CHAPTER ELEVEN – The hunt.
AN: OMG it's been ages since I updated! And on a cliff hanger too! Please forgive me! Here's the latest chapter… new one to follow tonight or tomorrow at the latest!
I fastened the last buckle on my jacket in record time and holstered my rifle and pistol. Seryna's story had not shaken me. It had served only to enlighten me. I was honoured that she chose to tell me her secrets. I was concerned more about the distress this whole affair was causing her, concerned that my attempts to comfort her had somehow made things worse for her. She was scarred… but that only made her strength more astounding.
When I arrived at the airlock, Garrus and Shepard where already waiting on me, Shepard doing up her belt and Garrus checking over his own rifle.
"We'll head straight to Chora's Den." Shepard told us, the steely strength lining her voice, her helmet hiding the pain I knew was in her eyes. The airlock opened and we immediately made for the transit cars. "Carter is twenty seven… has dark hair and dark eyes, thin frame, fast on his feet. Amy is twenty six, petite girl, light brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin. She's not as fast… she'll probably have Hope with her." She paused as Garrus started the car and we began to move. "I have no idea what she looks like… she probably has dark hair though. Just… keep an eye out for them and anyone wearing a red bandana. See a bandana… shoot first ask later."
I inclined my head to show I had accepted and understood her order. She leaned back in the car seat, her foot tapping impatiently, the lights of the citadel glancing off her emerald armour.
"Will they know you?" I asked. "Even with your helmet?"
She nodded her head just once. "Yeah. I think so. I'm not exactly hard to miss these days. The galaxy knows what my armour looks like."
"True."
The trip was made in strained, uncomfortable silence both my companions filled with wound up energy just waiting to explode. I offered a silent prayer to the gods for our success and for strength for Seryna.
We came to the club and Seryna immediately drew her weapon, leaving nothing to chance it seemed. Garrus and I followed suit. She led us through the club, demanding answers of patrons and bar staff… anyone who might have seen them. She was in no mood to be patient or merciful with any of them.
A few of the waitresses and dancers did indeed recognise her and told her in fast frightened tones that her friends had left a little while ago. They confirmed what Liara had told us, that they were being followed by men with red bandana's.
"They can't have gone far." Garrus told her reassuringly as she stormed from the club.
"It appears they had only two routes open to them." I indicated at the doors to the markets and the side alley.
"Would they have split up?" Garrus asked.
Seryna shrugged. "Maybe…" He was cut off by the sound of gunfire from the alley on our right. She didn't speak another word. She darted to the door and slammed her hand into the access panel, flinging herself through the opening as soon as it was large enough. Garrus and I followed her and immediately ducked down behind cover. We were being fired at.
Seryna however, seemed unconcerned. Her biotechs glowed and she slammed herself into one of the attackers… a man in cheap armour with a red bandana around his upper arm. Her pistol had fired into his gut at point blank range before he'd even realised she was there. She swung round and aimed her pistol at the other men, emptying her bullets into them with a wild roar.
I aimed my own biotechs, lifting two of the men into the air to be caught by Garrus's sniper rifle. I shot at the remaining two, wondering for a moment why Seryna hadn't used her charge again, as was in her nature when as angry as she was now. I glanced over the top of the crate I was ducked behind and saw the reason.
My Siha towered over the form of a wounded young man in the far corner, the only physical barrier between him and stray bullets. Her shields were taking a battering, but she wouldn't move.
The youth matched her description of Carter. He was long and thin, his dark hair falling in a wild mess over his deep brown eyes. His face was what I understood humans to consider attractive… symmetrical with clearly defined straight features. He was slumped on the ground his long fingered hand clutching at a wound in his chest, red blood slowly staining his blue tunic.
My heart jumped as Seryna's shields failed. I frantically took aim at a weak point in one of her attackers armour. As always I hit the mark and the man fell clutching the wound in his neck. Garrus took care of the last one, landing a bullet between the man's eyes.
I got to my feet and wondered over to Seryna, who had immediately fallen to her knees to scoop the youth into her arms. She tended to his wound as best she was able, applying medigel to try and stop the bleeding. I could see what she would not however… the boy had already lost a great deal of blood, the wound was too close to his heart and nothing short of a miracle would save his life now.
"Carter!" Her voice came out desperate, the tone broken and wavering. "Hold on! You're gonna be ok!"
