#yukikaze

So, this AU takes place over a longer period of time than the original Pacific Rim timeline (which is like. 3 days ajfhglakshgdfjf) for REASONS that are unrelated to this. So, after Newt first drifts with the damaged kaiju brain and the kaiju fail to capture him, the JAM give it a shot and succeed. They then clone Newt and send him back to the Shatterdome ("then how do they find out the rest of the information about the Breach and the kaiju's plan question?" that's another story but I have ideas for it that I won't share here because this is gonna turn out long enough as it is) to, well, gather information and sabotage the humans trying to save multiple versions of Earth at once (more on that in another post I need to publish).

However, this plan backfires when Ransom- fresh from his Perelandra experience where he had to deal with an uncanny valley situation where someone he knew was possessed- notices Newt acting weird and brings it up to the others in the Science Team (besides Newt this includes Grace and Herman and sometimes Rocky). Herman says Newt is just weird, and Grace doesn't know Newt well enough to really comment so they're at an impasse. But then Ransom mentions it to Rei and Rei, who is far too used to dealing with the JAM and their shenanigans, immediately goes to check with Yukikaze (his sentient fighter plane, the only person capable of telling the JAM from ordinary humans). Yukikaze confirms Newt is a JAM copy so Rei just. walks into the science lab and shoots fake!Newt. This results in a lot of screaming and cursing and panicking from Grace and Herman while Ransom just mildly says to Rei, "You could have said something first" and Rei just shrugs, then calmly explains about the whole JAM making copies of people thing.

This leads to the Science Team realizing that Newt (if he's alive) has been captured by the JAM and they decide they have to rescue him. Rei warns them that the JAM only keep people alive if they need them for something, so Newt's probably dead, but the others are insistent. As the Science Team discusses how they might rescue Newt, Rei leaves without a word, as he is wont to do. When the team tracks him down later with their 12% of a plan they start trying to convince Rei to help them, because they assume that his non-reactive manner means that he doesn't care about this situation at all (Rei does in fact care about a lot of things but he's autistic and doesn't know how to show empathy, and no I did not make that up it's canon). Rei, actually, is actively prepping Yukikaze for this mission as they're talking to him and when they finally stop he just looks at them and goes, "I'll need you to work with Yukikaze calculate a course out of the JAM-space, otherwise they'll try and trap us there when we try to escape" and as one the others realize that he was planning to help them all along.

So, it doesn't actually make sense for them to do this but it is SO FUNNY and I think they're all oblivious enough in their own ways to go for it, so the whole Science Team decides to go with Rei and Yukikaze on this rescue mission. Rei's only protest is that they won't all fit in Yukikaze, so Grace pipes up that they can take the Hail Mary and he'll ask Rocky to come along in case the ship gets damaged. Rei does not try to dissuade them at all aghjlakghbsja;gskdf

(Grace goes to get Rocky who's working on his jaeger with help from Mako and Raleigh and Grace just furiously whispers at Rocky in his ball for about two minutes then Rocky turns to Mako and Raleigh and goes, "Rocky go with Grace to do science repair mission, bye friends" and Mako and Raleigh watch him go like, "he's leaving us to work on HIS jaeger, without him. okay." "at least we don't have to work on it alone. *smile*" "... good point")

So, Ransom, Grace, Herman, and Rocky in the Hail Mary follow Rei and Yukikaze to the JAM portal (let's assume that either Rocky or the eldila or possibly both have done SOMETHING to the Hail Mary to make it able to fly in the atmosphere without setting the sky on fire like they did above Adrian. there's already multiple portals and Earths smushed together this is not the weirdest thing happening in this AU) and fly into it. There is a LOT of arguing between Grace and Ransom about who should be flying the Hail Mary, "It's my spaceship I know how to fly it" "I really don't believe that you do" "Well have YOU ever flown a spaceship?" "Yes, actually!" "... oh." *Rocky laughing in the background* they end up co-piloting it while Rei attempts to navigate them.

They are, almost immediately, let into the JAM-space, which surprises everyone but Rei who tells them, "they want me and Yukikaze. They probably want the Hail Mary too." and everyone suddenly realizes what a MASSIVE risk they're taking but before they have a chance to contemplate that they appear to come out of the JAM-space and appear above the planet Fairy where the JAM are (allegedly) from. Rei warns them that it's an illusion and that everything they'll see/experience from now on is fabricated by the JAM.

They come upon a small human-looking facility which Rei informs them is full of JAM- and one real human biosign. The gang is excited.

(meanwhile inside the facility Newt hears the JAM-people saying that their plan to use him as bait worked and they have successfully lured Yukikaze and the Hail Mary into their trap)

Outside, Yukikaze and the Hail Mary are suddenly beset by JAM planes. Rei engages them and tells the others to land the Hail Mary at the facility. Grace panics, yelling that they can't land and Rei- now entirely occupied by JAM- snaps at him to figure it out.

Ransom suggests that Grace keep the ship hovering as close to the ground as possible and Grace is like "well the LAST time I tried something like that things went horribly wrong but okay" and Rocky adds, "Grace not good at flying" "whose side are you on anyway?!"

