Tali slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying on her stomach on the floor of the lower part of the engineering, where Jack usually hangs out. She tried to move, but noticed that she had thick ropes tied around her wrists and ankles. Tali felt confusion strike her. Why would she be lying down in Jack's hidey hole, bound by her hands and legs?
The young woman looked up to see if anyone was around. When she saw the group of men and women that was standing by the wall, the memories struck her like of a hammer. The attack, the pirates, the large man with the smell of cheese and garlic, the crewmen, and Gabby, all came back to her in an instant.
Tali scanned the pirates in front of her. Her glance switched from one thug to another, until she saw one turn his head up and see that she was very much awake. He was wearing a fully covering gasmask of some human model, where large filters where hanging on both sides. He was also wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, which where hanging on the mans body in a careless way; suit open, shirt dirty, tie hanging loose, all increasing in the punk theme of not caring. A belt was strapped around his waist, holding up all possible kinds of explosives: HE grenades, napalm bombs, flashbang grenades, even a few anti-personnel mines. On his hands he had a pair of black gloves and typical, white sneakers on his feet. In the light dim, Tali saw a golden cross of some sort hang around his neck. Tali had seen those crosses before, on the outside of human churches on Illium; quarians are not allowed in those buildings, as the men in there thinks that they will steal anything not welded to the floor. Although Tali had always been interested in human culture (more so now when she's got a human boyfriend), she decided that this was not the best time to think about that.
The masked pirate slapped the thigh of another standing next to him with the top of his hand. "Yo! She's awake!"he said. His voice was wheezy and gave the impression that he needed that mask to breath. When the thug gained the attention of the ones around him, he nodded at Tali, making everyone look at her.
The large man that had knocked Tali walked over to her with a smile on his lips. The quarian grunted as the foul odor that seemed to walk hand-in-hand with the man returned; she really wished she could reach her omnitool and turn off her helmet's olfactory filters. The large man grabbed Tali by one of the straps on Tali's back that they seemed to have loosened up for just that purpose, and put her in a sitting position against a wall, right next to Jack's bed.
The man in the gasmask sat down on the bed; the brown eyes behind the glass darting intensely between different spots on her body, often stopping on places that Tali did not feel comfortable of him watching. She tried to ignore the person intruding on her private space and focused on the rest of the group. There where sixteen of them: the large man, the woman who had tried to murder her with a sledgehammer, and now had a broken nose, the man in gasmask next to her and a couple of more people that she didn't recognize.
Another man, of which the word "pervert" screamed out just by looking at him, stepped out of the crowd. He was a pretty gaunt man with a light green shirt, dark brown pants and a pair of black boots on his feet. His hair, as well as his long, black beard, was extremely shaggy and looked like it hadn't been washed in years, as did the rest of him. Although he did not smell like cheese and garlic, he instead brought with him a stench of a mix of a number of things, from curry to old sweat to a dense smell of burned tobacco. On his right hand he had some kind of metal covered glove.
The downright disgusting man's face broke up in a wide grin and Tali let out a silent "Ugh" as she saw that he was missing several teeth and the ones remaining where yellow at an extreme. "What's yer name li'l flower?"the man cackled. He had an accent that was almost like Donnelly's, but not quite. When Tali said nothing, the man tilted his head to the side and another disgusting grin grew on his face. "Tell you what: you tell me you're name and I'll tell you mine, so that you can scream it all night long."as he let out another cackle and turned to his companions, of which most of them shook their heads over the cockroach of a man, Tali leaned back her head, ready to strike.
The man turned back to Tali and instantly received a helmet in his face, making his nose spring in blood. He backed off a few feet, grunting on pain, before striking Tali hard with what she had once heard Joker mention as a "pimp slap" with his right hand. Tali made a loud grunt as the metal glove collided with the side of her helmet, sending her to the floor. The man turned back to the rest of the group. "That's why I put this on." he laughed.
As Tali sat back up, she received another slap, sending her back into the hard, metal floor. This time, the man pulled her up, only to hit her down again, and again. The slaps didn't hurt. She just found it annoying being hit into the floor time after time, but the man in green shirt didn't know that. As far as he, and everyone else knew, she could be bleeding inside that helmet.
"Enough!" a voice broke the irregular pattern of metal meeting metal, and everyone looked in the direction the voice had came from, including Tali, who had just been dragged up from the floor again for another hit from the glove.
There, halfway down the stairs to the right in the room, stood a muscular man, looking at the crowd. He was wearing a dark orange vest, black shirt, blue pants made by a material that could not be recognized from this distance, and a pair of black boots. His left eye was apparently missing and had been replaced with an eyepatch. A thin scar went from halfway up the left side of his forehead, down to only a few inches below the eyepatch. His hair was short and black, maybe colored, and had a thick "stripe" of silver or gray running almost vertically, from his left temple, down behind his ear. Something about him told Tali that he was leading this piece of rabble.
