I'm so, so, so sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up (I feel I say this every time I write the A/N...) University has become very stressful with coursework so I was updating the stories that didn't take up as much time to write. However, I'm back for this one and I hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"There are some things your mind has been hiding from you."
~Obert Skye
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Chapter 10: Sword of Annihilation

May 23, 1995...

Pixy

The base had been preparing a mission for us to take out whatever it was that had shot our transport planes down, for us to take out whatever it was that had nearly shot most of us fighters down. It would be wrong of me to say that I didn't want some of revenge on this thing even though I had no idea what it was. Although I had no real attachment to any part of the Ustian Air Force besides my paycheck, I'll admit I was attached to Cipher and Janie. They'd become my closest friends, which honestly I never thought I'd say I even had friends in the first place. But I wasn't complaining. It was nice to have friends who actually cared about me for once, ones that worried if something was ever wrong with me.

"What are you doing?" Cipher asked, walking up next to me in the gym.

"I'm boxing. What does it look like I'm doing?" I countered.

"Dancing around a heavy sack," he remarked.

"Honestly, what does Janie see in you?"

"Oh now that's just cold."

"It wouldn't be cold if you two worked this out. I'm not going to stop hounding you. Don't let that Belkan pride of yours get in the way of a good thing."

"Look, there are a few things I don't take kindly to: being accused of something I didn't do, especially when it's by a close friend, and being lied to by a close friend. I'll get over it and I'll think about getting back with her when I do if she still wants to. But my reason for not talking to her isn't because my pride is in the way. I'm not talking to her because she accused me of something I didn't do, and something rather serious."

"Whatever you say, Buddy."

"On a different note, get dressed. They're sending us out on another sortie."

"Got to save the world again?"

"I think this time we actually are. I overheard Vince talking and he said something about Tausberg's Sword."

"We're going on a mission to save or fight a sword?" I stated incredulously.

"If you're talking about a massive tower-like structure that can shoot lasers at its enemies, then yes, we're going to destroy it."

"Now that sounds interesting!" I exclaimed. Telling my wingman I'd see him in the briefing room, I rushed to my room, throwing on my flight suit and grabbing anything else I might need. Upon arriving to the briefing room, I found out it wasn't just me and Cipher going on this mission. There was another squadron, Crow Team. They were another mercenary team for the Ustian Air Force made up of three fighters: Nikolai Baas, Julian de Jong, and Patrick James Beckett (or as everyone called him, PJ). Cipher and I didn't know them well but they'd had some accomplishments in their career. I also figured that since this seemed to be a mission of top priority, the Ustian military wouldn't be sending just any team up there. They needed the best of the best.

I took my seat next to Cipher who was chatting with Vince. The latter excused himself from the conversation so he could do the briefing. Stepping up to the podium, Vince dimmed the lights and began speaking.

"We discovered that the unidentified weapons is a long-range offensive weapon codenamed 'Excalibur'. We believe it to be a Belkan antiaircraft defense chemical laser weapon developed as a missile defense system. According to our information, the strike zone is heavily guarded by a jamming facility and multiple antiaircraft artillery units. Your objective is to destroy Excalibur. But to do that, you must first neutralize the jamming facility and the antiaircraft artillery. Considering the importance of your target to the enemy, I'm afraid there's no way to avoid casualties from enemy resistance. In light of this, we have called in reinforcements for this mission. Work together with them to achieve the mission objectives."

Operation: Judgement Day

Location: Tauberg

Date: 23/05/1995

Time: 1400 hrs...

"No way to avoid casualties," Cipher muttered under his breath. "Watch me..."

The two of us headed out to the hangar where we got in our planes. My captain ordered the mechanics to equip my plane with UGBLs, the same with his. I wondered what he had up his sleeve because usually he had one of us with air-to-air special weapons and the other air-to-ground. So why was he switching it up this time? Deciding it wasn't worth my time to figure out his logic, I got in my plane and followed him up into the gray, cloudy skies.

It took us a couple hours to get there, including a mid-air refueling to top up our fuel tanks as a precautionary measure because as much as we knew about this mission, we still didn't know just how long it'd take. Next to the Belkan Air Force, the Belkan military scientists/engineers were next in line as the deadliest weapon that the country possessed. The scientists and engineers were brilliant in their ideas and in their construction. God only knows how long it'd take to destroy this new weapon.

