A/N Okay everyone, good news! I now have a fairly good fledged out idea on how to cap this entire story off with Ace Combat 7! The game allowed me to perfectly work out the kinks and establish a plot line that will work well with what ive already established with my four stories!

The bad news is that I WANT TO START WORKING ON IT NOW BUT I HAVE SUCH A LONG WAY TO GO UGGGGGH.

But it will be worth it! I'll be looking forward to it, and I hope you guys do too! Without further ado, I give you the next chapter!

Leave a fav and review! (Especially a review, pretty please)

Chapter 19 - Journey Home

The demon soars through dark skies

Fear and death trail its shadow beneath

Until men united wield a hollowed sabre

In final reckoning, the beast is slain

- Crew Break Room, Sand Island -

- November 29th, 2010 0900 hrs -

Blaze whistled a tune to himself as he put his coffee pod into the keurig machine in the break room, some other members of the base going about their usual morning routines as well in the background. Some crowded around Grimm and Chopper, who were engaged in a fierce battle at the ping pong table.

And of course Nagase was in her usual spot on the couch reading through her book and jotting down some notes when she remembered a phrase or even a single word of the story.

Blaze glanced back at her and smiled a little at her tranquil expression. Fond memories of their time together a few days ago still resonated within his mind, and he presumed the same was true for her.

"I'm gonna have to buy a lot of chocolates for you when I get back, dear." he thought with a silent chuckle of his wife.

He finished his coffee and grabbed the mug, a second one too, and carried them over to the couch where he presented the second mug to Nagase.

She set her book down and took it, smiling at him as he took a seat next to her and crossed one leg over the other. It was nice to enjoy some downtime, and they had gotten quite a good amount of it since their successful operation over the Jilachi Desert.

Wardog had been presumably cleared of what they were framed for over Dresdene, since they hadn't been called back to the capital or questioned by anyone since then. It felt nice, having a sense of normalcy back.

- Cinigrad, Capital of Yuktobania -

- Same time -

Yuke generals and other military and government officials argued with one another loudly over the next course of action. The enemy was almost to the doorstep of their capital, so they had to worry about preparing their last line of defense not only at Cruik Fortress, but within the capital itself.

Underground bunkers had to be readied for the citizens and drills to manage them when the time came had to be formed. There were those as well who were still furious with Osea about the attack on Dresdene and still desired revenge on their enemy, since the force sent to Apito had been wiped out and their special forces in Bana City were captured.

Then the doors to the command room were thrown open and they were all shut up when a single man, his figure a silhouette from the bright lights outside in the hallway. He cleared his throat and with a slight adjustment of something on his face, he addressed all of the men in the room in utterly perfect Yuktobanian.

"Gentlemen, I believe I know of a way to help solve this debacle."

- Briefing Room, Sand Island -

- November 29th, 2010 1454 hrs -

Blaze was a little put off by how their base commander upon entering the briefing room and closing the door, looked a bit...flustered. Once the briefer had settled himself on the other side of the projector screen he coughed and adjusted his posture.

"We're holding a peace ceremony at a stadium in November City. Our Vice President will be giving a speech to rally the citizens. Now, uh...you've been asked to do a fly-by above te ceremony."

Blaze's eyes widened and he shared equal looks of shock with Chopper, Nagase and Grimm before Perrault snagged their attention again by raising his voice.

"Don't screw this up! You should consider this an honor, and do your part to boost citizen morale! This is the Vice President we're dealing with here, so consider this a guard detail as well, and be prepared for anything out there."

Perrault gave a nod to the briefer and he took over.

"Your mission this time takes place above November International Stadium, a gigantic seventy thousand seat arena located in the center of the city of November, on the southern coastline of Osea."

Blaze leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, as the map focused on the specific city and marked out the stadium itself. He found it ironic that their next operation would be taking place over the city where he had his apartment, and smirked a tiny bit.

"Vice President Appelrouth is giving a speech there, and you will be conducting a fly-by above the stadium as part of the production. You can return to base at 1730 hours, the time the speech is scheduled to end." continued the briefer, Chopper rolling his eyes in disdain of Appelrouth.

"After the fly-by, remain in formation and conduct a combat air patrol in and around the stadium until that time. This is a ceremonial flight, but you will be fully armed in case of an emergency. Dismissed."

