The gentle breeze of the eastern wind greeted me as I stepped out of the taxi. What lay ahead of me was a gigantic tower that stretched high above the clouds into the atmosphere. The International Space Elevator, more commonly known as the Lighthouse, was one of the most astonishing architectural marvels our world has ever seen.
And it was the brainchild of my good friend, the late ex-president Vincent Harling.
It was the "bridge of peace" that he promised to my wife a long time ago.
"So, I guess our favorite 'nugget' is all grown up now. Ain't that right, Kid?"
Jack Bartlett spoke proudly as he slapped his hand on my left shoulder. The guy's still the same as always. No matter what my actual name is, I'm still a "Kid" in his eyes.
"I don't know how she did it, Captain," I said, "I mean after the war, she became an astronaut in, like, two years, and then went on to become the commander of the most ambitious space exploration mission in history."
"Well, she always did want to become an astronaut. It's her lifelong passion," Bartlett replied with a smile on his face, "Also, Harling did put in a good word for her. He truly believed that she can pull it off. Heh, good ol' Harling. Always putting his faith in us to do the impossible."
Bartlett's smile faded a little as reality suddenly hit both of us like a truck.
"I missed that guy…"
We stayed silent for a moment, out of respect for our late ex-president. I truly wished that he could've lived to see this day.
Have to admit, I was not happy when I heard the news that Harling was assassinated.
I was even more pissed off when I learned that it was supposedly one of our own Osean pilots who shot his plane down.
But then, just a month ago, the supposed murderer of Vincent Harling gave his all to destroy the Arsenal Bird guarding this very space elevator, and then later destroyed the two advanced UAVs that threatened to escalate the war further.
And it was him who saved my wife's life. By saving the space elevator, Nagase could manage to land her spacecraft safely.
I guess there might be more to him than I first realized.
"Hey, Captain?" I turned to Bartlett, "You mentioned earlier that you knew the pilot who ended this war?"
"Oh, you mean that dude Trigger?" Bartlett frowned, "Yeah, the guy's a promising pilot, but kinda stubborn. Always eager to go off by himself and pull some crazy stunts that would make Pops blush. Reminded me a lot of you and your friends, actually."
"Sounds like my kind of pilot," I said, "Any chance you'll introduce me to him later?"
"Well, maybe. He's still around here. Last I heard, he said he was going to find his old friend of his in San Salvacion. Heh, and he never even thanked me for that! The guy needs to work on asking for favors."
Suddenly, Bartlett just sighed out loud, like he was annoyed by something.
"Yesterday, out of the blue, he called and asked me to find his MIA friend or something," he explained, "It wouldn't be so much trouble if I hadn't to call Nastasya! I swear, dealing with that lady is unbelievable!"
"Aw, Captain, you still cared about her!" I teased him. This was nothing really new. Bartlett and that Yuktobanian Major had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for quite a while now. They'd get over it. It's actually pretty adorable seeing the two bickering like an old married couple one moment, to acting all lovey-dovey like young teens in love the next.
"Shut it, Kid," Bartlett punched me lightly in my back, chuckling playfully, "You talk like you haven't been through something similar, or do I need to remind you about what happened seven years ago?"
Ouch, way to hit below the belt, Bartlett.
"Come on, Cap, me and Kei already got over that! If we weren't, we wouldn't even be here right now."
"Yeah, well, keep talking."
It's true, though, what my old squadron leader had said.
Nagase and I hadn't exactly seen eye-to-eye about the whole 'becoming an astronaut' thing, but that was a long time ago now. Both of us had already grown past that.
At least, that's what I believed at the time.
The docks around the Lighthouse were filled to the brim with refugee tents and supplies. There were still some large pieces of debris and UAV wreckages that hadn't been removed since the war ended. I suppose that's what you should expect when the world suddenly lost most of its communication. It's hard to organize a relief operation when you can't even coordinate with each other efficiently.
Albert Genette would have a field day with all this. Shame he's currently busy with something else, though. Something about yet another conflict brewing in South Osea. I swear, if Nagase brought back aliens from space, they'd be totally confused about how we still survive as a species after so many wars that happened on this planet.
"Hey, Kid, you can go on ahead," Bartlett suddenly spoke up, "I think I'll go help those refugees for a bit. I'll catch up with you guys later this evening."
"What? I thought you were looking forward to seeing her."
"Yes, but I figured you two should have some alone time," Bartlett said, his voice turned a bit more serious, "Look, I might not be the best person to give you advice, Kid, but since you two are married now, you should really open up to her about how you feel about…about all this."
