Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.
Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!
Chapter Title: Courtesy of 30 Seconds to Mars for their awesome inspiration.
"Closer To The Edge: Part 3"
*Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep.*
The elevator doors finally opened after several minutes of blasted elevator music and having Garrus and Kasumi bicker at one another. But when those doors opened, both knew that it was time to get their game faces on. The doors opened wide to the site of the hallway. After that large explosion that got their asses moving, Shepard wasn't going to let the Bloodpack destroy a whole tower. But this was strange, very strange. The hallway that they could see was all but damaged.
"More than likely…the Bloodpack already had the floors that were a cover for Cerberus. It's possible that Cerberus didn't know until the last moment…" Celest thought to herself as the group un-holstered their weapons, Garrus his assault rifle, Kasumi her submachine gun, and her own pistol. Shepard led the way first, quickly scanning the hallway. Her attention was brought to the doors lining the sides of the hallway. She took a step towards the door, peering inside the small window on the one door to her right. Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed, Garrus making haste to take point to cover Shepard.
"Well?" Garrus asked.
"Nothing," Shepard said with a low tone, staring into the bright room, "Nothings in there. And thank god for that."
"Nothing in here either Shepard," Kasumi replied.
"Good, I'd rather have empty rooms than dead rooms," Celest said, immediately stepping away from the door and heading forwards into the hallway.
Garrus looked back at the two, his mandibles flinching as Shepard past him, "You know Shepard. I'm surprised Cerberus doesn't have better security…And I'm surprised these cells aren't well…full."
"It was an undercover cell Garrus," Shepard replied. "If Cerberus filled all these cells….I'm sure people would be asking a lot more questions. Now let's get a move on." The two quickly followed, Kasumi beginning to say;
"Besides this place was a closed network. They didn't want anyone from their front group or anyone else for that matter knowing about it. The only thing odd was why tha-," Kasumi stopped mid-sentence, immediately grabbing her nostrils with her free hand." Ugh! What is that stench?!"
"You know this by now Goto."
"I should know what Garrus?"
"Burning Flesh..."
"I don't think I'll ever have an appetite again…I miss it already."
"Quiet you two! I hear something!" Shepard whispered singling towards the corner, with her pistol raised to the ceiling. A clamor of noise was rising beyond the corner of the hallways, several pings like the elevator door, and a voice…
"I'll rip you to shreds, human! If it's the last thing I do!" The loud bellowing voice announced.
"Well, I guess that's our krogan…sounds like Fallik hasn't changed a bit."
"Knew him, Garrus?"
"Remember Garm?" the turian renegade replied. "Well Fallik was an enforcer for his bloodpack…smart son of a bitch too. For a krogan of course."
"Not smart enough," Shepard said, immediately turning the left corner, beholding the sight before her. Burned bodies…everywhere…the sight was kind of sickening, in an "I'm going to gut the person who did this," kind of meaning. Behind her hood, her face was with disgust, but then her attention turned elsewhere. A pair of blown off doors, burned bodies of vorcha, one was headless, and an angry krogan standing in an elevator at the end of the new hall, its doors closing just in time for Shepard to see its sneer. "Shit..." She whispered to herself.
Garrus and Kasumi followed her around the corner, both their weapons up and ready for battle.
"Huh. Smart enough to run away from Commander Shepard it seems." Garrus said kicking a very crispy fellow, to make sure the poor soul was out of his misery. "Well whoever did this, obviously knows his way around an Omni-tool."
"There's many other ways to burn someone, Garrus." Shepard corrected.
"Riiiight. Only Commander Shepard would know all nine hundred ways to burn a body."
"More like nine hundred and one," Shepard commented.
"Honestly Shepard, I've never seen a plasma charge burn someone like this...this thing looks like it took a prod to it and left it on," Garrus replied staring at vorcha beneath his feet. "Plus, this looks more like an electrical burn, remember I was part of C-Sec."
"Ok, Sherlock, care to 'deduce' what went down here?" Shepard commented, Kasumi chuckling to herself.
"Nothing good, I'm sure," his head immediately turning towards a sound.
"Shit! Help! Please!" a voice shouted, obviously pleading for help. Garrus was the first to hear it, immediately turning around towards the corner. He ran passed the corner, going left into the other hallway. Shepard and Kasumi quickly turned around and followed both weapons at the ready. They turned the corner, and saw a woman, being helped up by Garrus. The woman was stammering, struggling to get her breath up to speed. Garrus raised the woman to set her down, resting her back to the wall. The woman spoke up, speaking frantically at the group;
"You have to stop them! They'll tear this place to rubble!"
