Author's Notes: So the movie Pacific Rim has definitely taken over a huge part of my mind and found its way into my heart. I saw it on Sunday - and then conned my friends into seeing it last night so I could watch it again. I could literally go on and on about this movie, but I won't. However, someone got this Modern AU!ASOIAF/Pacific Rim crossover in my head; and I couldn't get it out until I wrote it. This is going to be three or four chapters, which will involve snippets from different character's POVs. This first chapter is about the older generation.

I've got a timeline set up for this, but here's the gist of it. Basically, the war against the kaiju has been going on a lot longer in this universe than in the movie. The first kaiju attacked when Ned and Robert are 16, Jaime, Cersei, and Stannis being 14. (All of the age differences and such will be relatively the same as they are in the books, so Tyrion is 8 years younger than his siblings and Renly is 13 years younger than Stannis.) The jaeger program began when Ned was around 18, but they didn't actually start enlisting and drifting between copilots until Ned and Robert are 20 (Robb would be 2) and Jaime, Cersei, and Stannis are 18. I think I messed up Oberyn's age, but I have him at 21 I think when the second kaiju attacks and Elia at 22. (They are older than Ned and co.) I've done way too much research on this. SO, there is a four year gap between the first kaiju attack and when the Jaeger Academy starts enlisting pilots for co-piloting jaegers instead of two years like in the movie.

Disclaimer: GRRM owns all of the characters and del Toro is a genius for creating Pacific Rim and whoever else had anything to do with that movie and all the people that made kaiju movies before this one.

The Long Night
part one

Tyrion is only six years of age when the first kaiju, Trespasser, attacks San Francisco. He sits in front of the television, wide-eyed and in shock, knowing instinctively that this isn't one of the scary monster movies that his big brother Jaime finds so terribly amusing. Clutching his stuffed lion, Lann, as tightly as possible and even holding his hand over the little lion's eyes, Tyrion can't tear his eyes away. It's only when Jaime comes storming into the house that Tyrion jumps and lets out a yelp, thinking that another kaiju had broken into his house.

"Don't watch that," Jaime says, striding over to the television and turning it off.

"I was watching that!" Tyrion tells him, trying to sound angry instead of afraid. (It doesn't work. His voice trembles and he can't look his impossibly strong and brave brother in the eyes.)

Jaime picks him up with ease. Tyrion is six, but small for his age and not like to get much bigger. The doctors… Well, the doctors say a long of things, normally to his father and most certainly not to him, but Tyrion knows more than he lets on. He knows that he's never going to be like the big brother he idolizes or the father that never quite looks at him straight or with love. "You'll have nightmares," is all Jaime says as he carries Tyrion outside onto their porch.

"I won't," Tyrion protests.

"You had nightmares about Lake Placid for a week; you kept saying that there was a crocodile under your bed. We're not even going to talk about Monsters Inc." Jaime looks away, out into their yard where the sun is slowly setting. Here, at their family's mansion called Casterly Rock in the England countryside, everything looks peaceful. Tyrion can hear their sister, Jaime's twin, Cersei, playing in the pool on the side of their house, laughing and shrieking. She doesn't know the news yet, but her laughter will be cut short the moment she hears that monsters are real.

Tyrion bites his lip. Watching the sun set at their house, it's almost like he didn't just witness the beginning of the end of the world on the telly. He can almost forget that there is a monster destroying a city thousands of miles away and killing people in the second it takes him to blink away from the sun.

"Are the monsters going to eat us?" he finally asks.

Jaime scrunches up his face into something that resembles their father's scowl. "I'm not going to let some stupid monster hurt you, Tyrion." He is fourteen, filled with all the bravado and immortality that youth brings, but his confidence puts Tyrion at ease. "We're safe here, with Father. He'll protect us. And when he's not here, I'll protect you and Cersei both. I'll always be here to protect you."

Except he's not. Tyrion knows how fanciful Jaime can be, even if Jaime himself doesn't realize it. He's got all these ideas, these dreams, and he loves every bit of his family so very much. For however little his father and Cersei love him, Jaime loves Tyrion three times as fiercely. Unfortunately, for everyone, Jaime cannot be in two places at once and when he hears the call to join the Jaeger Academy, Jaime does not hesitate to respond.

