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Chapter 21

Continuation

It was happening again.

The same horrific screams, cries of anguish and ear splitting screech. The smell and taste of metal and blood coated her tongue, her lungs, leaving a bitter acrid taste that seemed to burn her from inside out.

And then she was torn away by a flash of yellow so painfully bright that it very nearly blinded her. Disorientated and paralyzed, she felt the ground below her feet shake and tremble in trepidation, strong enough to be audible. Before she knew it, a mutilated, ugly, squid-looking machine invaded her vision, coated in murky green liquid. It turned slowly, insect legs reaching out as it approached her.

Struggling to make a sound, her screams only came out as gurgles. She clawed at her own throat, all while trying to move away from the grotesque sight. But her legs would not move, her body failed to obey her.

Sky sat upright with a gasp, forehead smashing into the glass covering of her sleeping pod. Biting down on her lip to prevent the exclamation of pain from escaping, she forced her body to remain still, focusing on her breathing to return her thundering heart to its regular pace, as well as to lessen the agonizing throb on her head. Moaning, she reached to her side to open the pod, taking in huge gulps of cold air.

What the Hell was that?

She recognized the last image branded into her mind: It was, without a doubt, a Reaper. She had seen what Sovereign looked like when she was playing ME1, but this experience was of a whole different level. She could feel the dangerous, ominous hum that clawed away at her insides. Was that what it was like to be indoctrinated? The pain and agony and the inability to control her own body? And those sounds… Those sounds were the most difficult thing to forget- the helpless wails of an exterminated race; it sent shivers of fear down her spine.

Blindly groping for her omnitool, she lifted the device to her face and saw that it read 0624. Damn, it was still early, so much so that she could hear the faint murmur of voices of the night crew through the metal plating above her. Knowing that it would be impossible for her to get anymore sleep now, she forced her perspiration-covered body out of the cramp space, bare feet finding comfort from the cold metal floor.

The dream was clearer than it was before, with the additional segment at the end. Was it a sign? Or was her brain just cooking up random images to freak her out?

She briefly entertained the thought of checking if their Commander was still awake, but decided against it. This was a big ship… What were the chances that someone would be in storage at this time?

###

Breathing out slowly, the dark-haired Asian extended her right leg into the air so that her legs formed a perfect 180 degrees. She held that position for a moment, inhaled, before curling her back and pushing out with her hips so that the angle increased.

8… 7… 6… 5… She kept her breathing on par with her heartbeat, allowing the calm cadence to ease out the tension within her body. Bringing her leg back down to the ground, she opened her eyes, still focusing on maintaining that perfectly smooth rhythm. Already, she could feel a significant difference. The stress accumulated from the past few days withered and disappeared, replaced by a refreshed and renewed mind. She had to admit, the stereotypes were right. There was something extremely cathartic about Yoga.

"What… Are you doing?" An inquisitive voice quipped out, breaking her concentration. Not used to being snuck up on, she whipped around in surprise.

"Tali!" She heaved out a sigh of relief. She wasn't exactly sure what her subconscious was expecting, but the quarian was a welcoming sight either way. "You scared me."

"Oh sorry." She said apologetically, wringing her three-fingered hands together. "Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. I wasn't interrupting anything was I?"

Sky hadn't had the chance to have a proper chat with Tai since she boarded the Normandy, especially since she disappeared down the rabbit hole almost as soon as they were let aboard. She recalled the moment fondly; the quarian flittered around the engineering room like an excited butterfly on Ecstasy, promptly ignoring anything the Commander had to say about anything else. A kid in a toy store on Christmas with unlimited credits, Tali's unexpected show of innocence was received well by the ground team, adding many points to her favour. Sky herself had always liked the quarian, even in the first two parts of the trilogy. She couldn't see how that would change here. Being up close, she could see why so many found the quarian attractive. Her gypsy-like, Eastern-European accent was a welcoming change amongst the American-English speaking Alliance crew.

"No. No. You weren't." Smiling reassuringly the psychologist wrapped her small towel around her neck. "That was called Yoga."

"Yo-ga?"

Nodding, Sky reached for her omnitool to pull up some data from the extranet. "I think it's largely a human activity, probably practiced by many asari as well, just of a different form. It combines meditation, stretching and core work into a neat little package."

"Oh. I think we have something like that that we called Kresh'it. Except it doesn't look half as graceful, or… Flowy, as what you were doing."

Leaning onto her left leg slightly, she took a moment to study the alien female before her. She hadn't had much personal experience with quarians, there was just something about the way that they were brought up that did not lead to many highly unstable characters. Being on a closely packed fleet the way they had to probably erased the possibilities of carrying on a mental illness without detection. Still, she would love to learn more about their people.

