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tealenko · 1 year

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Didn't Have the Heart (Chapter 8)

Chapter 8: Just Checking in

Yo! I'm on fire... I wasn't expecting to write this one so quickly (given the crazy ammount of work I have right now) and yet here we are. Hope you like it!!

Summary: Shepard and Kaidan finally meet for the first time since she abandoned his room the previous night, but first, they’ll both have to endure a few more conversations with Garrus and Javik about their relationship.

Words: 5483 Rating: Teens and up Warnings: language, of course

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“We'll be entering Quarian space in less than an hour.” EDI says through the ship’s comms, alerting the crew to get ready.

Kaidan switches on his omni-tool and takes note of it, as he always does, making sure every bit of the day is planned in his schedule.

“Okay, I got fifteen minutes, give or take…” He says half joking, trying to ease the mood of the room a little. “But if this is really important I can bargain a few more with our boss… I’m on good terms with her.”

Garrus laughs and relaxes a bit, joining Kaidan on the couch and sitting by his side.

“That’s kinda why I’m here…” His friend looks at him with confusion for a second, until he’s able to clarify his statement. “I think… You get Shepard in a way no one is remotely close to achieving…”

“God, I hope so.” He says in between giggles, winning him a push on the shoulder from his friend.

“You know that’s not what I was talking about…”

“Yeah, sorry… I couldn’t help it.” He replies leaning backwards a bit, getting comfortable on the sofa, before asking directly about his problem. “So what’s eating you up Garrus? Had any problems with Mio?”

“Ehrmm…” Garrus’ sentence gets stuck for a moment, still not used to link that name to his best friend. “Ah, no… Not per se. It’s just that…”

Kaidan looks at him for a second, observing how he struggles to find the words to name what’s really bothering him, wondering what may have happened to them, before his own mind offers him an answer faster than his friend.

“Did she shut you off?” He asks with the more casual tone in the galaxy, like it’s not a surprise at all for him, which it isn’t.

“Yeah…How..?”

He doesn’t need to finish that sentence either.

“Well, I know how you’re wired… And, as you said before: I do know her quite well.” Kaidan replies right away. “But so do you… So, what’s new?”

“Ha…” Garrus finds at least some encouragement in Kaidan's powers of deduction. “Of course, you see that too.”

“You’ve been her friend for what, more than four years? You know how it works, as well as I do.” Kaidan explains slowly, taking his time to find the right words. “So I imagine you said something you shouldn’t.”

“Yeah… Guess I overstepped a line I should not have…”

“But…”

Garrus smiles again, still amazed at the accuracy of Kaidan’s words.

“But, for the first time, I have no idea where the error lies… And is freaking the hell out of me.”

“Mmm…” He just hums, taking a small pause before continuing. “And you want to run it by me. See if I’ll be able to notice something you didn’t.”

“Kinda, yeah… If you’re okay with it… Are you okay with it?”

Kaidan laughs a little and takes another look at his omnitool.

“Yeah sure…” He agrees. “But you have only ten minutes left.”

He doesn’t even need half of them.

Garrus starts talking right away, happy to find someone to share this with, and replays out loud his last conversation with Shepard, chapter and verse, in less than five minutes.

“The thing is, she actually talked to me about stuff she’s never had the nerve to even mention before… Everything was fine, the conversation was over, and then… Puff. She disconnected. Found, in an instant, an excuse to run away and vanished from the room before I knew what was happening.”

“That is weird…” He admits, amazed that Shepard made it through the tough part of the conversation just to run away in the middle of a joke. “But if you sensed something off… There has to be. I trust you gut.”

“Yeah? Because I’m starting to question it…”

“You said you were joking about knowing her better than anyone else?”

“Yeah… Something on the line of: do you know the amount of buzz and effort it’s taken me to get to know you?”

“And nothing else?” Kaidan asks a bit lost, not understanding where there could be a problem.

“No… Said that and I finished the whole thing joking, saying that I deserved it, for having a human as my best friend.”

Kaidan’s expression changes in the blink of an eye, losing entirely the smile he was wearing just a second ago.

“Oh well… Shit.” He murmurs, quickly catching the attention of the turian, who stares at him as he stands up and takes a few steps while facing the window.

“You know what the problem is…” He affirms more than asks.

“Yeah.” Kaidan admits while staring at the void of the galaxy.

“But you cannot tell me.”

Now he is the one surprised by the accuracy of his friend’s deduction, dedicating it a soft smile before turning to look at him.

“Yeah.” He admits one more time. “Sorry…”

“Nah, it’s okay… I get it.” He replies, standing up, taking a few steps to stop at his side. “I’m just glad I’m not crazy.”

“No, you’re not.” He waits a second, while a rogue smirk appears on his face “At least about this.”

The smile turns into a laugh right away, winning him a sigh from his friend before this one joins in on the fun.

“Ha, serves me right.” Garrus says while laughing.

“Sorry again… Couldn’t help it either”

“I think Shepard is really becoming a bad influence on you, Alenko.”

“You know, you’re not the first to tell me that today.” He admits, smiling from ear to ear. “Am I really that bad?”

Garrus laughs a little and shakes his head a couple times.

“Course not… It’s a pleasure to see you like this, Kaidan.”

He gives a soft pat on his shoulder and smiles at him, knowing that both their conversation and time left are over, ready to say goodbye to his friend.

“Thanks for the talk.”

He starts talking towards the door but stops after hearing Kaidan calling for him.

“Garrus…” He turns to face him. “About Shepard…”

“Yeah?”

“You did nothing wrong… But she had a great deal of a reason to freak out.”

“I see…”

“Just… Give her time. She’ll tell you herself. Trust me”

Kaidan smiles and Garrus replies with the same coin, giving his friend a subtle nod right after.

“Thanks, Kaidan. I… Thank you.” He says, summing up his feelings, aware that they have no time to say something else. “Means a lot.”

Kaidan nods back at him, completely understanding his feelings.

“Anytime.”

“We'll be entering Quarian space in less than an hour.” EDI says through the ship’s comms, alerting the crew to get ready.

Shepard hears the announcement almost as if it was an echo, that slowly disappears as the door on port cargo shuts close behind her.

“Looks familiar”

She says as she gets closer to the screen, staring at the displayed plans of her old ship, taking in the view as flashes of what happened in Alchera come back to her mind.

“I’ve been studying this ship, its crew. There was a Normandy before this one, you died in an attack.”

“Something like that.”

She smiles a little, eyes still glued to the pictures of her past, acknowledging how absurd the whole story seems when you hear it out loud.

“But then you were resurrected… To fight the reapers.”

“Maybe you and I have a thing or two in common.”

She closes her eyes for a second, focusing on her breathing, casting away her usual demons in order to keep present in their conversation.

“But you have something else: the reasons you fight are still alive. The friendships of the people around you.” Javik makes a small pause, building the anticipation for what he’s about to say. “And more.”

Shepard turns slowly to look at him, surprised to see where their conversation is heading.

“You and the human soldier are… Joined?” He affirms, more than he asks, more hesitant about the correct use of the terminology than about the facts he’s stating.

“You could say that.”

“I’m not. Your pheromones are.”

This type of comments would've bothered her a few weeks ago but, after everything she’s endured in the past few days, plus the whole sexual itercorse thing that he said in front of Liara and Tali, she’s more than used to this type of statements coming from Javik.

Instead of replying, she just shrugs her shoulders, not knowing what else to add to that statement, and turns back once again to stare at the images shown on the screen.

“Is this why you wish to continue living? For their affection?”

Despite his usual way of phrasing his thoughts, this takes Shepard quite by surprise. Javik is often direct and ignores any of the harm that his words tend to inflict, but something in his tone of voice is different this time around.

She finds something in that last sentence that she's not willing to let pass like it's nothing.

“Yes.” She admits right away, with a firmness in her speech that she hasn’t used with the prothean until now. “Is that a problem?”

“A surprise.” He replies without a second thought, still unaware of the effect of his words on the commander. “War is the only thing worth occupying your mind right now. That kind of feeling, that ‘affection’... Should be beneath you.”

“Without that ‘affection’, all I have in my life is death.” She says with the calmest tone of voice she’s able to summon. “And that’s not enough.”

Javik, who already had another comment prepared, stops himself from talking once he hears the beginning of what she has to say, suddenly shocked by the impactful reality of finding someone in this foreign universe who may be able to make him realize that he’s mistaken about something.

“Without feelings, without pain… I’d be just a machine.”

He looks at her, quite surprised by her statement, not expecting her to have such firm ideals and neither to be defending them with this level of conviction.

“And believe me, I’m not fighting and suffering just so that I end up turning into my enemy.”

The prothean stares at her for a couple seconds, still not knowing what to do with all that information.

“That’s a nice sentiment, I must admit.” He agrees but, after some hesitation, he goes back to his original line of thought. “Nevertheless, it is one that’s only allowed in fiction… And that, is the main difference between us.”

Shepard looks at him with a severe expression, but doesn’t interrupt him. Instead, she lets him talk, allowing him to expose what he truly thinks.

“I’ve done my research.” Javik adds, pointing at the screen. “You have fallen… You have risen. But you haven’t lost… Or at least, not yet.”

She keeps listening in silence as he talks, knowing quite well where this is heading, but still not knowing how to react to it.

“Once you have seen every single person on this ship die, massacred in front of your eyes one by one… Once you have no other option than to sacrifice every single one of them… Along with what’s left of you. Sacrifice all that you are… Only then will you clearly understand that behaving like a human is not always an option.”

Shepard stays submerged in her silence for a bit longer, investing her pause to breathe in, with a very long inhale, taking all the time in the world before formulating her reply.

“Ahhh…” She exhales. “You need to get better at researching…”

He is not only surprised by her answer, but also by the expression that follows it.

Shepard smiles a little at her own comment, but there’s a residual sadness in her demeanor that doesn’t pass by the prothean.

“Meaning?” He asks, not truly knowing how to interpret her reaction to his words.

“Everything you said, all you just described… That’s already happened.”

She stops facing him, casting one last stoic glare into his eyes, and walks towards the door, stopping at the threshold after taking a few steps.

“Akuse.” She states as an explanation, but not without fighting with herself just to be able to say it. “Start there next time.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“I do care, actually.” She turns, still at the door’s threshold, so that she can look directly at him once again. “As I told you before… We have more in common than you think.”

“I see…”

Things start to click for Javik, who right now, would start to feel sorry about his previous comment if he was able to recognize such feelings.

Instead, starts to grow inside of him a new wave of respect for the woman that now stands on the entrance of his room.

“I’ll give it to you, though… You were somewhat right.” She admits, after thinking about it. “Didn’t feel human for the longest time, but… But…”

Her words choke on her throat before they’re able to come out. Nevertheless, they aren’t needed at the end, for Javik already knows and understands them, to the point that he’s able to step forward and put an end to her struggles.

“But..”

“But that wasn’t enough.” He finishes the sentence for her, mirroring the answer she gave him only a few seconds ago.

“Exactly.”

“You’re an interesting subject… Commander Shepard.”

Javik gifts her with the faintest smile she has ever witnessed but, given his record, is more than good enough for her to recognize the change of lane in the prothean’s opinion.

“Glad to know.” She smiles back as she replies.

“Very… Unique.” Despite his choice of words, there’s no hint of mockery in his tone of voice, to Shepard’s surprise, who is waiting patiently to see where this is heading. “No wonder your people choose you to lead them.”

“Thanks…” She replies, with hesitation, knowing there’s a second part to that statement that she isn’t gonna like as much.

“You would not have lasted more than a day in the Empire, though.”

Shepard starts laughing right away, with Javik’s comment caughting her completely by surprise, not expecting something of sorts to come out of the protheans’s mouth.

“Seems probable…” She admits in between giggles, given the whole hypothetical a second though. “Would’ve taken a lot with me in the process, though.”

“Seems probable too.”

His smile expands just a millimeter, but that is enough to make her feel satisfied about the effect of her comeback. So, after a few seconds of smiling back at him, while mentally celebrating her victory, she nods her head as a goodbye gesture and states it out loud.

“See you around, Javik.”

“Commander.”

Shepard takes the elevator to the crew deck and, as she steps out of it, she sees Garrus, who is leaving Kaidan’s room.

She freezes for a second before her instincts kick in, which desperately tell her to turn around and run away, but that brief moment of hesitation is more than enough for his friend to acknowledge her presence.

“Shep!” He calls her as he hastens his step to reach her as fast as possible. “Have a second?”

“No… You see…”

He doesn’t let her finish.

Before she’s able to refuse his talking invitation, he grabs her by the arm and starts walking towards the poker room.

“It will only be a moment.”

The whole thing happens so fast that Shepard isn’t even able to complain before they get into the lounge and, by the time they’re already there, she is too shocked to know what to say, giving him the chance to break the ice, which he isn’t willing to waste.

“When are you gonna get tired of avoiding me?” He states right away, quoting the same words she said to him a few weeks ago.

There’s a moment of silence, but it’s quickly followed by a laugh.

“Nice one.” She replies, relaxing a little.

Shepard looks around for a few seconds, taking the opportunity to calm herself, and lets out a big sigh before sitting on the coach completely defeated by the situation.

“Very clever, Vakarian… Using my own argument against me.”

Garrus smiles, or does whatever it is that turians do when they’re happy, and sits in front of her, taking a second before talking again.

“Just… Forget it, Shep. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.”

“What about?”

“Wish I knew…” He starts laughing, still replaying their last conversation in his mind. “But I obviously said something that triggered you.”

Shepard starts to scour the room, unable to look directly at his friend.

“...”

“So we can just act like I never did.”

To say she is shocked by his words doesn’t come close to describing Shepard’s feelings but, after putting aside her initial hesitation, she finally musters the courage to start taking an active role in their current conversation.

“Really?”

“Yup.”

She laughs a little in disbelief, surprised by Garrus’ approach to this whole situation.

“You don’t wanna know?”

“I sure do… But not if you don't wanna tell me.” She’s about to correct his words, afraid she’s giving the wrong impression about the true reason behind her silence, but he steps ahead, once again, and does it for her. “Or if you aren’t ready.”

“I…”

“And… If you ever change your mind, well… You know where to find me.”

She stares at him for a few seconds, dedicating him a faint smile, before finally being able to reply to his answer.

“...Thanks.” She states, with said smile deepening even more on her face, grateful to see that her friend is willing to give her all the time she needs before she opens up to him. “Means a lot.”

“No problem.” Garrus leans forward and gives her a couple pats on the leg on his way to standing up, stretching a little before heading to the bar. “Want something to drink?”

“Unfortunately… No. We’ll be deployed in less than thirty minutes.”

“Oh.. Sorry for you, then.” He says this as he opens himself a bottle and starts drinking. “Gratefully, I know you won’t pick me to go on this one.”

She looks at him, completely silent, quite surprised by his statement.

“Am I wrong?” He asks, with a big grin on his face.

“No… No you’re not.” She laughs a little and smiles back at him, in awe by the accuracy of his deduction. “How you knew that?”

Garrus goes back to the sofa area, but this time around he sits next to her.

“Come on… You have to go with Tali, it’s her people.”

“There’s another spot on the crew.”

“Yeaaaaah… Right.”

Shepard sighs and slaps him on the arm before pushing him a little in a playful manner.

“Shut up.” She orders.

Unfortunately for her, it’s already too late to stop his words.

“Like you’re not gonna pick Kaidan to go along with you.”

They both start laughing at the same time, and keep doing it for a few seconds, before she stands up, casting an amused look at her friend as she starts talking.

“There’s been missions where I haven’t picked Kaidan to go along with me…” She tries to defend herself from his statement.

“Yeah, I know… But only when it’s back to back to another one and you have to give him time to rest.”

“Hmm…” She complains, mad at herself for not knowing what else to say.

“Am I wrong?” He asks again, with the same big grin back on his face.

“No, you’re not.” She smiles, amused by his comeback. “...Of course you know that too.”

“Well, I’ve been in his place… Back with Cerberus. I couldn’t catch a break unless we had no time to rest in between missions, ironically.” Garrus brings his talon to his head while faking to be affected by the change in her preferences when it comes to choosing a squad member. “I thought you loved, Shepard.”

She laughs, extremely amused by his words..

“God, you’re an idiot…”

“You’re probably right, but you have to stop saying things like that, Shep.” He reprimands her, with a hint of his joking tone still engraved in his words. “You’re becoming quite a bad influence on poor Kaidan.”

“Why? Is he no longer suffering in silence while you and Vega aim at him every stupid comment that you’re able to come up with?”

“Even better… He’s the one making them now.” He states, both proud of him and happy to see Kaidan in his element. “Fearsome thing to behold, to be honest.” He says, tuning back to his half joking tone of voice.

“Good for him…” She takes a moment to think before taking a few steps towards the door. “Speaking of whom, I should go give Kaidan the specs for the next mission… We’re almost there.”

“Yeah, right…”

“What!?” She asks, almost like she doesn’t already know the answer.

“Come on Shep, it’s me… You don’t have to fake it. I know why you’re really going to see Kaidan.”

Shepard just stares at him with an annoyed look, unable to deny his friend’s statement.

“Or now you’re gonna tell me there’s no ulterior motives behind your visit?”

“Well, hell yeah. Of course I have ulterior motives!” She admits right away, almost laughing. “But that doesn’t mean I was lying, though. I intend to give him a report for the mission too.”

“I see.” He smiles back, amused by the honesty in her answer.

Shepard returns his smile and nods, considering this small gesture more than enough to signal her goodbye, and starts walking towards the door.

“Hey, Shep.” He says on her way there, making her stop after a few steps. “This whole Kaidan thing…”

“Yes?” She turns to face him, not knowing at all where this is heading.

“You sure about it?”

She casts him a confused look.

“I thought you weren’t gonna give me the Kaidan talk, Garrus.”

“No, of course I’m not… It was more in the line of a Shepard talk, if you know what I mean.”

Shepard’s jaw drops a little, surprised to see where his friend’s worries lie.

“You are worried about him.”

“Yes.” Garrus admits right away.

“You think I’ll hurt him.”

“I know you’ll hurt him… But I still don’t know how.” He states without hesitation before sighing and looking directly at her. “It’s plain math. When you love someone that much, there’s countless different possibilities to get hurt. I’m just trying to avoid one of them.”

Shepard considers his comment for a second, finally understanding what he’s really trying to imply.

“Soooo… You’re scared that I’m treating this like a port in the storm kind of thing.”

“Here we go again with the idioms…”

Shepard laughs a little, still amused after many years of friendship by any occasion where she needs to explain human argot to her best friend.

“Don’t tell me Vega hasn’t covered that one yet.” She says while smiling. “What a pity.”

“Well, I think I get it based on context.” He replies, after thinking about its meaning for a second. “Never too late to learn something new.”

“Good to know.”

She nods and proceeds to leave the room.

Walks out of it and stands in silence in the hallway, staring at the door of the room situated on the opposite side of the corridor.

“Ahhhh…” She sighs, before turning on her feet and heading once again inside of the lounge.

Garrus, surprised by her sudden reappearance, doesn’t say anything. Instead, he just stares at her while she states what she really needs to get out of her system.

“He’s not.”

She tells him, taking her a few seconds to realize she may need to say share more information for him to understand her.

“A safe port in the storm.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning…” She takes a second to breathe. “You don’t have to worry about Kaidan.”

“I see.” He replies, now with a sense of relief, happy for both of his friends.

“You can leave that to me.”

They both laugh at her comment and, once again, she nods at him and leaves, although this time around she doesn’t stay frozen outside of the port observation.

With hurried steps, she quickly reaches the opposite side of the hallway and enters, without hesitation, in the room she was staring at only a few minutes ago.

Shepard isn’t surprised to see what she finds once she gets into it.

She’s quite used by now to the vision of Kaidan, sitting in his favorite chair, reading and writing reports of their previous missions, completing with grace and calmness all those tasks that she detests so much to do.

"Hey there." He says as a greeting, taking his eyes from his datapad to cast a loving look at her.

"Hey, Kaidan--Just checking in..."

Reality hits Shepard, and she suddenly feels like it’s been a lifetime since she last saw him, even though it’s been only a few hours since she sneaked out of his room.

"I'm glad.” His smile deepens as she gets closer to him, leaving completely forgotten all the work he was doing just a second ago. “Say, you left without waking me."

She smiles back at him, taking a moment to think, trying to find the appropriate words to express why she did so.

After a few seconds of self reflection, she finally finds her answer.

"Didn't have the heart."

There’s a mixture of both endless worry and deep affection that melts together in between her words, giving her sentence a double meaning that not even she is aware of.

"Aw, thanks, but next time--wake me.”

Shepard’s body acts on its own, as her hand instinctively reaches for Kaidan’s, searching for the contact that she’s been missing since she abandoned it the previous night in complete silence.

“Fine…” She complies with an almost ethereal tinge in her voice, feeling the pressure of her heart smothering her words as it keeps pounding with the strength of mass relay against her chest.

Kaidan uses his free hand to bring her closer and sits in a more useful position so that he can wrap her arms around her.

“Missed you..” He whispers, completely glued to her, tightening the embrace even more.

Shepard rests her head on top of his, bringing her right hand to his hair so that she can play with it.

She messes it up a little, combing it different directions for a few seconds before forming a reply to his comment.

“Me too.” She shifts a little and kisses the top of his head before returning to her previous position. “Unfortunately…”

She doesn’t need to say anything else. The mention of that last word is enough to let him know what comes next.

Kaidan sighs, coming back to their reality, leaning back a few inches so that he can move his head to be able to look at her.

“We need to get ready?”

“Yeah, we’ll be entering quarian space in no time.”

“What a shame…”

One of his hands starts to move up her body, but she stops it before it’s able to travel too far, taking a step backwards to avoid starting something they do not have the time to finish.

“Kaidan…” She says, half breathless once again, both reprimanding his behavior and begging him to stop for their own sake.

“Sorry.” He stands up and takes a step to close the distance between them, adding to his apology a repentant look. “I couldn’t help it.”

Shepard’s body leans forward a little, pulled once again by the gravity that Kaidan always seems to hold against her.

“I…” She manages to stop herself just in time, placing her hand on top of his chest to ensure she won’t get even closer, despite how much all her soul is asking her to do so. “We…”

After taking a moment to breathe, followed by a sigh, Shepard finally manages to regain some control over the situation and, summoning all the strength she’s able to find, and clearing her throat to speak again, she is somehow able to look up at him and hold his glare.

“We…” She insists, now with a more decisive tone in her voice. “... should be getting ready.”

There’s a moment of silence filling the room after Shepard says this. She looks away, with a cheeky smile forming on her face that immediately catches his attention, making him enjoy the moment way more than he should.

“But I really don’t want to…” She finally adds in between laughs, smiling from ear to ear as she focuses her eyes back at him.

Kaidan starts laughing just a moment after, instinctively surrounding her with his arms and lifting her up from the ground, doing a couple spins while at it.

“Kaidan!” It’s all she’s able to say, or half scream, in complete surprise, before she starts laughing again, holding tight around his body and hiding her face against his neck.

This lasts for a few seconds, in which the tired couple are able to completely forget momentarily that there’s an actual war spreading through the galaxy, or better said: two, thanks to the narrow-mindedness of the top hierarchy of the quarian conclave.

Nevertheless, nothing can last forever and, after their idyllic scene is finally over, they both sight and smile at each other, aware that they need to go back to work no matter how much they don’t want to.

“So… Gear first.” Kaidan says, after coming back to reality, finally focusing on the task at hand. “My weapons are already prepped, so I think I should go change clothes now.”

“Need an extra hand for it?”

“Hmm…”

Kaidan laughs and coughs at the same time, looking away for a moment while smiling uncontrollably, taking a few seconds to calm a little before rewarding Shepard’s comment with a soft kiss on her forehead.

“Maybe later.” He adds, winning him a deep laugh from Shepard.

“Definitely later.”

And just like that, they go back to their programmed schedule.

The couple walk together to the elevator and get to the shuttle bay in record time, heading directly to the lockers where they store their gear and doing their best to pretend they aren’t aware that Vega is staring at them from afar with a stupid smile on his face.

They help each other, without talking too much, way too used by now to both their respective bodies and armors to be in need of speaking out loud for the other to understand what they need to do.

The ride to the bridge of the ship is also a silent one, especially the few seconds they spend alone in the elevator, almost as if they feared that taking would lead them to tangle around each other once again.

The silence only ends once the door opens after they make it to the combat center, shattering the calm and beautiful atmosphere they shared through all the way before they got there.

Shepard is immediately stopped by one of the lower ranked officers as Kaidan excuses himself and keeps waking forward, dedicating Samantha a smile and a pat on the arm when he goes past her post.

He gets to the other side of the room in record time, allowing him to spend a few seconds to greet Joker and EDI from the threshold of the pilot’s cabin before heading to the door on his left, standing alone in the small room for almost a minute before Shepard joins him.

“Something important?”

“Nah… Bureaucratic stuff, I’ll do it later.” She replies while sitting on the ground, resting her back against the exit door of the Normandy. “Called Tali too, she’s on her way.”

Kaidan smiles, taking a few seconds while his eyes roam through the small empty room before he surrenders, sighs, and sits next to her, instinctively reaching to grab her hand.

