Jane blinked at the sight of the cyborg Kadian as he came up. Of all the people to see here, he was one of the last. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she was shaken awake by Miranda.
"Commander, we have to get them into the clinic," she said.
Still confused Jane just looked at her for a moment before what she said finally processed what she said. "Ah… r… right…" she muttered as she helped her Jacob onto her shoulder and hauled him up.
He moaned as she did so, but it was ignored as the rest of the Normandy Mercs came over to help. They hauled the three wounded over and into the clinic. It wasn't easy. The Garrus' were heavy due to their size and weight while Jacob's leg was gone making him limb, badly. A soon as they entered, a group of medics helped the group to get the three to the nearest beds and begin to help them heal. Once on the beds, the group was shooed away which didn't sit well with Jane or Ajax who looked at their respective teammates and friends.
"Sir," Kadian said getting their attention. "They'll take care of them, if you're looking for the other Shepards, they're at the sector's atmospheric generator," as he spoke, he sent something wirelessly to Ajax.
Jane watched as both their eyes glowed blue for a moment before turning back to normal. "Got it thanks," he said before looking at the others. "You lot stay here, make this place defensible,"
The two Miranda's gawked at that while Cyrus and Ajax's Jacob, who now had the nickname of Barbarossa, nodded. "Not a problem, we'll get this place secure,"
"What?" Miranda asked. "You can not be serious,"
Looking between the Ajax and Jacob, Ajax's Miranda, who nicknamed herself Clover, sighed in defeat. "They are," she muttered. "At least you can say why,"
Ajax looked between them before nodding. "This place needs more than basic troopers here. They some kind of command and authority here. You are that. Not to mention your skills will help here,"
The two sighed as they saw Jane's hardened expression. She was in agreement with her 'brother' and wasn't about to contradict him.
"Fine, but I object to this," Clover said.
"Noted," Ajax and Jane said before the latter continued. "Trust me, it's for the best," he gave a small smile that was meant to clam them, but Clover and Miranda just didn't feel it.
They just nodded and the two Shepards exited the clinic leaving the what was left of the team together. Brow furrowed Kadian looked to Miranda.
"This is going to sound weird, but in your universe, did I die?" he asked.
Miranda looked to Kadian and nodded. "Yeah, you did," she sighed. "You don't want to know the rest.
He nodded at that.
OOOOO
It didn't take long for Jacob and Miranda to get the three bodies down and lay them in a more respectful pose. They couldn't do much else outside of trying to find a tarp to put over them. While there were rights, they could perform, it seemed disrespectful to do them when the three may not share the same religion. But there was another problem that they faced.
"What should we do now?" Jacob asked.
Miranda shook her head in thought. "I'm not sure," she muttered. "I think we should head back to the clinic, but she's…" she indicated to Ashley. "Is still wounded,"
"Not that badly," the demon protested as she tried to stand but failed.
The shot from the gauss weapon had done some major damage to her insides as well as taking her arm off. While she did have an impressive healing factor, it was still going slow repairing the damage. She couldn't move without interrupting the healing process and causing more problems. But there was little else to do.
"Look your too badly injured and need help, more help than we can give anyway," Jacob said. "Plus, the clinic is defensible,"
The demon groaned in annoyance and pain as she couldn't come up with a good counter to his logic. Her ears twitched and she looked to the door with a fierce look. Miranda and Jacob took the hint and moved to hide while Ashley played dead. Both Miranda and Jacob were trained shinobi. Miranda due to her clan's practices in business. They tended to backstabbers in more than a figurative sense.
Jacob, however, being a former member of the Imperial Rangers had similar training to Miranda but it was less expansive. They are were meant for commando operations similar to N7, just less than those elite units. The two hid in shadowed and out of place sections of the room, weapons at the ready and pointed at the door. They slowed their breathing and relaxed themselves as the door opened and two people walked in weapons up.
One wore a long black trench coat while the other wore black and red armour. As they looked around Miranda noticed the emblems on their breastplate. She tapped Jacob's shoulder before exiting cover, getting the two's attention and weapons on her for a moment. But a glit of recognition flashed in their eyes before they lowered their weapons.
"Oh, good… Miranda, right?" the woman asked.
Miranda nodded. "Miranda of Clan Lawson," she replied. "I assume that you two are Shepard, right?"
The two nodded. "Ajax and Jane," the man said pointing to himself then Jane.
"That is a relief," Ashley spoke up spooking the two who looked at her wide eyed. "I thought it was more of our enemies,"
"Ashley, what the fuck…" Ajax muttered but shook his head. "Never mind, which way did the others go?"
"Up," Jacob said. "The made their way up to the generator,"
"Ok, good," Jane muttered before looking to Ashely. "Can you get her back to the clinic?" Miranda and Jacob nodded at that. "Then do it, they have defences there. And she's in clearly in need of help,"
The two looked to each other, unsure what to say or do as this wasn't their Shepard, but in the end nodded. "Will do," Miranda said.
"Good, get moving, see you soon," Ajax said as he and Jane moved up the ramp and towards to the top.
While that happened, Jacob and Miranda moved to help Ashley to her feet as Jane called back down.
"Oh, by the way, figure out what you are going to call yourselves. Other than the demon, there's two Miranda's and Jacob's," she yelled making the two agents look to each other with brows raised.
OOOOO
"Why this fucking thing," John muttered as he had his hands deep into the electronic guts of a set of lift controls.