Tali threw a short glance at the man that was doing a very poor attempt at abusing her. She saw a hint of anger and hate burn for a short second in the pirates eyes at the man he was currently locking his sights on, before painting a feigned, but yet convincing smile onto his face.
"Well, look who comes hippety-hoppeting right in here..."the green-shirted man said with an intentionally mocking tone in his voice, as he turned towards the one-eyed man standing there, dropping Tali and leaving her there, sitting on the floor against the wall. "If it ain't thee great clopsy-man?"
Tali realized what the strange accent the man was speaking in fact was. She had went to special classes right before she got out on her pilgrimage, to learn more about the other spices in the galaxy; the humans being known for having the widest variety of languages, dialects and accents. Since the teacher, or ejash in the words of kaleesh, had gone through a long list of different accents for different languages, Tali had lost interest almost immediately and instead slept through most of the class; ejash Jako'Seel vas Rayya had always seemed to want to teach the young quarians more than they would bother learning. Although Tali had ignored the majority of the teacher's words, she remembered a few of the accents: the Indian, the Italian, the Slavic, which sounded strangely like the quarian accent for english. Then of course, the Scottish, which Ken Donnely used. The one that the man in green shirt was speaking had to be the one named Irish. It sounded quite like the recordings that she had in her vague memories of the classes.
As the one-eyed pirate made his way down the stairs, everybody in the room stood still, waiting for something to happen. As he made his way through the small tribe of murderers and thieves, he received an isolated "Cyclops..."from each of the thugs.
As Cyclops, as the leader of the gang was apparently called, got over to Tali, the man in gasmask stood up and nodded at the officer in front of him. "Cyclops..."the wheezy, almost guttural voice was heard from beneath the layers of plastic, glass and air filters that formed the man's mask.
The officer threw a glance at the masked pirate, before nodding back. "Boom..."he said, calling the masked thug by his nickname, apparently. Tali was not really surprised that he was called "Boom", considering what the man is carrying around in his belt; he had enough explosives to blow away the whole Normandy if he wanted.
The man called Cyclops then turned to the man in green shirt, the last obstacle in his way in front of Tali. The one-eyed man stared at the Irishman. "Move, Irish..."he said coldly.
At first, the man called Irish didn't even flinch at the orders of his superior officer; he didn't seem to like the fact that Cyclops was running the show. After a few moments though, he lowered his sights and took a slow step to the side, expressing his displeasure with a silent grunt.
The pirate officer crouched down to Tali's height and looked at her. At first, Tali locked her eyes at the floor to the right behind the pirate, but finally raised her head and met his piercing glance. Although the pirate's remaining eye looked much like Shepards; blue with a small hint of gray near the pupil, it did not have that softness that her own commander had. That softness of which she always lost herself into. Instead of kind and soft, the pirate's eye burned with hate and cruelty, like a window into his ruthless and calculating mind. At first, Tali had thought that the one-eyed man told the green-shirted one to stop hitting her because he was afraid of her well-being. That he would be kinder to her than the others. She realized now though, that those thoughts had been nothing but a remaining fragment of the naivety that she had during her days on the original Normandy. This man was just like the rest of them, if not worse.
"Pretty li'l flower, ain't she?"Tali heard the man called Irish say from behind Cyclops. The comment brought an unsettling smile on the pirate officer's face.
The one-eyed man grabbed Tali's hood with his left thumb and forefinger and lifted it up slightly, like he was inspecting it. "Just wait 'til we get off these leaves..."Tali's eyes widened as the words made her heart explode with fear. They where not going to kill her with a gunshot, but violate her and have her die by diseases.
The pirate suddenly pulled down her hood, making it fall down on her shoulders like any other rag. Tali didn't move, but her heart began beating faster and faster as the thug slowly put his hand on her faceplate to remove it from it's place. She closed her eyes and quietly prayed to Keelah that, through some miracle, she would make it through this. All her hope ran out, however, as she heard the silent hiss of the seals to the plate loosened. In any second, it would be removed and she would face the same fate as her mother did all those years ago. Time suddenly seemed to slow down and images of her life flew past in her mind. Her mothers death, the classes she had on the Rayya, her pilgrimage, her first meeting with Shepard, the destruction of the Normandy, Freedoms progress, Haestrom, their first night together, all the way to this very moment.
As her thoughts fell on Shepard, she felt the tears slowly beginning to run down her face. She wanted to be with him again. To feel his arms wrap around her in a loving embrace. To hear his voice speaking to her, soft and calming. To look into those kind, blue eyes that always filled her heart and mind with hope, joy and love. She wanted to feel his skin on hers, to stroke her naked hand through his short, black hair. To lock her lips together with his and feel the emotions flow through her body. She wanted to do this, if only for one last time.
