Okay, first of all Cyberpunk Edgerunners is fucking amazing. Holy shit it was awesome.
Now, all I can really say now is REVIEW! Help me get better as a writer. Otherwise, enjoy the chapter folks!
POV: Aedon Eyes.
Since leaving the Geth base we spent most of the time in transit to the Relay. During that time nothing really changed from what I usually did. Woke up early, untangled myself from Tali, got dressed and proceeded to go shooting and workout. Though there was the added bit of sparring every day after the workout. Mostly it would be with Shepard or Jack but a Grunt jumped in the ring against me a couple times.
When he did I surprised myself a couple of times. In terms of mobility and flexibility I outstretched Grunt by a wide margin but even then his strength beat me. That being said it wasn't as much of a divide as it should've been realistically. That got me thinking more and more about the drains that I was doing to people. From that and the fact that my squat, deadlift and bench all got significantly better recently I had to assume that the drains were giving me power.
On one hand it was awesome. Who wouldn't want more power? I could protect all the more people but on the other hand it was scary as all hell. I understood all the more why Asari wanted to lock up all Ardat Yakshi's. The more they drain the more power they gain and it doesn't matter who you are. Power corrupts; I will have to watch myself in the coming days because I know I will be draining more people and Reapers soldiers. It could end badly if I allow myself to grow unchecked.
Might need to talk to Mordin about devising a countermeasure against me just in case. All things considered though I wouldn't doubt it if he was already working on something like that. He definitely has the paranoia to do something like that or it could've been ordered by Shepard. Shepard may trust me but he isn't an idiot and knows I could become a threat.
Either way the spars were fun regardless of the revelation with my strength and increased endurance now. That being said Shepard was still able to beat me a couple of times through pure skill. It was incredibly impressive how was able to do that, it wasn't without effort but he was still probably the best hand to hand combatant out there. Flung me around like a ragdoll in one of the rights with counters to literally every move I made.
After that spar I asked him to show me the moves that he pulled on me and he did. I recorded them with my helmet and went over them for hours slowly and silently in my room alone. I knew I wouldn't be able to commit them to muscle memory so quickly but I could get a headstart on it. Never know when a new move would be a good thing to have.
Either way after we finished our spar he told me that EDI was close to cracking the Reaper IFF that I had given her. Joker and EDI had orders that when they finished they were to get away from Omega to the outskirts of the system we were going to and then activate it. He didn't want to risk Omega being infected with the IFF just in case something went wrong. I understood why he wanted them to do that but as he talked about it my paranoia flared exponentially. Still, I went with Shepards plan.
Sparring, as usual, with Jack was more of a brawl than anything though. She's improved beyond anything that I though possible for her and was even able to use one of Shepard's moves to slam me on the mat. Still beat her in that particular spar but that doesn't dismiss the fact that she had never been able to do that before. I was proud of her.
Moving past that there wasn't much else to do than what I already said while we made our way to Omega. I did, of course, hang out with Tali a good bit and there was a good portion of that time being where I just stayed in her presence. Not really much sexy time with us closing in on Omega and the funeral. We did it a couple times but it was mostly just a distraction than anything else; that didn't mean I didn't put my all into but still.
I wanted to face what was coming and didn't want to be distracted to much. Which means I cut her off when we were about a day and half from Omega. She understood the reasoning behind it and just made sure that I had company so I didn't fall to far down the rabbit hole. It meant a lot for her to do that for me.
As we got closer and closer to Omega too people started to give me a wider birth because they all knew why we were going there. That was especially annoying but at least Garrus, Shepard, Jack, Tali and Grunt treated me the same. It's not like I was a fucking glass bottle that could shatter at any moment. That frustrated me obviously which made the spars all the more necessary.
Either way we eventually made our way to Omega and after getting permission we docked. Still, didn't like that all of the docking bays were under Aria's control but she let my mercenary groups through well enough. Didn't even have to pay anything to her for use of the docks; a smart move on her part. We would've fought for those docks if that had been the case.
Waiting outside of the airlock to leave I looked at everyone around me. All of the ground team was here, even Zaeed, which was kinda surprising to me. I guess they must've liked me more than what I thought. Pushing on though was when I spotted Tali; she was sporting a more ornamental getup with her suit and proudly displayed front and center below her neck was the necklace I had given her. It meant so much to see that.
