Epilogue

"… and then I asked her if she was my goose." My mother just stared at me from over her tea cup.

"Caden, any woman who stays with you after something like that… She's going to stay with you through anything."

"You know, I really don't need to do this. I'm sure there's a bed for me somewhere that-" I was stopped by a knock on the door.

"Coming," my mother called out as she put her tea down and briskly walked to the door.

"Mrs. Irving," I heard a familiar voice say in greeting. "I was wondering if you had seen- Caden!" Kei called out once she saw me at the table with a cup of tea.

"Hey," I said with a slight wave as my mom let another visitor into her room. "How was your nap."

"Not as comfortable without-" I quickly cleared my throat and took another sip of my beverage while glancing at my mother who was already making up another pot for our new arrival. "Right," Kei whispered. "Without the rocking of a boat."

"That's too bad," I said with a slight grin as Kei took a seat beside me. My mother came back with another cup of tea and handed it over to the woman beside me.

"So you like sleeping on a boat?" My mother asked, striking up more conversation. "My husband said he hated it when he had to do it."

"Kei has a fondness for her… boats." I replied with a small grin as Kei sputtered on her tea in a small fit of laughter.

"Not as much as you have fondness for boots," she shot back. My mother just had a confused face at our nonsensical exchange. Deciding she would try to reel us in, she asked another question.

"So, have you two settled on a date?" Kei and I finished our small inside joke and faced my mother again.

"A date?" I echoed, unsure of what was meant.

"We haven't really had the time to focus on much else other than finishing this war," Kei replied as if she understood my mother's cryptic question. Maybe it was a girl thing.

"I see," my mother said with a nod. "Well, I guess Caden and I can finish some other time. I'll let you take your boat now."

"Thank yo-" Kei paused in mid sentence as her face flushed a red color much to the amusement of my mother.

"Okay, let's go Kei," I said as I helped her up and out of her chair, "before she has a chance to say something else."

"You two make excellent geese!" my mother called out as we practically ran through the door.

September 10th, 2011

"Still no sign of her?" I asked Kei, catching her staring over one of the numerous balconies. We had decided to have the wedding at her father's place. At first I had been unsure of the decision, we had quite the guest list. But after seeing the huge house Kei's father had been able to purchase with his wealth earned by years of mercenary work, I figured we could've invited three times as many people and still have room.

"No," Kei replied a little sullenly. "I really do want to meet her," Kei said as if she needed to convince me. She turned around and took my breath for what must've been the twelfth time today. "I think we could be great friends if she would just come and meet us." I walked out onto the balcony with her, breathing in the fresh Ustian mountain air that had a hint of Kei's perfume mixed in with it.

"I'm sure Whitney will come and meet us as soon as she's ready," I told Kei as I bent down and gave her a light kiss on the top of her head. "Besides, today's about you. I know for a fact that there are some people inside just dying to talk to you."

"If I hear one more joke from Petra about the customs of the North..." I had heard Kei's Bachelorette party had almost been as wild as mine.

"Come on Kei," I said with a smile.

"Alright," she finally relented. "And Caden?"

"Yeah?"

"This is by far one of the best birthday gifts I've gotten. Even if it is a day late." As soon as I knew Kei was going to start enjoying herself, I walked back to the table I had been sitting at.

"Hey! There he is!" Bartlett shouted out drunkenly, catching the attention of everyone else at the table. A chorus of 'hey's and 'hi's followed before I sat back down.

"I was just telling Bartlett about how you almost got shot down in that last engagement," Snow said, about as sober as Bartlett was.

"Yeah?" I asked with a smile. "Did you tell him how we managed to prevent a satellite from crashing into a city yet you still managed to fall through a roof? We were this close to no property damage!" Nearly everyone at the table burst into drunken laughter as Snow tried fruitlessly to defend himself. Once all the hearty laughter diminished, Grimm piped up.

