So I obviously haven't updated in a while. I am so sorry but I'm back at school and apparently that has to come first. My updates will be less frequent but they will definitely continue. Nothing will take me away from this story. On the slight bright side, this chapter is longer than ever?

This chapter was also delayed due to its nature; I went through what seems like a dozen drafts before finding the right way to continue the story. The chapter does bounce around a little but as I move away from the world established in the movie, the world changes a little and needs expansion.

Anyway, sorry for the delay and thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, and favorite despite it. Keep it up! (It helps me get the next chapter out faster.)

…...

Raleigh watched the room spin around him. Tech displays and the massive windows that overlooked the bays blurred in a constant motion. He started to slow so he kicked out, his boot hitting a nearby desk and sending him into a faster spin.

"Really." Mako's flat voice filtered through the haze of movement. Hands grabbed the back of the chair, stopping it. Raleigh's body didn't get the message and continued to try to spin, ending up in a pile of limbs on the floor of mission control.

As soon as the floor seemed to stop spinning, he grinned at his co-pilot who raised a single imperious eyebrow, her lips twitching at the corners. Raleigh felt the overwhelming urge to make her façade crack. "What? I've run out of things to do and Tendo threw a screw driver at me when I distracted him."

Mako glanced at the LOCCENT Officer who was buried up to his elbows in a control panel, loose wires sprouting forth around him. "He's like a puppy. Distracting him with a toy is the only way to get peace and quiet." Tendo told her without turning, sparks flying from the opening as he repaired the interior.

Mako let out as graceful a snort as is possible and rolled her eyes. "Try to be a little more professional once the twins get here. They should be on the way down to run their sim."

Raleigh laughed and took the hand Mako offered, and pulled himself to his feet. "I'll try."

…..

Mako and Raleigh watched the twins defend against Onibaba in Manila. The Kaiju and location had been a random selection by the computer as the sim started. The goal of this particular simulation was to gauge their improvisational abilities in combat. If the PPDC was lucky, no Jaeger would go into combat uninformed or ill equipped, but with the risk of double events or higher category Kaijus in the future, nothing was ever certain for Jaeger pilots.

For this sim, the twins were isolated, no mission control to communicate with or fellow Jaegers to rely on. They had to make all decisions and take the consequences that followed.

Before the simulation had been initiated, Tendo informed the four Rangers that the plan for Beast's replacement arm was a single heated sting blade mounted on the forearm. Herc wanted the crews able to focus on 381 once Gipsy Danger was combat ready rather than back tracking and working longer on Green Beast. Raleigh agreed with the decision, silently hoping to never have to deal with a spin blade for the rest of his career.

The veteran Rangers watched as Green Beast caught Onibaba as the Kaiju clawed, Mia blocking the attack and Xander following with a sucker punch that knocked the Kaiju into a building, letting the concrete and metal supports do damage where the Jaeger's insufficient weapons were failing.

Raleigh scanned his notes from the twin's previous sims. They had high scores overall, outside of the range of the many records placed by veteran Rangers, but they got closer every year. The pair achieved victory in almost every simulation for the last few years at whatever cost, something other pilots usually hesitated at in simulations. They were quicker on land than in water and interacted with the combat zone better than other pilots, using it to their advantage.

It was almost fifteen minutes later that the pair defeated Onibaba through a technicality. The Kaiju had managed to land an attack that caused the Green Beast's reactor to surge out of control, frying the Jaeger's systems. Disarmed and trapped with no knowledge of whether or not help was coming, the twins chose to detonate the unstable reactor, taking out the Kaiju and more than a dozen city blocks in every direction. They chose the option that ensured Onibaba could not continue further into a dense civilian population at the cost of their own lives.

Raleigh wasn't sure he would have done the same thing if he had been in that particular combat scenario, but he didn't disagree with the decision either. A few minutes later, the pair emerged from the simulation, their movements noisy in an older generation of drivesuits. Raleigh mentally added getting the pair fitted for their custom drivesuits to his ever growing list of things to handle or attempt to delegate.

