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Chapter Text

One day, a large hole appeared in the world, and from that hole emerged many demons. And so, the King called upon many people who may or may not have been the descendants of the Legendary Hero, Creasion, in order to defeat the Demon Lord and return the world to peace.

The King, of course, was secretly working with the demon Dezember Zwolf in order to enact a convoluted plan; create a situation to bring about a legendary hero and be remembered as a legendary king. And of course, Dezember was tricking the King for the sake of his own goals. But the King somehow didn’t expect this and no one else expected the King to make such a stupid move in the first place. Also, with the number of heroes planned to be sent, out all were confident that the Demon Lord would be found and killed somehow.

So when the reports that a “giant demon” and “a monster a large as a mountain that left devastation in its wake" came to light, these claims were underestimated. After all, defeating big dragons and odd creatures was what the adventures of legends were all about, right? The Demon King and his ilk were supposed to be super powerful, so some level destruction was unfortunate but expected. It would be tough, but the heroes would definitely be able to defeat them all, come home to a big parade, and become legendary figures remembered for all time.

That’s what everyone believed. So, the King prepared to welcome the heroes to his castle.

But then the current Demon King Ruki and a couple of her assistants, Janua Eins and a cat from the human world called Mii-chan, arrived in the Kingdom. They came to plead with the King, the heroes, the soldiers, and anyone else in the castle town that would listen. The first Demon Lord was sealed away and hadn’t been awakened yet, but his awakening was the least of their problems. The creatures that had been released weren’t normal. These monsters, called "Kaiju", were a danger to even the demon world and had been sealed away by Creasion for the protection of humans and demons alike, but now someone had released them for some reason and everyone was in danger. And it was going to take much more than swords and a heroic spirit to defeat these abominations.

There were, of course, the skeptics who refused to trust demons. The King didn’t believe Dezember would put them in that kind of danger. And there were also those who were dumbfounded and didn’t know what to think, and also plenty people who decided that this all was Not the Business of Normal Citizens like Themselves and didn't want anything to do with it. So most people resisted this idea at first or otherwise refused to act. But they didn’t take long to convince.

Not after the first human village to get hit was completely wiped off the map in mere minutes. Not after some demons fought to defend some of the escaping humans, only for everyone to get slaughtered except for the lone survivor who came to tell the tale. And especially not after a few of the more hot-headed heroes went out to hunt it and witnessed for themselves the true horror that humanity was now facing.

A creature so massive, so terrifying that they couldn’t believe what was in front of them. Almost as large as the castle, it could kill tens of soldiers with one swipe of its claws, it could swallow buildings in one bite, and its roar was powerful enough to stun all who heard it.

Everyone threw everything they had into defeating the singular monster that had appeared. Those of the Twelve demons who hadn’t been working with Dezember, and some of those who had and realized what a bad idea that was, worked alongside the heroes. The royal scientists who had been developing mecha technology for their princess created modified suits of armor and weapons. And after literal days of nonstop fighting, the Kaiju finally went down.

(And during all this, Dezember would deny any involvement. “It’s a coincidence, but that’s how it goes in legends and stories, doesn’t it?” “Think about the fame you’ll get from organizing the defense against these monsters.” And so, the King continued to trust him.)

But it was inevitable that another Kaiju would appear. And so, preparation began. The royal scientists and demons teamed up and made incredible modifications to their mecha designs, creating the “Jeagars”. Though they needed to be piloted by two compatible people, these machines were big enough and strong enough to defeat the Kaiju. The people who were originally recruited as heroes, the demons who sided with Ruki, and many others were recruited to work together on the Jaeger program in order to defeat the Kaiju and save the world.

A teenager, Alba, was one of those recruits. He was finally in a position where he could really help others, save people who needed to be saved, and become a hero. During the course of his training he would get stronger physically and mentally, get to know his fellow recruits and make friends, and hopefully find some with whom he was drift compatible so he could pilot a Jaeger and really make a difference in the fight.

And that’s…

That’s where things start to get silly.

Chapter Text

Alba’s first impression of the King and the workers at the castle was that they were strong, and great, and professional and all those things that you’d expect out of people in leadership positions. The King, sitting stately on his throne, waved his arm in front of him and confidently proclaimed their meeting to be over, and the gathering of heroes, soldiers, demons, and workers dispersed.

Alba would later become disappointed with a lot of people in this room for one reason or another, but because he didn’t know that yet, he left the room with a sense of optimistic excitement.

The purpose of the meeting that day was to help the “heroes” get paired up with a soldier. This was both for training and utilitarian purposes. On top of the Kaiju threat looming over humanity, there were many other monsters who were transported from the demon world and were dangerous to the general populace. Hunting down said monsters not only helped the people but also provided much needed strength and tactical training to recruits. It also, hopefully, helped a hero-and-soldier duo build up rapport and make them better fighters together, whether through the Drift in a Jaeger or alongside each other as warriors on a battlefield.

Alba knew within the first couple of days of traveling with Ros that they were not only NOT Drift Compatible but also unlikely to accomplish any monster extermination if Ros didn’t FUCKING HELP HIM.

“Help me, dammit!!” Alba found himself shouting, again.

“Why?” Ros replied with a confused look on his face.

“What do you mean ‘WHY?’????”

And so, Alba got the shit beat out of him by a Nisepanda while Ross looked on and yawned lazily. Only when he was incapacitated did Ross come in and effortlessly launch the monster into the atmosphere.

“You’re supposed to help me!!” Alba complained at him later, “That’s why you’re here!”

“But Hero, I am helping you-“

“Don’t give me that bullshit again about ‘helping me get stronger by letting me face opponents on my own’! I already know you just like seeing me get beat up!”

“Ah!” Ros gasped. “I didn’t know you were capable of remembering that far back! Everyone calls you ‘Goldfish Brain’, so I thought your memory was like a goldfish!”

“Nobody calls me ‘Goldfish Brain’!! And why didn’t you deny being a sadist?!”

Alba was beginning to question the choices and circumstances that brought him to this point.

Eventually, they managed to beat a few monsters (only a few slimes and that Nisepanda, but still), so they headed back to the castle to report in.

Alba and Ros were probably going to be tested for Drift Compatibility soon, which he was dreading. Even though he knew they wouldn’t be compatible, they still had to try to initiate a Neural Handshake, which meant their minds would be connected and Ros could take a peek into his memories. He didn’t want Ros to see any personal information about him, at all, because he was not going to give him any more ammunition to use against him again. While he wondered what was up with Ros (the dude was an enigma), Alba was more terrified than intrigued by what could possibly be going on in his brain. But the heroes were advised to try Drifting with their soldier partners first if they didn't know anyone else they think they'd be compatible with, which applied to Alba.

So if he wanted to pilot a Jaeger, it would have to be done. Why did they have to be piloted by two people? He knew that there was a good reason for it, but Alba still wished that things could be different.

“Hero.” Ros interrupted Alba's thoughts, then handed him a fruit. “Here you go.” They had stopped in a village and were taking a walk through the market to get dinner.

“Oh, thanks.” Alba said, taking it without really thinking. He took a bite out of it and kept walking. They would spend the night here, get back to the castle tomorrow, and then Alba would beg Hime-chan on his hands and knees to pair him up with someone other than Ros. And then he would miraculously find himself Drift Compatible with a nice person and they would go out and save people and everything would be fine…

But of course it wasn’t fine, because Ros was Ros.

“You mean that you didn’t pay for it?!?!?”

“Hero, how could I do that? I don’t have any money.”

“Then why’d you take it??? What happened to all the money that you took from me? And that’s not an explanation for shouting ‘Murderer! Murderer!’ and attracting the guards’ attention!”

"But you wouldn't have gotten arrested if I didn't shout that!"

"Why would you want that to happen?!"

And so, Alba found himself frantically pleading with the guards about the terrible misunderstanding they had (He’s not the one who picked up the fruit after all! I’m implicated because I took a bite out of it?? I assumed it was paid for! You don't need to conduct a murder investigation, nothing happened!). As Ros taunted and laughed at him from the corner of their cell, Alba decided that maybe he could be a hero in other ways. He liked studying, and the people who built and maintained the Jaegers were just as important as the people who fought in them. He could devote himself to being trained as a mechanic or a researcher on contribute to the cause that way.

The guards weren't having any of Alba's pleas or Ros' shit, and Alba and Ros eventually found themselves sitting in silence in their cell. “I can’t believe you,” Alba sighed deeply. “I can’t believe you actually got us arrested. Is this really happening?”

“Of course it is, Hero,” Ros said with a comforting tone. A soft smile appeared on his face. “You really are in jail right now.”

“Why do your tone and your face not really line up with the things you’re saying?” Alba attempted to put some venom into his voice, but he was running out of energy. He laid helplessly on his side on the stone floor near a wall. “I should be laying in a bed at the inn right now…” he muttered.

“Hero! I have good news!” Ros enthusiastically announced.

Not enthusiastically, Alba turned his head to look at him. “I don’t believe you, but what is it?”

“We didn’t have enough money to stay at the inn! But now we get to spend the night indoors for free!”

Alba didn’t know what he was expecting. He covered his face with his hands and curled in on himself. “That's your fault too…”

And then the world started to shake.

Earthquakes weren’t common in this part of the world. Not only were they rare, they were never severe. Not like this rumbling that caused the bars of the cell to violently rattle.

They also didn’t rumble the earth in… pulses, on a steady beat.

But nowadays their jobs, the news, every aspect of their lives had revolved around a very specific threat. The minds of everyone were laser-focused a certain incoming danger. Alba was only left confused for a second before comprehension roused him from the floor.

“The shaking is getting stronger.” Ros stated with uncharacteristic seriousness. “The steps are getting louder.”

A Kaiju was coming. And it was coming here.

Chapter Text

Oh god. Alba thought. A boom resonated through the air and shook the prison. Faint screaming and some crashing could be heard from outside. This is it. This is happening.

Alba was frozen, caught between fight and flight. He kept glancing between Ross and the door to their cell. There was no one else here. There was a crack on the far wall that wasn’t there before. His stomach dropped as realization came over him.

“Soldier! The guard! He’s gone and he didn’t unlock the door!” Alba exclaimed.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Hero?” The serious look on Ros’ face was replaced with a bored one.

“We can’t get out! This building could come down and we’re trapped!”

“Calm down Hero,” Ros calmly stated, “The shaking isn’t that strong. At most the walls will crack enough that we can break them down and let ourselves out.”

“But what if the Kaiju comes over here and crushes-“

And then Ros suddenly punched Alba in the gut, causing him to collapse to the ground. “W-why…?” Alba wheezed out.

“You were wide open,” Ros said matter-of-factly.

Another boom, louder, echoed in the distance. The walls and the ceiling of the cell started to crack, forming some cracks right over the bars of their cage. What is this building made up that it's breaking so easily? Alba wondered. Ros calmly walked over to the bars and shook one of them, testing it; the bar was loose, but not able to be pulled out.

Alba decided to brush off the fact that he had been punched to follow Ros’ lead. He got up and went over to start yanking on the bars himself. He watched the ceiling as the bar chipped away at cracks that had been made around it.

“Come on, come on,” he mumbled to himself as he shook the bars, not noticing that Ros was now standing stoically off to the side. A boooom and the crunch of what was probably a stone building being crushed taunted him.

“Wow, Hero,” Rss said with a grin, “you really are like a true criminal now, trying to break out of jail.”

Alba whipped his head around to glare at Ros. “If we don’t break out we. Might. Die.” Hard shakes of the bars punctuated his sentence. “If we don’t get out we can’t help.” Alba turned back to look at the ceiling, so he didn’t notice Ros’ expression as it changed to something more thoughtful. “And you’re the one who brought up breaking out first...”

Alba was suddenly startled as a large black hole suddenly appeared in the air next to him. A small girl with pink hair crawled out of it. “We have to go!” the girl commanded.

“Wait, wait, what’s this?! Who are you?!” but even as he said this, Alba finally recognized Rchimedes III, the 11 year-old Demon Lord. “Why are you here?!”

“We should probably get our stuff and go before all that,” Ros replied casually. He turned to Alba, “Unless you’re just that attached to your prison uniform…”

“Right! Explanations later! Escape first!” Alba quickly agreed. Ruki used her portals to make a hole in the bars and let them out.

The sounds of the approaching Kaiju got louder as Alba and Ros retrieved their belongings and the three ran from the building.

“Initiating Neural Handshake between the Princess and Alles Strahl!” one of the royal scientists announced, reading off his computer.

This was it. This was the debut of the Himedam mk. II. Hime-chan and Alles, suited up, helmets on, neural interfaces connected, stood in the cockpit of their Jaeger. Hime-chan felt her heart beat faster as the Neural Handshake commenced. The two would become one mind. And that one mind, now strong enough to deal with the stresses of controlling a complex machine over 70 meters tall, would become one with the body of the Himedam.

Hime-chan felt as her memories flowed into Alles, and she allowed Alles’ memories to flow into her. Her first day on the job as a maid, the feeling of determination to get away with slacking off later. A glimpse into her childhood, a vision of her baby brother coming home for the first time. Pickpocketing the head butler’s wallet and then offering to pay for his drink with his own money; the memory was new, but it took a moment for that fact to register for Hime-chan because this was something she had already done on multiple occasions.

Shoot, Hime-chan realized she was getting into dangerous territory. Don’t chase the rabbit, don’t chase the rabbit down the rabbit hole. Hime-chan reminded herself, pulling herself away from that memory. Having only Drifted a couple of times before, she had to keep reminding herself to not become too focused on one memory and prevent herself from being trapped in it.

“You’ll be too distracted to operate the Jaeger during battle, which is dangerous enough on its own, of course. But outside of that we don’t know what will happen exactly…” a researcher had said. “Maybe you’ll just be temporarily trapped in a memory and be fine once we disconnect you. Or maybe you’ll be unable to return to reality and become a vegetable!” they explained, too excitedly. That was enough of a warning, so Hime-chan tried not to focus on any one thing and let her mind flow freely.

