𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱𝐱𝐢 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟎 ❞

✈ ✈ ✈

IT HAD BEEN A TOTAL OF EIGHT YEARS, THREE MONTHS, AND FIFTY FOUR DAYS SINCE FAITH KAZANSKY HAD LAST SPOKEN, OR EVEN SEEN BRADLEY BRADSHAW.

God, she missed him so much.

But he left her.

Standing in the rain all by herself, watching as he drove away and crying with her hands wrapped around her body.

But who's counting, right?

She'd been promoted to Captain. Working alongside her fellow Avengers at TOPGUN itself. Don't get her wrong, flying with the Fightertown squadron was great. But it just wasn't quite her tempo, you know? It wasn't thrilling. So, she left with a notice to Hurricane, who'd caught her as she was sticking the notice to his cabin door. He just pulled her into a side hug, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, sighing as they leant against each other. A quick nod, like always, and then she left.

Then, Ice told her that her uncle was in the desert. Exciting, right? She took the job immediately beside Mav. As a test pilot. In the Mojave. With Maverick. It was, thrilling, to say the least. But it was better than working with the Avengers. Man, those guys were stiff. Serious. It was not her thing.

Together, they were a dangerous duo. Everyone in the Navy had heard of them, the Maverick and the Archer, the pair of Captains with a total of seven air to air kills in active duty. Of course, Faith had four confirmed kills, Mav backing her up with three.

They flew multiple missions together, well, Faith flew, while Maverick just maneuvered his plane the entire time. But he was her uncle, after all. And her mentor, besides Ice. And she wouldn't have it any other way. He just took a lot of risks, and made a few mistakes. One of those mistakes he'd made was not telling Bradley that his mother was the one who insisted on him not flying after his father's death. But Pete didn't want Bradley to hate his mother for her promise, and so, he took the blame on himself.

Faith? She was doing perfectly alright. Despite the fact that there was a Bradley-sized hole in her heart, she was doing pretty good as a Captain in the Navy. People respected her, looked up to her as a mentor.

She'd kept tabs on Bradley. With Ice's hesitant help, of course. That one photo of Bradley sitting on her couch with Hulk in his lap from eight years ago is now in a black photo case with a silver flame right on her bedside table. She takes a minute everyday to look at it and smile at the memory of those days.

God, she wished she didn't ruin their friendship with that stupid, stupid kiss. That kiss, his soft lips against hers', when their hearts exploded in unison at the feeling of him against her. The kiss, when all she felt in her mind, was the word, finally. But then he was gone as soon as it began.

As Faith stares at said photo this morning, she feels fur rub against her ankle, Hulk, purring, an indication for Faith to pick him up. And she did. And they both stared at the distant but vivid memory of Bradley, comforting each other in the silence of the morning. The kitten had become.... well, he wasn't a kitten anymore, he'd grown thrice the size, but he still had the heart of a child, always wanting to be in someone's comfort.

Her phone vibrates beside the black photo frame, Maverick, calling her to work.

Bird : Will you please stop staring at the picture and get your ass out of bed and to work?

Ice Jr. : Like you're any better, always looking through those polaroids of yours' with Penny.

Bird : Just get to work, Arch.

Ice Jr. : Sir, yes, sir!

Faith smiles to herself as she closes her phone and sets it down on the table by her bed. She gets up, stretching, as Hulk shifts down onto the ground, before walking towards her bathroom, gazing at the calendar by the frame of the bathroom door, the twenty-second day of May circled with red. She knocks her knuckles against the page, ready for combat.

Mach 9, here we come.

✈ ✈ ✈

FAITH DECIDES TO TAKE HER KAWASAKI BIKE TO WORK TODAY.

Her chocolate brown locks highlighted with a lighter brown fly behind her as she drives towards the base in the Mojave, aviators protecting her eyes from the sand. An F/A-18 flies beside her on the runway, as Faith tries to gain speed on it with a large smile on her face. Her brown leather jacket with multiple patches flies behind her as she races ahead of the F/A-18, her smile replaced with a smirk as she wins the one sided race. Though, she swore the pilot knocked his fist against the canopy glass in her direction.

This never gets old.

Faith puts on her work face as she nods at fellow pilots on the runway who salute her and wish her a good morning. She drives through the narrow doors of the hangar as she halts to a stop at the sight of Maverick just entering the hangar before her, Hondo, and a few other teammates stood by the two Darkstars, turning her bike off and taking her aviators off her face, recognizing the gloom on Hondo's face.

Maverick gives her a nod in greeting as she nods back, both of them stepping off their bikes, taking off their aviators. Faith folds her hands to her chest, he walks a few steps in the direction of their team, saying, "Hey. What is it?"

