The Ribbon

by Blaze118

Six years before the Demons of Razgiz ruled the skies over Yuktobania and Belka, a lone ace was known to the world only by his call sign; Mobius 1. With a heart full of anger and a lost will to live, he must face his own demons to learn what it means to be alive and human. I recommend reading my other story, The Aces of Razgriz first.

34. Lean on Me

Chapter 33 – Lean on Me

Thursday, August 25, 2005 0546hrs, San Salvacion, Usea

It's been nearly two weeks since we've arrived at Dahl's place and we've been stuck here ever since then. Word came from IOSS that the Erusean military put a price on my head, but no one had any idea where I was. No one from my squadron was ordered to go off on sortie and risk our location being compromised. On top of that, Director Abrams ordered me to undergo some counseling and I was diagnosed with PTSD after what happened last month. There wasn't anything that I could do to manage it and IOSS couldn't offer any form of treatment with how things were. I found it kind of funny that Naomi and I were still taking our college classes online, but there was no way for anyone to track us. Apart from all of that, I was keeping myself separate from everyone because I wasn't sure how I should act towards all of them now that they knew I had almost left them to die on our last mission. They said they didn't blame me and I tried to forgive myself for what I did, but it was hard. I could hardly sleep anymore and I rarely ate anything since we got here. Naomi would check on me occasionally, but she was kind enough to let me have my space. As much as I wanted her near me, I couldn't bring myself to ask. Now that I was lying in bed alone, I wanted to ask if she'd like to keep me company on more than one occasion. However, I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea.

I got out of bed and walked over to the door that led to a balcony outside. The air was becoming colder and I could see the sky growing brighter as the sun began to peek over the horizon. I couldn't remember the last time I saw the sunrise and I couldn't resist the temptation of seeing it from somewhere other than Osea. I quickly put on some jeans and grabbed my jacket before I jumped over the rail and landed on the ground. I really didn't know where I was going, but that didn't stop me from walking through a trail in the woods that led up to a hill where a peach tree grew. When I got there, my stomach began growling and I quickly climbed the tree to get a couple peaches before I sat under it and gazed off in the direction of the rising sun. It wasn't long until the birds began to chirp and it put a smile on my face for some reason. I must've been slaphappy because I soon began imitating their calls perfectly.

I'm glad to see that you've mellowed out a little.

"Only a little, sweetheart, it's still hard for me to face everyone," I said softly.

Well, even so. I'm glad you're able to smile a little even if it might be because you've lost your mind for the moment.

"Shut up," I chuckled. "You know this is how I get when I'm exhausted."

Don't lie to me. You're terrible at it.

"I know," I said and I paused for a few seconds. "I miss you, Miranda."

I miss you too, Antonio.

I could almost feel Miranda here with me and I was already imagining what we'd be talking about if she were. The cool breeze began to blow stronger and I tightly wrapped my jacket around myself to stay warm. It didn't help that my pants were damp from sitting in the morning dew. What started out as wanting to see the sunrise quickly turned into something that I didn't care for. If I was going to be this miserable, then it wasn't worth it.

"Antonio?" I looked behind me to see Naomi standing there in casual clothes that seemed half a size too big on her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked.

"I saw you jump out your window when I came to check on you."

"Oh… well, I'm alright, I guess. Did you want to join me?" I asked and Naomi nodded. She took a seat next to me and I could feel the warmth of her body heat. I really didn't know what to say to her and all I could do was hand her a peach. She looked at me totally clueless. "It's a peach."

"What do I do with it?" she asked.

She seriously doesn't know what a peach is? "It's a fruit that you eat like an apple," I said not trying to sound like a smartass.

"What's an apple?" I felt my face twist in a way that showed just how shocked and confused I was when she told me she had never eaten an apple before. I was totally at a loss for words because I never thought Naomi was this depraved of something as common as fruit. "I'm just messing with you," she giggled.

I breathed a sigh of relief and began to nervously laugh at her joke. Seeing Naomi smile so genuinely made me blush and I tried to hide it. She saw it anyways and I looked at her again to see her face light up when she bit into the fruit.

"It's still hard for me to believe that you're so depraved of some of the simplest things," I said.

"Well, I've never had an interest in these kinds of things until the beginning of the year. Even when I did see something I liked, I wasn't sure what I should do. That's when I met a guy named Chuck in Oured; he offered to show me around the city," said Naomi and I felt myself tense up. "Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing," I replied trying to cover up my bitterness. "So what have you taken an interest in?"

Naomi began to tell me everything that she took an interest in since we arrived in Oured. She was introduced to a cultural exchange festival that I had planned to take her and Miranda too, but we just never found the time to go together. Apart from the cultural exchange, she took a huge interest in all forms of music, but mostly metal. I would've never thought that she'd be into something like that because of the gentle demeanor I've seen from her.

"There are a lot of things out there that I still don't know about. Maybe when this war is over, I can finally learn about what I've been missing out on. I'll finally be able to live my own life and do things that I want to do," said Naomi.

I smiled at Naomi's words and leaned back against the tree while I continued to gaze towards the horizon. I wanted to get away from all of this, but at the same time though, a small part of me felt like this was where I belonged. Every time I came back alive, I would see the world in a new light and appreciate the fact that I was able to see another day. However, I knew that this came at a cost. If Miranda were still here, I wouldn't have to kill any longer and I could just appreciate life as it were. I have to move on.

"What's the first thing you're going to do when you're free?" I asked.

"I don't really know. I would like to go shopping or just go for a long walk. Maybe I'll just go buy a ball gown and wear it for an evening out," said Naomi. It sounds like she just wants to go on a date. "What about you?"

