Tonight The Beast (3.5)
anonymous
September 13 2011, 20:34:26 UTC
The bunker, a typical 'drop and shop' effort, was thin walled and small, enough for an STG force to camp while they scoped out the rumoured facility. By the time Shepard's team crashed on Elysium, the surviving STG operatives and the commandos sent in to retrieve them only filled half the bunker.
In the safety of the bunker's atmosphere, she removed her helmet, and no sooner was she in the bunk room than she was crushed by a hungry, desperate kiss from Kaidan. He was ardent, his shields crackling as their armour pushed against one another. Quickly and without preamble they removed the shell and undersuits, falling to the nearest bunk. Kaidan had his lips against hers again, his hand on her left breast, squeezing as he sucked on her bottom lip.
No, she wasn't afraid of being weak. She was afraid she might one day leave him, and how would he survive? He loved her, it was a truth so believed in it could be her religion.
And if something were to happen to him. She would tear the galaxy apart to wreak her revenge. There would be nothing left.
Kaidan's fingers kneaded her buttocks and her lips pressed between her breasts, where her heart was fluttering under the skin. She arched her back as he pushed into her wetness, raising her hips as he pushed again and again.
If something were to happen to him . . .
It breaks him still, To hear the scream.
She grabbed his jaw pulling him up so she could kiss him on the lips while he came, pulling his shudders inside of her.
It echoes, it fills, And strains at the seams.
Finished, de dropped his mouth to her clitoris, his fingers pushing up against her inner walls, breaking her apart.
Spent, together, they rested on the bunk for a moment before rolling, silently from the mattress to pull their undersuits back on. Kaidan kissed the back of her neck as she bent to lift her gauntlet from the floor.
If he died? She would only do what was right. It was all she ever did. Her rage might be enough to tear apart the galaxy, but she never would.
That was not the woman they wrote poetry about.
Overcome with hunger once more, she turned and forced another kiss on him. "I love you," she whispered. "I love you."
Tonight The Beast (4)
anonymous
September 13 2011, 22:40:36 UTC
Syrea and the salarians were on guard duty. That left the one critically wounded salarian, the remaining two asari commandos and Shepard's team in the living area, breaking their fast with pre-packed rations. Grunt had excused himself to patrol again, happier with that fate than the strategy talks. A part of Kaidan almost envied him, Garrus' report did not inspire confidence.
Shepard sat backwards on a chair, her arms folded across its back, her chin resting on her elbow. She glanced up when Kaidan placed a pot of coffee on the table, but could not muster a smile for him. Vega and Ali sat opposite, Lena and Iola on Shepard's left. Kaidan took his seat beside Garrus and watched the slowly rotating holographic hillside.
"Firstly, we won't survive another night with those thralls hammering against the shields," Garrus said, pointing to the red spots clustering around the base of the hill. "Obviously, whatever remained of Cerberus managed to salvage all the thorian data." He sighed heavily, resting his head on his hand as he cycled through the topography.
Kaidan stole another glance at Shepard. She had been determined to stand watch last night and her eyes were bruised and sunken. She was paler than usual, her red hair tied back and slightly greasy. While in the bunker she prowled around in half her armour, the top half of her body covered in the skin tight black undersuit that was the standard affair for Alliance marines. Kaidan did the same, while Vega tended to strip down to the undersuit completely. Still, the soldier was so fast at suiting up again, he could beat Kaidan out the door.
Kaidan could never shake the feeling that Vega hadn't gotten over their first meeting. While Kaidan hadn't quite been on speaking terms with Shepard at that point, he hadn't been above playing the vid hero and hamming up a rescue. While Shepard had laughed and teased him for it, Vega had stammered an introduction and suddenly clammed up. Shepard had loved it when she'd realised, and teased Kaidan mercilessly when they were in private. Eventually, Vega had managed to look Kaidan in the eyes and carry out a reasonable conversation, but the crush had never gone away completely. Kaidan guessed that with Ali, Garrus and Vega at the table, he and Shepard might have been the most desirable objects in the room.
At least until some fuel cells magically appeared in the corner.
Tonight The Beast (4.5)
anonymous
September 13 2011, 22:42:17 UTC
"I wish we still had some of those grenades," Shepard murmured, crumbling a portion of her ration bar between her thumb and forefinger. "Or my CAIN."
"No, dear," Kaidan said, and was rewarded by a smile from Shepard's pale, drawn lips. It faded quickly.
"My first thought was that we should split and have a diversionary team drawing most of the thralls away from the mako." Garrus pointed to a cluster of rocks that the mako had grounded on. "Then two or three could hope to retrieve the mako, but by my calculations, it will take half an hour to an hour to get the mako functional enough to move."
"That's a lot of diversion," Vega murmured.
"And the thralls won't be fooled for that long," Kaidan agreed.
"So we hammer down the valley and hold the mako's position for as long as it takes," Ali said.
"And draw every single thrall towards us," Garrus said. "Every excursion the salarians have made outside of the shielded zone has resulted in loss of life."
Under the table, Shepard's knee brushed against Kaidan's. He poured coffee for all and cradled his own mug in his hands.
Iola sighed and slapped her palms on the table. A maiden on the cusp of becoming a matron, she was not an exceptional fighter, but a survivor. She was, Kaidan had learned to his sorrow, on her final tour of duty and he was going to do his damnedest to make sure she came back from it. "Then what option does that leave us?"
Shepard had her thumb on her bottom lip, worrying at a ragged nail. She raised her eyes to Garrus. "Come on, Archangel," she wheedled in her raspiest, most Shepard-like voice. "You must have something."
Kaidan felt the jolt of hot honey down in his gut. Did she have an inkling what Garrus was planning?
The turian sighed and the mountains over the tabletop drew back, the mako a green blip on the orange horizon. "A small task force takes the southern flank of the hill and gives the signal to drop the shields. At that point, the remainder makes a break for the mako over the northern route. The thralls will swarm the bunker and anything sentient will intercept the mako. The task force cuts north east through the valley, close to the facility and circles northwards of the mako. The larger groups holds the the attention of the thralls when they got bored of the bunker and, hopefully, hold out long enough for the mako to come be repaired and come down the valley."
"The two groups meet up, storm the bunker, raise the shields and the sweep the area clear of thralls," Shepard said. She looked at Kaidan and wiped the crumbs from her fingers. "What do you think?"
"It's suicide," Iola announced, unasked.
Kaidan was nodding. "It's a dirty fix for a desperate job. It's what we do best."
Tonight The Beast (5)
anonymous
September 15 2011, 22:37:39 UTC
"I'd have left Vega in charge."
Shepard, sprawled on the dust with Garrus pressed against her left hip, one turian knee hooked behind her thigh and his sniper rifle lying hard and heavy on her stomach, couldn't help but stifle a laugh at her husband's low purr in her earpiece. She could see him, a couple of metres away, sheltering behind a rock. On what had once been a road - before the nuclear warheads had turned it to slag and glass - a group of thralls were trudging towards the bunker. Whatever rudimentary intelligence they had evidently allowed them to realise the shields were finally down.
"That's why I make the big bucks, baby," she said, and Garrus shifted a little, his body tensing. He had never been wholly comfortable with Shepard flirting on the job. "Trust me," Shepard said, whispering into the mic. "This is Ali's show. Vega's good, don't get me wrong, but he's muscle. He's rock."
Garrus shifted again, his visor turning to scrutinise Shepard. "Rock?"
