A/N: I'm on an updating spree! I've ust updated Guardian of the Heart and since I'm on such a roll, I figured I might as well update this one, too! This chap is full of action, sadness, and romance. Here, we bid farewell to a scientist salarian...or do we?
"Asari-Vorcha offspring have an allergy to dairy and dididididodododididididodoo...
~Mordin Solus.
Cure
Shepard would soon learn just how deadly Sentinel was when it came to combating reaper forces.
"Heads up!" James bellowed as the behemoth charged through the troops, swatting them aside with reckless abandon. It ploughed right through him; knocking the marine off his feet and onto his ass as it barreled forward and into the crash site, scattering turian troops like rag dolls. Lieutenant Victus and his men drew back, peppering the creature with their assault rifles, but to no avail. It surged forward, intent on one target.
Commander Shepard.
"Son of a-
A stray shot from a marauder tore through her depleted shields and cracked the casing of her helmet. Not enough to wound her, but more than enough to leave her dazed. In a panic she stepped back, only for a concussive blast to strike her from behind. Staggered, her shields overwhelmed, the commander was nearly forced to her knees. Not quite
"Shepard!" Garrus shouted, poking his head out of cover, only to be driven back by a hail of cannon fire from cannibals. Shepard ducked out of sight as well silently hoping her shields would recover in time whilst-
Where was he?
She spun about, casting a desperate glance for the fourth and final member of her team. Sentinel. She'd seem him not a moment ago, tearing the legs off a marauder. Where jad he gone? The elusive reaper was nowhere to be seen. Not surprising, giving the amount of cover surrounding them, but still! But before she could proccess this, there was the matter of the great goliath bearing down upon her. Quickly. Very quickly!
Isabelle swore a blue streak, holstered her pistol, and drew the sniper rifle. She took aim, sighted down her scope, tracked with the Brute's movement, and fired. The sniper rifle bucked against her arm, the powerful recoil nearly jarring her shoulder from its socket. The high velocity projectile seared toward its target, streaking down at the head of the brute. At the last second, before impact, the reaper creature tucked its head; the high velocity bullet pinging harmlessly against its armor as it surged forward.
And then it was upon her.
Shepard threw up her arms as the Brute charged; as its claw connected with her ribs, as her shields shattered, as...
...nothing happened.
"Are you still functional, commander?"
Her gaze snapped upright.
"Wha?"
Naruto stood before it, hand upraised against the behemoth's claw. The beast quivered against him, its feet scrabbling against the soil for purchace. Finding none, it uttered a ghastly snarl and brought its other arm around in a lethal roundhouse. Naruto took the blow full to the face. He grinned. Took a step forward. Then another. And another. And another still, pushing the monstrosity back with sheer strength alone. A small tremor ran through his body as he did this, and, for a moment, Shepard thought the Reaper was trembling from the sheer effort it took to hold the beast at bay.
"Hmph."
This single sound shattered all pretence. Sentinel wasn't trembling, Shepard realized. He was laughing. She watched his muscles bulge watched; watched as the wire slithered forth from his flesh and merged with him, forming a strange second skin. And still the Brute struggled with Sentinel, failing to prevail.
"Is this all you have?" he inquired pleasantly of his opponent. "If so...allow me to remind you of your place."
With a demented cackle that sounded a bit too human for her liking, the Reaper drilled the Brute into the arid soil of Tuchanka. It scrabbled upward with a planitive cry only to be dragged back down into the dust seconds later. Then she saw Naruto. Robed in electric blue light; girded in raw power, he pounced, tackling the brute to thee earth, where he made quick work of its armor. Rich, ropy tendrils of blue energy tore the plating free and sundered its flesh, scouring it clean of all life.
When the Reaper next emerged, he was a thing transformed. In place of his right arm, he bore a massive claw, not unlike that of the Brute he'd just vanquished. It lacked any sort of flaw, however, and was a great deal more streamlined. The reaper gave it a few experimental swings then lowered it, apparently satisified with the newest addition. He extended his hand, his human hand, and helped Shepard to her feet.
"Did you just take that things arm?"
