~Raven~ a Miles Teller TopGun fanfiction (SPOILER ALERT FOR TOPGUN 2)

8

"Are they ready Maverick?" The General and Maverick stand on the balcony, looking down at Raven, Rooster, and all the other pilots getting ready to take off. 

"I don't think anyone can ever be ready to face death... but yes. I think they are."

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My mind couldn't be moving any faster. 

Shouting from all directions was flooding every single part of my brain, check after check after check. My nerves were amplified by any little doubt or worry that flashed through my mind, making it that much harder to focus on whatever it is I was actually doing. I was sitting in my jet, gear, and helmet on, running through every single last-minute thing I could possibly think of before we had to go. 

But weirdly enough, my mind was mostly on Rooster. His plane was behind mine on the boat, and I couldn't stop staring at it, I hadn't really seen him all morning. Other than when we both first walked in and had a quick chat saying good luck, I hadn't had the chance to talk to him.

Last night when I was at home alone, my mind kept replaying scenarios in which Rooster or I died. What would happen, how I would feel, how he would feel. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. The thought of Rooster disappearing, never being able to come home, before I got out what I wanted to say, pissed me off to the bone. 

"Dagger 1, Raven, awaiting confirmation." This is it. They were waiting for me to confirm my take-off. My head whipped around to see Roosters plane, the top of his cockpit coming down with a vacuumed seal. He was ready to go. He was ready to never return. 

"Wait!" I yelled into the mic. I unhooked myself from my chair, throwing my gas mask off to the side and ripping my helmet off my head. Everyone on the tarmac looked horrified as I climbed out of my seat, jumping down off the wing of my plane. Maverick came running up to me, grabbing me by the shoulders. 

"What are you doing!! I know you are scared but you can't bail! They need you! You can do this!!" I grab his shoulders back.

"I'm not worried about myself! I know I can do this! I need to talk to Rooster!" His eyes flash with confusion, not dropping his hands from my shoulders just yet, not letting me pass. 

"Sir, we have t-minus 4 minutes until launch, is she doing it?" A man standing on the tarmac with a headset on approaches me and Maverick. Maverick doesn't break eye contact with me, delving deep into my mind, swimming around, trying to find the rational thoughts I had just then, telling me I needed to jump out of that plane. 

"Maverick you told me he has nothing keeping him here." Maverick's eyes quickly fill with worry, stepping back and letting his hands move to his head. 

"You can't ask him not to go now! You already chose him!" My head shakes side to side, before I grab Maverick on the shoulders, straightening him out and making him look at me. 

"I won't ask him to stay, but please... let me give him a reason to come back." He doesn't move for a second, his face completely blank. 

"... You've got two minutes." Relief rushes through me and I push past Maverick, not wasting a second to thank him. I bolt, making myself go as fast as my legs will carry me over to Roosters jet. 

I get there, ignoring all of the different technicians screaming and yelling at me, asking me what's going on, what's happening. I look up at the wing of Rooster's plane, ducking down before pushing myself up with all my strength, grabbing the edge of it. I hoist myself up, bringing up my right knee, and using it to push the rest of my body up onto the wing. I'm on my hands and knees of Roosters wing, and his head finally whips over to see me there. His entire face is covered with his gas mask and visor, but he quickly fiddles around, and before I know it his pod opens up with an aggressive hiss. I climb over to him on my hands and knees as he rips off his gas mask.