"I second that," Kaidan said.
"You build on him." Gently easing herself up, Shepard dusted her armour off and smiled as Kaidan rejoined them. They picked up the pace, loping further north east, leaving the horde of thralls traipsing south. "Ali's the head. She's smart. She'll be a good Spectre."
"She is a Spectre," Kaidan corrected her. He was panting as they began the run up the mountain, darting around rocks.
"You're getting old!" Shepard observed, out pacing him and clambering over a boulder.
"Enjoying the view," was the retort and she grinned, turning to watch him and Garrus reach her and the crumpled mako.
"For that cheek, you can get to work," she told him, a breathless laugh escaping her as both her engineering minded squaddies were already breaking out the omnitools. "And for your information, you build on Vega. He'll support any leader, he's strong, he's muscle, and if he respects his leader he will back them up to the end. And Ali, well you maybe don't see it, you still think she's your little shadow, but Ali has grown."
"They all do," Kaidan said from under the mako's chassis.
"I like to think I have," Garrus muttered darkly.
"I can see the alpha team," Shepard broke off, frowning at the flashes of gunfire in the twilight gloom.
Tonight The Beast (5.5)
anonymous
September 15 2011, 22:38:08 UTC
~~~~~~~~~
By the time the thralls got wise to their initiative, it was easier for Garrus to stand on the outcrops and pick them off with his sniper and for Shepard to do the heavy biotic lifting so Kaidan could finish up the repairs.
"Shepard?" Garrus asked, while she was struggling to hold several tons of mako off of her husband.
"Huh?"
"How can you-" The widow's barrel shouted, the shot echoing around the mountains "know so much about your squad?"
"I just . . . Kaidan I'm going to have to drop this."
"Right." Kaidan wriggled out from underneath and nodded for her to let go.
"I just know," Shepard said, letting the mako drop back to the dust. "How much longer?"
"Five minutes, maybe, I just need to re-connect the sensor array to the CPU and bypass the safety protocols. Ride quality won't be great."
Shepard rolled her shoulder and closed her eyes, summoning her biotics once more to lift the car. Again, Kaidan was on the ground. "I talk to people," she murmured, trusting to the mics to carry the information to Garrus. "They talk back. People will tell you anything if you listen."
"They don't tell me," Garrus said softly.
"You don't do the face," Kaidan grunted.
"Excuse me?" Shepard could feel her eyebrows shooting up her brow. "Baby, don't make me drop this on your head."
"It's true. You've got the face. That 'tell me all your secrets and that one defining moment in your life' face."
"I don't think turians can," Garrus said, sharply.
"It's genuine interest, not a face," Shepard snapped.
"Sure it is," was Kaidan not-so-serious reply.
Grimacing, Shepard focussed on the mako and not on the man under it. She wondered if someone might one day use 'the face' to wheedle out the story about how the almighty Spectre Shepard squashed her husband with a tank when she was irritated.
Garrus's widow cried out again, snapping a rhythm out.
"Tonight the beast."
"What?" Kaidan scrambled out once more, motioning for Shepard to drop the mako.
"Nothing," Garrus shook his head. "All this talk of poetry and 'faces'."
"We done?" Shepard asked.
Kaidan was already clambering into the tank. The engine purred into life and Garrus turned from his vantage point. He froze, seemingly struck by Shepard.
"Tonight the beast, He hears your whispers, And creeps in on shadows. He breaks walls down, And holds all your fears, In claws too cold. Lay down your head, For the beast will come, and know your wants, and know your Spirit. Tonight, tonight, Tonight the beast."
Shepard stared, a shiver crawling up her spine.
"It's a curse," Garrus said softly, seemingly transfixed. "An old turian curse about a spirit you cannot be free of. You humans would call it . . . Death." He shook himself suddenly, raising a hand to the scarred plates under his visor. "Sorry. I just . . . we learn respiratory resuscitation to it for the rhythm. Sorry."
"Nelly the Elephant," Shepard offered, her voice resolutely not trembling.
Her omnitool buzzed twice, a gentle, personal alarm.
Tonight the beast.
A spirit who would not leave her.
The alarm tingled her fingertips. As it had every 28 days. No wonder she had been feeling emotional of late.
Tonight The Beast (6)
anonymous
September 16 2011, 22:20:07 UTC
One of Kaidan's ex girlfriends - an ex dalliance, really, on Horizon, she had died and he couldn't remember her name now - but one warm, humid summer evening she had rolled against him, her skin sticky with sweat and she had passed judgement on him. "You date healers because you want someone to heal you."
He had protested, mostly because they weren't all doctors, and what was Shepard if not a warrior?
"It's the way you talk about her," Lilith - that had been her name - had said. "Like she can fix anything."
He leaned back against the inner rear wall of the mako, his feet propped up on the back of the driving seat, his armour in disarray and littered all over the passenger seats. He sat in his undersuit, eyes closed and memories playing.
Since they cleared the bunker of thralls and hooked the mako up, he had said he would look into the mako's repairs. He wanted a beer, or something stronger, but in lieu of that he ran over the mako specs, trying to nurse a little more power from her cells for the shields.
Liza, who had led the refresher course on alien first aid when he joined the alliance, had told him he might not have a visceral reaction to alien blood. "It's evolution, it doesn't hit the same triggers," she'd said. That had pushed some of his triggers for some of the angriest sex he'd ever had outside of a break up.
Alien blood gave him the same reaction as human blood. He was a good field medic, he knew he was. The mechanics of a body were not so different from an electrical circuit. There was a certain logic to both. Power must flow.
"Hey."
He glanced up at Shepard, scrambling through the airlock. She popped the seals on her helmet and set it on the seat beside his. She sat on the bench seat, resting her boot on the opposite seat, one long leg curving over his body, the other nudging his shoulder. The mako, always cramped, didn't seem big enough for both of them, their armour, and the ghost of Iola hanging over them. Shepard looked down at him, her face grimy with sweat. A track of pale, clean skin led from her left eye to her chin. Kaidan pushed up, rubbing his thumb over the tear stain, something in his chest aching when she closed her eyes, leaning in to his touch. Still on the floor, he rested his head against her armoured thigh, letting his hand drop back to his side.
"It wasn't your fault," she whispered, her lips turning down.
"Wasn't yours either," he murmured.
A reflexive smile tugged at her mouth, but it failed to hold. She sighed and leaned back, reaching up to remove the chest plate and shoulder guards. The yellow armour dropped to the deck in stages, until she too was sitting in the form fitting black undersuit, her red hair bundled messily atop her head. "This may not be the best time . . . " she said, holding up her right hand where her omnitool blinked into life, "But I'm ovulating."
A Pavlovian jolt of desire shot through his gut, the promise of being inside her, hot and tight and absolution in her arms. "Jane . . ." he groaned, wrapping a hand around her calf. "This . . ."
"Isn't a good time," she said, nodding. "No. You're probably right." The nod became a little more frantic and she sighed, strands of hair flying up from her face.
He let his hand drop to her ankle, his fingers trailing over her Achilles heel. Her foot twitched and she frowned at him. "When we get home," he said. Because you're not going to die on this rock. He's not having you. You're mine.
Tonight The Beast (6.5)
anonymous
September 16 2011, 22:20:37 UTC
Jane was silent, her mouth pressed in a tight line, but her hand went to the nape of his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair. After a moment, she licked her lips. "When we get home, yeah. Together. Both of us, like Iola." Her fake cheer conveyed more anger than the grip she had on his hair. "Like Ashley, or Nihlus, or Jenkins, or whoever else you care to mention that Saren killed."
