Stepping into the simulation room was different this time. Everything was in the same place, all of the harness frames were still, the control panels dormant, but even so, Mako swore the room was tensed like a cat about to spring. She and her copilot, Anya Dysvena, crossed the room to the harnesses. They stood awkwardly beside them.

"So do you want left-"

"You can have left-"

Mako blushed. She knew almost nothing about Anya, only that she had lived in Moscow before the Anti-Kaiju Wall was built, and had seen the famous Cherno Alpha up close. She suspected the other girl had lived through an incident similar to her own, but like Mako, Anya stayed mostly to herself.

"Please take whichever side you're comfortable on." Anya broke the silence and stepped back, allowing Mako to survey the two frames. On the left she was stronger and more experienced, yet there was a chance stepping into that frame would bring memories of her trial with Yates into the Drift and cause another catastrophe.

"I'll take the right side, please," she decided. Anya nodded and stepped into the left. After pushing a strand of blonde hair back into her helmet she looked over to Mako. "Neither of us really know why we were partnered, do we?"

Mako smiled wryly. "No."

"Let's do our best."

"Of course."

Empty heart, empty body. Empty heart, empty body.

"Initiating neural handshake in three. Two. One."

The Drift was almost silent this time. Mako strained, trying to see something, hear something, anything to make a connection. Suddenly she caught it, faint at first but growing stronger.

A deep humming noise echoed through the study, like a foghorn but gentler, one legato note slipping through the floorboards into her room. Her father was playing the cello, was he upset again? Her mother's rehearsal had gone poorly and she was the conductor but the antics of the horn section were hardly her fault. "Come waltz with me, Anya dear, your father is composing..."

The music filled the cockpit of the Jaeger, echoing through the Drift. Mako realized with a start that besides that single memory, Anya had nothing else but music. Entire symphonies and children's lullabies, bringing to the surface Mako's childhood and little red shoes-

With a jolt the lullaby shifted to something more recent, a pop song that had been on the radio for a few weeks, and Mako dropped out of the memory and into the moment, trying not to laugh. The contrast had between the songs was so humorous she could barely keep it together. She pushed her own memories to the back of her focus and looked over to see Anya smiling as well. With the heavy bass thumping in their ears they settled in for a good brawl.

When faced with the door to the reviewing room, Mako began to regret leaving the infirmary. She could face Kaijus, nightmares, anything people threw at her, but when she had to deal with the actual people doing the throwing it became another story.

Deputy Shawlinn wasted no time, going play by play through the simulation and pointing out weak spots they missed and things they did well in almost equal measure.

"Dysvena, we noticed during your trials that you don't bring many memories to the Drift." Anya nodded slowly and Shawlinn continued. "This has obviously aided you in all of your neural handshakes to date, and currently you're one of our strongest Jaeger pilot candidates. Excellent work."

The Russian girl beamed and tried to conceal her excitement but was failing miserably. Next to her Mako was trying to hide her panic and was having just as much luck. She stared into her lap. Shawlinn was going to criticize her lack of depth in this Drift, or how little she opened up, she could feel it in her bones.

"Mori, it took guts to get back in that machine after the beating you took." Her eyes slowly rose to meet the Deputy's. "I was against letting you back in at all, but Stacker Pentecost personally requested you be given another chance, and what can I say?" Shawlinn leaned back and stretched his thick arms. "I owed him a favor."

Mako wasn't sure if she was about to hug him or slit his throat. If he was so against it why let her back in at all?

"So I put you with Dysvena to see if her... unique Drifting style could get you successfully through a trial." He smiled blithely and Mako decided she'd like to hit him over the head with a bo staff. "There was always the chance you'd overpower her in the handshake and end up soloing again, but lucky I was right, eh?" Shawlinn rubbed the crown of his head. The hair was slowly turning gray and Mako disinterestedly wondered when he would retire. Premature aging seemed to be an occupational hazard of working with Jaegers.

"As for the actual trial, you two seemed decently compatible. Although you haven't had any martial arts classes together your styles are similar." He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk, pondering. "I'd like to see more of what you can do together, but you both need to try something a little challenging. As you know, we post class rankings before the final trial to give everyone a little perspective." Mako's stomach plummeted. The Deputy glanced at his lists. "Dysvena, go with Jullini next week, and Mori, try with Hansen. Dismissed."