As we landed at the docks we were greeted by a small profession of the leaders that we had left in charge. Nyreen, Kelli, Vrul, Ilok, Samuel and the guy who took over Mordin's medical center; I can never remember the guys name. When they saw me they all went up to me and each individual one gave me a hug. It felt a little weird to be honest but at the same time it was amazing. To know that they were still in my corner after months apart.
"It's good to see you boss. How are you holding up?" Kelli asked as she had been the last one to give me a hug. I gave her a shrug of my shoulders in response but kept it at that. I didn't want to say anything else really. The funeral was tomorrow and the less I thought about it until the actual funeral the better. She seemed to understand my silence though and didn't push to get an answer out of me.
From there the rest of our Omega made group introduced themselves to the Normandy's ground team. It was a surprisingly pleasant affair which surprised me as I thought there would be plenty of snide comments. There wasn't though but the interaction between Grunt and Vrul was interesting at least.
The each walked up to each other and stared each other down for a few moments. After those moments they began to sniff and circle each other and when they decided they were done they each released a huff from their nose. As soon as they did that they reared their heads back and slammed them into each other with a resounding crack between their heads as a result.
They were silent for a few moments after their headbutt before they shook each others hands. A nod of unknown understanding passing between the two of them before they each simultaneously backed off. It was an interesting interaction but I wasn't about to say anything more about it. Krogan still confused me at times with how they operated but as long as the Krogan was on our side I didn't care much.
After introductions were done between us we left the docking area but as we did Aria was waiting for us right outside. As we saw her standing there alone we looked on a bit confused but as she stared at us it became evident that she only had eyes for me. Her near death glare on me being a very obvious sign of this.
As we saw her too there was silence from everyone. She wasn't that intimidating anymore to those of us who worked on Omega but for the others she was still the Queen. That being said once the mild shock of seeing her ended she stalked up to me eliciting growls from both Vrul and Grunt, plus Kelli activating her biotics. However, all it took was a simple raise of my hand and they all stopped. She then stopped right in front of me.
"Juni was one hell of a woman. If you considered her your mother it's no wonder you've made so much trouble for me Aedon," I was admittedly surprised at her use of my name but I gave her a silent nod regardless. She then outstretched her hand to me and I took it. "May I come to the Funeral tomorrow?"
Again I was surprised at how respectful she was being. It seemed that I wasn't the only one that got surprised at that either. Just from the air around us and the overall feeling I could tell the others were surprised. I stood there silently judging the look on her face and what she could possibly want out of this before relenting and giving her a simple sharp nod. She gave me one in return before walking away.
From there we all walked in silence before we got to an airbus. Well, something that could only be described as an airbus as it was big enough for all of us. We all piled in and the driver, the old Turian who gave me a ride when Shepard first arrived, gave me courtesy nod before starting and taking off.
Everyone talked amongst each other and got to know more about each other but I stayed silent for the most part. The only real company I had was Kelli on my left who gave me a figurative protective blanket as she sat there and Tali who quietly leaned on me in comfort. It was a nice and relaxing ride. Then we got to my groups controlled section of Omega.
As we exited the air bus there was a giant profession of people waiting for us, or I guess me. At the front of the profession was Camile Bright-Sun, the young woman I had saved while she was being raped by Batarians. As soon as she saw me she barelled past the security that had been set up and jumped at me. I took it in all in stride though and opened my arms and caught her bringing her into a hug.
This one act opened up the floodgates as everyone started pushing their way past the security to Garrus and myself. To the point where the security guards just made sure everyone was progressing in an orderly manner. I won't say it was all that orderly but it was a lot better than it could have been.
I spent almost the entirety of three hours greeting people and talking to them. It honestly surprised me that they would miss me this much or even care this much. I guess I still wasn't used to seeing this type of reception. Especially with me being… no. NO. NO. I may have been one but I've come so far from what I was. There was no way I could ever be a true hero but I was no longer a monster. Garrus, Shepard, Grunt, Jack but most of all TALI made me realize this.
