009: Yancy, Yancy, Yancy, 2021
The worst thing about death was how people chose to remember you. For almost everyone involved with the program; Yancy Becket was foreshadowing. The trigger, the domino that started a downfall Raleigh chose to become ignorant of because it hurt far too much think about Gipsy, his brother and the lifestyle.
Yancy was the guy you didn't want to be when you came up against a Kaiju. He was dead. A Ranger was no good to anyone dead and death signified mistakes. Only weak pilots made mistakes.
For Raleigh, Yancy was still his brother. A brother he failed to protect when it mattered the most.
Newspapers and outlets reported it everywhere in big bold news font; "(CO-)PILOT OF GIPSY DANGER DEAD(!)" or some form of a vague obituary. Gipsy Danger fans wept for their "favorite brother" and extended their condolences to Raleigh through mail, the world panicked at the mere idea of their "superheroes" dying at all.
Everyone wanted to know, indirectly of course (they'd never ask him outright), if he was still connected to his brother when he died. Raleigh figured, considering his state of mind ("Drift Shock[ed]" according Mrs. Lightcap), it was obvious. It wasn't the dying part he experienced so much as it was the slow decent into unconsciousness, mired by forthright fear before the silence signified the connection was severed. No matter how many times he screamed, fumbled through the sea with one arm, Yancy never resurfaced, never responded.
He was alone with a thousand and one what if scenarios that all hinged on the idea that if they'd listened to Pentecost, his brother wouldn't be floating somewhere at the bottom of the sea, rotting away with a part of Gipsy Danger strapped to his back. If he'd been quicker on his feet, Gipsy Danger wouldn't be missing an arm, wouldn't be airlifted to the graveyard of its dead brothers and sisters.
Yancy would be complaining about off time again and pretending his shoulder was fine.
Instead he was martyr for a failing cause. A cause he no longer had the heart to openly support but wished no ill against.