"I don't know either," I said softly. Naomi just sat there and kept glancing at me out of the corner of her eye while I listened to the birds chirp. A smirk formed on my face as my mind began to wander from one thing to another. "You know that song, The Journey Home?"

"That was kind of random, but yeah, I love that song."

"The birds got me thinking about it. Anyways, I think the first thing I'd want to do is just fly as far as I could before I find a place I could settle down at and call home. I really don't care where it is, but I just want to find a place where I can feel safe, you know. Some place with a view as great as this," I said. No sooner did I finish my sentence did the sun's light finally shine over the horizon and illuminate the mountains and hills.

"The sun's never looked so beautiful like this," whispered Naomi as she quietly gazed at the view. She was very relaxed, but what surprised me was when she gently placed her hand on mine. "Will you stay and watch it with me when it sets?"

I looked over at Naomi and our eyes met for the first time in a long while. My hand move on its own and gripped hers. I don't know why, but my mind was racing with things that I wanted to say, but knew I shouldn't. This was probably just some kind of coping mechanism for dealing with the loss from Miranda and we'd only be lying to ourselves if we allowed it to carry on like this. I had to do something to distract ourselves from this or things could get out of hand. The last thing I wanted was for one of us to get hurt.

"We have a lot of time until the sun sets. Let's do something fun for once," I suggested.

"Like what?" she asked.

"San Salvacion's economy is still running and I managed to hide my assets before anyone could drain them after the Curtis Raid. We could go for a long walk into town and go shopping like you wanted. Maybe we'll even cause some mischief if we'd like," I said.

"I don't know…"

"What have you got to lose other than a little bit of time? Besides, I'll be right there with you," I said as I got up and pulled Naomi to her feet. "We've got the whole day ahead of us and I'm not going to waste it sitting here thinking about 'what ifs'. I'm going to live for once."

Naomi seemed shocked by my words and she seemed to believe me, but part of me knew that she knew that I was lying. I didn't know what I wanted right now. Maybe I should've asked Harkin if I could support ISAF somewhere on the front lines, or maybe I should've just tried sleeping for the rest of the day. Either way, anything would've been better than lying to Naomi. We walked five miles towards the city and saw that everyone was carrying on with their lives like the Erusean's were never here. It felt good though. The atmosphere around the city was welcoming and everyone seemed happy.

We did this, Antonio. We're the reason these people can smile again.

"But at what cost?" I said softly.

"Did you say something?" asked Naomi.

"I was just thinking about how everything used to be the last time we were here," I said.

"Yeah, that building over there was covered with AA emplacements that I had to sabotage."

"How many were there?"

"Twelve of them were around the building and six more were on the roof. I thought I was going to get caught at some point."

I wanted to compare Naomi's ability to sneak around to Miranda's, but I'd just be taking a step back on my road to recovery. "Well since it's no longer being guarded by the Eruseans, how 'bout we take a look around?"

Naomi nodded and we entered the building. It turned out to be a rather large mall that offered enough space to be an HQ for the Erusean forces. Some of the shops were still closed because they were trashed as a result of the enemy occupation. Most of the other stores were still functioning while others were in the process of being repaired. The first store we entered was a clothing store where Naomi spent almost half an hour trying to pick out some cute clothes while I just sat around telling her my thoughts on them. She eventually settled for a pair of boot cut jeans with a tan belt, a white camisole under a black low v neck shirt, and brown ankle boots. She did look really cute, but this was when I noticed something about Naomi that I never really questioned until now.

"Why do you always wear black?" I asked.

"A lady in Wesson said that black really brings out the color of my hair, eyes, and skin tone. Plus you always wear black too, so…" she said shyly.

I felt myself blushing and I quickly tried to shake it off. "So where should we go next?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Let's go over there," said Naomi shyly as she pointed out a crepe shop. "I've never had one before."

I chuckled at her suggestion and we headed for the shop. Once we got our treats, we continued to walk around the mall together and visited every open shop. I really didn't do much shopping and the only thing I bought was a longer chain that held my Saint Christopher medallion that I wore around my neck. When Naomi asked me about it, I gave her a brief summary on whom Saint Christopher was and why my mother gave me the medallion. This only raised more questions that went deeper into the subject of religion and Christianity. She had a lot of questions about my faith and it made me rather uncomfortable because I never liked talking about religion, but that didn't stop us from visiting a rather large cathedral. It took me almost two hours to explain everything to Naomi. The last thing I did was pray for once before I looked at Naomi to see her smiling about something.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I just remembered that my parents practiced Shinto (a Japanese Religion)."

I chuckled at her words and she stood up and bowed to show her respect for the church before we left and walked out of the Cathedral. We continued to walk around the city and just took in the surroundings to see what there was to do. We were walking by a restaurant when Naomi suddenly stopped and started sniffing the air. I could only look at her in confusion as she looked towards the restaurant and her mouth began to water. Her stomach growled as well and I realized that we hadn't had an actual meal all day. Naomi didn't need to say anything and I followed her into the restaurant where we waited to be seated. When we finally got a table, Naomi began to frantically search the menu for something she wanted. She surprised the hell out of me when she began to speak Spanish and when I was able to piece together that she ordered three different things. I only ordered a plate of spaghetti with marinara sauce, but she ordered a plate of stuffed shells, a rack of BBQ ribs, and an ice cream sundae. My mouth was hanging open as she tore through her food like it was nothing. Holy crap, now I know why I had to go grocery shopping twice a week while we were living together.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

"I kinda lost my appetite," I said as I picked at my food.