She felt her own memories resurface as they flowed into Alles, and from Alles, back into her own mind. The first time she sat in the original Himedam, took the controls in her hands, and walked in her mobile suit of armor out of the castle. That time she tried to talk to Foyfoy and got too nervous, and then got so flustered that she punched the head butler out when he rounded the corner and startled her. The time Alles first asked her if she had a crush on Foyfoy, and Hime-chan was so embarrassed she sucker-punched her. And then proceeded to hit the head butler because he was nearby. And that other time she hit him when that other embarrassing thing happened…

“Don’t go chasing rabbits, Hime-chan!” Alles said out loud. Ah, she must have seen Hime-chan's thought-process, how embarrassing!

“Right, I know!” Hime-chan replied, now less flustered and more anxious for what was to come. Drawn back into the present, Hime-chan let the memories go and started to feel out Alles’ current state. Nervousness and anxiousness, because even someone as carefree as Alles could take things like this seriously, but also excitement at the thought of punching things with a giant robot hand. Which. Like. Hime-chan could relate to.

“Neural Handshake successful!” The scientist announced. “The Himedam is ready for launch!”

“Neural Handshake successful!” Another scientist called out. “Cruel Blade is ready for launch!”

This was it. The final test for the Jaegers. If it was successful, they had a fighting chance against the Kaiju. If it wasn’t…

The world could be doomed.

When monsters started appearing, people generally described it as if they had all crawled out of a hole in the ground together. This was inaccurate. Most monsters suddenly warped to random locations because of small holes through space, which then closed behind them, preventing their return to the demon world. Janua Eins had described it to the others as such; one moment he was washing himself in his own bathroom, the next he was out in the wilderness in the human world.

However, that wasn’t the case for the Kaiju. There really was a massive hole in the world that stayed open for them to walk through. Rather than being a physical “hole”, it was something more like a magical gate, or a portal, or a rift through space and time. Despite their similar abilities of creating warp gates and teleportation through space, neither Ruki nor Janua were able to close it. And while it was only at one location and could be easily watched for any more invaders, anything could walk through unimpeded at any time.

And that Rift was many miles from the village it was currently attacking. There were supposed to be soldiers stationed nearby to sound the alarm if something crossed over. So why hadn’t the people in the village, or the people in the capital for that matter, been alerted sooner?

They were lucky that Ruki had traveled to that village in order to find someone. Someone who was “in the know” (a phrase that Ruki had recently learned and used at every opportunity) had gotten arrested and she needed to go break him out. Since he was someone who was apparently vital to fighting the Kaiju, Hime-chan had told Ruki that she would pardon him from whatever crime he had committed as long as it wasn’t too serious, or get him temporarily released if it was. So no, breaking him out wasn’t necessary. Just give the guards her letter with her message and the royal seal and he could go. No, don’t break him out anyway, it doesn’t matter if you want to imitate that movie you just saw.

While it was fortunate that Ruki was there to sense the Kaiju coming before it got to the village, she wasn’t there soon enough for her warning to give people enough time to evacuate. And there had been a delay getting the warning back to the castle. The Himedam and the Cruel Blade weren’t going to make it to the village in time to save it from destruction.

But they might be able to save it from being completely destroyed, and they would definitely be able to save peoples’ lives, and that’s what mattered.

Chapter Text

Alba, Ros, and Ruki ran through the streets of the village, joining the citizens who were trying to evacuate. The three rounded a corner and entered a main street. It was a wide road with an open view of the sky, the beautiful sunset, and the shadowed silhouette of the horrifying Kaiju that towered above them all. It was…

It was a fucking Nisepanda.

“Are you serious? That’s what it looks like?!” Alba cried out.

It was humongous though, its vapid smile and beady eyes towering far above the buildings of the village. Unlike most Nisepandas, this one was probably taller than the castle, which meant that it was also probably bigger than the first Kaiju to cross over. It reared up on its hind legs and pummeled a building, causing dust and debris to cloud up the air in front of it.

Alba proceeded to have a flashback of when he had been beaten to the ground by a Nisepanda (was that actually just this morning?? Fucking shit) and then nearly threw up.

A few heroes who had been close enough to the village must have arrived at some point to aid in the evacuation; Alba recognized a couple of guys he thought were called Lyman and Elmer. Lyman began to charge towards the Kaiju, screaming something about “Protecting the citizens’ smiles!” before Elmer grabbed his shirt, yanked him back, and dragged him in the direction of the evacuees. An inhuman and extremely unsettling screech erupted from the Kaiju’s mouth, startling several people into falling as they tried to flee.

“Err, Ros! And whoever you are!” Ruki began to shout to Ros and Alba as they ran. “A couple of Jaegers are coming to take care of this. We just need to get back to the castle.” At that moment, a large piece of building flew through the air and crashed to the ground not too far in front of them. Luckily, the fleeing civilians and heroes escaped being crushed to death since they were so far ahead. Well, most of them probably suffered terrible injuries from the explosion of brick and wood that came from the impact, but they were safely on the other side of the mess that now blocked the escape route, which is more than you could say for Alba and co.

“Gaahhhhh! Of course this would happen!” Alba shouted to no one in particular. He was finding that saying that sort of thing gave him the illusion of some measure of control in these sorts of situations, like right now, where things had started out terrible and were quickly becoming worse. The sounds of buildings being smashed and the booms of the Kaiju’s footfalls signaled its approach to its cornered prey.

“I can warp us to the other side!” Ruki said as she created a warp gate in the air. “Go, go!” she commanded, waving Alba and Ros into the black hole.

Ros dove through first and Alba followed behind him, diving head-first into the void. He fell out the other side, stood up, took two steps, and then collapsed as his ribs burst in pain. “What are you doing, Hero?” Ross asked, grabbing his arm and pulling him up.

“My, my ribs! I think I cracked them somehow!” Alba explained, each word wheezed out.

“We don’t have time for your theatrics. Is this your plan to finally get everyone to call you ‘Rib-Man’? Bringing up your ribs during emergency situations, so everyone will look back on the incident and say, ‘The guy, he didn’t care about the monster that was attacking everyone! All he talked about was his ribs!’ and then hope that you’ll become remembered as the ‘Rib-Guy’ or something?” Ros asked, incredulous.

Alba felt the last of his sanity leave him. “What the fuck are you talking about?! I don’t want that!! Why would I fake something like this for a reason like that?!” Alba cried out.

“Get running!” Ruki yelled at them, pushing them along as a building behind them collapsed to the ground.

Boom, boom, boom echoed in the distance, this time from in front of them. It was the sound of a running giant, but thankfully this giant wasn’t a Kaiju. Alba gasped as he noticed the colossal knight, which slowed its approach as it got closer. It’s The Himedam! Alba realized, We’re saved!.

Towering over 70 meters high, its silver body reflecting the sunset, the Himedam was truly a beacon of power and hope. The head resembled the helmet of a knight, a bright blue glow showing through the long holes of its visor. The handle of an enormous hammer peeked over its back, which the Jaeger reached back and grabbed. It wielded the hammer with both hands and slowed to a walk. With powerful steps, shaking the earth just as the Kaiju did, it moved down the wide street of the village to approach its enemy. Alba watched in awe as it stepped over them in one stride.

The victims of the attack began to shout with excitement. “This is it! This is the weapon that they were working on!” “We’ll live through this now!” “Why does it have a hammer if it’s supposed to be a knight?” “We’re saved!” “That terrifying creature can finally be beaten!!” Some, like Ruki and Ros, could only worry that this wouldn’t work or that something would go wrong. But Alba…

He watched as the red plume on the top of its head wove in the breeze as Jaeger moved. Its silhouette was haloed in light as it faced the sun. It raised the hammer in front of itself and took a defensive stance. I’m ready, it said.

The pain in Alba’s chest was temporarily forgotten, the fear and the anxiousness muted. A single thought, an overwhelming feeling, took hold of his entire being.

To save people the way he wanted to, he was going to have to be like that.

Hime-chan and Alles shared feelings of anxiousness over their bond as they faced the Kaiju. The crackle of the wireless communicator in their helmets signaled an incoming message. “Himedam, your status?” Mii-chan, who was helping coordinate the forces back at the castle (the talking, masochistic cat had great leadership and organizational skills, somehow), was their primary point of contact.

As the dominant pilot, Hime-chan replied, “The Himedam has arrived and has visual confirmation of the Kaiju. Uh… we’re standing right in front of it. We’re ready to engage.”

“Roger that,” Mii-chan replied. Hime-chan and Alles heard him turn away from his microphone and update someone else nearby. After an exchange of a few words, he returned to the mic. “Cruel Blade has also arrived at the target,” Mii-chan informed them. Foyfoy and Rudolf's Jaeger wasn't quite as fast, left behind when The Himedam ran off.

A thought suddenly came to Alles’ mind, about how it would be good for Hime-chan’s love prospects (and how entertaining it would be for Alles) to tell her to show off to Foyfoy. To tell her about how impressed he’d be if she fought well, and then sit back and laugh as Hime-chan blushed and freaked out in her embarrassment. But even Alles knew that there was a time and place for everything, and this wasn’t the time for it…

…Unfortunately, not being quite used to Drifting, she completely forgot that not saying things out loud didn’t prevent those ideas from being communicated to her partner.

“Nooooooo!!!” Hime-chan screamed, making The Himedam swing the hammer wildly in front of them. “I can’t do that! What if I screwed it up? I can’t believe he’s watching me!! AAAHHHH!” Her instinct to destroy everything in front of her overrode all rational thought. “I don’t even like him that much anyway!!! What are you even saying right now!!”

Alles quickly realized that “Hey, the Kaiju is in front of us, this is what we want to happen” and then let her thoughts sync to Hime-chan’s. Together, they began to beat the shit out of the Kaiju.

The original plan of drawing the Kaiju away from the village to minimize damage was forgotten in favor of smashing the thing over and over again with their drill-tipped hammer. A hard whack with the hammer barely stunned it, but several hard whacks in a row stopped its advance. They did manage to get it out of the village, but by taking the flat side of their weapon and homerunning the Kaiju into the sky. It didn’t fly that far, heavy as it was, but it made it outside of the village.

Scarily, the Nisepanda-looking Kaiju stood right back up, then unleashed a roar that could release the bowels of even the most hardened soldiers. The Himedam turned the hammer in its hands, the sharp point of the hammer rotated to be in the perfect position to stab. Cruel Blade ran over to meet them. “Hey, don’t go taking all the fun for yourself!” Foyfoy said over their communicator, announcing their approach. The others decided to ignore his mumbling of “I’ve always wanted to say that”.

Cruel Blade’s right hand had an attachment, a hand guard which also held a butcher-knife-like blade. Similar in stature to the Himadam, but donning a soldier’s armor instead of a knight’s, it also had an extra sword strapped to its back. The utility belt around its waist started to hiss with the release of smoke (not for any special reason, it just looked cool), as Cruel Blade took on a battle-ready stance.

“Calmed down yet, Hime-chan?” Alles asked her partner aloud, though she could already feel the change in mood over their bond. The two, minds in sync, also took on their own cool pose, back-to-back with Cruel Blade. With the dimming light of the sun, the blue light emanating from the visor of The Himedam and the eye-like windows of Cruel Blade illuminated the Kaiju in front of them.

“Let’s fuckin' DO THIS!” Hime-chan and Alles shouted together, and the three behemoths engaged in battle.

Chapter Text

“We’ll charge it first and stun it,” Hime-chan told the pilots in Cruel Blade over the communicator, “then you guys go in for a second hit! Remember to watch for blood!” The blood of a Kaiju was both poisonous and highly corrosive, capable of quickly eating away at most metals and poisoning the earth that the Kaiju ultimately died on.

“Yes, Hime-sama!” Foyfoy and Rudolf answered in unison.

The Himedam brought its hammer down onto the head of the Kaiju and smashed it to the ground. It hit the earth hard, but before it could shake of its disorientation, Cruel Blade came in from its left side and swung its bladed fist into its neck. It cut deep and revealed… blue blood? They had heard that the other Kaiju had weirdly colored blood, but it was odd to see it in person. Especially since every other non-Kaiju monster, including normal Nisepandas, had red blood. The blade was charged with energy and cauterized the wound as it sliced, preventing any bleeding but still showing the color of the flesh underneath. The Jaegers shifted their positions around to get in the next hit.

The Kaiju’s face contorted with anger and released another horrific screech. The Himedam rudley interrupted it by bringing the hammer back up, knocking its head far back, after which Cruel Blade made a slash through its chest and belly. They then moved around the Kaiju again, arranging themselves for their next actions and preventing the Kaiju from running away. Rinse and repeat: hit it with a hammer, slash it with a blade, reposition, over and over again, coming in from different directions. All in all, it was becoming a pretty gruesome beat-down. In fact, filled with confidence because of the Jaegers' domination of the fight, many of the villagers who had been fleeing came around the village to watch the spectacle from a distance.

And then suddenly the Kaiju sprang back away from the Jaegers. It wasn’t able to stay on its feet, but that didn’t matter because its face suddenly distorted and fucking split open, slices of its head folding back like the blooming of an awful flower. But instead of pollen or a stamen or whatever else it is flowers have, it had zig-zaggy rows of saw-like teeth, a long tongue that flopped around helplessly, and a rapidly-expanding, blue flesh-pouch that quickly grew to be bigger than its head had been.

“What the fuck?!” Foyfoy shouted over their communicators which, coincidentally, was the same thing everyone else thinking.

Rapidly collecting herself, Alles shouted “Get back away from it!” as she and Hime-chan quickly retreated from the Kaiju.

The bubble that formed out of the Kaiju’s neck abruptly exploded, gallons upon gallons of its blue blood flying in all directions. The pilots of Cruel Blade were too slow to react; they jumped backwards but their Jaeger was caught in the blast, its face and chest drenched in the corrosive fluid.

“NOOO!” Hime-chan screamed. The metal of Cruel Blade melted away before her eyes, and it fell forward to the ground. Over her communicator she heard Mii-chan shouting to others at the castle. Hime-chan and Alles cautiously walked The Himedam towards the other Jaeger. Their instincts told them to help, but they couldn't touch the blood either; they were left helpless.

Suddenly, a hatch opened on its back. To the immense relief of everyone watching, Foyfoy climbed out of the Cruel Blade, pulling Rudolf up after him. Their helmets were gone, their suits a little scuffed, but they were alright. “Mind giving us a little lift?” Foyfoy called up to The Himedam. “It’s, uh, it’s still deteriorating under our feet here.”

