Long time. I know. My bad.
The Wildcard
Chapter 21
The thief known as Kasumi Goto, by those few who actually knew her well enough to get a name, has seen many things in her career.
She's seen a hanar pickpocket six people in a small crowd, and not be noticed. A turian sneak into an all woman, and asari if you want to get technical, bathhouse that was the first of its kind on the Citadel. Someone spray paint a giant picture of a naked asari blowing a kiss to those who saw it on the underside of one of the Councils flagships when the crew was off on shore leave.
All of those things were probably not as strange as what she had just heard from the man sitting across from her.
"What was that?" she asked, dumfounded with her eyes wide.
"What is that?" he asked out of curiosity as he pointed to the small tub sitting in front of the thief.
It was one of the small tubs of ice cream she picked up the last time the Normandy refueled. The ice cream was even made with cows milk, and not some cheap imitation you would normally see anywhere else but earth, and human, colonies.
Plague just looked at the picture of a cartoon cow on the side with a raised eyebrow as his head slightly tilted to the side.
Kasumi had heard his question before, but from non-humans.
"Ice cream." she answered as she took the small lid off.
"I read that on the side, but what is it?" he asked as he looked at the white surface of the vanilla frozen dessert.
"You… don't know what ice cream is?" she asked him hesitantly as she used her spoon to scoop some out and was ready to eat it, but couldn't upon the line of questioning.
"I'll admit, the name sounds familiar, but I haven't seen any before." he explained as he looked at her spoon fixatedly with a look of curiosity.
The first thing to go through Kasumi's mind was 'What kind of human parents have never ONCE given their own child ice cream?' but stopped herself from voicing it when she remembered the man's background.
"Ice cream is made with milk and some other dairy products." she explained before finally taking the first spoon full into her mouth. The taste washed over her tongue as a chill made her shiver a little.
She ate some more and looked at the plate before Plague. It was a simple recipe for hamburger helper. But the food looked rather untouched. The only sign Plague had even thought of eating it was the food that was shuffled around a little by his fork as if the one supposed to eat it were a child. She looked at Plague and saw him look at the pieces of pasta, meat, and cheese with confusion.
He looked as if he was not sure he was even supposed to eat it.
"Why do I get the feeling you don't have hamburger helper back home?" she asked him after she stuck her spoon into her ice cream like a food versioned 'sword in the stone' so she could move back to her own plate. She just couldn't wait until after.
When she said she would cook for him, Plague must have thought she would make something he was familiar with.
"Back home, a lot of people relied on old cans of food one would find in the rubble of an old grocery store that was destroyed more then a few centuries ago." he explained as he looked back at her. His words made her eyes widen in surprise as she put her fork down. "Other then that…"
"The wildlife are all mutated and radioactive." Kasumi finished for him, remembering the first conversation she had ever had with the man about his homeworld. "How could anyone survive… that kind of place? Doesn't everyone get radiation poisoning?"
"Constantly." he answered with a frown on his face. "Over generations, humanity was exposed and mutated slowly. You remember those super mutants I told you about?" he asked. When she gave him a nod, he continued. "A super mutant is a highly mutated human being. The mutation makes their muscles grow out of control, while the bones grow bigger along with it. Their skin turns green, gray, or brown, that may be a reaction depending on one's skin tone. I have seen one that's muscles grew so much, that the muscle tissue actually ripped open the skin." he then looked back to Kasumi's shocked face before talking. "For the sake of you being able to finish your meal, I will stop there. As I was saying before, Humanity adapted. Me being a former vault resident spared me from most of the radiation one might have to go through growing up. So I might be a little healthier compared to an outsider. Although, my mother and father were born outside of a vault, I think."
Kasumi was still mostly thinking about those super mutants Plague mentioned with thoughts of pity going through her mind. Just thinking of being changed so drastically was horrifying.
And then she went to the topic of Plague's parents.
"I remember you saying your mother died giving birth to you, but what was your father like?" she asked. She wanted to know if there were some good points in his life.
She started eating as he explained. "Dad is… was a doctor and scientist. I can remember him standing next to me in a home made firing range as we got our picture taken." a small smile appeared on his face as Kasumi watched him go through the memory. "Growing up, he always made sure I was making the right choices. "I can tell you are faking it." he'd say when I thought I could trick him into letting me stay in bed instead of going to class." he gave a light chuckle as Kasumi smiled. "I always saw him as some immovable object when I was younger. Some one would argue with him, and he would still remain calm and collected, and yet he always had a smile when he saw me poke my little head into the room." he paused to take his first bite and his eyes widened in shock before he started chewing quickly, and yet slowly enough to savor the new taste. Once he swallowed he started talking again. "I remember him lecturing me when I would come home with some bully's blood on me. He would read while I played in the living room with Amata. When ever she was over, he treated her like he would me." he laughed a little as he shoveled more food in and smiled at her after he swallowed. "His cooking was terrible, but he would be able to make anything he cooked as healthy as possible. I bet if he wanted to, he could have made a plate with nothing but pure fat and still some how find a way to make it healthy for you. I remember sneaking over to Amata's, and she would get me some sweets her mother made. The whole time we are trying to be as quiet as possible." she chuckled a little from both, looking at Plague's face when he tried to talk with too much food in his mouth, and the cute image of two children sneaking each other sweets. Maybe one standing on the shoulders of the other to get to a cookie jar on a high counter. "I always wanted to be like him. Someone who could do so much good. Make such a large difference." he stopped eating and started moving his food around again as he looked down sleepily. "I could see the look in his eyes when I asked him if he could teach me how to be just like him, and help the sick and injured. He looked so happy. So… proud…" he trailed of as he, somewhat, froze with his head downward and his eyes focused on his plate.
