Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a dark and violent night the day that the war ended. In the way that things tend to be after a war ends, the vultures and virulent little pests pick over the bodies of the fallen titans within the bay.

The boats within the bay rock violently as they approach the crumpled bodies of the Jaegers, the larger scrap vessel dropping anchor and backing up to try and get closer to the two behemoths without colliding into them. The Geiger counter on board starts to click louder as they approach Cherno Alpha, the top reactor of the Jaeger crumpled into itself and mangled into twisted spires of metal and wire. The rain pounds down against the boats, and the little people crawling along the robots like ants in a flood.

“Watch out for parts of the reactor!” The captain calls out over the radio as his men begin to climb onto the sunken Jaeger. Their replies echo back to him.

“Look for any metal or scrap that can be used or removed, move up towards its chest, there may be more intact pieces there,” he commands, looking up from the bow of the ship.

Captain Wilkerson had commanded this ship for five years- and he never enjoyed seeing the massive machines that were meant to protect them being crumpled and cold like this. He used to know a few pilots, back when the war was still going good, and the hope hadn’t been beaten out of people yet.

He doesn’t know them anymore. And he definitely knows that this is something bigger than he is- bigger than anything they know. He has an itching feeling on the back of his neck, like hair standing on end before you’re struck by lightning, and he grits his teeth. Wheeling around to his second in command, he barks an order.

“Stay on the ship and secure the cargo- I am going onto Cherno Alpha with them,”

“Understood, Sir," comes the curt response.

“Good man,"

He climbs overboard, swaying and rocking with the ship as he grabs ahold of the steel plating of the old Jaeger. He pulls himself up, as the rolling of the boat suddenly gives way to the Jaeger, whose mass is sitting on the sea-floor, making it stable. He picks his way across the robot, feeling the prickling sensation continue up his spine, as he checks his radio every few minutes. He wipes the hair from his eyes as the pelting rain plasters it to his face.

“Is there anything out of the ordinary?”

“No sir, nothing in the left leg," One of his crewmen responds, and an echoing response comes from all sectors besides the chest, where he turns his attention. The radio crackles and hisses as he fruitlessly shakes water from it, trying to shield his mic from the relentless onslaught.

It’s a slow slog up towards the chest of the Jaeger, and on the way he passes a small group of men, huddled around another who seems to be clutching his hand while one of the group’s “medics” is treating him. He picks his way over towards them.

“What has happened-” he asks, looking into the group.

One of the men ogling at them looks over to him.

“The acid burned through his glove, Captain,"

“Get him back into the ship, then return back to your posts,” he says, as the man grits his teeth while they bandage his burned hand, his tears mixing with the water running down his face.

He backs up and continues back on his trudging back towards the center of the Jaeger, whose bulk begins to get more mangled as he heads towards the Conn-Pod. He begins to hear yelling, and he hastens his pace, beginning to run and slip along the chassis, his boots struggling to grip the wet, acid-eaten Jaeger.

“WHAT IS IT BOYS?” He yells out over the rain, slipping heavily, and he climbs up towards the Conn-Pod, heaving for breath as he gets there and sees two of his men being lowered down into the shattered glass opening.

“SIR! We think that we see bodies!” One of his subordinates comes sliding over to him, throwing his arms out to avoid sliding over the edge and falling into the dark, machine-filled water. “We think the pilots’ bodies are in there! There was some movement!”

Screaming comes from the hole, and his eyes widen in worry and fear for his crew.

“Pull them up! PULL THEM UP NOW!”

The crew manning the rope begins to frantically pull them up. As the two crew begin to ascend, another form is held between them.

“THEY’VE GOT SOMEONE! SOMEONE CALL THE MEDIC-“ one of the crew yells, and Captain Wilkerson- for the first time in his career- feels fear deep into his soul.

They scramble as the two crewmates heave the body onto the torn metal around the broken visor. The man’s body is covered in blood, water, and a charred Drivesuit. Many hands begin to pull the armor plating off, starting to begin chest compressions, and checking for a pulse.

“GO BACK DOWN! GO BACK DOWN!” Someone is yelling over his shoulder- and Wilkerson wheels around, scowling and yelling.

“CALM DOWN- NO ONE IS GOING ANYWHERE-“

“That’s Aleksis! DID ANYONE SEE SASHA?”

A team begins to swarm around the pilot, pulling the body away from the edge as one of the crew- one of the ones who dragged Aleksis out- drops himself back in. He dives under, and some of the crew begins to scream-

“SIGNS OF LIFE! WE HAVE SIGNS OF LIFE!”

The scramble around the open visor of the Conn-Pod continues to grow wilder, as they struggle to move Aleksis’ body away from the edge and Wilkerson’s ears ring with screams and calls around him. Something deep in his mind tells him that he needs to take charge- that he MUST take charge.

“EVERYONE CALM!” he yells over the storm, and this manages to get the attention of most- with them freezing in their tracks.

“If you’re working on keeping pilot Kaidonovsky alive- do your job and get the medics here yesterday-“

He looks back down into the hole- and sees his man come back up for a breath of air, before gesturing back down.

“And someone- please help him- he’s found something- likely the other half of the team! GO GO GO!” he insists, and at his words, they jump back into action, scrambling around the jaeger wildly.

He steps back from the edge, running a hand through his hair doing little to keep it from getting washed back into his face. As his radio splutters and screams at him while he tries to protect it from the water, he swears and glances back towards the commotion and gathering, as Sasha is brought up from the depths of the machine she laid in.

“What is it?” he asks, the radio crackling again as it buzzes over towards the captain of his other boat, working on the other fallen Titan.

“We’ve found something. It’s a MIRACLE!”

“What is it?”

“The Wei triplets are alive! One of them managed to eject, but two were trapped inside, we have all three on board, the two- Jin and Hu are getting medical treatment, and Cheung is fading in and out of consciousness," His jaw drops, and the prickle up his spine shoots out of his body- the shoe has dropped. The lightning has struck.

“Keep them alive! We’ve had a miracle of our own! The Kaidonovskys were still in the Conn-Pod. Aleksis survived!”

His radio cuts out- as a mic is cued overtop, and orders for a medic are barked over it, the cheering returns, and Sasha’s body is laid out beside her husband’s. Captain Wilkerson darts over, slipping and falling for a moment, pulling some of his crew back so the emergency medic can begin to try and work on the battered Pilot.

He looks stone faced- she looks to be in worse condition than her husband, and she was under the water longer- he holds little hope for her. As the helmet is pried off of her face, the medic begins chest compressions.

He idles over closer to Aleksis, who had been put on his side. The unconscious pilot is burnt and battered, blood sluggishly flowing from shallow cuts along his cheeks and running down his neck to his shoulder.

He runs another hand though his soaked hair, and radios back towards his ship as he steps away from the growing mass of people.

“We have a miracle, everyone. Both pilots are intact. Aleksis survived, and Sasha is being worked on. Call the Shatterdome, boys- they have some pilots they need to take care of,"

He lets out a sigh, and looks up towards the sky, the torrential rain slowing, before stopping altogether, as with a final crack of thunder and a chorus of cheers, Sasha Kaidonovsky takes another breath, her body stepping back from the brink.

—

Within the dark water, a small light- something easily missed in the stormy weather- was pulsing out. Its job- for now- was done, and it was growing tired.

And within the minds of the two pilots- a familiar pathway starts to go dim, being held together by hope.

Chapter Text

Sasha Kaidonovsky awakes for the first time after the invasion of Hong Kong, in the hospital, pain filling her body as she finally wakes, shaking and shuddering- connected to machines.

The first thing she notices is that there’s an incessant beeping, and she sluggishly reaches up to try and hit whatever is making the sound, which triggers a wave of fiery pain up her arm, and a crescendo in the mechanical beeping. She lets out a hoarse sound- her voice coming out broken and quiet with disuse.

The second thing she notices is that she is covered in bandages, and as the pain filling her body lessens, and she can begin to hear over the ringing in her ears, she understands someone is trying to talk to her.

“Whe-re is- m-y husband?” she says, ignoring whatever garbled questions that they are asking her, as she slowly cracks an eye open, then shuts it as the light pierces into her skull. She struggles a little more- and hands come and hold her down- she cries out, trying to free herself. She desperately searches her mind, clawing at the thoughts flashing though her pained mind for any that seep through the link between her and her husband.

She screams again as she begins to come back into her mind, the hands holding her down seem to back off as she struggles to understand the words they are saying to her.

“Where- is…. My… h-usband.," she struggles out again, her voice croaking and slurred. She blinks up slowly, as she realizes that the lights have been turned down, and that there is a doctor standing over her. She bares her teeth, it doesn’t do what she wants, and the doctor seems concerned.

“Your husband is in surgery, Ms. Kaidonovsky," He says, as if through wool.

Sasha cries softly, shaking as she feels pain roll though her body. Her struggling seems to pull at stitches and she sinks back against the bed.

“What… o-f… the.. W..ar?”

“It’s over, Ma’am. Now- please rest- your going to tear your stitches-“

“T-oo… quiet-“ and she hears the mechanical beeping reach a crescendo as she moves, and she feels them rush back to her side, as they seem to be yelling- but her ears don’t want to work. She feels them tugging at something on her non-bandaged arm, and she hisses in pain before the world goes dark around her again. The pain fading away like a blanket was thrown over it.

She looks up, blinking and gasping softly, her vision fading in and out like she’s looking through a window. She calls out in her mother tongue, Russian flowing from between split, broken lips, trying to find the one person she always knew to find.

But as the darkness seeps over her, she begins to hear a wail, not through her ears- but it rings though her head, and she follows- away from the darkness calling her, and back towards the pain and brightness.

—

Sasha is not sure what time it is when she awakes next, but she feels the dull throb of pain gnawing its way into her bones. She lets out a hoarse groan, and she opens her eyes again, blinking as she looks around. She flexes the fingers on her left hand- her good hand- and groans again, the pain filling her body slowly, like overflow from a cup. She fumbles around for a moment, before pressing a button on a remote placed beside her hand.

This aching, bone deep pain makes her hazy, even as she struggles slightly, turning her head side to side, her body shaking from the effort- her own muscles betraying her.

As she turns her head to the right, she sees her husband- bandaged and connected to machines, the side of Aleksis’s proud- sharp face covered in sterile bandages. She lets out a choked sob, struggling slightly- before she manages to get a better grip on herself, the pain washing back over her, as a nurse darts in.

“Mrs Kaidonovsky!-“ the nurse exclaims, darting to her side.

“W-hat… happened," Sasha hisses, her good hand shaking as she reaches up- and with surprising strength, grabs the Nurses arm.

“W..hy?” The nurse gently shifts her, checking her bandages.

“Mrs Kaidonovsky- you were downed in your Jaeger a month ago- ma’am- calm down,” she says, as Sasha struggles again, her muscles spasming and failing again.

“Alek-sis-” She gasps softly, her fingers twitching and letting go of the nurse's arm.

“He’s over there, ma’am. He’s doing significantly better. You need to rest, you’re still injured-“ she says softly, adjusting Sasha to try and make her more comfortable.

Sasha, for the first time in a long time, willingly lets tears roll down her face, the pain is dull in her mind, but her heart aches deeply. She wants to reach for her husband, she wants to hold him, and keep them both safe- to hide from the darkness threatening to overwhelm their link- to ease the pained keening that echoes from deep within her heart. She weakly flexes her fingers, trying to bring her hand up to her face, looking at the many, many bandages covering her body, as the nurse frets about her.

“M-iss?” Sasha says softly.

“Yes ma'am? What is it?”

“Am.. I d-ying?”

“No Ma'am. Not if we have something to say about it," The nurse says, squeezing her good hand lightly.

“W..hat.. O-f.. the o-th-er.. Pilo-ts?”

