Sonata: Sezefine
DISCLAIMER: Bioware owns Mass Effect. I take no credit or part in such except for this story. Inspiration of this story goes to theorangeguy's 'Saren's Effect'. Jennifer Hale is a real life person. Same goes for Mark Meer. These are merely fictional representations, and do not reflect the actual opinions and personalities of said persons.
Chapter 37: Sonata, Senza Fine
The Vanguard, Unknown System, Nemean Abyss, April 8, 2183 1503 Zulu
"You drag our life
Without a breathing moment
To dream
To be able to remember
What we have already lived.
Without an end
You are a never-ending moment
You have no yesterday
You have no tomorrow
Now everthing is in your hands...
Large hands
never-ending hands.
I don't care about the moon
I don't care about the start
You for me are the moon and the stars
You for me are the sun and the sky
You for me are everything
All that I want to have
Never-ending...
Never-ending...
My time moves slowly
Gliding across the veil of my nude soul
If I should cross the border you made for me
Maybe I would not be here.
But now what sense does it make
To try and embrace a more pristine past?
Looking forward I will take the risk
But I'll finally find answers to my why's.
All that you will be
Has already been written
If He truly exists
This God has failed.
Every word pronounced
Will be the mirror of your pain
Reflecting the blame
Feeding the hate.
I'll choose my destiny
If I'm able to resist.
I am still standing in this moment of pure madness
I don't know anymore if I should desire good or evil
although sin maybe gives me more.
Now what sense does it make
To try to resist a written destiny
I'm not going to sit back and watch
without trying to resist you.
Waking me up
Wake me up
I'll choose my destiny
If I'm able to resist.
Waking me up
Wake me up
There's no life without me
There's no choice without me."
The Exemplar stopped singing softly and began studying the vidmonitor with electric blue eyes as she sat upon the Throne.
She watched the vid that was captured from the Alliance Forces Network, a recording that played in front of billions of viewers over Alliance Space, and undoubtedly Counsel Space as well. She played it from the beginning and watched it through its entirety several times over, always looping it back to the start, to see the great spectacle that was captured by the machine race, the signal easily intercepted and collected, rerouted to the location of the great vessel. She had been watching it for hours.
Humanity finally had a SPECTRE, and her name was Jennifer Hale.
Commander Jane Shepard lounged upon the Throne, ignoring the burning sensation that seared in her veins and crawled through her mind, fighting for her last portion of self to see what her adopted sister had accomplished. Star of Terra winner. Counsel Agent. Surrounded by friends and family, applause and cheers. Shepard remembered when that was her, once; a previous life. Seeing Jen there, raised to a height even greater than her own, filled the Commander with a fierce pride that the Vanguard was trying to interfere with.
"I love you, Jen." Jane whispered, her hand going to the holographic screen, breaking the image as she tried to to the image of her sisters' face, to reconnect with the woman she had adopted as a teenager, whose hand she held through pain and sorrow. To think that Jennifer Hale was where she was today because of Jane... who would have known? Who would have guessed that the Daughter of Mindoir would one day be Humanity's First SPECTRE? Now she was at the center stage of the entire galaxy, with all eyes on her, the leader of their very race, the only one of her kind. Humanity didn't deserve her, but there was no doubt in her mind that her sister would do them proud, anyhow.
Unfortunately, they were now enemies.
"She looks well." Doctor Liara T'soni spoke softly, standing beside the Throne, looking upon the vidmonitor with red and teal eyes, though her voice was still her own... for now. "She has much to be proud of, Jane. As do you."
"Not for much longer, I'm afraid." Shepard sighed as she shut off the loop, the screen disappearing into the frame of the monitor, now a hollow shell. "It is only a matter of time before her vision makes sense to her and she speaks to someone smart enough to give her a direction or destination. Jen has made a career being on the offensive, and being a very successful underdog. Any other opponent I could have gutter-stomped and splattered across the Briars like a rotten tomato, but her?" Shepard went silent, placing her chin on her fist as she rested her elbow against the Throne. "She would have easily been my equal, before the Vanguard. Even now, she may stand a chance. She is relentless, a crusader that will never give up. Sometimes, I really and truly wonder if there is indeed a God, and He looks over Jennifer Hale. A lesser being would have been killed or committed suicide long ago."