"What's wrong?" she asked him out of worry when he didn't continue.
"Looking back…" he began slowly. "… I always wondered what he would say if he could see me now. What I did up until this point."
"What do you think he would say?" Kasumi asked with a comforting tone.
"How dare you say you are my son…" he answered calmly as his eyes looked at her shocked face.
"How could you say that?" she asked a little louder then she intended. "You said it yourself. You helped people!" Kasumi couldn't believe what he had just said about his own father.
His gaze just went back down to his plate before answering. "And in order to do so, I KILLED people."
His words seemed to silence everything around them. Her breathing. Her heartbeat. Even the hum of the ship's engines seemed to become a little quieter.
"I think he would still be proud of you." she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.
"You wouldn't say that if you saw what I did." he replied. "I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about it, but that does not change what I did. When I left the vault, I changed." he looked at her again with sad eyes. "The ends don't always justify the means."
"Sorry." Kasumi apologized quietly as she went back to eating.
"Don't be…" he said back with the beginnings of a warm smile. "Thank you, though." he thanked her, and somehow the words made her give him a small smile.
With those last words, he started eating again.
Every once in a while, Plague asked her a question, while she did the same.
The conversation went from Kasumi's favorite heists, to Plague's life in a vault. The mood of the dinner quickly became happier as they talked.
"And then, Dogmeat hikes up his leg and takes a piss on his boot." he almost shouted as Kasumi covered her mouth so she wouldn't spit out her food while laughing. "Moira and I were just frozen, while Jericho's face goes as red as a tomato while he starts gritting his teeth."
"What happened?" she asked him happily.
"Absolutely fucking, nothing!" he declared loudly. "If he drew his gun, the guards would think he was planning something, and we didn't need that much attention drawn to ourselves. Only way I can keep him from exacting his revenge on the dog, was for me to promise him I would mod his gun into an automatic."
At this point, they both finished their plates. Plague talked, while Kasumi was finally able to continue eating her ice cream now that it was not as solid.
She gave a small shiver as she swallowed. When she looked back to the man sitting across from her, she noticed he was looking at her with a small smile on his face, while his eyes showed his curiosity.
"Something wrong?" she asked him.
Plague snapped out of his thoughts and waved a hand to her ice cream. "I was just wondering if that stuff is as good as your actions say it is."
She cocked her head to the side wondering what he was talking about. Before she could ask, she blushed when it dawned on her. She had let out a small moan of delight as she ate her favorite dessert.
'That's embarrassing.' she thought to herself. "Sorry about that."
"No need to be." he waved the apology away. "Everyone is entitled to their own forms of piece."
His words made her return another smile as she dug her spoon into the tub. When she started to bring it up to her mouth, she thought of something.
"Do you want some?"
He clearly didn't expect her to ask. She could tell just by how his eyes widened a little while his body paused.
While he was trying to come up with something to say, Kasumi already moved the spoon in his direction. Seeing her coming, Plague must have dropped whet ever made him hesitate and accepted.
Instantly his eyes closed as the flavor washed over him. She watched his reaction with a grin on her face as the man gave off a shiver that showed he didn't expect it to be as cold as it was. But he still swallowed.
Seeing his reaction to, what she and every other human considered as, earth cuisine.
It was then that a light bulb turned on in her head.
"I'll be right back." she told him as she got out of her seat and walked to her room with, what she could only guess was, a sense giddiness. She went behind the small bar and opened a drawer and found what she had stashed away. The foil like wrapper of the chocolate bar shimmered in the small amount of light behind her as she grabbed it.
Happily, she almost ran back to the door, and was about to open it when she realized what she just did. Her eyes widened in shock, her limbs froze, her mind backpeddled.
'I just fed Plague…' she thought to herself as a wave of heat made its way to her face. Then she became even more shocked when she realized something else. "I just fed Plague… with my own spoon…" this time she said it out loud while the words were muffled by the walls around her, hopfully stopping anyone from hearing what she had just said.
She didn't know why she did that. Hopefully, Plague didn't know how intimate the action could have been interpreted as.
Taylor Shepard POV
"The desighn of the city shows just how calculative the protheans were." Liara's voice explained to whomever wanted to learn from her findings. "There is absolutely no waisted space. Every amount of distance in between buildings and streets showed that it was all built with both crowds and the size of modes of transportation in mind to minimize inconveniences and any possible accidents. The foundation the city was built on is not natural, which means they wanted the structures to be elevated so the oxygen intake would better suit their needs."
Shepard just rested her head on her pillow as tears soaked it.
She thought she was done with those nightmares for the week, until the last one took her by surprise.
("Garrus. Left flank!" she shouted from her cover while Plague gave suppressive fire next to her. Jack was at the right flank, keeping the husks from going around and taking them by surprise. Kasumi was crouched next to Plague firing at a Collector who went out of cover.
As Garrus ran, shots bounced off his shields, making them shimmer until they dropped. Thankfully, he was already in the safety of the next cover before he was hit.
The houses around them no longer resembled how they were designed. Windows were shattered. Doors were peeled open. Belongings of the former occupants were strewn across the battlefield by explosions that reduced walls to rubble.
"Plague!" she shouted as she looked at the man. He had replaced his revolver for that small saw weapon while he grabbed a husk by the neck and gutted it. "Move up!"
