AN: This chapter's a little longer, hopefully that makes up for short one last week. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The author of this fic (me) may or may not be entirely sane, but I'm not crazy enough to think I actually own Mass Effect. Except on Wednesdays.
Chapter 9
Kai Leng's limbs were reacting slowly. He tried to push himself off the floor where he'd tumbled, behind the med bay table he'd been laying on. Another explosion went off just outside the med bay doors and he found himself rocked back against the aft wall, his head cracking solidly make him wince and his skull ache.
After another moment of gathering his strength and forcing himself to focus on the task at hand he managed to get to his feet. He leaned against the table he'd been lying on, (or had he been sitting?), before the explosions had begun. His memory was a big blank mass whenever he tried to remember the last few minutes.
He took in his surroundings, even as he felt his training and instincts kicking in. He glanced down. His wrists and ankles still bore the shackles, but the magnetic locks were disengaged and he had sufficient length between them to walk and defend himself.
He glanced out the window on his right, looking into the ships mess hall and commons area. Through the smoke and flickering light of burning debris he could make out the shapes of several people running and shooting weapons. He couldn't see who they were fighting.
I was waiting for a chance to escape, Leng thought, guess this is it.
He scanned the room quickly for a weapon. Finding nothing he decided to press on without. He walked quickly around the tables and counters, keeping his eyes on the window looking outside, and watching for any threats or opportunities to arm himself.
Leng had to force the med bay doors apart with his bare hands, as it seemed there was some damage to the electrical systems controlling its opening mechanism. As soon as he could squeeze through he pushed himself out into the smoke and chaos.
He noticed several downed crew members, their faces blank and lifeless under the flashing emergency lights. From around the corner he heard a loud, inhuman growl followed by a serious of short staccato grunts. There were heavy thudding footsteps moving on the other side of the wall he had his back braced against. It sounded like a herd of zombie elephants was exiting the elevator. He looked around quickly for an escape. He was unarmed and shackled. A head on assault would be a bad idea, he thought.
Leng spotted a ventilation duct and moved quickly to it. It pulled from the wall with a metallic ripping sound. He threw the grate at a lumbering shadow that approached through the smoke and leaped nimbly onto the mess table before taking aim and diving into the vent.
He didn't hesitate, moving quickly though the metalwork ducts, looking carefully around corners before pushing on. He didn't have to go far to find another grate that opened into the elevator shaft. He kicked it loose at the corners before hitting it dead center and sending it spinning out into the open shaft behind it.
Kai stuck his head out carefully, looking up and down. The elevator had moved down to the lower deck and he had only a small jump to the service ladder that ran the length of the empty shaft. Once he was gripping the small rungs he had a choice to make. . As much as he wished the attack was coming from Cerberus Operatives sent to rescue him, he was pretty sure that wasn't who the Alliance marines were facing.
If he went down he could make his way to the shuttle bay, hijack a shuttle and leave the Normandy to face the enemy alone. The shuttles had some short-range FTL capabilities, and he was a more than competent pilot. He had a good chance of making it somewhere he could contact the Illusive Man for pick up.
He could also go up. He knew that the airlock off the ship was located at the front of the CIC, just behind the pilot's bridge. Depending on who was attacking the Normandy, he could possibly stow away on the enemy ship, maybe even steal it out from under their noses. That would have more possibilities for long range travel, but he would likely have to eliminate whatever enemy forces were left behind. Odds were he'd be greatly outnumbered.
He could also look for an available escape pod. Depending on what the situation was outside the ship that was likely his best chance to escape the immediate vicinity, but he would then be stranded on whatever habitable or semi-habitable planet or moon was nearby, if there were any. Drifting in space waiting for an Alliance rescue squad definitely wasn't his first choice.
Leng started climbing down.