- November City, Southern Osea -

- 03°08'27"S 186°02'54"E -

- November 29th, 20110 1700 hrs -

The trip from Sand Island to the mainland had been a less then eventful one, with the four pilots talking amongst themselves and with Thunderhead, who had been dispatched with them like usual.

Eventually however they finally were on approach to the large city, November being one of the largest in the whole continent. As they came up to the city from the east, Grimm let out a sigh of happiness from his craft, even performing a short barrel roll to physically show his happiness.

"I'm proud to be able to fly like this." he remarked joyfully.

"You and me both, Grimm. I feel like a superstar." snickered Chopper. Their formation had Chopper and Grimm on the sides like usual, but instead of Blaze leading it was Nagase again, who was put there by Blaze's insistence.

"Are you sure you want me to lead Blaze?"

"You'll be fine, I trust you." replied Blaze, grinning. "And besides, I've never been one for these formal occasions anyways. No one's goin to be able to tell from the ground."

Nagase smiled a little and finally let herself accept the role as point leader, taking the squadron forward while Blaze returned to his original trail position back when they were all still under Bartlett's care.

If only he could see just how far they had come since then.

"This is a ceremonial flight, so watch your manners Kid."

Blaze chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you Motormouth. Thanks for reminding me for the upteenth time."

They all laughed, Chopper the hardest.

"Everyone, form up and don't stray apart from each other." stated Nagase, embracing her temporary flight lead role. "Alright, let's begin."

Thunderhead received the affirmative and after double checking that their timing was right on the money, he gave the all clear to the pilots to begin.

"It's time, begin your ceremonial flight."

Nagase began by entering a slow and steady climb as they passed over the outskirts of November City, the residential homes and neighborhoods moving by below them. They dipped back down slightly in unison and Chopper grinned happily as he watched them all move around like true experts.

"Nice Kid, we look great!" he exclaimed.

Blaze could see the stadium up ahead, blue lights shining up into the skies like there was a football game getting ready to start. He had watched a couple games where November's home team, the Warriors, defended their home turf against other Osean football teams, and he always had a fun time.

But this was no football game fly-by, this was one of higher prestige. Because of that higher importance level, he couldn't stop himself from smiling so stupidly like a kid who had just gotten a chocolate bar. He'd never gotten the chance to do something like this in his life, so he was enjoying every second of it.

The stadium was upon them in an instant and to the flashes of thousands of cameras below from the crowd and the news reporters on scene, he and his squadron soared over the stadium for the first part of their fly-by.

Once accomplished they turned back around, remaining tightly packed, and for the second half they added just a bit more flare by Chopper and Grimm splitting off to the right and left respectfully, Nagase flying right down the middle, and Blaze taking it upon himself to be the star of the show.

He stalled his engines right over the stadium and performed a flashy post-stall maneuver, his plane literally flipping end over end, that awed the crowds, the roar of his Morgan's engines rattling the whole stadium when he soared off to join the rest of his team.

"Woohoo! That was badass!" cheered Chopper, clapping his hands loudly.

"Of course the Captain stole the show of course." added Grimm with a laugh, Blaze doing so too.

"Hey, when you're this good, you can afford to do that!"

They joked around with one another as they entered their predetermined patrol route, Thunderhead adding his own card to the pilee by congratulating them on their performance.

"This marks the end of your flight. Good work, Wardog."

"You wouldn't expect any less from this group."

Starting their patrol, Thunderhead had his crew link themselves up to the live broadcast within the stadium and heard commentators for the news speak of Appelrouth approaching the podium to begin his speech. Despite his status they found it still a little odd that there was no mention or sighting of the President at all, especially considering the weight of the speech.

They disregarded it for now, and focused on listening to the speech, just like the hundred of thousands of Oseans across the country.

"People of Osea...please, lend an ear to this broadcast. As your Vice President, I stand here on behalf of the President of Osea. Listen to your fellow countrymen cheering before me. They are filled with anger against Yuktobania, and they swear that they will not drop their weapons until Yuktobania has surrendered."

Blaze rolled his eyes a little bit, the speech to him just one of those usual war-time speeches. This wasn't the first he had heard.

"Now, I ask you to listen. Listen to their cheers!" declared Appelrouth, expecting the roar of the crowd after his booming voice faded.

"And here comes the thunderous applause…" muttered Chopper.

Against all of their expectations, they got the exact opposite. Starting slowly at first, but then grew louder and louder as more of the crowd joined in, like a snowball rolling down a mountainside, the people of Osea began to sing.

