BAMS: You have the right idea.
Reko-Luna: Yep.
Thorn94: Thanks!
Subsider34: You have a point. I'll keep that in mind.
Kaiya Smith: Thanks. It just felt right, y'know?
Wolf Girl811: Yeah, it can't be gentle. I wouldn't want the vision if I had a choice.
Hopelessly Blue: Sorry… And now that Tela's on her way I recommend everyone hide lest they be stains on the wall. The meld thing is a good idea by the way. If that happens you can take the credit. Don't worry, Marcy; there's no judgment on my side. I get where you're coming from completely. I don't think I'm that great a writer. It could be better in my opinion. But thank you anyway; it makes me want to write more.
Jeremy Pine: I think there have to be some kinds of side effects with dealing with stuff like dark matter or using biotics in such conditions without an amp. For a human that isn't really 'evolved' enough to handle it on their own, using them at such a young age can't be beneficial for Cali's developing body. And I have heard of Scott Pilgrim. I watched the movie actually. I just haven't seen it in a while.
Toaster Inc.: I'm sorry… ^.^'
"What is it Joker?" Shepard asked upon arrival to the cockpit.
Joker turned in his chair as best he could, "Well I was here just minding my own business a few minutes ago when I get a message." He gestured to his console and Shepard stepped forward to get a closer look at said message.
Commander Shepard, Captain Anderson and Spectre Nihlus-
I have become aware of your operation on Eden Prime, and of what happened. My niece happened to be down there at the time with an old friend of mine, examining the beacon for your arrival. Nihlus has notified me that Calista is aboard your ship, in a sort of coma.
Prepare for my arrival.
Before Shepard even had the chance to speak, the Normandy's VI beeped, "There is a visitor at the front airlock requesting entrance."
"I'll let you take care of this Commander." Joker said as he turned back around in his chair.
Shepard looked from the airlock to the back of his head, "Really Joker? You're refusing a chance to make fun of someone?" she smirked, pulling back. "I'm sure she's just a little worried. What can go wrong?"
"You are way too optimistic Commander." Joker replied, refusing to turn back around as he kept his gaze on his console. "An asari Spectre has just found out that her adorable little human has been traumatized even more, and then picked up by an Alliance ship. –Oh wait. That's after she gets mind raped by a creepy Prothean machine. I am not going to risk making eye contact with a rampaging biotic Spectre; I value my crippled life."
Shepard had to admit he might have had a point as she opened the airlock door. Before she knew it, an asari in blood-splotched armor stood before her, eyes blazing.
"Where is she?"
Shepard was too slow in answering apparently, for the asari's hand shot up and pushed her back into the wall. "Where is my little girl?"
"The med-bay." The Commander answered immediately this time. She didn't want any more trouble than this seemed to be begging for already. "Just- let me take you there, okay?"
The asari lowered her hand haltingly, as if she wanted to strangle Shepard but held herself back. It did not bode well for anyone else on this ship. And as the Commander turned to quickly lead the way towards the med-bay, internally thankful she wouldn't have to go down an elevator with this woman, she realized just how right Joker was to hide.
…
"Help!" "Save me!" "Somebody please!" "Auuuugghh!" "No! Please! I have a fami- gghh!" "Brrnnnhhh…" *crash* "NOOO-" *BOOM*
"Stop this!" "Why are you doing this?!" "You will be destroyed…" "We have no chance!" "They have killed our last hope!" "But we must keep fighting!"
"Preserve the children!" "There are none left!" "The cycle will continue…" "Curse them!" "The Conduit will work… but not for us…" "We have lost…"
The screams continued, on and on, over and over, never ending. Massacres at such levels there were rivers of blood on every world. Fire roared everywhere you looked. The sun was covered by countless red skies and machines that were larger than any other existing ship. Abominations roamed across lands where children once played and love was once valued. Beautiful plains reduced to the color of ash and death.
There was no end. There was no mercy.
