Author's Note: So, I wasn't exactly planning on posting this chapter so soon. I honestly wonder if it's all going a bit too fast. I try to make my stories long, because I think longer is better. More to read. But I think I can come up with some ideas. My goal is to get this story to have more than 40k words, at least. Leave a review, and maybe give me a couple of ideas. I could use some.

Slattern stepped out of the somehow empty area he had been in, feeling stronger and more powerful than he had been in years. It felt like it had been a long time ago since he was a hundred percent. Well, not yet. They still needed to attach that prosthetic to him, however long that might take. But considering what they can do with Jaegers, he was certain that he'd be up and running within a few hours.

"I've never felt so alive!" He exclaimed happily. "Oh, man, wait till Gipsy sees me. Then again, Raleigh and Mako will have to pilot her. It has to be Mako."

That's when he felt it, an mostly discomforting feeling in his head. It was like a severe headache, only he saw memories, and in the flashes were places that were familiar, and some that weren't. The Kaiju became alarmed when he realized what it was. Half the memories were that of a Kaiju, which explains why he saw the Anteverse and the Precursors. But what really alarmed him were the other half of the memories. They belonged to a certain human that was crazy enough to drift with a Kaiju, specifically the Secondary Kaiju Brain he had in his lab... Newton.

"Son of a bitch! Stacker, do you hear me?" Slattern called out.

"I hear you." The Marshall mentally replied. "Is something wrong? It sounds urgent."

"Newt went and Drifted with a Kaiju."

Then Slattern heard someone talking through the walls with his hearing. It was that other scientist Hermann.

"Marshall! Marshall! Newton built a Mind Melding Device from scratch and Drifted with a Kaiju!"

Slattern sighed, shaking his head. "Should've figured he found him first. Wait, Marshall, what is everyone doing in that part of the Jaeger Bay?"

"Mr. Becket and Ms. Mori are currently testing out Gipsy Danger."

"And you neglected to mention this to me? It couldn't have waited until I was out of surgery?" Slattern asked, sounding annoyed and somewhat upset that he had missed out.

"That's just it. You were in surgery."

Slattern let out another one of his growl-like sighs. "Unbelieva-" His eyes widened as they became completely bloodshot. The discomfort turned into pain, but not physical pain. No... this was far worse.

In Raleigh and Mako's mind

"The hull! It went through the hull! Listen to me, Raleigh. You need to-" Then Yancy screamed as he was torn out of the Conn-Pod.

Slattern's eyes widened even further as he clenched his head with his hand in discomfort. Even at this distance, he could feel Raleigh and Mako losing their aliment. Raleigh was regaining control, but Mako... No, Mako was reliving that day. That fateful day where she lost everything, and Slattern remembered what could happen whenever a pilot experiences such a traumatic event while controlling a Jaeger.

"Shit, shit, shit!" The Category Six Kaiju began making his way to Gipsy, entering the large bay where she had been kept and his eyes widened in horror when her Plasmacaster activated.

"Gipsy, you have to shut down!"

"I can't. Mako's connection is too strong!"

"Damn it!" Slattern cursed, trying to figure at what was the best course of action. He probably had a minute before the Plasmacaster was fully charged, and if it fired, there's no telling how much damage would be done. Would Mako fire more than once, too? "I'm gonna have to go in after her, see if I can get her to snap out of it."

Concentrating his mental strength, Slattern did it. He entered Mako's mind.

Inside Mako's memory, Slattern saw the nearly destroyed city of Tokyo. Looking around, the place seemed empty, which wasn't right. Mako was supposed to be here, so where was she?

"Where are you, Mako?" Slattern asked himself. The Onibaba Incident was one of the few Kaiju attacks he hadn't been at, so he didn't completely know how everything went down. He didn't even look into Mako's mind, since he didn't want to intrude on something traumatic.

"Mama!"

Slattern gasped and looked down to see a little girl walking through the empty street of Tokyo. "Mako."

"Mama! Mama!" Mako began sobbing as she kept walking, not even hearing Slattern or noticing his presence. The Kaiju felt his heart break, as his telepathy allowed him to feel the emotions of others, and he could feel Mako's pain and suffering.

"Mako, listen to me." Slattern spoke softly. "This is all just a memory. Don't treat it as anything real. Come on, look at it."

The younger version of Mako still didn't hear him, and he cursed knowing that this memory was all too vivid for her to even hear him.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought." Slattern thought, then he looked up to see several fighter jets fly towards him, firing their missiles as they went straight through him like he was intangible, but they hit something. He whirled around to see Onibaba, hidden in the smoke as one of the fighter jets crashed into it and exploded. Once the Kaiju came out of the smoke and noticed Mako, it let out a roar.

Mako continued sobbing as she began running. Onibaba wasn't a fast Kaiju, but it'd still catch up to her eventually, especially when a human could only go so far. Slattern clenched his fists as he let out a furious snarl.

"Get away from her!" He attempted to punch the Kaiju, only for his fist to go right through it. Then he remembered what this was Mako's mind, and everything around him was her memory. He had no influence here.

