Lower Lowell - The Lowell Theater House - Mars
The Lowell Theater House was playing host to an icon of human culture, Shakespeare's plays. While they mostly popular with humans, it was the Asari that ate the Bard's plays up that thrust the normally low-key production onto the forefront of entertainment for Lowell's upper classes. The theater itself was affluent, even for the whites stainless monoliths of Upper Lowell. Lights of every color streaked up the ivory walls that ebbed and flowed in and around a honeycomb structure that topped the building,as though the structure itself was alive. It had to look as expensive as it did, or no self respecting Upper Lowellian would ever visit the cultural hub that dwelt within.
It was all of these factors that had drawn Arthur Ward, deputy chief of the Lowell Police Department and head of 'The Wall' that separated the throng of Lower Lowell and the upper classes, to the Theater House this night. The event was a celebration of the culture that made up but a small section of the rich tapestry of Humanity's history, and as a high-ranking official in the LPD, Ward had to make sure none of the rabble that made up the festering streets below had anything close to the smallest opportunity to disrupt such an event. Ward personally saw the wall as necessary for Lowell to survive as a component of the Alliance. If it meant killing a few people that tried to make their way to the upper reaches, then so be it.
]I[
As the skycar gently landed on the sidewalk in front of the Theater House, Shepard was thinking over what possible reason The Dead Man could have for the sudden meeting at such a place. If they just wanted to talk things over, then they could've just hashed things out somewhere less conspicuous. Hell, they could have even done it over vid-call, but no, The Dead Man had other plans. Out of sheer curiosity (and not wanting to be caught with her pants down) she had Garrus look over the files Cerberus had on The Dead Man. She was surprised by how little they actually had, all of it seeming to be after his appearance in Lowell a little over ten years ago, and before that it seemed he didn't exist. They had a lot more intel on the Dead Men, his organization, like how they seemed to have morals. Shepard remembered Zaeed snickering at that, saying that there was no such thing as a merc group with morals, but all Shepard had seen of the Dead Men had proven him wrong. Now that doesn't mean that the Dead Man himself was a beacon of moral fortitude either.
Shepard stepped out of the skycar and entered the Theater House with Zaeed and Garrus at her backs. She wasn't stupid, she expected the worst. What she hadn't expected was tickets to MacBeth, paid for by one 'Mr Smith'. Seemed that The Dead Man had invited her to a night of culture, in one of the boxes near the stage, no less!
Shepard wondered how the night would manage to get FUBAR this time.
]I[
They were all sat in their seats, with Shepard and Zaeed bored out of their minds and Garrus wondering why all of the characters were such assholes. The play had barely even started when Shepard had noticed something interesting. The box opposite them bore the symbol of the LPD, and in it sat a man wearing the uniform of a Deputy Chief. She had also noticed the fuse box behind the man and his partner was wide open.
That was when the power went out.
Lights across the stage and room went out simultaneously, bathing the world in darkness, only the surprised screams punctuated the stillness left by the absence of light. Shepard heard a crash, and the emergency siren blared through the night. Garrus tried to open the door out of the box, but found it locked. In other words, they were trapped in a pitch black room.
In minutes the lights came back on, and Shepard expected to see a throng of people on the way out, and an empty stage. Instead, the audience was empty, and the stage played the backdrop for two people: a man in a deputy chief uniform on his knees facing Shepard, and a familiar skull faced man in a long black coat, holding an old revolver to the man's head. The man in uniform looked scared, while the dark figure's feelings were obstructed by the mask.
"Dead Man." Shepard stated, a layer of calm covering her face.
"Shepard! So glad you could make it. I was beginning to think you found the play boring." The Dead Man said, like his voice had a smirk.
"Let him go, or I'll make your alias more true to reality."
The Dead Man spoke, all traces of joking gone. "No. I will not."
"Why? What could possibly be worth killing an innocent man over?"
The Dead Man scoffed, "Innocent? Shepard, do you know who this man is? This human waste is called Arthur Ward, deputy chief of Police and head of 'The Wall'. You've seen Lower Lowell, Shepard? These people are why the reason why people down there suffocate in toxic gas, burn in the gutters, and die trying to make their way to Upper Lowell! They are the reason why the people would rather go to goddamn MERC GROUPS than the fucking police!" Shepard was taken aback by the conviction in his voice, but tried reasoning with him anyway.
"That's not a reason to shoot him!" She shouted desperately. Tension hung in the air like a curtain, before he finally spoke.
"You're right" The Dead Man lowered his pistol, and Shepard breathed a sigh of relief, happy that the situation had been defused.
At least until his hands glowed.
"He deserves to burn." Before Shepard could intervene, spouts of fire leaped from his hands to Ward's face, body and the space around him. Screams of pain filled the room, and Shepard could only watch as The Dead Man walked down the aisle, not looking back to the man he had just consigned to death.
]I[
Yeesh, that was a heavy chapter to write. Shepard finally meets The Dead Man, only to be horrified by what she sees.
PunchyMcNutkick, OUT!