Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the characters of Anna, Isabelle and Roger Duncan, oh and Ebony Siren.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed and favourited this story I truly appreciate it!
I'm so so so so sorry, it's been so long between updates, I've actually been really busy and also unwell with vertigo.
Hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I felt it was needed in order to move things along.
Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions on how to better it.
xx
Chapter 11.
Raleigh resisted the urge to look at the pretty woman sat beside him and instead let his attention remain on the arrogant, Australian looming over them. The air partically hummed with jealous tension.
He felt his eyebrows rise at the subtle movement from, Anna. While she hadn't said a word, her shift of position spoke, silent volumes.
Defiant and unempressed by Chuck Hansens guarded display.
"I don't need to introduce you two, then?" The Australian sneered, glaring between them.
"Oh we're just catching up," she smiled, her tone almost bordering on sickly sweet.
"Yeah, we were stationed together at Anchorage," Raleigh added, flashing a smirk of his own.
"I always liked Anchorage," Anna grinned, "The scenery was beautiful." She smiled at the memory of the snowy landscape that was the back drop to the tight knit community of the surrounding town.
"You remember that day, that big ol' polar bear lumbered through the shatterdomes perimeter?" Raleigh commented, "You're face was a picture."
She chuckled softly, "I still have the photo of it, the one you took for me."
Chuck felt the jealously roar through him as he watched the interaction between Anna and Raleigh. Part of him knew it he was being a asshole but when he saw the smile light up her features, when she spoke with the ex mark 3 pilot, he just couldn't help himself.
"I still have the photo of it, the one you took for me," she admitted.
Raleigh paused for a moment and then smirked, "You mean the photo I took because you were to scared to go and take it yourself?" He mused with a soft laugh.
Anna shrugged, with a indignant gasp, "I was not scared."
"Of course not," Raleigh nodded as he flashed her wink.
She laughed and shook her head, " so when are you taking your compatibility test?"
"Yeah that's right, then we'll finally see if you can still pilot that rusty pile of bolts." Chuck commented, with a bitter laugh.
Instantaneously both Anna and Raleigh were on their feet, glaring sharply at him.
"Chuck!" Anna snarled, glaring at him in horror. She couldn't believe he'd actually had the audacity to say those words! Didn't he know Raleigh and Yancy' Becket's service records when they piloted Gipsy Danger?
"Hey, man. What the hell is your problem?" Raleigh demanded, stepping forward, his eyes narrowing with his glare.
With a smirk, Chuck shrugged slowly, "No problem, Ray, mate. Just a friendly reminder that I'm the most important pilot in this shatterdome," he paused and jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Striker Eureka. "Me and the old man, are the ones piloting the only mark 5 ever made, and we're the ones carrying the payload into the breach."
"Stop being such an asshole, Chuck. We're all in this together," Anna snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, the arrogance of his statement made her blood boil. "Without us, you'll never get the payload near the breach. The Kaiju aren't about to let you walk up and knock on the door, Mark 5 or not." She growled out, glaring at him.
His gaze momentarily flicked to her, his gaze cool. "Together, huh?" He snorted, "you I trust, Cherno I trust and Crimson I trust, but him… Raleigh Becket, washed up pilot in a obsolete Jaeger, the bloke who get's his co-pilot's killed..."
Instinct had Anna moving, something in her mind whispering for her to intervene before Raleigh had even moved.
She stepped straight into his line of sight, a hand coming to rest on his left shoulder as he took a measured step towards Chuck. "Raleigh," she murmured softly as she glanced over her shoulder at him, "please don't."
Hissing through his teeth, Raleigh let the tension slide from his muscles and he took a step back, "Sure, he's not worth bruising my knuckles for anyway."
Before Chuck could respond, Anna rounded her full attention on him, "As for you, drop the attitude, because the chip on your shoulder is really unattractive!"
She sensed Raleigh still at her choice of words and watched as Chuck seemed to deflate slightly before striding away with a string of low growling curses.
"Anna!"
The sound of her name being called across the hanger, seemed to slice through the rest of the tension, while she and Raleigh watched Chuck disappear around the corner with Max at his heels, just as Isabelle came into view.
"Anna there's a vid call waiting for you in Loccent."
Looking towards her twin in surprise, Anna stepped away from Gipsy Danger's pilot. "A vid call? Who the hell would be vid calling me?"
Isabelle tensed slightly, her eyes dropping guiltily to floor.
"I'll catch you later," Raleigh murmured moving passed her, offering a smile in acknowledgement as he stepped around Isabelle.
Turning her full attention on her sister, Anna closed the gap between them with three strides and regarded her suspiciously, "Izzy, who is it?"
Visibly hesitating Isabelle flashed her a tired smile and sighed heavily, "It's Dad."
Immediately Anna felt her anger rise, what was that bastard calling for? She had nothing to say to him, nothing polite anyway. "Really? Well it was a wasted call for him then, wasn't it. I have nothing to say to him."
