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The windows of the sterile prison rattle violently, cracking them and scattering the portraits of happier times off the sole cabinet across the hard laminate floor.
The woman condemned to die in this room doesn’t so much as flinch.
The howling sirens ringing in her ears summoned her to the opulent view of Waikiki and downtown Honolulu while the others ran for shelter.
She’s surprised that she can still stand, let alone walk, but she knew the shadow that passed over the hospital. It compelled her to rise to it, as it had a decade earlier.
Bracing herself against the cold metal window frame for support, she loathes her weakness but, it won’t be for much longer. The opioid rich cocktail steadily pumped into her ravaged body is starting to let the pain bleed through. Her entire being aches in a tiredness she can never explain out loud, but understands nonetheless what it means.
She dreams of release.
Sometimes though, in the spaces between her waning consciousness, she dreams of the scene playing outside of her hospital room with the same unwavering yearning.
Framed against the iconic Diamond Head, her Jaeger, piloted by a new crew, battles for the people of Oahu and it makes her bristle with uninhibited jealousy and uneasiness in equal measure.
She hopes the old Coyote has treated the Rangers in him better than it did his first crew.
But then, it doesn’t really matter, the Kaiju that’s washed up on shore on an otherwise pristine Hawaiian day is swiftly overpowering them and, in a matter of minutes it’s over, leaving her to feebly hope the Rangers inside survived the brutal onslaught it was dealt.
There’s an absolution in watching her beloved war machine die a valiant death not too far from where her own final resting place will be. It’s fitting.
It's a sign.
The newest of all the Jaegers falls into place behind the first, moving like an agile bully in comparison to its clunky predecessors and vengefully beating the invading alien back toward the water. Though she knows half of the crew piloting it, and wishes him well, she only has eyes for the burning Jaeger behind it and grieves it like a lost friend. The tears in her eyes spill down her gaunt cheeks.
“Ranger Sevier.” A nurse standing in her doorway interrupts, voice quavering in terror “We need to get you down to the shelter.”
Turning away from the window, the pilot smiles gently.
“Honey, I’ve never run from a Kaiju in my life and I don’t intend to start now.” Her voice is foreign in it's softness, but she's amused by the thought of being wheeled kicking and screaming into the Hickam Hospital Shelter with the other critical care patients. “There’s nothing that ugly thing can do to me that hasn’t already been done. You go on without me. Send the doctor if she has a problem.”
It’s all the invitation the nurse needs and she flees without her charge.
The Ranger inhales a breath that is not nearly enough for her body’s demand.
In the short time she was dealing with the nurse, the fancy new Jaeger has dispatched the Kaiju. Its body floats just offshore in pieces that stain the shore in blue while the Jaeger goads over it as if daring it to get back up. Had she more time, she’d love to give the commanding Ranger of that crew good-natured hell for his shiny new toy.
Grinning, she decides to keep the jokes to herself.
Her visitors always teased that she’s told Death she’ll come with him when she’s good and fucking ready.
She is now and it’s the best feeling she’s had since adopting her precious, precocious Mako.
Her copilot, feeling her resolve from across the Pacific, stirs in her mind fretfully in that way a Ranger never quite gets used to. However, it’s no surprise, he's always been the more vigilant of them. No doubt, he’s been watching everything happening here like a sentinel, issuing commands to his Rangers with the surly disposition she loved to tease him about with her wife, his sister, when she was alive.
She will rest peacefully in the knowledge that he’ll continue to fight until their Jaeger’s betrayal makes a stronger claim on his body.
She assures him, she won’t leave before he arrives to wish her off.
She keeps her promise, like all the other promises, as is the duty of copilots to one another.
The following afternoon, while Honolulu burns, Tamsin Sevier joins Coyote Tango in the grave, with her copilot and adopted daughter by her side.