"Who are you?" Shepard asked. Then woman looked at the woman in front of her. "C-C-Commander Shepard?" The woman stuttered, "THE Commander Shepard?"
Shepard padded the back of her neck, kneeling down staring at the woman through her recon goggles. "Look, I'm not here to sign autographs, or make insight into the wonders of science. I'm here to do a job. Now I'll ask again, who are you and are you ok?"
"My name is Dr. Eisley…and I'm fine, I'm just hysterical. You have no idea what the hell happened!"
"Ok, Dr. Eisley...I need you to calm your ass down. And tell me, who are you talking about?" Celest said her hand placed on the wall before her, right next to Dr. Eisley's shoulder.
"Ok…ok…its Subject Icarus…he escaped."
"Escaped?" Garrus asked, "You people and biotics seem to just not mix."
"He's not a normal biotic…he's something entirely different." Eisley replied, her face still wide-eyed. "Look, we have had this subject for six months and just nothing! He's not normal! Subject Zero records don't even show this. What he does is impossible? Dr. Finnegan and I are convinced he's something unnatural. With the Bloodpack and all…God he fought a krogan and some vorcha. I don't think the subject realizes the danger he's in, and I don't think the krogan knows what its getting into!"
"I really don't think pissed off krogan with an army of vorcha is doing nothing but making short work of this guy." Shepard exclaimed, rising from her kneeled position. "Ok, where is this idiot?"
"Wait!?" Eisley shouted, "Didn't you the bodies!? They're burned aren't they!"
"So?" Shepard asked, her emotionless mask still staring at the good doctor.
"Subject Icarus is a biotic...I shared the information with colleague in another cell," the doctor explained, with Shepard listening." Its quite hard to prove unless you see it, but he thinks that the subject has a tighter control on his biotics, enabling to create fields small and complex enough to be able to manipulate atoms...and maybe to create fire at will. Thus the bodies. But, his abilities could range to anything. We simply don't know though...Finnegan had us too focused on who he is and not on what he is."
"Look, Dr. Eisley," Shepard said calmly, "it sounds a bit far fetched, but until I see it, I don't know. But look, he needs to be recovered. This facility is lost, so I need to find him..do you know where?"
"From what I saw. He…he's up in the observation room. The main elevator to it is in the other hallway." The doctor replied.
"What about down this one?" Kasumi asked.
"That just leads to the other procedure rooms…everyone was evacuated before us…Icarus delayed our room considerably…God they're all dead."
"Alright…we got to get to that room then…before this Icarus becomes a smear on someone's wall." Shepard said, "Dr. Eisley are you going to be alright, are you injured?"
"Just go up a floor in that elevator and you'll find the room as the closest door. But no I'm fine…I know a few nooks and crannies I can get into to get out of this mess…But Commander, give the man his freedom...its best we don't know what it is."
"I can't guarantee that...have to see if he pisses me off first."
"Thank you, Commander Shepard," laughing
"All in a day's work good doctor, I'm sure we'll meet each other again soon enough." Shepard said, "Come on, we got a job to do." The group gathered their attention to the task at hand, rushing back to the elevator pass the torn off door. The smell of burned flesh was still in the air, some of it was still roasting from open flame. Shepard was still wondering. Wondering how something unlike natural or unnatural fire could make burns like these. Her days in the engine room…in the old SSV Trenton…fires broke out of all kinds. Magnesium fires, hydrogen fires, electrical fires, and even fires from leaking of element zero. But when her biotics came into full fruition…the corona that would form around her through every use, it felt like her skin burned from all that energy, like an irritating rash. And with the upgrades that Cerberus put in her…the burning sensations were even more intense. No matter what armor she had on…her biotics were like fire.
"What the fuck have I stepped into now?"
As they passed the blown away doors, Garrus stopped for half a second, staring into the procedure room. Two bodies…both dead. Not a single bullet seemed to be fired…
"Who the fuck are we dealing with Shepard?" he asked.
"Whoever managed to piss off a krogan, Garrus? I don't why you're so worried. I do that on a regular basis," Shepard replied.
"Spirits…" he whispered as they continued onto the elevator, after Garrus spotted the shattered glass of the observation room. A dark shadowy figure passed the opening, like a dark specter from the dead. He pushed it off, walking back into the elevator, the doors closing right behind him.
"Your people ever believed in magic, Garrus...I mean, your people do revere some Spirits," Shepard asked.
"Not for some time, why? You don't believe in that crap. This punk probably just has her psyched out."
"I don't know Garrus...from what we've seen. I'd believe anything at this point," She said, her back leaning the elevator, her pistol in hand.
