Episode 3: Shattered Eezo

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Mass Effect is owned by Bioware and Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

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12:34 PM August 14th 2169

Fifteen year old Emily Wong leaned hard against the wall behind her as she got her breath back, her stained 'Eezo Core Revival' tee shirt and worn cargo pants damp with perspiration, her jet black hair stuck to her scalp by more of the same.

Against the opposite wall of the alleyway Emily's current partner in crime Dexter Finch was in a similar condition.

"Shit-that was close," Emily panted breathlessly as she staggered away from the wall "That cop nearly caught us."

"New York's-finest at work," Finch agreed.

Hunkering back against the wall and carefully sliding along it toward the end of the alley, Emily managed to pick her way through the group of garbage bins somebody had left at the end of the alley and peek out the end.

"I think it's safe to come out," Emily reported, staying low so that the bins hid her from view, however-as Emily stood up and began to step forward her right foot nudged against something soft and heavy.

Looking down out of reflex, Emily felt her heart stop when she realised that the 'something' was a body, a Caucasian girl who looked about seventeen years old with strawberry blonde hair as she lay motionless and bloodied between the bins dirty, barefoot and dressed in a bloodstained shirt and drawstring trousers.

"Holy shit," Emily exclaimed in shock "What the hell happened to you?"

"What is it?" Finch asked, he knew not much could rattle Emily Wong of all people so this had to be serious.

"There's a body lying here," Emily reported "A girl, she's covered in blood."

"Well if she's dead she's dead," Finch noted calmly "Reporting it will just get us caught."

That callousness was something that Emily had never liked about the younger Finch and at present her liking for it had hit an all time low.

In fact she probably would have had more fondness for a rat in a surgical theatre.

Shooting Finch a look of pure righteous disdain Emily bent down and checked the poor girl's pulse.

"She's alive," Emily reported "barely-she's got a pulse but she's ice cold and her heart is racing like a jack hammer."

"Sound's like undernourished biotics," Finch noted with obvious contempt in his voice-he found biotics intimidating after all "Leave her there."

"She'll die," Emily protested, sympathy for this girl forbidding such a course of action for her-surely she didn't deserve such a cruel fate.

"Then she dies," Finch shrugged indicating his vastly different opinion on the subject "It's not our problem, but if you feel that bad about it call an ambulance for her."

"She's wearing sweats but no shoes Dex," Emily noted in concern as her heart twisted in sympathy for this poor girl-whoever she was "And we're barely ten blocks from the Alliance Institute for Transhuman Studies meaning there's a good chance she escaped from there. Don't you remember those rumours we heard about BAAT?"

The implications of this were not lost on Finch in the slightest-still he protested.

"You're not bringing one of those biotic freaks into the Reds' hideout," Finch insisted as he grasped both of her upper arms and spun her around to face him, why couldn't Emily see those monsters for what they were? "Those fuckers aren't people, they're fucking walking time bombs and I'm not having one of them-AAAGGH."

Emily regarded Finch coldly, each of her hands now grasping the first two fingers of one of his hands and bending them painfully backward, the look in her eyes resolute and uncompromising with no pity whatsoever for his own lack of pity.

"Yes we are taking her back to the hideout and you are going to carry her," Emily told him in no uncertain terms, protectiveness for all victims flaring bright inside her "you are not going to harm so much as a hair on her head and you are going to help me treat her wounds or I will beat the living crap out of you...and you know for a fact that I can."

"Alright Alright," Finch relented through clenched teeth "I'll carry the damn freak."

"Good," Emily nodded as she let him go and he bent down to pick the poor blonde girl up, grudgingly making sure to be careful with her as he did "And by the way Dex-."

"What?" Finch ground out sulkily.

"She is welcome to stay with us as long as she needs unless she turns out to be an enemy," Emily told him evenly "she will be cared for and may even join us if she so desires...am I clear?"

"Crystal," Finch muttered indignantly "But I don't have to like it."

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It was nearly twenty minutes later that Emily and Finch managed to get the unconscious teenage girl back to the Tenth Street Reds' hideout, having had to stop to staunch the bleeding from the wound to her back en route lest she bleed out on them.

The makeshift bandage was holding for now and seemed to have stopped the bleeding for the moment, they should be able to remove it to clean the wound and apply medi gel as long as they were careful not to reopen the wound.

The conspicuous absence of any matching holes in her clothes seemed to indicate that she had sustained the wounds previously and put the sweats on over them, probably...Emily theorised...they had stopped bleeding until she had reopened them escaping from wherever she had escaped from.

As Emily directed Finch to an empty room out the back she saw the poor girl stir in Finch's arms and heard her mumble some things...leaning closer out of momentary curiosity Emily was able to clearly catch one such thing.

"Momma...I'm sorry," the barely alive teenager whimpered in her semi conscious state, her face pinched for fear of what seemed to be a traumatic memory replaying through her subconscious "I'll be good...don't kill me...please."

As the implications of what Emily had just heard sank in and a sinking feeling of horror and righteous anger settled in it's wake she had just two words to say...
"Fuck...me."

What the fuck? Emily raged internally did this poor girl's own mother try to kill her? Is that how she got into this state? Did the heartless bitch send her to whatever hell-hole she just escaped from too?

"Emily?" Finch's irritated voice snapped her out of her rage filled state of distraction "Dammit all Wong, just where the hell do you want me to set the freak down?"

Resisting the urge to smack the alpha jackass, Emily indicated where he should put the injured girl.

"That cot right there beside the wall," she told him tightly "And go get the first aid kit, a clean bowl of warm water, some clean wash-cloths and a towel. And let Sally know so that she can find some clothes in this girl's size."

As Finch lay the girl on her back on the makeshift cot and left the room Emily cast a withering glare at his retreating back.

I swear...one of these days...

"And now it's just us girls for a few minutes," Emily told her unconscious companion as she carefully brushed a couple of strawberry blonde locks out of her...as it turned out...quite pretty face, noticing a bruise on the girl's forehead just below the hairline as she did, she winced in sympathy at the sight.

"That's a nasty bruise...I hate to see that on a pretty face like yours," Emily noted in sympathy "You're gorgeous and I'd bet you wouldn't hurt a fly without good reason, why would your bitch mother try to kill you? Well...I won't let her hurt you again, or the alpha dick either."

Minutes later Finch returned with what Emily had requested and set it down beside the cot.

"Thanks," Emily told him grudgingly "Now open it and get ready to pass me what I need, then turn your back for a moment."

Finch frowned in confusion.

