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Chapter 17
Ignorance is Bliss
Flashback: Year 2172
Giggling, the two teenage girls collapsed in the alley behind the C-Sec academy. Breathless with adrenaline, they slid to the ground, backs against the wall.
"Shh shh…" The dark-haired girl hurriedly whispered, placing her index finger to her lips. The blonde clamped down her lips as tight as possible, trying to stifle her laughter as two turians dressed in C-Sec blue ran pass them.
"How hard is it to find two little girls?" One of them growled, causing the two girls to struggle even more to remain silent. Eventually the sounds of their footsteps disappeared, and when they realized they were safe they burst out in laughter.
"I can't believe you convinced me to do that!" Cried out the 18-year-old Jane Shepard. "And you're supposed to be the older one."
Sky gasped, as though thoroughly insulted. "We are never too old for anything!" Sticking her tongue out at the blonde she continued, "don't act all high and mighty now. I'm not the only one soaking wet here."
Glancing down at their clothing the teenagers let out a fit of giggles at their own abysmal states. Water was dripping off their hair and clothing, leaving a nice little puddle to collect around their body. Sky briefly wondered why the C-Sec officers never bothered to follow after the trail of liquid that they were leaving behind but chose not to dwell on it.
"Fine. That was kind of fun." Jane admitted reluctantly.
Sky just grinned and shook her head, causing droplets of water to scatter everywhere. "Well I-" She stopped when she heard a sudden scratching sound coming from the deeper end of the bare passage. "Did you hear that?"
The blonde nodded slowly. "What do you think it is?"
"Shit. It can't be the C-Sec could it?"
Neither of them brought their omnitools so they had no external sources of light. The sound got louder and closer, looking at each other worriedly Jane asked, "Should we run?"
But before Sky could reply the source of the sound came into the light. Catching each other's eyes, they nearly fell to the ground in laughter again when they realized it was just a keeper.
"Geez, that really scared me." Jane finally said as soon as they collected themselves. Placing a hand on her pounding heart, they watched as the large green four-legged insectoid exited their little alley and continued on its regular duty.
Suppressing a shiver, Sky couldn't help but recall how the seemingly docile creatures were once tools of the Reapers to annihilate other galactic civilizations. She didn't like them, no matter the good they did. There was just something creepy about the way no one bothered to study or look into their origins. "Yeah…" Clearing her mind, she brought her attention back to the present. "You should've seen the look on your face."
"Oh please. You should've seen your own."
"I'm going to miss you Jane." Sky blurted out, sobering from their previous high. Even though she tried to ignore it, the sole reason for their exuberant behaviour was too prominent to ignore.
The blonde sighed, looking at her friend of two years. Had it really been such a short time? So much had occurred since the events of Mindoir that she couldn't believe they had only known each other for 22 months. "I'm going to miss you too." And she meant it.
In life, there were actually very few situations that could cause two people to form such a strong bond within such a short amount of time. Being all alone, orphaned and scarred in the worst way possible was one of them. Jane wasn't exactly sure why, how or when she came to rely on the dark-haired Asian, but there was no denying it, she trusted her with her life and she knew that the sentiment was returned. Looking into the pair of sad brown eyes, she couldn't help but feel slightly guilty at leaving the teenager all alone in the Citadel.
"We'll keep in touch. I'll visit as often as I can." Jane promised, intertwining her fingers with Sky's.
The other girl gave her a watery smile and nodded. "As long as you promise."
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"Wait. Do you hear that?" Sky brought the group to a stop outside the clinic.
Jane looked at her expectantly, "hear what?"
"In there." She gestured to the metallic doors.
"Did anyone else hear anything?"
"Negative ma'am." Ashley replied and Kaidon shook his head.
"I promise you. There is something going on in there."
The blonde shared a glance between her teammates, before shrugging. "No harm checking it out. Weapons out people."
Yes! First objective down. She was originally planning to maneuver the group to the clinic after they had picked up Wrex, but she had momentarily forgotten that the clinic was on the way to the Academy, and the opportunity seemed to good to miss. Not for the first time, Sky was glad that the blonde's 'always expect the worst' attitude came in handy. Reaching for her own pistol she lagged behind, wanting to see the group in action first.
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As more time passed she was beginning to get more and more skeptical about Sky's involvement with her crew. First Garrus and the clinic, and now this? Frowning she shot a glance at the large krogan behind her.
"Are you sure about this?"
Her sister stared at her expectantly. "Trust me Jane, I'm a psychologist. If you want Fist dead, bring Wrex along because he is going to kill him, no matter what you say. If not, you're better off with the rest." At the look of disbelief on the blonde's face she continued. "I've studied mercenaries, criminals and murderers all my life. I know how they think. If the Shadow Broker hired him to end Fists' life, he will end Fists' life. That's what makes him such a great merc."
"So what are you suggesting?"
