35 Days ASR
Shepard woke wrapped in strong arms, feeling very warm and very safe. Her mother's voice, so very immediate and real the moment before, dissolved into half-remembered images, the rare and happy dream fading. Keeping her eyes closed, Shepard stayed still and listened. A wide grin spread across her face at the deep, rattling throat-roar coming from behind her. Nihlus remained in his deep-sleep snore; she could move without waking him. Actually, she could have brought in a heavy metal band and held a party for fifteen krogan friends without waking him.
Garrus may have rethought her nighttime safety arrangements if he knew his brother slept like the dead. A good, noisy abduction might have stirred the Spectre, but she didn't have the heart to start kicking and screaming to see.
She turned over inside the circle of his arms, prompting no more than a couple of mouth smacks and a mumble before he burrowed in and resettled, his face smooshed into his pillows. Warmth spread through her as she watched him. He'd punch her for saying it but he was damned cute when he slept.
Guilt slithered in behind the warmth, forcing her to call her feelings what they were. She loved him. When they met, she had a stupid schoolgirl sort of crush thing going. Sweet Jesus on a cracker, she hated admitting that. But she had. It started at some insipid council function. She'd caught sight of Nihlus guarding Sparatus and sort of sidled up to him at the bar. She couldn't remember if he actually managed to stutter out a word or two, but it didn't matter … she was lost. The combination of bad ass operative and adorably awkward, it proved to be her catnip.
Then, of course, during their sparring match that first week, he'd shredded her heart when he intimated that she'd whored herself out. Yes, she'd pushed him, kept him pissed off and slightly off balance … and yes, she couldn't really expect him to know why, but still, after days of taking care of him, those words had cut straight through her. Then they'd begun to mend and before she died, they'd danced around one another and the fact that she'd chosen Garrus. If only choosing Garrus had changed the way she felt about Nihlus. She tried to keep it bottled up, tried to downgrade it to friendship, because it was wrong. Loving two people at the same time was wrong, and it was selfish.
Her parents raised her with a certain set of guiding principles; cut and dried rules for what was right and what was wrong. For all she railed against her mother's strict ideas of who Jane Shepard needed to be and how she needed to behave, those principles formed the very core of her, and she'd never questioned them. Never.
Although not at the top of the list, monogamy had definitely been something that always just was. People pair bonded unless they wanted to be considered outside the norm. One male or female could only truly love one male or female. The rest amounted to aberration. It was never considered closed-minded or old-fashioned, or even a human-centric norm … it was just truth.
As she watched him, seeing the first signs of rousing, her dream filtered back through. Her family had been sitting around watching some ridiculous program about this highly convoluted family all based around a human man with eight wives of different races: Galactic Family or something equally sophomoric. Despite being just about the most inane hour of programming in the entire galaxy, sometimes either channel turning inertia or the inability to look away from a shuttle crash led to them spending an hour listening to her mother rant about the selfishness and weakness of sapient life.
Apparently, Shepard's subconscious had a bone to pick with her. She sighed.
"I can't believe they have the nerve to call this family entertainment," her mother groused. She bounced Bunny on her lap, cooing to her in baby talk. "Can you, little Beatrix? No, of course you can't." Her voice hardened as her eyes shifted back and forth between her husband and the vid screen. "How can he possibly love all of those … women?" She gesticulated at the screen and shifted into her 'I can't believe I'm debasing myself even talking about this debauchery' pose. "And those poor children. What are they going to grow up to believe?"
"The kids seem pretty happy. Well, except for having so many chores." Twelve-year-old Shepard shrugged and hunched down next to her father.
"Everyone has to pull their weight in this galaxy, young lady," her mother muttered, her neck still flushed from their row over the proper way to dry dishes. As far as Shepard was concerned, air drying was a completely legitimate option.
"Let it go, you two. It's done," Jane's father said, his voice soft. Jane turned to look up into her father's warm smile, returning it as she snuggled in tighter against his side. He winked at her. "What do you think, Janey? Could we handle two or three more of your mother?"
