2016, December 25 – 09:02 – Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Even though she had refused at first, Yancy eventually convinced Greyson to let him stay with her at home. It was the holidays, and she was on her own now that Will was gone, and she knew that Yancy loved her too much to let her stay miserable.
It was mid-morning on Christmas when Greyson finally pulled herself out of bed, fully alert when she heard multiple voices downstairs that didn't belong to Yancy. Cautiously, she made her way down the staircase. The air smelled of sweet pancake syrup and savory pan-fried bacon, and it made the curiosity grow ever more in Greyson's head.
Before she reached the foot of the stairs, Greyson got an eye-full of her living room: It looked like an elf threw up all over the place, with wreaths and garland and tinsel and fairy lights everywhere. There was even a small Christmas tree tucked into the corner, mostly bare save for a few ornaments and presents sitting underneath it.
The Beckets were in her kitchen, cooking breakfast and speaking in hushed voices as they rushed around. For a moment, Greyson questioned if she was even in her own house, because there was no way they should be there. Richard was flipping pancakes at the stove, Jazmine was setting the table, and the brothers were bickering at the fridge over juice.
"What the…"
Jazmine was the first to notice her, grinning brightly. "Hey. Morning, Sonny," she said softly, cautiously, as if she was still trying to gauge her friend's reaction.
There was a chorus of "Merry Christmas" from the whole family, and Yancy was at her side in the next moment, placing a chaste kiss to her cheek. He greeted, "Uhh… Mali-gang Pause-ko, babe."
Greyson stifled her laughter. "Maligayang Pasko to you too," she responded, her heart warm. Turning to the other three, she added, "I appreciate the effort, but you guys didn't have to do any of this."
Richard piped up, "Nonsense! Family takes care of family."
Raleigh nodded, smiling almost sadly. "It's the first Christmas without Mom… and Will."
"We didn't want you to be alone," Jazmine said simply.
Pressure built up behind Greyson's eyes, and suddenly tears were blurring her vision. She wiped away any rogue tears, smiling. "Thanks."
"Come on," Yancy started, pulling his girlfriend towards the table, "let's get full of breakfast, take a coma nap, and then finish decorating the tree."
Greyson let out a watery laugh. She couldn't argue with that plan.
2017, January 2 – 12:34 – Anchorage, Alaska, United States
The new year was always the start of something fresh and exciting and unexpected. Whether or not someone could predict every twist and turn, they would have always had to prepare for the good, the bad, or the ugly. Greyson was no exception.
She had slept on the couch for the last couple of days, cocooned under blankets with the white noise of the television set on a low volume. Despite the holiday decorations supplied by the Beckets and the little bit of Christmas cheer that they shared not one week ago, her house now felt so empty and incredibly quiet; the epitome of a lonely tomb.
After William's death, Richard Becket and her Tito Jasper had assisted with the arrangements since Greyson was still away at Basic. In their search for certain documents, they came across a notarized will in the house. It was a surprise to Greyson to hear that the county had overlooked her father's updated will, but all settlements and other engagements were handled by her uncle before Greyson came back to Alaska, to save time.
Things started to get more surreal when she found out that William had left her everything — the house, his accounts, everything.
"You're kidding."
"In my line of work, jokes are quite unnecessary." The lawyer smiled. "Your father had legally adjusted the will after his less than amicable divorce with your mother, so… It's all yours."
Greyson's head cocked to the side. "Adjusted it how?"
Considering that her father had died months before she turned eighteen, William's original will would have left half of the affects to Jane, her estranged mother. Given the relationship between mother and daughter, Jasper, in his capacity as Greyson's closest uncle, was recommended to become her legal guardian and power of attorney until her coming of age.
Even after the lawyer had left, Greyson was reeling.
2017, January 12 – 11:41 – Jaeger Academy, Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States
Greyson generally kept to herself whenever she took courses with the J-Tech recruits, mostly because the other students tended to group together for gossip and that just wasn't something she liked participating in. (Although, that didn't mean she never listened. Because she was only human and a true chismosa at heart.) The Filipina cadet would always be thinking about her combat training, constantly wondering how Caitlin Lightcap managed to juggle being a Ranger with J-Tech officer duties.
"…there's something new with the Pons System; I don't know what. There's been talk about people in the Program being Compatible with more than one person — hey, hey." Tendo Choi looked back to his group of other trainees. His eyes landed on the form of Greyson Darcy, noticing that her attention was focused on her cellphone instead of on him. "Hey, Short Stack, quit daydreaming. Is there something more important you'd wanna share with the rest of us?"
