Five Seconds
Chapter 7: Trust
Authors Note: Thank you for the reviews I appreciate it very much. I stayed up late to finish this (2:55 in the morning have to work at 9 *cough*) but I consider it punishment to myself for not getting this out sooner please forgive any grammar flubs. Back to the action! I don't own anything in the Mass Effect series.
"It can't be a coincidence," She thought to herself in the shuttle that took her, Garrus, Daemon, and Jack down to the surface. Usually she wouldn't take more than two others. However, she wasn't going to leave things to chance when dealing with saving a colony and one of her crewmates. Especially one that was as close to her as Kaiden Alenko.
"The Collectors dropping onto a colony with one of our own it can't be random," Garrus said, his words echoing her thoughts.
She could only nod her head in agreement before she said, "Let's just hope Mordins' counter-measure works." It was just a few hours ago that she went into the lab, hoping, praying, that he was as good as she thought he was.
"Is it ready?" She asked, standing in front of a container of a seeker swarm, buzzing and bashing against the glass as if trying to sting them.
She watched as Mordin looked at her, his face not changing, she started to feel a rush of panic rise in her chest before he smiled saying, "Yes!" Walking over to a console, an orange holo of their armor showing the counter-measure placed in beneath.
"So what is this counter-measure supposed to be a…repellant?" the Colonel asked, after he saw the seeker swarm to know what to expect she thought he seemed a bit…on edge.
"Apparently it's supposed to block our life signatures from their sensors so that they just pass us by," She answered.
"Supposedly?" Garrus asked with a perked brow, "that isn't comforting."
The shuttle rocked gently as they landed the hatch opening wide. Shepard slipped out first followed by Garrus and then Daemon and Jack. The area was dead quiet, only the faint sound of buzzing in the air. What caught her attention the most however, was the large Collector ship that loomed on the other side of the colony.
"We might have a chance to save the colonists if we hurry," Shepard said as she started to move forward, pulling out her rifle as she moved around the wall. A silent prayer leaving her lips that they reached Kaiden before he was taken.
The Colonel was uneasy it was true. For one reason was because of the swarms. He hated bees, wasps more specifically. In his eyes the swarms were just wasps that were a bit mutated. Like some strange creature from the Fallout games he played.
However that wasn't the only thing that put him at unease. He didn't feel it until they left the shuttle, but it was then he felt the hair rise slightly on the back of his neck as if someone was watching them. He didn't feel any hostility coming from it, but it felt cold, calculating.
As they moved around the wall he couldn't help but give a quick glance over his shoulder and up at the sky to look for anything that explained the second feeling. Jack must have caught the look because he heard her voice a moment later taunting, "What's wrong Daemon?" she asked, "afraid of a little bug?"
He would have just said no if anyone else had asked that. However, when she teased him it sounded more… curious then mean so he couldn't help but say more. "When I was a kid," he started "I was walking up the steps of our house, a random bee stung me in the leg for no reason at all, there wasn't a hive nearby for me to threaten and I never got stung by there ever again." He took a look up at the sky seeing a swarm flying over their heads. He had to refrain from shivering slightly at the tingle down his spine. "After that I always went the other way when it came to bees" he took a slight breath before he finished, "So yes the seeker swarms bother me a bit."
He felt her brown eyes look at him as if she didn't expect some bit of personal history from him. She looked down at the ground before she said, "Well…just swat them you pussy."
He couldn't help but smile just a little at that his head turning to look forward, seeing Shepard looking at them with a perked brow before she said, "Or blast them with your biotics Colonel."
He caught the look of Jack perking her own brow at him, he avoided everyone's glance before he cleared his throat saying, "We'll worry about that if it comes to it."
They reached the end of the hill seeing a pit of containers, everything seemed to get…quiet. That's when the sound of wings came out of nowhere, large insects coming down onto the ground, strange weapons in hand.
"Get to cover!" Shepard shouted, diving behind a container as yellow lasers blasted past her.
Daemon ducked down behind another container, Jack right next to him. "So these are Collectors," He thought as he leaned around the corner, firing at one, a strange color of guts spewing from its chest. What caught his eye were the four glowing orbs that must have made their eyes. His mind shot back to that dream…the glowing yellow eyes that dragged the blur away.
"This isn't the time for dreaming dumbass!" Jacks shouting suddenly breaking through his thoughts as she leaned around the other side, shooting her shot gun. Seeming unsatisfied she stepped out from hiding, her body glowing blue before she screamed out, a sudden blue shock wave burst from her body. Like a row of explosions it moved down the row taking out three Collectors after it reached its end.
Watching the shockwave do its damage amazed him. So far he had been trying to life a ball she could probably lift things beyond what he could lift with pure muscle. He had seen the destruction she had caused in the Purgatory, but this was the first time he got to see her in real action.
