Tears started back up again, and he was too emotionally jumbled up to stop them. He covered his face and laughed.
"You're right. Just my luck. I'm back at the beginning." He kept his face covered and curled up. The two in the room let him gather his wits, he'd need them. He'd already broken down twice while in their presence. He was already at his limit.
"Back at the beginning Mr. Becket?" Dr. Basa started carefully. Raleigh turned to her.
"Is there another me here? I can't be in my old body. I have injuries from operation pitfall on top of the ones from the wall. So I'm not in the body of my younger self. And I haven't died so maybe those theories on time travel got that wrong? Did I override a previous version of me?" Raleigh theorized to himself.
"Or am I even in a world like my own? What was the name of the first kaiju to come through the breach and on what date?" Raleigh turned to the two sitting at his bedside. They looked between each other.
"Trespasser, it came through on August 10th, 2013. It landed in San Francisco and was killed in Oakland on the 15th. Does that match up?" Marshal Pentecost said.
Raleigh nodded. He asked them about events that happened and confirmed that so far their worlds were the same. Until he brought up Knifehead.
"Gipsy Danger was dropped on July 7th, 2020 to take down Kaiju codenamed: Knifehead. Another jaeger was deployed to help us, but they were too far out." Raleigh said.
Dr. Basa nodded when Marshal Pentecost looked at her. Dread settled in Raleigh's gut.
"That is correct. I think this is where our stories will diverge, Mr. Becket."
"What do you mean, Marshal?"
"That day, Gipsy Danger did drop and take down Knifehead. You and Yancy Becket saved a fishing boat and killed Knifehead, or so we thought. It wasn't dead, just acting like it was. It leapt out of the ocean, taking Gipsy Danger's pilots by surprise."
Raleigh could feel his face paling. We're both he and his brother dead here? Marshal stared at him for a bit, analyzing him.
"Knifehead killed pilot Raleigh Becket. Pilot Yancy Becket lived. Pilot Yancy Becket took down Knifehead and barely piloted his jaeger back to shore."
"Oh." Raleigh felt both empty and relieved at the same time. His brother was alive. But he wasn't.
"Was Yancy piloting the left side?" He led with a simple question.
"Yes." This time Dr. Basa answered. A file opened in her lap.
He knew that he could've died that day. But it hit him hard that switching sides with his brother was enough to save him. Something as simple as that saved his brother. What else could've been different. Different enough to save them both, to kill them both.
"He's still alive, my brother?"
"Yes."
"Is he in the shatterdome?"
"Yes."
"Can I see him?" Raleigh felt like he was on the edge. The edge of what, he didn't know. The two shared another long look before Marshal Pentecost spoke.
"Yes, we will send… your brother in to see you tomorrow. We've put you through enough emotional distress today."
Raleigh watched them leave. He lowered himself so he was laying on his back staring at the ceiling.
His hand flew up to grab his chest. It hurt so much.
He was in another universe? Everything he'd done had been erased. All of his effort, the people he'd lost… Did they even exist anymore?
Mako…
He wanted her to be alright. He wanted her to be happy, but he knew she'd always have a part of him inside of her. He wanted that to be enough, because he knew the loss that came with losing a partner.
It was devastating to open yourself up to someone and lose them. You were able to relate to someone on a level only other pilots could sympathize with. And there was only… Hercules. She and Hercules were the only pilots left.
He closed his eyes and hoped.
He hoped she was alive. He hoped he sent her away before the blast went off. He hoped that she lived, lived to see the future they'd worked so hard to realize. The one he was prepared to die for.
It feels like he did. Because he was in a world where he has been dead for five years. No one would be the one he'd known. They'd always see him as a dead man.
That hurt more than he'd thought. He felt like he couldn't breathe.
Oh god.
He'd always be occupying a space that was never his. A dead man's space where everyone would look at him and think of someone else. He would never be just Raleigh anymore. He'd just be the guy who was trying to replace this universe's Raleigh.
He shook his head.
He was spiraling. He needed to sleep and hope the nightmares wouldn't catch up with him.
"Dr. Geiszler, Mr. Gottlieb, I want you to collaborate on researching the possible outcomes of the breach collapsing. Specifically the possibility of dimension travel. It is not a priority, but if you find you have free time please give it some thought." Stacker kept his hand on Raleigh Becket's file.
In a world where giant monsters came out of a rift in the ocean, how impossible was it that Raleigh Becket was an unlikely victim of dimension travel?
Dr. Geiszler puffed up and seemed to have a million questions running through his head. Stacker nodded at him.
"Marshal, does this have anything to do with the escape pod that was recovered from the breach? And the way Bonemaw was acting? Because that was some serious behavior abnormality! Kaiju haven't shown intelligence and forethought like that since Knifehead!" Stacker grimaced at the mention of Knifehead. Everything seemed to lead back to that day lately.
"Yes, that day was an anomaly. There shouldn't have been any kaiju coming out of the breach for at least another few days." Mr. Gottlieb rested both his hands on his cane, one of his eyebrows ticked up.
Stacker sighed, "You are correct, Mr. Gottlieb, Dr. Geiszler. The man recovered from the escape pod is an anomaly of his own. I have reason to believe he is not from our dimension."
The two were stunned into silence. Stacker prepared himself for the wave of questions he knew was coming. It'd be a long few hours.
A/N:
wow I feel like a failure, I had to look up newton and Hermann's last names. anyways, I guess this is the point where side characters are beginning to be weaved in? I want the pilots to have a found fam thing going on, and I think newton should be there like a lil lizard with Hermann as his annoyed caretaker. idk newton just gives off gecko vibes, y'know?
Also, does hermann even have a PhD? pentecost referred to him as Mr. In the movie, not dr. but in newton's wiki he has a few doctorates and taught at uni.
who do you guys want to see? do you feel like im not giving someone enough attention?