"It'll be fun!" is the main reasoning for enlisting in the Jaeger Academy according to Robert.

Ned gives his best friend a sideways glance, watching as the other boy downs the rest of his beer and then begins to explain just exactly what the Jaeger Academy is, as far he knows so far. Robert has always been pretty wild, filled with hot blood and an unusual need for mayhem, but he's pretty sure that going to war, head-to-head, with the kaiju is just plain insane. It's not going to be like that stupid fight he had with Rhaegar over the honor of Lyanna, back when they had been stupid and what felt like ages ago. This is an actual war.

(He tries not to think about Lyanna. Tries not to remember how it felt when he came out of the shelter and searched and searched, screaming her name until his voice was raw, until he could barely even speak. And then finding her broken body, bloody and bruised, gods… Gods, he never wants to think about that again. He was seventeen then, but he felt like he was a hundred years-old.)

Ever since that first kaiju attack when they were sixteen, Robert has been itching it get into an actual fight with one. It was why they had joined the marines in the first place, wasn't it, not just because both of them hailed from military families. Catelyn called him crazy, was so furious with them when he'd told her that he'd enlisted. Newlyweds at eighteen, straight out of high school, with a baby boy already on the way, and Ned was off joining the marines with his best buddy Robert Baratheon. If the kaiju doesn't kill him once he's the pilot of a jaeger, Catelyn will if he goes along with this.

"It's not about fun," Ned tries to reason. He's the reasonable one of the two anyways.

Robert rolls his eyes. "Then it's about protecting your own."

Ned shakes his head. "Don't."

But Robert leans forward, unrelenting, an intense gleam in his blue eyes. "It's about vengeance, Ned. Those bloody beasts took something away from you – from us – and I'll take whatever I can get from them, as long as it helps me sleep at night. For Lyanna and Brandon, for our parents."

Ned goes home that night with a heavy heart and mind. He tells himself that he won't follow Robert – but he's done that his entire life. Robert is more than just his best friend; he's been Ned's brother since they were five and playing army. When he realizes that he's going to enlist in the Jaeger Academy, he tries to pass the blame off on Robert, even before he tells his wife of his plans, but he can't ever bring himself to give that excuse to her when the time comes. He wants to join this insane program; he wants to avenge the deaths of his family. His father and older brother Brandon both died during the Cabo San Lucas kaiju attack. Their bodies had never been recovered from the wreckage of their shared plane.

"The Pan Pacific Defense Corps is searching for pilots for the jaegers," Ned tells his wife a few nights later, unable to hold his secret in any longer. "I'm signing up with Robert tomorrow."

He can see the fury in Catelyn's eyes – how she wants to slap him and hug him at the same time. Her uncle, Brynden Tully, was one of the first pilots of the Mark-I prototypes and risks his life constantly. She doesn't want to fear for the life of someone else she loves, even if Ned is already serving in the Marines. "I lost Brandon to the kaiju," she says instead, in a quiet voice. "Do you truly think this is the best idea?"

Sometimes, he forgets that Catelyn had been dating his older brother at the time of his death. He selfishly thinks that he's the only one to have suffered when he should know better. "I have to do this," Ned insists. "What kind of father would I be if I did not try to protect my children to the fullest?" He casts a glance into the other room where their son Robb is playing with toys. In the years to come, he will be playing with stuffed kaiju and plastic jaegers, pretending to be the co-pilot of a jaeger just like his father, alongside his father, hanging in the drift with his heroic father. For now though, he is two years-old and content with innocent toys. Their daughter Sansa is just a few months old, sleeping in her crib upstairs. She's so beautiful and he worries with every morning that she will not live in a world with hope if all of this continues. "I don't want my children to grow up in a world where they have to fear a kaiju attack at any second."

And that is all he can really say. He sighs, runs his fingers through his brown hair, and looks her in the eyes. She doesn't look away. She has never been the type of woman to back down and he loves her for that. Finally, for what feels like forever, she takes in a deep breath and then reaches up to touch his face, her fingers raking through the beard he'll have to shave tomorrow. "Do what you have to do," she states. "Be the hero we all know you are."

Ned is twenty years-old – he's only twenty – but as he signs his name for the Academy, Robert nudging him excitedly in the ribs, Ned feels like he's lived a thousand lives and hopes that what he's doing will at least give his children one great life to live.

