And It All Seemed Harmless: Chapter 22
"Rise and shine, Commander. You're about to be on video. Don't want to disappoint your audience now do you? The Illusive Man is expecting our call any minute now." Archer's cruel taunts are salt in Shepard's bloodied ears, her head pounding so intensely his voice is muffled by the sound of her own blood pumping and reverbating in her head.
Liara…
The soldier is barely conscious, but her first thought immediately belongs to the asari.
I failed...oh God….where is she…
I failed all of them…
The soldier opens her eyes slowly, her eyelids as heavy as a door to a bulkhead yet she manages to open them anyway. The first sight the spectre is greeted with is Archer, clad in a standard Cerberus scientist smock he obviously hadn't chosen to part with just yet. Beside him, an array of guards stand in a formation clearly meant to protect the biotic dampener between them. Each guard is armed to the teeth, clad with fully stocked utility belts of dangerous explosives, automatic weapons in their hands. One guard holds a rifle significantly stained at the butt of the weapon, and the soldier's stomach turns as she realizes, it was painted with her blood. There are thin streaks of her blood along the floor, some of the perfect drops smeared as if they had dragged her body through the blood trail to where she sat now.
Shepard doesn't recognize the chair she is currently propped up in as having been there when they had first entered the room. The chair is leather, an unfortunate material that sticks to the bloodied spots of the soldier's body. She had been stripped of her stolen armor, and was back in her military fatigues, torn in places from the heavy combat. Both her wrists were bound in metal cuffs protruding from the chair's arms, a thin orange ring of light tracing the metal cuff shape.
Across the room from the chair is a video pad, not unlike the one the Normandy had in its own comm room. The metal oval on the floor is unmistakable, lit by a thin blue light around the edges. Tracing the blue lights, the soldier deduces the pad is connected to a terminal on a wall on the right of the room, curiously, the only terminal in the entire makeshift chamber.
"Where are the others…," Shepard manages to croak out, her voice hoarse from the sheer agony her body was currently enduring.
Where is Jack...
One of the last memories the soldier can recall in clarity was Archer's execution order for the young biotic. An order that would have been all too easy for the asari he had commissioned with the dampener activated. And I let him fucking use it. I'm sorry Jack, I'm so, so, sorry.
Though the dampener did not spell a certain end for Miranda and Liara, the Spectre's capture almost certainly did. It makes Shepard sick to her stomach. Archer had what he wanted. He didn't need to waste men and resources holding them any longer. She knew that, however much she wanted to believe otherwise. And the pain bubbling in the soldier's gut reinforces her instinct that it was all too unlikely they were alive. Shepard chokes back a sob that overtakes her throat at the thought.
I'm sorry, Miri.
And I'm sorry, Liara.
I'm so sorry, I didn't even tell you goodbye.
Archer takes his time reacting to the soldier's question, clearly finding enjoyment in the emotional response the moment of silence had on the Spectre. He knows what she's thinking, and he knows she knows what he's about to tell her. So he drags out the moment, letting her feel the pain of knowing, but not fully knowing. And then, he stabs her with the truth.
He finally responds to the soldier's query with a devious, knowing smile, and Shepard's world stops, as if paused for a moment. She barely hears Archer when he boasts of how he had no longer had need of them, and had given their execution order some time ago. His voice is muffled, as if he is speaking in a vacuum a thousand miles away from the soldier.
Liara…
Oh God Liara…
Shepard is numb. Suddenly, the pain in her body doesn't seem to hurt so damn much. Her chest however, feels as though it is caving in on itself, her ribs contracting as she gasps for air.
I'm so sorry Liara...
Shepard takes gasping breaths, choking on her own throat as if Liara had been the air in her lungs, and she could no longer breathe. Her head falls back, her eyes shutting tightly to prevent Archer the pleasure of watching tears spill from her. She feels as if she is outside the Normandy again, writhing in space and choking on her own empty lungs as they expand from the pressure. She feels as though she's dying. For the second time.
