Just Need Someone: Just Remember Chapter 25

AN: Not much to say at the moment other then I hope everyone likes how I wrote the little 'dream' scene

==20 Minutes Later – Shuttle landing site==

Aura sat on a bench near their shuttle's landing site, on her hip she wore a standard M-19 pistol, she itched to see what newer Spectre level gear they now had in the years since the Reaper Wars, but that was a moot point right now for Aura, she looked up from her hands holding her head as she heard foots steps approach.

The human Spectre watched the disguised purple asari Falere walk closer, "..Aura you wished to see me? EDI said it was urgent." She said taking a seat and sensed rightly that the news was dire and conflicting.

Aura took a breath, then steadied her nerves, informing Falere what EDI had said but a short time ago to her, "..Essentially this leaves only you, Milra or Sunra that can interface properly with this device. We have no way to know if you did so if it would prevent any...problems...from bonding through the device, and even if it does there is still an unkown risk it could kill one of you and/or Samara." Aura said then finishing things.

"..I can see how you feel conflicted, on one level you want the support of my Mother for the times ahead, on the other however you can not risk Sunra or Milra given they are two rare people you can trust for now in your fights against these so called Ancients. It seems to me Aura you have only one choice then if you have any chance to gain both these goals." Falere said implying herself. Then rested a hand on Aura's right shoulder, "..On some level you knew this though, hence why you asked to see me here first, you had already made the choice, but had not yet said it."

Aura was quiet a moment, wanting to deny it but, in the end she just nodded. "..Yeah, you're right Falere, I had." She said.

"..Had what Father?" Sunra's voice asked surprising both older asari and human.

Looking to her left barely 5 yards away was Milra and Sunra, gathered in their choice of armor and more suitable armaments for their chosen areas of combat forms. Once both were sitting with the two, Aura explained things. "..No Father! We can not risk Mother, or..." Sunra paused, "..there has to be another way!.." she then said in protest.

"..Sis, Father is making the right call I think, she cant loose either of us for any further fights, and she needs Mother's support for this war that's coming. If...if Falere fails and dies but succeeds in healing our Mother then she gets both at no loss.." Milra said.

"..And Falere dies and Mother could die too! Then what? How can we just accept that?" Sunra huffed in protest again.

"..Sunra.." Aura began then sighed, words failing her.

Sunra narrowed her eyes a bit, "..I dont understand why we cant wait, I know Mother means the world to you Father, she means the same to all of us! Why cant we deal with these...these Ancients then...then.." Sunra said faltering herself.

"..Because then we would be back to where we are now, the results could be the same in a variety of ways." Falere said simply to finish.

"..Yes, that and...and your Mother's support will make anything I must face far easier, you are too young to understand yet Sunra.." Aura said as the four joined by EDI now entered the shuttle.

"...Aura's combat and off duty performance and recovery levels showed a 15.6% increase in efficiency and managed stress levels after your parents committed to a stable relationship before and after the end of the Reaper Wars.." EDI stated taking the pilot's seat.

Sunra shook her head then looked at Aura, "..I don't accept this, its...its too dangerous Father! You would have Milra and I for the coming times, we can support you help you! Isn't that enough?" She said

"..Of course it could be to some degree, Sunra! You two ….all of you." She said including Falere in this and EDI, "..Mean the worlds to me, I would go to any lengths to protect any of you..."

"..Then why can we not wait? WHY!?" Sunra said tossing her hands up in frustration.

"..Because there is a level of love and...perfection that you will one day have Sunra and you Milra despite your protests otherwise, that will come when you meet your love, that one bond that will exceed all others, that one person who makes every fiber of your body tremble, your very heart rate rise, and your mind just want to...to...be one with that person." She said.

Falere and Milra were quiet as the shuttle guided by EDI cleared Rannoch's atmosphere. "..Show me, I refuse to let this go through unless I can even vaguely understand.." Sunra said looking at Aura with that same fire and deep desire to understand that her twin had given not so many days ago.

Aura sighed softly, then nodded. "..Alright take a seat.." Aura said, Falere and Milra rose and went into the cockpit with EDI. Sunra did as she was bid, and Aura closed her eyes. As Sunra's hands clasped her own, and her voice spoke softly, "..Relax Father, open your mind, share this knowledge with me so that I may understand something so defining, relax and Embrace Eternity!" She said

Aura felt the gentle intrusion into her mind by her daughter, conflicted feelings molding into Aura's own, at first the imagery was like the empty star field that had ended things with Milra a few days ago, the bond to her felt similar, like their was an edge of instability to it like with Milra's. It was different clearly then Liara or Shiala's own, and most definitely different then bonding with Samara.

Aura showed her early teen life on Earth, the gang life and similar crime dealing. The relationships fleeting as they were the back stabbing. "..I dont understand.." Said Sunra who was watching the scenes flit through before them, showing Aura beating an old man for a few credits, then later turning around and giving half of that to her gang members of the Reds.

