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anyonecanfall-anyonecanfly · 3 years ago

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Anyone Can Fall (Part One)

We Meet Again

Summary: As the threat of a new attack looms on the horizon, Raleigh meets RJ, the newest prodigy of the Shatterdome. At the Marshal's request, he's tasked with training her for the upcoming war against the Kaiju but she's not having it. Instead of meeting Raleigh for training at the scheduled time, RJ goes to the Infirmary to check on her partner and learns the fate of their team.

Pairing: Raleigh Becket x OFC

Warnings: mild language, mention of character death

Word Count: 2793

A/N: Here's the first part of what I hope will be an epic story.

Get caught up here.

Shatterdome, Hong Kong; 2030

Raleigh quickly wove his way through the Shatterdome, a million thoughts swirling through his head.

His focus veered to ten years prior to the death of his older brother by the Kaiju, Knifehead. He promptly quit the Jaeger Program and joined workers on the Anti-Kaiju wall; it hadn't been much but was enough to make ends meet. He spent a good five years as far away from Jaegers as possible. Raleigh placated his anger at Yancy's death with the thrill of danger, he took the riskier jobs on the wall that no one else wanted, scaled to heights no other worker dared to reach. High risk, high reward was Raleigh’s motto during his time on the wall.

Then January 2025 saw his first return after so long, his first return without Yancy by his side...

Marshal Stacker Pentecost visited him at the wall in Anchorage; convinced the young Ranger to travel to Hong Kong with him, once there, he met the woman who would go on to co-pilot Gipsy Danger in Yancy's stead. He was aware of two things upon his arrival: one, no one had been inside his head since his brother's death, and two, he preferred it that way—no matter what Stacker Pentecost had to say.

Unfortunately for Raleigh, while he succeeded in piloting Gipsy solo right after experiencing Yancy's death in the Drift, the toll such an endeavor had taken on his mind and body was a gamble the PPDC couldn't afford to take again. So, Marshal Pentecost introduced Raleigh to Mako Mori. Following her assessment of his skill against hopefuls she believed more than compatible with Raleigh's skill, he challenged her to a quick sparring session with him. Marshal Pentecost, though reserved, let her go against his better judgment.

Raleigh's synchronization with Mako was unlike anything he felt since Yancy, and the two of them convinced the Marshal to let them Drift together. The rest is, as they say, history.

Now, though, Raleigh marched on in silence, trying to work out in his mind the reason Marshall Hercules Hansen summoned him to LOCCENT, with no luck doing so. He pulled his eyebrows together as he entered the command center, scanning the room for Mako. He stopped behind Tendo Choi’s chair, studying the screen in front of the J-Tech Chief. Red blips on the map captured the young Ranger's attention.

“What's the patrol status?” Raleigh asked, leaning down to get a better look at the monitor.

Tendo hummed. “Still no change in the Kaijus' heat signatures, they haven't moved. But... just because they haven't moved yet, doesn't mean they won't.”

Raleigh nodded. “Right. Are the new teams prepared to head out there?” He glanced down at his watch, the time was 2100 and he just made it out of the Kwoon Combat Room. Training ran longer than planned.

“Not just yet. Marshal wanted to speak to you about that. He's in the mess hall.”

“Alright, I'll head that way. Have you seen Mako, by any chance?”

Tendo shook his head, turning back to the monitor in front of him. A long, restless night in LOCCENT lay ahead for the J-Tech Chief.

Raleigh politely excused himself with a friendly pat on Tendo's back. His eyes wandered beyond the glass window where Tendo sat, to the Jaeger Bay.

Five long years had come and gone since he'd been in the Conn-Pod of one, during the final battle that closed the Breach. He and Mako piloted Gipsy together, aided former Marshal Stacker Pentecost and Chuck Hansen in the fight against the category IV and V Kaiju where the latter team valiantly gave their lives. And finally, with the destruction of Gipsy Danger, they won the battle that day but lost two amazing pilots in return. Raleigh had not been inside a Jaeger since.

After their success with closing the Breach, Mako resumed her duties as the Shatterdome's Chief J-Tech Engineer, overseeing the Engineering Department as it worked to restore decommissioned Jaegers to their former glory and build new ones. Given Raleigh's ability in all things battle oriented, Marshal Hansen promoted him from Ranger to Officer, awarding him the position of Kwoon Fightmaster. Raleigh was just grateful that Hansen saw him as a valuable asset instead of an expendable, washed-up Jaeger pilot.

He breathed a deep sigh, entering the mess hall. He worked over 16 hours in the Combat Room that day and could feel starvation settling within his body. Keeping his head down, Raleigh headed for the stairs only to be stopped when the Marshal called out to him.

“Raleigh, over here,” he said, Australian accent thick with exhaustion.

The blond turned to meet the Marshal's gaze, offering the older gentleman a curt nod in greeting. He sighed again, making his way over to the table where he sat with a few off-duty Rangers and Officers.

