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Chapter 6

Black Hearts

"Captain Belliard. Lieutenant." The doctor saluted as the two men entered the room. The Captain smiled and nodded at her, before she relaxed her posture and returned to tapping away at the computer. Saving her data she brought her full attention to her superiors.

"Chakwas, how are our guests doing?"

"One of them woke up a few hours ago, fit enough to head to the bathrooms. I've sent Rowlen out to get her. But as for the other…" Her gaze traveled to the prone figure that occupied one of her medical beds. "It still remains to be seen."

They walked closer to the blonde, observing the girl in her troubled sleep. "A biotic huh…? Without implants as well." Anderson remarked.

Chakwas nodded, walking over to join the pair. "There are significant traces of Eezo within her body and blood. A startling amount actually." Neither men reacted. She frowned, "Sir the reports…"

Anderson sighed, rubbing his temples. "I was leading the ground team that picked them up." He grimaced, "Quite a scene to behold actually. You would think she has had years of training with the way the batarians were torn apart."

"She does show signs of significant psychological trauma." She waved her hand at the monitor showing the blonde's disturbing REM results. "Biotic abilities are sometimes, although very rarely, said to arise during times of great distress."

"It is no real surprise." The Captain added, "The state Mindoir was left in… It would be worrying if she showed no emotional wounds."

A form of silence settled over the pair, each within their own contemplative thought. "There is something else." She mentioned, breaking them out of their reverie. Belliard gestured for her to continue. She walked over to the screen and brought up the other survivor's blood work. The name Skylar flashed together with all sorts of data. "The other girl… There is something strange about her."

"I couldn't figure it out at first, why her biology was so different from the average human being so I decided to run her blood against the older databases. You can see here that these are the different immunities that she has." She pointed out on the screen. But at the blank looks that both soldiers were giving her she knew that they had no clue what she was on about. Sighing, she continued. "Many of these make her immune to diseases that have been eradicated over 100 years ago. Also, she has severe immunodeficiency that indicated she probably never got her immunization boosters when she was younger." The results puzzled her. It was a universe-wide law that every baby had to receive their immunization as soon as they were born, parental consent not required. For the teen to have a lack of those immunities was somewhat understandable, but to not have any at all? That was just strange. How could she have lived up to the age of 17 without them?

The Captain frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I triple-checked. I even ran her DNA across every population database known. There are no known records of her anywhere in Citadel Space."

"So she could be from anywhere outside the Attican Traverse?"

The doctors nodded. "Which brings up the question as to how did she end up on Mindoir… And why?" Anderson thought aloud. Again, she nodded. But before he could further voice his thoughts, the sound of the doors opening ended his questions abruptly. "Speak of the devil."

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"Speak of the devil."

Sky looked up as she entered the medical bay, taking note of the two strangers in the room. Both men held themselves with regal authority, emitting a form of confidence and superiority that she was starting to realize was a trend amongst them 'leadership' types. The one who spoke was much younger than his counterpart; she would estimate to be around 35? He was relatively tall, with dark skin and the standard military crew cut. The other one, who she assumed to be his superior, was much older, with graying hair and circular-framed glasses.

"Uhm… Sirs." She greeted uncertainly, unsure if she was supposed to salute or bow… or something.

"At ease soldier." The deep, soft, yet startlingly clear voice of the older man relaxed her slightly. Despite his low volume, she had a feeling that he was the sort of person that everyone would shut up and listen to whenever he spoke. His voice just commanded that sort of attention.

Sky nodded, placing the duffel bag Yaz gave her by the bed that she had woken up from, before joining their little group that surrounded the still-unconscious Jane Shepard. "Sorry," she muttered nervously, feeling very self-conscious under their scrutinizing gaze. She shot a quick look at the younger girl in bed, noting that there was no change in her condition since she left.

"Sky," the firm, motherly voice of Dr Chakwas drew her attention immediately. "This is Captain Belliard, Commanding Officer of the SSV Hastings." The man offered her a nod. Strangely enough, he reminded her of the old Captain in one of her favourite TV series, Battlestar Galatica. He had that sort of grandather aura about him. "And Lieutenant Anderson."

Lieutenant? Right. The familiar 'Captain' title was not yet attached to his name it seemed. The much younger version of the original Normandy's Captain resembled his character so much in the game that, like Chakwas, it was almost astonishing how she did not notice it before. Wow, first two weeks here and she already met three of the larger characters of the game? It seemed like this whole journey was pack-filled with coincidences that it enjoyed throwing into her face. She struggled to maintain that curious expression, not wanting the reveal the shock and familiarity behind it. Still, it visibly calmed her to know that she was in safe hands if Anderson was on board. She had always liked his character in the game, she didn't think that would change much now that she was actually here.

"It's good to see that you're up and about." Remarked the Captain. She tore her eyes away from the Lieutenant. "How are you feeling?"

His warm voice further soothed her frazzled nerves. Quite a pair these two would make, Belliard and Chakwas. Together they could probably break through any enemy with words alone. "I'm feeling much better… Sir." She added.

Anderson grinned at her. "At least she has manners."

Sky couldn't help but offer a small smile back in return. She was right, less than ten words and she liked him already.

"I know that this is a trying time… But I hope you understand that we need you to answer some questions." The older man said to her kindly. Sky nodded her head.

It is now or never.

The group then spent the subsequent half hour asking her questions. It started out easy, she gave them the basic information, her first name, her age, her date of birth (which she calculated to be on January 18th, 2153) and recalled the events on Mindoir. Certain parts were difficult to get through, such as her first kill and Owen's death, but the rest was not much of a problem. Things only started becoming complicated when they asked her about her past and what she remembered before the attack.