Contrary to what people think, it is Cersei's idea to enlist for the Jaeger Academy, not Jaime's. The second she heard about the jaeger program, she knew that was what she wanted to do. The only problem was that her father said no. Tywin Lannister was not a man to ignore. As one of the first Mark-I pilots, alongside Brynden Tully, Tywin was a decorated officer and a man to be feared and listened to. She has listened to him her entire life, doing her best to emulate him; and so when her father becomes a jaeger pilot, it is the only thing she plans on doing with her life.

"War is not meant for women," her father tells her on hers and Jaime's sixteenth birthday, seventeenth birthday, eighteenth birthday. And she listens, anger blossoming inside of her, because one does not ignore Tywin's rules.

Instead Tywin puts the pressure on Jaime to train as hard as he can for when the time comes. Jaime is willing to work, but only because he has always listened to their father without a single complaint. So has Cersei, and so it frustrates her when she watches Tywin teach Jaime a fighting technique. She forces every bit of knowledge out of Jaime later, prying it out of him without any care for delicacy. She'd watch as their father pushed Jaime to his very physical and mental limits and watch as Jaime crawled into bed, exhausted and muttering under his breath that he was going to quit – and then she would sneak into his room, crawl into his bed, and poke him until he woke up, whispering demands that he tell her everything their father told him.

"I should know everything you know," she always claims. "We're twins, mirror images."

Jaime always relents, always, most likely because he can't imagine doing anything as dangerous and ridiculous as this without her, his other half.

When they are nineteen and Tywin comes home to tell them that the PPDC were actually hiring pilots – not single pilots, but copilots for each jaeger – Cersei stands up and proclaims, "Jaime and I are enlisting."

The first thing her father says is, "No, only Jaime is. You will stay here and watch Tyrion until we move into the Shatterdome."

Cersei snarls back in return though. "No, I will not – not unless you want Jaime to fail." She never looks away from him, never backs down, even as her father stares her down. Jaime has not gotten up from his spot on the couch; in fact, he isn't even looking at either of them. Instead, he focuses all of his attention on the telly, where Brynden Tully is being interviewed about the Jaeger Academy by CNN. Even eleven year-old Tyrion is staring at them; and he normally avoids their father's presence at all costs. Cersei tosses her brilliant blonde hair out of her face. "I'm the only one Jaime could be drift compatible with and you know it. Our bond is stronger than most. He would fail without me at his side. He wouldn't be able to drift with anyone else and he would flop out of the Academy."

Tywin says nothing after that. He looks at his daughter for the longest time, her chest rising and falling, her cheeks red, her green eyes bright with excitement – and then he takes one look at his son, Jaime, the golden boy, and walks upstairs to his study, grabbing a hold of Tyrion and pulling his youngest son out of the room. He doesn't offer his approval or his congratulations for standing up for what she believes; he doesn't tell her that he's proud of her decision or admires her bravery. That frustrates her as well, but she's so elated over her victory that she pushes those feelings aside.

It's only when she looks back at her twin, shooting a little "yes!" into the air, that she feels something unsettling in his gut.

For however much he hates being a part from her, Jaime does not look too thrilled with the prospect of Cersei joining him in a jaeger suit. She tiptoes over to him and then carefully crawls into his lap, taking his face in her hands. They look so much alike that it's startling. When they had been children, it had been hard to tell them apart from each other and she had enjoyed pretending to be her twin brother. Now, at nineteen, she had a woman's body and it was so much easier to tell who was who. Once in a suit though, inside the head of a jaeger, nobody would ever know the difference again.

"We were meant for this program," she tells him, delicately kissing him on the cheek and squeezing him against her. "We were meant to do this together. It is made for us; I can feel it."

Most people have never seen a kaiju in real life – and the ones that do always regret it. They either die or sometimes wish they were dead. Oberyn is none of the above. He is twenty-one when the second kaiju crawls out of the breach and attacks Manila. His family is vacationing there in one of their many "summer" homes. Where he comes from, it is always summer, but they always make a joke about it, especially since they almost always go on these vacations during the winter months. Still, it is always nice going to the Philippines to visit their mother's family, even more so during these dire times. He likes seeing his family, knowing they are all safe, and keeping a close eye on them.

