𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱𝐱𝐱 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 ❞





















































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THEY SPEND THEIR TIME TALKING.

They spent their time talking about themselves, what they lost, what they gained in all these years without each other. How much they missed each other, their inside jokes, their clandestine meetings, stolen stares. It was pretty much clear to the entire team after the song she sang that things between Faith and Bradley were sparking up again, but they made an attempt to keep it professional. Like, running away the second they got up from the beach to her home.

Very professional, indeed.

"You still like strawberries?" Faith asks, face nuzzled in the crook of his neck as she places a few kisses. Bradley hums, whispering out an answer, "I do, almost as much as I like you." Faith raises her brow in amusement, flush rushing across her cheeks, as she looks into his eyes. They chuckle together.

She places her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat, smiling in utmost pleasure and joy when she feels him place a kiss on her forehead, and running some down her face, before leaning his head against hers'.

At this moment, all both of them felt was uttermost peace, their yearning fulfilled after years and years. Like the force that pulled them together, gravity had done it's work, the invisible thread of gold had folded into their souls and their hearts, forever holding them in place.

The faint sound of the door closing is heard from downstairs. And then, a voice.

"Fae! We're home!" Sarah.

Bradley and Faith immediately sit up in their spots at the sound of her mother, eyes widening as they look at each other.

"I thought you guys were coming home late tonight!" Faith yells loudly to Sarah, some cluttering sounds. Tom and Sarah had gone out on a very much needed date night, with a promise of not coming home early.

"Well, we wanted to, uh, sleep early." Faith raises her brows, eyes narrowing at the other woman's words.

Bradley turns his head to look at her, raising his brows, and meeting her eyes, "I should go." The woman besides him slouches, almost like a child being told to put aside their favorite ice cream, her brows furrow, and the longing returns in her eyes as she whispers with her lips jutted out, "No..."

He chuckles, pecking her puckered lips once and twice, before he's slipping off the bed, grabbing a hold of his stuff. Faith gets off too with a dejected sigh, watching him with pack up.

Deciding the silence was way too long, Faith yells again, "How was dinner?"

Sarah replies, "Oh, it was wonderful, sweetie. Have you had dinner?"

"Yeah, I got some food with a friend." Bradley raises his brows, as he gives her a look of disbelief. Faith shrugs, hands up in a surrendering pose, confusion written across her face.

With a final kiss, a really good one, that made her want to lean in once again, he's making his way out of the room with his hand on the knob of the door, when Faith stops him in a hushed tone, "Wait, not that way!" He stops in his place, turning to meet her eyes with a confused glance, "What?"

Faith tries not to trip over a pillow, making her way over to him, "They don't know about us. I mean, I've told both of them, multiple times, about you, but I just, I don't want to shock them, you know, I've never done this before, bringing a boy home, let alone someone I like just as much as you-"

She's cut off when he wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest, as he presses a rough kiss against her lips. She groans at the feeling of his lips against hers', bringing her hand up to his hair and playing with the curls at the nape of his neck. She pushes him behind, walking backwards till they have no sense of where they were going, utterly lost in each other.

When they pull away for breaths, their chests heaving up and down, opening their darkened eyes and meeting each others'.

Faith looks behind him, stepping forward to open the window behind him. Bradley just watches her confused. He looks at her with furrowed brows, and she answers him with a hand on her hip and head jerking forward in the window's direction. He shakes his head, as she nods with eyes widened.

Taking a deep breath, he moves to climb towards the other side of the window frame, he's almost hoisting himself down, but then he looks at her kneeling to his level, leaning forward as he whispers to her, "This is the first and last time I go out your window."

Faith smiles at his words, moving to lean forward too. Complete honesty was the only thing she could see in his hazel green eyes, lit up with adoration and love. She nods, leaning forward to skim her lips against his in a peck.

"I mean it, Fae. I'm never gonna leave you again, honey." Her heart is fluttering, like a butterfly in open air, at his promise. She pulls him closer, pressing another kiss on his soft lips, bringing her hands to his neck, as they chuckle into the kiss, leaning their foreheads against each other.

