CHAPTER THREE: I Was Lightning before the Thunder

Habitat 7 is a hellhole, Tris is certain. He's died and been sentenced here as his punishment.

It's hot inside the armor, even as the wind threatens to throw them off the cliffside. The air is hot, ripe for storms. They have to hurry through unprotected areas that don't have a roof above it, no matter how long that area might be. Racing lightning is not something he ever thought he'd have to do in his lifetime.

Back on Earth, this wouldn't have been an issue, he can't help but think, sourly. This is why he didn't want to come to Andromeda.

Could have stayed on the nice, warm ship, Dad. He runs for cover, listening to lightning strike at his heels. Could have listened to Captain Dunn and the scanners. He makes it into cover at the same time as Liam, their gaits in unison. But no, always have to get your way, don't you? And have to drag everyone else along with you. He takes a brief second to catch his breath, before they continue forward. When they emerge on the other side of the roofed area, there is a cliffside they have to climb quickly, if they want to keep going.

For a brief moment they share a look.

"I'll go first," Tris says, readying his biotics to help him jump again. That maneuver has come in handy so far, attempting to dodge lightning but using his biotics to fling himself to the side, forward, or backward quickly.

He inhales steadily, then darts forward quickly to fling himself through the open air, using his biotics to push himself with more momentum so he can make it the distance to the rockface. He lands on the edge, but assumes Liam will have better luck since he actually has his jump jets. He doesn't have time to look back, however, as he still very much exposed, and climbing higher and higher through jumps and landing on rocky edges. He nearly loses his balance on one of them, but manages to throw himself forward at the last minute, and brace himself on his arms to keep from falling flat on his face. Not his most graceful maneuver, but at least he's still alive and didn't fall into the seemingly endless abyss below. He pushes back to his feet and chances a quick glance behind him; Liam is a few rocks behind, but keeping pace and hasn't been struck by lightning yet. Small blessings.

He exhales through his nose, and then inhales deeply before charging his biotics for one last, big jump onto the solid landing above them, the end of this rocky hellhole. Almost there. Almost there!

He jumps.

For a moment he's flying. Then he's falling, far too soon.

No. No!

He uses his biotics to fling himself forward midair, and his feet hit the edge of solid ground. His heels hover momentarily in empty space, before he starts to fall backward. He wheels his arms, throwing himself forward, but without his heels to help brace him it's more difficult than it was before. One last shot of biotics sends him flying upward a few feet, where he then flings himself forward once more, solidly onto safe ground. He lands shakily, feeling his muscles throb and ache in protest of using so much energy, and his stomach growls loudly, reminding him he's low on protein if he's going to keep using his biotics like this. He was already tired before, but now… His head is throbbing and if he focuses for too long, his vision starts to blur. He blinks it away and looks behind him, to watch Liam land safely.

The lightning seems to have died down, now that they aren't between a wall and open air on the edge of the world. There's walls on either side of them, tall and rocky, winding all the way up. Lightning strikes up there, but not down in this crevice they're walking through.

"You okay?" Liam asks.

"I'm great," Tris says. "Let's keep moving."

xXx

It's not long before they come across the wreckage of a shuttle. The smoke gets thicker in the air the closer they get, and there's small pieces of the shuttle's shell broken all around them. They continue forward, and find the bulk of the debris, a lot of it surprisingly still intact. That means the chance for survivors is higher, at least, and at least they can get some supplies, if the supplies made it.

Just outside the bulk of the shuttle, there's a body on the ground. The pilot, Tris thinks. Flung from the wreckage, his body beaten and broken and twisted. He quickly sidesteps it and keeps forward, steadfastly not looking at it for more than a second. Liam inhales sharply behind him, evidence he's seen the body as well.

A shadow moves among the wreckage. Instinctively, Tris hunkers down behind a large rock, causing Liam to do the same. Well, at least the guy can follow orders, however indirect they might be.

How do you know it's not friendly? A voice in his head whispers, sounding oddly like his sister. It's probably Kirkland or Greer and here you are hiding like a coward. You're so paranoid about everything.