Two days later Mako was searching the mess hall for a place to sit when Anya spotted her. "Hey! Mako Mori, sit here!" she called, waving her arm over her head. Mako hid a blush behind her bobbed hair and walked the gauntlet between the tables. She passed the prodigy duo from the first trial simulation, Amelia and Maria, heads bent close in conversation, and further down the table was her first partner, Will. They exchanged a quick nod-smile before she continued to where Anya sat. As Mako placed her tray on the table a loud burst of laughter across the hall caught her attention and she stopped, silverware clinking against the metal tray. The source of the sound was some kind of joke told by her partner assigned for the final simulation: Chuck Hansen.

Chuck was being loud, as usual, tucking into his tray with gusto but ignoring his food more often than not to regale his enthralled friends around him with stories of life inside the Shatterdomes, where he had been raised almost exclusively due to his father's status as a pilot. Throughout her years of listening to Chuck's stories at the Academy, Mako noticed he didn't actually talk about his father very much. He spoke of sneaking up scaffolding around the Jaegers and chasing his bulldog around the cargo bay and spiking water bottles with vinegar and playing poker with the pilots after missions (they always gang up and use freaky post-Drift connections to cheat, he swears), but nothing about the Australian hero, Hercules Hansen. Defender of the Southern Miracle Mile. Absentee father.

Chuck glanced up and met Mako's stare with slight surprise clouding his blue eyes. Mako, on the other hand, hadn't even realized she was looking until a few other students at his table swivelled around to see what he was looking at. She dropped her gaze and sat down as fast as she could, nearly overturning the tray next to hers. She could hear Chuck's posse laughing and him shushing them. "Girl from Tokyo news... Red shoes, remember... and smart, already a symbol... probably spoiled rotten..." The entire group was now talking about her and Anya could see it was getting to her.

"Hey, I don't think you've met Julani and Keto." Anya pulled her attention away from the barely concealed gossip to the lanky boy and girl sitting next to her. "Mako, this is Julani and Keto Sefu."

Mako shook their hands and marvelled at the similarities. Both had the same high cheekbones, coal black skin, and lithe build. They oozed raw strength and grace, and Mako felt slightly intimidated until Keto spread his lips in a smile and Julani reached across the table to take one of Anya's green beans.

"So good to meet you finally, Mako," she exclaimed. "We heard about your trial with Yates and I've wanted to ask: what's it like going solo?" The African girl obviously meant no harm but Keto punched her arm and Anya's mouth opened in surprise.

Julani rubbed her arm melodramatically but Keto was already telling her off. "Don't just ask things like that, Lani, good grief-"

"No, it's okay," Mako interjected, but they were off in their own world, bickering about who was bossier and who had seniority over the other. Anya sighed.

"They get like this a lot," she explained. "I only met them this semester, Keto was my second Drift partner."

Mako couldn't possibly see how they'd be compatible but stranger matches had been made. "They're siblings?" she guessed.

"Cousins, actually," Keto corrected, ducking a hand under Julani's arm and stealing a cookie off her tray. "Our fathers are brothers."

"Our whole family lived in the same town, though, and we trained together." Julani had commenced retaliation and had a long arm stretched across her cousin's chest holding him back as she quickly scooped noodles from his tray to hers.

"What did you train in?" Mako questioned eagerly. There were a handful of topics Mako could discuss for hours, and martial arts was high on the list, right behind Jaegers. The pair stopped struggling over their food for a minute.

"Long distance running, mostly, and some sprinting," Keto said. "We were going to run in the Olympics, we were fast enough, but with the Kaiju..." It was obvious the subject was still a raw wound to him, another wild dream ripped away by monsters.

Julani slung an arm around his shoulders. "So we decided we were needed elsewhere!" She had jumped in with so much confidence Mako sensed a habitual falshood. God knows she had lied to herself often enough.

Julani went on. "Karate and judo are basically the same movements as running, anyways, just in a different order. And mostly standing in one place. Right?"

