Chapter 7

"A mission? It can't wait until Vara finishes her research? She tells me that she's almost done." Davin said to his omni-tool, showing a video of Admiral Hackett on the other end. He frowned, pacing back and forth as he talked. Normally he loved getting new missions; he was usually bored when he wasn't on a mission. But, since Vara had not completed her research yet, that meant either leaving her here alone in Omega, which was a bad idea, or taking her with them into a mission in which anything could happen, which was also a bad idea.

It had been a few months since Davin got into it with Vara's father. Things had been quiet, too quiet for Omega; He had been paranoid since the Blood Pack tried to kidnap Vara, but he knew that if he restricted her from doing what she wanted it would only cause problems. The only thing he forced was that she couldn't leave the building without one of them at all times. He also made sure it wasn't always him that went with her; He was a commander, so dating him was like taking on his team as friends as well. He made sure she got time with each one of them, even Adam.

"No, it can't wait Commander." Admiral Hackett said, pulling Davin from his thoughts. "We think these new terrorist may have ties to Cerberus. If they do, we need them stamped out and taken care of. And, since you are the only unit we currently have on Omega, it makes sense to send you to deal with a problem on Omega."

He sighed, knowing that the admiral was right. "And what do we do with Vara sir? It's a danger to leave her here, but also a danger to take her with us."

"I leave that decision up to you Commander." The admiral said, not helping at all. "I will say this; would you rather leave her behind by herself, or take her with you where your entire team can protect her?"

Davin hesitated. He never told the admiral of his romantic interest in Vara, but the admiral was a smart man, and most likely figured it out for himself. Davin slowly nodded. "Alright sir, send me the details. Me and my team will take care of it as soon as possible. Over and out." With that he ended the transmission, shaking his head. Looks like he has to take Vara with them to fight terrorist. He walked towards their little hide out, knowing that at least the team will be happy to have a new mission.

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"Finally, some action!" Vara heard Debra yell, grinning from ear to ear. Vara was surprised when Davin called all of them into the living room and told them the news. It made sense, since the problem was on Omega. Why send extra troops out when you already have troops there, ready to go?

Things had been going well between her and Davin; they rarely argued, and he was an immense help with her research. But ever since they visited her parents, she noticed that Davin acted a little weird every now and then, as if he was keeping something from her.

What if he knows? He couldn't know, she had done a very good job hiding it. She felt bad for not telling him, but she had to test it, to make sure. The research she had Davin help with is research she had already completed. She didn't want to admit it, but she feared that once she was done, they would take him away from her, the first person she had ever felt anything towards besides her mother.

"Took long enough. I was getting bored." Adam said, catching her attention. Davin opened his omni-tool, pressing a few holographic buttons. All of their omni-tools beeped at once, even hers, which surprised her. "I just sent all of the details to your omni-tools. We will leave at dawn tomorrow. Make sure to study the layout of the area; we don't want any more surprises than we can handle."

They all nodded, saying, "Yes Commander!" and went to get everything ready, check equipment and such. Vara walked up to Davin, who placed his hands on her hips.

"I'm going with huh." She said, slowly sliding one finger up and down his chest. She could tell that he was stressed about this.

He nodded. "Yes, better than leaving you here alone. Who knows what would happen then." He looked away, proving her right.

"Well, I would have wanted to come along anyway. This way we don't have to argue about it." She said, smiling even though he couldn't see. She pulled him over to the couch and sat him down, standing behind him and rubbing his shoulders, which was a huge knot of muscle.

"I know, but I'm still worried. I might be teaching you how to defend yourself, but you are no soldier. Anything could happen."

She felt his muscles tense up even more; He sure let himself get stressed easily. "Relax Dav, worrying about it won't help at all. You need to have a clear head for tomorrow. I will be fine; I have you and your amazing team protecting me. Plus, I'm not as helpless as I was a few months ago. I will be fine."

"I guess your right." He said, and she finally felt his shoulders relax, something he sorely needed. "Just don't do anything rash; stay in the middle of us at all times and keep your head down. Only shoot when I either give you the command, or you feel your life is threatened. We will all have shields, but the enemy might as well, putting us on equal ground."

She giggled, loving when he went all commander on her. He raised an eyebrow at her, not as amused as she was. "You were listening at least, right?"

