Nihlus
"We can just storm the base, get her out." Kaidan said, pacing across the cockpit again.
"Won't work," Nihlus said from the pilot chair, having taken it over from Joker. "They moved her. It took me a few hours to get back to the ship and I saw their transport ship leave the base." He brought up star charts, trying to figure out where they would go.
"But why would they take her? What value does she have?" Kaidan asked, more to himself.
"Despite that she is a species that is currently little more than an exotic pet that would fetch a good price on the black market? Or the fact that the merc band that kidnapped all of you would love to get their hands on her for several reasons?" Nihlus said, gripping the arms of the chair tighter as he talked. "She is a biotic."
"How do you know? It could have just been the red sand." Kaidan asked.
"Red sand can only do so much, like letting you lift someone up. I watched her slam a guy into a truck and then watched her produce and hold a barrier bigger than this cockpit." Nihlus said, not looking away from the maps. "Ok there are five possible ways to go through that mass relay; three of them are the most likely. They could have not gone through it, but I doubt they would risk staying anywhere close." he said, going over the areas. "But I don't know which and we don't have the man power to search all of them…"
"What about the red sand?" Joker said from the co-pilot chair. Nihlus looked at him weird, cueing him to explain. "Well it's a drug right? So that means that it's a controlled substance. In the amounts it sounds like they had it would have to have drawn attention. Why not search to see if any big drug busts have happened in the three systems?"
Nihlus and Kaidan gave each other a look before Nihlus went to work, searching through the data as quick as he could. "Two of the systems have had red sand drug busts in the past year, but one of them has a much higher concentration." he said started them towards the mass relay, his fingers brushing across the controls to set them a course. "Joker, if this works I owe you." he said as he got up, giving Joker the reins back. "I'll leave her in your capable hands." he said and ducked out to his room.
The two humans watched him go. "He isn't taking this well…" Joker said quietly.
"Are you? Shepard is missing and with people who were suspected of cruel experiments." Kaidan said, going back to pacing.
"Of course I'm not." Joker snapped and went back to the ship controls.
Kaidan looked away, trying to find a way to help both of their worries. "We are going to get her back, and we are going to make them pay for doing this." he said darkly. Before Joker could respond he turned on his heel and went to go find Nihlus.
He knocked on the door and waited until Nihlus opened it, glaring at him. "I'm stressed out enough as it is, I don't have the patience to deal with more of your conspiracy theories." he said, dryly.
"You know?" Kaidan asked, taken back by Nihlus' perception.
"Nothing goes on in my ship without me knowing about it." Nihlus said, throwing his data pad on his unmade bed and retreated further into his room. "I know how you don't trust me, how you try and seed that in my friends, how you touch yourself in the shower."
"I don't—" Kaidan defended, but Nihlus held up his hand.
"The bathroom was right beside my room and turians have good hearing." Nihlus said, making Kaidan blush deeply. "Not sure where meat of a fat livestock comes into it, actually didn't know what that even was, had to ask Shepard."
"What I… Oh, no I said…" Kaidan trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck. "Never mind."
"Good, because I don't want to know," Nihlus said as he went to his terminal, waiting for a message back from his contact.
"We'll find her." Kaidan tried to help soothe both of their worries.
Nihlus didn't loosen his grip on the back of his terminal chair. "I have no doubt of that, I'm more worried about finding her alive." he said, sending a cold feeling through Kaidan.
"That'd kill her?" he asked.
"Not intentionally, I don't think." he said, motioning Kaidan over as he pulled up the data on the research lab. "The lab first was flagged because of a lot of workers going missing. Then rumors started appearing of the missing workers in holding cells, being experimented on."
"You think they took Shepard to experiment on her?" he asked, scanning the files. He wished Shepard was here, she could make sense of all the data that scrolled past his eyes. He only got bits.
"They went through extreme measures to take her alive. You know the kind of fight Shepard puts up. It would make more sense to shoot her dead." he said, crossing him arms, his mandibles twitching uncomfortably. "No matter what I will find her, I just hope it's before the experiments kill her."
Shepard
Her stomach was painfully empty, though she wasn't starving. She got all her nutrition through the IV drip in her arm. Being fed like that, though, left you wanting. She craved to have the feel of food in her mouth, to feel water trickle down her throat. It was because of that desire that she took the risk she did. The scientists took her into the operating room and started unstrapping her. One of the salarians reached over her to undo the strap on her chest, giving her the perfect opportunity.