“Penny for your thoughts.” He says, entangling his fingers between hers.

“Oh… Believe me.” She replies, raising her head to stare at the ceiling as she takes a deep breath. “You don’t wanna know.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

Shepard giggles and nudges his arm, shaking her head a couple of times before turning it and shifting her body a little to look better at him

“At least right now…” She smiles at him, unable to keep her feelings to herself. “We need to focus on the mission.”

Kaidan gifts her with a gentle laugh, completely defeated by the way she looks at him, needing a second or two before being able to react to her comment.

“Well then…” His free hand travels to cup her face and, with a slowed and unhurried pace, he leans forward and plants a soft kiss on her lips, keeping the nonexistent distance between them even after said kiss is over. “And later?”

“Hum… ”She agrees right away, not even having to give a second thought to her answer. “Definitely later.”

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Fiiiiinaaaally!!! Oh my, they finally meet again in chapter 8/10 lol. Took a while but we're finally here yaaaaaay~~~ Get ready people: next one is smut time!!!! And Shepard will sucher punch a quarian too!!! What more can you ask for in a fic??? XDDDDDDDD

#mass effect #commander shepard #kaidan alenko #shenko #shepard x kaidan #fshenko #mass effect 3 #femshep x kaidan #fanfic

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laelior · 2 years

Text

Objects in Motion

Mass Effect Kaidan Alenko x Beth Shepard (somewhere in a gray space between pre- and post-relationship) Rating: T ~2500 words

“Walk me through it one more time,” Kaidan said with the studied patience of someone rapidly growing impatient.

“Again?” Shepard fought to keep the exasperation out of her voice. Where she was half-sitting, half sprawled on a training mat in the cargo bay, Kaidan sat across from her with his legs crossed neatly in front of him and his back against a stack of crates. It was just the two of them, hanging back and letting the sweat dry off after an early morning PT drill with the rest of the ship’s marine complement. The Normandy’s engine thrummed pleasantly through the deck as the ship hurtled through space at faster-than-light speeds.

“Just humor me. I want to make sure I understand what you’re getting at,” he said, which she clearly understood as, give me a chance to prove you wrong.

“Alright, then. From the top.” She sighed and squared her shoulders, unsure if she was readying herself for battle or a simple lecture. “Modern weapons work by accelerating tiny grains of metal to a measurable fraction of the speed of light using mass effect fields to deliver more kinetic energy than traditional gunpowder firearms.” She ticked off each fact on her fingers then paused, making sure he was following along.

“Right, I understood that part.” He waved with one hand, a clear dismissive gesture. Elementary physics. So far, so good.

“So I’m thinking, why can’t we do that?”

“With our bodies.” It wasn’t a question so much as a flat statement of disbelief.

“With our bodies. Wrapping ourselves in a mass effect field to get that kind of acceleration.” She couldn't help the note of excitement that crept into her voice. It didn’t matter that this was her third time trying to explain this particular brain-wave that had come to her late last night.

“I’m missing the part where this doesn’t end with you as a red smear on the bulkhead.” You, he said, not we. It wasn’t lost on her.

“Mass effect physics eats concepts like ‘inertia’ for breakfast,” she replied with a breezy flick of her hand. But seeing the skeptical rise of his eyebrows, she added, “A sufficiently strong barrier should do the trick.”

“You’d pick up a hell of a static charge,” he pointed out. It was a new argument, and maybe one that had a point. He was the tech nerd, after all, equally capable of doing delicate omni-tool repairs and sabotaging enemy tech on the battlefield. She just hit things until they either broke or started working again, as he liked to tease her.

“Probably,” she conceded. “But over a short distance the barrier is probably enough to keep it in check.”

Kaidan pinched the bridge of his nose and puffed out a small sigh, the way he did when he knew she was right but hadn’t convinced himself of it yet.

“Want me to go through it again so you can try and poke more holes in it?” she asked, doing her best to sound helpful.

“This is another one of your late night ideas, isn’t it?” Kaidan furrowed his brow in concern. “How much sleep are you getting?”

“Don’t change the subject. Now, assuming a ba—you need something, Flores?” Shepard pivoted quickly when one of the yeomen poked his head around the stack of crates, casually looking over her shoulder and tamping down the unexpected flare of irritation at the interruption. Flores, for his part, started in surprise.

“Just…uh, grabbing some chow for the mess, ma’am,” Flores said. His eyes darted between her and Kaidan, then they widened and a blush started to bloom on his cheeks. Shepard shifted her weight and sat up more on the mat to relieve a sudden feeling of discomfort. Flores was a seasoned and trusted member of her crew. Why he was suddenly acting like a chrome-plated rookie fresh out of boot was beyond her.

“I think the mess supplies are behind me,” Kaidan said, smooth as always, getting to his feet and helping the yeoman find the crate he was looking for.

Not for the first time, Shepard wondered at the mixed fortune that kept her crew together. It was normal practice to rotate out the crew of a vessel that had distinguished itself in battle. To help spread around the experience, according to Alliance doctrine. Pressly should have been given his own command. Kaidan should have been serving as an XO on another ship. Tanaka should have been promoted to chief gunnery sergeant and assigned elsewhere. But that hadn’t happened to the crew of the Normandy after the Battle of the Citadel.

Officially, it was because her status as a Council Spectre muddied the chain of command and, oh, of course they’d get it sorted out while the Normandy went out to hunt down geth holdouts in the Terminus systems. But they all knew the unofficial reasons, even if no one talked about it. The Council and the Alliance didn’t know what to do about the Reapers, so they’d effectively quarantined her crew to keep the information contained.

But the unintended consequence was keeping together a crew that knew and trusted each other like no other. A crew willing to commit mutiny against the Alliance for her and to look the other way when—

Oh.

Flores thought he’d accidentally caught them. Her and Kaidan.

Flores found his crate and left the two of them alone, but not before apologizing profusely for the interruption. Kaidan turned back to her and started to grin, but something in her expression stopped him in his tracks. She quickly returned his almost-grin.

“Now, where were we? Yes, a barrier.” She said, forcefully pulling the conversation back on to more comfortable tracks.

Kaidan frowned, that crease between his eyebrows forming like it always did when he was about to be too conscientious for his own good. “Shepard, I—”

“Might be easier if I just showed you. Here, watch this.” She interrupted and pushed herself to her feet. She set her feet shoulder-width apart as her arms almost unconsciously fell into a familiar half-guard position while she scanned the cargo bay for a target.

“Beth, wait!”

She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see it register for him that he’d called her by her first name. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, but not before she saw a shadow of some fleeting emotion in his eyes.

There had been a simple decision to make when the orders came down to ship out on the Normandy once again. It was a problem that they’d both agreed had one solution. They could be a senior and subordinate officer, or they could be lovers. But they couldn’t be both. That the compartmentalization of their lives was necessary didn’t make it easy.

But having him still in her life as a friend wasn’t just a second-place trophy, either. There wasn’t another person in the galaxy she would have bounced this objectively absurd application for biotics off of.

“I’ve got this, Alenko.” She smiled breezily at him, then turned her attention back to what she wanted to prove. She zeroed in on the Mako, her chosen target, across the cargo bay from where she stood.

Dark energy, the fifth fundamental force of the universe, gathered around her, coalescing in a blue glow that surrounded and suffused her. The sensation of the mass effect field settling into place around her sent an intimate thrill up her spine. She pushed one hand in front of her, palm out, then curled her fingers back into her palm. The biotic energy flowing through her followed the familiar command and formed a barrier around her. She bent both knees and shifted her weight forward, carefully focusing the mass effect field around her. Tiny fireflies of static sparks jumped around in the air around her. Her vision narrowed to that one point on the deck, just shy of the Mako’s rear bumper next to a stack of crates, and everything else faded away in a blur of unimportance.

Everything except Kaidan. Even facing away from him she could feel those soulful brown eyes of his looking straight through her.

She took one step forward, and launched.

Her body lurched forward, carried along by the current of dark energy weightlessly speeding her along.

Time seemed to slow down. The rush of speed flooded through her and the rest of the universe faded away. It was like riding a speederbike, but so much better. Inertia had no hold on her as her target location rapidly approached her.

The barrier around her sparked unstably, flickering with the kinetic energy she picked up along the way. The spherical shield distorted and flared, sending little static shocks through her body as the dark energy coursing through her spiked. The stringent ozone smell of eezo filled her nostrils. She pulled her fists in tighter, willing herself to rein in control of the dark energy. A sound somewhere between a gasp and a cry tore loose from her throat from the effort of trying to keep the deteriorating mass effect field stable.

Finally, she gathered the skeins of energy in one hand and slammed it on the deck. The field flared bright blue then quickly dissipated. She abruptly slammed to a halt and the deck came up and unceremoniously hit her in the ass, jolting the air right out of her.

As the adrenaline rush started to fade, she became aware of three things: one was that her head and her nose were absolutely throbbing, another was that she had made it to her target near the Mako, and lastly that Kaidan was sprinting across the deck toward her. He knelt down next to her, his face a mask of concern as he gently touched the sides of her neck. It took her a moment to realize he was feeling for her implant, checking that she hadn’t overloaded it. Once he was satisfied he gave a little nod to himself and the worry in his eyes eased some.

“Never a dull moment with you, huh, Shepard?” Kaidan asked in a tone that did very little to disguise his concern.

The pounding in her head was already starting to subside. Despite herself, a laugh bubbled up from within her chest. “Needs some refinement. That energy bleed during the downward translation is killer.”

“Literally, if you keep that up,” Kaidan said. He peered into her eyes and flitted his hands on the sides of her head before apparently satisfying himself that she hadn’t done irreparable harm to herself.

“Good thing I have a trained field medic at my side,” she replied. Getting to her feet made her head briefly start throbbing again before settling back down.

“Deckard isn’t going to be happy when he gets down here,” Kaidan observed mildly as he, too, stood up. She followed his gaze to where the stack of crates near the Mako had been knocked over when she grounded the unstable energy on the deck.

“If anyone asks, Wrex did it,” she said lightly. The quartermaster was meticulous about supply organization and he used a system that made sense to him but absolutely no one else. Even if she put the crates back, he’d known someone had interfered with them. Nonetheless she bent down to grab one of the spilled crates.

“Wrex hasn’t been aboard the Normandy since we got our new orders.” Kaidan grabbed another crate without being asked.

“They don’t need to know that.” She grinned at him. Just then she felt something warm and wet on her upper lip.

“Your nose,” Kaidan said, setting down the crate he’d just picked up and taking a step toward her.

She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and it came away with a red streak.

“Huh. Wouldn’t be the first time I busted it.” She gently put pressure on the bridge of her nose with her thumb, sending a dull thrum of pain through her skull rather than a sharp, lancing sting. “Not broken this time, though.”

“This time?” Kaidan gave her a look of mild alarm.

“Long story.” She waved her hand. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“Come on, Shepard, we should probably get you to Chakwas.” He laid a hand on her shoulder, starting to gently guide her toward the lift.

Her omni-tool pinged with a message from Presly just as the vibrations thrumming through the deck subtly shifted from a high pitched hum to a lower one. “I’ll see Chakwas later. We’re dropping out of FTL in a few minutes and we both need to be ready.”

The change in Kaidan’s body language was almost as subtle as the shift in the ship’s mass effect field. The squaring of his shoulders, the straightening of his posture, and the carefully neutral expression that came over his face signaled the switch from Kaidan, friend, or something like that to Staff Lieutenant Alenko, subordinate officer.

“Aye, ma’am. I’ll check in with Tanaka and make sure we’re ready to go in case there are any hostiles.” He started to go for the lift then paused and turned back toward her. “Do you expect to see much action here?”

“In the Amada system?” She stopped herself from grimacing. “I expect we’ll see fuck-all, but when both the Council and the Alliance tell us to jump and investigate geth holdouts in the Terminus Systems, it’s our job to to play the frog.”

Kaidan huffed out a small chuckle. “Just say the word, ma’am, and I’ll have the marines ready to say ribbit.”

She grinned at him. “Maybe after we’ve scouted this system we can get back to figuring out the human cannonball routine.”

“You mean, you’ll get back to figuring out inventive ways to get yourself killed and I’ll keep trying to keep you alive,” Kaidan scoffed, but he was grinning eight back at her.

“Gotta keep you on your toes somehow. I’ll see you back here at, say, 21:00, then?”

Kaidan chuckled and shook his head. “Alright Shepard. But only—” he held up his index finger for emphasis “—if you let Chakwas give you a once-over beforehand.”

“Deal,” she agreed easily. They shook hands to seal the agreement. Maybe his hand lingered on hers perhaps just a moment longer than necessary, maybe she squeezed his a little harder than she needed to. She extricated her hand from his reluctantly as they parted ways, Kaidan to his locker and Shepard toward the lift. “See you on the other side of Alchera, Lieutenant.”

#mass effect #mass effect fan fic #shenko #fshenko #beth shepard #kaidan alenko #experimenting with biotics for fun and profit #biotic charge #all vanguard shepards are adrenaline junkies and you can't change my mind #shepard likes to keep kaidan on his toes #my writing #lae writes

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bluerose5 · 3 years

Text

First Impressions (Part 1)

Word Count: 1,726

Rated T (Warnings for Swearing, Canon-Typical Violence)

Summary: What if, after receiving that call from Garrus while he was pinned down on Omega, Castis tries to track him down?

"Are you sure it was him?"

"I'm sure." Alec's smile turned mocking, the vitriol directed more towards himself. "I'm no Shadow Broker, but I still have my list of contacts here on the Citadel, even if it's dwindling by the seconds."

"Alec—"

"I don't need your pity, Castis." His smile fell, a subtle frown curling at the edges of his lips. "Besides, I'm doing this as a favor for a friend. Father to father. You know how it is."

"Yeah," Castis Vakarian sighed, "so I do."

It had been quite some time since the elder Vakarian graced the Citadel with his presence, but ever since he received that call...

"You finish up what you have to do there, and then you come on home to Palaven. We have a lot to sort out."

Even now, the echoes of gunfire rang in his ears, but not as much as the resignation in Garrus’s voice.

"Target practice," Garrus had called it.

As if an experienced C-Sec officer with common sense couldn't tell the difference between target practice and an all-out gunfight.

Even now, Castis's chest tightened.

The thought of losing Garrus now, especially when his mother's condition wasn't showing any signs of improvement—

Castis couldn't stand the thought. He couldn't lose both his wife and his son all at once.

When Garrus never reported back, he had to do something. After he spoke with some old friends on the Citadel, Alec Ryder put out some feelers of his own at his friend's request. For a while, there was nothing.

Then, they got a hit.

The Normandy SR-2, arriving to the Citadel from Omega. A ship flagged by Citadel Control's security algorithms for having alleged ties to the pro-human extremist group known only as Cerberus.

It was under the command of no other than Commander Shepard.

Why was Castis not surprised?

Between his and Alec's contacts, they had been able to discern that there were indeed aliens listed as part of the ship’s crew. A surprising move, given the organization's history, but Castis was far from calling them friends. Just because they expanded recruitment beyond their own species did not make them allies.

Add in a Spectre miraculously back from the dead, and the whole situation reeked of trouble.

Alec agreed, so they approached the matter with caution.

Thankfully, Solana understood when Castis had to drop everything and go. All that she asked was that he return home with the knowledge that Garrus was safe. That's it.

Of course, that wasn't enough to satisfy him.

Castis knew that Garrus was alive now, but that wasn't enough.

The next time he and Alec were pinged, they received intel stating that Garrus was spotted poking around the shipping sector of Zakera Ward with Commander Shepard, seeking out a notorious forger. For what? Spirits only knew.

The only other info that they had was that there was a drell and a quarian accompanying them as well.

While they awaited positive IDs on those two, they continued following Garrus’s trail, questioning the loose-lipped volus who was more than happy to give up Fade's position after his lousy bodyguards wandered off for a break.

Eventually, they were led to Harkin's position. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out that Garrus had already been there, what with the trail of bodies and mechs they left in their wake.

Seeing Harkin curled up on the floor, the bastard took one look up at them, then swore under his breath.

"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me," he spat. "First your son, and now you? Haven't you Vakarians done enough?"

"Heh," Alec chuckled. "We're just getting started, tough guy."

Tapping at his omni-tool, Castis sent out an alert. While he dealt with Harkin, Alec approached the open console nearby, downloading all of its content, including the most recent call to a client.

"Have fun explaining yourself to C-Sec, Harkin, or is it Fade now?" Castis paused, crossing his arms over his chest as he peered down at him. "You can't resist making a fool of yourself for even a second, can you?"

"Hot take, coming from you." Harkin sneered. "You can't even keep that hot-headed son of yours on a leash. Bet C-Sec was glad to finally have his insubordinate ass off the force."

Castis saw red.

He took a step forward, but Alec's hand came down onto his shoulder, stopping him in his path.

"He's not worth it," Alec reminded him gently. As C-Sec swarmed the area, Alec jerked his chin in the direction of the door. "Come on. Let’s go find him before it's too late."

They strolled out together, heads ducked close and voices kept low.

"Did you find anything?" Castis asked.

"More than enough," Alec assured him. "Garrus is looking for a turian by the name of Lantar Sidonis."

"Can't say I've heard of him."

"Hmm..." Alec hummed thoughtfully to himself. "There was a location sent to set up a meeting. Orbital Lounge."

"Good work," Castis said, but Alec shrugged off the praise. "Let's go."

They stopped to make a quick change in a clothing store along the way. They got dressed in casual attire, posing as a couple of friends enjoying the sights.

By the time they made it to the lounge, Castis was already getting antsy. He struggled to maintain his cover, his eyes darting this way and that.

Alec elbowed him in the side.

"Calm down," he warned. He turned towards a random window display to glance over the selection of model ships. "Maintenance walkway above. Over your shoulder and to the right."

Castis snuck a peek as soon as he had the chance to.

He felt all of the blood drain from his face.

Turning quickly back towards the display, he hissed under his breath, "He has a rifle."

Alec shushed him before they could attract too much attention.

"I know, but do we really want to announce that little fact to the entire plaza?!" he whispered frantically.

Right.

Taking a deep breath, Castis composed himself. Usually, he wasn't this bad at remaining undercover, but the stakes were too high —too personal— to ignore.

It was hard to remain calm when your son was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

Killing in a public place...

What happened to make him fall so far?

"I spotted someone up there with him," Alec said, breaking Castis of his reverie. "Shepard, maybe?"

Looking around at the crowd, Castis shook his head a moment later.

"No, not Shepard. Look. To your left."

Alec followed his line of sight, then ducked his head back down.

"Her, the quarian, and I'm assuming that's Sidonis," Alec said, counting them off one by one. "Which means that might be the drell up top with Garrus. A lookout, perhaps?"

"Hmph."

That was when Castis noticed the spotting laser.

His pupils narrowed into thin slits.

"No."

Alec stopped him again, stepping out in front of him with his hands spread wide.

"Wait, wait, wait," he ordered. "Let's see how this plays out first."

Castis turned on him with a glare.

"My son is about to commit a murder in plain sight, and you want me to wait?" he snapped.

"I want you to think clearly," Alec corrected. "Take another look at who the spotting laser is trained on."

Staring him down, Castis huffed impatiently, but quickly complied. They couldn’t afford to be stuck at an impasse at such a crucial moment.

One look was enough to clear up the image that had been blurred by emotion.

What in the—

"No." Castis shook his head in disbelief, but that didn't change what he was witnessing. "No, Garrus is too fond of the Commander. He wouldn't hurt her."

The conviction with which he spoke surprised even himself, but Garrus's attachment to Shepard was undeniable, as much as he was loath to admit it.

Even then, he couldn’t deny what was right there in front of him. The spotting laser was focused on the back of Commander Shepard’s skull, clear as day.

However, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

When Sidonis moved, Garrus followed him, but the Commander was instantly there to block his opening.

There were a few tense moments where words were exchanged, far too quiet to hear from where Alec and Castis were positioned. They went back and forth for a bit, and Castis admittedly feared for the worst when both Shepard and Sidonis started to leave.

The second Garrus had a clear shot at Sidonis, Castis held his breath.

But the shot never came.

"Well," Alec muttered, "that was anticlimactic."

Castis glared and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"That's my son, Ryder."

With a grumble, Castis dragged Alec along. Their hunt wasn't over yet.

"You should meet mine. I feel like if Scott would've let him go, then he would have somehow managed to pull the trigger by accident. A real stroke of bad luck, that one."

"Spirits."

Strolling through the crowds, they laid low for as long as they could.

By the time they found Garrus again, he was talking with the others by a skycar terminal, presumably waiting on a cab.

A whole flood of emotions came crashing down on Castis at once, and there was no holding back. Not anymore.

Ignoring Alec's warnings not to do anything rash, Castis stormed off in their direction.

Insane how, after so many years of being friends, the N7 was only choosing now to try to be the voice of reason when Castis wanted to be anything but.

Out of everyone, the drell noticed him first, regarding him with suspicion.

Before he could warn him, Castis called out, "Garrus!"

The other three instantly froze, right before they turned to face him.

Garrus’s eyes widened, his mandibles falling slack as he gaped.

"Dad?"

"'Dad?!'" Shepard and the quarian echoed, shocked by such an unexpected turn of events.

The drell, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit perturbed.

"Ah, his father," he hummed, nodding in understanding. "Your presence in the lounge makes sense now."

Alec's brow furrowed.

"Hold up, you knew we were there?" he asked skeptically.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call you two 'subtle.'"

"That doesn't matter!" Castis snapped.

Clenching his jaw, his mandibles were clamped down tight.

Time to get this meeting back on track.

"Garrus, we need to talk."

#mass effect trilogy #mass effect 2 #mass effect legendary edition #castis vakarian #alec ryder #garrus vakarian #commander shepard #femshep #thane krios #tali zora vas normandy #shakarios #polyamorous aliens #my writing #my fanfic

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queercraftingchonk · 3 years

Text

Tali and Garrus go shopping (& have a good ol’ elevator chat)

Garrus was not sure how he ended up being Tali's personal packing mech. The turian became aware of his 'tool' status after the fourth shopping bag was added to his arms. He didn't know how many more parts Tali was planning on buying, and the two still needed to get some dextro-based groceries.

"Alright, we just need to stop by the Docking Bay, and then we can get groceries," Tali said. She only carried a single light rucksack where she had stowed a couple smaller mechanical parts with the prosthetic specs datapad.

"Docking Bay?" Garrus asked. He trailed after his quarian companion as they strode towards the rapid transport. Tali hailed a skycar. The two waited as it was brought to them by the VI self-driving valet.

"Supply lines are still in complete chaos. The only seller that I could find on the Citadel with the thermal paste I want is a batarian refugee named Dorvek. The Docks have been officially adapted as a sanctuary; apparently the Council approved converting abandoned shipping containers into furnished shelters for the time being," Tali explained.

"Let's hope this Dorvek keeps things smooth and easy," Garrus said. The skycar pulled up and idled quietly. Tali took the passenger seat, leaving Garrus to shed the shopping bags into the back before sliding into the driver's seat.

"Why do you think I brought the infamous Archangel along?"

"I assumed for my dashing good looks," Garrus teased. Tali laughed with an obscured blush beneath her faceplate. The turian added, "And to be your personal secretary, apparently." He gestured to the shopping bags tucked behind them.

"Are you really complaining about helping a girl carry some bags?"

"I'm just wondering if you're using me, Tali," Garrus smirked. He easily shifted the controls of the skycar and drove them to the Presidium connection to travel down to the Citadel Docking Bay.

"I am using you for your body, yes," Tali teased. Her mirthful expression faded somewhat as she fiddled with her omni-tool. "And...well, when some people see a quarian with lots of shopping bags..." She sighed and shut off her device.

"I'm sorry, Tali, I didn't mean--"

The quarian raised a hand to quiet Garrus's apology. "It's alright, Garrus. It just saves time to have a respectable turian carry my things, rather than be accosted for shoplifting again."

"Again?" Garrus asked. His mandibles twitched tightly against his jaw. He felt an anger burn and build in his gizzard and flare against his carapace. A twinge of shame mixed as well--a shame for his ignorance in his youth, and for his part in perpetuating C-Sec profiling years ago. He was not an optimist, but he had thought that the quarian Fleet helping to save the galaxy would undo the stigma of the suited Rannoch natives. Garrus briefly wondered if Shepard's general disposition was softening his old emotional callouses--or if it was, in fact, Tali's unyielding care that had rubbed off on him.

"I don't really want to talk about it," Tali admitted. Her voice crackled slightly through her helmet's compression. Her hands fiddled with one another in discomfort.

Before Garrus could change the subject, they had arrived on the Presidium. The quiet between them had taken on an awkward air as he scrambled to grab every bag with a little too much enthusiasm. It wasn't until they got into the elevator to descend to the docks that the silence was broken.

"We should watch Fleet and Flotilla tonight," Garrus said.

Tali nearly gave herself whiplash with the quick force of snapping her attention to the turian. "Where is this coming from all of a sudden?!"

Garrus shrugged. "You, Shepard, and I haven't gotten much of a chance to relax since the vidcall with Miranda. Samara's training has been a little more frustrating for Shepard than she anticipated. It seems like a thing roommates should do."