Hime-chan and Alles couldn’t actually hear Foyfoy from where they were. However, Hime-chan wanted to rescue her friends (but NOT especially Foyfoy, what are you talking about?) and Alles wanted to feel like a giant who could crush a human in her palm and saw her chance, so they made their way over to fetch the other pilots from their wreckage.

“Foyfoy and Rudolf are alright!” Hime-chan reported to Mii-chan. She heard Mi-chan shout in glee and cheerfully repeat her words to the others at the castle. As Foyfoy and Rudolf climbed onto its hand, The Himedam turned its head so the pilots inside could look over to the remains of their foe. “And we did it. We defeated the Kaiju.”

Alba watched in awe as The Himedam stood up. On its palm of its hand stood the pilots of the other Jaeger. They hung on to the fingers to for dear life as the Himedam carefully turned made its way towards the crowd. Everyone around him was cheering as they watched the heroes approach.

“We should head back to the castle,” Ruki said, drawing Alba out of his daze.

“Ah, we were in, uhhh, jail though,” Alba replied. “And we broke out, though it was for good reason. Should we go back or…?”

“I didn’t know you wanted to be in jail so badly, Hero,” Ros responded with a smirk.

“I don’t! But I also don’t want to break the law and in more trouble than we’re already in!”

“Hime-chan already pardoned you, well, she has the papers written to pardon you if anyone complains,” Ruki clarified.

“That doesn’t… sound quite right, but as long as it’s the princess who said so…” Alba, physically and emotionally exhausted, decided that it was best to leave it be.

The sun was just about set, but soldiers and aides from the capital and nearby towns sent out aid in the form of lights and transportation so refugees could get to other places if they needed to. Not all of the village was destroyed, but a good portion of it was, and there wasn’t enough room to house and feed everyone who needed it. So Alba, Ros, and Ruki walked along with a caravan that was heading in the direction of the capital.

The Himedam, far ahead, had already walked out of sight when Alba asked Ruki about her abilities.

“I didn’t get the chance to thank you before for saving us,” Alba began, “so thanks. Without you we might have been really hurt… well, more hurt.” He sighed and held his arms tighter to his chest, his ribs aching in pain. “What exactly is your ability, anyway? It was really helpful!”

“I can create warp gates!” Ruki excitedly explained. “But my distance is limited to about 50 meters. Also, the warp gate cracks the ribs of anyone human who goes through without wearing a special suit,” she added, less excitedly.

“So that’s why…” Alba responded thoughtfully. “Wait. Soldier went through the gate too. How come his ribs aren’t cracked?”

“They were, I just immediately healed them with my healing magic,” Ros stated, as though it were obvious.

“I didn’t know you could use healing magic! Do you think you could heal me up too?”

Ros shook his head and scoffed. “There you go Hero, going on about your ribs… isn’t it about time to move on to more important things?”

“This is important!”

Their argument was interrupted by a shrill ringing from Ruki’s robe. She pulled out a communicator and headset and slipped it on. Alba watched her curiously, keeping her in his peripherals as he concentrated on walking forward.

“This is Ruki! …Yep, we made it out. We’re heading back now…. Oh, if you could that would be nice! Yes, thank you!” Ruki took off her headset and stuff her tech back into her clothes. “Hime-chan and Alles are already coming to pick us up. We’ll be able to get back to the castle tonight.” Alba was a little flustered at the thought of the day’s heroes personally coming to pick them up. Perhaps sensing this, Ruki said, “I need to be back ASAP,” which she pronounced “a-sap” (it was another word she had learned recently), “and it’s just faster if they come to get us.”

They walked for a little while more before Alles, riding a motorized vehicle that vaguely resembled The Himedam, met them and picked them up. Stuffing Alba into the cannon that it had because of lack of seating (when he asked why there was a cannon Alles only responded that “Obviously we needed more firepower than just a rocket punch!” which didn’t explain anything really, but Alba stopped caring), the four rode off to the castle under the light of the moon.

Wait. Didn’t Ruki say that Alles and the princess were going to pick them up? Where was Hime-san?

Unbeknownst to Alba, who was struggling with the pain of his rib injury in an incredibly uncomfortable position in the cannon, Hime-chan was also struggling along uncomfortably, twisted inside the body of the vehicle they rode.

Chapter Text

After their arrival in the capital, Alba and Ros were set up in a hotel for what remained of the night. Alba dropped on the mattress of his bed and passed out immediately. The two had been told to report to the castle the next day, but only after they had rested up, so Alba was more than content to sleep as much as he was able. He got up in the late morning, pleasantly surprised to find that Ros didn’t wake him up at the crack of dawn or draw on his face or something. After washing up and getting themselves back together, the two set out for the castle.

When they arrived, they were met by an enthusiastic butler named Muffin, who made a bit of small talk with Alba (and mentioned how this would normally be the job for the head butler, but he didn’t want to do it so he “gave Muffin the opportunity to show his ability as a butler”). Muffin guided them to the research facility that built and stored the Jaegers before excusing himself.

They were greeted by Ruki. “Hi guys!” she called to them as she ran over. “Thanks for coming!”

“Of course! What is it that you needed us for, Ruki?” Alba replied.

“Oh, we only needed Ros here…”

“Oh…”

“…but it’s okay if you’re here too, Alba!” Ruki cheerfully added.

“Why do you need him,” Alba pointed at Ros, “anyway?”

“We need him to pilot a Jaeger.”

Alba whipped his head from Ruki to Ros in surprise. “Huh? Him?”

“He’s piloted one before,” Ruki explained, leaving Alba even more shocked. This was the first he’d heard of that! And he thought that The Himedam and Cruel Blade were the first Jaegers created; how could Ros have piloted one before? He was just a soldier, at least Alba thought he was just a soldier... how involved in this was he? “The Jaeger called Cruel Blade was destroyed, y’know?” Ruki continued. That must have been the one taken down by the Kaiju last night then. “And although Foyfoy and Rudolf, who piloted it, could probably pilot the other Jaeger here, that Jaeger’s a bit… special.”

“Hello, Ruki-tan! Foyfoy and I have arrived! How are you this morning?” An odd, very short old man came running up to Ruki, followed by a blonde young man with a scar on his face. Ruki’s face generated a placid but fake-looking smile as she waved back.

The man noticed Alba and proceeded to introduce himself. “I’m Rudolf, royal soldier and Jaeger pilot. And this is Foyfoy, my partner,” he gestured to the other. “And who might you be?”

“Ah, I’m Alba, one of the heroes… I actually saw your fight with the Kaiju last night. You guys were incredible!” Alba found himself unable to contain his excitement as he remembered the fight.

“We still got our asses kicked at the end there…” Foyfoy grumbled.

“Heeeyyyy guys!” Alles called as she and Hime-chan approached. Hime-chan seemed a little stiff for some reason. “Why are we all gathered here? Oh!” Alles leaned in and began to whisper, “I know what this is.”

Foyfoy looked unamused. “What do you think this is?”

Alles smirked. “We’re procrastinating. Standing around and talking and doing something else so we don’t have to do any work.” Alles brought her hand to her chin and nodded. “I usually dump my work on other people and hide in one of the unused rooms to avoid the shit I have to do, but hiding in plain sight like this works too!”

“We were actually waiting for you guys!” Ruki clarified. Was that what they were doing? Alba realized that he didn’t really know what was going on. “Hey, wait,” she said while suddenly grabbing Ros’ sleeve. Ros had tried to use the distraction of the conversation to walk off without anyone noticing.

“Unfortunately, Foyfoy and I have to go now, Ruki-tan!” Rudolf announced. Rudolf turned to Alba, “It was nice meeting you.”

“Yeah you too,” Alba responded a little weakly. He was nice enough, but there was something off about this guy…

“See you guys around, I guess,” Foyfoy said as he turned to leave. He gave a little wave towards Hime-chan, who blushed profusely.

“I don’t- I don’t care! Just leave!” she stammered out. Rudolf cheerfully waved back at the group as he and Foyfoy walked off.

“What’s with…?” Alba intended to direct his question towards Hime-chan, but she was yelling something about being embarrassed and “how could I say that?!” and seemed busy punching Alles, so he turned to Ruki.

“Rudolf's a pervert,” Ruki said, “but he does buy me desserts!” she explained with a smile.

Alba was more incredulous about that than Ruki. “Is it okay for someone like that to be a Jaeger pilot?”

Hime-chan seemed to have calmed down, though Alles was left groaning on the floor. “Rudolf might be a creeper, but he hasn’t actually done anything wrong yet,” the princess explained. That didn’t make Alba feel any better. “He’s also one of the most reliable and experienced soldiers my father has.” That really didn’t make Alba feel better.

“Hero, don’t make that face,” Ros said. “After all, of the two of you, aren’t you’re the one who was recently arrested for committing a crime?”

“That was your fault!” Alba cried.

“Oh Hero,” Ros sighed, shaking his head, “you need to learn to take responsibility for your own actions.”

“Alba!” Hime-chan gasped. “And here I thought maybe you had been arrested because of a misunderstanding or something…”

“But that’s exactly what it was!” Alba cried to Hime-shan. He turned back to Ros, “Soldier, stop implicating me in your crimes!”

“But then you wouldn’t have a criminal record!” Ros stated with more passion than Alba had ever seen from him.

“I don’t want that!” Ros was going to bully away his sanity for the second time in less than 24 hours and Alba didn’t think he could handle it.

“Ros and I need to go talk about Jaeger stuff,” Ruki interrupted, obliviously saving Alba from combusting right there. “Could you guys explain things to Alba?”

Explain what to Alba? His head was spinning from everything that was happening, but before he knew it, Ruki was waving back at him as she and Ros walked away.

Chapter Text

Ros and Ruki walked down a corridor that wound through the castle. While The Himedam and Cruel Blade were currently located by the research facility where they could be worked on, Ros’ Jaeger was on standby in on the other side of the castle. Also, it was already too hard to move around the loading bay area with two Jaegers plus more Jaegers under construction, let alone a certain extra Jaeger that they weren’t planning on using. At least, that was the original plan for this Jaeger.

Ros knew that there was going to be a conversation that he really didn’t want to have, so he was being brusque and quiet in retaliation. He walked with strides far longer and faster than poor Ruki’s, who had to jog to keep up.

“Wait, err, Ros!” Ruki breathlessly called out, getting Ros’ attention. He stopped and turned back to face her. When she caught up with him, breathing a little hard, he started walking again. Though he kept a slower pace this time.

“Why is that the name you gave everyone, anyway? Are you trying to hide your identity?”

Ros shrugged. “It would just be a pain if most people here knew.” He glanced over to Ruki. “Have you-”

“I haven’t told anyone. And I just know from what my father told me, Mr. Creasion-“

“Don’t call me that,” Ros cut in, revealing more emotion than he wanted to. “Creasion… it was the name I took on by myself later, but Creasion was us, not just me.”

Ruki gave him a small smile and nodded. “So it’s just Shion, then?”

“Whatever.” Ros, rather, Shion, schooled his face into a neutral expression in an attempt to cover up his feelings once more.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. They eventually reached a door; newer than the other doors around it, and made of metal rather than wood, this door also had a pin pad attached to it. Ruki put in the code that Hime-chan had given her, granting her access to the large storage bay on the other side.

Shion slowly walked into the room, his eyes fixated on the colossal machine within. He came to a stop near some tables that held various tools for working on the Jaeger, a sign of recent maintenance. But anyone who had been familiar with the Jaeger's previous state would know just by looking at it that it had been worked on. After a few moments, Shion broke the silence. “…So you fixed it,” he stated in a monotone voice.

Ruki walked up next to him. “We didn’t have the technology to replicate what you had before, or get anywhere close really,” she said. Shion didn’t produce any kind of response. Unsure of what else to do, Ruki continued to stand awkwardly next to him.

After several more minutes of them just standing there, she decided to voice a question that had been on her mind for a while. “The Kaiju… why you can’t just use your magic real quick to seal them again, like last time?”

Shion sighed. “Magic doesn’t work that well on them.” He turned to face Ruki. “They’re not… I don’t know what your dad told you about them, but they aren’t from here you know what I mean? Like, that last Kaiju took on the appearance of a Nisepanda, but that’s not its true form. There’s some kind of distortion making it look that way. The distortions they create are probably what woke me up.”

Ruki hummed thoughtfully as Shion leaned back against one of the tables. “Magic just doesn’t affect them in the same way as it does the rest of our world, uh, worlds. Our universe, or whatever,” he tried to explain. “I ended up needing beat them into submission and then like… cast magic around them? All of them at once, to seal them. It was different from how I later sealed that guy.” Shion sighed again. “On top of that, it seems like they’re stronger now, for some reason. I don’t know if I can accomplish sealing them like that again. And if I could, using that amount of magic would wake him up, and we can’t deal with him and the Kaiju at the same time.”

“So you understand what needs to be done,” a voice called out from behind them. Shion and Ruki turned to see Janua Eins and Samejima walk into the room. Samejima continued, “Coming together and defeating them once and for all.”

Shion scoffed at him, then took a moment to process what he said. “Wait… how much do you know?”

Samejima gave him a confident smile. “A comrade is having trouble, so of course I know what’s bothering him so I can help.”

God, I wish Alba was here to retort the shit out of this guy. Ros nearly said aloud, before forcefully pushing the thought away. “I’m not going to pilot again,” Shion said instead. He glared towards Samejima, then turned to look Ruki in the face. “I’m not going to Drift with anyone else.”

Ruki looked up at him sadly, understanding but desperate. Samejima stared, daring him to back away from his responsibility. Janua fidgeted and looked on nervously, having been frightened by Shion’s death glare. “I can tell you everything I know and help theorize possible strategies. When we no longer need to worry about the distortions from the Kaiju completely undoing the seal, I’ll seal him up tight again. That’s all,” Shion said. He walked and left the others behind him, pushing past Samejima and Janua to get out of the room and away from his past.

And then the world began to shake.

Chapter Text

While Ros and Ruki made their way through the castle, Alba walked through the research facility with Hime-chan, Alles, and Mii-chan, who had joined them along the way. Mii-chan was already a bit of a spectacle, being a talking cat. Then when Alba tried to hide his initial shock, Mii-chan far too excitedly encouraged Alba to tell him how much of a weirdo he was. In the meantime, Alba continued to question if the world was going to be safe in the hands of the people who worked here.

