"It's impossible," Jacob gasped. "I saw your Command Wolf go down. I saw it torn apart by fire from the Rev Raptors. I would have tried to get to you but Midnight and I weren't strong enough."
"You should have tried," Carmen screamed. "There were only twelve Rev Raptors left. You could have taken them."
"No, Carmen, I couldn't," Jacob said quietly. "I had used all my Mortars, I was running low on ammo for my Gatling rifles, and my 144mm rifle is of no use in close combat. And as far as melee goes, I could have beaten them one-on-one, not twelve-on-one. I had no hope of reaching you. Not without guaranteeing my own death."
"So that's it," Carmen said softly. "You were afraid to die. I meant so little to you that you were unwilling to risk yourself to save me. Now, because of that, you are going to die today. At the hands of the one you betrayed."
Twilight's cockpit opened. Jacob stood up and leapt down from to the ground. Looking up at the dragon-like Zoid he said, "Okay Carmen. If you feel that my failure is worth killing me then do so. At least then all the pain I feel for failing you will cease to exist. By ending my life you'll be doing yet another thing that I, myself, lack the strength to do."
"Jacob, no," Sarah screamed over the communicator.
"Stay out of this sis," Jacob said. "This is not your choice to make. I have been punishing myself all these years. Now it is time for her to pronounce sentence on me. I left her to die. Now it is time for her to decide whether I live or die."
"You really want to die," Carmen said softly, her voice catching.
"It's the least I deserve for everything I've done and failed to do," he bowed his head. "I couldn't live with myself if I failed anyone else that I love," he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "So I ask you, no I beg you. End my sorry excuse for a life. Ensure that I don't fail anyone else the way that I failed you."
Laughing cruelly, Carmen said, "If you insist." She whipped the tail of the mighty dragon around and pointed the 80mm Beam Vulcan at him. Before she could fire, however, she received an order to return to base. "I guess we'll have to continue this another time." With that she took to the air and quickly disappeared over the horizon.
"What the hell were you thinking," Bit yelled in Jacob's face.
They were back in the hanger at the Blitz Team base and everyone was getting in their shots at Jacob. "After what I did to her it's the least I could have done. Hell, I've been trying to do it myself for two years now. I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger. I guess I really am weaker than everyone thought I was."
"I guess you are," Bit shouted.
"You can't beat on yourself for a moment of weakness," Leslie said. "Any wise pilot would have done just what you did. Only you could find failure in surviving a battle in which you were meant to die."
"The thing is that I knew I was better than any of those pilots," Jacob said. "I could have beaten every one of them with a fully armed Godos. But Midnight was spent. I wouldn't have lasted three minutes."
Suddenly Brad spoke up from the corner of the hanger. "If you let the past rule your life than you will never have a future. You will turn yourself into a walking memory. I just wish I had a chance to fight you when you were at your best, when you didn't put such a strain on yourself. I guess I'll never have the opportunity though."
Jacob was silent for a while. After thirty seconds he sighed and said, "You're right. I have to let the past go. I can't change it. The longer I dwell on it the harder it will be for me to move on in life. Thank you Brad."
"No problem," Brad replied. "Now, how about that match. Nothing official, just a sparring match between the two of us."
"You're on," Jacob said as he turned toward Twilight. "That is, if Twilight accepts."
The massive wolf growled loudly.
"Good idea," Jacob said to the Zoid. He turned the others. "What do you say to a team battle? Sarah and I versus Brad and Bit."
"When, and where," Bit asked.