Author's Notes: A perceptive reader observed that the last chapter was originally part of a larger one. So since I ended up with a little extra free time this weekend, here is the conclusion of that build-up! I was intrigued in the movie by how open Herc was with a near-stranger about his conflicts with his son and the struggle of raising him alone, so I decided to run with that.

Chapter Ten: Blame Me For That One

January 22, 2018…
Sydney Shatterdome…

Either Devi's footsteps hadn't clunked on the metal floor like they usually would, or the occupant of the store room was too immersed in his own angst to hear anything. When she heard the sounds, she sighed... quietly.

I wonder if I really was angling to sniff him out all along, skulking around the Dome in stocking feet after "losing a chess piece." Despite all her rational sensibilities warning that this was a bad, bad idea, she went into the dimly-lit room.

"Chuck?" she called softly.

The runaway Hansen recoiled so hard he almost smacked his head against a pipe along the wall. He really hadn't heard her coming, or expected anyone to find him here.

Adrenaline tingled in the ghost drift as Suze worked out what was happening. After hesitating only a moment, while Chuck Hansen was still waffling in fight-or-flight mode, Devi made up her mind. Leave it alone. I'll see what I can do. The ghost drift wasn't quite strong enough for full-on telepathy, over a day since they ended the last handshake, but the gist of it got through both ways.

If Suze were in physical earshot, she'd be heaving a dramatic sigh and saying, on your head be it, but Devi's sister resigned to her elder's determination.

"Your dad's looking for you," Devi told the boy still crouched against the wall.

"I don't wanna go home." Chuck turned away from her, and she had to restrain herself from going towards him. He'd been missing long enough that Team Lucky had put the word out two hours ago. If he was still breaking down after hiding alone all this time, this was quite an episode.

Just a tantrum, some would say. The unsympathetic in the Shatterdome would mutter that Herc should just give the brat a hiding and yank him into line.

Devi wasn't so sure. His mum's dead, now his dad and his uncle go out fighting the same monsters that killed her.

She remembered what Tendo had told them about Yancy breaking down after Raleigh was hurt in the fight with Yamarashi. And Yancy was one of the coolest heads she knew. All bets were off when it came to family being in danger, and Chuck Hansen was a little boy.

She sat down on a box, giving Chuck as much space as she could manage. "If you're running away, how're you planning on feeding Max?" That was definitely a Suze-ism, falling back on snark.

But snark did seem to work better on a fourteen-year-old than sympathy. The kid mopped his face and growled, "I'm not 'running away,' I'm not some stupid kid. I just wanna be left alone!"

"Yeah, I can understand that. Well, I can!" she insisted, in response to the skeptical look he gave her.

"I saw your launch in Brisbane. You and your sister've got a whole family. They were all there." Devi managed not to wince. Her mum and dad, Indra's parents, grandmum and half a dozen second cousins had all come out for launch, along with a slew of neighbors and friends they'd grown up with. To Chuck Hansen, the Hassans probably had it pretty good. To anyone, by any reckoning, we have it good. Whatever struggles she'd gone through at this kid's age were nothing but child's play compared to what he was living with.

"Still, we're a bit lacking in personal space around here. I get that. But time's up now."

"He's got the whole fucking Dome looking for me, hasn't he? As if he really gives a damn." Ouch. Well, kids think that... "Were you out with them last night after the kill, living it up?"

"Who told you that?!" she snapped before she could catch herself. Was that really what the bloody rumor mill had made of the situation?!

But Chuck shrugged, scowling at the floor. "Where else does everyone go after they bag a kill? Scott's been saying he'd never have to buy a drink again, and he won't say where they were!"

Oh, shit. And this is the sort of mess we get into by meddling. So Herc had made the executive parent decision not to tell Chuck about spending the night in the hospital - and now Devi had painted herself into a corner. "I... I know you were worried, but... it's not for me to say."

The look she got in response was pure scorn. "You say you get it, but you're just gonna rat me out."

