Well, as for any intense mission, there is always aftermath. The story continues and here is the next chapter. Thank you for the reviews and the suggestions. Please continue to R&R. Enjoy!
000
Luke stood over the equipment table as biotic energy encompassed his entire body, the blue glow lighting up the dark cargo bay of the Normandy. His head ached as if he had an ice pick sticking into his frontal lobe, but he did not care. He wanted Ashley there, yet thanks to carelessness and stupidity, she was gone.
I could have made it. I could have gotten to Ashley and back before the bomb went off. We've fought through geth, mercenaries, pirates, and Cerberus commandos. To think that we couldn't fight our way through a platoon of geth after taking them from behind is stupid.
Luke clenched his fists as his entire body shook and sparks of biotic energy crackled around him. He told himself that he had not had enough time to get to Ash and back, but that only made him angrier.
If those two idiots had not activated the bomb so early and just held on, we could have made it. It is a simply they made the decision which put Claire in the position where she had to choose. It is their fault. Alenko and Mal. THEIR FAULT!
"Damn it!" Luke roared slamming his fists down on the table. Perhaps it was because of his biotics or his rage, but the table buckled under his fists sending the cleaning supplies and his weapons into the air and halfway across the cargo bay. "Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!" Each exclamation accompanied by another massive biotic hit on the table reducing it to a piece of scrap metal. Luke let out another roar and delivered a biotic kick sending the table into the wall. It ricocheted off and landed in the middle of the bay.
"Shepard?" Wrex approached cautiously.
"Wrex." Luke did not want anything to do with anyone on the ship.
"Nice, but you're bleeding," Wrex said tapping the destroyed table with his toe. Luke touched his upper lip revealing bright crimson blood. He suddenly became very aware of the headache that was threatening to split his skull in two.
Luke's knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor as blue sparks of biotic energy crackled around him. Luke couldn't hold back the tears anymore. His vision blurred as a river a salty sorrow poured from his eyes. He did not even have the strength to pull himself up or lift his hand to turn his amp off. "I don't even have a body to bury." The grief ridden phrase was barely audible even to Luke. He felt sick to his stomach and his head throbbed. He tried to breathe but he simply could not catch a bit of fresh air, only the coppery taste of his own blood as it dripped into his mouth and coated the back of his throat.
"I don't know what to do," Luke choked. He spat blood onto the floor.
"When I was young, I fought with my krant in my rite, my passage into adulthood. We killed all kinds of creatures, but a thresher maw was the final challenge. I killed the thing, but it ate one of my krant, Udrnot Grax. He was a good friend and I never found him after that," Wrex said offering Luke a hand.
Luke could hardly move but he allowed Wrex to pull him up. As much as he didn't want to be around the rest of the crew, he wanted to be off the floor more. But, as soon as Luke was back on his feet, he pushed Wrex away. "You're just a bad as Mallory and Alenko. You stood in my way, you stopped me."
Wrex's eyes immediately fell and he took a step back.
"You made sure that I could not make it to save Ash. Now you try to make me feel sorry for you? Just shut up and leave me alone!" Luke shouted. A biotic shockwave knocked Wrex back toward the elevator.
The krogan stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance. He snarled and immediately looked back to his friend. "We are all hurting Shepard. All of us. Williams was our friend too. The commander just wanted me come down and talk to you and try to help you calm down."
"Calm down? CALM DOWN? She wants me to CALM DOWN!?" Luke lifted the destroyed table bioticly again and delivered a powerful kick that generated a biotic detonation propelling the hunk of scrap into the lockers spilling all the weapons and armor onto the cargo bay floor.
"Shepard-" Wrex started but Luke Launched a biotic throw that knocked Wrex back across the bay and into the elevator.
"How the hell am I suppose to be calm when one of my sisters and her boyfriend are responsible for putting my other sister in the position where my girlfriend died. Not to mention the rest of the team did not care enough to help me rescue her. Get out of here and stay the hell away from me," Luke roared. He did not want anyone there with him. Not to make him feel better. Not to console him. He wanted to be alone. If anyone tried to come down, he might end up hurting them for what they had done. Or rather what they had not done.
Luke turned away from the elevator and kicked one of the crates, but rather than sending it flying, it cracked in half and spilled its contents, nasty tasting meals-ready-to-eat, all over the floor. But he suddenly came to the lockers, apparently one of his biotic outbursts had opened a few of them and on the inside of Ashley's, where her now missing gear use to hang, was a holo of him and her locked in an embrace. He recognized the surroundings as Pinnacle Station. It must have been taken a little before the tournament ended. Just below it was another holo of her sisters and mother. They looked somewhat alike as far as facial features faired, but their hair color was wildly different. Ashley's hair was extremely dark brown while two of her sisters and her mother had light brown. Then there was Sarah, the youngest with soft reddish brown hair.
