Born In Fire
Chapter II
This Is How It All Starts
"...There are bad times just around the corner,
There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky
And it's no good whining
About a silver lining
For we know from experience that they won't roll by..."
I struggled against the husk, trying to keep its questing hands away from me as possible while avoiding its snapping jaws. Dead, glowing eyes glowered balefully at me as I was slowly overwhelmed, mere flesh proving insufficient to combat the beast that had once been a living human.
Suddenly it twisted its head to the left and savagely bit my hand. Its teeth found my fingers, and cried out as it bit down with bone-crushing strength. I didn't feel my pinky and ring finger become liberate from my hand, at first, and I soon dearly wished the moment could have lasted longer. My whole arm exploded with pain, and in that moment my strength gave out for just a second. That was all that the creature needed, and in a flash it had a hand on my forehead, smashing my skull against the ground. My vision swam, and I had just a moment to scream as it lunged for my throat...
... And I found myself thrashing in a filthy bed, my horror changing swiftly to confusion.
For a moment I could only pant for breath, at once relieved that I had only been dreaming and concerned that I was in a place I had never been before. I scanned the room with wide eyes, trying to find something that might give me a clue as to where I was or what had happened while I tryied to recall my last memories.
Let's see, we'd gone alone with Jenkins' dumbass idea, but had heard something...
The room was dark, the only illumination coming from outside the room through a glass panel above a heavy metal door. It provided enough light to see a second bed and a threadbare comforter that had been carelessly discarded by the previous occupant. Above it was a poster, crude in design. Along the top was an illustration of an almost cartoonishly fearsome husk lunging at a cowering man. The bottom consisted of a list of some kind.
... The "something" had turned out to be a crazy lady who was either wearing a fridge or the heaviest armour I had ever seen, and she had been fighting a swarm of husks...
I squinted my eyes against the light, and tried to read as best I could.
Could you be indoctrinated? Found out now!
- Do you feel irrational impulses?
- Do you hear voices?
- Are you often confused?
- Do you have strange dreams that you
cannot remember?
- Do you find yourself drawn to unneeded
augmentation?
- Are you often confused?
- Do you know who you are?
If you are uncertain about your answers, contact your
superior officers or a medical proffesional.
Remember!
Indoctrination is endangers us all!
Wow. That was... wow. I didn't know what to think about that.
I looked around the room again, and found it bare. Jeez, this seemed more like a prison cell than somewhere you'd put someone recuperating from a fight.
Actually, judging by that heavyset door it probably was a cell. I hoped this wasn't the case, but I had to admit that it was well within the realm of possibility. Which was unfortunate, because there wasn't even a bucket in here to provide for the unfortunate but universal truth of biology: everybody poops. (I was actually of two minds on how I should feel about this: on the one hand I didn't have to use a bucket to relieve myself. On the other, I couldn't use a bucket to relieve myself, and eventually something was going to give. Ick.)
This could get very bad very quickly, as I could feel a mounting pressure in my bladder as the terror of my nightmare subsided. i was going to have an urgent need for the washroom before long or I was going to have to take matters into my own hands.
... I'd killed a bunch of husks, gotten the best gun in the world, and then been exploded.
And that brought me here, to this bed, in what was possibly a prison cell.
Well, at least I was still in one piece. No lost limbs or horrific scars for me!
But I was still going to need some context.
As if sensing my thoughts, the heavy door suddenly groaned and slid upwards.
Kaidan stood in the doorway, backed by the strange woman from last night. She was tossing an apple into the air.
My friend looked surprised, but happy. The woman showed no outwards reaction at all, apparently intent on the game of throwing and catching fruit.
"You're awake," Kaidan said, though he sounded as if he hadn't been expecting it.
"You're alive," I said in much the same way. Two could play that game.
Honestly, the way the husks had mobbed me I was just as surprised as he was that I was still breathing.
Kaidan made a face that I didn't know how to interpret, and sat down heavily on what I now assumed was his bed.
"Yeah," he said, subdued.
The woman in the doorway played with her food. Silence stretched.
Something was wrong, and I had a suspicion what it was. It was a half-memory, ringing in my ears.
"Jenkins?" I asked, even though I could guess the answer. I mean, it wasn't like I couldn't be wrong, was it?
But Kaidan shook his head ruefully.
"They got him," he said, and hung his head.
Hearing it hurt more than I thought it would.
I remembered his cry for help, his terrified pleas coming back to me with horrible revelation. I remembered dismissing his plight in favour of my own, my only attempt proving far too little far too late. I remembered that brief surge of excitement I'd felt when, for one brief moment, I had cut through husks like a scythe through wheat. I'd wanted to fight them more than I had wanted to run, and I'd indulged.
Now I wanted nothing more than to crawl back beneath my sheets and into my nightmare. The shame and disgust I felt... they were a physical ache in my gut and my bones. I felt like I wanted to throw up and break something, all at once
My friend was dead, his last words a cry for help.
Not aware of what I was doing, I punched the from of my dingy bed. I winced as the metal rang out and pain bloomed in my knuckles, but it didn't compare to the sick weight in my stomach.
"Be careful," the woman admonished sharply, the apple now held firmly in her hand. "That's government property."
Kaidan didn't react to her sudden intrusion to the conversation, but that was fine. I could do the reacting for both of us. I needed something else to think about anyway.
"Who are you?" I demanded, and I was surprised at how tight my throat felt. It was a struggle to force the words out. "Where are we?"
The woman gave a small nod of approval at my question, as if she'd expected this.
