Well guys, I have been fretting over this one. I swear, it was one of the weirdest chapters I have written so far, and it made me stop a few times, re-write the entire thing and just sigh "what did I smoke when I came up with this?" In the end though, I came up with something that would make the Star Child nightmares crap their pants.
"Kid on fire? Bitch please!"
That being said, the poll is doing great. The current result is a bit tricky though, as it's pretty much 50% 50%... still, I know which one I prefer, but I'll let you guys and girls be the judges. Anyway, we all know what's going to happen now, or at least you'll probably say "I knew it" or "called it" after this chapter, but, let's get the show on the road.
Shadows of the Past
"Well this is new... sort of." Anna muttered, looking around her new surroundings.
She was standing, or floating, in what looked like a big empty room. She could hear faint whispers in the darker corners of the room, as well as some sort of music being played. Most of all it sounded like someone grinding a dubstep-player beneath a set of car-tires.
"So... anyone feeling like filling me in on what's going on?" She called to the room, half-expecting to get a response. None came, of course, as it was evident she was alone in the room.
"Well then..." She stated, walking along the walls, their textures changing all the time. It was strange, but when she came to a corner, it was as if it ceased to be a corner, and instead just became a new length of wall. Maybe it was all an optical illusion, and the room was in fact circular.
"Price?" She called, hoping he would be around to give her a clue as to who or what she needed to beat up to get out of the doorless room. No response came, and she resigned to just run her fingers along the walls, walking around the room as she had nothing better to do.
That was when she looked at the center of the room, and a spherical object came into view.
It was silver, and was a perfect orb, no flaws or even signs of a cast. I looked as if it had been created as an orb, not as a metallic mineral in the ground.
Walking closer to it, she marveled at the perfection it displayed. It was beautiful, and it was perfect.
It was perfect, in all it was. She could have stood there all day, if it even was day, and she would not have been tired of looking at it. It was an amazing thing, like it was made by God himself, just to her.
It had to be a gift, yes, a gift to her.
She had deserved it, she had worked so hard to get where she was, that it couldn't be for anyone but her.
She could hear the whispering again, this time from inside the room.
They sounded familiar, like they were from people she knew.
"Anna..."
"Yeah?"
"Anna... Goddamn you're beautiful."
"Zaeed?" She called, remembering the only man who said 'God Dammit' in that way.
"Anna..."
"Where are you?" She called again, growing desperate as she heard new voices, Zaeed's gone as sudden as it had been there.
"She's dead! They killed my little girl!" She could hear the frantic sobbing of her uncle now, memories from so long past, and yet it was only five years.
Five years, since the Batarians had raided Mindoir. Five years, since her uncle Steve had lost his daughter to the Batarian slavers.
Five years, since Anna had added a new list of species she wanted to conquer to her list
"Anna! Help me, she's dying!" The scenery became woods now. The room had vanished, but the orb was still in the air, hovering a few inches above the muddy soil of some forrest.
"Jack?"
"Desolas shot her! Anna help me, I can't-"
"JACK!" She screamed, remembering the day when alien life had veered its head at humanity, and with a scowl instead of a smile.
Eva had been so young, so sweat. She had done no wrong to anybody, had always been the bright spot when the days were dark. When the three of them had nothing to do, she would be the one who would crack a joke, make them laugh and even find the odd positive things in their line of work.
"She's dead! They killed Eva!" The sobs were clear now, the disembodied voice crying and screaming for all to hear. Anna, now with tears starting to run down her slightly wrinkled cheeks, started running through the woods, running, just to get away from the orb.
It had stopped being beautiful, now it was just hideous. A hideous reminder of what had made the once bright and cheery girl, so incredibly full of hate.
"Humanity is a plague, and I intend to cure you from the galaxy!" She could hear Desolas' mad ramblings, the voice haunting her through the woods.
"Shut UP!" She screamed, running with the tears starting to obscure her vision. She could feel the overwhelming urge to just sit down and cry, just sit down and give in to the fear and the grief.
"A pity you will not be able to see it when I lead the new Turians to your homeworld. We will cleanse it, make it free of your primate race, and then we will colonize it, and wipe all records of your species. You will be forgotten, as it is supposed to be."
"SHUT UP!" She screamed again, clenching her ears in an attempt to make the voices go away, to make the devil made form go away.
"There can be no talk of "reparations". You caused this yourselves by opening a forbidden Relay." She could hear it was a new Turian, the Councilor before Sparatus. It had been all over the news that the "insolent new species" wanted to make the Council pay for the First Contact War, or as it had become known, the Relay 314 "incident".
Anna could feel her mind grating against its borders, her brain in pain as if it was on fire. She could feel emotions welling up inside her chest. They were loss, grief, sorrow, hate, anger, rage, murder and evil. She wanted to be evil to the people who had done so much evil against her species.
"Mummy, why is grandpa crying?" Jill... she could hear Jill's voice. The youngest of her daughters, just ten when the attack on Mindoir had happened, she was a raven-haired boy-scare now. It could be because of her mother being the admiral who cut off the balls of slavers, or because she was just plain simple an admiral. Or maybe it was because Jill had broken a guy's jaw when he had tried getting his way with her at a bar, when she was only fourteen.
Anna had always taken pride in her children being able to defend themselves.
"Jill, leave mummy alone, she's... she's sad too." Amanda, the oldest, had been the one who knew Emma Hackett, the daughter of Stephen Hackett and mother of Megan Hackett. She had been like a bigger sister, not an aunt, to Amanda, and it was clear to everyone just how devastated the girl had been.
"Stop fucking with my head!" She shouted, throwing rocks at the sphere that never let up its pursuit, always hovering just out of reach, but close enough that she could see the oily shadows pouring from it.
"After today... Humanity will need someone to stand up for it, even if it doesn't want it... You understand what I'm saying here, Anna?" She could hear Jack again, in the time up and to the point where he defected from the Alliance and formed Cerberus.
"Fisher... thanks, I need a drink. I saw... Boga, it was horrible!" Now, it wasn't Jack's voice anymore, but Oleg's. The man had just returned from a wet-work operation in the Dakka system, and what he had found had changed him. It was strange, had been strange, to see the normally happy, bear-like admiral so destroyed. He had cracked to her, told her just what he had found, what horrors humans had done to children.
Humanity, as it was, was not without its own demons itself.
Stopping, she pulled a large rock from the ground and heaved it over her head, then sent it flying against the sphere. Instead of bouncing off of the orb, the rock hit air as the silvery ball simply floated around it.
Then, she felt it.
