January 3rd 2025
5:00pm
Later she found herself walking hand in hand with Ezra into the mess hall with a tray piled high with food. She found Herc in the crowd and made her way over to him, ignoring the dead silence the room had fallen into the moment she had stepped into the dining hall. She looked up and stopped walking. There in front of her was Raleigh, giving her a sympathetic look. He knew she hated the attention.
"Let's go somewhere else to eat." He says to her in a low voice. She just nods and follows him out of the hall. She gives Herc a sad smile as they leave and he just nods his head and she knows he understands they had things to talk about. She followed her husband through the Hong Kong base to a scaffolding across from Gipsy. They sat down far enough from the edge that Ezra wouldn't wander over and possibly fall off.
"I'm sorry, I should have warned you. First drifts are rough. You weren't just tapped into my memories, you were tappin' into my brother's too. When Yancy was taken we were still connected. I felt his fear, his pain, his hopelessness and then...he was gone." He describes.
"I felt it, I know. You described it so often but I never imagined it like that." She tells him, not making eye contact.
"You know you live in someone else's head for so long the hardest part to deal with is the silence. To let someone else in, to really connect, you have to trust them. And today the drift was strong." She nods her head and he smiles at her but she can't seem to return it. She couldn't get the memory she had relived out of her mind.
"I should have told you about what happened. That was not how you should have found out." She apologizes feeling the guilt sinking into the pit of her stomach.
"Hey, don't worry about it ok?" He reaches over and cups her cheeks, bringing her to look into his eyes. "I understand that you buried that memory. I wouldn't have wanted to talk about it either."
"You won't think of me differently?" She asks hesitantly.
"No. Seeing that today helped me understand everything that happened between us. If anything it makes me love you more." He tells her. She looks up shocked.
"Really?"
"Definitely." He smiles at her and gives her a sweet kiss. Knowing that he still accepted her made her feel more loved than ever. They pull apart and look back to Gypsy.
"Is that her heart?" She asks him and he nods. "When's the last time you saw it?"
"Not in a long time." He tells her.
"We should probably go take Ezra to bed. He's probably really tired." She says, scratching the back of her head.
"Probably." He gets up and puts his hand out for her. "Shall we my lady?"
"We shall." She replies and not a moment later the alarms start going off. She sighs in defeat. "Or not."
"Mommy!" Ezra screams, startled by the sound. He comes running towards her and she scoops him up into her arms.
"It's okay baby." she soothes, rubbing his back. "Come on let's go." She says grabbing Raleighs hand and they start running towards the control center.
They stood in the control center, everyone gathered around the main control panel. All the rangers were there and Chuck was glaring at her as she shifted a crying Ezra to her other hip. Tends stood beside Pentecost briefing the workers.
"Breach was exposed at twenty three hundred hours. We have two signatures, both category 4, which means, Otachi and Leatherback. They'll reach Hong Kong within the hour." Tendo says loud enough for everyone to hear. She looks over at Raleigh, worried from the information. There had never been a double event again.
"Evacuate the city, shut down the bridges, I want every single civilian in a refuge right now. Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha, I want you to front line the harbor. Stay on the miracle mile. Striker, I want you to stay back, look after the coastline. We cannot afford to lose you, so only engage as a final option." Pentecost orders and everyone gets into motion. Chuck walks by and shoulder bumps her. She stumbles but Raleigh catches her before she could fall.
"Wha goin mommy?" Ezra asks, lifting his head up from her shoulder.
"Shh baby. It's ok." She says quietly, placing a hand on the back of his head, easing it back down to her shoulder.
"You two, you stay put." Pentecost orders them. "Let's go!" She looks over at her husband and sees that his fists are clenched. He was mad at Pentecost. Now that he was back in the fight she could see that not being allowed to go out and fight was killing him. She reached down and grabbed his hand in hers, giving it a quick squeeze. They stayed in the control center listening to the coms and the fight.
The rangers confirmed their successful drop and they continued to listen as they waited for the Kaiju to show up. Not too soon the first Kaiju came out of the water and attacked Crimson Typhoon and she grabbed onto Raleigh's hand tighter. She didn't know why he ever thought she would be okay for combat. Listening to the other pilots was scaring her. Chermo and Crimson continued to fight off the Kaiju but they needed help.
"Loccent, Typhoon and Alpha are in trouble! We're moving in." Herc yells, she could see from the vitatals that they were about to move but Pentecost stopped them before they could get too far.
"You are to hold your ground, do not engage. We need you to carry that bomb, do you copy?" Pentecost orders, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
"Loccent, we're moving in now!" Herc yells back. Pentecost backs away from the mic a little and hits the desk in frustration. He turns around and looks at Raleigh who was glaring at him. Their superior walked past them fixing them both with a stern look. Suddenly the monitors start blaring and she can see the Crimson Typhoon's power source had been destroyed. It was up to Cherno Alpha now. But they were having issues. The Kaiju sprayed Cherno with a sort of acid and she knew that the hull had been compromised and Striker runs to their aid. They don't get there in time, as the second Kaiju burst from the water and pulls the Cherno Alpha under the water, effectively drowning the pilots and crushing the core.
"We've just lost Cherno, sir." Tendo says, turning around to Stacker to confirm the loss. Raleigh readjusts his stance, clenching his jaw. He looks over at her and presses a kiss to her temple, more to soothe himself than her.
The next thing she knew the Loccent went black. She jumped, startled by the sudden darkness. Raleigh placed a hand on her back and rubbed his thumb back and forth to soothe her.
"What's going on? What happened?" Dr. Gottlieb asked, taking the words from her mouth.
"The blast, it doubled onto the Jaeger's electrical circuits." Tendo informed the crowd.
"They're adapting This isn't a defense mechanism, it's a weapon!" Gottlieb said in amazement.
"Get me Striker." Pentecost ordered.
"Nothing, sir. The Mark 5 digital's fried. It'll take me two hours to reroute the auxiliary. All the Jaegers, they're digital!" Te do said frantically.
"Not all of them are, Marshal. Gipsy's analog is nuclear." Raleigh stepped forward and told the Marshall. The man in charge looked at Raleigh and then at her and then back and Raleigh before he sighed in obvious defeat. They were being deployed.
