"Geez, I know I'm not the best driver, but this is the first time someone's actually shot at my car." I joked.
Garrus and Miranda were unable to reply since I'd put them in stasis and put up a barrier around myself so I didn't have to try dodging the gunfire...the downside being that I'd have to pay for the car, but I had credits to spare.
"And he puts it down for the perfect tenpoint landing." I quipped as I set us down, letting the others out of stasis.
"That's it- I don't care what happens, I am never getting in a vehicle where you are driving, ever again." Garrus gasped.
I activated the visor as I got out of the car, and Miranda activated hers as well as she stepped out. "At least you wore the armor instead of the catsuit." I commented to her as we walked towards the mercs.
The leader motioned for the others to lower their weapons.
"Since you're not firing yet, I trust you know who I am."
"Yeah, they said you'd be in the car. You're the bitch that kidnapped our boss's little girl."
"Kinda agree with you on the bitch part, but you're totally wrong on the other part." I said, trying to decide whether to try the psychomancer on him...Moral hang ups aside- which aren't really apparently there for me, another sign I'm a nutso- I dunno that I could. Conrad wasn't exactly strongminded, and in this case I probably have reality warping conspiring against me.
"Kidnapped? This doesn't involve you, I suggest you take your men and go...and Bourne, I *appreciate* that you're helping me, but you make it rather difficult to do so."
"You think you've got it all lined up, huh? Captain Enyala's already moving in on the kid- Niket won't be helping you."
"He's the one who hired you?"
Miranda turned to look at me with disbelief. "Don't be daft Bourne-"
"He did." He confirmed. "He told us he didn't want anybody hurt, and nobody will be unless you do something stupid."
Or unless I take the renegade option and...well, probably wouldn't snap his neck so much as crush his head with my robot hand or shoot him in the head, but same principle.
"And I'll give you fair warning- the captain's not as polite as I am. I've seen her tear people in half with her biotics, and she's getting paid a lot for this."
"So, when I do that, do I just think it was easy cause I'm that good?" I asked Miranda like I was unimpressed and didn't see him as a threat...which was somewhat true, actually.
"Captain Enyala ordered us to give you one chance to walk away, but this whole time we've been talking, my men have been lining up shots-" He stopped, and his eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets as he looked down at the knife sticking out of his chest.
"Too bad I had that lined up long before you opened your mouth." I kicked the blade deeper, knocking him onto his back, and kept my foot on his corpse as I fired the dreadshot at a crate above the merc's heads, destroying the lift holding it up and dropping it on their heads. The one Salarian that was left had his jaw drop before Garrus put a bullet through his head.
"I see your negotiation skills are as blunt as ever." Miranda said, putting one last bullet into the merc she'd gunned down before popping in a new clip.
I pulled the blade out of the leader's chest and put it back in my boot. "Niket betrayed you- he didn't know about your sister, so odds are he's a bit...misguided, wants to give her the chance at the the life you chose to run away from."
"He can't have betrayed…" She cut off at the look I gave her.
"Whether he did or not is immaterial- if the captain's already moving in, we need to get to the family before she does." I walked towards the elevator, picking up a dropped radio on the way and patching into their radio frequency. "I've already been shot at, so that just makes me want to kill your bastard *father* even more- but since that's not an option, I'll settle for screwing him over with this."
"I don't suppose I can get an explanation at some point?" Garrus asked.
"Kill mercs now, explanation later." I said as I hit the elevator and the doors shut. "Cargo processing yard is our next stop- need to cut through there. Lot's of movement, so time your shots."
"...I took down a gunship with a sniper rifle, I think I can deal with conveyer belts." Garrus said flatly.
"Yeah, well that same gunship also made your face even uglier, so I thought maybe I should point it out." I snarked back, grabbing the Mosquito from my back and readying it for explosive tripmines. "Opposition shouldn't be too bad though."
The doors opened, and I blinked as I took in the scene, then sighed. "Jesus H Christ, you'd think by now I'd have fucking learned not to tempt fate like that!"
"Our beef's with him. You two wanna leave, you can go ahead." Slade said, readying his gauntlet, several layers of defense already active.
"Or you can be stupid enough to try helping him." Isaac cackled, spinning his sword around next to him.
Jennifer was in front of them, chainsaw-sword in one hand, biotics flaring around her other.
"And if you fight with him, you'll share his fate."
"As much as I dislike him-" I Garrus in stasis with a wave of my hand, and Miranda with another.
