#feeeelings

“How can you tell?” Cassiel whispered back, and Evfra pointed ahead of them.

“See that shimmering?” he asked, and Cassiel squinted, straining her eyes to see what he was talking about.

“Oooh,” she murmured when she saw it, small areas a bit ahead of them seemed to warp slightly. Evfra slid his sniper rifle from his shoulder silently, and nudged Cassiel out of the way. She moved and watched with rapt fascination as he sniped the group of 4 challyrions, her eyes flitting between Evfra’s focused face and the bodies of the challyrion, who’s camouflage stopped once they expired. “Wow,” she muttered, and Evfra awkwardly chuckled.

“It’s not difficult to spot, once you know what you’re looking for,” he explained to her, and Cassiel nodded gratefully, accepting his hand when he offered it to help her up.

It only took them half an hour to reach the entrance to the vault, and Cassiel groaned when she saw the rylkor pacing back and forth in front of it. It’s beady reptilian eyes were sweeping the area, as if it were waiting for them, and Cassiel nudged Drack.

“Hey,” she muttered, and he grunted in question. “I bet you fifty credits I can do the same thing I did with the eiroch this morning,” she said, and Drack laughed, shaking his head and pulling out his shotgun.

“You’re on, kid,” he agreed with a nod. “I’ll step in before you get yourself killed,” Cassiel scowled at him for that comment.

“What thing with an eiroch?” Evfra asked, and Cassiel just smirked at him, grabbing his firaan before he could react and leaving Drack to explain as she darted into the underbrush, working to get as close as she could to the rylkor. He barely even went to protest, only folding his arms and grumbling. “She better be planning to give that back,” he muttered, and Drack chuckled.

“Of course she is,” he confirmed. Evfra shot him a questioning glance, and Drack explained what she meant by ‘the thing with the eiroch’. “This morning there was an eiroch, and Vetra and I were getting ready to fight went that crazy son of a bitch charged the thing,” he explained, and Vetra nodded along. “She jumped on it’s back and rode it like it was nothing, and killed it with two shots from her pistol!” he laughed, and Evfra’s eyes widened, impressed. Vetra held up a hand.

“Well, she tried shooting its shoulders first, but then went for the spine,” she explained, and Evfra nodded before turning to the rylkor, keeping his eyes peeled for Cassiel’s attack.

“Where is she?” he muttered, and Drack shook his head.

“You’ll know,” he said, and Evfra scowled. 

Drack wasn’t wrong, however, because soon enough they heard a shout as Cassiel charged from the underbrush, straight for the rylkor. It let out a shriek of its own and began to charge her, turning for a tailwhip when it got close enough, but Cassiel had anticipated it, and she leapt into the air with the help of her biotics, landing solidly on the animal’s neck. It whipped its head back and forth, trying to throw her, but Cassiel simply plunged Evfra’s firaan through the back of its neck. An awkward gurgle came from its throat before it collapsed, Cassiel sliding off of its neck with an ‘oof’. Drack, Vetra, and Evfra all exitted the jungle to join her in the clearing, and Evfra stared at the girl in pure awe as she tugged his firaan out of the beast’s neck with a grunt of effort. She blushed, handing it back to him, and he took it silently, raising his brow ridge at her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I got a bit overexcited,” Evfra shook his head, clearing his throat and looking away, glad none of the aliens could feel his field reach out to wrap around her possessively.

“It’s fine,” he grunted, and she smiled brightly at him before turning to Drack.

“Ha!” she shouted at the krogan. “You owe me fifty credits!” Drack groaned, throwing his head back.

“Damnit, Cass,” he grumbled. “You got too much quads for a human,” he said, and Cassiel grinned at him.

“I’ll take that as a compliment!” she countered, and Evfra’s face pinched in confusion.

“Quads?” he asked, and Vetra leaned closer to him to explain.

“It basically means she’s very courageous, to the point of being stupid,” she explained. “High praise coming from a krogan,” Evfra nodded in understanding at that.

They finally went down into the vault, and Cassiel did little to hide her excited grin at the gravity well. Evfra did his best to ignore her almost childlike excitement, but he couldn’t suppress the thought of how cute she looked.

