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When the Jaeger program first launched, it was a requirement that all active military personnel apply to the pilot program. Not all would qualify for the position, it was explained, and even fewer would find someone with whom they were drift compatible. Those who knew they were unfit for piloting breathed sighs of relief, while those who yearned for the position held their breath anxiously for the results.
The exam itself was intensely rigorous, and composed of three parts. The first was a physical exam, which determined the physiological capabilities of each applicant. Those not physically fit were struck from the candidacy list immediately, and would not proceed. The second part of the exam was a very thorough written exam. Each question was designed to reveal the personality of the taker, and would be used to match up potential drift partners. The third exam was to test the compatibility of these potential partners, and took the form of a simple sparring session.
The whole series of tests took three days, one for each part. When the results were revealed, absolutely no one in the Amestrian Military was surprised to hear that Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye were drift compatible. It hadn’t been much of a question, really, but the higher-ups were strict on protocol and had insisted on completion of the entire exam. Both soldiers obeyed, though both suspected what their results might be. They weren’t wrong.
“Roy, buddy! You ready for the drift?” Hughes, chief drift technician and one of Roy’s closest friends, clapped him on the shoulder the morning of their first synchronization. The bespectacled man sipped at a mug of coffee in his hand, then grinned. “It’ll definitely be a wild ride, that’s for sure. Nothing like the drift.”
“As long as you’ve worked the kinks out,” Roy said dryly, shifting his helmet from one hand to the other.
Hughes reared back, mock offense written across his face. “Hey, that was one bug, and the pilots are fine, really!” He sobered and added, “But seriously, I had Fuery and Breda run through the patches twice. Everything’s looking peachy.”
“I’m assuming this is about the bug that sent the Elric brothers to the hospital?” Roy turned to see Riza coming up behind them, her brown eyes steady as always.
“That was not my fault!” Hughes said, gesturing with the mug and sending a few drops spilling to the floor. “Just because Tucker decided to go freelance with his programming…”
“We know,” Riza said, a flash of humor in her eyes. “I heard Fuery was up all night trying to fix it. Falman told me.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t let you guys go in if I didn’t think it was safe,” Hughes said seriously, leading then into the bridge. Screens blinked impatiently before them, some waiting for vitals, some painting pictures of technical readouts from the Jaeger itself. The two harnesses floated near the ceiling, just above the bolts that would secure their feet into the bipedal controls. As Hughes began to fiddle with an instrument panel near the front to bring the harnesses into position, Roy pulled Riza to the side.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked in a low voice.
“You know I am, sir.”
Roy held up a hand. “We’re about to drift together, Hawkeye. Ranking seems unnecessary.”
She nodded, and something in her eyes made him say, “When we go in there, we’ll be able to see everything about each other. And I mean everything. You’ll see all of me, and I’ll see all of you.”
There was an unspoken question behind his words, one she could read effortlessly. “I agreed to follow you into hell. The drift won’t change that.”
Roy nodded crisply and turned to Hughes. “Ready for us?”
Hughes pressed a few more buttons, then said, “Absolutely. If you’ll just take your places, I’ll be heading for the control room.” He lifted his coffee mug in a salute before taking his leave.
Roy winced as the harness clicked into place along his back, and tried not to fidget as his boots were bolted into place. He felt strangely confined in the harness, and once again he wondered how these things were supposed to move when he was strapped down so securely.
“Control to Little Alchemy, come in.” The radio crackled to life as Hughes’ cheerful voice came through.
“Little Alchemy reading you loud and clear,” Roy replied. “Are we just about ready?”
“Almost. Hang tight a second while we run diagnostics. You can go ahead and put on your helmets.”
Both soldiers did so, breath fogging up the glass before the supplementary oxygen supply whisked it away. Yellow light glowed in Roy’s periphery.
“Helmet com check,” Hughes said. “You read me?”
“I read you,” Roy said. He could hear Riza’s confirmation a moment later.
