Her orientation was…surprisingly pleasant. She found herself lying on her back, sinking into some soft cushion; a mattress. Her eyes were closed, taking advantage of the lull from her session. As to how she got to this place, she couldn't say, but she did find herself feeling quite comfortable in her position.
Tali curled inward and felt her enviro-suit tug at her frame. She hitched her breathing as her hands came up to her face only to find them blocked by the purple visor that hid her from the world. Nothing was out of place, everything on her suit was where it should be. She sighed gratefully; everything had all been a nasty dream.
She looked upward and was surprised to see the edges of the room come into focus. It was unfamiliar to her at first glance and she squinted in order to view the room better. It was a small place, with only a bed and a desk in the corner. Spacious by quarian standards but cramped for the vessel's inhabitants. It only took a few seconds for her to figure out where she was, the impact giving her a start.
The Normandy. This is Shepard's cabin! But…what am I doing here?
The hows or whys could not be explained at this point in time. Actually, Tali was not sure if she wanted everything to be explained all at once. This bed was the most comfortable thing she had ever laid on in months and the more she sat here, the more disinterested she was becoming in getting up to find out answers for herself. Sleeping was the only thing she really wanted to concentrate on at the moment.
She yawned, arching her back on the bed. Perhaps a nap would do her some good, despite the fact that this wasn't her room at all. That brought a frown to her face as her eyelids began to droop. Where was Shepard? That was whom she wanted to see all this time, wasn't it? If this really was his cabin, then where could he be?
Frustrated, she turned on her side and stopped as she found out that someone was occupying the bed with her. Lying on his side away from her, on top of the sheets, the form of Shepard quietly dozed, his chest lightly rising and falling with each breath. Tali's own breath caught in her throat at the sight of him. How long had she been here with him? Why didn't he wake her? What was going on?
All of that quickly went disregarded as Tali joyfully reminded herself that she was with Shepard again. Here he was, right in the same room, on the same bed! He had come back for her!
There was little hesitation in her movements as her drowsiness quickly evaporated. Tali reached for Shepard's shoulder, lightly nudging him. "John!" she whispered, careful not to snap him out of his nap too quickly. "John! Wake up!"
She could see the back of his head rise at her voice, a quiet mumble escaping from his mouth. Happily, she began to stroke the back of his scalp, her fingers tenderly massaging his skin. Tali scooted her body so that she wrapped around him from behind, the two of them lying on the bed together. To hell with the consequences, she reasoned. This was more important.
His body felt good against her. Tali snuggled in closer, adjusting her position so that she could feel the maximum amount of warmth from Shepard. This was a new feeling for her but it just seemed right. The soft yielding of his skin at her touch, despite the enviro-suit, was addictive and soon Tali slipped further into her embrace.
"John," she said seductively in his ear. "Let me see you. Come here."
Obediently, the human rolled over and moved Tali so that she was on her back again, her head supported by the stock pillows. Without being prompted, Shepard dipped his head and started to kiss her suit, just above her breasts. Tali gulped, not anticipating this sort of outcome but found the experience to be very pleasurable all the same. She gasped as Shepard's head began to travel upward, his lips lightly brushing across her suit, a newfound boldness erupting from the both of them from his actions.
Shepard rose up and kissed the suit near her neck, almost making Tali tear off her visor for the extreme need to kiss him back ached so badly that she could feel her consciousness slowly fading away and being replaced by an animal lust.
Biting back a moan, she reached out and cupped his cheeks, still unable to see his face from his strategic positioning. "John, please…look at me."
Slowly, his head began to rise, her fingers gradually helping him up as they reached under his jaw. Her smile was wide as she expected to see the loving grin returned on his handsome face. Perhaps she would kiss him right now, actually. Now was not the time to be concerned with safety. This was about doing what was right, and now she thought kissing him was the right course of action. Her fingers twitched, anticipating the actions that she had found herself longing to do for a string of unbearable months. All those efforts and now everything had finally come to fruition!
