Blood, blood everywhere. It's a forest, a tundra, but filled with blood. No moon, only a giant bloody eye in the sky. Blood and bones creaking under my feet. I did that. Damn bastards stood in my way, so I destroyed them, like I destroyed the Orkz, like I sacrificed the Tau, like I sacrificed Carole. They were weak, died because they feared death, theirs or their loved ones, I am strong, I draw blood like you open a tap to draw water.
Blood for the blood god.
I am a skilled killer, but not the blood god. He draws blood like you blink, a word of him and worlds bleed to death.
I glance up to His eye in the sea of blood, held over my head.
I can be powerful, if I draw blood in his name. No need to draw more than I usually do, just a few words every time.
Not what Carole would have wanted.
Carole was torn to shreds by Husks. I watched her severed limbs bleed and I enjoyed it.
A strong wind blows some of the blood away, a swirl of blue in the sea of red. Trees bend and crack, some tip over and fall in an explosion of dried bones.
Don't you dare! She died for us! Died so you could do what has to be done!
She was weak! She was killed because she thought I was a hero, she was wrong, I can't be something I'm not because some dead bitch wanted me to be.
No! She died so you could set things right! She knew you better than anyone ever did, she thought you could do some good, don't prove her wrong!
"I'm sorry," A female voice pierces the veil of blood, "are you operative Sinner?"
What?
I'm in the med bay, curled on an uncomfortable bed and staring at the fridge with the blood reserves visible through the glass doors.
Damn weird ass dream… Rolling on my back, I spot a silver haired woman clad in more armor than I Krogan warlord, sitting on the bed opposite to mine.
"Uh, yes?"
She nods slowly and I drag myself up. This is strange, feels like those vids about predators cornering their prey. Not sure exactly why.
"I am Eliana, auxiliary of the Tau Empire." Tau… Blue aliens. Don't know how I know, but I do. "I hear we have you to thank for drawing away the Orkz…" Too polite, something's off, we're both grunts who survived the same battlefield, she should see me as an old friend, not some guy she heard about a while ago.
"I did what I had to do, don't make it something it's not."
I don't mean to be rude, but this bitch is creeping me out.
Eliana sighs, seeming almost reluctant, "Many terrible things have been done using that excuse." Before I can reply, she removes something from her belt. My helmet. "This belongs to you, I believe…"
That girl's a hardened warrior; she doesn't care about lost and found objects.
"Won't need it anymore," I explain and she puts it behind herself on the bed, "I'm going back to the Alliance, equipment is standard issue there."
There are signs when someone is about to attack, body language, posture, pupil dilatation, so on.
All this stuff in Eliana gives me a split second warning before she whips out my Kukri from the back of her belt and charge me with it.
Split second I use to snatch the twenty centimeters wide square mirror off the side table and throw it at her unarmoured face.
Eliana ducks and I roll of the bed, wearing only combat trousers while she has full combat armour.
Hou-fucking-Rah.
The auxiliary charges again, slashing sideways over the bed's corner. I rear my head and kick the mattress in her way, the frame is bolted down, so that's the best I can do.
She tries to step over it, but her left boot gets caught underneath and she loses her balance for a second. Long enough for me to climb over the bed to the left.
"That's what you always do, isn't it? Run away and let others fight your battles for you!" I wouldn't say always, just whenever I have a chance. Like now, there are cameras in the med bay, security is most likely on the way.
Just need to not get killed until they get here.
"You're insane, bitch," I hiss in response, stepping into the middle of the room, eight steps from where she is now, "right, but insane." I then add, taking a by the book defensive position.
And here she comes again, hacking from over the right shoulder this time.
I've been in this bed for almost a day now, I'm not hung over anymore and I sure as fuck don't feel weak. This bitch thinks she can take an N7 operator? Let her try.
I sidestep the slash, duck under the backlash and spring up with my fist raised, landing a solid uppercut on her chin and knocking her two steps back.
Ever since I got my ass handed to me by that Asari commando, three years back, that whole 'don't hit girls' shit my parents taught me has gone right out the airlock.