After the shockwave it was easy to cut through the remaining two Collectors. He walked past the containers, his visor showing no life signs from the fallen bodies. Moving up the steps with the rest of the group he looked up at the Collector ship a smirk twitching at his lips.
"Something funny Colonel?" Shepard asked, she had stopped to look back at him.
"In my time we were all so freaked out about Mayan calendars, global warming, terrorists, and failing economy, seems all rather insignificant now," He answered. He looked back down at the group; Jack out of all of them was confused at what he said.
"The fuck you talking about?" She asked, looking around at everyone, seeing she was the only one confused seemed to only piss her off more.
Before she could say anything else a sudden inhuman sound came out from around the corner, it caused the hair to rise on the back of his neck. A silver and blue shape burst from around the corner, lunging.
Shepard blasted the shape with her shot gun, the hideous shape hitting the ground before an entire group came right behind it. "Husks!" She shouted, the group opening fire, dropping the monsters before they reached them.
He couldn't help but stare at the LED like glowing bodies on the ground, his foot kicking one over to look at it closer. It took everything he had to keep from flinching back at the sight. The thing that was called a Husk looked almost…human, but stripped of skin leaving discolored muscle and bones, eyes and mouth replaced with eerie looking lights. "Please tell me that's not human," He said, looking up at the disgusted face of Shepard.
"Not anymore…" She answered, looking up at him, "They're called Husks, we ran into them multiple times, the first on Eden Prime." She looked down at the body, "These ones look different."
"Doesn't matter what they look like," Garrus joined in on the discussion, "what matters is that we know now that they're not from the Geth, more like the Collectors or Reapers."
"All that matters to me is that you can kill the fuckers," Jack spat on the bodies, she didn't show it, but he had a feeling that she was more disturbed then she let on.
"Let's keep going, there might be some colonists left," Shepard said before raising her rifle and moving on.
Daemon started to wonder if he was in a coma and that this was just a terrible dream filled with aliens and space ships. Perhaps he was in a terrible dream, which he was still in the cryo; he wasn't sure which would be worse, reality or unreality. He shook his head hard; he had to focus on what was going on now. They made good progress despite the mass of Collectors and these monsters called Husks. He had no doubt that he'd have nightmares from those ungodly sounds they made, not like he already had nightmares every night.
Everything was going well until Shepard picked up a strange weapon from a dead Collector. Another wave of Collectors came down from the sky, as they landed one of them suddenly lifted into the air, cracks of fire yellow bursting from it as if it was going to explode before it landed on its feet. The voice that came from it sounded deep, old, and pure evil, proclaiming, "I am the Harbinger of your destruction."
"Well that's fantastic," He thought to himself as the group hid behind cover, popping over the container he fired at one of the non-glowing Collectors, his visor telling him this 'Harbinger' was covered in a barrier. He watched as the glowing Collector shot a strange missile in the shape of a blob outlined with a golden aura, it didn't look good "Incoming!" He shouted out in warning as he ducked back behind cover.
Shepard peaked over her cover, seeing the missile before it struck her container, suddenly pushing her backwards away from cover, the Collectors would have opened fired on her if he and Garrus popped back up and fired, keeping them from harming her as she got back under cover.
Finally it was just 'Harbinger' standing, Jack struck it with a shock wave of biotics, Garrus shot it with his sniper rifle and Daemon and Shepard rained bullets down on the monster.
Just when he thought they had the thing it suddenly started to dissolve saying, "Releasing control of this form."
He slowly got up, walking around the container looking over at Shepard asking, "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know…" She responded, she looked deep in thought "Sounded almost like Sovereign didn't it?" He watched as she looked over at Garrus.
"Almost, but who can tell?" Garrus shrugged his shoulders; he had the same look of thought on his own face, perhaps. Maybe Daemon was getting better at reading turian faces after all.
"Let's keep going, we'll figure all this out sooner or later," Shepard decided, walking over to a door, it must have been locked since she raised her omni-tool, tapping at the console before it finally opened wide.
It was a storage area from the looks of things, only lightened up by the glow of the containers, the blue glow bothered him. Images of the cryo room from Area 53 flashing back into his mind.
"Why?" He asked, staring at the blue container, looking over at the scientist that stood at the console.
"Cause if there are more of those things out there…they'll need a leader, not a scientist," The man said as he tapped at the console, the container opening wide, waiting for him to step in.
He had been so out of it he didn't realize that there was a conversation going on, Jack seemed to be the only one not participating, instead staring at him before her head jerked away once she saw him looking.
"The Alliance gave us defense towers that don't work, stupid sons of bitches," cursed the apparent mechanic.
