Ch. 7

"Shit," she muttered. Her hand that was pressed up against her side came away with blood. "Damned bastard knew where to hit me, that's for sure," she muttered to herself as Garrus waved his omni tool over. The litharian glanced up and gave Shepard a grim smile.
"You must be Commander Shepard. Garrus has told me a lot about you," she said and held out her hand. Shepard took it and grasped it firmly.
"Most of it good?" Shepard joked, breaking the ice. Aluna nodded.
"I just wish we could have met under better circumstances," the litharian replied.
"Me too. Can you walk?"
The litharian glanced down at her legs uncertainly.
"She wasn't kidding about the damage," Garrus announced.
"How bad is it?" Shepard asked. Garrus pulled up a holo-diagram.
"Three fractured ribs, broken left foot, nearly dislocated shoulder, several lacerations all over my body, two broken vertebrae, and tiny bit of internal bleeding," Aluna listed nonchalantly. "I've had worse," she added, "Just not when my regen wasn't working. So, the answer to your question, Commander, is that no, I don't think I'll be able to walk on own."
"Then we better get you t Dr. Chakwas and Mordin. They'll fix you up," Shepard replied.
"Hopefully," Aluna replied, a little doubtful. Garrus threw one of her arms over his neck and supported her waist. The door to her little hiding place slid open. Samara and Shepard quickly stepped out and signaled that the hallway was clear for the moment. All of a sudden, a loud explosion sounded down the left side of the hall.
"Ah crap," Aluna muttered, "We better getting going, Commander." Garrus swung Aluna up into his arms so he didn't have to half drag her all the way back to the Normandy.
The group immediately started running the other way as soon as an enraged shriek filled the air.
"Yeah, he's pissed," Aluna said.
"Can't blame him since we're crashing his little party," Garrus replied as they ran. A geyser of fire and metal suddenly issued out from one wall behind them. Aluna scrambled over the turian's shoulders and sent a strong wave of water to knock back the fire. The inferno hissed as its adversary countered its attacks. As they ran down the hallway, Aluna pulled up sheets of metal right behind them to slow Corilion down. She looked up and saw three horizontal pillars of water heading their way as they punched out six foot long holes in the walls. Aluna gestured quickly with her hands; her bands on her arms flared up slightly. The pillars froze and dropped to the ground. Aluna quickly unfroze one and wrapped it around her arms to serve as a temporary weapon.
They made it out the building just as another geyser of fire and rock shot out. Shepard keyed her transmitter and ordered Joker to bring in the Normandy for a quick pick up. Aluna cast a sad look at the damage to the city as they waited behind cover for their ship.
"I'll have to send in some credits to help repair the damage," she murmured as Garrus applied medi-gel to certain wounds that were bleeding profusely. Then the familiar hum of engines alerted the group of Joker's presence. He opened to bay doors and the shore party, along with their new team member, hurried on in. Just before the bay doors closed, Aluna glanced up in time to see Corilion step out from the building he had chased them from. Her blood ran cold.
"Commander, we need to get the Normandy out of here now!" she said, fatigue and anxiety coloring her voice. Shepard looked out just as the doors closed but she saw Corilion.
"Joker, get us the hell out of here. On double!" she ordered.
"Aye aye, ma'am," the pilot replied. The Normandy quickly rose into the sky but Aluna could still feel Corilion's presence.
"He's still near," Aluna announced.
"We'll make sure he's not on board. Joker, have EDI sweep the ship for anything unusual," Shepard said.
"On it." Suddenly, the heavy threat lifted from Aluna's mind. Relief and exhaustion swept through the litharian and she blacked out.

"Regen process is amazing! More effective than krogan," Mordin announced as he ran his omni tool over the litharian who lay unconscious in the medbay. Garrus sat not too far from her.
"Will she be alright?" Shepard asked.
"Oh, yes. Litharians are sturdy creatures. Very resilient and very hard to kill with conventional weapons. Can do a great deal of damage to each other if two were pitted against one another."
"How do you know so much about them?" Garrus asked.
"Believe I knew one a few years back in STG," Mordin replied. A soft snort caused Garrus to glance down at Aluna's once composed face. She opened her dark green eyes and smirked.
"Let me guess... His name was Chek, wasn't it?" she asked.
"Yes. Wasn't a very good salarian. Saw right through him," Mordin said, smiling at the memory.
"He's was never a good actor. Did any of the other STG agents know?"
"Doubt it. There were certain... characteristics I noticed that others most likely didn't. If they knew, none shared the information."
"I'm guessing he gave up the act after you noticed he was something else?"
"After a while, yes. A good few years before trust formed." Aluna nodded her head.
"Never got chance to study litharian regen process up close before. One of the few things 'Chek' never talked about or showed me until he knew he could trust me not to talk," Mordin continued as he inspected one wound that was scarring up.
"And I'm the exception?"
"Had to. No intervention meant death. Elemental veins were severly damaged. Extensive internal bleeding. Organs tried to heal but there was too much damage done."
"I... didn't know it was... that bad. I didn't feel much pain."
"Shock most likely the cause. Adrenaline too."
"Thanks."
"No thanks necessary. Only doing my job." With one final wave of his omni tool and another layer of medi gel packed on, Mordin announced that the litharian needed to remain in the medbay for observation but she was well out of the danger zone. Mordin went back to his lab and Chakwas took over. Food was sent over to the litharian. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until the smell of an MRE wafted in. She quickly inhaled the meal, hardly tasting the food.
