AN: okay, I probably listened "Ghost Assassin" one time too many but the youtube vid totally inspired me to this shorty. Any similarities are of course purely coincidentally, Sarah K. is all awesome on her own *wink*.

Enjoy!


"Hey Commander, can you unplug me?
Just for a minute, I need some privacy."
Headset off and stretch her neck out
Down the rocks to her head's safe house

Yeah I remember it all
Bleed and shout out my calls
The air was so dusty
Her armor getting rusty
She found thoughts she never had
Her young ones were just as bad
She winced out her weapon

I don't want to know what she did
She is not who I am
At least that's what I thought
Now I'm second guessing
I can't put my gun down
My suit's getting heavy
Something wants to be released
Something dark inside me

Maduk ft. Veela - Ghost Assassin


Chapter 1 ~ Awakening to a dying world

Dreams.

It was the first kind of anything that returned to her as she floated in a state of bodiless tranquility. There in the depths of her own mind she could dream about the peace of sleeping in his arms. The light he had brought to her heart at a time where she believed that there was nothing but shadows.

Time was difficult in this place but at one point there had started to be voices. Muffled and low but still voices. She sometimes thought they were even talking to her. And then there was warmth. And pain, but it was distant. It didn't matter. She still had the dreams that sheltered her.

This feeling that had uncoiled in her when she kissed him and his hands had run down her bare back. When she pulled him in and he had softly growled her name, betraying such a tenderness hiding underneath all his hot fierceness… Could it be? Could this exhilarating madness that made her trust him beyond any conditions be… love?

She was still picking at the strange thought when the voices suddenly turned loud. Then scared. Frantic. The calm broke apart but she couldn't wake! She tried to lift her arms but didn't know how. Voices turned into screams. Flashes of light sparked behind her eyes. Movement. The warmth vanished and was replaced by ice. Harsh guttural sounds erupted all around her; spiking fear like needles in her.

That was when the pain came. Pain like she had never felt before, not even…

Not even when she died.

Her head. Her back. Her hands. The agony pushed into every cell, ate at every nerve ending. Like a fire scorching away her very being. And eventually it even shattered her dreams; ripped them away from her, replacing them with hellish nightmares and something so dark and horrible it made her wanting to shriek out her soul.

Only… She had no tongue to scream in this place.

Bit by bit she felt how her sanity broke apart, how her mind failed to withstand the pressure that slowly grinded her to dust.

And then the darkness consumed her.


~V~


The head lying on his chest stirred and those curious human hairs tickled his skin.

Lazily Garrus trailed his hand along the gentle curve of her waist and hip, all down to her thighs. She sighed softly, flexing the leg that still rested on his abdomen in what he thought a quite… inspiring way.

He chuckled softly. Who would have thought human bodies could be so intriguing. This evening had certainly taken a turn Garrus would have never believed to happen outside those private little fantasies stored away for sleepless nights. And yet… there she was; lying naked and sweaty in the turian's arms, her fingers following the hard outlines of his skin plates.

Her blocky teeth nipped playfully at his chest and he couldn't stop the small growl from forming in his throat. Perhaps they would all die on Ilos tomorrow.

He couldn't care less.

She lifted her head, and Garrus brushed aside the loose strands of sun-colored hair. Green eyes deep enough to swallow him and his soul forever watched him and then Shepard gave the turian one of her rare smiles; cordial angel and wicked demon all rolled up into one mischievous grin.

"You still think you can keep up with me, huh?"

Garrus tightened the hold he had on her body and rolled her onto her back. He licked the side of her neck, savoring the taste of her skin. Then he winked at her.

"A challenge, Shepard? Terrific."

Gunfire over shouts intruded on his sleep and for a few moments Garrus struggled to keep the dream from vanishing, to hold on the feel of her just a little while longer but… But aside from the turian, the cot within the small dark tent was empty.

As is had been for three spirit-forsaken years.

Three years and he still couldn't forget. Neither the taste of her skin nor the sound of her voice. Let alone the feel of her lips or the…

He groaned and grabbed for his Mantis. The loud booms of Menae's last remaining GARDIAN shook the air. The Reapers were getting bolder by the day. He was still in his armor and quickly crawled out of the tent and into the hell that had taken to dictate the lives of simply everyone.


~V~


WAKE.

She woke into a murky yellow light, her vision too blurred to make out anything. The feel of being trapped surged in her mind. She lifted her hands and met resistance. Walls. There was a slick wall all around her. And her vision… It wasn't off, she was swimming in some liquid. She was in a tank of some sort! Her fingertips burned as if someone had pulled out the nails with pincers but she kept searching for a handle, a rift, anything to open her prison. Nothing. She pounded with her fists against the barrier. She tried to shout but something was blocking her throat!

In panic she lashed out with her biotics. The walls burst open and she dropped forward in a gush of liquid, her limps too weak to stop her fall. Now it was tears that blurred her sight and she ripped at the mask covering her mouth. Tubes! There were tubes attached to it! Coughing and gagging, she pulled out three long tubes that had been stuck in her throat. She retched but nothing happened. Her body... it was hurting everywhere. With a shudder she curled up on the wet cold ground and squeezed her eyes shut. Her memory was too fuzzy to have any idea about where she was. Or who she was. And yet there was something inside her that was afraid about what she would find if she looked around. Eventually she lifted her head looking back over her shoulder.

At an alien elongated structure, looking like a huge amber colored egg that had merged with brown and black tubes and tech. Not a tank. A cocoon of some sort. Next to the one she had broken free off where others. Smaller ones; growing along the wall of a hall of some sort as far into each direction as she could look in the dim light.

Not the Normandy that's for sure…

Nor… what?

Before her mind could puzzle together another piece of information, she heard a soft shuffling sound. Her head whipped around. There in shadows perhaps twenty paces away from her, eyes reflected the light in a bluish glow.

As her vision adjusted to the dark she could make out more of the creatures, human shaped but twisted by tech beyond any recognition. One of them cocked its head as if listening and somehow her mind could place a name upon it.

Husk.

Everywhere husks.

She scrambled to feet but something was wrong with her balance and she stumbled backwards. There she caught herself against the broken shell of the cocoon.

Biomass merged with tech. Not any tech.

Reaper tech.

Her thoughts raced. The husks were still watching her, some of them crouching down like hounds awaiting the command to kill.

Suddenly a ripple went through them and something pushed its way towards her. It was a being she had never seen before, a bulky chitineous body topped with a triangular insect-like head with four glowing eyes.

Frozen in shook she stared at the creature. Not because it was a myth coming to live. Not because its race had sparked the painful memory of a ship torn apart. And not because it bowed its oversized head to her. She stared because she could feel the creature in her mind.

All of them.

Her head spun and she lifted her hands to rub her temples. Instead of nails her fingers ended in claws. She frowned at them, despite the strong feeling that they were supposed to be here. Her eyes wandered further up her arms. It was too dark to make out details but great parts of her skin seemed to have been etched away to show metallic implants underneath. The image of a tall grey skinned male turian with similar implants flickered but she couldn't understand its meaning. She twisted her arm a bit. There. Merged into her right upper arm was a piece of armor with a letter and number.

This one she did remember.

The vessel, that once had been Shepard, screamed.