As Tali felt the hand of the pirate beginning to pull in her visor, she suddenly heard a voice shout something in the background and the hand dropped it's grip around her helmet, just before it got loose enough to let in any bacteria.
She saw Cyclops turn to where the voice had came from, and time suddenly turned to it's normal rate. "What!"he shouted back to the voice, who had apparently called his name. There was much more than just a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Yo, someone's coming down the elevator!"the voice, which came from upstairs shouted.
The bandit officer's face lit up in a mix of anger and surprise. "What! I didn't authorize..."he was cut off by gunfire from above the stairs, together with a scream of agony from the man who was up there. The sounds where followed by a heavy, metallic thud as the bandit above hit the floor.
The man in gasmask, called Boom, jerked over the sudden attack and rushed off the bed, letting out a loud "Fuck!"as he ran for his rifle that was leaned against the wall in front of him. Tali felt hope refill her fully and instantly. She knew exactly who it was that had shot the pirate upstairs. "Tali!"the voice of the commander simply confirmed her thoughts.
Tali tried to get up from the floor and run up to Shepard right now, but the ropes made themselves reminded. "John!"she shouted back, as she couldn't get anywhere. Another short burst of bullets where heard from upstairs, followed by another scream.
Cyclops turned to his squad. "Alright guys!"he almost shouted to the people in the room. "It seems the bitch's boyfriend is here. Grab a gun and kill the fuck!"
Tali made a sinister smile under her faceplate as the pirates gathered they're weapons and prepared for the incoming threat. "Yeah, you just try it..."
As Shepard was standing in the elevator that Mordin had just fixed, he silently cursed over that the elevator had to be so damn slow. He impatiently shifted his position from leg to leg, while double-checking the condition of his rifle and spare ammo. He didn't want to think of what may have happened to Tali when the radio went dead. All he knew was that he had to get to her.
When the cart neared it's destination, he heard someone running outside of the doors. As soon as the doors opened, he rushed out and went to his right, while he heard someone shouting from behind the door in front of him. A short memory of when Grunt had walked past him through that door flew into his head, but he ignored it.
The door burst open and Shepard saw one of the pirates leaning over the rail, shouting down to the floor below. He instinctively fired his rifle, sending the pirate screaming to the floor. The gunshots where followed by a few shouts, among them a loud, wheezy "Fuck!". He had now clearly made his presence known.
"Tali!"he cried out to see if she was here, or even alive. A large knot in his chest loosened as he heard the familiar voice of a quarian shout his name from the floor below. As the area downstairs went turmoil, Shepard quickly turned to his right and fired at another pirate who rushed through another door with a large machete.
"Alright guys!"Shepard heard the voice of a man from downstairs. "It seems the bitch's boyfriend is here. Grab a gun and kill the fuck!" Shepard laughed silently at the words. They could just try it...
Shepard fired a few more rounds into a thug that was stupid enough to try to approach by simply running up the stairs. The pirate was instantly cut down and fell face-down into the floor. Another bandit tried to just take a peek out from under the walkway, while firing at him with a Predator heavy pistol. Before the thug even managed to take down Shepard's shields, his head was split by a lone round from the commanders assault rifle. As Shepard had predicted though, it wouldn't be quite as easy with the rest of the pirates as it was with the first two. What looked like an oblong can was thrown up, right in front of his face. As he realized what the object was, it was already too late.
The small grenade exploded with a blinding light and a deafening bang. Shepard covered his eyes and took several steps back, unaware that he had just dropped his rifle. As he slowly got his vision back, the first thing Shepard sees is a gloved fist that hits his face, sending him to the floor. He saw three persons suddenly standing in front of him: a robust woman with a pink mohawk, broken nose and a sledgehammer in hand, an even larger man that had a mysterious smell of cheese and something else. Maybe garlic. In front of the two was another man, around the size of Shepard, with a dirty suit, an old gasmask on his head and a belt full of explosives around his waist.
The man in the gasmask let out an extremely wheezy laugh, like he had a lot of mucus in his throat and was trying to get it out; Shepard guessed on damaged lungs. The laugh was followed by the woman swinging her large hammer down at the commander. He quickly rolled to the side, making the hammer hit nothing but metal floor. He then kicked the woman in the face, making her drop her hammer and back away a few feet. Shepard seized the opportunity and grabbed the sledgehammer and got back up on his feet as fast as he could, while he kicked the masked man's rifle out of his hands, sending it down the stairs.
Shepard studied his opponents that where right in front of him, while they did the same to him. They had gotten into a tricky situation and everyone of them knew it; one false move by anyone of them and he or she could die. Shepard had no time to pick up his assault rifle. He had to do this the hard way.