He had to squeeze past the elevator stopped on deck 3, climbing awkwardly past it on his way to the shuttle bay. Finding a grate that opened onto the level he needed, he gripped it the slats tightly and pulled. He nearly lost his balance and tumbled backwards when the grate came loose more easily than he'd suspected it would.
He just managed to keep from swearing, though his clinking shackles and the crash of the grate on the floor below made his efforts to be silent seem a bit wasted. Suddenly the elevator above him began lowering slowly towards his head. Kai dove quickly into the new duct, narrowly avoiding losing his feet in the process and made his way towards the shuttle bay.
He found himself looking down on a terrifying battle. Several Alliance marines were backing away from the elevator, their weapons raised and firing a constant barrage at the now opening elevator doors. He could hear the men screaming with the bloodlust and terror of battle, and smell the old, familiar scents of war. His nose was filled with the cloying odors of blood, smoke, expended thermal clips and the faint, but noticeable hints of ozone and death that wafted through the slats of the grate beneath him.
Something flashed through his line of sight so quickly that he might have missed it if he'd blinked. His eyes automatically tracked the motion, and he witnessed one of the Normandy crew being tackled to the ground by a blue-glowing humanoid form that grunted and growled as it bit into the marine's face.
The husk was soon followed by a line of Cannibals, stumbling, shambling masses of lumpy, grotesque tissue and mangled limbs.
Reapers.
There were Reaper forces assaulting the Normandy.
Kai gathered his surprise and revulsion together with his panic and shoved them down under his training and instincts. He could figure out what this would mean in terms of the bigger picture later. For now, Kai knew he needed to focus on survival.
He watched the line of monstrosities push father into shuttle bay. The shouts of the marines were coming from the far end of the room now, where they'd fallen back to take cover behind some of the stacked cargo.
Leng carefully pushed the grate open, letting it swing on its hinge. Using it as cover he lowered his head through the gap beneath him and took a quick peek below him. All of the reaper forces had pushed past his location, and were battling it out at the far end of the bay. He silently hoped that the shuttles weren't taking too much damage from stray fire, or not so stray fire. He wouldn't put it past the Reapers to try and disable any means of escape as a first priority.
He was committed now, though.
Lowering himself carefully through the gap, trying not to draw any attention, he dropped to the floor below, his ankle shackles rattling softly. Otherwise he was completely silent as he took a few steps forward. Crouching slowly, he pulled a heavy pistol from the grip of the marine that was now missing his face and then dashed to his left, seeking shelter behind the rows of Cargo along the port side hull.
He had lost of practice moving silently through the shadows, and he now used those skills now as he moved forward, climbing over the large bins where there wasn't sufficient space for him to move between the blocks of cargo.
From one high vantage point he had a bird's eye view of the conflict going on below. A majority of the reaper forces had been mowed down by the persistent barrage of slugs coming from the marine's positions behind cover. The shuttle was being used by one of the heavily armored figures as cover, which would make boarding the shuttle exceptionally difficult. His best bet was to wait until the battle was finished, hope the victors would leave to help their comrades, or remove the victors from the equation if that were possible. Then he'd be free and clear to take the shuttle at his leisure.
Kai tightened his grip on the pistol in his hand and continued working his way towards to front of the ship. He heard inhuman grunts and growls and the constant pounding of kinetic slugs into flesh and other solid objects. From time to time he also heard the chiming ping of slugs on shield or a barrier, and, of course, there was the sound of men dying.
Despite their numbers being whittled down, the Cannibals were still unleashing a devastating hammer of their own weapon fire. When he reached the end of the row of cargo he found what had once been a dozen or so marines were now only four.
He watched carefully from his concealment as one of the marines behind the shuttle caught a handful of slugs in his right shoulder. The man spun away to hit the back wall and crumple to the floor after being shot again and again by an advancing Cannibal.
Kai balanced on the balls of his feet and prepared to move as soon as the path was clear. He didn't want to miss his opportunity.
