Archive of Our Own

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Even before we took our first steps outside the warm embrace of our Mother Earth, humanity has asked, “Are we alone in the Universe?”

For better and for worse, we now know that we are not.

Our first visitors from beyond were the Hive. Your ‘Kaiju’. They breached our world from the darkest depths of our own ocean, and with them they brought despair. It was a terrible gift, and yet it united us in our despair; all became equal as we huddled together in fear of monsters.

And then, in our darkest hour… A Light. A new visitor, a Traveler, here not to harm, but to help. When I touched the Traveler, I looked into it and it looked into me, in the manner that all who experience the Drift look into each other. This was the gift the Traveler brought us. A way to become greater than the individual, more than that sum of our parts. A way to fight back against the Darkness.

The Traveler brought us hope.

The Traveler gave us Jaegers.

‘I Speak for the Traveler’
Speeches: The Speaker
Iron Temple Memorial Archives

Year 28 of the Kaiju War

Nine years as an active Guardian makes even a Hive Emergence into routine: The alarm goes off. Wake up. Sleepwear off. Circuitry suit on. Grab an energy bar. Go.Zavala has done it enough times that he’s already halfway to the drivesuit room before he’s well and truly awake. He meets Andal on the way, but Ikora is already there when they arrive.“Running a little slow today,” she teases as a technician fits the spinal clamp to her drivesuit.“I’m getting too old for this,” Andal says, “But I don’t know what Zavala’s excuse is.”The banter is familiar, and Zavala doesn’t join in despite the jab. He’s never been quick with his words. He’ll leave the verbal battles to the experts and focus on the physical ones to come. Still, it has him smiling while the techs and their assistant frames close in on him with pieces of battle armor. The helmet goes on last.Fully kitted, he and Andal join Ikora in the conn-pod. Ikora to the far left, Andal in the center, Zavala to the right.Step onto the motion rig. Wait for the boots to magnetize. Let techs attach the feedback cradle. Grip the hand controls. Go.A voice sounds from his helmet speakers. “Alright, Tower, you reading me?”“Loud and clear, Mission Control,” Andal answers.“Great! Sound off, team.”“Hunter Vanguard Brask, ready.”“Warlock Vanguard Rey, ready.”“Titan Vanguard Forge,” Zavala finishes. “Ready.”“Fantastic,” Mission Control says. “Initiating Pons system in five, four, three, two-”Zavala breathes in with the count then lets as many thoughts as possible slip away with his breath as he exhales. A quiet mind makes a stable Drift.“-One.”With a mental lurch, he ceases to be Zavala alone and becomes part of something more.The first time Zavala stepped into a Jaeger, almost a decade ago, and clasped minds with Shaxx in a neural handshake, he felt invincible. Two brains merged into a single mind piloting thousands of tons of state-of-the-art war machine. Beating back waves of Kaiju in Noble Constant, his first Jaeger, Zavala thought he could never feel more powerful.That was before he was selected for the Tower.Half again the height of an average Jaeger and twice the weight, the Tower is a beast like no other. A super-Jaeger, the only one of its kind. Where a typical Jaeger needs two pilots to share the neural load, the Tower demands three. If he and Shaxx were invincible in the Constant, then the Tower is downright omnipotent. He can do anything as part of the Tower. Together as the Vanguard, they can save the world.Three years' experience Drifting together, connected mind-to-mind-to-mind, lets the Vanguards’ thoughts slot together smoothly, like pieces of a perfectly cut puzzle. And when their conn-pod slides into its place on the Tower’s neck, they awaken their slumbering titanic body with the ease of rolling out of bed.Core activated. Visual feeds good. Test range of motion in hands and arms. Take a step. Go.“It’s a sizable incursion,” Mission Control informs them as they step from the shatterdome and wade into the ocean. “Hitting lower down the coast. Pacific Rush and Midnight Talon will be first to intercept, but we’re sending you in as support.”The briefing continues: “Resolution on the energy readings is low until we get someone on scene, but the mission analysts are estimating… multiple Acolyte morphs, at least one Knight, and—lucky, lucky you—probably a Wizard.”Displeasure washes through them. Wizards mean Thralls, and mopping up Thralls is an exercise in frustration. At only fifty feet tall, Thralls on their own are rarely a threat to a Jaeger. But they can be a deadly distraction from larger Kaiju and their small size and large numbers make it easy for a few to slip past the defensive line unnoticed. Fifty feet of armored alien monstrosity is still more than enough to cause disaster if one reaches shore.Ten minutes into their journey, they receive a call: “Tower, this is Pacific Rush. You better get here quick. One Acolyte’s down and another is injured, but the Knight took off Midnight’s left arm and they aren’t doing so hot. We’re keeping them at bay so far, but we’ve confirmed a Wizard in the area. When it surfaces, well… Godspeed, Tower.”Dual nuclear cores hum, the power of split atoms driving pistons the size of redwoods. The water ahead of them churns and parts as the Tower begins to run, reaching top speed within a few massive strides. Their momentum is immense. Unstoppable.They arrive with all the might and fury of a tempest. With a boom that puts thunder to shame, several hundred tons of fist slam into the Knight’s face as it turns to meet their charge. Thick chitinous plates crack, glowing blue fluid leaking from the fissures. The Tower has barely slowed when their other hand transforms into a two-pronged fork that they plunge deep into the ruins of the Knight’s face.“Discharging right capacitors,” Ikora says, speaking aloud for the benefit of Mission Control and to warn the other Jaegers to keep their distance.The Knight spasms violently as thousands of joules of electricity course through it, steam and smoke pouring from the crevices in its shell. In its death throes, it rakes wicked claws across the Tower’s conn-pod, digging deep enough to almost penetrate the outer layer of their armour. Almost, but not quite. Superficial damage.“Pacific Rush, Midnight Talon, this is the Tower,” Zavala says, speaking for the Vanguard after a split second of deliberation. You have the most commanding voice, thinks Andal. “We need you to fall back one mile and spread out. We can handle the remaining Kaiju, but you need to catch any Thralls that slip past us.”Even as they speak, the remaining Acolyte surges towards them. It’s even easier to dispatch than the Knight, a single massive fist curling around its head and clenching. They all feel the satisfaction of the subsequent crunch. Only blue pulp remains when the Tower unclenches its hand and turns to face the open ocean.“Roger that,” Pacific Rush replies.“Got it,” Midnight Talon says, the speaker’s voice rough.The ocean is disturbingly calm as the smaller Jaegers wade away. Waves lap against the Tower’s waist as they wait.“Stay alert,” Mission Control says. “We’re down to one signal, and it’s almost right on top of you-”To their right, the water explodes in a flurry of thick flapping membranes as the Wizard finally surfaces, shrieking its piercing war cry. Wizards can’t fly, despite what the first Guardians to encounter one had claimed, but they can leap startling distances for something their size. The creature hooks its claws into the gouges marring the Tower’s conn-pod as it collides with the Jaeger and its fleshy ‘robes’ curl tight around them. Within the membranous folds, they can feel the writhing of a horde of Thralls.As one, the Vanguard grit their teeth. It’s difficult to find leverage with the Wizard wrapped around them like a meaty straight jacket. The membranes stretch as the Tower’s arms flex and will inevitably tear, but they don’t have time for eventualities. Capitalizing on the damage left by the Knight, the Wizard's claws are digging deeper into the shell of the conn-pod. Alarms flash.
External armour breached.
“Venting coolant!” Andal shouts, hand twitching across the conn-pod’s holo-interface.Supercooled mist blasts from the Tower’s abdominal vents and elastic membranes become instantly brittle. With a hard flex of metal arms, the membranes shatter and the Tower is free. The Wizard screams and falls away. Before it can disappear beneath the water, the Tower lunges forward, a long blade sliding out of their wrist. A quick swipe is all it takes to separate the Wizard’s head from its body.They can feel Thralls clinging to their armor as the Wizard sinks away, and the Vanguard begin catching and crushing them like bugs. All the major threats are neutralized. They feel victorious. Turning his head, Zavala smiles at his partners. Andal grins back and winks. Beyond him, Ikora’s lips curl up but she doesn’t look over.Suddenly, she frowns. Then her eyes widen and shock grips them all, like ice water spilling across their Drift. Something is wrong.There’s a sickly blue-green glow to Zavala’s right. A Thrall. Only it's not a Thrall. There’s something wrong with it. Its head is swollen and throbbing with poisonous light. It’s on the conn-pod. Right over the deep gouges left by the Knight and the Wizard. Separated from Zavala by only a meter of air and several layers of damaged armor.“What is that?”The Tower’s hand reaches for the not-Thrall.The creature's deformed head swells.“Andal, get back in your harness!”It can’t possibly see through the Tower’s hull—it doesn’t even have eyes—but Zavala swears he can feel the Thrall’s cursed gaze, staring right at him, into him. He is frozen.The Tower is too slow.Andal is suddenly next to him. Between Zavala and the Thrall.Fear.The swollen head bursts.
Fire.
Pain.Nothing.  
Three months later

Zavala’s eyes snapped open. His heart was pounding, cold sweat beading on his pale blue skin. He gasped for breath. The Tower, the Tower was burning, Andal-!No. He wasn’t in the Tower. He was in a harness, he was in a conn-pod, but it wasn’t the Tower’s. He was on the left, not the right. Ikora wasn’t there. Andal-No, Zavala wasn’t even in a conn-pod. Not a real one. This was a Combat Training Simulator. He was at the Vladivostok Shatterdome. He was safe.“We're done.”Still re-adjusting to reality after the vividness of Drift-enhanced memory, the deep voice caught Zavala off guard. Looking to his right, he watched Shaxx extricate himself from the simulator’s feedback cradle and rig.“Yes,” Zavala said, voice croaking. His mouth was still dry from remembered fear, and he swallowed several times before continuing, “A break would be good. Tomorrow, then?”Shaxx halted in the middle of pulling off his helmet. His movements were slow and deliberate as he resumed, and he stared into the helmet's reflective faceplate for a long moment before turning to Zavala. “You misunderstand. We’re done. For good.”Zavala's jaw dropped, gaping wordlessly as Shaxx turned on his heel and strode out of the simulator. Jolting out of his startled daze, Zavala hurried to disconnect from his own harness and chase after his original co-pilot. “What do you mean we're done? I'm not combat-ready yet.”“No,” Shaxx agreed. He was already surrounded by frames, the gangly robots pulling off his battle armour plate by plate. It was easy for him to speak over their heads, mountain of a man that he was. “And I don't think you will be any time soon.”Zavala was left reeling, the room spinning around him. Clenching his eyes shut, he shook the feeling off then waved away his own helpers. Unsuiting could wait. “I don't believe what I'm hearing. You're giving up?”Shaxx’s mouth sank into a deep frown. “Zavala, we’ve been through much together. You’re like a brother to me. I remember our time with the Noble Constant fondly.”“Then why are you giving up on me?” The depth of anger in his own words caught him off guard. He was breathing heavily again, a slight tremor shaking his hands. Why would Shaxx do this to him? Why would he try to take this from Zavala? He needed to get back to the fight. He needed to be in a Jaeger again, needed to be strong, needed to avenge, atone-The boom of Shaxx’s voice cut through his thoughts: “Because I refuse to assist you in endlessly reliving your loss!”Startled to silence, Zavala could only stare at his friend, lips parted to voice a counter-argument that never formed.“We've run through the simulation so many times, Zavala,” Shaxx said, voice lowering to a soft rumble. “We’ve been running it since the doctors cleared you for light duty. And every time it's the same: you chase the R.A.B.I.T. straight back to Andal’s death and you drag me down the rabbit hole with you and each time I feel that wound tearing open anew. Over and over I have felt part of you die.”Zavala's mouth closed slowly, lips pressing tightly together into a thin line, and he swallowed heavily. He turned his head away, unable to face his friend’s heavy gaze. But he didn’t need to see it to feel Shaxx’s pain. They’d Drifted too many times to be so unaware of each other's emotions.“Tell me, Zavala,” Shaxx said slowly, somehow both gentle and accusing. “Are you doing this because you truly want to fight by my side again, or do you do it because you think you deserve the pain?”That broke his silent spell, and his back straightened with righteous rage. “Of course I want to fight! My duty is to protect the people. I have always done what was needed of me to defend humanity, and right now humanity needs Jaeger pilots! Guardians are out there dying while I am stuck here-” Doing what? Failing Drift after Drift? Forcing a dear friend to share in his grief? Refusing to heal? He… he didn’t know how to finish that sentence.Shaxx remained unphased by his outburst, radiating both sympathy and stubbornness. “Have you considered that what humanity needs from you is more than just another body to fill a Jaeger?”“What else then?” Zavala said, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. His battle armour weighed on him like it was made of lead rather than lightweight polycarbonate, and he gestured for the assistant frames to approach. “What else can I do?”“You can lead,” Shaxx said firmly. “We're losing the old guard. The Iron Lords are almost all gone, the remaining few retired. The original Vanguard are lost to us as well. None of the remaining commanders in the Jaeger Service have actually been Guardians. We need veteran leaders. People who have actual combat experience against Kaiju.”“People like me,” Zavala said, voice soft.“You're a good leader. You’ve taken charge of combat operations in the field before. You care about people, you would die for them, and your fellow Guardians know that. They respect you. They look up to you.” Shaxx’s hands came down on Zavala's shoulders, heavy with responsibility. “The Tower may have fallen, but you still stand, Zavala. You’re still Vanguard. Still an inspiration. So inspire them! Lead them.”“And what of you?” Zavala asked, searching for a flaw in his friend's argument. “What will you do without a co-pilot?”Shaxx gave a loud snort. “The same as I've been doing since the Vanguard snapped you up and left me single! Shatterdomes are always in need of a good Fightmaster.”Zavala's lips twitched, but didn't quite form a smile. “I've heard rumours that you're the terror of the Crucible.”“Hah!” Shaxx gave him a hearty slap on the back, now free of armour. “I am the Crucible!”Sobering slightly, the mountainous man leaned down to look Zavala straight in the eyes. “So what do you say, my friend, time to leave the past behind you?”There was a tightness in Zavala’s chest. His reluctance was like hooks in his skin, holding him back. The past was Andal. The past was a gaping wound in his mind where his friend once fit. He didn’t want to let go. He knew he couldn’t forget. But perhaps, for the greater good, he could put his pain aside. Put away the fear, and weakness, and need for retribution.He exhaled, long and slow, letting his emotions slip away with his breath and leave his mind blank. Giving Shaxx a terse nod, he answered, “The past is past. We fight for the future.”  
One week later

