Ok, my lovely readers, here it is, the next chapter! I've been going through quite a bit and something called 'life' has been kicking my ass XD But I've bounced back and am ready to keep this train going. I've got a wonderful editor, Mistybella15, who is probably one of the coolest people I know! Even when she has so much going on in her life, I'm glad I can distract her with my horridly put together words I call chapters XD And Marimar2028, please don't cry too much, ok? I know I did! Anywho, ENJOYY!!! :D
DISCLAIMER: I only own Lieutenant Lila Yale and my own twist on Del Toro's amazing story.
There wasn’t much exchanged between us. What was there to say, really, when you were about to drop thousands of feet into the trench that lead to the Breach, where not only were there two Kaiju waiting for us but, Striker had a huge nuke strapped to it’s back that we were going to try to throw into the hopefully open portal? With as little casualties as possible. Just another day in paradise, I suppose.
“All ports sealed. Ready to submerge.” I jumped slightly, feeling Raleigh nudge my mind in the Drift. It sent a chill up my spine.
Having someone in the hook up next to mine was odd enough for me, but actually sharing minds with someone was something I hadn’t done in a very long time. Not since my own Jaeger pilot training. When Raleigh and I drifted for the first time not twenty minutes before, it was the best feeling I’d ever had.
It was like our minds were absorbing each other and were watching all of the memories our brains have to offer. I knew a good bit about Raleigh’s life, and vise versa but, this was the extended, raw, and personal version. I realized, in the fleeting memories, that he had more than crushed on me when he first saw me on day one of PPDC Training. He had thought I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, with a spunky fire that augmented my beauty.
From that moment on, he fell in love with me so fast, he wasn’t sure what to do. When I had shown interest in any other guys, I saw his memories flash to him facing the man of my affection toe-to-toe, threatening him until he was near to tears. After I had gotten fed up with his interference and he had kissed me, he was shocked beyond belief that I hadn’t stopped him. He knew, from that moment on that I had to have felt the same that he did.
We both lingered as long as we could on the memories that we both had of Yancy. His laugh, his smile, his bear-hugs that made everything seem alright. To my surprise, neither of us got dragged into the Rabbit like I feared we would. With everything that our minds had to share with each other, it seemed like the initial drift stage would never end. When it finally did, it ended with a long scene of the first kiss we shared when we finally admitted our feeling to each other. In my bunk bed, wrapped so tightly around each other, you couldn’t tell where either of us started or ended.
“Visibility is zero. Switching to instruments.” Raleigh yet again pulled me from my thoughts with not only his voice, but a slight grab onto my gloved hand that was sitting on the control panel between us.
I gave him the best smile I could muster, which he returned and continued trudging through the water. It felt like walking through mud and it made my legs ache from the extra strain, but I pushed on.
“Gipsy, you‘ve got movement on your right.” Both of us jumped our vision to that direction, trying to see anything with the enhanced instruments. All I saw was fish, rocks and murky patches of water.
“I don‘t see anything, Tendo!” I shouted, looking back to the front of the Con-Podd where, sure enough, it was reading a Kaiju signature somewhere within a 100 foot radius. Maybe the water had somehow gotten through an electrical panel and shorted out our radar.
“Now on your left! Fastest Kaiju on record!” Tendo called out.
I looked to the left just in time to see the flash of a tail; it sent a chill down my spine. How were we supposed to take on an aquatic alien in it’s own habitat? At least on the surface, we had a chance, but this Kaiju was made to be lethal underwater; made specifically to make sure we didn’t finish our jobs.
“We don‘t see anything. It‘s moving too fast!” Raleigh said, sounding as exasperated as I felt.
“Eyes on the prize, Gipsy. 600 meters from the drop.” I looked ahead once again to see that Striker had moved in front of us, heading straight toward the glowing opening of the Breach.
Just as we made the leap into the final landing before the portal, I felt a tickling sensation in the back of my skull, like a feather being brushed against the inside of my skull. Then a soft humming rang in my ears and I shot a look at Raleigh to see if he was hearing it too, but he seemed unaffected. The humming turned to whispers of warning from a voice I’d never heard before. It was rough, yet soft, like someone just getting over a cold.