"Anyone miss stairs? I remember those things…the things we all used to walk on…Seriously though, what is with Cerberus and elevators." Kasumi stated as the elevator started to move up a floor.
As the door to the moving room began to split open, Nihlus was already blaring with energy. He laid down several glyphs down the floor of the hall; a repulsion glyph closest to his person, several paralysis glyphs around the hall to halt the first ones to come out, one standing guard in front of the double doors. And finally a ward glyph was placed under him, its boons immediately activating around his person. The weapons these men and women were carrying were not to be trifled with. If anything, whoever was in this door was well armed, the ward should block the bolts for a time, long enough for him to kill them all before they had a chance to react. In a moment, he laid another repulsion glyph on one of the current glyphs. In his mind, this was a sure-fired plan. A sure surprise for the fools.
But instead, a surprise for him was waiting beyond those doors. At least five short stature creatures stood in front of a shadowy behemoth blackened by the distance between him and them. The creatures, to Nihlus, looked like they came from a Hurlock's worst nightmare. If anything they were to be darkspawn themselves, but with his own connection to the taint and the Fade he would of sensed them. He did not, so that thought was out of the question. The creatures all pulled out the strange sleek crossbows, ones that seemed heavier than the ones he had witnessed before. The eager creature, stepped forward, and Nihlus could only grin as the energy started to warp at the creature's first step.
As the creature's step finally hit the floor, the glyph dissipated as a green energy wrapped around the vermin's body. The rest of the creatures looked stunned for a second, their eyes unblinking not for a second. One of them, its weapon drawn, poked at the body, it being completely unresponsive. But its attention grew elsewhere. The vermin looked straight at Nihlus, but it was as if it was staring at something else, behind him as if. The young mage turned around at a sound, as if someone had hit a very hard object. It was Eisley, tripping over one of the busted large metal doors. She was probably trying to get away unseen, turns out tripping on a door and seeing vermin coming out the moving room obviously wasn't a part of her plan.
But Nihlus turned back towards the creatures, the curious one raising its weapon. It was as if time was slowing down as the other three were rapidly coming down the hall. The curious one started to unleash a hail of bolts at the mage and the good doctor, the rapid bolts hitting across Nihlus's ward. But the good doctor wasn't going to be so lucky if the ward either fell or the bolts went around the ward all together. As the vermin got closer, they continued to ignore what was right beneath them. One by one the creatures froze in place, but one of the vermin evaded the remainder of the glyphs, including the combo glyph, heading straight to the repulsion. The creature stepped onto its intricate design. Before the glyph's magic activated, the creature edged its claw onto the trigger of its weapon; a large spray of bolts shot out like lightning, a majority hitting the ward, immediately fracturing it. The ward faded away, so too its glyph. With no defenses left, the young warden was quickly running out of options.
But the glyph the creature was standing on, activated; the energy radiated from the center of the glyph, repulsing the creature back from Nihlus. But the blast blew back Nihlus as well. All about his strategy was to just merely to control their numbers, but it turned out that he focused too much on them, and not enough on himself.
The repulsion knocked the wind out of him, slamming him back into the side of the wall, landing on top of one of the broken doors on the floor. His head was throbbing, the air from his lungs completely knocked out. His disorientated mind was trying to make sense his current surroundings, his situation, and his predicament.
"Never will I try and find a fight again...just never," the warden thought to himself, struggling to get up, his muscles and bones, sore from the blow and the landing; a feeling that he hadn't felt since his arrival in these deep roads...If they were in the deep at all. He formed a small healing arc around him, to at least slow the pain.
But he couldn't take too much time for himself, he was sure that the creatures' stasis would end soon. Magic doesn't nor will ever last forever.
The healing arc halted, and he rose from the metal cold door, looking at the frozen creatures, and the shadowy behemoth behind him, it standing still behind all the vermin, like a hulking sentinel.
The mage patted the back of his head, to check himself before his renewed assault. Well at least I won't bleed out like an idiot, he thought to himself, squeezing his hand tight, a corona of energy building up around his fist, and himself again once more. He opened his hand, lightning arching between his fingers as he took several breaths. The energy in his hand increased with every breath, the lightning arcs increasing with ferocity. Nihlus looked at the vermin in the hallway, his vision fading a bit from the impact to his head. A few of the creatures had already exited the stasis they entered. The repulsed one was already trying to stand back up, holding itself up against the wall, its weapon in hand. The vermin hissed at Nihlus, its needle like teeth sneering at the young mage. It raised its weapon, firing a few unfocused shots at the mage. One of the bolts skinned across, ripping through the strange cloth the Cerberus Templars placed him in, and also breaking the skin. The sudden pain rushed up his leg, bringing him to one leg.
