Chapter 35

Scar Tissue

Author's Note: Well the last chapter was fairly well received, good to know that people liked the scene with Roger, and now it's time for something a few people have been asking for a long time...ok just me but let's do it. Also, FUCK! my review of Parallel Realities got pulled. Was kinda worried that that would happen but oh well. I've still got a backup though, anyone got any idea where I can post it?

XXXXX

Roger groaned as his eye slowly fluttered open, blinking at the light hit it. He was lying in a bed in the Normandy's medical bay, his armor in a neat pile on the bedside table. Groaning, he adjusted himself into a sitting position, groggily rubbing his eye with his organic hand. "The Hell happened?" he whispered. He sat there for a second, thinking, before all of the memories of what happened came rushing back.

"Jesus Christ the Rachni, they..." he started before trailing off. He looked down at the sheets covering his body and saw two legs stretching out over the bed. He did not feel a sudden burst of hope that everything had been a horrible dream and that he still had his leg, for he had once gone through a situation very similar to this once before. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the covers and ripped them off.

He looked down at his legs and let out a tired and sad sigh. While one of his legs was normal, the one that had been bitten by the Rachni wasn't. It was now dark black, the same dark black that his cybernetic arm was. For a moment, he stared at his new leg, at a lost for words.

"Oh good, you're awake." Roger looked up to see Dr. Chakwas approaching him. "I had to step out to get some more supplies from the cargo bay. Are you ok? I'm sorry but," she paused, "you needed a replacement limb and...it's procedure to replace amputated soldier's limbs with cybernetic-Roger what are you doing!?"

Roger grunted as he swung his legs off of the bed and attempted to stand up. So sooner had he done so, he overbalanced, falling forward and nearly smacking his head on the wall. Chakwas rushed forward and was barely able to catch him as he fell. "You haven't adjusted to your new leg yet!" she chastised him, pushing him back so that he was sitting on the bed. "You should know this, you need three days worth of bed rest so that the nerve endings can have time to stabilize, and even then you're going to need a week of physical therapy to get used to the differences between it and your old leg!"

Roger didn't reply, simply looking down at his cybernetic leg, a dead look in his eye. "Look, I've been with the Followers a long time, you're not the first person I've met that's lost a limb. I know it's tough, maybe I should get Kelly down here to talk to you. I-" there was a knock on the door. Chakwas turned around and saw the door opening, Ashley walking into the room, a bottle in her hand and two glasses in the other. "Oh, Ash, what is it?"

"Thought I'd check up on him," Ashley said, walking towards Roger's bed and sitting down in the seat next to it, setting the glasses and the bottle on the bedside table. "Thought that a little drink could help."

"Don't go overboard with it," Chakwas said cautiously. "And make sure he stays in bed. I need to run and get Kelly." With that, Chakwas walked away, exiting the medical bay.

"So, why are you really here?" Roger said, a growl in his voice, but a rather weak one. "It's to rub it in right? The dirty Moriean shock trooper had to be saved by the knight in shining armor right?"

"I came here to have a drink," Ashley said simply, uncorking the bottle and pouring the bright orange Batarian ale into both glasses. "That and ask you a couple of questions."

"What kind of questions?" Roger asked, sounding rather hostile.

"When I got you out of that tunnel, you looked surprised. It was almost like you didn't even think it was going to happen. Also, I helped Chakwas get your new leg out of the cargo bay and...well I found this." She produced a photo and spread it out on the table. It was of Roger with his arms around a blonde woman in armor, smiling at the camera. "I can't help but notice that in this picture you don't look like you're completely unpleasant to be around, and you don't have your cybernetic eye." She looked at Roger inquisitively. "Come on Andrews, you're hiding something. What is it?"

Roger's teeth grit in anger as he glared at Ashley, feeling as if he was about to scream. The seconds passed by slowly, and as they did, the facts slowly pieced themselves together in the back of his mind, one at the forefront. Ashley Williams had saved his life. He deflated, all of his anger seeping out of him as he slumped back against the post of the bed, looking defeated. "That woman...she used to be really special to me."

