2167

The cold was slowly starting to seep into her bones. Her fingers were practically frozen solid as were her toes and her breath whirled around her head in white, shapeless clouds. She felt as if she were freezing to death, but she'd much rather be out in the snow and ice than inside her house listening to her mother's sobs.

"They're like goddamn concentration camps. I don't fuckin' blame her."

She looked at her sister, frowning. "How do you know?"

"I fuckin' hear things, A." Jack paused, her large brown eyes running over Aislinn's face for a moment. "You've heard the stories too, right?" For a moment Aislinn was taken aback by her sister's sudden worried expression. Jack normally kept her emotions, other than anger, to herself but for her to slip up, well, that was unexpected.

Aislinn sighed as she wrapped her arms around her knees, playing with the frayed hems of her jeans. "You don't think they'll do that to us, though, do you?"

"Of course they will. As soon as we turn eighteen the Guardians'll be knockin' on our front fuckin' door. And shit, our parents have to let us go, see, because it's part of the law. We'll never fuckin' see 'em again."

"I don't know about that. You really think the Creators won't let us see mother ever again?"

Jack cast a dubious look her way, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't fuckin' know."

Aislinn turned her head and looked out, watching as the snow fell onto the trees in the distance. "Mother should have let John go."

At that revelation, Jack sat up straight and forced Aislinn to meet her eyes. "Wait, she fuckin' said no?"

Aislinn nodded, her heart feeling heavy. Jack's eyes left hers and she leaned back again.

"Well, shit. That's not fuckin' good at all."

At this, Aislinn sighed and tightened her grip around her knees. "So say we all."

2168

"Wait – Aislinn just fuckin' slow down!" Jack cried angrily, reaching out and wrapping her hand around her sister's forearm, jerking her around. "What the fuck?"

"You made me look like a fool," Aislinn hissed, her eyes sparking in barely contained fury. Jack stared at her.

"Me? What the hell did I fuckin' do to make you look a goddamn fool? You did it to yourself!" Aislinn jerked her arm out of her sister's grasp, her body starting to tingle with her biotics. No, not now! she thought frantically as her fingers gripped the strap on her bag so tightly her knuckles turned white, her nails dug into her palm so deeply she had bloody crescents. Her breath sped up and she tried to control her breathing.

"And how did I turn myself into the laughing stock of all of Grissom?" Jack barked out a laugh, tossing her head back and stepping away.

"You're not fuckin' serious are you? If you are, I have to question your fuckin' sanity."

The scorching impulse to tear her sister's head off was terrifying. Terrifying not because she had the impulse but because the thought alone caused a sickening warmth and flood of adrenaline to burst through her veins leaving her feeling light and free.

"As a matter of fact, yes I am 'fuckin' serious'! All I was doing was pointing out how the Creators have bettered our lives, how they've given us so much and we are – all of us – so ungrateful. But you," she spat, and that did it; unable to control her anger any longer, she slammed her hand into Jack's shoulder, blinking rapidly against the hot tears that burned the backs of her eyes, "had to make fun of me in front of the entire school." She felt as if her head were splitting open. Her brained burned, tore and shrieked at her as if there was a creature trying to claw itself out and dominate her. The more she fought, the stronger the creature became.

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Jack shouted, shaking Aislinn from her ghastly thoughts. She rolled her eyes, reaching up a shaking hand to loosen her bun. "Of course I am!"

"Are you sure? What you're fuckin' sayin' is insane," Jack whispered fiercely, steering her sister off to the side. Aislinn looked at her, her eyes going wide and she quickly looked around to make sure no one heard what Jack had said.

"That's blasphemous!"

"It's the truth, A! A year ago you hated the Creators and now – now you talk about them like they are the best fuckin' thing ever." Aislinn jerked her bag higher up onto her shoulder, her eyes scanning the crowd desperately. Jack was being unreasonable and if she was unwilling to listen, well - then she was done with her and that was her immediate thought before she mentally shook herself and was appalled at her line of thinking.

"I have grown up and I now understand them. Look at what they gave us, Jack! Spaceflight, natural biotics, and peace!" Aislinn dictated passionately. Jack gaped at her as if she had just morphed into Lucifer himself.

