RP: Shepard, Kaiden & Ashley

[keelah_selai]

Down the stairs to the lower deck. Around the base of the drive core to the maintenance shaft entrance. Up a ladder, and into the duct tunnel. Up a second ladder and turn to the left. Crawl for a sixth of the ship's body and another left turn. Up a short ladder, and out into the room housing the AI Core...

The AI Core was dark and silent, just like the Engineering deck. Tali had never spent much time here - both Legion and EDI frightened Tali a little. She'd been trying to make amends, for Shepard's sake, ever since her argument with Legion, but it was hard work, overcoming years of ingrained prejudice. There was something...off about the room, though. Tali couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong or different. It must be the lack of noise, she thought, and moved quickly to the electrical panel on the doors.

Just a few moments, and the doors to the Medbay sparked and slid open with a metallic groan.

Comments

[itsinmyblood]

This was all so confusing, made even more so as the medi-gel began to ease the pain, giving her a new sense of clarity. Ashley knew she wasn't imagining this. This wasn't a dream. This was real, and yet none of it made sense. She glanced toward Kaiden, then Shepard.

Virmire. The one place she wished more than anything she could forget.

"Captain Kirrahe had come up with a plan for his forces to cause the distraction while the Commander slipped into the base. Kaiden, you went with her to disarm the bomb, and I was helping out the Salarians." Ashley looked down at her lap before running a hand through her hair.

"We were over run, the Salarians were dropping like flies. Shepard managed to get inside the facility and disable the AA guns. You were setting the Nuke," Ashley glanced toward Kaiden. "Things seemed to be going well, I guess but after that.... Well, the Geth had the troop I was with surrounded. I couldn't make it to the rendezvous point. I told Shepard that. Some part of me knew that I wasn't going to make it. And when the Commander told me she was coming for me..." Ashley sighed, shaking her head before continuing.

"Not a moment later, you, Kaiden were calling out that the Geth were swarming the bomb sight. The Commander could only save one of us. We all knew it." She glanced up to Shepard. The pain, regret, the guilt that had been eating her for years. She couldn't hide it anymore. Not when everything felt like it had happened a few hours ago.

"The commander chose to save me. Why, I will never know. But she did. Kaiden... you set the nuke and you blew that facility off the damn map." Ashley met Kaiden's gaze. "I could see the explosion from space, LT. I watched it burn a crater into the planet as the Normandy flew off. I watched you die, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it."

She ran a hand over her face, trying to push the images back into the back of her mind where they belonged. There were altogether too many bad memories and not enough good ones. A thought hit her then, and she straightened up before looking into her armor.

"I actually have a picture. Now where did, Ah!" She pulled out a creased photograph out of her pocket, sliding off the bed and walking over to where Kaiden and Shepard were sitting.

"This is the picture of the party we had. Right before we headed out to the Illusive Man's base." Everyone was there. Grunt, Liara, James, Javic and Wrex in the back. Jack, Tali, Miranda, Steve, Jacob, Samara Kasumi and Herself in the middle. And in the front, Samantha, Garrus, Shepard, EDI and Joker.

They were all there. Everyone but Kaiden and Legion.

"You see? That is the Shepard I know."

{{OOC: the picture that Ashley's looking at can be found here: http://i.imgur.com/W0BBUqJ.png }}

{{OOC: also, sorry for all the long winded replies! >.> }}