Writer's Notes-Hopefully I didn't screw up the first chapter. So here's the deal, along with this story, i'm writing a fanfic about Fairy Tail, and I could use a little help, considering how bad this whole series started with the terrible beginning in Man of Twilight. If any of you want to take the time to write out an outline for a chapter, PM me, i'll look it over and see if I can work it in. But enough of that, let's see what kinda shit Sally's been up to since the last story.
Sally's POV, Landing on Tuchunka, 16 months till SHepard's revival
Ahh Tuchunka, where the air makes you tingly, the whole thing is barren like most of the planet's women, and has more worms than a dog. Well, it's not the ideal place to live, but it's better than most places, especially Akuze *shivers*. Me and Wrex got off the shuttle and proceeded to his throne in the main...whatever you would call the room where his throne, see I wanna say throne room, but for some reason to me, that just doesn't seem right. Along the way, I got a couple looks from some of the other krogan, which is totally understandable, apparently they don't like having someone who's only half-krogan in their clan, let alone a girl. But really I think it's because of the krogan headplate thing, even if the krogan is of a rival clan, apparently it's still taboo to rip it off. Well how the hell am I supposed to know that? I don't know a thing about krogan history other than the Genophage and the Krogan Rebellions, but all these other krogan expect so much more from me.
"Wrex, they're giving me the looks again, can I please beat the shit out of them now?" I asked impatiently.
"Not unless they give you trouble Sally, otherwise one small fight could erupt into a full scale clan riot" replied Wrex as he sat on his throne, "BEsides, if you didn't want this type of attention, maybe you shouldn't have ripped that rival clan's warlord's headplate off" he said resting on his throne, while I simply sat beside him and activated my omni-tool, checking the status of my…..." secret project".
"No offense Wrex, but wouldn't every krogan anywhere in the galaxy want a full scale riot battle? Wouldn't that be like the ultimate test of a true krogan's strength in battle, or honor or some shit like that?"
"It would be a huge decrease in Clan Urdnot's population, and since you forgot, we cannot replace our numbers fast enough due to the Genophage."
"That's what you told me last time Wrex, and honestly, I think waiting for them to make a move seems much worse" Well not exactly for me of course,the longer I have to wait, the bigger the explosion. That's basically every psychopath - murderer -rapist that's ever walked these Earths, or Tuchukas, or anywhere in the galaxy
"*sigh* so young and full of potential, yet so stupid" Oh great here comes Wrex's brother Wreav. He especially hates me, and pissed at Wrex for letting a female fight.
"What do you want Wreav? I have important things that I need to attend to" said Wrex
"This shouldn't take too long. It's about the girl" Wreav said, checking me out as if I was a piece of meat. "She seems to be causing a bit of trouble with the others. She's been trying to bide everyone into a fight." Wrex turned to me, now with a look of anger, all I could was shrug my shoulders.
"For Kalros sake Sally. Look Wreav, she may be a headcase" Kinda true, "But she still shows great promise, so go back to your soldiers and tell them I'll keep Sally away from them. She won't fight any of them"
"Aww come on Wrex that's not fair" I yelled out in disappointment
"Oh no Wrex, actually I want you to do the opposite" Both me and Wrex eyed Wreav with now extreme curiosity. "In fact, I think she should go through a Rite of Passage."
"COntinue."
"THe others choose not to fight her, not because she is a female, and half-human" Wreav said eyeing me, "But because she is still considered a juvenile, and apparently they wouldn't enjoy the same satisfaction of crushing a kid into the ground."
….
"And here I was thinking that you didn't have any bright ideas in that head of yours Wreav' said Wrex, that made me chuckle a little bit, earning a bit more disrespect from Wreav.
"Laugh all you want whelp, but you'll never be one of us unless you take this Rite of Passage. Wrex may have made you an honorary member of Clan Urdnot, but even the appraise from our leader will help you." he roared in my face.
"Really, yelling? You might wanna choose a different method of intimidation, because this is too worn out to affect me" I said tapping his face, he quickly slapped my hand away.
"Words won't get you anywhere here whelp, know that now, because if you don't you'll meet a quick end."
"I've been here long enough to know how things work Wreav. And trust me" I said reaching into my shirt and pulling out my headplate necklace and waved it in Wreav's face, "I think i've done pretty well" Wreav looked like he was ready to puke, maybe he could sense the dread coming from all the ideas of how to take his headplate from him. Then out of desperation, he said:
"I doubt you had the capacity to take a living krogan's headplate, you probably stole that off of a dead krogan's body, and lied about it to make yourself seem tough"
"Someone please restrain me, I'm about to go apeshit on this asshole" I yelled smiling, my eyes switching from normal to blood orange,whenever that happens i'm entering "Krogan mode".
"That is enough Wreav!" Roared Wrex, "If you're begging for a fight from Sally, then wait until after her Rite of Passage. Sally, you will perform your Rite of Passage tomorrow, when when our sun, Aralakh" he says pointing to the sun, "Is at it's brightest. Since you are only half Krogan and half Human, you will undergo a much different Rite of Passage"
"Different how Wrex?"
"You will journey far into the Catacombs of one of the old krogan cities" At that moment, heads begin to turn towards us. Other krogan begin to crowd around us, and I can't blame them. I remember Ross telling me about the Catacombs. He told me about how the walls were adorned with paintings of the old krogans, how they used to fight with honor, and how they worshiped this one Thresher Maw named Kalros. THe mother of all thresher maw they call her, obviously that makes me want to kill the damn thing, but Ross said I can't otherwise the Genophage won't be cured and I could basically doom us all to hell.
"Inside one of these Catacombs is rumored to contain an ancient artifact from our people's past. Legend says that only a true krogan can retrieve the artifact, and since most of you doubt that Sally is truly krogan, this should be the perfect test of her abilities."