Tucked safely into her sanctuary, Janey looked over to meet the maternal glaring eye of doom, laughed, and shook her head. "Nope."
Her father chortled, bright green eyes sparkling as a conspiratorial elbow nudged Janey. "I don't know. She's pretty remarkable. If another woman like that came along … ."
"You wouldn't dare, Franklin Xavier Shepard!" her mother gasped. "Turn me into some mare in a stable? The Blessed Lord as my witness, I would end you."
"Who are you staring at?" a sleepy mumble asked, pulling her out of her half-doze. She'd missed the almost awake stuttering-purr-snore phase.
"My night guard." She grinned and leaned up on an elbow. "Or I was. Now he's been replaced by my day guard." Sighing, she shook her head. "You two look so much alike, I can't keep you straight."
Nihlus released her and rolled over onto this back, stretching out until his talons scraped the bulkhead. "Mmmm," he said and sighed, relaxing back into the mattress, "true." Looking up at her, eyes glinting mischief, he flashed her a cheeky grin. "Although, the way you snore, anyone trying to sneak up on you would think I was sleeping next to some sort of wild animal and run for their lives."
Her laugh came out harsh and mocking. "I snore? There are people in the Andromeda galaxy who are kept awake all night by your racket." Flopping onto her back, she stretched long, languid, and delicious, pushing her muscles almost to the point of gimbal-lock before slumping.
"We're due to arrive in Armali in three hours," she said, throwing the covers back and swinging her legs out to sit on the side of the bed. "Want to squeeze in a workout before we land?" Glancing back in answer to Nihlus's disgruntled groan, she shook her head. "Didn't you used to be a Spectre? Army of one? All go, no quit? Bad ass? I move faster on my own little human?"
He chuffed. "Then working with you aged me eighty cycles." A wide yawn emphasized his statement. "I plan to squeeze in another hour of sleep, then a long shower." Stretching again, he raked his talons against the metal, the metallic scream sending a shudder up Shepard's spine. "Ahhhh," he said, sighing. "That's better. Where was I? Oh, right, then I intend to eat as much breakfast as I can squeeze into my gullet before heading into the starboard observation lounge. The view of Thessia from orbit is breathtaking."
Letting out a long, noisy sigh of disgust, Shepard reached back, clipping his raised knee with a sharp smack. "You're pathetic."
"Gloriously pathetic," he agreed. "I'm going to rest up just in case the second we make planet-fall, everything falls straight into the pits." He sat up in a sloppy pigeon pose, his hands dangling between his thighs. "The way our luck runs, we'll spend half the day crouching behind cover and the other half running our asses off."
She shoved him back onto the mattress. "Blessed Enkindlers, don't jinx us before we even get started." Pushing off her knees, Shepard stood and headed up to the bathroom. The combination of her mother's strident assertion that only selfish deviants loved two people at once and Nihlus's paranoia tangled in her gut, until it sloshed and gurgled, complaining against the cramps.
The bathroom door closed behind her, blocking out the joyful, badly out-of-tune humming that started on the other side. Sweet baby Jesus, Nihlus couldn't be more tone deaf if he worked at it. Bracing the heels of her hands against the edge of the counter, Shepard breathed, taking long breaths to quiet the ache in her chest. The last few days, living their half life together made him so damned happy, and it was a lie. The worst part … it made her happy, and not because of Tashac, either. Surprisingly, the prothean remained silent in her head, a state that just added to Shepard's unease.
Looking up at herself in the mirror, Shepard sighed. "You just need to get back to Garrus. You'll take a couple of missions with him, and this other infatuation will fade away." Another long sigh hissed from a tight throat. "Yeah, that'll work."
"Captain?" EDI's brisk voice cut through Shepard's mental brambles with a welcome scythe. "The Armali Transit Authority just sent our clearances. The Ypres has been given Alpha Priority, which will subtract an hour off our arrival time."
Shepard turned on the tap. So much for the gym and Nihlus's parade of laziness. "Thank you, EDI."
"And Dr. Eis asked me to remind you of your appointment with her at 0700."