It was bittersweet, looking out over the familiar launch bay. The Vladivostok Shatterdome had been his home for almost a decade. He had made many good memories here, even if they were now overshadowed by grief. But Zavala found he wasn't sad to leave, not really. It would be good for him to be in a new place with a new position. Somewhere the past wasn’t lurking around every corner. Still, he felt the need to engage in this bit of nostalgia. To say his goodbyes.Footsteps sounded behind him and he didn't need to turn to know who it was.“Ikora,” he greeted, feeling his spirits rise as she took a place at the railing next to him. “I'm glad to see you've finally come up for air. How goes the research?”“I've been deciphering Osiris’s notes,” she said. “He left much unexplained when he…” A moment of hesitation.“Abandoned his post?” Zavala offered.“...Was discouraged from continuing his research.”Zavala held back a scoff. “He always said a mind like yours was wasted in a Jaeger, didn't he?”A wry smile twisted Ikora’s lips. “He said the same about himself.”Zavala opened his mouth to say more, but thought better of it. Ikora’s old mentor, the first Warlock Vanguard, remained a raw subject for them both. With a soft cough, he shifted topics. “I'm glad you came to see me. I've received a new placement.”Ikora’s face bloomed with a genuine smile. “Zavala, that's wonderful news! You need something to keep you occupied.”And not dwelling on the Tower’s fall, passed silently between them.“Well, I'm certain being commander of the Hong Kong Shatterdome will keep me on my toes,” he said, returning his own crooked smile.“Commander!” Ikora’s face brightened further. “Congratulations! I can't think of a more worthy Guardian.”“Thank you,” he accepted with a humble nod. “It seems that being both a veteran of the lauded Vanguard and the beloved son of a decorated Iron Lord opens many doors. ”“You say that like you haven't earned it,” Ikora said, nudging him with an elbow.“I'm merely saying I had help.” It was good to be here side-by-side with Ikora. Almost like old times, even with that empty space yawning between them. They weren't whole, but together they were more complete than when they were apart.He shifted his hand along the railing, settling it closer to Ikora’s. Ikora rested her palm on top of it. Together they shared a moment of comfortable silence, just watching the everyday hustle and bustle of the hangar. Simply being.Zavala was the one to break the silence. “Ikora… I know you have work here, but I wanted to ask if you'd come with me. I'm sure the Hong Kong Shatterdome can accommodate all of your projects…” He trailed off as he watched Ikora’s expression slowly fall, the air of peace between them draining away. “What is it?”“Zavala, I…” Ikora paused for a moment, clearly considering her words. “I actually came up here to say my goodbyes. I'm leaving.”An icy chill crawled up Zavala's spine, and he went very, very still. “Leaving.”“Yes-”“Where?”Ikora let out a heavy breath at the interruption. “I'm not sure yet, but there's… something I have to find. I have a lead, but-”Zavala's throat was tight. Something was boiling up inside him. Something dark and angry. Leaving. Ikora was leaving. Leaving him alone. Alone with... Andal’s face. The whites of his eyes. Fear. His grip tightened on the railing. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “Is it tradition now, for Warlock Vanguards to abandon their duty?”Back straightening, Ikora brought the full force of her disapproving glare to bear, the heat of her own temper a burning whip. “I know you're hurting, Zavala, but mind your words.” Her hand clenched over his, just on the edge of painful, cutting off anything he might have said before she was finished speaking. “The Tower is no more, and without a Jaeger to pilot there's no reason I must remain here. My duty calls me elsewhere.”Zavala's eyes slid shut. He wanted to pull away, but even with his temper hot, he couldn't bear to shrug off her touch. The dark and selfish thing inside him wanted to scream, wasn't he reason enough to stay? “Zavala,” Ikora said, voice imploring. “Listen to me, feel me. I'm not abandoning you, or the Service. I will be back. But something is coming and I don't know how to stop it. And… Andal left something for me. A task.”His hand twitched, emotion flooding through him, a twisted knot of grief and jealousy and guilt. Andal had left nothing for him. Not that he deserved anything.Ikora’s hand curled around his. “You are needed here, Zavala. With the Jaeger Service. Andal knew that, should anything happen to him.”A hitch of breath that was almost a sob rose up in his chest, taking him by surprise. His voice was tight when he spoke, “Must the Vanguard fall apart so completely?”“Sometimes things must be torn down before they can be rebuilt.” Soft lips touched Zavala's forehead and he opened his eyes, luminous blue meeting rich hazel. “And I'll always be with you, Zavala, even when I'm not beside you. We're together in the Drift.”Zavala breathed deep, recalling so many hours spent with Ikora and Andal as she walked them through meditations. He exhaled, and let the emotions flow out with his breath. He had to put his insecurities aside; put aside his selfishness. Focus on the now. “I wish you luck, then. May you find what you're looking for with haste.”“Thank you,” Ikora said, gracing him with a small smile. Letting go of his hand, she pulled a tablet from her jacket. “I'm leaving this with you.”Taking the device and palming it on, Zavala frowned at the eclectic list of dates and numbers written in e-ink. “What is it?”“Osiris's ‘prophecies’,” she answered, with only a hint of wryness. “Predictions for all future Kaiju emergences and their relative severity.”“It only covers two years,” he muttered, brow pinched as he scrolled through the dates.“Yes,” Ikora said. “Because the last date on that list is when Osiris predicts the world will end. An emergence beyond our capability to deal with.”Zavala's brows shot up, attention snapping from the tablet to his former co-pilot.“Of course, he could be wrong,” she added.“But you don't believe he is.”“Osiris was a man of many flaws, Zavala,” she said, “But he had a brilliant mind and a deep dedication to science. I don't fully understand his calculations yet, but from what I've deciphered they seem sound.” She reached out to tap the top of the tablet. “Keep track of their accuracy for me.”Ikora stepped away from the railing and Zavala followed. They clasped arms and rested their foreheads together. Neither said goodbye out loud. They didn't need to. They would see each other again.But as Ikora walked away, she paused to look over her shoulder. “And Zavala?”“Yes?”“Good luck to you, too.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Video Title: Kaiju baby????

Video Description: WTF!!!! her mom had that kaiju blood disease!!!!!!

[Camera frames a hospital bassinet containing an infant. Frame zooms in on the sleeping infant. It appears pale blue in complexion. An adult hand with light caucasian skin moves into the frame, holding it next to the infant’s face for comparison. Frame zooms in on the infant's head. A faint glow is visible beneath the skin.]

First known recording of an Awoken child

Unknown videographer

Videos: ‘Baby Blues Crisis’

