"Can you believe it's only been a week since I started?" Mali asked as she sat on the edge of her bed, tying up her shoelaces.
"Time means nothing to me, Mali; however, my programs tell me to respond sympathetically because you are expressing shock over how fast the week has gone. Am I right?" Vic answered. On Mali's wrist the omni-tool was blinking to the rhythm of her speech.
"Why do I even bother?" Mali rolled her eyes. "Vic, how soon can you get our color scheme up and running?" Mali asked.
"Ara and I have been working on a web design, and the codes are almost finished. All I will have to do is design some software and we are done, however, Ara nor Cadence, nor do you possess the capabilities I need to complete it. A fourth party member must be brought in to help me. I believe one of your team members, Alexander, has the skills I need."
"Are you sure there's no other way?" Mali stood up and examined herself in the mirror as they talked. Today was an off day, so the students could wear civilian clothes if they wished. Mali was wearing some of the clothes that Liara had altered for her in what felt like a lifetime ago.
"Yes, I—," Vic fell silent as someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Mali asked. She heard a muffled answer that she could distinguish nothing from. "Honestly," she chided, walking to the door, "if they're going to build sliding doors—oh, it's you." Mali let in a slightly agitated Oliver. "Aren't guys not allowed in girls rooms?' Mali asked, lifting one eyebrow.
"Come on Mali—I'm the one that made that rule." Her eyebrow lifted higher. "Ugh, fine!" Oliver stepped back out into the hallway. "Better?" Mali snickered and nodded.
"Much. Now what do you want?" She asked. Oliver seemed to lose some of the fire in his eyes. He scuffed his shoes together. Is he nervous? Mali wondered.
"Erm, *cough-cough* I heard about your reading problem," he started, "and I realized then that you probably haven't read many books, so…what?" Mali's mouth had curved into a broad grin.
"Haven't read many books? Oliver, I can't read at all. I haven't read any."
"Oh, well I'm terrible at this sort of thing, so, forget it." He turned to go but Mali caught his shoulder.
"No, sorry. It was just funny. What did you want?"
"Well I was wondering if you had any plans today, because, well, I'd like to take you to bookstore with me to maybe pick out a book for you to learn how to read."
"With you?" Mali smiled deviously. She could tell she was making him uncomfortable.
"Oh! No! Not just me—you see, Cadence can read too! I mean, of course she can read, I mean she likes to read, and, well I take her every Sunday—and, gosh, I'm terrible at this—"
"Just shut it, trappy. For some reason I can't ever bring myself to read one electronically, so I go to the library to pick up old-fashioned books," Cadence walked by, carrying a load of books. "He wants to know if you want to come along with us."
"That's fine, let me get my coat. I have to be back by twelve though, I have a date." Mali walked back into her room and chuckled all the way to her closet and back. She sent a quick message to Dickens to tell him she was leaving the campus—he had worked out a new deal with the council—and walked out the door. They left the campus and went to the same area as the movies last time, but further down the street. They stopped in front of a huge glass emporium with huge double doors; to Mali it looked out of place amongst the smaller shops.
"It's new." Oliver murmured as they walked in, as if reading her thoughts. Inside where rows upon rows of bookcases all holding hundreds of books in each cabinet.
"Whoa." Mali stared. Cade walk straight up to the desk on the side and plopped her enormous pile of books in front of a startled looking asari.
"Why don't you go look around, I'll stay here with Cade until she's done, then we'll find you."
"Ok," Mali nodded, and she started off into the maze of knowledge. It astounded her that there could be so many topics to write about, and if she saw correctly, so many books on just one individual topic. Cadence had taught her the sounds of letters last night, so Mali took the opportunity to try and sound the words out. One book caught her attention—it was a picture of Earth's moon and the stars around it. It looked old, all yellow and dusty. "Pa—no, ph—a—sees—oef—tu, no—the—moona. Phases of the moon." Mali smiled, feeling a warm glow inside her. She picked up the book and flipped through its pages, but for the most part the words were too complicated for her to try out. Inside were a bunch of diagrams of the moon and Mali was fascinated. She flipped to the front and was surprised to see that it had been published in 2045, one-hundred and two years before the First Contact War. "Wow." Mali whistled in appreciation. She set the book back down. It was amazing how school made some things so clear—she would have never known that before.
