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[𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝟸] 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚓𝚊𝚠

    "Taylor! Hayley!" I exclaimed, rushing over to the siblings who'd both passed out from exhaustion, I winced at the dizzying feeling running up to them so fast gave me.

    "Loa, are they okay?!" I asked the computer while checking on Taylor, holding his unmoving head.

    "Cadets Taylor and Hayley are okay. They have just passed out from exhaustion." Loa told me.

    I sighed in relief, happy that's all it was. After going on for days out here in the middle of nowhere, sand and mountains being the only thing around us, I was scared something much worse had happened to them.

    "Alright," I said, breathless, "I guess we'll be taking a break, then?"

    "Affirmative."

    I chuckled, the stress shining through. We were supposed to be taking turns, switching every four hours after finding we could all drift with each other, but a little while ago Taylor argued the mental strain would be too much for my injuries.

    And to prove his point, the last time Hayley and I drifted didn't go so well, with her inexperienced mind chasing the rabbit accidentally, with both our guilts taking us back to Shadow Basin, and my inability to bring us both back. We lost time, like we'll be doing now, but we'd already lost five years, what's another day?

    "We can't leave them hanging there, Loa, can you release Hayley? Don't worry, I'll catch her." I moved away from Taylor, moving my arms under Hayley to catch her first. She's smaller, so the position of hanging from this contraption would hit her a lot harder. I think.

    "I was not worried," Loa responded, "Releasing Cadet Hayley now," The blond fell into my arms, she was really light. I walked with her in my arms and laid her on the floor to get some rest.

    "Alright Loa, get ready to release Taylor!" I happily told the machine.

    Beeping alerted me to look straight at the floating ball before I saw the warning screen pop up, my heart dropped. No, no, no, no, no, no....

    "Loa," I said, all the air expelled from my still lungs. I don't know what tone I was trying to use, but it came out like a warning. Like Loa was the one who was doing this, like she summoned the Kaiju.

    "Kaiju. Category IV." Loa reported, "Codenamed Shankjaw, aka Hull Ripper."

    "What do you mean, Hull Ripper?!" I panicked, my voice going an octave higher. That sounded bad, really, really bad.

    "Two minutes to contact," Loa stated instead of responding to me.

    I tried to recall pilot training, grabbing hold of Taylor, "Loa, release him, now."

    "You need a co-pilot to operate the Jaeger," Loa urged me.

    With confidence and strength I didn't know I still had inside me I yelled at the computer, "Loa let go of Taylor right now and get me ready for combat. You know as well as I that drifting with an unconscious person is worse than–" Taylor dropped into my arms, I could barely lift him to be next to his sister.

    I rushed back to Loa, the machine getting me dressed in the Jaeger pilot outfit quickly.

    "Solo piloting should not be attempted with your limited training," Loa advised me.

    "I'm not going to solo drift. I'm going to ghost pilot."

    "Cadet (Y/n), I strongly recommend you do not take this course of action," Loa warned me.

    I shook my head, "We don't have another course to take, Loa."

    "Bring up past files of those who've survived solo drifting," I told the computer.