She ran down the streets and alleys as if she was being followed. She came crashing to a halt as her lungs screamed for air. She listened closely for any sign of pursuit.
She shook her head as her eyes cried out for rest, and her stomach growled for food. When had she last slept? Eaten? Days? She trudged forward. The section of the Slum she was in now was even dimmer than the last. Shadows both large and small fled as she drew near. As she continued on, the lines and rows of buildings began to take on an uncomfortably familiar feel.
The shops were rundown, their streets dirty, but something screamed at her that she had been here before. The air smelled of sea salt and pine trees.
"Hey Fall!" A boy's voice called out to her. And her head snapped to the left and she could not comprehend what she was seeing. A boy, age seventeen with sandy blond hair wearing a red tee-shirt and worn jeans was smiling to her. He was leaning against the wall next to an Alliance Recruiting poster. She knew him...
She walked over to him. "Mitch?" She asked aghast.
"Yeah. Who else?" The boy smile back. "I just got done meeting with Staff Sergeant Mc'Connahey. Thanks to you I'm going to pass English lit and be able to get in to the Marines!" His face lit up like a Christmas tree.
An impeccably dressed Alliance Marine walked out and gently put his hand on the boy's Shoulder. "So this must be the fine young lady you have told me about Mitchell."
The boy just beamed with admiration and respect. The Marine looked at her and smiled warmly. " You know the Alliance needs intelligent women like you."
She blushed and smiled but replied, "I have a scholarship to attend the University of Serrice on Thessia after next year for part of my college. I'm thinking of majoring in linguistics."
The Marine's smile did not waver. "All the more reason to think about joining the Alliance Navy after you graduate from college. From what Mitchell has told me, you would make a fantastic officer."
Her head dropped down and blushed from the compliment, but when she looked back up they were gone. The sunlit store front now replaced by a decrepit relic, the Alliance recruitment poster replaced by alien graffiti scrawling. A tremor ran thought her. She hadn't thought about Mitch, hadn't let that memory of that day escape in years.
Keep it locked away you stupid bitch! Keep it locked! She screamed at herself.
She turned away and continued to walk in the rain. She shivered uncontrollably from the cold and again her eyes roved for some place to take solace. They fell upon a queer looking building. It's architecture resembled the other buildings around it. Simple, cobbled together, and rundown. But unlike others, it looked like it's caretakers at least tried to maintain some kind of upkeep, and it's door was opened invitingly. As she neared she heard voices, aliens...
She slammed her shoulder against one side of the door. O'Mally was on the other side. Six hours had passed since they had started their assault on the compound. Osuka's squad had been wiped-out by anti-vehicle rockets and mines. O'Mally had barely escaped his own Mako and Montoya's squad had been paired down to just four marines. Her own numbered just six. But here they were.
The compound was deathly silent. Glass crunched under boots as the remaining marines who could fight took up their posts ready for the final push. They were lined up on either side of the wall making sure the Slavers didn't have an easy shot through the open doorway.
She stuck her shotgun in through the door and shot four rounds wildly. She was greeted by the sound of clattering weapons.
"Do it." She commanded. I want to see their faces!
Montoya threw in a gas grenade to drive them out.
"We! ...We surrender!" A coughing cry rang out from the darkened room. And almost immediately ten slavers and Pirates came running out. The Leaders had hid like rats.
"Open fire!" She screamed as she fired on the unarmed pack and they wheeled around unable to see behind them. The marines hesitantly followed her lead and the ten collapsed to the ground.
A moment after the slaughter, one last Slaver, a Batarian came running out of the room. He slammed to his knees shaking, but unscathed. He couldn't move, he was riveted with fear as she stalked up on him like the Grim Reaper.
"Wh...Why? We Surrendered..." He asks weakly. She looked at him, and remembered her mother...
"Surrendered? I didn't hear it..." Her voice was as cold as death itself.
"Pl..Please...have Mercy..." he begged.
"Mercy?" She gave him none as she slammed her heal into his back sprawling him out.
The slaver groaned, and he twisted his head to look at her, his face slathered with mud and filth. All he saw in her face was twisted rage and sorrow. She fired her hand cannon at the back of his head. His body slumped back to the ground.
But rather then feeling relief, she felt numb. Nothing...
Lighting crossed and sky and thunder crashed down. She was slumped down by the door way, as she looked at her trembling hands.
At least I got the job done... She thought as her hands still trembled. Numb...Butcher... Her mind creaked again.