"Hey Captain, do you-"

"Hans," I warned playfully, "we're at a wedding. And I know better than to think myself the captain of this event. So please, if only just for this occasion, call me Caden."

"Caden," Grimm restarted after a through throat clearing. "Do you think you could convince Kei to throw the flowers away from Sylvia?" Nearly everyone let a low chuckle loose before the young man could continue. "It's all she's been talking about since we got here!" he pleaded with anyone who wasn't smiling at him.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Pop's suddenly said, a sly smile coming over him as he lowered a stein he had been drinking from like a true Belken. "Get her to throw them to Nastasya." Bartlett nearly choked when he heard the plan.

"Hey now, wait just a minute-" the rest of the grizzly man's argument was drowned out by a hearty amount of laughter that I myself joined in on, sending a nod of 'well done' towards pops who just smiled and calmly took another swig of ale.

As the night went on, so did the laughter and good times. I saw Pop's and Nathan Brigham swapping money what seemed to be every couple of minutes. When our former AWACS had first arrived for the rehearsal dinner a couple of nights ago, he hadn't been able to stop thanking us and telling us how he had never stopped believing we were still alive and fighting the good fight. He couldn't believe it when we told him it had been us he had refueled all those months ago near the end of the war.

When Kei and I had sent an invitation to the Davenport's, we were worried if they would come or not. But within a couple of days, we had gotten a RSVP along with a short note that only said, 'I knew it.' Vicky was all too enthused to finally meet Thunderhead and was shocked to see that my hair had finally cooled enough to become its normal color. There was no way Kei was going to let me have red hair on my wedding day. Raenay couldn't stop gushing over Kei, pampering her like a princess. Part of me thought it was because she was trying to forget by staying busy, but a private conversation with her made me think otherwise.

"He'd hate himself if I just shut down and became a recluse," she had told me when I finally became brave enough to ask her how she was doing. "I miss him pretty bad sometimes," she said with misty eyes, "But I've got a little girl who needs a strong mom, and she's got so much of him in her, it's like he hasn't left sometimes. Thanks for inviting me, Caden," she said as she gave me a crushing hug. "I needed this."

Currently, Raenay was with Kei and the rest of the women who were laughing about something that seemed to be hilarious. Vicky, however, was sound asleep on a comfy chair with a large bloodhound. She had exhausted herself earlier with her canine companion by chasing and being chased by the friendly dog.

I however, was currently searching for the dog's owner, as well as a few other guests. I was just about to give up and return to chat with my drunken friends again before I heard a voice belonging to one of the people I had been searching for.

"You remember that operation over in Sota?"

"How could I not? You kept saying you were in love with that belly dancer who always seemed to know where we were."

"Heh," Larry chuckled. "I almost forgot about her."

"Well I haven't," Takuma, Kei's father, replied. "She ended up being a spy, remember? Nearly got us killed!" I finally laid eyes on the two fighter pilots as they looked out on the snow capped mountains surrounding us, the giant rock formations beginning to turn purple and red in the dying sun.

"Wait, really? I thought they were different- … oh. Yep, she was the one. Yeah, I always wondered why she was asking where we got our fuel from."

"You're such an idiot," the other man scolded playfully. Knowing the two were still catching up, I decided to leave them alone for now and silently returned to the party.

November 29th, 2012

"So, it is with both gratitude and respect that we rededicate this field in memory of Lieutenant Colonel Davenport." As the mayor of November City finished his speech, the large cloth was pulled from the metal statue in front of the stadium. It was a true to life representation of Chopper with a helmet in hand and goofy grin on his face. I pulled Kei just a bit closer as memories of the man began to assault me like a swarm of butterflies. There was a great roar of applause as people saw the new monument. Kei and I stuck around for a while after people began dissipating. We walked over to the base of the statue and I couldn't help but grunt in amusement at the chosen line for the plaque.

'Til the very end, you idiot!'

"They actually put that?" Kei asked with amusement.

"I told them I wouldn't let them put anything else," Raenay said from behind us. "Hey you two."