"I am knight Ashley Williams of the Chicago chapter," she answered as if she were making any sense at all. "And you are a guest of the Brotherhood's Southwark chapter, awaiting clearance from my superiors to be released."
"Released?!" so it really wasn't just my own imagination. This really was a cell! "We helped you!"
Ashley shrugged, and tossed the apple to me. I caught it without really trying, even without my glasses. I looked at the fruit in confusion, wondering what she intended me to do with it.
"Relax," she assured. "The Elders just want to make sure you haven't been indoctrinated before we let you two run wild. Can't be too careful."
A part of me didn't care about this entirely sensible and reasonable precaution. All it knew was that a friend had died, and now we were in a cell. It needed someone to blame, someone to be angry with, someone to hurt. It wasn't in control of me, happily, but it did make my blood boil and my hands curl into fists.
I forced myself to calm down a bit, difficult as it was.
Of course they'd be worried about indoctrination. Who wouldn't be up here while husks still prowled the streets? Who knew what Old World terrors, relics of the Reapers, remained? It was a danger I'd never encountered before, of course, but it was one that I was well aware of.
"Alright," I said, trying not to let my frustration show. "When do we meet with the doctor?"
Back in the vault, it had always been the responsibility of Dr. Michel to keep a watch for this sort of thing. I assumed it was the same up here. A thought came to me.
"And can they prescribe me some glasses?" I doubted it, but it never hurt to try. And it would stop me from getting headaches if I tried reading something.
Ashley gave me a funny look.
"You've already been examined by our medical personnel," she informed me. "They will not be involved in your test. Our methods are... simpler."
Well. That didn't sound ominous at all. Jenkins gave his life for this?
The thought needled at me. For a brief moment I wanted to shout at her. To grab her by the shoulders and just shake her. Or hit her. I wanted a fury so great that it blinded me to all else. But instead, all I could manage was sadness. It was a poor trade.
I looked down at the apple in my hand, knowing that I should eat it but unable to work up any kind of appetite for it. It didn't help that the fruit seemed a bit... off, possessing a certain wrongness of texture and shape. I tossed it to Kaidan instead, as he probably needed it more than I did after his use of biotics last night. It hit my friend in the chest, who looked up in surprise before catching it in his hands before it rolled onto the ground. He sized it up as well, and I could almost see the same thoughts running through his brain as they had through mine.
Kaidan was a very expressive guy. It was easy to see that he had just as much desire to eat the thing as I did, but not because of squeamishness.
Ashley picked up on our dour mood.
"Cheer up," she encouraged, and did something with her mouth that might have been mistaken for a smile if you'd had never seen one before. "Everything is going to be fine. We're not going to have you guys shot, or anything like that."
There was something in the way she said that that made me doubtful. Doubtful, and furious.
"Fine?" I snapped, irrational anger flickering to life in me. "Our friend is dead because of you! He died screaming! Because he tried to help!"
Ashley's "smile" withered in an instant, replaced instead by a scowl.
"Wrong," she coldly refuted. "You two are alive because of me. You especially."
She gave me a curt nod as she leaned her back heavily into the doorframe, letting it support her. Embarrassed anger flushed through me, all the more terrible because I knew it was true. but she didn't leave me off the hook.
"Your friend is dead because he brought a toy to a fight. Your friend is dead because he didn't have the sense to run," she listed off, with each sentence her voice growing firmer, harder. "Your friend is dead because the three of you thought you could play at being big damn wasteland heroes. The wasteland eats people like him. Like you."
She snorted, and shook her head.
"You're both lucky to be alive."
I glowered at her, hating her all the more because she was right. We had been idiots, and were lucky our foolishness hadn't costed us more.
Ashley's scowl softened back into something approaching neutrality.
"But don't think I'm not grateful. I was in a bad place, and probably wouldn't have made it out of there without you," she shook her head sadly. "It was the reapers who killed him. Every time the husks get someone, they win. With your permission, I would like to enter his name into the Codex. if you would give it to me, of course. His loss should be remembered for the day of reckoning."
"Codex?" it was Kaidan who spoke this time. He was looking terrible.
"It's where we record the names of those who have fallen to the Reapers and their servants," Ashley explained patiently.
Neither Kaidan nor I said anything for a while, both of us processing that titbit of information. While i still felt terrible, it was somehow comforting to know that we weren't the only ones who had known loss."
"I think-" Kaidan began hesitantly. " I think Jenkins would have liked that."
The depressing thing was that he probably would have liked it. It made it sound like he had been a part of something greater, not a victim of our own weakness.
"His name is-" I paused, and corrected myself with a wince. "was Richard Jenkins."
he had a middle name, I knew, but I'd never found out what it was. Now I don't think I ever would.
A flash of inspiration came to me. "Captain Richard Jenkins," I corrected myself again.
Ashley raised an eyebrow at this, and even Kaidan gave me a dubious look.
"he wasn't a little young to be a captain, don't you think?" the woman said doubtfully.
"Captain of the baseball team," I elaborated, and Kaidan's face lit up with understanding, and almost smiled.
Ashley nodded along with this, and then shrugged.
"I guess nobody needs to know just what he was a captain of, do they? Just so long as they avenge him."
A smile, brief and small, formed on my lips at her words, Yes, Jenkins would definitely like this. Being avenged just sounded cool. Y'know, if you absolutely had to be killed.
"Come on," Ashley went on, that odd "smile" of hers appearing once again. "Let's go get you two cleared, and then a real breakfast."