"Yoga isn't practiced by many, at least, not anymore. Most soldiers prefer to go for a mixture between the two, such as martial arts. But I enjoy it, it helps me relaxed." She said, shrugging. "Tell me more about this… Kresh'it. Sounds interesting."

"It is a fighting style mainly used by the women of the Flotilla, women not on active duty such as the elderly or extremely young. It is mostly practiced to keep their bodies well-oiled and physically fit." Tali giggled, "Although not many of us… Bend the way you can though. Keelah, my body hurt just by watching you."

"It's not that difficult if you have had years of practice." Sky said, grinning. She took a quick glance at the time and noted that they had another hour or so before their meeting. "Have you eaten anything? Do you wanna grab some food?"

"Ah…" The quarian shook her head sadly, "unfortunately this ship isn't well equipped for dextro-amino eaters. Worse, quarians don't have the luxury of eating anything more than our paste."

Wincing, the psychologist couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for her. She couldn't imagine what it would be like living on those horrible cardboard tasting ration bars for the rest of her life. "Oh, I'm sorry, that was terribly insensitive of me."

"It's okay." Tali took in an audible breath and continued bravely, "I guess we never really know what we're missing if we never had it before."

"If you don't mind me asking, what is it like living in a suit?" The suit-armor that Tali adorned was nothing short of beautiful. The patterns of purple and black cloth woven on top of each other reminded her of an ancient Greece goddess- ethereal and formidable. She had seen her briefly in action and marveled at the way she was able to fight so swiftly, using her impressive command of tech to her advantage. She couldn't help but feel as though Bioware underestimated the quarian's true abilities.

"It is… Not easy and difficult to explain. But our extremely weak immune systems make it necessary. We can very easily die from an infection that would only give humans a cough."

Sky shuddered. She knew all this already, but to mentally visualize it herself… "Your people are very strong, to be able to go through all that."

"We have lived this way for centuries, we have acclimatized to it. It is…" She hesitated, "normally seen by most as atonement for our mistakes."

Raising an eyebrow, "Mistakes?" She inquired.

"You know... For creating the geth."

Ah. "I don't actually know much about the geth... Could you tell me more?"

###

Sky strolled into the briefing room ten minutes early and wasn't surprised to see both Kaidan and Garrus already in their allocated place, chatting casually. Out of everyone in the whole ground team, they were probably the most responsible. Sitting down next to the turian, she ran a hand through her damp hair, fanning it out in attempt to dry it.

"You humans have strange… Fur." Sky turned to the alien next to her and raised an eyebrow in question, was he talking about her legs? Because she was pretty sure she waxed only three days ago, not that you could see her legs underneath her outfit anyway. "I mean, on your heads." Garrus waved a three-taloned hand towards her general direction. "I mean, doesn't it get in your way? Why don't you just shave it off?"

In the corner of her eye she could see Kaidan trying to stifle a smile. Rolling her eyes she pretended to glare at the turian. "Oh wow Vakarian. Didn't your mother tell you that by insulting a female that you are not well acquainted with, of any species, is basically signing your death warrant?"

"Ah…" He shifted uncomfortably, shooting the Lieutenant a look that said 'save me' which Kaidan returned with a 'you're on your own'. "I believe she did mention something along those lines. Terribly sorry, I didn't know that was an insult."

"Just a note, turian. I like my hair." She turned away haughtily, raising her nose to the air in feigned hurt. "I don't know why you would say that." Yeah, the trembling voice was definitely a nice touch.

"Right. Right. Again. Apologies, I didn't-" At the flustered look of despair on Garrus' face Sky had to struggle to bite back her grin. "I- Oh. You were joking weren't you?"

"Sorry." She said sheepishly at the look at annoyance the turian sent her way. Even the L.T. couldn't help but smile. "You left yourself open for it."

Garrus fixed her with an icy glare. "Well, doctor. Maybe I should educate you about how we turians function. You see when-"

The psychologist saw it coming from miles away. After all, you didn't get paid the amount she did by offering therapy to only humans. Perhaps she should not be having so much fun at the turian's expanse, especially one that she didn't really know, but she could not resist. "Nope," she waggled her index finger at him. "Won't work on me. Alien psychology expert. Spent ages researching turian culture."

At that, Kaidan burst out laughing, patting his blue-armored friend on the shoulder. "Sorry mate, she got you there."

Just as the turian was going to return a scathing reply, or at least what looked like a scathing reply, the metallic double doors opened. Wrex, Ashley and Tali walked into the room and sat down in the various seats. Everyone murmured some form of acknowledgement to each other, although it was blatantly obvious that the female Alliance soldier was avoiding her gaze. Strange, it felt like days since the bathroom incident.