"Hey," I replied as the woman came and gave each of us a hug.

"You guys hungry for some of the finest ribs you'll ever have?" Mrs. Davenport asked after giving us our warm greetings.

"Starving," Kei said as she rubbed her expanded belly.

"I'll bet," Raenay said with a large smile. "When I was toting around Vicky, I couldn't stop eating. But from what I've been hearing, you've got it worse. Twins?" Kei nodded with a growing smile spreading across her face.

"Brothers," she said, adding to Raenay's excitement.

"Well, I guess we'll have to make some extra, won't we," the excited woman said as she led us to her car. As we walked to the vehicle, Kei suddenly grabbed my hand and put it to her belly. I was about to ask her what was up when I felt a tiny… something.

"Did you feel that?" she asked, excitement in her voice. I felt another tiny movement and Kei could barely hold back another giggle of joy. Her smile was highly contagious and I just stood there with her as she continued to hold my hand to her tummy.

"You're going to be an awesome mom," I told her as she smiled widely at her own torso.

"You're going to be a great dad," she replied as she started walking again. "Or else," she added playfully.

December 24th, 2019

"Boy's, your room better be cleaned. I don't want your Aunt Whitney thinking we live in a pig sty," Kei yelled out from the kitchen as I helped her make some food for tonight's party.

"Mom, Aunt Whitney's smart. She knows that we live in a house," Kenji said as he came down the stairs holding a foam sword.

"Yeah mom, like Ken said. Aunt Whitney's smart. And she brings us candy," Alex added as he followed his brother with another play blade.

"Yeah!" echoed Elise, our two year old daughter, from her play area.

"Hey," I said sharply, getting the twins to look at me instantly. They knew what my voice meant. "Is your room cleaned?" I asked. I took the silence of the two boys as a negative answer. "Quit beating each other with swords and get it that way, alright?"

"Yes dad," they both said quickly as they thundered up the stairs, making Elise laugh as they disappeared.

"I told you not to get them those things," Kei said with a small smile as she continued prepping some pasta.

"It was either those foam swords or the sticks they pick up in the yard," I countered as I finished washing some lettuce for a salad. It seemed as soon as Kenji and Alex had finished cleaning, people began coming by. First it was Kei's dad who stopped by and immediately spoiled the two with some jerky he had made. Then my parents came by with arms full of gifts that made the two boys go crazy. I knew nobody was going to be sleeping in tomorrow. At last Whitney came by and as Alex had said, had candy with her. After a proper Christmas feast, we were all sitting around the table and laughing as our two boys told ridiculous stories about school.

"Aunt Whitney! Tell us about the silly leprechaun man!" Alex said after a pause in conversation.

"You mean my wing mate? Shamrock?" Whitney clarified.

"No, we heard her story last time," Kenji told his brother. "I want to hear Grandpa Irving's story about the brick thingy."

"Stonehenge?" my dad asked, just as confused as Whitney had been.

"What about me?" Takuma asked as if he had been offended. "My story has lasers," he teased, trying to get the boys to reconsider. The two youngsters seemed to think things over and then turned to each other and had a heated argument before playing three rounds of rock paper scissors. After three tie games, they both nodded and turned back to the table. Kei and I shared a quick smile being used to the twins strange routine before they began to speak in unison.

"We choose-"

AN: WWWOOO! Last chapter done! Hope it was epic enough. Sorry if the SOLG was a little underwhelming, but honestly, it never felt that hard, even without the FALKEN's op laser.

First let me say it's been a privilege to have you guy's as readers, even those of you who didn't review. Looking at the traffic of this story is enough to make me feel good, so once again, thank you! This next section, however, is dedicated to those of you who did communicate with me. You'll probably never know how special you all made me feel. This is my attempt to try and show how much of a positive impact you all had.