“The Wei boys survived, although two of them are still in critical condition, I'm only telling you this, because you were pilots with them, and deserve to know what happened," She says, giving Sasha a look.

Sasha closes her eyes for a moment, as the nurse begins to unwrap her bandages. Wincing slightly as she starts to peel them off of her wounds, so very slowly and gently. She deals with the pain as she feels the bandages be removed from her right side, and her head, although she does not open her eyes, still not wanting to see what she looks like yet. She can feel the bandages on her head, and how her hair has been shorn off unevenly, and she begins to cry again. The heartbreak of what she feels calls her to sleep, as the mechanical heartbeat of machinery works its way into her brain like a lullaby.

—

The next time that Sasha Kaidonovsky wakes, she is not as jilted and pained, and she can feel her hands again. When she goes to tilt her head to look down at herself, she is still wrapped in bandages, but she no longer feels the pain filled aching deep in her bones. She slowly tries to shift, before she grasps the remote, and very, very slowly, sits herself up with the bed. She raises her hand- slowly, with a heavy shake to her arm- and she looks at the way her fingers tremble, and the bandages are loosely wrapped around her arm. She bows her head, thinking of all that she's lost, from her tattoos, to her hair, to what is left of her bond with her husband.

She lets out a soft sound, looking around for a moment, and seeing that Aleksis’s bed is empty again, and she closes her eyes for a moment. She cannot handle it, feeling the weak bond slowly fading in and out as he is unconscious. She shuts her eyes and grits her teeth, bracing her good arm under herself, and slowly trying to push herself sitting. She finally gets a good look at herself, the blanket kicked away from her legs- her body shaking and covered in bandages. She slowly reaches over and pulls her legs over the edge of the bed, her entire body shaking, but there is fairly little pain. She could tell some of the muscles in her legs had likely atrophied and it displeased her.

She places her feet on the cold, sterile tile, and she squeezes her eyes shut as she falls, her legs unable to support her own weight, crumple under her like paper, and with a loud crash and the screaming of the now disconnected heart monitor- she collapses. Her injured arm is screaming at her in pain. She cries out softly as she slumps against the floor, looking at a wheelchair a few feet from the bed- and she looks to the IV line in her arm, that is now nearly fallen beside her- and she uses her good arm, trying to prop herself up with it.

Sasha crawls over to the wheelchair, with all the strength she has left in her, she pulls herself into it. Turning her head and feeling pathetic and helpless enough in herself, she slowly pushes herself out of her room and around the ward, trying to find her husband. She could feel he was no longer in surgery, but the fact that he was not in the room with her irked her, and she wanted to know what was being done to them.

She wheels herself, IV stand and all, over to the nurses station. Her height means she was about eye level with the nurses sitting there, even from her position in the wheelchair. She’s sure she looks disheveled, her normally pristine, nearly military presentation is lost to the bandages and razors of the hospital. She just glares at them with as much strength as she can muster.

“W-here…am… I?” She says, trying to get her voice under control, the lack of use having made her voice quiet.

The nurses looked up, startled and panicked.

“Mrs. Kaidonovsky- you cannot be out of bed-“ two of them get up and walk around the desk- and Sasha glares at them- her bandaged hand hovering over where the IV is in her arm.

“A-nswer- m-y ques…tions… or I- am… g-oing… to pu-ll t-his out. T-hen we w…i-ll both… b..e in… trouble,"

“Mrs. Kaidonovsky- Please- your in the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong- calm down- no need to do that Miss-“

She smirks, it’s weak and she knows it, but she still tries.

“W…here… is. M-y h-usband," She growls, growing more impatient with every moment.

“Aleksis Kaidonovsky is in recovery- you cannot see him right now, but he is stable and alive, Ma’am- please- let us help you-“ one of them says- and Sasha tilts her head.

“I… will.. j-ust te-ll the s-hatterdo-me… I’m f-ucking back,"

And with that, she tilts her head, watching and waiting intently for them, as she lets them pull her back to her room. And with a last glance over her shoulder, she sees them pick up the phone.

Chapter Text

Mako Mori always knew she needed to be in the shatterdome- she wasn't sure why, and she definitely did not want to argue with whatever motivation drove her to do the things she did. And on this particular day, she had to drag herself towards LOCCENT. A month after the end of the Kaiju war, and it was still being a massive pain for her to deal with.

They had gotten a call from the hospital- Sasha was awake, and apparently causing issues. The old Pilot was notoriously difficult to treat for injuries or sickness, and in every file that Mako had ever seen for her, it had said in bold letters: FLIGHT RISK.

Mako has to rub her face at that, wondering why they needed her to go check in on the pilot in the first place- then she lets out a long, suffering sigh, realizing that, as the right hand of the Marshal, she had a duty to check on the current and former staff of the Shatterdome.

She was happy that the other former pilots, like the Wei brothers, had not been deemed risks to themselves. Although she felt an ache of sadness in her heart, the other Wei brothers, Jin and Hu, had yet to wake from their comas, and Aleksis still had severe injuries that would likely leave him with lasting nerve damage in his arms and legs. She wasn’t even sure how Sasha had managed to wake- and apparently become mobile, before any of them.

She hurries through the long, damp halls of the Shatterdome, running a hand anxiously through her hair. She continues to look through the files she has, doing her best to read as thoroughly as possible- the fact that the Ex-Pilots in the hospital were doing so well was a miracle in and of itself, but she was out of her depth. Raleigh was no help when it came to running the Shatterdome, and Tendo and Herc were so vital to everything else running that she could hardly catch them doing anything other than desperately holding the Shatterdome together.

Mako Mori, for not the first time, wishes she could talk to her dad. She wants to curl up against him, and hide away from all of the responsibility that the end of the war shoved on her, but here she is, striding back into LOCCENT. She grits her teeth and looks around, trying to find Hercules Hansen.

When she finally finds him, he’s in the back corner, poking over large numbers of data, running strings of numbers that, by her observation, appear to be for the remaining Jaegers equipment.

“What tests are you running,” She asks, tilting her head with a confused look on her face.

“Those aren't like any I’ve seen before, and I helped write most of the new ones,” And with a murmur, she leans closer, pointing at a few lines of code scrolling by.

“ ‘Ell- we were working on new stress tests for the hybrid jaeger that the PPDC is so graciously sending us,” Hercs reply is curt, with a heavy hand on the frustration in his voice.

“Wait- wait wait- im sorry, what?” Mako is left blinking dumbly, the frustration in her voice palpable.

“I thought we were going to restore the ones that we had left-”

“That was the plan, Mako- don't- don’t yell at me about it,” He growls, his hands tight around the metal of the desk he was leaning over. “We need to have Something, if the kaiju come back, and who knows when we will fix the Jaegers.”

She pushes the files in her hands down onto the desk with a slap. She runs a hand down her face and exhales sharply.

“Well, I am going to check on Sasha Kaidonovky, she's awake, and she wants to talk. If you want to consult me on any more Jaeger related matters, feel free to find me, or Hermann for that matter it's not like we’ve made them," She says angrily, a sarcastic bite in her tone.

She turns on her heels and closes her eyes, stalking out of LOCCENT, she shudders, knowing that her outburst was unhelpful, but the rage and frustration still coursing through her veins. She clenches her fists and rubs the back of her hand against her face as she hurries towards the elevator, the prick of angry tears making her eyes sting. She wants to be helpful- she wants them to ask her to do the things she was trained to do, and she didn't want to be worked around because they didn't think they needed her anymore.

She continues to speed up, and once she gets to the elevator she mashes the button for the ground floor, and then ducks her head as the doors begin to close. She was on a mission, and she would not be swayed by anything, even minor setbacks- even though the sting of betrayal. She sways with the movement of the elevator, the rage seeping into her bones slowly, like faucet dripping.
She would show them that she is capable- that she was not going to stand in her fathers shadow- that she was SOMEONE. She WOULD be important, and she WOULD help.

The rocking of the elevator stopping at her floor shakes her from her stupor, she wipes her face again, and leaves the elevator, making a line straight for the doors, and the transportation that was provided for her.

She hurries into the car, telling the driver where she wanted to go, and showing them her ID badge. She slouches down in the back seat, pulling her jacket around herself tighter, feeling a sense of hopelessness.

She buries her nose against the soft fabric, looking out at the road passing as the car pulls out and begins to head towards the hospital. She didn’t know how to feel, and she was getting more and more frustrated with how everything was turning out. The annoyance floods through her body, and she rubs her face with her hands.

With the rocking movement of the car, her head lolls against the glass. She feels small, and she, again, wishes her father was there to help her and guide her through this. Stacker Pentecost would know how to deal with the black market, he would know how to deal with the pilots being in the hospital. She would never forgive him for sacrificing himself- even if it did so much good, it still hurt.

She loses track of how long it takes her to get into the city, she stays curled against the window, her eyes tracking across the slowly repairing damage in the city. Letting a breath out, she sighs softly as they pull up outside of the hospital, and she rubs her face. Getting out of the car, she waves the driver off and heads inside. She walks up to the desk tapping her fingers as she looks around the room, frowning slightly as she sees the state of the hospital.

“Hello miss, what are you here for?” The lady at the front desk asks, blinking tiredly for a moment as she puts a smile on her face.

“I’m here to check in on Mr. and Mrs. Kaidonovsky and the Wei triplets. I'm Mako Mori from the Shatterdome,” She says, straightening her posture and adjusting her sweater slightly. She shifts awkwardly, as the nurse pulls out some paperwork and checks it over, before looking back at her.

“They are not taking visitors at this time, but Mrs. Kaidonovsky was asking for you, so I will do what I can to make an exception,” The nurse says, a soft look on her face, she motions for Mako to head though the doors. “They are in the long-stay ward, its to the left and up the elevator on the third floor,”

Mako dips her head in thanks and she hurries through the doors and towards the ward, reflecting on how she hated the sterility of the hospital, and how she honestly didn't blame Sasha for trying to flee. She felt the ache in her soul return, and she missed the older pilot. She was one of the few other female pilots, and she was rough around the edges, her military background hardening her to the world, but she had been caring towards Mako.
She missed being able to talk to the older Russian, whose stoic nature rarely offered much in the way of comfort other than physical, but she missed her all the same. Sasha had helped her dye her hair for the first time, and had cheered her on when she was stumbling through fixing Gypsy Danger. Mako rubs her face slightly, thinking about how, in any other world, she would likely see the older ranger as more of a family figure. She misses her friend, and knowing her and her husband were in such terrible pain pulls at her heart.

She hesitates as she reaches the elevator, hand hovering over the button, as she stands in front of the door, she swallows hard. Her fingers shake slightly as she presses it in, and waits for the elevator to come down. She takes a little breath, trying to calm her nerves, as the doors ding and slide open.

She steps into the elevator, leaning against the wall as it moves up, wiping away the tears that sting her eyes. She stands back up as the elevator comes to a stop, blinking harshly for a moment as she steps out. She takes a deep breath and heads towards the nurses station, looking around to see if anyone is there.

“Hello? I'm wondering if Sasha Kaidonovsky is here?”

“Oh- you are Mako, correct?” The nurse asks, looking at something on her computer, Mako blinks for a moment and nods.

“Yes-”

“Ah, she is in room 312, she has been asking for you. She might not be all there, though, she had to be sedated again,” Mako just numbly nods again, and thanks the nurse, she turns and starts to walk down the hallway.

She fumbles with her fingers as she goes to push the door open, shutting her eyes for a moment as she steps forwards. Mako steps into the hospital room, the beeping of the machines fading into the background as she lays her eyes on the pilot laying in the bed.

