Journeys Home

The more that I try, the more that I fly...

January 3, 2011

Walking up the path to his family's home, Grimm was nervous. Coming back from the dead wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence. That alone would be enough of a shock to his family. He wasn't sure how they'd spent the last month dealing with his reported death, but he was certain that his return would render all of that moot.

Which is why he paused as he reached his front door. He knew that what he was feeling was irrational. Why wouldn't his mother want to see her son after such a long war, one that she thought he had died in? What about his brother, the one he'd joined the military in order to follow? Any guilt he felt about setting his brother on the path to an early death could be absolved the moment Grimm walked through that door.

But despite the sound logic, Grimm still felt afraid. He had flown against impossible odds and unspeakably overwhelming enemies, yet he couldn't even bring himself to face his family after so long.

Until he remembered why he'd gone up against such adversaries to begin with. No matter how daunting the battles had seemed, he'd fought them because he wanted to protect his loved ones. To see them happy.

So if that was the objective, then that meant this was just another sortie.

Even though he would never fly the skies of battle again, Grimm becomes Archer yet again, if only for this final mission. With a deep breath and newfound determination, he knocks sharply on the front door.

Seconds seem to pass like years, and Archer begins to grow antsy until he hears that familiar click of the deadbolt being drawn back.

Then the door opens a crack as he sees half of a familiar and gentle face, albeit with more wrinkles from the last time he saw it, peer out from it curiously. Then, recognition mixing with disbelief, the face reveals more of itself as the door swings to open more until at last, his mother stands fully exposed in the doorway.

Archer wants to explain, to tell her all that has happened in the weeks that he's been dead. He wants to apologize for worrying her, and to ask her how she's been.

But before he can say anything, his mother holds out her arms to embrace him. The tears begin to flow from her face even as she smiles and says, "Happy birthday, Hans."

Unable to hold back any longer, Grimm takes his mother's embrace desperately, clinging to her as if it was she who had been proclaimed dead, only to appear before him now very much alive.

Between sobs, he chokes out, "I'm home, Ma."

He has fought hard enough as Razgriz 4. Here and now, in his mother's arms and his one true home, the newly-twenty-year-old boy can finally go back to being Hans Grimm.

May 13, 2012

The crushing depths of the ocean are thankfully kept back by the hull of the submersible. Despite that, Snow can't help but feel as if it will come crashing down on him any moment now. If it was a choice between this and a storm of missile alerts, Snow would gladly weave through the latter in a Fishbed as long as he was above sea level.

"Is something wrong, Marcus?"

Mentally shaking himself from his reverie, Snow replies with a crisp, "No, sir."