My very first review: "Holy Cow! You knocked it out of the park! Very nice combat representation, and overall plot choices. 11 chapters already? I better keep (at it)! Keep up the good work, Karaya 1" -Karaya 1

You know what day that was on? The very first day I put my story up. Since day one, Karaya 1 has been encouraging me, whether it's through uplifting reviews like that one or PM's. And yes, when I first uploaded this story, I put eleven chapters up all at once. So about a fifth of the story was up on the first day. Crazy, I know. Remember early on, around chapter 13 and 14 when there was… what was it again?

"The awkwardness in this chapter is amazingly funny. Especially Blaze. Lovin' it. Can't wait for the next chapter." -Agent Gibbs

"Love the awkwardness between Blaze and his sweetheart." -Guest

"OH GOD KISS ALREADY! The tension!" -Guest (a different one I assume. It was the same chapter after all)

"Still some damn good writing. I will say however funny Blaze's denseness towards Nagase is, at the same time it gets a little annoying so I'm hoping for a little more realization from him about his own feelings towards her in the next chapter or two. That being said another great chapter and great character development." -ArtemisxHolly

So, you guy's think there was awkwardness? Tension? Denseness (weird word when you start thinking about it. Try saying it five times fast)? Huh, didn't notice. Then there were all these types of comments. I'm going to paraphrase a little here for brevities sake, but I think you'll get the picture.

"Well, this just keeps getting better and better. This is one of the better AC5 stories that have a BlazexNagase focus to it, and I'm thoroughly enjoying every word." -TheShadeOps

"I just picked this up (and) read it in one go. I'm already loving it." -Major FuzzBear

"You had me at "Write My Own." :)" -ArtemisxHolly

"I've got to say this is so far the best Ace Combat 5 fanfiction that I have read so far." -KrazykaMiKaZE

"I'm loving this story." -KANEKI KEN

"This story is amazing, probably the best AC 5 story I have read so far." Patient 0 Zero

First, it was: "Looking forward to reading more of this." -AmongUsAll. Then it was: "Wow, I'm hooked on this story now." -AmongUsAll. After that: "This story gets better and better, and it's at the part of the game I really liked." -AmongUsAll. Finally, they admit: "Aaaaagh I'm so addicted to this!" -AmongUsAll

"Hot DAMN! I've literally read all 39 chapters of this story in less than a day, and I CANNOT WAIT for the next chapter! LOVE IT!" -Random Useless Info

"I'll admit, I was a bit hesitant when I started reading this. I wasn't that impressed with some of the other Unsung War (novelizations) out there. However, yours is at the top of those I've read so far." -alienvx0

"Thank you for writing this story. I too, have been looking for a good Nagase X Blaze story. This certinly delivers. I've been fallowing since the begining and can't wait for more." -Falcon Squadron

All of those and more are what kept me motivated and happy throughout this entire project. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind words. Now for all the times you made me laugh. Sometimes it was because of something I said that you pointed out, sometimes it was because you guy's can be as weird as me.

For this fist one, some context. Remember chapter 19? I had challenged you guys to figure out what a certain word meant. Notice how there are no more of those challenges? "The bloody rest?" -Guest. Nope, that's not what the challenge word meant.

"Still love your writing but just a couple of tweaks for spelling for instance " 'pooped' up on the horizon" and maybe a couple other places but that's it can't wait for the next chapter keep it up! :)" -ArtemisxHolly. Facepalmed so hard when I read that. It's fixed now, so don't look for it!

"You've got me biting my nails in antici...pation." -TheShadeOps Here's some proof I'm not as cultured as I'd like to be. Didn't get the reference at first. Actually had to look it up. I knew it was a reference, just didn't know to what. Once I found it though, I couldn't stop laughing.

"Cue Spanish guitar" -pir84lyf. Just funny because I was seriously thinking the exact same thing when I wrote it.

"I'm one of those people where if everybody isn't flying even numbers of one or two planes I get a little OCD. I like to keep my squad looking fancy and deadly. O3o" -KANEKI KEN. Who doesn't?!