It's just so ironic and spiteful that a kaiju rises from the ocean on their last day in Manila.

Everyone is running down the streets, screaming and panicking, poor and rich alike. No one is safe. Most safe zones or decent shelters haven't been built yet. This is just the second attack and people thought that maybe the first one in San Francisco, California will be the last and only one. Now they know – now Oberyn knows – that this will not stop at just one kaiju.

Doran is busy trying to tear their mother away from her prized possessions, but their house is too close to the water. It's too dangerous to stay there. She is stubborn, as she has always been, but Doran coaxes her carefully and she begrudgingly listens to him. Maybe it's his calm voice or maybe it's the fear in his dark eyes – either way, it is not soon enough. Oberyn is standing still as he watches the kaiju rise out of the ocean, ferocious and wild, the most horrifying and powerful thing he has ever seen in his life. He is struck by the sheer power of the beast, almost lulled by its booming roar.

"Oberyn!" The scream of his sister, Elia, is enough to tear Oberyn out of his thoughts and he runs to catch up with his family, ruthlessly pushing his way through the crowd until he can grasp his sister's little hand and pull her towards safety.

Everyone is shouting and crying and screaming, but he can't hear any of it over the crashing of the kaiju behind them. Buildings fall with every step and cars are crushed – and people are silenced in a matter of seconds. His eyes dart at every angle, trying to keep track of all his family members. He sees Doran holding onto their mother; their father leading the group and shouting at them to hurry; and Elia–

His sister stumbles behind him and falls to the ground, her hand slipping out of his.

"Elia!" Oberyn screams. He sees the look of panic on her face and then she is swallowed by the crowd of running people. It takes everything in him to not get carried away by the mob, but he pushes against the stream, screaming her name over and over again. Finally, he climbs onto a barrel so that he can stand above everyone and get a better look. The barrel shakes every time the kaiju takes a step closer, but Oberyn keeps his balance easily, keeping his cool despite his racing heart.

His intense gaze turns up and he focuses on the kaiju. It's tall – taller than anything he could imagine. His brain knows that it's only as tall as most buildings in big cities, but a part of him keeps thinking that it's the most massive thing he's ever seen. Its limbs are long and seemingly sharp bones practically protrude out of the skin with every step it takes. When it opens its mouth to roar, florescent blue shines through the smoke and fire. If it hadn't been destroying a city he loved and murdering innocent people, he would have almost had a mind to call it strangely beautiful.

But it is too close, far too close. If he doesn't run now, he'll be crushed or eaten or some other horrifying thing, but he can't leave his sister. He can't leave the girl he loves the most in the world.

"Oberyn!" A scream rips through the air. He looks frantically through the crowd until he spots Elia lying on the ground, curled up, with her hands over her head. When he goes to jump off the barrel towards her, she looks up and connect eyes with him – and then she shakes her head. "Oberyn, run! Get out of here!"

He knows what she's telling him to do – can see the strong, determined, yet terrified look in her eyes. She means for him to run away and leave her behind. He can't possibly do that though. He shakes his head and jumps back into the crowd, pushing his way towards her, trying to ignore her furious shriek. But rubble is falling all around him, injuring people, and there is smoke and he can't see, all he can here is screaming but it's the kaiju's now, mixed alongside his own. Oberyn catches a glimpse of his sister's dark hair and her brown eyes and then a slab of concrete comes crashing down between them.

Oberyn should have died right then and there, but the next thing he knows, there are strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him back into an alley. He fights with the arms, shouting Elia's name, but in the end he finds himself huddling in a corner with a group of children. When he swings his head around, he sees his older brother Doran huffing, sweat dripping down his dirty face. Oberyn is blind with rage at his brother for tearing him away from their sister, from not letting him save her, so much so that he doesn't see Doran's broken leg or anything else. He sits and waits, staring out into the smoke, thinking of that kaiju and his sister, long after the kaiju has been taken down.

Never once in his life does Oberyn wish for death, though plenty of people believe that he does, what with the way he travels all around the world in an attempt to join every battle against the kaiju. It's only natural for him to be the first one to step up to the plate when the PPDC first starts testing the jaeger program.