Who is going to tell them what happened? Luke started trembling again. All of the anger turned immediately to sorrow. How was he going to tell them that he was in love with Ashley and let her die? How could he even face them? He so been looking forward to meeting them and now he hoped he would never see them face to face.
"I'm sorry. I'm so…so sorry." Luke wept as his quaking fingers collected the holos and held them close to his heart. All the anger was gone now, replaced only with an emptiness and tearful sorrow.
000
The Medbay was full with the ground team. Kaidan and Mallory were the worst off of all of them but everyone had some kind of wound. Claire took a slow breath and she headed into Liara's quarters.
The asari was laying on her cot reading a datapad, but sat up to greet Claire as she entered. "Hello commander, is there something I can do?" Liara asked. Claire noticed the asari wince whenever she moved. The bandages could be seen under her tight fitting lab uniform.
"Just wanted to see how you were doing," Claire said sitting down next to Liara on the cot. Suddenly, a massive vibration partnered with a large rumble from below drew both Claire's and Liara's eyes toward the floor.
"I am worried about Luke. He is taking Ashley's death very hard," Liara said glancing over at Claire.
"I know. I asked Wrex to go down and talk to him while I checked on everyone but it sounds like it is not going to well." Claire tried to add a little humor to the exchange but she could not even bring herself to laugh. Tears swelled in her eyes as the ship rocked again.
"What is wrong commander?" Liara asked placing a hand on Claire's shoulder.
"I left her," Claire started. "I left her behind to die." The sobs over came anything Claire tried to say beyond that. She could not bring herself to admit that if she had let Luke go get Ash, they would have made it to the extraction point in time. However, if she had let him go after Ashley, he would not have been at the bombsite to fight Saren and Saren very easily could have killed someone. Claire put her head in her hands as Liara rubbed her back.
"You did everything you could commander. It was the correct decision," Liara said. Claire could tell that she was not sure of her words. Yet Liara's assurance, although lacking in conviction, reminded Claire of something she learned a long time before at N-school.
Battlefield decisions are never perfect. Learn from them to not make the same mistake again but do not torture yourself with what-if's. All that will do is cause another mistake and people's lives.
Claire sighed and sniffed, wiping her tears away. "Have everyone gather in the medbay for the debriefing," she paused and wet her lips before turning back to Liara. "Except Luke. Let him vent some more. I doubt he wants to be in the same room with us anyway."
"Yes commander."
Claire nodded and headed out the door into the medbay. Tali sat fiddling with her suit and patching the small breaches that covered her due to shrapnel and bullets during the fight. Wrex wandered in rubbing the back of his head followed by Garrus.
"Let me guess, Luke is throwing a tantrum in the cargo bay," Mallory said sitting up slowly. Claire fought back the urge to slap Mal across the face simply because she was hurt. How could she call Luke's behavior a tantrum? He just lost the woman he loved.
"Mallory, shut your mouth. You would be acting the same way if Kaiden had been left behind instead. Try thinking for half a second before you start talking again," Claire snapped. Everyone fell silent and turned to look at the commander. Claire took a breath and calmed down. "You two gave me no choice in the matter when you activated the bomb. If you had waited for my orders rather than jumping the gun, everyone might have made it out." Claire crossed her arms and sighed.
"I'm sorry commander. It won't happen again," Kaidan said softly from his bed. He was in worse shape than anyone else having taken a direct shot through the side of his stomach. Claire could tell that he was still not doing so well simply by the way sweat collected on his forehead. Dr. Chawkwas had cleaned the wound and done what she could, but we was going to be out of action for at least a few weeks.
"But, there is no sense dwelling on mistakes…or the lost…" Claire sniffed and wiped her face fighting back the tears. "We have to focus on the mission."
"Commander, excuse the interruption but I believe the beacon we found in Saren's lab may have patched in the missing information in your vision. We might be able to get more of the story this time," Liara said advancing.
"You want to join our minds again, right? Do it. We need to get ahead of Saren," Claire said standing once again. The first time Liara had joined their minds it had been strange, like Claire could not control what memories came to the surface. Lucky for her, Liara seemed only interested in the visions from the beacon and able to navigate through her mind with some ease.
"Relax commander and embrace eternity." The images surfaced in her mind and played in the flashes but slowed down a few times. Blood sprayed from a wound as a mouth with fangs and synthetic slaughtered those before them. Suddenly there were images of buildings and statues. A location before the view was forced wide gazing out at the whole system, then seeing a reaper appear from the planet.
The Normandy medbay came back into view as Liara staggered backward. Her hand pressed to her forehead, the asari tried to steady herself.
"By the goddess, I have never imagined anything that intense," Liara said taking a slow breath.
"Is there anything that could help us?" Claire asked helping Liara take a seat as Chawkwas ran a quick test to assess the asari's condition.
"There is new information. Places that I recognize from my research…Ilos. We have to go to Ilos."