The youth choked; his mouth filling with blood. "Don't think so Boss…" His arm came up and he grasped tightly to Seryna's arm. "I sent them on… Amy and Hope… I staid to give them time. I told em to run like hell… I think they got away but some of the reds went after em… I couldn't stop em Boss!" He paused to choke again. "They was going to Zekera wards!" He gasped out. "Where the c-sec captain was." He choked more, blood spattering on Seryna's armour as he desperately fought to speak. Whatever he wanted to say was deadly important to him. "Ryan's with em'!" He managed to gasp out. "He's goin' for Hope… you gotta be careful Boss, he knows you're coming!"
"I'll kill him… I promise." Seryna told him, the venom in her tone leaving no doubt to her sincerity. "And I won't let him get Amy or Hope…"
The boy smiled a little. "I know. Tell her…" Whatever he wanted Seryna to tell his friend we never found out. The light left his eyes and his grip on her arm slackened. He was dead.
Seryna was perfectly still for a long moment. She didn't move or speak, she didn't even seem to breathe. I would have preferred her to scream… to roar as she did when furious… to curse or even to cry. This silence was far more deafening and full of dark emotions that were all too familiar too me. I felt a slither of pity for any reds we met now.
Finally she moved. Gently she rested his body on the ground and got to her feet to step away. "Garrus contact c-sec, get them to come for him."
The turian was one step ahead of our commander it seemed, his omni-tool already lit and working. "Done." Came his short reply. "Zakera?"
She nodded but didn't speak. Silently she went to each corpse and collected the unused thermal clips before turning and heading from the alleyway, Garrus hot on her heels and trying to restore her shields while she moved.
I spared a glance for the boy lying in the ally, surrounded by the corpses of reds. I had seen countless lifeless bodies, but his seemed particularly tragic in its solitude. He was young… too young to be dead. It seemed wrong to leave him behind, but I knew if we were to save those he died protecting, we had to be quick. Perhaps it was because he was so closely linked to my Siha… perhaps it was because his death had shaken her to her very core and caused her misery I could only hope to sooth… whatever the reason, I almost felt I was back on Kaje the night I found Irikah.
I bowed my head a little and offered a prayer to help him on his journey across the sea before catching up with Seryna.
"You better have some damn good news for me Bailey!" Seryna screamed as we arrived in his precinct.
The Captain turned from the turian colleague he'd been speaking too. Fear flickered across his face at the sight of Seryna. He shook his head lightly. "It's not good Commander." He admitted bravely. "We can't find any trace of the girl or her daughter and the reds that were following her have vanished too. I've got my men combing the wards…"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. With a wild howl Seryna grabbed him by the neck and flung him up against the wall, holding him there staring him down through the darkened slit in her helmet. "That's not good enough!" She barked.
The Captain struggled against her, his hands pulling at the hand around his neck fruitlessly. "Commander!" He gasped out.
"Hey." Garrus rested a hand on her shoulder, his talons biting a little into his armour. "No good turning on our allies." His voice was firm… authoritative. To my surprise, Seryna heeded him, unceremoniously dropping the Captain to the floor and storming away to pace the corridor like a cadged beast.
Garrus turned to Bailey and helped the man to his feet. "Good thing she's a spectre." Bailey growled out sarcastically. He watched her pace with narrowed eyes.
"Where was the last sighting of Amy?" Garrus asked, ignoring the man's irritation.
"Is Commander Shepard alright?" The sound of my son's double toned voice startled my attention from the conversation in front of me. I turned and laid eyes on Kolyat.
He wore the traditional clothes of our people but in the navy blue and black associated with citadel security. The colour suited him and his blue scaled skin.
His dark eyes were focused on Seryna as she paced, I could hear her muttering incoherently over the comm.
"She is disconnected." I explained to him.
Kolyat frowned deeply. "Captain Bailey told me some friends of hers are in trouble… he wouldn't tell me more than that; just asked me to look for them." He gave me an imploring look.
I shook my head. "It is not my story to tell. You've been looking for Amy and Hope?"
Kolyat nodded. "We searched the lower wards and all of the Zakera markets. There's no sign of them. I even asked Mouse to keep an eye out." He looked to me. "Do you have any contacts that might be able to trace them?"
I was impressed by his initiative; it seemed he'd settled into his role at c-sec as easily as he'd settled into their uniform. "I have already sent messages to the contacts I trust. There are few that I could in my line of business you understand. I do not wish to put Amy in any further danger."
Kolyat went back to watching Seryna and nodded slightly. "I hope she finds them. For her own sake."
"As do I." I agreed.
Suddenly she stopped pacing and looked down at her omni-tool as it chimed with a message. She scanned over the text a moment. All at once she moved, grabbing Garrus by the back of his cowl and pulling him away. "I know where she is!" She snapped. "Thane!"