"Peace? Fuckin' peace?" Angrily, Jack gripped her sister's bicep, jerking her around and forcing her to watch the vidscreen. She pointed to the news. "Does that, all of that death, look like goddamn peace?"

The vidscreen showed outrageous footage of a rebellion on some distant planet in the outskirts of the Creator's realm that the galaxy cared little about. Aislinn tried to look away, but she watched, transfixed, as a small, blonde boy staggered out from behind a billowing stack of thick, obsidian smoke. His face was covered in burns, most of them second degree and a lot of them third. His shirt was torn to shreds and covered in blood of all colors as were his jeans. Sluggishly he raised his right arm where there was no hand to be found. Instead, he was holding it in his left.

Aislinn anxiously brushed her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear nervously. She let out a breath and collected herself before replying, "What you're implying-"

"I'm telling you the fuckin' truth, you stupid cunt! Does that little boy look like he is bleeding glitter and goddamn rainbows? Jesus Christ A, what the fuck happened to you?"

"If the Old Ones and the Collectors hadn't started fighting against the Creators, that little boy wouldn't be an innocent victim. If he'd come to Grissom then he'd have been able to protect himself! Jack when it comes down to it, what you're saying is – is blasphemy," she whispered savegly.

Jack stared at her. "No, what I'm saying is pure, cold, hard truth. You act like you want to go to HBTP." Suddenly, something clicked. Aislinn's attitude changed. Her body tensed, her face shuttering out her emotions, her eyes glazing over and her voice went flat.

"It is our duty, our obligation, to serve the Creators. I will gladly go to the human biotic training program on Rannoch." Again, her attitude changed. Her body loosened and she blinked, a look of confusion sliding over her face before she shook herself, her silver eyes focusing on her sister. "Jack, I have to get to the Citadel or I'll be late for work. You know how Lady Benezia gets when I'm late." She turned and walked off briskly, disappearing into the crowd.

Jack stood there, rooted to the spot, and was left wondering what was happening to her sister.

2169

The pounding of the sweltering water was a sweet release to her aching and weary muscles. She pressed the palms of her hands against the tiled wall and bent her head beneath the spray. She closed her eyes and breathed the humid air into her lungs, relishing in the heaviness. For once in a very long time she felt alive.

For a moment she was free and drifting on the warm, enveloping steam. Free from her racing thoughts, the tightness of her burning brain and the uncontrollable loss of her own consciousness.

Of course, now she was thinking about it all. It was painful; oh, so painful and heartbreaking.

She felt like a walker rising from the ash, trying to run but not lasting; doing things against its natural instincts. She was losing control of her mind. She couldn't separate which thoughts were hers and which weren't anymore. She was losing control of herself.

She was scared, terrified more like, and she had no one to talk to. There was nothing anyone could do to fix it and she knew that, accepted it. She knew it was the Creators, but how could she tell anyone about it and not sound like a crazy person or worse, a traitor?

She was the walking dead, darkness racing through her mind and she was caught in the fire. She had to breathe in the flames, eat the bitter ash and suffer through to survive. If she could survive, she thought bitterly.

She was either dead or alive, but couldn't decide which. Not when she couldn't think, feel or even act for herself.

More often than not she thought about surrendering to the creature that had clawed deep, bruising marks into her grey matter that left her reeling and breathless.

Seething, she slammed her fist against the tiled wall and the dark energy slapped against the slickness, the resounding sound was like a firework going off. The tile split and spidered under her knuckles, cracking and moaning before falling to the floor, catching her toes.

"Shit!" she cried out, jumping back and slipping on the wet floor. She tried to catch herself, her hand reaching out and feebly grasping for the rail, but failed. In a surge of anger and bitterness, she let her biotics flow through her.

They slithered through her veins, searing their way into her bones, snaking their way up and scorched themselves into her epidermis. They burned her skin as the blue hue of her natural vanguard biotics visibly danced their way over her and shot out, tethering around the railing and jerking her upright as she screamed in pain.

She laid her forehead against the broken tile, panting and trying to catch her breath. Quietly she sobbed, banging her fist against the cool wall. She hated being so vulnerable, so easily ruled by instinct that those monsters had 'blessed' them with.