"This is Crow Team's number three. Name's PJ. I'll support you any way I can, Galm Team," the guy stated just as Cipher blasted past their team to take the lead with me right behind him.

"Thanks man," Cipher said.

"Crow One to Crow Three. When are you planning to buy those flowers?" Nikolai queried, sounding rather amused by something.

"Wait around too long and another guy's gonna steal her away from you, you know," Julian added.

"This is no time to talk about my personal life," PJ protested.

"It's good to know I'm not the only one who deals with a wingman who is relentless in discussing my love life," Cipher remarked.

"I'm doing it for your own good," I said.

"Own good my ass..."

Deciding to change the subject, I observed, "Looks like a handful of fighters have come to the rescue."

By handful, I meant that the Ustian Air Force had scrounged up about four more fighters to join in. Either the allies were very short on pilots, or these four were the only ones the top brass of the UAF thought were qualified to fly this mission.

"Can you guys see anything? This cloud cover is seriously hindering my ability to see," Julian said.

"No, I can't see much either. It's making this mission even more dangerous than it already is," PJ noted. As if on cue, my radar lit up, showing a big red streak right down the middle, right where I and my captain were flying.

"Get out of the way!" Cipher barked. "It's that damn laser!"

We banked sharply to the right, only heading towards our original destination when we were out of the red on the radar. I glanced back to make sure Crow Team had evaded as well. They'd followed our lead, banking to the right as well.

"The tanker's been destroyed!" Hammerhead informed grimly. With a sigh that clearly said he did not think this mission was going to succeed, he added, "Approaching enemy territory. You're in dangerous airspace! All planes, break! Break!"

"Either he's just really slow today or something is causing a lag in our communications because we already know about the laser trying to shoot us down and we already broke away from it," I stated.

"For once, I'm hoping it's just him being slow today. We're in trouble if there's something causing our communications to go haywire," Cipher replied.

"If there was something causing trouble with our communications, wouldn't it be causing a lag for communication between us?" Nikolai queried.

"Not necessarily. We're in such close proximity with each other that it would be difficult. Because we're in a completely different country than our base, it might be different for them. I'm not sure though, honestly. My skills and expertise are in planes, not communications. Regardless, we're in a dangerous situation no matter what so if we are getting a lag in response from base, be prepared to make your own decisions based off of what you know. Follow your gut." The first target came into view, prompting my captain to say, "Now, what do you say we get this mission going? Crow Team, scan the skies for enemy planes. Your planes have air-to-air special weapons so you're better equipped to take them on. Pixy and I have air-to-ground special weapons so we'll take the four jamming sites before taking on Excalibur. The four extra pilots, follow me and Pixy and destroy whatever the two of us don't. Got it?"

"I vote for Cipher's plan," a guy from the reinforcements said.

"I agree with it too. Crow Team, follow me," Nikolai commanded. Cipher and I flew to opposite ends of the radar site. I got the right side while my buddy took the left.

"They've started," the Ustian squadron announced to our base.

"Enemy aircraft approaching. Increase ECM output to level three," a Belkan instructed. So they were messing with our communications!

As I flew past the first radar sight so I could turn back around and come at it from a different angle, I said, "Looks like we were right, Buddy. The Belkans are messing with our communications."

"Lovely. Someone let the base know," he directed.

My plane was now heading directly towards one of the two jamming facilities I was supposed to take care of. I switched from regular missiles to special weapons because the UGBLs my plane was carrying would be much more effective than firing individual missiles.

"Destroy all jamming facilities within the perimeter. Strip Excalibur of its defenses," Hammerhead told us. Oh yeah, there was a definite lag considering we were already attacking the jamming facilities.

Once I was within range of the jamming facility, I dropped a UGBL on it. It destroyed a majority of the buildings surrounding it; my allied reinforcements took care of the rest. My sights were set on the next jamming facility.

"Jamming Facility One destroyed!" PJ exclaimed happily.

"Pixy to Crow Three, if you get shot down, crash where I can't see," I told him.

"Uh, why?" he responded in confusion. "Cipher, what does he mean?"