"I get the feeling they wouldn't have listened if I told them to stay out of it either." I said, faking a calm I didn't feel.
"You barely survived-"
"Yeah yeah, you guys collectively have handed me my ass on a platter, I get it." I crossed my arms. "Can we at least postpone this until her sister is safe?" I gestured to Miranda with my head. "That whole deal is kinda messed; more so since us of all people oughta get a good sense of what that was like."
"...Uh, can one of you fill me in on that one?" Jennifer muttered.
"Genetically engineered, father was a bastard, wants her genetic twin back." Isaac muttered back.
I cocked my head to the side, then looked at the two behind me, and moved them into the elevator, hitting the button to send it back down.
"So funny of you to fake like you care about them." Slade laughed.
She didn't know about Oriana...and they know about Iron and Hero...they're definitely keeping her locked out of the loop...but to what extent?
"Last time you beat me, you caught me by surprise, and took away the biotics." I caught a flash of motion and instantly fired the dreadshot at it, destroying the restraint they sent flying towards me.
It also let Jennifer catch me off guard with a biotic charge, knocking me against the door, and pinning me there with an arm. "Maybe this time I'll cut out an eye...or I could just end it here."
"If you do that, who's going to stop the Collectors from kidnapping Jacob's son on Praggia?"
"Shepard can handle that much by herself."
I let out a Nova, knocking her back, and teleported to a support beam above them. "Yeah, I just spliced together like four or five actual things into a big lie."
I jumped clear as Isaac's drone fired a rocket at me, using one lash to swing to another beam, and the other to grab an explosive barrel and hurl it at the pair. Isaac scrambled for cover while Slade just tanked it.
"So, either I'm not the only one with memory loss-" I jumped backwards off the pillar into a teleport as Jennifer charged at me, ending up behind Isaac and putting him in a chokehold. "Or you never played this series...or both."
Isaac activated his omni-tool, and I drove my knee into the fork of his legs, lifting him higher and stunning him further. "Any of you make a move and I can break his neck. And if you stall, the lack of oxygen will kill him for me."
"I could send this through both of you- wound him, kill you, patch him up later." Jennifer said, throwing her weapon in the air and holding biotically.
"You could, but my reflexes are enhanced. Even if yours are the same…50-50 shot I'd kill him before the blade hit, or that you'd kill him with that thing too. You wanna risk that?"
Her face was hidden behind the helmet, so I couldn't tell what she was thinking...but the blade stayed where it was.
"How do we know he wouldn't kill him anyway?" Slade pointed out.
"You don't. But are you willing to sign his death warrant?" I locked eyes with her.
"...He's got the advantage." She lowered the weapon to the floor biotically. I brought it to me as I released Isaac, letting him gasp for breath, before grabbing him by the throat with the robotic arm, holding the weapon that'd given me said arm in my other hand. "This thing's got a handy little adjuster for how strong the grip is. So at any moment, it can be strong enough to crush metal. Imagine if you will what'd happen to his his neck." I glared at her. "You know, since you cut off my old hand, had to get a new one?"
"Guess we're at an impasse." Jennifer growled.
"Technically yes, but it's more that I've got the hostage and you don't. You could kill me, but that'd also cause the prothestic to tighten around his neck." I bluffed. "Meanwhile, if I kill him, you're both out for blood more so than before, and it's two on one. So really, it's-"
"Now who's stalling for time." Slade cut me off, looking at the elevator behind me.
"I just want some answers." I said, which was more honest than most of what I'd said thus far to them. "Memory loss is kinda a bitch."
Isaac's omni-tool flared around his arm, and I stabbed him through the hand with a knife from my boot without taking my eyes off the other two.
"So am I." Her biotics glowed dangerously.
I gave her a flat look. "You cut off my fucking arm; I don't need to be told you're a bitch. What I would like to be be told, Slade, is why back on Omega...I believe your exact quote was 'even with one third the power you're a force to be reckoned with'." I tightened my grip around Isaac's throat very slightly. "And he said something about thinking 'the other two were dead', when I had the red biotics, and mocked me by calling me-"
"Yeah, your perfect memory is annoying like that. What's your point?" Slade didn't seem worried, or else he was a good actor too.
"My point being, I think you knew about Iron and Hero from the beginning, and kept her out of the loop."
"You're still trying to sell that insane story?" Slade scoffed. "She told us about that- I knew you were crazy, but I didn't think you were a complete idiot."
