Last Updated: 14th of March 2013
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Chapter 2
(revised)
We are, where?
"She's coming round."
But I really don't want to.
Everything hurt and her side was on fire. The very real, very present pain was the only reason she didn't bother questioning her mortality. Then again, if wounds hurt in dreams, knowing her luck, they would probably hurt in the afterlife too.
"I still say we should have left her to die."
I second that- ouch, thanks.
Sky wearily opened her eyes, thankful that it was dark out. She didn't think her body needed the extra stress of trying to orientate to brightness. Her head already felt like there were a million hammers slamming repeatedly into every nerve of her brain and she could not even come up with words to describe the pain on her waist.
"Don't you think there has been enough deaths already?" With a slightly clearer head she could make out the muffled voice as a female. The voice held a tired edge, with a small but distinct tinge of grief.
"Still… Better to let her die and get this over with than be disappointed later." The other was a boy, voice a little gruff from lack of use. It was low and rough, with a vibrating undertone that made him sound marginally more dangerous than the girl.
Or perhaps it was the fact that he was talking about killing her that altered her perceptions.
The girl sighed, "I know... But I couldn't just leave her there. Especially at the hand of those monsters. It was just too much like- like Eli."
"Yeah... I get it." There was a pause in conversation and some shuffling around. "But have you seen her...? She looks just like one of those girls from the ads. Skin and bones... How are we going to make sure she stays alive? And that wound..."
"We'll figure it out."
"We're supposed to stay alive, not take in orphans."
Now that she was alive and breathing, the desire to die slowly disappeared. Human voices? That meant that her chances of survival had just increased tremendously. With added incentive she turned her head, only to let out a loud, almost pitiful moan when the small movement led to a thousand knives shoving themselves into her brain.
The girl muttered something dismissive before walking over. The boy huffed, but left the situation alone for now.
"Welcome to the world of the living." The girl said, addressing her as she stepped closer to the makeshift bed, helping Sky up slowly. The stranger was most definitely Caucasian, but looked much younger than Sky had expected. She had short-cropped dirty blond hair and the strangest colored eyes that Sky had ever seen. In the dim lighting they seemed almost purple... Could she be wearing contacts?
"Thirsty?" the stranger asked, reaching behind her to grab a bottle of water. Not nodding with fear that any added movements would bring back the knives she just took the bottle gratefully and downed the entire content.
"Hey now, take it easy." The blonde warned, but made no move to slow her.
Sky nodded experimentally, the knives had settled into a dull throb that was much easier to handle. "Thanks." She replied in relief, handing the now empty bottle back the girl.
"You're welcomed." The water had a strange calming effect on her body: her thundering heartbeat slowed to its regular tempo and the big bucket of pain that she could only describe as her body felt more like her own. In fact, her torso no longer screamed with every movement she made. She raised an eyebrow at the smirking girl. "Painkillers." She explained as she casually waved her hand at the empty bottle.
"Where-" Despite the liquid she was given, her throat still felt parched and words were difficult to form due to her dry mouth. "Am I?"
Looking around as her eyes adjusted better to the darkness, she noted that they were in a stale white tent, its walls yellow from dirt and use. It was dimly lit by two lamps, similar to the small rectangular white ones that she often saw photographers use. There was a metal table towards the left corner, covered in odd-looking equipment that did not look familiar to her whatsoever. Sky also discovered that she was perched on one of the two makeshift beds, made out of wooden crates pushed together and covered with a thin cloth, and by her feet she noted two large backpacks, filled to the brim, together with more equipment that she did not recognise.
Honestly, she felt like she was in one of those zombie apocalypse movies.
But of course Sky didn't just mean, at which place was she located. She meant, where the fuck am I? What sort of weird voodoo dream is this? How the hell did I get this wound? And who the hell are you two? But something told her perhaps this was not the best situation to voice all her questions at once. A very wise decision considering what happened next.
A soft click and a whirl caught her attention immediately. Sky shifted her gaze to the other occupant in the room. Is that a-?
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. She thought as she stared straight down the barrel of a very large, terrifying looking gun.
"The question is, who are you?" Gulping in fear her eyes traveled from the gun to the person holding it. He was older than the girl; while the blonde had a teenage physique, this one was undoubtedly an adult. He had dark brown hair that looked almost black in the shadows and eyes as strange as the girl's. Siblings perhaps? Or cousins, but they were definitely related and the man looked too young to be her father. In another situation, perhaps she would have appreciated the way his muscle tee defined his sinewy good looks but for now all she could see was him pulling the trigger and her dying as a result. "Well?" he pressed, beautiful eyes narrowing as they stared her down.