Kaidan grabbed her by the waist, dragging her down into his lap, even though she struggled. She was stronger, angrier, but he had the advantage of size and pinned her arms to her side with an embrace. "He's not having YOU," he hissed sharply.
"He might take you!" she wailed, with such un-Shepard like fear in her voice that he leaned forward and kissed her to silence the sound. She was no longer trying to escape him, but grinding into his lap, her hands caressing his back. Their lips parts with a wet smack and Kaidan pushed back, stealing her words with another kiss, pushing her hips down against him, squeezing her ass and sinking his teeth into her lips, making her gasp. She forced them apart, arching her back and pushing her breasts against his chest. "I want a baby, Kaidan," she whispered. "I want something that's ours, something that will . . ."
Swallowing, Kaidan nodded, kissing her collar bone over her suit.
"What is it the next time?" she continued. "A reaper artefact? A rogue matriarch, maybe. Maybe it's just some batarians who get lucky one day when your shields are down."
Kaidan lifted his hands, cupping her cheeks. "I. Won't. Leave. You."
Tonight The Beast (7)
anonymous
September 17 2011, 16:14:43 UTC
The fear and denials that sprang to her lips died on her tongue and she shifted on his lap, pressing her torso against his and curling her arms over his shoulders. Her fingers trailed over the thick undersuit and his muscles tensed, rippling under the second skin. He tilted his head to kiss her neck and she rested her head against his shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of his neck, inhaling his smell. She liked his smell best when he stepped out of the shower, soap and freshness and just a hint of humanity underneath. But this, the acrid tang of omnigel, sweat and dirt, was both reassuring and frightening. They were fighting for their lives once more.
Before the decision had been made, they had discussed children at length. As with any discussion which featured Kaidan, copious amounts of wine, earnest feelings and many repititions, the arguments had ranged from the small -
"I'm not even sure if I'd be a good mother." "Really? Are you forgetting the krogan you raised? Or the varren you tamed? Or Jack?"
- to the reasonable -
"We'll both have to cut down on our missions."
- to the universal -
"There is a population problem." "Now you're just trying to get into my pants."
- and the conclusion had been the same one they always circled around. She had spent time with Miranda, Jacob and little Nicky, and she loved how happy they were. Nicky, now a recalcitrant pre-teen fond of his Uncle Zaeed's terrible stories and mapping the genealogy of the parents lost to the reaper invasions. Miranda and Jacob still doted on him, and for all Shepard loved the child, she couldn't help the pang of something when she Tali went through her pregnancy, and even Kaidan's parents' hints prompted a daydream of a little girl with Kaidan's curls, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she puzzled over some new omnitool.
Kaidan's lips had moved her to earlobe, his teeth tugging gently on her skin. She pushed down with her hips, feeling his hard-on even through the suit. He gasped, moving his lips to her neck again, sucking on her skin. She wriggled, burying her face so far into the crook of his neck she tickled him, forcing him to stop.
"What, you don't want to face Saren with a hicky?" he asked, leaning back against the wall so he could face her.
She tried to smile, but it faltered. "I think it might not help my bad ass look."
That made Kaidan laugh and he raised his hand to her jaw, running his thumb over her lips. "Baby, you've killed him twice. This seems more like a formality."
She nipped the pad of his thumb with her teeth and leaned in to give him a light, butterfly kiss. She broke it when he tried to push in harder, resting her head on his shoulder once more. Kaidan rubbed her back, squeezing her closer in their embrace. "I love you," he whispered. "And I'm not afraid of losing you, because I know you're going to win. You just tell me what you need me and the rest of the team to do."
She smiled against his shoulder. "I came in here to comfort you."
"You did."
She sighed, wishing she could get closer to him. She wished she could climb into his skin and stay there forever.
Kaidan seemed to be of the same mind, he squeezed her tighter. "I worry about losing you too," he whispered. "And a baby, you know I want a baby, but what happens . . . if you leave me?"
Shepard sat up on his lap, resting her hands gently on his shoulders. "It won't happen."
"Happened once," Kaidan said, his facing growing impassive and hard.
She bit her lip and glanced down. Their bodies, clad in black, were so close. She could feel the heat radiating between them. Kaidan ducked his head down, warm again, face soft again. "It still scares me," he whispered, pecking her lips.
"That's why I want us to try, now," she said, kissing him again. "Saren's taken so much from me."
Kaidan's hands were already at the suit's seam, breaking the clingy fabric apart at her spine, exposing her skin to the cool air. She could feel goosebumps prickling where his fingertips touched. "Then we try now," he said, tipping her backwards onto the mako's floor.
Tonight The Beast (8)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 03:35:29 UTC
Kaidan rolled first one shoulder out of the suit and then the other, Jane pulling the fabric down, past his hips, where he wriggled out from its enclosing warmth. Jane was blessedly naked beneath him, her skin prickling with the chill, her hips rising to meet his on instinct.
He kissed her. He loved kissing her. He loved how soft her lips were, their thin line when she disapproved, her laugh when she was amused. He loved exploring her mouth while she sucked in air on her climax. Right now, he loved kissing her thoroughly, pushing their lips together so they would bruise and split, a firm declaration of his desire.
He ran one hand down her ribs, sliding it in the narrow space between their bodies, rubbing her clitoris with thumb and pushing into her with his fingers, noting when she arched her back and when she let out a gasp. He kept his other arm on the deck, holding his body above hers, but he pressed kisses along her collar bone, between her breasts, tugged his lips over her pink nipples, tasted the skin above her navel and when her pants became groans, he kissed her again.
She splayed her hands over his cheeks, trembling so much that he pushed his supporting arm underneath her, rolling so he was in contact with the cold deck. She straddled him, her hot wetness sliding over his shaft, giving both of them a jolt. She reached up, her back arching and breasts thrust proudly out in front of her, pulling down the shiny thermal blanket form its netting on the wall. It rustled as she draped it over her shoulders, but that distraction was all Kaidan needed to hold her hips and slide himself into her. He couldn't help but close his eyes as he went deeper into the hot, velvetty heaven between her legs. He couldn't begin to describe how good it felt to be inside her, filling her.
It was a slow build, Shepard lying atop of him, her body undulating, squeezing and holding him. The thermal blanket enveloped them both, warming them and rustling with every movement. Shepard had her eyes closed, her pink tongue between her teeth as she moved. Kaidan cupped her face, holding tightly. "Open your eyes," he begged, and she did, confusion filtering over them before she realised why and fixed her gaze on his, sucking in air with every rocking movement. He curled his fingers over her scalp and rose to meet her her demands until the unbearable heat built behind his groin, the need to let it go surmounting his desire to look her in the eye or hold her. In that moment, he was nothing but physical desires.
Up until she cried out, hundreds of tiny convulsions shaking her and him, he jerked, his hips rising one last time for a howling, bone quivering orgasm that caused black spots to dance in front of his eyes. Jane collapsed onto his chest, knocking the wind out of him, her body still shaking. He looped one arm over her back, the impact of that shaking her and sending shudders down his penis, a sweet kind of agony.
He would stay here forever, and never want for anything.
