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Hallowed Truth	By : Spiritwolf71 Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 3767 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and its world is owned by Bioware, I make no profit from this tale.

Chapter List
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Sweat dripped from her brow as the small child made her way through the tight tunnel. For the longest time Alana had been certain she would never see light again. She had lost her mining helmet as she ran to avoid the explosion, leaving behind Peter as she did. Not that she could get to him anyway; he had been in a separate tunnel.
Three children had been sent by Bosk to widen the tunnels to the newest supply of iridium. Peter had actually been the one who had found the fresh vein the day before while they were scouting. Alana had tried to talk him out of telling their Keepers about the mineral because she had a bad feeling; Peter figured it would earn him some special favours.
The only thing it earned him was a trip back down the tunnel with explosives, and she and Janice had been sent with him.
The problem with Peter was nothing was simple. He always did things backwards and then insisted he was right and he always set the charges backwards. Alana had warned him many times that it would be the death of him. That all it took was a simple shake to set it off the way he did it.
When he had crawled down the last leg of the tunnels to the vein Alana had not gone with him. She had managed to talk Janice out of it as well and they waited for him at a juncture that was big enough for the two of them to stand in.
“Do the yellow wires last,” she called down the tunnel. She looked down to her pack containing her own explosives. She began to set them up at the juncture, they would hold on to Janice’s until they were on their way out.
“Shut up, Stupid,” Peter called back. She sighed; he was such a bully, and never listened to anyone.
Janice, who was the eldest of the three at thirteen, rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why you bother; he always tells you to shut up and then beats you up when he gets out.”
“I just let him beat me up,” Alana said with a smile, “One of these days I will be bigger then he will be.”
“You’ll never be bigger then he will be, you’re a runt,” Janice smiled to her, “But you my runt.”
She and Janice had been together since the Batarians had Raided Mindoir. She had not known the older girl before that, but they had become best friends since. They had both figured they were the lucky ones. They had heard stories about what had happened to some of the other children, about the control chips they had put in their heads. Bosk, their owner, really could not afford such devices. He used other techniques to keep them in order. In the first four months she had been his prisoner she had been whipped more times than could count. It had taken four months but she had finally decided that she could not take the pain any more.
Since then she had become a damn good tunneller. Within the year and a half since the abduction she had become quite the explosives expert as well. She really did not want to be one of those kids that set the explosives off too soon and found themselves dead, or worse, maimed and left to die.
When the tunnel shook she heard the slight fizzle of the charge on the explosives. She knew what was coming next and she shoved Janice to the ground as the explosion hit and flames shot above them and down the tunnel.
“Peter,” She yelled, but she knew the explosion killed him. She could smell the sickening acrid smell of burning flesh. It was not the first time she had smelt it and she knew it would not be her last.
“Alana,” Janice tugged on her arm and she realized Janice was beginning to panic. She tried to look down the tunnel Peter was in but she had lost her helmet and light.
“Peter,” She called again.
“He’s gone, go,” Janice pulled her away from the tunnel and it began to shake again. She shoved her into the tunnel they had used to arrive at this location. Alana moved as quickly as she could using the light from Janice’s helmet as the older girl crawled behind her. Even with the light she could barely see through the smoke. The tunnel was shaking even more and she tried to move faster.
Sweat dripped from her brow as she made her way through. She was more than certain she would never see the light of day again.
Just when she thought she was not going to make it she felt hands grab her arms and pull her out of the tunnel and she began to cough in the semi fresh air.
“Get the other one,” she heard Bosk call but she something seemed to explode at that moment and the tunnel that Janice was still inside of collapsed. She could hear her best friend scream for a second and then it was quiet.
“Janice,” Alana choked out her friends name and rushed to the tunnel. She didn’t quite make it as the one of the Keepers grabbed a hold of her and began to drag her out of the mine.
“She’s gone, kid,” The Batarian said in that awful sounding voice of theirs.
