During training days, the most popular thing the other soldiers would talk about was family. Those types of conversations were forbidden of course, and they never reached the ears of their superiors, but the talks still happened. During lights out, Finn would stare up at the ceiling, Slip sleeping beneath him. He would hear the slow rise and fall of Slip's chest, and ever so gently, he would ask.

"What exactly does it mean to have a family?"

And Slip would awaken, his voice groggy and stale. "I don't know. Kind of like having bunkmates?" And then he would turn over, "Just go back to sleep, man."

But that answer never satisfied Finn's curiosity. Having a bunkmate was nice, sharing living spaces, having someone to eat with…but it didn't feel the same as having a family. Finn had heard somewhere that families died for each other. He had heard a mother once gave up her life just to keep her child away from the First Order's hands.

"But why would she do that?" Finn asked. "Just for one child?"

No one in the Trooper corps would do something like that, it was considered foolish. That's what families did to perfectly rational beings…and yet, Finn couldn't keep it off his mind. To have someone, anyone, really give their life for your own.

Perhaps there was more to this than the First Order wanted their soldiers to believe.

"Hey, Space boy," came a gruff, unpolished call.

"W-what?" Finn asked, snapping his head from the Jet window. He turned to see Luke Cage, his head tilted and his brow furrowed.

"You alright?" Out of all the men on this excursion, Finn knew Luke Cage the least (not that he and the others were best friends or anything.

Finn nodded, and leaned back into his chair, "I was just thinking."

Luke crossed his arms, and glanced over the heads of the captured Captain America, and the sleeping Black Widow. "About?"

The jet was nearing capacity, Rhodey Rhodes tended to Tony Stark, the man's armor was frozen. Steve Rogers was restrained in his seat, and T'challa had already confirmed that Widow would not awaken until the antidote for his serum was administered. Luke wasn't exactly fond of jetting around the world "righting wrongs" but he was even less fond of being someone's puppet. He had known that life, and he did not want to experience it again.

"Family…just family," Finn said as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Ah…" Luke Cage said, as if a light bulb had just been smashed into his skull, "You miss your mom and pop?" He shrugged, "I get it, far from home and stuff."

But, Finn could sense that Luke didn't understand. Not really. It wasn't that Finn was missing his family, it's that his family was missing from his life…if he even had one to begin with.

"I know how you feel though," Luke said. The air around them changed. What once was a relaxed heat, fresh from high of two victories, turned to a subtle chill. Finn could feel it within Luke's heart, a numbed scar that radiated through Finn's very bones. A deep sadness that Finn had never considered, let alone felt. "I had a wife…a long time ago."

A wife?

"What was her name?" Finn asked.

"Reva," came the slow and hulked reply. "Reva Cage."

Finn had never known what it meant to have someone dear to him, but he also never knew what it meant to lose that same person. Captain Phasma always taught him that empathy was for the weak, and that he himself was too promising a soldier to give into that.

Never attach yourself, soldier. It's a sure sign of your death.

"W-what…" Finn paused, did he really want to ask? Was it really worth pushing this deep into a man he did not know? Wounds healed at different paces, sometimes, they never healed at all. But, deep down inside, Finn felt he needed to ask. Luke had known a family, he had lost it. And now…he and Finn were there, together. "What was she like?"

A smile blossomed on Luke's face, the first smile Finn had ever seen on the man. "She was perfect. Perfect in every way." Luke gently tapped Finn's shoulder, "I remember one night, it was raining, right? And we were stuck inside my shit ass apartment." Luke crumpled his hands together, "I-I'd wanted to impress her by taking her out on this moonlit picnic I'd seem them do in the movies."

Finn closed his eyes, and he could almost see the scene play out in front of him. A scuffed wooden floor. A cracked window to the side, and the smell of day old beers floating through the air. And Reva. The epitome of beauty. Dark skinned, with hair that curled into the sky. Full lips and brown eyes that whispered of a secret majesty.

"And Reva just shook her head, and kissed my forehead," Luke shook his skull, "She always had this way of making everything better."

A family…

Luke choked back a silent sob, "But…she died. Somehow. T-there was…" he stopped, as if something had caught the inside of his throat, "an accident."

And Finn felt all the force, and fury of Luke's words, washing over him like a storm of blaster fire. "I'm sorry."

"Not a day goes by that I wish I couldn't have done something. Something. I'm unbreakable…" Luke balled his hands into his face, as if he were too ashamed to look up, "And yet after she passed, I've never felt whole."

As if a part of himself had been blown from his body, or was never there at all. Was that what it was like to have a family? Being united, and finally feeling whole? As if the whole world finally made sense.

"Mr. Cage," Finn said, "I'm so sorry." But Finn did not know what he was sorry for. Sorry for asking in the first place? Sorry for bringing up old wounds, and rubbing salt where it did not belong? Or sorry for not understanding what it meant to have some close to you. Someone who chases the nightmares away…only to have them returned when their spirit has left your side. "I'm…just so sorry."

The jet shook…and a crack of lightning struck the side of the wing. Luke Cage nearly fell from his seat, and Rhodey had to hold on to both of this armrests just to keep his balance.

"What hit us?" T'challa asked as he franticly searched the skies for whatever could have caused the ensuing chaos. But it wasn't just one thing, it was the entire sky. The clouds had gathered around them, holding a grey foreboding promise. Lightning struck, and thunder howled through the jet's innards like an animal.

"I'll give you three guesses," Sam said. Wilson checked the restraints around Captain America's chest, partly to keep him secured, and partly to ensure that he couldn't escape. With three Avengers on board, and one on the outside, the last thing the Commandos needed was to fight a battle on two fronts.

"Everyone strap in," Nick yelled. "I'm gonna take Thor out."

"What?" Rhodey screamed back, "How? There's zero visibility, and Thor could strike from any direction at any moment. We need to set down and come up with a plan, not take Thor on in his own turf."

T'challa concurred, "He's right. It's suicide."

He could feel it. Nick Fury. Mace Windu. Last Jedi of the Order, and current leader of SHIELD. All of his collected experience molded into one. He was afraid, but he felt the Force ripping through his muscles. He could sense everything. The clouds gathering around them. The drops of rain attacking the windows. The lighting cracking against the wings, licking the air around them.

And he sensed Thor. The God of Thunder. His mind was cold. His heart was stoned…but Thor was there. Nick Fury tightened his grip on the steering yoke, "Alright Thor…let's play."