She looked up to see two beings walk out of the building and pass her without taking any notice that she was even there. She deftly stood up and slipped in.
Once inside, the room was dimly lit, but was warm. She looked to her right and noticed a row of pegs with coat, hoods and cloaks hanging. Below them were shoes and boots. She saw and empty one and took her soaked cloak off, and taking the queue, also removed her soaked combat boots. As she did so the warmth of the room started to seep in to her. The building was quiet.
She pushed her wet locks away from her face and ears. The building she was in seemed to call to her, to invite her further in. She cautiously started forward, not certain what to expect. Was this a place of shelter? Or an alluring temptation?
"John...what will happen to her?" A mother's voice spoke with concern.
She pressed forward, creeping silently up to the cracked door. The opening cascading a stream of light down the dark hallway.
"She will be fine Norana." This is a chance for her beyond anything either of us have ever had." A fathers voice answered back with warmth and love. He was tall, with a fiery head of red hair and matching short beard. He wore a pair of kaki utility pants and a tunic of dark blue.
"I know...but she is just sixteen." The woman said. She was beautiful. Tall and slender, her raven hair veiled with a dark green head covering. But her eyes where what caught everyone's attention. They were an electrifying shade of emerald.
"Her flare-ups are getting worse..." The father said pleadingly. "Up to the point where she can't hide them, and others are taking notice. I had a guy, said he was from a foundation that could help her with her 'condition'." The man's face contorted into anger. "He even tried to offer me money for her." He said in disgust.
The mother started to tremble in shock. "I wish Sid'iri was there."
"I told him to get out, because if I saw him again I'd brake his nose. No one refers to my child like she is sick. She if fine. She is perfect." He said clinching his hands.
His wife walked over and took one of his fists in to her gentle, soft hands. He looked up and into her emerald eyes.
"Norana. Having her grow up here has been a blessing. But I won't have our daughter cloistered here or persecuted just because she is different. She deserves this scholarship and this opportunity."
"I don't doubt that at all John, but I don't know how the greater world will take to her. I don't like the idea of her going to spend two years at an Asari University." Her eyes darted away, and her husband gave her a quizzical look. But then he sported a mischievous grin.
"Afraid one of them might take to her a little too much?"
She let out a snort and slapped him lightly on the shoulder, smiling back thankful that her husband could always keep things on a light measure. "Its not that. Its just the other people of the Galaxy haven't been so inviting of us."
"I know Angel. But with all things, its takes time and a new point of view. We haven't been the best of neighbors ourselves." He gently collected his wife in to his arms. "It is our children and theirs which will correct such unfounded fears."
His wife gave him a playful smirk. "Nice to see I'm finally rubbing off on you, Mr. Alliance."
"Now I never said that the Alliance was wrong..." he slinked back..
She playfully pushed back from him. "Oh your so stubborn!" She cried smiling as he gathered her against him laughing softly.
"She will be fine." He cooed.
"I know John." She warmly replied.
[][][][][]
Warm air caressed her face as her focus sharpened in brighter light streaming from the fabric drapes. She pressed forward and stepped deftly in to mazed room. It was still dimly light, but had more light to see by. The walls and ceiling were a soft, dark shade of purple, and the clean rug she was walking on was a soft light blue. Every corner and nook held a sculpture of Asari. Some were just of an individual, others were of a mother and child, and others were of two, or more Asari intertwined in a carnal fashion. She slowly walked around, looking at each piece. Her eyes finally settled on one near the end of the maze.
It was a simple facial bust of an Asari from the top of the shoulders up. The material resembled alabaster, but it was the features that had captured her attention. The face, or rather the lack of one. It had a nose, and the tentacle head crest was the signature to the Asari. But the face contained no expression, the simple mounds for eyes which held no life. A thin lined mouth that spoke of nothing.
"This piece draws you in doesn't it." A warm voice called from behind her.
She quickly turned her head over her shoulder to see an Asari behind her.
The Asari was dressed in a light gray dress the hugged to the curves of her body, but also concealed her in a pious nature. Roped across the top of her chest by three chains of pearls to the left and a single gold chain to the right was a three pointed star of ruby. Her head covered by a simple cloth of white. She concluded that the Asari was a Priestess, and looked to be around the age of 50. But she also knew that the Asari must have been much older than that. Perhaps 600?
"Don't worry. I mean you no harm." The Asari said with warmth and sincerity. "I've been watching you since you entered."