My stomach growled at the thought of food now that I wasn't feeling completely miserable.
But there was something I needed to take care of first.
"Do you think we could stop by the bathroom first?" I said, embarrassed. "I really need to go."
This caused the woman to chuckle for some reason, but she waved for me to follow her as she left the cell and went up the corridor. I found myself grinning, quietly relieved.
Ashley didn't seem so bad. I could grow to like her, maybe. Given some time.
I was wrong.
Ashley was a horrible person. A monster masquerading as a madwoman. Her mother had not loved her, and her father must have abused her terribly. There could be no other explanation.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" I screamed at the assembled men and women who were watching us from the next room, a pane of thick glass separating us from them.
Kaidan and I were pressing ourselves against a wall, and I was wishing that I could just melt into it. I'd be safe, then. And I could scream insults at the Brotherhood in peace.
Because the Brotherhood deserved that and more. I hoped they were sodomized with a train.
I turned my face to put just a bit more space between myself and the husk that was reaching for us with hungry hands. In doing so, I came to see the Brotherhood members. There were three of them: Ashley, and her two Elders in their silly robes. They were watching us critically, frowning thoughtfully. No doubt silently critiquing our display of sensibility. (And definitely not cowardice.)
A train made of razorblades and cheesegraters.
"I thought you said you weren't going to have us killed?!" Kaidan accused loudly.
Ashley bent down to speak into a microphone that stood at the base of the window.
"I said we wouldn't have you shot," she said through the intercom. "But that might change if you two don't stop being a pair of little bitches. Just hit it with your biotics and be done with it."
"You suck!" I screamed at them. It wasn't the finest insult I'd ever come up with, but I wasn't exactly thinking at my best. And I didn't have much interest in being reasonable to the people who had locked me up with a chained husk. Sodomy. Trains. Cheesegraters.
The room we were trapped in was very much like one of the small housing units in a vault. Everywhere we had been in this Chapter was like that, from the hallways to the bathrooms. It was like being in a bizarro version of my own home, populated by crazy people!
"Shepard, do you think you could lift it off the ground?" Kaidan asked desperately.
I shot him a look of disbelief. Et tu?
"Me?!" I hissed, resisting the urge to wipe my face of the husk's spittle. "I'm not the mnemonic matial artist here, jackass!"
I was under a lot of pressure, and I wasn't exactly appreciative of the opportunity to take on some more. Also, I liked my hands.
Seriously, though. What good were all those lessons of his if they never got put to use. I was most definitely not losing my hands to those bastards.
Kaidan grimaced.
"I'm tapped out," he said apologetically. "I used too much last night."
Shit. What was the hell did I gibe him that apple for, then?
"Dammit," I cursed, knowing there was no getting out of this. Still, I had no desire to be dignified about it. "I hate you all and I hope something terrible happens to you!"
Preferably something involving trains. And cheesegraters.
Before I could allow myself to think about it, I waved a hand at the husk, gettings its focus wholly on me. it took the bait, lunging at the vulnerable limb with a fresh howl. I hastily snatched it back and, still acting without without thought, launched myself from the wall with a fist aimed at the husk's face.
I was hugely satisfied with the impact I felt jolt up my arm, moreso with the way the creature staggered away from the blow. A lucky hit: it gave me more time to things right.
Biotics are surprisingly difficult to use, after all. Sure, it looked easy when child prodigies casually punched a dummy with all the kinetic force of a truck packed into a fist-sized ball, but it takes years of practice to get your nervous system to behave in just the right way to make it happen. Other people (me) struggled with jsut the normal kind of mnemonics, needing to move our whole body to do what others could do with a flick of the wrist. (Lucky bastards.) They said it was only a matter of practice, of forcing your body and brain to adapt, but I didn't believe it. They also said it was possible to do any of the biotic party tricks, but all I'd ever managed was a rather lacklustre ability to lift things.
And when everyone you know has biotics, that's nothing to be proud of.
Sometimes I think i took up sports just to stand out. My academics, stellar though they were, certainly hadn't been doing it.
I tried not to think of this as I, for lack of a better term, struck a pose and flexed. It sounds a lot manlier than it actually was, consisting mainly of me putting my leg out just so, leaning a bit her, holding my arms out as if I were some kind of desert prophet freshly home with a new beard and some fancy tablets, and then tensing my body in a very specific sequence.
The husk was halfway into a charge when my biotic field took hold of it. It floated upwards sharply, the power of its lunge no longer bound by the restraints of gravity and thus launching it forwards and upwards instead of straight at me. It growled and howled with impatient bloodlust.
I suddenly felt a headache coming on, a sure sign that I needed to eat something before I tried to perform any more feats of biotics.
So I turned to my friend, ignoring the husk as it bounced against the ceiling.
"You're up," I told him with a nod to the floating beast.
"Huh?" Kaidan grunted in confusion.
"Do your punchy thing," I instructed.
"Uh," he suddenly looked embarrassed. "You know," I don't actually know how to do any of that stuff."
I could only stare at him for a moment, all fear and thoughts of trains forgotten.
"What do you mean, you don't know how to do it?" I said blankly. "I've seen you. You punch thigns, and then they break. Impressively."
"Yeah, but it's not really a punch-"
"It looks like one," I accused.
"But-"
"Just do that, without the biotics."
"But-!"
"I can't hold thins thing up all day, you know!"
Kaidan slumped in defeat, slowly peeling himself from the wall with obvious reluctance. He dropped into a familiar stance, face full of consternation, and delivered a sharp jab at the husk's forehead as it floated gently downwards once more.