Tonight The Beast (9)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 13:21:04 UTC
Under the thermal blanket with Kaidan pillowed beneath her, snatching sleep in moments, the sounds of the shields being bombarded, or a discussion picked up by the mako's proximity radio stopped her from getting the long sleep she really wanted. She felt Kaidan's arm tighten over her back when she lifted her head and she smiled, regarding his face while he fought for sleep. His eyes were closed, his head pillowed by his other arm. Despite the greying at his temples, he was still a Spectre, muscles tense under his skin. She traced her fingers over his shoulder, feeling goosebumps under her fingertips, like a Braille pattern and the words were hidden from her, something she had learned long ago and since forgotten.
She amused herself by imagining Kaidan's skin held her future, the next trial explained under her fingertips. She rubbed a thumb over his nipple and suppressed a chuckle when he shifted, eyes flickering open long enough to clock her and the time before he tried to go back to sleep. She explored the skin above his clavicle. Lover. Partner. Husband. Spectre. She thought all those words might be there. Perhaps Father too. Father to . . . to Hannah, maybe. Or Ashley.
Or someone else, maybe she wouldn't have any children named after dead warriors.
Dead warriors . . .
She jerked up so fast that Kaidan was woken abruptly. He stared at her, scrabbling to sit up. "What? What?"
"Saren!" she cried, snatching her suit from the bench. "Saren! I can get us in to the facility, I know how we can get to him."
Kaidan's brows drew together and he grabbed at her as she struggled to put her arms through the pant hole of her suit. "What are you talking about?"
"Dead soldiers! On the streets of Elysium!" Throwing the suit down and scooting backwards far enough to slide her legs into the bottoms, she grinned at him. "Did I ever tell you how I caught up with that batarian captain after he shot me?"
"No."
She grinned, half clothed, and dropped back down atop him, kissing him deeply. "Dead. Soldiers," she whispered in his ear. "Get dressed. We've got work to do."
Tonight The Beast (10)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 16:22:04 UTC
Why had a young Jane Shepard chosen Elysium, of all little colonies, as her shoreleave destination? Kaidan stared down at the pit of black, irradiated water that dropped down below his team. Vega whistled softly, the radio muting the mic pick up and depriving them of the echo that should have demonstrated how large this hole was. Vega shrugged and kicked a pebble down, a long silence preluding the echo of the pebble dropping into water. "That's more like it," Vega said.
Kaidan stared up at their ascent. He could almost see a young Jane potholing, scrambling up and down the rocks with no fear, back when these spaces were lit and the waters were cool and blue and refreshing. Dead soldiers. Dragon's teeth sown into the ground to spring up when needed. Elysium had been sown when the Reaper's came, but the network of caves under its metallic crust gave them unique access to where the dragons teeth had been sown. A way to get around - to get under.
The tunnels rocked with a force of an explosion and Kaidan nodded to Syrea. "That's the signal."
"There was nothing about this in the poem," Syrea muttered, firing the grapple towards the unseen summit of the pit. Vega looked back down the way they had come, the long twisting tunnel. His torch cast a weak shaft of light down the tunnel, enough to cast shadows jumping shadows.
"Are we really going to do this?" Vega asked softly.
"Let's get one thing straight. When you hear the order, you set that bomb to go off, and you get to the pick up point." Kaidan knotted the rope onto his harness. He looked to the asari and placed a boot on the bomb. "Syrea? Let's go."
The asari nodded, summoning a powerful lift to hold the bomb while Kaidan hauled her upwards.
"I'm not sure I could do it," Vega said, the radio pick up to him alone, "if I was you. I couldn't."
"It's easier than you think. You love someone, you love all of them, their beliefs and their faith. I'll set the bomb to go because Saren can't live while she does."
Vega nodded. "I still don't think I could."
Another explosion rocked the tunnels. Kaidan looked up to watch Syrea's ascent. "That'll be Ali's team at the front door."
"What do we do if the dragon's teeth don't conduct the explosions into the foundations?"
Tonight The Beast (11)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 17:19:35 UTC
The lights flickered in the base and Shepard took another look at the debris littering the hallways. This was the Elysium she knew, bombarded and on the cusp of defeat.
"Shepard," Ali's voice crackled over the radios. "The thralls are down, apart from the odd mech and scientist, your road should be clear."
Shepard nodded, looking to Garrus and Grunt, helmets hiding their faces. She was grinning, feral and unseen. "Fall back to the pick up point and hold it," she said. "We've swept the labs, we're heading for the offices."
"Yes, ma'am. Any word from the underground team?"
"Not yet," Shepard said, her grin fading. "Hold the evac point, Ali, or it's all for nothing."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Onwards?" Garrus asked, loading another heat sink into his assault rifle.
"I say, we find this Saren and make sure the third time takes," Grunt said.
Shepard smiled, placing her hands on their shoulders. "No. You two are to double back and extract Alenko's team from the basements. They won't leave until the nuke is installed, they need help."
"Shepard!" Garrus protested, while Grunt looked back down the way they had come.
"There will be plenty of mechs in the basement, but my fight is with you, Battlemaster."
Shepard shook her head, holstering her rifle and taking up her pistol instead. She ran her gauntleted hands over the gun's mechanisms, A kiss is forgot, Knuckles dust foreign skin, He falls to rot, And she relieves the sin.
"Go. Get Kaidan out of here, Garrus. Grunt, this is more important to me than anything else. You make sure this base is destroyed, I will take care of Saren."
Tonight The Beast (11.5)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 17:20:35 UTC
The offices were in no better condition than the labs and after tangling with a few mechs, she was allowed access to an office that was little more than a fortified bunker. A krogan rushed her when she entered the last room and she dispatched him quickly enough, scanning the room.
"He creeps in on shadows," a voice said from the extranet console. Shepard frowned, prowling closer over the patchwork of light and dark on the deck. "He breaks walls down and holds all your fears."
"Saren," she said, and she realised where he was, the distinctly un-turian like lump sitting on a chair. His cybernetics hadn't been salvaged, only the biological parts of him, and new mechanism had replaced broken limbs. He was like she had been once, but he had been woken too early.
The turian looked up at her, watching her comprehend his situation, and a poor grin took over his face. "Lay down your head, for the beast will come, and know your wants, and know your Spirit. Tonight, tonight, tonight the beast," he whispered.
"Garrus says that's an old turian curse." She kept her distance, wondering how he expected to fight her, what trick he had up his sleeve.
"The beast stalks us all, we're taught that as children." Saren leaned on on, twisted and gnarled arm. "I now realise that we all have different beasts. You are mine. You weak, inferior species. You come to me even in my afterlife."
Shepard felt her gun dropping to her side. "They brought you back, this is no afterlife, Saren."
"They tell me you did this too." Saren's face plates, what was left of them, twitched. "Did it hurt?"
"Yes. More than anything."
Saren nodded slowly and heaved to his feet. He was lopsided and broken in so many places. He held his arms out to allow her a good look. "Do I frighten you now, Shepard?"
"I pity you, Saren," she said, clipping her pistol to her belt. "I have always pitied you." She was glad of her helmet, concealing the way her throat bobbed when she wetted her lips and swallowed.
The old turian nodded. "You defeated the reapers then, you did everything I could not." He sat once more, a groan escaping him as he did so. "And here you are, with that C-Sec officer and a few krogan in tow like always. Your human friend, Alenko, the one you never brought with you to fight me."
"He wasn't the right choice for that mission."
"Hmm." Shepard's omnitool beeped and Saren glanced at it. "And no one was the right choice this time?"