"As if I'll let you leave again, Bradshaw." Another smile in the dimly light room, with smiles just meant for each other. With love meant for just each other. With care meant for just each other.

And then, he's jumping off with his tilted smile she loved with her whole heart. She watches him step on the sill of the window from the kitchen downstairs, rolling down to a stop before he's grabbing his jacket. Faith closes the window shut, eyes closing as she leans against it.

When he looks up at the window in front of him, he's surprised, and frozen in his place, meeting Tom's hardened gaze.

The father simply looks at Bradley with somewhat narrowed eyes, and brows furrowed in intimidation. The younger man simply stares at him in shock, unable to say anything.

Tom whispers in his rough and strained voice after coughing into his scarf by his neck, "Just don't leave her again." The older man nods, and Bradley salutes the Admiral, nodding himself as he looks into his cold eyes, before making his way towards his bike.



















































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"GOOD MORNING. THE URANIUM ENRICHMENT PLANT THAT IS YOUR TARGET WILL BE OPERATIONAL EARLIER THAN EXPECTED."

A shift in the atmosphere around them all in the briefing room makes it's presence known.

Faith and Maverick stand off to the side by the doors of the hangar, listening to Warlock as he mentions, "Raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in ten days' time. As a result, your mission has been moved up one week, in order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation." Faith and Pete share a glance, before looking back at their superior speaking.

Everyone is leaning forward in anticipation or backward in anxiety in their seats, looking at each other, their captains, and their highest superiors in the room in disbelief as they take in the news. No one had even flown a successful simulation yet, and now there was just another week to train before they were deployed.

"Sir, no one here has successfully flown a low-level course." Coyote brings out to the Admiral, who nods, understanding their situation, but keeping on his point, "Nevertheless, you've been ordered to move on." The young pilot looks down when he gets a reply.

Warlock looks in the direction of the niece and uncle duo, calling out for them with a nod, "Captains."

They both keep their eyes down and their hands behind their back, walking over to where Warlock stood seconds ago and stopping in their place to meet the surprised eyes of their students.

Maverick begins, pacing around the platform, as Faith stands back listening to him with her eyes dead ahead, "We have one week left to focus on phase two. It's the most difficult stage of the mission. It's a pop-up strike with a steep dive, requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles."

Her uncle meets her eyes, and then she continues to give them the intricate details of the mission, "Two pairs of F/A-18's will fly in a welded-wing formation. Teamwork. Precise coordination of these aircraft is essential to both the mission's success, and your chance at making it back home."

Maverick continues, pointing at the screen behind him as Faith watches, "As you know, the plant rests between two mountains. On final approach, you'll invert directly into a steep dive. this allows you to maintain the lowest possible altitude. And the only possible attack angle. Your target, is an impact point less than three meters wide. The two-seat aircraft will paint the target with a laser bullseye. The first pair will breach the reactor by dropping a laser-guided bomb on an exposed ventilation hatch."

"That creates an opening for the second pair. That's miracle number one." Faith cuts in, looking over the concerned expressions of her friends. Phoenix shakes her head once, hand by her lips as she meets her friend's eyes.

"The second team will deliver the kill shot and destroy the target. That's miracle number two." Maverick points his index and middle finger up depicting the number as he passes his eyes over everyone. "If either team, misses, the target, the mission is a failure." Faith feels a chill run down her spine. "Egress, is a steep high-G climb out to avoid hitting this mountain." Maverick mentions, before he's cut off by Hangman.

"A steep climb at that speed, you're pulling at least eight G's." Hangman's eyes meet Faith's as he points out. Faith nods in agreement with his words, "Nine. Minimum." The blonde looks down with raised brows.

"The stress limit of the F/A-18 is seven point five." Bradley brings up, shifting eyes between both captains. Faith jerks her head to the side, before revealing, "That, is the accepted limit. To survive this mission, you'll have to pull beyond that, even if you bend your airframe." The room is still dead silent, as everyone absorbs the seriousness of the mission.

"You'll be pulling so hard, you'll weigh close to 2,000 pounds, your skull crushing your spine, your lungs imploding like an elephant's sitting on your chest, fighting with everything you have just to keep from blacking out." It was a bit dramatic, Maverick's words, but it was nothing less than the truth. Everyone in this room knew that, especially Faith.