Her table companions stared for a moment before bursting into laughter. "That's not how it works, stupid," Anya gasped, tears in her eyes. Mako wiped her own eyes and tried to think of the last time she had enjoyed eating in the mess hall this much.

"How did your first few simulations go?" she asked her new friends.

"Did you know after they saw Keto and Julani's compatibility during the third set of simulations they decided to keep them together?" Anya chimed in proudly. "I bet they'll get shipped to a Shatterdome together."

Julani laughed and Keto grinned and life continued on to Plan B.

"Welcome to the annual Jaeger Academy Expo!"

Three days later the assembly hall had been transformed. Booths filled every inch of the floor, each offering information different Shatterdomes, Jaeger designing firms, or any other component of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps a student could want. Mingled in with the students were representatives from various programs in the PPDC, recruiters, even bona fide Rangers taking a day off from missions to see who they'd be working with in the coming years.

"Remember at 2:30 we will be posting the eleventh form's class ranking and after we will introduce this year's guest speaker, Ranger Hercules Hansen." The PA cut out and Mako was left with the chatter of the expo and the threat of rankings looming over her. The Deputy had been warning them that the list of who would be leaving for ranger duty and who would be staying the extra year would be posted soon, but a small part of her refused to believe she had already been at the Academy for eleven years. Out of the forty top names on the list, probably only half would go on to pilot a mission, the others becoming Jaeger technicians or LOCCENT mission control operators while the lower fifty students in the class received degrees from the Academy and stayed another year, working on more personal courses of study such as Jaeger design or Kaiju biology.

Mako passed a booth proclaiming open jobs in Anti-Kaiju Wall engineering and next to it, a booth boasting plans for the newest Jaegers. Keto and Julani were huddled closely there with a woman Mako didn't know, pouring over the charts and blueprints laid on the booth. She wandered over, sliding past some younger students and joining the cousins.

"And this is a really revolutionary design, we've been pushing for construction of prototypes to start sooner," the woman was saying excitedly, her wide hands gesticulating wildly. "I could barely get it past the board of directors but they took a leap of faith."

"Yeah, yeah!" Julani picked up some of the blueprints and saw Mako peering over their shoulders. "Hey, Mako, check this out!" She passed her the papers and Mako tried to make out the complex drawings.

"It's a spherical Jaeger?" she asked, shocked. The mecha was built to curl up like an armadillo, with telescoping spikes that allowed the Jaeger to rotate, roll and presumably go under the Kaiju, then reshape to lift it or stab from beneath. "How does it work? The pilots would become so disoriented, unless the internal Conn Pod-"

"Rotated!" The woman running the booth ducked under her table and pulled out more drawings detailing the gyroscope-type mechanisms that would allow the pilots to remain perpendicular to the ground instead of locked in the Jaeger's rotation.

"I'm Kalpana, Kalpana Martin." She introduced herself, handing over the diagrams.

"Mako Mori. These are incredible- how did you come up with them?"

"Excuse me, these were my idea."

Tattoos. That's all Mako could see, tattoos of Kaiju and claws and kanji and teeth and electric blue veins. The young man walking over looked like he stuck his finger in a lightsocket, his hair sticking out at odd angles like her old cat's and his thin black tie cutting diagonally across his wrinkled white shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and the tattoos crawled up his arms, color standing out against the florescent lights of the assembly hall. Some might have deemed the tattoos offensive or insensitive but Mako knew enough by recognize a coping mechanism. She trained, he inked. Kaiju left their mark on everyone.

"So I walk into Kal's lab one day, and she's already pissed at Hermann for taking all her tablets," he says, hopping onto the corner of the booth, "and she's rolling this hamster wheel of his around and I say 'Hey, what if we made an armadillo Jaeger?' And one sleepless night and seven bottles of cheap Shatterdome beer later we made the Lightning Bravo."

"Shut up, Newt." Kalpana set all the documents down and stuck a hand on her hip. "You only got the booze."

"And designd the electric spikes, and the heating system, and the frame couplings-"

"Okay, whatever," Kalpana said, pushing him off his recently claimed perch on the edge of her table. Newt stumbled as his feet hit the ground and Julani and Keto laughed.