The older Ranger could almost see the bags under their eyes darken with each passing second. The twins were exhausted despite telling him earlier that they were fine to run a sim on top of a full day of training. He had trusted their assessment of their abilities and that could have been a mistake. In the gym they had seemed tired but acceptably so giving the standard training regimen, this was beyond what was healthy. They seemed to have gotten their sister's talent for lying about their own well being to ensure the continuing stability of what they viewed as the greater good. The two would have hard days in the future with little or no sleep, but pushing them too hard at the moment did no one any good. It simply made them exhausted before ever physically seeing combat.

"Get out of here." Raleigh found himself grow frustrated, they knew better than to push to the point of exhaustion without a point. They weren't learning from the constant combat and the sims, they were refining their abilities which required finesse not a sheer amount of continued training. Xander nodded mutely while Mia seemed to consider arguing.

"Now." Mako forced the order.

"Don't let me see you again till you've had at least ten hours of sleep. Understood?" Raleigh ground out. The pair nodded and left straight for the drivesuit crew.

Mako watched her partner as the pair departed. She wondered if Raleigh knew how similar he had just sounded to the Marshall a moment ago. It was plain to her and to Tendo, the only other witness to the scene. She guessed not. Raleigh would take on the responsibility of a leader in a heartbeat, but did so unconsciously, never recognizing the symbolism of his choices or the effect they had on the Shatterdome's inhabitants.

As the twins left, Mia had thrown a look at Mako, trying to ask or tell her something. The older Ranger had seen it despite her focus being on her co-pilot and she made a mental note to track down the young woman the next morning. Leaving Tendo to deal with her still overactive co-pilot, Mako left for her room, craving isolation for however long she could get it.

…...

"I need you to do something for me." Raleigh looked up at his partner who settled in to the seat across from him. She was rarely so blunt which had him immediately on guard, unsure of what to expect. He knew her as is co-pilot, as a Ranger, and as a fighter. The simple element of friendship that seeped into their bond with every passing day was something else all together: different and slightly unpredictable.

"Which would be?" Raleigh finally asked after a moment of considering his options.

"Get Nikki to take a break with us in mission control the next time we're there. If Tendo or I push, she will get suspicious. We need to see her outside of the bays but it is unlike either of us to push her or try to manipulate her. You are still a largely unknown quantity and capable of maneuvering her."

Raleigh blinked, unconsciously stabbing at the scrambled eggs resting on his tray as he tried to find a reason why Mako would push for Nikki to come. She rarely did after the first week or so and Mako's insistence seemed uncharacteristic of his co-pilot. He caved after failing to discover a possible explanation and simply asked. "Why?"

"Mia is concerned." Mako told him simply as she split an orange into sections. The mess hall had just gotten in a rare shipment of fresh fruit and everyone was taking advantage of it while it lasted.

"Why?" Raleigh repeated.

"I'll explain when we meet Tendo. Let me eat in peace for once."

Raleigh snorted but dropped the issue for the moment with a shrug and returned to his own breakfast.

Neither got very far, as their phones went off simultaneously. Raleigh's a jarring clip of AC/DC compared to Mako's simple chime. Each device held an identical message, ordering them to report to the Marshall's office immediately. Not explanation was given.

After a rushed walk through the crowded dome, Mako rapped on Marshall Hansen's door and repeated the action, louder after several seconds of no response.

Tendo's grumpy face appeared and he gestured quickly for the pair to come in. He closed the door so quickly behind them, he almost clipped Raleigh's heel.

"Marshall?" Mako's confusion at the tense environment showed as Raleigh scanned the room; Tendo and Herc were its only occupants. Both men were disheveled and tense. The small office struggled to contain the overflow of nervous energy.

"What happened?" Raleigh added when the Marshall didn't speak.

"A virus was installed into the main computer system of the Shatterdome last night right around midnight. Mission Control was only slightly compromised because I had everything isolated and shut down from when I was working on it earlier so it could have been much worse. It scanned almost everything from K-science and the main database. Everything we've been working on is out there…" Tendo gestured wildly window and the world beyond. "We have no control over who has it or where it goes now."

"Weren't the tablets meant to keep everything isolated?" Raleigh thought the internal security systems were better than that.