"Girlfriend?" Ashley asked, taking one of the glasses and handing it to Roger. He hesitated before taking it and gently sipping it.

"Yeah."

"Did something bad happen to her?" Ashley asked, picking up her own glass and taking a gulp.

"I sure as fuck hope so," he growled.

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "Not how most people talk about their significant other."

"How do I explain this?" he asked, rubbing his eye. "My eye and my arm? I didn't get them because I thought they looked pretty, I got them because of what that bitch did."

"I'm listening."

"I was in the Earth Reconstruction Project," Roger explained. "They had offered double salaries to people that volunteered to try and get more people into the program. My little sister was in a car accident and we needed a lot of money so that she could walk again, so I signed up to chip in. Two years of service later, and my family and I had raised enough cash, she got an implant that replaced one of her vertebrate. Three months and I would finish up my tour on Earth but-" Roger shook his head, sighing. "Everything went to shit."

"You lost your arm and eye," Ashley said.

"Yeah," Roger said huskily, draining the last of his glass. "I was in South America, and apparently when the NCR was expanding and clearing out their territory, feral Deathclaws migrated to get away from hunters that were picking the, off. I was on point to clear out a group of raiders when one got the jump on me. I lost my arm and eye before I was able to kill it, but even though it completely ignored them and went straight for me, that bitch and the rest of the squad was gone when I was done. I had to crawl all the way back to the nearest Coalition base by myself with a missing arm. They abandoned me, they never checked up on me, they didn't fucking care that they were supposed to cover me, and that their fuck up made to that I'm 30% metal."

"So that's why you're so hostile all the time," Ashley said. "You have trust issues."

The anger from Roger's face vanished as Ashley drained her glass before picking up the bottle and refilling both of their glasses. "That's one way to put it yeah. I mean if I couldn't count on that bitch to cover my back then who could I trust...and then you pull my ass out of a swarm of Rachni, even after all the shit that I gave you. Why?"

"Because you're Coalition soldier dumbass. You're a complete and utter asshole, but I'm not about to let a friendly soldier get torn apart by giant bugs. That's why I went down there, that's why we all went down there."

"Huh. And I thought that you were all talk," Roger said, chuckling weakly as he lowered his head. "Everything I said and in the end I could count on you more than I could count on her. Christ I'm a fucking piece of work." As he spoke, a single tear emerged from his eye and slid down his cheek, another one following it soon after. "Seems like no matter what I do I just end up making things more of a mess."

"Well. Maybe you should think about letting go."

"What?" he asked, looking up, tears still silently streaming down his face.

"This woman, she hurt you, I'm not going to debate that, but you're letting her rule your life. If you act the way that you do because of what she did, then you're trapped in the past, trapped by what one woman that wasn't as great as you thought she was did. You need to let go if you ever want to move on with your life."

"Easier said than done," Roger said softly. "I just, I don't know. You can't really just drop something like that and say 'everything is ok now'. But when the alternative is me letting her fuck up ruin the rest of my life, well, I supposed I don't have a choice. I'll try. Thanks Wi- I mean Ashley. You...you didn't deserve the crap that I gave you."

Ashley gave a small smile. "Don't mention it. Just do me a favor and try to be a little nicer to everyone else."

"I'll do what I can," he said honestly

"And cut down on the swearing."

"Ok, you're asking miracles now." Both of them laughed. "Hey...can you give me that?" he asked, reaching out for the picture.

"Sure," Ashley said, handing it to him. "Why, what are you going to do?"

"What you told me to do." Roger said, holding it out in the palm of his cybernetic hand, adjusting the dial on the side. A small spark emerged from his palm and immediately the picture caught on fire. "I'm letting go." He held the burning picture in his hand, watching at the fire slowly spread across it, disfiguring the image until it had been reduced to nothing but a charred mess.