"How could I forget?" Shepard let her head hang from her shoulders. "Thank you, EDI. Is that all?" She glanced up at the intercom without raising her head.
"Yes, Captain. Do you need anything?"
The AI's tone forced a grin onto Shepard's face despite her mood. EDI truly was impossible not to like. "Could you let Sgt. Gardner know that Nihlus and I will be down for breakfast in twenty? I'd like a fried egg and bacon sandwich, please."
"I'll ask Spectre Kryik what he would like. Anything else, Captain?"
"No, thank you, EDI." Shepard cupped her hands under the water and splashed it over her face. Twenty minutes didn't leave time for self-incrimination and its accompanying personal morality debate.
"Logging you out."
Nihlus was already dressed and shifting foot to foot outside the bathroom door when she emerged. "Were you building another face in there?" he muttered, squeezing past her.
"Yep, and it's identical to the old one. Hope you don't mind that I kept you waiting to do that." She grinned and walked over to sit at her computer. "I ordered our breakfast for twenty minutes from now. Liara got us priority clearance to dock." After opening her messages, she glanced back over her shoulder at the closed door. "Guess she really is the queen of the asari."
She looked up at the clear glass of the display case above her computer as she waited for her messages to load, and after cocking her head one way then the other, shrugged. "Do you think this case means that Cerberus is trying to tell me to get a hobby?"
The door opened. "Do you have time for a hobby?" Nihlus walked up beside her and gestured toward the empty fish tank. "Or fish?" He trotted down the few stairs, heading over to put on his armour, which sat piled in the corner of the L-shaped sofa.
"Fish maybe." Her eyes drooped partially closed as she slowed her words. "I hear they can be very sooooothing." A grin replied to his snort. "I'll ask Kelly to feed them, or get one of those tank VI's that keeps everything at optimal." She opened the first of three messages from Garrus. He, Martin, and Anderson were headed off to batarian space to do some joint mission with C-Sec that he couldn't talk about until it was over. Top secret made her twitchy, especially when she was on the doesn't need to know list, and apparently, so was Nihlus. The message went on to say that Garrus loved her and missed her and hoped her arrival on Thessia went well. The other two read pretty much the same, just a few hours more advanced.
Liara messaged to say that she'd be at the dock to pick them up at 0815 precisely, and she couldn't wait to share what she'd found. Shepard replied to both Garrus and Liara, promising the former that she loved him and she'd reply in more detail when they returned to the Ypres, and acknowledging the latter.
"You ready?" Nihlus climbed the stairs, settling his armour onto his shoulders.
Shepard put her computer to sleep. "Let's get this party started."
Less than an hour later, Shepard stared at the Ypres's doctor, her mouth hanging ever so slightly. "So, my healing has sped up by five percent in three days?" She pulled her head back, cocking it a little. "Can't complain about that."
Dr. Eis nodded and closed her omnitool. "Seven percent as of this morning. Dr. Chakwas and I are collaborating to figure out why, but … " The doctor hesitated, looking uncomfortable. "... I have a theory." She shuffled a little, looking far less confident than Shepard had become used to.
After waiting for a second, Shepard chuckled and shrugged, her hands doing a little enquiring flip at the end. "Well? What is it, Doc?"
Eis sighed and backed toward her desk. "You're going to roll your eyes at me."
"Well, glory hallelujah. I've only rolled my eyes once so far today, and I've been itching for another chance." The captain grinned, trying to ease the doctor's discomfort. "It can't be that bad." She pulled her shoulders up to her ears. "It's not like you're going to tell me that my aura is aligning with the ley lines of galactic power." Her shoulders slumped when the doctor winced. "No, really, you aren't, right?"
"Of course not." Dr. Eis paced to her desk and back. "But, it feels like I am." She let out a long sigh and shrugged as if deciding, what the hell. "Only one thing has changed in the past week. All your tests come back exactly the same except for the accelerated healing."
Shepard braced her hands against the metal edge of the bed and leaned forward. "Okay?"