Now he sounded like Suze, ten years ago. Devi had been "the good girl" in the family, and had thought she understood all the trials of adolescence that might plague her sister, and had always thought "the right thing," meant keeping Suze on as tight a leash as possible. She'd kept their parents and teachers appraised of Susanti's every move, regardless of whether rules were actually being broken, without any notion that simple privacy was a right even for a teen girl.

Sometimes Devi was amazed that her sister had forgiven her, let alone come to trust her enough in adulthood that they could pilot a Jaeger. They'd both had to do some growing up to get to that point.

So maybe there's hope for Herc and Chuck. She pondered how to proceed without just dragging the kid out by the scruff of the neck - or alienating her fellow (senior) Ranger. As Max came trotting back into the room to nudge at his young owner, Devi said carefully, "I'll make you a deal. You and Max let me walk you home, since you can't be at large once your dad wants you in." She dug around the cabinets and found a clean rag and figured it would substitute for a hankie. "And I won't tell him how I stumbled across you or what you were doing - and that'll stay in force as long as you're not doing anything dangerous."

In other words, I won't embarrass you by telling your dad I found you crying. Chuck got the message. He turned scarlet but started wiping his face. He didn't exactly overflow with gratitude then, or when she let him detour to the nearest bathroom to wash up a little more, but he wasn't as petulant as he could have been walking back to family housing. He also didn't make a run for it. Maybe that was progress. Depends on what I think I'm progressing towards.

She got a lot of looks on the short walk to the family quarters from Team Lucky, Team Vulcan, and the Dome staff at large. Pretty much everyone they passed seemed to be thinking the same thing: "What are you playing at, Hassan?"

Suze either sensed what was up or someone tipped her off, but she met them outside the Hansens' quarters. She was leaning against the wall at a safe distance when Scott opened the door and glared at his nephew. "Your dad's out looking for you. Get in here." For what it was worth, he did give Devi and Suze a nod and mutter of, "Thanks," that, for once, wasn't accompanied by a leering once-over.

Suze was as uncomfortable as he was, and all too eager to run for home once the door closed, and she grabbed Devi's elbow when they saw Herc coming down the hall looking ready to strangle someone. "Thank you," he growled, eyes promising a hiding when he got home.

Dev, don't, Dev, don't –

"Herc?"

Susanti's mental roar of frustration was like a kaiju in their ghost drift as Devi turned around. Everything about Herc Hansen's stance when he turned around was a warning; bloke was not in the mood for unsolicited advice or commentary. He looked a lot like his son had earlier, angry and hostile and ready to go off like a wild missile at any moment.

"What."

Say goodnight and walk away, it's not your business, bloody back off... Devi wasn't actually sure if the warning in her head was her own mind or her sister's. But there'd been a kid crying in an empty room, and now she'd promised not to tell his dad that part. "Don't be too hard on him," she whispered.

To her surprise, Herc didn't explode. He just blinked, and he was still staring when Susanti practically yanked Devi off down the hall.

"For FUCK'S sake!" her sister exploded once they were in their own room. "Why did you want to be a Ranger?! Obviously social worker really is your bloody calling!"

"I wasn't trying to interfere," Devi mumbled.

"Bullshit. Other people's kids, other people's siblings, other people's friends, whether they want your help or not, you can't mind your own business, and now you're fucking around with one of the few allies we've got in this Dome."

"What're you talking about? Our crew's got our backs!" Devi snapped, rounding on her.

Suze folded her arms. "But the man in charge would just as soon feed us to a kaiju, and our senior team's left hemisphere would hold his coat while he did it. If Herc decides we're more trouble than we're worth, our crew won't be able to help us!"

"It's so easy for you to turn your back on people who need help, isn't it?"

Suze wasn't impressed. "Don't hand me that sap line. Chuck Hansen's not a person to you."

"Excuse me?!"