"Hell if I know. Just because he's my wingman and buddy doesn't mean I understand what he's saying all of the time. Don't worry about it. Just focus on the mission. Jamming Facility Three destroyed by the way. I'm almost on four and then I'll turn back and head towards you Pixy. Then we'll assess how to take down Excalibur. Crow Team, I have some enemy fighters on my tail. Can one of you take care of them for me?" My captain requested, honestly sounding completely unfussed about the situation. In fact, he sounded annoyed instead of the worry most normal pilots would, but then again, he wasn't necessarily normal. It was as if he viewed them as pesky flies that wouldn't stop bugging him.

"Roger. Leave it to me," PJ answered.

"Electrical charge has surpassed maximum value, target confirmed. Laser emission distance has been calculated," a Belkan said.

"Does anyone have any idea what he just said?" Julian inquired.

"I'm a pilot, not a rocket scientist," Nikolai replied.

"Don't look at me," I added.

"Wouldn't want to," Cipher joked.

"Please, I'm amazing."

"Amazingly arrogant maybe."

"You're annoyingly modest so I say we balance out well."

"How are you two the top fighters in the war when you two constantly bicker?" Julian asked. He didn't sound patronizing, just genuinely curious. As he had finished his sentence, I approached the second jamming facility. However I was still out of range for my UGBLs.

"Like my wingman said, we balance each other out well. We're two sides of the same coin," Cipher said.

"Which one of you is heads and which is tails?"

"I'm heads, he's tails," I declared as I finally came in range. I centered the UGBL on my target and the fired away. All but one target was destroyed.

"Why would I be tails? I should be the head because I'm the captain," Cipher argued.

"Because people choose heads more often in a coin toss and I'm more popular than you on base."

"Because you've been there longer!"

"Why would have me as tails?"

"Because you're an ass, that's why." I heard PJ snort over the mic, Julian laughed, and I swear I even heard Nikolai let out a snicker.

"I'll remember you called me that next time you ask me for a favor."

"Jamming Facility Two down!" PJ cheered. Instead of a pilot, the guy should consider being a cheerleader with all his peppiness...

"All planes! The laser's firing patterns can be estimated via radar! Use your radars!" Hammerhead instructed.

"Our radars will help detect the laser patterns? I had no idea, really," I said.

"The savageness in your sarcasm is astounding. Really."

"Well, you're the one that said I'm an ass so I'm just living up to the name you know."

"Actually that was one of the times I didn't consider you to be an ass. Listen, I just destroyed the last jamming facility. I'm turning back now so we can assess Excalibur together, figure out the best way to take it down."

Just then, the top of my radar lit up with red again, showing the laser. Also at the top was my captain, prompting to me to warn him, "Cipher, they're going to fire the laser! Pull out!"

"That's what- you know what, no, never mind. Wrong place to say that. This is serious."

"Since when are you serious during missions?"

"Good point." I watched on my radar as Cipher evaded the laser with ease. We met up in the middle where we began our approach towards the main target.

"All jamming facilities have been destroyed. The main facility is all we have left," I informed everyone.

"Damn," Cipher whistled as we finally reached the monstrosity that was Excalibur. "That's a big ass laser."

"How are we going to take this down? Not to mention the defenses around it?" I queried. I'd seen a lot in my life, but a laser tower that was dozens of stories tall that was hell-bent on zapping us into oblivion was a first.

"This is Crow Two, don't hold back. Get out there and blow up everything in sight!" Julian suggested.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Cipher mused. "Although maybe we should do it a little more strategically."

"All planes, attack Excalibur! Go for its power facilities and the cannon itself," Hammerhead said.

"Is it possible to plagiarize statements verbally? Because I swear that's basically what you just said," I pointed out.

"Communications lag, remember?" Cipher responded, rolling out of the way of Excalibur's laser which had decided to fire again.

"Did you get a look at Cipher's medal? Today I'll be getting' one just as shiny," an ally declared.

"Wait, when did I get a medal?!" Cipher exclaimed.

"Hey, Janie wasn't just trying to talk to you because she wants to get back together. She's been ordered to give you the medal but since you won't speak to her..." I explained.

"Why did you not tell me?!"

"Because I'm an ass."

"Living up to your name I see," he muttered. "Fine, I'll talk to her when I get back to base."

