Elena Kaidonovsky – Hiraeth
Hiraeth (n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
January 8th, 2025
Dr. Gottlieb's predicted Double Event had come to pass. To her knowledge, no-one had dreaded it as much as Elena Kaidonovsky. You'd think some of the Rangers would dread it more than she did- but they didn't. They were weird that way- of course, they didn't want to go out there to fight the Kaiju, but they weren't scared.
Especially not Elena's parents. Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky were veterans, the only Rangers to still pilot a Mark 1- the Cherno Alpha. They were legendary for keeping the Siberian Wall unbreached for six years, and for holding the record for the longest and most stable neural handshake- a long eighteen hours. Elena's parents never acted like they were going off to war; they always acted as if they were going to get in a fight that they had no doubt they would win. Elena didn't see it that way. This was a war. And there was a good chance her parents were not going to come back- and Elena was terrified of that possibility.
"Elena, your mother and father are suited up and waiting for you." A deep, baritone voice startled the teenager out of her thoughts. Her chin-length platinum-blonde hair whipped around her head turned sharply to face the speaker. Marshall Stacker Pentecost stood a few steps away, hands folded behind his back and his face void of all emotion. Elena stood hastily, moving down the hall in the direction from which Pentecost had come. She did not reply, she hardly looked at him as she retreated.
Elena did not like the Marshall- he had hounded her since she was 15 and proved drift compatible with both her parents, trying to convince her to become a Ranger and pilot a Jaeger. At fifteen, Elena had been terrified of the prospect, and two years later her feelings had not changed. The fact that Pentecost had not stopped bothering her about it gave her a bad feeling. She did not doubt his goodness- Elena knew he wanted the Kaiju war to end- all for the greater good. But she also felt that Pentecost would do anything, sacrifice anyone, in order to end the war.
Elena moved down the halls of the Shatterdome quickly in order to reach her mother and father. Soon enough, two towering Russians with platinum-blond hair came into view. Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky smiled at the sight of their daughter. "Mama, Papa," Elena greeted them, halting her rushed steps just short of them.
Aleksis chuckled a little, his long arms reaching out and tugging Elena into his embrace, folding his 7'0" frame around his daughter. "Мой маленький голубь(my little dove), do not dare worry about me and your mother. We will return, like we always do." He assured her as he gave Elena a squeeze, and then a kiss on her forehead.
"Я люблю тебя."(I love you.) Elena murmured, squeezing her father's hand. Aleksis softly repeated the phrase back to her, before Elena turned to her mother. "Я люблю тебя, Mama."(I love you, Mom.) The teenager told her mother. Sasha smiled, taking Elena's hands and pulled her into her embrace.
Sasha smoothed Elena's fly-away hair behind her ear, leaned in and pressed a kiss to each of Elena's cheeks, and then her forehead, leaving red lipstick in her wake. Sasha leaned her forehead against Elena's. "Вы любовь всей моей жизни, Елена. Я вернусь для вас." (You are the love of my life, Elena. I will be back for you.) Sasha said firmly, tugging her daughter's hair lightly. "Do not doubt me." She warned, her voice think.
"Никогда не." (Never.) Elena managed to say through gritted teeth. "Go now, Mama, Papa. I'll be here." She told them, reluctantly pulling away from her mother. Sasha smiled proudly at her, squeezing Elena's forearms gently before letting go.
Sasha and Aleksis gave Elena one last look, before they withdrew, walking confidently into Cherno Alpha's Conn-pod. They did not look back as the doors sealed behind them. Elena gritted her teeth, her hands curling into fists. A hand lightly touched her shoulder. "Come on, 'Lena, we'll watch from the Mission Control room,"
Elena turned to see her friend, Mako Mori, stood next to her, not that the Russian girl had noticed beforehand. Her new co-pilot, Raleigh Becket was not too far behind, giving Elena an encouraging smile when he saw her eyes on him. "We can watch together." Raleigh offered, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Alright," Elena consented, her accent heavy as she tried to swallow her uneasiness. Mako took her hand, taking the lead in order to guide the younger woman to the Mission Control room as Raleigh strolled behind the two women leisurely.
Raleigh wasn't sure what to make of the teenage daughter of the legendary Kaidonovsky Rangers, but he could see by their tender goodbye that their bond was deep- much deeper than Raleigh's had been with his own parents. This was only the second time he'd glimpsed Elena, (the first being in the mess hall yesterday) but Elena's name had been called when Raleigh had been sparring with the candidates for his co-pilot. At the try-outs, Marshall Pentecost had called her name loudly, and his face had tightened when he saw that she had not shown up. The whole situation had been very curious to Raleigh, and he'd questioned Mako on it later.