"I have to take this poor girl's shirt off to treat the wound to her back," Emily clarified irritably "I'm sure you understand the implications of that."

"Oh...right," Finch blushed scarlet as he opened the kit and quickly turned around "Sorry."

"Was that an actual apology Dex?" Emily asked in genuine surprise as she carefully sat the girl up to remove the makeshift bandage over her tee shirt, and then removed the girl's shirt as well "I guess you're not a total asshole after all."

Once her patient was naked from the waist up Emily carefully laid her face down on the cot, this done she spoke to Finch once more.

"You can turn around now Dex, her naughty bits are concealed...pass me the bowl and wash-cloths please."

It wasn't until she was about to begin cleaning the wound that Emily got a good look at the girl's back and noticed the scars, one across her lower back and a faded burn scar on her right shoulder.

"Damn girl...did your mother give you these? She'd better hope we never meet."

Then she set to work cleaning the wound, fantasies of punching out child abusers playing through her mind.

As Emily was finishing up cleaning the wound to the girl's back she felt her patient stir slightly, she was being as gentle as she possibly could but she had a feeling that this horribly luckless girl wasn't going to like the next part.

"Pass me that tube of medi gel please," Emily instructed Finch as she stretched out her hand for it.

"Here ya go," Finch replied tonelessly as he passed her the aforementioned tube.

"Thanks Dex," Emily replied in the most cultured and polite tone she could manage as she set to work applying the gel form combination of local anaesthetic, broad spectrum antiseptic and organic liquid bandage to the stab wound the girl's back bore.

I'm really sorry about this next part Miss, Emily thought as she saw the girl's fingers clench in pain I know how much this can burn on an open wound until the anaesthetic takes effect.

"Easy Miss, it's okay," Emily told girl in the most soothing voice she could manage "I know this stuff burns but I promise it'll help."

A brief moment later Emily saw the girl's fingers relax as the local anaesthetic numbed the pain and she breathed a sigh of relief herself.

"There, that takes care of the life threatening wound," Emily noted in relief "now for the merely crippling ones."

As the girl's breathing settled into the pattern of somebody sleeping Emily checked her pulse, finding to her relief that it was beginning to stabilise.

"I think we should treat the wound to her arm first," Emily decided with a nod "I hope no tendons got cut."

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Sixteen year old Andrew Greiz struggled to keep up with the tall, flame haired woman in front of him, she was about five years his senior and her name was Sally Nellis.

Sally was carrying a set of women's cotton pyjamas and a couple of clean pillows and Andrew was laden with an armful of sheets and woollen blankets as well as a burning curiosity about the Reds' new guest.

They had been alerted to the situation as it stood by a sulking Dexter Finch...honestly, there wasn't a single person in the Reds who didn't know which of the Finch brothers was the better man and it sure as hell wasn't Dexter, his older brother Dorian was twice the man that Dex would ever be.

"So this girl that Emily brought in," Andrew asked, trying to make conversation "What can you tell me about her?"

"Caucasian, blonde, teen-aged, petite, probably biotic, probably escaped from some lab somewhere and it seems likely that her own mother tried to kill her," Sally told him with a shrug "Beyond that not much and what I do know I know from Finch the Lesser so his prejudice against biotics probably muddled the info."

As Sally pushed open the door to the room where they had been told the girl was being cared for by Emily Andrew nodded, then he caught sight of the girl in question as Emily was bandaging a freshly treated wound to her right calf, bandages already covered other such wounds to her chest area and her right forearm.

The girl herself was lying face down, her face turned in his direction as she lay unconscious on the cot, she was naked from the waist up and her right trouser leg was pulled up so that her calf wound could be treated, but it was her face that drew Andrew's attention, a face that to him seemed perfect.

"She's beautiful," Andrew noted once he found his voice again "Why would her mother try to kill her?"

"Beats me," Emily replied as she finished bandaging the girl's leg "Crazy bitch better hope we never meet, put the stuff beside the cot, then I'll have to ask you to leave the room for a bit Andrew."

"Sure," Andrew nodded in understanding "You need privacy to dress her in the pyjamas...got it."

As Andrew set the bedding down beside the cot he paused a moment to gently brush a strand of hair out of the unconscious girl's face, a gentle smile softening his features as he did.

"Please live," he implored the injured girl "I'd like to get to know you."

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Dexter Finch ground his teeth in frustration at the situation as it stood.

A biotic in their midst...a fucking biotic.

The younger Finch brother remembered all too well losing both his parents during the First Contact War...and they hadn't even been soldiers, just civilians that tried to fight back...his uncle Rory was the soldier.

Emily of all people should understand where he was coming from...she lost her dad in the First Contact War.

Ah but she lost him to a sniper round not a squad of Cabalists like what had killed his parents.

An all biotic squad because most regular non biotic soldiers in the Turian military wouldn't work with biotics...Turians being strongly distrustful of them.

His uncle Rory and the platoon he belonged to had done their best to defend the Finch brothers and their parents but had only been able to save the children Dorian and Dexter and they had suffered an unmitigated slaughter in the process.

Dexter had been just five years old at the time but he clearly remembered the sight of the Turian Cabalists cutting down the marines defending him and his brother like so much wheat, their biotics making them an unstoppable force of death and destruction.

It had been as though Uncle Rory and his brothers and sisters in arms had been fighting a squad of monsters...and only Uncle Rory and the Finch brothers he was protecting had survived.

And Uncle Rory wasn't the same after that...two years later he ate a bullet from his own pistol.

After that the Finch brothers had ended up in an orphanage...leaving once they were both legally adults and starting the Reds shortly thereafter.

"What's on your mind little brother?" his older brother Dorian asked as he approached.

"Emily brought a fucking biotic in here," Dexter muttered bitterly.

"What's so bad about that?" Dorian asked, knowing exactly why his pigheaded younger brother thought it was a bad thing, he loved Dexter but sometimes his kid brother could be such an ass "She's still human, that means she's one of our people. And if she joins up a biotic could be useful...if she is a biotic, we don't know that for certain yet."

"Don't you remember what those Cabalists did?" Dexter all but demanded "or how Uncle Rory shot himself two years later? Fucking aliens, can't trust a damn one of them and those biotics in a human are an abomination...the thought of one of them amongst the Reds makes me want to vomit."

"It's not the aliens that are the problem," Dorian explained to his younger brother, and not for the first time either...maybe it would sink in this time...maybe "It's their governments and the fact that those governments see humans as second class citizens and biotics aren't the problem either, the character of those who might wield them is...as well as those who might push such individuals over the edge."

