"Thinking"
"Talking"
"Impactful word"
The young Uchiha had joined Commander Shepard on her mission, even though not knowing much about it; a dangerous risk on her part, joining random people, on an unknown world without any perception of time whatsoever and to top it all off: hell was loose again.
At this point, she thought that she was the unluckiest person of all time. Death was following her wherever she went, and she was in no condition to defend herself with such a pitiful amount of chakra at her disposal.
She swooped behind a nearby boulder to avoid another spray of gunshots.
"Well... shit."
Commander Shepard along with Sir Alenko and Chief Williams did the same while they prepared a counter-attack against another group of humanoid machines called 'Geth', which were guarding their desired destination: the dig site.
She and the Commander's team encountered quite a number of geth from this direction, clearly indicating that they were on the right path. However, the machines fell one by one as there was little they could accomplish against the team's expertise in combat. Whereas Akane herself never used anything more than one or two shurikens to get rid of them.
The Uchiha kept chakra usage to a bare minimum, thinking about saving it up for worse times because nothing better could be expected when in a fight against a Reaper or its minions. The Commander shot down geth with her sniper, nifty with her aim, while the others stayed content with sacrificing accuracy for increased fire-rate by switching to auto-rifles.
There was a great deal of confidence in their stances that could only be associated with only the most experienced of soldiers, Akane duly noted as she kept one eye at her provisional allies, mindful to ingrain their movements in case she had to engage in combat against them.
"This is the dig site. The beacon was right here. It must have been moved," Chief Williams shrilled indignantly.
"By who? Our side? Or the geth?"
Akane kept quiet during their talk, gathering as much information as possible to get a grasp of what she had gotten herself into this time.
"A beacon, huh?"
Her Byakugan was up in less than a second. To see if there is anything like it in the distance (not that she knew what it looked like in the first place). Her sight caught the image of a few geth troops and...
What the fuck is that?!
The chatter between the Chief and Lieutenant fell deaf on her ears because she was currently captivated by the one thing only she was capable of seeing. An alien - a first for her. It resembled a humanoid bird, though with avian features.
Should she tell the others?
Unadvisable. It would raise unneeded questions and make her look even more suspicious. These humans didn't share the same abilities her kind once had and she was sure that they would question her about them as soon as their mission was accomplished.
"Akane, was it? Come on! We have no time to waste!" Shepard broke Akane out of her mussing, earning an apology from the young Uchiha before Akane ran after them up to the ramps, already hearing the sounds of fighting.
By the time Akane caught up to them at the research camp, they had taken care of a few kara around, horrified at the act of the geth on their own people.
"They haven't fought the kara yet!"
Unfortunately for Akane, she had more than a simple experience regarding that matter, but it would be dangerous for her to reveal such crucial information to them at the moment. They might suspect she was in league with the culprits by knowing about it so much and besides, something like that couldn't be put into the wrong hands or it would cause more harm than good.
In the meantime, Sir Alenko overrode a difficult lock on one of the still intact sheds in the research camps, where two humans had been hiding from the geth. Though one of them was Akane strangely familiar with, so she entered the shed too.
"Humans! Thank the Maker!" The red-headed female wriggled with her hands nervously.
"Hurry! Close the door! Before they come back!" The other one shouted out in distress.
"Don't worry. We'll protect you." Commander Shepard spoke up to calm them both down, earning a deep sight from the doc on her left.
"Thank you. I think we'll be okay now. It looks like everyone's gone."
Her gaze fell on Akane and her eyes went wide when she recognized the Uchiha, "You're the one I found unconscious at the dig site three days ago!"
All eyes were trained on Akane now and she retorted with a solemn nod, definitely disliking the shift of attention before the woman added, "When the geth hit, I feared you were killed like the rest of us. I am glad you survived."
"You're Dr Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?" Chief Williams got back to the main topic for what Akane was extremely thankful.
"It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp." The short-haired redhead responded while Akane sighed in relief, knowing that the change of topic worked. Akane had too much on her mind already to worry about being the centre of the conversation she hardly wanted to be a participant of!
"When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us."
"No one is saved. The age of humanity has ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain." The one Dr Warren had introduced as Dr Manuel, nattered away in blasphemy, his voice quivering in fear.
The others decided it was safe to ignore his comment, blaming his moonstruck ravings on the stress of his life being threatened, and further questioned Dr Warren about it all since in their eyes, she seemed to be the sane one out of the two.
The others might have written off what the lanky man had said, but Akane couldn't help but think about the last part: Soon, only ruins and corpses will remain.
It reminded her of what had happened to her people when the Reapers heralded their approach. The war with them had left nothing but absolute destruction of everything her kin once valued. It had been the very first attack that managed to reduce their numbers by more than a half. The half! And what had come after that, was even worse. Akane shuddered at the memory.
Was it potential that he was foretelling the arrival of the Reapers?
"What else can you tell me about the attack?" The Commander said, turning her attention back to Dr Warren.
"It all happened so fast. One second we were gathering up our equipment. The next we were hiding in the shed while the geth swarmed over the camp." The doc in question shook her head, not believing what had occurred herself. Akane could hardly blame her.
"Agents of the destroyers. Bringers of darkness. Heralds of our extinction," Dr Manuel fretted, "We could hear the battle outside. Gunfire. Screams. I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along."
The next choice of words from Commander Shepard caught Akane's interest, "Did you notice a turian in the area?"
"I saw him! The prophet. Leader of the enemy. He was here, before the attack." Everybody pretended not to have heard what Manuel said to carry on with it, but it only served to confirm Akane's suspicions.
"That's impossible. Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here," Sir Alenko objected.
"I'm sorry. Manuel's still a bit... unsettled. We haven't seen your turian. We've been hiding in here since the attack." The doc shot a quick glance at her partner, apologizing on his behalf.
If Akane understood it correctly and put all the pieces of information she had gathered together, the alien she had seen earlier was a turian and he (or she) was the leader of the geth but still someone the Commander had no knowledge about. Plus, the other turian named Nihlus was most likely one of the Commander's allies.
"Can you tell me anything about the beacon?" Commander Shepard continued.
"It's some type of data module from a galaxy-wide communications network. Remarkably well-preserved. It could be the greatest scientific discovery of our lifetime!" The doc exclaimed, her voice somewhat reclaiming her alacrity, "Miraculous new technologies. Groundbreaking medical advances. Who knows what secrets are locked inside?"
"We have unearthed the heart of evil. Awakened the beast. Unleashed the darkness," Dr Manuel appended, receiving a glare from Chief Williams who looked like she was moments away from rendering the man unconscious.
Dr Warren noticed the Chief's glare and intervened before it was too late. "Manuel! Please! This isn't the time."
"Williams, take us to the spaceport." The Commander ordered, noting that they wouldn't get anything useful out of the two shaken doctors. The group was exiting the shed when Dr Manuel squeaked darkly, but only Akane was left to hear it, "You can't stop it. Nobody can stop it. The night is falling. The darkness of eternity."
"Hush, Manuel. Go lie down. You'll feel better once the medication kicks in." Akane gave him a look of understanding, before attempting to leave too only to stop at the doorstep. There had been one question she wanted to ask Dr Warren in private.
"What happened to the other one you found at the dig site, if I may ask?" Akane spoke softly. Dr Warren wasn't expecting the question as she helped Dr Manuel lie down, but quickly collected herself to answer, "We buried her among the other anonym individuals on Eden Prime's graveyard."
Akane looked up at the sky, her expression remaining impassive though a certain look of melancholy was traceable when she gave the woman a meek vote of thanks, and then went sprinting after the Commander.