-1Ace Combat: Restitution
An Ace Combat (fanfic/short story) brought on by
playing Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero until
six o' clock in the morning for three days in a row
(Written by The Great and Powerful Keski)
- - -
Part Four
- - -
Without beginning or end, the ring stretches into the infinite.
- - -
What mission was I about to repeat now? Choker One? Battle Axe? Thunderbolt? How would I shoot down the ghost planes? Would my missiles go through them? On the other hand, would the ghost planes be solid now, after all this time of collecting and solidifying, as it seemed they had been doing thus far?
"You're here," Larry said. There was no radio static. His voice was as clear as if I were standing before him as he spoke. "Took you long enough."
"I'll ask you once more," I said in a low voice. "What is going on, Larry?"
"You'll know very soon, very soon now. Just a few more moments to put the finishing touches on B7R and the stage will be set."
"The stage will be set for what?"
Larry laughed. For the first time, his voice truly sounded evil. "It will be set for restitution, Cipher."
A thunderous rumble in the distance. Another ripple? No… Something else. It was in front of me, very far afield. There was no physical manifestation of whatever had made the noise, but within moments, my radar registered a single blip directly in front of me, possibly seven, eight miles. I squinted, and in seconds, I could make out a single plane. I knew instantly who it would be. As it approached, I squinted to try to recognize it.
I was right—Pixy.
"So, have you found a reason to fight yet?" he said in that frighteningly clear, wickedly sinister voice. "Buddy."
Missile alert—he'd launched two missiles. I twisted my plane out of the way and took off in pursuit of him. I saw that he was flying the ADFX-02 Morgan in which I'd shot him down over the Avalon Dam fifteen years ago.
"This time it's not about borders!" he laughed. The lunatic was enjoying this! "Let's go, Cipher! The game is almost over!" We were flying circles around each other, just as I had done in B7R earlier, when I had thought I was fighting Larry. I dove straight down, and even before I levelled off, Larry was laughing.
"You aren't going to be able to use that trick to get the perfect shot at me," he said. "It worked on those goons before, but I'm more than just a goon, Cipher. You will have to work to shoot me down. Remember the V2? Remember what I did to PJ?"
"Bastard!" I shouted. "You have no right to speak of PJ!" I shot off a missile. It raced off into oblivion, easily avoided.
"You fired up?" he was laughing maniacally now as he quoted himself from years past. "Come shoot me down!"
My hands were again shaking on the flight stick, but I bit my lip—hard—and steadied myself. Blood trickled across my tongue, but I stared only at his plane as I tried desperately to get behind it, to line up a straight shot.
"You have one blessing," Larry said soberly, "and that is that this time, I'm flying a more or less ordinary plane. Remember last time? How many missiles did I take before the thing went down? Twelve? Fifteen?" He began to chuckle. "One will do it this time, pal. After all—this time, I'm not the final boss."
"What? Then who is?" I found myself asking, though I knew he would give me some confusing, roundabout answer again.
"It's you, Cipher," he said, and I cursed under my breath. "Once I'm gone, you will become your own enemy. You'll have to overcome yourself—or die trying."
I shot off another doomed missile. "If you aren't going to give me a straight answer, then just shut up and die!" I hissed.
He just laughed slyly. "You and I are opposite sides of the same coin," he said quietly, and I bared my teeth in a silent snarl as, again, he quoted himself from fifteen years ago. "There may be a resemblance, but we never face the same direction."
Another missile. No luck. At least he hadn't gotten any missiles off at me.
"When we face each other," he was murmuring now, but I could hear him as if he were leaning in toward my ear, "we can finally see our true selves."
"All I see in you is a lunatic, and if you're trying to tell me that I'm crazy, then your job is done." I spoke, finally, with a bit of confidence, and more than a bit of conviction. "None of this could have happened to a sane person. I have already resigned myself to that fact. I am operating within the terms of my delusion. It's as if I'm playing a video game, Larry. You're just one mini-boss among many. I'm hoping I'll get to see the final boss real soon."
There it was, the perfect shot, just as always, at the perfect moment. This time, it was me quoting him.
"This twisted game needs to be reset."
And off the missile went. It collided with the ADFX-02, and the plane went up in the most beautiful explosion I had ever seen. The plane itself—and presumably the body inside—was incinerated instantly. Spitefully, I pushed the throttle up and flew straight through the cloud of smoke left by the explosion.
I said nothing. I only levelled off my plane and flew along the mountain range of B7R, waiting for, as Larry had said, the final boss.
