Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, save the OCs you will encounter in this particular story. It will not merely be a re-telling of the ME story as we know it, so expect changes and (hopefully) surprising and enjoyable twists! This story is rated M for a reason and will contain future scenes of violence, gore, sex, and various other mature situations. There will also be copious amounts of wonderful, wonderful angst. Please consider yourself warned.
I apologize for the delay, work has been throwing the hours at me and I've had little time to do anything other than sleep! I hope this chapter makes up for my tardiness! In it, 'Valkyrie' finally meets Shepard!
Any and all reviews are appreciated! I'm really excited for this story and I've got a lot of ideas to work into it! Please feel free to let me know what you think! A big thank you goes out to everyone who has added this story to their alerts :) – Fallon.
Chapter Four
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Henry Stanley Haskins
Shepard halted, the single blast of a gun stopping him in his tracks.
"What the hell was that?" Jacob questioned from behind him, his gun raised and eyes scanning the intersection of hallways they had come to.
The entire station had been a maze of narrow hallways and winding side passages. On more than one occasion it had only been due to the schematics EDI provided that they didn't veer off course or find themselves at a dead end.
Looking at the schematics on his omni-tool, Shepard saw that they were just outside of what they suspected to be the living quarters. A small hanger was nearby and likely contained the station's escape shuttles. If anyone was still alive chances were good that was where they were heading.
"It came from down there," Miranda nodded to the hallway on her left, "Could be one of the mercs finishing off one of the station's staff."
She pointed in the direction of the hanger the maps had shown.
"Or 'Valkyrie' herself," Shepard said, determination, starting down the corridor Miranda had indicated, "Come on, we're running out of time."
Marin stepped forward and looked down at the still-warm body of Corrine Knowles. His shot had hit her square in the chest, tearing through bone and obliterating a heart he had been doubtful had ever existed. Blood bubbled to the surface, saturating the crisp white of her lab coat and blouse and trickling down her sides.
A single shot had done it, had rid the galaxy of a woman so blinded by the propagandized bullshit Cerberus had been feeding her that she hadn't been able to clearly see the evil she had committed.
He took a small step back as the puddle of blood blossoming out from around her threatened to touch his boots.
Dead. Finally dead. Good riddance.
But that was merely step one of his mission. There was still Eira to find, contain and return to her rightful place. It was only then that he could truly say he had done right by Kathryn.
The sound of hurried footsteps pulled him from his thoughts and he spun around, raising his gun just in time to see a small party of well-armed soldiers enter the hanger. They spotted him and raised their weapons.
One of the party, a woman clad in a skin-tight black and white suit, had a Cerberus logo plastered over her breast and a Cerberus issued pistol tight in her grasp. He recognized her: Miranda Lawson. He had seen her only in passing a time or two, but knew she was close to the Illusive Man, part of something so heavily encrypted and classified that he hadn't been able to get past the firewalls on its files.
Next to her stood Jacob Taylor, another name Marin was familiar with. He'd never felt the need to pay Taylor any mind however, as the former Alliance soldier turned Cerberus puppet was nothing more than a pawn in a far greater game.
Neither of them mattered. As far as he was concerned, they were followers of the same bullshit, the same lies Knowles had followed so strictly.
No, they didn't matter.
The third person in their party, the one undoubtedly leading it, did however.
Marin smirked, strangely pleased that he had been right – the rumors were true.
Julian owes me two hundred creds.
"Commander Shepard," Marin took a small step to the side, his gun still raised, "Fancy meeting you here."
Shepard tentatively approached, gun poised and finger readied on the trigger. He saw the body behind the stranger, saw the blood. The situation before him was tense, but he took a deep steadying breath and willed weak feelings like apprehension and uncertainty from his body. He stood confident, in control, cool. Here he was a commander; there was room for nothing else. Training, and loss, had taught him that.
His gaze fixed on the stranger before him, "You have me at a disadvantage…?"
"Doctor Nikolai Marin," he gave a small nod in place of a bow, "Former Cerberus puppet, current…well, I suppose you could call me a gun for hire." He smirked, "I'd heard you were dead. Never thought some like you would be working for Cerberus."
"With, not for." Shepard corrected sharply, "Are these mercs under your command?"
"They are." Marin answered coolly, "Here to help me reclaim what was…stolen from a good friend of mine."
"You mean Valkyrie?" Miranda asked from behind Shepard, a wry smile on her lips, "The girl isn't yours to take. Project Valkyrie belongs to Cerberus. And she'll be coming with us."
"She's a human being," Marin snapped at Miranda, her confidence striking a nerve, "She can't belong to anyone! But I can see how you'd think that, Cerberus was always willing to disregard the rights of a few to better humanity." Marin laughed, "Ah, the selfless claims of the Illusive Man! And you believe it without question! Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe what you're willing to sacrifice is the very thing you should be protecting?"
Shepard was immediately struck by the overwhelming pain in the man's voice. Miranda and Jacob might have merely seen a mad man ranting, but to Shepard that pain could only come from truth. The doctor's glare was intense, the anger and hatred he held for Cerberus clear and undeniable. It consumed him, causing his body to shake in fury as he stood before them.
