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Chapter Text

Generation K: Tales From The Front Lines

Chapter One: It Takes Trust… And Alcohol.

March 2015, Kodiak Island, Alaska…

Once the first line of Jaegers was greenlit by the newly-christened PPDC, the fledgling Jaeger Program had no shortage of volunteer pilots. That was a good problem to have, because even before the April attack on Vancouver, Caitlin Lightcap and Jasper Schoenfeld were burning through the test pilots they did have with almost no results. Hardly any of the candidate pairs could seem to connect through the pons.

"I don't understand," Stacker Pentecost said, baffled by their test reports. "You and Lieutenant D'onofrio linked up the first time you tried it."

"I know!" Caitlin said, frustrated. She glanced at Schoenfeld and quickly looked away, but not before Stacker noticed. "It didn't… feel that difficult," she murmured. "It's strange to experience, but I don't know why so few of the test pilots can even seem to form a connection."

Lieutenant D'onofrio, just observing the conversation up until then, ventured a suggestion: "Maybe it needs some kind of mental connection to start with. Most of the candidates you've tested who make it all the way through the physical and neural screening are strangers. I've seen a lot of them getting introduced the same day of testing. We, ah, we'd been working together for months by the time of the test."

Seeing the color that rose to both pilots' faces, Stacker had a feeling it had been more than just a simple familiarity. But still, it was a lead worth exploring. "A good friend of mine from the RAF is going through the screening as we speak," he mused. "Perhaps she and I should give it a try. I'll put the word out to the national liaisons. There must be some colleagues, relatives, even romantic couples who work together in the services and would be willing to try." He politely didn't change his tone on the reference to couples.

D'onofrio said quickly, "I knew a Blackhawk pilot who had a twin brother – they were both Army Rangers. I'll look him up."

---

April 2015…

Kodiak Island was nicknamed the Jaeger Academy as Lightcap and D'onofrio struggled to instruct the volunteers on how to navigate the strange mental bridge, which D'onofrio nicknamed the drift.

"It does feel like floating," agreed Trevin Gage, D'onofrio's former colleague from Iraq. He and his twin brother, Bruce, were finding it confusing and disorienting and still figuring out how to operate the test rig, but they at least could seem to stay connected.

Stacker and Tamsin were the next to link up, followed swiftly by the Kaidanovskys from Russia and the Jessops from Japan.

Then came Karloff, and Stacker both wanted to watch the Jaeger deploy against the monster and feared what would happen if the gambit failed.

"Caitlin Lightcap is so far the most successful test subject in this… drift," he warned the hastily-assembled delegates over the video conference. "Not to mention the designer of the pons. If we lose her, we may not be able to do duplicate her results."

But Lightcap herself was fiercely in favor of it, and once the Canadian military gave the go-ahead, Alexsandra Kaidanovsky shoved past the scrambling support crew with smartphone in hand, and ordered, "Speak all you know of the drift!"

So, even as they suited up, Caitlin and Sergio dictated. Stacker and Tamsin, the Gage twins, the Jessops, and the Kaidanovskys hovered nearby, drinking in every word of advice possible about the mental bond.

"Don't follow the memories," Sergio warned. "No matter how intense they are. They'll drag you off track if you let them."

"Stay in the drift, the drift is silence," Caitlin agreed. "Then you can see and feel what you're doing."

"Don't judge."

Despite the desperation they all felt, a few chuckles escaped the listeners. It was an apt point; several of the candidate teams showed some promise, only to storm out of the testing rooms and refuse to continue, apparently after seeing something that one or both didn't like.

"You have to trust each other," was Caitlin's last advice as Brawler Yukon powered up. "Be ready to see everything and know everything and trust that it's safe."

Was it possible? Stacker wondered. To be exposed on that level and still manage to focus enough to actually fight a kaiju? Test runs and simulations were one thing, but… would this actually work?

Forty-eight hours later, the crowded base erupted into chaos and people streamed through the halls and the grounds, screaming in joy and triumph, and scenes of celebration and victory flooded the media from all over the world. The Kaidanovskys broke out a bottle of vodka and passed it around to their fellow trainees.

"We will do this," they vowed. "Caitlin and Sergio have proven all we need to know: it can be done."

---

Summer 2015…

The now-official Jaeger Academy was flooded with volunteers after Karloff, but the success rate at drifting wasn't much higher than it had been before. Stacker and Tamsin gradually got the hang of it, and were among the top candidate teams in that first "class," as the Gages jokingly christened them.

It still wasn't easy. Bruce and Trevin, despite being seasoned Army Rangers, experienced in combat and battle stress, nearly derailed their own tests not with the horrors of battlefields, but with the memory of a car accident that had almost killed Bruce when they were teenagers.

Stacker pulled the test unit off his head and slid to the floor, shaking and sweat-drenched and hiding his face behind his arm the first time he lived K-Day from Tamsin's perspective and saw his sister's plane explode.

The prospective pilots got into the habit of gathering on Saturday nights in the makeshift mess hall for "recovery drinks" as the Jessops put it. Where the Kaidanovskys kept getting their hands on top-shelf liquor, much of which was only available in continental Asia, Stacker would dearly have loved to know, but they refused to share their secret.

Two months into testing, Stacker and Tamsin thought they were finally starting to learn how to control the drift and stop falling into past nightmares.

The first line of Jaegers had been labeled the Mark-1's. There would be seven of them, and Brawler Yukon, the prototype, would make eight.

"Eight," Tamsin breathed as the test pilots crowded around the windows of the huge assembly warehouse, gazing at the massive constructions under way. "We took down a kaiju with one in a single day, and we'll have eight."

"Eight to start with," Herc Hansen pointed out with a feral grin, eyes on the Jaegers. "Another five or six next year, Schoenfeld says, if they can match the pilots."

God, I wish Luna were here to see this. After two months of trying to link their minds, Stacker thought there were times when he wasn't sure when a thought that drifted through his head was his or hers. And in the end, they both decided it didn't matter.

That wasn't to say it got "easier." Far from it.

Over a hundred teams had now attempted testing in the pons and the drift, and nine remained. Five of the pairs were blood relatives: the Gage twins, the Chen twins, the Lis and the Hansens were siblings, and Yan-Jie Lim and Fang Lao were first cousins. Two more pairs, the Jessops and the Kaidanovskys, were married couples.

The last pair, Miguel Blanco and Maria Lopez of Argentina, had only met after K-Day, but they seemed to have bonded over their shared heritage and culture so far from home. Tamsin liked watching them dance, and Stacker sometimes let her chivvy him into being her partner when the Argentinians or the Panamanians were game to giving lessons (especially when Scott Hansen came sniffing around.)

On one such occasion, Tamsin was partnered with Carlos Chen while Jordana gave her advice and the Argentinians served as demonstrators, and Stacker was just content to watch and nurse his drink when Trevin Gage came half-staggering into the mess hall.

Shell-shocked test pilots were an all-too-common sight, but the Gage twins had seemed mostly past that stage. "You all right, mate?" Duc Jessop asked in alarm.

"Gimme a drink. Gimme ALL the drinks!" Trevin croaked. The Kaidanovskys just raised their eyebrows in unison and passed him an entire bottle of Russian vodka, which he chugged like a pro.

A very red-faced Bruce came slinking in a few minutes later, trailed by the flat-out giggling Kaori Jessop and Caitlin Lightcap. "Sorry," he kept muttering at his twin.

"Mm, someone saw something he didn't want to see," Sergio D'onofrio concluded, and now Stacker was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Jordana Chen and Jing Li were now on either side of the traumatized Gages, patting them sympathetically and shooting each other dismayed looks.

Sasha joined Stacker and Tamsin, Maria and Miguel, and the Jessops, and raised her glass with a sly grin. "Let us drink to not drifting with a relative!"

Tamsin laughed, and Herc adjourned to the "therapy table" to console Bruce and Trevin. Stacker let himself smile and joined the toast, murmuring, "Thank God for small mercies."

---

A week later, he ate those words. It was Tamsin who realized first what was coming: Stacker might not be drifting with a relative, but in a way, he had it even worse… he was drifting with a relative's former lover.

As their drift stabilized and memories began to flow more freely, she awkwardly tried to forewarn him. It gave him some consternation, certainly, but Stacker Pentecost was a man of the world, and had raised Luna through her teens. Of course, he hadn't expected her to be celibate, and had known and approved of her relationship with Tamsin – after all, if he hadn't approved, surely they couldn't have drifted together.

But, he discovered… it was a very different thing to see it in the drift from Tamsin's perspective.

They came stumbling out of the drift into daylight as the days grew shorter again. Stacker kept his composure… just.

Tamsin's pale redhead's complexion worked against her when it came to embarrassment – she was blushing through her hairline. Once the technicians had the caps off and the instruments powered down, he let go… and slowly turned to her with his face screwed up in an appalled wrinkle of big-brotherly horror.

"I WARNED you!" Tamsin practically shrieked, mortified and defensive.

They went staggering into the mess hall in search of the Russians, but the Kaidanovskys hadn't arrived yet. "Whoa! The Brits are blitzed!" exclaimed one of the Gages.

"Not yet, but give us time," Tamsin grunted, digging around in the crates behind the "bar" in search of the strongest alcohol available. She shoved the first bottle she found at Stacker without looking at him, having thoroughly assumed "the hunch of shame" as Maria Lopez called it.

"What's this? Tamya? You managed to shock the man of steel?" Sasha Kaidanovsky demanded as she and Aleksis came in.

Of course, the whole population of trainees was gathering for their end-of-the-week pow-wow, and Stacker didn't have the energy to flee. He consoled himself that no one else ever seemed to either – or maybe that was just because it wouldn't look well for the Jaeger pilots to be running around base carrying bottles of alcohol, so they stayed in the mess hall.

So he hunched his own shoulders and waited for the blowback. Caitlin arrived a few minutes later, weary from her dual role as senior drift trainer and fellow pilot, but although the candidates immediately turned to her for explanations, she sportingly refused to talk. (However, she had a terrible poker face, and Stacker could only bear a quick glance over his shoulder before her grin made him focus his attention on his bottle of liquor with determined fascination.)

"Well, I always thought Sevier had a wild side," Scott Hansen was saying, not bothering to lower his voice. Herc was just in Stacker's line of vision, trying (with limited success) to act politely disinterested. "Poor stuffy ol' Stacker just couldn't take it."

Tamsin snorted in unison with several of the women; for a man who fancied himself a player, Scott didn't seem to know the first thing about how to evoke anything other than disdain from fellow candidates or Corps personnel. (He also didn't know that even men who observed decent military protocol were perfectly capable of cutting loose.) Stacker knew Herc Hansen had, and before K-Day, he'd found it easier to cut loose. The slightly-younger trainees still followed the "work hard, play harder" philosophy.

"So, what'd'ja see, mate?" Scott slapped Stacker on the back. "It true what they say about those Scots women?"

Tamsin banged her beer bottle on the table. "You're about to find out it's true we unwind by ripping the balls off mouthy men who won't take the hint to leave off! You want to go snicker like a juvenile, do it somewhere else and leave us in peace – and remember, your turn is coming."

Scott finally was distracted from harassing Tamsin as Herc strolled over to slap his back and give him a warning look as he hauled Scott to another table. "Oh, this one already got his. Front row seat to big brother's courtship!"

That surprised Stacker enough to knock him out of his ohmybloodyfuckinggodIsawmysisterSTOP! shock, and he glanced back at them. Now Scott was rocking back and forth, mostly playful, but mock-groaning at the mortification that resulted from memories in the drift that a sibling partner really didn't want to see.

Scott was already well into the Saturday night imbibements, and his loud speculations were grating on Stacker's nerves. Herc managed to prod him to go get himself a base pass for some of the off-base bars that were close by. There were enough local women lusting after the pilots of these strange new mechs that even a bloke of social skills as abysmal as Scott Hansen's could at least hope to get some stress relief.

"Sorry about that," Herc muttered after Scott was gone. "You two all right? Need something stronger?"

"Is there any?" He and Tamsin had simply grabbed the first bottles they could get their hands on.

Jing Li and Maria Lopez were taking inventory of the Kaidanovskys' stash and shaking their heads. "We save most of the good stuff for the siblings and their trauma. We did not expect you to have that trouble," said Sasha. "Unless…"

Rumor had it that she had been in the Russian Diplomatic Corps, some kind of Natasha Romanoff–meets-James Bond. For a woman who claimed no more special skills than mixed martial arts, middle rank Russian military, and a few languages from her travels, Sasha Kaidanovsky was… disturbingly good at getting to the bottom of things.

She looked from Tamsin to Stacker and back again, then her eyebrows shot up, and her composure almost broke. She and her husband exchanged a few sly grins, then Aleksis gravely got up and brought Stacker another bottle. No wonder their drift tests had them so far ahead of the rest of the pilots.

"Okay, this isn't fair, you two aren't even related!" Bruce Gage protested. "What could possibly be worse than drifting with a sibling?!"

He and Tamsin winced in unison and now she was wrinkling her nose back at him (but trying not to laugh.) "Aww, now they've gone non-verbal on us!" Duc complained. "Spill, Stacks, we're all Jaeger pilots here!"

Despite the wheedling from the nosy ones, Caitlin steadfastly refused to talk. And, of all the sibling drifters, it was Herc who finally worked it out: "Oh, hell!" He went from red to white to red again. "You poor bastard!"

With humiliation now inevitable (and rapid progress into their respective alcoholic consolation) Stacker and Tamsin just let it pass with a wry grins. Stacker had a bottle in each hand and alternated between pulls from one and the other as Tamsin buried her face in her arms.

"You're a brave man," Min Li told him, giving his older sister, Jing, a look of utter horror. "I think I would have to kill myself."

"You mean I would have to kill you," Jing retorted, reaching past him to pat Stacker's arm – and pass him another beer.

There were now about a dozen bottles between Stacker and Tamsin, and he thought he might just put a dent in all of them. That was probably why the whole situation was starting to go from horrific to funny.

"I blame you for this," he informed Sergio.

The man put a hand to his chest, all innocence. "Hey, now, Cait's the one who designed the mind-melding machine in the first place!"

"Traitor," Caitlin grumbled.

Stacker kept glaring at Sergio. "But you were the one who with the bright idea of siblings drifting!"

"Oooh, he's got you there! That's right, we owe you an ass-kicking too!" the Gages declared, and the Chens voiced their agreement, and soon they were joined by the other siblings as well as the cousins, all blaming their mental scars on Sergio.

Luna would be laughing her arse off. He assumed that was his thought, until he saw Tamsin grinning at him as she swiped one of his bottles. He wrinkled his nose at her again, just so she'd know he was still mad at her, and she giggled.

They were well into their drinks, and inhibitions came down that night even more than usual. "Scott'll be disappointed," Herc chortled as the ribbing got going. "He's hot for Tamsin."

"He's hot for everything female and breathing," Kaori Jessop replied, having slid most of the way into Duc's lap.

"You're hot," said Yan-Jie Lim abruptly, gesturing at Kaori.

"Oy!" Duc exclaimed.

"I was jus' saying!"

Herc guffawed and slapped Duc on the back. "Look but don't touch the married ones, Yan-Jie. Don't worry, Scott's the same," he added. For a moment, his humor faded, and he mused to Stacker and Tamsin, "He remembered her, you know. Your Luna. Good pilot."

"The best," Tamsin agreed, raising her bottle to him. For once, they'd both sopped up enough vodka (and whiskey… and sake… and whatever the hell that vile moonshine was that the Gages had brought to the party) that the nostalgia of thinking about life pre-K-Day came without a wave of crushing pain. "Wonder who she'd have drifted with. Stacker or me?"

"You. She thought I got in her business too much as it was," Stacker snorted, and Herc laughed again.

"Yeah, Scott and me wonder what the hell we were thinking."

"We all do," agreed Min Li. Jing was playing some kind of rapid-fire Chinese card game with Yan-Jie and Fang. "I had enough of her opinions before she got into my head!"

"I heard that!" Jing announced, and launched into a stream of Mandarin too fast for Stacker to follow (except for the profane parts.) The other Chinese pair and Sasha Kaidanovsky laughed and added their commentary to the tirade, and someone (possibly Herc) started throwing poker chips.

It all went downhill from there.

When the sun came up, Caitlin, Kaori, and Maria were passed out in a pile under a table, with Duc's feet sticking out from underneath them. Trevin Gage had last been seen making out with Jordana Chen (and Bruce had disappeared around the same time with Carlos.) The Kaidanovskys had run off to quarters giggling like a pair of high schoolers at the prom. Sergio and Miguel were singing soulful Latin pop ballads – neither even remotely on-key. Yan-Jie, Fang, and the Lis were playing full-contact dominoes, and Stacker, Tamsin, and Herc were arguing over whether the RAF or RAAF would be able to beat the aliens from Independence Day.

Stacker never could remember who actually won that debate.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: Spectral Evidence

Autumn 2015, Kodiak Island, Alaska…

Military Psychology blamed it all on Caitlin Lightcap – at first. Stacker and his fellow veterans supposed that their reasoning was correct… "But if I see one more report treating it like a character flaw, I'm gonna have words with them," Herc vowed.

The press office took great pains to keep the media from getting wind of the emotional state of Brawler Yukon's pilots after her first two fights with real, live kaiju. The monsters died and the pilots lived and the world celebrated. It didn't dawn on anyone that there was a delay of almost two days between each kill and the first appearance of the triumphant Rangers.

As far as the internally-available information went, Stacker and Tamsin had their doubts about whether the report was accurate, given the bias that it showed. They'd both been in the service long enough to quietly acknowledge how often treatment of women and civilians could be slanted by unsympathetic superiors. The Gage twins, both experienced in the horrors of ground combat, voiced the same suspicions:

"Since when is 'hysterical' a technical term anymore? Did Dr. Freud over in Psych diagnose shell-shock too, or is it only the outdated gender crap?" Trevin demanded scornfully.

"Did you know anyone who saw her after the choppers got them out of the pod in Vancouver?" Tamsin asked. "Was she that distraught?"

"They were both pretty freaked," Bruce confirmed. The twins knew some of the American and Canadian rescue crews who'd been the first on-site after Brawler defeated Karloff. "I think it's the drift mind-meld; it made them disoriented."

"You can't blame them," muttered Caleb, one of the American Marines who'd finished the first stage of drift testing. "We freaked out in the damn lab the first time around." He and his partner, Tanisha Davis, were the only American pair still in pons training out of the second batch of prospective pilots.

"And…well… Dr. Lightcap used to get panic attacks," an EMT crewman pointed out. "It's in her records. So that could've sort of… passed over to Lieutenant D'onofrio – not that I'm blaming her. Even in that Jaeger, face-to-face with a freaking kaiju? I'd shit myself!"

"Bet you anything some of us do," Duc Jessop muttered, and there were chuckles all around.

"Every damn one of those psychologists and the empty suits who keep saying Lightcap's too unstable would have a puddle of piss under their chairs," said Herc. "They killed it, for Chrissakes! Bloody shrinks act like no soldier ever breaks down after a combat mission, and that's bullshit."

Every veteran in the conversation nodded.

Despite the trainees' unanimous defense of Caitlin, some of the higher-ups insisted that Lightcap couldn't take the stress. The US military was agitating for more of their officers to undergo training, with pompous insinuations that surely their troops would have what it took. Bruce and Trevin Gage called in whole companies of troops whom they'd served within combat, as did some of the other trainees who'd been in the service. But the success rate didn't look any higher to Stacker.

Only one pair of American Marines remained in the pons training by mid-autumn, though Tamsin thought (and Stacker agreed) that it spoke well of the Gages that every single officer who failed Jaeger training stayed on with the Program to form its support crews.

Jing and Min Li's collection of seasoned Chinese officers from all branches of their military all struck out – but the teenaged triplets they'd found street-fighting in Shanghai were still in.

"Go figure!" laughed Duc Jessop as their superiors sputtered over Pons Science's latest report. Japan now had a third Jaeger in progress, slated for launch sometime in 2016, but only two pairs of potential pilots: the Jessops and Stacker and Tamsin.

"Vice Marshall Ketteridge only recruited out of the bases as far as I know," Herc Hansen told them. "We're nil for about two-hundred-eighty tries." Australia's commanding officer had been another insisting on recruitment being restricted to the military, and that Caitlin's instability was the case in point.

"But apparently there's not a problem with a lecherous alcoholic," Tamsin grumbled. Scott had backed off from her, Jordana Chen, and Maria Lopez (after multiple strongly-worded conversations with their respective partners and Herc), but he surveyed every new group of arrivals at Kodiak like a buffet.

After Karloff came Peuchen, in August, still well before any of the battle-ready Mark-1 Jaegers were available for launch. So again, the prototype went into battle alone, and Stacker was among those who watched from the spotter craft as humanity scored another kill.

Then the two pilots were retrieved from the control pod.

Stacker had to admit he felt a pang of dismay when he watched the rescue/recovery crews having to practically manhandle Lightcap and D'onofrio into medical. She wasn't hysterical, and neither was he, but they both seemed to be in shock and distress, especially when the medics tried to separate them. They seemed "clingy," for lack of a better description, even squeezing onto a bed in the hospital once their injuries were treated.

Tamsin sensed his musings, and murmured, "Have a heart, Stacks. We've all taken to leaning on each other after tests. Real combat in the drift? If they feel better sharing a bed, it's no one's bloody business!"

Yes, that was a damn good point.

Stacker did worry that the traumatic stress of combat was only amplified by the otherworldly magnitude of Jaeger-versus-kaiju, but sternly reminded himself that in that case, his concern should be for the health and welfare of the two pilots themselves, not public appearances. That was what raised the hackles of so many of his fellows when they read the "engagement reports," and fed his own sense of indignation.

And in November, still a month shy of formal launch but well into full deployment tests in Coyote Tango, the next kaiju made them all reexamine their thinking.

---

November 13, 2015…
Kitakyushu, Japan…

When Brawler Yukon's leg was crushed in its battle with Keunsango, the test crews of Coyote Tango and Tacit Ronin were already prepping for deployment. In their airfield in Kyoto, Stacker and Tamsin were slightly closer to the site of the attack than the Jessops, who were working outside Tokyo, but not by much.

The trouble was, the UN and the PPDC delegates couldn't make up their damned minds. "But we haven't even formally launched them yet!" protested Dustin Krieger over the hastily-prepared teleconference.

"That didn't stop you with Brawler," Tamsin retorted. "He was never supposed to be used in combat, and he's killed two of these bastards! All of our combat systems check out."

"We can't just leave Caitlin and Sergio without backup!" Kaori agreed from Tokyo. "We can't afford to lose her or let that kaiju loose!"

But then, there was an explosion of cursing over the link to Tokyo, and Duc announced, "Tacit Ronin's weapons check out, but lift gear is non-functional."

Oh, shit. A minute ago, Stacker had been hoping he and Tamsin would be the ones tapped, but now… Be careful what you wish for. He looked at Tamsin, then at the stats on the HUD for the other eastern Jaegers.

"Horizon Brave and Cherno Alpha don't have full weapons or lift gear," warned someone.

It's up to us. We're the only combat-ready Jaeger on the continent. "We're ready," Stacker said into the comm.

A low murmur of voices in the vid conference followed as generals, admirals, and diplomats from thirty nations looked between the video feed of Brawler Yukon dueling alone against the biggest, fastest kaiju yet and the statistics of seven nearly-finished Jaegers.

Only three were fully equipped for lift and combat: Romeo Blue, Talon Tasmania, and Coyote Tango.

It was Lieutenant Colonel Gagnon of Canada who took the first leap, which didn't surprise Stacker. Gagnon had been the one to make the call to deploy Brawler against Karloff in Vancouver, and his gamble had paid off in spades. He was one of the program's most vocal supporters now. "Go."

Japan's Admiral Yamamoto was next. "Go." The other Japanese officials fell in with him, and in another minute, they had the majority.

"It is confirmed. You are go for launch, Coyote Tango!" announced Colonel Okita, who'd been supervising most of the test runs up until then. Now the real thing tripped easily off her tongue. "Mobilizing Air Defense for Jaeger transport. Pilots, prepare for neural handshake."

"Nervous, Stacks?" Tamsin murmured as the conn-pod crews ran the final checks.

"Of course not!"

"Me neither."

When the handshake initiated and they plunged into the bluish drift space, the first sound that filled their memory was Luna's voice, singing: "That's a lie, that's a lie!" She'd driven her brother mad with that ditty when they were kids, and had still used it to tease him until the day she died. "That's a lie, a lie, a lie!"

Past and present flowed together, and the roar of Coyote's turbines mingled with the roar of fighter jet engines in their minds.

She was twenty-one, starting flight school and assumed her gorgeous classmate was flirting with the flight instructor, until Luna clarified, "He's my big brother."

He was ten, and let Luna and Mum talk him into a dragon costume so Luna could be a knight in tinfoil armor for her class party…

She was twenty-three, kissing Luna for the first time when they made pilot…

He was twelve, looking out the police van window at Luna's tear-streaked face as she struggled and roared at the Social Services woman holding her back, and he wondered what would happen to her now…

They weren't even thirty, and the apocalypse was coming and Luna was dead and they were staring at the frames of giant new fighting machines, wondering if this would be the only way of avenging her…

The conn-pod shook around them as the fleet of heavy-lift choppers raised their iron feet off the ground. They blinked as buildings and hills and highways moved faster and faster below. They weren't meant to be airborne. They were meant to be on the ground fighting, and it was hard to remember to stay still during the lift.

So it begins, Tamsin thought at him.

"We'll send another of these bastards to hell," he murmured, baring his teeth at the plume of smoke on the horizon.

Everyone else in Japan was fleeting that place except them. Luna had always run towards fights and fires and smoke too.

Soon there wasn't time to think even of her, or their guiding principles or rallying cries. Brawler was still fighting as well as he could with one hip crushed and his shoulder torn open, using the bulk of his weight just to try to pin Keunsango beneath him long enough for Coyote to arrive, and his one good arm to shield the conn-pod. The kaiju was easily evading what was left of Brawler's weapons. It resembled some kind of armored salamander, long and sleek and squirmy, with limbs that resembled fins rather than reptilian arms. It had swum from the Breach through Japan's inner seas in the shortest time recorded yet – giving the country that much less time to react.

Tamsin and Stacker had had plenty of practice in the simulator and test runs by now. Chasing the memories and losing touch with reality was no longer a serious threat for them, but that didn't mean they didn't both have Luna hovering in the back of the drift space in their shared mind. And the few brain cells that weren't occupied with the task at hand could hear her cheering even as they charged to get in front of the stricken Brawler.

"Brawler, come in?" Tamsin called. "What's your status?"

"We're okay!" Caitlin Lightcap grunted. "Heavy damage to the left leg and right shoulder; we've lost mobility!"

"We've got this," Stacker said. They released the lift lines and turned to face Keunsango, who was slither-crawling back, assessing this new challenger. "Get clear!"

"Working on it," said Sergio. Even through their iron walls, they could hear the groan of Brawler's damaged limbs as his pilots struggled to move him away. At least both of them were well enough to talk even if the Jaeger was in a bad way.

For a few heartbeats, Keunsango and Coyote Tango stared each other down, assessing their opponents. Stacker and Tamsin knew that the kaiju's skin couldn't possibly as translucent as it looked with the iridescent blue veins pulsing through it. Then the monster gathered itself, and they lunged to meet it like a sumo wrestler, arms locking and upper bodies slamming together.

"Arming mortars!" Tamsin bellowed, and Stacker locked his arm along the kaiju's limb to hold it there, trying for point-blank range.

The detonation of their shells so close hurled them and Keungsango apart, but the creature was writhing, its roars filling the air over the crashing debris on the shoreline. It curled around its wounded…hip? Shoulder? But then it turned and shot them a look that Stacker might have sworn for an instant was actually hateful.

Could these things feel hate beyond just animal anger at the source of pain? Was that more frightening or less?

Stacker brushed that notion away like a drop of sweat as they braced for the kaiju's retaliatory lunge, and Stacker armed their energy caster. It sizzled to life like a blowtorch in their right arm, and Tamsin caught the beast under the chin with the left hand so Stacker could try to drive it deep. Screeching, its toxic blood sizzling on their iron skin, Keunsango squirmed away, then twisted its entire body around to slam them from the side with one of its back limbs, knocking them clean off their feet.

"Coyote!" someone shouted over the comm.

Rather than waste time trying to right them, Stacker wrenched his arm free and kept the caster firing just to drive the kaiju back. "We're fine!"

Attack and retreat, they grappled along the shoreline of Dokai Bay, pulverizing the port, only able to hope there'd had been time to evacuate the people closest to the scene. Brawler had done well at keeping the kaiju focused on him rather than rampaging wildly through the city

They wrangled the beast until they were almost out of ammunition and depending on the energy caster and the strength of their limbs to keep pummeling him, winding along the ports and ferry terminals in a never-ending dance… and it felt like years and yet only seconds had passed when the headland they stepped out onto gave way beneath their feet.

"FUCK!" one or both of them roared as they and their quarry plunged headlong into the bay.

Alarms shrieked and sparks flew, and they knew at once at least parts of the hull were compromised with water coming in, this wasn't good –

- but where was… coughing and sputtering even though no water had entered the pod itself, they staggered upright, slapping at the emergency controls for the HUD to recalibrate the spectrum and try to detect the kaiju… where the hell was he…

"Coyote! Coyote, he's running! The son of a bitch is diving! Goddamnit!" one of their spotter pilots yelled. "He's picking up speed, heading north-northwest!"

"What the f – of all the – bloody WANKER, get back here!"

(Tamsin never let him Stacker live it down that he yelled at a kaiju, but he always countered that she had been right with him in mind and body when they started running after the damn thing.)

"Stacker, Tamsin, hold it! Coyote Tango, HOLD YOUR POSITION!" Colonel Okita shouted. "You're showing hull breaches in both lower limbs and in your outer shielding, you CANNOT take this underwater!"

"No!" they chorused.

Ludicrous, like a couple of punk teenagers who didn't want to be pulled out of their tussle, but adrenaline and fury still coursed through and between them. They couldn't let the bastard get away, they couldn't, not while he was still alive, they had to stop him, had to finish him and pound his ugly, slimy arse until he didn't move anymore, they couldn't stop now…

"Coyote Tango, system report!" Rather than argue with them, Okita forced them to look at what they didn't want to face, and as the seconds ticked by and their blood slowed, the bitter truth of their situation came down.

Tamsin sighed heavily, blinking sweat from her eyes. "That's confirmed, outer reactor casing is cracked. Electrical shorts coming in… shit, OW, that hurts… both shoulders. Lift gear's gone on the left side."

Stacker just managed not to spew curses in every language he knew at the top of his lungs, but he and Tamsin were both screaming profanity inside their heads. No lift gear, no possibility of going under water with this damage even if they could swim in a Jaeger as fast as Keunsango was. Even unharmed with their lift choppers, they'd have had trouble keeping pace with this bastard.

"What now?" he asked wearily. "Tacit Ronin's turn?"

"Romeo Blue's ETA is nine hours, depending on where the target makes landfall again. You dealt some serious blows," Okita told them. "He ran, Coyote. No kaiju's ever done that before. Good work."

But it's alive. It's fucking alive, which means we didn't finish the job! He/she fumed.

But they obeyed when Okita told them to get themselves back onto land for pickup and repairs. Now that there wasn't a monster to distract them, they could feel the damage they'd taken and bitterly had to admit that their superior's call hadn't been wrong. If they'd tried to pursue at sea, they'd have sunk until the power failed, let alone been able to catch their prey. Even if the choppers could have lifted them, continuing the fight in this condition wouldn't be very productive.

Now we know how Caitlin and Sergio felt. "What's the word on Brawler? Pilots all right?" Tamsin asked.

"Minor injuries. Lightcap won't be walking for a while, but nothing life-threatening. They're in good spirits too," said one of the chopper crews.

Stacker felt a wave of smugness from Tamsin as they translated that: So the most experienced Rangers were getting better at controlling the shock and confusion that came with fighting, contrary to what the military psychologists had predicted.

And neither he nor Tamsin predicted what would follow when they deactivated the neural handshake.

---

It was like floating… then falling, maybe free-falling from the drift space into some void of horrible nothingness. Tamsin's head was swimming. She hurt and she was lost and worst of all, she was alone.

He was alone too. She knew that still, she could still feel him like a dull, aching echo in her mind, but it wasn't enough after the drift, and she needed… "Stacker?" Tamsin rasped. Her hands moved on autopilot to disengage her motion rig and she stumbled free and turned instinctively to her right, searching, reaching…

She felt him reach back, and they crashed into each other and fell in a heap on the floor. "God," he mumbled. He was trembling. Even through their suits and armor and helmets with no part of their flesh actually connected, she could feel that.

" Coyote! Sevier, Pentecost, do you copy?"

"We're here," Stacker grunted, not lessening his grip on Tamsin.

"This is Medical; what's wrong? And don't say nothing!" said someone in LOCCENT.

"'s like… shock," Tamsin said, forcing herself to think, to try and analyze it. "No injuries, but can't… focus…" Just need you, don't let go, I can't…

"I'm thinking this post-combat shock thing isn't just Brawler," said someone else.

Stacker nodded, a weak chuckle escaping his throat. "Good thinking."

It wasn't too bad, just disconcerting, scrambling out of the escape hatch while trying to hang onto each other, huddling on Coyote's damaged shoulder, the world a blur of smoke and light and wreckage. At first, the purpose of two choppers didn't dawn on them… until they were pulled apart, Stacker for one lift rig and Tamsin for the other. "Wait! No!"

Tamsin didn't panic easily, and in the drift memories she'd seen, Stacker didn't panic at all. Control was a quality they both cultivated and prized…. and it utterly deserted them. She kicked and thrashed on the chopper floor, shrieking for him, and she knew somehow despite the airspace and walls between them that he was in the same state.

"Coyote's Two's completely out of her mind!"

"Coyote One's no better – we're cleared to land on the hospital pad - "

Stacks, Stacks, Stacks!

Tamsin…

She needed… he couldn't… they were lost and falling, out of control in the drift with no partner, no anchor, free-falling and floating. Voices urged her to breathe, not hyperventilate, it would be okay, they were almost there…

Thuds and lurches followed, and she tumbled out into the air on the ground, and was staggering towards him without having to look. They collided and fell, and finally, they were on the ground again.

"Christ," Stacker breathed into her neck, his big frame wrapped around her. They couldn't think, couldn't remember anything but their anchor, the only way not to fall was to hold on.

Someone tugged on Stacker's arm, and Tamsin nearly panicked again, thinking they were trying to take him. He let out an animal growl, lunging – and stopped himself just in time to not swing at an older woman who immediately had the sense to raise her hands and back off. Some inkling of awareness returned at that; he hadn't meant to attack anyone.

"I'm sorry," he croaked.

"It's all right," she said, voice gentle like he was an out-of-control boy. Drift memory whispered and shimmered on the edges of Tamsin's awareness; it wasn't the first time someone had talked to Stacker in that voice. But it had been a long time. He didn't like those memories. He was ashamed of them. Tamsin tightened her grip despite the cramps in her arms and hands from holding on so desperately. She had to keep him from getting lost in those blue dreams. That was her job, as it was his, to hold each other in the here and now. The stranger didn't touch them again, but beckoned. "Let's get you both inside. You can stay together, Rangers. Can you walk for me?"

Dazed, Tamsin nodded, and they stumbled along with their escorts out of the chaos.

Equilibrium and awareness returned… gradually. After a few hours, they had calmed enough to submit to the scans without going to pieces again over being separated into the machines. But they did fidget for every moment that they weren't able to feel each other physically.

Stacker murmured an anxious apology to the woman from the landing pad. "None necessary, Ranger Pentecost. Don't worry, I've worked with troops for a long time. I shouldn't have startled you."

"What's the word on the kaiju?"

Everyone promptly avoided their eyes. "It's… made landfall again," someone admitted. Tamsin's heart plummeted, and she felt Stacker's do the same. "Busan, South Korea. Romeo Blue should drop within the hour – you did a terrific job, Rangers!" Multiple voices chimed in to agree. Tamsin was having trouble meeting anyone's eyes just the same. "You were wonderful!"

We should have been able to stop it. She wasn't sure if that thought was her own or Stacker's – probably both.

Still, a few hours later, they had the chance to watch Romeo Blue finally dispatch the monster permanently. And they discovered one source of consolation from their frustrating day: proof that the shock of combat drift was not unique to Caitlin Lightcap, or even to Stacker and Tamsin.

Bruce and Trevin were even more experienced in combat than Stacker and Tamsin – but they were in as bad an emotional state as Stacker and Tamsin had been. Worse, Trevin was injured by shrapnel. Bruce was beyond all reason when the rescue crews got to them, and fought until one of the medics managed to sedate him. Then Trevin went berserk until he was under as well.

---

November 23, 2015…
Kodiak, Alaska…

The debriefing was just… awkward. There were now three pairs of Jaeger pilots whose names were being praised throughout the adoring world, and a dozen more sets of trainee teams who gathered around them at the conference table and glared daggers at the Military Psychologists.

Caitlin and Sergio had been caught on camera sitting on Brawler's head waiting for their helicopter pickup – and some enterprising reporters had hired a lip-reader to find out what they'd talked about.

And so, the whole world "heard" Sergio D'onofrio's marriage proposal and Caitlin Lightcap's acceptance. The woman in Japan whom Stacker had nearly hit turned out to be one of the public relations reps, but not only did she not have a grudge against Stacker, but she ran interference for all three teams as the media and public fawned over them.

Within the Jaeger Program, no one could deny that of the three teams who'd fought Keunsango, Caitlin and Sergio had come out the other side the calmest. (Well, Caitlin had reportedly been giggling her head off when the recovery team got to them.) "'Doesn't have what it takes,' someone said?" Herc Hansen stage-whispered. "We need men trained in combat, eh?"

"Yeah, no veteran ever flips his shit," muttered Trevin Gage, but Kaori Jessop nudged him.

"That wasn't an invitation for you two to be down on yourselves," she scolded, and gave Stacker and Tamsin a pointed look for good measure.

Duc nodded. "Obviously it happens to everyone. Only a moron thinks PTSD is a fault."

"Drift shock," said Caitlin, no longer embarrassed by her own experiences. "My team is still sorting through all the brain scans from combat, now that we have a few more subjects. The chemistry levels after deactivating the handshake were similar in all six of us from first combat."

"Is there a way to treat it?" asked Secretary General Krieger.

Sasha Kaidanovsky rolled her eyes. "Of course: don't separate drift partners."

A few other proposed "therapies" were floated around, but in the end of the meeting, Stacker and Tamsin, Bruce and Trevin, and Caitlin and Sergio were in agreement that there was no better medicine for Jaeger pilots.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Three: A Revolution Worth Having

December 21, 2015…
Hong Kong, China…

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Party pooper!"

"Lemming!"

"Stick in the mud!"

"Tamsin see, Tamsin do!"

"Tamsin, prettier-than-you, yes!"

"Stacker, right-bloody-hemisphere, no!"

"Always do what the lady says, Stacks," Duc Jessop admonished, but Stacker Pentecost stood his ground.

"We are NOT making Coyote dance!"

Tamsin was practically jumping up and down, looking halfway between throwing a punch at her partner or just throwing herself to the floor for a screaming tantrum. "All the cool kids are doing it!" she whined, pointing at Maria Lopez and Miguel Blanco.

The pilots of Talon Tasmania could barely sit upright, they were laughing so hard as Stacker shot them a ferocious glare. "This is all… your…bloody…fault."

Miguel Blanco fixed Stacker with a playfully threatening stare. "Three weeks until you formally launch, Ranger. If you fail to fulfill your duties, you forfeit the name Tango."

"Oooh!" Caitlin Lightcap made a "finger gun" at Stacker. "Shots fired!"

One of the public relations reps came over to the group of pilots, checking to make sure no reporters had slipped into the Personnel Only area. Mid-way through a month of Mark-1 launch festivities, only a month after Keunsango, the first "class" of Rangers were already exhausted, frazzled, and plummeting into collective insanity.

"Do I have to break up yet another brawl over here?!"

Sasha Kaidanovsky didn't miss a beat. "Pentecost started it. He's a troublemaker."

Stacker just sputtered as his fellows erupted into a chorus of agreement, too appalled by Tamsin's nagging and the other officers' teasing to remember that he felt awkward around Carolina Olivares. She was the woman on the Kitakyushu launch pad who he'd nearly hit while under the influence of drift shock – and with a week to go before Romeo Blue's launch, she'd been the one to get between Bruce and Trevin when the twins got into it. The woman had no fear.