"Oh, well, can I have that?" she asked.

She's still hungry?! "Sure," I said and Naomi went to town on my food.

"How are you able to eat so much?" I asked.

"After living off of MREs most of my life, do you seriously think that I'd be able to stop myself from eating real food?"

Fair enough I guess. After she was done eating, the waitress gave us the bill and also handed us a flyer for an event the city was going to hold in September. It turned out to be an advertisement for a festival that was a combination of Oktoberfest and an Italian Carnival. Naomi's eyes seemed to light up when she heard this. We quickly paid for our meals and I followed Naomi as she darted out of the restaurant and ran through the city. I had no idea where we were going and she didn't say anything as I continued to follow her. Naomi eventually stopped in front of a store that sold various types of designer evening gowns.

"You must really like dressing up, huh?" I grinned and Naomi blushed when she looked at me. "Admit it, you like feeling girly."

"What's wrong with trying to be pretty once in a while?" she protested.

Pretty isn't the word I'd use to describe you, beautiful. "Nothing, it's just that you pull it off very nicely. I just feel a little bad that I never told you how beautiful you looked in your prom dress and I feel even worse that I wasn't able to share a dance with you," I said trying out draw out her bashfulness and Naomi became visibly flustered.

Her face was red and it looked like she was trying to fight a smile. "Do you really think so?" asked Naomi sheepishly.

"You said I was a terrible liar. Am I lying now?"

I could tell that Naomi wanted to say something else, but she was too nervous. It took me a moment to figure out what she wanted to ask, but I wanted to hear her say it. "Well, if you really liked the way I look in a dress, then, will you, uh, will you take me to…" she stammered. Naomi's anxiety was at its peak and she gave up trying to ask me what she wanted. The only thing she could do was hand me the flyer we received at the restaurant regarding the festival next month.

"I'm not going to assume what you want, Naomi. If you want me to do something for you, all you have to do is ask," I teased.

Naomi gave me a sour look as she continued to blush and she took a minute to gather herself before she took a deep breath and began to speak. "My birthday is September 23rd, the same day this event is being held. I want you to be my date."

I didn't think I'd blush as hard as I did when she asked me, but there was no hiding it. "Alright, I'll be your date and I'll also cater to your every wish as well."

"So you'll do anything I say?"

"As long as it's within my ability, I'll do whatever you ask," I said. "But I'll only do it on your birthday."

Naomi's face lit up again and she rushed in to give me a hug. I was so surprised by this for some reason and I really didn't know why I didn't hug her back, nor did I have the time to. Naomi was about to dart inside the store, but she froze and grabbed my wrist so that she could look at my watch.

"We should head back so that we can watch the sunset," she said finally sighed.

I didn't think she was serious. Oh well. When we turned to walk back towards the hill we sat on this morning, Naomi grabbed my hand and held it through our entire walk. It was strange that I hadn't ever done anything like this with Miranda. Even though Naomi and I were like this together, it felt great for some reason. We didn't talk much, but having her for company was good enough for me. Anyways, it was around 1830hrs when we finally arrived back on the hill and we sat against the peach tree to watch the sun set.

"I had fun today," said Naomi suddenly.

"Yeah, me too," I said softly. "Today was the first time I've ever had a crepe."

"Really, there's a crepe shop down the street from our apartment in Oured."

"That reminds me, what happened to you after we returned to Oured?" I asked.

Naomi frowned at my question, but she didn't avoid it. She told me that she was forced to move into an apartment that was similar to mine and that she lived with a couple other people. On top of all that, Naomi was getting harassed more. She also told me that it was difficult to sleep at night because she could hear her neighbors through the walls and because several people tried to sneak into her room while they thought she was asleep. I didn't want to think about what might've happened if she hadn't slept with one eye open.

"You shouldn't have to put up with that," I grumbled.

"I'm just glad I'm not there right now. I can already imagine what those creeps are doing in my room," said Naomi and she paused for a moment. "Do you think we'll ever be able to go back?"

"I hope so. I don't want to learn another language and spread my negative influence to the people in the city," I said somewhat jokingly. "Even if someone told me that I wouldn't be allowed to go back, I'd still find some way to go home. I don't want to be told what I can and can't do forever, you know?"

"I know what you mean. I'm just glad that I was able to experience something fun for once." Naomi and I continued to sit in silence as we gazed at the setting sun. The temperature began to drop and Naomi didn't bring a jacket with her when she followed me this morning and she didn't buy one while we were in town. I didn't say anything as I took off my jacket and placed it over Naomi's shoulders. "Aren't you cold?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," I said.

"You're such a terrible liar," she frowned. I'll just have to work on that. "Why do you feel like you always have to suffer alone?"

"Better me than anyone else. I'm selfless like that," I shrugged.

Naomi got up and took off my jacket so that she could place it around me before she sat between my legs. She then took my arms and placed them around her shoulders so that I could hold her from behind. The warmth from holding her felt very nostalgic and I thought back to when I used to hold Miranda like this. The thought of her made me tighten my hold on Naomi as we continued to watch the sunset. We didn't say anything to each other for the rest of the night. When the sun finally set, Naomi was on the verge of passing out and I carried her on my back when I headed back towards Dahl's estate. When we got there, I dropped Naomi off at her bedroom door and told her good night before she closed her door behind her.

I was still wide awake and I headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. The only things available were some garlic bread and seasoned vegetables from the other day. After I made my plate, I headed onto the back porch and sat down at the patio's table to eat. When I was done, all I could do was sit there in silence as I thought about everything from start to finish. You need to learn to forgive yourself.

