So I hope you all enjoy this one. It's an Avengers/Pacific Rim fusion-crossover thingy. Have fun reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Pacific Rim.
They were the world's first Jaegar pilots: Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. The Jaeger technology was hardly tested, but the kaiju were coming in and someone needed to stop them.
For a time, they were heroes of the war. The Howling Commandos assisted them, as they all worked together as a team to stop Hydra from using the Tesseract to open the Anteverse, but when they were too late, Steve and Bucky climbed into the jaeger and into each other's heads, to save as much lives as they could.
Ripping, tearing, a part of him gone.
Steve screamed but Bucky was gone. He could see his body tumbling into the Alaskan surf and then kaiju filled his vision.
He didn't know how he piloted the jaeger back by himself. He had no memory of it. All he could feel was Bucky, Bucky, Bucky. And he was no longer there.
Peggy found him drowning his sorrows or attempting to.
One more time. That was what she coaxed out of him. Hydra was still there, they still had the tesseract. Revenge. A way to save the world.
Steve took it.
Crashing the plane wasn't in the plan but he couldn't, couldn't let the bombs be fired, couldn't let anyone get the tesseract ever again. Crashing the plane became the plan.
Seventy years into the future and Steve discovered that the Jaegers had improved. There were sleek, shining things, with holograms and AIs. The tesseract was in friendly hands but the damage had been done. Now the peoples of the Anteverse had opened a passage to Earth all on their own, hungering for what humanity had. The kaiju were still coming. The world he'd thought he'd saved, was still in danger.
It was a depressing thought.
"We need you," Nick Fury told him, "But we won't force you."
Steve rested one hand on the swaying punch bag in front of him and admitted, "I don't think I could ever have anyone in my head again. I know it's been years for you but to me, it's like I lost him a few weeks ago."
"Alright," Fury said raising his hands, "If you ever change your mind let us know. But if you want, you could help out in LOCCENT."
"Maybe I will," said Steve hollowly.
Steve finds himself in LOCCENT the next week because he's never been out of war and doesn't know what to do with himself. No matter how much he can't have somebody in his head, Steve just can't know people are in danger and not want to do something to help. LOCCENT is his compromise.
Maria Hill is the J-tech in charge of LOCCENT, she does her duties efficiently but also takes the time out of her schedule to explain to Steve all the advances of modern technology. Yet for all that the Jaeger technology has expanded, the Jaeger program is on its last legs. Steve finds it ironic that he is here for both the start and end of the jaeger program.
The world is relying on the Wall of Life to save them. Steve thinks it's a stupid idea; knows it won't work and doesn't hesitate to say it.
"We all know it," Maria told him, "But the governments won't hear of it."
Steve wonders what the world is coming too, what it became. Walls are only as good as the people who hold them.
He spends two weeks in LOCCENT before they manage to coax him down to the training mats.
"They're the last batch of recruits before the academy closed down," Hill tells him as they pass the training mats on their way to the mess hall for lunch.
"The second to last, actually," she corrects herself, "The last batch of recruits were turned off. It didn't make sense to keep them when there was so much they didn't know."
"Second years won't know enough either, "Steve says, "Why keep them?"
"Drift Capability," Hill answers. "Not all our third years will be drift compatible with each other so we need to keep a pool of drift capable people to match them with."
It makes sense Steve notes inwardly. While the whole world knows about drift compatibility, not many people know about drift capability. Some people are just literally unable to step into another's persons head or conversely allow someone else into theirs. It didn't matter if they were compatible or not. The situation was just too traumatic for them to endure.
First year tested the physical capabilities of the students, the second began with testing drift capability. Anyone unable to do so got sorted out of the program.
He doesn't realize that he's stopped at the mats until Maria says questioningly, "Steve?"
He jerks, nods and follows her but stops after a moment. "These are the second years?" he asks.
"Yes," says Maria, "but they didn't get to finish that second year."
It shows. The recruits do not know how to spar right, how to switch from fighting to dialogue. They don't know how to find a physically capable partner nor a mentally capable one. They either will never match with anyone or they will and they'll get both pilots killed.
"Why is no one teaching them?" he asked.
"They are," said Maria but the Jaeger pilots that we have just don't have the time and they're the ones with the most experience. We have other instructors of course but the rangers always teach it best."
