Storm
A fanfiction by: Alamandorious
Notes before reading: This fanfiction is a continuation of my previous fanfic, Dark Skies, and uses the alternate-ending scenario in that fanfic. Hense, Blaze died while preventing the SOLG from hitting Oured. Your best bet is to read Dark Skies before even reading this fic. The prologue, this chapter, is written in the same style as Dark Skies; later chapters will be written differently.
That being said, please enjoy.
Prologue: Visiting your grave.
Has it really been twenty years? Twenty years...time flies when you're busy, I guess.
I know I come to your grave every year, to tell you how things are going and how we're doing. But this year is different...this year, our daughter graduates from flight school. Yes, it's that time...she inherited your abilities, and is graduating at the top of her class. The ceremony is tomorrow, and it's easy to see how excited she is.
I'm so proud of her...she's going to make an excellent pilot. She's already had several offers from different private jet companies, from carrying time-sensitive cargo to carrying rich passengers...so many choices, so much better than the military. They still have a hand in the training programs, though...though they mostly hire pilots for weather surveillance and the occasional air show.
I'm hoping she'll take one of the civilian offers...they're incredibly good money-wise, and they'll provide her with a stability that will last long into her life. Somehow...though...somehow I think she'll sign up with the military. She wants to fly the smaller, single-person jets...and only the air force can offer her that.
But that's alright...the world is at peace, and has been all these years...she won't see combat like we did. She won't know the horror of killing, the fear and the anxiety...she won't risk losing the love for the sky, like I did. She'll only know the joy of soaring through the clouds, rising to the beautiful blue heights, and seeing how small the world really is.
As for me...despite not getting the same joy I used to, I'm still flying...I'm still instructing at that civilian airfield, teaching people how to use single-engine prop planes. They're not as sleek, fast, or as manuverable as the jets we flew...but I find they have a charm on their own, especially since I'm far to young to remember them being used in combat. For me, they're the only plane I can get into without remembering...the pain.
Grimm, as you know, teaches at the big flight school. Osea Air Academy, the one our daughter is graduating from. Blaze...how she hates that name, always complaining it makes her sound like a boy...didn't get assigned to his class, since he's a close family friend. His wife and children are doing well as well, the oldest is taking his first year of business in University, while his youngest is just entering her final year of highschool.
Snow retired from active duty this year...said he got tired of sitting behind a desk all day. He didn't like being promoted to Colonel that much, since he ended up in an office job instead of flying. He was one of the last officers with actual combat experience...one of a dying breed. I wonder sometimes if it's a good thing that most of the people in the military now don't know the horrors of war first hand. But surely, they learned enough in school to avoid it? His wife and son are also doing well, and seem happy that he's finally going to be able to take it easy.
We still all get together on occasion, and remember the good times. Sometimes Captain Bartlett...sorry, Jack now...swings by every now and then. We all joke sometime that, if a war ever broke out again, he'd have to change his callsign since he managed to marry that Yuktobanian Major he had fallen in love with. Jack and his wife will be at the graduation ceremony, too...they're flying in from Yuktobania for it.
There...really isn't much more to say. I still feel a knawing feeling inside of me every day, knowing you're not here...I miss you so much...but our daughter and friends help to keep the pain away, and give me joy in living. I love you, and I know that someday I'll see you again...
Until then, my love.
End Prologue