Summary: A former Jaeger pilot, Lori Henderson's rage was akin to a hurricane―ready to destroy anything and anyone in its path. No one could save her, not even herself. Yet...Chuck Hansen did. Out of all people to do so, he saved her by holding on. With his own anger, he gave Lori enough hope to rise up and step back into her Jaeger―because if the world was ending, she would die fighting. OC-Insert, Chuck/OC

"It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear."

I Have a Rendezvous with Death, Alan Seeger

Disclaimer: I don't own Pacific Rim, only any original characters.

The Hurricane
01: Rendezvous with Death

She was thirteen on August 10th, 2013, when life as she knew it crumbled, just like her house under a Kaiju's foot.

Five days later, she was fourteen years old and was forced to come to terms that her family would never come home, that she was no longer a daughter, an older sister, a cousin. She became a child of the state of California, an orphan because her family was gone, dead, buried under fallen buildings.

On August 15th, 2013, she vowed revenge on those sons of bitches humanity would come to call Kaiju.

2022 – June 06
Tokyo Shatterdome, Japan

"Lori, get your dumb ass up!"

Groaning, said girl turned over to see her partner of three years, Kei Takahata, glaring at her from the corner of their bed.

"Five more minutes, c'mon, you can give me that!" she complained as she tried hiding her face in her pillow.

Lori heard Kei's footsteps as they neared her and it was only a matter of seconds before he pulled the pillow away from her face and glared down at her – however, the amusement in his eyes caused her to giggle behind her hand.

Seeing that he was failing at intimidating her, he sighed before saying with a smile, "'Cmon, Marshal's waiting for us."

Lori groaned as she finally sat up, shoving a hand in her boyfriend's face as he tried giving her a kiss.
"Take a shower, you stink," she mumbled behind a yawn.

Kei ruffled her hair as an alternative and opened the door to the bathroom, giving her a wink before closing it. A few seconds later, she heard the shower turn on and, for some reason, she found herself thinking.

Lori, at age twenty-two, was one of many Jaeger pilots stationed along the Pacific coast to protect civilians against those alien bastards. Although not the best pilot to graduate from the Academy, she was sure as hell, not the worst. With Kei as her co-pilot, the two had four confirmed Kaiju kills with only minor damages every time to their Jaeger, Midnight Insurgent.

Midnight Insurgent was beautiful if anyone was to ask Lori. The tallest Jaeger built, the Mark-3 Japanese Jaeger stood at a whooping 298 feet with titanium plating and fifty diesel engines per muscle strand.

Ironically, the Jaeger itself was reminiscent of feudal Japan with its ninja-like body, it's armor having sleek black titanium plating to represent its "invisibility," and the head of the so-called body was similar to a motorcycle helmet.

Then, with twin short blades that slid out of a compartment on her hands, the Jaeger fought fast, hard, and was ruthless in the battlefield. She held a large katana, which was the main weapon of choice, that could slide out from a compartment built right along the spine. The best part of the katana was its ability to heat up – the edges of the blade, sharp enough as it was, could turn red hot to somewhat minimize the effect of kaiju blue. She was nowhere near the fastest Jaeger but she was the fastest Mark-3.

However, Midnight Insurgent was only as good as her pilot's, Lori Henderson and Kei Takahata.

Kei was trained at his father's karate dojo in the small town of Kawakado, Japan, from a young age. He was one of the best Karate athletes worldwide in his age group, having promise to become even the best in the world, but when he was sixteen, the first Kaiju landed in San Francisco, changing the career path that had been earlier decided for him. Two years later, he found himself in the Academy, training to protect his country, using the skills that he had grown up with to his advantage. He graduated one of the top in the Academy but, weirdly enough, could not find a partner with Drift capabilities. He struggled to find that perfect person that would allow him to finally kill those aliens and after searching and searching – even going international – at age twenty, he found his partner in her, Lori.

