Chapter Text
They were OUTMANNED, OUTGUNNED, OUTPLANNED. As much as she'd like to think that Jake would abandon her and Bob to their fate, he surprised her by turning back into enemy fire for them. Of course, that decision had been costly.
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The first WARNINGS blared through her headset.
"Breaking LEFT!" Her tension riddled voice erupted on instinct.
The steely plated Super Hornet rolled violently, air rumbled over the wings with a wicked vengeance. She felt herself being crushed into her seat by the G-forces as the missile screamed past close enough to send SHIVERS throughout the entire aircraft. The F-18 roars in response. For a faint heartbeat, Phoenix believed they were in the clear.
"Bob? You with me?"
He gives a soft affirmative, but it is quickly swallowed up by the radar lit up warnings. It started as one blaring sound. Elevation alert. Phoenix could easily fix that. She coaxes the yoke backwards to garner more lift. Instead of responding as commanded, more alarms start to blare with more urgency than before.
ENGINE FAILURE. HYDRAULIC FAILURE. ELEVATION ALERT. AIR PRESSURE ALERT.
FIRE LEFT. FIRE RIGHT.
Phoenix expertly FOUGHT with the controls. The jet shudders this time with all the turbulence of a massive earthquake. Not even the dome above their heads was impervious to this kind of commotion.
EJECT. EJECT. EJECT. The monotoned voice commanded. With a resistant glance at the altimeter, which was now spinning like a compass without a North Pole, she gives the order. She waited till Bob is in the clear, before ejecting herself.
The ejection was not a comfortable one. Through the smoke in the air, she plummeted what feels like a thousand miles in seconds and splashes into the frigid icy waters of a ravine. A flying bit of debris nailed her in the chest. Another sliced through the fabric of her parachute causing it to close prematurely. She drops hard and fast.
She splashes down into the half frozen waters. The tethers of her harness coil unhelpfully around floundering arms and weight of her suit, now thickening and saturating with the same terrifyingly frigid water that threatens to tug her under. Despite the agony plaguing her chest, she claws with desperation for the surface. A surface that dips in and out of focus.
"B-- B--Bob?" She strangled voice beckons.
No answer. He must have landed safely among the snowed topped pines. She can't see his parachute anywhere which fills her with dread.
But she cannot reflect on that for long. No. Above her comes the most bone bristling noise she has ever heard. If Phoenix lived to be a million years old, she could never forget the sound of the F-18's screaming engine taking a shattering breath and dying. Another one of their team was crashing----
Hangman---- she thinks just before the current drags her fully under.
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Phoenix ponders for an awful moment, that this is how she is going to die. Her flight suit is too heavy, and the current is too strong to keep battling as wounded as she is. The thundering ache in her chest only amplifies as she finds herself thrown against rocks. Torn skin and the inflamed nerves find no comfort in the bitterness of the air, nor submerged.
Then, something strong tugs on the harness, pulling her head above. No. Not something. Someone. The tugging is insistent. Willful. Deliberate.
Phoenix gasps, in a wretched, violent manner. Eager lungs suck in the bitter air which tears like a serrated blade down her raw throat. Her dark hair plasters everywhere to her forehead, to her cheeks, to her suit.
Instantly, stiff fingers start to fight the tugging hands until she hears his voice. Hangman's voice.
❛ you aren't getting rid of me that easy. ❜
Even half-drowned, Phoenix recognizes the infuriating cadence. That little tiny thread of arrogance he somehow manages to preserve no matter how badly the universe is attempting to destroy him. What he says, makes her choke on a laugh. Good LORD. Of all the insufferable remarks he had to choose that one. And yet, Phoenix is so soo glad he did. It gave her a sense of comfort in the danger. Not that she was about to tell him that.
"Di-- di-- didn't... know-- know y--you cared that much, Co---co--cowboy." She stammers between chattering teeth. Okay. So maybe that's a lie. Maybe she knew he'd be impossible to get rid of.
Bewildered burnt-umber orbs glance up between frosted lashes. "Y--- you ca-- came for me?" Her voice is so viscerally raw that it sounds foreign. "H---- h-- h-- here of--- of all places?" He has to be as chilled as she is.
Then, came a twinge of alarm. Hangman's condition is scantly better than her's. Phoenix clumsily leans forward and presses her hand against a scarlet trail on his face.
"You're hurt---"