"Correct." He flexed his new weapon for emphasis. "I can repurpose my limbs and meld them with synthetic technology as I please. Allow me to demonstrate." Swiveling, that claw snapped forward and closed around a Marauder, collapsing its shields and neatly snapping the creature in half. Before the creature's toppled halves could so much as fall, he rounded on a pack of cannibals and repeated the function. Seconds after the fact, the remaining reaper forces fell to the ground in a heap of broken body parts
"I gotta get me one of those." James muttered as he swung himself over a ledge.
Shepard paid the lieutenant no mind.
Rather, she was focused on their objective. They'd come here to rescue the primarch's son.
"Lieutenant Victus?"
"Commander, my men and I owe you our lives." The lieutenant lowered himself from the ledge. "Thank you for the assist."
"You can thank him." Shepard jerked a thumb over her shoulder at her erstwhile comrade.
"Thank who, commander?" Victus asked.
Sentinel was nowhere to be seen.
It was not until after they'd discovered, dealt with, and disarmed the turian bomb, that Isabelle finally found the reaper back aboard the Normandy. When she discovered him, sitting there in Life Support, she paid to attention to the tech dismantled on a nearby table. She felt only anger. That, and betrayal. Where had he gone? Where had he been? One way or the other, she was going to find out.
"Where the hell were you?" These were the first words out of her mouth; thick with rage and barely controlled fury. She expected him to defend himself. To react with surprise or perhaps indignation, as a human would. It was in times such as these that she forgot Naruto/Sentinel, was no mere soldier. The Reaper turned away from his pet project, a and blinked quizically at her.
"Are you referring to the incident with Lieutenant Victus?" he asked.
"You're damn right I am!" Isabelle couldn't keep the venom from soaking into her words. They'd sorely needed him on that mission! Not only had the bomb site been swarmed with Cerberus troops; troops that would have likely broken rank and fled outright when faced with a being of Sentinel's magnitude. Instead, they'd been forced to slog through wave upon wave of desperate troopers, centurions, and engineers, while Victus and his men struggled to circle around the bomb site. Instead, they'd lost the lieutenant, and a third of the ninth platoon, all just to disarm the bomb. So yes, she was justifiably angry.
"I did not wish to be seen by the turians."Naruto replied, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They would have seen me as a threat." His words did little to quell Isabelle's anger, but quell it they did. So that was why he'd disappeared.
"Then why couldn't I find you!"
Another blink.
"Because I didn't want to be found."
Shepard facepalmed.
"Clarify."
"This body has several stealth capabilities." Sentinel responded. "Camoflauge is amongst them."
"That still doesn't explan why I couldn't find you."
"I was contacted by EDI upon my return to the Normandy." Naruto replied, suddenly evasive. "She wished to converse with me." Aha! So at last the true culprit revealed! She had half a mind to give the AI a stern talking to, but Shepard refrained.
"I can't have you runnning off when we need you." she regretted the words as soon as she'd said them. The Reaper dropped the components he was working on, the bearings clanging harmlessly against her
Naruto bristled, visibly stung by the remark.
"I am your ally, commander. Not your weapon." He slammed his hands into the table, leaving deep rivets in the metal." I expect to be treated as such!" Even as he lurched to his feet his hands were healing, the broken fingers resetting themselves. Despite herself, despite the pain blossoming across her spine, Shepard felt relief. That he could react as such meant that Sentinel had emotions. That had emotions meant he wasn't entirely synthetic.
Perhaps he was human in some ways after all.
Then her head greeted the metal grating of the floor and there was only blackness.
When Shepard finally came to, she found herself in her cabin. She knew this because the soft lull of jazz reached her ears even as she shook the last remnants of her dreams from her mind. Warily, Isabelle opened her eyes. What she saw there froze the blood in her veins. Naruto was standing across from her his back facing the door. Arms folded for his chest, eyes closed, he said nothing.
His eyes slid open as she sat up, propping herself up on her elbows.
"You're awake." he noted.
"Did you just attack me?"
"You provoked me." The Reaper replied.