Ransom says he'll go down and look for Newt and Herman insists on coming with him. They debate on how to get out of the Hail Mary for a minute before Rocky appears with the solution, "I made ladder" "you had that this whole time?!" "yes. humans do not think things through. Rocky think things through, make solution."

They use the ladder to climb down and before heading into the building Rei tells them roughly where Newt is inside. As soon as they get in the facility though Ransom and Herman lose all contact with anyone outside. As the inside of the building turns into a maze, Herman laments that they'll never find Newt or their way out, but Ransom confidently starts leading them along, saying the eldila are leading them. Herman scoffs at the idea of the invisible beings and Ransom mentions that he didn't believe in giant monsters until he saw the kaiju either. Herman replies that he believes in the kaiju because he can see them, to which Ransom astutely replies, "well you cannot see an atom, can you? yet you believe those exist." which does shut Herman up for awhile. xD

Meanwhile, the Hail Mary is under attack. Their only advantage, seeing as they don't have weapons, is that the JAM don't really know much about how the Hail Mary works, and zenonite is bulletproof. This latter fact means that Rocky can and is throwing things at the JAM to stop them while they fire bullets uselessly at him. Grace is struggling to keep the ship steady though and trying not to panic as all sorts of warnings start flashing. The JAM have started avoiding Rocky and try to disable the Hail Mary's engines. Rocky rolls back in, and the midst of Grace panicking, tells him to turn the safety features off the engines. Grace suddenly remembers that the heat from the engines can fry anything and quickly turns them to maximum. This vaporizes the JAM but he can't do it again without risking blowing up the ship and it also yeeted them away from the facility so now he has to maneuver them back through the insane air battle that Rei and Yukikaze are engaged in.

Rei is genuinely the least stressed person here, except for maybe Ransom. He's leading the JAM on a merry chase and kind of enjoying himself, though he DOES wish that the others would HURRY UP already so they can get out of here because it is bringing back some unwanted memories. Mostly he's having fun absolutely obliterating the JAM in their own airspace tho.

Ransom and Herman FINALLY make it to where Newt's being held. Newt, understandably stressed, demands that they prove they're real humans. Herman starts to protest, but Ransom's like "no he's got a point" and, since they don't have much time, and the JAM can perfectly copy memories, there's really only one quick, foolproof way to tell if someone is a human or JAM without Yukikaze's help. So, Ransom cuts his arm and then Newt's in rapid succession. They both bleed normal, red blood (the JAM copies do not bleed, they ooze this weird brown wet-clay looking substance when shot/injured), which reassures everyone, though Newt does yell at him a bit for suddenly cutting him. xD The three of them hurry out of the room only to find a whole group of JAM-humans after them. Ransom shoots one and Herman manages to take another down with his cane but they're quickly overrun and cornered.

Lucky for them, Rei has taken out most of the JAM planes and is paying attention and sees that three humans are trapped by JAM inside the facility. Yukikaze hacks through to their radio frequency and Rei informs them, "if you can hear me, don't move" and then promptly goes on a freaking strafing run, with Yukikaze shooting through the top of the building and killing the JAM that have the little group pinned. The little rescue party runs for the exit and Rei tells Grace to get the Hail Mary as close to the building's doors as he can and Rocky to get the ladder ready, then starts shooting down the remaining JAM planes and the JAM-humans still trying to get at the Hail Mary.

The little gang of humans makes it out and starts scrambling up the ladder. the JAM redouble their efforts to shoot down the Hail Mary and Grace is forced to do some evasive maneuvers before everyone's inside but thankfully they don't lose anyone. Once everyone's onboard, Rei tells them to follow him and make their calculations to get out of the JAM-space and send them to Yukikaze ASAP.

Ransom gets to fly the ship while the others frantically try to calculate a way out of this nightmare. Yukikaze, however, has had enough of these human pilots and their shenanigans, so as soon as she gets the calculations she takes over piloting the Hail Mary, which NO ONE realized she could do, but Rei figures it out fast (also Yukikaze using Mary's voice keeps repeating "I have control I have control I have control" which freaks everyone out real good xD). Yukikaze and Rei then navigate them out through the JAM-space.

All the humans pass out during this, which nearly gives Rocky a heart attack (Yukikaze, still using Mary's voice, reassures him that they're fine, but Rocky doesn't actually calm down until the others start waking up). When they wake up they're back in Earth's atmosphere, headed for the Shatterdome.

When they get back, they're all extremely excited that their rescue mission succeeded (Newt is genuinely touched they all cared enough to come save him) but before they can even get out of the hangar they are met by an irate Jack Bukhar (Rei's superior and only canon friend, he's here because Pentecost, Stratt and Cooley are all too busy to deal with whatever just happened) who demands to know what the heck they thought they were doing and what possessed them to take Yukikaze AND the Hail Mary AND themselves into the JAM-space, question?! The Science Team starts talking over each other trying to explain and then suddenly Rei's extremely clear and steady voice cuts in and concisely explains what they just did and why to Jack, who is *extremely* annoyed, but accepts this, commenting, "I suppose you found out some useful information at least?" and of course the gang did and they explain everything in more detail shortly after while crammed into Jack's office.