As for the twins, they cringed in unison. Mrs. Olivares had torn three strips off both of them for getting into a physical fight, and they'd refused to tell anyone what it had been about.

Apart from Stacker, that is.

---

November 30, 2015…
Tokyo, Japan…

He had the impression that Trevin hadn't even planned on approaching him, but while the medics were stitching up the gash on Bruce's chin, Trevin came diving into Stacker's room in their temporary quarters. Startled, Stacker had dropped the small photo album he carried everywhere.

"Shit, sorry! I thought – wrong room…" Trevin turned to go, then he and Stacker both heard the bellowed threats of Yan-Jie Lim and Fang Lao, the Chinese cousins whose quarters Bruce had been spending a lot of time in for the past few weeks. Trevin hesitated, then shut the door of Stacker's room, and Stacker didn't protest while Bruce's irate friends stormed past. (Stacker and Tamsin hadn't been sure whether Bruce was currently sharing a bed with one or both; the twins went through partners of both genders at a dizzying rate.)

"You're lucky I've never paired off with your brother," he informed Trevin lightly. The younger man groaned. "For someone with such a short attention span in relationships, he stays on remarkably good terms with his exes."

"Believe me, man, I know more about his boyfriends than I ever wanted to," Trevin sighed, leaning against the wall. He grinned sheepishly, then glanced down at the book Stacker had dropped – and spied the photograph of him, Tamsin, and Luna. They'd taken that photo on the beach in Spain, less than six months before K-Day. "She's pretty."

Stacker picked the album back up. "Yes, she was."

"Was it always Tamsin or did you have to beat the boys away with a stick?" Stacker smiled, but Trevin caught himself and added awkwardly, "I mean, not to intrude - "

He waved the younger man off. In their former positions, Stacker and Tamsin would hold the highest military rank, and the other former officers sometimes fell back on old deference, but… "You're the ranking Ranger here, if there's rank to apply."

"Meh, there's not, then. But I still don't mean to intrude if you don't want to discuss."

Most days, he wouldn't, but… "If I don't, I'll let you know." He flipped the page to one of a younger Luna, dressed up for her school formal dance. He had no idea who her date had been, or if she'd even had one. He'd been in training by then, and Luna still a ward of the state. "I worked out that her love life wasn't my business fairly early on – after I tried to shut her in the attic once or twice." Trevin laughed. "That didn't end well for me."

"Did you try to stop her from joining up?" Trevin blurted. Stacker looked at him in surprise, then put two and two together.

He had to smile. "So. Did you take exception to his second thoughts, or did he take exceptions to yours?"

Trevin grinned sheepishly. "Bruce and I've always been pretty gung ho… but he never saw me take a bad hit until Keunsango. He freaking…" He turned away, trying to hide his frustration. "He overreacted! And then he acts like I did something stupid and he wants out of having to watch my back!"

Ouch. No wonder they'd come to blows. In the twins' place, Stacker would have been lucky to escape with all his teeth after Luna vented her wrath… speaking of lessons learned the hard way. So he was willing enough to lend a fellow officer a sympathetic ear, now that he knew where their quarrel had come from. "You've never been in combat together before, have you?"

Trevin shook his head. "Wasn't allowed in the Army. We didn't think it'd be that bad. Come on, we're twenty-nine! We've been serving for ten years, we've both been in combat, we're freaking adults! He knew what this job was about!"

God knows, Tamsin and I weren't prepared for how it would feel and we've both been in service nearly as long as you. Even without injuries, they'd both been out of control. "Perhaps it was the drift shock," Stacker suggested.

"A month after the fact? Shit, I hope it doesn't last that long. I mean… it does feel different, Bruce and me now. I dunno if you could…" Trevin trailed off, eyes distant, and Stacker waited. "If we went back to regular Army, even, I dunno if I could deal with serving separately again," he admitted quietly.

Stacker wasn't surprised. "With Tamsin, it's the same," he said. "And I think to all the others. You and Bruce are twins, but drifting has changed us all. It's not a weakness," he added, anticipating what the American was really worried about. "Our military psychology does tend to lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to attitudes about stresses and combat reactions." He smiled ruefully. "And I admit, there was a time that I tried every means I could think of to change my sister's mind, or worse, simply prevent her from taking risks. It was wrong of me. Even… even now, I know that." Now it was his turn to look away.

"We lost a lot of good people, those first attacks," Trevin agreed. "Especially K-Day. It wasn't recklessness. Nobody could've predicted what we were dealing with."

Somehow, Trevin had gone from being the one seeking reassurance to the one offering it. But Stacker found that it didn't bother him.

Not long ago, it would have bothered him.

Maybe drifting had changed more than just his relationship with Tamsin.

---

December 17, 2015…
Hong Kong, China…

The twins ended their squabble, and Romeo Blue launched with great fanfare on December 15. From there, the Mark-1 pilots flew to Hong Kong for the Horizon Brave festivities, and after zipping back and forth across the Pacific for the fourth time, all the pilots were collectively losing it.

That the Lis and the Jessops had jumped onto Miguel and Maria's bandwagon and made their Jaegers dance was only adding to the insanity. Stacker had elected not to participate on principle, much to Tamsin's fury.

Stacker could draw some small consolation that there were no cameras around the first time Talon Tasmania started dancing. A little victory jig was one thing, but Miguel and Maria took a step further.

A very... large... step... further.

In all fairness, it was the twins who started it. During the first test maneuvers with the Eastern Hemisphere Jaegers, the Westerners were all watching from Hong Kong's LOCCENT, and the twins started giving Miguel and Maria hard time. "You guys are putting your feet all over the place," said Bruce.

"What the hell you trying to do, the Argentine tango in the Jaeger?" demanded Trevin.

At that point Stacker was laughing too, but apparently Miguel took it as a challenge. "We'll show you the Argentine tango," he said.

There were several beats of silence over the comm. "Oh shit," said Stacker. "Don't you dare!"

But, there were other voices coming over the line. "Go for it, Talon," shouted Kaori Jessup.

"This I want to see," agreed Alexis.

Tamsin was giggling like mad. "You're not seriously thinking of making a Jaeger dance!"

But when Stacker looked up, Talon Tasmania was moving away from the other mechs. "Wait a minute," he protested. "Wait, you can't actually do that! "

Maria replied, "Watch us."

"Someone put some music on the speakers," Duc was saying.

"No, no!" Stacker protested. The brass will have our heads!

But then he heard a chorus of gasps, and then cheers from LOCCENT. When he looked up through the HUD screen, Talon was engaged in maneuvers that were definitely not any part of their newly invented Jaeger Bushido.

"Nice footwork," said someone.

"Talon Tasmania," shouted China's General Liang. "Stop that right now!"

With a flourish of Talon's arms, Miguel and Maria sketched a small bow. "Never challenging never challenge an Argentinian to a dancing contest," said Tamsin.

Stacker just groaned.

As he expected, Liang chewed them all out for improper use of multi-billion dollar equipment, endangering personnel, and waste of resources... and on the very next test run, Tacit Ronin did the chicken dance. "See what you started?!" Stacker fumed at Maria and Miguel.

Maria patted his head. "It will be the Rangers' little secret," she cooed as if she were his mother.

Famous last words.

---

February 2016…

Talon Tasmania was caught dancing on camera in early February, and made the cable and Internet news networks all over the world. Sydney's Vice Marshall Ketteridge nearly had a hernia, much to Tamsin's amusement. "He's just sour because the first crew assigned to his turf was Argentinian rather than Australian," she insisted. "If it'd been Herc and Scott making Lucky Seven dance, he'd just laugh and say 'boys will be boys.'"

"He has a point," Stacker insisted when they saw that Maria and Miguel had been demerited. "That's not the Macarena they're doing in that thing. All they need is one slip and Talon goes out of action right as we're heading into high alert."

"You are such a spoilsport, Stacker," huffed Kaori.

"Ohh, now that you mention it, the Macarena," murmured one of the twins.

"That was NOT meant to be a suggestion!"

"Too late, love," Tamsin hooted, winking at the twins.

Talon was nicknamed Tango Tasmania from then on, and even Stacker caught himself slipping up and calling her that from time to time.

Coyote was still in post-repair testing when the next kaiju, Digonek, headed for the North Pacific a week later, to Stacker and Tamsin's disappointment. It was whack-a-kaiju for nearly seventy-two hours, with the damned bogey popping up and the Jaegers being scrambled to meet it, only for the target to vanish again and pop up somewhere else. In the end, it was Talon who took it down in the Bering Sea as Cherno Alpha closed in.

"If there was ever a time for a Jaeger to dance, this is it!" Sasha announced.

Colonel Rabinov from Russian Command heaved a loud sigh. "Just do not damage her any more than the kaiju did."

Talon didn't dance in the aftermath of her victory... because Miguel and Maria were too busy become the second pair of Rangers to have a marriage proposal post-combat. The medics found their episode of drift shock to be less severe than some of the other pilots' had been.

"So what's the explanation: getting engaged or Jaeger-dancing?" crowed Duc Jessop.

"Sorry, Tam, we're not doing either," Stacker announced.

Tamsin shook her head. "I fear I have a cloud of bad luck over my head, and limited options to remove it. If he doesn't let me make Coyote dance, I'll have no choice but to take him to Las Vegas and get him really drunk."

---

March 2016...

There was no halting the momentum of the hottest new dance craze on Earth after that. "Jaeger Dancing" trended on Twitter and every other Internet outlet. The twins did the Macarena in Romeo Blue during the launch celebrations for Diablo Intercept, Puma Real, and Silver Lion.

Not to be outdone, Carlos and Jordana Chen arrived at the under-construction Panama Shatterdome and promptly made Puma dance salsa for a cheering throng. Yan-Jie and Fang were then determined to show off Silver Lion's cutting-edge design and status as the most maneuverable Jaeger built so far... and breakdancing ensued.

"They wanted to do the moonwalk, but just couldn't coax that much out of Lion's legs," Min Li reported. "We have high hopes for our Mark-3. It's expected to have even more torque."

"Poor Stacks. He'll stroke out if he hears Engineering is actually considering dance ability a design factor!" Caitlin chortled.

"Is he still holding out on Tamsin?!" demanded Trevin.

"It's a battle of wills for the ages," Min confirmed.

"Jesus, that man is hardcore," said Bruce. "Even Tanisha and Caleb are gonna do it in Yankee Star, and they're not exactly campus cut-ups!"

Sergio and Caitlin considered it a matter of pride that as soon as Brawler Yukon was refitted for his new service as the Jaeger Academy's "training mech," they made him dance (Numa Numa, since his lower body wasn't really built for fancy footwork). Lucky Seven did the Cabbage Patch, and Duc and Kaori reported that Tamsin was stomping around Tokyo making pissy-faces because she still couldn't get Stacker to give in.

It only got worse when the Kaidanovskys made Cherno Alpha headbang to their beloved Ukrainian hard house. Someone compiled all the videos taken of the Jaegers dancing and set it to Maroon Five's "Moves Like Jagger…" and Maroon Five promptly re-recorded a special version of the song with re-written lyrics entitled "Moves Like Jaeger." There were times that Caitlin was certain Stacker was finally going to crack… but curse that British stoicism, he held on.

"I think dancing could be an indicator of drift compatibility," said Maria during a vid conference among the pilots that spring. The first open-admission class of the Jaeger Academy was in progress, and less than fifty recruits had managed to make the first cut, and an even smaller portion of those were showing promise in the tests.

Stacker and Tamsin's reaction was predictable. "Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn," tutted Jing Li. (She and Min had put quite a few noses out of joint in the Chinese military by making Horizon Brave do Gangnam Style.)

They could all tell Stacker was relieved when the Academy Board got their attention back to the candidates who were heading towards the second cut for Class 2016-A. There was the pair of Japanese foster siblings, Hayase and Jiro Shindo, who had taught martial arts and helped Duc and Kaori with development of Jaeger Bushido. They'd tried out for the Academy at the Jessops' urging, but warned that neither Jiro nor his foster-sister had ever driven anything more complicated than a car. Even so, they were still in the running.

"I say we keep them on even if they don't make pilot," said Anjin Tessori, one of the newly-appointed "Fightmasters" for the Jaeger Program. "They have techniques we can use."

The second pair were Estonian Air Force pilots, Peter Lepp and Hedy Keres. They weren't as good with the Bushido as Jiro and Hayase, but were way out in front on the technical aspects of piloting. The Kaidanovskys liked them without even having been introduced yet, which boded well for them being assigned to Russia's Mark-2.

The third pair were Americans, not active-duty military but sons of Marines who'd spent years in family housing in Okinawa and the Phillipines. Stacker looked impressed with their simulator scores and background, until Caitlin, grinning wickedly, showed the active Rangers a clip of the Tunaris sparring, drilling... and dancing. Dance Dance Revolution was one of the Tunaris' favorite pastimes, and they were getting other candidates into it too.

"Wonderful. More happy feet," Stacker huffed.

"Staaaaacks..."

"No!"

The other Rangers roared with laughter.

---

May 2016...
Tokyo, Japan...

After Onibaba, when Tamsin awoke in the Tokyo hospital with Stacker at her side, she mumbled, "Tol' you we shoulda made her dance."

He laughed then, and thought maybe when Coyote's repairs were finished, she might just talk him into it.

Two months later, when he and Tamsin were grounded and knew there would be no more deployments, he didn't think it was funny anymore. It was a long time before he could think it was funny again.

---

Autumn 2016...
The Jaeger Academy...

All the up-and-coming pilots knew was that newly-promoted Marshall Pentecost had a stick up his ass the size of a giant redwood when it came to goofing off in a Jaeger. He tore a strip off the Tunaris when they made Coyote Tango do the Robot during their second test run in late 2016.

"What is his deal, man?!" Gunnar demanded of the Gage twins. "Has he always been such a hardass?"

Bruce and Trevin hemmed and hawed and dodged the issue. "Meh, he's a Brit. He's always been kind of high strung." By then, all the Mark-1 Rangers knew the real reason Tamsin was in Hawaii and Stacker would never pilot again, but they didn't go into detail.

---

January 2017...

As for the rest of Class 2016-A, Eden Assassin and Tidal Dragon set a new curve on the Jaeger-dancing phenomenon during a practice run in the Oshtosk Sea: synchronized swimming. (Sort-of.) Well, it was more like synchronized semi-submerged Jaeger Bushido for testing offshore maneuvers, but if it all looked suspiciously artistic... that was because Pete, Hedy, and the Shindos choreographed several minutes' worth of it in advance.

---

February 2017...

Miguel Blanco and Maria Lopez-Blanco had danced in Talon Tasmania whenever they felt like it even after Stacker Pentecost took over as commanding officer of the Lima Shatterdome. He growled and threatened and demerited them, and they just smirked at him like a couple of teenagers.

He consoled himself with the awareness that after the next engagement, Talon would be on her way back to Australia to stand guard over the opposite side of the ocean, and the Blancos' juvenile behavior would be Marshall Ketteridge's problem.

It was just another weight on his ever-growing scale of regrets after the battle with Vaulimi, that he'd been so cross with the Blancos so often over something as trivial as swiveling their hips in their Jaeger. Maybe he had been overreacting. They'd never overextended her or so much as popped a joint or blown a fuse no matter how dramatic the Milonga had looked being performed by a skyscraper-sized mech.

None of his fellow Mark-1 pilots or fellow commanding officers were graceless enough to comment on it when he suggested to the Academy Board that dancing might be explored further as a means of establishing drift compatibility.

"It can't hurt," said Sergio D'onofrio. "We have several candidates from Central and South America regularly doing capoeira and dancing together. Kennedy LaRue and Stephanie Lanphier were cheerleaders in high school, and we can bet good money that helped them learn to synch their movements. In fact, since their Mark-4 probably won't be ready for pilot testing for a few more months, they could probably help with the development in the meantime."

They did, and if Stacker felt a little nostalgic when he heard among the basic steps and maneuvers the instructors were developing was the basic Argentine Tango, nobody but Tamsin ever really caught on, and she never told on him.

---

September 15, 2017…

China raised the bar in Jaeger-dancing once again with the launch of Shaolin Rogue. The smallest, lightest, most maneuverable mech yet did the coffee grinder. The…bloody…coffee grinder.

Stacker heaved a drawn-out sigh as he and Tamsin watched from Hawaii. "They've been practicing, haven't they?"

"Mm-hmm!" She shot him a wicked grin. "I hear the rest of the Mark-3 pilots are taking this as a challenge."

If Mako hadn't been present, he'd have thudded his head against the wall. As it was, Mako was so delighted and tickled by Shaolin and his fellow Jaegers' various performance montages that Stacker was finding it extremely difficult to maintain his ill humor.

"I shudder to imagine how much further this is going."

---

October 31, 2017…

He really should have seen the next one coming.

Vulcan Specter's launch on Halloween 2017 was a celebratory event even by Jaeger launch standards. Yamarashi had been beaten on the outskirts of Los Angeles three weeks before, with far less of a death toll than most experts had feared if that city were targeted. The defeat had come at the hands of Gipsy Danger, Vulcan's classmate and the first of Class 2016-B. Australia now had a new mech to fill the gap left behind by Talon Tasmania, and Devi and Susanti Hassan had an ancestral connection to Indonesia and India, who had contributed to Vulcan's funding.

So the world was in a party mood, as were PPDC personnel, and Stacker supposed it stood to reason that the crews and strike troopers wanted to get in on the Jaeger dancing action.

Everything about the launch had a Halloween theme, but a few hours after the naming ceremony, instead of moving into position for the Jaeger to be lifted to her new home in Sydney, her crew suddenly gathered on the Brisbane Assembly Building tarmac.

Music began to play, and it took only a few beats for the whole world to recognize it. A commentator exclaimed, "Are they doing what I think they're doing?!"

Stacker dropped his face into his hands. "Oh no."

Tamsin actually squealed. "Oh, YES!"

"THRILLER!"

Ninety seconds, two-hundred-sixty-four crew and one Jaeger, millions of shrieking, enthralled fans, and a performance that would be etched into popular culture for all time. Herc and Scott Hansen looked a hair's breadth away from abandoning the formal gathering and running out onto the tarmac to join in. Sydney's Marshall Ketteridge couldn't seem to decide whether to cheer his crews on or have them all shot.

Stacker didn't blame him. On one hand, this was the most outrageous, ridiculous, pointless display yet, even more wasteful of resources and risky to the equipment and the crews. And it was bloody terrifying to see just how many of Michael Jackson's steps the Hassans had managed to coax out of their mech…

…but on the other hand, Mako was practically shrieking with delight as she watched. On the screen, Stacker could see young Chuck Hansen among a crowd of other crew's children. Damn, it was hard to resist smiling at the looks on their faces.

More montages followed, not just of Jaegers dancing, but of the public reactions all around the world. Thriller was enjoying yet another comeback as one of the most beloved performances of all time, and from Jakarta to Manila to Brisbane to Sydney, crowds were gathering to dance. Mako was giggling up a storm at those videos – some of the dancers being more successful than others – and she didn't even flinch when a group in Jaeger and kaiju costumes came on screen and finished their number by chasing each other around the dance floor somewhere in South Korea.

Even two years on, Tamsin was still trying to win him over. "If we can't enjoy being human, what's the point of it all?" she demanded.

He snorted. On this one damned point, he was not conceding. "At least it wasn't the moonwalk."

"Give them time, love. The Mark-4's are going to be digital, after all!"

"Oh, no."

Tamsin's laugh was downright evil. Well, it was Halloween.

---

2018…

Hydra Corinthian did the can-can, supported by a kick line of her crew and no less than three American football teams' companies of cheerleaders.

"This is getting out of hand!" Stacker insisted… half-heartedly. Someone had to say it.

Nova Hyperion and Mammoth Apostle toned it down… a little. Nova's pilots had taken to capoeira, so that was tame enough (at least it was a martial art) and Mammoth was just too big for any really elaborate maneuvers. Some of the reporters thought they were rehashing Thriller, only to be sharply informed by the crews that Mammoth was performing "The Dance of Joy…" or was it "The Dance of Honor?" Stacker couldn't remember, but among the nerdiest nerds in the Corps, Mammoth was nicknamed Numfar from then on.

Echo. Saber. Twerked.

Worse still, Stacker was in front of half a dozen cameras in the Lima Shatterdome when that hit the news, and couldn't even facepalm without running the risk of going viral. (His Rangers weren't so restrained, and Team Romeo, Team Diablo, Team Gipsy, and Team Amazon ended up in a pile on the officers' lounge floor, howling with laughter.)

He got a text from Tamsin a few minutes later: Still breathing, Stacks?

She'd Cc'd ever single Mark-1 pilot.

I hate you all.

Sasha Kaidanovsky replied, At least it was not the moonwalk, yes, Stacker?

He fully expected to see Crimson Typhoon doing it, but the Wei triplets opted to keep China's tradition of breakdancing – and added some handstands to their repertoire.

---

October 13, 2020…
Sydney, Australia…

Striker Eureka was the thirty-first Jaeger, the first Mark-5, and by then, Stacker knew in his heart of hearts, probably the last and only.

By the time Striker launched, trepidation over what kind of new horseplay the pilots and crews would come up with for that silly tradition had long since left him. He was occupied with far graver matters. The thought hadn't even occurred to him during the build-up to the launch. What had once been a joyous anticipation felt more like preparation for yet another siege, and not just from the kaiju.

Just after he arrived in Sydney, there was still a huge media presence whenever he was outdoors for test maneuvers… and when the music started, everyone quickly realized what was up.

"Oh no," Stacker murmured. But somehow he couldn't seem to not smile.

It was Billie Jean, and crew from Striker Eureka and Vulcan Specter alike simply dropped what they were doing for their obviously-pre-arranged flash mob to form and back up their Jaeger, who finally fulfilled the Rangers' greatest collective ambition of performing the moonwalk.

A reporter gushed as the Hansens returned to ground level to circulate among their admirers. Even the perpetually-cross Chuck couldn't seem to keep a grin off his face. "The Chinese may be the gods of breakdance, but you Aussies are the kings of pop!" an American reporter gushed.

Herc Hansen laughed. It had been a long time since Stacker had seen him so at ease either. With a wave at his Dome-mates, the Hassans, he replied, "What can I say, Sydney Shatterdome's partial to Michael Jackson."

---

Operation Pitfall…
July 2025…

One of the memories that flitted between Chuck and Stackers' heads on their long plunge to the sea floor was of Tamsin, during one of his visits to Hawaii shortly after Striker Eureka had launched.

"It only took us thirty-one mechs and eight years to do the moonwalk," she crowed, launching back into their old squabble without missing a beat.

Stacker had just rolled his eyes. "I think we're very much past the time to make Jaegers dance, Tam."

She had dropped her glee, and for a moment, her eyes and the ghost drift that still lingered between them five years on had told him she was dead serious. "It will always be the time to dance, Stacker Pentecost."

He'd felt Chuck's smile next to him in the conn-pod. It's a valid point, sir. That's why Dad and me decided to do it.

You think so?

It was a long walk to the jump point. And if Striker Eureka seemed to shuffle his feet just then, well, the footholds weren't so solid. Nobody in LOCCENT or Gipsy Danger noticed.

There you are, Tam. Just the once. For luck.

It worked.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Four: Disciplinary Reports From The Front Lines

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-15
Time: 14:44 hours
To: All personnel, Los Angeles Shatterdome
From: Tendo Choi, LOCCENT Support [Gipsy Danger]

Subject: Get out the Vote!

URGENT!

People Magazine is polling its readers for its Sexiest Jaeger Pilot Alive issue! Do your duty and vote for the Becket boys!

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-15
Time: 15:02 hours
To: All Personnel, Los Angeles Shatterdome
From: Penelope Jefferson, Chief of Support [Yankee Star]

Subject: Re: Get out the Vote!

Sure, vote for the Ken dolls if you got no imagination. Or you could vote for Caleb Mitchell, the freckled red-headed man with the plan.

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-15
Time: 16:22 hours
To: All Personnel, Los Angeles Shatterdome
From: Caleb Mitchell, Ranger [Yankee Star]

Subject: Re: Re: Get out the Vote!

My name is Caleb Mitchell and I approve that message.

PS – And don't forget to support Tanisha Davis for Sexiest Lady Ranger!

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-15
Time: 16:34 hours
To: All Personnel, Los Angeles Shatterdome
From: Marshall Ana Ramirez, Commanding Office [Los Angeles Shatterdome]

Subject: Appropriate use of Base Memoranda

All officers and staff are reminded that official Internal Memoranda are not the appropriate means of communicating on non-official matters.

---

PEOPLE MAGAZINE ONLINE

There's still time! Vote for your favorite heroes! Who's the Sexist Jaeger Pilot Alive?

Male:

Carlos Chen, Panama, Puma Real: 17%
Raleigh Becket, USA, Gipsy Danger: 14%
Bruce Gage, USA, Romeo Blue: 11%
Trevin Gage, USA, Romeo Blue: 11%
Yancy Becket, USA, Gipsy Danger: 10%
Gunnar Tunari, Japan, Coyote Tango: 9%
Duc Jessop, Japan, Tacit Ronin: 7%
Alejandro Quispe, Peru, Solar Prophet: 4%
Aleksander Kaidanovsky, Russia, Cherno Alpha: 3%
Hercules Hansen, Australia, Lucky Seven: 3%
Scott Hansen, Australia, Lucky Seven: 3%
Vic Tunari, Japan, Coyote Tango: 2%
Peter Lepp, Russia, Eden Assassin: 2%
Sergio D'onofrio, USA, Brawler Yukon: 2%
Felipe Jara, Chile, Diablo Intercept: 1%
Benjamin Gonzalez, Chile, Diablo Intercept: 1%
Yan-Jie Lim, China, Silver Lion: 1%
Fang Lao, China, Silver Lion: 1%
Caleb Mitchell, USA, Yankee Star: 1%
Jiro Shindo, Japan, Tidal Dragon: 1%
Min Li, China, Horizon Brave: 1%

Female:

Jordana Chen, Panama, Puma Real: 39%
Hedy Keres, Russia, Eden Assassin: 19%
Caitlin Lightcap, USA, Brawler Yukon: 14%
Kaori Jessop, Japan, Tacit Ronin: 11%
Hayase Shindo, Japan, Tidal Dragon: 6%
Sunya Flores, Peru, Solar Prophet: 5%
Alexsandra Kaidanovsky, Russia, Cherno Alpha: 2%
Jing Li, China, Horizon Brave: 2%
Tanisha Davis, USA, Yankee Star: 2%

The winners will be announced in People Magazine's Special Jaeger Program Edition on November 3!

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-16
Time: 13:25 hours
To: All Personnel, All Bases
From: Duc Jessop, Ranger [Tacit Ronin]

Subject: Outrageous!

THIS CANNOT STAND! PEOPLE MAGAZINE IS ENGAGED IN RIGGED VOTING! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE I'M BEHIND BOTH GAGES IN THE LOOKS POLLS! DAMN YOU AMERICANS! YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH ELECTIONS!

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-08-31
Time: 11:23 hours
To: All Personnel, All Bases
From: All Commanding Officers

Subject: Proper Use of Official Communications

All personnel and staff are reminded that PPDC Internal Memoranda and PPDC Official Radio Channels are strictly for use in official capacity, NOT social messages.

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-09-01
Time: 03:04 hours
To: All Personnel, All Bases
From: Victor Tunari, Ranger [Coyote Tango]

Subject: Fuck that noise!

Who are these blind morons who think my brother's better-looking than me?! I demand an investigation!

---

DEMERIT

Recipient: Tunari, Victor, Ranger [Coyote Tango]
Issued By: Okita, Sanae, Colonel, Commanding Officer, Nagasaki Shatterdome
Date Issued: 2017-09-01
Time Issued: 08:31 hours

Reason(s):

1) Improper use of PPDC Official Communications

2) Improper language on PPDC Official Communications

---

PPDC Press Release
Date: 2017-09-15

Shaolin Rogue joins the ranks of China's defenders!

The Hong Kong Shatterdome's proud fleet of Jaegers gained a new recruit today with the launch of Shaolin Rogue, the second Mark-3 Jaeger. Piloted by Fei-Yen Wang, one of China's first generation of female fighter pilots, and a member of her plane support crew, Huan Che, Shaolin Rogue represents the cutting edge of Jaeger Technology! He is smallest of humanity's army of metal giants, but also the lightest and most maneuverable.

---

PPDC Press Release
Date: 2017-10-21

Kaiju Yamarashi destroyed in spectacular team effort by USA's Gipsy Danger and Yankee Star!

The two Jaegers assigned to the newly-opened Los Angeles Shatterdome marked their territory in a powerful blow against another kaiju invader this week! Yankee Star, America's Mark-2, and Gipsy Danger, America's Mark-3, exchanged fire and fought hand-to-hand with the monster across Terminal Island near Long Beach for nearly five hours, holding it back from the most populated metro area on the West Coast of the US and finally brought it down!

---

Ode to Yamarashi by Penelope Jefferson

O Yamarashi
Nasty stank four-eyed freak
Baby shit yellow
Kaiju shit green
People shit brown
Damn, you ugly!
Thanks for trying, Gipsy, but…
He don't look any prettier without his head

Addendum by Yancy Becket

Down to one eye
Nope, still ugly
Yankee: you missed one.

Addendum by Tanisha Davis

Everyone's a critic.

---

PPDC Internal Network

BGage: Online
TGage: Online
RBecket: Online
YBecket: Online
TDavis: Online
CMitchell: Online

BGage: WTF?! How the hell did Freckle-Face Mitchell jump up to third place in the Sexy Poll!?
TGage: Seriously, who's been stuffing the ballot box down there?
CMitchell: The ladies like a hero. That's why Babyface Becket just pulled three points ahead of Bedroom Eyes Chen.
TDavis: Yancy and me are bringing up the rear for the LA Dome.
YBecket: Haven't you heard? I'm the ugly one.
BGage: Aww, you're Strawberry Blond, Yance!
YBecket: If that teen mag article starts circulating again, I'm killing both of you.
TDavis: What are they talking about, Bruce?
TGage: Hang on, I'll send it
YBecket: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, TREVIN!
TGage: [Attachment: 4 MB. Click to open.]
RBecket: FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU
CMitchell: That's fucking awesome! We never saw this in the LA Dome! Strawberry and Sunshine Becket! We're writing this on their doors!
YBecket: FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU
TDavis: I'm sending this to People so they can reprint it.

---

PPDC Press Release
Date: 10-31-2017

The Jaeger Program gets spooky with the Halloween launch of Jaeger Vulcan Specter!

The Sydney Shatterdome is host to a fiery ghost in the form of Mark-3 Vulcan Specter, piloted by Devi and Susanti Hassan! Designed for offshore and underwater combat against the kaiju, with some of the most sophisticated and deadly weapons developed, Vulcan joins Australia's Lucky Seven in defense of the Eastern and Southern Hemispheres!

---

PPDC Internal Network

SPentecost: Online
ARamirez: Online
VGagnon: Online
CQuijano: Online

VGagnon: Good news - People Magazine's Sexiest Ranger Edition comes out tomorrow.
SPentecost: Thank God. If I saw one more 'vote for me' email, I was going to strangle someone.
ARamirez: So on to official business of great import: who won?
VGagnon: I can feel Stacker scowling at you from Lima. I got a tip: the Chen twins carried the day.
CQuijano: Rejoice, Panama conquers!
ARamirez: Damn, I thought my Raleigh had the men's poll wrapped up.
CQuijano: It's Pavel Rabinov I'm worried about. He was miffed that Sasha Kaidanovsky never made it out of the single digits.
SPentecost: I'm glad to hear we all have our priorities straight.
ARamirez: Lighten up, Stacker. There are worse things the press could be doing. Remember the World War II map in LA's rec room?
SPentecost: With the little Jaegers and all the kaiju strung up from the ceiling? Yes. I liked it.
ARamirez: For Halloween, the crew started composing epitaphs for the kaiju. The next round of inappropriate Corps-wide communication will be obscene poetry.
VGagnon: This will be good.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Vincent Gagnon, Commanding Officer, Jaeger Academy/Anchorage Shatterdome
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Caitlin Lightcap; Sergio D'onofrio
Date: 2017-11-14

Subject: Karloff

Found this on a tag around miniature Karloff's neck in the rec room. Thought you'd appreciate it:

Looks like Groot fucked Lurch...
Too goddamn ugly to live...
Hi Brawler Yukon!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
From: Sergio D'onofrio
CC: Caitlin Lightcap; Vincent Gagnon
Date: 2017-11-14

Re: Karloff

LOL! Someone's a poet and don't know it!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Sergio D'onofrio
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Caitlin Lightcap, Vincent Gagnon
Date: 2017-11-14

Re: Re: Karloff

I think it was Yancy Becket. He has a thing for haiku. They're not always signed, but if it's freeform, it's probably Penelope Jefferson, Yankee Star's Support Chief.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases
From: General He Liang, Commanding Officer, Hong Kong Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-06

Subject: I have done something foolish

I just gave the J-Tech crews permission to use the recycling materials to hold Robot Wars. I do not know what I was thinking.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases
From: Marshall Blake Ketteridge, Commanding Officer, Sydney Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-06

Subject: Re: I have done something foolish

You blithering idiot. They'll dismantle your Dome by Christmas.

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM
PRIORITY: HIGH

Date: 2017-12-07
Time: 13:00 hours
To: All Personnel, All Bases
From: All Commanding Officers

Subject: Use of PPDC Materials and Equipment

All personnel and staff are reminded that use of any equipment or materials NOT registered and coded for recycling for any purpose unauthorized by the Commanding Officers CONSTITUTES THEFT AND WILL RESULT IN COURT MARTIAL.

Recreational activities are permitted only when using personal resources while off-duty.

---

PPDC Internal Network

TChoi: Online
BWang: Online
SThou: Online

TChoi: Geez, did you catch the memo this afternoon? Yeah, we're totes planning on raiding the Jaegers for scrap metal.
BWang: The Wei triplets wheedled General Liang into giving permission to hold Robot Wars on-base. I think someone panicked.
TChoi: Seriously?! That's fucking awesome! We need to ask Gagnon to let us to do that!
SThou: It will be harder for you in Anchorage. We can get anything in Hong Kong. So far Team Silver Lion, Team Horizon Brave, and Team Shaolin Rogue are all working on their entries, and Team Coyote Tango just challenged us to an international death match.
TChoi: Good point. We're not exactly in a major tech center here on Kodiak Island.
BWang: How is Gipsy Danger's repair work coming along?
TChoi: She's looking good. Raleigh's almost done with physical therapy, so we've got our fingers crossed that we'll be back on active duty by the new year. How are things on Team Silver Lion? Are you guys getting a Mark-4 in China?
SThou: We're not at liberty to say. ;-D
TChoi: Oooh, hush-hush, I see how it is! I guess that means I can't see your Robot Wars blueprints either?
BWang: Design your own war machines, you plagiarizing American spy!
TChoi: LOL!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases
From: Marshall Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-10

Subject: Robot Wars

I just gave permission. I should resign my command. I'm a fucking pushover.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases; Ana Ramirez
From: General He Liang, Commanding Officer, Hong Kong Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-10

Subject: Re: Robot Wars

The Gages pulled the identical pout trick on you, didn't they? The Weis use it too.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases
From: Colonel Pavel Rabinov, Commanding Officer, Vladivostok Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-11

Subject: Eden Assassin

We have a new problem, ladies and gentlemen. Lepp and Keres would like to be married after the next engagement, and President Putin is demanding to officiate in a public ceremony.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases; Colonel Pavel Rabinov
From: Marshall Stacker Pentecost, Commanding Officer, Lima Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-11

Subject: Re: Eden Assassin

I suppose he would not be put off by their request for a private ceremony, or by pointing out that the Estonians are not exactly fond of his regime?

---

PPDC Internal Email
To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases; Stacker Pentecost
From: Colonel Pavel Rabinov, Commanding Officer, Vladivostok Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-11

Subject: Re: Re: Eden Assassin

Do you even have to ask? Sasha and Aleksis are quite protective of the young lovers. They are getting the idea that THEY may need to put the President off.

---

PPDC Internal Email
To: All Commanding Officers, All Bases; Colonel Pavel Rabinov
From: Marshall Stacker Pentecost, Commanding Officer, Lima Shatterdome
Date: 2017-12-11

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Eden Assassin

God help us all.

---

Entertainment News: Pacific's Sexiest Shatterdome!

The Los Angeles Shatterdome is appropriately close to Hollywood with four of the most gorgeously photogenic Jaeger pilots in the world! As humanity celebrated the New Year and welcomed the first Mark-4 Jaeger to the PPDC fleet, Jaeger Gipsy Danger returned to her home turf of Los Angeles and brought her pilots, Raleigh and Yancy Becket, to stand guard with the beloved Gage twins over the west coast of the United States!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Duc Jessop; Kaori Jessop
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Yan-Jie Lim; Fang Lao

Date: 2018-01-03

Subject: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

"Shoulda had a dental plan."

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Ana Ramirez; Kaori Jessop
From: Duc Jessop, Instructor, Jaeger Academy
CC: Yan-Jie Lim; Fang Lao
Date: 2018-01-03

Subject: Re: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

I love it! Succinct! What did they have for Digonek?

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Duc Jessop; Kaori Jessop
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Yan-Jie Lim; Fang Lao
Date: 2018-01-03

Subject: Re: Re: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

They don't have one on him yet. I'll let our resident poetry society know there's a special request.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Duc Jessop; Kaori Jessop
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Yan-Jie Lim; Fang Lao
Date: 2018-01-04

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

Be honored, you four. Team Gipsy and Team Romeo interrupted their poker tournament to host a Dome-wide poetry contest for this.

Digonek liked to play hide-and-seek
Till he popped up in town for a peek
Team Ronin was waiting
Team Tango was dating
They danced their first dance on that freak

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Ana Ramirez; Duc Jessop
From: Yan-Jie Lim, Ranger [Silver Lion]
CC: Fang Lao; Kaori Jessop
Date: 2018-01-04

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

That's so bad it's good! How drunk were they?

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Yan-Jie Lim
From: Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
CC: Fang Lao; Duc Jessop; Kaori Jessop
Date: 2018-01-04

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hammerjaw's Epitaph

We're orange-level alert, so they were stone cold sober. This is what goes on in my Dome even without alcohol.

---

PPDC Internal Network

ARamirez: Online
SPentecost: Online
VGagnon: Online
DYamamoto: Online

SPentecost: The Gages and the Beckets in the same Dome? Are you out of your mind?
VGagnon: The LA Dome is still standing and they've been there three days. It can't be that bad.
ARamirez: I know they drive you crazy, Stacker, but I'm not afraid of rowdy officers.
DYamamoto: Robot Wars turned out rather well despite the Tunaris' involvement.
VGagnon: Nobody got court-martialed, I take it?
DYamamoto: No. They kept their supplies strictly to the scrap materials, and actually cannibalized Bronze Spartan the night before the competition when Tidal Dragon needed wiring repair.
ARamirez: Damn, I had money on him. Is that why he got an Honorable Mention?
DYamamoto: Exactly – for sacrifice in the line of duty.
VGagnon: Did they end up having it in LA?
ARamirez: No, they seem to prefer gambling on Hot Wheel races. I gave them permission as long as they keep the things out of the restricted areas.
VGagnon: I am shocked, shocked, to find out gambling is going on down there!
ARamirez: I was shocked when a stream of remote controlled vehicles went flying down the corridor with miniature kaiju riding them, but if that's the worst they get up to, we'll be fine. I only worry about the videos with the obscene commentary ending up on YouTube.
SPentecost: On your head be it, Ana.

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2017-01-05
Time: 11:44 hours
From: Marshall Ana Ramirez
To: All Personnel, Los Angeles Shatterdome

Subject: Appropriate Use of Equipment

All personnel are reminded that forklifts and carts are NOT to be used for any purpose other than authorized movement of personnel and equipment. THIS INCLUDES RACING COMPETITIONS.

