๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฏ๐ข๐ข ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐๐ซ
โ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ง? โ
โ โ โ
THE SNOW WAS TOO COLD UNDER HER CHEEK.
Groaning at the feeling, Faith's eyes flutter open, eye lash flickering through the snow. Another groan, she brings her hand to the side of her head, slowly pushing herself to sit in an upright position against the snow. Her head feels heavy, the weight of the helmet and mask adds onto it.
Her eyes blink once or twice, adjusting to the bare white-ness of her surroundings. There's a vivid memory of what just happened. Bradley yelling for her, Maverick being hit by that missile.
Maverick.
Faith turns her head to the side, pushing herself to her feet, before stepping forward in the snow. She almost trips over the cord of her parachute, and with an annoyed groan, she clicks it off in a single go. She looks around again, scanning her eyes through her stark surroundings, bringing a hand to rub against her forearm to keep herself warm.
There he was.
Cheek first into the snow, helmet clad on his head. She finds herself running through the snow in his direction, sliding to her knees when she reaches him.
She pulls his head into her hands, taking off his mask, before patting his cheek to wake him up. After, one, rather tight pat, her uncle's eyes are flickering open. "Hey, Mav. You need to get up, man, we need to get out of here." Faith sits on her knees, arms around herself to keep warm, as her uncle takes in the surroundings.
Maverick looks at her, pointing a finger at her face, "You.. You're..." He moves to sit up like her, but fails to. Faith pushes forward, pulling him to sit on the snow in an upright position like her. He mutters a thank you, and she just nods, waiting for him to continue with what he meant to say.
Her uncle takes a breath, before he waves a finger at her, "You're an idiot." Faith scoffs in surprise. "Okay, what?" Faith's face contorts, arms folding to her chest as she gives him the icy glare.
"I said, you're an idiot. For jumping into the fire like that, for what? A boy?" Maverick's yelling now. Faith winces, total confusion rattling her face and body, as she yells too, "I love him!"
Maverick yells louder, "You're an idiot! You scared the hell out of me, what were you even thinking?!"
She yells even louder, ending the problem, "You always say not to think!"
That shuts him up.
Faith puts her hands out beside her head, waving them back and forth.
There's a sudden rumble from ahead of her, and Faith turns her eyes from her uncle's towards the sound. The two Captains look at one another, realizing it was a combat helicopter. Faith puts her hand out, and her uncle grabs it, as she pulls him up his feet.
They step forward to run, but Maverick trips over his cord. She looks back at his grunt, seeing the helicopter turn towards them. With a few harsh pulls, the wire is clicked off, and they begin running towards a log, hiding their heads below their hands when the helicopter starts shooting at them.
Faith pushes Maverick over the log, before ducking over it herself, taking a deep breath and hoisting her back against it. There's more whirring, and Faith peeks over the log a tiny bit, catching a glimpse of the helicopter moving to the side.
And then, it's right at their nose, guns already in rotation to shoot.
A sudden missile seems to hit the helicopter before it can shoot at them, both Captains ducking for cover, before Faith and her uncle turn their eyes to the aircraft that shot down the helicopter, which flew through the smoke cloud of the explosion.
An F/A-18.
The two Captains share a horrified glance, turning their attention back to the jet, which is shot at by SAM'S from their six. Another rumble in the sky, another F/A-18 goes down, and Faith grabs a hold of her uncle's forearm at the explosion. It was one of them.
Maverick looks down at the ground, Faith keeps her eyes on the jet still descending below. A chute. She nudges Pete's side, pointing at the chute when he looks at her in question.
They share a glance, before making a move for it, jumping over the log.
โ โ โ
IT FELT LIKE HOURS AS THE TWO CAPTAINS RAN THROUGH THE SNOWY FOREST.
Side by side, panting breaths and heavy legs with the snow, they cross tree after tree, bush after bush.
And there he was, in all his glory, following protocol, wrapping up his chute.
"You all right?" Maverick yells at Bradley, jumping over a snow-covered bush, trailing behind a furious Faith. "Yeah, I'm good, you both all right?"
Faith does not answer, instead, growling, as she pushes Bradley's chest, watching as he falls with his back to the snow. She's practically seething down at him, not even bothering to help him up, as Maverick mutters from behind, "Oof."
