„Thinking"
„Talking"
„Impactful word"
Location: Exodus Cluster - Asgard System - Asteroid X57 – Main Facility
Akane used the seconds before the beginning of the fight to dispatch a Kage Bushin to act on her behalf in Shepard's presence while she stole herself away with the Shushin no Jutsu to the second level. She looked around to see if she was detected before activating her Byakugan to depict the location of the enemies to offset the disadvantage the batarians had gotten them into.
However, Shepard's team still couldn't advance much forward because of some nasty snipers having them trapped within their scopes, so logically Akane took care of them first even though these defence drones made it ten times harder and longer than usual. It was a challenge even for an accomplished Anbu as Akane to evade being detected by the drone's radar by reading through their regular patrol routes. Not to mention her efforts in keeping her clone alive so it didn't mess up her plan right from the start. Man, now that would be embarrassing.
Yet there was still no trace of Balak. No trace whatsoever. Well, at least Akane took care of the enemies on the upper levels, giving the Commander an opportunity to advance forward. Akane chose to suppress her activity the more Shepard progressed and focused on keeping her clone intact. After much trouble, the last batarians was eliminated and Shepard immediately set out her search for the control panel only to be stopped in her tracks by a guttural voice.
"You humans," Balak called out from above the staircase. His tone laced with deep-rooted hate. The young Uchiha moved swiftly on the ceiling, watching the batarian leader's every move through the power of her pearl white orbs.
"You're almost more trouble than you're worth." He taunted.
"I am just getting started." Shepard turned to face him, rubbing her hands together with a small smirk gracing her lips.
"Predictable. But this is over. I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll detonate these charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die." The extremist's leader threatened with a coolness that showed how serious he was about it. Despite the graveness of the situation, the anbu was more curious about the outcome of it rather than anything else while Garrus and Wrex left it in the Commander's capable hands to resolve this situation.
She always believed that the true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature. And deep down Akane knew that she feared what Shepard's true colours were like, making her unsure mind fill with doubts. What if she placed her hopes in the wrong person? What if the feeling of uniqueness she has been getting from Shepard were nothing more than self-delusion?
"I can't just let you go, Balak. Not after what happened here," the Commander's expression changed to one of utter seriousness as Akane silently waited in anticipation.
Balak began to tell about the troubles his people have faced and blamed them all on humanity's influence with Shepard deflecting his accusations with diplomatic ease and logical reason. He was furious that the torches have been shut down, justifying this operation as an act of reprisal for humanity's actions in the Skyllian Verge, stealing territories and resources that should have belonged to the batarians, all because the Council saw a military advantage in befriending the Alliance. Akane noted that the batarian extremist and the Commander must have had some kind of past for him to hold such an intense grudge against the red-head.
"You couldn't possibly understand… Actually, you just don't want to understand. And I am done wasting my breath." Akane watched every muscle in his alien body for any signs of detonating the bombs in some suicidal act during his angry behaviour.
"Now, if you want your friends to live, I suggest you step aside." He advised, a victorious smirk already playing at his thin lips for getting the mighty Hero of the Skyllian Blitz in such a position. Akane's next actions depended entirely on the Commander's choice; her first notion was to assassinate him and his followers with one clean swoop in real anbu fashion, though since Balak had played some role during the Skyllian Blitz she thought it a waste of valuable information to finish him off.
The Commander had it rough with the choice she was faced with. Either let Balak go and risk him causing havoc in the future but save the hostages; or attack him knowing she will have to sacrifice the hostages.
Call her heartless but Akane would definitely go with the first option. Judging from what Balak had done to the engineers it would be safe to eliminate the vile alien so he couldn't cause more suffering in his meaningless drive of vengeance even if it meant to sacrifice innocent lives. Wars were never waged without sacrifices; Akane had sadly learnt that the painful way; having been used to such type of an operation because of the darkness involved in an anbu's career would lead her to execute it without a splint of hesitation.
"You can go. But this isn't over. I'll find you eventually." The Commander shot him a fiery glare, accepting the short-lived defeat.
The qualms that had been holding Akane's mind captive were repelled, for the time being, giving the young Uchiha enough assurance that her decision to trust the Commander has not been a mistake. Akane didn't trust easily if at all, she would be foolish to in the first place. Being an Anbu forced Akane to adapt to a world full of fakes and lies with a hint of secrecy hiding everything behind the curtains.
Every display of emotion was fatal and used against you if you were not careful. However, there were two people in her life she trusted with everything she'd got: Shirone and then there was Haruko. Although she rather confided to Haruko because she didn't want Shirone to walk through the darkness she had been walking through even when she really hated feeding her twin sweet lies the whole time. Akane shook her head to chase away the memories that she was too afraid to face so she instead focused her attention back to the assassination.
She needed a distraction and that's where her clone came into action. "Better hurry if you want to save your-"
"You may have won this battle, but you've lost the war." the clone's voice rose from behind, unexpectedly interrupting Balak with a calm almost cold voice.
"Huh? And who are you, little girl?" Balak asked with a belittling voice.
"Your end." The crew came closer to the young Uchiha, making something like a protective wall around her but the shinobi had other plans. In the very same moment, Akane's clone disappeared with a puff of smoke, distracting both the batarians as well as her own crew members long enough for the real Akane quietly launched off the ceiling with a deep breath.
