Story Title: A Touch of the Past
Author: Kira Dattei
Beta: Betaed by potionsmaster (on AO3)
Chapter: 9/18
Chapter Summary: Together again…
Chapter 9: Unrestrained
"Shit!" Kaidan exclaimed. All the lack in security this place seemed to have and they have an alarm for the cell doors getting hacked. Oh well, not like it made a difference because the door swung open and he had what he needed to stay free.
And now that he was on the outside, he could hack the other locks without breaking into the console like he'd needed to on his. Angle really did matter when it came to hacking without the help of an omnitool. He stepped across the short hall to Rahna's cell, the woman standing at the door anxiously. "How are you out?" she asked as he started working.
"Same way I'm getting the rest of you out. Their fault for putting me somewhere I could hack the lock. Now watch the door and tell me if anyone comes in. I need to focus on what I'm doing here." Between usually having an omnitool to help him out and being used to having good people he trusted watching his back when he hacked something, he was struck with the necessity of having to keep from splitting his attention while really wanting to. He didn't usually worry.
"And if they come in firing that tranquilizer?"
"As long as I know they're coming in, it doesn't matter." Kaidan's response was already distracted as he focused on the display of the lock and went to work. He admitted that he was a little out of practice in doing this sort of thing without his omnitool to make it easier, but using that tech didn't completely ignore the skill and so it came back relatively quickly. In less than fifteen seconds, the lock released and Rahna's door swung open.
Kaidan was about to move to the next door when the access door to the cells opened and about half a dozen men rushed through the narrow opening two at a time, flooding the narrow passage quickly. Kaidan pushed Rahna behind him and raised his still cuffed hands up, his biotics activating around him.
"He's got no amps, shoot him!" one of the guards called to the others and they raised their weapons. Kaidan smirked and reached out with his mind to wrap his biotics around the men's bodies, his hands fisting up to make the thought take shape. As they felt the biotics take shape around them, the guards started struggling to still raise their weapons enough to fire. He didn't give them the chance though as he Pulled on the biotics and they all fell to the ground.
He crossed the room to the men and reached out to pick up the nearest dropped pistol. He checked the ammo, noticing that the pistols were equipped with tranq and regular rounds, and switched it over to live rounds, pointing it at the nearest guard and fired a single round into the chest. The other guards exclaimed and started scrambling to reclaim their weapons, but froze when Kaidan turned his attention and the pistol toward them.
"Really?" Just to enforce the intimidation, he activated his biotics enough to wrap around him and remind them that he had other options besides the firearm.
The men froze in their motion and Kaidan relaxed slightly; he wasn't a fan of killing unarmed men who were just in over their head.
But he shouldn't have let himself relax at all as one of the guards nearest to the door noticed and took advantage of the position to go for his weapon and fired. Kaidan noticed the motion quickly enough to bring up his barrier and the tranq round hit the biotics formed around him. The barrier wouldn't keep him from breathing the vapor though so he started shifting backwards away from the drug, raising the pistol up again and firing off two rounds at the guard who had fired. The rest were using the sudden confusion to grab their own weapons and retreat out the door, stepping over the bodies of the two dead men.
"Kaidan!" Rahna stepped up to him and placed her hand on his arm as he knelt down, keeping his pistol trained on the door and watching for any movement. He was at a huge disadvantage, only having as many rounds as the thermal clip would allow – probably only about ten more based on the model – and his head was already hurting from that limited use of his biotics. Not to mention that his arms were already shaking from lack of sustenance.
"You can show up any minute, Shepard," he muttered, wishing he had his transmitter so his lover could hear him getting on him like that. Shepard would think it was funny as hell and would probably find a way to pick on Kaidan about it later.
"Kaidan, what can I do?" Rahna asked.
"Go grab the baton out of my cell. Charge it as far as it will go and start hitting cell locks of the others with it. It will probably take a few hits to get the system to short, but those models are designed to go through armor." Rahna stood to do as asked. "Don't step in front of me to get there or back. If they have any brains, they'll have eyes on this hall and will see when I don't have a clear shot. Stay low and hug the walls." His voice wasn't quite as insistent as he would be giving a soldier an order, but it was still straightforward and didn't leave room for Rahna to do anything but listen to him exactly.
