May 7th
12:01
3927
Titan, Black Site 9
The whole area was filled by blue light. A necessity, she'd been told. Every guard smiled at her as she passed. She could see bits of flesh lodged in their teeth. Disposing of the Xenos captives was a pleasure, they told her. She spared a look at the cells she passed. The occupants shivered violently as she passed.
They said nothing.
At long last she came to the only unguarded cell. Well, it looked unguarded. Hotaru could feel the life energy of over a dozen Uranian operatives. There was so much fear in them. There was so much fear in every one. At least the guards from Nunatak liked her.
She pressed her hands against the violet crystal glass of the cell. It parted for her. She walked through. The crystal re solidified behind her. Its was said that only the dead, and the Princess Saturn could cross it.
"Tomoe?"
The thing in the cell shuddered. Its long white hair reached to the floor. Many said that the thing should been destroyed. That it was unnatural. Then again those same people claimed the Princess of Saturn was unnatural. That she was unnatural.
"Keiko?"
Silence.
"Mom?"
It turned. It-she, was beautiful.
"Hotaru?"
The Princess of Saturn smiled, "I missed you"
Keiko returned the smile and then- it – shuddered and turned around. Blood raced its way to the ground. Hotaru went up to heal it and then . . . then she stepped back. Her healing would remove too much dark energy. Which would kill –it- the spiritual anchor. Mercury wouldn't like that. She said the information it gave them was invaluable.
Hotaru shook her head. Then she transformed wordlessly, in silence. She walked towards –it- slowly and raised her glaive high over head. She brought it down quickly. In one smooth motion. "Rest in Peace Mom", the corpse burst into blue flames. "I love you", whispered the Princess of Saturn.
June 16th
19:00
2227
Illium, Asari Space
"Tevos"
"Oh, you're here Shepard", exhaled the Asari Councilor.
The commander was here. And she stuck out like a sore thumb. The space she was in oozed peace and tranquility. Which the commander found surprisingly unsurprising, of course the Apartment she broke into after wandering down this worlds meanest streets would be a little piece of Thessia.
"You are a hard person to track down"
Tevos nodded, "At this time, it brings me no pleasure to hear those words from you commander. Although in hindsight", she briefly permitted herself something loosely resembling a smile, "I think that I could cherish this moment".
Shepard took a deep breath.
" With all due respect Councilor what the hell is going on? I haven't been able to contact Idras, or Sparatus, when I tried to Contact Tali she said she was meeting with admirals, I got transferred to an ex warlord trying to reach Baraka, and Miranda has been a black hole. Then there's you."
"Our species are getting ready for war"
"So?"
"The autopsy of the enemy you killed came in. It used to be a human 8-year-old girl."
"So, was it Cerberus?"
"Unlikely"
"And you aren't going to pretend it was Cerberus"
"We can't. The technology is too Alien. To primitive. Cerberus was many things but they were never wasteful, and they certainly didn't seem to hate your species."
Now Tevos was eyeing the damn celling. Like she thought something was going to drop down and gobble her up. Shepard followed her line of sight and found nothing, just a shadow.
"Have the Salarians been able to gather anything from the alien crash sight"
"Cloaking technology", whispered Tevos. Then she added quickly under her breath, "unknown elements. Unexplained damage. Bits of organic material fused with the vessel. Genetic material was too badly damaged- it was- same Amino bases as us. As us Shepard. As us."
"Levo-Amino based life then?", asked the Spectre.
The Asari Councilor was too busy muttering to herself to formulate a proper response. Shepard decided to leave. As she left she failed to notice that the shadows were moving, multiplying. Tevos did notice. But she couldn't move nor could she scream.
May 7th
19:45
3927
Nunatak, The edge.
The Professor wiped the chunks of sticky flesh on her coat. The corner of her mouth twitched. She could still smell the damn fools perfume. She hated dealing with merchants. She hated dealing with old prideful men. She had no time for such useless people.
The Merchant in question was an short sighted fool who found something buried in the ice. So they took it to the market to try and sell it. Only that something human and it was still alive.
Hawking human meat on Nunatak and pretending it was Xenos meat, that was a serious offense. It had serious consequences. Ignorance is no excuse. Their skull gave little resistance. Her hands delivered justice.
The Professor enjoyed killing him. It made her think of the good old days.
She resettled her mind, and her body, and her soul. The person that the Merchant salvaged from the ice was stable. Barely stable. Shouldn't be alive. They were alive. Good.
Without outside assistance, at sub zero temperatures, their situation continued to improve. Must have something to do with those crystals embedded in her. Would she regain consciousness soon? Hard to tell. Constantly sliding from the data area to the storage site was tiresome. The professor concluded that she should have Skult bring the miracle girl in.
That way she could try and resuscitate her. Find out where the miracle girl was from, give her hot Cocoa, and maybe find out more about the glowing green crystals jutting out of her right shoulder.
The professor had so much to do and so little time. So much was happening. Her mind was awash with all the new data sister laboratories were providing.
She'd heard reports about the horrible creations that the so-called scientists of Venus were forming from willing subjects. The Shadows. That wasn't science. It wasn't real science. Bastardized augmentation, that's what it was. Nowhere near as elegant or efficient as crystal based advances. She would do better. With enough development she was confident that they could create something truly valuable, something truly new. Something worthy of the Queen.