"You cannot stop this."
Brightness blinded my eyes for an instant before it went dark again. I felt vertigo, nausea and most of all, a horrible headache. My head felt like it was so full that my skull was being pushed against by my pounding brain. All of the emotions from whatever horrible nightmare I had been in surrounded me in a timeless, choking shroud.
That is, until I heard a voice.
"-lista! Hey, Cali!" it sounded so familiar. Like a voice I had heard years ago. It felt like years from my last memory. "Calista! Come on kid, show me your eyes!"
Slowly, I managed to blink past that blinding light as I opened my eyes. I squinted as I rolled to my side to try and get away from that terrible light but a second later, arms cradled me in a hard embrace, sitting me up. My brows furrowed slightly. I would recognize this scent anywhere.
My eyes blinked several times to adjust, and my hand came up to rub the blurriness away. "T-Tela…?" I meant to ask, but my voice came out in a raspy whisper. "Is that you?" I murmured, trying to see through my blurred vision.
"Yeah, it's me." she breathed, relaxing her hold so I wasn't being crushed. "How are you feeling? Are you alright? Where does it hurt?"
"Tela…!" I whined just as I always did when she was being protective. I had to admit however, that it was just what I needed at the moment. I needed to have her fuss over me and distract me from that horrible place I was just in. I couldn't remember a lot of it. Just screams. Blood. There had been too much blood.
"I'm okay." I said after a moment. My hand went up and found the color of her armor where I latched on. "I just have a really bad headache. Can I have something to make it go away?" she flinched slightly at this, and I saw with my clearing vision her eyes tightening. She knew it was hell to ever try to get me to take any kind of medicine, even when I had to, so my actually asking for some had to be surprising.
She turned a scornful glare to someone to my right, and I glanced over to see a sheepish Commander Shepard and Ashley. Shit. What did Tela say to them? They looked like two kids that got scolded for breaking a window with a baseball.
Chakwas appeared at the end of my bed a moment later and pushed the two women out of the way to get to me. She brandished a syringe with a teeny tiny needle at the end. Mentally I was relieved that most shots these days were so small they were little more than bee stings at worst. I suppose almost two hundred years past what I knew really made a difference.
"Show me your arm, sweetheart." Chakwas requested, to which I obediently held out my arm. She curled her fingers around my arm to make sure it was steady and wasted little time in pressing the small needle into the middle of my forearm, nearer to the crook of my arm. I felt the liquid inside jetting into my bloodstream and equated it to a rushing river. It was a feeling much more pronounced than it had been back in the early 21st century.
When she removed the needle and brushed away the small prick of blood before I could really see it, I retracted my arm. Tela was as uncomfortable as always with her armor on and the small bits of blood on the metal plates didn't really help me relax considering I was already tired of seeing blood, but I didn't want to move. Her hold was familiar and her scent comforted me in a way I hadn't been aware of before. With this small bit of comfort I relaxed into her and felt the headache ebbing away at a sluggish rate.
"Tell me what happened, Cali." Tela murmured. "If you're feeling up to it. We can wait."
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Shepard and Ash tense slightly. I knew it had to be around the time for the Council meeting. They probably only refrained from arguing because I looked like a wreck. I felt like one, anyway. With everything that happened I had to wonder if I could handle what was to come. Of course, I had to. Now that I was a victim of the beacon no one had a choice as to whether or not I was involved. Unfortunately now that I had little choice I almost wanted to just quit. Almost. The will to protect what I held dear still flickered within me.
I sniffed and wiped away the wetness at my eyes I hadn't even known had been there. "Well…" I tried to think past all of the dead bodies and screams to even remember what had happened. My peripheral vision informed me that Shepard was recording this.
"The first few days were fine." I began. "Since Tanin didn't want me to get near the beacon in case something went wrong I decided to explore the camp. Ashley stayed with me to make sure I stayed out of trouble."