"Damn it." Then he began to follow Mako himself. His only option now was to get her attention and get her to see that this all wasn't real, before the Plasmacaster fired. But time was running out.

He found her in an alley, hiding behind a dumpster. Then he noticed that he wasn't the only one in her mind.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Raleigh asked in surprised.

"I came to help her. But this memory, Raleigh, it's provoking strong emotions. To her, it's all real, Gipsy couldn't even shut down." Slattern stated.

"Oh, god." Raleigh looked towards Mako. "Mako, listen to me. This is all just a memory. None of this is real."

"Getting her attention won't be easy. She thinks she here, and this is her mind. It's outside our domain."

"What do we do?"

"Keep trying!' Slattern shouted as Onibaba appeared, and Mako let out a terrified scream as she extended her hand. "Fuck! Raleigh, the Plasmacaster will fire in the real world if we don't do something!"

"I'm trying! Mako, listen to me! This is all just a memory! None of it is real!"

Mako still didn't notice them as Onibaba tried to get her with his claw. He was getting closer as Mako was too petrified to move at all. Slattern began thinking, trying to figure out the best way to snap Mako out of it, but from the real world, he saw it.

Back to reality, Slattern saw that the Plasmacaster had already reached full power, and they would only have a few seconds to stop her. The humans had already left the area in case a shot was fired, and the possibility of that was growing imminent with each passing second.

"Mako, stop! Listen to me, it's just a memory!" Slattern shouted as he frantically looked around. It was slowly becoming apparent to him that Mako would not hear him until the memory passed, but he kept trying. "Mako!" The Plasmacaster was already loaded and ready to fire. "Mako!"

Inside his head, there was a countdown of when the weapon would fire. If it did, it would destroy the LOCCENT, and Tendo, Herc, Chuck, and Stacker were still inside. In his head, there was only a few seconds left.

Ten...

Nine...

Eight...

Seven...

Six...

Five...

"Mako!"

Four...

Three...

"MAKO!"

Two...

One...

What everyone had been dreading had happened. The Plasmacaster fired, and everyone in LOCCENT looked away as they prepared for their deaths. But death never came for them. Instead, they heard the blast hit something... or someone. A very loud growl of pain was heard as heavy footsteps shook the Shatterdome. Slowly, Stacker, Herc, Chuck, and Tendo, along with Raleigh and Mako, who were still recovering from chasing the rabbit, look at who or what had been hit, and to their horror, they saw Slattern.

The large Kaiju had been holding onto the Plasmacaster, aiming it down at his abdomen. He was struggling to maintain his balance as he let go and backed away, breathing heavily as he kneeled down, placing his hand over the wound. The blast wasn't as powerful as the one that practically crippled him all those years ago, but it still tore through his flesh as his glowing blue blood streamed down his body with massive drops of it falling to the ground below him.

There weren't exactly ways to treat Kaiju wounds, but that wasn't just because most Kaiju were the enemy, or because Slattern hardly ever received any wounds before. The main reason had to do with the fact that Kaiju were giant monsters. Despite all the similarities Slattern's anatomy had with the anatomy of humans and certain animals, he was still a Kaiju, and the wounds that he would receive are difficult to treat because of their shear size alone.

All they could do was try drugging him with anything that would suppress pain, but drugs were useless. Besides, he had already explained that he recovers more quickly from pain than humans, and that the wound would close up soon. The best the humans could do was give him some space, only he wanted some company, the company of Mako and Raleigh. And like a protective father, he growled at any who so much as glared at Mako for what happened earlier. No one objected to him, because he was the one that suffered the most from it.

"Slattern, I'm so sorry."

"It's alright, Gypsy. I know you tried. You did good, though. You held back."

"You call that holding back?!"

"Compared to last time, yeah. It's impressive, though. The least durable part of my body has a density equivalent to that of your hull. You always could make quick work of Kaiju; never gave me a reason to doubt that you could."

"Still, it looks pretty bad."

"It's a flesh wound. I'm still extremely resistant to fire, and it would take a nuclear explosive to inflict very severe burns on me. I'm gonna live, Gypsy."

The Mark 3 Jaeger seemed to let out a mechanical groan of annoyance. "You are something, alright."

Slattern chuckled before sighing. "So, did you hear that Newt Drifted with that Kaiju brain he had in his lab?"

"How could I not know? When you entered Mako's mind, you got connected to me; we Drifted. I felt it all, saw it all."

Slattern raised three brows when he noticed the tone in Gipsy's voice. "Is something wrong, Gipsy?"

"I saw all of it. The Anteverse, the other Kaiju, the Precursors... Chaos."

Slattern sighed once more. "I was hoping you didn't notice."

"Couldn't help it. I didn't know much about your life in the Anteverse, and you don't talk about it."

