Lucid

Chapter 35

POV: Liz
The front seat is comfortable. I've been resting a while, after we took off. Y/N was working on something on a screen, so I decided to take a nap. I'm not actually sure what time it is, honestly. Looking out, the sun seems to be high. Y/N is actually asleep next to me, his head rolling to the side. We still seem to be cruising across the continent still, looking down at the map it shows us. We're almost all the way across the continent, heading close to the southwest coast. It's peaceful, though. Lying back, I close my eyes again, trying to go back to sleep.

"Spiked, Spiked, Spiked" a loud alarm blares through the room, and Fixer sits upright in a flash. Throwing his headset on, he grabs the controls firmly. I lean up as well, and put the headset on.
"It's Gwangju, what the hell are they doing?" He says angrily. He taps a few buttons on the screen, and reaches over and spins a few dials. "Squawk is correct, transponder is on. What's going on here?" He looks out the front, but there's nobody around us either.
"SLAMEYE SLAMEYE SLAMEYE" the computer shouts, and Fixer says,
"Shit! Combat mode!" Lights in the cockpit move to red, and he shoves the throttle forward. "Strap in!" He yells, but I already had. Grabbing the controls again, he yanks it hard to the side, and the airplane spins to the side, and pushing it forward, starting to dive towards the ground. "Fire countermeasures!" He shouts, and the computer replies,
"Deploying flares." A bright red flash comes from behind us, I see it from the corner of my vision. The airplane tips down, flying down at the ground and picking up speed. We're high up, but approaching the solid layer of clouds quickly. The airplane is shaking all over, and there's still alarm noises going off. Suddenly there's a loud boom, and the plane shakes violently. Fixer pulls up on the stick, and it flattens out just as we submerge into the clouds. There's another noise, a loud constant beep, and fixer reaches above his head. Flipping a switch, he says, "Activating jammers!" The beeping stops, and for a moment, everything is still. Fixer is sitting there, gripping the controls tensely. The red lights are still flashing. But nothing else happens.

He slowly pulls back in the controls, and we begin to climb back up over the clouds. When we break through the top of the clouds, we come back up to see six jet fighters, three on each side of us.
"Who are they?" I ask, concerned. I don't want to distract him, but I'm pretty sure we almost died.
"Someone who's about to regret his decision, one way or another." Flipping a pair of switches on his left, Fixer says, "hardpoints deployed." Pausing for a moment, he glances over at me. The he says, "This isn't a dogfighter. And I can't loose now. Let's hear them out." He taps a screen in the center, and it shows a list of long numbers. He taps one that's flashing.
"Unidentified aircraft, this is Thunder one, South Korean Air Defense Force two hundred sixth fighter wing. Continue current heading and identify yourself. Over." Comes an angry sounding voice.
"This is Sierra-Tango-Two-One-Seven. Thunder one, Do you want to tell me why we were just fired upon? Over." Fixer replies, matching his tone.
"You have entered restricted military airspace. Land immediately."
Fixer shakes his head. "I have clearance."
"Challenge response Romeo-Bravo-Hotel. Over." The pilot replies, after a moment. Fixer reaches into the center console, and pulls out a small book. Flipping through it, he stops at a page and reads,
"November-Alpha-Papa. Over." There's a pause, then the other person comes back.
"My apologies sir. We're undertaking live-fire exercises in this area. The pilot saw the ping and thought you were a target. Over" The other pilot had completely changed tones, now respectful and apologetic. Fixer groans angrily.
"Well next time, make sure your pilots identify their target before firing on anything they can see!" He shouts back into the mic.
"Yes sir. My apologies again sir. If you'd like sir, we'll send an escort with you to your destination. Over."
"Do that. Out." Fixer says, and flips off his microphone. "Shut off combat mode. Retract hardpoints. End jamming." He takes off his headset, and leans back against his seat. "Bloody hell. That was fun."
"What was all that? Were we shot at? Are those really Korean Air Force? Why did they shoot at us? What did you tell them? Why do they obey you?" All the questions I had saved all come tumbling out at once, as my tension begins to unravel. I fall back against my seat, my shoulders still tense. He groans.
"He thought we were target practice. They came to get angry at me for flying into their shooting range but when I gave them government authorization codes, they saw that I outranked them. Now, they're going to fly with us to Jeju, pretty much as an apology." That only gives me more questions.
"What do you mean by government codes?"
"Every Korean government aircraft has a book with three codes. It's like a math problem. He says three words, and when I respond, it tells him that I'm also Korean. Depending on the code, it means I'm either military, so another fighter or a cargo plane, or a government plane, so something like Code one. I gave him the government code, so he knows I'm someone he needs to respect. Makes sense?"
"No."
"Right." He slides his seat back, and stands up. "Let's go relax for a bit in the back." I slide my seat back as well, and follow him. There's a couch there, but he instead sits in a set of chairs, seated across from each other at a table. I sit down across from him. Was that all real?

"You want anything to drink?" I am a little thirsty.
"Can I get some water?" He nods, and stands up. Walking over to a small kitchen, he grabs two cups and pours some drinks. Coming back, he hands me one.
"So..." I say, unsure of where to start.
"So. I want to say sorry. I should have paid more attention, I figured we were above the hard cap for anything, and I didn't think they'd be training today. I should have been more careful." He looks down, guilt on his face.
"It's ok, I was also asleep. I don't know how you could have predicted that that would have happened." I feel bad, not because of what he did but he feels so obviously guilty because he put me in danger. "Don't blame yourself. Please?" He looks up, and nods.
"Alright. If you want." I take a sip of my drink, and set it down and look at him. Glancing out the window, I see the fighters still in a pattern around us, looking very official.
"Thunder wing looks nice, I will say." Y/N says, looking out.
"I agree." It's all sort of surreal, honestly.

We sit peacefully for a minute, before Y/N stands up again and walks back up front. "You can stay here. I'll take us in to land." I sit back, strapping on my seatbelt as we start to slide down under the clouds. When we come down, I can see most of Jeju out the side, with mount (find name) in the center. We start to turn, and I hear Y/N up front talking again, saying something about thunder and classified. Once he stops, the fighters turn, flying up again and leaving us. He curves around towards the island, and within a few minutes we land at (name) airport. He drives across the airport to a parking spot, and walks back to me.
"We have arrived." I unstrap, and stand up. "I'll need to know how to get to your parents house." That's easy.
"Oh, my parents were going to pick me up from the ferry, but I wasn't supposed to be here for another few hours. We got here really fast." He grins.
"I've worked on this baby myself. She's fast." As he says that, he slaps the side of the airplane, while walking down the stairs. It looks quiet sleek. I put my hand on the side, and it's very smooth, and hot. Y/N waives his arm towards the back, and I look over to see the car we drove to the plane on, driving around the side.
"Isn't that back in Seoul?" I ask. Does he have two?
"I brought it. There's space for a car in the back." He climbs into the car, and I get in as well.
"Alright, where are we going?" I pull up my maps, and tell him my family's address. He pulls away, and we start heading across the island. It's nice being back, everything feels more familiar, more comfortable. And it's pretty warm here today. I roll down my window, and the smell of oranges comes in. Now, it really feels like home. As we come close to my family's home, I realize I never messaged them to tell them I'd be early. But it's a little late now. The car rolls to a stop outside, and Y/N says, "I'll get the bags. Go meet your family." I run to the door, and knock.

A/N-
So, this'll be longer than I was planning originally for the one on ones. So I may go back and rewrite Wonyoung's shopping trip, I wasn't really satisfied with it.

Also I'm moving currently so I'll not be updating well for a little while.