"As Stefan said that you went on to start a new life, did he mean that you changed your name and went somewhere else so you didn't have to be Larry Foulke?" Jutta asked in a caring voice, "After the Sapin Civil War, I couldn't find any trace of you and I was so worried until you came home in 2005. At first, I thought that you were killed after I heard the news that you were shot down near the Communist camp, but then you called me and assured us that you were alright. Once you disappeared again, I was waiting on another call, but none ever came. What happened to you?"

Jessica looked around her at a quickened pace and started moving her fingers around a lot as if she was keeping something from everyone. Jutta looked at Larry and he saw that she developed a single tear in her left eye. Albert and Stefan were also looking straight at him, their visual cues showing that they wanted an answer. Albert was even more concerned than Stefan; his cues suggested that Larry's dad was angry at him for the worry and guilt that was caused after his disappearance once the Sapin Civil War was over. Larry was soon facing his worst fears: a worried mother, curious cousin, and an angry father, all over his secret that he has kept ever since he left them in 1994. He glanced at Jessica and saw that her watch said that it was nearing 10:30 PM. Thinking quickly, Larry found how he would get out of this mess.

"I know you guys want to know what became of me during that time, and I would love to continue my story, but it's getting pretty late. I'm pretty sure that you guys would like to call it a night just as much as I do, so I'll end it here and pick up on it first thing in the morning." He said, with a yawn.

Albert still looked angry, but he had loosened up a little since he was also tired.

"Alright son. It's true that it's late and we all need some sleep-, especially you Jessica." He turned his eyes towards her, "Lose too much sleep and you won't look as good as Larry found you."

"Come on Jessica, I know where the guest room is." Larry said, gesturing her to follow.

"Remember Larry, no funny business!"

Stefan mocked in a joking manner. Larry turned around for long enough to give him the birdie and then returned to walking to the room, Jessica's head resting on his arm. Albert and Jutta both walked to the master bedroom to go to sleep. Stefan just stood there, looking at the hallway the two wedded couples walked through.

"Does anybody say 'good-bye' or 'good-night' anymore?" Stefan said, loud enough for anyone in the penthouse to hear.

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Stefan turned around to face the couch and walked towards the back of it. He grabbed a blanket that lay near the fireplace and held it close to him for his body to suck in the warmth. Stefan then spread that blanket across the couch and started to go to sleep, leaving the fireplace on.

"What am I going to tell them?" Larry asked Jessica. His voice sounded the guilt from keeping his secret hidden from those who loved him and almost sounded like what a scared child would say, but from a veteran fighter pilot.

She turned around to face him, messing up the sheets in the process.

"Well Larry, they're going to find out sooner or later, so I suggest that you should just tell the truth tomorrow."

"But then they would get pretty ticked at what I've done." He said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Sweetie, please don't be so worried over this. Even if they did become angry at you, it won't last forever."

Larry was fond of his flachazo's ability to calm him down, even under the most stressful of situations.

"Alright," Larry said, "I'll stop."

"That's better." She answered in a sweet and caring tone. Jessica gave him a quick romantic kiss. "By the way, I got something for you." She reached in her purse next to the bed and pulled out a little black square…

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The next morning saw the family of five crowded around the small bar in the kitchen eating breakfast. Normally, Larry's parents made some pretty large dishes for special time like this, and they did; it was just that this time the atmosphere around them didn't seem as friendly as it should. An occasion where he remembered was a happy time was when he became a BAF fighter pilot. Rather, it was tense since he, his cousin, wife, and had a secret to hide up to that point and the parents wanted to know what they were withholding from them all these years. Larry was still worried even after last night's adventure he was trying to lose those feelings of guilt by focusing on the plate of French toast and eggs that he was eating, taking sips from his cup of coffee every once in awhile. It didn't work, so instead of that he looked over to Jessica as she ate her breakfast of basically the same thing but with a glass of milk. To him, referring to her as his wife made him feel older; he still preferred 'girlfriend' and the monikers associated with teenage love affairs.

Once the family was finished eating, they reached over to the sink put up their dishes. Being polite, Larry grabbed both Jessica's and Jutta's plates since they were the furthest away from the sink. Everyone got up out of their bar stools and walked towards the couch near the fireplace. Larry sat down in the armchair again, but this time he took with him a bottle of his favorite Yutobanian beer, Vladivostok. This was yet again another sign of how nervous he was; under normal conditions he would only have a Coke if he needed anything to drink at all. After a nice, relaxing, deep breath, Larry continued off from yesterday. He once again turned to Jessica and nodded to her; his gesture told her that he was ready for whatever response his parents would have to the news he has to bring.