Maverick receives no reply. He looks back at Faith who simply shrugs, not understanding why their team was so deflated. "What?" Her uncle asks as he looks back at Hondo. The silence is loud for a few seconds, before Hondo breaks it, catching Maverick's gaze and sighing slightly as he says, "We've been ordered to stand down. They're scrapping the program."

Faith takes a deep breath through her nose at Hondo's words. Her mouth opens to form an 'o' shape as Hondo continues, "They say we fell short. The contact threshold is Mach 10."

"Mach 10, is supposed to be in two months." Maverick replies, as Faith nods, continuing for him, "Yeah, today's test point is Mach 9."

Hondo catches her gaze when she speaks up, replying back, "Well, that's not good enough."

"Says who?" Maverick asks, eyes shifting to the side as he catches Faith walking towards the team with slow steps. An engineer, Bash, mentions, pursing his lips, "Admiral Cain."

"The Drone Ranger." Faith and Hondo speak in unison. Faith connects, shaking her head and narrowing her eyes in disbelief, "Doesn't he need a budget for that project of his?"

Bash nods as he looks at Faith, nodding at her connection, "He's on his way to kill the test and shut us down personally."

A jet rumbles in the distance. Maverick turns around to look at the Darkstars in the hangar, and Faith brings her hand down her face, placing both on her waist as she shakes her head at the situation they were in.

She lets out a small chuckle as she looks at Maverick staring at the jets, laughing himself. Maverick looks back at her, and Faith smirks back, knowing exactly what he was thinking. They both look at Hondo, who has pure fear written on his face at the pair.

"Well, he isn't here yet." Maverick shrugs. Faith simply nods, jutting her lips out, her head jerking to the side a bit.

"They want Mach 10. We'll give 'em Mach 10." Faith says, moving towards the Darkstar and placing her hand on it's nose. She looks over her shoulder at Maverick, who simply smirks and nods, before they two look at their teammates, who smirked back, and Hondo, who simply shook his head, sighing.

Mach 10, it is.

✈ ✈ ✈

FAITH WAS CLAD IN HER BLACK TEST PILOT FLIGHT SUIT, HER HELMENT IN HER HANDS AS SHE GRAZED HER GLOVE-COVERED THUMB AGAINST HER CALLSIGN ON THE SIDE OF IT.

Maverick had slipped into his suit as well, waiting for Faith to come out of the dressing room. Faith takes a deep breath, looking at the pictures she'd stuck in her locker. Her mother stood proudly beside her, kissing her cheek, and Faith had a huge smile on her face. Another photo was of Hulk and her, him just nuzzling into the crook of her neck as he always did. God, had he gotten bigger now. The third photo was one of Bradley and her, from the carnival.

Faith knocks twice with her knuckles against the final photo as she grimaces in pain at it. With a nod to herself, and words of encouragement building up in her mind by that tiny little voice, she moves out of the locker room. Faith puts her helmet on with Bash's help.

Maverick stood with a small smirk at the sight of her. She smirks back, nodding, and they begin to move through the hallway to the hangar at each other's side. Hondo catches up with them, giving them a pep talk through the comms, "Now, remember, the contract threshold is Mach 10. Not 10.1, not 10.2, Mach 10."

"That should be enough to keep the program alive." Hondo turns his head to look at Faith between him and Maverick when he hears no reply from the pair of pilots. They just stare straight ahead, closing in on the hangar.

Hondo shakes his head, "I don't like that look, Mav." At that, Maverick turns his head to the side the slightest bit, replying to him, "It's the only one I got."

The assistant to the two of them turns to Faith, giving a scolding look as she turns to meet his gaze, "I do not want a repeat of Budapest."

The Archer simply smirks, while Maverick furrows his eyebrows in curiosity, "What ever did happen in Budapest?"

Hondo and Faith smile at each other, looking back at Maverick and answering in unison, "That's classified." And the doors to the hangar open with a loud click.

The Darkstars stood in front of them, and the test pilots move to their jets, climbing up the stairs after briefings with their team and saluting. Archer runs her hand along the beauty of her jet, smiling in absolute awe of the plane she was about to fly.

Captain Faith Wilson-Kazanksy

"Archer"

Her name and callsign are printed on the side of the plane, and Archer smiles proudly at it, looking at the sky, and kissing her index and middle finger to it. She gets into the plane, grabbing her oxygen pack and placing it by her feet. The light in her helmet glows as she presses a button to shut the canopy.

Archer looks to her right, catching Maverick's eye as he punches gently at the glass, as a handshake and Archer follows, nodding.

