Crow didn't know what to make of Thane, but the... drell? Whatever he'd called himself as they left, he seemed to be content with traveling in silence just as much as Crow was, for which the young Hunter was thankful. It gave him time to settle his nerves.
These people were so obviously professionals. It was in the way Garrus had stalked the perimeter, the air of authority Shepard had commanded effortlessly. As he and Thane made their way to the tunnels, using the lengthening shadows to their advantage, it was obvious that his new companion was far better at sneaking around than he was. He felt sloppy, next to Thane.
Under better circumstances, if the Young Wolf's revelation wasn't looming over him, he might have asked more questions about these strange people. After all, if things went well, he would never speak with them again, and their reality would be safe from Hive. I doubt any Hunter will ever train me to stalk a target properly, and this guy certainly knows what he's doing.
"We're not in Hive territory yet, I bet he'd give advice if you asked." Glint chirped through their Link, apparently having sensed his bitter thought. Now isn't really a good time, Glint. He directed his thoughts at his Ghost.
"You've always learned best in the field." Glint encouraged. "Go on, he looks the helpful sort."
"So..." he said quietly. Thane paused slightly, and turned to look at him with dark eyes. "Any tips?"
"On?" the drell asked.
"Sneaking." his faced heated up. "Not that I'm bad or anything, but you look like you're an expert."
"I'm an assassin." the reptilian man stated plainly, before turning his attention back to the path. Oh frick. "I've been doing this for a majority of my life, and I can safely say that you are doing nothing that shouldn't be done. The most I can recommend to you is to find tighter armor, in a material that makes less noise."
"Oh." was all he could say to that. I wonder what kind of assassin? The shifty kind Spider hires, or the Hidden Hunters the City breaks out for the real nasty strikes? They continued through the shadows and into the ravine, and soon the cave was looming before them. Crow pulled his hood up and pulled out Hawkmoon.
"Interesting weapon." Thane commented, indicating the Traveler's gift. "I am to assume it is not merely a pretty face?"
"Yeah. She's got a bad bite." he ran a thumb over the engraving; the cool material felt like metal and stone, yet like neither. Glint materialized, and lit up the cave ahead of them.
"After you, sirs!" he chirped. Thane blinked, and made as if to prod the Ghost, who darted away to Crow's other shoulder in response. "Please don't poke the merchandise, mister Thane!"
"Your AI is rather... different." the drell conceded, stepping into the darkness. Crow fell in beside him, and together they skirted the edge of the wall.
"Sentient energy construct, actually!" Glint corrected in a whisper. "AI are all code, very little of me is actually software."
The drell's only response was a thoughtful hum. Chitin crunched under their boots sooner than it should have, and Thane pulled back to let him take point, as it was at this point where sneaking suddenly became difficult for him. He'd never had to snoop around Hive-infested terrain before, and it showed. The trick with chitin ground was to put your weight down slowly.
All Hive growths had a degree of disgusting white noise to them. Creaking, clicking, squishing, slithering, dripping. The trick was to crunch the chitin slowly enough that it fell in with the normal sounds. Crow demonstrated this wordlessly, feeling a prick of satisfaction that he'd known something the professional didn't. Glint disappeared, leaving them in the dark to continue slowly towards their destination.
"Thane, Crow, you copy?" Commander Shepard's voice crackled over comms. He thought he could hear a wizard in the background. "We found the generator, but we need time to secure it, we've got hostiles."
"Thane here; we're almost to the outpost." Crow's companion answered, voice low. "We will be unable to communicate shortly."
"I copy. Good luck, we've got some of the research team up here trying to kill us, watch out for others." she informed.
"We will. Thane out." the receiver clicked slightly. Crow swallowed. I hope they'll be okay. It felt wrong sending someone else to fight Hive for their first time, even if the Commander and her fireteam were experts.
"How does your gravity thingy work? What can you do with it?" Crow asked, mentally kicking himself for not asking earlier.
"Biotics." Thane corrected silently, tilting his head slightly. "I prefer to use mine for throwing enemies back, or scrambling their molecular integrity. I assume you can do more than make flaming knives and set things on fire?"
"I can make a gun made of Light." Crow admitted, slipping back into Guardian terminology. It felt natural, trading information on their powers, and he felt more at ease than he had back in the prefab. "Or a storm of sol knives. I'm not well-trained though, I had to teach myself."