She recovers quickly and actually smiles, "So you can fight! Good to see you are just a heartless bastard, I would have felt bad about killing a weak heartless bastard."
She really thinks she can kill me? I just knocked the shit out of her and she didn't come anywhere close to touching me.
"You have serious issues, lady… What the fuck did I ever do to you?"
She leaps forward again, thrusting the knife straight to my chest. I sidestep again and catch her wrist. Too much armor to perform a backward arm lock, so I raise her arm, slip under it and ram my shoulder into that bitch's armored elbow.
The knife falls from her hand, but she kicks me in the knees before I can catch it. The impact causes the muscles and tendons of my legs to 'unlock', forcing me to my knees long enough for Eliana to free her arm and recover the blade.
We're side by side now, me on my knees, her on the left, resting on a knee, knife in the right hand.
We exchange a glance and she lashes out again, forcing me to lean back pretty dramatically.
She's fast and in a much better positing, no way I can get up before she does, so I rest my hands on the floor and perform a move closer to breakdancing than fighting, spinning my legs around and sweeping hers right off the ground.
Her head hits the floor roughly, leaving a thumb sized blood stain.
I kick her in the ribs twice as she tries to get back up and finally land a good hit that causes her to throw up white mucus.
"You killed the only person in the world I ever cared about." She cough, her voice hoarse and filled with hate.
Happens to me often enough, everyone I kill was important to someone else and they all feel like their family or friend didn't deserve it. Well, fuck, no one deserves to die, some just don't deserve to live. If I meet a guy on the battlefield and we try to kill each other, the one with more skills, determination and smarts will live and the other will die. If there was a way for both to live, it would be fucking great, but only one of us can survive this meeting and it's gonna be the one that's willing to work the hardest for it.
I tell her just that.
"These are just words you use to justify mindless killing, you're a murderer!"
Heh, never said I wasn't.
I get on my feet and she tries to push herself off the floor as well. A Krogan and Turian from the 139 enter the infirmary at that moment, weapons aimed at her.
"Stay down, Eliana," I warn her, signaling the guys to lower their weapons, "I'll kill you otherwise, don't be stupid." I don't care if she lives or die, really, she's a skilled fighter, managed to stand up to me in spite of my augmentations, but she's a dumbass, thinks she has the moral high ground, as if such a thing even existed, came at me with my own knife in a ship full of heavily armed bastards ready to space her if she so much as sneezes in the wrong direction. This kind of stupid deserves death, but this level of skills deserve respect, so I'll give her a fair shot if she really wants me dead that much.
Maybe she'll deserve to live more than me, who knows? All it takes is a single mistake.
"Better men than you have said that," She spits, rising to a knee before pushing herself back up, "men and things so far beyond man that you can't even conceive."
Of course, crazy bitch gives me one last try, holding the curved blade in an overhead ice pick grip. I block, both our wrists impacting with a dull thud. The omni-blade whines to life and the smell of burnt meat fills the room. We stare at each other for a few seconds. Her black eyes have seen shit that makes me look like a teddy bear, but of all that twisted shit, it's the teddy bear that finished her off. Funny. She even giggles after I remove the blade from her stomach.
Non-fatal injury. Would have been on the field, but I just stabbed her in the guts, didn't hit anything vital and she's in the infirmary. Bitch will get another try in a week or so. Maybe she'll get lucky that time.
The Krogan and Turian seem puzzled, one of them, not sure which, given the full face helmets, asks me what that was about.
What do you answer to that? Is there any proper response to shit like this? That's a fucking diplomatic incident, pure and simple, and I'm in the middle of it, I'll spend the next eight months grounded and answering questions from council representative. No fucking way, I got admiral Shepard to authorize my transfer, I might not be so lucky next time. That bitch won't ruin my chance of doing what I was meant to.
"Translators malfunctioned." What? Lamest excuse ever! "I was confused and misunderstood her intentions, things escalated and she just kept coming, not sure what she heard me say, but it made her mad…" two Salarian medics squeeze past the security guys to check on the wounded, "hardware's fault, just ask her when she wakes up."
By then, I'll be reinstated as Alliance Special Forces and my file classified, out of the council's reach.