“Marshal,” Raleigh said, stopping beside the table. “Tendo told me I could find you here.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? It's Herc. I may be the Marshal, but I don't need or want to be reminded of it every five seconds.” He slid a plate full of food forward, gesturing to the seat across from him. “Here, sit. Eat. Miss Mori said you worked through lunch. Again.” His voice held no disappointment, only concern.

It was no secret around the Shatterdome that Raleigh tended to throw himself at his work a little too hard; most suspected as a way to deal with the lingering trauma of losing his brother, though no one had the balls to approach him about it outright. Not even Mako, his former partner, dared to venture across that line.

Raleigh took the open seat and nodded his thanks. “I stopped by LOCCENT, Tendo said you want to talk about the patrol teams?”

“Team,” Herc corrected. When Raleigh tipped his head to the side, Herc pointed at the young woman seated to his right. “Raleigh, meet one-half of our current superstar team, Ra—”

The woman, Raleigh knew he'd seen around the Shatterdome but hadn't yet had the pleasure of meeting, cut the Marshal off before he could continue. She didn't bother looking up from her meal, instead offering a gruff, “RJ,” in response.

Herc continued, “Right, my apologies. RJ is one-half of the best Jaeger team we’ve had since you and Mako. RJ, this is Raleigh Becket, the only other man in existence with the natural ability to pilot a Jaeger solo.”

Raleigh could feel RJ staring and looked up, she looked away. He extended his right hand to her. “Pleasure,” he greeted around a mouthful of mashed potatoes and corn.

RJ sneered, viciously biting into the warm roll on her plate. She made no other move to acknowledge the man's presence at the table.

“So, where's the other half of this superstar duo?” Raleigh asked, breezing past RJ's cold greeting. He smiled, though his attempts to lighten the mood were met with a series of dissatisfied grunts from the young pilot who seemed all too eager to escape his company.

“That's why I asked to see you. Carson is out of commission indefinitely.” Herc glanced at RJ as he answered Raleigh's question, gauging her reaction to the topic at hand. She stiffened beside him but didn't grace his remark with anything other than the firm setting of her jaw.

“What for?”

“Injuries sustained in combat training, he's out until further notice.”

“Shit. That bad, huh? And what's the plan with RJ? She can't pilot a Jaeger alo—”

“I can and I have. Not that it's any of your business,” she snapped, pushing herself up from the table. She tossed her balled up napkin onto the plate, chugged the rest of her water, and stepped over the bench. She laid her hand on the Marshal's shoulder before turning away, the older man leaned into the gesture. “Herc, I'll be in the Jaeger Bay.”

Raleigh watched her leave, noting the tension in her shoulders. Her attitude hadn't fazed him, instead reminding him of when he first met Herc's son, Chuck. He shook his head. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was Chuck's clone. No offense.”

Herc laughed, the smile reached all the way to his tired eyes. “None taken. Would you believe me if I told you RJ and Chuck were pals before you came along?”

Raleigh stared wide-eyed at the Marshal. “No wonder she reminds me so much of him. Could use a kick in the ass, if you ask me.”

“Pretty sure that's the same thing you said about Chuck when you met him.”

“Why haven’t I met her until now?”

“RJ stays to herself. Unless she was with Chuck or Carson, she did everything on her own. She prefers it that way.”

“She's piloted solo before?”

“When we met her, she had so much potential and no idea how to use it. I know very little of RJ's time in the Jaeger Program before she was assigned to Sidney, she never offered, and we never asked. She and Chuck hit it off instantly, I'm positive they would have made the perfect team.” Herc swallowed past the lump forming in his throat, a faraway look settled in his bright eyes. “Her partner, Carson, dislocated his shoulder in training last week and we're not sure how long he'll be out. That hasn't stopped her from continuing on. So far, it's only in simulation but she has the mental and physical skill needed to pilot Grim Assassin on her own.”

“Bullshit,” Raleigh exclaimed, more out of surprise than disbelief.

Herc nodded. “That girl is truly amazing at what she does. She's a lot like you, Raleigh.”

Until that moment, Raleigh had been certain that he was the only other person to have flown solo, the late Stacker Pentecost being the first. Because of the mental and physical setbacks piloting alone created, there hadn't been another since Raleigh's success against Knifehead in Anchorage in 2020.

He shook his head again, unable to grasp how someone like RJ could succeed as a solo Jaeger pilot. Everything he learned about her from their five-minute interaction screamed the likely falsehood of such an achievement but there he sat with Marshal Hansen, learning the exact opposite of his first impression. Raleigh's head was spinning with a plethora of questions he'd never get the chance to ask.

Herc stood, tray in hand to take back to the kitchen. He pointed at the young man still seated at the table. “Beginning tomorrow at 0600 hours, I want you helping her refine those skills in time for next week's test run of our solo Jaeger, Wicked Danger.