"Hand me one of your grenades?" the drell asked, and Crow formed an incendiary with his Light, handing it to him. The assassin regarded it carefully. "Am I right to assume it won't behave like normal fire?"
"Yes." he whispered. "Sol Light doesn't just burn, it consumes. Even a knife will disintegrate most things."
"I have toyed with normal fire and biotics before, and I have the feeling that I am about to discover a very interesting combination." he pocketed the grenade with a small grin. "I will warn you when I try it, of course. One never knows how biotics will pair with something."
"Sound like a plan, let's hurry." He'd seen a Warlock using sol Light in zero gravity once. It had been equal parts mesmerizing and terrifying, and whatever Thane was thinking of would likely be just as explosive.
By the time they reached the outpost, Crow could feel his lack of sleep catching up with him. The outpost itself was unrecognizable now, the entire tunnel coated in obligatory disgusting Hive growths of various forms. The smell was just as rancid as it was back home, but having crawled through worse infestations, and living so close to them, Crow was accustomed to the all-consuming reek.
Thane was not. Thane appeared to be crying. Thane was making a host of faces that roughly translated to 'I am not okay with this, and I will vomit at the most opportune moment'.
"You good?" Crow asked worriedly. Thane held up a finger and shut his eye in a 'give me a moment' sort of way. Crow nodded sympathetically. "The smell gets to everyone the first few times, but it's not toxic. You'll get nose blind in a few minutes."
"That is hardly reassuring." he replied heavily. Crow winced.
"Sorry. Just sit back. I'll tell you when it's safe to come in." he told the drell, who simply nodded, crouched amongst the rot as he wrestled for control of his gag reflex. I hope his assassin training covered how to puke quietly. Even the more stoic Eliksni he'd observed tended to hit eject their first time in a Hive stronghold.
He made his way over to the window he'd opened when he first came through. It was almost entirely clogged with chitin at this point. Taking a deep breath of rotting air, Crow holstered Hawkmoon and squeezed in hands first. Good thing I'm skinny. Trying not to shudder as chitin crunched under his fingers, he pulled himself through slowly, and gradually crawled to the side of the machine he'd hid behind the previous day. It was now nothing more than a block of chitin.
"I've never seen Hive corruption grow so fast." Glint beeped worriedly. "The lack of Light to contend with, perhaps?"
We can theorize later. He thought back, keeping low and peering around the corner. Hive chants chilled the air, and two wizards were conducting part of the ritual directly in front of the portal, mere feet from him. He suppressed a shiver. In the back of the room, acolytes and humans knelt in supplication to the cryptolith. He could hear it's siren whispers from here.
There were at least twenty humans that he could see, and roughly a dozen acolytes. He would need his Light to burn the cryptolith, so taking them out in a barrage of flaming blades wouldn't work; he would wind up having to wait for his Light to recover, unless he wanted to risk over-exertion, and reinforcements would come. It would likely begin a never-ending cycle of using Light to clear out Hive without ever getting around to burning the cryptolith.
Which meant he would have to get to the spire and burn it while surrounded by Hive. A confident, experienced Guardian might have taken out the Hive and humans with gunfire alone. He was neither experienced, nor, at this current moment, confident. And he had never killed a human being before.
I'm going to have to, aren't I? It was easy when the face was alien. When it didn't look like you. But Crow had never killed another human or neo-human before, and now that the thought had finally occurred to him, he wasn't sure he could do it. Especially knowing how easily it had come to Uldren. If there's a monster in me, I may be about to find out.
"The only monsters here are the Hive." Glint always seemed to know when his mind was going to those kinds of thoughts, even before the Wolf's outburst. "Those people aren't in there anymore, just like Savek. This is all we can do for them."
That doesn't make it easier, Glint.
"Good. It's only easy for monsters." his Ghost affirmed. Backing up carefully, a sick feeling twisting in his stomach, he crept along the outer edge of the room, careful to stay in the shadows. There was no way to sneak into the midst of their worship; his only chance was to sneak as close as he could, and jump right into them, sol Light blazing.
His muscles felt weaker the closer he got, tendons straining. His legs shook. He hadn't slept properly in days, and there was only so much Glint could do to help with that. Swallowing hard as he came to the edge of the cryptolith's worshipers, Crow focused on his Light, his breathing, stoking the flames in anticipation. He would have to listen to his Light carefully on this one, he'd never purged any kind of dark artifact before.