“Everything’s looking stable on our end. Got your vitals plugged in, diagnostics have all checked out.” Havoc’s light voice crackled through the coms. “We’re ready for the drift, sir.” Whether this last was directed to Roy or Hughes, Roy didn’t know.
He looked to Riza. “Ready?”
She nodded.
“Initiate drift in 3…2…1…”
Roy shuddered as a great roaring sound filled his ears. A massive tingle of electricity raced up his spine and into his brain, which suddenly felt about three times bigger than normal. He barely had time to catch his breath when images began to race in front of his mind, one after another. As he focused , he made out quite a few memories from his childhood before other images began playing in front of him. These he didn’t recognize.
He saw a tall woman with straw-blonde hair and a wide smile. She was holding his hand as they walked through a field with waist-high grass. She was replaced with a man he knew to be Riza’s father, sitting at the dining room table and talking to him (it was then that he realized he was seeing everything through Riza’s eyes). And as the images kept racing in front of him, emotions began to flow after them.
He felt her frustration with her father’s distant words, her isolation as he locked himself away, her determination through her Academy days, despite her sexist instructor’s harsh insults. Her steps became his, and her thoughts drifted into his mind.
A warm tingling crept into his fingers and toes so gradually that he was unaware of the feeling until it filled him head to toe. This was pure affection, he realized as he took in the faces of their team: eager Fuery, tapping furiously at a keyboard; Breda, squinting at a chess board; Falman, examining kaiju parts; Havoc, joking and laughing; Hughes, single-handedly supervising three different Jaeger teams…and countless others she’d met along her journey.
The tingling intensified, growing hotter and hotter as it receded into his torso. This was something more intense, he realized. This was a feeling not just for anyone.
He saw military blues walking down the halls of Eastern Command, sitting at a desk, standing at attention. His own burning tingle added to Riza’s, and he realized not for the first time that in the drift, she would see the full extent of what he felt for her. How could she not, when all his memories of her were tainted with this aching burn?
Then, with a start, he realized that he was in the midst of her own memories, not his, and that he was looking at himself, not her, and that he was looking through her eyes, not his. This burning in his chest belonged to her, though it felt so much like his own that he could no longer separate the two.
The realization hit him like a punch to the sternum: he was not alone in this. Whatever he felt for her, she returned in equal measure. He released a great gust of breath that he must have been holding, and the meld drew them closer together.
She was right there, her mind intimately connected to his. Their memories flashed by in a great whirlwind, blurring together and losing all distinction. It didn’t matter in the drift. Here, they were two halves of one whole, complementing each other, working with each other…
Loving each other.
As quickly as it started, the drift faded away, sucking its memories and emotions and togetherness back into itself, until it left two people shaking and gasping for breath in their harnesses.
“Everything okay, Little Alchemy?” Havoc’s concerned voice echoed in his helmet. “We’re reading a small spike in the vitals.”
A smile played across Roy’s face as he considered telling the bridge that the spike probably had nothing to do with the drift and everything to do with the person standing next to him. But all he said was, “We’re fine here. Seemed like a successful first drift to me; how about you?”
“Looking good so far,” Hughes said, replacing Havoc through the com. “We’ll take small steps, so next time we’ll try and get you to try out the hydraulics and see if you can get her to move. We don’t want you to wear yourselves out too easily, not this early in the program. You’re cleared to leave the bridge.”
“Thanks, Hughes.” Roy leaned forward as the harness disengaged, and he pulled his boots up forcefully as the bolts retracted. He stepped clear, then caught sight of Riza looking at him from across the bridge.
No words were needed, not after drifting like that. Words didn’t seem like enough, so they just looked at each other, their shared experience written plainly on their faces. She knew what he’d seen and felt, and he knew the same for her. That burning feeling hadn’t quite left his chest, and even as he looked at her now, it increased, filling his lungs and pushing at his ribs.
After a long minute, she nodded at him. He returned it, and with that one little gesture, they silently acknowledged what the other felt. This was something they could share in the drift, something that would make them stronger than any other Jaeger team.
Roy allowed himself a small smile as he left the bridge. If he’d turned to look behind him, he’d have seen Riza doing the same.