"Oh man. I love that story bit." -pir84lyf. It's not as funny any more, but when this comment was made, Chapter 31 was literally one sentence long. I think it was. "We landed on the ship," or something like that. If I knew people could be so easily satisfied, this whole story would be less than a thousand words.

"Then there had to be the last line. My only thought was "Caden, you dumbass!"" -AmoungUsAll. You know, I think the normal response for a writer when they hear a reader call their character a dumbass is outrage, but I seriously laughed cause I couldn't agree more.

"And damn it Caden! It's just a bra! Get a hold of yourself, sheesh!" -TheShadeOps. Again, I like how you guys can throw punches at Caden. Makes me glad I made a character thats three dimensional enough to punch in the first place.

"And last but not least, the fact that you're leased early again! To quote Chopper, "I like you, man!"" -AmoungUsAll. I hear Chopper's voice every time I read that line, and since it's Chopper, I smile.

""How does incest work?" 10/10" -Cotten Candye. Probably the takeaway moment of this entire story.

"I'm a cat driver through and through. "I feel the need. The need..." ""FOR SPEED!"" *cue "Danger Zone"*" -Major FuzzBear. I had to go find that song after reading that comment.

"A love triangle? Really?! What is this, Macross?!" -Major FuzzBear. I like refrences! And there's a Macross inspired plane in here now so…

"4)Character relationships, my favorite. Keiden: It is nice to finally see..." -Patient 0 Zero. Okay, so there's more to this review but the thing that caught my eye was Keiden. At first I thought it was Caden misspelled, but then I realized it's a name combination of Kei and Caden. I whooped for joy when I was that. I earned my own name combination! And it's cool!

Now, we come to the strange section.

"I almost feel like I'm on heroin and you keep taking the needle away causing me to go into withdrawal." -ArtemisxHolly. Sorry?

Last, the cipher111996 section. This section is special because only one person is in it. Guess who. No, go on and guess.

"Very interesting..." -cipher111996 (Chapter 2) What else you thinking there?

"The plot thickens..." -cipher111996 (Chapter 10) Yep.

"Interesting..." -cipher111996 (Chapter 40) Just interesting this time, huh?

"Interesting..." -cipher111996 (Chapter 41) Why does it feel like you're planning something… The dots! He's making me use the dots!

"A love triangle? Just why?" -cipher111996 (Chapter 42) Oh, it's just a coincidence. They're not in every single one. Thats-

"Interesting..." -cipher11996 (Chapter 44) THEIR BACK! THE DOTS ARE BACK!

"Oh my..." -cipher111996 (Chapter 45) I KNOW!

Okay, okay. I seriously do enjoy every review though. They're fun to read or, in this case, decipher(111996). I wish I could tell you what I thought and think about every single one, but this AN is already getting pretty long. Onwards! So, because PM's are in fact Private Messages, there's only going to be one. This one I got explicit permission to use and I felt was representative of most of the PM's I've received.

"After 10 years I replayed the unsung war, one of the most amazing games I've ever played. So after that I looked for more info or background stories about the characters and somehow came across this website. Although I enjoyed the stories here, most of them were one shots or unfinished. Then I started reading your version and I have to say this is one amazing piece of work. I really hope you will finish it. I plan to print it when its done and make a little book out of it. Not to sell or make profit of it, just for myself. Every time I finish the game, I would read it. And trust me I'm going to play this game a lot. So in conclusion, I'm writing to say thank you. Thank you for this story and for the time you put into it. And when its finished, I'm looking forward to your projects in the future.

Big fan of yours (sry for bad English)" -Borzlike

I'd just like to say that reading things like that can make a person's year. And for all those who'd like to print the story when it's done, Go on ahead! It's a fanfiction after all and I own this story as much as a single person can own the moon.

Alright. If you've read through all of that, thanks. It means a lot to me that all of you have been so supportive and cool. Stay AWESOME everyone.