"Get back to your booth, you rascal, git!" The Jaeger mechanic threw some crumpled paper at him and Newt made a face before disappearing back into the crowd.

"A colleague of yours?" Jelani asked.

Kalpana smiled and pushed her hair back, revealing the PPDC logo shaved neatly onto her head, previously obscured by the longer hair near her part. "Yeah, Newt is my Shatterdome's resident Kaiju expert, and the guy he mentioned, Hermann? He does mathematical engineering and statistics. He thinks Lightning Bravo will never work, the wet towel."

"I agree it's all crazy." Keto shook his head. "But it might be what makes that difference."

Julani punched him in the arm. "I think it's great. Keto, we could run in this." Hope punctured her voice and Mako could see her eyes shining. "We could fly again."

Keto linked his first finger in hers, a gesture hidden from sight under the table but not escaping Mako's notice. "Hypothetically, if we were deployed together, what would be the chance we could pilot this particular Jaeger together?" he asked.

"Well, hypothetically, since this is such a specialized Jaeger we would be looking for a specialized set of copilots with a strong athletic background, but also no previous piloting experience. That way they wouldn't be used to being upright or a certain fighting style, they would be trained and hypothetically linked to the Jaeger itself." Kalpani scratched her head and got a sly look on her face. "And since the Jaeger would rely more on being fast than hitting hard, hypothetically we'd want recent graduates who had been running more than fighting."

Julani squealed and hugged the smug mechanic and Keto shook her hand vigorously. Mako herself grinned, so excited that they were nearly guaranteed a Jaeger, although her own future was less certain.

"Don't get your hopes up, I can't promise anything and the selection process is supposedly classified." Kalpana extracted herself from the embrace and thumped Keto on the back. "But I never thought anyone would willingly sign up to pilot this thing, so if I accidently wired the interface to only acknowledge the Drift between you two specifically, then that would certainly shorten the candidate list, huh." She laughed and stowed all the Lightning Bravo materials under the desk. "Come and find me after the rankings come up, you two. And you, Mako."

Mako was surprised, she had no part in this, but she offered to stop by anyways. "I think I may have a good machine for you, light on her feet but deadly accurate," Kalpana elaborated. "We're about to ship her down to Australia."

"I would love to see the designs sometime," Mako beamed, but her reply was cut short by a flurry of motion as Anya broke through the crowd and ran up to them, panting heavily.

"The lists are up!" she gasped, and indeed it was 2:30 exactly. Mako met Anya's eyes and the Russian girl looked at her with an emotion she could not understand, but there was time for that later. The two of them, preceded by Keto and Julani, made their way through the throngs and around the booths to the Wall of Directors, where squeezed between portraits of the previous Academy chairmen and women small white sheets of paper were taped. In little black type the names of all the students were listed, ranked by grades, performance on the simulations, behavior, and piloting potential. In total there was one master list, posted multiple times between the stern faces of the Directors.

The air fizzled with relief and disappointment as students crammed around the results. Loud shout of jubilation were carried by a stream of murmured predictions and quiet tears like trout in a river, leaping up waterfalls against the current. Keto used his height to push people out of the way, clearing a path for his classmates. Mako, Julani, and Anya followed closely, finally reaching the front of the crowd huddled around the stark white paper.

Beginning at the top ranked pair (Amelia and Maria, no surprise to many students), they quickly scanned down the pairs. The first of their group to be ranked was Anya, her name typed neatly with a small note 'Copilot TBD' written next to it. Anya gave a small smile as Julani hugged and Keto smacked her on the back.

"I'm so happy for you, Anya, really," Mako said sincerely, squeezing her hand. "I'm sure you'll find a great copilot."

"Keep reading," she said impatiently to the the tall runners, pushing them closer.

'Keto Sefu and Julani Sefu' pronounced the list, soon after Anya's own name. They were heartily congratulated but with a sinking feeling Mako read on as the list of copilots grew shorter and neared the cutoff. Scanning quickly she followed the names down, checking once, checking twice, not understanding.

She wasn't on the list.

