"Well… that happened." Gipsy blinked up at the sky of pure white nothingness. "Actually, what happened, exactly? Cause I'm a little lost."

"Bad chapter transition?" Crimson suggested from beside her. "It happened right on a cliffhanger so I'm not really surprised."

"Fuckin' 'ell."

Cherno sighed.

"I'll watch my language when I bloody feel like it, ya smokestack!"

"Please, let's not do this now."

Gipsy groaned, struts aching as she stood. For the second time in as many months they had awakened into the middle of nowhere. At least when they had arrived on Omega there was some semblance of… existence? Here there was nothing but a white plain as far as the eye could see.

"Anyone getting a sense of deja vu?"

Crimson glanced around and nodded. "A small bit, yes. Have we been here before?"

"Why you ask'n me?" Striker cursed as he pushed himself up.

"You've gone through the cosmic resizing thing so I thought you'd… well, been here before."

"Actually, that'd be me."

The four Jaegers turned at the voice to the unfamiliar Jaeger sitting behind a desk that had somehow appeared out of thin air. His chassis was uncomfortably similar to Gipsy's, save for the pixelated green camouflage paint job. Thankfully his head was a clear distinction between them. Instead of a visor, two glowing blue optics beamed at them with a horn of some kind sticking out the top of his head.

"Greetings friends!" He waved as they approached. "It's… been a while, honestly. I am sorry about that, by the way."

"Who are you and what the fuck are you talking about," Striker demanded.

Crimson sighed. "What a way to introduce ourselves."

"No, no, no, it's fine!" The Jaeger laughed as he stood, coming up to almost Cherno's monstrous height. "We've never been properly introduced. That's my fault."

He held out a hand. "DisgruntledJaeger, at your service."

The four Jaegers blinked owlishly at him.

"Before you ask, it's one word," he added. "Not Disgruntled-Jaeger, or Disgruntled Jaeger, just DisgruntledJaeger."

Silence was all he got. Finally, Striker summed up what they were all thinking. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

DisgruntledJaeger slapped a hand to his face. "Sorry, sorry. I forgot you can't read the text. I'm just proud of my pen name, okay?"

"I'm… gonna have to back Striker on this one," Crimson said slowly.

"Me too," Gipsy nodded.

Cherno rumbled along.

DisgruntledJaeger sighed. "You know what, forget I said anything. Please, have a seat."

"But there's…" Gipsy trailed off as chairs suddenly appeared behind them. "Okay, never mind."

When they were comfortable, DisgruntledJaeger - please, just call me DJ, it's much easier - pulled some papers from his desk. "Right. So, you're probably wondering why I called you here."

"I'm more curious about how we got here at all," Crimson said. "Weren't we in the apartment a moment ago?"

Cherno nodded in agreement.

"Call it the powers of the authordom and leave it at that," DJ replied, pulling out yet more papers. "Really, you're lucky I'm writing this at all. I could just make it an auther's note but I like you guys too much."

Yet more papers were pulled from nothingness. Gipsy leaned back as they overflowed the desktop.

"Now where did I… Ah! There it is!"

Triumphantly, he cleared the desk with a sweep of his hand and slammed down a contract with their signatures. A contract Gipsy never remembered signing. "The hell?"

The other Jaegers leaned in.

"Blame fair use," DJ shrugged. "Anyway, all your souls are belong to me now."

"The fuck?" Striker echoed, still reading.

"Hey, you signed the damn thing," he pointed out.

"No we fucking didn't!"

"I hereby sign my mind, body, and soul over to the author," Crimson read aloud. "To do whatever he/she/it/apacheattackhelicopter/pony/furry/jaeger/celestialbeing/mutant/ork/ketchup/hitler/miposaur/dinosaur/tyrannosaur/stagasaur/redshirt/russian/american/clock/einstein/pokémon/gems - fuck the gems -/waman/idiots/morons/tran…"

He trailed off, staring up in mute horror. "Why?"

"Because the internet is a free place," DJ deadpanned. "And fair use applies to everyone. I'd be hypocritical if even one group was missing on that list."

"But… waman? What is a waman anyway?"

"An inside joke, that's what. If you want something really bad just go down a few lines."

Crimson did so and his plating lost a few shades of colour. "Good grief…"

"But that is not why I called you here!" DJ snatched the contract away before they could protest. "You see, your souls belong to me! I'm like the devil, only better. Much better. These renditions of you will always be mine."

"Renditions?" Crimson's eye narrowed curiously.

"Long story, not gonna go into it. The point is, you are a part of a story! And that story is being canceled!"

Silence met this proclamation.

"...Or, rather rewritten, I should say."

