Epilogue: The Date OVA

Note: This is a continuation of the previous chapter's storyline and the choices that led up to it. I wanted more romantic moments, but I wanted a mix of spirited and wholesome/healthy romantic moments.

Three years after the Battle of Vedria…

Finally, you find yourself sitting on a lone hill outside a city in Albion. The breeze is liberating. Your loose civilian clothing surrenders to the wind, flapping wildly in the elements.

You lie down into the grass, a lone tree shielding your eyes from the sun. You squirm to get more comfortable—perhaps you had gotten too used to the rumbling of your combat armature or the feeling of being under thrust aboard the Caliburn.

An amused face slides into view, looking down at your fidgeting.

"For someone who claimed he wanted some peace and quiet, you sure hate sitting still."

You look up into Asida's face, noticing the speckles of sunlight that land on her features through the leaves of the tree. You fight not to smile as you respond.

"It was bad enough when I knew I'd be recognized in my hometown. Go figure that the highest-scoring ace happens to be walking with me, and happens to be beautiful."

She rolls her eyes and lies down next to you. Her expression remains playful, but her tone changes slightly.

"I was kinda hoping our first real date would be at the cafe on Crown Station," she says. "Would've been kind of… poetic, y'know?"

You roll onto your side and you both lock eyes. You nod your head.

"I kind of wanted that too… I don't know, I felt like the longer we fought, the more desperate I was to come home. Share what's left of it with you. Sorry…"

She surprises you with a laugh, and picks herself up to get closer to you. You both sit up as she puts her hands on your shoulders.

"No- I'm sorry, I didn't even think about that… You never talked about Albion much. It felt like we never talked about the past nearly as much as we did with the future…"

You open your mouth to respond, but she continues with renewed insights.

"I felt trapped in a precarious present, where we might have to die to let others see tomorrow, and where our pasts didn't matter except that they led us there."

She turns to you and offers a hug. You embrace each other tightly, and this moment seems to stretch out into a long, comfortable silence. The wind sweeps over the green fields, rustling the leaves in the tree. The shade gets a bit cold, but it only serves to help you appreciate the warmth of Fatima's company.

You rest your head on her shoulders. When she speaks again, you feel her trembling in your arms, fighting through revelations and emotions.

"I'm glad you showed me around your home on Albion. I'm glad to be here with you."

You smile, knowing that her support means the world to you.

…

While you show her around your hometown, there is surprisingly little devastation. Closed stores and uncrowded streets aside, you make a point to show her all of the places you treasured in your childhood and adolescence.

You introduce her to your neighbors, show her the exact place you were when you'd made up your mind to join CoDEC.

She is unflinchingly genuine, and you are relieved and amused at her positive interactions with the people you cared to introduce her to. These were the people you left behind to fight for over the past 8 years; it felt like everyone had changed and missed out on who you were while you grew and developed.

Maybe that was for the better, you realize, remembering your time aboard the Oriflamme. But Asida catches your energy shifting towards the end of the day, and offers to show you something, instead.

A surprise, to be sure, but you welcome the opportunity to spend more time with her.

The next morning, you find yourself on a hyper-train headed to the other side of the planet, where the biggest cities and trade centers were. Where the Albion Academy was.

She shows you her favorite places to grab bites to eat after classes. She takes you to the place where she got into a fight that left her a scar on her leg. And the fight where she broke her tablet over someone's head. And the fight where she defended her planet's honor against an Imperial transfer student.

"I didn't realize the Academy had such a violent community."

She looks at you with a slowly-widening grin. "They didn't, generally everyone was pretty nice."

You blink.

You laugh and shake your head in amusement as you see how honest and prone-to-action she was, even back then. But the final stop leaves you both sitting in an apartment bed, watching the night sky through an open window. You look out into the distance, feeling the cold grip your joints, particularly the prosthetic hand.

And yet, your free hand is tightly wrapped around hers, and you both lean against one another. You whisper and giggle, talk and cry, and watch the night set in.

The stars stretch out beyond you, and you both share how you had made habits of gazing into the night sky of Albion. You looked up in fear of a bombardment before your enlistment, and she had looked up in anger at the increasing tyranny around her.

Now, you know that if you point somewhere in the night sky, you probably fought a battle there. You took many lives, and saved many as well. It never felt like it was enough, but at least you led your lance through the war's end in one piece.

That, in itself, was a miracle that you confide with in Asida. She smiles and closes her eyes, resting her head on your chest. Every breath you take, you feel the resistance of her head rising and falling. Your heartbeat pulses in her ears, warmly pressed against you.

As you cuddle together in bed, you find yourself thankful for her strength that saw you through many battles where you would have been blindsided, or intimidated, or slow to act. Thankful that she didn't hesitate to rush to your rescue, every time, against Blue Masque.

And she voices her thanks for your optimism and willpower, even in the face of the Imperial grand fleets and in hopeless traps and battles. That your leadership led to Mithril Lance saving countless lives. That you were there for her in her moments of doubt.

You wrap your arms and legs around each other, still warm against the cold night air. She grins and whispers into your ear a few other things she's grateful she learned about you.

You bring her into a kiss, long and sloppy and sweet and loving. Full of the life you get to live now.

The war between the Coalition of Democratic Extrasolar Colonies and the Empire of Humanity Ascendant is over.

End