More of the vermin were exiting their stasis. Now was the time for action. Pain had to beyond his current thought. With a reach of his right arm, focusing on the nearest creature, the lightning exited from his hand, arching towards the nearest creature. The lighting burned into its skin, its bloodshot eyes, and even the weapon was shocked by the burst of electricity. Then the sparks grew a life of their own. The sparks reached for their next victim, doing the same to it as it did the last. As the lightning shot between each of the bodies, almost instantly the one behind the arc was already dead, seared and lifeless as it fell to the floor.
As the lightning finally subsided, the Warden spotted one survivor, it was seriously on its last leg. One of its eyes was virtually gone, whatever was left of it, if any at all, was the dust the lightning had burned off. Nihlus decided to put the creature out of its misery, getting up from his crouched position, the pain in his leg still burning slightly. He couldn't heal it at the moment, he needed the remainder of his energy to escape, and he was on his last vial of lyrium... Using that was not an option. Nihlus gathered a small ball of fire, flinging at the creature. When the ball impacted with the vermin's body, the fire engulfed the entire thing. The creature screamed violently, flailing as the fire devoured its horrible form. After a moment, the screams halted, the body slumping to the ground as the fire started to die down. Nihlus was anything but satisfied. In fact, he was damn tired already.
The exhausted mage slumped to his knees, not because of his leg wound, but because of the drain on his mana.
"You weak willed bastard...twenty seasons in the tower only strengthened your reserve. Needles filled with strange liquid and months of bed rest shouldn't put me down this far. I might need to...no...never. I'm better than that...I'm the bloody Warden I killed the Archdemon...Well...I sure hope I did!"
As he breathed in the stale air, low, loud and multiple thuds were heard. Nihlus raised his head from the sight of the metal floor, only to see a massive reptilian creature standing in front of the moving room. As the doors closed behind it, the creature snorted and a low growl emanated from its throat.
Maker, please tell me it doesn't breath fire…Nihlus thought, staring at the drake-like creature, his exhaustion slowly calming down. Even though his corona was still as bright as ever, his skin was starting to itch from the aura of magic; usually something like this would be over in a heartbeat. But with his previous place of stay, his thoughts and his body weren't really up to speed. This whole escape plan of his wasn't really the well-thought out plan in all of Thedas. "Maker, I feel like Loghain…"
The drake-like creature was clad in black thick armor with a blackened crest with pale scale. It moved its arms behind its back, reaching for something. The creature pulled large green looking monster of a weapon…much, much larger than the weapons the vermin were using. Nihlus analyzed the creature, at this point he was just guessing. Nothing was normal.
"Hmm, large weapon, large beast...I wonder if it has any relation to the Qunari. But than again, this lizard bastard doesn't look the religious type," the Warden thought to himself, bracing himself on his knee as he stood up. He looked at the beast, projecting a small aura of energy wisping around his person. It was an attempt to stare down the creature. Somehow in Nihlus' mind, that was an idiot move. The creature just grinned.
"I don't know what you or those things are," Nihlus said, trying to communicate with the beast, "but I don't think you know what you are dealing with. The large creature's jaw moved as if it was speaking, making out words that Nihlus couldn't make out. "Well...at least it got the message...wait. What in Maker's name?!" Nihlus was staring at one of the 'dead' vermin, well at least the Warden thought it was dead. The beast noticed the victim, walking up towards it and Nihlus. The beast stared at the vermin, raising the large weapon at the vermin's head, another grin coming to its scaly face. With a pull of the trigger, the weapon roared into action, the sound loud enough to make Nihlus' ears ring out. While holding his head, the young mage looked on at the weapon; it had sprayed a cone of bolts into the creatures head, and the wall behind it. The vermin's head imploded, the shots pulverizing its skull and brain. The vermin was virtually headless, only a splattered mess was sure to be all that was left behind. The creature turned towards the mage, raising his weapon towards him. The creature started to walk as it's fist slammed against the side of the weapon, a large heated objected falling out of the side.
"Shit!" the mage thought as it started to charge at Nihlus, with great haste, its black crest shining against the light of the hallway, the weapon again roaring into action and the heated pods ejecting as he fired, and the spray of bullets moving faster than anything the Warden had seen before. Nihlus was not going to get out alive if he was going to just stand here, so he "pushed" himself away. His aura intensified, the energy consuming his form until it couldn't be seen, instantly reappearing with his back against the frame of the destroyed door.
