A/N: So, this is my entry for the October Competition for Aria's Afterlife Monthly Writing Contest. This is on non-cannon for Duality, though it's based off the character there-in. Hope you all enjoy this, as much as you can. Not going to lie, by the time I was done writing this, I felt a bit ill at what I had done to them all.
The report of a small caliber weapon tore through the silence that surrounded Rhia Shepard's mind.
Her eyes snapped open, pain slowly helping to pull her from the dark of unconsciousness back into the light. She took a breath, and then another, each just as agonizing as the first as she tried to look toward the sound. Or was it sounds?
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Why am I hooked to a heart monitor. She blinked at it, starting to put her surroundings together, as the room slowly came back into focus. The gunshot had been part of dream?
Right. Dreaming about gunfire. That's actually on par for you.
The stark white and baby blue room around her was sterile and clean. Aside from the the blue tone of the paint on the lower half of the wall, there were no decorations in the room at all. The monitor next to her beeped it's slow rhythm in time with her heart. She tried to sit up, but room spun. Pain causing her vision, and she let out a soft whimper as she sank back onto her pillows.
She reached for the call button. Every bed hospital had a call button for a nurse, right?
No call button. Where was the call button? There.
The button hung at the end of it's cord, swinging from where it had fallen out of reach. At least unless she sat up. That sounds like a terrible plan Rhia… terrible. But...what else am I supposed to do. I don't even know where I am, let alone what happened to me.
Rhia grimaced, bracing herself against the pain and weakness and inched forward, forcing her body to twist until her fingers could feel the edge of the cord that held the button. She drew it to her, every motion no matter how small eliciting aches and pains.
What the hell did I do, get frisky with a krogan?
She finally managed to get her hand on the call button. From down the hall, she heard a tone.. She laid back, waiting for a nurse or someone to show up
Hopefully whoever shows up can tell me what happened. God, if they aren't already, Garrus and John are going to be angry. Wonder who will shout longer. Probably John. Garrus is just a big softy underneath. If it was Kaidan...
She closed her eyes against the memory of Virmire. It was still too soon. Still too raw. To lose them both like that, Ashley and Kaidan in the fiery blast from the drive core turned nuclear warhead, will always haunt her.
She shoved the memory and pain it brought down, and started trying to take stock of her injuries.
"Okay. Rib, definately..." She touched her side and tried to jerk back. " Legs are fine, just sore...arm...ow." She looked down at her left arm and hand. The whole thing was wrapped in bandages, and she could feel the soothing effects of a pain killer at work. "Right...that's probably bad..."
She paused suddenly wondering just how long it had been. Surely someone should have been by to check on her by now. She fumbled with the button a second time, her hand still not quite doing what she wanted it to. Distantly, she heard the tone again.
"Right...so I'm near the station. Have to be...so where are they?" She turned her head, looking around. If it was a night shift, it was feasible that they were not at the desk and with someone else right now, but the room had no windows, no way of telling what time it was.
"Alone. In a hospital. I'm a damn zombie horror vid or something . . ." Rhia muttered to herself. She looked at her legs, then at the floor, and sighed. "Oh, this is an even worse plan..."
With her good hand, she started disconnecting the wires linking her to the monitors before slowly twisting to put her feet on the floor. A slow groan of pain slipped from her clenched teeth as she did, and another when she jerked her foot back from the ice-cold floor, and reflexively jerked back
"Ow...Christ. What happened to me..."
No one answered her.
"Right. I'm talking to myself. This is a great measure of my sanity," Rhia muttered as she forced both of her feet down, refusing to jerk away from the frigid floor, and pulled herself up, bracing against the bed as she did. A wave of nausea rolled through her and she fought down the urge to vomit.
"Right . . . slow. Very, very slow."
She staggered forward, a severe feeling of deja vu flickering across her memory, promptly replaced by a sobering thought that Ashley wouldn't be there to bail her out this time. She staggered to the doorway, chattering to herself.