"He's a fucking project. Just the latest pathetic dreg of humanity for Saint Devi to practice good works on." Nobody could land a deeper cut than Susanti. "Never mind that not many of your projects have ever asked for your help, and when they ask you to stop, you just keep on going, fucking around with their lives and their relationships whether they like it or not! It's for their own good, isn't it?"

Well, words were impossible, and now it came down to a choice between belting Suze or bursting into tears, and to Devi's embarrassment, she was leaning towards the latter. Anger and frustration and remorse seethed through the ghost drift.

After a long, heavy silence, Suze softened a little. "It's not a crime to care. But you can't save everyone, Dev."

"I'm not trying to," Devi whispered. With her voice shaking like that, not even able to look her sister in the eye, she knew it wasn't very convincing. I just thought he might need a friend.

Suze got the gist of it. "Sure, he probably does. But that can't be you, especially not if his dad's got a problem with it. We're Rangers. We've got a job to do, and we're Herc and Scott's teammates. Another time, another place, it wouldn't matter so much and you could go out on a limb for a troubled kid. But not here. We don't get to be ordinary people, like they told us at Academy."

Devi almost turned around and argued that Pentecost and the Psychs had been talking about conflict between drift partners. That's splitting hairs and you know it. Especially given the arm-twisting and wrangling that they'd had to go through just to work smoothly with Team Lucky.

At least Scott seems to give a damn about his nephew, enough to be mad when he disappears. But that was Team Lucky's concern - or rather, the Hansen family's. Not Devi Hassan's. She sighed. "You really think I'm such a megalomaniac, playing everyone like puppets?"

"You know I don't. You're in my head often enough. But you do have your bag of tricks, Sis, and it doesn't always go over well. Raleigh and I were talking about you and Yancy the other night."

Devi snorted. "Of course you were. Who better to talk smack about your elders?" Suze thumped her. Devi and Yancy gossiped about their left hemispheres often enough; there wasn't any high ground there for her, and they both knew it. "I always thought it was a gender thing when Yancy did it."

"Raleigh doesn't much appreciate it either, and I know you've agreed with him when you see Yancy meddling. If Raleigh wants help or advice, he can ask. The same goes for Herc..." Suze wrinkled her nose. "And I really don't think he will."

The next day, when Herc awkwardly tugged Devi aside after drills, he wondered why Susanti looked so shocked.

"My kid told me you were 'nice,'" Herc said in a clumsy attempt to explain why he'd be asking his fellow Ranger for advice. "He doesn't think much of most adults."

Relaxing from her initial alarm, Devi laughed nervously. "Well, that's standard teenager, isn't it? They approve of about half a percent of us geezers." She looked from Herc to Scott to her sister, then back to Herc again. "I'm… I'm sorry for… what I said the other night. I know it's not my place to give you advice."

Wonderful, she had his intentions completely backwards. "I'll take it where I can get it, especially if I know you're on my boy's good side somehow," he admitted.

Devi twisted her hands together as they walked, avoiding his gaze. A few days ago, they could have gone outside for a less oppressive atmosphere, but there were still swarms of paparazzi on the grounds. So he followed her up through the maze of corridors and catwalks to Vulcan's pod prep area and watched her pick up a Lego chess piece in the hall. "I don't know if I've got anything useful to tell you," she said. "The last teenagers I spent any time around were Ranger candidates. It's a bit different. Suze let me have it for telling you anything about how to deal with your own kid."

"Where'd you find him?"

"Here." She waved the chess piece absently. "He wasn't… into anything, if that's what you're worried about. I think he just wanted to get away. Suze was like that too, when she was younger."

Now he could tell she was dodging talking about Chuck, and it rankled. I'm his father. I've got a right to know… don't I? "Did he tell you anything?"

"Mostly just to leave him alone. I told him I couldn't, but… gave him a choice. I could walk him back instead of just sounding the alarm."