"As you know mom and dad, the last time you saw me was on my birthday in 1994. I had just turned 22 years old, enough for me to drink legally in Belka. I remember when you guys brought me a wedding ring for when I would someday marry my dream girl; I swear that you two knew about my crush on Jessica before I told you guys. So much for it being a secret." Larry laughed, "Stefan here brought a keg of Vladivostok and Jessica got me a 'cockpit picture frame' so I could have a picture of a certain someone whenever I was flying. I've known her for around a decade and dated her in secret almost as long by this point. I knew that nothing could come between us, especially a few weeks before that when Jessica did something that she was very 'picky' about and I got lucky that night."

"Larry!" Jessica said in surprise. She was blushing as well as laughing since she wasn't expecting him to mention that in front of her in-laws.

"After the party we were at, I got into my car and took Jessica home. Before leaving, I had a few drinks, but I shouldn't have risked taking her home doing that. It was pretty lucky that I'd managed to reach her home safely and she gave me a kiss on the cheek and soon after she walked into her house, I fell asleep behind the wheel in her driveway. The car was in park, of course."

He picked up his bottle and took a good gulp of the liquid in his mouth and continued with the story.

"I finally woke up the morning finding myself lying down on the couch in her living room with a breakfast on the coffee table. I saw her sitting next to me on that couch, stroking her fingers through my hair until I was awake enough to move around. She then stood up to say 'Well what the hell was that my handsome fighter pilot?' She said that I was obsessed with her in a joking manner and told me that I could have at least driven back to my house. I was a little ashamed to fall asleep in my car, but I managed to laugh a little with her also."

Larry took a break and he downed half a bottle before speaking again. His nervousness becomes a little more obvious after downing half of the beer.

"I stood up with her and we went to the table to eat. We had a nice chat and all, I said some romantic things to my sweetheart over here," He leans over in Jessica's direction, "and I decided to be serious and tell her what I planned to do in the future. I still wanted remember exactly what I told her that day:"

He stopped to think and started to make hand gestures to reenact what he was doing when he was at Jessica's house that day. " 'Jessica, my dreams have been realized during these years I've been on this Earth; I learned to fly, I am a fighter pilot for one of the best militaries in the world, but most importantly, I have you. You know that I love you too much and I already know who I'll be with for the rest of my life.' "

Jessica decided to join in and take part in the story. " 'Aww, that's sweet Larry, but why are you saying this now?' "

Stefan, being who he was, butted into the recreation just to mess around. "Aww, so sweet." He said in a mocking manner.

She turned to face him and told him to shut up and asked him why he was being so rude. Larry knew exactly why he was like that, besides from the fact that he played around too much; Stefan also had a crush on her as well and was about to hit on Jessica when he left for war in Sapin when he found out about it and had an argument over Jessica. Little to her knowledge, he forced him to stay away from her by putting a restraining order on him to say a certain distance from his girlfriend with the police as he went off to war, which was one of the good things about being a Belkan Air Force pilot; military personals' needs were the priority over civilians in the militaristic Belka. Even though Stefan was also a pilot and could have easily done the same, he decided to back off and leave it alone. Larry told Jessica to forget about Stefan's rudeness and they continued with the living room scene.

" 'I've been thinking about what's happening now and days, and I don't think that Belka will be the best place to be living in the future. The economy is in ruins and Ustio might become a problem for us.' " Larry said.

" 'What are you trying to say Larry?' "

" 'Jessica, we won't be able to support ourselves in Belka and I fear that it won't be a safe home for you when something bad happens. Back at base, and this is classified so please don't say anything about it, we have increased the amount and difficulty of training, especially in air-to-air combat and deep-strike missions. I believe that we're going to war soon.' " Larry told her in a grim tone.

" 'What? Why?' "

" 'The Air Force officers didn't want to say, but I have a friend in the National Belkan Mining Company that was talking about newly discovered valuable resources in a mine just a few miles away from the Belkan border with Ustio.' "

" 'So you're saying that Belka would be attacking soon?' "

" 'We would be ready by January 1995 at the soonest.' " Larry and Jessica stopped acting out that night and he returned to telling more of his 'vocal autobiography'.