Suddenly she heard a thump a few bookcases away and a hard grunt as someone was slammed against a bookcase. "Give me your money Timmy." A gruff voice ordered. Mali crept to the corner of her bookcase and peeked around. Only a few feet away a few bunk ones were surrounding a bunk four who was being smashed up against the wall by Groose (surprise surprise) and had the look of utter terror on his face. Mali immediately knew what was going on, she had seen it a million times living on the streets, but this was somehow different. There, people has stolen because they needed to survive, but here there wasn't any reason besides wanting power. Mali spat with disgust—she hated tyrants. "Hey!" Mali shouted as she left her position, "let him go!" The blue looked up in relief as Mali came storming over. She pushed her way through the ring of blacks and faced Groose's massive back. "I said let him go." Mali repeated. Groose slowly turned around, still holding the boy up by his jumpsuit.
"Oh, Somali. I'm glad you're here." The boy smiled at her with a sadistic grin. "I've been waiting for this." He let the boy go and shoved him away. "Get your puny butt 'outta here." He mocked. The boy gave Mali one last furtive glance before running off. The circle closed tighter around her, as if they could smell blood. Groose lunged forward and Mali jumped back, but it was only a feign and he chuckled. "Scared, little girl?" He sneered.
"Scared for you." Mali answered back. Groose lifted an eyebrow.
"How so?" He asked.
"Because people like you always end up in one place—on the floor beaten to a pulp." Groose chuckled.
"Really?"
"I haven't been proved wrong yet." Mali smiled a wicked smile. "Give it your best shot buttwipe." They circled each other cautiously, both sizing the other up. Groose wasn't too bright, but Mali new he wasn't stupid—especially with combat. He was army trained, so he was a formidable foe; but Mali new that she was better. Groose lunged at her again, this time for real, but Mali quickly sidestepped out of the way. "Like I said before—I'm hard to catch." Groose growled and took a swing at her face, but Mali ducked under and planted a few on his side—aiming for the soft spots of the torso. Groose grunted as the punches connected, but he didn't fall.
"Your fast," Groose panted, "but you're weak, and sooner or later I'll get you, and then it'll be over." Mali new it was true, but she kept her arms up. They circled each other again, each looking for a hole. Mali new that if she wanted to win she would have to end this quick before he could get a hold on her. A desperate plan started forming in her brain, but Mali new it might be her only shot. They circled each other again, but this time Mali didn't wait for Groose to attack. She rushed him head on, to the surprise of many. As they came within inches of one another Mali dropped to the ground and slid through his legs, striking behind his kneecaps as she went. She slid through and quickly got back up as his legs gave out beneath him and he toppled top his knees. Mali clasped her hands together, and like a baseball bat she swung her connected fists at his temple, knocking him to the floor with a groan.
Mali only had a second of victory; as soon as Groose dropped the circle of his goons grabbed her. Mali fought but it was one against many; a hard blow to her face shocked her just enough so that they could pin her hands and then the rest was quickly over soon after. They held her fast and Mali watched in horror as Groose staggered to his feet, blood dripping from above an eyebrow and his lip. The side of Mali's face felt like it was on fire but she ignored it. He stood up in front of her and sneered.
"Think you're so good?" He mocked. Mali found that she could not hold her tongue.
"Actually I do, seeing as I just kicked your butt." That earned her another few punches. Mali blinked blood out of her eye. While she was dazed someone opened a side door and they dragged her outside into a small alleyway. Groose tottered after them. He unzipped his jumpsuit exposing his broad chest and to Mali's horror he pulled out a previously concealed gun. "That's right," he smiled, pressing it to the side of her face.
"You are a sadistic loon." Mali spat. He chuckled and ground the barrel into her temple, Mali winced with pain.
"Oh, no-no, I'm only doing a job. I was told to give you a message you wouldn't forget, and I think I've succeeded."