To the normal eye, a mage's "teleportation," was almost instantaneous, a short delay between travel. But a trained eye could see the energetic aura that the ability left behind. Magic only propelled the user, an increase in speed. Nothing more. It just so happened that the increase in speed was faster than the blink of an eye.
But as soon as the monstrous drake reached halfway from the moving room, the wall of bolts slamming against his cover. If he was to attempt to strike, even during the delay between the blast, it wouldn't be long enough to take this out without a distraction. But suddenly, the Maker finally smiled upon him, as he remembered that one glyph was still active. The creature ran straight into the glyph, the combo glyph, and the energy pushed the large creature back into the hallway, its back sliding against the cold hard metal floor. Nihlus looked back past the door frame, examining his work. But alas, the reptile was still concious; lying among its obvious dead allies, it starting springing up, trying to roll onto its side like an upside-down turtle. Thankfully, a green aura appeared around the creature, and it became very still, as the stasis took it over, just a moment away from its weapon.
Nihlus took a breath as the creature stood still, letting his aura die down slightly. He finally exited from his hidden position, chuckling to himself;
"By the Old-Gods! I've fought demons, dragons, darkspawn, and every single race in Thedas. But you! You….thing! This will be the only moment that I take this chance…to run away!" The mage's fingers pointing towards the broken opening into the procedure room. And soon fled the scene into the room; but at the last moment before fully going into the room, he scanned the hallway again for Dr. Eisley. Satisfied that she got away, he moved back into the procedure room, before the creature regained movement.
"I mean, I've fought a broodmother, and that thing made the broodmother look like the Divine...Great I'm talking to myself and a frozen lizard who probably can't even make out what I'm saying. Well, no point going back near that thing."
Nihlus looked up at the massive glass panels of the observatory room, saying to himself, "Well that will do." Arching his arm, he threw a small telekinetic blast at the glass, instantaneously shattering the glass. As the shards fell, the mage raised a weak shield, before the shards of deadly glass fell onto him. With that settled, Nihlus increased his concentration; bringing whatever was movable off the ground with a wave of his hand. From the medical trays to the devices, and even the chair he was strapped into; all were now floating midair, in the shape of a stair case. With a limp, Nihlus took extremely careful steps on the makeshift staircase. If he was to lose his concentration just once, well, it would be a very short escape.
As he finally stepped into the observation deck, he noticed that it was completely empty. All the chairs and the desks empty as if everyone was just turned into nothing. It was like being in the Fade almost. Even Finnegan, the bastard that Nihlus wanted to strangle personally seemed to make it out before his hands could reach him.
"If only, that bastard knew what I could really do. Heh. If anyone knew what I could really do...Well, I would be executed...Need to stop talking to myself."
But still, it was no time to linger. Heading towards the door, his head snapped back as he heard the creature bellowing from below. A shot was heard, more thunderous than the rest he had witnessed. As if by instinct, the young mage immediately dropped to the floor, yelling at himself, "Shit! Why didn't that last longer?!" The shot had pierced one of the terminals, its electricity immediately sparking from the impact of the blast. What glass remained from Nihlus' attack was surely just shattered beyond all recognition from the reptile's weapon. The creature bellowed again, before it stomped out of the room, clearly annoyed by his clever prey.
The young mage rose up after a few good minutes, breathing frantically. It wasn't a usual thing for him to be frightened, but that lizard sure had caught him by surprise. Despite a need to regenerate his mana, his leg wound, and possibly a concussion, he was fine for the moment. He had to get moving; he needed to find a way out of this maker-forsaken hellhole they call a hospice. He looked out the shattered window, in hopes of not seeing his newest enemy, staying in the shadows like a cunning rogue. But there was no massive creature, only but another figure. From what Nihlus saw, trying to keep his breathing low, it was but one of those bird creatures again.
"Great, this scenario again…by this rate I should declare myself insane," he thought to himself as the bird like humanoid moved down the hall towards the moving room. "Wait...oh shit!" He shouted as he limped towards the exit. But as soon as he reached it, the young mage was yet again face to face with the massive creature, its eyes staring directly at Nihlus and its weapon pointed at his chest. A low sound was emanating from the gaping mouth, which sounded more like a demented laugh than anything else.
"Well…at least one of us is having fun," holding his arms up in a "surrendering" position.
The doors to the elevator opened, and Shepard quickly exited with her pistol in hand, quickly running towards the first door. Her omni-tool lit up, and the schematics of the building came up. Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed, Garrus with his Vindicator, and Kasumi with her Shuriken drawn to the ready. Shepard's omni-tool was synced up with her mask's heads-up-display, a small display showing her the level that she and her team were on.