He shoves the voice away and peers around the rock at the shadow.

Shadows, now, because there's two of them. They're not very close together, but they're there all the same, and they are definitely not human. Not Kirkland or Greer.

There's a native species on this planet? Shit. What's the protocol for this, again?

"First Contact?" Liam whispers, obviously having seen them as well.

"Fuck me. I guess," Tris hisses back. What did I do to deserve this? I should not be among the first humans any species has to have First Contact with.

The aliens are in full armor, and holding strange, green assault rifles. They don't exactly look friendly, but then, Tris surmises, no one would be too friendly if a strange shuttle crash landed near their home; they'd instantly be on-guard and on the lookout for the intruders.

We're 600 years away. We're the aliens here. They don't know what humans are.

He's really not equipped for this. Why him? Why give him First Contact?

"We should probably go out without our guns in our hands."

Tris snorts. "And just give them the advantage?"

"We're the strangers here," Liam points out.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know." Tris huffs, shaking his head. "Alright, fine. But the minute they so much as look at us funny..." I'm charging them in the face.

They step out from around the rock, and head toward the two shadows, spreading further apart as they do so. The shadows spin toward them, guns trained on them immediately. They speak in a language which grates on Tris's ears, and one he has no hope of understanding. His translators won't pick it up.

"Hello," Liam says, and both gazes flicker toward him briefly, though the guns remained trained on both of them. They take a few more careful steps forward, but those guns aren't lowering, despite the smooth, amiable tone in Liam's voice. "We're all friends here; we mean you no harm."

Tris sees the shot before he hears it.

In the next second he's simply reacting. He uses a biotic charge, but not toward the enemy. Instead, it's toward Liam, and he manages to reach the crisis response expert before the bullet does. They crash to the ground from the sudden momentum, and the bullet whizzes over their heads. Tris scrambles back to his feet, pulling his own assault rifle free, firing rapid shots at the two alien figures, giving Liam enough time to scramble for cover. By the time the clip is empty and the aliens have a chance to return fire, from behind their own rocky cover, Tris feels ready to use another charge, the throbbing in his head dying down just enough he can focus again. This concussion really sucks.

He charges at the furthest alien, ramming into it with the force of his body, the edge of his shoulder knocking painfully into the thing's solid chest armor. They don't hit the ground; instead he hits the alien like he hit a solid wall, and it's painful and jarring and knocks the breath from his lungs. A moment later he's dodging as the alien takes a swing at him, mistakenly putting just enough distance between them for the alien to use its weapon without it backfiring and hurting itself, too. For a brief second, Tris stares down the barrel.

Then a shot rings out, but it's not the alien's. The alien staggers back a step, a hole in it's greenish armor. Tris feels a presence behind him and spins around to find the second alien aiming at him from a few yards away. He charges at the alien, slamming into it as well. It's, thankfully, a little more squishy than its comrade and he manages to knock it back a few feet, though it remains standing. Tris brings his assault rifle up, his shoulder throbbing from ramming into the aliens. He fires a rapid series of shots right into the alien's head, dropping it quickly. When he turns to face the remaining alien, it's just in time to see it drop to the ground as well. Liam stands from his cover, gun smoking.

"They attacked us," Liam says, frowning.

"They gave us no choice," Tris confirms with a nod. They had to kill the aliens. It was self-defense. He approaches the body he downed. It doesn't look like anything he's ever seen before, that's for sure. He shakes his head.

"You think the others are okay? I don't see them here," Liam says.

"I'm sure they're fine. Maybe they went looking for help," Tris tells him. Or maybe they fell out like we did.

"Yeah, maybe. We should keep going, yeah? Look for the others? The other shuttle?"

"Yeah, that sounds like the best bet."

It occurs to him only then that the other shuttle might have crashed, too. His family might be dead.

He feels... disappointed, but not really sad. More angry.