One of the Cannibals stepped over one of its fallen comrades, wrenching a limb off, as it did and jamming the shoulder socket into its own hip. After a strange motion under the thing's (was it skin?) surface the new appendage began flexing fingers and bending far too many joints as it reached the cover of one of the Normandy crew. The monstrous thing leaned over a large crate and began taking aim with its large arm gun at the crouched figure behind it.
In a flash, the marine had grabbed the reaper by its grotesque new arm and launched it into one of its remaining fellows. The two Cannibals went tumbling backwards, crashing into a mound of roiling, putrescent flesh. Without a word the three remaining humans surged together in a dance of death that impressed even one of Cerberus' best.
The soldier that had tossed the Cannibal, followed through with a deadly thrust of their omni-blade, driving it dead center of two pairs of glowing eyes while the other two moved from out to cover the armored form by concentrating their fire on the last Cannibal still standing.
When that one had finally dissolved into a pulsing, running mass of goo, the both ran over to assist with the dispatching of the final enemy, which was trying desperately to absorb the oozing figure lying on top of it. With its new hardened shell, it took all three marines, blasting and stabbing the thing to finally finish the thing off.
With their focus elsewhere Leng made his move. He ran in a crouch, hiding around the corner of the shuttle, not far from the downed body of the marine he'd seen shot while he waited for the door to open after he'd quietly palmed the access panel.
He watched the Normand crew as they swiftly moved through the enemy forces making sure they were all really and truly dead. The excellently maintained hydraulics made no sound as they moved; though they seemed tortuously slow to Kai.
When he had enough room to squeeze under, he moved quickly and quietly into the open space beyond. He tried palming the door shut again, instantly, but it seemed the door was determined to finish the opening cycle.
Not wanting to waste time, Kai sprinted to the front of the shuttle and began the startup protocols. He knew it was only a matter of time before the Alliance goons realized someone was aboard their shuttle, and hoped they would be too preoccupied to investigate. He heard glanced over his shoulder and saw the door was finally open completely.
Using the main command panel he ordered the door shut and locked, and then he checked fuel levels, hull integrity, and power cells. It seemed, despite the battle that had raged next to it only moments ago that the hull was intact enough to fly. As soon as the alert flashed that the door was sealed he wasted no time sending the command to open the outer cargo bay door.
Leng grinned. He was moments away from freedom. He turned the pilot's seat, preparing to sit in it when he heard the voice. It had the hollow distant sound of a voice being relayed through a headset.
"And just where the hell do you think you are going?" The all too familiar voice was coming from right behind him.
Leng felt his grin drop off as he stood straight. Slowly, he turned to look behind him.
The first thing his eyes focused on was the dark, gaping barrel of a large assault rifle. Behind that, he was faced with the impressive and heavily armored marine from the cargo bay. He noticed now the faintly feminine shape of the hips, bust and shoulders, and despite the facial features being masked by the helmet, he now recognized the figure he'd been watching so admiringly.
He smiled wryly, and shook his head slightly. I should have known…
"Your ship's gotten a bit crowded for my taste," he shrugged, keeping his body from tensing.
"Sorry to say, but your flight's been cancelled," Shepard said testily as she used the assault rifle to order him away from the controls. "Drop the pistol," she added verbally, almost as an afterthought.
"What? This pistol?" Kai asked and tossed the pistol in her face, at the same time he ducked and rolled to his left, coming up under the end of Shepard's gun, out of range of its fire.
Shepard had neatly used the rifle to knock the pistol away, but he used the momentary distraction to lash out, his leg sweeping in an arch to knock her legs out from under her.
Leng lunged for the pistol as it went skidding across the shuttle hold's floor, coming to rest against the shuttle door. He had it gripped in his left hand as he felt a booted foot slam into his lower back, forcing him against the side of the shuttle. He rolled away, jarring his right shoulder as he whipped around and took hasty aim. The chain linking his shackles whirled out in front of him in a glittering arch.
With Shepard in his sights he pulled the trigger.