Bradley takes off his helmet, throwing it off to the side, giving her a look of disbelief, and Faith does the same, placing her hands by her waist. He calls out, looking at her in anger of his own, "Okay, what the hell?"
"What are you doing here?!" She yells loudly, voice echoing through the dense forest. Bradley is back on his feet, towering over her the slightest, as he replies in a condescending tone, "What am I doing here?"
Faith points to herself, "You think I took that missile just so I could see you down here with me? You should have been back on the carrier by now, Bradley, god damn it!"
His brows furrow deeper, face contorting in even more anger at her words as he points at himself before her, "I saved your life!"
"I saved your life." Her fingers press against his chest, as she shakes her head in annoyance.
"Why did you jump in front of me? Are you stupid? What is wrong with you? Are you okay, are you hurt?" His voice softens by each question. Bradley places both his palms on her forearms, pulling her closer, he twists her body, eyes scanning over to check for any wounds.
"What the hell were you even thinking, Bradley?" Maverick calls out from behind Faith, and they both realize he was still there. Bradley looks over her shoulder at Maverick, yelling one final time, "You told me not to think!" He gave him the same exact face and hands that Faith gave him before, nodding and throwing his hands to the side.
Faith tries not to say 'I told you so', holding back a snort.
Silence passes over the three of them. A pause settles, and they breath, cool down. Maverick leans his elbow on his knees, and Bradley turns to her, holding out his hand for her to hold. She complies immediately, taking his hand and stepping forward to lean her forehead against his and closing her eyes.
She feels Bradley shake his head from above, opening her eyes to find his hazel greens, "I thought I lost you."
She shakes her own head, confirming his thoughts, "I'm right here, honey. Right here." He presses a peck against her lips, pulling her to his chest. She breathes in his scent, closing her eyes and listening to his heart beat.
"Jesus, I need to get used to this." Maverick's utter from behind them makes the two jump apart.
"It's good to see you." Maverick mutters to Bradley with a nod. Bradley returns said nod, agreeing with him for once, "It's good to see you too." Another pause.
Bradley shifts his eyes between both Captains, hands on his waist, "So, what's the plan?"
The two Captains share a glance. From the distance, an alarm could be heard. The two Captains look at each other once more, before moving towards the sound, leaving Bradley standing to watch the two and wondering what went wrong with his life, as he shakes his head and follows after them from behind.
Black cloud formed in the air, hiding the snow-barren land below. The enemy runway was almost down to ruins, orange flames and blazing fire lighting it up and visible from where the three lay on the snow, looking down at the land.
Maverick brings his monocular down from his eyes, as Bradley turns his gaze to look into Faith's eyes then Mav's, face full of confusion and concern, as he mutters out, "You're not serious." He looks at her next, "Please tell me you guys are not serious."
Without another word, Mav sends Bradley a simple glance, before hoisting himself up and making his way down the snow, hiding to the ground with knees bent. Then, Bradley looks at her with a face that speaks, 'are you serious'. She shrugs, following after her uncle.
Once they're down, Bradley looks through Mav's monocular, bringing them down after a scan of the airfield in front of them, "You've gotta be shitting me." He turns to Maverick, who stares ahead, "An F-14?"
Maverick's eyes widen as he nods, "I shot down three MiG's in one of those." Bradley's quick to snark back with a shake of his head, "We don't even know if that bag of ass can fly." A pause settles, and the three just keep their eyes on the airfield and the F-14.
Then, Maverick is determined, moving forward already, "Let's find out."
"Mav!" Bradley whisper-shouts, but it's to no avail as her uncle keeps on his course towards the old relic of an F-14. The man beside Faith still purses his lips, looking down in actual consideration of the plan. Faith presses her lips in a thin line, placing a hand on his shoulder before running behind her uncle.
She tries to hold back a snicker when she hears Bradley whisper-shout for her too, "Fae!" He looks down for a second again, before looking back up and at Faith already a few feet from Maverick, "Okay." And then, he's running after the two, catching up with them.
Her eyes stroll around the airfield, watching out for them all, and Mav does the same. From behind, Faith feels a pull at her waist, stopping in her place and turning her head over her shoulder to see Bradley steadying himself with a grip on the flight-suit by the side of her hip, not being able to stop herself from snorting at him. She rubs the back of her neck when she feels a slap. And that's when she saw it.
