The Normandy was quiet, for the first time since Feral had arrived there. The only noise present in the ship was the low humming of its engines. Shepard had called for the crew to turn in; a small skeleton crew remained in the CIC on the off chance anything happened. Joker was asleep in his seat, most 'nights' he couldn't be bothered to move. His chair was comfy enough and a broken leg didn't really help him fall asleep.
Kaidan, Ashley, and Garrus were in their own sleeper pods. Liara usually slept at her desk in her office. Chakwas had let Wrex sleep in the med bay, seeing as the surgical beds were the only things in the Normandy comfy enough for him to sleep on. After Tali had told Shepard about feeling homesick due to the quiet, he had arranged for her to have a small portable cot in the engine room, the noise of the engine had helped the Quarian sleep.
Feral had refused a sleeper pod, only telling Shepard the real reason for his hesitation. Where else would Cerberus let him sleep? It kept him contained. Shepard offered him the same sleeping arrangement as Tali and the human quickly agreed.
So there he was, sleeping with his face down into the pillow he had stolen from Shepard's room while the commander was talking to Liara. He was going to tell the commander but he figured it could wait. Shepard's bed had more than enough anyway and he needed all the help he could get to block out his night vision, even when he closed his eyes he could see light as if it was the middle of the day.
He could hear Tali shifting in her sleep; the quarian had shut off her auditory unit. According to her she had a tendency to sleep talk. Feral smiled into the soft pillow as he concentrated on his hearing, and hidden within the humming of the engine he could hear her mumbling non-distinctly but he couldn't make anything out. Opening an eye briefly to break his concentration, letting the noise of the room fade back to its normal level.
He reached one hand under his pillow, placing his fingertips gently on top of his combat knife. He knew it was stupid, put he had slept in fear for years. On occasion he would fall asleep and wake up strapped to a table, a man holding a knife over him before they started their tests. Now he had the knife….and it made him feel safe. He closed his eyes again, pushing his head into the pillow and letting him succumb to his fatigue. 4 years of captivity, his break out and the mission on Noveria had taken its toll on him. Finally he could rest.
Hours passed, the only noise on the entire ship was the sound of the skeleton crew in the CIC. Most of the ships lights were dimmed to simulate night for the sleeping crew. Tali was sleeping peacefully. She still wasn't used to the quiet, but the humming of the engine gave the peace of mind that allowed her to sleep.
Quarian sleeping patterns were very similar to humans, and in one of those moments where you turn in your sleep; barely aware to the world around you as you stir. She heard something that made her jolt up in her cot. She thought it had been the engine but the Tantalus drive core was still going strong, the noise had stopped and she was about to lay back down before she head it again.
It was Feral; he was panting and whimpering into his pillow. His body tensed up in the foetal position and she could see one of his hands, his knuckles were turning white from the grip he had on his pillow. He was having a nightmare, and from the way the man was shaking she knew it was like nothing she could ever experience. She slowly pushed herself off the cot and walked across the room, their cots were on opposite sides of the room, pushed against the sides so they took up as little space as possible. She was making her way across the engine room, nothing but the blue light illuminating her path.
The humming of equipment was constant inside the room, its sterile white tiles reflecting the light of the large surgical spotlights. Feral was screaming, crying out in agony as he tugged at his bonds. Every ounce of his strength trying to break the restraints around his wrists and ankles. It was pointless, after 18 months Cerberus had gotten wise to his escape attempts and by this point, nothing he did tried would surprise them. After his last attempt at breaking loose they took no chances. Feral had forced his hands out from his shackles and ripped almost all of the skin of his hands, it had quickly grown back but the pain had stopped him from getting through the doors before he was captured again.
"Now now subject-0515, the more you struggle. The longer this will take" the scientist chuckled as his scalpel went back down. "Experiment number 25; we will be removing part of the subject's liver. This is a further test from out previous experiments into organ regrowth."
The scientist's words were drowned out by the sound of Feral screaming in agony, every muscle in his body was tensing up and begging for it to end. He had no idea how long it actually lasted for, he never did. He seemed to last forever and when it finally ended he just collapsed back onto the table. Panting raggedly, his voice hoarse from crying out as he laid back. The brief interlude was the only thing that kept him going, the pain slowly subsiding as he felt the large incision in his side closing up. The fibres of his muscles and skin weaving back together.
"Fascinating, subject shows total organ repair in a matter of minutes" the scientist said
"Good" Feral recognised this voice, it was always there but he never knew where it came from; nor who it belonged to "That's all for today doctor, let Mr Lloyd get some rest. We don't know how far this regeneration factor will let us go yet and we can't have the only survivor of the procedure die now"
"Yes sir, sedate him and take him back to his holding cell" the scientist said as he walked off. Feral groaned as he felt the needle enter his neck before everything faded into darkness.