"Bring him along if you want to earn his respect. Krogans are aggressive creatures; it would do him good to see you in action, but only if you want to do so in the expanse of a criminal's life. It is up to you really; there are plenty of other opportunities to show him your strength, but you might lose out a little by not letting him complete his contract."
She knew that Sky was hiding something from her, she just couldn't figure out what. Still, the older woman's words did hold some truth. She had a feeling the krogan would be slightly harder to control than the typical turian or human. "Alright." Walking back towards the group she addressed them all. "Williams and Vakarian. You guys head back to the Normandy for now but keep in radio contact. Wrex, Alenko, you're with me."
"Aye aye ma'am."
"Will do."
Turning to the psychologist, "Wrex can handle us from here. He knows how to get to Chora's Den. You should leave us for now. I'll come find you after all this is done."
"Jane-"
"Sky." The blonde's voice had a tone of finality in it. Sky wanted to scream in frustration. Why was she being so damn prissy about this?
"Why won't you let me-" her words were cut off when the Commander grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away from the two males, ignoring the look they sent to each other.
"Listen here." Jane kept her voice low, but harsh at the same time. "You're not a soldier. You're not fighting material and you are not joining us on our little gallivant across the galaxy."
Much to her surprise Sky just ripped her arm out of her grip, before snarling back. "Stop. Treating me like a child. I've grown more than you know."
"If you keep acting like a baby, I'm going to have to!"
"Jane. You haven't been around for over ten years. You don't even know how much I've improved or-"
"You are not an Alliance soldier!"
"And neither are Wrex or Garrus!"
"That is different." Why won't the woman see reason? "They're trained to handle this sort of situation. Saren and his geth are dangerous people, real criminals who can kill you with a single gunshot."
"I've been fighting criminals for the past nine years, big deal."
"That's- What?" Jane did a double take. "You've been what? I thought you're a therapist."
"Was. I quit my job. But you know how turians 'release stress' by sparring? That's what I do for a living. I fight, and when I have shown my worth only will they talk."
The blonde frowned; this was completely new news to her. "So you fight- murderers? To treat them?"
Sky exhaled loudly, "Yes! I told you, I can handle myself."
"Why did you quite your job? Wait." Jane stopped her before she could reply. "We can talk about that later. We're supposed to be dealing with Fist."
"Precisely." The psychologist shook her head. "Now will you please just let me join you. This once, and then you can form your own judgments on whether or not I am 'fighting' material."
"Dammit Sky, there could be biotics-"
"Jane. I love you. But seriously, shut up. Let's go." She was so taken back that she couldn't find the words to respond. She just stared as the Chinese girl walked away to stand beside the krogan, not even flinching when the large beast glared her down.
As they walked towards the gentlemen's club she couldn't help but steal glances at Sky. The conviction in her tone, the anger she displayed from Jane's lack of faith in her; that wasn't a part she was used to. She knew the girl could fight, they had received the same basic training after all, but she couldn't help but worry. She couldn't recognize her anymore, not in the way she walked, talked or acted. So who was this girl? And what did she do to her sister?
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"Enemy ahead!" the Staff Lieutenant warned as he rushed into cover, releasing his pistol from its magnetic plate on his back and began shooting. He focused his biotics, before releasing a Throw at a group of three mercs, ignoring their groans of pain as they struck the club walls.
Jane spared herself a moment to search for Sky, only to realize the dark-haired girl was nowhere to be seen. Good, that probably meant she vanished as soon as the enemies appeared, maybe she finally found out what she was in for. Grinning to herself the blonde brought her mind back to the battle. Now the fun begins.
Sky leaned against the wall, tactical cloak on full power. She had watched Jane in action just moments before, back in the clinic. But the display of power she portrayed then was nothing to the devastating damage she could do. She never had the opportunity to see the soldier fight under real circumstances, until now.
She watched as the blonde leaned out of cover and began focusing her biotics. Dark blue-purple mass effect fields collected and swirled around her body beautifully. Sky knew what this power was, the biotic charge, but she had never seen someone do it in real life before, and it was simply fascinating. The anti-gravity fields caused wisps of her blonde hair to float around her face and the color just reinforced her deadly purple eyes. She was immediately reminded of the Icenic War Goddess, Andraste. One moment Jane was standing in front of Sky, and the next she slammed straight into the middle of four mercs, shoving two off their feet. Before any of them could recover from their surprise she had already shot the first two straight in the face, causing blood, muscles and bone to splatter around the club in a sickly way. If Sky had a tender stomach, she was sure to have thrown up at the gore but the dark-haired woman had already seen her fair share of horrors. Watching on in interest, it seemed like her biotics had reinforced her shields because the bullets of the two recovered mercs did nothing but bounce off harmlessly. Once again Jane just stopped to gather her power, before charging straight into the third merc, the blow successfully snapped the man's neck as he crashed against the wall, effectively ending his life and the fourth was dealt by another round from her shotgun.