Was that really all there'd been to it? Herc had been ready to throttle the kid after three hours of increasingly frantic searching. He and Scott had been betting on Chuck hiding out somewhere on the grounds or in one of the Dome's empty bays, not in Vulcan's section.

Maybe being found by one of the Hassans hadn't been an accident. Resentment at that thought warred with… something like hope. Chuck was docile around Marian Taior, and cautiously relaxed towards Kyrra, from what they told Herc – so long as there weren't other witnesses around. The kid enjoyed himself when the crews came to play with Max, but froze up if anyone addressed him directly too many times in a row.

Herc hadn't anticipated him softening up towards a younger woman, but that was probably a good sign. A sign of what exactly, he wasn't sure.

Devi Hassan didn't look or act anything like Angela. Angie'd been more outgoing, more like Susanti in demeanor, all strawberry blonde and fair skin and freckles, laughing green eyes. Suze Hassan with her curvy figure and black curls was rightly deemed one of the Jaeger Program's beauties, and still-darker, intense Devi was a handsome woman too, but neither one was a patch on Angela. Or so said the widower, four years after the fact.

But this wasn't Herc looking for a replacement, and he needed to not think in those terms. If Chuck found something to admire in a couple of fellow Rangers, especially Herc's Dome-mates, there were far worse things.

Unnerved by his silence, Devi repeated, "He wasn't actually doing anything. And if I ever saw him, you know, up to no good, I'd tell you straight away."

"Thanks." She cringed and looked away as if she expected him to be ticked about it. "He's pissed as hell at me," he admitted. "I should've called him first, after the fight, not left him hanging. I thought it'd be better to see him in person."

Devi frowned and asked, "Did you tell him you were in hospital?"

Herc shook his head. "Nah, no need for him to know the gritty details. Deployment's stressful enough as it is." He caught the doubtful look she cast, and for a minute, he thought she'd say more. But she didn't.

In the wake of Sydney's first kill, the United Nations brass came swarming onto the Shatterdome from all directions. Herc found himself a bit more apprehensive about this inspection then he ever had for similar ones before. Now he and his brother had a kill to their name and so did the Hassans, the first two-female Jaeger crew.

And then there was the unsettled situation with Chuck. He had calmed down a little, but his moods were even more erratic than usual. Miss Morton huffed and puffed and began making noises again that Chuck was simply too unstable to be raised in a Shatterdome.

"His text scores are going through the roof," pointed out Marian Taior. "He seems to be on track to get his high school certificate early."

"There's more to getting any degree even high school then just being good at math and hard science," Morton retorted. "This young man has serious emotional problems."

Despite Chuck's frequent scrapes with the other kids – Danny Oliver in particular – Greg Oliver stood by Herc. "All the kids who survived Scissure have problems. Shipping them away from their families isn't the answer."

Once another less-than-productive "parent-teacher conference" broke up, Herc confessed wearily to Greg, "I suppose it's unfair to be ticked at her when I've got no idea myself what the answer is."

"You're not alone there, mate," Greg told him. "Not by a long shot."

But Chuck started turning up in Vulcan Specter's bay more often after the minders released him during the day and evening. A few weeks after Ningyo, Herc saw him on the security feed talking to Devi.

She pulled out that Lego chess set that she and her sister carried everywhere, and beckoned him to the makeshift crate-benches the crew sat on along the edges of the bay. Herc knew the rules of chess, but hadn't ever played for fun, and wouldn't have expected Chuck to have the patience for it either. But the kid stayed. Herc shrugged it off when some of the crew commented on it.

"At least if he's playing board games with Team Vulcan, he's staying out of trouble."

He was talking to himself as much as to the others.

February 2018…
Sydney Shatterdome…

A month after Ningyo, the entire Shatterdome was getting spit-polished for a big media event. Chuck was hoping for the chance to get out of the daycare and walk around at least for part of the tour that Marshall Ketteridge and the Rangers would be giving the visiting brass and reporters.

