Thank you Miss Amyress, for keeping me honest.
Hey BJ, I expect the white glove treatment as always. )
And Seabo76, you're so violent! Are we related? Lol
"I am not liking this planet anymore Shepard!" I yelled over the shooting, keeping my head down as the mechs laid down fire on my position. I was kneeling behind some kind of a crate, wrestling with my Avenger and burning my hands in the process. "Fuck. I take it back Garrus, this thing's a piece of shit." The Turian laughed over the comms.
"My girl's not so bad now, is she?" he said as he took out one of the dog-like robots creeping up behind me. Instinct took over and I jumped, rolling to the next closest cover and bumping shoulders with Shepard. He grabbed the Avenger from my hands and replaced it with his Predator, throwing the white hot gun to the ground and readying his shotgun. I nodded a thank you and shoved a thermal clip into the new pistol, turning to face the onslaught.
A few more fell and we were blissfully alone.
"Are you alright?" Shepard asked as we stood, his eyes scanning me for what I could only assume were injuries. The concern in his eyes was… well, it made me swallow hard and probably turn three shades of red beneath my helmet. Thank you full face.
"I'm good." I threw up my hands to prove it, did a little spin then took a bow. His helmet only let me see his eyes but the crinkle at their corners told me he was laughing as he shook his head and picked up the Avenger. Clipping it to his back he looked over toward Garrus.
"Garrus, you good?" Shepard's voice went over the comms.
"Yeah, let's get moving before more of those four legged things show up." Garrus secured his rifle to his back and we started down the hall toward the elevators.
I heard a shuffling and pulled the Predator back out, looking around for the source when I spotted him; a salarian lying on the ground and badly injured. I slapped John's chest plate and pointed to him then walked over slowly to see if I could help, securing the area as I went. Kneeling next to him on the ground, I put the gun away and opened my omni tool, giving him a dose of medi-gel.
"Ahhh… thank you," he sighed, a small smile coming over his face. I took off my helmet and smiled back.
"It should take the edge off, at least so you can get to safety," I said as I checked his injuries, pulling bandages out of my pack to cover any open wounds.
"Thanks again," he said. Shepard stepped toward us.
"Who did this to you? And why?" he asked, obviously concerned that we'd stepped in something much larger than we'd originally thought. The man's response was full of terror.
"We are just night workers. Nassana sent them after us." His confusion at the situation only fueling his fear. "She sent the mechs to round us up but we didn't hear… they just started shooting!" Shepard's jaw clenched.
"They just attacked you?" His voice was laced with barely contained anger. I could relate.
"Yes, we were too slow. It was horrible, everyone was screaming…" The salarian took a deep breath, obviously tiring from reliving the terrible incident. "The mercs said there was no time, Nassana wanted us out of the way. Immediately." He started coughing. A little blood came up prompting me to reach for my omni tool again but John knelt down and put a hand on my arm, stopping me as he administered a dose of medi-gel from his supply. The salarian nodded his thanks and continued. "Then the dogs… just find the other workers, please. Help them." I looked at Shepard, hoping that was exactly what we were going to do. The look in his eyes told me I was right.
"We need to get to the penthouse, any suggestions?" John asked. He nodded.
"Take the service elevator to the upper floors. The bridge between the towers isn't finished, but if you're careful… watch out for the mercs."
"Any idea how many?" I asked. The salarian turned to me.
"A lot, dozens of them were wandering around here all day." He nodded to the other room where the elevator waited. "You'll find more the further up you go." Suddenly, like a punch to the gut the reality of the situation hit me.
"Why the hell would Nassana kill her own workers?" I was practically shouting and I knew it, just couldn't contain the confusion and rage. Our injured friend huffed out a laugh.
"To her we're expendable, but… I didn't realize she was that ruthless." He shook his head in confusion. "My friends, coworkers, slaughtered…" His anger bubbled over. "They were jumping off ledges to escape the dogs!" My hands became fists as I clenched my teeth, taking a few breaths to try to calm down.
"This place is a fucking shit hole," I whispered as I stood and took a few steps away to focus. The blood in my veins was pumping so hard I could feel it in my ears. John said something I didn't catch and helped the worker to his feet. He then gestured toward the way we came for him to escape, the injured man taking the opportunity gratefully. Once he was gone John turned to look at me.
He must have realized what was going on in my head because he removed his helmet, dropping it on the floor near mine and stepped toward me, giving me a knowing look.
"I know," he whispered, his eyes glinting with rage. "Believe me, I know."
"You know what exactly?" It was out of my mouth before I could stop it, my temper taking over as it sometimes did. "You know this is wrong? You know I'm pissed? What do you know because I obviously know absolutely nothing!" I raged as I punched a nearby wall, jarring my elbow but good. "Fuck!" I flexed the injured elbow, cursing to myself as I stomped around the room, shaking my head as I continued.