"Well, good," Ashley said as he reached for his drink again and downed it.

"Listen, thanks for everything Ashley. The Commander is damn lucky to have someone like you behind him. Sorry I was such an ass."

"No problem," she said, getting to her feet, picking up the bottle and the glasses. "Well, I promised I would share this with John and I don't want to use it all up in one go. Anyway I really should check up on him. We'll talk some more later." She turned and began to walk towards the door, but as she did, it opened revealing Tali and Sheryl on the other side. "What are you two doing here?" Ashley asked in surprise.

"Uh. I um," Sheryl said nervously. Tali gave her a gently smack in the back. "Tali wanted me to come down here and check up on Roger, I didn't want to but she forced me. And we might have eavesdropped a little and-" she gave a reluctant sigh. "Roger, can you and I just talk?"

"Yeah, no problem," he said, looking rather surprised.

"Thanks," she said, sitting down in the chair that Ashley had recently vacated.

"I'll be off," Ashley said, exiting the medical bay, the door closing behind her. "Gotta say, I didn't think he had a side like that."

"You don't really sound that upset," Tali said

"Don't get me wrong, I'm sad that he had to lose a leg, he already had way more cybernetics that the average person should be forced to have...but I'm kind of glad that he's not so much of a jackass anymore."

"So would you say that you respect him now?"

"Yeah," Ashley said, smiling slightly. "I'm kind of glad that the two of us can actually talk now. Did you know that he's a big brother? I didn't."

"So you respect him. Interesting." Ashley blinked. Even through her mask, Ashley had a pretty good feeling that Tali had a massive shit eating grin on her face.

"What is it?"

"Oh nothing. So when are you going to kiss Garrus?"

"What are you talking-." Ashley began, stopping as she remembered something that she had said to Tali back on Eden Prime. Her eyes widened. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hell no Tali, I'm not doing that."

"Oh? I could've sworn that you said that you would keep your word?"

"We'll talk later," she said gruffly, walking off. Tali, determined not to be outmaneuvered to easily, ran after her.

XXXXX

"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!? Jane had to fight back the urge to wince. She, John, Garrus and Benezia were standing in the Normandy's COM room, holographic images of the Council floating in front of them. "You unleashed the Rachni? Without consulting with us first!?" Sparatus shouted "Did you even stop to consider the consequences?!"

"With all due respect Councilor," Jane said calmly, forcing herself to keep her voice level, "we had a limited time to make a decision, and we made the choice that seemed appropriate with the information that we had."

"That decision happened to be releasing a race that has committed genocide on the galaxy as a whole," Valern said. "I fail to see the logic in that."

"Benezia joined minds with the Rachni Queen," Garrus said defensively. "Something affected the Rachni back in the war, that's what made them attack."

"People lie when backed into a corner Vakarian," Sparatus growled. "The Queen lying about the Rachni's intention when starting the war wouldn't be the first time someone stretched the truth to save their own hide."

"She wasn't lying Benezia hissed. "I saw something forcing her to order her children to their deaths, even when the Krogan started their counter-attack. She was telling the truth. Besides, she promised to live in isolation and peace, not to attack any other races out of revenge or spite."

"Are you certain of this?" Tevos demanded, starting at Benezia. "Are you sure that the Queen wasn't able to trick you somehow?"

"I would like to think that someone as old as myself would be able to tell the difference between a false memory and a real one," she replied coldly. "Besides the Queen had spent days in isolation, she struck me as weakened and weary. She wasn't in peak condition and I doubt that she would've had the energy to trick me."

"Even if that is true, that still doesn't change that you had no right to made that decision!" Sparatus shouted. "Unleashing a race that powerful? The Council made that decision long ago, and it ended with the Krogan Rebellions. Even if your intentions are good when you do something like this, that doesn't mean that it will be impossible for it to backfire on you one day. Perhaps the next Queen won't be as merciful as this one. Perhaps the Rachni will respond violently if any alien ships get to close to their borders. There are too many variables to consider to reach a conclusion in mere minutes."