"Saren," Shepard murmured, stepping closer. "Do you want this?"
He frowned at her. "You know, though, you know what lies after the beast has claimed you. It is nothing. And coming back brings only pain." He sprung, with all of his old speed and power, for a second he was Saren again. He snatched her by the throat, sending a chilling, terrifying bolt into her guts as he pinned her to the wall, his breath rasping in his lungs. "If I must go back to that, I will take you with me."
She struggled, fighting for air and kicking at his legs. He seemed immune to pain for having felt it for so long. "I-" she gasped, "Saren!"
"I'll break you, Shepard."
"I'm pregnant!" she managed, and his grip loosened for a moment, long enough for her to drive her fist into his face and drop him to the floor. She whipped out her pistol and fired at his head. He spluttered, his mandibles clicking and his body spasming. "I'm sorry," she murmured, standing over him. "But that one I never bring to face you has armed a nuclear device that will vaporise this facility and you. You'll not be back this time, Saren, there'll be nothing to resurrect."
He stared up at her with one good eye, mouth working to say something.
Hating herself for doing so, she crouched down beside him, leaning close enough to hear his whisper.
Tonight The Beast (Epilogue)
anonymous
September 18 2011, 17:31:15 UTC
The asari Spectre listened to the Council's verdict and sighed, shaking her head. They didn't outright acknowledge Saren's return, but they did least acknowledge the presence of the terrorist cell on the former colony of Elysium.
She particularly wondered how the High Spectre could listen to these verdicts without speaking, but she knew better than to question. Shepard was, after all, not doing field work any more. At least not for a few years.
Ali smiled to herself as she left. The competition for organising a baby shower was stiff, she knew she didn't have a chance. She was happier to be on a mission herself.
And Kaidan, her mentor, well the old man had assigned her a new Spectre candidate to assess.
Perhaps it was because she was still a maiden, but she couldn't see herself settling down one day, couldn't imagine a reason to stop and start breeding, even if the galaxy did need it.
Re: Tonight The Beast (Epilogue) - OP
anonymous
September 18 2011, 17:46:08 UTC
THANK YOU SO MUCH! :-D It's fantastic and awesome and so much more than I thought I'd get with a prompt like I gave.
I'll start on the prompt I said I'd do for you in the next day or two - I'm just trying to get the last little bits finished on Worth Dying For, and then you're next on my list.
In the safety of the bunker's atmosphere, she removed her helmet, and no sooner was she in the bunk room than she was crushed by a hungry, desperate kiss from Kaidan. He was ardent, his shields crackling as their armour pushed against one another. Quickly and without preamble they removed the shell and undersuits, falling to the nearest bunk. Kaidan had his lips against hers again, his hand on her left breast, squeezing as he sucked on her bottom lip.
No, she wasn't afraid of being weak. She was afraid she might one day leave him, and how would he survive? He loved her, it was a truth so believed in it could be her religion.
And if something were to happen to him. She would tear the galaxy apart to wreak her revenge. There would be nothing left.
Kaidan's fingers kneaded her buttocks and her lips pressed between her breasts, where her heart was fluttering under the skin. She arched her back as he pushed into her wetness, raising her hips as he pushed again and again.
If something were to happen to him . . .
It breaks him still,
To hear the scream.
She grabbed his jaw pulling him up so she could kiss him on the lips while he came, pulling his shudders inside of her.
It echoes, it fills,
And strains at the seams.
Finished, de dropped his mouth to her clitoris, his fingers pushing up against her inner walls, breaking her apart.
Spent, together, they rested on the bunk for a moment before rolling, silently from the mattress to pull their undersuits back on. Kaidan kissed the back of her neck as she bent to lift her gauntlet from the floor.
If he died? She would only do what was right. It was all she ever did. Her rage might be enough to tear apart the galaxy, but she never would.
That was not the woman they wrote poetry about.
Overcome with hunger once more, she turned and forced another kiss on him. "I love you," she whispered. "I love you."
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Shepard sat backwards on a chair, her arms folded across its back, her chin resting on her elbow. She glanced up when Kaidan placed a pot of coffee on the table, but could not muster a smile for him. Vega and Ali sat opposite, Lena and Iola on Shepard's left. Kaidan took his seat beside Garrus and watched the slowly rotating holographic hillside.
"Firstly, we won't survive another night with those thralls hammering against the shields," Garrus said, pointing to the red spots clustering around the base of the hill. "Obviously, whatever remained of Cerberus managed to salvage all the thorian data." He sighed heavily, resting his head on his hand as he cycled through the topography.
Kaidan stole another glance at Shepard. She had been determined to stand watch last night and her eyes were bruised and sunken. She was paler than usual, her red hair tied back and slightly greasy. While in the bunker she prowled around in half her armour, the top half of her body covered in the skin tight black undersuit that was the standard affair for Alliance marines. Kaidan did the same, while Vega tended to strip down to the undersuit completely. Still, the soldier was so fast at suiting up again, he could beat Kaidan out the door.
Kaidan could never shake the feeling that Vega hadn't gotten over their first meeting. While Kaidan hadn't quite been on speaking terms with Shepard at that point, he hadn't been above playing the vid hero and hamming up a rescue. While Shepard had laughed and teased him for it, Vega had stammered an introduction and suddenly clammed up. Shepard had loved it when she'd realised, and teased Kaidan mercilessly when they were in private. Eventually, Vega had managed to look Kaidan in the eyes and carry out a reasonable conversation, but the crush had never gone away completely. Kaidan guessed that with Ali, Garrus and Vega at the table, he and Shepard might have been the most desirable objects in the room.
At least until some fuel cells magically appeared in the corner.
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"No, dear," Kaidan said, and was rewarded by a smile from Shepard's pale, drawn lips. It faded quickly.
"My first thought was that we should split and have a diversionary team drawing most of the thralls away from the mako." Garrus pointed to a cluster of rocks that the mako had grounded on. "Then two or three could hope to retrieve the mako, but by my calculations, it will take half an hour to an hour to get the mako functional enough to move."
"That's a lot of diversion," Vega murmured.
"And the thralls won't be fooled for that long," Kaidan agreed.
"So we hammer down the valley and hold the mako's position for as long as it takes," Ali said.
"And draw every single thrall towards us," Garrus said. "Every excursion the salarians have made outside of the shielded zone has resulted in loss of life."
Under the table, Shepard's knee brushed against Kaidan's. He poured coffee for all and cradled his own mug in his hands.
Iola sighed and slapped her palms on the table. A maiden on the cusp of becoming a matron, she was not an exceptional fighter, but a survivor. She was, Kaidan had learned to his sorrow, on her final tour of duty and he was going to do his damnedest to make sure she came back from it. "Then what option does that leave us?"
Shepard had her thumb on her bottom lip, worrying at a ragged nail. She raised her eyes to Garrus. "Come on, Archangel," she wheedled in her raspiest, most Shepard-like voice. "You must have something."
Kaidan felt the jolt of hot honey down in his gut. Did she have an inkling what Garrus was planning?
The turian sighed and the mountains over the tabletop drew back, the mako a green blip on the orange horizon. "A small task force takes the southern flank of the hill and gives the signal to drop the shields. At that point, the remainder makes a break for the mako over the northern route. The thralls will swarm the bunker and anything sentient will intercept the mako. The task force cuts north east through the valley, close to the facility and circles northwards of the mako. The larger groups holds the the attention of the thralls when they got bored of the bunker and, hopefully, hold out long enough for the mako to come be repaired and come down the valley."
