The Official Migrant Fleet of Tali'Zorah fans

NuclearBuddha wrote...

They say I should be dead, which might be true. I'm still deciding how to feel about it. The wrist is going to be okay, they tell me, though it's probably going to hurt for a long while. Given my other aches, something physical might be a nice change.

I'm only in the clean room for another day. Someone else needs the bed, so it's back into the suit for me. Can't have the Admiral's daughter malingering. It fits uncomfortably, mostly held together with omnigel at this point. The badly-fit glove is just the final insult. I need a new suit.

I rest in the Neema's sickbay for a while figuring that someone will be around for my report, but there must not be a big hurry. Surprisingly, it's Prazza who comes to see me. He helps me up from the bed, grasping my over-large grey replacement glove with his own black-gloved hand.

"Tali," he says, not quite looking at me, "I just want to say I shouldn't have doubted your calculations. You saved us. I made sure that was in the report." What he's saying should infuriate me, but that's not what's got my attention.

The gloves. The jumble of the past weeks suddenly fits, an airtight seal coming together.

Guessing what I'm looking at, Prazza tucks the hand with the mismatched glove under his arm. A standard black glove, not grey like the rest of his suit.

"The glove, Prazza," I say quietly.

He unfolds his arms and tilts his head, daring me to go on.

"You didn't replace it. Proud, are you?"

"I'd expect more thanks for saving your life," his voice is petulant, a child caught hacking the nursery vid.

"So Noveria, too, right? Guess you knew we should have been in a hurry to leave. Why, Prazza?"

He stares back coolly, but I've been cowed by the best. Nobody short of my father is making me look away. In the end, Prazza's the weaker.

"Why, Prazza?"

"For the Flotilla!" he shouts, mustering the courage to look back at me, "I did it for the Flotilla! Why sell the eezo? That's all we do, trade scraps to people who hate us. We could have learned from it ourselves. Why don't you understand? We can be more! Greater than the other races! You're going to lead us someday, I know it! So lead us! I... I did this all for you! You! So you would..."

"Prazza, no. You're a monster if you think you can kill your way out of being a quarian."

His whole stance changes. Gone is the pleading, the need for affirmation. Expectations betrayed, he looms dangerously, head lowered like a charging krogan. Someone else entirely could be wearing his suit now, for all I know. I wonder for a moment if this is how the people he killed saw him.

"I thought you were your father's daughter," his voice scrapes, "what should you care about outsiders? It's true, then, isn't it? You almost went native on your pilgrimage, and for that human."

He couldn't have shut me up better by planting a fist in my gut. I... is it true? And what if it is?

Something inside snaps. A week's worth of anguish poors out, and suddenly I'm screaming at the top of my lungs.

"What do you know about him?!" My visor is nearly touching Prazza's, who refuses to back down. "Shepard was a hero! He did things no one else could have done!" I push Prazza away as hard as I can, sending fresh waves of pain rippling down my wrist and up my arm. He doesn't go very far, but the act visibly stuns him none the less. "If not for him, you'd be dead! We would all be dead!"

Once again only inches from my helmet, Prazza continues to stare me down, I can tell his face is contorted into a gnarled mess, rage evident in every aspect of his body language. "And you!" My voice is all fury, thunder that crashes against the silence of the medical frigate. "You just left me?! You knew where I was and did nothing?! You saw what the turians did to me at the clinic, and didn't bother to take me home!?" Prazza's silence is numbing. I can feel my voice starting to crack, both from the strain of the past week, and as a cold feeling worms it's way into my gut.

"Do you know what I went through!? Do you know what I endured!?" Every ache in my body flares in agony all at once. Every bruise, every cut, every tender inch of flesh left sensitive by Dallix's drugs. My grey fist connects with Prazza's helmet, cracking it. Unlike mine, his remained sealed. It only makes me more angry that I I can't hurt him the same way I've been hurt, at the feeling of too weak and drained to inflict the horrors on him that I've lived through because of him.

The hit still does enough to send Prazza into a rage all his own.

"You've gone soft Tali! Your time with that bosh'tet human has warped your thinking!" His voice is louder than mine, intact and ringing in my ears. "I had to do something! You were just going to give it all away! Instead of using it for ourselves, you wanted to sell it so we could buy more scrap! And for what Tali!? A few new air filters, some new hull patches, when instead, you could have given it to the fleet! We could have used it for ourselves!" Prazza looks dangerous, murder staring at me in every contour of his suit. My hand twitches for my pistol, even though it's not there. It's a hollow feeling.

"I did this so you could step up and make the decision to lead our people to something more! So you could be like your father, to be the leader we all need you to be, that I need you to be! I did it because I lov-"

My fist connects with his helmet hard enough to send him staggering back into a wall. I catch his throat with my sore hand, and pummel his gut with the other, twenty years of begging to hear that phrase from someone, anyone, spills out into pure fury. I'm going to kill him.

"Don't you dare say that to me!"

I slam my fist into his side, doubling him over.

"You do not get to say that to me! Not after what you did to me! You abandoned me!"

My knee collides with his vulnerable faceplate, further cracking it,

"Moro is dead! Do you even care?! Did you say it to her?!"

My heel slams into his gut, sending him to the floor. He tries to crawl away like the coward he is. I'm not having it.

"Did you!?"

I kick him when he's down, making him arch his back in agony. If he's howling in pain, I don't hear it. I'm deaf to the world.

"Answer me!"

I get ready to kick him again, white hot fire licks my insides, turning my heart into a furnace.

I catch my reflection in the mirror. It doesn't look like me. There are no decorative cloths. My glove is the wrong color and size. I'm standing over another person, beating him within an inch of his life. I slowly look down at Prazza, who is wheezing, holding up an arm to shield himself.

I wonder if that is how I looked to Dallix.

I slowly back away, horror replacing my blinding rage.

I turn and run away.

#205651
Azint

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:00

#205652
cannedcream

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:02

#205653
Kira Shepard

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:03

#205654
Azint

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:03

#205655
NuclearBuddha

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:04

#205656
Lividity Jones

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:05

#205657
Azint

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:05

#205658
Lividity Jones

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:06

#205659
NuclearBuddha

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:06

#205660
BarrelDrago

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205661
Guest_Runescapeguy9_*

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205662
El-Destructo

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205663
Azint

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205664
Strawberry Kiwi

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205665
cannedcream

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205666
NuclearBuddha

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205667
NuclearBuddha

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205668
Lividity Jones

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205669
ewzk7

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205670
cannedcream

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205671
Kira Shepard

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205672
El-Destructo

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205673
RiptideX1090

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205674
BarrelDrago

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205675
Azint

Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

The Official Migrant Fleet of Tali'Zorah fans

#205651 Azint Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:00

#205652 cannedcream Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:02

#205653 Kira Shepard Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:03

#205654 Azint Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:03

#205655 NuclearBuddha Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:04

#205656 Lividity Jones Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:05

#205657 Azint Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:05

#205658 Lividity Jones Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:06

#205659 NuclearBuddha Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:06

#205660 BarrelDrago Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205661 Guest_Runescapeguy9_* Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205662 El-Destructo Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205663 Azint Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205664 Strawberry Kiwi Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205665 cannedcream Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205666 NuclearBuddha Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:07

#205667 NuclearBuddha Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205668 Lividity Jones Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205669 ewzk7 Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205670 cannedcream Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:08

#205671 Kira Shepard Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205672 El-Destructo Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205673 RiptideX1090 Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205674 BarrelDrago Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

#205675 Azint Posté 25 juin 2010 - 06:09

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