"I'm not crazy!...I mean, I might be now for other reasons but I'm right about Iron and Hero having been in my head!...and there's also the PTSD, and that was before you cut my fucking arm off...Wow, is this how Iron always felt when he said something stupid and it just got stupider and stupider as he kept on talking?"
"...Yeah, he's clearly a source you can trust." Slade said sarcastically, and Jennifer nodded agreement, though neither made a move since I still had Isaac at my mercy.
"Did you get dropped on your head? Why would you ever trust everything someone tells you?" I blinked at the sudden odd flashback, but shook it away and continued. "I'm betting you weren't kept together the whole time."
"Of course not- they kept us separated."
"And how did you escape?" I looked at Slade. "I'm betting one of them, or both of them, got out before you did, or broke out of their cells and helped you from yours."
"He's stalling for the others to show up." Slade suddenly said. "If Zaeed or Arkangel get into position they can kill us both with-"
"Jennifer, who else on the team were snipers?" I cut him off, putting him in stasis...and then kicking myself for not trying that before.
"What do you mean?" She backed up slightly, now that the odds weren't so in her favor.
"What planet was Legion recruited on?"
"...Uh…"
I dropped Isaac and put him in stasis as well. "You never played through the games, did you?"
"Don't try to-"
"Answer the question, or I'll cut his goddamn head off." I said, moving so I was holding the chainsaw to Isaac's throat.
"...No. I watched Mike playing it, but I only played multiplayer with them every once in a while."
"So you don't know all the details...and they obviously do. If they're keeping those from you, what else could they be hiding do you think?"
I could tell she was hesitating.
"If this whole thing is some misunderstanding, or they tricked you into it...even if you do kill me, you'll never be sure it wasn't like that, will you." I took a step towards her, away from Isaac. "They could be just manipulating you."
"I guess you'd know- you've manipulated Raptor into trusting you."
"I saved her ass as many times as she's saved mine- if it's manipulation it's the benign kind." I shook my head. "No, I know the difference. I've manipulated plenty of enemies, so I know what is and what isn't. But I'm thinking you don't. And I don't think you could live with that uncertainty that you can't fully trust them."
"I've learned to live with plenty."
"No. You've learned to survive with it. Surviving, and living, those are two different things."
"Don't act like you know what we've been through since you turned on us!" She flared her biotics, and I set myself for a fight. A warp field suddenly hit her right in the head, dropping her barrier, and she flinched to the side, right before a bullet to the head would've taken her down for good.
"Damnit!" She teleported, and I was on my guard as I waited for her to come back. Slade suddenly warped out of my stasis field, and threw something at Isaac's to detonate it.
It knocked me off my feet, also sending the other triad member into Jennifer's arms as she teleported in and teleported out.
Slade mock saluted me before she grabbed him, and both were gone again.
"Bourne! Are you alright?" Garrus yelled at me as he and Miranda ran towards me.
I looked at the spot where Jennifer had been, clenching my fist....I thought for a moment she might've been convinced...might've… I swore loudly in Prothean as I slammed my fist into the door of the elevator, and it went right through up to the elbow. "I should've killed Isaac when I had the chance!"
"Do you think they'll be back?" Garrus asked, still looking around the area.
"...I don't know...But after this...I think we need to talk." I locked eyes with him, as my left arm went to my upper right. "I found out a feoww!" I looked at my hand. "Holy crap, that is a strong grip." I dialed it down as I released it.. "Come on- good news is it looks like they cleared the mercs out again."
"And it looks like she left this behind." Miranda said, picking the chainsaw-blade from where it'd ended up on the floor.
I motioned for her to toss it to me, and caught it from the air with some help from my biotics. This thing sliced off my hand...I should want to destroy it...but it could be useful...I hit a button on the side and it collapsed to a thin cylinder about 7 inches long. I stuck it onto my belt. "Come on- let's go deal with this Enyala person...I hope they didn't kill her because I really want to kill something now."
It only took us a couple minutes to get to the elevator, since they'd done us the favor of killing all the mercs for us.
"...Do you really think Niket could have-"
"Did he know about Oriana before now?"
"It was...rather recent."
"I'm going hold to my earlier statement." I set my jaw.
*You know how I said helping with her sister would help you?*
I forced myself not to look around the elevator, or react at all- my shoulders tensed for a minute, but I managed to make it look like I was stretching.