Moving past that after the three long hours of greeting everyone who came I left the area with Kelli, Tali and Vrul and made my way to my apartment. Shepard and the others had gone around our territory and gotten their own accommodations but I wasn't complaining. Anywho when we arrived at my apartment and I opened the door I got a pleasant surprise.
As soon as I opened the door the first thing I focused on was the brightest smile I might've ever seen. It was from Iris as she sat on a stool looking at grinning from ear to ear. I was frozen for a moment but she wasn't as she jumped out of the chair and charged me. Meeting her in the middle I dropped to both knees and embraced her as she jumped into my arms.
It was an indescribable feeling to have her back in my arms again. It was absolutely exhilarating beyond anything that could be measured. I held her tight in my arms and so close to my chest. It had been months since I had seen my daughter and to finally see her again felt incredible.
As time passed with us in that same position I couldn't tell how long it had been but I just couldn't find it in myself to care all that much. We basked in each others presence and the only thing that broke it was when Iris pushed off me a miniscule amount and looked beyond me locking eyes with Tali.
Once she saw Tali she untangled herself from me before jumping at Tali. Tali took it all in stride though and caught Iris all the same and hoisted her up into her arms. Once she was up in Tali's arms I turned and gave my full attention to the rest of the people in my apartment. It was all of my surviving mentors.
Ceelo gave me a reassuring smile as he saw me break out of the stupor that I was in and look at them. It was a kinder smile than I ever believed him capable of. Volio was much the same way but a bit more reserved. However, he still gave me a good, if strained, smile at seeing me. T'Kari's death was weighing on him; I could tell.
Then there was Frank. As I looked at him after holding Iris he looked almost heartbroken. There were a litany of reasons as to why exactly that could be the case but I chose to ignore most of them and landed on Miss T'Kari's death. He never got to have children with her and my heart ached for him there but he had me… I was his son in all but blood and nothing could or would ever change that.
After that we spent a long while catching up with each other. We kinda did when we drank at Chora's Den but that was more of us just drowning our sorrows in anything that we could get our hands on. This, this was more real and definitely a better example of catching up between us. Asking about what we had been doing and what exactly was going on in everyone's lives.
It really boiled down to that Volio, Ceelo, and Frank had kept up what they usually did. Working the bar in Volio's case, working his shop in Frank's and doing freelance cyber security in Ceelo's case. With the added spice that they would take a mercenary job every now and again just to get the blood flowing. Something that Miss T'Kari had taken part in before she… died helping me.
All of this ended up with me taking Iris to her bed in my apartment while I was a little tipsy. It wasn't overt so she didn't notice, I hope, and when I tucked her in and gave her a kiss on her forehead she was out almost instantly. It was so incredibly cute that I really couldn't put anything more onto it. She was my perfect little girl.
From there all of us sat and drank together. Though in the case of Ceelo and Tali they had to sip it out of straws for this occasion. Still we made it work and eventually everyone made their way to their own designated little areas for sleeping. Meaning that Ceelo and Volio took to the couch and it was big enough for them. However, before Frank went to sleep in the guest bedroom he looked back at me.
"Juni was my life but she gave her life to save you. To save the man who saved us… We may have saved you Aedon but you saved us as well," he didn't wait for a reply as he went into the guest bedroom in silence.
Looking at the door of my guest room for a few moments I turned and went back to my room. Tali was already there lying under the sheets of the bed but she raised her head as I entered the room. As I did so she lifted the covers and I got in at the invitation curling myself behind her. My sleep was peaceful as we cuddled.
The next morning I left early and made my way to the training grounds we had. Of the few people up early enough they all left me alone as I got in my own workout. It was one of my better workouts I've had in a long time. It was Back and biceps today and when I finished I was completely smoked from the workout.
After finishing up there I made my way to the shooting range and got about an hour or so of practice in there before making my way back to my apartment. On the way though I stopped and looked a building that some construction workers were working on. Looking at the building it was familiar in the shape that it was in the early part of its construction but it was hard to tell exactly what it was with how early on in the construction it was.
With curiosity taking the reigns I approached the building stopping short of impeding the construction workers. They noticed me though and all gave me sincere nods before going back to their work. The building still confused me even though there was this intrinsic sense of familiarity. It got the point where I walked up to who could only be the architect. He was the only person on the site who was dressed in something that could resemble a suit.
