For those that have been following this series, you're not seeing double. This has been posted before.

It's beginning of more than one story - the previously uploaded story, Conflict, followed Tera. Love and War will be following Foxtrot and Clara.

Chapter one of this story will be posted when the entirety of First Contact has been uploaded, so look out for that ;)

Prologue

It was night. Easily midnight, though it was possibly one or two in the morning. Foxtrot didn't know… all he knew was that it was dark out, which meant sleep. Not bright lights shining in every window and sirens blaring outside. And they seemed to be coming closer.

Unable to look out a window to see what was going on, he rolled to the hangar door and cracked it open slightly, not even enough to stick his nose outside. Dark-painted military vehicles were everywhere, surrounding the building and probably trying to secure it. It was a miracle that they hadn't seen him open the door in the first place. Or maybe they had and just weren't saying anything.

Making as little noise as possible, he went back to where he and Clara were sleeping, nudging the other plane slightly. "Hey. Claire. You really gotta wake up… there's people outside…"

Groggy eyed, she hardly registered the sirens outside the hangar. "Nuughhmmm…Foxtrot, it was just a dream." Settling lower on her landing gear, she then fell right back asleep.

"...no, it's not," Foxtrot said, nudging her again. "I'm trying to figure something out, but we really are surrounded. Come on, wake up!" Trying to look out the windows again, he realized that the lights had to have been coming from all angles. No way to escape… but the whole town was also probably up by now. Unless they were like Clara, anyways.

"CHRISTOPHER DARNELL! COME OUT UNARMED WITH YOUR WINGS FOLDED!"

"Oh… shoot… Claire, please, please get up..." the F-18 almost winced at the sound of his legal name, but also at the fact that it wasn't just a coincidence. He didn't even have a plan yet.

The sound of the yelling was enough to snap Clara out of it somewhat. "Foxy, what's going on? What's happening?" For the first time she noticed the lights and the noise. Confusion was the only thing running through her computers.

"...you remember when I said I wasn't going to leave you to go back to the Flysenhower?" He was just glad she wasn't the one in danger. He was trained for situations like this… he'd probably come up with something on the spot.

"YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO SURRENDER!"

Clara cast a vicious glare towards the lights flashing through the window. "They're gonna make you surrender by force or with dignity, but I'm not gonna let you go out there alone. No use arguing. It's both of us or neither."

"No getting in the middle of it. I don't know what they'd do if someone decided that you were guilty, too," he said. He already knew he was toast, but he went to the hangar door and opened it anyways. He wasn't going down without a fight. "Just because a guy goes on VACATION doesn't mean there should be an entire army busting down his door in the middle of the night!"

"You're under arrest for desertion, and therefore treason, of the Government."

Foxtrot couldn't even pinpoint where the voice was coming from. It didn't matter, though. "You didn't even get the right plane! I don't even know who this Chris guy is, but whoever he is I REALLY don't like being mistaken for him." Going as close as he could to the perimeter set up around the hangar, he glared at the vehicles on the other side. "If you hadn't noticed, I'm actually Romeo. Oh wait, you can't tell. WE ALL LOOK THE SAME!"

"Foxtrot!" Clara scolded, stopping in front of him, "You're accomplishing nothing!" Turning on the government with teeth bared, she snarled. "If you're gonna take my husband, then you'd better be taking me as well! For one, he's committed no crimes, and for two, ya'll should be ashamed. Waking the whole town up in the middle of the night! You could've at LEAST done this during the day! You stupid, inconsiderate fools." It didn't help that she was still half asleep and beyond confused, she just wanted to attack the crowd, yet for some reason she didn't understand, the fact they were government made her refrain.

Foxtrot almost snarled at Clara for making such a proposition. "If they arrest you because you just said that-" he hissed, keeping a watch on the border out of instinct.

A forklift rolled close to the perimeter, giving an order something along the lines of "Scan them," before a bright blue light fell on the two planes for a split second, blinking off before they even realized what happened. It took a moment, but a verdict was reached. "The other one's standard, mostly. We've no need of it yet. Just take what we came for."

"Don't you DARE take Foxtrot away from me! Don't you DARE!" She snarled and snapped at the vehicles near her, yet it was impossible to beat away any of them for long. Words couldn't describe her anger... no... not anger, but instinct. It was the strongest thing controlling her, simply to keep Foxtrot near her just one more minute.

Foxtrot managed to get in front of Clara before she actually ended up hurting someone, trying as hard as he could to keep himself from doing the same. "Look, I'm gonna find a way out of this. I've been in worse situations… just a couple weeks and I swear on my life I'll be back here." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a transport aircraft sitting on the runway. This wasn't some freak dream. He didn't want to leave Clara, but if he resisted he'd have even less of a chance to be released. Not that he had one. He felt something lock his wings in the folded position they were already in, his wheels moving against his will, away from the plane he loved. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" he yelled, trying to refrain from growling or even biting, even though he strongly considered it… in all reality, though, he couldn't stop them.

Clara leapt forwards, "FOXTROT!" She was about to attempt to fight through the government people, but even she realized the impossibility of the thought.

"Don't fight them, Claire..." the F-18 said, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. The moment she hurt one of Them would be the moment he was sure to never see her again. They'd make sure of it. However, Foxtrot himself didn't have much to lose. Slamming his brakes as hard as he could, he managed to stop his own movement and whip around to look back at her one last time, sending a forklift or two flying in the process. A couple vehicles were already trying to hold Clara back as others tried to keep Foxtrot on the path to the transport airplane, though he was quick to knock another one of them on their side. He grinned devilishly. Causing pain to the enemy was always fun. "I'LL BUST OUTTA THIS PLACE, DON'T WORRY!"

Clara couldn't even figure out what to say. She was too frightened and far too angry to know what to do. Without military training, she didn't have the strength or skills to fight, but at the same time she could hardly move to run away. Processors on the fritz, there wasn't a thought she could sort out. Even emotions seemed to leave as Foxtrot was slowly led to the transport plane.

At that point, Foxtrot had turned off his emotions completely just to keep himself sane. For once in his life, he didn't know what to do. If his wings hadn't been locked, he'd have made a run for it already. He couldn't. He couldn't even look back at Clara again without realizing all the damage he'd caused. It was for his own selfish reasons that he was an outlaw, and now his wife was paying the price. He couldn't stand it.

It only took a moment for the F-18 to find himself moving up the ramp of the prison bus, some mechanism taking hold of his back wheels and pulling him up rather than allowing him to go willingly; he could already feel a pipeline draining him of what little fuel he had left. The massive doors in front of him slammed shut, engines roaring around him as the plane took off. Getting out of this might take longer than a couple weeks...