It detonated. Impressively.
"Fuck!" Kaidan cursed, recoiling from thee grisly mess he had made. Purple floid and grey matter hung in the air for only a moment before I allowed the field to drop. It all fell to the ground in a series of wet thuds and splashes. "My hand! That hurt!"
Suddenly I didn't feel too bad about not knowing martial mnemonics. i would hate for someone to hear me whine like that whenever I had to throw a real punch.
Oh god, was this what Ashley thought of us? Damn... we really were bitches.
But she still deserved a train.
"Well done," one of the Elders said, though he sounded more disappointed than anything. "Perhaps next time you encounter an unbound husk you will deal with it more efficiently."
Several trains. Carrying salt and sandpaper.
Ashley broke away from the two Elders and disappeared behind a wall. Not long after, the door she had tricked us through not long ago slid open.
"Right, no harm done," she said brightly, trying to set us at ease. Fat chance of that. Harpy-woman. "Now, I believe we owe you two a breakfast."
Oh.
Damn.
"You can't buy our forgiveness with food, you know," I informed her seriously. "you locked us in there with that thing."
Ashley shrugged dismissively at this.
"I did say our way was simpler," she reminded us. "Husks and the like don't try to kill the indoctrinated, and they won't hurt a servant of the Reapers. Double confirmation."
I resisted the urge to point out that only one of us had actually harmed the husk. i suspected they would just lock me up with another of the things. Instead, I let her guide us through the Chapter instead, intent on at least filling my belly.
I had noted the similarities of the Southwark Brotherhood Chapter and my own home before, and it turned out that I was justified in drawing them. It was a vault. Or rather, a display of one.
"Welcome to the vault," the VI that had uploaded itself into my pip-boy greeted me with synthetic warmth. "Thank you for using out patented Aegis Tech pip-boy! If you have any questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability!"
"Is there any way to shut this thing up?" I asked, more to Ashley than the thing itself.
"I'm sorry, please refine your query," the VI justified my lack of faith. Figures that they would be just as worthless Outside as they were inside the vault.
"No," Ashley said with a shake of her head." It seems to be hardwired into those things. They always respond to Aegis Tech signals."
I hadn't really been expecting her to respond in the positive. If no one in my own vault had managed it in over a hundred years, I doubted a bunch of crazy people squatting in a fake vault would fare much better. Still, I'd held out hope. The VIs could be really annoying.
Ashley guided us through the busy and sometimes crowded halls of the pseudo-vault, and I half listened to the ramblings of the VI as it droned out a sale pitch that was a century too late.
"We here at Aegis Tech know the importance of safety, and in these troubled times what could be more important? That's we we began the Vaulted Skies Project in 2183. We have worked tirelessly for years to provide you with a place of refuge in times of strife."
Aegis Tech must have made a killing when the Reaper War began. I can only imagine what a terrible irony that must have been: make a fortune by exploiting the fears of others, only for those fears to become reality. I suppose I was fortunate that Aegis Tech had taken their worth seriously. if not, I likely never would have been born.
"Once the door to your vault has been sealed, all records of its existence is deleted from our databases. Not even we will know where you are, ensuring complete secrecy."
yeah, somehow I doubted that. Someone would have to know, if only to make sure that nobody tried to build into one, or something like that. Secret from the government, maybe, (and even that was a dubious prospect,) but not their makers.
It felt strange to walk through a different vault, like someone had invaded my home and changed all the furniture around. Only instead of furniture it was rooms, and they were all filled with strangers. heavily armed strangers, at that. Everyone here wore the same bulky armour that Ashley had the night before... except for the youths. They wore lighter armour, and didn't carry the strange, blocky weapons that seemed so common. So common, in fact, that I just had to ask.
"Hey," I started out hopefully. "You guys seem to have a lot of cool hardware. I mean, guns. Laser guns. I don't suppose you could part with one, could you?"
Shit. I hadn't meant to sound so... crass. Even I wouldn't give me one.
Ashley froze midstep, and whirled on me.
"Our weapons are none of your concern," she said sharply, and then grimaced. She sounded apologetic when next she spoke. "Sorry. It's just that we've taken a long time to develop them, and the Elders would have the heads of anyone who knowingly allowed one of them to be lost."
Eh? But-
"So when you gave Shepard your-"
"I, of course, as a loyal knight of the brotherhood, would never let weapons entrusted to my care fall into the hands of the uninitiated," Ashley declared with hard look.
Ah. So, that's how things were.
"Oh," Kaidan said with a nod of understanding.
"Sorry for asking, then," I said, a touch mournfully.
Ashley continued giving us a glower for what seemed like a long time. And then she winked.
"I regret that my pistol was destroyed in the attack against my team last night," she grumbled. "It is a shame that it was lost."
What? Had it been ruined? I remembered dropping it. Had it been crushed underfoot the husks?
"Such a shame," she went on. "We can talk about it later. In private. When I can thank you for your help."
Right, I no longer knew what to think about Ashley. On the one hand, she was an evil harpy woman that had locked me up with a husk. But on the other she was willing to risk severe punishment to give me something she was expressly forbidden to give... or she was propositioning me. I didn't know what to think, either way.
What the hell? Was it too much to ask for some consistency?
"That sounds good," I said uncertainly.
"Look forward to it," Ashley said with a small grin. "Now then, let's get moving before the cooks finish with breakfast."
