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As James slowly recovered in his room on the Centurion Eagle, his mind took a few days to piece together what had happened. Not that there was very much to piece together once he laid out a timeline. The moment he walked into the anomaly's room, seeing all the corpses around him, his mind turned blank. Nothing he could recollect, not even what they had written. His head felt warm everytime he tried to think, so he simply let it fade as best he could from his imaginings. He didn't feel like himself, despite having most of his memories return to him. His armour was still worn, hermetically-sealed like always with some damage made to it even moreso after escaping the base. It felt strangely more fragile than before, more light and airy. He softly climbed out of bed, looking over his items one more time before leaving and heading up to the cockpit. Norem and Lirem were handling navigation, the turian in orange having his left leg still healing, wounded and wrapped up in a bandaged cast to keep both blood and medi-gel from pouring out further. He looked up towards FG, asking: "You alright?" "Not really," said FG. "I'm just...tired and confused." "Heh, not different at all then." "Heheh...any news on Areh?" "No. Jax kept an eye on him but...the Migrant Fleet's ETA will be in the next day or so." "Good...fuck...any word from the Geth?" "No," said Norem, "they said once the anomaly was gone they didn't need to hang around, just thanked us for our services and headed off. Said that they swore never to tell anyone about it, not even record stuff, just completely wipe everyone's memory that was on the dreadnought. Or maybe they just, I dunno, selectively delete it, either way we won't be bothered by them anymore." "I sure hope not." "Still can't remember anything?" "I know it spoke to me...that it...that it knew my name, it talked to me, and I know where it came from. But after that it just...starts...getting hazy on me." "Well don't try to force it, just relax, your armour's looking pretty weak, sure you don't wanna get that fixed?" "Right now I just wanna get Areh to a doctor...I'm gonna go see him okay?" "Alright...you okay by the way, your eyes look fucked." "Yeah I'm...just, I need to calm down and just take it easy for a bit, I'll see you later." The raptor walked slowly towards Areh's room, the door left open in case Jax needed to rush in and out for supplies. The krogan stood at his bedside with burns on his hands and face, nearly of third-degree. Various drips and healing bandages along with a caseful of medi-gel was on standby for him, washing him, toiling over him, rewrapping and sterilising bandages for his broken arm and cracked visor. He managed to seal the visor thankfully with a special sealant, making sure nothing toxic could harm Areh and seep through accidentally.

To the raptor he looked like an infirm patient, wired up with three bags and breathing softly to himself, deaf to the world, struggling to keep going as his suit autolocked itself keeping the infections out. With Jax's aid unknown to him, he had managed to turn stable, but for all intents was now in something of a medicinal coma. The krogan sighed heavily before he spoke, not even turning his head towards FG behind him saying: "You wanna know whut's up with Areh?" "...huh?" "You been wondering haven't you? All the crap he does, all the weird routine stuff, all the freakouts he has over the dumbest things. And then this...this...fucking thing he does, nearly threw his own damn life away cuz he thought he wasn't worth it." "...we all have our problems, it's okay." "No. It's not. He shouldn't be like this. He shouldn't...he shouldn't feel like this, the way he did when he...he's a wonderful person, maybe others can't see it but he's my only friend." "I...I don't think anything about him." "Bullshit. I know you do. I know Leiah does...the way she didn't wanna come back on the ship, after that argument they had...she feels guilty." "Yeah," said FG, "I think she does...she's not come through to see you at all?" "No," replied Krungut. "...do you want to tell me about Areh?" "I...kinda feel better if I could...like I need to explain about him." "You don't have to explain anything, I mean what's there to explain?" "A lotta things." "You don't have to make excuses, I mean if you think I'm mad at him or something I'm not, jus-" "No. Just, lemme do this. Please. I need to talk this out, I just...I just need to." "Alright. Why was he acting like that? What's this problem that he said he had?" "...he got Asperger Syndrome." "What?" "Sum kinda crap in his head...I dunno whut it even is like half the time but that don't make him any special. Just stuff like...makes him get all high-wired an' kinda neurotic sometimes. He's kinda weird about...things." Jax rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably whilst James tried to register what it meant. The simplest route of logic took him towards one conclusion concerning the letter it began with. "Are you saying that Areh is...autistic?" "Kinda? I dunno, I never read up on it really. Areh tried to once, got given a guide about it but half the stuff seems like somethin' anyone can get so, I dunno why they even give it a name, then he read all of it an' started feelin' worse an' worse so I was like 'you don't need some damn datapad to tell you whut's wrong with you, don't make a difference to me, I known plenty of weird people who cares!'." "So...how do you even know that he has it? I didn't even know aliens COULD get autism and stuff." "We all got brains right? Stuff can still break down an' shit, he said he got tested back when he wuz a little kid. Did stuff that other kids don't do, like avoidin' eye contact, repeating stuff over again an' over again like routine, can't handle social situations like small talk an' stuff." "Wait really? But...he seemed alright talking with us, maybe he was just really shy as a kid, that seems a large jump to think." "I-I DUNNO, just, that's whut he told me, I talked with his dad sometimes whenever they wanna call up, he said it too! He learned like anyone else, I guess it's...like, if you became that kinda weird person through life as an adult, then that's just you being shaped through experience. But...how's that even happen when you were like that since you were a little kid? Right?" "Right..."

James turned uncertain as he saw Jax struggling to explain himself, thinking it best to ask: "You sure you wanna tell me all this?" "I dunno, I just...I just wanna talk with someone about him, I...I need...I need to let it all out until he gets better." "Okay...tell me about it." "I dunno why he acts like that, he dunno either even after all we read up about it. That's why he got all these issues." "What issues?" asked James. "The whole thing about not wantin' to be touched by someone, not being able to read people's faces so he can't tell whut emotions they're feeling, the whole stressing out over being on time or when things all come at him at once, if he does like more than two things everything just fucking goes! If it's a problem that's outta his control he got no worries. Reapers, pfft, that shit flies over his head! Galactic reshufflin', fine who cares?! But when the smallest tiniest thing fucks up cuz of him, even by a total accident...fuck, that just ruins his whole day an' now...he can't stop thinkin' about how useless it is." "What kind of small thing?" "Well...heh, this one time, he forgot to get me a bottle of ryncol to fill my cabinet. I wuz real thirsty fer it but not enough that I'd get mad at 'im just cuz he forgot about it, it's just liquor. But he didn't even speak to me fer two damn days cuz he felt like total shit fer not rememberin', beatin' himself up over somethin' he shoulda done. If it wuz REAL important then fine, but not this." "Wow...so it's just, kinda like a depression sorta thing?" "No," said Jax nervously, "no that's not all of it, just...he got sum good stuff in it too he says. Like bein' able to focus super into somethin', get all up in it an' work all the way through. Or the way he can just totally read out a wiring diagram in like ten seconds flat an' figure stuff out! Then there's the music." "What about it?" asked FG. "Just...can't believe a kid like him would be so good at it but he can practically speak music like nothing else. He can't sing it but he certainly understands it like it wuz a whole language, his creativity's amazing! ...I wish I had that kinda thing, that kinda talent. I dunno, he says he dunno whether it's that or just a natural part of him so..." "So...is he like some kind of math prodigy or something?" "Oh hell no," said Jax, "he can't handle long division, says math is like fuckin' impossible fer him to figure out, s'not exactly true but he uh...takes a while to count things up. He kinda sucks with money too, he still can't understand how tax works." "Wait...this is the same guy that hacks through security consoles right?" "Well...it's like...I-i dunno, not all programming's math apparently, not with Areh at least." "Ummm...I'm quite sure it is." "I dunno! Just...just, I-i dunno, just the way Areh handles things, the programs he handles specifically, it's like compiling a buncha sequences more than anything, no actual algebra involved, I dunno. Now algebra, that's his real weak point. Hell I once saw him burnin' a hole through a PDA trying to stare at it focusing on getting a number to fall outta his head." "Heh...and being able to fix vehicles and stuff?" "Well that's all like memorisin' stuff fer him, I mean his memory is a damn steel trap. He remembers the exact same number of turns he has to do fer each bolt on the mako's wheels, but he can't even remember my damn birthday. Not that I mind, I mean he's one of us and everything, he IS half the band with whut he does. That's why we take care of him, cuz things got a lot better ever since we arrived. I mean Norem can write some killer songs but whatever goes on inside Areh's head is just...it's...kinda beautiful sometimes. He said that to him music wuz like a code, it has a sequence that he understands so easily." "Huh," said FG. "You know I always wondered what was up with him, 'cause when I try to talk to him I always get the feeling he doesn't like me." "He don't MIND you," said Jax. "Long as you stay out of his room an' don't interfere with his schedule he don't mind anyone, he likes you! He just...can't read ya that well, but that's not yer fault, can't read people's faces an' all so...y-yeah." "But...why are you telling me all this? What's that got to do with anything right now?" "...I don't want you to think he's a bad person."