"Control, we're Darkstars, how do you read?" The Captain duo speak in unison. The canopy completely seals above their heads.

"Darkstars, Control. Loud and clear. How me?" Hondo's voice is heard to the both of them on comms.

"Loud and clear." Maverick replies, as Archer continues, "Takeoff prechecks complete. We're good for APU." Archer presses a button to turn on the left engine, hearing Maverick do the same, as Hondo gives the orders, "Ready, left engine start." And the jets rumble, a depiction of the engine's wake from slumber.

"Ready, right engine start." With another push of a button, the other engine wakes as well, the rumbling getting significantly louder.

"Thumbs for taxi." Hondo speaks to their team in the control room, and everyone puts their thumbs up, they were good to go.

"We are ready for taxi." With that, Maverick pushes the yoke forward as his jet begins on the taxiway, Archer follows close behind him. "Tower, this is Darkstars, we are taxiing with information Alpha." Maverick voices on comms.

The operator replies immediately, "Darkstars, you are clear for taxi. Runway two-one. Winds two-one, zero-ten."

Archer looks down at the controls, both hands on the yoke as she speaks, "Looking good on fuel temps." Hondo replies, "Control concurs." The pair gets moving around the taxiway, making a turn to the right.

"Battery, 95 percent, cabin pressure's good." Archer voices out, everything looks perfect. "Control concurs." Hondo agrees.

"Tower, this is Darkstars. We're ready for takeoff." Maverick says, and Archer jerks her head to the side, there was no turning back now.

"Requesting an unrestricted climb to six-zero-six and above." Maverick continues as Faith simply follows behind. Control gives the confirmation they'd been waiting for since the moment they stepped into their jets, "Darkstars, the runway and skies are yours."

Hondo warns with his voice a bit shaky, "Guys, Cain just pulled up to the gate. It's not too late to stop. Maverick, you know what happens to you if you go through with this." Maverick is silent for a second, considering all his options again. "I know what happens to everyone else if I don't." Maverick says back to Hondo.

"This is the Darkstars, ready for takeoff." Archer speaks out with a smirk on her face at Maverick's answer.

"Everyone, go for takeoff, starting with engine." Hondo instructs and the respective controls give their go's.

"Darkstars, Control, you're cleared for takeoff." The pair shifts their yokes forward completely with heavy force, the jets rumbles are heard clear even at the control room.

Maverick ascends first, and Archer follows behind him, jets at their full capacity to climb the skies, speed, and altitudes.

When they're in the air, Archer pulls up beside Maverick, looking at him at her right as she gives him a bright smile in the morning sky, "Hey, Mav. I feel the need..." She waits for Maverick to continue, and he does with a shiny smile of his own, "The need.. for speed!" The both of them push their yokes forward again, running alongside each other through the sky.

"Transitioning to scramjet." Archer voices out on comms again, shifting the yokes as she does so. Maverick follows, doing the same. The engine whirrs, and shuts, main engines are completely powered up at the back, the pair is pushed to their seats as they climb the speed, moving through the clouds.

"Uh, Mav, Arch, Admiral Cain is asking... ordering that we bring 'em down." Archer, still at Maverick's side looks at him when she feels him stare at her, he nods, and she just sighs, following his lead.

The pair begins to mutter utter nonsense onto comms, as they pretend to have wavering signals. They club together random words as they speak on the communications, not making any sense whatsoever.

Hondo covers for them with a hidden smile of his own, their team grinning to themselves in the control room, "This is where we've had trouble, sir, it's the Earth's curvature. It's called the 'Earth's bulge'," as he looks at the Drone Ranger. "Did anyone offer you a coffee?" Hondo continues to stick his ass out on the line.

The pair in the air climbs speed rapidly as they look at the sky. Archer takes a moment to peer down, the clouds and terrain was completely below them, looking like a painting from this high up. She swore she felt complete peace at this moment, this far up into the beautiful morning sky. The yellow shades of the sun were on the move to shine out as the night blue fades into the back.

Archer smiles to herself, and she swore she could feel her mother's hand patting on her shoulder like she always did. "Hi, mom." She mutters, goosebumps erupting on her skin. The presence of her mother was something she always felt in the air. It was exactly why she loved flying. It brought her closer to her mother.

"Temperature's still climbing, Response is still stable. We're feeling good." Maverick speaks on the radio, looking down at the Mach meter. They were gaining speed very fast.

"Mach 9." Archer hears faintly on the radio as she looks down at the Mach meter. Today's goal, check. Now it was just time for Mach 10, and the program wouldn't be scrapped anymore, and the Drone Asshole could go back to wherever he stepped out of.

