Seventy-Seven: Call

Mars—the planet, that is—was just like the Citadel's Wards before Saren's assault. Dim and heavy and orange. It lacked the vibrancy, the life in every corner. It replaced the voices with howling wind and the metal floors with dusty craters. It felt frigid, even in the sun… but that was what witnessing the death of thousands of people at once did to a person. It made them cold.

Mars—the soldier, that is—had a brand new helmet, complete with a shiny camera and data feeds scrolling down her peripheral vision. Joker could send her text-based updates from the Normandy, thanks to some suit upgrades. His first test was a semicolon and a parenthesis. She gently mimicked the expression and tapped a short "got it" into her omni-tool.

Kaidan spied a body propped up against a crate used for cover. He said he knew the man, and Mara wondered just how many of the corpses that no doubt littered the research station Alenko would recognize. The nervous pit in her stomach was upsettingly familiar as a result. James had an eye toward the storm rolling in the distance, lightning coursing like spiderwebs across its cloudy surface and low thunder rumbling in its midst. Nothing here was a good sign.

They reached an elevator and Kaidan launched into a series of thinly veiled accusations. "Do you have any idea why Cerberus is here? Why shouldn't I think you know? You worked for them. They rebuilt you, they gave you the Normandy back, they hired Joker—"

Mara's patience thinned. He'd been watching her every move, and he wasn't subtle. But claiming Joker was her reason for joining? Whether it was true or not, she wouldn't tell him—nor would she explain herself again after this. "Let me be clear with you, Major. I've had no contact with them since I destroyed the Collector base, and I have no idea why they're here now."

He bowed his head. He didn't like being wrong. "Sorry, Shepard. I'm just—"

The pressurization system hissed, and Mara slid off the breather mask on her helmet. "Don't push me, Alenko. I can't afford to have someone I don't trust at my back."

He didn't say a word after that.

Inside the base, the bad signs turned into all-out disaster. Melted plastic covered tables and half-finished experiments. Scientists were sprawled across the floor, helpless in life and discarded in death. The only capable one was an asari doctor—one who crawled through vents and lifted the soldiers chasing her with biotics until she could comfortably shoot them.

Liara T'Soni.

Sure, she'd sold Mara's lifeless body to Cerberus. Some—like Kaidan—would say it royally screwed up her life, but she knew she wouldn't even have a life if not for them. She owed Liara thanks, at the very least.

"Come with me. You know what's going on here better than anyone."

"As well as most of the galaxy." She looked calm and sounded smug. Her hunt for… whoever it was seemingly resolved well. "I'm so sorry about Earth." She sounded like she was empathizing about the death of a pet, not the destruction of a world.

"We'll kick their metal asses," said James with a thrust of his arm. "Nobody takes our planet, right, Commander?"

Mara swallowed. Her throat was dry and she felt tired already. Still, she replied. "That's right, Lieutenant." She hoped it was convincing enough for them. It wasn't at all convincing enough for her.

A.N.: I plan on continuing the Mars mission in the next chapter. As for the prompt, I wanted to make it like Kaidan's calling Mara out. ...Ugh. If I feel like I should explain my prompt, I probably didn't follow it right. I'm sure this isn't my best chapter. If anyone sees any spelling, canonical, or grammatical errors, please don't hesitate to point them out. I don't bite.
I received a lot of lovely reviews for the last chapter, and while everyone ultimately congratulated my choice to remove the word limit, some of you brought up very valid and welcome concerns that the attention to detail brought on by having a limited number of words will diminish. I'd like to assure you all that it's just part of my writing style. The exercise in limited words has given me so much more of a detail-oriented approach to writing that it's slowly become ingrained in me, so it isn't going away any time soon. Thank you all for your concern about this, as that is more of a compliment to me than you may think. I'm so appreciative and grateful that all of you are here reading this and I'm very happy to have such a supportive group of readers. I couldn't ask for better ones!