"Admiral Fisher. You can hear me, you are alive. This is not real" She stopped breathing for a moment, the voice being so fundamentally different from anything she had heard before, she had to think for moment before she recognized it.
"Roku?"
"Good that the Reaper has not yet corrupted your memory. Admiral, you collapsed in your office. Currently you are in a bed in the hospital closest to it. Your uncle Hackett, as well as your lover Zaeed Massani and brother Thomas are there as well. I am using his body to enter your mind, creating a slightly disturbing scene outside your mind."
"Seems to me you have a strange way of inviting a lady for a date." She mused, a strange feeling of serenity creeping into her, banishing the tingling darkness and the black, oily tendrils that had started creeping into the periphery of her vision.
"Perhaps, but you are not my type Admiral, so that point is mood." He said, as a green-blue fog started growing into a shape in front of her. Before long, it was the shape of an old man, dressed in royal gowns with a long white beard, as well as a crown-like object in his hair. He looked Asiatic, maybe Japanese in his clothing, but his face was European.
"So... this is what you look like?"
"Yes, yes, but we need to get you out of here."
"So do it." She said, sneaking a look at the sphere, the orb currently being held back in a shimmering barrier of blue fire.
"Sadly, I would kill Thomas if I simply brought you out again. No, you need to do it yourself, though I can give you the tools for your own salvation."
"Not making a lot of sense here..."
"Simply put, you are now in a mental version of the conscious matrix. Anything you can think up, will be yours to use. As well as anything bad you have suppressed, memories for an instance, can come back to haunt you."
"In other words, I can think 'Cheeseburger' and I get a burger?"
"Odd way to put it, but yes."
"So, how do I use the tools?"
"Destroy the source, end the dream." He said. As Roku spoke, Anna closed her eyes, thinking up a way to destroy the orb. Now, it was no longer about surviving, but about destroying an enemy. Peculiar then, that when she looked back to the orb, it had stopped being just that, an orb.
"What the..." Anna stammered, seeing something she had never expected to see, not even after a portion of cannabis.
"She is not real Anna." Roku said, his voice stern as he flared with blue-green fire, yet remained where he was. In front of Anna, and slowly walking towards her, was Emma Hackett, the woman covered in scars, her clothes torn and her hair halfway burned from the blistering skin on her head.
"Anna...where am I?" She said, a very frail and scared voice being all Anna heard.
"Em- Em- Emma?" The admiral croaked out, feeling her throat clench as she saw the dead woman walk towards her, the girl's dark hair falling off in strands, leaving a thin trail behind her. Tears were streaming down her face, her skin peeling off in slow and disgusting shows of horrible wounds.
"EMMA!" Anna screamed, throwing herself at her cousin, the younger woman simply walking towards her. Anna paid it no mind that Emma was more than twenty years younger than she had been when she died. She just saw her cousin, dying all over again.
As Anna reached her, the girl fell, caught in the last moment as the old Admiral wrapped her arms around the decaying form, the skin now peeling off in large flakes, leaving the bare flesh and tendons underneath to sprout free, oozing blood over Anna's hands as she tried stopping the bleeding.
"EMMA NO! NO, FUCKING HELL NO! NOOOO!" Anna screamed, sobbing and screaming and sobbing as she tried stopping skin and flesh from leaving the bone. Clenching her cousin in her grasp, Anna saw to her ever growing horror how Emma's teeth started falling out, dropping inside her mouth or simply falling from it, like so many strands of hair fell from the blistered head.
She could see how the flesh itself shrunk, turning the woman in her arms into little more than a walking corpse. She cried, she cried and she fidgeted at the remains of the skin, desperately trying to tell herself that if she could hold onto it, her cousin would live.
"Anna, she isn't real" Roku said again, but Anna was nowhere near interested in listening to him.
"EMMA!" She cried out, her vision becoming even more clouded as the dark tendrils started creeping into her vision again. She didn't mind, didn't care at all. All she knew, was that her cousin, her sister-in-mind, was dying in her arms. She could see how the eyes, the once-so-bright sparks of life, were cold and dead. There wasn't anything left in them, just dead flesh and ocular gel. The red webbing of blood-vessels in the dark-green eyes were brown and dead, the blood flow having been removed as more and more wounds opened up.
Her clothing was burning, eaten up by a bright fire that seemed completely to ignore Anna, focusing only on the half-dead woman in her arms. Beneath the clothing, she saw nothing. There was no flesh, no skin or even bone. The person just ended where she had known her cousin's appearance. Instead of human, there was something else in its place.
Anna shrunk back, horror and insanity in her eyes as she saw the synthetic fibers and electronics covering the area where Emma's clothes had been. The breasts were not there, instead just a small rise of electronic board, all dark and blue and glowing. The soft, pulsating lights coming from the electrodes and circuits.
The dark area began to spread, appearing wherever the flesh fell off.
"What's happening to her!?" Anna screamed, her voice long-since broken by the unimaginable horror playing out in front of her.
"It is indoctrination. Your Indoctrination. This is all a dream, a hallucination cast upon you as a last resort by the Reapers, probably due to the removal of the parts."
"Why can't I save her?!" She cried, falling to her knees as the corpse of her cousin became fully covered in electronic darkness, ending all life within.
"She is not real Anna. All of this is the Reapers trying to press your greatest fears and weaknesses, your hatreds and your regrets, on you. There is only one way to end it." His voice was clear of all emotion, sounding most of all like a machine. A programmed VI who just said what it was supposed to.
"What is it? TELL ME!" She cried, averting her eyes from the corpse in front of her. At the same time, twitching movements were starting to come from the body.
"You must destroy the source of the Indoctrination... the form of your Cousin." If there was a tone of regret in his voice, Anna couldn't hear it over the sound of her own screams as the corpse got on its feet, dark saliva running from a mechanical mouth as the nanobots finished taking over the body.
The thing, the corpse or whatever it was, was at first just looking at Anna, its dead eyes shining with an unnatural blue glow. Anna felt grief and shock rake her body as she tried comprehending what the ghost told her to do. Then, it opened its mouth, showing off what had once been white teeth in red flesh, now reduced to metallic flesh, complete with iron-shaded teeth looking more like those of a predator or a skeleton than a human being. A low, gurgling sound came from its throat, sounding like something was choking on its own blood. Where the fingers had once been, complete with red nails, now were only five metallic claws, each complete with a sharp end that teemed with blue energy.
It was a Husk.
Emma was a Husk.
