"My name is Crow, I'm from the other side of the portal, could you please let me close it?" Crow tried. He faced Glint, who was hovering a few feet away.
"Good, but try to keep eye contact. They looked like soldiers, their type won't trust you if you look too shifty." His Ghost told him. " And they'll need more than that. Try 'I can help you close the portal safely'. They'll need reassurance that we know what we're doing."
"Okay." He spun around, took a deep breath, and turned back around, looking his Ghost in the eye and raising one hand in greeting. "Hey, Crow here-"
"Light! Don't do that." Glint puffed up in alarm, and Crow flinched, knowing full well just how absurd he'd just sounded. "I know you and that felt awkward. Just say hi, and then introduce yourself."
" Sorry, I felt like cringing the moment I said it anyway." He turned around again, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He really didn't want to come off as overdramatic like he had when he met Osiris, but he didn't want to spent too much time trying to introduce himself either. Time was of the essence, and too much of it was being wasted already. He whirled around. "Sorry about the inconvenience, my name is Crow. I tracked the Hive through this portal, and I have a plan to close it."
"Good!" Glint beeped. "Really good! Next, they're going to ask what the plan is. Remember, soldiers, they're going to want a part in it."
"I was going to burn the cryptolith down by the roots with my Light," he held out his hands in a placating manner and channeled a small amount or sol Light between his fingers, "and then cut the power before sealing the portal with more Light."
"Good, good. Keep in mind they probably don't know what Light is." His Ghost reminded.
"Okay, my powers then." He corrected, and Glint nodded, before freezing up.
"They're back on comms." He informed. "Putting them through."
"This is Shepard; we're at the encampment, where are you?" the feminine voice asked. Trying to keep his breaths even, he motioned for Glint to open his end of the line.
"This is- I'm on my way. Almost there. Keep an eye out for more Hive growths, and be careful." He emphasized. These people had no idea how to fight Hive, and the thought of them wandering into a group set his nerves off.
"Get here fast, I don't like the way things looked down there." the Commander urged. "Shepard out."
Crow leaned forward, propping himself up with his knees and trying to get his breathing under control. Glint nudged his shoulder with a small pulse of Light, but the sick knot of anxiety inside of him didn't let up.
"Hey, it's okay. You're doing fine." Glint tried to reassure him. He shook his head. "Deep breaths, you're in control."
"No, I'm not." He shut his eyes tight. "They've never fought Hive before, if I do something wrong they'll die. If I don't tell them enough, they'll die, if I take too long telling them what to expect more people will be in trouble, I-I don't even know what I'm doing."
"You're trying to help." His Ghost assured him. "And not everyone would do that, they'd have shooed those people away. Some Guardians might even have seen those aliens and open fire. You're taking the time to help them, and if the Hive ever come back, they'll know how to fight, thanks to you."
Letting his breath out through his teeth, Crow straightened up. I don't know what I'm doing, but I know what has to be done. "Right. Right, let's go."
With that, Glint phased, and Crow set off running.
Shepard had a bad habit of grinding her teeth when she got impatient. Garrus' was to start pacing restlessly. She kept glancing at Thane, trying to see if he had any habits, but all he was doing was watch the perimeter on his side of the room. They had taken up a position in a prefab that seemed to have been set up as a lounge of some sort, and their mysterious contact had yet to show.
"So, if it is the zombie we're about to meet?" Garrus prompted, turning about and flicking his visor with one talon.
"Again, don't fire unless fired upon." She told him. "He sounds like a friendly zombie so far."
"Friendly blue zombies, add it to the Normandy list." He shook his head and resumed his pacing.
"'The Normandy list?" She raised an eyebrow and turned to look out the window again.
"Yeah, you know. The crazy stuff that only happens to us." Her friend clarified, and she rolled her eyes. She stopped when she saw a figure shuffle out from the treeline.
"Company." She informed her squad, motioning for them to fall in beside her. "Let's go meet the zombie."
She strode out the door and waved a hand to catch the newcomer's attention. He started, and then hesitated before striding in their direction. He wore strange, scaled armor that looked like it had seen better days, and a filthy, tattered cloak with a crude spider-like symbol painted on the front part. His face was gaunt and blue, and his eyes were a watery yellow that seemed to glow faintly. Half his black hair was shorn away completely, and the other half looked like it had met with the business end of a weedwhacker.
"Sorry about the wait, my name is Crow." the stranger said, making an aborted gesture that might have been an offer of a handshake. "I tracked the Hive through their portal, and I have a plan to close it."
Right to business, then. Huh. Then again, he knew more about the situation, and time was of the essence. "What happens if it isn't closed?"
"Worst case, the Hive decide it's easier to conquer you than keep fighting us back in Sol." Crow shrugged. A spike of alarm shot through her. She would have heard if something had invaded Sol, and what did he mean by 'us'?
"You mean these things are at Earth?" She interrupted before he could continue. If Earth was in trouble, why had nobody told them? Why didn't they know?
"For centuries... yeah?" Crow told her, looking confused. "We've been fighting them since the Collapse, I'm not sure you'd know about it, being a colony..."
"Centuries? Earth has never been invaded by a hostile alien force." now it was her turn to be confused. Something sparkled into existence at Crow's shoulder, and she fought the urge to turn her gun on it; Crow looked skittish, and the last thing they needed was for him to bolt.