Feral was laying on the floor of his holding cell, face down into the hard steel. He was barely conscious, the experiments…the pain. It took everything out of him and he knew it would only start again tomorrow. Suddenly he felt a hand at his shoulder, shaking his body.
"Wake up" the voice said, Feral laid there for a second before he realised he had a chance. He could take this figure, fight through the agony his body was in. He had a chance to escape and he'd take it.
"Come on wake up" the hand pushed at his shoulder again and this time Feral took his chance. He pounced up, grabbing the knife from the soldier's side and tackling him to the ground. One hand gripping tightly at his neck. Snarling loudly as he started to bring the knife down into the Cerberus dog's chest.
But he didn't, something had stopped him. The soldier's eyes were darting around in his skull, never fully looking away from him but that wasn't what bothered him. The eyes were luminescent, bright white orbs.
"F-feral….I can't breathe" the man's voice choked out, but it was synthesised. Feral was still snarling at him, it was a trick. Something to get him to let down his guard. That was when he noticed a bright blue light in front of him. The holding cell dissolved around him, he was in the Normandy's engine room. He eyes where darting around the room before he looked back down, just as the room had changed. The soldier shifted in his mind…..to the one person he never wanted to hurt. Tali.
Feral's snarl turned to shock, he jumped away from the woman; who began to cough when he let go of her slender neck. He crawled back away from her, looking at his left hand. He was holding his combat knife, the knife he'd grabbed from the soldier in his dream. It had been the knife under his pillow. He dropped it in horror, he could've killed her.
Tali was coughing, trying to get air back into her lungs after Feral had leapt off her. She was slowly pushing herself up onto her knees before she looked up at the man. The look of fury that had been in his eyes seconds ago was replaced by sheer panic; his eyes were darting all over the room as he sat slumped against the wall. He was shaking, visibly shaking. The knife that had been ready to plunge into her was lying on the floor next to him.
Tali slowly picked herself up, looking over at Feral. She should've been angry, she should've shouted at him. But Feral clearly didn't know what he had been doing; the realisation of what he'd done had pushed one of the bravest people she knew into a state of terror. She rushed over to him, putting a hand onto his neck and trying to get him to look at her.
"Feral its ok. You don't have to worry I'm fine "She said loudly, trying to get the man to look back at her. Feral looked up at her, his eyes still darting around hers. He refused to look into her eyes until "Look at me!" the force of her tone made him bolt straight, he'd never heard her shout like that. His eyes looked straight into hers.
"T-Tali" his voice was shaking "I'm so sorry I didn't mean t-to" he was suddenly silenced by Tali shushing him and pressing a finger to his lips.
"It's ok, you were having a nightmare. You didn't know it was me and the moment you did, you stopped." Tali stated, she needed him to realise the facts. The sooner he did, the sooner his panic would subside. "I'm fine really, see?" She gestured to herself, stepping back a little so Feral could see her. She smiled slightly when she saw him quickly look up and down her, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again they had stopped vibrating wildly in all directions, he was breathing normally again and his hand's had stopped shaking.
"Come on, if you want to tell me what happened you can tell me over there" Tali said gently, taking Feral's hand and pulling him up onto his feet. Feral sighed and nodded, he couldn't get out of it this time. Tali deserved an explanation and 'Bad stuff happened to me and made me crazy' wasn't going to cut it.
The two stepped over to Feral's cot, sitting down on the soft fabric. Feral sat with his hands between his legs. He was looking down at the ground collecting his thoughts.
"You don't have to tell me what happened you know" Feral looked up at her at that; he could see the look of worry through her visor.
"No, it's ok. I promised to come to you if I needed to talk and…after….what I did" Feral stopped looking down again. Tali just took his hand and squeezed it gently. Feral looked back up at her, she was letting him know that she really was ok. "After that, it's probably best I talk about it…so…here it is."
Feral told her everything, he left out everything before he'd captured. But he told her everything. The experiments he'd undergone, the genetic reconditioning, the metal weaved onto his skeleton and inside some of his bones, and the experiments. The torture he'd endured while the scientists confirmed the degree of his regenerative abilities and the things he had to do just to stay alive. The scientists had made him fight against all manner of creatures using all manner of weapons.
Tali sat in silent horror as he told her everything; she was looking down at the ground. Just attempting to process everything was giving her a headache.
When she'd arrived at the citadel she'd been shot, Dr Michel had done a small procedure to take out the bullet and then close her up. She knew what it felt like to be shot and cut into but…..the magnitude of Feral's experiences made that pain seem infinitely smaller. She couldn't even imagine that kind of pain, let alone coming out of it alive. To most people death would have been their saving grace; an end to the pain but Feral didn't even have that. Just days and days of being cut open, shot, stabbed, beaten and broken to the brink of death. Only for it all to happen again the very next day.