"What are you talking about?!" Mali yelled. She was slammed into the wall behind her, knocking the breath from her lungs.
"Shhhh, not so loud." Groose crooned. "Don't play stupid with me, Mali, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You think that just because the reaper left orbit that he wouldn't leave someone behind to watch for him? They have eyes everywhere." He stepped back. "You don't know the power of the one whom you're facing—you could never stand before him and live." Mali's breathing was fast, her mind was whirling.
"What do you want?" She was pleased that her voice didn't shake with her fear. He grinned manically.
"Just to give you a message, that's all." He cocked his head as if listening to something, than continued. "They just wanted to make sure that you knew they haven't forgotten you; enjoy the time they are allowing you to have here Mali, because it won't last. They're going to come back, and when they do they will not rest until they get you back. You have been lost far too long."
"Lost?" Mali asked, confused. Groose smiled.
"You probably don't remember, it happened when you were a baby but you were once one of us." He gestured around at his friends, "you would have grown up like a queen, except for an unfortunate accident that left you wandering the streets of New Chicago."
"What?" Mali asked, cold inside. "Lies! You are lying!"
"No, I'm not. Where do you think you got your biotics? It's not an accident you are so powerful Mali," He lit up with his biotics and let blue flames dance across his palm, "we were engineered, and you more than anyone else." He looked back up and smiled.
"I don't believe you." Mali answered dead quiet, but inside a cold feeling was starting to spread.
"Too bad. You were such a valuable piece of merchandise." He shook his head, "but I think they were fools, they wasted so much on you." He lifted the gun up so it was level with her face. "I'm not supposed to hurt you, but we can't have you following us as we make our escape. We'll have to leave now that our cover is broken." He chuckled like a maniac. "Wasn't much of one anyway." Mali bared her teeth.
"I'm not afraid of you."
"You shouldn't be. You should be afraid of the one I represent." He sneered, pointing the gun at her leg and firing. As he did so three things happened at once. From behind him the door swung open and both Oliver and Cadence lunged out, tackling him to the ground. On the other end of the alleyway Mali heard a shout and turned to see Liara and Shepard running towards them, along with the blue guy she had rescued, Shepard firing a gun and Liara ablaze with biotic power. The bullet was encased with blue fire and instead of hitting Mali in the leg its path curved and buried itself in a pipe near her knee. Mali struggled out of the grasp of her shocked captors and she started punching anything with a black stripe that moved. Groose lay unconscious on the ground form where her teammates had jumped him, and now Cadence was weaving in and out of their enemies in a deadly show of hand-to-hand combat while Oliver was locked with a guy twice his size. Mali stumbled as she tripped over a body on the ground and she fell, almost bashing her head on the pipe that had been shot.
Something about that clear liquid sparked something in Mali's memory, but she couldn't understand. And then one of the blacks was throwing a match, and Mali realized what was going to happen. As if in slow motion Mali extended her hands, blue fire running across her fingers, and as the match descended on the nitroglycerin—thinking only of her friends—Mali threw herself over it. The shield took most of the brunt force of the explosion, but Mali was thrown back across the alleyway, slamming in through the glass of the other building and into the bookcases, toppling them over. Her ears rang and her vision flickered black and red. Her whole body was warm, and Mali realized that her clothes were on fire, and that many of the books were too. Great, I'm going to burn to death was all Mali could think as the flames climbed over the bookcases. Suddenly arms wrapped under her armpits and she was being dragged out, someone was beating her with a coat.
None of this made sense to Mali, whose head was lolling to the side. She was flickering out, almost unconscious, and then two hands grabbed her by the sides of her face and she was staring into two clear blue eyes and she was sinking into them, falling deeper. And then the eye's turned black, and suddenly another presence was in her mind, soothing it, calming and ordering it. Coolness washed over her nerves and her ears stopped ringing, her face stopped burning and Mali's mind became clear again. The mind withdrew and Liara slumped to the side next to her. "What was that?" Mali gasped, siting up. Around her the alleyway was littered with bunk one students, all unconscious; but many had gotten away. Oliver, Cade, Shepard, and the blue guy were all bending over the two of them.