Iron Temple Memorial Archives

Year 29 of the Kaiju War
 The construction of the Wall of Life was nothing like propaganda tried to paint it. There were no smiling workers cheerfully building the future together out of shining metal and gleaming white concrete. Reality was a bleak forest of crisscrossing beams stretching 150 meters high at its tallest points and roughly half a kilometre deep. Reality was the constant squeal and chug of overworked industrial printers churning out prefab segments to be lifted into place by equally overworked cranes. Reality was a clear cut deadzone stretching from horizon to horizon, half construction site, half slum, and all of it caked in grime. Reality was a safety record that would have any other project shut down immediately. Reality was that the majority of labourers on the Wall were Exos.A kaleidoscope of glowing eyes tracked Ikora as she strode through the sprawling maze of workers’ barracks. The air was heavy with wariness bordering on suspicion, expressed in furtive glances and whispered conversation as she passed. Not, she thought, because she was human—there were scattered organic eyes among the lights, a few of them with the luminous irises characteristic of those who, like Zavala, were born with caeruleosis. All of them watched her just as carefully.No, she suspected the mistrust was a function of her manner of dress and the way she carried herself. Every neatly pressed line of Ikora’s coat and trousers, the shine of every button, the stiff posture and confident march; all of it screamed ‘well-off’ and ‘official’. And these people, Ikora thought, taking note of the familiar ‘C.B.’ logo embroidered on each worker's coveralls, had every reason to distrust the rich and powerful.Even so, she talked with them where she could, whenever she found someone who seemed more curious than hostile—perhaps those who recognized her from her days as Warlock Vanguard, from the sparse public appearances she'd made without her drivesuit helmet. To anyone who listened, she passed a name. It was her latest lead in a search that had lasted months, for a man who’d done his best to vanish from history.Well, he'd just have to deal with being dragged back into it, because Ikora Rey was on a mission, and failure was not an option. If he was here, she would find him, and she wasn't leaving without him.To her surprise, however, he was the one who found her.She'd just finished speaking with one of the foremen—a large doughy fellow with a kind voice but little useful information to share. (“Things are pretty transient around here, y’know? Clovis Bray-” A pause to spit on the ground. “-shuffles them Exos from site to site, and they expect us to use whatever hands we got available. Don't make it easy to keep a roster. You know they're all just barcodes in the system? Like they ain't people with names and families.”). When she turned to move on, there he was.“What’s a pretty face like yours doing in a dump like this?”Blue eyes, yellow throat lights, single horn in the center of his forehead, heavy coat, air of smug confidence? Andal had provided a description and a small sketch, but she hardly needed it. The man propped casually against the wall of the nearest barracks was as familiar to her as if they'd already met.
An Exo gesticulating wildly as he tells a story. The words blended into nothing by time, but the emotions still strong. Amusement. Fondness. Warmth.
The ghost of Andal’s memory made the corner of her mouth twitch with a suppressed smile even as the still-healing wound in her heart and mind ached.“Mr. ‘Ace Brask’, I presume?”“Depends on who's asking,” the Exo said. He let Ikora get as far as opening her mouth to speak before interrupting. “Nah, I know who you are. Guess the guys who said ‘some exec lady’—” Fingers raised to provide air quotes. “—was looking for me didn't. Seein' you up close, I think I get why. You're much more attractive in person, did you know that?” He formed a square with forefingers and thumbs and lifted it up to frame Ikora’s face. “Camera just doesn't do you justice.”Ikora waited until he was done, expression even and softened by a quirk of her lips that wasn't quite a smile. Andal had warned her about that smart mouth. “I make them film my bad side,” she said. “I break fewer hearts that way.”The Exo didn't laugh but something in his posture changed, from practised casual to a more natural slouch.“Okay, serious time.” The man wiped a hand over his face as if physically painting on a new expression. Never mind that given an Exo's limited ability to emote his serious face was almost identical to his joking face. “What does the Jaeger Service’s very own Warlock Vanguard Jr. want with a Wall of Life scrub like me?”“Please, call me Ikora Rey,” she said. “I was never as enthusiastic about the callsigns and showmanship as some of my predecessors. And I believe, Mr. ‘Brask’, that we have a friend in common.”The overly casual demeanor was back, the Exo examining the tips of his fingers for dirt beneath his nonexistent fingernails. “Don't see how we could, Miz Rey. You n’ me don't exactly run in the same circles.” He flipped his other hand at Ikora’s clothing, then waved it at their grim surroundings.“But you did once. Fourteen years ago you attended the Jaeger Academy, alongside the man whose surname you're currently using.”The man went still and silent, leaving Ikora waiting for a response. She was considering another verbal prod when he straightened up and pushed away from the wall.“Look, I've got a lot of work to do. Gotta pay back The Man for this shiny new robot body, y'know?” He walked backward away from her, levelling a pair of finger guns in her direction. “So while it's been swell meeting a real celeb, I'm gonna skedaddle. Hey, maybe send me an autograph? It'll make the guys and gals here real jealous.”With that, he spun on his heel and strolled away. Ikora closed her eyes and let out a deep breath through her nose. Then she used the tone that could make even Osiris snap to attention and listen. “Cayde.”His real name stopped the Exo in his tracks as effectively as if she'd materialized a wall in his path. The silence stretched again, but he took no further steps away. Finally, “I know he's dead.”A slight crease formed between Ikora’s brows. Andal? The Service had yet to release official confirmation of his death.As if reading her mind, Cayde turned halfway to look at her again. “I mean, pretty easy to puzzle it out. There hasn't been a publicized Tower launch in, what, a year? One of you had to be dead.” His gaze dropped, fixed on the ground. “It obviously wasn't Big, Blue, and Photogenic. They televised him taking over in Hong Kong—'nother clue there. He supposed to command a base and pilot a Jaeger? Nah. And it obviously wasn't you, so…” Glowing blue eyes fixed on Ikora’s again. “So if you're here to tell me my best friend got pulped by a giant space bug then hey! Job complete.”Even for an Exo, Cayde had an amazing poker face. If Ikora were any less perceptive she might have missed how much it hurt him to say that. But the tension in the way he held himself was clear. His pain echoed in the Andal-shaped hole in her mind.“That isn't why I'm here,” Ikora said, keeping her own voice steady.The long sigh Cayde released was remarkably convincing for a man who had neither lungs nor the need to breathe. “You're here to take me back.”“Essentially, yes,” Ikora said with a slight nod.“No.” Cayde faced her fully, both hands up with index fingers raised. “You know why? Because to go back to something you have to have actually been there in the first place.” His fingers splayed out, arms sweeping wide in an exaggerated ‘what can you do?’ motion. “Unlike you, I'm not a Guardian. Never have been.”“You almost were, once.”“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, sweetheart.”“You still could be."“Except you need to Drift to be a Guardian, and guess how many times I managed a successful Drift?” Cayde's fingers curled into a circle. “A big, fat zero.”“That was fourteen years ago. People change. You've changed.” The look Cayde gave her screamed ‘talk about an understatement’ as he lifted a metal brow pointedly. “Can it hurt to try?”It was the wrong thing to say. Ikora knew it even before Cayde's eyes dimmed slightly and he sidled back a pace. His voice was low and dark when he spoke, “Yes it can.”“Cayde-” Ikora started, determined to fix her misstep.“Listen, Miz Rey, I got a Wall to build, so why don't you run along and do whatever Vanguard do when they can't fight Kaiju.”A slight frown rumpled her calm façade. “You don't believe in this Wall.”“You're right, I don't!” Cayde said, voice incongruously cheerful. He pointed a finger at her. “And nobody else believes in Jaegers anymore! So guess what? We're all fucked.”Ikora opened her mouth to speak only to be cut off by a raised hand and a sharp ‘Ah, ah!’“I'm not finished. Me? I'm all I've got left. So if it's all the same to you I'd like to keep me around as long as possible. You go ahead and die on the front lines with Big Blue and your little gang of Guardians. I'll be here chilling in the world's biggest cage until the apocalypse comes knocking on my door.”Ikora waited until she was sure he was finished speaking. Then she said, “Alright.”“So don't think you can- Wait, what?”“I said ‘alright’,” Ikora repeated. “You've made your disinterest clear, and I will respect your decision.”Cayde seemed thoroughly disarmed, whatever tirade he'd been forming dying away in the face of her apparent acquiescence. His eyes flicked back and forth over her face as if some hidden meaning to her words might be encrypted in her features.“Just like that,” he said, apparently failing to find what he was searching for.“Just like that,” Ikora said with a hint of a smile. “We're both busy people, Cayde. You have a Wall to build and I have a frontline to die on. Why waste time arguing when you've already made your decision? A Jaeger can't have an unwilling pilot.”“...Huh.” Cayde looked her up and down appraisingly. Then, after a pause, he shoved a hand at her. “Hey, no hard feelings, right?”“No hard feelings,” Ikora said, giving his hand a firm shake. “One last piece of business, though.”Slipping a hand into her coat pocket, she withdrew a small envelope and held it out to Cayde. “It's from Andal. Addressed to you.”Silent, Cayde took it from her with the delicacy of someone handling fine china. When he finally spoke, there was a hint of static in his voice. “Thanks.”“It was good to meet you, Cayde,” Ikora said. “Andal had fond memories of you.”Then she left.I came this far because of you, Andal, she thought. I trust you to make it work. She almost made it to her rental car at the edge of the construction site before she heard the pounding of heavy feet behind her, accompanied by a “Hey, wait up!” as Cayde quickly caught up to her.Ikora breathed a sigh of relief.  “Director Hideo, please. You must convince the Consensus to reinvest in the Jaeger program.”“Commander Forge,” the politician said, face painted wide across the video screen projected over Zavala's office window. “You know I hold you in the highest esteem. You and your father have given so much in defense of mankind. It's why I nominated you to take charge of the last Shatterdome.”“We need more than a single Shatterdome,” Zavala argued. “We need the Jaeger Academy open again! We don't have the resources-”“I'm sorry, Commander Forge, but the Consensus no longer considers the Jaeger program to be a sound investment. The cost of it is simply too high.”“And what of the cost in lives, when there are no more Guardians or Jaegers to protect our planet?”Hideo shook his head. “I could have made that argument a year, even a month ago, but with the recent success of the Wall of Life repelling a Kaiju attack, it can no longer be made.”“It successfully held off attack until my Guardians arrived,” Zavala said, trying to keep his voice from rising into a shout. “Do you think it would hold indefinitely without a counter-offense?”“It's not about what I think, Commander,” Hideo said, dodging the question. “It's about what the Consensus thinks. And the Consensus thinks that the Wall, along with standard military action, is enough.”Zavala closed his eyes, silently cursing the hubris and greed of politicians, wondering how much Clovis Bray money lined their pockets. If only the Speaker still held sway with the Consensus… He looked back up at Hideo. “Please, at least two Shatterdomes. One for each hemisphere. I can't possibly cover the entire Pacific from a single base.”“I'm sorry, Commander. It took a great deal of networking and string-pulling just to convince the Consensus to continue funding a single Shatterdome until the Wall is complete. I cannot overplay my hand.”“Of course,” Zavala said, sounding far more agreeable than he felt.“Now, if you have no other business to discuss, I'm sure you have much work to do, managing an entire base.”“Indeed. Goodbye, Director Hideo.”The video feed cut out, the holoscreen disappearing. In its place, the view of the Shatterdome’s main hangar was revealed. It was a chaotic bustle of activity down below, but only because they were receiving equipment and Jaegers from the closure of the last two active bases. Soon the rush of activity would die down to a trickle. There weren't even enough active Jaegers left to fill all the docks.When he had accepted his position as commander for the Hong Kong Shatterdome, he hadn't expected that within the year he would be commander of the only remaining Shatterdome. Perhaps he should have seen it coming. Even before the Tower fell, the Jaeger Service had been in decline, the public’s belief in Guardians shattered in the wake of the Great Disaster. Recruitment rates had plummeted, the Academy had closed its doors. Two thirds of the original Vanguard had vanished without warning, leaving the Service scrambling to explain their absence to the press. And even before Zavala had taken his place as the new Titan Vanguard, several Shatterdomes had already been decommissioned, having lost too many Jaegers to justify their cost of operation.Placing his hands on his desk, Zavala let his head hang and controlled his breathing. Long inhale, slow exhale. Let the emotions go. But his usual meditation had little effect on the warring anger and despair churning in his belly. His only concession to these emotions was to slam a fist against his desk.The end of the world might well be nigh, and the Consensus thought it would be better for humanity to bunker down and hide rather than try and fight. But Zavala couldn't afford to give up. Guardians depended on him. He was a rock. Their unshakable foundation.Zavala gritted his teeth and took another deep breath, forcing his own emotions aside, packing them away for later. He didn't have time for doubt. Opening his eyes, he noticed a blinking light at the edge of his vision. A notification on his private handheld. Frowning, he picked up the small device and tapped the alert.The message was short and to the point: Coming home. ETA 20 minutes. It was from Ikora.Zavala felt the weight of mountains lift from his shoulders.  “You're one minute early,” Zavala shouted over the roar of the helicopter as Ikora Rey hurried towards him.“Forty-two seconds!” Ikora corrected. “Clearly my powers of estimation have grown rusty while I was away.”By the Traveler, it was good to hear her voice without a screen and countless miles between them. For a moment Zavala wavered between professionalism and camaraderie. This was Ikora, however. His friend. His co-pilot. The woman he'd shared a mind with. Spreading his arms wide for her, Ikora didn't hesitate to step into the space offered and hug him tight.“It's so good to see you again, Zavala,” she said, and he could feel her relief echoing his own. “I'm sorry I took so long.”He held the embrace for as long as seemed appropriate. Then he took her by the shoulders and pushed her back gently to get a good look at her. She looked... worn. Older. But happy. He imagined he looked much the same to her. Who knew that less than a year could take such a toll. He said, “I hope you found what you were looking for.”“I found who I was looking for,” she corrected, then glanced over her shoulder. He followed her gaze to a figure he hadn't noticed slip out of the helicopter after her.The stranger was fairly tall, taller than Ikora, but their form was otherwise obscured by a heavy knee-length coat. High leather boots rose to meet the hem of it, with just a hint of denim peeking out between boot top and coat bottom. With their hood up and head turned away to take in the view from the helipad, Zavala couldn't make out their face at all.It was strange garb for a day that was neither wet nor cold, the bright sun bringing a pleasant warmth to the tarmac.“Cayde,” Ikora said, drawing the stranger's attention, “Meet Commander Zavala Forge.”“Hey,” the stranger—Cayde—greeted as he finally faced them. The shadows of the deep hood couldn't hide the glow of mechanical eyes, or the flicker of yellow in his mouth as he spoke. “Not everyday you get to meet the literal poster boy for the Jaeger Service. I feel giddy.”Ikora shot Cayde a look, then turned her attention back to Zavala, her brow furrowing slightly at his continued silence and blank expression.That the man was an Exo was a surprise—he'd never met one in person before. But what hit Zavala like a blow from Shaxx to the stomach was the realization that he knew this man. Not from his own memory but-
Cayde sitting, backlit by the window he's staring out of. He looks sad. Forlorn.

Unfamiliar.

Shiny new metal, glossy mesh, silicone, lights. A machine. But…

Familiar. The way he slouches in the window seat. His swagger. The way he talks, even though the voice isn't quite the same. The warmth when they're together.

“I know you miss my pretty face, but staring harder ain't going to bring it back.” Humor. Defensive.

The feel of words in Zavala's throat, but Andal’s voice, “Hey, at least the horn is cute.”
Overtaken by the second-hand memory, Zavala didn't notice Cayde had stretched out a hand for him to shake until Ikora tapped his arm, jolting him back to reality. Too late. Cayde was already withdrawing, face unreadable—how had Andal read that metal face so easily?—tugging his hood further down instead.“What's up, Baby Blue?” Cayde asked. “Never seen an Exo before?”Heat flooded Zavala, washing away the icy numbness that had set in with the harsh and sudden reminder of Andal Brask. Baby Blue? It was an old tabloid nickname for children like Zavala, from before caeruleosis became the politically correct term for their condition. It wasn't a slur as such—though there were other words for those like him that certainly were—but it was still, to put it mildly, impolite. “Excuse me?” he demanded, features threatening to form a scowl.“Y’know, Exos? Robots? Kinda like frames ‘cept we used to be human? I mean, I guess you've been locked up in this pretty little castle here for awhile, but we're not exactly rare-”“Cayde,” Ikora said, warning in her tone.At the same moment Zavala turned to her and said, voice tight, “Ikora, may I speak with you privately?”Ikora looked at Zavala. Zavala looked at Ikora. Cayde looked back and forth between them both, hands raised defensively.Finally, Ikora sighed. “Let's move this to your office, Zavala. We have much to talk about.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“-for Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, you are hereby sentenced to serve seven years in prison, with the possibility of parole. Furthermore-”

[Someone talking too quietly to be clearly audible

People muttering in the background.]

“It has been brought to my attention that it is now required by law for me to make the following offer: should the defendant so choose, he may choose to serve any portion of his sentence in service to the Jaeger program, under the sponsorship of the Clovis Bray Corporation-”

[The courtroom bursts into raised speech, drowning out the rest of the judge's words.]

“Order, I will have order!”

Audio Recordings: First Introduction of IRP in Court
Clovis Bray: Inmate Recruitment Program
Iron Temple Memorial Archives

Year 29 - Two Months to Doomsday
 “Who is he and what is he doing on my base?”Zavala hardly waited for the heavy door to slam shut before demanding answers. Ikora, however, took her time in granting them, striding over to the wide windows that covered the back wall of Zavala's office. Her ‘guest’ had been left to loiter on the catwalk outside with strict orders to stay put.“He's an old friend of Andal’s,” Ikora said. She didn't look at Zavala, captivated by the sprawl of the Jaeger hangar. People and frames scurried to and fro like so many ants, hard at work.“That much I'm aware of,” Zavala said. That resurgence of a memory from Andal still hurt, an ache that had no physical component but pained him all the same. He'd avoided such flashbacks for nearly a year, only to be confronted by a living reminder from Andal’s past, dredging up memories better left untouched.
Andal’s face, eyes wide. Fear.
“How many do we have left?” Ikora asked, still watching the hangar.The change of subject caught him off guard, anchoring Zavala back in the here and now before he could sink deeper into the past. He opened his mouth, ready to demand a return to the original topic, but a glance from Ikora had him pressing his lips into a line instead. Her eyes promised answers to his questions, but implored he answer hers first.A year since their last Drift, and he could still read her so well. No doubt Ikora knew his mind even better. She'd always been the most perceptive of their triad in that respect.“Very few,” he started. “Only five veteran pairs. Two rookie teams. There are several additional Jaegers in the Crypt that could likely be returned to working order if need be, but…” Zavala closed his eyes. They'd lost so many Guardians already, some of whom he'd personally sent to their ends. “We can't spare the resources. Not when our remaining recruits aren’t combat-ready.”He shook his head and looked up at Ikora. She'd moved closer, hand hovering next to his elbow.“It takes every Jaeger we have to fight off each new Emergence now. Seven Jaegers at a time, and still they take a dangerous amount of damage. And the waves keep coming faster. We can barely complete repairs before the next incursion hits.” He turned his back on the window to stare at the files laid out across his desk. One for every Guardian and Guardian-hopeful currently in the Service. “If I send inexperienced recruits out now they’ll be little more than target practice for the Kaiju.”“We need more Guardians,” Ikora said softly, a statement rather than a question.“They won't reopen the Academy,” Zavala said. “And even if they did, recruitment was at an all-time low when its doors closed. There would be even fewer applicants now.”Zavala moved back to the window, watching a mixed group of Guardians and recruits help move crates of supplies under the stern gaze of their Fightmaster. He could almost hear Shaxx yelling encouragements from all the way up here. “I respect all of my recruits. It takes bravery to want to be a Jaeger pilot. They are all strong, determined. They all work hard.”“But they don't have the knack for it,” Ikora finished for him.He nodded. “Being able to Drift successfully is a rare talent. They all have it, and they would make decent Guardians, perhaps even good ones with enough experience. But we've already lost too many good Guardians.” Zavala's voice went rough as he spoke. Just good.
“We make a good team,” Andal says as they disconnect from The Tower's harnesses.