This man, regardless of where his loyalties lied or who he truly was, clearly knew more about 'Valkyrie' than he was saying. But the way he referred to her made Shepard think that perhaps he held a personal connection to the girl.
Not knowing for sure though made him feel like he was fighting in the dark. Shepard knew the Illusive Man hadn't revealed everything about the project, that much was plainly obvious, and that fact alone compelled him to want to learn more, to discover why Valkyrie was worth so much effort and secrecy.
"What the hell is he talking about?" Jacob hissed under his breath, glaring at Miranda from the corner of his eye questioningly.
She shook her head, a scowl on her face, "The man's lost his mind."
Shepard ignored them, his gaze never straying from Marin.
"Why is she worth protecting, Marin?" He asked sternly, his tone leaving no room for the doctor to dodge or delay.
Marin laughed, "Did the Illusive Man not have the courtesy to fill you in Shepard?" He didn't wait for an answer, knowing it already, "Eira is truly one of a kind. Her biotics aren't –
From above them, the massive glass wall of an office overlooking the hanger exploded, sending thousands of shards of glass and metal raining down on them. Marin attempted to leap out of the way, moving quickly to get out of the falling cloud of debris and taking cover near a metal crate. Shepard shouted as he moved, his voice drowned out by the echoing crash of a hundred pounds of rubble hitting the ground, catching only glimpses of Miranda and Jacob following as he ducked and rolled out of the way.
There was a brief moment of silence, broken by a heart-wrenching scream that faded into a deep, guttural sob.
Just as Shepard registered the cry through the chaos, the air in the room changed. He felt it shift, as if being sucked upward, toward the source of the scream.
He moved to look up, but only caught a quick glimpse of something, or someone, stark white before all hell broke loose.
A pulse of energy, marked by crisp blue waves that spread outward like ripples in water, struck Shepard, a great weight hitting him square in the chest, throwing him back violently. He grunted as his back made contact with the wall, his breath being torn from his chest by the sheer force of the hit. He fell to the ground in a heap, gasping desperately, his shocked body trying hurriedly to suck in air.
Breathe…just….breathe…
He blinked once, twice to clear the fog that clouded his vision and looked up, searching the hanger for the source of the blast while pawing at the ground around him, grasping for his weapon with a sense of panic that brought him back to Akuze.
Screams…so much blood…the agonizing burn of maw acid hitting flesh…its venom sinking into his blood…
"Shepard!"
He shook off the memory and saw Jacob approaching him. The Cerberus operative's focus was elsewhere however, fixed upward. Shepard saw how wide his eyes were, saw him hesitate and ultimately slowly lower his firearm.
Shepard turned to see what had shaken him.
Suspended in the air by pulses of biotic energy that wrapped around her body like a shroud, a young girl slowly descended from the ruined office, her movements precise and controlled. Her long silvery hair was loose around her, flowing freely behind her as she made her descent. Her skin was in stark contrast to the dark shirt and shorts she wore, so pale that from a distance it looked truly white.
"Looks like Valkyrie found us…" Jacob muttered under his breath to no one in particular.
Shepard got to his feet, Valkyrie's appearance pulling him mercifully back to the present and to the mission at hand. His head throbbed from the hit he'd taken, but he pushed that aside for the moment, focusing instead on the young girl whose anger he could now see clearly.
Her eyes were glowing, their true colour impossible to discern with the smoke-like wisps of biotic energy emanating from them. Her brow was furrowed and as her bare feet touched the cold metal ground, he could see tear streaks running down her dust covered cheeks.
Marin stumbled forward, moving closer to Valkyrie and the cooling body of Knowles.
"Eira!" He exclaimed with a bright smile, his entire posture relaxed as if a great weight had been eased from his shoulders. "Thank God! I've come to free you!"
The young girl ignored him but her biotics ceased flaring and her hands fell to a relax position at her sides. Her focus didn't falter from the body of Knowles.
Shepard looked at Valkyrie.
With the fog from his mind cleared, Shepard could see that albinism had left her skin, hair and eyes without colour. That, coupled with her impressive biotic display, left little doubt in his mind that this was the girl they were looking for.
Her silence concerned him and he moved to the side, hoping for a better look at her face. Her eyes were wide, her red tinted irises gleaming with the sheen of tears barely held back. Her lips were slightly parted and he could see her chin trembling – shock ripping through her small frame like a blade.
She sank to her knees, seemingly unaware that she was kneeling in a pool of blood, and tentatively reached out to touch the dead woman's face. Lingering warmth remained in the woman's body and Eira recoiled in surprise, only to have her gaze fall upon the crater of a wound in Knowles' chest.
A soft, wounded whine left her and she slowly wrapped her arms around herself.
Shepard holstered his weapon. The girl was in shock, that much was obvious, and he didn't want to make her feel threatened anymore that she already did.
"Eira?" He started softly, mindful not to startle her, "Eira, I need you to look at me."