But when his face was finally revealed to her, Tali blinked once before recoiling backwards violently. "NO!" she screamed. "NO, NO, NO!"
The intricate mask of Grevel instead of Shepard's face smiled at her, his body cropped in shadow. At her horror, the mask began to laugh, the noise grating on her ears. The jaw snapped inches away from face as he replaced Shepard entirely, his entire existence becoming the image of her enemy. Grevel laid atop Tali, trapping her with his weight. His skeletal fingers reached for her and Tali noticed that one of his hands was brandishing a knife.
With a savage grunt, the knife swung downward and planted itself in the middle of Tali's chest. She stared at the hilt sticking out of her body, numbly groping around it to stem the flow of blood that was spurting out of her in shocking bursts. Soon, her hands became stained with her life and the bedsheets around her turned a wet red color. She coughed, gore flecking her visor as Grevel continued to laugh while he watched the quarian choke to death on her own blood.
Fighting around the coppery taste in her mouth, she took a deep breath and screamed.
A flash of light appeared and suddenly she was hanging in the interrogation room again, her arms positioned skyward as everything blurred around her.
I'm…Anhur…no…where…John?
She couldn't think properly, there was a slight draft on her face, and she dimly felt warm blood run down her arms from the rope around her bound wrists. Tali didn't even notice that she was shaking heavily, her feet scuffing the floor below her. She swung in place, dangling from the rope.
She didn't even notice that she was crying.
Seated in the corner of the musty interrogation room, the real Grevel merely watched the situation unfold. He peered at the quarian, trying to see if there was any concentration behind those glowing eyes of hers. The breathing mask that he had applied a while ago obscured most of her face, but he could definitely make out her eyes as well as the grey color of her skin. The mask continued to pump its deadly payload into Tali's lungs, keeping her hallucinations intact and fresh.
Grevel had to admit, for a quarian, Tali was one of the more attractive he had seen before. She had a youthful face, one not marred by the horrors of war. It only made him feel more envious, but it did give him some sick sort of pleasure to know that he had basically intruded upon her most private features before anyone else did.
All quarians regard their face as the most sacred part of their body. They never show their faces to anyone, not even in their own family. Granted, this didn't apply for acts of intimacy or for the right circumstances that happened to be in place in terms of deep bonds of friendship, but it was still a rare enough occurrence that most of the galactic population could say that they've never seen a quarian unmasked before.
It was not Grevel's first time unmasking a quarian. He had done it so many times in the past that it no longer surprised him when he had to pull their visors off. His job was less than glamorous and it was only cruel fate that many of his victims happened to be quarians. Of course, breaching their suits made for a more effective means of torturing them, but it also helped Grevel see their expressions better so that he could know if his methods were effective or not. He felt he knew a little more about quarians each time he went through the same song and dance, how their suits worked, where their hidden pockets were, and the limits he could take them to regarding full on exposure before it killed them.
But every time that he got to this part of the interrogation, Grevel was always particularly struck at how similar quarians looked compared to humans, sans the grey skin. Their facial structures of quarians were practically similar in shape, they were the only other species to have hair, and the little lines that rose from their eyebrows up to their scalp gave them a very exotic edge. Grevel, after seeing Tali exposed like this to him, knew that Shepard would definitely find her attractive, unless the man was as blind as a bat. But Grevel would certainly never let Tali know that.
He peered at Tali, noting that her eyes were dilated, most likely from the infection from the air in this place. This was not a microbe-free room, and nor was the breathing mask effectively airtight. From the monitoring devices hooked up to Tali, Grevel could see that she was running a slight fever but the antibiotics were doing a hefty job in keeping her from getting seriously sick. This was easily recoverable from, nothing to worry about.
