J
Jack Pine
===Hangar====//188604: 1725 hours//after operation Roach Hotel and the following briefing
Jack entered the Sky Guard hangar, hoping to find Isabelle as he was directed. And sure enough he spotted a pair of large cerulaen wings visible from a maintence station for a U1.
Izzy was jus finishing up working on a U1 one of the few left that needed a few more minor things done to them. She wasn't the only engineer on the team but she liked to keep busy. She hadn't noticed Jack just yet and she probably wouldn't unless he said something.
Jack stood there behind her for a minute, just admiring the beutiful woman before him before he spoke up. "I though we had some divine intervention out there, I don't think we would have made it without it." he said hopefully trying to not startle her.
Izzy jumped but smiled as she turned toward him. "Yeah, all of you must have a lot of nerve to be able to do what you do. You guys did a great job though." She was happy he was safe, extremely happy, she hoped he wouldn't die on any mission but there was always that chance.
"That's true, it could have been much worse, we had a lot of casualties. And most these guys are only kids, I have some things in motion to help prevent such high cuasualties again. And I would like your help as you probably heard back in the briefing." Jack had lowered his headslightly as he had began, flash backs of familiar faces play across his mind, but he raised his face again trying to put on a convincing grin. Jack hoped that he could forget those these nightmares of his past, and he had only shares a fraction of those with Isabelle, she had no idea of the things he had been ordered to do in those days.
Izzy really didn't know of everything he went though, and she had a feeling she didn't, she was okay with it though on the assumption that he would open up enough to share everything later, she didn't want to push him. "Yeah, I'm okay with what you sugested, big leap from just starting here but I think I can handle it." She was smiling at him warmly, hoping he knew he could come to her with anything.
"Hey I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner together tonight?" Jack said hoping to furhter lighten the mood, and spend some time with Izzy after this past mission.
"Sure, I don't think I have anything much better to do," Izzy said, nodding at his offer. "Besides it would give us both a good chance to relax."
Jack's forced smile became fully genuine at her words, "How bout my quarters tonight, Osman doesn't have any restaurants that I know of, and I know of a couple of recipes from my military days." he gave hoping she wouldn't get the wrong idea.
Izzy nodded again, not really getting the wrong idea since he did explain, "Sure, sounds nice. What time?"
"Say 8:00pm, is that good with you?", Jack said now looking forward to dinner, would give them a chance to talk.
"Sure, sounds perfect!" She said, excited that they were getting a chance to relax and talk, she was looking forward to it just as much as Jack was.
======================================================================
==same day/Jack's quarters==// 2000 hours
Jack was just finishing placing the food on some mobile food warmer units, after borrowing some cook space in the mess kitchen. He had debated whether he should dress into something nicer, or just dress casually. He was wearing a tank-top, and jeans, and figured that would be fine. He lit a couple candles on the middle of his table, and fixed two plates, with a glass of alcohol each and waited.
Izzy knocked on the door no more than a minute later wearing a pair of her white shorts and a blue tank top. She decided not to dress up since they weren't going to really be going anywhere, besides she would rather be comfortable anyway.
Jack quickly moved to open the door, and opened up the door happy to see he had been right about dressing casual. "Hey, perfect timing, just put the food on the table." Jack said greeting her with a smile, before directing her to the table.
She smiled at him, happy to see him when they could just relax, "Good, I was a little worried I would be late." She had left her room later than she had wanted and had flown there as fast as she possibly could have just to try and make sure she wasn't late.
"I probably made too much, but with S6 needing to get running, it will allow me to work without having to worry about fixing meals. Foresight right, ha ha." Jack said as they began to start eating, hoping to strike a conversation.
"True, how is the kick off for that going anyway?" Izzy asked, curious and interested in what he had planned. It was gonna be nice to work in a group run by Jack, even if the group itself was going to take up a lot of his time.
"Very well actually, there has been no shortage of volunteers, the only thing I'm kinda worried about is leading the spec-ops team. They will be called team Sabre, considering how it went last time, I'm not sure if I'm ready. They still need training, and equipment is still be purchased." Jack said as he began eating his food.