"Yes but to ensure there was a failsafe of all the work, they were all manually backed up to the main server and protected. It simply wasn't enough! We didn't even give Newt access to the Jaeger plans for security reasons! The factories only have numbers and segment plans to work off of!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Raleigh saw Mako blink twice in rapid succession as she absorbed Tendo's words. He had learned after a particularly disastrous poker night before it had been interrupted by the Kaiju alarm a few weeks ago, that blinks were her tell. Raleigh turned away from the frantic LOCCENT Officer and cocked his head at his partner.

"They don't have the final plans." Mako announced, stilling Tendo and bringing Herc's gaze up from where it had been focused on his black desk top screen for the first time since the Rangers had entered the room.

"Nikki doesn't work on the tablets like we do. The initial design is done on there but she works all the changes and details on paper. Remember, you were mocking her for wasting resources a few weeks ago? Everything she changes in development is done on paper till it's finalized and coded to be sent to the factories. Who ever go the information has a great deal of our scientific work on Kaiju, the breach, and basic mission control systems, but not on the Mark VI's. The heavily factory segments can't be decoded without sending a signal back to the Shatterdome because of the new protocol system you installed. Everything else is secure in pen and paper." Mako's calm tone reinstated a sense of reason in the two men as she reminded them of what they would have immediately remembered, had they not been overworked.

Tendo sunk into one of the arm chairs and Mako settled on the arm of another. Out of nowhere, Herc picked up one of Max's chew toys from the floor and threw it at Tendo who simply looked at it as it hit his chest and bounced off into his lap. "That's for almost giving me a heart attack." The Marshall muttered crossly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Are we sure?" He directed the question at Mako.

Raleigh watched his partner shrug delicately before he stated the obvious. "Why don't we just ask her? Shouldn't she be here for the panicked meeting that interrupted breakfast?"

The Marshall sighed. "She's only been asleep for three hours. We were meeting for several hours after she oversaw the test drop for Gipsy last night. I had to bribe her with Max to get her to finally crash."

"We need to figure this out now before it gets further out of control." Mako reminded Herc who nodded and tapped a quick message into his phone.

Mako and Tendo carried on a conversation regarding system security that went completely over Raleigh's head as they waited. Herc had been absorbed by a stack of forms, leaving Raleigh to stare out the window at the city. After he got bored with the city skyline, he turned to Herc's desk. Scanning the piles of paperwork, a thick stack with green letters stared up from a page at him. Picking it up, the Ranger was met with scientific gibberish printed in bright green ink.

"Newton claims his printer and Hermann's both ran out of black ink. That's what I got when I told him it would take two days to get more." Herc said without looking up from his paper work. Raleigh shrugged and put the pile back before returning to the window. The Hong Kong sky line had less high maintenance and eccentric scientists to deal with.

Three heavy thumps echoed through the room, followed by a bark a few minutes later. Mako reached over and opened the door while remaining in her precarious seat. Max came bounding through, shimmying under Hansen's desk to demand attention.

"I'm getting real mixed signals Herc." Nikki announced from the doorway. Clad in a tank top and flannel pajama pants shoved into the top of steel toed boots, she had apparently just rolled out of bed to obey the Marshall's summons. "And your dog still snores. What's gone wrong now?"

Tendo and Mako outlined the incident for the bay tech who confirmed that everything was secure in hard copies that were currently in a locked box under her bed. She hadn't updated the Shatterdome internal systems beyond the initial designs. The plans for future Jaegers were markedly different from what the virus had been able to access. The entire room breathed a easier at the confirmation.

"Who is doing all this? Do we have any concrete leads?" Raleigh asked after the entire situation had been settled. Every sabotage attempt and attack on the Shatterdome came from a different direction. There was no way for it to be a single perpetrator but there seemed to be no overarching message or motivation. "We can't stop them if we don't figure this out."

"No clue who is doing it but the goals seems to be screwing with us. Through enough minor stuff at us to slow us down without showing us where it's coming from." Nikki said from where she had taken a seat on the floor, eyes closed with Max overflowing from her lap.

"We need to isolate the issue. Nikki where are the four workers from the original attempts in the bay?" Herc resumed his position as the Marshall.

"I had two removed from the dome. The third is in the PPDC vehicle garage and the fourth is still in the bays doing decontamination full time. It was the best maneuvering I could do without crew members noticing the changes."

