Disclaimer: The wonderful world of Mass Effect isn't mine. Original characters have been created for the purpose of this story. Eira is mine.
How does everyone like Andromeda!? I've got about 20 hours invested in my play-through (sadly so few, I know!) and I'm starting to warm up to it. Love the story and the worlds you can explore but I'm missing the old, beloved characters from the original trilogy :( I'm going to tough it out; hopefully the new faces on the Tempest will grow on me. In the meantime, I'll content myself with giving you guys more chapters! Thank you, dear readers! – Fallon.
Chapter Twenty-Six
"Solitude, isolation, are painful things and beyond human endurance." – Jules Verne
Alone and surrounded by the bodies of the mercs they'd just killed, Eira had only her thoughts to keep her company.
Her world was silent and strange. Exhaustion hit her hard; as if every drop of adrenaline had left her in an instant, leaving her weak and groggy. A migraine had her head pulsing so fiercely tears sprung to her eyes. It was all she could do to squint as the fluorescent lights beat down on her, distorting her vision.
Despite it all, she only faintly recognized the danger she was in: alone in an overgrown facility seemingly crawling with enemies, she was in no state to defend herself. Not when the lines between past and present blurred in her mind, mirroring once precious childhood memories with the fragments of insight she'd gathered from Jack in Teltin.
Aimlessly, she began to weave around the bodies; stumbling as she stepped on and over them.
She was looking for…well, she wasn't quite sure what she was hoping to find.
Teltin wasn't like she expected it to be. In many ways it looked nothing like Nafna and yet every step she had taken in its' halls made her think of the station she'd called home for so long. She thought back to the modest room that had been hers, of the hanar toy she'd clung to so fiercely, and the training halls she'd spent countless hours in…
A shiver ran down her spine.
This place, Teltin, had been Cerberus; as much as it sickened her to admit it the logs they'd seen were impossible to ignore. Everything she'd seen…
Their arenas might have differed slightly, but Eira had been made to fight just as Jack had. And for what?
How many hours did she log in that training hall? How many mechs had she sent to the scrap yard in all the years she'd been there? And how could she have been so blind?
Tears streamed down Eira's cheeks and she bit her lip in an effort to halt its quivering. Fear and embarrassment overcame her and she dropped her pistol.
"No," she muttered under her breath as she paced the room, "no, no, this is wrong…"
Eira pressed her palms to her temples and gritted her teeth.
She had to be missing something; some tiny fragment of information that would make it all make sense and reaffirm everything she had believed to be right before she'd set foot on Pragia.
Eira suddenly felt like she was going to be sick. It hit her hard and she gagged as bile rose in her throat. She managed to take a single deep, slow breath that seemed to calm the intense feeling but the moment she tried to open her eyes it hit her again. She heaved and when there was nothing left in her to expel, stumbled backwards.
Overwhelmed and disoriented, she felt fresh tears spring to her eyes.
She wasn't sure how long she had been alone or where Shepard was; all she knew was that she wanted to get off Pragia and as far away from Teltin as she could.
"Eira?"
She spun quickly on her heels and in a panic, raised her hands to strike the figure that appeared before her. It was all a blur but when the figure grasped her wrists, halting her feeble attempts to strike out, her legs gave out from under her and she feel to her knees.
"Eira!" Shepard dropped to his knees and grasped her firmly by her arms, giving her a slight shake, "Are you hurt? Talk to me!"
She regained focus as he scanned her with him omni-tool in an effort to determine if she was injured. Unsure what to say, she roughly wiped away the tears from her cheeks and avoided his attempts to make eye contact.
"Eira?"
She flinched when he tried to move her hair out of her face.
"Hey," he coaxed in a hushed voice, "I need you to get up. Jack's prepped the explosive; we can get out of here."
With blood pounding in her ears, Eira couldn't be sure she heard him right.
"I need you to help me get you out of here, Eira," Shepard whispered, "I need you to try to get up."
"Looks like you're going to have to carry her bridal-style to the shuttle," Jack scoffed as she crossed her arms, "the princess doesn't seem fit to be of any help."
"She's in shock. What's your excuse, Jack?" he snapped, "Either help or wait for us at the shuttle."
Jack rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Don't make me wait long Shepard. I want to see this place burn and I'm not a patient woman."
Shepard watched the tattooed biotic saunter from the hall. Her obvious delight enraged him and he hated himself for not doing everything he could to prevent Eira joining them on Pragia. After all, seeing Eira's pained reaction was exactly what Jack was hoping for and he'd practically rolled over and let it happen.
Deciding to swallow his anger for the time being, he turned his focus back towards getting Eira up and out of Teltin. Unfortunately, he knew he didn't have the time to gently coax her into standing and leaving with him. He couldn't be certain all of the mercs were dead or if the sounds of gunfire had earned them the attention of Pragia's more imposing wildlife.
He reached out, brushing aside Eira's hair to grab her chin. He made her look at him, though she put up no real fight beyond a whimper of protest.
Her heartbreak was etched into her features. Sorrowful, tear-reddened eyes met his gaze. Her cheeks were damp and streaks of tears had run down her neck. Her lips quivered as she struggled to maintain what little composure she had.
The sight of her was like a punch to the gut. It completely sucked the air from him. He wanted to hold her; but he knew that wasn't going to get her to the shuttle.
"We're getting out of here even if I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out to the shuttle," he said sternly, "get up, stay close, and I'll get you off of this fucking planet."
He didn't wait for her to respond. Heaving her to her feet, he gave her only a second to steady herself before grabbing her hand and hurrying for the exit.