When she said that he looked at her for a short moment before tossing the mess of cybernetics and flesh to the side before going into a sprint. It was when Plague reached his destination that she heard something that chilled the blood in her veins.
A flanged voice grunted in pain.
She looked over to the source to see what she really didn't want to. A mob of husks came out of nowhere, and were swarming Garrus.
"Garrus!" she shouted as some blue blood was seen on the trampled grass. She could hear him struggling to free himself in the horde that constantly clawed at him. Garrus was barely visible in the mass.
"Shepard!" he shouted in a large amount of pain.
With one of her best friends in trouble, she ran to him as her biotics flared. She fired a singularity into the mass with her left hand as her right was already taking pot shots while the unholy creatures started to float into the air.
Some still held onto him and pulled themselves back down in order to inflict as much damage as possible. Some were even resorting to using their teeth to bite into him.
When she got to him, she grabbed a husk and pulled it off of him as blue blood sprayed onto her from either Garrus's wounds or by the amount on the husks around her as they screamed at her in an animalistic manner.
When she saw Garrus, she couldn't stop the tears that started to fall. his chest armor was ripped off and the scales of his exoskeleton was ripped apart to expose the damaged organs.
She gave off a biotic pulse to blast the floating husks away from them as she started to apply Medi-gel to certain parts.
"Cover fire! Garrus is down!" she shouted as loud as she could. She was starting to panic. Shepard knew no one could survive such injuries. But she still applied all the Medi-gel she had on to the damaged tissue. She was going to do all she could to save her friend. To save all of them. "Plague. Get over here!"
She didn't hear him over the surrounding gunfire. When his medic set's armored hands replaced hers, she grasped her pistol with her blood covered hand and started to fire madly into the next thing she saw that even closely resembled a husk or Collector.
"ASUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
That voice cut deep into her as she looked around. It wasn't until she heard a loud shout of pain behind her that she found out where it was. She looked back and saw the glowing Collector standing behind Plague with it's hand through his torso and sending yellowish energy through him.
Plague thrashed around as if he was being electrocuted. His armor sparked. Smoke was seen.
Suddenly, his body went limp.
Harbinger was not even a little fazed by what he had just done as he tossed the man in his armor to the side with little effort.
"YOU ONLY DELAY THE INEVITABLE"
"Plague!" Kasumi screamed as she ran to him as she fired wildly into the collector.
Shepard was frozen in place as she watched the enemy appear in front of the thief and grab her by the neck.
"IF YOU CAN'T PROTECT YOUR ALIES, THEN WHAT CHANCE DOES THE REST OF THE GALEXY HAVE"
She turned her head slowly to the side, as if searching for anyone who could save the woman in Harbinger's grasp, only to see that the only member on the ground left was being swarmed by husks, much like how Garrus was earlier.
A ominous crack was the next thing she heard. Kaumi was now motionless until she was simply dropped ungracefully onto the bloodied grass.
"YOU CAN NOT STOP US"
Shepard felt warm tears streaking down her face as she franticly tried to get her body to move. Her body only shook until her arm lifted the blue smeared shaking gun in her hand to open fire on the one responsible for the waves of anguish going through her.
Each shot didn't seem to do any damage to the monster. Eventually she saw the thermal clip eject, but she continued to fire frantically.
And then, it went dark.
Slowly, she opened her eyes as she felt like she was being moved. She started to lift up her hand to feel her head until she realize she was in a small space. Her eyes snapped open to see a dome before her that only allowed a small amount of light into her coffin shaped prison.
"Let me out!" she screamed as she pounded her fists on the dome of the pod she was in.
Her heart was beating wildly as she panicked. No matter how hard she hit the dome, it would not crack. Her biotics did nothing in the small space.
"Let me out!")
She shivered as another sob escaped her.
When she woke up, she heard screaming in her cabin. Her hands grasped her head as she curled into a ball on her bed.
She wanted the screaming to stop. Stop the screaming. Silence the scream!
It wasn't until she took in a deep breath that she found where the screaming originated.
It was her.
She practically ordered EDI to not call Ckakwas. If the AI did, all Chakwas would be able to do was give her some pain killers for her head, and something to help her sleep.
Shepard didn't want to sleep.
The headachs were actually helping her stay awake. And she welcomed the pain thankfully. She couldn't even begin to think of, and nor did she want to, what her dreams might make her see.
Miranda Lawson POV
"Atomization attempt: # 28 has failed." the report before her read, making her rest her head on her open hand. "Casing for the power sorce became damaged upon activation, causing a leak, radiation instintally killing the wearer."
Miranda didn't know what to think at this point.
How such a divice could be constructed, not to mention how small it is supposed to be, made no sense. When she reviewed 101's discritions in her head and recorder, she had actively on her person at the time the conversation took place, the disighn and concept appeared rather complex no matter how primitive it looked.
'The thing has knobs, for God's sake!' she shouted in her head in frustration.
On the outside she looked a little tired, but calm. But on the inside was a different story.
Multiple side projects needed her attention before going to The Illusive Man. And then there were also the mounting amount of worry towards her sister.
Her last update from her contacts said Oriana's father had just received the massage for a job opening on the Citadel. She made sure it was a good job.
He would have to sit at a desk a little more then he already did, but the pay checks would be more then worth it. Not to mention the company provided great health benefits for both him, his wife, and most importintaly, Oriana.