She jerked herself forward and sank her teeth into his arm. He cried out in pain and she laughed, biting harder until she could taste his blood on her tongue. The other two scientists quickly came to his aid. The asari she had called whore wedged something in her mouth and used it to pry her teeth open. The salarian stumbled backwards, his hand clamped over the bite wound on his lower arm. Before they could do anything to her, and their angry faces showed they wanted to, the lead scientist came in. He looked at the screen and moved to Shepard.
"Now why would you do that?" he asked as he picked up a scalpel.
She laughed and spit up at him, the blood she had managed to collect in her mouth spraying him in the face. "Fucker." she said, lying back on the stretcher.
The salarian was still for a moment, shocked at her actions. Slowly he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the green blood off his face. "Muzzle her and get her on the operating table." he said.
She laughed at him, kept laughing even when they put a mask over her face, strapping it into place in the back. It was made of a solid hard plastic except over her mouth where it had slits in it to allow oxygen to flow. It also stopped her from opening her mouth more than a few centimeters.
The head scientist had enough of her laughing and slammed the scalpel down on her lower leg, a painful one but not one that would bleed very much. Her laughing stopped and she cried out in pain. "I was going to be nice and put you under, but you just have to be difficult." he said, taking out his scalpel so his assistants could move her to the operating table.
She didn't struggle. She had before and it didn't do anything, besides she got to hurt one of them, no need to push her luck for now. They strapped her down and she waited for the scalpel to cut along part of her spine. Instead they cut the length of her spine. It made her freeze, not because of the pain, but because this was different. She didn't have the comfort of knowing what to expect.
Besides the different kind of cut, it started out the same with them poking and prodding at her smile, sending waves of pain throughout her body. Little noises that expressed her pain slipped out of her mouth despite her efforts. And then it changed. Normally they probed her spine before removing the object while muttering among each other. Who she guessed was the lead scientist forced a probe deeper than any they had put in before. She screamed out in pain, struggling against the binds and tears forcing at the corner of her eyes. Just a few seconds and they'd pull it out she kept telling herself to make it bearable. The seconds dragged by, but they didn't remove it, instead they moved to another spot and forced another probe in. It set all her nerves on fire. Just lying on the table was agonizing. Another probe went in lower and her feet tingled. On the fourth one she screamed in pain again, spots filling her vision. 'Please… just let me pass out…' she pleaded as the spots blurred out her vision. Her hearing was the next thing to go, then finally the pain.
Nihlus
Making it to the system with the increased red sand sales was easy, but it was a big system. They had been searching for over a week and there wasn't even radio chatter. Nihlus' contact had gotten back to him and agreed to help in the search, though disgruntledly, but even with the added eyes looking there was nothing.
He spent most of his time in his room pacing back and forth. When he was younger and his father was hurt he and his mother went to the hospital. They were left in the waiting room for hours and the entire time his mother was fidgety, irritated, and easily angered. At the time he didn't understand the agony she was going through knowing her mate was in danger and she was helpless to do anything. He could understand it now. It was the same agony that he felt now, knowing Shepard was in danger, that she needed him, and unable to do anything but sit around. That's why he spent most of his time in his room; he didn't want to explode on anyone.
"Search for any data on the research lab again, find if they have another base, find if they have any associates, anything." he ordered his VI. His terminal scene pulled up a window and data scrolled past the screen in response to his orders.
"No new data was found." his VI told him.
He growled and slung his chair across the room. "Find something." he snapped at it. "Find her, I don't care how."
"Request is too broad, I require more information." his VI replied.
"Find Shepard, she is a human with red hair and green eyes. She is stubborn, and beautiful, and oblivious, and I love her!" he closed to screamed at the computer in front of him. He let out a sub-harmonic whine and slid down the wall to the floor. The pain in his chest was unbearable. If this was love he didn't want it. He wished he had never found her so he wouldn't know this pain. "I love her…" he whispered, putting his face in his hands. He just wanted to hold her, to feel her hips under his hands. He wanted to kiss her and feel her tongue rub against his own. He wanted to pin her to a wall and fuck her until she screamed out his name. And more than anything, more than the stress making him want any outlet like physical contact, he wanted to see her smile.