He finally turned towards James with eyes weeping, his tears now streaking beneath his cheeks and into the wrinkles of his craggy skin. "I just wanna protect him...I know he's not the easiest guy to be with, but he's my best friend...I don't want you to hate him. I don't want you to go thinking he wuz some punkass or sum kinda arrogant shit, he swore me not to tell you! Not to tell anyone about his thing!" "Why not?" "CUZ PEOPLE JUDGE HIM ALRIGHT?! They either think he's just makin' shit up as an excuse fer actin' that way, or they all just tiptoe around him like he's a fucking freak! He wanted to just cope like anyone else but he has these damn problems inside his head fuckin' around with him an' making 'im act like this. All his freakouts an' tantrums an'...hatin' himself fer it. But he didn't want an excuse...he just...he just wanted to be as weird an' stupid like the rest of us...not...not like the way he is." The krogan balled his fists with fury, squinting his eyes with frustration as tears flecked out onto the floor beneath. The raptor understood why he was struggling, as he explained on his behalf. "Jax, listen. I know you care about him deeply, but you don't have to make excuses for him. Honestly, I kinda stopped caring about what issues he had and just let it be. I mean, so what, compared to most people I met he's not an asshole to me. I mean, he's odd and has some annoying traits, but he at least TRIES to do stuff, he just...well, has his moods I guess, that's what I was thinking. And if he can't help it sometimes then fine so what?" "S-so whut?! Him and I had to put up a lot of shit from other people!" "And where are those people now? Not here that's for sure. All I know is that he let someone get to him and look what happened. I'm not gonna blame that on his problems, I'm gonna blame that on both himself, and the asshole that did that to him. I know you care about him, and I know deep down he cares about you too. But you have no reason to ever make excuses for him, and you shouldn't be doing that. You said it yourself that he swore you not to tell anyone and quite frankly I don't care after this." "You don't?" "Fuck no! He might be difficult sometimes but he's not some deranged idiot anymore than other people, I'm not using his autism as some excuse, it's a REASON sure but it's not an excuse." "No...n-no I know that it's...just...I know he swore to me not to tell anyone cuz he don' wanna be treated different but...b-but I just...I worry about him." "He's your friend, of course you worry. All the things he does do that aren't great gets balanced out by how much he cares about you, how much he fights for the team and does all he can for you. Who isn't odd with annoying traits about them, what makes him so different?" "Y-yeah...I guess." "Honestly, the only thing I can complain about him is he could pull back his temper a little, maybe chill sometime instead of being all wound up. And that's coming from me so..." "No...it's always himself he got most angry at...maybe he flips out on other people but...I know he hated himself most fer actin' out on things." "Like that thing with the axle." "Yeah...sorry, I...I just...I don't..." Jax slowly began to break down, weeping into his hands over his unconscious friend's body as his voice began to break. "I just don' want him to die...I'm scared of losin' him, I just wanna have my friend back an' that's it! That's all I want, I don't care whut happens around us long as he's with me! I love him dammit, he's my friend! He's the first friend I had who never judged me, never hated me, never got scared of me! ...I love him..." He began to sob harder, heaving back gulps of tears as James wrapped an arm around his waist in sympathy. The raptor could only watch whilst Jax stood waiting. Guarding. Watching over him. Eventually he took his leave and allowed Jax some peace to himself, the door closing off as he walked towards Leiah's room. He knocked on the door politely before hearing: "Yeah?" "Hey there." "James? You okay?" "Yeah I'm fine, just...trying to pass the time. You?" "I'm good just...kinda resting up a bit, wanna come in?" "Sure."

He entered Leiah's room seeing her slightly clutching her waist, looking rather winded and wincing slightly. She sat on her bed, the raptor sitting down beside her as he gently examined her. "You alright?" "I...well, falling off that mech hurt me more than I thought." "You're not hurt too bad are you?" "I've had worse, nothing the suit needs to close off just bruises. Nothing I can...complain about considering...Areh." "Yeah..." "How's he doing?" "You should go see him." "I...no, I don't...I don't feel right going to see him." "Jax worried about you." "Jax should worry about Areh, not me! I'm not the one who needs help, keelah I wish the fleet would just get here already." "...you're angry aren't you?" "Huh?" "You're angry about all this." "Of course I'm angry about this!" She punched the bed with her fist. "We go all the way to their base, Areh almost gets killed, we never got to kill ANY of the big leaders and then YOU almost lost your mind AGAIN to the fucking thing inside that room! What the hell was that, I saw nothing but bodies in there!" "I don't know," said FG, "but I know I saw something, I can remember stuff barely but I told you and I told Lirem and Norem just a few minutes ago." "Right...you look terrible." "What?" "Have you looked in a mirror lately, your eyes are all bloodshot and...your skin looks kinda weird." "I...I dunno, maybe I'm just not feeling so well." "You've been really out of it since we got out of that base...are you sure you're alright?" "I...I don't know. I just wanna sleep for like...a whole month and just let my head deal with it, I..." She gently wrapped her arm around him as he laid his head on her shoulders, sighing deeply. He almost wanted to fall asleep again but his mind was too frayed, too concerned on other things as they sat beside each other. Waiting. Waiting for something to change. Soon they found themselves lying in bed together, unable to think, their own thoughts and worries ticking away as they held each other's hands. A silent union of unspoken fears they both sensed from each other. All they could do now was hope something was about to change. A few hours later, they started to regret that wish when the ship suddenly rocked with a blast of fire along the hull. "WHA-SHIT!" "WH-what's happening?!" "I dunno come on!"

They both headed up towards the cockpit, seeing Jax briefly grab his shotgun from his room beside Areh's before hastily running back, sealing himself in Areh's room alongside his patient. Another fierce rumbling went through the entire ship, sending both raptor and quarian almost down to the floor as they stumbled their way up towards Lirem and Norem, the turian brothers desperately trying to maintain control of the ship. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" "WE'RE BEING ATTACKED!" roared Lirem. "THEY DISABLED OUR ENGINES SOMEHOW!" "WHAT!?" cried Leiah. "Wh-wh-what do we do?!" "SEE IF YOU CAN FIX THE ENGINES, THEY LOOK LIKE THEY'RE PLANNING TO BOARD!" "WH-BUT...I-i dunno how-" "YOU'RE A QUARIAN, FUCKING FIX IT!" "...I...I-i-" "Leiah." James grabbed Leiah's shoulders firmly to try and reassure her, her body shaking with panic as he stared into her eyes. "The cargo bay is at the bottom of the ship, the engines are down there, so you'll be a lot safer. You HAVE to fix the engines, we don't know how to as well as you." "What about you?!" "I'll hold the fort here, but this is your time to shine...this is your way of making up to Areh." "......you're right. I'll do my best, just hold them off!" She nodded and rushed off towards the cargo bay, the raptor turning back to the two turians asking: "What do you need?" "Guns," said Norem, "grab me and Lirem's rifles and get your handgun too. Warn Jax too while you're there." "He already locked himself in Areh's room the moment we got hit, I'll go grab your guns." "Alright." Norem turned back towards the control panel and sent out a distress signal. "This is Wolf-Three-Nine-Five, requesting immediate assistance, repeat, request immediate assistance we're being attacked! Unknown mercenary ship, possibly Blood Pack, please respond!" "Thi- - - -Neema- - -read you- - - -espond." "WOLF-THREE-NINE-FIVE, REQUESTING ASSISTANCE, WE'RE BEING ATTACKED AND HAVE WOUNDED, ONE QUARIAN DESPERATELY NEEDS-AAAUGH!" The ship rocked violently in another blast, throwing everyone across the room as a few minutes later James came back with both Lirem and Norem's rifles. James readied himself with his handgun towards the airlock, the only way in for a ship about to be hijacked as he ducked behind the main living room sofa. Lirem ducked out next to the bar, whilst Norem hid near the cockpit entrance once his signal had been sent. James however asked Norem: "Isn't that sniper rifle a little too big for close range?" "It'll break their heads open or make a good club, either way I'm not letting them take this ship." "Same here," said Lirem. "James, go to the hallway, we can space out better before they-" An explosion burst forth from the airlock, smoke pouring through into the main living room as Lirem roared: "GO, NOW!" James immediately began firing through the dustcloud as he ran across the main room, hiding out at the bedroom hallway whilst both turians began to fire upon the invaders. The battle was chaotic with smoke and mirrors, explosive shots and vicious gunfire went rippling across the air and tearing apart the sofas. James did his best trying to shoot at the unknown intruders, who still had not revealed themselves, but they soon burst forwards once a violent explosion went towards the cockpit area, knocking down Norem hard as he roared in pain.