Shepard paused, considering her words. On one hand, she wanted to lash out at the reaper for his violent behavior as she would any other member of her squad. On the other she also felt that an apology was owed. That, and something in his gazed warned that further agression would be met with more agression.
"Yeah."
"We're about to hit the Shroud." Shepard sighed. "Make sure you show up this time." For a moment, the hybrid said nothing. He closed his eyes, allowing his lids to drift shut for the briefest of instants. His chest ceased rising and falling, leaving him entirely still. For a moment Shepard thought he'd gone into some sort of stasis. When his eyes flew open half a heartbeat latr, she jumped, just as the blood red irises jumped out at her in place of sapphire.
Sentinel frowned.
"I understand there is a reaper on Tuchanka."
"What?"
"You forget yourself, commander." The reaper frowned. "I am able to sense others of my kind, even across entire star systems. This has not diminished merely because I have taken human form. I also sense-ah." Before the commander could protest, the synthetic's smile flipped upright and into a mischevious grin. She wanted to ask about it, but he was grinning now, and quite honestly, it frightened her.
"Something I should know?" She asked Sentinel.
"Take the shuttle without me." He decided suddenly. "I will meet you on Tuchanka." Without another word, he turned and strode from the room. Shepard was just about to say it was she who would make such a decision, that it was she who would decided whether or not he boarded the shuttle, when the reaper dissappeard. His tactical cloak snapped into place across his fleeing form even as he stepped into the elevator.
Isabelle was tempted to pursue, but she knew she wouldn't find him. Not even EDI could locate him with his cloak engaged. Fine, then. If the reaper wanted to play hardball then she could play hardball. Still, she couldn't shake the unease she'd felt when he smiled. It was a trickster's grin, one that was far too human to be synthetic. Sentinel was planning something. Whatever that something was, it probably boded ill for the reaper on Tuchanka, and perhaps, her team as well.
She had a bad feeling about this...
(Meanwhile)
Shepard was pissed.
Together with her team, she'd slogged through hordes of reaperized husks, cannibals, marauders, brutes, and rachni. They'd fought and fled their way through the temple, an almost sucidal plan in mind. Activate a pair of maw hammers to summon Kalross to the shroud. Now they were running for her life, and trying to set off the last maw hammer without being crushed underfoot by the giant reaper destroyer overhead.
Isabelle slapped her hand down upon the panel, gasping for air as the hammer descended. It struck the metal with a thunderous clang, sending subtle vibrations, beneath the soil. She could only hope that the noise would draw Kalross in. If not, well...it'd been one hell of a ride.
"Go!" She shouted at her squadmates, waving them away . "Get back to the truck! I'll take care of the cure!" Much to her surprise, Javik obeyed, and without protest. Well the prothean had alwasy been good at taking orders. Liara lingered a moment longer, but obeyed all the same. Isabelle watched her lover retreat to te safety of the rover, and not without some regret. Would Sentinel come through for them?
She was about to find out.
A far off cry sounded in the distance, drowning out that of the maw hammers. Shepard rounded on the sound, her eyes flying wide as she saw a looming shape burst forth for and from the soil. Kalross had come. The ground reaper turned, the eerie red aparatus that was its eye, glowing with malevolence. An earsplitting bass note emerged from its base as it lumbered forward, each step bringing it closer to its target, each movement causing the earth to quake beneath the commander's feet.
But it wasn't just the Reaper. The soil itself continued to lurch upright in fits and spurts, a sure sign of the thresher maw's approach. Isabelle stood there, mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of this creature, even as it approached. She needed to get out of here, lest she be caught up in their confrontation.
And then she saw him.
Shepard gawped.
There, riding the giant worm like a bucking bronco. Sentinel. The reaper's eyes shone like red hot coals in his skull, and his hands were rubbed raw, but he was clinging to the mother of all thresher maw for all he was worth. A wild grin, a gorgeous white streak in the arid atmosphere of Tuchanka, tore across his face. Shepard had only an instant to comprehend this before the hybrid let out a great and terrible cry, overshadowing the bass note created by its kin.
"Charge!"