"Someone sedate her, regulate her breathing," Archer orders, a thin line of worry crossing his brow. Shepard was of far lesser value as a bargaining chip to them dead. The Illusive Man would always be capable of doing wonders with Shepard's dead body, but the timetable and expense could be no longer a guarantee. The only certain fact was that if the Illusive Man's precious investment died in his custody, he would be a dead man.
Shepard's head is roughly lifted by a guard on Archer's order, a thin respirator device the soldier recognized from field rescue kits forced into her mouth. Her mouth fills with oxygen, forcing her lungs to inflate with it, and yet the chest crushing pain does not leave. The feeling of suffocation, does not leave.
He made a grave mistake….
Believing the Illusive Man was a more formidable enemy to have than me...
A scientist, the spectre does not recognize, rushes to the soldier's side. She is clad in a similar jumpsuit to Archer, armed only with a meager side-arm pistol attached to her belt. It hangs off her belt, unsecured as a proper soldier would place it. She was clearly new to this. And, the skittish asari is new to the room, obviously here on Archer's most recent command.
"Her synthetics can function differently based on her disposition sir. Look, these scars on her cheek? Cybernetic implant scarring due to the effects that negative emotions such as hate and anger have on the limbic system. It is possible this emotional distress is having an effect on her respiratory system...simulating a previous trauma in response. I don't know enough about cybernetics like these to stop it… don't you have the woman who created these in custody? Perhaps she will have an idea." The asari states, looking to Archer earnestly. Her hands shake as they hold her omni-tool above the spectre, scanning her. She is clearly frightened her inability to help will cost her the rest of her life-span.
On a normal day, Shepard would feel something for her, but the soldier can form no emotion for her, only writhe in agony. Her entire body is starting to feel compressed, weighed down by the galaxy she lived within. The Collectors...the Reapers...the sheer pressure of her responsibility in dealing with those foes is suddenly unbearable, the future seeming impossible and uncertain already without their involvement.
Archer shoots a guilty look at the asari, crossing his arms in an attempt to give off the impression he still warranted authority despite his many mistakes already.
"I...had her terminated. She was no longer needed once Shepard was in our custody."
"Actually sir, I was ordered to inform you of a stay of execution. Ordered by Scientist Boson."
And suddenly, Shepard can breathe again. Shepard takes a deep breath from her respirator, the world around her suddenly moving at full speed once again, as if the deafening pause had been lifted by those simple words. Liara was alive!
Archer crosses the room in a split-second, grabbing the guard by the shoulders.
"AND WHY THE BLOODY HELL WERE THEY NOT TERMINATED!"
"Sir, according to our orders, Scientist Boson has joint authority as a partner in your laboratories. He ordered me to inform you that in our custody is the daughter of Henry Lawson. He requested a formal meeting to discuss the implications of contacting Henry Lawson for protection and resources instead of Cerberus. His daughter would be valuable in negotiations, so we were ordered a stay in executions until the development was discussed."
The soldier should be relieved, but the taste of a world without Liara has poisoned her with only hatred for her captors, and deadly need to prevent that Archer from succeeding in having her relive that again. The time for relief to wash over her body would be later, when adrenaline stopped gripping her heart with a need to protect her asari from near death. He. Would. Not. Touch. Liara!
Shepard's chest is no longer restricted, but her body feels heated, as if the pure rage was igniting a fire in her core where her heart had nearly stopped. The cybernetics on her cheek glow as the hate for Archer seems to travel across her body, fueling her every appendage. Lucky for the Spectre, the asari is not watching the soldier as the implants flare, her gaze locked on the two arguing men.
"Why wouldn't you kill the other one then?!" Archer practically screams, taking a menacing step towards the guard. Though Archer is unarmed and the soldier is very, very well armed, he still takes a step back, as if retreating from the scientist.
"We were ordered a stay on execution of both hostages sir. Boson did not specify the details."
The soldier's focus is razor sharp, as dangerous as she feels right now. Her eyes lock on the biotic dampener, taking in the strange device fully. Upon first glance, it looks to be nothing more than a demotion charge, made up of long metal tubes capped at each end with a disabling panel in the center of the device. A weakness.