This is what happens when you don't stop to think of the consequences, Dad. This is why you should maybe, just MAYBE, listen to the captain of the Ark Hyperion. Captain Dunn said coming down here was a bad idea. Their sensors were going haywire with the strange energy field in space, but what they got confirmed that this planet was not, in fact, a golden world like they were told it was. Habitat 7 is not home. But no, Alec Ryder just had to come down here and see for himself, and drag everyone else down with him. And now he and his sister might be dead, and it's hard to mourn a family you said goodbye to years ago.

"Lead the way, Recon Expert," Liam says.

"Riiiight," Tris says, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, you handled yourself well back there. Good use of biotics, and you handled a gun pretty well."

"Uh... thanks," Tris says, moving away from the bodies. He's never been very good at compliments, or being thanked, or being the center of attention. It's just so strange to him.

"Where'd you train?"

"Here and there," Tris tells him. Admitting to his past is like signing his given name on paper. Tristen Ryder ceased to exist a while ago, if only on paper. Telling Liam he was in the Alliance could possibly allow the man to track down his history, and he's just not okay with that. He can feel Liam's gaze on him, even without turning around. He sighs. "Look, I really don't want to talk about it. It was 600 years ago, it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"I guess not."

"Anyway, you handled yourself pretty well, too," he says, turning back to face the man. "Saved my ass, too."

"I guess we're even," Liam says, grin evident in his voice.

Tris laughs. "Sure, sure, we're even. Where'd you train?"

"I was in crisis response," is Liam's response.

Tris knows that, but not because Liam has told him. He looked Liam up before they got ready to leave, once he realized he was probably going to be working with him a lot.

"That must have been interesting," he says.

"It was."

"We should probably keep going. Maybe the others are nearby."

"Lead the way."

xXx

"No, please-!"

The voice is desperate, and nearby.

They share a quick look.

"Isn't that...?" Liam starts.

"Kirkland," Tris confirms.

They round the rockface and find a group of those strange aliens surrounding Kirkland, who is on his knees with his hands raised in peace. One alien walks around him, pistol in hand.

Tris's heart hammers in his chest. They're going to shoot him.

They fired at Tris and Liam without provocation. Despite Kirkland being on his knees, they are going to shoot him, too. He just knows it.

He charges before the alien can raise its gun. Distantly, he thinks he hears Liam shout his name, before he slams into the alien closest to Kirkland. The pistol goes flying from its grasp, but it's a solid force against his moving force, and he comes to an abrupt, breathless halt, staggering back a step. Kirkland spins enough to look up at him with wide eyes, and then the other aliens are firing at them. Tris has no time to think, he simply reacts.

He charges in front of Kirkland, raises his arms, and flings up a barrier. It's messy and not at all large, but it's big enough to cover himself, and he covers Kirkland behind him. The barrier won't hold, though; already chips are being made. Barriers were never his strong suit, hastily learned before he decided to quit his family altogether, and now he's regretting not continuing his training outside of the Alliance and his family.

Liam is already giving return fire, though, which leaves the other aliens flinging themselves behind cover. For a brief moment, there are no bullets barraging his barrier. There is, however, an alien behind him.

The alien has recovered its pistol, and Tris cranes his neck around to focus on the alien, keeping his hands positioned in front of him to hold the barrier. He can't do anything; if he moves, the barrier will fall and they'll be open targets for the group of aliens. If he doesn't do anything, this alien will shoot him in the back. All he can do is watch as the alien lifts the gun. Hopefully Kirkland will be able to run while-

Kirkland has managed to free his pistol from its holster, and fires at the alien now that the attention is off him. The bullet catches the alien in the leg, downing it. It keeps a hold on its gun but Kirkland fires again, shooting it in the head this time, now that he has a better angle since he's still on his knees behind Tris. Tris exhales slowly, and returns his focus in front of him. They need to move; he can't keep this barrier up forever. Liam is doing a good job of holding them off, but he'll run out of ammo eventually.

"Kirkland," he says through gritted teeth, "I need you to run behind cover. I can't keep this up for long."

"What about you?" Kirkland asks.

