Shingeki no Pacific Rim

SUMMARY: When humanity is threatened by Kaiju—nightmarish beasts that arose from the sea—only the Yeager pilots stand a chance. One of these pilots, a prodigy named Mikasa Ackerman, finds her skills put to the test as she must re-join the program to fight for humankind. Levi x Mikasa, Christa x Ymir.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have always, always, always wanted to do this. I actually have written one before, but it was a really crappy little oneshot. Now, I want to do the real deal. "Let's Play Pretend" and "CinderArmin" will not be put on hiatus for this. I'm still working on those as well.

There might be slight Pacific Rim spoilers, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum. I am also changing the plot so if you've seen the movie, this fic will not be the same. I am simplifying a lot of things.

This is just the prologue. The fic will not be in the first-person POV, don't worry.

DISCLAIMER: I own neither Shingeki no Kyojin or Pacific Rim. What I think I own are the names of the Yeagers that I will be revealing in the next couple of chapters.

I was on the cusp of my ninth birthday when the first Kaiju rose from the sea. Scaly and grotesque, it was something out of a nightmare. The military took to calling it Gutdirge, but everyone just knew it as "the First".

For the next five days, it rained blood—both red and blue—before we could finally get it to die. In those five days, it had killed thousands of people, destroyed numerous cities, and changed billions of lives.

The next Kaiju appeared barely a year after. I still remember the bitter tang of blood in my mouth as I bit down on my tongue to prevent from screaming as I took shelter in the basement with my parents.

Eventually, all of humanity realized that the only way to put an end to these monsters was to work together. We joined forces, sharing what knowledge we could. At first, we built walls—Maria, Rose, and Sina—to protect ourselves, foolishly thinking that it could truly stop the Kaiju. It took a category two Kaiju just over an hour to smash through the first of the walls. By this point, humanity had given up hope. However, it was in what we thought was our final hour that one man was able to devise a solution. That man was Grisha Yeager.

And so, the Yeager Project was born.

The Yeager Project came from the idea that to fight monsters, we had to create monsters of our own. Since replicating the Kaiju were strictly out of the question, as well as beyond our abilities, Grisha believed that we could build gargantuan humanoid machines piloted by humans. These machines were named after their creator.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer size of the Yeagers, it proved impossible for only one person to pilot it. Therefore, a two pilot system was created, harnessing a type of technology that would allow the pilots to form a mental link in order to control the Yeagers in sync. This technique meant that only pilots with "drift compatibility" could successfully pilot a Yeager. And since the success of a Yeager was dependent on the skills of the pilots, Yeager pilots were given the celebrity treatment.

But that's not why I joined.

When I was twelve, I actually managed to meet Grisha Yeager. As luck would have it, my own father's skills with machinery landed him as one of the top engineers alongside Grisha himself. Upon finding out that Grisha had a son about the same age as me, he eagerly brought me to work with him every day until Grisha broke down and brought his son too.

His name was Eren.

At first, I never thought much of Eren other than the fact that he was probably a bit of an idiot. Like his father, he was passionate about the victory of humankind, but unlike his father, he seemed completely unaware of the measures taken to ensure said victory. I still remember the numerous headaches I had in his presence.

However, that all changed when Eren and I were kidnapped.

In Shiganshina, the district where I was born, there was a religious group that had formed after the second Kaiju attack. It was their belief that the Kaiju were sent from our gods to punish humanity for the atrocities we had committed. More than once, they'd vehemently protested the Yeager Project and everything that Grisha had stood for. While we'd always acknowledged their presence, we'd never realized just how far they were willing to go in order to stop Grisha.

Eren and I were trussed up, like a pair of pigs for slaughter, and brought to an empty warehouse in what I assume what a cargo bay. I was absolutely terrified. It was strange, really. I'd once seen a Kaiju up close, but it was nothing compared to the fear I was experiencing in that very moment. It was as if human cruelty was far more frightening than monsters.

I didn't even think once about fighting back. Eren, however, did. The moment we were left alone with only one guard for company, Eren lunged at him and somehow managed to kill the man by slitting his throat. However, another guard entered the room and upon seeing what he'd done, began to strangle Eren. I was motionless, too stiff with shock to move.

"Fight! If you win, you live."

Those were the words that Eren had managed to choke out and the words that have stayed with me all this time. It wasn't a noble phrase, telling me to escape while Eren sacrificed his life. It was a war cry.

At first, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was holding the knife in my hands, listening to the man attempting to kill a child, but I couldn't do it.

But, then I remembered.

This wasn't something I was unfamiliar with. I'd seen death. I'd looked death right in the eyes as it crushed the city to pieces. I wasn't afraid of death, but it should have every reason to fear me.

When Grisha and his search party finally found the warehouse, they came across an interesting, if horrid sight. Two children covered in blood, surrounded by the corpses of four people robed in red.

After I reiterated to my father the words that Eren had told me, he never brought me to work again and I didn't see Eren for a long time.

It was four years after this incident that I decided to enlist in the Yeager Program, lying about my age and telling the officer that I was nineteen.s

I met my co-pilot, a man named Levi, three months after that.

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