The wrathborn looked worse on humans than he thought it would, and for a moment he thought his stomach might pull a Thane. The glowing pustules, the puss that seemed to leak from every pore, the hard growths and the way their flesh seemed to struggle to hold what lay within together. He shut his eyes tight, trying to block out the whispers by thinking of the time they'd snuck into a festival with Osiris.
Bracing himself, gathering Light in his fist, Crow tensed bunched his muscles and Light, preparing to jump. Now he just had to do it. He had to do it. This might kill these people. Do it. Just do it. His eyes stung, and he forced himself to jump into the middle of them, Light erupting, before the tears could blur his vision. Shrieks rose around him as he shoved his burning hands into the base of the cryptolith.
He could feel every festering inch of it, his Light was eager to consume the new kindling. Claws tore at his back, and he gripped the rot harder, reaching down, pulling up as much of his Light as he could muster, and sending it out. Burn, he ordered, burn it all. He let the flames lick across his body briefly to ward off the tearing claws that were trying to rip at him from all angles, and the cryptolith was engulfed in flame.
He could sense the seed only because his Light guided him too it, eager for more things to burn. He crushed it with flames. The siren fell silent. It's safe. He thought to Glint as he continued to burn for good measure.
"Thane, Commander, the cryptolith is down!" His Ghost shouted through the comms. "Get ready to cut the power!"
Crow screamed as something grabbed him by the back of the cloak, claws digging into his neck, lifting him. It threw him aside with ease, and he saw stars as he hit the wall hard. The cryptolith was a blazing beacon outlining the wizard and the human thralls coming for him. He scrambled to his feet and managed to pull enough Light to strike the first man with a flaming knife as he reached him.
His eyes were pale and cloudy, his lips thin, drawn, bleeding and dry. The seemed to destroy themselves as he opened his jaws to scream at Crow, spurting blood and puss. His skin had turned a yellowish color, his hair was filthy and seemed to be sloughing off at the scalp. He was practically a skeleton.
His eyes were green and his hair was unmistakably blond. One of his incisors was chipped. There was an old scar that stood out incredibly pale against the sunken flesh of his cheek.
Crow's knife disintegrated him.
He'd killed his first human.
The shock of it nearly got him killed, too. He rolled out of the way as a clawed woman leapt at him, his cuts, tears, and new bruises protesting. He jumped over the horde, and an arc charge from the wizard grazed his left leg as he ran back around the room the way he had come. Thane was extracting himself from the window, and Crow turned, Hawkmoon drawn, to shoot at his pursuers the first of which was an acolyte he nailed right in the head. It crumpled into dust, and another human man took it's place.
Crow hesitated, and a burst fire weapon took it out for him. He looked to Thane, who was holding a strange pistol-looking gun.
"Don't hesitate." the drell told him, expression strained. Crow couldn't tell if it was still from the smell or not. "You said it yourself, we can't help them."
More acolytes came around from the opposite end of the machinery. Crow and Thane tucked themselves as close to the cover as possible, the former shooting the acolytes while the latter swapped places with him and gunned down more of the wrathborn humans. Glint popped out briefly to vanish his Hunter's injuries before phasing again.
"Crow, we're ready to cut the power!" Commander Shepard informed. "Just give us the word!"
"I need to get to the portal!" Crow looked back at Thane as he reloaded. "When we do this, it'll close, and I won't be able to come back if things get dicey for you."
"Then we should clear a path." the assassin held up the grenade Crow had given him, smiling slightly. He popped his head out of cover briefly to judge his throw, while Crow tensed, ready to run.
"Now!" Thane threw the grenade, and used his biotics to warp the air around it as it went off. Crow only briefly watched before running; the explosion was much larger than it should have been, incinerating at least a good dozen of the acolytes and humans, as well as one of the wizards, whose shields exploded and killed several more. He was right, that was interesting!
Crow threw a flaming knife at the remaining, still praying wizard before launching himself into the portal. He immediately regretted it, as, just before he crossed the threshold, he saw a new ritual crystal in the room; one he hadn't been able to see from his original vantage point, and certainly hadn't been there the day before.
The agony of crossing was, if anything, worse this time. He was spat out into the Ascendant Plane without any feeling but pain in his extremities, and he fell, struggling to breath. The first time, at least, he'd died by gunshot. This was so much worse. Glint flashed into existence, flitting over him erratically as he tried to remain a hard target while doing the fastest healing work a Ghost could do.