And there they were. Three planes directly before me, at the edge of my radar. I pushed the throttle up. I would meet them halfway, and what would happen, would happen.
But I froze when they came closer and my HUD displayed their call signs.
Razgriz 1... Mobius 1... and Galm 1.
Mobius 1 was flying an F/A-22A Raptor; Razgriz 1 was flying an F-14D Super Tomcat; and Galm 1 was flying an F-15C Eagle.
"What's up, Ace?" I heard my own voice over the radio. It wasn't as clear as Larry's. It sounded as if it had come over an ordinary radio, which was a relief. At least something was happening normally.
"Who…?"
"You know exactly who we are," my voice said again. I could not tell which one was speaking. They continued.
"Larry told you that you would become your own enemy."
"You didn't think he meant it literally," one of them snickered.
"We call ourselves Ace Squadron. Flattering, isn't it? To have a squadron named after you. Isn't that right, Ace?"
Ace…? It wasn't really my name, but…
"Enough talk," one said. "Let's go."
Missile alert, as soon as he'd finished speaking. I pushed the nose down toward the ground to avoid the missile.
I decided to target Mobius 1 first, though I did not know if I would be able to kill him. It did not turn out to be that difficult, though, to line him up in my sights and get a single missile off at him. It collided, he exploded, and then there were two.
I went after Razgriz 1 next. He was much more difficult, and by now, Galm 1 was constantly on my tail, shooting off missile after ill-aimed missile, but they kept me on edge. It took me nearly ten minutes of flying in circles around Galm 1 and Razgriz 1 before I was finally able to take down Razgriz 1. I looked out of the cockpit at Galm 1, who was soaring high above and giving me the courtesy of a brief rest—or perhaps he himself was taking a rest.
"All right, Demon Lord," I said. I had lost all fear of losing, after seeing how easily the first two had gone down. "It's almost over. What's going to happen next? I'm going to find out anyway. You may as well tell me."
"If you beat me," he said simply, "this will all be over. It will all end soon, one way or the other." And he dove. Two missiles came at me and I barely dodged the second. I wheeled up and around to face him. How many missiles did I have, anyway? After Megalith, Larry, and the first two Aces, when I checked, I had just over twenty left. Razgriz 1 had taken a lot of them. Hopefully I wouldn't be reduced to gunning down the Demon Lord.
Suddenly, his plane vanished completely.
"No," I said, my eyes widening. "No, no, no, no, no, no! That isn't fair!"
"You said you were operating within the rules of the game, Ace. Nobody ever said the game had to play by your rules."
"But I was so close! I could have gotten out of this!"
"And then what, Ace? Would you have gone back to your old life? Would you have waited for another war to erupt? Would you have once again become the hero of that war, under a new guise, a new moniker?"
"I… I don't know," I said, defeated.
"Your game is over, Ace. It's time to make way for a new hero."
Another ripple, as before. This one sent my plane spinning wildly through the air. My neck snapped back and I screamed, and then my plane vanished, and I was hanging in the air, alone, above this phantom surrogate B7R. The sky was dark, the air cold.
"I never had a chance to get away," I whispered. "If I'd had more time to fight you…"
"You've been around too long, Ace. You've grown dead, empty inside. It's nothing to be ashamed of. A new Ace will be born, as you were, from the ashes of the old one. And when that Ace, too, dies inside, from his death with rise yet another Ace."
The voice—my voice—was growing softer and softer, and I realized that it wasn't the light that was fading—it was my vision. I knew that I was fading, and I screamed in pain and rage and swung my fists at the empty air as I hung there in the silent sky.
"Do not fight it, Ace. You will only make it more painful. You should try to relax. You will not ever have to witness another death. You will not ever have to kill another human being. You will not ever see another war. You will not ever see another pointless death. You will not ever see any more injustice. Ever."
I could barely hear the last word, but it echoed through what was left of my consciousness. I was weeping, I suddenly realized.
"Now," my voice echoed, "sleep…"
And then, there was nothing.
I opened my eyes.
"Welcome to the world, Ace. How are you feeling?"
I bared my teeth in a grin. "I'm feeling very well-rested."
"That's good, because you see, there is a war going on…"
- - -
End
- - -
In conclusion, I have just got to say thanks to everybody at Namco for creating this
absolutely phenomenal game, Ace Combat. Without it, I would get a lot more sleep.
…Is that a bad thing?
…Who cares?
Thanks for reading my short story!
Please review it, so that I can improve as a writer,
and continue to bring you more and better things to read!