"New results found." his VI chimed, making Nihlus jerk his head up.
He scrambled to his feet, grabbed his knocked over computer chair, and sat himself down in front of the terminal. There weren't many results, a little more than a dozen. He opened the first one and felt some of his hope deflate. It wasn't on Shepard's location, it was about Shepard. It was of blurry images of them at different ports and the headline on the first source read "New species joins us." He opened the link anyway, it wasn't about Shepard's location, but it was something to distract himself with for a bit.
New Species Joins Us
Through several eye witness accounts and a couple images we have been able to confirm that a new species has arrived into our society. No one knows for sure why the Council has decided to keep the new species a secret, but as you can see from the pictures the new species called "Shepard" is clearly a charge under turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik.
Kryik is a known Spectre and some would argue that he is a Spectre of the people since his last known mission on Illium where he not only stopped a company from using their clients as test subjects, but went against the Council's wishes by making the information public for consumer safety.
So why is someone, who would go to those lengths, suddenly be keeping something as important as a new species from the public? The list of theories is long, but we finally have some concrete evidence to help us uncover the truth.
The pictures below show the bodies of other Shepards being discarded at fighting rings all across Omega. It is my believe that the Shepards that are currently among our society were somehow separated from the rest and, tragically, mistreated.
Nihlus stopped reading. Instead he looked at the pictures of the dead humans. He counted them, his stomach twisting for Shepard as the bodies stopped at thirty. She had said that including herself there were thirty-six people in her crew. Shepard, Kaidan, and Joker made thirty-three. That meant only three were uncounted for. Out of thirty-six only six were left. The news was grave and he knew that it would upset Shepard, if she was here and not kidnapped. He laced his fingers behind his head and set his elbows on his desk.
"I'll find you…" he said quietly and tried to stop his hands from trembling.
Kaidan
"You're sure there isn't any radio chatter?" Kaidan asked from the co-pilot's seat.
"Yes, Kaidan, I'm sure that there isn't, nor has there been in the past two weeks, any radio chatter at all let alone anything about Shepard." Joker said, pulling the ship out of orbit from yet another planet. "Maybe we have the wrong system."
"No we have the right system." Nihlus said, coming up into the cock-pit.
"How can you be sure, there is nothing?" Kaidan said, turning at the waist to look back at him.
"Because there is nothing," Nihlus said, crossing his arms and settling his weight into one foot as he stood behind Joker's chair. "The red sand was here, it was intercepted, yet there hasn't been any radio chatter. Where do you think that red sand was going? And why aren't they talking?"
"Because a Spectre is after them," Kolyat said, squeezing into the cock-pit with the rest of them.
Nihlus nodded, but didn't look at him. "People who don't want to be noticed tend to get really quiet when there is a Spectre involved," Nihlus explained further. "Normally I'd back off, let them feel like it's okay to come out again, but we don't have that luxury this time."
"So what? We keep combing space for her?" Kaidan said in despair, they all knew that it was a hopeless cause. The search area was too big.
"Yes, with some back up." Nihlus said.
"Your Spectre friend has been searching with us for the past week and we still haven't found anything." Joker said. "Anyways from what Shep told me this Saren guy didn't like her."
"Saren can be cold at first." Nihlus said with a shrug. "And I called in some more backup. We are up to four ships, not much but it's better than two." He looked down at the three of them just staring up at him. "Well, keep searching." he said before he turned and left.
"He is so moody lately." Joker commented. "You think he is on his period?"
Kolyat looked at him weird, "What's a period?"
"Don't ask," Kaidan cut Joker off.
"Ok…" Kolyat said slowly, still confused. "But that is just how turians get when they are stressed out, I'm actually surprised he hasn't yelled at anyone yet," he informed them before turning to go get dinner started.
"Kid comes in handy, he is like an encyclopedia." Kaidan commented, turning back to his controls to help Joker in any way he could.
xXx
Joker yawned as he pulled himself out of bed and limped towards the bathroom. He scratched the top of his head as his other hand undid the front of his pants. He gripped himself in his hands and with a sigh relieved himself into the toilet. With his bladder empty he redid his pants and started towards the cock-pit out of habit. He settled himself down into the pilot chair and drifted back off to sleep.