Sasha looks bad. She knew how severe it was when the older pilot was pulled from the remains of Cherno Alpha, but she hadn't been allowed in to see them. She gasps softly, Sasha’s left side is entirely wrapped in bandages, her bleach-blond hair was shaved down, and where it’s growing back, is a darker yellow than Mako had seen in a long time. In the few places not covered by sterile white, there are scars that are pale even against her skin.

Sasha looks over at her, the right side of her face is minimally scared, although her usually sharp blue eyes are clouded and unfocused.

“M-ako?” She hums, her voice is weak, and not as it would be normally, the accent in her voice threatening to take over.

“Hello, Sasha, it’s me,” Mako says softly, as she makes her way over to the bed, reaching for Sasha’s unwrapped hand. Sasha weakly takes her hand.

“Th’ w-ar… It’s… o-ver?” Sasha hums, eyes looking over Mako for a moment, and she looks proud and sad.

“Yes, it’s over. The breach is closed,” Mako says softly, squeezing her fingers.

“O-h… Good,” She murmurs, her eyes drifting shut slightly as she looks around, Mako frowns, tucking her hand against her chest. The sharp mind that she had come to know is not there, and she has a worry that maybe it might not come back. “W-e… won.”

“Ho-w are… you?” Sasha’s head lolls to the side, and her fingers close weakly around Makos, her hand is shaking harder than Mako had ever felt.

“I'm fine. Not even a scratch, I promise,” She murmurs to the older woman, who weakly nods, before they sit in silence for a few moments.

“Mm.. W-hat did w-e.. L-oose… ourse..lves? Our l-oved ones?... o-ur hum-anity?” Sashas eye cracks open after a little, and the sharpness is back, but filled with a pain that Mako had never seen before. This was the kind of pain that she didn't know how to solve.

“W-e sh-should hav..e died… Th-ere… But… yet I-I live.” She takes as deep a breath as she can, before sagging into the bed. Mako doesn't know what to say, but Sasha fills the air before she can say anything.

“W-here is A-leksis?” Sasha asks softly, her eyes are closed again, but she seems to still be awake enough to ask.

Mako looks around the room, before she gently squeezes Sasha's hand once more.

“I will find him for you, ok? Please just stay awake,” Sasha sluggishly nods, and squeezes back, humming softly.

She lays Sasha's hand back down on the bed, and she quickly ducks out of the room, and she returns back to the nurses station.

“What room is Aleksis in? Is he still here?” She says softly, as she shifts on her feet. One of the nurses points down the hall.

She goes and checks, as she continues to look into the room, seeing Aleksis- her friend… attached to enough machines to make him look like he’s part of the jaeger he served with. The proud man looks small in the bed, with bandages covering much of his body. A spike of sadness fills her. She goes and reaches for his hand for a moment, before loud scrambling out in the hall makes her jump.

Turning around, she tries to find what is causing the ruckus, and she goes to look out of the room that she was in. She tries to catch the attention of one of the nurses.

“What's going on?” She asks, her voice puzzled and concerned.

“One of the Wei brothers has woken up-” The nurse says, before darting off, Mako following her close on her heels.

Chapter Text

The day that Cheung woke up, his head was killing him, and he felt closer to death than he did life. He wakes with nearly no sound, just the rhythmic pounding in his head. He shakes his head, in an attempt to get the pain to ease, but it sends another spike through his mind.

He groans, and in an attempt to get the bright light out of his eyes, he tries to raise a hand to cover his face. All he does is scream, as the pain in his chest arcs though his arms. He slowly cracks an eye open, his entire body shakes as his muscles betray him. He blinks again, as someone leans over him, and then there are hands- oh god there are so many hands. He makes a weak sound, and fumbles over his teeth for a moment.

“S-top, please-” He begs softly, his mind immediately going to the well worn trails in his psyche, that fail to deliver. He fights against the pain, his arm shifting again. “L-et me up. ‘M awake,”

He grits his teeth, as he tries to get up and move, the people the hands are attached to are not in focus as his eyes still strain from the light. As the world comes into focus around him, he notices that there are nurses around him, and that there are machines strapped to his chest and body.

“G..et off.” He growls, his voice is uncharacteristically strong, and surprises even him. He did not know how long he had been out, but he knew that something was different than when he had felt the pain shoot through him, and he had fallen unconscious.

He shakes a little more as the nurses pull away, and he finally focuses his eyes, blinking more. Coughing for a moment, his entire body rattles with pain, and he looks around weakly. There is not much around him, other than the sterile hospital room and the nurses. He can see someone standing in the doorway. He turns a little, his body screaming at him as he ignores all of the pain signals.

“Wh-o.. is t-here?”

“Cheung- it's me, Mako," A voice from the left of him- the one in the door. He tries to blink away the blurry filter over his eyes, making a pained sound.

“M-ako-” He says, voice shaking a little more.

She goes and takes his hand, squeezing slightly as she does so, but doing everything in her power to not hurt him more than he already is. He shakes and continues to whine.

“There you go- it's alright. They are trying to help you, Cheung. Please- let them help you,” She begs softly, continuing to rub his hand. He struggles a little, trying to see her more clearly, fighting harder to try and see.

“Why- why cant I-”

“You're alright, you were burned and asleep for a while, you're going to be alright, let your eyes adjust, it's ok," That's a new voice to him- as a nurse holds him down slightly, keeping him from tearing out any of the many stitches he can feel in his side. He relents, trying to blink away the blurriness. The more he does so, the more he can see and understand about the room around him.

He reaches out, patting her arm. He struggles a little for a moment, before he sighs.

“Please… Help m..e sit up," He looks at the nurse, then at Mako. He just struggles a little, before they shift him upwards, and move the head of the bed to look upwards, letting him sit up.

He just flexes his fingers, looking between both of them. He feels ages older than he knows he is, and at the same time, he can feel the still-healing wounds on his body ache as he breathes and moves. Bandages cover his body, and he can see where most of them cover his chest and arms, no part of him was spared from the attack.

“Wh-at of my.. Bro-thers?”

“They are still alive, they are just in comas. You're still very injured- don't worry, they are in good hands," The nurse tries to reassure him, but a flood of worry was still filling his wool-like mind. He needed to make sure they survived, he didn't care. He was their older brother, he was the one who kept them safe, he-

It was only when his heart monitor started to beep angrily when he realized that he had been working himself into a panic, and he just tries desperately to take a breath and calm down. He knows that they are in the hospital with him- he knows that they are safe and cared for, and that hopefully they will wake up.

“Wha-t about.. The w-ar?” He says, coughing for a moment, before a straw is pressed to his lips, and he is allowed to take a small sip of water.

“The wars over, Cheung, it's been over,” Mako says softly, and for the first time since he woke up, he saw that she appeared to have been crying.

“Ma-ko.. Are.. you al-right?” He hums, his body is growing more tired, but he is fighting it like he has fought no other thing. He knows that he was unconscious for so long, that he is fearing that he might not wake up again.

Mako just nods and squeezes his hand. She is smiling shakily, and she has a look on her face that betrays how tired she is.

“I'm just happy that you all are alive. It's… it's a miracle, now we need your brothers to pull through," She says softly. “You tell them you tell them to come back to us," She says softly, as a tear rolls down her face, and she quickly wipes it away and plasters the smile back onto her face.

“This is all so good, i'm so happy to know your… ok” She says, trying to comfort him, he can tell that she didn't know how to feel, and he felt more tired now.

“Im tire..d.," He murmurs, blinking. “I.. don’ wanna’ go back to sle-ep.. I wan’ wake up again,”

She gently pats his hand. “Your going to wake up again. Don't worry. Please, let yourself rest, it's better if you do. Everyone will still be here when you wake up.

He sighs softly, nodding as he does so, and he lets his eyes slip shut, fading back into sleep.

Chapter Text

Sasha fought with the nurses the entire time she was in the military, and this was nothing new. She had been awake for almost three weeks at this point and she was regaining her strength at a speed that they were saying was a miracle. She knew that it was a force of will, and a lot of pain. She knew not to push herself too hard, to let herself rest and get better, but she already felt stronger, and like she was improving.

She had seen her husband an amount of times she could count on one hand, and it was beginning to make her more frustrated than she has been in a long time. Their bond was thinning, but she could still feel him, could still feel how his pain radiates through him like knives with every movement. His pain was hers, and she wanted to hold him, to take that pain away.

The pain that floods her with every waking moment was starting to take its toll on her. She felt herself losing her spark. Sasha just wanted to survive this, and make it home. She knew that this day would be one that was a major step in what they wanted her to do. They were finally letting her leave, and she knew Aleksis was fighting to come along.

She wanted to return to the shatterdome, wanted to get her things back, wanted to see what remains of the massive robot that- no, she wouldn't think about what happened to the Jaeger that protected her and her husband. He would survive. He had to, he always did. It was them, Cherno Alpha, the Kaidonovskys, the Kaiju. A cycle that would not break- but inevitably had.

A pang of loss fills her as she sighs while she sits herself up, waiting for the nurse to wheel the chair into the room. She purses her lips as she hears the wheels rattling on the sterile tile, and she tries to swing her legs out of the bed, her body shaking slightly as she sits up.

“Get me out of here," She blinks sluggishly, and curls her lip, helping the nurse as much as she can as she sits up.

“Where’s Aleksis? Is he able to come with me?” She questions, humming mirthlessly, before she bares her teeth as the nurse hums back.

“Yes, he’s recovered enough to be able to return back with you, Sasha," The nurse- her nurse. Nurse Valery, had been taking care of her, and, even as something dark twists in her gut, Sasha knows she’s come to enjoy her presence.

“Oh, how wonderful. I can see my husband again, and see how you’ve butchered his hair," She snarks back lightly, and Valery laughs.

“If anyone’s been butchering it, it’s you and that box dye. But alas, no, it's been shaved on half of his head, you at least kept yours.”

“The travesty. You mock him, I must defend his honor from your attack," Sasha curls her un shaking hand into a loose fist to lightly punch Valery’s arm. She knows she’s weak, and even then, pulling her punches, she’s slow, and the joints of her fingers ache.

She sighs softly and just seems to sink into the wheelchair, as she’s pushed down the hall.

“I refused to be told what happened to our Jaeger…” Sasha’s words are quiet, and she almost doesn’t realize she’s said anything. She can feel Valery’s puzzled look at the back of her head, and she shakes her head slightly.

“I fear there’s nothing left of him to mourn," Sasha hums, flexing her fingers again. “There would not be much of Aleksis and I to pilot him anyway. I cannot fight, and Aleksis is fighting for his life at every turn. This is the end of our piloting years.”

Valery stops the chair, taking a few steps around before crouching down to face Sasha. Looking her in the eyes, Valery squeezes her good hand and frowns.

“Don’t you lose your fight, Ma’am. They might have to take it off your file.”

Sasha cracks a weak smile at that. “I suppose I will have to do better, then. I cannot have them thinking I just gave up.”

Valery gives her a smile and stands back up, before moving to go back to pushing the chair. “That’s the Sasha I know. That’s better. Don’t you give up Ma’am. Your husband will be ok, you will see," She wheels Sasha to the front desk, before talking with the other nurse on staff.

“I won’t be coming with you, but we need your signature to do the transfer over to the Shatterdome’s medical care” Valery holds out a clipboard with a pen attached, and Sasha scans over the paperwork, trying to still the shaking in her hand as she puts her signature on the bottom of the page. She ignores how much the shaking affects her, even though she hates how it causes her to move in ways she didn’t want to.

Sasha puts the clipboard back onto the desk and sighs as she continues to get pushed along, gritting her teeth slightly as the wheelchair rattles out of the door.

She cranes her head around as Valery parks the Wheelchair and walks around to her front, holding out a cane, and her arm.

“And I bid you Adieu ma’am. May I hope to never have to see you in this hospital again," She has a soft smile, as Sasha slowly rises to her feet, taking the cane, and Valery’s arm.

