Tali gasps at her captain's suggestion. "What do you mean we have you?"
"Listen," Ashley explains, "According to Yin, Madeline watched her boyfriend die when the Alliance hit their base. She'll want to get even, and what better way to do that than by killing me?"
"Two problems with your idea, Williams," Garrus points out saracstically, "First of all, we can't actually let them murder you. And second, they're not going to trade you for Michael, so what exactly is our plan? Just give you to them and hope for the best?"
"No, I think that Ashley is on to something," Liara says coolly. "If they were willing to let her onto their ship, it would create an opportunity we might be able to exploit."
Shepard can't believe that her wife is saying this. "Liara, they're only going to let her onboard so they can slaughter her," she protests. "We can't give them any more hostages."
"Damn it, I know it's a risk," Ashley snaps back. "But do you really expect me to just sit here and wait for them to murder my fiancé?"
"You know I could not do it," Liara says firmly to her bondmate, "If it were you in such danger."
"I know," Ashara admits. Liara worked with terrorists and risked her own life to get her back after the Collectors destroyed the first Normandy. Shepard shouldn't sell Ashley's feelings short just because she's worried about her friend. "All right," she agrees, taking a breath, "But we're going to have to be smart about this. We can't just send you over to their ship to get shot. To start with, I'd really rather you didn't go unarmed."
"Wouldn't be smart anyway," Wrex concurs. "If she shows up with nothing, it'll make the enemy suspicious. But if she's armed, than they might think that's the whole plan."
"Of course, she will probably need help if this is not to be a suicide mission," Liara points out.
"Hey, I can take care of myself," Ashley protests.
"I am aware of that, Ashley. But there is a reasonable likelihood they will have rigged the ship to self-destruct. If it appears you are going to succeed in rescuing Michael, then they will destroy all of you instead. We would need someone to go along with you to disable any such mechanism.
"I agree, Captain," Magnus says. "If Maria was still here, we could send her. Her tactical cloak would give her a reasonable chance of getting in undetected."
"Well, since she's not, what about Varek?", Garrus suggests. "He was good enough to get away from them at the bombing site."
"I don't know he's up for it," Shepard worries. "He did have the stuffing blown out of him a few hours ago. But he may also be our only chance. Nobody else could get proficient enough with his cloak in time to pull this off."
"Then let's talk to him," Ashley says. "I don't know him that well, but Michael trusted him, and that's good enough for me."
"All right," Tali agrees. "Now we just have to make sure that these bosh'tets go along with this plan."
Michael grimaces in pain as the knife slices along the soft skin of his cheek before coming to rest just below his right eye.
"Now," Madeline growls, her voice low and dangerous, "What was the name of the commanding officer of the raid?"
"The Illusive Man," he spits. "Riding a fucking Reaper."
The knife cuts again, just below his eye, another star of bright pain in a constellation of it.
"Where was that loyalty when you betrayed us to the Alliance?" She slaps him and blood splatters on the floor as the mad sound of her laughter echoes through the cargo hold. "Where was that loyalty when you let them do this to me?"
She brings her face close to his, the scars seeming to pulse red with a malevolence all their own. "You know how long I can go without letting you die." She smiles cruelly, clearly relishing the prospect. "You'll break eventually. Why not give me what I want now?"
Because I don't have it, he thinks. He actually does know who the commanding officer was but that's it. She wants names he can't give, and his only chance of staying alive long enough for Ash to find him is to not let her know that. He's got to have faith in her. His fiancé is as tough and determined a person as he's ever met and she's got quite an assemblage of talent with her. If anyone can find him in time, it's them.
"Fine," she grins. "You want to take the long way there, I'm not complaining." She twirls the knife between her fingers, tossing it up above her head. For an instant, he's transfixed by the gleam of the blade and then her hand shoots out, viper quick, plucking it out of the air and slamming it down into his leg. In spite of himself, he screams, agony raw in his throat as Madeline twists the blade into the wound.
She pulls the knife out of his leg, and her eyes run up and down his body, clearly deciding where to cut next, but before she can make up her mind, she's interrupted by the buzzing of her omni-tool. "Eric," she barks into it, "I thought I told you not to disturb me."
"I know that, but I think you'll want to make an exception. We're being hailed. By the Normandy."
"This is Ashley Williams. Who am I talking to?"
Ashley's not sure what to expect from the other end of the com, but she doesn't like what she hears. The voice that crackles into existence, Madeline she assumes, sounds unhinged, filled with a rage that makes it hard to hear anything else in her words.
"To the person who's holding your little boy toy, so if you don't want things to get a whole lot worse for him, you'll back the fuck off."
"Not going to happen." She has to keep firm here, and remember the line she and the rest of the team agreed on, starting with pretending that this psychopath might be willing to negotiate rationally. "Unless you want the Normandy to destroy your ship, you're going to give me back Michael Bennet."
"I've gone to way too much trouble to do that," she laughs. "The only way I'm giving him back right now is in pieces, and if you don't turn your ship around, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Where do you think I should start? His hands? His eyes?"
She fights to keep the visuals out of her head, trying to stay focused. "And if I do back off, you'll what? Give him flowers and candy? I very much doubt it."
"We've got business. You leave us to complete it, he might live a little longer. Otherwise, he dies badly."
"Not much of an offer. No," she answers dismissively, "I think I'd rather finish this right now."
"You'd kill him?", she sneers in disbelief. "The man you claim you love? I'll be sure to let him know how much you care."