Blaze at first didn't recognize what they were singing, but eventually it became clear moments later. It wasn't a song of patriotism, or war-time strength, or power. It was one of peace, of anti-war sentiment...an act of united defiance against the war with their former ally.

Nagase gasped when she too had that revelation of the song's identity, and then Grimm and Chopper too.

The Journey Home. That's what the song's title was. And when lyrics became noticeable, Blaze had another revelation when he noticed similarities between the anti-war song and Nagase's book.

"Wait, that song...citizens, please, stop this!" stammered the Vice President before his voice was drowned out by the crowd.

The song had so much meaning and power behind it that even Chopper started to sing along, swaying his head back and forth to it.

Even if his singing voice was less then stellar.

"Thoughts endless in flight, day turns to night…"

"That isn't exactly Rock 'n' Roll, you know." mentioned Grimm with a chuckle.

"Who cares?" Chopper said. "Hey, they wanna get along with the enemy too, right? Man, this song's got soul!"

Without warning, enemy detection alerts started going off within Thunderhead's craft, the crew scrambling to identify who was entering their airspace. He got to work immediately, connecting to Wardog's radars and sending them the data as it came in.

"Wait...oh no!"

They saw the large concentration of enemy signatures approaching the city from the same vector they came from for their fly-by, Blaze gripping his flight stick tightly.

Attacking a civilian airport with an invasion force and spreading chemical weapons on a college town was one thing, but sending an entire air force to a city without any military presence, in the middle of a speech? That's the last straw.

"This is Thunderhead. Approaching enemy formation confirmed. Wardog, engage them."

"Stadium in sight." spoke a Yuke pilot to his allies from his Su-33. "Secure the airspace until the Gorizont Squadron arrives. Go."

His squadron of Su-33s, along with a second squadron, increased their speed to meet Blaze and his squadron head on as the vanguard force ahead of their allies, that trickled into the airspace a little bit afterwards.

"Are we...the only allies here?" asked Nagase worriedly, her eyes falling to her radar.

"McNealy Air Force Base tried to scramble fighters, but the runway was blocked after someone crashed on takeoff. I'm calling for reinforcements now. It'll be six minutes before the nearest squadron arrives."

"*Shit...alright then. There's no choice." thought Blaze. His Morgan's MPBMs had been replaced for the operation, based off a hunch he had, and he was glad he had it.

He didn't need collateral damage caused by the burst missiles to add to the long list of things hanging over his head.

"So we're on our own then?" questioned Grimm.

"Seems like we are. Get ready everyone, gather your wits about you. We can't let the fighters get close to the stadium, and accept the fact that...that we'll be downing some of these aircraft over the city. Let's go!"

He took the lead as he sped away from the squadron with them to meet the enemy head on, to attempt to take down as many as they could over the less densely packed areas of November.

Blaze took a deep breath and closed his eyes for but a moment. Within that moment, he was at utter peace with himself and what was about to happen. He recognized the enemy's strength, and acknowledged his own. There was no way he was going to let them have their way, this was nothing compared to what he has had to face in the past.

Then, he opened his eyes. "Wardog, engage."

They and the Yuke pilots met one another at the same time, the four pilots spreading out to engage them and to compensate for their small size compared to the Yukes. Blaze was already able to shoot down two of the Su-33s, and Chopper followed up with a kill of his own, but the situation didn't get better.

For every aircraft they shot down, another one, or even two at a time, took its place. More Yuke aircraft continued to enter the airspace and despite Grimm, Nagase and Chopper working together, as well as Blaze flying effortlessly through the enemy's ranks, they started to get pushed back.

Meanwhile Thunderhead had gotten in contact with officials in the stadium and in the city, telling them of the dire situation occurring right then in the city. Evacuation efforts started almost instantly, and chatter between the stadium staff began almost just as quickly.

"Are you sure those planes are headed for this stadium?"

"How could they time this so well? Were they listening to the speech too?!"

"Is this the Yuke's way of expressing their opinion of the speech?"

Once that had began, Thunderhead returned his attention to Wardog, who had downed a considerable amount of aircraft already but were still in the thick of battle.

"Your objective is to keep civilian casualties-" He had to pause when one of the Yuke fighters was confirmed down in the middle of a neighborhood. "...casualties as low as you possibly can."

"There's too many of them! We can't take this for much longer!" shouted Grimm when he was momentarily overwhelmed by a pair of Su-33s chasing him.