"Okay Observation room's right past this door, hopefully we didn't miss the subject." Garrus and Kasumi both yet to the opposite sides of the door, leaning against the wall as they prepared to breach the room. "Alright, Kasumi, lets get this hunk of junk open," she said.
"Got it, Shep."Kasumi replied.
Kasumi pressed her omni-tool against the holographic panel of the door, it immediately separating into pieces, and shifting the pieces into its frame. Shepard entered first, her pistol ready to fire, and her omni-tool deactivating the layout of the building level. As soon as she entered a bright ball flew past her head, impacting into the wall next to her. As it did, Shepard could immediately feel the heat come off the tiny projectile, as it exploded into a burst of flame. Ducking to avoid the small blast, she saw a non-describable figure hop over a large terminal, hiding immediately behind it. As the burst of flame died down, she rose up, her pistol aimed a the terminal but then a large blast tore through a large chunk of it. Celest could see a black-clad krogan, with a laymore no less and the multiple spent thermal clips on the ground, a few near her and the door, and even surrounding the krogan who was still firing his shotgun at the figure behind the terminal. Upon hearing the first shot, they heard, Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed Celest in the room, immediately taking cover behind the terminals on both sides of the commander. Shepard stood alone in plain view, with the krogan still blasting and roaring at whatever he was focused on.
Taking aim with her Phalanx, she fired at the large krogan, the shot reflecting of his shields. The shot than impacted a terminal, short-circuiting the advanced machinery. A VI's voice was heard, exclaiming,
"Alert! All procedure rooms' dividers are disengaging! Please, all personal halt all operations and experiments until dividers can be repaired."
The walls of all six of the procedure rooms, all that were fashioned in the hexagonal shape just like the observation room the observation room, started to shift and proceed into the bottom and top of the floor. The oblivious VI forgot to mention that there were no personal to begin with in the rooms at the moment. Either there were no procedures scheduled that day...or the had already been moved out of the building.
The krogan, despite hearing the same voice, still shot at his prey's hiding place, clearly not caring if his shot had caused it or not. Shepard however, wasn't waiting all day. Her biotics flared, reaching back with her right arm, flinging a ball of biotic energy at the krogan. The energy impacted the krogan; it staggered forward, losing its grip on its shotgun as it tripped over itself. The krogan halted its own fall, but the shotgun fell out of its grip, flailing off the observation deck, out one of the broken windows to the right side, and then finally falling down to the procedure room. The krogan turned around, recovering from Shepard's throw, immediately roaring at the woman.
"For a Bloodpack enforcer, you aren't very smart!" Shepard retaliated, aiming for the overgrown lizard's head. "Did you really think charging into a Cerberus base was going to be easy?"
"Hah! You know nothing. Cerberus is nothing but a bunch of cheap shots and human weaklings. Just like you Shepard. "
"You know who I am?"
"All krogan know you, Shepard," the krogan said, his shotgun still aimed for Celest's torso. "And I want your head as well, because of you, I'm out of a job. So I'm going to take your life...slowly."
"Well, that's not going to happen, especially wasting ammo like you did. Besides, this is starting to seem like a petty grudge, a 'lure Shepard into a trap and try and not get my ass handed to me, plan.'" Shepard said.
"So much arrogance. I thought you would have a better plan than that dinky thing in your hands…and coming alone...hah! A fool."
"Trust me, I'm never alone Fallik…I have my friend Dinky right here." She motioned her hands in the air, indicating her Phalanx pistol. "Plus, I don't see a weapon in your hands, and I got mine."
"Hahaha!" Fallik laughed out, "a mere technicality. You and I know both know...krogan are more than a match for one human commando."
"Pretty arrogant, considering you're looking at the barrel of a gun belonging to the first human SPECTRE!" Shepard snapped back, her finger itching towards the trigger of her pistol.
"Well, at least both of us believe this beast is an idiot." An unknown voice. Shepard raised her brow in response trying to make sense where the voice was coming from. The krogan's eyes widened, turning as fast as a krogan could to face the voice, the voice he was hunting…"the voice he took his mind off of!"
As the krogan turned, Shepard could already see he was distracted, keeping her aim on the krogan's back again, hoping that his shields would be taken down with a couple rounds so that the farce of a krogan would finally shut up. But a figure popped out from behind the terminal, wearing simple clothing marked with the Cerberus symbol, and a makeshift patch with a griffon on it. The man stood only below six feet. He looked leaned, probably from the lack of an actual meal. Blackened hair, with greyish blue eyes, and a small tattoo above the eye. She waived off the image and tried to keep focus on the krogan, but what if he was a threat? But shortly what she saw was shocking, no pun intended. The man's body was simply engulfed by an aura of energy, the man reached his arm out...There was no omni-tool, no device...it simply came from his arm.