Others in Miranda's situation would think the jump from a simple repair engineer, to a supervisor of many other engineers would be a little challenging. But she knew he could pull it of. Expecialy since he would be given fewer asignments then others in his line of work.
He would be paid hourly instead of per assignment, anyway.
"Atomization attempt: # 29 failed." the next report read. "Power sorce grew unstable, and discharged outward, resulting in fifth degree burns on wearrer's left arm."
'At least he survived.' she thought to herself.
Over the years she had been forced to put up with many brutal images. But they usually found something beneficial at the end. But after working for Cerberus for so many years, she started to question the death count.
Seventeen out of the twentynine wearrers ended up either killed, or sevearly injured. The luckiest ones were where those who had the device just fizzle out.
None of those attempts resulted in anything close to a successful atomization.
"Atomization attempt: # 30 failed."
Taylor Shepard POV
The warm water from the shower head felt relaxing as it carried away the dried sweat and tears on her body.
Shepard had spent the rest of the night in her bed listening to Liara discride her findings. She loved how the asari would sometimes pause before continuing to her next sentence. The way she always sounded a little socialy awkward. In a way, Liara was so inocent to her.
She remembered some times she had to explain a few human sayings like a needle in a haystack, or it's water under the bridge. Shepard's personal favorite was when Liara's translater picked up one specific phrase on the original Normandy from a random marine. The man was talking with another marine about the night he had on one shore leave.
Shepard had to admit, she wished he used some less vulgar words to describe his sexual escapades around her love. If it actually did happen.
Anyway. Liara ended up meeting her before going to sleep and asked her the most adorable question.
("Do you ever roll around in a cattle's feed, Shepard?" Liara curiously asked Shepard as they started to change into their nightware.
If you could call just a bra and panties "nightware" in Shepard's case.
Liara had just threw on the gown she got her the other day. It was a light blue with a silky fabric that want just above the asari's knees. On the hem you could see a few laced paterns that went up her sides and then went to her front to cover her breasts in beautiful paterns.
She had to admit, the gown was actually crafted to help the wearrer look as seductive as possible. That was clear considering she could see the black panties underneath clearly through the smooth fabric.
Liara, as an asari, didn't mind how some one looked as long as she loved the person for who they are. That is why most young asari didn't mind stripping down and dancing around a pole for the amusment of the drunken patrens who practically threw credits at them.
Shepard had got the idea to get the lingerie for her when Liara tried to surprise her with nothing but a towel as she waited for her on the bed.
Liara had been reading around and learned how humans could be stimulated by visual images, and wanted to see if that was true.
She guessed Liara was trying to find out if her bond mate thought she was attractive in her eyes.
Long story short… yes. But she loved her no matter what she looked like.
When Shepard gave her the gown as a gift Liara accepted it happily with a smile on her face that made Shepard want to drag her to the bed, no matter if she wore it or not.
But she had to explain how the garment was only to be worn at night, and not to consider it as casual wear to be worn around the ship. Thankfully, no one was in the mess when she pulled the asari back into her cabin and let her borrow some of her own clothing. Although, they already shared clothes anyway since they found out they both wore almost the exact same size.
Back to the asari's question.
Shepard froze before turning to her, in human terms, girlfriend and raised an eyebrow.
"I… don't think… so." she answered calmly, but with a small amount of confusion working its way into her words. "Why do you ask?"
Liara's brow scrunched up in concintration, making her look a little cute as she tried to find a good way to rephrase.
"Umm… Someone on the ship was talking about how he had rolled around with another human the last time we were on the Citadel." she explained as she started to go under the covers as Shepard followed her example on the other side. "Your species have legs. So why would someone resort to rolling on the ground? And why would you do so while hay is around? Last I checked, there are no farms located on the Citadel."
Taylor Shepard just looked at the beautiful blue face next to her with a raised eyebrow as she tried to disipher what she was just told. And when it suddenly dawned on her, she couldn't hold in the laughter that started as she layed on her back with her hands over her mouth to try and muffle the sounds escaping her.
'She doesn't understand rolling in the hay!' she shouted in her head. 'She should know what that is by now!'
Liara was extremely confused by her display and didn't know what was so funny. It wasn't until Shepard's eyes started to water that she reacted.
"Are you alright, Taylor?" she asked suddenly as she sat up. "Why are you crying?" this time her voice contained a large amount of worry as she grabbed Shepard's shoulders.
She hardly registered the contact until Liara gently shook her.
The sudden motion took her by surprise as her mirth induced teary eyes opened to see her lover leaning over her with a look of sadness and fear directed to the woman under her.
Shepard was confused until she saw a tear roll down Liara's blue face.
She instantly sobered up and looked at her with a look that mirrored the other.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she rubbed the archeologist's cheek with one of her hands.
"I'm… sorry." she quietly sobbed. Her voice made Shepard's heart ach. "I didn't… mean to… upset you…"
Shepard sat up and cocked her head to the side as she took in the image before her. Liara's hands were now resting in her lap as they started to pull a Tali, while Liara looked downcast with more tears starting to form.
She also noticed one of the straps to the gown had slipped off of one of those blue shoulders as well, revealing a good amount of cleavage and skin that practically shouted for her to look and do touch… but that would have to wait for later. Right now she had a crying girlfriend in her bed to comfort for whatever reason.
"You didn't upset me." she said soothingly as she wrapped her arms around the lithe form of her blue lover. "Why would you think such a silly thing?"
"Your… eyes." she answered sadly as her head snuggled into the crock of Shepard's neck.