Why the fuck did I let my guard down! She berated herself. But then she relaxed, and went back to looking at the bust, and the Asari cautiously approached closer.
"Every pilgrim who finds their way here also finds an image of the Goddess that reflects them. But I have seen few of your kind come here, and even then fewer pilgrims choose that piece."
She was silent as she continued to look at the nameless effigy. She heard the Asari pass behind her, but felt that she needed to look at the Asari again. The priestess was holding open a curtain to another room with a look that beckoned her forward, and she followed.
The new room she was in was filled with exotic tapestries and wood panels giving the room a rich, warm and inviting feeling. The tapestries held images of an Asari as a child, a young woman, and a Matriarch. The room held pillows for sitting, or praying and the far end held hundreds of candles, most of them unlit cascading up like steps.
She noticed another Asari, her skin the color of coral suddenly look up at the new guests. The Asari quickly put out the lit candles and fled.
Her eyes followed the retreating Asari till she was gone from view. What was that about? She mused to herself.
She then noticed the Priestess standing near the rows of candles.
"What is your name? Who are you?" The Priestess asked calmly.
"I'm nobody." She responded tersely.
The reply did not deter the calm nature of the Priestess. "Ah you are one of many that I have seen as of late then. But flame will tell your true person." The Asari held out a lit long candle lighter to her.
At first she didn't want to take it. But something in the Asari's face still beckoned her to do so.
She stepped forward and lit three candles that were widely spaced. At the same time the Priestess lit incense that started to fill the room. She looked over to where the Asari stood and the Priestess motioned for her to kneel on one of the close pillows. She complied.
This is ridiculous... her mind seethed.
"Now relax. Take deep calm breaths." The Priestess spoke.
As first her body rebelled to do so.
"Relax..." The Asari spoke again.
And then her breath did so.
"Breathe in and out calmly. Empty your mind." Came a voice as the world started to flow away from her.
She heard the gentle voice of the sea.
She started to sense the smell of the ocean. Of the pine forests near her home.
Of smoke, and fire...
"Slip in to the embrace of the Goddess."
The flames of the candles called to her. Their warmth radiating out to her like an early fall's sun. Other candles around them started to break in to flame as the scents of the sea, of the forest near where she had grown up drew in to her.
As the smell of buildings and bodies burning started to fill her.
Screams filled the air as people were pulled from their homes, from their businesses. They were being shot. Families were being split and young children were thrown in to cages.
Slavers swarmed like locusts. She saw Mitch again, fall to his knees with a hole in his head. Again fire consumed his body as they burned him.
There was nothing left to bury, nothing to hold on to remember him by...
...he was gone. Her friend. Her student was gone...Again.
She ran to her home that was just a stones throw beyond the town. She had to get there. She had to see her family. She had to get them out!
...but she was too late...
She saw her father. The tall muscular man that was her father thrown against the side of her home shot twice in the chest and left for dead. The Slavers disappeared in to the house.
"DAD!" She screamed as she continued to run. Her cries were never heard as the roar of fire consumed the colony behind her.
No! Not again! He can't die again! Her mind screamed.
She scrambled over the picket fence. She heard screaming and shots fired from the house. And she froze by the shed. Then voices and foot steps crept out as Slavers left the house to look around the property. She slipped in to the shed and quickly climbed up to the loft and pulled the ladder up.
C'mon! C'mon! Hurrying it up before they catch you!
She quickly found the ancient shotgun her father and taught her to use, and fumbling she slid two slug rounds and as quietly as she could locked the chamber.
Two Slavers entered the shed and started to look around.
Don't look up you sons of a bitch...Don't look up! Her mind pleaded.
She aimed at them. The shotgun shaking in her arms. Her finger trembling as it reached for the trigger. But then a woman's screams pierced her concentration and froze her.
The screaming wouldn't stop...
A gun shot rang out, and then all was deathly quiet. When she regained her focus. The Slavers were gone. She waited, and listened.
Nothing.
Cautiously she crept down. Still clutching the gun in hand she slink around to the back of the house. She couldn't face the body of her father. She just couldn't!
I can't see him again...Not like that!
She entered the kitchen...
No...Not here! Not again!
...and lying on the floor was her mother, shot. Her clothes torn and evident as to what had happened to her. She dropped the gun and ran crying to the body. She clutched her cooling mother to her. She rocked her back and forth pleading for her to come back.
Sobbing.