"You're happy." The doctor winced, but then shrugged as if denying responsibility for the truth. "Since reuniting with General Vakarian and particularly since boarding the Ypres with Spectre Kryik, your mental outlook has brightened considerably."
Swinging her feet a little, Shepard thought about it. It was true that being back aboard a ship, heading up a crew—most of whom had proven enthusiastic about her leadership—felt good. So yes, being back at work and moving forward against the Reapers made her happy.
"Okay, I can see a positive outlook helping speed healing. All those happy chemicals swirling around in the blood." Shrugging, Shepard said, "As long as it's not because my repair nanites have lost their little mechanical minds, I won't complain. I'm ready to stop feeling like I've been stabbed every time I move."
She slipped off the table. "So, how is your research with the chiastyllia going?" The cuff lay out on a padded tray. Walking over, she reached out and touched it, able to feel the aliens' joy through the contact.
"They requested to accompany you to Thessia," the doctor replied, sitting on the edge of her chair. She leaned forward and stroked her fingertips along the length of the cuff, the touch looking uncomfortably like a caress. "They can sense many of their people on the surface, and would like to make contact if possible."
Shepard nodded. watching the doc with narrowed eyes. The little buggers could throw out a hell of an emotional whammy. It might be a good idea to remove the chiastyllia from the doctor's presence for a day or so. "Sure, I'll take them up and they can snap over my armour." Shepard picked up the tray, took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends."
The medbay door opened, the space filled by armoured turian. "You're not quoting Henry the Fifth again, are you?"
Shepard made a face. "Shakespeare can never be quoted too often. Besides, I have to. Apparently, I've come down with a bad case of happy." The words came out tasting like parsnips … no … more bitter than putrid … brussel sprouts. "I need to cure it. Quick." She grinned and jerked her head toward the door. "Come on, let's go find some disaster."
The Spectre stepped off to the side. "Now who's jinxing us?" He fell in behind her, walking just behind her left arm.
Shepard just flashed a grin over her shoulder, the narrow space between them soothing and comfortable, with just the slightest hint of electric tingle. "No comment. Besides, first to jinx takes the blame when it comes time to start throwing it around. It's tradition." At the elevator, Shepard palmed the control. "I'll meet you at the airlock in twenty?"
Nihlus shook his head. "I'll come with you. I know the seals on the back of your armour give you trouble with the wounds." He followed her in the carriage and stood, staring down at her with his arms crossed, apparently trying to make himself look immovable.
"I've got Vincent," she muttered, but without any heat. She didn't feel like fighting a battle she'd never win, and of course, she never would have asked Vincent anyway.
Fifteen minutes later, they walked into decon to find the rest of their ground team waiting for them. Thane stood apart from the rest, his back to the corner as if expecting attack, the rest of them almost looking like a unit, standing along the other side, not talking but keeping an eye on the new guy.
Shepard chuckled. Nothing brought people together like a good case of 'who the hell is he?'. "Come on, people, let's go see what Thessia has in store for us."
Liara stood at the end of the docking arm, Shiala and Aethyta posing on either side, a tremendously unsubtle commando detachment ranged behind them, looking as menacing as asari could manage.
The second that Shepard stepped clear of the Ypres's hatch, the entire planet closed in around her. Even the gleaming blue-violet sky and puffy clouds pressed down, a giant, oppressive hand crushing the back of her neck.
"It's going to be one of those days," Nihlus grumbled, his armour a solid bulwark against the back of Shepard's arm.
She nodded, her stomach dropping into her boots. "So much for subtlety. Nothing says slipping beneath the radar like a platoon of commandos in full leathers and a motorcade that looks like Don Corleone just arrived." Blowing a noisy breath out her nose, she shrugged. "At least the commandos don't all have their guns drawn."
"Don Corleone?"
She glanced up, meeting his narrowed, emerald scrutiny. Too much … that stare asked too much, and she turned away, throwing up heavy barriers. Damn it, one of them needed to keep some distance, and apparently he was leaving it to her. "I'll educate you on the way home, Fredo."
Nihlus sighed. "Not a single word that comes out of your mouth. Not one."