"Still good, sounds like it's coming along amazingly. You really think this will minimize how many people die on missions? I mean, I really hope it does, I hate seeing so many innocent people die, I just, I don't know, I guess I don't have as much faith as you do with that," Izzy said, starting to eat as well.
"Sabre will help do that at the risk of losing a small team instead, we'll be doing the high risk operations, such as recon behind enemy lines, and covert assault on hostile installations. Just what I'm used to, I hated it back then, but seeing these kids, I'm going to have to so they don't have to. I have a training program that I plan to do with the sky guard, hopefully giving them a chance if shot down. A new sidearm, and some hand to hand training from me, won't make them soldiers but still give a chance." Jack continued, not wanting to hide what he would have to be doing in the near future even though she would probably worry. He just hoped he could train this team to such efficiency that the enemy wouldn't know what hit them till they were well and gone, but he had no illusions of what had to follow.
Izzy immediatly looked a little more worried, "That's a lot for you to do, not that I'm doubting that you could do it. You're going to have help with training them at least, right?" She trusted him more than she was letting on, just worred that he was going to end up running himself into the ground, getting hurt, or, even worse, both.
"Training yes, but I'm going to be on the ground with them as well. I just hope this doesn't become a repeat......" Jack stopped as the last word left his mouth. For a moment as if there again, and what could have only been an halucination flashed for a moment. His hands covered in blood, a smoking pistol in his hand causing his eyes to widen for a brief moment.
Izzy reached over and placed her hand ontop of his, "You okay?" She had noticed his eyes widen and was a little worried. "I'm right here if you want to talk, you can tell me anything."
Jack remained silent for a moment, but the flashes didn't stop until, he was lost in a flashback for a moment. Staring at the remains of what appears to be a village in flames, bodies litering the ground before his squad. A youngman lying on the ground, dead and still griping the rifle that moment before had been pointed at Jack, the smoking pistol that had killed the boy in Jack's hand. He blinked for a moment, realizing he was not there anymore, reached to his cheek finding it moist with some tears.
Izzy moved so that she was kneeling beside him, her expression startled. She reached to wipe tears off his face with one hand. "Jack?" She was getting more worried as he took longer to answer and she wasn't sure what to do exactly.
Jack became aware of Izzy next to him, and he put his head in his hands. "Izzy I lead a squad in the Nep military, we tended to be sent on mission considered not worth extra man powere, clearing out small pirate camps, holdouts of rebels, and the like. I've done terrible things, I've killed so many, all because I believed in following orders. Not only that, but since they never sent more than a couple of squads, I lost people constantly."
He wondered just what she would think of him now, that he revealed the demon he used to be, and he hadn't gotten to the worse part yet. "Those camps, and villages, usually had families who would take up arms against us as well." Jack paused after saying this, letting what it meant sink in.
Izzy paused, trying to let what he meant regester. She knew he'd been through a lot, none of it really good but she'd never known the extent of it. "You had to do what you were ordered to, you know that. If you hadn't done most of that, who knows what would have become of you, if you'd even survived. It's not your fault you were put in those situations." She understood more now and she smiled at him comfortingly.
"I'm a damned mass murder, we used to called good soldier, but we only felt like monsters. I've killed children, only because they wouldn't put down the gun.", as Jack says this the flashes came back worse, faces staring back at him, all with various fatal wounds. They part to reveal a man with eyes of blood red, a black horn sticking out from his white hair, that's when he realizes the grinning face is his. The very demon he knows is inside, and he fears going back to being that thing. He blinks and it vanishes, but he knows it will always be there routed in whatever might count as a soul.
Izzy grabs Jack's hands and holds them, "Listen to me, if they wouldn't put down their gun then they would have killed you had you not done that. You can't blame yourself for protecting yourself. That wasn't your fault, you have to believe that." She was looking at him with comfort and trying to do anything that would make him feel better.
"Doesn't mean I feel any better about it, men have done terrible thing through out history, because they seemed right at the time.", Jack puases for a moment, then looked to Izzy. "I afraid of being that man again, of being a demon of war ." he said more tears rolling down his face as he recalled the apparition he had just witnessed.
