Wishful thinking I might be yours
Drifting on every step
I'm always drawn to the dark horse
Sweet, sweet nothings said
And every dream is just a dream after all...
From the song Paper Cup by Heather Nova
They had crossed the clear cut area without any more drama and entered the jungle on the other side.
The encounter with the gunship and the mercenaries had taken its toll on them all and they were moving slowly. Too slow. The threat of capture was all too real now. They where making their way through dense foliage and overhanging tree branches with Garrus in the lead. After having walked for what felt like an eternity the turian suddenly stopped.
He held up a fist, freezing Kaidan and James in their tracks, with Shepard stopping slower, confused until Kaidan put a hand on her shoulder pulling her back against him. Her fever had gone up again and she seemed to be almost sleepwalking as if she had drained her very last reserves of energy. He had given her medi-gel but he knew that what she really needed, what they all needed, was rest. Something in Garrus' stance made Kaidan abandon his train of thought and look up. His jaw dropped and he blinked, wondering for a brief second if he could trust his eyes.
"What's going on?" James asked bewildered. Then he saw it too. "What the... " His eyes followed lines created by sentient beings rather than nature.
They had reached the cliff formation only to find that it wasn't a cliff at all but ruins.
The sculptured, smooth stone glistened wetly in the faint light seeping down through the interlaced tree tops.
"It looks Prothean", Kaidan said. "Remember Ilos?"
"All too well", Garrus replied darkly. "It doesn't matter if it's Prothean or not. We need to get out of the rain."
Kaidan took one look on Shepard's pallid face and nodded. "Agreed."
They followed the remains of an ancient road. The ruins towered over them, majestic and mysterious in the faint light that filtered down through the interlaced tree tops. The eerie atmosphere of the ancient structures enveloped them. Only Shepard seemed comfortable and at ease. She constantly stopped to touch a statue or run her fingers over a relief-pattern on a wall. Kaidan had to nudge her on with a hand on her shoulder when she once again became distracted by something.
Vines coiled around broken pillars and hung like living garlands across walls and fallen down battlements. The ground was carpeted with a thick layer of moss that swallowed the sound of their footsteps.
"It's like I've been here before", Shepard mumbled when Kaidan urged her on.
"Maybe you saw this place in the vision you received from the beacon on Eden Prime?" he suggested gently. He didn't like the almost dazed state she was in and when he exchanged a look with Garrus he could see the same worry in the turian's gaze.
"Stay with Shepard. Vega and I will check the place out", Garrus said. "I've had enough of surprises to last me a lifetime."
Kaidan nodded. "Be careful."
"You too", Garrus replied. But his eyes were on Shepard as he followed James deeper into the ruins.
Kaidan watched them until they were swallowed up by the shadows, then he turned his attention back to Shepard. She was sitting down, leaning against one of the broken pillars, humming softly to herself. He sat down next to her, activated his omni-tool and checked her vitals. Her high fever combined with the almost trance-like state worried him, but her heartbeat was steady and strong and it seemed the medi-gel had finally dealt with the infection.
He leaned back against the pillar and looked up at the canopy that spread out above them, hiding them from the light of the moon, and any gunship or drones that might be on the prowl. The silence spread out around them, strangely deep and dense. Kaidan closed his eyes. The beginning of a migraine attack throbbed behind his eyeballs and he knew he would have to take a dose of medi-gel to stifle it. Beside him Shepard was a warm presence. When she snuggled closer to him he draped his arm loosely around her, enjoying the feeling of her head on his shoulder and the way her body seemed to mould itself to his when she curled up against him.
In the back of his mind a warning tingled, telling him that something was wrong, but he was too tired to even try to make sense of it.
Garrus and James had found a path trailing through a series of broken arches, leading deeper into the ruin. James glanced up at a strange, primitive, serpent-like shape that was carved into of one of the arches.
"This is creepy as hell", James said as he and Garrus made their way inside the Prothean ruin. The beams of their flash lights revealed statues lining a wide avenue leading downwards in a gentle slope. Pragia's strangling flora had claimed even this ancient underground place.