“I suppose I will have to make your life difficult elsewhere. If you need my help, when I’m no… so-“ she looks down at herself and grimaces. “Call this- you know where to find me.”

Valery pats her shoulder, as Sasha ducks her head and gets into the car, shuddering slightly as she puts weight on her arm. She leans back against the seat, breathing for a moment, before she shuts the door, and waits for her husband's release from the hospital.

She sighs, looking out of the windshield, seeing the outside of the hospital from another view, for the first time in a long time.

She smiles ruefully, she was a fighter, it’s why Aleksis married her, it’s why they joined the pilot program. It’s why they ended up where they were. Another cycle. She knew that every doctor from here to Vladivostok had her medical file, with its bolder letters and alerts that she would run. But she didn’t care. She wanted her husband, she wanted to see her son one last time, and maybe he wasn’t theirs biologically, but the steel machine was still theirs.

Cherno Alpha was the third in their little fucked up family. She knew the Wei triplets also thought of their Jaeger as if it were human. She was not sure if anyone else did, but she would never have a place to judge. Their steel son was a part of her soul she would always keep close- keep quiet. Something she would spill to only her husband, to her sister, and nobody else. They did not have the right to know, and she knew that if she told anyone in the Shatterdome, she would be sent right back to the hospital.

She curls her lip, imagining what that headline would be. The press followed them like vultures after hounds.

Sasha Kaidonovsky, lost her mind? Jaeger treated like its human. She snorts. No. She would never tell. Aleksis and her may share a soul now, but Cherno was hers, was the sweet thing she holds close to her heart, even when she is not herself, when she is everything, and nothing.

She’s started from her stupor as movement in the doorway of the hospital catches her attention, her head whips around -making the world spin slightly- as Aleksis is pushed out. His hair is entirely shaved on the right side, and he still seems like he’s having issues with coordination, but she doesn’t care.

Sasha wishes she could move more, but she doesn’t care, she will wait for Aleksis, she will check on her husband herself, she waits on edge, as the door is opened, and someone helps Aleksis into the car.

Sasha looks over at him, before she gingerly takes his face in her hands, turning him to face her. He looks tired, but his eyes light up slightly as he looks at her.

“Aleksi, what did they do to you, my love," She runs a hand over his hair. “They’ve butchered you.”

He smiles softly, and she forgives him for any fear of his passing. “Ah, alas, I did not have much of a choice in it, my dear. I will put that in my review, I suppose,”

She laughs softly, leaning over- ignoring the pain in her abdomen, as she presses her forehead to his.

“You're alive. And that’s all I ask,”

He kisses her nose, and just gently pulls away, as the driver gets into the car-

Sasha settles back against her seat, reaching over to take Aleksis’s hand. His hand is more steady than hers, surprisingly, but she still gently squeezes his hand, thumbing over the places his rings are missing, and how they are sitting, cold and forgotten in their room in the Shatterdome.

“We are returning to the Shatterdome, correct?” She asks, the English, her third language, but one she’s no less familiar with- seems to stick on her tongue as her breath hitches. Furrowing her brows, she shakes her head slightly, as if that would make her tongue and mouth work together better.

“Yes, I was told that we would be meeting Ms. Mori there,” The driver responds politely, before they start the car, and pull away from the hospital. Sasha sighs softly and nods, shaking her head a little for a moment as she does so, and rubbing her thumb over Aleksis’s knuckles.

Sasha turns her head to watch out of the side window as the car carries them ever closer towards the Shatterdome. She continues to gently caress Aleksis’s hand, spacing out as she does so. She loses track of time, only coming back to her senses when she feels Aleksis squeeze her hand, before he starts to pull away again. Lightly shaking her head, she blinks, coming to understand what had been said to her, before the car pulls to a stop.

“We're here,” The driver says, getting out as he goes to open the door for Aleksis, getting a cane out of the back for him.

Sasha pushes the door open from her side, and leans heavily on the car, pulling herself out, her legs under her shake, but she's strong enough to walk a little. She waits for Aleksis, as he limps around the side of the car, and she gets a lopsided smile on her face.

“Let us go put on a show,” He nods at her words, silently agreeing with her, his tired love poking at the edges of their frayed bond, fixing what it can. Sasha holds out an arm, and they walk, lock-step, limping and tired, back into the Shatterdome. No press yet, but then again, Sasha was not sure the world even knew they were still alive yet.

She looks around, the techs whispering and talking already, she had yet to see Mako, but she knew the kindly pilot was busy, and likely did not know they were there yet.

She looks one of the passing techs in the eyes, and raises herself up, trying to not seem so broken.

“Where are they keeping the remains of our jaeger?” She only shakes a little, as the tech- one of Crimson Typhoons- silently points towards the Jaeger bays. Sasha smiles at him- it's all teeth and bared, raw emotions.

“Thank you,” She continues forward, meeting back up with her husband, Aleksis, the silent second part of her soul she can feel breaking with every step towards the shattered remains of their steel child.

They limp into the Shatterdome’s Jaeger bays, heads held as high as the pain allows, as they trudge ever closer to the slumped form of Cherno Alpha.

It took far longer than she would have liked to get across the large bay, but it took only moments to get reacquainted with the sounds of the Shatterdome. The constant hum of machinery and tools.

When they finally make their way to the smaller storage bay, Sasha, for as strong as she knows she is, nearly collapses seeing him. His reactor tower was shredded, he was missing an arm and most of his leg, and there was a nasty hole where their conn-pod should have been.

She doesn't even hear the telltale clicking of geiger counters, the ones that would so regularly check him for leaks… when his reactor tower pulled apart, so too were the fuel rods that powered him, lost somewhere deep in the ocean.

She gently helps Aleksis sit, leaning up against Chernos massive foot, but before she can join him, curled up against the remains of their son, she hears talking. She stumbles around the side of his foot, one hand bracing herself as she does so. Not thinking much of it, and moving to see who it was, as she did not recognize the voices, Sasha stiffened when she heard her name.

“You know, those Kaidonovskys- where normal people have hearts, they have a black hole,"

She starts to shake, packing up the things she was working on, and gets up. Sasha turns, with a look of deep sadness, and walks away, limping through their conversation, glaring at both of them.

“Perhaps. If you’re going to insult someone, make sure they are not there to listen," she growls, her accent growing thicker for a moment as she pointedly watches them, and they seem to duck into themselves and scurry away.

She raises her arm, wiping away some small tears that peek against her eyes as she lifts her collar up, before returning to Aleksis, and sliding down Chernos foot, curling into her husband. He wraps his arms around her, kissing her hair and murmuring soft words into her skin, trying to comfort her. She lets herself break, for the first time since this all happened. She falls apart in his arms, tears rolling down her face, sobbing silent, painful tears. She cries until she no longer can, before curling up in his arms.

They fall asleep there, amongst the sounds of the shatterdome, curled into one-another, and in the shadow of their son. The ex-pilots of Cherno Alpha, the oldest Jaeger in the world, have come home. No-one would dare wake, or move them.

As they sleep, something stirs elsewhere, opening its eyes for the first time, and its twisted heart fills with a strange sense of hate. In the depths, and darkness, it begins to claw its way out of its warm birthplace.

Chapter Text

Mako had been feeling herself slipping into a routine. It was grating on her every nerve, but she could not fight against it at all. She grits her teeth and continues pushing on. When she woke up today, though, she knew something was different. She could feel that the air in the shatterdome was different, like someone had put a live wire into the air.

She knew that Sasha and Aleksis had stayed in the shatterdome overnight, much to Herc’s chagrin. Although she thought it was stupid to kick them out of the program, even if they were no longer fit to pilot. They were as knowledgeable as anyone on how the Jaegers worked, and would be invaluable to making more.

It was only when she was stepping out into the main hallway, did she even think about if they would want to stay on the program, or if any of the other ex-pilots would. She frowns softly, before adjusting her shirt and stepping into the freight elevator. She would go see Sasha and Aleksis, ask what they wanted. She would find Raleigh later, she had seen so little of him. He kept to himself most days, after the war, and even though their bond was new, she could still feel him. His bone-deep loss was hard to miss.

She continues pushing forward, a frown settling on her face. She doesn't know what they would do with the wreckage of Cherno Alpha. Crimson Typhoon was at least salvageable, its conn pod could be replaced, and could be repaired. But Cherno… It was unique now, the last of its kind, an extinct breed. It was so damaged that it might not survive the change.

She steps out of the elevator and sighs, gently brushing past people on her way towards Cherno Alpha. She didn't know if Sasha and Aleksis would still be there, but she knew that someone there would point her in their direction. She hopes that they were not hurting themselves too much being in the Shatterdome.

Rounding the corner, she sees the Jaegers slumped form, the steel titan looks not unlike someone sleeping. Something inside her aches softly as she realizes that the forms wrapped in army green, huddled against its foot were his ex-pilots. She decides to approach with caution, measuring her steps, before she stands a few feet away, she knew she would not want to be on the receiving end of their anger, injured or not.

“Sasha, Aleksis, it's me, Mako, please wake up," She murmurs, and Aleksis’s eyes open, studying her with an intensity she had not seen from him in quite awhile.

“What is it you want, Mako,” He says bluntly, just keeping Sasha tucked against his side, she seems to still be sleeping, and Aleksis seems to be keeping it that way.

“I- Just-” She shakes herself off, they were her friends, and even though they had lost everything, she couldn't in good conscience let them stay here on the floor.

“You cannot stay here, it cannot be good for you, you're still injured, Cherno will stay here until we decide what to do with him, you will still have time with it still.”

Aleksis looks down at Sasha, then back over at Mako.

“He”

“What?” She puzzles, the statement knocks her off her guard, it was not the response she had been expecting from the older Ranger.

“Cherno liked He, he's not an It," Aleksis just shuts his eyes, leaning his head back against the warmed steel.

“Please, just… Let us be with him. We hurt, but our pain is nothing against the loss of him.”

Something twists in Mako's gut, and she knows that, even if asked, they would likely never pilot again. It was something in the way Aleksis’s voice broke.

“Then if you will grieve, let me grieve with you," Mako's voice is thick, and quiet, and Aleksis cracks an eye open again, just nodding.

“You may.”

She quietly sits beside them, and Aleksis shifts Sasha so she's laying down, wrapped in her jacket head on his lap. He glances over at her, a tired, sad smile on his face.

“You know how we met, don't you? You were always closer with her, I suppose, but I don't know if she would tell you that," He murmurs softly, while running a hand through her hair. Mako just shakes her head.

“She spoke much of you, but never of that, at least never to me, and I was never one to ask that,” She just says softly. Aleksis sighs, and blinks for a moment as he seems to be thinking about something.

“It was not bad, although I know why she likely wouldn't tell you, and I am sure I will get scolded for telling you when she wakes. But would you like to know?” Mako nods softly, before pausing.

“I don't want to get you in trouble. Aleksis laughs softly at that.

“I have been in trouble since the moment I woke up with her next to me, and the rings on our fingers matching, this is nothing. The day we met, she was fighting people. We were both in the military, I was young, naive, stupid and had just dropped out of art school. She was a year younger than I, but already had been there for three years, and had clawed her way to becoming something made with teeth and claws,” He continues to pet her hair, looking down at her with a fondness that makes Makos heart ache

“She doesn't like to think about it because she broke my nose. Twice. And my thumb, too, actually," He says, without looking away from her. “I don't blame her, I was stupid, and stubborn, and out of my depth. But ah- let's not focus on that. I suppose there's more in the world to grieve than memories such as that," He says, resting his head back again.

“He was supposed to live forever, or die trying. We-” He chokes up for a moment. “We were supposed to live, or die trying. But he's gone, and we're still here, and I don't think that either of us know what to do now.”