After about ten seconds, the large, smelling man seemed to tire of waiting and charged at Shepard with his large fist. Shepard dodged the fist, if only barely, and smacked his temporary weapon in the back of the large mans head, making a loud, bone-breaking crack and the muscular pirate fell limp to the floor. Shepard quickly turned back to the remaining two and dodged a swing from the large woman, who had picked up the machete that was dropped by the one that Shepard had shot before. He grabbed the woman's right arm with his one hand and the large knife that she was holding in the other, separating the two. He then quickly swept his arm around her neck and broke it with a sudden twist, making another body go limp.
The last of the three, the masked one, quickly pounced on Shepard, sending him to the floor and dropping the machete he had just attained. He sat on top of the commander, punching hi repeatedly in the face, making his nose and mouth spring in warm, red blood. Shepard stretched after something to defend himself with in blindness; he didn't have much of a chance to look around with a fist hitting him every two seconds. He finally got hold of something that felt like a handle and, with something that could only be explained as a war cry, swung it violently through the air and towards the masked pirate's head.
The beating stopped and the pirate began jerking violently while making an unnerving, guttural sound as his brain and nerve center was destroyed. Shepard looked at the thug's head and found that he had just hit him in with the machete the woman had just dropped, and was now buried in the suit-wearing pirate's head, right above the glass lens that covered his left eye.
Shepard pulled out the large knife from the man's forehead and rolled the, still jerking body away from him. The commander stood up, winded, and thought through the recent seconds to try to get a grip on his situation. He finally got his mind straight and looked at the place he had dropped his rifle. The rifle was lying just by the rail of the walkway with about a fourth of it hanging over the edge and in the air. Shepard walked over to his weapon and picked it up. He wiped off some blood that had been spilled on it during the fight as best as he could, then threw a last glance at the suit and gasmask wearing body on the floor that was still jerking in nervous spasms. He looked at the belt that was hanging around the man's waist an felt an idea grow in his head.
Tali was sitting by the wall, watching as the pirates set up defenses. She wanted to call out to Shepard and tell him of the situation, but after being promised a shot in the head if she said a word, she had managed to keep her mouth shut. She saw as the man called Boom threw up a flashbang at the stairs, probably blinding Shepard. The pirate then ran up the stairs together with the large cheese-and-garlic man and the woman that she had broken the nose of earlier. Judging from the noises that came from up the stairs afterwards told that the attack hadn't gone too well. Now they where just waiting for something to happen.
Tali looked at the stairs that the others had ran up and hoped that he would come down that way. Although he would immediately receive heavy fire, he would at least have a good chance with his shielding, unlike he would by the stairs by the other side, where they had placed a proximity mine.
All suddenly happened in a matter of seconds: a small clang was heard as a similar grenade as Boom had thrown fell down on the floor right in front of the barricade. Before anyone could react, the grenade blew up and Tali found herself temporarily deaf. She had managed to turn her head to the side before the grenade blew off though, so she was not blinded.
Tali then saw Shepard practically jump down the stairs. Only silent noise was heard as the barrel of his assault rifle lit up time after time, quickly cutting down the guarding forces, including the one called Irish. She saw Cyclops rise from his seat in front of her and turn around the corner with a shotgun, only to get a machete thrown in his remaining eye.
The heavy thud of the pirate officer falling lifeless to the floor was the signal Tali got that she had regained her hearing. She looked up at Shepard who quickly ran to her, throwing away his rifle to the side. Tali leaned towards him so that he could crouch down and cut the ropes that held her hands in place.
The first thing Tali's arms did when Shepard had cut them free was to move from behind her back, to around Shepards neck as she threw herself at him. She held him as hard and firmly as she possibly could, while resting her head against his right shoulder. Shepard was caught off-guard by the sudden embrace, but soon responded it with an equally tight grip.
Tali felt the tears stream down her cheeks. "I though I would never see you again..."she whispered into his ear, and realized how true those words where. "I thought I...I thought..."
"There, there Tali..."she heard Shepard whisper back as she felt his hand slowly rub her back, sending that familiar warm feeling that she always got from him. "We're together now, that's what matters."
As they sat there, Tali lost track of time. All she thought about was Shepard, her and Them as a whole. They would still have to get away from the pirate vessel, unite the galaxy and defeat the reapers, but that didn't matter now. They had been through so much, lost so much, seen so much, but that didn't matter now. They where there now, holding onto each other, almost afraid that the other would disappear if they let go. They where together here and now, feeling the love for the other burn in their heart, feeling each others breath, sharing each others joy. They where together now...
...that's what matters...
*Authors note: I was kinda disappointed with this ending. I got a lock-down in my head and began improvising. I hope it will suffice anyway.