He had been at it for the past 10 minutes to try and get power to the lifts. Btu for some reason, he assumed to the incompatible technologies of the universes colliding. Either that or the flickering was messing around with the internal components. Neither of which he liked or helped. With a grunt he pulled his hand out and kicked the side of the panel in annoyance.
"Fucking hell," he growled before getting back down and trying to find where he was. "Damn this fucking machine,"
Shion and Yasuke said nothing to him but were checking their weapons and making small-talk to pass the time. Shion, being deprived of her sonic amps, was going a quick check on her custom-made pistols. Thy were similar to the predator pistols, but with ported barrels, made out of lighter materials, hair triggers and quick-eject systems to allow for a quick replacement of a heat sync. While dual welding wasn't always practical, if at all, Shion worked with a couple of engineers to figure out a way to make it practical and useful.
The pistols were the result and others like her took them up to look cool. And she was the poster child for that look. Others may copy, but she was the original.
Yasuke, on the other hand, was polishing his onyx black sword. Any Samurai worth his skill always kept their weapon clean and ready for the next battle. The routine, for him, was somewhat relaxing. Just cleaning, seeing his reflection and not having a care in the world. Just something simple rather than fast and chaotic. After a wipe he held it up and looked at his reflection from the black metal with a red inlay. In his universe, N7 wasn't just a special forces unit. If you passed, you were considered to be a Samurai, a knight, a servant to the Emperor and Empire.
In order to represent this, all N7 graduates had to make their own sword to show their status. They had a selection of metals from across the Empire and he picked one of the rarest metals. He didn't know why, it just called to him. And he never regretted it.
"Gah fuck!" John yelled breaking him out of his thoughts.
"John, there is no shame in…" he began but the engineer spoke up.
"What the fuck… guys have a look at this," he called.
The Samurai and Idol looked to each other for a moment before getting up and joining him to see what. Shion almost vomited while Yauske just stayed stoic, but internally was going to vomit. The inside of the panel John was at, was no longer made out of polymers and metals but made out of organs and meat. Several veins pulsed with the pumping of blood and parts of it expanded out like it was breathing.
"Looks like something out of a horror movie," Shion muttered turning away and going a greenish shade.
"Probably from another universe," Yasuke muttered. "It seems that the flickering is causing problems," he squatted down to get a better look before looking up at John. "Any ideas?"
John shook his head before looking up and to the door. Yasuke did the same tapping Shion's leg. Within a matter of seconds, the thee of them pressed their backs against the wall next to the door weapons at the ready. The door opened and Yasuke and John reacted quickly with the former thrusting his sword being levelled at the intruder's neck and John's pistol at the head.
"Whoa," the man said. "I was not expecting this…"
"John," a familiar voice said in an annoyed tone.
"Jane?" he asked as he lowered his weapon looking to her then the man. "Shepard, I assume?"
The man nodded. "Call me Ajax," he smiled as Yasuke lowered his sword.
"My apologises, my name is Yasuke," he held out his hand which Ajax shook.
"No worries, I would have done the same," he shrugged.
Once all five Shepards entered the room and got introductions out of the way, they then looked to the lift that led up to the main control room.
"So, what's the plan?" Jane asked.
"Not a damned clue," John muttered as he walked up to the panel. "I mean thing is still made out of meat,"
"Meat?" Ajax questioned following John to have a look. "What the fuck… looks something out of a horror movie,"
"That's what I said," Shion added. "I just looks wrong, and none of us know how to… well fix it…"
"That is a problem," Jane muttered as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Maybe we could…." Ajax began when the room began to shake. "Oh shit…"
A line similar to a lightning bolt, but made up of purple and back light opened up on a wall next to them. It spread into a web that covered everything, except the occupants in the room, before the cracks began to open up into new world and universes. Gravity seemed to cut off as they began to for while the room vanished and the widows grew wider and more numerous.
Sights, sounds, names, concepts without names or framework entered their minds. Each Shepard let out a soundless scream as the thoughts invaded them causing pain that they ever experienced before. Events new and old, familiar and not flooded their minds and eyes as reality around them began to shatter.
The five then looked at each other wide eyes before around at the room. It was the same as before. Dull metal with rusted parts and wires hanging out of broken panels. Red lights shined down on them making what they experienced even more ominous. Jane was the first to turn and vomit with John following and the others following soon after. The only one who didn't was Ajax who helped them. After a moment of everyone emptying their stomachs, they took stock of what just happened.
"How are you not sick?" Shion asked as she took a drink from her canteen.
"I experienced something like that before on the mission Darkstar gave me," he explained. "I won't go into detail but… safe to say that was localised. What I saw lead to an entire populated system from vanishing with no one remembering it even being there. No records, bank transactions, shipping manifests, nothing. Only I remembered because I was on ground zero,"
"So, you mean that Omega is going to vanish?" John asked eyes wide, looking at the others then the lift.
Ajax didn't say anything and just nodded. With that the group moved over to the open panel, pulled out their guns and open fired. The lift quickly activated and began to descend as the cracks began to appear again. This time they left something. A dead body and a crate of thermal clips. Before anyone could say anything, Shion moved up to the dead body and laughed.
"I think Darkstar just gave us something," she said as she got down to remove a pair of sonic amps. "I'm now fully equipped," she smiled.
The other just looked at each other with a shrug before moving over to the crate and getting as many clips as they could. Their pockets quickly filled before the lift arrived and they walked onto it ready for whatever came next.