Tag: kidnapping AU

The Prisoners’ Dilemma (21088 words) by Avelera
Chapters: 3/?
Fandom: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Characters: Newton Geiszler, Hermann Gottlieb, Precursors (Pacific Rim), Alice the Kaiju Brain (Pacific Rim)
Additional Tags: Kidnapping, Imprisonment, Mind Control, Possession, Past Relationship(s), Precursor Emissary Newton Geiszler, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence, Broken Engagement, Hacking, Engineering, Chains, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Dark, POV Hermann Gottlieb, BAMF Hermann Gottlieb, Worried Hermann Gottlieb, The Drift (Pacific Rim), Drift Side Effects, Ghost Drifting, Science, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Blackmail, Hostage Situations, Pining, Mutual Pining, Love, Romance, Fluff, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rescue
Summary:

One year after Newt abandoned Hermann to work for Shao Industries, Hermann decides to confront his ex-fiancé. Not with any intention of trying to win Newton back, of course, but only to gain some kind of closure, some answers for why he vanished so suddenly and avoided even speaking to Hermann ever since.

Except when Hermann confronts Newt in his home, he learns that Newt is under the control of the Precursors, and that they have every intention of killing Hermann to keep their secret. Newt strikes a desperate bargain to save Hermann’s life, which the Precursors accept with the condition of Newt’s good behavior, and that Hermann can never be allowed free again.

Now a prisoner, it is up to Hermann to try to free them both, while keeping the secret of his plan to do so from the man who knows him best in the world.

–
WHEW I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S FINALLY DONE! Special thanks to Sansael for the beta assist, and all the wonderful encouragement! I hit a road block for this chapter made up of realizing JUST HOW COMPLEX the situation really was, and that took a while to work out and about three separate drafts. Later chapters shouldn’t take NEARLY as long to get out. I hope you enjoy!

I made two small tweaks to Ch. 1 of “The Prisoners’ Dilemma” (aka The Kidnapping AU) – first, I’ve added the definition of the title to the top as a chapter summary, second the placement of Hermann’s chain has been altered, which at this point is a very minor change and should not require anyone to re-read the chapter (I doubt anyone remembers its placement anyway at this point). 

Edit: chapter 3 is up!

One of the challenges of putting together “The Precursors” as a regularly occurring character in a fic is that we either get… almost nothing of them dialogue-wise in Uprising except the “smartest person in the room” speech to Liwen when they drop the act and slip into the Creepy Voice, or it’s all them and we get nothing of Newt except, “I’m sorry, Hermann. They’re in my head.”

But since the film is made up of the Precursors pretending to be Newt or directing him, we kiiinda have how they “changed” him to figure how the whole “what is Newt 10 years later” vs. “what is them”? So you can either go with 1) the Precursors kinda just gave Newt directives like “end the world as effectively as you can” so his motivations are all scrambled but it’s still 99% Newt and just 1% Precursor will behind it – which means all the fancy stuff is just what he saw as necessary for that goal (basically, to blend in at Shao and maaaybe to enjoy himself a little along the way?). 

Because the alternative is 2) the Precursors wanted the fancy suits and shades and penthouse apartment, which is wild to think about. Like, the Alice tank is in a bedroom with no door on it, with access to the only visible bathroom in the apartment. Which means unless Newt covers Alice up when people are over, no one can come in that apartment except Newt. It’s not for anyone except the Precursors! Not even for appearances! 

So that kinda leaves us with the inevitable question: are the Precursors a bunch of dandies on their planet?? It’s not totally inconceivable, I mean, they’re part of a sophisticated multi-planetary empire. They could very well have a concept of fashion and prestige, even if it’s technically within a hive mind? Like maybe “glorifying the whole” as a thing even if individuality isn’t?

Or they can only interact with our world through Newt’s subjective memories and some input from objective reality so like… this could be Newt’s vision of success in some way which they’re interpreting as “the right way” to go about being on Earth (and oh, honey, guys, seriously. Don’t go off Newt to know what’s normal on our planet!), but they still fed into it and had to have wanted it to some extent if they’re the ones piloting all the time? Which means the Precursors wanted all this stuff? Which is kinda nuts??

Weird question but did the Precursors just… already have the chains and things when Hermann rocked up? Did they have to scramble to organise them later? Love the AU to pieces, can’t wait to read more!!

They do not have them yet as of ch. 2. All of this will be answered soon in ch. 3 😉 I intend this fic to be pretty grounded in realism wherever possible so I promise there’s no oversights when it comes to logistics and resources in this scenario. It’s part of the fun :3