"What's so funny?" Their resident quarian asked curiously as she surveyed the scene. Turning to look at each other Kaidan and Sky burst out laughing again, despite Garrus' promise of death.

"Nothing of importance." The turian growled, crossing his arms. "But I'll get you back for that doc. You watch yourself."

Eye twinkling with laughter she winked at the reptilian-resembling alien. "Bring it on blue-boy."

"Right. Well, at least it looks like we're all getting along." Kaidan, Ashley and Garrus stood up and saluted at the blonde walking in. Herself and Tali shared a look, wondering if they were supposed to follow suit. Wrex, as per usual, just looked bored. But before any of them could lift a muscle Shepard put a hand up to stop them. "At ease soldiers, Vakarian." She nodded at all of them in greeting. "Good to see everyone on time. We have a long couple of days ahead of us, depending on how things go. So I'm just going to start."

Everyone settled down, but still paid such rapt attention to the Commander that aside from the quiet purr of the Normandy, it was quite literally pin-drop silent. "There are only three habitable planets in this cluster. Edolus, Therum and Sharjila and we will be investigating all three, in that order, until we can confirm Dr T'Soni's presence. We suspect that she would be on Therum, as it is the only known location that we have discovered Prothean ruins. However, Admiral Kohaku had asked for a special favour from us, to investigate the Sparta system for his missing marines, which I obliged. Despite this being a Council mission first, we are still largely an Alliance crew. I hope there will be no objections." She stopped. Again, just like before, no one made a sound. "Good. I guess that is settled. Wrex, Ashley, you will be coming with me to Edolus, our first stop. Joker had informed me that we will be there within an hour. So gear up."

"Finally. Some action!" The krogan grinned excitedly, slamming his big fists together. Sky did, however, notice the weary side-glance Williams shot at him. And judging by the contemplative look on the blonde's face, she wasn't the only one.

Hmm… Jane was pretty sharp with this sort of thing huh?

"Go." She gestured to the door.

Nodding, both Gunnery Chief and Wrex shuffled out of the room. Shepard turned her attention back to the rest. "Garrus, you and-" she hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second, "Sky, will be accompanying me to Therum. Depending on how fast we can be done with Edolus, that will probably only be tomorrow. I will come collect both of you when I get back. Alenko, I want you checking and upgrading, where possible, everyone's omnitool. Tali... You just keep doing whatever you're doing in Engineering, it sounds like they could really use your help." She received a nod from both Lieutenant and quarian.

"Everyone understand what they're supposed to be doing?" There was a collective murmur of affirmation. "Good. Dismissed."

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Shortest chapter, I would think. But I shall make up for it in the next one =]

Some more interaction with the rest of the crew. Can I just express my love for Tali? My top three characters in ME1 has to be Tali, Garrus and Liara. Unfortunately, my fondness for Liara only came after playing ME2. But yknow, I just love love love Tali. She's an amazing person, so strong, so kind, so beautiful in personality and nature. Sigh.

Anyway, I have a surprise for you on the next chapter! Teehee, brace yourselves. =]

So what do you think of my character interactions? Natural enough? Real enough? I can tell you though, I'm worried about the Therum chapter. I don't know how I'm going to convey the action scenes, but anyway.

Thank you everyone who read, favourited and subscribed to this story. Special thanks to CuHnadian, Helljumper 1337, S058, Death-Dimension, Liege Lord, PlutoAn, Otaku Addicted Dweeb and Rosiegirl52 for reviewing and giving me great insight.

Death-Dimension: I was thinking of that, not everyone is a story is supposed to get along right? =P

Otaku Addicted Dweeb: Asian glow no? =P I'm Chinese, so since Sky is supposed to be based off me, tadah. I cannot hold my alcohol AT ALL. But yknow. =P I know, I kind of regretted NOT thinking about Kai Leng before, but oh well, no foul, no shame. =] I hope that the mystery man will still surprised you lot.

Rosiegirl52: Tell me about it, Thane, Thane, Thane. I love the guy. I don't know if I can stomach killing him off actually. Asdfghjkl. I don't know how I'm going to get through writing about all the other character's death. I feel like I'm killing a little bit of me inside.

I can't wait to go to Berkeley.

Anyway, also, interrogation next chapter! Rawrrr. Hope y'all will stay tuned.

Love,

Fee

xx

ps. I was thinking of writing another story at the same time. So that I don't get bored with this one yknow? Not saying that I am, just that I might need a slight breather. Any ideas? =]