Grevel slowly got up from his chair and walked over to Tali, who was breathing heavily, trying to compose herself. He got to about a foot from her and knelt down, making sure that her hanging head could properly see him. Her eyes blinked in panic and Grevel could see the fear etched on her face. Wisps of black hair trailed from underneath the helmet, giving Tali a disheveled look.
"This can all be over," Grevel spoke quietly to her, "if you only stop struggling. Just give in and your pain will stop, Tali'Zorah. I promise you."
Tali coughed before slitting her eyes in a furious expression. "N-N-Never…" she choked out before the mask applied another dose of toxin rushing through it, causing her muscles to seize.
While the trembling Tali spaced out again, Grevel strode over to the cart and checked the readouts on the dials. He cranked one of them to lessen the gas flow somewhat after discovering that an eighth of the tank had already been used up. It was being consumed at a decent pace but Grevel wanted to conserve his resources, just in case.
The toxin had been just one of the Collectors' many gifts to the Shadow Broker, a reward for one of the countless jobs performed in the past. The toxin was a very potent paralyzing agent that was friendly with weapon integration, allowing for easier non-lethal takedowns to be performed. Apparently, the stuff was a product of some Collector bio-weapon only known as "seeker swarms." Even the Broker did not have sufficient intel on this weapon, but only that the Collectors utilized the poisonous compound to neutralize their victims for whatever nefarious purposes they had in mind.
Interestingly, upon further research, the swarm venom was discovered to be mildly radioactive. Nothing approaching lethal levels but still an unstable compound nevertheless. By oxidizing the stuff and cutting the overall intensity by combining it with the appropriate mix of nitrogen, the swarm venom's chemical makeup could be altered, now giving it the properties of a hallucinogenic compound.
It was a very cleverly crafted compound, as if the Collectors had intended for the venom to be used in multiple different forms. For one, the new gas was so already intricately assembled that it immediately fell under the 2C category of psychedelic phenethylamines due to the presence of methoxy groups on the two and five positions on the benzene rings. Not only that, but there was the presence of lipophilic substituents at the four position, making the entire compound more potent, longer lasting, and more metabolically stable.
It was doing its job perfectly, at the very least, Grevel considered as he patted the tank. He eyed a small drip that was drawing blood from Tali, transported by one of the extra tubes he had inserted into the shoulder injection ports. It was not very much in the way of a sample, but he could examine it to find traces of toxins still residing in her bloodstream, denoting if she was still sick.
Although, Grevel had to consider, judging by the quarian's strength of will, it could be quite a while before she would give in completely to the hallucinations brought on by the toxin. Due to the nature of the toxin's potency, he wondered just how much of her mind she would be able to retain after all this was over. The effects would linger for a good long while and in that time Tali would certainly be in a more submissive position. His words were ringing true because the more she struggled, the worse it was going to be for her.
It made no difference now. All he had to do was wait.
The wheel on top the hatch creaked loudly and it soon swung open on rusty hinges, making a squealing noise. Shepard popped up from the hole, scanning in all directions before mentally pronouncing the area safe. His motion trackers were coming up with nothing and there was no one within his line of sight.
All clear.
He stepped up from the underground passageway, looking at the moss covered metal surface of the hatch. It had perfectly blended in at the foot of a huge tree back in the jungle. Night had fallen by now, the shadows of the undergrowth playing tricks with Shepard's eyes. The chirps and squawks from the insects, birds, and whatever nocturnal life was prowling about at the moment drowned out the grunting noise emanating from the shaft, causing Shepard to peer over there in annoyance.
With a huffing sound, Alec pulled himself out of the hatch, his face beet-red. Zlette and Interius soon followed, both brandishing submachine guns that they trained across the ground for cover.
The vorcha glanced unsympathetically at the wheezing Alec. "Hurrr. Human, your sounds are painful. You are weaker than you let on."
"Fuck…you…" Alec panted, hacking up a lung as he did so. "I did some heavy lifting before I was volunteered on this suicide mission. Sorry if my level of physical fitness is not good enough for you."