"I don't know." Became her regular response. She had decided earlier that the wisest route to take was pretending that she lost all her memory prior to waking up on the colony. No fault, no blame. She didn't have to make up layers of complicated stories if she had amnesia. It happened often enough, a defense mechanism in the face of a traumatic incident, where victims repress their memories in attempt to move pass it. She could only hope that the three adults before her would buy it.

"You don't remember anything about your childhood at all?" Anderson pressed.

The teenager shook her head, realistic tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Thank God for drama lessons. "I-"

A moan coming from the bed beside them cut her sentence short. The doctor immediately left their side to check up on Jane, Sky following closely behind. "She's waking up."

"Jane…?" Chakwas called softly, "Can you hear me?"

The blonde let out another moan, louder and more pain-filled. Sky reached out to touch her hand, but as soon as her fingers came into contact with her flushed skin-

With a gasp Sky crumbled to the ground, clenching her side as pain tore her up from inside. She vaguely heard several things hitting the floor and shouts of different voices, but all she could concentrate on at that moment was the torment that centralized around her waist.

It was as though her meat and skin were being stripped apart into tiny pieces, and exploding within her. She could hear her own screams but could do nothing to stem it. After what felt like a million years the pain abruptly disappeared, leaving her trembling and sweat covered on the floor.

Strong, defined arms tucked themselves around her and lifted her up with ease, before setting her down onto a soft comfortable surface that she slowly registered to be a bed. After a couple of deep breaths, the world slid back into focus.

"What just happened?" A calm voice asked. Sky looked up and was surprised that it was Captain Belliard who carried her. Perhaps the man aged better than most.

The female doctor shook her head, clearly equally as confused. "I have no idea." She walked over and lifted Sky's shirt up delicately, revealing the throbbing wound underneath. Sky followed her gaze, expecting to see blood dripping down her side, only to see realize her wound looked exactly as it did a few hours before. Bumpy, pale and hellova ugly, but bore no signs of an open wound. Chakwas frowned. "It seems like the scar is having some form of... delayed reaction." She brushed a gentle finger across it, causing Sky to shiver at the sensation. But it didn't hurt. It was just like before, seconds after she woke; her body felt perfectly fine and functional once again, as though the torture never happened.

Great. So not only was she scarred by that ugly wound, now it is going to keep hurting her forever?

"Where am I? What's going on?"

Sky's head whipped towards the direction of the voice. "Jane." She sighed in relief. The girl was wide-eyed and looked a little out of it, but otherwise awake.

"Sky? You're alive." Jane stated almost wistfully.

Ignoring the protests of her tired muscles she got out of her bed and walked carefully towards the other girl, not wanting a repeat of what just happened. She wasn't really sure, but it seemed like her wound went insane after she had touched her. "Yes… Yes I am."

The other girl didn't say anything in response, just started at her with those intense purple eyes. It felt like she could see all the way into her soul. There were so many things that she wanted to say to her. She wanted to tell her she was sorry about Owen, and that if she could switch positions with him she would. She wanted to thank her for being the reason that she was still alive. But most of all she wanted to ask if she were okay. But instead of all that she kept silent, uncomfortable at the way her eyes bared no emotions. After a moment, the blonde turned away, ignoring her completely.

Sky's chest throbbed painfully.

"Where am I?" She asked again, her voice the perfect cadence of calm.

"You're on the SSV Hastings, an Alliance frigate. My name is Captain Beillard, and this is Lieutenant Anderson and Doctor Chakwas."

"How long have I been on board?"

"A little more than three days."

"And what just happened?" Jane gestured around the room at the fallen objects that Sky failed to notice before. Most of the equipment near them had been blasted off their original positions.

"You did." The way both Captain and Jane were addressing each other it was as though they were just having a casual conversation over tea. It was quite disconcerting. "It seems like you have managed to develop some biotic abilities recently. Have you showed any inclination of such before?"

Jane nodded, still blatantly ignoring the other teenager in the room. Sky felt sick. "I've been exposed to Element Zero twice in my lifetime. Once as a fetus and the second, last year."

The two men continued to talk with Jane, questioning her the same way they did with her only minutes before. But there was no change in her voice: cold, with an icy edge that seemed to freeze her from inside out. Sky shuddered, unsure how to handle the situation.

After what seemed like an eternity, the constant back and forth between the Captain, Lieutenant and Jane stopped. The two men said their goodbyes and left the medical bay, requesting that Chakwas went with them to further discuss the situation.

"I'll be back with food and to do a biopsy on your scar. Try not to damage anymore of the equipment." The doctor said, before following after the pair, leaving a highly awkward silence between the two teenagers.

Sky cleared her throat, trying to rid the atmosphere of the unbearable silence. She almost regretted it when Jane's icy purple eyes cut through her, glaring at her with all the anger she didn't knew it was possible for a body to possess.

"So… Are you glad you're alive?"

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And Jane wakes! But who is going to be? Renegade? Paragon? Stay tuned to find out!

Author note:

This was a surprisingly hard chapter to write for some reason. I hope it didn't show in terms of my writing abilities. I think I'm sort of struggling with large group conversations. I don't want to confuse the audience yet it's so hard to describe who is saying what and in what way. Glad that is over with.

Character development in the next chapter! =]

Thank you Liege Lord, Helljumper 1337, Nanobot5770 and anonJack for reviewing. Looking forward to hearing your opinions on this chapter.

Will see you then.

Love,

Fee

xx