Title: Ghosts
Author: May Chang
Warnings: general, adventure, AU
Pairings: M!Shepard + Ashley, M!Cousland x Zevran
Disclaimers: Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect are the property of Bioware
Author's Notes: Shepard is a Paragon/Earthborn/War Hero/Infiltrator.
Ghosts
Part Two
Shepard was stretching in the courtyard, thinking about what Leliana had told him after breakfast. The darkspawn sounded very scary, and unfortunately they also reminded Shepard of the oncoming threat of the Reapers. The thought of the Reapers made Shepard pause mid-stretch, thinking about his world before he gave a sigh and continued on. Running always helped with his thinking.
"You are going running?" Shepard looked towards the voice, seeing Leliana at the doorway. "Would you like to do some combat practice instead?"
"Sure," Shepard replied with a nod. "I'm warning you, I'm terrible with a blade." Leliana laughed at that as she joined Shepard, both of them picking up practice blades. He had practiced with Fergus and some of the other men and knew in comparison to them all, Shepard royally sucked with a blade. He had taken it all in stride as while he was no expert with bladed weapons, he was a master when it came to projectile weapons. The crossbow was the closest to a gun for him so that helped a lot.
"You are smaller," Leliana said and Shepard looked at her, seeing that she was eyeing him. "Much smaller than Aedan, but I'm betting you are quite fast."
"Sort of," he admitted. "There are others that are faster than me from where I come from. My background has me act more like a spy. I suppose in a way my work is very similar to yours." Leliana raised an eyebrow as they got into position. She had two daggers, Shepard noticed, and was holding them in a strange way. He had only one and he guessed that the way he held himself was just as strange to Leliana.
And then they fought.
"You fight strangely," Leliana said as she took a swipe at Shepard who jumped back to avoid it. Shepard twirled his blade as he circled around.
"It's the way that I was taught," he said. "Of course we don't usually fight people face to face." He stepped forward, and then was stepping back as Leliana attacked, weaving away from her.
"Oh, so you're more like an assassin," Leliana said.
"I suppose." Shepard successfully hit Leliana on the side, but winced when she hit him back with both blades. "I don't use a knife to kill people, I pick them off with my gun."
"Gun?" She rushed forward, attacking quickly. Shepard did his best to avoid her attacks.
"Er, it's something like a crossbow," Shepard said. He managed to disarm Leliana of one of her blades. "Much more powerful though." He moved forward again and Leliana retaliated with a swipe. He dodged back enough to be able grab her arm and flipped her onto her back. There was a surprised cry from Leliana and he finished up be pinning her arm down and the knife to her neck.
"What was that move?" she asked breathlessly.
"Something I learned from training," he replied with a grin. He pulled away the knife and helped the red-head up to her feet. "The knife and unarmed combat training are all purely defensive though. Maybe I can teach you a little if you tell me how you can wield two dagger at the same time without hurting yourself."
"Done," Leliana replied with a laugh.
Shepard wasn't use to oral story-telling, but he found it rather engaging. He decided that it had to do with the way Leliana told the stories that made it so fascinating. She was relating her adventures with Aedan and the others, and some of the more humorous moments between them. Fergus seemed to appreciate the stories as well, laughing with Shepard.
"Ah, but I suppose it's now your turn, Shepard," Leliana said. "Where did you come from? What is your story?"
"Where did I come from?" Shepard rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you believe me if I said I came from the stars?" Leliana raised an eyebrow while Fergus tilted his head. Shepard chuckled quietly.
"I was born in America, but I can't tell you who my parents were. Never knew them, to be honest," he said. "When I turned 18, I joined the military just to get away and that's it."
"Surely that's can't be all there is?" Leliana asked, pouting.
"He was a hero," Fergus said, causing Shepard to give a shrug while Leliana's eyes brighten in interest.
"It wasn't much," Shepard explained. "Like I told Fergus, I was just at the right place at the right time."
"You should tell her the whole story or she's going to start needling you," Fergus said, amused. Shepard laughed at that and proceeded to tell Leliana and Fergus the story of how he became a hero throughout the Alliance. By the end of the story Leliana's eyes were shining and a smile was on her face.
"That was amazing, Shepard," she said. "You are much too modest, trying to hide such things."
"Its things like that that gets me a little too much attention," he replied drily. Leliana laughed.
"That's true. A spy like you wouldn't be able to work if everybody knows your face," she said. "So how do you think you got here?" Shepard leaned back into his chair, staring at the ceiling.
"Who knows?" he replied. "I just remember that I was trying to get my crew off of the ship when I got hit by an explosion and was spaced. I know I was falling through the atmosphere and then... And then I woke up here."
"You were under attack?" Fergus asked alarmed.
