0012: Raleigh, Ralegh, Raleigh, 2020

Dismissal was one of the worst things that could happen to a Ranger. Misconduct and disobedience were the leading causes for one's removal from the Jaeger Program. Raleigh fell into the latter category, but at this point, he couldn't bring himself to care that he lost his rank and Gipsy Danger. His mind, still fractured and brittle from the encounter with Knifehead, could think of only one thing.

Yancy.

Raleigh stayed in Anchorage long enough to see some of Yancy's belongings buried in the cemetery and next to their mother. Condolences came and went like the hands that grabbed his and uttered "I'm sorry".

He didn't recognize half the people present. He figured most of them were fans, people that probably wouldn't have been able to tell him or Yancy apart without one of them setting themselves apart with a name or different set of clothes. They weren't twins, but their similarities - on account of their mother - made it fun to pick on people once upon a time. They were pretty good at impersonating each other.

They couldn't do that anymore, could they?

Tendo and Pentecost stood on either side of him and watched the guard put the casket to rest. They handed him the flag, he took it with a grateful nod and held it against his chest. Raleigh watched the vacant box with burning eyes. This was all a formality and that was the thing that drove him up the wall.

They were separated both physically and mentally by the waters of enemy and home; Raleigh would never get a look at his brother's face again, he'd never get to touch him and frown at the absolute lack of life in what would be the face of a dead body. Instead, he was probably some bottom dweller's lunch.

His father never showed up; Herc Hansen was missing from the attendees as well. He wasn't sure what bothered him worse; that his brother's hero never made an appearance or that his father had the balls to not show up. Maybe they were on the same level, but he figured Herc had an excuse at least. Their dad was another story.

I don't wanna die.

Returning to the Shatterdome left him feeling disconnected. Gipsy Danger was missing from the hangar bay. His brother's bed was empty, still messy from when they got up to fight Knifehead; the bathroom was still adorned with his brother's photography from their world tour during their academy years. Everything was exactly like he left it, only he wasn't here anymore.

You won't!

When Jaeger pilots died, it was together. Everything they did was a team effort, even when they were losing. Why was he the exception to the rule? Why the Kaiju couldn't kill them both, why he kept fighting? It eluded him. "Where you go, I go," He uttered those very words to Yancy as his brother marched out of the house with the intention of heading for Kodiak Island to enlist in the Jaeger Academy without him.

"Where I go, you go?" The look on his brother's face when he repeated it made him laugh, but it was the truth. Neither was for schmaltzy sentiment, but they'd grown up together following each other. Two different people, but inseparable for the most part. Yancy wasn't going to do something as major (and crazy) as piloting a giant robot without his tagging along. Especially since the basis of the motivation was stupid dare.

So, it didn't make sense that death would be the one exception to their situation, and it shouldn't have been.

He should be dead.

Raleigh kept moving; reaching under the bed, he pulled out his duffle bag and tossed it onto the bed. Unzipping it, he moved without thinking; pulling the photographs from off the bathroom wall and mirror, he shoved them into the bag. Anything that wasn't bolted to the ground, anything that belonged to him or Yancy, fell into the bag. He left the jackets behind, however. He couldn't stand to look at them anymore.

Raleigh…

Stepping out of the room, he marched down the hall, ignoring the frightened and concerned looks of the bay teams; there isn't much he can do about the people asking where he was going. He doesn't have the heart to answer them and he didn't want to be followed. The sun was shining on March 10, 2020 when he disappears off the face of the Earth.

Raleigh…