SKYE COULD FEEL HER HANDS SHAKING ON THE JOYSTICK AS SHE ATTEMPTED TO TAKE DEEP BREATHS. in that instant, it didn't matter that bradley didn't love her back. it didn't matter that her relationship with her father, albeit special, wasn't ever quite perfect. none of her emotions or frustrations mattered to her anymore, because she was losing them both in a matter of minutes.

"daggers are headed back to the carrier." phoenix said when skye remained speechless. the woman's voice, though confident as always, was laced with an evident mixture of fear and concern. 

the sound of a button a moment later alerted skye that katia, sitting behind her, had turned off their comms so that they could have a private conversation. "skye.." the blonde began.

"we've been given orders." skye replied with a clenched jaw, already knowing what the woman behind her was going to suggest.

"i know. but when has that ever stopped u-"

"we've been given orders to return back to the carrier." skye said with more force behind her words, though she was mainly only convincing herself of this. "we're not.. we're not getting discharged over this, kat. this is too.. this job is too important to the both of us for us to-"

"no." katia interrupted. "they are too important to the both of us for us to leave them here." she said, putting an equal amount of force behind her words. she then softened. "skye.. i just lost my father. i'm not about to let you lose yours, too."

for a moment, the only sounds skye could hear were her own breathing working alongside the voices screaming in her head to make a decision. with a sharp breath, she furrowed her brows in focus and pulled her joystick to the right. 

______ 

"you're not serious." was the only thing rooster could say as his gaze shifted from the enemy runway to maverick's face. 

the entire runway, as expected, had been cratered by the tomahawk strike upon it. however, much to maverick's excitement, one of the makeshift hangar's set up there still showcased a precious f-14 tomcat, which maverick could fly like a pro. the issue was that maverick could only fly said plane, if it could actually manage to get off of the ground. 

"you've gotta be shitting me." rooster mumbled as he looked through his monocular at the single in tact f-14. "an f-14?" he looked back to maverick. 

he, however, didn't seem phased. "i shot down three migs in one of those." he nodded. 

rooster looked back to the runway. "we don't even know if that bag of ass can fly."

"you wanna get back to skye, or what?" was the older man's only reply before he stood up and made a jog towards the plane.

bradley, surprised, watched him. "mav!" he whisper shouted. when maverick made no move to turn around, rooster accepted that this was just.. what was happening, and made a face. "okay." after making a run to catch up to maverick, rooster tripped on his own feet in the snow, regaining his balance. "there's guys up there, mav." he warned, surveilling the area.

"yeah." maverick replied.

"there's more over there." rooster added, growing increasingly nervous about physically being on enemy territory. 

"okay." the older man still wasn't phased. "let's start running."

rooster nodded, quickly moving to follow his lead, "yeah, run. run."

they made their way into the hangar, where the f-14 sat stoically. "once i give you the signal for air," maverick said, pressing buttons on the control panel, "you're gonna flip this switch until the needle gets to 120. when the engine starts, you gotta pull out the pins and disconnect everything. you understand?"

"yeah." he nodded. 

maverick powered the control system, whooping triumphantly when it successfully started. "once i'm up," he called over his shoulder, "stow the ladder." 

rooster did as he was told, lifting the ladder up and waiting for maverick's signal. a few seconds later, he was flipping the switch on the control panel and forcing his helmet onto his head. the engines started in a whir as he quickly worked to remove every pin and disconnect each "remove before flight" tag from the undersides of the wings. he was then climbing onto the wings, moving to sit down.

"oh, my god." rooster said once he'd finally landed in the seat behind maverick. "this thing is so old."

maverick brought the plane out of the hangar with ease, lowering the canopy as soon as rooster had given him a clear call. the plane made a creaking sound that did not soothe rooster's nerves.

"both runways are cratered." he reminded mav. "how we gonna get this museum piece in the air?" maverick didn't respond verbally, but moved to adjust a lever. seconds later, the tomcat's wings were extending into their full capacity. rooster's helmet pressed to the window with a thunk. "why are the wings coming out, mav?" he questioned. "mav, this is a taxiway, not a runway." he warned. "this is a very short taxiway, mav." 

"just hang on." maverick replied simply, moving his foot up slightly. the plane began speeding forward, prompting rooster to fall back in his seat.

"holy shit." he spoke as more of a fact rather than an exclamation. a bridge of sorts at the end of the taxiway suddenly seemed way too close. "mav?" he questioned. "mav!"

"here we go!" the older man mumbled.

"holy shit." rooster repeated, closing his eyes as the plane lifted from the ground. one of the wheels ripped off, but the plane still managed to get into the air (to rooster's genuine surprise). he quickly turned on his ESAT, hoping that a signal of his whereabouts would, if nothing else, assure skye that he was okay.