"Anna! Destroy it now!" She didn't register his voice, seeing only how the Husk in front of her was bobbing its head a little as it observed her, flexing its fingers and feet. Then it started moving, slow deliberate steps towards her. Anna started backing away, not knowing what to do, even if she had the mind to destroy her cousin, she had no way of doing it.
"If Thomas asks why he's got a nosebleed now, I'm saying it's your fault." Roku sneered, then changed form. Where he had before just been a pale ghost, a spectral being, he was now fully materialized as a human. Pointing his hands at the Husk, he let loose a long gust of bright, crimson fire.
At first, it looked as if the Husk would melt away and die, but as the flames started dying down, it was still standing, dark tendrils coating its body.
"ROKU, YOU ARE AN ANNOYANCE, A SPECK ON THE CONSCIENCE OF GREATER BEINGS. YOUR MASTER IS IRRELEVANT, YOUR POWERS USELESS IN THE MINDS OF OTHERS" The new voice came from everywhere, and yet nowhere, and was the coldest thing Anna had ever heard or felt in her life. As a response, Roku blasted the Husk again, bathing the creature in green and blue flames, scorching the terrain in the process. Yet all he did, was making the Husk change its focus from Anna to him.
"A WORTHY EFFORT, BUT FUTILE. YOUR FEEBLE POWERS WILL NOT HELP IN THE MIND OF A WEAK MORTAL. WE ARE INFINITE, WE ARE DOMINANT. YOU ARE A RELIC OF AGES PAST."
Feeling the rage starting to coarse through her, Anna saw the travesty visited upon her cousin. Her once so beautiful cousin with the raven hair, butchered and altered beyond recognition. There was no humanity left in her, just a cold, calculating mass of machinery.
"You will burn, along with Nazara and Harbinger! I will see to it myself if I have to!" Roku bellowed, his voice like an old God as he commanded fire to spring from his body and onto the Husk. And still it did no visible damage.
"Anna, only you can harm the Husk, it is your mind. Take the reins" She could hear a voice in her head, but it was softer than the booming voice Roku used. Still, she understood the message.
Using her wrath and anger to stay standing, Anna picked up a large rock from the ground, its weight enough to make her muscles strain under the weight. The Husk was still focused on Roku, still being bathed in the exotic flames.
She staggered up behind the Husk, feeling as the flames nipped at her skin, scorching away her hair.
"LEAVE MY MIND ALONE YOU FUCKING SWINE!" She screamed, then brought the rock down on the Husk's head.
...
Fuuuuuck! This hurts like hell!
I can't even begin to guess how long time has passed, but I can feel my clothes being drenched in sweet and I can barely keep standing.
Blue fire, was probably the biggest surprise I have gotten all day, maybe next after what happened to Anna. I'm still not sure just what or how this is working, but it's a fully different feeling than the green fire, leaving me in a buzzing state of emotion, not the pure rage I felt on Teltin. This is more like getting shocked than getting burned.
I'm not sure which I prefer actually.
"It is done... she is safe." Roku's voice almost makes me set the bed on fire at sheer surprise. Holy Divines, don't give me a scare like that again!
"You can let the flames go, they are not needed anymore." He says, and I stop concentrating, allowing the blue fire to simply dissipate into thin trails of smoke.
"Talos... that was weird..." I mutter, trying to flex my fingers, finding them stiff as sticks.
"You goddamn right it was weird, what the hell was that?" The newcomer asks from behind me. Well, asks is not the right word when talking about Zaeed, but demanding sounds too rude to be fair when I just kicked my brain in the balls to save my sister.
"Call it my magic-trick Captain... but fuck me sideways my head hurts!" I say, sliding down the wall next to Anna's bed.
"Corporal, I know asking seems unnecessary, but what on Earth did you just do?" Hackett says, handing me a glass of water along with a pill. Nodding, I accept the pill, swallowing it before washing it down in a single gulping motion.
"Hell is I know for sure sir... but I'm pretty sure it worked." It did work, right?
"Yes, as I said, it worked. Also... she saw some horrifying things in there. I erased her memory of the worst parts, but... there were things I had to leave as they were."
"I mean, will she be alright?" Honestly I couldn't care less about the rest right now.
"Yes, again, she will be alright."
"Where... Uncle? Zaeed?" A new voice brings me up from my seat on the floor. On the bed, Anna has opened her eyes, looking around as she seems to be in a state of utter confusion. Not even thinking, I fly from the floor, over the low railing on her bed, then hugging her as hard as I can, feeling tears come down my face.
"Fuck Anna, don't ever scare us like that again, you hear me?" I swear, trying to get the words out as hard. My big grin is making it difficult though. Sensing her gently shoving me away, I take the cue, standing against her bedside as Zaeed leans in, kissing her full on the face.
"Agree with the stump there, don't ever do that to me again you crazy wench." He grins, his voice somewhat muffled as she wraps her arms around his back, pulling his head closer in. Hackett, probably feeling a bit like a third wheel, waits until she lets Zaeed go, the steps up to the bed.
"You really gave me a scare there Anna. I was going to call up the kids... taken straight from school to see their brain-dead mum... not something I ever want to do." He says with a voice speaking of a deep love and caring.
"Me neither. I generally prefer to stay alive, as well as in control of myself. Being a vegetable never really spoke to me." She grins, somehow having a good mood despite whatever she just went through. Turning her face to look at me, her eyes widen a little; "Sorry, but... who are you?"
I am almost sent staggering back by her question, as is the two old men next to her bed. Of course, me being the target of her question, I am the one most shocked by it.
Not being able to say anything, I just open and close my mouth, not knowing what to say or how to respond.
"Ahh, I'm just fucking with you. Damn I'm glad to see you Thomas. By the way, sorry for the nosebleed, apparently that one is on me, though I can't remember why." She smiles as she speaks, making me want to both hug and punch her. Though I do neither, I shake my head, sighing with a smile.
"Anyone ever told you you behave like a teen sometimes?" I ask.
"More than once, yet she never seems to listen when I do." Hackett says, drawing a grin from Anna.
"Aw come on Uncle, you know I try. It's just too tempting making a little fun here and there." She grins, flashing us a smile. As I'm about to answer, the door opens, revealing a panting Garrus, followed by an even more exhausted Ashley.
"What are you, five?" Hackett says, then turning to face the newcomers.
"...Maybe." Anna says, and I swear she has the most childish voice as she does. I shake my head, preparing for the no doubt huge amount of berating I'm about to be on the receiving end of.