"So we start on the two still in the dome. Choi, I need you to come up with some way to track their movements and pinpoint their locations for all the following 'accidents'. After that, get whatever information from the recent attempts you can. The virus had to have a source. Rangers, brief your team on the situation. If anyone approaches them asking about the virus or anything from the computer system, they know nothing and they come straight to you." Mako and Raleigh nodded in unison and stood. They were getting close to being late to meet the trainees.

"We're holding our ground against the Kaiju for the first time in years by the skin of our teeth. We cannot afford to lose it." The Marshall reminded the group.

Nikki left with the Rangers, the main corridor lead both to the bays and the Kwoon. As Mako's earlier request came back to him, Raleigh slowed his stride to walk next to the bay leader. He knew Mako would only ask for a reason so who was he to not do what his partner asked?

"You should come by mission control after dinner. Tendo got another case of Coke and some truly questionable but still edible Twinkies." Raleigh could tell Mako was listening from where she walked a few paces in front of them.

"I would if I could. We're so close to finishing Gipsy, I can't afford to think about anything else right now."

Raleigh was distracted from his original goal by her statement. Mako glanced back at the pair; her pace slowed until she was walking on Nikki's other side. Neither Ranger had been told the Jaeger was nearing completion. "How close?" Mako asked.

"We did the test drop a few hours ago. The locking mechanism jammed slightly on impact so I couldn't write off on her being combat ready. We had to heat the metal to unwarp it and we couldn't unload the conn-pod before metal cooled completely. I sent the teams off for a few hours to sleep during the delay. Since I'm up, I'll rouse the crews and have Tendo get LOCCENT ready. If the next drop goes according to plan, we'll install the final neural link systems and she's all yours. She could be done by tonight."

"Like in a few hours tonight?" Raleigh felt the first murmurs of excitement rising up.

"Possibly. And it's more than a few hours. Closer to twelve." Nikki admitted.

"Would it be possible for you to have Tendo call us before you test the drop again? I would like to be there to watch." Raleigh agreed with is partner as she spoke.

Nikki shrugged. "I'll pass it along. Have fun with the trainees." She split down a side hall, disappearing into the congestion at the bay doors caused by the new policy of having to present and swipe id before every entry.

Raleigh and Mako walked silently for a few minutes, before Raleigh remembered the original point of the conversation. "Why did I do that?"

"Mia thinks her sister has been pulling away from her and Xander. Nikki is many things; distant is not one of them. She has always been close to the twins to the point of smothering. If her demeanor has changed to the twins, it concerns me. She has no one to look out for her other than the twins who need to focus on their training and Marshall Hansen who is too busy. I've known her for long enough to tell if something is wrong if I can get her in one place for long enough without her realizing my intentions which is the difficult part. It could be nothing, it could be personal, or it could be something in the bays. Regardless, I need to know."

"Is this something we need to deal with now?" Both ignored the fact that Raleigh immediately changed something Mako was taking responsibility for into something both of them dealt with.

Mako nodded. "If it is an issue to the Shatterdome or compromises the bay officer's ability to do her job, yes. We must do everything in our power to protect the dome and the program no matter how tiny an issue may seem."

Raleigh wasn't completely convinced but it didn't matter. Mako was doing it and he wouldn't ever let her take on any responsibility alone if he was in a position to help with the burden.

"So what do we do?"

"For now? Nothing. Gipsy Danger is the highest priority. We'll figure out Nikki once we have our Jaeger back."

…...

"Stations ready?" Tendo's commanding voice echoed through the speakers in mission control in the head sets of all bay workers.

LOCCENT was less chaotic than Raleigh would have thought. Maybe because it was a test rather than a combat drop. He and Mako watched from the side wall, out of the way of the techs but with a clear view of Gipsy's massive form through the windows. The rest of the Rangers were in the back by the door. When they had discovered the test was happening just after dinner, they had convinced Mako to allow them to watch. Raleigh had to admit it was a good experience for them.

"Last catwalk is pulling away. Passing control over to you Officer Choi." Nikki's voice filtered into the room and Tendo nodded to himself. The bay tech was floors away and unable to see the motion.

"Clear bays, prepare for drop." Tendo announced as his hands flew over the physical controls and through the holographic ones.