"They're the fastest people alive." Hondo's words brighten Archer's smile as she inverts the plane in happiness, before levelling out once again.

Archer flies beside Maverick, as he stares out into the horizon, watching the sun pour into the sky, "Talk to me, Goose."

Their planes rumble due to the heavy force as they move through the clear sky. They were pinned to their seats, hands firmly gripping the yokes and the other on the throttles. A voice through comms lists out all the Mach's they crossed, pushing the jets to their speeds.

They were high hypersonic, reaching Mach 9.5. The jets hit turbulence, waveringly moving through the skies at a extremely heavy speeds at high altitudes.

9.7

Archer keeps her eyes shifting between the sky and the Mach meter as she continues to be pinned back against her seat, her jet still beside Maverick's as they flew towards Mach 10 together. Blue wisps of what Archer could assume it to be fire, surround their jets as they climb another Mach.

9.8

Maverick looks towards Archer from his side gaze when he hears her humming to herself. She was humming to 'Danger Zone'. The pair had bonded over Kenny Loggins' songs, and they could talk about him and his songs for hours on end. Maverick sings softly to himself, "Right into, the danger zone. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun."

Archer looks back at him as she hears Maverick's voice on the radio, he speaks, "If we make it outta this alive, you're playing this song on the guitar for the team!"

"Alright, old man." Archer replies at his orders with a chuckle.

They turn their gaze at the skies once again, feeling warmth radiate into the jets as sweat beads run down their faces, "Windshield hot caution." Archer looks down at the controls, eyes lingering at the Mach meter.

9.9

"Just a little push, baby, come on!" Archer shifts her eyes between the sky and the controls for a moment, slowly jerking the yoke forward. Maverick does too, whispering words of encouragement to the jet. The rumbling of the jets gets higher and higher, as the noise becomes shriller and shriller.

"Come on!" Maverick encourages even more louder. The engines are yellow-hot now, as the jets rumble more than ever. Their eyes are fixated on the Mach meters in their jets. They've done everything on protocol for the jets to reach Mach 10. The planes just had to gain a bit more speed and then...

Two final beeps are heard, and they've done it.

10.0

Archer yells out, looking at Maverick with a proud smile on her face, "Mach 10, Mav! We did it!" Cheers erupt on the radio, the control room bursting with nothing but happiness as everyone claps their hands and yells in excitement. It had been such a good mood, that Bash muttered, quite loudly in fact, "Put that in your Pentagon budget!" Maverick and Archer share a laugh at his words.

Archer takes a double take when she sees Maverick's expression, and he seems to want more. "Maverick, no-" But her uncle cuts in on the radio, as he breathes heavily, "Just.. a little.. push."

"Don't do it, Mav, come on!" Archer warns again, her uncle was a real idiot sometimes. But Maverick continues to push his yoke forward, gaining more Mach's.

10.1

"Holy shit." Archer whispers to herself. She wanted to do nothing but leave her uncle in the air to answer for himself on the ground, but her father always told her, never leave your wingman. So she didn't. And she pushed the yoke forward herself, closing her eyes in actual disbelief at her actions.

10.2

She levels the jet with Maverick's as they share a glance, grunting at the absolute force on their chests. They let out strained grunts and sucked in their breaths again, repeating it multiple times, it was the only way not to fall into g-lock.

10.3

The caution alarm rings, and at the sight of it's brightness, they mutter at the same time, "Oh, shit."

Multiple alarms beep now, as Archer shifts her gaze between all of them. She hears a faint rumble and the jet jerks to the side, as the engines fail. Archer flies dead stick as the plane turns over on itself falling towards the ground. The controls go black. One final explosion is what they wait for before ejecting out of the planes with a sharp jerk below their seats.

✈ ✈ ✈

THE PAIR OF PILOTS WALK DOWN THE ROAD WITH THEIR HELMETS IN THEIR HANDS.

Faith walks beside Maverick, dirt and grease covering their bodies as they take slow strides towards the diner ahead.

The bell chimes, a significance of their entrance into the restaurant as they both walk inside, Faith holding the door open for Maverick, muttering, "Boomers first." Maverick just glares at her as she smirks at him. Her uncle mimics her under his breath.

The people sitting in the diner having food with their respective families turn around to look at the two of them as they walk further into the restaurant, clatters of cutlery against dishes sounding throughout the small place.

People gaze at them, shifting their eyes about their disheveled appearances as they stand leaning against the countertop besides a mother-son duo.