For Elia, he thinks every time he steps into the room to begin testing. It's a dangerous way to live, bringing the pure anger and memories of his family while in the drift, but he couldn't stop them even if he tried.

Stannis wants to be a jaeger pilot. It has nothing to do with the fact that Robert and his best friend Ned have enlisted, though most people would say that it is. Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that Stannis thinks it's more than right to join the jaeger program. He doesn't want to just sit at home in their cozy Martha's Vineyard home and watch on the news about his brother's great victory.

Nonetheless, when Robert comes back to visit after his first clash with a kaiju in Vancouver, the oldest Baratheon brother makes it very clear what he expects Stannis to do: "I need you to stay and watch Renly, protect him, keep him safe and happy. Can you do that, Stannis?"

Of course he stays; of course he watches Renly; of course he tells Robert yes and nods his head, however begrudgingly. Robert is the oldest. Their parents are dead, killed in a boating accident that had nothing to do with kaijus and everything to do with just simple terrible weather. If Stannis were to leave, then who would Renly be left with: the family lawyer, Cressen, their old legal guardian before Robert and then Stannis turned of age?

So Stannis stays put, working in their family business during the day, and then watching Renly at night. Selsye comes over every now and then, but he still doesn't like the idea of her staying the night, not until their married. He keeps putting off the idea of marriage though, saying that the time isn't right. Who wants to get married when there are monsters crawling out of the ocean through an interdimensional portal? Besides, he's only nineteen. That's way too early to get married. For the most part though, it's just him and Renly.

Tonight is another one of those nights. Selyse came over and cooked them dinner, but then left, saying that she had to go to church. She still tried to convince him to join her, but the idea of going to church and praying to any sort of god didn't appeal to him. What kind of god would allow something like this to happen? Besides – and he hates thinking it, if only because it makes him feel guilty towards Selyse – the Church of R'hllor reminds him of some sort of cult, like one of those Kaiju Churches that pop up here and there.

Stannis sits down on the couch in the living room. Renly is sitting on the floor, having a mock battle between a stuffed kaiju and a toy version of Robert's jaeger, Winter Fury. The jaeger is a mixture between yellow and black on top of the grey mental, a bulky machine that is able to produce a hammer of sorts with its hand if need be. Renly is all about these toys and watches every show about them. To him, jaeger pilots are the coolest people in the world, like rockstars. Stannis knows they are just men in machines though and men could die easier than any kaiju. That doesn't stop him from wanting to be a pilot though.

Pulling his cell out of his pocket, Stannis dials up the only person he can think of, not wanting to watch the silly jaeger vs. kaiju show that Renly has playing on the TV. "What are you doing, Davos?"

"Just cleaning up dinner," his best friend responds. Unlike Stannis, Davos was quick to settle down with his high school sweetheart and begin a family. He already had a son on the way. "What's up?"

Stannis hesitates, already thinking that he should hang up and forget what he's been thinking, but he can't get the thought out of his head. "We should enlist for the PPDC."

"Marya would kill me," Davos says, which isn't a no, but it isn't a yes either. He sighs on the other line. "We've talked about this. I thought Robert told you to stay put and help raise Renly."

"That's a waste and you know it," Stannis replied fiercely. "We could do it. We could pilot our own jaeger. They need more pilots. Three-fourths of their recruits are mediocre at best. And how can I protect Renly by just sitting at home and doing nothing? If a kaiju comes crashing into the yard, I'm not going to be able to hold it off with a shotgun."

Davos is silent on the other end for a long time. He's thought about enlisting as well, to protect his family, but it would be difficult. First of all, he actually has a juvenile record for stealing and the government will not look too fondly on that. Second, he actually has a family. Stannis has his brothers, but even that is a stretch. He loves Renly (and he loves Robert if he thinks about it long enough), but he knows that piloting a jaeger is what he is meant to do, what is right, what is for the greater good. Protect the many over the few. How could he protect Renly by doing nothing?

"I know I'm meant to pilot a jaeger," Stannis says. "I have to. It's all I can think about."

He looks at Renly, who throws the stuffed kaiju across the room and laughs. Renly will understand – and he'll be proud of him too. All he does is talk about Robert, who is never home and has only seen him a handful of times since his birth. When Stannis becomes a jaeger pilot, Renly will look up to him as well.