Shepard glanced over her back at him, pretending that he had been listening the entire time he just nodded his head. She looked back at the mechanic saying, "If you have defense towers we can use them against the Collector ship."
The mechanic must not have been an optimist cause he said "You'd need to calibrate the targeting systems it's never worked right."
"Just give us the location ya pussy," Jack chipped in, staring at the mechanic as if she was wondering how to cut his balls off.
He flinched at her look, pointing at the door saying quickly "Head for the main transmitter on the other side of the colony, hard to miss. The targeting controls are at the base."
"We'll head there then, stay here, you'd just get in the way," Shepard said as she walked towards the door.
The mechanic agreed, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking too."
They left the mechanic behind, moving on ahead. From then on it was business as usual kill as many of the Collectors as possible before the now proclaimed 'Harbinger' 'Assumed control' of a body, even then kill the rest before taking him down. He tried to keep focused, but it started to get harder, images of the cryo room popping back into his head.
He almost even missed the tingle in the back of his head at one moment, Jack was moving ahead of the rest of the group, about to step out from behind a wall. He suddenly ran forward, just as she was about to step out he grabbed her shoulder, jerking her back.
"What the f-" She was about to curse when a sudden blast of dirt and grass sprayed at them, a deep hole remaining where she would have been standing if he hadn't stopped her.
He just said nothing, though he could feel Shepard's eyes burrowing into the back of his skull, he knew that he just made her more curious about him. It didn't help that Jack was staring at him in shock as well. "Let's just be more careful yeah?" He said trying to bring them back to what was going on.
Shepard just nodded her head, though her eyes followed him for a moment before she took the lead. It turned out what caused the explosion was a husk that looked more like the Hunchback of Notre Dom, with a tank barrel sticking out of its back. It took multiple shots of bullets and biotics to take it down, between dodging shockwaves, leaving large holes in their wake. It didn't take long to punch through the rest of the Collectors, despite Harbinger making an appearance during the fight. Finally they reached an opening area with a tower sticking up in the middle, containers spread out around the tower. The group reached the tower, walking around it to find the console.
Shepard raised her hand up to her console asking, "Normandy, do you copy?"
Jokers' voice came up in all of their comms, "Joker here, signal's weak, but we got you Commander."
"Great," She said, "EDI, can you get the defense towers online?"
EDIs' voice came in this time, "Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified, but it will take time to bring the towers to full power."
"Get into defensive positions, Garrus you cover this side with me, Jack, Colonel you cover the other side, enemies between us is free dibs for anyone," She ordered, getting into position.
Shepard's orders were followed quickly, and not a moment too soon, that's when the husks and Collectors started coming down on them in waves. No words were exchanged between the group, other than the occasional "Fuck you!" Or "I'll toss you around like a toy!" coming from Jack.
Just when he thought that they would make it after the final wave came through, a sound came from behind, he and Jack both turned around to see a large armored shape with two glowing eyes floating straight for them. He didn't even need his visor to tell him it was protected by a barrier, glowing with a purple sheen.
"Take it out!" Shepard shouted as she moved backwards, shooting at the monster as the group ran back.
It felt like forever taking out its barriers at first, and Shepard only got one shot off of hitting it with her grenade launcher before it hit the ground, sending a shockwave that knocked him back. The creature glowing almost with biotic like powers before its barriers burst back up to full.
"For fucks sake!" Jack cursed as she shot her shotgun at the creature, her body glowing blue with biotics as she sent a shock wave at it.
"Agreed!" He shouted back at her as they moved together, it wasn't planned, wherever he went she seemed to just be there, and he wondered if she did it on purpose or not.
Finally they dropped the floating Husks' barriers once more, Shepard getting another strike of her grenade launcher, sparks flying and metal shredding this time around. However, it wouldn't be that easy, it slammed itself against the ground once again, spraying dust and grass everywhere as its barriers restored themselves.
"One more time!" Garrus shouted to them, ducking back beneath a container as a shockwave almost struck him.
One more time was all was needed; the thought of finally killing the hellish thing must have energized everyone as everyone took more risks, popping out of cover to get a spare shot off before ducking behind cover just in time. Just as they dropped the creatures' barriers down for the last time the defense towers came to life, showering the Collectors ship with explosive rounds. Shepards' grenade launcher adding to the explosions as she struck the floating Husk, the thing glowing brightly as if it was about to burst, until it just dissolved.
He couldn't help but shout in victory as it faded away, Jack having a cocky grin on her face. Garrus looked satisfied, and Shepard just patted him on the back.
That's when the sound of rockets being started brought them back to reality. The Collector ship started to take off, still being pummeled with fire from the defense towers, but it was too little too late, taking off and quickly fading into the distance.