All that mattered was the shuttle. She was going to be fine so long as he could get her there.
He backtracked through the facility, keeping a steady paced but mindful that dangers might still linger in Teltin's halls. In one hand he clutched his pistol; in the other he held Eira's hand tightly.
Mercifully they made good time and when the shuttle was finally in sight, he smiled as relief set in.
"Nearly there, Eira, hang on!" he shouted to her as Jack powered up the shuttle and its engines hummed with life, sending dirt up into the air.
She got herself into the spacecraft, but made no move to prepare herself for take-off. Shepard urged her to a seat beside him and strapped her in.
"Get us out of here," he shouted as he took his seat, swaying only slightly as the shuttle rose from the landing pad.
"'bout time," Jack quipped, her arms crossed, "I didn't come here to take in the sights."
"You'll get what you want, Jack," Shepard said coldly, all out of patience for the woman, "as soon as we reach a safe distance, do what you came here for."
The second the shuttle door hissed open, Eira bolted from her seat and sprinted through the loading bay.
"Eira!" Shepard shouted after her, throwing down his helmet carelessly as he ran after her.
He heard Jack shout something as he ran off, but hardly cared what it was she had to say. He was tired of hearing her voice, tired of her delight in Eira's pain. If she wasn't a strong ally in his mission, he'd have her off his ship. If he was honest, he was debating it even then.
As he made it to the top of the stairs, he saw the door to Eira's room close behind her. The interface glowed red – she'd locked it behind her.
He slammed his fist against the steel door.
Panic settled in and his fear for her immediately intensified. She shouldn't be alone after seeing what she did on Teltin.
As much as he wanted to believe she would do anything stupid, he was also keenly aware he'd just witnessed someone's entire world shatter. Everything she'd thought she knew about herself and those who'd raised her…
"Eira?"
Nothing.
"Eira, listen to me," he pleaded, "You shouldn't be alone. At least let Garrus or Gabby in!"
It was EDI who finally responded.
"My apologies commander but Eira…respectfully requests to be left alone."
Shepard swore under his breath and pressed his forehead to the cold metal of the door as he weakly knocked.
"I…please, Eira…"
"I will monitor her closely," EDI said gently, "and alert you of any suspicious behavior, commander."
Pushing off from the door, Shepard nodded despite not liking it one bit.
"Anything happens to her –
"You have my word," the AI said firmly, "I will not let you down in this, Shepard."
Eira awoke in the middle of the night-cycle, having cried herself to sleep. She was still in her armor and her entire body ached from how it had dug into her body.
She ignored EDI's inquiries into how she was feeling and stood, peeling off her armor piece by piece and letting them fall to the ground without a care as to where they landed. Pulling on an oversized shirt and a pair of shorts she found at the foot of her bed, Eira left her room. She wasn't sure where she was going but she felt compelled to leave her small room.
The hallway was quiet and devoid of any crewmembers. She considered raiding the mess hall's kitchen but decided the risk of bumping into someone wasn't worth it. Instead she found herself in the loading bay standing before the shuttle. A strange and stupid thought came to mind as she looked at it…
Surely it wasn't hard to pilot? Maybe she could get away before the crew rallied?
Eira had no idea where she'd go; there was nothing beyond the Normandy, no one waiting for her. But how could she stay after Teltin?
Though the facility raised more questions than it answered, what was abundantly clear was that Cerberus was not all that it appeared.
Teltin made her question everything; every test they ever ran on her, every simulator they were put her in. It made her doubt Corrine.
Eira wasn't sure how to deal with that or what it made her in the end.
Was she an experiment like Jack? A guinea pig designed to amuse the Illusive Man?
"Going to take off?"
Eira turned to see Jack approaching, a smirk on her lips.
"Whatever you've come to say I'm really not interested in hearing, Jack," Eira said in a quiet, shaky voice, "I'm really not."
The sting of embarrassment was still keenly felt. Eira had been so sure after all, so disgustingly naïve about Cerberus and her true purpose on Nafna. To have that torn away…Eira didn't think she could bear Jack's gloating atop everything else.
Jack continued as if Eira had said nothing.
"Teltin not what you expected?"
"What do you think?" Eira countered, fists clenched as she fought to maintain her grasp on the last fragments of her composure.
"What I know, princess, is that it was a hell of an eye-opener," Jack crossed her arms and leaned against a shipping crate, "I wonder what made Cerberus keep you from the experiments on Pragia? A lot of kids died there as test subjects for experiments they wanted to run on me. They needed kids with biotic potential…and yet you were sparred that."
Eira was shaking. She didn't want to bend to Jack's goading but the desire to hit her with a biotic blast strong enough to space her was intense. Her throat tightened. She wanted to rend her into dust; maybe then she'd wake from the nightmare that had ensnared her.
"I am not you, Jack."
Jack snorted in amusement, "Whatever helps you sleep at night…"
She turned to leave, having gotten what she wanted from Eira.
But Eira wasn't going to let her get away.
"I am not you!" Eira screamed, biotics flaring up around her as anger like she'd never known surged through her, "You're a fucking mistake!"
"And you're not?" Jack countered, turning on her heels to face Eira, her own biotics springing to life, "You were kept alive for the amusement of a demented old man, just as I was!"
Eira's fingers tingled with energy just waiting for release. She pulled it into the palms of her hands and stared Jack down, reason dangerously close to leaving her.
"Shut…up!"
"Get over yourself, princess," Jack sneered, "Cerberus used you, just like me. If you'd stayed on that station, you'd have outlived your usefulness to them. They would have spaced you with the fucking garbage –
"Shut up!"
And with that, Eira let go.