Zlette did not seem fazed but bared his teeth in a savage snarl before Shepard stepped in.
"All right, shut up, both of you." He glanced at his compass on his omni-tool. "We need to head north where the hangar is. They'll probably be guarding the main entrance so I think we should sneak around the cliff side. Unless anyone else has a better idea?"
"Yeah," Interius nodded. "There's a back door on the other side of the mountain. We have to go up a steep path, though, but we'll have a better chance of avoiding detection."
"It's better than simply knocking down the front door," Shepard shrugged. "Does anyone have any objections to taking the back way?"
Zlette just returned the shrug. Alec spat in the grass.
Shepard narrowed his eyes at his fellow human's crude action. "It's unanimous, then. You know the way, Interius?"
"Yeah. Deborah showed me."
"Good. You take point as soon as we get to the path. How long of a climb is it?"
Interius checked his map. "Forty-five minutes to the base of the mountain. A two hour hike up the side afterward."
"Great."
As they moved out, the squad of four stepped over a dead log and dug their feet into the mulch. Trudging their way through the dense jungle once more, they became absorbed into the blackness of life.
Shepard's new weaponry was of a mediocre build, to put it mildly. Of course, he didn't expect Spectre requisitions gear just hanging about back at the rebel base but in his mind's eye, his expectations were still outrageously high. The rifle he carried now, realistically, was a fine rifle but it was several leagues behind what he was used to. Same with the shotgun and the sniper rifle, all used and low cost. At least they were reliable models so he wouldn't have to worry about them blowing apart whenever he had to pull the trigger. He had enough things trying to kill him at the moment and he certainly didn't need another.
He hefted the small shoulder pack tied about him. Deborah had ordered Zlette to give him the last of their explosive charges and now they were housed in a makeshift pack that he was carrying around. She didn't say what he should do with them but there was an implied suggestion hidden underneath the gesture.
Blow the place and be done with it.
Shepard at least wished he had thought to bring some water. Now that he was trekking through this humid biome again, he remembered the uncomfortably sweatiness that accompanied any movement. Unconsciously, he reached into one of his side pockets and furrowed his brow in confusion when he felt his fingertips brush something. He withdrew his hand, clutching the object, and stared at the long nashi thorn nestled in his palm that had miraculously stayed in its place after the series of ordeals.
Shepard looked at the thorn for a while, occasionally glancing at the ground to watch his step as the group quietly walked along. Its overall purpose as a reminder of Anhur would serve him well, a good indicator of how he had to adapt and survive in this harsh environment. Like the nashi, he would begin to prick back.
Instead of dropping the thorn on the forest floor, Shepard smiled and returned it to the pocket, the reminder to watch himself fresh in his mind. He didn't know if the nashi thorns still had toxin on them after they had been plucked but it was better to be safe than sorry in this case. He didn't want to collapse in the middle of a rescue mission if he let his mind wander at a critical moment.
The crunching of branches behind Shepard snapped him out of his thoughts. Hearing the distant grumbling of Alec, he had to concede that he would probably never want to have any of these people in his squad watching his back ever again.
Interius, although he meant well, was only a medic on loan from Genex. He was no soldier and probably not even a decent hacker. Shepard was willing to bet that Tali could hack circles around the turian while simultaneously improving the output of the engine core. As it was, he was skeptical of Interius being able to open a simple door.
Zlette also worried him. The vorcha was just a gun-for-hire, a mercenary initially hired as muscle by the company. Although Zlette had consistently exhibited more professional behavior in terms of keeping his mouth shut when necessary, Shepard was wary at the vorcha's overall intentions. Their entire race was not exactly known for their diplomatic skills and more for their viciousness in a fight. They comprised a good chunk of the Blood Pack gang out in the Terminus and that overall reputation did a good job in souring public opinion of the vorcha. He just hoped that Zlette would surprise him.