It was then that Shepard felt like an idiot as her mouth wont into an O shape. She chuckled a little at the relization as she rubbed Liara's back.
Asari and human women have quite a few similarities. Especially similar physically… She checked.
Sure, Asari skin felt a little different, but it was still warm to the touch. Liara had warm, supple lips that tasted wonderful no matter if she wore lipstick or not. No matter her condition, her scent was hypnotic at times do to the pheromones all asari produce.
Other then those things, along with the blue skin and head crest, Shepard never considered Liara to be anything else but a beautiful blue goddess she would worship, while keeping those she thought as unworthy away from her deity. Maybe it was the amount of times Liara had, quite literally, blown her mind. But Shepard didn't care if Liara was not a human.
She was still as loving as always.
But it was moments like these that she realized there was some explaining needed. For example, Why do asari change color as they age?
It wasn't until Liara explained that the change from blue to purple signified that the asari had developed into the matron stage of their life. Like puberty, minus the downsides, like zits.
If Liara really wanted to, or if she became pregnant, she could turn into a matron as well in a matter of months, no matter how old she was. She could either wait for the faze naturally, or trigger it early without any ill consequences.
This happens entirely by choice. An asari couldn't accidentally get knocked up. If that wasn't the case, then Shepard would have hundreds of little blue daughters by this point.
"These aren't sad tears, Liara." she explained as clearly as she could. "They are happy ones."
That bit of information caused Liara to suddenly pull back far enough to direct a confused look at her.
"That… makes no sense…" she stated as she started to calm down. "Why do you… cry when you are… happy?"
"I was laughing too hard." she clarified. This only succeded in making Liara tilt her head a little.
"Why would laughing make you cry?" she asked. "Do humans experience pain when they laugh?"
Shepard was going to make a joke and say, Only to my sides, but thought better of it in case that would be taken literally.
"No. I don't know why, but sometimes we just… do." she answered honestly. She was not a doctor. "I'm happy right now. And nothing you can do or say will make me upset with you." she followed the end of those words with a small kiss to the asari's blue lips before pulling back and looking at her.
The intimate contact made Liara's eyes close as her lips remained puckered, as if not realizing Shepard had pulled away.
When her eyes fluttered open to take in the view of Shepard watching her as she lightly bit her own lip, Liara's cheeks started to turn a shade of purple as a sheepish smile graced her lips.
She looked so beautiful at that moment.
Her body moved by itself as she gentaly pushed her back on the bed.
"You still didn't answer my earlier question, Taylor." Liara giggled as Shepard started to straddle her waist.
Liara's eyes suddenly turned black, allowing their minds to become one. Their feelings for each other made perfectly clear. Shepard could feel the reaction of Liara discovering her state of happiness and couldn't help smiling wider with those blue lips.
She gave the blue goddess a smile as she leaned down to kiss her on the lips again, and pulled away just long enough to say one sentence before continuing.
"I'll show you.")
A new wave of tears replaced the dried ones that had already been washed away as she looked at herself in the mirror.
Those glowing blue eyes of hers was the first thing she looked at. The next was her face with a faint scar that went from the back of her cheekbone and up to in front of her ear made her divert her eyes quickly.
Similar scars were all over her body. Even though they healed nicely, the fact that the scars were a lighter shade compared to her tanned skin made her want to hide them.
Other then the scar, she saw the signs of how she failed to have a nice eight hours worth of sleep.
Even though her eyes gave off a gental blue glow, they still looked exhausted while they started to become a little puffy, due to the memory she was thinking about while stepping out of the shower.
That was two days before the Normandy SR-1 was destroyed. When she… died.
She felt a multitude of emotions within her.
Sadness caused by Liara's absense, remorse for making the few friends she had attend her own funeral. She started to imagion what the scene must have looked like, and quickly started to push the thoughts away when she imagined Liara crying her eyes out while everyone was trying to comfert her.
She wanted to ask, but was too afrade to learn of the specifics.
She left Liara alone for two years… and she will never get those years to be with her back.
Two years!
Her biotics glowed, making the droplets of water dripping off of her suspend in the air as she looked up to her reflection. She looked into those, now firey blue eyes and hardly recognized herself.
Sure her face looked similar. Yes, she had the same hair. Yes, her voice was the same. And yes, she still had her momories.
But what she didn't have hit her hard.
She didn't have the one she loved most with her.
The waterworks started to flow freely as she watched the tears run down her lightly scarred visage. Her breathing started to hitch.
As she broke down, her biotics deactivated to let the drops of water fall to the floor as if it suddenly started to rain within the small bathroom.
She didn't bother to put on a towel as she walked into her cabin, the steam from the shower following.
Her form calapsed onto her bed. She didn't care if she was still dripping wet from the shower. And she didn't bother to pull her covers over her.
Instead she went into a ball again as she started to cry.
She left Liara alone… and she will never fogive herself.
Plague POV
"Damnit!" Plague shouted in his room when his hand was shocked by what rested on his workbench.
The offending piece of technology realy starting to get on his nerves. He had been sitting there since he ate with Kasumi, and was still there three hours later.
He looked at the measurements and schematics on his pip-boy with a constantly growing sense of iritation.
The schematic belonged to an average Tesla Power armor. He was trying to make a new set. One that didn't take as much space, and still provide the biotic boost Shepard ariginaly wanted. Although, after the last mission, he decided to give the power flow a little more… restraint.