Click, click, click.
The thermal clip was dry. He hadn't taken the time to check it when he'd lifted it off the dead man. He growled and hoped that hadn't been a fatal mistake as he continued to roll. Shepard's heel crashed down where his stomach had been, and he pushed off the other wall, leaping to his feet just in time to duck the butt of her assault rifle as it swung at his head.
Kai shifted quickly from defensive to offensive. He reached out and grabbed the end of her assault rifle, jerking Shepard forward, setting her off balance before slamming it back again, and cracking it against her face plate viciously. He hit her again with the side of her own rifle before she gained her senses back enough to respond.
The Commander wrenched the rifle down and out of his grasp, her head lashing forward to connect with his. Kai grunted in pain and stepped back, his shoulder connected with the hull on his left and he pushed off of it bringing his arms up and over his head to land a heavy blow on her shoulder with the butt of the pistol still in his grip. His arm went numb with the shock of connecting with her sturdy armor, but Shepard staggered backwards, under the weight of the blow.
Kai wasted none of his advantage as he barreled into the woman, her head snapping violently and connecting with the floor with an echoing crack that rang through the enclosed space. Kai straddled the prone figure and raised the pistol, preparing to bring it down on the face plate.
The body beneath him was completely limp. He paused, his chest heaving with exertion, waiting for Shepard to spring her trap. It never came.
He reached down and unclasped the back of her helmet, his restraints slithered prettily across her neck as he gripped the back of it, pulling it off. Her head rolled unpleasantly, and her mouth hung open loosely. Kai noticed a streak of red in her hair, and pushed her face to the left, eying the blood trickling from the back of her skull.
He grunted in surprise and stood with one leg on each side of her hips.
"That was almost too easy," he whispered, his eyes narrowing slightly.
As if to prove him wrong, the front of the shuttle started chirping with a barrage of alarms. He stepped gingerly over Shepard and quickly sat in the command chair. His hands and eyes flew over the controls, trying to determine how bad it was.
Apparently the elevator had arrived with another group of reaper forces, which were now opening fire on the shuttle. The cargo bay door was announcing it was fully open, and the proximity alarms were announcing a large vessel heading straight for the new opening.
'Collision imminent in t-minus 47 seconds,' the flashing countdown began.
Leng began punching buttons and felt the hum in his feet as the mass effect field kicked on. The shuttle lurched unpleasantly when he engaged the thrusters, and in his rushed escape, and he narrowly missed scraping the shuttle on the side of the bay door in his hurry to get out of the way of the incoming craft.
He accelerated away, alerts and warnings coming from several different areas of the command panel. He tried orienting the shuttle towards the nearest relay, but, not knowing their current location, had to waste precious time scanning the navigation charts and trying to figure out where in the hell he was. It appeared the Normandy was in orbit around a large, planet that showed green and blue with swirls of white on the holographic display.
From aft of the shuttle there was shuddering concussion. The reaper vessel had slammed into the cargo bay and the resultant explosion caused the shuttle to rock and bounce turbulently. Ten seconds later there was another explosion, this one exponentially larger, as the Normandy exploded.
Leng found himself tossed onto the floor, his head connecting heavily with the edge of the console on the way down. He groaned in pain and clutched his forehead. His fingers came away sticky and red. He wiped furiously at the gash and lurched to his feet, sliding back into the pilot's seat.
He took stock of the damage and their new trajectory. The display showed them now fighting a losing battle against the planet's gravity. The force of the Normandy blowing up had sent them careening deeper into the planet's orbit.
Kai's fingers flew as he tried to course correct, attempting to angle the nose of the shuttle up far enough to let them skip across the top of the atmosphere. He had no idea which planet was sucking them in now, and had no desire to be stranded on some uncharted backwater mud ball.
It seemed one of the thrusters had been extensively damaged by the force of the explosion, though, and he had no luck getting his commands to initiate. They were going down. He verified the mass effect drive was still functioning and diverted as much power to the field as possible.
