The Drift

Yaoyorozu could only see darkness and hear the crackling of nearby fires. Her body floated through an empty void, unable to move or speak.

"What is this...? Am I Drifting? I've never heard of one like this before."

Without any answer, Yaoyorozu tried desperately to move, finding her body completely paralyzed. Just as she was about to contemplate sleep paralysis as a cause, she was blinded by the light of the sun suddenly shining in her face.

For miles around, the only thing she could see was rubble. Emergency workers were scattered around, doing their best to save as many as possible.

Yaoyorozu knew where she was now. Downtown Tokyo, 2016, 12 years ago. This was where Kiryu made landfall after passing both Tacit Ronin and Hyper Legion at the Miracle Mile.

It managed to rampage for a full forty minutes before the Jaegers were able to take down the faster Kaiju. It was considered one of the worst Kaiju attacks in history, right behind Trespasser's assault.

Yaoyorozu remembered being 7 at the time, watching the attack through her TV. She had been almost fascinated by the Kaiju when it had been first spotted. It was overly lizard-like and had membranes on its hands as well as a wide tail, which allowed it to move through water faster than any other Kaiju before. Upon reaching the city, it had severed its own tail to ditch some weight and suddenly, Yaoyorozu found herself terrified.

It looked like it ran faster than should've been possible for something that large. And as officials declared that everyone for hundreds of miles around should seek shelter, in case the Kaiju was too fast to kill by the Jaegers, Yaoyorozu remembered her mother and father grabbing her violently and rushing off to their private bunker.

Back then, she had no idea what this implied, but looking back on it, she now knew that nuclear armaments had been considered.

Nukes were partially disregarded after the Jaeger Program was born. When there was a choice between giant robots that could keep damage to a minimum and wide-range radioactive weapons, giant robots were chosen every time. But, as with everything, there were exceptions and nukes were not out of the question.

Thankfully, using a heavy amount of flanking tactics, Hyper Legion was able to kill the Kaiju with the help of Tacit Ronin.

"Why am I here? Why am I seeing this?" Yaoyorozu had seen her fair share of the aftermath on the news, but she had never actually seen the destruction in person, nor was it something that stuck in her mind. It was just another attack to her, so why...?

The sound of sobbing directed her attention down to a small broken house, revealing that Yaoyorozu could once again move.

This confused Yaoyorozu once again. The crying of civilians was everywhere, there was no avoiding it, why these sobs?

A mother and her son, covered in a thick layer of gray dust, hugged each other, lamenting the loss of their home.

Moving closer, Yaoyorozu went to place her hand on the boy's shoulder in an instinctual attempt to comfort him. The second her fingers touched his torn shirt, he spun around, his face a completely blank slate of skin.

Yaoyorozu shrieked and flinched back, which was apparently enough to shake her awake.

Gasping in lungfuls of air as she glanced around for that ever-present dust floating through the air, she calmed down, recognizing the bunk beds and nearby drawers. She was still in the cadet quarters.

Looking over to the digital clock through blurry vision, she realized it was minutes from five in the morning.

Sighing, Yaoyorozu turned on her side in an attempt to get comfortable again, but just as sleep was about to overtake her once more, a pounding on the nearby metal door shook her to full alertness.

"COME ON NEWBIES! TRAINING IN THE KWOON COMBAT ROOM! BE THERE IN TWENTY MINUTES OR GET OUT OF THE SHATTERDOME!"

It only took five minutes for the room to be a mess of frantic teens and thrown about clothing. Izuku and Bakugo were the first up and ready, with Todoroki and Iida following close behind. The other four took longer, but within ten minutes, everyone was ready and walking towards the Kwoon Combat Room.

On the way there, Yaoyorozu leaned over to Izuku, "Did you... have any weird dreams last night?"

He smiled, "I always have weird dreams. Why? Is something wrong?"

"N-No. I guess it's just a little weird sleeping here for me. I'm not used to so many people in the same room."

Izuku nodded, "Yeah, I was like that for a while too."

Yaoyorozu tilted her head, but before she could ask about what that meant, the hallway opened up to the training room.

All eight of the cadets were shocked upon seeing Hercules Hansen and Akari Yamada standing to either side of their Commanders. The two were hugely famous pilots, of both Striker Eureka and Echo Saber respectively and held a reputation as some of the best melee brawlers in the business.

"Cadets!" Raleigh called out, to which all straightened and saluted. "This is Herc and Akari, your new instructors for the next ten weeks! They are battle-hardened and are going to kick your ass!" Raleigh smirked, "You are going to resent them and if you can't channel that resentment into an effective tool then you are not cut out to be a pilot!"

Herc stepped forwards, his rough stubble and muscled arms giving him a rather imposing figure despite his smaller stature. With an Australian accent that Yaoyorozu couldn't help but find pleasing to the ears he said, "No pilot pair is perfect. You will find something to dislike about your co-pilot after you sort through their memories a couple of times. That doesn't mean you should immediately disregard your compatibility. Like any good relationship, it will be tested."

"Moving on from the mushy stuff," Akari joked, "We will be training you here 14 hours a day. We are going to push you to your breaking point, no matter where it is. You will learn every type of martial arts we can teach you and you will study every single weapon we can get our hands on. Then, when we are satisfied with your skills, you can try your hand at pairing with one of your fellow cadets."

"So, let's get to it!" Herc clapped his hands together as he called everyone out to the matted floors.

"Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, a word," Mako beckoned over the two, who walked over to the somewhat secluded hallway.

"Tendo informed us of your sync rate. A full 99 percent." Raleigh seemed all too serious for something that should've been great news. "That's a rare number that not even I could reach with my brother."

"It's wonderful that you two found a co-pilot so quickly, but your sorts of numbers come with a consequence."

"Especially for someone of your ages.

Yaoyorozu glanced between the two, "I don't understand, Sir. Are we in some kind of danger?"

"Your lives are not at risk," Mako assured, "But since you two have such a powerful Drift connection, you are going to experience side effects much much faster than any other pilots."

"Ghost-Drifting, where two pilots continue to experience Drift-like behavior even outside of a Jaeger, is something that takes dozens of Drifts before typically occurring. You two could already be experiencing it." Raleigh cleared his throat, "Usually, Ghost-Drifting, much like a normal Drift, allows both Pilots to keep their core personalities, the things that make you... you."

"But, since Neural Handshakes only strengthen over time, there is a serious risk that your mental facilities could bleed into one another's. Either your personalities merge into one, or the more dominant one takes over both of your minds and you become different from the person you once were. You might end up no longer being you."