"No offense, but I get the feeling that you would find the negative side of whatever we did," John pointed out. "Somehow I feel like if we had killed the Queen, you would be getting on our backs for committing genocide."

"You can act like you're the victim as much as you want, but that doesn't change that even if you were completely right, what happened today is going to have massive political repercussions," Sparatus argued. "The galaxy is a very dangerous place and the Council is one of the few things acting as a beacon of unity, but it is dependent on the species that make up its ranks for stability. If one of the more powerful races or several of the lesser ones become disillusioned with it and leave, it could cause political turmoil. The three of us need to act as leaders for the Council, and if they become dissatisfied with our decisions, the Council could collapse. Did you not think about that? Benezia? Vakarian? Did you not think that a Council Spectre and an Asari Matriarch helping one of the deadliest races that ever lived go loose would affect us? We are already under massive fire for Saren's attack on Eden Prime, two incidents like this in a row could be disastrous for all of us, even the Coalition."

"Yeah, we thought about this," Garrus said softly. "And you know what? Politics is already just a giant mess, power is constantly shifting from one person to another, the oppressed of one day are the ruler of another, and the mightiest of powers one day are the lowest of the low the next day. I don't really worry about upsetting politics that much, it seems to do a pretty good job without my help.

"To answer your other question, yes I did think about the consequences to all of this. I knew that there were some risks, but I also knew something else. The Council has survived a Hell of a lot worse than this. The've survived the Rachni's first appearance, the Krogan, the rise of the Geth, and the appearance of the Coalition. Despite them researching into artificial intelligence and the Hierarchy's brief war with them, the Council remanned politically stable. It has endured before and it will endue again."

"Perhaps," Valern said skeptically. "But it would be foolish to suggest that no political fallout would originate from this. There will be repercussions because of this, and they could be massive. We will expect your full report on this within a day. We are not done discussing this."

"Also," Tevos said, looking at Jane. "Captain, it would most likely be for the best if this was kept a secret from the general public. There is already panic caused by the return of the Geth, the Rachni would only make it worse."

"I agree," Jane said as the holograms of the Council disappeared.

"Well, I think that that went as well as that it could have," Garrus groaned, rubbing his eyes. "And in order to get them off my back I'm going to have to write up a pile of paperwork to keep them from lighting my ass up."

"I never did like dealing with them," Benezia growled, "they were always so stuck up and stubborn, it was like trying to reason with a group of particularly obnoxious Maidens."

"I'm just glad that we were able to walk away from Noveria with everyone still alive," John said, looking slightly pale. "I mean...we just fought the Rachni. They're not really well known for leaving survivors...right?"

"Correct," Benezia said. "They were rather thorough in destroying any resources that could be used by the Council. Unfortunately they saw people as a resource. Once they landed on a planet, they didn't stop fighting until either they were all dead, or every last thing on it was dead."

"Oh...well good thing that we...yeah," John said, looking around uncomfortably. "I just...I think I need some water." Without another word he turned and walked away.

Garrus blinked and looked at Jane. "Is he ok? He's usually a lot more light hearted."

"I don't know. I'll talk to him. You might want to get Benezia's help in writing that report of yours, it should help to minimize the backlash," Jane said, walking out after John. She managed to catch him at the galaxy map, gripping the railings tightly. "Are you ok?"

"Frankly I should be asking you the same thing," John said. "How...how can you be so calm right now?"

Jane cocked her head slightly. "Why? What's happening?"

John let go of the railing, turing around to face her. "In case you didn't notice, Roger Andrews is currently missing one of his legs," he said, his voice rather soft. "It...it was me who let him go down into the tunnel. I had to make the call and I just did it like it was nothing, I actually kind of thought that it was actually kind of a relief that I wouldn't have to put up with him swearing like a thirteen year old for a little. And then we got on the COM line saying that he got ambushed and...oh Christ." John rubbed his forehead, turning around and looking at the galaxy map. "I really messed up."