"Yes Commander." She said, doing her best attempt at a salute. He sighed, then she heard him chuckle to himself. "What will I do with you?"

She smiled, leaning closer to his ear. "When we go to bed tonight, I'll let you decide what to do with me."

That shut him up. She giggled, happy that she could still achieve this much, and continued rubbing his shoulders, thinking she was prepared for tomorrow.

She was nowhere near prepared for what happened the next day.

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Davin swung his gun to the right, positive he saw movement. He lowered it, seeing nothing and frowning. He didn't like this, and his uneasy feeling wasn't getting any better.

They had left at dawn, as planned, forming a wedge with Vara in the middle of it. The closer they got to the place where the terrorist were supposedly hiding out, the less and less people they saw. When they were less than a mile from their destination, they saw nobody in sight. To be safe, Davin sent Han to scout out the path ahead. He came back, saying he didn't see anything, but he felt like someone was watching him.

"Alright team, we need to assume that they already know we are here. Keep your eyes peeled; look at windows and rooftops. I don't want to be ambushed, at least not easily."

They all nodded, and he continued, looking for the slightest movement. One of the easiest things the eyes picked up was movement; It didn't matter how camouflaged you were, if you moved, the eye would most likely catch it.

Besides the one time he thought he saw movement, he saw nothing else the entire march. The closer he got to the place, the more he felt like this was a huge trap and they were just going to waltz right into it. He scanned the entire area, wanting to pick up anything, any evidence that someone was here before. He saw nothing so far.

The path went suddenly to the left. He stopped at the corner, holding his hand up to halt the rest of his team. He took a deep breathe and swung out from the corner, aiming his gun at chest level. He saw no one, and gestured them to continue.

They didn't see a soul the entire time. They finally got to an open gate, which led into a main square where he was told the terrorists had taken over, but he still did not see anyone. Where were they? He had thought they would have been ambushed awhile ago; he saw plenty of opportunities when they were in small alleys and could easily be hit from both sides.

But they were left unchallenged the entire time, and he did not like it. He took a few deep breaths, calming himself down, and went through the gate slowly, his team following him. He scanned the area again, not seeing anyone, but seeing plenty of places where people could hide; they could easily be surrounded in seconds. This was an obvious trap, but they had no choice but to go forward.

What happened next Davin didn't remember very well, even with eidetic memory. All he knows is that he was walking when he heard Vara scream something. He turned his head, taking a single step forward and was about to ask what it was. But then there was a huge sound, and he felt as if he got thrown by an invisible force, and hit the ground hard, blacking out.

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Vara, being right behind Davin, saw it at the last second; the ground, which was perfectly flat all around, looked like something was sticking out of the ground right where Davin was stepping. She didn't know what it was, but knew it wasn't anything good. Davin was too focused on the buildings themselves, and wasn't paying attention. She screamed. "DAVIN, STOP!" But it was too late; as he turned towards her, he took one more step, and stepped on what turned out to be a land mine.

First came the sound, a huge explosion that hit her and made her ears ring even through her mask. Next, a split second later, came the shockwave, which knocked her light frame completely off of her feet. She hit the ground, feeling the air flee from her lungs. She got up on one arm, struggling to get a breath while her ears rang, blocking out most of the noise around her. She heard noises, but they sounded far off.

After she was able to breathe again, she looked up, and saw what they were all looking for; the terrorist, as if waiting for someone to step on the land mine, came pouring our of every building around them, charging them. Most of them had only knives and weird alien swords, getting mowed down easily by the rest of the team, who had already recovered and was trying to get to Davin. But she saw a few of them higher up with weapons, and she saw one aim at Davin himself.

She got up, staggering but managing to keep herself upright, and ran over to Davin, jumping on top of him just as the terrorist fired. She thought it would hit her, but she saw it deflect off of her shield; while Davin's shield was most likely destroyed by the mine, hers was still intact. She sighed in relief when she saw the rest of the team get to them, forming a circle of shields around them.

"What…happened?" She heard. She looked down and saw that Davin was awake amazingly. He was still in shock, so for right now he wasn't feeling any pain. She finally took a good look at him, seeing what the damage was, and gasped at what she saw.

The leg that had stepped on the mine was completely gone, almost all the way to his hip. His right leg wasn't much more fortunate, being only about 5 inches longer than the other. The explosion seemed to have cauterized most of his veins and arteries, as he wasn't bleeding too much. She looked up and almost vomited when she saw chunks of his legs here and there.