Lori Henderson was eighteen when she finally was admitted into the Academy. She had successfully hid her anger, her pain, her need for revenge from everyone, until Kei appeared in her life. He managed to break apart the armor she had created and helped her heal, helped her see that the world was not the hellhole she had believed. She was a pretty average student, not the best but not the worst, but unlike many of the graduates from the Academy, she had to opportunity to become a Jaeger Pilot right out of school, a position given only to a handful.

Their relationship did not start very well. In fact, the two could not even understand each other because of their language barrier. While Drift compatible, personality-wise, they were not compatible to the slightest. He was strict, clean, organized, and calm. She, on the other hand, was angry, aggressive, and disorganized.

Yet, one day, they found that they understood each other. She could somehow understand Japanese and he could understand English. They soon found themselves laughing together, eating together, just...being together all the time, and before they realized it, they had found themselves in each other, falling in love.

"Lori, can you get my razor?" Kei shouted out in Japanese, bringing Lori out of her thoughts, minutes later. Wiping her hand across her face, she stood up and responded, in English, "Give me a second!"

To those who could not understand the Drift, it was confusing to see them talk in two different languages, yet understand each other completely.

She quickly went to their shared closet and pulled out his razor set, but nearly dropped it when their room lit up red, the sound of an alarm blaring throughout their room.

"Midnight Insurgent, you are to report to Bay 07, Level A-39. Kaiju, codenamed Raijin, 350 miles off the coast of Tokyo Bay. Midnight Insurgent –"

The bathroom door flew open, revealing Kei with only a towel, his hair dripping with water. If they were in any other circumstances, she would have loved to ogle her boyfriend and his perfect body, but sadly, there was a Kaiju to kill.

Raising an eyebrow at her staring, she just gave him a suggestive look before grabbing their army flight suits. "...Shut up," Lori mumbled a second later, ignoring his snickering as he caught the overall she threw at him.

Five minutes later, they found themselves running through the hall, breezing past security guards and maintenance workers, as they neared their destination.

"You ready?"

"Of course I am," he muttered back, throwing in his second wink of the day. "Nothing like a Category 4 Kaiju to wake up to in the morning."

For someone who many saw as cold and stoic, when he truly opened himself up, he was quite the talker, much to her amusement.

Placing her hand on the door that would eventually lead them to their Jaeger, she kissed his cheek before mouthing at him, "Love ya."

Time was crucial and the team, in record time, managed to get Kei and Lori suited up and in their Jaeger in minutes. Despite the situation they were in, Lori grinned as she let out an excited shout. "Let's get this baby on the road!"

Kei chuckled as he began setting up the Jaeger for their Drift. "Yeah yeah, calm down Lover Girl."

"Marshal Hikai, on deck."

Over the comms, the two heard their boss saying, "Engage pilot to pilot protocol."

Immediately, their Conn-Pod lit up and the computer A.I. repeated what Marshal said and a few minutes later after the tests were performed and the Jaeger started up, without even listening they knew what would happen. "Prepare for neural handshake."

Lori, doing exactly that, steeled herself for the rush that came with the Drift. She shook the nerves from her arms and looked at Kei. He was giving her a reassuring smile, knowing exactly what she was thinking. The two stayed silent and soon after, the Drift was initiated.

Memories and thoughts rushed throughout her mind.

Mom, Dad, Brian, Maple, Grandma and Grandpa, everyone was gone, dead, crushed because of Trespasser. She's running and hiding, a bag of stolen food in her arms, and she's cold and police sirens ring out but she's never caught. Her foster family hates her and ignores her, she's too much trouble and she knows it but she can't help it, she misses them so damn much. She's finally accepted into the Academy and she can finally avenge her fallen family. Her new co-pilot, he's such a dick she hates him –

Kei is smiling at her before he leans down to kiss her, and she loves him loves him so much.

He's training in a dojo, Father showing him the katas that he needs to know for the championships this week. Mother is making him miso soup and onigiri's after a long day of training. Choosing to become a Jaeger pilot for what he deems the greater good, he can't forget the disappointment in Father's eyes as he turned his back to him and walked away, leaving him alone in the empty dojo with his black belt carefully folded in front of him. He leaves home and doesn't look back and after years and years of training he finally feels free, free from Father's dream for him. Yet, why doesn't he find a partner? Why is there no one drift compatible with him? Then, he finally meets his partner, but he hates her she's insufferable –

Lori, she is so beautiful, and he can't help but watch her peaceful face as she sleeps, and oh god he loves her so much.