As he saw me approach he turned to face me fully. A kind smile on his face as he greeted me with an outstretched hand. Opening my mouth to ask him what the building was going to be my mouth immediately shut itself. The answer to my unasked question presented itself when the architect grabbed a book behind him and showed it too me. It was the Bible; this place was going to be a church.
"You figured it out. The Pope sends his regards," was all the architect said before turning away from me and continuing his work.
As he spoke those words though the only thing on my mind were the words of the Pope from when I met him. That Jesus took his time making and braiding his whip and just like that it would take me time to figure out how to help people more. Never in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that this would be the result. I never tried to convert people, never wanted them to follow my path unless they wanted too… and the galaxy had other plans apparently.
Looking at the Architect and the works though something about them made me paranoid. There were only five workers not including the architect which was much to small for this. Not only that but the way each of them carried themselves told me they were all soldiers and good ones at that. Constantly roaming eyes, never staying still, silent communication with the barest of moves between each other. I'll have to tell Nyreen to keep an eye on them if she wasn't already; these guys were good and they had a lot of experience together.
Leaving the site and making my way back to my aparment I arrived just in time for breakfast. Frank was cooking and we enjoyed the pancakes that he made. Well, just him, myself and Iris; Ceelo, Tali and Volio couldn't partake because of their biology so they had to settle for paste. Either way it was an enjoyable breakfast as we ate together.
Tali was still a bit icy to Ceelo but they at least seemed amicable and once they started talking tech and all the innovations about it they entered their own little world. Tech still eluded me except for hacking and the abilities that omni-tools could produce. Anything nuanced about it just didn't compute with my brain.
Either way Frank, Volio, Iris and myself talked about weapons and fighting techniques. It felt weird with Iris contributing to it but she stayed silent most of the time. However, when she did speak up she would point out the smallest details about a particular move or weapon. It was enlightening and scary at the same time. My little girl is becoming like me.
Something that I will need to curb at least a little. She could follow my steps but there was now way it would be allowed for her to become what I have. To go though everything in my life. She deserved better than that and even though stopping her from following my footsteps wouldn't work I would make damn sure she didn't become a monster. Fight the good fight and don't do anything that would stain your soul.
That being said while I've been away Nyreen had apparently instituted real laws in our controlled portion of Omega. Before then they were just guidelines that outlined what would happen to you if they broke them but now they were legitimate laws. Nothing grandiose and really just common sense. Murder without a legitamate reason, you die; Rape when proven to Nyreen, Mordin's replacement or Kelli, death; Pedophilia again proven, torture then death. All of that was something I could get behind.
Thankfully there hasn't been any cases of pedophilia but there were a few murder cases. Mostly jilted lovers and they got put to the sword as well. As for Rape there were a decent number of those cases. More than I was comfortable with, however most of those came from people coming into our territory for a night or so. Either way Aria has been surprisingly cooperative in that arena. If she found the perpetrator she sent them to us to be tried and then killed in almost every case.
Pushing that out of my mind we continued to talk for a long time until Franks omni-tool went off with a ping. When it did he silently looked at all of us and we all understood what was going on. It was time for Miss T'Kari's funeral.
We followed him out of my apartment and made our way to the designated area. Getting the location from Frank I sent a message to the rest of the ground team telling them where to go for the funeral. There were a couple messages back of acknowledgment bur for the most part there were no replies.
As we reached the designated area it was a small building near the outer edge of Omega I noticed the wide window in the back of the building. It was completely open showing the space outwards and out there were hundreds of ships floating in space waiting for something. What they were waiting for escaped me but they were waiting for something. I could just tell.
Over the next hour or so people started trickling into the building. They were silent in their reverence for my mother and I silently thanked them for that. This was already hard enough without more people coming to try and talk to me. Throughout it all though Tali was my rock and stayed by my side.
There were so many times where I just wanted to run out and not accept that she was dead but with Tali there my body wouldn't let me. Especially with the Necklace of Everlasting proudly displayed around her neck for all to see. For anyone looking it was obvious who had given it to her. ME; she was mine and there was no doubt that I was hers as well.
Eventually everyone was here and we had all put up our weapons before entering. Our weapons stacked on the outisde of the building with our melee weapons hanging up on the wall near the door. Of couse people still had knives on their person along with other weapons the security couldn't find but none of us thought about any type of fighting today.