"All I do know is in your time, people are fucked up! And people from mine bitched about the atrocities people faced, what we dealt with is child's play compared to this." I finally looked up at John whose expression was unreadable, probably because I was just so damned angry. "What the fuck John?"
He approached me carefully, likely because he wasn't sure if I would hit him. Removing his gloves, he reached for my face with both hands and wiped my cheeks with his thumbs as he looked into my eyes. I realized my face was wet and I blushed, I hadn't even noticed the tears.
"I know you're angry, I'm angry too." He pushed a few stray locks of hair out of my face. "I know that this is wrong. I also know that things like this happen every day on this planet as well as others and there is nothing we can do about it.
"What we can do, right here and right now, is make sure this stops for these people. We can stay on mission and clean this mess up before it gets worse." He dropped his hands from my face and took a step back, straightening his shoulders and narrowing his eyes. "We have a mission that must be completed or none of this matters. You know what's at stake." Taking a breath to regain control, I came to the conclusion that I needed to push aside the inner turmoil and focus on the objective. Letting my training take over, I straightened my shoulders and cleared my head.
"You're right, I do know what's at stake," I nodded, walking over to pick up our helmets and offering him his, which he took with a nod. Pushing my hair back I slid my helmet into place and secured it, looking back at John. "And you're right about something else.
"Stopping all the atrocities in the galaxy won't matter if we all end up dead."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Another long firefight and we were on our way. As we rounded a corner I thought I heard voices so, Predator out, I moved toward the sound and saw a large cylindrical duct going straight up. The voices seemed to be coming from it.
"Well, go get him," I heard a woman's voice say.
"You go!" A man responded. He sounded a bit trepidatious.
"Get your ass in there," the woman commanded. "Nassana's not paying you to stand around."
"Fine. But I…" A grunt followed by clattering metal and suddenly a body fell from the duct, landing right in front of me with a sickening crunch.
"What the… Oh, gross!" I squawked, jumping back in case the other would be joining him. John appeared at my side.
"Where the hell did he come from?" He asked, looking up the duct. I laughed.
"I think our friendly neighborhood assassin took him out." I winked my approval and motioned to our right where I could hear a lot of movement. "We have more pressing issues at the moment."
Turning to face the oncoming threat we walked head-on into another firefight. Then another. Hoping to catch our breath, we took a break from pushing forward and wandered around searching for thermal clips or signs of life. Shepard came upon a locked door and decided it was a good idea to open it. Apparently sating his curiosity is more important than breathing. Guns ready Garrus and I flanked him when it opened.
There were four or five salarians cowering in the corner with their hands up, begging for mercy. Why they had been locked in that room was a mystery but, suddenly cautious, John pointed his gun at them. Probably in case they weren't what they seemed to be. I refrained from rolling my eyes at the irony.
"Please, don't kill us! We'll go… we'll go," one of them insisted as another approached us.
"Hey look, they're not Eclipse." He gestured toward Shepard with a hopeful grin. "So you're here to help us, right?" Shepard huffed a laugh into the comms and lowered his gun.
"It's one reason I'm here. Come on out, it's safe enough." He waved for them to leave the room which they did with relief.
"Thank you," the first one said. "We are in your debt."
"Maybe you can help me," John said as he put his gun in its holster. "I'm looking for someone. Not a merc… he's on his own." The salarian hummed.
"Well, whoever sealed us in here…" He put a finger to his chin then, thoughtfully, he continued. "When he found us, I thought we were dead. But he just closed the door and locked us in." I cocked an eyebrow at Garrus who returned my confused look.
"An assassin who doesn't kill… kinda doesn't make sense," I whispered, biting my lip. Garrus nodded.
"Yeah, sounds like he was trying to keep them safe."
"Assassin?" The other salarian piped up, almost excited. "Here for Nassana I bet, she's got it coming. You treat people like this, it always comes back to bite you in the ass." I smirked in agreement.
John asked them how to get to our goal and they confirmed what we already knew, get up to the top and cross the bridge. John asked the men why they worked for Nassana if they didn't like her and they admitted they were under contract. I felt for them, obviously they had no idea what they were signing up for. Still curious, I wondered if it was Thane that locked them in there.
"One thing," I stepped toward them and stood next to John. "The man who locked you in there, what can you tell us about him?" The second one spoke up again, apparently enjoying the fact that he could speak freely for probably the first time since taking the job.
"He's no salarian, I can tell you that. But I've no idea where he went. Sorry." I nodded, realizing the men were so frightened they probably wouldn't have been too attentive to detail anyway.