Sometime later he was pulled out of his slumber by a constant beeping and a light flashing in his face. He jolted awake to see an incoming call from someone named Tela. He answered it with a yawn filled "Hello."
"You're not Nihlus." the female voice said. "Ah, you must be one of his human friends. Are you cute like that Shepard?"
"What… no… I… Who are you?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"I'm Spectre Tela, I'm helping you search for Shepard." she explained. "Are you cute like her? Or does Nihlus hold a claim on you too?"
"You know about them?" he asked.
The voice laughed, "Nihlus thinks he hides it, but I was a consort in my youth, he can't hide it from me," she practically sung. "Anyways, I'm calling because I received a message from someone who claims to be a scientist that kidnapped her." He could hear her tapping buttons, probably to bring up the message. "'Dear Spectre, I know that you are looking for the creature we took. She is being held at a space station and being experimented on to be fitted with a biotic implant. I am willing to tell you where she is in exchange for immunity for the things I've done. I wasn't aware at the time that she was an intelligent creature. I would free her myself, but the scientist we work under has gone mad in his attempts to make a powerful biotic and I fear for my blahblahblah,'" she read. "I personally think it's a load of crap that she suddenly feels bad, but I told her we'd grant her immunity so she'd tell us."
"So you know where Shepard is?" Joker asked, sitting forward in his seat.
"Yep, sending you and the others the coordinates, meet you there." she said before disconnecting the call.
Joker pulled himself to his feet and hobbled his way to Nihlus' room as quick as he could. "Nihlus, wake up." he said, pounding on the door. A second later Nihlus opened the door, standing in front of him butt ass naked. "Oh god, why aren't you wearing pants?" Joker asked, adverting his eyes.
"I prefer to sleep naked." Nihlus said casually, like Joker didn't just see his bare ass. He grabbed a pair of pants from his closet and pulled them on.
"And where is your penis." he asked, still refusing to look at Nihlus.
"Internal." he said simply. "I'm covered."
Joker finally looked at him. "Your friend Tela called, she has Shepard's location. One of the scientists contacted her, saying she had a change of heart or something."
Nihlus woke up quickly with that news. "Get us to those coordinates, now." he said darkly.
"Aye Captain," Joker said, saluting and hobbling back down to the cock-pit.
"Fucking cripple," Nihlus said and picked him up, carrying him down to the cock-pit at a much faster pace, where he half tossed Joker into the chair.
"It's a few hours from here, but if you don't mind burning some extra fuel we can get there in about an hour, will have to jump to FLT for a bit though." Joker said, already doing it without waiting for the answer.
Nihlus put a hand on his shoulder before he left back down the bridge. He went to the crew quarters and dragged Kaidan out of the bed. "Get up, we know where Shepard is." he said to the groggy human as he set him on his feet.
"Shepard?" he muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"You have thirty minutes to suit up before I leave you." Nihlus said before he left to go get ready himself. He wasn't sure if taking Kaidan was a mistake or not, but he wanted Shepard back just as bad as him and this was too important to turn down any help.
After suiting up he went down to the cargo bay and pulled out a crate from the back. With a grunt he put it on his work table. "What's in there?" Kaidan asked, coming up behind him, all suited up and ready to go.
Nihlus' mandibles flared in a smile as he unclipped the crate and opened it. "A really big gun." he said shifting the large rocket launcher to his shoulder. "These people took Shepard, have done who knows what to her, I'm done holding back." he said, his eyes holding a darkness that sent a shiver down Kaidan's spine.
"Yeah, I'm with you on that one." Kaidan said, taking a pistol and a machine gun that Nihlus' handed him.
With both of them ready the silence between them grew. Nihlus was grateful for it. He didn't really have anything in common with Kaidan besides love for the same woman, and that wasn't a very good point to bond on.
"Looks like we are the last ones to the party," Joker called over the coms. "Hang on they are calling, I'll patch them through."
A second later Saren's voice replaced Joker's, "You're late."
"We are all late; let's not waste any more time." Nihlus replied, checking his rocket launcher again.
"It's a small space station, we've already scoped out the docking bays, and there are two of them. You, me, and Vasir will go to the docking bay this Gena is letting us in through. Bau will go to the second one shortly after and stop any escape they try to make." Saren briefed him. "What do you want to do with this asari we promised immunity to?"