Feral started talking again, this time it was about Noveria. His outburst in the Rachni Queen's chamber, what he had heard underneath the puppet's voice. Tali understood instantly why Feral had been so quiet, why he'd been so angry at everyone discussing why or why not the Queen deserved to live. They had all missed it; the queen was a mother begging for her children to be killed. Begging for a second chance at life. Feral knew the feeling more than anyone, praying for death but when the opportunity to live showed up, he had taken it without a second thought.
Then Feral told her about his dream, what he had seen and felt. All the pain rushing back as he slept and then when he saw an opportunity to escape, even if it was just from his own dream. He'd attacked it ferociously.
"There it is…that's everything I can think of right now." His story was finally over and it felt good, even his super human strength couldn't lift off the weight of his past. Getting it off his chest felt good, he just felt bad for Tali. Looking over at her, he could see that she was having trouble with everything. He put a hand onto her forearm. "Are you ok?" he asked, worried that he'd told her too much.
She bolted back, looking straight at him. He could see her eyes were contorted into a confused look. "Am I ok?...Keelah how can you even ask that? After everything that happened to you…." She looked back down at the floor "I should be the one asking you that…."
Feral smiled at that, it was true but even so he was worried about the small woman. He'd had time to come to term with all of the things that happened to him, years with just your thoughts as company would do that. He clearly had unresolved issues but talking about it was helping, first Shepard and now Tali. "I'm fine Tali really…thank you for listening. It helped a lot" he smiled across at her "but seriously, are you ok? I told you a lot of…really…messed up stuff and that's after I attacked you"
Tali just sighed; she couldn't help but smile at Feral's comment. His eyes were filled with kindness yet again, even with their fiery red colour. "Yes, I'll be ok. It's a little sore but I'll be ok" she rubbed her neck gently "but maybe you shouldn't sleep with a knife under your pillow for a while"
"Says the girl with a knife in her boot" Feral smiled back at her, the pair sharing a small laugh together as they sat on the fold out bed. "You're right though, no more weapons under the pillow." Feral looked over at the knife, lying on the ground. Inwardly sighing, he could've killed Tali….he swore not to let Cerberus create a monster but the truth was they had.
Tali saw where he was looking and the look in his eyes. "You're not a monster Feral" Feral just looked over at her, surprised as she had apparently read his mind. "You're capable of a lot but if you a monster you wouldn't have been so scared by what you had done. You wouldn't have asked me if I was ok after everything you've been through. A monster wouldn't care and a monster definitely wouldn't have defended someone he barely knew so publicly" Tali finally finished, letting Feral think about what she had said. "Get some sleep Feral, I'll just be over there if you need anything" Tali stood up and started to walk off back towards her cot.
"Tali wait" Feral said behind her, Tali turned around only to find herself being pulled into the man's arms. She just stood there for a while as Feral hugged her, wrapping her arms back around him gently before he finally leant back and squeezed her shoulders.
"Thank you Tali" he smiled gently at her before turning around and getting back into his cot.
The small quarian just stood in the blue light of the engine, blushing inside her helmet. It was just a hug between friends but its importance was overwhelming. Before too long she just walked back to her cot, and got into back into bed. The warmth of Feral's arms lingering on her mind as she fell back to sleep. On the other side of the room Feral was fast asleep, after getting his nightmares of his chest. He slept peacefully for the first time in years.
- 8 hours later, Armstrong Nebula –
Admiral Hackett had given Commander Shepard news of Geth outposts throughout the Skyllian Verge. For the last 4 hours the Normandy had been bouncing from cluster to cluster, taking out the outposts systematically. Currently the squad was engaged in combat with the Geth. The last outpost was on Rayingri, where the Geth had taken over a research outpost. Deep underground Shepard and his team were being attacked by husks and several Geth platforms, including snipers and a few destroyers.
The team was making short work of the Geth platforms, and the husks had quickly been wiped out by Tali's shotgun and Feral's fists. Once they got close enough he had grabbed them and thrown them into the walls of the cavern, twisting their heads almost cleanly off or just punching at them until it stopped moving. The fire fight was over and they were slowly moving through the cavern, a final sweep to make sure everything was finished off. Feral's fists had synthetic blood on them and his armour had a light spattering of the white liquid. As he slid over a crate he felt a geth platform grab at his leg, he looked down and saw the machine. It had no legs and was barely functioning, clearly the victim of one of the many grenades the team had thrown into the large crowd. He swiftly brought his other boot down onto its head, crushing its central processor and putting an end to yet another geth platform. Scraping his boot against the side of a rock before catching up with the rest of the squad.