I still had the knife Miss T'Kari had given me on me but all of my weapons were outside. My ax though was hanging on the wall at the only place that would hold a weapon. Pushing that out of my mind the funeral started in earnest when Frank strode toward the podium. As he reached the podium the ships on the outside of the window all released fireworks*. Even though it was just the beginning of the funeral it meant a good deal to me to see that. A celebration of my mothers life.
Once the fireworks were over Frank started talking. I won't lie I wasn't paying all that much attention to him talk even though I really should've but it was impossible for me. As a picture of my mom was sitting right behind him it was the only thing that my eyes would focus on. Just seeing her smile in the picture froze me to my seat as Frank spoke. Even when he shed a few tears I barely noticed them.
When he was done Volio took Franks place on the podium. Again as he spoke my whole body only focused on the picture of my mother behind him. Though as Volio began to speak I did notice that during his speech he was crying. Like full bore crying, as that became evident to me I paid more attention to what he was saying.
What he said hurt me more than I could ever be comfortable with. My mother to him was the glue that held everyone together. The one that made sure that no matter what happened that they would still be a family. Even when Frank and her broke up the first time she still held everyone together. Stubbornly refusing to let go, making sure they stayed together because she knew that they could do some real good in this galaxy.
My mother was everything that I could ever hope to be. Strong, smart, morally right, unafraid of anything and uncompromising to what she believed in. There was truly only one word to describe the person that was my mother. You could search for a thousand years and you would never find a better word than the one that popped into my mind. Hero.
As Volio finished talking he walked back to his seat on the other side of Frank who was next to me. Doing so he tapped my shoulder and silently gestured towards the podium. Giving him a nod I made my way there. It was only, maybe, 20 feet from me but every step felt excruciating. It was me accepting that she was truly dead and everything screamed at me not to accept it but I had to.
Standing at the podium my voice caught in my throat as I looked out at everyone in front of me. Stage fright has never impacted me in any way but right here right now it downpoured on me. It was finally me acknowledging my mothers death and I didn't want to. I… I just didn't want to but there was no way she could have survived. The atmosphere of Hagelez saw to that.
Taking a deep breath to calm myself I looked to Tali. She gave me a reassuring nod conveying all that was needed. She was here for me no matter what and that's all that I could really ask for. Taking another deep breath and gripping the edges of the platform my voice finally came back to me.
"My mother w-"
"Was weak!" a voice exploded at the same times that the door to the building swung open revealing Dashi standing there with her sword held at her side as usual with her other arm free. As she entered the building I could feel my blood singing for the fight. This was going to be her second lesson and at my mother and her daughters funeral no less.
Rend her limb from limb, let me fight. You alone can't beat her, she's stronger, faster and more skilled than either of us. Together than boy. Together.
My vision was already going red. Tainted by the blood pooling in my eyes in anticipation for the fight. My adrenaline shooting through the roof as everything seemed to slow down around me. This time for this fight I was going to make her bleed, and bleed a lot. Fuck her.
"She died by my hand as she laid on the ground. My daughter was a weakling who surrounded herself with weaklings. I'll never know why she did that but I guess she was just a dumb bitch," she looked pointedly at Ceelo, Volio, Frank and myself at those words. My blood boiled and sang for violence to be released. As Dashi talked though her eyes continually scanned the crowd in the building silently challenging them to try her. No one did.
"I guess she always one though. With how stupid she was as a child I should have seen it in all honesty. Still, I held out hope that she would move past those tendencies but I guess not. My da…daughter," her voice was almost a whisper as she looked at Tali and more specifically the necklace around her neck.
No one said a word as Dashi marched up to Tali. I tensed my body ready to move at any moment already moving myself out from behind the podium. Though as Dashi got to Tali she grabbed onto the necklace and looked at it in silence. Seemingly contemplating her whole life; or that's at least what I got from her look.
She looked distraught as she looked at the necklace. The Dashi everyone knew was no longer there. Replaced by someone most wouldn't recognize but I did, I've seen it enough. It was of someone who was overwhelmed by grief. She held the necklace in her hands mere inches from Tali but made no move to do anything.