"I like how you'll talk to her about a medal but not about your relationship," I chuckled.

"That's because I didn't even know I earned a medal, let alone what it's for. I'm curious."

The tone of the conversation changed when I nearly got skewered by a smaller laser beam that surrounded Excalibur. Angrily, I said, "Damn! It's no good trying to fly inside Excalibur. It's surrounded by railway artillery! Give me some orders!"

"Then we work from the outside in. Pixy, help me attack the artillery. Crow team and allied planes, gain and keep air superiority and keep those fighters off mine and Pixy's tail. I'd say you could help with the artillery but the network of weaponry is close together and it'd get too crowded if we were all down here. Once we get rid of it and if you've gained air superiority, you can help take down the big one. Deal?"

"I don't want to get near that thing so it's all yours," an ally admitted as I locked onto my first target. Within seconds, I was within range to fire both missiles and guns but I went for guns since I wanted to save my missiles as much as I could for the monster. Cipher zipped past my plane, taking care of one of the smaller laser shooters. Since we didn't have any weaponry like this in our own military, I didn't know the formal name or acronym for it. I just destroyed them because they were showing up as red on my radar. Although I felt it would be good for us to know...

"Don't panic even if something flashes in front of you," Nikolai admonished gently. "But be aware of where the laser is. I trust Galm team to take care of the artillery so let's do our job and take care of the enemy planes."

"Don't get caught up in the laser fire," A Belkan fighter cautioned.

"I mean I know you should always be aware of your surroundings but if you're having to be warned about it, doesn't that mean the people manning the lasers have crappy aim?" Cipher mused as the two of us flew just outside of the artillery so we could turn around to make another run.

"Let's shoot those annoying flies out of the sky!" a Belkan soldier growled.

"As long as I and my team are up here, you'll be doing no such thing," Nikolai retorted, jerking his plane around to get behind an enemy.

Cipher and I flew side by side, attacking targets that were side by side with each other. One was another laser. One seemed to be a power generator for Excalibur. Whatever it was, it took two missiles and a lot of gunfire from my captain to destroy it.

"Way to go Galm One! Bang up the enemy's firepower!" an ally encouraged cheerfully.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" I demanded.

"No, just wingless," my captain chirped.

"Damn it, Cipher." Mumbling to myself about how he got all the glory, I blew up some railway artillery which thankfully received some recognition by Nikolai who seemed pleased with my handiwork. I turned my plane around to go for my next target which, I'd like to say I had some sort of strategic plan of which artillery I went for, but honestly I was just taking care of whatever was closest. It seemed Cipher was going along with the same plan.

"Hurry up with that beam report! I can't attack the facilities without some kind of reassurance!" an ally requested anxiously.

"Calm down," Cipher consoled. "If you fly low to the ground around Excalibur or right above it, you won't be hit by it. Excalibur is shooting out, not up."

"Right..." he breathed. "How do you know that?"

"Because I've been doing it. Now take a deep breath and get your wits about you, or Excalibur will shoot you down. Hammerhead said we wouldn't be able to get out of here without any casualties and I want to prove him wrong. Don't let me down."

"Roger. Engaging the enemy."

"You're pretty good at pep talks, Buddy," I said while I went for another artillery unit shooting mini lasers.

"Thanks. How you holding up?"

"Destroying one of the laser shooters now. What about you?"

"Right behind you."

"I can't tell where that laser's aiming," an ally grumbled

"I think that's the point," I responded, meanwhile completely annoyed that all the firepower I'd sent towards the laser I'd been attacking hadn't destroyed it. That's where Cipher came in. He fired two missiles at it for good measure. That blew it up.

"We can do it," an Ustian fighter declared, then adding, "No, we will do it."

"That's the spirit!" Cipher exclaimed as the two of us circled around, firing at some railway artillery. Those were badly built, as it took no time to take them down. Perhaps the Belkan scientists or engineers were losing their touch...

"All railway artillery confirmed down!" Hammerhead informed, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

"All right, let's take out the king's sword now!" An ally said.

"Not yet. I want all the artillery down before we attack that thing. The less help it has, the better," Cipher countered. Surprisingly no one argued with him. It seemed my captain was not only getting better at flying, but also at getting others to listen to him.