"Yeah. My homeworld isn't a nice place to live. As a Kaiju, it was but a wasteland to me. Nothing but a dead planet that had succumbed to its wounds long before I was born. Or created. Whichever you prefer, not that any of it matters now. The Anteverse isn't my home anymore. The Earth is. But enough of that. How are the others?"

"So far, they're still only minimal traces of sentience in them. God, Slattern, I feel so alone, being the only Jaeger that's conscious." Her voice sounded so heartbreaking. "It's like no one can hear me."

"I can." Slattern said comfortingly. "And I always will, until you become fully aware. Besides, I'm not the only one who hears you. Raleigh can, and in time, Mako as well."

"That didn't work out too well, earlier." Gipsy reminded.

Slattern shook his head. "No, it did not. But everyone makes mistakes. Seemingly random sometimes, but always inevitable in the end. We can only do so much to avoid them."

"Slattern, before you go, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything. What is it?"

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"What's it like to be a Kaiju?"

"Why do you want to know, Gipsy?"

"I was curious. I have an idea of what it's like to be human because of how many times I Drifted with Raleigh and... Yancy. I just couldn't help but wonder what it's like to be you."

Slattern nodded. "I suppose it's not much different than what it's like to be a Jaeger. I mean, we're both massive beings, able to handle things that humans couldn't, we're physically stronger and more powerful. The only differences that come to mind are that I'm massive, for starters. I'm three times taller than you, I have tentacles and tails, and that's not counting the fact that I have more than two eyes. Still do, too.'

"And you're naturally sentient." Gipsy added.

"Yeah, there's that also."

"Dad?"

Slattern shook his head when he remembered it wasn't just him and Gipsy in the room. "Yes, Raleigh?"

"What are you doing?"

Whenever he spoke to Gipsy, Slattern made sure that only she would hear him, otherwise it would look awkward if a massive Kaiju was talking to himself. But now, it looked awkward as Raleigh and Mako stared up at him.

"I'm just... thinking. About how this'll all play out." Slattern's eyes widened when he remembered something. "Oh, I have to get the arm! I'll be back in a few hours!"

"Huh, I thought he could've waited a little longer. And does he even need that arm?" Gipsy asked herself.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Stacker asked, though he wasn't entirely surprised.

"No time for that! It won't be looking good, soon. I need to get that arm."

"You just got shot point blank by a giant plasma cannon." Herc said.

"But a flesh wound, Herc. But a flesh wound." Slattern replied.

Herc and Stacker exchanged a look.

"Is he serious?" The former asked.

The latter shook his head and sighed. "We both know he is."

"So, let me guess, you need techs to surgically attach the arm to me, and connect wires and components to my nerves, mainly my motor cortex, so I can control the arm."

"Basically." Stacker said.

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for then?" Come on, lives are on the line! Timeline's running thin!"

Herc looked at Stacker. "He's crazy."

"Crazy doesn't begin to describe him. I'll go tell the techs you're ready."

"Oh, before I forget, Marshall, what happened to Newt? Did he survive?"

"Close enough. He had a bit of a seizure, but he's fine now."

"Good. We can't have him Drifting with anymore Kaiju brains. Good thing he doesn't know about the Kaiju Black Market."

Once again, Herc looked at Stacker. Except this time, he was giving the the Marshall a look. Then Slattern's eyes widened in horror.

"You told him about the Kaiju Black Market, didn't you?"

"I thought we could use the intel." Stacker said in his defense.

"What could he find out that we don't already know? Never mind." Slattern sighed in frustration. "Just get the techs. It's only a matter of time before the next Kaiju Attack."

It seemed like bad timing. Slattern was still undergoing the surgery, which was almost finished, Raleigh and Mako weren't ready to pilot Gipsy Danger, and that would create a delay. It didn't seem like there'd be anymore problems. At least, that's how it seemed as Tendo walked into LOCCENT with a donut, thinking he'd get to relax tonight. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before he heard the beeping and looked towards the source.

The technician nearly dropped his donut as his eyes widened incredulous upon seeing two different readings. That could only mean what thing... two Kaiju had emerged from the Breach.

"Son of a bitch!" Slattern yelled as he managed to hear Tendo's thoughts from this distance. "Hurry the fuck up! We got Kaiju ass to kick!"

"Slattern, what's your status?" Stacker asked mentally.

"They're still connecting the arm. I'd say half an hour or so before completion. God, can't it go any faster?"

"No. I'm afraid we're gonna have to bench you for now, until that arm's completely attached."

Slattern groaned in annoyance. "Unbelievable! What about Mako and Raleigh? You're gonna need someone to get in there and fight, Stacker!"

"There's no time! They're not ready!"

"They're not ready my ass! You can't keep denying Mako this. You've any idea how hard I tried to convince Raleigh and Yancy to leave the program? Do you?!"

"Look, I get it, you're upset! I'm sorry, but I made up my mind."

Slattern growled in frustration at Stacker's ignorance. Somehow he knew that tonight wouldn't end well, especially when none of the pilots were actually trained to fight off more than one Kaiju. "I was only here for one day! How the hell is all this happening so quickly?"