“Nooo!” the small girl felt the tears sting her eyes as she fought against the strong arms that were pulling her away from her friend. “Let me go, I have to get her.” She bit his arm when he didn’t comply. She fell to the ground as he let her go.
“Bitch,” he snarled as she attempted to run back. His large paw pressed hard against her chest and lifted her off the ground. She was flying through the air and before she could wonder just what had happened, her back was slammed against the wall, causing her head jerk back and hit it as well. She slid from the wall into unconsciousness calling her friends name and praying that she had somehow made it out.
“Janice,” She whispered as she lowered the hover car into the old dusty road. She had no idea of why that memory had chosen to surface at this time. She ran her hand through her hair and looked over to Sam who was handcuffed to the door beside her.
She had allowed Sam to call her friend to take care of the dog shortly after they left. She just hoped that he did not come to feed Grover while whomever was behind all this was breaking into her house.
Gary lived out in a very small community, surrounded on three sides by farms and forest. He had talked about it often enough when they were on a mission. It had only taken an hour to figure out where it was.
Gary had been her handler since the war. Like any other handler she knew very little about him. Any kind of relationship between handler and Infiltrator was frowned upon. Often times they really had no idea who each other were. She and Gary had met on several occasions, mostly for planning and twice when she had gone deep undercover.
The Handler had always been there for her, every time she needed information, if he could give it to her, he did. If she ever needed a rescue he was there to pull her out of the fire. She found she could always depend on him, something she was not very good at doing. After Janice had died so many years earlier she had never really had any friends. James had been about the closest but it had been a fling, they both knew nothing would ever have come out of it.
Except, something had, a small, pink bundle of joy and love had come out of that fling, she sighed.
“Well, we have a good walk ahead of us,” she finally said to Sam, who turned and looked to her, unimpressed.
“Why would you park so far away?” she asked. It was the first they had really spoken since Lanie had stolen the vehicle and secured her to the door.
The Infiltrator smiled, “Don’t like exercise, Comm Specialist Traynor?” Sam fixed her with a glare, “You’re suddenly grumpy.”
Lanie exited the vehicle then moved over to the other side and helped Sam out. The woman continued to give her the stink eye, as her mother would call it. “The idea when infiltrating is not to get caught. You start out far away and move in, the further the better. That way they don’t see your vehicle land and know you are coming. There’s a lot of walking and hiking involved in my job.”
“Job, you have been declared a dead traitor, I think that inherently means you have been fired.”
Lanie held Sam against the car as she reached in the vehicle to retrieve her scope. “This is just a pit stop, Sam, I need to know what happened to him, and you have to understand. I don’t have much, he’s about the closest thing I have to a friend without actually being one.”
She gave a little push to the black haired woman and then followed her as they started their walk. Sam’s demeanour had changed quite a bit and that was worrisome. Before it was all sassy but compliant, she was worried that maybe Sam had decided to not be so helpful. Not that she would blame the woman, she was a hostage, had the roles been reversed Lanie would have tried to take her out by now.
“So you don’t have any friends, no one special, you’re alone?” Sam asked. Lanie raised a brow, but Sam continued. “You dedicated your life to you job, left nothing but a pat on the back here and there.”
Lanie wanted to protest and tell her she was being a bitch but the fact of the matter was she was not far off. Lanie really had to show for her life, it had all been taken away from her during the war and now she was simply a robot, moving from job to job as her government required. Now that government had betrayed her, her life seemed even less than nothing.
“Well, now that we can add depression to my list of feelings, you’re a lot more pleasant when you’re talking back.”
“Let’s just say I had time to think on the drive here,” Sam said and they continued to walk.
“Oh, that’s never a good thing,” Lanie commented and when Sam gave her another version of the stink eye she sighed, “I owed you that one.”
“Well, the Prime Minister has been assassinated and I really don’t know if you shot her or not. I don’t know if you were under orders or not. Either way you chose me to take prisoner.”
