Author's Note: This is my entry for Mass Effect Big Bang 2015! Make sure to visit their livejournal to check out all the great stories being posted! I'd like to thank Bioticbooty for creating the banner for my story, it came out beautifully. I love it! I would also like to thank my beta writer Johnny_Suede for dealing me and being such a patient editor. I would not have been about to post this story without you.
Warnings: There are references to past child abuse and drug addiction. There is a bit more excessive language then in the game, but about the same amount of excessive violence.
Story Notes: Set during Mass Effect 2, I changed a bit of the timeline of when the Garrus romance was initiated. There are references to family/parents for a Earthborn Shepard, so a bit of a bend on canon.
Shepard was exactly where she wanted to be. Hidden beneath her cloak and high up in the rafters overlooking the Eclipse base. Garrus and Jack were below her. Her sights focused on the asari commando, the leader Wasea as Niftu Cal called her. Niftu Cal.
Anger pulled at Shepard's chest as she thought of him. The poor pathetic volus had been forcefully drugged out of his mind on Red Sand, Minagen X3, or both. Hopefully, he'd sleep it off.
Shepard shook the anger from her mind and focused back on Wasea. The asari must have known by now that they were in the base. The gunship was down, and the news would most likely be relayed to her soon.
She scanned the room through her scope; large crates blocked her view of the entire layout. There could be more doors connecting further into the base, which meant more ways for mercs to enter from and more problems.
Shepard began biting the insides of her cheek, a nervous tick from her childhood. This could be problematic.
She needed this to be quick and clean. She needed to get the data, get Samara, and get the fuck off Illium.
The greed and sense of superiority of the planet's inhabitants sickened her. The screwing anyone over just for a turn of profit reminded her too much of her life with the 10th Street Reds. It was even more of a motivation to take Wasea out quickly.
Containers of Minagen lined the room; Shepard and Garrus had been fortunate to avoid the toxic drug. Jack, however, had not. A container had exploded near her during their initial surge on the base. Jack's biotics blazed brighter than Shepard had ever seen before. Jack had nearly torn and ripped apart every mercenary that they had come across since, barely giving the two snipers much to work with. Shepard could see Jack sneering from her vantage point, itching to continue the fight.
Even alone at her desk, Wasea's barriers were up and clung strongly to her. She must have been waiting for them. Shepard was going to need Garrus and Jack to take down her barriers if she wanted to do this easily.
Shepard's biotic barriers were meek in comparison to what she had normally seen of other biotics. What was the point of being labeled a freak if the power could barely be harnessed?
Those kinds of thoughts had always bothered her as a teenager, leading to the constant excuses she'd told herself to abuse Red Sand to control her abilities. Although it barely helped; the drug had more of an effect on her mental state than her powers.
After joining the Alliance, she found that there were many like her, working towards getting over past addiction and help her through the process of becoming sober.
But even weak powers had their perks; her barriers had saved her ass countless times in the field. It had taken years of training under the Alliance just to get them at their current level, though.
A deep sigh came from Shepard as she began to whisper into her comm. "Garrus, Jack. Get into position to take down her barriers. I'll have her in my sights to take her out." They quickly followed the order and scuttled into cover, unseen by the mercenary leader.
"No fair," Garrus jokingly protested at Shepard getting the kill shot.
"Quit your bellyaching," she said as she began the switch to her cryo ammo, just in case.
"Sorry, not sure what that means." His flanged voice echoed in her ears over the comms.
"It means stop being such whiny baby. How does that translate?" Shepard said as she rested her Mantis on the crate in front of her.
"Much better. That's still not addressing my point though."
"Which is?" Her finger instinctively switched off the safety and rested above the trigger.
"That the one with the better shot should be taking it."
"Better shot huh?" Shepard paused and began to adjust her sights. "You've been holding out on me Vakarian? Because I have yet to witness that." She began to line up her shot between Wasea's eyes.
"Well, we'll just have to a have a competition one of these days to prove it," he said with a drawl that made her heart flutter. The cocky bastard.
"With that attitude don't be expecting any tiebreakers," Shepard said with a smirk as she focused on Wasea and dug her rifle into her shoulder.
A stifled laugh from Garrus came over the comms; a growl from Jack followed.
"Will you both shut the fuck up already with your flirting and get on with this already?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm still setting up." Shepard waved off Jack's complaining even though she knew Jack couldn't see the gesture.
"Well hurry the fuck up then."
Shepard continued to grin as she peered back into her scope ready to give the order to take out Wasea's barriers.
Wasea's eyes snapped up at Shepard. Her hot pink markings around her cheeks turned up as she smirked. Shit.