"Well," Nihlus slid his rocket launcher into place on his back "we promised her she wouldn't be brought to trail, so let's make sure she never sees a court room."
"You're going to kill her?" Kaidan asked, shocked.
"She knew the people they were experimenting on weren't animals, even if she thought different with Shepard." Nihlus growled.
"She was a bit animalistic." Saren butted in.
"She is still adjusting." Nihlus defended. "This Gena" he spat her name like it was toxic "knows that Spectres are coming after them, she is just looking for a way out. Joker take us in."
"Roger that." Joker said as he and two of the three ships joined him on their way to the docking bay. He landed them on the middle platform gently, powering down the ship and opening the cargo bay door.
Nihlus and Kaidan stepped out of the ship and onto the small space station just as the Tela and Saren touched down. "What's that doing here?" Saren asked, pointing at Kaidan.
"Figured Tela could use a partner and this way he won't try and sneak off and cause even more trouble." Nihlus said. "And his name is Kaidan; he is a friend of Shepard's."
"Your fringe—I mean hair—isn't red." Tela said, circling him.
"Yeah, apparently red hair is rare." Nihlus said, allowing her a moment to muse over Kaidan.
"It is; most people have black or brown." Kaidan explained. "There is also blonde—a yellowish color—and red like Shepard."
"Wow, humans have a lot of variation." Tela commented.
"We can also have different eye color, skin color, height," Kaidan continued to rumble on.
"Enough show and tell unless you're going to show us how an external penis works," Nihlus said, having enough of this. He just wanted to find Shepard.
"It's external?" Tela and Saren asked at the same time.
"Yeah, freaky, right?" Nihlus said without looking back at them as he walked over to the airlock to the rest of the station.
Once he approached the door it slid open and an asari stepped out. "Gena?" he asked, out stretching his hand.
"Three Spectres? Just who is this girl?" she asked nervously.
"A friend," Nihlus replied, withdrawing his hand.
Gena rubbed her upper arms. "So I let you in and I get immunity, right?" she asked.
Nihlus nodded, "I promise that you will never see a court room." he answered truthfully.
She nodded and handed him a badge that would give them access to the entire station. "She is being held on the far side of the station, but there isn't very much security so you shouldn't have too much trouble, not with three Spectres." she said, moving aside for them.
"Thank you." Nihlus said before he drew his pistol.
"What? You promised—" she said frantically as he pointed the gun in between her eyes.
"I promised you wouldn't see a court room." he said before pulling the trigger.
The asari crumpled to the ground, a single round bullet hole in her forehead. Nihlus lowered his gun to her body and shot her two more times in the head. "Let's go." he said, sheathing his weapon in favor of his assault rifle.
They all pulled out their guns and started forward, guns raised and the first thing around any corners. The first thing they sought out was a camera room. After several hallways they found it, killed the two guards dozing at the monitors.
"Tela, you and Kaidan stay here and be our eyes; Saren and me will continue in and retrieve Shepard." Nihlus said and slipped out of the room, Saren at his heels.
"Well isn't this reversed?" Saren commented.
"You following me?" Nihlus asked for clarification.
Saren nodded, "You're normally so passive on missions."
Nihlus was quiet for the next hallway, thinking of his response. Saren didn't rush him; he could tell by his sub-harmonics that the younger turian was thinking of the best way to respond, to tell just enough truth.
"They took my friend." he finally said. "I don't have many friends, but I've grown attached to Shepard. If it's to rescue her I'd go to any lengths, I'd do the same for you."
"You're horrible at hiding your sub-harmonics." Saren commented on the low whine that had been coming from Nihlus since they entered the station.
"I have grown really attached to her." Nihlus admitted.
"It's disgusting," Saren stated. It wasn't something up for debate, it was merely his opinion and Nihlus knew it wouldn't be easily changed. "I'm not here for that creature, I'm here for you."
"I know," Nihlus said. "And I thank you."
After that silence grew between them, but it wasn't awkward, it was calculated. According to a map on the wall of the station they were coming up on the next guard post, no need to be vocal and talking about their feelings.
They rounded the corner in sync, no words needed in about the same way it was fighting with Shepard. Only with Saren it came from years of practice, with Shepard it was as natural as breathing. The guards spotted them, one even managed to put a hand on his weapon. Then there were three pops, two from Saren's gun, one from Nihlus', and the guards fell to the ground.