Greyson's gaze met Tendo's when she looked up. She stowed her phone. "Nose down, Choi," the girl shot back at him. A few people in their group snickered. "Tendo, c'mon," she complained. "We already know about the Pons. We've got anything Lightcap ever puts out—"
"—but we don't know what J-Tech is cooking up. So, we got to be ready with any new adjustments—"
Greyson interrupted Tendo. Shaking her head, she said, "Whatever they are up to isn't meant to be shared with anyone in this facility, not until we graduate."
"But you know anyway, don't you?" It wasn't Tendo who spoke this time, surprisingly. Greyson turned to her other side, where Charles Kenton was seated. From what Greyson could remember, Kenton was a little over a year and a half older than she was; an ex-boxer from Texas that got into the new sport of the era — robot boxing.
She smirked in his direction before answering him. "Well, Charlie, that's something I'm not at liberty to say."
"Sure, sure." The man leaned forward in his seat, smirking. "You know, there's a rumor going around about you."
"Enlighten me."
"Word has it that Jasper Schoenfeld came here a few months ago just to see you," he said matter-of-factly.
She tried to hide her surprise. Did most people not know that she was his niece? Dismissively, Greyson said, "What about it?"
"People say he's the reason the Marshal favors you."
"Me? Favored by Pentecost? That's funny," Greyson snorted, amused at the thought. "Have you ever heard of the Marshal favoring anyone?"
"Ah, c'mon. Don't play coy." Charlie motioned to the other cadets around them. "How else can you explain being here with us Jaeger Tech schmucks, and then training with the other pilot hopefuls at the Kwoon?"
Tendo's eyebrows rose, and the look on his face showed he was both impressed and confused. To Greyson, he inquired, "What does he mean? You're training to be a Ranger?"
She didn't know how to get out of this one. Greyson mentally chided herself, because she just knew that alone placed a big Kick Me sign on her back. Before she was able to make an excuse, their professor walked into the room.
2017, January 29 – 17:08 – Jaeger Academy, Kodiak Island, United States
Greyson had been cramming the last couple of weeks to prepare for her high school equivalency test, on top of her busy schedule of training and lectures at the Academy. Her schedule left her with just enough hours of sleep to be functional; although, constantly worrying about other things tended to make her incredibly forgetful.
She was about ready to pass out in her bunk when two figures entered the nearly empty cadet quarters. Everyone else was out for dinner or probably getting themselves into trouble.
"Happy birthday!" Yancy and Raleigh shouted in unison. The latter man held a piece of chocolate cake in one hand, grinning.
"How the hell did you manage to sneak cake out of the mess hall?" Greyson questioned in amusement, hopping down from the top bunk.
Raleigh looked offended. "No one cares how I got the cake. Be grateful."
Yancy added, "It's not every day someone turns eighteen, Sonny."
Greyson couldn't help herself. She pulled both Beckets into a hug, standing tall on the balls of her feet. She smiled when the returned her hug just as tightly. "I love you guys."
"We know," Yancy teased, pressing a quick kiss to her lips.
2017, February 6 – 06:23 – The Ice Box, Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States
"Welcome to the beginning of the rest of your lives." The Anchorage Shatterdome officer smirked as the brothers giddily entered their sleeping quarters, and then stepped out to tell Greyson which number her bunker room was.
She dropped her bags at the brothers' door before walking in after them. The walls were bare concrete with a few light installations in the corners. From where she stood, Greyson saw the door to the single lavatory and the double bunk tucked in the closest corner.
"I call the bottom bunk," Yancy had called out immediately, throwing his duffel bag onto the designated mattress. He sat down just as Raleigh did, and they shoved each other roughly.
"I told you I wanted the bottom bunk," complained Raleigh, pushing his brother's things onto the floor. "Dibs is still in rule."
Yancy rolled his eyes. "Oldest chooses first," he recalled, "second shuts his cake hole."
"That's not how it works — that's —"
Greyson interrupted their bickering, starting to wonder if either of them remembered she even existed, and said, "Okay, now that we've affirmed that you're both bottoms and dorks…"
Both Beckets gasped in unison: "Hey!"