They explained a bit about the facility; this is where the tech for the Jaegers in being constructed, this is where it’s tested, here is where the Jaegers are docked, etc. Looking up at The Himedam from its monitoring station on the ground, Alba continued to be in awe and was becoming increasingly overwhelmed at the whole thing.

“Alright!” the princess said. “You were gonna get trained in this sooner or later anyway, so we might as well get you acquainted with the tech now!” She turned to call over someone. “Februar! Can you help us out?”

A short, red-haired girl walked over to the group from where she had been talking to a couple of other people. Alba quickly realized that this person was a demon; the strange, black orb on her shoulder with a shadow tentacle that waved in greeting didn’t exactly scream “regular human person” after all. “Hello, your highness,” she greeted. “I’ve finished infusing mana into the new devices, so they’re ready to be tested.”

Hime-chan nodded back in acknowledgement before turning to Alba. “These are Februar and Zwei. They’re a demons who’ve come to work for Ruki and help us with the Kaiju threat. And this is Alba,” she turned back to the demons(?), “and he’s going to learn how to Drift today!”

Alba was going to what. Like, yeah, Alba really wanted to become a Jaeger pilot, but this was so sudden! Before Alba could exclaim his feelings of “why is my day being decided for me like this!?” out loud, Februar had taken a step closer to shake his hand. And then she suddenly collapsed to the ground in pain, startling Alba.

“Ahhh! My hip again!” she complained, rubbing her side. Alba, shaken, was unsure of what to do and stood frozen.

“She’s also a lot older than she looks. She's basically a grandma!,” Alles added helpfully. She didn't make a move to help her up, however.

“Let’s get you up…” a new voice said. The black tentacle that came from her shoulder suddenly elongated, attached itself to a large object nearby, and pulled Februar up. And then the black orb on her shoulder revealed it had a face, because of course it did, why wouldn’t it? Alba got enough presence of mind back to register that this must be the other demon. Mii-chan then helped Februar get herself settled in a rolly chair (and then offered himself as her footstool, which she declined).

"Alright! Let this professional teach you all about Drifting!" Alles whipped a lab coat out of nowhere and slipped it on. She began her lesson. "Drifting between two people is necessary to pilot a Jaeger, because if you don't you head will explode from the stress!"

"THAT'S NOT QUITE IT ALLES," Hime-chan sternly interrupted.

"I don't know who you're talking about!" Alles replied, crossing her arms and striking a cool pose. "I'm the mysterious scientist, 'X'!" Regardless of her identity, she received a punch to the face from Hime-chan.

Hime-chan decided to take over while Alles held her nose in pain. "Jaegers are very large, very complex machines. We wouldn't be able to control them efficiently enough if we didn't have a direct hookup to our minds. There are physical controls too, like pedals that attach to our feet that are used to control the legs, but the mental link prevents a delay in movement. The whole control system would be too much pressure for one person's mind, however." Hime-chan grimaced a bit. "Preliminary tests the scientists made did cause seizures and other damage when they tried controlling the Jaegers on their own. They were trying to adapt it from the technical specs that Ruki gave them, which originally specified that at least to people were necessary to handle the neural load, but got caught up in the testing process and discovered the side effects for themselves..."

"So two people Drift together, making them synchronized mentally so they can control the Jaeger together and share the burden and making it so neither of them get brain damage from the piloting a big magic robot," Alles, now recovered, summarized.

Alba was starting to get it now.

“We should probably show you the suit you need to wear while piloting next…” Hime-chan said.

Alles suddenly gasped, bringing a fist down onto the open palm of her other hand. “Let’s play ‘dress up’!” she all too enthusiastically exclaimed.

Alba didn’t like the sound of that, but unfortunately Hime-chan agreed with Alles. “It will be the best way to get you acquainted with the armor. And it will be fun (for us)!”

"How did you say those parentheses out loud?!" But Alba's retort fell on deaf ears. Instead, Alles grabbed at Alba's chest plate and sword, telling him to "take it off!" and causing Alba to become even more flustered. The others dragged out a bunch of trunks as Alba stood by and awkwardly watched.

Mii-chan and Alles opened up the containers, unpacked what looked like pieces of armor, and then fit said pieces onto Alba. “These are about right…” Mii-chan said, “but if you become a pilot, you’ll be measured later and have suit pieces made to fit you. You’ll also have a special suit to wear underneath them.”

“The suit protects your body, but it also connects you to the device used for Drifting. The core element,” Hime-chan explained as she hoisted up a long, complex-looking metallic object, “is this magical device. It plugs into the back of the suit, along you spine. It uses magic to synchronize your movement to the Jaeger so you can control it.” She and Alles plugged it into the back of the armor Alba was wearing. It was surprisingly heavy.

“And here’s the helmet!” Alles excitedly waved said item around. “It has a radio inside to communicate with the castle as well as any nearby Jaegers.” She shoved the helmet onto Alba. It covered his entire head, though the front of the helmet was clear, giving Alba full visibility.

Now fully armored like a real Jaeger pilot, a bit of excitement began to stir in Alba’s chest. He placed his hands on his hips and looked confidently toward Hime-chan and Alles. “How do I look?” he asked with a smile.

“Ppfffft!” Alles put her hand over her mouth and did a poor job of keeping her laughter in.

“You’ll look better when you get armor made to fit you,” was all Hime-chan said.

“Gee, thanks.” Any confidence Alba had gained had been quickly drained out of him.

“Let’s get that off of you then,” Februar said. She got up from her chair and came over to help Alba out of the suit.

As Alba’s new digs were disassembled, she went ahead and explained some more things. “We demons have a lot of magic,” she started, “and we can infuse it into the Jaegers and other devices. That’s how they work. Normally, using magic will have an effect on the human world. Only using a little is fine, but too much will start to warp reality.”

“Demons have so much mana that them just being in the world can start to effect it,” Mii-chan added. “I used to be a normal cat, but I hung around another demon named Janua. Even though he never used his magic, just being around him caused my current state.”

“At least that’s the way things normally are, but now…” Februar sighed. “The kaiju changed that. They create some kind of distortion that kind of acts... opposite? Of the kinds of distortions caused by mana. So it cancels out the effects of our magic on the world, but it’s going too much in the other direction and causing its own problems…”

“And that’s why,” Hime-chan continued, “we need to defeat the Kaiju as soon as possible. Besides the physical destruction they've been causing, their presence is beginning to affect our world's reality. So we’re going to teach you how to Drift and test if you’re Drift Compatible with Ros.”

Alba knew that this was coming. And honestly? He was beginning to accept it. Saving people was more important than his personal grievances with Ros; if that's who he had to be partnered with, so be it. It wouldn’t kill him (though he might wish that he was dead). But a thought suddenly occurred to him. “There are a lot of other heroes who are candidates for pilots, right? So there has to be at least two people among all of them who are Drift Compatible, and there are other Jaegers in production right now. Why don’t I see anyone else in training here, or anyone else who could be a candidate for partnering with Ros?”

“Yeah, we have a couple of Jaegers in the works that are almost complete,” Hime-chan explained, “and we’ll need people to pilot them. However…”

“We need at least two Jaegers on standby,” Mii-chan said. “We don’t know when the next Kaiju is going to emerge, and we need to thoroughly search for two people who are Drift Compatible and then train them to be battle ready. We'll search for other pilots in the meantime, but in an emergency like this it’s more important to focus on finding someone who’s Drift Compatible with Ros and let the one newbie learn from his experience. ”

“And that’s where I come in….” Alba said.

“That’s where you come in,” Hime-chan confirmed. Then she sighed. “You probably won’t be Drift Compatible, actually, but since you’ve worked with him and gotten to know about him more as a person you have the best chance.”

“Is Drift Compatibility really that rare?” Alba asked.

Hime-chan nodded. “I don’t know what you know about it,” she began, “but to be Compatible, your minds have to be able to work together as one unit to control the Jaeger.” She brought her hand to her chin in thought. “Drift Compatibility is like… it’s the potential between two people? A strong personal connection and acceptance of each other bring two people together.” Hime-chan looked over to her blue-haired counterpart. “Alles and I have known each other for a while now and understand each other pretty well. Foyfoy doesn’t judge others and is willing to work with anyone, and Rudolf is used to working with all kinds of people. These things are what make us Drift Compatible.”

Alba nodded in understanding, but he was starting to get nervous. Alba put up with a lot, and he felt like he could accept whatever Ros had in store, but he was afraid of Ros judging him. Still, for the sake of humanity they had to try. “All right,” he said, “let’s do this.”

Hime-chan nodded back, but she deflated. “Now we just have to convince Ros to try Drifting…” she said with a disappointed tone.

“He doesn’t want to pilot?” Alba asked, confused.

“That guy has some kind of tragic backstory or something,” Alles said, “and someone told Ruki that gossiping isn’t a good thing to do, so she won’t tell me about it.” She pushed her hair back from her face and sighed. “If he doesn’t pilot, we aren’t going to be ready for the next attack, but he’s letting his emo-ness get in the way.”

“I’m sure he has his reasons, Alles!” Hime-chan retorted, but she also sighed. “Still…”

Silence fell upon the group. Alba began to feel the pressure the others had been feeling as the reality of their situation set in. Ros needed to cooperate. But even if they got him to cooperate now, if Alba wasn’t Drift Compatible with him they would still be down a Jaeger... And hunting for another possible partner for Ros would take time, which they didn't have a lot of…

“Well, then,” Mii-chan clapped his paws together and broke the silence. “let’s get you acquainted with the actual process-”

And then the world began to shake.

Chapter Text

A couple of palace guards stood on the castle wall, looking out into the distance. Radios had been developed for the Jaegers but had also been handed out to various guards and soldiers; that meant that one of the guards should fearfully report what it was they were seeing to the rest of the castle.

This good news was that it wasn’t a Kaiju causing the shaking this time. The bad news was that what was causing the shaking was much, much worse.

Because what was causing the shaking looked like a Jaeger.

A solid black colossus took large, slow steps that shook the castle and the surrounding city. Its face had six red eyes, arranged in two columns. Each eye, glowing brightly even in the daylight, were made to look like a dice and were numbered one through six. The shadow cast by its form stretched out far beyond were it should and then moved, rising from the ground. Like a blunt weapon, it destroyed rock formations and any other obstacle in the path of the gigantic machine.

Alone a room with just his prime minister, the King worried aloud. “That guy wouldn’t actually destroy the castle, would he?” he asked the other man.

“Of course not,” the prime minister replied, “this is all part of the plan.”

“Right, this is just a farce. If our heroes defeat an enemy as threatening as that, our legend will become even greater! The King holding down the fort as his heroes go out to defeat a direct threat… yes…” The King began to make his own excuses, saving the other from having to come up with them for him.

It wouldn’t be long before the King outlived his usefulness and they could dispose of him, but the less trouble they had in the meantime, the better.

Dezember just needs to destroy the last usable Jaeger, the prime minister, Maine Funf, thought to himself, then we’ll be free to put the rest of our plans into action.

“…So you just have to remember to not ‘chase the rabbit’ and get trapped in a memory,” Mii-chan explained as they ran, “but communicating in the Headspace can be a little disorienting at first-”

Alba tried to keep up with what Mii-chan was saying, but urgently running under a stressful situation was, interestingly, not the best environment to receive a lecture about an incredibly complex mind-meld process integral to controlling highly advanced magical mecha. Let alone a lecture that was compacting months’ worth of information into one conversation. But through the reports Mii-chan was receiving, it was becoming increasingly clear that this new enemy wasn’t something that Hime-chan and Alles (who were already getting ready to launch The Himedam) could take on alone. Even though it was dangerous, Alba might be needed here for everyone to have a chance of surviving this encounter.

Mii-chan was escorting Alba to the other Jaeger while explaining as much as he could. “The thought of extreme mental distress from failing to Drift properly…” Mii-chan drooled, making Alba mentally distressed for multiple reasons. Mii-chan suddenly shook his head back-and-forth, “No, this isn’t the time for that! It’s also something I wouldn’t wish to happen to anyone else except for myself!” Shit, was trying to Drift while unprepared like this going to put Alba’s life in danger?

When they arrived at their destination, they saw two men standing outside an open metal door. “Janua! Samejima!” Mii-chan called to them. Alba and Mii-chan stopped in front of the two, breathing heavily. “I leave him to you!” Mii-chan said before running back in the other direction.

“You must be Alba,” the black-haired man said, waving Alba into to next room. “I’m Janua, and this is Samejima. We’re both demons, and we’re also Jaeger pilots.”

“Pilots…” Alba vaguely registered Ros and Ruki being in the room, but was distracted by Janua's next words.

“We actually have our own Jaeger at another location, but it’s going to take a while to get it here,” Janua explained. “If you’re able to Drift with Ros, all you need to do is hold off the enemy until we get back.”

“If you can’t Drift, you’ll still be able to help guard the citizens here in the city as a hero,” Samejima added. The red-haired demon slapped Alba on the back. “I know you’ll be fine, but good luck,” he said with a confident smile. Somehow his confidence calmed Alba down a bit. He and Janua left the room, allowing Alba to finally take in his surroundings.

The Jaeger in front of Alba looked… odd. It was sleeker, the head of the machine much smaller than the others Jaegers’. Scientists nearby typed commands into their computers, making last minute tests of its mechanics. The right arm and the chest hid more firearms than the other Jaegers had, and they neatly folded away underneath sleek panels. A giant sword, glowing with energy, collapsed and easily slotted into its side. It looked for more advanced than the other Jaegers Alba had seen, but at the same time it seemed… older? The left arm, part of the left leg, and other various panels on the machine were shiny and new, but the rest held dirt, scratches, and dents. Like it had seen battle many times before.

“This,” Ruki announced, turning to Alba, “is the original Jaeger that fought against the Kaiju 1000 years ago. This is the Creasion.”

“What…?” confusion bottle-necked the flow of Alba’s words, leaving him unable to say anything in response. They fought against the Kaiju like this before? And he thought Creasion was the name of the hero who defeated the Demon Lord, not a machine!

“After the Kaiju first appeared, their presence inspired Rchimedes, the man who would become the First Demon Lord. His quest for the power he needed in order to defeat them gave the man himself unimaginable power,” Ruki explained. She looked up at Ros, “This guy here defeated and sealed the Kaiju with Creasion, but afterwards had to seal himself along with the First Demon Lord to save the world.”