"It was a mind-meld." Oliver gasped in awe.
"A what?" Mali was confused.
"I joined my mind to yours; I connected to your nervous system and brain to calm you down, and I'm glad I did—it was a mess in there." Liara rubbed her forehead.
"Not to make this weird," Cade wrinkled her nose, "but isn't that, like, a sexual thing or something?"
"What? Eww!" Mali backed away. Liara laughed with a clear, bell like tone.
"No-no-no-no, not always. This one wasn't." Mali sighed in relief.
"Good, because that would have been gross." Shepard looked uncomfortable with where the conversation was going.
"What happened?" Shepard tried to change the subject. Mali explained what had happened inside the bookstore, but she held back what Groose had said about the reapers and about her. A glance shared with Liara and Shepard warned them that she had more to tell them later.
"What were you doing so close by?" Mali asked. Liara answered this time.
"I was looking for you anyway, because you were late for our date, but we were sent by Admiral Dickens to come get you. There has been a development—we were looking for you, and then that boy," Liara gestured to the blue, "came running to us and told us that you had taken on Groose so we rushed over here and found Cade and Oliver. They said that they had been looking for you inside the library but they couldn't find you. So we figured he had taken you out here, and we ended up being right." Liara pulled Mali to her into a hug and Mali grunted as the air was squished out of her, "and then we saw you at gunpoint all alone and we just charged. Oh, I was so worried!" Mali pushed her away embarrassed.
"Jeeze, I'm not helpless you know. I gave him a good beating before they all ganged up on me." Shepard was examine Groose and smiling.
"You sure did." He stood up from his crouched position, "Ok students, back to campus. I'll call a cleanup crew. It really isn't safe near the library right now." Mali looked and saw flames leaping around inside, destroying books. That made Mali sad. The tired teens stumbled to their feet and started back toward campus with the two adults.
"I guess no more books." Cadence grumbled. Shepard led the way while Oliver talked with Cadence and the blue guy followed behind; Mali hung back with Liara who put her arm across her shoulders as they walked.
"What was going on with you and the commander?" Mali asked. Liara looked startled.
"What? Nothing!"
"I know there's something going on…" Mali winked at her slyly.
"It's not what you think Mali. We had to work through some stuff."
"So no romance?" Mali asked. Liara hesitated, then sighed.
"Once there was. During the reaper battles we fell in love—how could we not? Always fighting for our lives, supporting one another in battle, the adrenaline, the passion—"
"Ok-ok. Jeeze. I get it. No need to tell me that much. What happened?"
"We got engaged, about a month before the battle for Earth, but then right before he broke it off. He said that he might die, and he didn't want to pull me down with him. I was so angry at him, right after the battle I left and went back to my old job for a while. It was during that time that I met you."
"You don't sound angry anymore." Mali smiled. Liara laughed.
"Don't go all matchmaker on me. I still am, but now I do understand why he did it." She ruffled Mali's hair in affection. "But don't get your hopes up."
"Stop it." Mali complained, smoothing it out. "You make me look so weak and helpless all the time now. I survived on my own for years, yet here you are babying me!" Liara's eyes crinkled amusedly.
"Liara—can you stay?! I'm scared to sleep alone tonight." Liara puffed out her lip in an imitation of Mali.
"Hey! That's not fair, that was a weak moment that you took advantage of." Mali punched her on the arm.
"What am I? A predator?" Liara scoffed, "And anyway, I know you secretly enjoy it—and I won't stop. We have years of embarrassing mom moments to make up for."
"Mom moments?" Mali asked, hope she refused to acknowledge started to blossom.
"Yah, about that." Liara looked down at her, "there's something I wan—"
"Excuse me." They both looked up to find the blue guy walking next to them. "I just wanted to thank you Mali for saving me back there. Not a lot of people would have taken on Groose by themselves, so, thanks." He said awkwardly.
"Uh, you're welcome." Mali answered back, just as awkwardly. She wasn't used to that kind of thing. He walked back ahead of them; Mali shook her head. "That doesn't happen very often." A warm glow had started to spread through her body. Liara smiled.