Kalross dove beneath the ground, even as the reaper fired. Its laser tore through the soil, digging deep trenches through the earth. And then the earth erupted. Ten thousand tons of thresher maw surged upward and into the reaper, its mandibles locking around the giant machine in a gross macabre of an embrace. The reaper fired wildly, searing a path of destruction toward Shepard even as it wrestled with the worm and its erstwhile passenger.
Tackled to the ground, the reaper, spat fire and fury, forcing Isabelle to seek cover.
Naruto roared something in reaper tongue, and the reaper replied with a bleating note of fury. They thrashed wildly about, destroying the temple around them. Levering itself upright, the gigantic Reaper levered itself southward, hurling its equally massivve attacker sideways and into the tower of the the Shroud. Her world shook. Naruto grunted as he found himself trapped between the bulk of his mount and the uncompromising steel of the tower. Shepard cried.
Kalross screamed.
Its entire body went limp, loosely sliding back into its hole, even as the reaper fired. Then there was silence. Only the howling winds of Tuchanka. Satisfied that its foe had at last been vanquished, the reaper turned its attention back to the Shroud. It paid no heed to the ground beneath its feet.
That was a mistake.
Kalross remerged. Violently. The massive maw clamped down upon the reaper's head, dragging it headfirst into to the lifeless soil of Tuchanka. Scarce had it done so than the reaper began to struggle, firing wildly, but to no avail. Kalross coiled about it, constricting the reaper, and dragging it down into the depths, before it could so much as cry out in protest. Naruto sprinted atop the reapers head and thrust his hand into its flesh, the metal carapace bending away against his touch even as it sank beneath the ground. In less than five seconds, it was over. Naruto removed a small, spherical device from the reaper's head.
The proto-reaper leapt; long and high, away from the corpse of his former comrade, his leap taking him over Shepard's head. But something was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. Even as Sentinel leapt, he was falling. He landed, lopsided, collapsing in a pool of his own blood, and fell still. Shepard felt like she'd been stabbed. No. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't. He just couldn't.
In his hand lay the sphere he'd wrested from the reaper. It looked like...a core. Small, true, but a compact version of the human reaper core. The one, she'd fought at the Collector Base. It pulsed against his fingers like a creature alive; struggling through its last beat as she looked on. She felt strangely drawn to it and found herself reaching outward, her fingertips brushing across the alien core-
"I wouldn't touch that...were I you."
Isabelle started at the raw gasp surfacing beneath her hand.
Goddess...the bastard was still alive!
Sentiel pulled himself upright, his gaze never leaving hers. Rather, he tried. Shepard could see the damage that had been done him. He was missing his left leg, and his right arm had been blown clear off with most of his shoulder. Surprisingly, he remained calm. Though his chest labored to draw breath, his gaze remained calm. His body was slow, struggling to restructure the damage that had been done it. She could see the holes in his flesh, the great, gaping, tears were the reapers laser had sheared through his flesh, exposing the cybernetics beneath.
"Get to the Shroud, commander." A grimace of self-castigation as he tried to rise. "I'll join you shortly."
"But-
"Shepard." He hissed through gritted teeth. "Go."
"You can't expect me to leave you here-
"GO!" Sentinel roared, shoving her away from him with his remaining leg. His eyes were wider now, frenzied. She could see the desperation locked within them now, even as the core within his hands began to vibrate and pulsate like a ticking time bomb. Stung by his action, Shepard stepped back. She continued to move backward never taking her eyes from him, until she reached the door to the shroud facility.
"What're you doing with that?" she called across at him.
Sentinel's voice carried across the field of debris, in a broken whisper.
"Something I should have done a long time ago."
Her last sight was of Sentinel pressing the core against his chest.
(Meanwhile at the Shroud)
"Had to be me." Mordin said to himself. "Someone else might have gotten it wrong."
It had to be him.
Once, he could have thought death problematic. Not anymore. Not now, as he rose to meet his destiny. Not when he was about to cure the genophage, to undo the bane that had haunted the krogan for several centuries. No, Mordin Solus did not fear his death. Would have liked to run tests on seashells, though.
At the cost his life.