"Please no gunmen. I'm not in the mood for gunmen. Not in the mood for thugs of any kin-" Her voice caught in her throat as she looked down at the scene in the hall in front of her.
Rhia slid down the wall next to the still form just outside and to the right of the door, holding onto it for balance. "No… god...no this isn't real. It can't be real."
Garrus...
The turian C-Sec officer lay against the wall in a pool of sticky blue blood, that looked black in the half lit halls. His pistol clenched in a death grip showed he had obviously gone down fighting, as did the blood splatter and holes on the wall across from him, but the other had either walked or been dragged away. Garrus had gotten the worst of the deal though, and his eyes stared straight ahead, glassed over in death.
She turned her head away for a second, fighting the urge to throw up for the second in just minutes, before boxing away the part of her mind that was gibbering incoherently, and forced herself to examine what had happened to her friend.
A pair of dark holes had punched through his armor, one about where his heart would be, one several inches farther down, probably through a lung. She took in the details with a detached sense of calm, even while part of her mind screamed in horror. She looked at the gun, then back to the wall he faced. A splatter of blue blood coated part of it. Garrus died to protect her, and took a chunk out of the other turian in the processes.
She pried the pistol from his hand, a tear trickling down her cheek as she did. She wiped it away. Not the time. Someone had to pay first, and they should be nearby. Rhia pulled herself up, and started down the hallway.
Another form sprawled in a perpendicular hallway at the first intersection she came to: one of the nurses on this floor, probably the one that was supposed to have answered the call button. Someone had broken her neck, probably before she even knew she was in danger.
Rhia shivered and looked back and forth down the halls, but the only one moving was her. The hospital seemed empty.
Like an open grave...
Rhia shoved that thought away as fast as she could. Garrus was already gone. The others...the others. A chill settled over her. If Garrus had been here, the others wouldn't be far. They were a little family. They watched out for each other.
Garrus...oh god, Garrus you died to protect me...I never asked for that.
She shivered, the darkness of the hospital even more oppressive than it was before, crushing down on her soul, making every step she took feel as if she was walking through mud.
She made it to the main lobby, looking around. No receptionist. The room was large, opening up to the other floors above her, and she finally had an idea where she was as she looked out the window, and could see the gentle curve of the Citadel's Presidium.
"Right. Citadel. That's fine. Lot of people on the Citadel, C-Sec and what not. Lots of help. Just need to find a terminal. Receptionists have terminals." She turned, and started hobbling towards the main desk. She had covered about two thirds of the distance when she heard a choking scream from above.
She jerked the gun up, pointing just in time to see see a dark colored figure shove an asari wearing white over the railing. The Asari screamed, a choked sound as she fell, clawing at her neck and the cord wrapped around it. Rhia could only watch in horror as she fell, and the cord, some kind of extension power cable, snapped tight with a thrumming crack that echoed through the room.
The body of the Asari swayed back and forth. It was one thing to face death face to face down the barrel of a weapon. This was different. She looked up, trying to find the dark figure that had murdered her. Had murdered Liara.
Liara. LIARA!?
Rhia screamed, a mix of horror and rage and pain all folded into one. The gun in her hand shook as she put her other hand over her mouth, unable to look away from Liara's limp form. The same woman who had been so alive so many times in the weeks they had known each other, from her fascination with the beacon, to the the ruins on Therum that they had met at in the first place. The scientist who had spoken so vibrantly about her school and her passion for learning and knowledge.
Silenced. And somewhere overhead, mocking laughter drifted down to her. The sound sent spikes of fear and anger down to her core.
"Come out you sick bastard! I'll kill you!" She howled. "I'll KILL YOU!"
"I'm counting on you to try..." It called back . She looked around fruitlessly as she tried to find the source. Her memory from Virmire, from the Council Chambers, placing the voice of the turian who they had been set against from the beginning.
"Saren! You son of a bitch, I'll tear you apart!" Fresh tears ran down her face as she looked back at Liara. "You better pray to whatever gods you believe in, that John finds you first, cause I won't make it quick, I swear it!"
"Let you both try. This is just the beginning."