Chapter 4

A Change of Heart

Tezra was roused from her light sleep when she heard loud footsteps and laughter coming from the corridor outside her cell. Chris was still asleep in the far corner, curled into a ball for warmth. Tezra took her blanket off her bed and draped it over his shoulders to try to give him some form of comfort.

The footsteps and laughter got gradually louder as the men came closer. The noise the men made roused Chris from his sleep and he woke with a start. Tezra looked over to him, "Try to keep quiet Chris. If they are only doing rounds they should just go past."

Chris nodded and held onto the blanket tighter, trying to make himself as small as possible. Tezra sat up taller and stared at the door. Finally the guards made it to their door and they stopped in front of it.

Tezra glared at them through the door. "Where's the kid bitch?" the guard right in front of the door said, trying to intimidate her. Tezra said nothing back but continued to stare at them. There were four of them. They looked to be new recruits with one senior officer there.

The first guard stepped closer to the barred door still trying to intimidate her. "Hey Bobby I would be careful," one of the other guards said, "I heard she tore one of the other guards apart when he was standing real close to her cell."

The guard, Bobby, scoffed like he was some big shot marine. "Like she would try something with you guys here." He said. He was obviously some hothead straight out of training. "Besides that poor bastard was alone."

Tezra glanced over at Chris, the look in her eyes telling him to stay quiet. He minutely nodded his head. She looked back at the guards and slowly stood up and walked toward the door. The guards quickly stepped back and the senior officer stepped to the front of the group. The man was tall about six feet and easily made her look like a little kid, besides the fact that she was twenty six. He had on light armour and because of his helmet she couldn't see his face.

Tezra put her hands on the horizontal bar of the door and looked into each of the guard's eyes until she stared at the officer in front of her. "We go home today."

With that she screamed as her body changed. She grew taller and wider. She screamed louder as she felt her bones and flesh shape and move around until it all came to a stop and in her place was a six foot six inch Krogan. The Krogan was a strange shade of off white and its huge eyes were pale violet.

It roared as it gripped the door and, in a blood rage, tore the door clean off its hinges. The recruits stared dumbstruck at it as it stared back at them with the iron door in hand. It grinned as it hefted the door higher and threw it at them. They didn't move fast enough as it collided with two of them sending them smashing into the wall behind them. They were crushed and slid down the wall with a trail of blood on the wall behind them.

The senior officer rolled away from it and reached up to call for help. But he wasn't fast enough. The Krogan grabbed him by the neck and held him up against the wall. He couldn't breathe and panicked more as the Krogan's other hand came up to his helmet. He slammed his eyes closed as the hand closed around the helmet, not wanting to see his death. When he felt his helmet being taken off he slowly opened his eyes.

The Krogan's eyes widened then it snarled and narrowed is eyes when it saw his face. "You. You took me from my family. You took my life from me."

"No you don't understand," he gasped struggling to breathe, "we were only following orders. We did this to..."

"You did this to turn me into a monster." The Krogan growled, squeezing his throat tighter. "Now I will take your life. It only seems fair." The Krogan grinned as it pulled him away from the wall then slammed his body against it with crushing force. It let him go and his body slid limply down to the floor landing in a bloody pile.

The last guard stood there stunned to the point of paralysis. The Krogan stared at him with menacing eyes and a grin of victory on its face. "Well Bobby looks like it's just you and me. Alone."

Bobby stood there shaking and had a petrified look on his face. The Krogan walked up to him and stood right in front of him. "I wouldn't try anything would I?" with that the Krogan reared back and head butted him with enough force to make him go unconscious.

There was that sound of small whimpers coming from the cell and the Krogan walked in slowly and cautiously. It looked to the direction the sounds were coming from and saw Chris curled into a ball with the blanket over his head. "Chris," the Krogan said as quietly as it could with such a booming voice. "It's alright. They're gone. You're safe now."

Chris looked up at the Krogan with wide scared eyes. "T...Tezra?" The Krogan smiled and nodded and held out a hand for him.

"We're going home today Chris and nobody is going to stop us." Tezra said as Chris took a hold of her huge Krogan hand.

"But I thought you said there was no way to escape?" he asked picking up the blanket and holding onto it.

Tezra chuckled quietly. "I did say that. Well I thought about it last night and well I never tried using their weapon against them."

"So we are going home?" he asked excitedly hope returning to his eyes and spreading over his face.

"Yes we are kid."

Tezra slowly ran with Chris beside her down the halls of the station. Chris had an omnitool on his wrist; they had picked it off the unconscious Bobby and thrown him in one of the other cells with the rest of the dead guards. Chris was leading them through the facility with the maps that were on the omnitool. Tezra was providing protection whenever they ran into some guards, but she was beginning to tire and she wouldn't be able to stay in this form for much longer.

"How much longer till we reach the shuttles?" Tezra asked her exhaustion beginning to show.

"Not much longer, just through two rooms, down some stairs and through a hallway. Then we should be in the shuttle bay." He said taking a look at the map again. "Why?"

"There was another reason the experiments didn't work." She said taking the lead again as she walked on with Chris following behind her. "They wanted me to last forever in whatever form I was in, but I can only stay in these forms for a limited amount of time. I can stay in this form for about two hours before I just become too exhausted and have to change back."

Chris gave her a sympathetic look and continued to follow her. They walked to a door that was unlocked. "This is the first room we need to go through." Chris said looking down at the map. "The other room is connected to this one and the stairs are behind a door in the other room."

Tezra stopped suddenly causing Chris to bump into her. "Tezra?" Chris looked up at her concerned, rubbing his nose from when he walked into her. He saw that she was staring at the door and her hands were shaking.

She screamed as they injected her with another shot of strange DNA. The purple liquid entered her blood stream and caused her to suddenly convulse on the metal lab table. The scientists quickly grabbed the electrode rod from its holster and shoved it in the incision they had made in her chest above her heart. They turned it on and the electricity danced around her body. She kept screaming until there was no air left in her lungs. She saw the face of the head scientist before her vision was consumed in black and her body went limp.

Tezra gasped and started breathing heavily. She could feel the pain all over again as if she had just been back to that horrible place. Her whole body started to shake and she took a couple of steps back away from the door.

"Tezra?" Chris asked worriedly, taking a few steps away from her. Her violet eyes stayed glued to the door in front of them.

"I can't go back in there Chris." Tezra said, voice shaking. "Not after what they did."

Chris looked confused for a second before he realised that this was the room where they did all those experiments. Lightly putting his hand on Tezra's arm, he looked into her eyes with determination.

"Tezra, I am guessing that this room is the room they did all those experiments on you." Tezra nodded her head, looking into his eyes. "And I'm sure you are scared of going back in there, but we have to go through there to get to the shuttles. To go home. To be with our families."

Tezra thought about what he had just said and he was right. She had to go through there to see her family again, she missed them so much and she wasn't about to make them wait longer. With a determined nod in Chris' direction, she picked up her exhausted body and led the way through the dreaded room.

Oh my god I am evil. Leaving you guys with a cliff hanger. Sort of.

Anyway a double update! Wow! Don't get used to it. It probably won't happen again for a while.

So what do you think of Tezra's 'ability'? I had always liked the idea of shape-shifting and I decided to incorporate it into my fanfic. Now she only has three alternative forms and I tried to make her as non-Mary Sue as possible by making it so she could only stay in her alt forms for a limited amount of time. Tell me what you think. And if you can guess what her other alt forms are you get a cookie. One should be pretty simple, the other? Not so much. ( OMG channelling Aria right there XD)

Anyway hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing it.

Love you all,

Deathadda22