---

DEMERIT

Recipient(s): Gage, Trevin; Gage, Bruce; Becket, Yancy; Becket, Raleigh; Choi, Tendo
Issued By: Ramirez, Ana, Marshall, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
Date Issued: 2018-01-09
Time Issued: 09:45 hours

Reason(s):

1) Improper use of PPDC Equipment (i.e. Forklift Derby)

2) Misuse of PPDC Resources

3) Violation of Previous Order (Restriction against racing PPDC equipment, see Memorandum dated 2017-01-05)

---

PPDC Internal Network

ARamirez: Online
SPentecost: Online

SPentecost: There seems to be a new viral Ranger video on YouTube.
ARamirez: Okay, you did warn me putting the Gages and Beckets together would be trouble.
SPentecost: Did I hear it right? "Swaggering contest"?!
ARamirez: That's how it started. The Beckets beat the Gages in the latest "Sexiest Jaeger Pilots" poll, and Team Gipsy and Team Romeo decided to hold a runway walking faceoff. I think someone was under the influence of America's Next Top Model.
SPentecost: That sounds harmless. What happened?
ARamirez: Team Romeo cheated.
SPentecost: How the hell do they cheat at swaggering?
ARamirez: Two words – trip wire.
SPentecost: Bloody hell.
ARamirez: Fuck my life.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Trevin Gage, Ranger [Romeo Blue]; Bruce Gage, Ranger [Romeo Blue]
From: Susanti Hassan, Ranger [Vulcan Specter]
CC: Victor Tunari, Ranger; Gunnar Tunari, Ranger; Kennedy LaRue, Ranger; Stephanie Lanphier, Ranger; Raleigh Becket, Ranger; Yancy Becket, Ranger
Date: 2018-01-12

Subject: Becket Synchronized Faceplant!

You're viral! It's trending on YouTube! Way to go, Gages! Epic!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Personnel [Vulcan Specter]
From: Tendo Choi, LOCCENT [Gipsy Danger]
CC: All Personnel [Romeo Blue]; All Personnel [Gipsy Danger]; All Personnel [Hydra Corinthian]; All Personnel [Coyote Tango]
Date: 2018-01-12

Subject: Re: Becket Synchronized Faceplant!

You may never get a reply from the Gages. Ramirez is still screaming at them.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: Tendo Choi, LOCCENT [Gipsy Danger]
From: Bruce Gage, Ranger [Romeo Blue]
CC: All Personnel [Romeo Blue]; All Personnel [Gipsy Danger]; All Personnel [Hydra Corinthian]; All Personnel [Coyote Tango]; All Personnel [Vulcan Specter]
Date: 2018-01-12

Subject: Re: Re: Becket Synchronized Faceplant!

Meh, she's overreacting. We put a gym mat down in front of the trip wire!

PS – Trev was yelling, "Boyband down! Boyband down!"

---

PPDC Internal Email
To: Bruce Gage, Ranger [Romeo Blue]; All Personnel [Vulcan Specter]
From: Raleigh Becket, Ranger [Gipsy Danger]
CC: All Personnel [Romeo Blue]; All Personnel [Gipsy Danger]; All Personnel [Hydra Corinthian]; All Personnel [Coyote Tango]
Date: 2018-01-12

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Becket Synchronized Faceplant!

This means war.

---

DEMERIT

Issued To: Strike Troop Whiskey Gamma [Gipsy Danger]
Issued By: Marshall Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
Date: 2017-01-20

Reason:

All members of Strike Troop Whiskey Gamma [12] admit to participating in and/or authorizing the following:

1) Carrying unauthorized materials aboard command chopper (water balloons containing pink paint and glitter);

2) Deviating from authorized flight path (flyover of Romeo Blue personnel)

3) Dropping objects upon personnel from chopper.

NOTE: Reason given was celebration of successful engagement vs. Ningyo. Explanation noted and demerit stands. Romeo Blue personnel allege explanation was trip wire incident on 01-15-2018. Commanding officer declined to issue further demerit on that basis.

---

DEMERIT

Issued To: Strike Troop Lager Two [Romeo Blue]
Issued By: Marshall Ana Ramirez, Commanding Officer, Los Angeles Shatterdome
Date: 2017-01-21

Reason:

Defacing of Jaeger [Gipsy Danger].

---

PPDC Internal Network

SPentecost: Online
ARamirez: Online

SPentecost: I know I'll regret asking, but what did they paint on Gipsy Danger?
ARamirez: A neon purple Hello Kitty.
ARamirez: On her ass.
ARamirez: They called it a cutie mark.
ARamirez: The next assignment schedule discussion is tonight's command vid conference, Stacker. If you say 'I told you so' EVEN ONCE, I'll propose reassigning all four of them to Lima.
SPentecost: You wouldn't dare!

---

ATTENTION LOS ANGELES SHATTERDOME. Please stand by for a general announcement:

"Whoever put fucking Justin Bieber posters all over our fucking quarters is going to BLEED, you little shits!"

" B-b-b-baby y-y-y-ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet!"

"Who is this?! Gage – I don't care which one – BOTH of you in my office in five minutes! Beckets, you too! Turn the music off the intercom line!"

---

EXCLUSIVE: A SNEAK-PEEK INSIDE THE RANGERS' QUARTERS IN THE LOS ANGELES SHATTERDOME!
Apparently the Gages are Bronies!

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Personnel [Vulcan Specter]
From: Devi Hassan, Ranger [Vulcan Specter]
CC: All Personnel [Romeo Blue]; All Personnel [Gipsy Danger]; All Personnel [Hydra Corinthian]; All Personnel [Coyote Tango]; Hercules Hansen, Ranger [Lucky Seven]
Date: 2018-01-26

Subject: This is it, the apocalypse.

Note to all friends and colleagues: never start a prank war with the Gages OR the Beckets. They just racked up eleven collective demerits in five days. I think Ramirez is going to hang them all from their Jaegers.

---

PPDC INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

Date: 2018-02-13
Time: 10:11 hours
From: Colonel Pavel Rabinov, Commanding Officer, Vladivostok Shatterdome
To: All Commanding Officers; All Public Relations Personnel

Subject: Lepp-Keres Wedding

Under orders from Secretary General Krieger and President Putin (without any regard for the wishes of bride or groom), President Putin will be officiating at the wedding of Rangers Lepp and Keres. Please submit draft press releases and RSVPs for your personnel as soon as possible.

PR: Please prepare formal invitations for the attached guest list.

---

PPDC Internal Email
To: All Rangers
From: Victor Tunari, Ranger [Coyote Tango]

Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Lepp-Keres Wedding.

See attached. That's just wrong. Krieger even lowered the boom on just letting them elope! Nice to know he's got our backs! (Or not.)

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Rangers
From: Kaori Jessop, K-Watch
Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: Re: FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Lepp-Keres Wedding.

WTF?! Are they going to televise a bedding ceremony as well?

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Rangers
From: Hercules Hansen, Ranger [Lucky Seven]
Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: Re: Re: FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Lepp-Keres Wedding.

Only if it involves the damn brass pawning our asses to the highest bidder. So Colonel Rabinov needs an invitation template? How's this:

Your fucking presence is cordially fucking requested to the fucking nuptials of Miss Hedy Keres and Mister Peter Lepp, nationals and officers of the sovereign nation of Estonia (in the eyes of said nation but not in the eyes of Vladimir Fucking Putin) who are to be united in holy fucking wedlock by the president of the regime who has fucked their country over any number of times and who was shooting down their comrades in arms less than a year before K-Day. But since President Vladimir Fucking Putin and his ass-kissers think the wedding of aforementioned Miss Keres and Mister Lepp is all about him and their backers, he has commandeered the Vladivostok Shatterdome and insisted on serving as the fucking officiant, against the wishes of the not-so-happy-as-they-ought-to-be couple.

Please RSVP with the numbers of persons who will be attending and what order they can expect to line up to kiss Putin's ass. Gift to the bride and groom optional. Ass-kiss mandatory.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Rangers
From: Aleksis Kaidanovsky, Ranger [Cherno Alpha]
Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: Re: Re: Re: FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Lepp-Keres Wedding.

Herc: I like it.

Rangers: Sadly, we cannot invite everyone, although Peter and Hedy would rather have their fellow Rangers in attendance than most of the individuals on the guest list. But I hope those of you who are invited will accept, as they will be glad to have your support. There will be lots of cameras, so please behave yourself.

---

PPDC Internal Email

To: All Rangers
From: Duc Jessop, Instructor, Jaeger Academy
Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Lepp-Keres Wedding

Sasha: So I guess that means pantsing Putin is out of the question?

---

PPDC Internal Email
To: All Rangers
From: Stacker Pentecost, Commanding Officer, Lima Shatterdome
CC: Duc Jessop, Ranger
Date: 2018-02-14

Subject: FW: FW: FW: FW: (FW: PPDC Internal Memorandum Re: Eden Assassin Wedding.)

Yes.

---

PUTIN PUNKED!

Russian President Vladimir Putin found himself the recipient of a spectacular prank at the much-anticipated wedding of Jaeger Eden Assassin's pilots Peter Lepp and Hedy Keres yesterday! Anonymous sources reported that the pilots, Estonian nationals, opposed the plan for Putin to officiate at the event, but were overruled. If it's true, somebody got him good!

As Putin took his place at the front of a crowd of dignitaries and ambassadors from around the globe, the Vladivostok Shatterdome's speakers were overridden, replacing the St. Petersburg Orchestra with a voiceover from the iconic wedding scene from the Princess Bride just as Putin began to speak:

" Mawwiage. Mawwaiage is what bwings us togevvuer thoday!"

It was approximately eleven minutes before the ceremony could resume.

[Click here for the video.]

---

PPDC Internal Network

RBecket: Online
VTunari: Online
SHassan: Online
KLaRue: Online

KLaRue: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!
RBecket: That. Was. AWESOME!
SHassan: It was you guys, wasn't it?
VTunari: Jesus, everybody's pointing the finger at us!
KLaRue: Steffie says because it was totally you.
VTunari: IT WASN'T US!
SHassan: Devi doesn't believe you.
RBecket: Neither does Yancy. You guys have the electronics experience. Team Coyote won the Robot Wars. You could've overridden the Dome Com.
VTunari: Seriously, it was not us. My hand to God, I wish it had been, but it wasn't! We were only there for the damn ceremony!
KLaRue: Likely story. So who was it, then? Team Tidal Dragon? They can barely change a spark plug! The Bering Tigresses? The Kaidanovskys? Against their own President?
RBecket: Yancy's busting a gut thinking about the Kaidanovskys pranking Vladimir Putin. I don't think they have a sense of humor, let alone with the President of Russia.
SHassan: You're the prime suspects, Tunaris! If Bruce and Trevin had been there, I might buy it, but they were in LA with the Becket boys.
RBecket: At least the wedding of the century got Ramirez off our backs.
KLaRue: I hope it didn't wreck Peter and Hedy's day.
VTunari: Are you kidding? They loved it! You can't see it on the vid, but they were laughing so hard they could barely say 'I do!'

---

PPDC Internal Network

TSevier: Online
SPentecost: Online

TSevier: It was Sasha and Aleksis, wasn't it?
SPentecost: Of course. Colonel Rabinov is claiming innocence. He was probably in on it.
TSevier: You seem un-distressed, Stacks!
SPentecost: I am utterly mortified and outraged.
TSevier: Kaori is yelling that you must have known about it.
SPentecost: Me, condone the pranking of a public official? I never! President Putin will have my full cooperation at identifying the perpetrators of such disrespect.
TSevier: Kaori says it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
SPentecost: It was probably the Gages.
TSevier: The Gages weren't there!
SPentecost: Oh, I forgot.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Five: The Icebox Challenge

PPDC Proving Grounds, Kodiak Island, Alaska…
November 5, 2017…

"So this is what it means to be heroes. An all-expenses-paid trip up to igloo-land for another winter," Yankee Star's Support Chief complained as the crews piled off cargo planes at the Jaeger Academy airstrip.

The temperature when the planes had left Los Angeles had been seventy-eight degrees. The temperature on Kodiak Island was… twelve. And it was snowing.

"Wow, that's low even by Alaska standards," Yancy muttered. "I hate it when we go below average."

"Not faaaair!" wailed Tendo.

Just to add insult to injury, they were greeted by the Gage twins and Team Romeo, all bundled up but also gleefully waving swimsuits and their warm-weather gear over their heads, singing at the top of their lungs as they waited to start loading up for Romeo Blue's transfer down to Los Angeles: "I'm dreaming of a Whiiiite Christmas…"

Tanisha and Penny, the Los Angeles natives, went stomping off the plane and began pelting Team Romeo with handfuls of slush.

All hell broke loose.

"You call those snowballs? Where you from, California?" A new group of challengers in the newly-issued Chrome Brutus and Hydra Corinthian uniforms came stampeding across the airstrip.

"Newbie attack! No fair! Hey! Hey!" The Gages found themselves overwhelmed by a flood of Canadians and Northwesterners. "We rank you - OOF!"

"Gage down! Hail Hydra!"

"Not the hair! Not the hair!" Tendo was staggering around with Kennedy LaRue on his back and Stephanie Lanphier on his waist, the two petite (but well-muscled) girls trying to unbalance him enough to drag him into the nearest slushy pond. "Traitors!"

Yancy Becket and Antwan Ferrier had taken up defensive positions on either side of the crutches-bound Raleigh (but weren't so far above it all not to occasionally shove people into cold wet mud if they got too close). And when a snowball crafted by experienced Alaskan hands pegged Zeke Amarok in the face, nobody was fooled by Yancy's innocent expression.

"Someone take out the Alaskans!"

"Run, Yance!" But Yancy couldn't decide whether to bolt or stand his ground next to his brother, and wavered just a little too long. Ilisapie careened into him and overbalanced them both into Raleigh.

"Oh, shit!"

"Stop, guys, stop! Man down!"

"Rals, you okay?!"

"Ohmygod, I'm so sorry!"

Crews and Rangers went scrambling over and crowded around the pile trying to untangle themselves on the bank of the retention pond, but to everyone's relief, the only sound coming from their convalescent youngest comrade was gasps of laughter. "That's the second time you've tackled me, Flint!"

Ilisapie managed to roll off him once she got Yancy off herself, and flopped onto the snow. "Damn, I was afraid you'd remember that!"

Yancy wiped muddy slush off his face and gave Ilisapie a mock-scowl. "That's right. We owe you double now, newbie!" He lunged for her, and the battle cries and cheers started up again, but this time the MPs decided enough was enough.

"Okay, okay, break it up over here!"

"Come on, you heard us - Becket, stand down!"

"Quit it before someone really does get hurt!"

"Awww, mooom, it's just a snowball fight," Bruce Gage whined.

"And we totally had them!" added Caleb Mitchell.

*cough* "Bullshit!" *cough*

"Airstrip, not playground. Run along, children, and let the grown-ups get their work done," ordered one of the security. Amid much groaning, the crews obeyed.

"Seriously, I'm so sorry," said Ilisapie, helping Raleigh get his crutches back under him and dusting him off. "Are you okay?"

To everyone's relief, the youngest Ranger was still laughing. "Yeah, no worries, you didn't get me. Not that we're not gonna give you hell for the rest of your career, but my knee's fine."

"You guys coming back up for any of the launches?" Zeke asked Team Romeo.

"Not sure," Trevin admitted. "Romeo's staying in LA until Gipsy and/or Yankee get out of the shop. The Fightmasters may want us to come pep-talk 2017-B's finalists closer to the end of the third term, but that'll just be short." He grinned at Team Yankee. "So you all can enjoy the fine Alaskan winter without us."

"Note to selves: nominate their asses for the Ice Bucket challenge," huffed Tanisha, whose teeth were already chattering.

"That was SO 2014! And that just means you'd have to do it up here!" pointed out Bruce.

Yancy laughed. "Just wait 'till the next freezing rain and walk outside. That should count."

---

The twins just kept on pushing their luck. They were lucky that their plane was leaving for Los Angeles in the morning, because in the mess hall that night, the crews were discussing plans for Chrome Brutus's launch ceremony in December. "Is Brawler Yukon still our champagne breaker for the new mech?" Tendo wanted to know.

"Always," said Jasper Schoenfeld, hand over his heart. "First and only, god save the king!"

"The Clunker and the Cave Troll: a love story," Bruce cooed.

Caitlin Lightcap and Ilisapie Flint let out simultaneous shrieks of outrage, and were only forestalled from hurling Swedish meatballs across the tables by one of the cafeteria workers roaring, "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT FOOD FIGHTING!"

"Later," Sergio growled, pointing at the twins.

"'Do you wanna build a snowtwin?'" sang someone.

"We are dumping your California asses in the coldest lake we can find," Zeke vowed.

"Hey, polar bear challenge!" exclaimed Raleigh. "Beats that piddly ice bucket challenge!"

Trevin pointed at him. "Alaskan or not, we'd last longer than your scrawny blond ass, Baby Becket!"

Raleigh locked eyes with him.

"No," said Yancy in chorus with the medics in attendance. Raleigh pouted, but Yancy poked him. "The last thing we need is you getting pneumonia after inhaling Kaiju Blue."

"That just means you'd have to represent Team Gipsy, Yancy-man!" Steffie pointed out.

Yancy munched on a roll, all cool unconcern. "I'm Alaskan too. Bring it."

Everyone looked at each other, then Ilisapie and Zeke smirked at the twins. "Can't let the Alaskans be the only ones," said Zeke. They spun on their bench to face each other and launched into rock-paper-scissors.

"Oh, here we go, here we go!"

They both had paper, rock, and scissors at the same time for the first six rounds, but finally, Zeke had scissors and Ilisapie had rock. "Aaah! Dammit!"

"It's Zeke Amarok representing Team Chrome!" bellowed Tendo. Antwan was already scribbling on a napkin. "We gotta bet on this! Make a bracket!"

"I'm on it, man, I'm on it!"

"I wanna do it!" Raleigh pouted, but Yancy stood firm.

"No dice. I volunteer as tribute!"

"Nice, Katniss!"

Kennedy and Stephanie exchanged a quick look, then Steffie raised her hand. "I volunteer for Team Hydra!"

"Aww, ain't she brave!"

"I'm from Seattle, she's from New Orleans. I got this."

Now the twins and Team Yankee and the D'onofrios were exchanging looks. Caleb got up and went digging around the utensils for a straw, then chopped one in half and brought it back. "Pick one, partner!"

Tanisha only hesitated a moment before making her grab - and wound up with a short one in her hand. "Ah, shit."

"Hope you brought your bathing suit, Tani," said Penny.

Tanisha sputtered, then pointed at Penny. "I ain't heard any of the crew volunteering! Why should it be just Rangers?"

"Oooh!"

"Not it!" Tendo exclaimed, but Team Gipsy broke into arguing, and the J-Techs and K-Science crowd were also breaking into huddles.

Dr. Tán was unfortunately (or fortunately) in the mess hall. "You are not all doing it. I am not nursing the entire population of Kodiak Island through hypothermia."

Bruce Gage grinned wickedly. "But some of us can if we pick 'em out?"

"I ain't heard you volunteering, Gage!"

The twins launched into rock-paper-scissors… and on their fifteenth tie, gave up and flipped a coin. Trevin lost and attempted to pout Bruce into volunteering, but Bruce refused. "I'll watch and videotape it."

"C.O. is gonna kill us!" said one of the J-Techs.

"Only if someone tells!" retorted Tendo.

"Put your money where your mouth is, LOCCENT!" ordered Penny Jefferson, and started counting off Yankee Star's crew department groups as their public relations rep tossed scraps of paper into a hat. But she soon found herself with one of the marked ballots. "Damn. Figures."

"Karma ahoy!" hooted Ilisapie, and began presiding over Chrome Brutus's crew selection.

Cady Spencer was the unlucky one out of Gipsy's LOCCENT officers, and Tendo hurled himself to the floor with a wail of, "THANK YOU, GOD!"

Antwan Ferrier lost the toss for Strike Troop Whiskey Gamma, and was informed that he was not permitted to pull rank and order one of the other crew to take his place. "I'm Jamaican!" he whined piteously. "I'll die!"

"Wah wah wah," said his fellow Personnel Coordinator, Hien Nguyen… and promptly drew the short straw for Troop Whiskey Alpha. "Shit."

"So when're we gonna do this thing? It's gotta be tomorrow morning if Team Romeo's going in," said Zeke.

"No," Dr. Tán informed them. A chorus of whining ensued. "You'll have to wait until Team Romeo's tributes get back, because nobody's going in the water without a monitor – that's my term. Take it or leave it."

"They always have to do training stuff since they're the only Mark-1 pilots on this continent," said Penny confidently. "We'll make 'em come back."

"I'm bringing you a bikini, Jefferson," Trevin vowed.

"Just don't forget your speedo!"

---

December 2, 2017…

Chrome Brutus was slated to be launched on December 15, the last of the Mark-3's. The Queen of England was going to be there, along with the Canadian Prime Minister and the US President and the usual slew of celebrities and dignitaries.

Duc Jessop had a grave, clandestine conversation with Marshall Gagnon. "The Gages are due back in Anchorage on Saturday, and the temperatures are expected to be hovering in the high teens."

"Oh dear."

"They're calling it The Icebox Challenge." Duc grinned at the Jaeger Academy's Commanding Officer. "Going to call it off?"

Gagnon heaved a put-upon sigh. "If I do, I'll be accused of catering to the unlucky souls who were actually nominated."

"Not to mention using your rank to dodge your obligation to participate," Duc added.

"Oh, so that's why you haven't volunteered on behalf of the instructors!"

"Of course! I know nothing about it, and I'll be outraged when I see the video… after. If Kaori finds out beforehand, she'll insist I go in on behalf of Tacit Ronin."

"Oh, and we just can't have that!"

---

December 8, 2017…

"Twenty bucks on Zeke – he's an outdoorsman and Canadian!"

"Nah, my money's on Yancy Becket – he's the Alaskan. Hey, Tendo, do we have a bet on who gives up first?"

"Hang on, hang on!" Tendo was scribbling notes on a pad rather than an electronic tablet (so there wouldn't be an electronic record trail if they were busted.) "Not yet, but good idea."

"Who's been whining the most?"

"Toss-up between Antwan Ferrier and Penny Jefferson – he's from Jamaica, she's from LA. Neither of 'em will make it more than ankle deep."

"Is there a penalty if they bail? How far in do they have to go?"

"No, no penalties," Dr. Tán ordered. "Having to walk out there in swimsuits while everyone points and laughs is enough." He eyed the public relations reps for the Jaegers whose crews were participating. "I'm counting on all of you to keep this from winding up on YouTube." He got five matching smirks and sighed loudly.

Carolina Olivares just refilled her coffee mug and said with grandmotherly innocence, "We'll be too busy trying to protect our Rangers' dignity. Steven. We know a lost cause when we see one."

Inter-departmental loyalty was running high as well. Priya Katwal had lost the toss to represent Engineering, and Jasper Schoenfeld was admonishing her to last longer than K-Science lest she shame J-Tech. "If you don't shut up, I'm dropping out and forcing you to step in for me," she fumed, with a fluffy coat wrapped around her swim suit.

Sergio D'onofrio was chivalrously supervising the assembly of thermal bottles full of alcohol-laden coffee and hot chocolate – but had declined to take his wife's place, because he wasn't that chivalrous. There were a lot of "if you really loved me, you'd volunteer" conversation going on at breakfast. The only one who'd actually tried to volunteer at the last minute was Raleigh (again) and Yancy still wasn't having it.

Dr. Tán bore him out, or Team Gipsy might have had a fight on their hands. "You got Blue in your lungs and you're still in physical therapy, son. This game isn't worth it."

"I'm almost done with therapy," Raleigh sulked.

"And you don't need to go derailing it just to show you've got balls," Tendo agreed, ruffling his hair. "Cheer up, Sunshine. You can help me narrate while we watch your brother freeze his balls off." Yancy flipped him off. He and most of the other contestants were alternating between pounding their chests and roaring their readiness and huddling in remorseful anticipation.

"Whose idea was this again?" grumbled Zeke.

"Baby Becket's, and we can't beat his ass because he's still convalescent," huffed Stephanie Lanphier.

"Actually, if you want to get technical, it was my loudmouth brother," said Trevin Gage. "And his ass we can beat."

"Awesome."

As the sun came up, the medics were putting vitals monitor patches under the ears of the participants and Tendo was gleefully giving weather reports every fifteen minutes. "The temperature is now a balmy nine degrees, with northeasterly wind at eight knots! The water temperature is a lovely forty-six degrees!"

"I can't believe I got out of bed at six a.m. for this," Yancy muttered.

It was Ilisapie's idea to make the men do a runway walk across the mess hall in their swim trunks and speedos, and even Yancy perked up enough to participate. The female contestants refused. "I am not taking this coat off until I absolutely have to," Caitlin announced. But she did whoop and catcall as Trevin Gage and Yancy Becket and Zeke Amarok strutted their stuff.

The male Rangers were miffed that the women voted Antwan Ferrier as looking the best in a Speedo, which was some consolation to the Jamaican Personnel Coordinator. "But he's also doing the most whining," Nicola Harris, one of his strike troopers, pointed out.

Antwan also had the distinction of being the biggest person out of the crews (hell, he was one of the biggest in the PPDC after Aleksis Kaidanovsky). He pointed at Nikki and threatened, "I could carry you in with me and nobody would be able to stop me, San Diego girl!"

"You may have to carry Tanisha in at this rate," snorted Caleb.

"Don't think I ain't strong enough to carry your ass in there," Tanisha retorted. She and Penny were forming the Los Angeles Huddle of Abject Terror at one table.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are at T-minus-thirty for the Icebox Challenge!" Tendo announced. "The odds are: Yancy Becket of Team Gipsy, two-to-one! Zeke Amarok of Team Chrome, three-to-two! Antwan Ferrier of Whiskey Gamma, forty-three-to-one."

"Man, that's just mean!" Antwan complained.

"Tanisha Davis of Team Yankee, thirty-to-one! Penny Jefferson of Yankee LOCCENT, thirty-five to one."

"Hey! Why's she got better odds than me?!"

"She's whining less. OW! Cady Spencer of Gipsy LOCCENT, sixteen-to-one! Priya Katwal of J-Tech, eleven-to-one! Caitlin Lightcap D'onofrio, first of her name, queen of the pons and the neural handshake and the First Jaegers - "

"WOOHOO!"

" – mother of mechs, lady of the Nine Shatterdomes - "

"Aw, yeaaaah!"

" – khaleesi of the great snow sea, the undented - "

Grooooan!

" – ass-kicker of kaiju! Nine to one!"

Giggling hysterically, Caitlin observed, "You all have such faith in me. I'll be surprised if I last thirty seconds."

"What are the odds on who screams the loudest, Tendo?" asked Raleigh.

"That'll be Steffie. She can shatter glass," Kennedy insisted.

"I think it'll be Trevin."

---

"I suppose it's too much to ask that you all keep the language to PG-rated?" asked Yankee Star's PR rep as the crews rode out to Lake Buskin in a convoy of trucks for a "fishing trip."

"Uh, duh!" said Steffie. "We're the ones about to freeze our asses off; we can cuss if we want to!"

"Cussing's the only way I'm going to make it through this," added Cady, huddled next to his fellow Seattleite.

The heaviest betting still had Yancy and Zeke as the favorites among the Rangers, and one of Team Chrome's LOCCENT crew who'd been raised on Baffin Island to win. "I can't decide if I'm offended on behalf of the girls or not," said Caitlin.

"Not," voted Tanisha. "Cause none of us girls are stupid enough to stay in the water after our appendages start falling off."

"It's the burden of being a man," intoned Trevin. "We gotta prove we have the biggest dick even if that means our dicks fall off in the process."

"At least he admits it."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are at T-minus-one minute! Contestants, start disrobing!" Tendo bellowed.

"Oh shit oh shit ohshitshitshit what the fuck was I thinking?!" Steffie whimpered.

Dr. Tán and a group of medics (smugly glad that their role of keeping everyone alive had also exempted them from the contest) were testing their vitals monitors on their tablets, and assembled a crowd of volunteers at the water's edge armed with blankets and towels and the contestants' shoes. "I reserve the right to call a halt if anyone gets into trouble."

"Are we ready?!"

"Hang on – Raleigh, move, you'll get run over again!" Nikki and Brandon hauled him out of the path between the water and the trucks.

"Nobody's in that big a hurry to get in there," he snorted, and Brandon ruffled his hair.

"No, but they'll run you over getting back out!"

"Okay, good point." No longer on crutches, but with his arms full of Yancy's clothes and shoes, he stood in the huddle of fellow Rangers and Team Gipsy's crew and grinned at his brother's mournful expression visible from the truck window.

"OKAY, PPDC, TWENTY SECONDS! POLAR BEARS, START YOUR ENGINES!"

There was much squealing and cursing before many of the participants even got close to the water. Penny Jefferson almost turned and ran for it without even getting her feet wet, but Tanisha grabbed her and hauled her bodily along, yelling, "Team Yankee is NOT gonna be the first crew down!" But she bellowed at the laughing Bruce Gage, "I HATE YOU! YOU TOO, BECKET!"

Splash! "OH MY GODDDD!"

Some were opting for the run-and-get-it-over-with-fast approach, others were inching along in abject agony, snarling at their crewmates who tried to urge them to pick up the pace.

"Shitshitshitohshit this is cold as FUCK!"

"Hey, no group efforts, that's cheating!" protested Bruce, seeing all four of Gipsy Danger's strike troop representatives forming a huddle of misery as they headed in up to their knees.

"Shaddup or you're coming in here too, Gage!" Antwan retorted. He had almost all of Team Gipsy under his arms.

"We're at one minute, and so far, nobody's given up!" Tendo was narrating to the crew filming the action. "Looks like Zeke Amarok, Yancy Becket, and three of Team Chrome have made it in up to their chests!"

"Dunno about this, man, Becket's turning blue!"

"Come on, Yance!"

"Almost there, Trev, almost there!"

"Hey, Steffie's like a foot shorter than those guys, she shouldn't have to go as deep as them!" Kennedy protested.

"Up to the chest is good, wherever the chest is," Dr. Tán agreed. "Hey, no splashing! Keep those monitors dry!"

Zeke was making high-pitched squeaking noises with his eyes squeezed shut. "Nobody's had a heart attack yet," said one of the medics.

Team Chrome and Team Hydra were definitely crowned the collective badasses, because a whole group from Gipsy Danger, Yankee Star, and Romeo Blue bailed out almost simultaneously: "I'm done, I'm done!" Antwan suddenly abandoned his crewmates when the water hit his belly button and went sloshing for shore with Penny Jefferson a step behind him.

Trevin Gage was the first Ranger to wimp out – well, technically, it was Caitlin Lightcap, but Trevin was the first active-duty Ranger, and being twice Caitlin's size, he definitely earned more shit-talk than she did for his performance. "Monterey falls to LA!" Caleb Mitchell bellowed from the shore. "You got this, Tani!"

But Tanisha gave up barely thirty seconds after Trevin with a screech of "FUCK THIS!" and whoops and cheers from the audience.

Hien Nguyen of Whiskey Alpha won the crews' vote of Most Hardcore Strike Trooper in her string bikini, and still had the presence of mind to smack Tendo upside the head when he announced "Chicken's done!" as she came out of the water.

"You done good, baby," Christian Warner assured her, bundling her in towels, and upon discovering someone had mislaid her shoes, simply scooped her off the frozen ground and carried her off in search of them.

Priya Katwal won the bragging right of oldest participant to outlast multiple whippersnappers, but once she was out, that was it for J-Tech. "Damn, is this really gonna come down to the Rangers?!"

Yancy, Stephanie, and Zeke were still holding out, all muttering a continuous stream of profanity and shooting death glares at each other (and their crewmates).

"I-can't-feel-my-toes!"

"I-can't-feel-my-balls!"

"Hate to tell ya, Chrome, but your balls fell off three minutes ago!"

Then Team Chrome's LOCCENT chief from Baffin Island gave up, much to Ilisapie's outrage. "Aw, come on, I was betting on you! You're from the farthest north of all!"

"And we know better!" the other woman shivered, diving into the waiting blankets. "I'm not getting hypothermia for this!"

"It's down to the Rangers!" Tendo bellowed.

Stephanie suddenly opened her eyes and shot an assessing look from Yancy to Zeke. "Don't give up, Steffie!" her crew shouted.

But the two men were still glowering at each other, and Stephanie spat, "Hell with it!" and went scrambling for the shallows.

"HYDRA'S OUT! HYDRA'S OUT!"

"Stephanie Lanphier is top woman!"

"N-nah, j-just th-third d-dumbest!" Stephanie squeaked as she came out of the water. "Socks, somebody gimme SOCKS!"

"YANCE! YANCE! YANCE! YANCE!"

"ZEKE! ZEKE! ZEKE! ZEKE!"

Dr. Tán was chuckling over his tablet. "Are they going to last much longer?" asked Jasper Schoenfeld, looking over his shoulder.

"I'll pull them out in a couple more minutes, but I think one of them's going to crack first." The two men were shivering up a storm, growling at each other and glaring daggers at their cheering crews.

Zeke shot an assessing look at his opponent, only to find Yancy giving him something like a grin (actually it was more like a grimace) indicating he was holding out. "Noooo!" shrieked Ilisapie, but it was too late.

"I'm done!" Zeke fled, and Team Gipsy erupted into roars of triumph.

Yancy attempted to pump his fists, but he was shivering so hard that it looked kind of feeble. He and Zeke both fell in almost over their head attempting to climb back onto the shore, but he was grinning over his crews' heads at the disgruntled Team Chrome as Raleigh and Carolina dried him off.

"And that is how you prove you're a badass in Alaska!" Raleigh crowed, helping Yancy back into his clothes.

Yancy looked up from hopping around into his shoes to take note of which crew were already huddled back on the trucks. "W-well, we know who won't be deployed north of the Canadian border!"

"SHADDUP, polar bear!" yelled Tanisha from somewhere in the pile.

"You walk all the way back to base, then! We'll send you a dog sled!" Steffie added.

Laughing at them, Dr. Tán and the medics herded everyone back onto the trucks. "Come on, come on, back to base before somebody really does get hypothermia. You can do your drinking and bragging indoors."

"That's a plan," Sergio agreed, with Caitlin wrapped around his waist under his outer coat.

"I think I'm gonna get pneumonia," she groaned. "I still can't feel my nose!"

"Can you feel your balls yet, Yance?" asked Nikki as Team Gipsy made way for their triumphant Ranger and piled on top of him.

"I fink I left dem in da lake!" Yancy squeaked in the highest pitch he could manage.

---

Marshall Gagnon and Duc Jessop were waiting when they returned to Kodiak. "I should demerit every one of you," said Gagnon sternly.

"Sorry, sir," said Dr. Tán. (They all knew he wasn't.)

Gagnon ran his eyes over the ten Rangers, taking note of the still-sniffling five who'd gone into the water. "The entire base is going to be swarming with media in a week for the launch of Chrome Brutus, and by the new year, we're going to be on alert for the next attack. If any one of you gets sick, your Jaeger is grounded until you recover. Understand that?"

"Yes, sir," mumbled Zeke and Yancy, now a little shamefaced.

"You're allowed to relax on off time, but there are limits when it comes to putting yourself at risk of anything that might render you unfit for duty. These videos are already getting popular on YouTube, but if your shenanigans cause you or any of your crew to be incapacitated, the joke is over."

"It was my idea, sir," said Bruce Gage quickly, stepping forward.

"And mine," Raleigh insisted.

Gagnon held up a hand to forestall debate over who should take the fall. "No one's getting reprimanded - this time. I'm saying consider the outcome of your games before you start them from now on. Dismissed."

The group slunk out, and he let himself smirk at Duc. "I suppose I'd have to confess to having known about it if you were handing out demerits," Duc remarked.

"And give one to myself." Now Dr. Tán chuckled, and Gagnon waggled a finger at him. "As for you, you'll get your own punishment depending on how many of them come down with colds."

Tán groaned, and Duc added, "Wait 'till the whining starts."

---

Mid-December 2017…

Their prediction was accurate. The outbreak of stuffy heads and bronchitis that swept through the Anchorage base probably wasn't scientifically attributable to the Icebox Challenge... but the circumstantial evidence was there.

Zeke and Ilisapie were doing promotional appearances at local schools in the week leading up to Chrome Brutus's launch, and Zeke steadfastly insisted that he must have picked something up from hugging so many kids rather than from standing in frigid lake water for seven minutes.

Ilisapie alternated between fussing over him and making fun of him, and amid all the pomp and circumstance of Chrome's launch, Zeke had to worry desperately about keeping Kleenex handy and fearing he might sneeze on the Queen.

He and Yancy swung back and forth from being playfully resentful to buddies in misery, since Yancy too had caught the Polar Bear Plague. At first it was just funny, with Raleigh prancing around the halls singing, "Yancy the red-nosed Ranger," and Yancy threatening to sneeze on him.

Then the sniffling and sneezing and playful whining gave way to a much deeper cough, and Raleigh stopped laughing at it.

"And now we pay the price," Dr. Tán sighed, resigned to eating crow when first Zeke and Ilisapie, then the Beckets turned up in the infirmary.

"It's not that bad," Yancy insisted hoarsely to his anxious brother.

"So far nobody's come down with full-blown pneumonia, but I'm not taking any chances," Dr. Tán informed them. "You have a fever, you're here overnight." Yancy and Zeke groaned in unison, but joined the small army of J-Techs and support crews, some of whom hadn't been at the plunge party. "Ah-ah." Tán waylaid Raleigh and Ilisapie when they would have stayed at their respective partners' sides. "You two are healthy and I want to keep you that way."

"Aw, come on," Ilisapie protested, but Raleigh bristled.

"Wait a second, you can't kick me out!"

"Uh-oh." Antwan and Tendo turned from their discussions with some of Gipsy's other ailing crew and came hurrying over.

Raleigh shook off their placating hands and started to snap over Tán's efforts to explain: "Raleigh, with a fever he could be contagious and you're still at high risk - "

"For Christ's sake, we share quarters! If he's contagious I've got it already, I'm not - "

"Rals!" Yancy was obviously feeling like crap, but not immobile by a long shot. He managed to get a shoulder in between Tán and his irate brother. "Rals. Stop. Stop it. I'm not in trouble; at worst, it's the flu and I'll be out in a couple days." He visibly restrained himself from pulling Raleigh into his arms, and Raleigh seemed almost twitchy from the effort of trying not to reach for him.

"He'll be fine," Carolina confirmed. She was hoarse and sneezy herself, but even in the infirmary, she was mostly just playing mom to the younger crew. "If it gets any worse, you'll know, but you're still the one at high risk."

"It's been almost two months since I had Blue Bronchitis," Raleigh muttered, sulky.

"And if you get sick again, you'll take twice as long to recover as any of us," Zeke insisted. He smiled (taking a quick break to turn around and sneeze loud enough to shake the rafters) then turned back and gestured to Ilisapie. "I'll make you a deal: you watch over mine, I'll watch over yours."

"Yeah, someone's gotta keep an eye on the newest Rangers," agreed Tendo. "Just don't forget, Yancy won the Icebox Challenge."

"Bzuh, I'm not forgetting." Yancy mock-huffed, and gave Raleigh's hair a quick ruffle. "Take it easy, kiddo. Go spend the night somewhere more fun than the infirmary. I'm good," he insisted, lowering his already-hoarse voice and daring to step a little closer to his brother. "It's okay." Raleigh sighed, not speaking, but they could see he'd relented. Yancy looked from him to Ilisapie. "You, newbie, watch my twerp 'till I'm back."

"You were the dumbass who stayed in the water longer than anybody else," Raleigh replied, but he was grinning again.

"You hear this little shit? He gets me into stuff and then gives me a hard time!" Yancy said in an exaggerated whine. "Go on, shoo. Out of the quarantine zone."

Ilisapie tugged Raleigh's elbow. "Come on, Gipsy Two. A Ranger with a kill shouldn't be looking like a kicked puppy."

"Get him drunk," ordered Yancy.

"Indoors," Tán modified it, and they all laughed.

But with that conversation, Raleigh let Lissa and his healthy crewmates coax him out of the infirmary, though the mournful glances he kept throwing over his shoulder at Yancy tugged at Ilisapie's heartstrings. It should have been against that law for a kid that cute to be sad. Along with being under orders from her senior Ranger, she'd have to get Raleigh Becket smiling again whatever it took.

Down, Lissa. He's too young for you.

To be continued...

Chapter Text

Chapter Six: Love In The Time Of Shatterdomes

Summer 2017...

Ilisapie Flint was not beautiful. She wasn't even particularly pretty. A lot of the media had a problem with that. Hell, some of the personnel within the PPDC had a problem with it.

During the initial review of Ilisapie and Zeke's proposed assignment to Chrome Brutus, a couple of the senior brass started hemming and hawing despite their excellent scores in the simulator and favorable physical and psychological profiles. "Well... do you think Miss Flint really presents the image of the PPDC? There is the public relations angle to consider." Even one or two of the other commanding officers nodded.