I realized that it had to be Gipsy trying to communicate with me, as insane as it sounded. It made sense though, being as in tune with the Jaegers as I was, that Gipsy would try to relay what she was feeling to me. And she was feeling that something was about to go very wrong. Reaching for the communication panel, I turned on a channel to Striker.
“Something’s not right, Chuck.” I said, giving Raleigh a sideways glance when he watched me curiously.
“400 meters and closing.” He said back to me, like he hadn’t even heard me talking to him. I went to repeat what I had said when Herc came over the coms.
“Striker, bogies are stopping. One o‘clock.” Just as he said that, both Jaegers came to a hault.
“Something’s wrong! Why are they stopping?!” Raleigh asked, turning to look at me, knowing I had to be feeling something.
“It‘s not gonna work!” A sharp, breathless voice shouted into the microphone in the LOCCENT, making my ears ring for a second before I registered whose voice it was.
“Is that Newt?” I asked, giving a raised eyebrow look at Raleigh, who nodded, his face serious.
“Sir, just because the breach is open, doesn‘t mean you're going to be able to get a bomb through.” Newt shouted out quickly.
“The breach genetically reads the Kaiju, like a barcode at the supermarket, then lets them pass.” Hermann, the other scientist, continued to say.
“Ok, so you're going to have to fool the breach into thinking you have the same code.” Newt clarified.
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” Raleigh asked, looking back over at me after scanning the area to make sure that the enemy hadn’t moved. I shrugged my shoulders, feeling the Jaeger go the same thing.
“By making it think you are a Kaiju!” Newt answered.
“Lock onto the Kaiju. Ride it into the Breach. The throat will then read the Kaiju’s genetic code and then let you pass.” Hermann explained.
“If you don’t do it, the bomb will deflect off the breach like it always has and the mission will fail.” Hearing the words ‘mission’ and ‘fail’ in the same sentence left the same sense of dread in the both of us.
“Striker, now that you’ve heard that, take the leap!” Herc shouted, shoving the little scientists aside.
The whispering distressed voice in the back grew louder, turning into shrieking and making my head spin. The Jaeger was trying to tell me something, but it was too loud, fast, and strong for me to understand.
“Lila, you alright?” Raleigh asked, feeling my dizziness through the drift link. Before I could answer, Tendo’s shocked voice came through the headset.
“Sir, I have a third signature!” My heart dropped and back straightened as all eyes became trained.
“A triple event?!” I screeched, watching as the Breach began to radiate heat and bubbles.
“How big is it? What Category?” Stacker asked through the connected com.
“It’s a Category V: The first ever.” Herc said slowly, like telling us the news that way would make it any easier to absorb.
“Rals-” My voice was shaky as I said his name, looking over at him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the beast rise from the large trench and it immediately caught my attention. As my gaze rested on the massive alien, the shrill yelling of Gipsy stopped suddenly and turned defensive, wanting nothing more than to shield me and Raleigh from the monster.
The sheer size of the Kaiju was bigger than five Jaegers built into one, with four legs and tentacles dangling off the bottom. It’s head was long, with eyes all the way at the end of pokey appendages and a mouth full of razor sharp, metal-slicing teeth right under that. It opened said mouth and let out a low, vicious roar at Striker, who was not even 10 meters from it. Getting themselves ready, the boys activated the Sting Blades and waited for the beast to come at them.
“Striker, we see him. We’re 100 meters behind you. We’re gonna go around your three o’clock and flank him. Standard two team formation. Just keep him busy for-” As Raleigh was focused on getting a new game plan started, I happened to glance at the radar that showed the Kaiju signatures.
Both of them had moved, one just to the left of us and the other waiting not too far ahead.
“Raleigh, our left!” I screamed as we turned just in time to see the Kaiju charging toward us.
With my shout of warning, we moved just in the nick of time to catch the monster on either side of it’s head, it’s snapping jaws just inches from the pod. Together, we slammed our head into his twice before wrangling it to the sea floor.
“Engaging sword!” Raleigh said, getting a slight feedback from Gipsy repeating his command.
Just as he raised his right arm, sword high to deal the finishing blow, the other Kaiju popped onto the radar too fast for us to try and counter it. It went straight for Gipsy’s exposed arm and shoulder joint and ripped the arm clean off.