Her tongue was lodged in her throat. "I-" she stammered, the fear rubbed her brain blank and she really could not think of an answer to give him. Who was she? Well, that should be an easy enough answer to give no?
Just tell him your name. Just say your name before he shoots your brains out Goddammit.
Trying to get hold of a situation that was unraveling fast, the blonde quickly stepped forward and placed her hand on her relative's arm, pushing it down firmly so that he aimed his gun elsewhere. "Gentle O, you're scaring her." She said softly before directing her sharp eyes at Sky. "Look, you don't have to be afraid. We didn't save your life just to kill you." she explained cautiously, "My name is Jane and this is my cousin Owen."
Sky swallowed hard, before saying, "My name is Sky. Short for Skylar Law."
Jane nodded, shooting her cousin a look that caused him to return one of anger before holstering his gun to his side. He moved to a metal table that stood at the side of the room and crossed his arms, still watching her with a look that harbored between suspicion and contempt. "Where are you from Sky? How did you get here?"
The gentle voice of the girl drew her attention once more. "Where exactly is here?"
Jane stared at her, frowning. "You don't know where you are?"
Should she tell her the truth? That she really, truly had no idea? Maybe it was the look of absolute lost that tugged on the other girl's heartstrings because the blonde then sighed and shook her head. "You're currently on a human colony called Mindoir."
"Mindoir?" Sky repeated, testing the word out on her tongue. Like an itch at the back of her mind she knew that word sounded familiar. Why did it sound so damn familiar? "Please…" She herself was surprised at the wariness and confusion that coated her voice. "I really just want to go home."
She hated how she sounded so small and insignificant. But home- oh home was her parents and her two annoying, yet absolutely lovable older brothers. Home was warm and painless and easy where homework was her only worry. Home was her darling boyfriend, Sean, and not large scary monsters trying to eat her or the sight of burning bodies. Home was a hot shower, clean clothing, and her soft, comfortable, king-sized bed.
The two cousins shared a look. Owen finally sighed at pushed himself off the table. "Sorry Sky, like Jane had said, we're all orphans now. There is no 'home'."
His words hit her like a ton of bricks. Could it be true? That there was no way for her to go back? But what would he know? Where are they from? The panic becoming clear and evident in her eyes as she scooted further away from the pair. Maybe they were the enemies here? Maybe they were the ones that brought her into this messed up situation.
Worse of all, her side was starting to burn again.
Jane turned to confer with Owen, whispering in hushed voices. Her mind had worked her up into such a state of fright that the words they uttered made no sense, something about 'slavers' and 'batarian' and 'run aways'.
"How did I get here?" Sky asked, interrupting the dark-haired boy mid-sentence.
Jane turned to her. "You don't remember that either?" Sky shook her head. "You were under attack by varren. We found you, and brought you here."
"Yeah. Wasting two of our medi-gel on the way." Owen added, ignoring the look that Jane shot at him.
Varren? The other girl must be referring to the creatures that she was so very sure spelt her death. Slowly, realization dawned upon her. Sky froze in disbelief. Coincidence maybe…? Because surely not…
The final chapter of Mass Effect, the best third-person shooter role-playing game that she had ever came across, would be coming out in less than a month, and because of that she had just finished her perfect play-through of ME2 in preparation. The details and information about the game were still fresh in her mind. No wonder the words sounded so familiar. How could she forget Mindoir…? The human colony that was Shepard's home should she had chosen to go down the 'colonist' path. Varren? They were always the annoyance that followed blood-pack members, nipping and biting at her heels, pouncing up whenever she was distracted in a firefight.
A joke perhaps? But the pain… The all too real sights, sounds and smells… No, it can't be a joke or a dream.
Even the use of Medi-gel made sense. And that strange, alien looking gun Owen was carrying.
Needing to test out her theory she asked, "What… What happened here? Why is everything so… destroyed?"
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He looked on suspiciously as the stranger fell silent. No gratitude? No words of thanks for saving her life at the risk of their own? What a brat.
Owen was not a mean spirit; no, in fact, before all this happened to his home he never once could have imagine even hurting a girl just because she was a 'burden'. A month ago, hell, even a week ago he would have knelt by her side and tried to comfort her with meaningless words, but would have tried all the same. He looked down at his clenched fists; he couldn't afford to be so kind anymore. His heart couldn't afford it.
He shifted his gaze to the girl, 'Sky' she called herself. She was very obviously South East Asian, probably of Chinese descendants, not that he knew much about other ethnicity of humans since he had never been on Earth, but they had to learn the basics back in school. She was reasonably tall, standing at 5'7" and had porcelain skin with long dark-brown hair that reminded him of his own. With expressive brown eyes and a small stature, she had a sort of meek, pet-like quality to her, something that he didn't really find unattractive.