"I'll be fine," Tris assures him. "Now go!"

Kirkland pushes to his feet. Tris keeps his gaze focused in front of him, but listens as Kirkland's footfalls get further away. He counts to ten in his head, and then drops the barrier. The effort leaves him staggering somewhat, his head throbbing painfully behind his eyes, causing little splotches of darkness to creep into his vision. He blinks it away and charges at the first alien to step out of cover and attempt to come at him.

It's just as solid as the last one, and this one manages to backhand Tris with a powerful swing, forcing Tris a few steps away from it. It raises its gun, and Tris curls his fingers into a fist, jumps up, and lands in a crouch, slamming his fist down hard into the ground to create a biotic nova. The force of it throws the alien back and leaves Tris feeling more than a little drained; he feels open and vulnerable. Novas are great, but they take a lot of energy and leave him feeling exceptionally exposed and exhausted for a good ten seconds, which is sometimes all it takes for an enemy to get in a good shot.

He spins quickly, finding another alien coming at him. He charges to meet it, and jumps back before the alien can swing at him. In the second it takes for the alien to raise its gun, his own assault rifle is already raised, and he fires without aiming. The alien drops to the ground, dead, and he turns and charges at another.

Between himself and Liam's covering fire, the enemy aliens are dispatched quickly enough.

At the end of it, Tris is surrounded by bodies and he's quivering like a newborn kitten attempting to stand for the first time. He's exhausted and hot and cold all at the same time, and if his head throbs any more he's going to shoot himself just to end the pain. He closes his eyes and tries to focus on breathing; the world spins around him, and he staggers briefly before he manages to catch himself.

You're okay, Tris, he tells himself. You're okay. Just breathe.

He inhales deeply through his nose, and exhales slowly through his mouth. After about five of these, he feels a little more steady. At least enough to finally open his eyes. The light threatens to blind him, the lightning storm far above against a gray sky, but he manages to keep his eyes open and seek out Liam and Kirkland. They are both hurrying toward him. He waves, aware his tired smile can't be seen because of his helmet.

"Are you insane?" Liam all but shouts, the minute he's close enough. Tris blinks at him, hand lowering. "Charging in there like that! They could have killed you both!"

"He saved my life," Kirkland says. "They were going to kill me!"

Their shouting is really not helping his head. He holds up a hand, this time for silence. Thankfully, they stop. "I gotta be honest, my head is killing me, and I really don't want to hear anything other than, 'oh, hey, I know where the others are, Tris; we should totally head that way right now.' In which case, thanks! Lead the way. And if you don't know where they are, then shut the hell up."

They both stare at him for a moment. He imagines their mouths gaping open, but at the moment he's too tired and pained to laugh at the mental image. "Yeah, that alien did backhand you pretty hard," Liam says. "I saw it from far away, but you did stagger back a little."

Tris stares at him. "I have a concussion," he says, unaware they didn't know until right this very moment.

"You what?"

"I got it before I entered cryo," he says. "Apparently concussions don't care if they've been around for 600 years."

"And you jumped out of a shuttle after me?" Liam asks, sounding in awe.

Oh, great. Just what I need. "I didn't jump after you," Tris says.

More like I fell. I fell after you. Not all that heroic, really.

"I can't imagine all that charging around feels good on your head," Kirkland says.

"It doesn't," Tris grunts. "But anyway ... the others? Do you know where they are?"

"Not too long ago, we saw a flare go up over that way," Kirkland says, gesturing. "We think it was the others letting us know where they are. I told Greer to run when the aliens showed up; I assume he went that way, looking for help."

"Brave of you," Tris says. "Alright, that way it is. Lead the way."

"I'm pretty sure they have a doctor with them," Kirkland tells him.

"Great, we'll have a powwow," Tris says, rolling his eyes. He really doesn't need anyone worrying about him; he's fine, if the world would just stop spinning so much. Just lay off the biotics for a while, take it easy, and breathe. You'll be fine. "Lead on."

Kirkland does just that, and they continue moving.