"Compared to how bad things could have gone, everything turned out rather all right in the end. Roger's tough, he's gone through this before, I know that he can pull through this in one piece."

"I know," John hissed, "but he shouldn't even be in this position in the first place, my job as a Commander was to keep him safe and I messed it up."

"You asked why I'm so calm about this?" Jane asked. "It's because when I was given command of this ship, I realized something and I accepted it. I can be at the very top of my game, triple check every strategy that I come up with and have the very best luck in the galaxy and be the greatest commander that the galaxy could offer. If I had all of that, I would still loose people under my command. Maybe I would make a mistake, maybe the enemy would be able to outmaneuver us, maybe one of them would get a lucky shot in. The point is John, we're soldiers, and the very sad, very real truth about soldiers, is that there's a good chance that we'll die."

"The very best that you can do is make sure that the deaths under your command are as few as possible and that they mean something in the grand scheme of things. Expecting to go through your entire military career without loosing a single person is just overly idealistic. Getting upset over it is understandable but...it's reality John, and I have a bad feeling that both of us are going to have to face it one day. A person getting injured because of what we ordered is one thing, them getting killed is a whole other thing all together. Physically wounds are temporary in most cases, but death isn't."

"I...what the Hell am I supposed to do? I'm not...I'm not sure that I can handle that."

"All you can do is give it your all, do the very best that you can. You certainly did that today little brother, Roger might be missing a leg, but if you had been just a little less suburb, he would've lost a lot more, he might have even died down there. You can't just beat yourself up for something like this. You're a great Commander John, I'm proud of you, and so is Mom." A grin spread across her face. "EDI scans all transmissions in and out of the ship, I saw that letter that she wrote you. She was practically glowing, and she had every reason to."

"I...thanks sis," John whispered.

Jane smiled before walking forward and giving John a brief hug before pulling away. "I think you should go find Ashley and crack open that bottle that you bought her."

"Yeah...yeah...I'll do that," he said, turning around and walking away, giving a brief wave to his sister as he went.

"Never thought that he would have a moment like that of all people."

"Captain," EDI said, her avatar popping up by the galaxy map, "may I have a moment of your time?"

"What is it?" Jane asked, turning to look at the A.I..

"The Salarian that you took captive has stabilized, but is currently unconscious. He is in the brig currently. What is more, the data from the Peak 7 lab and the omni-tool that Matriarch Benezia recovered is encrypted with Geth code. It will take some time to decode it, even if I do it personally."

"How long?"

"I suspect at the very least a week. I may be a synthetic, but so are the Geth. Breaking their code will take time, and it is unlikely that your captive has much information on Saren."

"So, you're saying that for a little while the trail has gone cold?"

"Yes, it is unlikely that you will be unable to do much to accomplish for objective until the data is decoded."

"Great," she said dryly. "Any suggestions on what to do until then?"

"I estimate that within seventeen days that we will exhaust our fuel supply. We are within no danger of being stranded, but it wold be wise to refuel. There is a Coalition colony two days away from our current location, Demeter, a farming colony with several refueling stations in orbit. I suggest that you dock over the planet to refuel and resupply, and until we have a new lead. Besides, one of your main combat operatives requires physical therapy. Studies show that a peaceful, environmental setting is soothing to many and helps recovery."

"You're suggesting a week of shore leave?"

"Your crew did just fight the Rachni, a week off seems like an appropriate reward."

Jane chuckled. "All right, set a course there. Matriarch Benezia is going to be sticking around with us for a little bit, but I imagine that she'll be leaving soon, as soon as she can charter a shuttle back to Republics space. Still, a little bit of a time with her daughter would be nice."

"Very well, I will tell Joker. I will advise him not to, as he put it, 'pick up some hot chicks' while we are there."