As Rahna moved in and out of his cell and then past him, the door remained empty, not even people checking around the corner quickly and Kaidan wondered if they had retreated back to wait for him to move forward. The sound of the baton charging, then hitting metal right behind him made him flinch as the sharp sound resonated with his headache.
Reconnecting the amp had gone well and the lead had been long enough that he could secure the amp beneath the collar of his thermal undersuit's high collar. But the connections weren't completely secure and he was having to compensate for the fluctuating power of his biotics on top of each time using them making his vision blur around the edges from malnutrition.
Twenty-four hours and he was considered malnourished. The wonders of a biotic metabolism.
As he heard the lock short after the fourth strike, Rahna moving further down to start on the next one, Kaidan shifted to a crouch and moved further back even with the next line of cell doors, lowering his voice so as to not be heard down the hall. "Stay in the cell for now. It won't help to have more bodies in this cramped space." Kaidan caught Trent's nod from the corner of his eyes. "What did you go back to?" he asked suddenly. He needed to know what he had to work with and needed a slight distraction from his own state.
"What?" Trent asked.
"I just looked at location on most people's files; that's all that mattered to Kami. So what did you go back to?"
Trent's voice as he answered told Kaidan he still wasn't sure why Kaidan was bringing it up, which was fine. "Teacher, high school chemistry mostly." Nothing that would help here.
Kaidan huffed a laugh. "You teach high schoolers and these guys got the jump on you?"
"My students don't usually carry heavy weapons."
"Fair enough."
Kaidan caught some movement at the door. The body in the doorway had shifted slightly from the arm, which had fallen outside the door and Kaidan realized they were trying to pull the body free so they could just close the door. Kaidan adjusted his aim and fired off a round, hitting the body's arm, which knocked it straight so it was all in view. He couldn't keep from smirking at the exclamations followed by profanities from the men on the other side of the door.
Trent had retreated a little into his cell, covering his head with his arms.
"They aren't coming in, just trying to close us in," Kaidan explained. He caught the sound of another lock shorting out and Rahna relaying instructions to the person that they were to stay in the cell for now.
"So what exactly do you do with the Alliance?" Trent suddenly asked and Kaidan resisted the urge to look over at the man.
Kaidan's lips lifted slightly. "That's a long answer and most of it is classified anyway."
"Yeah, I gathered that much from what you were saying with Kami."
"In short, I do what BAaT was supposed to: teach biotics how to be biotics," Kaidan revealed, knowing that wouldn't be a big deal to tell as long as he didn't delve deeper into the details.
Trent remained silent, which was fine with Kaidan because he suddenly heard commotion from the other side of the door. Hoping that it was what he wanted it to be, he stood and his biotics flared with the use of a Singularity right in the doorway and he watched as guards came into view caught up in the field. He grinned as the men caught were quickly taken out by sniper rounds by the sound of it. As the field dispersed, he moved forward again with his pistol raised. Another guard came into view and he shot, the round catching on a kinetic barrier. Kaidan followed the shot up quickly with a Reave and fired another round as the guard fell unconscious, taking him out.
As the biotic moved to take another step, his knees buckled and he had to fall heavily to them or deal with face planting on the ground. He waited for the wave of dizziness to pass, keeping his weapon raised and hopefully aimed as correctly toward the doorway as it looked. It was hard to know for sure with his vision swimming like it was.
Seeing something move on the other side of the door, Kaidan fired a round automatically, not sure where it hit.
"Kaidan, hold your fire!" a deeply familiar voice called out to him and Kaidan found his arms going lax before he could even breathe a sigh of relief.
"Shepard!" he responded. "All clear!"
Kaidan's vision still wasn't completely clear but he would never mistake Shepard's form, his gait, as he ran up to him, kneeling in front of him and pressing a hand to Kaidan's cheek.
Behind Shepard, Kaidan recognized Tali and Garrus looking between him and keeping an eye on the door.
"Are you okay?" Shepard asked, his voice insistent with his concern.
"Nothing serious. Just haven't eaten since before we went planet-side yesterday," Kaidan responded.
It was Garrus who chimed in, "So that's what we've been following: the sound of your stomach."