It took a moment for what Ruki said to register to Alba. “You…” he said, facing Ros, “You defeated...? What...?” His mind was racing. "You... Creasion?"

He had enough time to notice the grim look of Ros’ (Creasion's?) face before he quickly chased it away with a lazy smile. “Yup,” was all he said in response.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Ruki said. “A Demon called Dezember Zwolf released the Kaiju in an attempt to also release Rchimedes I. And that Jaeger that’s coming to the castle now? That’s his.” Some scientists came over and started taking Alba’s measurements. “Several of his former allies are helping us now, which is how we know this, but only Jaegers are going to be able to defeat Dezember and the Kaiju.”

While Ruki was turning into quite the expository character, Alba’s head was spinning. A thin body suit was handed to him, and he was instructed to go behind a screen to put it on. Pieces of the piloting suit, a better size than last time, were then fitted over it. Before he knew it, he and Creasion (the human one) were standing side-by-side in front of a large computer. Their helmets, which they held in front of them, were connected to a computer via cables, which in turn connected to the Creasion (the Jaeger one). Alba looked over to Ros/Creasion as the scientists attached connected the device that would read the neural impulses from his spinal column. He looked… nervous. Anxious, for once. He had been acting weird this whole time. Alba hoped that it didn’t affect the Drift, somehow.

“This is only a test,” the lead scientist explained. “We’ll get you set up in the cockpit of the Creasion if you two are Drift Compatible.” The eyes of said Jaeger glowed as it was booted up.

“I can’t believe you’re seriously going to do this, Hero,” Creasion suddenly said to Alba. It was the first whole sentence he had sad since Alba arrived. He wasn’t teasing like usual; his face held a deeply serious expression. “The lives of everyone in this city are going to depend on you. If you can’t take that kind of pressure, you should just go now.”

Ruki and several of the scientists started panicking in the background, which is what Alba might have been doing in any other situation. But there, at that moment, he somehow found his resolve. “I want to help them,” he sternly replied to Creasion. He stared into the other’s eyes, hope to convey his seriousness. “I want to save everyone, and this is how it has to be done.” Alba faced forward once more. “I’m not stupid. I know that trying to Drift like this, without any training, is dangerous. And I know that even if it’s successful, fighting that guy is going to be even more dangerous. Be we don’t have a choice.”

Alba was so focused on staring ahead and trying to show Creasion that his discouraging words weren’t getting to him that he didn’t notice the small smile that appeared on Creasion’s face.

“Don’t regret saying that later, Hero,” Creasion replied, though Alba didn’t notice that it was more playful in tone than his previous words.

“Whatever. Let’s do this.” At the scientists’ instruction, the two slipped on their helmets.

Alba swallowed nervously. He put on a brave face for Creasion, but the stress of the whole situation was starting to get to him. He was hyper-aware of the beat of his racing heart, the pressure of his pilot suit, and the sound of his own breathing in his helmet.

“Initiating Neural Handshake!”

And suddenly Alba was falling.

Chapter Text

Crea was running towards him, a large smile on his face Hey, Shii-tan! Check out this cool bug I found! Crea is beside him, years older. Ready to go again, Shii-tan? He slips on his helmet. Together, the two swing their sword, knocking back the Kaiju they had been fighting.

He’s looking down his sword now, pointed toward -You’re going to be the new Demon Lord- the man’s eyes widen.

The Demon Lord…

Crea collapses in front of him

This symbol means ‘Love and Peace’!

A hole, ripped through his side, their side, blood-

Once the Kaiju are gone, I want to explore the world with you, Shii-tan!

Him

Mana is harnessed through negative emotions! Why did you think your Jaeger was strongest only after a Kaiju had killed and destroyed? Or did you not think?

Rchimedes

That’s why-

He thought all of his research had been geared towards harnessing mana in order to fight off of the Kaiju

You’re too kind.

Rchimedes

Hate me more!

You can’t kill me.

A sudden, sharp jab to his side startled Alba back into reality.

Holding his right side, he instinctively looked over towards… “Sh-Shion.”

The expression on Ros’ (Creasion’s? Shion’s? What should he even call him?) face changed to something unreadable. Alba felt something uncomfortable… it wasn’t his feeling, but he felt it like it was. “Weren’t you just told to not go chasing rabbits, Hero?” Shion handed a pole (the item responsible for the jabbing) that he had been in holding back to Ruki, who was nervously glancing between the two of them.

A storm of emotions brewed between them. That guy, what he did to Crea- “Clear your mind,” Shion sternly commanded. Alba was trying. He had already felt the order before Shion could say it. (There was insecurity there, too.) But his own father tried to kill him. (He wished Alba didn’t have to know that.) “There is someone coming to attack the castle. Right. Now. That is where we should be focusing.” Alba was trying. (Not hard enough, Shion thought.) Even though he had developed the Jaegers and magic and (come on, forget it, stop thinking) worked to save humanity from the Kaiju, Rchimedes still turned on them and-

-People new to Drifting- a sudden thought intruded into Alba’s mind from Shion? Or from his own subconscious? And Alba remembered Mii-chan talking about something. Something like how speaking aloud helps you to focus, even though completely wordless communication over the Drift is possible. “Where,” Alba said, putting theory into practice, “where is it attacking? Have Hime-san and Alles started fighting yet…?”

“They’ve already approached the enemy Jaeger, though they haven’t engaged, last I heard,” Foyfoy, who was there now for some reason, explained. When did he get here? “It’s piloted by the demon Dezember Zwolf. We think he’s trying to revive the First Demon Lord by using the Kaiju, and he’s probably the one who released them into this world in the first place, along with every other monster and demon that’s appeared here.”

“So he’s the one responsible…” Alba’s mind was still reeling from the Drift and the revelations from Shion’s memories, and now suddenly there was a conspiracy. He tried make himself focus.

“Neural Handshake strong and holding!” someone said. But Alba barely registered it.

“Are you okay…?” Ruki asked Alba. She looked like she might cry.

“Okay” isn’t how Alba would’ve described his current state, but he put on a reassuring smile anyway. “I’m okay, Ruki,” he said.

Ruki shyly glanced towards Shion, who was determinedly staring straight ahead. “Ros…?”

“The link is stable,” he said. “Are you ready to fight, Alba?”

Alba was calmed down enough now that he could answer that a little more honestly (though he couldn’t lie anyway because of the Drift, huh?). “Yeah, I’m ready,” he tried to say with confidence. He was going to have to talk about some stuff later with Shion (he felt a strong feeling of DO NOT WANT from Shion at that thought), but now was the time to fight.

“Ok then, let’s disconnect you guys from here and get you set up in the Creasion!”

The enemy Jaeger stood at the outskirts of the city as a menacing statue; it had stopped its approach once it arrived. It seemed to be waiting for something… and that something was probably The Himedam.

Hime-chan and Alles arrived in their Jaeger from around the outside of the city. With the city to their left and the expanse of the wasteland to their right, they stared at the new enemy. However, the mysterious black Jaeger didn’t face them in kind. “Who does this fucker think he is?” Alles wondered aloud.

Alles controlled the “left hemisphere” of The Himedam, which meant that she primarily controlled its left side. That meant that while technically both Hime-chan and Alles controlled both sides of the Jaeger together, Alles could still exert her influence to, say, deploy the cannon on the left arm even though Hime-chan didn’t want her to.

“Wait!” Hime-chan tried to command, even as Alles raised the arm and aimed the cannon at the Jaeger in front of them. “Don’t antagonize them yet! We don’t know what they’re capable of! And we have to reach out first and try to communicate with them and probe them about their plan!”

“Or we could finish it off before it gets a chance to fight back and eliminate an enemy before it overpowers us.” Alles looked over to her partner. “And I got shit I gotta do tonight. I won’t have enough time to watch the rest of the episodes of my show if we don’t finish this quick enough.”

With her plug into The Himedam the only thing holding her back from punching Alles, metaphorical steam rose from the angry head of Hime-chan. Mii-chan chimed in to try to get them back on track. “Guys stop! You're threatening to get yourselves out of sync! And we already agreed on the plan!”

“Fine,” Alles flatly agreed. She and Hime-chan lowered the cannon. Alles then pressed a button on her control panel to project her voice outside the Jaeger. “Hey you! Mr. Obviously Suspicious Guy! What do you think you’re doing!”

“Look at how cocky they are,” the dominant pilot scoffed. He turned to his left. His doppelganger looked back at him, but was decidedly more nervous than his partner.

“They must have a reason for that though!” the second pilot worried. “We should have come here with backup just in case! Oh god, we shouldn’t have come here without Juli…”

“And what could he do against a Jaeger? Besides, he has another job to do,” the first responded. Worried feelings crossed over their bond. He shook his head. “Calm down, we’ll annihilate them easily.”

On the face of the Dunkelheit, the red dice numbered 1 and 5 lit up bright red, a pair of menacing, uneven eyes. Together, the two aspects of Dzember Zwolf turned their Jaeger towards their foe.

“Time to eliminate the final obstacle!” One shouted. And the fight began.

Chapter Text

The battle against Dezember Zwolf wasn’t going well. But wasn’t going bad, not yet at least.

Hime-chan and Alles kept trying to push Dezember back. They would swipe with their hammer in hopes of either hitting him or leading him away from the city. But as Dezember dodged back-and-forth, he kept the fight close to the human settlement. He would counter, swiping at them and using a mass of shadows as a weapon, and The Himedam would dodge in turn. But he was dodging too easily, and his attacks seemed like he could have put more effort into them, almost like he wasn’t trying hard enough.

In other words, he was going easy on them while purposefully keeping them close to the city.

“This asshole!” Hime-chan shouted.

“Maybe this is a good thing,” Alles still felt frustrated at how their opponent was toying with them, but her laziness/pragmaticism overpowered it. “We probably won’t be able to beat him on our own anyway, and we have to hold out as long as possible for the others to get here. If he’s going easy on us it’ll be easier.”

“But he’s obviously planning something!” the princess retorted. “And we’re far too close to the city!”

“Good news!” Mii-chan interrupted over their radio, “Ros and Alba are on their way!”

“They did it!” Hime-chan cried. Now they stood a fighting chance. And if Janua and Samejima got here soon, they could easily take this guy down. Rejuvenated, Hime-chan and Alles took another swing at Dezember with their hammer, but their attack was dodged again.

A staticky message was suddenly broadcasted from the direction of the enemy Jaeger as well as directly into the cockpit of The Himedam. “You weaklings will never be able to defeat Dunkelheit!” Dezember confidently declared.

“So that thing had a name, huh…” Alles pondered aloud. Then she perked up with a realization. “Hey, you know it just occurred to me, but shouldn’t he have a partner to be able to pilot a Jeager? Who else are we dealing with here?”

“We can worry about that later, for now,” Hime-chan replied, “we just gotta get a hit on that fucker!”

"You're being influenced too much by Alles!" Mii-chan exclaimed, but his worries over Hime-chan's language was ignored.

The Himedam took a couple of quick steps toward Dunkelheit and brought up the business end of the hammer (the party end being the pointy side) in an attempt to launch Dunkelheit up into the sky and away from the city. The enemy Jaeger jumped back with finesse that the kingdom’s Jaegers weren’t capable of and countered with a swipe of shadows, knocking The Himedam back. The Himedam slid back across the ground but managed to stay upright. Its right knee and left hand drug the ground, and it dug the handle of the hammer in its right hand into the earth to help stabilize and slow itself. The Himedam finally ground to a halt with an especially cool pose, and steadily and confidently rose back up on its feet as the dust settled around it. It was becoming apparent to onlookers that this fight was something very significant not only because it was a fight between Jaegers but, more importantly, because it was really fucking cool to watch.

“I’ve got a plan,” Hime-chan said. “We could-”

“I’m in your head, remember?” Alles interrupted with a smirk. The two began to move The Himedam into position. “Let’s try it!”

They approached Dunkelheit straight on, bringing the hammer out to the right. They sprinted and swung the party end of the weapon towards Dunkelheit’s left side. “Hah, fools!” Dezember called out as he dodged to his right. “You keep trying the same tricks-”

And then the cannon that had been hidden in The Himedam’s left arm fired a round right into Dunkelheit. When he dodged, Dezember ran right into it and was fired upon at point-blank range. The Dunkelheit was blasted to its left and, finally, a little ways away from the city.

“Can’t believe he fell for that, honestly…” Hime-chan mumbled to herself. Chasing after Dunkelheit, she and Alles prepared themselves to dish out another hit.

An angry yell from the shadowy Jaeger and an explosion of shadows stopped The Himedam from approaching. They put up their guard, but were still pushed back by a great force. The two pilots could hear the creaks from the strain on The Himedam’s armor. An evil cackle then emanated from Dunkelheit. “Haha…. Alright then.” Hime-chan and Alles could hear the smirk in Dezember’s voice. “It’s time to get serious!” he called, and he charged forward with his shadows.

Hime-chan and Alles swore in sync as they attempted to dodge Dezember’s attack. The world around them slowed; the few seconds it took for the shadows to reach them felt like minutes. They could see the black mass as it moved to engulf them, could register all of the tiniest details in the armor of Dunkelheit, and most importantly, could register in those few seconds that they wouldn’t be able to dodge the attack in time.

Luckily something rammed into Dunkelheit’s side, sending the black Jaeger flying before it could reach The Himedam. The new arrival was a Jeager, a dark grey machine accented with red.

“Sorry we’re late to the party!” Alba’s voice called out from the Creasion.

“’Sorry we’re late to the party?’ Seriously Hero?” Shion asked, incredulous. He stood on Alba’s right side as the dominant pilot. “That’s so cringey.”

“It-it’s not!” Alba argued back. But his embarrassment and newfound lack of confidence in his own words could no longer be hidden now that their minds were connected in the Drift. The two looked out the visor of the helmet of the Creasion. “So that guy’s Dezember…” Alba pondered aloud.

“At least two of them.”

“Huh?”

“There are multiple Dezembers. Also, they all look identical,” Shion explained simply, as though this was something normal, like the weather.

“What? What’s up with that? And why would they all have the same name if they all look the same? Isn’t that just confusing?”