Once the meal was finished, she laid back down and studied the ceiling. She knew Garrus had a lot on his mind. He'd start asking questions soon. She heard Garrus shift his position next to her, as if settling in for a long conversation.
"Why did you leave?" the turian asked her. Aluna remained silent.
"You could have gone back for them. Saved them," he continued. Silence still.
"When I finally got there, you want to know who was still alive?" Her gaze met his.
"Kyn." She closed her eyes.
"Vakarian, before you berate me for not being there, let me remind you that we were ambushed, outnumbered and outgunned," she began, "I tried to get over to Tagarn and Kyn, who were both still alive, when this shit merc walked up behind them with a pistol drawn. They had no idea he was there. I ran as fast as I could..."
"Why didn't you knock him back?"
"Some dumbass had landed a shot the tore up my main elemental artery, so my powers were worth shit. I was this close to them-" she held her index finger and thumb parallel to each other, indicating the short distance she was away from her teammates "- when a rocket slams into me and throws me out the window where I landed hard on the ground. I was unconscious for awhile. When I came to, I was in piss poor condition, Garrus. I was in no shape to fight. And believe me, I wanted to go back up there and beat the living shit out of every single merc I saw there. But I couldn't."
"So, you ran."
"What else could I have done? I couldn't stay there!"
"You could've waited for me," Garrus said quietly.
Aluna opened her mouth for a moment and shut it. She hung her head in anger as she searched for an answer. She didn't like it.
"I was... scared," she answered lamely.
"Scared?" Garrus asked, surprised, "How could you be scared of a few mercs carrying guns? Weren't you more terrified when the Reapers appeared in your cycle?"
Aluna looked at him. "I was a child. That time I was not getting riddled with bullets. Yes, I was scared. I... Gods. I don't know. You have no idea what it was like. You already know the story. The only thing that kept me from breaking down was my parents as we ran to the elevator that would take us to an underground bunker deep within the planet. The reapers wouldn't be able to reach us there. There were reports of them bombing planets from orbit but to risk leaving the planet in a ship was suicide."
"And hiding in an underground bunker within the planet wasn't?"
"I guess people weren't focused on that. My parents were on either side of me. My mother kept yelling that we shouldn't abandon the protheans and other species to the Harvest. That we should stay and fight. All I wanted to do was hide. Had a government official been nearby or overheard that, she would have been branded a traitor and left to die."
Garrus stared at her. The litharian nodded.
"The Unifinity was screwed up in the head. There were a lot of theories that settled on indoctrination but there was no proof since nearly all of the Unifinity board members died within the first few years of the attack. Pretty convenient for the reapers. The Unifinity has improved since then and more after our relays opened up." Aluna shook her head in disbelief at her own species' authority before continuing her tale.
"As we ran to the bunker, one woman fell. She must have gotten shot with a high caliber round; there was this huge hole in the middle of her thigh. My mother stopped to help her up and told my father and me to keep running. That she'd catch up. Then, this deafening roar rolled over us. All litharians in the vicinity either kept running, screaming in terror, or threw up basic shields and offensive attacks to delay the reaper. I forget which class it was. It wasn't very big, smaller than Sovereign at least, but still large enough to cause untold amounts of damage. Its red laser lit up my mother and the wounded litharian she was trying to help. I remember someone screaming loud as they were... vaporized. Gone. Just like that. I don't know who screaming louder: me or my father. I remember running towards the spot where she was and my father scooping me up and holding me as tight as he could as he ran towards the bunker. Everyone else who had survived was already on the bunker. My father was running as fast he could with that... thing on his heels. That elevator was the last one to go and it had already began its descent into the planet. We barely made it on just as the reinforced blast door shut over the elevator hole."
Her vision had begun to blur; the litharian dashed a hand over her eyes to wipe away the tears that were tempted to fall. Her fingers came away with wetness. She stared at the flattened tears and animated them. They darted over her hand like little animals.
"This is what I did when we were hiding in the bunker. It was the only thing I thought to do while everyone waited for the reapers to destroy the planet. Whenever the tears came, I thought it a waste of water. That it should be put to use." Her hand stilled and the tears fell off.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Aluna looked up at him and a ghost of a smile played across her lips. "I don't know. Maybe just to tell you that that time I was only really scared for myself. Back at the base, where we were exchanging fire with the mercs, I was scared, not for me but for my team. I didn't want to lose them all. I didn't want to fail. I wanted to make a difference in this galaxy, to get away from the stereotype that all litharians are cowards who will run away from everything, even their own shadow. When I came to after being hit by rocket and thrown out the window, the was probably the closest I've ever felt like walking death. I think the next was after fighting with Corilion. That bastard knows how to fight." She laughed quietly to herself but looked up when she heard a snort of suppressed laughter from Garrus.
"What's so funny?" she asked him.
Garrus smothered his laughter as best he could to say, "Let's just say you aren't the only to get hit with a rocket." Her eyes widened.
"What?!"
"You didn't notice?" he asked and turned his head to the side. Aluna instantly reached out a hand to the bandage the covered the side and gave him a hard look.
"Sorry. It wasn't my fault. Turians don't really know how to duck," he replied nonchalantly.
"You could've improvised."
"It was a gunship!"
"A gunship!? Vakarian!"
"Apparently all the major gangs on Omega wanted me dead enough that they sent out a gunship to take me down. Really, you should be impressed. All those gangs fighting together to take down one turian."
Aluna flopped back into the bed and rolled her eyes.
"You know, I could try to heal that for you," she said, gesturing towards the bandage.
"Eh, it's fine. It'll scar. Any way, I heard that women find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of those women are krogan."
Aluna laughed aloud.