"Thomas, where the... why is Admiral Fisher here, on a bed?" Ash says, breaking off her line as she spots Anna sitting up in the bed, a pair of thin, dried bloodstreams coming from her nose. Before I can answer, Hackett steps up next to me, motioning for us to follow him out the door. Outside, he then leads us to a nearby office, not even bothering to send off Garrus. Being a Turian, he isn't really part of the Alliance, but after this shitstorm, I don't think Hackett really cares.
"Alright..." He says, slumping down in an office-chair, yet managing to do it with all the grace and style of a legendary admiral. Me, Ash and Garrus keep standing, our backs rigid and in as much of an 'attention'-like stance as it is possible; "At ease... after this I really don't bother with the formalities. Take a seat or keep standing, your choice." He mutters, massaging his temples.
"Admiral Hackett, sir. Are you alright?" Ash says, causing the admiral to look up from under his cap, then take it off before wiping his brow with it.
"My niece will live. Beyond that, I appreciate your concern but it is more my business what my personal condition is, miss Williams... Now, I am going to get straight to the point." He says, the hesitating for a moment before nodding at the door.
"Will one of you please lock the door?" He says. Seeing as Garrus is closest, I sit down on a desk across the room from Hackett, Ashley still standing. When Garrus has activated the lock, the Turian stands at attention at it, waiting for something to happen.
"Now... Corporal Fisher, I'll put it plain and simple. The Alliance needs what you have, and we need it badly. We all saw the recordings of what you did on Valhalla, as well as on Pragia. If we can find a way to utilize this, copy it in some way, we stand to make a whole new breed of soldiers." He says, looking more hopeful than I would be. The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure Roku told him 'no' at the last meeting.
I sigh;
"Admiral, I don't even know if that is possible. Roku himself said it couldn't be done when we met the last time."
"I know, but we need it. Can you tell him to look for a way, any way at all, or can I ask him myself?" Hackett says, looking me in the eyes.
"Admiral, I have already once declined this possibility. It strained the mind of Thomas to its limits to do what I did."
"Yes, and I understand that, but I am looking into every option there is here. Can't you look again, I don't know how, but find a way?"
"Ehm... sir, no offence meant, but you are being kinda relaxed about this whole "spirit-thing"... how?" Garrus says, flaring his mandibles a bit. Hell, I still remember how 'Spirits' was the only word he could get over his lips back then, so it's no wonder he is a bit perplexed.
"None taken. Honestly, I have been in the service for more than fifty years. I have seen enough battles, and enough extraordinary situations to have a good grasp on the galaxy. While this specific subject does have a lot of surprises... It isn't the first time I have seen groundbreaking, logic-defying events occur before my eyes. To put it short: I've seen crazier shit." Hackett says, causing me to lift a finger in question, then take it back down. I am not really sure just what to ask.
Also I'm pretty sure he'd just call it "classified" and be done with it.
"If it would please you, why not. Still, my influence, you must understand, is limited to what Thomas's mind can handle. If I did what you asked, and tried sharing my powers among more people, I would cause a violent and irreparable cluster of tumors and hemorrhages in his neural mapping, as well as, humanly put, boil his brain is a few thousand degrees Celsius."
"Ah... and there isn't anything in his genes you have altered?"
"You are asking Admiral, if you can use blood- and tissue samples to copy what I have done? In that case, it is a 'no' as well. It all depends on me being near, and I am always in his mind." Roku says. Hey, I am standing right here... can you try not talking about me as if I'm not here? I mutter.
"A strange request..."
"Fuck off... ah, sorry, my head just feels like it's hammering my brain with a sledge."
"Damn... okay, there is another option as well. Fisher, I dare assume you know of the Ascension Program?" He says. Thinking for a few moments, I remember that it's the program training human biotics after the shit-storm with Brain-Camp.
"Yeah, it's where we train human biotics... why?" Even though I'm starting to have a suspicion as to why he asks. Great, board-school... again.
"For the time being you are an important asset in hunting down Saren and stopping whatever work he and the Reapers have going on together. However, as soon as that is taken care of, I want you for an evaluation at Grissom Academy. At the very least we need to see if we can improve what you can do, since we can't share it." Well shit...
"Yes sir... may I ask, if we... you, can't improve it, what then?"
"In that case we'll just have to use you wisely. I won't sugar-coat it, Anna taught me that. You are not as important as what you can do is important. I understand the limitations for your powers somewhat, and I know you can be killed. For now though, we don't have much of a strategy in that field." He says, trailing off.
"Yes sir... anything else?" I ask.
"There is, yes." He says, standing from the chair before walking to stand before me, extending his hand. Fuck, I have sweaty palms! Even as I think this, a suctioning sensation appears in my hands, and they dry up. Thanks. I take the admiral's hand.
"Thank you for saving my niece. I know you didn't do it for me, but thank you. She is more than just a valuable asset, she is the closest thing I have to a daughter." I am not sure what to say, so I just nod and smile, shaking his hand.
"Now, there is another thing. It came in from Anna's office earlier, but I couldn't bring myself to bother with it while she was there." He says, retrieving a datapad from Gods-only-know-where, and hands it to me.
"Pass this on to your commander. It's everything we know on the Reapers so far, and something else. Dismissed." He says, standing tall while snapping to a salute. We all copy it, even Garrus who technically isn't Alliance.
"Sir." Ash and I say, then exit the room.
...
Arcturus station, Arcturus Stream
Hospital ward
21:11
"Commander John'Shepard vas Normandy nar Rayya."
That was the name written in both human and Kheelish letters on the uniform worn by the young Quarian. Truthfully, he had never really imagined, nor wanted to be a commanding officer in a navy as powerful as that of the Systems Alliance. At the most, he had wanted to be a captain of a small ship someday, maybe have a few hundred people under his command, come home from his pilgrimage with something that, while not bring back Rannoch, could lessen the problems of the Quarian people.
"Mmmm?"
"It sounds so... important." Tali whispered.
Of course, there were benefits to serving the Alliance. A clean-room was one of them.
"I guess it is." He muttered, letting her lean back into his embrace. While he couldn't take off his suit completely, out of fear for the risk he might contaminate the room somehow, he could have his helmet off, as well as his gloves though. And risking a little cold, or a big cold, was worth it right now.
Tali sighed, snuggling into his embrace in the dimly lit room. They were resting in a surprisingly comfortable type of seating, what humans had called a 'beanbag' chair. John had been to Earth before, and he had seen beans.
He couldn't see the similarity. Yet, it was the most comfortable thing he had sat in since he woke up on the Normandy, seeing as this was so far the only chair he could adjust to Quarian legs. Not those weird straight legs the humans and Asari had. True, he might get sick from this, but as he burrowed his chin in Tali's dark, flowing hair, he knew one thing.