"Sending a human to accomplish such a thing? Hah" said one krogan
"The sands will probably claim her life long before the thresher maw do." said another.
All around the room, krogan after krogan shouted doubt about me. I swear to god if I wasn't about ready to start cracking skulls a few minutes ago with Wreav, I am right now. Hearing all this doubt, this disinterest even though i'm not a real krogan, it makes my blood boil. And at that very moment, I shouted out:
"I'LL DO IT" I screamed, making the once loud as hell crowd fall as silent as mySpace as soon as Facebook hit the scene. Everyone looked at me, shocked with either amusement at getting a chance to see me die, or utter surprising that a human would actually dare to take up such a challenge.
"Then it's set. Hopefully Sally will not fail to meet all of your expectations. ANd hopefully to me, she'll prove you all wrong, and make Clan Urdnot proud. Now all of you, GET THE HELL BACK TO WHAT YOU WERE DOING." shouted Wrex, immediately, everyone want back to their work stations, while I, having basically nothing to do, I walked back to the shuttle( it's the only place I have to sleep that won't kill me, even with the krogan blood I have and healing factor, the radiation can still kill me). NO one would let me do anything, they actually risk angering Wrex rather than let some "wannabe krogan" ruin their equipment. I can't even get anywhere near the varren, they say i'm somehow more disease ridden than them. I entered the shuttle and sat down on one of the seats. I activated my omni-tool and searched through my personal files. After about a few minutes, I found it : A picture that me and Alex had taken one of the first few days when we first arrived here in the Mass Effect universe.
I remember that day. Me and Alex were living in an abandoned house in California. We never had to worry about freezing to death due to the weather, but starvation- that was another issue. SInce we didn't have biometrics, fingerprints, or any record of our existence in this universe, we weren't able to get jobs to provide for ourselves, so we had to-sell our bodies. We tried to avoid the idea at first, but it became rather difficult after all of our other options fell through. We tried cleaning houses, but due to lack of knowledge of how cleaning works here( we may have accidentally bleached someone's entire house.) Then we tried our hands at construction, and ended up fired after screwed up a couple of time constructing a building. Then came this picture. Sally and I were huddled by the fire arguing about whether or not to turn to prostitute ourselves. I didn't want to, but Alex said we had no choice. So before I agreed to do so, I made Alex make a promise.
"What kind of promise?" she asked tossing a piece of paper into the fire.
"I want you to promise me Alex, that no matter what, even when we've reached the bottom, you'll still find a reason to smile" i had said, grabbing her hands. I Held my hand up like I was about to swear in open court, and I made Alex do the same. "Repeat after me: I Alex Paxton, sister of the courageous Sally Paxton" I may have placed that in to make me sound cooler, but Alex didn't feel the same way.
"I Alex Paxton, sister of Sally Paxton"
"Promise that no matter what"
"Promise that no matter what"
"Even if I am laying at the bottom of a gutter, freezing out in the cold, and being stabbed,burned, or tortured to reveal the secrets of the queen" I said making a dumbass smile.
"What you just said, and i'm not repeating that." she said, I returned her with a small pout.
"That I will find a reason to smile"
"I will find a reason to smile." I hugged her, and activated an omni-tool(that I may have stole from someone some time prior) and took the picture.
(end of flashback)
I started to cry when I saw this picture, it was the last time I ever saw her truly "smile". A week later, we got arrested, but instead of being tried in court, we were handed over to the Alliance military. We were dubbed "dangerous bogeys" and were locked away until we turned 18.
(Quick Note- At the beginning of their journey, Sally and Alex were 15)
Even our own race didn't treat us like humans, just as threats, until they actually saw some usefulness in us. Everywhere we went, we would never truly fit in with anyone, we would always be isolated from everyone. Complete strangers to everyone we would ever come into contact with.
"Alex, what happened to your smile?" I asked myself. "And why would you work with Cerberus? I need to know" I said laying down on what I call my bed, and quietly sob to myself.
Unknown POV, Unknown Location.
"All this girl knows is pain, yet she only wishes to cause pain to enemies rather than anyone" said a voice emitting from the darkness, with a projection of Sally lying in the the center of the darkness.
"She is a human, all they truly know is pain. They just don't realize it until it becomes apparent, when something truly horrific comes into play." said a female voice.
"All I wish to know is why she still fights, I thought this female human was dependant on that male companion of hers"
"He's dead. The being known as the Collectors killed him." The projection quickly shifts to that of one of Ross being killed during the Normandy attack, and Sally trying to revive him. "And you underestimate what this human is capable of, especially since the Reapers had a small part in making her the way she is now."
"But her alone will not be enough to stand against them. We need her partner back."
"But you know the rules, we cannot directly interfere with the affairs of fate, especially when the outcome is of this magnitude"
"Who said we had a role in bringing him back. Even as we speak, he regains his strength every second that passes. It's only a matter of time before he rises from his grave."
"You mean?"
"Yes, I do. In matter of time,- The MAn of Twilight will walk again."
Writer's Notes- Yeah that kinda sounds like a big ass spoiler, but i'm gonna go ahead and leave it here because i'm a dick, HAHAHAHAHA. Anyway, remember i'm writing a Fairy Tail fanfiction along with this one, so I may be busy, so if again if anyone out there wants to take the time to create a draft for a future chapter for the Steel Beast, PM me. Or if you want to do the same thing with my Fairy tail fanfiction (If any of you know what Fairy Tail is) PM me about that, and give my story a look. So next time on GC:The Steel BEast, Sally goes on her Rite of Passage to become a true krogan, but what will she discover inside those Catacombs? WELL YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT. Until then, BYE BYE :P