The facility had another door and one last level, Shepard signalled for Feral to move to the door. Feral nodded and quickly jogged up, pressing his head into the metal and closing his eyes. Listening for any sort of activity on the other side of the door. After a few seconds he stepped back and walked up to the commander.
"Sounds like husks on the either side, lots of them" Feral said as he stood next to the commander. Shepard nodded and signalled over to Garrus, Ash and Tali to line up next to him. They all stood in front of the door, pointing their weapons up. "Ok Feral, we're ready for them. I want you to open the door and get back out of the way" Feral just nodded in response, quickly making his way back up to the door.
He stood up and readied his hand over the switch, looking back briefly just to make sure they were all ready.
"Don't worry Feral, if any of them kill you we'll make sure they don't kill you too badly." Garrus said when the human looked back. Earning a fake, silent laugh from the soldier. Feral noticed that both Tali and Shepard glared slightly at Garrus before turning back to the door.
Feral hovered his right hand over the door, holding up his right hand and putting 3 fingers into the air. Slowly he took one finger down, counting the team down. 3….2…..1….
Feral slammed his hand into the door switch and before he'd had time to move out of the way, the horde of husks had grabbed him and thrown him down the shaft. The surprise and magnitude of the force had surprised them all, Feral hadn't had time to react and found himself rolling head over heels down the tunnel.
Feral could hear the eruption of gun fire from his squad as he landed in the pool of water at the bottom of the shaft. He'd barely had time to react as a husk leapt forward but luckily he had his knife back in place on his chest, pulling it out and slamming it into the side of the husks head. Sending it flying off to the side before a second one jumped from behind, this time he couldn't react, and fell straight back into the water.
The husks clawed at his armour, getting lucky once and swiping three of his knife like nails along his face. Feral snarled in pain, grabbing the husk by the neck and throwing him off into the wall. Quickly leaping to his feet, he saw another husk coming his way using the forward momentum of getting back up he brought his right fist straight into the husks head. The synthetic monstrosity's head exploding at the force of the impact before Feral unclipped his pistol, finishing off the husk he had thrown to the side. When the husk finally went down, the cave was filled with silence again.
Feral stood at the bottom of the shaft, looking around to make sure that was it. His night vision piercing through the low light, all that was left were the Dragon's Teeth. He shouted "Clear" up the tunnel before he slowly made his way back up. Rubbing his face as the cuts finished closing up, he could taste a small amount of blood on his lips. The cuts had been pretty deep but nothing he couldn't take. He was more pissed off about the water, he was soaking wet but luckily it had cleaned all off the synthetic blood from earlier. The smell had really started to annoy him.
He finally stepped out over the top of the tunnel and saw the aftermath of what had happened. The bodies of the husks were piled up at the mouth of the door, he silently thanked god that there were only 3 that came after him. Shepard was talking to Tali, they both had their omni-tools glowing. Feral jumped over the mound of bodies.
"Nice of you to join us again, have fun swimming?" Garrus chuckled, the sight of the soggy super soldier was pretty amusing and even Ashley couldn't help crack a smile at that.
"Ha ha laugh it up turian, you weren't the one to get thrown down a tube and have your face scratched open by a robotic zombie" Feral growled back at Garrus, he wasn't really annoyed at him, but the water running down his back was cold.
"So….missile to the face is still up for discussion but husk to the face is confirmed" the turian purred. That comment made Feral laugh.
"So what's going on?" Feral finally asked "Why are we still here?"
"Other than waiting for you to drag yourself out of that hole." Ash piped up, grinning playfully at Feral "We figured something out." Feral just raised his eyebrow at that, waiting for the gunnery chief to tell him this revelation.
"None of the bases we hit have been the base of operation, they've all been outposts. So Tali and Shepard are scanning for anything that could point us towards the final base"
No sooner than Ash had finished her sentence, Shepard looked back at the group and called for them to head out to the Mako. They had found a signal to follow and the Normandy was coming to pick them up. The squad quickly started to file out of the cave. Tali waited for Feral before they both walked out together.
"You ok?" Tali asked Feral, pointing to the blood on his face
"Yh, a husk just tried to give me a shave that's all" Feral smiled back the young woman, they had chatted briefly in the morning but this was the first chance they had gotten to really talk again.
Tali giggled "Well…at least you got a bath. All that synthetic blood was making you smell even worse than usual" she drew out her words slightly, letting the synthesiser vibrate the sounds she made.
