A Woman and her Wolf
So right now, the only people in the cargo bay are Ashley and I. And Ashley is currently dying and one could argue that I don't count as a person. Fucking wonderful. I guess I might as well go about fixing the whole 'Ashley dying' thing, and quick too, because I'm pretty sure that much blood shouldn't be on the outside of someone's body.
She can no longer hold onto my back, at least not in that state, so that method of moving her is out. I guess I got to do it like an animal moving their kill, and drag them using my mouth. That would be really weird if I was an organic. Finding a point where getting a grip won't hurt her doesn't take long, the armour on her wrist is more than sufficient, and my teeth aren't sharp anyway. They look a bit like a jigsaw puzzle actually.
Dragging her into the lift doesn't take long, going at a walking pace is annoying, but any faster and I risk causing even more damage than there already is. I press the button to go up a floor with my tail, to avoid the weird wall leaning I have to do otherwise. The ride is mercifully short, giving Ashley just a bit less time having to wait for medical help. The door opens, and the med-bay is just to the right, requiring just another short drag across the floor, leaving a small trail of blood.
The door just opens when I get close, making a little swoosh sound. Sitting at her desk, Chakwas' back turned to me, doing some kind of work on her computer. I let out a short bark to get her attention, and she turns, and gets the most surprised look on her face.
"Wha…" Chakwas shakes her head, focussing at the matter at hand "She's in bad shape, I need to work fast." And with that, she takes Williams off my hands, and proceeds to do what I can only describe as 'medical stuff' because I have no clue exactly what she is doing. I did my job though, so I guess I can go find Shepard or something.
Leaving the room for the open door, I think Shepard must be in the Comm Room having a debriefing. Come to think of it, they probably thought I failed. Or more likely, didn't expect me to succeed to begin with. I guess I have a nice surprise for them, then. I move up to the Command Deck using the stairs, and go to the Comm Room, getting a few glances from the random Alliance Marines who are currently on deck.
As the door opens, and I move in, I catch the end of part of a conversation, with an absolutely broken sounding Kaidan speaking.
"I… I can't believe Ash didn't make it. How could we just leave her down there?"
Shepard begins to reply "Ashley knew the risks going…" I don't think I need to let them mope about something that hasn't happened, so I interrupt.
"BARK!" Hit the paragon interrupt. And Shepard just suddenly stops what she was saying, and just stays stock still for a second, processing exactly what she was hearing. Then she turns in my direction, with the rest of the crew following suit, and she gets this big grin on her face.
"I think that idea of yours Tali may have just paid off." She pauses for a second, likely noticing Ashley's absence. "Where is Ashley?"
Thankfully, and conveniently too, a Marine bursts through the door and lays out the info I can't give to Shepard, for obvious reasons. He stumbles a bit and rambles on a tad too long in what he is saying, but it boils down to Ashley is heavily injured but alive, is currently being treated, but we can't visit her because the 'Doc' needs some space.
The team clearly don't know what to do with this information, as on one hand, Ashley isn't dead like they thought and is currently aboard the ship, but on the other hand she might die here, or be put permanently out of action.
Shepard decides to stick with cautious optimism towards this info, and thanks the marine for telling her, before turning to everyone else. "So, I guess we just have to wait it out and hope for the best. Is there anything else we need to talk about aside from Williams?"
Liara pipes up "Yes, Commander. I think the beacon you interacted with in Saren's base was similar to the one on Eden Prime." She pauses for a moment, before continuing "It may have filled in the missing pieces of your vision. If you are alright with it, I might be able to help you fit those pieces together."
"You want to join our minds again, don't you? Okay. Go ahead" I clearly wasn't there for the other times they did this, at least not physically anyway.
And with that, Liara gets really close to Shepard, and looks quite uncomfortable about doing so. She tells the Commander to relax, and 'embrace eternity', which is still really dumb, even now. It's hard to see from this low angle, but Liara's eyes have gone pitch black, and both Liara and Shepard have gone rigid and stock still.
I never really understood this thing, because how do they differentiate from this and the weird sex thing version? Isn't this pretty much the same thing? Does that mean Shepard is basically being molested right now? Who knows? Probably any Asari, but I don't think I would want to ask one, even if I was able to.