"I…I already told you. It's all fine! She wanted to be up there and I wanted to be here. There's nothing to 'open up' to her."
Bartlett chuckled, "Don't kid yourself. Deep down you really wanted her to be here, right?"
I didn't say anything.
"Look, you're right about me and Nastasya. We've broken up and got back together more times than we could count, but I don't want to see you and Nagase be like that. I just wanted to make sure that you two live happily together. In order to do that, you gotta be honest about your feelings."
Bartlett stared at me with the same sternly look he used to give me back when I was his 'nugget' on Sand Island. He really was serious about this.
"…I'll do my best, Captain." I gave in.
"Your best is enough, kid. I know you won't let me down. Now go get your princess already. Don't keep her waiting." Bartlett said. He gave me a mischievous wink and a parting smile before he walked away.
The Lighthouse's central courtyard wasn't as crowded as on the outside but there were still a lot of people here. Most of them were gathering in front of a raised platform, listening to someone giving a speech.
It was Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise. Standing beside her was none other than my lovely wife, Kei Nagase, and her fellow astronauts in their ceremonial white uniforms.
"…I would like to extend my thanks to former Prime Minister Seryozha Viktrovich Nikanor of the Union of Yuktobanian Republics, President James Harrison of the Osean Federation, and Queen Cornelia Chapel of the Republic of Emmeria, for their valuable contribution in providing relief efforts for our war-torn continent…"
The princess paused for a moment, observing the crowd in front of her. I can see that she wasn't exactly happy to be there. She did play a part in the escalation of the conflict that tore the continent apart, after all.
"I have made many terrible mistakes in this past year," she continued, "I was responsible for escalating the war on the false assumption that it was for the best of my people, but I had been so foolish. I was blinded by my naivety and biased view of the world and let them clouded my judgment, and for that, the whole world paid a costly price for my mistakes. My family…paid the price for my mistakes."
She paused again, her expression looked grim, her voice started to break. I can't even imagine the guilt that's bearing down on her right now. She didn't look even older than twenty yet now she has to endure responsibilities that would drive a grown man insane, and this was even after the war was over. I didn't even want to think about what she went through during the war.
A short-haired woman, who I assumed to be one of her companions, whispered something in her ear. Cossette took a deep breath as if to gather the courage to continue.
"Vincent Harling, the man behind the creation of this space elevator, would have been with us today had it was not for my mistakes. He intended for this structure to be a symbol of peace and unity between nations, a monument that shows what humanity could achieve if we stand together as one. It is my deepest regret that I was not able to realize this fact sooner and instead misinterpreted his actions as that which sought to divide our nations apart."
The princess lowered her face, her eyes closed as she gathered her thoughts. Finally, a little smile managed to form on her face as she opened her eyes and stare at the wide, open sky beyond.
"Can you hear me? Citizens of the world? Believe me when I say that enough is enough. No more war shall be fought in the name of only one nation. No more blood shall be shed needlessly for a selfish cause. Let peace reigns as we stand together and use this bridge of peace to guide us to the skies unknown beyond our world and into the stars, united as one. Thank you."
The crowd broke into thunderous applause. The princess bowed gracefully before stepping off the platform along with her escorts, my wife among them. As Nagase was walking down, she finally saw me.
I think my heart skipped a few beats as she smiled warmly at me. She gestured to tell me that she'd meet me later after she's done with the press. I smiled and nodded in response.
No matter what happens after this, it was already worth it seeing her smile again after so long time.
"Behold, princess! Your blue dove is finally here!"
I greeted Nagase before wrapping her in a tight embrace as she arrived, before lifting her up and swinging ourselves around. She giggled as she playfully tried to break free from me. Luckily, the crowd had already dispersed and most people went about their business in helping the refugee outside, leaving only a few pairs of eyes here in the central courtyard so we don't really have to worry about embarrassing ourselves too much.
This was a reunion long overdue.
"Stop it, Blaze! You're making a scene!" Nagase punched me lightly, but her grinning face said otherwise. I obliged her request, though. Can't get too excited, can we?
"You're not gonna stop calling me Blaze, aren't you?"
"Never, my dear husband," Nagase smiled in response as she rested her head on my left shoulder, "Blaze is the name of the person I fell in love with, and I shall continue to call him as such until the last day of my life. You'd better get used to it."
"Touché," I said, grinning like an idiot all the while. This is why I love this woman so much.
"So, I see that you're making a new friend already," I noted, after seeing her interacting with Princess Cossette earlier.
"The princess is…an interesting person," Nagase said, "I can see that she's kind, compassionate, and genuinely care about her people. At first glance, I didn't even think that she would be capable of instigating a war."