Saren stopped at the guard post. "I'll stay here; make sure you're not followed. I don't want to see your reunion anyway." Saren said, bringing up the security feed on the monitors at the guard's desk.
Nihlus nodded before he continued on, following the maps posted regularly along the walls to a section of the station labeled as "testing." It made his stomach churn that he knew that is where Shepard would be.
'Be ok,' he pleaded, breaking into a run when there were only a few hallways left. He was panting when he stopped outside the door labeled "holding cells." 'Be ok,' he pleaded again, his hand touching the green panel.
The room behind the door was long with doors lining each side of the hall. There were so many. How many people had died in these cells? Was Shepard one of the living or one of the dead? He moved slower now, grabbing the charts off each door and reading it. Asari, salarian, krogan, asari, volus, turian, turian, hanar, drell, elcor, asari, after each door was eliminated as the right one he threw the chart away. One of the doors at the end of the hall had a much smaller chart and under species it read unknown.
"Shepard…" he muttered, bringing his omni-tool up to start a hack on the door. When it beeped and slid open his heart sank, the room was empty. "No… no, she can't be gone, she must be somewhere else." he thought, pacing a bit. "These are the holding cells, where would they take her when she isn't here." He knew the answer, but admitting it made him even more frantic. He exited the room of holding cells and started the search for the operating room.
He found it with the light above the door light, signaling that they were in the middle of a procedure. He took a deep breath before he hit the green light. The door slide open, shocking the scientists crowding around the operating table, blocking his view. He shot them all one by one until only a salarian at the head of the table was left. "Back away from her." he growled, his finger pressing on the trigger.
The salarian laughed, "I think you're confused."
Nihlus glanced down at the body on the stretcher. It wasn't Shepard, it was a male batarian. He growled and ran at the salarian, slamming him against the wall. "Where is she?" he demanded, his pistol wedging between the man's jaw bone and neck.
"Who? We have several female subjects." the salarian played dumb.
"You know who." Nihlus said, slamming him against the wall again. "The human you kidnapped from me. She is pink with red hair and she is mine."
"Oh, that one." the salarian laughed. "I'll tell you once you let me go and put your gun away."
Nihlus lowered his gun and set the salarian on his feet. "There, now that we are acting civilized we can—" Nihlus hit him several times in the face. The man stumbled back, clutching the side of his face where Nihlus' knuckles had split the skin. He followed him down, punches still coming.
"Nihlus," a voice said and someone grabbed his arm as he pulled it back for another punch. He wrenched it away from the person and went to hit the salarian again, but the voice stopped him. "Kill him and we may not find Shepard."
He looked up at her, an angry glare in his eyes. It was Tela. He panted heavy, trying to calm down from his rage. He got off the salarian and moved to the other side of the room, pulling off his gloves to rub his sore knuckles.
Tela knelt down beside the bleeding man. "I can give you some med-gel for that, all you need is to tell us where Shepard is." she tried kindness.
"That girl is my experiment, why should I tell you anything?" he said, sitting up and spitting blood onto the floor.
"Because if you don't, I'll let Nihlus take out the rest of his anger on you." she said, making the man shiver. "That girl is his mate, and you know what a turian will do for his mate."
He sighed, "She could be an incredible powerful biotic if you let us continue."
Nihlus started back over to them, wanting to hit him again for talking about Shepard like she was an object.
"Wait," the man said, holding his hands up. "She is in a separate holding area so we could keep a closer eye on her." he spilled under the threat of Nihlus' anger.
Nihlus gripped the front of his shirt and lifted him off his feet. "Where." he growled.
"Down the hall, take a right, then two lefts, she is in the third room on the right." he said quickly.
"Tela, tie him up, we'll take him back to the council, I still have that mission to complete." he said, dropping the man.
Tela nodded and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
Nihlus didn't wait to see the outcome. He followed the directions the salarian gave him, stopping outside the third door on the right. There was a one way mirror showing the inside of the room. Shepard was inside, vertically strapped to a stretcher. Tubes connected to several different parts of her body, most connecting to her back out of view. He opened the door and went to her, examining the different tubes connecting to her sleeping form. This was bad; he wasn't sure how to detach her without risking her life. Hell, he didn't know what over half of the tubes were for.