It was totally worth it.
Tali herself was still only wearing the looser suit, the clothing hanging a bit at places, as she herself had been the one to try adjusting it. It was a strange thing, he reckoned, that he wouldn't get to see her face until she had almost been killed in a crashing tank.
"John?" Tali muttered, her voice sounding tired and heavy, possible from the comfort she was in the thick of, feeling as the soft material beneath John and her allowed for a delighting seat. She would shiver with pleasure from time to time, as John's fingers gently worked out some knobs of tension in her shoulders, before going back to holding her waist.
"Tali?" He answered, his voice just as drunken with tired comfort.
"I never asked, but... have you ever wished you could have been born as a human?" She asked, feeling as his muscles stiffened a bit from the surprise of her question.
"...No, why?" He asked, stroking her hair behind her elongated ear, gently touching them pointy tip, flipping it down and up before continuing.
"They never have to worry about breathing the air of their surroundings, or getting a small cut... or just getting sick. They don't have to wear suits, or to live in ships all their lives." She mumbled, turning to better sit in his lap. She leaned her head back, resting her chin against his. She closed her eyes, relaxing and enjoying a rare moment of intimacy with her bondmate.
They might not be formally bonded yet, but a Quarian only ever loved one person in his or her life, and for both Tali and John, that one person was the one they were currently snuggling against.
"Good point... but if I had been a human, I might never had met you." He mused, kissing her cheek. True, there might be a reason for what Tali had said. John could still remember the chilling moment when she had told him what she had learned on Therum. He was supposed to be a human?
Insane as it was, it would make some sense in areas he had yet to understand. For once, why he had been made commander of a human ship. People like Anderson, or even Pressley or Alenko seemed much more suited for it, and they were humans. As the Normandy was human/Turian, even Nihlus could have assumed command. And yet, they had chosen him, some random Quarian that just happened to know both Chakwas and Hackett from Akuze.
The galaxy was a weird place, if one was given the time to ponder it.
A series of knocks on the door, the material having been polarized to avoid on-lookers, broke the scene of comfort and happiness, forcing John to focus on something other than Tali.
"Who is it?" Tali called, sounding just as annoyed as he was.
"Corporal Thomas Fisher. Tali, is John in there." The voice asked. An advantage of the door's material, was that, with a press of her Tool, Tali made it a one-way window, allowing her to see Thomas, Garrus and Williams outside it.
"Why would he be in here?" She asked, determined not to lose her long-last moment of intimacy with John.
"Tali, the glass may be polarized, but there are two life-signatures in there. If you aren't swapping stories with Jane, it better be John in there." Ashley said, a slight tone of annoyance, as well as humor in her voice.
"Dammit... Alright Tal, seems we had our moment..." John muttered, gently leveraging her off his body; "Yes, I'm here... what is it?" He asked, slipping on gloves, boots and helmet.
The hair was always the worst part, getting the silvery strands to fit in the tubes. For reasons Chakwas hadn't been able to explain, the surgery, or torture if you weren't Cerberus, he had gone through, had killed the cells supposed to maintain his hair-coloration. So instead of the typical Quarian black-purple hair, he had hair like an old human. Funny thing was, even old Quarians had dark hair. There was of course the occasional Albino, but that was about all the old Quarians with white or silver hair he could think off.
"I've got something for you from Admiral Hackett, John. It's pretty important... also, I just found a new use for my powers, so it's been a pretty weird day so far." Thomas said from the other side of the door.
Thát got John in the rest of his suit faster than normally, and he was in the decon-chamber only a few seconds later, fastening the last seals as the door hissed open, revealing the sick-room's residents, minus Tengberg, to be looking at him. Despite the door having hid everything, he felt a violent blush coming down his Faysakts, the dark lines going over his forehead. A great deal of arteries went there, to supply the amount of biochemical actions the body carried out in the areas with the tell-tale lines of dark skin. This also caused it to blush much more vividly than the regular skin, giving an odd appearance of being embarrassed in the forehead, not the cheeks.
A good thing his helmet hid it then.
Thomas stood ready with the datapad and no questions asked, but with a knowing grin plastered all over his face. Typical, now that the corporal seemed to get his regular dose of Ashley Williams, he was nowhere near the same old, shy and sheepish, if socially weird, marine John had picked up on Eden Prime.
Reading through the datapad, John felt his good mood first go a little higher, reading that the Corporal had been recommended for a promotion. Then, as he reached the important part, his mood went down the drain.
"Well... what does it say?" Garrus said, rolling his neck in his civilian attire. The bowl was still there and John, who had never seen a naked Turian, thank the Ancestors, wondered what a Turian did when it rained. Did water collect in their faces, or did they pour it out. Still, what he was reading shoved those thoughts from his mind faster than he could have shoved a Volus over a ledger.
"Williams, what's the status on the Normandy." He said, hoping the woman knew as much about the Normandy as she gave the impression of.
"The new engines were installed last night. Joker and Adams have been testing them all morning. I don't think Adams slept at all. Why, we're finally going out again?" she said, the question asked with a warrior-like grit.
"Gather the crew" He said, then shot a glance to the four crewmen in their beds, one even still in a coma; "Those ready for action that is, and meet up at the docking-tube for the Normandy. You can catch your next shut-eye on the ship. We're heading for Virmire" He said, then nodded to those still in healing, and walked out the door.
When he left the room, he activated his Omni-tool;
"Jane, I need you to check if there are more of the Bulwark-suits ready. We need one for Wrex at the very least."
"You know, some day I should order you around, Captain and all."
"Just do it, we're shipping out before midnight."
"Great, and here I was planning some heavy drinking." She said in a honestly disappointed voice.
"Well, you can drink when we're underway, it's thirty hours to Virmire." He said. As he uttered the last word, he could hear something crash on the floor on her end, as well as a person falling to the ground.
"Jane? Talk to me Captain." John heard a new voice, that of Kaidan's, speak in worried tones. In the back of his mind, he told himself to pull Tequila out the next chance he got. The corporal had been adamant that Garrus would be the one to get close to the Commander first, and had betted a good sum on it too.
"Kaidan, talk to me Lieutenant, what's going on?"
"Sorry Commander... Jane just tripped and smashed a bottle of whiskey... the strong stuff."
"Drunk already?" He asked as he made his way through the corridors. Now that he knew a few certain people were on the station, he wanted to check in with them. At least, with the two of them who had been like parents to him.
