7 DAYS UNTIL THE MISSION
Jenna was sitting at a long table that was overflowing with flowers. The room was devoid of people, with abandoned round tables with white table cloths and matching flower centerpieces sitting at the edges of the room, shrouded in darkness. Looking down, she noticed that she was wearing a long white dress. She slid her hands slowly over the soft, cool fabric.
"Killshot, wake up!"
Jenna turned her head to find the source of the noise and spotted something coming out of the shadows. She got up from her seat and stepped around the table towards the movement as the figure emerged. It was Bradley. He was wearing a black suit, and the top buttons of his white dress shirt were unbuttoned, revealing a sliver of his chest. His hair was wild, with a few pieces falling onto his forehead.
"Oh my God, she's gonna burn in."
"One final dance, darling?" he asked Jenna as he caught her hand in his own, pulling her to him. Jenna let him lead her to the center of the room. Bradley slid his free hand around her waist. He led Jenna in a slow waltz, to music she could just barely make out if she strained her ears.
"C'mon, Jenna! Pull up!"
Jenna whipped her head around, looking for the person who yelled for her. "What was that?" she asked. Bradley didn't respond and continues to dance with her. He released her waist, but keeps their hands locked as she moved outwards and then spins into him. Catching her in his arms, he held Jenna's back as he slowly leaned over, lowering her into a dip.
"Pull up, pull up! Pull up, pull up!"
The ceiling above them began to crumble and fall down around them. "Stay next to me," Bradley whispered, still hovering above her. Something hit him in the back of the head and he dropped Jenna, his eyes rolling back. Jenna screamed as she fell away from him, reaching out for him but missing.
Jenna jerked awake in her aircraft, and was immediately met with an onslaught of noises. Mav's voice was coming over the radio, it sounded like someone had missile lock on her, and the automated voice from her aircraft was yelling at her to pull up. It takes her a second to realize that the view in front of her is in fact, not the sky, but a mountain that she was hurtling towards.
"Oh fuck!" Jenna yelled. Grabbing the throttle, she yanked it towards herself as hard as she possibly could. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. The plane narrowly avoided contact with the mountain. Jenna headed back up into the sky above the hard deck, hands shaking slightly as she directed her plane into formation on Mav's left.
"You okay there, Jenna?" Maverick asked her, voice wavering on the coms.
"Did I just go into g-LOC?" Jenna asked, although she already knew the answer to her question.
"Yeah," Phoenix's voice came over the radio. "Maverick had the idea of getting you in missile lock so the tone would shake you awake."
"Jesus Christ," she muttered.
"Alright, that's more than enough training for the day," Maverick said. "Let's all head back to the base."
"Copy that," Phoenix said. As Phoenix pulled her plane to Mav's right, Jenna spotted a dark mass moving towards them.
"What is that?" Maverick asked. As soon as the question left his mouth, it whizzed past the pilots pieces of it hitting Maverick and Phoenix's planes.
"Oh shit! Bird strike! Bird Strike!" Jenna yelled, realizing what was happening.
"Phoenix, left engine's on fire!" Bob said.
"Climbing!" She responded, flying up and away from Maverick and Jenna. She extinguished the fire, then restarted the left engine.
"Right engine's on fire!" Bob yelled.
"Extinguishing!" Phoenix announced.
"Wait, Phoenix, it's still on fire!" Jenna screamed. At the same time, Maverick yelled, "Don't restart it!"
It was too late. The right engine exploded, rendering it useless.
"Hydraulics are failing!" Bob cried. The plane sat level in the air for a moment, and then started turning over, free falling towards land.
"I can't control it!" Phoenix shouted.
"Oh my God," Jenna breathed.
"You need to eject," Maverick commanded. "Eject, eject!"
"Eject, eject," Phoenix responded. Bob pulled the ejection handles and the canopy shot upwards off of the plane. Bob ejected first, closely followed by Phoenix. Jenna watched the plane as it crashed into the side of a cliff with a deafening explosion. Shuddering, she turned her eyes to the sky and spotted both of the pilots hanging onto their parachutes, slowly fluttering towards the ground below. She released the breath she was holding.
"What do we do?" Jenna asked Maverick.
"The best thing to do is to get out of their airspace. Search and rescue will already be up in the air."
"You want to leave them?" Jenna repeated, confused.
"It's the safest option for everyone," he explained. "They'll be fine, Jenna."
Jenna followed Maverick's plane and tried her best to focus on getting herself home safely. Her hands were still shaking as she landed on the runway. When she climbed down from her plane, Maverick was standing at the base of the ladder. He pulled Jenna into a hug.
"I thought I almost lost you," He said, voice breaking.
"I'm okay, I promise," Jenna reassured him. She squinted over Mav's and saw someone running up the tarmac towards them. As they get closer, she saw that it was Hangman.
"S&R just picked up Phoenix and Bob," he said. "They're okay. They're going to stay in the hospital overnight but so far so good."
"Oh thank God," Jenna breathed.
"You okay, Killshot?" Hangman asked her as the three of them started to walk in. "That was a hell of a day up there."
"Yeah, I'll be alright," Jenna said with a small smile. "Any chance you've seen Bradshaw?"
"No, he was still sitting by the radio when we all left," Hangman shrugged. "I'm surprised he didn't come out here with me to get you."
Maverick coughed. "You said he was still in the radio room?"
"Yeah, but that was like 20 minutes ago," Hangman responded.
"I'm gonna go check on him," Mav said. "Jenna, please go get cleared by the medics."
"Mav, I'm fine," Jenna argued.
"I wasn't asking," Maverick said, raising an eyebrow. Jenna huffed and made her way over to the small med bay on the other side of the hangar. There was a medic in there already waiting for her. She checks her vitals and asks Jenna a few questions, then clears her. Jenna left and headed to the locker room, shaking off her flight gear. She stood outside the locker rooms, waiting to see if Rooster would come out from the men's side. After a few minutes and no Rooster, Jenna decided to go upstairs to try to find him. Upon her arrival to the radio room, she heard shouting, so she pressed herself against the wall outside the door.
"Why did you pull my papers?" Jenna heard Rooster yell. "Why did you stand in my way?"
"You weren't ready," Maverick yelled back.
"You took four years off of my career! I will never get that back!" Rooster shouted.
"You weren't ready!" Maverick repeated himself. "There's no time to think up there. If you think, you're dead. You have to make decisions based on instinct alone! Believe me."
Rooster lowered his voice and Jenna could just barely hear his next sentence. "I know that my dad believed in you. And you killed him. I'm not going to repeat his mistake."
Jenna flattened herself even more against the wall, trying to hear Maverick's response, but he said nothing. Footsteps were coming down the hallway, so she rounded the corner to keep herself hidden. Peaking around the edge of the wall, Jenna saw Warlock open the door to the radio room and step halfway inside.
"Maverick," he said sullenly. "It's Ice."
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AN: I did some research on g-LOC and found out that some people may dream during it, so that's what happened to Killshot at the beginning! Thanks for reading!