The soldier doesn't even think, she just acts, putting a plan into motion as if she were on autopilot. On cue, the soldier begins choking again, this time, dramatizing her own suffocation, thrashing against her restraints as if she needed to clasp her throat.
"Archer!" The asari cries, and the scientist's attention directs to Shepard. The cybernetics on her body are fully inflamed, a symptom the scientist mistakes for the soldier succumbing further to the episodic suffocation. Turning to the two guards closest to him, Archer's voice is panicked, his orders a gruff bark at the two men.
"What are you standing there for? Bring me Miranda Lawson! Now!" The two men immediately obey, rushing from the room, their boots clacking in time as they travel away from the mad scientist as fast as they can manage. And then there were four.
Four including Archer, the asari scientist, and only two well-armed guards left beside the dampener. Both guards are trailing from their position however, coming closer to Shepard the more she struggles in her bounds.
Archer, however, notices this as well, turning his attention to them.
"This is under control! Stay close to the dampener you worthless fools! Now thanks to Boson, we have four alive captives that could be interested in taking a run at our precious toy."
As Archer directs his attention to the guards, the asari makes the mistake the well seasoned soldier knew she would eventually make. Bending over the Commander to check her pulse against her neck, her sidearm comes within range of the soldier's bound right hand. With a sharp tug, the Commander relieves her of it, angling it in her limited dexterity to point to the center of the asari's body. The asari immediately notices and opens her mouth as if she is about to scream, but between faked chokes, the Commander instructs her quietly, her voice a hushed whisper coming from between the respirator and the soldier's teeth.
"If you say something, you're dead."
The asari nods, her wide eyes filling with tears that almost strike pity in the Commander's heart. The soldier shoots a glance to Archer, and is relieved to see he is still berating the guards, coping with his obvious inexperience in stressful life and death situations by taking it out on the two inexperienced yet well armed men from his ill-fitted mercenary company.
"I'm going to blow this place apart. If you release my cuffs and run, I will let you survive." The asari nods, no doubt aware Shepard was gravely serious in every word she said. She takes a last worried glance towards Archer, then presses a button on the side of the chair, releasing Shepard's cuffs.
The next twenty seconds are a blur.
The moment Shepard's hands are free she fires a bullet straight to Archer's heart. The Commander is vaguely aware of the asari sprinting from the room as fast as her slender legs can carry her, but her focus is on the man who nearly robbed her of her world, as he chokes on the blood filling his lungs from the shell in his chest. Pivoting on her heel, the soldier fires a series of rounds into the closest mercenary, sending him to the ground before he can even register the prisoner is not only loose, but killing them. The second mercenary has a few more moments to register the danger, and unleashes a small barrage of shots at the Spectre.
Shepard takes cover behind the chair that had previously restrained her freedom, peering over the leather surface at her last assailant. The shots contact against the surface of the chair in a rhythm the soldier was accustomed to, and she lays in wait for brief rest between beats. The moment it comes, the soldier explodes out of the quiet, firing round after round into his chest.
The soldier is moving before his body even hits the floor. Kneeling beside the dampener, she takes inventory of the mechanisms on the front of the device. The panel is complex, and protected by a series of access keys. I'll make my own. Shepard thinks ruefully, returning to the chair and plucking the metal respirator she had discarded in her escape from the floor.
When she returns to the the panel, the soldier forces the side of the thick metal object into the center of the panel, cracking the display apart. The crack isn't incredibly large, but it would be more than enough room to house an explosive. And the Commander had her pick of explosives on the belts of the mercenaries she had dispatched.
Dropping beside the nearest mercenary, Shepard thumbs along his belt until she finds a small latch that releases it from his body. Helping herself to each of the grenades strapped along it, the soldier carries them across the room and sets one in the small crevice, the device waiting for activation.
The soldier takes a deep breath. A sudden heaviness overtaking her body as she thinks of her biotic comrade that had most likely died because of the device she was about to destroy. Though Miranda and Liara were alive, by some stroke of luck or God, the soldier didn't know if Jack had shared in their fortunate circumstance.
