AN: Just two more chapters left after this one. Once again thanks so much for the reviews, follows, favourites and messages.
This story has been a heavy one and took a lot out of me, so to hear positive things back is really rewarding.
I promise the next one will be much lighter!
Chapter Eight
~Anger~
Shepard felt like bits of her soul were being ripped from her and crushed before her eyes. Her chest actually ached like she had been shot herself.
"Are you ready to flare now?" Tolvah hissed into her ear. Shepard hung her head, her tears dripped onto the floor at her knees.
"Still not enough motivation? My, my you are a challenging animal, but I'm sure I can think of something that will crack you" he turned to Sartak and gestured towards Ella and Bradley. Sartak slunk across the room with menace oozing out of every pore. He Kicked Ella away from Bradley and she collided with the couch. With shaking arms she pulled herself up to her knees and turned as Sartak rounded on her raising his gun so it came to rest between her eyes.
"Oh god no... please no... please don't kill me... oh god please... PLEASE" tears tumbled from her wide terrified eyes as her breath started to come in panicked gasps. He glanced back at Tolvah who bent again to Shepards ear.
"This is the last time I'm going to ask. FLARE!" he snarled.
Shepard sobbed loudly "I don't know how." She repeated in an uneven whisper.
Tolvah nodded to Sartak who grinned at her with malevolent glee, before returning his gaze to Ella and pulling the trigger. Her head snapped back, her eyes glazed over and she fell to the floor, a faint wisp of smoke issuing from the small hole in her forehead. Just like that her sister was gone. All that she was and all that she would ever grow to be, her vibrant personality, her dreams of travelling and seeing new planets, her hopes of falling in love and starting a family of her own, were all wiped out in a split second of sadistic violence.
Why? WHY? How could they do this? How could they destroy people's lives like this without a second thought or a moment of remorse? She thought, as she felt the anger rising in her. These animals were disgusting and depraved and they deserved to suffer.
The tingle began to build once again deep inside of her but this time she welcomed it gladly, knowing how it would end. She focused on it, fuelled by her anger, intent on building it up and controlling it. She wanted to direct it this time, to control it as best she could so she didn't hurt her father by mistake. She pushed the dark energy down to her arms and was momentarily startled when bright blue sparks began to dance across her pale blood stained skin. She continued to mentally will the dark energy down to her hands, remembering from the extranet article that biotics use physical mnemonics to generate and control their flares. She had no idea what type of movements were required or what things biotics could even do, but right now she didn't care. She let the dark energy pool in her hands until it became painful and her palms were almost white with the bright blue light. Her entire body glowed with a shocking blue aura and again everything took on a blue tint. She drew her hands back and thrust them forward towards Sartak with all her might releasing the built up charge in one intense burst, a guttural shriek issuing from her with the effort. What came out - she would later come to realise - was a rudimentary biotic throw. The throw hit Sartak dead on, it picked him up like a rag doll and catapulted him backwards with such force he was thrown clean through the wall of the Shepards home, killing him instantly. His broken body came to rest in an unnatural heap some 20 feet across the yard.
xxx
On hearing this, Kaidan came to understand something about the woman he loved that he had always been curious about. Every other biotic he had ever met without exception used biotics in their day to day life. Some every five minutes, others every now and then.
There had been more Biotics onboard the SR1 then on any other ship or posting he had served on, granted half of them were aliens, but it was true of even them. He'd witnessed Wrex occasionally using biotics to obtain tools out of his reach in the cargo hold. Liara used her biotics like an extra sense. She slid datapads to within her grasp, moved heavy objects up to retrieve things underneath. She crushed food containers and floated them into the recycling, he'd even seen her absent-mindedly creating tiny singularities as she studied data or mentally processed queries. He himself often used his biotic glow as a kind of torch while working on control panels in dark or confined spaces. All of these were typical day to day activities for the average biotic, but not for Shepard. She almost never used her biotics out of combat situations. He'd only seen it happen a few times and those had all seemed to be accidental. The odd charge zipping between them before they became intimate as the danced close to the edge of the fraternization regs. The strong shock she'd given him when he pressed her into the wall of her cabin, sliding his hand up inside her shirt to feel her bare breast, that night before Ilos. The chair she smashed into the wall during the fierce argument they had in the Alliance hospital in London. She had decided she was fine despite the doctor's protestations and gone for a 'walk', only to pass out near the top of a flight of stairs and had almost broken her own neck in the resulting fall.