The asari began to speak. "You know, when trying to get the drop on someone, you should consider the possibility of cameras." Shepard cursed herself as her eyes skimmed throughout the base. She should have sabotaged the security system before entering. Wasea straightened up from her seat, still smirking while she slowly finished her drink, and then continued. "Not that you'll need to consider anything very soon." Her barriers began to glow brighter and more intense as she spoke. "As I'm going to take pleasure turning your head into a pulpy mass!" Wasea shouted as she biotically threw several canisters of Minagen towards the rafters. Eclipse mercenaries began to storm the base.
So much for quick and clean.
Her cloak fell as she fired; it barely left a dent into Wasea's barriers.
The canisters soared so quickly at her that she couldn't dive out of the way. They exploded above her, allowing the drug's dust to envelop her. The red dust crowded her sight, smell, and taste. A surge of biotic power and strength flowed throughout her body.
She should have moved and hoped the effects wouldn't last long, but she didn't. She let it take her over. She wanted it to take over. No amount of Red Sand as a kid or training as a soldier had ever gotten her to this amount of understanding or strength in her biotics.
There wasn't much of the battle that she felt like she had a conscious choice in; she saw red and felt the power surge through her. She got down from the rafters, out of cover, and lifted mercenaries that got in the way to Wasea. She was able to lift! They hung in the air, much to her amusement. She lined up her shots and took them out easily.
Now she was on her way to Wasea. The commando's barriers were down, and she was weak. Shepard tried to lift her, but she felt her own power draining from her; her barriers began to weaken themselves. The red vision was subsiding and leaving her. She was coming down, and it was far too quick. Her whole body felt numb all over.
In defense, Wasea threw a metal crate at Shepard; the edge of the crate caught her in the stomach, sending her flying back into the wall. Her head was the first to make contact. As she fell to the ground, her barriers moved spastically around her body until the biotic field around her detonated. For a moment, she could only see darkness. She tried to get up but was only able to make it to hands and knees. Her breath was shallow; she couldn't tell what was going on around her. Only ringing that felt like read heat bleeding from her ears could be heard.
Soon, she was able to distinguish a single shot that rang out above her. Garrus was covering her as Wasea sunk to the ground. The battle was over, leaving the base littered with bullet holes and the bodies of the Eclipse. Shepard's sight and breath returned to normal as she glanced at the base from the ground.
"You alright?" Garrus said as he made his way over to her.
"Yeah, just banged my head. I'm fine." She rubbed at the sore spot of her head and checked. No, blood. Good.
But still her head began to feel lighter; it became hard to see in her peripherals.
He offered his hand to help as she got up off the ground. His three long fingers encompassed her wrist and pulled her up with ease.
"What the hell was that? Why did you get out of cover?" he asked.
Of course he was going to call her out the dumb, risky behavior that she didn't even remotely know how to back up. That stuff really messed with her head.
Shepard shrugged as she got her footing. "I don't know, maybe I was just trying to get out the way of the toxic drug that she hurdled at me," she lied as she motioned her hand up at the rafters.
"Well, still, I told you I should have been the one to take the shot," he said triumphantly.
Shepard rolled her eyes, weakly punching him on the shoulder. Of course he was going to work that in too. "Shut up," she said and began strolling towards Wasea's desk. She looked around hoping to find some information for Samara, so this whole day wasn't a complete waste.
"You're only saying that because I'm right," Garrus called back.
"Fine, you're right, you're right." Shepard held her arms up in mock defense. "You got what you wanted?"
"I always do," he said in that low tone that she loved.
"Really now?" Shepard said as she in turned lowered her voice and turned to face him. "How so?" She said as she smirked and raised her eyebrows. She was pretty sure she heard Jack scoff in the distance.
"Uhh…that-" he stammered.
"Came out wrong?" Shepard laughed and turned back to the desk. She spotted a shipping information datapad and lunged for it. Finally, they could get out of here.
"Yeah," Garrus coughed, trying to recompose himself. "Did you find it?"
Shepard was slower to respond than normal. Small black spots whizzed past her in her peripheral vision. All her muscles and joints seemed to ache and did not work together as she tried to move. Heaviness in her grew with every breath; she just wanted to lie down.
"Yeah," Shepard finally quipped back, but she began to stumble as she moved away from the desk.
His hand caught her shoulder to help steady her. "Are you sure you're okay? You took a pretty big hit back there. You should see Chakwas once we get back," he said with a look of concern. Or well, what she thought turians looked like when they were concerned. Outside of boastfulness, most turian facial expressions eluded her.
Shepard shook off the momentary pain and dizziness as she spoke, "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She then waved off his concern with the datapad in hand. "We've got what we need; let's just get back to Samara. I've had enough of this planet."