"Sure," Tali said with some poorly hidden incredulity, "but you constantly go off on how much I love that vid..." The quarian's eyes widened and she suddenly pointed an accusatory finger at her friend. "I knew you loved that film! I knew it!"

Garrus laughed with a trill of self-conscious subvocals. "I admit it has a great soundtrack, and the leads have good on-screen chemistry."

"I want to hear you say it," Tali said.

"What?"

Tali leaned closer, finger now directly stabbing the center of his blue armor. Her vibrant white eyes were locked intensely on Garrus's blue gaze. "Admit that you love Fleet and Flotilla."

The turian leaned down until his head was beside Tali's; the gesture disarmed her, but she willed herself to remain stubborn and determined. He whispered, "I admit that I love that you love it."

"Bosh'tet!" Tali cried and shoved Garrus. He bellowed a laugh, lit up with a self-satisfied grin.

"Hey, no pushing your respectable turian secretary!"

"Respectable my ass," Tali huffed with an obstinate stance.

"It is very respectable," Garrus teased. He ventured a passing glance at the quarian's shapely hips and rear.

Tali was sure she was going to die. "You have a girlfriend!" She managed to reflexively shout. Her mind was both whirling and blank.

"Who also agrees that you have a respectable backside," Garrus smirked. He delighted in making the quarian squirm--especially since he knew he spoke the truth. Shepard had, on at least a couple drunken or overtired occasions, heaped praise on Tali's attractiveness in conversation with Garrus. (Particularly, he realized, when Shepard imbibed ryncol; it was the one alcohol capable of reducing the human Spectre to a mushy pile that loudly loved everyone.)

The elevator doors opened and Tali had to restrain herself from running away from the conversation. Her heart was pounding, throat dry, and possibly feverish. Her mind raced: how much was this just their usual teasing? And how much of it meant that Shepard had checked out the quarian's ass completely unbeknownst to Tali?

"I don't know what's worse elevator talk: your insufferable teasing or your old racist commentary," Tali said. The sharpness in her voice was unintentional, even catching the engineer by surprise.

"Ouch," Garrus breathed. He followed after her, elevator closing behind them as they moved towards the temporary shelters. "Again, for the record, I am sorry for--"

"Enough, Garrus. Let's just meet with Dorvek," Tali said. Her mind was racing too much, body fluctuating with waves of emotion, some clear and others cloudy. She needed to just focus on the errand. For his part, Garrus actually did stop talking and followed his friend diligently. He even seemed to stand a bit taller as they approached a rougher looking group of batarians--some sporting insignias of old mercenary gangs.

Tali's transaction with Dorvek went smoothly, much to both Normandy crewmates' relief. She pocketed the purchased paste in her small rucksack before turning to Garrus. Her posture had softened since the elevator.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you," Tali said softly.

"Tali, I promise, it's fine. I can be an ass. And besides--I don't mind when you're mean," Garrus said. He seemed a bit unsure, but his mandibles fluttered playfully all the same.

--Excerpt from How to Love a Biotic God(dess) [Ao3]

Chapter 14: Mind of Stars; Words of Hate

by Queercrafting_Chonk

#mass effect fanfiction #how to love a biotic goddess #tali'zorah vas normandy #garrus vakarian #talibrations #shakarian #shalibrations #shali #quarian #Fleet and Flotilla #mass effect #elevator conversations

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writtenjewels · 3 years

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Sleeper part 2

Part One

Scott Ryder, Jaal discovered, was an incredibly fascinating person. He was endlessly curious about everything: what the angara looked like, their culture and history, their social structure, their language, their homes, their food. And he answered all of Jaal's questions about humanity, which were just as numerous. They eventually moved on to other conversation topics, and it was there Jaal learned of Scott's interest in fixing machines and building things.

“I built my own weapon,” Jaal told him. “I enjoy taking things apart and seeing how they work.”

“I love figuring out how to put things together,” Scott told him. “We have omni-tools but I try not to use them. For me, it's like figuring out a puzzle. The galaxy is the biggest puzzle.”

“Indeed it is,” Jaal agreed with a smile.

He was a little sorry to leave the human, but Evfra assigned him a mission to Havarl where kett were threatening the scientists there. Perhaps by the time he got back, the human would be awake. Jaal kept his focus on the mission but sometimes his thoughts drifted to Scott. He would look at a generator and wonder if Scott could make it run better, or wish Scott could see how the sunlight moved through the Havarl foliage.

The first thing he did on his return to Aya was go visit Scott. The human was still in his coma. Pieces of Scott's ship were found but still no sign of other humans. What if he was the only one? Jaal couldn't imagine being without his family. He noted that Scott wasn't hooked up to the communication machine and asked about it.

“We don't turn it on unless we have questions,” he was told.

“Can he hear us right now?”

“It's hard to tell.” Jaal frowned but said no more. He waited until the room was empty again and turned on the machine.

“Jaal?” Scott's voice called at once.

“How did you know it was me?” Jaal asked.

“I didn't; I've been asking for you for a while, but no one could hear me.”

“They had the machine turned off,” Jaal explained. “Why were you asking for me?”

“I missed talking to you. And honestly, I was kind of hoping I could convince you to break me out of here. I'm going crazy like this.”

“Scott, you're in a coma,” Jaal reminded him kindly. “I can't remove you from the machines keeping you stable without risking your health.” Scott was quiet and the machines registered increased stress levels. “I'm sorry.” Jaal rested his hand over the human's. He waited but there was still no response from the human. Jaal was starting to grow concerned. “Scott, are you all right?”

“I hate this,” Scott said at last. “I hate lying here. I should be out there looking for my people, I should be doing something. But I'm just stuck here in my own body. I'm broken and I don't know how to fix it.”

“You aren't broken,” Jaal soothed him, closing his fingers around Scott's hand. “You are just mysterious to us.”

“But you'll figure it out,” Scott replied. “That's what you do, right? You figure out how things work.” That made Jaal smile. “Talk to me about something else-- anything else. Please.”

Jaal thought about it for a moment. He didn't want to mention the kett and worry Scott more, so instead he told Scott a story. Eventually the human's stress levels went down again. Jaal was sure there was a way to wake Scott up; he would figure it out.

#jaal ama darav #scott ryder #mass effect andromeda

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aricazorel · 3 years

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“Are you jealous?” “No...Maybe.” (Part 2)

Follow up to this prompt <from the trilogy appreciation week event>

Pairing: Kaidan Alenko x Rebecca Shepard; set during ME1; word count: 1625

Commander Rebecca Shepard walked the Presidium shops tailing her Lieutenant. She smiled. ‘Her Lieutenant.’ It had a nice ring to it. One she had accidentally voiced after the completion of their Noveria mission. She’d been so relieved that everyone survived the whole ordeal that she let it slip.

Fortunately the two of them had been alone during the admission. However, to her surprise, Kaidan hadn’t objected to the slip. Instead he said he liked the moniker. Of course his cheeks had been tinged pink as he gave her a boyish grin. One she only ever saw cast in her direction.

Maybe that’s why she hated the sight before her. Kaidan had suggested upgrading her omni-tool to something that wouldn’t piss her off, she wouldn’t break, and couldn’t corrupt. Something more intuitive for her to use. He’d suggested it after repairing her ‘tool for the umpteenth time during the Noveria mission. The 24-hour layover on the Citadel for repairs, resupply, and debriefings provided them the opportunity to look for one.

But the sight in front of her was not Alenko pointing out all the options she had and the mods that were available. Instead it was a pretty blonde sales clerk explaining to him what was available and asking what he needed. Polite as always, the Lt. had yet to tell her to fuck off. At least that was what she hoped he would have done. She would have…

Shepard glanced up at the fancy graphic sign that read ‘Firefly Technologies Limited.’ The in-store advertisements flickered between products they sold, customer endorsements, and information about the company. It was apparently a newer tech company, owned by humans, and had only recently opened a shop on the Citadel.

The Commander crossed her arms as she attempted to control her face. Something that normally wasn’t a problem. Of course normally she wasn’t affected by anyone talking to a member of her crew. Then again it wasn’t just any member. It was Kaidan. Maybe that shouldn’t have made a difference, but it did.

“Thank you for showing me your inventory, Serenity,” Alenko’s voice called, breaking her out of her trance.

Serenity? Her name was Serenity and Alenko already knew her name?

She watched the blonde flicked her hair over her shoulder as she gave him a flirty grin. “It’s my pleasure, Kaidan.”

And lovely little Serenity was already on a first name basis with her Lieutenant…

Shepard growled. She knew she growled. Maybe it wasn’t loud enough for anyone to hear. Whiskey brown eyes flashed her way, letting her know that was not the case.

The red head turned away pretending to look at an omni-tool mod. She knew it wouldn’t fool Alenko. Tech wasn’t her thing. It was his area, and she had become heavily reliant on him for it.

“I was actually wondering if you had access to the newer version of the Bluewire omni-tool,” the Lieutenant said politely.

“Well, yes, but that is still a very basis ‘tool,” Serenity replied. “For someone with your tech skills, I think you’d want a more advanced model.”

“Oh, I already have the newest Logic Arrest,” Kaidan said as he flicked on his ‘tool. “I am asking for a friend.”

The blonde tilted her head. “Even a basic Alliance soldier should have a more advanced omni-tool.”

“I understand, but the Bluewire has the interface I want, and it can easily by modded with Specter level mods.”

“Specter level?” Serenity said in confusion.

Shepard couldn’t help the satisfied grin that tugged at her lips as Kaidan gestured in her direction. Her Lieutenant explained, “My CO needs something that’s easy to use without all the bells and whistles. Something I can easily set up for her to use.”

“But you said Specter level,” the blonde’s eyes widened as they went to Shepard. “She’s the first human Specter?”

Kaidan nodded with the patience of a saint. “Yes. Commander Shepard. Now, Serenity, can you help me out?”

The blonde clerk nodded as she slowly helped Kaidan procure what he needed for her new ‘tool. Maintaining the same self-satisfied grin from earlier, Shepard leaned against the wall, arms still crossed. Maybe using her ‘Commander stare’ as Joker and Ashely called it on the innocent sales clerk wasn’t the best idea, but part of the Commander enjoyed seeing her squirm.

Anyone flirting with her Lieutenant was quickly becoming a pet peeve of hers. And she could think of no better way to signal ‘hands off’ than using the stare enemies hated. At least that was what she told herself and for a while it worked.

***

“Are you busy later, Kaidan?” Serenity asked as she bagged up everything for the Lieutenant. “I was wondering if you might want to go out for drinks.”

That was all Shepard had allowed herself to hear before she made a hasty exit from the store. Her feet carried her away as her mind screamed ‘coward.’ She wasn’t a coward. She was simply making a strategic retreat to avoid embarrassing herself or the Lieutenant…And maybe the Alliance or humanity at large…

How the hell had she had she let her attachment to a certain Alliance Lieutenant become so problematic? How had she become attached at all? Why had she let her emotions be affected so much by anything that Lieutenant did? His smile. His concern. His ability to stand up to her when warranted. His honesty. His integrity. His hand on her shoulder in reassurance. His smirk. His whiskey brown eyes…

Why did watching another woman talk to her Lieutenant drive her so crazy?

Shepard stopped dead in her tracks. There it was. Her answer.

‘Her Lieutenant.’

Had she laid an unspoken claim to Kaidan. Thinking of him as hers when she wasn’t sure she had the right to.

The Commander leaned against the railing of the walkway overlooking a series of fountains below. What really added to the chaotic storm of emotions she as feeling was the fact Kaidan had admitted he liked being called ‘her Lieutenant.’

“Damn,” Shepard muttered as she hung her head. She was in trouble.

“Are you alright, Commander?” an all too familiar voice from behind her.

She sighed. Of course he would find her, being the good little soldier he was.

“You left the store before I could give you the mods,” Kaidan went on as he leaned against the railing beside her. “I got the feeling that something was wrong.”

“Nope. Nothing’s wrong,” Shepard said a little too quickly as she pushed off from the railing. “All systems go.”

“Shepard—”

“You can hand off the new ‘tool and mods and set up my omni-tool later,” she offered, avoiding his gaze. “I wouldn’t want you to miss drinks with Serenity.”

“Shepard, I—”

“Go on. Get. I can manage the rest of my leave on my own without a chaperone.”

“Hey,” Alenko said as he caught her forearm with his free hand. “Are you jealous?”

“No,” she snapped as she saw his skeptical expression. She sighed. “Maybe.”

She prepared herself for a lecture or a reminder of the regs or even laughter. Instead he moved to stand in front of her. He wore a gentle smile as he said, “I thought I was ‘your Lieutenant.’”

Her eyes widened in surprise as he added, “I’m not having drinks with Serenity. I already have plans with someone.”

“Kaidan, you don’t have to—”

He gently pulled her arm between them, activating her omni-tool with a grin. “I can promise you there is nothing to be jealous of. All my attention is on a certain Commander. You might know her.”

Shepard swatted his shoulder as she rolled her eyes. “Really, Alenko? Throw my own words back at me?

“They are good words,” Alenko smirked as he shrugged. “But if you don’t want this new omni-tool that won’t piss you off when you use it, I can just go return it.”

As he turned away, Shepard’s hands shot out preventing him from walking away. “Oh, no, Alenko. That’s my omni-tool and I need my Lieutenant to set it up for me. Remember?”

Kaidan’s expression became unreadable for just a moment before it passed. Shepard watched as he arched an eyebrow, his usual control back in place. “Okay. I’ll still do it on one condition.”

“And that would be?” she asked as he stepped closer. Just a few more inches and it might be considered inappropriate.

“On our downtime, no ranks.”

“I’ve tried to get you to do that before, but you insist it keeps you out of trouble.”

“I’m already in trouble…Rebecca.”

The Commander’s jaw dropped at the sound of her first name passing through her Lieutenant’s lips. She watched as a wide grin spread across his handsome features. That just made everything worse. Or better. She wasn’t sure anymore. Nothing made sense.

Except that she was head over heels for her Lieutenant. She’d deal with the ramifications of that realization later. She had only a few hours of shore leave left…

“So, Kaidan, I’m trouble, am I?”

“The good kind.”

“Really?”

“Then—I suppose we’ll be getting into trouble together.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

“Kaidan!”

“Rebecca.”

The Commander could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. Glad Alenko provided cover from the rest of the crowd, she murmured, “I like it when you say it.”

“Maybe I can say it more often…I could practice while I set up your new ‘tool.”

“Is my Lieutenant flirting with me?”

“If you have to ask then I guess I’m not doing it right.”

“Or I’m not used to someone being sincere while they do it.”

“I’m sincere, Rebecca.”

She laughed quietly. “And that’s how I know we are both in trouble.”

“I can live with that.”

Shepard grinned. “So can I.”

#mass effect #prompts #kaidan alenko #rebecca shepard #f!shenko #femshep

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crqstalite · 3 years

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wip whenever.

a bit from a chapter i’m working on. i am...very excited to finish it. grissom academy, mass effect 3.

yeah. yeah this is the good part i’ve waited a whole fifteen chapters to write.

The simultaneous activation of omni-tools only brings doubt, “And…what if they’re not lying?”

“Then what, are just going to lie down and take it?” Citlali asks, poking one of the girls a little roughly, “You all already gave the assholes here a run for their money a few minutes ago. Take everything they throw at you and then a little more, Jack didn’t train you to let them kill you now.”

Jack grins at her, then turning to her student, “Come on, Rodriguez. They’re only asking nicely ‘cause you scared them in that last fight. So take your balls out of your purse, and kick some ass.”

“Yes ma’am.” She responds, stunned by the order but straightening.

Citlali approaches from the group of students, unholstering her pistol before Kodelyn holds out a hand, “You’re sticking with the students. Protect them with your life.”

“I thought I was with you.” She furrows her brow, confused.

“You are. But your orders right now are to protect every one of those students right there. Get them out of here safely.” Citlali tries to protest the order, but Kodelyn stops her, “I’m serious. They’re our biggest priority right now, and you’re one of the most powerful out of all of them. Go wild if you need to, but just keep Cerberus off them. You’re their last line of defense after Jack.”

She doesn’t seem too happy with the assignment, her expression somewhere near telling Kodelyn that she feels slighted by being moved off the main squad. After a second to think, she nods anyway, “I’ve got it. I can do that. No promises a few Cerberus bastards won’t go careening off the edge though.”

“I don’t care what you do. Just don’t endanger them or yourself, got it?” Kodelyn asks.

“I’ve got it. I’ll do what I can.”

“Good. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Gotcha. See you on the other side, Commander.” She says, a determined grin on her expression now. At the last second, she wraps her arms around her, stumbling the both of them. In a quieter voice, “Be careful out there. I won’t die if you don’t.”

Kodelyn doesn’t like the usage, nor just how much finality is attached to it. It almost sounds like she’s trying to say goodbye, but she wouldn’t be surprised if this entire mission is starting to put her more on edge than it should. She can’t shake the feeling that something’s about to go terribly wrong, but it isn’t as if they can turn back now. She does understand what her sister is trying to get across before she lets go, clapping a hand on her shoulder, “Go give ‘em hell.”

“You know I will!” Citlali bolts after the retreating group, and disappears around the corner. Kodelyn takes a breath, turning back towards the threshold.

She’ll be fine. She has Jack and a good handful of students around her own skill level. She’s not alone, and she’s looking okay compared to how she’d been earlier. Citlali could do this. Unholstering her rifle, Liara and Garrus follow her through the doors. They slam behind her.

There’s no going back now.

“Don’t hesitate to use more force than necessary. These bastards will not stop at anything to get their hands on them, so I’m not pulling my punches.”

“Understood, Commander.” Liara responds. She hesitates for a moment, quickening her pace to be eye to eye with her, “Are you sure you don’t want one of us with them? I do not doubt Jack and Citlali, only that it seems we’ve left them with a skeleton crew.”

“If our heaviest hitters are down in the Atrium and not on the walkway, they have to deal with us first before they go up there.” Kodelyn explains, “Plus, I feel like those students can hold their own. They’re definitely not invalids.”

#kodelyn shepard #citlali velasquez #wip whenever #:3 #>:3 #foreshadowing #i also wrote a whole 7.1k words today #most of it is tweaked dialogue from the game but like #i live in fear of current me right now #i am ready for bad things to happen >:3 #i also hit 30k in the last 10 days so #yeah #im a bit of a mess right now

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jacensolodjo · 3 years

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Warning for gore, torture.

------------

Shane had gotten so busy again when it came to the war, that her personal vendetta against a single Cerberus operative had fallen to the wayside. She was sure that many people close to her would be happy to hear she hadn’t had a one track mind about Banes. Some things had to go before her need for revenge. Last time she had let everything else stay on the back burner to go after a single person, a scientist that had almost met his end at the hands of Toombs and decided that because he was ‘free’ that meant he was free from her own revenge, too many people had suffered. She had almost been too late to save Grunt, in fact.

So, when she got a message from Miranda letting her know of a possible lead to Banes’ location, Shane had nearly found herself on the receiving end of a Phantom blade. With a reinvigorated shout, she used her omni-tool to form a blade that sliced clean through the Phantom’s throat. As the Phantom collapsed, bleeding out of the carotid and jugular, Shane pulled up the message. Knowing it was dangerous enough for Miranda to be doing the chasing of leads, Shane read through the message quickly before shooting off a brief ‘thanks for risking your life for this’.

She was sending a quick message to Jack with the information when a Nemesis bolt slammed into her shield, staggering her slightly. She rolled her eyes at herself before training her Mattock on the sniper and taking it out in two perfect shots to the head-- one to bring down its shield and one to fling through its skull and out the other end.

Message finally sent, Shane set off to finish the rest of her mission. Waiting for Jack to answer didn’t mean she couldn’t kill some Cerberus fucks on her own.

The Commander was on her way back to the Normandy when she got the message from Jack that simply read “Fuck yes”.

It took a few hours for Shane to get back to the Normandy, and then another couple hours after that for the Normandy to dock on the Citadel. It was there Jack lived with her students (not sharing a place though, instead Jack used the apartment Anderson had "living willed" to Shane, after a bit of convincing from Shane that they should "live together" if Jack wasn't willing to stay on the Normandy).

Shane found Jack at the Armax Arena with her students gathered. They had just finished a training session and Jack appeared to be informing them she would be gone.

"Until I get back, and who fu--reaking knows when that will be, Rodriguez and Prangley are in charge. Prangley, stop smirking. You're just the most experienced next to Rodriguez," Jack was explaining.

"Commander on deck!" Rodriguez called out, half joking. The rest of the kids went along with the joke, straightening to attention. Jack rolled her eyes before turning to look at Shane.

"You're a great distraction, good thing we were done," Jack said, obviously joking as well.

"I do what I can. You ready?" Shane replied, smirking slightly.

"Hell yeah. Let's get to it!" Jack said with a nod.

Shane looked at the students gathered, all of them wearing duplicates of the dark red hoodie Shane sometimes wore in place of her N7 one. These red hoodies proclaimed the wearer to be part of the Grissom Academy Psychotic Biotic Training on the Move “program” on the front, and a plea to "if found return to Jack" on the back of the hoodies. Jack's of course read "I'm Jack" on the back, instead.

The vanguard was struck for a moment by how young these kids actually were. They were barely into puberty, most of them. But Shane also realized that both she and Jack had been even younger than them when their biotics had been coaxed to the surface with violence and pain. A ghost of a pained, guilty look crossed Shane’s face, fast enough that even Jack doubted she had actually seen it. A moment later Shane was smiling in that wolfish way she always got when the hunt was on.

“Let’s get to it,” she agreed. She looked at the kids again before turning and striding off, Jack following barely half a step behind.

One thing that often happened when Shane went on missions with just Jack was that she forwent the fully customized N7 armor that she had slowly cobbled together after leaving Earth. Instead, Shane was barely in more than fatigues, with only strategic placement of armor plating for various weak points such as the torso. She felt it complemented the fact that Jack went into battle in barely more clothes than she was in when they first met, back when Shane was reluctantly flying Cerberus colors.

They used to bicker about how Jack really should wear armor, any armor. But eventually Shane had realized she wasn’t going to convince Jack to wear armor, so if you can’t beat them join them. And anyways, Shane’s biotics were more than enough protection as it was and she was better able to use them outside of armor. Especially when she needed to use her Vanguard class abilities.

Like a pair of alpha wolves, the biotic duo disembarked from the shuttle onto the planet that looked like it hadn’t seen any living creatures in centuries. Both biotics had a kind of bloodthirsty gleam in their eyes as they followed the coordinates on Shane’s omni-tool. The Normandy was on the edge of the system, so as not to alert anyone who might be nearby to protect Banes. Next to that, Shane had been the one to pilot the shuttle, unable to bring herself to have Steve do it. He deserved some time off and besides he didn’t need to get involved in her personal vendetta.

It took little time for them to find the compound, a building made of steel with no windows to speak of. It had at least two floors above ground, and who knew how many underground.

As they entered the compound they were both hit with the same thought: “This entire place reeks of Cerberus.” At least they knew they were definitely on the right track. Together they wandered through the eerily empty hallways, similar to the compound where Jack had been forced to become Subject Zero.

Deeper and deeper they went, and Shane was quite sure they were actually underground now.

“Look who has decided to willingly enter my lair. Commander Shepard and her pet biotic, Subject Zero,” a voice suddenly spoke from all around them. They both knew it came from multiple speakers placed throughout the hallway but it still made them freeze in place.

Shane’s biotics flared to life instantly, blue whisking around her limbs and her teeth grinding together in anger. The true surprise was having Jack instantly at her side, placing a hand surprisingly gentle on Shane’s cheek.

“Hey. Not now. Don’t let him win before things even start,” Jack said, looking Shane directly in the eye. It was rare for Jack to be the voice of reason and because of that alone it caused Shane to release the activation of her biotic amp, letting them disappear with a crackle. She let out a sigh.

“Right, we don’t even know if he’s here,” Shane admitted. She was still angry but she had learned as a child to tuck it away for later. So she did.

“You’re so close to your prize, right? Come on down, Commander. I’ll put the kettle on,” Banes said, laughter burbling up seconds later. Shane growled low but did her best to let his taunts roll off her like rain off a duck’s back.

“Don’t you fucking worry, we’ll be there soon enough, fucker!” Jack spat before continuing to walk down the hallway. Shane followed suit, struggling to keep a handle on her anger and thus her biotics.

“I have to admit, I thought I’d see you here much sooner. I guess something has changed since that fun adventure with Kahoku’s men,” Banes continued, and it was unclear if he could actually hear the two biotics speaking or not.

Shane clenched her jaw again but kept her focus on the next few steps, and the steps after that, then around a corner. Deeper and deeper, further and further. He would get his soon.

The Commander checked her omni-tool and noted that it estimated they were about half a mile underground by that point. Shaking her head, Shane turned another corner to be faced with a closed door that was also clearly locked and encrypted. The biotic pair stopped short, glaring at their newest impediment.

“Whaddya think, can we rip it off its hinges, so to speak?” Shane asked, glancing at her lover.

“Maybe if we work together. But he might just be expecting that,” Jack said, shrugging.

“Oh so you have been learning to anticipate,” Shane said teasingly. Jack lightly punched the other woman’s shoulder with a muttered “shut up”.