“We work well together,” Zavala agrees, still full of the rush of another victory.
“Yeah, but imagine,” Andal says, “what the Tower could do with a great team.”“Great teams are hard to come by,” Ikora said, and Zavala wondered if they were recalling the same memory.“I try to have hope,” Zavala said, “But we're holding on by the skin of our teeth. We won't survive anything worse.”Ikora’s face went tight. “Osiris's predictions-”“All correct, down to the week, if not the day,” Zavala said. “Which means that whatever is coming, we have little more than two months to prepare for it.”Silence stretched between them, and Zavala could feel the despair he'd struggled to suppress seeping from his bones.Ikora settled her hand on his shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. “I know I haven’t been here for you, Zavala. But I'm here now. And we Drift to share the load.”A surprising amount of tension eased out of him, more than he’d realized he'd been carrying. The Vanguard might still be broken, but with Ikora at his side again he was closer to being whole. He rested his own hand over hers, and for a long moment he just enjoyed Ikora’s company.He straightened, all business once again. “Now then, who is he?” Aside from Andal’s strange, sad Exo friend. There was nothing in Zavala’s secondhand memories that explained the man’s presence here now. Really, given the depth of emotion Andal had felt for the man, surprisingly few recollections of him had passed through the Drift.Ikora drew back her hand slowly after giving a parting squeeze. “A trained Jaeger pilot.”Zavala frowned. “I know every Iron Lord and Guardian who has ever touched a Jaeger. There has never been an Exo Guardian.” His frown deepened. “Nor has any Exo ever enlisted in the Academy.”“He wasn't an Exo during his training,” Ikora said. “And he never became a Guardian. But the potential was there, to be a good one. Perhaps even a great one.”An evasive answer. That Ikora was stepping carefully around the topic didn’t bode well. Whatever information she had, she knew he wasn't going to like it.“Who is he?”“Cayde-”“I know his name, that doesn't explain-”Ikora shot him a sharp look for interrupting her. “Cayde Reynolds.”Zavala opened his mouth to tell her that still explained nothing, but a twinge of recognition stopped him. Reynolds. Cayde Reynolds. Where had he heard that name before-?Memory hit him, and he reeled as if struck. “What?!”Far too casually, Ikora slipped a tablet from her coat, tapping gently on its surface. “His Academy records were locked from public access after his… incident, but his scores are still some of the highest across most categories-”“Ikora,” Zavala said, disbelief stark in his voice. “Cayde Reynolds was a criminal.”“Recruited through Clovis Bray’s Inmate Sponsorship Program, yes,” Ikora said, eyes darting up from the tablet to meet Zavala's. “As were several of our great Guardians. Shaxx certainly doesn’t have a clean record-”“That is not-!” His voice is raised and Zavala takes several deep breaths before starting over with a more reserved tone. Still strained, but quieter. “I don't care what he did before he was recruited. What matters is his… his incident, as you put it.”In contrast, Ikora remained almost infuriatingly calm. How many times had she rehearsed this conversation before arriving at the Shatterdome? “The incident where he borrowed a Jaeger.”“Where he stole a Jaeger, Ikora!” Zavala and his fellow recruits had never learned how Recruit Reynolds had managed it, but the man and his stunt were notorious amongst all the Academy’s students.“He brought it back,” Ikora said, continuing to deliberately miss his point. “Or tried to, as far as he could bring it.”“Is that supposed to make it better?” Zavala snapped. He started pacing, needing some way to vent his rising frustration. “We were told about him as a warning in the Academy, to stress the importance of Drifting with a partner. Even as a student, I never understood how someone could be so egotistical as to think they could pilot a Jaeger solo! How anyone could think they'd survive-”He stopped short, reminded of one rather important detail of that particular Academy cautionary tale. “Ikora, Cayde Reynolds died.”“Officially, yes,” Ikora said, gaze steady. “He was declared dead on the scene when they pulled him out of that Jaeger. Unofficially… Clovis Bray stepped in.”The puzzle pieces snapped together. “They made him an Exo.”“Yes,” Ikora said, a slight frown dragging at her lips, eyes dropping to the tablet in her hand. “Though how they salvaged a functional neural map from him after nearly 90% neural fry is quite the mystery.”Zavala physically recoiled as his right arm gave a hard throb of sympathetic pain.
“17% neural fry.”

The doctor spins the three-dimensional model of Zavala's nervous system. The nerves in his right arm, shoulder, and part of his chest are outlined in red.

“You should regain full use of your arm with a regimen of physical therapy, but first we'll need to excise and regrow these major nerves…”
Zavala didn't truly remember how he and Ikora had gotten the Tower back to shore without Andal. But he did remember burning. Ikora burning. Burning together. Grief had come later, but for what felt like an eternity there had only been enough room for agony. It had taken him over a month to relearn how to use his right arm. On bad days his fingers still experienced tremors. On very bad days he was ripped from sleep by the phantom pains. And that was only 17%.He couldn't even begin to imagine what 90% neural fry felt like.Rubbing his right arm absently, he shot Ikora a look. “Is this an attempt to garner sympathy for a man who brought that on himself?”It may have been working.Ikora gave him a flat look back. “I don't think Cayde needs your sympathy. However, given that… unique experience, followed by over a decade working on the Wall, I am suggesting that he may have learned a little humility.”Zavala crossed his arms, fingers strumming restlessly against his bicep. “He still put lives at risk—including his own,” he added before Ikora could interject, “And endangered billions of dollars in military hardware. He's a liability.”“Andal didn't think so.”
Andal’s body, between him and the Thrall.
Eyes closing, Zavala said, “Andal didn't always make the soundest decisions.”“Zavala,” Ikora said, grabbing his arm, her calm finally shattered by a spark of anger. “You can't still believe that saving you was a mistake?”He refused to look at her. He couldn't say honestly that he should have died in Andal’s stead. He and Ikora had argued the topic exhaustively while he'd been at his lowest, weak and confined to a hospital bed. But the guilt… the guilt still told him he didn’t deserve the sacrifice.Ikora’s grip tightened and he could feel her eyes drilling into the side of his head, trying to mine his thoughts. But even the ghost of a Drift as strong as theirs wasn’t enough for them to read each other’s minds. All she had to go on was a sense of his emotional state and the words he said aloud.And he didn't want to talk about it.“Cayde Reynolds,” Zavala said, turning the topic away from himself. “Why should I let him stay on my base? I need reasons beyond ‘because Andal wanted it that way’.”Andal, who had surely known of his friend’s crime. Who would have attended the Academy with Cayde Reynolds before his ‘death’—Throwing an arm across the shoulders of a young man with shaggy dark brown hair and even darker eyes, buzzing with warm friendship, greeting, “‘Sup Cayde?”—and who had managed to hide that knowledge from their Drift, the memories that did slip through too subtle and too few to draw his attention at the time. But the pieces were starting to fit together now, feeling obvious in retrospect. Academy Cayde-Criminal Cayde-Exo Cayde.“Zavala,” Ikora said, still squeezing his arm, pulling him from his thoughts. He finally looked at her, her jaw set stubbornly, her eyes blazing with questions he didn't want to answer.“Need I remind you that your guest is still waiting outside?” he said, his own expression stony.It was a silent battle of wills. An unstoppable force facing down an immovable object through the medium of simple glares. Zavala was almost surprised when Ikora was the one to give in.“Fine,” she said, shoving her tablet roughly against his chest. She withdrew quickly, leaving him to fumble not to drop the device. “But we are going to have a talk about you.”“Later,” Zavala conceded, fully planning to avoid that conversation for as long as possible. He began scrolling through Reynolds’s—admittedly rather impressive—Academy statistics.“Later,” Ikora confirmed. Her determination to pursue the topic was clear, and Zavala idly considered allowing Reynolds to stay purely to keep her sharp mind distracted.However…“His compatibility scores are abysmal.”For a long moment, he thought Ikora might refuse to follow his shift in topic. Then she let out a long sigh, tension easing from her shoulders. She countered, “Whereas I have the broadest compatibility rating on record. If there's anyone that can teach him to Drift successfully, it's me.”Zavala hummed, nodding his agreement. There was no denying Ikora’s expertise in Drifting. “There's never been an Exo recruit before. Is Drifting even possible for them?”“Well, no one's tried it before,” Ikora said, “but there's a first time for everything. I suspect it won't be a problem. The process for transferring human minds into Exo frames is based on the Pons system, after all.”Zavala stroked his chin consideringly, still eyeing the man's stats. He was certain many of those combat ratings fit within the Academy’s official top ten rankings. The reflex speeds might even be record breakers.“His behaviour…” Zavala said.“I take full responsibility for keeping him in line,” Ikora said. “I promise, his training won't interfere with regular base operations.”“I will have him removed from the Shatterdome if he shows signs of his past… delinquency.”Ikora’s lips twitched slightly, just the ghost of a smile. “Of course, Commander.”Zavala wrinkled his nose. “That sounds… strange, coming from you.”Her smile solidified.With a heavy sigh, Zavala settled into his desk chair. “Well then, he'll be needing security clearance, an assigned room, standard dress…”The sound of typing filled the office as he began shooting off emails. The familiar routine of paperwork was soothing, but something about the whole situation still niggled at him. His hands paused, poised over the keyboard, trying to place what was bothering him. Perhaps even a great one...“He can't replace Andal,” Zavala said, the words falling from his lips before he could fully process them.Ikora’s hand settled on his shoulder. “No-one has ever wanted to replace Andal, except perhaps Andal.” A pause. She let her hand drop. “But if I can resurrect the Tower, I will.”Zavala's fingers twitched. He returned to typing. It wasn't until he finished his current email that he spoke again, “I hope your search for a third goes more quickly than the search for your second.”Ikora’s hesitation was tangible. But all she said was, “I'm sure it will be.”The silence between them was heavy as Zavala continued to work. He could feel Ikora at his back, likely continuing to take in the view. Finally, he pushed away from his desk.“Alright,” he said. “Let's give your new student the news.”The door opened onto an empty catwalk.Zavala’s brows slowly rose as he turned to look at Ikora.Ikora just sighed.  Cayde was bored. And when Cayde was bored, he sometimes made choices that other people might consider to be bad ones. Frankly, he thought other people just had a really low bar for what they categorized as a ‘bad choice’, instead of just a… ‘moderately misguided’ choice.For example: pissing off Ikora’s boss-slash-buddy within the first ten seconds of meeting him? Pretty bad choice.On the other hand: deciding that standing on the catwalk railing was slightly more entertaining than standing on the catwalk floor? Pfft, whatever. He was, what, a couple hundred feet above the ground at most? He'd been at the top of the Wall without safeties plenty of times. This was nothing.But, as they often did, other people had differing opinions. From below he heard, “Hey you, get the hell down from there, you're gonna break your neck!”The concern was awfully sweet, but the sentiment was wasted on him. Squinting down, he could make out a figure with a megaphone standing on a jacked up scissor lift.He didn't need a megaphone of his own to crank his volume to match. He called back, “It's fine, I can just get a new chassis!”There was a pause, and he wondered if his would-be saviour had given up already. A shame, seeing as this conversation was the most interesting thing to happen to him since he’d been shut out of the Commander’s office. But then! “Are you an Exo?”“No ma’am, I am an ambulatory toaster!”Heh, it was kind of funny, from here he could see the crowd below slowly giving the gal with the bullhorn more and more space.“Come down and talk with me!”Well, that sounded way more fun than what he was doing at the moment, but… he cast a glance at Zavala's office door. Still closed.“Big Blue told me to stay put!”“Well, shit, just blame it on me if he don’t like it! We're friends, it'll be fine.”Hm. Well, if someone else was taking responsibility… He wasn't exactly going to go far, anyway. Just down into the hangar! With a chaperone and everything. They could probably see him from the window if they looked. No harm, no foul.Without further thought, Cayde stepped off the railing into open air. Twisting as he fell, he caught the edge of the catwalk, judged his next drop, and plummeted to catch the railing of the next catwalk down. Repeat. Catch the next railing, brace feet on the edge of the walkway, launch. Executing a perfect flip in mid-air, he proceeded to undershoot the middle of the scissor lift, catching his foot on its railing instead, and ended up gracefully scrabbling at the lift platform in order to not go tumbling face-first onto the tarmac.Fantastic.“That was amazing!” Miss Megaphone said, laughing. He couldn't see her from his current angle, but he could feel her grab onto his wrists to help haul him upwards.After a short struggle, Cayde was finally upright, sitting awkwardly on the lift platform. “Hey thanks,” he said, brushing off his coat.“Not a problem.” A hand shoved itself into his vision, and he followed the arm up to a brightly smiling face, framed by blonde hair and a red bandana. “Amanda. Amanda Holliday. You know, you're actually lighter than I expected!”“Huh.” Cayde stared at her for a moment, then clasped her hand and gave it a firm shake. “Cayde. I've never actually had someone say that to me? I always seem to be, uh, heftier than they expect.”“Probably ‘cause most people don't work with machines much,” Amanda said, moving back to lean on the railing. “Oh! Uh, not that I'm saying you're a machine. Or not just a machine, you're-”“Hey, don't sweat it,” Cayde said, climbing to his feet. He spread his arms. “After all, aren't we all living machines?” He paused for effect. “... Nah, I'm kiddin’. Kind of. Anyway, I am definitely a metal man full of pulleys and gears.”Amanda let out a soft pffft of suppressed laughter. “Haha, pulleys? Like hell you got pulleys in there. Even frames are more advanced than that. Hey, can I see your hand?”Okay, so, this was a little awkward, but Cayde was actually pretty charmed by such a purely positive reaction to meeting an Exo. Most of the humans he met away from the Wall were, well. Dubious at best. Hostile at worst.“Uh, yeah sure,” he said, pulling off a glove and holding out his hand. “You guys really don't get a lot of Exos around here, do you?”“You're the first I've seen here,” Amanda said. She took hold of his hand, staring at it with the sort of joy children show towards unwrapped birthday presents. “Ahh, this is amazing!”“Why thank you.”Her grip shifted to his wrist and she slammed her hand on the lift controls, lowering the platform. “Here, I gotta show you something!”“Uh-” Cayde gave a backward glance towards the office above, but he didn't really have time to say anything before he was being dragged off the lift and across the hangar.The view from down here was a lot different than the one from above. From here he could see the people, grease stains and sweat and all. Up close he could see the tracks and ruts worn into the floor by time and heavy equipment. The rust spots and spots where rust had been scraped away and painted over. The Shatterdome had certainly seen better days.It almost felt homey, except for how many of the people here wore skin.After several close calls with forklifts and people's toes, Amanda's wild ride came to a stop, square in front of the towering form of a docked Jaeger.“Look!” she said, waving an excited hand at the colossal combat machine.“Uh, yeah,” Cayde said. “Very nice Jaeger. I see you've got several of them here. Less than I expected, but-”“No, no,” Amanda said, giving him a light punch in the shoulder like they were already old friends. She yanked up on the bare hand she had yet to release, holding it up towards the Jaeger. “Look.”“What am I supposed to-” Then he saw it. “Oh. Oh hey. Wow.”He stared at his hand. He stared at the Jaeger’s hand. Amanda finally let go, and he turned his wrist back and forth, comparing the two. “Yeah, okay, that is uncanny.”Amanda was smiling like the cat who got the canary. “All the other Jaegers here got different hand designs than that, but Boreal Defiant here is pretty much a perfect match.”She sure was. Other than the whole ultra-extreme size difference, his hand was pretty much identical to the Jaeger’s.“Exos are Jaeger-tech,” Amanda said, tone somewhere between smug and delighted. “Just in miniature.”“You know, I technically knew that?” Cayde said. “But I never really knew that. Until this moment.”The sheer force of Amanda's brilliant smile was enough to make him turn to look at her. She was practically vibrating in place.“That's not all,” she said.  By the time Ikora and Zavala tracked Cayde down, Amanda had found a mobile holo-display, attracted a small crowd of curious mechanics, and convinced the Exo to shed his heavy coat and hike his shirt up to his armpits. She was currently in the middle of comparing the glowing circle embedded in his sternum with a 3D model of a Jaeger power core.Cayde was the first one to notice the newcomers, and he almost felt guilty about the exasperated look on Ikora’s face. Almost. Instead, he just waved over the crowd's heads from his seat on a work table.“Do you not have work to do,” Zavala said, stopping behind the mechanics.The gathered men and women scattered with the speed and grace of a swarm of cockroaches when the lights were flipped on. Except for Amanda, who was far too busy shining a penlight into his core to notice rumbly-voiced base commanders.Cayde decided to help her out a little. “Ikora, Commander! You here for Comparative Anatomy of Jaegers and Exos 101?”He wasn't sure how he'd expected Amanda to react to the sudden appearance of her big blue boss-slash-eleged friend, but the young woman snapping upright and letting out a delighted squeal had definitely not been in the cards.“Ikora!” Amanda shouted, spinning around and practically throwing herself at the other woman. Oh, so not a reaction to Zavala then. “I haven't seen you in forever!”“Huh,” Cayde said, mumbling his thoughts out loud. “Did not realize they knew each other.”The sound of a throat clearing brought his attention to Zavala, the Commander having stepped closer. To give the gals some space for their reunion or to put Cayde in easy smacking distance? Only time would tell.“Mister Reynolds. Was there some part of the command ‘stay here’ that was unclear?” Zavala asked. There was surprisingly little bite in his tone despite the words. He sounded more resigned than anything.“In my defense,” Cayde said, “I was bot-napped?” Then, after a brief pause, “Also it's ‘Cayde’.”If Zavala acknowledged the name correction he didn't indicate it. He was busy watching Amanda chat excitedly to a smiling Ikora. And Cayde was busy watching Zavala. It was fascinating to see the man's face soften from stony to something fond and wistful. “Amanda Holliday can be a bit… forceful when she's found something that sparks her interest.”Brilliant blue eyes shifted back to Cayde and the Exo had to mute a disappointed sigh when Zavala's face hardened up again. “Or someone.”“Well, I am pretty fascinating,” Cayde said, leaning back on his hands. The motion drew the Commander’s eyes, and he was amused to watch them land on his core then trail down his abs. ‘Abs’. Whatever. People were always fascinated by bare Exos. Even the people who hated them.“Hey, my eyes are up here,” he said, tugging his shirt back into place now that the impromptu lecture was over.Zavala actually flinched, eyes snapping up to Cayde's so fast they had the Exo wondering if eyeballs could get whiplash. He froze with his shirt midway over his belly, gaping at the other man.Holy shit, was the Commander actually flustered? Further evidence for that theory: Zavala promptly turned on his heel and proceeded to ignore Cayde.“Ikora, I have duties to attend to,” he said. “When you're done catching up with Miss Holliday, please show Mister Reynolds his new accommodations.”With that, the Commander strode off with a purpose. Cayde would bet money that said purpose was ‘get as far away from Cayde as quickly as possible’, but he doubted he’d ever get Zavala to admit it.Both women looked startled at the sudden departure, then turned to look at Cayde. He finished tugging down his shirt and raised his hands and shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. Seriously, he’d done nothing wrong. This time.“Dammit,” Amanda said. “I actually need to talk to him.” She turned back to Ikora. “Hey, you’re tired, let's catch up tomorrow, huh?”“Of course,” Ikora said. She watched the young woman run after Zavala, then turned a raised brow on Cayde.He threw up his hands. “What.”  “So, that could have gone worse.”Ikora only gave Cayde the barest sideways glance. The Exo strolled at her side, one hand hooked in his belt, the other supporting a roll of bedding and standard-issue clothing slung over his shoulder.“‘Baby Blue’?” she asked incredulously. Zavala and Cayde were different enough that she had expected them to grate on each other eventually, but on their first introduction? Then again, she hadn't predicted how raw Zavala still was over Andal’s death. That worried her.“Okay, so, maybe I get a bit… snippy. When I'm feeling defensive.”That caught Ikora’s attention and she stared at Cayde with a slight tilt to her head. “Defensive? You hardly seem the sort to get flustered over a little staring.”“Oh no, I'm definitely not! Staring is just… it's water off my back.” Cayde rolled his shoulders, gaze darting around restlessly in every direction except towards Ikora. “Except, y’know, when it's from someone I'd actually like to get to know.”There was something so earnestly awkward and embarrassed in Cayde's fidgeting that Ikora felt her mood softening in spite of herself.“Someone you'd... ‘like to get to know’,” she repeated, more prompt than question.“Sure,” Cayde said, fingers picking at his belt now. “Why not? I mean, you like him. Andal liked him. He can't be all that bad. Why wouldn't I want to get to know Zavala?”Ikora waited patiently for the other shoe to drop. She was already getting the feel for when Cayde was being legitimately reticent and when he was ready to spill if she just waited long enough.It only took two paces worth of silence before Cayde was skipping ahead of Ikora and turning to face her while he continued to walk backwards.“Okay, so, I know I cocked that up. I admit it. I said a dumb thing. Happens more than you might think-” Ikora’s lips twitched at that. “-but no one warned me that Titan Jr. got hot?”A startled laugh bubbled from Ikora’s throat, followed by an incredulous, “Cayde!”“No, I'm serious! I was taken really off guard!” Cayde almost dropped his bundle as he waved in emphasis. “Like, I don't know if it was just the posters or whatever, but I always thought he had that sort of blandly handsome golden boy look? Which I guess some people are into, but yeah, boring, whatever.” Tilting his head back, Cayde slapped his free hand to his forehead, narrowly avoiding his horn. “But now! He's like… he's like, fine wine or cheese or something. Aged to perfection. Got that sort of grizzled warrior vibe now. That edge!”Ikora’s laughter echoed down the hallway as she continued to escort her new student to his room. It was accompanied by Cayde's protests.“No listen! Don’t laugh, Ikora, I am serious…!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

