"I thought I knew the world. I thought I knew myself. I thought I knew my dearest friend. But I knew nothing at all."
~Estrella DeMadrigal

Chapter 21: Zero

Cipher

"You took your sweet time getting here," I said, circling around to get a bearing on my former wingman's location. "I was starting to wonder if you were too scared to face me."

"Confirmed reactivation of nuclear silo!" Hammerhead exclaimed. "Galm Team, continue your mission. Engage."

"Cipher, you've got this," PJ encouraged. "I'm sorry I can't help you…"

"Don't worry about me. I can handle Pixy. You focus on taking care of yourself and Janie, all right?"

"Roger. Go kick his ass."

"Already- shit!" I swerved violently to the right, barely dodging a laser sent in my direction. "What the hell was that?! Hammerhead! I need a little help here!"

"Stand by," he replied. "We're analyzing the situation."

"Here comes the snow…" Pixy mused, his tone annoyingly calm. I leveled out my plane, looking for him.

"Didn't realize you were such a poet, Buddy," I replied, trying to keep his focus occupied on the conversation rather than on fighting me. He'd probably see right through my strategy, but it didn't hurt to try.

"Seems like you are too."

"Shoot down the enemy. I'll run a plane analysis and fill you in ASAP!" Hammerhead promised as another laser shot at my plane. However, I'd at least been expecting it this time and dove towards the ground. The laser waved erratically above me, but thankfully, didn't come near me.

"I know what you're doing, buddy," Pixy said. "It's not going to work."

Yeah, I figured that'd be the case… but I couldn't say that. I needed to keep him talking until Hammerhead came back on. "It's working so far."

"Those who survive a long time on the battlefield start to think they're invincible," he continued. "I bet you do, too, Buddy."

"Well, yeah. I haven't been shot down, unlike someone I know."

Pixy sighed in irritation. "You're still making jokes about that?"

"I have to see if the guy I used to know is in there somewhere. Figured it was a good place to start. Where'd you get that plane?" I asked, getting behind him only to immediately evade that blasted laser of his. I needed to get rid of that thing, at least.

"Hammerhead? Any time now!" I asked, searching for Pixy's plane. This time, I found him far below me, his plane a gray ghost against the dam. The only reason I noticed him was the obnoxious red wing. I guess I used to be that obnoxious too when we had matching planes…

"Hey, Hammerhead, can you at least give me a target on Pixy's laser?" I requested. My AWACs didn't respond, but a few moments later, the target appeared on radar. Grateful for the help, I locked on and followed Pixy at a dangerously close distance. If he fired that laser again, there'd be no way for me to avoid it. After seeing what it did to PJ's plane from long-range, I shuddered to think of what it could do this close.

We looped upward into the air, then spiraled down towards the ground, lifting up before we crashed into the mountains. We weaved between the now-destroyed gun towers. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse, but our synchronicity almost made it seem like some elaborate performance we were putting on. I knew him, and he knew me. I'd always thought if anyone could beat me, it'd be him.

Guess I was going to find out…

As he went to the right of the last gun tower, I veered to the left. When he came from around it, I locked on and fired, miraculously hitting his plane right as the laser began to deploy.

"Son of a bitch!" Pixy growled.

"Phase One analysis complete!" Hammerhead announced. "Transmission from enemy craft detected. He's controlling the V2 launch!"

'Stunned' barely began to describe my reaction. "You've got to be shitting me!"

Pixy's aircraft became a target once more. But it wasn't registering as his plane, making me wonder what the hell I was shooting at. Nonetheless, I went back after him, easily falling in line behind him. That in itself was suspicious, but when he started flying lazily, keeping just far enough out of reach for me to catch him, I knew something was up. What that was, I wasn't quite sure.

"Can you see any borders from here?" Pixy asked. "What has borders given us."

I couldn't help myself as I blurted, "Books."

His only response was an exasperated sigh.

"You kind of set yourself up for that one," I said.

"Maybe. But I've certainly set you up for this," Pixy replied.

Suddenly, a mid-air explosion rocked the sky directly in front of me. It was all I could do to flip my plane upside down and plummet towards the ground to avoid being annihilated.

"What are you doing, Pixy?" I leveled my plane out, scanning the skies for my former friend. "This is madness. This isn't the Buddy I used to know."

"We're going to start over from scratch," Pixy declared. "That's what the V2 is for."

"You seriously believe that after watching all those nukes be detonated over Belka? How can you say that?!" I demanded, noticing his red wing in the distance. I thrust my engines and raced over to him. Now that I knew his next secret weapon, I could be more prepared.

Before he could even process how fast I was going, I shot overhead of him, firing two missiles in the process, hitting the target. While I wanted to holler in victory, I knew I was a long way away from that. I couldn't pull the same trick twice with him, either. Pixy was too smart for that.