Caitlin nearly blew a gasket. Marshall Gagnon curtly redirected the discussion, pointing out Ilisapie's sterling record as a national guard pilot and her experience supporting Brawler Yukon as a spotter through no less than three engagements, and the subject was mercifully dropped.

During launch prep for Gipsy Danger, Yankee Star's crew came and went from Anchorage with them, and Tanisha Davis sidled over to Ilisapie at one point. "You got the 'image' thing, I hear."

"You too?"

"Yeah." Tanisha's snort was more bitter resignation than any active anger. Lissa could understand that. "Old white guys, they all got this idea in their head about the image female officers are supposed to have. It took 'em ten weeks to sign off on Caleb and me."

"I remember." She hadn't been a ranking officer then, just a support pilot, but Caitlin had stormed through the base in a rage, frequently commiserating/conspiring with the Gages.

"Where the fuck do they get off making looks a factor?"

"It's not just looks, it's race. It's 2015, and some of our military still have a problem with a black woman and a white man standing next to each other."

Tanisha's short hair was microbraided on top of her head, a flattering hairstyle for the shape of her face, but also easy to deal with when you were constantly wearing helmets and pons caps. "Did they try and give you a makeover too?" Lissa asked her.

She got another knowing snort. "Yeah. Like squid caps and circuitry helmets ain't enough, they wanted me to wear a weave for launch."

"Holy shit. That's shameless. Have you met Fei-Yen? She's in my class, just got assigned to Shaolin Rogue."

"Uh-uh. She get it too?" Tanisha sounded surprised. Fei-Yen was a pretty woman, far more model material than Ilisapie or Tanisha. Being in the same graduating class as her, Ilisapie had gotten wind of some of the demands placed even on the good-looking ones.

"The Chinese brass won't let her cut her hair. She wanted it like mine, to the chin so the helmet can just go over it. They did assign her a make-up artist. She can't go anywhere over there without her face on and her hair done."

"Shit. Maybe there's worse things than being 'the ugly ones.' Fox News says I need to lose weight, they probably do special reports if she gains an ounce."

"Exactly. They called me fat too. Well, not exactly 'fat,' something like, 'weeelll, maybe we should have the physical fitness assessment re-done, are we sure Miss Flint's in shape? She seems rather... heavy for piloting.'" She gave the American woman a wry smirk. "I thought Zeke was gonna go across the conference table."

Nobody who'd spent any time in the gym, the Kwoon, or on the training fields with Ilisapie or Tanisha would suggest that either woman was in less than peak physical condition. However, in the eyes of the world's peanut gallery, women like them were "heavy" because they didn't have the skinny physique of a supermodel. The idea that some women had fuller figures than others but still were in good shape never occurred to the middle-aged white men who made all the decisions about "the PPDC's image," it seemed.

"Caleb got it too even before he came out. He was the right sex, right color, but the brass didn't think a guy covered in freckles with a thick country accent fit the profile of the 'all-American boy' either, not like Bruce and Trevin. Brady Harris – our PR guy – he spends all his time getting them off our back, more than the paparazzi even, telling 'em I'm not getting a fucking makeover and Caleb don't need to be air brushed." Tanisha tilted her head thoughtfully. "Fei-Yen's partner gets shit, I bet. Not handsome enough."

Ilisapie nodded. "Huan's brilliant, tough, sweet. He was with her from the start in 2008, when she was fighter pilot. She loves him. The brass doesn't want it known that they're involved; they think she should be with a male model or starring in The Bachelorette."

---

Mid-December 2017…

The weather really was turning oppressive as Christmas season got closer in Alaska. Many of their crewmates were down for the count in the infirmary with Polar Bear Plague, as it came to be called. A small gathering in the gym courtyard with grills converted into barbecue/bonfire hybrids were all the excitement the healthy personnel were prepared to handle. The mess hall staff obligingly cooked up chickens soup and apples and s'mores in all their incarnations. They even managed to wheedle Marshall Gagnon that an abundance of Pumpkin Ale and hard cider and Irish Whiskey coffee wouldn't break Academy protocols on alcohol consumption.

"Here's to the newest of our proud fleet of Jaegers, Chrome Brutus!" Tendo announced, and everyone happily joined the toast, followed by a rousing and severely off-key rendition of O Canada.

Raleigh Becket was mellow at first, with his crew stuffing him with food and feeding him spiced cider that had a subtle but powerful kick. It made Ilisapie feel all warm and fuzzy to see the kid sprawled on the floor in a pile of his crew, content and happy.

But there were subtleties that she caught in the youngest Ranger's bearing, and from the looks his crew were shooting him and her, she knew they were catching it too. Raleigh was only a few months out of combat and injury, and word on the street was that it had been a major incident of drift shock after Yamarashi. Ilisapie had witnessed drift shock in its first documented cases; first with Caitlin and Sergio, then Pentecost and Sevier, then the Gage twins. Every time a team went into battle, they found things had changed.

Raleigh was twitchy, anxious and worried about his brother back in the infirmary. Lissa was fretful for Zeke's well-being too, but the Psychs had warned her: after combat, it would be different. It was always that way; all the pilots said nothing was ever the same after combat drift. With Raleigh, it wasn't so much that he was worried, just that he... wanted Yancy. He was fidgety at knowing his brother was somewhere he wasn't allowed to be. Lissa remembered the way Yancy had tried to reach for him, just to hug him and reassure that he'd be okay. She and Zeke hugged more now than they ever had.

Tanisha had escaped the Polar Bear Plague, and she and Caleb were practically entwined next to one of the space heaters that were standing in for bonfires. The same was true of Caitlin and Sergio. Stephanie Lanphier and Kennedy LaRue were also cuddling shamelessly, even though they hadn't had a combat deployment yet. They'd been drifting for a year.

Partnerless, Ilisapie soon found herself next to Raleigh again, with the younger Ranger under her arm as they made s'mores over a grill. DOWN, Lissa. You're going to have to write lines: I will not fuck Raleigh Becket. That's all you need, another round of the "slutty native girl" reputation.

She winced involuntarily, and Raleigh glanced at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, but a few of the others had noticed her frowning. She winked at Kennedy, the pilot from New Orleans. "Cold, dark weather depresses me."

"Girrrl, you live in the wrong part of the continent, then!" Stephanie exclaimed, and the others laughed.

"Can Inuit even get the seasonal affective depression thing?" demanded Tendo Choi, getting appalled looks from some of his more sensitive crewmates.

"And can Tendo be any more tactless?" scolded someone, but Lissa waved them off.

"It's fine. Actually, it's pretty common. I don't think a lot of people really like being out of the sun for months on end. Don't worry, I'm not really," she assured Raleigh, seeing his concerned look. She booped him on the nose. "Just thinking. I get philosophical when I'm tipsy."

Just be a wingman, find him a cute crew girl.

The problem was, Raleigh didn't seem interested in the cute crew girls. Maybe Ilisapie wasn't trying hard enough. There was plenty of flirting going on, but the kid who'd ranked second in People Magazine's Sexiest Ranger poll seemed more in the mood to talk shop with fellow pilots and J-techs than pick a girl up. (Then again, the effort of picking anybody up had to be a lot less for Raleigh Becket than Ilisapie Flint, so it might have just been skewed perspective.)

"Yance and me love Brutus," he informed some of the crew who thought Canada's Jaeger's design was inelegant. "He looks like the Hulk."

"Awful top-heavy, though - no offense," said Caleb quickly.

Ilisapie waved him off. "It doesn't offend me as long as I don't hear you calling him the cave troll."

Caitlin cackled, well on her way to drunk. "That and the 'butt-rockets' thing - you kicked Duc all around the Kwoon for it! I shoulda sold tickets!"

"Chrome's badass," said Raleigh. "I couldn' believe how fast he is. You'd'a knocked Yamarashi over by yourselves!"

"Schoenfeld stacked as much upper body strength on him as he could after seeing a few of the Mark-1's and Mark-2's getting knocked over," Lissa explained to the curious listeners. "We needed a heavyweight. He's it."

"I can't wait to see him in action. Him and Shaolin Rogue - the biggest and the smallest," said Tanisha.

"Shaolin's spear, baby, that's what I wanna see in action!" exclaimed Tendo.

"Tendo, man, he's all about the size of the spear!" chortled Raleigh, getting a chorus of raunchy noises from Team Gipsy. Tendo didn't even blush, just smirked at the crowd in general.

"And he's not even the one who likes guys," one of the other LOCCENT techs from Gipsy added.

Scanning the "bonfire" crew, Ilisapie noticed she wasn't the only one distracted. One of Gipsy's strike troop coordinators who'd wandered off to take a phone call was now back in front of the grills, scowling as her marshmallow turned slowly into charcoal. "What's up, Bikini Babe?" asked Raleigh.

(Not that Hien Nguyen had been the only one of the women in a bikini in the Icebox Challenge, but hers had definitely been the smallest, much to the awe of the participants and the delight of the boys.) Now she shrugged, avoiding her crew's eyes. "Nothing really. My parents saw the Polar Bear video on YouTube, and had the usual reaction. They don't approve, I'm a bad slutty girl, and should come home right now. Same shit, different day."

"Huh?!" Everyone exchanged appalled looks. "They didn't... really call you slutty - did they?" asked Stephanie Lanphier slowly.

"Is it, like, a culture thing?" someone asked. Hien was first-generation from a Vietnamese immigrant family.

Hien snorted. "Not really. Just rigid, overprotective helicopter parent thing. I joined the National Guard to get away from them. They were so sure I'd wash out and come crawling back. Ten years on, they're still waiting and sending me nastygrams on what a horrible rebellious child I am."

Raleigh growled. "Yeah, you're a real disgrace. You're only a Jaeger Program Strike Trooper in charge of mobilizing crew and saving lives when a kaiju comes ashore, nothing for parents to be proud of there."

"Don't worry about it, kiddo. I'm used to it." She hugged Raleigh and let the rest of the crew ply her with booze, and gradually relaxed again.

Kennedy and Stephanie were still seething. "What kind of parent calls their own kid a slut?" Steffie fumed.

"Virgil tried that once." At Steffie's astonished face, Kennedy smirked. "Remember sophomore year, when he couldn't drive 'cause my parents took his license and made him go to that 'class?'"

"Holy shit! I thought it was driving school because he got a ticket or something!"

Kennedy grinned, and to Ilisapie's relief, while Hien was listening now, the older woman was smirking too. "My Mama's big on the punishment fitting the crime. They found one of those sensitivity training things that courts order assholes to do after they harass or beat up women and signed him up for it. Daddy said if he ever heard Virgil talking about any woman that way again, he'd be paying for college himself."

"LaRue, I like your Mama and Daddy," announced Tanisha.

"Why'd your brother say that in the first place?" Tendo demanded.

Kennedy rolled her eyes. "He didn't like my Homecoming date. Guy was kind of an asshole, but that was my problem, not Virgil's. Long story."

"The first time I dated at all was after I left home," said Hien. "My mother called me a slut for wanting to try on makeup when I was twelve."

Ilisapie noticed that most of those aghast were the men. While many of the women in the group were disgusted, few were showing much surprise. I was just the fat, ugly girl who'd never get a boy to go out with me, she mused, recalling middle and high school and telling herself it didn't still sting. So she'd slathered on make-up and worn short skirts, thinking she could prove something, but after the first couple of boys took her up on it, all that had done was earn her the brand of slut.

Zeke had been among the few people in her family who'd never scolded her for the way she dressed - even when they were both moody teenagers - or looked down on her because of who she slept with or how often. "You can always tell me if someone's messing with you or you need help," he'd said they yakked on Skype while she was around the world on assignments. "Or if you wanna talk. Other than that, it's nobody's business."

Why did she keep looking at Raleigh Becket? Well, the guy was easy on the eyes; it was no crime to admit that. But he'd have his pick of girls, especially now that he was a tested Ranger with a kill to his name. The Psychs would probably say it was yet another holdover to her 'formative years,' sighing over the Prom King who'd never notice her.

Even when feelings were mutual, the PPDC brass had to throw up roadblocks. Look at Shaolin Rogue. They were case in point. Fei-Yen and Huan had been mortified the first time Ilisapie and Zeke had walked in on them, fully expecting disapproval. "Your Air Force doesn't allow fraternization?" Ilisapie had guessed.

Fei-Yen had awkwardly looked away. "It's not forbidden in regulations. Only to me."

It had taken them most of Class 2017-A to figure it out: Fei-Yen Wang was too beautiful, her value to the propaganda machine too high to lose the untouchable poster girl image. On top of that, the rather wiry, gawky Huan Che wasn't the handsome buck suitable to be next to her in a romance. They were billed as surrogate siblings, rumors of romance or sex quickly disclaimed, and in most of the promotions, Fei-Yen appeared alone with Huan like an afterthought in the background, if at all. As if she could pilot Shaolin Rogue or her fighter jet without his help.

Hell, even suitably photogenic couples couldn't live their lives without the fucking brass sticking their noses in it. Look at Peter Lepp and Hedy Keres, Eden Assassin's pilots. Their relationship was no secret, their engagement had been greeted with cheers and feel-good stories worldwide, but the brass kept pushing them to do a public wedding and slobber all over each other in front of the cameras. According to Corps gossip, all they really wanted was to just tie the knot back in Estonia with their families.

So fighting kaiju has to be priority. Yeah, we all get that. But do we really all sign on to turn into propaganda puppets even in our personal lives too? Was it really that to be Rangers, people could never just be with whoever they wanted for however long they wanted?

An argument broke her out of her musings. "You can't go spend the night in the infirmary, Rals," Stephanie was insisting. "You might as well sleep in a petri dish. Dr. Tán will just kick you out again."

Raleigh fidgeted, avoiding people's eyes. "Like there's no possibility I'll get the flu from my room. Yancy lives there too."

He doesn't want to be there alone. He'll worry about Yancy all night.

"Come on," said her mouth before her brain gave permission. "I'm all by my lonesome tonight too. You can borrow Zeke's bunk." Dammit, Lissa!

But he smiled, looking relieved. Well, fine. They'd both be more comfortable sharing a room than by themselves, fretting about their partners in the infirmary. But she was not going to make a move on him. He was too young, too good-looking. He wouldn't be interested in Ilisapie Flint, she told herself as she let them both into her quarters. Her making an attempt would just embarrass them both.

She reallywas not expecting Raleigh make a move.

But he did. Even a girl with half of Ilisapie's experience couldn't miss the way he moved closer, the heat in his eyes as an unmistakable invitation.

And idiot that she was, she just stared until he backed off in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"W-wait." Pull it together, woman! "You mean... seriously?" Not the sexiest thing she'd ever said. For god's sake, she might not be a head-turner, but she wasn't a blushing virgin either. She should be able to turn a guy down - or accept his offer - without stammering and fidgeting.

For someone she would have expected to be a lot more confident with women, Raleigh was almost as flustered as she was. "I wasn't trying to offend you or anything."

"You didn't," she managed to say quickly with something resembling firmness. Swallowing hard, she added, "At all." Big blue eyes met hers again. It really ought to be against the law for a guy to be that cute. "I just... figured you'd be interested in someone...else."

Raleigh frowned, puzzled, and shook his head. "I'm not cheating on anybody."

"I know, but there's cuter girls around here than me." Now she got a full-blown deer-in-the-headlights look. "Dammit! Forget I said that. I was getting all philosophical at the bonfire."

To her relief, he rallied and gave her an awkward, crooked grin. "Uh-oh, you're one of those? Booze makes you quote Nietzsche?"

"More like Abigail Adams, but yeah." She dared to try and regain the moment. "And I was trying to talk myself out of hitting on you."

"Why, there's better-looking guys around here," he deadpanned, and she laughed. She'd probably deserved that. "I wasn't... y'know, looking for anything serious. Just someone who gets it. A Ranger."

"Yeah, I get that." Fighting kaiju's not about being desirable. We're not in public. If I want him and for god-knows-what reason, he wants me, what's the problem? "Want to forget it? Everything about the war and all the shit we're supposed to do?"

"I'm up for that."

Stop thinking about it, Lissa. Just do what you want. You don't owe anyone explanations. She was a Ranger, he was a Ranger. They could have a night and didn't answer to anyone.

So she moved closer, and he met her in the center. Just two Rangers looking for a good night. If they both wanted it, whatever complications might lie in the reasons, they were adults. They would be able to have this much of what they wanted for themselves.

---

The day after…

She was surprised in the morning to find him still there, on IM to the infirmary. "Both our partners are still under quarantine."

Ilisapie mock-groaned, rolling over and pretending to hide under her pillow. "Your brother's gonna kill me, isn't he?"

"I won't let him kick your ass if you won't let Zeke kick mine."

"Zeke knows better."

Raleigh huffed. "I wish Yancy did."

"He gives the shovel talk?!"

But the kid laughed. "Nah, not that bad - not like Kennedy's brother, apparently," he added, making a face. "He just lurks."

"He can suck it. We're all grown-ups piloting Jaegers. Outside the conn-pod, we can do what we want."

She knew Raleigh didn't want a relationship. Hell, she didn't want a relationship. But if he wasn't in a hurry to bail out of her quarters, she wasn't going to kick him out. Their partners were still in sickbay. She could have him for a day. It certainly wasn't like any fling she'd had with anyone else. Then again, maybe she shouldn't have expected it to be.

They were both Rangers, after all.

They debated the merits of Gipsy and Chrome's hull armor and had a Scrabble death match. They smuggled sandwiches from the mess hall during off hours so they wouldn't have to deal with the rest of the Corp's ribbing. Lissa broke out her special Canadian Club stash, and they played a drinking game they found on the Internet to four episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She regaled Raleigh with stories from her two years as a support chopper pilot, including the iconic first battle between Brawler Yukon and Karloff.

That his awe was clearly not feigned was one hell of a turn-on. They went two more rounds in her bed after that.

She did feel a little pang at having to have the "this isn't a long-term thing" talk. They skirted around it, but she made sure to get the message across, and he responded in kind. "You'll have your pick of the Hollywood girls," she said cheerfully. Don't worry, I'm not expecting anything.

"If being a chopper pilot wasn't enough to impress the guys, just tell 'em now you're a Jaeger pilot," he replied. "Or don't tell 'em. If they don't already know, they're not paying attention." He smiled, those big, pretty eyes betraying what she thought might have been a little regret of his own. "I don't know when we'll get assigned to the same Dome again."

Ilisapie was careful to be casual about it. "We've got a job to do. That's the way it goes. My door's always open if you visit." She winked at him, and he grinned more easily. "Today was fun."

"It was that."

When they were reunited with Zeke and Yancy, they studiously avoided looking at each other. But Ilisapie couldn't decide whether to laugh or hide when Zeke inevitably worked it out even before they went for their next round in the drift.

"You and – Lissa!" he practically squeaked. "He's five years younger!"

She swatted him. "So? We're adults, and we're Rangers. We can do what we want off the clock."

Okay, she was apprehensive the first time she saw Yancy in the corridor, but while he gave her a look, he didn't say anything. Raleigh slyly informed her, "I just reminded him that the last girl he hooked up with in the Academy was six years older than him."

"Mm, you Beckets like older women?" she couldn't resist saying. She laughed at the way he blushed.

---

The years after…

They were Rangers. That came first for all of them. Ilisapie wondered if she should envy the pilots who were partnered with a lover instead of a friend or relative… or maybe not. Her link to Zeke felt like it was consuming her at times, and she'd always thought they were pretty contained, whole people. What did it do to the minds of the others?

The media kept obnoxious track of their lives outside the conn-pods. Some went from one-night-stand to one-night-stand. Some were reported as perpetually single. Some even dated for longer stretches. Ilisapie had her doubts of whether she was capable of giving anyone else that much of herself. She wasn't beautiful, but Raleigh was right: now she impressed people, and she had her pick of partners outside the Corps.

Within the Corps, it was always a little different. Raleigh Becket wasn't the only Ranger she had (and she seriously doubted she was the only one he ever had), but there was… an understanding between them all. No one else in the world had that, not even within the Corps. Fellow Rangers didn't expect anything more than sexual pleasure and confidentiality, and she didn't expect anything more than that from them. They fucked, they relaxed, they left each other's rooms for their Jaegers and their partners and went their separate ways with little more than a few innuendos. The crews and support staff nudged and winked and made bets among themselves about who would hook up with whom, but outside Shatterdome walls, they kept their mouths shut.

Rangers gave so much to their Jaegers and their partners. They could keep something for themselves.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven: The Kids Are All Right

June 2017…
Lima Shatterdome, Peru…

Like many military units, PPDC bases formed close-knit communities. They protected their own, particularly their Rangers, the ones under the most pressure from forces within and without. Only a few Rangers had family on base, but it went without saying for all personnel: the family of pilots and crew were under the protection of everyone who wore a PPDC uniform. And there was no object of that protection more sacred than their children.

Technically, Stacker Pentecost wasn't a Ranger-parent. He adopted Mako Mori after being permanently grounded. If he'd had his way, even the records of Mako's adoption would have been sealed, but it wasn't permitted. At every base where they were stationed, Jaeger Program personnel circled the wagons to protect Mako as fiercely as they did all other children of PPDC officers and crew.

For the first fourteen months of her life with her adoptive father, Mako lived and traveled at Stacker's side. Stacker was unprepared for how easily he became accustomed to her presence – let alone the way it lifted his heart to have her here. They talked about her lessons and his work, he taught her a few of the basic Jaeger Bushido exercises, which fascinated her, and he found time for excursions with her beyond the bases to the countryside wherever he was stationed. However, he knew in his heart that this routine couldn't last.

He and Tamsin dipped into their savings to hire Dr. Tanja Schneider, a child psychologist who was fluent in both English and Japanese, to travel with Stacker and tutor Mako. Still, he knew in his heart that a nomadic lifestyle through the noisy, chaotic world of PPDC bases wouldn't be conducive to Mako's recovery.

Even after Stacker received the long-term command of Lima Shatterdome, Dr. Schneider warned that a combat deployment base in a major target city was not the place for Mako. "This isn't to say she's unhappy with you. Far from it. She's as hesitant about living away from school as you are to send her. But the Breach alerts are tense and stressful for even the most seasoned adults. She tries to hide it, but it does distress her, and it will hamper her recovery."

"Where could I send her?" Stacker asked. "Do you have a place in mind?" He rather hoped so, since each time he started to investigate live-away schools, his heart seemed to sink, and he somehow managed to find something else more urgent.

"Six months ago, General Liang's daughter and her family relocated to the U.S. His two granddaughters are now attending Nittany Valley Preparatory Academy in State College, Pennsylvania. It's one of the best-reputed schools in North America, never mind the U.S. It takes students from around the world and has an excellent scholarship program. Their board of governors just approved an arrangement to cover tuition and board with PPDC benefits. Jasper Schoenfeld's son has been there for three years, and a few other senior officers have begun sending their children. They've also proposed a staff position for me."

For the first time since they'd begun serious discussions on this subject, Stacker felt less dismal. A place far inland, safe and insulated, with other children of PPDC personnel who undoubtedly could understand a little of what Mako had gone through, with parents familiar to Stacker… that was a good prospect. A chance for Mako to make friends her own age and learn from teachers in person instead of via satellite, and even Dr. Schneider on hand to continue working with her.

He would miss her. Mako would miss him. But surely the other parents rejoined their children during holidays and whenever there was leave available. The decent thing would surely be to give Mako a chance to remain part of the normal world and have a normal girl's experiences, to connect with other children and make friends. Keeping Mako's connection to Stacker would be far simpler and easier than trying to maintain long-distance friendships until she grew up. Because no matter the distance or the struggles from the war, Stacker would never fail to be there for her.

---

August 2017…
Nittany Valley Preparatory Academy, State College, Pennsylvania…

Mako was nervous, though she tried not to show it. She did not want to worry Sensei, let alone act improperly in front of other people. She would never want to give him cause to be ashamed of her.

Part of her was eager to see this new school and begin to study with other students in person instead of over video conferences. The pictures that Sensei and Dr. Schneider had shown to her looked very pretty and pleasant: rolling green hills and red brick buildings, trees that turned brilliant red and gold in the autumn and even cherry trees that bloomed in the spring. Dr. Schneider had said that here were students here from Japan, but also many other countries. Mako was very relieved that Dr. Schneider was now to work for the school, so she would still be here in person.

But after Mako was installed, Sensei would return to Lima. She told herself that she must not cry or sulk, though her heart pounded and her insides squirmed just thinking about. Sensei was commander of a Shatterdome, in charge of deploying two Jaegers in defense of the entire continent of South America. His duties and attention were vital, and Mako would be selfish to demand to see him every day.

"I will miss you very much, Mako-chan," he had told her more than once, in that gentle voice that she only heard when he addressed her. "If you truly don't want to go, then I will not send you away."

"I do not not want to go," she told him in English. "I am excited to see my new school."

It was all far more complicated in her mind than she could express in English. She studied the language for several hours every day and practiced on Sensei, Dr. Schneider, and the kind staff who worked in the mess hall and quartermaster. She would miss the people who worked here, and Sensei most of all.

But she would not miss the crashes of machinery and the acrid smell of grease and smoke, the damage still visible in Lima near the port where Brawler Yukon had fought and defeated Peuchen in 2015. The tension in the people grew and grew with each passing week as more and more time went by after the last kaiju came out of the Breach, until it was so thick in the corridors and mess hall that Mako stayed immured in Sensei's quarters nearly all day, every day. And then, the horrible blare of the alert sirens, the pound of boots in the halls and shouting voices for hours and hours, the inescapable intercom announcements on the location of the kaiju and the duties of the crews.

To Mako's surprise and pleasure, Tamsin was able to come from Hawaii to see her to school. Tamsin's cancer treatment had ended in April, and Sensei and Dr. Schneider assured Mako that she was doing well. Tamsin seemed stronger than she'd looked the first time Mako met her in the hospital in Hawaii. Now it was no longer so obvious that she had been sick, though she was thin and still tired easily.

Sensei and Tamsin had private orientation with Mako and a group of teachers and Dr. Schneider. There were several who spoke Japanese, but Mako was proud (if a bit surprised) that she could converse in English fairly well after a year with Sensei. "The standard American curriculum would put a girl your age in sixth or seventh grade," said Mrs. Giyoda, who was in charge of the girls. "But you are already well ahead of your age group in nearly every subject, so we're going to start you in eighth grade."

Mako took note of Sensei and Tamsin's pleased expressions, and nodded. "There will be other students your age in that grade," Dr. Schneider added. "It's very common here for students to be advanced. Classes aren't confined to grades."

"I will work hard," Mako promised Sensei and Tamsin.

Sensei smiled. "I know you will. Remember to also enjoy yourself."

There was a dauntingly long list of classes and clubs and activities for Mako to choose from. She had marked the ones involving math, science, and learning advanced English during the flight to Pennsylvania, but Tamsin stopped her from filling out the final application form. "Wait until you've had your tour and met your classmates to see what might interest you. Don't confine yourself to activities about school."

Sensei agreed. "Wait until you've had your orientation and met some of the other students. Especially the internationals like you. Don't be afraid to pick a class because you'd rather study with your friends."

That surprised Mako. Sensei was such a man of work. He took Mako on holidays when leave permitted and seized chances at base passes for them to take excursions beyond the confines of the base, but when it came to school, he expected her attention on her studies.

He seemed to sense her confusion, and gave her a gentle chuck under the chin. "Satellite school gave you less options, Mako-chan," he told her in Japanese. "Of course, I expect you to apply yourself to your core studies, but not to the exclusion of everything else."

Mrs. Giyoda pondered then, then spoke up in perfect Japanese. "I see you have an interest in the robotics club, physics, and drafting. That has something to do with your father's work?"

"I…" Mako had never really said this openly to anyone but Sensei, Tamsin, and Dr. Schneider. "I want to learn to pilot a Jaeger."

She always got a sense of unease from Sensei, as if he were opposed to it. But Tamsin and Dr. Schneider seemed to agree with her, and glared Sensei down each time it seemed like he might say something against it. Mako wasn't sure what she would do if he said outright that he disapproved, and was very glad she didn't have to find out.

Mrs. Giyoda noticed as well, but to Mako's relief, she did not declare the goal impossible. "The Jaeger Academy is on a lot of our students' minds. You'd need curriculum focused on math and hard science until you can gain entry into engineering courses at the local colleges, but you'll also need to get into serious physical shape. The majority of each year's applicants don't pass the first cut.

"May I…" Mako hesitated, worried about displeasing Sensei if she pressed this agenda. "Would it be possible to learn Jaeger Bushido at school?"

She bit her lip, but saw Tamsin giving Stacker a mild look, and Sensei, to her relief, didn't seem so cross as he might have been. "What martial arts coursework do you have available?"

Mrs. Giyoda tapped her display to show a list of Physical Education courses. "Most of the major tracks have corresponding extra-curricular clubs. For students who really want to push for advanced study, there's a very good studio in town that they can visit up to three times a week." She smiled again at Mako. "You're not the only one interested in learning it."

Mako smiled back. The people here seemed very nice. At least Dr. Schneider would be a familiar face.

But it was harder to smile when Sensei and Tamsin said goodbye to her.

"You are still a girl, Mako-chan," Sensei told her, kneeling next to her on the grass. "Don't be in a hurry to grow up or commit to a profession. As long as you're dedicated to your studies, you can take the time to enjoy life. I will be proud of you no matter what you do."

"You can call or text or e-mail either of us," Tamsin added. "Any time you like. We will always be here for you no matter where we are."

Mako's smile was a good deal more wobbly as she made herself stand still and wave, watching Sensei and Tamsin climb into their car. She was concentrating so hard on hiding her nervousness and the lump in her throat that she didn't recognize until years later the glitter in Sensei's eyes, or the way he clutched Tamsin's hand as if his life depended on it, the way his jaw clenched even as he smiled at Mako.

"It is okay to cry," Dr. Schneider told her as their car went out of sight around a hill. Mako shook her head. She didn't want to cry. "Let me give you your tour now. It will help to think of something else."

Yes, that was good. Each time her surroundings changed, from the beginning with that first tour of Sensei's base in Alaska, having the new place to look around was a good distraction from all the strangeness. Sensei and Dr. Schneider had taken her for a walk each time they relocated after that.

So Mako paid strict attention to her guide and her new home, if only to keep distracted from knowing that Sensei and Tamsin were getting farther and farther away.

They started on the outside, walking along the footpaths that led between the different sports fields, tennis courts, and stables. Mako had never ridden a horse before, and it seemed awfully high up. Still, the different colored animals in the paddock outside the stables considered her with gentle eyes, and she thought she might like to get to know them. Groups of boys and girls were exercising together on the dark red running track.

The Sports Complex contained basketball courts, an enormous swimming pool completely inside a glass-walled section, a court where boys were wrestling, and, Mako was pleased to discover, a "martial arts room."

"This is the newest section, because so many students have become interested in learning things like Jaeger Bushido. A few boys and girls used to go into town for classes in mixed martial arts, but now we have instructors here."

"Are there others like me? They want to be pilots?"

"Oh, yes." Something in Dr. Schneider's tone made Mako think she was keeping a secret. It was the same sly tone that Tamsin sometimes had when she was teasing Mako or Sensei.

The residence halls were scattered in small clusters between the academic buildings. Mako fully expected the inside of hers to look like Gryffindor House in Harry Potter. Well, the common room did look a bit like that, with couches and cushions and an enormous hearth, paneled in wood with bookshelves built into the walls. But there were only two beds in each bedroom, sharing a bathroom and another suite that belonged to the "house mothers," Aisha Brown and Farrah Darzi, two women who supervised the ten girls in the house.

"Teachers and counselors have discovered that boys and girls are happier and healthier if they have a little space of their own. The younger children are in rooms of four, but older than age ten, you have only one roommate."

Mako's heart started to pound again as they led her to the room where she was going to live, and she saw that there was another girl already there, sitting on one of the beds.

"Liling, this is Mako Mori. Mako, this is Liling Gáo."

The other girl looked to be Mako's age and Chinese. Her side of the room had clearly been occupied for longer. There were clothes already in the wardrobe and posters on the walls, and books neatly stacked on the little desk next to her bed. But Mako suddenly noted the way she was sitting - straight and still, eyes a little wide as she regarded Mako, hands folded tight in her lap.

Maybe Liling Gáo was as nervous about meeting Mako as Mako was about meeting her.

"Hi. I am glad to meet you. I come from Shanghai."

"I am glad to meet you also. I come from Tangeshima."

It seemed they were both at about the same level of English. "Do you speak Mandarin?" asked Liling hopefully.

Mako admitted, "Very little." She did know how to say, "Do you speak Japanese?" in Mandarin. Liling smiled sheepishly and shook her head.

"You will have English Second Language classes together," Farrah told them. "But you can choose another language you would like to earn. There are classes for Mandarin and Japanese."

Mako was surprised and gratified at how eagerly Liling nodded along with her. She, Sensei, and Tamsin had considered the different languages she could learn, and Mandarin had been one of her top choices - that or Cantonese, since a very large portion of the PPDC spoke them first. But then there was also Spanish and Portuguese, dominant in the southeast Pacific quadrant, including the J-Tech hub in Buenos Aires.

"There are many other new students now?" she asked the house mothers.

"Not in your grade," one of them said. "But every year we have a few more from the PPDC. Liling started in January."

So only a few months ago, this other girl was the nervous newcomer. That made Mako feel a little better. She took a few deep breaths and a second look around the room... and noticed for the first time what the posters and pictures on Liling's side of the room were: Jaegers. Jaeger statistics sheets. Some were the lovely prints released in commemoration of each mech's launch, in vibrant colors with the biographies of the pilots and lists of their mechs' features. Others were blueprints and stats not available for public release - a special perk that Jaeger Program families shared with their children. Mako had a set of her own.

She didn't even notice how broadly she was grinning, especially when she saw two posters of Coyote Tango: one with Vic and Gunnar Tunari, which commemorated her recent re-launch, and the other an older one, with the image of Sensei and Tamsin. Liling even had a neatly-printed collection of notes beneath them, compiling the changes made to Coyote's systems during her refitting after Onibaba.

Mako was only vaguely aware of the smirks exchanged by the house mothers. "We think you two will get along very well."

Mako beamed at Liling. "I think we will too."

---

PPDC Internal Network
[Private]: Online
SPentecost: Online

Stacker pounced on his portable interface so fast that he nearly knocked it off their hotel room bed. Tamsin came sprinting out of the bathroom at his shout, and gave him a shove so she would have room to see the screen.

[Private]: Hello Sensei and Tamsin

SPentecost: Hello, Mako-chan! How was orientation?

[Private]: Orientation was fun. I signed up for classes.

SPentecost: Tell us what you are studying.

[Private]: English Second Language. My roommate's name is Liling. We will take English together. She is from Shanghai, so I will study Mandarin and she will study Japanese.

SPentecost: Tamsin asks if you like her.

[Private]: She is very nice. She has Jaeger posters on her walls. She likes animals and she wants to study K-Science. I will learn to ride horses.

SPentecost: Have you signed up for your classes yet?

[Private]: Advanced Algebra, Analytic Geometry, Introduction to Chemistry, World History, Drafting for Beginners, and ESL.

"Good god, that's a heavy schedule," Tamsin muttered. "I hope she's not overextending herself. Isn't she taking anything fun?"

SPentecost: Tamsin asks if you are taking any classes for fun.

[Private]: There are elective classes every day, and evening classes for physical education. I will learn Mixed Martial Arts and Outdoor Sports. I will study Japanese Language and Literature on Monday and Wednesday and Introduction to Mandarin on Tuesday and Friday."

SPentecost: Are you excited?

[Private]: Yes, I am very excited to begin. I have met all of the girls in my house. There is a robotics club. Eshe Lagat comes from Kenya, but she is studying Japanese. She says she will help me with English if I will help her with Japanese.

Tamsin started jumping on the bed. Stacker managed to contain himself (but only just.)

---

September 2017…

Mako's house mothers and counselors urged her not to try to do everything too fast. "You'll exhaust yourself!" But Mako hardly knew which way to look during her first few weeks. There was too much to do and see.

She had always been a diligent student. Her father and mother had expected nothing less, and it was the same with Sensei and Tamsin. She wanted to properly repay them for all they'd done for her. She had always been smart at mathematics, and although the small school in Nakatane hadn't allowed for advancing beyond her age group, she had quickly moved through the satellite classes she took at each of Sensei's posts. Now both of her math classes were populated mostly by boys and girls two or three years older than she was. But there were a few other students her age. There was even a boy in the class who was younger than Mako: Aaron Schoenfeld.

Mako always adhered to Sensei and Dr. Schneider's instructions not to say what her family did within the PPDC, and although she knew that Liling and some of the other students had family there, no one else gave details either. However, there was no escaping Aaron Schoenfeld's name: he was the only son of Jasper Schoenfeld, who had founded the Jaeger Program. It was very hard for Mako not to stare at him, which made her feel guilty, but to her relief, Aaron was just glad to sit near someone close to his own age.

Classes were suspended in September so everyone could watch the broadcast of Shaolin Rogue's launch from Hong Kong. Liling and the other students from China were especially happy and proud that day. She whispered in Mako's ear during a wide, scanning scene of all the PPDC personnel in their uniforms, "I can see my grandfather."

Mako giggled and whispered back, "My Sensei isn't in Hong Kong; he is in Lima."

Everyone just grinned at Aaron when they saw Jasper Schoenfeld standing among the dignitaries in China.

"I want to learn to drive a Jaeger," said Mako as Shaolin Rogue took his first steps out of the hangar.

"Me too," sighed Liling.

"Jaegers need two pilots," Aaron pointed out. "You could go to the Jaeger Academy together."

Mako and Liling looked from him to each other.

---

October 17, 2017…

No one was allowed to turn on the televisions when a new kaiju came out of the Breach, but classes were suspended so that anyone who wanted to talk to counselors could do that. Mako wound up in a group with Liling, Aaron, and some of the other "tweens" as the Americans called them, presided over by Dr. Schneider.

"Have you ever seen a kaiju?" Aaron asked Mako.

She just nodded.

"My cousins and I, we saw Reckoner," said Liling. "That was when my mother and my uncle decided we could not stay in Hong Kong or Shanghai."

"Why America?" Mako asked, glad to think about being here and not having to talk about Tokyo. "Why not Beijing or somewhere like - that?" She frowned to herself, trying to think of the English word.

"Inland," said Aaron.

"Mother says Beijing is not far enough. She was closer to Reckoner. It frightened her, and she was angry that Hong Kong did not deploy Silver Lion before Reckoner came ashore. She is afraid they care more about saving money than saving people."

Mako had never thought about it that way. Sensei would not let her watch any engagements – not that she wanted to – but she read the stories about each one. Two Jaegers had not been deployed at the same time until June of this year, in Osaka, Japan. Silver Lion and Tacit Ronin had killed Hammerjaw while it was still offshore. Maybe if two Jaegers had fought Onibaba, Tamsin would not have been hurt in the fight. Maybe they could have stopped the kaiju before it reached the city.

She didn't speak of that, and when Dr. Schneider suggested that she have her first lesson at riding a horse, Mako accepted. It would be better to be outside under the trees, far away from phones and televisions and the internet.

"They're all named after scientists," Aaron explained as they walked into the pasture armed with a bag of raw carrots. Mako was a little nervous, but although nearly every horse in the field looked up, pricking their ears, only a few came towards them.

One of the smaller ones actually ran to get ahead of the others. Mako stepped behind Aaron, but the black-brown horse with splashes of white on his neck and legs was most interested in Aaron, whuffing at him as it accepted two carrots. "That's Einstein," said Liling. "He loves Aaron. It's okay, he won't bite."

Mako hesitantly extended her hand, and despite the size of his teeth, Einstein plucked the offering daintily from her fingers. She petted his nose the way Aaron was doing. "Hi, Einstein. You must be very smart."

Aaron whispered, "Actually, he's really dumb." Half of their group, including Liling, giggled, while the other half made noises of protest on Einstein's behalf, but the horse didn't seem to mind, since he was surrounded by kids petting and feeding him.

Mako was introduced to everyone's favorites (none of the students owned any of the horses, but they all seemed to have one they considered "mine"). Then the students and staff who worked with the horses brought out a pewter gray mare with a braided black mane. She was taller than Mako expected; riding her would mean being very high up!

"Mako, this is Ada. You're going to learn with her today."

"Can we come too?" Liling begged.