"Funny," Kaidan deadpanned to the turian. He then turned his focus – which was much easier to accomplish now that there were no black spots to look through - to Tali, "Think you can take care of the locks on the rest of these cells?"
"Of course, Kaidan," the quarian responded as she walked past him, touching a hand to his shoulder as she passed.
He turned back to Shepard and watched as the man appeared to still be taking in a mental inventory of Kaidan's state.
Rolling his eyes fondly at his lover, he lowered his voice to a whisper, "I'm not lying, Shepard. There's no serious injuries. Covered in bruises, had to put my right shoulder back in the socket, and my amp is all messed up, but I'm really fine."
"Is your implant alright?" Kaidan swore Shepard paid closer attention to his implants than he did once he learned how dangerous it was to do anything with the L2s.
"The implant is fine. The lead was cut and I had to reattach it."
Shepard seemed at a loss of what to say to that. "…How?"
"Not the time for a report, Commander," Kaidan reminded the man that they weren't actually out of danger just because he had located Kaidan.
"Right, you good to go?" Shepard's hand moved from where it hadn't left his cheek and ran it down Kaidan's arm, stopping when he touched the metal of the cuffs. "Garrus, search those bodies for keys to these," he ordered. Garrus looked over the Commander's shoulder to see what he was talking about and Kaidan caught the turian's grin.
"I can take care of those really quick," he said as he lifted his rifle and took aim.
Kaidan shook his head along with Shepard, "As unwavering as my faith in your aim is, Garrus, if you shoot at me I will dismantle your favorite rifle and stash the parts throughout a dozen systems," the biotic threatened in a deadpan.
Garrus let out a dramatic sigh and lowered his rifle. "There are nicer ways of showing appreciation, you know."
"Not with you."
"Shepard, we have ten prisoners to get out of here," Tali called out from behind. Kaidan and Shepard both turned to watch the small group approach, Trent stepping out of his cell at last.
"Joker, come in," Shepard said as he activated the transmitter in his ear but without his own, Kaidan couldn't hear Joker answer. "Send EDI down with a second shuttle. We have eleven including Kaidan to get off the facility." He turned to focus on the people standing behind Tali. "We have your way out of here on its way. ETA is seven minutes. We need to get back to the shuttle bay so we're ready for it before these guys regroup. Tali, you take our flank and make sure no one wanders off."
"Yes, Shepard."
Garrus walked back to them and knelt down, electronic key in hand and released the cuffs around Kaidan's wrists.
"Garrus, you take point." Garrus nodded as he tossed the key to Tali, who went to work on releasing the rest of the shackles.
Kaidan set the pistol down on the ground and rotated out and rubbed at his wrists, encouraging the return of blood flow. He hadn't broken the skin with all that he'd done to pull against the restraints, but his wrists were red and inflamed and just a little swollen. Shaking it off, he took in Shepard's weapon inventory before reaching out and taking the Arc Pistol from his left hip. It would be the easiest for him to handle in his state. Shepard watched the motion, obviously wanting to tell Kaidan to forget trying to be involved in any more fighting as he was, but seemed to find something that kept him from doing so. Instead, he reached out and took hold of Kaidan's bicep, helping to steady him as he stood.
"Don't do anything stupid. You don't have either your kinetic or biotic barriers."
"Just keep me covered. I'll be fine."
Shepard turned away, checking their route quickly with Garrus and Trent took the opportunity to step up to Kaidan, his expression disbelieving.
"Your way out was Commander Shepard?" he asked.
"It really was Kami's fault. He's the one who targeted a member of Shepard's crew. And Shepard doesn't take kindly to anyone messing with us."
"But…" Trent couldn't seem to put another thought together well enough to continue.
"Stay close to Tali. She'll keep you safe to the shuttle and then we're gone."
Kaidan didn't wait for a response, just turned to Shepard. "Ready to move, Commander," he said with a slight smirk. Shepard shook his head slightly before turning as well and indicating for Garrus to lead the way. As they moved through the somewhat small facility, most of the space being taken up by the cells and then a few labs near each cell block, Kaidan remained a step behind and to Shepard's right, his own left hand remaining in contact with the Commander's lower back. He used the contact and his familiarity with Shepard to read his movements and help guide him forward, his mind and body not able to remain as sharp as they usually were. He couldn't split his attention reliably between watching his team and watching for enemies and was only grateful that Shepard hadn't let him down. He probably wouldn't have succeeded in getting out with the rest of the prisoners without someone he trusted taking the load off of him.
