Chapter Text
It was not clear, at first, that the little bird lived. Curious feelers cast into the territory of his last known location yielded nothing; strange, considering that the deaths of two creatures of Light would leave a mark, so it could only be assumed that they lived.
And then… there it was.
It was a frayed place; the space between worlds had not only been breached but pierced and destroyed.
It went beyond a mere portal to this solid place of reality. It had pierced into elsewhere, and then been violently rejected, slammed shut like a pressurized door. The space within and around was violated, confused, trying to fill itself in but at the same time cracking and straining.
A schism in the fabric of reality, trying to tear itself back into existence. One she was… unfortunately familiar with. A product of Rhulk’s boredom that had yielded a new Disciple but hadn’t expanded his Witness’s influence like he had hoped, the ‘clever little maggots’ on the other side had thwarted him somehow.
It had been delightful fun to watch at the time and hiding it away in the Ascendant Plane had been a good little trick, too. How her meathead of a sister found it, she had no idea, let alone the lost little bird.
Then again… the Traveler favored him. That was an anomaly she hadn’t anticipated, an amusing little puzzle for her to play with while she worked on a way to get him back; she still needed him for the game after all.
Interfering with Rhulk’s experiment, if indeed interest had been renewed in it enough for them to try again, would merely be a bonus. Oh, how she wished she could see her sister’s face when it happened! It would be delightful!
But for now…
“Osiris…” Ikora sighed as she entered ‘his’ office. ‘Osiris’ laughed giddily, lifting a bottle of wine in toast before taking a long drink. His former apprentice took it from him, and he scoffed.
“Are you here to wax poetic about how it isn’t my fault?” Savathûn asked bitterly, scowling at the Warlock even as the thrill of the game raced through her.
“We knew Wolf had problems.” Ikora stated plainly. “But we still let him operate because he is the best we have. The death of this… ‘Crow’ is on us as much as anyone.”
“Tell me… do you truly care that this young man is dead?” Savathûn pried. “The former Uldren Sov, Butcher of Vesta, the man who killed Cayde-6? Do you truly care that his second life was clipped just short of two years?”
“I think it might have been more of a mercy.” She answered after a few long moments, during which Savathûn smirked under the mask of an old man. “This life would have been nothing short of hell for him.”
“Indeed it was, while it lasted.” ‘Osiris’ snatched the bottle from the other end of the desk with a speed that was, perhaps, not possible for a now Ghostless man of his age. Ikora gave ‘him’ a dirty look as he cracked it back open.
“Indeed, it was.”
Crow was too tired to be on high alert, even though he was trapped in a confined space with three highly trained, highly dangerous individuals, in a pressurized flying box powered by technology he knew next to nothing about. Nevertheless, he was ready to blow the bulkhead and dive through the atmosphere.
Normally, he would try to think of a way out that didn’t include killing sapient beings. But he knew so little about the craft he was on, he didn’t see any other escape options if it came down to it. Hijacking it would probably end with him having to kill them anyway, because there was no way they wouldn’t fight him if he tried it.
In an attempt to stop the gruesome thoughts about how to kill the people who had been nice to him so far if they turned out to be tricking him, he mentally tried to encourage Glint to phase, but his Ghost only snuggled deeper into his hood. At least he was difficult to grab in there, and the Light from his presence was a slight balm to Crow's nerves.
The shuttle rocked and rattled as it left the planet's atmosphere, and it swayed more than most jumps ships he'd exited atmosphere on. He gripped the bars on his restraints a little harder. Flying had never been the same after the crash that led him into Spider's hands. An unfamiliar ship only made it worse. Shepard looked at him from where she sat, and Crow met it steadily, trying to gauge her intent but seeing nothing. Was he too tired to notice anything, if it was there?
"So, Crow," she started, "Before we get to the Normandy, I need to know if your AI is going to cause problems. We have one of our own on board, I don't want any cyberwarfare on board."
"Glint isn't an AI." It took him a moment to realize she was talking about Glint. "He's a sentient energy construct."
"The difference?" The Commander raised an eyebrow.
"An AI is all software, and it can only simulate emotions." Glint pipped up. "I'm mostly Light woven through small pieces of code, and I feel everything."
"What are you feeling right now?" Garrus leaned forward curiously. Glint's shell clicked in Crow's ear.
"Fascinated." He admitted cheerfully. "Where we come from, 'if it isn't human it's trying to kill you', more often then not. And even some of the humans try to kill you. This is quite refreshing!"
"Well, I suppose I’m glad we surprised you." Garrus assured him, sitting back.
"Either way, will there be problems?" Shepard asked.
"No, ma'am." Glint told her, before settling back down. The rest of the trip was quiet, each of them studying the other, save Thane who had his eyes closed and might have been meditating.
Eventually, he can feel the shuttle moving in a way that makes him think they’re landing, and he’s proven right when the pilot announced a successful docking in the hangar. They all disengaged their restraints, and when the doors of the shuttle opened, Crow was assaulted by a sterile white environment.
Normandy’s hangar was certainly cleaner and better maintained than the bays on Spider’s ships. But at the same time it lacked… personality. Just white paint, fans, and two vehicles hanging from clamps; the shuttle being one and what looked like an oversized sparrow being the other.
"Crow, head to the med bay. Unkillable or not, our doctor will want a look at you. Standard procedure for all new crew." Commander Shepard addressed him as they filed out of the shuttle. "Thane, show him the way, would you?"