After about thirty seconds of waiting, they both stumble out of the whole mind thing, looking a bit dazed and confused.
"Incredible. I… I never thought the images would be so… intense. I need a moment to collect myself." Liara exclaims while clutching her head, probably dealing with a horrible headache right now.
"Did the vision make any sense to you?" Seems Shepard didn't understand too much from it.
"It's a distress call, a message sent out across the Prothean Empire. A warning against the Reapers, but the warning came too late"
"What about the Conduit?" Yes Shepard, what about the MacGuffin?
"There were other images. Locations. Places I recognized from my research… Ilos! The Conduit is on Ilos!" After likely giving herself a mental pat on the back, she continues. "That is why Saren nneeded to find the Mu Relay! It is the only way to get to Ilos"
"Then we need to get to Ilos!" Well no shit, Shepard.
Tali suddenly interrupts "Forget it. The Mu Relay's inside the Terminus Systems. Alliance ships are not welcome there. Neither are Spectres." Oh yeah, I forgot about all this.
"The Conduits on Ilos. That's where Saren is heading. I'll be waiting for him when he gets there!" You wish, you got to deal with space politics first.
Liara continues talking "Saren will have his entire fleet orbiting Ilos. You will never make it down to the surface without reinforcements. You must alert the Council. We need a fleet to-" She suddenly clutches her head in pain, and takes a moment to recover "I am sorry. The joining is… exhausting. I should go to the medical bay and lie down for a moment"
With that, Shepard nods, and dismisses everyone. That includes me, so I have to wait outside the room for her to finish speaking with the council. For whatever reason, Tali is also waiting outside.
As we wait, Tali decides to invade my personal space yet once more, by whipping out her omni-tool and attempting to invade my fucking mind again. Though it only seems easier than before to forcibly push the probing presence out of my head. She lets out a little huff at that, still annoyed at the insult to her skill that I am.
Thankfully, she gives up after that, twiddling her alien thumbs, until the door opens and Shepard walks out.
"Shepard, I want to ask you something." Oh? I wonder what that's about.
"Sure Tali, what about?"
"It's about your robot," This might be bad "When we were down on Virmire, I noticed something strange about it." Oh god. Oh fuck this is bad. I should of come clean from the start, perhaps that would have been safer I mean come on what can I do?
"Oh? What did you notice?" Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckshitfuck. This is it. I'm fucking done. They're going to find me out and destroy me. Sell me for scrap. Melt me down into a statue declaring victory over AIs.
"It doesn't have any kinetic barriers, which is odd for a mech, the large power source on them means you can throw some pretty powerful shields up will little in effort or cost." Oh. I just panicked over nothing. I'm just lucky to have an expressionless face right now.
"I guess that is pretty odd. Are you asking me if you can fit Wolfy with some shields?" Wolfy? Really Shepard? I hope that doesn't stick.
"Yes, and while I'm at it, I can see if I can get anything out of it." Please don't.
"Right. You sure you will be able to add shields? I thought it resisted all attempts you did at getting information?"
"Please, adding shielding to something is something a child could do, all I need to do is integrate a shield module into the machine and hope it gets integrated."
"Best of luck then, Tali. We are going back to the Citadel to go see the council, so try to get some rest."
"I will. See you Shepard."
"You too, Tali." And with that, Shepard leaves, leaving me with Tali. Who turns to me, with what I imagine to be some kind of grin under her visor. I'm sure this will be fun.
The past few days have went by pretty uneventfully, doubly so for me, considering I have pretty much been locked in the engineering area for this whole time. Not that it took Tali that long to install the kinetic barriers though, she did that in about an hour, and that's only because she had to guess what armour plating she was able to take off without making me have an existence failure. That was an uncomfortable experience; I imagine it felt something like being operated on, whilst wide awake.
Apparently they took Ashley off ship, to be taken to some kind of military hospital, because they just didn't have the equipment on board to deal with that kind of injury. She was supposedly stable however, which I guess is a good thing. I just hope I did well enough, but it's out of my hands (or claws, whatever) now.