The floors creaked, and she looked up. Leaning heavily on the kitchen's door was a Batarian. Murder was on his hands. Rape in his eyes.
She kicked away from the body back peddling as he stumbled forward. His movements were slurred and slow. She saw the bite marks on his neck and knew what had gotten him.
But he was still very much alive...
He dove for her and grabbed one of her feet pulling her to him. She screamed and kicked at his face. blood rained down from his broken nose and mouth, but rather then break his hold it enraged him more.
"Filthy girl... I'm going to break you!" He screamed as he pulled her to him. He heaved her up and slammed her against the counter top knocking the wind from her. He pinned her by grabbing her hair with one of his hands and proceeded to tear at her top and at the pants buckle.
NO! NO! her mind screamed as she groped for something. Anything!
Her hand found a steak knife and she jabbed him in the side with it. He screamed and pulled her hair more and she in turn plunged the knife deeper between his ribs.
NO! She screamed as she let lose a wave of biotic energy blasting him off her. Not a moment later his head blew apart, plastering her with blood and gore. She looked shocked as the headless body that slumped against the far wall and then looked to the door way.
Slumped against it was her father. His shirt bloody, his face deathly pale, a hand cannon slipping out of his hand. It clattered to the floor. She went to him.
I won't save you...
She kneeled down next to him.
But I had to try.
She took off her shirt, leaving just her sports bra on, and she tore it trying to make a bandage for him.
"No...El...No." Her father said gasping for air. She didn't say anything, but kept trying to bandage him.
"I failed...I failed you..." He gasped.
"No, you didn't dad. Just don't leave me!" She pleaded as she tried in vain to get the bleeding to stop.
"They didn't...come...but they promised...didn't come..." He heaved and tears started to fall from his face.
"Just hang on dad...please!" She cried.
She heard a vehicle pull up. Both her and her father looked to the front door, and heard Alien voices again
"El...Get out...Get out of here!" Her father said using what strength he had to push her back.
"I'm not leaving you!" She screamed as she tried to rush towards him again, but then he did the unthinkable.
He raised the hand cannon at her. "Better...to be dead...then enslaved..." He said, the weapons shaking in his hand.
The sounds outside had grown louder.
"RUN!" Her father screamed as he shot the gun above her head, and she flew out of the house clutching the shotgun as she vaulted over the fence.
She heard more shots come from the house behind her as she tripped and fell in to the near by field. She looked up towards the burning town.
I thought I saw salvation...
Two Alliance Garrison gunships came streaking in, weapons blazing. She jumped up and started waving her hands screaming. "HELP! PLEASE HELP ME! DOWN HERE!"
But four Slaver fighters were on their tails and knocked them down. She watched one fall in to the sea, the other slammed in to the forested hillside just 500 meters away. Fire exploded from the forest and she crashed to her knees in the field sobbing.
I was wrong...
She keeled to the side. Heaving, sobbing as her sense came back to her. Sweat was pouring from her head, and tears streamed from her eyes.
"You have kept that buried for a long time..." The Priestess spoke, still standing away from her. Her face held the look of suspect.
"Fuck you..." Is all she could get out.
The Priestess walked towards her, ignoring the girl's outburst and looked at the three burning candles. "Rage. Despair. Vengeance. Powerful places they are, dark. All consuming."
"I thought in time I would...would let it go." She gritted still heaving.
"Time?" The Priestess laughed mirthfully. "All that time does is provide distance. It heals nothing, young 'nobody'."
She clinched her teeth, and fists shut. Straining her eyes and she screamed with her mouth closed as if her body was on fire.
"You are not who you say you are, young 'nobody'. You have fed this ghoul already."
She just shook and trembled, but listened to the Priestess's words.
"Use this knowledge that the Goddess has given you. You know the loss you have experienced. You know the pain you have caused. Use it to spare others your fate, and the fates of those you knew." The Asari said acidly.
She trembled again as she began to collect herself from the floor. She rubbed the tears from her emerald eyes and brushed the red locks from her head. She looked over to where the other Asari had been.
"What were the other Asari's candles?" She asked as she stood up.
The Priestess walked casually over and looked at the still cooling wax. "Freedom. Salvation. Interesting..."
"I should go." She said still trying to get herself under control.
"You don't do have to go tonight. The ones you are running from will not find you here, and it will be morning soon." The Priestess said consolingly.
"No. I have taken enough of your time." She said as she walked forward. She looked back at the Asari. "Thank you..." she said and then vanished.