"Fūton: Shinkūgyoku!" She shouted within the realm of her mind, using the enemy's distraught state to exhale several small blasts of wind chakra at the two guarding varren. The animals fell to the ground with a loud thud while Akane soundlessly landed behind the two remaining batarians, though her presence was quickly discovered.
Balak and his guard, in their alarmed state, surrendered to their instincts and tried to level their aim at the source of their danger. But before their three pairs of eyes could fully grasp on their target and their fingers could pull the trigger, they only saw a flash of crimson red eyes then dropped unconscious in a matter of milliseconds.
Shepard POV
"What the actual fuck?!" was the only thing Jane had to say in this situation, watching Akane seemingly turn into thin air right next to her only for her to almost magically reappear with behind Balak. She honestly didn't know what to make of it, for once. No. What could any normal person make of it? There had to be a logical explanation to- wait!
Maybe it had to do something with the fact that Akane wasn't even human. It could explain that it was within the capabilities of her unknown physique, which brought up a series of questions: What has happened to her? Was she once human? Was it Cerberus?
All question were left in the dark if Akane chose to answer them at all. Nevertheless, it was hard not to look affected by the young girl's actions though she prided herself for recovering quicker than the rest.
"Did you kill them?" Shepard recalled that she saw no movement with the intent to outright kill, only a short flash of red but the image wasn't clear.
"No, only put them to sleep." She responded swiftly and on point, though her attempt at secretiveness wasn't left unnoticed as Shepard tugged her gun away she had drawn out of instinct earlier. Garrus and Wrex did the same, though the turian looked as if he had something to say so she let him.
"I don't want to spoil the kid's victory but we're against the clock here and I think that nobody entertains the idea of grilled humans!" He let out one of his lame jokes as a much-needed reminder, though Jane made sure to throw a scowl in his direction for the improper sentiment.
"Garrus' right," Wrex scoffed lightly but Jane ignored it," we need to take care of this and pronto!" the redhead shouted rather enthusiastically despite that lives were on the line and stormed off yet halted to turn rather turned her body in a funny way which made most of the crew start to question the Commander's sanity.
"Did someone catch where the bombs may be?" She shot an inquiring brow at her party, which made the alien members shrug in response, only Akane showed no similar reaction.
"If I may be of service ma'am, I know where to find these bombs," Akane spoke up, yet Jane's attentive eyes saw there was more than the young woman wanted to say so she urged her to continue with a nod, "it would be less time consuming if we move in pairs, I will send out the locations on your Omni-tool immediately."
"Wrex, with me. Garrus, you go with Akane."
"Roger that, ma'am!" The pairs parted without wasting another breath on unneeded words. Jane went for the one on the lower levels while Akane ran upstairs to take on the other two, which seemed to not so far away from each other but still cleverly hidden from sight. There was no point of denying that it would have been a close call wasn't it for Akane's knowledge, though it made her ponder over how or rather when the Uchiha had gotten to acquire such information.
The crew came back together at the place they've parted and were met with the sight of Simon approaching. The grey-haired man made a big loop around the unconscious batarians in order to join up with Shepard.
"Simon! Glad to see you in one piece!" Jane's lips turned up into a serene smile.
"Shepard! I don't know how, but you did it! Another hour and our course would have been irreversible. I ran the numbers, Shepard. X57 would have struck near the capital city and… killed my grandchildren. Thank you for saving their lives."
"There is no need to thank me. Everybody would have done the same in my position." Jane patted his shoulder in a brotherly gesture, glancing back to see Akane warily watching the whole exchange.
"Nevertheless, I think it's time to free our poor hostages." She nudged with her head to Garrus' direction, who got her silent command to hack the door control. That's when she remembered that her mission wasn't quite done yet because Simon had asked her to search for his missing colleagues hours ago and while it is true that she could have told him about the fate of his comrades right on their first encounter, she didn't, for various reasons.
Being a soldier didn't only mean to follow orders, go on missions, etc. But the job sometimes required a bit of tactfulness when handling certain situations, like informing acquaintances of the death of family members or friends. It wasn't something you could address at any time freely and in conclusion to the situation, they had found themselves in when they found Simon… well, let's say the time was not right to be telling such news and plus, she hadn't had the heart to tell it to him.
"One more thing. You asked me to look into your missing engineers."
"Have you found them?" Simon asked with a glimpse of hope in his voice that they may be still alive which made it all the harder for Jane to answer.
"Yes, all of them. Their bodies, anyway." For fuck's sake! Couldn't she have put it better than that?! The redhead thought angrily, disappointed about her blunt choice of words.
"Oh. I-" he faltered a bit, obviously at a lack of words. "I see. Well, then. I guess it's better than not knowing."
"You have my sympathy Simon, but this where we have to part ways. Take care of yourself." Jane bid him farewell.
"Yes I know, but please be sure to check on Katie and her team for me, okay? Be well, Shepard. We owe you." She watched his weary form walk away when Garrus was done revoking the lockdown on the doors, at last, freeing the hostages.
"Normandy, the asteroid's secure, evac in ten."