“Look alive, Hero!” Shion’s verbal command, alongside the thoughts Alba could see through the Drift, ensured that the two were able to dodge the Dezembers’ sudden counterattack. Alba was still trying to get used to the Drift and also controlling a 70m+ robot. It was a little bit disorienting. Having Shion take the lead and seeing and feeling his experience over the Drift was turning Alba into a fast learner, however.

“HAH!” One of the Dezember’s in the Dunkelheit laughed. “Late to the party indeed! But now…” the Dunkelheit took a step back and swung out its right arm. Shadows rose from the ground and surrounded the hand, flattened out, and formed a blade. “It’s time to get serious!” Dezember shouted.

Shion and Alba pulled out the sword that was strapped to their back and readied themselves for whatever Dezember had in store.

Chapter Text

Alba and Shion decided to make the first move and swing their sword at Dezember. Dezember jumped back, dodging their attack. He lashed out towards them with his shadow sword, which let off… sparks? Of little shadowy bits? Like when your hand is wet and you wave it around to get the water off and all the drops go everywhere; it was like that, but shadows, and also they could kill a person if they were unfortunate enough to come into direct contact with them.

Shion chided Alba in his mind for underestimating the distance that they had between themselves and Dezember. (Oh, and the fact that you’re the highly experienced Jeager pilot who’s also on the same side as the dominant hand doesn’t matter? It’s only my fault??) (Hero, you have to start taking responsibility for your own actions.) (!!!!) Their silent argument only lasted for a second, during which The Himedam dashed forward and brought its hammer up and into Dunkelheit’s torso. Or at least, it tried to bash in the other Jaeger’s torso, but it dodged off to the side once again.

“We need to time it right….” Shion mumbled to himself. Alba felt Shion’s idea/command of how to move Creasion next. The longer the two were linked and the more they moved, the less Alba had to think about piloting the Jaeger. In sync, the two raised their right leg and stepped down, pushing their pedals and compelling the machine to step along with them.

Alba had a stray thought like “my mind really is becoming one with the Jaeger…” He could feel a scoff come from Shion without having to hear it, to which he shot back feelings of irritation. Amazingly, despite their constant internal bickering, their Neural Handshake remained strong. An outside observer might say that arguing like an old married couple was actually a sign of a strong bond, though Alba would definitely disagree.

Creasion lunged forward with its sword, aiming for Dunkelheit’s right side. Dunkelheit dodged back and the left. The Himedam, anticipating the trajectory, fiercely swung its hammer, aiming for Dunkelheit’s left side. Unfortunately, Dezember must have anticipated the move because Dunkelheit easily evaded their attack too.

“Watching you struggle is amusing,” Dezember’s voice projected from Dunkelheit, “and it’s such a shame that I can’t enjoy this more. However…” Dunkelheit raised its sword high above its head. “It’s time to go ahead and finish you off!” He brought the sword down, sending a shock wave of shadows towards Creasion and The Himedam. The two Jaegers rose their arms to protect themselves, but their armors took quite the beating and ended up covered in deep gashes.

Alba screamed in shock and pain as shadows tore through what he felt was his own body. In hindsight, it made since that he could feel what Creasion felt. Part the reason for linking their minds to the Jaegers was for things like feeling the steps that it took and the weight of the weapons it held in order to make accurate movements. The sudden attack also made him recall some of Shion’s memories of feeling Creasion’s pain via the Drift… But really, nobody thought to warn him?!

“I thought you were a masochist, Hero. Why are you so upset?” Shion asked with a bored tone. Over the Drift, Alba could tell that Shion was feeling the pain but was shrugging it off. He wasn’t as non-chalant as about it as he was acting, but the fact that Shion really was tough and not secretly dying on the inside made Alba super angry for some reason.

“I’m not a masochist!” Alba retorted.

“Stop lying, Hero, you know you can’t hide things from me like this.” Alba could feel Shion’s amusement.

“I’m not! You stop lying! Why are you like this?!” He knew now that Shion was just trying to get a rise out of him because he thought it was funny, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating.

While the pilots of Creasion and The Himedam attempted to compose themselves and get ready for a counterattack, Dunkelheit was already ready to charge at them again. “I’ll destroy your Jaegers, and when you try to escape, I’ll crush you!” he shouted. “No backup will come to save you! That stupid King of yours still thinks I’m working with him. He doesn’t think your lives are in danger.”

“The King!!?” Alba yelled. “Now he’s involved in all this?”

The speaker in Alba’s helmet crackled a bit as Hime-chan began to speak. “My father wants to be remembered as a legendary king... so he made a deal with some daemons to make a convoluted situation to make that possible. I’m working to stop it and to keep people from getting hurt.” Hime-chan sighed, generating more static. “I’m sorry that you had to get dragged into all of this…”

The Himedam confidently stepped forward. Broadcasting her voice to their opponent, Hime-chan replied to Dezember’s taunt. “It doesn’t matter! We’ll defeat you here and stop you!” It was a bluff, but the announcement that Janua and Samejima were on their way had come over the radio not too long ago. They just needed to hold out a little bit longer.

“But that’s where you’re wrong!” Dezember said confidently. Alba could hear the sneer in his voice. “I know what that Jaeger is! I know who’s in there! It’s you, Creasion! And if you’re here, that means your seal was undone.” More shadows began to rise from the ground like flames. “That means the Demon Lord must have already been revived! And if he isn’t quite revived yet, it’s only a matter of time. We’ve already won!”

The Himedam ran forward and sung its hammer at Dunkelhiet, but was blocked by a wall of shadows. The shadowsswung around as one large mass and slapped back The Himedam, causing it to go sliding back away from Dunkelheit. At the same time, Creasion came at Dunkelheit’s other side with its sword. It swung a wide, horizontal slash from Dunkelheit’s back to front, aiming to cut of an arm. Instead, Dunkelheit casually reached out and grabbed the blade. Shion turned on the energy beam that surrounded the sword, but if the pilots inside could feel the extreme heat used for cutting up Kaiju, Dunkelheit didn’t react. It twisted the sword around, forcing Creasion off-balance. Creasion managed to step back and break out of Dunkelheit’s hold having made no progress.

“Let’s end this.” Dezember said. Dunkelheit stretched out both of its arms in front of itself. Shadows enveloped both, then shot out towards the other two Jaegers. “It’s over for you!” Both The Himedam and Creasion jumped to opposite sides in an effort to dodge the projectiles. But Dezemeber wasn’t aiming for both of them.

Creasion jumped out of the way of one projectile only to jump directly into the second one.

An enormous spear made of shadows stabbed right into the face of Creasion.

The long spine had shot out from the Kaiju and stabbed right into the face of the Creasion

Crea!

The Creasion feel back onto the ground and the Kaiju loomed above them

Crea! Crea! Shit, come off!

Shion struggled to disengage the various wires that were connected to his suit. Looking over, he could see where the spine had impaled Crea’s abdomen, could feel where he was stabbed over the Drift. Everything suddenly shook, and pain shot through Shion’s left arm as the Kaiju ripped Creasion’s arm off. Shion grit his teeth

Ack, augh!

Crea coughed up blood. Breathing hard, he struggled to retain consciousness. In his panic, Shion grabbed helplessly at his connections. He had to get over to Crea, had to do something, anything

S-Shi… Shi-tan…

Crea!!

Shion could feel Crea growing weak, he could feel the life slowly leaving him

He could feel the exact moment Crea died

He screamed

The roars of the Kaiju overhead overwhelmed him. The smell of blood infiltrated every part of him. There was nothing but the vision of Crea’s face, lifeless. And every part of it closed in around him, suffocating

There was a voice in his ear.

“Shion!” Alba shouted. “It’s not real! Snap out of it!”

Shion was still screaming though. Tears ran down his face which was contorted with despair. The Kaiju overhead suddenly roared, briefly startling Alba. His head snapped up to look at it. So that monstrosity is what the Kaiju actually look like…. He couldn’t afford to think too much about it at the moment, so he returned his attention to Shion.

When the Creasion had fallen back is Shion’s memory, it had landed against the steep cliff of a plateu. The head, where the cockpit was, was titled back but still mostly upright. Alba moved from Shion’s side to stand in front of him. “Shion! Come on! We gotta move! This is just a memory! We’re outside a town, fighting Dezember, remember?!”

Shion’s face suddenly contorted with anger. Tears still ran down his cheeks, but his eyes held a dark, cold look. He moved his right The Creasion started to come to life around Alba. There was a sudden jerk as the cockpit started to right itself.

Having fallen down the rabbit hole into his own memories, Shion’s flashback dominated the Drift. At the same time, being in the Creasion in real life blurred the line between what was real and what was fake. Alba was vaguely aware that the real Creasion was moving along with the Cresion in his mind. “C’mon Shion! Stop! This isn’t real!” But Shion didn’t respond. He had apparently managed to pilot solo long enough to save himself in the past, but if his visions caused him to start attacking indiscriminately in real life now-

Shit, after all the fighting, they’d been turned around. The city was right in front of them-!

“Shion please, stop, please! It’s just a memory Shion! You have to calm down!” In both the Drift and in reality, Alba could feel Creasion move his right hand. The panels on the arm folded back, and the cannons started charging. “Fuck! Shion!” In real life, Alba somehow managed to navigate his way away from his controls. He made his way towards Shion, but the physical connectors to Creasion kept him from reaching him. Alba reached out his hand, grabbing helplessly in the air next to Shion. In the Drift, he kept trying to snap Shion out of it. “Shion! Please! We have to fight the demons, remember? There isn’t a Kaiju here! Shion!”

An alert that signaled that the canons were ready to fire starting ringing all throughout Alba. “You can’t do this Shion! Please! Ros!”

“ROS!”

Something flashed in Ros’ eyes, something like recognition, or realization. The canons started powering down. Alba threw off his helmet, breaking his connection to the drift but giving him a few more feet to move closer to Ros. Slowly, Ros look over to him. “Alba…” he mumbled, before falling to his knees.

Alba fell to his knees beside him. He wanted to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but he was unsure if that was be a good idea, so he held his hands uselessly in front of him. “Ros, are you-?” he cut off his own sentence because Ros obviously wasn’t okay, but he didn’t know what else to say.

Ros didn’t react though. Instead he slowly looked up and though the window of the Creasion. Rather, he looked through where the window used to be; the glass had completely shattered and had mostly fallen out. Alba looked past that to the fight in front of him. The Himedam was desperately fighting off Dezember. The handle of its hammer had been broken, and the head layed uselessly off to the side. The Himedam was hanging on with a small backup dagger. It had been built with a lot of firepower, but with the risk of hitting civilians, those weapons were too dangerous to use.

Alba’s heart sank as he took in scene. He wasn’t sure that he and Ros were going to be able to pilot now, and there was no way that Hime-chan and Alles would be able to hold on for much longer. Is this it? he thought to himself.

He became aware of a steady rhythm, a thundering that shook the earth and steadily grew in strength. Suddenly, a new Jaeger rammed into Dunkelheit’s side, pushing and directing it away from the city. Dunkelheit tried to grab it, but it easily countered and sent Dunkelheit flying.

The Jaeger, successfully driving away the enemy for now, stood and stuck a cool, confident pose. It looked back over its shoulder, which held a giant throwing star. The top of its head was shaped to resemble a pompadour; the black chest and arms coupled with the silver bands that made up the abdomen, caused the machine to look like a school delinquent. It had two distinct eyes of two different colors, behind which stood two demons.

“Sorry we’re late!” Janua’s voice came over the speakers (which still worked, miraculously) in the cockpit of the Creasion.

“But we got here just in time,” continued Samejima. “Now…” their Jaeger entered a fighting stance, ready to take on the enemy with its bare hands.

“Let’s see what you’ve got” Samejima and Janua shouted in unison, and they charged towards their foe.

Chapter Text

Alba found his spirits rising as he looked to the newest arrival. He watched as Samejima and Janua coolly walked their Jaeger towards where Dunkelheit landed. Dunkelheit, on the other hand, struggled to stand itself back up. By the time it got back up on its feet, its newest opponent had already stopped in front of it and readied its fighting stance.

“Holy shit. We’re actually going to survive this,” Alba said in awe. Their backup had only arrived moments before and he knew nothing about its abilities, but against all reason he was filled with confidence.

“Who is this?!” the angry and confused voice of Dezember projected out of Dunkelheit could be heard from the Creasion. “There were only supposed to be two useable Jaegers left! We didn’t have any information about this!! Could the King have actually been hiding something… no there’s no way…”

“He’s turned into an expository character…” Alba found himself thinking aloud.

“It doesn’t matter,” a new voice (Samejima’s? Alba wasn’t too familiar with either pilot, but it sounded like Samejima) interrupted, “because we, Janujima, will defeat you here!” Spreading its legs apart to stabilize its stance, the Jaeger called Janujima raised one fist in front of itself and brought the other to its side. Like a martial artist in an old kung-fu movie, Janujima made it known that they were ready to throw down bare-handed.

“Shit!!” Dezember shouted as shadows suddenly erupted from the ground around him. A tidal wave of dark mass shot high above Dunkelheit before crashing down in front of it. The attack rammed into Janujima and enveloped the entire Jaeger, hiding it from the view of onlookers. Alba watched nervously as they waited for the fallout of the attack.

Of course, Janujima emerged without a scratch. It hadn’t even moved an inch.

“How?!” Dezember screamed. “How could you have possibly withstood that? Without taking any damage at all?!?!”

A scoff sounded from Janujima. “It’s obvious,” Janua spoke this time. Janujima’s head turned back slightly, as if to look towards The Himedam and Creasion. “It’s because our comrades are at our back.”

“Fuck! Of course! That makes perfect sense!” Dezember shouted in despair.

“No it doesn’t!!!” Alba found himself shouting back, even though no one else but Ros could hear him.

Janujima stepped back and readied its fist to punch. “For the sake of our comrades, we will stop you here!” Janua and Samejima proclaimed in sync. Two strong steps, a small jump, and they were bringing their fist down onto Dunkelheit. It collapsed to the ground under their power, giving Janujima the opening to hit it with its other fist. It then kneed Dunkelheit with a specially armored knee, leaving a crack in its shell and knocking it back.