"It's the reward you get for helping people."
"Yah…" Mali agreed, lost in thought. "Hey Liara? Thanks for doing the mind thing back there, it really helped."
"You're welcome."
Mali sighed with relief as she pressed a cold compact to her temple, relief spreading through her aching head. It had been pounding ever since the explosion and they hadn't had any tylenol at the guard house they had walked through. Mali leaned further back in the council chair she was sitting in—this one belonging to an L.S.D Bean, according to the hastily drawn nameplate—and closed her eyes. Liara and Shepard had taken their seats as well and the other council members were slowly trickling in. Dickens had called a council meeting a few minutes ago, and in the emergency status, he had elected to hold it in a meeting room in the teacher's office building. They had wheeled in some cushy seats and scrawled names on pieces of paper that they placed on a ping pong table they had found in a closet. The poor chap that owned the chair she was sitting in had had to pull a folding chair out of a broom closet because Mali had given him a glare so dangerous he hadn't even protested. "Thanks Bean, your very understanding." Mali murmured with her eyes still closed. She heard a disgruntled grumble next to her and she smiled slightly.
No matter how she tried the stuff that Groose had said kept coming back to her. She knew she shouldn't trust anything that snake had told her but she couldn't help it. He had said it with so much conviction, like he believed every word he was saying. Mali hadn't told anyone, not even Liara, what he had said. What he had said had really bothered her, especially the part about being engineered; Mali just didn't know what to think. All of it just sounded ridiculous, and besides, if she had been valuable, how could they have just misplaced her and not looked for her? Mali had to put it out of her mind as the admiral strode into the room. "Alright people! Let's get started, we don't have much time and we have a lot to do." The chatter stopped and all the members swiveled to face the head seat where Dickens had plopped down.
"I called this emergency meeting because we have had an update on the reaper. As far as I know it was just drifting around in space a few solar systems away until two days ago, where it suddenly picked itself up and attacked a nearby planet. Luckily it wasn't populated, but the planet was eezo rich and it harvested the planets core, destroying it. This is a serious development, and worthy of note, but again the council have chosen to ignore it. I have no idea why, but I will no longer stand for it. We cannot attack, but we can prepare. Already engineers are working on strengthening our campus shield and reinforcing our buildings and turrets, but with the council's approval I want to upgrade and add to our defenses."
"Don't you think you may be being a little too paranoid over this?" One council member spoke up. "Our defense system is already top of the line and we don't even know if it will return or attack us at all."
"It will." Mali spoke out. All eyes turned toward her, she could feel their judging as they took in her dirty and burned appearance "Just because it's left doesn't mean it has forgotten about us. That reaper has left spies among the people on the campus. I was attacked today by students claiming to be under orders, and I have a feeling there are more. They told me it would return, and when it does it will attack." Uproar engulfed the room as council members reproached her angrily, some even turning red with rage at being called traitors. Alone among them Liara and Shepard looked to Dickens as he tried to speak out over the commotion.
"She is right! And we must prepare! I am not saying that any of you are traitors, Mali said students attacked her! But I will tell you this: we have no way of knowing, and because such we must be ready for anything! Listen! Please!" Gradually the noise died out as people settled back down, pacified by his words. "Mali," Dickens addressed her, "please recount for the council what happened to you today, tell them everything you told me." Mali started in about how she had heard someone being beat up, and how she had faced off against Groose, and most of what he had told her about the reaper. However, like before, she kept the things he had said about her to herself. When she was finished Dickens nodded his head in thanks. "We have captured Groose and a few others; they will be questioned when they wake up, but they took quiet a hitting by Somali over there." A few council members looked at her appreciatively, some of them having known the hulk of a boy.
"The point is that it will return, and it will attack us. For some reason it wants Mali here, and so we have got to prepare for war." Most of the council was nodding in agreement but Abbara Finch was shaking her head.
"To me, a lot of this is strange. Somali says that this student, Groose, referred to the reaper as a he, and a him, as if it is one person. That is not like any reaper I have studied, and its behavior isn't like one either. Why isn't it harvesting organic life forms? It just doesn't seem to fit."