"It seems our histories contradict each other." the drone said in a male voice. It was a dark lavender color with silver accents, and a single, bright blue eye at it's center. 'His' shell spun a bit as he spoke. "Ma'am, might I ask what year it is for you, and what year the Traveler arrived?"
"It's 2185, and I've never heard of any Traveler." At this, Crow seemed to blanch. "Let's just try to stop these things first, and then compare notes?"
"An alternate timeline entirely. Fascinating!" the drone commented cheerily before disappearing in a shower of particles. Crow looked like he'd swallowed something distasteful.
"There's... my plan was to burn down the cryptolith, with this." he offered his hands, and they glowed faintly with fire that seemed to pour our of his skin. The fuck? Garrus made an odd whistle-like sound. Crow looked into her eyes with a hopeful expression. "I can also burn the portal shut with it, but we need to cut the power they're draining."
"So let me get this straight." she raised her hands in a halting gesture, trying to wrap her brain around what she'd just seen. "You're a zombie who can set himself on fire, from another reality?"
"What's a zombie?" he asked, yellow eyes blinking with confusion.
"We saw footage of that drone thing bringing you back from the dead." Garrus cut in. Crow jumped a little, and he looked at the turian with no comprehension in his eyes. Crap, translator.
"He said we saw your drone bringing you back from the dead. A zombie is a walking corpse." she clarified. Something like hurt flickered across his face before disappearing, and she marveled at how human this strange alien looked. "I'll lend you a translator once we have the details hammered out."
"Glint is my Ghost, bringing me back and healing my wounds is part of his job." Crow told her. "And if there are no people like me on this side, that just makes it more appealing for the Hive. Once the portal is big enough, they'll invade en masse and you won't have the means to fight them."
"Okay, you've made things clear. I'm just having a little trouble believing what I'm seeing." Shepard said, looking him up and down. He glanced at her squad behind her.
"So am I. Did that lizard guy move something without touching it just now?" he asked. She looked back at Thane, who had, indeed, seemed to have used his biotics to move one of the crates into better position for cover. He smiled politely at Crow and waved slightly in greeting. Crow just looked more confused.
"Thane's biotic. He can manipulate mass and gravity." she explained. Privately, she wondered if Thane had demonstrated his abilities on purpose.
"That's way weirder than throwing flaming knives." Crow commented, opening his palm to offer her a sharp, glowing spike. "Which you should probably have on your person. Some Hive have shielding that only solar energy can destroy. I'll make a few for each of you."
"That's... generous." she eyed the crystalline spike of fire warily. It was shaped like a throwing knife, alright, handle and all.
"It's okay, it won't burn you. Light-my powers, are intuitive. I can tell them what to burn." he reassured her. She took the knife. Warmth spread through her fingers and up her arm, but it didn't burn.
"Okay... I trust you." she relented. He was one of, if not the weirdest thing she'd ever seen, but she felt like she could trust him. Heaven help them if she was wrong about the unkillable super-soldier. "Come in here, I'll give you a translator and you can tell us everything you can about the Hive's capabilities."
"O-okay." Crow seemed to squeak. He reminded her of green recruits at N-school. Maybe he was a green recruit, wherever he was from. Whatever he was, he was all they had, and hopefully they could make do with him.
If not, something told her the Reapers would be the least of their worries.
Well, as far as first impressions go, at least he didn't go the way of Zuko. That scene in season three of AtLA was all I could think of when Crow was first revealed. Let me know how I did with the conversations, I'm still rusty and I'm a little unsatisfied with the flow, but can't find any way to improve it.
GHOST09: Yeah, I work best with existing characters. People empathize more with Crow than some random OC.
CHEPALON: Glad my typos escaped your notice, lol. I used to like doing massive chapters, but I'm doing shorter ones on this so I don't exhaust myself.
Gamesatern: Good! I'm trying to explore the emotional consequences of him learning about Uldren from the wrong person as well as I can.
Alexis Martinez: Thank you for the review! They might be more Hive if I continue this, we'll see.
ArgentumAurean: THANKY YOU! I enjoy it went people do that as well, and half of this is just me wanting to delve deeper into Crow's headspace.
Flickered Raven: Crow and Glint are the BEST Guardian/Ghost duo in the series, thanks in part to Glint being such a supportive sweetie. It shows just how having even one person who supports and cares about someone can shape them; all Crow has had in the first two years of his life is Glint, and if it were any other Ghost he might not have turned out to be a good guy. The sh!t he's been through would turn a lot of people bitter and vengeful.
Guest: This is Shepard, she trust's nobody.
KINGREADER: This isn't well socialized Crow who's had practice with brevity. That, and I myself am a little out of practice in writing conversations, hence why I'm writing this.
Slaggedfire: Good, that's kind of the point. Nobody wants to see Crow in a bad place, that's what's supposed to make it hurt. And make you hate A$$hole!Young Wolf more. Crow ain't in a good place, he's still technically Spider's slave, and that's going to be half the battle in integrating him with the crew.
In other news, my Gecko yawned at me the other day. He get's cuter every time I look at him. Feedback still welcome! Heavy dialogue is NOT my bread and butter.
Fare Thee Well!