Infinite Stratos: Phoenix

The End

All right. Hi guys! Guess what? I'm not dead! Anyway, I'm sitting in the car with my family and rereading my other stories with Zeke and get to Old IS, New Plans Ch. 2 Surprise!
I'm watching Zeke make a surprise dinner for Charlotte and Keiko and then as he's sitting down afterwards with a guitar in hand and Charlotte is ecstatic in front of him while Keiko watches on from nearby with her phone recording her parents. Now, as I'm listening to 'All that you are' by Goo Goo Dolls, the song Zeke plays, I'm hit with an idea. What if, for an ending, I use Keiko's recording and some snapshots from before everything fell apart in Secrets to write an ending since you guys deserve one, dammit! Anyways, after nearly a year, IS: Phoenix gets an update and an ending I feel fits well with a happy ending I might've wrote if I'd continued. Enjoy!

UPDATE: 2 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS Later... wow. Now, I'd read the comment by Gray__Fullbuster when he'd posted it and mindlessly responded to it. Sorry my dude, it took me forever to find the full version, not sure how it became the version that was uploaded. So, after a late night of boredom I searched my files and found this copy. Made a few tweaks and here you all go. The ACTUAL ending of this series.

It had been almost two years since Zeke had sacrificed himself to save the rest of the group in what was later heralded as the first and last battle of 'The Great IS War.' And, just like last year, the group gathers together to mourn him and reminisce.
-Two Years Ago-
The sound of an IS crashing into the ground far below wasn't anything new to the group, but one of their own screaming afterwards was. The fight, having barely started stopped and all eyes went to the two orange IS on the ground. One, it's large wings once slicing through the clouds in the sky, now lay half buried in the ground and the torso they were attached too was slowly turning red while its pilot slowly lost his life blood through the hole in his chest. The other IS gripped the ground on either side of its prone companion as their pilot cried and screamed above it. Then, the battle field went quiet, except for the sobbing of the woman in the orange IS and the rattling gasps of the other IS pilot as he reached out and laid a bloodstained hand on the woman's cheek.

"I'll buy you some time." And with that, Zeke placed both hands on Charlotte's chest and pushed as a high pitched whine began to rise throughout the battlefield. Charlotte, surprised at her husbands strength fell back into their circle of friends as Zeke stood and Phoenix flared to life again. "Go!"

"Not without you" was the unanimous reply.

"A little late for that," he whispered as the final fail safes were bypassed and the whine grew louder. Zeke reached up and removed Phoenix's helmet and let it drop beside him, the visor fritzing with the extra energy pouring through its systems and summoned a rifle and a pistol. "It wasn't a request," Zeke replied, turning to see over his shoulder. "It's a little late for that anyway. Core's about to go, I need you guys to be safe." He said, green eyes flashing as he turned back to the aggressors and let a smirk settle onto his features. The Task agents, now realizing what was happening to the orange IS in front of them, began to retreat from said IS.

"Where do you think you guys are going? Get over here!" Zeke called out, flinging his arms out and two wire blades shot out and attached to a pair of IS. He was dragged forwards by them and steadily closer to the horde of fleeing IS.

"I can't fly anymore, doesn't seem fair that you guys can. Let's change that." Zeke said before the IS fell out of the sky.

"Nix. Are they far enough away?" He asked his IS as several IS rushed him in hopes of shutting his IS down before it self destructed. "Affirmative"

"Perfect." Zeke said as he slammed his fist into the ground and an energy bubble popped up around Zeke and the Phantom Task agents. He stood up only to get hit in his shoulder and lose his balance. Unsteady on his feet, Zeke moved his rifle and fired, shredding the IS with the shield pierce ammo he'd made in secret. Bracing himself as quickly as he was able to, he twisted his hips and brought his pistol up and dropped two more before getting hit again, this time in his stomach. He dropped to one knee and gasped before snapping his head back up and bringing both weapons up in front of him and depressing the triggers. Phoenix warned him of several IS coming up behind him and he swung his left arm out with the rifle and began firing into the approaching IS. Both weapons clicked empty at nearly the same time and the remaining Phantom Task took full advantage of the lack of  fire from Zeke and rushed him.