"Come on. Don't be that way." he said quietly to the machine as his hand slid in between the wires as his other one held a welding torch. "No need for such hostility."
And with a satisfying click, and a small weld, he fell back into his chair.
"Finally!" he shouted, even though what he had just accomplished would be considered 14% of what he was trying to finish.
And once he realized that, he mentally groaned.
He may always need something to work on, but that didn't mean building was his favorite past time. Only a temporary necessity in maintaining his gear, and to make sure he was not getting sloppy.
He reached to his left and another piece of chacolate was placed in his palm.
"Don't over do it." Kasumi said jokingly as she ate a piece of the bar herself.
Plague smiled at her words, but he still devoured the sweet tasting treat.
He had heard about chocolate. Maybe read a few words in an old book, or a bilboerd covered in graffiti. If he wanted to describe the chocolaty delight, it would be if God abtained a physical body on earth, and threw every good tasting thing in existence into a pot, you would get chocolate.
He couldn't get enough of it.
"But, is it not my philosophy to avoid a catastphi so others would worship me, do to my wares given to humanity?" he rhymed poorly in a childish manner.
Kasumi paused to examin his words before she smiled.
"Poetry is not your strong point." she said before loughing a little at his atempt to make her lough… Which succeeded. "And for future reference, a poem does not need to be all rhymes."
He just gave her a shrug before putting the blowtorch down and turned his seat to her.
"Can't blame me for trying." he gave her a smile in return. When he saw her eyes his smile dropped a little. "You should go get some sleep. You look like you are going to fall over."
"I feel like it to." she mumbled with a small chuckle. Then she let out a small yawn as she stood up.
"Do you need an escort, Ms. Goto?" he asked as he got up when Kasumi started to sway a little.
"No. No, I'm good." she answered tiredly while gaining her balance.
"You sure?" he asked again as Kasumi opened the door to leave.
"Yeah." she then looked at his small smirk and smiled. "Goodnight, Adam…" Plague flinched when he heard his name, and he saw Kasumi's eyes widen when she realized what she said. "I'm sorry, Plague… I shouldn't have…"
"It's alright." he waved off her apology. "Goodnight, Ms. Goto."
Once she found out he was not mad at her, the smile reappeared as she walked out. He stood in the doorway as he made sure she got to the elevator.
A part of him didn't want her to leave, but maybe that was because he didn't yet meet his quota for talking today since he was asleep for most of it.
When the elevator doors opened, Kasumi looked at him again and gave him one of her trademark smiles.
"Kasumi." he called out before she could enter the lift. She looked back to him with a look of confusion, but still had on that smile. "Call me Adam."
Taylor Shepard POV
"What, Timmy?" she growled as she stepped into the conference room and stepped on the ring.
At least he waited until morning before checking in. She was not in the mood for one off his little speaches. Progression of humanity this. Humanity first that.
It took three tries for EDI to convince her to get out of bed and get dressed.
As soon as both of her feet were within the circle, the familiar holographic grid swept over her, followed by The Ilusive Man's office appearing in her view. Tim stood in front of her, taking a drag from his cigerate in front of that image of a star.
He ignord what she said and looked at her with a look of business on his face.
"Shepard - we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled on to a Collector ship beyond the Korlos system." he finished as he sat in his chair. Hearing the name, Shepard got series. But Tim's expressionless face still kept her on edge for some reason. "The turians were wiped out, but not before they crippled the Collector vessel." he then relaxed into his seat and crossed a leg, even though he was talking about something that held such gravity. "I need you to board that ship and get some hard data on the Collectors. Find us a way to get to their homeworld."
Shepard's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms. If someone wanted to guess if she reacted a little skeptically, they wouldn't be far from the truth.
"Hard to believe how a turian patrol could take out a Collector ship." the Normandy SR-1 was more armed then a turian patrol ship, and look where it ended up. They just barely appeared on the ship's sensers before the craft was almost ripped in half by the first shot.
Her memory of walking through the old CIC with a giant hole in the hull above her in the vacuum of space was not a plessent one.
Tim breathed out smoke before answering. "Reports indicate the hull's intact, but all systems seem to be offline. They could be making repairs as we speack. I'm not saying it wont be dangerous, but we can't let an opportunity like this slip by."
"The turians have to be wondering what happened to their patrol. Why aren't they already sending out a recon team to look for survivers?" she asked. It was not like the turians to just ignore one of their own ships dropping off the grid.
"They will. Eventually. But I intercepted the transmissions. In the mean time…"
"In the mean time…" Shepard interrupted. "… the longer you block that signal, the higher the chances are that any possible survivers are dying in their exscape pods, waiting for a rescue that will never come."
Tim exhaled smoke when he sighed in minor anoyence. "Which would make your hatse beneficial to them." he shot back in his calm, calculative tone. "Your close enough that you could be in and out before the turians learn the truth."
The force of Shepard's glare didn't waiver. "Are you sure this is good information?"
"Information is my weapon, Shepard." he claimed proudly. "It's good."
"Send me the coordinates." Shepard did not ask. She demanded.
This man lost all chances of being her friend long ago, so being rude was nothing to worry about.
"Already sent." he informed before she could start walking away. "Once you're aboard the ship, establish an uplink with EDI. She'll mine their data for information regarding the Omega 4 relay." the man instructed. "Good luck…"
"Stow it." the biotic interrupted as she cut the transmision. "Joker. Go to the coordinates he sent us."
"Already punched in, Commander." the pilot anounced. "Lets go find us a Collector ship."