The pain eased into a numbness, and suddenly he could breath again. He forced himself to jump up, grabbing Glint as he did so, and ran to the nearest cover. There was only one wizard on this side, alone with her crystal and three acolyte attendants. They screeched, and Crow shot them in short enough order. It was good to finally have a problem he could shoot. It wasn't that complicated. A flaming knife took down the wizard's shields, and soon she, too, was dead.
"Thane, can you hear me?" he asked through the comms. "There's a floating, purple crystal on you end, I need you to use the knife I gave you to destroy it."
There was no response. Is he hurt? I shouldn't have left him alone! Where there more Hive that I couldn't see? He looked up at his own crystal, distress rising.
"Commander Shepard, can you get a hold of Thane?" more silence. "Glint...?"
"I... the signal can't cross over." his Ghost materialized. "They can't hear us, and we can't hear them."
A roar sounded nearby. An ogre and a dozen knights crawled out of the depths, and Glint dissolved with a yelp of fright. Terror seized Crow's limbs. Before him was a choice.
Go back. Go through the motions of the portal's pain once more. Tell Thane what to do, or destroy the crystal himself, and fight an uphill battle to get back through the portal while the hoard filed through. He could do it, in theory, but it would mean leaving Thane to face the Hive alone when the portal closed. There was no way the drell would be able to flee through the window in time.
So, it wasn't much of a choice, really.
He hurled a knife at the crystal, and ran back to the portal. He only looked back once, to see the crystal shatter with an omni-present pop. The roars intensified as his world turned into pain once more. This time his body couldn't take it, and he came through dead.
Soon he was on his back, staring up at the warehouse with Glint disappearing over him. There was still gunfire. Getting on the comms and trying to catch his breath, Crow looked around wildly, dizzily, for the other crystal. His eyes found it.
"Shepard, now!" he called into comms. A shape swooped over him, and a clawed hand clamped shut around his neck, cutting off his breath. The wizard he thought he had killed. He drew on whatever Light he had left, he just needed two shots, the claws were digging into his flesh. He managed to aim over the wizard's shoulder as his vision began to tunnel and the sounds became far away.
He fired, and the crystal shattered. A spray of bullets made the wizard drop him, and he could breath again. Something had grazed his leg. The wizard shrieked and writhed as she died, and Crow stumbled forward with his remaining Light, and pumped it into the portal with the command to burn and destroy.
A terrible hand reached through, the meaty, clawed one of an ogre trying to drag itself through. Crow saw it through a haze of ringing ears and cloudy thoughts. The portal seared shut, seeming to scream as it did so, and the arm was severed before the hand could grab him.
Silence.
All he could hear was his blood pounding in his ears, and he let himself fall backwards to sit on the floor because his legs felt like jelly. He might have overdrawn his Light. Maybe it was the effect of going through the portal twice in such quick succession. The realization he'd just stranded himself was quietly rising from the back of his mind, like some crustacean rising from sand on the sea floor.
Glint materialized, and ran several bursts of Light across his body to make up for the quick jobs before. His leg stopped bleeding, and warmth settled the shakes. His neck stopped throbbing, and breathing became even easier. His Ghost bumped his chin reassuringly, with a last pulse of Light.
"You did the right thing, Crow." he assured encouragingly. "You did magnificently."
"Thane, what's happening over there?" Shepard's inquiry brought his thoughts back to the drell, and he looked around frantically before spotting him, just watching, from beside the cover they had used. He was covered in hive gunk but didn't seem too roughed up, and Crow let himself be relieved. He's alive! I didn't get him killed!
"Crow is still here." Thane told his commander, frowning at the Hunter. Had he done something wrong?
"Crow?" Shepard's puzzled voice queried.
"I... it was the only way. I didn't know they had an anchor on this end." he glanced at where the crystal had been, where the cables that had fed it and the ritual now lay unpowered and limp across the floor. "There was an army coming, they would have gotten through."
What had he just done? He'd spared Thane a grisly end, that he knew, but... now what?
"Shit." Shepard exclaimed. "You're stuck aren't you?"
"Language!" Glint whirred in irritation, out of habit. He certainly wouldn't dare 'language' Spider, but everyone else was fair game. "And yes, ma'am, I suppose we are."
Ghost and Lightbearer could both feel the dejection of the situation falling over them. No more Reef, no more tiny escapes to the Dreaming City, no more of Osiris' illicit sandwiches, no more hole in the wall at the Trostland dam... no more Spider.