Chopper shot them down and blew past Grimm to go assist Nagase, his jet's right wing already having a few bullet holes in it.

"Just keep fighting! Shoot down as many as you can until reinforcements arrive!"

As they continued to fight for their very lives, more Yuke reinforcements entered the airspace and talked amongst themselves for a few short moments on approach.

"Just like the intelligence said." spoke one pilot. "There's only four of them."

"That may be enough. These are the Razgriz after all."

Nagase growled as she suffered some cannon fire damage from a Yuke fighter that tried to strafe her. "I feel like we're being sent to die as some sacrifice!"

She shot down her ninth fighter, but it did nothing to lessen the amount of enemies in the air. They had already been pushed back to the beginnings of the city, and her heart tightened within her chest with each kill she confirmed.

There was a life damaged or taken with each one, and she couldn't even begin to imagine what happened on the ground once the aircraft crashed.

"Three minutes until reinforcements arrive, just hold on!" reassured Thunderhead, still holding onto hope.

The clock ticked away and the pilots kept suffering tiny amounts of damage with each passing second until a wrench was thrown harshly into the mix. Chopper clutched his head and Blaze almost bit his tongue when their radios shrieked with interference and their HUDs and radars became a jumbled mess.

Unlike past instances of enemy interference, they could all still hear and talk to one another, and when Thunderhead attempted to find the enemy AWACS, his search radar came up empty.

Then a voice emerged from the chaos.

"Attention, all units approaching November City. I guess they had us going too."

On the other side of the city, beyond the outskirts and further inland, the source of the voice spoke from his fighter jet. He and his squadron slowly circled, a slight grin spreading across his face.

"What? Who is this?" demanded Thunderhead.

"That was a pretty good drill they got going there. Anyways, drill's over. Return to base."

He ended his communication link to the fast approaching allied fighters coming to Wardog's aid and left the area with his squadron.

"What are you talking about! There is no drill!" bellowed Thunderhead, angrilly banging his fists on the nearest object.

All he and his crew got was static, Thunderhead whirling around and beckoning them to get back in contact with them. Once the link was restored and everything returned to normal, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the allied fighters start to go away from November City on his long range radar.

"The allied planes aren't coming! What's going on?!" frantically asked Grimm as the situation quickly began to disintegrate.

"Reinforcements are on the way, just hang on!" replied Thunderhead before barking orders to get into contact with their allies again, his composure melting. "Come on, come on, dammit! None of the bases are responding to me! What don't you understand?! There's an air battle above the stadium!"

Blaze barked his own orders to his wingmen as they continued the fight, the Yukes having pushed them back within a ten mile radius of the stadium where they could see the chaos erupting on the ground. People were running left and right, cars were either stopped from the sheer amount of traffic or speeding around as fast as they could.

The stadium officials communicated the escape of the Vice President and resolved to stay and continue the evacuation of the stadium, which was still packed with over fifty thousand people.

The whole situation got even worse when a ten man squadron emerged on radar, escorted by more fighter aircraft. What was bad about it was that after identifying what they were, the Yuke's plan was fully brought out into the light for all to see.

"New enemy formation detected. It's a flight of enemy bombers..." informed Thunderhead with a pale expression.

These weren't Fullbacks, or even Frogfoots. The Yukes had brought the heavy hitters, Tu-160s, a whole lot of them. They weren't just planning on attacking the stadium, the whole city was their target.

"They're dead set on crushing us both physically and politically!" snarled Chopper, avoiding two missiles at the same time.

"Gorizont 1, the sky isn't sanitized yet, but go ahead and continue your attack."

"Roger. Commencing attack run."

"Somebody help me!" pleaded Grimm as a fifth fighter got onto his tail, a missile narrowly avoiding one of his wings.

"Hold on Grimm!"

Nagase came to his rescue just in the nick of time, using 4AAMs to bring down most of the fighters while she ripped apart the last with her gun. She suffered more damage as a cost and was subsequently targeted herself, her plane shaking heavily when a missile exploded too close for comfort.

Blaze growled when he had to make a tough decision and leave his squadron to attack the bombers before they got to the actual city. Leaving it to them, he rushed toward the 160s and and let out an animalistic war cry.

One missile shattered the second bomber to the left of the leader, while the others scattered themselves out to drag out their lives as much as possible so they could let their payloads go.