Feral just laughed and stuck his tongue out at Tali, the pair just laughing and talking to each other as they made their way back to the Normandy. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Shepard, inwardly smiling as the friends clambered back into the Mako. He was glad to see Feral was quickly making friends amongst the squad; he had quickly fitted in with the two dextro-amino aliens.
- Solcrum, the moon of Notanban. Grissom System –
The Mako drop had been fun, clinging on for dear life as Shepard dodged Geth rocket troopers and a few Colossi was proving to be a very bouncy ride. Luckily for them Shepard hadn't rammed into any of the giant geth war machines; Ash was starting to prove very handy with the turret and had taken them out without too much trouble. The mako pulled to a halt in front of the Geth base, the squad grabbing their equipment as they jumped out onto the moon.
Feral had managed to convince the requisitions officer to get him a recon hood, he hated the helmets and the hood was easily storable in one of his pockets. The squad quickly moved across the moon's surface and into the main entrance of the base. Feral pulled off his recon hood, stuffing it into one of the pockets on his thigh. Garrus pulled off his helmet as well, putting it down on a crate by the entrance. He hated the thing as well, preferring his visor over the constricting headwear.
Shepard quickly pulled up his combat optics, the Geth were jamming his radar and he signalled towards Feral. Feral quickly worked to override the signal, using a software loop hole to cancel it out. The Geth would figure it out eventually but it gave them time to plan ahead. Shepard could see movement on his radar, plenty of movement. They were in for a fight. Feral and Tali prepared overloads, ready to unleash them on the first Geth platforms they saw so Garrus, Ash and Shepard could quickly destroy the effected units.
This time it was Garrus at the door, his hand hovering over the switch with his sniper rifle in his right hand. Looking at Shepard as he waited for the go command.
"Careful Garrus, if you're unlucky maybe I'll get to see if you can take a husk to the face" Feral smirked at the turian who just rolled his eyes at the super soldier. Garrus was smiling to himself, he had deserved that.
Shepard snorted before holding up his right hand and counting down from three using his fingers, grabbing the pistol grip on his rifle again as Garrus hit the door panel. Feral and Tali ran in first, throwing their overloads at the nearest Geth to them before ducking under the first panel. Ashley and Shepard shooting over their heads before they ran forward, past the two technicians as they unfolded their weapons. Garrus moving towards them as he started to provide sniper cover for the team, the loud cracks occasionally followed by a synthetic screech when a round managed to penetrate a unit's shield.
Feral and Tali were moving along one side of the room, while Shepard and Ashley moved along the other. The two teams moving carefully, one in cover providing suppressing fire while the other moved. Whenever they could Tali or Feral would knock a Geth's shield out or sabotage their software systems. Providing a small amount of confusion amongst the Geth as friend briefly became foe. Shepard and Ash were taking the brunt of the Geth attack, while Feral and Tali slowly flanked the units.
They moved through the room quickly. The tech team taking out the Geth's shields whilst the Fire team would put an end to the platform. Occasionally a platform would try to neutralise the tech team, an effort which was rewarded by Tali's shotgun or Feral tackling the platform into the ground, or a wall, and tearing out something very important. Tali overloaded another Geth's shields, watching as the synthetics head erupted in an explosion of metal and sparks as a sniper round barrelled through its optical unit. The fire team slowly made its way to the entrance of the stair well where Shepard called for the squad to regroup. They could hear the Geth units on the top level and it was going to be a fight up the stairs and onto the balcony. Shepard decided told Feral to stay behind, he was going to make sure that nothing snuck up behind them because the Geth units had figured out his software bypass and they were being jammed again. Feral just nodded and stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching the squad move on without him.
He could hear the sound of gunfire and shouting as they squad moved above him, he was scanning his eyes around the large room until finally the rumbling stopped. He heard the all clear from Shepard and received a call over his radio.
"Feral, I'm sending Tali back down. When she gets there I want you two to head over to the room at the end of the building. The Geth database is in there, grab anything you can off it." Shepard's voice came over the radio loud and clear, Feral just acknowledged his order and waited for Tali.
The small woman eventually came bouncing down the stairs, and the two walked off towards the end of the room. Feral had his rifle out but Tali had put her shotgun away, the room was small and if anything was there one rifle would take care of it. He entered the room with his rifle raised and quickly scanned all the corners of the room before looking back at Tali. "All clear" he smiled back at her. Keeping his rifle in his hands as they walked to the console and Tali started working.
"Anything good?" Feral asked as he watched her hands tap at the keyboard.
"I don't know yet Feral, I'm good but I'm not as fast as you buuut luckily because I'm a Quarian I actually know what I'm looking for" she teased, it was true. Feral really wouldn't know what was important over what wasn't and because of it, he'd have spent a lot longer downloading more data. So Feral just stood back and watched as the woman worked.