Before Tela could burn holes through Ash's head with her glare I grabbed her arm and shook it lightly to make sure I still had her attention.
I sniffed once more, taking the small pause to think over how things happened. It had all gone so fast that it just seemed cluttered together in a tangled web. "The last day we were supposed to… to be on Eden Prime… a giant ship came from the sky. It was larger than any ship I've ever seen. Some noise emitted from it- like a horn or something. It got in your head and made you think about dying."
Tela's arms tightened and I shifted, becoming aware of my side and shoulder once again. The pain was mostly gone but there was still a small pressure that reminded me it was still healing. Maybe something really was broken.
"Synthetics- Geth- came out of nowhere just a minute later. Me and Ashley ran back to camp to try and warn the others what was happening but the geth caught up too quickly. People were running away and screaming. Explosions went off everywhere I looked and a lot of the people I knew were killed whether they tried to run away or stay and fight. When I remembered Tanin I became worried over whether or not he was okay."
There was a pause. I would have to ask if he was okay once Shepard finished recording what I was saying. Maybe she was doing it so I wouldn't have to explain myself twice, and it was nice, but it was unnecessary. I had already known about the Council meeting and what would happen. The moments where Tanin had me hidden behind him had been my opportunity to record what went on myself. Now that I thought about it I don't think I ever turned it off.
"Um… so I ran off from Ashley where she was protecting me to go look for Tanin. He wasn't at the beacon site and neither was the beacon. I remembered that the beacon was being moved to the spaceport for the people coming to pick it up so I took a side path around the geth to get there. Tanin ripped apart a whole platoon of geth by the time I got there." I kind of chuckled at the irony.
"We didn't really have time to get anywhere before another turian showed up. Tanin called him Saren. Some of the things Saren said were confusing, and it wasn't long before he shot Tanin. I think he missed his vitals on purpose but I don't really know why."
I sniffed again and Tela pushed a few stray strands of hair from my face. "I don't know why he didn't kill me, either. He just told me that I wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore and how he was doing me a favor by getting rid of Tanin. He was referring to the charges he set up to destroy the spaceport and any other evidence of what had happened. After he left Nihlus showed up and told me Commander Shepard was on her way."
I sent a small thankful smile to Shepard. She returned it with sad eyes, and I looked away. I did feel horrible. But I didn't need pity.
"When she came I told her what Saren said and Powell told us the beacon had been moved deeper into the spaceport's platform. We fought through more geth and took the cargo train. When the Commander diffused all of the charges and we found the beacon she called for pickup. Kaidan went to look at the beacon because it was glowing and he's stupid like that."
Ash snorted as if in agreement.
"I tried to stop him and when he argued I got this weird headache. When he went to step around me time slowed down and my body moved on its own. My hands shit his stomach and he fell back. I may have triggered something on accident when I got him away from the beacon because the next thing I knew I was in the air and some horrible vision careened into my head. I saw people running and dying, screaming, getting killed… countless lives were slaughtered by synthetics of some kind. It's hard to remember what it was supposed to mean…"
I felt so vulnerable just remembering that nightmare that I curled further into Tela, tightening my hold on her arm reflexively. Shepard whipped up her Omni-tool and ended the recording. The next minute was quiet and I took the small amount of time to try and push away the chaos swirling around my mind. That vision was still at the edge of my consciousness. I could feel it. I may not have been seeing it but the intense emotions and feelings and notions were still pressing against me, making it a difficult task to keep breathing normally. My chest felt like it was being squeezed, and my heart hurt.
"Is Tanin okay?" I finally asked. I was hoping he'd be okay since he wasn't hurt too badly but I still had this weird feeling. It was like he was still hurt or something. It was strange. I couldn't really explain why I felt like that.
There was another pause, and I was forced to look up at Ashley and Shepard in question. Finally, Ash spoke, "We took him to Kaltykus hospital." I blinked. Maybe they did that as a precaution. Maybe Chakwas wanted to make sure he was okay.