“Holy shit,” Alba said again. “They’re just destroying Dezember.” Alba noticed that Ros was being weirdly quiet and glanced to look at him. The two, now both disconnected from Creasion, sat on the floor in the cockpit. Ros continued to silently watch the fight in front of him, not showing much reaction to it. Instead of the “bored” flavor of expressionless that Alba was used to, it was a truly neutral kind of expressionless, like he was purposefully trying not to show any emotion whatsoever. Alba was a bit worried but returned his attention to the fight. This wasn’t really the time or place to say anything (nor would Ros want to talk about it even if it was).

Dunkelheit managed to get up and attempted to put up a fight. It covered its fists in shadows and made some swipes and punches. However, it wasn’t moving as fast as it had been and most of its attacks were misses, and the few hits that didn’t miss didn’t have the power behind them to damage Janujima. Janujima, in return, began a one-sided pummeling. An extreme barrage of fists (that moved far too fast for a several-story giant robot) left Dunkelheit unable to defend itself.

The pummeling suddenly stopped. Janujima stood and started down at the enemy Jaeger, which lay prone on the ground. As the dust settled around them, Samejima made his demends. “Tell us about your plan! What else have you been doing? What other demons are involved with this?”

No response came from Dunkelheit at first. Finally, a slightly muffled, “Shit.”

Janujima grabbed the throwing star off its back and held it at the ready. “If you don’t start talking, we’ll start getting serious,” Janua threatened.

And then the world shook. All four Jaegers fell to their knees with the sudden jolt.

“What was that?” Alba shouted. He stood up and returned to his station, putting his helmet back onto his head so he could communicate with the others. Creasion, while grounded, was still facing forward, giving Alba and Ros a view of the newest disaster of the week.

A giant creature had suddenly appeared. It had landed(?) far behind Dunkelheit but was quickly making its way towards them. A loud screech pierced the heavens as the tall, lanky abomination approached with its uncomfortable gate. The Kaiju was…

It kinda looked like a lion? But it was too long, and also stood on two legs. It also had an annoyingly smug look on its face. Like a “bet you’re surprised to see me, aren’t you? Of course you’d be” kind of look that injected Alba with a sudden, grand frustration, the likes of which he had never felt before. As the Jaeger pilots all reeled from the interruption, Dezember saw his opportunity and began to flee. The smug lion Kaiju scoffed at the Janujima, as if to say “you seriously let that guy get away?”.

“Hold on!” Samejima called out. But just as Janujima began its pursuit, the Kaiju changed course towards the city.

“Let Dezember go for now!” Mii-chan’s voice commanded over the radio. “Focus on stopping the Kaiju! What’s your status?”

Alba turned to Ros. “Soldier, can you fight?” he asked, a little bit desperate from his anger at the Kaiju but also from the sudden realization that maybe this wasn’t a good idea, that none of this was a good idea, why was he even here in the first place-

“The core automatically shut down after our connections were broken with Creasion. We aren’t going to be able to sync back up with it or with each other,” Ros explained. “If we wanna fight, we’re gonna have to go back to base or get someone out here to reset the system to try again.”

“Shit!” Alba helplessly swore.

The Himedam fired off one of its cannons, hitting the side of the Kaiju closer to the city and trying to deter it away. Janujima came at it from the same side, giving it a solid punch and knocking it back and away. They were putting up a good fight and would probably stop the Kaiju no problem.

“Sit tight for now,” Mii-chan said, “and we’ll update you if we need you to do anything.” There was a mumble under his breath that sounded something like “god I wish I was in that Kaiju’s place right now” that Alba decided to ignore. “We’ll have Janujima and The Himedam tow you back after they’re done fighting,” Mii-chan explained.

But Alba was tired of standing around and watching. He had accomplished basically nothing his entire “career” as a Hero. He had arrived to be backup for The Himedam but ended up not helping at all. And now, he was left incapacitated and unable to contribute, once again. He let out a deep sigh.

“Bored already, Hero?” Ros snidely remarked.

“I’m not bored!” Alba retorted. “I’m frustrated. I want to do more…”

“How would you like to help me practice boxing? We have time,” Ros suggested helpfully.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, you just take those wires and hold yourself up over there, then-”

“I’m not becoming your literal punching bag, Ros!”

As Ros started shit, The Himedam and Janujima continued to fight off the Kaiju. Without a melee weapon The Himedam had to keep its distance. It took opportunistic shots between Janujima’s attacks. Janujima itself used its throwing star (electrically charged) to cut into the Kaiju. The Kaiju was much more agile than previous opponents, and it continued to carry that annoying smirk as it dodged attacks. The Jaegers managed to dominate the fight, but if they couldn’t get any more hits on it they wouldn’t be able to actually stop it.

And then the world shook again. And again. More steps, pounding, approaching their position.

Alba felt his stomach sink. “Oh no…”

With one Jaeger incapacitated, another on its last legs, and a third barely keeping up with one Kaiju, a second Kaiju was approaching the city.

Chapter Text

“Shit,” Alba said aloud.

For the first time, Alba saw a Kaiju that actually looked threatening at first glance.

It was a green dragon? looking monster, with spikes on the top of its head that resembled a crown. Also, it had extremely sharp claws that it used to mindlessly swipe at whatever was in front of it.

The fight wasn’t one-sided, exactly, but it was clear that the Kaiju had the advantage over the Jeagers. The Himedam was worn out. It was heavily damaged from the fight with Dezember, left without a melee weapon, and its pilots were exhausted. Alba listened to Alles and Hime-chan’s swears as they dodged swipes from the dragon Kaiju. Janujima, piloted by the shounen-manga protagonists it was, was torn between fighting off the smug-lion Kaiju, fighting off the dragon Kaiju, and trying to protect The Himedam. And of course, all four combatants were giants that towered 60-90 meters and weren’t exactly agile or graceful, which meant that while they could move relatively quickly they could still easily get in the way of each other by accident.

The dragon Kaiju swiped at The Himedam, which tried to dodge by stepping back, only to get nearly pushed down by Janujima which shoved its way in between the two to take the hit meant for The Himedam. Having lost its balcance from dodging/being knocked back a little by Janujima, The Himedam barely keeps itself from falling over and leaves itself wide open for an attack from the lion Kaiju. The lion Kaiju threateningly lumbers over to The Himedam at the same time Janujima starts punching the dragon Kaiju. Samejima, realizing that his friends are in danger, is somehow able to channel the strength in Janujima to quick-step over to the lion-Kaiju and engage. The Hiemdam is able to recover and shoot a projectile of energy out of its canon at the dragon. The dragon is stunned, fended off for the moment but not stopped. And so the cycle begins anew, with each Jaeger facing off against different Kaiju.

It was becoming clear that The Himedam’s canon wasn’t effective against the dragon Kaiju. Maybe it was the scales, but while the energy bullets left behind burn marks, they didn’t seem to actually wound the thing. Stunning it long enough to step out of its reach wasn’t going to stop it for good.

“Janujima,” Hime-chan’s voice came over the radio. Even though she wasn’t directly addressing Alba or Ros, the radio was open to all pilots in the vicinity for ease of communication. “The cannon isn’t working on the second Kaiju,” she explained, “but it works on the first one.” The Himedam ran away from the attacking dragon as it swiped again, gaining more distance; it wasn’t as fast as the Jaeger. “We’re gonna put everything into one last shot to take down the first Kaiju. Just get it into position for us.”

Janujima nodded its head (engineers actually took the time to design and install a mechanism to do that?? Why??? What situation did they think that was necessary for?) and Samejima’s voice responded. “Leave it to us!”

Another fight scene ensued. Emboldened by the promise of an actual plan, Janujima was suddenly able to fight the two Kaiju at once. With swift (for a several-story robot) moves it was able to maneuver the lion kaiju in The Himedam’s line of fire while successfully distracting the dragon one. In the meantime, The Himedam stood steady and charged its cannon. The weapon glowed as it gathered energy and condensed it into a final attack.

“This is it!” Hime-chan shouted. “Fire!”

A large energy beam shot out of the muzzle of the cannon and fired right into the body to the lion Kaiju. It kept up a steady stream for several seconds, blasting a hole right through the thing’s torso. The beam ceased, and the Kaiju stayed standing for a moment before finally falling to the ground. Unfortunately, The Himedam followed.

The Jaeger leaned to its side and collapsed to the ground. Alba gasped aloud as it crashed. A cloud of dust flew into the air around it, obscuring the battlefield.

“We’re outta juice,” Hime-chan explained. “But we got took one of them out! Samejima! Janua! It’s your turn!”

“You got it!” Janua replied. Alba could barely see it through the settling dust, but he could easily hear the impact against the ground as Janujima sprang forward towards the remaining Kaiju. He listened to the roars and growls of the Kaiju and the impacts of Janujima’s punches and kicks. And uh, was that fire? Blasting into the sky from were the Kaiju presumably was? It was a dragon or something like that, so Alba supposed that it made sense that it could breathe fire of something. At this point things were starting to not surprise him so much anymore.

“Hero,” Ros suddenly spoke, “if you stop reacting to new developments, you’re going to become meaningless as a character.”

“What do you mean by that?!” Alba responded with a little more fire than he was actually feeling.

“I mean your only purpose is-”

But Ros wasn’t able to finish his sentence, because suddenly a loud crack resounded across the sky above. Like a fissure in the ice that sits atop a pond, a space in the air fractured and split open. A breach opened up and let a out pulse of bright light; an electric current forced Abla to shut his eyes is discomfort as it ran through him. Opening them up once more he saw that the dust had settled and the Kaiju outside writhing in place.

The dragon Kaiju let out a huge roar that transitioned into a loud screech. The air around it distorted, like some kind of glitch, or mirage, or a flicker, changing and warping and hurting Alba’s head as he stared. Even as the Kaiju in front of him shifted and warped, it seemed to be… getting bigger.

Alright. So whatever this was didn’t mean bad news for the Kaiju but did mean bad news for the heroes. Just what they needed. It let out a rather painful sounding screech and suddenly jumped forward and towards Janujima, allowing Alba to it the Kaiju in all its glory.

It was a large, grotesque creature unlike anything Alba had seen before. Like, a lot of different kinds of monsters and demons came over from the demon world, and most of them were strange and unnatural. But this, this was more than weird. Forget something that didn’t belong in this world, this thing didn’t belong in this reality. It was straight up uncomfortable to look at, both emotionally and physically, and it gave Alba a headache the longer he stared at it. He recognized it as the Kaiju’s true form from the similar-looking Kaiju from Ros’ memories, but that didn’t make it any less horrible.

It was large, far larger than any of the other Kaiju had been. It was about as tall, but it had so much more mass. It hade an extremely large, powerful jaw, lined with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. Two large horns, the root on the front of its skull but with the horns curving backwards, threatened both a weapon and a shield for the head. It stood on all fours, and its two front limbs were far longer than the back two, with an extra digit at the elbow that protruded far above its shoulders. Hard plates ran down its spine to its long tail, which had pincers like crab clawers at the end of it. It opened its mouth wide as it let out a huge roar. The bottom jaw split in two, allowing the mouth to widen further and revealing a blue, bioluminescent tongue.

It was fucking terrifying.

A pouch under its neck expanded, turning blue as it filled with liquid. “Shit! It’s like the time with the Nisepanda-Kaiju!” Alba shouted. Janujima lept back and to the side; the Kaiju just barely missed missed it with its acidic, projectile vomit.

“Alba.” Alba felt Ros grab his shoulder. Ros was standing up and motioned for Alba to follow him. “Get yourself plugged back in. I’m going to use magic to get Creasion moving again.”

“Huh? But what about-”

“It won’t matter whether or not Rchimedes is unsealed if we’re all dead,” Ros said sternly.

With a little help from Ros, Alba was able to get himself set back up. Ros relayed the plan to Mii-chan over the radio, Janujima did its best to fight off the Kaiju, and Hime-chan and Alles bailed on a motorbike that was stored in The Himedam.

Alba and Ros stood at their stations in the cockpit. As Ros pumped his magic into the Creasion, Alba tried to calm himself and clear his mind. The light of Creasion’s core lit up and the machine purred to life.

Distracted by the fight, no one noticed that Dezember watching from behind a plateau.

Chapter Text

The rest of the battle with the Kaiju was rather anticlimactic.

With Creasion working at full power, two Jaegers were more than enough to pummel the Kaiju into the ground. Even the Kaiju’s blue blood stopped being an issue since Ros could just magic it away or transform it into a substance that wouldn’t dissolve any material it touched. Ros even started using his magic for all sorts of other unrelated shit like giving the Kaiju an afro or a sparkly tutu, which somehow made the abomination even more unsettling.

Eventually, the Kaiju crashed to the ground, lifeless. The glowing of Creasion’s energy sword and Janujima’s energy fist died down as they took in their victory. “We did it!” Alba excitedly declared.

“But you haven’t won yet!” Dezember’s voice suddenly called out to the two Jaegers, causing them to turn toward it to look. He had come back and took position standing menacingly above the fallen Himedam. Dunkelhiet raised its hand to the sky and enveloped it in shadows. It brought its fist down on top of The Himedam-

Except it didn’t, because Ros snapped his fingers and poofed The Himedam out of the way. Dunkelheit hit bare earth instead, bringing up a cloud of dust. Dezember slowly stood back up from where it had crouched down. Samejima and Janua had reacted quickly, dashing behind Dunkelheit and locking it in a hold.

“That’s our comrade’s Jaeger…” Janua started.

“And we won’t let you destroy it!” Samejima finished.

“Just hurry up an attack already!” Alba cried. But Dunkelheit was able to throw them off and move out of punching range.

“I’ve been watching this fight you know,” Dezember said, “and you seem to have used quite a bit of magic there.” Ros frowned from beside Alba, though now that they were connected over the Drift again he knew it was more out of annoyance than anything else.

“That means Rchimedes has been unsealed! Hahahaha!” Dezember laughed triumphantly. Dunkelheit raised his hands from his sides and leaned its head back, as though it was the one evilly laughing to the sky. It was promptly interrupted with a punch to the face from Creasion.

"GAH!" Dezember's discomfort radiated from the Jeager. I guess that Jeager connects to the pilots and makes them feel pain too.... Alba thought. "Wait," he said aloud, "where did he even get a Jaeger anyway? Who made-"

“But you waited until the last minute to finally use your magic," Dezember's confidence wasn't completely gone yet, and he proved it by interrupting Alba with some more exposition. "That means that you wanted to avoid unsealing him at all costs! And why else then because Rchimedes is too powerful for you to handle! Because you’re terrified-”

“You mean this guy?” Ros interrupted him over Creasion’s speakers and snapped his fingers, causing a weird man in a green onesie to appear in the air in front of them and fell on his ass to the ground.