"Annie, please." Isabelle started, reaching out to place a hand on hers. "I called him, please. He's still our father."
Anna scoffed as she walked towards the hanger doors and headed in the direction of Loccent, she'd tell him exactly what she thought of him!
Isabelle hurried behind her, "Please just speak him to, for me."
Those words 'for me' melted her anger like sunshine on a snowflake, "Ah shit, Izzy. I can't forgive him, if that's what you're after. Not after what he did."
Slowing her pace, she sighed and raked her uninjured hand through her hair.
"Just talk to him, Annie, that's all I'm asking. Just hear what he has to say, pretty please?" Isabelle smiled hopefully, a flash of her younger self lighting her features before it was quickly eclisped by the sickly shadow that now haunted and hunted her.
With a stifled smile, Anna relented, her stubborn pride growling in protest. "Fine, but only for you."
Herc Hansen stood silently just behind Pentecost and resisted the urge to grind his teeth as he regarded the man, curiously looking around the Loccent.
Chancellor Roger Duncan, British Ambassador, well soon to be ex ambassador, for the Jaeger programme.
He was a non discript bloke, if Herc was honest with himself. Politicians all looked and acted the same to him. Rich folk, dressed in pricey suits, all ties and smiles.
Roger Duncan was no different he was dressed in a crisply pressed dark suit with a white shirt and dark blue tie, black shoes polished to a shine and his dark hair neatly trimmed.
The only thing that warmed, Herc's opinion of him, was the fact the man had travelled half way around the world, during war time as his daughters request.
Although he wasn't necessarily sure how Anna was going to react when she found out her estranged Father was at the Hong Kong Shatterdome. Something told him, she would be about as welcoming as sand viper.
"So this is the nerve centre of the Jaeger programme," the Chancellor mused, his grey eyes sweeping over the lit consoles.
"This is the front line of the war against the Kaiju, Chancellor," Pentecost corrected sharply, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
"Yes of course."
The door of the Loccent door opening, silenced what ever was going to be said next and immediately an expectant hush fell over the small area.
Tendo Choi, instantly forced his full attention on the nearest glowing screen, shifting awkwardly in his chair.
"You've got some nerve, showing up here."
The angry snarl of Anna's voice was exactly what Herc had been expected, when Isabelle and the Marshal had introduced him to Roger Duncan. He'd known deep down the youngest Duncan twin wouldn't be as forgiving as her sister.
He'd also understood why Isabelle had gotten back in touch with their father, she knew sooner rather than later she would lose her fight with the cancer and she wanted to reconcile the rift in her family.
To his credit, Roger Duncan didn't even flinch at the apparent anger in his youngest daughters voice, instead he merely smiled gently with a soft, "Hello, Anna."
"Dirty trick, Izzy," Anna accused her twin sharply, already turning on her heel and moving back towards the door.
"Anna, you promised me you'd give him a chance," Izzy challenged with a low hiss, as she stepped into her sister's path and blocked the door.
Anna glared bitterly at her sister and then reluctantly turned back to face her Father, taking in his aging features, the lines creasing the skin around his eyes and deepening the stern set of his mouth and even the grey creeping into his dark hair at the temples.
Even after all those years apart, the hurt of his words and later his decision sliced deep, making her chest hurt with such clarity it almost hurt to breathe.
Opening her mouth to speak, she was immediately cut off by the blaring alarm that rattled through Loccent. The tinny voice of the female A.I. calm and familiar. "Kaiju threat detected in the breach."
Immediately Anna and Isabelle moved as one, backs straightening as they regarded Marshal Pentecost expectantly, the sudden rush of anticipation and adrenaline sweeping through their veins.
"Details, Mr Choi?" Pentecost enquired moving calmly to stand behind the Jaeger technician.
"Category three, Sir. Knifehead."
With a nod, Pentecost straightened, tugging at his suit as he spoke, "I want Ebony Siren on point out on the miracle mile and Cherno Alpha on defence. Ladies report to the drive suit room immediately."
"Yes, Sir," Anna saluted and flashed Izzy a small grin, right now their Father could wait, they had bigger fish to fry, namely a category 3 Kaiju.
She also realised Pentecost was testing them, he wanted to make sure she and Isabelle could handle active combat and Cherno was going with them as insurance.
"Ebony Siren, Cherno Alpha. Report to drive suit room immediately. Kaiju threat detected in the breach."
As the A.I. summons echoed across the Shatterdome, Anna saw the smallest flicker of alarm flash in her Father's gaze as he caught her eye. Whether it was fear for them, or himself, she wasn't sure.
After all he had never been in a pacific country during an actual Kaiju attack.
Lucky him, she mused as she headed down the corridor beside her sister. Now he gets to witness first hand, exactly what we've been doing while he's been sitting behind a desk and agreeing to back the 'Wall of Life'.
With a grim smile she stepped through the doors into the drive suit room, now was her chance to show him what being a Jaeger pilot really meant.