He smiled as he watched her, Tali really was the first true friend he'd made on the Normandy. She just felt right to be around and he had yet to finish a conversation with her on a sour note. He relaxed slightly, letting his weapon drop down to his side. Something he instantly regretted as he heard a crackling behind him.
A Geth hunter had been cloaked, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Feral hadn't noticed it until it was too late; the bastard hadn't made a single sound. No breathing, no heart beat and no movement. A perfect ambush when coupled with the incredible optical camouflage. Feral spun around as fast as he could, but a metal fist crashed into his cheek turning him back around. The rifle sitting loosely in his hand had been smacked out of his fingers by the hunter's foot. Feral was reaching for his combat knife when an arm came around his shoulder; he barely had time to bring his arm up as the geth wrapped a mechanical limb around his neck. Feral noticed the Geth was raising his weapon and he brought his hand down onto it, preventing the hunter from taking aim at Tali.
The two were locked in a perfect stalemate; Feral could hear the hunter's limbs whirring as it tried to overcome Feral's strength. Feral was trying desperately to move the hunter's arm, but he couldn't. He was splitting his strength between holding the Geth's weapon down and keeping its arm from squeezing onto his carotid artery which would knock him unconscious. If he moved at all, the Geth would get a shot off at Tali.
Tali had spun around at the commotion, pulling up her pistol and aiming it at the Geth. The fight had been over as soon as it had begun and now she watched as Feral struggled with the hunter. "Feral!" she cried out as she tried to get a shot at the Geth's head, but it was perfectly behind Feral, she couldn't hit it without shooting Feral. Feral was gasping for breath, she could see the muscles in his arms shaking slightly as he fought with the unit.
"Turns out these buggers are stronger than they look" Feral laughed breathlessly
"Feral I can't get a shot, you need to move" Tali shouted back loudly, she wasn't finding this funny and she couldn't radio for help. She couldn't risk a one handed grip on her pistol.
Feral was grunting as he held his position "Sorry Tali, if I do that he'll get a shot at you. If I try to move its arm from my neck it'll be able to raise its weapon. If I try to get its weapon it'll knock me out. Either way you end up dead." He closed his eyes for a second before looking back at Tali.
"There is one option though, you need to shoot me."
Tali just looked at him wide eyed "What? NO!"
"I'm going to overload both of our shields, and when I do. You need to put a round straight into my forehead." She could see his eyes, they were deadly serious and when he saw his omni-tool light up she started shake.
"F-Feral no…I can't!"
"Tali you can. You have to, the round will take us both out and even if it doesn't I'll drop. You'll get a clear shot then. Don't worry I'll be fine Tali. Just make it clean and I'll be back in no time" Feral was starting to pant more, the synthetic was starting to win; its muscles didn't tire and the longer this went on the sooner it would break the stalemate.
"Tali I can't hold him much longer. Please, you have to. If you die because I didn't see this thing I'll never forgive myself" He was pleading for her to do it, he never wanted to put her in this position. But it was their only option. Shepard wouldn't arrive in time. "Tali I'll be fine, you can do it. I believe in you"
"I'm so sorry" Tali said as she raised her weapon, she watched as Feral closed his eyes. He was sparing her having to look at him as she shot him. She was shaking as she waited for Feral.
"DO IT!" Feral screamed as he activated the overload
Shepard's squad was on the floor above when they heard the shot ring out. They started running back downstairs as fast as they could.
The Geth Hunter had been listening to the entire conversation between the two organics. Running diagnostics on the situation. It knew it would eventually break the stalemate on its organic hostage. It never believed the creator would follow through with the other's demands; the odds were in its favour. Her behaviour suggested she was too closely attached to the man and its runtimes concluded she wouldn't kill him just to kill it. Eventually it would win, it would kill them both.
That was the synthetics demise, the round passed straight through Feral's skull and into its optical unit as both of their shields went down. The bullet then entered its processing component; the last image the hunter ever saw was the splattering of blood on its optics.
The two collapsed, Feral's head flying back and striking the hunter before he collapsed off to the side and the hunter fell back into the wall.
Tali was in shock, she had watched the whole thing in what felt like slow motion. The bullet entering Feral's forehead before a red splattering covered the hunter as its head sparked, white material splashing at all over the wall. She watched her friend and the enemy crumple over onto the ground and she froze. Had Feral been lying about surviving the shot? He wasn't moving, he wasn't even breathing and she wasn't close enough to see if the hole was closing up behind the tuft of hair that covered his face. As Shepard, Ash and Garrus burst into the room, she felt a tear run down her cheek.