Kai Leng was an old hand at crash landing shuttles, at this point. After working desperately to compensate for the rate of descent and acceleration of the shuttle, he managed to bring the shuttle down, without too much trouble, and relatively softly, on the side of a heavily-wooded mountain. The thumps and bumps of plant life being flattened beneath the shuttle almost knocked him from his seat again, but he managed to hang on as he set the shuttle down manually, using the mass effect drive to pilot them in a clumsy, but more or less effective fashion.
Once the shuttle was down, and fully stopped, he began taking readings from the sensors that weren't damaged. It seemed the atmosphere was breathable, the pressure bearable, and the gravity comparable. It had all the luxuries of home. Perhaps he would get lucky and there would be human inhabitants close enough to help him contact his boss and order and extraction.
Stepping over the prone body of the Commander, Kai moved to open the door and take a look outside. He pulled Shepard's assault rifle from her limp grasp and checked it over. It appeared a little worse for the wear, but he thought it would fire. He checked the thermal clip and chastised himself again for his earlier oversight.
He hadn't made such a rookie mistake in years, and he was lucky it hadn't cost him his life. He eyed the surrounding forest once the shuttle door was open. The trees were familiar, much like something you would find on Earth. The low brush and foliage wasn't something he had names for, but the familiar shapes reminded him of his childhood. He made him tense, forcing himself to stay on guard and not get too familiar, too comfortable.
Who knew what kinds of alien dangers lurked out there in the shadows? Kai leaned his head back inside and turned to look back at the figure on the floor next to his feet. He needed to do some more information gathering. He would need to look up any information on the shuttles computer he could get, and then send out a general distress signal. Perhaps he should hold off on that until he was sure the Reapers weren't going to send forces after him. He should also gather any and all supplies from the shuttles emergency kit, make sure he had food and water to last him a while, until he could find help or figure out another source of food and find fresh water.
First, though, he needed to make sure Shepard was dead.
There was a drying trickle of red that ran between the metal rivets in the floor paneling. His eyes followed it until it disappeared under her left ear. Her eyes were closed and her face slack, but he was a professional, and professionals always made sure.
Leng knelt slowly, his eyes skimming her armored form, wondering if he could scavenge any of it for himself. Shepard was not a small figure, and he was lithe enough in build. Perhaps some of it would fit him. His hand hovered briefly over her sternum before he reached down and slid two fingers up under her jaw, searching for her pulse.
He found it a half second before Shepard's fist snapped up and connected solidly with his left temple, throwing him off balance and out the open shuttle door.
He lay sprawled on the forest floor for only an instant before he whipped his body up in a gymnastic arch and landed, crouched on his feet.
Shepard sat up, one hand behind her head, feeling the contusion on the back of her skull. Her eyes narrowed at Leng as he aimed her own assault rifle back in her face. He considered pulling the trigger and ending her there and then, but since she was awake, maybe he could use her to get some of the information he needed.
Lifting his eyes from the sights, Kai looked at her over the top of the gun. "Where are we?" he asked in a tone that demanded a complete and honest answer at once.
"I was just going to ask you the same question," she snarled and wiped the blood on her fingers onto one thigh. "Where's my ship?" Her tone sounded just as formidable as his.
"Gone," he tossed back, "What planet was the Normandy orbiting when the Reapers attacked?"
Shepard's eyes went wide and she pushed herself onto her knees. "What do you mean, gone?"
Kai tightened his grip and sighted down the rifle again and took a step back and readied himself to fire should she move towards him any farther. She must have noticed the movement, for her hands came up in a non-threatening manner, though her face solidified into a stony mask that threatened any number of horrible and painful retributions.
"What did you do to my ship?" The tone of her voice chilled him thoroughly and he placed his finger more tightly on the trigger, as though she'd taken a menacing step forward. "Where is my crew, Leng?"