He steeled himself as the elevator rose, ascending to the top of the tower. He drew in a deep breath. And then it started. He started to sing. Even as the doors wooshed open; even as he struggled through wave upon wave of explosions. He sang as he had once before, aboard the Normandy.
"I am the very model of a scitenctist salarian, I've studied species Turian Asari and Batarian. I'm quite good at genetics as a subset of biology; because I am an expert which I know is a tautalogy...
He set his fingers to the keys, swiftly accounting for the variance in temperature, correcting the sabotage set by the STG. In a matter of moments, the shroud VI informed him of his success. Mordin smiled. Good. Cure dispersed. Eve alive. Good match for Krogan. Good end to a life. His life. Drawing a deep breath, he began the last verse:
"My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian I am the very model of-
And then the tower exploded.
Mordin felt the fire. He felt the flame. He felt the heat, searing into his flesh, smoldering across his skin and then...nothing. Nothing at all. A dull whump sounded from beyond his vision; pursued by great wind. It swept across the tower, extinguishing the flames with a dull whoosh. Creating a path. Peering through the smoke, and the debris, he saw him. He caught the sight of platinum blond hair, streaked with silver.
...a scientist Salarian?"
Odd.
Mordin clearly recalled his hair having been blond.
"You're death is unecessary, Doctor Solus."
"Ah." Mordin blinked up at his unexpected saviour. "Sentinel. Arrival...unexpected."
"We're leaving, doctor."
Mordin didn't have a chance to refuse. Not that he would have, mind you, but still, he didn't have a chance as the rejuvenated reaper yanked him away from the console and hauled them, together, out into open air. They hung there for a moment, reaper and salarian, the latter slung over the former's shoulder, the former wearing a wild grin with reckless abandon, even as the tower burst into flames and began to crumble at their backs. Then gravity claimed them.
Mordin's last thought was that the fall would be problematic before as the soil of Tuchanka rushed up to greet him. He caught sight of a shuttle in his peripheal vision, and he had the most sickening realization of where they were going to land. The shuttle doors swung open, miles below them; miles below their inevitable impact.
Thankfully he passed out long before Sentinel crashed feetfirst into Cortez's shuttle.
A/N: I DEFY YOU BIOWARE! MORDIN LIIIIIIIVES! I thought about it, and, in the end, I just couldn't bear to let him die. We'll get to see a touch of NarutoxEDI next chappy-Joker won't like that-followed by the Citadel, Rannoch, and who knows what else! This story is going to be a tale unlike any other, as I'm sure you've guessed by now. Thank you again for all of your support! This story wouldn't be what it was without all of your wonderful reviews! Which brings me to the last part of this chapter.
Now, for your viewing pleasure...for the first time ever...An OMAKE!
(Omake)
Commander Shepard was wondering why Naruto had called her down to Life Support. He'd sounded...enthused. And that was rare. For a reaper, at least. With Mordin's cure successfully dispersed across the whole of Tuchanka, she figured she could be lenient and grant the synthetic's request for an audience.
So here they were, with Naruto grinning from ear to here.
"You wanted to see me?" Isabelle asked.
"Yes, yes." Naruto nodded as he fidled with something on the table, only to stand seconds later. "I wanted to show you something." He held something behind his hands now, an almost childish grin plastered across his features. Shepard resisted the urge to laugh.
"And that something would be?"
"This," Naruto explained, holding up the device, "Is a data core. It is the very essence of my kind."
"I've seen something like that before," Shepard replied. "Aren't they usually, well, larger?"
"Sometimes, yes." Naruto nodded, charigned. "But this reaper was still in its infancy. It was only a few cycles old." Shepard found that hard to believe. The reaper had been a whopping one hundred and sixty meters tall!
"Wait, you want to activate it?"
"With your permission, yes." Naruto answered. "I could give it form and flesh, like myself, but smaller. The repercussions would be...neglible." The reaper didn't sound entirely certain even as he stared at the data core. That troubled Isabelle.
"You don't sound certain."
"This has never been done before. "Sentinel pointed out. "I cannot be sure of how she will react."
Shepard blinked.
"She?"
"Yes." answered Naruto, as though this explained everything.