She hated them with a passion so great it threatened to tear her asunder. Jack was right, so inevitably correct, but she couldn't say that. She was barely able to admit it to herself.

The creature lifted its head to scent the air and smirked in amusement when it realized that she was more vulnerable than she had ever been.

"No," she whispered, her fingers tangling in her hair and gripping it so tight that it brought tears to her eyes. "Not now, not ever. Please," she begged.

Satisfied, the creature reached out its massive claws to dig into her skull, slicing her open and leaving her bloody and broken.

The last thing she remembered before she blacked out was the dark feeling that was rapidly spreading through her.

She'd lost control.

2170

"I'll take that," came a deep flanging voice from behind them as a three fingered taloned hand plucked the smoking cigarette out from between Jack's long, slender fingers. If looks could kill, she would have killed him three times over.

Aislinn rolled her eyes, but spun around quickly. Cocking her hip and thrusting out her breasts, she batted her almost invisible lashes at the turian, her lips curling at the edges in a lascivious smile. "Instructor Kryik," she said softly, reaching out a hand and running it over his carapace. "It's free time. Surely we can," she paused, stepping towards the turian who was regarding her with something akin to lust, "relieve stress in any way that suits us?"

He stood there for a moment, his mandibles twitching, as he looked at Aislinn. Carefully he wrapped a hand around her bicep, her smile deepening and her eyes promising things that should be illegal, and cast a look at her sister. "Jack, might I borrow your lovely sister for a while?"

Jack snorted, disgusted by both her sister and their instructor. "Only if I can have my fuckin' cigarette back, asshole," she sneered.

He tossed the mentioned object at her feet, steering Aislinn away.

As they turned the corner, Aislinn looked back over her shoulder and winked at her sister. Jack shook her head, lighting the smoke, inhaled a deep and satisfying amount of nicotine while thinking, This is some fucked up shit.

2171

"You can't take me on," the dark haired girl called across the courtyard, smirking.

Aislinn tossed her head back, her lips pulled back at the edges in a dark smile, her eyes closed as she inhaled through her nose and shook out her long mane of fiery tendrils.

She relished in the searing surge of her biotics as they danced up and down her spine, coiled around her wrists and tightened at her ankles.

She dropped her head down until her chin was almost touching her chest, her silver eyes opening only to narrow and focus on her target. Not a single turian could break her focus.

She was ready and so was her target. "I'll take you to hell myself," she said as her lips pulled up at the corners in a smirk, her husky voice carrying across the courtyard to where Miranda stood, poised and ready to charge.

Their actions were instant and primally feral. They charged; their bodies surged forward and slammed into each other.

The swell of dark energy collided, undulated and erupted outwards. The sound was deafening, the noise analogous to a deep, angry rumble of thunder. The windows imploded, shrieking and shattering, the glass flying in all directions.

Aislinn crouched down, leaning over Miranda, and pressed her lips close to the girl's ear, "Don't ever tell me what I can't do."

2172

"Promise me you'll take care of her," her mother said, coming to stand beside Jack as they both looked out the window and watched Aislinn as she laughed, tossing her head back and hanging on two turian males, who gripped her waist possessively and were shooting daggers at the asari that was speaking to her.

Jack's eyes fell away from the unnerving scene in front of her, suppressing a shudder at her sister, and swallowed. When had she become so different? When had she changed and become someone that Jack didn't even recognize?

"You have to promise me, Jack." Their mother pleaded.

"I don't know if I can," she whispered, closing her eyes before a tear could escape. "I don't even know who she is anymore."

"It's the Creators." Her mother's soothing tone confirmed.

"They're not the-"

Immediately her mother pressed her hand against her mouth, shaking her head. "Don't, Jack. They're always listening; they know everything and see everything. You have to promise to protect her from herself, Jack. You're her sister, her blood, and you'll be going off with her to Rannoch. The Creators have seeded her and I don't know if you can bring her back from that, but just know it'll only get worse after your training has finished."

"I've tried protecting her from herself," Jack said softly, chancing a look out the window only to look away again.

"Try harder," her mother whispered vehemently. "She can't end up like your father."

Jack started, her eyes searching her mother's face. "I won't let her. I promise you. I'll do everything in my power to help her."