Chapter 2

"There's no coming back from this, Kaidan. I'll be damned if I'm going to let you accuse me of betraying the Alliance. You keep walking away from me because if you turn around now, I'll kill you." Cerberus Commander Bradyn Shepard to Alliance Commander Kaidan Alenko on Horizon.

The fire shots rang loud in the evening air. Bradyn slid under a bench and cracked off two more rounds of her sniper rifle before cursing and throwing the gun aside, the heat having warped the barrel. Poor workmanship from the manufacturer had caused the rifle to flaw over, and now Bradyn was alone with only her assault rifle. She unshouldered the leftover arm and took aim at the batarian stripes popping up from behind the far bench table, guarding the crew that was corralling men and women into a cruiser meant for God knows where. Screaming, she popped out a heat sink. Slapping in another, she ran across the open path for more cover. They were making away with the inhabitants of Mindoir, rapidly overwhelmed and terrorized into their waiting fates. Bradyn jumped over the next hedge and activated her vanguard rush, slamming up against the batarian trooper with the butt of her shoulder and shoving him into a tree. She swore and cursed, spitting at the alien.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Normandy was helping evacuate civilians into Alliance ships come to rescue those who were still being defended from the batarian invasion. It was the Blitz on a whole new level, and Mindoir was losing. Feron was among the crew, helping Liara guide a family of eight into a shuttle bound for the Hastings while Grunt and Garrus were holding off more slavers working on a cul de sac with their own shuttles. Thane was by the Normandy, taking aim at anything which could represent a leader among the batarian guards that were directing the attack. He searched for Bradyn while he lined up another target and pulled the trigger, hoping the loss of superiors would dismay the ranks. Joker signaled to him from the Normandy and Thane stepped behind a crate to lower into coverage as the Normandy's guns barked out ballistic rays at the incoming Hegemony cruisers.

There was a child, no more than seven, crying under the body of her fallen parent. Bradyn reeled back from the batarian she was locked up with, throwing her boot out and propelling them both off each other. "Hold on!" Three of the family had already been moved to safety, but the father had perished under one of the charged prods that the batarians were using to frighten everyone. Racing as fast as her armor would allow her, Bradyn held out her omniblade and rode her body's inertia into the chest of the next Hegemonist raising a slick black prod over the girl's head. "No!" It was too late. A white energy lash moved through the air and gathered the child's ankles, wrenching her out from under the corpse and through the air to the waiting batarian shuttle. Bradyn pumped her legs harder and reached for the girl's hands, seeing her green eyes in the surprised face looking back at her.

The pain took her breath away, the words I won't let them take you dying on Bradyn's lips as her armor plates tore open above her breast. A grinning batarian with tight green lines overlapped by white held a pulse shotgun aimed at her from the mouth of the shuttle, watching her collapse backwards on bent knees. Bradyn felt numb at first and then a surge of agony tore the scream from her lungs as she coiled onto herself, prying at the scalding metal that burned her fingers and chest. She writhed under the flame in her skin, shooting to her heart. Boots crunched over the gravel, barely audible against her blood curdling shrieks from the inflicted torture. A leer of dagger like teeth could only be made out when the batarian stood above her and raised the shotgun to his shoulder.

"The Shepard Bitch."

"What do you have over there." One of the other batarians approached from the side of the shuttle, his face mottled with red and black.

"It's the bitch who slaughtered Gotak's regiment on Torfan. Think we should bring her for a ride," he sneered, putting a dirty boot on her chest over the wound and yielding forth more screams.

"Fine, bring her with the others. Slap some gel on so she can at least be alive when Gotak sees her."

The first batarian leaned down, pulling out a pack from his belt satchel and flipping open the lid. "We need you alive so we can teach you a lesson about messing with Bataria."