The turian rolled onto the floor with a burning face, snarling as Lirem pumped half a clip into the first enemy he saw. A batarian in full-red armour. Then came a human, then two vorcha thin and scrabbling along with one huge krogan behind them blasting an entire firing squad of ammunition down upon Lirem. In such tight quarters unprepared, he was trapped as his brother struggled to get up, hilting his arm upwards on the floor to get a good headshot and crack the human's skull. But their heavy fire combined with the occasional use of an inferno grenade took down their resistance, forcing Norem to duck back into the cockpit and trap himself, whilst Lirem managed to attract half the invading unit by shooting from the bar, employing of various bottles of alcohol in order to create makeshift molotov cocktails. The raptor helped out with the occasional fireblast, cutting an entire swathe of fire across the airlock to keep the invaders back. Lirem took their chance of being repelled to run towards his brother, roaring to FG: "GET JAX, PROTECT AREH AT ALL COSTS!" "WHAT ABOUT LEIAH?!" "CALL HER, IT'S TOO LATE FOR REPAIRS! IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, GET YOURSELVES TO THE ESCAPE POD!" "O-OKAY! DON'T DIE ON ME!" James ran down the hallway as Lirem kept up his covering fire, trying to keep them pinned away towards the cockpit. James almost found himself at the receiving end of a shotgun when Jax opened the door ready to fire. "DON'T SHOOT FUCK'S SAKE!" "Whut's happening?!" "We're being attacked, fucking Blood Pack are here!" "...where's Leiah?" "She went to the cargo hold to try to fix the ship!" "Get her ass up here an' stay down this side of the hallway, I'll hold 'em off!" "But Areh!" "I am NOT leaving him, if they wanna fight, they'll have to go through ME!" "A-alright...Leiah come in!" "What?!" cried out Leiah over comms. "Get back up here it's too late to fix the engine!" "Okay, I was able to stabilise one of them bu-" "JUST GET UP HERE-FUCK!" A violent spray of bullets came burning down the hallway, the krogan ducking out to one side whilst James held the other. Now and again they threw down an inferno grenade to try and smoke them out, but the raptor pushed back with a gust of wind furious from his nanos, burning their own faces with their explosive as a few good vorcha went down screaming with agony. The krogan, now two of them behind the invading force, were not so easy to frighten as the began walking down with tremendous shotguns, ones big enough to club a human to death in two swings.

Leiah soon came up in the midst of gunfire, running along the hallway towards Jax and FG. The T-shaped intersection had the cargo bay down to James' right, the main room overtaken up ahead, and a sealed door to his left. The two krogans advancing however were starting to overwhelm Jax, his own shotgun only strong enough without obliterating the ship using his Carnage add-on. James and Leiah did their best to help, the quarian tossing an arc grenade which managed to slow them down before one krogan just stopped caring. A brutal charging slam forced Jax back against Areh's door, roaring as he locked heads against the invader. The Blood Pack krogan in resplendent red armour and thick brown shell, was much older than Krungut Jax and a small amount stronger as he slowly pushed him down onto the floor. James tried to launch at him, but the krogan slammed him away hard against the wall whilst Leiah shakily shot at him in the eye. It did some small work in making the krogan flinch and roar, giving Jax time to shove him down hard and shotgun his head to a fine pulp. "GET TO THE POD!" roared Jax. "I'LL MEET YOU THERE!" "WHAT ABOUT AREH!?" "HE'S COMING TOO DAMMIT I JUST NEED TIME! THE CODE'S TWO-ONE-EIGHT-FIVE, NOW GO!" James and Leiah dared not disobey him as they ran towards the escape pod, inputting the code and making their way in. The pod was large enough to house five people, or perhaps four and one krogan tightly. Firing back down the hallway, the burnt and bloodied Jax made his stand as he took the dead krogan's ammo for himself. Once there was a lull in the fighting, he rushed into Areh's room to try to move him. This was the last they would ever see as the escape pod's door closed as part of its safety lock. "Wh-what do we do?!" cried out FG. "We have to wait!" said Leiah. "Oh god, this can't be happening, th-this can't be happening, what do we do!? WHAT DO WE DO!?" "I DON'T KNOW, WE JUST NEED TO WAIT, I-" " AREEEEEEEH!" Jax's scream echoed out across the entire ship, followed by the sounds of gunshots brutally exchanged in a brief crescendo of fire and steel. The sound of the krogan crying out in both fear and agony made their hearts stop, roaring with pain as the blast of a shotgun soon made the finishing point, a full stop to the struggle that laid within. They both turned to each other trying to hear what was on the other side, the enemy krogan saying: "Check the door down there, we've got one quarian and that freak still missing." "What do we do?!" said Leiah whimpering. "...I know what we're not gonna do," said FG. "What?" "Die." He slammed his hand on the very clear Eject button that was beside the door, sealing the pod permanently as a warning siren went off. Sounds of confusion came from the inside of the Eagle, before a few more panicked gunshots went signalling perhaps the end of the invasion. The raptor and sole quarian soon blasted off on the escape pod, which after a full half-minute of recalibrating itself with a new location as well as giving a warning period to prevent the launch, soon jettisoned off into space. They never saw the Centurion Eagle again.

The moment he forced open the pod door, he wished he hadn't. Immediately his blood turned cold running through him, howling ice storms burning at his face, shrieking banshees in the form of gales as he stepped out from their hiding place. They only just woke up, having landed with a heavy thud onto a place where tall white mountains stood of solid ice, thickest snow underneath their feet as all too quickly could they feel heat desperately start to leave them. James huddled up his arms against himself, shaking with nervous anxiety as the cold set itself in. His quarian friend was no better off, her suit much too thin to withstand such a harsh environment for long as she wrapped her arms around him, desperate to feel warmth and in truth he was too. Their heads felt rattled and uneven, the crash landing not exactly graceful, but at the same time nothing broken was upon them. Immediately James soon regretted that he left all his items of use back on the ship. The only thing he knew he had now on him was some ammo, a gun, and his pendant of black stone. The high-velocity trip across space had left them both shaken to the very core. "Wh-wh-where are we?!" cried out Leiah. "I-i-i-i dunno," stuttered FG. "F-f-fucking typical that we land on a f-f-fucking freezing ice p-planet." "H-hoh...K-keelah...w-we can't, w-w-we can't this can't be h-happening...this can't be-" "J-just stay calm w-we have to keep walking, y-you got a radar on ya?!" "Th-the escape p-pod has one, f-for cases like this." "H-h-how do you know?" "Every p-p-pod has one radar in it, OBVIOUSLY!" "ALRIGHT F-FUCKING CHILL!" "HAH, FU-FU-FUNNY!" She tapped into the pod's console as she noted a radar function, built specifically for use upon landing on an unknown world that allowed them to find the nearest settlement. Tracking towards the nearest relay, she found their location according to the galactic codex, turning on the distress beacon as she beeped out a radar system to transfer data to her omni-tool. "We're on Isa!" "What?!" "WE'RE ON ISA, IT'S A PLANET IN THE SOWILO SYSTEM, NOT FAR FROM OUR SHIP!" "I DON'T CARE, IS THERE A FUCKING PLACE TO STAY IN?!" "...THERE'S A WAREHOUSE NEARBY!" "WHERE?!" "THAT WAY! JUST KEEP WALKING, WE'LL GET THERE SOON!" "ALRIGHT!" The cold burned through their lungs everytime they breathed, struggling through the icy wasteland as they walked southeast of their current position. Leiah kept watch on her radar with James following behind as they pushed with every step turning his feet into lead, shuddering with his grip on Leiah's hand turning shakier. The first five minutes was like entering the first steps into hell, fearful and pained daggertips of ice prodding at their feet. Ten minutes of being in the ice and snow was but pure agony for both of them.