"Eh, no. She... we, only bought the liquor. Eight bottles of Scotch, as well as a few extra bottles. She hasn't had a taste of the stuff yet commander."
"Oh... is she alright?" John asked, feeling a bit concerned that maybe something he had said had done it.
"I'm fine. Just... we're going to Virmire?" Jane said from the other side of the channel.
"Yes, apparently that's where the Reaper-ships came from. Just got the Intel from Hackett. We're shipping out as soon as possible."
"Fuck... alright, I'll see if I can't dig up some new gear in the meantime. How long did you say we had?"
"About two-and a half hour. Then we set out."
"Damn, okay I can do that. I'm sending Kaidan back with the bottles in the meantime."
"What?"
"You heard me, get moving Lieutenant." There was a sound of glass being piled, and the grumbling of the Canadian officer as the two of them parted ways.
"Alright, I'll have to pay the armory a new visit then. He wasn't supposed to have a set ready for everyone before next week, but I think at least one or two should be ready. Meet you at the ship, Jane out."
John turned off the Omni-tool, the headed down the final corridor where a few guards, marines, were stationed outside the doors. He didn't want to admit it, but he knew why guards were necessary. When he had been to Earth, before all the events with Saren started, he had found that there were humans who agreed with the Council, that the Quarians were trash.
One of the guards spotted him, but put down the hand from his sidearm when he saw John was a Quarian. Not that it was easy to see, because it wasn't like he was wearing a suit and had the glass-mask and the inverted legs or anything like that.
"Is this the residence of Admiral Shala'Raan?" He asked. The guard looked to his colleague, then back to John and nodded.
"Would you tell her I am here? I'm John'Shepard vas Normandy nar Rayya." He said, watching as the guard hesitated, then knocked on the door.
...
"Well... seems like it ended up being Virmire anyway, huh?" I ask, trying to sound happy about it. In truth, I feel terrible about it.
This is where everything is even scripted to go wrong, and no matter how much I've worked to butcher Canon so far, I just can't get rid of the feeling that something horrible is going to happen. That someone is going to die.
"I know, I know... I'm just being paranoid, or whatever it's called. For all we know, it might just be a picnic, right?" I say, smiling; "You know... I kinda thought, when I found you, that we would do this shit together. Lazy bastard." I mutter, forcing the tears to stay from my eyes. It's pretty fucking difficult.
Nicolai doesn't respond, of course, as he probably can't even hear me. One good piece of news though, is that since it takes more than a full day-cycle to get to Virmire from here, as well as however much time we'll spend there and back again, he's probably out of the coma by the time we get back.
"I know, you ain't lazy, I'm the weak shit who never had the balls to face a girl, yada yada yada... Thing is though, I did Mate, I did. I have been to places, emotional places you know, and don't you dare call me a gayboy now, but places where everything was beautiful and nice and warm and... shit, I don't know. It's hard, knowing you won't be there when Jane or John... probably Jane, kicks Saren's ass on that orb of green piss they call Virmire." I huff, leaning on my elbow on his bed.
"I somehow always imagined you with a big-ass gun hammering Saren with a barrage, then pound him with your bare fists, you know? Seeing that powerhouse you can let out, and just watch you pound Saren with it. Hell, the only reason I'd win if we arm wrestled now, would be because I have an artificial hand that would put the I Robot guy, forgot his name, to shame." I grin, flexing the fingers. They look like flesh, move like flesh, but I know they are not.
"Weird, really, that we ended up like this, don't you think?" I say, hoping for a reaction. While I feel I have to say my goodbyes before we leave, I just hate speaking to someone I don't even know if is listening. It's pretty fucking depressing actually.
"Oh yeah, one last thing. I can do blue now too. Pretty cool huh?" I ask, deliberately not mentioning just what kind of blue it is, with that Adrian guy lying over there; "Yeah I thought so too, when I discovered it. You know, if all else fails, I can probably beat up Saren myself, yeah? With my sword or just burn him?" I try, leaning back with a final sigh.
Talking to a comatose really isn't what they make it out to be. It's not some big revelation-like moment, not some scene where you feel like confessing brotherly love. It's just... like talking to a pillow, or a dead object, knowing he can't hear me.
"Yeeaaah I know... I should just focus on getting all of us out alive... You know Mate, this is the longest time you've ever shut up while I was around. I wonder... never mind, it's not important." I mutter the last part, getting to my feet. I've already said my goodbyes to the others. Boss even had half a mind wanting to go despite his leg.
The guy is hardcore, I'll give him that.
"Well... I suppose this is where I ride into the sunset. Except I don't even know if this system has a sun, or if we're just floating between the Relays. Also, it's half past eleven, the sun would be down by now anyway." I smile, pulling in some air. Placing a hand on his shoulder, I linger for a few moments, feeling like this is the last time I'm ever going to see him.
"Take care, you crazy son of a... well, your mother was one heck of a nice woman, so... son of a great chef then. You know, I only started eating cooked corn again because your dad was so good at making it, I just had to take... right, getting going. Go get gething, I thing they say... why I have no clue." I say, turning my back to his bed. I turn and look again, somehow needing to make sure he's still there, and not up and running or something. Heh, I bet he's dreaming about Tequila... Roku, do comatose patients even dream?
"A few have been recorded to do so, but it is rare."
"So... in theory, he could be dreaming about Tequila?"
"You have some sort of obsession with joining people on the ship?"
"Not really, more of an obsession observing their relationships play out. You know I was always a sucker for romances."
"Yes, and look what that got you? Hit by a train, shot by geth, attempted murdered and abducted by Cerberus?"
"Doesn't matter, had sex" I grin.
"Did... by the Master, did you just say what I think you said?" He growls as I leave the room, nodding and waving my goodbyes.
"Doesn't matter, got laid... better?"
"Just... stop." He says, sounding a little annoyed.
"Ah, don't be such a downer. Who knows, you might just get to take over my body and beat the snot out of Saren."
"Heh, if only. Sovereign would be the bigger problem though, depending on where she- it is. A Reaper is not really the best thing to face on foot... unless you're a Krogan, but they hunt Thresher Maws with oversized pea-shooters, so why question evolution?"
"Well then... okay, if you say so." I say, being a little perplexed as to how the Krogan suddenly got involved. Reminds me that I better make sure not to be anywhere near Shepard if Grunt ever shows up. I do not want to participate in that Rite of Passage, or whatever they called it.
I don't look back as I head down the corridors, right in the direction of the docking bays. Somehow have a feeling Virmire is going to flip my shit, I just don't know why.
