James offers me a beer, which I decline with a wave. That hand returns to covering my salty vison balls. He sits down next to me on the couch "Hey hermano what's got you so down?" people must have a subconscious awareness of this stuff.
My heavy sunken eyes connect with his hunter eyes and tell him "One of us didn't make it back."
Mordin who semi-retired after completing his life goal, fixing well modify the genophage to alleviate nearly all symptoms for the krogan, and now spends his time doing Mordin science things like writing an amino acid song. He stops to ask me " Who was it? is there anything we can do to cheer you up?" Seriously, everyone somehow has this intuitive knowledge. Down means low vibes and up means high vibes. I need high vibes right now.
"Legion died. Tali brought his body back and is working with Ken and Gabby to repair him, but there isn't going to be any fixing" I said.
James asks "Remind me, who was Legion?"
Mordin answers "A geth unit who allied himself with Commander Shepard against collectors. He became friends with a few of us and ********* spend considerable time with him. He became a mentor and companion to him. ********* there was nothing you could have done."
"I understand, but it's still hard to accept. Before Legion sacrificed himself, he sent a message out to the geth and Rannoch quarians. His dying wish."
James asks "what was it?"
"Tali said it was for Geth to help Shepard fight against the Reapers and to assist the migrant fleet settling on Rannoch."
Mordin says "interesting to ponder machine vs machine. Suppose conflict is not too different from organic vs organic. Less blood more sparks. I'm going off a tangent. My apologies *********."
James says "well that means more firepower against the Reapers and less people dying. Take the win hermano."
Mordin suggests changing the subject.
James asks me "so uh... what got you into exercising? I was surprised how hard you go with the weights. You're very strong for how skinny you look. Come on, everyone has a story. A girl broke my heart and you know how that goes."
"I had severe health issues that really messed me up and I believed exercising would help me and I pushed my body has far as the local gym weights went so, I would never have to go through that again. All natural. I didn't want to put any more drugs in my body and mess me up even more."
James says "hey that's the way."
"DON'T JUSTIFY WHAT HAPPENED!"
Mordin takes several large steps backwards.
"Hermano, cool yourself. I didn't mean anything."
Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhaaallllle.
"Sorry I have PTSD from my past. Please don't ever bring that up again."
"Won't ever do it again. But hermano, it helped you out in the long run. Your girl clearly enjoys the results. How is she handling the whole thing? It must be a rollercoaster of emotions."
"On one hand she's thrilled her people get to return to Rannoch, but she's mourning Legion. She's a workaholic and that's how she deals with it. Tali doesn't handle death very well. When Kasumi died, it was like she lost a sister, and I couldn't do anything to help her. Tali spent a lot of nights working late."
Mordin fondly remembers our kleptomaniac thief. I tried astral projecting to find her. Her soul's vibration is so high she is somewhere I can't access, and I looked everywhere for Legion and kept losing his trail. I worry he's going to wound up somewhere he shouldn't, which can have lasting consequences.
Commander Shepard walks through the door. He's maintaining his stoic warrior exterior, but I can tell he is hurting too. I spent more time with Legion, Shepard had developed a bond with our little robot. Breaking soul ties is very painful, and the Commander is feeling it. I can tell by the light reflecting off the salt crystals under his eyelashes.
Shepard says "I'm sorry about Legion but it's what we wanted. ********* you should have your time to grieve, but everyone saw your display out there and the council is demanding an update."
Mordin comments "your technique possessed more energy than what the Citadel uses in an entire year. Geth dreadnoughts record every instance of combat, and the migrant fleet witnessed it as well. How are we going to explain it? How did you even do that?"
James grunts like a cave man "huh?"
"Artificial wormhole placed at the galactic center and used ejecting particles from supermassive black hole as the universe's largest laser pointer. Shepard do we really need to explain ourselves to the council? It's not like they were much help anyway."
Shepard says "I know I can't make you tell them, but they still have control of the relays and we'll going to need their fleets for the fight. ********* we are almost finished with this god forsaken war. Would it really be so bad if we tell them you're a god?"
James asks "did I hear that correctly? Did you say he's a god?"
Mordin more accurately describes "not in actuality a deity. An advanced consciousness energy being with localized reality warping abilities."
James yells "The hell?!"
Shepard realizes his error "I thought you told him."
"No! I barely know the dude and want to keep this to has few people as possible. You didn't tell Traynor or Cortez, did you?"
Shepard shakes his head sidways "But you told Ashley and Wrex."
"Wrex is my buddy and I told Ashley because I figured Kaiden would have brought the subject up, and I decided to rip the band aid (running under warm water to melt the glue helps a ton) and get it over with."
James yells at me "if you're a god, destroy the fucking Reapers! People are dying out there and your butt sitting on the sofa!"
"That's what you would say to an all-powerful and immensity irritated being?" I get off the couch. Shepard moves himself in front of me. My hand reaches into my coat pocket.
"*********, calm down. Don't do anything you'll regret."
"I am calm. He's not worth my anger, but there has to be consequences. I'm not going to regret this. Put these on." I hand Shepard a pair of completely black sunglasses and I sport the good pair. A long silver rod, the diameter of a quarter is secretly manifested in my coat but pull it out like I always carry it.
"Let's set this for 15 minutes so he doesn't think this has happened." With a push of a button, an unnatural blue flash of light of a very particular wavelength reaches not found on Earth hits the back of Jame's retina. The special photon makes his eyes send a signal which causes a complicated chain reaction that will short circuit the parts of his hippocampus.
"I am not a god nor anyone of particular interest. Commander Shepard is a fine soldier deserving of your utmost respect. And also, sunglasses in doors or at night do not make us look like douchebags."
Shepard removes his shades "is that the nebulizer from men in black?"
"Yeah. I was an MIB agent for a while. I hoped their advanced technology might have something to help me break through to the apogee and it boosted me up a couple of levels. How do you know what this thing is? That movie is ancient here."
Mordin asks "what did you just do?"
Shepard says "it's a device from my favorite movie which somehow erases memories and creates new ones from suggestion. *********, If you had that, why didn't you use it to keep your powers a secret?"
"There is no guarantee it works on aliens. Thane and Tali were in the room and if I flashed you, it would have brought up even more questions, I didn't want to show you my nipples, and I went with the flow."
Shepard asks "have you ever used on me?"
Shamelessly "yes many times."
"What!?"
"You kept asking me for stuff no matter how times I said no, and this thing saved us a lot of arguing. I'm surprised you watched that movie."
Shepard says "the Alliance made us watch that movie when we're recruits to give a sense of what we might be going through and how we should treat aliens. It became my favorite movie and one of the reasons I became a N7. ********* could I please -"
"GIMME THOSE!"
"WAIT!"
I rip off his sunglasses and flash the both of them.
Mordin cautiously asks "will repeated exposure result in neurodegeneration?"
Flash flash flash flash flash.
"No, they'll be fine. James, you came to check up on me, I cried heavily on your shoulder, then you said something which helped me get over Legion's Xbox red ring of death, but we need some space between us for a while. Shepard, you came to ask me if a double date on the citadel after we meet the council is a good idea and I'll talk to Tali then get back with you. Mordin is your favorite salarian. You'll kindly listen to his protein song, find it incredibly moving, and somewhat of an earworm. I'm going to see the love of my life, Mordin, have fun. Adios muchachos."
