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Chapter 4

We'll burn down something beautiful

"If we ever get out of this alive. Remind me to apologize."

Sky smirked, eyeing the man next to her. "Whatever for?" Her voice was the perfect façade of blissful ignorance. She had to choke back her laughter when he rolled his eyes and refused to answer.

Contrary to what most might think, Sky actually liked Owen. Sure he was rough around the edges and quipped up increasingly often that they should just kill her and be done with it but the protectiveness and love that he showed for his cousin was something she greatly admired. No person could be hated for showing that sort of love, at least not by her.

Bringing her attention back to the fight she was glad that they only had to hold out for another 20 minutes. To say that the past few days have been Hell would be a dire understatement: every bone, muscle and inch of skin hurt like nothing else. Even back home, she was a far cry from athletic. Having no involvement in any form of contact sports whatsoever it was a miracle that her body has held out this long. Her only saving grace were her interests in dance and rock climbing, both giving her the agility and flexibility to learn the most basic of maneuvers that the Shepards had taught her, and allowed her to keep up, although barely.

Just as she was about to bring down her sixth- or was it seventh? enemy of the night Owen tapped her arm, giving her enough time to stop shooting, before he pulled her down next to him. She was suddenly all-too aware of his muscular, sweaty body panting next to her as she crashed into his chest, caught by surprise.

Wow really? Stupid hormones.

"What?" he asked, frowning at Jane, not noticing the flustered teen.

The blonde places her index finger on her lips and gestured to the enemy. "Listen."

Sky strained her ears, unsure of what exactly she was supposed to be hearing when suddenly she felt Owen's large hands wrap around her waist. She let out a cry of surprise and pain as his rough fingers pierced through the tender skin of her side wound. But before she could protest she found herself being lifted off into air and propelled towards Jane's general direction. In any other situation, she would have been impressed with the sheer strength behind Owens' toss, but she became quite preoccupied with trying to prevent any additional injury as the ground rose up to meet her.

Her body hit the floor beside Jane with a sickening crunch, and the shooting pain on her right shoulder told her that she had definitely just broke something. The pain temporarily blocked out all her other senses. Once again, tears sprang into her eyes as she choked down a sob.

Muffled and seemingly from a great distance she heard a girl scream before an explosion caused rain of bricks on fire to shower down upon her. A few managed to hit their target, smacking against her arm and back as she covered her head against the force.

Slowly, as though the world reverted itself to normal, her senses returned to her. Gasping she turned around to observe the scene, curse words on the tip of her tongue to throw at the man who caused her so much additional pain. She knew he hated her, but really? Did he really dislike her that much?

And just as I was starting to think that I was getting through to-Her words were quickly silenced by the look of utter terror on Jane's face as the girl scrambled to where her cousin was previously crouching. Sky blinked, details of the event that just occurred not registering in her head. It was only until she saw the little that was left of the brick wall and the blood that splattered a good 10 feet away from it that her eyes widened in horror.

Where is- she searched the area in desperation, refusing to acknowledge the evidence that was so clearly laid out before her. A hunched over figure at the back of the room caught her eye as she squinted to get a better look. Turning away swiftly, she threw up all over the ground beside her.

Oh Owen… She thought as the tears trailed uncontrollably down her face, trying to scrub her brain clean of the image that would forever be burnt into her mind.

He was no longer recognizable; the skin of whatever was still attached to his body was mostly burnt to crisp. The stump where his right arm used to be was bleeding profusely, causing a pool of blood to collect around his dead body. She wasn't sure what was worse, the acrid smell of his still singeing flesh or the inhuman screams of agony that erupted from the normally calm and collected Jane as she pulled his corpse towards her chest.

Sky looked on, helpless. He had saved her life and wasted his own.

Where was the justice in that?

###

"NO!" She screamed as she watched, desperately wishing she could reach him in time and yet knowing that there was no chance in hell. Sky crashed down beside her with the familiar sound of a bone snapping into half, emitting a cry of agony. But Jane paid her no mind, all she could see was Owen's eyes steeling with determination – pale purple eyes that were so much like her own. He mouthed something, but before he could get more than a word out the missile hit, shattering the brick wall into pieces like it was made out of paper and catching her cousin straight in the chest.

The explosion flung bits of brick in all directions but Jane barely registered the pain of the rocks raining down on her. Within milliseconds she was on her feet, ignoring all fears of leaving cover as she ran after him. Her shoes squelched sickly against the pool of blood as she fell onto her knees beside his body, gathering whatever was left of him into her arms.

She could vaguely hear the moaning and crying of a wounded animal, only to realize that the sounds were coming from her. Nothing could stop her tears. Her chest felt like a turian had sunk his claws into her chest and ripped out her heart, and proceeded to play with it. Like a dam that finally gave way; everything that she had been holding onto so tightly the past week came flooding out.

"Take her and run." Hannah Shepard muttered urgently as she grabbed her hand and forced it into Owen's. "And don't look back."

Jane barely had the time to spare one last look at the two people who had brought her up before Owen wrenched her away from them, running and pulling her along in the opposite direction.

"No!" she shouted, struggling against his grip. "We can't leave them behind!" But her cousin did not heed her words, in fact, they spurred him to run faster, dragging her with such force that she was convinced her arm would pop out of its socket. "Owen, stop it. What are you doing? We can't leave them behind!"