"You'll kill him anyway. The only thing I can do is give him a clean death. Joker," she asks crisply, "How long until we're in firing range?"
"Three minutes, Captain."
"Three minutes, Madeline. That's how long you've got to change your mind. It's not too late. I know you've made a mess of your life, but you can still do something decent for a change." Not likely. Ashley's just baiting her, trying to get her angry enough to agree to what she's going to propose.
"Me!?", Madeline seethes, bile dripping from every word. "Me do something decent? It was your precious Michael who…"
"You know what?", Ashley cuts her off. "I'm not interested in listening to the paranoid ranting of a terrorist. Allow me to reiterate: you give me Michael back, you get to go to jail in one piece. Otherwise, I blow your ship into space dust. There's really nothing else I have to say to you."
"You fucking bitch," she roars, "I'll tear you apart."
"With that piece of junk you're flying? Unlikely. Whatever you do, I'll still be the last one standing. Unless.."
"Unless what?"
This had better work. "Unless you let me come over there and we see what happens next."
"You really think I'm dumb enough to bring let you bring Shepard and the rest of your little gang onto my ship?"
"Not Shepard," she says coolly. "Just me."
"Unarmed," Madeline insists.
"Now who's being treated like an idiot? I'm not coming there so you can just shoot me in the head. You think you can't take me in a fair fight, just say so."
The former Cerberus agent snorts, signaling agreement. "No one else in the shuttle or everyone dies."
"Understood. See you soon, Madeline."
Standing in the cargo bay, Ashley checks over her gear one last time. Armor, Harrier assault rifle, back-up Predator pistol, incendiary grenades… Sadly, the enemy ship is too confined a space for her Javelin to be of much use, but everything else in order. Still, considering the stakes, it's hard not to be a little compulsive about every last detail.
Standing beside her, Shepard seems to feel the same way. "You're clear on the plan, right, Ash? Because if we don't get the sequencing correct, this can turn into a disaster real fast."
The Spectre manages a smile. "Thanks, skipper, but this isn't my first week out of basic. I get what I have to do."
Shepard clasps her on the shoulder. "Sorry, I know you'll get it right. I'm just not used to being stuck back on the ship when we're doing these things."
"Now you know how the rest of us felt," Tali laughs. "It's no fun being the ones left behind."
"Or having to worry about the people who are on the mission," Liara adds affectionately, but with a conviction born of what Ashley knows were plenty of anxious hours waiting for Shepard to return.
The quarian turns to Varek, touching a few buttons on her omni-tool. "I've sent the virus to your omni-tool. You have to upload this into the ship's main processor on the bridge. It should disable their communications jammers and give me sufficient control over their systems to prevent them from over-loading the reactor."
"Fast work," Garrus compliments her. Ashley's glad they've gotten back to something like the friendship they once had. Seeing how miserable Tali had been after their relationship ended broke Ash's heart. Her friend deserves more happiness than the galaxy has given her thus far.
"Well, we have a few of that model of frigate in the Flotilla," Tali explains to Garrus and Varek, "So I'm pretty familiar with their systems."
"Are you certain about this?", Doctor Chakwas asks the salarian. "There are serious medical risks to going back into action so soon after suffering these injuries."
"Noted," the salarian says, "Still, it needs to be done." When Ashley and Shepard brought the plan to him, he practically jumped at the chance to even the score with the people who murdered his friends.
"Very well then," the doctor says in a resigned tone. "In that event, I recommend trying to limit your combat exposure. You may have full range of motion right now, but further injuries could easily lead to severe internal bleeding."
"Excellent advice," Vareck replies, flashing a wry smile. "Just have to make sure they never see me coming."
Doctor Chakwas shakes her head, but doesn't protest further. She's well acquainted with patients who insist on ignoring her advice.
Sitting next to Varek in the shuttle, Ashley is glad that it's someone else who cares so much about Michael that she's doing this with. She wishes that more of her friends and family could have gotten a better chance to know the man she loves before the wedding, but the schedule she's had as Spectre and his work with the Alliance haven't allowed it.
As she waits, she clasps her hands, trying to find some comfort in her faith. She knows that there's no guarantee that this mission will turn out okay. She firmly believes that God saw the galaxy through the Reaper War, but countless good people died before the victory was won. Still, just because the answer might be "no" doesn't mean she can't ask. Please God, she prays silently, let Michael still be alive, let him hold out a little longer. Just give me that much, we'll do the rest.
Varek notices what she's doing. "Michael's strong," he tries to reassure her. "Once, fighting Reapers, he got separated from us, and was trapped behind enemy lines three days. When we found him, his only complaint was that he was low on ammo."
She laughs, the story breaking a little of her tension. "He told me about that once. Wasn't there some incident with a Brute and a sewage tunnel?"
"Indeed. On the first day, he got it to chase him in there after rigging a nest of explosives in the middle. Then he spent two days trying to fight off the hundred or so cannibals who followed the blast right to him."
"If he survived that," she says with renewed confidence, "It'll take more than this bitch to kill him." She looks out the window. The Windward Orientation is getting closer. Time to do this. "All right Varek," she says with a nod, putting on her helmet. "We've only got one shot at this. Let's get it right."
Well, we're moving towards the climax of this plotline. In the next one, the vid program: "Heroes of the Reaper War: Miranda Lawson," will be making an appearance and I'm interested in any suggestions people have about it. Leave your thoughts in a review or PM me. Thanks and I hope you're still enjoying the story.