Mako had informed him that Elena did not want to be a Ranger, had never wanted to be one, but Pentecost had gotten it into his head that she should be. Never mind Elena's tender age, she looked far too fragile to become a Ranger. And Raleigh had been struck by how young Elena looked when she was in the arms of her much taller, stouter parents. He had been surprised to hear she was seventeen, especially since she looked far younger- and had been appalled to hear that Pentecost had been trying to make the youngest Kaidonovsky into a Ranger for over two years.
And watching Mako comfort the teenager as they stood in Mission Control made Elena seem that much younger to Raleigh. She was so openly frightened, her grip tight on Mako's hand as the others weaved around her, working feverishly. Marshall Pentecost sighted the three of them, a frown crinkling his features. He approached them, flashing Mako a look of disapproval. "She should not be here right now," Pentecost told his adoptive child, who frowned at his words.
"She is right here," Elena snapped at the older man, her expressive brown eyes shooting up to look at him. "And you have no idea what it is like for me, to have to wait for my parents to come back!" She informed the man.
"Those are my Rangers going out there," Pentecost said shortly, before he realized he should have not said anything at all.
Elena's pale face grew red with fury. "They may be your rangers, Pentecost, but is it your mother? Your father? Do you love any of those Rangers, Marshall? Are they your family, all you have in the world?" Elena spat at him before turning her head and refusing to acknowledge him at all. Pentecost opened and closed his mouth, shook his head, and returned to the head of Mission Control besides Tendo Choi.
Time moved much too slowly for Elena as they waited for the transporters to drop the Jaegers in Victoria Harbor. And once they did, everything seemed to move far too fast as the fighting began.
"Typhoon is down." Elena's father's voice came over through the computer, gruff and low.
Sasha's voice followed quickly enough, "Let's get this bastard," she said harshly. Elena pulled her hand from Mako's, raising both hands to rake them through her hair. She began to pace back and forth along the line of desks, nervously wringing her hands together. "We've been hit with some sort of acid!" Sasha voiced desperately after a few minutes.
Elena stopped dead in her pacing, raising a hand towards her mouth, covering it as she gaped at the main screen. Tendo and Pentecost were talking frantically into the microphone. Elena had never heard fear in her mother's voice before. "Screw this, LOCCENT, we're going in!" Herc Hansen's voice yelled through the speaker.
"Striker Eureka, we need you to deliver that payload! Do not engage!" Pentecost barked into the microphone. Inside, Elena was screaming. Her mother and father were in terrible danger, but Pentecost was trying to stop the Hansens' from helping them! She had never hated that man more than she did in this moment.
"Water has reached the reactor!" Elena's mother warned. Something cold was twisting in Elena's belly, and it was spreading through her entire body, making her feel like she was dreaming- and this could not be really happening.
She dashed towards the stage, shoving Pentecost away- he hardly budged, but Elena managed to grab hold of the microphone. "Mama! Papa!" She called to them. Pentecost grabbed her by her arms, ready to bodily move her away, when there was a short reply.
"Elena!"
And then a horrible grating, metallic noise- followed by an explosion. Tendo Choi looked at Elena almost reluctantly. "Cherno Alpha is gone." He said softly. Pentecost's grip on her arms slackened.
There was a roaring in Elena's ears, and she could hear nothing, see nothing going on around her after hearing those four words, echoing endlessly in her mind. Her vision was rimmed with darkness, and suddenly Mako and Raleigh's faces were swimming in front of hers. The pair of them held her as her feet began to slip on the floor, but Elena could not feel a thing- not with the blackness of her vision growing and growing. The last thing Elena heard before she faded into the darkness was a voice calling her name…and for just that moment, Elena could pretend it was her mother's. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and Elena Kaidonovsky saw nothing.
Cherno Alpha is gone.
Author's Note: Firstly, I hope you enjoyed my first whack at writing for Pacific Rim. I just fell in love with the Kaidonovsky's, and I feel Del Toro could have done so much more with them- even though with the little we saw them, they were polarizing. From the moment I saw them, I was imagining, what if they had a daughter? And from that, this oneshot was born. I am toying with the idea of expanding this into a full-length story- if there's a good response to it. I have plenty more ideas for what to do with Elena and her parents.
Secondly, I apologize if the Russian translations are terrible- they are straight from google-translate. In my head, Elena prefers her mother language when she is with her parents.
So please give me a review, tell me what you thought!