"A war that she also did her best to put an end to after she realized it was pointless," I added.
"Yeah, I guess there's that," Nagase nodded, "Her mechanic friend told me the whole story already. Apparently, the Belkans were behind the whole thing, again. It was their technology that the Eruseans used to assassinate Harling. The princess's just being manipulated by the military radicals in her government. This whole situation is pretty familiar if you ask me."
So, I guess Trigger wasn't behind Harling's death, after all.
But Belkans, again? Why does everything they created must always result in chaos to the world?
It's always going to be like this, isn't it?
For every ten people on this planet that wanted peace, another ten would prefer war. That's why these conflicts will never go away any time soon.
Harling tried to make world peace happen and look where that got him.
"Do you think it's possible? World peace?" I asked, even if deep down both Nagase and I know what the answer would be. Still, I wanted to hear it from her. I wanted to know what she thought about it.
Nagase was silent for a moment as if she's deep in thoughts. After a while, she finally answered:
"It's going to be hard," She began. There was sadness in her eyes, but also hope, "If people won't learn from their mistakes, if they keep letting greed and hatred clouded their judgments, then even if we built a dozen more of these 'symbols of peace', it won't achieve anything except being turned into instruments of war. But I believe that we'll come through, though. With people like Harling, Nikanor, or the princess, I believe it's possible, and I'll do my damnest to see that it happen."
I looked at Nagase's determined face, cannot help but be inspired by her. Even during the Circum-Pacific War, Nagase has always been an ardent supporter of peace, even as we flew on combat sorties, again and again, to bring about a quick end to the war. It's almost scary how far she'd go in order to ensure that peace would last as long as it could.
That's why she became an astronaut in the first place. That's why she became the commander of a multinational space mission, the youngest in history. She wanted her actions to be a statement to the world that we can achieve something greater if we can put aside our difference and work together as one.
I just wished that I could be there for her…that I could be there with her.
For a long while, we just stood there in silence, watching the sunset in the distance as we reminisced our shared history.
God, has it been that long already? It felt just like yesterday when we first took off Sand Island Airbase in pursuit of an unidentified aircraft. Before we knew it, we were in for a fight for our lives and got dragged along in all that political subterfuge and deception, which claimed the life of our best friend, Alvin 'Chopper' Davenport.
And now, yet another political deception was the cause of the conflict that claimed the life of Vincent Harling, an honored man and a good friend that we looked up to, our greatest ally who always believed in us to be the champions of peace.
That was the reason why I never fly again. Every time anyone I cared about took flight, there's very much a possibility that they will never come back down again. There was so much to lose when you're up there in the sky where one mistake could cost you everything, and it's not just your lives, but those you cared about as well. I didn't want to go through something like that again.
But Nagase...flying is her passion. She won't stop flying for as long as she was still able to, and it worried me to no end.
I just…can't shake away that dark feeling that something might happen to her. Every time she goes up there, she put herself in dangers even more than what we've gone through during the war. I don't want to lose any more people I cared about, my dear wife most of all.
"…you gotta be honest about your feelings." Bartlett's voice still echoed in my ears.
I took a deep breath. It's time to say what's on my mind these past seven years.
"Kei," I finally spoke, "I…I wanted to say that I'm sorry."
Nagase turned to look at me with a confused look. Somehow, I had a feeling that she knew she probably wasn't going to like what I'm about to tell her.
"Why?"
"That I wasn't there with you," I finally admitted, "I didn't follow you out there. Instead, I let you go up there alone for seven years while I didn't even do a damn thing except watching you helplessly from down below…"
Damn it, why was this so hard to do?
"I was a coward, Kei. I didn't want to let you go, but I also wasn't brave enough to follow you. You went somewhere that I can't follow, and I was so afraid of losing you out there. I don't think I can handle it if I have to go through this again…I…"
Suddenly, Nagase put a finger on my lips, shutting me up. She leaned herself toward me, before sealing my lips with a kiss.
At that moment, nothing else mattered in the world, nothing but her.
I instantly wrapped her in a tight embrace as we deepened our kiss, our eyes closed as we savored the feelings we have not felt for so long. It took us almost a whole minute until we finally parted.
"I've been selfish, Blaze…" Nagase finally said. Tears started flowing from her eyes, "I…I was so focused on my dreams that I didn't stop to realize what I put you through. I should have been more considerate about your feelings. Not a day had gone by in the past seven years that I didn't hate myself for leaving you and our friends here…"
I stayed silent, but I reached out and held her hands to comfort her. She looked so torn right now. I've never seen Nagase this emotional, not since…since that day in November City. It broke my heart to see her like this.