[Camera One: A man wearing a circuit suit and a modified Pons headset is strapped into a lightweight control cradle.]

[Camera Two: A service frame. It has been modified with a humanoid face, including an articulated mouth and bicameral eyes.]

[C1: The man strides in place, the cradle keeping him from moving forward.]

[C2: The frame strides across the room, movements matching that of the man.]

[Off-camera Voice:] Okay, I want you to stop an arm’s length from the wall.

[C1&C2: The frame approaches the wall. Both it and the man slow in concert. They both reach out. The man’s knuckles tap air. The frame's knuckles knock against the wall.]

[Off-camera Voice:] Perfect! You’ve mastered the walk cycle.

[C1&C2: Both figures speak with overlapping voices.] Yeah, those last adjustments definitely fixed the equilibrium. No more massive vertigo every time I take a step.

[Off-camera Voice:] Okay, that’s all the tests for the day. Let’s go celebrate your first successful walk by getting so drunk you can’t anymore. Shutting down the neural bridge in three, two, one…

[C1: The man tugs off his headset and gives the camera a thumbs up before turning to leave.]

[C2: The frame taps its fingers against its thigh, then looks up at the camera.] Monique? What’s going on with that Pons?

Neural Echo: First Observation

Clovis Bray: Leaked Recordings

Iron Temple Memorial Archives

Year 29 - Two Months to Doomsday
 Cayde had lived with mostly Exos long enough that he'd forgotten how boring nights around humans could get. Exos didn't sleep. Heck, they barely needed rest at all. The closest thing to sleep he'd had since getting his mind dumped in a robot body was the neural backups, and those? Those kind of sucked. Without a mandatory backup schedule like there was on the Wall, Cayde wasn't in a hurry to initiate his next one.Which left him with a lot of hours when the majority of people on the base were asleep. He'd already arranged his room. (It was a huge step up from the Wall’s workers’ barracks, even if there was barely enough space for the bed, dresser, desk, and navigable floor space.) Then he'd flipped through the few worn paperbacks he'd brought with him, but he wasn't really in the mood for trashy romance. So he'd put the books down and rearranged his room. Not feeling like redecorating a third time, and lacking anything else to do in the limited confines of his small room, Cayde chose to wander instead.And there were certainly a lot of places to wander in a Shatterdome. The base was eerie at night, with few people awake and many of the overhead lights dimmed or off altogether. Cayde liked it. It had character.He tried most of the doors he passed, testing which ones did and didn't open to a flash of his security fob. Lots of ‘No Cayde’ zones, not unexpected given his recent arrival. Of course a few electronic locks wouldn't keep him out if he wanted in, but he planned to behave. For now. For Ikora. And maybe because he wanted to get on Zavala's good side. Maybe.There were janitorial frames out and about, cleaning up after the messes of humanity. Cayde pushed their simple conversational skills to their limits, assured them all they were doing a fine job, helped one find her broom, and moved along.Around three in the morning he got dragged into a few rounds of cards with a trio of security guards. No money exchanged, but Cayde did win some extra desserts. It was as good a currency as any.Then he found the Crypt. He spent the rest of the night there.The hallways started filling up again after six. All in all, a pretty productive night for him. As he sauntered back to his room to prepare for the day, he was feeling more assured about actually having a place here. That maybe something good would come of this second chance.Feeling good was such a trap.“Get a load of the tin can, all dressed up like a real boy.”“Aw, it thinks it's people.”Years ago a wise Exo had tried to teach him the valuable lesson of ‘just walk away, Cayde’. It was a good lesson! One that would have saved him a lot of trouble if he'd actually, y’know, learned it. But finally, seven years after he last saw that sweet, sensible metal man, he thought he might finally have mastered the ultimate power move that was ‘just walk away, Cayde’.Instead of giving a couple of chuckling knuckleheads the time of day, he just… kept on walking. He let the words wash over him like car exhaust on the wind, carried away to pollute someone else's life. How proud his old companion would be to see him now. He, Cayde, a bastion of non-confrontation.Then a chunky meat hand slapped against his shoulder, bringing him to a screeching halt.“Hey Pinocchio. How about you get a broom, my room needs sweeping.”Okay. Fuck zen.“I'm sorry,” Cayde said, taking a large step back to get the man’s hand off of him. Eyeing him up, he mentally labelled the man ‘Chump Prime’. “Are you confusing me with a frame?”“There's a difference?” the other human—now dubbed Chump Magnus—said, making her companion laugh.“Oh yes!” Cayde said, sounding much more helpful than he felt. “You see, Exos are humans and frames aren't.” His hands chopped left and right in emphasis. “But I can see how such subtle differences might slip past a pair of your obvious intellect.”Oooh, scowls in stereo! He had to give them some credit for being smart enough to immediately parse that insult, though. He'd dealt with assholes who weren't.“You think you're real funny, huh?” Chump Prime said, stepping further into Cayde's personal space. Chump Magnus was close behind him.“Oh, I know I'm hilarious,” Cayde answered, as bright and cheery as a field full of flowers.Scowling, Chump Prime looked him up and down. “You're too shabby to be one of those rich old fucks who think they're too important to die like the rest of us.” For a second the pair looked sour enough Cayde thought they might actually spit on the floor. “So that makes you one of the poor pathetic fucks crawling the Wall.”“Can you imagine,” Chump Magnus said, “being so afraid of death you'd sell your body and soul just to pretend you're immortal.”“You Exos are the worst kind of snivelling cowards. You really think that shitty wall and a tin can body will save you? Hah! The Kaiju would be doing you all a favor ending your miserable little mockeries of lives.”“Cowards,” Cayde stated, voice flat and not at all playful anymore.The Chump Duo laughed at his sudden seriousness. “What, did we hit a nerve?”“More like flipped a breaker!”Cayde let the lights of his eyes dim. He knew the people on the Wall. He'd been one of them for over a decade. They were humans, people, same as everyone else. With hopes and dreams and families. And these assholes wanted to paint them all as cowards?
“Look, it's my little girl.”

The group of Exos huddles around a small fire. They don't need the heat. Chill doesn't affect their kind until it’s cold enough to make their fluids run sluggish. And they don't need the light. Even in the dead of night, the Wall is kept bright as day by masses of spotlights. When most of your workers don't sleep, it only makes sense to keep things running 24/7.
No, they don't need the light or the heat, but the part of them that reminds them they’re still human finds comfort in the ancient ritual of sitting together around a campfire.
Dutifully, the circle passes around a worn smartphone. There's a photo on it: a young girl in a party hat. Cake in front of her, children crowding into the frame on either side. A woman and a man behind her, each with a hand on one of her shoulders.

“She turned twelve today,” her father says, pride clear in his voice. The phone makes its way back to him. “Been five years since I seen her in person. Not since I got enough money together to move her n’ her mom off the coast.”

The circle nods in understanding, and the father continues, “Y’know, she remarried. My wife. Well, not my wife anymore. Didn't even need a divorce. Guess going Exo legally counts as a death to part you, if you can't afford to rent freezer space.”
Hunching over, the father rests his face in his hands. “I’m not even mad at her. Even when I get off this Wall, what do I have to offer anymore? I'm not the man she married. I'm hardly a man at all. Don't even have skin…” His neighbours in the ring both rest a hand on his shoulders. “It was all worth it, though. Just to put a few hundred more miles between my little girl and those monsters.”
Everyone is quiet for a long moment, just listening to the crackle of the fire, everyone idly feeding it twigs and bits of waste paper. Then another picks up the thread.