"Don't worry about it Dav." She said, forcing it down; throwing up in the suit was a horrible experience. She pulled her smg off of her hip, tears welling up in her eyes, and screamed, shooting at anything that wasn't a friend. She wasn't too accurate, letting her rage cloud her judgment, but still managed to hit a few, seeing them fall and bleed.

"We have to move him! We are to open here!" She heard Erik yell, taking up his role as second-in-command. She nodded, putting her smg back on her hip and putting her arms under Davin's armpits, attempting to pull him up. He was starting to get out of shock, starting to say, "Where are my le-"When she started to drag him back.

She wasn't able to completely pick up his body, so she had to drag him, his stumps scrapping across the ground. When she moved, she heard him scream in pain, almost making her stop. She didn't faze though, and kept dragging, knowing that she was hurting him, but knowing if they stayed there they were all dead. The team started to follow slowly, keeping their circle around Davin and Vara.

"Holy shit, IT FUCKING HURTS!" She heard Davin scream. "Just try to ignore it for now. We are almost there." She said, lying to him; they were nowhere near out of trouble yet.

He started patting his body, confusing her until he said, "Where is my gun!"

"I have no id-"She started to say, but Erik interrupted her, saying, "Here."And handing him a pistol. She watched in amazement as Davin started firing at the enemies higher up. Both legs destroyed, probably in the most pain he has ever been in, and yet he can still aim and fire a weapon.

She almost groaned in relief when they past the gate, and Adam broke the circle, taking Davin and throwing him over his shoulder. "We need to retreat! Fuck this mission." Erik roared, and they started jogging away, still keeping Davin and Vara in the middle. She finally let herself cry, glad that he had such an amazing team to save his ass.

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She paced back and forth in the lobby, growing more impatient with each passing minute. She had been a nervous wreck ever since they brought him to this hospital, and that was a few hours ago. It didn't help that it was a hospital in Omega, and she didn't really trust people here, let alone their doctors. But the worse part was the fact that she felt so helpless; there was nothing she could do but wait and hope that everything went ok.

"What's taking so long? It's not like he needs heart surgery." Adam said, the only one out of the entire team that was angry instead of sad. Erik sighed, glaring at Adam. "We don't know all the damage that he took. We only saw his legs, but what if he has internal injuries? I'd rather them take a long time and make sure than half ass it and he ended up dying anyway."

She kept pacing, not sure what else to do, until she heard something that made her stop in her tracks. "You all need to stop worrying and relax. It won't do Commander Davin any good to have you all fighting."

She turned, amazed, to see that it was Bennie who spoke. The rest of the team was like-wise staring at him. The entire time she had been with this team, she had never heard Bennie actually speak words; just laughs and giggles. To hear him speak was somehow scary.

"It's been a long time Ben." Jacob said, smiling. He turned towards Vara. "Davin told you he had the second highest I.Q. on the team right? Well Bennie has the highest; he was considered a genius. But his family got killed in an accident, and he went a little…crazy. It's rare, but every now and then he speaks clearly. Whenever he does, I suggest you listen."

Vara just nodded, still amazed. Bennie smiled, putting her at ease. "I blame myself for this. What kind of explosive's expert can't see a land mine? It wasn't even cleverly hidden. We were just so preoccupied by the fact that we had not seen anyone, plus most of the time everything is kind of a blur to me. But do not fret; our commander will pull through. He is strong, and his shield took most of the impact, saving all but his legs from damage. He will pull through, and we will get through this."

Surprisingly, Vara felt a lot better after hearing his words. "Thank you Bennie." She said. She was almost sad when his response was to giggle.

"It's sad. His moments of clarity get shorter and shorter." Jacob said, his smile gone. They all jumped when the doors opened, and the doctors and nurses came into the lobby. "Anybody here for our patient, Davin?"

They all went over to the doctor, who sighed. "He will pull through. It was a pain, but we took care of his legs. He will make a full recovery, although his military career is over."

Good news and bad, but she was just glad he was alive. "When can we see him?" She asked, hopeful.

"Most likely tomorrow, after he is transferred to earth." She heard a voice say behind her. They all turned, and she saw everyone quickly put their feet together and salute. It was an old man, with two soldiers to each side. She didn't know what to do so she bowed her head awkwardly.