*If you could save Niket as well...reality warping might work against you, but it's worth at least trying.*
The doors opened before I could even decide to reply or not and she vanished.
Enyala took one look at us, and hefted her giant shotgun. "This should be fun."
I aimed the dreadshot at her, biotics flaring around that hand, as Garrus and Miranda took up position on either side of me.
The asari dock worker took one look and ran- I put up a barrier behind her as Enyala aimed at her back, earning me a glare from the captain.
"Niket." Miranda said flatly. "You sold me out."
So, did she just come around to realizing it was true, or did the reality warping do something?...Oh, wait:I don't care right now.
"I'm just going to say this once. I am seriously pissed for various reasons, so you so do not want to fuck with me." My biotics blazed red. "This is the only chance you get to walk away."
"Niket doesn't get to walk away. Why Niket? You were my only friend- you helped me get away from my father!"
"Because you chose to, yes. If I'd known that you were stealing a baby-"
"She didn't steal her. She rescued her." I spoke before she could, slowly sliding Jennifer's chainblade into my right hand, finger on the button that would activate it.
"From a life of wealth and happiness? You weren't saving her, you were getting back at your father!"
"From what I know about him, she should have put a bullet in his head to get back at him- he got off easy." My fist tightened around the hilt at the thought of Sanctuary.
"Then why didn't she tell me?" He pointed a finger at her. "I deserved to know after helping her! I deserved to know she was with Cerberus! Instead I heard it from her father first."
"Come on Niket- let's just finish this bitch off and get out of here." Enyala moved her shotgun towards her.
"Take your best shot." Biotics flared around her off hand.
"I was just waiting for you to get dressed- or does Cerberus really let you whore around in that outfit?"
"This is her modest one- you oughta see what she wears outside of combat." I couldn't resist the dig. "But seriously-" I activated the chainsaw, and the hum it made was menacing, almost unholy; Either it had been changed since she'd used it on me, or I'd been too out of it to hear it before. "You want to take a girl away from the only family she's ever known, give her to a...thing who only cares about her as an investment." I aimed the dreadshot at Niket. "Let's just say I take that sorta thing...personally."
I suddenly sent a knife from my boot into Enyala's gun, then ripped it from her surprised hands into my own robotic one and squeezed, crushing it beyond use, then dropped it on the floor. "So tell me- since you and her father know, we need a new solution. Suggestions?"
"...He doesn't have any information on Oriana. I knew she had spy systems in her father's systems, so I kept it private. I'm the only one who knows."
"Which means you're the only loose end. This isn't how I wanted it to end Niket-" I moved my hand to block her shot, though the dreadshot was still kept so I could fire at either of them.
"Miranda, we both know you'd just regret doing that later."
"My father will still keep looking for Oriana."
"Yes, he will." I lowered the left hand and flicked the chainblade into it, gesturing towards him with the right. No idea if this threat'll do anything, but it's worth a shot. And since she's missing her shotgun...still might want to put her in stasis. "Which is why Niket is going to lie to him. He's going to tell him you got here first, and he doesn't know where Oriana is. If he does that... that'll be the end of it. I will not look for him, I will not pursue him." I pointed the end of the blade at him. "But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."
"I will! I will!"
Miranda nodded after a moment. "I never want to see you again Niket."
I put Enyala in stasis before she could even try to do something.
"Now then, I suggest you leave so you don't get blood all over you from what I'm about to do." I walked towards Enyala as he sprinted away.
It wasn't much of a surprise when she warped out of stasis, nor when she charged at me. I was slammed into the wall, but she'd slammed right into the chainblade, putting it through her stomach.
She gasped as she realized this, and I yanked it to the side, cutting through flesh, armor and bone as she dropped to the ground, already unconscious from blood loss, and sure to bleed out in minutes if not seconds.
"Let's wrap this up." I stepped over her towards the rest of the mercs, sending my S-17 into my free hand, blood spraying from the chain-blade. Some were smart enough to run. The rest...the new weapon got a workout.
Miranda looked at the ground as they got into the elevator, Bourne grabbing something from ontop of a crate nearby without even looking. "You know, you'd think they would've started running after I sliced their boss nearly in half. But instead only the last one runs, and shoots at us as she runs?"
"And she missed completely too." Garrus commented, popping a new heatsink into his gun before storing it on his back.
"Yeah, that too." He looked at Miranda. "So, what's the plan now?"
"...Cerberus can handle the relocation from here- without Niket." She shook her head. "How did you see his betrayal coming when I didn't?"