After a few moments of just staring at the door, Shane walked closer and activated her omni-tool. Jack stood where she had stopped, keeping an eye on the way they had come just in case it was an ambush.

“Kasumi sent me a cracker a while back, never really had to use it, though. Give me a sec, gotta remember how to actually use it,” Shane said, chuckling internally.

“Yeah, yeah. Just hurry it up, will ya?” Jack said with a scoff and an eye roll.

Shane typed through the commands that Kasumi had taught her but frowned halfway through as the door gave her a giant red X after submitting the command to decrypt so she could then get to the unlock part.

“The fuck?” she muttered under her breath, trying the keystrokes again. She received another giant red X for her trouble and then a very loud klaxon began. It was enough to make her clap her hands over her ears (which had already been sensitive before Project Lazarus and had only become even more so after).

“Ohh, I’m afraid you didn’t pass the test, Commander,” Banes’ voice came through, able to be heard even over top the klaxon.

“Shane--” Jack’s voice managed to pierce through the klaxon as well, but sounded oddly distorted.

Shane spun around and her eyes widened as she saw Jack suspended in mid air as if she was floating from her biotics. But she knew it was actually a force field holding Jack in place.

“Let her go!” Shane snarled, biotics roaring to life.

“Subject Zero was never meant to be released to begin with. I’m just fixing the fuckup of my colleagues,” Banes said. The klaxon died away.

“In case you fucking forgot, I’m here to get your head on a pike. All you’re doing is making sure I don’t make it happen too fast,” Shane said, voice suddenly turning deadly calm. She looked around the hallway before catching sight of the twin apparatuses in the upper corners, clearly creating the field keeping Jack suspended. Smiling inwardly, Shane aimed her biotics at both at the same time. The metal crumpled easily under pressure from her biotics. The field flickered then disappeared and Jack landed far more gracefully than Shane would have.

“What? No! That wasn’t supposed to happen!” Banes shouted in outrage.

“Ohh, sorry, Banes, we’re not playing by your rule book. Now open the fucking door!” Shane said, sneering at what had to be a camera angled above the door.

“I am not that easy to catch, Commander. You want in, you figure it out,” Banes said.

Shane quietly aimed her pistol at the camera and fired twice. The shattered remains clattered to the floor like rain.

“What was that about anticipating?” Jack asked, unable to not get the dig in.

“Oh, shush,” Shane said, shaking her head. “You’re fine, aren’t you?”

“Let’s just figure out how to get in there, alright? This place is making my skin crawl enough as it is,” Jack said insistently. Shane had to admit she too did not feel at all comfortable in the compound, and not just because it was shockingly empty.

Deciding that she wasn’t going to be able to get anywhere using more delicate, scalpel means, it simply meant she’d have to go ripping through things like a chainsaw. Or a tornado. Or simply a very pissed off biotic.

“Well, let’s go with our first option, then. Rip the damn thing off,” Shane said. Her anger had been stoking the fires of her biotic control for some time. Though she would always admit Jack was the strongest human biotic, Shane was no slouch in that department either. Together, with the way their biotics interacted, they had found precious little could stand up to their might.

And so, their biotics flickered to life. As they directed the independent tendrils towards the door, the usual sight of the slightly differently colored biotics twining ‘together’ and becoming brighter appeared. Despite how long biotics had been in the human population, nobody could say why exactly the biotics had different colors. The usual question of whether it denoted strength or gender had been dismissed. But it didn’t matter, so long as they worked as intended.

With a resounding thump, the stream of biotics crashed into the door. With a simple thought, the stream flattened into a square shape and seeped into the little cracks of the rim of the door. Sufficiently covered in the biotic energy, both women yanked their hands back in unison. The door dimpled but did not get completely wrenched out of the jambs like expected.

Glaring at the door, they scarcely turned their heads to look at one another, instinctively knowing exactly how to proceed from here.

As one, like two outraged Amazons, Shane and Jack screamed as they put all of their power into their goal of removing the door from its hinges. In seconds, spiderwebs of cracks sprawled across the door. A loud shrieking sound of twisting, ripping metal joined their chorus of screams and the pulse of the activated biotics. With a roar of triumph, they again moved as one to yank their biotic streams backward and thus ripped the door finally out of its place. They directed the door to fly over their heads and land behind them with a heavy screeching thud, then-- still almost eerily coordinated-- stalked forward. Both were breathing heavily from the strain but neither was willing to stop for even a moment to get their wind back. And if they had bothered to fully get a look at the removed door, or even felt it safe to look at the gap in the wall for more than a second to be sure of no trip wires, they would have noticed it was as thick as the two of them put together. The galaxy would have been hard pressed to find a singular biotic user who could do what they had done. And that was because they were so much stronger together than doing things separately or even delayed by more than a couple seconds.

“You! Ruined! Everything!’ Banes screamed, eyes wild as he watched the biotic women stomping towards him. He held a pistol in one hand and his omni-tool was activated in the other. It was enough to make Shane stop for a moment before quickly returning to being directly at Jack’s side.

“You and your entire organization are the ones to blame for this. If you hadn’t done what you did to either of us, well... we would be in very different places wouldn’t we?” Shane said. A growl rumbled in her throat as she saw him raise his gun. In the time it took to blink, her body had gone blue and she closed the distance shockingly fast. When he finally realized what had happened, one of her hands was clutching his wrist of the hand holding the gun while her other hand was wrapped around his throat. He gagged but could do nothing except twitch like a dying cockroach as she lifted him up solely by his neck and pure muscle strength. There was no need to use biotics to lift a man of his size. He was barely bulkier than Cortez or Joker. Certainly he was worth only half of Vega.

“Yeah, yeah! You have-- guh-- us to thank for all of this!” Banes choked out, punching the hand holding him up over and over but it was all in vain. She couldn’t feel any of the blows in the midst of her biotic and rage fueled act of revenge.

Jack stood nearby, upper lip curled in her trademark sneer. She knew Shane needed to do this part alone. Just like Jack had needed to hit the trigger on the bomb alone. It wasn’t a lack of wanting the help, merely that some things must be done alone.

“Yes, where the fuck are my manners? Thank you. Thank you for releasing the rest of my biotic potential. Thank you for siccing Thresher Maws on me not once but twice. For no good fucking reason! Thank you for helping the legend of Commander Shepard become that much more grand. Thank you for not leaving well enough alone and bringing me back to fucking life. And thank you, for being epic fucking morons about this entire Reaper invasion. The only true way to save humanity is destroying the Reapers, not trying to be buddies with them. But you... you aren’t going to live to see me do the job I was brought back to really do,” Shane said, voice growing louder then softer then louder again as she spoke.

Biotics flickered around her then enveloped Banes as well. With a deep snarl, she flung him at a nearby wall. He collided with it with a resounding crack and crumpled. But he rolled over almost instantly and clambered back to his feet. When he did, there she was in half a blink of an eye and biotics whipping around her form as evidence of how she got there. This time she grabbed him by the front of his overly expensive shirt and stormed forward until she was pinning him up against a wall. He yelled out in pain, feeling his shoulders creaking as they were pressed into the solid metal and her fingers digging into him hard enough he could feel his skin break apart.

“You and Leng and the Illusive Man... all of you pretend to be far more noble and powerful than you really are. But you’re nothing but little frightened pussies! I met the Reapers head on while you all stood back and decided control was the way to go. Well, look how fucking well things turned on when you tried to control me, to control Jack. Yes, Jack. Her name. The thing you tried so hard to erase by calling her Subject Zero. By calling her essentially nothing despite your goals.”

“I had nothing to do with the project on Teltin! Cerberus had nothing to do with it!”

“You lying fucker! Don’t pretend Cerberus didn’t bankroll that whole fucking thing!” Jack suddenly blurted, rage coloring every syllable. She speed walked forward but stopped short when Shane turned her head to lock eyes with the younger biotic. Shane’s own eyes were close to purple from the mix of cybernetic red and biotic blue. And the glow was bright. The look on her face was one that demanded Jack stay out of things. Jack had only seen that look before, when Shane had declined having Jack go with her when she went to track down the scientist who had nearly been murdered by Toombs.

Blood was starting to appear on the man’s shirt from where Shane’s biotically strengthened fingers had pulverized the skin. But she didn’t care. She was nowhere close to done. She released her hold on his front only so she could rip the shirt off of him. Casting a quick glance around she noted a solid metal desk nearby. A fancy one, holding a nice terminal and everything. With a sweep of her hand, a biotic field flung everything off of the desk. Then, with a grunt she flung the man up and onto the desk, face up. He yelled in pain again. The marks on his chest continued to bleed for a few moments but then clotted.

After another quick glance, she used her biotics to yank a couple of lamps nearby. With further help from her biotics, she twisted the metal rods until she had him ‘tied’ to the table. One half loop kept his legs locked together and held firm against the desk. The other half loop took care of his arms.

“Jack... I need you to sweep the compound,” Shane said, voice taking on an odd quality Jack had never heard before.

“...What? Shane, you know this place is empty!” Jack said, a tinge of confusion in her voice.

“Just do it! ...Please,” Shane’s voice again changed to one of soft pleading.

“Nothing you do to that guy will make me think differently of you, Shane,” Jack said, finally realizing what the older biotic was trying to do.

“Heh, what’s the matter? Afraid to show you’re just a wild animal?” Banes laughed. He was rewarded with a swift punch to the temple, knocking him senseless but not unconscious.

“I’ve killed a lot of people in my time. You know that, Shane.”

“I know. But you shouldn’t be forced to see what I’m gonna do to ‘im. For everything.”

“I’m not being forced. I knew what you were likely to do when we caught him. Just... don’t drag it out too much. We got better shit to do than rip this guy to shreds in pieces parts.”

Perhaps luckily for both of them, Shane had no interest in prolonging the torture. Nor did he need to suffer as much as the ones personally involved in Akuze had needed to suffer. Regardless...

Shane activated her omni-tool and used it to toggle music that came on loud and heavy. She then removed the real metal K-Bar knife she kept in a sheath on her thigh. Sure, she could’ve used an omni-blade but Traynor was right about needing to have the tactile sensation of a physical item in your grasp.

“Do you know... what it’s like to be burned by thresher maw acid?” Shane asked, tracing the tip of the knife from the man’s jawline down his throat and along his sternum. He shuddered but not violently enough to make any difference.

During Project Lazarus, the burn marks from the Kahoku mission had been ‘fixed’ by Miranda. But that didn’t mean the scar from the memory was no longer in Shane’s mind. She still had one of the burn marks from the Akuze incident, though. When Shane asked her question, Jack’s eyes had immediately gone to the part of Shane’s back where the acid had landed when the Alliance Marine had been running for her life back to the transport. Jack had first noticed it when they had had sex the first time. She hadn’t had the nerve to ask about it, if only because talking about her scars with people wasn’t her favorite thing to do so she figured the same was true of Shane. It had only been later, when Shane had woken up from a nightmare, that Jack had gotten the story of the burn scars. Shane had another one on the back of her dominant hand, part of it healed from Project Lazarus.

Biotics rippled down Shane’s arm and enveloped the knife. Using a technique she had been working on for a decade, the blade of the knife began to glow red hot.

“Y-you can’t do this! It’s against everyth--” Banes began saying, eyes widening. He stopped speaking to instead scream, a high pitched squeal really, as Shane pressed the flat of the blade against the man’s collar bone. The smell of burning flesh flooded the immediate area. Neither Shane nor Jack reacted to scent or scream. With a twitch, Shane flipped the blade to instead press the point into the flesh and stagger around the man’s chest. Angry red streaks appeared and the man kept screaming.

“You see... it burns.. and it keeps on burning... nothing puts the burn out. It’s like the strength of a thousand ghost peppers but on your skin. Not even the burn creams we got out there helps,” Shane explained, raising her voice to be heard over his shrieks.

Any other person on the Normandy would be horrified. Shane was breaking so many Alliance regulations it was dizzying. It was not the first ‘mission’ that would never even be written down by Shane. The only witness would be Jack, and Jack would never say a word. Not when it came to Cerberus assholes getting theirs.

“I... got burned and kept burning for days. And that is nothing to what I did to your colleague. The man responsible for Akuze, remember him? Remember how I actually kept him from being murdered by the only other survivor? He would’ve stayed alive if he hadn’t tried to flee. He was safer in an Alliance prison!” Shane snarled, pressing the knife in deep against the man’s hand in a mimic of the partially gone burn scar on her own hand. His scream coincided with a giant crash of sound that faded as the man began to sob.

The rock music changed to a song full of deep, long thrums. Which then turned into short ones. Before eventually a giant splash of sound then a crescendo. As the music changed, so did Shane’s position. She moved around until she was situated next to the man’s hip.

“We weren’t responsible--” Banes tried to say again. Shane snarled wide, showing teeth that for a moment looked far too sharp. And made it clear exactly why she had morphed into the Wolf of the Alliance rather than the junkyard ganger dog of Earth. Then, she slammed the knife all the way into the hilt into the man’s thigh. Another echo of one of Shane’s injuries at the ‘hands’ of thresher maws. The only difference being Cerberus had actually not been involved in that one. The only one dealing with thresher maws that had not been related to Cerberus (curing the Genophage on Tuchanka notwithstanding).

The music softened, almost dissonantly so. Banes was panting and sobbing, and it was clear he was not the badass he thought himself to be. He was even starting to have snot dribbling from his nose. Blood dripped to the floor, forming multiple puddles.

“You know, if you had used the pronoun ‘I’ instead, I might have been inclined to believe it. You weren’t responsible for Akuze but... You were responsible for Kahoku’s men. Your colleagues were damn sure responsible for Akuze. You see, for a scientist you Cerberus lot are really fucking stupid! Your colleague, knowing I was there to take his fucking ass out of the gene pool, was still backing shit up on his own personal omni-tool. I know you know that I essentially stopped his heart with a shock baton which also fried his omni-tool. But he didn’t delete everything on the terminals. He had proof. Proof he kept for years! And probably opened the files every once in a while to gloat about how before Commander Shepard became the Commander Shepard ohhh he proved she can bleed like all the rest.”

Shane glanced over at Jack, who was watching in silence. It felt completely opposite to Jack’s usual demeanor. She was almost starting to regret bringing the younger biotic. She didn’t need to see this.

Taking in a breath, Shane looked back at her prey. She then removed the knife only to shift her point of entry to the side of his leg. With a little biotic help, she jammed it into his leg just below his knee. Even Jack heard the crack as the bone shattered. This seemed to be too much for Banes to handle and he passed out cold. Shane growled low to herself, shaking her head. She wasn’t done just yet. Not yet.

Shane locked eyes with Jack, who stayed quiet. The Commander then found a medkit nearby hanging on the wall. The box itself was rusted slightly but everything inside was fine. She hadn’t bothered bringing her own medigel with her, knowing these facilities had plenty of it. Even if it was abandoned or supposedly abandoned.

The music changed once more, this time with a soaring crescendo that gave way to a drumbeat. Shane applied the medigel, only enough to bring him back around to consciousness. He yelled in pain as soon as his brain defogged.

What Shane had brought with her had been a vial of acid. It wasn’t thresher acid, but it was just as good. She had found it among Mordin’s effects he had left behind in the med bay and Chakwas had nearly had a heart attack seeing Shane messing with it.

Smiling, Shane wagged the vial a little in front of the man’s nose. He seemed to recognize it and his eyes widened.

“You won’t get away with this, Shepard! Wait until the galaxy knows what the Hero of the Citadel does--”

Shane punched his throat, making him gag and cough unable to keep talking.

“Your colleague said the same shit, you know? What, you two brothers or something? It doesn’t matter. It does not matter. Because, see, I was part of the Reds back on Earth. Yeah, big surprise to you, right? I took care of that part of my history too, back on the Citadel when I was making waves after Eden Prime. I took care of your colleague. I’m taking care of you. Leng will get his, and so will the Illusive Man. And not a single fucking person will care when all is said and done because they know exactly what Cerberus has been doing. And ironically, what I’m doing to you is not at all close to what you fucks have been doing to fellow humans. What I’m doing is not close to what you Cerberus assholes have done to me, or Jack, or anyone.”

“Shane--” Jack said, stepping forward.

“What?” Shane snapped then took in a breath. “What, Jack?”

The music was barely audible now, a soft whispering thing.

“The asshole here sent out a distress signal. Don’t know when exactly. But Joker says EDI picked up a few ships coming into the system, bearing Cerberus markings. We don’t have a lot of time if we want to get out of here without a fight.”

“What, you don’t want a fight today?” Shane asked, raising a brow.

“You fucking know I always want one, but...” Jack said, before reaching out and grabbing Shane by the wrist. Shane looked at Banes for a moment before letting Jack lead her over to a corner nearby.

“Listen, I’m not that Chambers bitch or anything but I don’t think you’re in the right frame of mind to fight a battle. We can fight some more Cerberus assholes any other day. But you need to finish with this fucker and then we need to leave,” Jack said, in a rough whisper.

Ironically, Shane knew shit was serious when Jack was being the voice of reason... for the second time that day. The music changed to an almost triumphant score, a symphonic metal tune.

“Yeah, alright. I’m almost done anyways,” Shane said, sighing. She kissed Jack’s forehead gently and lightly brushed her thumb across a cheekbone made to look sharper than it was through Jack’s usual use of makeup (in direct contrast to Shane’s general idea of going without as much as possible). Jack nodded then turned her attention back to her omni-tool where a map of the system displayed the Normandy along with the Cerberus ships making their way to the planet.

Shane walked back over to Banes, who had turned even paler than he’d been when they first arrived. Smirking, Shane engaged her omni-tool just as the music began to swell again. The omni-blade composed itself from spare bits then she used it to slice open part of the man’s shirt. She ripped the rest of it open all the way after accounting for the ‘restraints’.

“C-commander, surely we can come t-to some agreement?” Banes stammered, wheezing softly through what had to be a broken nose and a swollen throat. Shane had to admire his refusal to admit that he was dead meat on a slab.

“The only agreement available is that you shut the fuck up and let me finish the damn job,” Shane snarled.

“Please, please-- that isn’t necessary! It isn’t--” Banes stopped talking to instead give an inhuman and unholy screech of pain as Shane tipped the vial over and allowed some of the acid to splatter on the man’s chest. Some of it landed on the restraint. It ate through both skin and metal at an almost alarming pace. And Banes just... kept... screaming. Even when the acid ate through the layer of fat and muscle to go after the bones. When it did, Shane noticed the beginnings of Reaper tech. Her eyes narrowed. She dumped the rest of the acid into the already rather large hole in the man’s torso. Only when the acid met internal organs did the screaming stop. And coincidentally, the song ended on a single cymbal crash after a steady rhythm of drums.

Shane took one of the grenades off her hip. She activated it with a simple squeeze then dropped it right into the hole the acid had made. She looked at Jack and nodded when Jack looked back. The pair exited the office, clearing the doorway as the grenade went off and made sure the body had been turned into mince meat and nigh unrecognizable save for a biological scan.

As they turned a corner, Shane activated her omni-tool. The music turned off. Shane looked at Jack and laughed softly.

“Let’s head back and prep for the next Cerberus hunt,” she said.

Jack chuckled despite herself then nodded.

“Sounds good to me, Hero of the Citadel,” she remarked teasingly. Shane sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I hate it when people call me that,” she muttered. Her words only caused Jack to laugh, which echoed throughout the corridors and followed them out of the compound.

-------------------------------

“You know, I am glad for Cerberus doing one thing,” Jack said, quietly, when they finally returned to the Captain’s Cabin on the Normandy.

“What’s that?” Shane asked, puzzled.

“Bringing you back to life. Having us meet. I know we don’t really talk about it much. But... with all the shit happening you deserve to know.”

Shane was quiet a while before smiling. She tugged Jack into her arms and kissed her, deeply yet with a gentleness that was rare. She held the smaller woman close when the kiss broke.

“Yeah... you’re right. That is one thing I am grateful for. Meeting you. Being with you through it all. I know you hate it when things get mushy but, I’m not sure where I’d be without you,” Shane said, lightly resting her forehead on Jack’s.

Jack chuckled, in that way that almost sounded like purring.

“Who knew Commander Shepard had a soft and gooey side?” she teased.

“Oh shut up, asshole.”

“Bitch!”

Shane snorted before kissing the woman again and dragging her over to the bed. It was time to celebrate a job well done.

#femshack #Subject Zero #femshep #shane shepard #commander shepard #my writing #Jackie #otp: biotic bitches #Текст #i finally finished this beast of a fic lmaooo #torture cw #gore cw

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ramblinganthropologist · 4 years

Text

N7 challenge 21 and 22 - Undercover and Red Sand

Summary: Alistair Shepard’s back at it at Krispy Kreme when a contact informs him about red sand on the Citadel. So... how easy is it to get into Chora’s Den when you’re wearing OTT Sweet? He’s about to find out...

---

Nothing like showing C-SEC up by blowing the lid off their latest red sand problem. If only it hadn't wound him up in interrogation.

“Alright, Commander... I can understand a Spectre shutting this down... but how?”

Alistair shrugged as he shifted his weight so the uneven chair didn't bother him. They had one main way of dealing with suspects, even the ones who had helped them out. Unlucky for them, he understood physics. After all, they drummed the basics into recruits during boot camp. Chairs could eat his ass – ironic, considering he was sitting.

“Well, I heard rumor of it, so I investigated and found out what was going on. The rest was easy with my squad.”

The C-SEC agent looked almost incredulous as they glanced at him from across the table. “And... how did you do that? We've been working to get someone in for months.”

“Oh... I went undercover.”

“Undercover?”

And here was the time to get creative. He couldn't give ALL his methods away. Besides, no way such a straight-laced C-SEC agent was going to believe this.

“Commander Shepard, it's been a long time since we've worked together. How are you doing?”

Alice was looking good. He still wasn't sure why they were meeting on the Citadel like this, however. Good thing he had brought her things along to return, otherwise he would've had to mail it the next time he was in port.

Ah, the life of a wandering Spectre. Never in one place long.

He sipped at his tea before he answered. It was good tea – strawberry. He liked strawberry, good to know she did too. It went with her outfit more than his, mind you – today's coord was OTT in pink and white. Not a bad look on her, definitely different than the mint-chocolate number in the bags by his side.

“As well as can be expected. I hope you haven't been bothered by anyone since I dealt with the Blue Suns.”

She smiled at him as she took a dainty nibble at a biscuit. “Not at all. Things have been quite peaceful, actually.”

That was great... but it didn't explain why he was sitting in a lovely little cafe, drinking tea with his sister's friend. There was something she was going to ask him, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like it much.

Maybe he should've just done it by text... it would've been easier to say no.

In the pause, Alice took another sip of her tea and daintily put the cup down without making a sound. Her eyes were on him, burning not with desperation, but determination. Something about that made his stomach shift, yet at the same time... well, curiosity didn't just get the cat. Sometimes it got hamster-handling Spectres.

“In the time since then, I've become aware of something on the Citadel. I come here every so often to shop. Omega unfortunately leans a little too Classic for my taste, though I do believe that it would be the perfect style for you-”

Nope. Taako was good out here, to quote the old 21st century classic.

“Anyway... during one of my trips, I happened to catch whispers of something when I stopped for a refreshment. I believe you know what red sand is, Commander Shepard?”

His eyebrow zoomed to his hairline. “How does red sand come up among lolitas?”

Alice put a hand to her mouth to hide her chuckle. “Why, it doesn't. When did I say I only associate among lolitas?”

Yeah... that was his mistake. Still, his mind was wheeling. If Alice had heard mention of red sand on the Citadel... just the thought of it made his stomach turn. It was the sort of thing she definitely shouldn't be around...

And he sure as hell shouldn't. After all, as a biotic that shit fucked him up six ways to Sunday.

“At any rate, I tried to contact the proper authorities about it. They laughed at me and dismissed it as ramblings of a little girl with an active imagination.” She sniffed. “Ignoring the fact my ID says I am almost 30, by the way.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they're a real crack squad.”

“Which is why I came to you. You know my information is real, and more importantly, you are a Spectre.” She took a sip of her tea. “You can get to places that C-SEC cannot.”

Both of these facts were true. Still, he didn't see why they needed to meet in person. For something like this, all he really needed was an email. More than that, Alice had the same tone she had used the first time she had asked him for a favor.

You know... when he wound up in the dress in the bag he was currently holding.

“Right, but... why do I get the feeling this is going to involve a petticoat again?”

When Alice smiled, there was nothing friendly about it. “I may have neglected to mention when I was in this establishment, I may have slipped to my acquaintance that a friend of mine was a gorgeous petite blonde with blue eyes and a taste in OTT sweet...”

Alistair's cheeks turned scarlet. “You set me up again?!”

“Well, you did it so well the last time...” her voice dropped. “Please, Commander. I know you know the danger of red sand. I heard about your accomplishment on Illium with the Justicar. C-SEC refused to believe me, and I know this was true. You need to investigate this for the good of every biotic in the Citadel.”

She had made a grab for his hand with this, her eyes shifting from crafty to pure pleading. Part of him wanted to believe this was an act... yet the gaze she was giving him was downright desperate. Alistair felt his resolve dropping away as he glanced down at the bags.

