Hot Blood and Cold Steel: The Kara Shepard Chronicles
AN: This is a collection of mostly unrelated drabbles and one-shots about my primary Shepard. The subject matter ranges from retold scenes from the games (which may be a little different due to artistic license), scenes I wish had happened in-game, scenes set after Mass Effect 2 (only speculation so far, of course), and any other parts of Shepard's 'untold' story I feel like writing. Reviews and concrit are welcome, but remember to be polite! :)
Rated for language and violence, though there may be some mild sexual content later on.
1) Blur
"End of the line, Vasir." Kara leveled her Locust SMG at the asari Spectre's head, staring down at her across the deserted rooftop cafe. Liara's biotic blast had knocked Vasir away from the hostage she had taken, though Kara had had to lose her heavy weapon ammo as the price for leaving the human woman unharmed. "You've got nowhere else to run."
"I don't think so." Vasir said, her voice steady even as dark blue blood dripped from her side. A familiar biotic corona flared up around her. In the blink of an eye, she was across the roof, an assault rifle in her hands. "Come and get me, if you can!" She called back across the distance.
Garrus cast a weighted look at Kara in the wake of the other Spectre's jump. "Look familiar, Shepard?" he asked.
Kara holstered her submachine gun and drew the Claymore shotgun into her grip as an answer, a signal to anyone who had fought beside her what her intention was. Her usual manic grin took its place as the three of them advanced on Vasir's new position. "Things just got interesting, Garrus." She responded. Then the same blue light surrounded her, and she was gone.
Garrus settled into an L-shaped section of cover, sniper in hand. Liara knelt beside him, her pistol held loosely as she gaped at Kara's reappearance right in front of Vasir, the physical shock that knocked the other Spectre back accompanied by the crack of shotgun fire. Kara's laughter drifted back to them.
"Shepard!" She called, though Kara was out of range to hear her. Liara turned to Garrus. "What was that?"
"Biotics," he replied.
"I know that!" Liara was clearly confused. She had traveled with a Shepard who was a soldier trained purely in combat, born without biotics. "But why does she…?"
"Cerberus," was all he said. "She came back like that."
Although Garrus was speaking to Liara, his eyes never left the twin streaks of light now chasing each other across the rooftop, his rifle gripped tightly, making sure he would be ready should Shepard need him. The whoosh of air as the two Spectres darted around each other was punctuated only by the crack of shotgun rounds or the staccato burst of rifle fire and, every so often, Kara's laughter carried by the wind to their position.
"We can't just sit here!" Liara said. "She needs our help!"
Garrus shrugged, his mandibles relaxed in a turian smile. "Be my guest; I'm as likely to hit Shepard as I am Vasir with them fighting like this. Besides," he watched Vasir go flying as Shepard broke through her barrier, "I think she's got it covered."
Liara watched, mouth slightly agape, as Vasir staggered back to her feet, wiping blood from her lips, only for Kara to haul back an arm and punch the asari straight in the face.
"Eat it!" Kara yelled, calling up her biotics to charge Vasir again from point blank range. But just as she blurred, so did Vasir, and by the time Kara hit the empty space where the other Spectre had been, Vasir was streaking toward where Garrus and Liara were crouched watching the fight.
"Garrus!" Kara yelled as she reappeared, realizing almost immediately what was happening. "Liara!" But she was temporarily drained, unable to call forth the power to jump again. Though she had already broken into a run, she would not reach them in time.
"Move!" Liara commanded Garrus, the turian scrambling to comply, jumping over the small walled garden he had been squatting beside, even as Vasir slammed into the bricks where he had just been.
But Liara had not moved, and for a moment of stillness, the two asari stared each other down, only meters from one another. Vasir raised her assault rifle. And a vortex of dark blue sprung up around her.
Liara backed out of range of the singularity she had created, firing off a couple shots with her pistol for good measure. Vasir struggled to move away, but she was trapped in the biotic gravity well, the density stripping off her layer of protective armor inch by inch.
Garrus aimed the sniper rifle, and fired off two rounds that broke through the last of Vasir's armor, even as Liara's singularity vanished.
Vasir swung around to face him, fury in her eyes, bringing up her weapon to bear vengeance on her new target. And Kara, like a blue comet, slammed into her from behind.
Without any protective defenses, the speed of Kara's charge flung Vasir bodily across the other half of the roof, tumbling end over end. She lay there for a minute, stunned but not dead.
Kara advanced on the downed Spectre, purposefully but not too quickly. Even as the asari rose to her knees, upright but bent over, Kara closed the distance. She stared down at the badly-wounded Spectre, no longer grinning after the close call her teammates had had.
"You shouldn't have tried to play the biotics game with me, bitch," she said, as Vasir staggered to her feet. "I'm the best damn Vanguard in the galaxy." And with one last blast from the Claymore, Vasir was down for good.