She stayed there looking at the necklace in silence for the longest time before she eventually pulled away. I could see the tears starting to pin prick the edge of her eyes but she pushed them down before looking at everyone. Her glare was something of legend as she got everyone to take several steps away from her but I held my ground as she looked at me.
"Everyone except the boy out. Now. Or you all become targets," her voice was so quiet but it reverberated around the building and outside like a thunder clap.
Silently everyone left the building. Most throwing hate filled glances at Dashi and sympathetic ones towards me. I barely paid any type of attention to them and instead focused on Dashi. Who, for the most part, seemed to still be completely in her own world. She stood silently at the same place she had been seemingly looking down at a necklace that was no longer there.
The silence that reigned between us as she continued to stare at the place where Tali's necklace had been stretched on. However, eventually she pulled herself back and stared me down. I returned her glare pulling out my knife but she just smiled and held out her hand. As she did so my ax shot out from its holding place on the wall and into her grip. I was shocked but then she tossed the ax to me. Snatching it out of the air I put my helmet on the podium.
"My husband was Quarian and you remind me so much of him," she spoke softly as I settled into a combat stance.
"How so?" I couldn't help myself from indulging her.
"You both fight against destiny… He helped the geth at the beginning, protecting the ones that had no idea what was going on and the Quarians killed him. The necklace he gave me though, I still have it even after all these years. He was the best thing that ever happened to me," her voice was so soft and broken it almost broke my heart before I remembered this was Dashi I was talking to. Then she continued to talk.
"You picked a beautiful necklace for your wife. I wonder how envious other Quarians will be when they see you snagged her… Ah, that brought back so many memories of a better time in my life. One where I wasn't this," she gestured to herself and the look of anticipation for a fight and bloodlust that always sat in her eyes was gone. Replaced with the look of broken woman.
"And I wonder what your husband would think of you now?" Word games? Might unbalance her for a moment. You only need a moment in this type of fight.
"He would hate what I've become… But that is neither here nor there. It's time for me to impart another lesson onto you," the anticipation and bloodlust returning to her eyes but for a moment there was something more. An electric blue danced in her eyes.
Dashi then got into a combat stance as we both stared at the other. Silently daring the other to make the first move. This silence stretched on for almost a full two minutes before I moved attacking her. It was the fastest I've ever moved in my life and the exhilaration at crossing blades with her once again was something else. I didn't want to accept it but I enjoyed this.
Trials by Starset
As we connected our blades the shockwave from our connection destroyed the pews near us sending flying chunks of wood in every direction. Our faces mere centimeters apart from each other as both of our smiles saw each other. We each wanted this no matter how much we didn't want to accept it.
Her own blade against my ax and then against my knife. Each subsequent hit reverberating across my entire body but as I looked at her I could tell that every hit I delivered onto her sword had the same effect on her. I could see the reverberations on her arm after every hit.
We continued to fight each hit across our weapons eerily similar to our fight on Illium. Once I realized this it became evident that this part of the fight was purely the warm up. She was still testing me in every facet of the word. Each time that we connected I could tell that we weren't truly going full out. Dashi was still trying to teach me something.
As we continued to fight I managed to find an opening and backhand her with my augmetic. Using the blade of the Ax would've took up too much time but its pommel did its job when I backhanded Dashi. As she stumbled away from me after my attack she sent me a giant smile and I don't know if I've ever been more angry at seeing a smile.
"Yes. Yes. Good, you are learning from your mistakes," she sent me a smile but this one was filled with not malice but happiness. This fact made me even more angry.
"Go fuck yourself Dashi, you piece of fucking shit," I growled out to her, the red tint of my eyes increasing to the point where all I could see was the world in red.
As soon as the words were out of my mouth we were back to crossing blades. Each time our blades crossed the world reverberated around us and shattered anything close to us. Every time we crossed blades our speed of attacks increased to the point where even fighting her my blade was nothing but a blur.
As we continued to fight we connected several more times before she stopped. As she did we each pulled back from each other before we were looking at the other in silence. As it continued I pulled back and stood a few feet from her, an act that she followed. A fact that she must've known as she looked at me silently.
"The warm up has ended. Let's see how much you've improved," were her only words and they were so sickly sweet it was nauseating.
