"Alright, let's get started," Summer declared just as the trailer started.
Darkness gave way to reveal the words:
"Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it... irreplaceable."
"That's deep." Ashly was one for poetry and found herself more interested in the show. No one else commented on viers. Each had their sorrows and regrets that they have to live with for the rest of their lives.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... Weiss Schnee." An amplified voice announced.
"Are we watching a performance now?" Tali asked.
A young girl in white with a barely visible scar over her left eye walked out on stage into the spotlight as a piano played the opening of "Mirror Mirror" before a crowd of people, occasionally taking pictures from their stands around the white castle they appeared to be in. She closed her eyes and began to sing.
"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all..." Weiss sang.
"She has such a lovely voice." Liara praised.
"Indeed," Doctor Cakwas nodded in agreement. "I would not be against listening to more of this."
"But her lyrics sound so sad and sound like they mean something," Tali said.
While she sang, the view sinks through the floor into her scar-free reflection on the stage, the world tilting until she opened her eyes and found herself in another place. The light and shadows shifting until a warrior in giant armor with an equally massive broadsword appeared before her.
"OH...crap, that's a big guy!" Jake stated the obvious.
"What is that thing?" Tali asks.
"Don't know, but she's going to fight it with a toothpick. She got a quad on her," Wrax said as he paid attention o this fight.
"A sword that size is going to hit hard. That girl will have to move fast and avoid getting hit if she wants to win this." Garrus analyzed.
She backflips just as the Giant Armor brings its blade down on where she was, and the song continues as her flashback takes over.
"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all?" Weiss continued to sing off-screen.
"What do you think the lyrics of the song are referring to?" Summer asked the rest of her team.
"The girl is alone. She has no one, and her songs are the one outlet she has to express herself and try and get some attention." Joker answered. Everyone paused to look at the pilot. The pilot found himself at the center of attention.
"Wow, Joker. And how would you know this?" Tali asked.
"I've got a little sister that likes music..." Joker scratched his cheek.
Weiss unsheathed her rapier, Myrtenaster, and darted forward, getting a hit on her enemy before twirling into a landing. The Giant Armor swung again, but she dashed away and landed several spinning slashes on the creature. It retaliated when she uppercut into the air, arcing its sword around and hitting Weiss' rapier, which she brought up just in time to merely knock her back.
"She good," Anderson commented as he observed the way the teen moved. "Fast and agile." 'Reminds me of the N7 slayers,' he thought.
"Fear of, what's inside of me. Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"
"More lyrics, now referring to herself and her self-esteem. Maybe?" Summer said before glancing at her pilot. Joker shook his head.
"Just because I know some meanings to music doesn't make me an expert on song lyrics, Commander."
Weiss looks up to see the Giant Armour leaping into the air and hurling the sword down on her, then swinging it back up in an effort to get its fast-moving target. It finally hits her blade again, and she is knocked away until she rolls back on her feet.
"Spirits, she's dancing circles around that thing!" Garrus said.
"That's pure skill she has there. She was attacking the joints to throw it off balance.
"How is she moving so fast? I can hardly follow her movements," Liara asked as she followed the strikes.
With white energy now gathered on her fingertips, Weiss motioned to the ground beneath her, and a snowflake symbol appeared that propelled her forward at extreme speeds. Despite the Giant Armor's attempts to slash at her, Weiss disappeared and reappeared all around it, leaping through the air using her glyphs and landing a blow with each pass.
"What the...does she have magic?!" Ashly said.
"Ok, this starting to get ridiculous," Garrus said.
"But you can't help that this looks awesome," Summer pointed out.
"True."
After a slash to the face, the Giant Armor aims at Weiss' feet, who leaps over it and gets an undefended fist to her head. Launching Weiss yet again, but her attempt to get back up is weak and unsure this time. A worried Weiss closes her eyes, and in the real world, the spotlight suddenly cuts out.
"Ouch, that had to hurt," Summer winced at the hit. Speaking from experience from receiving a few hard hits herself in her career.
"Hard to get back up from that," Tali said.
"The fact that she's getting back on her feet says a lot about her," Anderson said with Summer Summer and Wrex as they looked at the young girl with approval. The aspect of not how many times you get down is what counts. It's getting back up.
The moon makes itself known when the clouds in front of it pass, showering Weiss in its light as she sings, eyes still closed. In her mind, she stands back up, eyeing the Giant Armor with blood trailing down the left side of her face.
"So that's how she got that scar," Summer said.
"Maybe I should start a club for all us fighters with scared faces," Gurras mused. Himself, Zaeed, Mordin, Wrex, and Shepard all could join in.
"Make sure to have a few beer cases at every meeting."
Holding out her sword, the revolver mechanism spins in the hilt until a red energy appears over the blade. The Giant Armor runs up and drops its sword on her, but it meets her rapier and is deflected off.