They stared each other down for several seconds. Kai weighed the pros and cons of just putting one between her eyes and calling it good. In the end, he decided the situation called for caution and prudence. It cost him nothing to answer her questions and perhaps she could provide information crucial to his survival on this planet.
"I don't know for certain, but I'd guess your crew is dead. The Reapers destroyed your ship right after we got off. That's how we ended up here. The thrusters were damaged when the Normandy went up. I'll ask you again, what planet is this?"
She ignored his question, and her eyes burned with fury. "You just left them to die?! This is all your fault! I could have stopped them, I could have…" Shepard fell forward onto all fours and struggled to get her rage under control. "What have you done?" she whispered hoarsely.
"Blaming me does us no good. I need to know where we are so I can make a plan to get out of here. If you want to help me, I can put in a good word with the Illusive Man, get him show you the same… hospitality you gave me." The thought of her wearing the shackles that still draped around his wrist made him grin evilly. "You can surrender and cooperate, or I can put you down now. You're choice."
He would never know what her answer would have been. Just at that moment, there was a hissing shriek as dozens of flaming Reaper meteors began falling all around them.
The ground beneath his feet shook slightly as he stepped back from the shuttle in surprise.
"No time to argue about who is who's prisoner," Shepard said caustically as she reached behind her back and unfolded a long, deadly looking sniper rifle.
Kai focused the assault rifle back on her face.
"Don't be stupid, Leng. The Reapers are the threat here. If we want to survive we're going to have to work together." She followed her words with a thermal clip that she pulled out of some hidden slot in her armor and tossed it to him.
His reactions were lightning quick as he snatched the clip from the air deftly. He continued to eye her suspiciously as she did a quick check on her weapon. He knew she was right. The air around them was already filling with the inhuman roars of the demented creatures. Smoke was drifting in from where falling meteors had light the canopy.
Finally, Kai nodded and stepped back, not wanting to turn his back on her, but knowing his attention was needed on the incoming Reaper hoard, he waited for her to hop down and step beside him before he turned and began looking for targets. He watched from the corner of his eye as she crouched and braced her sniper rifle on the trunk of one of the trees felled during their landing.
With her scope, she spotted the enemy before he did and the crack of her gun echoed loud and clear off the trees around them.
He knelt behind the same trunk and used it to cover the bulk of his body as he scanned the horizon. In the dim light that filtered down through the branches above made the whole forest floor writhe in flickers and shadows.
It was the glowing eyes he noticed first. A line of them moved forward through the underbrush and he quickly took aim and fired.
He felt his blood sing as he watched the hideous creatures fall. From time to time one of the things would explode in a shower of gore as Shepard's slugs ripped through them. He was grinning ferociously as the last of the first wave fell. Shepard stayed where she was, poised as she searched through her scope for something else to shoot. Her face was smooth and calm, but her eyes danced with the thrill of vengeance reaped.
He watched her face from the corner of his eye as he waited. When her face shifted he turned sharply to look at her. Her eyes were wide and her lips pressed tight.
"Run," she whispered so softly he wasn't sure he'd heard right.
"What?" he said, his body tense.
"We have to run," she yelled, rising to her feet and moving to the front of the shuttle. "There's too many, we have to run!" She didn't pause to explain further, or check to see if he followed, she simply disappeared around the nose of the wreck.
Kai stood as the persistent shadows of the forest coalesced into a wall of glowing eyes. He shuddered in horror and leaped to follow.
Shepard had started out a good distance ahead of him, but she was weighed down in her armor and he quickly caught up. The going was easy at first, and then the terrain began to steepen sharply. Before long, Leng found himself barreling treacherously down the side of the mountain, using all his focus and control to keep himself from tumbling head over heels. The last thing he needed now was a snapped neck or broken leg. Such an injury would be the end of him, for sure.