"Yes, we'll all go for a walk. Bring Einstein and Hypatia in to get saddled up." Liling was just tall enough to slip a lead around the neck of a chestnut mare, and Einstein followed Aaron without even needing a lead.

Mako fed Ada some carrots and petted her silky neck. "She's very big," she admitted.

Dr. Schneider smiled. "She is tall, but you're going to get taller, and some of the shorter horses are too stocky for your legs. I learned to ride on a horse like her. I had to grow into him too."

That was encouraging, so Mako let the stable hands show her how to put her feet in the stirrups to mount up, and once actually in the saddle, she found it wasn't as precarious as she'd feared. Ada endured her first wobbly practices with complete patience and watched her with big, black eyes.

After being led around the paddock a few times, Liling and Aaron rode their horses out to join them, and Mako felt confident enough to steer on her own. It was funny looking down so far to see Aaron, because Einstein's back was so much lower than Ada and Hypatia's. "He's mostly for teaching the younger kids," Aaron told her. "Someday I'll be too big for him."

He sounded glum, but then Einstein snorted as if to deny it, and they all laughed.

It was a fine afternoon, and for long stretches, Mako actually forgot that there was a kaiju in the ocean right then. Their party rode at a smooth walk over the hills to the little pond on the edge of the campus, all the way around. Some teachers met them there with a picnic, and the horses grazed while they fed the ducks.

It was full dark by the time they got back to the barn, but when Mako asked to stay and help feed the horses, "since they had to watch us eat," the supervisors laughed and allowed it. One of the older students who did her work hours at the barn gave Mako some grooming lessons, and she brushed down Ada's silky coat and took the braids out of her mane while the horse ate.

They were still working when the chime went off to signal an announcement from the administrators, a little muted in the barn to keep from scaring the horses. "Attention, teachers and students: we're happy to announce that the kaiju Yamarashi had been destroyed in Los Angeles!"

Some of the younger kids whooped before they remembered where they were, but most of the horses didn't seem to care. (Einstein just whinnied and tossed his head as if he was cheering along with Aaron.)

The teachers wouldn't allow the students to watch the replays of the battle on television (at least not in Mako's house), but she did beg to know, "Which Jaegers got him?"

Farrah, one of their house mothers, squinted at her phone. "Yankee Star and... Gipsy Danger. The ones stationed in Los Angeles."

All the girls in Mako's house crowded into her and Liling's room to pore over the stats sheets and watch as Mako and Liling marked the kill. "Gipsy Danger is brand new!" exclaimed Eshe, the fourteen-year-old from Kenya who was studying Japanese. "She only launched in July, and one of her pilots is only eighteen."

"Wow." In six years, Mako might be ready to pilot a Jaeger? What a thought.

---

Mako's days were busy from then on. She joined the Robotics Club, where her classmates designed their yearly entries in competition based on the designs of the new Jaegers. Mako and Aaron were both a year too young to be formal members of the team, but once Mako showed off her understanding of metallurgy thanks to her father's swordmaking, and Aaron his skill with electronics, the older students happily christened them "junior members."

She spent most holidays and breaks in Hawaii with Tamsin. Sensei joined them whenever he was off-duty, or if he couldn't visit then, he always came to Pennsylvania so Mako could have a few days in town with him.

He grinned the broadest grin she'd ever seen when he surprised her the weekend before his planned arrival on November 1 and found her in the pirate costume that two of the girls taking fashion design had made as for her.

Liling squeaked in astonishment the first time she saw Sensei and Tamsin, recognizing them in a single glance. "Shh," said Dr. Schneider, but she was grinning.

---

Summer 2018…

Thanks to the advanced classes she'd been taking since being adopted by Sensei, Mako "graduated" middle school only a few months after her thirteenth birthday. Tamsin was in treatment again and could not attend, but Sensei did, and set her up with a Skype call. "We're so proud of you, Mako," Tamsin said. "But if you get much farther ahead, you'll run out of things to study. Don't take any required classes this summer. Do something fun."

Mako had been considering trying to wheedle her way into one of the summer maths workshops, just to see if she could keep up with the fifteen-year-olds. But even Sensei agreed with Tamsin. "There's more to life than work. Summer camp is meant to be fun, not an extension of the school year. If you and Liling pace yourselves, you will do better throughout school."

"But what if I start to forget things? Three months is a long time!"

Sensei looked as if he was trying hard not to laugh. "It will pass faster than you think, Mako-chan."

He was right. She didn't forget the quadratic formula or the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions. (Well, it was possible that she and Liling pulled out their flashcards at night when they were supposed to be lights-out.) By the end of the summer, she could dance the Charleston, saddle up Ada without help, and finished testing with most of the martial arts dojos available at school so they could convert her Japanese rank to the American system. (She was at the beginner level for most of the Western forms of wrestling, but she ended up with purple belts in karate and judo, and already knew all of the basic katas.) The whole world was taking a renewed interest in the martial arts that Mako had learned from her father and the people who practiced with swords, since it was incorporated into the Jaeger Bushido.

Mako, Aaron, and Liling playfully competed over which of them could score the highest in their classes. Aaron was an undeniable genius when it came to maths; at age thirteen, he had a special exemption to take pre-calculus. Mako and Liling were just behind him in advanced geometry. Mako and Aaron were both starting computer-aided drafting, while Liling was starting biology a year early.

A few of the older students muttered that the administrators shouldn't let such young kids get too far ahead, but Mako, Liling, and Aaron certainly weren't the only ones who had "advanced beyond their age group," as Dr. Schneider put it. "It's amazing what children can do in the right learning environment," Mako heard Mrs. Giyoda say.

---

Autumn 2018...

Early in Mako's second year at Nittany Valley, a new student joined their class who didn't follow that trend. At least, not at first. His name was Matthew Davis, and he became Aaron's new roommate, but Aaron, Mako, and Liling had no classes with him. In fact, he was mostly in classes with students younger than he was.

"He's so sullen," huffed one of the older girls, sounding disapproving.

"Maybe he doesn't speak English well," Mako protested. During her first days at Nittany Valley, the teachers had badgered her to talk more.

The older girls rolled their eyes. "He's American, Mako. He only speaks English."

"Sort of. Inner city 'English'." The snide chuckles made the hair rise on the back of Mako's neck, and she and Liling exchanged awkward glances. Some of the older girls who shared classes with them could get like that now and then. Dr. Schneider attributed it to hormones when they asked, though the teachers never hesitated to intervene when they thought there was bullying going on.

"That's a code," Aaron explained to them later, scowling. "It means he looks black and sounds black, so he's suspicious."

Mako stared. "But Eshe Lagat is black, and they like her."

"Eshe's the 'right kind' of black. Foreign with an exotic accent and rich people manners." Aaron was more than a year younger than Mako, but when he talked like this, the bitterness in his voice made him seem older.

Liling had noticed too. "You're not black. What's wrong with you? I mean, what do they think is wrong?" They'd both noticed by now that some of the other kids seemed to turn up their noses at Aaron.

"I'm a New York Jew, and I look and sound like it," he answered. "That makes me trash to some people, no matter what my dad's done."

During Matthew's first week, Mako didn't have the chance to talk to him. She also couldn't help noticing that a few of the boys and girls who sometimes sat with her group decided to sit somewhere else the first day that Aaron brought Matthew to their table for lunch. He didn't talk much. In fact, unless one of them asked him something, he didn't talk at all.

It bothered Mako enough that she talked to Dr. Schneider about Matthew. "He seems very unhappy."

"Be patient. It can take some new students longer than others to adjust. I can't give you all the details, of course, but until now, Matthew lived in the same neighborhood and went to school with the same classmates all his life. He knew every teacher from school - often before he ever sat in their classes, and was never far from his family and their support group. Think back on your first days in the children's home in Tokyo. Even aside from losing your mother and father in such a terrible way, you told me in our first sessions that you felt like you'd gone to another world."

Mako nodded slowly. She had told Dr. Schneider and Sensei that during her first few days in the orphanage, she hadn't spoken a word. It wasn't that she had meant to be sullen or rude; it had felt almost as if something physically blocked off her voice. She'd known the words she wanted to say sometimes, things as simple as "thank you," but hadn't felt able to make her lips move. The prefects and administrators there had been kind and patient, but they'd had no less than forty new boys and girls to settle in and care for in the aftermath of Onibaba.

Even if Matthew didn't have the horror of death and smoke and roaring monsters weighing down his mind, maybe he still felt as lost and muted as she had. She'd cried herself to sleep for weeks, wanting to go home so badly that it felt like a knot twisting in her chest, and knowing she could never go home again.

How did Matthew feel knowing that home was still there, his friends and his family still there, but all of them carrying on without him? Exiled? Abandoned?

Sometimes Matthew did seem almost angry. Maybe that was understandable too.

During her free period one afternoon a few days later, the weather was fine, and she strolled down to the stables. The horses were in high spirits, especially Einstein, who was chasing a couple of the little kids' ponies over the brown grass. Matthew was leaning on the fence, watching them romp with a fascinated expression.

"I didn't know horses could do that," he exclaimed. Einstein's dancing was better suited to a Disney movie than the real world.

Mako grinned. "They like to play. Especially Einstein."

"He's Aaron's, right?"

"They all belong to the school, but he's Aaron's favorite." Matthew's eyes widened a little as Ada came trotting over to the fence, snorting at Mako. "This is Ada. You can pet her. She's nice." She scratched the silky gray nose, and Matthew hesitantly joined in. "We go for rides on Tuesday and Friday. You should come."

"I don't know how to ride horses," Matthew said, but he looked sorry for that as he petted Ada more confidently.

"Neither did I, until I came here. They'll teach you. It's fun."

Matthew looked dubious, but he didn't refuse. "Where'd you live before?"

"Tangeshima." Seeing his blank look, she added, "It's part of Japan, one of the smaller islands. After - after my parents died, I did not go back. Sensei took me from a children's home."

"Sensei?"

"It means teacher. It's what I call him. He adopted me after Onibaba."

Matthew nodded, thoughtful. "Aaron said you and Liling came from the PPDC scholarships too. My mama's a R - I mean, she's in the PPDC too. They wouldn't let me stay with my grandma anymore. Stupid reporters were staking out our place and following me to school."

"That's terrible." Mako scowled. Ada huffed, as if in agreement, and she smiled. They resumed petting the horse. "I miss Sensei too. But we talk on the network, and he sends for me at holidays."

"Aaron keeps saying I'll get used to it." For the first time, Mako could see real sadness on his face, maybe fear too. It was like he'd taken off a mask he'd been wearing. He kept his eyes on Ada, running his fingertips up and down her silver-gray nose. "Everyone's happy here."

"We all get homesick," Mako told him softly. "It can help to keep busy."

Matthew shook his head, but he smiled at Ada, patting her cheek. "All this stuff they give us to do. All these activities. I'd be busy the rest of my life trying it all." He shrugged. "I hadn't even made up my mind yet, but I guess I better get started."

"Well, what do you like to do for fun?" Mako prompted. "I saw you during your tour of the gym and the dojo. Do you play sports? Or martial arts?"

"Yeah, but, not like you all do here. I don't know the rules."

Mako shrugged. "When I came here, neither did I. I still don't know all the American rules. The rules are changing, too."

"How're they changing?"

"To be more like Jaeger Bushido. Everyone wants to be like Rangers."

Matthew grinned, as if that gratified him.

---

On Sunday, Matthew seemed gratified again when Mako and Liling invited him to join their group outing into State College. He only hesitated because Aaron couldn't come. "Go on, it's fine," Aaron told him. "You don't have to hang around just 'cause I'm in detention."

Once they were in the school van, Liling demanded, "What did he do?"

Matthew visibly tried and failed to keep from laughing. "You know that high-tech talking ice cream machine in the cafeteria?"

The girls nodded. It had startled Mako the first time it announced in a robotic female voice, "Starting. Batch. Vanilla. Ice cream. Ten. Minutes." The little kids always cheered when they heard it, because it means dessert was on its way. Some of the robotics students had decided it was a junior Jaeger and nicknamed it Confection Dispenser.

"Aaron reprogrammed it to start playing My Milkshake whenever the cooks turn it on, and they haven't figured out how to make it stop."

Mako and Liling shrieked with laughter. Farrah, sitting up front next to the driver, tried to maintain her decorum as the trip chaperon. "Yes, that's very funny, but the administrators shouldn't have to spend time explaining to the parents of first-graders why their children learned that song." But Mako could see the way her lips were twitching, and Liling wasn't fooled either.

The main purpose of the outing was for Farrah and Aisha could take the Muslim students to attend an outreach meeting at the Islamic Center near the university. Mako, Liling, and Matthew were proud to have been pronounced old enough (and trustworthy) to explore town on their own for a few hours, especially amid all the excitement of a local football game. They didn't share some of their classmates' passion for American football, but the energy of town, the people wearing their team colors and waving flags, the smell of cooking food, and the songs and dances were infectious.

They had just enough time to walk down the main street in the town to the stadium and wove through the tailgate parties outside, eating hamburgers and fried chicken for lunch from the booths and food trucks. They recognized some of the older students and faculty in the gatherings that would go into the stadium to watch the game, and waved or stopped to chat.

Mako and Liling were unnerved when some much older boys started calling them "baby" and inviting them to a party, but one of the senior girls from Robotics was with them and announced, "They're thirteen! Leave them alone!"

The house parents had given everyone a safety talk before they were given permission to wander town alone. They knew not to go into any parties or houses, or accept any food or drinks that they hadn't bought themselves, or get into cars with strangers. "The more people drink in a college town, the more likely they are to be inappropriate. If someone bothers you, walk away, or shout for help if they try to stop you."

Outside the stadium, the older girls considered the beer flowing at the parties around them and told Mako, Liling, and Matthew, "You three go on back to the Islamic Center. Traffic and the crowds are getting busier, and they'll finish up soon. It'll be less chaotic there."

The three of them obeyed, and apart from catcalls at Mako and Liling from groups of boys and men on their way to the stadium, they had no further trouble. By the time they got back to the Islamic Center and were sifting through the crowd coming out in search of Farrah and Aisha, most of the sports fans had made their way to the stadium, so they assumed all risk of trouble had passed.

That assumption ended as they threaded the edges of the crowd and suddenly came upon a clutch of men, most of them older than college students, snarling at a lone police officer who was trying to shoo them away. A group of reporters were very interested in them.

" - protesters here against the proposed expansion of the Islamic Center!"

"We don't need more mosques giving ISIS a foothold in the US! Y'all need to go back and fix your own countries first!"

"This is the reason we got sea monsters attacking the West Coast!"

That startled Mako enough to make her pause, and she turned to see Matthew and Liling looking equally baffled. "They think ISIS caused the kaiju?" Liling muttered.

Matthew shrugged. "There's all kinds of crazy conspiracy theorists at protests. C'mon, let's get outta here and find your house moms before they run into these jerks."

They slipped past another pair of policemen who were hurrying towards the protesters, and finally spotted Farrah's orange and gold hijab through the crowd. Mako didn't understand how anyone could think Farrah or the other Muslim girls and women were somehow oppressed by their headscarves. Farrah collected scarves for her hair the same way other girls collected shoes or handbags - she had one to go with every outfit she wore, in beautiful colors and patterns. Dyeing silk was her hobby, and many of the women and girls at Nittany Valley Prep had scarves and sashes she'd made. Today, for the meeting, she was wearing a deep orange scarf with a brooch that had belonged to her grandmother.

"There you are!" She cheerfully waved Mako, Liling, and Matthew over. "Right on time. Did you have fun?"

"Yes, but it was very crowded," said Liling. Despite having lived in Hong Kong, she wasn't comfortable in crowds.

"Crowds turn out in nice weather like today," said Farrah. "Let's find a place where the driver can pick us up."

"Not that way!" Matthew exclaimed as she started to usher them towards the curb. "There's protesters."

The men who'd been protesting weren't visible in the crowd, but Mako suspected they were still there. Farrah scowled in that direction, and she and Aisha elected to lead their group towards the side streets rather than the busy main road. Mako and Liling dutifully joined in with corralling the four younger girls from third and fifth grade, while Farrah was on her cell phone coordinating their pickup with the driver, who was still dodging traffic.

The four men approaching in logoed T-shirts didn't attract any notice; they were younger than the men who'd been protesting out front, and weren't holding any signs. Mako assumed they were just students until one of them nearly collided with Farrah.

"Watch it! Who're you on the phone with, bitch? Your sleeper cell in Iran?"

"Hey!" Startled, Farrah dropped her phone, but rather than pick it up, turned her attention to pushing the younger girls toward Aisha. One of the men kicked the phone, and Mako instinctively ran to get it. She reached it before anyone else and as she straightened up, Farrah was glaring daggers at the men, motioning the group away. "Come on, we're leaving."

"So how'd your meeting go? Did you pass Sharia law?" The man who'd kicked the phone brushed past Mako, and she smelled alcohol again. He didn't even notice her, but the way he loomed over Farrah was scary. "What's under your burka, baby? A bomb?"

Farrah backed away from him only to bump into one of the other men. Shouts rang out, and as she turned around, the man who'd kicked her phone reached out and grabbed her hijab. She screamed as he tore it, sending the brooch flying. The men were jeering about terrorist camps, Aisha was pulling the younger girls back, people were yelling, but Mako was moving forward without even realizing it.

Mako's heart hammered, blood roared in her ears, and she bellowed, "GIVE IT BACK!"

"Help, someone, help!"

"Damn terrorists!" The man who'd attacked Farrah still had her scarf in his hand, too busy laughing at her where she'd fallen. Farrah was on the ground, her brooch in her hand, but there was a streak of blood on her face - the man had hurt her! "Welcome to America, bitch!"

Then Mako slammed her fist into his ear. He let out a howl of shock, his balance gone, and pitched over. "What the f-" One of the other men lunged for Mako only to end up with Matthew Davis on his back, slamming punches into his ribcage.

The part of Mako not consumed with adrenaline realized that Matthew did know some martial arts. He bore the second man to the ground as Mako liberated Farrah's hijab from the first, who was still in a fetal position with a hand over his ear.

It was all chaos and flying fists then, with bigger opponents than Mako had ever seen, but she was so angry that it didn't matter at all. How dare they! How dare they harass strangers on the street and rip clothing off Farrah! They knew nothing about her religion or her country! She dodged grasping hands and kicked another advancing man in the groin before he could get Matthew from behind. She might be smaller, but she knew how to make men fall down.

The last man standing had a knife. Liling was screaming, other people were screaming, someone was yelling, "No, they're kids, THEY'RE KIDS!" but Mako didn't think. He wasn't pointing it at her; he was looking at Matthew. She lunged and seized his wrist, twisting it in a move that she had always been warned to use with care in practice. This was not practice. The crack under her hand sent a queasy pulse through her, but the knife fell to the ground, and its owner went backwards, clutching his arm and screaming.

Lights flashed, and Mako whirled, looking around for new enemies, but all four men were still on the ground, and suddenly Liling and Aisha were in front of her, shouting incomprehensibly at the police officers now converging on them. "Those men did it, those men did it!"

Farrah, her black hair mussed and her face still bleeding, bodily blocked Matthew while pulling Mako with one hand. "They're students!"

"Okay, okay, everybody take it easy!" To Mako's dazed relief, the uniformed woman in the lead didn't point a gun at anyone, though she had a baton out. "Break it up!"

Neither the policewoman nor the policemen seized Mako, though they were harsh with the four men on the ground. As Mako's heart began to slow, she took in a wall of people on the sidewalk around them, many shouting explanations and pointing angry fingers - mostly at the men, not at Mako and Matthew or Farrah. Many others were aiming cell phones and cameras.

She looked at Matthew, who had ended up at her side behind Aisha and Liling, and gulped. "I... I think we're in trouble."

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight: The Kids Are All Nuts

November 11, 2018…

Future Rangers of America!

The tween son of American Ranger Tanisha Davis and adopted daughter of former Ranger Stacker Pentecost, now a PPDC Marshal, were caught on camera in a political brawl Sunday in State College, Pennsylvania! Sources report that Matthew Davis, 13, and Mako Mori, 13, are students at Nittany Valley Preparatory Academy, an exclusive, internationally recognized boarding school that has extended its scholarship program to children of PPDC personnel. Mori is better known to the public as Tokyo's Daughter, captured in a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph in the wreckage of Tokyo after Jaeger Coyote Tango, then piloted by Pentecost, destroyed the kaiju Onibaba. Tanisha Davis is pilot of American Mark-2 Jaeger Yankee Star.

Eyewitnesses report that Mori and Davis were part of a group from Nittany Valley Prep that appeared to have attended the Islamic Center Outreach of Faith event, chaperoned by faculty member Farrah Darzi. Darzi, 23, is a Saudi Arabian Muslim who graduated Nittany Valley Prep in 2011 and Penn State University in 2015.

As the group left the Islamic Center, they were confronted by protesters who pulled off Darzi's headscarf and threw her to the ground. Much to the shock of onlookers, the attackers, who are not Penn State students or alumni, were set upon by Davis and Mori, and in a matter of minutes, all four men were on the ground. "It was like something out of Karate Kid," one bystander reported. "Those two little kids beat the s*** out of four grown men!"

There are conflicting reports on whether any of the combatants were armed. Some say a knife was seen, others reported that one or more of the men threw rocks or bottles. Police interviewed Mori and Davis, and released the pair without charges. The four assailants, Jed Porter, 24, Buddy McFee, 31, Donald Jackson, 19, and Ned Burton, 27, were arrested and charged with assault and battery, and the federal authorities are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. McFee, Jackson, and Burton were booked at the Centre County Jail, while Porter was treated first at Mount Nittany Medical Center for a broken wrist.

Darzi was treated and released by the Main Street Walk-in Clinic for a cut to her face, which required stitches.

Neither the PPDC press office nor the media liaisons for Yankee Star, nor Lima Shatterdome, which Pentecost commands, had any comment.

---

Stacker endured the most awkward video call of his career three days later.

He actually considered contacting Tanisha Davis beforehand, to hear her thoughts on the matter and consider bringing a united front. Tamsin favored that, but in the end, he decided to wait. "A united front would be necessary if we had an adversary, but we shouldn't think that way. The school may have discipline in mind, but I won't oppose that if they think it's warranted. Mako did start it."

"She did not start it!" Tamsin actually hit the holocam. "Those bigoted thugs looking for a hijabi girl to harass started it! You'd have done exactly the same in Mako's shoes, so would I, and I'd hazard a guess, so would Tanisha Davis!"

"I know, Tam. I know that, I do. I misspoke. My concern is that the school may discipline Mako for escalating the fight rather than calling for help. What if that punk had been quicker with his knife, or the policemen had been less honest? Matthew Davis might have paid the price."

That brought Tamsin up sharp. "They'll not try to blame him alone. You're right - it was Mako of the kids who got involved first. Matthew went to defend her."

"We've all seen the videos. They disarmed the attackers, although with more righteous rage than control." A chuckle escaped Stacker... then he paused as a lightbulb went on in his head. "As for how I personally should address it with Mako, I think I know."

It was still a tense video conference with the senior faculty and Dr. Schneider before the young miscreants could be brought before the camera to face their parents' justice. "How've they been since?" Tanisha Davis asked. "Not defiant, I hope."

Dr. Schneider shook her head. "Not at all, Ranger. In fact, I asked that we talk separately because...ahem... I believe Matthew is very frightened."

Stacker stiffened, and from her quarters in Los Angeles Shatterdome, so did Tanisha. "Did he say what of?" she asked.

"Not in so many words. He's afraid he's branded himself a thug, and broken a promise to you. Marshal, Mako is aware at least in theory of the dangers Matthew could face even from the lawful authorities. She's distraught, convinced she put him in harm's way."

Stacker took a deep breath. Tanisha was quiet too as she digested it all. What a filthy world we inhabit that such fears are justified. "What are your intentions on discipline?" he asked. "What is warranted?"

Mrs. Giyoda said hesitantly, "Our records will not have a disciplinary entry. We don't believe that's warranted for either of them. Mako and Matthew intervened against bullying when authority figures themselves were under attack, although they did show over-aggression. I'm ordering counseling and anger management for both of them, and problem-solving training."

"I'm very pleased by that," said Stacker. He looked at Tanisha. "May we talk in private for a moment? I've thought of an additional change we could make in both their routines that could be to their benefit."

Relieved, if curious, the school administrators said, "We'll wait for you to rejoin the call then."

Tanisha tilted her head at Stacker once they'd signed off. "You're thinking some kind of community service, sir?"

"While discussing Mako or Matthew, rank doesn't apply," he told her. "I was thinking from that video, both of our charges could benefit from greater training in self-control. Even in combat situations."

That got him a famously rare full-on smile from Tanisha. Her conspiratorial grin reminded Stacker of Luna. "Matty's got some MMA training, but nothing really formal. I know he's interested in the martial arts they teach at Nittany Valley, but it's a lot more regimented than what he used to learn at the community center. He was intimidated already, so I didn't push. But I bet he'd do well."

"Mako is a disciplined girl, and channels her energy into her work, but Dr. Schneider warned me years ago that she'll have a powerful temper. In some ways, this could feed her revenge ambition."

"And give her years to develop drift compatibility with a kindred spirit," Tanisha added. Stacker kept a neutral expression; the other Ranger couldn't know of his misgivings on that subject, and he saw no reason to tell her. She pondered the implications only for a moment before shrugging. "I told him if he wants to go for Academy, he's got my blessing, but if he doesn't want to, he's still got my blessing. But if this boarding school of theirs can train him not to shut down or lash out when he's mad, I'm happy."

So they had a plan. After rejoining the conference with Nittany Valley, Stacker was torn between wanting to laugh and aching to embrace his girl as she and Matthew came shamefaced before the camera. Mako recognized Tanisha instantly, and looked still more miserable.

"I'm sorry, Mama," Matthew murmured.

"It wasn't his fault, R-Ranger," Mako pleaded. "Please, it was mine."

"Mako, Matthew," Mrs. Giyoda interrupted, and they fell silent, as if waiting for the axe to drop. "You're not here to be punished. You were trying to protect Farrah from attackers; we know that. So do the police. That's why they didn't punish you either. We've discussed this with your parents and worked out ways to teach you better coping skills with stressful situations - and ugly people."

Now the pair were just confused. The decree of anger management counseling didn't surprise them, but Matthew looked a little frantic when his house brother informed him they were both now on the martial arts curriculum. "You... want us to fight more?"

"Part of true combat training, especially true martial arts, is learning control and recognizing when not to fight. Or how to de-escalate a crisis. You'll both benefit from that."

Neither teen was able to wrap their mind around the concept that they were not, in fact, being raked over the coals. Like father, like daughter. Or maybe aunt. For the thousandth time, Stacker wished Luna had lived to know Mako. He and Tamsin had told Mako many stories about Luna, and showed her pictures, but he couldn't help fantasizing (and knew Tamsin did also) about what Luna's reaction would have been. They both suspected Luna would have been taken with her.

---

Christmas 2018...

By the time Mako joined Stacker and Tamsin in Hawaii for the holidays, Stacker had something weightier on his mind.

"She'll be fourteen in January, Stacks," Tamsin told him sternly. "You can't delay any longer. It's time you gave her The Talk."

He cringed as if he were thirteen himself. "I don't see why it's so necessary that I be the one to do it. It would be far less awkward for her if it came from a woman."

His co-pilot was unmoved. "Of course, it'll be awkward - and you're more worried that you'll die of embarrassment, so don't hand me a line that you're only worried for her sake. But you're the one who adopted her, not me. She'll probably hear from other women among the school faculty, but she needs to her from her parent, and that's you, full stop. "

Damn.

So not long after he collected Mako for the Christmas holidays, after the initial recap of their semester and reassurance that she and Matthew Davis were doing well in their new classes, Stacker gritted his teeth and sat her down.

She was as attentive and respectful as ever, while it was all Stacker could do to not squirm. He managed to keep his voice steady, but damned if his palms didn't sweat as he carefully recited a speech that he shamelessly plagiarized from The Most Important Talk: A Guide for Single Fathers of Daughters to Explain Issues Surrounded Sex.

At first, Mako was unflustered, but as he got into the, er, more biological details, her face gradually turned deeper and deeper red, and the color soon spread all the way into her hairline. Remarkably, she maintained eye contact the entire time. The part of Stacker not melting from mortification was quite proud of her.

It actually did get easier when that part ended, and he was able to explain his own opinions and values. "I have absolutely no intention of forbidding you from experiencing dating or romantic relationships with boys - or girls," he amended it hastily. "You're already old enough, and more than mature enough, to take part in school dances and other events with more than just your friends. I do expect you to obey the school rules about being alone with boys or having intimate contact with other girls until you reach the appropriate ages."

Despite still being flushed, Mako nodded gravely. "We're allowed to go out and have dates, but the curfews are very strict for everyone younger than sixteen. Tamsin told me about age of consent."

Stacker managed - barely - to keep a straight face. "She did? What did she tell you?"

"She told me why the rules for students under sixteen are so important, because it's also the law. And, well, everything else you were telling me about...boys and girls. She explained all that." Mako faltered in dismay. "Is that all right?"

I...will...kill...Tamsin. "Of course, it's all right. You and Tamsin are free to talk about any subject you wish and are comfortable with. I'm very happy you also had her to explain these things." I will KILL her.

---

November 2019...

Stacker would never admit it to Tamsin (that conniving little minx!) but in the following year, as Mako spent more and more time with Aaron Schoenfeld and Matthew Davis - and grew prettier every time he saw her - he was glad that he'd made sure she knew where he stood on the issues of dating and sex.

"She has a date to the autumn dance!" Tamsin gleefully informed him when they were planning their travel schedules for the 2019 holiday season.

Stacker was determined not to let her get a reaction out of him after she'd played him into that excruciating talk, and kept his voice neutral. "I see. Who is it?"

"She won't say. I think she's nervous."

"Hm. I assume it's a fellow student, or at least someone vetted by the faculty if they're attending the school event, so there's hardly a reason for her to be afraid to say who he is," Stacker mused.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "She's fourteen. If she didn't get irrationally skittish about something, I'd start to worry. And boys are a particularly stressful subject, especially if there's one she's interested in." She gave Stacker a sly smile through the holocam. "By the way, I've sent her some money towards her dress budget."

He refused to take the bait. "That's a lovely idea. I'll add to it myself."

It simply worked out that Stacker's flight was to arrive the weekend after the dance. Tamsin promptly started scolding him on the vidcomm. "Don't you dare start intimidating her date!"

"I have no intention of doing any such thing! What do you think, that I'll bring a shotgun?"

"Knowing you? Possibly. You're incapable of being subtle."

"You're confusing me with my sister," he retorted. "She was the one who charged into everything with guns blazing. And I'm arriving on the first day permitted for parent pick-up. I'd like to maximize the time we spend with Mako, and that means traveling before the American Thanksgiving holiday traffic starts up."

Of course, Tamsin didn't believe him, but he was hardly the only parent who arrived on that date. In fact, he encountered Tanisha Davis on his connecting flight. "Is your son joining you for Thanksgiving?"

"Every year. And this year I promised him a trip to Yellowstone if he met all his academic goals, and he beat them, so now I have to take him camping."

Stacker smiled at her put-upon tone. "Surely it's a pleasant break to be outside the cities."

"Yeah, but I like beds and flushing toilets. Camping is more Caleb's thing, and he got Matty into it. He's meeting us there."

"Ah. I wouldn't mind camping, but my co-pilot prefers meddling with Mako's love life. She had a date to the autumn dance and wouldn't tell me who it was."

Tanisha smirked. "Yeah, my mama thinks Matty went with someone, but he's being all secretive about..." Suddenly, she trailed off. She and Stacker eyed each other. "You think?!"

All tales were told once they arrived at the school. The parents were given the customary tour and review of their children's activities, and it came as no surprise to Stacker or Tanisha that Mako and Matthew spent a great deal of time together. They were usually accompanied by Mako's roommate Liling and several of Matthew's housemates, including Aaron Schoenfeld, but Mako and Matthew seemed especially awkward at meeting each other's parents in person. Towards Liling and Aaron's mothers, they were enthusiastic.

When Stacker spotted the wall of pictures from the 2019 Autumn Ball, he had to struggle not to grin as Mako tried to steer him away from it - especially when he saw Matthew Davis frantically trying to do the same with Tanisha.

"I want to see the dress you picked out," he told his girl blithely. Past Matthew, Tanisha shot him a sly look.

They reached the bulletin board at the same time while their charges cringed in the background. "Yep," Tanisha murmured.

Mako was on the arm of Matthew Davis, both of them looking quite elegant. Without turning around, Stacker said quietly to Tanisha, "So... I suppose we should come to an understanding."

"I'll make you a deal: I won't threaten yours if you won't threaten mine."

"Done and done." And neither one of them dared turn around for several minutes, because they were both imagining the look of terror on their offspring's faces, and if they actually saw it, they would both break up laughing.

Stacker did text Tamsin: Matthew Davis was her date.

I KNEW it! Caleb Mitchell and I were both betting on it!

He showed Tamsin's response to Tanisha at the first opportunity, and she growled, "I'm gonna kill my co-pilot."

"I'll murder yours if you'll murder mine."

No co-pilots' blood was shed, and neither Mako nor Matthew died of embarrassment or terror over the holidays. Stacker and Tanisha began communicating more often via IM and email, where their written messages rarely portrayed the glee they actually felt. Mako and Matthew steadfastly denied that they were "going out" for months. And Stacker and Tanisha steadfastly pretended that they weren't enjoying every minute of it.

---

January 2021…

The former pilots of Coyote Tango just happened to visit Los Angeles Shatterdome, where Yankee Star was stationed, early in 2021. By chance, that happened to be the spring that their respective children were first eligible to attend prom. If they spent several off-hours evenings at restaurants with the pilots of Yankee Star, well, the four of them were colleagues. There were no cameras around to record that there was far more gossip going on than Jaeger Program shop talk.

The first time Stacker ever heard Tanisha Davis laugh out loud was when he grumbled complaints at her about how much it cost to dress a girl up for a formal dance. "Really, you have no idea what parents of daughters go through."

"Ain't you heard? With boys, you've only got to worry about one penis. With girls - "

" - every penis in the country," Tamsin finished in chorus with her, and the two women burst into cackling laughter.

Stacker pointed at his co-pilot, shooting Yankee Star's pilots a disgusted look. "You see how all she does is stand on the sidelines and jeer at my efforts to be an involved parent?"

Caleb promptly high-fived Tamsin. And by the end of that night, they joined forces and talked Stacker and Tanisha into doubling their offspring's respective prom budgets.

---

March 2021…

The school counselors and Dr. Schneider, as well as all the literature Stacker had studied, focused a great deal on concepts of "closure" for children who'd experienced trauma. "This is something that children seek without even knowing the words for it. It takes many difference forms: revenge, vindication, validation, full circle. Adults want it too: that secret formula for life that will make the pain of the past finally ease."

So Stacker understood why Mako focused so intensely on preparing for the Jaeger Academy, and the chance to go into combat against the kaiju. "For my family," she always said.

She and her circle of friends looked at piloting Jaegers as a shared goal. They would take on the world, the Academy, and then the kaiju as a team, like so many of their parents had done before them.

Growing up meant recognizing that some youthful dreams simply were not to be. Mid-way through Mako's third year at Nittany Valley Prep, Liling Gáo – and Mako along with her - finally had to face that Liling's severe asthma would never allow her the physical fitness necessary to train as a Jaeger pilot

Stacker and Tamsin consoled Mako, and helped her console Liling. "She's worked so hard," Mako lamented. "P.E. and training is so difficult for her, and she uses her inhalers and gets shots every week, and still it isn't enough! It's not fair!"

"The world isn't a fair place, Mako-chan," Stacker told her, wishing (as he so often did) that he could reach through the webcam to embrace her. "It would make us all happier if people could always have what they work hard for, but reality is more complicated. Liling is a girl of many talents. She can still contribute to the war effort in many ways. It would be cruel to let her think that she is useless without being able to run a mile without stopping or do a requisite number of push-ups."

It took a few extra sessions with the counselors for both girls to come to grips with the fact that their dream of co-piloting a Jaeger would not come true. Gradually, they did come to refocus on Liling's other abilities, and neither Stacker nor Tamsin were surprised by the outcome: Liling had a gift for biology, and her fascination with K-Science was a natural extension of it.

And Mako wasn't left without prospects. The longer they were classmates – not to mention dating – the more Stacker suspected that there was a real possibility that she would prove drift compatible with Tanisha Davis's son.

---

May 15, 2021...

PPDC Internal Network
SPentecost: Online
TDavis: Online

TDavis: The world is coming to an end. We're all going to die.

SPentecost: I didn't expect you to be that distraught over Matthew and Mako breaking up.

TDavis: Does this sound like worrying about love lives to you, Stacker?! This is fucking serious - he's taking driver's ed in June!

SPentecost: Now I understand. Mako's taking it too. God help us all.

---

June 25, 2021...

PPDC Internal Network
TSevier: Online
SPentecost: Online

SPentecost: I've seen the pictures from Driver Education "graduation."

TSevier: Aren't they adorable?

SPentecost: This was your doing, wasn't it?

TSevier: I have no idea what you're talking about!

SPentecost: Shouldn't she have had parent permission to dye her hair?

TSevier: Only if it was permanent dye, which it wasn't. Temporary hair dye is a fad for the summer classes, it seems.

SPentecost: So you DID know about it, you meddlesome fiend!

TSevier: Her hair looks cute with blue streaks!

TDavis: Online
CMitchell: Online

TDavis: Stacker, what the hell is my son doing running around Pennsylvania with green hair?!

SPentecost: Thirty minutes ago was the first I knew of it. Blame my bloody co-pilot.

TDavis: Your daughter is a bad influence on my kid.

TSevier: Now just a bloody minute! I happen to know the whole thing was the Schoenfeld boy's idea!

TDavis: How'd you know that?

TSevier: Offline

SPentecost: Tam is a coward. And Mitchell, if I find out you had anything to do with this, I'll get Yankee Star transferred to Vladivostok.

CMitchell: Jesus, you send a boy some hair dye so he doesn't feel left out of the hot trends, and suddenly you're public enemy number one!

CMitchell: Offline

TDavis: Caleb just ran out of the room, damn traitor. I signed up for a co-pilot and got a co-parent.

SPentecost: Welcome to my world. So now what? It seems rather silly to contact the school and demand they make the children take the dye out of their hair.

TDavis: Yeah, Matty keeps reminding me it'll all be gone after six washes. Give them an inch and they take a continent. They learn to drive, then they're running around with green hair.

SPentecost: Or blue. Granted, it is summer. Loosening up is to be expected, but I shudder to think we'll see nothing but green and blue hair in every picture until they move on to some other ridiculous clothing fad.

TDavis: No kidding, especially when we have to pick them up next week.

SPentecost:…

TDavis: You still there?

SPentecost: I have...a rather creative idea of how to nudge this along.

TDavis: Creative?

SPentecost: I have the contact information for most of the parents in Mako's circle of friends. Do you happen to have any of Matthew's?

TDavis: A few. Why?

SPentecost: I have a plan.

---

July 1, 2021…

Mako suspected that as soon as the summer holidays began, Sensei would insist she take the blue streaks out of her hair. She would obey his instructions while she lived at home and, well, if he insisted that she no longer dye her hair at school, she would respect that. Though she would be sorry not to try out the other colors that one of the older girls had found at a local costume shop.

She and Matty had gotten over their post-breakup awkwardness, mostly. It didn't hurt that after prom, neither of them had been so emotionally invested in being boyfriend and girlfriend, so the end of dating each other had been amicable. Matty was now going out with one of the girls a year older than Mako, and if that stung Mako's pride a bit, well, it was also a matter of pride not to let it seem like she was bothered.

Liling and some of the other girls thought Mako should find a boy to kiss where Matty would see her, and she actually considered it, but in the end, decided that would just be ridiculous. Why kiss someone if she didn't actually want a kiss? So she shrugged it off and acted friendly to Matty's new girlfriend, and the whole group gradually eased their tensions during the Great Driver's Ed Graduation Hair-Dyeing Party.

"My mom's gonna make me wash it out as soon as I get off the plane," Aaron pouted. He was sporting candy apple red in his black hair.

"My mama's seen the pictures, but she hasn't said anything yet," Matthew said.

"Nor has Sensei. Tamsin said it was pretty," said Mako.

Liling had banana yellow in her hair. "My mother likes mine."

"Your mom's actually cool," Aaron said.

Farrah Darzi and Mrs. Giyoda were overseeing the departures from the summer driver education program. The kids were all hanging out in the gym, practicing the last katas they'd learned for the year or just playing on their phones, when the two teachers burst into near-shrieks of laughter at the front door.