Bradyn mouthed a curse at her captor as the soothing gel dropped onto her exposed chest, sealing indiscriminately with the grit from his boot on her bones, muscle, skin and synthetic weave. The pain was still intense, but now she wouldn't die. Summoning her remaining strength, Bradyn rocked upwards, shooting her feet out and catapulting herself into her captor.

"Stupid bitch!"

They struggled, Bradyn's omniblade red hot and inching closer to his neck. The batarian was strong, and as Bradyn weakened from her injury she began to lose the battle. White teeth bared into the face of the alien, she gave one last push before she was separated by a second blow to her upper back, a charge prod stunning her to the knees. The second batarian with the red and white face lowered a pistol to her temple and commenced pulling the trigger, but his impatience with the non-civilian human was repulsed by an attack from the air. His mouth gargled out green blood as two knives pierced his neck, four fingered gloves clawing at the ruined flesh. His colleague staggered back, two more blades through the leather lining of his chest, falling backwards in surprise and alerting the other guards in the shuttle.

Thane leapt over Bradyn into the oncoming support, his pistols lit with blue flares as the shots fled the muzzle into each mark. His leather jacket was a wraith clung to the broad shoulders of the viridescent drell, his black head stripes gleaming under the setting sun that reflected off the shuttle and backs of the guards. Screams wrent the air not only of the frightened captives, but of the enemy being slain by the legendary assassins's sure strikes. He kicked over three men before silencing the next pair with his revolvers, charging his fist with biotic energy and lifting those want to come at his back clear into the air. Neatly the shots picked off the heads of the batarians, and Thane pursued the enemy only so far as his reach for Bradyn. His black eyes fixed on her, checking to see if she was still conscious.

She stared at him with green eyes that gave him pause, the way they had when he first met her months ago on Illium. Her chest rose and fell quickly, jerking her body forward with pain lancing through her chest. Thane checked the area and then hurried over to her, kneeling down to see her wound. She looked up, eyes wide and blinking. Unsure if what she was looking at was the same drell she had with her on the Normandy, Bradyn fought the haze and pain to grip reality and hold on. Her throat was dry and she continuously licked her lips, trying to find water where there was none.

"So they treated your wounds. Can you understand me?"

"Krios? Was that you knocking heads a moment ago or am I delusional?"

Her lips shivered and Thane realized she had lost a great deal of blood. He took off his jacket and laid it over her.

"This is a bad hit," he said, examining the damage to her chest, "We need to keep you still until Chakwas can see to you."

She grabbed his wrist and held fast, staring with the look of a woman certain of death. "They'll come for me, Thane. Kill me and save the others. I can't help anymore. The gel will only buy me time, but I'm useless."

He hesitated, then smiled. "You are delusional. You will live, siha. I will see to it."

"Don't, give, me, to, them." She snarled, tightening her grip. Thane splayed his gloved fingers over her visor and wiped down affectionately, shushing her.

"Delirious as well."

Around them, shuttles lifted off carrying the victims of Mindoir away by enemy and ally alike. The evening grew cold and quiet as the gunfire died, and the sack of Mindoir finally ended. It had been a bad loss, and everyone understood the retaliation of the batarians for what had been wrought on Torfan. No one in the Alliance could explain how they had let it happen, but many were angry and seeking answers. While the diplomatic disaster began to unfold beyond the planet's surface, Thane lay against a tree with Bradyn in his arms, keeping her warm with the heat of his body. They had at least freed the captives of the shuttle Bradyn had chased the young girl towards, and the forlorn men, women, and children milled closely by Thane and Bradyn. To them, the drell was a protector. To him, they were helping to distract Bradyn from losing herself to inane rambling.

"Look, Bradyn, the Normandy shuttle." His night vision could clearly make out the logo on the side of the transport, Cerberus somehow ignored by the Alliance presence scouring the settlement. Bradyn shook her head groggily, her visor removed for some time now so she could breathe better and take water from a flask one of the civilians had found and shared. Thane adjusted her to lay against the trunk comfortably, and rose to stand and wave down the shuttle. The vessel lowered and scattered dust and twigs beneath its engines. The door opened and Karin, Garrus, and Miranda ran out with flashlights directed at him.