"Having trouble sleeping again?" I looked over to my right to see Lt. Colonel Harkin light a cigar as he leaned over the patio's railing.

"Since when do you smoke?" I asked.

"I've always smoked; the thing is that I rarely ever do because I could never find good cigars at a decent price and because I don't like the taste of cigarettes. Anyways, you never answered my question."

"…I've been having these strange thoughts lately, like is all of this ever going to end? Is this really my life?"

Harkin could only sigh and he walked over to sit down next to me. "It all comes with the job, kid," he sighed. "I'm still trying to recover from the last war and it ain't easy."

"I wish I could go back and change everything."

"You don't really mean that. Everything happens for a reason. We experience happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, and joy all the time, but it's all part of the experience of life."

"But what's the point if everyone is only out to use me for their own gain? Am I going to have to hide for the rest of my life? Can you seriously just sit there and tell me that you're content with the fact that people are still trying to kill you after ten years?"

"How do you know that people are after me?" asked Harkin suspiciously.

"The director left her phone on the counter the other day and I used it to hack into the IOSS database to look at my file. I got curious and read yours too," I said as I pulled out the director's phone and handed it to him. "How the hell did she become director if she's such a klutz?"

Harkin glared at me because he wanted to say something, but he didn't. "Your guess is as good as mine. She almost got me killed numerous times while I was a field agent a few years back."

"I thought she was kidding when she said you had a split personality disorder," I chuckled.

"You have the same problem, but on a more dangerous level," said Harkin referring to my Blood Rage and I felt myself frown. "I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean to insult you or anything."

"No it's not that. I just thought about what Miranda would think if she saw what I did to those kids," I muttered.

Harkin paused for a minute as he tried to think of something to change the subject. "You never did get your prom pictures taken did you?" he asked suddenly.

"No, we did," I said and I pulled them out of my wallet. There were pictures that were taken with me, Naomi, and Miranda and Harkin grinned as he looked at them.

"You look sharp in a suit, kid. But damn, the girls look beautiful," he said. "I bet they were happy when you came back in one piece after escorting Leopard."

I smiled at his words and I reflected on that entire day. The thought that ISAF sent their top ace to escort a single recon plane really irked me. It had to have been important if I was sent to escort Leopard. When I thought about this, I realized that I never found out what he was sent out to recon. When I looked at Harkin, the smile vanished from his face like he had just remembered something. When he looked at me, I realized that he was thinking something similar to what I was.

"Sir, what was Leopard sent to recon?" I asked.

"Go wake the others and tell them to meet me in the living room," he said and he got up to head inside the house.

I did what he asked because I figured that I was about to find out what I wanted to know. It didn't take me long to gather everyone from my squadron, the director, and the other IOSS officials that were here. Harkin had set up a projector and was working on his laptop to get everything situated.

"Amy, I think I know why the Grey Men wanted Mobius 1 to continue supporting ISAF," said Harkin and he finally put up a picture of some kind of facility that was built into the side of an island.

"Colonel, what are we looking at?" asked Frost.

"Since the fall of Ulysses, several countries have been trying to come up with contingency plans in case there was ever a similar catastrophe. Stonehenge was just one solution, but it wasn't as effective as some had hoped due to it short astronomical range. The Erusians attempted to overcome Stonehenge's shortcomings by constructing an ICBM launch facility that could render Stonehenge obsolete. The result is this; codenamed Megalith," said Harkin.

"Sir, just how far is its reach?" asked Thatch.

"The facility can launch missiles that are capable of reaching North Point and most of Osea. This information is based off our preliminary analysis, but we can't assume that this is the worst it can do."

"Are we to destroy facility?" asked Glinka.

"We don't have enough information on the place and conventional bombing tactics won't do jack-shit on those fortifications. The only thing that I can say for sure is that it isn't operational yet, but we need to end this war before they can finish Megalith's construction."

"But at the rate ISAF is moving, they might speed up their construction on the damn thing," said the Director. "We need to make sure that this war ends before they can use it."

"Are we being sent back to the front lines?" asked Naomi.

"I don't know," said Harkin and he began to rub the back of his neck. "Right now, no one knows where we are and I can't risk exposing you while we're being hunted. The only thing we can do is hope that the allies can reach Farbanti ASAP. We just have to wait until then."

I felt myself clenching my fist in frustration as I thought about how the Grey Men planned to force Erusea into a corner and make them utilize Megalith's capabilities just so that the war could drag on. The thought that Erusea would deploy Megalith even if they won the war was even more frightening. I didn't know what they intended to do, but I hated everything about this war as it was. When Harkin dismissed us, I could feel everyone's frustration as we dispersed. I headed back towards my room so that I could go to sleep, but to no avail. After half an hour of tossing and turning I heard a knock on my door. I got up and answered it to see that it was Naomi wearing a black satin robe.

"Hey, is everything alright?" I asked.

"I was just checking to see if you were okay," she replied.

"I'm just peachy," I said sarcastically and Naomi lowered her head. "I'm sorry. The lack of sleep is starting to irritate the crap out of me."

"I understand, I can't sleep either," she said shyly.

I sighed to myself because I knew what she wanted to ask, but I wasn't sure if I should beat her to the punch. As much as I didn't want to, I felt like I needed this.

"Did you…"

"I was…"

We had cut each other off and I asked Naomi to speak first. "It's nothing. I'll just go back to bed," she said quickly. When she turned to walk off, I quickly grabbed her hand while I avoided eye contact with her. My shyness and hesitation were obvious as I held her hand, but I could tell that she felt the same way. "Antonio…"

"Could you please stay with me?" I said softly. "It would really mean a lot."