I turned around, flying straight at him, then looped over at the last minute, just in time before the next detonation off. While the explosion went off behind me, I tracked down Pixy, sending another wave of missiles at him.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Two of them hit, but it still wasn't enough damage. Griping, I asked, "What is your plane made of, Buddy? Vibranium?"

"It's your kryptonite, Superman," Pixy said.

"Glad to see some of your humor is still intact." I flew alongside him at a conservative distance, waiting for his next detonation, planning my next move carefully. I could have no room for error if I wanted to survive this damn thing.

Pixy veered towards me, and I pretended to be late in evading him. Dodging the missiles he sent my way, I plunged to the ground as the explosion rocked the sky above me. I pulled up, skimming the outskirts of it to the other side, obscuring my view of Pixy, and in turn, his of me.

"It's not over, Buddy," Pixy said. "This is where it all starts. You know what I'm talkin' about, right?"

"Not a damn clue," I retorted, keeping myself hidden by the ball of fiery death as I watched my ex-wingman turn around, heading directly towards my location. I needed to time this exactly right…

"There's no mercy in war. People live, and people die. That's all there is to it."

"That's not true. We always have the option of letting neutralized targets live or die. We always have the choice of not dropping nuclear weapons on innocent people. And I've seen you give me mercy, Buddy. I've given it to you too. Don't make me regret it more than I already have."

The explosion began dissipating, and I used the haze it created to mask my plane as I flew straight through it. My plane didn't like that, and something on it got damaged, but I figured since no alarms were going off, I was relatively safe. At least, I hoped I was...

As the smoke cleared, I shot out straight at Pixy, locking on and firing as many missiles as I could manage before we flew past each other. Two hit and my target disappeared.

"Finally," I breathed.

"It's time," Pixy said.

I wanted to bang my head on a wall at those words. Violently. "What now?"

Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, and when I looked down at the base before me, I saw a hatch opening up. A large projectile shot out at a high rate of speed. I dreaded to hear the confirmation of what I knew it was.

"Damn it! Confirmed launch of V2!" Hammerhead exclaimed.

"This is not how this ends," I said heatedly. "Not after all this!"

"Too bad, Buddy," Pixy remarked, irritatingly casual. "This twisted game needs to be reset. We'll start over from 'zero' with this V2 and entrust the future to the next generation."

"Huh, you know something?" I leveled my plane out, fury ripping through me. "I never thought you'd let anyone do your thinking for you, let alone a shithead like Bristow."

Before Pixy could respond, Hammerhead spoke. "This is AWACS. Listen up, Galm One! We've completed analysis of the enemy craft. Codename: Morgan."

"About time!"

"Yeah, yeah. This plane is protected by an ECM defense system. Its only weak point is in the front air intake. You'll have to attack it head-on. Go! Take down Morgan! You're the only one who can stop him. Demon Lord of the Round Table… I pray for your success!"

"Are- are you saying you need my help? That I'm your only hope?" I asked, unable to help myself.

"If Pixy doesn't kill you, I will for that joke. Now get out there!"

"I already am!"

"You know what I mean!"

"Do I?"

"Cipher!"

"I'm stressed. I get sarcastic when I'm stressed. Okay, let's finish this!"

I saw Pixy in the distance, conveniently coming at me head-on. The V2 missile rocketed into the sky between us. If I thought I could shoot it down and survive, I would, but even I wasn't that stupid or reckless.

"This is it, Buddy," I said. "It's just you and me."

I couldn't see my former wingman's expression, but I swear he was smiling. "You and I are on opposite sides of the same coin. When we face each other, we can finally see our true selves. There may be a resemblance, but we never face the same direction."

Pixy came into range, and I fired my missiles as rapidly as I could, even sending gunfire into the mix. He fired simultaneously, and I narrowly dodged his weapons, watching a missile streak by my canopy by a hair's breadth.

Only one of my missiles hit. I was dismayed, but I told myself one was better than none. Slow and steady would win this race. I would just have to remain focused and keep my head in the game. I knew what I was fighting for now, and I prayed my belief was stronger than his.

I floored my plane away from him, putting as much distance between us as I could before turning back around and facing off with him again. I was surprised Pixy continued coming at me head-on unless he was that confident that I wouldn't beat him? I wasn't sure if he was being overly stupid or overly brave, or which scenario was worse.

Repeating my same tactic, I fired every missile I could and sent as much gunfire his way until I rolled upwards and over his plane to avoid the projectiles thrown at me. One of his bullets grazed my wing, but otherwise, I remained miraculously unscathed.

Looking at my radar, once more, only a single missile hit. Hopefully, I'd destroy those intakes before I ran out of missiles, which were starting to get dangerously low with the technique I was using. I'd have to switch it up if things didn't start going my way soon.

"Pixy, you're still my Buddy, and you always will be, but you've gone batshit crazy," I said, unable to hold it back any further. "My Buddy wasn't a murderer. With this plan of yours with the V2, you're going to become what you're trying to destroy. Do you really want to do that?"