When their feet touched the ground, Cassiel looked around, her brows furrowing as she looked at the consoles.

“So that looks like a door,” she said, pointing to the area of wall in front of them.  Evfra, Vetra, and Drack all stood in the center of the room, looking around the vault in awe. She turned and walked up to the console in the middle of the room, activating it, and SAM spoke in her head.

“Back up power is online,” he said, and Cassiel nodded.

“So how do we get through this?” she murmured, both to herself and SAM. Before she could look around further however, everyone heard something to their left. They looked, and Cassiel groaned when she saw the three observers that appeared.

“Remnant!” she shouted, ducking behind a conveniently placed wall as cover, the others following suit. An observer that was kind of close to her began to fire up its laser, but before it could activate it, Cassiel stood from her cover and shot what she called its ‘eye’. The red light that had been swirling around it flickered, and Cassiel shot it again, before charging and doing a nova, causing it to spark and fall to the ground. Evfra was staring at her in awe as she did this.

“What is she doing?” he asked, shooting an observer that was across the room, and Vetra chuckled.

“Biotics,” she said as she lobbed a grenade at one. “Asaris and some humans have them, very useful in a fight,” she explained, and Evfra grunted in acknowledgement before shooting at the observer again.

“The consoles surrounding the area appear to be connected to the door,” SAM told her. “If you activate them, the door should open,” Cassiel nodded, going over to the closest console and activating it. A light appeared above the console, rotating and causing a line to connect it to the door. Cassiel went over to the next console, activating it, but the light that appeared above it only rotated halfway before reverting back, and she groaned in frustration when the line that had connected the first console disappeared.

“It appears you need to activate them in a certain order,” SAM told her, and she nodded in understanding, looking around. When she stepped up to the first console again, she startled when she noticed the pillar that had appeared.

“Oh,” she muttered, looking at it quizzically. “That’s cool,” she activated the first console once more before walking up the ramp to another one. This time, two pillars appeared, and Cassiel grinned. “Oh!” she exclaimed, and the others all looked at her in question. “I get it now!” she quickly activated this console, before running to the next one. This time four pillars appeared, so she walked by it to the other one, activating it when three pillars appeared. Finally, the fourth console was activated and the doors in front of them groaned open. Cassiel threw her hands up into the air with a large grin, looking between her three companions. “Yes!!” she cheered.

They all paused at the threshold, staring at a giant beam of light that was in the center of the room, if it could be called a room at all.

“Wow,” Cassiel muttered, staring at the vertical beam as it warped and twisted, the energy moving down further into the vault. She briefly wondered where it went. Did it go all the way to the planet’s core? 

“This console will activate the purification field,” SAM said as Cassiel walked further into the room. “You may want to sweep the area,” Cassiel nodded, motioning for Drack and Vetra to go around the beam on one side while she led Evfra on the other.

“Purification field?” Evfra asked, and Cassiel nodded, eyes sweeping the room as she explained it to him.

“On Eos, when Colin reset the vault it triggered a deadly purification field. They had to run back to the power console to stop it,” she explained, and Evfra grunted, looking at her in surprise.

“Really?” he asked, and Cassiel nodded.

“Uh… yeah,” she said, beginning to step towards the console. There was a liquid in a little divet in the ground, and Cassiel assumed it was just water, so she stepped through it to get to the console.

“Cassiel, wait!” Cassiel heard Vetra call a bit too late. The liquid splashed up her boots, and her entire body was wracked with searing pain. She let out a screech, and it felt as if her body was immobilized, she was trying to move to get out of the strange liquid, but her legs just weren't obeying her.

“Cassiel!” Evfra shouted, his hands wrapping around her waist and tugging her towards him and out of the liquid. She stumbled, and Evfra gently guided her into his chest. His hands stayed on her waist while she steadied herself, and Cassiel took several deep breaths, the pain dissipating. She could still feel slight tingles all over her body.