"Neural handshake, strong and holding sir."

Soon, Midnight Insurgent was sent into the ocean, its pilot's alert and their Jaeger ready.

Rendezvous with Death

"Where the hell is this thing?"

Kei, frowning, took another look at the radar. "LOCCENT, we can't seem to find the Kaiju. Are you sure this was the location?"

"Its location was last seen –"

"Shit, watch out!" Lori shouted out.

Midnight Insurgent was almost too slow to raise it's arm as a Kaiju erupted from the ocean water's, faster than any kaiju to date. The Jaeger fell back into the ocean as the Kaiju screeched into the sky as the Jaeger stood back up, her arms raised in fighting stance.

Breathing heavily, Lori roared out, "Come get some of this, you fucking freak!"

Kei, used to her profanity and eccentric personality, slightly grinned before nodding his head. "Let's go!"

Midnight Insurgent began with a slight jog that evolved into a run as it collided with Raijin. With it's famous speed, she threw several heavy punches before deploying her kunai blades. "Deploy Kunai Blades!" She charged forward and raised her arms high above her head but before she could bring them down, Raijin, with its four arms, used two of them to block the hands and used the other two to grab the Jaeger.

Lifting her, the Kaiju threw her down into the water before slamming his four arms onto her chest. Several alarms began blaring throughout the Conn-Pod as the metal was bent through the sheer strength and weight behind the attack. Pushing the Kaiju away, the Jaeger quickly recovered as they lifted their arms above their heads in an x-like form, preventing the Kaiju from continuing his assault to crush the Jaeger.

"Kei, release the katana! I'll hold the arms so do it!" Lori growled out, still focused on keeping her arms raised.

"Hai!" Releasing his control over his left arm, he quickly pressed a few buttons to release the new weapon. "Katana, engaged."

"Let's hurry and end this," Kei growled out, receiving a nod from Lori in agreement.

Quickly returning to his position, Midnight Insurgent grabbed the hilt of their sword and pulled it out, and in one smooth motion brought it down onto Raijin. The monster noticed the new weapon at the last minute and tried to block it with its many arms, but failed, resulting in the heated katana to slice one completely off. Thankfully, it staggered several steps back as it screeched out in pain. "Ugh, gross," Lori muttered as she watched the arm fall into the ocean. However, her attention quickly returned to the Kaiju as it directed another roar towards the standing Jaeger. Sensing the intense hostility that wasn't there earlier, they positioned the sword towards where the Kaiju stood, tense with worry.

And with renewed strength and determination, Raijin shot forward, one of his three arms raised.

They successfully cut into the Kaiju's second arm but before the sword could successfully slice through it, Raijin grabbed the Jaeger's right side with one arm and with its other, grabbed Midnight Insurgent's right arm and pulled.

It pulled and pulled and pulled and the next thing Kei and Lori knew, they were screaming in pain as their precious Jaeger's arm was ripped clean off, the katana that had been in their right hand falling into the ocean. It was a burning pain like nothing they had ever felt before and the most affected had been Lori, as it had been her side of the Jaeger that the arm was ripped off. Kei was the first to recover while Lori continued screaming, tears streaming down her face from the complete agony she was feeling.

"LOCCENT, we're hit! I repeat, we're hit!" he managed to say between the alarms and the continuing pain.

"Midnight Insurgent, get out of there now! Backup is coming so get out of there!"

However, the two pilot's couldn't pay attention to what Marshal commanded as their mind was only preoccupied with staying safe, their fight or flight instincts overruling all cognitive thought for the time being. "Screw running away, we won't make it five feet before it catches up with us!" Lori, somewhat recovering from earlier and with adrenaline pumping throughout her body, turned to her partner. "What are we going to do?"