"Fire away, coward!" Pixy growled.

"We're resorting to name-calling now?"

Pixy and I headed straight towards each other, firing another wave of projectiles and tensing in fear this might be our last run if we get hit. Our planes flew so close, I could see into his cockpit. For a split second, we looked at each other, wondering who the other had become.

There was me, the Demon Lord.

And there was him, the weapon for A World With No Boundaries.

We really were two sides of the same coin. We both wanted the same thing but had extremely different ideas on how to achieve that goal.

"Missile hit! Come on, Cipher! You can do this!" PJ cheered.

"You're still here?!" I demanded.

"We're waiting for rescue. Now stop chatting to me, and kick his ass!"

"You got it." I flew upward, trying to get in front of Pixy to continue my attack runs, but either he got smart, or I was closer to destroying his plane than I realized. He adamantly prevented me from getting enough distance between the two of us, so I could turn around. Now, I had to figure out a way to outdistance a plane that had superior speed and strength while not using up all of my missiles.

Demon, whoever you are, if you're really out there watching over me, I could really use some help right about now. I prayed desperately.

"V2 reentry in five minutes," Hammerhead informed.

That was not the help I was thinking of! I don't need any more motivation or time limits!

"Try again from head-on," Pixy said with a triumphant snarl.

"I would, but you're not letting me. Looks to me like someone's afraid I can beat him if we keep going head-on. But that wouldn't be you, Buddy, now would it? You've never backed down from a fight before. Why would you now?" I taunted. "Unless you're chicken. Bock bock!"

"I know what you're trying to do, Cipher, and it's not going to work!"

"Yeah, it is." I shot up into the sky, going as high as my plane possibly could before diving back down. "You're definitely scared."

"I am not scared."

"Then prove it. Keep going head-on with me. You're bound to hit me sooner or later. I mean, your track record isn't the greatest right now, but I believe in you, Buddy." I couldn't see Pixy coming at me from below. In fact, I could still see him in the distance circling my location. I sighed. "You have one more chance, Pixy. Show me what you're made of. Show me why A World With No Boundaries made you their bitch."

My comment broke him, and he snarled viciously, "Come on!"

Oh god, I've done it now. Demon, for God's sake, make sure my missiles hit!

Pixy and I were now level, both speeding towards each other as fast as we could. He locked onto me from a distance and fired his missiles. I rolled to avoid them, each barely missing my plane. I swear I even heard one graze me.

I straightened back out and locked on, firing two missiles. I'd save my gunfire as a last resort.

But I didn't need to.

A small explosion rocked Pixy's plane, right where the intakes were, and the targets disappeared off my radar. Smoke trailed behind him.

I'd done it.

Our planes closed in on each other. I turned to the side in an attempt to avoid him, but if Pixy didn't do the same, my maneuver would be futile. We'd both been going too fast to avoid each other now.

Please turn, please turn, please turn…

At the last second, Pixy flipped Morgan on its side, and the underbellies of our planes nearly brushed against each other. For that brief moment, time slowed down. It was in that moment where I swear, my life flashed before my eyes. That split-second on Pixy's part saved me from death. It allowed me to see my family again, my friends, my girlfriend…

He could've killed me.

But he didn't.

Somewhere, deep down, the Pixy I knew was still in there. Maybe one day, he'd reappear. I looked behind me to see his plane tumbling downwards, mini explosions emanating from it. Unless I was mistaken, I saw a parachute open above the wreckage. As much as I despised his way of thinking, I didn't want him dead, and I hoped he'd make it out of this alive.

A blinding white light detonated above me.

Shielding my eyes from the V2 explosion, I floored it away from the scene, not wanting to be anywhere near that thing. At least it was only in the sky, and not on some innocent, unsuspecting city or town.

"Mission accomplished Cipher," Hammerhead praised when he came onto the radio. I flew alongside his plane, which had stayed on the outskirts of the battle. "Come on, let's go back home. We wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting for you."

The two of us swerved our plane to the south and headed home.

Back at Valais Air Base, everyone was lined up on the runway. Pilots, mechanics, janitors, secretaries, engineers. You name it, they were there, cheering and clapping and celebrating the victory.

When I got out of my plane, I was engulfed by congratulatory hugs and shouts from my comrades. A few even lifted me on their shoulders. I grinned from ear to ear, still not fully able to process that this dreaded war was really, truly over.

But amidst all the chaos, two figures were noticeably not there—the two people I wanted to see the most.

Janie and PJ.

"Cipher!" Iris exclaimed, shoving her way through the crowd. She hugged me tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I'm fine," I promised. "Where's Janie and PJ?"

At the sound of their names, her face fell. "I wish I just came over here to congratulate you, but I didn't. You need to come with me."

"What's wrong?" I demanded as she pulled my hand. "Are they alive?"

"They're alive." Iris wiped a tear off her cheek. "But something's wrong with Janie, Cipher. And the prognosis isn't good."