“Keep fighting” Mako says, reaching a hand out to lay on his shoulder. “You are among the strongest Rangers I have ever met, you will survive,” Aleksis looks over at her, and just nods, the pain in his eyes giving away how he truly feels.

“We are born in war, raised to fight. I suppose you're right, Mako," He just sighs softly once more.

She is nodding in agreement, when she feels a buzz from the pager in her pocket- it was ancient, but reliable. She shifts, pulling it out, and with a mix of frustration and confusion, starts to get up. Something had arrived at the shatterdome, but no-one wanted to open it without her there. She just rubs the bridge of her nose frustratedly.

Aleksis watches her silently, nodding his head as she points at the pager, and she turns to leave.

“Little one. Don't drown yourself trying to bail the ship," Aleksis calls behind her, before he just seems to return to watching over his wife. Mako just furrows her brows, swallowing hard at that. She does not return the words, and just continues moving. She didn't feel like she was drowning. She was doing what she had always done. She was good at this, it's what she loved… Right?

She pushes the thoughts out of her mind as she rounds the corner to see a massive crate, with Herc standing off to the side, discussing with some other officials.

Taking the steps towards them, all she can think about is how she had not met these PPDC officials. They looked new, or, at least, not experienced. She brushes past them, looking over at them for a mere moment, before laying a hand on the crate, and looking at it better, before trying to find any kind of indication on what lay inside it. Herc sighs behind her and she stiffens as he walks up behind her.

“What is it?” She asks, voice curt, as she turns to look him in the eyes, the taller man's face is tight, and he looks more tired than he did the last time she saw him.

“It's our new gift. The one for ending the war,” He says, voice tinged with bitterness, before he puts a hand on her shoulder. “It's our new way of life,”
“It's a Jaeger, Gen 6, they claim” Says one of the techs behind them. The hand on her shoulder tightens, and Mako just stands looking up at the crate, feeling a piece of her soul rend off with it. Her blood runs cold as she realizes why.

Chapter Text

Cheung was in the shatterdome for a week before he finally got through to his team that he wanted to see the remains of Crimson typhoon. It was after four days that he had started to understand that it was something more than the wreckage of his Jaeger.

He hadn't seen much of the Kaidonovskys, and when he had they looked like… shit. He was actively seeking them out, now, and he was not sure if he wanted to find them, or find out what his techs were trying to hide from him. It could not possibly hurt him more than he was already, considering both of his brothers were still in the hospital, no longer on ventilators, but still in comas that they may never wake from.

Swallowing his pride, and the pain that still radiates from his arm, he knocks on their door, waiting for the Russian team to respond. He waits for a moment, not hearing a sound from inside their room, he is about to turn around and leave before he is stopped by the sound of the door swinging open with a hissing screech.

“Cheung-” Sasha is wrapped in a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, her jacket is in her hand, as if she was about to tug it on. “Come in- she gently takes his hand, gesturing for the younger pilot to follow her. “Please don't mind the mess, It has been… Hard moving back in," She winces as her hand clutches, and he grimaces as well.

“I understand," He looks at her knowingly, and she gives him a lopsided smile, before gently tugging him into a hug. The Russian pilot, usually as cold as steel, seems softer now, like the injuries shared between her and her husband broke down some walls that she had erected. Cheung lets her hug him, and he shakes a little, the horrible, echoing pain in his shoulder slowly dissipating.

He shakes his head for a moment and begins to pull away, shaking himself out of the nice little moment as he hears Aleksis’s gruff laugh, before a very warm covering is thrown over his shoulder.

“Sasha, he is here for information, clearly. You worry about him later," He says, and Cheung thinks in the back of his mind, that that's the most words he's ever heard the other man say consecutively. He watches as Sasha finishes tucking her coat around him, and walks back over to her husband. “He looks as if death hit him, let me be worried, lest we never hear their ear grating music again," Her voice sounds soft, as she sits back beside him, tucking herself against his side, like a cat turned human.

He shifts on his feet a little, his ears turning red as his brain finally catches up to what's happening. “I wanted to know if you knew why my team isn't letting me into the main hangar,” He says softly, still shifting.

“I…” Sasha has a soft frown on her face. She shakes her head and looks at him with pain in her eyes. “You need to follow yourself. We should not tell you, not in good faith," She frowns more, and points towards the door.

“You shouldn't listen to your team. They care for you, but you will get nowhere if you do not try and do something about it," She nods, and Aleksis tightens an arm around her. The stoic man looks tired, and his wife along with him, so Cheung nods his head, and takes his leave- stopping to try and take off the jacket that was tucked onto his shoulders, but as he looks at them, Sasha shakes her head.

He decides to listen to them, and leaves the jacket on his body. As he exits the room, he blinks, seeing Raleigh's form repeating down the hallway, he jogs after the man, racing the elevators, shutting doors, and winning. Holding out a hand and trying to catch his breath inside the now moving machinery, he looks over at Raleigh.

“Hello, Ranger Becket” He says politely, tugging the oversized jacket around his aching form better. Raleigh gives him a thin smile.

“Hello Cheung, how are you?” He seems to shift on his feet uncomfortably, nearly looking lost without his co-pilot with him.

“I am well, how are you and Ms. Mori?” Cheung knows Mako is… handling herself… he had not seen much of her since she had come to pick him up from the hospital… And take him away from his brothers a week ago.

“We.. are fine," Raleigh's voice is tight, and the facade of happiness seems to slip a little. Cheung gives him a look, and Raleigh's eyes harden. He goes silent as he does so.

“Do you know what's going on with the hangar?” He asks, trying to get Raleigh to talk to him again, as the other pilot stews in frustration.

“No. I saw something come in. Mako won't talk about it” Raleigh just seems to sag. His frame is no longer enough to hold him up with tension alone.

“Well, I… wish you the best, Raleigh,” Cheung says softly, patting the other ranger on his arm, as the elevator doors slide open. He ducks out and turns his head slightly to watch Raleigh for a moment, before he walks down the hallway.

He feels both less and more exposed wearing Sasha's jacket. He knew what this looked like to anyone other than him, but he didnt care. They had known he needed something, and he wouldn't turn it down. He was without his net, he was floating alone in the world and he was struggling, sue him.

He waits as the hangar door slides open with a mechanical hiss, and he walks in. He looks out over the bays he can see from the door and frowns. Cherno Alpha is still slumped over in its bay, but it's been hosed off, and its parts- the surviving ones- are pushed towards one another, so they resemble the titan they use to make up.

With a small shake of his head, he realizes that they did not even attempt to fix the first generation jaeger. Looking around, he realizes they have moved Crimson Typhoon, and he trudges around the corner.

The first thing he realizes when he rounds the corner, is not that Crimson Typhoon is standing, abandoned, with half of his conn-pod replaced, but rather the giant silver and navy titan, standing in the empty bay where Striker Eureka used to be held.

Stopping in his tracks, his eyes widen when he sees the new jaeger, it was swarming with people. Jackets of all different colors- team Striker, team Cherno, HIS team- Cheung was angry now, they had been abandoned like trash. His Jaeger- HIS BROTHERS. He just stalks towards the new Jaegers feet. Hating the way it held itself, the way that it looked- not a scratch, dent, or scar on its sleek body.

He marches over towards one of the techs on his team- Doug- if he recalls correctly. The man pales as he sees Cheung, who fluffs up the jacket around him, making his stringy frame more filled out.

“Looks like we know where those new missiles will come from, and it’s not the ground” He says sarcastically, before motioning at the Jaeger. “What is this?” He spits.

“Its Cobalt Butcher-” Doug sputters out, putting his hands up and taking a step back, away from Cheung. “We were just told to build it- Cheung-” Cheung cuts him off and bares his teeth for a moment as a spike of pain shoots through his arm.

“Why? Why did they make this?”

“Protection-”

“Protection my ass- they had-” He's cut off as he hears footsteps- then a cough.

“Cheung- it's nice to see you up and about. Can you come here, let's leave the techs to their jobs," Mako says, and she has a look in her eyes that he doesn't dare test.

“Mako-” He follows her away from the new Jaeger, shaking slightly with the rage filling his body.

“Cheung- Cheung I understand," She says, voice hissing out. “I did not want this either."

“Then why-” She wheels around and gives him a look that stops him in his tracks.

“I was not asked about this. I am the one keeping you here, and keeping your brothers alive, and in hospital. Please work with me," She says, her voice breaking, before beginning to beg for a moment.

“Mako…” He sighs and nods, looking at her. “I support you, and I'm sure the others do as well. I will try and calm down. I'm sorry… I just…” He looks up at Crimson Typhoon, whom they have stopped in front of.

“It hurts to look at him. Who are they replacing us with?” He balls his fists up. “Crimson- he would never. He…”

Mako's eyes soften for a moment. “They have some candidates chosen, I… was going to ask if you, or the Kaidonovskys-” and she motions to the jacket, which makes him red again. “Would pilot, but I suspect I know the answer I would get.”

He makes a grim smile and nods. “Never without my brothers. And I doubt Sasha and Aleksis would step foot into another Jaeger.

Mako grimaces at that, and gives a glare at the new Jaeger. “You don't get in.”

Cheung shakes his head, as if he didn't hear her correctly. “What do you mean by that- its a Jaeger-”

“It's remotely piloted, made to appear as if they are inside. It's a decoy.”

“What the fuck were they thinking.”

“They say it's for the pilots safety, but I think it's because they cannot afford to lose anyone else.”

And the moment that Cheung is about to respond, the alarms go off around them. Something moves in the pacific ocean. Something big.

The Kaiju have returned. And ones headed straight for the harbor.

Chapter Text

The moment the alarms went off, Sasha was curled up with her husband, pressing kisses to all of his -new and old- scars, and murmuring Russian to him.

When they go off, both of them stiffen, ten years of mechanical-like training fill their bodies- before Aleksis snaps out of it and tugs Sasha back down against his chest. She grunts softly, only slightly fighting back against his strong arms.

“My love. The Kaiju are gone, they’ve been gone. I’m sure this is a mistake," He murmurs into her hair, rubbing his thumb against the slowly fading scars on her cheek.

Sasha sighs and nods, nuzzling her cheek into his touch. She was only soft with him, and with those who would break if she wasn’t. She thought back to Cheung. The younger man looked lost, and broken. She lent him her jacket, in the hopes that the cloth would shield him from the weather, and the looks, and the feelings. She knew of the new jaeger, and it enraged her.

She just plants her face back against him, sighing into his chest. She feel his hand resting on the back of her skull, fingers pressed into her skin, and she smiles softly, humming as she curls into him. He can't fix everything, but at least life is more bearable like this. From months of not being able to see him, she near wanted to crawl into his skull.

She shifts and crain's her head up to look at him, a small smile on her face and she rests her cheek against his chest.

“I missed being able to do this-” Aleksis is smiling down at her, about to respond, when they both jump as someone begins to pound at the door.

Sasha swears, before kissing Aleksis and sliding off of him, going to answer the door.

Pulling the door open, she has a look on her face that could kill- but the poor tech on the other side looks frazzled… and scared.

“Hello- Mrs. Kaidonovsky- the marshal is asking for you in LOCCENT.”

“Why? Is this not an accident?” She shifts on her feet, and looks incredulously at the tech.

“I don't know- he was asking for you.”

She sighs, and turns around, shutting the door. Tugging her shirt off, she begins to change into her more professional clothing. Aleksis, too, gets up before hugging her for a moment. Pressing a kiss to the side of her face, he also starts to get ready.

“The Marshal wants us," She says, her voice tight. Aleksis grimaces as he feels the wave of frustration coming from her.

“We will see what he wants. I'm sure it's nothing” He tries to reassure her, tugging his jacket on, before hugging her for a moment. He holds her face in both of his hands, and looks at her, she takes a deep breath and tries to relax.