"..When I was young, 14 or 15 I thought this was something that I'd never leave behind, that the 'bond' I shared with The Reds would never break, that any of us would go to any length to help each other.." Aura said, then shifted the memories to a few years later when she was 16. "..I was wrong.." she said showing how her supposed die hard friends who had said time and again they would never leave her behind to rot by any cops or the like, did just that, a fellow male gang member named John slugging her so that she took the fall for the gang's escape from the pursuing cops from a small bank heist. "..John 'Big Eye' Harrison left me behind so that the rest could escape, he showed me that what I thought was true friendship, a true bond and relationship was just them using me...and on some levels back then even me using them. Once I had stopped being useful they cast me aside." She said.

"..I guess I can understand that Father, but..." Sunra began only to have Aura interrupt.

"..Shhh, just watch.." Aura said her tone loving and soft to ensure that Sunra did not feel that her Father was angry in any way.

The imagery shifted not to far ahead a few years more when Aura was barely a freshly minted Lieutenant in the Alliance stationed on Elysium with the 87th security detachment for the colony. "..Up to this point Sunra, I was something of a 'Lone Wolf' among my assignment postings. I used my few squads I was with to get some dirt on them, this then I used to get extra credits, extra supplies, most of it was for my own use, but some..." She said showing a brief scene where a few boxes got handed over to some black market dealers, "..some went elsewhere, likely caused deaths of innocents. At the time I didnt care, it was just business, but then.." Aura explained as the scene shifted to a normal patrol of a day on the colony. Aura paired with a newly arrived Private named Ronalds was two blocks from the two local schools one a middle school the other a elementary school. Then the skies suddenly erupted with weapons fire from pirate ships and Batarians slavers started landing from drop pods. Much of the coming several hour fight was a blur but absorbed by the young asari Shepard. The scene shifted then halted showing Aura near a hunkered down position in the burning colony near the middle school, she held a small pistol. "..It was one of the pistols that I had sold in a crate not a week ago I realized. I had unknowingly given these pirates some of the military grade hardware they were now using against these people.." Aura said.

"..You couldnt have known though.." Sunra said.

"..True I couldnt but I could have not done the black arms sales, had anyone ever known...well suffice to say I surely would not have been branded the 'War Hero' I later was. It cost so many innocents too." She said shifting the scenes to show her single handily fighting off wave after waves of Batarian forces trying to capture the middle school aged colonists, her then attempt to do the same on the younger elementary school though at its failure, the oath that Aura had screamed to the departing Batarians to not forget this. "..I'm no hero Sunra, as much as I may seem it, my origins they arent the glamor they appear.." Aura explained.

"..Perhaps not Father, but I still dont understand what this has to do with my questioning to understand things between you and Mother." Sunra said.

"..You sense the feelings of guilt, of anger? The feelings of shame from earlier in my time with the Reds?" Aura asked.

"..Yes.." Sunra replied.

"..Hold onto those.." Aura said

The scenes shifted again, now showing her events with hunting Saren, her choices she had made, the feelings of confusion by the vision how it had molded her brain against the personality of what she was. These feeling she passed onto Sunra at half what they really were at the time. "..This is...troubling." Sunra said with a gasp as she felt the feelings given by Aura as she was forced to let Kaiden die on Virmire, the anger and rage swelled in their bond with the other bubbling feelings.

"..They were, still keep holding and consider those.." She said glossing over the events of her death as she was spaced, then her return and events to stop the Collectors. The feelings of frustration at the Council ignoring her, casting her aside for all intents, how she had risked time and again to help her crew, and Aura never asked for anything in return. The swirls of emotions first meeting Samara, the battles they had been in during the travels, till they reached the point only days before the Suicide Mission when Aura had risked her very life to help Samara kill Morinth. "..Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess.." Each heard as Samara smashed her hand down on her daughter's head. There was a echoing gasp from both Aura as she relived this scene, and Sunra from absorbing it, the feelings of Samara for that time that Aura held, and Aura's own again she shared with her daughter. "..I...I dont.." Sunra said with faint tremors in her voice.

"..Keep them, bottle the feelings down Sunra.." Aura said waiting till after what felt like hours Sunra did so.

The scenes glossed over her flight of the Collector Base, the tense moments where Aura, Tali and Samara were falling after the defeat of the Human Reaper, the feelings Aura felt in her chest having denied her growing feelings of Samara as she snatched the elder's asari hand before they impacted.

The scenes shifted again, glossed over with Aura's aide to Liara in taking over the Shadow Broker network, then shortly after the moments fighting alone against wave after waves of indoctrinated Alliance soldiers, then killing so many Batarian lives. The anger and guilt of feelings washed over both bonded, and Sunra tried to recede but Aura spoke "..Dont...not if you want to understand." There was a pause by Sunra, and the bond was returned in full, the bottle of feelings half shared to the young asari causing tremors in the meld as she did as Aura had bid to hold them down inside her mind.