Good thing he had made sure these were properly cleaned and ironed...

“Where do I have to go?”

Alice smiled as she poured him more tea. “Have you ever heard of a bar called Chora's Den?”

“Yeah, I almost got shot there twice.” His voice was flat, his eyebrow even higher. “A lolita at Chora's Den is going to stick out.”

His contact chuckled as she reached for a biscuit. “That's the point, Commander. Now, you're going to need to be there by 22:00-”

Why did he get the feeling he was going to regret this...

---

“Commander, are you ready?”

Yes, he just needed to fix his petticoat.

Alistair had never expected to wear one ever again, and yet there he was. Apart from some new accessories borrowed from Alice to help with the change in fashion and season, it was the same damn dress, petticoat, and wig he had worn the last time.

The purse was different, though. Made hiding his gun and a few other tools easier should he need it.

“I'm ready, Alice, just had to make sure everything was sitting right.”

The line for Chora's Den was short that night as he approached with quick, even steps. The second time in rocking horse shoes was easier, not that he had practiced for the occasion or anything. He was just more confident this time as he made his way to the entrance. After all, this wasn't his first rodeo.

“Now, I told them my friend's name was Jane. You can fill occupation and hobbies in yourself, just remember that we met at Baby the Stars Shine Bright's store on the Citadel.”

He knew that brand – it was a classic. Not quite OTT due to the prestige of being one of the cores of lolita fashion, but it was famous. Hell, he'd watched Kamikaze Girls the first time he'd been preparing for a mission like this. A brand only lasted that long through staying power and appeal. It wasn't quite to his taste, but he could see how it had made it to the late 22nd century.

…

And now he was forming opinions on clothing brands. Shit. He was getting way too into this undercover work.

“Right... thanks for the ad-lib room.”

“Bo said you were an expert at it. Now, I'll let you know when I see them. This contact camera is amazing, did you really design it yourself?”

Alistair had to resist a chuckle as he waited in line, pretending like he was taking a call on his omni-tool. “Oh no, it was a customization of an existing design that didn't quite meet my needs. I could show you the fabric when I get back tomorrow.”

Alice was a smart woman – she caught on quick. “Impressive. Is this what working what a Spectre is like?”

Oh, she should see him when he had tech in his hands. That's when the magic happened. His contact cam was just a fruit of that effort from having to go undercover one too many times. After all, he could hardly rely on cameras where he went half the time. It was better to have one on hand that was constantly being saved to his hard drive on his computer back on the Normandy. There was also a backup version Alice would have, and a second version on his omni-tool. You could never have enough backups in case things went wrong.

Some might call him paranoid. They could kiss his ass, he had died once before – you could never be too careful.

“Excuse me, sweetheart, I think you're lost. The Tea Room is up a ways.”

There was a man leering at him. The outfit had definitely turned him off, so his only reaction to what he perceived a woman was scorn and minimizing. Alistair had seen this plenty of times before, and dealt with younger versions in his teens. Luckily, it didn't bother him.

So he shot them a blank, dignified look down the bridge of his nose as he walked past. “I do believe the line is back there. Chora's Den isn't fond of nobody line cutters last I checked.”

The man's friends laughed as he sputtered. Naturally, an assault to his identity would prompt a desire to beat the shit out of the one who had caused it. The question is, would he go after someone in a dress and petticoat?

Looks like the answer was yes – he was leaning forward.

“Why you little-”

With a swift movement, he had the man off balance and knocked on his ass. Then he kicked as a reminder to stay down. It wasn't hard enough to hurt anything seriously – just well aimed. It left his annoyance groaning on the floor.

He gave the friend group a blank look as he kept walking. “I would advise keeping your friend on a leash. I think he's in heat.”

Then he entered Chora's Den under the eye of a more than amused bouncer and with the chorus of a bunch of already drunk men. They were quickly drowned out by the music of the club and the energy that surrounded it.

It looked a little different since Fist had been running it. Cleaner maybe, though probably just as corrupt. There were still dancers of various council species, and those who enjoyed watching. These he gave a wide berth, making his way to the bar. This was the same person- he hadn't seen their body when they had cleared the place out. Smart woman.

“Nice going with the guy out front, honey.” She gave him an appreciative nod. “Saw it on the cams. What can I get you?”

He smiled, carefully. “Please tell me you have some form of sprite here. I don't exactly drink, but I'm here to meet someone.”

The bartender laughed as she reached under the bar. “Last time I heard that, Commander Shepard was still on his first life. It's why I carry the stuff. Here, I call this the Red Shepard. It's got a little grenadine in it for color.”

…

Apparently, there were drinks named after him in bars. Who knew? At least it seemed to be the designated driver special. He was happy to accept, though when he tried to pay she shook her head. Part of him was worried it was his borrowed credit chit, but then she smiled.

“You did us a favor, honey. The bouncer almost threw out his shoulder tossing him out. Drinks are on the house tonight.”

Well, that was good for him. He smiled and went off to find a place to sit so Alice could get a view of the floor. Though the music was loud, his ear piece had a noise blocking feature he was more than happy to turn on. When it came down to it, he just didn't like night clubs. Add in the dancers and he liked them even less.

If they were dudes... well... he probably would've been too embarrassed to stay long.

“See anybody yet, Alice?”

“No, but your performance outside the Den was impressive. Was that aikido?”

He smiled as he sipped at his drink. “I picked it up in basic because I was smaller than everyone else and got tired of getting my ass kicked.”

“A friend of mine learned judo for the same reason.”

Good to know someone else was kicking ass on the small side. Alistair raised his glass in tribute as he took a careful sip. He had needed the sugar anyway – he had started to feel a little shaky after walking in. Low blood sugar was fun like that.

As he waited for his blood sugar to raise as Alice looked around, he took the chance to glance around Chora's Den without moving his head. They had definitely cleaned the place since Fist had run the place. They probably had to – his squad had left more than a few bodies and bullet holes when they were breaking out to go rescue Tali. He could still remember where he had almost collided with a wall running after Bo to make sure everything was alright.

She had left quite the trail of destruction. It was kind of impressive. Good they had fixed it in the two years since he had been dead, though.

“Commander, the target is approaching you now. Play nice.”

Alistair picked up his head as he took another sip of his drink. There was indeed someone approaching his table. Surprisingly, they weren't wearing a coord. Instead, he would have said they were any normal resident of the Wards.

Which of course, meant nothing. Out of uniform he looked like any random twink with a minor obsession with hamsters.

“Jane, is it?”

Right, that was his code name. He gave his best cordial smile, much like he had seen Alice give, and nodded. The person in front of him smiled as well as they took the seat across from them, already carrying a drink in their hand.

Theirs was definitely alcoholic – it was making his damn eyes water.

“It's so good to finally meet you...” he trailed off. “Forgive me, Alice didn't give me your name.”

They answered a little too quickly – someone was eager. “It's Rax. I was a little worried you weren't going to show up. Chora's Den is kinda rough, I'm still surprised Alice comes here when she's on the Citadel.”

People were just full of surprises, weren't they?

Alistair took another sip of his drink as he gave Rax the once over. While he didn't see any tattoos for the major gangs, the lean muscle and scarred hands suggested they were into something. Part of him would have considered undercover C-SEC, but they were obvious from a mile away. Garrus had taught him to to tell them anyway. So this guy was probably either a low level merc striking out on their own, or they were from a third party gang trying to muscle in on the big three.

Poor sap. They'd be lucky if they survived the year.

“So... why don't you tell me about yourself? Alice played this close to the corset I'm afraid.”

They were already stammering as they swallowed half their drink in one impressive gulp that dribbled down their chin. Gross. At least Alistair was a master of keeping it off his face as he kept the camera trained on his target. C-SEC might need this data later after they wiped the egg off their faces.

“Oh uh... nothing special. I just do some work locally.” Another sip – someone was nervous. “How about you? Alice says you're not on the Citadel much?”

He shook his head carefully, taking another sip. “No, my work takes me off the station frequently. I work for a small organization doing research on how the various council species construct clothing.”

“Makes sense, what with how you dress and all.” They obviously then bit their tongue. “Sorry, just... don't see a lot of women like you on the Citadel.”

Alistair chuckled much like Alice would as he played with the straw of his drink. “Oh, I'm not that rare. We just keep to different places on the Wards.”

Why did he get the feeling Rax would love nothing more than to know where those areas were? While he wasn't exactly a member of the subculture, he could tell someone trying to scratch an itch when he saw it. The guy was kind of pathetic, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. A little more charismatic, and maybe he'd be concerned.

Then again, he was just pumping the guy for info.

“Oh... m-makes sense I guess. I mostly stay down here.”

The Spectre in disguise took another sip of his drink, careful to monitor the level. “What kind of work do you do? You look strong... C-SEC, maybe?”

The person in front of him snorted into their way too strong drink. “C-SEC is a fucking joke, Jane. They're just glorified pencil pushers sweeping the Citadel over.”

While this was true... maybe he could lean into this to get somewhere. Alistair nodded along as he played with his straw again. It was easy to see Rax was watching his every move. Maybe it was a good thing he had painted his nails for this...

It was the little touches that made the role worth it.

“Sounds like you get into some dangerous things, Rax.” He smiled, leaning in. “That's kind of exciting.”

Rax grinned, but there was nothing friendly about it as they lowered their voice. “Oh, you could say that. C-SEC doesn't even know I exist. Those idiots keep pinning my shit on other small time idiots. It's really clearing the market for me.”

Man, he must have been drunk to let go this easily. That, or he was puffing himself up. Alistair wasn't sure right then as he started putting the pieces together. With dealers, he could never tell. Usually they weren't too friendly with him... but that was when he was in armor.

So he lowered his voice again. “Market? Do you mean like... drugs?”

“Oh, I got something better than that, Jane.” Rax was so close that Alistair could smell their breath – gross. “You ever heard of red sand?”

“There, you have them! Pump them for information!”

Alice was getting excited, but the Spectre remained calm as he took a small sip of his drink. Every motion he made was deliberate, due in part to the fact he knew he was being watched. Rax's body language was screaming some rather lascivious things to say the least. Sadly, they weren't Alistair's type.

He liked his merc on the good guys's side.

“Red sand... that's that stuff that makes you biotic, right?”

Rax nodded as they drained their drink. “For a bit. I have a guy who supplies me from Ilium. C-SEC still thinks it's coming from Omega, the fucking morons!”

Yeah, they were... but now Alistair needed to find out where he was keeping it. Oh, he was going to regret this part... but it was what he needed to do. Luckily, he had a gun in his purse and a well-modified omni-tool to put up kinetic armor should he have the need.

So he smiled, finishing his drink. “Sounds thrilling. Skirting the law, working with that kind of material. You live an exciting life.”

“You don't know the half of it, Jane.” They looked at both empty drinks on the table. “Say... looks like both of us are out. I got something a little better at my place. It's not far if you want to come with... I can walk slow for you.”

Alistair smiled as he stood, straightening his skirt as he did. “Maybe you can tell me a little more about your exciting life while you're there. I've never tried... you know...”

He looked away, willing his face to blush. It was hard to do it on command, but it gave him a chance to look through his altered eyelashes. Rax was watching him, looking as though they had just won the world series.

Too bad they wasn't getting lucky tonight.

“Well, I think I could give you a taste.” They held out their arm. “Follow me, then. This place was getting a little too loud anyway.”

The pair were soon leaving Chora's Den, walking out of the club entirely. The bartender gave Alistair a concerned look, but when Rax wasn't looking he winked and patted his purse, briefly showing the outline. Then she shook her head, but smiled anyway.

It was short walk, like the merc had said. This part of the Wards was pretty run down, just like the Spectre remembered it. Luckily, they were heading for a small group of ramshackle warehouses. Honestly, it was just the place he expected someone to hide red sand.

Still... talk about keeping it right under C-SEC's nose. If Rax hadn't been so horny for a pretty face in a long skirt, they might've pulled it off longer.

“Here's my little piece of heaven.” Rax's smile turned to a smirk as they nudged Alistair closer to the door. “So uh... how about we get to know each other a little better? It's gonna be hard to do this in such a big skirt a-”

Alistair was all smiles as his eyes glowed bright blue and pinned his target against the wall. “Yes, I do believe it's going to be a little hard to do this if you keep trying to undress me with your mind. Now, about the red sand?”

Now it was going to get fun... he had plenty of sugar to work off from that Red Shepard. Might as well put it to use.

Poor Rax. All they had wanted to do was get laid. They had even been nice about it. Sadly, that's what happened when you tried to fuck a Spectre pumping you for info.

---

“So you went undercover in Chora's Den and wound up meeting with the middleman.”

Alistair nodded as he finished his compacted story. The C-SEC agent still looked incredulous, but he had filled in the needed pieces. Naturally, he had kept out the parts about him being in a dress, but they were more window dressing anyway.

“Yep. They showed me the warehouse, I restrained them when they made a move against me. Then you guys showed up.”

Turns out Rax had been sitting on a small mountain of red sand, enough to really fuck some people up. They were still working on locating their supplier, but Alistair had a feeling they had long since cut and run. After all, there hadn't been nearly enough to strike out as a solo dealer. More likely, they were just holding for someone more powerful.

But... that was one supply cut off he supposed.

“Well... you managed to clear up a red sand smuggling ring we had previously thought was connected to Omega. Not to mention a few assaults, a missing person, and a possible murder.” The C-SEC agent looked rather sheepish. “You uh... you do good work, Shepard.”

Alistair smiled as he rose. “Thank you. Can I get going, though? I need to get back to the Normandy. They kind of can't take off without me.”

“Oh uh... sure. If we hear anything else, we'll let you know...”

With that, Alistair took his leave of the station. As he did, he walked past the office of a few other officers. From the looks of things, they were clearing the cases he had managed to bust open for them with a few hours work.

Not a bad job for a Spectre.

“I don't get it... are you sure that's what she said?”

“Yeah, bartender at Chora's Den said a woman in a green, puffy dress with blonde hair was seen leaving with Rax. Nobody's seen her since.”

And then he was walking a little faster. After all, he had a ship to get back to, and a lot of questions he didn't want to answer. Besides, he had a dress he needed to iron and return once it was back to pristine condition.

He was definitely returning it this time. No more cross-dressing...

…

At least not in this dress. Green wasn't really his color, and Alice probably wanted it back. Maybe he should...

Fuck. Now this was a road he didn't want to go down.

#ramblinganthropologist's writing #n7month #Alistair Shepard #He's starting to form a hobby poor man

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brokenjardaantech · 4 years

Text

rk1700 december day 3: vulnerable

written for @rk1700december. day 3: vulnerable

again, female connor is called rhea. rk900 is called cronos.

also on ao3

----

‘Do you trust me, Cronos?’

It is such a loaded question, Cronos thinks as he finds himself in an impromptu staring match with his handler. Anchor is still in her work clothes, her modified uniform serving as an underarmour at all times despite the archives being one of the less significant and thus, less of a priority for the rare few people who both know and don't like what the Alliance is doing. ‘You never know what will hit you next,’ is the human’s motto, and Cronos has to agree.

‘The Administrator entrusted both of us to you,’ Cronos replies. ‘If there is someone who has the experience in androids and the power to resist her, you are the only person I can trust in this system.’

Anchor snorts at his words. ‘“This system,” huh?’

‘I know my… connections are limited compared to you, but -’

‘You want me to look at her now, or can you wait for tomorrow after I’ve got everything set up properly?’

It’s surprisingly considerate on the human’s part considering her track record of being the most ruthless leader among the Council right after the Administrator herself. No time for emotional connections, no time for goodbyes, no time for even letting her family know that she is alive somewhere in the solar system. He expected her to simply contact the Administrator and let her deal with Rhea which, given the Administrator’s alleged deeper history with androids, is reasonable, but he has learnt not to look at a gift horse in the mouth, and he does have Rhea’s best interest in mind; no use waking her up now after he spent so much time sorting and cleaning up her system just to allow her to sleep more than five hours.

‘Tomorrow,’ he says. ‘I don’t wish to wake her up just for a few tests.’

Anchor nods, a small smile glazing her face, and the rings in her eyes glows more prominent, inhuman and threatening. ‘You’ll be surprised by how much we can learn from something simple.’ She hits a key on the holographic keyboard and ejects a flash drive, pressing the delicate component directly into Cronos’ palm. ‘Here. A compilation of all theories I’ve come up with concerning Rhea’s condition. I doubt anyone or anything can calculate the exact probability of all these,’ Cronos already lets his skin recede to interface with the drive, ‘but I think it’ll be nice to know what to expect.’

Cronos has to blink rapidly to clear all the notifications and alerts in his HUD before formulating a response. ‘I could have used them sooner.’

‘My slow-arse computer just finished sorting all this shit out,’ Anchor says as she puts her computer to sleep. ‘Now shoo. I’ve got a fucking lab to prepare.’

And so Cronos returns to Rhea’s side and holds her through the night, not breaking their interface even once in order to chase off shapeless nightmares and locked-up memories threatening to resurface while her guard is down. Even if it means he cannot operate with maximum efficiency the day after.

But being the most advanced prototype in the solar system (he has no way to confirm it, but he trusts Anchor on this matter) does have its perks, and when the sky finally turns from the blue of dawn to red, he manages to coax Rhea out of bed and helps her drink her morning thirium before escorting her to a lab he didn’t know existed before today.

‘I’m not surprised that you don’t remember,’ Anchor explains as she makes the final preparations. Cronos eases Rhea into a pod suspended off the ground by a mass effect field and resists the urge to climb in with her. ‘This room is where the Administrator remotely completed your construction with my help. She thought it would be fine if I dragged you out of the pod directly right here, but if she really thinks you’re a human, it means a humane treatment, and that means not waking you up in a glass coffin still plugged into the system.’

So that’s why he remembers waking up in a bed. ‘Did she approve?’

‘She was too busy to care.’ Anchor creates a floating chair out of her biotics and, with a kick of her foot, floats towards a device on the other end of the room. ‘She wanted you out of the pod, I got you out of the pod - simple.’

‘Could’ve been simpler.’

A flash of blue, and Anchor is suddenly standing dangerously close to him, his pre-construction programme activating automatically and taking away all the colours in his world, but the glow of the human’s biotics shrouding her eyes can be seen even without colours, the rings of her cybernetic implants on her iris dark, focused circles against a backdrop of blue; intimidating despite her being shorter than Cronos for 10 centimetres. She doesn’t seem to notice Rhea’s flinch and whine of fear.

‘I’m going to state it clearly here, right now,’ she pokes the android’s chest with a biotic-shrouded finger, and he nearly topples over from the surprising force. ‘All the others you see in the archives are people of the Alliance formally. They’re paid, they went through the training, they passed all the tests, they swore their oath to protect humanity at all cost. They know the score, they are within the ranked structure, and as their commander, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure of it. The two of you, on the other hand,’ she backs off, ‘made no such promise. The Administrator thrusted you into this environment without telling you everything about what you should expect and I have explicit orders not to tell you too much, so the least I can do is to make sure that both of you are comfortable and don’t have to face one hundredth of the shit people like me are dealing with on a daily basis!’

The air charges with static electricity but Anchor manages to keep her biotics in check and damages nothing in the end. Taking a deep breath to retract whatever stray energy she set loose, the next time she speaks is much calmer. ‘Let’s get on with this, shall we? I’ve wasted enough time.’

They both go back to Rhea’s side, Cronos holding her hand up against his cheek and kissing her knuckles, Anchor to… place a hand on Rhea’s shoulder before removing it and calling up a hologram of a human figure, an empty shell waiting to be filled with information.

Anchor makes a few more adjustments and curses. ‘The pod will have to be closed in order for this to work.’

Rhea’s breath hitches, the skin on her hand falling away at the same time as Cronos’ to initiate an interface. I don’t want to -

We might have to. Then to the human, ‘Is there no other way?’

Anchor shrugs. ‘I can plug Rhea into the system to disable her faculties before opening her chassis up. That not only takes a lot of energy - which I doubt she has right now - and also much more dangerous than a thorough scan considering that I’ll need to rummage around in her biocomponents.’ Her fingers dig into the edge of the still-open pod, and her eyes meet Cronos’. ‘I don’t recommend nor do I have the confidence to do it.’

‘There’s no other way?’

It’s alright, Cronos.

Cronos looks downward at Rhea and notes how her lips tremble and her eyes waters. Her breath hitches, and she wriggles her hand to tell him that she wants him to let go as tears fall; even without the interface, he knows that she is terrified, of being alone, of being trapped in the pod, of a past that she has no concrete recollection of, but he still closes the lid of the pod, trying not to feel like he is burying Rhea.

‘It’s just a few hours,’ Anchor adds as if sensing his thoughts. ‘If you want to, you can maintain a shallow interface with her through the pod. It’s not as deep as a direct one but…’

Cronos would have given her a hug if she hadn’t moved away to make some more adjustments. Placing both hands on the lid of the pod with his skin retracted, he opens his mind to its system and there Rhea is, her signal the weakest he has ever experienced, but at least he can be with her and she knows it. Their eyes meet through the glass, and he gives her a small smile despite the circumstances. I’ll be with you the whole time, he tells her. I won’t leave you.

A vague wave of comfort and happiness washes over his processors before slowing into a trickle of no more than a few lines of code at a time. Overwhelmed by the sudden silence, Cronos snaps his gaze towards Anchor whose arms are swathed in a pair of omni-tools. ‘Things are unexpectedly slow from the large amount of data stored in her,’ she says as she waves her arm to move on to the next step. ‘Hang on, I think she can feel you.’

In the pod, Rhea places her hand flat against the other side of the glass directly below where Cronos’ hand is, but it drops back down when the signal suddenly spikes and then dies down once more, and that is her last movement before her eyes slip shut as well and she lies as still as a corpse. The stream of data is still there, though, so does it mean -

‘Don’t disconnect. She needs you.’

And Cronos obeys.

#rk17cember #rk1700 #dbh connor #dbh rk900 #oc: anchor/anna #detroit: become human #groom lake aftermath

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veorlian · 4 years

Text

Idolatry - Renewal

Pairing: Garrus Vakarian/Female Shepard

Rating: T for swearing and stabbing.

Summary: Citadel DLC, Part 2/3. Conclusion to the clone fight, hanging out with friends, and date night.

ao3 link

Excerpt:

“Legion, you know I’ve never played a video game before,” she said wryly. She was sitting on one of her too-large couches as Legion fiddled with the television.

“Acknowledged. Based on previous experience, the adequate response to this statement is ‘git gud, scrub,’ although I have been unable to ascertain its exact meaning,” Legion replied.

It was quiet in the cargo bay. Too damn quiet. Shepard paused just outside of the elevator door, listening. Since she’d gotten the cybernetic upgrades, she’d grown accustomed to dampening her senses. The first few days after her resurrection it had been almost impossible to move without being bombarded with sounds, smells, sights that sent her to her reeling. Now, she tuned back in. She closed her eyes, and she listened.

It was never entirely silent on a ship. The gentle, ever-present hum of the Normandy was a high-pitched whine, now that EDI wasn’t in control. It made Shepard wince. She could hear Garrus’ breathing, and her own uneven heartbeat.

And she could hear faint breathing, up and to the left. Her lips curled in a humourless smile.

“You might as well give up,” Shepard called. “You’ve lost.”

“I haven’t lost anything.” The clone’s voice echoed off the walls, impossible to pinpoint. But Shepard could hear her footsteps now, circling around. Shepard motioned for Garrus and EDI to stay where they were, and she slowly moved into the room.

“And yet here you are, hiding from me like a coward. What’s the matter, little girl, are you scared? You should be. You should be terrified.” The footsteps grew stronger, closer together, nearer.

The razor-sharp edge of the clone’s omni-tool came whistling towards Shepard’s face, but Shepard easily countered it with her own. The sound of the blades clashing echoed across the room.

“You may look like me,” Shepard breathed, “but I’ve forgotten more ways to kill than you’ll ever learn.”

“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” the clone spat. The fluorescent orange of the omni-blades reflected onto the clone’s face. It was a damn shame for her, really, that Shepard knew all of her own tells.

“I’m sure you’re used to disappointment by now,” Shepard said softly, and she shoved the clone away, hard. The next second she was invisible, and booking it towards EDI and Garrus at the back of the room. She ducked into cover behind the requisitions terminal. The cargo bay, Shepard realized belatedly, was a shit place to have a fight. From there, it was impossible to get a good fix on any of the oncoming enemies. Apparently they had no trouble hitting her though; a grenade arced through the air and exploded next to her, sending flames licking up her armour.

“Shit,” she hissed. She tucked into a combat roll away from the fire. She rose to her feet and a fist connected with her bruised ribs. Shepard stumbled back as her clone materialized in front of her. Damn it, she was supposed to be a long-range fighter, what the hell was up with all the melee? Shepard feinted to the left before delivering a swift upper-cut to her clone’s jaw.

She should’ve delivered a swift upper-cut, but the clone wasn’t there anymore. Shepard felt an arm around her neck, choking her. Fuck that.

Shepard got a grip on her clone’s arms and then brought her torso down, sending the clone slamming into the ground. Shepard swung her Widow around and got the clone in the chest, point-blank. The clone faded into invisibility again and was gone. Damn it.

