Rivaille led Eren to the changing rooms. They were spacious and spotless, with benches and ledges everywhere, and, right in the middle of the far wall, the piloting suits.
Eren drew in a quick breath at the sight. As a trainee, he had of course learned of the vital components of the piloting suits: the circuitry suit underlayer, the spinal cord attachment, the helmet, the hardened exoskeleton of the suit. Seeing it in person, however, was completely different, especially since the array before him was actually fully functional. Eren looked above the various glass panels, noting the labels- GENVI 1, GENVI 2, through to GENVI 5 and finally, FREEDOM WING.
Rivaille punched a few keys, and the glass under the last label slid open. Eren scooted closer, trying to take it all in. The circuitry suits were a dark smoke grey, the golden circuits running back and forth across the surface, occasional circles marking points where it was to be in direct contact with skin. The exoskeleton was a beautiful forest green, dark and smooth, with the fabric holding it all together even darker. On the front a pair of wings was emblazoned, one white, one blue.
Eren could have stood there for hours, just admiring the beauty and elegance of it all. Could have. Had a circuitry suit not hit him full in the face, courtesy of Corporal Rivaille.
"Oi, brat, you can drool all over yourself later. Get into that first, it should be in your size," Rivaille grumbled, before turning around and beginning to strip.
Pulling the circuitry suit off his head, Eren was greeted with a half-naked Rivaille (luckily only half-naked from the waist up, and progressively less so as he pulled the suit up and over his shoulders), and the circuitry in Eren's brain definitely hit some sort of road block, because it was at least a few seconds before Eren was able to turn around and begin donning his own suit.
Finished adjusting the skin-tight fabric so it sat comfortably, Eren turned back to Rivaille, finding him staring impassively. Eren gulped.
"What?"
Rivaille raised an eyebrow. "Nothing. You keep staring at me, so I figured I'd return the favor." Eren could actually feel his ears turning red. "In any case, I asked them to make a suit to your specifications, so it should fit, if you'd care to get it on before we get old," Rivaille added, already lowering the chest piece to cover his own and strapping it into place.
Eren followed suit, and reveled in the fact that his suit did, in fact, fit perfectly. Once he had it completely on, he flexed a few times, feeling the hard armor shift lightly over his body. Yeah, I could get used to this, he thought. A tapping sound made him look towards the entrance.
"If you're quite done admiring your own sad physique, it would be great if we could go actually get in the jaeger," Rivaille said, before turning around and stalking off, helmet under one arm. The two wings on the back of the suit seemed almost to flutter with every characteristically light footstep Rivaille took. Eren once again hastened after him, wincing slightly as the heavy boots he wore clanked loudly against the metal grill of the boardwalk they were on. How Rivaille managed to walk so soundlessly, Eren could only guess.
Rivaille threw the doors open in front of him, entering a slightly smaller command station than the main one, where Commander Smith was waiting for him. Smith's face flashed into a small smile (directed at Rivaille- who knew why) as soon as he caught sight of Eren behind him. Commander Smith locked eyes with Eren and motioned towards the glass panels at the front of the room, and Eren took that as his signal to proceed there (for once, Rivaille followed him).
Looking out from the panel, he finally laid eyes on Freedom Wing.
"Wow," he whispered under his breath. The jaeger was huge, not at big as Garrison Rose, but still standing almost thirty meters, if Eren had to guess. She was the same shade of forest green as he and Rivaille's armor; on her chest, the double wings were crafted on with care. She was surprisingly slim for a jaeger, Eren noted, but somehow, it worked; the arms were longer than usual, and occasional silver glints showed through the dark green, but what struck Eren the most was that no central motor was easily identifiable. A series of unbroken, overlapping plates ran down the jaeger's stomach, leading to a thick black belt of metal just above the motorized hips. Sleek lines all around- no weapons were easily visible either, but that only promised a larger arsenal of surprise weaponry. Eren's eyes roamed back up, focusing on the wings- freedom's wings.
"Wow," Eren said again.
((***))
The look of awe on the brat's face was suitable, Rivaille thought, hiding a smile (Erwin was in the room), and turning his gaze out to Freedom Wing.
She had been under repairs for the better part of two years (had it really been that long?), ever since they had gone up against one of the first bipedal kaiju, a monster codenamed Colossus. It had been slow, and they should have been able to avoid it, but its mass was such that a single scrape had easily knocked out several of Freedom Wing's motors, (and where had the support squad been?) and with their mobility cut, (oh, right, engaged with another kaiju, with scales thicker than jaeger plating) it was only a matter of time until-
"Center yourself, Rivaille," Erwin murmured, hand squeezing Rivaille's armored shoulder just enough to be felt. "We need you." Rivaille, knocked out of his flashback, took a deep breath, setting up his impassive mask again before nodding, brushing off Erwin's hand, and turning towards Eren.
