Convergence
By: Absolute Edge
Chapter IV
The shuttle ride down to the planet was mostly uneventful. Legion guided the craft with expert skill with Garrus riding shotgun manning the comms and sensors. Grunt was tapping his foot anxiously awaiting the fight to come.
"Would you please stop that?" Liara asked softly. Grunt must not have heard her over the sound of re-entry for he continued.
"Fucking stop it!" Liara yelled balling her fists.
Grunt paused and looked at her. Liara looked around and noticed everyone was looking at her. She unbuckled her harness and made her way to the rear of the craft. Grunt looked at John and nodded in Liara's direction. John sighed and got up and went to sit across from her.
"Hey, can we talk?" John asked softly.
"What is there to say?" Liara replied looking away from him.
"A lot actually. Such as, 'I'm sorry.'" John said, "Liara I'm so sorry."
"Good start." Liara said glancing at him.
"Well, I'm going to lay it out for you." John said taking Liara's hands in his, she looked at him expectantly. "Liara, I can tell you're fed up with this on-off relationship of ours and, to tell you the truth, so am I."
Liara's mouth gaped a little, her eyes wide. "Are... You breaking up with me?"
"No! No, no, no. Hell no." John said quickly. "Liara, I want to go steady."
Tears flooded down Liara's cheeks and she threw her arms around John. She had been waiting two months to hear those words and feared they'd never come. "I love you John."
"I love you too, Liara." John said patting her back. He kissed her neck and let her go. Liara leaned back in her seat smiling madly but still crying and wiped the tears away.
John got up brushing one of her tears away before heading back to his seat. Grunt was staring at him.
"What did you tell her?" Grunt asked looking at Liara. She looked happy, really happy in fact.
"Exactly what she wanted to hear." John said buckling up his harness.
"So you lied?" Grunt asked a little shocked.
"Not entirely." John said looking back at Liara. "I want her, there's no doubt about that, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to be tied down."
"I see what you're trying to say. Technically, Asari are neither male nor female so..." Grunt trailed off as he realized what he was saying.
"Do not give me any ideas. I don't want to hurt Liara anymore." John said pointing at Grunt.
"Good, because you already did that." Grunt said accusingly.
"No, that's not fair. We were on and off." John said leaning back.
Grunt made a noise and left the conversation at that. Liara sat down next to John and smiled up at him. She was grinning wildly and set a hand down on his thigh and squeezed gently.
"Once this is over," Liara whispered into John's ear, "I'm going to make blue your new favorite color."
John smiled and whispered back. "It became my favorite color the day I met you."
Liara breathed out in pleasant surprise. She grabbed his head and pulled him to her planting a passionate kiss on his lips. Once their embrace was over John looked at Grunt.
"Remember that thing I said I wasn't ready for?" John asked and Grunt nodded slowly, "I think I am now."
Grunt laughed just as Legion's voice echoed over the intercom. "Touchdown in thirty seconds."
"The facility hasn't responded to any of our hails." Garrus said looking back at them.
"Not surprising." Grunt mumbled racking his shotgun.
"Touchdown in twenty seconds." Legion said.
"Check all targets; I don't want any friendly fire." John said slipping on his helmet. A chorus of affirmatives echoed around the cabin.
"Touchdown in ten, activating retro thrusters." Legion was drowned out by the jet engines as they kicked to max burn. There was a soft rumble and the engines cut off and the craft landed successfully.
"Welcome to Karsus IV, I hope you enjoyed your flight. Thank you for flying Legion Air, please come again." Legion said getting up.
Everyone was staring at him but Legion hardly noticed and left the shuttle without further comment. [Insert Line]
There was something outside, it was loud and hurt his ears, and he ran to a window to investigate. The thing was big and metallic and spit fire and smoke out of rotating things on its sides. He was amazed and terrified at the same time; what could it be? The side of the great flaming beast opened up and things came out. He squinted and examined the new things.
He growled as he recognized the things as people and he suddenly felt hungry; his long talons came up to the window instinctually and they dragged down the glass leaving a thin trail. He had to kill them, to feast on their flesh, but was trapped up here, locked in this room with the other.
He looked over at the other, like him but not, similar but different, he didn't like her presence but they were trapped here together regardless. She felt his gaze and whipped her head over to glare back. She advanced with a hiss and he snarled in response.
They held each other's stares of malice before she looked away in defeat. He grinned with what was left of his jaw and turned back to the window to try and kill the people with hateful thoughts. Though he despised the other he couldn't help but feel saddened by her current state. It was a strange feeling and required more effort to understand; perhaps he knew her in a past life and these were the left over almost-emotions and half-memories of their experiences together?
He looked back at the other and found her crouched by something on the ground. He took one more glance at the people, satisfied that they wouldn't be moving anytime soon, before stalking over to investigate. She jumped up and snarled in protest but he ignored her and looked at the object. He reached out with a talon and turned the small thing around and brushed off the broken glass protecting the paper within.
No, not a piece of paper but a photograph. It was of a man and women and they were... Familiar. He looked at the other and then back to the photo, it was her from the before times. She might've been beautiful once but his mind couldn't wrap around the emotions of like and dislike in regards to the before times, only the time after the ascension is he able to truly understand.
He stared at the man and was hit with a cold wave of vague resemblance. He thought hard trying to understand where this feeling was coming from and gave himself a headache doing so. He looked away angrily but froze as his gaze flashed over himself in a broken mirror. He was the man in the photo with the other and he started to remember things, horrible, fantastic things.
The other was his wife at one point and he remembered the great love he had for her. It filled him with its strange warmth and his body twitched slightly in confusion. This feeling of love was not something he should capable of having and he couldn't cope with the bizarre sensation. His mind was racing as stranger and darker memories exploded from the black abyss of his broken mind. He stumbled back and bumped into the other who jumped in surprise and raised her talons in a combination of irritation and confusion.
He looked at her and died a little inside. He recalled a word. It meant something and had to do with the other. He wanted to say it so bad that he actually tried.
"Ggghahasssaahh! Gghasss! Gjahs! Jhaiis! Jhaaissa!" His voice was a harsh, guttural sound that hurt his ears and shocked the other to silence.
The word meant something, was attached to the other somehow but he wasn't sure what it meant or why it continued to repeat itself over and over in his head. He looked around for clues trying to find something, anything that could remind him of what it meant.
Then he saw a glimmer of metal flash in the mirror and turned to it fully. There on the tattered rags of his old life was a small metal bar attached to the ruined clothing. He looked down and tried to grab it but his talons kept slipping and cutting him. He grew angry and slashed wildly ripping the clothing to shreds and slicing up his torso in the process.
He looked at the bloodied pieces on the ground and caught a twinkle of metal and crouched down. He flipped the cloth over and there was the small metal bar; it had something written on it.
- Seth Halloway-
This was his name but what did- a pain stabbed into his head and split his mind apart. It was so pure, white hot and intense. He collapsed to his knees as the pain screamed the unbiased truth directly into his head, and the truth... Oh God, the truth hurts so much.
He looked up at the other, no not the 'other' she was more than that, she had a name and he knew it now. She was his wife, his Jhai'Sa.
Seth looked away from his wife, she was a total wreck, like he was, and it physically hurt to see her like this.
Why didn't I listen?Why couldn't I trust my own wife?
Seth cried out in anger and slashed at the floor, the sudden burst of hostility startled Jhai and she hissed as she scooted back to the far wall.
Seth lied down and stretched his talons out in front of him. He wept at his current situation, at how horrible a husband he's been, but most importantly he wept for his wife.