But this time, Chuck's dad came down with the teacher and said that there wouldn't be any kids allowed on the main tour, only at the family housing reception that evening. Naturally, that meant that none of them would be able to see anything remotely interesting.

To Chuck's surprise, some of the UN brass had brought their own kids with them. The population of the Sydney Dome's daycare almost tripled for those two days. It was so busy that they didn't even have regular classes; Miss Morton could barely figure out which way to look because the whole situation was so out of the neat and tidy schedules and plans that she made for everyone.

Several of the visiting children of varying ages were accompanied by nannies and even psychologists who apparently worked with them full-time. Most of those doctors and shrinks hovered up at the front of the classroom. Miss Morton could come up with no better lesson plan for the day then for her regular students to sit down and be quiet and politely ask questions if they wanted to. One child who did get the attention of almost everyone there was Aaron Schoenfeld, age twelve.

There were some other young kids there or at least some closer to Chuck's age. There were a few girls, but they just seem to prefer staying away from the boys and giggling in groups - which was not something he was in any way interested in taking part in. He didn't think that they would want to join them anyway. Kirsten Blaine sure took to them.

There were a few from other countries who obviously didn't speak English very well. Most stuck close to whatever minders they brought with them. There was one girl, Japanese from the looks of her, who did cautiously step away from the blonde woman she coming with to inspect the Jaeger program paraphernalia that was lying around the daycare. Miss Morton hadn't succeeded in having it banned.

But Chuck was more interested in talking shop with Jasper Schoenfeld's son then trying to navigate a language barrier. The girl practically shrunk two inches if anyone spoke to her so he and Aaron and Danny Oliver, along with Sarla and Lindsay, managed to form a reasonably civil group and talked about what Aaron's dad had in the works for the next line of Jaegers.

They went over the schematic posters that have been released to the schools and after they finished each one, Sarla would take it over to the other kids who either didn't speak English or just didn't want to join in. The Japanese girl looked to be about Sarla's age, but she didn't know very much English. Still she smiled and eagerly held out her hands for each item of Jaeger material that Sarla offered to spare.

To his surprise, Aaron Schoenfeld actually expressed some envy of him and the other Shatterdome kids. "You actually get to be here, with your dads," he muttered.

Puzzled, Chuck didn't know what to say. "You're not usually with your dad?" asked Sarla, sounding as confused as Chuck felt.

Aaron shook his head. "No, I've been in boarding school for two years. I'm only with my dad now because we're on spring break. I spend the summers in Majorca with my mom. Most of the time I only see my dad on Skype." He looked around the daycare with a funny expression. "My mom says military bases aren't the place for kids."

Chuck had no idea what to say to that. As usual, Sarla Johar had something to say. "Most Shatterdomes don't have family housing. This one does because of Chuck's dad." As the others looked at her in surprise, she nodded. "My aunt told me to thank him, two years ago when we got to come here. Mr. Hans – I mean, Ranger Hansen – he wouldn't pilot a Jaeger unless Marshall Ketteridge gave us family housing. If he and Chuck's uncle hadn't done that, we'd all be living somewhere else."

Stacker didn't insist that Mako attend the reception and family housing with him. He could tell when he went to collect her from the daycare that she was worn out. So he collected their dinner from the mess hall and brought it back to their temporary quarters so they could eat in private. "Did you enjoy meeting the other students?" he asked her.

"Yes, Sensei," she said.

"Did you make some friends?"

"Yes, her name is Sarla. She lived in Sydney. Now she lives here with her aunt. Aaron talked to Ranger Hanson's son. They say it's because of him that there is family housing in Sydney Shatterdome."

"Hm. Perhaps Dr. Schoenfeld might see a chance to spend more time with his son if more bases had it."

Dr. Schneider spoke up in English. "There's some resistance to that from the boy's mother, I'm told. She won't have him living on a base."