"If he's after Nassana," the first one offered, "he'll be heading to the upper levels." I nodded again and John asked if there were more workers. They weren't sure so he told them to get out of the building.
"And tell your assassin to aim for her head," the second one stopped to tell John, "cause she doesn't have a heart!" I sputtered a laugh and a vibration came over the comms from Garrus as the salarian stomped away. John turned to face us and gestured with his head to follow him to the elevator bay which, oddly enough, was readying to stop on our floor. I looked at Garrus and back handed his chest plate playfully.
"1,000 credits says there's 10 mercs in there," I joked. I heard him hum in thought.
"2,000 says there's 10 mercs and 10 mechs," he replied. I looked back at the door and readied the Predator, slapping a new thermal clip in it and ducking behind cover just in time to see the door open and the bullets start flying. Once everything got quiet I looked at the bodies scattered across the room and laughed out loud.
"HA! All mercs, I win!" I chided as I walked toward Garrus, hand out. "Pay up Vakarian!" He mumbled something that may not have been very nice and pulled up his omni-tool, swiping something toward me. Mine chimed and I opened it to see a transfer had been made to me for 2,000 credits. I smiled politely at him and nodded. "Pleasure doing business."
"If you two are done," John interjected from the elevator. Taking the hint, Garrus and I jogged over to him as he closed the door, the lift taking us up. Once there, the door opened and at the end of the corridor we saw a fully armored merc talking to someone over comms. We took Shepard's lead and slowly made our way toward him.
He was saying something about missing teams but his team was ready and he didn't know where 'he' was yet. Then he assured the other person everything was under control and that he would take care of it. Realizing this was one of the assholes in charge I didn't flinch when John pulled his gun.
"Turn around very slowly," he growled, to which the merc complied, uttering a curse. "Have you seen the assassin?" The man seemed confused as he backed away from John, moving toward a floor-to-ceiling glass window that lead to a very long drop.
"Why are you looking for him? You're not one of Nassana's mercs, who are you?" The tremor in his voice made me smile. Freaking son of a bitch deserves to die in terror. John backed the man all the way up to the window.
"Answer my questions and I'll let you go," he purred, trying to play good cop. The merc however wasn't cooperating.
"Look pal, even if I knew where he was I wouldn't tell you." John got in the guy's face.
"Not the answer I was looking for." Knowing we weren't going to get anything from the jackass without some violence, I stepped in front of John and grabbed the neck of the merc's chest plate. In one swift motion I shoved him back hard enough to break the window and held him at a 25 degree angle out of it, just enough that if he tried to right himself he would fall to his death. Removing my helmet with my free hand and dropping it to the ground, I smiled wickedly at the bastard.
"Please, give me a reason," I snarled. His helmet hid his face completely but his voice told me all I needed to know.
"W-w-w-wait! I-I'm just a merc for fuck's sake! What are you doing?" he squealed as I adjusted my grip. My lips twitched, knowing I had him right where I wanted him.
"The assassin," I deadpanned, "what do you know?"
"Ok ok! Last I heard the assassin was down on the mezzanine but the teams on the bridge think they might have spotted him! Nobody knows for sure, now please!" Listening to him beg for his life brought up the mental image of salarians running and jumping out windows to get away from vicious mechanical dogs that were trying to tear them apart. I clenched my teeth. Feeling the feral smile fall away it was replaced by an enraged glare. I was ready to let him fall, totally fine with watching him go splat just like all of those defenseless people when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Kayla." John's voice was low and soft, like it had been when he talked me down after my breakdown on Omega. "He's not worth it. Pull him in and let's go." You know he's right. Breathe! My conscience spoke to me for the first time in over a year, since before... It totally took me off guard.
But I listened.
One deep breath and I pulled him back in. I held onto his collar for another few seconds just to watch him squirm. Noticing he was shaking like a leaf, my smile renewed as I released him. Good.
"Go." It was barely a whisper, more of a guttural growl but he took it and ran to the elevator as we watched, punching some buttons and sighing with relief as the door closed. I turned back to stare out the window. Feeling the wind blow through my hair I closed my eyes, trying to find my center. Breathe in, pool the rage in your gut, then blow it all away. Two breaths and my eyes opened. One more to steady myself and I bent over to pick up my helmet but John had beaten me to it.
He stood motionless with my helmet in one hand and his in the other, arms hanging at his sides. His eyes bored into mine, penetrating my very soul, his complete understanding and acceptance of myself and my actions flowing through me like a shot of bourbon warming its way through my veins. It was more calming than any breathing exercise and brought me back from the brink of self destruction once again. A deep sigh left me as I felt my lips form a gentle smile. Being with him, being near him, it felt like…
Home.