"The two groups meet up, storm the bunker, raise the shields and the sweep the area clear of thralls," Shepard said. She looked at Kaidan and wiped the crumbs from her fingers. "What do you think?"
"It's suicide," Iola announced, unasked.
Kaidan was nodding. "It's a dirty fix for a desperate job. It's what we do best."
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Shepard, sprawled on the dust with Garrus pressed against her left hip, one turian knee hooked behind her thigh and his sniper rifle lying hard and heavy on her stomach, couldn't help but stifle a laugh at her husband's low purr in her earpiece. She could see him, a couple of metres away, sheltering behind a rock. On what had once been a road - before the nuclear warheads had turned it to slag and glass - a group of thralls were trudging towards the bunker. Whatever rudimentary intelligence they had evidently allowed them to realise the shields were finally down.
"That's why I make the big bucks, baby," she said, and Garrus shifted a little, his body tensing. He had never been wholly comfortable with Shepard flirting on the job. "Trust me," Shepard said, whispering into the mic. "This is Ali's show. Vega's good, don't get me wrong, but he's muscle. He's rock."
Garrus shifted again, his visor turning to scrutinise Shepard. "Rock?"
"I second that," Kaidan said.
"You build on him." Gently easing herself up, Shepard dusted her armour off and smiled as Kaidan rejoined them. They picked up the pace, loping further north east, leaving the horde of thralls traipsing south. "Ali's the head. She's smart. She'll be a good Spectre."
"She is a Spectre," Kaidan corrected her. He was panting as they began the run up the mountain, darting around rocks.
"You're getting old!" Shepard observed, out pacing him and clambering over a boulder.
"Enjoying the view," was the retort and she grinned, turning to watch him and Garrus reach her and the crumpled mako.
"For that cheek, you can get to work," she told him, a breathless laugh escaping her as both her engineering minded squaddies were already breaking out the omnitools. "And for your information, you build on Vega. He'll support any leader, he's strong, he's muscle, and if he respects his leader he will back them up to the end. And Ali, well you maybe don't see it, you still think she's your little shadow, but Ali has grown."
"They all do," Kaidan said from under the mako's chassis.
"I like to think I have," Garrus muttered darkly.
"I can see the alpha team," Shepard broke off, frowning at the flashes of gunfire in the twilight gloom.
"How are they doing?" Kaidan asked quietly.
"Just . . . fix the car."
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By the time the thralls got wise to their initiative, it was easier for Garrus to stand on the outcrops and pick them off with his sniper and for Shepard to do the heavy biotic lifting so Kaidan could finish up the repairs.
"Shepard?" Garrus asked, while she was struggling to hold several tons of mako off of her husband.
"Huh?"
"How can you-" The widow's barrel shouted, the shot echoing around the mountains "know so much about your squad?"
"I just . . . Kaidan I'm going to have to drop this."
"Right." Kaidan wriggled out from underneath and nodded for her to let go.
"I just know," Shepard said, letting the mako drop back to the dust. "How much longer?"
"Five minutes, maybe, I just need to re-connect the sensor array to the CPU and bypass the safety protocols. Ride quality won't be great."
Shepard rolled her shoulder and closed her eyes, summoning her biotics once more to lift the car. Again, Kaidan was on the ground. "I talk to people," she murmured, trusting to the mics to carry the information to Garrus. "They talk back. People will tell you anything if you listen."
"They don't tell me," Garrus said softly.
"You don't do the face," Kaidan grunted.
"Excuse me?" Shepard could feel her eyebrows shooting up her brow. "Baby, don't make me drop this on your head."
"It's true. You've got the face. That 'tell me all your secrets and that one defining moment in your life' face."
"I don't think turians can," Garrus said, sharply.
"It's genuine interest, not a face," Shepard snapped.
"Sure it is," was Kaidan not-so-serious reply.
Grimacing, Shepard focussed on the mako and not on the man under it. She wondered if someone might one day use 'the face' to wheedle out the story about how the almighty Spectre Shepard squashed her husband with a tank when she was irritated.
Garrus's widow cried out again, snapping a rhythm out.
"Tonight the beast."
"What?" Kaidan scrambled out once more, motioning for Shepard to drop the mako.
"Nothing," Garrus shook his head. "All this talk of poetry and 'faces'."
"We done?" Shepard asked.
Kaidan was already clambering into the tank. The engine purred into life and Garrus turned from his vantage point. He froze, seemingly struck by Shepard.
"Tonight the beast,
He hears your whispers,
And creeps in on shadows.
He breaks walls down,
And holds all your fears,
In claws too cold.
Lay down your head,
For the beast will come,
and know your wants,
and know your Spirit.
Tonight, tonight,
Tonight the beast."
Shepard stared, a shiver crawling up her spine.
"It's a curse," Garrus said softly, seemingly transfixed. "An old turian curse about a spirit you cannot be free of. You humans would call it . . . Death." He shook himself suddenly, raising a hand to the scarred plates under his visor. "Sorry. I just . . . we learn respiratory resuscitation to it for the rhythm. Sorry."
"Nelly the Elephant," Shepard offered, her voice resolutely not trembling.
Her omnitool buzzed twice, a gentle, personal alarm.
Tonight the beast.
A spirit who would not leave her.
The alarm tingled her fingertips. As it had every 28 days. No wonder she had been feeling emotional of late.
Tonight the beast.
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He had protested, mostly because they weren't all doctors, and what was Shepard if not a warrior?
"It's the way you talk about her," Lilith - that had been her name - had said. "Like she can fix anything."
He leaned back against the inner rear wall of the mako, his feet propped up on the back of the driving seat, his armour in disarray and littered all over the passenger seats. He sat in his undersuit, eyes closed and memories playing.
Since they cleared the bunker of thralls and hooked the mako up, he had said he would look into the mako's repairs. He wanted a beer, or something stronger, but in lieu of that he ran over the mako specs, trying to nurse a little more power from her cells for the shields.
Liza, who had led the refresher course on alien first aid when he joined the alliance, had told him he might not have a visceral reaction to alien blood. "It's evolution, it doesn't hit the same triggers," she'd said. That had pushed some of his triggers for some of the angriest sex he'd ever had outside of a break up.
Alien blood gave him the same reaction as human blood. He was a good field medic, he knew he was. The mechanics of a body were not so different from an electrical circuit. There was a certain logic to both. Power must flow.
"Hey."
He glanced up at Shepard, scrambling through the airlock. She popped the seals on her helmet and set it on the seat beside his. She sat on the bench seat, resting her boot on the opposite seat, one long leg curving over his body, the other nudging his shoulder. The mako, always cramped, didn't seem big enough for both of them, their armour, and the ghost of Iola hanging over them. Shepard looked down at him, her face grimy with sweat. A track of pale, clean skin led from her left eye to her chin. Kaidan pushed up, rubbing his thumb over the tear stain, something in his chest aching when she closed her eyes, leaning in to his touch. Still on the floor, he rested his head against her armoured thigh, letting his hand drop back to his side.
"It wasn't your fault," she whispered, her lips turning down.
"Wasn't yours either," he murmured.