Now Stacker regarded his young ward. She'd started school far away from him in Pennsylvania last autumn and seemed to be thriving. But he wondered if that was what she wanted.

Carefully, he probed. "Lima Shatterdome has no family housing yet, but as commanding officer, I could authorize it. I don't know how many families live in the area, but I can explore the option...if you'd like to." Mako listened calmly. "If you would rather continue at school in Pennsylvania, that's perfectly all right. But if you would rather...be with me...perhaps it could be managed."

He felt a pang at the way her eyes widened. "It would mean living in a Shatterdome," Dr. Schneider warned. "Taking classes by satellite."

Mako pondered that. After a long silence, she asked very softly, "Will kaiju come there? To the Shatterdomes?"

Stacker hesitated and had to look to Dr. Schneider. At her nod, he admitted, "They may. All Shatterdomes are in vulnerable cities, close to the ocean. They must be, to deploy the Jaegers quickly."

To hear the on-site teacher here in Sydney talk, behavioral problems were the name of the game for children who'd survived attacks. The parents and guardians of the Sydney Shatterdome commiserated over the struggle to manage erratic moods and acting out.

Stacker was grateful most of the time that Mako didn't seem to have those problems - not yet anyway. But there were days like this one where he wished she did, rather than try so hard to hide her doubts and fears from him. He feared it meant that she didn't feel safe expressing what she felt to him. I will still love you even if you have a tantrum, he wanted to tell her.

But with Dr. Schneider's help, he'd learned the subtle signs of resistance and doubt: the hunched shoulders, bowed head, closed eyes. It took a great deal of willpower not to rush straight into reassurances, because he loathed seeing her like that. Fear of kaiju and whatever other things might unnerve a young girl were difficult enough to soothe, but this was her fear of displeasing him.

Dr. Schneider had instructed him (repeatedly) to let Mako work up to saying her piece, so he bit his tongue and waited. "I like to be with you, Sensei," she finally murmured in English. "I... would miss Liling and Aaron."

"I wouldn't want you to miss spending time with people your own age," he agreed lightly. "After all, you have each holiday with me, just as they do with their families."

She bit her lip as she looked at him. "Should I not stay for this summer?"

Damn, he'd forgotten about that. Her roommate was spending an extended summer at the school this year, taking "enrichment classes," and her excitement about it had infected Mako. Stacker had gladly signed off on allowing it, too pleased that she was making a good friend and developing some joy in life again.

"Of course, you should attend camp with Liling. I know you've been looking forward to it. You'll have two weeks with me in Lima before it begins. Or if there are no alerts, I'll come to join you, and we'll find a new place to visit."

Maybe the time would come when Mako was comfortable for the long-term in a Shatterdome. She was fascinated by Jaegers, but all the kaiju talk that came with them left her fearful. The first senior officers who'd sent their children to the school in Pennsylvania had picked it for a reason: it was far, far away from the Pacific Coast. Quiet, suburban, full of trees and hills, it was as removed from the war as any place could be.

Some of the parents couldn't bear it. Herc Hansen had flatly refused and led the charge to include family housing in the Shatterdomes. Sydney was the only Dome that allowed families on-site; all the others had compromised by installing staff families in the nearest local base.

Once Mako had gone to sleep, Stacker put in a brief appearance at the reception and surreptitiously watched the children of the Sydney Shatterdome. Herc's fourteen-year-old was standoffish, bordering on sullen despite the efforts of some of the visitors to draw him out. He and Herc didn't speak much, though he did obey whatever instructions his father muttered in his ear. Chuck wasn't so tense with his uncle. Scott Hansen might frustrate many senior officers and fellow Rangers, but Stacker was intrigued to see that he was the one who got the most smiles out of all the kids.