Dexter said nothing...sulking again and fuming as well.

"Just think about what I've said little brother," Dorian suggested before leaving.

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It was nearly four hours later before the girl in question finally began to truly regain consciousness.

She was still drifting in and out for an hour and a half after that before she showed the first signs of true awareness of her surroundings and it looked like she was going to lapse back into her comatose state at first...and right when Emily had a nice bowl of nutritious soup ready to help her regain her strength too.

Acting purely on instinct Emily gently seized the girl's shoulder and gave it a gentle shake.

"Miss...wake up," Emily gently begged "you need to try and eat something."

Apparently this did the trick because the girl managed...with significant difficulty...to open her eyes.

Big beautiful green eyes.

Bleary at first those eyes finally managed to focus on Emily and the bowl of soup beside her.

"Can you sit up?" Emily asked, concern for this poor girl foremost in her mind at present.

"I'll...try," the girl vowed weakly as she made a near futile attempt to do just that, her body still far too weak from everything she had been through.

Poor girl, Emily thought, pity tearing at her soul what did she ever do to deserve this?

"Here...let me help," Emily offered as she gently grasped one shoulder and placed her other hand behind the girl's back, careful to avoid the bandaged stab wound as she did.

At first the injured girl flinched away from the contact, the instinctive fear evident in this action lending further weight to the theory that she had been abused, but then she relaxed and accepted the help in apparent realisation that Emily meant her no harm.

Note to self, Emily noted in self condemnation for her oversight ask permission before touching this girl in future.

In any case, once the girl was sitting up Emily placed the bowl on her lap and offered her the spoon.

"Are you okay to do this?" Emily asked the injured blonde girl "I can spoon feed you if you're not strong enough yet."

"No...I got it," the voice that these words were spoken in was barely audible, but the determination behind them was unmistakeable.

Clearly this girl was used to having to struggle to survive, in any case she managed eating on her own despite her weakened state, Emily had to give her props for that.

She's a tough lady, Emily remarked inwardly she doesn't look it but she is.

Partially to keep the girl awake long enough to finish her meal and partially to take her mind off of whatever hell she had just been through Emily decided to try and engage the Red's unexpected guest in some light conversation-the obvious starting point, an exchange of names.

"I'm Emily Wong by the way, and you are...?"

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Carrie...the girl's name was Carrie...well Carrietta actually but everybody just called her Carrie.

She hadn't given a last name.

Her name was Carrietta, she was a biotic, she was strawberry blonde with green eyes and she'd been abused.

Emily couldn't help drawing a comparison between this girl and another Carrietta in the history books and maybe idly considering the theory that perhaps...

No, that's ridiculous, Emily chided herself she can't be that Carrie...that Carrie is long dead.

Conversation had revealed some things...not as many as Emily had hoped but she had expected that.

It seemed obvious that Carrie had been abused, she hadn't said as much but the way she referred to some things and evaded other subjects had made the implications pretty clear.

And that poor girl had a really low opinion of herself.

Carrie hadn't actually said it, but some of the thing she'd said about herself indicated that she'd done something bad when her abusers had pushed her too far, but after the physical and emotional harm that Emily had already seen to be inflicted upon her it would have to be truly horrendous for Emily to even think about blaming her for it.

If Carrie had beat the shit out of some dickhead for hurting her or even killed him then screw him...or her.

But regardless Emily resolved there and then that she was going to help this girl...no matter what.

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If there were any place in the galaxy that Martin Burns could have been right now this place would not have been the one he would have chosen.

Of course the fact that he was in this place and situation was entirely due to his own poor decisions...a fact that was not lost on him, not that he would ever admit that out loud.

"So let me get this straight Project Director Burns," Admiral Jon Grissom, the honest to God leader of the entire Alliance Navy noted evenly "Not only did you attempt to hold Miss Carrietta White against her will...which is blatantly illegal by the way...without even attempting to talk to her first and convince her to stay voluntarily, but your actions have also denied others such as Professor Chambers the opportunity to attempt the same and may have destroyed any chance we have of getting her to trust us. This in turn may have cost us the only chance we have of fixing your previous two screw ups...have I covered everything?"

"I saw no reason to negotiate with a mass murderer," Burns protested despite the fact that this statement was beginning to ring hollow in his own ears as well as everybody else's "after all the lives she took on the night of Black Prom..."
"While in a state of temporary insanity resulting from a lifetime of the most horrific physical and emotional abuse outside of a concentration camp," Grissom interrupted, he was over this BS "This was combined with high level natural biotics that most experts agree would be difficult to control even when calm for a novice such as Carrie, even the courts eventually had to admit this clearing her of all charges."

Burns said nothing.

"I've spoken with the Alliance Parliament and they all agree that your poor judgement and questionable morals are becoming a serious liability," Grissom continued "and they feel as I do on this matter, the decision has been made."

"What..decision," Burns asked as he swallowed a lump in his throat, though deep down he already knew the answer.

"It's really quite simple Burns," Grissom told him "your services as Project Director are no longer required."

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If there was one thing that Carrie was certain of at this point in time it was that she was certain of very little.

That and the fact that in her opinion she was the absolute worst person on the planet, after all over four hundred people were dead because of her.

Of course others might point out that there were far worse people in the history books, people who had killed millions simply because of their beliefs or the colour of their skin or a myriad of other pathetic reasons but Carrie wasn't thinking of that, she was thinking of what a terrible thing she had done and how she regretted it very much.

Some more in the know about who she actually was might point out that she was insane at the time and that this was caused by a lifetime of inhuman treatment at the hands of her peers at school and even her own mother that frankly would have made anybody homicidal.

They'd tell her that she was judging herself far too harshly, after all...it wasn't her fault, not really.

But Carrie had always been one to judge herself too harshly...when one's mother is a religious zealot who insists that you're a horrible person just for wanting to be normal judging oneself harshly becomes second nature.

Getting locked in the closet for these non-existent 'sins' didn't help matters either.

The bowl of stew that Emily had given her sat half finished beside her, she didn't feel like eating with the guilt tying her stomach in knots.

I'm such a wretched, disgusting murderous excuse for a human being, Carrie berated herself bitterly so many dead by my hand, my god I can see them, I can HEAR the sounds they made as they died, I'll never be able to forget it as long as I live no matter how hard I try.

The fact that she had actually done this a century and a half ago didn't help either, to her it was only yesterday.

As she was thinking this Carrie became aware that she had a visitor, looking up she caught sight of a young man, or boy really...who was kinda short with dark hair and warm brown eyes.

