Author's Note: Got another fun chapter for you guys. This is one of my favorite missions, so it's a bit of a long one. but well worth it. Thanks for sticking around, and welcome to all my new followers, thank you for the favs.
Enjoy! R&R please!
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As they exit the lift both Shepard and Kasumi are shocked at the sheer size of the room they've entered. Massive does not do it justice.
"No wonder his private island is so big." Shepard quips as she walks among some of the artifacts scattered around the room on pedestals.
Kasumi runs up to every object and gasps in shock, "Look at all of this!" She exclaims. "I can't believe all that he's gotten a hold of."
Shepard hardly listens to her as the largest object in the room catches her eye. "That can't be…" She breathes out softly. She's staring the head of Lady Liberty in the eye.
Kasumi gasps once more, coming to stand by Shepard. "No way."
"I think it's a yes way." Shepard remarks, stepping close to read the plaque that is placed in front of the artifact.
"I can't believe he has this." Kasumi whistles, "I want it."
"It's not what we came for, and besides, how would you fit that on the Normandy?"
"I'd find a way." Kasumi muses.
"C'mon." Shepard grabs her arm and tows her away. "How are we going to find the grey box in all of this?"
"I might be able to track it. Give me a sec." Kasumi pulls up her omnitool and begins to mess around on it. Shepard looks around some more at some of the other artifacts. Amazed at his collection, she whistles.
"Ok, got it." Kasumi holds up her omnitool, a circle of a tracker has a blinking dot ahead and to their right.
"Following you." Shepard mockingly waves Kasumi to the lead.
Kasumi smiles and follows the tracker through the myriad of artifacts, some big, others small, and all varieties of things. "Here, we're getting close."
Shepard looks over the artifacts around them, there are various guns and tech equipment around them. She smiles, walking over to a section of omnitool adaptors. "Apparently he doesn't limit himself to ancient artifacts."
"That's not what we came for." Kasumi smirks at Shepard, quoting her.
Shepard scowls at Kasumi but steps away from the tech. "Alright. Where's this grey box?"
"Right here." She whispers, stepping up to a small black box with a short grey wire coming out of it.
"Wait…" Shepard tries to stop Kasumi from reaching for it, a hair's breadth too late. As Kasumi touches it, alarms begin to wail out. "Damn it." Shepard swears, both at the alarms and at the spike of fear they raise in her, those echoes of memories creeping in her mind, raising hairs on the back of her neck.
Kasumi quickly pockets the grey box and looks back towards the lift, echoing Shepard's swear as the doors snap shut, the lock turning red. "Shit, sealed in."
"And sealed in is where you'll stay." Hock's voice comes across the coms in the room.
"You woke up quick." Shepard says smartly. "Next time I'll be sure to use more."
"Oh, there won't be a second time, Shepard." His voice is cocky, full of confidence.
Shepard is shocked, "How did you find that out?"
"I suspected as soon as I saw you. A moment's quick net search, it was not hard to find a recent picture of you. I must say, you have certainly changed in the two years you've been gone. It's no matter, you're both mine now."
Shepard scowls deeply. "I am nobody's. You should do your research better, many have tried." Shepard watches Kasumi as she moves around the room, looking for an escape. She knows she needs to keep Hock busy talking.
"Many have tried, I'm sure." His voice is still cocky. "But I'll be the first to succeed. Do you honestly think you'll get out of this situation? As we speak, my men are converging on the vault to subdue the both of you. I'm not a fool."
Shepard looks to Kasumi, and nods almost imperceptibly. There's an out, if there's a way in for the guards. "You are a fool, Hock. You're a fool that's gonna get what's coming to you."
"You'll be down before my guards even get to you." Hock laughs at them. It doesn't take long for them to find out what he means as gas begins to flood the chamber from vents high above.
"Shit…" Shepard swears softly, she runs over to where Kasumi is, beginning to dig through her pack. "Please tell me you packed breathers." She hisses at Kasumi.
Kasumi's eyes go wide as she shakes her head. "No…"
Shepard opens her mouth in shock. "What? You think of sedatives, but not breathers?"
"I didn't think we'd need them! It was supposed to be in and out." Kasumi exclaims.
Hock laughs over the coms, "Face it, you've run out of tricks Shepard. Surrender now."
Angry, Shepard stands up. "Not gonna happen." She keeps an eye on the fog of the gas as it slowly comes down. "There's got to be a way out, if there's a way in for the guards. Split up, search the walls." She whispers to Kasumi, keeping her voice low so the coms won't pick it up.
Kasumi nods and crouches low as she goes to the nearest wall and begins to scan it, going over every inch carefully and quickly. Shepard repeats her actions, searching for any cracks in the walls, any slight indentations to indicate a doorway.
Nothing appears to either of them. They meet at the middle of the far wall as the gas begins to settle down around them, causing both of them to cough and breath shallowly.
"Face your fate Shepard. You've lost." Hock's voice torments her as she fights not to succumb to the gas. Kasumi is already slumped against the wall, Shepard slams her fist against the wall in frustration. There has to be an entrance here, somewhere. She takes one last deep breath, fighting to stay conscious as the gas fills the room and her mind. An idea comes to her, she feigns falling against the wall, holding her breath even as it causes black spots to dance across her vision.
As she hoped, the moment she slumps to the ground, a set of doors hiss open near her to the right. She hears the stomp of boots as she closes her eyes, her hand resting on her omnitool. She lets one of them lightly kick her, seeing if she's out. Once she hears all the boots stop moving, she can guess they are in a semicircle around her and Kasumi. She carefully presses a command on her omnitool. It releases her drone to appear behind the guards. She blearily opens her eyes, blinking back the fog as she sees the guards turn to face her drone.
She kicks out as hard as she can at the back of one of the guards legs. As he goes down, she pushes herself off the wall, using the last of her strength to pin him down as she wrestles his breather off his face. She hits him hard across the temple with it. As he slumps unconscious, she shoves the breather in her mouth, taking gulps of much needed clean air. It only takes a moment for her head to clear as the gas begins to leave her system.