made a welcoming gesture with his right hand. "Hey mom and dad. You kind of missed the whole thing."

The man looked a little disappointed, but nevertheless happy. "We were caught up in traffic on the way here, you know how bad the famous traffic here in Anfang gets."

Both Larry and Jessica stood up and walked to his parents. He gave his dad a hug and did the same with his mom.

"Congratulations on your wedding sweetie." Jutta Foulke said, "Albert, you know Jessica, remember?"

"Of course I do. She would always walk on my lawn, which I worked very hard to make it look nice, and she would do everything with Larry. But she is a sweet girl. Larry, you're a lucky boy to have the chance to marry such a beautiful person." Albert Foulke said. He turned to Jessica and with a smile, said, "Willkommen in der familie, Jessica Foulke." Welcome to the family.

"Ich bin froh, dass ein teil ihrer familie, Foulke," Jessica said. I'm glad to be part of your family. It's convenient that Larry taught her German when they met in exchange for her teaching him Spanish back in high school.

"I can understand what everyone is saying, but why can't we just all speak English for once?" Larry said, "I've been practically around the world and I just want to hear some English."

"Speaking of which," Jutta said, "What did you do when you left home all those years ago? Ever since you became a mercenary, you almost never write to us."

"I'll tell you guys what happened, but let's get in the car, I'm freezing." Larry said.

"Me too. Larry, I'll love to hear your story esposo." Jessica said.

All four turned to the street and walked towards the car, a grey 2005 Lexus GX470. Albert and Larry got into the drivers seat and the seat behind that while Jutta sat next to Ablert and Jessica got in the back with Larry.

"I just got this car washed inside and out, so no freaky stuff, okay?" Albert said with a firm voice.

"Albert!" Jessica and Jutta said, somewhat grossed out by that statement.

"Dad!"

"I was only kidding son." Albert laughed, "But really, please don't do that yet."

He put the car in gear and merged into the road, heading back to Anfang. They headed to his parents' house, which was a penthouse on the higher levels of a building complex in downtown Anfang which overlooked the coast. Larry bought them the house eight years ago as a gift and also a bit of an apology that he couldn't write as often as he would like.

The SUV arrived at the building complex after a ten minute drive. Anfang was fifteen miles from the cathedral; Larry figured he could reach Anfang in less than a minute going 700 miles per hour in either his Eagle or Morgan fighters. Albert turned into the parking garage and parked the car. Two minutes later they were at the penthouse. As Larry opened the doorm he saw a man in his mid-20s with short black hair and a highly built body. He was sitting on the couch and appeared to have been waiting for the party to arrive for some time.

"Hey dude!" said the man, "Congratz on Jessica."

"Where were you Stefan? I didn't see you there." Larry asked. The man was Stefan Schlieffen, Larry's only cousin and best friend.

"My cat got attacked by a dog a few minutes before the wedding, so I had to run to the vet." Stefan said, with slight regret.

"I'm so sorry..." Jessica said.

"No no, he's fine," Stefan explained, "He only had a few wounds; he only needs antibiotics and he'll be as good as new."

"Well anyways, thanks for coming to the wedding, even though ou were late." Larry said, slightly annoyed.

Jessica interrupted the conversation between Larry and Stefan, sensing conflict in her new husband's eyes, "We were about to talk about Larry if you wanted to stay.

"I'll be glad to stay and hear it. Speaking of which, I haven't really known Larry except for when he would come over. He never spoke about what was happening in his life. Is this like a life story or something?" Stefan asked.

"It can be." Jutta suggested to Larry.

Larry let out a sigh since he only wanted to stay a short while, but he agreed with a little nod of the head and gestured with his hand to tell everybody to sit on the couch to listen in. He sat down on the armchair opposite of the couch while Albert turned on the gas fireplace, expecting a long story. Larry took a deep relaxing breath to ready himself as he began to settle in.

"It all began long ago..."