"Hi," he greeted her softly, his tone friendly and perhaps a little...affectionate "how are you feeling?"

"Better than I was," Carrie noted in an equally soft tone "I still feel awful though, not physically," she held a hand over her heart "in here...I'm such a horrible person."

"I don't think you're horrible," the boy responded "why would you think that about yourself? Did you do something that you think was horrible?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Carrie told him.

"Then why not talk about something else?" The boy suggested "what kind of things do you like?"

"I like to make my own clothes," Carrie responded quietly him "my Momma taught me how, and I like poetry. Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I'd like to get to know you better," the boy responded as he reached out his hand seemingly without realising it until his fingers brushed gently against her right cheek "and because nobody so beautiful should be so sad."

"I'm not beautiful," Carrie told him bitterly, normally she would have flinched away from the contact of his hand against her cheek but for some reason this boy's touch was reassuring to her "if I was they wouldn't have treated me that way."

"Beautiful people get bullied too," the boy told her, he seemed like he was about to say something else but then he realised what he was doing and quickly pulled back the hand that was brushing against Carrie's cheek "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so forward."

"It's okay," Carrie assured him "I don't mind."

And truthfully she didn't...Carrie found that she liked this boy's touch, a small part of her longed for more of it.

"Um...are you going to finish your stew?"

"Yeah, I'll finish it," Carrie decided, and now she did feel like finishing it, speaking with this boy had made her feel a lot better, even if she did still hate herself.

"Um...I'm Andrew Greiz," the boy, Andrew told her "it's nice to finally meet you, properly that is...now that you're...um...conscious."

"I'm Carrietta," Carrie told him "but everyone calls me Carrie."

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It was a short time after Grissom's conversation with Martin Burns that he contacted Professor David Chambers, Chambers was taking stock of the dumpster fire that the idiot Project Director had dropped in his lap when the call came in.

Chambers answered the vidcom after just two pings, he had been waiting for this call so that he would know just what the hell he was supposed to do next.

"Admiral Grissom," Chambers greeted the naval supreme commander "I have never been so glad to get a call in my life sir, maybe you can instruct me as to what I am supposed to do about the clusterfu...er...mess that Burns has caused this time."

"Yes, about that," Grissom stated, a hint of amusement at Chambers' near use of profanity just barely detectable on his face "you'll be pleased to know that you no longer have to answer to that imbecile...I just fired him."

Now that gave Chambers a significant feeling of relief, at least no more problems were going to come from that particular source...not without leaving Burns open to criminal proceedings anyway.

For some reason the thought of Burns in a prison cell was appealing to Chambers at this point in time.

I sense a 'but' coming.

"But..."

Called it.

"...That leaves open the question of who will take his place as Project Director," Grissom continued "my first choice would be you Professor Chambers."

Now that Chambers had not been expecting, he knew that others considered him to be very smart, a genius even...he just thought of himself as a man with a talent that he wished to use for the good of mankind.

Not once in his life had he ever considered himself to be Project Director material, initially he was going to turn the offer down.

But then it occurred to him that as Project Director he could make sure that Miss White's rights as a sentient being would be respected, not trampled all over as Burns had clearly intended, he could see that the rights of all involved in this research would be respected.

Furthermore he could ensure that the development of the L3 biotic implant would prioritise doing the job right instead of just doing it fast, he could turn this project into something to be proud of.

"Very well sir," Chambers finally replied "I'll do it."

"I hoped you would," Grissom noted with a clear look of approval "I need to set everything up to make this official but as of this moment your first task is to find Carrie White and convince her to return to the institute."

"Rhana's talent for ferreting out information will be useful for finding the girl," Chambers remarked thoughtfully "however convincing her to return may be considerably more difficult, she left because she was afraid that she'd hurt somebody."

"So get her to see that the best way to ensure that she doesn't hurt anybody is for her to return to the institute," Grissom suggested "that is the truth after all...with us to help her control her powers the risk of her accidentally hurting somebody is greatly reduced."

"That is true," Chambers agreed "and we should definitely mention this to her when we find her."

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The days that followed Carrie's arrival into the lives of Emily and Andrew and all of the others were spent on healing from her wounds...medi gel could close them but the actual healing was up to her and it took time.

Most would have been bedridden for weeks from the wounds that Carrie had if they even survived the chest wound at all, but Carrie had always healed fast...it was one of the things that had allowed her to survive her mother's abuse and ironically one of the things her mother had considered 'demonic' about her.

So both a blessing and a curse at the same time.

Of course if her mother hadn't mentioned it she might never have known that healing so quickly was in any way unusual.

Regardless, even with her accelerated regenerative abilities it still took Carrie nearly a fortnight to heal completely and much of that time was lost in a jumbled haze of fever dreams.

She did remember the stew that Emily would make for her to help her recover, she remembered Andrew's kind words when they would speak during the few times she was lucid enough to do so.

Both seemed to have figured out that she must have been abused and both suspected from how much she hated herself that she must have done something bad that she was deeply ashamed of.

How right they were on both counts.

They seemed sympathetic to her plight and didn't seem to judge the fact that she might have done something horrible, they were also patient with her and didn't pry instead waiting until she was ready to confide in them.

Carrie wasn't ready to talk about it though, she was afraid of what they would think of her if they knew.

If they knew that she was responsible for the deaths of over four hundred people, murders committed while in a haze of madness and blind biotic fuelled rage.

Murders that she would never forgive herself for.

It was halfway through the second week when a redheaded woman that Carrie had also been introduced to by the name of Sally brought her some nicer clothes than the pyjamas she had worn thus far accompanied by Emily who told her to get dressed because she was going to show her around town.

Obviously Emily had noticed...and been amazed by...Carrie's rapid rate of healing, and although still slightly short of breath Carrie was up to some light exertion and leisurely walking by this point.

Carrie was still hesitant to trust anybody, especially herself but this had piqued her curiosity...so with uncharacteristic haste she got dressed ready for her day out wondering what it would bring.

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Shortly after that Carrie was following Emily as the younger girl led her into a place filled with flashing lights, holographic displays and people at machines pressing buttons furiously as the action on the 'screens' unfolded apparently controlling the action taking place.

Carrie realised after a moment that these machines were for playing games on.

No sooner had she taken this in than Emily practically dragged her over to one of these game playing machines that displayed what looked like a couple of robots facing one another, each in a boxer's stance about to fight.

Above the machine was a big lit up sign that read 'Shattered Eezo'.