"Don't run away from me!" he roared, chasing down another bomber and ripping apart its wing with his cannon.

To his rising anger the bombers, regardless of what laid before them, opened their bomb bays and began to release their payload. This pushed Blaze to go even faster and try to shoot them all down, his heart breaking piece by piece as each bomb was released.

At the same time his three wingmen were scratching and clawing their way toward survival, smoke from the fighter jets they down into the city and buildings below them filling the sky. To think the situation couldn't possibly get any worse, it did.

"Chopper look out!"

"Gah, fuck!"

Chopper was jostled around heavily when a missile struck his raptor and shattered one of the vertical stabilizers and severely damaged the right wing. The right engine was barely functioning too and sputtering black clouds of smoke that left a trail behind him screaming 'shoot me, shoot me!'.

"Are you alright?! Chopper!' asked Grimm worriedly.

"A-Ahhaha, it's nothing to worry about. I'm not wounded, I can keep this plane up a little longer!" responded Chopper, laughing to ward off the sheer terror gripping his heart.

"Negative, bail out Captain Davenport! You can't get hit again!"

"But all I see are houses and buildings! I can't drop this plane yet!" barked back Chopper. "Do you see anywhere I can drop it?"

Nagase shot down a pair of fighters that were attempting to target Grimm and she made a quick scan of the skyline before fixing her eyes on November International Stadium.

It was the only way.

"The stadium, Chopper. Do you hear me?"

By then the Yukes had communicated to their allies that one of the Razgriz planes was smoking, which only served to boost their morale even more. The demons weren't invincible, they could be hurt.

At the same time Blaze downed the last bomber thankfully before it reached too far into the city, but by then there had already been widespread damage and he could see emergency services swarming to te neighborhoods and commercial centers they indiscriminately bombed.

The casualties must be staggering, there could have been anyone there. Men, women, children, it was swarming around in his head all at once.

"Fuck! Fucking shit!" he snarled, his Morgan speeding back to his wingmen only to see Chopper trailing smoke.

He had been so focused he didn't even realize what had happened until he saw it for himself.

"Roger, good idea...gives me some hope that I just might make it. I'd better wait for the crowd to evacuate some more though." uttered Chopper, his plane just barely hovering in a holding pattern now.

"New objective, protect the stadium and Chopper. Don't let a single fucking fighter past!"

Blaze's order was executed by Nagase and Grimm without any hesitation, the three circling the stadium like angry hornets that just had their nest disturbed.

"...We've just called back the allied fighters." said Thunderhead, growling into his hand. He was still angry about what happened, and confused too as to who or what could've managed to make it happen.

"A little too late, man." responded Chopper snarkily. "There goes the radar...circuits are toast…"

He rattled off every problem that occured with his jet as he continuously lost thrust in his engines, the damage so severe the warning sirens made it impossible to think in his cockpit.

"Look, forget about it! Chopper, just bail out. Please, bail out!" cried Nagase, fearing for his life.

"I guess now's the time…"

Chopper maneuvered his dying aircraft as best as he could, Thunderhead just now getting a grasp of the situation and watching closely on the edge of his seat.

"This is Thunderhead. Captain Davenport, are you alright?"

He didn't respond to his question, only the warning sirens being the answer he gave. Thunderhead balled his fingers into fists and he growled, the rest of his crew paying attention and watching too.

"There's the stadium." said Chopper to himself. "I'm dropping the plane over there, right in the center."

"Roger, now get out." ordered Nagase, on the verge of losing her cool.

Chopper grunted a little when a small gust of wind hit his plane. The sirens wouldn't shut up about the problems he could clearly see for himself, but he pushed that aside and set his sights solely on the stadium.

His friends were doing a great job at allowing him to not worry about being shot down, he was thankful for that. When he figured it was the right time, he went to blow the canopy but all he got back was an error message.

Chopper tried again, another error message. He tried over and over three times in a row, but the canopy still wouldn't bow off.

"...I can't."

"You what? Chopper, get out!" ordered Blaze harshly, more out of fear then hate. "That's an order!"

"The electrical system's all messed up. The canopy on't blow.". Chopper looked down at his ejection seat, adjusting his feet slightly, and let out a sigh. "The ejection seat is probably not working either."

It was do or die now, and everyone was starting to feel the pressure. Even Thunderhead lost his cool, forgetting his composure entirely and gripped the arms of his chair to the point his knuckles turned white.

"Don't give up, Chopper! Keep trying! Chopper!"