Startled, Matthew looked up. "What's so funny?!" Farrah and Mrs. Giyoda were laughing so hard they could barely stand up.

Aaron got up and went to investigate, nudging brazenly between the two women to peer out the door... then he staggered backwards in shock. "Ohmygod. Ohmygod. Oh my... what the frag... oh my god..."

"What's the matter with you?" Mako demanded. Aaron just grabbed the sides of his head and went sprinting for the opposite set of gym doors.

"Hey, son, is that any way to greet your dad after six months?!" The familiar figure of Dr. Jasper Schoenfeld strode into the room - and all activity from the student body ceased.

Dr. Schoenfeld's hair was pink.

Everyone was still staring, and Farrah and Mrs. Giyoda were still giggling, when Liling's mother and father came in sporting streaks of green in their hair. Liling nearly fell over in shock, and Matty and Mako were still processing the sight when Matty's mother came in.

Ranger Tanisha Davis, the somber right-hand pilot of Yankee Star, had orange hair.

"...no...way," Matty breathed.

Nearly every parent arriving had colored hair, and those who didn't were grinning. Mako quickly processed that Sensei should be coming in, but her stern father would never...

PPDC Marshal Stacker Pentecost walked in, as calm as ever, and looked puzzled at the way Mako stared at his purple hair in disbelief. "What? It comes out in a few washes."

---

Every parent with whom Stacker and Tanisha conspired exchanged gleeful congratulations at the downright-diabolical plan they had hatched to end the Nittany Valley Prep hair-dyeing fad in one fell swoop.

It worked.

And if Stacker had to spend approximately four hours in the shower of the hotel room before leaving for Hawaii just to get through the requisite six washes to return his hair color to normal, well, it was worth it.

---

Spring 2022…

There was no reason that Matthew Davis could not have passed the screening tests and first cut at the Jaeger Academy. Out of all of Mako's friends, he showed the best aptitude for Jaeger Bushido. Academically, despite starting at school well behind most students his age, he caught up and soon exceeded many of them, and graduated with the same class as Mako at age seventeen.

He was a strong athlete who ranked high in martial arts competitions all over the state and the northeast US. He practiced with Mako so often that they could fight each other to a standstill. Both of their parents suspected that they would be drift compatible.

There was just one problem, which Mako had more difficulty accepting than Liling Gáo's health problems or Aaron Schoenfeld's age: Matthew Davis didn't want to be Jaeger pilot.

"But your mother's a Ranger," she protested when he finally confessed that he didn't want to apply to the Academy.

"Yeah, I know. You know I'm proud of my mama, and Caleb. He's the only dad I ever had. They're the best in the world. But..." Matty avoided her eyes as they sat on a bench opposite the stables. "When they deploy... I thought I'd get used to it, but I never do. I feel sick. I wish I couldn't watch. Every time a pilot dies, that could be my mama and Caleb."

"It would feel different when you're in control," Mako said. Her heart was sinking. She'd been counting on being able to persuade him, even if in the back of her mind, she'd sensed his lack of enthusiasm a long time ago. "You love fighting competitions!"

"Yeah, but fighting kaiju inside a giant robot's not anything like that!" Matthew exclaimed. "I've been up in Yankee Star's conn-pod - it's scary, Mako! It's small and it's dark and you're bolted into this metal rig, and if the kaiju gets his claws on her head, you got nowhere to go!" He caught himself and cringed. "The counselors and my mama say I shouldn't try and discourage you."

Mako tried not to sound cross. "You won't. So...your mother knows you don't want to do it?"

Matty nodded, staring at his knees. "I think...she kind of always knew. She'll be proud of me no matter what I do," he added defiantly. "She said so."

A lump was forming in Mako's throat, making it difficult to talk. "I thought...we were drift compatible."

It was several minutes before he answered. "Maybe...I dunno, maybe we would be. But I asked Mama and Caleb about it, and even their psych analyst at the Shatterdome. They all say - if one partner doesn't want to do it, it won't work. Drifting doesn't scare me; drifting sounds kind of cool. Just... not fighting, not in a real Jaeger against a real kaiju. It's no video game."

"You think I think it's a video game?"

"I didn't say that!" he snapped. Then he sighed. Mako had to look away to wipe her eyes where he wouldn't see. "Maybe you're braver than me." Another long silence fell over them. Finally, he muttered, "I'm sorry, Mako."

She knew she should tell him it was okay, and that they would still be friends. But her mind was whirling too fast, mixed up with too much anger and fear that she'd be going to the Academy next year without a chosen partner. Less than a quarter of candidates who came in unmatched were able to be matched at all.

They left without saying anything else to each other.

She didn't say anything to Aaron or Liling, though all her friends knew something had happened. When she called Tamsin that night on the web cam, she promptly burst into tears and cried so hard she couldn't even talk for several minutes.

Then she had to apologize for scaring Tamsin, and insisted she didn't want to conference Sensei into the call. "Matthew won't go to the Academy," she finally managed to explain. "He doesn't want to."

"Oh." Tamsin reached toward the screen as if she'd like to pull Mako through it for a hug. "I'm sorry, my love. I know you had high hopes for matching with him. But you have to let him make his own choices."

"But what am I to do now? Liling can't be a pilot, and Aaron won't be eighteen for almost two years!"

Tamsin smiled sadly. "Well... you should do just what you planned for yourself even before Matthew made up his mind. Apply for yourself, work for yourself. Look for a partner at the Academy. Remember, being friends was no guarantee. Lots of friends aren't drift compatible."

It was only then that Mako really considered that she and Matty ought to stay friends.

---

It took a few days for her to stop smarting enough to actually go up and talk to him, at a point where she could be sure she would neither burst into tears nor hit him in the nose. "You hate my guts now, don't you?" he asked, sounding resigned.

Mako shook her head. She couldn't really claim that she wasn't mad at Matthew for leaving her without a partner and making her give up what she'd planned on, but... never being friends with him again? She didn't want everything to end now, not after all they'd gone through together.

"I thought it was...meant to be," she admitted. "You and I would become pilots just like our parents, and I would avenge my family."

"I thought I was the religious one," Matty said dryly. "God doesn't always make stuff easy."

Neither do you. She managed not to say that, but Matty picked up on it from her mood anyway.

"I got stuff of my own I want to do, Mako. You can't pin your plans on me. Even if I was going to Academy with you, that'd be stupid. What if we went to Academy and didn't pass the cut? You'd just give up?"

"No." It annoyed her so much when Matty acted like he knew more about the world than she did. She had been more places with Sensei and Tamsin than Matthew Davis ever had! But as Tamsin had told her, Matty had made his mind up, and there was no point in fighting with him over it. Mako sighed and changed the subject. "What are you going to do after graduation, then?"

"Go to college," he said immediately. His chin went up. "The counselors say I can get scholarships just about anywhere, with my grades and Mama's GI and PPDC benefits. I'll be the first in my family to get a degree."

"In what?"

"Dunno yet." Mako eyed him. Neither of them were very good at dissembling. Matty avoided her eyes and finally said, "I might major in English. Or maybe art."

Well, no wonder he'd been worried about how she would react. She barely managed to keep the disgust out of her voice. "You'll go study painting or poetry while the rest of us are at war?!"

"See? I knew you'd say that! You look down your nose at everybody who doesn't fight."

"I do not! Liling isn't fighting, but she'll be a K-Scientist and do something to help stop the kaiju!"

"And what's the point of it all if we haven't got anything to fight for? Not everybody's cut out to be a soldier, and it don't mean everybody else is a coward. Girl, you're like those crazy old ladies in the World War movies, walking around giving people white feathers. There's a reason we don't have a draft anymore."

Mako almost stormed off right then. But something made her stop. They still had months of classes before graduation, and after that, until she was almost eighteen, she'd be here. If Matty left for college, she might not see him again. "I don't think people should be drafted. But it's wrong to pretend the war doesn't affect everybody."

Matty folded his arms and leaned against the red brick wall. "I never said it doesn't. My mama knows what I want to do; she's all the way behind it. She used to tell me she joined the Marines because she didn't have a lot of choices, but she stayed with the service so I would have choices. Just because I don't fight or be an engineer doesn't mean I don't believe in the Rangers. All those recruiting posters, Jaeger models, those poems about war you love? Someone like me made all that."

She supposed that was a fair point. Matty was always more interested in the stories about life during wars in the past, not just the battles and the weapons. "I still don't understand," she said, but there was less rancor in it. Maybe she'd never understand Matthew Davis.

But Matty had an answer for that. "Ain't no law that says you've gotta understand everyone."

In the end, she had to be satisfied with that.

She had started in eighth grade at age twelve, and had the credits to graduate high school before her seventeenth birthday. Matthew Davis had started in seventh grade at age thirteen, but rocketed up through the grades to graduate at the same time that she did.

Mako made a deal with Sensei: she would stay in Nittany Valley in 2022, taking classes at the local college to train for engineering and robotics and martial arts, as dual-enrollment junior faculty. Then, at the end of the year, she would apply to Class 2023-A, which would begin just before her eighteenth birthday. If she succeeded at the Jaeger Academy, she would be eighteen by the time she qualified as a pilot.

Matthew opted to go straight to university once he had his high school diploma. True to his hopes, his test scores and grade point average, as well as his status as the son of former Marine and current Ranger Tanisha Davis, landed him scholarship offers from some of the best universities in the United States - and even some outside it.

Matty picked Harvard.

"Dude!" Aaron Schoenfeld exclaimed. "You said you were the first kid in your family to even go to college, and you pick Harvard? Not just Ivy League, no, you gotta go all the way!"

Matty was smug. "There's more than one way to do 'go big or go home.'"

"That should be a slogan for the Jaeger Program," said Liling.

Aaron grinned. "It does fit. 'Go big or go extinct.'"

"They should put that on a recruiting poster," Matty agreed. He gave Mako a smile, and she found that it was getting easier to smile back.

---

December 2021...

At graduation, smiling got harder, but mostly because Mako was afraid she would cry as it sank in that she and Matty were going their separate ways, maybe never to reunite. At least never to be together again the way they had for the past four years.

It was somewhat comforting that Matty got very quiet as graduation day went on, and finally muttered to her in a rough voice, "I'll miss you."

She did not want to be the first one to cry. But all she could do was nod.

"You still mad at me?"

She shook her head and... damn it, she was crying. So she just gave up and threw her arms around his neck. Then she heard him sniffle and, well, at least she wasn't the only one any more.

Somehow, the funny side of it all came through, and with tears still falling, Mako started giggling, and Matthew started laughing too. They hugged tighter and tighter until she thought they'd break each other's ribs, but it made it all feel a little better. Eventually, her voice had steadied enough to talk again.

"Are you moving to Boston right away?"

"Cambridge, not Boston. Not until next summer. I'll go stay with Grandma in LA until then, and go camping with Mama and Caleb after the next kaiju engagement. Kinda like a gap year, just for six months."

"I'll start classes with the dual enrollment program in January."

Matty gave her a sly grin. "Is it really dual enrollment if you've already graduated? You'll just be a college student."

"One who still lives at her old school," Mako agreed. "I'm not the only one who's done that." Liling was staying too. She would apply to Class 2023-A with Mako. Aaron would have to wait until he turned eighteen to even apply; his mother had flatly refused to give him permission while he was underage. He wasn't even being allowed to apply to university early, so he'd have to settle for what dual-enrollment offered.

Only Matty Davis would be moving on now. "I keep wondering what I'm thinking," he admitted. "I hated having to start all over somewhere completely new when I came out here. I didn't want to do it. Now I'm doing it by choice, going to the hardest school in the country."

"My Sensei says no one ever stops being scared," Mako mused. "Brave people are just the ones who carry on even though they're scared." Matty's smile was starting to get the same wobbly look that Mako could feel on her own face, and to give them both a chance to stop looking at each other, she threw her arms around his neck. "I'll miss you."

"You too."

When the four of them, Mako, Matty, Liling, and Aaron, reconvened with their various parents and guardians to say goodbye, their chaperones mercifully didn't comment on their red eyes and tremulous expressions. "You'll be awesome at Harvard," Aaron told Matty. "I think you'll be a philosopher."

"I haven't decided on a major yet!" Matty protested, but behind him, Ranger Davis actually winked at Aaron. (Matty had taken all the philosophy and religion electives available, despite having to wheedle exemptions for the ones available only to seniors and juniors. He'd ended up blowing away the grading curves for most of them, much to the older students' dismay.) To Mako and Liling, he said, "This year'll be over fast. You're just lucky to have the extra time to prep for screening."

For a parting gift, he gave them each a painting that he'd done, shrouded in secrecy in his final art class. It was modeled on the World War II recruiting posters, with a painted Jaeger on a yellow background. Mako's Jaeger was Coyote Tango. Liling's was Horizon Brave. Above them blared the slogan: Go Big or Go Extinct.

---

~Coda~

Liling Gáo, Jaeger Academy Class 2023-A

Liling Gáo would attend Class 2023-A of the Jaeger Academy with Mako, but with a health exemption that would remove her from the Ranger applicant track. There was a precedent for this: Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler were among the most prominent graduates who had never been in contention for piloting, and Liling Gáo soon joined their ranks in K-Science's senior staff.

When the entire department faced massive budget cuts, Dr. Gottlieb was the one who persuaded Liling to take a position with a private bioscience firm studying "kaiju extermination" in Hong Kong, so that she'd keep her employment and health benefits.

During preparation for Operation Pitfall, Liling was in regular contact with Drs. Gottlieb and Geiszler, off the clock and at her own expense.

---

Aaron Schoenfeld, Jaeger Academy Class 2024-B

Aaron, being a year younger than Mako, wasn't permitted by his mother to apply to the Jaeger Academy until he had turned eighteen. He finally reached legal age in May 2024, and passed screening and the first cut of his class with flying colors... only to learn that his would be the last class, as the Academy was being decommissioned and sold.

Even the great Dr. Jasper Schoenfeld told his son that the time for Jaegers was over, and he might as well look into applying to universities inland.

Aaron flatly refused to consider abandoning the war effort, and used his considerable metalworking skills to land construction jobs around Kodiak Island on the Wall projects - so that he could volunteer on the Mark-3 Restoration Project. He worked on the restoration of Gipsy Danger up until she was relocated to Hong Kong, and by that time, he had sufficient credentials to justify a field promotion to project staff.

During their time working together in Kodiak Island, Mako and Aaron tested with each other in the pons science lab, but were disappointed to learn that they had no potential for drift compatibility.

Despite entreaties from both of his parents to leave the Hong Kong Shatterdome, Aaron swore he would stay with the Jaeger Program until there were either no Jaegers left or no kaiju left.

He saw that promise through.

---

Matthew Davis, Harvard College Class of 2026

Four months before he began classes at Harvard, the media did a fluff piece on a mural that Matthew Davis had painted in his old Los Angeles neighborhood. It was a trio of Jaegers, the ones who had defended Los Angeles during the attacks by Yamarashi in 2017 and Goad in 2020: Gipsy Danger, Chrome Brutus, and his mother's mech, Yankee Star, beneath the stylized slogan, "Go Big or Go Extinct." The PPDC and several marketing companies ended up buying the rights to the image, and then it was everywhere: posters, T-shirts, coffee cups, lunch boxes, and trading cards. Jaeger enthusiasts around the world could get it in their own language with their particular favorite Jaeger.

Mako, Liling, and Aaron considered it a matter of pride to collect them all. By the time Matty actually started classes at Harvard in summer 2022, he'd earned enough money to finance his education even without the scholarships, and he was being hailed for fostering a new wave of interest and enthusiasm for the Jaeger Program - and funding that would build, repair, and support it.

Matthew Davis elected to pursue a joint degree in government and African-American studies, and a secondary concentration in English. Upon turning eighteen, he stepped confidently out of the veil of protection that his family and the PPDC had placed around him and engaged the media as an outspoken advocate of the Jaeger Program and communities living on the front lines of the kaiju war.

Associated Press writer and frequent Jaeger Program chronicler Naomi Sokolov called Davis "the most brilliant and productive mind produced by the Jaeger generation - even held up against the men and women who actually designed and built the Jaegers. There's solid historical precedent for roles like the one Matthew Davis has undertaken. Genius engineers and courageous fighters design and wield the tools of war, but the thinkers and the writers are the ones who ensure we will remember it."

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine: The Boys of the Wall

Tottenham, London, UK

Stacker and Luna Pentecost were fatherless when Stacker was twelve, thanks to a nightclub owner's knife. Their mother, sultry and glamorous on the stage, careworn and alcoholic the rest of the time, had lost her anchor to the world. Twelve-year-old Stacker's revenge on her boss also meant she no longer had employment. Absently working through a liquor bottle, she didn't protest when the police came for her son and Children's Services came for her daughter. Stacker was still in reform school when the counselors informed him six months later that his mother had died. An accident, they said. She must have lost her footing on the stairwell, they reasoned. She hadn't suffered.

Stacker had known better. Mama had navigated the steep stairs of their apartment building in four-inch heels and roaring drunk with barely a stumble. If she'd fallen into that narrow space where people tossed cigarette butts and empty bottles, she'd done it on purpose.

Once Stacker satisfied the prefects that he was not a budding serial arsonist, he started getting leave to go home. He didn't expect to find much at home, except that Luna was now in the care of their neighbors, Paul and Gloria Terrence, whose son Damon was Stacker's age. The kids and young teens from their neighborhood had been a friendly lot, but Stacker half-expected them all to shun him now, and their parents to order him away.

Neither happened. Only then did Stacker learn that he was effectively the Terrences' ward along with his sister. Damon was a shy, awkward lad, and lording it over Stacker and Luna never occurred to him. Damon had always been closest to Luna, but stayed a friend to her and Stacker. On his visits, Stacker brought airplane magazines, and Luna picked up models at rummage sales, and the three of them vroomed up and down the loading dock just like before. Paul and Gloria told Stacker to hold his head up again.

Gloria had worked in an old factory since before she married Paul. She died of mesothelioma when Stacker was sixteen. It was only six months from the time she stopped working until the day she died, but to Stacker, Luna, and Damon, it felt like forever as she wasted away. After her funeral, Damon muttered, "I think I'll join up when I'm eighteen. Just so's I have a chance to die fighting."

Paul heard him, but didn't scold him. Stacker knew life would get harder for them afterward, but Paul never took it out on any of the kids who lived in his house. He traded off with the single mothers and weary grandmothers getting the kids in their block fed and back and forth to school and work.

Even if Stacker weren't under an edict from the courts, he would have considered enlisting after finishing high school. He owed a debt to Paul and Gloria for what they'd done, and making a decent living would be part of that. Damon remained fascinated by airplanes, so when Paul hinted that the two boys could enlist in the Royal Air Force together, Stacker readily agreed.

Paul attended the graduations of both Damon and Stacker, and when Luna followed in their footsteps three years later, he came to hers as well. Paul Terrence was surrogate father to any number of Tottenham kids, and Damon their surrogate brother. In all the time Stacker knew them, neither one ever held back from welcoming in someone who needed it.

While Stacker moved on to command posts, Damon remained passionate about flight, and stayed with the pilot corps.

---

2013…

On K-Day, Damon Terrence took off from Travis Air Force Base in California with hundreds of American and British pilots, including Tamsin Sevier and Luna Pentecost, to challenge Trespasser.

Only Tamsin returned.

Stacker told Paul in person. Actually, he didn't precisely "tell" him. He didn't have to. As soon as he saw Stacker on the landing of the flat, Paul knew. He must have suspected already, as hours, then days went by after Damon, Luna, and Tamsin deployed and no word followed, even after Trespasser was finally destroyed. The news was everywhere that more than half of the military forces who'd tried to stop the monster's advance had died in the attempt, and the death toll was still climbing from the nuclear blasts.

Paul Terrence's small flat, once noisy and often messy from the incursions of local children and teens, was silent and empty, as he and Stacker stared at their tea cups and wondered what the hell to do now. Damon was dead. Luna was dead. Three Californian cities had been wiped off the face of the earth.

"What of Tamsin?" Paul finally asked.

Stacker couldn't look at him. "She's on the list of evacuees, but I've had no other news." The thought that the list might be wrong had occurred to him. His heart was so pummeled already that it barely registered as more than another dull ache, to think that Tamsin might be dead as well. If she had survived, it didn't surprise Stacker that she hadn't called. Losing both Luna and Damon in that fight would have shattered her.

But where Stacker was lethargic, Paul was stirred by that news. "Go and find her. She'll need you now."

"But what will you do?"

"Move on until I'm ready to come to rest again." Paul gave him a faint smile. "Gloria's family did the same, when her mother passed. They came to rest here in Tottenham. Drifting is a time-honored way of coping."

Stacker couldn't hide his dismay. "But if I need...how will I find you?"

Paul raised his eyebrows and waggled his phone. "It's the twenty-first century, lad. I'm merely moving on, not going off the grid. You'll find me the way you always can: email and text." He put a rough hand on Stacker's shoulder. "Wherever I am, I will be here for you. You know that. I will be here for Tamsin. Don't hesitate to call, or send a message, any more than you ever did when my boy was alive. That much won't change. I would never betray his memory by abandoning you."

It wasn't much, but it was enough. Stacker and Tamsin reunited among the remains of Tamsin's division outside El Segundo Air Force Base in California, and decided where to go from there. Once they told him that they were going to remain in the service, Paul gave up the old flat in Tottenham, put most of his belongings in storage, and departed in search of a place not filled with memories of his wife, his son, and his son's young friends who'd died in San Francisco with him.

As promised, he stayed in touch with Stacker and Tamsin. When they joined the fledgling Jaeger Program, he texted them, Look after yourselves. And give the word if you need me to look after you.

Paul did indeed drift, first to the continent, then eventually to the US, watching society buckle under each subsequent kaiju attack. He knew that Stacker and Tamsin worried when he eventually made his way to the Pacific coast, where there was an explosion of available construction work on shelters, bunkers, and evacuation routes, and eventually, Shatterdomes. "An on-site accident is more likely to kill me than a kaiju, you two, and I've been dodging the former all my life. When my time comes, it comes, and I'll keep busy until then. Notice I'm not scolding you two for challenging the bastards head-on."

From the long silence on the phone, they both knew he'd won the debate. "Stay in touch, then," Stacker said.

"You know I will. Give the monsters hell."

They did, and even when Tamsin's injury ended their fighting career, they stayed with the Program, and from a distance, Paul watched. He knew that they knew he would always be watching.

---

2020...

In late spring of 2020, Stacker called him up and asked for a favor. "Are you still working in the coastal defense projects in California?"

"Yes, we're in Santa Cruz at the moment. What's happened?"

"I have a private investigator tailing a former Ranger. He's doing odd jobs for cash along the coastal projects. If he were to land close to you, I'd be very grateful if you'd keep an eye on him."

Paul searched his memory of the Jaeger pilots who'd left the service quietly - as opposed to the stardom they enjoyed while they commanded a Jaeger - and quickly reached the most likely candidate. "Is it that young Becket, whose brother died in February?"

"The very one. He wants to be off the grid, and I'm trying to respect that, but not enough to leave him for dead. He's capable of working and taking care of himself, but his mental state when he left was...fragile."

Paul knew all too well what Stacker meant. "He was a soldier, lad. You'd be surprised how many I see in these projects. He won't even be the first I've invited to gain a steady paycheck. Where is he now?"

"He boarded a truck in Portland bound for Los Angeles, but I doubt he'll take it to the final stop, not in the same town as a Shatterdome."

"Leave it to me. Have your investigator call me if they know where he lands."

It was only a few days of haunting the loading docks and delivery sites before Paul spotted his object, standing taller than many of the bent-backed men as he scanned the bulletin boards and the supervisors hawking their various projects. He stood out if you knew what to look for, but he wasn't the only one of his type searching for work. In the seven years since Paul's only child had died along with so many of his young friends, Paul had come to know men like Raleigh Becket all too well.

They were a generation or two younger than most men who trolled the construction sites in search of no-questions-asked employment for cash or goods. These laborers were invariably men with no better prospects to turn to on the war-torn coast, and nowhere safer to go. For men like Becket, youth and strength wasn't enough to compensate for the burdens they carried in their minds.

Would Damon have been one of them? Or Luna Pentecost? Paul didn't want to think that was likely, but there was no telling what brutal combat might have done even to the kids he'd raised. As a result, when Paul looked at Raleigh Becket and the young men like him at the job sites, he couldn't help but see his son.

When Becket's aimless wandering of the recruitment gathering took him in Paul's direction, Paul easily affected an urban American accent in pitching the civil defense projects. He deliberately didn't mention the Wall, only the bunkers, though the Wall of Life would quickly become a primary employer in this economy if the media were to be believed.

"Work for cash and ration cards, son! We need welders, mechanics, operators, carpenters, general labor!"

Raleigh Becket looked at him without really seeing him, and Paul pretended not to really see him either, beyond a strong back. But the civil defense projects were a draw, since they came with the dubious veneer of government protection and, therefore, a slightly more secure paycheck. The young Ranger took it and jumped onto the truck without saying a word.

The fall of Gipsy Danger was still big enough news that Raleigh Becket didn't keep anonymity at first. Paul deliberately did a double-take the first time someone spoke of it, and shrugged it off where he knew Becket could see him. "Well, he's here to do a job. No skin off my nose what happened to the last one. Keep an eye on your own work and let him do his."

The boy shot Paul a grateful look and turned back to the welder he was trying to fix.

---

The political controversies surrounding the Wall of Life program rarely made it into the workers' barracks. The people who actually built the defense projects were too tired, too hungry, too empty to give a damn about patriotism and principles and courage. The Wall project was more dangerous than the bunkers - so it offered more pay.

Paul surreptitiously observed young Becket when the recruiters made their pitch to the workers, and when Raleigh stepped forward, Paul did as well. There was always work for supervisors and foremen on the projects, and a man with Paul's credentials would always be in demand.

Raleigh Becket may have been the only former Ranger, but he wasn't the only veteran. Most of the workers were older, pushed aside from better work by the younger, more able men, left on the fringes of the kaiju-ravaged coastal economy with nowhere to go. But among them drifted a small crowd of younger lads, who at first glance should have had better prospects than the noisy, treacherous filth of the Wall. The youth, like Raleigh, were looking for anonymity in the dust, but the older workers - many of whom were lifelong laborers whose lives had been hard and only got harder since K-Day...they knew what it meant when young men were here.

Some of the supervisors were as tired as the workers, looking for a means to feed themselves and live long enough to die of something other than starvation or exposure. Others were opportunists, grasping and contemptuous of the lost, bilking the vulnerable, and trading the safest or best-paying shifts for a price. The corrupt were wary of the veterans, seeing a virtue in them that might be a threat.

Their fears were only partly justified. Paul of all people knew that it was a myth that most young soldiers joined up out of patriotic fervor and purity of heart. Even those who had done so rarely maintained such ideals after being soaked in blood and filth.

Only their youth marked them now in the equalizing haze of smoke and sweat and metal, a youth of the flesh that didn't seem to jive with the age in their eyes. Yet occasionally, a dog tag slipped out from under a collar, and the passers-by knew: Here stands a soldier.

Almost universally, they were the quietest of the lot, withdrawn into their own space and their own minds. Sometimes they looked at nothing, staring at the ghosts of their pasts, and Paul found himself staring at the ghost of his son.

No doubt they all felt alone, but anyone who paid attention would realize they weren't. Their minds simply weren't equipped to realize it anymore.

One was Luis, a Venezuelan lad bearing scars that looked like they'd come from injuries inflicted methodically. That might explain his nightmares; the men in the workers' barracks muttered amongst themselves that he woke up screaming at night. Some of them grumbled, finding the boy a nuisance.

Raleigh Becket didn't. They rarely interacted - neither Raleigh nor Luis spoke to anyone unless they absolutely had to - but Raleigh was one of the workers who took the bearings of both himself and Luis when they were on the upper levels, silently checking Luis's harness during the lift rides to the top of the wall. According to the un-updated data on the personnel files, Luis was a few years older than Raleigh, but from his round face and large black eyes, often lost in some sight no one else could see, he looked even younger. Paul wondered what Luis was looking at, but had little doubt of what Raleigh saw in him.

Tohyŏn, a Korean, was another. He was older, probably in his thirties, with his personnel file containing a visa date that kept getting updated, even though Paul doubted that Tohyŏn was actually renewing the thing. A decade ago, there would have been American authorities checking on things like immigration status for workers. Not so anymore. No one wanted to work on the Wall unless they had no other choice.

Tohyŏn watched Raleigh, Luis, and the other boys with that familiar, haunted gaze. The older men of the Wall who hadn't abandoned weaknesses like compassion - or who hadn't had compassion ground out of their souls by a lifetime of struggle on the scuzzy fringe of an indifferent world - watched the boys and worried for their safety. The boys drifted in a state of constant distraction, only half-aware of the present and their surroundings.

In this environment, that was dangerous. Safety was less and less of a concern as the war ground on and pressure grew to raise the Wall faster and faster. During the first months in 2020, investigators swarmed the place and work stopped for days if there was an accident or an injury. By mid-2021, work resumed at once, and the investigators had to dodge active machinery and busy workers while collecting evidence. By the end of 2021, there was no investigation unless the accident resulted in a fatality.

By the end of 2022, if a man died on the Wall, there was no investigation at all. Paul dutifully filled out the paperwork for the fatalities, but nobody came to collect it, and there was no instruction on where it should go, so it gathered dust on a shelf of his trailer. He knew he was among the few supervisors who even bothered with that much. But for a handful of conscientious workers who would stop what they were doing to clear a body away - even losing a shift and the vital pay that came for it - anyone who died on the Wall would probably have been left to rot right where they fell.

Paul received more pay than he really needed in the first years, since he never left his work site and didn't drink or use drugs. He didn't need much. So for the men whose pay was docked for wasting time on something as pointless as burying a human being, he handed over extra rations. It wasn't much, but enough to ensure that the ones who held on to a few scraps of decency didn't spend that night hungry.

Some of them didn't make it. Illness ran rampant in the barracks and crowded cantinas. Nearly everyone drank as much as they could get their hands on. Drugs were everywhere and circulated freely to anyone who was willing to pay, and even Paul didn't always have the time or the resources to check and make sure his crews were all sober before they departed on their shifts. Government oversight and concern for "workplace hazards" grew less and less with each passing month until it was nonexistent. Heavy machinery, noise, and vehicles moved constantly on the edges of everyone's vision. The Wall grew taller, and the falls grew longer. Of course, the pay grew higher for anyone who would dare the top level, and as pay in cash was replaced by ration cards, more men were desperate enough to risk it even with their backs bent by age and labor or their senses fogged by illness of body or brain.

---

Winter 2023…

Outside Seattle, for a few months in early 2023, there was even a girl on the crews. She wasn't much to look at, ruddy, dirty like everyone else, her hair cropped short and shaggy under the hard hat. It was a few days before anyone really noticed that she actually was female, under the layers they all wore in the Pacific Northwest in high winter. Paul knew from the payroll that her name was Jean - or at least that was the name she gave. There weren't background checks for the Wall workers.

She never spoke to anyone as far as Paul could see, but she was a good welder. And she was a veteran. She had that look. Paul saw her make eye contact with Raleigh once. Neither said a word, but there was no missing the understanding that passed between them. One soldier knew another. She shared the same brief gaze with Tohyŏn, and another time, with Luis.

Paul worried about her a little more than the others, imagining what the scum of the Wall might do as word got around that there was a woman in their midst. But Paul wasn't the only one who saw the way she gravitated to the haunted boys, one of their own, and their protectors extended it to her. The opportunists and the unscrupulous avoided the veterans, even though many of them were vulnerable to schemes or a simple mugging; there were still enough decent men who watched out for the soldiers, even the ones too distracted to be aware of it. Most of the small-time criminals in the workers' midst were cowards. They wouldn't risk the implied threat from the protectors - including supervisors like Paul - to anyone who laid a hand on the veteran boys - and girl - or their meager possessions.

Safety equipment broke and wasn't replaced, and the supply of things like life lines available for the upper level workers dwindled until they were gone. The men and women of the Wall had to rely on balance and luck to survive long enough to pick up their ration cards and ever-decreasing paycheck.

During the spring thaw, there was ice and slimy mud everywhere, but the demands on the workers to take upper level shifts remained the same. By the time spring was over, the death toll on the wall was approaching a hundred men - and one woman. Jean had been better-balanced than many, but even the best of them could slip. Tohyŏn, Raleigh, and a few of the others dared the chaos of the heavy loading zone at the base to get to her, but the only thing to do was carry her body out and bury it. At least it was over fast.

Nightmares from memory didn't only hit the veteran boys in their sleep. Sometimes they'd freeze in their tracks, staring at nothing, eyes glazed. That was what happened to Luis. In 2024, he stopped behind a big earth mover whose driver never saw him.

The driver cried. The foreman, Miles, scoffed and called that driver a mama's boy, and suddenly found himself staring at the scowling faces of Raleigh, Tohyŏn, and a few others. Miles cleared out in a hurry, and Paul took over directing the vehicles so the boys could remove Luis's body.

---

February 2024...

As Leap Day 2024 approached, Paul saw Raleigh growing increasingly distracted, and many of the men watched him. Tohyŏn even approached and spoke up, something he only did for the veteran boys. "Do not let him take a top shift on that day." No need to ask what day he meant. "He'll fall. Or jump."

Stacker emailed more often for updates, expressing more worry than he had for anyone since Luna and Damon died. "This is a dangerous time. He'll be careless."

Paul knew Stacker had more than enough to deal with for his active Rangers. "Trust me, Stacks. I'll handle it."He opted for the brusquest attitude possible on the morning of February 29, 2024. "Forget it, kid," he told Raleigh curtly when the boy stepped forward at the start of shift. "You ain't goin' up there today."

Unsurprisingly, Raleigh bristled and glared around him. "What, I'm just trying to make a living."

Paul shrugged and turned away, but refused to give him a shift card. With a snarl, the former Ranger stalked off. Once the shift cards were out, Paul went to the workers' barracks and found a confrontation brewing there as well. Rather than grateful to the men who were offering him some of their ration packs, he was close to throwing a punch. "Leave me the hell alone! I don't want your fucking charity!"

Eyeing the four older men making the offers, recalling that they were always the ones who silently kept watch over the veteran boys, Paul made a silent wager with himself. He was right.

The first of them, a black man with a grizzled beard, refused to withdraw the pack he was holding out, and told Raleigh, "It's for him."

Raleigh froze. Each of the men had a single thing to say as they put a share of their own rations on his bunk. It wasn't much - a bottle of water, a box of cereal, protein bars, a lunch pouch, a can of beans - but it would feed a man until tomorrow. With each gift came a single statement from each of them:

"I was in L.A."

"I was in San Diego."

"My mother was in Puerto San Jose."

"My wife and kids were in Anchorage."

Raleigh didn't - or couldn't - speak again, and retreated from the barracks in a daze. Ordinarily, rations left sitting out would quickly disappear, but nobody touched anything in Raleigh Becket's space. Even the unscrupulous men who might have tried were warned off by the glares of a rotating group who seemed to have appointed themselves to keep watch. Half stood guard near Raleigh's belongings, the other kept track of him while he exercised in a near-frenzy on the edge of the work site.

Paul let him take the second and third day shifts on the lower levels without comment, but nearly all the men kept an eye on him the entire time. After third shift was over, he didn't go back to barracks, but exercised again until he simply collapsed. Tohyŏn and the appointed protectors helped him back to his bunk and got some of the food into him.

Apart from that exchange over the shift cards and the rations, nobody said a word. But Raleigh Becket survived Leap Day, and Yancy Becket was remembered.

That night, Paul dreamed of his son. It was like many dreams that had come since Damon's death - a blend of different days in the past. Damon was the age he'd been at the time of his death, but he and Luna were sitting on the wall along the street outside the apartment building just like when they were kids, chattering indistinctly. Another young man came trotting up to join them, and they waved and made a space as if he was an old friend. In the dream, the lad was perfectly familiar and didn't raise any surprise to the watching Paul. When the kids were young, many of the local boys and girls had hung out there.

But when Paul woke, it hit him almost at once. The boy who joined Damon and Luna had been American, a handsome lad with strawberry blond hair and bright blue eyes. Only then, the morning of March 1, did it occur to Paul that although Yancy Becket had been several years younger than Damon and the Pentecosts, he'd been around the same age when he died that Damon and Luna had been.

---

When Tamsin's cancer returned, Paul actually considered abandoning his post. Stacker looked torn, but Tamsin was adamantly against it. "I don't want anyone hovering about my bedside watching me die."

"You can't very well prevent everyone from visiting," Stacker retorted.

"Visit if you like, but not to nurse me. You both have better things to do."

She left the call with some crossness, and Stacker sighed. "Her superiors with K-Watch are ordering her off duty before long. She isn't taking it well."

"It's not how you or I would choose to go out. I don't blame her," Paul said dryly. He wondered if Stacker remembered what Damon had said after Gloria's funeral. I'd rather die fighting. "What are you going to do?"

Stacker sighed again. "I've promised her I'll see the war to the end. One of us will keep making the bastards bleed until we're all gone, one way or the other. She's promised that Mako and I may see her...at the end, but apart from that, we're to carry on."

"No one ever said it was easy, son. We both know that."

Paul did take advantage of the open plane ticket that Stacker surreptitiously obtained for him to visit Hawaii three times during Tamsin's last months. He didn't say where he was going, and no one asked.

After his last trip in late 2024, he returned from Tamsin's funeral. By that point, Stacker too had been diagnosed, and probably would not have admitted it if Paul hadn't sensed the decline in his health. But he'd made his choice to stay in the fight for as long as he could keep his condition a secret. Paul didn't blame him for that, but returned to the Wall keenly aware that barring an accident, he was going to outlive all three of his children.

He had never said about the purpose of his trip...but he saw Raleigh and Tohyŏn looking at him. There was no way they could have known, yet it was almost as if they sensed it.

Maybe they did.

---

Throughout 2024 and the first part of 2025, the workers watched Jaegers fall.

Many eyes, some curious, some scornful, others concerned, followed Raleigh Becket as he worked, ate, and struggled to sleep. His compulsive exercises began to change, and Paul wondered if he was the only one who noticed. Rather than simple push-ups, press-ups, and the crude weight presses that some of the healthier men had put together out of discarded materials, he began drilling in martial arts, using a pole of wood or piping that he liberated from the junk pile.

He grew more aware of his surroundings, a little more responsive to the talkative men, watching more openly over the shakier workers. He shot glares at Miles and the other ones who denigrated the Jaeger Program. Miles and his ilk grew bolder, and Raleigh's temper grew shorter. Paul counted the days that went by without a confrontation, and knew that when it did come, it wouldn't be pretty.

On February 28 and March 1, 2025, he didn't try to get a shift on top of the Wall, and Paul let him take a double shift on the lower level again. Once again, there were untouched rations left on his bunk. This time, he didn't try to refuse them, and nobody said anything at all about the date. He spent the third shift alternating between frenzied exercise and standing motionless by the fence, staring at the ocean.

He did that more and more often as the number of Jaegers dwindled. A few times, Paul wondered if he was going to leave the Wall, but when the shift changed, Raleigh's shoulders slumped, and he went to claim a shift card.

---

Attacks were coming barely ten days apart by July 2025, and there were barely half a dozen Jaegers left. Paul's work crew was in Sitka, Alaska when Stacker called him.

"How is he?"

"Physically, he's very well. What about you?"

"Physically, I suppose I'm well enough. We're down to five Jaegers, and I'm down to planning our last stand."

Paul almost asked him what he planned to do after. "If the last stand fails?"

"Then it is officially the end of the world, and we'll all soon meet our makers." There was a vague sarcasm in Stacker's voice. "So I'm reduced to doing what I once promised never to do. Bring him back into the program that killed his brother in front of him."

Paul said quietly, "You stayed in the war that killed your sister. Tamsin continued the fight that killed her wife. Raleigh might be grateful for the chance."

"What kind of chance is this?"

"To choose where to die. He's seen plenty of death here on the Wall in the past five years. To see the end in a Jaeger might be preferable."

There was a long silence. "Truth be told, I've wondered that very thing. After all, it's what I'd have chosen. And Tamsin, if either of us had been given a choice."

"What of your girl, Mako? She must be grown now."

"She is. She's fighting for the chance to get into one. If we lose another pilot before the final operation, she might even get the chance."

"She has a choice too."