"While we may never know the answer to that particular question, we are not without our own crusaders." The Protheantologist reminded Shepard, who nodded slowly. "The subject is finally ready, Shepard, despite her persistance stubborness. A warrior of her caliber is rare, and now that she is Exalted, she is more than capable enough to handle anything thrown at her. Including Humanity's SPECTRE. It would... be less painful for you if you were to delegate this to her."
"I know. I disapprove, but you are correct." Jane sighed as she looked over to the subject in question, seeing the being impaled upon a spike, the nanocytes that flooded her system converting her, exchanging her organic tissues into something different, something more. She was still mostly organic, but now there was a network of microscopic wires and machinery running through her organs and systems; musculature, skeletal, skin, lymphatic, respritory, circulatory, and nervous. She was improved, perhaps three times as effective as before, and she was by no means something to scoff at before. With over five hundred years of combat and hunting experience under her belt, the subject was the perfect candidate to ensure their success by removing Jennifer Hale from the equation. Even a serious injury would do.
But Shepard had something else in mind.
"Use this." The Commander handed a sleek pneumatic round that held inside of it a small slurry of metallic liquid, able to fire from a Heavy Pistol, to the Protheantologist. "Awaken our subject and give her the memories she needs to complete her mission. Perhaps in a week or two, Jen will no longer be our enemy, but our ally."
"Nanocyte round?" Liara asked, seeing Shepard nod her head. "You would convert her to our cause? You were leery before."
"That was before my sister became a SPECTRE in front of God, the Alliance, and the fucking Counsel of Three." The Commander replied darkly, disgusted. "She could garner too many allies, forcing our hand, denying us avenues. If we can discredit her and gain her to our cause, she would be very valuable to us. It... it would be good to have her by my side again." The redhead whispered to herself, though she knew T'soni heard. "The galaxy has shit on Jen again and again. She shouldn't be the one that finds herself the forefront of resistance against the Kin. I don't want her to shoulder that burden, to become some sort of desperate messiah fighting against the coming storm of this Cycle. She... she doesn't deserve that Liara. She deserves peace. We can give that to her. Awaken the hunter."
Liara moved to the subject impaled upon the spike, her cyan-colored hand touching aquamarine skin, the very fine scaling of Asari flesh almost easy to miss, even amongst their own kind. The spike lowered to the pod it extended from as the naked Asari fell to the ground, unconscious but breathing as the Protheantologist placed a gentle hand upon the Matriarch's brow, her teal eyes going dark as the redness of her corneas remained.
"Embrace oblivion!"
Shepard watched as the Asari Maiden transfered memories to their subject, an Asari that Shepard herself had captured some months before. The Matriarch had been a handful, and as good as advertized; Thessians had legends about her kind, and they weren't unfounded. Such a prize would be wasted on a mere exchange to something so simple as one of the Exchanged, so Shepard had the subject turned into one Exalted; advanced, enhanced, filled with the Influence yet still cunning enough to think like an organic. The subject shook as Liara gave her the necessary memories, and when the Protheantologist was finished, the Matriarch slowly opened her eyes, sapphire eyes that began to fill with red, the Influence taking her over. The subject stood before them, unabashed about her own personal nudity, looking upon the Exemplar that sat upon the Throne; her master.
"Exalted, I have need of you." Shepard spoke, turning on the vidmonitor once more, freezing an image of Jennifer Hale. "Find me this woman, and shoot her with this Nanocyte round." Liara gave the round to the Matriarch, who looked at it for a mere moment before nodding. "I must warn you, this woman is a danger to our plans, and while I prefer she be on our side, kill her if no other option is likely. Can you do this, Justicar?"
"It shall be done." Samara replied.
BOOK I, FINE
A/N: Senzafine (roughly translated from Italian as 'endless' or 'never-ending', and the song itself is translated from the same language) is by Gino Paoli.
Senza fine (also, 'Endless' in Italian, as is the song) is by Lacuna Coil, KarmaCode's special edition album.