“You chose yourself when you high jacked my investigation.”
“Whatever, you have been declared dead, yet here you are, which means there is some truth to your story, how much I don’t know, but some. You said that they found my house which means they know that I know that you are alive. So where does that leave me?”
“What do you mean?” Lanie asked but she already knew what the woman was getting at.
“I mean, I know things that could get me killed, don’t I?”
Lanie stopped walking and looked to her as she realized just what she had done. So focused on getting information she had not thought about what she was doing and now, she wondered if it was too late. “Fuck,” She sighed. “I, you know people who can protect you though, you have that. You were on the Normandy. You might not be at Shepard’s level of hero, but you have to be up there somewhere.”
“One can only hope, but, right now, walking in this field I am pretty much just as vulnerable as you, even more so since I really don’t know how to use a gun, or fight, or protect myself to your level. I’m a Communication Specialist for goodness sakes.”
Lanie smiled slightly, she had never really heard someone curse so politely before. “I will tell what. While you are with me I will do my best to make sure you get out of this unharmed, unless you, of course give me a reason to hurt you myself.”
“I don’t think you would,” Sam said looking to her. “You might be some big assassin that has who knows how many kills under your belt, but not like this. You don’t just kill innocent people, I mean not without a contract. And, given the fact that you couldn’t kill the Prime Minister and what you said in the house, you are inherently a good person.”
Lanie laughed as she returned to walking, bring Sam with her, “You have no idea of what I am capable of. I have never really had anyone, Sam. I grew up depending on one person and that was myself and I know how to do whatever it takes to survive. I’m a survivalist; friends are an option and one I have never really taken. They make you weak and vulnerable and bring nothing but pain.” She said before she could stop herself. “It’s better to be on one’s own.”
“Really, is that what you believe, that by being alone you can avoid any emotional mumbo jumbo. It obviously didn’t work for you, you had a child. You can’t tell me you are better off without her.”
For a split second Lanie almost backhanded Sam, the though crossed her mind as she felt the flare of anger but she swallowed it down. “No, I was a better person when I was a mother, but that was taken away from me.”
“Like any friends you had in the past, is that why you prefer to be alone?”
“So, are all communication specialist trained in therapy? You sound like my shrink.”
“You have a shrink?”
“We all do its part of the job. If you think about it, it will make sense to you. Killing people is not normal.”
Sam looked to the ground. She obviously had not really thought about that, but then she was a communication specialist. They only thing she had probably ever killed was a conversation.
“I have Grover.” Sam said suddenly and Lanie was not quite sure what she meant by that, she let the woman continue. “I’m not like you, I don’t stray from relationship, I just have a hard time making friends. My job takes up a lot of my time. I’ve had the odd relationship, in more ways than one at times, but really, I have my dog.”
“You know you can love your dog, you just can’t love your dog,” she said using her fingers to quote the second love. Sam smiled.
“I’m sorry; I just suddenly realized that I have found myself in quite a predicament and one that might even get me killed. The realization made me testy and since it was your fault I took it out on you.”
“No, you were in you’re right there and for the record, I am sorry I dragged you into it. You never know we might get lucky and get out of this alive.”
“Well I have hopes that I do but I’m not so sure about you.”
Lanie laughed at that as they crested the hill they had been climbing and looked down into a neighbourhood that was still in several stages of growth. From the map that Lanie had studied Gary’s house was at the edge where they now stood. She brought her scope up to her eye and took a look. Several cars were moving down the street and she realized it was what she had coined change over. People were arriving home and changing from work/school mode to family mode.
She had once done that. She would come home from a mission and she changed from a soldier to a mother while she showered. She smiled as she thought of how Lottie would wait with her mother outside the bathroom and as soon as she emerged would want hugs and kisses and songs and stories. Her favorite had been Beauty and the Beast, or maybe it was Lanie’s favorite, Lottie was a little too young to form an opinion.