A handful of mercs raced away from the fight, climbing into the Kodiak shuttle. The hatch to the cargo bay opened and they sped away. In their haste, they left the door open. The wind whipped through Shepard’s hair, sending it flying into her face. She impatiently pushed it away.

“Just give up, will you? You’re past your best-before date. I’m the new and improved version, without the scarring and annoying moral code,” the clone shouted. Shepard was having a bit of an out of body experience. It’s one thing to have doubts about yourself, it’s an entirely different experience to hear them repeated back to you in your own damn voice.

“Was that supposed to be an insult? I earned these scars on Feros, and Noveria, and Ilos, and Thessia, and Rannoch! You got yours out of a petri dish.” Her voice rang clear through the cargo bay. What was it she’d said to Zaeed? You’re just a collection of scars held together by spite. Maybe they had that in common.

“You’re just a mediocre soldier with a lucky streak.”

“Then what does it say about you that I’m kicking your ass?” Shepard shouted back. She finally caught her clone in her sights, and got her in the leg with a shot from the Widow. Her clone stumbled, and Shepard raced forward, tackling her to the ground. They rolled together down the open ramp until they came to rest almost at the bottom. Shepard’s clone reared up, her fist hurtling towards Shepard’s face. The ship rocked violently, sending them flying. They both ended up holding onto the edge of the cargo bay door, nothing but a steep drop beneath them.

“Why you and not me? What makes you so damn special?” Shepard felt a small twinge of guilt at the pain in her clone’s voice.

“Shepard, hold on! We’ve got you!” Garrus yelled. He and EDI hurried down the ramp and hauled her back to safety. She looked down to her clone. There’s always a choice, Commander Shepard, and it matters that you choose to help.

“Take my hand,” Shepard said. She saw her clone glance up the walkway. Looking for Brooks, maybe. Whatever she saw made her face fall.

“And then what?” she snapped.

“And then you live. Show me what you’re made of, Shepard,” Shepard said. Not a sentence she’d ever expected to say, but apparently it was just that kind of day.

Her clone looked up at her sharply.

“You’ll regret this,” she said. “It’ll come back to bite you in the ass.”

“I regret a lot of things. Now take my damn hand.”

And she did.

They caught Brooks not long after. Cortez, who had apparently been engaged in some fancy flying to keep the ship from leaving, led her forward in handcuffs.

“Caught this one trying to leave,” he said. “Alliance is going to lock her up tight.”

“Shepard,” Brooks purred, “I’m sure we can put all this unpleasantness behind us.”

“I’m not in a particularly forgiving mood,” Shepard replied. Or General Shepard? We’ll deal with her. Her hands balled up into fists.

“But wasn’t it fun to have someone running around, being in awe of you? Admit it, you’re going to miss me.” Shepard could hear the gentle tap of Brooks' hands on her restraints. She leaned down, until she was level with Brooks’ eyes.

“You’re going to go along quietly with the Alliance, and you’re going to stay the hell away from me and the people I care about,” Shepard said, her voice forged in iron and steel

“Aww, is the great Commander Shepard pleading for her life?”

“I’m pleading for yours.” It was barely above a murmur. The tapping stopped.

“Very well,” Brooks said at last. “Till we meet again, Commander.”

“Rot in hell, Staff Analyst Maya Brooks,” Shepard suggested.

“Hey, maybe now you can actually have some shore leave,” Garrus said wryly as they exited the ship. Shepard snorted.

“I doubt it, but I suppose stranger things have happened,” she said.

“You can goddamn say that again,” Joker said fervently. Shepard gently clapped him on the shoulder.

“C’mon Joker, it could’ve been worse,” she said.

“How? How could it have been worse?”

“There could have been Collectors.”

“Hey, when the “Best Commanding Officer Awards” come up, don’t expect a nomination from me.”

“Noted. Can I interest you in some sushi?” The resentful silence was answer enough, and Shepard grinned wryly. As punishment, Joker refused to let her drive. He dropped her off at her apartment, but not before insisting that she needed to throw some kind of party.

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

“What was that? Couldn't hear you!” He revved the engine loudly to drown out her protests.

“Damn it, Joker!”

“And you owe me dinner! No knives this time!”

“No promises!” she shouted as he drove away.

Shepard didn’t do vacations. Fourteen years with the Alliance and she’d been on shore leave a handful of times, each more catastrophic than the last. The last time had been a few months before she’d died. She’d started two bar fights and had to be put on unofficial lockdown for a few days. The time before that they'd caught her sneaking back onto the ship. To be honest, having her evil clone try and steal the Normandy was just the natural progression of the Shepard Hates Vacations conundrum.

Still, it wasn’t every day that almost every person you’d ever cared about was kicking around the same place that you were. The Normandy was in drydock for another few days, and so Shepard made the most of it.

“Legion, you know I’ve never played a video game before,” she said wryly. She was sitting on one of her too-large couches as Legion fiddled with the television.

“Acknowledged. Based on previous experience, the adequate response to this statement is ‘git gud, scrub,’ although I have been unable to ascertain its exact meaning,” Legion replied.

“Uh huh. Got it. So then what are we playing?”

“Vega-Lieutenant suggests that you would enjoy playing Blasto: Hero of the Citadel.”

“Vega’s an asshole, don’t you listen to him.”

“Anatomically unlikely on both fronts.” The corners of Shepard’s mouth twitched up.

“What’s your favourite game, Legion?” she asked, trying a different tactic.

“I am banned from most games for suspected VI activity,” they explained.

“Tell you what, Tali and Kasumi are coming over to watch Fleet and Flotilla with me later, why don’t you join us?”

“Will there be popcorn?” they asked. Shepard’s brows wrinkled in confusion.

“You and Tali can't eat it…?”

“I understand it is integral to organic vid watching ceremonies.”

“Alright, we'll have popcorn.”

“Shepard, you know I can’t eat popcorn,” Tali complained. The four of them were settled on the largest of the couches. It stretched across half the room, but somehow everyone had ended up almost piled up on top of Shepard. She found that she didn’t really mind.

“I got some dextro-based snacks for you, Tali,” Shepard reassured her.

“Shepard-Commander?” Legion had the copy of Fleet and Flotilla in their hands and they were carefully examining it, holding it up to the light.

“Yes Legion?”

“What purpose does a relationship between two species serve? They cannot procreate,” Legion said. Shepard shared a loaded look with Tali and Kasumi.

“It’s about the romance,” Tali explained. “Forbidden, star-crossed love.” The last few words were wistful, almost dreamy.

“I do not understand,” Legion said. Shepard patted them on the shoulder.

“How about we watch the movie, and you can ask any questions you have when it’s over, okay?”

“Acknowledged.” Shepard flicked on the TV and the beginning credits began to roll.

“Shepard-Commander--”

“Shhh!” Kasumi hushed them.

“After the movie, Legion,” Shepard said. Legion nodded reluctantly. Kasumi and Tali both snuggled in on either side of Shepard, their heads resting on her shoulders. Maybe, she thought, vacations weren’t all bad.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, thanks to the artificial light on the Citadel. Shepard had gently deposited Tali and Kasumi in the guest bedrooms (how big did one apartment need to be??) and Legion had spent the small hours of the morning playing video games on her TV. After breakfast, she cheerfully sent them on their way after inviting each of them to the party that Joker had insisted she throw.

She hummed cheerfully to herself as she got dressed for the day. It was a relief, really, to be pulling on her regular black cargo pants and hoodie. Nice clothes were all well and good, but nothing could beat a half-dozen pockets, each weighed down with knives and caltrops. There were another dozen people that she needed to see. So many people that cared about her. It made her feel disconcertingly warm and fuzzy.

Shepard's first stop was at the hospital. Blessedly, she didn’t need to stay inside for long. She picked up Thane and took him to the café on the Presidium to buy him brunch. She’d never done brunch before.

“How have you been?” she asked.

“As well as I can be, during these difficult times,” Thane said quietly. His eyes were fixed on the gardens. “But Mordin believes I will make a full recovery.”

“You’ve seen Mordin?” she asked, sipping at her coffee.

“Ah, I had assumed that you would have heard. The salarian councilor was extremely grateful for the part I played in his rescue.”

“You mean saving his life almost single-handedly?” Shepard asked wryly. Thane rewarded her with a smile warmer than the artificial sun.

“Indeed. He asked that Mordin create a cure for Kepral’s Syndrome. So here I am, better than I’ve felt in years,” he explained.

“That’s great!” Shepard said encouragingly.

“I may even be fit to help with the war effort,” he said, and his eyes flicked to her. Shepard’s face immediately fell into a frown.

“Not going to happen,” she said firmly.

“It is unfair for me to remain here when so many are dying.”

“How many last missions can one person have?” she asked. “There was the hit on Nassana Dantius, and then the Omega 4, and then saving the councilor, and then stopping my clone--”

“You have made your point,” he said wryly. “But it doesn’t seem to have stopped you before.” She pursed her lips and studied his face. He did look better, she had to admit.

“You’re sure?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“We could always use military advisors. Strictly non combat, you understand?” she said. He considered her for a moment, before eventually nodding.

“Very well, if you think that would be best,” he said.

“I’ll let Hackett know,” she replied. And then, “It’s good to see you, Thane.”

“And you, Shepard. But you are on vacation. Shall we talk of more cheerful things?”

“Please,” she said fervently, and he chuckled, without coughing once.

It still wasn’t easy, going down to the refugee docks, but Mordin had asked her to meet him there. He had assembled a new clinic, replacing much of the equipment they’d been using in the refugee docking bay. He was bustling around, issuing instructions.

“Good to see some things never change, Mordin,” Shepard said wryly.

“Former system inefficient. Had to fix it. Other people always get it wrong.”

“Want a hand?” She leaned against the wall casually.

“Equally inefficient. Healing not one of your skills. Would like to talk, though.” She smiled ruefully. He wasn’t wrong. Once upon a time, he might’ve told her that he was never wrong.

“You got it. Shall we?” She led the way to a few miraculously empty chairs amidst the hustle and bustle of the docks. His posture was as impeccable as always as he remained sitting up straight on the uncomfortable bench.

“What have you been up to?” she asked. “Aside from curing Kepral’s Syndrome.”

“Spoken to Thane? Yes, cure is complete. Recommend minimal physical activity for time being. Non-combat.”

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I clear him for combat.”

“Tactfully put,” he said. She grinned at him.

“So what else…?” she left the sentence hanging, waiting for him to continue.

“Some side-effects to genophage cure. Created an antidote, but salarian doctors still not trusted. Been here for past two weeks.” Two weeks, and he’d already rearranged the docks. Knowing Mordin, he’d done that on his first day here.

“And how’s Urdnot Bakara doing in her new role?” Shepard asked. At that, he did smile.

“Exceeds expectations. Stabilizing influence on Urdnot Wrex. I like her.”

“Me too,” Shepard said. “Didn’t you say something about retirement though?”

“Yes. Wanted to run tests on seashells. Beaches in short supply at present, due to Reaper presence. Had a question.”

“Only one?” she asked wryly.

“As statement suggests, yes,” he replied. Shepard snorted.

“Alright, shoot,” she said.

“Clinic here running smoothly. Talents could be better used elsewhere. Crucible project needs scientists?”

“They’d be happy to have you,” Shepard said immediately. Mordin smiled warmly. They chatted a bit more, before Mordin insisted that he needed to get back to work. Some things really didn’t change.

Later that evening, after she’d visited even more of her friends, Shepard finally had a moment alone. The events of the past few days caught up, slamming into her like a freight train. Her hands rested on the cool marble of the bathroom vanity as she studied herself intently in the mirror. Scars mapped every part of her face, lancing across her forehead, her cheeks, her chin, notching a mark in her right eyebrow. Undeniably hers, but unquestionably altered now.

She looked at herself in the mirror, but she saw someone else. It was disconcerting to realize that the DNA that ran through her body was the same as her clone’s. It was worse to realize that her clone had been so violent, so capricious. Was that who she was, deep down? Was that who she’d been meant to be?

Her long red hair tumbled around her face, limp and bedraggled from days without washing it. She held a piece between her fingers, feeling every strand. She’d always been hopelessly proud of her hair, and had let it grow impractically long. The only part of her that the world hadn’t mangled.

But as she looked at it, she saw her clone. It wasn’t hers anymore. The world had taken that from her, as it had taken so many things.

Or maybe it had given her something new. She went down to the kitchen and selected a pair of scissors, and then she returned to the bathroom mirror in her room. With steady hands, she cut her hair. As it fell away, her angular features stood out in sharp relief. The haircut wasn’t even by a long shot, but it was hers. ... Garrus didn’t quite know what to do with his hands. He’d been standing outside the door to the apartment building for ten minutes now, hemming and hawing about the best course of action. And if he didn’t figure it out soon, he was going to be late for their date.

There were a number of facts Garrus was sure of. One: he was in love with Shepard. Fairly obvious, he’d been in love with her for over a year now. Two: Shepard was in love with him. He still hadn’t fully wrapped his head around that one, but he sure as hell wasn’t complaining. Three: he had no idea what the fuck was going to happen when they went to that Cerberus base. He hoped with every fibre of his being that they’d make it out the other side alive and in one piece, but he didn’t know.

Which was why he was standing outside the entrance to Shepard’s building, the ring box held in a vice-like grip between his talons.

Don’t be a coward, Vakarian. If he didn’t leave now, he’d be late. He squared his shoulders, and marched into the building resolutely. The elevator ride up seemed to last for an eternity. He studied the ceiling tiles, the grey swirling pattern seeming to vanish into the distance. It took him a second to realize that the elevator wasn’t moving anymore. It took him another second to exit the elevator. Spirits only knew how he got to Shepard’s door. He knocked gently. If he was quiet enough, maybe she wouldn’t answer.

But she did. He scrambled to shove the box into one of the very few pockets that turian clothing allowed for.

“Hey,” she said softly. Her eyelashes were longer than usual, and there was a dark tint to her lips. She was wearing that damn suit again and his brain short-circuited. His mouth was suddenly too dry. Shit, he should say something.

“Hey.” Amazing job, Vakarian. What a way with words. She gave him a crooked half-smile.

“Come in?” she suggested. Relieved, he nodded and stepped through.

“Your, um,” he tried. He gestured vaguely to her face.

“My hair?” she asked.

“Yeah.” It barely fell past her ears now. Could humans just...do that? She rubbed at her neck self-consciously.

“It felt weird looking in the mirror and seeing her. So, I cut it. Maybe by the time it grows back it won’t feel as weird,” she explained. He nodded stiffly. Spirits, did he have to be so awkward right now? You’d think it’d be easier to propose to your best friend.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly. She was closer now, cinnamon and coffee in the air. There was a slight crease to her forehead.

“I love you,” he said suddenly. A warm smile spread across her face.

“Yes, we’ve established that,” she said. “But you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Did I do that bad a job cutting it?”

“No, no it’s not that,” he said hurriedly. “It’s...damn.”

“Now you’re making me worried, Garrus.” She pulled away. Shit.

“Dance with me?” he blurted. Her eyebrows shot up so high they reached her hairline.

“Am I having a stroke?” she asked incredulously. “Every third sentence you say is insulting my dancing.” He really didn’t have anything to say to that, so he raced over to the wall, keyed into her stereo system and started playing music, as well as dimming the lights. Tango music filled the apartment, and he held out a slightly shaking hand to her.

“Hell no,” she said.

“C’mon Shepard, do you trust me?” Spirits, did there really have to be pleading in his voice right now?

“Implicitly. I’m still not dancing with you.” Steeling himself to get elbowed in the guts, he grabbed her hand and tugged her close to him. She reluctantly let him lead her through a few beginning steps, but she stayed stiff as a board, completely unyielding.

“You’re going to pay for this later,” she muttered darkly.

“Promises, promises, Joan,” he said, and she rolled her eyes at him. “Which reminds me, is that not your real name?” She scowled at him. Damn, but she was hot when she was pissed.

“Am I answering questions or am I dancing? I sure as hell can’t do both.” She blocked his leg as he tried to dip her down. He rallied magnificently, playing it off as intentional. He continued to lead her through the dance.

Slowly, she started to get the hang of it, growing more confident in her movements. He ventured a spin, and to his very great delight she spun away from him and came tumbling back, a small smile gracing her lips.

As a general rule, turian marriages were fairly perfunctory affairs. Not a lot of room for romance in the hierarchy. But he wanted this to be special. Those images of the romantic comedies he’d watched flashed through his head. She deserved something good.

He’d practiced the steps enough that he could do them in his sleep by this point. She didn’t need to know that though. He didn’t think he’d ever live it down if she found out he’d been practicing in the main battery until late into the sleep cycle. He dipped her low, both of them breathing heavily. Her gently waving short hair framed her face like a halo.

“It’s Jeanne. My name’s Jeanne,” she murmured, so soft he almost didn’t catch it. He gently set her back on her feet and then sunk to one knee.

“Marry me, Jeanne Shepard?” he asked. She inhaled sharply. ... Her head was spinning as they danced across the room. She begrudgingly had to admit that she was enjoying herself. Garrus didn’t need to know that though.

Time slowed almost to a standstill as he dipped her down, his hand snugly wrapped around her waist. His bright blue eyes were fixed on her, and she felt her face flush.

“It’s Jeanne. My name’s Jeanne,” she murmured. A name she’d left behind long ago, a name that only Marie knew. A part of her that the clone hadn’t been able to mimic. Maybe it was time to reclaim it, that concrete reminder of her time on Earth, of who she’d once been.

Her feet touched the floor once more, and Garrus let go of her. She was reaching back out for him as he got down on one knee in front of her. Had she stepped on his foot…?

“Marry me, Jeanne Shepard?” he asked.

Oh. Oh.

She froze, and then a small laugh bubbled out of her.

“Well, that’s a little harsh,” he muttered. Still laughing, she helped him up. She rested a hand on either side of his face.

“Is that why you were so awkward earlier?” she asked.

“Listen, it’s a yes or no question.” His voice was so exasperated, so nervous.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” she said. A second later her feet left the ground as he picked her up and spun her around, kissing her soundly. He set her down and she wound her arms around his neck. “You have terrible timing.”

“Title of our autobiography,” he replied.

“True enough,” she chuckled. It was so warm, here in his arms. A safe harbour amidst the storm.

“You really trampled all over my moment,” he griped. “I had the ring all ready and everything.”

“I hate to tell you this, Vakarian, but EDI already gave me a ring.” A victory ring she’d called it, with metal from every Council homeworld. Including Earth. Shepard had almost cried.

“Do you want it or not?”

“I never said I didn’t,” she said. He rolled his eyes, but he tugged out a small box from his pocket.

She was definitely going to cry now. There was a scattering of stained glass inset in the band.

“It's made of an indestructible metal, so it won't get damaged in combat,” he explained quickly. She tugged him towards her and kissed him until they were both breathless. Home. This was home, here with him. She could die happy now. She could live even happier.

“So when’s the ceremony?” she whispered against his mouth.

“Got any plans this evening?”

“Yeah, there’s the party.”

“Perfect.”

#i look back on this now and i wonder how bioware wrote a whole clone arc and not once did someone say stop hitting yourself #wasted opportunity #anyways legion should've been in the citadel dlc and i live by that #mass effect #commander shepard #garrus vakarian #shakarian #me3 #my writing #oc: joan shepard

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incorrectly-quoted-queers · 4 years

Text

Biotic Freckles

Chapter 1: Seeing You How much longer could Kaidan Alenko spend brooding over the fact that the woman he loved saw him as an annoying puppy?

In theory, forever. But he was a soldier, so probably he probably wouldn’t make it that long. Maybe she’d finally notice him if he died a noble sacrifice.

That went darker than he meant.

Who was he kidding? Staying hung up on her would be dumb, and thinking like that was pathetic. Commander Anya Shepard clearly didn’t have any feelings for him.

He fell for her because she saved his life and she fought everything with a fire in her eyes, a beacon on the battlefield. But she was also kind and treated her subordinates like friends; family. Every CO he’d ever had was interested in his L2’s and the headaches, mostly for intel reasons. But none of them asked how he got them and how sometimes it felt like he wasn’t a lucky survivor, but a cursed leftover.

Shepard understood that, the cursed thing. She said it was how she felt about Akuze, the mission that made her famous. He never knew someone like her could feel like him.

Hell, Kaidan could still remember the first time they met. Anderson brought him onto his ship as a new lieutenant and was touting him around, giving him the grand tour. Everyone was respectful and saluting, some making a few quips, but they all were the typical soldier types. He’d seen so many of them, passing around from ship to ship to be the resident biotic for X, Y, or Z mission. The whole process felt like old news.

But then they got to the cockpit, and instead of classic Alliance garb, there was a woman with long, brown hair bandaging up the shoulder of a shirtless pilot. Her thick brows were furrowed, her sweatpants were practically falling off her hips, and she just had a sports bra on top. Not exactly military standard. And when she glanced up at Anderson, she didn’t look flustered like she got caught doing something wrong, just kinda annoyed.

Kaidan was horrified and also instantly wanted to know everything about her.

She went back to the pilot’s wounds, saying, “Joker cracked his bone while high-fiving his co-pilot. Just mitigating the damage.”

Anderson chuckled, like this was the norm here. “Lieutenant Alenko, the one with the chip on his shoulder is Joker, the best pilot you can get. And next to him is my second in command, Commander Anya Shepard.”

After she tucked the bandage into itself, she straightened in front of Kaidan and extended her hand. He took it, rough calluses under smooth skin, but still couldn’t adjust to the fact she was like... this. “Nice to meet you, Alenko. Not to hi and bye, but I was just brushing my teeth when Joker graciously called my ass up here, so I’m going to finish that. She gave a wave and then walked off the bridge.

He didn’t even get to say anything to her, and he was mesmerized.

Anderson filled in the empty space. “Shepard is my best officer; an infiltrator. You’ll be working closely with her on ground missions, but you’ll have to keep up. She’s a great shot but she’s not a very patient one. Her teams move quick. We can have a more formal introduction later.”

“So she’s always like that?”

“Only the best could ever get away with it.”

And Anderson was right. He learned more in those first few days with her than he ever did running practical drills on other ships. Shepard liked the unconventional, and it made her a stronger fighter and leader.

With how informal she was, he also caught a lot more of that sweats look than he ever meant to. But Kaidan had to admit, he liked how she looked with her hair down.

Looking around the bunks, he was one of the only people there at the moment. Only essential personnel to run the ship were left. It was kinda sad, how even though she broke his heart he was the one sticking around for so long. Guess he couldn’t get over her just yet.

Harder to when she’s the best boss you’ve ever had, and you’d be a fool to quit one of the best military jobs in the galaxy.

But just as he was settling down in his bed of tragic misery, his omni-tool pinged. On it, there was a message from Liara T’Soni. Come by my room later, please.

Kaidan was a tad perplexed. They’d never been super close, but it was her last night on the Normandy, so maybe she was just saying her goodbyes. She said later, but Kaidan had nothing better to do. Swinging off his bed, he pulled on some pants, shoved his hands in his pockets, and walked over to the med bay and her science office.

She had never been comfortable, sleeping with the soldiers. He couldn’t blame her; it wasn’t her scene. His parents would say it wasn’t his, either, but they were kind-hearted Canadians. They never really got the military in the first place.

Maybe they would’ve done a better job swaying him if they hadn’t sent him to that biotic school.

When he made it to Liara’s door, he gave it a simple knock. She opened it within seconds, but she looked all flustered. “Hello, Kaidan.” She scratched her head and then added, “I thought I asked you to come later.”

With a smirk, Kaidan couldn’t help but laugh. “I mean, it is later.”

“You’re... correct.” She glanced behind her and seemed a little distressed.

“Do you need me to actually come back later?”

Liara shook her head at him like he’d said something absolutely absurd. It was kinda adorable. He had to admit, her absent-minded professor schtick was kinda refreshing after all the keep-it-tough soldier energy he’d been stuck with. “No. I apologize for the mess. I had hoped to be more packed when you got here.”

“A little mess doesn’t bother me.” Liara gave him a tortured look and let him in. Safe to say, a little mess was an understatement on his part. Her desk was covered in Prothean Artifacts, her clothes were haphazardly falling out of a bag, and even more artifacts and books were littered around the room. Only some of them were properly boxed up. “Never knew you had so much stuff in here.”

Scanning the room, Liara looked overwhelmed. Her hands kept twisting and knotting, which seemed to suggest this wasn’t how it normally looked. He kinda wanted to grab them just to save her from dislocating a finger. “I didn’t either. I had everything catalogued and organized on the shelves and under the bed so I didn’t see them, and we just stopped so many places with Prothean tech... I guess I collected a lot more than I thought.”

She gave the room a couple more frantic looks, and Kaidan made a decision. “Okay, whatever you want to talk about can wait. I’m going to help you pack.”

“You don’t have to--”

“I insist.”

Liara gave him this soft, thankful smile, but she also kinda looked at him like she pitied him. She didn’t need to know that it was this or thinking about Shepard’s brutal rejection. Prothean Artifacts would always seem better. So he just asked, “Okay, so how have you been organizing things?”