“The Wall isn't any place for a human,” she says. “Not a meat one. I tried it. Not even a month in and a falling beam crushed all the major organs below my ribs.”

The circle hisses in sympathy.

“I had two options: take C.B.’s Exo offer or have them tell my ma that her last remaining daughter died on the Wall. It wasn't much of a choice.” The daughter scrubs at her eyes, a reflex from a time she could cry tears. “I'm all she's got left. Dad died in one of the first attacks. The Wall took my older sister not long after construction started. Ma couldn't take it if she knew her other girl was working this death trap, but there aren't enough jobs to go around and the pay is good… So I just didn't tell her.”

The daughter takes a swig of cheap whiskey. Another old habit. They can't get drunk, but the burn of alcohol on the palate is pleasant. Reminds them they can still feel. She passes the bottle off. “She doesn't know I'm an Exo. I don't even know if she'd believe I'm still her daughter if she did.”

The silence again. The whiskey makes a round. Stops with the next speaker.

“I was… I was just afraid to die,” she says, voice small and soft. Her face is too smooth for her to be more than a few weeks into this body. “It was… I had leukemia. For years. But I was down to months. Weeks. I hurt so bad, but all the things I'd never get to do hurt more.”

The girl plays with the bottle in her hands, then takes a swig before passing it on. “I'm not old enough to drink, but nobody cares about those laws when you're a robot.” Her voice gives a little hitch of static, not a laugh, not a sob, and one of her neighbours lets her rest her head on their shoulder. “I wanted to go to college. I wanted to kiss a boy.”

It goes like that. Strangers sharing their common pain. Dividing the burden between them.

“Me?” Cayde says, when he's the only one left. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The lights in his eyes flicked back on. He'd been part of countless circles like that across hundreds of build sites. The details of the stories varied, but at their heart, around the globe, they were all the same. These assholes could say what they wanted about Cayde, but like hell was he going to let them belittle other Exos like that.“Hey, why don't you clench that puckered anus you call a mouth before it can spew any more shit about things you know nothing about.”Heh, that didn't go over well. Chump Prime got up in Cayde's face.“Listen here, you empty metal husk,” Chump Prime snapped, and Cayde leaned away to avoid a spray of spittle. “I'm a Guardian, and you're just a glorified piece of construction equipment. Which makes me worth ten- no, a hundred of you.”“You sure about that, champ?” Cayde said, voice smooth and dangerous. “Because that little badge sewed to your jackets? That tells me you've never actually been in a Jaeger. You're just recruits. Hopefuls.”Chump Prime flushed red, but Cayde forged on, refusing to give them time to speak. “I also know there are empty Jaegers on this base that you could be piloting. But you're not. Know what that means?” He leaned back towards Chump Prime. “Commander Forge doesn't think you're good enough.”“Fuck you!” Chump Magnus pushed past her pal to shove at Cayde. He danced out of range.“Meanwhile, me? I'm here for special training, from the Warlock Vanguard herself!” He spread his arms wide. “Guardian 2.0, baby. Better, faster, stronger, and here to pick up your slack.”“I've had enough outta you!”Cayde didn't dodge this time when Chump Magnus tried to push him. It had all the effect of shoving a brick wall, and the surprise of it made her back off. She left just enough room for Chump Prime to move in and grab a handful of Cayde's scarf. His fist was raised like he might throw a punch.Cayde's eyes narrowed. That was Andal’s scarf.“You really don't know anything about Exos do you?” Cayde said. Then he had his own grip on Chump Prime’s shirt and he used it to swing the man around and pin him against the wall. Just high enough to make his toes dangle in the air. “Funny thing about construction equipment is it's built to do the jobs humans are too weak for.”“Hey!” Chump Magnus shouted, tugging ineffectively at Cayde's arm.He ignored her, gaze fixed on Chump Prime’s wide eyes. “Alright, you said some very mean things about some very nice people. And then you rumpled my scarf. So why don't you apologize so I can let you down?”“Go fuck yourself, tin man!”“Wow, I'd love to, but see Clovis Bray decided I didn't actually need a-”“What is going on here?!”Oh. That was a new voice on the scene. A new voice that Cayde could easily match to a blue face. A very handsome and rugged blue face. Internally, he cringed. So much for making a better impression. Externally, he set Chump Prime back on his feet and turned to wave at Zavala, casual as could be. “Hey Commander Zee, what's up?”Cayde was never going to be personally gifted with any expression other than Zavala's Serious and Disapproving Face, was he? Which was a shame, because he probably had a beautiful smile.He played it cool as that piercing blue gaze shifted from person to person, refusing to feel guilty for reacting to the Chump Duo. The recruits, however, were at attention, saluting sharply, and Cayde could practically hear them sweating in their boots.“Mister Cybulski. Miz Bouliane.” Zavala finished surveying the scene and his eyes settled on the Exo in the middle. “Mister Reynolds.”“Cayde, actually,” he said, slipping in the correction.Zavala responded by frowning harder and raising a brow, clearly waiting for someone to provide him an explanation.Cayde supposed he could tell the truth. Or let the Double Chumps scramble to cover their asses. But nah. He was perfectly capable of handling himself without tattling on intolerant chucklefucks. Plus, they'd really hate it if they owed him one, and that would be hilarious.He slung his arms over each recruit’s shoulders, silently daring them to object violently right now. “Hey, me and my buds here were just having a friendly conversation about Exo capabilities. Cybulski here wanted a hands-on demonstration.”“Is that so,” Zavala said, voice flat.Whatever. Cayde didn't need the man to believe him. He clapped his ‘buds’ on the shoulders. “Anyway, I've got things to do, so I'll just see you all later! Ciao.”He gave Zavala a little mock salute, then resumed his initial quest to just walk away. When he was stopped by a strong hand gripping his forearm, Cayde was about ready to scream. Or punch someone. Instead, he went stiff and turned his head to meet Zavala's eyes. He gave a pointed glance down, then back up to luminescent blue. The Commander seemed to get his point, because he quickly released Cayde's arm.“Mister Reynolds,” Zavala started, making him bristle. “I have allowed you to stay on this base out of respect for Vanguard Rey. As you are her responsibility, please keep in mind that your behaviour reflects upon her. Additionally, if I ever decide that you are interfering with the regular operation of this Shatterdome, I will personally escort you to the door. Are we clear?”“As crystal, Big Blue,” Cayde said, jaw tense. “Also? It's Cayde.”He set off at a brisk pace, deeply disinterested in being further scolded like a child. Ugh, Zavala wasn't even born when the first Kaiju hit! Cayde was too damn old to be schooled by him.He was just rounding a corner when Zavala's voice rang out again, and he found himself slowing.“Wipe that smirk off your face, Miz Bouliane!”Well. At least he wasn't the only one getting a verbal spanking. In the adjoining corridor he settled his back against the wall for a listen.“You and Mister Cybulski are to report to Fightmaster Shaxx at 20:00 hours so he can give you an encore of his speech about how we are all one people united against a common foe.” Zavala's voice dropped lower, and Cayde strained to hear. “And let me make one thing clear: if I ever hear that you have been engaging in bigoted behaviour, on or off this base, you will be ejected from the Jaeger Service faster than you can say ‘tin man’.”It was so very tempting to peek around the corner and get a look at the recruits’ faces as they shouted “sir, yes, sir!”, but Cayde decided that'd be pushing his luck. Probably bad for the Commander to catch him snooping.Shoving his hands in his pockets, he continued on his way, voice rising in a beautifully simulated whistle.  “You're in high spirits this morning,” Ikora said as Cayde strolled up to her. She had already set out both their little yoga mat things and was kneeling in her characteristic pose of meditation.“It's only because I have such a fine view,” Cayde said. The little balcony faced the ocean, which was nice because he knew the other direction faced the endless eyesore of the Wall. He and Ikora were alone at the moment, but a bench and a couple picnic tables scattered around marked it as a public space. He turned his attention to Ikora, settling on the mat in front of her in a lazy sprawl. “The water ain't half bad either.”Ikora’s mouth twitched with a suppressed smile and Cayde awarded himself a point. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Cayde.”“Oh, I dunno about that,” he said. “It got me one of those cute little smiles of yours, didn't it?”There it is, a proper small smile, unsuppressed. Two points. Ikora’s eyes slid open, and she glanced down at the handheld stationed on the mat near her knee. She gave a small shake of her head. “How is it that you can have an entire night to prepare and still manage to arrive almost ten minutes late?”“It's a skill,” Cayde says. “Not everyone can master the art of being fashionably late.”Ikora rolled her eyes, but her smile grew. Three points! She lifted her arms, holding them out to him with her wrists facing up. “Come on then, let's get started.”Performing his best dramatic sigh, Cayde reached out to carefully clasp each slim wrist, his thumbs settling over Ikora’s pulse points.“We're seriously still on this meditation thing?” he asked, his pout going unseen as his companion closed her eyes again.“Yes. Every day at seven o’clock sharp.” Her expression was even, relaxed and neutral despite Cayde's groans of protest. “A routine will do you good. Now hush.”He couldn't resist a final sigh, this one drawn out far longer than one made with lungs could be. Then Cayde shut off his visual input and focused on Ikora. They'd only been able to try this a couple of times on the trip to Hong Kong, but he was already finding it easier to settle.Ikora breathed, slow and steady. In, hold, out, hold, in… Cayde couldn't match her breathing. He was missing the appropriate organs. But he could feel the pace of her heartbeat beneath the pads of his thumbs, and if he concentrated he could make out the rhythm of the mysterious mechanism buried somewhere in his chest that he'd taken to calling his ‘ticker’.It could very well be intended to replicate a heartbeat, Ikora had told him when he'd mentioned it during a quick overnight stop at a motel. Perhaps to ease the dysphoria of being in a mechanical body. Or to help simulate certain emotions, such as a fear response. Or the feeling of being suddenly and aggressively attracted to someone, apparently, given the way it had stuttered when he met Zavala the other day.Honestly, it didn't really matter what it was there for. What mattered was that as Ikora slowed her pulse, Cayde could—with enough concentration—get the soft ticking in his chest to sync up with her heartbeat.“Don't try to clear your mind,” Ikora said, her voice a soothing murmur, quiet enough to barely register in Cayde's conscious hearing. “Instead, think of your mind as a river. Your thoughts are fish in the current. You can notice them, glance at them, but you can't catch them, hold them. They flow away with the river and others take their place. They are transient.”A thought, one he'd had before, when they first tried this: coming from anyone else, this would probably sound ridiculous. But somehow Ikora made it work. He let that thought go.Another: Ikora probably had a really nice singing voice. But he didn't pause to imagine it. The thought flowed away.And: honestly, she could probably make a killing on one of those phone-sex hotlines- No, nope, stopping that thought right there. Flow along little fishie.—Zavala probably could too, with that rumbly voice of his—“Dammit,” Cayde muttered, his focused lack-of-focus broken.“Don't judge your thoughts either,” Ikora said, a hint of amusement in her voice. Four points?She walked him through the first part of their meditation again, and Cayde did his best to keep his focus on Ikora and his ticker, and let his constant stream of thoughts just churn away in the background.“Now,” Ikora said, her voice curling through his thoughts like dark smoke. “Without actually moving, visualize spreading your fingers…”  
“This may come as a surprise,” Ikora says, eyes fixed on the road ahead. “But you're actually very good at Drifting.”

Cayde is busy watching the Wall slowly fade away into the distance in the side-view mirror, but he has to take a break just to give Ikora an incredulous look. “I never lasted more than ten minutes in a combat simulation before falling out of alignment.”

“Yes, but you also never failed to initiate your side of a neural handshake.”

Metal lips part and yellow lights flash in his throat without accompanying words. He squints at Ikora. Finally, he crosses his arms, leans back as far as his seat will go, and props a boot on the dashboard. “Okay, so what?”

“Most neural handshakes, if they fail, do so at the beginning, for two major reasons: the modesty reflex-”
“Heh,” Cayde says, more to himself than Ikora. “Like I care if somebody likes to be spanked or they stole a bike when they were twelve.”
“-Or because they can't resist chasing R.A.B.I.T.s,” Ikora continues. “I've reviewed all your simulator logs, and you had neither of those issues. Uncharacteristically, your Drifts only failed when you began to move.”

“I mean, yeah,” Cayde says. “I coulda told you that. But that doesn't explain why.”

“My guess—and I assure you, this is a very well-educated guess—is that you're simply too impulsive.”

Cayde spreads one of his hands in a silent ‘what the hell?’ He's actually going to wait for her to clarify before providing witty commentary.

“You act before you think,” Ikora says.

“Um, I thought that was a good thing? Y’know combat reflexes and stuff?”

“As a single fighter, yes, it can be an asset. But that level of impulsiveness is antithetical to a nascent Drift.”

“Try that again, but with fewer syllables.”

Ikora is silent for a moment, presumably translating what she wants to say from Serious Academic to Layman. Her fingers strum once against the steering wheel.

“An experienced pair of pilots share a mental vocabulary. They can intuit and anticipate their partner at the speed of thought. At that level of synchronization, reflex works. But between inexperienced recruits…”
“I know all this,” Cayde says, a hint of frustration escaping him. “That's why they get recruits to talk out what they're doing. So they can learn how their buddy thinks. I did that.”“You tried that,” Ikora corrects. “But your movements always started before you yourself registered what you were doing, and there was a further delay between realizing what you were doing and informing your partner. By the time your Drift partner started to focus on your first action, you'd already moved onto the next. Within a single movement, you would fall out of sync, and the resulting strain and confusion would only push your minds further out of alignment until the neural handshake broke apart.”
Cayde stares blankly at the road ahead, looking but not seeing as he processes Ikora’s explanation. He mumbles, “... I always got these nasty migraines after Drifting.”

Ikora nods as if she expected as much. “When a pair of minds aren't working in concert, the neural load becomes unbalanced. And the brunt of it falls on the person trying to move ahead.”