Flipping a hand toward the commandos, she said, "So when do they betray Liara and try to take us out?" Oh good, gallows humour. Always a strong option.
The Spectre shoved her shoulder hard enough to stagger her, but she didn't smile as he grumbled, "At the rate you're jinxing us, I'm refusing to take the blame when they shoot our cars out of the sky."
Liara hurried forward, a bright, fresh breeze to push back the storm as she wrapped Shepard in a tight, rushed hug. "Sorry for all the cloak and dagger," she said as she pulled away and nodded to Nihlus, "but I knew you'd want to move on this right away, so I rushed back."
Holding herself rigid despite returning the young asari's embrace, Shepard nodded toward the guard contingent. "What's with the commandos? Are we expecting an invasion?"
Liara flushed a brilliant violet across her nose and cheeks. "My aunt and the captain of my security insisted since we're going out into the Thessian Wastes," she replied as if it explained everything. "I have a lot to tell you on the way." She turned, leading the group toward the cars, the commandos forming a ring around the entire group. "Your team can ride in the second car. Aethyta is driving it. They'll be subjected to a little vulgarity, but nothing truly disturbing or life threatening." The maiden chuckled as the matriarch tweaked her on the way past.
Although pleased to see the warmth between Liara and her father, it didn't comfort or spread through Shepard as it should have. Something felt out of place, the air heavy, a storm looming on the horizon. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, trying to shake the tension pulling her tighter with every second.
Glancing over at Nihlus, she saw him scanning the parking area, mandibles twitching, gaze in constant motion. Finding no comfort in his instincts backing hers up, she kept her senses on alert, reaching out. She'd never been to Thessia before, so she could be reacting to different air pressure, the presence of so much eezo within the planet itself … any number of things.
However, none of that explained Nihlus's reaction. He had been to Thessia before.
"Shepard?" Miranda called, her tone one of supportive inquiry, no doubt seeing Shepard's unease. The operative stepped up behind the captain, her palm resting against her sidearm. Thane moved up as well, earning a raised eyebrow from the Cerberus operative.
"It's fine, Miranda," the captain replied, despite feeling that the situation was anything but fine. Nothing presented itself to any of her senses, and her inner alarm remained silent despite feeling like a ladar installation scanning for the enemy. "Go ahead in the other car. We're all going to end up in the same place."
Yeah, in flames at the bottom of a canyon in the wastes.
Liara led them to a line of expensive air cars, all gleaming black, reflecting the sky like mirrors. Yep, the Don was in town for a family meeting … or she'd been elected President of the Galaxy and no one told her. "Sweet baby Jesus," Shepard grumbled under her breath. She needed to teach Liara a few things about not drawing attention.
Opening the second car, Liara stepped aside, waiting for Shiala to climb into the back seat. Shepard and Nihlus circled around to the other side. Once all four of them were settled and buckled in, Liara waited until the first car in line took off, then followed it out of the lot.
"Okay," Shepard said, once they were sailing along in traffic, "you've sequestered us for a reason, so out with it. Where are we going, and what are we doing?"
The asari scientist stared out the windscreen, for a moment before she glanced over at Shepard and let out a long sigh. "I've dedicated my life to a narrow, fascinating field of study, not realizing until very recently how blind I made myself. By focusing in on the Prothean extinction, I missed so much that could have enhanced my studies." A soft, sad laugh tumbled from her lips, her eyes never leaving Shepard. "My mother tried to tell me many times that I was limiting myself, and hindering my work, but I refused to listen."
"We all have to rebel at some point and in our own way," Shepard replied, then threw herself back, climbing backwards up the seat, a muffled scream and a flailing hand directing Liara back to the oncoming traffic, now actually oncoming. "Traffic! Cars! Death!"
She shot a death-ray glare behind her as Nihlus chuckled, low and merry. He shrugged. "That was very eloquent."