Steve is silent for a moment and then he says, "I'll catch up with you."
"Are you sure?" asked Hill.
"Yeah," he says. She eyes him for a moment and then leaves. The recruits who have been studiously ignoring both of them look up as he steps to the edge of the room.
"May I enter?" he asks and after a moment, they walks in and addresses them. "I'm Steve Rogers," he said, "But I guess you all knew that."
There are a few quick smiles but overall, they remain highly decorous. "I hear you got pulled out from your training when the academy closed," he continued. "Now I don't know how they do it now but if you like, I can help you with what I know."
There is a moment when they seriously considered his proposal and then a young man speaks up. "I'd like that," he said. Steve nods back and one of the students hand him a staff.
Maria finds him two hours later when he has worked his way through three quarters of the students trying to let them get a feel of how to spar as a dialogue, how to use the sparing to get a feel for the other person, how to tell how their mind works and how to know if you would be able to work with them.
It's slow going but Steve talks the entire time, fighting back tears on occasion, and the students get better and better as they learn from their peers' mistakes. She waits until he finished and then hands him a tray when he walks over.
"You missed lunch," she told him.
"Thanks," he said.
"Are you going to help them?"
"When I can," he says. "I can't do this very often." Maria nods her head in understanding.
"You should go shower," she says abruptly, "We'll see you later." Steve gives her a little smile and does go to shower. Luckily, he remembers to drop of his tray in his room first.
He spends three days out of each week training the recruits. He spars some with the third years to get some practice but they're all slower and weaker than he is and he doesn't get a proper workout with them although they try.
Try as he might, Steve can't help comparing them to Bucky. Bucky who still managed to be almost as fast as Steve and could hit hard enough to make it a challenge. Bucky who knew Steve well enough to predict his moves and thus trip him up. He spends a lot more time with the punchbags, fighting to fill the hole in his head, in his soul.
Sometimes the pain is so bad he can't breathe. Other times Steve feels oddly detached from everything. Like if he can't feel anything now that Bucky is gone. They'd been close before, they'd been brothers, but the drift, the drift was no place for secrets, no place to hide, it was like being turned inside out with everything you ever wanted to hide, every secret fear, every secret hope, exposed. Your drift partner was someone who saw all that and didn't care, someone who cared about you even when you're reveled to be disgustingly human. Bucky had been that person; the one Steve had placed all of himself in his hands and found comfort at the act instead of fear and he'd been the same for Bucky. It wasn't something he could ever forget. His loss wasn't something that would ever go away.
Still Steve tries not to compare the recruits to Bucky, tries not think every time he spars that he is betraying Bucky and looking for a new partner because he isn't but sparing makes him think of it.
It's a measly four months after Steve has begun training the recruits when disaster strikes. It's one of his second year recruits and a third year who are standing as backup for an experienced jaeger team. They were holding the miracle mile while the other jaeger engaged the kaiju. They were just backup really. No one had ever thought they they'd be engaged. The fight was far from them but the kaiju had knocked down it's engaging jaeger, and doubled back to the coast.
The blow from the kaiju had shorted out the first jaeger team's mobility in its left leg. It took them a few precious moments to reroute power but by that time the kaiju had already reached the miracle mile.
They'd fought well, Steve's students, especially for a pair that had drifted to fight for the first time. But the inexperience was their undoing and category three's were never anything to sniff at. By the time the first jaeger had caught up to them they were already dead. The kaiju had been killed soon after but the damage had already been done.
Steve left LOCCENT in a daze. He'd seen people he'd known die before. Of course, he had. He'd been in war, seen so many of his comrades die but this, this hurt more. He reached his room and promptly threw up in the toilet.
When his stomach was empty, he sat in the floor, swallowing hard. This hurt worse because this was his fault. If he hadn't been so sensitive, hadn't dealt his scruples then maybe two young, promising men wouldn't be dead in the pacific, wallowing in kaiju blue-stained water.
He finds himself in Fury's office a few minutes later.
"Marshall," he says, "If you'll still have me, I'd like to start trials for a drift partner."
Fury looks at him for a long while and then nods. "Fine," he said, "Choose well, Rogers."
Steve gives a stiff military nod and then walked out the office.
So hopefully the next chapter will have Steve and Tony meet!
Review please!