Hi Everyone! c:
This is Meghan and I'm writing the part of Renn Boncroft, the lovely intergalactic researcher of ecosystems, biology and lalala. Christine is my alter ego and she is writing the part of Major Col Redovian: a beautiful Turian soldier who happens to be a bad ass. We both love tragedy, romance and ACTION PACKED BATTLES 8c. Oh, and mass effect of course. We love to play online multiplayer. By the way, Christine is a real human being. Just to be clear since I called her my alter ego. ANYWHO. We love to write and we love writing fanfiction and we LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE reviews. So please leave of us CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. We appreciate it and we will love you 5ever. ._.
Enjoy c:
Renn Boncroft 1
I stood motionless on the opposite side of the room receiving hugs and heart-felt apologies concerning my brother's death. His photo was projected on the wall across the room, smiling down at me like he always had. His military uniform looked sharp and pristine, his N7 badge shining with valor. I stared at him almost hatefully…hating him for leaving me. Alex's blue eyes pierced mine and completely shut out any false hate I could harbor. His death was shocking, unpredictable… A military man as himself was expected to fight until ordered to fall back. I guess I should have been more aware of the consequences of being in a military family. It all seemed like a myth, something unheard of to have a family member fall in battle until it actually happened. I received the call almost immediately after landing on Watson, a garden planet where I was planning to study for six months.
I got off of the jet, giggling with my fellow researchers, excited and prepared for our next endeavor. My phone rang its typical two-toned ring and I read a number that I hadn't seen before. I cocked an eyebrow and clicked 'answer'.
"Hello-"
"Is this Ms. Renn Boncroft?" An unfamiliar, but concise male voice responded from the other end.
"This is she", I answered. I heard a faint, robotic voice in the background confirm my voice to who I was.
"Ms. Boncroft, this is Commander McCormack", he answered. Greta looked at me questioningly and mouthed Who is that? And I shook my head, holding my hand up and taking a few steps away.
"Commander…Has something happened?" I immediately thought of Alex, his face radiating in my mind.
"Yes", I could hear his face fall as soon as he said that syllable. "He's been in an accident." I gasped.
He proceeded to explain to me that my brother was a part of a covert operations mission involving the liberation of slaves recently taken captive by the Batarians. They succeeded in their task of freeing them, but only until the Batarians shot down his aircraft and he and part of his crew hurtled to the ground. No bodies were recovered from the wreckage. I held my breath as Commander McCormack explained this to me. He reassured me that my brother was one of their best; a tragic loss and he gave my family and I his best as he hung up.
It was heart breaking. I immediately flew home, my friends were in shock at my sudden departure and when I reached Earth, my mother and father greeted me mournfully and with slight disdain. Their prodigal son was gone and all they had left was their daughter who refused to follow family tradition. Instead of going into the military, I chose to study intergalactic ecosystems. My parents showed extreme disappointment when I told them I'd changed career paths on the dime, but all the same they supported me. Barely. My brother was proud for my audacity and we grew closer as we moved in different directions.
Now he was gone. Forever.
I watched aimlessly as people crowded in and out of the small room, praising my brother's military success and taking their turn to comfort me. I gave them heart broken smiles, accepted their kindness and let my strong façade fade as they walked away. Several familiar faces from my childhood sprinkled the crowd gathered around my brother's giant picture. My mother and father stood together, his arm around her comfortingly as she cried into his powder yellow handkerchief. He was wearing his own uniform from his military days and my mother was wearing her badge. My father looked proud of his son for what he'd accomplished in such a short time and I couldn't see them like this; truly stricken from his death. Parents weren't supposed to see their children die. Alex and I were supposed to bury them…
Flowers littered the area beneath his picture and I went to the lonely flower and small vase I set for him. It held a single white rose and I touched it lightly with my fingers, inhaling its fragrance and taking it out of the glass. I hadn't had the thorns removed as a symbolism of struggle. If he were alive, he would have appreciated it. I held the flower in my palm gently, careful of the thorns and I left the room, avoiding anymore unnecessary, social interaction. I'd had enough. I needed to be alone. I crept down the hall silently, smoothing my black slip dress down as it rode up on my tights until I'd reached the refreshments room. It was empty. Perfect.
The room had white washed walls with a plasma screen on its right wall, showing the news at a low level volume and a refrigerator, counter and small stove on the right. A round, metallic table sat in the middle of the room with four chairs bolted around it. I immediately sat in one of them, facing the door. I held the rose in my hand tightly, allowing the thorns to sink into my skin.
"Alex, why did you have-" I couldn't even finish my sentence. Tears overwhelmed me and I tried to silence my broken sobs as best as I could. For the first time since I'd received the call, tears fell. All my memories of us together came swarming back to me and I'd finally rationalized with the fact that I'd never hear his voice again; never a phone call with him on the line telling me about his latest mission and I telling him about my paper concerning the migrative habits of flightless birds found on Feron.
The last time I'd seem him before his death was at Christmas time; it now seemed like years ago. The memory of his face faded and his voice sounded jumbled with unclarified words. I felt himfading as I sat there and it made me sob harder. He was the only one in my family who made it felt like he cared about my future, what I did with myself. Now he was gone and it gave my parents one more reason to force me into their past lifestyle. I didn't want it, not after this happened. I stared down at my bloodied hand and shoved my face in the crook of my elbow, letting go completely. I sat there for quite some time and eventually sat up, cradling my head in my hands and wiping the remaining tears away, when someone walked into the doorway. It was a Turian.
"Oh", his eyes darted from left to right. He turned his head and looked down the hall and then back at me. "This…is awkward." He chuckled nervously and took a step back. I noticed he was in uniform and had the Liberty Unit emblem like Alex had on his own uniform breast pocket. They worked together.
"Wait-" I said weakly. My voice sounded foreign and I looked down at the table, examining the rose in between my fingers. The Turian stood there, waiting for me to respond. He was darker than what would be considered the 'normal shade of Turian' with black markings along his forehead and cheek plates, his eyes flashed an unsettling yellow. I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked up at him.
"Did you know Alex?" I asked him.
"...you must be Renn", he said almost hesitantly. The turian turned his body to face me, but remained at a distance, eyeing me analytically. I nodded in response and held the rose more carefully again, its stem now slightly bent in the middle. He remained silent, scratching the side of his head and crossing and uncrossing his arms behind his back. He knew my name.
"And you are?" I looked up at him, staring into his golden eyes until he answered me. Seconds that ticked by felt like hours and the tension in the room grew to an all time high, but I didn't care.
"Col."
"Col what?" I responded quietly, almost robotically.
"Just…Col", he nodded for clarity. I nodded slowly and sat up in the chair, I felt his eyes boring into me.
"Alex was always a fighter", I mumbled, tears almost completely gone. The blood on my hand was now dry and cracking. "Whenever we played tag, he would chase me until he caught me and had me on the ground, screaming, 'You're it now' into my face." I smirked to myself and looked up at Col endearingly. Col smirked too, but it immediately faded.
I began to talk. I'm not sure why. I just kept going on and on about Alex as Col nodded and responded. His eyes were trained on the table as I spoke, but he kept nodding so I assumed he was always listening to me.