“Gah!” the man yelled with the impact. He was a small figure on the ground between the three giants. He looked around frantically. “Wha- huh? How’d I get here? What is this place?” He finally looked up. He paused for a moment before a smug, knowing smirk spread across his face. “Oh, it’s been a long time since you last used that Shion…”

Ros snapped his fingers and started to electrocute him (a move that he had made without thinking, like it was an instinctive response to an irritant, Alba felt). "There’s your Demon Lord,” Ros stated.

“MY LORD!” Dezember yelled out. A hatch at the top of Dunkelheit opened up and Dezember soon crawled out of it. He jumped to the ground, using shadows to float down and cushion his landing. Ros sighed and started to undo his own connection to Creasion, and Alba followed.

On the ground, the pilots of the Jaegers (including Hime-chan and Alles, who hadn’t gone far and came back as backup in case of an all-out fight) faced off from their respective sides. Ros grabbed up Rchimedes by the collar to keep him from wandering off.

“Creasion!” Dezember shouted, “I’ll be the one to defeat you here!” The shadows at his feet rose from the ground growing around him. “I’ll-”

He was promptly interrupted by an energy ball to the face, courtesy of Ros. Blasted back and away, Dezember collided with a rock. It was a one-hit KO.

“GGYYAAAAHHHHHH!” Rchimedes screamed and tried to crawl away.

Ros sighed and tightened his grip on the back of Rchimedes’ suit. “Shut up,” he said. Ros opened a portal. “Let’s get you out of here…”

Rchimedes stopped and turned to look up at Ros. A conniving grin spread across his face. “Hah! Even know you still can’t defeat me! You sentimental-”

If Ros had a nickel for every time he interrupted someone mid-sentence, he'd have a good amount of change. If you had a nickel for every time he interrupted someone by punching them in the face that day, he'd now have two nickels, which wouldn't be enough to buy anything but would make an interesting threat. Stunned from the hit, Rchimedes hung limp from Ros’ hold.

“Is actually all over then?” Alles asked. “Kind of a boring ending.” She got an elbow to the side from Hime-chan for the comment.

“And does this mean that we don’t have to worry about the Kaiju anymore?” Alba asked.

“No, those are still an issue. They’re their own thing. Dezember just used them,” the princess explained.

“Oh.”

“The seal on the Kaiju was probably already weakening. Even if Dezember hadn’t meddled with it, it would have probably unsealed by itself eventually anyway…” Ros added. He sighed. “The Kaiju have to be stopped at the source. But I have to go and re-seal Rchimedes.”

“Shion…” Alba knew from his connection with the other exactly how he felt about that. He knew that Ros didn’t want to have to re-seal himself again, which he would have to in order to properly stop Rchimedes. But he also knew that Ros wouldn’t respond well to the emotional stuff, so he brought up a different argument. “What about the Kaiju? We still haven’t defeated them.”

“What, are you the kind of person who can’t go to the bathroom alone at night? This is why everyone calls you toilet man, you know.”

“No one calls me that! And you know what I mean!”

“You can do it,” Ros stated with uncharacteristic sincerity. “You can just defeat the Kaiju.”

“I can’t! And you know I’m not really a hero yet!”

“You’re already a fine Hero,” Shion said, wearing a sad smile. He turned to walk away. “Good luck. It was fun.”

“Wait! ROS!” Alba called, running towards where Ros once stood.

But he was already gone.

Chapter Text

The months that followed the defeat of Dezember were mostly quiet, all things considered.

Dezember and Dunkelheit disappeared mysteriously when no one was looking. It would be an understatement to say that sneaking away a robot that was bigger than most buildings in the kingdom was incredibly difficult, but it somehow had been done. Dezember and his collaborators weren’t stopped for good, but they were gone for now.

The Kaiju were still around, though they came less frequently. The other Jaegers were repaired, and more were finished and waiting for compatible pilots to use them. With plenty of Jaegers stationed around the kingdom, the Kaiju threat began to diminish. Even though the monstrosities were still more than capable of annihilating humanity, they stopped seeming like such a big deal, and the populace moved on with their lives content and confident that they would be safe.

The King’s misdeeds were covered up, though he got a right scolding and multiple, incredibly terrifying warnings from various people. This included Alba himself, who was briefly arrested for punching the guy in the face but was let out with the promise that he would continue working as a Hero for the King.

Alba wasn’t one of the pilots still fighting, however. “The Creasion isn’t mine to use,” he’d explained, “and I don’t really want to pilot with anyone else anyway.” The King had pitifully begged him to stay and maybe help train new pilots, but Alba honestly didn’t see how had could be any help since he was barely a hero and only piloted the one day. He also didn’t really want to work in close proximity to people who were conspiring to destroy the world for the prestige, if he was being honest.

So Alba went off on a journey by himself, traveling the kingdom and defeating monsters, sending them back to the Demon World. He gathered information on the Kaiju by the researchers back at the castle and monitored Kaiju activity. He also helped people rebuild after Kaiju attacks, if he could, and if he even needed to. Sometimes he’d work with Ruki when she wasn’t busy with the Jaeger project (though she mostly hung out and ate snacks, she did have some insight into how the magic cores which powered the Jaegers worked, so she wanted to be around in case she was needed). Other times he’d spend his evenings looking out of hotel windows alone, grateful that his money hadn’t been spent without his knowledge but missing company.

It was during a trip back to the castle to report in to Hime-chan and meet up with the others, where they told him about how little progress was being made when it came to learning more about the Kaiju. Alba felt a little helpless when it came to fighting against the them, and Ros had left defeating the Kaiju to him, so he supposed that he should ask and see if there was anything he could do.

Alba didn’t have much of a background education, but he was a quick learner and passionate about studying. With guidance from the researchers at the castle and demons, he quickly picked up on theories of dimension hopping and magic, a well as how magic could interact with technology and how it could affect the world. He started coming up with his own ideas, theories, and research goals.

And then a certain idea came to him. An idea that he couldn’t let go of.

It only took a little more than a year for a plan to finally begin to emerge.

“They’re weapons?” Hime-chan asked. “What do you mean?”

“They’re sentient creatures, but they’re… manufactured? They’re artificially made specifically to invade other planets. They’re being sent here on purpose by someone or something else,” a miscellaneous castle researcher provided some exposition for the group that had recently arrived at the temporary Kaiju Research Station at the castle.

“How did you find this out?” Foyfoy asked. The scientist, Februar, and Zwei silently looked towards Alba, who continued to type away at the computer next to where the conversation was going on.

“It was his idea. To look into why the Kaiju weren’t affected by magic,” Februar explained.

Zwei huffed and shook his shadowy head. “All this time we never even considered that the breech the Kaiju were coming through had nothing to do with magic at all.”

“To be more precise,” Alba said without looking up, “it’s caused by technology, and it originates from a dimension that doesn’t have any magic at all. That’s why it either doesn’t affect the Kaiju or makes weird reactions when they’re exposed to it.”

“But a giant hole through the world like that… is that even possible without magic?” Janua pondered. “My own teleportation skills and Ruki’s warp gates wouldn’t be physically possible without the way that magic works.”

“They’re just more technologically advanced than us,” Alba explained. He finally looked up. “It’s not impossible. Just very… difficult.”

“I guess if they have the knowledge on how to create living, monstrous weapons like the Kaiju, something like that wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility,” Ruldolf added.

Alba sighed and turned his rolly chair so he faced Ruki and Janua. “I need to ask you a favor.”

“Sure, what is it?” Janua answered.

The Hero took a deep breath before responding. “Do you guys think that it would be possible to transport me through the rift the Kaiju come from?”

Everyone around them startled in surprise. “Why would you want to do that?!” the princess asked.

“Think about it. We can’t seal or close the breach from this side. If they opened it, they must have a way to close it. Or maybe we can just destroy whatever is generating it,” Alba explained. “The problem is getting in and getting out. We know that the technology that they use isn’t affected by magic, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to use magic in that dimension at all.”

Ruki sighed. “I wish my dad were here…” she said, “He knew so much more about magic and magic theory, he’d probably be able to help you…”

“But why go?” Alles asked, raising her hand. “It seems like a lot of trouble when we’re doing just fine beating the Kaiju as they come. Sure, they’re dangerous, but they’re really just another pest now. Maybe whatever is sending them over will get bored and stop eventually?”

“We don’t know that. And they could easily send stronger Kaiju, or too many Kaiju at once, to the point that we can’t handle it anymore,” Alba looked irritated. “Besides, learning more about their technology would help us. It could help us stop them from invading again. Also, since their tech rivals magic, we can use it when we can’t use magic, like if we have to fight against Dezember again.” Unnoticed by Alba, Ruki inhaled sharply as she realized his true goal.

“If the technology they’re using is able to destabilize magic…” Alba continued.

“Then maybe there’s a way to stop Rchimedes and save Ros.” Ruki stared into Alba’s eyes. “That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what all this is for.”

Alba turned away. “I can’t just leave him like that,” he said quietly. Then, with more conviction, “The Kaiju need to be defeated once and for all. And I’m going to do it.” The Hero turned and looked back at the others. “I’m going to go into the rift. I’m going to find a way to stop the Kaiju and Rchimedes. And I’m going to save Ros!”

Ros dragged Rchimedes back to that place. The place where they had spent 1000 years being sealed.

The place that they would hopefully never be unsealed from again.

Rchimedes was struggling, trying to escape. Ros held him down to the sphere that he would be sealed onto. “Come on, just stay put…” he mumbled, more to himself than to the Demon Lord.

Not having any success trying to escape via raw physical prowess, Rchimedes tried a different tactic. “You know, if they seal that rift again, it won’t stay sealed forever, ya know? No matter how strong their magic is. Magic just doesn’t affect that dimension the same.”

“Good thing they’re going to beat the Kaiju and not just seal it then,” Ros responded. “Now shut up and cooperate.”

“That rift that they’re coming from…” Rchimedes continued. “Have you ever even thought about it? Where it came from, why they’re here?” An unsettling grin spread across Rchimedes’ face. “That rift is a Breach, a gateway between dimensions. And it was made. Those Kaiju are invaders. And they’re made to wipe out all life from the world entirely.”

Ros couldn’t hide the shock on his own face. All that time he was busy fighting for his life alongside Crea, they left the Kaiju research up to his- to Rchimedes. And afterward, after he managed to seal the rift they were coming out of, he stopped thinking about them entirely. “Rchimedes!” Ros growled. “If you’re hiding something important!”

“We can’t defeat them,” Rchimedes continued. The cockiness disappeared from his face and his tone. “All the research I did back then, on the Kaiju, on magic, on Jaeger technology… That’s what I learned. We didn’t have the means to defeat them back then. They don’t have the means to defeat them now.” Rchimedes looked… defeated almost. “They have the capability to have literally thousands of Kaiju at their disposal. Just fighting them one-by one won’t stop them from coming. If you could somehow cross the Breach, there would be too many to fight. If you could somehow close the Breach entirely, they would just open another and come back.”

Ros felt his heart sink as he listened. “There’s no point. To anything,” Rchimedes said. But another smirk made its way onto Rchimedes’ face “Although maybe, if I had more time to research…”

Ros quickly shook it off his shock. There was probably some truth to his statement, but it was just another way to distract him. Even now, he kept forgetting not to trust Rchimedes. “The others will take care of it,” he responded. “What’s more important right now is this,” Ros resumed trying to stab the sealing sword back into Rchimedes’ chest.

“But those Kaiju really need to be defeated, y’know?”

Ros startled and quickly turned back to where a new voice came from. A man with tanned skin and a green tank top stood starkly against the white background of the dimensional rift.

“Sorry ‘bout this!” Elf November said. And then Ros’ world went black.

Chapter Text

1000 years ago, a man loved his family very much.

He also loved his research. He theorized the existence of magic and focused all of his time towards creating a device that could generate magic.

Then one day, a large hole appeared in the world, and from that hole emerged a monster. It was a creature that could crush entire civilizations beneath its feet. A being that couldn’t even be scratched by the technology of the time.

At least, not by most technology.

Humanity labored on. Running, hiding, every day alive meant another day of fear. Friends made on one day could be dead the next. Small communities gathered in caves only to separate in their escape once the Kaiju came upon them.

Rchimedes’ device finally worked. And through the despair of the people around him who lost their homes, belongings and livelihoods, through his own despair from losing his wife and child, Rchimedes discovered that mana was generated through pain. Through anguish.

Based off of ideas he had read in a book long ago, he developed a magic-powered weapon that could possibly defeat the Kaiju. He discovered that magic couldn’t affect the Kaiju directly, but he could use it to create items that could. Blades, firearms, shields, spending every day fighting to be able to make enough, so succeed enough, to survive enough. To have a mere chance to take down the Kaiju. Eventually, enough people and resources were able to come together to make it happen.

Rchimedes raised his son, his last remaining family, in this life. In this environment, Shion was raised to take down Kaiju. And by the time he and Crea were teenagers, Rchimedes was able to develop the first Jaeger.

It was the culmination of all of his magical, technological, and Kaiju-related knowledge, its design taken from a document that he had picked up off the ground long ago. Powered by a Mr. Mana-Maker, it was created to take down the Kaiju at their level. It was created for his son and his friend, and so it was named for them. More importantly, it was created to test the limits of the mana maker for the sake of his own goals.

1000 years ago, a man loved his family very much. But his mind became warped, and he could no longer love enough to not hurt his only son.

One day, a rift between dimensions showed up on the world. And the monsters that would soon come from within the Breach were nigh unstoppable.

Even though their world had plenty of advanced technology, both with and without magical sources, they didn’t have the means to fight off the Kaiju. They could study them and the Breach. They could discover the alien beings on the other side that were trying to invade and destroy all the life on their planet. They could theorize what would be required to take down the Kaiju and destroy the Breach.

But they still didn’t have the means. They didn't have enough mana. They didn’t have enough time.

And so, two mages would take drastic measures to take time into their own hands. But that’s…

That’s a story for another time.