Naomi's grip tightened on my hand and she nodded. She led me back into my room and followed my lead as I got under the covers of my bed. I was still nervous about this whole thing and I turned away from her as she took off her robe and crawled into my bed as well. It was right then that I remembered that Naomi slept in the nude and I tensed up to the point where I began trembling.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"I, uh, it's just that, you, uh, sleep in your birthday suit, right?" I stammered.

"Normally I do, but I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

I peeked under the covers to see that Naomi was wearing a matching black nighty and I relaxed. With that little episode out of the way, I rolled back over and tried go back to sleep. However, Naomi moved in to press herself into my back while she placed one arm under my head and wrapped her other around my chest. My heart skipped a beat and I felt myself blushing. It seemed strange at first, but for the first time in a long while, I actually felt safe. It was also the first time I realized just how vulnerable I felt as well. I didn't feel like I was in any danger for once and my fears and anxieties were gone for the moment. This overwhelming feeling of warmth was indescribable and all I could do was place one of my hands on Naomi's.

We spent the next couple weeks sleeping together every night. Nothing else happened between us and we never talked during our time together. Keeping each other close like this was enough for me. However, I didn't want to lose Naomi the same way I did Miranda, so I kept a little bit of distance between us. It was for both our sake. When we found out that we were going to participate in the siege of Farbanti, I could feel Naomi's anxiousness as we laid together the night before we headed back to the front lines.

"Are you scared?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said softly.

"Me too, but you don't have to worry about anything this time," she said softly and her hold on me tightened. "No matter what happens, I'll protect you."

The last time that happened, Miranda almost died. I didn't want to rely on anyone anymore because someone would just get hurt in the end. I didn't want anyone to suffer what I did when Miranda died and this was the reason I tried to distance myself from everyone. However, I knew that the distance I had put between me and Naomi wasn't enough. I knew better than anyone how she felt. And as much as I wish she didn't feel that way, there was nothing I could say or do to convince her otherwise.

"What if you can't protect me? What if something happens that you can't stop?" I asked and Naomi rolled me onto my back. She then began to hover over me so that she could look directly into my eyes.

"There's nothing in this life that I won't protect you from. I'll even fight God himself so that you can stay with me. I'm not going to lose you too."

The way Naomi was talking to me suggested that she would die for me in order to ensure my survival. I didn't want her to think like this because I didn't want to lose her as well. Naomi was the last person I knew who truly understood me. Not only that, I was an important part of her life. I knew better than anyone how deep her feelings ran. As much as I wanted to give up at times, I was happy that she was there to always pull me back from the edge. This is what made me wrap my arms around her and hug her as intimately as I could.

"I'm not going to let you die for my sake. I'm not going to die for your sake either. I will survive and I will come back, I promise," I whispered into her ear.

Naomi curled up as close to me as she could and I noticed her breathing became a lot more relaxed. It wasn't long after that I noticed that she had fallen asleep and I followed her example. The dreams I had that night seemed like premonitions of our upcoming assault on Farbanti. Already I knew that I was going to be the pillar of moral for everyone and I knew that I was going to face Yellow 13 for the final time. But the most important thing I knew was that I was going to kill him.

Monday, September 19, 2005 1810hrs, 30 miles off the coast of Farbanti, Erusea

The attack had already commenced on the city of Farbanti earlier today and ISAF had pushed deep enough to the point where urban combat had broken out all over the place. The Erusean's mobilized several of their remaining ships from their Navy around the coast to help stave off the ISAF fleet as well as every available fighter they had. So far ISAF was able to hold out, but the relentless waves of air superiority fighters were starting to do a serious number on our fighters. As a result, my squadron and I were ordered to launch and ingress from the south. I was assigned to fly the F-22 I flew during my escort mission with Leopard, and Rico had managed to fix the oxygen system at the expense of the RAM paint (Radar Absorbing Material). My X-02 was damaged to the point where Rico couldn't get the materials he needed to fix it. There was no doubt in my mind that I wasn't going to see it again for the remainder of the war. Miranda…

"I really don't think you should've joined us on this mission, kid," said Thatch.

"I'll be alright," I muttered.

"We're all worried about you, lad. You've already been through a lot and we don't want to rely on you any more than we already have," said Dahl.

"Flying like this is not good. You should stop," chimed Glinka.

"I'll live, I always do," I said. "Besides… I'm here for a personal reason."

Everyone turned to look at me as I throttled forward and began to speed ahead towards Farbanti. I could see that the remaining allied fighters had finally bitten the dust and it was now up to me to save everyone. Nothing was going to stop me from ending this stupid war.

"The outcome of this war rests on you, so stay focused on what's at hand. Remember, survival is paramount. Good luck to you all!" hailed Sky Eye. "And Mobius 1, an end to the war would be a nice birthday gift as well."