For a few minutes, Liara explained her process. Then, they got to work. They bantered a bit about missions and crewmates, but otherwise they focused on the task at hand. It was nice to do something that had absolutely nothing to do with Shepard. Instead it was just him, Liara, and all these pieces of history. Liara even explained a few of them to him, and they were cooler than he’d thought they were.

And then everything was put away.

And then it was just them, the air, and whatever Liara had to say.

She suddenly looked all grave and patted the metal chest in front of her bed like it was a seat. Well, guess they were using it as one. Kaidan didn’t know how to feel, sitting down next to her with her looking at him like that. Her deep blue eyes were so sympathetic and sad.

When they were side by side, she placed her hand on his knee. “Kaidan, I know Shepard finally told you. And I’m sorry she didn’t feel the same way.”

“Why are you giving me a speech?”

“Because I thought you might want a friend who knows how you feel.”

Kaidan swallowed, looking at the scientist in a new light. That melancholy in her blue eyes was familiar; he saw it in the mirror. “You had feelings for her, too.”

“Yes. But, like you, she wasn’t interested. And I know how much that must hurt, because I’m hurting as well. I figured I might be able to support you better than your soldier friends, before I go.”

Staring at the space between his legs, between his hands, Kaidan was still stunned by the revelation of Liara being his romantic rival. And worse, the fact neither of them got the girl. Guess Shepard really just wanted to be alone, huh? At least in that way. Instead of musing until his brain bled, he said, “Thanks for thinking of me.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

He shrugged, picturing his future on this ship, one without loving her. “Yeah. It’ll take time, but I’d rather be on the Normandy than anywhere else.”

“I wish I was as strong. Anya offered to personally ferry me from dig site to dig site, but I couldn’t. I feel bad, she wants so desperately for none of us to leave her. But she refuses to just ask us to stay instead of giving all these elaborate offers. I hope she learns to open up to people, even if it’s not me.”

Listening to her, Kaidan felt the weight of her words weigh on his shoulders and bury into his heart. “I was hoping I could be that person for her.”

“Me, too.” Liara laughed, and it was so soft and light. It didn’t make him feel patronized; just heard. “I wanted someone who wanted to share who they are with me. I thought it was her, but she shares stories, not who she is. I just--”

“You just wanted to be seen. And get to see them, too.”

Liara’s eyes met his, and they were still wistful and hurt, but they were also filled with hope and softness. Her freckles laid across her cheeks like the constellations of her world. Where Shepard kept hiding away from him, Liara was a soulful, open person filled with emotion and kindness.

And while he admired everything about Shepard, he found he couldn’t look away from Liara.

“Liara, we--”

She pressed her fingers against his lips and scanned his face. “If you’re feeling what I’m feeling, that should be enough for us tonight. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Kaidan didn’t need more prompting than that. His arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled Liara close, pressing his lips against hers. And unlike his last attempt, she didn’t pull away or punch him. Instead, her hands cradled his face.

How good it felt to be wanted.

He didn’t know if whatever was happening between them was real or just the byproduct of sharing heartbreak. But with her mouth on his, Kaidan finally felt like he was getting a taste of what he had been trying so hard to make Shepard give him.

Getting as close as he could to her, he didn’t try to think about tomorrow or what would be next. Kaidan just held her tight and enjoyed the next few hours of being wanted, all of him, by a beautiful woman he also admired.

It didn’t matter if it wasn’t love. For tonight, it didn’t need to be.

Hours later, he wasn’t so sure what he felt anymore. Liara’s freckles were still laying out the map of her soul on her face, her shoulders, and beyond, and Shepard was still someone he loved so hard it ached. The woman next to him was beautiful and genuine and he couldn’t help but see her in a new light. But it didn’t change the fact that Shepard changed his life.

And he was the one that had to live with that dichotomy.

But for now, he couldn’t make things complicated by spending all night with her. This wasn’t some bar hook-up on the Citadel; he just slept with the Asari researcher who was leaving tomorrow. And it was on the ship of the woman he once, or maybe still, loved.

So for now, he couldn’t stay.

Shaking Liara’s shoulder, he said, “I have to go.”

Initially, she groaned. But as her eyes opened, softened, and then filled with concern, she nodded. “Yes. Probably. This is already a very complicated situation.”

“Agreed.” Kaidan pulled on his clothes, trying to stop his mind from racing about all the ways this could go terribly wrong and how maybe, this was also a terrible mistake. Then he glanced back at Liara, though, wrapped in her blanket and giving him an awkward, hesitant smile, and he knew even that was more complicated than just good or bad. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Be seeing you, alright?”

Liara didn’t look so sure, but she nodded anyway. “Yes. I’ll be seeing you.”

And that’s when Kaidan left her room, like none of that happened. It was really late at night- or early in the day, depending on who you asked- but all he had to do was get across the mess and then he’d-

“On a 4 am stroll, Alenko?”

Kaidan’s stomach dropped out of the goddamn ship to see Commander Shepard, dark hair tied up in a ponytail, sitting at one of the tables with this bemused look on her face.

Dammit.

///

#kaidan alenko #liara t'soni #Liara x Kaidan #Mass Effect #mass effect fanfiction #mass effect romance #bioware romances #fanfiction

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omnifalls-10 · 4 years

Text

Omni Falls Chapter 1: 10 and Up

Gravity Falls, Oregon. This place seems normal to average tourists, but in all honesty, they wouldn't be wrong. The town itself is surrounded by pine trees, where the forest is home to various wildlife and other….inhabitants, there is a town square with multiple buildings used for business across the various areas and town hall near the town square. Average town, average people, and average day-to-day life, right? Aside from this, there’s one place where an individual will see when they come to this sleepy town: the Mystery Shack.

The Mastery Shack is simply a tourist trap. This shop is able to attract many visitors with its absurd legends and lore, yet somehow this business is able to make a large profit each time a group of gullible tourists would come by to get souvenirs and knick-knacks. The one that leads this business was “Mr. Mystery” himself, Stan Pines. He is a skilled con artist who is able to keep this shack running through lucrative means and has no shame in it, so long as he managed to make some cash. Honestly, he is rather content with this lifestyle for 30 years.

That is until his nephew and niece, Dipper and Mabel Pines arrived. The twins were bought by their parents believing they needed to be outside more and figured going to stay with their great uncle was a good idea.

The twins themselves see things differently in life: Mabel was a ball of sunshine and energy, Dipper was more critical thinking, Mabel was free-spirited while her twin brother was more self-conscious. Despite these polarities, their bond remains tightly-wound and has been ever since. The twins have different views of being in this town so far. For Mabel, she seems to have no problem with where she was; she took it in happiness and stride, whether it’s having splinters in her hands or a goat chomping on her sweater, she doesn’t let it bother. Dipper, on the other hand, felt on edge since he first got here. He couldn’t explain it in words but he just feels like the weirdness he felt for this town was like an itch. An itch that he can’t scratch. Despite this, Stan seemed to not care and was focused on his tourist trapping, to which he and Mabel work as an extra set of hands for his business.

As business is slow in the shop, one of the Pine Twins takes this as an opportunity to finally find a summer romance, as Mabel hides behind a row of Stan-bobbleheads. She peeks to see one boy reading her note aloud.

"Uh…..Do you like me? Yes? Definitely? Absolutely?", the boy reads, confused as he looks around to see who gave him the note.

"I rigged it!", Mabel whispers to herself, excited and proud her plan worked. She's on a roll. Dipper is wiping a jar as he looks at her congratulating herself.

"Mabel", Dipper states, finishing clean, "I get that you're in this "Boy Crazy" phase, but you're really overdoing it with the crazy part."

Mabel turns her head to her twin, incredulous to his claim. "What?", she scoffs, blowing a raspberry at her brother, "Come on, Dipper. This is our first summer away from home. It's my big chance to get an epic summer romance."

"I know”, Dipper replies, “But does this really mean you have to be attracted to every boy you see?”

Dipper isn’t really wrong about this. Since Mabel got her, she’s been constantly vying for the attention for every boy that came her into peripheral vision and most of them ended in either a.) the boys being more confused about what’s going on, b.) they would be uncomfortable by her presence, or c.) they would run away from her. Is she truly not self-aware about what she does that constantly, Dipper isn’t really sure. He really doesn’t understand why she’s doing this, it is the beginning of summer. She had time.

“Mock all you want, brother” Mabel pouts, not allowing her brother’s deter her from her goal “But I got a good feeling this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now.” To her disgust and to her twin’s humor, the man of dreams turns out to be her grunkle, who is choking on his own burp.

“Hey, I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest.”, Stan demands, holding up Mystery Shack direction signs.

“Not it!”, the Pine twins reply quickly, expressing their reluctance to do something foolish.

“Uh, also not it.”, Soos, the Hispanic overweight handyman of the Mystery Shack, answers at the last minute. Stan stares at his employee with uninterested eyes. “I didn’t ask you, Soos”, he drones.

“I know’, Soos admits, as he pulls out a chocolate bar to eat. “And I’m okay with that.” Stan just facepalms in annoyance as no one is willing to take this task, so he turns to his other employee in hopes she would do it.

“Wendy!”, the boss calls out to his adolescent employee. “I need you to put signs in the forest for me!” Woefully, the young redhead is too invested in her magazine reading to do anything. “I mean, I would but” she grunts as she makes a pitiful attempt to reach, being too lazy to actually do it. “Too...far...to….reach...it”

“I’d fire all of you if I could.”, he grumbled, as nobody wanted to do this task. Well, it’s a good thing that you have family to help you out, right? The boss of the Mystery Shack to pick one of the Twins. “Okay, let’s make it……”, Stan starts to choose, swiping his finger between the Dipper and Mabel, “Eenie….meenie…..miney…..you.” His finger lands on Dipper, who is in disbelief at his grunkle’s choice.

“What? Grunkle Stan, whenever I’m in the woods, I feel like I’m being watched”, he explains, feeling unnerved doing this, much to his grunkle’s irritation.

“Ugh, this again”, Stan rolls his eyes.

“I’m serious.”, he insists, “Something is weird in this town. Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out ‘BEWARE’” He pulls up his sleeve to show his grunkle. Stan leans down and squints to read the marks.

“That says ‘BEWARB’’, Stan corrects his nephew, who scratches in either in embarrassment or because it itches a bit. He sighs and gets down on a knee, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Look, kid”, he explains to his nephew, “The whole "monsters in the forest" thing is just a local legend, drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that.” He points to a sweaty tourist, who was way too invested in a bobblehead in his hand. Having made his point across, he gives the signs to Dipper. “So quit being paranoid and put up the signs!”

__________________________________________________________________

Klunk-Klunk-Klunk!

Dipper couldn’t believe he’s doing this. Not only does his grunkle not believe what he was saying about the sensation that he got from being in this town, but he also forced him into putting up the signs up around the forest. Honestly, he just wants to get this done so he could head back because the forest is making him feel unnerved. He’s just finishing putting up another sign on a tree before grabs his minipack to put the remaining arrows and tools in before continuing to trek deeper in the eerie forest.

“Ugh, of all people, it had to be me going out to the scary parts of the forest”, he complains, as he looks across the various trees that sway with the wind, which doesn’t help in the slightest. He still couldn’t shake off the feeling, if anything, it started to slowly magnify. Honestly, what is up with this place? Why does it seem to be him who can feel this disturbance? Why was-

“Oof!”

He suddenly trips on something that scraped his knee as he lands face first. Dipper winces as he shifts onto his back as he looks at the scrape on his foot. “If I only had my first aid with me”, he complains to himself, forgetting the tool that might come in handy in case something like this happens. Just as he’s about to pull himself up, he notices a shining glare near his foot. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he starts digging with his hands to pull out the object and holds it up, with one hand on top, the other at the bottom.

“What is this?”, he asks himself, fascinated at the object he’s holding. Said object is silvery and smooth on the surface, it has the look of an oversized pearl if Dipper wants to make a comparison. It’s also very sturdy, due to him lightly knocking on the surface, and as far as he knows, there weren’t any lines anywhere it could be opened, same with having no buttons. Its size isn’t as big and as small to fit in both of his hands. “Hmm.”, he contemplates for a moment. Should he really be taking this with to the shack after this was done? He doesn’t know what this object is or what it could do, but at the same time, this can help figure what is up with this place. After a few minutes of hard thinking, he decides to carry the sphere under his armpit, continuing to do his work.

An hour passes, yet Dipper still had to put in a few more arrows. He hammers in an arrow in a tree, starting to feel exhausted from doing this. He stares at the sphere next to him, still in the same place he left before he looks at three more arrows. He started to get annoyed and remembers that he was still in the deeper parts of the forest. He looked up at the trees, which looked darker and more sinister. He grumbles before grabbing the sphere and the arrows, head to last trees. He puts down the sphere on the side of one of them, before heading to the first one, oblivious to the fact that he touched the sphere on the sides. The sphere starts to glow green on the points where his fingers touched it for a brief moment. It continues to do it until the sphere opens with a quiet hiss revealing something.

Dipper finished hammering the arrow in the tree. He walks over to the last tree, tired to the point that he wants to call it quits and head back. But he knows if he does that, Stan would chew him out. He sighs as he gets the hammer nail to put the arrow in place. “Ugh, Grunkle Stan. Nobody ever believes anything I say.”, he grumbles, clearly annoyed that his grunkle with everybody else not taking heed to his words and he hammered the arrow, hearing a clang in the process…..

…….

Wait.

“Huh?”, Dipper is stumped. He puts his ear near the tree trunk and taps his hammer again, hearing another clang. He wipes away some dust and finds a line that opens the trunk. It acts as a secret window, revealing a mechanical box with two control switches on the top. He tests one control switch but nothing happens. He does it again with the other one; he hears the ground shifting and Gompers the goat running away. “What the?”, he turns around to see a hole in the ground and in it was an old book. With the same curiosity he had for the sphere, he picks up the book and lays it on the ground, looking left and right for people to be around before opening it up. On the first page of the book, there is an eye-glass in it. He picks it up before putting it down and continues to flip through pages. Dipper goes to the next page to find some writing. “It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.”, Dipper reads aloud, from the page confused by this. “What is all this?”, he asks, confused by the content he’s finding and what they mean.

He keeps flipping through the pages seeing various creatures and phenomena. until he hits a particular page. He is intrigued by this page because of its content: On this page, is a picture of a being made entirely out of crystals, posing as if it is ready to battle something, with a blade of a right hand. But what catches his attention the most with this page is the name on top.

Petrosapian.

He stops at the next page, reading these words

TRUST NO ONE

“Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust”, Dipper finishes reading, before closing the book and digesting its word. “No one you can trust.”

Hummmmmmmm-Hummmmmmm

“Hu-?” Dipper turns around at the noise, only to see something green and glowing charging at him. “AAAAHHHH!!!!!!” He puts his left arm up in defense before the object tackles him to the ground hard, dropping the book. He groans in pain before getting up, rubbing his head to ease the throbbing he felt and slowly blinks to bring his vision back.

He felt something on his left arm. More specifically, his wrist.

He looks down to see a watch. Once his memory came back, he starts screaming frantically, trying his hardest to pull this thing off, using sticks and rocks to remove it somehow. But it was all moot. After trying multiple times to get this thing off him, he does his best to calm himself down, breathing very slowly and sits down on the ground. He takes this moment to look at this….”watch” on his wrist. It is slim and sleek, with a green wristband, and the face of the dial is black and green hourglass. He brings the watch close to his face, inspecting it. It doesn’t look like a bomb or anything. Could it be a parasite or a virus? It is too early to say but he feels normal. No pain except the dull throbbing in his head and he didn’t feel sick at all. He starts pulling on the watch itself until it started to hurt him. So it confirms that whatever this thing is, it’s attached to him. Okay, that’s the easy part.

Now, what could this watch do?

Looking at the first time, he knows it can’t tell time. So what is it? He looks at the watch before getting the journal he found and looks through some pages. So far, there’s nothing in here that can explain to him what this thing is. He gets up, grabbing the journal and looks at the watch again, having no idea on what it can do. He looks at it slowly putting his finger to press the hourglass part of the watch. Maybe there was something he has to-

“HELLO!”

“AH!”, Dipper screamed almost dropping the journal and instantly hid his left arm behind his back, turning to look at his twin sister. “What’cha got there, some nerd things?”, Mabel inquires, curious as to what her brother has on him. This is making him nervous. How is he going to tell his sister about this?

“Uh, uh, it’s nothing!”, he nervously chuckles, hoping his half-attempted lie would steer him clear.

“Uh, uh it’s nothing!”, Mabel playfully imitating her brother, laughing at her brother’s fidgety response. “Come on, are you not gonna show me?”

“Uh..”, Dipper wants to make a retort but he can’t find one. Honestly, Mabel is the only one he can trust with something this big. Whenever there was something that was going on with, she was the first person he would go to, so why is he afraid to tell her something like this? He was pulled out from his thoughts as he turned around to see Gompers nibbling on the journal.

He turns to his sister, “Let’s go somewhere more private.”

__________________________________________________________________

As Mabel sits on the recliner with her brother explaining what he found in the journal, she keeps taking a few glances at Dipper’s new watch. She was curious as to where he got it because she really liked how cool it looked.

“It's amazing, Mabel!”, Dipper exclaims, finally proven right about the weirdness he felt in this town. “Grunkle Stan said I was being paranoid, but according to this book, Gravity Falls has this secret dark side.” He shows her various pages that he found. “And get this! After a certain point, the pages just stop, like the guy who was writing it... mysteriously disappeared.”

“Wow, that’s awesome”, she’s amazed by this, she really couldn’t believe there is something odd about this town. But now, she wants to know something else. “But where did you find the watch, bro? It looks nice.”

The air grows tense.

Dipper rubs his arm in nervousness, he really doesn’t know how to explain this to her: this obviously wasn’t a watch but he really doesn’t know what it is. And he really doesn’t wanna lie to her. He guesses he can figure it out later on. He inhales deeply before closing the journal looking at his sister.

“Mabel.”, he starts, already feeling uneasy as he holds up the ‘watch’. “When I was putting up the signs, I found this weird looking sphere. As I left next to put up the rest of the arrows, I was reading through the journal until this thing-”, He points to the ‘watch’. “-latched onto my wrist. I can guess that this was what was in the sphere the whole time.” Mabel takes in what he says and her eyes linger on the object latched to her brother’s wrist, curious as to what it is.

“Have you tried pulling it off?”, she asks.

“Yes”, he answers.

“Did you try pulling it off with a stick?”

“Yes.”

“Smash it with the rock?”

“Yes.”

“Did you try to-”

“Mabel, anything you’re about to say I tried”, he cuts off her questioning, “Whatever this thing is, it’s near indestructible. I smashed a hammer on it and it didn’t have a dent. That and, for whatever reason, it’s latched on deep in my skin. No matter what we do, this watch isn’t going to come off.” Mabel starts to understand what he’s saying, but she still looks at it. What could this thing do? She looks at her brother for a brief moment to see him looking deeply at this mysterious object, as it glows an ominous green…..

She tries to press it.

“Hey!”, Dipper is snapped out of his deep thought and quickly moves his left arm away from his sister. “Mabel, what are you doing?!” “Just wanted to see what it could do.”, she admits, looking at her brother’s astonished face.

“W-wha-? Mabel, we don’t know what this is!”, he protests, upset that his sister couldn’t understand the danger this watch can hold. “For all we know, this could be a bomb of sorts or a virus, or it could be a parasite, o-or-” He stops rambling and feels his sister holding his cheeks, with a pout etched on her face.

“Dipper, calm down.”, she tells her brother, “Breathe.” He does what she says, feeling his heart slow and his mind clear up. “Thanks, but this still doesn’t change what I said.”

“How do you know it’s a bomb? Or a virus?”, she questions, “Has it ticked? Do you feel different?”

“I….”, Dipper didn’t really have a response for that. As far as he knows, the watch didn’t do anything aside from glow when it latched onto him. His body feels normal and the object didn’t give off any signs that it was gonna blow up. His sister’s right.

Huh.

“I guess you’re right.”, he admits, staring at the watch, “But as of right now, let’s not touch it or do anything with it...just to be safe. And I really think we should keep this to ourselves. I don’t how Grinkle Stan would react to something like this.”

“Okay”, she agrees, respecting his decision, to which her brother thanks her. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, making Dipper jump. “Huh? Who’s that?”, he asks, perturbed to who’s ringing the doorbell.

“Well, time to spill the beans.’, she confesses as she pushes a literal can of beans. “Boop. Beans. This girl's got a date! Woot woot!” She falls back on the recliner, giggling at the fact that she finally might have a chance at a summer romance. Dipper just looks at her like she’s grown a second head. How was she able to get a date so quickly, let alone actually find the boy that would agree to go on one?

“Let me get this straight”, Dipper recollects, repeating himself just in case he missed something, “In the hour I was gone, you already found a boyfriend?” He’s stumped when it comes to finding a logical explanation for this. There’s no possible way she was able to get a boyfriend like this. Something is off.

“What can I say, Dipper?”, Mabel asks rhetorically, pulling her arms into the shirt to flail her sleeves, “I guess I'm just IRRESISTIBLLLLE!” The doorbell rings again, twice.

“Oh, coming!”, she runs to the door.

He sighs as his sister leaves, shaking his head at the idea of her getting a boyfriend in a day, an hour even. He sits on the recliner, reading the journal. He really is amazed by what he’s finding in the journal different monsters, various items, rare phenomena, heck, even aliens like the crystal man he found. But as he was enamored by the journal, he takes a moment to look at the watch on his wrist. Honestly, he wants to know more about it but right, he doesn’t wanna risk it. Maybe some other time, he’ll try to figure out what it can-

“What'cha reading there, slick?”

Dipper jumps before hiding the journal. “Oh, nothing”, he lies, trying to keep the journal hidden from his grunkle and immediately picks up a magazine. “I was just catching up on, uh….Gold Chains For Old Men Magazine?”

“That’s a good issue.” Stan guarantees, taking a sip from soda before looking at his nephew’s left wrist. “Where’d you get the watch?”

Dipper looks at the watch on his hand before looking at his grunkle. “Oh, uh, I found outside. I cleaned it off and polished it to make it look better than it did before.” That was a good enough lie, right?

Stan seems to buy it. “Hmm. Looks good.”

“Hey, family!” Dipper and Stan turn to look at Mabel and a stranger in a black hoodie.

“Say hello to my new boyfriend!”, she introduces her date as he turns around to be a brunette in a hoodie with a mysterious red liquid on his, giving a casual “S’up?”

“Hey….”, Dipper greets, already feeling suspicious about this boy.

“How’s it hanging?”, Stan salutes with a finger pistol.

“We met in the cemetery. He’s really deep.”, Mabel clarifies, as she starts to feel up his bicep, “Oh, got a little muscle there.” She’s getting flustered by how strong he must be. Dipper doesn’t like this guy.

“What’s your name?”, Dipper inquires, ready to know more about this guy.

“Uh…”, the stranger hesitates, “Normal….MAN!”

“He means Norman’, Mabels says dreamily, hugging his arm.

Dipper looks at the red liquid on his face. “Are you bleeding, Norman?”

Norman looks at the red substance before looking at Dipper defensively, “It’s jam.” Mabel gasped at this. “I love jam!”, she cries out, swishing her hand between her and her boyfriend. “Look. At. This.”

“So, you wanna hold hands...or whatever?”, Norman suggests, delighting Mabel to no end. “Oh, oh, my goodness”, she giggles, clearly excited at the prospect of holding hands as she runs outside. “Don’t wait up!” Norman finger pistols Dipper and Stan before smacking his head on the wall several and leaving out. Dipper didn’t like this at all. This guy comes out of nowhere and asks Mabel out on a date but he looked suspicious.

There’s something off about Norman and Dipper is gonna find out what.

__________________________________________________________________

He spent a large amount of time within the attic to find out what Norman is. So far, he’s got nothing at hand to give any inkling as what he truly is and what his motive maybe. He keeps flipping through pages until he finds something that may help him.

“Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes these creatures are often mistaken for... teenagers?! Beware Gravity Falls's nefarious...” Dipper reads aloud, only to pause in fear of the page before him, showing a hooded undead figure. This means that Norman is a….

“ZOMBIE!”

__________________________________________________________________

Stan pauses what he’s doing in the bathroom to look in the mirror. “Somebody say "crombie"? What is that, crombie?”, Stan asks himself, confused by what he’s saying. “That's not even a word. You're losing your mind.” He just finished washing his hands, afterwards.

__________________________________________________________________

Dipper has to calm down. He has to calm down or else, he’s going to panic. And he doesn’t want that, so he breathes slowly and turns to look out the window to see his sister, Mabel sitting on a log outside, swinging her legs…..and Norman limping towards her, his hands outstretched and ready to eat her. “Oh, no! Mabel, watch out!”, Dipper calls out to his sister, scared for her safety. Norman inches closer towards her and wrapped his hands behind her neck……

Only to put on a necklace of daisies. Mabel gasps, at the sweet gesture and is smiling at him.

Dipper sighs in relief before laying down on the windowsill, thinking. Was he wrong for assuming the worst out of Norman? As far as he knows, he hasn’t done anything to harm her. But at the same time, his behavior doesn’t seem to be normal at all. Dipper grumbles as he puts his hands on his. “Is my sister really dating a zombie, or am I just going nuts?”, he asks himself, not even sure if he had the answer.