"Just because we have genemods doesn't make us perfect."
"That's the first thing you've said today I've agreed with." Garrus commented.
"But I let it get personal, and I screwed up." She turned to face him. "And letting Niket go- you should have just let me kill him, make sure he doesn't…"
"He'd be crossing you, and me. I get the feeling he has more self preservation instincts than that, and you can't pay a corpse." He uncrossed his arms. "And I could tell, you still care about him, regardless of what happened." She thought his eyes turned color behind the visor, but she was at the wrong angle to be sure.
"I guess I do...something my father used against me. It's always been like that- everything he did to or for me, it was all some long term plan, always an ulterior motive."
"...So why go to the Illusive Man? How is what he does different?" She turned back to look at him, and he was looking at the ground, a hand on his chin. It seemed like the comparison had only just come to him.
"He's looking out for all of humanity, not just himself."
"Then-" Bourne cut Garrus off with a wave of his hand. "Let's leave the arguing for later and make sure Oriana is safe."
As they got out of the elevator, they didn't see any sign of the Eclipse- not that she was surprised, considering the carnage Bourne had inflicted. The survivors would've warned anyone else to get as far away as possible.
"I'm guessing that's her over there?" Garrus nudged her, and she followed his gaze. She tried not to show any emotion on her face as she looked at her. She looked exactly like Miranda had at that age, minus a different haircut and fashion style.
"Yes...she's safe. With her family."
"Not all of her family." Bourne said, glancing at her.
"...We should go."
"Was that more subtle than I meant to be?" He sighed. "I mean that you should go talk to her, introduce yourself."
"The less she knows about me, the better."
"She already had mercs after her without knowing about you."
"...Was that supposed to convince me?"
"Yeah, I can kinda see now how that could go either way." He shook his head. "Look, all I'm saying is that if she knew she had a sister that loved her, how would that make things any worse? It would make you feel better, that much I'm sure of."
"It's not about my feelings, it's about what's best for her. She's already got a family, a life, and I would just complicate that."
"If you share the same DNA, that means she's probably as smart as you. She'd adjust pretty quickly, I wager. You don't have to tell her everything- I think mentioning you're a technically a terrorist is a bad conversation starter- but like I said, what's the harm in her knowing you exist?"
"...I…"
"Miranda, one thing my genemods gave me more of than you is stubbornness. If you can't think of any other good reasons to go over there, it'll shut me up. And more than that, I think we both know you want to." He patted her on the back. "Go on- I'll make sure Garrus doesn't drive off without you."
"...Okay." She slowly walked over, for once in her life not quite sure what she was going to do...though she knew she was either going to thank Bourne for this, or strangle him.
And though that was how she normally felt, for once she had the feeling it would be the former.
(So, looks like there's only one question...how much is that because we forgot to remind them, and how much because it's a stupid idea to do question chapters?)
T117: I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it was Spike's idea.
)So, favorite moment in recent gaming history?(
T117: Three words. Sword. Of. Crota. It does not matter how many times I play that mission, it will never not be awesome...and I guess the Raid too.
)Great. So now what do we talk about?(
(Ooo, he has some bad news, can I deliver it, please please please?)
T117: No, you'll just turn it into some joke about me being lazy or something.
(...So? You'd probably make it too.)
*Ugh, I'll do it. Starting Monday, chapters are going back to one a week for the foreseeable future.*
T117...Yeah. This is chapter 35, I'm maybe a third of the way through 42. Caught up to my buffer. And I'd rather do one a week than not have a chapter at all one week because I couldn't get it done in time, or because something else came up.
*You do know one chapter a week is still more than many other stories on the site, right?*
T117: I know, but I've gotten used to a schedule. Makes it easier to motivate myself if there's a deadline, even if it's an arbitrary self-inflicted deadline.
You wrote that last bit with Miranda onto this chapter just because you thought it was too short as it was. As in, directly before you started writing this A/N.
T117: I'm still posting it on Thursday Night/Friday Morning, aren't I?
...I am a product of your mind, and yet I have trouble following your logic.
T117: Hey, Iron's from my brain too, and I don't understand where half of what he says comes from.
(Isn't it from a transfer of ions between nerve cells?)
)I don't think that's what meant.(
(Sure it was.)
T117: I'm just going to end this and post the chapter now.
(Later suckas.)
*I should go.*
)I'm outta here.(
Farewell.
T117: Sayonara.