Aura skipped the memories of her attempted suicide, but then moved on to the times with the Reaper War. The dreams, the feelings every moment brought from supposed victory to loss. That Aura was loosing who and what she was, but that the mantra drive for 'Another time another life' drove her on that bit further against impossible odds. Then the scene at the Aradat Yakshi monastery, where Samara had lost Rila where she had been stopped from something so much worse by Aura, and then later the scene shared between the two on Thessia, the terrors that both asari and human had felt, the feelings were again moved on to Sunra to hold onto. Aura could sense in return that Sunra was barely holding things together in the bond. "..I..I cant..." Sunra said trembling now.

"..Almost done, Sunra. You will see shortly." Aura said gazing over the events with helping Aria reclaim Omega, avoiding showing her daughter the end results of that but including the feelings she had that there was more she had to do, to end this War.

The scenes again changed, this time on the Citadel, near the back empty areas of the Embassies. The talks Aura and Samara shared, "..What if that was you? What if all I want is a reason to go on Samara?" Aura's voice said in the memory.

Then there was the kiss, the promise as each embraced, Aura bid Sunra to ease some of the feelings cooped up back to her in a measured quality, the memories then finished with the ending of the War. The bond Samara had forged to undo the indoctrination attempt in the last moments by Harbringer. Then the moment 9 months later when Aura held both Sunra and Milra's little forms that first moment of their lives.

Aura took those feelings she had rebuilt up one by one and washed them away from Sunra, it left things back in the empty star void they had started. "..Your Mother gave me a purpose Sunra. Something that nothing EVER would break. Not Cerberus, not the Reapers, not anyone, not even DEATH would separate us, she gave me hope however fleeting to press on against all odds, and in the most darkest of moments trusted her that she would always be there in some shape or form. Do you understand now?" Aura asked looking at the form of her daughter in the bond.

Slowly the bond ended and Aura opened her eyes, tears streaked her face some, but the steady stream from Sunra showed the far deeper level of emotions that her daughter felt, Aura instinctively moved in to hug her daughter tightly as she said returning it. "..I do, you need to seize even the most slim of hope to succeed for what we have to do.." She said in a whisper.

Aura kissed Sunra's left cheek then sat back, "..Exactly.." She said.

Glancing to the front of the cockpit each found that while the bond had seemed to pass for hours, was in fact barely ten minutes. Enough time to travel to the Geth data sphere where the outlines of the Normandy were covered in dark planetary shadow that was slowly being drawn back by the rising sun of the system around the sphere. "..Goddess!.." all the asari gasped, Aura gave a wide smile and half grin as she joined the three at the front with Sunra leaning on EDI.

"..So EDI, what do you think of your new 'body'?" Aura asked as the outline profiles came into view.

The SR-2 had a darker sheen hull to it, the lines were mostly the same as before but the coloring showed a reflective material that seemed to absorb the coming light, allowing greater stealth operations. The arcing slope of the rear of the craft to the wing tips was enlarged, showing that a massive advanced communication and LADAR platform was present, the wing tips themselves housed four to each side holes, and were thicker then before with the engine coiling more engrained. The very ship's belly was open more as the front came into view, a bulge where the THANIX cannons had been before showed each was now as a bank in deployment. The shuttle bay opened showing a single open spot for their shuttle to land, much of the area seemed converted to some larger engine core.

"..Full system restoration complete, I have assumed full control.." EDI reported as the shuttle side door opened. "..Full systems check complete, offensive systems show a full 250% increase compared to original SR-2 post war standards, defensive systems show 255.4% increase to original SR-2 standards, stealth systems show a full 200% improvement and an added system allows us 5 hours of time remaining cloaked from visual sighting. Response time coupled together shows..." EDI said only to have Aura interrupt.

"..Ok EDI you can give a status report later, but what are your FEELINGS on the refit?" she pressed.

"..It is...impressive." EDI stated.

As they all exited the shuttle the Quarian shuttle lifted off and left out the bay door which held a energy field to keep in the normal air pressure. Several Geth units approached. "..Shepard, we trust you found the upgrades suitable for your mission?" The geth unit that had introduced itself as 'Captain' asked.

"..Just from what I see now, quite so. Can you give me the full tour later? There is...a personal matter we must attend to." She asked.

"..Of course Shepard, we assisted EDI in the construction of the interface device, she asked that we keep this secret till she revealed it to you. I and the others will await you in the new CIC.." Captain said as the others left.

Aura nodded then turned to where Falere, Milra and Sunra looked expectantly. Each likely already knew who Aura would ask to risk their lives for the slim hope of success. But Milra still felt the need to ask, "..So, Father who's risking their necks?" she asked

Aura looked at all three, then took a breath, "..Come on Falere, let's...let's see about healing someone who means more to all of us then anything else. Then let's get show these Ancient's why what they are doing wont stand." She said.

As they all nodded and entered the lift, Aura privately thought to herself, "..And may whatever forces above not figure its time my string of endless luck runs out.."

AN2: R&R please! Also to note that this ends this arc of Just Need Someone since its getting quite long i'm going to split the next chapters into a new Act, Just Need Someone: Future's Worth Fighting For is coming soon!