Jane grinned. "You do that."

XXXXX

Saren held his head in one hand as he sat at a metal table, a glass in his right hand, a bottle of Turian brandy not that far away. "Saren?" he looked up to see Rana approaching him. "Are you ok?"

"I...no," Saren said, lifting up the glass and draining in a single gulp. "I had the Geth on Noveria send constant transmissions for me. I've been going through them," he said, gesturing to a datapad on the table. "The Coalition stormed Peak 7. The Rachni are probably dead right now. I'm still looking through them though," he said, pressing another button on a datapad, causing audio of gunfire to play.

"How...how many did you have?" she asked, looking at the bottle.

"I'm not sure," he said groggily, looking down at the empty glass, "I've lost track. It helps a lot."

"But...I thought that sacrificing the Noveria team to buy yourself some more time was your plan? Isn't this what you wanted?"

"It is...but that still doesn't change that it hurts. I put months upon months of planning into Noveria, the Rachni could have powerful enough to destroy the entire Coalition by itself. And...I had to throw them away like trash, just to cover for my mistakes." He reached for the bottle of brandy, pouring himself another glass.

"You probably shouldn't drink that much," she said warily, "too much will cloud your judgement."

"That might be for the best," Saren said, lifting up the glass he took a gentle sip, "my judgement has not been particularly impressive as of late."

As he looked down at his glass, voices continued to play on the datapad, voices of Matriarch Benezia and a Krogan. "Listen to this," he said, gesturing to the datapad. "Benezia is talking to the Rachni Queen about setting her free. The Rachni may very well take the Coalition's side when we finally make our move. I-"

He trailed off at the recording continued to play. "The sour yellow not came...came from a strange device on our homeworld. Many of my mothers were contaminated...they...they killed those that weren't."

Saren had been lifting his glass to take another sip when his hand came to a stop. Slowly, his fingers slackened as the glass slipped through his hand, shattering on the ground, the brandy soaking the floor. "Oh Spirits!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet.

"What?!" Rana shouted as Saren staggered and caught himself on the table.

"I...when I first found Sovereign one of the...the scientists said that it had a device that was capable of controlling the mind's of organics, but...but it was not functional. I...I thought that it would be the same with all of the other Reapers, that if they did have the same technology that it wouldn't work. But...but it sounds like the technology on the Rachni homeworld WAS Reaper technology and if it indoctrinated them, then...oh Spirits, the sites that our teams are at could still have working indoctrination technology!"

"Wait a minute, are you saying that-" Nana began.

"It's a possibility! When was the last time we had a report from all of the teams!?"

"Uh, two weeks ago. You told them to keep contact to a minimal so that we wouldn't have to worry about being traced."

"That changes right now, I want all of them to report in, I need to know that the Reapers that they've been working on haven't indoctrinated them. Once they've reported in that they're all right, send them schematics of Sovereign showing them where the indoctrination technology is. If it looks like it might still be operational, I want them to rip it out of the ship and throw it into the nearest sun. If the Rachni Queen wasn't able to resist it, we can't take any chances, for all we know the process could have started with us already! Get the Geth to look at the Reaper out there too, make sure that it isn't-" Saren trailed off, staggering backwards under the influence of the alcohol in his system.

"Saren, you need to sit down!" Rana shouted, "You can't be walking around like this, much less be giving orders."

"I...I need to...if my men get indoctrinated, it could ruin everything," Saren muttered as Rana gently pulled one of her arms over her shoulder, leading him to a bed in the corner of the building that we were in. "I can't rest right now, I have work that I need to do."

"If you were to try and do anything important right now, it would probably end up doing more harm than good. You're not thinking straight right now, you can't make a call in a vital situation with the same sharpness that you can normally do."

"Rana...please," Saren whispered as she gently helped him into the bed, "everything that I said, having the Geth examine this ship, the reports...please take care of that. Everything could depend on it."