It was light a firework going off, and a grin spread across his face.
"Glint... no more Spider." Crow pointed out, an elation like nothing he'd felt before spreading through him. "And if signals can't cross over, he can't get you!"
"Ooo! You're right!" His Ghost beeped excitedly. No Spider, no signal, no way through, no way for the bomb to go off! He'd be even happier if he wasn't exhausted, if he wasn't Uldren, if Thane wasn't looking at them like that. He looked the drell in the eyes, suddenly aware that ignoring him was rude.
"Sorry. Personal thing." His shakes were back but now they had a good cause. No more Spider! Whatever horrors and truths had caused this situation, and whichever were to come, at least they had that.
"And what do you plan to do now?" Thane asked, approaching as Glint flew into his hood and made himself comfortable.
"I... don't know." honestly, even under normal circumstances, he wasn't sure what he would do if they were suddenly free. "I don't know anything about this place."
"You could come back to my ship with us, if you want." Shepard offered. "We've got an important mission we're working towards, any any unique talent is welcome."
"What kind of mission?" he asked suspiciously. He wasn't fleeing one shady organization just to get enslaved by another terrible cause.
"Aliens called the Collectors have been kidnapping entire colonies." Crow felt his eyebrows exceed their limits. "They're serving machines called Reapers, and we're going to find a way to stop them."
Something about the word 'Reapers' brought a shiver through his bones.
"We have a med bay, one you would do well to utilize." Thane added, eyeing him and clearly noting the shakes.
"Lightbearers don't really need medicine." Crow told him. He wondered if they had beds. Real beds, not just floor mats. "Somewhere safe to lay low does sound appealing, though."
"That's not a bad idea, considering what you can do." Shepard commented. "The option's open to you if you want it."
He looked at Thane, at the destruction around him, at the brittle, scorched remains of the cryptolith and the Hive growth all around him. He'd been Uldren Sov, he had lashed out at Glint, of all people, the Traveler had led him to a new reality, and he'd saved it. He hadn't slept for more than a few hours. Now he was stuck here.
"Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'll come." he was too tired to fight anything else, and the easiest decision was not to think about this choice at all.
"Welcome aboard. Head on out and we'll meet you with the shuttle." He wondered if he was going to regret this. He forced his legs to move, and followed Thane through the window and out of the tunnel once more.
He really wondered if he was going to regret this.
Ho, boy that was a doozy to write. Proud of the length, but I hope it flowed well, I was pretty tired when I wrapped this up. It was fun to have my sneaky bois in this together.
I'm pretty sure the Light is more intuitive than it seems, that Guardians can command it what to destroy and what not to. Otherwise we'd have friendly fire as a functionality with our powers in-game. Just imagine that for a second, how chaotic that would be. Yeah. Just a headcanon.
Ebuc: Lol, a snack story, I like that. You should read Raven Studios' ME novelization, it's recently finished with 3, and every chapter is told as a 1k vignette. It's incredible writing.
Steve: Yeah, kinda makes you wonder how Petra will be feeling later this season... granted, she isn't throwing any shade at Glint yet, just Crow.
KINGREADER: Crow is roughly two when season of the Hunt ends, but since he's canonically never had any REAL Hunter training, so he's not running around killing hive gods like our player Guardian was at that age. I think a combination of freedom and, Glint, and 'Osusris', led to Crow gaining the confidence to sass and Iron Lord during season of the Chosen. Then he had Holliday working on socializing him properly, and she's and incredibly supportive character, in combination with the player guardian giving him hope that not everybody will try to beat him to death with a hammer. There was a fair amount of time between Crow being freed and chosen beginning, plenty of time to gain the sass we witness.
E: I specifically chose Crow for that EXACT reason. He's never had real training from another Hunter, thanks largely to his past self, though we know he's figured a few things out on his own. The entirety of this is meant to be a challenge for him, physically and mentally. I might use Hive maybe one more time, but not the race themselves. They essentially opened a can of worms by exposing these two world to each other, so there might be another connection at some point. My options are open from 'Leviathans are Ahamkara' to 'Javik gets Taken'(not really, can't hint spoilers, but both sound terrifying). I have plenty of ideas, but so far, not at the stage where I know how I'll integrate them.
In other news, work on part 2 of this little experiment has officially begun.
Fare Thee Well!