The mess hall was almost empty by the time we arrived, only a scattered few remaining. They didn't look up at our arrival, too intent on their own meals to to take notice of us.
"You two fine somewhere to sit," Ashley said. "I'll see if I can't find something that doesn't taste like ass for you."
And with that she left us to find our own way, disappearing into a neighbouring room that was no doubt a combination pantry and kitchen if it was anything like back home. Which it probably was.
We had barely sat down when someone else entered the hall behind us. I recognized him as the Elder who'd had something to say about the way Kaidan and I had performed during their little test. The bastard.
He spotted us immediately, and from the look on his face I just knew that he'd been looking for us. he wasted no time in approaching us, sitting at our table. next to me, in fact.
My first impression upon seeing him was that he looked more like a priest than a warrior. It was the robes: they somehow gave off a "venerable elder" style of vibe even though the man looked hardly a day of forty. And carried a pistol and a string of grenades on his belt. Although, I had to allow that maybe the Brotherhood lifestyle didn't allow for them to live past that age very often. it would have been forty years of hard living, if last night was anything to go by. It wasn't hard to imagine that anyone who lived long enough to get grey streaks in their their hair probably commanded some respect. (I wondered if, somewhere out there, someone was dyeing their hair for just this purpose.) There was stubble on his cheeks and a somewhat haggard look that said that even should this be pointed out to him he was probably too busy or tired to do anything about it. pale green eyes, looking like they had seen far too much and were resigned to seeing much more, bore into me. Weighing me. Judging me.
"Shepard, wasn't it?" he asked, and when I nodded he continued. "It is a rare thing to see a single biotic these days, nevermind two. How is it that the two of you know each other?"
Kaidan answered before me.
"We were all biotics," he said. "All three of us."
I wished he hadn't said that. That was volunteering information, and I didn't want to do that here. Not with him.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" I asked before the Elder could respond to Kaidan's statement. Tact was well and fine, but he hadn't even introduced himself yet!
"Ah, my apologies. I forgot my manners," he said, though he didn't sound very sorry. "I am Elder Damien Trask of the Southwark Chapter. I am in charge of this operation."
Oh.
I definitely hated him now.
"So, three biotics? Even more unusual. I think we barely have a score in the entirety of the Brotherhood. Now I am even more curious."
"We're all bioticss back-"
Dammit Kaidan!
"Home!" I broke in. The Elder would be suspicious, of course, but I just knew that I didn't want him to know where we lived. And the less he knew about it the less chance he had off finding anything out.
It was a pity nobody told him about that.
"Please, mr. Shepard, don't try to play games with me," Trask said, rubbing his eyes wearily. "I know that the two of you, most likely all three of you, came from a vault."
My stomach dropped, dread feeling like a stone on my insides.
"You're both wearing Aegis Tech omnitools, and Scribe Chakwas informs me that you are both implanted with more advanced versions of prewar biotic amplifiers. And you are also wearing vault jumpsuits," Trask rattled off, saying the last part with a disapproving frown. "While it is possible that the three of you simply scavenged these things, after your performance in the cage I truly doubt it. Let us try again, shall we? If you're going to lie to me, try to do better."
I felt my cheeks redden with shock and embarrassment. It didn't help that even Kaidan was giving me a funny look.
"Welcome to the vault cafeteria!" the VI said from Kaidan and mine's pip-boys, just to really drive things home. "All our facilities are powered by Aegis Tech's patented "Heart of Glory" reactors, which can provide nearly limitless power for almost seventy years! This ensures that your vault will certainly never run out of food, water or power even should the unthinkable occur! Here in the cafeteria our state of the art culinary bots are always waiting to serve you with food grown in your very own hydroponics labs!"
Yeah, rub it in you stupid machine. (Also, seventy years? That seemed a little low, considering almost a hundred had gone by.)
"Fine. We're from a vault," I admitted rancorously. "Why do you want to know?"
"Young man, I already knew," Trask sighed patiently. "I was just curious about the odd coincidence of there being so many biotics in one place. Your loyalty to your home is to be commended, but I have no designs on it. I have enough trouble without borrowing more from a vault full of biotic men and women."
"Shepard, relax," Kaidan admonished me. "I don't think they're going to break down the vault door just to get at your mom's cooking."
Ha. Fat chance of that, if they had ever tasted it. I don't know what they ate out here, but the chances were good they had my mom beat.
As if on cue, Ashley appeared with a pair of bowls and spoons.
"Best I could manage, I'm afraid," she apologized in advance. "Our salvage teams haven't reported in yet, so we're rationing what we have."
I gratefully took the bowl of what I was going to assume was either oatmeal or porridge of some kind.
Embarrassed and ashamed, I decided the best course of action was to fill my mouth with food before I did something stupid. Like hadn't wasted a second, and I see it was a struggle for him not to just inhale it all in one go.
I put a spoonful of the pale, lumpy good into my mouth. And then another.
Huh. Strange...
I took a third mouthful, just to make sure.
Wow. It wasn't oatmeal. Nor was it porridge. it would have needed a good deal more taste for those, which was a sorry statement all of its own. It tasted like watery nothing but not, as strange as it sounded, like water. It was impossibly bland.
Elder Trask frowned thoughtfully as he watched Kaidan and I dig into our meals. he seemed to be aware of just what we were eating, and what a disappointment it was for a pair of hungry biotics.
"Ashley, tell the cooks they have authorization to use a portion of my allotted rations," he instructed. "These two need to regain their energy."
Eh?