In only a few moments, they fell back into their banter. Somehow, much to Greyson's amusement, they started wrestling the other for the bottom bunk, grabbing at shirts and pushing at foreheads. It wasn't long until the two of them fell off the side of the bed with a satisfying thump.
Greyson only rolled her eyes before beginning her trek down the hall to her own room.
2017, February 10 – 15:57 – The Ice Box, Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States
"Yeah, that's what I got, too… We can try to run a sim, but it won't be possible without the brothers' help." Greyson was on a call with Caitlin Lightcap, reading through simulation statistics. The Anchorage J-Tech team was already in the process of setting up the new Pons interface in ordinance with the new specs that Caitlin had sent over.
Caitlin's voice came through the speaker. "Once the Weis have a successful Drift, the three of you will be brought down to the Simulation Room, don't worry."
They talked about more specifications before Caitlin said, "I'll send word to the Marshal soon to request your assistance in China, and then some of my team would come over to you once the ball gets rolling. Here."
A received file notification appeared at the corner Greyson's holoscreen. "What's this?" she asked the scientist, downloading the file. It was a widely disseminated memo from the UN.
"The United Nations are coming through with the funds," Caitlin told her. "They're pushing the PPDC to develop more Jaegers. Do you think you'll be ready to start fighting those monsters?"
2017, March 4 – 14:12 – The Ice Box, Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States
Greyson Darcy had been sitting in the mess hall since lunchtime. The cadet's quarters were just too quiet, and anywhere else in the 'Dome was just too loud. The military cafeteria was a happy medium, she eventually found out, especially once everyone had left.
She was plugged into her phone, listening to songs through a pair of wireless ear buds. Sitting alone at a table, the Filipina rested her sketchbook across the top, a mechanical pencil held firm in her hand. (J-Tech had loaned her one of the glorified iPads they called holoscreens to keep tabs on the constant mecha upgrades, but she felt that the old-fashioned way of blueprinting provided a better control of the schematics.)
While Caitlin and her uncle, Jasper, were stationed with the Hong Kong Strike Group, they had a solid line of communication between all the Shatterdomes, in that they relayed new information all the time. Greyson was assigned to help a small group of J-Tech officers to replicate the specialized Pons interface that they were developing for a new Jaeger.
Greyson didn't jump in surprise when someone took to the empty seat beside her. The person in question had a bag of candies in his hand, plopping them into his mouth, one after another. He sat there for a while, watching with interest. Raleigh Becket leaned over and gave Greyson's sketch a quick once-over before opening his mouth, "Gipsy Avenger… Is that a Jaeger in development, or what?" he asked her, reading the labeling at the top of the page.
Greyson pulled out one of her ear buds so she could hear her friend better. "One day, maybe," the young officer sighed. "Not soon, I doubt, with some of the Mark 3s just being launched within the year."
"Maybe your Jaeger could be the next Chrome. Or maybe Shaolin or Vulcan." Raleigh's face broke out with a smile, eyes twinkling with something that could've been amusement.
"Are you saying that because you believe it, or because you can't wait four more months to be assigned to a Jaeger?" Greyson asked him, laughing.
Raleigh unwrapped another piece of candy, and then tossed it in his mouth. He shifted it around on his tongue, squinting his eyes at Greyson. "Now, I'm curious, why you doin' this all of the sudden?" he replied, avoiding the question.
Off of Raleigh's look, she explained. "Okay, so Hong Kong has been developing a new bridge for the Pons — thoughts on maybe having a three-pilot Drift to share the neural load so they can have an edge over the kaiju."
He looked thoughtful, keen on paying attention to her every word. "Is that what J-Tech has been up to for the past month? Damn, that sounds cool." There was a silence; Raleigh seemed to think something over. He fully turned to face her then, asking seriously, "Would you do it?"
Greyson waited a moment before replying to him, unsure at what he meant. "Do what?"
"Go through that Drift Simulator. With Yancy and me, I mean," he clarified.
"What makes you think we're Compatible?" Greyson rebutted, smirking.
Raleigh shrugged. "A gut feeling."
"Could just be gas from all the candy you've been scarfing down," she teased, laughing when he pushes her shoulder.
2017, April 20 – 19:38 – The Ice Box, Kodiak Island, Alaska
"Where are you going?"
Greyson Darcy turned around and looked at the man, Yancy Becket, who was leaning against the doorframe to her room, hands shoved into his jacket pockets. She wondered briefly how long he was standing there, watching as she packed. "Hong Kong. Something came up," she replied simply, cryptically.