We targeted a power facility next. Similarly to the railway artillery, it was easy to destroy as well. Whether the material it was built out of was weak or whether Belka thought no one could get close enough to it to actually stand a chance of destroying it, I don't know, but I was not going to complain about the ease of it because it was making my life simpler.

After that power facility, we headed towards the next one. We were on a roll as we fired a missile each at it and fired our guns simultaneously. Within moments it exploded.

"Power Facility two is destroyed! Things are looking pretty good!" I said.

"Even the skies are clearing up," Cipher noted happily. "Excalibur is now showing up as a target on my radar. Now's our chance to take this son of a gun down!"

"We've got a shot! I think we're going to do this!" Nikolai mused in disbelief.

"I think it's gonna happen. Just keep attacking!" PJ urged.

"Yo Buddy, you've got everyone fired up believing in miracles," I laughed as he and I put in all our firepower into destroying the target at the top of Excalibur. I wasn't sure exactly what that part was but I assumed since it was at the top, that that was where the laser shot out from. Maybe when we destroyed that, the laser would stop shooting at us.

"If this operation goes well, we could be set for life!" an ally remarked.

"Surely we'll get a medal for pulling out Tauberg's sword!" another one said.

Cipher and I circled back around to make another run against Excalibur. We avoided hitting the top when it was firing its laser because our missiles would be disintegrated before they even hit the target. This caused us to circle around once more. This time the laser wasn't firing so we used the maximum firepower our planes would allow in the short timespan we had before we would fly past the target.

"We must have some emergency power. Use it all! I don't care if it burns up from feedback!" a Belkan shouted angrily.

Our firepower hit the target, but that thing wasn't going down. It barely even looked damaged. But Hammerhead came on and said, "Looking good! Destroy Excalibur, Cipher! I know you can do it!"

"Chopped liver, that's all I am..." I muttered to myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad our air force had so much faith in my captain because as long as he was in the air, I would be too. But he wasn't the only one kicking ass out here.

"Nice job! The laser cannon has been destroyed! Now the laser is no longer a threat," Hammerhead informed. "It's time to destroy Excalibur once and for all!"

"All right Buddy, we got a job to finish," Cipher said. "You with me?"

"I've got your six," I replied.

"Ah hell, we have a jammer craft somewhere above us. I can't see a thing on my radar. I'm going to go take care of that. Pixy, see if you can get a lock on the target without your radar."

"On it," I said, rather happy he'd given me the task. Now if I could just get a lock on the target and actually hit it... I flew a fair distance way so that I could give myself a good amount of time to line up against Excalibur and make sure my shot would be accurate when it hit. When I was just under two-thousand feet away from the monstrous tower, I fired two missiles, hurriedly switched to a UGBL, and fired that as well for good measure. Whether they were direct hits or not, I couldn't tell, but there was definitely small explosions coming from where my missiles had been directed so one of the three had hit.

"Nice shot Pixy!" Cipher complimented. "I'm going in to see if I can finish this thing. If not, well, you're already getting ready for another run so maybe you will."

As I turned back around to face Excalibur, I saw my buddy doing the same exact thing I'd done: two missiles and a UGBL. Like mine, it was impossible to tell if they'd all hit or not, but there were explosions, and it did the job. Excalibur disappeared off the radar as a target.

Mission Accomplished

Suddenly, instead of being straight and tall, Excalibur was severely leaning, in definite danger of toppling over.

"Confirmed elimination of target. We can even see it from here. Good job," Hammerhead praised.

"The sword has been pulled from the stone. It was Ustio's flight lead who did it!" an ally exclaimed.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without Pixy," Cipher protested. I flew next to my captain as he circled Excalibur. Meanwhile the other squadrons continued cheering and hollering in excitement.

"Right on! Now that's what I call teamwork!" PJ declared.

"Cipher, you hear that warm welcome? It's the sweet sound of victory. Not bad for a group of misfits, huh?" I chuckled.

"I couldn't have pulled this off without you Buddy," Cipher said.

"Sure you could've. You're the one changing the tide of the war out here."

"You are too, Buddy. You are too. Let's head- whoa! Explosion on Excalibur!"

"It's about to topple over!" I pointed out while PJ simultaneously said, "It's coming down!"