"Sir?" Ashley said, echoing my own silent uncertainty. "We have no idea when the scouts will be back, and-"
"I am aware, knight Williams," the Elder cut her off with a wave his hand. "Should it prove necessary, I am more than willing to miss a few meals. See to my orders."
"Y-yes sir!" and off she went, making haste to obey.
Now I didn't know how I was supposed to feel about anyone. Was Kaidan going to turn into a bastard just to keep things ambivalent? I was beginning to think that making personal judgements like I had been was a bad idea.
I must have worn my confusion on my face, because Trask took it upon himself to explain his actions.
"The two of you saved the life of a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel, and despite the unfortunate necessity of this morning might imply I do not wish for either of you to question your willingness to do so again," he said wearily. "The least I can do is be a good host while you remain with us.
Well, that made sense. But now I felt bad, as Kaidan and I would likely never have a chance to justify his intentions. Kaidan, i knew, would want to return to the vault. And so would I, quite honestly. The Outside most definitely wasn't safe, as Jenkins could attest to.
"So, while you remain with us I will do what I can for you," Trask went on, just heaping the guilt on. "And when you wish to leave, we will provide an escort back to your vault."
Wait, what?"
"How did you know we wanted to go home?" Kaidan asked for both of us. I decided I'd let him dot he talking for now. I was still more than a little ashamed of my earlier distrust.
"Because your friend is dead," Trask said bluntly, clearly unaffected by the death. "Even if you did not wish to return, I assume you would want to inform his family of his fate.
Oh god.
I felt that weight in my belly from this morning return with a vengeance. I hadn't even thought about telling Jenkins's parents about their son's death, or what it would do to them. I'd never be able to look them in the eyes again, even if they weren't furious with me forever. God, suddenly I didn't want to return. I didn't think I could live with the constant guilt of being responsible for my friend's death.
But what was the alternative? Living Outside? Running from ruin to ruin, always on the lookout got creatures of the Reaps, never safe?
... Hang on, I didn't know that for certain It wasn't like the only people that could survive were the Brotherhood. not everyone would be able to handle a life like this, scavenging from day to day. It had been a hundred years since the Reaper War. How long could a husk survive for without the intervention of their makers? even the radiation could be so bad anymore. Not everywhere. There had to be some kind of community somewhere. Even if it was in the middle of nowhere. Its not like everywhere could be like London...
Right?
I decided to abandon that line of thought before it led me to a dark place. A darker place than living in ruins out of guilt, anyways.
Ashley appeared again, this time with something closer to food: a pair of fried eggs and a strip of bacon for both of us apiece. I stared at the food hungrily, just waiting for the chance to strike.
Meat was a rare commodity in a vault: it was simply too resource intensive. I had, until this very moment, only seen such food in vids or pictures.
And it. Smelled. Delicious.
"Eat up, boys," Trask encouraged as if we needed any.
The mysterious grey goop was forgotten as I attacked the food on my plate. it was more difficult as it sounded, as Ashley had only provided me with a spoon. but through hunger and perseverance i managed to get the delectable food into my mouth.
It was every bit as amazing as I had imagined it to be.
Ashley wore that not-smile of hers as she watched us eat, no doubt amused by our sudden enthusiasm. We must have cut quite a sight. Me, trying to cut soggy bacon with a spoon. And Kaidan... well, even I had to pause for a moment to give him a funny look. He'd forgone utensils entirely, electing instead to simply grab the meat in one hand and dropping the eggs into his bowl of goop. (Which actually seemed like a good idea. The concentrated nothing that was its taste might be alleviated.) Starving fogs probably looked more dignified than us.
Whatever. I felt like I hadn't eaten for days.
"I think our lack of biotics may be a blessing in disguise," Trask joked.
Yeah, laugh it up. We're eating your bacon. That's worth getting a headache from lifting things with my mind.
Kaidan and I were allowed were allowed to finish our meal undisturbed, as Trask and Ashley had fallen into their own conversation. Not really meaning to, I listened in.
"I've already told Elder Harkins, sir," Ashley said with some agitation. "He's dismissed my claims, though."
"I don't blame him," Trask sighed. "It's hard to accept. How could he still be alive?"
"How are the husks still alive, sir?" Ashley persisted. "They should have died out by now, right? We've been destroying them for years, securing any artefacts we can find, but their numbers are still great enough to pose a risk to our patrols! Unless they're breeding, something has to be-"
"You don't need to convince me, Williams. I've seen some things in my own time, too."
"Then you'll speak to Elder Harkins, then?"
"I rather suspect that I'll be speaking at him rather than to him," Trask admitted. "I'm afraid your Elder and i don't see eye to eye on a great many things. Your worth as a soldier chief among them."
"But surely you can do something!"
"I will instruct those under my command to keep an eye out fo him, but I cannot force Harkins to do anything without another Elder present. you have already broken the chain of command just bringing this to my attention. If Harkins suspected you had..."
Whatever Trask was implying, it was dire enough that Ashley was silenced. Which had me intrigued, honestly. The politics of these strange people was like something out of some Old World military drama-vid. Any minute now I expected someone to accuse someone else of endangering their command. There would be a fight, and then someone would die.
"Who are you talking about?" I asked, deciding to join in on their conversation. (It didn't hurt that I had run out of food to distract myself with.) I wanted to find out who this person was, not to mention the source of the husks.
The two soldiers tensed at my intrusion, realizing I hadn't been as absorbed by my meal as they had thought.
"It's nothing," Trask dismissed airily. "Just an old idea that won't go away."
