Previously...( http://forum.bioware...res/?p=18900034 )
Silean Nebula, Teyolia System, Nevos
“Who are you?” Foteni demanded. She was shocked not only by the presence of a stranger, but that the stranger was not another asari.
The human woman with the asymmetrical white bob and doll face answered, as if Foteni should be perfectly familiar with her, “Iyana.”
“I don’t know how you came to pass within the security perimeter, but you will leave immediately. This is private property.”
Iyana, wearing the lavender-white robes that covered her form completely, save her head, now that the cowl was down, and her hands, now that the long sleeves were pushed up, said, “The more you rely on sophisticated technology for your protection, the more centrally located the control to bypass. I suppose most people do not have the resources to contend with your automated checkpoints, and scanners, and detection systems, but once I did, getting here without interference was as simple as flipping a switch.”
There was malice in the human’s eyes, and Foteni took several steps back. She retreated to deception. “I warn you, I will summon others who will not deal with you kindly, and I myself am a late stage matron; if I must bring my biotics to bear on you, I will do so with indiscriminate force!”
Almost as if waiting for Foteni to begin walking backwards, Iyana strode forward, matching her retreat step by step. “How quaint. Lying? There is no one here but you. And while I am positive that yes, you are getting old, I wonder when the last time was that you used those powers of yours. You were a maiden when you were a Commando, perhaps? How many centuries ago was that?”
The frost that seemed to come from the woman’s voice caused Foteni’s heart to leap. She did not show it, and her need to survive took its next course. She halted and put her arms forward. “I warn you one last time. Be gone!” A biotic shield shimmered into existence, and an aura of blue emanated from Foteni’s body.
When Foteni stopped, Iyana did as well. “I meant to deliver the news of your niece and her daughter, but I rather prefer this turn of events.”
“What have you done with them?!”
Iyana began to glow in her own biotic aura, spreading her hands downward and out. “I will be certain to tell you when I am done with you.”
Foteni’s eyes were wide and her wispy form seemed to falter. But for a moment, anger and fear drove her decisions, and she shouted as she cast a stasis field towards the woman. She wanted her captured, to drive the information from her. She would stasis her and let the field crush her if she did not give her the answers she needed.
In Foteni’s mind, it was the simplest of attacks, the fight over before it begun. And yet, the human woman anticipated her maneuver, leaping out of the way of the field just before it was cast. Iyana said nothing, but her eyes mocked Foteni.
Now Foteni tried to remember everything she’d learned. She never saw combat in her thirty years of service but she had made the Commando program. She was capable. And she had served longer than this human had been an adult. Foteni placed one foot back and cast forth a ball of warp energy, guiding it towards its target. It struck Iyana, and her form became hazy from the distorting effects of the field.
The doll like face of Iyana changed and became a skull like grin. “Foteni, you are slow and you are weak.”
Foteni felt real fear now, a chill working from the base of her neck. She concentrated on the strength of her shield, knowing an attack was coming. As the two biotic lash cords dropped and extended from Iyana’s outstretched hands, Foteni prepared herself, a sweat breaking across her brow. The human woman held, watching her, not moving.
Then an explosion of searing pain blossomed in Foteni, ripping forth through her nose and mouth, accompanied by a thunderclap. She could see purple blood fly out from her face in a splashing arc. She collapsed to her knees, raising a hand towards Iyana as if to say ‘stop’ before it turned palm inward to clutch her excruciating wound. An instant memory playback occurred in slow motion, as if it was suddenly important to remember what had happened: A biotic lash struck out, sundering Foteni’s shield with a roar and momentarily leaving a white fissure where it broke the barrier, and slicing open her chin, lips nose and cheek.
“AAAAHHHH!!!” Foteni screamed in pain, her scream causing even more blinding agony as her mouth moved.”
The woman, whose skull visage now had two blue eyes staring out of it like cold burning stars, was above Foteni, leering down before the asari on her knees.
“Sherverush!” Foteni exclaimed, not knowing what to do.
Iyana spat as she taunted Foteni. “I think you might have a Shpeech Impedemench Doctor! Don’t insult me with your pedestrian speculations. I don’t need to be associated with Cerberus, that inbred, narrow-minded cult to have cause against your own species-centric idiocy! No, Foteni, you will be a gnome in a tower, and you will spin gold for me, if you wish no further harm to come to Gille, her daughter, or you.”
Foteni knew then that she was doomed. In her moment of despair, she could only attempt to determine if she had been duped. “My niesh. Prove she ish alive.”
The cold eyes of Iyana glinted with victory. She whipped out her left arm from her robe, where her omni-tool was attached and activated it. “Talk now, Gille,” Iyana commanded at the tool’s voice com, now on speaker.
“Foteni! Foteni, are you hurt?”
Foteni talked through the hand pressed against her face and now with purple blood flowing over it. “Gille, you are all righch?”
“Yes! Yes, we are unharmed. Thank the Goddess you are alive! I’m sorry, so, so sorry, I…”
Iyana cut the line. “There will be plenty of time for a family reunion later. You are coming with me, Foteni, and you will give me no difficulty.”
“I will noch bechray Republicsh,” Foteni protested, but her heart was fearful, and within, she felt as if that too was beyond her control.
Iyana saw through Foteni all too well. “We have not really met yet. And when we do, I will hear all the things you want me to know. Of that I am certain, Foteni. For I am a good student and I have learned from the best. From none other, in fact, than one of your own people.”