"I thought you could use a little fun," Emily explained as she led Carrie over to the game "so I decided why not bring you to the video game arcade and let you have some fun on a few arcade games, and since I get the feeling you've never played any games like this before I thought I'd start you off with something a little easier...Shattered Eezo."

"How does this work exactly?" Carrie asked, still unsure but extremely curious.

"Okay, you have to punch out the enemy robot before he punches out your robot," Emily explained "you push this button to punch, you hold it down until it releases to throw a hard punch and this button here is used to block the enemy's attack."

"Okay, I understand," Carrie replied uncertainly.

"Want to give it a try?"

"You won't laugh at me when I mess up?"

She was bullied as well? Jesus...poor girl.

"I won't laugh," Emily assured her "I promise. Who says you're going to mess it up anyway?"

"I always mess up," Carrie told her bitterly.

"Maybe not this time though. Don't you want to find out?"

"Not really," Carrie told her, she truly dreaded being a laughing stock once again.

"Just one try," Emily begged, the pleading look she had plastered all over her face melting Carrie's heart "c'mon...pretty please."

Dammit, those puppy dog eyes, Carrie swore inwardly how can I say no to them without feeling like a total bitch?

"All right," Carrie relented "just one try."

"Yay," Emily cheered happily as she inserted what looked like some kind of coin into the machine and practically shoved Carrie in front of it and the game began.

Carrie worked the controls as Emily had demonstrated and managed to land a few punches on the enemy robot but she wasn't very practised at video games and before long her robot was defeated in the first round.

"I suck at this," Carrie lamented "I knew I'd mess it up."

"Hey..hey, it's your first time," Emily consoled her "there's no shame in it, and look...nobody's laughing."

"I suppose that's better than previous times," Carrie admitted.

Poor girl, Emily though in sympathy the way she's clearly been treated it's no wonder she has no self esteem.

"So...another try?"

"I suppose so," Carrie agreed, though with obvious reluctance.

Emily inserted another coin and the game began again.

Carrie did a little better this time, and although her robot was still knocked out in the first round she came much closer to winning this time.

"So close," Carrie remarked "but I still suck."

"You almost won this time," Emily pointed out "one more try and I think you'd win."
"You do?" Carrie asked, not quite believing that somebody actually thought she could win something.

"Sure I do," Emily assured her "want to try again?"

Carrie smiled, for the first time she was looking forward to the challenge.

"Let's do it."

"You go girl," Emily encouraged her as she inserted another coin.

This time Carrie did much better, having gotten a feel for the game and she comfortably won the first round.

"I won," Carrie stared at the screen in disbelief "I won."

"Great job Carrie," Emily praised her "don't stop now, the next challenger is up."

"Right," Carrie replied as she got right back on the controls just in time as the next enemy robot stood up and began to punch.

As it happened Carrie went on to win the next three rounds before her robot was finally unable to fight any more, and although she didn't set any record scores it was nonetheless quite an impressive performance for a girl who had entered the arcade with no self confidence whatsoever.

It seemed that in winning this silly little game she had also won back a tiny sliver of her self respect.

It wasn't much but it was a start.

ssssss

Rhana was starting to get a little tired of not making any headway, it had been nearly two weeks since that idiot Burns was fired and Chambers made the project director in his stead.

Nearly two weeks since the Professor had decided to employ Rhana's talent for ferreting out information to track down leads as to Carrie White's whereabouts on the streets of New York while he tracked leads through the media and in all that time what had she found?

Not a damn thing.

Zip, zilch, nada also known as didley squat.

It was as she was thinking this that a nearby conversation floated to her ears.

"Can you believe that girl didn't know how to play an arcade game, I mean who doesn't know how to play an arcade game. Seriously...what a freak."

Okay, this sounded promising.

"I dunno," the other girl in the conversation replied "I actually felt sorry for her, those kinds of self esteem issues don't come from living a nice happy life you know."

"Whatever," the first girl scoffed dismissively "I couldn't care less about that, seriously...pathetic much."

"You're such a bitch sometimes Courtney," the second girl told the first girl...Courtney "remind me again why I'm actually friends with you."

"Because you're the only person who gets to see my softer side Mei Lin," Courtney reminded her "that's why you're still friends with me."

"I wish I got to see that softer side a little more often," Mei Lin remarked dryly "sometimes I forget it even exists."

"Excuse me ladies," Rhana interjected "I'm sorry to interrupt but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation and you mentioned a girl who didn't know how to play an arcade game?"

"What about the freak?" Courtney replied rudely, clearly annoyed at having her conversation interrupted, at a pointed look from Mei Lin she quickly amended her statement "Sorry, I mean what did you want to know about the girl?"

"Well, what she looks like for starters," Rhana requested "please, it's important, if she is who I think she is then I need to find her for her own safety and possibly that of others around her."

"About this tall," Mei Lin indicated the girl's height with her hand "strawberry blonde, green eyes, she had a pretty face and a really nice figure and she was as shy as all get out with a serious lack of self esteem."

Well, the description fit at least, but further investigation was needed to verify this lead.

"And you saw her at the video game arcade?"

"Yeah, she was there with another girl," Mei Lin confirmed "Asian like me...about fifteen or maybe sixteen years old, do you have your omni tool on you? I'll give you a nav point to get there."

ssssss

A short time later Emily was leading Carrie toward a fast food stand, the smell of frying hamburgers, onions and bacon was making her hungry and she had a little money available for lunch, Carrie had to be getting hungry by now too.

Despite this Carrie seemed to find something she was smelling to be unpleasant, but that couldn't apply to everything at this stall right?

"I'm going to get a hamburger for lunch Carrie," Emily told her "would you like one?"

"Oh...yes please," Carrie replied, seemingly surprised that it had even been offered.

Yet more evidence that she was abused, Emily thought sadly.

"So what would you like on your hamburger? Onion? Barbecue sauce? Bacon? Cheese? Lettuce?"

"Everything you just mentioned except the bacon," Carrie responded, wrinkling her nose in obvious disgust at the thought of eating bacon.

Something about the way Carrie had said that set off an alarm bell in Emily's mind.

"It's that bad?" Emily probed experimentally.

"Just the smell of it is killing my appetite," Carrie replied "I don't want anything that comes from a pig on my hamburger thank you."

"Nothing from a pig?"

"If I never see pig meat of any kind again it will be too soon," Carrie confirmed flatly "especially raw pig meat."

That was when it all clicked in Emily's head.

Raw pig meat, she surmised in startled realisation as in pig meat with blood still in it, dear god...the people who hurt her did they...? Please tell me they didn't...