"okay, rooster, get us in touch with the boat." maverick said. "we need to make sure skye knows-"

"i'm working on it." he replied. "the radio's out, no radar. everything's dead back here. what do i do? talk me through it."

maverick tried to think. "okay, first the radio.. throw the, uh.. the uhf-2 circuit breaker. try that.

rooster leaned down only to be met with an endless array of breakers. "there's 300 breakers back here. anything more specific?"

"i don't know." maverick almost allowed himself to chuckle a little. "that was your dad's department."

"i'll figure it out." rooster said. when he moved to lean back down to the breakers, though, rooster immediately caught sight of two approaching jets. "mav, tally two, 5 o'clock low." he warned. "what do we do?"

maverick looked down at the two jets. "okay, listen." he said. "just be cool. if they knew who we were, we'd be dead already."

"well, here they come." rooster replied. "what's your plan?"

"just get your mask on.. remember, we're on the same team. just wave and smile." 

they both waved, watching as the other pilot made a signal with his hand. "what's that signal, what's he saying?" rooster asked.

"no idea."

another.

"what about that one? any idea?"

maverick was perplexed. "no, never seen that one either." the two planes adjusted to a different position, and maverick cursed. "oh, shit. his wingman is moving into weapons envelope. all right, listen up." he said to rooster. "when i tell you, you grab those rings above your head. that's the ejection handle."

"mav," rooster began, "can we outrun these guys?"

"not their missiles and guns." he replied. 

rooster took this in for a second. "then it's a dogfight."

"an f-14 against fifth-gen fighters?" maverick said, almost wanting to laugh at the suggestion. 

"it's not the plane," rooster reminded him, "it's the pilot. you'd go after 'em if i wasn't here." 

maverick sighed. "but you are here." he couldn't let his daughter down. not again.

"come on, mav." rooster pleaded. "don't think. just do."

with another deep breath, maverick pulled his joystick to the right and brought the plane around. "tell me when you see smoke in the air!"

"smoke in the air, smoke in the air!" rooster called, and maverick adjusted the plane just right, making the other jet get hit by its partner's missile. "yeah, mav! splash one, splash one!"

maverick maneuvered around the remaining jet, aiming to make a final blow. the jet, however, seemed to stop midair, successfully dodging maverick's missile. "what the.." 

"holy shit!" rooster agreed, watching as the fifth-gen fighter hovered right past them. "what the fuck was that?"

maverick then moved to get low, hoping to confuse the enemy's targeting system with the mountainous terrain. the two jets turned through the clearings, the enemy firing repeatedly after the f-14. 

"we took a hit, we took a hit!" rooster informed maverick. "come on, mav, do some of that pilot shit!" he said, as he'd heard skye and katia say many times prior. 

maverick pulled on the breaks, moved swiftly upwards, and moved for a shot. the fighter managed to dodge it, though, and the f-14 was then out of missiles. "out of missiles, switching to guns." he said. after much trial and error, the other jet finally took too many hits and crashed into the side of a mountain.

"yes, yes!" rooster cheered. "splash two!" 

the f-14 flew into a clearing above the water, heading quickly back to the aircraft carrier. rooster got the radio to turn on, finally, and maverick smiled. "outstanding. get us in touch with the boat. and when we get back.. we're definitely having that conversation about you and my daughter."

rooster smirked, feeling victorious. "copy that." 

a beeping on the radar alerted both men, whose smiles immediately dropped. "oh, my god." maverick breathed.

"where the hell is this guy?" rooster asked, turning around to see if he could spot whatever plane was following them now. 

maverick couldn't breathe. "he's on our nose." he attempted to fire at him. "we're out of ammo." he could feel himself struggling to keep a grip. he'd already willingly sacrificed himself that day, but he hasn't planned to die like this. to kill himself and rooster in the middle of nowhere. "smoke in the air!" the sight of a missile brought him back to reality. "rooster, flares!" 

rooster complied, but then cursed. "we're out of flares, mav!" while the f-14 moved to turn around, the other jet was already pointed straight at them. "shit, he's already on us!" he groaned. "this is not good! we took another hit! we can't take too much more of this."

"we can't outrun this guy." maverick decided. "we need to eject."

"what?"

"we need altitude." maverick said. "pull the ejection handles the second i tell you."

"mav, wait!" rooster yelled.

the older man didn't listen. "rooster, there's no other way." he pulled on the joystick, lifting the jet straight into the air. "eject, eject, eject!"

rooster pulled at the handles on both sides of his head to no avail. "it's not working!" he groaned.

maverick let out a defeated sigh, continuing to bring the jet higher into the air. "i'm sorry.." he whispered. "i'm sorry, goose." 

all they heard next was an explosion. 