She turns back to see the screen, bringing up with fear behind her eyes, "This is where you'll be your most vulnerable. This, is Coffin Corner. Assuming you avoid crashing into this mountain, you'll have to climb straight up into enemy radar while losing all of your airspeed. In seconds, you'll be fired upon by enemy SAM's. There's no doubt everyone here has sustained G's before, but this, this is going to bring you and your aircraft to the breaking point." Her voice is grim. Full of underlying fear.

Phoenix cuts in with a question, "Captain, is this even achievable?"

Faith finds the woman's eyes, pressing her lips in a thin line before answering, "That comes down to the pilot in the box." She unintentionally looks into Bradley's eyes, remembering her promise to herself from a week ago.





















































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"TALK TO ME, BOB."

Phoenix asks her back-seater, who immediately replies, "We are 12 seconds late on the target. We gotta move, we gotta move!" The woman curses, and her wingman comes in clutch, "Copy, try to stay with me."

There's a gasp from Bob, who looks down at his radar when there's beeping, noticing a bogey come up, "Wait, who's that?" He looks to his side.

His answer is given by one of his Captains, "Blue team, you've been spotted." Archer and Maverick fly side by side, bandits on course for their targets.

Coyote curses, voice on the radio clear, "Shit, it's Maverick and Arch." Phoenix questions, "What the hell are they doing here?" Archer answers her question, "We're bandits on course to intercept. What are you gonna do, Blue Team?" Her question lingers in the air, brows furrowed in concentration as she levels out her jet from it's tilted position.

"They're 20 miles left, ten o'clock, seven hundred knots closure." Bob mentions, replied to by Coyote, who flies beside them, "Your call. What do you wanna do?"

Phoenix stays silent for a couple of seconds, before calling out, "Continue, we're close. Stay on target."

In her jet, Faith nods, it wasn't the best idea, but intercepting the target was the main goal, and so it had to be done. Then the Captains make their way to the opposite sides, winging out each other.

"They're swinging 'round to the north!" Bob warns.

"Stand by for pop-up." Coyote sounds, before Phoenix calls out for her back-seater. "Be ready on that laser, Bob."

"Copy, I'm on it." Bob's onto work.

With an invert of both their jets and shared smirks, the older Captain calls out, "Blue Team, bandits are still closing."

"Popping now!" Coyote mentions, before they climb up the simulator mountain. Groans are heard from their side as they climb the steep slope. Seconds later, they invert over the simulated top of the cliff.

"Talk to me, Bob! Where are they?" Coyote pants through his words, asking his wingman's back-seater

"They're five miles out, coming in fast." Bob mentions through a rough tone.

"Target's in sight." Phoenix mentions, and Coyote questions, rushing through the process, "Where's my laser, Bob?"

"Deadeye! Deadeye! It's no good. Sorry, I can't get a lock." Bob replies, but Coyote remains unfaltering, "We're out of time, I'm dropping blind." With a push of his button, the missile sounds with smoke in the air. It falls down, barely hitting the target. He curses, "Damn it, missed!"

And then the pair climb up the steep climb once again, groans and grunts clearly heard on the radio to the Captains and everyone in the break room by the radio.

They're in Coffin Corner now.

The Captains are beside them now, as the pair in front continue their climb, inverting once before easily catching tone on either of them, jerking their heads to the side in disappointment, "That's tone, guys."

"Archer's got missile lock on us!" Bob warns, as Maverick goes after Coyote.

"Shit, we're dead." With that, Phoenix is making her way out of her wingman position. "Blue Team, that's a fail. Level out, Coyote." Maverick calls out once he sees the other man still climbing G's and altitude.

But there's no reply, as both Captains share looks, before Faith calls out once again hoping for an answer, "Coyote, level out. Coyote, do you copy?" Still no reply.

Maverick's voice is rough, as the man descends into a free fall towards the terrain below. "Coyote, come in. Coyote, level wings." The younger man's jet twists and jerks to the side before inverting, flying dead stick towards the ground below, when Maverick turns his head to meet Faith as they understand what exactly happened to him, "Oh my god, he's in G-LOC."