“We shall. If it is nothing, I am going to make them regret it, though," Aleksis smiles at her words, and rubs his thumb across her cheek.

“I would expect nothing less from you, my love. Now, let's go see what they want.”

They bustle out of their room, as the kaiju alarm continues to blare. Sasha falls into a welcome lock step with her husband. Their movement is intentional, but not calculated, as they move to ready themselves for whatever is coming.

Sasha looks to Aleksis, neither knowing what truly is going on, as they race towards LOCCENT- towards whatever it is that has scared the shatterdome shitless. They have fought monsters, and won, they have come out on top, and yet, whatever this is, scares them more than most things.

She has no knowledge of what is occurring, the moment she steps into the communications room- people are running, yelling, and there is a terrifyingly familiar dot moving alongside the massive LED screens.

Sasha leans over the desk, looking at the screen in front of her. The harmless- no- menacing, blue dot. The little information bubble floating over it shows that it's a category five kaiju- and that it doesn't have a name yet.

She jumps slightly as Marshal Hansen's hand rests on her shoulder, pulling her attention away from the screen.

“This- is why we called you here. There is a kaiju in the pacific, and we don't know where it's headed.”

Sasha's face contorts before she can stop herself, and she snarls.

“We killed them- and they come back? What do we have to possibly fight against them?” She glares at Herc, and he looks straight back at her.

“We were going to ask you to pilot the new jaeger, Cobalt-”

“No. I would rather gut myself," She spits back, pushing away from the desk, and shaking his hand off of her shoulder. She knows she's showing as much emotion now as any of them had ever seen, but she doesn't give a shit. She is pissed off, and hurting.

“Sasha- Aleksis- Please-” He's now looking between them. Aleksis’s face mirrors Sashas. His face is hard and angry. He looks more insulted than he has ever looked before.

It's in that moment, that a massive groaning screech comes from the Jaeger bay startles the entire room. Hercules’s mouth snaps shut, and the three Ex-Pilots dart towards the massive bay windows.

Sasha watches as the techs working on the jaegers scatter away, as their jaeger- her jaeger- HER SON- groans again, remaining floodlights kicking on. The massive jaeger is laid, slumped within his bay, conn-pod torn open, reactor tower cold and dead- yet here, he sounds as if his engines are struggling to come on.

Sasha does not even wait to see what further happens, she turns on her heels, takes her husband's hand in hers, and she nearly tugs him over with how quickly she moves to sprint out of the room. The bottoms of her boots nearly not making contact with the ground, as she skids to a stop, before deciding against the elevator. Turning, she leaps into the stairwell, Aleksis on her heels, and takes the stairs two at a time. Flying down them at a pace that she should not have been moving at.

With a stroke of determination pushing her on, she exits the stairwell still at full tilt, Aleksis having to stop to catch his breath for a moment, before chasing after her. It's only when she bursts into the main hangar, and she sees that Cherno Alpha has pushed himself up, and is now keening- a sad, metallic sound- that she slows, looking up at the massive robot-

She feels hands pulling at her, feels her body ache from the dead sprint she took here, feels her lungs burning- but she ignores it all, ignores the screaming of her body, as she approaches her son- the jaeger that kept them safe for so long, and did so much.

Turning to look behind her, for the familiar tugging in her mind, she sees Aleksis talking to her- but she can't hear what he's saying over the rush in her ears- all she can feel is the emotions rushing through the drift.

Wait. We will get him. Safe. Rest. Kaiju. Worry. Worry. Worry. Worry. SON. SON. SON. SON. HURT-

She snaps back into her own mind as she feels the sharp spike, and she darts over, further ignoring the screaming pain in her legs.

“Aleksis-” She supports him as he stumbles and falls to one knee.

“Sasha- I'm fine," He hisses, through gritted teeth, and a bared smile.

“Dont lie to me, Aleksis," Comes the curt reply, and a mental check-

FINE- ALL FINE

They, now slower than they were, stumble over to their Jaeger, moving to his foot. The jaeger keens as he feels them, and another wave washes over their connection.

MAMA. PAPA. BLIND. WHERE.

Sasha nearly starts to cry, as the mental connection strengthens itself, and as the Jaeger blindly cups his hand around them, trying to pick his pilots up. She gently pats one giant finger, and climbs into his hand, holding out for Aleksis.

Crawling into the Jaegers hand, he slowly brings them up to his ruined chest. And Sasha forgets what she was worried about. She ignores the world, and for a moment, the Kaiju.

Chapter Text

Mako Mori was not paid enough to deal with the Kaiju coming back, and she certainly was not paid enough to deal with one of the Jaegers growing sentience, and deciding to defy physics.

In other words, this was… mostly a normal tuesday.

Sasha and Aleksis had run out- and apparently sprinted the four and a half floors down to the main hangar, without doing so much as stopping to talk. They had only stopped when Aleksis had nearly keeled over and passed out due to lack of oxygen. That was the normal part. The abnormal part was getting them down, once the hulking machine they called a son- picked them up.

That was a week and a half ago. Now, all systems are on high alert, as the kaiju in the pacific continues to circle and menace its way though their systems. None of the alert systems have told them it seems to be heading in any particular direction. This continues to piss her off- Mako made those systems, they were working perfectly.

It meant that this kaiju was smart. That she could not have planned for this, and that whatever it was, and whatever it was planning- she needed to be ready for.

Mako was also not super pleased that, in that week and a half span, Cherno alpha had three tests run on him, a camera installed, and, at the instance of his pilots- a radio. Not because she didn’t think it was worth it, but because there had been little actual work done on the Jaeger, to repair him, and see where he was drawing power from.

The massive green robot still had his reactor tower split open, and a melted conn-pod and chest.

He can’t speak- or at least- not directly to anyone who’s not his pilots, which she thinks they may try to remedy next, but, for now, she was fine with Sasha and Aleksis being interpreters for the massive Jaeger.

She steps out of the elevator, making sure to avoid the massive wires snaking across the ground towards LOCCENT. Raleigh looks at her as soon as she enters the room, looking more scared than she’d seen him in a long time.

“There's another kaiju- they still have yet to move, but we got more readings, about an hour ago. We don't know where they are coming from just yet- but the techs are keeping an eye on it," He says, turning to look at the massive screens, the two pale blue dots circling menacingly.

“Raleigh…” She says softly, tugging him away from the screen. Mako could feel the wisps of connection in the back of her mind. She feels the ache of his mind pull away from her- and she leaves it be.

“Raleigh- they have been that way for days. Leave it be. We will deal with them when we have functioning Jaegers," She says, voice firm but gentle.

He doesn’t shake her off, just looking at her with pain in his eyes.

“Mako, we stopped them- KILLED them! How are you not more upset about this-“ His voice nearly breaks, and it cracks her heart in half.

“I am angry, I’m frustrated. I wish they would die, but they won’t. And we don’t have anything useful to fight them right now- our options are a half-dead Jaeger, and something that doesn’t even have pilots yet," She says, balling her fists up, and shaking a little.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything-“ and she cuts him off.

“We aren't doing nothing. Raleigh Beckett, will you teach another team to pilot a Jaeger?” She asks, voice soft and serious.

He offers at her for a moment, and she pokes him in the chest.

“Will you- Raleigh- help me teach a team to pilot that train fire of a new Jaeger?”

“Yes," He says, and she can feel that he’s finally snapped back into his own mind- that he’s doing what he’s comfortable with.

“Then good, we should get started. I suspect we don't have a lot of time," She says, with a grim smile.

She winces slightly as she hears a rattling crack roll through the entire building- and she pulls away from him for a moment. Mako goes to look through the window, to see them working on Cherno, one of the melted panels being wrenched free.

This makes her smile a little. At least one of the Jaegers will be up and running, in case of an emergency. And she suspects they will need it more than ever now.

She just hopes that it will be enough to survive.

Frowning down at the new Jaeger- Cobalt Butcher just pisses her off, but there’s nothing Mako can do about it. She’s powerless to stop them- so she may at least do something about the pilots in that Jaeger.

She had her eyes on a pair of techs, who had applied to be pilots in the new round of testing- but had not worked out.

They had drifted flawlessly with each other, but in an attempt to pilot Lady Danger, they were rejected. Mako now knew why. Gipsy Danger didn’t want anyone else, she wanted her pilots, and in lieu of one of them being dead, she wanted someone that her remaining pilot would trust enough to drift with.

She had felt Gipsy Danger save her- she had not even realized it- but there was much more in play there, before she knew they were sentient- alive

That makes her body ache more. With the knowledge that there was another life there, with them. That knew she would die, that died knowing she was protecting the world.

That died knowing her pilots lived.

Mako Mori mourns anew. Now not just her father, and the lives lost. But for her Jaeger, for the person she could have been, and for the honor of ever having known her.

Chapter Text

There was not much that Cheung could do, in the weeks following the near violent birth of Cherno Alpha, and the subsequent discovery of a second Kaiju out in the ocean.

His brothers were moved into the Shatterdome, in the hope that whatever happened with Cherno Alpha, could happen to Crimson.

He’s still pretty sure that nobody else, outside of the Shatterdome knows that he’s alive. They have generously raised the salaries of most workers, and Marshal Hansen is now trying to find some way to get the necessary equipment to get the Jaeger back fully online. They had found ways around the massive metal plating, and the large amounts of uranium it would usually take to fuel the Jaeger.

He doesn't know how they've done it, and he does not particularly care. He just wants his brothers back, to be entirely honest, and he still does not know if he will even get that. With the new pilots- hotshot air force trainees pulled from some new program being the center of attention.

Would that be too much to ask? He thinks it probably would be. There wasn’t much Cheung could do now, outside of just wait and see what happened, IF something happened.

Waiting alongside his siblings, he could not do anything besides watch, as they hooked them up to the massive machine beside them. Their hope that Crimson Typhoon could wake them, their final idea.

He puts his Drivesuit helmet on, and sits between his brothers, closing his eyes as they initiate the drift, and the cold feeling slides over him. The usual warmth of his brother's minds are not there, and it makes his entire body ache with a want he has not felt in a long time.

His memories slip by, and he watches as they encircle his brother's minds, trying to find the matching shards of memory and ideas. When they don’t reply, the memories just slide away.

He reaches through that aching darkness, trying to find any glimpse of the light that yanked him back, and he finds it weak and pulsing. Entangled within it are two other pinpricks of light, flickering and failing.

“Come back to me," He hums softly, reaching out to hold them. “My brother, come back to me. We are one, and I will not make it without you.”

The lights flicker again, stronger now, ever stronger. And he feels a hope blossom in his chest. Perhaps he can save this light, perhaps there is still a chance to survive. Perhaps his brothers- all of them- are here, and he can help.

He delves deeper, chasing the lights as they flicker and glimmer. And he grits his teeth, the neural strain aching and screaming through him, as he begins to realize the work he is doing. He disregards all care, and continues. He will find them- he will find Jin and Hu- He WILL find them-

And perhaps their Jaeger too… if Crimson survived..

It’s as his mental barriers are beginning to fail, and he feels his nose begin to bleed, that he realizes he has dove too deep to return. The lights still out of reach- but the surface too far to swim too. He too begins to let go. The ache in his bones sets in, and he stops fighting, deciding to let his brain overload, before he dragged himself out of the drift.

He has resigned himself, to at least dying alongside his brothers, when the glimmers shoot past him, entangling him within themselves, and ripping him upwards, towards the surface- towards the release of the drift. He howls in rage and upset, at the fact that they would not let him follow them into the soft darkness at the end. All he wanted was achingly close, but he could not follow what he wanted to do.

They force him out, and with a shriek, he rips the helmet off of his head, and vomits on the concrete floor beside himself. He’s shaking like a leaf, and before he can register what happened, he shoots to his feet, realizing the movement in the cots beside him.