“Raleigh!” I shouted, gritting my teeth against the pain. I knew that it had really affected him, memories of the last time he had a limb ripped off flashing through our connection. No matter how much I screamed for him, he wouldn’t answer me.
In our distracted state, the Kaiju under us moved around, gripped the right leg, and started tearing it to shreds. I quickly took over, even though my whole body was shaking with pain. Engaging my own sword jarred Raleigh from whatever state he was temporarily in and he moved in sync with me.
“Let’s get this son of a bitch!” He roared as we sunk the sword into the Kaiju’s head, effectively stopping the Kaiju from taking our leg as well.
Dragging the flailing beast across the floor, a volcanic shoot of hot water wasn’t far from our feet. We wedged the Kaiju’s head right onto the fire, hearing it’s shrill screams as it’s head was scorched. Somehow, probably from the burning of so much flesh, the Kaiju ripped itself from the blade and swam away from us.
Without the support of the blade, we dropped to our knees, having no support from one of our legs. We used the blade to prop us up as we stared down the floating Kaiju, it’s jaw hanging by a thread. I heard a voice through the coms but I didn’t need it, seeing the other Kaiju that had ripped off our arm come charging straight toward us.
Raleigh looked over at me, nodding once as the beast came closer. Together, we threw up our only arm, meeting the mouth of the Kaiju with the tip of our blade. It didn’t have the time to move out of the way and it ate our steel, literally. We locked our arm to our side as the monster slid through the blade, effectively slicing it in two even pieces.
As we dealt with the snake-like Kaiju, the other one was waiting, watching us take on the other beast. There was a ripple through the water, and after the rippling, there was a call: a roar from the Category V. The Kaiju watching us turned tail and started racing toward the call. With it out of our view, I knew where it was heading: straight toward Striker, which was handling it’s own against the large Kaiju.
“Hang on, Striker. We’re coming for ya’.” Raleigh said through the com as I started getting us moving, using the sword as a crutch.
“Gipsy, do not come to our aid! Do you copy? Stay as far back as you can!” We both ignored Stacker’s order, continuing as best and fast as we could with no arm and a limp leg.
“We can still reach you. Were coming for you!” He pressed, me being too focused on making sure that we continued a forward motion to the Jaeger about to get flanked by two huge Kaiju.
“No, Raleigh, listen to me. You know exactly what you need to do.” I was panting hard, sweat starting to run in my eyes and my whole body ached something terrible but it was nothing compared to the feeling that I felt when Stacker said the last sentence that he did.
“Gipsy is nuclear. Take her to the Breach.” My gaze flew to the beautiful silver Jaeger that was still holding a strong defensive stance, even through several parts of it looked crushed and a black liquid, most likely the oil running through the massive engine, was leaking into the water.
“I hear you, sir. Heading to the Breach.” Raleigh tried to steer us towards the Breach but I was holding strong, taking total control over my arm that was holding us up. Throwing my arm up, I handed my free hand on the com channel that would link us to Striker.
“No, Striker, this is suicide! You can’t do this!” I called, panting from the exertion that was brought on from supporting the weight of the metal beast.
“Lila.” Hearing the crackling, Australian accent through the headset brought tears to my eyes.
“Chuck, Chuck please don’t do this.” I pleaded, sniffing loudly.
“I gotta tell you now.” His voice was eerily calm while I was starting to feel myself slip from the drift link I was holding with Raleigh.
“I didn’t give you back your pictures I borrowed because I wanted to keep them. I’m actually looking at my favorite ones right now.” A tear streaked down my cheek, settling in the bottom of my helmet with no exit.
“Of you, Striker, and Max. Then the other of us. God, I love that picture.” I let out a laugh, knowing exactly what pictures he was talking about.
The one of us as a couple was my favorite when we were together, too. I had begged him for weeks to let me take his picture to add more to my wall of Australia. For one reason or another, he would always duck out of the way just in time or just full on ignore me.
When I finally decided to give up getting the picture, I was standing outside the Shatterdome, catching a few pictures of the beautiful, multicolored sunset. I remember feeling an arm wrapped around my waist and another grab my camera, taking the camera from my hands and holding it away from me. Chuck moved into my field of vision, a bright smile on his face, immediately melting my angry heart. I didn’t even notice the flash from the camera after he leaned his lips into mine, giving me a loving kiss with the gorgeous sunset as our background.