It was already too late, Chopper knew it first. He wasn't getting any response now, this was it. Who would've thought it would be now when he finally got to hear his call sign be used by Thunderhead.

He even let out a little laugh from the hilarity of it.

"Heh...I'm gonna miss that voice…" he murmured before he let go of the flight stick.

Without his hands to keep it in place, his Raptor entered a frantic spiral as it fell from the sky. Blaze, Nagase, everyone watched utterly horrified as his plane plummeted toward the stadium, letting out some inhuman screech as the metal tore itself apart.

In the split second before darkness overtook him, Chopper closed his eyes and thought of all the happy memories he had obtained over his life.

His family, his friends. Even Bartlett getting on his ass brought a smile to his face. Then his time with Blaze, Nagase, and Grimm, all the jokes he had made and the smiles he had seen.

The laughs they had shared. It was so...heartwarming.

Boom.

To the people still in the stadium, it felt like they got punched in the chest with a wall of air when his jet crashed into the center of the stadium. Tongues of fire lanced out in all direction, licking the grass of the field and igniting it, the impact alone sending creating a wide cavity in the one pristine football field.

Then the whole world went silent. They all screamed his name, but they couldn't even hear themselves. It was like a mute button had been pressed for the entire world on some cosmic controller, everything was just dead silent.

Grimm was crying.

Nagase was crying and wailing.

Blaze was consumed by apocalyptic visions of his past, of an F-16C exploding right in front of his face, of a cold and snow day, the feeling of burning hot lava being poured down his throat.

"I've got a girlfriend back at the base. I'm going to propose to her when we get back. I even bought flowers!"

This was to be the third time in his entire life that he cried with such intensity.

"D-Dammit...I hate to say this now...but…" muttered Thunderhead as he stared at his radar screen. "There's a second wave approaching...all units...en...eng…"

He couldn't even get the last word out before he covered his face with his hand, unable to speak. His crew watched him silently, grieving in their own ways from the sudden shock of Chopper's death.

"These guys are no demons! We can take them!"

The Yukes rallied behind one another at Chopper's death, forming up with their reinforcements to attack the remaining three pilots as one combined force. Even with the loss of their bombers, they could still accomplish their primary mission and be out of the airspace before reinforcements arrived.

They forgot about one thing, however.

What they had just done was kill the heart and soul of their enemy. The glue that held them all together, the sun to their world. And now, with him gone, they had unleashed something terrifying.

With shaking hands, and boiling rage that could practically be seen visibly, tears staining his cheeks, and with vision that turned blood red, Blaze snapped.

If they thought of them as Demons, he would prove them right.

"...Razgriz…"

He uttered the word, only the name. Blaze didn't address Nagase or Grimm by their names, because he already knew they were listening.

What they wished for didn't come in some long, drawn out order. No words of heroic sacrifice were given. Everything that them human was withdrawn, and replaced by pure, unbridled rage and bloodthirst.

"Kill."

They all gunned it towards the Yuke fighters bearing down upon them. What happened next could only be described as a bloodbath. Despite their number advantage, the Yukes were savagely shot down one by one by the three pilots.

One missile was what it took to neutralize the threat, and then a second one turned the jet into a fireball. Blaze snarled loudly as he chased down a jet Nagase had shot down and riddled its cockpit with bullets, turning the glass red.

Grimm followed behind them by shooting down four Su-33s back, to back, to back, to back, ensuring every single pilot was a confirmed kill.

Now the Yukes realized the gravity of the situation.

"T-This is the true power of the Razgriz?!"

"Don't lose your confidence! We can still take-"

His radio went silent when Nagase and Blaze converged on him from either side and each used a missile to annihilate him.

"Help me! One of them is on my tail! Gyaaagh!"

The Yuke pilot was killed instantly when the missile fired by Grimm struck the cockpit during his attempt to avoid it. Grimm hardly batted an eyelash, his teeth grinding together as his bloodlust took him to hix next prey.

They were no match.

The Wardog pilots, consumed by unholy rage akin to that of the very Demon of Razgriz itself, massacred the unfortunate Yuke souls. Even when they attempted to escape, Thunderhead didn't even say a word as he watched Nagase, Grimm and Blaze chase them down and kill them.

He only spoke when the three pilots returned to the airspace above the stadium, forming up silently after they had finished their meal.

"Go down there..." he said in almost a whisper.