Electricity flowed into the krogan, visible electricity, like lightning from an unknown storm. The krogan roared in pain as the lighting overloaded his shields, and started to singe his scales and armor. The lightning subsided, the krogan still standing, his head slumping over as it was trying to Shepard had backed off a few feet, along with Garrus and Kasumi coming out of their cover, seeing the sight before them.
Nihlus was just stared at the large lizard as his attack singed the scales of the aggressor…the womanly but soldier like voice that called it a "bloodpack enforcer." A beast was a mercenary obviously to Nihus. But the woman was a mystery. "Shit, if I had to guess, and I rarely do, she was a golem…That voice is so life-like. Such strange people," the mage thought. He saw another human pop out from behind the large objects, along with one the bird like creatures. The Warden halted his strike for a moment, letting the sound of the lightning to subside. He looked at the group beyond the lizard, staring at them, trying to size them up.
"Well, I don't like this...last time I fried a bird I got knocked on the head...and winded up in this hellhole," Nihlus thought to himself. He walked around the terminal, coming around towards the left side of the krogan. "So...you guys, look well. Armed. But at the moment, I'm pissed," he said as his magic flared up again. "So I suggest moving aside...and to stay away from me."
The krogan threw himself at the mage, and the mage responded by casting out his arm towards the creature. The warden threw a telekinetic blast at the lizard before it could reach him. The push impacted the the krogan's skull, literally throwing it aside, off the observation deck, and onto the now much more open procedure room. The blast not only took the beast, but it ripped several of the terminals out of their placement in the flooring, but the blast also pushed Shepard back as well. The typhoon of energy pushed against her body, tossing her against door. Garrus locked his sights on the man, and Kasumi rushed towards her helping her up. Shepard had been knocked on her ass before, but this was something primeval. She shrugged it off, keeping her mind focused on the subject. She got back up, aiming her pistol at the kid.
Nihlus looked on at the woman, saying;
"Told you to move..." He raised his right hand towards his forehead, "saluting" and waving off the armored woman, limping off towards the shattered glass of the window.
"Wait, hold it!" Shepard shouted.
But the warden ignored the woman, and leaped off the observation room floor, his corona of energy spiking. He released a burst of energy around his person to lighten himself. An ability he saw an escaping mage use once, right into that freezing hole of a lake. "Well, at least he wasn't kidding when he said it worked." The mage landed on the ground after a moment of gliding down, his injured leg was the first to land on. The mage grunted in pain, but after a quick minute, looked at the krogan.
"Now, look who's laughing now?" the mage said, chuckling to himself.
Shepard rushed over to the edge of the room, peering down into the room,"Garrus! Switch Weapons!" She yelled out.
"Spirits Shepard!" Garrus yelled out as he put his Vindicator on his mag-lock, taking out his Mantis rifle.
"Don't 'Spirits' me Garrus! Take a position, Kasumi you too!"
"Well I'm impressed." Kasumi said nonchalantly.
"Yeah, well. me too I guess," Celest said as she holstered her pistol, setting herself over the edge, trying to get herself down. "Garrus, if anything gets hinky, take a shot."
"Shoot to kill?" Garrus asked. His aim focused on the mage's person.
"Depends..." Shepard pushed herself off the edge of the observation deck, landing hard on the floor of the procedure room.
The lizard had gotten up from the throw Nihlus gave him, immediately charging for young warden. Nihlus swiftly dodged the rampaging beast. But the beast turned around, his mouth moving but the language was entirely unheard of. Nihlus was standing in the middle of the same procedure room he was being tested on, the same two bodies of White and Black still rotting away in their own pool of blood. Nihlus was contemplated using it to his advantage…more than likely this beast hasn't seen what blood magic could do…But he was a better mage than that…better than most. He wasn't going to give into the temptation. But as he thought to himself, Shepard was already on the floor, joining the spray. She saw the krogan charging right towards her as she looked up from her fall.
"Tough bastard," she thought, rolling away from the beast and quickly lifting herself up from her prone position. She immediately pulled out her Phalanx, aiming at the Krogan. Fallik had stopped at the other side of the procedure rooms, turning around and face the two humans. The human prey was breathing heavily, obviously starting to tire out. But Shepard was still standing, her pistol aimed right at him.
Nihlus was quiet for the moment, but the woman had moved herself between the best and himself, and it made Nihlus wonder.
"What in the? Is she...defending me?"