"Nih…" she muttered in a hoarse voice as she started to stir.
"I'm here, Shepard." he said, taking her face in his hands and lifting her head up to look at him. She was thin and sickly pale, her half closed eyes empty. "I'm going to get you out of here." he promised and started working on the straps. He had to disconnect her to get her out and he had to hope that none of it would kill her. "You're ok." he said; lower her to the ground as he removed the last strap. "You're ok and I've got you." he said, running his fingers across her cheek.
She cringed from his touch, pushing him away. He left her, careful to stay close in case she needed him. She crawled to her hands and knees, her eyes darting to the IVs stuck in her arms. The monitor connected to her heart beat speed up as the first sign of her panic attack. "Shepard, you're ok, we are getting out of here." he tried to soothe, resting a hand on her shoulder. He slammed into the one way mirror, sending a crack through it. He let out a cough of pain and surprise from the biotic blast. "Shepard, calm down, you're safe." he tried again, watching as she stood up and turned her empty eyes to him. "Shepard…"
She ran at him, her body shimmering in blue, and slammed her fist into the glass where his head had been a second before. He moved, sliding out of the room. "Shepard, it's me, Nihlus." he tried again to reach her. She ripped the IVs out and followed him out the door, slamming herself into the wall in attempt to ram Nihlus, but he managed to sidestep her. "No?" he said, not seeing anything register in her eyes. "Alright, this I didn't plan on." he said before running down the hall as fast as he could.
Shepard was right behind him, occasionally buffering him with a biotic blast. It seemed she used most of her strength in the first few attacks, which was good for him. He led her through the hallways, not stopping for the guards that started to amass against the invasion. They actually bought him time by giving Shepard something else to go after for a few seconds. He led them to the second docking bay.
"Jondum, can you lead me some handcuffs?" he cried as he dove to the ground to avoid a desk Shepard flung at him.
Jondum quickly came out of his ship. "I thought she was a friendly."
"She is," Nihlus said, taking the handcuffs from him. "If she really wanted me dead I would be." He moved to an open area. "Alright Shepard, give me your best shot." he said holding his arms out at his sides. She let out a cry and ran at him full force, biotic energy whizzing around her. He took the hit with a grunt, sliding back half a dozen feet, but managed to stay up. He slipped the handcuffs around one of her wrists and the other to a nearby railing.
She let out another scream as she jerked against the handcuffs, shooting out waves of biotic energy from her free fist. Nihlus brushed them off, she didn't have enough strength to do much else. He caught her hand and handcuffed her over wrist to the railing.
With her contained he settled himself down a little ways from her. "Joker, move the ship to the other loading dock." he said into his com. "We've got her."
Shepard continued to thrash way after everyone regrouped and for twenty minutes after that. And then finally she slid to the ground, exhausted. Nihlus took the cue and moved to her.
"Nih?" she asked, looking confused into his eyes. Blood was dripping from her nose and her eyes were blood shot, obvious signs of a biotic pushing beyond safe limits.
"Yeah," he said, brushing her hair out of her face, but she flinched at his touch.
"Don't touch…" she muttered. "It hurts to be touched…" She shuddered, "Everything hurts."
He looked at the top of a wound on her neck. Slowly he pulled the hospital dress away from her back.
"No," she screamed, jerking away from him, twisting her arms at painful angles in her attempt to move away.
"I just was to look," he promised her, hands up to show he meant her no harm. "Please, so I know how to help."
She looked up at him, still shaking, but she nodded and moved back so he could pull the dress away from her back. The wound traveled the length of her spine, fresh and clearly had been cut into several times. At intervals there were metallic inserts similar to a biotic implant, but these were severally altered. No wonder everything hurt to her, her nerve endings must be on fire from all that trauma. He took off the handcuffs and scooped her up into his arms, holding her awkwardly as he tried not to touch her spine and cause further damage. She whimpered in pain as he carried her into their ship and up to her room.
With the objective complete Jondum and Tela got into their respective ships and flew away. Saren followed Nihlus to Shepard's room. He didn't speak, but he stayed as a comforting presence to his friend.
Nihlus set her down on her bed. He hovered his hand over her cheek, afraid to touch her, to hurt her. "I…" he started, but he didn't know what to say, what to do. The pain in his chest was almost better when she was still missing. She was in front of him and he was still useless. "I'll go get you something to eat and drink." he said, slowly getting up from his kneeling position. Shepard didn't say anything; she just kept staring at her hands.