Jin’s eyes twitch open, as he slowly tries to shake himself off, and test what use of his muscles he still has- and Hu immediately sits up- before hoarsely crying out, when he realizes he’s grown weaker.

“Little brother… you didn’t t…think we would let you go s…so easily?” Hu says, raising an eyebrow- before Cheung collides with him, sobbing.

“You're alive-” He says, feeling a shaking hand come up to wrap around his back. All he does is sob harder

“W..why would we have l…left you?” Hu hums, and pokes his back lightly. “W…we would have been with you, I…If we had died or l-lived," He presses his fingers, shaking and stiff, against Cheungs back.

“No- no- no” Cheung shakes his head. “I couldn't lose you too. You all are every part of myself…”

He feels the hand move to his hair, and he curls against his brother, feeling his form shake with the effort of waking up. He can feel his other brother's mind twitch, and desire to return to sleep, but a much less permanent one, and one he fights off.

“W..we are your brothers, we would n…not have been far. In y-your memories… and your heart…”

“You saved me, pushed me away fast enough to ensure I survived, and was not unconscious.”

“W…we did not…” Hu says softly, pulling away as much as his body will allow him to.

“Then- who did-” He says, as a creaking sound fills the air around them, and another mind roars awake in the quiet connection between them, left over from the drifts. There is a scream, as a metal hand comes down around the cots.

Crimson Typhoon rattles himself awake, with a sound that could scare even the strongest of wills. Through their bond, he cradles Cheung, reassuring him that he would not go. That he would not let their family go. They were brothers, they would stay with him.

The hand cuts off anyone else, as Crimson Typhoon cradles them, arched over, protective and alive. His damaged Chassis screaming, as the mismatched repairs they had done to the mark four screamed against each other.

Cheung lets go of his brother, as Jin wakes, and tries to slide off of his cot. Coma-weak legs giving out under him. Darting to his side, he lowers Jin to the ground, and tucks himself against his side. Safe in this space, his brothers alive, his new-old brother keeping watch. Letting his older brothers heal.

The youngest of three, now the youngest-middle of four, nearly turned solo. He feels happier now than he has in a long time, and he just wants to stay in this moment forever.

Chapter Text

Sasha did not like the look of the storm roaring outside. She also did not like the reports that a Kaiju was moving towards the shatterdome. They had lost track of it near French Polynesia, and now they were trying to find it again. Most of the Kaiju-Detection probes on the seafloor had been decommissioned, or destroyed in the war, and it was like trying to pin down water in a sieve.

She helps them continue to prepare her son, to prepare the Jaegers for another war. She would not go down, not without another fight. She frustratedly bolts down some plating, as the Jaeger above her rumbles, and shifts.

“Mama, what is wrong?” She feels a brush against the back of her mind, as Cherno Alpha hums, the massive robot trying his best to see what could be wrong with his pilots, as the entire shatterdome stands on edge.

“Nothing, Lyubimaya, please dont move, I'm working on fixing your legs," She says, trying to avoid thinking of the Kaiju, and the hurricane that had formed and is now sitting over the port of Hong Kong, dumping water on everything.

“Mama is worried. We will kill Kaiju, yes Mama?” he says, and she gives a sad smile, knowing he cannot see her face.

“Yes, my darling. We will. We will kill as many as we need to. I am not worried, I am just scared for you now, especially being awake, my Lyubimaya”

“Mama and Papa have fought Kaiju with Me before. We always win.”

“Not always, darling, we almost didn't make it last time-” she stops working, and puts her head against his leg, shaking slightly. “-and now, you're awake, and alive. We can't lose you, not again. And I can't lose Aleksis-”

She makes a choked sound as she shudders and turns, sliding down and putting a hand against his leg to stabilize herself. She hears a concerned rumble from Cherno, and she comforts him.

“Mama will protect me. We will protect each other.”

“Sweet thing… I don’t know if we can this time," She hums, cajoling him softly. “We don’t know where the Kaiju are. We can only make you stronger.”

“I can fight, Mama. I’m ready.”

“I know, Cherno. I know," She says, looking out over to the other, smaller, Jaeger. Cobalt Butcher had- has? A team now. She sneers at them, from a great distance away.

The young pilots were unworthy, snobbish, rude, and arrogant. They were not worthy to be fought alongside. But her opinion did not matter, nor did the opinion of her husband. She was worried what they would bring, but they would not listen to her so she would not fight this.

She watched as they climb into the conn-pod approximation that this new Jaeger has, having the sleek, new suits of a sixth generation Jaeger. She turns away, focusing on her own Jaeger, and his needs.

She would not lose herself, if she could help it. Tucking herself against him, and hiding away, repairing what she can on her own, as Cobalt Butcher lurches to life. The Jaeger shudders and shakes like a grand beast whose waking throes will scare the kaiju away. She snorts at this, as the massive steel-blue jaeger is pulled out of the roof. Soon the only sound she can hear besides jumphawks is her own heartbeat.

She spends a time there, in her own world, Chernos soft presence in the back of her mind, before she feels him perk up. And she stiffens for a moment as a hand is placed on her lower back, before she leans back, resting against her husband.

“Papa!”

“Aleksis, what have you been doing?” she murmurs and looks up, his mind trying to help calm her twisting thoughts.

“I was in LOCCENT, my love. But I think that you should come with me, we need your eyes on a small problem," He says, and in his eyes is a look of concern.

“Cherno, I will be back, it will be ok, stay here," She instructs, as she pats him, and allows Aleksis to take her away.

She follows her husband, in near lock-step, as they hurry through the massive building, the storm raging outside soaking the floor from the open Jump-Gate. She shakes herself off, as fat raindrops patter against her skin and clothing. She hisses slightly, before she bundles herself into the elevator, and readies herself for what is going to happen.

Reaching the top, Aleksis leads the way, and she falls in line after him, tucking her jacket around herself, and taking shelter within her own mind for a few moments- before stopping in front of the doors to LOCCENT.

“Sasha, I know we don't support Cobalt Butcher. But we need to work with them, to keep them alive," Aleksis says without turning around.

She sighs in response, and pushes past him, opening the doors.

“I know. That's why I followed you.”

On the massive screens in front of her, she sees the camera view from the angle of the pilots. The view is near silent, besides the intermittent static-filled words from the pilots inside, and the sound of pelting water. Outside of the pod, rain pelting them, as they wade into the waste deep water.

“It's damn awful out here," The left pilot- Riley Darenko, barely more than a child.

“Of course it is, Idiot. Let's keep looking," His brother, Gerund, spits back.

She sighs again, and goes to lean against the side of the desk, looking at what maps they still have of what remains of the ocean. The blip of the Jaeger is small over the vastness of the dark water.

“Where are they?” She asks, pointing, as she looks for any nearby structures, trying to discern where they are.

“Just past Taiwan. They were deployed to check on a possible blip on one of the Kaiju detection buoys," Comes Herc’s curt reply.

She looks up, and as she does so, back on the screen, they wheel around, floodlights checking the waters around them.

“Something’s moving out here. You were right to have sent us-” Gerund hums, as their drift holds, raising a few degrees higher.

“WATCH ON YOUR LEFT!” Comes a loud yelp, as they seem to stumble backwards, the drift connection wavers with the words. There is a screech as one of the radios is cued, while the Jaeger staggers again.

“KAIJU SPOTTED!”

She can only watch with a grim determination as a massive looming face of a Kaiju descends from the sky, the feather-like flesh of its wings flapping heavily with every movement. Its eerily bright deep-set eyes watch the Jaeger as it lands in the water, its taloned feet kicking with every movement before it slips under the waves, turning its beaked head, as rows of teeth glint under its steel colored face.

“Let's call this bastard something’ cool. Like Thunderbird-” comes a quip, before Herc can lunge for the mic, Sasha already has it.

“LEAVE IT-” She growls, and watches as they spin, scanning the darkened waters.

“No fuckin’ way.”

“It will kill you- fall back and let aid come to yo-” She's cut off, as the kaiju bursts from the water, flapping its wings and sinking the talons into Cobalts armor. The metal screams and gives, driving the Jaeger to one knee, as the Pilots inside scream, and drive a massive blade into its wing.

The pilot's words are incoherent, as they grapple with the kaiju, its massive black and grey body clawing at them. With every splatter of its teal blood, there are massive rends formed within the body of Cobalt Butcher. They punch its skull, which makes the kaiju roar loudly, and rip itself away from them, taking a massive chunk from Cobalts chest.

She watches in lawmented awe as the Kaiju hurls itself back into the air, any plasma cannon rounds shot at it, rolling off of its back as if they had done nothing.

“Cobalt Butcher, are you there-” Herc says, trying to see if they are still alive, as the camera feed lurches around.

“Y-es sir," Says Gerund’s shaking voice.

“Get out of there- the Kaiju may return, the Jumphawks are on their way," He commands, and the violent sway of the camera stops.

“No sir- we can't. This Kaiju… We need to stop it.”

“That's an order you two-”

They wheel around again, as a low roar rumbles through the ocean- making the water ripple and dance. As they turn, Sasha pales as another Kaiju rises out of the ocean, claws thrashing as they collide with Cobalt- and the video feed stops.

“Cobalt Butcher- Cobalt Butcher do you copy?”

She shakes her head, as Herc waits and checks, before the quiet hum of the loss of a heartbeat fills the achingly quiet void.
“There are two. Let us spin that wheel we call life, and see if we turn out on top," She says grimly, watching the now-static screen.

“Lieutenants, let's hope you and Cherno Alpha are ready," Herc says, facing the two of them, his face pale as a sheet.

Chapter Text

Mako Mori was scared. For the first time in her life since she had come face to face with a Kaiju, she was properly scared. The re-emergence of the Kaiju, she could handle, but with losing one of the only teams they had, and their newest jaeger falling to the Kaiju.

She was not sure they were ready to take them. She watches as Sasha and Aleksis leave LOCCENT, moving faster than she had seen them move in months, as if forgetting all parts of their pain. As if trying to move past having just watched another violent death of a Jaeger and its team, and learning that the Kaiju they were fighting have truly been learning their weaknesses.

She has to shake herself off and she turns to look at the entire room. “Tell the triplets, if they are ready, we could really use their help” before looking over at one of the Techs, who nods and begins to type quickly.

She waits for a few moments, rubbing her face as she looks out over the two remaining Jaegers, the scrambling people on the floor scaring her more than she knew.

“I promised to take care of you,” Herc says, finally.

She looks over at him, confused. “What-?” She says, blinking for a moment as she tries to process what he said.

“Before your father- Pentecost drifted for the last time. He made me promise to look after you, when you came back. I've done a piss-poor job,” He looks at her sadly. “Go rally your troops, Mako Mori. You are their leader more than I ever was. You are a pilot like them. Go take care of them,” He nudges her, and she nods- before sprinting towards the elevator, and sliding in just as the doors close.

Sasha looks over at her, tilting her head as she does so, and Mako looks her in the eyes.

“Sasha, I promise. We will all make it back this time,” She says, and Sasha gives her a smile that does not meet her eyes.

“Do not make promises you cannot keep, little star."

“I swear on the quiet life of my Jaeger, I promise that you will come back, and you will get to spend time with your son.”

As the doors slide open, she follows them out, watching as they begin to get suited up, and as the Wei-Triplets, Jin and Hu still wobbly and knock-kneed, stumble out of their room, suits half tugged on.

“Here- Here!” She waves them all over, standing as tall as she can and puffing her chest out. She wanted to do what she could to try and inspire them, even if it was not very good.

Standing up, she looks between them all, and in their faces, she can see the cool determination of people who have been through this, and come out of the other side as well as they could.