A reflexive smile tugged at her mouth, but it failed to hold. She sighed and leaned back, reaching up to remove the chest plate and shoulder guards. The yellow armour dropped to the deck in stages, until she too was sitting in the form fitting black undersuit, her red hair bundled messily atop her head. "This may not be the best time . . . " she said, holding up her right hand where her omnitool blinked into life, "But I'm ovulating."
A Pavlovian jolt of desire shot through his gut, the promise of being inside her, hot and tight and absolution in her arms. "Jane . . ." he groaned, wrapping a hand around her calf. "This . . ."
"Isn't a good time," she said, nodding. "No. You're probably right." The nod became a little more frantic and she sighed, strands of hair flying up from her face.
He let his hand drop to her ankle, his fingers trailing over her Achilles heel. Her foot twitched and she frowned at him. "When we get home," he said. Because you're not going to die on this rock. He's not having you. You're mine.
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Kaidan grabbed her by the waist, dragging her down into his lap, even though she struggled. She was stronger, angrier, but he had the advantage of size and pinned her arms to her side with an embrace. "He's not having YOU," he hissed sharply.
"He might take you!" she wailed, with such un-Shepard like fear in her voice that he leaned forward and kissed her to silence the sound. She was no longer trying to escape him, but grinding into his lap, her hands caressing his back. Their lips parts with a wet smack and Kaidan pushed back, stealing her words with another kiss, pushing her hips down against him, squeezing her ass and sinking his teeth into her lips, making her gasp. She forced them apart, arching her back and pushing her breasts against his chest. "I want a baby, Kaidan," she whispered. "I want something that's ours, something that will . . ."
Swallowing, Kaidan nodded, kissing her collar bone over her suit.
"What is it the next time?" she continued. "A reaper artefact? A rogue matriarch, maybe. Maybe it's just some batarians who get lucky one day when your shields are down."
Kaidan lifted his hands, cupping her cheeks. "I. Won't. Leave. You."
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Before the decision had been made, they had discussed children at length. As with any discussion which featured Kaidan, copious amounts of wine, earnest feelings and many repititions, the arguments had ranged from the small -
"I'm not even sure if I'd be a good mother."
"Really? Are you forgetting the krogan you raised? Or the varren you tamed? Or Jack?"
- to the reasonable -
"We'll both have to cut down on our missions."
- to the universal -
"There is a population problem."
"Now you're just trying to get into my pants."
- and the conclusion had been the same one they always circled around. She had spent time with Miranda, Jacob and little Nicky, and she loved how happy they were. Nicky, now a recalcitrant pre-teen fond of his Uncle Zaeed's terrible stories and mapping the genealogy of the parents lost to the reaper invasions. Miranda and Jacob still doted on him, and for all Shepard loved the child, she couldn't help the pang of something when she Tali went through her pregnancy, and even Kaidan's parents' hints prompted a daydream of a little girl with Kaidan's curls, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she puzzled over some new omnitool.
Kaidan's lips had moved her to earlobe, his teeth tugging gently on her skin. She pushed down with her hips, feeling his hard-on even through the suit. He gasped, moving his lips to her neck again, sucking on her skin. She wriggled, burying her face so far into the crook of his neck she tickled him, forcing him to stop.
"What, you don't want to face Saren with a hicky?" he asked, leaning back against the wall so he could face her.
She tried to smile, but it faltered. "I think it might not help my bad ass look."
That made Kaidan laugh and he raised his hand to her jaw, running his thumb over her lips. "Baby, you've killed him twice. This seems more like a formality."
She nipped the pad of his thumb with her teeth and leaned in to give him a light, butterfly kiss. She broke it when he tried to push in harder, resting her head on his shoulder once more. Kaidan rubbed her back, squeezing her closer in their embrace. "I love you," he whispered. "And I'm not afraid of losing you, because I know you're going to win. You just tell me what you need me and the rest of the team to do."
She smiled against his shoulder. "I came in here to comfort you."
"You did."
She sighed, wishing she could get closer to him. She wished she could climb into his skin and stay there forever.
Kaidan seemed to be of the same mind, he squeezed her tighter. "I worry about losing you too," he whispered. "And a baby, you know I want a baby, but what happens . . . if you leave me?"
Shepard sat up on his lap, resting her hands gently on his shoulders. "It won't happen."
"Happened once," Kaidan said, his facing growing impassive and hard.
She bit her lip and glanced down. Their bodies, clad in black, were so close. She could feel the heat radiating between them. Kaidan ducked his head down, warm again, face soft again. "It still scares me," he whispered, pecking her lips.
"That's why I want us to try, now," she said, kissing him again. "Saren's taken so much from me."
Kaidan's hands were already at the suit's seam, breaking the clingy fabric apart at her spine, exposing her skin to the cool air. She could feel goosebumps prickling where his fingertips touched. "Then we try now," he said, tipping her backwards onto the mako's floor.
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He kissed her. He loved kissing her. He loved how soft her lips were, their thin line when she disapproved, her laugh when she was amused. He loved exploring her mouth while she sucked in air on her climax. Right now, he loved kissing her thoroughly, pushing their lips together so they would bruise and split, a firm declaration of his desire.
He ran one hand down her ribs, sliding it in the narrow space between their bodies, rubbing her clitoris with thumb and pushing into her with his fingers, noting when she arched her back and when she let out a gasp. He kept his other arm on the deck, holding his body above hers, but he pressed kisses along her collar bone, between her breasts, tugged his lips over her pink nipples, tasted the skin above her navel and when her pants became groans, he kissed her again.
She splayed her hands over his cheeks, trembling so much that he pushed his supporting arm underneath her, rolling so he was in contact with the cold deck. She straddled him, her hot wetness sliding over his shaft, giving both of them a jolt. She reached up, her back arching and breasts thrust proudly out in front of her, pulling down the shiny thermal blanket form its netting on the wall. It rustled as she draped it over her shoulders, but that distraction was all Kaidan needed to hold her hips and slide himself into her. He couldn't help but close his eyes as he went deeper into the hot, velvetty heaven between her legs. He couldn't begin to describe how good it felt to be inside her, filling her.
It was a slow build, Shepard lying atop of him, her body undulating, squeezing and holding him. The thermal blanket enveloped them both, warming them and rustling with every movement. Shepard had her eyes closed, her pink tongue between her teeth as she moved. Kaidan cupped her face, holding tightly. "Open your eyes," he begged, and she did, confusion filtering over them before she realised why and fixed her gaze on his, sucking in air with every rocking movement. He curled his fingers over her scalp and rose to meet her her demands until the unbearable heat built behind his groin, the need to let it go surmounting his desire to look her in the eye or hold her. In that moment, he was nothing but physical desires.
Up until she cried out, hundreds of tiny convulsions shaking her and him, he jerked, his hips rising one last time for a howling, bone quivering orgasm that caused black spots to dance in front of his eyes. Jane collapsed onto his chest, knocking the wind out of him, her body still shaking. He looped one arm over her back, the impact of that shaking her and sending shudders down his penis, a sweet kind of agony.
He would stay here forever, and never want for anything.
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She amused herself by imagining Kaidan's skin held her future, the next trial explained under her fingertips. She rubbed a thumb over his nipple and suppressed a chuckle when he shifted, eyes flickering open long enough to clock her and the time before he tried to go back to sleep. She explored the skin above his clavicle. Lover. Partner. Husband. Spectre. She thought all those words might be there. Perhaps Father too. Father to . . . to Hannah, maybe. Or Ashley.
Or someone else, maybe she wouldn't have any children named after dead warriors.