I could tell Ashley wanted to say something, but she was looking to Elder Trask for permission and it looked like none was to be had there.
I made a note to ask her about it later, away from prying ears. When she gave me her "ruined" pistol, maybe? A part of me wondered when that would be, exactly. If it was as prohibited as Ashley as Ashley behind it out to be, then she surely wouldn't risk it here of all places. Something didn't seem right about that, actually.
"Here at Aegis Tech, we know that not knowing can take its own toll," my pip-boy piped up, distracting me from my thoughts. "That's why your pip-boy is programmed to keep you informed of outside conditions!"
Bullshit! Like hell was that a feature! If it had been, this whole thing could have been avoided, because we'd have known not to come Outside! And even if it had once worked, it certainly couldn't anymore. Not if Aegis Tech was just a bunch of smoking ruins, just like every other major settlement in the galaxy. Where would that information come from? Was there even still a satellite up there, watching us? Could it communicate with us?
It would have been nice if it did, and my friend would probably still be alive, but that just didn't seem to be in the cards. Damn the apocalypse.
"So, just to make sure, Shepard and I are cleared to leave, right? We can go home?"
"You are free to leave whenever you wish," Trask assured us. "You were only held at the request of Elder Harkins. if you wish, you may leave right now."
The relief on Kaidan's face was almost comical. And it was infectious, strange as it sounded. i felt my own dread and worry lighten just seeing him light up.
He shot me a meaningful look, and it wasn't difficult to divine what he wanted. I shrugged in response: I could go either way on this. I wasn't exactly eager to stay out here with the crazy-but-maybe-alright people in their fake vault, but neither was I looking forward to telling Jenkin's parents what had happened to their son, or the third degree punishment I would get from the overseer. My mother.
And it would somehow be worse, because I should have known better. How could I not? I was the overseer's son. of course I was responsible.
"Then I think we should get going, if it's all the same. Our families are probably worried sick about us by now," Kaidan decided for us, smiling uncertainly.
"Of course," Trask nodded in agreement. "Would knight Williams be acceptable for an escort? I imagine you'll have some trouble finding your way back."
That was probably true. I was relatively certain I could find my way back just by placing the various ruined landmarks in their proper place on the horizon. But it would be helpful to have a heavily armed escort. And I still needed my laser pistol.
"We'd appreciate her help," I agreed, beginning to cheer up a bit.
"Then I will make the request. Williams, ready yourself. I expect you to be ready within the hour."
Apparently, when an Elder of the Brotherhood says "within the hour", reality itself bends to their command. Ashley Williams was back in her armour, and somehow it looked even bulkier and more imposing than I remembered it. Maybe it was the daylight, or the more relaxed setting, or maybe it was because I'd seen her out of it, but seeing her clomp and stomp her way up Borough Road somehow hammered home just how ridiculously heavy the armour was. There had to be at least a few inches of solid steel in there laid over a network of mass effect generators in order to make the ungainly armor possible to move in without an obscene amount of internal machinery. Even so, the sound of her footfalls were like death knells on stone, which wasn't far from reality. Anything that got under her boots was going to feel it for a long time. Or not at all. It seemed impossible for someone to put on something like that in less than an hour.
As if to make up for Ashley's imposing figure, London itself seemed to transform itself in the daylight. It was still a horrible little hellhole and a terrible testament to the Reaper War, but wasn't quite as oppressive as it was in the dark. It was as if being able to see the devastation in its entirety, without the obscuring shroud of night, made everything more bearable. Or a part of me knew it would be much more difficult for something to get a drop on me. I didn't really know which of the two it was, but all the same I felt a smile appear on my face as it was warmed by the sun.
It struck me that this was the first time I was feeling it. I found myself tilting my head upwards, trying to get more of that feeling.
"Step lightly," Ashley warned us. "And keep yourselves aware! This isn't safe territory! Tribals have been seen in this area!"
Tribals? What, with loincloths and bonfires? Spears and bows and drums?
I looked around me, at the desolate wasteland that was London, and a small part of me wanted to see what kind of tribe would live here. What they would look like, what they would sound like. Were they all cockneys? Or were they posh? (Or as posh as anyone could be in this world.)
"So people live out here?" I asked.
"There are a few settlements," Ashley hedged, still scanning our surroundings. "Nothing worth speaking of. They won't last the year."
Damn.
It was sad, though I was hardly surprised. And soon enough it wouldn't be my concern. All the same...
"So why don't you help them?"
It was a simple enough question, right?
"The Brotherhood has other duties," Ashley said it with such firm conviction that I believed her. I didn't even know what those duties were, but they had to be important if they were willing to let people die over it.
"Does it have something to do with that person you and Trask were talking about?" Kaidan asked form my side. Apparently I wasn't the only person who had overheard that conversation.
Ashley froze midstride, and Kaidan and I stopped as well. The knight turned slowly, and though it was hard to tell with her face obscured by her helmet I got the impression that she was weighing us. Trying to figure out just how she would respond. How much we needed to know. It didn't take her very long to come to a decision.
"It doesn't really matter once way or another, does it?" Ashley grumbled. "Your going back to your vault. You won't be coming back any time soon, will you?"
Well... no, I guess not. But now I was curious.
"Tell us anyway," I wheedled. "Who knows, maybe we'll have to leave the vault eventually."
Which wasn't outside the realm of possibility, especially if what we'd learned in the mess hall was true. According to the Aegis Tech VI, our reactor was about thirty years past its expiration date.