She was panting and in pain. Losing the Jaeger's right arm felt as if she had lost her own and the suit, whenever it rubbed against the fresh burn wounds, god – it was pure lava. Along with her arm, her entire body ached, and a treacherous part of her mind whispered, we're losing.

However, the moment she thought those words, Kei whirled towards her. "No, we're not. We need to...to use the blade in your arm and find some way to keep it busy until it–"

"K-Kei."

"The other Jaeger will be here soon so–"

"Kei, w-what is it doing?" Lori raised her hand and pointed to Raijin.

The two watched, dumbfounded, as the Kaiju picked up their fallen katana with something akin to curiosity as it began swinging it around.

"LOCCENT, a-are you seeing this?"

There was no response. The Jaeger team simply stood, alarms blaring, despite their instincts telling them to run.

The Kaiju's head suddenly whirled around to them and it threw the sword.

To Lori, she saw everything in slow motion. They both let out a sound of surprise as they tried moving the Jaeger's head to the side, and she didn't know why, but she found herself looking at Kei. He was staring at her with so much emotion in his eyes. She sensed his fear, his anger, his frustration, but what stood out to her most was the intense feeling of sorrow. At that second, she couldn't understand why he was.

Then, suddenly, he wasn't there. In a blink of an eye, her connection with him had been severed as the sword they tried to avoid sliced straight into the left side of the head.

His memories mixed with hers and his last thoughts were the only things on her mind. She screamed once more in agony, both from the physical pain and the mental pain.

"N-No no no no!"

Pain, electricity, fire, that's all she felt it rushed throughout her body and no, Kei, where was he where was Kei he should have been here where is he why is it so empty?!

Lori's body became rigid as the Jaeger transferred full control to her. There was some sort of liquid dripping down her face and she wasn't sure if it was from her suit or if it was her blood, but either way, she knew she was screwed.

However, there was no time to panic – she was thought there was no hiding that she's scared and oh God – and it was only a matter of time before the neural load of running a Jaeger by herself would overwhelm her, ultimately killing her and letting the Kaiju win.

She couldn't let that happen – not after Kei sacrificed his life.

Forcing her main control to the right, she grabbed the hilt of the katana and with all her strength, pulling it out of Midnight Insurgent. Her heart clenched in pain from everything she lost, not only did she lose a partner but she lost her Jaeger, but she didn't have the liberty to stop and cry, so she ignored the fact that her partner was gone, that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, that she wasn't controlling her own side but his, as well. No, she ignored that and as the Kaiju came bounding towards her, she raised the katana.

Lori roared, she roared in pain and for Kei, for her precious Jaeger, and brought the katana down –

Rendezvous with Death

2024 – January 1
Sydney, Australia

"Hey Lori, are you free after this?"

"No, Bob, I told you already to back off, remember?" The man scrunched up his face as if he was trying to remember. Seeing this, Lori scoffed as she returned to wiping her glass cups. "God, lay off the alcohol, you're going to get yourself killed."

Burping, the man simply glared at her before grabbing his drink and staggering off, leaving Lori to her own thoughts behind the bar counter.

Today was New Years and, unsurprisingly, the bar she worked at was full of people, making her glad that she was able to hide behind the dozens of glass cups and alcoholic beverages. Looking around, she couldn't help but shake her head at the craziness of everything – she was probably the only sober person here.

Returning back to her cups, she continued wiping them and lost herself in the motions for a few minutes until someone sat in front of her.

"Whiskey, neat," the man grumbled, his face hidden in his arms.

Lori placed the cup in her hand in front of him, an eyebrow raised in amusement. "Rough day?"

"Tell me about it." She grabbed the whiskey from the shelf and poured him what he requested.

"Well, holler if you need something." Seeing that there were more people now sitting along the counter, she turned her attention to them as the strange man disappeared from her thoughts.

About an hour later, she went back to throw away bags of trash when she heard sounds of grunting and cursing from deeper in the alley. At first, Lori thought it was just some horny teenagers – which wouldn't have been the first time she dealt with some – but narrowing her eyes, they adjusted to the darkness and she saw a group of men.

"If you just did ya damn job, my wife 'n kids would be alive."