Yancy looked unamused, crossing his ankles over each other. His head tilted when he spoke, looking at her with that look that rarely failed to send butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "Well, then what's so important all the way up in China?"
Greyson rolled her eyes for show, turning around to hide her fond expression as she tossed a few shirts onto her mattress. "Stuff." She swiftly slid past Yancy when he walked further into the room. "And things."
"For how long?" he asked, taking a shirt from the pile and folding it.
Greyson revealed, "I'm needed at the Hong Kong 'Dome until Monday. It shouldn't be too difficult."
"You never know that," Yancy muttered, lips in a small pout.
She immediately knew what he was talking about. There was a part of K-Science stationed on the Mariana Islands near the Breach, whose job was to monitor the oceans and assign codenames to the monsters, but that was just the easiest thing for the world's peace of mind considering the Defense Corps hadn't really developed a way to predict when the next attack would be; where it would be and where to start to figure everything out.
"All I know is…" Greyson trailed off momentarily, searching through the stacks of papers and files on her desk. "Huh. I can't find the Manila folder I need." She suddenly heard the flipping of pages behind her. Turning, Greyson snapped at Yancy, "Hey, give that back, you overgrown giraffe."
Yancy just laughed, raising his hand up and keeping the folder and its contents from her reach. "Giraffe? That's the best you got, you meerkat?"
Greyson jumped, reaching to no avail, missing the height of her goal by inches. The elder Becket came out with relentless laughter, and she lightly smacked his stomach. "Yancyyy," she whined. "Yance, c'mon, I need to finish packing."
A smirk formed on his face as he watched her again. A fire in her soul was what she felt upon looking back at him. "Okay, fine," Yancy started, lowering his arm behind his back, "but you have to promise me one thing."
Her top lip curled upwards as she threw him a look. "You know I don't make promises when I don't even know what you're going to say." Greyson ducked under Yancy's arm to make a grab from behind before he shifted it to his other hand.
"You do too," Yancy retorted, tucking the folder under the front of his shirt all snug-like. "Blind promises are how we got here in the first place, Sonny."
"Lies and slander," Greyson chuckled, deciding to hug Yancy around the waist. Her fingers laced together at his front, and she rested her cheek against the line of his back. "I followed because somebody had to keep you and Raleigh from running ass-first into trouble."
"I do have a nice ass, though," Yancy joked, wiggling his body and pulling a chuckle from her. He pulled Greyson's arms from around him, turning again to face her, hands sliding down her wrists to intertwine with her fingers.
Teasingly, Greyson said, "And incredibly humble, to boot." She let go of his hands, managing to finally grab a hold of the long-awaited Manila folder from under his shirt. "Now, are you just gonna stand here and look pretty, or are you helping?"
Yancy saluted sarcastically, huffing, "Yes, ma'am!"
2017, April 22 – 19:38 – Hong Kong Shatterdome, Hong Kong, China
Dr. Caitlin Lightcap had been deep in development to advance Drift sequencing. She led the teams in specializing the new Pons interface for a three-party neural connection, while Dr. Jasper Schoenfeld assisted with the design process for a new Conn-Pod in preparation for the latest mecha slated for the coming year.
Greyson Darcy and a few of other J-Tech officers from The Icebox had arrived the day before to observe the sim runs, taking in the data and research being done against the triplet brothers chosen to pilot the Jaeger. She sat in the LOCCENT with Lightcap and her uncle, reviewing a recorded Drift Simulation from the week prior.
"So, the Wei-Tang triplets haven't experienced anything super weird after their initial Drifts?" Greyson asked to clarify, swiping through some of the research reports on her holoscreen. Her eyes caught on a lead engineer's recent report about impact testing and pilot-safety systems for Mark III Jaegers, curiosity piqued.
Caitlin said, scrubbing through the simulation footage, "No significant outliers from the norm, between already acquainted pilots."
Greyson's brows knitted together as she looked up, catching on to the double meaning in the scientist's words. "So… there's been side-effects from pilots that didn't know each other?"
"Well, I mean…" Jasper shared a side-glance with his partner, looking to his niece when Caitlin waved a hand dismissively. "There's a lot about the Drift Space that we still don't fully understand, but with Dr. Lightcap's help, we've been getting a little bit closer."
"Sure," Greyson replied, prodding him to continue.