Larry prepared for his dad's response as he said, "I stayed at her house for a few days to help her pack everything she had and a few more days to unpack at her new home in November City, Osea. All and all, it took around a week, which was pretty quick for moving a house's worth of goods thousands of miles away on my allowed leave from base since I really wasn't able to afford being on the AWOL list. If I was believed to be going AWOL during the massive military buildup, I, as well as anyone else that was AWOL or believed to be so, would have been executed on sight. They didn't want any news leaking out of a possible invasion by fascist forces. I choose November City because I felt that city to be safe from Belka's reach if they attacked Osea too. The next day, I called you guys and asked if you could take care of Jessica for me while I was gone. I remember when mom asked me what I was doing and I had to tell her that I was just taking care of some business and I would be back soon. It was the last time I talked to her for a long time. After that, I until April of 1995 when I went to Ustio and joined the Ustio 6th Air Division, 66th Fighter Squadron, which was one of the many mercenary units formed in Ustio when the Belkan War started."

"What!?" Albert said, obviously pissed. "You left your loving Belkan family to fight for the Ustians? Why?"

"I believed in the freedom of the Ustians and that Belka shouldn't have attacked them. I love Belka as much as the next guy, but I had to put my moral values over my nationality."

"But your forces as well as the Allied Forces invaded Belka even after Ustio was liberated. Why would you think taking over Belka helps with Ustio's independence?" Albert asked, still mad at his son's loyalty 'issues'.

"I didn't, but that's for later in the story." Larry explained.

"So, when you were fighting against Belka, you weren't anti-Belkan at all, were you?"

"Of course not dad! My life and my loyalty was in Belka, how could I hate that?"

"Albert," Jessica interjected, "Larry was only doing what he thought was right, it wasn't anything personal."

Albert stood around the armchair after he'd questioned his son and decided that they were right in a way and when Jessica said it wasn't personal, that struck him and he dropped his anger towards Larry, understanding that he had to make some difficult choices.

"I'm sorry Larry. I guess it was what was best for them." Albert apologized to his son. He gave his son a fatherly hug and they both shook hands to show that he was fine with Larry's mercenary job in Ustio once he found out why he did it.

"It's alright dad," Larry said, "I didn't like the fighting whatsoever. I only fought when I really needed to, especially because Stefan was still in the BAF during that war and my family still lived here. I was relieved when I found out that his squadron was fighting on the western front against Osea, even more when I heard that the Osean Air Defense Force was too strong for the Belkan Air Force in and around November City."

Stefan was confused and asked, "Well if you went to Ustio shortly before the war broke out, how did you, a Belkan Air Force pilot, manage to join the ranks of the enemy so quickly?"

Larry looked at him and smiled at his intelligence in noticing that the dots didn't seem to connect. "Well at first, they didn't allow me to join the ranks of the UAF and even threatened to imprison me as an enemy prisoner; apparently, Ustio was keen in looking into Belka's military actions during the time. I offered to give them all the information I had of the Belkan Air Force's plans, strategies, and so on in exchange for allowing me to join the Ustian Air Force and they knew it was an offer too good to resist, so I was finally able to join and fight for them."

"Alright, that sounds reasonable enough." Stefan responded.

His father still had one more question he wanted to ask his son. "Why didn't you call or email us when you were in Ustio?"

"Two reasons:" Larry answered, "We were usually deployed most of the time, defending the airspace from any attacks and whatnot, and at the base, only military communications were allowed. We were also not allowed to leave the base so there was absolutely no way I was able to talk to you guys. Also, a recently defected Belkan military pilot working in the Ustian Air Force talking to people back in his home country would seem a bit like spying, huh?"

Albert and Stefan smiled and laughed a little. Larry took a sip from his beer and stretched in the armchair. Jutta was happy that Larry finally told them what had happened to him, Jessica was relieved in how the conversation turned out to be, and Stefan almost seemed not to care too much.

Shortly after Larry explained his whereabouts, there was a knock at the door. Larry staggered out of the armchair to answer the door, cracking the door open to see who was there. On the other side was the awaited guest of the day, Vladimir Trotsky. He knew Vladimir well and was one of his dearest friends. Belka remembers him as an evil monster. The Allies remembered him as a legendary hero. To the Ustio Air Force, he was known as Cipher.