"Yeah." The commander crossed his arms and looked at Fergus and Leliana. "There were ships of people disappearing and I was tasked to find out what was happening. A warship came out of nowhere and attacked us." He looked away, suddenly worried. He had managed to get Joker into the escape pod but he wasn't positive if it had been launched before the explosion.
It made Shepard realized that he needed to find a way home, as soon as possible.
"Are you alright, Shepard?" He looked at Leliana who wore a concerned look on her face.
"I don't know if my people are okay," he said quietly. "I need to find a way back." There was silence in the room for a moment before Leliana spoke again.
"Shepard, when you are talking about ships, you are talking about boats, correct?"
"Boats?" He was confused for a moment before he realized his terminology was much different from their terminology. "Oh, no, they're not boats. They're, well, yeah, they're kind of, um, no, not really, actually, um..." He rubbed the back of his neck, really unsure as to how to explain the concept of space ships to people who still rode horses and fought with swords.
"Well, I mentioned before about the stars, right?"
"Surely that was a joke," Fergus said. Shepard shook his head and watched as the teyrn frown and lean forward in his seat, resting his arms on his knees. "You are serious. You lived among the stars?"
"Well, I didn't live in space," Shepard replied. "Well, not all the time, but I traveled through it mostly. In my world we have ships that fly through the stars. It's like your ships at sea, except we don't have wind to make the ships move. Um... huh, how do I describe an engine?"
"Then you're people are, what, mages?" Leliana asked.
"Mages? Mages are magic-users, right? Uh, no, totally not mages, unless you count... er, no we don't have mages," Shepard said. "We rely more on science and technology." The blank looks on their faces explained everything to Shepard and he chuckled.
"Well, you know how a smith crafts a sword right?" he asked. "I bet that when the first sword came about it was made of stone. Then someone found bronze and figured how to make it into a blade with fire. And then from there it was iron."
"An evolution of weapon," Fergus said. Shepard nodded.
"Yes, now apply that to your ships and weapons and armor," Shepard continued. "One day ships will be made of steel, swords will be able to fit in your pockets or, hell, one day maybe you'll be able to fly through the sky."
"Hold on, this is hurting my head," Leliana said, placing a hand onto her forehead. "You're saying that your people are so advance that it no longer needs swords and magic?"
"Well, we have biotics who could be considered mages in a way, but that's another complicated story," Shepard said, waving his hand at that. "We don't have swords anymore in my world – well, we do but swordsmanship like what Fergus and his men do in the courtyard, we don't have that anymore. Our weapon of choice tend to be guns which are—"
"Like crossbows but more powerful," Leliana said, repeating what Shepard had said that morning. Shepard nodded in response. "But you can still fight without this gun."
"True, but compared to you and Fergus, my training with a dagger is, well, basic," Shepard said, getting a chuckle from Fergus. "And I have to admit, my training is one of the best in terms of human military so hand-to-hand, I'm pretty sure I can best most people here. Hm... may have a little trouble with the guys that are twice my size though, which from what I've seen is every human male here so far." Leliana laughed as Shepard gave them a thoughtful look before breaking out into a grin himself.
Leliana left a couple of days later. Since then Shepard had been poring through the books in the library, hoping to find some answer though he knew it wasn't likely. The idea of science was a long shot to a world that used magic and swords. Shepard laughed quietly to himself; somehow he managed to jump from a science-fiction novel to a fantasy novel. Still it gave him something to do aside from combat practice and mingling with the townspeople.
It unfortunately made him think about his crew, and he wondered if Joker had been able to escape, if Alenko had found the pilot, if his crew were fine.
"Did you find anything?" Shepard started at the voice and looked up to see Fergus walking up. He looked down at the book, closed it and tossed it onto the stack of other books.
"No, and I doubt I will," Shepard said, rubbing his eyes with a hand. He looked at Fergus who gave him a thoughtful look.
"I have an idea, but... well, to be honest I'd rather not go there, but it is the best chance," Fergus said slowly. "You probably don't know about this but there's a place known as the Circle. It's a place that's filled with mages."
"...Mages," Shepard said. He was sure disbelief was in his voice because Fergus gave him a look. "Sorry, but in my world we don't have what I'm assuming as magic-users."
"I see." Fergus nodded. "I believe there's a book about the Circle somewhere in the library so if you wish to know more about them you can read them up. As is, the mages all have pull their spells from another world, perhaps they would have some inkling about your situation." Shepard nodded thoughtfully.
"I'll finish looking through your library first and then we'll see," Shepard said. "Thank you, Fergus." Fergus just smiled and with a nod, left the library.
[ Edit: ] 11/5/10 - Updated with more content
Whee, second part! It's going somewhere. ^^;