“Thank you,” she tilted her head up to look Evfra in the eye, and he just grunted, letting go of her waist and leading her to the panel. Cassiel briefly noted that he stayed between her and the liquid, and was kind of touched at his protectiveness. She glanced over at Vetra and Drack, who were both doing little to hide their snickers at her misfortune. Cassiel just shot them a glare, though at the sight of her scowl the two seemed to crack up even more. She rolled her eyes, stepping up to the panel, and looking to her companions.

“So if I’m right, this is gonna activate the purification field,” she said, and everyone tensed, getting ready to book it back to the other console.

“Affirmative,” SAM said, and Cassiel nodded.

“So you all should get to the door and be ready to haul ass,” she said, pointing back to the giant doors they had come through. Vetra immediately protested.

“What about you?” she asked, and Cassiel shook her head.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured them. “It’s just safer to have most of us by the door, less to worry about,” she held Vetra’s stare for a tense moment before the turian grunted, clearly displeased, and turned. She jogged back to the doors, Drack following her. Cassiel turned to Evfra, looking at him expectantly, but he shook his head, galactic eyes narrowing slightly.

“I’m staying with you,” he said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest, and Cassiel opened her mouth to argue, but his eyes just narrowed further. She closed her mouth, nodding, and hovered her hand over the console.

“Everybody ready?” she called out, seeing Evfra nod in her peripheral.

“Let’s do it!” Drack shouted back. Cassiel nodded, before tensing her hand. She wasn’t even sure how this allowed her to interact with the remnant tech, but it was as if when she tensed her hand above the console, a jolt of energy ran from her brain down her arm and into the tech.

The lighting around them turned red, and Cassiel and Evfra both booked it, hearing Vetra and Drack shouting for them.

“Come on!”

“Hustle!!”

Cassiel chanced a glance over her shoulder, seeing a dark cloud quickly closing in on them. Through the cloud she could see remnant bots emerging.

“Oh fuck!” she shouted, pushing her legs a bit more. Evfra was a couple meters ahead of her, but he seemed to notice she was falling behind, and he stopped. “Keep going!” she shouted, but as soon as she was within reach Evfra grabbed her, throwing her over his shoulder with ease. “What the fuck?!” she shouted in surprise as Evfra began to run once more, past Vetra and Drack and up to the console.

The purification field was closing in, and Evfra set her down right next to the console. Cassiel had little time to be disgruntled about being picked up, instead she turned and activated the console. 

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the purification field retreated, taking the remnant bots with it. Drack laughed, and Vetra threw her arms in the air.

“Yes!” she cheered. Cassiel turned to Evfra, a scowl set on her face.

“What was that?” she demanded, and Evfra looked down at her, face twisted in faux confusion.

“What was what?” he countered, and Cassiel let out a growl of frustration.

“Why did you pick me up?” she asked, and Evfra’s shoulders shrugged minutely.

“You were going too slow,” he answered, and Cassiel’s scowl morphed into a pout. Her arms crossed over her chest.

“This isn’t fair,” she mumbled moodily. “My legs are shorter than all of yours,” Vetra and Drack laughed a bit at that, and even Evfra let out a chuckle. Cassiel tried very hard not to be distracted by the sound, but his laughter sent her souls to nirvana for a hot second before they slammed back into her body. “I mean… thanks,” she muttered to him, gaze cast downwards now, and Evfra chuckled once more, raising his arm as if he were about to rest his hand on her shoulder, before clenching his fist and lowering it once more.

“Lets… go,” she said, quickly going down to the gravity well and waiting for the others. Vetra and Drack were still laughing at her. Cassiel’s shoulders slumped as she activated the gravity well, the adrenaline wearing off, and suddenly she was exhausted. 

They walked a little out of the vault, before Cassiel practically collapsed on a rock, sitting down and hunching over.

“I just… need a minute,” she muttered, her eyelids drooping a bit, and Evfra crouched down next to her, concerned.

“Are you alright?” he asked, hands hovering anxiously as if he were ready to catch her if she collapsed. She nodded, her chin falling to rest on her chest.

“Yeah,” she answered, her tone airy. “Yeah, I’m just… sleepy,” she murmured.