Raleigh was almost bouncing with anticipation. Mako seemed calm on the outside but Raleigh knew from how intently she focused on the windows, she was just as nervous as he was.

Lights flashed and words bounced across screens as the conn-pod fell. The silence seemed eerie to Raleigh. Drops were full of screeching and hissing metal, not filtered through glass windows. A hollow thud was the only sound to reach mission control as the conn-pod slid into place. Massive gears spun, and bolts locked, and after several minutes, the movements stilled.

"Choi, my readings look good from down here. Concur?" Nikki's static filled voice broke the silence.

There was a breathless heartbeat before Tendo spoke. "Successful drop and lock, Gipsy needs her touch ups then she's good to go."

Noise filled the room following Tendo's announcement. Tech's issuing statements and readings, Rangers talking, Raleigh let out a laugh in it all. Gipsy Danger was back and better than ever.

After the chaos subsided, Raleigh dismissed the Rangers. The techs filtered out as each station went dark, signifying the completed programs that were involved in the drop and following separation and lift of the conn-pod.

Almost an hour after the success, the veteran Rangers were left alone with Tendo and the Marshall. With all the isolated meetings, Raleigh was beginning to think they needed a secret handshake.

The door opened behind them and Nikki slipped in. A thick denim shirt had replaced the tank top but she was still wearing the flannel pants tucked into her work boots. Raleigh briefly wondered if he should worry about the self preservation instincts of the Reese family. The twins and Nikki were more devoted to the program than almost any one he had known during his early years of service. Though considering the people who stayed with Pentecost and the Jaeger Program to this point, he guessed it was less exceptional than he thought.

"So when do we get Gipsy back?" Raleigh asked Herc after Mako elbowed him slightly. She seemed to enjoy making him ask the overeager questions.

"We're waiting for the next Kaiju attack." The Marshall told him after a moment of considering the pair. "We don't want to risk opening ourselves to the risk of another sabotage attempt during a test. The bay is completely locked down and isolated from Green Beast's crews. The U.N guards are monitoring every level and entrance in pairs of two. No one can get close to her until we fully deploy for combat."

"She's perfect Becket." Nikki spoke up from her spot against the wall. "I've gone over every inch and would put the twins in her in a heartbeat. Your Jaeger is the best the Corps has ever made."

Raleigh nodded after seeing the absolute conviction in the mechanic's eyes. "So what now then?"

"Keep training the recruits, finish Beast up again, and wait. We're in a holding pattern." Herc told him with a bitter shrug. "We wait for the alarm and then we fight. There's nothing else we can do until we find a real solution." The Marshall stood his back cracking audibly with the motion and he left with a nod to the room.

Silence fell for a moment then Tendo moved to a door that hid a maintenance closet. Among the wires cluttering the floor in the tiny room was a precariously balanced stack of worn boxes. The tech grabbed the top two and slid them onto the nearest clear table top. Red cans spilled out from the worn cardboard and Raleigh grabbed it and slid it to Mako. He repeated the motion, sending a Coke down the table to Nikki who grabbed it before it fell off before taking his own. The tech moved back to the table and slid a third, tiny box to Mako who thank him but ignored it in favor of the soda.

"I would kill for a beer right now." Raleigh spoke as cans hissed open. Tendo nodded while Mako attempted a stern frown and failed.

"Drunk Jaeger pilots are the last thing we need at the moment." Mako reminded him.

"Yeah but it still sounds really good." Raleigh reminded her as he grabbed a bag of chips from Tendo's second box. Prepackaged food was getting rarer and rarer these days. Being a Ranger in the ongoing war meant enjoying the little things which in Raleigh's opinion included processed food. Not a lot, he had never had a big sweet tooth, but enough to remind you of what things used to be like. Every little detail helped to keep you grounded. It didn't matter if the particular type of soda was Yancy's favorite rather than his own. It was still a part of his child hood.

The four sat in silence for a while, relaxing in the sense of relief that came with having a functioning Jaeger. To have a threat looming over their heads and being one of the few to know they could have done nothing if the alarm had sounded was stressful for all of them.

"So what is your estimate for Green Beast?" Mako asked Nikki eventually.