James tried to tell himself that he had been through worse, and in truth he had been through worse many times before. But it was not himself that he was worried for. Instead he was worried about his friend. Soon he was the one that was guiding her, practically dragging her through the torrential hills of white dead snow. Mountains all around them impenetrable and tall like guardians of eternal solitude, blind to their suffering. Every breeze was like a frozen sword slicing through their bodies. Everytime they stopped, they felt as if they were submerging inside an ice lake. Every breath they made could almost be the same as drowning within that same lake. Their legs turned to ice after an hour of solid walking, trudging through with automatic pace struggling to ignore everything except their own inner thoughts. Two hours passed since their arrival, as their arms turned stiff, fingers colder than a mortician's knife. Time was soon lost as Leiah struggled to keep going, gasping: "J-j-james...please...s-stop." "No...must...keep going...come on." "I'm s...s-s-s-scared...wh-what if...th-they're not gonna find us, they're not-" "NO! W-we'll make it, I don't...I don't care...I've gone through worse, I know y-you have to...c-come on. Get up...please." "I...s-so cold...h-hurts me...f-f-feel my...h-heart beating." "I'm not...gonna...f-fuckin' die out here...and I'm not letting you now get. Up." He slowly pulled her up and forced her on her feet, using his nano fire as best as he could through all of it in an attempt to keep warm. Pushing through the hills of snow with violent flames helped bring some of their heat back, but it was only robbed by the winds as the burnt path slowly filled up again, snow unending. It was perhaps another half hour later that they soon found the warehouse. A large steel block of tumorous intent, hard and impenetrable against the rippling white flesh covering the planet's ice and rock. It was their only hope as they soon pushed forwards downhill, reaching the front entrance. It took Leiah a few efforts with frozen fingers, but she eventually opened the lock by her expertise before finally they walked in. The warehouse had two main entrances, a large steel shutter for cargo and a small pedestrian door for people. The cold soon left them and became nothing more than a dull memory, beating itself upon the steel as they heard the howling mute, gasping for relief, falling onto the floor meekly. The warehouse itself was huge, two stories worth of sealed crates in various shapes and sizes, all just waiting to be discovered. The steel blue was a familiar sight, the raptor already sick of it as he looked around the area briefly, seeing some white partitions separating areas into different docking bays for loading and unloading. A few small offices laid here and there, one halfway from the door that they soon crawled into which was large enough to walk ten steps from one wall to the other, a window they could slide open giving them a view of the main floor. One huge thoroughfare and crates stacked on each side, some of which were haphazardly placed here and there on the main central hall.

"Oh god," moaned FG, "thank you...hohhh...hohhhh fuck...alright. We just...need to find some heat and we can...we can find some way to contact them." "What is this place?" asked Leiah. "It's a warehouse. Duh." "I mean what's it for, von...ohhh keelah I hope they have food." "Heh...reminds me of when I left London. Hopped on a big steel boatful of cargo and hide out inside a crate. Ate half the food from one by the time I got there...this place is brighter though." "Yeah...not nice to be in a...crate locked up in the-" "Yeah...you too?" "It happens...jump into the first thing you see to get out of someplace and...just got to bear with it." "Heheh...right. Alright let's get warmed up, I can get a fire going if I got something flammable." "I'll just...wait here...I'm so weak." She laid herself down on the floor trying to shake herself clean as the water seeped off her suit, looking more a drowned wretch as she shuddered to herself, gasping hot breaths through her mask exhaust. The various crates he was unable to open, well-sealed until Leiah told him a small trick concerning the magnetic locks that had a 30% chance of working on these types of crates. It was better than nothing as he used her advice, using magnetic strips of neodymium she kept in her toolkit for dealing with certain locks. While he was not as experienced as her, he did manage to trick some of them open. Wood of course was not an option in this future but blankets however were, as he managed to find plenty of in one crate before bundling up and making his way back down to the small office room. Half the insulating blankets they wrapped themselves up with warmly, the other half they tried burning using FG's nanos firing off some flames into a small campfire shielded with smaller crates, spaced out in a circle. This however did not work as the blankets were flame-retardant specifically. James in turn tried to create paper, or some small flammable material from his nanos and to his credit he was able to. But his head began hurting, and he was barely able to make enough for even a wastebin to set on fire so they resorted to other means. James did find some circuit boards and other miscellaneous technological scrap that he thought could set on fire. Leiah suggested using up her last grenade as a means of igniting the sparks, causing an electrical fire which would be better than nothing. He reluctantly agreed and, after setting up a small chimney made of spare ventilation duct pieces above the campfire's placement, the two made one last explosion of fire and EMP at a safe distance. The fire burned eagerly with a tremendous blast, sparking hot wires and circuitry crackled and overloaded, the fire staying in the small encased campfire made of small crates in a circle. The burning smoke of plastic and metal pumped itself into the impromptu vent up above, leading nowhere except to a slightly-opened crate of inactive machine parts beside the office window to disperse the harmful fumes, far away from them in a contained space. It was at least two hours later until their stomachs started growling, but they did their best to ignore it with the raptor saying:

"Man I've n-never wished more to have some f-fucking wood or paper. Everything in the future's j-just metal, this is bullshit, we had to waste like thirty minutes building a f-fucking vent just to not choke to death." "Hhhehehehee...you...c-couldn't make enough?" "Tried to...my head hurts though, m-might be just a little low on power after burning up so much, wh-what with...the fire an'...everything..." "Don't worry, you've always got more circuit boards and fuses to blow if we need it." "I'm always blowing a fuse, that's why my boyfriend took me to counselling." "Really?" "Yeah...shit." "What?" "I just realised I left the photo of him back on the ship......fuck. F-fucking...dammit." He huddled up his knees and sighed shaking with remorse, suddenly feeling as if he caused a deep betrayal before he started to weep. Leiah sidled up with him calmly, cradling his waist and stopping him from shedding anymore tears. "It'll be okay...maybe someone got to them in time." "Jax and Areh though." "Well...Lirem and Norem might be alright, they've got one of our ships coming in to help don't they?" "Yeah...m-maybe I guess." "You think this place has got any food?" "I don't think so, all the crates got industrial stuff in them, metals, circuits, these blankets I dunno what for. I don't think I even have my jeans underneath this suit, I think they're gone as well." "Really?" "Yeah," said FG, "...I think, I don't feel them anymore, ever since I wore this thing I haven't felt right. What do you think these blankets are for?" "Maybe they're tarp coverings?" "Well either way they work, we'll just have to sit tight and try not to starve. Sleep a lot probably, that ought to cut down our metabolism." "Where'd you learn that?" "Boyfriend." "Awww...he sounds a really smart guy." "He is." "...do you think Areh liked me?" "Huh?" Leiah uncomfortably tried to bring up her question with a soft voice, slightly pulling away from FG. "I mean...do you think he likes me?" "...do you...have a crush on him?" "I-i dunno...just...I think he's cute." "Cute?" "And...and vulnerable. Maybe...I dunno, I just-I thought him and me could really get along. ...now I know that's never gonna happen." "They might still be alive Leiah." "You don't know that. And I bet he doesn't even like me anymore." "Awww you don't know that." "Do you?" "...Jax told me he liked you. I don't think Areh hated you, I mean sure he flips out now and again, I guess he can be a little emotional right?" "Maybe...I dunno, I'm not sure about him, but I like him...I just...wish I knew why he was so unpredictable." "Let's not worry about that now." "...you're right...hmph...should have hung out more with him." She put her head on her knees huddling up once again. "Just been a long time since I met any quarians again so, maybe I'm just a little homesick. Maybe I just wanted someone who understood me but...it's like he's...heh...I shouldn't have made assumptions, I should never have made any." "We all make mistakes." "I shouldn't have...that's always something I told people not to do because I'm a quarian...but I did it with him, I did it to one of my own people and I just assumed he would like me because he thought the same as me...but..." "Because of that argument?" "Yes...that and, hehee...hhhaaa I get totally lost when he talks about those old monster movies, like he can go on for a whole half hour about ONE movie about some giant lizard or something!" "Hahaha, well he's a nerd so what? My boyfriend was like that whenever he talks about geography. God half the time he went on about glaciation or tropical currents or bloopers I was just done." The two laughed as best they could, trying to make the world pass on by around them as fast as possible so help would arrive sooner. It was only six hours later however that they soon heard the door opening. They gasped with excitement as they looked towards the unlocked door, a blinding white cold screaming into the warehouse as a silhouetted form soon appeared. Three of them even. The sound of three guns pointing straight down towards them, as well as an older krogan's voice, did not bring them warmth, but instead their greatest fear. "Well well well. Looks like we finally found ya." "The fuck," stuttered FG, "wh-what...the fuck are you?!" "That ain' a nice way to greet yer killer, kid." "Well, good thing you aren't my killer." "Hate to break it to ya...but I am."