He used to think that maybe she was ashamed of her biotics, didn't want people to know, but her willingness to use them in combat for all to see and the way she openly talked of being a biotic contradicted that. Now, listening to her confide in him about what she had lived through as a child he began to understand it. His own introduction to his biotics – as with most biotics - had been so very different, he was thrilled when he realised he could move objects by will alone. It was only years later after BAaT and the incident with Vyrnnus that his love of his gift was tarnished. Her first biotic acts had been of unbelievable destruction and death fuelled by grief, anger and fear. In her mind, her biotics were just another weapon to be used, like her Assault Rifle or her pistol. She wouldn't use those in every day situations so why would she use her biotics. He made a conscious decision to try and encourage her to re-evaluate the way she looked at her biotics, to help her change her perspective. He wanted her to see them as a gift, they could be used for everyday life, even fun, not just as a weapon.
xxx
Shepard stood staring at the hole in the wall for a few seconds, shaking all over and huffing out quivering breaths. That had worked better than she hoped. She tore her eyes away from the damage she'd done and was surprised to see her Father and his captor gaping at her with the same expression, one of shock and fear. Seeing that look on her fathers face made her feel instantly ashamed and even a little regretful. He normally looked at her with such unconditional love and affection, seeing his current expression was such a harsh contrast. She was snapped out of her thoughts by Tolvahs grumbling laughter at her back.
"We'll be taking this one!" He chuckled "A biotic of her strength? She'll be worth her weight in credits. Grab a control device and let's get this done."
The Batarian grabbed a device and turned to advance on her. She panicked as she thought about the pain she'd gone through in the yard, there was no way she wanted to go through that again. She reached down again to try and tap into the anger she felt, wanting to trigger her biotics again and was relieved to find that it worked. Again she let the dark energy build in her hand in a matter of seconds, and again pulled her arm back and thrust it forward with everything she had. The blue light connected with the Batarian, lifted him into the air and brought him slamming back to the ground with unbelievable force. The sound as he connected with the floor was distressing. It was the sound of multiple bones breaking and the odd rip or puncture of his flesh, the loudest sound being the snap of his neck as he landed wrong. Shepard felt exhausted, her vision was spotting and her head was pounding. She could feel the sweat on her upper lip and brow from the massive exertion of wielding her untrained biotics.
Tolvah was no longer laughing, it was two against one and her biotics were alarmingly strong for someone who had just manifested the gift. He grasped hold of her quickly and pinned her arms to her side. He could feel her weak body shaking and struggling to support its own weight, so he shoved her forcefully to the floor dismissing her as no longer being the main threat, he wanted to even the odds.
Charles was up off the floor in a heartbeat and charging across the room. He was so fast that Tolvah only just managed to raise his gun and pull the trigger. Ideally he would have gone for a clean quick head shot but the human was so fast, blatantly fuelled by the pain of witnessing the slaughter of his family, so he had no choice but to shoot him in the stomach.
Charles fell backwards as the round tore through his abdomen and exited out of his lower back, he hit the floor hard. At first he thought he had been punched, his stomach felt strangely numb. He reached his hands across to cradle himself and felt warm wetness. He looked down and saw the blood soaking his shirt and on his glistening on his fingers, he momentarily forgot to breath. He glanced back up at Tolvah with wide startled eyes and the Batarian slowly advanced on him with an unaffected expression.
"Don't hurt her." He pleaded weakly.
Tolvahs face remained neutral, he raised the pistol and aimed at Charles' head.
This was it, he had lost everything but his baby daughter, and now he was going to die and leave her to these murders. He had failed her. He scrunched his eyes closed and embraced the inevitable. The shot sounded thunderous, Charles jumped and his eyes snapped open. He was confused, he didn't feel another shot. Maybe he was numb. Maybe he was already dead. But no, the pain in his stomach was real and intense, he had to be alive. He looked up at Tolvah. The Batarian had a startled expression and was looking at a point behind Charles to the left, disbelievingly. There was a small dark red dot in the centre of his forehead. A bead of blood snaked its way from the dot, down the Batarians nose and he fell to the ground dead.