Cheeky bastard… I put on my oxygen mask and lowered the visor on my helmet. There were already two enemy fighters coming to greet us and the others had already launched their missiles to shoot them down. However, they didn't know that two Erusean F-22s were trailing above those first two fighters. Dahl and Naomi quickly sped in to intercept them while the rest of us pushed on ahead. The radio was erupting with Chatter about how I was here and everyone sounded like they didn't want me to take all the glory. I don't care for glory… I don't care about my reputation…

Over a dozen radar signatures appeared on my HUD and more of them were about to join the fray. My first objective that was given to me in our briefing was to destroy Johnson Memorial Bridge to cut off the Erusean reinforcements. There were a dozen AA guns and SAM sites between me and the bridge, but I didn't care at the moment. I lowered my altitude to ground level and opened the throttle all the way. Every AA defensive position was firing on me as I ran this harrowing gauntlet. The sound of 23mm cannon shells and missiles shooting past me to the point where I could hear and feel them rocking my plane as I banked and rolled through them didn't bother me in the slightest. Several Erusean fighters even latched onto my tail to try and stop me, but a couple allied planes came to run interference while I pushed on towards my target. One ally sped ahead and I saw a pair of SAMs shoot up towards us. I managed to dodge the first missile by rolling under its right side and I evaded the second one when I quickly reversed my direction to the left. I thought that was going to be the end of it, but another pair of missiles was launched from my eleven o' clock. These ones were headed for the ISAF pilot in front of me and I called for him to break into it, but he wasn't fast enough. One of the missiles hit him in the right wing and he couldn't punch out in time before he spiraled into the ground.

"Guys, Mobius 1 needs some help!" shouted another ISAF pilot.

"I'm coming in!"

"Watch out!"

I looked behind me to see more Erusean fighters trailing me and three allied planes as we pressed towards the bridge. We were taking fire from in front and from behind making it difficult for any of us to focus on where the nearest threats were coming from. AA fire managed to score some critical hits on an ISAF F-15C's left wing and engine. I could only watch helplessly as he nosed over and crashed ahead of the others and skip along the ground.

"All of you get clear! You're no good to me dead!" I shouted and the remaining two pilots bugged out while a single Erusean continued to trail me.

My target was quickly coming up and more SAMs were launched towards me and again I managed to avoid them. There were no other defenses hindering me and I pulled a Cobra turn so that the Erusean plane over shot and was now in front of me. I didn't bother chasing him and he pulled up to try and loop back around only for him to be shot down by Naomi. The bridge's IFF mark appeared on my HUD and I quickly dropped two JDAMs on it before I pulled up to engage another wave of Erusean fighters that began to scatter. Let's see how you like this. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths so that my Blood Rage began to activate. As soon as I saw the red haze, two Erusean fighters came at me from head on and I managed to hit one with a sidewinder with a weak lock. I then fired a burst from my gun into the second plane's cockpit before I pulled into a climbing right turn and fired my gun into another pair of planes' cockpits as they tried to pass over me. Once they were out, I righted my Raptor so that I could latch onto another Erusean that flew under me on my right side, but one of his allies tried to come at me from head on. Another quick burst into his cockpit was enough and I rolled into position behind my initial target to shred hit tail controls as he tried to dive away.

As soon as I saw him go down, a group of tanks appeared on my HUD and I quickly dropped a couple more JDAMs on them before I pulled into a tight loop to engage another Erusean fighter that I saw diving on an allied plane. He flew right into my stream of bullets and began to trail fire as I ignored him and came out of an Immelmann turn to fire a missile into another enemy that crossed my path. He was being trailed by his wingman, but he quickly went down when his right engine exploded, taking the rest of the tail section with it. I spotted another Erusean fighter off my three o' clock and quickly turned to engage him when he tried gunning for an allied plane. He didn't get far when I latched onto him and sent a missile his way.

He was the last fighter I shot down before I leveled out to catch my breath and take stock of the situation. My hands were trembling and I tried to relax as I flew straight. Breathing became difficult and I took off my oxygen mask to wipe away the accumulating sweat around my mouth. Thatch pulled up on my left wing and looked at me in shock. Glinka's jaw was hanging open and soon the other began to fall into formation around my plane to gawk at me. The feeling of them looking at me was annoying and I quickly gathered myself so that I could get their heads in the game.

"Those ground forces still need our help. Omega 11 and Halo 2, keep up your CAS on those Eruseans. Viper 3, Omega 2, and Rapier 8, provide top cover for them. I'll help out where I can," I said as I put my oxygen mask back on and peeled away to deal with a battle ship that was moored at the mouth of the eastern river.

Naomi stuck behind me as I dove on the battleship and acquired a lock with a JDAM. Just by looking at the ship, I could tell that thing's armor was thick and I dropped both available bombs on the ships superstructure. Naomi followed my example and targeted the ship's gun batteries only to see that the whole thing was rocking violently, but it was still firing on the nearby allies. Several ISAF tanks were bombarding the already damaged ship while I circled back around to drop another pair of bombs on the thing. It took another bombing run on the forward, mid-section of the ship to disable it when it blew in half and sank.

"Sky Eye here, multiple cruise missiles confirmed on radar coming in from the west. They're headed for the ISAF fleet!"

I looked over to the west and spotted the missiles coming from the section of the city that had been flooded due to one of the Ulysses meteor fragments. There wasn't any way that I could intercept the missiles in time and I headed over in that direction so that I could destroy the source. Naomi stuck behind me again and we targeted every ground target along the way. We even came across several Erusean fighters, but they broke off once they saw my insignia. The only things I had left to worry about were a couple AA defenses on the buildings ahead. Naomi was the first one to get a lock on them and she quickly took them out while I pulled up and began to orbit the area to see where those enemy cruise missiles came from. It didn't take me long to see that the missiles were coming from a submarine. It was moored in the center of a cluster of buildings that were partially submerged which was why no one was able to detect it by radar or sonar. This also prevented the submarine from detecting incoming aircraft. I didn't encounter any resistance as I pulled up to gain altitude so that I could enter into a dive on top of the vessel. To my surprise, the command structure was completely destroyed by a couple of JDAMs and sank rather quickly.