Another hangar left untouched by the Tomahawks, and an F-22 Raptor. Faith stops Maverick with her forearm to his chest, and he looks at her in question, before she points in the direction of the unscathed hangar.
She tells her uncle, turning around to meet his eyes, "I'll stay back."
Maverick is quick to disagree with her, shaking his head with a widened gaze, "No, no, no,"
But she cuts him off, telling him in a gentle voice, "I'll be right behind you, I'll fly aircover for you. We need to make sure there's no other bogeys in the air with us." Maverick considers it, and silence settles. He looks down, before looking back at his niece's pleading face. His gloved hand reaches her shoulder, and he pulls her into a hug, and she feels him nodding.
He pulls away, palms on her shoulders, as he tells her with a fatherly look and tone, "You better be right behind us." Faith nods, sending him a smile.
Her hands move to her left pocket, tapping over it before putting her hand through it, pulling out a black case. She opens the top, revealing four earpieces. Maverick looks at her in question, then back down at what was in her hands, "What's this for?" She sends him a smirk, handing one to him, then another in Bradley's outstretched palm, "Comms. Something Hurricane and I were working on."
Faith places her own piece in her ear, telling the two of them, "This way, even from separate jets, we can communicate, within a six-hundred miles radius." Maverick juts his lip out, hearing her clearly. The two Captains nod at each other, before she's making her way towards the hangar not too far away.
Her brows furrow, when she hears footsteps follow her. She stops in her tracks, listening with more concentration as the steps stop, and she whirls around.
Bradley.
Faith meets his hazel brown eyes, shaking her head at him, as she questions, "What are you doing?" He stands frozen there, before looking back at Maverick, who was waving him over, then back to her in front of him, "I'm coming with you."
She shakes her head with more force, "No, Bradley, you're going with Maverick. It's too dangerous." Bradley shakes his head too, brows dipping down as he tries convincing her, "That's why I'm coming with you." He's moving ahead of her, leading her towards it, but she refuses to risk his life even more, grabbing his wrist to turn him around, "No, honey, you need to go with Mav."
He turns around, meeting her eyes with a fire in his, "I'm not leaving you again!" She stays silent for a few seconds, the alarms around them loudening with announcements. Faith takes a deep breath, before telling him, "Lieutenant Bradshaw, you need to go, with Maverick." She didn't want to do this, but she wasn't willing to put his life on the line, having just got him back.
Bradley gives her a look of disbelief, shaking his head at her. He looked like a kicked puppy. Then, he turns back around without anything else said, making his way to Maverick.
Faith sighs a dejected, running a hand down her face, before turning back around towards the hangar.
Closing in on the hangar, she looks over the wings and flaps of the Raptor, making sure she was perfect to fly. Her hands find the control box to the side, waving a hand over them all, eyes scanning through it.
She flicks a switch, and the lights go off, and a whirring sounds. She shakes her fist in victory. Skimming through a few meters, and a few presses of buttons, she was engrossed in encoding the ways of the Raptor, when she hears from behind, "Need help?"
Whirling around, she meets his eyes once again. Bradley stands at the doors of the hangar, hands at his waist, a questioning look on his face. She nods, stepping backwards as he's by her side in a few long strides, "Once I give you the air signal, flip this switch till it gets to 100, wait, uh, 120. When the engine starts, I need you to pull out the pins and disconnect everything." Faith points at the Raptor, and he looks over at it.
"Got it?" Bradley nods, muttering out a "Yeah."
She presses another button, looking back when the rumbling is even more louder, jerking her head forward in adrenaline, as she whoops, flipping off another switch. With a kiss on his cheek, she's moving towards the Raptor, calling out for him, "Once I'm up, please stow away the ladder." He turns around, giving her a soft smile and nod.
With her helmet in her hand, she's stepping up the ladder and into the jet. He's right behind her, folding the ladder, as she looks down at him doing so, flight-suit tight by his shoulders. He looks up at her once he's done, before the ladder falls once again with a flick of his wrist, as he steps up onto it, grabbing Faith's chin and pulling her into a kiss. She gasps at his quick movements, melting into the kiss as her hand slides up his shoulder to his cheek, thumb rubbing back and forth.
They pull away, leaning their foreheads against each other, as they breath fast and deep, finding each other's eyes as Bradley leans backwards, hand still on her cheek. With a lingering touch, his hand slides down and away from her warm skin, as Faith holds in a whine at the loss of his security.