The one in front stepped forwards with heavy stomps as the door closed behind them, clunking across the warehouse as the one sole krogan looked oddly familiar. Dark green natural plating upon his forehead that ridged down his back, hidden beneath a red suit of chitinous steel armour and a face of pale dirt brown. His two friends were batarians, well-armed with assault rifles also wearing red armour, one of whom had a giant scar across both his left eyes. The krogan added: "Sumbody paid a lotta creds to make sure yer dead." "Oh...no...no no p-please no. Listen..." For once James was far too exhausted to fight them, and decided to negotiate walking forwards. "We're tired, we're cold, we're hungry, we're really struggling here just to stand on our feet. Do you really wanna waste your time on us? All your bullets even? We're gonna die here anyway, why waste the ammo?" "I always like to make sure." "Think about it. You don't wanna be on this fucking shit hole, neither do we. What say you just say we're already dead anyway, head back to a nice cosy ship and let us rot here in peace?" "Hmmmm..." The Krogan stroked his lantern jaw with intrigue at the offer, the raptor adding: "I'll even pay you." "How much?" "All the money I got. ...twenty-thousand on me, right here. Leiah, you got some money too, how much?" "...t-ten thousand," murmured Leiah. "Heh," the krogan said, "looks like yer gonna get that eye surgery after all huh Tunshuk?" The scarred batarian rolled his right eyes as they chuckled between themselves, which made the raptor a little happier that they might be considering his offer. "So....what do ya say? Deal?" "Well," replied the krogan, "normally I'd have said yeah. I mean, I don't say no to a few extra creds and an easy job on saving ammo. But I know a dirty li'l secret about you." "Wh-what?" "You remember a krogan you had a li'l fight with back in a bar on the wards? Say about a year ago?" "Y-...y-yeah?" "That...was my brother. Name's Korvun Ugrak, and you...just made it personal." "...shit...oh...f-fucking...sh-shit." His face dropped with disbelief, as did Leiah as she cowered behind him full of fear and cold seeping back into her body. The raptor cupped his head in both hands before he tried pleading with him, gasping: "Look, I-I'm sorry. I'm not...I'm not gonna make excuses I'm-...he was bullying my friend!" "Still my brother, and I'm not gonna let you walk away without your duty paid." "Oh fuck...j-jesus no, look...you really not gonna consider me giving you the money and leaving?" "I can just kill you and take the money anyway." "Aw come on, tha-that's just wasting ammo!" "No deal asswipe...heh, can't believe my brother got killed because of you...a snivelling little pyjak beggin' fer his life." "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sorry please...if you're not gonna let us go, then...I...I can't let you kill me, please I'm...I'm sorry, I'm really sorry I'll do anything to make up for your brother I'm sorry! Please! PLEASE!" "Hehehe...sure," said Korvun Ugrak. "Why dontcha walk up to me an' lemme blow yer head off...after I've beaten the fuck out of you an' burned your face. Look. I even brought sum ryncol to celebrate."

The batarians behind him brought out a thick juicy bottle of alcohol, swilling neatly to itself as the krogan smirked towards FG. "I'm gonna make you feel whut my brother felt when you burnt his face off." "...okay...okay just...p-please...I'm sorry...I'm just so tired of all this, I just want to let it end...I don't even know if anyone's gonna come rescue us...fine. F-fine, you know what, you win. I'll do what you want." "Wow...heh, whut a nice guy, ain't he a nice guy?" "Sure is boss," said one batarian, "not often we meet many of 'em out here, got a lotta-" "Shut up. Offering to save us our ammo sure is nice of ya. After we're done with you, we even got ourselves a nice li'l quarian to play with too, right boys?" "Yeah...might as well make ourselves feel good before she gets a little TOO cold in that outfit...think quarians got three holes?" "You do your own thing," said Tunshuk the scarred, "I ain't getting involved in that shit." "Don't be a prude." "I don't do that kinda thing, I'm only here to do my job and so long as they're dead I got my-...wait...the fuck's he up to?" James brought his pistol out with arm stretched in front of Leiah, the quarian nervous and timid as the raptor said boldly: "Make one move towards her...and you're fucking dead." "...whut's this?!" "You tryin' to be brave now?!" taunted Ugrak. "You were all willin' to give up but now this?! Fuck's your problem?!" "I'm not letting you hurt her. She has done nothing to you, don't you fucking dare." "Oh...I'll be fuckin' alright, right after I deal with you. Buval, show him." The batarian without a scar on his face simply pulled out a small grenade-sized object in one hand, a silver sphere glinting in the dull light of the warehouse before clicking it once. A transmitter signal suddenly turned on, and within that moment, James' body began to betray him. His body began to atrophy, rivets of electric currents suddenly seizing through his body as he felt his blood constrict suddenly, shrieking as he fell with a spasm of exhaustion. Pain was only superficial, but his body soon felt much weaker than before as he buckled under, falling onto his knees screaming: "JAMES!" cried Leiah. "A-AAAUUUUGH! Wha-...wh-what the fuck...what's happening?!" "Anti-nano pulse," said Buval. "The people that hired us, Facinus you remember right? Turns out they studied your uh...battle with some experiment and got a good readout on all your nanomachines. Good enough that they made this little beauty. Long as it keeps transmitting and you're in a six-hundred feet within range...you can't do shit." "WH-WHAT!? YOU...A-A-AAAUUUUGH! MY...my...f-fuck..." "James what's happening!?" cried out Leiah. "What are they doing!? STOP IT YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" "I...c-can't...I can't feel my...oh god...n-no."