"I agree," Shepard interjected, "it isn't like a reaper to not take an opportunity to attack somewhere and not harvest anything—and something else is bothering me. Every reaper I have encountered has had a red light emitting from it, signifying that its main drive core is working and that it's alive, yet Mali said that it didn't. Putting these things together, I am forced to believe that it may not even be a reaper we are dealing with, but some variation of a species that has taken the reaper husk over and is now parading through space with it." A few councilors were nodding along with what Shepard was saying.
"Regardless," Liara cut in, "it is still dangerous to us, and for cautions sake we should treat it as a reaper for we have no way short of going inside it to really know what it is, and so to treat it as something less would be suicide."
"Well spoken." Dickens said. "So, as a council we must vote on our course of action. All for the emergency measures, raise your right hand." More than half of the council members did so, including Liara and Shepard, but the amount that didn't surprised and frightened Mali. There are too many of them that feel secure and have grown complacent, Mali thought. "Good," Dickens smiled, "the new security measures will be started at once."
"What I want to know is what a reaper could do with a planet core?" Mali asked. "Is it dangerous?"
"Very," Liara answered. "Especially one from eezo rich planets like the one that it has. Planet cores hold a great amount of power in themselves and are great conductors of energy. With it the reaper, if it is a reaper, could do a many great things. It could use it to power its huge magneto hydrodynamic cannon or if it is low on power to sustain itself and its shields. Now that it has a core I suspect that we will be seeing a lot more activity." That doesn't sound good, Mali thought.
"Anything else?" Dickens asked. When the room stayed silent he nodded. "Then meeting adjourned." Next to her Bean folded back up his chair and put it away, glowering at her the whole time. Slowly the council dispersed, meandering and talking on the way out. Mali sighed and pushed herself to her feet, groaning. Liara was in a deep conversation with another council member, so thinking it better not to interrupt Mali headed for the elevator, but before she could make it Shepard caught up with her.
"Quite a day," he smiled, looking at her battered form.
"Probably all in a day's work for you." Mali answered. Shepard laughed.
"You held your own out there; thanks for blocking the explosion by the way—throwing a shield around it was smart." Mali was quiet and then, suddenly, she laughed. "What is it?" Shepard asked curiously. Still smiling, Mali answered.
"It's just that I never would have guessed that someday I would be talking to the hero of the galaxy, and that he would be complementing me, no less." They made their way to the elevator and got in, Shepard pressing the lobby button.
"You know, what everyone says about me is blown way out of proportion, I'm just another human being like you." Mali scoffed.
"Yah, just a human being. You were the first ever human Spectre, you have awesome kicking-butt skills, and you saved the galaxy once and for all from aliens that have been destroying it for millennia. Just a human could have never done that." Shepard looked at her hard.
"Apparently I haven't ridden the galaxy of the reapers." Mali realized her mistake.
"Oh, sorry—"
"It's fine, I'll just have kill this last one too." The elevator dinged and they both stepped out. Shepard surprised Mali by staying by her as they walked out of the building. Mali shrugged and headed toward the mess hall, her stomach grumbling.
"What are you going to do?" Mali asked him. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
"That's a difficult question. On one hand everything in me is telling me to go after it and kill it before it hurts someone, but on the other I cannot disobey a direct order from the council, and there is still a good chance that it will come back here, for you." He replied. Mali nodded.
"Why do you think they want me?" Mali asked. "I mean, I'm just a girl off the streets." He looked at her sardonically.
"I don't think you can claim that anymore; you are definitely not just a girl off the streets, just like I'm not just human. I think that it probably knows about your bio powers—you did say that there are spies here."
"But why? If reapers are so powerful why do they want me?" Shepard cast a furtive glance around to make sure no one was in earshot and then bended down till he was on her level.