The shields work, which is good, allowing me to contribute more in a combat situation. It integrated surprisingly well; actually, I can see the shield capacity and a visual representation of that in my eyesight on demand, just another perk of being a robot. Almost makes up for the glaring problems. Like the fact I can't drink anymore, and if even by some absurd way I can, I can't get drunk. Like, how fucked is that?
Let's not go down that route. No point moping when you don't have anyone to come along and kiss it better. We should be getting to the Citadel soon, but I don't think I will actually get to see it though, which sucks.
The door opens, and in walks Tali. I swear if she is going to try the same shit again I'm going to get so damn salty I could create a drought that would destroy an entire planets eco structure. But instead, she just motions for me to follow, which I can get behind. She takes me out of that bloody room and onto the Command Deck, where everyone is waiting around, seemingly waiting to leave.
"Shepard, I brought Bladewolf up, if you wanted to bring him along too." Shepard seems amused at this.
"Thanks Tali, but we aren't going to be here long, might as well keep him here."
"Right, makes sense" Tali seems… slightly upset at that. Must be something to with wants to show off the work she did on me.
"Anyway let's get this over with." And with that, they left the ship, onto the Citadel, to go be told news they really didn't want to hear. While I wait here, with Joker.
"Oh, it's Shepard's crime fighting dog again. I heard you saved a damsel in distress this time around!" Joker said.
Fuck my life so much.
Author's Notes
So. I have not updated in a while, and this chapter is ever so slightly shorter than usual. Awkward. But hey, at least it came out eventually right? RIGHT? Jokes aside, sorry for the slow updates, I do make these on a whim, and I have been busy with christmas and new years (which was fun) but at the end of the day it's not an excuse to leave them as late as I do. I hope you enjoyed what I wrote though, and as always, review this fic if you liked it, disliked it, or are just really lonely and want to feel important to somebody for like a few minutes.
Onto individual review replies (I really dislike the review system on this website. The fact I can't reply directly and publicly for anyone to read without posting a chapter is annoying)
-EzeikelShepard I'm glad that you like it, though I don't think I'm touching on ground that new, though I would say there is a lack of good robot OC/SI stuff on here, and I'm hoping this fic might inspire something like this (but better, and hopefully not some carbon cut-out)
-Ablazeea Interesting writing style? Sure, why not. Thanks for the complement, though I would be interested in what makes my weird disjointed writing interesting.
-Spiral83, Heavan-water-sister, Themysteriousotaku This story is not dead, and never will be. It might hit huge hiatuses and massive waits, but I will never straight up leave it unfinished. So expect me to delve into necromancy to keep this fic in some dangerous state between life and death. Glad you all like the story!
-Goldspark1 Glad you liked it, and thanks for the repeated reviews, it really helps! And he does get shields, I think I was unclear with just how repairable he is. I'm talking reattaching limbs and replacing armour plates, but anything complex, if it's gone it's gone. (No gore or combat in this chapter though, gotta get that build up!)
-DarkstarPrime This is more, though it wasn't exactly soon. Thanks though, even if you probably forgot what this was by this point.
-Toothless is best That's a strong word there, mate, be careful with it. I also want to say I like your name, your really not messing about there.
-Aquos dragon You guys make me feel horrible, releasing these super late after nice complements. But anyway, Thanks!
-Doombug Alright, I was expecting this comment for a while now. Here is my (wafer thin) reasoning: Avina is designed to talk and nothing else, so can do it pretty well, whilst all the combat mechs in the games just spout recorded messages telling people to give up. So if Andrew can do both very well, shits suspicious.
-Leonard Church814 Calling a fanfic a guilty pleasure is about right, there is a reason they are sometimes referred to as literary masturbation!
-Spirtstrike Thanks for the update every chapter, it's really nice, and helps remind me that this thing actually exists. And no, be a grammar nazi, it helps me get better at writing stuff.
-Akatosh117demon Thanks, I love you too, *kiss kiss*
-Br2nd66 Well, here you go I guess, have fun!
Well, that's me done, have a good new year everyone!