Stacker went on quickly, evading the subject. "In any case, there's little time to do more than prepare. I'd at least prefer to put this to him in person. Where is he?"

"We're in Sitka. All shifts are handed out at the central base of the work site. You can't miss it."

By the time Stacker managed to escape the Shatterdomes after the next few attacks - in which another Jaeger fell - the whole world had watched a completed section of the Wall crumble under a kaiju in less than an hour. The Jaeger Program was down to three mechs, riots were breaking out, and entire countries were buckling under the weight of the population's despair. Raleigh Becket was a ball of nervous tension, sleeping less than ever, practicing Bushido to the point of collapse whenever he wasn't on duty or eating.

Even before the work crews heard the buzz of the military helicopter's blades, Paul wondered if perhaps he knew.

The boy was downright casual in greeting Stacker Pentecost. Paul kept to the shadows, just in case Stacker were to give in to the temptation to look in his direction. But among the crowd of curious workmen, Paul spotted Tohyŏn in the front of the other boys. They clustered together, watching in silence, and briefly, Stacker did glance at them. For the first time that Paul could ever recall, Tohyŏn smiled.

When Stacker remarked that Raleigh hadn't been easy to find, Paul shifted himself further into the shadows, just in case he betrayed himself with a smirk.

Raleigh backed off at first, feigning indifference - much like Stacker himself might have done when he was overwhelmed. Strange how Paul could recognize so much of young Stacker Pentecost in this blue-eyed American boy. As he turned his back, Stacker called after him. "Haven't you heard, Mr. Becket? The world is coming to an end! So where would you rather die - here? Or in a Jaeger?"

The boy faltered. Then he kept going. Tohyŏn and the other boys looked after him in dismay.

Paul stepped out of his observation post once Raleigh had retreated to the cantina. Many of the workers were dispersing now, assuming the show was over, but Tohyŏn and the boys were lingering. As if they were waiting. Stacker looked at Paul then, and Paul discreetly lifted a finger.

Wait. Just wait a little while. He'll come back.

Stacker didn't take any convincing, but merely leaned against the chopper's side.

It took less than five minutes for cheers and bellows of laughter to erupt from the cantina. Word rippled through the crowd: "Flyboy finally let Miles have it! Smashed his face into his beer! Fucker had it coming!"

Raleigh reappeared, jogging from the barracks tent with his duffel bag over his shoulder. Paul stepped backward, but Raleigh wasn't looking in his direction. He was looking at Tohyŏn and the boys. Nearly all of them were smiling. Some were outright grinning.

Most of us came here to live until we die. It isn't often that one of us gets to choose another way.

As the chopper lifted off with Ranger Raleigh Becket inside, many of the onlookers murmured in confusion, wondering why anybody would choose to go back to Jaegers and what was likely to be another fast and messy death.

There were no questions or confusion among the boys who surrounded Tohyŏn, the boys who'd been soldiers. They knew why Raleigh'd gone. They understood.

A few minutes later, Paul had a text from Stacker: What will you do now?

Paul texted him back. I've still got a job to do. I'll be here when it's over. Good luck, son. Look after him. He smiled at the helicopter as it grew smaller in the sky, then returned his gaze to the group of boys still on the ground. "Come on, you lot. Show's over. Go loiter somewhere else or eat."

He got a lot of double-takes over the next few days, having finally dropped his fake American accent. Most of the boys didn't notice, but Tohyŏn did. Paul belatedly recalled that Tohyŏn always followed the Jaeger news, and had some faded paraphernalia from the early years, back when Stacker and Tamsin had been active.

"You sound like him. Pentecost."

Paul looked at him and shrugged. "Small world."

Tohyŏn studied him, intrigued. "You were here for the boy?"

"I'm here for all the boys."

It was a highly cryptic conversation, but Tohyŏn needed no explanation. He met Paul's eyes and nodded. He'd been a soldier. He'd known loss. He understood. With that, he and Paul heard the shift horn blow and went back to work, to look after their boys.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten: Help Thy Brother's Boat Across

 

Help thy brother's boat across, and lo! thine own has reached the shore. – Hindu Proverb

After Clawhook, Raleigh and Yancy pulled the mattresses off their bunk beds and put them side-by-side on the floor. It was a really tight squeeze to get to the bathroom or the fridge, but neither of them cared. It was still too rough to sleep separately.

Once they were cleared to get back into the simulator, things got easier. Drifting eased the mental strain that had been left behind from destabilizing, like a badly-pulled muscle in their brains. But even when they worked themselves to exhaustion - which the medics kept preventing - it still wasn't enough to keep the memory out of their dreams.

Screw anybody who saw their mattresses on the floor and thought it was weird. In any case, that was unlikely. Only Shatterdome staff were allowed in personnel quarters, and personnel knew about Rangers and what the drift could do to them. All the Los Angeles personnel knew what destabilizing in pursuit of Clawhook had done to the Becket brothers.

For weeks on end, it was the same routine at the end of every day. Outside the simulator or their Jaeger, Raleigh and Yancy huddled against each other's sides and tried to remember what drifting felt like. Drifting meant they were together. It meant they were safe. Outside the drift, they felt…less certain of either.

Yancy struggled to get to sleep. Once he actually managed to get to sleep, he stayed asleep, and he was the same groggy lump at reveille as ever. But ever since Clawhook, he had trouble actually calming down enough to get to sleep.

That used to be Raleigh's problem: his mind never wanted to shut the hell off. Now it had become Yancy's issue, only worse, with memories of searching and terror and desperation creeping into his consciousness as he started to slip under, making him jerk awake in panic, grabbing for his brother.

That didn't make it very easy for Raleigh to get to sleep either.

He tried making warm milk, but Yancy just made a face and muttered, "I'm pretty sure this stuff doesn't work if you're over age twelve."

Frustrated, Raleigh called Devi and Suze Hassan in Sydney. "You two are the most chill people I know; what the hell do I do to get him to sleep?"

"Chamomile tea," said Devi immediately. "I don't like milk either; almost any herbal non-caffeinated tea'll do the trick."

"Dunno if Yance is a tea drinker, but I'll give it a shot."

"Add lemon and cherry juice to it," said Susanti. "Then it's more like lemonade." She tilted her head at the vid-com's camera. "How're you sleeping otherwise?"

Raleigh shrugged. He should've figured they'd ask. "I'll sleep better once he's sleeping better."

The sisters looked at each other, and Suze finally said, "Well, call us if you need to. Other side of the planet; we'll be up."

"'kay."

On top of being exhausted, Yancy was cranky as hell every time Raleigh tried to come up with a different remedy. "What the hell are you brewing now?" he grumbled when Raleigh started the coffee maker up to heat water. "Cough medicine?"

Raleigh ignored him, though the cherry juice kind of did smell like that. Great, gonna trigger him before he even tries to sleep, then he won't even taste it.

But once he had the tea mixed in, the smell was kind of nice, and Yance quit complaining about it. It would've been kind of ridiculous if he'd gone over to the bed and found Yancy asleep, but he wasn't - though he did look drowsier than he had in weeks. "What is it?" he mumbled.

"Lemon, chamomile, and cherry. Suze Hassan's recipe when she can't sleep." Raleigh poured two cups and went to curl up on the mattresses with his brother.

"If we spill these, 's gonna make a mess."

"Shuddup and drink your tea, grumpy." Raleigh tasted his. Hm. It actually was pretty good. Fruity rather than like drinking a cup of wet grass (or at least that's what Raleigh always thought about herbal tea.)

Yancy didn't say anything about it, but he didn't complain either. Good sign. He curled up against Raleigh and tossed his empty cup into the trash can. "Sorry I've been such a jerk lately."

Raleigh kept one arm around his brother while he finished his own tea. "It's okay. It fucking sucks not being able to get to sleep." He finished his and slid the empty cup under the bed rather than risk splattering the dregs on the floor. His aim wasn't as good as Yancy's.

"I keep...thinking you've gone somewhere," Yancy murmured.

Raleigh sighed. The first night after Clawhook, Raleigh had been near-comatose. But Yancy had woken up and wandered out of the infirmary even though Raleigh had been asleep right next to him. Marshal Pentecost had found him in the hallways and talked him down, only for Yancy to pass out again. Yancy still didn't really remember what they'd talked about, just that he'd been desperate and scared for Raleigh to the point that he thought he must've yelled at Pentecost.

"I'm not going anywhere. It's just in our heads, Yance. I promise. 's getting better with every drift." And that tea really was working. Raleigh was having trouble keeping his eyes open, but he didn't want to zonk out before Yancy did, because then Yancy might fret half the night.

But at last, churning anxiety wasn't coming through the ghost drift. Maybe that tea really was getting the job done; Yancy felt as drowsy as Raleigh. "Dunno why...get so scared," his brother mumbled into his neck.

Raleigh rubbed his shoulders. "Destab'lization's scary," he figured. "Was scary. 's okay now." We're okay. We're getting better. Just gotta...get it out of our heads.

His brother's breathing deepened, and Raleigh kept moving his hand until he fell into a kind of trance, eyes closed and still rubbing Yancy's back.

Yance was asleep now. It was okay. They were okay. They were together. Raleigh let himself sink down into the soft darkness and fade out of the world in Yancy's arms.

---

It was slippery, its tough hide sliding through their metal hands despite digging their fingers in, and lashed back at them with its back legs, rabbit-kicking their stomach with hooked claws. It was getting away, if it got away...he didn't remember why that was bad, just that they couldn't let it get away...

"Cannon charging..." But whose canon? Couldn't remember...who...where...

Yancy? Where - "Yance..." He - Raleigh? - was off balance, out of sync...couldn't remember...missing...

Where's...he? Who...who's missing? Who am I? Where...can't...

"Warning, neural handshake destabilizing."

Bad, that was bad, but he couldn't...claws slashed at his face and he staggered back - fire burst from his hand - no, the other hand - whose hand...cannon...

Where...where...alone? "Yan-cy? Where - Yance?" Alone? Alone?! No! "YANCY!"

"Rals! Rals, c'mon, wake up!" The conn-pod shook and Raleigh cried out, flailing for...other half, who was missing - something was wrapped around him and he yelled, thrashing in terror. Did it have them, was it dead, was it - "RALEIGH!"

His hand fell on familiar skin and finally, his mind tumbled from the whirlpool of noise and terror back into reality. Quarters...night...mattresses on the floor...the smell of lemon and cherry tea...Yancy...Yancy...here. Right here, holding Raleigh in a bear hug to keep him from punching or clawing. "Yance...Yance," he panted, heart hammering.

"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, baby bro. It's okay, I gotcha. You're okay." Yancy crooned in his ear, rocking him like Raleigh was eight again and waking up from night terrors. Well, Raleigh might has well have been eight again, he was shaking so damn hard.

Only it wasn't the monsters in his dreams that scared him so bad now. Even knowing the worst monsters imaginable were real didn't give him nightmares like this. Just being afraid Yancy was gone, that had him panicked and yelling.

"It's okay," Yancy repeated. Once he was satisfied that Raleigh wouldn't fight him, he loosened his grasp and ran his fingers through Raleigh's hair. "I'm here. It was just a dream."

Raleigh shuddered hard and shifted so he could press his face into his brother's chest. Why the fuck did a stupid destabilized drift have to make him act like such a baby? Yancy murmured some vague denial into his hair. Raleigh blinked back frustrated tears; his throat was humiliatingly tight. "'s gonna be red alert soon," he croaked. "And we...we're not..."

...we're not gonna be cleared for action. Not while we're like this. We're gonna still be grounded.

Yancy kissed the top of his head. "Don't get like that, kiddo. It's nobody's fault. Hell, being clear for the very next alert's the exception, not the rule, you know it. We both know it."

We didn't fuck up. We're not the only ones who needed down time after a rough fight. The Gages after Hardship, it was the same for them, and they didn't even destabilize like we did. It wasn't their fault either.

I know. Every rational bone in Raleigh's body knew Yancy was right. But it was just that he fucking hated being grounded - and the whole Corps knew it. Raleigh was at his worst when he was out of action. I know it's not our fault. I just hate it.

"Sorry I woke you up," he mumbled into Yancy's sleep shirt. All that struggling to get Yancy calmed down last night, chamomile tea and everything, and now Raleigh'd gone and woken him up with his own damn nightmare.

"Shh. That wasn't your fault either. We're gonna be okay." Yance combed his fingers through Raleigh's hair until Raleigh managed to quit smushing his face into his brother's chest. But Raleigh stayed close up against him, and Yancy wasn't at all inclined to pull away. Raleigh would've sensed it if Yance wanted more space.

I don't. As if to prove it, Yancy kept one arm wrapped around Raleigh, fingers stroking his hair and not-accidentally landing on his pulse. Raleigh made himself breathe and shut his eyes. Hold onto me if you need to, Rals. I'm here.

So Raleigh draped an arm over his brother, mirroring Yancy's position and giving into the need to hang on. Skin-to-skin contact quieted the turmoil from the nightmare like nothing else could until they drifted again.

It'd get better. With each subsequent drift, it got better. Raleigh shifted so his head was on Yancy's chest and he could listen to his brother's heartbeat. Yance didn't mind (though usually it was Yancy who liked to use Raleigh as a pillow), just kept running his fingers through Raleigh's hair.

Raleigh's own heart slowed down in tandem with his brother's and the rhythm of Yancy's fingers against his scalp, until the world quieted down to just those sounds, and he drifted with Yancy into calm silence.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven: So Lucky To Have Seen You Grow

Stacker said those words to Mako with deep feeling, and they both knew why: he hadn't had that chance with his son.

If Jake Pentecost's mother had lived, it would have been different. Then again, if it weren't for the kaiju, so many things would have been different.

---

2009...

Her name was Claudia Martin. She came from Peckham in London. She knew Tamsin and Luna before she knew Stacker, another of their rowdy, hard-partying crowd. She certainly wasn't the first girl among Luna's friends to do a double-take upon introduction to Luna's big brother, then give him a sly, lingering up-and-down examination. (Hell, there were a few blokes among Luna's friends who did that.)

Stacker's circle overlapped almost entirely with his gregarious younger sister's, though he was most at ease among fellow pilots. The RAF crowd worked hard and played harder, and Stacker and Claudia often found themselves slightly less drunk (though not at all sober) at the end of pub crawls and parties, recruited by default to the job of herding all the cats back to base.

Claudia was never really a girlfriend. Their relationship progressed after a drunken fling to casual, relaxed, and discreet intimacy whenever they had the same posts. She was a good friend, more inclined towards command positions, as was Stacker, more cautious than Luna and Tamsin.

Hell, Claudia and Stacker were both cautious people, so they were baffled (and rather mortified) that both of their precautions with contraception came to naught.

Jacob Martin Pentecost was an accident; there was no getting around that.

Stacker and Claudia were flummoxed for several weeks after Claudia stammered the news to him in a whisper. But they rallied their scattered thoughts toward decision making, and in the end, Claudia was certain she wanted children even if there was never a husband in the long-term picture. Stacker was...more ambivalent, but not enough to want to dissuade her.

By mutual choice, they kept it quiet except for their closest confidantes and family.

Luna and Tamsin were astonished, but as Stacker knew it would, they quickly shifted to glee, and it took a combination of bribery and blackmail to get them to keep their mouths shut. There was no preventing them from buying a fortune's worth of baby gear, and Stacker and Claudia knew it, so they gritted their teeth and went along with it.

By then, Stacker and Luna were orphans with no other family whose opinions would matter.

Claudia, on the other hand, came from a good family. Her father was a professor of sociology, and her mother a skilled public relations analyst. She'd grown up comfortable, and her parents were wealthy by the time they approached retirement. She was their only daughter.

Gregory and Patrice Martin were, to say the least, less than pleased by the circumstances of their first and only grandson's arrival. It didn't help that Stacker's first introduction to them was after Claudia had broken the news of her pregnancy. Dinner with Claudia's parents was the most painfully awkward experience of Stacker's life - up to and including juvenile criminal court.

There was no mistaking their disapproval of Stacker as an individual, let alone as a mate for their daughter and father of her child. They got their hands on Stacker's youthful criminal record far too easily, and made no bones about "politely" questioning him on the subject. It was clear to Stacker that Claudia's parents regarded him as a ne'er do well, and no amount of evidence of his military record would change their minds.

They protested Claudia's decision to give her son Stacker's surname. "That can't be necessary if you've no plans to marry."

(Claudia and Stacker had deliberately avoided the subject of marriage, and while it was true that they weren't planning on it, it galled Stacker to hear Patrice treat it as a foregone conclusion - or at least her desired conclusion.)

He wondered how Claudia would stand up to her parents, in their handsome house and fine neighborhood, compared to her own meager RAF salary with a baby to support. As stiff as the Martins appeared to Stacker, there was no indication they didn't care for Claudia, and that alone was a treasure he couldn't imagine wanting to jeopardize.

But Claudia did stand her ground, uncompromising and unmoved by her parents' disapproval. "I like the name, and it's Stacker's son too. He'll be Jacob Martin Pentecost."

Gregory eyed Stacker and all but sneered, "Are you even planning to acknowledge the child?"

Stacker might not be experienced with these two people, but by that age, he'd learned how to freeze into rigid formality. "Of course. I wouldn't be here otherwise, would I?"

Judging by their expressions, Claudia's parents would have preferred both that Stacker Pentecost not be here and not acknowledge the child. "You'll be expected to give you share of support, in that case," Gregory went on, as if in challenge.

Stacker replied steadily, "I intend to. He'll be entitled to my military benefits and pension."

"Well," sighed Patrice. "I suppose that's reason enough for putting the father's name down." In the end, they turned their attention to the practicalities and seemed to try to forget there was any issue that couldn't be solved that way.

---

"They were furious I joined the RAF," Claudia confessed later. "They wanted university, you see. They had plans for me." She scowled and a put a hand on her stomach. "Soon they'll have plans for him, but they won't carry them out. He stays with me."

Stacker bit back a grumble that parents who cared for the future was a luxury he hadn't had for a long time. Claudia had a right to decide for herself what was best for her son, and Stacker wasn't very amenable to the idea of outside interference either. A part of him wondered if Jacob's grandparents would want anything to do with Jacob.

Practicality wasn't the only reason that Stacker's name would appear on Jacob's birth certificate. He and Claudia were never monogamous romantic partners, but they were close, up until the day she died.

He did find that while the Martins were cold towards Stacker, they were capable of warmth. Despite their disapproval of Stacker, they doted on Jake from the day he was born in December 2009.

They protested Claudia's decision to keep Jake with her when she rejoined the RAF as a flight instructor, but Claudia refused to budge. Jake would live with her in base family housing, always.

Stacker had full access to their son, and Luna and Tamsin were his doting and eccentric aunts (though they scandalized the Martins almost as much Stacker had, but one warning glare from Claudia silenced any complaints they were preparing to make).

---

2013...

So Stacker, Claudia, and their son were a family, if not as conventional as her parents would have preferred. They traded off caring for Jake during his infancy, and once the boundaries and cool civility were established, Jake's grandparents were allowed to keep him in their care when Claudia traveled for work assignments. They knew better than to challenge Stacker's rights to visit when Jake was with them, and Stacker exercised those rights freely, keeping a close watch as his son grew from a squirming baby to a toddler.

Then Claudia, Tamsin, and Luna departed for a "girls' holiday" in California in summer 2013. It was to be Claudia's first holiday since Jake had arrived - or so Stacker and her parents believed.

On K-Day, all three took off from Travis Air Force Base against the monster that had risen from San Francisco Bay.

Only Tamsin came home.

Luna died in combat, her plane ripped apart by a swipe of the monsters' claws. Claudia's plane was hit with debris from another collision, but she managed to land on a civilian airstrip. Rather than return to base, she went towards the destruction and joined in the rescue efforts.

Trespasser had killed Stacker's sister. The three nuclear detonations that finally took the beast down also took the mother of his child.

Stacker would privately question the decisions he made in the aftermath of K-Day for the rest of his life. Only Tamsin - and Chuck Hansen many years later - ever knew that.

Grieving and in shock, perhaps he acquiesced too easily to the pleas of Claudia's parents that their grandson should remain with them. There were many facts in their favor, of course. It was a stable, permanent home with well-to-do grandparents who were in good health, who loved Jake, and most important in Stacker's mind back then, their home was far, far away from the newly-discovered Breach.

Gregory and Patrice insisted that unless Stacker was prepared to leave military service, Jake, already devastated by the loss of his mother, would be better off with their family. Their solicitor hinted that they would press the matter in court if necessary, and the courts were unlikely to decide that an active military father whose work required both travel and combat would be better for a suddenly-motherless four-year-old who'd never been in the father's full custody. Jake was almost ready for primary school, and Gregory and Patrice could get him into a far better school than Stacker.

Stacker had given in. He did manage to get a written agreement endorsed by the courts that he would have access to his child any time he visited, and that Jake would be permitted to visit him on base when the boy grew older. Stacker couldn't help wondering if Claudia's parents agreed to those provisions on the gamble that in practical terms, there wouldn't be much opportunity for Stacker to enforce it.

If so, they gambled on a winner. Maybe.

Stacker was able to uphold his duties as a father regularly at first. He visited Jake nearly every week and took him on short holidays to Scotland and Wales with Tamsin, pretending the world wasn't reeling with each subsequent attack.

Then came the Seoul conference, in which Stacker accepted a position with the fledgling PPDC. Jake's grandparents insisted (not without justification) that it was far too unsafe for Jake to accompany Stacker overseas into a growing war zone.

So Stacker's relationship with his son was relegated to Skype. A less tenacious man might have given up early on, in the face of so many "missed calls," though Claudia's parents denied ever deliberately dodging Stacker's communications. But Stacker was nothing if not stubborn, and finally cornered Gregory and Patrice for a frigidly-polite discussion. He reminded them that the PPDC, in its eagerness to recruit and retain talent, provided excellent benefits for personnel families - including use of specialist attorneys, should the need arise.

Patrice and Gregory yielded, and Jake never missed a scheduled call from his father again.

---

2016...

Stacker did have to involve a PPDC-funded solicitor in early 2016, to arrange a visit from his son to Tokyo. Jake, now seven, had been begging to see a Jaeger (and his father) "in the flesh" ever since watching the launch of Coyote Tango on television. Stacker had hesitated, worrying that a Shatterdome was no place for a child so young, but Tamsin had convinced him that a brief holiday during the next leave would be just the thing.

So after much legal wrangling, they arranged for Jake and his parents to meet them at a secure Tokyo resort, with the special perk of a brief guided tour of the Shatterdome, and a look up at Jake's father's Jaeger. Even with the grandparents scowling through most of it, Jake was elated, and those two weeks were Stacker's happiest memory for a very long time.

Then came Onibaba, and somehow, Mako.

But soon followed the closest thing to a genuine legal battle between Stacker and his son's grandparents. Grounded from combat and new parent of an orphaned girl, he thought to take custody of his son. He even considered resigning his commission and bringing his children to Hawaii with Tamsin.

Claudia's parents refused, ranted and raved, hired a solicitor, and ultimately having the most impact, they begged.

"He's all we have left of our only child! We've been with him since he was born! You can't just rip him out of our lives! If you're really intent on living with him, then come back here with this new one you've picked up!"

Stacker bristled, but even the child psychologist he had working with Mako warned that Jake might not adjust to being uprooted. "Unlike Mako, Jake has loving extended family who desperately want to keep him, and whatever the circumstances, his grandparents have raised him. He has adjusted very well to a long-distance relationship with you, but suddenly reversing roles and forcing his aging grandparents to only see him via Skype would be hard on all concerned."

That brought Stacker up sharp, and all the doubts he'd ignored in the past few weeks rushed back to the forefront of his mind. "Have I done him a disservice by adopting Mako?"

Dr. Schneider gave him a knowing look. "That would require a black and white assessment, which should never be used with children. Will he resent it? Very possibly, although he's still young enough to adjust, and from what you've told me, he's just as interested in meeting her. This world has become a very unorthodox place since giant space aliens attacked us from under the ocean. Many of the old rules about child-rearing simply no longer apply to people fighting this war - but it's unrealistic to think none of you should have families."

So as always seemed to be the case with his son, Stacker compromised. Jake would remain with his grandparents in London, but once Stacker and Mako were installed in Lima, he would join them for the first available holiday during a non-alert period. Jake would be given full email and Skype access to talk to Mako whenever he wished, and vice versa.

Jake was also permitted to learn Japanese in school, and Stacker learned with no small amount of gratification that this had been Jake's idea.

Apparently, it didn't occur to seven-year-old Jake to be resentful. Stacker knew from the beginning that this wouldn't always be the case.

---

2017...

Stacker Pentecost's adopted and biological child met face-to-face for the first time in January 2017, at the resort hotel in Lima where Jake and his grandparents stayed for the visit.

To Stacker's surprised relief, Gregory and Patrice liked Mako and had nothing but praise for her, both to her face and to Dr. Schneider. Mako was sweet. Mako was intelligent and a good influence. Jake was four years younger, but nearly her size, and was learning Japanese almost as quickly as she was learning English. He was boisterous and physical, to the point that Stacker worried he'd overwhelm Mako, but she was overjoyed to have a playmate when most of her other contact with children was via video conference. They played together with surprisingly little property damage.

The only time Gregory and Patrice really seemed to disapprove was when they played Jaeger pilots. Stacker heard Jake whisper to Mako (in Japanese) that Gran and Gramps didn't let him play that at home.

"Is it war they disapprove of, or his father?" he couldn't help muttering to Dr. Schneider.

She might have been hired to treat Mako, but sometimes analyzing Mako's father was part of the job, and both Stacker and Dr. Schneider had recognized that from the beginning. "I think we both know the answer. For what it's worth, even at this young age, your son is well-aware of their feelings too, but he hasn't let that sway his admiration or love for you."

Stacker supposed it had to help that Jaeger pilots and the Jaeger Program were held in such high esteem around the world. Neglecting my son for "the greater good" as it were, apparently that's enough for him to not recognize it as neglect.

On more optimistic days, he dared to hope that maybe Jake's esteem went beyond just the influence of PPDC propaganda, and that Stacker himself had done enough to be worthy in his son's eyes.

His son was a gentle, sensitive boy who rarely expressed any resentment against his father for his absences. His grandparents didn't - at least not to Stacker's knowledge - ever stoop to outright trying to alienate him. There was no way Jake could have missed that his grandparents didn't like his father, but for some reason that seemed to lead Jake to admire Stacker more.

By the end of that visit, Jake and Mako adored each other. In the years that followed, they saw each other once or twice a year at best, but that bond never weakened. It was almost as if they were drift compatible.

---

2023...

Trouble did find Jake Pentecost, as Stacker rationally knew it would. No child grew up without trouble, and the world was a troubled place. As humanity's attitude towards the Jaeger Program soured, Jake's attitude toward humanity soured. Schoolmates who'd once been friendly of him began to sneer at him, and he reacted with growing anger and bitterness.

Gregory and Patrice were distressed enough to talk to Stacker about it (rather than let him learn everything from teachers' reports like usual), and tried to form a united front on discipline. Stacker managed not to point out that they probably wouldn't have much traction by simply complaining that their grandson's behavior didn't make them look well.

"He's unhappy. Perhaps you should address that with his guidance counselors rather than trying to make him ashamed of his 'attitude.'"

Jake's grandparents paid no more mind to Stacker's opinion than they ever did.

It all came to a head when Jake was fourteen, in year nine at school. Stacker got a mandatory message from one of Jake's teachers:

Dear Marshal Pentecost,

I'm sorry to inform you that your son was in a physical altercation with a classmate today. Jacob and Timothy Bertram (year 10) had an argument in which Timothy and several other elder students made disparaging remarks about the Jaeger Program and Jacob's family. Jacob reacted aggressively, although witnesses report that Timothy shoved him first. However, Jacob retaliated by hitting Timothy until he fell to the ground, then kicking him until teachers intervened.

Please understand that administrative discipline is necessary. I will inform you of the teacher and supervisors' recommendations within two business days, and allow you to respond before a decision is made. We have also informed Jacob's custodial grandparents.

Regards,

Mrs. Bellcott, Everhald Preparatory Academy.

Stacker was still digesting it when a second emergency message arrived, this one from the Martins:

Jake has run away.

---

As long as he could remember, Jake had known that Gramps and Gran didn't like his father at all. They were civil when they talked to each other - and nothing more than civil. When Jake was little, he'd dared to ask why.

Gran and Gramps had dodged the question, occasionally admitting, "We didn't care for the fact that your mother decided not to attend university because of a boy, no. But your father has paid his support for you as he should, so that's something."

Apparently, in Gramps and Gran's eyes, that wasn't much. Jake was sure there was much more than money that his grandparents somehow couldn't see - or refused to see.

They'd always told him Everhald Preparatory Academy was one of the finest schools in Peckham and that it took "more than money" to be admitted. They were never quite clear on what they meant. Sometimes they said it was character. Other times, they hinted that it was reputation.

Either way, it didn't match up with the kids Jake met there. Gran and Gramps had a nice house (nicer than anything Jake's father could raise him in, they sometimes reminded Jake) in a nice, green neighborhood, but most of the kids at Everhald had a lot of money. There were kids from around the world, but the majority were English by many generations - and white. Jake's family might have been English, but he could point to no nobility or celebrity in his bloodline, and along with his skin color in the eyes of a lot of his peers, that meant he was trash.

By the time he was in secondary school, he hated Everhald Academy. Most of his real friends were online, people he talked to on Skype and via IM along with Mako.

Ignoring the rich brats around him got harder, the older he got. He swore up and down that it was the other kids who got meaner, but Gramps and Gran kept scolding him for being cheeky and having a bad attitude. "Of course, it's wrong for other boys to have a go at you for being black, but racism has always existed and always will. There's nothing to be done but turn the other cheek."

Jake tried. He really did.

He walked away when other boys whispered slurs or made fun of his accent. (Jake didn't think he even had one, but evidently a lot of boys thought he did.) He formed cautious alliances that sometimes progressed to friendliness to some of the foreign kids who were targets of the "lord-kids," as Jake called them. Like at Mako's school, there were kids at Everhald who'd come from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, children of wealthy businessmen and nobility with practiced manners, but they all felt the sting of the lord-kids' disdain.

The problem was that most of them weren't permanently in London. Their parents moved on to different embassies or different business postings, and Jake was back to all his friendly voices being heard over phone and computer.

From what Mako told him, her prep school in Pennsylvania was different. She made lots of friends there, both local and foreign. Maybe Jake's attitude really was the problem. Or maybe not...after all, Mako wasn't black. She might not be white, but she wasn't black.

Still, she was Jake's sister, and until the scrum with Tim Bertram, the closest Jake ever came to hitting someone was when another boy saw Mako's picture and called her a name that was as nasty for a Japanese girl as Jake knew the n-word was for a black boy.

(Probably the only real reason he didn't hit Alfred was that Mrs. Penniwuther heard it and hauled Alfred away by the ear before Jake's shock had even worn off. Alfie was made to apologize to the whole class later, but everyone knew he didn't mean it.)

By 2023, everyone having a go at Jake's dad and the Rangers - that tore it. He started answering back, first snapping, then shouting. In calmer moments, he knew his reactions were like blood in the water to a bunch of sharks, but in the heat of the moment, he was so bloody angry that he didn't think about it.

"Worthless, the whole lot," Tim Bertram had sneered on the football pitch during a schoolwide break. "They're dying like rats out there in those big rusted Transformers. The whole thing was a stupid idea from the start."

Jake wasn't the only one who snapped. "Those're people!" hissed a boy Jake's age from China who wanted to be an engineer and did all his projects about Jaegers. "Show some respect!"

"They're a joke," Tim retorted, sneering. "All those pilots are the same as every other chav who joins the military - they can't hack it at anything else!" As Jake half-hoped, half-feared, his gaze slid lazily in Jake's direction. "Ohhh, Pentecost, your old man's in the Jaegers, I forgot."

No way had he forgot. "Shut up," Jake growled.

Tim's sneer widened. "Not just that, old man Pentecost joined up way before the kaiju came in, right? Just goes to show, doesn't it? Once a slogger, always a slogger."

"Shut UP, Bertram!"

"Seriously, who joins up and stays joined up and goes even closer to giant sea monsters when they've got anything to lose? Makes you feel sorry for the poor bugger. Only smart thing he ever did was knock up a rich girl - " Jake roared in chorus with several other boys, but Tim drew himself up to his full six feet (several inches taller than Jake) and laughed. "What're you gonna do about it, ghetto boy - " He shoved Jake, and that was what Jake had been waiting for.

Jake and Mako practiced their martial arts for each other on a regular basis, and Mako had given Jake a lot of coaching, since unlike Jake, she was allowed to study more than one fighting method in school.

She and Jake's teachers always talked about the importance of control, but the first time Jake really put it to the test outside a class spar...he had to admit control had never been further away. He just swung and swung and relished the noises Tim made with each blow. Jake was half-aware of the possibility of a retaliatory hit and ready for it, but it never came, and Tim's hands just flapped uselessly trying to ward Jake's fists off until he crashed to the ground, whimpering. Then Jake kicked, and it felt good.

My dad's worth fifty of you. My mum was worth a thousand of you and every one of your snot-nosed lord mates. You fucking, sniveling coward -

Then a couple of the minders got their arms around Jake from two directions and dragged him away.

He knew he was in trouble, but he couldn't bring himself to be that sorry.

He knew what Gramps and Gran were going to say, and they said it: "Do you know how humiliating this meeting at school is going to be? Why don't you think about how your behavior reflects on us before you act?"

"I can't always think ahead when Bertram's talking shit about my mum and dad!" Jake protested, but Gran huffed, turning away.

"And just as we feared, now you're starting to act like your father!"

Jake froze. "What do you mean by that?"

Gran rounded on Jake and pointed at him, her lip curling in a way he'd never seen...not exactly anyway. But this was like... as if the way she'd looked at Jake's dad but always held something back, as if this was the way she actually wanted to look at him and talk about him. "Your father was a delinquent when he was your age, Jacob! He almost killed a man and burned down a building; is that the kind of example you want to follow? Is everything we've done for you a waste?!"

Jake leapt to his feet. "That's not fair! My dad wasn't some psycho! He went after the bastard who killed his dad, and he was right!" Gran recoiled, hands to her heart all melodramatic, and Jake scoffed. "Oh, get off, you know the first time a boy at school told me about that? I'd not been there six weeks, and they were rubbing my face in it! Now you do it too!"

Gramps huffed wearily. "The boys may not have been kind about it, but it's true - your father went down a terrible path, and your grandmother and I are trying to prevent you from doing the same. My boy, you can show the world that you're not the violent sort like your father - "

" - I knew you hated my father. Is that really the only reason why, something that he did when he was twelve and bloody made up for?" Jake demanded. He pointed at Gramps. "My dad knows you hate him and he's never said boo about you - "

"That's enough! Go to your room!" Gran ordered. "And stay off the Internet, while your grandfather and I decide how to handle this disgrace!"

Jake stalked to his room without a word. He thought to ignore them and Skype Mako. Surely she'd understand even if she wouldn't approve of Jake kicking Tim Bertram's arse (well, Mako's friends had once told Jake that Mako had kicked a grown man's arse when she was only thirteen).

But Gramps and Gran must have planned ahead of his return home in "disgrace" and changed the wifi password. Jake nearly punched his screen.

They hate my dad. They think my dad's a criminal. Everytime I do anything they don't like, they tell me not to be like my dad...well, that's what they mean even when they don't say it. They hint it. Today's just the first time they've said it. They even hate their own daughter for being with my dad.

Jake had asked sometimes about the relationship between his mum and his dad. Gramps and Gran had always referred to it as a mistake.

Dad had said different. "I was very fond of your mother. No, we weren't married, but we were dear to each other. She loved you very much. She was good friends with Aunt Luna and Aunt Tamsin as well."

Going back to school was going to be dismal. Jake would be made to apologize. Maybe Tim Bertram too - or maybe not. Other boys said Bertram's mum, some countess lady of something-or-other, always threw a fit if he got disciplined for everything, so the teachers all looked the other way. Everyone in Tim's year who didn't suck up to him simply hated him. But plenty of kids sucked up to him.

And there would be Gramps and Gran, talking about how ashamed they were and how sorry they were that Jake had behaved so badly, telling their friends at tea how embarrassing Jake was.

Packing his travel bag felt sort of like hitting Tim Bertram again, a sort of haze that felt frenzied and out of control, but also freeing. Jake had both a passport and PPDC travel credentials. He didn't even need a ticket; he'd discovered that when he was ten. He could board a personnel plane from any base and nobody would even question him.

Gramps and Gran have been trying to turn me into something I'm not. I should be with my dad and Mako, people who aren't ashamed of me. People who actually are trying to do something in this war instead of just stand on the other side of the planet and look down their noses. Time to go where I really belong.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve: Your Father's Son

Autumn 2023…
PPDC Proving Ground and Jaeger Assembly Facility, Kodiak Island, Alaska…

Anger and bitterness bolstered Jake's resolve all the way across the Atlantic and then across the United States. He deliberately left his phone behind, so Gramps and Gran couldn't track him down before he arrived at Anchorage. Then he'd make his appeal to Dad.

I'm fourteen now. I'm old enough to choose where I live and I want to live with you. Other crew have their kids around, and I can take care of myself. I know you've got work to do, I won't get in the way, I swear.

Or...or even if I can't be there on the base with you, send me to Mako's school, the one where people are nice and aren't allowed to get away with calling black kids and foreign kids names and nobody cares if their dad has a peerage or if their mum is a supermodel.

I swear, this is where I belong.

But in Anchorage airport, Jake's nerves failed.

He'd run away. Dad was going to be angry...or...what if Dad doesn't really want me? A small, scared voice deep inside Jake's head whispered things like that.

He stared at the hulk of the Anchorage Shatterdome, still looming over the half-finished coastal wall for a long time. Finally, he veered away and went instead to the ferry docks, and boarded one bound for Kodiak Island.

To find Mako. She'd understand.

Jake tried to be casual when he walked into the Academy's visitor center and asked for Mako Mori. You've done this before without a grown-up hanging over your shoulder, man, pull it together! But his voice still cracked.

Mako was done with Academy now, but she worked in the Assembly Building for some J-Tech project that she couldn't talk about. The Assembly Building was off-limits to civilians, so Jake knew to ask for her at the Academy front desk. They'd be able to page her.

She popped through the doors in less than ten minutes and threw her arms around him, delighted. "Jake! When did you get here? Sen - I mean, nobody said you were coming!"

Jake cringed. So she didn't know. Maybe Gran and Gramps hadn't told Dad yet. Or maybe they had and he hadn't told Mako. Why wouldn't he have told Mako?

Because he might not think it's that important, that nasty little voice whispered again.

He didn't think he was cringing, but Mako pulled back and stared at him. "What is it?" she asked in Japanese. "What's wrong?"

To Jake's mortified horror, his throat got to tight to talk. Mako seized his hand and led him out of the main building, towards personnel housing. In the chilly Alaskan air, he got control back and mustered himself for his confession. "I...I came because - "

That was all he had time for. Mako's earpiece and phone buzzed in tandem, an urgent alert. Frowning, Mako shushed Jake and quickly answered. "Mori."

The voice on the other end was muffled, but Jake recognized it. It was his dad, speaking Japanese. "Mako, it's me. Something's happened. Jake has gone missing."

Mako made a choked noise, and her eyes darted to Jake. She even reached out and touched his shoulder, as if to be sure he was real. "What?!"

"The Martins called. He quarreled with them and has run away. They think he's used his credentials to leave the country." Mako opened her mouth, staring at Jake in shock and growing horror. Jake cringed harder. "I'm hiring investigators, but they've already told me he's more likely than anything to come here. I - I had a thought - if he's upset or worried, he might come to you instead of directly to me. Look out for him, and alert security to keep an eye out. We need to find him quickly, it's not safe for him alone..."

Mako's mouth moved several times with nothing coming out. Jake took a step back, and her hand darted out and grabbed his elbow, as if she feared he'd run. Jake didn't intend to, but from the way she looked at him, he knew better than to try to persuade her not to tell her Sensei the truth.

"Sensei, I just got a call - just moments ago. Jake's here, he just arrived here."

There was a long silence. "...what - you mean there at Kodiak? Have you seen him?"

Mako tightened her grip on Jake's arm. "Yes, I have him. He's here."

Then, "Wait there. I'm coming."

Mako blinked at her phone and lowered it, staring at Jake with an expression he'd never seen before. Finally, she murmured, "Come on. We'll wait in my room."