A little later, we're hauling some sort of crates on board. John did a few words when we were all assembled in front of the ship, told the rest of them we were heading to Virmire. Both Ash and Jane looked a little sick. Actually, Jane looked visibly ill at the sheer mention of the name. The rest of the crew, whomever didn't get either killed or maimed on Valhalla, seems to be in a good spirit.
Kaidan hauled what looked like heavy bags of booze on board the ship a little while ago, making me suspect my assumption of alcohol being banned on the ship, as being wrong. Damn, I could have bought a crate of Ale the last time we hit the Citadel. Now I probably won't get the chance until we hit the whole 'Saren invades' thing. Bugger me...
"Thomas, do you even lift?" Tequila asks with a strained voice, causing me to snap back to reality. We're hauling a metallic container on to the ship, through the cargo-bay doors. Even though we have both Eezo and wheels to help, the thing is still a bitch to get up the ramp.
"Fuck, what the hell is in this thing? Titanium?" I curse, pushing all that I can, even going close to lighting myself on fire in the process.
"Hell if I know, just get it on to the ship... we still have one more to... oh wait, Wrex just took that." She says, causing me to look back at Wrex, the Krogan simply picking up his own container, carrying it on his shoulder as he moves past us. I shoot Teresa a look.
"Not. A. Word." She says, then proceeds to haul the container the last ditch over the ramp, allowing us to relax as it rests on the level floor of the hangar. I just look at her, not understanding her resentment at first. Then I remember how she and Wrex had that weird, somewhat amoral contest a few days back.
Who the hell almost breaks an arm arm-wrestling a Krogan Warlord, and then has the... well, balls, I guess, to challenge him as soon as the bones stop hurting? I swear, I'll never fully understand women.
"That's it then..." She says, tapping her ear; "We're ready down here Jeff, close the hangar." She says. Instantly, the large bay-door closes, sliding shut like a drawbridge.
"Yeah, one piece of solid concrete is onboard... fuck, how can we even take off with this kind of weight?" I ask, panting as I lean on my thighs.
"Well, the Mako is gone, we lost about twenty tons of tank that way." Tequila says. "I wonder, if we could get them to build an UH-Cheyenne. That... was a bird that could dish out some hurt, and then we could get a proper tank... of course, the IFV we used to drive in couldn't fly." She says. Remembering how she was shot down in the game, I can't help a small, if wrong, grin.
"Hey, wasn't that bird also shot down by what, two plasma-rounds?" I ask, narrowly dodging the fist on course to my shoulder.
"Try stripping your tanks or gunships of shielding, and then fire a regular bullet at them. Pretty sure those tin cans would crap themselves." She says, sneering. I hold up my hands in defense, of some sort.
"I know, I know, the Mantis couldn't take a bullet from a regular rifle without the shields. But didn't you see those gunships the tenth fleet picked us up in?" I ask, opening my locker to make sure everything is there. Yup, my Lancer, my sidearm, that Carnifex with the weird muzzle is there, my shotgun is here, with some scrapes over the barrel but still and my sword is sitting in its magnetic clamp above the locker.
"I didn't, I was out cold. Tends to happen when you crash a tank." She says. I take the sword down, feeling the insane weight in my right hand before letting the left do the lifting.
"It was one of those... well, it looked like an LA/AT gunship. You know, those from Star Wars." I say, resting the pommel of the sword on my forearm as I let the weight be dispersed over the rest of the bionic arm. You can say what you will about Emhart, but he sure as hell knows how to built prosthetic limbs.
"Wait, since when the hell did... I knew our armor familiar, but I just though the commandoes had designed it, you know, from memory. No way they could design an entire gunship from memory though, so... how did we get thát?" Tequila asks, picking up her own rifle from her locker, the old Pulse-rifle having seen better days. Still, it is oddly more punch-packing than what we normally have. Funny really, as the grains the regular guns fire should have far more kinetic energy.
"Beats me... could be Kasumi, but how she would have gotten the designs, I have no idea." I shrug, placing the tip of the sword on the floor, holding the pommel in my palm while trying to tweak it around a bit.
"Kasumi... Kasumi... doesn't ring a bell, though... wait, I think you mentioned someone named Kasumi in the med-bay when we talked with Jane the first time." She says, placing the rifle on the workbench, popping open a few chambers to inspect it.
"Yeah, that's it. Well, Kasumi is a master thief who apparently got a call-up from the guy who introduced my world to the whole Mass Effect thing."
"About that, why do you call it "Mass Effect"? I mean, why not "big ships" effect, or "Geth" effect?" she says, looking up from her gun.
"Meh, not me who decided what to call it. Hudson and his firm did when they made the games. Anyway, he seems to have mastered some sort of time/dimension travel, and he gave Kasumi the ability to do the same. Pretty wicked, huh?" I say, smiling as I try taking the sword for a few swings at one of the practice-dummies you can project from the floor. Nothing happens, because you have to let the systems register your weapon first, and I forgot that part, genius as I am. Holding the sword over the scanner, I wait for the green light to blink before swinging again.
"So... she can go to other universes? Like in Star Wars to get the gunships?" Tequila asks with a voice containing a bit of excitement. I understand that. It's pretty messed up in the awesome way when you think about it.
"Guess so. She didn't show me how though, could be awesome if she could bring back the Death Star. As insane as it sounds, her stealing that thing would not even surprise me." I say, chopping an arm of the holographic enemy in front of me. The swords puts a bit of a strain on my torso from stopping it, seeing as the enemy isn't physical.
"So... in theory she could meet someone from the movies? Like, I dunno, Obi-Wan or Ashoka?" Tequila says, causing me to drop my swing, hitting the floor instead. I turn to look at the Hispanic woman.
"Wait... Tequila... you watched the Clone Wars?" I ask, feeling as my entire body is shaking from the revelation that a grown up would see a kids' show. Granted, it was a badass show that really brought out the humanity in the clones, but...
"Sure, watched it with my sisters... well, with Carmen. Jenette never really wanted to watch cartoons with her, so as the middle-sister, it kinda fell to me. Anyway, I was thinking, if she could meet those guys..." She says, her smile turning into a thoughtful frown at the end.
"Yeah, then?" I ask, leaning against the sword.
"I was thinking, if she could warn them. You know, of the whole 'Order 66' shitstorm. I'm pretty sure they would be able to tell if she was lying or not, and then they could kill Palpatine and everything could be well and fine." She says, holding up the magazine containing those infamous ninety-nine rounds.