"She's over here."

He led them to Bradyn and at Karin's instruction, carefully moved her onto a tray that Garrus retrieved from the shuttle. Bradyn started to ramble again, calling out names that Thane could not connect to anyone on the Normandy. The names Kaidan and Ash were among the several spoken, eliciting an emotional flick of Garrus's mandibles.

"She's talking about past crew from the first Normandy," Garrus explained to Thane on the ride back. Bradyn had latched onto Garrus's claw and fallen asleep, Karin's sedatives taking effect. "Ash was gunnery chief Ashley Williams. I used to talk shop with her on the old Normandy in the hangar bay. We lost her in a tough battle on a water world, blowing up a krogan breeding facility under Saren Arterius. Bastard got us good, but we destroyed his pet project."

"Ah, the rogue Spectre. I've heard of him. Who was Kaidan?"

"Kaidan Alenko, her former staff commander. Nearly retired after Bradyn died in the first Collector incident. Before you joined up, Bradyn and I ran into Alenko on Horizon. Turned his back on her for working with Cerberus. Really hurt her. I think they paired at one point, but that was another life. Too much emotion in these humans."

"Isn't that hypocritical of you, Garrus?"

"I didn't say I wasn't. The reason Bradyn and I get along so well is because I'm practically half human to her. She's said so herself."

He rumbled happily, recalling Bradyn's accusations. Garrus glanced over at Thane's grip on her hand. "Thanks for finding her. I don't think I could handle losing her again." He paused, looking directly at Thane. "She's going to need someone to watch her closely after this. Mindoir's going to hit her hard when she's lucid again. Bradyn doesn't like to lose, especially to slavers. It's a big insult, but the loss. . . five thousand stolen. It's as bad as the Collectors. And it's legal once they return to batarian space."

Karin turned in the chair up front beside Miranda to rest her hand on Bradyn's ankle. She looked between the two aliens perched attentively by the commander's sides.

"We'll be arriving in three minutes. I'll need you boys to help move her from the tray onto a bed, if you don't mind hanging around for that before disarming."

"Gladly, Doctor Chakwas," Thane answered.

Garrus seconded his agreement with a nod and then a turian smirk. "Think I can get back at Bradyn for that stunt she pulled with the anesthetic on my face?"

"No, Garrus. I won't be an accomplice to your treachery," Karin laughed.

Once inside the med bay, Bradyn was dressed down and left alone with Mordin Solus and Karin Chakwas. Miranda was present to supervise the work in case anything should raise a question. She had, after all, rebuilt the woman from the cells up. Thane waited outside, his back to the window when they undressed her, turning again only with a careful glance to see if she was in medical garb. The hole in her chest was cleaned out and repaired, medigel rebuilding the exposed tendons and fasciae. It was not the first time he had seen the inside of a human, but it was the only time he had seen Bradyn, his phoenix, so helpless and lackluster. Bradyn was unconscious while Mordin adjusted the serums controlling her heart and nerves. Karin cauterized the wound, laying over it a seamless graft of synthetic skin.

When the lights went out and EDI encouraged the crew to their bunks with music from a terran sonata, two rooms remained empty. The captain's cabin, and life support. In the med bay, Thane sat next to Bradyn, asleep still from her surgery and pharmaceuticals. The book on Human Roman Mythology was open, Thane reading aloud haltingly from the pages. It was his hope she would hear him, and comfort would meet her slumbering mind. He enjoyed reading to her about Diana, goddess of the hunt with her two faithful hounds. Finishing a page, he glanced over his shoulder and found her awake, gazing through blinks and squints at him, then fluttering her red lashes back to sleep.

"Hello, siha. May your journey be restful. I will be here waiting for your return." He closed the book and set it on the bed, eyes heavy from fatigue and want of sleep.

To be continued. . .