The tech shrugged. "Two days but that's a bit optimistic. The new arm is fully constructed but the wiring and lifting will take time. Are the twins going to be ready?" Worry crossed her face as she spoke the last words.

"Yeah. They're still rough in the areas only experience can fix but it will be fine. They'll be deploying with us so things aren't going to get out of hand."

Nikki nodded absently, rubbing a thumb along the blue lines just above the brace on her bad arm.

Raleigh glanced at Mako who nodded and gave him a pointed look before shifting her gaze to Nikki. Raleigh knew she wanted him to do something about the tech. What that something was though, he had no clue. The jaeger pilot briefly considered the merits of telepathy before choosing a random topic. "So what's the deal with the tattoo? Is it a pattern?"

Nikki's hand froze and she looked at him before sliding her attention to Mako and Tendo then back. A wry smile twisted her lips. "Something like that. Tendo didn't tell you my story?"

Raleigh shrugged. "I have poor listening skills. So?"

"It's not a pattern technically. Its scar tissue."

Raleigh ran his eyes over the pattern. "You have a blue scar?"

"The scar isn't blue. I had a tattoo artist ink over the scarring a few months back during a particularly rough night."

Raleigh raised an eyebrow.

Nikki raised one in return before sighing. "It's easier to start at the beginning. What do you know about Kaiju skinmites?"

Raleigh frowned, not seeing how that could be the start to any story. He knew the creatures were a byproduct of the Kaiju, coming through the breach with the monsters though they never lived long after their Kaiju host died.

"After I failed to find a decent co-pilot match after two rounds in the Academy, I went to the Sydney Shatterdome. My dad was working in the maintenance crew there and I took a few months off to try to figure some stuff out and ended up picking up shifts on the Jaeger decontamination crew to get extra cash. Kaiju skinmites are weird little creatures. They end up on Jaegers during direct combat and they die quickly but in certain climates, they can last a few hours. If an attack is close enough to a Shatterdome, they can be a few still alive when the Jaeger returns to base. I was working a shift on Vulcan Specter and got bit." Nikki seemed to hesitate then undid the Velcro straps of the wrist brace, leaving only her fingers immobile and exposing her hand and the full tattoo. When she held up her hand, Raleigh could see two dark puncture scars by her thumb.

The veteran glanced from the tech's scars to his partner. Mako nodded as if to confirm Nikki's story. "It is rare but there are four documented cases of skinmite bites within PPDC. Disections have found a set of mandibles that are hidden and capable of retracting but when exposed, are small enough to puncture limbs. Because of their symbiotic nature with the Kaiju, their saliva is toxic to humans."

"The K-science division in Sydney was always weaker. I was airlifted to Hong Kong for treatment. Two years earlier, a crew member had been bit. The treatment they figured out too late to save him from amputation, saved my arm but there was a ton of nerve and muscle damage on top of the physical scarring."

"That's why you left the Academy program permanently." Raleigh spoke as the several pieces he had heard about Nikki and her background came together.

The bay tech nodded. "There is no way for me to ever pilot the left hemisphere and other side would be tricky. The only person I ever came close to matching with only had left hemisphere experience. Trying to continue as a pilot seemed foolish so I put all my energy into doing what I could for the war where I could. I made myself an expert in Jaeger design and construction."

"So what's the deal long term?" Raleigh asked, the injury was definitely severe but yet it didn't seem to affect her on a regular basis from what he could see.

Nikki glanced at Mako who shrugged. "No one is entirely sure. Two of the others who were bit died of radiation poisoning so the effects of the skinmite toxin was never seen. The third had his forearm amputated to contain it so the circumstances are very different." Nikki tapped the metal band around her bicep before continuing. "This hides a specially designed medical stint that K-science uses to monitor the effects in my arm and deliver their cocktail of antitoxin twice a week."

"That seems like a strange place for a stint." Raleigh had very little concrete medical knowledge but did have a rudimentary knowledge of stints.

"It had to be in the same arm and they couldn't put it in the crook of my elbow or in my wrist or hand because of my job. It's a better option than getting stabbed with a set of big needles every few days. It's definitely not perfect but it keeps everything working. Considering everything else going on, I visit Hermann twice a week for testing and dosage and forget it the rest of the time."