"Mobius 1, multiple enemy fighters are converging on your position. We'll be there as soon as we can," said Dahl.

Naomi formed up on my wing and we turned into the formation of enemy fighters that were on their way towards us. Already we were being fired upon with radar guided missiles and we were taking evasive action while we deployed chaff. We were beyond visual range and I didn't have any long ranged weapons. Naomi was the only one who did and she was firing them off when she could. When she wasn't shooting, we were speeding towards the enemy planes as quickly as we could while we evaded their attacks. Compared to Naomi, I was having an easier time evading these missiles and I even ran interference for her several times. But by the time we got within range to use our sidewinders, we had over a dozen missiles headed for each of us. Flares and evasive maneuvers were all that we could do, but even that was difficult.

We board into the enemy formation with guns blazing and we frantically searched for a target in this confusion. The Eruseans were flying Su-37, F-22s, and a new model fighter that had forwards swept wing. Given what I knew about forward swept aircraft design, I knew that this fighter would be maneuverable. But at the same time, I knew that these planes couldn't take that much damage to their wings. As I continued to avoid enemy attacks in this fur ball, I was carefully studying how these forward swept winged fighters flew. At the same time, I was going through all the principles of fluid dynamics that Lt. Colonel Harkin taught me and I came to realize that these fighters weren't as practical as my Wyvern. I can do this.

Naomi and I began to weave through each other's flight paths and began to engage every enemy fighter that attempted to give chase. It amazed me how easily these guys fell for the Thatch Weave and only four enemy planes were left to try and shoot us down. However, they were those forward swept winged fighters. Naomi had fallen into position behind one of them and she managed to nail it with a missile. However, she didn't see another one latch onto her six from above. I warned her of the danger and quickly moved in to get a lock on the fighter, but I risked hitting her if I did. I opened the throttle and got even closer to the enemy plane while Naomi was in a tight right turn, but the Erusean easily kept pace with her. He was so concentrated on her that he didn't see me coming in behind him and fire my gun into his wing. It easily tore off from the rest of the aircraft and it went spiraling into the ground.

There were only two enemy planes left and I could see that another squadron of Erusean fighters had cut off our reinforcements. Both of Eruseans had fallen into formation behind me and I began to claw for altitude while Naomi trailed behind them. The ascending spiral I was in managed to throw off my attackers' aim and Naomi had managed to shoot one of them down when he tried to break off to get a better angle on me. When he went down, the second Erusean broke off with Naomi trailing behind him. When he broke off his pursuit, I had lost track of my target and began to frantically search for him and Naomi. Suddenly, she told me to break left and I did just in time to avoid a stream of bullets. The Erusean was diving on me from eleven o' clock high and I continued to pull into my tight left turn.

The Erusian had now entered a climb and I slammed the throttle all the way forward to give chase. The only problem was that this pilot knew what he was doing. He lured me into a turn fight and he had every advantage when it came to maneuverability. I was able to see that these forward swept planes had thrust vectoring engines as well which was another reason he was able to get onto my tail after performing only two loops. I pulled into a third loop, but I only held it until I was in a dive so that I could run. My master caution wasn't blaring so I knew he wasn't trying to shoot me down with a missile. He must be out of ammo.

I continued to run as fast as I could and I tried twisting all over the place to throw off the Erusean's aim, but it was only delaying the inevitable at this point. Getting out of his gun range wasn't good enough. I needed to shoot him down if I was going to continue aiding the ground forces. My options were few and I needed to make this guy screw up somehow. This was when I decided to gamble with this plane's design characteristics and its pilot's abilities.

I leveled out and began to bank lazily to the left and right using mainly my rudder. The Erusian pilot tried mimic my maneuver, but after yawing to the left and right a few times, his nose began to pitch up and down while shifting left and right. As I thought, he doesn't know about the yaw instability of his plane. The drag generated form forward swept wings during a yaw reduces the retreating wing's sweep causing it to be pushed further back than intended thus creating directional instability. A highly advanced fly-by-wire could've alleviate this problem, but the Eruseans must've been in a rush to put these advanced aircraft on the front lines to stave off ISAF. Anyways the Erusean was having difficulty keeping his craft under control and I took advantage of the situation to loop around and latch onto his tail. However, he recovered sooner than I thought and he managed to pitch down into a dive with me in tow. I was able to get a lock on his plane and sent a missile after him, but his countermeasures thwarted my attack and he pulled up so that we were flying a little over 500 feet off the ground.

I kept my distance from the Erusean as he continued to bank wildly to left and right in order to draw me closer. The Erusean was desperate to shake me off his tail, but I wasn't going to let him get away. He knew this and out of desperation he initiated a rolling scissors. I nearly overshot him and reduced the throttle to avoid slipping out in front of him. When I looked up at him, I could tell this man was desperate to kill me. In a fight like this where it was evident that this man knew how to fly beautifully, I would've just turned him loose, but he would turn right around to try and kill me.

We continued with the rolling scissors and I could tell that I was going to be the one who stalled first. I needed to force him out in front of me somehow and I was going to call upon a maneuver that I saw an F-22 pilot perform nine years ago. When I leveled out at the bottom of the scissors, I quickly initiated a cobra turn before my pursuer could roll into position behind me. My forward vector speed was less than forty miles per hour and my altitude had pretty much stagnated. I was practically suspending myself in midair. This maneuver was extremely hazardous in the sense that I wouldn't have been able to recover if my plane had yawed too much to the left or right due to the lack of three dimensional thrust vectoring engines. The only thing I could do was pitch forward to recover my speed slowly and return to normal flight.