Even now as his eyes subconsciously travelled up her long bare legs barely covered by a thin cloth they had thrown over her, he couldn't deny that she was a pretty girl. Owen had not met many Asians in his life and the degree of flawlessness in her skin and soft features surprised him. Even with dirt and blood covering most of her exposed parts, Owen was still a man; and it was somewhat hard to ignore a lingerie-clad girl, life and death situation or not, sitting right in front of him.
But it wasn't the fact that she was pretty that was the problem; it was the innocence that shone behind her brown eyes, framed with light lashes. Those chocolate brown depths reflected a kind of purity that he felt needed protecting, something that was once present behind his own cousin's eyes, something that he had failed to keep there, despite him trying his hardest.
Shut up. He told himself when he felt empathy slowly leaking into his chest. Closing his heart, he forced all hints of compassion out of his veins. The only one that matters is Jane. She needs to get through this alive. He returned to scowling at the dark-haired girl. And this brat is just going to make that all the more difficult.
"What… What happened here? Why is everything so… destroyed?" She asked timidly. Owen felt his anger flare up once again; was she mocking them? Did she really not know?
Her cousin grabbed his arm softly, in comfort or warning, Owen wasn't sure. But with that gesture he just clenched his jaws and kept his mouth shut. Better let Jane do the talking, he didn't want a sniveling, crying girl to handle, as much as he wanted her gone.
But still, as he searched Jane's hardened face, he felt a pang of sadness stab him in the chest. Although she was doing her very best to hold it all together he could see her fraying at the edges, could even hear it in the outer edges of her normally strong, confident voice as she went through the details of how they were under attack by batarians. And this hurt him. He had been taking care of Jane for as long as he can remember. Having lost his parents at a very young age, he was welcomed with open arms into his uncle's family. He remembered how ecstatic Jane was at the thought of having a new brother. After all, being a single child could be rather boring.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. It took Jane a while to break through his barriers, but she tried anyway, and never gave up even when he was cruel to her. He was grateful for that though; he shuddered to think what life would have been like if he didn't eventually open up to her and her family.
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So I was right. Sky thought to herself as she listened carefully to the blonde's description of what happened, all while watching her face for any signs of deceit. But all Sky could find was pain behind her stoic mask. Even though Jane's face remained expressionless, her eyes could not disguise the storm of rage and grief that erupted too close to the surface.
That kind of pain couldn't be faked.
Testing her luck once more she just had to ask the following question. I mean, what are the chances? "I know that this may come off as an odd question, but could I know your last name...?"
"It's Shepard, Jane and Owen Shepard."
Ah, she should've known.
Sky closed her eyes and sighed, struggling to disguise her inner turmoil. How could this have happened? Why? Lord, this should not even be logically possible! Maybe this was some sort of weird Final Fantasy like adventure where she was made out of pyreflies, or dreamt up into reality.
Either way, due to some unknown reason, she had somehow managed to land her ass in a Mass Effect remake.
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
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First things first, thank you very much for those readers that chose to follow me through. I really do feel like this was worth the change. I'm very glad that you decided to stay tuned anyway. Fraught not, I do aim to try to get this story up to date as fast as possible. However I do warn you that my mock examinations are next week so I might take a break for a while (Or maybe not, knowing my procrastination, writing might just be the reason why I don't study. =P )
Secondly, thank you for reviewing, again, like I said, I really do appreciate and take into heart everything you guys say. I really am not a brilliant writer and my English isn't top notched, so please do tell me if you have spotted a mistake or feel something is a little off. I'm trying to keep this as high-grade and realistic as possible.
Liege Lord, Helljumper 1337, Gummy'Fish'Lover, Nanobot5770, Rosiegirl52 and Death-Dimension, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you understand the reasons behind the change.
And to clear things up, the reason Sky got injured in the previous chapter shall be explained in due time! =]
But anyway, this chapter. What do you think? Realistic enough of a switch of POV? (If you had read my previous fic you would have realized that I never switched POVs there, another mistake I wanted to correct by changing it up) Do you think Sky reacted in a way that a normal person would have, if they were stuck in that situation? And most important of all, and it shames me to ask this, spotted any blatantly obvious grammatical errors? *blush*.
Either way, I hope you stay tuned for the next chapter!
Thank you for reading, reviewing and/or subscribing. See you next time.
Love,
Fee
xx
EDIT: Didn't change much here, just grammar and a little bit of the dialogue is all. Also, made sure that Sky's name is actually Sky. Gave her the last name Law.
Worth a re-read though. Attempted to describe more of the surroundings and also delve deeper into Owen's personality. Oh and description of Sky. =]