"I'll take you to see him after the Council meeting, okay Cali?" Tela suggested.
I looked up at her and wondered why her eyes looked… was it remorseful? I had never seen that look on her before. Had she been that worried about me? Or was there more reason to it than that? Oh, I don't know. I'll ask later. I just didn't have the capacity to deal with more bad news at the moment.
I looked down and rested my head on her chest plate. It was as hard as always. Man, I wished she had at least taken the time to take it off before coming to find me. "Yeah, okay." I looked to Shepard, "Have you talked to the Council about what happened?"
She stared at me for another moment before nodding. "We've set up a meeting with them. There's a hearing about Saren and whether he's guilty about what happened."
I felt a part of myself click back into place, and slipped into business mode. I had to take care of this before I could even consider lying down and giving up. I had to push through this and make sure Shepard became the first human Spectre and was sent after Saren. I had to get Tali, Wrex and Garrus too. To tie it all up for the day I had to visit Tanin in the hospital.
I wanted to sigh. I just went through all that shit on Eden Prime and already I was setting myself up for another busy day. At least this one should be less horrific and more… well, better anyway. I'd be happy if I didn't have to hear another terrified, pain-filled scream for as long as I lived.
"I have to go too." I stated. All four women stared at me like I was talking about committing suicide. "I'm not that weak okay!" I snapped, pulling away from Tela a little in my sudden anger. The sudden rush of blood caused my forgotten headache to spike however and I forced myself to relax.
"Believe it or not Tanin pushed me behind him when Saren showed up. I figured it would be prudent to record what happened so I have infallible proof that he's guilty. So take me with you to the hearing or I'll-" I was cut off by another spike of pain and flinched. Right. The biotic thing. That mixed with my scrambled brain and flashing vision in the back of my head was creating a headache.
I'd have to stay calm. Then I might be able to keep from hurting people. And myself.
"We need to take you either way." Shepard finally decided. "With your recorded evidence we should be able to win the hearing." A smile tugged at the corners of her lips and I could see she was relaxing over having solid proof. I smiled too. Those stubborn councilors won't be able to write off my favorite Commander now that I have a say in it. Well actually, that's if my Omni-tool didn't somehow get damaged in all the excitement. The beacon might have messed it up like it did to my brain too after all.
"Don't even think about gallivanting to the Council chambers without me." Tela stated. "I have a few choice words I need to say myself."
I couldn't help but grin at Tela. She noticed and raised a brow at me with a hint of a smile in her eyes. I guess she was relieved to see I wasn't brain damaged. To be honest I was too. I wouldn't have liked to be mentally fucked up even more than I was now.
"Something funny?" she asked.
I grinned wider, "I just missed you." I said. "I feel like it's been forever since I heard you threaten someone."
She snorted at me but let out a lopsided smile. "I missed you too kid." Those familiar words she always spoke to me when she returned from a mission served to soothe me further and I began to breathe in relief. Hopefully I wouldn't have to get in another kill zone soon.
"Um, before we go can I ask…" I began unsurely, remembering something.
Shepard saw me staring at her pointedly and she furrowed her brows beginning to frown in question. "Yes?" she asked.
"I didn't… uh… I didn't kill Kaidan on accident or anything, did I?" the worry in my voice seemed to make Shepard smile. I wasn't too worried for Kaidan but I just didn't want to have killed someone so soon. Let alone on accident while trying to save him.
"Well you did manage to bruise a couple ribs and almost ruptured an organ or two but we got him to Chakwas before there was serious damage. He's fine." she reassured. I sighed, feeling a small weight lift from my burdened shoulders.
Tela frowned, glaring distantly. "Not enough damage in my opinion." She grumped.
When Shepard frowned at her I laughed.
A/N: Sorry. I wanted to get farther than this today but I have to drive down to my mom's house in fifteen minutes. And is it just me or is Shepard kind of a doormat so far? I kind of feel guilty that she has such a hard time.