But the way the smell of bacon clearly made Carrie want to dry heave meant that there was very little doubt.

Jesus Christ they dumped pig's blood on her.

After that Emily placed their orders as quickly as she could and once they both had their hamburgers she got Carrie as far away from the smell of frying bacon as she could...no sense making the poor girl sick.

All the way Emily was fuming inside at the people who had done this to such a sweet girl.

Sick fucks...I hope she killed them.

ssssss

As Emily and Carrie were getting lunch an invisible presence was watching them from a nearby rooftop, none other than Agent Shadow herself, hidden in plain sight by her tactical cloak.

Little was known about this individual, who as it happened had been sent to keep tabs on Carrie White after word had reached the Illusive Man from his contact in the Alliance Institute for Transhuman Studies that she was alive and had fled the Institute.

The number of people in the galaxy who even knew what Shadow looked like under the mask could be counted on one hand, the Illusive Man himself being one of them...fewer still had any reason to suspect that she was connected to Chamberlain or Carrie White in any way or that she was well over a hundred and fifty years old but kept young by her healing ability.

But it was precisely this connection that had caused the Illusive Man to select her for this job...in addition to her being one of his most effective operatives that is.

That incident on Omega was the first time she had ever failed and also the first time she had had second thoughts about an assignment.

She was having second thoughts about this one though, Carrie didn't deserve what the Illusive Man had in mind for her.

Of course back in the day she would have had a completely different opinion on the subject.

Back before her change of heart.

Shadow had originally joined with the Illusive Man's organisation in the hopes of finding redemption for her past by serving the cause of humanity, but now she had begun to wonder if she was in fact redeeming herself.

The ageless warrior felt a pang of intense guilt as she overheard Carrie mention that the smell of frying bacon was ruining her appetite...she was well aware of why that was the case.

I certainly have a lot to atone for.

Shadow was seriously considering not carrying out her assignment this time.

Begging for it since the sixth grade my ass, she thought tiredly what the hell was I thinking?

ssssss

Professor Chambers was in his office trying to track down any possible leads as to Carrie's whereabouts based on facial recognition from traffic cameras and also police and ambulance reports without success when the call came through.

Diverting the call to his workstation he was immediately greeted by Rhana's face.

"I finally found a possible lead Professor," Rhana told him "I overheard a couple of girls talking about a girl at a video game arcade who didn't know how to play an arcade game and seemed to have self confidence issues."

"Sounds promising," Chambers admitted with a nod "and you're following up?"

"Already on it," Rhana assured him "I asked them about her and the nicer of the two gave me a basic description of this girl that matches Carrie quite closely, she was even nice enough to give me a nav point for the arcade, I'm heading there right now to start showing Carrie's picture around."

"Well done," Chambers told her with a smile "keep me posted, meanwhile I'll keep looking on my end."

ssssss

As Carrie was finishing her hamburger, touched as she was by the gesture of kindness on Emily's part as few people had ever shown her true kindness before she heard Emily break the silence, apparently she found it awkward.

"Carrie..?"
"Yes?"

"Did your mother...? Did she...?"

Apparently Emily was having trouble finding the right words, almost as though she was afraid to ask the question but felt that it needed to be asked nonetheless.

"Did she what?" Carrie asked, though she had a sneaking suspicion that she already knew what Emily was going to ask her.

"Did your Mom really try to kill you?"

"How did you know that?" it didn't really matter how Emily knew and Carrie knew this, she was deflecting the question and she knew it but facing the reality of what her own mother had tried to do to her was...difficult to say the least.

Facing the reality of what she had done to her mother in self defence harder still.

"I heard you mumbling about it while you were semi conscious," Emily told her "but that doesn't really matter does it? Did she try to kill you?"

"She did," Carrie confirmed, trying and failing to hold back tears at the memory...that oh so painful memory "and I had to kill her in self defence, I didn't want to do it...but..."

"You didn't have a choice," Emily surmised "so those wounds you had when we found you..?"

"Were from her," Carrie confirmed as she sobbingly tried to wipe away her tears.

"That bitch," Emily muttered darkly "how could she do that to her own daughter?"

"Probably because of my biotics," Carrie told Emily as she applied a simple low level biotic field to move the paper wrappers from their hamburgers into the nearest garbage bin.

"I'm surprised you're showing them to me so openly," Emily remarked in surprise.

Carrie shrugged.

"You already suspected that I have these abilities so there wasn't much point hiding them."

"I guess not," Emily admitted "so then your oh so loving mother also abused you because of your powers?"

"Depends how you define abuse," Carrie was deflecting again and she knew it, but admitting these things for what they were was not easy.

"Hitting you, deliberately making you feel worthless ugly or unclean, locking you in places, starving you, hurting you in other ways, stunting your social or intellectual development," Emily stated "all of those things and more constitute abuse."

"Does a closet count as...places?"

"Definitely."

"Then yes," Carrie reluctantly admitted "she was abusing me."

"Bitch."

"I suppose she was."

"And you were bullied by your classmates at school?" pausing for a moment Emily quickly continued "and before you try to deflect the question I'll give you some examples of what counts as bullying. Calling you horrible names, slamming your fingers in locker doors, tripping you, knocking your school supplies out of your hands, throwing things at you, hitting you or in extreme cases dumping offensive substances such as...oh...pigs blood on you."

"Yes," Carrie admitted, having realised that Emily would get the truth out of her no matter how much she tried to avoid it "they did bully me...mercilessly. What made you think of pigs blood for the offensive material?"

"Maybe the fact that the smell of frying bacon seems to make you nauseous?" Emily clarified "they actually did that to you didn't they?"

"They did," Carrie confirmed "but I'd rather not discuss that any further for now if that's okay with you."

"Fair enough," Emily agreed "but when you're ready to talk I'm ready to listen."

"I appreciate that," Carrie smiled back at her new...friend? Yes friend, that was the right term, Carrie's first true friend at that "and I hope I haven't offended you by shutting this conversation down, it's just...well this isn't easy for me to talk about. I'd rather take this in small steps if you don't mind."

"That's quite okay," Emily assured Carrie "as long as you don't shut me out completely."

"Thank you," Carrie nodded appreciatively "I do feel better after discussing it with you but I still feel too broken to go fast on this. I feel like...well like one of those boxing robots in the arcade getting pounded into scrap," Carrie chuckled briefly at the irony that the arcade game she had been playing earlier so perfectly mirrored how she felt inside "Shattered Eezo, that's me."

ssssss

As Rhana entered the video arcade, a renewed sense of purpose powering her stride her first port of call was the front desk.