Liara just shrugged and swerved around a public transit vehicle then back into her lane, the speedometer registering slightly lower than ludicrous speed. "While I was a student of a narrow field of study, my mother called herself a student of sapience." A soft, sad smile followed. "I thought her obsession with the mechanics of sapient nature to be high-minded nonsense." The expression evaporated. "Then I inherited her estate. Her most important files were encrypted using a key that I could barely scratch the surface of, at least, until I started working with the Brysons."
Shepard bolted her eyes on the view of Armali streaking past her side window, trying to avoid looking ahead as Liara talked. If death came for her again, she prefered to be surprised. Still, she listened to the archaeologist's words and managed to squeeze out the odd half-squeal, half-humming noise as encouragement.
Horns blared and a siren started wailing somewhere far too close. Shepard closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. When the cacophony passed without Shepard being slammed, bent, spindled, or crushed, she opened one eye and looked over at Liara. The asari stared at her, brow furrowed in consternation. Damn, Shepard had missed something.
"What?" she grumbled, shrugging. "I was expecting to die. Just keep going. So, Ann Bryson helped you figure out the encryption like you said in the message you sent me?"
Liara sighed and shook her head, looking poised on the cusp of telling Shepard off, but then just nodded. "One day, while I was working on the files at their lab on the Citadel, Ann looked over my shoulder and whistled, saying that my mother must have been a fan of obscure asari mythology and religion." The asari shrugged. "The encryption key is actually based on an ancient asari religious order that is contemporary with the beginnings of our worship of the goddess Athame. They were called the Order of the Shrouded."
A deep frown wrinkled Shepard's brow. "I've never heard of them." She glanced back at Nihlus, but he shook his head, doing his best to keep his laughter under control. Scrunching up her face in a narrow-eyed scowl, she did her best to glare a hole through his armour.
"Not surprising," Liara replied. "Only a handful of asari know who they were, because ten thousand years after the prothean extinction, the priestesses of Athame led a party of huntresses into the valley where the People of the Shrouded lived. They slaughtered the villagers to a one, claiming their doctrine heretical." She turned to look at Shepard, her brow lifted, eyes wide as if waiting to see how long it took Shepard to put it together. "They claimed that their Shrouded were not of this world."
"The Order of the Shrouded were based on Tashac and Merol?" the captain asked, putting the pieces together. Excitement flooded her veins … well, at least it seemed more like excitement than sheer panic. A real connection to the two protheans, even without any information … it was worth getting excited. "Makes sense, they wore hoods over their faces whenever they interacted with the ancient asari."
"Although, sometimes one of the villagers would catch a glimpse of them under those hoods." Liara chuckled, her eyes sparkling as they focused on Shepard rather than the traffic. "They believed Tasac and Merol to be messengers of the gods." The car began to drift a little to the right, then a lot to the right.
"Eyes on your driving, sweet Jesus!" Shepard bleated, then closed her eyes and sent out a random prayer to every god and power and religious figure she could think of. Another horn blasted and the car swerved back into its proper lane. Swallowing hard, the captain managed to croak out. "So your mother put this together somehow?" Shepard shook her head, her voice rising as she spoke, the eagerness bleeding through to overcome the terror for the second. "I mean, how? Is there information on them somewhere that managed to survive?"
Liara chuckled and shook her head. "I don't know what information she has yet, we just began to scrape the surface of her encryption, but I did bring you here for a reason. Thousands of years later, after a religious reformation, the priestesses of Athame acknowledged what their predecessors had done to the Order." She looked around, head whipping from side to side, then pulled the car into a sharp swerve to enter another lane of traffic, that one heading out of the city center. "They built a shrine dedicated to the Shrouded on the spot where their village had stood.
"Program the car, Liara," Shepard wheezed, slumping down in her seat. "For the love of God, program the car. I'm going to throw up or have a heart attack."
The asari let out a derisive mutter and blasted the horn before sending the car into a sharp climb. "I can't program the car to our destination. It's inside a no-fly zone. Besides, I've never been in an accident."
"What about the cars around you? They ever seem to just smash into each other?" Shepard ducked down into her seat until the restraint dug in under her jaw. Maybe, just maybe, shrinking into the bulk of the car's body would save her. She covered her eyes, not missing Nihlus's cackle-laced remarks from the backseat about dramatics.