"How can that thing be a she?"
"You misunderstand." The blond shook his head. "I will give this core a portion of substance. My substance. It will bear resemblence to me, but I will shape it as I see fit." That was an odd way of putting, she mused. "I will draw from my memories as a human to give this core shape."
"Won't that...I don't know, hurt you?"
Sentinel paused at that.
"It is possible, yes."
"So...you're giving birth, then."
"No." The word cut through all pretence, shattering the assumption that this ritual was what she'd thought it to be. "My kind do not reproduce in this fashion. I am creating an extension of myself. A copy, a clone, if you will. This is not meant to facilitate copulation. I cannot guaranttee succcess, however. Without further adeu, he held the core up for her to see, his glove fingers wrapping themselves around its scarred and pitted surface.
"Please step back, commander."
Sentinel gripped the core tightly within his fingers, gripping it with both hands. As Shepard looked on the destroyer's heart loosed an erratic pulse. Thump. She blinked as they began to glow, reaper and core, until the blinding light burst before her retina in a shower of fluid and fog. Isabelle scrubbed at her eyes with the back of a hand, eerily, aware that she was covered in sticky fluid.
When the smoke finally cleared, another stood beside Naruto.
She didn't look a thing like him.
Raven tresses lofted around a heart-shaped face, from which eyes of pale lavender shown. She was naked. There was not a trace of the wiring present in the elder Reaper nor was ther any sign of alteration. For all extensive purposes, she looked like an eight-year old child.
The girl squinted up at him.
She spoke in alien tongue, her words emerging as little more than gibberish. Shepard blinked. The girl turned back to Naruto and spoke again, her tone harsh, clipped. Naruto answered in kind, refusing to meet her gaze. The girl looked at herself. At him. Back to herself. Back to him again. Her eyes, already large pearls, grew larger still. She swung around on Sentinel, rounding on him, glaring pale daggers when she tripped and stumbled. She shouted at him, her words emerging as a frantic garbled snarl. Her hands beat ineffectually at the floor as she fell, bellying her clumsiness.
Sentinel reached down to pluck her off the deck and the child swatted his hand away.
"Oh dear." he remarked.
"What?" Shepard pressed, feeling the need to speak up. "What happened?"
"She isn't pleased, Shepard." the reaper began, slowly. "She is disoriented, confused-
The girl froze at the mention of that name.
She pointed at Shepard.
"This one calls itself Near." Naruto explained.
"Near?"
The girl let out an electronic squeal of protest.
Naruto emitted a bass hiss that sounded like a negative. The girl posed an inquiry. Naruto replied in kind. They went back and forth like this for several seconds before the girl nodded, albeit grudgingly. She didn't look at all pleased. Naruto nudged her toward Isabelle. The child crossed her arms over her chest and appeared to sulk. Her face was flat and emotionless, however, leaving Shepard utterly clueless as to the progeny's mental outlook. Naturally, she was caught completely flatfooted when the girl spoke.
"Hanabi."
Shepard nearly fell over.
"She can speak?"
"Are all primates so ignorant? Hanabi/Near asked suddenly, pointedly. She sounded just like a little girl! Shepard fought to resist the moe and failed quite spectacularly. With a girlish squeal unbefitting of a commanding officer, she leaned forward to pinch the cheeks of the reaper child.
"Aaaawww! Look at you! Your so cute!"
"Commander," Naruto began, "I wouldn't do that if I were you...
"Why not!" Isabelle exclaimed. "She's adorable!"
Too late.
Near twitched.
"Y-You..." Sparks lanced through the child and into the commander. "Get your hands off of me you filthy primate!"
This time, Shepard did fall over.
She'd also be spending a month in med bay.
A/N: Gods, I scare myself sometimes! Hope you liked the Omake! So, should I include Near/Hanabi in this ficlet as well? I thought it would be nice for Naruto/Sentinel to have another of his kind to whom he can relate. Who knows? He might even sway Vengeance and Triumph to his side by the end of this story. Also...I DEFY YOU BIOWARE!
MORDIN LIIIIIIIVES!
R&R! =D