"Well, mate, you try fighting –"

Adrenaline immediately rushed through her as she heard the sound of a punch, quickly followed by a sound of a body hitting a wall. She didn't hesitate to rush forward to stop the fight, knowing through experience that it would not end well.

"Leave the guy alone," Lori said, catching all of the men's attention. "He's beaten up enough as it is."

The largest man here, who stood at least a good half a foot taller than her, scoffed before turning to her. "If you know what's good for ya, I'd walk your pretty ass out of here."

"Oh my god," Lori muttered to herself. For the first time in days, she found herself smiling, despite the situation she was it. "You think my ass is pretty?" she couldn't help asking.

"...Excuse me?"

"You did just complement my ass, or did you forget under all the alcohol you drank?" Lori inched nearer to the groaning body as she kept the men distracted.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"What –"

One of the men suddenly grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks. She looked at the meaty hand, her eye twitching as anger now began flooding her system.

Deep breaths Lori, deep breaths.

"Oh look, now the little girl is scared–"

"Get your damn hand off me," she growled out, still not looking up. At this point, her hands balled into fists, itching to hit someone.

"Or what? You'll punch me?" The men all around snickered. "I highly doubt –"

In a flash, Lori ripped her arm out of his grip and threw a punch to his nose. His eyes wide, the pudgy man staggered a few steps back until he fell down onto his ass, knocked out.

"Yeah, I will." She whirled back around towards the two remaining men and saw that they were furious and annoyed with what just occurred.

"I was going to let you go free since you're a girl but...nah, you need someone to teach you a lesson."

Brushing a hand through her hair, she began laughing at the sheer audacity of the men before her. Did they really think they could beat her?

"I'd like to see you two bozos try."

The smaller man on the right rushed forward, his arm raised high for a punch, but Lori was able to trip him and kick his ass, knocking him out as well. Now left alone with the man that had confronted her earlier, she grinned. He seemed uneasy at first, but for some reason, he, too, ran forward. However, unlike the other men, he seemed to have some sort of basic knowledge of fighting and avoided her punch, his own fist colliding with her face as the impact threw her head to the side.

Pain flared throughout Lori's cheek and taking a step back, she spat out the blood that poured into her mouth from biting her tongue the moment he hit her. "Did...did you just…?"

"Fuck yeah I did, you little bitch," he spat at her.

Lori, slowly turning her head back at him, glared at him from behind her bangs. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."

And within seconds, the fight was over, leaving her alone with the victim earlier.

Needing to calm her nerves down, she took several deep breaths as she regained her composure. "Hey, dude, you okay?" she asked, kneeling down to the fallen man. He made some sort of incoherent sound and she was unable to understand him. "Oi, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong. You're a big guy – I can't carry you out of here myself." Narrowing her eyes, she realized why the man seemed so familiar – it was the same guy that had ordered the whiskey earlier who was having a bad day. "...Dude?" She poked him and waited for a response.

Hearing nothing in return, she sighed. She would need to turn him over to see just how bad he was beaten up. Placing her hands on his side, with all her strength, she pushed and rolled him to his side. The moment she did, though, she fell backward and crawled away in shock, her back hitting the wall of the alleyway. Her eyes were wide as she began breathing heavily, acting as if she had just seen the devil

And to her, the man may have been the same thing.

Because staring at her, unconscious at her feet, was no other than the Jaeger pilot, Chuck Hansen.

Rendezvous with Death – End

A/N: Well...I fell into the hellhole that is my mind. I've been obsessed with Pacific Rim since the moment it hit theaters and after rewatching the movie about a month ago, this idea for a story hit me like a freight train. I've always wanted to write something for Pacific Rim but I just...never got around to it because I was kinda intimidated, for a lack of a better word.

I hope you enjoyed this! I know there are some similarities between her and Raleigh's story but I promise you, they're totally different. I don't want to spoil anything so I can't say what these differences are but I hope you don't give up on the story just yet!

Until next time, please review! The more reviews and constructive criticism I get, the quicker I tend to write because I get enthusiastic about uploading for you guys!

So review!

~IntoTheDeep27