She continued to watch as finally a car pulled into the driveway of Gary’s home. Because of the angles she was not able to see who came out of it. “They are home.” Sam squinted her eyes but was too far away to see anything.
“The house is huge; he obviously got paid a lot more than I did.” Lanie said.
“Do you see anything?” Sam asked, as much as she was a prisoner she felt as though this was some pivotal moment that she wanted to be a part of.
“Wait,” Lanie whispered as suddenly a small child ran into the back yard. She was about five years old with long flowing brown hair. Lanie adjusted her scope and zoomed in on the girl. She froze for a few seconds as she realized the five year old looked a lot like she did when she was that age. As a matter of fact if she held up a picture of herself at that age it would be identical.
She shook that thought away and decided it was one of those wishful thinking moments. She zoomed out and watched as a woman stepped out of the house. Gary’s wife was beautiful, like a model beautiful. Gary was not exactly a great looking man, how did he rate a wife so beautiful. She knew the woman would have red hair; Gary had always gone on about how much he was a sucker for a woman with red hair. Suddenly she remembered Gary mentioning he had gotten married just before the war. When they had met he had only been married a year. This little girl must have been one of theirs from another relationship.
The woman smiled to the girl and gave her a big hug. Lanie suddenly found herself longing to hold her own daughter. She bit her lip to stop it from trembling and then froze as a third figure entered the back yard. At first she wondered if it as a brother or something but then when he kissed the red haired woman she realized it could only be one person.
“Gary?” the name escaped her lips before she could stop them. All sorts of thoughts and feelings went through her head. He should have been dead. Whoever set her up would have known about him and killed him, or at least sent him on the run like she was. She pulled away the scope and rubbed her eye before looking again, Gary was swinging the child around as Lanie realized that whatever was happening, Gary was a part of it. He had betrayed her, stabbed her in the back, the only person she had been able to trust since the war.
“The fucking cock sucker,” She spewed before she could think about what she was saying. She lowered the scope and stood up, moving towards the house. Sam moved in her way.
“Where are you going?”
“That fucking bastard stabbed me in the back; I’m going to repay the debt.” She said her anger overcoming her.
“Think about what you are about to do Lanie, first off, he’s with his family. Secondly, if you go down there they will catch you. What happened to survivalist? You have been a survivor by being smart, not emotional.” Sam countered. Lanie reached into her pocket and pulled out a knife, cutting the plastic around Sam’s hands.
“You’re free to go,” Lanie said simply and moved to go around the woman. Sam grabbed her by the arm.
“Don’t be stupid. You go down there and this all ends in your death and he will still be a hero. He will have gotten away with it; no one would ever know the truth. Lanie listen to me,” Sam begged and felt slightly relieved when the woman finally looked to her. “Listen, we will get the proof you need and get us both out of this mess. You dragged me into this and I am a part of it now, whether I like it or not.”
Lanie looked from the Sam to Gary’s house as the happy family continued to play outside. Her fist clenched and unclenched.
“Please Lanie; my life is in your hands.”
Lanie sighed and turned away, Sam was right, if she went down there now she would just play right into their hands and be killed, branded a traitor and buried in some unmarked grave somewhere. She needed to get proof to take him and whoever he was working with down. She needed to get Sam out of this mess but she also still needed the woman’s skill.
Sam held up her hands to be bound, Lanie chuckled to her. “Do I really need to do that?”
“What, you’re going to trust me?”
“Well, no, but I am going to give you some lead, see if you choke yourself on it. Unless you really want me to tie you up, maybe you’re into that sort of thing,” Lanie said trying to lighten the mood and flush the traitor form her mind. It wasn’t working.
“Maybe I am, but more in the bedroom,” Sam said and began to walk back to the vehicle. Lanie raised a brow and wondered of that was a flirt. She brought the scope up one more time and watched the child for a moment before turning back and following Sam to the vehicle.
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Hallowed Truth