"Seeming right at the time and self preservation are slightly different. If you couldn't have gotten them to put the gun down, you wouldn't be here. You know that. I don't think you ever were a demon of war, you may have done bad things but who doesn't? You have to believe that this it will be better, that you'll be better. If you don't you're not going to get through this. I'm here for you when you need me as well, you have to remember that too," Izzy said, looking at him with calm eyes, she could only say so much. He needed to trust himself to believe her and the way he was talking that would be hard for him.
Jack thought on what she was saying, and felt she was more than he deserved, maybe things could be diferent this time. He needed an anchor, someone to keep him sane, and Isabelle had appeared almost as if by divine intervention at the time in his life when he thought there was no going back. Jack stood up and nelt down next to Izzy, "I'm not sure I would have made it this far without you, with you by my side, I think I can do this."he hugged Isabelle.
Izzy hugged him back, maybe she had succeded in helping. She hoped she could keep him happy and optimistic through all that he was going to have to do in the near future. She smiled at him calmly. "I will always be here for you Jack, from now on."
Jack just enjoyed the embrace for a few more moments longer, "I'm sorry, I wanted to have a nice dinner, and I've gone and ruined the moment." he said as he pulled back after awhile.
"It's okay," Izzy said as she pulled back as well. "I have a feeling you needed to get that off your chest."
She paused and looked at Jack, delebrating. She didn't know if she should be asking this considering she didn't have rings or anything to offer really. She took a deep breath and looked at him, somewhat shyly. "Will you marry me?" She asked softly.
Jack was taken back for a moment, he had figured it would be him to ask when the time was right. "Yes, Isabelle Kazuko I will always be yours, now and always." he said as he took her into his arms.
Izzy smiled happily, content at the moment. "I'm sorry I didn't have rings or anything, I wasn't really planning to ask yet," She said with a small laugh.
"I can take care of that, I had planned to have Kine help me put something together." Jack said thinking to the ring ideas he had for a while.
"Okay, I'm perfectly fine with that. I can't wait to see what you have in mind," Izzy said, smiling brightly.
Jack entered the Sky Guard hangar, hoping to find Isabelle as he was directed. And sure enough he spotted a pair of large cerulaen wings visible from a maintence station for a U1.
Izzy was jus finishing up working on a U1 one of the few left that needed a few more minor things done to them. She wasn't the only engineer on the team but she liked to keep busy. She hadn't noticed Jack just yet and she probably wouldn't unless he said something.
Jack stood there behind her for a minute, just admiring the beutiful woman before him before he spoke up. "I though we had some divine intervention out there, I don't think we would have made it without it." he said hopefully trying to not startle her.
Izzy jumped but smiled as she turned toward him. "Yeah, all of you must have a lot of nerve to be able to do what you do. You guys did a great job though." She was happy he was safe, extremely happy, she hoped he wouldn't die on any mission but there was always that chance.
"That's true, it could have been much worse, we had a lot of casualties. And most these guys are only kids, I have some things in motion to help prevent such high cuasualties again. And I would like your help as you probably heard back in the briefing." Jack had lowered his headslightly as he had began, flash backs of familiar faces play across his mind, but he raised his face again trying to put on a convincing grin. Jack hoped that he could forget those these nightmares of his past, and he had only shares a fraction of those with Isabelle, she had no idea of the things he had been ordered to do in those days.
Izzy really didn't know of everything he went though, and she had a feeling she didn't, she was okay with it though on the assumption that he would open up enough to share everything later, she didn't want to push him. "Yeah, I'm okay with what you sugested, big leap from just starting here but I think I can handle it." She was smiling at him warmly, hoping he knew he could come to her with anything.
"Hey I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner together tonight?" Jack said hoping to furhter lighten the mood, and spend some time with Izzy after this past mission.
"Sure, I don't think I have anything much better to do," Izzy said, nodding at his offer. "Besides it would give us both a good chance to relax."
Jack's forced smile became fully genuine at her words, "How bout my quarters tonight, Osman doesn't have any restaurants that I know of, and I know of a couple of recipes from my military days." he gave hoping she wouldn't get the wrong idea.