"Some co-pilots came together in the Program, you know, and some of them, uh… well, to put it bluntly, hated each other's guts." The corners of Jasper's lips tugged up with an amused smile but a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. "You remember the Tacit Ronin pilots?"
"The Jessups. Yeah."
"Kaori used to work in the K-Watch division before she landed a spot to be Duc's co-pilot. They were at each other's throats so much that Marshal Hikai was near pulling his hair out."
Greyson's jaw dropped. "Not even. But they were married!"
"It took a bit for them to get there," Caitlin added with a wink. "Neither of them even shared a common tongue before they started to Drift together."
"Whoa," the young Filipina gasped, "they learned languages through the Pons? Just like that?"
"Among other things. As you're aware, nothing stays hidden in the Drift. The Jessups were no exception, yet their Drift hangovers were so intense that they adopted English and Japanese, respectively."
"At least their Drift hangovers held positive results," lamented Jasper. "After some intense deployments, Rangers like the Gage twins started to crash pretty hard."
"What do you mean?" Greyson sat up straighter, head cocked to the side in curiosity. This was definitely not something they taught students learning at the Jaeger Academy.
Caitlin supplied, "It's like… an exhaustion. Mentally, physically. Once the endorphins and adrenaline return to baseline, sometimes you just feel off." After a beat, she continued: "Which is why we need to finish the research on this Drift sequencing to avoid that happening with the boys."
Jasper said in jest, "Okay, okay, don't need to tell me twice."
2017, July 10 – 09:38 – The Ice Box, Kodiak Island, Alaska
To be perfectly honest, Greyson had taken all the news with a grain of salt from the very beginning, but now that the boys' launch date had finally arrived, there was no doubt it: Yancy and Raleigh Becket were fully fledged Rangers.
Their call on-deck was for just after dawn, suiting up in the DriveSuit Room before making their way to the Conn-Pod to be dropped into the newest Jaeger on the line, Gipsy Danger. Their Gipsy Danger. The brothers hardly slept a wink, excitement thrumming through their veins overnight, and it took Greyson giving them both melatonin pills before Yancy and Raleigh's heads even hit a pillow.
There was an undeniable electricity buzzing in the Shatterdome when the brothers prepared for their first official training run. So many of them had been waiting for this day too, keeping tabs on the Beckets' progress on and off the sim floor, but no one was prouder in that moment than Greyson Darcy. She couldn't help herself from climbing up onto one of the gantry levels facing the towering Jaeger, squeezing in between other staffers who'd had the same exact idea. From her perch at the railing, she could almost feel the warmth radiating from the nuclear reactor housed in Gipsy's chest.
She had patched into a signal from the LOCCENT with some assistance from one sneaky mission controller, allowing her to listen into the goings on. Greyson held onto the rails with a tight grip, heart pounding in anticipation as Tendo Choi and their Marshal relayed the regular Handshake protocols over the comms feed.
Pentecost's voice crackled through the signal: "Prepare for Neural Handshake."
"Initiating," Tendo responded. "Alright, boys. Vulcan mind-meld in—"
"Mr. Choi," their Marshal snapped, cutting him off. Greyson heard Yancy and Raleigh chuckle through the Conn-Pod feed.
Without missing a beat, the mission controller said, "Just keeping you on your toes, Marshal. Neural Handshake in five…"
The moments following the alignment countdown had been a blur, from hearing that the Drift connection was steady to hearing the clanking from Gipsy Danger as her limbs linked up to the neural connection.
"Left hemisphere linked and ready," came Raleigh's voice.
Yancy followed up with, "Right hemisphere linked and ready."
Gipsy Danger's weight shifted noisily, and her arms were raised in front of her in a defensive stance as the rest of the mecha's body calibrated. The roar of cheers from the people scattered around Scramble Alley was deafening. This was literally everything they'd been working towards, and the boys had finally done it. (In the back of her mind, she wished their families could've been there in person to witness it, but she knew Dominique Becket was probably up in Heaven talking God's ear off about how amazing her boys were.)
"Is that Sonny? Rals!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm in your head, remember?"
Slowly, one of Gipsy's hands shifted, bending at the elbow as the brothers waved in her direction. Greyson was grinning so wide that she thought her face was going to split, but it wasn't until warm tears started to land on the backs of her hands did she realize that she'd started to cry. She swallowed down a sob, masking it with an incredulous laugh, wiping the wetness from her cheeks.