And if she had stopped this device...she would still be alive...
Before she loses herself in mourning for the biotic, the sound of boots echoes in the hallway.
Guards were coming. Lots of guards were coming. Shepard takes a step back from the device, activator in hand. There would be time to mourn the dead later. When they were confirmed dead, and not a moment before. She glances nervously at the door. Fleeing to the hallway to take cover from the explosion wasn't an option, without armor she would be gunned down instantly.
A grotesque rasp catches the soldier's attention and she follows the sound to Archer's bleeding body. His eyes are wide, his tunic stained with blood pouring from his chest. Shepard gives him a cold, uncaring smile as she watches him struggle, the fear in his eyes evident.
He knows he's dying.
She crosses the floor to him, then grabs his body by the arm, dragging his bloody form across the room as far from the device as she can take him. His blood stains the floor like a sick paintbrush, his only refusal a series of chokes that never could be translated to words that would tell off the spectre.
She positions herself behind him when she reaches the furthest wall, propping his body up as a makeshift shield.
"You shouldn't have fucked with Liara," Shepard says dangerously to her dying audience, holding the man's shaking, bloodied form in front of her. Her thumb grazes the activator in her hand, at the ready to press the button and blow the dampener and most likely the room apart when the time came.
The boots are getting closer.
Archer chokes a response Shepard doesn't understand, the soldier only able to make out the word 'progress' and it stabs her with anger. What he had tried to do was not progress, it was regression. A world in which scientists could sacrifice lives and mentalities for knowledge was a horrible one, one the soldier would never fight for. It was a loss of humanity, and Shepard was human. Flawed, proud, empathetic, in love, human.
"I'll watch after David for you. He's going to be okay. Not a science experiment, but a man. Something you never allowed him to be," Shepard continues, her voice dripping with venom. She wants him to suffer, to suffer in his dying breaths for his attempt on Liara's life. The scientist is so far gone he can't react. But she knows, she knows it's killing him.
Like the bullets in his chest.
The footsteps are getting closer, and Shepard takes a deep breath, bracing for the impact that would come once she made the simple choice her thumb was itching to make.
"Goodbye, Archer. Today, you die with your research. And your life, it was for fucking nothing."
Shepard usually feels something when a man dies at her hands, a small glimmer of guilt, a touch of mourning for a life lost. She feels nothing as she holds Archer in place for his doom. The man would have wasted Liara…without a second thought. The fact there are beings in the galaxy that would do such a thing, kill Shepard's entire world in one careless action…. the idea breaks her heart. And the jagged pieces of the heart of a woman like Shepard were dangerous, sharp enough to kill.
The door flies open, men flooding the room. There are new guards, ones Shepard doesn't recognize as having been in the room earlier, and the two that had left. She doesn't spend much time looking at their faces, her thumb jamming the activator the moment they enter the room. She closes her eyes, prays her cover would be enough, and the explosion comes.
Though the men are far more well armored than Shepard, they're closer to the core of the inferno. The fire scorches them. It sends their bodies flying. And the impact is lessened by the time it reaches the spectre. She's aware of the heat, of the immense pressure, but her human shield withstands what force comes for her.
It's chaos, then silence.
Shepard rolls the charred body of Dr. Gavin Archer off of her, and stands surveying the charred room. Their bodies are still touched with flames yet to be extinguished, parts of their anatomy strewn across the room. Goddamn...what a mess. It's disgusting, a sight that would reappear in her nightmares soon, but a relieved smile creeps onto her features nonetheless. Archer was dead. He couldn't kill Liara. Hold on Li...I'm coming….I've got you...
As the soldier kneels beside the soldiers, stripping them of what armor pieces weren't too badly damaged by the explosion, the room is suddenly filled with a sickening red light. An alarm starts moments after. The emergency protocol had been triggered, and the soldier realizes it too late, a sick feeling in her gut.
It had been too early for celebration. She needed to find them. Now.