______

"riot, why are you going off course?" phoenix's panicked voice sounded through the comms. "skye? katia?" 

neither woman answered, both now entirely too focused on the legitimacy of the decision they had just made. they'd disobeyed orders, and were following after maverick and rooster. skye, though incredibly nervous, was smiling now, gaining an insane adrenaline rush from the speed of her jet. "where do you think they landed?" she asked.

"no idea." katia replied, her helmet hitting the glass of the canopy. "i'm keeping an eye out for any wreckage, but i'm not seeing much."

"thank you." skye said, focusing on flying while katia scanned the ground. 

"so.. what's your plan?" katia asked.

skye shrugged. "i thought we were just making it up as we went along."

"that's a horrible plan."

"back to the drawing board, then." she joked, shifting the gears so that her jet was gliding through the air at a different angle. "see anything now?"

"still nothing." katia sighed.

skye cursed. "they have to be somewhere."

"you don't think they.. tried to steal enemy aircraft, do you?" katia suggested.

"no, that's absolutely ridiculo-" skye stopped herself, immediately agreeing. "that's the most ridiculous thing ever, and my dad would definitely do it." 

a voice on their comms startled both women. "we're receiving a signal from roosters ESAT." a voice said. "only, he's.. he's supersonic."

"those two are insane." skye smirked, knowing that katia's prediction was correct. they'd stolen a plane, and they were flying back in it. 

"woah, woah." katia warned, her hand slapping the back of skye's headrest. "tally one." 

skye, alarmed, turned to look around her. sure enough, a jet was approaching. as both women prepared themselves mentally for what might end up being a dogfight, skye's shoulders relaxed. "it's an f-18." she said as it got easier to see. 

"what are you guys doing here?" a southern drawl came from the comms.

"hangman?" both women exclaimed at once, equally confused. 

"what.. what are you doing here?" skye countered. 

"i'm here to save maverick and bradshaw." hangman said as if it was obvious. 

skye's brows furrowed. "what?"

"am i speaking in tongues or something?" he joked. "i'm here to save them."

"we're here to save them." katia argued. 

hangman frowned. "you guys are like, totally ruining my character development right now." 

skye rolled her eyes, though a smile appeared on her lips at his comment. she could practically hear his smile in his words. "i thought that you-"

"hey," he interrupted, "i said no hard feelings." he smirked.

skye smiled over at him for a moment, appreciating his understanding of her feelings for rooster. she then regained her grip on reality, shaking her head. "okay, we're wasting time. they're airborne. if those fighters that were initially coming after us get to them.."

katia nodded. "then they'll be toast. okay, where do we look first?"

"probably where those two planes are dogfighting." hangman said. 

all three of them turned to look over the ocean, where, sure enough, two jets were engaging in a serious dogfight. the bulkier of the two planes moved upwards, clearly attempting to gain altitude. "shit, are they trying to eject?" skye wondered aloud, quickly moving towards the fighting planes as hangman followed her. 

"that other plane is about to fire." hangman said. 

"oh, no it's not." skye mumbled, getting tone from her targeting system a second later. "i'm taking the shot." 

the fifth-generation fighter ignited into flame, and the other plane (which skye now recognized to be an f-14) leveled out. hangman was the first to fly through the flames. "good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." he said. "this is your savior speaking. please fasten your seatbelts, return your tray tales to their locked and upright positions.. and prepare for landing."

maverick and rooster both began to chuckle before the second f-18 pulled up on their other side. "he's taking all the credit." skye said, a smile spreading across her face as maverick and rooster's heads both dramatically turned at the sound of her voice. "it's good to see you guys again."

"what.. what are you doing here?" maverick replied.

"saving your life?" his daughter responded. "you're welcome." 

rooster grinned, and the two exchanged a look before he turned over his shoulder towards hangman. "hey, hangman!" he called. "you look good."

"i am good, rooster." he promptly replied. "i'm very good."

when they got back to the aircraft carrier, skye and hangman landed their jets effortlessly, moving them into their assigned locations. maverick and rooster, however, were having some minor difficulties. after a mandatory flyby, one of the engines fluttered. "please don't tell me we lost an engine." rooster said.

maverick nodded. "okay, i won't tell you that." he carefully lowered the jet down, running it straight through the pre-set barricade and feeling it skid to a halt. once the smoke of the landing had cleared, maverick turned over his shoulder. "you good?" he asked.

rooster smiled. "yeah, i'm good." as the canopy lifted and a crowd began to form around the tomcat, bradley stood, scanning the faces in search of only one familiar one.