He struggled to use even his most basic element, the combustion into fire but even that would not work. His nanos were now inactive, completely rendered useless as if he never had them. His body turned feeble, almost anaemic from the lack of power right down to his brain, his vision turning blurry as he watched the batarian reopen the warehouse door, and simply chuck the anti-nano transmitter straight out into the white snow. He couldn't even see which direction he had thrown it in, the door soon closing behind him as Korvun Ugrak said: "Let's see you fight with fire now, fuckin' freak." With the swing of a shotgun aiming for them, James dodged to one side poorly, grabbing Leiah's hand and hiding behind some nearby crates for cover. Strafing to the far side of the room, he ducked back towards the security room where their fire was still burning, the quarian panickedly asking: "W-what do we do!?" "We...we fight." "B-but...we can't, I can't do this I'm-" "We have to, or else we'll both be dead. Now get ready." "I-i can't...I...I just want to wake up, I just want to wake up, you can't even move look at you! You look like you're sick!" "Come on, up and at 'em! Just like back at the arena, right?" "...I...I-i-" "YOU taught me to be up and at 'em. I killed a krogan after that now come on, we can DO this." "...okay...h-hokay." "Good, now MOVE IT! Aim for the lackeys first, we need to cut their numbers down!" Pulling out of cover, he fired his pistol straight towards one of the batarians ducking behind a crate, the other hiding behind a partition along with the krogan. James stumbled his way out of the security office to spread out a little further, gunshots firing down upon his back as his armour, while weaker than before, still managed to hold up taking a few shots in the back. His aim was more poorly, trying to ignore the weakness in his body as he aimed specifically for the unscarred batarian, Buval. But all he could do was keep hitting the crate, not even able to wing him. Trying to move towards better cover, he ran towards the right across the length of the warehouse, firing wildly in order to suppress their fire whilst Leiah tried to take more potshots at the batarians. She managed to wing Buval, cracking a shot in his shoulder which immediately sent him down upon her with an assault rifle, peppering the window of the security office with half a clip as she shrieked and ducked back, bullets flying above her head streaking across the wall and chipping the fire's ventilation shaft. The light in the office suddenly sparked out from the ricocheting shots, blinking into darkness. James ducked from cover to cover, stumbling behind crates trying to get a better aim. When Tunshuk decided to move up however towards him, he got a clear shot from the middle-right of the central floor of the warehouse, popping him twice in the leg and managing to slow him down with a wounding limp. But in his desperation to focus on taking down one enemy, he had completely disregarded the most important threat. The moment he came running back towards the security office in order to stop Buval coming up, a terrifying bass cackle came from his left. "HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!"

Korvun Ugrak had snuck his way around the crates all along the right of the main thoroughfare, completely out of eyesight from both James and Leiah who had been so intent on dealing with the batarian lackeys. As he tried to dodge away from the krogan, he brought his left arm up desperately to defend himself before the deafening crack of a shotgun burst through his eardrum. The world turned silent. Pain consumed his left side violently as if a wall of fire had devoured it. A burning ringing noise came shimmering from his senses. He fell slowly, his eyes still aware despite turning hazy as he tried to bring up his arms in instinct. As he fell towards the floor, a slow but horrible realisation came to him. Only his right arm came up to protect himself. His left was trying to respond as he turned his head towards it, only to slam his cheek against the cold floor. A cauterised lump of half an elbow had now replaced his left arm, blackened by gunfire, searing with pain as a violent red heat turned amber beneath his shoulder. Blood trickled out desperately, but the wound cauterised itself to seal and choke the wound solid. At first he thought he heard himself scream, but he felt no vibration from his throat. Instead he looked up. The krogan stood in front of the security office as he walked inside the doorway. His heartbeat deafened his ear briefly as he heard Leiah scream. She fired four times. The krogan fired once. Her scream went higher before cutting itself off into a sobbing whimper. Pain drowned his senses, but his eyes kept above water long enough to see the krogan walk out, blood dripping neatly against his shotgun's tip as it left a small trail behind him. His hand reached out weakly, shakily towards their place of safety, desecrated as he tried to crawl forwards. He pulled himself forwards as his own agony rippled down towards his stomach, an urge to vomit growing stronger within him. He held it back as his eyes saw Leiah, slumped against the wall. All he could see was red on her belly. All he could hear was Korvun and his crewmates. "We're done here...grab the ryncol, he's not dead yet." At first he felt his heart sink with sorrow to the very depths. His mouth gasped for a word to speak, something to scream, something to speak, something to cry out before agony consumed him. The fire burned still between him and the quarian. His eyes drifted down away from her as he stared towards the flames still illuminating the dark office. Crackling, sparking off as he crawled his way forwards. Pain and sorrow he soon devoured briefly with a whole new feeling. One that went beyond both life and death for him that he hadn't felt in so long, and never of this intensity. Pure. And utter. Rage.

The krogan walked into the office seeing the scene now before him. The raptor now laid before him, his head now nearer to the small campfire as his right arm clutched beneath his armoured chest, the sounds of sizzling metal still pumping smoke into the makeshift vent up above. Korvun Ugrak chuckled and squatted down slowly, holding the bottle of ryncol in one hand whilst putting his shotgun beside the wall. "Heheheh...tryin' to kill yerself off faster are ya? That's nice of ya...yer a real good guy James Campbell...always makin' things easy fer me. Now open wide...here's to a good first year...and the last one fer you." The moment he rolled him over, James looked up with a burning sneer along with his right hand smouldering fiercely, burning the gauntlet away to a pulsating red. Korvun did not even see the burning circuit board suddenly jammed into his face, shoved straight against his left eye as he screamed and pulled back. The raptor desperately latched on. his claws sinking violently into the krogan's eye socket along with the melted circuit board. Korvun roared and stumbled back out of the security office, the bottle of ryncol spilling all around him as the two batarians panicked at the sight. "WH-WHAT THE FUCK?!" "GET 'IM OFF, HE FUCKIN' STABBED ME IN THE EYE GET 'IM OFF!" James latched his legs tightly around the krogan's neck, stabbing the circuit board repeatedly into Ugrak's eye like a screwdriver as he ripped and tore the red watery cavity. Screaming and desperately trying to claw him off with his open hand, the raptor tore out the burning circuit board and shoved it hard down into Ugrak's throat, pulling him viciously back towards his left. His instincts had him throw up his right hand in order to bring back balance. The right hand holding the bottle of ryncol that soon splashed over his face. He grabbed the raised right hand and forced it against the krogan's mouth, pouring the entire half of the bottle of ryncol straight down the suffocating throat. The fires still popping from the fuses easily ignited the alcohol, bursting hot flames from the inside of Korvun's throat. His scream was somehow even more piercing than his own brother's had been, shrieking as he cried desperately for air, fire pouring deep inside his lungs. "Choke it," snarled James through his teeth, "drink ALL of it like your brother did."

Kicking hard off the krogan's face, the two batarians rushed towards their leader as James dived towards the krogan's shotgun, still planted against the office doorframe. His right hand was burning, and he was nearing second-degree burns despite his withering gauntlet protection, but he gritted his teeth and pulled back against the door as he propped the shotgun against the small crates surrounding the campfire. He didn't care that he would be breaking his arm as he fired the moment someone came, nearly falling back against Leiah behind him. Holding the gun close to his chest to absorb the recoil, the kickback was tremendous as it slammed into his chest, cracking his armour to the point that the hermetic seal was now falling apart as shards of metal snapped off from him. His chest hurt brutally, bruised painfully. But the batarian Buval hurt even more when his entire upper chest cavity was now completely crushed, by the pure choked concentration of shotgun pellets forcing his armour inwards. The blast made him stagger backwards as he dropped his assault rifle, the raptor stumbling towards it despite a throbbing chest with agony all along his right arm. Fumbling as he grabbed the assault rifle, he pulled back to wait for Tunshuk to come running round the corner. The one lone batarian scatterfired across the security office, nearly shooting the fire itself as well as the ventilation. But James was right underneath him, directly below his eyesight and laying on his back. Firing upwards into his skull and chest was unmissable with the rifle clutched tightly underneath his right throbbing armpit. One batarian dead with an entire clip in his skull and neck. One batarian struggling to stay alive whilst collapsed on a cold floor, heaving from a crushed chest as he gasped like a dying fish. One krogan dead from asphyxiation as his lungs burned inside out to a blackened charr.