Garrus stepped over a root that had burst through the flagstones. Vines, ferns and moss softened the contours of the decayed structure and he realised that sunlight must somehow make its way down here during the day. The smell of damp vegetation mixed with the dry, mineral smell of ancient stone as they followed the narrowing avenue down into the underground.
The darkness was inky black and their footsteps echoed in the hall. The roof domed above them, disappearing in the shadows as the hall continued to go deeper and deeper into the earth.
"What do you think this place was used for?" James asked. He let his flash light sweep over a statues of Protheans in what looked like ceremonial poses. "Did you see anything like this on Ilos?"
"The ruins on Ilos was crawling with geth. We didn't any time to study the artefacts", Garrus replied. "But I think I would have remembered seeing something like this." The beam lit up a statue depicting two Protheans in a passionate and intimate embrace.
James' eyebrows rose. "Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Then a grin spread across his handsome face. "Damn, I wish Liara was here to see it."
As they continued to explore the subterranean galleries they came across more statues, some showing Protheans in explicit scenes, some more formal and ceremonial. Most of the ruin had collapsed. Rainwater was seeping down through the rubble, creating small streams that trickled down the caved in walls. With its supply of fresh water and labyrinthine lay out, the ruin was an ideal camp site.
Garrus had seen enough. "Let's head back to Shepard and Kaidan."
Kaidan's eyes snapped open. He realised with a start that he had been drifting off. He rubbed a hand over his eyes and stifled a yawn. I must have been more tired than I thought.
Looking around he couldn't see anything. Nothing moved in the darkness. Shepard was still sitting curled up against him, her eyes closed, her breath calm and even. On an impulse he activated his comm but there was nothing. Not even radio-static. Frowning, Kaidan gently untangled himself from Shepard and rose. There was something ominous about the deep silence that enveloped them. Something unnatural.
He drew his pistol. The shadows seemed to have taken on a life of their own and was pressing in on him. The sound of voices made him whirl around, pistol at a ready. "Who's there? Show yourself!" He ordered.
But the voices had already faded into nothing. Kaidan wasn't sure if he had heard them at all or if they had been a figment of his overtired brain. He shook his head to clear it and winced when the throbbing headache returned with a vengeance.
"Can you hear them?"
Kaidan spun around again.
Shepard was standing up, head tilted to the side as if listening. "They're singing..." There was a dreamy tone in her voice and a softness to her face that he had only seen in their intimate moments together.
"There's no one here", he said. But a cold shiver ran down his spine. It was as if the shadows itself were watching them. And then he could hear it. Whispers... Voices speaking in a language alien to him.
Shepard took slow, deliberate steps towards him, her hips swaying. There was a strange glow in her eyes, a light that filled the dark blue orbs with the flicker of dragon flies. And Kaidan realised that he had seen that very same effect before...
"They have been waiting for us for an eternity", she said in the same almost caressing tone of voice.
Eden Prime... Kaidan took a step back, trying to keep his distance as Shepard continued towards him. During their second mission to the colony she had activated some Prothean data caches in order to obtain the codes needed to open the life pod in which Javik had been kept alive for 50 000 years. To Kaidan and Liara the Prothean data had been nothing but white noise but Shepard's eyes had held the same flickering green light as they did now.
"Shepard..." He started, his back bumping into the tree behind him. The whispers had started up again, coming from all sides around them. "Shepard, you have to snap out of this!" Something in the tone of his voice must have reached her because she blinked and when she looked up again the green glow was gone.
"Kaidan?" She looked around, confused. "What happened? Where's Garrus and James?"
Before Kaidan could reply a strong wind kicked up. Everywhere around them the leaves rustled as the sudden storm whipped the trees. A great thunderous crack jolted Kaidan out of his frozen state. He grabbed Shepard's hand and started running as one of the trees slowly, almost majestically fell, sweeping away smaller trees, vines and bushes that happened to grow in its path.
Branches clawed at them like greedy fingers as Kaidan tugged Shepard along, chased by the huge falling tree.
The sound of the giant tree hitting the ground resonated down into the underground passages of the ruin. The ancient structure trembled and dust fell from cracks in the arching ceiling.
"What was that?" James mumbled.
"Nothing good", Garrus replied with certainty born of experience. They shared a look and started to run, retracing their steps back to the entrance.