“It's a dilemma, to be sure.”

Dipper jumps up from his spot to see Soos putting up a lightbulb. Seriously, how many people are gonna keep sneaking up on him like this? He's surprised he hasn't got a heart attack.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you talkin’ aloud to yourself in this empty room”, Soos clarifies, pulling out the screwdriver in his tool belt. “Soos, you’ve seen Mabel’s boyfriend, right?”, Dipper hesitates, trying to get a better answer from the handyman of the Mystery Shack. “He’s gotta be a zombie, right?”

“Hmm’, Soos thinks for a minute, twisting in the bulb. “How many brains didja see the guy eat?”

Dipper looks at Soos, before looking down embarrassed. “Zero.”

“Look, dude, I believe you.”, Soos reasons. Like Dipper, he has suspicion on what’s really going on in this town. “I’m always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman? I’m pretty sure he’s a werewolf, but you gotta have evidence. Otherwise, people will think you’re a major league cuckoo clock.” Dipper nods, understanding that he needs evidence in order to convince his sister that Norman isn’t what seems.

“As always, Soos, you’re right.”, Dipper acknowledges.

“My wisdom is both a blessing and curse.”, Soos replies, solemnly.

“SOOS! The portable toilets are clogged again!”

“I am needed elsewhere.”, Soos backs out from where he came. Dipper looks at the camera next to the journal. Looks like he’s got work to do.

__________________________________________________________________

Like Soos advised, Dipper takes as much evidence as he can between Mabel and Norman. He heads to his and Mabel’s room, replaying the recorded material he had as said sister is brushing her hair. So far, Norman always seemed to stumble, like his body lacks any motor control and his sense of balance, like when he’s walking or when he failed to catch the frisbee Mabel throws at him. And when they’re running in a grassy field, he seemed to have the behavior of pulling himself out of a grave like an undead being. He also has no respect for using doors properly so that’s a clue also.

“Mabel, we’ve got to talk about Norman”, Dipper insists, really wanting her to listen to the evidence he has.

“Isn’t he the best?”, she asks wistfully, “Check out this big smooch mark he gave me!” She turns face to show a giant red cheek mark, making Dipper scream in horror. She laughs at his response.

“Gullible. It was an accident I had with the leaf blower.”, Mabel clarifies, remembering how she was trying to do kissing practice with it but instead had the machine stuck to her face. “That was fun”

“Mabel, listen to me. I’m telling you there’s Norman isn’t what he seems.”, Dipper explains, showing the journal to emphasize his point, to which his sister gasps.

“You think he could be a vampire”, she asks, enjoying the idea that her boyfriend is a handsome vampire. “That would be awesome!

“Guess again, sister….SHA-BAM!”, Dipper exclaims, opening a page in his journal making Mabel scream. Dipper checks the journal to realize he was on the page of gnomes. “Oh, sorry, wrong page...Sha-bam!” He shows her the page of the undead, making his sister roll her eyes.

“Ugh, a zombie? That’s not funny, Dipper.”, Mabel doesn’t appreciate the revelation, thinking her brother is trolling her.

“I’m not joking, Mabel!”, Dipper persists, not allowing Mabel’s disbelief sway him in the slightest. “It all adds up: the bleeding, the limp. He never blinks! Have you noticed that?”

“Maybe he’s blinking when you’re blinking.”, Mabel suggests, not really getting why her brother is getting paranoid about this.

“Mabel, have you forgotten what the journal said about Gravity Falls?”, Dipper reminds her, “Trust no one….”

“Well, what about me, huh? Why can’t you trust me?”, she asks, putting on her star earrings, “Beep. Bop.”

“Mabel!”, Dipper grabs his sister, shaking her in the hopes that she'll come to her senses, “He’s going to eat your brain!” Okay, Mabel has had enough of her brother’s paranoia. She firmly removes her brother’s hands from her shoulders, pushing him away.

“Dipper, listen to me.”, her voice being firm when she addresses Dipper, refusing to let him voice his concerns, “Norman and I are going out on a date. And I’m going to be ADORABLE”-she points her firmly on her brother’s chest-“And he’s going to be DREAMY” She does it again as she continues walking up to as he keeps walking until he walks out the room. “And I’m not gonna let you ruin it with your crazy CONSPIRACIES!” She slams her, leaving Dipper speechless. He took a moment to look at it from Mabel’s perspective: This is her chance at getting a date and she may not be able get another. But does this mean he’s wrong about Norman? Is he right? What is he missing?

He just sighs in defeat. “What am I gonna do?”

__________________________________________________________________

Dipper keeps looking through the videos but not with the determination he had earlier, no. He had the expression of forlorn permeate on his face. Maybe he is looking too deep into this and just allowed his paranoia to cloud his judgement. Maybe Norman is just eccentric. Maybe he just wants to look for love like Mabel does. And he is getting in their way.

The clock dings 5;00 and the doorbell rings.

“Coming!” Dipper hears Mabel shouts, looking up from the camera to look at his sister running downstairs, fixing her sweater and making herself presentable before opening the door beau. He hears Norman saying how shiny her sweater is before he sees them leaving the house and head out to the forest.

Dipper watches the video he collected from spying Mabel and her date. “Soos was right. I don’t have any real evidence.”, Dipper laments, realizing his mistake. He watches as the video shows Mabel teaching Norman hopscotch, only to fall over. He unconsciously fast forwards to Mabel and Norman with Norman's arm around Mabel. “I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes and— Wait, WHAT?!” Dipper watches Norman's hand fall off, giving a glance around reattaching it. He rewinds the tape and watches it again, just to be sure he wasn’t being crazy, which only confirmed what he saw. Shocked right now, he screams and accidentally tips the chair backwards.

“I was right! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”, Dipper freaks out, running outside to get his grunkle, “Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan!” He keeps trying to get his grunkle’s attention, but he’s too focused on showing tourists one of his attractions, so he looks around to see the mystery cart. He runs towards to see Wendy taking the key out of the ignition.

“Wendy! Wendy! Wendy! I need to borrow the golf cart so I can save my sister from a zombie!”, Dipper explains, hysterical at this point, to which she gives him the keys before heading off. “Try not to hit any pedestrians.” Dipper gets in the cart and starts the ignition. But before he can drive off, he sees Soos waiting for him.

Soos gives him a shovel. “This is for the zombies.” Dipper takes the shovel. “Thanks.” Just as he’s about to leave again, Soos gives him a bat. “And this is in case you find a pinata.”

“Uh...Thanks?”, Dipper takes the bat, weirded out before driving off.

“Better safe than sorry!” Dipper hears Soos yell out, but he hardly focuses on it as he only cares about saving his sister.

Who knows what could be happening to her right now?

__________________________________________________________________

As Mabel and Norman stand in the forest by themselves, he turns away from her nervously, like he was hiding a dark truth.

“Uh, Mabel”, Norman hesitates, holding his zipper, “Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, there’s…” he exhales “...there’s something I should tell you.” The passes by as the tensity rises in the area.

“Oh, Norman, you can tell me anything!”, Mabel says in mock concern. Please be a vampire, please be a vampire!, she thinks, excited by the prospect that her boyfriend might be what she always desired.

"All right, just... just don’t freak out, okay?", he insists, making sure she doesn't get appalled by what's going to happen. "Just... just keep an open mind, be cool! He unzips his coat and throws it off and what Mabel sees surprises her. Underneath, the coat…..

Are five gnomes standing on top of each other.

“Is this weird? Is this too weird?”, the top gnome asks, concerned, “Do you need to sit down?” Mabel just stands there with her mouth hung open, completely in shock that her date is something else entirely than what she expected.

“R-r-right, I’ll explain. So! We’re gnomes.”, the gnome higher up makes clear, “First off. Get that one outta the way.” His response doesn’t really help as Mabel still fails to process what is transpiring in front of her.

“I’m Jeff”, the top gnome introduces himself before introducing his other colleagues, “And here we have Carson, Steve, Jason and... I’m sorry, I always forget your name.”

“Shmebulock!”, the last gnome answers.

“ Yes!”, Jeff snaps his fingers before looking at the dumbfounded Mabel, “Anyways, long story short, us gnomes have been lookin' for a new queen! Right, guys?” To which, the other gnomes started to chant “Queen! Queen!”, really wanting to have her as their royal subject.

“So what do you say?”, Jeff asks her, before tapping his foot to cause the collective to make the body kneel and hold out an engagement ring. “Will you join us in holy matri-gnomey? Matri...matri-mo-ny! Blah! Can’t talk today!”

Mabel is honestly dumbfounded by what is happening right now. She honestly never expected that her date would end up like this and now, it ends up like this: her being in the middle of the forest with her boyfriend, who was not human, not a vampire…..but a bunch of gnomes asking about for her hand in marriage. She thinks it would be better to let them off easy.

“Look... I'm sorry, guys.”, Mabel apologised, feeling awkward in explaining how she feels about the situation, “You're really sweet, but, I'm a girl, and you're gnomes, and it's like, ‘what?’ Yikes…” Mabel holds her arm, just explaining makes her feel uncomfortable.

“We understand.”, Jeff accepts sadly, seemingly understanding that Mabel didn’t want this “We'll never forget you, Mabel.” The gnomes look melancholy, Mabel smiles appreciating their decision. Maybe they weren’t so bad-

“Because we're gonna kidnap you.”

“Huh?”, Mabel takes double before Jeff leaps at her, screeching to, which she screams in terror.

__________________________________________________________________

Dipper drives as fast as he can to get to his sister and so far, he couldn’t find her. Where could she be? Regardless of what happens, he still had to find her no matter what happens.

"Mabel, where are you?!", Dipper calls out. She's gotta be close, right?

"Help!", he hears his sister calling for help and heads to the sound of her voice, driving near a path that leads downwards. He stops the cart to grab the shovel and charges to the source of Mabel’s cries for help, leading him witnessing her being surrounded by gnomes as she punches some them away.

Wait…..she wasn’t getting attacked by a zombie but rather gnomes?

“What the heck is going on here?!”, Dipper demands to which a gnome passes by him hissing.

“Dipper! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they’re total jerks!”, Mabel explains to him while trying to keep the gnomes away from here before a starts pulling on her hair. “Hair! Hair! Hair!”

“Gnomes? Huh, I was way off.”, Dipper feels awkward that he got the wrong creature at this moment. He takes the journal out of his vest and reads the relevant page. "Gnomes: little men of the Gravity Falls Forest. Weaknesses: unknown.". No weakness? That might be a problem. When Dipper lowers the book, he sees that the gnomes have managed to tie Mabel to the ground.

“Aw, come on!”, Mabel complains, not liking her situation at all. This makes Dipper walk towards Jeff with the shovel at hand.

“Hey! Let go of my sister!”, Dipper commanded, holding the shovel close

“Oh! Ha ha, hey there!”, Jeff greets, weakly. “Um, you know, this is all really just a big misunderstanding. You see, your sister's not in danger. She's just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity!” He turns to the ensnared Mabel. “Isn't that right, honey?”

“You guys are buttfaces!”, Mabel protests, only for a gnome to cover her mouth.

“Give her back right now, or else!, Dipper threatens, pointing the shovel at Jeff.

“You think you can stop us, boy?”, the gnomes warns, narrowing his eyes. “You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the—ah!” Dipper scoops him up and tosses him aside before he uses the shovel to cut Mabel free, to which she kicked the gnomes away and runs with her brother to the cart before driving off.

Jeff gets up, looking miffed.

“You've messed with the wrong creatures, boy! Gnomes of the forest: ASSEMBLE!”

__________________________________________________________________

The cart drives as fast as it can across the forest. So far, it seems as if they managed to get away from the little men of the forest.

“Hurry, before they come after us!”, Mabel begs her brother to speed up, worried that the gnomes will come after them. Dipper, on the other hand, was unapprehensive about that notion.

“Mabel, I wouldn't worry about it. See their little legs? Those suckers are tiny!”, Dipper chuckles, finding the idea that the gnomes catching up to them impossible and hilarious.

He is wrong on both fronts.

Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump!

Dipper stops the cart and turns around to see a giant gnome, comprised of every gnome found in the forest. It roared in absolute fury.

“Dipper, step on it!”, Mabel commands her brother. Dipper wastes no time and steps on the gas pedal. The cart drives as fast as it can before the Gnome Giant smashes its fist on the ground, causing some gnomes to fall the formation only to get back in. The giant gives chase and follows them.

“Give us back our queen”, Jeff shouts from atop the Gnome Giant, controlling like a robot.

“It’s getting closer”, Mabel shouts, making Dipper wish the cart can go faster than it already can. The Gnome Giant starts to shoot out gnomes at the cart, to which they start biting at, along with attacking Dipper and Mabel. Mabel punches off a gnome hanging on the side while Dipper slams Schmebulock’s face on the wheel, making him fall out. Dipper sighs in relief, only for another gnome that jumps out of the cart to scratch him.

“I’ll save you, Dipper!”, Mabel declares, punching the gnome while also hitting her twin brother’s face until it falls out with his hat.

“Thanks, Mabel”, Dipper expresses his gratitude despite feeling dazed from the punches.

“Don’t mention it”, Mabel returns it, happy to help.

The Gnome Giant roars in indignation. To slow down the cart, it pulls out a giant tree and throws akin to a javelin at the runaway vehicle.

“Lookout!”, Mabel points to the tree that’s flying through the air before crashing, blocking their path. Dipper and Mabel scream as he swerves the the avoid crashing into the tree but only causes the cart to crash onto the ground near the Mystery Shack. Dipper and Mabel themselves out the totaled cart only to see the Gnome Giant towering over them.

“Stay back, man!”, Dipper warns, showing fear towards the hulking beast before grabbing a shovel and tosses it, only for the Gnome Giant to crush it, the scared Pine Twins hold each other close.

“Where’s Stan?”, Dipper asks

__________________________________________________________________

“Behold!”, Stan shows a swirly pattern on a stick to the tourists, “The world's most distracting object!”

“Oooh”

“Just try to look away, you can't!”, Stan chuckles as he pulls the string making it spin. Eventually, everyone, Stan included, becomes distracted by the object. “I can't even remember what I was talking about.”

__________________________________________________________________

“This has gone far enough kids. We’re done playing games.”, Jeff declares, controlling the Gnome Giant into getting closer to the Dipper and Mabel. The Giant gets close enough to snatch her into its giant hand. “Mabel, it’s time for you to come back with us. This’ll be much easier if you accept being our queen.”

“Ah! Dipper!”, Mabel cries out, trying to break free from it’s hand, only to fail to do so once it starts to leave.

“Mabel!”, Dipper exclaims as he tries to catch up to the “Let go of my sister!” The giant just keeps walking away, blatantly ignoring to his pleas of both Pine Twins. Dipper pulls out his journal to see if there’s something he missed on the gnomes, but finds nothing. He tries again, again, and again. Only to find nothing. His sister cries for help ever present in his ears. What can he do? There’s nothing he has on hand that can help him.

Except…..

Dipper looks at the mysterious watch and back at the Gnome Giant as it keeps walking away, having his sister in it’s hand as she kept trying to escape while also calling out to her brother. He looks back at the watch with a mix of nervousness and determination before pressing the hourglass symbol on it, making the watch spring up (much to his surprise) showing a hologram of something. Something he found in the journal earlier.

The crystal being. The Petrosapian,

Dipper hesitates before pressing the hourglass symbol down.

In a massive glow of green light, getting the Gnome Giant’s attention, Dipper’s entire anatomy starts to change. His body starts to harden as cyan crystals start to cover him entirely. He feels himself starting to get stronger. Stronger than he’s ever felt before and he started to become taller than he was previously. Dipper’s physiology is exponentially nonidentical: He’s 7 feet tall with his body, no longer skin and bones, entirely composed of cyan-colored diamond with a darkish blue jumpsuit-like uniform with a red-orange stripe down the center, black boots, two sharp crystal shards on his back with a sharp head and yellow eye And to top it off, there's an hourglass symbol on the center of his chest. And to top it off, there’s an hourglass symbol on the center of his chest.

Mabel is shocked to see what brother turned into. “D-Dipper?”

The Gnome Giant was stumped. “What the? He can turn into a walking chandelier?”, Jeff asks, confused as to what just happened. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the gnomes, this “walking chandelier” is not interested in answering questions.

Dipper’s yellow eyes go to his sister before glaring at the colossal conglomerate of gnomes. He speaks, despite being full of bass, with determination and anger, “I’m going to say this once: Give me back my sister. Or you’re gonna regret it.” Mabel is blown back by how tough her brother sounds.

The Gnome Giant, on the other hand, laughs. This walking chandelier is supposed to intimidate it? Jeff wipes a tear, laughing. “Yeah, right! There’s a thousand of us and only one of you. What are you gonna do? Reflect some light to make yourself shinier? Pull some of yourself off to trade for your sister?”

Dipper’s eyes narrow. “No.”, he simply answers, “I’m gonna do this.” He pushes his left arm out and shoots speeding crystals at the Gnome Giant, as it roars in pain. He runs forward, continuing to shoot at the colossal Gnome while turning his right hand into a blade and cuts the beast's left leg, breaking off some of the beast’s formation. The Gnome Giant struggles to keep itself together, while at the same time, blocking the crystals as Dipper keeps shooting at it. It tries to move away but sees that Dipper is now punching at its leg, causing some of the gnomes to fall out.

"Hey! Stop doing that!", Jeff yells out, trying to make sure Mabel stays in one hand while trying to crush this annoying gem with the other, who keeps rolling out the way and avoids getting stomped on, smashed with the other hand, and takes the shooting gnomes without even flinching.

I gotta find a way to get Mabel free, Dipper thinks as he continues to avoid all of the Giant Gnome's attacks while also continuing to attack the on the leg he damaged. There has to be a weak spot in the formation. If I can’t find one, I'll make one. With a boost in adrenaline, Dipper delivers a powerful hook to the left leg, causing the it to explode and by extension, the gnomes to fly off in different directions. The Gnome Giant falls on a knee, holding itself up with a hand that didn’t have Mabel in it. Dipper takes advantage of this and plants both hands on the ground, causing a giant diamond piller to uppercut the giant’s chin, causing the behemoth to fall to the ground letting Mabel go in the process.

“AH!”, Mabel screams as she keeps falling until she feels a pair of crystal hands catch her. She looks to see Dipper caught her by summoning a pillar underneath him. The pillar goes back into the ground and Dipper puts her down. “You ok?”, he asks her sister, wanting to make sure she’s alright.

“Yeah.”, Mabel nods, impressed by what her brother is and what he can do. “At least we know what that watch can do.”

Dipper looks at his diamond hands and toward the hourglass symbol on his chest. “Yeah, at least we know.” Before Dipper can ask himself what this means for him, a roar is heard, causing the crystalized Pine and his twin sister to see the Giant Gnome, fully reformed and charging at them, or specifically, the transformed Dipper. He grits his teeth before pushing both hands out, shooting out speeding crystals at the behemoth’s face, making it slow down and cover it. “Mabel, get back inside!”

“But what about you?!”, Mabel doesn’t want to leave her brother behind, even if he is a rock monster.

Dipper turns toward his sister, not relenting in his barrage. “I’ll be fine! Just get outta here before-URK!!” Dipper isn’t paying attention, until the Giant Gnome comes in and punt kicks Dipper into a couple of trees.

“Dipper!”, Mabel shouts, appalled that her brother got sent flying from that attack.

“You know, we were going to let off easy, kid”, Jeff explains, his aggravation reaching its peak. “But you have been a thorn in us gnomes’ side one too many times! It’s time for you to-Ah!” Jeff is interrupted as diamond shard whizzes past him, leaving a scratch on his face. This gives Dipper the opportunity to charge at the behemoth and smash his hands, which are now spiked balls, on the right leg.

But the opportunity never came. The Gnome Giant is prepared and grabs him before smashing him into the ground hard to leave a crater. He tries to break free, only to be punched into the ground and gets more stuck.

“Alright, that’s it! It’s time for this walking chandelier to be shattered!”, Jeff growls, controlling the conglomerate of gnomes into getting ready to punch Dipper into smithereens.

“Stop!” Giant Gnome stops what it’s doing to see Mabel standing in front of his transformed brother. She can’t take her brother getting beat up because of her mistake.

“Alright, Mabel! It’s time to make a choice: Either be our queen or watch your brother get crushed!”, Jeff makes her choose, having enough of these obstacles preventing him and his gnomes from having their queen. Mabel looks at the giant beast then her brother, who is struggling to get himself free, only for the hourglass symbol on his chest to beep, blinking red before he turns back to normal. She realizes what she needs to do.

“I’ll do it.”, Mabel hangs her head in defeat, she accepts her fate. Dipper looks at his sister in shock.

“Mabel, what are you doing?! Are you crazy?!”, Dipper exclaims in confusion and dismay. Why is she doing this? Mabel looks at her brother with a forlorn look on her face.

“Dipper. Trust me.”, she simply responds. Jeff takes a 180 and is ecstatic by her decision.

“Hot dog!”, Jeff cheers. “Help me down there, Jason!” He climbs down from his gnome brothers and approaches Mabel, holding out a diamond ring. “Eh? Eh?” Mabel smiles and holds her hand out, to which he puts the ring on it. “Bada-bing, bada-bam! Now let's get you back into the forest, honey!” He walks away with a pep in his step.

“You may now kiss the bride!”, she announces, making Jeff stop and turn around.

“Well, don't mind if I do.”, he says, before using mouth spray, smiling at his bride-to-be, who gave one of her and eyes fluttering. They lean in to kiss, only then for Mabel to take out a leaf blower and aim it at the gnome.

“Ah! Hey, hey, wait a minute!”, Jeff is shocked by this. He gets sucked up in the leaf blower “Whoa, whoa! Wh-what's goin' on?!” Jeff struggles but just gets more sucked into the leaf-blower halfway.

“That's for lying to me!”, Mabel yells, angry at the little man. She increases the sucking power. “THAT'S for breaking my heart!”

“Ow! My face!”, Jeff groans, painfully as he slowly gets sucked in further.

And THIS is for messing with my brother!”, Mabel declares aiming the leaf blower to the immobile Gnome Giant, before looking at Dipper. “Wanna do the honors?”

Dipper smiles at her. “On three!”

“One, two, three!”, they chant in unison as they blast Jeff towards the gnome monster, causing all the gnomes to fly out in multiple directions. After threatening them with the leaf blower, they all retreat within the forest. As they all left, Mabel looks at her brother remorsefully.

“Hey, Dipper? I, um...I'm sorry for ignoring your advice.”, Mabel apologizes, feeling sorry for not listening to her when she had the chance. ,“You really were just looking out for me.”

“Oh, don't be like that. You saved our butts back there.”, he encourages her.

“I guess I'm just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes.”, she says.

“Look on the bright side.”, Dipper proposes “Maybe the next one will be a vampire!”

“Oh, you're just saying that!”, Mabel smiles, valuing her brother’s gesture.

“Awkward sibling hug?”, Dipper asks, his arms out. Mabel smiles and accepts it. “Awkward sibling hug.”

“Pat-pat” “Pat-pat”

__________________________________________________________________

Stan is counting money when he sees the Pine Twins walk in, fatigue and untidiness .

“Sheesh. You guys got hit by a bus or something?”, he laughs at the kids, who scowl at him before walking away. Seeing them like this, he decides to give them something to cheer them up.

“Hey.”, Stan calls out to them, getting their attention, “Wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidentally overstocked some inventory, so, uh... how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, y'know?”

“Really?”, Mabel asks, happy at getting something.

“What’s the catch”, Dipper questions, suspicious as he crosses his arms.

“The catch is do it before I changed my mind.”, Stan grumbles, really just wanting to do this simple gesture. Dipper and Mabel look across for different items on the shelves and grab what they wanted.

Picks up a cap with a pine tree on it and puts it on, looking in the mirror impressed. “”

“And I will have a…..”, Mabel says before grabbing something out the box. “Grappling Hook!”

Stan and Dipper look perplexed.

“Wouldn’t you want a doll or something”, Stan asks, not really why she wants the item picked. Mabel just shoots the grappling hook into the air, knocking down a shelf in the process. “Grappling Hook!”

“Fair enough”, Stan shrugs.

As Dipper sits in his bed reading the journal while his sister keeps jumping on hers, he starts to think about what happened earlier in the day. The journal said to not trust anyone but thanks to his sister, he would probably be dead despite turning into that crystal being. Speaking of the crystal being, he wonders what the watch can do and how it can do it? So far, he can assume the watch can do more than give him just one transformation but how many are there? Did the watch have aliens that can be found in the journal like the Petrosapian? These were another addition of questions he has for the town of Gravity Falls. Dipper takes a look at his sister using her grappling hook with glee to catch a stuffed animal. She really is the only one he can trust with the secrets they have.

And he has no problem with it.

“Hey, Mabel. Can you get the light.”, Dipper asks.

“On it!”, she replies, aiming and shooting the grappling hook on the lamp, breaking it. “It works!” The Pine Twins get a laugh before heading to sleep.

For these two, the mysteries and strangeness in this town were only beginning.

#omni falls #chapters #dipper #mabel #stan #soos #wendy

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