The next morning came too early for Rae, she'd spent nearly all night in the Jaeger Bay with Mako. She couldn't stand being away from Grim Assassin for very long. Herc found her before she was able to slip unnoticed into her room and let her know she would begin training with Raleigh the following morning, instructions that were met with grumbling and disgust. The Marshal could already tell that the new assignment would be a difficult one to get her to carry out.

Rae lazily rolled out of bed.

Being forced to get up at 0530 wasn't the problem, being forced to get up at 0530 and spend the day with Raleigh Becket was. Rae couldn't reconcile in her mind the reasons why Marshal Hansen thought training with Raleigh would be a good idea. No part of her wanted to be reminded of the life she'd been forced to leave behind, of the boy who’d left her behind all those years ago. She'd done her best to put it all to rest, to remove herself from the path that had forged between hers and Raleigh's lives.

She dressed in a pair of light grey sweats and a navy blue tank top, pulled her short copper brown hair back with a headband and shoved her feet into her combat boots. Two sets of dog tags hung from a silver chain around her neck, hers and Chuck's. She wrapped the cool metal in a tight fist. She would do it, but only to honor his memory.

Rae looked up at the picture sitting on the small desk across from her bed. It was taken just after her and Carson's first successful battle with a Kaiju—one she couldn't remember the name of. In the old photo, a younger version of Rae and Chuck smiled wide; Rae at the camera, Chuck at her. If she looked hard enough, she could see stars swimming in Chuck's brilliant blue eyes, stars he believed she hung in the night sky. The first boy she loved more than she loved herself; losing Chuck left a void in her life that being a Jaeger pilot was barely big enough to fill.

Pounding against her room door told Rae she had fifteen minutes to get across the Shatterdome to the Combat Room. She picked the photo up and brought the metal frame she fashioned out of spare Jaeger parts to her forehead. If you're out there in the universe, give me the strength to do this without you, she thought. She ran her thumb over the image of Chuck, kissed his tags, and set the frame back down on her desk.

Rae stepped from her room, greeted by fellow Rangers. She hadn't given herself enough time to check on Carson in the Infirmary and make it in time for training with Raleigh, but she didn’t care. She pulled Chuck's old cap over her head and started in the opposite direction, Raleigh could wait a little longer.

Rae's demeanor changed as she entered the Medical Bay to find Carson sitting up in bed. She gave him a warm smile, pulling up a chair next to his bedside.

“You're looking particularly dark this morning,” Carson noted, giving Rae a quick nod.

She scoffed. “Yeah, that was the point.”

“Shouldn't you be in the Combat Room?”

“Probably, it's almost 6:00 AM.”

“And you're not there now because?”

“Because visiting my partner was more important.” Rae removed Chuck's cap from her head and shook her hair down. She sighed, nodding to Carson's arm. “They say how long you're gonna be out?”

A dark shadow cast itself over Carson's face and gave Rae pause. She pulled her eyebrows together in a hard glare, watching him let out a shaky breath. “What? What's wrong?”

“It's torn, Rae. I'm not comin' back,” Carson said.

“What do you mean, ‘you're not coming back?’” she asked, a look of genuine concern replacing her earlier snarky attitude.

“I mean, I'm done, Rae. Operating is the only way to completely repair my shoulder. Surgery, rehab, and a lifetime of physio.” He shook his head. “I'll be lucky if Hansen even considers me for a position within the J-Tech crew.”

Rae reeled back in shock. She couldn't fathom being a Ranger without Carson by her side. They'd been through the Academy together; Rae went with Carson to his father's funeral; Carson held Rae's hand when she received news of Chuck's death. She couldn't imagine living in the Shatterdome without him.

“Does Hansen know?”

Silence.

“Carson, does Hansen know? There has to be something they can do. You can't just go out like this.”

“Raena, stop. It's over, okay? I'm done and I've accepted it. You need to accept it, too. You need to get to the Combat Room, and you need to start training with Raleigh.”

Of course, the Marshal had informed Carson of Rae's new assignment before he told her—smart man. She shook her head. “No.”

Carson blinked up at her. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”

“I'll tell Hansen he can find someone else, I won't go out there without you. They can find someone else.” Her eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall. “I've already lost Chuck, I'm not gonna lose you, too.”

“RJ!” Raleigh's voice boomed from the Infirmary doorway.

Time was up, Rae had been caught.

She groaned, dropping her head onto the edge of the mattress next to Carson's thigh. The last thing she wanted to do was march out of there and spend the next eight hours training with the Golden Boy, only for him to tell her everything she was doing wrong at the end of the session. No, she'd rather bite the bullet and defy Marshal Hansen's orders, be flagged for insubordination, be slapped with a suspension and awarded more time to figure things out with Carson. Anything to keep her away from Raleigh Becket.

She looked up, feeling Carson nudge her shoulder with his knee. He gestured toward the door where Raleigh stood, displeasure written across his face.

“Combat Room. Now.”

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