It took some time waiting in the queue, but eventually she got her chance to talk to the man at the desk.

"What can I do for you Ma'am?" the attendant greeted her politely, clearly eager to be of service.

"Well I was wondering," Rhana replied in an equally polite and businesslike tone as she activated her omni tool and tapped a few controls on it's holographic interface to bring up Carrie's picture which she then showed to the attendant "if you've seen this girl."

"She came in here about an hour and a half ago," the attendant told her "she was with another girl, asian looking, rather pretty...the girl in that photo is good looking too of course but she seemed really shy and withdrawn, I prefer girls who are more outgoing."

"Uh huh," Rhana noted, pointedly ignoring the part about the attendant's taste in women "so you have seen her then?"

"I have."

"And do you know where she is now?"

"Maybe in the back playing a game," the attendant suggested "unless she's already left."

"You don't know if she has or not?"

"You see how many customers I have to keep track of?" the attendant asked Rhana as he gestured to the queue forming behind her.

"Right...I'm sorry," Rhana apologised "Would it be okay if I took a look in the back to see if I can find her? Maybe ask a few people where she went if she already gone?"

"Knock yourself out," the attendant told her as he gestured in the general direction that had just been spoken of "let me get back to serving customers."

"Sorry to take up your time," Rhana responded as she headed in the back of the arcade.

It took some time to get results, nearly two dozen people didn't know if she had been in there or not, others simply didn't want to talk or were too busy trying to hit on Rhana to tell her anything useful.

She was just about to give up hope when an older gentleman seemed to recognise Carrie's picture.

"Yes she was in here all right," the elderly gentleman told Rhana "she was with another girl who seemed to be trying to help her gain some confidence by encouraging her to keep persisting at a game of Shattered Eezo until she finally won. From the looks of things she needed it, the poor girl obviously had a very low opinion of herself...you should have seen her face light up when she finally did win, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Well at least this girl she's with seems to be trying to help her, Rhana surmised Carrie needs all the help she can get.

"Do you know where she is now?"

"Unfortunately I don't," the older gentleman told Rhana "she left about a half hour ago, I didn't see which way she went but there's a fast food stall just a couple of blocks over from here. You could ask there, maybe she and this other girl stopped there for lunch...I hope she'll be okay, poor thing."

Yeah, Rhana thought to herself so do I, which is why it's imperative that I find her.

ssssss

After she and Carrie had finished their hamburgers Emily decided that it would be best to get Carrie home, or what passed for home these days.

After all...Carrie was still healing, both physically and emotionally.

It was when they were just five hundred meters from Tenth Street that they both heard the sounds of a scuffle coming from a nearby alley as well as a male human voice, the voice of a Turian and the voice of a Batarian.

"Please...don't hurt me," the human voice begged "I'll give you anything you want."

"We're not after money human," the Batarian voice replied "your kind needs to learn it's place."

"You can't keep opening mass relays carelessly and not expect consequences," the Turian added.

"I didn't make those decisions," the human protested "and your government could have contacted us and discussed the matter like rational adults instead of just firing on us."

"You think I care?" the Batarian snapped.

There was the sound of a fist hitting flesh and a grunt of pain from the human.

Fucking Batarians, Emily thought disgustedly as she reached into her pocket for the blood red ski mask she kept there and that Turian needs to get it through his thick skull that the First Contact War is over, maybe the two of them will learn their lesson this time.

Probably not but one could hope.

"Carrie, stay here," Emily ordered as she quickly moved the older girl back out of sight of the alley.

"What are you going to do?" Carrie asked fearfully as she seemed to pick up on Emily's intentions.

"Just stay here and stay out of sight," Emily insisted as she got her ski mask out and put it on "this won't take long."

Also slipping out a couple of sets of brass knuckles, Emily slipped one onto each hand in preparation for what she knew would come next.

"You two up to your old tricks again?" Emily called to the pair as she rounded the corner "I wondered if maybe you'd learned your lesson about 'human hunting' in New York but I guess that takes brains."

"You again," the Turian replied "I thought maybe that cop caught you and your friend after last time, looks like he was too slow...what else can you expect from a human."

"You know the drill guys," Emily told the two of them "step away from the poor helpless human and nobody gets hurt."

"Maybe," the Batarian countered as he advanced on her prompting an eye roll from Emily "or maybe you should get hurt, making an example of some nobody is one thing, but humiliating one of the Tenth Street Reds would send a much stronger message."

"You could try," Emily shrugged "you'd fail but you could try."

"Don't be so sure of that bitch," the not much smarter Turian shot back lamely as he too closed in.

"Hey buddy," Emily called to the human male these two had been harassing and had been about to beat up.

"Yes?" the man called back fearfully.
"Run," Emily snapped as her right fist, brass knuckles and all flashed out and struck the Turian flush on the bony plate that protected his left cheek just above his left mandible, he staggered back holding his abused face and groaning and cursing in agony.

The intended victim of these two ran for his life as ordered as a roundhouse kick quickly followed, smacking the Batarian hard in the face and putting him on the ground, a spinning kick quickly followed that dropped the Turian down beside him.

Quickly fishing in the pockets of each Emily soon came out with a couple of credit chits, nodding in satisfaction as she did.

"There we go," Emily remarked satisfied "a nice donation for the Reds."

"Not so fast bitch...move and you die," this statement from the Turian was accompanied by the sound of a mass accelerator pistol unfolding "turn around and face me so you know I'm not bluffing."

Slowly turning around Emil saw that the gun was indeed very real, an M5 Carnifex...certainly not anything to scoff at considering how much damage it could do and this bastard had it aimed right at her head.

"Now put the credit chits on the ground and take off all of your clothes, starting with the mask."

"What are you going to do?" Emily asked nervously as she tried to find some way out of this situation while slowly setting the credit chits on the ground.

"Beat you up, tie you up and leave you naked and humiliated in this alley but you'll still be alive...probably."

"And if I refuse to cooperate?"

The Turian's mandible's flared in the Turian equivalent of a smile.

"Then I'll blow your fucking brains out, strip you naked and leave you humiliated and dead in this alley."

It didn't look like she had a lot of options.

This was going to royally suck, Emily noted grimly as she reached up to remove her mask.

The look of smug satisfaction the Turian was throwing her way made her want to vomit.

But reprieve came a second later as an invisible force threw the Turian down the alleyway causing him to lose his grip on the gun and smacking him into a wall hard enough to knock him unconscious.