Alec, on the other hand, was hated by Shepard from the start. The human was arrogant, loud mouthed, and a borderline racist. If it were not for Deborah's insistent recommendation, Shepard would have gladly left him behind back at the outpost. But, apparently since he was supposedly a really good shot, Shepard had no choice. But that didn't stop the man from repeatedly grating on Shepard's nerves. He just hoped there was an opportunity to dump him at the side of the road when the coast was finally clear. Shepard had to remind himself to tough it out until Tali was found.
Tali. Please still be alive. I promised you that I would come back. I don't intend to break it.
Pushing aside the leaves of a huge bush, Shepard let out a breath as the tall spire of the mountain base loomed in front of them, blocking out the soft light of the moon from its pointed spire.
The air vibrated from the low thrum of plasma zooming by her head. Bright blue shafts of light passed parallel over the ground, illuminating the dark corridors of the facility. Tali ducked behind a low wall, her ears buzzing from the close proximity of the plasma bolts.
Steam and argon gas hissed in the industrial environment, fogging up Tali's mask. She panted loudly, clutching her submachine gun as she struggled to catch her breath. Low footsteps echoed closely, clanking on the grated floor. They were close, whoever they were.
Tali quickly switched her gun to fire disruptor rounds before she rose out of her crouch. She couldn't see a thing in this darkness but she fired all the same. The gun bucked in her hands, sending thin lines of projectiles spewing into the black, the light briefly illuminating the piping running along the side of the corridor.
She was beginning to get more panicked from not being able to see her enemy. She rotated in place, becoming more agitated as she fired. The gun reports were starting to deafen her and the awful clattering from the facility falling apart kept drawing her attention all over the place. Tali roared as she held the trigger down, not noticing that the thermal clip had overheated until it was too late.
As she made to look down to see how far its cooldown progress was, Tali felt a fiery pain in her belly and found herself lying on the cold metal ground, her gun knocked out of her hands. Numbly, she raised her head and stared at the gash that the plasma shaft had left when it had scythed across her stomach. Tali swore she could smell her own roasted flesh through her olfactory filters and she moaned in horror as she saw a faint grey tube of her intestine beginning to spill out of the wound.
As she tried to push her guts back in, her gloves became stained with blood. The pain was excruciating, causing Tali to scream loudly as the sound of footsteps became closer. Through her tear-streaked eyes, she struggled to see beyond her impaired threshold, wanting to know who did this to her.
The black and white form of a geth prime slowly strode into view, the lone light on top of its head unwavering. In its hands, the plasma turret was slightly smoking, a light whirr coming from its internal components. Seeing the fallen quarian on the ground, it cocked its head, analyzing her for any more threats.
Tali could do nothing as she lay there, dying. She squinted her eyes as it seemed the light from the prime was slowly getting more intense. It actually appeared to be enveloping the entire geth, creating a ball of illumination next to her.
However, the light slowly receded and draped itself behind a new form. Tali whimpered as Grevel now stood where the geth prime had, but he still brandished the plasma canon triumphantly. The mask tilted downward, cruelly smiling at her.
Weakly shaking her head, Tali mumbled, "Please…don't…"
Grevel merely aimed the cannon at her head. "It would be easier if you weren't struggling," he cackled before he pulled the trigger.
Everything went white for a split second.
Gasping, Tali opened her eyes, her pain completely vanished. With a low cry, she clutched at her stomach, holding her hands where the wound had just been previously. She looked down and saw that her enviro-suit was intact, no marks on it at all. She quickly patted herself over for any more wounds before pronouncing herself uninjured, for the most part. She sobbed in relief as she recalled the sensation of her disembowelment, her shoulders trembling from the reminiscence. With that over, Tali began to calm down but suddenly became wary as she found herself trapped in a void, the industrial installation completely warped away.
Everything was black around her, like she had entered a room where the walls were all one uniform shade. It appeared to Tali like she was standing on nothing, just floating in this ocean with no bottom. She clutched at herself, telling herself that this was all in her head, that her mind was only playing tricks on her.