"Now you know what we went through in the Mako," he whispered.
"Anyway," Liara continued, cutting the air with the word, "the shrine was eventually turned into a protected landmark, and then a cultural center."
Shepard shoved herself back up. "You mean, there's something there? They know where Tashac and Merol lived?" Excitement … yes, definitely excitement roared through Shepard's veins; their destination suddenly well worth the almost certain death required to get there.
Liara grinned. "Nearly twelve centuries ago, a group of archeologists uncovered evidence of a dwelling a couple of kilometres up the mountain from the cultural center. Hidden within the site, they found caches of technology far in advance of anything the asari of that time were using. It was cited as an elaborate hoax for a long time, but eventually, Serrice University excavated and confirmed the site as a prothean dwelling."
Shiala let out a bitter laugh, the first sound she'd made, drawing Shepard's attention to the fact that she hadn't even greeted the other asari. "According to a few very biting notes from Matriarch Benezia, the asari owe several sudden technological advancements to finding that home."
Liara nodded. "Mother did not support the asari covering up the find."
Nihlus spoke up, a petulant grumble. "Hiding prothean tech would explain why the asari have maintained a position of dominance in the galaxy." He chuffed. "You've got to love the hypocrisy. Asari, upstanding peacemakers and lawfully just guardians of all that's good. Unless you look beneath the surface, of course."
Shepard let the debate about the asari keeping prothean tech to themselves wash past her. She cared more about the fact that Benezia had pieced so much together. Where did she get her information? Another beacon? Why had she teamed up with Saren? Sure, the whole guide him onto a better path, save the galaxy thing, but … this new information, the sheer amount of intel that Benezia possessed, hinted at another, deeper reason. Maybe she'd hoped to gain further intel, to discover what lay behind the Reapers?
A decided lack of swerving and horns drew Shepard's gaze out the window to note the sudden lack of tens of thousands of other cars in the sky. "Hold on, where did everyone go?" she asked, turning to look through the back window. "Did your driving scare them off?" In the distance, solid lines of traffic flowed, not one vehicle leaving to follow their path. Lifting up as far as the restraint allowed, Shepard peered down at the ground below. It looked like pleasantly rolling grasslands, but she didn't see any farms or other signs of habitation.
"Welcome to the Thessian Wastelands," Shiala called from over Shepard's left shoulder. "It's a no fly zone unless you have a permit, and almost no one ever seeks a permit." She grinned and nodded when Shepard turned to frown at her. "Since we started keeping records on such things, so about five thousand cycles, nearly a million people have disappeared in this hundred thousand square kilometre area. No trace of them or their vehicles are ever found."
Liara shrugged it off as if it didn't bother her in the least to be flying into the Thessian Bermuda Triangle. Still, her voice wavered ever so slightly as she said, "The mountain where they found Tashac and Merol's home lies at the very center."
"That's not a coincidence," Nihlus said, a deep undercurrent moving through his subvocals that Shepard recognized as worry. The hair on the back of her neck prickled like icy thorns as it stood on end inside her collar. That rumble said trap.
The next second, the alarm at the base of her skull agreed with it. The cuff around her wrist began to vibrate and her omnitool sparked to life.
"Trap. Chiastyllia watch. People called, taken. Find chiastyllia. First."
People called? Indoctrination? Shepard turned slightly when she felt Nihlus's breath on her neck.
"This is the crying snow? The crystallized carbon lifeforms?" he asked, peering at the cuff. "I thought I was losing my mind or hallucinating." He reached out and touched it. "It's really warm."
"They want us to find their people first. They say that their people know what has been happening to the missing people." She turned in her seat a little, meeting his eyes. "Tashac has been completely silent in my head since I got Liara's message. How about Merol?"
He shrugged. "What little I get from Tashac has also disappeared, but Merol … ." Shaking his head, he shifted in his seat. "I think the warning just now was from him … his memory of that place, but he's not talking. It's just emotion." His mandibles dropped and swept wide, distressed. "It feels like shame, Shepard."