“So, what, I just needed to slow down? Learn to focus better? Simple as that?”

“Simple isn't always easy,” Ikora says.

“Yeah, but it's doable, right? You wouldn't be here if you didn't think I was fixable.”

“Yes,” Ikora says, hesitation creeping into her tone. “I've drafted a training regimen that should teach you-”

“Does it involve throwing me at a parade of different recruits and hoping one of them sticks?” Cayde sounds calm. Which is funny, because he feels a lot like he just fell headlong into a frozen lake. “Until you run out of new recruits to try?”

“... No,” Ikora says, voice soft.

Cayde slowly curls in on himself, feet dropping back to the floor as he leans far enough forward to rest his head on the dashboard. He covers his metal scalp with gloved hands. “Nobody ever told me.”
If they'd told him he could have fixed it. He could've been a proper Jaeger pilot. He could have been Andal’s co-pilot, and then maybe Andal would still be-
“Your case is… somewhat unique,” Ikora says, laying out each word carefully like she's treading on the same thin ice Cayde had just crashed through. “They may not have realized…”
“You realized,” Cayde says, arms wrapping over his head.
“Well,” Ikora says, then trails off. Seconds tick by slowly. Cayde can count them by the rapid ticking in his chest. Finally, “I suppose I was actually looking.”

Cayde laughs, even though it isn't the least bit funny.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Casualty Report [Mission Code] [Date Code]

Injured
Deceased
Destroyed

Abram, Micah
Fairwind, Tallulah
Amber Hoplite

Bast, Enoch
Gunnvor, Dawn
August Seraph

Bray, Anastasia
Gwan, Wei Ning
Barrier Ethos

Caliban, Santiago
Kabr, Gabriel
Double Banshee

Ren, Marcus
Larsen, Tevis
Fortuna Burn

Tres-Gwan, Eriana
Lewis, Mark
Jester Apogee

Ruiz, Pahanin
Lion Dancer

Shinobu, Himura
Lunar Elegy

Vai, Therin
Midnight Lumos

Tidal Hope

Casualties of the Great Disaster
Jaeger Service: Casualty Reports
Iron Temple Memorial Archives

Year 29 - Two Months to Doomsday
 Zavala had been doing a good job of avoiding uncomfortable conversations with Ikora since she’d returned to the Shatterdome. Between training Cayde and catching up on research, Ikora had little free time with which to seek him out, and being Base Commander granted Zavala certain privileges that allowed him to keep his schedule busy on the few occasions that hers was not. Though he did try to take meals with her when possible; he truly had missed Ikora and her presence was still a palpable relief. He also trusted her not to bring up private matters in the very public venue that was the mess hall.One person he couldn't seem to stop running into, however, was Cayde Reynolds. The Exo kept stumbling into his life, in one way or another, despite Zavala's personal interest in avoiding him.The suspicious altercation he'd chanced upon during Cayde's first day of training had only been the beginning. The second day had been disarmingly Cayde-free, beyond a request from Ikora for a Drift technician to help modify a simulator cradle for Exo use. After that, Zavala would not be so lucky.  
Day Three
“Mister Reynolds!”Cayde paused in his stroll down the hall, only bothering to turn halfway around to look back at Zavala. He didn't bother to straighten from his slouch or remove his hands from his pockets. “Seriously, it's Cayde.”“We are not,” Zavala said firmly, “on a first name basis.”“Right. Yeah. Except that's my name?”Zavala frowned and reminded himself that he'd tracked Cayde down for a purpose, not to debate the propriety of using given names. Best to get this business over with quickly so he could continue his day free of insubordinate Exos. “I have received reports from the staff of the active hangar that you have been spending your free time in... places intended to be inaccessible.”“You mean me literally climbing up the walls, right?”Traveler, give him strength. “... Yes.” Slightly unbalanced by the casual admission, Zavala coughed into a fist before continuing. “In addition to distracting my staff and making them feel… uncomfortable, such behaviour is in direct violation of Shatterdome safety regulations.”Yes, he was back on track now. Shoulders squaring, he settled into full lecture tone: “Now, you may be under the impression that these safety regulations were written for hum- hrm, flesh-and-blood humans, but I assure you that they apply fully to every person on this base, including yourself and any other Exo that might visit.”Cayde turned around to face him fully, gaze focused on his face. Some respect, finally?“I will let this particular infraction slide—” Because Ikora would be furious if he ejected her student after only three days. “—because you are a newcomer, but in the future I expect you to be well-versed in all Shatterdome safety regulations and to abide by them. To the letter. Ignorance of the rules is not an option. Are we clear?”Silence. Cayde was still staring him straight in the eyes, but gave no indication that he'd actually heard a word Zavala had said. The Commander’s brow furrowed, stern expression sinking into a frown.“Are you even listening?” he said, impatience sharpening his tone.The Exo didn't jolt in surprise, but something in his focus changed, a quick flux in the diameter of those bright blue lenses. Zavala had a sudden sense that he was, now, the center of the Exo’s complete attention, which only emphasized that Cayde hadn't been paying attention before. Had he just been… looking?Zavala opened his mouth to demand an explanation.“You have beautiful eyes.”“Did you hear-” The gears in Zavala’s head ground to a screeching halt and he was left gaping. What had Cayde just said?For a split second, the Exo's eyes went wide, as if surprised by his own words. Then he wasted no time in taking advantage of Zavala's stunned paralysis. Slapping the Commander on the shoulder as he brushed past him, Cayde said, “Stay within 15 feet of the ground at all times, got it.”It was a long moment before Zavala finally shook his head and spun around to continue his lecture. “That is not what I-”There was no sign of Cayde in the hallway. With a sigh of frustration, Zavala pressed a thumb against his temple, rubbing it in small circles. He couldn't let himself be so easily manipulated. He considered pursuing Cayde to drill into him the importance of respect for the chain of command, but decided against it. That sounded like more trouble than it was worth, and he had better things to do.Like convince himself that the heat warming his ears and cheeks was only from irritation.  
Day Four
 Zavala would be impressed by Cayde's ability to be a distraction without even trying if he weren't so damn frustrated by it.As Base Commander, he didn't have time to train every day, but he made sure to visit the gymnasium several times a week. There he let Shaxx work him to his limits alongside the rest of his Guardians. It encouraged respect and camaraderie to remind his charges that he had been one of them once and didn't consider himself too good to sweat side-by-side with them still.Usually, he greatly enjoyed his exercise breaks. Today, Cayde had also found his way to the gymnasium. And he wasn't doing anything. The Exo had simply strolled in, wearing his usual attire rather than anything suited for exercise, and settled onto one of the benches that lined the walls. He'd proceeded to spend the following half hour just… watching.It wasn't that the Exo was watching Zavala in particular. In fact, every time he glanced at Cayde the man's attention had switched to someone new: the joggers, the group practising various martial arts forms, that pair locked in a pushup contest while Shaxx egged them on… He hardly seemed to notice Zavala at all.And yet he couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on him as he pushed through his personalized routine, and the sensation was steadily unravelling his focus. Finally, he'd had enough.Grabbing his towel, Zavala swiped it over his face and neck before slinging it over his shoulder. Then, with quick, purposeful strides, he stationed himself firmly between Cayde and the rest of the gym. The Exo looked up at him, eyes wide and far too innocent for the man they were attached to.Zavala’s own eyes narrowed.“Commander!” Cayde greeted, sounding surprisingly pleased to see him. “What's up?”“Are you here for a reason?” Zavala asked, with a bit more bite than necessary given that the Exo had yet to actually do anything wrong.“Who, me?” Cayde said. He gave a shrug of his shoulders and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall. “I'm just enjoying the view.”“Have you considered actually participating, rather than just spectating?”One of the Exo's eyes unshuttered fully while the other remained partially covered in a decent approximation of a raised brow.“Sure I considered it,” Cayde said. “But then I remembered I'm a robot and can't actually get stronger or faster by working out. Plus I'm basically superhuman and don't need to breathe, so I didn't want to show anybody up.”The look Cayde gave him to punctuate his explanation was full of challenge, a silent ‘so why are you bothering me about it?’ Or was Zavala just reading rebellion into all of the Exo's expressions as a result of their earlier encounters? He still found the man's features largely inscrutable.Though now Cayde's face was shifting from ‘possibly defiant’ to ‘almost certainly questioning’, and Zavala realized he'd been staring silently long enough for it to become awkward. He cleared his throat to stall. He'd never been quick with his words, but his tendency to become tongue-tied around Cayde was getting out of hand.He was saved from having to actually say something by a shadow falling over them both. A familiar voice boomed out, “Fitness is about more than strength of the body, it's also about sharpening your mind.”Cayde leaned to one side to get a better look at the giant looming behind Zavala. The Commander turned to greet his old friend with a nod. “Shaxx.”The Fightmaster gave Zavala a cursory nod in return, but seemed more interested in Cayde. “You are Ikora’s student, are you not?”“Well…” Cayde was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.”“Ah, there's a woman after my own heart!” Shaxx planted his hands on his hips and stared off into memory. “For someone who spent most of her career in the Service with her nose buried in books, Ikora was a true force of nature in the Crucible.”The fondness in Shaxx’s voice was heavy enough to make Zavala's lips twitch with amusement. If Ikora had been a fighting Guardian when Shaxx was first looking for a partner, she might have been his copilot for Noble Constant rather than Zavala.Coming back to the present, Shaxx resumed his appraisal of Cayde. “Remind her to come visit. I won't have her slacking on my watch!”“Will do,” Cayde said, sounding as amused as Zavala felt. If nothing else, they apparently had a fondness for Ikora in common.For some reason that thought left him feeling unsettled.“Now get off that bench and meet me on the mats!” Shaxx jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I want to see how peak human physical performance matches up to a pinnacle of human engineering.”Cayde let out a heavy sigh. “Well, if you insist.”Slowly rising from the bench, Cayde stretched. Was that as much for show as his sighs, or did he actually need to limber up? Perhaps Zavala would ask Amanda for more information on Exo anatomy later.Moving past Shaxx, Cayde flung his arms wide and shouted, “Alright, who wants to play ‘Try to Best the Robot’!”Zavala's expression sank again. The man hardly needed more hot air to inflate his ego when he inevitably outperformed Guardians. Shaxx seemed unconcerned, however, rubbing his chin consideringly. There was a fierce glint in his eyes when he glanced at Zavala.“We'll see how he measures up to those old Academy scores.”“You see how he measures up,” Zavala said, patting his friend on the arm. “I have better ways to spend my time than watching him show off.”He felt Shaxx’s stare on his back as he headed for the showers.  
Day Five
 Sometimes it felt as though Cayde was following him. Even when they didn't interact, Zavala still caught sight of the Exo at various times throughout a day: glimpses in the halls, flashes of his coat in the hangar, snatches of his voice rising over the din of the mess hall…After a while, Zavala had to wonder if he was the one accidentally following Cayde. Certainly, there were many times Cayde was already occupying a location well before Zavala showed up. For example, it seemed unlikely that the Exo had contrived to meditate with Ikora in this particular location on the off-chance the Commander would visit it. Ikora on the other hand-Zavala halted in the entryway to the lunch patio as he spotted them: Ikora kneeling primly on her meditation mat, Cayde sprawled out in a way that would seem lazy if he weren't so incredibly still. Zavala couldn't recall having ever seen Cayde truly stop moving since the moment they’d met, always gesticulating or shifting his weight or tapping his fingers or feet or glancing about restlessly. But here he was, the lights of his eyes dark and his hands completely steady where they gripped Ikora's wrists.It was an odd sort of meditation. But then, Exos didn't breathe, did they? So Ikora's usual instruction wouldn't apply. Even so, the scene was familiar enough to spark an ache in him.
Ikora kneeling before them, eyes closed, breaths steady. Zavala mirroring her pose, matching her breathing. Andal to his left, legs crossed comfortably, hands on his thighs.