The rush of adrenaline slowly began to wear off, his missing left arm forgotten within the span of those few minutes, seeing nothing but fire and chaos. His single right arm shook heavily as if arthritic, his nerves wired as his eyes began to untense. Once he was certain that there were no more threats, only then did he drop his weapon. He stared down at his left shoulder, rotting with charred burns and snapped back brutally to the point he could no longer feel it, cracks splintering through the armour to reveal possibly his raw bone. The moment he tried to touch it, he screamed and fell onto his knees. Clutching his shoulder as he rocked himself gently, the realisation slowly set in as he shrieked and sobbed pitifully, fury and pain turning thick within his teeth as he grunted through them. He only stopped mourning his own pain when he heard a plaintive voice from behind him, weak and gasping. "James...J-james..." "......Leiah?" His eyes slowly blinked back into focus as he ran stumbling towards the voice, his arm aching and chest hurting as he bit through the pain, teeth grinding against each other. Seeing his friend lay back against the wall of the office, blood seeping red through from her belly to pool out around her legs, made his heart soon hurt deeper than his chest. "LEIAH!" "James." "...oh god...oh...g-god LEIAH! No. No no please god no..." She couldn't even cry out to him. It was too dark to make out any discerning features, but the fire still gave enough to see her shape. Her voice had gone weak, dripping from her throat as thick as her blood as his voice began to shake. "J-james." "I'm here Leiah, I'm here! Oh jesus..." "I...I can't move..." "No-no-NO it's okay! It's okay, y-you're just hurt that's all, it's nothing! N-no problem I'll just...I'll just get some medi-gel a-and fix you up okay?" "N-no...I'm...too much...blood...a-agh..." "NO NO NO you're okay, just...just hold on, j-just hold on don't...don't...d-don't die on me. Please, just don't...don't die on me...don't die on me god DAMMIT NOOO!" "AAAGH! ...it...it's burning my insides...f-f-fever...setting in..." The bullets had been numerous, and her torso was struggling to hold itself together. He didn't want to accept there was no hope for her, he wanted to believe that something in this otherworld could help him, desperately looking around for a medical station. As he got up to look further, he was weakly held back. "No...please...don't leave me." "B-but...I can find something to heal you, please!" "I'm too weak...I can't even see past you-" "Oh god please don't say that." His eyes began to water, her weakening words wounding him ever deeper, shaking with the coming sorrow. "You're gonna make it, l-l-look!" He showed his missing arm, cauterised with the shotgun's heatblast as he struggled to keep smiling. "S-see!? I can make it! I just lost an arm, y-you can make it too Leiah!" "I...this is more th...than an arm." "NO! NO IT'S NOT! Y-you just been shot a few times is all, you can make it! I'll keep you alive until help comes dammit! YOU CAN'T GIVE UP ON ME DAMMIT, DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" "James!"

She forced herself to speak more strongly, much to her pain and shaky breathing that turned ever wavering with the more blood she lost. "I...am dying...just...accept that." "Bullshit, f-fucking BULLSHIT you're not gonna die here! I PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T DIE, I PROMISED YOU!" "Wh-when...did you promise that?" "I...b-back on...the facility...w-w-wait...I never-" "I never asked you to protect me...or promise. I never wanted to be a burden to you...I wanted to...be able to fight too." "You fought as well, y-y-you fought good, I mean...this is all my fault...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry." "Your arm." "Huh?" He broke down at her side with his head in his hand, weeping as he choked back silent tears as best as he could at hearing Leiah cough up. "HHHK...hhhkk...use the medi-gel on your arm." "H-huh?!" "I can't...be saved...but you can. I don't want you to die here too." "I don't want you to die here either! You understand don't you?! YOU CAN FIGHT THIS!" "No...I can't even feel half my body...hhhh...oh k-keelah it hurts...a-aaaah-" She grabbed at his hand desperately to withstand the pain, a burning seethe of infection and internal bleeding pulsating out inside her. She squeezed his hand gasping, until it hurt James' fingers as he winced with tears before hearing her speak. "Use...the medi-gel...on your arm. Smear it on the wound...all over it...bandage it." "...I thought you didn't know how to heal people." "I...I was a coward. I didn't...I couldn't face seeing Areh...a-after the way I spoke to him...h-his last words to me...I'm sorry." "No. No no you have nothing to be sorry for, I'm the one that's sorry. I should have done better, I should have done things different, I-i...I should have been a better person, I shouldn't...this is all my fault. All of it...why did it have to be this way?" "We...no...James..." Her hand softly went up to his face, stroking it calmly amidst shaking tears. "I don't blame you...this wasn't your fault." "YES IT IS DAMMIT! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT, if I hadn't killed that guy way back when we met, if I had just been better fighting back on the Eagle o-or maybe not just get all caught up in this fucking Facinus bullshit you wouldn't be here with me! You...you could have gone back to the fleet and...just gone back home...w-with your family. I could have...done things different..." "I...hhhh...wh-where's...the fun in that?" "What?" "You gave me so much...you gave me an adventure...you gave me a best friend and even more like you...you...s-s-saved my father James. You even helped me achieved my stupid childhood dream of...b-being a princess. I knew it was stupid...but you...you're the stupidest person I ever met and I love you everyday for helping me...th-thank you. Thank you for giving me the greatest year of my life..."

He knew that she was crying, the tiniest of choking tears beneath her mask, her lungs starting to clot up with blood. He could already see the red liquid shining translucently from the inside of her face. James huddled up beside her pleading weakly: "P-p-please...don't give up. Don't give up on me...I can't handle this galaxy alone. I can't do it without you." "But both of us managed to handle it...didn't we? I was able to, long before I met you...and you...you fought that...that thing and...the assassin and that krogan and other things all by yourself." "No...no I...I wasn't alone, not with the assassin, that...that wasn't my victory. And that thing, that anomaly...I can't even tell you what happened because I don't even know either. ...I can't survive this galaxy on my own. I need you Leiah...please...I don't wanna be alone out here." "I'm...I don't want to be alone either...none of us do. That's why...I'm glad I met you. I wasn't really alone anymore...when I had the best friend I could ever ask for." She choked a pitiful cough, a thick liquid one that made him panic and clutch her tighter. The only thing he could ask once realisation set in, was: "...is there anything...I can do? Anything?" "...d-do you know...why I'm crying?" "...why?" "Because...there was one thing I...I could never get even as a princess...I know, s-s-stupid dream but-" "No. It's not stupid. You're not stupid, you never were to me." "Just...r-remember I told you...what I hated about this suit? ...even when I could kiss someone...I could die." "...I remember." "All I wanted...was to live in a fairytale. But you gave me most of it...adventures, chivalry...duels of honour and valour and rescuing people and a beautiful dress...but the one thing I could never have...was my first kiss." Faced with the last wish of his friend in the darkness of the warehouse office, he tenderly gripped her protective mask, barely able to see her. She saw what he was about to do, gasping: "Wh-what are you-" "Shhh...let me see you. Let me see your face...my princess." "......a-alright...let me...please..." She weakly brought up her hands, holding his right hand in hers as he helped in taking the mask off. He heard the safety lock unclasp, yet all he could see of her face was that it was pale with worn skin, weathered through long years of quarantined isolation, trapped inside her suit. He could see a mouth, the shape of one clear to him with two lips but beyond that he saw nothing else. He tenderly bent down to her shivering lips, pressing his snout against her. He felt her tears drip down upon his face. He had rarely felt such a kiss since the day he had first kissed Koopin. He tried to reminisce back to that day, trying to make this a kiss not of sorrow, but of love and bliss. He had not these feelings for his friend, but he wanted to give her a taste of love's true kiss. The kiss seemed to prolong her life for almost a second of eternity, their lips suckling very briefly, almost fatally in the eclipse between life and death, as he poured his heart unto her dying breaths. His eyes closed as did hers, his remaining hand sliding underneath the quarian's head, cradling it closer to bring her deeper into his embrace, wanting to give her the greatest kiss he could ever give. A kiss strewn with tears, of love and sorrow as they shared each other's breath, each one closer to the last they would ever take as their tongues held back. She managed to hold on to the end of it, until their lips parted much to their distress, their breaths panting against one another. She feared the worst as she brought her hand up towards him one last time. "Thank you...my...m-my..."