I joined stride with her in an instant. "Shepard."
"Spirits damn you Seryna! Let go already! I'm coming!"
We settled into the transit car once more and Seryna punched transferred the destination to Garrus's omni tool.
"Amy sent me a message." She told us, leaning forwards in her chair as Garrus exceeded all speeding regs. "She's cornered in the warehouse district not far from here… the same one where we cornered Fade coincidently. We have to hurry… Ryan might have traced her message."
"At least it isn't far." I mused.
She nodded. "Yeah."
I leaned forwards a little and read the destination from the cars internal display. I wasn't sure if Seryna or Garrus had thought to send the location on to c-sec, or even if they wanted too. Despite their judgement I sent the location in a message to Kolyat to give to Bailey. I felt it was better to have some reinforcement on the way… just in case.
We arrived at the warehouse in record time. It was suspiciously quiet. There was no sign of any reds and the main lights had been cut off leaving us bathed only in the minimal emergency lighting. It left a lot of places to be ambushed. Garrus and I kept our guard up as we followed Seryna through the path laid out through the crates and vehicles.
We made it through the entire warehouse without any sign of trouble… it wasn't right.
Finally we arrived in the back part, the office Fade had worked out of above us, the platforms raised.
All at once shadows stirred, lights came on and I heaved a heavy sigh as I realised we had, as I'd suspected, walked straight into a trap.
The reds were stood on the platform, surprisingly only five of them all together. Two to the left, two to the right and one in the centre. The pairs on each side had a hostage each, Amy and Hope I presumed.
Amy was as Seryna had said, short and slim. Her hair hazelnut hair was loose around her shoulders and her pretty face contorted into an expression of terror. She wore a white top and blue jeans, her blue eyes fixed on her daughter. Her arms were being held behind her back by a large, muscular man, another man standing just a foot away from her, holding a gun to her temple and leering at her obvious distress.
Hope was older than I'd expected... too old perhaps for a twenty six year old mother. She looked nine, perhaps ten. She was relatively tall with a slim frame. Her hair was black and though it had been tied up, it still fell in wild curls over her shoulders. Her features were sharp and defined, she possessed a long straight nose and dark emerald coloured eyes that were glaring with a look of fiery hatred at the red who had taken centre stage, her arms also secured behind her back. The second man beside her held an identical gun to her head, ready to fire at his master's command.
"Well well… if it isn't little Seryna." The red in the centre laughed, throwing his arms wide as if welcoming an old friend. "Look at you all grown up and important like! It's almost like none of it ever happened. Is that what you've been telling yourself all these years? It never happened." He laughed again. He was a vile man, even to look at. His skin was pale and sickly, like thinly stretched leather over bone. His dark eyes were sunken into his face with heavy rings around them; his face was lined and scarred. His hair fell heavy with grease to linger around his shoulders, the black streaked heavily with grey. He wore expensive red armour, the signature bandana on his arm and modified guns on his belt. So this was Ryan.
"You should have known better than to go against me Seryna. I thought that little lesson I taught your brother would be enough…"
"You should have killed me when you had the chance." Seryna spat out.
"You shouldn't have turned on me…" He growled. "Now I'm going to teach that same lesson to this little brat." He indicated at Hope. "And you can die knowing that she's taken your place… that everything I did to you… I'll do a hundred times over to her."
There was a flicker of movement from the right, the group that held Amy. I glanced up and saw the man holding the gun to the girls head move to scratch his arm. As he did so he peeled away a piece of red fabric on his bandana, beneath was a clearly painted white stripe. Ryan was too focused on Seryna to have noticed the movement… I was sure Seryna had seen it though. I could sense the wheels moving in her head as she tried to come up with a plan. Her body was stiff, ready to strike but equally cautious. She was unwilling to risk harm to either hostage.
"Drop your gun Seryna… kneel before me and beg my forgiveness. Maybe I'll spare them the torment and just kill you straight off…" He was mocking her.
"You've spent my entirely life fearing what I could become Ryan." Seryna growled out. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to believe you'd let that happen again? This is between you and me Ryan… come down here and face me like a real man."
Ryan snorted. "You think I'm stupid!? Why would I come down there!? I have everything I need right here!"
"Because coming down here is the only way you're going to be able to kill me. You know I won't come to you."
"Really? You think so?" He took a meaningful step towards Hope, who recoiled at his advance.
"Ryan!" Seryna snapped out, drawing his attention off the child.
Ryan grinned, giving her a knowing look. He continued to the girl and grabbed Hope by the throat, drawing her up and close to him. The child cried out in anger and tried to struggle away from him, but with her arms restrained, she didn't get far. The reds that held her laughed.