Someone cleared their throat behind her and she whirled around. Grevel, his hands at his sides, began to walk towards her. He was the only other person inhabiting this space with her, the only point of concentration. Scared, Tali began to back away but found that no matter how hard she tried, the intimidating form still maintained the same pace in her direction.
Knowing that she couldn't escape him, Tali fell to her knees and Grevel stopped a few feet away from her. He tilted his head down, silently regarding the defeated looking quarian before him, wondering just how much fight she could possibly have left within her.
"Just ask for mercy," he growled, his coat flapping from an intangible breeze, "and it will be granted. You can end all this now. Just take my hand and you'll be done." He reached out with his hand as he said this, palm up, his red eyes unblinking.
Tali ground her fingers into the invisible ground in front of her. Trembling, she almost began to gag before shaking her head, ever defiant. "I…will not…bend to you, varr'lek!" The terrible curse burst from her lips, one of the worst any quarian could utter. Tali was beyond any moral sensibilities at this point, though.
Grevel just shrugged. "As you wish," he said before waving his hand, causing him and the entire scene to dissolve.
Tali shut her eyes as a new image began to reappear through the dark, announcing its presence with a whoosh. Her chest seemed to compress, pushing the air out of her lungs and her entire body prickled with discomfort. She clenched her teeth, almost biting the edge of her lip before the uncomfortable sensations faded and she was left alone.
She heard a hiss and felt a vibration through her helmet. Tali opened her eyes a crack to see a pair of calloused hands reaching toward her face. In shock, she sat bolt-upright to find herself back in Shepard's cabin, her legs dangling off the edge of his bed. Her confused state of mind had brought her back here for some reason, but why?
What was different about this encounter this time was seeing an awake Shepard sitting next to her, his hands already depressing the catches of her visor. His face was rapt with interest and Tali's mouth drifted open, now comprehending what he was doing.
My helmet…He wants to see me. He wants to look at my face!
Tenderly, Shepard pulled her visor away from the excited quarian and gingerly set it down on the bed behind him. Tali felt cool air brushing across her face and could now hear his quiet breathing, labored by nervousness and a hidden finality. Her eyes widened at the mere idea that he could see who she truly looked like underneath, for it was a gift that she had wanted to give him for so long. After all this, he needed to know what she looked like, to know how she felt, eternally trapped in this damned suit!
As Shepard finally laid eyes on her face, a change brushed over him, one Tali did not expect. Instead of a loving smile and a warm tenderness in his features, Shepard's eyes darkened and his mouth turned downward in a scowl. Tali's heart could not have sunk lower at the sight of his disgust. Shepard began to scoot away from her and Tali's heart rendered itself apart.
"No…please," she begged, her tears making twin waterfalls down her face. "I…I l-l-love you, John. Sh-Shouldn't that matter the m-most?"
Shepard could only make a low sound from his throat, a noise of complete and utter revulsion. Swiftly, he stood and walked out of the room, not looking upon the person that repelled him so for another moment.
Crying, Tali leaned over until her head touched the bed. Her tears were absorbed by the soft fabric and she bunched it in her fists. It seemed her entire body was rattling with sorrow and horror and she finally leaned her face, her hideous face, upward and screamed.
The scream seemed to last an eternity around her. She took breaths in between and resumed her wail, her limbs going limp. She started to feel faint and soon keeled over, looking to the bed to comfortably arrest her fall.
But the soft sheets merely parted and soon Tali found herself tumbling through blackness again. She dimly felt the sensation of falling but was too dazed to do anything about it. She raised a hand to wipe away her tears but stopped when she saw the grey skin of her hand right in front of her face instead of the dull black of her enviro-suit.