Again, her words did nothing. She was just about to force her arm out of his grip, broken bones be damned, when she witnessed a scene she knew would be the cause of the many nightmares to come.

Her sweet, hardworking parents were no fighters, but for their children oh did they try. Armed to the teeth in whatever little equipment they could find they distracted the batarians for almost thirty full seconds. But considering the fact that the deadliest weapon that they owned was a kitchen knife and a normal hunting gun, against the advance weaponry that the slavers held they didn't stand a chance.

Jane's protests died on her lips as she watched her mother fall to the ground first, and then her father soon after. But those thirty seconds were enough for them to gain sufficient ground to disappear in the woods just beyond their garden. That night, neither cousin slept as they both pretended that the liquid trailing down their faces were due to the rain.

Jane tried to stop the onslaught but another memory hit, faster and harder than the first.

They thundered into the house at the sound of a baby wailing, guns up and ready to retaliate should a fight follow. The living room was a gruesome scene, with blood and guts littered just about everywhere. Her cousin paused at the sight, eyes widening in disbelief as he managed to discern two bodies out of the wreckage that looked like they were torn apart by wild animals. With more pressing matters in her mind she shouted at him. "Owen! Elizabeth!" as she ran up the stairs, two steps at a time. She ignored the clenching of her heart at the knowledge of the death of her two closest relatives and forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand; there was still time to save the baby.

They came here hoping to find that her aunt's family had survived the past two days. Jane Michaels was her mother's sister, best friend, and her Godmother. They were so close that Hannah had named her daughter after her. They never failed to spend every family holiday together and to know that such an event could never occur again… It nearly killed her.

Reaching the nursery she slammed the door open. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a large four-legged mammal growling at the crying baby, ready to go for her throat at any moment. Just as she was about to shoot the varren that threatened her Eli's safety she felt a tremendous force crash her into the ground.

She could do nothing but watch as the first varren toppled the crib over…

"Please, Oh God no!" Jane screamed, fighting against the second snarling creature that pinned her down.

… and ripped her baby cousin into half.

She wasn't sure what happened then. The next thing she could remember was Owen carrying her body out of the house that was burning to the ground.

But the baby never stopped crying.

She was so useless, so damn helpless to prevent or change anything: first her parents, then Elizabeth, and then Owen.

Owen! Her heart moaned as she clutched on harder to the body of the man she grew to love as a brother. She had reached a stage of grief that she was sure her mind could no longer handle. Incoherent words, curses and prayers fluttered in and out of her mouth. She didn't- couldn't-

Just let the pain stop.

###

Sky let out a whimper of pain as the batarian grabbed her roughly by her shoulder, applying pressure onto her injured shoulder. She refused to allow them the satisfaction of hearing her scream so she held it in, clamping her jaw down tightly against the pain as he dragged her towards the rest of the group, her gun clattering uselessly on the floor.

His partner grabbed both her wrists and tugged her upwards, forcing her onto her knees. The pain was blinding and despite her best efforts she trembled from the weakness. Her side bled heavily, soaking her 'borrowed' clothing through, but worst of all was the fury as that lit her from within as she heard them cackling with laughter, clearly enjoying the display of agony and grief.

"What do we do with the other girl?" Another asked, gesturing towards the crying Jane who refused to release her grip on Owen's body.

The one holding her wrists, their superior or so it seemed, tilted his head to the right, observing Jane with little care. "She is gone. That one. No real use to us. We could sell her body to make some profit, but if it's too much work it is easier to just kill her."

He nodded at the trooper standing by Jane. Sky's heart lurched when she saw that despite how much he roughed her up, she held onto Owen with an iron grip. The blonde didn't even respond to his actions, too caught up in her own internal pain to pay much attention to anything else.

"No!" Sky shouted when the batarian gave up and reached for his gun. She forced herself to her feet, slamming her uninjured shoulder into their captain's throat. He let go of her wrist in surprise as he released a curse in pain. Without stopping Sky pushed past the pain and sprinted towards the trooper, smashing her entire body weight into him. Caught unaware, the batarian stumbled and crashed to the ground with Sky on top of him. Cursing, he swung his hand around, smacking her in the temple with the butt of his gun.

She was out almost instantly.

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A shorter chapter this time. But hey celebration! I just hit 10,000 words! =D

*Party noises*

Either way though, I still have a long way to go before I reach the same point that I did last time. I'm quite literally writing twice as much to describe the same scenes. But I really do think it is worth it. =D

I'm really quite exhausted today though so I was sort of not sure about posting this up now. But I really couldn't wait. I will reread it after my nap. Still, don't hesitate to let me know if you feel like something is off.

Owen's dead. =[ It really sucks. =[

Also Nanobot5770 asked if this would just be a pure rewrite of my previous story or if I am going to change it up. Well, to be honest, I'm really not sure. I'm thinking of changing it but I quite like how the previous one was going... But then again I don't want to bore my audience... But yet again I don't want to disappoint you guys by changing the storyline, because I do have several ideas.

Anyway, that is not going to happen for the next two chapters (I think) so I'll only fuss about it then.

Also, thank you Helljumper_1337 for reviewing. 3 Quite dark this chapter. As expected.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Stay tuned for the next one!

Love,

Fee

xx

ps. FOUR chapters in FOUR days? =D

pps. Also, I just realized that three out of four of my chapters ended with people dying or blacking out. Is that too much or did you not even notice? =P