Her hand fell coldly, caught by James before it reached the floor. He was now alone, in a warehouse that smelt of death isolated within a white lifeless wasteland. He could no longer scream in fury, weakened in both mind and body. All he could do was grieve. He held Leiah's body tightly to his right shoulder, crying pitifully onto her face, barely able to make words from his tear-stricken lips, the weeping of her name not even loud enough to be heard outside the room. His final scream of anguish that night however could be heard outside, briefly, soon swallowed within the wrath of the eternal blizzard. He remained with her in that room, never moving her, placing her mask back on out of respect for her body as he continued to weep, roaming the lifeless halls of the warehouse. The smell of gunfire had long gone from the remaining corpses, as help did not arrive for James Campbell. Trapped within an eternal blizzard, it took all of his imagination to stop himself turning insane from both loneliness and grief. There was no food left in the warehouse, as he tried to open more containers as best as he could. But the ones he could open had only spare parts for machines, as well as omni-gel and circuitry. The fire he still managed to keep burning, until the next day when the circuits finally became too melted to endure more combustion, and the fire slowly died out. The fumes stayed pumped and smog-ridden within one crate, a place of death that tempted him always. Some days he imagined just opening it up, a forbidden box where he could just embrace the darkness, taking his own life. Yet everytime he saw Leiah's body, he struggled not to, wanting to not waste her life, waste her words and love for him as his closest friend in this galaxy. He never opened the crate full of smoke, and instead just simply kept a blanket around him comfortably, wandering the warehouse like a ghost amongst the dead. Starvation became a more constant state to him than ever before, drinking water from melted snow whilst sitting amongst the bodies of both friend and enemies. His left shoulder was dead completely, shattered nerves broken off from him. He was only thankful that the blast of the shotgun had cauterised the wound it left behind, in order to aid the medi-gel. When he began to realise the dangers of having left it as such, he was careful in finding ways to not injure himself anymore with it, applying more medi-gel to any of the more open parts of where it bled. Bandaging it up with any spare medical supplies, he was shaking from how much more it hurt since the last time he bandaged himself from such a pain to this arm.

When it wasn't the pain, it was the depression and shock of having only one arm left, the instinct to use it rendered pointless unto him, crying to himself as every action he made reminded him of his new disability. Every time he tried to move it, a phantom pain would shoot up through him with a cruel reminder. Days passed and made it worse, struggling to survive as he turned weaker and more starved of life, body emaciating beneath his worn and cracked armour. Days went by without indication, his omni-tool now gone with the rest of his left arm. At one point the pain shocked him so bad, that he briefly deluded himself into thinking his right hand wanted to make him commit suicide. But only in the worst of his moments, which he always fought through. At one point however, he did find the remains of his left arm again, ruined and horribly mangled with shotgun blast. He broke down in tears, nursing his left arm with the meaningful right, hugging it like a macabre child's toy, shivering at how unnaturally wrong it was to feel his own skin texture now dead and cold. Time would pass unrelenting. Alone. Lost within the snow, roaring outside constantly as a dull howling gale that never left his sight. What little he saw through the occasional opening of the door, gave little comfort to him. He would never be able to find the transmitter and turn on his nanos again. He was trapped. Useless. Rendered completely inert with the power of his one remaining hand as all he had left. He had never felt more alone in his life until then. He did everything he could to remain sane inbetween his routine of drinking melted snow and sleeping off his pains. The howling winds turned to mocking laughter, his nights filled with voices inside his head whenever he dreamt, of sleep cold and wanting. Sometimes the voices were calm and motherly, begging him to keep going, to live, to breathe, to keep fighting for her heart. Other voices simply taunted him, sneering words that gave him prospects of death, freedom from pain and suffering. He did not speak for the first two weeks after Leiah passed away. Then he began talking to the dead as a personal audience for his thoughts. His worries, his needs, his desperation. To the krogan, he spoke about his childhood, lamenting for himself as he pleaded for a second chance to do it all again, doing it right and not the way he did. To the scarred batarian, he would speak about his sexual fantasies, desperately reliving his pent-up desires when it all turned too much, yet at the same time unable to pleasure himself within his sealed suit. As broken as it was, it was the only thing now keeping his body heat in. To the other batarian, he confessed about his violent fantasies, murder and desecration, blood and sinew tearing within his mind's fantasisings of everything he could do, everything he wanted to do to those he hated. To Leiah, he would tell her about his love Koopin, his dearest who waited for him so far away. Through time and space he waited, not knowing of his pain. In turn James realised he had no remnants of his memory, no picture, no souvenirs. Nothing left. Perhaps all were now lost to him, Isaac's bell included left ringing throughout space. Forever. He confessed to her his fears, his problems and his stress, breaking down to his own therapy but struggling to stay strong. Not just for fear of losing his mind, but for fear of losing his soul, knowing that the Scissoraptor was waiting inside him turning with every beat of his heart. Ready to feast upon his soul the moment he let down his guard. He told Leiah's body everything, the demon inside him, the things he had done, the shadow of a monster that he felt would never leave him. Sometimes he questioned why the demon never came out to play even in his darkest moments. Eventually, he stopped asking himself and became thankful he never did.

When he was not conversing amongst the dead, James would revert to an almost child-like state of keeping his mind occupied by acting out fantasies. Crates would become fortresses, the dead revived as monsters to destroy, a maiden to rescue, a steel pipe becoming a legendary sword of hopes and dreams. He would scream, he would strike, he would laugh, he would weep. The audience to his own inner theatre within the long-abandoned warehouse. Trying to keep the silence away, trying to keep himself sane through the acts of a madman. Then one day, it finally happened. He wrapped himself in a blanket, gasping for air as his body turned weak, too weak to keep on living. His eyes turned bleak, bloodshot and heavy, unable to keep open as he looked down on his chest. He was much thinner than he was before, but he wasn't sure how. He could no longer tell how long it had been for having no sense of night and day inside this steel prison, the wind forever crying out against him. He slowly started to collapse, not having felt this feeling of ache and hunger in the past eighteen years of his existence. Even when he arrived homeless and struggling on the streets of Chicago, he had never felt this wretched. "N-no...can't...must...s-s-stay alive...Koopin...need to...n-need...f-f-food...h-hoh god...must...I must....S-sarah...please...don't...don't be......I'm sorry......I'm.....I'm s-so sorry......" He collapsed onto the steel floor, his body wrapped within a sheet as he began breathing more slowly. The nightly howl of the endless blizzard was the last thing he heard, a banshee's lullaby to sing him to sleep. He would not know how long it would be until he woke up again.

But he did. A great white light opened as a roar came to his senses, causing him to open his eyes for the first time in what felt like a week, or perhaps even more. Feeling a stiff breeze run through his body, he looked up and saw six figures standing thin against the white blizzard outside. Tall long creatures that seemed oddly familiar as their voices came through. "THIS HAS TO BE IT!" roared one female. "TRANSMITTER'S STILL GOING!" said one male. "WE CAN'T BE FAR AWAY, THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE FOR MILES!" "...I FOUND HIM, HE'S IN HERE, CLOSE THE DOOR QUICK!" Running towards him was a quarian much like Leiah, but by this point he started disbelieving his own eyes and simply ignored it. This one was different, black covering its body and mauve upon its head, a slender purple mask staring down upon him. A voice came through, clearly a young female. "Neema, this is ground team! We have confirmation, repeat, we have James Campbell! ...keelah what happened here?!" "Did-...did he kill all of them?" asked a male behind her. "That can't be," said another, "his arm is...surely they must have-" "We can investigate the scene later!" said the female before transmitting comms. "Right now he needs help! Neema, prepare the med-bay for human-type incoming, we have James Campbell here and he is severely dehydrated, malnourished and badly wounded." "Acknowledged commander Zorah. What about the other target?" "Not yet but she must be here, there's nowhere else to go but here." James struggled to hear the female voice as his eyes began fading, murmuring a few last words as he finally acknowledged it was real. He hoped she was real. He wanted her to be real. His mind could think of no other person he wanted her to be. "U-ughk...L-...L-Leiah?" "Huh?!" "Leiah...h-help me-" "It's okay, just...you're going be fine, y-you're going to be just fine just, please save your strength. We'll-" "Commander!" One quarian looked near the security office as the raptor passed out. Their last words turned grim before darkness took him. "...we've found her."