"I've been thinking about it, and I think I may have an idea. " Excitement built up inside Mali; she leaned in closer. "My comrade, Corwin, came from a science outpost—one that the reaper attacked. They were researching silver as a conductor and storer of energy; they had great quantities of silver stored there and their research was returning positive results. If our intelligence is correct, the reaper attacked a great many number of places like this, probably gaining a lot of silver and research in the process. I think that, for some reason, it is trying to create another reaper core out of the silver instead of organic life. Maybe it would be more powerful? Who knows, but with all the research and an eezo planet core I believe that they possibly could."
"So what do they need me for?" Mali asked.
"Well, accessing a core's power is time-consuming, difficult, and costly—even with the right equipment, but with your biotic powers tapping into it and controlling it, it could easily be used for whatever purpose they have in mind—" Mali gasped.
"Like jumping a reaper, making it come alive!"
"Shhh! Not so loud, but yes, they could, and now that they have a core it'll only be a matter of time before it comes back for the last piece of the puzzle—you." Dread started to fill Mali as realization crashed down on her.
"We're not safe—I'm putting everyone in danger here, I need to leave!" Shepard put a calming hand on her shoulder.
"No, Mali. You need to stay here. Everyone will be fine, Dickens will make sure of that, but we have an advantage if we know where it will strike. We need to use it. It's our best shot of defeating it, and Dickens knows this. Already he is constructing underground bunkers for the staff and students for when the time comes—for it will, there's no avoiding it." Mali cast her eyes around at all the life around her. Students lounged on the grassy lawn or sat at the fountain, laughing and enjoying the sun.
"They don't even know—none of them—what danger their in," Mali shook her head, "this is wrong. They should know—they should have a chance to leave, to get away." Shepard looked at her sadly.
"For most of them this is the only place they can go. Besides, this place is as safe as anywhere can be—I've seen the defenses myself, their strong." Shepard tried to reassure her, but something in his eyes told Mali he felt the same way.
"But not strong enough; not for a reaper." Shepard shook his head.
"No. When the time comes the defenses will only give us time." Mali looked again at around her. Everything was so green, so alive. The sun was smiling through a perfectly blue sky and the scent of spring was in the air. When had she fell in love with the campus? Mali didn't know, but the thought that soon it might be reduced to a pile of ash like the rest of her life suddenly brought tears to her eyes. She had to blink hard to keep them from falling in front of Shepard. "What is it?" He asked kindly. Mali started out across the field, watching the grass ripple in the wind.
"I thought that I had finally found a place. A place where I could finally be safe, to connect, and let my guard down. Heaven forbid I might've even made some real friends. Now it's going to be ripped from me like before all over again, and like before there is nothing that I can do about it." Mali rasped, her throat tight and raw. Shepard gripped her shoulders and forced her to look at him. His blue eyes were full of so much fire that Mali had to look away.
"Your wrong Mali, you can always do something. You can fight; you can fight this reaper to your very last breath. You've forgotten that I've trained with you—I've seen your spirit Mali, and it is pure and strong and mighty and you are going to do great things someday with it. Don't give up—don't ever give up. It's not in your nature." Mali was shocked and touched by his words. She was shaken out of her self-pity and brought back to reality. Who was she, to think about herself when there were so many others who would need help? This was their home as well as it was hers; they loved it just as much as she did.
"Thank you." Mali whispered. She wiped her eyes and Shepard let go and stood up.
"Don't thank me; I'm just telling you what you already know." He answered. "I'll see you Tuesday then; maybe we can figure out a way to stop it." He gave her a wave and continued across the square alone. Someone came up and put their arm across her shoulder, and Mali looked up to see Liara watching him go.
"I didn't want to interrupt," she said, still looking at him, "you looked like you were having a serious conversation." Mali sighed and leaned into her friend for comfort.
"I've had a long day 'is all." Mali answered.
"An emotional one too." Liara looked down at her; Mali gave her a face. "Oh come on Mali! Don't pretend it's any different, I know you." Shepard disappeared into the mess hall. Mali rubbed her eyes, steadying herself. "What do you say for a little extra biotics practice?" Liara asked.
"Only after lunch," Mali grimaced with hunger, "I'm starving." The asari smiled and hugged her closer for a second before letting her go.
"Deal."