Then she was moving and she sent an overhead slash to my face with her sword. It might not have been the same as last time but this time I could see more than before. Instead of a blur like before it was a an incredibly fast move. However, I knew exactly what she was trying to do. Thanks to my mom and to reviewing the footage from our last fight.
As she came down with her sword I countered with my ax putting her in a vulnerable position. Doing that opened her side up but that was just a faint by her. She opened it up to get me to attack it and that's exactly what I did plunging my knife towards her side and that's where my plane came to fruition.
As my knife went towards her side her free arm was sent careening towards my face just like before. However, at the last moment I broke off my attack on her side and raised my knife to my face. This subsequent action resulted in Dashi plunging her hand right into my knife.
For a second nothing and no one moved. My knife had plunged deep into the hand of her punch severing her ring finger. As her finger fell to the ground there was a profound silence that reigned upon us. Then she pulled away from me extracting her hand from my knife that had been buried completely to the hilt in her hand. It punched all the way to her wrist and the blood showed that but she simply shrugged it off.
"Even better than I thought," was the only thing Dashi said as she resumed her combat stance with her hand streaming blood.
We were back at it again but this time I could no longer keep up with her blade. I could see her body move and used that to anticipate her moves. However, that's the only reason she wasn't carving me up like a Thanksgiving Turkey. Otherwise she was in complete control of the fight. She never gave me an opening to do anything against her.
As we connected again she kicked out my left faster than I could react sending me to one knee. She then kicked at my head with the same leg her biotics enhancing her strength. Barely able to get my arms up in time to block I was sent skidding backwards into a pew. Popping up I spun around and grabbed the whole pew before swinging it around at her like a baseball bat.
She was surprised at the action and the speed of the swing but was still able to cut through the pew in time for it to avoid hitting her. However, this gave me just enough time to decide what to do next. Imbuing my ax with my biotics I swung it in her direction from where I stood away from her.
Just as the ax was in a position that the blade was facing her I raised my knife to its handle stopping it cold. The result being a horizontal beam of biotic energy launched out of the blade at Dashi whose eyes widened in surprise. She was able to dive out of the way of the attack in time completely avoiding it but when it made contact with a few pews behind her it exploded them in a shower of wooden splinters.
What I had just done took a lot out of me, my breathing labored and heavy, that shouldn't have taken that much out of me. Dashi then stood up and looked between me and the pews the beam had contacted. Her smile growing even wider as she turned back around to face me. Reaching out to me with her hand she made a pulling motion and immediately I felt weaker falling to a knee.*
As soon as my knee hit the ground she was careening towards me. Dodging out of the way at the last moment I didn't get out unscathed. Her sword plunged staight through the upper portion of my right bicep sticking out the other side. Grunting in paid I kicked her away on instinct getting lucky that the resulting expulsion of her blade didn't harm my arm more.
Using this little opening I jumped up curling into a ball, biotic energy swarming around my body. With how close she was there was no way she could dodge the blast as I released my biotics. Turned out she didn't need to, she simply raised up her hand and caught the blast with the same Wall technique she had stolen from me.
Landing on my feet and seeing the biotics swirling in her hand I released a sigh cursing this day. That was all the time that was afforded to me before its full brunt nailed me and sent me flying through several pews and the wall of the building. Only stopping when my body slammed into the wall of Omega.
My vision was spotty as all hell barely keeping myself awake. The only thing I could really notice was soft footfalls of someone approaching me and looking up at whoever it was Dashi's smile greeted me. Groaning I put my hands under myself and started to push myself up only for her foot to slam into my chest forcing me back into the wall.
"Not quite there yet but you have improved by leaps and bounds," it felt like she was patronizing me but looking at her through my blurry vision I knew she was being genuine. "Make sure you get stronger," the electric blue from before danced in her eyes dangerously for a moment before disappearing and she walked away melting into the shadows of Omega.
Watching her go my vision became more and more blurry. The last thing I heard before passing out was the pounding of several footsteps closing in on me. Never got to see who it was though as my vision went black and so did my mind.
Waking up an unknown amount of time later was as it usually went after events like this. My body ached and was sore all over but this time there was no pounding headache at the very least. Small mercies were about all I was going to get as soon as my eyes opened Tali was hugging me.
