Twenty-Eight: Damage
Omega was a broken, twisted station. Not just because of the inhabitants' morals—the structure itself looked like a petrified jellyfish, its metal frame dripping downward like the tentacles of some long-forgotten sea beast.
For once, Mara would agree with Miranda—she felt like she needed a shower too. Standard decontamination couldn't remove the filthy stares people shot her as she walked the streets and tried to keep her head low. She could stand the way the vorcha hissed at her, the way the asari dancers seemed to wave her into their world. She was even strong enough now to resist the pull of the junkies that lined the streets, bottles of pills and empty needles clutched in their cold, trembling hands.
But the station was hideous. Too hot in some places and bone-achingly cold in others. The air was bitter with the smell of rancid food and alcohol. If someone had died, the body was left until someone came along who cared. Maybe they didn't care about the deceased and just wanted the streets to be a little less crowded. Nobody cared on Omega.
The rest of the galaxy didn't matter here. If anybody desired to leave, the ability was crushed within a week. Thieves, liars, con men, and "protection agencies" bled every traveler dry. Mara was lucky her bank accounts were frozen.
Aria, the self-proclaimed queen, was no better than the rest. She could handle herself, sure, but she was rotten and twisted to the core, just like her "kingdom." Mara knew the asari wasn't worth it. The whole station wasn't worth it. She didn't care who she could pick up there; she'd probably pick up twelve different diseases by the time she found her potential crewmembers.
It was even worse in the quarantine zone. Bodies were in the streets, left to rot and burn; mercenary groups were shooting each other down across entire sections of the district; humans were trapped in their houses for fear of going outside.
But then, there was the doctor.
Mordin Solus, the genius—according to the Illusive Man. After hearing Mordin ramble for five minutes straight, counting the words she understood on one hand only, she believed it.
He needed a cure for the plague. A suicide mission in its own right, storming into vorcha-infested territory.
At least it isn't batarians, Mara thought. The dying one outside had cursed and spit at her, and yet she'd not felt the fear from Mindoir closing her throat.
Was she getting better?
Maybe being in that heaven—which was slipping from her mind too quickly—had actually helped? Maybe she was recovering. She needed more, of course, but she'd had so much help before that perhaps she hadn't noticed how much of an improvement she'd made. She would no longer run in fear of batarians or slavers. She would realize that Mindoir was then and she was living now. She would fix herself.
She would fight. And if Mara Shepard could fight, she could win.
A.N.: I really like this chapter. It was originally much, much darker than it is now, if you can believe that. It's finally warming up, and the next chapter ends with *gasp* fluff! Okay, it's sad, post-upsetting-experience fluff, but it's fluff nonetheless. And after that chapter, things should finally be on the up-and-up with my dear Mara! I'm definitely wanting to write some happy!Mars. She deserves it! She should make a pie or something.
At any rate, it's an early upload because I couldn't wait until tomorrow since I just finished the next chapter, and I'm really looking forward to some feedback and likes/dislikes about this chapter as well as the next. It isn't a double upload, but I'm just so excited that I hope I've piqued your interest about next week's too!
-Gairi
(P.S. I'm going to start "signing" my notes again because why not? Also, there will be news on my profile page sometime within the next week. Hopefully, I'll have my first blog up and running, so if you like the way I write, be sure to watch for that. I'll be talking about original stories, characters, my life in general, and some other fun goodies you won't get unless you check that blog out! I'll post information about it as it happens, so keep an eye on my profile page!)