"You're transferring him, Admiral Hackett?" She heard Erik say, and realized this was the admiral that gave her the funding she needed, and let Davin keep protecting her when the rest of the military wanted to take her research. He smiled, his face old but his eyes still bright blue, catching everything. "Yes. He will be taken back to earth, where we can see about solutions. If I have learned anything about Commander Davin, it is that he won't just sit there and do nothing. He will want prosthetic legs, and he will want them as soon as possible."

His smile disappeared. "But he most likely won't be able to be in the military anymore. He will be honorable discharged."

She felt crushed by this news. Hearing it from a doctor was one thing, but hearing it from Davin's commanding officer was completely different; his whole life had been devoted to the military. What would he do without it?

"So, you must be the Quarian Commander Davin has told me about." He said, extending his hand to her, surprising her. "My name is Steven Hackett, but you can just call me Steven. I am sorry about what happened; Davin has been under my command for a long time, and I see him as a second son. This news will crush him, so it's your job to make sure he doesn't give up."

She took it, shaking it. She didn't really know what to say so she said, "I'll do my best Steven."

"That's all any of us can really do." He said. He turned to the rest of Davin's team. "As of right now, Erik Walkman is in charge. Commander Davin will be transferred tonight, so I suggest you pack up and meet us there. You can get some sleep on the ship."

They all saluted him. He returned the salute and took his leave, his guard following him. Everything was happening so fast that it was making her head hurt. She felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to see that it belonged to Erik. "Come on, we have a lot of packing to do. We will see him tomorrow."

She nodded, going with him. She couldn't imagine how mad he would be once he woke up, but she would find out.

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Davin was pissed. He kept glaring at the empty space where his legs should be, thinking that if he stared long enough they would appear, but no such luck. He woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by Vara and his team. He had to sit there while they told him that he lost his legs, and that his military career was over. He remembered the leg part; there wasn't much he forgot, having an eidetic memory and all. The only part he didn't really remember was the explosion itself, and he was sure he didn't want to remember it.

"God damn they itch." He said, scratching at his stumps. He knew that if it wasn't for the drugs that were currently getting pumped into his veins that he would be screaming in pain right now. But somehow, even though he couldn't feel pain, he could feel the itching feeling, and it was driving him crazy. He felt Vara smack his hand away for the fifth time, glaring at him. "Stop scratching, you'll rip your stitches."

He grunted, forcing his hand to stay at his side. He hated not being able to get up and move around; He was glad he lived and all, but he was never very good at sitting still. He heard Erik sigh. "They said that they were going to discuss options for prosthetics today. Since you were in the military, it will be completely paid off."

"I don't really care about expenses." He said. He had always been good at saving his money, and wasn't poor by any account. He sighed, feeling Vara wrap her fingers around his. He squeezed her hand, glad that she was here. "I hope I didn't scare you, screaming and bleeding all over the place."

She shook her head. "No, I was more scared for your life. Though there was one second where…" She didn't continue, and he didn't pry; she went through enough seeing his legs get blown off. He turned towards the rest of his team. "So how long do you guys have to see me before getting deployed somewhere else?"

Debra smiled. "The admiral's exact words were 'you all are on guard duty.'"

Davin chuckled. "Sly old dog. There's a reason he's my favorite superior officer." He looked at each member that used to be on his team. "You should all take a break. Go get something to eat. As you can see, I'm not going anywhere."

They all nodded, getting up and leaving. To his surprise, Levie stopped at his bed side, placing her hand over his and saying, "I hope you recover quickly commander." Before leaving the room.

"Well damn, miracles do happen." Erik said, the only one besides Vara to stay. Davin nodded, surprised but glad. "So, how does it feel to be the commanding officer for once?" He said, looking at his best friend.

Erik scratched his head, frowning. "It doesn't feel like I'm a commander at all. I didn't earn this; I only got it because you got injured."

"Don't feel that way. You were my second command for a reason; you were the next one to lead should something happen to me. I picked you because you're a damn good soldier; it had nothing to do with the fact that you are my best friend."

Erik nodded, and Davin knew it didn't really matter; Erik would always see him as the commander. Davin was smiling, happy besides what had happened, when he heard a voice that wiped the smile off of his face.

"Davin…son…" He turned to see his father standing in the doorway, and knew his day was about to get worse.