They don't get very far before there's a low growling.

"Um, what was that?" Tris asks. "Someone hungry?"

"Someone is, but it's not us," Liam replies.

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that."

The growling gets louder, but all he can see is the greenery of the ground and bushes, and the gray of the rocks and sky around them. There's a strange, alien-like structure jutting from the ground, but it's not technology like he's ever seen before. Then again, they are 600 years away from the Milky Way; that's to be expected.

The growling has turned into snarling now. Hungry, angry snarls.

And still he sees nothing.

Kirkland cries out suddenly. Tris spins to face him and finds the man on the ground, getting dragged. Blood spurts from his leg but there doesn't seem to be a source; just empty air around him. Is it cloaked?! Because that's just what they freaking need.

He doesn't know where to fire, but he brings his gun up anyway. If something does have him, it's safe to say its teeth are what are hurting Kirkland's leg, and trying to drag him off somewhere. Liam grabs Kirkland's arms from where they're clawing at the ground, attempting to gain purchase; he tries to get him to stop moving, but whatever it is jerks them both forward. It's strong.

He takes a chance, and shoots just above Kirkland's leg.

Blood spurts into the air as Kirkland's leg is dropped. The air shimmers and a creature comes into view, unlike anything he's ever seen. It's a strange looking creature, on four legs, with an oddly shaped head, and it can clearly cloak itself. There's now a hole in its face from where Tris shot it, but somehow it isn't quite dead yet. It locks angry red eyes on Tris and lunges at him. He fires quickly, grateful to have an assault rifle instead of a shotgun, just this once. By the time the creature gets to him, it hits the ground next to him, dead from the spray of bullets.

Tris exhales sharply, and looks toward Kirkland and Liam. Liam nods at him, and looks back down at Kirkland. His leg is a mess; Tris can see that from here, before he moves closer to them. It's spurting blood and the bite mark looks jagged and nasty. He needs a doctor.

Liam bandages it best he can, but there's really not much he can do; they fell out of the shuttle without their packs, and what they had was lost when the shuttle crashed. What he has now he probably kept somewhere on his person, in case of an emergency. Crisis response, after all. He is trained to expect the worst.

The patchwork job slows the bleeding, but Kirkland is in bad shape. He's pale and sweaty from the pain, but at least he's alert and breathing semi-normally. It's a little fast, but that's to be expected with the pain he has to be in.

"We need to get him to the others," Liam says. "But he can't walk on his own."

"Well, we're not leaving him here," Tris says.

"Go," Kirkland tells him. "I'll only slow you down. I'll have my weapon; I'll be fine. Just send someone back for me."

"We're not leaving him here," Tris repeats, not even looking at Kirkland.

Liam sighs. "Alright. I'll help him walk."

"Nah," Tris says, shaking his head. "My head is killing me, and he can't walk. You should take point. I'll help him."

The crease visible in Liam's brow tells Tris Liam does not like that idea. He doesn't seem the type to like to take charge; he's good at following orders. But jokes on him, because Tris doesn't like being in charge either. And he's exhausted. He's probably not the best option to take point at the moment.

Finally, Liam nods. "Alright." He looks back at Kirkland. "Just guide me as we go. You know where we're going; we don't."

"Alright," Kirkland agrees with a quick nod.

Tris wraps one of Kirkland's arms around his neck and guides him to his feet, his arm wrapped around Kirkland's waist to keep the man leaning against him and keep the weight off his injured leg. He looks over his shoulder at the downed animal. "Hopefully we don't run into more of those any time soon." He looks skyward. "But this planet is trying to kill us, so..."

"Let it try," Liam says. "We can take it."

"Well, with that attitude, how could we fail?"

"We can't."

Tris smirks. "Exactly."

A/N: Yeah, I kept Kirkland alive.

It was bullshit that you can't save him. I know his death is to show the kett are evil and blah, blah, blah, makes Liam angry, blah, blah, blah, but we didn't even get a CHANCE to save him. So. He's saved here. Because you know, Fisher doesn't exist, so. :)