The incessant groan of grinding metal disturbed the rousing pilot. Adrift, she thought, the soothing sea lapping at her frail body. Slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes, the saltwater unforgiving in its assault. The stars surged brightly above her, the moon bare and full. A beacon.
And then she remembered.
The frailty of mortals, the shell of their bond, the body of their behemoth, breached. Attached to her drowning husband, the two receded into their pons; a life once cherished come to the inevitable. The ghostly coil of his mind in her own, the lovers drowned in the memory of days past, as the wrath of a God bore down on them. Her breathing seized.
Aleksis.
Suddenly, aware of mangled flesh and battered bone, Sasha jerked, her arms snagging on an unseen restraint. Wires, tangled in the heart of her protector, anchored her to life. Harbored in the drift, she could not recall reality, only her assailant. Otachi, they called her.
The kaiju's acid had been both demise and savior. As the corrosive plasma hollowed out the cooling tower, Leatherback's assault weakened the structure. When the beast moved to deliver the kill, the explosion freed the pilots, delivering them to air pockets within Cherno Alpha's dome. And now, as a final act of aegis, she secured her remaining pilot. The Jaeger was as much alive as the world it defended.
An undamaged rim of Cherno's crown crested the water. Defying her searing pain, Sasha wretched as she twisted her body, seizing the wires and pulling herself in-land. With the strength bare in her right arm, she dragged herself atop the machine with her left, adrenaline surging in her core. She scanned the horizon. There was no sign of kaiju or comrade alike. Certainly, rescue was not imminent. The faint glow of dawn told her hours passed, and the temptation of solid ground had her fantasizing an early morning swim. She was willful, but she was no fool. If the current did not sweep away and drown her broken body, a hungry shadow would certainly trail her. She inhaled to call for her husband, and the grim denial came to her in a fit of racking, blood ridden coughs. The iron tang in her mouth promised a ruptured lung, torn by the fractures in her now aching chest.
She breathed timidly, lowering her head in solemn acceptance. The heart of a soldier sheltered much pain, but only in peace did it haunt their soul; the distant wail of sirens echoed her grief. She closed her eyes. If the strength of the sea had claimed her husband, it too, would claim her.