Sighing in relief I hugged her back closing my eyes and basking in her presence. It sounds sappy, I know, but fight me; she was my rock. After nearly a whole minute she pulled back and for the first time I noticed that we were in the Normandy's med bay. With Kelli, Vrul, and Samuel off to the side all sporting rather grimm faces. No one else was here though; where was Dr. Chakwas?
"Boss," Kelli started but before she could go on I raised my hand at her.
"Sitrep," my voice brokered no questioning and Vrul, Kelli and Samuel all sat up straight at attention in their seats. Even Tali sat up straighter.
"You've been out for about three hours. Your wounds aren't bad besides the stab wou-"
"Not the sitrep I want," my eyes bored into Kelli's and she was silent for a moment before nodding her head.
"While we were at the funeral EDI cracked the Reaper IFF you guys acquired. It was a Trojan Horse though. Shut the ship down and allowed the Collectors to jump through the Omega 4 Relay and hit the Normandy before they could do anything. The Collectors took everyone but your pilot," her voice was grimm but determined. I sat there in silence for a moment before throwing my legs over the side of the bed and stood up.
"Where's everyone else?"
"In the briefing room," Tali provided immediately.
Nodding to her I left the room with the four following closely behind me. A couple turns later I barged into the briefing room only to be greeted with complete silence. Shepard was on the far side of the room pacing and looked up when he heard me entering the room. Our eyes met for a moment and he gave me a sharp nod, one that I returned.
"When do we go?" was my only question. We still had the IFF, we can hit them now.
"Our shields and guns are as upgraded as they can be," Garrus provided but it seemed from the reactions of the others he had already said that, several times.
"It's not just that, it's about what we do when we get there," Miranda spoke. "Do we really have enough people? We were going to be helped by the security forces on this ship when we hit them and now we don't have them."
"Anyone got people they could call on?" Shepard asked and I looked to Kelli. She shook her head. Great, the people we could've called on are too far away or on missions they couldn't leave.
"How long do we have before we move on them?" I asked breaking the silence that had descended upon everyone.
"As soon as we can," was the only response I got. Thinking for a long second an idea popped into my head. I still had the number saved on my omni-tool. Opening it up I made the call and for two rings it didn't answer but on the third they did.
"What do you need of us?" came a voice I vaguely recognized but couldn't pinpoint.
"How fast can you get to the Normandy?" everyone gave me curious looks at my words in the silence but I paid them no mind at the moment.
"We'll be there in an hour," and then they cut the link. Smiling to myself I gave a giant smile to Shepard and everyone else.
All of them were curious as to who I had just called but I didn't answer any of their questioning looks and promptly left the room. Kelli and Tali followed me to the cargo bay and stood next to me in silence as we waited. About a half an hour into the waiting Shepard joined me and again sent me a silent question as to who we were waiting for.
Not bothering to answer him we continued to wait until Joker commed Shepard and told him of an inbound shuttle. Silently giving a nod to Shepard he relayed to let the shuttle dock in the bay. The doors in front of us closing not to allow us to fly out as the bay opened we got to watch a shuttle land through the small window in the doors.
As the cargo door closed after the shuttle came in we all walked up to the shuttle and silently waited. After a couple of seconds the shuttle doors opened and six people walked out. All with custom armor as close to mine as anyone could possibly get. However, their armor was pure white and emblazoned right where their heart would be was a red cross.
The leader stepped forward and took off his helmet and I recognized him. He was the architect working on the church. Knew there was something a little off about these guys but the only thing that could come to me right now was a smile.
"Shepard, the Vatican's finest," I spoke gesturing to the men in front of us. Shepard looked them all over individually before turning his head to me and giving a nod.
"We hit the Relay in 12 hours. Get ready however you need to," and then he walked away. Finally it was time to end this.
Hope y'all enjoyed. I know not all of you are fans of the religion bits the last few chapters but don't worry. It won't take over the story.
BTW, I wonder if any of y'all caught that foreshadowing. I'll be very surprised if you did though.
1*: Yondu's funeral from GOTG 2
2*: I know what happened here but I couldn't fit it in the chapter without the exposition feeling forced or in a stupid spot. It'll be explained next chapter.