"All planes, job well done! PJ, don't get too excited and crash, buddy!" Hammerhead laughed. Just then, even over the roar of my engines, I heard the unmistakable sound of something big crashing into the ground. I looked to my left at Excalibur which was now no more than a heap of twisted, burning metal on the ground.

"Does this make us Arthur?" Cipher inquired.

"Doesn't Arthur die?" I countered.

"He's supposed to rise up again if he's needed though."

"That legend sounds suspiciously like the Razgriz."

"Maybe it was based off of it."

"Maybe if we do die, then we come back in another life and save the day again?"

"Okay, enough with the talk of life and death. It's way too deep for my brain after a mission like this."

Before Cipher could say anything more, Hammerhead came on with the debriefing.

"Although we didn't discover any nuclear facilities, Excalibur is no longer a threat. This can be considered a substantial victory for our side," he said.

Cipher and I proceeded back to the base where we were greeted enthusiastically by most of the ground personnel. At the front of the group was Janie and her father, with the latter ready to shake our hands. Both I and Cipher were confused by this action but we went along with it. A flash from the side of me caught my attention. A girl with a professional-looking camera stood a few feet away. Turning to the Base Commander, I asked, "Since when do you let reporters on base?"

"Since she's doing a story on you two. Don't worry, Cipher. Janie already made sure she knows not to take any pictures of your face in order to protect certain people in your life."

"Thank you," Cipher said. "Sir, what was this about a medal I supposedly got?"

"Janie, why haven't you give it to him yet?" the Base Commander demanded.

"Like I said, because of you, he hasn't exactly been talking to me so I haven't been able to give it to him," Janie retorted, not even bothering to hide the venom in her tone.

It was obvious her father was biting his tongue when he said, "He didn't have to react the way he did. Cipher, follow my daughter so she can give you your medal."

"Yes, sir."

"Pixy, the reporter wants to ask you a few questions. Go speak to her," the Base Commander ordered.

"Sir, yes, sir," I responded casually. If you couldn't tell, I didn't have much respect for him, especially with how he treated not only Cipher, but Janie as well.

When I approached the reporter, she smiled up at me and said, "Hi, I'm Iris Turner from The Ustian Gazette. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about the war and some your flights?"

"Shoot," I told her.
_________________________________________  

Present day...

Cipher

Pixy had recounted the story with near perfect accuracy. It was a surprise to me though that he'd felt he wasn't getting enough recognition by the UAF which led me to wonder if that had played a part in the decision he made later on. But I had no time to dwell on that as Brett Thompson came back on.

The scenes on the video shifted from Pixy's hideout to a small office with white walls, blue decorations, and a big window with curtains preventing the outside from being seen. The figure revealed someone very familiar to me, although I was still shocked to see her.

Iris Turner, now Iris Beckett, sat in front of the screen with her hands folded neatly in her lap. The screen froze for a moment as Thompson explained, "Iris Beckett was a reporter for a newspaper during the war. She was able to go to the very base the Demon Lord was stationed from. She got to meet him, although like so many others, never knew his real name. She knew Pixy before he defected to A World With No Boundaries. And she knew Janie Biggs, becoming close friends with her in their mission to discover what A World With No Boundaries was and what the coded messages said that the Ustian base had intercepted."

The screen unfroze, showing Iris shifting in her seat. She smiled kindly at Brett who was behind the camera as he asked her his first question. "What was the Galm Team like?"

"Well when it was the Demon Lord and Pixy, I found them to be very much polar opposites of each other, trying to achieve the same thing through different ways. The Demon Lord, despite his fearsome moniker, was actually extremely nice, he was outgoing when he was comfortable around you, and he loved to banter. Pixy was very much your stereotypical Belkan, at least at first. The Demon Lord loosened him up a bit. He was cocky, but he was nice, and he was very snarky, but somehow in a rather charming way. I cared very much for them both. Then when Pixy defected, it was my husband who took his place and while they worked just as well as Pixy and the Demon Lord had, the dynamic had changed for a bit with the Demon Lord. He didn't joke as much during the missions. With Pixy, he was very much a Knight when it came to ace styles. For the first couple of missions with my husband, he went to the opposite spectrum and became very much a mercenary ace. I don't think it was because he wanted more money. I think it was because he was hurt by the betrayal of his friend and he took it out on the people he blamed for it which were the Belkans and then A World With No Boundaries."