Ashley snorted, and went back to stomping up the road. She clearly didn't ahve much faith in this prospect. But she still answered us.
"He's called the Master," she informed us, obvious reluctance in her voice. "Officially, we've only read about him from old Cerberus logs. An enemy from the Reaper War. But the scribes have found newer references to him, too."
The Reaper War? But...
"But that would make him over a hundred years old!" Kaidan echoed my thoughts succinctly.
"Yeah," Ashley agreed with an audible scowl. "That's what makes it hard to believe. But every once in a while the husks will organize, migrate, or attack with far more coordination than normal. And a man will be seen in their midsts."
"And that's who you saw?" Kaidan said with trepidation. An idiot could tell that we were treading dangerously close to a sore point.
"Yeah," there was cold fury in her voice as she spoke. "He killed my patrol. I know it."
Ah. So that's what she thought happened. And it explained why this Elder Harkins didn't believe her story.
Ashley was quiet the rest of the trip, and neither Kaidan nor I wanted to dig any further. We busied ourselves instead with trying to remember our way home, a task that was somewhat more difficult in the daylight. Neither Kaidan nor I were particularly gifted cartographically, and our pip-boy maps weren't as helpful as they could have been had we consulted them last night. And trying to line up the landmarks wasn't nearly as helpful as I had thought it would be, as I hadn't exactly taken notes on where they should have been last night.
But we found it again soon enough, recognizing the rubble we'd had to move in order to free ourselves from the basement levels. It was mid-afternoon, the sun was just beginning to set when we descended into darkness, inent on coming home.
The vault door was somewhat less imposing from this side, funnily enough. Sure, it was enormous, and had enough weight to make the prospect of digging in seem impossible, but without the equally impressive machinery needed to move the great gear-shaped door on display it didn't have quite the same gravity as it did from the inside. Maybe that was a psychological thing, to reassure the inhabitants that they were completely safe.
"Right, it looks like the two of you are good to go," Ashley nodded. She reached for a pouch at her hip, slipping the top off to reveal a familiar cuboid shape. "And I did make you a promise. Here."
I was grinning like a fool as I snatched the laser pistol she proffered to me, already looking forward to the prospect of taking it apart to see what made it work. Lasers! Not even the Old World engineers had managed to fully weaponize them! And now it was mine!
"Thank you," I said breathily, holding the weapon tightly lest she decided the risk wasn't worth it. I looked it over, approaching the exit to the Outside so I could examine it in the light.
Behind me, Kaidan was already trying to get the operators to open up the vault for us. By the sounds of it, something was going on. But I didn't care: this gun was amazing!
"It'll need repairs, mind you," Ashley warned me gravely. "And you'll need to recharge your own power cells. But if you can get that down..."
"I'll make it happen," I promised, more to myself than Ashley. And I would. Even if I had to study it for a decade, I would make this thing work.
"What?" Kaidan cried out in dismay. "What?!"
Uh oh.
That wasn't good.
"You can't be serious!" he went on.
"You'd better get over there," Ashley advised me. "And I need to get back before nightfall. Good luck."
I followed her advice promptly, joining Kaidan at the console.
My mother was looking at us from the holographic display, looking contrite. Her eyes widened as I came into view, and she looked hunted.
"Mom? What's going on?" my worry was easily heard in the tiny tremor in my voice. She could be a hell of a hardass, but seeing my mom so disconcerted was... disconcerting.
"John," my mother said hollowly. "You're alive. You're really out there."
"Of course I am," I said with confusion. "Both of us."
But not all three of us. Had Kaidan already told her?
"You- you shouldn't be out there," my mother's voice hitched towards the end. "You shouldn't have left."
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
"Mom?"
"They won't open the vault," Kaidan whispered, devastated. "They're locking us out."
A shiver of dread went up my spine, and my blood went cold.
"We can't risk it," my mother explained, looking away from us. "We don't know what's out there. You could be indoctrinated!"
"But we're fine!" I protested desperately. "We- nothing happened to us!"
Except something had happened to us. A lot of somethings.
"Goodbye, John," my mother interrupted me, and she finally broke down. She brought a hand up to her eyes, and I heard her sob. "Don't- don't- goodbye!"
The connection was severed, ending our conversation.
The vault door didn't open.
Our home had turned its back on us, abandoning us to the mercies of the London wasteland.
Level up!
Perk Added: Light Touch
AN: Hello, thralls! I am coming to you live from a small village on the west coast of Norway at the asscrack of dawn! (Because when else would I ever think of updating?) Happily, I have temporary access to a computer. It will have to go back eventually, however, so yeah. Moving on!
Bit later than I had originally intended, but to be fair this was twice as long as the last chapter.
You'll have to forgive me a bit, as it was pointed out to me that I needed to do a bit more world building. Or showing it, anyways. So I've tried to work that in as much as I can without giving away too much important stuff. Beyond that, the only thing you need to know is that I'm doing the best to combine these two franchises into a single entity. Which is why we have silly indoctrination awareness propaganda instead of anti-communist propaganda. Because the idea tickled me. There needs to be more posters that ask us to question our identities, I think. Just to keep things nice and weird.
Also, today's song is "There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner", by Noel Coward. It's a fun song.
As always, remember to do that thing everyone keeps telling you to do: review, fav, follow, worship me, be awesome. Not necessarily in that order, but be sure to at least try to do all of them.
Now I'm going to get three hours of sleep and then really regret doing this.
Take it easy 'til next time, peoples!