She nodded. "He's never really spoken to me, but I definitely got a warning vibe just now." Holding his stare for long seconds, she weighed their options, then looked down at the cuff. "Do you know where your people are?"
"Mountain."
A sharp sigh cut between Shepard's lips. She needed to find more of the chia just so that they could develop their speaking skills. "Handy but inspecific. Can you locate them?"
"Closer. We call," the chia replied.
Shepard snorted a laugh as the shortened name appeared in her head. A second later an image of a clay animal covered in sprouts popped up on the cuff.
"What is Chia Pet?" they asked.
"Chee-ah pet versus Kiah," she explained, swallowing the laughter. "Don't worry about it." She pointedly ignored Nihlus's exasperated glare burning a hole in the side of her head and focused on the cuff. "So, you can direct us to where your people are when we get closer?"
"Yes."
Shepard looked up at Liara. "Do you need to alert your army to our intended course changes so they don't shoot us down?"
Liara rolled her eyes. "They wouldn't shoot us down. They work for me; I'm not their prisoner." She hesitated for a moment before moving to her radio. When Shepard laughed the asari flushed violet again. "I still have to let them know what's going on."
Shepard shook her head and settled back in her seat. "You rolled your eyes at me. I can't believe it. Whatever happened to that sweet, innocent … ?"
Liara let out a disgusted snort, flushing even darker as Shepard reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
"Don't get me wrong, T'Soni … I like it." She chortled and looked back at the cuff, but it had gone silent. She listened to Liara discussing the complications of changing their course in a permit zone, her grin widening as Liara told her captain to just take care of it. The asari had grown a spine over the two years. It suited her.
"Shepard?" Nihlus called over the seat, his long arm appearing next to her head, pointing straight ahead. "What is that?"
"Oh fuck," Shepard groaned, her eyes following the gesture to the mountain, still fairly distant. White and massive, the sun glimmering off its reflective surface, a funnel cloud rose from the mountain peak, swirling into a monstrous cyclone. It lifted upward until it stretched nearly half the height of the mountain. When it stopped growing, it began to roll, a thunder head or an avalanche roaring down the mountain, flattening trees and laying waste to everything in its path.
"They can sense many of their people on the surface? No shit!" Shepard muttered, remembering the pain of the Chia storm shredding her on Freedom's Progress. "Sweet baby Jesus, that was a handful compared this. If it doesn't stop, it's going to destroy the cars … and it's coming this way." Looking down at the cuff, she asked, "Is this your people?"
A blythe, innocent joy flowed through her. "We called! They come!"
"Tell them to slow down! They don't need to beat us to death to talk to us," Shepard cried, her words raking through a clenched jaw. "Liara! Raise the blast shields, and get this car on the ground, now! We need to protect the cars!" Turning to look at Nihlus, she growled. "This is all your fault!"
(A-N: Once more unto the breach, dear friends. Once more unto the breach! Hugs and love to all of you. You keep me going, and that is all I have to say about that.
However, I do need to speak to the nature of the conflict going on with Shepard, even though it is a bit of a spoiler ... although pretty sure people see the writing on the wall. :D Plainly, she is a woman raised with certain values who finds herself in a situation at odds with those values. She loves two torins. I do not intend to challenge the general validity of those values, because quite frankly, it's not my place to tell anyone how to love other people. Except to say, with all your heart. I am one writer with one situation and a set of characters who want to explore their possibilities. Some of the other characters will support their choices, some will not. Some might eventually change their minds, some won't. They are people. People do that, I hear.
I do hope this exploration won't cause readers to leave, but at the same time, I'm a realist and understand that not everyone will be comfortable with where these characters go. However, that said, this exploration isn't about kink. It really isn't, and both Garrus and Nihlus make a face when it is suggested and say ... but he's my brother. What? Nope. It is not going to the threesome sex place, so I know that too will disappoint people. Anyway, I hope I do a good job of honouring the honesty of her relationships, romantic and otherwise, with both Garrus and Nihlus ... and do so in a realistic way. Please do let me know if I fail. :D *hugs*)