She swallowed hard and looked at him from the corner of her eye, not trusting herself with any greater movement.
"I'm Commander Shepard. The Illusive Man asked me to come here to bring you somewhere safe –
"He's lying!" Marin shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at Shepard, "The Illusive Man only wants to –
"You killed her…" Eira bowed her head. Tears slipped down her cheeks and fell onto the bloody lab coat of the closest thing to a mother she had ever known. "She was my everything and you killed her…"
Dismayed by her words, Marin pulled back. His confusion and hurt were painted on his face and he tried to reach her again, having come too far to let anything, even Valkyrie herself, get in the way of him saving her.
"That woman is a murderer, Eira," he said with a venomous hiss, "She tortured your real mother, and she exposed you to chemicals while you were in your mother's womb! It was all to turn you into a weapon for Cerberus to use, to manipulate!"
Eira clasped her hands over her ears and clenched her eyes shut, her confusion and pain causing her biotics to flare. Blue wisps of energy whipped out around her and struck Marin, throwing him off balance and crashing to the ground.
"You killed her!" Eira growled through clenched teeth, "She was all I had and you killed her!"
She looked up at Marin, her eyes glowing vibrant blue.
She felt it, that beautiful surge of energy she'd once been so afraid of. It was flowing through her, seeping into every pore in a rush stronger than anything she'd ever experienced. It was stronger than adrenaline and coursed through her veins in a flash, overwhelming her mind with a sudden draining force.
Eira sprung to her feet and drew back her arm. Her fingers tingled with biotic energy and she pulled it into her palm, into a pure orb of force, before striking, moving as if to punch Marin but instead hitting him with a single, massive pulse of biotic power.
He went flying, cutting through the air like a bullet leaving a gun and careening into the wall with enough force to crack the metal and concrete as well as the protective coating of his armor.
Eira inhaled sharply and turned to face Shepard.
Instead of ebbing and fading away like it usually did, her powers flared. Every nerve sparked to life and she opened her eyes wide and screamed as control was ripped from her. Blasts of her biotics burst forth from her, striking the ceiling and shuttles indiscriminately.
Shepard narrowly missed a blast himself, rolling out of the way at the last possible second.
He heard Joker's voice in his earpiece.
"Commander? What the hell is going on down there? We're getting all kinds of strange readings!"
Shepard grunted as a blast clipped his shoulder, ripping away a small chunk of his shoulder guard. He felt his shoulder blade slip out of place and bit his lip to stifle a scream.
He cursed under his breath, and then quickly pressed his fingers to his earpiece.
"Get the Normandy's shuttle in position, Joker!" He looked to Eira and saw that the energy surges were still wracking her body, "This isn't going to be a clean exit!"
"Aye, aye!" Joker stammered before shouting a command to the ensigns and signing out.
Shepard stepped forward, approaching Eira.
"You need to calm down, kid!" He said in a calm but stern voice, "No one is going to hurt you, you have my word!"
Pitiful sobs tore from the distraught biotic and with a violent shake she fell to her knees. Her biotics waned some, but slow whorls of energy still spun slowly around her.
Shepard took a quick glanced back at Miranda and Jacob, making sure they were both alright and had his back, before stepping closer to Eira. His left shoulder throbbed with a sharp pain, his dislocated joint screaming for medical attention, but he pressed forward.
Her biotics quickly dying down, Shepard recognized what he had seen earlier – a young girl overwhelmed and completely devastated by the scene before her. Sobs wracked her small frame and her eyes had returned to normal.
Willing to take the risk of opening himself up to an attack, he knelt before her. He heard Miranda protest, but ignored her to focus on the biotic before him.
Under a red tinted lens her eyes looked almost lavender. They remained wide with shock but he could also see exhaustion and hopelessness there too.
"Eira?"
She meekly looked up at him, then hissed and clutched her head. Her skull pounded fiercely and her vision blurred so badly she was having trouble making out the face of the man before her.
Who had he said he was? She thought for a moment. Shepard! Commander….Cerberus…
Mind overloaded, her biotics fizzled out and her head spun.
Shepard reached out to steady her, "Woh, hang in there, kid."
She closed her eyes to block out the blinding light of the room, unknowingly leaning into Shepard's hand as she fought to keep herself upright.
"You…" she breathed softly, "You are with Cerberus?"
"I'm working with them, yes." He clutched her shoulder to keep her from falling forward on her face, "Come on, kid, let's get you out of here."
"Commander we have to get out of here!" Miranda shouted and pointed to the hanger's ceiling, "This place isn't stable!"
Shepard saw what she was pointing at and quickly pulling the girl forward. She didn't protest and allowed him to awkwardly pull her into his arms. Her head rested on his shoulder and he stood, forcing his left arm to cooperate and support the weight of her legs as he lifted her. Mercifully she was light enough that the pain wasn't as bad as he'd feared.
He looked down to make sure she was well only to see that she had passed out; her arms limp around his neck.
He hurried out the way they had come; Miranda and Jacob close behind him. He heard the ceiling give out just as they left the hanger and tightened his grip on the unconscious girl in his arms.