Standing between the two titans, Shepard glanced back at the man, her pistol still pointed at the krogan.
"Subject Icarus?" the woman asked.
Nihlus looked down at the floor for a moment, "Its a title...nothing more. A title involuntarily bestowed upon me. But for now...Yes," the mage said quietly, his aura still flaring up.
"Okay, I need to know one thing."
"Speak."
"Can you get that shotgun?"
"The what?"
Shepard looked past the mage, looking at the krogan's claymore, motioning her head towards it. She looked back at Fallik, noticing that he too spotted his shotgun on their side of the room. "Yeah, not your lucky day."
"This...shotgun...is beyond my skills," Nihlus said, looking ever so confused.
"Fine." Shepard pulled the trigger of her pistol, five times before she stopped. It took three to pierce the krogan's newly reformed shields, but another two to finally put the beast down. Despite that, the krogan was inching its way towards the two while Shepard fired at him. The delay in the Phalanx's firing was becoming a nuisance.
Nihlus was still looking at the "shotgun." "What in the Maker's name is this...'shotgun?'" Nihlus looked at it carefully, analyzing it, not paying attention to the woman and the lizard. But when the woman pulled the trigger of her weapon...something clicked in Nihlus' mind. The air around him felt cold. Whispers started to form within his ears. He walked towards the weapon, totally ignoring the scene between the woman and the beast. The coagulated blood of Black and White, started to move bubbling as if it was boiling. It was if the blood had just been freshly spilled now, despite it being such a time since it was dropped.
"Well well well," a voiced whispered in the warden's mind. "Its been so long since I've seen something like this...It seems you are in need of my assistance once more. But then again...since when do you never need my assistance." Nihlus' body wasn't his own now. His vision was starting to cloud, the tendrils of darkness closing around him.
"What are...you?" his mind continued to say.
"An invited guest. Now. Stop resisting. She'll be dead soon."
"Wait!" he screamed in his mind. His corona brightened up, as his hand grabbed the rather large weapon.
Shepard, amazed and not amazed at the same time, looked at the easily fallen krogan. She approached the krogan's body, kicking its arm to get a response. There was none.
"Well, that was easy...like I said." Shepard gloated, turning around with her pistol still in hand. "Whoa! Put it down!" She stared at the man, who was now aiming the Claymore directly at Shepard. The man stood silent, as his trigger finger itched towards the trigger of the colossal shotgun. "You'll break your arm like that! Put the shotgun down," Celest yelled out, but with no response. She raised her own weapon in defense. It was possible her shields could hold up against the Claymore's blast. But it was also likely that they couldn't. She stared at the biotic, looking directly into his eyes with hers. His were strange though, different from before. Almost as if they were glassed over. The dead stare continued to look back at her, both their biotics were prepared. But every stare down has to end, and the man's eyes returned to normal, the same greyish blue solemn eyes reforming, looking down at the large weapon.
"By the Old Gods… what in the Maker's name happened?" the mage said. He lowered the weapon for a second, looking at it, confused as a rampaging drunken Oghren. But there was nothing to be said after that moment. A bang rang out, echoing throughout the entire room, if not the entire building. He said nothing after, as he fell down from the impact of whatever hit him. His hand released the weapon, as it now flew from his body.
As he looked up, he could see the blinding lights of the room again, he could see the bird creature, and another human trying to get down from the observation room. He turned his head slightly, only to see the woman putting away her weapon, grabbing the larger weapon, both of them immediately shifting and folding into a smaller forms; the soldier placed both of them on her armor, the smaller on sticking to the side of her leg, and the 'shotgun' to the base of her spine. The Soldier looked at him directly through her mask.
His vision started to blur, as the blood loss continued uninterrupted. The bird kneeled down, the barrel of his weapon in his hand, standing tall next to him. An orange light shined over its arm, waving over his body. Pictures and moving objects formed above the light.
His vision turned black, his pulse slowed as the blood seeped from the wound.
(A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the lateness of the chapter! I'm back at school and it will take some time to write this without trying to rush. But yea there's the true meeting between Shepard and Nihlus! Hope these two don't end up killing each other! I've already begun work on the next chapter. NO, this is not the end. Just look at my profile, there's obviously more to go. Thank for the follows, the favorites, and the reviews so far. Remember, reviews are always welcome, as I am trying to improve, especially in my combat scenarios.
NOTE: The chapter has been edited for clarity and lengthening. I was disappointed with this chapter, even if it was my second draft. So I edited it, mostly because the scene between Shepard and Nihlus was well. Crap. A two year old could do better. So now it has been made more detailed. I hope you guys approve.)