Domovoi

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This film takes place immediately after the events of Pacific Rim, and contains massive spoilers. Proceed at your own risk if you have not yet seen the film.

Prologue

The battle was over. They had won. And yet for many, victory had never felt so much like bitter defeat.

Helicopters swarmed the harbor, some hauling off the offline but still whole Striker Eureka while others cast searchlights over the ocean, looking for any sign of a body or an escape pod in the churning waters. Salvage boats plowed through the waves in an effort to get closer to the ruined remains of Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha – even destroyed, a Jaeger was still precious, a source of research materials and spare parts for its still-intact brethren. Patrol boats fanned out to set up a perimeter and keep nosy civilians away from the site, while a research vessel dropped anchor and set to work, testing the waters to ensure that Kaiju blood and nuclear material from Cherno's reactor wouldn't sully the harbor waters beyond recovery.

There was a somber air to everyone's actions, despite the celebratory announcements that came over the Shatterdome radio frequency at regular intervals. Otatchi and Leatherback had been defeated, but at a terrible price. Two of the PPDC's most valuable Jaegers had been destroyed in the battle… and five of their best Rangers had paid the ultimate price to protect the city. Even in the light of Gipsy Danger's victory, it felt like a grim day.

Edgar Stone, captain of the salvage vessel Weak Anthropic Principle, peered through the driving rain at the mangled, twisted framework his boat's winches and cranes were dragging closer. The wreck was so badly charred and warped by some kind of explosion that it was hard to tell what it was at first glance. Whatever it was, it was way too big for the WAP to haul aboard. They'd simply have to tow it back to dock and let the Shatterdome's crew handle it.

"Get it sternside and get a tow line on it!" he shouted over the pelting rain. "And let's move it! We don't want to be out here all day!"

The crew obeyed with surprising speed. No one wanted to be here any longer than necessary. It wasn't just the rain, either – there was a heavy feeling to the air, as if the deaths of the Wei Tang triplets and the Kaidanovskys had permanently tainted this place.

"Yow!" A crew member jerked his hand back from the metallic framework, waving it frantically. "Sonofabitch, it's still hot!"

"That's not heat, that's acid!" another shouted. "Get your glove off!"

The burned crew member ripped off what was left of his glove and hurled it over the side of the boat, then hunched over his hand with a pained cry. Thankfully he hadn't come in contact with more than a drop or two, but the acid was still powerful enough that it had eaten a deep hole in his palm.

"No one touches that thing except to put the tow line on!" Stone ordered. "And bail some water on it to get the acid off first! Not gonna lose anyone to stupidity this time. I don't wanna repeat of that incident in Taiwan."

"That was only the one time," someone muttered, then hurried away before Stone could identify them.

Several crew members went right to work, pitching buckets of water at the framework in an effort to rinse off some of the acid. Then one foolhardy crewman climbed up onto the railing and began to search the wreck for a place to attach a tow line.

"Looks like a cockpit, sir!" he shouted.

"I don't care if it looks like the friggin' Titanic, just get the line on it!" Stone shouted back.

"I don't think we've got the engine power to haul something this big back!" the crewman retorted, and leaned forward to hook the tow line to a helpful knob of metal that jutted from the wreck. "We'll wreck the WAP trying!"

"Just follow orders already! We don't have all day!"

The crewman made sure the tow line was secure, then glanced up, as if taking one last look at their haul before stepping back. Whatever he saw made him reel back, almost falling off the railing.

"There's bodies in there!"

Stone flinched. Bodies in a salvage find were never a good sign… and if he were just a little more superstitious he might have ordered them to unhook the tow line and let the wreck sink. But knowing that the PPDC needed everything they could salvage of these two Jaegers overcame any squeamishness.

With a reluctant sigh he made his way forward, moving quickly but carefully to avoid slipping on the rain-slicked deck. The crewmen parted to let him pass, and the man who'd hooked the tow line hopped down from the railing to make room for him. Grabbing the railing in both callused hands, he hauled himself up to take a look in.

He flinched again, feeling his gorge rise. Two bodies floated in the water that still filled the cockpit, both badly burned and utterly still. Some small part of his brain that still maintained a grip on logic realized that these must be the Kaidanovskys, Cherno Alpha's pilots, while the rest of him wanted to turn around and be sick. Only the threat of utter embarrassment if his crew saw him throw up kept him from doing just that.

"I'm goin' in!" he shouted. "Someone get up here so I can hand off the bodies to you!"

The crew looked disgusted at the thought of having to handle dead bodies, but several crewmen stepped forward anyhow. Satisfied, Stone pulled himself over the railing and into the cockpit, landing in chest-deep water. His feet bumped against objects that must have been part of the Jaeger's controls, some stationary and others moving freely as if knocked loose in the destruction. He did his best to ignore them, and waded forward to grab the first body.

His hand closed on a slim wrist – no doubt Sasha's. He pulled the body closer and, purely out of habit, pressed his fingers to her neck. He doubted he was going to find any sign of life, given how thoroughly Cherno had been wrecked by those monsters…

Something fluttered against his fingers. Had he imagined it? No, there it was again.

"She's got a pulse!" He didn't stop to think, only hauled the body to the gaping hole in the cockpit where two crewmen waited to collect it. "Get her on the deck and perform CPR! And someone get on the horn with the Shatterdome and tell 'em we've got a survivor!"

"Yessir!" The men pulled her out, leaving Stone to slosh back through the cockpit to grab Aleksis. Immediately he felt for the man's pulse, wild hope gripping him for the first time since they'd set out for the site of the battle. If Sasha had survived, perhaps Aleksis…

"Sweet mother of God, he's alive," he murmured, and pulled the towering pilot to the other crewman who stepped up to collect him. "Start rescue breathing on him! Tell Shatterdome the Cherno Alpha Team survived!"

Scattered applause rose from the deck of the WAP at that announcement. Stone smiled grimly as he grabbed someone's hand and pulled himself out of the cockpit. At least that was one bright spot to this whole mess. The Kaidanovskys were alive, if in very bad shape. Today's battle had seemed a blow, proving that the Jaegers were not the invincible juggernauts many made them out to be… but having two Rangers survive despite the destruction of their mech served to soften that blow.

Back on the deck of his ship, Stone turned to regard the mangled cockpit of Cherno Alpha, and a sudden pit of apprehension opened in his stomach. If the Kaidanovskys recovered from this, then someone was going to have to explain to them what had happened to their Jaeger. And just like he knew it would kill him if anything happened to the WAP, he had a feeling that learning Cherno had been destroyed by the Kaiju would cut its pilots to the core.