“Chuck.” I sobbed, choking on my words and losing my breath at the same time as the Kaiju started getting closer to Striker.
“And Raleigh-” Chuck started to talk but cleared his throat for a split second before starting up again.
“Take care of my girl, you hear? She’s my whole world.” At the same time, Raleigh and I looked at each other but we didn’t have to say anything. The drift was doing that for us.
I knew he could feel the love that I had for Chuck before he broke everything that our relationship was. He had built me back up after I thought I had lost everything. How could I not love that lug-head somehow?
However, Raleigh knew where my heart was, now more so than ever, thanks to the drift. A big piece of my heart was his from the very beginning. It continued to be his special space, void and painful, but it was always his. When he came back, it was like a bucket of cold water was dumped on me. It was a terrible couple of months, fighting between what I thought was best and what I knew was best.
I knew now, more than ever, that the only place I was meant to be was hooked to this beautiful Jaeger with the man of my dreams, of my life, and everything I did.
“I will. She’s mine too.” The rush of love, understanding and grief that flooded through Raleigh into me brought even more tears to my eyes and streaking down my face.
“Love you, girly.” Chuck's raspy voice made me reach for the com button, breaking the intense stare-off between the two of us.
“Chuck, no!” I shouted, feeling my heart start to break.
“Raleigh! We gotta-” I turned to try and reason with my co-pilot but the look on his face said it all.
“It’s ok.” He reached over, holding out his hand between us.
With another loud sniffle and more blinding tears, I reached for his hand, squeezing hard and taking a deep breath. He watched me carefully, keeping the link between us strong when he felt me start to slip. I reached up to open the com one more time, one final time.
“I love you Chuck. I always have. I never stopped. Please believe that.” I said, my voice shaking so hard I wasn’t sure if he could understand me.
“I know, babe.” He sighed, sounding almost happy with a harsh rasp of heartache in his voice.
It took four agonizing seconds before the Kaiju started to charge Striker on either side and for the men to detonate the payload. It sent a wave of red flamed explosion straight towards us. At the last second, and with a heartbroken scream, I slammed the blade into the ground, impaling more than half of it into the sea floor.
The force of the explosion wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The sudden resistance the water gave was gone and it was easier to look around. When we started to take in our surroundings, seeming to think nothing had changed. But to our left, there were several large sized fish flailing around on the ground.
After seeing that, we both looked up just in time to see the water start cascading down, all millions of tons of it straight back on top of us. Critical system warnings and alerts went up everywhere and a large leak sprung in the pod.
“Systems critical, right leg’s crippled, fuel’s leaking.” Raleigh called out the major losses we had as we tried to start rerouting power where needed. After flicking a few switches and turning everything to as normal as we could in our extremely damaged state, we looked back at each other.
“Let’s finish this.” I nodded, lifting the blade from the ground and moving to grab one of the halves of the Kaiju that we sliced open earlier. Extracting the blade, I grabbed it with our only hand and we turned to the breach.
In the very back of my mind, there was that tickling feeling. There was something familiar about it. I knew it couldn’t have been Gipsy.
You have conquered much and been through so much heartache. I am happy to see you finally at peace with your life, even with so much loss. I am so very proud of what you have become, dearest Lila. It’s an honor to have considered you my co-pilot.
Tears sprung back into my eyes and I laughed hoarsely, feeling Raleigh’s surprise, meaning that he had probably heard the voice as well. I knew that silky, motherly voice anywhere.
“Glory?” I asked out loud, feeling my tears start to choke me up again.
Do not cry, little one. You have much still left to do.
Knowing I had the ghost of my Jaeger somehow in the drift with me and the man that I loved there as well, I knew that I could get us through this. We were going to finish this mission, not for the 7 billion people a few thousand feet above us, not for the techs and scientists that were waiting in the Dome up there either.
We were going to do this for every crew lost in this damn war. Yance; The Wei Triplets; the Kaidanovskys; my Jaeger, Glory; our Marshal; Chuck.
We were going to win this if it was the last thing we did.
For those of you who I made cry, I'M SO SORRY!!!!! :'( Just know, your not alone with your tears! Please rate, comment and vote, it'll be much appreciated :3 Thanksies!!! :D