Izzy nodded again, not really getting the wrong idea since he did explain, "Sure, sounds nice. What time?"
"Say 8:00pm, is that good with you?", Jack said now looking forward to dinner, would give them a chance to talk.
"Sure, sounds perfect!" She said, excited that they were getting a chance to relax and talk, she was looking forward to it just as much as Jack was.
======================================================================
==same day/Jack's quarters==// 2000 hours
Jack was just finishing placing the food on some mobile food warmer units, after borrowing some cook space in the mess kitchen. He had debated whether he should dress into something nicer, or just dress casually. He was wearing a tank-top, and jeans, and figured that would be fine. He lit a couple candles on the middle of his table, and fixed two plates, with a glass of alcohol each and waited.
Izzy knocked on the door no more than a minute later wearing a pair of her white shorts and a blue tank top. She decided not to dress up since they weren't going to really be going anywhere, besides she would rather be comfortable anyway.
Jack quickly moved to open the door, and opened up the door happy to see he had been right about dressing casual. "Hey, perfect timing, just put the food on the table." Jack said greeting her with a smile, before directing her to the table.
She smiled at him, happy to see him when they could just relax, "Good, I was a little worried I would be late." She had left her room later than she had wanted and had flown there as fast as she possibly could have just to try and make sure she wasn't late.
"I probably made too much, but with S6 needing to get running, it will allow me to work without having to worry about fixing meals. Foresight right, ha ha." Jack said as they began to start eating, hoping to strike a conversation.
"True, how is the kick off for that going anyway?" Izzy asked, curious and interested in what he had planned. It was gonna be nice to work in a group run by Jack, even if the group itself was going to take up a lot of his time.
"Very well actually, there has been no shortage of volunteers, the only thing I'm kinda worried about is leading the spec-ops team. They will be called team Sabre, considering how it went last time, I'm not sure if I'm ready. They still need training, and equipment is still be purchased." Jack said as he began eating his food.
"Still good, sounds like it's coming along amazingly. You really think this will minimize how many people die on missions? I mean, I really hope it does, I hate seeing so many innocent people die, I just, I don't know, I guess I don't have as much faith as you do with that," Izzy said, starting to eat as well.
"Sabre will help do that at the risk of losing a small team instead, we'll be doing the high risk operations, such as recon behind enemy lines, and covert assault on hostile installations. Just what I'm used to, I hated it back then, but seeing these kids, I'm going to have to so they don't have to. I have a training program that I plan to do with the sky guard, hopefully giving them a chance if shot down. A new sidearm, and some hand to hand training from me, won't make them soldiers but still give a chance." Jack continued, not wanting to hide what he would have to be doing in the near future even though she would probably worry. He just hoped he could train this team to such efficiency that the enemy wouldn't know what hit them till they were well and gone, but he had no illusions of what had to follow.
Izzy immediatly looked a little more worried, "That's a lot for you to do, not that I'm doubting that you could do it. You're going to have help with training them at least, right?" She trusted him more than she was letting on, just worred that he was going to end up running himself into the ground, getting hurt, or, even worse, both.
"Training yes, but I'm going to be on the ground with them as well. I just hope this doesn't become a repeat......" Jack stopped as the last word left his mouth. For a moment as if there again, and what could have only been an halucination flashed for a moment. His hands covered in blood, a smoking pistol in his hand causing his eyes to widen for a brief moment.
Izzy reached over and placed her hand ontop of his, "You okay?" She had noticed his eyes widen and was a little worried. "I'm right here if you want to talk, you can tell me anything."
Jack remained silent for a moment, but the flashes didn't stop until, he was lost in a flashback for a moment. Staring at the remains of what appears to be a village in flames, bodies litering the ground before his squad. A youngman lying on the ground, dead and still griping the rifle that moment before had been pointed at Jack, the smoking pistol that had killed the boy in Jack's hand. He blinked for a moment, realizing he was not there anymore, reached to his cheek finding it moist with some tears.
