Thank you again so much to theherocomplex for betating this chapter! :D
Sunlight fell from the cell window onto Edem's face. It meant another day where Shepard was still alive, still breathing, still within a mile's distance. Another fucking day within the Alliance's confining walls, and another day he could not join his family.
Shepard should have died on that field.
Four months on this wretched and polluted planet, the Earth offered no hospitality to Edem, maybe that would explain what Shepard was, a product of this cesspool.
Stale air filled Edem's cell. All he wanted was one last chance to have the honeyed air of Aratoht fill his lungs again. It was Patia's work, after all. He wanted to see her eyes shine as she explained her work. He wished to hear her speak those words again.
Instead, Edem watched the light from his narrow window until it hit his legs.
Breakfast should have arrived by now. His stomach ached. Sometimes he'd pretend it was cooking from back home, like what his mother used to make, but the nutrition paste always tasted flat, unable to inspire the true memory.
The sunlight continued to his feet. The Alliance were idiots, but they weren't cruel enough to starve a prisoner, as his government. Unless they had no reason to keep him alive or thought they could get away with his death. Did the Hegemony even know he was here?
Edem shook the thought from his head. It didn't matter if they cared enough or not. But out of curiosity, Edem got up and pounded on the door. When no guard responded, he pressed his ear to the door.
His actions were returned with silence; it was foolish to think that would work, these cells were sound proofed.
Before he could lay down back onto the cot, his cell darkened. Yellow and red flashed through the window's bars.
Edem climbed onto the cot to see out the window; his hands lightly pressed to the cold glass. A chill ran through his skull and down his spine as he watched the scene unfolded before him.
Metal creatures, larger than any building the batarian world's offered descended from the sky. A confining darkness crossed the Alliance base. He watched soldiers run, only to be dematerialized before his very eyes by the angry red light. He watched ships destroyed before they have a chance to move. All of the Earth was silent from his cell.
"So, the coward was right after all."
Edem laughed, a good, hard, long one, with tears forming in his lower eyes. His throat grew dry through the fits.
His laughter was cut off as the angry red light intensified and crashed through his walls. The blast trapped him between slabs of concrete with a steel girder piercing his spine. The pain radiated out from his lower back. He couldn't feel his legs.
His blood pooled and softened the dirt underneath him. He let out a sob as he dug his fingers into the ground. He tried to claw his way out, only to struggle as the girder kept him in place. The Earth in his mouth tasted like smog and iron; he tried to spit it out, but it wouldn't leave.
Edem rapidly blinked his eyes; all still intact and able to watch the Earth's sky as it filled with fire. Maybe Shepard had spared his family from this. He still prayed that they had had a quick death. His breath was ragged and tried to pull for more air.
He waited so long for the final breath to come. Only to muttering out his family's names for hours as the Earth fell into deeper chaos. Their names sung on his tongue. Patia, Bes, Pat, Bes. He just wanted to see them again.
Edem gasped for one last bit of air with their names on his breath. It tasted like honey.