The Erusean pilot was stunned that I had attempted such a dangerous maneuver at such a low altitude, but he overshot and slipped in front. His only choices to evade my attacks were to turn either left or right, or climb. When I dropped my plane's nose, I was surprised to see that he chose to gun his engines and climb. I wasn't going to get a better shot than this and I calmly acquired a lock on him and sent a sidewinder his way. The application of his afterburners allowed my missile to focus on his engines' heat signature rather than the flares he deployed and it buried itself into the engines and caused a brilliant fireball. I recovered from my maneuver and began to pick up speed again so that Naomi could join on my wing again.

"You're being too reckless!" she shouted.

I didn't answer her because I was still thinking about that Erusean I had just killed. He was an amazing pilot and he nearly had me on several occasions. I don't know how many people I've killed so far and I could feel myself trembling the more I thought about it, but this pilot stuck out more than the others. His flying was so beautiful compared to mine. Why did he choose to fight? I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I was startled by Lt. Colonel Harkin's voice coming over the radio.

"Enemy leaders are using helicopters to escape from the HQ!" he said suddenly.

I don't know why, but when I heard this, I became extremely frustrated. Maybe it was because I knew that those people were the ones who started this damn war or maybe it was because I knew that everyone was waiting for me to take care of it for them. Either way, I applied full throttle to my engines and headed towards the helicopters with Naomi in tow. Intel reported that the Erusean GHQ (General Headquarters) was located beneath a landfill along the coast and I referenced the area on my map. It didn't take me long to see four IFF signatures appear on my HUD. The helicopters turned out to be V-22 Ospreys and I was somewhat awestruck because I had never seen one before. Anyways, I fired both of my sidewinders into the first pair of helicopters and Naomi quickly shot down the remaining two. There was still a helicopter on the ground, but it didn't look like it was going to take off and the ISAF ground forces were going to be on top of it in a matter of minutes. With that out of the way, Naomi and I continued to patrol the skies over the city.

The remaining Erusean forces were quickly being mopped up and I only engaged when I had to. Eventually I began to run low on fuel and ammo so I decided to RTB to rearm and refuel with Naomi. The flight there was quiet, but we both knew what the other was thinking. The battle was almost at its end, but we still hadn't seen Yellow 13 and his squadron. I thought they'd be in the middle of the battle, but no one had seen them. Maybe he thought that he could change the tide of the war on his own and held off at a distance while he let his allies dwindle. Maybe he was waiting for me to ware myself out so that I'd be easier to kill. I was thinking about this while the ground crews refueled my plane and I decided to check my email to see if the bastard sent a reply. However, the only thing I saw on there were just four words. I'll see you soon.

You still think this is some kind of game?! The red haze appeared again the more I thought about it and I hadn't realized that I had crushed my phone in my hand until Rico approached me on the flight line.

"Dude, are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm going to kill him," I growled silently.

"Antonio," he said cautiously. "Look man, I can't imagine how you feel right now, but-"

"You're right… no one can imagine how I feel." My rage was building inside and I was so pissed that I left a dent in the hangar door when I punched it. My hand was bleeding and it soon stopped once my over active healing factor did its job. I couldn't catch my breath and I felt my legs starting to give out. Everything around me was just so… intense… I just wanted to scream for it to stop. There's only one way to stop it. My hand began to move over my flight vest and soon I felt it wrap around the grip of my pistol. But before I could pull it out, someone wrapped their arms around me and pressed themselves into my back.

"It's alright, Antonio," Naomi whisper into my ear. My grip on my pistol loosened and my blood rage began to subside slightly. I still thought about Yellow 13's message and I could tell that Naomi didn't want me to hold on to this grudge, but I couldn't let it go until I dealt with the source. "I'll fight with you until we are free."

"This fight is between me and him. I don't care if you help me deal with his wingmen, but you're going to stay out of my way when I fight him," I growled.

"Antonio…"

"This fight between us has become personal and I'm not going to drag anyone else down into the hole I dug myself into."

"…Alright, but if he shoots you down, I'll never forgive you," said Naomi.

I nodded at her and took a deep breath when she headed off towards her Typhoon. The coming battle was going to draw out all of our emotions and I knew that this was going to be the most harrowing dogfight I would encounter during this war. Saying that I was nervous would've been a huge understatement and I knew Yellow 13 wouldn't fight me single ship (one-on-one). He was too prideful to give me some form of handicap and that's what pissed me off. If I was going to stand any chance against him in this fight, I'd need to take care of his wingmen first. Knowing the Yellows, they were going to fly circles around the others including Naomi. I'm not going to let any of them die.

I headed off to my plane and saw Rico loading AMRAAMs into the central missile bay. There weren't any words exchanged between us and I really didn't care. One thing that I noticed while I was inspecting everything in the bay was the plane's serial number on one of the structural beams. I spotted it in the reflection of my watch and it read 7484W630Z-118 and I felt myself frown. Subject-0118… I hated the fact that I was constantly dogged by my Pitbull identity and that there was no denying who I was. This was on my mind as well when we flew back towards Farbanti and continued to mop up any remaining forms of resistance. The ground forces had secure most of the city and we were getting scattered calls for CAS here and there, but nothing that I could consider a major threat. We flew around for another half hour before Sky Eye came over the radio.

"Mobius 1, five aircraft are closing in at high speed," he said. Here they come. "It's the Yellow Squadron. It looks like they've come to make a last stand for Erusea. Let's settle this once and for all. Leave the stragglers to the others. You can end this war!"