"Sorry, I know this is important, but there's something I just have to ask. You watched more of the Clone Wars than I ever got to... what happened to Ashoka? How did she survive the purge?" I ask, having finally got a chance to find the answer as to how a character I loved from day one, survived the great purge of the temple.
"Well... ehm, you remember Barris Offee?"
"Sure, Ashoka's friend, they met on Geonosis and had some hard times together... brain worms included. Why?" I ask, shifting my weight on the handle.
"She kinda snapped, really. She saw the Jedi as warriors, not peacekeepers... and then she kinda bombed the Jedi -Temple, had Ashoka framed, forced her to run away and be captured with all the evidence. Then Ventress became good, and-"
"What!?" I ask, dropping the sword out of surprise.
"Yeah, Dooku screwed her over, and she became a merc. Really liked her new self, but then Anakin thought it was her who had framed Ashoka, because he didn't believe it was her who had done it, and Ventress told him she had just helped Ashoka and then he found out it was Offee who had done it, and she was convicted instead." Tequila says, picking a shell from the magazine, eying it while keeping up the stream of words.
"But what about Ashoka?"
"She... kinda left the Order. At first she was expelled because they thought she was guilty, the they asked her back and she was just about to accept, but then Windu fucked up and said it was all justified... well, he used some other words, but then she was all 'hell no I won't' and left the Order. Apparently she also knew about Anakin and Padme, because she told him she knew he felt like leaving too... and then the series ended." She says, plugging the shell back into the clip.
"You mean the season ended?"
"Nope, Disney bought Lucas Arts, and they cancelled the show... that was way back though, back in, what was it, 2011?12? Anyway, they cancelled it, and then they made a Star Wars seven, which, I should warn you, sucked so much fans of the universe burned down Disney Land Paris and that one in the States."
"Daaammn... so, no more Ashoka?"
"Nope, that was about it. But back to my first question, do you think Kasumi could warn them about the whole shitstorm?" She asks. A lurch goes through the ship then, signaling we have left the docking bay, and with that, the station as well.
"Hell, I don't know. I don't even have her number anymore. It kinda got trashed when my Omni-tool was blown up on Feros. I bet Anna has it though, she's the one who is said to have invented all these new things, and since we know all these 'new things' are from a galaxy far, far away..." I start, feeling a grin coming to my face.
"Then she knows Kasumi, and can tell her about the whole thing. Damn! Thomas, if you weren't taken, I'd hug you, as in right now." She laughs, punching her palm with a fist. Smiling, I pick up the sword, the huge cleaver dangling over my shoulder as I grip it again, then send it through the head of the dummy.
"Yeah well, leave that part to Ash. Although I'm pretty sure Nicolai could use a hug when he wakes up." I grin, watching her for a reaction.
"Christo... why is it you all assume I have to fall for him, just because he likes me? I mean, he's pretty much almost ten years younger than me." She grumbles, smacking the clip back inside the weapon.
"Well... how old are you anyway?" I ask, dragging out a chair from underneath one of the shelves. Sitting on it, I turn on my Omni-tool, finding the surprisingly handy 'whetstone' option.
"That, is a question you never ask a lady. Don't tell me you asked Ashley?"
"... no?" Truth is, I already know how old Ash is, so I never felt I needed to ask, plus Tequila is right, I don't think asking of age or weight is acceptable with women... beats me why, but that seems to be how things are.
"Dios... well, I'm twenty-nine." she says, picking the muzzle from the weapon before pulling out a brush from her pockets, stuffing it inside the barrel.
"Oh, Nicolai is just... six years younger than you then. No biggie, my mother had three years over my dad." I say, shrugging as I activate the tool, causing the nano-forge to construct the sharpener. I then carefully run it over the edge of the sword, watching as the small notches and dents from carving up Cerberus armor are slowly corrected and evened out.
"What? Thought he was younger than that... well okay, and he does have a good body and... why am I saying this to you?" She suddenly asks, shooting mea a glare. Grinning, I shrug and keep on sharpening the blade.
"Seriously though, you're his friend, you know him better than me. Give me one reason I should consider him." She mutters, turning her face away while cleaning her barrel.
"I dunno, he's a good guy... he can cook... he's fit, isn't that what you girls always go for? And...hmm... he's polite, and has a good sense of humor?" I try, looking up from my work while the new engines of the Normandy purr, a silent humming being the only sound audible.
"He also panics under fire and loses his temper when pissed off. A good marine needs to keep calm in all situations. You didn't see him on Feros, he lost it when a bullet clipped his helmet in two." She scoffs, sounding like she's trying to sound more annoyed than she actually is. Women...
"He was an inch from death, and you blame him for panicking? Talos, Tequila give him a break, he hasn't been in the corps for his entire life, like you." I argue, putting the Omni-tool away from my sword.
"No... I guess not, but still, he should have toughened up a bit, like... like... never mind." She mutters, looking down at her weapon again.
"Like the Rookie?" I ask.
"Yeah... I suppose." She mutters, looking haunted by the sheer mentioning of the guy.
"Look, I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about helping with trauma and all that, but you didn't leave him behind. You didn't decide to come here, to this universe. It just... happened." I say, trying to sound comforting.
"Fuck what happened, he was my friend and I left him to die!" She growls, suddenly changing completely in mood from before. Okay... why did Kelly have to leave the ship again?
"Okay, okay, calm down... Tequila, did I ever tell you how I ended up here, what I left behind?" I say, trying to calm her down before something happens.
"No... why, did you leave a sweetheart behind or something?" She growls, hands tightening around the handle of her rifle as she picks it apart from the gun.
"I left my parents behind... after my sister died, when she was only four and I was six, I was the only thing they had left to live for. From what Roku told me, after I woke up... they didn't keep it together after I was gone... They... he... he said my dad... started drinking, a lot, and... and my mother, she...I don't know. I don't want to think... just, don't you dare think you're the only one who left people behind." I finish, feeling my chest tighten up and my throat become dry. Kicking out the chair, I slam the sword back into its holder and leave the cargo-bay.
I need to be alone
Well shit... okay, so Virmire is coming up now. The planet of the Damned, where Bioware caused my brain to crap itself over the consequenses of the final choice. If canon and my story's realism allowed for it, I'd just nuke the place from orbit... it's the only way to be sure.
That being said, leave a review with your thoughts. We have had enough of a "vacation" for now, so we're going to do a short trip, then arrive at Virmire. That's all I'll say for now.
And, if you don't know what to write in a review, consider this here question:
Against a kinetic barrier and strong armor, what would be most effective? The main gun of an Alliance heavy Cruiser, or a 1400mm EVE Howitzer?