The officer next to him didn't ask for clarification, he went straight to the pilots of the E-767 and told them exactly what they needed to do.

The large plane descended from the heavens above until it leveled itself out at the same altitude as Blaze and the others. The three pilots then joined Thunderhead's craft, still dead silent.

"Wardog…" murmured Thunderhead, the words he wanted to say struggling to exit his wavering lips. "Thank you...for holding out on us. The allied reinforcements are here."

Grimm's shoulders slumped and he closed his eyes, mourning silently for his best friend. Nagase had to pull her visor up and she tore her oxygen mask off to cover her face with her hands as she kept crying.

And Blaze could only look at the crash site within the stadium, his body as rigid as stone.

"He…" choked Thunderhead. "He was...a model fighter pilot to the end. Please, join me in saluting...Captain Davenport!"

As the allied fighters he called in to support them zoomed past them over the city, he stood from his chair with shaking legs and saluted. The rest of his crew aboard the 767 followed suite, out of honor and respect for their fallen comrade.

Grimm and Nagase were unable to do so, but Blaze, through his own tears and sadness, slowly raise a single hand to his head and saluted the memory of his friend and wingman.

All of a sudden a blur zoomed past them at high speeds, Blaze only having just enough time to catch a glimpse of it as it did. Forward swept wings and canards. A dark brown and grey camouflage pattern with white and yellow markings along the wing tips.

Before he could react, the unknown fighter launched a single missile right at the stadium before veering off at a sharp angle to flee the scene.

It was a split second decision, either chase down the fighter or the missile to prevent any more civilian casualties. He chose the latter.

"Blaze!" cried out Nagase when he took off after the missile, the Morgan's speed allowing it to catch up.

Blaze tried to shoot it down with his gun, but when he held his hand on the trigger, only a loud clicking sound came back to him. Then the following 'GUN EMPTY' signal flashed on his HUD, which made him try to use a missile to shoot it down, but a similar message flashed back at him.

He had a dry plane...and only one option left.

"I'm sorry...everyone."

"Wait, Captain! What are you-"

Blaze pulled hard on the flight stick and closed his eyes as the missile connected with the center of his Morgan, the explosion ripping the plane completely in half. The engines and wings went flying through a building, leaving fire and devastation in its wake, before landing somewhere to the left of the stadium.

The cockpit and upper portion of the body fell down into the streets below in front of the stadium and smashed into the road, upturning an empty car and skidding across the concrete until it came to a stop on the sidewalk around a huge crowd of people and emergency service vehicles.

Grimm, Nagase and Thunderhead were speechless.

What...?

^^^^Debriefing Message^^^^

Vice President Appelrouth escaped from the stadium in his personal vehicle. Civilian casualties, somehow, did not exceed the hundreds, despite enemy bomber attacks and the late arrival of reinforcements. The Yuktobanian fighters' ingress route is currently under investigation. Captain Davenport and Major "Blaze", who lost their lives in the battle, are no longer with the team. They have been granted a posthumous two rank promotion, and Major Blaze has been awarded the Medal of Honor for the sacrifice he made for the country of Osea.

- Sand Island -

- November 29th, 2010 1752 hrs -

Gennette watched with Pops and some of the mechanics from one of the hangars as two fighters returned back to Sand Island, recognizing them as Nagase and Grimm's. They landed on the runway through the rain that came down over the base, the sky dark and grey.

"Hey, where's Blaze? And Chopper?" he asked when Nagase and Grimm approached them.

Their eyes looked to the ground, and they hardly seemed coherent of the rain that matted down their hair and soaked their flight suits. They brushed past them without saying a single word, nor did they bring their gazes up to make eye contact with anyone. Pops watched them for a few moments until they entered while Gennette looked back outside, waiting to hear the sound of two more jets on approach with the base.

All he heard was the soft patter of rain, and nothing else.

Gennette instantly felt a lump develop in his throat and his chest tightened up, the truth hitting him like a brick to the face.

Blaze and Chopper were never going to return to Sand Island.

They were gone.

Pops realized it soon after as well and he dropped the wrench in his hand, Gennette and some of the mechanics flinching when it struck the ground with a loud metal clang.

He rubbed his chin in total disbelief and turned to the mechanics under his care, unable to formulate a sentence at first.

"I...I guess I better break the news to everyone. You all, just...work on something…"

While he walked away Gennette continued to look outside, rooted to the spot.

There was only two now.