Shepard had slowed when the incline had sharpened, not keeping up with his breakneck speed. He hurried on, not waiting for the cautious commander. Soon, he could see where the ground evened out and he put on a burst of speed, hurdling a fallen tangle of brush. Ahead, through the trees, he could see the flash of sunlight on water. It looked too big to be a river. A lake perhaps?
Leng slowed somewhat as he reached to bottom of the slope where the ground leveled out. He pushed through some heavily grouped branches, slowing himself more as he felt the leaves whip against his face and pull at his limbs. He was down to a jog when he burst through the tree line, the long expanse of the water stretching away in both directions. The sharp line of the water curved away behind the tree lined shore. The waterline where he stood was murky with soggy green growth and dancing reeds.
He glanced around, and a feeling of déjà vu washed over him so suddenly that he staggered to a halt. He knew that shoreline, this lake. It was a place he'd gone as a young man, back on Earth. As one of the few protected nature reserves remaining in the large city-state region of Asia Majoris, Kanasi Lake had been one of the places he visited with his stepfather to get away from the city and do some training. It was one of the very few places that held good memories from his first life. It also featured very heavily in his dreams. It was also very, very far away from where he was now. There was no way this was Earth. It had to be a dream then, but…
Kai's chest heaved from his sprint down the mountain and he felt every muscle in his body strung tighter then bow strings. This didn't feel like any dream he'd ever had. He glanced behind him and watched as Shepard finally caught up to him, her own chest heaving and her face pinched with exertion.
Shepard.
Lake Kanasi.
The memories flowed back into him with the weight of a tsunami.
He was kissing Shepard beside the lake, the one he remembered from his youth. When he finally managed to drag himself out of her fierce grip, the silvery light overhead flashed brightly and he woke violently. The light in the med bay caused him to wince sharply. It took only seconds for his to adjust and shapes to become clear enough for him to see that same, familiar face watching him from his bedside.
Kai jerked to a sitting position, his restraints chiming softly from the sudden movement. His heart hammered gently in his chest and he watched her face, wondering if she could read his thoughts and knew what he'd been dreaming seconds before.
Shepard's face betrayed nothing, however, as she stood straight, her arms crossing under her chest.
"Good, you're up," she nodded solemnly and waved Dr. Chakwas over. The good doctor scanned him quickly, looking him over critically.
He forced his heart to slow and breathed slow, deep breaths and finally she nodded in approval.
"Bad dreams?" Dr. Chakwas asked, curiously.
Leng simply grunted, not sure what category to put dreams about kissing the enemy in. Disturbing seemed an apt word to describe his state of mind. He wondered then if Shepard had already begun brainwashing him. It would explain the dream.
He eyed the way her arms pressed up gently underneath her breasts and decided he was lucky his dreams hadn't been more graphic. It wouldn't have been very dignified of him to wake up sporting a hard on for his captor.
It was only natural for his mind to fixate on the woman, attractive or not, and he decided the brainwashing idea was a bit pre-mature.
When his eyes moved away from Shepard's shapely curves back to Dr. Chakwas, he was forced to reconsidered, yet again. She was wielding a rather large syringe, its needle almost six inches long.
"You're sure intravenous won't be good enough?" Shepard asked mildly, eyeing the needle with calm speculation.
"It'll be more effective delivered straight into the Cerebrospinal fluid, as close to the brain stem as I can get," Chakwas said with a shake of her head.
Kai defiantly didn't like the sound of that.
The Normandy's head medical officer watched his shoulders tense and shook her head again.
"It's no good to fight us, boy. You'll only hurt yourself. Be a good lad and roll onto your stomach now, and hold still for me. This is for your own good, you know. We're only trying to help." Her voice was soft and soothing, the slight accent purring gently over his nerves. He refused to be soothed.
Leng leaned away and looked around for escape. Shepard's eyes narrowed and she nodded to the marines standing at the foot of the bed.