The three stared at the scene in front of them. Feral and a Geth platform were lying on the floor, blood; both synthetic and organic was sprayed all over the wall. Tali was standing in front of it, her pistol smoking as her hands shook. Shepard thought he heard a small sob come from the quarian as Ashley rushed forward to her, grabbing the pistol and pulling the woman into her arms. Garrus just let his weapon hang at his side, his jaw hanging at the scene in front of him.
Every knew what had happened, nothing needed to be said. The sound of Tali crying filled the room, as Shepard walked over to Feral. The commander crouched down and rolled the man onto his back, looking down at the super soldier. Nothing, he was completely limp. No signs of life at all. He sighed; he couldn't believe Feral had been killed so easily.
He moved over to shut his eyes, the force of the gun shot had knocked them open slightly and that was when the commander noticed something. The bullet hole in Feral's head wasn't going all the way through, the commander stopped at that. He had only heard one shot, Tali had definitely only fired once. But how where they both dead?
Suddenly Feral's hand shot up as he inhaled sharply, his entire body tensing up as neurones started firing again. The hole in his head rapidly healing as the surge of adrenaline caused by his system restart sent everything into overdrive. His eyes darting around wildly in his skull as he squirmed on the floor. Shepard grabbed onto Feral's shoulders to hold him down. He could've sworn he heard Garrus scream behind him.
After a few moments, Feral collapsed back onto the floor panting loudly. His hand still gripping tightly at the commander's armour. He groaned loudly, finally speaking up
"Hey Shepard, what's up?" his hand quickly snapping to his head as he moaned loudly "Fuck me sideways, god my head's killing me" Shepard stood up, dragging to the super soldier to his feet.
"Are you going to be ok?" Shepard slowly asked, he was keeping his cool in front of his squad but he's wasn't entirely sure he'd just lost it and this was all in his mind.
"You ever have a headache so bad it feels like someone just shot you in the head?" Feral groaned, covering his eyes from the lights of the room. "Just give me a minute, I'll be fine"
Shepard just stood back and looked at the man, he'd been telling the truth. He could take a straight shot to the head, he knew he had told Tali as well but he was sure the quarian would give him grief over not telling her how long it would take.
Feral was slowly starting to uncover his eyes, blinking rapidly as he looked up and around the room. "Hey Garrus, seen a ghost recently?" he laughed. The Turian was standing there with his eyes as wide as a turian could possibly get them, his jaw practically hanging around his ankles
"Yh….you could say that, unless I haven't actually gone insane and everyone else is seeing a dead guy standing up" he looked over at Shepard who just nodded.
Feral was laughing, a big smile on his face until his eyes finally fell on Tali. He could hear her breathing, it was ragged. 'Oh god' His smile dropped before he turned to Shepard.
"Could you give Tali and I a moment?" he asked quietly
Shepard nodded, gesturing for Ashley and Garrus to leave the room. Ashley paused briefly to make sure Tali was ok with it, the quarian nodding before she left the room. The three quickly hurried back to the mako, they didn't want to be around for this. Plus they didn't want to be witnesses for what occurred, she did have a shotgun.
"Tali I-"Feral was instantly cut off by three fingered hand striking him in the side of the face, Tali slapped him before she started pounding her fists on his chest.
"YOU BOSH'TET! BOSH'TET! BOSH'TET!" she was shouting at him, screaming her lungs out at the man until finally her hits became weak and her voice devolved into crying. She just placed her hands on his chest as she sobbed.
Feral didn't say or do anything; he just let her run her course. Once she started crying against him, he slowly reached his hands around her and squeezed her against him, pulling her into a hug.
"I thought I had actually killed you" Tali sniffed as she slowly stopped crying, god she hated this suit. She couldn't even wipe away her own tears. "I thought you were really dead" her hands were trapped between her own chest and Feral's; she flattened her hands against his armour.
"I'm so sorry Tali" Feral finally said, she could hear the sadness in his voice "I never meant to scare you like that but I promise it was the only choice we had" the man leaned in and rested his head down against her visor, staring through the tinted glass and into Tali's glowing eyes. She looked up and saw his eyes staring back at her; she sighed as she leant forward and leaned against the strong human.
"I know….." she finally managed to utter "I'm sorry for hitting you"
Feral couldn't help it; he just started laughing causing Tali to look back at him.
"Please, you just shot me in the head. I don't think you need to apologize for hitting me" Feral was laughing even louder. Tali blushed at that, she didn't like the feeling of being made fun of and she especially hated being reminded of what she'd done to Feral. But hearing him laugh….it was infectious. Even when she was mad at her friend, it made her smile.