Shaking her head, it was no wonder the War Hero held such a feared reputation. She did not want to be on the blonde's bad side. Taking the time to study the Lieutenant and the krogan's style of fighting she eventually decided that it was time she proved her worth.
Allowing the rest of the team to draw gunfire she carefully made her way behind a pair of mercenaries. She guessed they must be Blue Suns, since most were wearing that trademark royal blue armor. Swiftly, she pulled out a combat knife from her back pocket, grabbed the chin of the one without his shields and slit his jugular vein, ignoring the blood the spurted out in all directions as he went down, drowning in his own fluids. She ended her cloaking as soon as her knife left his skin and got her Stiletto out and ready. The second merc's shield was almost useless against four headshots in point blank range and he was on the ground, face an unrecognizable mess.
Without stopping for a breath she turned to face another pair heading out of the room behind the bar. She could hear, more than feel the sounds of their bullets clattering against her shield. She ducked undercover as soon as her omnitool started beeping warnings. Peeking over the edge, she watched as Wrex charged into the first one. They had rather similar fighting styles, both Jane and Wrex, choosing to use pure brute strength and surprise over the duck-and-shoot method. Using this opportunity she leaped over the edge, despite her weakened shields and, like the way she dealt with the military mech only a couple of days before, halted right before his surprised face and blew his brains out.
The krogan turned around, having dealt with the first one and was briefly surprised to see the dark-haired woman standing over his second target. She winked at him, before promptly diving into another cover on the left, just in time as more men flooded into the room. Wrex grunted and follow her example, seeking shelter from an overturned table on the other side.
"What the hell. Sky?" Jane yelled in disbelief as she ducked in the empty spot beside her.
"'Sup babe."
"What are you doing here? I thought you scooted."
Sky rolled her eyes, "as if I'm going to just leave you here."
"This isn't-" She stopped short only to lean over the bar and fired at an unsuspecting merc. The close range caused the man to stagger backwards as his shield died. Huh, so her shotgun wasn't advance enough of a model to do those one-shot-death damages she was used to in the game, but she noticed from the singeing of flesh that she was using incendiary rounds. She made a mental note to get her some of those. "Dammit. You better not die or I will shoot you myself."
Finally. She was in the game. "Roger that Commander."
Jane hand shot out to grab the woman on the arm. "I'm serious doctor. Don't do anything stupid. I know you can handle yourself in a fight, but you haven't been up against trained gunmen before."
The dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow. If that was what the blonde thought, she was in a real surprise. Still, she nodded to please her sister. Tapping away at her omnitool she turned to Jane and said, "Let's do this." Before vanishing completely from view.
The soldier stared at the blank space before her in surprise. Since when- Shaking her head, she realized it was pointless to argue, and dragged herself back to reality.
Fist first, she could interrogate Sky later on her newly acquired techniques.
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Okay several things to address here that you might have questions on:
Firstly, why is Sky acting so out of character-ish?
Well, from Jane's POV she would be, since she hadn't seen, or met the girl in such a long time. She only knows what Sky had been up to on a superficial level. Plus, it is sometimes wise to keep certain details from overprotective siblings (I do the same) so Sky's a little miffed at how much Jane is underestimating her. Don't worry, more emotional elaboration will happen in the next few chapters. Expect a cat fight. =P
Also, the gore:
I realize I got a little gorey with this chapter, brains blowing out, blood spurting. I don't know if this irks out my readers so could you let me know? My only defense is that seriously, shotguns close range can do some serious collateral damage, but I don't intend to describe all that in later fights, just trying to add more realism in the first real action scene. Again, I'm quite happy I decided to rate this an 'M'.
I had alot of fun writing this chapter. I got it done in an alarmingly short amount of time. I hope I'm not lacking in quality. As per usual, do let me know what you think of the action. This is sort of my first 'real' action scene as well. Although more will come later. Hand to hand combat is easier to illustrate anyway.
AND if it seems weird that Sky is not at all bothered by the blood bath, don't worry, against more elaboration on that later.
I would like to welcome some new subscribers and reviewers, thank you so much for your support. Even just by 'favouriting' this, you are helping me out.
Thank you PlutoAn, Otaku Addicted Dweeb, CuHnadian, S058, Nanobot 5770, Liege Lord and Helljumper 1337 for your reviews and advice.
Helljumper 1337: Yeah, I think I might do that when I reach scenes I really cannot remember details off. For now as long as I don't have to word-for-word quote anything, I'm fine.
CuHnadian and Otaku Addicted Dweeb: The mystery man? You'll just have to wait and see! Sorry, I'm evil that way, gotta keep y'all coming back for more yknow. ;]
I hope to hear from, and see all of you soon.
xx
Fee
ps. UCLA? =D