#just found

“Let’s not do that again, yeah?” Sunshine holstered her pistol and flexed her fingers, probably trying to cool them off after all of those solar attacks. “I think I’ve had enough last minute bomb disarms to last me a lifetime or three.” 

“Better than having any number fewer though, right?” Kira asked, motioning with one hand for emphasis even as the other brought out her ghost to start snapping pictures of the place.

Judging by the tilt of her head, it looked like Sunshine was willing to concede the point to her fellow warlock, but Rogue theatrically tapped a finger to her helmet about where her lips would be as if thinking it over before signing a response.

‘Well, there was that time you disabled fireworks back at The Farm just to see what it would do.’ 

“Hush, you.” Kira responded playfully. “If they wanted it left alone they should have used better signs!”

Rogue’s sloppy and playfully sarcastic signs of ‘Oooh, ‘hush’ she says. ‘Hush, hush, hush’ because I’m the loud one.’ went ignored as Kira’s ghost paused in her survey to look at her partner.

“Kira, that building had more ‘Keep Out’ and ‘Don’t Touch’ signs per square inch than I’ve ever seen, even when compared to Rasputin’s facilities.” The ghost angled her casing forward in another attempt to be authoritative, but her voice was more resigned than anything. A taunting hum let the others know Kira was probably sticking her tongue out at her ghost again, but the laughter that followed was bright.

“Never mind that, my ‘little light’. Let’s start checking out these artifacts!” Grin audible in her words, Kira moved towards the last burnt out husk. Her ghost gave another sigh at the continued use of the Exo’s nickname for ghosts, but didn’t bother to hide her own interest as she swung back out to scan the body for further data.

That memory of the strange Exo had Rogue bringing out Citlali and crouching next to one of the Geth the three of them had been forced to take down. Fingers signing a question with a quick twitch, Rogue imagined she could see him smile before her ghost started scanning the form. They were both curious to know what made these AI so different from their Exo cousins.

Shaking her head slightly at her fireteam, or possibly just their familiar ‘arguments’ and habits, Sunshine brought out her own ghost. 

Technically they could all speak to their ghosts without materializing them, but the three had long agreed that it felt more like a conversation if both parties were physically present, not to mention it seemed a bit more polite.

“Pass on the word to our,” there was a slight hitch before Sunshine continued, “allies that we’ve secured the site and the artifact as they requested. No casualties on our end, but feel free to forward on the video you captured of that Turian along with what the surviving Batarian’s had been able to tell us if you haven’t already.”

“On it.” He gave a little nod before turning in unison with Citlali towards a sudden spike of energy. 

The ‘Prothean beacon’ they’d been sent to recover was glowing where before it had been dormant.

“Guys-!” Kira’s voice was back to her on-a-mission serious, but it seemed even she couldn’t help showing a little fear as she and her ghost were pulled against their will towards the beacon. Her hands held her ghost close to her chest as she visibly threw her weight against the pull, but the warlock was obviously fighting a losing battle as her feet skidded ever closer.

Both Sunshine and Rogue sprinted towards their teammate, reaching her at nearly the same time to wrench her back. Her momentum slowed slightly, but it was clear that all three were now caught in the pull.

“Your ghosts!” Kira yelped even as her ghost called out from her hands with a shout of “We can’t resist it either!”

Rogue released her throwing knife mid-throw in order to snatch Citlali with the hand not latched on to Kira from where he was just about to float out of her reach. She could see Sunshine doing much the same with a solar grenade that disappeared over the side of the walkway as she grasped her ghost, the golden wings of her armor flashing as she tried to fight the pull without any free hands.

“I think it’s-” Whatever Citlali thought, was lost. Lost in a sea of images and sounds and mashing machines. Stars and galaxies, people and planets, pinpricks of life that were there until they suddenly weren’t.

“-o we can-” Rogue was “-ut how ca-” hearing words “-a little lon-” but they were “-n’t have m-” nearly overlapping “-ll toget-” incomprehensible over “-ead-” the rush of “NOW!” 

a Vision.

She awoke hours later in the small cabin of the three person starship her fireteam had been given, helmetless (as usual when in the ship) and groggy. 

A quick look around allowed Rogue to take in the important things: three exhausted ghosts, two equally exhausted teammates, and one large problem. A problem that had nothing to do with the comm lines blinking a couple dozen missed calls and another one currently on the line nor the political shit-storm that was surely brewing after the Citadel races found the mess that had at one point been a ‘Prothean beacon’.

No, instead it was the hastily translated message the beacon had contained. A message from fifty thousand years prior warning of an even larger battle to come. Soon the Reapers would come to end the fight between the light and the dark, to start the cycle anew. 

Judging by the looks on her fireteam’s faces, they knew it too.