He still would have died trying.
"You get that, Shepard?" Garrus called back suddenly as they made their final approach to the shuttle bay, only running into a handful of straggling guards which were taken out easily enough.
Shepard gave a brief nod in response, then glanced over to Kaidan briefly who gave him a questioning look. "Nothing to worry about. Just reporting in on the shuttles."
Something was off but this wasn't the time and Kaidan only hoped he had enough spare working brain cells to remember something so minor later to ask about it.
They reached the shuttle bay quickly, only needing about four minutes to get there, which meant they needed to hold position until the second shuttle landed.
"Cortez is beyond the shuttle bay. We'll be safer there than still within the facility," Shepard relayed to Kaidan and he nodded. "Just one more push through the bay and we'll be in position to hold out until EDI gets here."
"Then let's push through," Kaidan replied and caught Shepard's fond smile out of the corner of his eyes. The biotic took a few deep breaths, encouraging his body to hold up for just a little longer, willing the pounding in his head to not get worse and affect his vision as his migraines had a tendency to do.
They entered the shuttle bay, taking out about half a dozen more men who were making for an escape, then crossed the open area and beyond to where the Normandy shuttle came into view. Kaidan couldn't keep from letting out a sigh of relief as he saw Cortez standing outside the shuttle with a rifle, ready to defend them if necessary. Two minutes and he would be heading back to the Normandy where he belonged.
"Let's get the first shuttle loaded, Cortez. Go ahead and take the civilians. We'll guard your exit and EDI's shuttle. Be ready to take off as soon as the other shuttle is ready to land." Shepard called out to the Lieutenant.
"You got it, Commander." Cortez started waving the freed biotics forward with Tali encouraging them from her rear position.
Shepard glanced over to him and Kaidan expected to hear the man tell him to get on the shuttle, but he seemed to think better and just helped get the people on the shuttle. Kaidan would have helped as well, but he was quickly hitting his limits of staying on his feet. He just focused on keeping his eyes on the facility, looking out for any sign of more enemies.
When he heard steps approaching, he glanced over his shoulder to see Rahna. She walked up next to him and stood there silently for a few seconds.
"We'll have a chance to talk, right?" she asked.
Kaidan hesitated, "We're not going to rush you off the Normandy, if that's what you're asking. You'll have time to recover some and then we can arrange transport for wherever you need to go."
"But will I have a chance to talk to you, Kaidan?"
So she did actually mean that. Kaidan had been rather obtuse on purpose: the last time he had tried to talk to Rahna, she had walked away with the indication that she never wanted to talk to him again.
"If that's what you want," he said noncommittally. This was on her and if she changed her mind, he wasn't going to be destroyed by it.
"Shuttle incoming. Load up," Garrus called out.
"Get on the shuttle," Kaidan said in the same unwavering manner as he had used before.
Rahna stepped away from him and then turned to jog back to the shuttle, which closed up almost immediately and was lifting off at once as the second shuttle replaced it and moved to land.
Kaidan walked over to where Shepard stood and the man wrapped his arm around Kaidan's hips then stood up straighter to support the biotic's weight. Kaidan allowed the help readily, placing his own arm around his lover's shoulders, knowing he wouldn't last much longer.
As the shuttle hatch opened, Shepard leaned over to whisper to Kaidan, "You realize I'm never letting you off the Normandy again, right? Ever."
Kaidan chuckled deeply. "Just keep telling yourself you could actually pull that off."
"I miss the days when you would actually just follow orders like that."
"I've never followed orders 'like that'. I'm tired and malnourished, not amnesic."
"Can't even give me that?"
Shepard helped him over to the shuttle and Garrus took some of his weight as well to help him inside and then to one of the seats and he strapped in along with his three friends.
He had never felt more relieved to feel the shuttle lift off and enter orbit.
Thank you for reading! See you next time.
Kira Dattei
