Night fell, and the lights in the Jaeger bay grew dimmer. Fewer maintenance workers remained on the night shift.
Raleigh sat on a steel scaffold, gazing from afar at a blue Jaeger undergoing maintenance, his eyes filled with nostalgia.
Gipsy Danger
"Five years... five years and four months."
"Seeing her again still makes my heart pound."
That was [Gipsy Danger], the Jaeger that had once been his, a machine laden with glory.
Throughout history, people had always liked to call ships "she." When Jaegers were developed, that tradition carried on.
"The marshal said you were in charge of the restoration."
"Thank you for letting me see her again." Raleigh turned toward Mako Mori, who sat beside him dressed entirely in black, and thanked her.
"There's no need to thank me." Mako Mori gently shook her head and looked at Gipsy Danger, her eyes glimmering. "This Jaeger is waiting for her pilot, too. I can hear her."
Seeing the way she looked at Gipsy Danger, Raleigh smiled faintly.
He seemed to understand something.
Then he casually asked, "When do we start choosing my partner?"
"You know, a Jaeger takes two people to pilot."
"Six tomorrow morning."
"I've already drawn up the list of candidates," Mako Mori answered.
"Does that include you?" Raleigh asked, raising an eyebrow.
His question caught Mako Mori off guard. She looked at him, her gaze wavering, then shook her head. "No."
There was a trace of frustration in her voice.
Her answer left Raleigh puzzled.
Whether two people shared a deep connection, whether they could [Drift], was often something you could roughly judge with a single glance.
The moment he had arrived at this base and seen Mako Mori, he had wondered if she might be his next partner.
Yet that was not the case.
Why?
Could someone else be an even better match for me?
That was the only explanation Raleigh could think of.
"That's a real shame," he said with a shrug.
Perhaps there was something going on behind the scenes that he did not know about.
Just then.
Footsteps approached.
Raleigh and Mako Mori turned at the same time, looking toward the tall figure walking over to them.
Seeing their perfectly synchronized movements, Marshal Stacker could not help raising an eyebrow.
"Aren't you going to get some rest?" he asked Raleigh. "The testing starts early tomorrow. If you don't rest properly, it could affect the partner selection results."
"Marshal? Have you finished talking with Xia?"
"More or less. It took a few twists and turns, but we reached a preliminary agreement to cooperate." The sight of that man wolfing down his food still lingered in Marshal Stacker's mind.
Still, after their encounters so far, he believed Natsuki was someone they could trust.
"That's good." Raleigh smiled.
"I don't know much about him either, but I believe he's a decent guy."
"After all, he saved both our lives, and the lives of those workers."
As he spoke.
Raleigh recalled what Marshal Stacker had said when trying to persuade him to stay and teased, "This afternoon, you told me we couldn't dump our problems on him. Why the change of heart?"
Hearing his teasing tone, Marshal Stacker shot him a sidelong glance.
He clasped his hands behind his back and said without the slightest embarrassment, "My exact words were that we couldn't dump all our problems on him."
As a former marshal, he knew very well that every word he spoke had to be precise. Wordplay was something he excelled at.
"Besides, we were discussing cooperation."
"He helps us with his strength, and we help him with intelligence."
"We can never pin all our hopes on an outsider."
What both sides needed now was trust, not dependence.
"All right."
"I can't argue with you." Raleigh smiled.
He looked toward Gipsy Danger.
"I'm actually looking forward to fighting alongside him."
"Though if he really steps in, I doubt there'll be anything left for us to do."
Based on what he had witnessed firsthand, he honestly could not imagine what kind of monster could stop Natsuki.
Having someone that powerful backing him up, someone who had just saved his life, was rather reassuring.
"That man... does he really have that much power?"
Hearing them discuss Natsuki, Mako Mori asked curiously.
"You explain it to her."
"I told her, but she didn't believe me."
"Even Tiantong doesn't believe me."
Raleigh said to Marshal Stacker.
While touring the base earlier, he had told Mako Mori and his old friend Cai Tiantong what had happened that afternoon, but neither of them had believed him.
The EMP attack had disabled most of the electronic equipment at the time, so no one had recorded what happened.
That meant they had lost their strongest piece of evidence.
No one believed a person could turn into a giant over fifty meters tall and possess the power to kill a monster in an instant.
"Words alone cannot describe that sight."
"You'll understand once you've seen it for yourselves," Marshal Stacker said earnestly, meeting Mako Mori's curious gaze.
Watching that giant fight firsthand, he had felt not only the giant's power, but something else that words could not express.
"Then I look forward to it." Hearing such a cryptic answer, Mako Mori still could not picture it. All she could do was hope to witness the giant they described fighting someday.
"All right, it's getting late."
"Get some rest."
Marshal Stacker urged them both.
They checked the time. Knowing they had to attend the Jaeger pilot selection tests first thing the next morning, they nodded and stood up together.
"You should get some rest too," Raleigh told Marshal Stacker, patting his shoulder.
"Good night," Mako Mori said.
Marshal Stacker watched them leave.
His gaze was complicated.
He, too, knew who would make the best partner for Raleigh.
But not now. Not yet...
He believed his daughter was not mature enough. A real battlefield was still too dangerous for her.
"I hope everything goes smoothly from here."
Marshal Stacker looked at the four Jaegers in the bay and spoke heavily.
Then he suddenly felt warmth trickling from his nose.
He reached up to wipe it, and a dark red smear appeared on his fingers.
He was not surprised.
Instead, he reached into his pocket out of habit, took out a metal tin, and removed a yellow-and-white capsule, silently placing it in his mouth.
This plan was the decisive battle between humanity and the Precursors, and his own final gamble.
"There isn't much time left..."
He knew his days were numbered.
Before his life reached its end, he had to lead humanity out of the apocalypse.
That was what he reminded himself every night before falling asleep.
Bringing Natsuki, who could only be described as a human-shaped nuclear bomb, back to the base had been partly an act of trust, and partly an expression of his resolve to end the apocalypse.
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