The silence was thick and horrible as Mako rushed him through the corridors too fast for anyone to even think to ask who Jake was or what he was doing here. Only when they were in her tiny room with the door closed did she whirl around, and lay into Jake. "What are you doing?!" she demanded, switching to Japanese. "You came all this way without permission - your father and your grandparents are frantic!"

Jake had trouble imagining his father as frantic. But his dad had seemed to...ramble, there at the end. "I didn't, I..." Speaking Japanese to Mako had become easy, even natural after seven years, but at the moment, he couldn't seem to remember a word of it. "...they hate him," he finally blurted in English. Mako blinked. "They hate him and they want me to hate him, and I won't!" Mako stared, and Jake's throat started tightening up as he tried to stammer, "I just thought it'd be better here, because you're not ashamed of me and I thought he's not ashamed of me, not like them, but if he doesn't want me, then I dunno - "

" - Jake...don't be ridiculous, of course he wants you!" Mako gasped. "He loves you very much, and I don't believe they'd dare say a thing like that about him."

"They didn't," Jake mumbled, turning away so he could rub his eyes. "Not that. Just that he's..." How much did Mako know? "They hate him, and they think he's worthless. Kids at school say things like that about him. They say I should be trying to not be like him."

He dared a glance over his shoulder, and Mako had turned stiff and cold...like Dad sometimes did. It was weird, seeing Mako look that way. "That isn't true, and nobody has any right to say things like that about him." She took a deep breath before going on and tugged Jake to her again. "Your father loves you, and that will not change, even if he's disappointed that you tried to solve a problem by running away and frightening everyone. I'm disappointed by that," she added sternly, and Jake sighed, but didn't pull away from her.

"You understand, though. Gramps and Gran don't. I don't think they ever have."

Mako didn't answer.

Less than an hour after he had first called Mako, Jake's dad arrived at the door. Mako let him in and closed the door behind him, but kept her hand on the handle as Dad stared at Jake as if he was the only person on earth. "Would you like me to step out, sir?" she asked softly.

Dad made a funny kind of...twitch, as if he was trying to pay attention to what she said, but couldn't. Then he crossed the tiny space of Mako's room in one stride and pulled Jake hard against his chest.

He does want me. He does. If he didn't, he wouldn't hug me like this.

Even before he let go of Jake, Dad murmured, "Young man, you are in very serious trouble."

Jake winced. I probably should've expected a speech. "I - I know," he mumbled. He wished he could look past his dad for reassurance from Mako, but his dad was too big for Jake to look over his shoulder without being really obvious.

"You terrorized your grandparents and myself, and you could easily have been hurt or worse trying to wander around unsupervised. From what your teachers told me, you're well aware of how unpopular the Jaeger Program has become, and you would be an easy target." Taking a deep breath, Dad pushed Jake back to arm's length and went on, "You also abused your travel credentials to do this, so I have no choice but to revoke them."

Jake's throat got tight again, and he nodded, hoping his lips weren't trembling as badly as it felt. "I don't wanna go anywhere else. I want to stay with you."

His dad frowned - well, frowned more, anyway. "What do you mean?"

"I want to stay with you," Jake repeated. "Or - or - what about Mako's school, in Pennsylvania! If I can't stay here, send me there! Don't make me go back with Gramps and Gran; they hate you!"

Jake's dad looked perplexed. "They...Jake, your grandmother and grandfather love you deeply."

That wasn't an answer. Jake folded his arms and looked away. "I know they do," he admitted. "But they hate you. Everything they say, everything they do, it's about making sure I'm not like you, and they told me so."

Behind Jake, Mako made a noise like she wanted to shout something and was desperately holding it back. Dad sighed. "They have a point. It's true that I did some very violent things when I was a boy, and that's not an example you should emulate. I stabbed a man, and it's only by chance that I didn't kill him. I burned down a building that could have resulted in innocent people dying."

Jake looked nervously over his shoulder, but Mako was unsurprised. Her faint smile looked kind of like a challenge, but she was looking at Dad, not Jake. "I know that," she said. "We both know. So young boys don't always have good judgment, especially when someone they love has been hurt. Jake's grandmother and grandfather must be very hard-hearted to be so unforgiving of what you did when you were twelve."

"They are," Jake agreed. "Every time I do anything, they remind me not to be like him." Mako's eyes narrowed, but Jake's dad stepped in.

"I...I can't reward your running away like this. Your grandparents know you're here, and they're already on their way." He caught Jake when Jake tried to wrench away from him. Jake wasn't planning to run, but Dad was holding on so tight that he must've thought otherwise. "We'll go to my quarters in the Shatterdome until they arrive. Mako has duties to attend to here."

As they headed into the hallway, Jake couldn't stop looking back at Mako, who was staring after them in dismay. He barely noticed Jasper Schoenfeld passing by. But as Dad led him out into the sunlight, they heard running feet following them. "Sir?" It was Mako, breathless and relieved. "Dr. Schoenfeld has given me leave." Dad frowned, and she added hastily, "I didn't ask for it."

For a second, Jake wondered if his dad was angry enough that he'd still forbid Mako to go with them, but seeing the looks on Mako and Jake's faces, Dad sighed. "Very well."

---

Stacker thought about instructing Mako to remain at Kodiak Island. He didn't want Jake to mistake this for a fun gathering.

Yet…Stacker also didn't want his son to ever think his father would punitively separate Jake from his sister. In the end, that was the decision, though Stacker pulled Mako aside on the ferry ride and murmured, "Jake isn't here for a holiday. Remember that."

"Yes, sir," she said. "Are...his grandparents coming here?"

"Yes, they're on their way, but the flights will take close to a day."

She avoided his eyes, but didn't step back, so he waited for what she was working up the nerve to say. "Jake...Jake isn't the only one who's noticed...how they feel about you. They look down upon you. I knew that the very first time I met them, and it's only been clearer since then."

Stacker managed not to visibly bristle. "Have they extended that attitude to you?" He cared little for what the Martins thought of him; he'd had nearly twenty years to come to terms with it. Mako was a different matter.

To his relief, she shook her head. "No. Except to say..." She scowled into the distance. "Mrs. Martin said once that it was a shame such a clever girl didn't have a more respectable guardian."

Stacker sighed. "Their opinion of me makes little difference to me."

"It does to us," Mako replied tightly.

He didn't know how to respond to that other than to insist, "It shouldn't."

Strange, for teenagers five years apart, of different races and different nations, how very alike Mako and Jake looked when they were being stubborn. Folded arms, chins up, eyes narrowed, jaws clenched. Knowing he'd convinced neither of them, Stacker left them in his quarters for his command shift.

To his annoyance, Jasper Schoenfeld approached him. "She is with you and Jake, I hope."

"Yes." Stacker kept it very brusque. His family troubles were no one's business.

But Jasper insisted on pushing it. "Good. She was unsure about accepting leave, but I told her, as a father, to make family a priority whenever she can. As a father who couldn't have my son in my life nearly as much as I wanted."

He walked away, and Stacker stared after him. When Stacker returned to quarters, he found Jake and Mako still there. Mako was drilling Jake quite hard on Jaeger Bushido. She stopped when Stacker entered and said, "I didn't want to leave Jake alone, sir, but I can go to the mess hall and fetch dinner if you want him to stay here."

Hm. So was this "falling-back-on-formality-in-confusion" Mako or "I'm-being-formal-because-I'm-angry-at-you" Mako? Stacker wasn't sure.

"That's not necessary. You can take him to the mess hall." Even though he'd vowed that Jake wasn't to confuse this visit with a holiday, he added, "And to the Jaeger Bay observation deck afterwards."

Jake eyes got comically big, and Mako's lips twitched. If she sensed that Stacker was getting them out of quarters so he could call backup, she didn't say. Once she and Jake had gone, he put in a frantic call to Tamsin and blurted out the story.

"Calm down," was Tamsin's first admonishment. It had been a long, long, long time since anybody'd felt the need to say that to Stacker Pentecost. "Don't tell me what you think you should do. What do you want to do?"

Stacker let his face fall into his hands. Only Tamsin could ever see him like that. "You know what I want. I've always wanted my son and daughter with me, not thousands of miles away. But what I want takes a distant second to what's best for them, and Shatterdomes at wartime are not the place for either of them. Mako struggles more even now than she lets on."

"She's a grown woman now, and it's her choice," said Tam. "But unlike Jake, she was happy at school. He clearly isn't and hasn't been for a long time. Forcing him to stay at that place full of swotty aristocrats may do him more harm than good."

"The Martins invested a great deal to have Jake schooled there," Stacker said, though it was a weak argument. They hadn't exactly consulted with Stacker on their choice, let alone asked Jake what he wanted. "And it is a good education. He has some friends." Not as many as Stacker had always thought he would, though he was more outgoing at this age than Mako had been.

"Where did you go to school?" Tamsin asked. "You got a thorough education, and not at a place like that."

"Half of my schooling was at a reform institution, and you know it," Stacker said crossly. "Most of my 'education' was in other forms, or Camp Mark."

"I spent two summers there, you know. I'm surprised we never met," Tamsin mused. "I wonder...is Camp Mark still around? School might be easier to bear if he has a summer live-away camp to look forward to, a place less posh – and connected to you."

Stacker sat back, thoughtful. "I'll look it up. If it no longer operates, there must be are other places similar. Jake speaks of wanting a career in the service like mine even if the Jaeger Program doesn't survive; it would at least give him a taste of what will be expected."

He and Tam turned to the Internet, and by the time Mako and Jake returned, he thought he had a plan.

---

Mako had to admit she was a little disappointed when Sensei told Jake that moving to America wasn't an option. "Your grandparents have primary custody of you. They won't agree, and it's unlikely the courts in England would either, since the only option here would be boarding school away from me." Jake turned away, and Mako cringed. Sensei went on, "I know you're not happy at Everhald Academy. Until you're sixteen, it is your grandparents' choice where you go, but I have...an option that might be a change of atmosphere?"

Jake didn't look encouraged, but he didn't talk back.

"When I was your age, during the summers, I attended Camp Mark in Lincolnshire, near RAF Cranwell. It's meant for boys and girls who are interested in military service, as well as those who...can't afford the sort of live-away camps that students at Everhald attend. Your aunt Luna went there as well, as did Tamsin, though we didn't meet until we joined the RAF. The proximity of RAF Cranwell is the reason all of us chose to learn to fly."

Jake turned around, and to Mako's intense relief, finally looked less dismal. "I thought...under-eighteens couldn't start training."

"Formal military training, no. But aspects of camp life are meant to show you how life in the service works, though there's also plenty of time to enjoy yourselves. It lasts ten weeks every summer."

"And Gran and Gramps'll let me?"

Sensei admitted, "I haven't had the chance to discuss it with them. We may as well wait until they arrive and do so face-to-face. They made the decision of where you'll go to school, so I have some leeway to decide about the summer holidays."

---

When the Martins arrived at the Shatterdome, Mako thought (or hoped) that perhaps they seemed a little less cold to Sensei when they greeted him. Really, Jake was the frostiest one, though he did let them both embrace him. However, his murmur of, "I'm sorry I ran away" was less than sincere.

"How long would you like us to stay before we take Jake home?" asked Mrs. Martin. Mako was relieved that they were at least asking Sensei what he wanted, though she felt cross that they treated it as a foregone conclusion that Jake would be going with them.

Maybe that was unfair. Sensei was right; they had raised Jake all his life. Giving him up would be hard when their daughter was dead.

If Sensei was miffed, he didn't show it. "I'll take leave for the weekend. We'll all be more comfortable at a hotel in town."

Dinner was an excruciatingly awkward affair, but civil...up until dessert when Jake shot Sensei a defiant look and told his grandparents, "I don't want to go back to Everhald. I want to go to Nittany Valley Prep, where Mako went."

Mako felt blood rush to her face as the Martins looked at her...and, she had to admit, a pang of sympathy at how hurt Mrs. Martin looked. "You'd rather...live away in the U.S. than go to school where you can stay with us?"

Jake gulped, but stood his ground. Mako wondered if Sensei had looked like this, long ago. "Everhald's miserable. It's full of snobs. Lots of important people went to Mako's school, but they were nice to her. Every year, you tell me I'll get used to it; it's been seven years, and I still don't like them, and they still don't like me!"

Mr. Martin began, "If you'd just behave more like your classmates, you'd - " He caught himself, looking nervously at Sensei. "In any case, Jacob, don't you realize how difficult it would be to adjust to a new curriculum the year of your GSCE? Perhaps we could agree on sending you to a different senior preparatory school before A-levels, but not before you're sixteen."

"You're wasting your money," Jake snapped. "Trying to make me into something I'm not."

"Jake!" Sensei and the Martins chorused in a hiss as Mako winced.

"Let's return to the hotel," said Sensei. "I have a...compromise I've discussed with him."

Back at the hotel, Jake stared sullenly out the window, so the adults politely pretended not to notice. However, Sensei's efforts to explain his proposed summer plan barely got off the ground.

The minute he mentioned Camp Mark, Mr. Martin snapped, "Absolutely not! I know about that place - Jake may be unruly, but reform school's not where he belongs!"

Sensei was frigidly silent, Mako was frozen, and even Jake jolted out of his sulk for several long, agonizing minutes. Finally, Sensei said tightly, "Camp Mark is not a 'reform school.' Yes, some students do go there from reform school, but less than half. It's for students who are interested in the service."

"Jacob is not that sort of boy!" Mrs. Martin insisted - and Jake exploded to his feet.

"STOP TALKING TO HIM LIKE THAT!"

"Jake!" Sensei shouted, but Jake rounded on him.

"They know you went there, that's what they mean by 'that sort'! They want me to hate you, and I'm bloody tired of it!"

"That's not true!" Mr. Martin exclaimed...but Mako wondered whether he was lying to Jake or to himself.

"Everything you want me to do is 'not like him,'" Jake shot back. "Everything I ever do wrong, you blame on my dad! Admit it! You hate him and you want me to hate him too!"

Mr. Martin tried to grab Jake's arm, but Jake wrenched away. Mr. Martin breathed, "Jacob Martin Pentecost, your grandmother and I love you more than anything in the world." This Mako believed, but before she could feel relief, the man looked at her Sensei, Jake's father, spoke some of the most vile words she'd ever heard. "But nothing will make us forgive the man who ruined our daughter and set her on the path that led to her death."

Jake froze, and Mako found herself standing up, though she'd no idea what to say. Only that whatever it was, she wanted to scream it.

But Sensei too stood up, still hard and cold. "Mako, Jake, leave the room while we talk alone."

Jake trembled, but Mako finally found her way through the roar of blinding rage in her head to come up with an answer. "No." Sensei turned sharply, and Mako and Jake both flinched, but she put a hand on Jake's shoulder. "I'm not here as an officer, Sensei. Whatever Jake's grandparents have to say, they should be willing to say in front of us."

She'd rarely ever heard Sensei raise his voice, and even though it was only a little, it scared her. "I am not willing to discuss my relationship with Jake's mother." He shifted his attention from Mako and Jake to the Martins and finished, "It's no one's business, not even yours, and I don't owe you an explanation, nor will I presume to speak for Claudia. You are the ones insulting your daughter by treating her as 'ruined' and insulting her memory when she died fighting to save lives!"

Mrs. Martin sobbed into her hands - rather melodramatically, Mako thought, though that might be cold of her.

But neither Mako nor Jake moved, and after staring the Martins down another moment, Sensei turned to Jake. "My position on your custody hasn't changed. I'm...sorry, but I'm unable to give you the care that you need at this age, so the only option is for you to remain with your grandparents. However, if you want to attend Camp Mark during the summers, I have certain rights as your father, and if necessary, I'll push for it legally." He shot the Martins a glare. "Although it shouldn't be necessary."

Jake nodded. "I want to go to the camp you and Aunt Luna and Aunt Tamsin went to. I want to meet other kids like me." He looked defiantly at his grandparents.

"Very well. Then are we agreed, or do I call a solicitor?" Sensei asked, the challenge in his voice unmistakable as he looked at Jake's grandparents.

Mr. and Mrs. Martin stalked out of the room without answering.

Fearing Sensei would follow suit, Mako hastily went for the door. "I'll go now, so you and Jake can talk alone."

---

And then there were two. Jake stared at his dad. There were emotions on Dad's face that he'd never seen before. Have I ever seen my dad really angry? he wondered. Now that he thought about it...he didn't think so. He'd seen his dad sad before, especially after Jaegers fell and Rangers died. Jake was used to that. Dad never refused to talk to Jake, even though sometimes Jake could tell he was upset.

It scared Jake to try to push now, seeing Dad so angry for the first time. "You - " his voice broke. That startled his father. "You don't...have...to tell me...'bout you and my mum. It's just...all I know is what they say. And I know it's not true."

Dad closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths. Gran and Gramps always talked about how violent Dad had been, hinting that he still was - well, Dad wasn't bloody violent now. Even with plenty of cause, he'd barely raised his voice.

When Dad finally spoke, he was very quiet. "Your mother didn't choose to join the RAF because of me. We hadn't even met. I know her parents wanted her to attend university, but she chose the service instead. They were angry." He didn't say what Mum's reasons had been, though Jake had a feeling he knew. "She and I met through your Aunt Luna and Aunt Tamsin. We were...close, yes, and that's how you came along. It wasn't...ideal timing, but she was certain she wanted a baby, and while I was less sure, I never once regretted her choice. I don't know how much you remember of me when she was alive. But we were very happy."

"I remember a little, I think," Jake said. "And Aunt Luna and Aunt Tamsin. But Gran and Gramps won't talk about them or you, just Mum."

Dad's eyes glinted. "She loved you. So did your Aunt Luna."

But Dad didn't change his mind about making Jake go back home with Gran and Gramps. "I can't provide for you or for the legal fight that taking full custody would require. No matter how much I love you and wish you were with me. If you want to leave your grandparents' custody, you'll have to pursue it through the courts, through emancipation when you're sixteen."

To Jake's surprised pleasure, Aunt Tamsin arrived at the hotel the day before the flight back to London. "Is it too late to smooth things over?" she asked Dad wryly after hugging Jake.

"I fear so," Dad sighed. Mako wrinkled her nose.

But when Gran and Gramps came to greet Tamsin (at Mako's prodding), Tamsin was blunt and straight to the points. "I hear you're under some misapprehensions about your daughter. I knew Claudia at the RAF Academy before Stacker ever did, so if you think she chose RAF because of Stacker, you're mistaken."

Both Gran and Gramps scowled. Jake sighed as Gran retorted, "That man has turned our grandson against us just as he did Claudia!"

"You never learn," Tamsin scoffed. "I know all about your 'plans' for Claudia after she finished school; she wanted none of it. She chose the RAF to make a life where her parents didn't have her in a stranglehold."

"She fell in with the wrong crowd," Gramps insisted. "And our only mistake was not stopping her from getting close to bad influences after she got her A-Levels."

Tamsin threw up her hands. "I give up. You'll never understand what your mistakes really were with her or her son." She turned her back on them and looked at Jake. "I've been in your old man's brain, Jacob Pentecost, and I still will be until the day I die. He will love you without condition no matter what you do or what you choose, as will Mako and I, even if we're angry."

Jake looked from her and Mako and smiled, before glaring past them at Gran and Gramps. "I'm proud of who both my Mum and Dad were, and the things they did."

Mako beamed, and Tamsin leaned toward him. "Tell him that before you leave, will you, love? Your old dad does the stiff upper lip thing as well as anyone, but there're things he needs to hear too."

That surprised Jake...but of course, Tamsin Sevier would know better than anyone in the world.

So when Dad came to say goodbye, Jake told him in front of Gran and Gramps. "I'm proud I'm your son." He heard Dad's breath catch. "And I'm...sorry for causing trouble, but I'll try to make you proud from now on."

Dad just...stared at him. Like he wanted to speak, but couldn't. It was Tamsin who answered, very softly as she stood close to Jake's dad, "None of us can claim we've never made mistakes, love."

When Dad did speak, his voice sounded rough. "You're already making me proud."

~Coda~

Gran and Gramps gave in - with much grumbling - to Jake's father's demand that they allow Jake to attend Camp Mark for the summer if he wanted. But Jake didn't end up at Camp Mark in the following summer, 2024.

He had to appeal to Dad's solicitor, but he got approval to go to Hawaii to be with Dad and Tamsin during what they all knew would be Tamsin's final months. She died after Jake had returned to school, but it felt like he at least got to say a proper goodbye.

In retrospect, Jake realized that, of all moments, was when his grandparents gave up on him. After he won his appeal to go to Hawaii, Gran and Gramps stopped fighting with him, grumbled that he'd chosen his path, and made their disapproval of his "path" very clear.

They disapproved, een though all Jake wanted was to be with his dad and his aunt and his sister.

From then on, his relationship with his grandparents was civil and chilly, and never again like it had been before he ran away at fourteen. Tamsin once said that Gran and Gramps never understood the difference between love and control.

After Tamsin died, Jake knew there would be no Jaeger Academy by the time he was eighteen...and that his dad was sick too. Dad was sick enough that Jake knew he might not be there to see Jake turn eighteen.

The summer of 2025, Jake didn't go to Camp Mark either. Instead, now sixteen, he signed up for flying lessons. Mako told him flying was in his blood; after all, his mum and dad had both been pilots before the war. Jake wrote up the paperwork to be legally emancipated, but he didn't file it. The war was coming to an end one way or another, and it would only distract and burden Jake's dad to have to worry about where Jake was or keeping him safe while the last few Jaegers were fighting.

Jake always wondered what being drift compatible was like, and had to admit he imagined himself drifting with his father like Chuck Hansen, or maybe with Mako. After Tamsin died, he realized that the drift could be a blessing and a curse.

During his short visit to Hong Kong in June 2025, Dad told Jake about Operation Pitfall. "The situation is very serious. This will be our last stand."

Gran and Gramps grumbled that Dad should have shielded him from the truth, but Jake was glad Dad didn't do that. Even though, when they hugged goodbye at the airport, a part of Jake was certain he'd never hug his dad again.

---

Two days after the battle of Victoria Harbor, Dad and Mako called Jake. "We're going for the Breach tomorrow. It's...unlikely that either of us will come back."

Jake fought not to cry. Mako was pilot of Gipsy Danger now, what she'd always wanted to be, and he should be happy for her...but why did it have to mean ending like this? "I...I love you,"he managed to choke out, putting his hand on the holovid.

They echoed his movement. Mako's face was wet. Dad's face wasn't, but there was that glimmer in his eyes that only people who really knew him would recognize. "We're very proud of you," Dad whispered. "I know you'll go on making us proud."

"I will," Jake promised. "Even…whatever happens, I'm proud I'm your son, and Claudia Martin's. Even if it...goes bad, I'll fight for all of you. Until the world really does end."

Mako grinned through her tears. "Our family doesn't give up."

"No," Dad agreed. "We don't."

---

Thirty-six hours later, Jake woke up in the middle of the night.

And he knew. Dad's gone.

Gone...

He didn't cry. He wasn't really sure what was left to cry for.

Until a few hours later, a call came in. Jake braced himself and turned on the screen...

It was Mako.

Jake sobbed and lunged for the screen like he'd jump right through it. Mako had her hand on it. She looked exhausted, pressing her forehead to the screen. "It's done. The mission succeeded. But Sensei..." She couldn't go on.

"It's okay," Jake choked out. "I know. I knew." I felt it? He wasn't sure. "I thought you were gone too."

Someone had an arm around Mako, though Jake couldn't see their face. But it was a pilot's armor, so it had to be Raleigh Becket. Jake had wanted to meet him after learning he'd become Mako's co-pilot, but now it could wait. "I'm coming," he breathed. "I've got the paperwork, to be...legal. I'm gonna file it, and I'll come." To Hong Kong. Wherever you are. That's where I'm going.

"Are you sure - " Mako began, but whoever was holding her nudged her. "O-okay. I don't think we're going anywhere. I'll see you soon." She looked so tired, and she whispered it like a prayer.

As soon as the call ended, Jake started preparing. He met Gran and Gramps as soon as they woke up. "Operation Pitfall succeeded," he informed them. "My dad is dead. Mako's alive." He held up the emancipation paperwork. "I'm leaving. I'm going to Hong Kong to Mako."

Gran cried, but it was like she was performing. Gramps asked, "What happened to turn you away from us?"

It was all Jake could do not to shout. So he took a few deep breaths, like he'd seen Dad do, and said very softly, "All my life, my dad has been saving the world, and all my life, you've sat on your arses and judged him. My dad, my mum, Aunt Luna, Aunt Tamsin, Mako, every one of them are worth ten of you. You turned me away a long time ago."

They didn't argue, because they knew he'd made up his mind. Maybe they'd decided he wasn't worth it anymore. Jake had a feeling it was both.

The name of Stacker Pentecost on the paperwork got Jake moved through the family court bureaucracy very quickly. Only for Dad's sake, for his privacy, did Jake hold back on the reasons why he wanted to be emancipated from his grandparents.

He dropped a few hints during the confidential interview, but knowing how Dad wouldn't have wanted it talked about, he was careful. He got what he wanted: Jacob Martin Pentecost was deemed a legal adult at the age of sixteen, free to go where he would and do what he would.

Barely a month after Operation Pitfall succeeded, Jake packed and let Mako know he was coming.

As he left for his flight to Hong Kong, Jake looked from the cab back at the house where he'd grown up. It was such a pretty house. Such an empty house.

The world's full of people like that, who sit in ivory towers watching brave men and women fight and die far, far away, and sneer that this one isn't good enough or that one didn't show enough, or other ones didn't look right or act right or speak right. Their opinions were worth less than nothing.

At least there was proof now of how wrong they'd been. Dad's name was everywhere as the man who'd given his life to end the Kaiju War, and held out to save the Jaegers who would save the world when everyone else had given up.

It was a tremendous shock for Jake to learn that Dad's partner had been Chuck Hansen.

And Chuck Hansen was still alive. That was an even bigger shock than learning Jake hadn't lost Mako too.

Jake hadn't cared much for Chuck in the last few years, knowing about Chuck Hansen's famously-bad relationship with his father. Jake had thought bitterly that Chuck Hansen had no idea how lucky he was.

Now he's got part of my dad's soul, and my dad risked everything, even the mission itself, to give Chuck Hansen a chance to live.

Obviously, Dad had thought Chuck Hansen was worth it.

Sometimes Jake had been bitter towards his father for his distance, but not often, because Jake's father had never been absent. Not really. No matter how much Gran and Gramps had wanted it otherwise, Dad had held out.

Outside the most childish and short-lived rivalries, Jake had never resented Mako or his father for the adoption either.

Dad gave both of us a gift by adopting Mako. We all got to be part of a family, who loved and respected each other no matter how far apart we were, and who believed humanity was worth fighting for right down to the last man.

I'm both my father's and my mother's son. I'm Mako Mori's brother. My family saved the world, and because of them, I get to finish growing up. I'll always be proud of that.

~Fin~

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen: Letters from the Front Lines

May 25, 2016

Mako Mori
Care of Tokyo Children's Refuge

Dear Mako,

Haku and I are so very sorry for the death of your mother and father, our Aunt Sumako and Uncle Masao. They loved you very much. We're also very sorry that you haven't been able to come back home. We asked our parents if you could live with us, but they say it's impossible.

We miss you and have asked if we can visit you in Tokyo or with your new family when you're placed. We've sent envelopes already stamped and paper. Please write back.

Love,

Your cousins Haku and Emica

---

May 30, 2016

Dear Emica and Haku,

Thank you for your condolences for my mother and father. They loved you too. I don't know when I'll be placed, but I hope my new family will let you visit. Please give my regards to the rest of our family.

Love,

Mako

---

June 25, 2016

Mako Mori
Care of PPDC Marshal Stacker Pentecost
Jaeger Academy
Kodiak, Alaska

Dear Mako,

We're very happy to hear you have been adopted, especially by the brave Ranger who saved Tokyo. Is he nice? We hear you are living in Alaska with him now. We asked to visit you before you left, but our parents said there wasn't time.

I hope you aren't too homesick. Haku isn't supposed to write anymore. Daddy wants him to concentrate on his studies, but Mama said I can do it. He said to tell you he misses you.

Love,

Emica

---

July 31, 2016

Dear Emica,

Marshal Pentecost is very nice. He took me to visit Tamsin Sevier, his co-pilot, in the hospital, since she was injured in the fight. We are in Alaska now. It's not as cold as I expected, and it's only dark for about four hours. The mountains are beautiful. I've enclosed some pictures. He says winter is the opposite, very dark and very cold, but he will show me the Northern Lights and the snow. We will be here until winter, then we're moving to Lima Shatterdome in South America, where it will be summer again.

I'm learning English. There is a new Japanese Jaeger being built here, and Coyote Tango is being repaired. I've met the new pilots of the Japanese Mark-2. They are very nice, but no one is allowed to say their names yet or give the name of the new Jaeger. It's bad luck.

Please tell your parents and our grandparents I hope they are well.

Love,

Mako

---

February 6, 2017

Mako Mori
Care of PPDC Marshal Stacker Pentecost
Lima Shatterdome, Peru

Dear Mako,

I am so sorry I haven't written back in so long. I'm sending this letter in secret. My parents wouldn't let me write anymore because they said it would make you sad. Haku told me to send you a letter after the engagement against Vaulimi was over. He thinks our family wants you to forget about where you come from. Haku put your hanbō in the display room in your father's workshop. Nobody but us knows it was yours. He says he gave Marshal Pentecost one of the swords your father made, the one you always liked the best. Grandfather let Marshal Pentecost have anything he wanted that belonged to your mother, but we thought you should have something of Uncle Masao.

I'm so sorry about Talon Tasmania's pilots. Did you know them? Please tell Marshall Pentecost we give our condolences.

Our cousins Kaede and Rei keep asking about you even though Aunt Satsuki and Grandmother keep telling them to stop. Haku started teaching Rei about swords and fighting in your honor. Grandfather caught them and punished Haku, but he says he's going to keep teaching her in secret as long as she wants to learn.

Cousin Shion is engaged to a nice boy from the Space Center. His name is Aito. He's skinny and nerdy, but he makes us laugh and likes playing with the little kids. Her parents are hoping he'll make it more likely they have sons, since he has two brothers. Haku said it'll be lucky if they can have any children at all after the way our family treated you. Father and mother punished him for that too.

Please write to me and tell me if you are okay. Do you remember Dr. Watanabe, who taught science? She says you can send letters to me care of her, and she'll keep them for me. Our parents opposed adding English to the mandatory curriculum at school - all of them. They say it's unnecessary, but Haku and I think they don't want us to be able to talk to you, and they're hoping you'll forget your own language. We're very angry.

Love,

Emica

---

February 10, 2017

Dear Emica,

I'm glad you wrote to me. I've sent this to Dr. Watanabe. I am learning English, but I speak Japanese with Sensei (that's what I call Marshal Pentecost) and Tamsin. I also have a friend from England who is learning Japanese and helping me with my English.

Everyone at Lima Shatterdome is very sad right now. This is the first time any Rangers have died, and Talon Tasmania's pilots married only a few months ago! They called the Jaeger "Tango" Tasmania because they could make her dance the Argentine Tango. Sensei used to get angry about it.

I'm glad Haku will inherit the house and the workshop. My father would be proud that he's teaching Rei. Tell them to try not to get punished. I don't want them to get in trouble because of me.

If you can send email, my email address is below.

Love, Mako

---

To: pentecost2
From: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
Date: March 16, 2017

Subject: Shion Is Married

Mako,

I'm not allowed to use email at home, but Dr. Watanabe made me a profile here at the school library. Shion and Aito got married last week. It was a very nice wedding, but Shion started asking Uncle Genkei about you right in front of Aito and his family. Grandmother was sputtering, and everyone was so embarrassed! Shion did it on purpose. She's never spoken of it until now to any of us, but obviously she was angry too, because she let Aito's family know you were Tokyo's Daughter. They all wanted to know why you had been sent to an orphanage instead of being kept with our family. Uncle Genkei kept saying afterward that he was glad Grandfather wasn't alive to be so humiliated, but Shion wasn't sorry, and neither are most of us. Dr. Watanabe was there too – I think she was smug. May I give your email address to Shion? I'll have to ask Dr. Watanabe to do it because none of us are allowed to talk to her, but she would like to write to you now that she isn't living with her parents and they can't punish her.

If you live in Lima now, it must be autumn there. That's strange to think of living in the Southern Hemisphere. I asked about it in environmental science last month, and Dr. Watanabe is letting me do my term project on weather patterns in Lima. I don't think any of our family made the connection, or Mama and Daddy would have made me change it.

Haku and I are looking forward to going to the beach when it's warmer. I am going to find someone to show me how to surf.

Love, Emica

---

To: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
From: pentecost2
Date: March 25, 2017

Subject: Re: Shion Is Married

Emica,

I asked Sensei and he said we can share my email with any of the family who want it as long as you trust them not to tell the public. The children of PPDC personnel are sometimes in danger from the public or just harassed by reporters, and he doesn't want that to happen to me. I told them I trust who you trust. Tell Shion and Aito I said congratulations and hope they'll email me from time to time.

I sent you an attachment about the weather patterns in Lima and how they affect the urban runoff. That's important for preparing for kaiju attacks. Lima is a beautiful city, but I don't like living in the Shatterdome very much. During the Vaulimi attack, it was awful even though the kaiju was hundreds of miles away. Sensei is looking into schools inland, although I don't know if I want to be separated from him for months at a time.

I'm sorry it's hard for any of you to talk to me. I don't want you to get into trouble. My mother would be happy to know you're still surfing even though she's gone. How are things with Haku and the workshop?

Love, Mako

---

To: pentecost2
From: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
Date: April 15, 2017

Subject: Cousin Shion

Dear Mako,

Thank you for letting Emica give me your email address. It's been so long since I've seen you, and so terrible that I didn't even get to tell you how sorry I was for Uncle Masao and Aunt Sumako's deaths. They were wonderful people and you are a credit to them. I also have to apologize for my parents' behavior, and I don't do so lightly. The older I got, the more I see how indefensible it was to fail to bring you home and raise you as Uncle Masao and Aunt Sumako wished. Emica and Haku feel the same about their parents.

Emica and Haku say you are happy with Marshal Pentecost, and I'm glad to know that. Your parents must be happy too, that the man who saved your life is raising you. I told Aito about you even before we were married. If you ever want to return to Tanegashima, even just to visit, you must stay with us.

Our little cousins Rei and Kaede understood even less about why you didn't come home, but even they thought it was terrible. Haku is still illicitly teaching Rei about swordmaking and fighting. He trains her with your hanbō sometimes. Kaede isn't so interested in swordmaking, but she wants to learn Jaeger Bushido. Lots of the kids at school do – I probably would if it had started when I was their age.

Emica tells me you're enjoying Lima but considering going to school somewhere inland. Would it be in Peru or England where Marshal Pentecost is from?

Love, Shion

---

Mrs. Nakamura Shion

May 1, 2017

Dear Shion,

I'm sorry it took me so long to write back. The Internet signal has been down for almost three weeks in the Shatterdome. The PPDC network is all a separate signal, but I can't use it to contact people by regular email, so I'm sending this in a regular letter. I hope you don't mind, I looked up your husband at the Space Center.

We're still considering where I might go to school. My English is nearly fluent but my Spanish is still very weak, and I would need to be fluent to go to school in Peru. So England and the United States or Canada would be more likely.

I'm sorry there was a scene at your wedding. I don't want anyone to get into trouble about me. I miss home but I don't think anyone in our family would have let me continue swordsmithing or study Jaeger engineering the way Sensei does. That's what I call Marshal Pentecost. We have a therapist who stays at the Shatterdome just to work with me. Her specialty is child trauma. She's very kind, but some of the things she has taught me would have shocked even my parents, I think. She's from Germany but speaks Japanese, and while I don't think some of the things she has me do and think about are wrong, they are definitely different from what the teachers at school would do. It's interesting.

Love, Mako

---

To: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
From: pentecost2
Date: June 11, 2017

Subject: Hammerjaw

Emica,

Is everyone okay? I was so frightened when Hammerjaw passed so close by Tanegashima. Sensei said no one was hurt and the ferries stopped in time, but transit is still down between islands. Did you watch the battle? It was so scary! This is the first time in history two Jaegers have fought together. Tacit Ronin and the crew of Silver Lion have been practicing together since the Vaulimi engagement, and other pilots are going to start doing the same.

Sensei and I have decided on a school. It's in Pennsylvania in the United States, Nittany Valley Preparatory Academy. I've seen pictures and it looks very nice. Dr. Schneider has been hired there, so at least I'll know someone. I'm nervous.

How is school for you? You must be in high school now.

Love, Mako

---

To: pentecost2
From: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
Date: June 29, 2017

Subject: Re: Hammerjaw

Mako, Hammerjaw was so scary! The Space Center went on lockdown and Shion came to stay with us because Aito had to work and she was too afraid to be home alone. But then she got into a fight with her parents, shouting and crying that if Hammerjaw destroyed Tanegashima, everyone should blame our family. In the end, she stormed out and went to stay with one of her friends. I'm emailing her from school now too because Grandmother disowned her.

She says you shouldn't feel bad if there are quarrels over what our family did to you. I agree with her; it's our parents' fault, not yours. Many of us have lost so much respect for them even though they're our parents and our elders, because there's no excuse for what they did to you.

I'll try to tell you some good news so you won't be too sad. I'm dating a boy from Nakatane. We met at the beach in the spring, and he was helping me practice surfing. My parents like him because his father is a senior official at the airport and his mother works there too. (But he tells me he doesn't want to work for the airport – he doesn't like planes. He wants to be a journalist.)

---

To: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
From: pentecost2
Date: July 9, 2017

Subject: New Jaeger Launch Tomorrow!

Emica, the new American Jaeger is launching tomorrow! Are you going to watch? Nobody is supposed to know her name, but I do. ;-D It's a "perk" of having a parent in the PPDC. We get insider information. But I can't tell – it's bad luck. Her pilots were Sensei's students. I've never met them, but asked him what he thinks of them…he made a funny face. Sensei's very serious. Some of the American pilots have a reputation for playing pranks, and Sensei gets embarrassed. (I think it's funny.)

What is your boyfriend's name? Is he cute?! He must be cute if he's a surfer! Tamsin says I'll have to start dating when I get to a school that isn't by satellite. I'm not sure what I think about that – Westerners date younger than we do. Tamsin was shocked that you have your first boyfriend at age fifteen. Do you even go to the same school? How often do you see him?

---

To: pentecost2
From: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
Date: July 15, 2017

Subject: Re: New Jaeger Launch Tomorrow!

Mako,

We all watched the launch of Gipsy Danger from the Space Center, just like we used to do. They still hold a special broadcast of the launch ceremonies all day long, and as long as none of our Jaegers are deployed, they broadcast the battles too. I don't go to watch the battles. Rei and Kaede go, but Haku and I reminded them to always remember that it's not a movie.

Do you remember Akiara, Cousin Taura's son? He's seven now. He said he thinks Raleigh Becket is cute – Cousin Taura's husband almost fainted! Cousin Taura just laughed and said it's a phase. Rei says Akiara always seems to notice boys rather than girls. We told her not to talk about it too much. I don't trust Grandmother or his parents not to be cruel to him about it.

Jomei goes to school in Nakatane, so I only see him once a week at most when we're both allowed to go to the beach. I don't think my parents would even let me date him if they didn't like his parents' jobs. He is cute, but I don't know if he's the person I want to marry, no matter what our parents say. His parents seem to like mine, but five years is a long time to date. Shion only started dating Aito when she was eighteen, and it was two years before they got engaged. I think I want to go to college first.

When do you start at your new school? Will they really let you date at age twelve?

Love, Emica

---

To: FujimotoE, Tanegashima Secondary
From: pentecost2
Date: July 31, 2017

Subject: Re: Re: New Jaeger Launch Tomorrow!

Emica,

The first school dance for me at Nittany Valley will be at the end of middle school, eighth grade. I can go with friends or have a date. I'm not sure about that either. We leave in just a few days. Tamsin and Sensei are both coming with me to say goodbye. I hope I don't cry.

Did you know Raleigh Becket is only eighteen? He's too old for me (definitely too old for Akiara) but maybe not too old for you. He is cute. He's the youngest Jaeger Pilot in history, but there are a set of triplets in Hong Kong who are qualified, but haven't been assigned to a Jaeger yet. There's another Chinese Jaeger launching from there next. Maybe they'll get it.

I want to learn Jaeger Bushido and engineering so I can go to the Jaeger Academy when I turn eighteen.

Love, Mako

~Fin~