"I…I swore to forever be by your side as your wingman, Blaze, but I broke that promise. I should be the one saying sorry to you. I was such an id…"
"Don't," I immediately told her as I gently wiped the tears on her face away, "Don't do this to yourself, Kei. We…we'll figure it out together, okay?"
I held her close to me again as Nagase buried her face in my chest, crying softly into me. I didn't realize it at first, but I was crying as well. Bartlett would've chewed me out personally if he saw me like this.
Somehow, I mustered enough strength to say something out:
"You're here now, Kei, and I'm here for you. That's all that matters. We're finally back together now."
Nagase was still crying, but I can feel a small smile formed on her face.
"I love you, Blaze."
"I love you too, Kei."
The sun had already set as we finally walked out to the docks area. Bartlett was already standing there with a large grin on his face.
"Look who finally decided to show up! I was beginning to think you guys sneaked away to take a ride on the elevator and 'enjoy the view' while I wasn't looking."
"Captain!" Both Nagase and I cried out in unison.
"I'm just kidding! Jeez. Kids these days," Bartlett laughed. He must've noticed us blushing furiously, "Anyway, Grimm, Snow, and Pops already arrived in Seletapura Airport. I already told them that we'll eat at that Italian restaurant just opposite the hotel."
"What kind of food is Italian anyways?"
"Don't you know? It's Italia Aldorucci's, the famous chef from Amber!" Nagase said excitedly, "It has the best pizza you could find on this side of the planet, way better than the jokes they served back in our country."
"Never heard of it, I'm not really a fan of pizzas, to be honest."
"That's because you never tried this one! Oh, what am I going to do with you?" Nagase frowned. She gave me a look that practically screamed: You, sir, are going to eat this pizza with me right here and now or so help me, I'll kick you across the ocean back to Oured myself if you don't.
It's nice to see that some things never change.
.
.
.
.
.
Author's Note: Well, now I know one thing, I should never write romantic flicks. I feel like I sucked at it lol. I spent two whole days trying to come up with dialogues that don't feel too cheesy or melodramatic. I'll leave you guys to decide how I fared with this one.
So, the third chapter, focusing on the only OTP that Ace Combat fans could agree on, Blaze x Nagase. You know, I actually planned for them to have a young child together as well before Nagase went on the mission, and it was the reason why Blaze stayed behind. He needed to take care of their child while waiting for Nagase to return home. Then I figured, why the hell would they decide to have a child when Nagase was training to become an astronaut and would go on to participate in a several-years-long deep space mission? Doesn't make any sense if you ask me.
I did some research, and apparently you can become a qualified astronaut in just two years, well, at least in NASA. So if Nagase immediately joined Osea's space program after the Circum-Pacific War ended in 2011, then it would still make sense in this regard. Whew!
Personally, I feel like this chapter is just an excuse for me to write out some Blaze x Nagase stuff while actually not being why Blaze is a grounded ace. I actually came up with the reason why Blaze isn't flying anymore way later into the writing, based on Genette's one line in the epilogue of AC5 that said: "the Aces of Razgriz never flew in the skies of battle again". Well, since I already used "being crippled" and "severe PTSD" as excuses in previous chapters, it doesn't really leave many choices for me to pick. Ah, well.
About the ending, yeah, I actually planned to leave it like that. Blaze and Nagase's shared issue is not something that can be solved in a single conversation. I tried to base the whole situation to Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher's marriage crisis in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. They have a lot of ground to cover before they could finally come to an agreement that suited them both, but for now, they both understand how each other really feel, and that is enough for them at least at the moment. Hey, isn't that what married life is like? ;)
Lastly, I really, really, really wanted to write the next chapter about a character from Ace Combat 6 as well, but thanks to Bandai-Namco releasing the game only on Xbox 360, I never get to play it T-T. I'm still pissed off about that. Also, I haven't found a job for too long now so it's time I need to focus on my life first, so you won't be seeing new chapters or new fics from me for quite a big while, and I'm truly sorry for that. Rest assured, however, that I absolutely WILL. NOT. STOP. WRITING. It's just gonna take a while, that's it. Also, with the news of the Ace Combat 7's DLC chapters being announced, I figured I might wait until I played them first before I continue to write anything Ace Combat-related.
Have fun with this chapter! And as always, feel free to provide any constructive review and criticism as you see fit. Thanks for reading!
PS. Hey, did you know you guys can save Wit in the last mission? You'd just have to shoot the two drones down at the same time and don't let one survived long enough to kill him. It's hard, but it's possible. Too bad I learned it too late and I decided that Wit was KIA in the first chapter lol.