"Bosh'tet." Tali thumped her fist against her armour and pushed herself out of Feral's embrace. Turning away from him as she started to walk out, stopping briefly to look back at Feral. "You ever try something like that again and I'll use my shotgun instead" she giggled to herself, keeping her auditory unit offline for her little laugh. She wanted Feral to think she was mad at him still but somehow, the smile on his face said he knew otherwise.
Feral watched the woman walk out of the room, chuckling to himself as he rubbed his forehead. He turned around to pick up his rifle, kicking the hunter's body before he started to walk out. He then stopped...the console. The data had been downloaded but in the heat of the moment, it had been forgotten. Feral walked up to the terminal and hit the transfer button.
- SSV Normandy, an hour later –
The story about Feral had circulated the entire ship, everyone was talking about it. No one fully believed the story and it was starting to get worse. How, on a ship the size of the Normandy, a story of Feral surviving a single bullet to the head had mutated into Feral being blown to pieces and then completely reforming was beyond him. He'd had to ask Garrus and Joker later. Shepard had asked Feral to see Chakwas, he wanted to make sure the soldier's brains were still intact and Feral didn't feel like arguing. Feral also asked about the data he had retrieved, Shepard had taken a copy and told Feral that his idea was a good one.
Feral was finally given a clean bill of health by Dr. Chakwas, who had sat him down and given him every brain test known to the humanity. She commented that the fact he was a soldier and didn't really need a brain was probably a big help. Chakwas had a sense of humour for a doctor, but Feral could tell she cared deeply about everyone on board.
As he was leaving Kaidan had walked into the med bay, clutching his head in agony. "Hey Feral, Hey Doc." He managed to groan "Migraine again" he slowly made his way to one of the tables and laid down on it.
"I got shot in the head and you have a migraine?" Feral managed to snort out.
Chakwas replied for the biotic "Alenko here has an L2 implant, his side effect is one of the most docile possible but it still kicks him down for a few hours" Feral nodded at that, he had known some people with L2's before his abduction. Kaidan was lucky to just get a migraine.
Feral made his way down to the engineering room, groaning loudly the entire trip down the elevator. As he walked through the lower deck towards the drive core he saw a crowd again around Garrus and Ashley, and this time even Wrex was listening. Feral just groaned again, smiling as he shook his head, he wanted to intervene. Stop anymore mutations to the already blown out of proportion story but he had other fish to fry…so to speak.
He quickly stepped into the engine room to avoid the group seeing him; he spotted Tali at her station and made his way over to her. "Hey there Tali" she said as he leant against the railing next to her
"I'm still mad at you" she growled out, a slight tease in her voice
Feral bit his lip to stop him from smiling too much, the woman was cute when she was angry. Less cute and more terrifying when she had her shotgun though. "I know I know" Feral put his hands up defensively. "So let me make it up to you"
"Oh? and how are you going to do that? Let me shoot you in the foot?" She looked over at him, and Feral could see her cocking an eyebrow. He really hoped that she was joking but somehow he as doubting it.
"Well…actually I had another idea. You know the data on that terminal you were downloading? Before the whole…situation with the Geth?"
"…..Keelah! I forgot to transfer it to my omni-tool" she slapped her visor, growling angrily "There was so much good information on that! The fleet would've killed to get it! DAMN IT!" She shouted, ignoring Feral as she verbally berated herself.
"Tali?...TALI!" Feral shouted, the quarian snapping back towards him "I didn't forget though, and I asked the commander, when I handed it over to him, if I could give you a copy" Feral cocked his head slightly before his omni-tool lit up, quickly followed by her own "he said yes" he grinned as the quarian watched as the data streamed into her omni-tool. All of it, it was all there. She had something to give to the fleet, she couldn't believe it. Her pilgrimage was over.
"So…we good?" Feral finally said, smiling gently at Tali
Tali was speechless, beyond happy and she had to bite her lip gently to stop herself from squealing like a prepubescent human school girl. "Yes….yes we're good Feral. I have my pilgrimage gift now, thank you" she smiled up at the man whose face suddenly dropped.
"Does that mean you'll be leaving?" Feral was happy that he'd done something good for her but he didn't want her to go quite yet. He'd need his friend to help get him through this mission.
"What? Oh…oh no. How could I? The galaxy is still in danger after all. First Saren, my pilgrimage can wait until that bosh'tet is dead." She replied firmly, she meant it. Tali wasn't going anywhere quite yet.
"Good" Feral sighed happily as he stepped off towards his terminal "By the way, if you shoot him in the head he'll definitely die!" he called over from his computer before laughing to himself
"You're such a bosh'tet" Tali just replied back to him, earning an even louder laugh from the man. Her friend, her friend who had just given her the best gift she'd ever received. For the second day in a row, she stood at her terminal smiling. Smiling because of the insane human who had been the best friend she'd ever had.