Dead warriors . . .
She jerked up so fast that Kaidan was woken abruptly. He stared at her, scrabbling to sit up. "What? What?"
"Saren!" she cried, snatching her suit from the bench. "Saren! I can get us in to the facility, I know how we can get to him."
Kaidan's brows drew together and he grabbed at her as she struggled to put her arms through the pant hole of her suit. "What are you talking about?"
"Dead soldiers! On the streets of Elysium!" Throwing the suit down and scooting backwards far enough to slide her legs into the bottoms, she grinned at him. "Did I ever tell you how I caught up with that batarian captain after he shot me?"
"No."
She grinned, half clothed, and dropped back down atop him, kissing him deeply. "Dead. Soldiers," she whispered in his ear. "Get dressed. We've got work to do."
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Kaidan stared up at their ascent. He could almost see a young Jane potholing, scrambling up and down the rocks with no fear, back when these spaces were lit and the waters were cool and blue and refreshing. Dead soldiers. Dragon's teeth sown into the ground to spring up when needed. Elysium had been sown when the Reaper's came, but the network of caves under its metallic crust gave them unique access to where the dragons teeth had been sown. A way to get around - to get under.
The tunnels rocked with a force of an explosion and Kaidan nodded to Syrea. "That's the signal."
"There was nothing about this in the poem," Syrea muttered, firing the grapple towards the unseen summit of the pit. Vega looked back down the way they had come, the long twisting tunnel. His torch cast a weak shaft of light down the tunnel, enough to cast shadows jumping shadows.
"Are we really going to do this?" Vega asked softly.
"Let's get one thing straight. When you hear the order, you set that bomb to go off, and you get to the pick up point." Kaidan knotted the rope onto his harness. He looked to the asari and placed a boot on the bomb. "Syrea? Let's go."
The asari nodded, summoning a powerful lift to hold the bomb while Kaidan hauled her upwards.
"I'm not sure I could do it," Vega said, the radio pick up to him alone, "if I was you. I couldn't."
"It's easier than you think. You love someone, you love all of them, their beliefs and their faith. I'll set the bomb to go because Saren can't live while she does."
Vega nodded. "I still don't think I could."
Another explosion rocked the tunnels. Kaidan looked up to watch Syrea's ascent. "That'll be Ali's team at the front door."
"What do we do if the dragon's teeth don't conduct the explosions into the foundations?"
"We'll have a problem," Kaidan said.
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"Shepard," Ali's voice crackled over the radios. "The thralls are down, apart from the odd mech and scientist, your road should be clear."
Shepard nodded, looking to Garrus and Grunt, helmets hiding their faces. She was grinning, feral and unseen. "Fall back to the pick up point and hold it," she said. "We've swept the labs, we're heading for the offices."
"Yes, ma'am. Any word from the underground team?"
"Not yet," Shepard said, her grin fading. "Hold the evac point, Ali, or it's all for nothing."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Onwards?" Garrus asked, loading another heat sink into his assault rifle.
"I say, we find this Saren and make sure the third time takes," Grunt said.
Shepard smiled, placing her hands on their shoulders. "No. You two are to double back and extract Alenko's team from the basements. They won't leave until the nuke is installed, they need help."
"Shepard!" Garrus protested, while Grunt looked back down the way they had come.
"There will be plenty of mechs in the basement, but my fight is with you, Battlemaster."
Shepard shook her head, holstering her rifle and taking up her pistol instead. She ran her gauntleted hands over the gun's mechanisms, A kiss is forgot,
Knuckles dust foreign skin,
He falls to rot,
And she relieves the sin.
"Go. Get Kaidan out of here, Garrus. Grunt, this is more important to me than anything else. You make sure this base is destroyed, I will take care of Saren."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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"He creeps in on shadows," a voice said from the extranet console. Shepard frowned, prowling closer over the patchwork of light and dark on the deck. "He breaks walls down and holds all your fears."
"Saren," she said, and she realised where he was, the distinctly un-turian like lump sitting on a chair. His cybernetics hadn't been salvaged, only the biological parts of him, and new mechanism had replaced broken limbs. He was like she had been once, but he had been woken too early.
The turian looked up at her, watching her comprehend his situation, and a poor grin took over his face. "Lay down your head, for the beast will come, and know your wants, and know your Spirit. Tonight, tonight, tonight the beast," he whispered.
"Garrus says that's an old turian curse." She kept her distance, wondering how he expected to fight her, what trick he had up his sleeve.
"The beast stalks us all, we're taught that as children." Saren leaned on on, twisted and gnarled arm. "I now realise that we all have different beasts. You are mine. You weak, inferior species. You come to me even in my afterlife."
Shepard felt her gun dropping to her side. "They brought you back, this is no afterlife, Saren."
"They tell me you did this too." Saren's face plates, what was left of them, twitched. "Did it hurt?"
"Yes. More than anything."
Saren nodded slowly and heaved to his feet. He was lopsided and broken in so many places. He held his arms out to allow her a good look. "Do I frighten you now, Shepard?"
"I pity you, Saren," she said, clipping her pistol to her belt. "I have always pitied you." She was glad of her helmet, concealing the way her throat bobbed when she wetted her lips and swallowed.
The old turian nodded. "You defeated the reapers then, you did everything I could not." He sat once more, a groan escaping him as he did so. "And here you are, with that C-Sec officer and a few krogan in tow like always. Your human friend, Alenko, the one you never brought with you to fight me."
"He wasn't the right choice for that mission."
"Hmm." Shepard's omnitool beeped and Saren glanced at it. "And no one was the right choice this time?"
"Saren," Shepard murmured, stepping closer. "Do you want this?"
He frowned at her. "You know, though, you know what lies after the beast has claimed you. It is nothing. And coming back brings only pain." He sprung, with all of his old speed and power, for a second he was Saren again. He snatched her by the throat, sending a chilling, terrifying bolt into her guts as he pinned her to the wall, his breath rasping in his lungs. "If I must go back to that, I will take you with me."
She struggled, fighting for air and kicking at his legs. He seemed immune to pain for having felt it for so long. "I-" she gasped, "Saren!"
"I'll break you, Shepard."
"I'm pregnant!" she managed, and his grip loosened for a moment, long enough for her to drive her fist into his face and drop him to the floor. She whipped out her pistol and fired at his head. He spluttered, his mandibles clicking and his body spasming. "I'm sorry," she murmured, standing over him. "But that one I never bring to face you has armed a nuclear device that will vaporise this facility and you. You'll not be back this time, Saren, there'll be nothing to resurrect."
He stared up at her with one good eye, mouth working to say something.
Hating herself for doing so, she crouched down beside him, leaning close enough to hear his whisper.
"Congratulations"
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She particularly wondered how the High Spectre could listen to these verdicts without speaking, but she knew better than to question. Shepard was, after all, not doing field work any more. At least not for a few years.
Ali smiled to herself as she left. The competition for organising a baby shower was stiff, she knew she didn't have a chance. She was happier to be on a mission herself.
And Kaidan, her mentor, well the old man had assigned her a new Spectre candidate to assess.
Perhaps it was because she was still a maiden, but she couldn't see herself settling down one day, couldn't imagine a reason to stop and start breeding, even if the galaxy did need it.
She was still making her mark on the world.
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I'll start on the prompt I said I'd do for you in the next day or two - I'm just trying to get the last little bits finished on Worth Dying For, and then you're next on my list.
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