She looked down in confusion and saw that she was inexplicably naked. Her grey skin was completely uncovered and her shoulder-length black hair was free to whip around in the stillness. Even though no one was around to perceive her in her flight, Tali drew her legs to her chest, curling herself up into a ball as she tumbled. The horrors were unending, never satiated, that continued to drive her to the brink of madness. She now floated in her fetal position, a still lifeform wreathed in sadness.
A cold draft threw itself upon her bare body, making her shudder, but there was now a pricking sensation on the back of her hand. In annoyance, and through her blurry eyes, she lifted her head to view the source of her discomfort but was astonished to discover that her right hand was completely ablaze. Before she could react, there was a harsh snapping sound and now her other hand suddenly became consumed in flames as well.
Her skin boiled and dripped, causing Tali to howl in pain. The flames quickly traveled up her body, creating one giant fireball. Tali writhed where she was, screeching all the while. Her hair burned and disintegrated on her head. Her flesh melted and turned to wax. Her eyes popped from the heat and dribbled down her face.
Before she lost her sight, the last thing she could see was the bones of her arms, still able to move even after the last of her skin sloughed off, an emaciated version of what her flesh hid. Transformed by the flame, the last of the muscle on her body burned away, leaving only bones behind. Still draped in the fire, the blackened skeleton of Tali creaked and howled one final word.
"STOP!"
Abruptly as it started, it ended. A new pressure could be felt from the absence of agony, one that came from lying on the ground. The crackling sound of her own body cooking ceased, a welcome silence assaulting her ears. Groggy, Tali stirred where she lay, the final memory of the fire infringing upon her, making her shudder.
She was back in the black emptiness. Here, she was all alone again.
Her breathing echoed within her visor, giving her solace that she was back in her suit. There was no Shepard to torment her, there was no fire, there were no geth. It was just the comforting silence now, the open ear for her labors.
She turned her head to the side and saw a pair of familiar black boots standing right next to her. She closed her eyes, knowing exactly who they belonged to. "No…more…" she croaked. "Please…don't do this to me…"
"Take my hand, Tali'Zorah," Grevel said softly. "Take it if you want mercy."
Pushing herself up on weak limbs, Tali saw a three-fingered hand poking out of the black coat surrounding Grevel. The hand was tilted upward, just like before, and positioned patiently for her to make the final move.
"Can you make it stop?" she whispered. "Will it all end if I choose this path?"
"Nothing will hurt you again," came the quiet reply. "I give you my word."
Without any more thought on her end, Tali reached out and took the offered hand, her soft fingers brushing against the hard armor. The grip was colder than she expected.
Back in the room, Grevel swiftly replaced Tali's breathing mask with her own visor, sealing her back up. The quarian had finally lapsed into unconsciousness, her head lolling forward while she continued to hang from the rope.
All in all, Grevel had been impressed by the toxin's effectiveness in breaking the quarian down. He dearly wished that he could have seen the hallucinations that had completely shattered her so, but that was the penalty of psychological torture, it rarely involved first-hand work for the torturer.
He walked back to the cart and cut the flow of gas. Tali had used up almost a third of the tank, which was definitely an impressive feat. Most times, the participants hardly lasted going through an eighth. The other readout showed that Tali's body temperature was continuing to be closely regulated, the antibiotic having successfully repulsed all of the allergic reactions that she had been suffering from.
Grevel walked back over and drew out the tubes from Tali's injection ports, sloppily replacing her hood over her helmet. He reached up and cut the tension to the rope, causing the quarian to collapse to the floor. Looking over at the crumpled form, Grevel smirked.
Everyone breaks, quarian. If I could break, you could too.
Adjusting his coat, Grevel walked over to the door leading outside, unlocking it with his omni-tool. He took one stride and almost collided with a batarian standing right in front of the doorway. Grevel halted and eyed the alien sourly.
"What the hell do you want?"
The batarian bore the expression of a mouse about to bell the cat. "It's…Commander Zherl, sir. He's been requesting an update on the situation…"
"Oh, he does, does he?"
"He's…he's been very insistent, s-sir."