Silence fell. Neither Mako or Tendo seemed inclined to remind Nikki of their presence while Raleigh digested the information. The bay leader had always been reserved around him, focusing only on her job in the bays. This was the longest Raleigh had ever seen her for much less actually talked to her for.

"That doesn't explain all the blue though." Raleigh reminded her after a minute. Nikki let out a laugh at his words.

"That's more recent and a whole other story. Ever since I recovered from the bite and regained the use of the arm, I've been working on the crews in some form, moving up through the ranks as I bounced between the domes. I was never supposed to be in charge of the whole bays. Up until three months ago, right around when Marshal Pentecost was consolidating what remained of the Jaeger Corps here in Hong Kong, I was just the crew leader for Crimson Typhoon and then Striker Eureka. The Bay leader who oversaw all operations was a really nice guy named Lou Wetherby. Former British Commando turned mechanic who lived in the Phillipines until K-Day and join PPDC to turn into a Jaeger expert." Nikki seemed to hesitate and glanced at Mako. The pair had a silent moment of eye contact that Raleigh couldn't decode before Nikki continued speaking.

"I got woken up at 5 am one morning by Pentercost who told me that Crimson Typhoon's third spin blade was jammed but still heating and beginning to warp the metal around the blade. It had to be dealt with immediately or else the wrist joint could snap under the pressure and weakened metal. I panicked despite being the expert on Crimson Typhoon and said Lou needed to deal with it. He was the true expert. I didn't think I could handle it. Pentecost just informed me that the crew had called Lou first and when he didn't respond, they went to his bunk and found him dead. Heart attack in his sleep. There was no one else left with the same level of knowledge and experience working with Jaegers other than Mako and her time with Gipsy Danger. With Lou gone, I was the only person who could come close to filling his role with knowledge of all the Jaegers. I went out a few days later with some of the crew as an impromptu wake for Lou and a mock celebration of the promotion I didn't particularly want. The end result of that particular debacle was ending up wasted in a tattoo parlor thinking it was a good idea to trace all the veins and nerve systems that had been affected by the skinmite toxin in blue."

"Damn." Raleigh hadn't known what had happened to the original bay leader, he had simply assumed Pentecost had reason for putting Nikki in the position like he had had a reason for everything.

The tech shrugged as she put the brace back on her injured hand. "I'm still learning but we all are. The PPDC was started by people out of their depth in a situation where no one really knew what to do. It's our jobs to react. We succeed or we die."

No one could disagree with Nikki's statement or the truth behind it.

"That was a bad night." Tendo's deadpan words cut the silence a moment later followed by Nikki's laugh and Mako's knowing smile. Raleigh knew he was missing something.

"I got a phone call saying seven of my techs were drunk in a tattoo parlor in Hong Kong's black market district at one in the morning. I never want to deal with that again." Tendo explained to Raleigh with a glare at Nikki.

"I make no guarantees but I promise not to take anyone vital with me if there is a next time. I'll see you all later. I need a few more hours of sleep if you want another Jaeger any time soon." Nikki told the room as she stood.

Tendo rolled his eyes but gave her a wave which Mako and Raleigh copied as the door swung shut.

"Do we need to worry?" Tendo directed the question at Mako the second Nikki's footsteps faded. Raleigh's co-pilot hesitated and let out a deep breath.

"I don't know. She's much more focused than I thought from what Mia said, but she's a little off. I can't pinpoint the issue though. What do you think?"

Tendo looked uncertain. "The same. She's off but I can't tell where. It doesn't seem to be an issue though. We've got Gipsy Danger now and Green Beast is on schedule. I don't see any reason to push right now. We have other priorities."

Mako nodded. "We will leave her alone for now." She said as she stood, taking the little box with her before looking at Raleigh. "We should sleep while we can."

Raleigh stood and followed his partner, agreeing whole heartedly. "So what's in the box?" He asked as they neared their hall.

Mako lifted the lid and tilted it for him. Five tiny glass bottles in an assortment of colors sat nestled in the box.

"Nail polish?"

Mako nodded with a smile. "The little things matter."

…...

Bolded Statement wants reviews because college is far less entertaining than the internet and it has been bored and under used.