Maverick tries calling out for the young pilot a few more times, but his efforts are to no avail, as he sees Coyote's plane invert multiple times, before the nose is flying straight to the ground.

"He's gonna burn in!" Phoenix warns, and Faith is already on the move behind her friend, pushing the yoke forward as she gains speed behind him, "I'm going after him!"

"Come on, give me tone, give me tone..." Archer is making her way behind Coyote, watching as he slowly nears the mountain peak. Her heart races as she tries to align the square with the circle on her screen, hands steady on the yoke and throttle as she continues behind him.

A single beep, and she's yelling for him again, "Coyote, come on! Coyote, snap out of it. Come on, dude, come on!" She hears nothing but missile lock warning beeps from his side of the radio, as he nears the very top of the mountain.

She's straight up shouting, "Come on, Coyote! Pull up, Coyote, pull up! Coyote!"

Then he finally pulls up, leveling out his jet. She hears him breath deep breathes, her own chest heaving, as she asks him in relief, "Coyote, you good? You okay, man?"

Coyote replies, panting, "Yeah, I'm okay, I'm good." Archer pulls up beside him, "That was close, huh?" She asks once they level out beside each other.

"Good, that's enough for today." Maverick declares, leading everyone. Phoenix falls to his side, muttering, "That was close." The older Captain breathes, replying, "Too close."

A brief pause, and then birds hit Maverick's canopy, him calling out, "Bird strike, bird strike!" Phoenix manages to swerve upwards, but she ends up hitting a bird, declaring, "Bird strike!" There's loud beeping from her side of the radio, and Archer notices that the woman's left engine fail, fire burning out.

Bob warns, turning his head behind to see black smoke, "Phoenix, left engine's on fire!" The woman moves quick, pressing buttons in attempts to extinguish the fire, "Climbing."

Archer watches Phoenix ascend higher in a quick jerk, hearing the woman declare her actions, "Throttling back, shutting off fuel to left engine. Extinguishing fire." Everything goes silent when the right engine burns out too, the pause broken by Bob yelling, "Right engine's out!"

"It's still spinning, try to restart it." But the woman is unaware of the fire burning in the back, until Archer is warning her, "Phoenix, it's on fire, don't start-" But the other woman, stubborn as ever, tries her best to save the aircraft, cutting in, "Throttling up."

A rumble is heard, and the fire is lost, jet falling nose down towards the ground, Maverick's mutter echoes, "Oh my god." The remaining three follow close behind the jet, as Bob calls out in warning again, "We're on fire, we're on fire!" The front-seater curses, as her jet continues in a free fall towards the ground. "Damn it! Extinguishing right engine!" The plane falls into inverts as it descends several feet in a second.

There's no saving the jet, but the two in it could be saved. Archer yells out for her friend, "Phoenix, Bob, you need to punch out! Punch out!"

"Warning lights everywhere, hydraulic failure." That confirms that the jet couldn't possibly be saved. Maverick and Archer yell for the duo in the free-falling jet, "Eject! Eject! Punch out!"

"I can't control it!" Phoenix yells to her Captains, as Bob continues his warning loudly, "We're going down, Phoenix, we're going in, we're going in!"

"Phoenix, there's no saving it! Eject, eject!" Archer tries her best to convince the other woman to punch out, continuing her trail behind Maverick, beside Coyote.

The younger woman accepts, multiple beeps heard from her side as she finally orders her back-seater, "Eject! Eject!"

Phoenix and Bob make it out just in time, parachutes blowing up with the surrounding air, as everyone watches their jet fall to the side of a mountain, blowing up in red-hot flames.















































✈ ✈ ✈



FAITH, NATASHA AND BOB WERE IN THE MEDICAL BAY.

The front-seater and back-seater sat in beds beside one another, Faith sat on the other woman's bed by her legs.

Currently, Nat was getting quite a scolding from her best friend, and had to take multiple slaps to the forehead and leg.

"You ever do that again, Trace, I'll kill you myself." Natasha scoffs out a laugh at Faith's word, wincing when she gets another hit to her knee. She pulls her leg to herself, scolding the older woman, "You better knock that off!" Faith mocks her, hitting her with a pillow thrown to her from Bob.