"Ryan!" Seryna snapped again.
The leader turned his head from the child to grin menacingly at Seryna.
My Siha took a step forwards, she dropped her pistol to the ground. Ryan straightened up, interested. Slowly, Seryna moved her hands to her helmet and unclasped it. She pulled it from her head to reveal her furious face, her black hair tumbling in a curly mess around her features. She slung the helmet to the ground before reaching up and unclasping her breastplate. To my horror, she slowly pulled away piece after piece of her armour, casting it and her weapons to the ground.
"Shepard…" Garrus voiced nervously.
Seryna ignored him, kicking the last of her armour away and leaving her clad in a tight tank top and a pair of shorts. She held out her hands to show she was unarmed. She met Ryan's eyes fearlessly. "You want me? Come and get me old man."
Ryan grinned, triumph all over his filthy face. He threw Hope back into the arms of her captors and stepped down off the platform.
"No!" Amy gasped. "Seryna no!" The red that held her clasped a hand over her mouth.
It seemed to take an eternity as Ryan moved towards my Siha with a look of unrestrained greed upon his face. Closer and closer he drew until finally he stood right in front of her. He raised a hand and ran it possessively over her waist and hip. He leaned forwards a little. "Welcome home Seryna Shepard…" He was cut off as her fist collided with the side of his face. He yelled out as he lost his balance and fell hard against the floor. Seryna's foot immediately collided with his chest plate, biotech flame engulfing her limb and leaving a heavy dent in his armour.
Ryan glared at her in shock and rolled out of the way. "What the fuck!?"
Seryna smiled coldly, venom in her eyes. "Didn't you hear? I got a few upgrades." She launched a charge at him, striking against him hard.
Ryan's men opened fire, not at Seryna; she was too close to their leader, but at Garrus and myself. We dived for cover. I took out my rifle and tried to aim back at our attackers, but they were using the hostages as shields. It was impossible to get a clear shot.
Ryan was yelling as he tried to dodge Seryna's blows. It was clear she was the superior fighter; even with his armour against her flesh she was beating him back. He struck at her, catching the side of her head with his fist. Blood streamed over her eye and matted into her hair but her injuries seemed only to spur her on. She fought with the ferocity of a wild varren, using every dirty trick in the book to best the man.
Garrus made a sound of alarm and I turned my attention back to our own fight. The white stripe had turned his gun on the man that held Amy and shot him in the head. He went down and the poor girl was left trapped under his corpse. The stripe pulled him off her and dragged her into cover, though she screamed for her daughter who was struggling fruitlessly against the two reds that held her. She needed help, but to fire into the fray would risk injury to her.
My heart did several backflips and began to pound wildly when from one of the crates behind them, Kolyat darted out of cover. When he'd arrived and taken cover I had no idea… an fact that both unnerved me and left me feeling some pride. Perhaps Kolyat had inherited some of my skills after all? He crept silently behind the two men struggling to contain the vicious child and like a flash; he grabbed one by the neck and clumsily snapped his head to one side. It wasn't a clean or practised move, Kolyat had not used enough force, nor had he placed his hands in the right area, the man didn't die. He did however shout in agony and fall to the ground, giving the girl a window of opportunity that she seized. With speed to rival Shepard herself she flung her hand out and grabbed the fallen man's gun, turning it up and on the last of her captors. She didn't even blink as she fired the gun, shooting the man square in the chest and watching with satisfaction as he went down. The move shocked my son, who hesitated a fraction of a moment in shock. Finally he came to his senses and grabbed the girl around her middle. She protested, but he pulled her away and into cover. I took aim at the man with the broken neck and ended his suffering.
That left just Seryna and Ryan. I glanced over to them looking for a shot that I could take to end this madness, but they were grappling on the floor, rolling over and over as they fought. Finally Seryna landed on top and with her legs tight around the man, her hands alight with blue flames she struck at him hard enough to daze him. She leapt up and grabbed his gun from his belt, aiming it between his eyes as he laughed up at her. Even now he didn't seem to believe that she was a threat, despite the bruises and the blood on both their faces.
"All my life I've been afraid of you." Seryna gasped, winded from her fight. "All my life you have haunted me… and you know what? I don't give a shit about that. But it'll be a cold day in hell before I let you haunt Amy or Hope that way." She narrowed her eyes at the man, who finally seemed to be taking his situation seriously, he backed away from her but found himself in a corner. "I'm not scared of you anymore Ryan." Gunfire echoed through the warehouse as finally… she pulled the trigger.