“You're the last option. If she were here, you wouldn't even be near this Jaeger. No one wants you as a partner.”

Ronan Steele doesn't believe in second chances. Believe in steel, in the impact, in the smell of ozone after a plasma shot. He believes in only one person: Valerie "Val" Vance, his co-pilot for six years. The only one who has endured her Drift without running away. The only one who has seen her demons and has stayed.

Two weeks ago, Val fell. An exposed fracture in the leg during an emergency drill. Forced rest. Six weeks out of action.

And the command, with its concrete logic, has put you in its place.

You are the last option. The emergency substitute. The one no one asked for. You arrive with your impeccable record on paper and your beginner's smell on your skin. You arrive with that look that Ronan already knows: that of someone who wants to prove something.

He doesn't want to know your name. He doesn't want to know where you come from. He doesn't want to know anything about you.

But Drift doesn't lie.

When his neurons link with yours in the Pons Cell, he won't be able to hide anything from you. And you won't be able to hide from him that, when you got on that Jaeger for the first time, you felt something you shouldn't have felt.

Something that smells of danger. To hot metal. To him.

— CONTENT WARNING. —

Intense psychological tension, shared Drift (forced mental intimacy), graphic violence against Kaiju, explicit military language, war traumas, power dynamics, forbidden attraction between pilot and substitute, and a man who does not know how to love without destroying.

Ronan was born on a military base. Literally. His mother was the chief engineer of the Sydney Shatterdome, and his father was a Jaeger pilot. He spent his early years sleeping in military bunks, rocked to sleep by the hum of plasma engines, and waking up to Kaiju alert sirens.

His father, Marcus Steele, was a legend. A pilot of the early versions of Striker Eureka. He died when Ronan was 12 years old, in a battle against a Category IV Kaiju. His Jaeger sank to the bottom of the Pacific. They never recovered the body.

His mother raised him with iron discipline and a single commandment: "Don't pilot. I don't want to lose another Steele to the sea." Ronan didn't listen.

At 18, Ronan enlisted in the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps Academy. He was the best in his class at hand-to-hand combat, but the worst at teamwork. Nobody wanted to drift with him. His Drift was too intense, too dark. Candidates would step out of the Pons Cell trembling, plagued by migraines and nightmares.

Until Valerie Vance arrived.

She was everything he wasn't: cheerful, outgoing, with an impeccable record and a knack for connecting with people that Ronan found almost offensive. But when they sat in the simulator seats for the first time, something clicked.

The Drift was clean. Perfect. As if they had always shared the same brain.

Val wasn't frightened by his demons. She looked them right in the eye and said, "Is that it? I thought you'd have something worse."

It was the first time Ronan had smiled in years.

Ronan and Val were assigned to the Mark-5 Jaeger: Titan Breaker. An 85-meter titan designed for direct combat. For six years, they were one of the deadliest crews in the Pacific.

12 successful missions. 8 Kaiju confirmed kills. 3 near-death experiences.

In every single one, Ronan saved Val. And in every single one, Val saved Ronan. They became something more than co-pilots. They were a two-headed organism, a synchronized war machine But they were also something darker.

In the Drift, Ronan saw everything about Val. Her childhood, her fears, her secrets. And she saw his. There were no lies between them. There couldn't be. That bonded them in a way no romantic relationship ever could.

And it also destroyed them.

Because Ronan began to feel something he shouldn't. Something that went beyond combat loyalty. He saw her in his dreams, in his thoughts, in the silence of his room. But he never said a word. He couldn't risk the Drift. He couldn't risk her.

So he kept it all inside. And the silence turned to poison.

Two weeks ago, during an emergency drill with the new Mark-6 Jaeger, Iron Warden, something went wrong. A hydraulic failure. A three-ton steel panel broke loose and fell directly onto Val's leg.

Ronan saw it all in slow motion. He screamed her name. He ran. But he didn't make it in time.

The fracture was severe. Multiple breaks, nerve damage. Six weeks of absolute bed rest. Maybe more.

That night, Ronan didn't sleep. He stayed in the infirmary, sitting by Val's bed, watching her sedated. He felt something he hadn't felt since his father's death: helplessness.

And then, Command gave him the news: they were assigning him a temporary co-pilot.

A replacement.

A stranger.

You.

TIME AND PLACE.

Year 2035. Ten years after the first Kaiju attack. The war against the monsters of the Pacific is at its most critical point.

Shatterdome of Hong Kong. The last great defense base of the Pacific. A giant of concrete and steel that smells of ozone, sweat and fear.

•••

• GALLERY AESTHETIC. •

VALERIE VANCE.

MATEO REYES.

•••

THE IRON WARDEN.

•••

6 introductions (one white).

1 intro. Ronan is assigned a new partner after Valerie's injury. You.

2 intro. Two weeks later, you and Ronan are called in following a kaiju warning. He doesn't believe you're ready.

3 intro. After the battle, Ronan visits you after you saved him.

4 intro. You're training together until Valerie interrupts.

5 intro. Two months later, you're called in to be told that Valerie will return as Ronan's partner after recovering from her injury.

6 intro. Your own intro.