"They have most of the humans on board, they got what they came for," He said softly. They had found frozen colonists on the way there, but too few.
The mechanic must have found his courage cause he came running up a moment later shouting, "No! Don't let them get away!"
"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do," Shepard said apologetically looking down at the ground, and she sounded like she meant it, she must have assumed that her friend was taken along with the rest.
"I'm sorry Shepard," Garrus said, looking sad himself as he reached out, touching her shoulder.
"Shepard?" The mechanic said thoughtfully, turning around to look at them, "Wait…I know that name." He nodded his head as if he confirmed it saying, "Yeah I remember you, some type of big Alliance hero."
A new voice came in right behind the man, a shadow from behind a container saying, "Commander Shepard, Captain of the Normandy, the first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel." And while he didn't know who it was, Shepard did, Kaiden Alenko stepped out into view.
"My God he's okay…" She thought to herself stunned, her heart had sunk so low when she didn't see him amongst the remaining colonists, and further still as the Collector Ship flew away. Now her heart was stuck in her throat, she wasn't sure if she could breath.
He continued on, looking over at the mechanic saying, "You're in the presence of a god, Delan." He looked over at her, and she felt her heart jump, "Back from the dead," he added.
Delan didn't seem to care since he crossed his arms, leaning back on one foot sighing, "All the good people we lost, and you get left behind…figures." He just shook his head, walking way saying, "Screw this."
She didn't care what he thought; all she could see at the moment was Kaiden, walking towards her. She took a step towards him, wanting to feel his arms around her, wanting to feel his breath on her ear. But he stopped when she approached, saying, "I thought you were dead Commander," his tone flat, unemotional, "We all did."
She felt a pang in her chest her grey eyes looking into his searchingly asking "Is something wrong Kaiden?"
"Yeah," He said, an edge of anger starting to show in his voice, "I spent these last two years believing you were dead." He took a step towards her, leaning forward, the anger showing in his voice "I thought we had something Shepard, I thought you cared, and why didn't you contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?" He was getting close to shouting now.
"I was dead Kaiden!" She said in a soft voice, the anger and resentment in his face and tone caused a knife to dig deeper into her heart with each word. "I spent the last two years in a Cerberus lab, being rebuilt, Kaiden please," She pleaded with him to drop his tone.
He took a step back from her as if she had a plague saying, "You're with Cerberus now?" the sound of disgust evident in his voice, "I can't believe the reports were right."
"Reports? Wow you guys are slipping," Jack quipped, crossing her arms.
"Alliance intel said Cerberus could be behind our missing colonies," Kaiden went on, "We got a tip this could be the next to get hit." He just shook his head "I went to Anderson, but he wouldn't talk, but there were rumors that you weren't dead…worse," he said, his teeth gritting together as he almost hissed out the last part "That you were working for the enemy."
"Kaiden I don't work for Cerberus!" She denied shaking her head, "We both want the same thing to help the colonists, but I don't answer to them."
"Don't you?" He shot back at her leaning forward, the look in his eyes causing a pain in her chest, "Or maybe that's just what Cerberus wants you to think?" What hurt most was what he said next, "You've turned your back on everything we stood for!"
"You know me Kaiden!" She felt like she was about to cry, the look on Kaidens face starting to become blurry, "You know I'd only do this for the right reason!" She took a step towards him, almost pleadingly "You saw it too, the Collectors are harvesting human colonies, and they're working for the Reapers!"
He was unmoved by it crossing his arms as he said harshly, "I don't know you anymore Shepard, I'd like to believe you, but that was until you started working with Cerberus."
Garrus suddenly came up right next to Shepard, mandibles twitching in anger saying, "Dammit Kaiden you're letting your feelings look over the facts, the question is what happened to you?"
"Nothing's happened to me!" He suddenly shouted at the turian, "Maybe your feelings are clouding your judgment Garrus."
"Enough!" Shepard shouted it tore her apart to see two men that fought alongside each other starting to fight. "Just come with us Kaiden, you'll see, it'll be just like old times," she pleaded one more time; she could feel her heart tearing apart with each second.
"No, it won't," He disagreed, turning he walked away saying, "I'm heading back to the Citadel, I'll let them decide if they believe your story."
She just watched as he walked away without looking back for a moment, or maybe he did, and she couldn't see since her eyes were so blurred with unshed tears. She just talked into her comm, just barely talking in a normal tone, "Joker, send the shuttle to pick us up. I've had enough of this colony."
Authors Note: I know I said I'd have a longer chapter, but having to choose between getting this out sooner for you to read or wait longer I decided to please you all with a chapter to read sooner rather than later, please tell me how you liked it!