“You all have given as much of your lives, or more, to this as any other person. I understand that your Jaegers have grown sentience, and that you have every right to turn this down. But understand that because you haven't, you have all gotten all of the respect I have, and I truly wish I could be fighting alongside you all,” She takes a breath for a moment, and looks at all of them. “Fight as hard as you can, and I will do everything in my power to promise that you and your Jaegers will come home.

Cheung whoops, and claps her on the back, before he goes and darts towards where they are beginning to haul Crimson Typhoons Conn-Pod up. After, follows Jin and Hu, who nod at her quietly, and follow after their youngest brother, making sure he does not get into any trouble.

Sasha and Aleksis press foreheads, and she shifts awkwardly, as if she was intruding on a moment she would not want to intrude on. She sees Sasha pull away, before she's clasped on the shoulder.

“You've done good, Ms. Mori,” she hums lightly, before turning towards the Conn-Pod drop, with her husband in tow.

Mako Mori stands there for a moment before shaking her head, turning on her heels and heading back to the Elevator. She can feel the entire building rock and shake as the Conn-Pods are dropped into place, and the Jaegers rumble with the joy of feeling their pilots.

She ducks back into LOCCENT, as they are lifting Crimson Typhoon out. The massive crimson robot twitches slightly, seemingly with the barely contained joy of going to kill Kaiju. His massive digits flexing without prompt.

“This is pilot Cheung Wei Tang. Jaeger Crimson Typhoon is up and ready to fight,” Comes one of the voices crackling over the radios.

She shoots back, slipping into the comfortable spot she has, directing the Jaegers and their pilots. “Prepare for Neural drift, Crimson Typhoon.”

“This is Cherno Alpha, ready and waiting," Comes Sashas voice, as the massive green tank continues to be hauled away from the Shatterdome.

“Ready for the drop! Deploying Cherno Alpha in… 1…2…3!” She watches on the screens as the Jumphawks release the Jaeger and he braces for impact with the bed of the ocean.

She watches as both Jaegers are deployed, the storm still raging around them. She prays for a moment, that she would keep her promise, and that everything would turn out for the better- it had to.

“Movement spotted, Crimson Typhoon, look out above you-” And on screen, she can see Cherno Alpha on the monitor.

“CRIMSON, WATCH OUT!” crackles over the radio- a distinctly metallic voice, as Crimson Typhoons screen shakes and rattles. The massive bird-like Kaiju hurtling down from the sky colliding with the three-armed jaeger in a tangle of limbs and screeching.

Crimson Typhoon grapples the Kaiju- and makes a metallic growl.

“This is for my brothers, you monster!” Howl's another metallic voice over the radios- as Crimsons saw-blades dig into Thunderbirds wing, and the Kaiju rears its head back and screams, before shooting a beam of lightning into his chest out of its gaping maw.

Chapter Text

The storm raging outside was one of the worst that Cheung had ever seen. Truly, it was all going to shit. This was just compounded by getting struck by lightning. All in all falling over, his entire body screaming in pain, was not the plan that any of them had originally intended.

This is fine. Yep. He twitches, and feels Crimsons mind slide to the side as he does his best to take over. Crimson relinquishes control, and before Cheung can think, he's taking over. As they swing their sawblades around, he screams in rage, and aims to sink them deep into the chest of the offending Kaiju.

As he does so, they lunge forward as one- body and soul moving in a smooth tandem. Despite the feeling of static that makes his teeth chatter, he grins like a maniac and pushes forward, still swinging. He does not stop until he feels the bite of flesh under sawblades, and the bone-rattling roar of a Kaiju outside of their Conn-Pod.

“Hey asshole! Take this!” He screams, as their other arm swings up to try and grab the flying Kaiju.

The earth under them rattles, and the Kaiju is brought down. Thunderbird screams, and as they rip it from the sky, sinks its talons into their chest. The steel of Crimsons armor is rent away as the kicking, howling kaiju thrashes. Crimson howls back, the metallic scream setting his hair on end as the Jaegers mind flares with rage.

He laughs, feeling the rush of adrenaline and pain flood his body, as they grab its wing and hurl Thunderbird into the dark water below them. “Anyone see where it went?” He hisses, as he shakes his head slightly- all of their memories blurring into one, as their drift stabilizes at 100 percent.

He laughs again, wilder this time, as they shift and continue to look around.

They seem to stop for a moment as he hears Sashas voice come in over the radios. “Crimson Typhoon- Crimson Typhoon come in-” and they whirl around to see Cherno Alpha trudging towards them through the water.

“WATCH YOUR LEFT!” She screams, as the world tilts sideways, when the second kaiju collides with them

They are plunged under the water, the glass of the conn-pod rattling as the force of the impact drives them deeper into the water. The Kaiju’s reptilian claws are buried in Crimsons shoulder as they grapple it back and dive deeper.

He feels his brothers aid him- and does not even need to look at them as they push the Kaiju upwards, slamming steel saws into its sides, and firing every thruster on Crimsons back.

The water rushes away from them, as the Kaiju is tossed from Crimson's body, and they chase after it, moving to sink their claws into it. “WE'VE GOT YOU NOW!” They hiss, as they grip the kaijus reptilian jaws. It thrashes and continues to fight them, clawing at the arms that ensnare it.

“We need to be careful," Crimson hisses, as they try to dodge one of the flailing claws, as it slides down his arms. “It's intelligent, you can see it in its eyes.”

It seems to almost smile, as its claws find purchase, and dig into Crimson's arm. The Kaiju roars as loud as it can, before it rends one of his arms off, tossing one of the three limbs into the violent storm around them.

As Crimson screams again as his arm is torn off with the howl of twisted, broken metal and the sharp snapping of massive steel cables, his pilots scream with him. Their rage floods the drift, and Cheung feels the familiar rush of pain- earned adrenaline.
Crimson howls, and as Cheung goes to retaliate, he can feel Crimson begin to take back over, remaining arms digging into the soft underbelly of the armored kaiju. “IT HURTS!”

“CRIMSON! CALM DOWN- WAIT-” He tries to calm his Jaeger- his brother- as blue blood splashes across the glass of the conn-pod, but it's too late. Crimson Typhoons claws are tearing out chunks of viscera and gore.

The Kaijus jaws snap down on the jolting stump that used to be his arm, and he digs his claws in deeper. The metallic scream he makes is not unlike the roars of the kaiju they are fighting, as it seems to realize its own death.

The Kaiju gags on its own blood, making death thrashes as it tries to take them down with it, its tail whipping and writhing as Crimson refuses to let go. The Jaeger howls with it, until the Kaiju slumps against him, blue blood staining the ocean around it. They rip what remains of its stomach out, as he grinds his saw blade out of its belly.

Crimson drops the carcass, watching it begin to sink, the light fading from its cloudy, dead eyes. Before he turns to go help Cherno–

Cheung feels his mind come back into his body, and he dazedly seems to realize that there had been yelling over the comms.

“CRIMSON TYPHOON, CHECK IN NOW!” Calls Mako's voice, nigh panicked. Cheung shakes his head, trying to clear the noise from it.

“This is Crimson Typhoon, Kaiju… Two? Kaiju- Ironsides is dead. Confirmed Kill. Going to assist Cherno Alpha with Kaiju Thunderbird.”

“Crimson Typhoon, Fall back. You have significant structural damage.”

“Negative LOCCENT," He quips back, and turns down the radio, before sliding back into place with his brothers.

They turn towards where the other Jaeger is pummeling the previously flighted Kaiju, before they rip it from the water, and hurl it towards Crimson, who readies what's left of his saws.

They wait, until Thunderbird hits the water beside them, then strike down. The Kaiju flails and screams, clawing violently and recklessly, as Crimson buries his blue-stained saws into its torn flesh. Cutting through bone and sinew as they rip off one of its wings, and crush down on its body.

The feeling of blood-rage that fills Cheung almost scares him, if not for the support from his siblings, he would be scared that he gets lost within it, as Cherno Alpha comes in, and stomps down on its bird-like head, killing it and spreading Kaiju Blue into the water.
They stand there for a moment, and Crimson puts the visor of his Conn-Pod up to the sky, letting the still-falling rain clean off the blue substance, before the sun begins to poke through the storm clouds.

“Kaiju one has been killed. Thunderbird is dead," They hear called over the radio, and their entire body sags. The drift connection making them no longer individuals, but one being, connected through their steel-brothers body.

“Oh… and Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha. We have someone who would want to talk to you”

They just blink, the confusion rippling through the drift, before they finally shake themselves and reply.

“Go ahead?”

“Well. It's nice to see someone completed the mission, sorry I couldnta’ helped you all more,” Comes a very familiar accent- one they had all known, and thought to be dead.

“Good Job, you all, my dads pretty proud,” Says Chuck Hansen.

Chapter Text

They never told her that being the parent of a child, or a Jaeger- for that matter- would be such an exhausting job. Sasha was ready for it, but it still took her out of left field.

Things were calm now- or at least as calm as they could be, sitting now in the sand on one of the remaining Hawaiian islands. The massive Jaeger they called their son is sitting in the shallow water, still-unpainted repair plates gleaming in the sun, as they come to collect the remaining pilot of Striker Eureka, alongside his power core.

This leads to the scene in front of her, where what remains of Striker Eureka, left in stasis after ejecting them, are cradled in the palm of Chernos hand, the other Jaeger trying to tap into the circuitry of the sleeping Jaeger.

Sasha sits back on the beach. It had been nearly a month since Thunderbird and Ironsides were destroyed, and the world had been peaceful since. She tries to enjoy the peace and quiet, her husband was talking to Raleigh and Chuck, as Mako goes to give her respects to Pentcosts grave.

She can feel the finality that lays over the entire island. There are only them, and a few people who refused to leave after the first kaiju crawled out of the ocean. The island is half-destroyed, the kaiju leaving many of the buildings destroyed and contaminated. Sasha watches as small fish swim around her legs. These are the first fish she has seen alive in a long time, at least the first fish not in a tank. A spark of hope curls in her chest, as she has a growing hope for the future.

That perhaps, though all of this, they will survive.

They are on this island, getting what remains of the other Jaeger and his team, because it's easier than being back home. The Hong Kong shatterdome is overrun with media teams, and those who want to get a piece of the newly sentient Jaegers.

Sasha did not want to be there right now, and honestly, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to return back to that, to the hustle and bustle, and the cameras in her face. She was tired now, and honestly she just wanted to finally settle down. Ten years in the pilot service, almost five and half in the military before that, and she was ready to have a break.

She smiles softly as she turns her face to the sun. She could feel Aleksis in the back of her mind, and she could tell they were discussing something relating to the Jaegers, but she wasn't focused on it.

Sasha enjoys being with her family, and now, in the aftermath of being something, of being so important, she's not so worried about what life will be like now. Cracking an eye open, towards where her son is trying to wake the other Jaeger.

“Cherno, Be careful please!” She hums, making sure to send him a small nudge through the drift.

He makes a startled sound, and, as if he didn't realize that Sasha had noticed him. She laughs, and turns back to look at the water, and tilt her head back into the sun.

She thinks a little, and hums. The Wei triplets had chosen to stay behind with their Jaeger, having drifted so well during the final battle, that they had struggled to remember who was who, and what they were supposed to be. They had also decided to help rebuild the world, and what was destroyed due to the Kaiju.

She feels Aleksis stop talking to the others, and make his way over to her and sit down. He wraps his arms around her, and presses kisses to her hair- something she had never allowed before, but she did not mind so much now.

“We've done it,” He says, his voice low as he dotes on her. “We made it through, we have our wonderful son. The biggest question is now, what will we do?”

“We have the rest of our lives to figure that out,” She says, smiling. “Those horizons no longer look as dark. We will make the world better… for him.”

In the shadow of a seamount, in the depths of the sea, something made of steel bursts from an old, small, crack in space and time.

Turning it- no- her visor towards the surface of the sea. Gipsy Danger vows to return home.