"Hey, shitty brat, let's go drift, shall we?" he said. Eren nodded, face practically glowing with excitement (and all right, so sue him, it was cute) (not that Rivaille would ever confess to that). He practically jumped down the next boardwalk, which brought them to the jaeger's head. The command and maintenance squads had filed in meanwhile, and from there on, things proceeded smoothly.
Rivaille took the left side, roughly pushing Eren towards the correct position. Metal attachments whirred, boots clicked into place, arms were strapped in, and finally, helmets were lowered. Rivaille took a deep breath, selecting carefully those memories he didn't want and pushing them out to the side. He glanced at Eren, who had a more concentrated look on his face (even if it was still a very excited concentrated look). He was jittery, Rivaille could tell.
Well, wasn't everyone on their first go?
"Oi, Jaeger," Rivaille called. Eren's head snapped around. "Don't chase any rabbits, understood? Go with the drift. That's why it's called fucking 'drift', okay? Let yourself go, and you'll end up back here. Start chasing memories, and we're fucked." Rivaille saw Eren nod as the mics came to life.
"Initiating drift sequence in 3… 2… 1… Neural handshake commence."
Instantly, Rivaille felt the familiar whirl and pull, the disassociation with his body and the world, everything blurring to faded blue memories that were and weren't his own. He felt a panic that wasn't his own, and one that was his but only in memory. Memories began to solidify around him, but Rivaille was a fighter by nature; he fought his recollections away, forcibly following the drift of timespace, swimming in it.
And, quite suddenly, he was back in his jaeger, feeling the machinery around him as an extension of him. And there, where Pe- where it was familiar, the consciousness of another.
A very disoriented, somewhat unstable other, but another nonetheless. Oi, shitty brat, Rivaille thought in that direction. After a moment, Eren did, in fact, turn to face him.
"How-"
You're in my mind and vice versa, idiot. Consolidating your thoughts will bring them to the forefront and make them loud enough to hear, although "-sometimes speech is easier."
"Rivaille, are you mind-talking again? You know you're not supposed to," said a voice over the comms. Rivaille rolled his eyes, thinking jerks in Eren's direction, but ushering Mike that he most definitely wasn't, at all, out loud.
"Now just drop us onto the jaeger already so we can give her a little spin, we're at 100 percent and ready," Rivaille added. Eren was still staring at him with wide eyes. Rivaille scowled.
Cut that out, brat, you'll set them on me. Mind-talking isn't allowed, Rivaille though. Or technically possible, he added, as an afterthought. Eren was about to nod, Rivaille could feel it, but didn't at the last moment. Instead, he faced forward, taking in the complex communications panel. Then they felt a lurch, and Freedom Wing's head connected to her body, a surge of mechanical information almost overwhelming Rivaille's mind.
He reveled in it.
Communicating his intentions not in words but in mental gesture, Rivaille began to lift his right arm, which was enveloped in hologram. Eren lifted his left, and as one they brought their arms together, a note of elation soaring through the drift as Freedom Wing responded in kind, seeming to crack her knuckles.
Rivaille let out a happy sigh. He was in his jaeger again, after so long, and the drift was working, neither was shorting out, and the brat was acceptable, and-
"Rivaille, Eren, how are you two feeling?" said Erwin over the comms.
Rivaille reached over and pushed down his comm button. "Fucking brilliant," he stated with no inflection.
"I second what Rivaille said," Eren added from the other end of the control panel.
"Good. Do you want to go out? There's no kaiju in the vicinity, but this is a practice run, so if you want to practice I won't stop you."
Rivaille met Eren's eyes. He felt a strong notion of "yes" that wasn't quite yet a word in his mind (that was a shock; Rivaille was the only one he knew who could mind-speak with words. Maybe this brat had potential after all?), and nodded. Hitting the mic again, he said, "Drop us."
They heard a whirr above them, and a few seconds later the command station moved out of their view as they dropped down, the fast-moving elevators and slides taking them quickly to the other side of the wall.
Rivaille's impassivity was shattered, his happiness too much to keep in. Come on, Eren, let's give this beauty a run, he thought, and the two began to move their legs in unison.
Freedom Wing coasted for several miles at a comfortable run, before her pilots turned her back toward home. As they gazed at the wall in the distance, Eren seized up.
Rivaille had just enough time to think, fucking shit, before memories not his own began to cross over the drift, becoming more solid and colored with every passing millisecond.
((((((((((((((((((******************)))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))
Freedom Wing 's design is based off of Titan!Eren's, in case you guys were wondering ^^;;; (so that's what the head looks kind of like) I've done a few sketches, I might post them sometime if anyone's interested.
Also this chapter gave me SO MUCH TROUBLE I can't even.