Izzy moved so that she was kneeling beside him, her expression startled. She reached to wipe tears off his face with one hand. "Jack?" She was getting more worried as he took longer to answer and she wasn't sure what to do exactly.
Jack became aware of Izzy next to him, and he put his head in his hands. "Izzy I lead a squad in the Nep military, we tended to be sent on mission considered not worth extra man powere, clearing out small pirate camps, holdouts of rebels, and the like. I've done terrible things, I've killed so many, all because I believed in following orders. Not only that, but since they never sent more than a couple of squads, I lost people constantly."
He wondered just what she would think of him now, that he revealed the demon he used to be, and he hadn't gotten to the worse part yet. "Those camps, and villages, usually had families who would take up arms against us as well." Jack paused after saying this, letting what it meant sink in.
Izzy paused, trying to let what he meant regester. She knew he'd been through a lot, none of it really good but she'd never known the extent of it. "You had to do what you were ordered to, you know that. If you hadn't done most of that, who knows what would have become of you, if you'd even survived. It's not your fault you were put in those situations." She understood more now and she smiled at him comfortingly.
"I'm a damned mass murder, we used to called good soldier, but we only felt like monsters. I've killed children, only because they wouldn't put down the gun.", as Jack says this the flashes came back worse, faces staring back at him, all with various fatal wounds. They part to reveal a man with eyes of blood red, a black horn sticking out from his white hair, that's when he realizes the grinning face is his. The very demon he knows is inside, and he fears going back to being that thing. He blinks and it vanishes, but he knows it will always be there routed in whatever might count as a soul.
Izzy grabs Jack's hands and holds them, "Listen to me, if they wouldn't put down their gun then they would have killed you had you not done that. You can't blame yourself for protecting yourself. That wasn't your fault, you have to believe that." She was looking at him with comfort and trying to do anything that would make him feel better.
"Doesn't mean I feel any better about it, men have done terrible thing through out history, because they seemed right at the time.", Jack puases for a moment, then looked to Izzy. "I afraid of being that man again, of being a demon of war ." he said more tears rolling down his face as he recalled the apparition he had just witnessed.
"Seeming right at the time and self preservation are slightly different. If you couldn't have gotten them to put the gun down, you wouldn't be here. You know that. I don't think you ever were a demon of war, you may have done bad things but who doesn't? You have to believe that this it will be better, that you'll be better. If you don't you're not going to get through this. I'm here for you when you need me as well, you have to remember that too," Izzy said, looking at him with calm eyes, she could only say so much. He needed to trust himself to believe her and the way he was talking that would be hard for him.
Jack thought on what she was saying, and felt she was more than he deserved, maybe things could be diferent this time. He needed an anchor, someone to keep him sane, and Isabelle had appeared almost as if by divine intervention at the time in his life when he thought there was no going back. Jack stood up and nelt down next to Izzy, "I'm not sure I would have made it this far without you, with you by my side, I think I can do this."he hugged Isabelle.
Izzy hugged him back, maybe she had succeded in helping. She hoped she could keep him happy and optimistic through all that he was going to have to do in the near future. She smiled at him calmly. "I will always be here for you Jack, from now on."
Jack just enjoyed the embrace for a few more moments longer, "I'm sorry, I wanted to have a nice dinner, and I've gone and ruined the moment." he said as he pulled back after awhile.
"It's okay," Izzy said as she pulled back as well. "I have a feeling you needed to get that off your chest."
She paused and looked at Jack, delebrating. She didn't know if she should be asking this considering she didn't have rings or anything to offer really. She took a deep breath and looked at him, somewhat shyly. "Will you marry me?" She asked softly.
Jack was taken back for a moment, he had figured it would be him to ask when the time was right. "Yes, Isabelle Kazuko I will always be yours, now and always." he said as he took her into his arms.
Izzy smiled happily, content at the moment. "I'm sorry I didn't have rings or anything, I wasn't really planning to ask yet," She said with a small laugh.
"I can take care of that, I had planned to have Kine help me put something together." Jack said thinking to the ring ideas he had for a while.
"Okay, I'm perfectly fine with that. I can't wait to see what you have in mind," Izzy said, smiling brightly.