It took four of them, one of them the hulking, mohawked Lieutenant he'd put down back on Horizon, to get him on his stomach and his wrists and ankles mag locked to the bedframe, his arms pulled tight over his head and pinning his head in place. He continued to struggle momentarily, before the waves of familiar fatigue pressed him into submission.
He felt the hair pulled back of his neck and hands held him immobile as the pinch at the base of his skull came quick and piercing. He'd felt pain as cold ran up his spine and into his brain and then dizzy as the pinching eased and the hands on his head and shoulders and hips let go.
It had seemed like his body had been floating, weightless in zero g's, darkness swirling around him, closing in. Then he'd heard the voice.
"Resistance Protocol initiated," the booming words seemed to echo in the hollow of his brain, and then he blacked out.
Stunned, Kai stepped back, water running up around his ankle and mud squishing between his toes. He nearly lost his balance and toppled backwards, but a strong hand on his forearm kept him upright. He jerked his arm from Shepard's grip, nearly losing his balance again.
"What's wrong with you?" Shepard shouted, but her voice sounded as though it came from far away. "Snap out of it, Leng!"
He stepped away from her, his other foot sinking into the wet muck of the lake shore. "What have you done to me?" he said, voice hoarse with shock and desperation.
Shepard stared at him incredulously and shouted again. "I'm trying to save your ass!" she yelled and reached forward to pull him out of the water.
He jerked away and took another step backwards. The water was up to his knees now.
"Why won't you let me help you?!" she demanded to know, her face showing the strain of her frustration.
Kai turned away, preparing to dive into the water to get away from the devious Alliance wench, and was stopped dead in his tracks when he came face to face with Shepard. Not the angry, demanding, armed and armored Shepard behind him. This one was the same one from his dream, watery and shimmering with silvery light and haunting beauty. She raised a slender graceful wrist and held it out to him.
"Come with me, Kai," Her voice melted over his skin like silky chocolate. "I won't let her have you."
Kai half turned and took a step back so that he could see both Shepards.
The first was irate and impatient, eying him as if he'd gone mad. "We have to go! They're coming! You trying to get yourself killed!?"
The second was lovely and enticing with satin skin and shiny hair and that siren song voice that called to him. "You are mine, Kai. Come to me…"
That Shepard was just plain wrong. He looked back at the first to see her staring in terror at the hill they'd just run down. Through the trees he could see the blue glow of the reaper forces streaming from between the trees. The sounds of the reaper hoard could now be heard thundering down the mountain.
He turned back to Shepard in the water and noticed that the silvery halo of light around her had darkened, reflecting the light from the hill he could see now that it was not silver as he'd first thought, but blue. Blue like the eyes of a Cannibal, or the vein like tubes under the stretched and desiccated skin of a husk. Blue like the Reapers.
Leng raised his assault rifle and opened fire. The slugs ripped through Shepard's skin like it was made of tissue paper. Beneath, there was a shambling, black and blue husk that roared and lurched towards him. Kai stepped away and continued firing. Besides him, Shepard number one raised her sniper rifle and pulled the trigger in one swift fluid motion. The husk exploded into dust and the light went out.
The water around his legs rushed up suddenly and buried him in a weightless flood of ache and agony. He reached out desperately and felt Shepard One take his hand, squeezing his fingers tightly.
From far away he heard her voice, wavering and distorted.
"Fight them, Leng! You can do it! Just snap out of it, already!"
He did.
AN: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! This chapter was so hard to write! But so much fun at the same time. I really want to hear what you guys think! If you liked it, let me know, if you hated it, I want to hear that to. Did you see that coming? I wanna know! Things will really pick up now, and we should be moving in the more Sheng centric bits. I know that seems to be moving at a glacial pace, but I just have to take the time and do it right. I don't want to rush things. In a lot of ways this paring is almost completely unrealistic in a near-cannon universe, but I think I can make it happen. I do want it to feel natural, though, and not rushed or forced, so... please... bare with me. I promise it will be worth the wait.