Zavala's eyes slide shut, but he can still feel his companions, as close to them as they ever get without a Pons to bridge them. Only the sound of breathing fills the room, six lungs sharing a single breath.
“Zavala.”He jolted slightly, once again pulled from a plunge into memory. Zavala rubbed a hand over his eyes then met Ikora's gaze. He glanced away the moment he spotted the hint of concern there.“Would you like to join us?” she asked, and, at the reminder that they weren't alone, Zavala's attention flicked to Cayde.The Exo stared back, eyes aglow with brilliant blue light.
You have beautiful eyes.
Zavala shifted uncomfortably and looked back to Ikora. The offer was… tempting. Very tempting. It had been far too long since they'd sat in meditation together, breathing as one, letting each other's emotions flow in and out with each inhale and exhale.His lips parted slightly, and he was unsure if he was about to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.Then, “Yeah, you look like you could use a little relaxation, Big Z. You're gonna pop a vein.”Jaw clenching slightly, Zavala made his decision. “Perhaps another time.”He ignored the prickle of Ikora's disappointment as he left. Spending time around Cayde hardly promised to be relaxing, after all.Behind him he heard, “Was it something I said?”  
Day Six
 “Hey Commander, over here!”Hearing Amanda's cheerful voice always brightened Zavala's day. Their lunch breaks didn't always line up—both of them were prone to taking lunch in their respective workplaces when busy—but it was a pleasure when they did.He was already setting his tray of gaifan, dumplings, and chocolate custard down next to her before he noticed her other dinner companion. But there, across the table from the pair of them, was Cayde. Of course.“Zavala,” Amanda said, “Cayde was sharing stories from his Academy days. How come you never tell me what you got up to in the Academy?”Clearing his throat slightly, Zavala decided to shove a mouthful of rice into his face rather than answer. Amanda punched his shoulder and laughed, before turning her attention back to Cayde. “Okay, so you were at the part where you got totally smashed.”Cayde's eyes flicked back and forth between Amanda and Zavala, as if unsure whether or not to continue his story in current company. Zavala wasn't going to stop him, not when Amanda seemed so entertained. So he gave a slight nod and continued to concentrate on his food.“... Right,” Cayde said after a final pause. “Okay, so I've got this absolutely pounding headache, worst hangover I ever had, and they call me up to run in the simulator...”Amanda's expression was enchanted as Cayde spun his tale. Zavala did his best to tune it out.“-they get the Pons system running and boom! Contagious hangover!”A glint of silver caught Zavala's attention, and he glanced up to see Cayde raise a spoonful of jello to his mouth, not pausing in his storytelling as he shoved it in. Zavala stopped mid-bite, staring.“-poor guy upchucks all over the inside of his drive helmet! Practically swimming in half-digested cereal-”Amanda gasped in horror and delight. “No!”Zavala remained frozen as he watched the now empty spoon lower back down… to Cayde's tray of five separate bowls of jello. What.“-Okay, what is it this time?”It took a moment of silence for Zavala to realize that Cayde was addressing him, and he looked up from the jello to meet those glowing blue lights, the Exo's expression as unreadable as ever. He finally set down his chopsticks. “Pardon?”“You've got that-” Cayde waved his spoon vaguely at his own face. “-that look on your face.”Straightening slightly, Zavala's brow furrowed. “What look?”“Your ‘I Disapprove of Cayde’ look!”“I have no such thing,” he said, disbelief colouring his tone.“You do!” Cayde waggled his spoon accusingly. “There's this look you get, just around me, right before you get on my case about something. So what is it this time?”Zavala opened his mouth to reply, only to find himself tongue-tied by the strange accusation. He didn't have a look for Cayde!Cayde filled the silence with his own words. “If it's about the hangover story you got nothing to worry ‘bout, Exos can't get drunk.”“No, I-” What? He'd hardly been paying attention to the story! Not that he approved of drunken Academy shenanigans anymore, but it would be hypocritical of him to judge given some of the… antics he had gotten up to when he was a young and foolish cadet. He glanced at Amanda for assistance, but she was shoveling rice into her mouth with the avid interest of a movie-goer consuming popcorn.“No? Then what's with the staring?”Ah. He had been staring, he could admit that. “I apologize, I just… did not realize Exos needed to eat.”Cayde eyed him, taking a moment to stuff another spoonful of jello into his mouth. There was a hint of wariness in his voice when he spoke, “I mean, we don't need to. But I won these desserts fair and square, so… Hey! There it is! That look! You never give anybody else that look!”“I am not giving you-” Zavala sighed and ran a hand down his face. Perhaps his brow was a bit furrowed, his lips more downturned than usual.“What are you judging me for this time?”“I am not judging you,” he said firmly. Then he frowned down at the tray full of jello. “Though it does seem a bit… wasteful, if you don't need it…”“Oh, I'm sorry!” Cayde shouted, throwing his hands in the air. Zavala was suddenly very aware that the mess hall had quieted significantly, and many of its occupants had turned to watch the spectacle the Exo was making. “Am I depriving humans of their daily dose of agar, artificial sweetener, and Blue-dye-number-Two?”“Mister Reynolds, please-” Zavala said, gesturing at the man to lower his tone.Cayde's response was to press the heels of his palms against his temples and let out a wordless shout of frustration. Shoving to his feet, he added, “I give up!” Then he spun on his heel and stormed away.“Cayde!” Amanda called after him, but he showed no sign of hearing her. She turned a startled look on Zavala. “What was that?”Zavala was just as surprised by the outburst, as she was. “I- I am unsure. He overreacted-”“No, not Cayde,” Amanda said, cutting him off. “What was with you?”“Me?” Well, if he was confused before, he was utterly lost now. And base staff and Guardians were still watching. They turned back to their meals quickly when he shot them a stern look.“Yeah, you!” Amanda propped her cheek on one fist. “I ain't seen that look you were giving him since I was fifteen and you caught me trying cigarettes.”“I wasn't giving him a look,” Zavala protested, but the doubt crept in. Amanda had always been—sometimes brutally—honest with him. “Was I?”Amanda only nodded emphatically and he sighed.“So what's your beef with Cayde?” she asked. “I mean, unless you really were judging his jello.”“No, I wasn't… judging his jello,” Zavala said, and he couldn't believe that was a sentence he actually had to utter. “And I don't have a ‘beef’ with him either.”The skepticism on Amanda's face was sharp enough to cut glass. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I must admit I am… concerned about his rather colorful past. I'm not sure he fits here. But I trust Ikora's judgement on such matters, regardless of my own misgivings.”Amanda didn't appear satisfied with his explanation, her mouth quirked in a flat look.Zavala sighed. “You like him?”“What's not to like?” Amanda said, crossing her arms.“He's disrespectful. Irresponsible. He refuses to take things seriously.” He could go on.“Ever consider that maybe you take things too seriously?”Zavala favoured his friend with an affronted look. “We are in a war to protect our entire species from extinction. It doesn't get more serious than that.”Amanda rolled her eyes and reached over to drag Cayde's abandoned desserts towards her. “You know what Cayde does take seriously, Commander? Me.” She picked at the jello. “He was impressed when I told him I was one of the head mechanics here. Not disbelieving, no ‘but Amanda, you're too young!’ No ‘but you're a girl’. He just accepted it and said I must be a real whiz with machines to get so good so fast.”Not sure what to say, Zavala remained silent. He knew how difficult it had been for Amanda to win the respect of her colleagues. He'd been a shoulder to cry on more than once when the stress of it overwhelmed her.“So yeah, there are things Cayde takes seriously.” She paused to eat a spoonful of jello. “He just don't always treat them serious. He teases, he jokes, he shares crazy stories. He makes me laugh. And when things are at their worst, sometimes a good laugh is what keeps you going.”Reaching out, Amanda pinched Zavala's cheek. “Maybe you should try it sometime!” Her wry grin quickly sank into a frown. “I worry about you, y’know? That you're gonna work yourself to death one of these days.”“I'm fine, Amanda,” Zavala said, working up a small smile for her. Which… he supposed he hadn't been doing much of lately. But the current circumstances hardly merited much cheer.“Uh-huh.” Still skeptical. “Well, you know what they say about all work and no play. So maybe you should stop judging and start talking to Cayde. He could teach you a few things about lightening up for once!”Zavala just hummed consideringly and changed the subject. “How is your latest project going anyway?”The distraction was blatant, but when it came to Amanda and her machines it worked every time.  
Day Seven
 Zavala found Cayde in the active hangar, watching the repair crews try to piece Boreal Defiant back together. The Exo was perched atop a stack of crates, boots dangling several feet above Zavala’s head. He wondered if it was a consequence of working for so long on the Wall that Cayde had this apparent need to climb atop things rather than keep his two feet on the ground like everybody else.Stationing himself in front of the crates and just to the right of Cayde's perch, Zavala joined him in watching the repairs while he waited to be acknowledged.It remained uncertain if the Jaeger could be salvaged. The damage was severe. Worse still was the damage done to its Guardians. Devrim Kaye lived, but would likely never step into a Jaeger again. Certainly not in the near future. As soon as he was stable they'd be sending him home to his husband. Physically, Suraya Hawthorne was nothing more than bruised, but it would be up to the Shatterdome psychologist to decide if she was fit for duty. Either way, it was another team out of commission that they could sorely afford to lose.Zavala’s jaw clenched with the familiar pain of being trapped on land while he sent his Guardians to face down death. If he could be out there with them again, if he could save even one brave soul… He forced his jaw to relax after his teeth began to creak, and guided himself through one of Ikora’s breathing exercises. Feeling more centered, he realized that Cayde had yet to react to his presence. Without turning his head, he did his best to look sidelong at the Exo before clearing his throat.No response. Raising a fist to his mouth, he repeated the sound with more volume. Success?“You need a lozenge down there? Or maybe a glass of water. Pretty sure one of your fine Guardians would leap at the chance to bring the Great Commander Zavala a refreshing cup of H2O.”Zavala could already feel his face pinching into a frown at the misuse of his given name, but keeping Amanda’s advice in mind, he let the annoyance slide. With a concentrated effort he schooled his expression back to neutrality. Absolutely no ‘I Disapprove of Cayde’ look here.“I don't need a drink,” he said, before pausing to organize his thoughts. Surprisingly, Cayde didn't take the chance to fill the gap with his own words. “We need to talk.”“Uh-huh,” Cayde said. Zavala could feel that charged blue gaze on him, but he kept his own eyes on the workers.Silence stretched between them, Zavala waiting for Cayde to say more, some humorous quip or other flippant insubordination. But the Exo remained quiet and Zavala found himself strangely unnerved by it, for all that he thought himself bothered by the man’s usual loud mouth. Had the incident in the mess hall really upset Cayde enough to make him hold his metaphorical tongue around the Commander?
I give up!
Zavala still didn’t understand what it was about that particular incident that had bothered Cayde so, but he felt a sting of guilt all the same. Perhaps he had been a bit more… abrasive with the man than intended. Something about him just seemed to rub Zavala the wrong way. Bring out his, if Amanda was to be believed, judgemental side, for reasons he couldn’t fully explain.(Or reasons he could explain, but refused to examine more closely.)But Amanda liked Cayde. And Ikora liked Cayde. And… and Andal had liked Cayde. And Zavala cared for all of them, so he supposed he owed it to them all to at least try to be on civil terms with the Exo, regardless of how much he grated the Commander’s nerves.It was… difficult, Zavala found, to reconcile the Cayde Reynolds he had imagined, based on the Academy cautionary tales, with the Cayde of Andal’s memories, and to match both of those to the man before him now. Equally difficult to reconcile the rare memories of a wild young man who’d brightened Andal’s Academy days with the glimpses of the sad, sardonic Exo that Andal had maintained a friendship with during his Vanguard days. Of course, there were threads that connected them all: the dry humour, the propensity for gesticulation, a tendency to boast...But was the boastfulness truly a matter of ego, as Zavala had assumed of the man who dared to think he could pilot a Jaeger solo? As he’d been assuming of Cayde in all their interactions since Ikora had revealed his identity? Or was it-
Cayde brushing messy brown hair from his eyes. Chewing on his thumbnail. Twisting the plain golden band encircling his ring finger. Knee bouncing a mile a minute.

“Everything alright, Spades?” Zavala feels his mouth ask in Andal’s voice.

Dark, soulful eyes meeting his own, the emotions there deep enough for him to drown in. But Cayde smiles bright all the same, says something flippant, something funny, something self-aggrandizing. It’s a well-built mask, but they’ve been in each other’s heads too many times—even if briefly—for it to be anything but transparent to him.
Zavala pushed the memory aside. It wasn’t his place to dive into the ghost of Andal’s past for a better understanding of the man’s old friend.“I believe,” he finally began, before he could dwell too deeply on Andal, “that we started off on the wrong foot.”A bark of laughter from Cayde, and a sarcastic, “You think?” Then, before Zavala could begin to bristle, “Wait, no, I don’t-” His voice was edged with frustration, and yet so strangely soft that Zavala couldn’t help but look up at him. The Exo wasn’t watching him anymore, staring instead at some unremarkable patch of the floor, unfocused. “Look, I’m- I mean-”Cayde was actually struggling for words and it was almost as unsettling as his earlier silence. The Exo’s eyes flickered off for a moment, and his chest heaved as though taking a deep breath, though no sound of inhalation accompanied it. “Right. So, sometimes—a lot of times—I say things without actually, y’know, thinking about them ahead of time. And sometimes—a lot of times—that means what comes out of my mouth is, well, dumb. Or rude. Or both. Lots of both.”A pause while Cayde fidgeted, kicking his feet in the air, tugging at cuffs of his jacket with gloved hands. There were no rings visible on any of his fingers.“I shouldn’t have- when we met, I shouldn’t have called you that. Y’know. ‘Baby Blue’. That was- it was a dick move. So, I, uh. I don’t blame you. If you got a bad impression of me. My bad.”Zavala could feel the corner of his mouth twitching and, for perhaps the first time around Cayde, it wasn’t twitching downward. “Was that supposed to be an apology?”Cayde threw his hands in the air. “Yes, it was supposed to be an apology! I’m bad at apologies, okay! Sorry! So sue m- oh. You’re laughing.”The chuckle cut off the moment Zavala realized that he was, in fact, laughing softly. He raised a hand to rub at his mouth as if to physically wipe away the hint of a smile that was curving his lips. Glancing up at Cayde, he found himself startled by the sheer intensity the Exo was watching him with, the light of the man’s mouth flickering despite his silence in an expression Zavala didn’t know how to read. Warmth flooded the Commander’s cheeks and he looked away, clearing his throat.Not wanting to explain his bout of amusement, to Cayde or himself, Zavala instead said, “Apology accepted. And I would like to extend my own apology. I have not been the most welcoming host.”One of Cayde’s shoulders rose in a half-shrug. “It’s cool, Big Guy. I know I can be a li’l shit, ‘specially towards authority figures. Not even fear of Ikora is gonna keep me completely on the straight and narrow.”This time when Zavala’s mouth twitched, it was neither up nor down, but into a flat bemused line. “Be that as it may, I would appreciate it if you would address me appropriately, as Commander Forge.”“Sure,” Cayde said, lifting one leg to brace a heel on the crate below him and resting an elbow on his raised knee. “And I would appreciate it if you would appreciate that that’s not gonna happen until you start addressin’ me as Cayde.”Zavala’s nostrils flared slightly with an annoyed huff, suppressing his instinct to read the situation as simple insubordination. “Why.”“Because it’s my name,” Cayde snapped, even as his metal ‘lips’ ground together like gritted teeth.“And Reynolds isn’t?”“Exactly!”Well that- Huh. Zavala blinked rapidly, but before he could question that particular revelation, Cayde added, “Cayde-6 works too, I guess. If you gotta be all formal about it.”Cayde… Six?“This is…” Zavala started slowly, turning the question over in his head. “...an Exo thing?”Cayde’s shoulders slumped in what Zavala was fairly certain was relief. “Yeah. It is. Sort of. It’s a me-thing, anyway, so just-” Another one of those half-shrugs. “Respect is a two-way street, right? So if you wanna be Commander Forge…”“Fine,” Zavala finally conceded, then nodded his head at the Exo. “Cayde-6.”The expression on Cayde’s face, Zavala was certain, was a smile.