He and Saren slipped out of the room and headed down to the kitchen area. "You could say something." Nihlus said quietly.
"I do not know her, I do not know if she has the will to overcome this." Saren shrugged. "I have no consoling words to tell you. I'm just here, it's all I offer."
Nihlus grabbed a packet of bland levo food, just trying to find something that wouldn't upset her stomach. Given her loss of weight she probably hadn't been fed very much and he didn't want to make things worse. "She is strong, she will overcome this." Nihlus said, but as he heated water for the meal he didn't know if he believed it.
"Hey, boss, your friend coming with us or are we making camp?" Joker asked over the com. "Kaidan is either exaggerating or we really need to get Shepard some help."
Nihlus paused and looked at Saren. "I'll leave, I have no desire to be stuck in this ship with more of those… things." he said and started down towards the stairs.
"Saren," Nihlus called after him. "Thank you, I know you don't agree with my choice to help them, but you still came to help."
"I did it for you, not for them or that cretin upstairs." Saren said, not looking back.
Once Saren exited the cargo bay Joker pulled it up and lifted the ship into the air. "Setting a course for the Citadel, ETA is forty-nine hours and twenty-four minutes." he informed everyone over the com.
Nihlus was silent as he finished cooking the levo meal. He heard Kaidan come up behind him, but neither of them spoke. "Shepard is strong." Kaidan finally spoke. "But… she is an idealist, I don't know if she… It's not what they did to her; it's that they did it, that will be the biggest shock to her."
Nihlus scrapped the pile of mush into a bowl. "We can only take this one step at a time. First things first, we get some food and rest in her. I'll raid the med-kits for some painkillers to help with the nerve damage and just… keep her comfortable until we can get to a doctor."
"Can I go see her?" Kaidan asked. He didn't know why he was asking permission, but he knew he'd need it to get anywhere near Shepard.
"Sure, but stay at the doorway for now, we don't know what will set her off." Nihlus said, grabbing a glass of water and the bowl of mush. "I don't see how you guys eat this."
"Like rubber cement." Kaidan told him. "You just keep chewing until you can manage to get it down your throat."
Kaidan followed him up, but stayed in the doorway. Shepard was still sitting on the bed, staring at her limbs. "I brought you food." Nihlus said, making her jerk her head up to look at him. He held it to her, but she didn't reach up to take it.
"I can't move my arm." she said, fear creeping into her voice.
Nihlus set the food on her nightstand. "Which one?" he asked.
"The right one… The pain started to dull and now I can't…" her voice broke off into a sob.
"Can you move the left one?" he asked as he gently picked up her right arm by the wrist.
"Kinda," she said, she lifted it up and flexed her fingers, only half making a fist. "I can't bend them anymore."
"You must have knocked something loose." Nihlus said, trying to be optimistic. "Mordin will be able to do something." He rubbed her right hand in between hers. "Can you feel that?"
"Barely," she said.
His mandibles twitched and he held them stiffly against his face to reduce any negative facial expressions. "What about your legs?" he asked, needing to change topics.
She nodded, "Yeah, I can move them," she said, wiggling her toes. "But it feels like I've been sitting on my right one and its asleep."
"But you do have feeling in it and in your hand, even if it's not much that is a good sign, it means the nerves aren't completely dead." he said, tracing his nail on the bottom of her right foot, taking pleasure then she jerked her foot away from the sensation. "See? Now let's get you to eat something." he said, grabbing the bowl.
"I can't use my hands." she repeated.
"Then I'll feed you." Nihlus said, scooping some of the mush onto a spoon and held it up to her mouth.
She looked down sadly, eyes swimming in self-pity, but she opened her mouth and let him feed her like a helpless child.
A/N: And done. This chapter actually sat mostly done for over a week, I got a drawing tablet from my parents for Christmas and I've been playing with it nearly none stop. But I set it down because 1. I'm frustrated that I'm not as good as I'd like, though I know it takes practice and I'll get there and 2. I keep having people post Nihlus things on my tumblr blog and giving me feels.
Oh yeah, my tumblr blog is skyebirdhawk if anyone else is addicted to the site.