My second participation in Rosenkow's Spiritual Shrios Summer collection of challenge prompts.
Prompt word: "PRAY" - Challenge link: blog/view/rosenkow/648829521965006848
While I was playing ME2, I couldn't shake the anxiety I imagined they were both feeling the night before Omega 4. Sure maybe they got down, but after, the anticipation must have been dreadful.
PLEASE NOTE! - - Chapter 2 is IDENTICAL except it's Male Shepard instead.
Thane smiles at her, gracelessly pushing one leg into the underlayer of her hardsuit. It's strange to see her like this, hanging somewhere in the middle of a of transition between Shepard the woman, and Shepard the soldier. He crosses the room to help, offering an arm to lean on and holding the sleeves out for her to thread her arms into.
"Is it standard practice for Alliance soldiers to help their commanding officer dress before battle?" He asks with a smile.
Her answering laugh is a ray of light in the darkness before the storm. "Absolutely not." The zipper of her suit is still undone but she steps close and meets his eyes, arms threading around his waist. "But we aren't Alliance soldiers." A quick kiss on his cheek. "Lucky us. Fraternizing with a superior officer is grounds for dishonorable discharge."
He could melt into her embrace. Somewhere in the long hours between stars, they found each other. Their meeting had been professional, and he was unsurprised to find him coming to ask him questions about his illness and the mission. But somehow, little by little, he met the Commander, then the soldier, and then... her. The woman, the human, the person - Shepard - surprising him at every turn.
She listens with her full attention, interjecting her own thoughts and validations as he damn near gushes about his dogma, his gods... his wife and son, his hurts and regrets. At times when the night cycle drags on, she retires to her cabin only to ping him on his comm. By the time they're ready for the mission they've been training for, it feels like he has known her for a lifetime. He still doesn't understand why it's her that brings out the conversationalist in him. Maybe no one else had wanted to listen. Maybe he'd never given anyone else a chance.
"If faith is your pillar of strength... then your gods are my gods."
Those words echo in his mind, warming him to his bones. She isn't exceptionally spiritual, but she listens and receives him without question or judgement. The kindness in her makes his heart swell, standing together, assassin and commander, in the cool quiet of Shepard's cabin.
"Shepard, if you will permit me," he says hesitantly, "I'd like to offer you a prayer."
"A prayer?" That smile again - corners of her mouth tugging upward, lifting his spirits despite the oppressing anticipation of battle. "I'd be honored."
Shepard touches her forehead to his and he takes the zipper of her undersuit, slowly dragging it upward, watching it close over her skin. In his mind, the fabric is the armor of her spirit and he is welding it closed. Eyes sliding shut, he makes his hushed call to the goddess of protection.
"Mother Arashu, I ask protection for your daughter,"
The zipper slides closed in the hollow of her throat and he kneels before her, sliding her feet one at a time into her boots, sealing her greaves around her calves. The material is scuffed from use but sturdy and lightweight. He feels the muscle tensing beneath each piece, compressing, relaxing, gently forming into the confines of each specialty fabricated stim plate and shock absorber. Her armor is as much for her enhancement as it is for her protection, and later he will watch her legs propel her across the battlefield with inhuman speed, dodging enemy fire, weaving in and combat as she was born to do.
"Repel the evils that would harm her,"
Scaled hands run over her knees and thighs. She pulls her chausses from her locker and holds each one steady for him to clamp reverently around her thighs. Straps thread around her legs, he takes care not to make them too tight. A full body hardsuit is impractical - she needs unrestricted movement to meet the demands of the battle, but he hates himself knowing how vulnerable she is with merely flexible kinetic weaves to protect her femoral arteries. He presses a kiss below her navel as he rises from his knees, palms gliding up her sides, pausing again to kiss above her heart.
"Be her shield and sword of flame,"
She holds her hair up as he fits her gorget around her neck. It supports the heaviest and most reinforced part of her armor - segmented carbon and titanium plates that hug the curve of her back all the way down to the base where it connects to her cuisses. She checks to make sure it's properly fitted and connected. It has to be - one stray shot is all it would take to sever her spine. She sighs and stretches upwards as it clicks into place, plates moving fluidly against her back.
"None shall come to hurt or maim,"
Thane's thumb passes over the embossed N7 symbol over the right breast of her curiass before he lowers the unit over her head. Custom fabricated seals meet at her sides, hissing closed and tightening around her ribcage like a glove. Reinforced joints over her breastbone and collar allow it to expand and contract with each of her steady breaths and flat plates against her abdomen stiffen her posture. Shepard guides his hand to the seal just below the collar of her chestplate and when he presses it, the onboard electronics sputter to life, lights flickering on and fans humming in the dim silence of her cabin. She almost seems taller now, calmer; the soft creature he'd lain with just an hour ago safely encased in the familiar armaments that have carried her through battle after battle.
He can't help but embrace her, forehead meeting hers with eyes closed. Her measured breathing steels his nerves and deepens his understanding of her as a solider - why so many, himself included, have unwaveringly sworn wage war against impossible odds with her at their side. Tonight, he may die for her cause, but it would be his privilege to die by her side - a warrior angel. A Siha.
"Let her be an impenetrable wall,"
She kisses his cheek as his arms enfold her, attaching her belt. It clamps around her waist, arcing over her hips. Pivoting hinges hang over her hipbones, catching easily on her cuisses to form one complete unit - a clean design that conserves her mobility while protecting her soft waist... where his hands had clung not long ago, when they were as one. He clicks the assembly together just below her navel, and his prayer continues.
"She will be a shield for all,"
There's nearly a tangle of straps that meet over her shoulders. Jointed pauldrons click into place where they intersect with her chestplate supports. With her curiass attached, these are automated, designed to be quickly donned without assistance, software tightening each strap to preset customizations. Around her biceps, forearms, and hands, each vambrace is a fully contained set of panels and joints. He kisses each gloved palm as he draws the seals closed one at a time. She is nearly complete.
"Great Arashu, lend your power,"
Their lips meet one final time in a chase kiss. Thane gently tucks her hair behind an ear, drawing her visor around her forehead in an upward, unpowered position. He etches her eyes into his memory before they nearly disappear behind her combat HUD.
"Keep her safe in this final hour."
She is in his arms for a few precious seconds and they breathe together as one. Her voice is a mere whisper: "Thank you." It's not goodbye, but... "May Arashu protect you this night and every night."
It's time to go.
Their hands lock together as the elevator descends to the CIC.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I'm zet-sway on tumblr!