Faith takes a deep breath, shaking her head at the sheepish smile the pilot and WSO were giving her. "You guys are idiots."

Bob smiles, replying to her, "Yeah," Nat gives him a scolding look he ignores, "But, we're your idiots." Faith chuckles, once again shaking her head at their antics.

Natasha brings up a hand, bringing up out of nowhere, "Where'd you disappear that night at the Hard Deck?" Her brows are furrowed, and there's mischief in her eyes.

Faith narrows her eyes at the other woman's expression, "I... I went home." Natasha points a finger at her, "And Bradshaw went poof at the same time?" Faith remains silent after trying to stutter out a response.

Her shoulders slump, rolling her eyes at Natasha before replying with a deep sigh, "Fine. We.. We made out." Eyes widening at her own words, and a finger pointed at Natasha's excited face and Bob's confused face before his own eyes widen as he gasps in surprise.

The Captain tries to cut in, "No! No, we, uh, we made up." Bob points a finger at her, brows furrowing as he mutters, "You said, 'made out'." Faith shakes her head, disagreeing, face contorting, "No, I said we made up."

Natasha cuts in again, openly laughing a boisterous laugh, Faith slumps in her position. Bob rubs his hand across her shoulder. She finally accepts, "Alright, okay. Yeah, we made up, then we made out." Faith raises her hands in a surrendering position and Natasha yells out in victory, "Yes! I knew it!"

Before anyone could say anything else, there's a knock at the ward door. It opens, showing Cyclone's grim face. Faith straightens up in her seat, smile falling, standing up and greeting with a nod, "Sir."

The superior grimly nods, "Captain." He steps forward, and Faith moves ahead to meet him in the middle. There's something wrong. Usually, Cyclone's expression held no emotion. Yet, today, in his eyes, his body language, everything told her that something had gone terribly wrong.

"Captain Kazansky. It's your father." Faith's face drops. So does her heart, down to the ground. There's a knot forming in her throat, her vision is hazy by the tears in her eyes, and so is her hearing by the ringing she heard, as Cyclone's 'I'm sorry' is drowned out and Natasha and Bob's hands on her shoulders, as they came up to stand behind her.

She barely acknowledges her superior anymore, rushing her way out of the ward and towards the briefing room, where her uncle was.

There's yells and shouts coming from there, yet she continues in her pace, drowning out the voices from the room she was previously in calling out her name. There's tears in her eyes, held back by absolute disbelief by the thoughts rushing in her head. Her legs shake and her hands do too, as she walks before the door, and places her wavering hand on it, opening it as fast as she could.

Maverick had turned his back to the door, and Bradley was facing it, face full of anger vanishing and an expression of concern replacing it as he meets Faith's tear-filled eyes.

Her uncle turns around at Faith's shaky voice calling out for him, "Uncle Mav."

He meets her eyes, and Bradley stays in his spot, watching, as her uncle is wasting not a second after he sees her expression and pulls her into a hug. She breaks down in her uncle's hold, hands wrapping around him so tight, it seemed she never wanted to let go.

"He's- He's gone, Mav." Faith stutters out, closing her eyes to let out the multitude of tears she was holding back since what felt like forever. Her knees buckle underneath her, and she falls to the ground with her uncle with her, not letting go of him.

Bradley can only watch with glistening eyes as the love of his life breaks down in the arms of someone he'd resented for so long.

There's flashes of Tom in her memory. The first day he brought her home. The roasted chicken. them playing out in the backyard. The first time she went to school. The first time she went to college. The first time she went to a party and came back home to her true father's arms, not wanting to be there anymore. The first time he helped her fly. The day he dropped her off at TOPGUN, which happened to be her first day at the academy.

Tom Kazansky was gone. With no warning, and just a series of memories left by in the minds and words of everyone who knew him to be who he was. The knight in shining armor, not just for Faith, but for Pete too. He was an angel in their lives, the savior, the mentor. And now he was gone. Vanished off the face of the Earth. In the blink of an eye. Without any goodbye. Without another word.

Gone.