Plague POV
Living on an engineering deck, one usually could guess who might want to visit.
For example, Jack barged in an hour ago in a fit of rage. Plague being her outlet, in a none sexual way, was not surprised when the biotic vented.
Apereantly she read something she didn't like.
Not the funnest conversation in his life. But it was not boring.
Every once in a while, he even got an occasional visit from that nice quarin girl. It was refreshing to have someone to talk to about engineering, who didn't talk three hundred mph.
Kasumi must have still been in bed, do to them staying up too late.
All of this thinking about those who normaly visited him was triggered by who knocked on his door and was standing before him.
"Ms. Lawson." he greeted with an expresion that bordered between curiosity and not caring.
She looked at him with her calm expresion as he felt as if he were being examind.
"101." she greeted as well, although it actually sounded more mechanicle. "The Ilusive Man wants to have a word with you."
"And I care, why?" he asked as he crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame.
"You should care a great deal, considering you are on one of his ships." she reminded.
That just provoked a chuckle from the man.
"Tell him I don't care if he shits golden bricks." he said rather blunty. "I am here do to my employment with, Boss. If he wanted to have any say in what I do, then he should have recruited me himself." he took a moment to see the flabbergasted look the woman gave him before continuing. "Shepard doesn't like him. So I don't like him. Understand?"
Miranda took a moment to collect herself before speaking. "I would recommend you reconcider."
Plague raised an eyebrow at the tone. It was calm, but contained a great deal of authority. And he hated people he thought they had "Authority" over him.
He is 101. The Plague of the Enclave. Killer of slavers and murderers. Castrater of rapists.
Maybe that last one was a little too much. Lets just say he was drunk one night and stumbled upon a slightly more drunk man trying to force himself onto a passing woman he dragged into an alley.
Back to the here and now.
"Fine." he replied as the room behind hims lit up like the fourth of July and left the room empty. "This should be good for a laugh."
His sudden compliancy took the woman off guard until she put that mask back on that Plague could easily see through.
The trip in the elevator was pretty quiet in his opinion. Sure, she threw him in to a wall, and he was just waiting for a chance to defend himself with deadly force, but that didn't mean they shouldn't be civil.
"So… Whats new with you?" he spontaneously asked the woman.
"I'm relaying a massage to a huminoid headach." she shot back in monotone.
"Owch." Plague gasped as a hand cleched his heart. "You wound me, my lady. What has thou done to provoke a woman's scorn?"
"For one: Your still talking." that actualy made him chuckle quietly. "Two: You are immature. Three: you have no respect for your betters. Four: You withhold a technology that could revelushinize the way the galexy works…"
"For humanity." he interrupted. "Yes. We have gone through this already."
Those were the last words said in the elevator.
Plague followed Miranda out when the doors opened, for predictable reasons, until they reached the door to the room they were looking for. Before they could open it, someone did from the inside and stepped out.
"Plague?" the woman said, partialy out of surprise.
"Boss." he greeted with a nod.
He wouldn't say it, but Shepard looked terrible. Bags hanging under her dimly glowing eyes. She looked tense and irritated.
It was then that Shepard seemed to notice the woman he was walking with.
"What are you two doing?" she asked as a small, almost unseeable, glare was aimed at the woman.
He could see it was not aimed at Miranda, but the front of her uniform. More accurately, the Cerberus logo.
That told him something Cerberus related just pissed her off.
"My "Friend" her wants me to talk to a mutual "Friend" or ours." he answered.
This made her eyes narrow in a look of suspition as she looked at Miranda, who remained unchanged.
"Is that so?" she then stepped to he side to allow Plague entrence. "By all means. You might need to redial, I'm afrade." she said that part with a hint of satisfaction slipping into her words.
That made Plague smirk.
Miranda didn't comment, but she did give the employer of the man next to her an annoyed glare before walking past her.
Plague was about to follow her lead, until Shepard stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Be careful with him." she warned. "You have not seen what I have of how Cerberus works. Nor have you been around long enough to hear of it."
Plague looked back at her with a look of understanding. There were not many people he trusted in this new world. And Shepard was on the small list of those he would listen to.
"Does this mean you believe me?" he asked curiosly as he looked over his shoulder to her.
That question seemed to mute everything around them until she gave him a small nod.
"I have no reason to distrust you." she then retracted her hand and started to walk away from the man, and stopped before she was out of view. "Plague." she called back before he could walk on. "There was… supposed to be a… light in the darkness." those words were filled with such sadness, that Plague felt as if his heart was gripped tightly. But that was not the whole reason for why he felt that way.
"How do you know?" he asked, a sliver of his rage at the memory of that void leaking into his voice.
She paused as if trying to contimplate what to say, and faced him with sad eyes.
"I… died to, remember?" that made Plague's eyes bulge. "Only diference between what happened to me and what happened to you, is that I was pulled out of that darkness a few seconds upon getting there." she let those words sink in for a few seconds. The longer he thought about it, the more his nails bit into his palms. "I may not have been there long, but every second of being there felt like torture. I was lost. I was confused. And I was alone. To hear you were there for years… is heartbreaking."
He was cheated. Punished for some unknown crime. Placed in that state of limbo for some fucking God to get his shits and giggles!
"Th… thank you, Shepard…" he rasped as he struggled to contain the inforno within him that was clawing to get out. "I needed to know, and hear, that."
"I'm sorry." she half whispered as she looked down at her feet.
"No. I am sorry for yelling at you last night."