Her name didn't appear on the list of Jaeger pilots shipping out. Was there a mistake? She couldn't have been forgotten, she had the best scores in the class, she was one of the best fighters by far, she trained harder and longer, studied and worked. Mako Mori was one of the best. Everyone said so, everyone knew it. What had happened between then and now?

She frantically looked down to the ranking of students listed to spend another year at the Academy and there she was. 'Mako Mori- Subject of Specialization: Unknown' with a small asterisk right next to it. Glancing to the bottom of the page she saw the note.

"Please see Deputy Shawlinn."

Mako's heart fractured like her wrist when she was seven, the second time she had fought with a full size bo staff. Her throat constricted and her vision went dark for a moment. Somewhere to her left Anya was wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and Julani and Keto had respectfully left the area where the lists were posted while they celebrated. Mako felt herself being led away from the crush of students but she didn't know where she was going or why no one would look her in the eyes. Anya steered her towards the stage and presumably the Deputy but Mako stopped abruptly in the middle of the floor.

"Wait," she whispered, smoothing her skirt almost compulsively, pushing hard against her legs. "Why- wait, Anya, please, I don't understand-" She pulled away from her friend but was grabbed around the arm. Anya tried to push her gently in the direction of the Deputy. Her own eyes were brimming with tears but Mako couldn't seem to find the emotion to cry. Anya pulled a little harder but she ripped free.

"Just let me go!" she cried out, and suddenly she was desperate to get out of there. Mako was suffocating and she had failed and everyone in that room knew.

"Mako, wait-" But already she was sprinting for the doors, running behind the booths and pushing out the side doors of the building. The air was warm and the sun filtered down to her as she ran along the gravel paths towards the gymnasium. Everything was wrong. It should be storming, there should be a hurricane, the wind should be howling as loud as the screaming in her head.

She threw open the doors to the short brick training center and took the wide steps two at a time, passing the recruitment posters and schedules and pictures of each class kneeling on the mats, smiles wide and excited and entirely unprepared for the real world. The Academy was simultaneously the closest thing to to an actual Shatterdome and a sheltered microcosm, carefully kept safe from the coastal attacks and rationing and war. But it was all Mako had ever known.

And she wanted so much more.

When she reached the doors to the sparring room she paused. She wasn't even sure what she was going to do, because throwing the racks of staffs across the room was not an option and sparring and running through the exercises alone got repetitive. What's the point of training anymore, a small voice in her head hissed, and without hesitation she pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind and opened the doors. Stepping inside she smelled the comforting mix of wood and sweat and work.

Someone was already there, whirling their staff with precision and unbridled force, teetering on the edge of losing control. His bare feet moved across the floor and she recognized the Stag sequence, all offensive jabs and heavy forward steps and kicks. Quietly she closed the door, and as it clicked he whirled to face her, staff raised defensively. With a start she realized it was Chuck Hansen.

"What are you doing here?" He was almost as surprised as she was. She didn't think she could answer him without breaking down so she ignored the question and began unlacing her shoes, setting them neatly next to the mat. Chuck watched as she unzipped her skirt and stepped out of it, revealing her black athletic shorts underneath. Pulling her white collared shirt over her head, she folded the two garments and set them by her shoes, stepping onto the mat, smoothing her loose tank top.

"Want to fight?" she asked, walking to the wall and grabbing a staff, the smooth weight a familiar comfort. She turned around and Chuck was still looking at her.

"Sure," he said simply.

They centered themselves on the blue mat and prepared themselves to begin. From day one they had been taught to go through the steps in their minds, plan and calm themselves, repeat mantras, whatever it takes. To bring private problems onto the mat was to bring private problems into the fight, and that was how people got hurt.

Chuck's blue eyes were blank when Mako brought up her staff. Empty mind, empty body. Empty was all she wanted at the moment.

"Ready?" Chuck drawled, his Australian roots bending the word.

Mako stepped forward and knocked his staff to the left in response, and they were off, parrying and whacking and ducking. Chuck landed two hits on her arm but she got him twice in the leg. She was surprised how in tune to each other they were although they had never been close, but she realized that was the reason they had been paired for the last trial. Her last trial. The last time she would be even close to a real Drift.