Once he's down the ladder, he gives her a nod, and she returns it, telling him softly, "Take care of Mav, okay?" With another nod, Faith puts on her helmet as Bradley makes his way back to the controls, waiting for her signal
Flipping a few more switches by the display, the engine buzzes in awakening, loud rumbles making Faith sigh, leaning behind into her seat. Both engines are turned on with a few more buttons pressed, she signals Bradley, and he nods, rushing around all around the jet to pull out the pins and disconnect the final cord.
The right engine awakens with a whine, and Faith looks at Bradley by the exit of the hangar, making his way out and towards Maverick.
She looks down at the controls, removing her gloves, and placing her left hand on the throttle, pushing it forward, looking around her to see that the Raptor was moving towards the doors of the hangar. The canopy falls over her head, latching and clicking into place, as the jet is slowly out of the hangar, and on the battered runway, curving out of it.
Faith presses the pedal to stop the jet, taking in the sight of the airfield. She calls out on comms, "Mav, you hear me? Roos?"
A few seconds later, there's a reply from Maverick clear on their comms, "Yeah, yeah. You see what I'm seeing?"
"Both runways are cratered. How're we gonna get this museum piece in the air?" Bradley points out, yelling the last part.
Faith flips over a cover off the left controls, pushing the nozzle ahead, and gaze on the Raptor's wings, nodding when she sees them coming out. It seems to her Maverick had the same idea, when Rooster asks his front-seater, "Why are the wings coming out, Mav?" The older man doesn't reply for a few more seconds.
Faith pushes the throttle forward, eyes shifting between the radar and the runway ahead. Rooster continues, "Mav, this is a taxiway, not a runway. This is a very short taxiway, Mav."
Maverick finally replies, "You just hang on." Faith jerks her head to the side, pushing the pedal upwards, pushed back against her seat as the jet speeds up tremendously, pinning her back. Rooster exclaims, his front-seater doing the same at the side of Archer, "Holy shit!"
Their jets rumble down the very short taxiway, speeding up and up as Rooster calls out for the both Captains, "Guys?"
Archer looks down at her needle, watching as it moves towards the right on it's axis, crossing thirteen, then fourteen, settling on fifteen. She looks back up, letting out a puff of air all at once as the jet continues down the taxiway, ride getting shaky as they run over some debris.
Both front-seaters ignore Rooster's calling out for them, "Guys!"
Maverick declares, and both Captains pull the yokes to themselves with tight grips, wheels up and off the taxiway. Rooster curses again, "Holy shit." Archer looks to her side, watching the back-seater of them three closing his eyes, and chuckling, "Look alive, Roos!"
Their jets are lifting up simultaneously, as Archer pulls the yoke further to herself. From beside her jet, she hears a thud, watching as Maverick's front wheels fall off. She groans, feeling the same rumble from below.
Once they're in the sky, they curve vertically upward beside each other, ascending up and up. Archer, pushed back in her seat with hands steady on the yoke and throttle, looks down at her waist for her ESAT and turns it on with a flick of her thumb.
They make their way over the hilly snow-barren region they flew through and blasted open not long ago, gliding through the air and throwing the wind behind them. "Okay, Rooster, get us in touch with the boat." Maverick requests, as Rooster replies, "I'm working on it. Radio's out, no radar. Everything's dead back here. What do I do? Talk me through it."
An F-14. Archer thinks back to when Tom and her flew one of the Tomcats, in secret and at night. He'd taught her most of the controls, so she calls out for Rooster, "Get the radio first. Throw the, uh, Mav, is it UHF-2 CB?" Her head turns to the side to look at her uncle in question. He nods, meeting her eyes, and he confirms, "The UHF-2 circuit breaker, that's it."
Archer returns her eyes back to the sky ahead of her, passing over a white cloud at 450 knots, when Rooster questions, "There's 300 breakers back here. Anything more specific?" Maverick replies with a head shake, "I don't know, that was your dad's department."
"I'll figure it out." Rooster waves him off, looking to the side as he goes through the breakers. Then, he warns, "Mav, Arch, tally two, five o'clock, low." Both Captains look down over at his words, brows furrowing.
Archer sighs, she was not up for another dogfight. Rooster breaks her out of her thoughts, "What do we do?"