Her uncle points towards the glasses of water on the tray in a server's hand, and she brings the tray forward as the pair move their hands to grab the glasses. They gulp the water down desperately and rapidly, completely dehydrated after the morning's worth of flying. The kid sitting at the counter gives them a weird look.

Faith looks towards the woman who gave them the water, giving her a tired smile, "Thank you."

Placing the empty glasses back on the tray, Maverick questions in a whisper, "Where are we?" But the woman remains silent, staring at the two pilots. Rather, astronauts, who'd crashed their spaceships not far way from the diner.

Instead, the kid who paused as he ate his cereal to look back up at the pair who'd entered in dirt-covered flight suits and faces and helmets in their hands, answers Maverick's question with a simple answer.

"Earth."

Faith snorts at his answer, unintentionally grabbing the entire restaurants attention.

✈ ✈ ✈

THE DUO HAD BEEN ESCORTED BACK TO THE BASE IN THE MOJAVE, WHERE THE DRONE RANGER AWAITED THEM.

They stood side by side, hands behind their back and eyes wide open as they stared straight ahead, not even daring to look at the Admiral seated in the chair behind the desk on which their papers were scattered.

"Maverick. Thirty plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations. Only man to shoot down two enemy planes in the last forty years." Cain looks at Maverick's face, who just keeps his eyes dead straight.

"'Distinguished'. 'Distinguished'. 'Distinguished'." Cain shifts his eyes between the multitude of papers in his hands, pursing his lips. He looks back up at Maverick with icy eyes. "Yet, you can't get a promotion, you won't retire. And despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star Admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are. Captain. Why is that?" Admiral Cain asks Maverick, who gives a pretty straightforward answer as he shakes his head and narrows his eyes the slightest bit, "It's one of life's mysteries, sir."

"This isn't a joke, I asked you a question." Cain's eyes darken.

Maverick takes a moment, looking down at his shoes before gazing back up and catching the Drone Ranger's eye, "I'm where I belong, sir."

"Well, the Navy doesn't see it that way. Not anymore." Maverick gulps at Cain's reply.

"These planes you've been testing, Captain. One day, sooner than later, they won't need pilots at all. Pilots that need to sleep, eat, take a piss." Cain loos out the window, turning his chair to do so, before looking back at Maverick and continuing, "Pilots that disobey orders. All you did was buy some time for those men out there." Cain jerks his head to the side, motioning to the people standing by the other side of the window by his other side.

"The future is coming. And you're not in it." Maverick turns his head to the side at Cain's words, looking at Faith who just stares ahead.

"And you." Cain shifts his attention to Faith, whose heart beats even faster under his cold gaze. But she keeps her eyes icy.

"Four confirmed air to air kills, the only woman in active duty to do so." Faith tries to hide the prideful smirk forming on her face as Cain continues, "Eight plus years in the Navy, and you've made quite the reputation for yourself, Archer. You were leader of a legendary squadron, the Avengers. The fiercest TOPGUN has seen till yet. And Budapest... was a true masterpiece." Faith tries not to hide a smirk at the Drone Ranger's... praise?

"Escort this pair off the base." The said duo falter, hearing his words. "Take them to their quarters. Wait with them as they pack their gear. I want 'em on the road to North Island within the hour." Cain speaks to the armed personnel in the room.

"North Island, sir?" Maverick asks after a quick glance towards Faith who just shrugs back in answer.

"Call came in with impeccable timing, right as I was coming to ground your ass once and for all." Cain jerks his head towards Maverick, he continues with his, frankly, extremely long and boring speech, "It galls me to say this, but, for reasons known only to the Almighty and your guardian angel..." Hopefully, his speech will come to an end soon.

Faith couldn't hide her smirk anymore, shoulders running back as the confidence waves through her body. Iceman.

And then, she connects the dots. The disheveled pair of Captains share a wide-eyed gaze.

Oh no.

"You've been called back to TOPGUN, both of you."

Holy fuck knuckles.

Now, it's Faith who asks, "Sir?" But Cain cuts in, icy gaze meeting her wide one, "You are dismissed, Captains."

Well, shit.

author's note:

HELLO HELLO HELLOOOOOOO

i'm so happy to present to you..... ACT 2 OF THE ARCHER!!

i began writing this as i wrote the final five chapters of the first act, i just couldn't wait any longer to begin the second act.

i hope you've liked this chapter just as much as i've loved writing it. mav and arch are an ICONIC duo, and they will be even more iconic when another one of my fics is out! you'll understand soon enough (evil laughs).

please do tell me how you've liked this chapter and the dynamic so far.

i love you guys so much, and thank you for supporting me!

love, destiny <3.