While Mako was distracted Chuck moved in. After a few easy minutes of hit and return he swung his staff at her head, and now they were fighting for real, putting all their anger and frustration into each blow, not caring about the pain. With each bruise Mako slowly forgot about the rankings, and soon she was fighting for all she was worth. Although Chuck had a good three inches and fifty pounds on her, she was quicker on her feet. She rapped his side and he retaliated by smacking her left wrist with the butt of his staff. Her grip loosened and the end hit the ground with a thud. She braced herself against the upright wood and swung her leg around, catching the middle of his bo staff on her arm as he went for her legs, thinking she was off balance. Her foot landed solidly with his ribs and at the same time she let go of her own staff and twisted his, spinning it out of her hands. Chuck went down on one knee but before Mako could strike the coup de grace, he yanked her legs out from under her. Both staffs rolled out of reach and Mako resorted to dirty fighting, bringing her knee into his lower stomach as he tried to pin her beneath him. He held his ground and attempted to get a grip on her wrists but she hooked her arms around his shoulders and rolled him over her head, using her knees as a springboard. They both flipped off their backs at the same time and for a millisecond their eyes met. Then Chuck grabbed Mako's hair and put her in a headlock as Mako went for his ankles. He landed on his butt and Mako went down with him, her head poking out next to his back from under his left arm. Quick as a cat she raised his left leg by stretching her arm as far as it would go to hold his calf in a vise-like grip, placing her knee over his and applying a bit of pressure.

"Draw," she gasped, and they released each other, flopping onto the mat. Sweat was dripping down Mako's spine and she could feel the blood pumping in her legs.

"You fight dirty," Chuck finally said. He lifted his head a little but thought better of it, returning to the floor to stare at the ceiling.

Mako breathed out a weak laugh. "You grabbed my hair, how is that a clean fight?"

"I do what I have to, not my fault you're a girl." Chuck tried to laugh too but they were both now sharply aware of how carelessly they had landed, her arm thrown across his stomach, his touching the ends of her hair, with their right legs almost completely pressed together. Mako quickly pushed to her feet and Chuck did the same. She performed her customary bow to him and he mirrored her uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry about the rankings," he said quietly. "You were the best out of any of us, everyone knew it. You deserve it."

She thanked him quietly. "I'm sorry about your father."

He was taken aback. "What do you know about him?" he questioned, but it came out sharply. Mako floundered and turned on her heel, quickly picking up the bo staffs and setting them back on the rack. "You fight differently when you're angry; you tend to go for the easy targets, not necessarily the smart ones."

Chuck was rolling his eyes. "What's the point of fancying around if you can just sock someone in the gut?"

She winced. Stacker had taught her to treat combat as an art form. "Because while you're going for the easy way out, they're taking the hard way and winning." She crossed the mat to her clothes and began pulling on her shirt. Chuck still stood in the middle of the room, feet grounded solidly on the mat.

"What does this have to do with my dad anyway?" He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Why did you come here and practice fighting instead of going to the speech?" Mako shot back. She was treading in dangerous waters now but Chuck's face was completely blank.

"You think losing control is a bad thing, Mako." Chuck gave her a look of disdain. "You won't let go, that's why you can't immerse yourself in the Drift, that's why you weren't on the-" He stopped suddenly, eyes darting about frantically.

Mako rounded on him with cold fury, pulling up the zipper on her skirt the last two inches. "Finish that sentence."

Chuck stared at his his feet and scuffed them on the mat uncomfortably. "That's why you weren't on the list of Jaeger pilots graduating from the Academy."

Mako's eyes watered and her knees gave out. Crumbling onto the mat, tears streamed down her face as Chuck awkwardly patted her back.

"It' be alright," he said quietly. "It will all be alright."

(Hey, Andie here! Thank you so much for all your reviews/likes/follows/reads! I hope you like this chapter and continue to read and comment. Right now we're looking at about six or seven chapters, following Mako through her graduation and then into the Pacific Rim movie-verse. For those of you concerned about ages and sticking to canon I will do my best, but please keep in mind I'm just here to have fun and may deviate/just forget to do math and such. Please enjoy!)