Quickly turning around Emily soon spotted the person she knew must be responsible for what had just happened.

"Carrie, I thought I told you to stay hidden," Emily then quickly added "but I'm glad you didn't, you just saved my dignity and probably my life."

"I couldn't let him do that to you Emily," Carrie told the younger girl "you're the first real friend I've ever had...I've got your back no matter what okay?"

"Understood," Emily acknowledged with a simple nod as she scooped the credit chits up off of the ground, as she did her gaze drifted over to the Turian's gun where it lay on the pavement, for a moment she was just going to leave it there.

But then she changed her mind as she picked up the fallen weapon, closed it back down to it's folded state and slipped it into her pocket.

Someday it might be useful.

ssssss

A sort time later Carrie, Emily and everybody else were gathered around a table back at the hideout discussing what had happened, it was Dorian Finch who spoke first, to his younger brother Dexter Finch.

"See little brother, I told you a biotic would be useful."

Dexter gave a grunt but said nothing.

"It seems we need to come clean with you about some things Carrie," Dorian continued as he addressed her "you deserve to know what kind of people you're living with."

"That would be nice," Carrie agreed.

"Okay," Dorian told her "we call ourselves the Tenth Street Reds, the law considers us a street gang, but what we really are is a group of vigilantes who claim...call it 'donations'...from those we defend our fellow humans against in order to fund our operation."

"Is this a problem for you Miss Goody Two Shoes?" Dexter Finch asked pointedly.

Carrie thought about it for a moment and found herself surprised at how she actually felt regarding this.

"Not at all," she answered honestly "if they're part of the problem shouldn't they help fund the solution?"

Carrie couldn't help noticing the look of approval on Dorian's face at this and the look of disappointment on Dexter's.

Apparently Dexter had been hoping that this would be a problem for her.

Just what was his problem with her anyway?

"Those two that Emily dealt with in the alley," Carrie noted thoughtfully "I get the feeling that you've had trouble with them before."

"You also helped deal with those two Carrie," Emily reminded her "I wouldn't be here if you hadn't."

"Possibly not, but you may simply have been horribly humiliated...which can actually be worse," Carrie remarked casually "but staying on topic, they seem like a regular part of your rogues gallery."

"Definitely," Emily agreed "Balak and Joryn Kuril, one the son of a high ranking Batarian diplomat stationed on Earth who knows that he can get away with whatever he wants, the other a former soldier from the First Contact War who can't seem to let go of his grudge against humans."

"At any one time there's millions of aliens living on Earth..." Dorian began.

"Fucking stupid idea if you ask me," Dexter muttered.

Everybody ignored him.

"...And most of those aliens are decent enough," Dorian continued as he shot a warning look at his younger brother "but every now and then you get some like those two in the alley who think that humans need to 'learn their place' sad to say the practise of 'human hunting' has become all too common among such individuals."

"Usually amongst Turians, Batarians and Krogan," Sally supplied "but also some Salarians, even a few Elcor and surprisingly a couple of Asari."

"And considering that all Asari are naturally biotic," Andrew Greiz added "when they take part in such things it gets dangerous."

"And it's always ordinary people who end up suffering when that happens," Sally added "like that poor bastard that you and Emily rescued in that alley."

"I see," Carrie noted in deep thought, no wonder Dorian thought a biotic might be useful "so why not let the police handle it?"

"Because the police aren't doing anything about it stupid," Dexter snapped irritably, causing Carrie to flinch in fright.

"Dexter that's enough," Dorian told his younger brother in a tone that would brook no argument, turning back toward Carrie he continued "despite his unpleasantness just now my brother isn't wrong about the police being impotent on this issue Carrie.

The courts aren't any better, all of the people involved are powerful or powerfully connected, and considering humanity's currently precarious position in the galactic community the police and the courts keep tiptoeing around this for fear of angering extra terrestrial governments whom we may need later as allies. Seldom are the offenders even arrested let alone prosecuted, and the few times they are the penalties they get are basically a slap on the wrist."

"The worst ones are the Red Sand smugglers," Sally told Carrie "I lost my cousin because of them."

"I'm sorry," Carrie told her sympathetically.

"No need to apologise, you didn't take her from me," Sally told the young biotic "just know that the only truly effective deterrent against these criminals is the Reds."

Carrie thought about that for a moment...then she made her decision.

"I want to help you."

"Carrie, are you sure?" Emily asked, she had grown protective of the shy biotic girl and didn't want her put in danger "it'll be dangerous and not exactly legal...you know that right?"

"I know," Carrie responded quietly but firmly, then she addressed the group as a whole "what you guys are doing may not be legal but it is right. I want to help you."

"Well in that case," Dorian told her as he rose and extended his hand for her to shake, which she rose to her feet and did so enthusiastically "welcome to the Tenth Street Reds."

ssssss

Shortly after this when everybody else had turned in except for Dexter Finch who had gone out to patrol for alien on human attacks Dorian Finch found that he couldn't sleep just yet, he had too much on his mind as he stood in what passed for the living room staring out the window.

Concern for his brother and the dark path he was starting to tread for one thing, but a bright spot in all this was the promise shown by the newest member of the Reds.

He still felt some concern for her also though...just what had the poor girl been through to make her like this?

"The new girl shows some promise doesn't she?" Sally noted as she announced her presence at the doorway.

"That she does," Dorian agreed as he turned to see Sally's slender form in a sheer nightie as she walked over and snuggled up against him, her fiery red hair framing her face as she smiled softly at him and the two shared a passionate kiss "hmm, that was nice. I am a little concerned about her though...there seems to be a lot of trauma there and probably a lot of repressed anger, but she does genuinely seem to want to do good."

"I see that too," Sally agreed "I hope she finds her way through the hell she's dealing with...the world needs people like her."

"I agree."

"So this is what's keeping you up?" Sally asked.

"Yeah," Dorian confirmed simply "I take it you can't sleep either?"

"Not a wink," Sally admitted reluctantly "same concerns."

"Since neither of us can sleep we could go out on the town for a while," Dorian suggested "the night clubs are no doubt still open, we could take the car."

"That car is for the use of the team," Sally reminded him.

"And we're members of the team," Dorian pointed out "we'd be looking out for anybody attacking our fellow humans while we're out, plus I was the one who bought that car for the team."

"Let's stay right here and enjoy this moment of peace," Sally suggested as she snuggled in closer.

"You know, I like that idea," Dorian told her as he held her close.

"I love you Dorian Finch," Sally softly declared.

"I love you too Sally Nellis."