Grevel deliberately looked to the side in disinterest, sighing explosively before he spoke. "Fine, whatever. I'll answer the commander's hail. I've been meaning to get it over with anyway. Before I do that, I'm going to need some things from you."
"Me, sir?" the batarian gulped.
"Yes, you. What, do you think I'm referring to the fucking wall over there? Firstly, you see the quarian back in the room?"
The batarian nervously leaned around Grevel's shoulder to see the prone form of Tali lying still on the ground. He nodded, waiting to hear further instructions.
"When she wakes," Grevel said once he glimpsed eye contact with the alien, "I want her to be moved into one of the rooms near the hangar entrance, unbound."
"You said…unbound?" the batarian clarified.
"I did, and if you ask me one more time about something that I clearly stated to you, I'm going to have to find someone else who doesn't ask so many questions. That doesn't bode well for you, by the way. To reiterate: unbound, unrestrained, unshackled. The quarian will be in a much more…compliant mood for a few hours, which is more than enough time for what is to come next."
"Got it," the batarian bobbed his head while Grevel continued.
"No need to keep the door locked, she's not going anywhere." He noted the batarian's confused look. "Yes, I said unlocked. You don't need to understand my reasoning, just follow the damn orders." Grevel now leaned forward so that the jawbone clacked inches away from the batarian's face. "And make sure that she remains uninjured by anyone here. If I come back and I see that someone has laid hands on her, I'll kill every last one of you fuckers in this compound, and I won't be quick and clean about it. Understand?"
"P-Perfectly!"
Worked every time.
"Part two," Grevel straightened. "I need you to transfer the protocols from the quantum communicator into my helmet. I'm going to need a conversation done on the move and I don't have time to wait around in the comm room whilst preparations are being made. I'll give you the proper frequency for you to patch in so it should be a quick job for you. Think you can handle it?"
"Of course, sir!"
"Excellent." Grevel flexed his fingers before roughly shouldering past the batarian. "If Zherl happens to ask where I am in the next five minutes, just tell him that I'm on my way."
Before the batarian could answer, Grevel abruptly turned the corner and was gone, leaving the batarian panicking over how he could do his jobs quickly and efficiently enough without having the anger-prone mercenary blow a fuse.
He keyed a control on his radio. He was going to need a few helping hands.
Shepard's foot slipped on a rock but he caught himself just in time. Getting to a knee, he swore that the sound of clattering stones down the slope could potentially draw a lot of attention to them, and they weren't even halfway up the mountainside yet.
Looking downward so that he wouldn't fumble with his footing again, Shepard dutifully followed Interius as they hiked up the lone path, a dusty trail cut into the side of an enormous slope devoid of vegetation. He could hear Zlette snorting silently and Alec panting behind him. Still they climbed, hugging their weapons close to their bodies.
A rumble of thunder echoed throughout the forest, catching the group as they looked over the canopy. Interius looked up at the broiling sky overhead. "Looks like rain," he commented.
"That'll make the path slippery," Shepard grimaced. "How much further until we reach the entrance?"
"Forty-five minutes, tops."
Shepard sighed as he wiped away sweat from the back of his neck. "We'd better hurry if we don't want to get caught out in the open. The storm's going to wreak havoc with our progress if we are out here too long."
The turian nodded in agreement, doubling his pace as he stepped around a particularly large boulder. Alec made a quiet groan as everyone adjusted to the increased rate of travel, but was ignored by his peers Shepard's legs were starting to ache from the exertion, but he knew that with every step he made, he was getting close to Tali. He couldn't slow down. Not now.
Almost there, Tali. Hold on. Just hold on!
A/N: So far, I've been enjoying experimenting with this sort of "dark authenticity" in this story. It's been refreshing to try something along these lines and I just hope all of you are enjoying the risks I've been taking so far.
Keep a close watch for when the final act begins in the next chapter! I'll start working on it tomorrow and will post it when it's ready.