Of the girls, the oldest hovered in a small clutch whispering and giggling (and occasionally sneering). The younger teens were closer to what Stacker hoped to one day see from Mako: eager and friendly. Stacker made a point of approaching the girl Mako's age who'd gone to the effort of including her in the activities. He was astonished to discover she'd been orphaned by Scissure; young Sarla Johar's experience had been easily as hellish as Mako's, and there'd been no Jaeger to save her, only a very lucky rescue by a speedboat driver on the Sydney waterfront.

Dare I hope that Mako could recover to this degree in a few more years?

Dr. Schneider was onto him, and when he returned to quarters having obtained Sarla's contact information for Mako to keep in touch with her from school, she remarked, "Some children are at their best among others. Some are at their worst. You can be sure young Sarla has bad days."

"Some of the children here are miserable," he mused. The oldest girl wasn't shy in complaining about being stuck in her parents' beastly post. "Chuck Hansen... I gather even his teacher and Marshall Ketteridge think he would be better off in a school. Herc won't hear of it. Is he right, or am I?"

"Neither and both. It will change as your children do. Ranger Hansen - and his brother - they have their own reasons. For one thing, despite his outward attitude, I gather that Chuck didn't want to go any more than his father wanted to send him. Children will clash with their parents. They doesn't mean they don't need them." Dr. Schneider smiled. "You may not have had the chance to notice how many staff here look in on the daycare. Plenty volunteer their time who don't even have any children. But Chuck, Sarla, and rest, they mean more to this Shatterdome than a housing statistic."

Stacker glanced into the second bedroom at the sleeping Mako, and smiled. "I think I do understand that."

To Be Continued...

Coming Soon: The rest of 2018 is frustrating for the Australians - both the adults and the pint-sized ones! The Hassans get into mischief at a class reunion with Team Gipsy Danger and Team Hydra Corinthian up in Nagasaki for the launch of Nova Hyperion, and Chuck and Danny square off again in Chapter Eleven: Idle Hands and Idle Minds!

PLEASE don't forget to review!

Original Character Guide

Olivia Morton: A newly-licensed teacher hired to manage the children of Sydney Shatterdome's family housing. Late 20s, with several degrees but little practical experience, she views the world in black and white when the kaiju have already turned many things gray.

Marian Taior: An elderly Aboriginal woman who lost four of her five children and all of her grandchildren in Sydney. She served as Chuck's guardian while Herc and Scott are training in Anchorage, and now assists with Sydney Shatterdome's childcare.

Greg Oliver: Herc's comrade and fellow chopper pilot from before K-Day, now a support pilot for Lucky Seven. Like Herc, he moved his displaced family to Richmond Air Base, then to the Sydney Shatterdome and joined the Jaeger Program in the wake of Scissure. He lost his parents in the attack, and his oldest daughter, Karina.

Daniel (Danny) Oliver: Greg's son, age 15, who survived Scissure along with his little sister, Emma, age 8. He and Chuck have a lot in common, but lack the maturity to empathize at this stage in their lives. Both boys dream of joining the Jaeger Program as pilots.

Kirsten Blaine: The oldest teen in family housing, age 17, a New Zealander who resents having to move to Sydney so her parents could work in the Jaeger Program.

Sarla Johar: The youngest teen in family housing, Indian-Australian, age 13, orphaned by Scissure and adopted by her aunt, who is on Lucky Seven's crew. Like Chuck, she's already studying and training with dreams of attending the Jaeger Academy.

Lindsay Katz: Age 14, closest in age to Chuck, born in South Africa. Her father is an engineer who joined the PPDC after Scissure killed her mother and multiple family members.

Aaron Schoenfeld: Jasper Schoenfeld's son, age 12, who attends boarding school in Pennsylvania with other PPDC personnel's children (including one Mako Mori) due to his mother's wish that he not live on military bases. He alternates holidays with his divorced parents.

Dr. Tanja Schneider: A civilian child psychologist hired by Stacker Pentecost when he first adopted Mako in 2016. She lived and traveled with them full-time until Mako enrolled in school, and still joins them when they are together to continue Mako's therapy and recovery from the trauma of Tokyo.