"It's okay." she said as she continued walking, leaving the man to think about her words. "As much as I hate it, you don't want to keep Timmy waiting."
He gave her anather nod, even though she had already turned the corner, before following Miranda into the room where he saw the table was gone. Plague quickly realized it must have went into the floor.
The next thing he saw was Miranda standing on a large circle that had a holographic gridded pillar going from the floor, up.
Miranda was standing in the center of it and focusing on something he couldn't see.
Hesitantaly, he stepped into the light.
Elsewhere
Finding something to eat was an… interesting experience. She didn't know what was edible, what was poisoness, and sometimes, what was a plant and what was an animal.
That last one she found out the hard way.
You sit on a log to rest and get up when you hear a gurgle, just in time to see the green mossy large piece of timber become covered in quills as long as an average middle finger.
She didn't dare sit on anything but the ground until three hours after this discovery.
She saw a few of those birds, but didn't want to risk her plasma shot being noticed by her previous company.
She saw some things growing on a few bushes. Looked like small, slightly transparent, berries. They felt strange in the palm of her hand. Almost like the feeling of a smooth pebble. They looked almost like water droplets, with the way she could see through them.
She saw a small bird grab one in its jagged beak before flying off when it saw her trying to sneak up on it.
The woman braced herself, and popped the small plant in her mouth. And it was when she bit down on it that she found out it was a bad idea.
Extremely bitter could have been a good way to describe what made her cough and spit. Salty worked to. But both were a big understatement.
Her eyes began to water as she ran to the stream to wash out the putrid taste assaulting the taste buds on her tongue.
Clearly those were not meant for human consumption. Unless you got her REALLY drunk and dared her.
She must have looked pitiful trying to scrub her mouth out without the right necessities.
Even after thirty minutes of trying to get rid of the flavor, it was still on her tongue as a reminder.
six hours, and she still couldn't find anything edible, or catch anything. She didn't know how far away the Enclave camp was, so she was a little afraid to use the plasma pistol hanging on her hip.
She just was not fast enough. Her limbs still ached, her arm was still in a makeshift sling made out of a giant leaf and vines. The lack of anything but water in her stomach made her feel weak and tired.
And to top it all off, some of the small insects here apparently found human blood a delicacy.
At first she thought the wildlife was beautiful, but now… she saw them as a bunch of little bustards.
At one point, she managed to catch a small six legged lizard of some kind, to find out they liked to spit in the eyes of those who threatened it. The saliva didn't sting her eyes, but the small timeframe it took for her to realize what just happened was more then enough time for the reptile to wiggle out of her grasp and scurry under a bush covered in thorns.
It was already starting to get dark.
She gave up for now, and started to look for somewhere she could start a fire.
That place turned out to be a small cave, just small enough for her to lay in. it was surrounded by plants, and the entrance was covered in thick vines.
The natural camouflage was perfect. Thankfully nothing lived in there. At least not for a while.
In some parts of the ceiling she saw stalactites. Most were about a few inches, but the ones near the walls were much longer.
Making a fire with one hand was more difficult then she thought it would be. So she went without the warmth for another night. It was then that she realized, if she had managed to catch something she would have been forced to eat it raw. And with her gut growling the way it was, she wouldn't have argued much.
The hunger was at the point that whenever it growled, she felt the rumbling throughout her whole form.
She sat against the rocky wall, and faced the entrance. After being captured the way she was, she was not going to make the same mistake again.
Cliffhanger, I know. I hate it to, but it looked like a good place to stop.
Yes I am bending time and space by making the Collector ship mission appear earlier then when you play the game. Calm down potential flamers.
For the love of god, people. I understand there may be some flaws with the tech in the story from fallout, but what do you expect me to do? This stuff does not exsist, and the closest I can come to for specifics is from internet searchs. Now unless I have some magical device that helps me transcend the walls of reality and take notes along with a detailed sketches within a notebook, then there will be some things that don't fit.
And this is ! I can make all the tech run on ice cream and free hugs if I wanted to.
Now that I am done ranting about certain individuals sending me PM messages with colofull words in them…
Some of you have asked me what Plague's stats were, along with perks. The answer to this is a little complicated. When I made Plague, I envisioned a person who traveled through both of the events of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. So with that in mind, imagion your character playing through the first game. You level him efficiently. Speck some in repair to fix up the small and big guns you specked for accordingly along with some explosives handling experience. Medical training for exceptional results from stimpacks. Agility along with perception and bartering. And then you have some points in stealth and quite a few in meelee weapons.
With alll of those stats, it does not look like much. Dose not look like you pland on your guy being the "Heavy Weapons Guy" or the "Stealthy Solid Snake" person. But what you get is a character with something better then isolating yourself to one. Adaptability in any situation.
You use your minigun, and then suddenly spot a raider with a rifle aiming for a headshot on a cliff. What do you do? Do you aim your heavy weapon at him and spray the area with ammo ment to be used for mediam range? Hell no. You switch to a sniper rifle and blow his fucking head off with an anti material rifle. Beat him at his own game.
Now you might be able to understand my play style. Nothing is high, but it works. But then imagian getting that character you made, stats and all, and put him in New Vegas with the ability to level even higher then the original level limit. And speck him the same way you did in Fallout 3. Add 50 to your original 50, and you get 100.
And that is Plague.
Only thing I will ask this time is, does anyone know if there are any Self Inserts involving the final fantasy games? More accurately 7, 8, and 10?
Ohh… and have a good summer. Next chapter shouldn't take as long as this one did.