"How the hell was she not crushed under the weight of the sword?" Wrex asked.
"Some kind of Mass Effect field vocalized in her sword, perhaps?" Liara offered some explanation.
"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world. Why won't you let me hide from me?" Weiss continued to sing.
"This song sure kills the mood," Ashly said.
"I get the feeling that the girl is going to have a major turning point, and soon." Summer said.
Weiss switched it up and spun, a cyan light now creating a wave of ice when she struck it into the ground that froze the Giant Armor in place. It swung again, but Weiss ran ahead and jumped on the sword.
"ICE TOO! This is just too much...Liara?" Ashly wined.
"I've...got no explanation for that, Chief..." The Info Broker replied.
The Krogan Chief laughed. "This is great."
"Now it's ridiculous," Gurras dryly comments.
Myrtenaster is now glowing yellow, and she rolls on the broadsword and slashes at her foe, destroying the ice crystals in shards of purple but impaling its weapon into the ground. She rotates the hilt again before a snowflake circle spins under her when the Giant Armor tries to hammer its fist down on her, but she rolls out of the way and activates the glyph, launching the warrior up into the air and becoming trapped by Weiss' beams of blue energy.
"Well, whatever she's using, she's dominating this fight now." Summer said as she paid close attention to the fight. Feeling a sense of familiarity that she could not understand.
"Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all?" Weiss sang the line once more.
With one final leap into the air and her real self singing the last lines of her song, Myrtenaster glowed with the white markings on its blade, and Weiss descended onto the Giant Armor. When her attack was concluded, she landed in a superhero crouch. The black hollows of the enemy lit up before crashing into the ground in a shower of ice and snow behind her.
"I'm the loneliest of all." Weiss finished the song.
The Normandy crew were once again in awe at this before Liara and Doctor Chakwas started clapping. "A most wonderful performance," Chakwas said.
"Indeed, her talents would be most welcomed if she came to Thesia," Liara commented.
"It was unquestionably a unique fight to behold," Anderson responded. "She'll give the Vanguards in the N7 Corp a fight."
"That I'll pay to watch," Summer grinned at her old friend before it fell. Anderson and took note of this.
Weiss got up and closed her eyes, finishing Mirror Mirror to a gentle shower of snowflakes and a roar of applause from her audience. She opened her eyes and looked around as if in a daze, then peered up at the slightly-scattered moon above.
"Whoa, ok, that's not normal." Joker pointed at the damaged moon in the sky.
"A garden world with a broken moon in orbit? I'm not familiar with any planet that matches that," says Garrus as he gazes at the broken satellite.
"Nor I," Liara said. Bringing out her Omni-tool to check her records for such a world.
Weiss dips her head and bows to the crowd as the curtains close around her. The screen fades to black before the as of yet unnamed girl in red, and now Weiss Schnee appears next to the other two dark panels.
"That was certainly a fight to look at again later. Didn't know humans could move like that," Wrex said when the show ended.
"We don't, Wrex, at least I don't think we do," Summer pondered.
"Tali, do you think you could get the whole song off this thing?" Liara asks her friend.
"Of course," the Quarian answered. "Getting the download off the data would be a sinch. I may get me a copy for myself to listen along with any other songs this show may have for us."
"Give me a copy of the music too, Tali," Summer said.
"Same he," Ashley responded.
"In any event," the Alliance Admiral said as he prepared to bring out the main topic. "The fight was no doubt entertaining, but other than the previous girl looking like she could be the Commander's long lost daughter, our purpose here is still questionable. And if these videos are to believed...then there's a possibility that somewhere out in the galaxy is another human civilization evolved separately from the Alliance."
"A second humanity." Garrus shook his head. "That would undoubtedly turn the Council over its head. An amusing thought."
"If that so, then that means Shepard, sorry, Rose...Commander?" Ashley said awkwardly.
"It's fine to keep calling me Shepard guys," the N7 assured her old friend. "It's what I've been calling myself since the Blits. Finding out what my real name is won't change who I am to all of you. Just something to add to who I am."
"Properly said, Shepard," Liara said with a smile.
"But this does pose a question." Garrus gaining everyone's attention. "If Summer is originally from this civilization, how did she appear in Alliance space if our two civilizations never met?"
The question was on one had an answer for.
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Another trailer being done in a short amount of time. I am delighted at seeing the results coming in and the vocal support I see in the Reviews. Thank you all for commenting.
As for those asking why we're not seeing more people in the audience? Answers are there will be a few more people showing up in later chapters. I didn't want too many right now due to the workload of developing reactions for more people. And some are just hard to think of responses for (AK: Mordin, Legion, Thane, and Samara). Plus, with fewer people in attendance, I can hopefully put more chapters down quicker. Maybe not, but it's worth a shot in trying.
Thank you for reading. See you all over the web.