"Question," Striker spoke up raising a hand. "The fuck is going on and why should we care?"

"I'm gonna have to second that," Crimson added. "Dropping the vulgarity, of course."

"Pussy."

"Right, so to wander that, I'll have to start to at the beginning." DJ sighed and leaned forward. "In the beginning, there was a lonely teenager living alone in his apartment. That lonely teen had an idea, and that idea spawned Team Jaeger. And Commander Rose, but that's another story. The idea was simple, and the kid liked it. Others did too, so he kept on writing. Then something began to change. Team Jaeger was just an idle fantasy; a time waster, basically. You pick it up, read it, throw it away. But this kid had ambition. He wanted to make something more out of it. Keep the funny, deepen the story, deepen the characters. The works."

The disgruntled jaeger twiddled his fingers. "But… life got in the way, as it always does. Usually people use the internet to escape life, but this kid decided enough was enough. He wasn't gonna view the world through a screen anymore, he was gonna go out and experience the fullness of life and death itself. He decided to join the army. It was… a slow process and brought many changes top his life even before he left for basic training. He began to look at himself more critically than before, his writing included. He looked at Team Jaeger… and was disappointed."

"And we somehow work into this?" Crimson asked.

"Yep. The idea was four giant robots arrive on a station in the middle of nowhere. Hijinks ensue. But where's the end?"

"Wherever the hell he funking wants it to be," Striker grumbled.

"That's true," DJ nodded. "But the deeper he looked the more he realized his story was flawed on a fundamental level: You guys."

Gipsy perked up. "Wait. You mean this Team Jaeger is about us?"

"Yep. And he wasn't too happy with how he handled things character-wise. At first it wasn't so bad, but as he was working on the rewrite he realized how bad it really was."

DJ sighed. "It's nothing personal. Really. I mean it It's all my fault to begin with. Accents can only do so much until you realized you used a cookie cutter for personalities, motivations, and temperament. Seems fine in the beginning, but when there's no conflict of interests or vastly different personalities between characters it tends to get a little dull. Hence, the rewrite. Complete character overhaul. For some of you, anyway."

"So why are we here at all?" Crimson asked. "If… if this story is about us and we're about to be… reworked… doesn't that means we'll… cease to exist?"

Gipsy shook slightly. "Oh no."

"Technically, this is an apology to my readers and a possible new story going forward." He shrugged, grinning uncertainty. "But if it's any comfort you'll simple vanish painfully from the universe."

Gipsy whimpered.

"I meant painlessly!" He hastily corrected himself, chuckling awkwardly. "Wow… you can't trust autocorrect these days, huh?"

When the Jaegers remained frozen in their seats, he sighed and pulled another paper from thin air. "But, if it's any comfort, here's a new project you might be folded into. With a few alterations. No promises, though."

"You know… we're behaving awfully docile about this," Crimson said after a long minute. "Considering he's talking about ending our existence."

"I know. I should be killing the guy right now… but I can't seem to do a bloody thing," Striker most certainly did not whimper.

"That's the power of autherdom!" DJ laughed, handing Gipsy the sheet. "But have a look. If it works out, consider it a reassignment."

The other Jaegers leaned in, reading over Gipsy shoulders. Striker was the first to react by swearing up a storm. "A crossover with a fucking Anime!"

"Oh dear," Crimson sighed, facepalming.

Cherno warbled worriedly.

"If I turn into a fucking magical girl someone is gonna die!"

"How do you know about magical girls, anyway?" Gipsy asked.

"Fuck off!"

"The Anime is RWBY," DJ said. "Won't lie, I'm a fan of the series. Guilty pleasure of mine."

"And we're possessing the bodies of four teenaged girls," Crimson noted, shivering slightly. "Please don't let there be tentacles. I'm begging you."

"Technically it's a mutual existence," DJ replied airily. "Anyway, might happen, might not, we'll see how things go. Enjoy the rewrite folks!"

"Wait wha

-o0o-

DJ slipped the IPad into his backpack and simply let go. Deep breathing calmed his racing heart and he felt the stress bleed away. He'd trained for this day for nine months, pouring hours of blood, sweat, and tears onto the cold, unforgiving ground. What did he have to fear?

January 5th, 2019. The start of a new year. A new chapter in his life. Oh, how true that statement was.

The intercom crackled, sounding the boarding of Air Canada flight something or other straight to Montreal.

It was time.

With a smile, he grabbed his bag and boarded his flight. No turning back. No looking back. Not for him. He'd said his goodbyes, made no promises, and was ready for whatever came next. Basic Military Qualification awaited him when he landed.

A new year indeed.

-o0o-

Check my page for the rewrite.