"Did the Demon Lord ever get back to his old self?"

"For the most part, yes. Janie helped with that. When she and the Demon Lord were still having their... complicated breakup, she managed to escape the base for a few days where she went to Osea. There she met with a couple people who were very close to the Demon Lord and she smuggled some letters back onto base for him. To this day, I don't think he ever knew it was her that did it. She never told him. She knew how much he missed them and that the only reason he wasn't talking to them was to protect them from Belka from using them against him because even in the Belkan Air Force, he'd been an exceptional pilot, one they'd want back. Belka would've gone to great measures to get him back if they found out where he was."

"Do you know what happened to him after the war?"

"No. A lot of things happened after the last mission that left all of us in shock. All I know is that for his own protection, he was whisked off somewhere that probably very few select government officials know."

"Do you think he's alive?"

"I do. That man was a survivor and if any enemies of his had found him, they would've made it known to the world that they'd captured and/or killed the Demon Lord. I mean it's been ten years already but that war is still in the minds of people, especially those who had an active role in it, no matter what side they were on. I presume that there are still people out there who would want the Demon Lord dead."

"What drew you to wanting to interview the Galm Team?"

"I was the reporter at the newspaper that handled everything military, and that was because I had ties to it through my boyfriend. Whenever we'd talk, he'd tell me about this amazing two-man fighter squadron that kept winning battles for the allies and it sparked my curiosity. I got in touch with the Base Commander to ask if I could interview them. I called on a good day because right before we'd spoken, Galm had taken down Excalibur, or Tauberg's sword. I dashed over to the base before the squadron arrived so I could take some pictures. The only orders I had from the base, actually given to me by Janie, was to never show the face or say the name of the Demon Lord in my articles. I followed that rule very carefully because not only did I not want to be kicked off for violating the rules given to me, but I wanted to protect his identity because of the reason he told me and the reason I explained earlier: he had people he wanted to protect that could be harmed if people found out his identity."

The video switched back to Pixy. He had a small smile on his face as he said, "Iris Beckett. She was an unrelenting reporter. When she had questions, she always found ways to answer them. Between her and Janie, I knew it was only a matter of time before they figured out the encrypted messages from A World With No Boundaries. We didn't agree on everything, but I respected her. I definitely respected her."

The documentary went black, being replaced by a commercial for some blender thing. Genette and Elizabeth looked at me.

"Mom and dad told us our letters got to you and that you couldn't reply because of your job," Elizabeth said.

"I never got your letters until that day I found them shoved under my door. I never knew Janie did that," I confessed, suddenly feeling extremely guilty. I hadn't realized that talking about my past was going to bring up all these emotions, both old and new. I'd buried it all down for so long that dredging it back up... I thought it'd help to talk about it, and in a way it was. It felt good to get it off my chest, but I was starting to relive the war, to have flashbacks to it. I had a weird relationship to the Belkan War. It was the pinnacle of my career, it was where I discovered the closest friends I would ever have, it gave me a place where I finally felt like I fit in with the others, mercenaries or not. But so many bad things happened too... one's that I realized I was going to have a hard time talking about when I approached them in my story. I didn't want to look weak in front of my niece and nephew because it was clear they idolized me. I didn't want to let them down. I couldn't. I told myself I was just going to have to suck it up and get on with the story. Now if I'd be able to do that, that'd be great, but honestly, I'd be surprised if I got through this entire story with at least one breakdown.

At that moment, my phone buzzed, a reminder for an event I'd had planned for Genette and Elizabeth. It gave me an opportunity to get away from storytelling for a bit.

"Hey you two, get dressed. We're going somewhere at three that I know you two will enjoy," I said.

"How much time do I have to get ready?" Elizabeth queried.

"An hour and a half. I specifically reminded myself two hours before so you would have enough time to get ready," I laughed.

"Thank you!" My niece flipped over the couch and ran to her room where I heard her start getting ready.

"Why do she and mom always take so long to get ready?" Genette asked when his sister was out of ear shot.

I grinned. "I learned a long time ago not to ask. You'll get an even longer answer."
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Hope you enjoyed! :)