Rana smiled gently. "Don't worry about it, I've got it under control. Just get some rest. You'll have your reports from your teams in two days at the very most. Now get some rest." He watched as she got to her feet and walked away, exiting the building.

Saren sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, his mind still fuzzy. 'Desolas would be disgusted with you right now,' he thought to himself. 'Getting drunk like this, a high ranking officer like yourself. It's so unprofessional, even if you lost one of your major assets.'

A rather uncomfortable thought occurred in his mind. All of the commandos that had betrayed Matriarch Benezia and pledged their allegiance to him were now dead. Most of them had been killed the second that Benezia had learned that her daughter was safe, the rest of them had been assigned to Noveria and Peak 7. Now that the Coalition had raided the lab, all of them were dead, because he had cut them loose and used them as bait.

But that was not what disturbed him, or what had driven him to drink. He was mainly upset over the loss of the Rachni and that what was had caused him to pick up the bottle. What disturbed him now that he had time to sit and think, was that he didn't feel anything towards the commandos that had died under his command, he wasn't angry, he wasn't sad, he felt completely indifferent towards the women that had sworn to follow him and his cause, the cause to protect the galaxy from one of the greatest threats that it had ever known, and he simply didn't care that they were all dead because he had sacrificed them.

'Maybe I can't think straight with all of the brandy that I drank," he thought to himself. 'Yes...yes what would certainly make sense. If I was sober I would feel something." Those words sounded rather hollow to him now. While he was definitely far from sober, he had been coherent enough to realize what the recording of the Rachni Queen had meant and give Rana instructions on how to respond to it. He was far from completely drunk, he still had much of his senses around him.

'It...it could be that I've just accepted that it's going to happen,' Saren thought to himself. 'Yes...yes that makes sense. Everyone fighting with me knew what they were getting into when they joined me, they know how dangerous the Coalition was. They knew that they wouldn't all walk away from this alive. They knew that this was going to happen...that's why I don't feel upset, they knew what they were getting themselves into.

Smiling to himself slightly, Saren relaxed into the bed, his muscles slacking. However, as his eyes slid shut, he felt a rather unpleasant gnawing feeling in the center of his stomach, as if his body was saying something completely from his thoughts. It was a long and unpleasant night for Saren

XXXXX

Author's Note: There was an announcement for Halo 4, the infection gametype is being reworked, instead of gray ninjas with energy swords, you are...the Flood...the Flood...you can control the Flood in Halo 4...to quote Fry from Futurama, SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! Well, in other words the Halo play through went rather well, I'll post the link when it pops up. So in other words, this chapter was dedicated to things cooling down and some character development, please tell me what you think. Sorry about the long update time, but you know, college and all that.

Also, there's something kinda random that I want to talk about. I went out and bought a PS2 after friend came over and seduced me with Persona 4. I went online and starting watching videos about it, and without spoiling anything for people who haven't played the game, there's a certain quote in it "those that actually succeed in life, they just happen to be born with the magic ticket called talent." As many in game characters and commenters pointed out, that is complete bullshit.

Life doesn't quite work like that, if you have talent you succeed and if you don't you bag groceries your whole life, it doesn't work like that. You need to apply yourself to things, be willing to put your all into it, you can't just give up when you start to meet resistance. Now you're probably thinking "well that's easy for you to say, you churn out stories hundreds of thousands of words long, you're on the TV tropes fan fic recommendation page, you ARE talented." To which I say, yeah I guess I am talented...but I wasn't born this way.

When I started writing back in my Freshman year of high school...I freaking sucked. My chapters were only a thousand words long, my characters were flat, I had no idea what the word "flow" meant, my plot with a joke and I was literally making the entire thing up as I went along. Four years later, I'm much, MUCH better, and do you know why? Because I kept at it, I learned from my mistakes and I honed my craft. It wasn't easy and I've still got a long way to go, but it's a path that I don't regret taking. After all, you know the old saying. If it's easy, it's probably not worth doing.