"Of course." The drell bowed slightly, before beckoning Crow and leading him towards what looked like a door with a holographic interface, as the other two hung back. Crow watched as he tapped several commands, and the door slid open at multiple points. Well that's fancy. It was a small room, and Crow lingered as Thane entered. On the Shore, getting into such a small space with a battle-proven stranger was typically a bad idea, even if they had your back previously. Betrayal was all too common.
"It's an elevator." The assassin indicated the room. "They have them in your reality, do they not?"
"Yes... but not on ships." Most large ships he had been on had grav lifts. Here goes nothing. He stepped on. The elevator started, and he was officially trapped. For... well, an unusual amount of time. "How... big is the Normandy, exactly?"
"The Normandy is a frigate." a female voice spoke up over the ship's internal comms, making Crow jump and Glint phase.
"That was EDI, the AI Shepard mentioned." Thane assured him. "She is no threat to you."
The doors opened again, to Crow's relief, and they were greeted by more white. It was obnoxious, especially compared to the dark, dim lighting he was used to on the Shore. Thane led him around the wall and into an area that looked like a mess of some sort. 'Med Bay' was plastered over the first door they saw, and it was where Thane took him. At least in an infirmary, the sterile appearance made sense. There was nobody home, though.
"Wait here for Doctor Chakwas." Thane told him. "A man named Jacob Taylor will be around shortly as well to see about getting you settled in."
"Thanks?" It was weird, thanking someone of his own volition. He was used to only thanking Spider, and only because he didn't want a beating.
"Thank you." The drell nodded slightly to him. "I am well aware that your decisions are why I am alive right now. I shall not forget."
Crow could only stand there, blinking. Nobody except Glint had ever thanked him sincerely for anything. Spider gave plenty of thanks, but always in mockery. He didn't know what to do with this, and before he could, Thane was leaving. Alone at last, Crow let himself relax, and he staggered over to one of the beds, sitting down heavily. Glint materialized next to him.
"Lay down and rest." He advised. "It’s certainly been a day. I'm sure they won't mind."
Crow was too tired to argue. He lay down on his side, and Glint settled in the crook of an arm. He thought it would be hard to sleep in the bright, white environment. He was wrong.
When he woke, the lights had been dimmed, and he could hear some sort of funny tapping noise. He felt worlds better than he had before. He sat up, and Glint rose into the air, stretching his shell and shaking it out slightly. Crow rolled his shoulders, finding he was far less sore than usual. I think I like beds. How long was I out?
“Only a couple of hours.” Glint sounded disappointed. Crow, however, was surprised; typically he never slept for more than an hour at a time. Glancing around, he noticed a pile of what seemed to be fresh clothes folded on the next bed over, and what was ostensibly a sandwich next to them, both marked by a note with his name on it.
Looking around, he found that the source of the tapping was a bearded man in a hat, toiling away with a holographic interface that was wrapped around his forearm. He glanced up when he noticed Crow watching.
"Doc said to tell you to clean up, if you woke up." He jerked his thumb in the direction of a room with the words 'emergency contaminant shower'. "Shower is in back."
Crow had never actually used a shower before. Only Spider's favorites had access to that kind of privilege. "Um... thanks?"
The man gave a nonchalant wave and continued his tapping. Crow gathered the clothes, hiding the sandwich between them out of habit. Once he was alone in the shower room, he devoured half of it, and had Glint store the rest in case he didn't earn another.
The shower was confusing at first, and he spent more time figuring out the temperature controls than he did getting clean. The clothes were a bit loose, and the sleeves didn't even come down to his elbows, exposing all the small scars he'd gotten from Spider 'authenticating' the "anti-Guardian" weaponry that people often tried to sell him.
He hoped nobody would ask about them. He wasn’t going to let anyone in this reality know there were things out there Glint couldn’t heal, not if he could help it. The chances of them being able to access such things were little to none, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He could just say they were from his past life—
Uldren Sov’s life. The face staring back at him in the foggy mirror was Uldren Sov’s.
“Found some scissors!” Glint told him cheerfully. “See if you can even that hair out?”
He… mostly succeeded. He still looked a mess, hopefully less like Uldren Sov as well (Spider must have thought it was funny, making him dress up as…) but he looked like less of a mess, and he felt fairly good as well. Being clean, fed, and in fresh clothes was a good feeling.
Hopefully he could earn enough of a keep for things to stay this way.
A few hours later, with the squad settled in after their mission, her hair still damp from the shower, and separate reports to the Illusive Man and the Alliance on their way to their intended recipients, Shepard found herself facing what would hopefully be the last obstacle in getting their new guest settled in.
"We don't know anything about him!" Miranda Lawson. Genetically engineered to be the ‘perfect woman’, from looks to mental and physical ability. She was also the Illusive Man’s staunchest supporter, as far as the ground team went.
"He just stranded himself to save all our asses." Shepard pointed out, grinding her teeth. This woman loved testing her patience sometimes.
"At the very least we should send him to a secure facility-" The genetically perfect woman looked like she was trying very hard not to yell.
"Over my dead body." She cut the Cerberus operative off. Sending anyone off-grid with Cerberus might as well be asking for a horrific experiment. "He's staying, that's final."
“Give him a chance, Miranda.” Jacob reasoned, ever the one to try getting Miranda to cool her jets. “I’m not sure I trust anything that claims to cheat death, but with those kind of abilities he could bring some real pain to the Collectors.”
“We will still have to monitor him closely.” Shepard could tell she was doing a breathing exercise to keep calm right now, and had to stop a smile before it could show up on her face. Take that Cerberus! The blue zombie is mine!
“That settles it then.” She concluded. “Jacob, make sure he settles in okay once Chakwas is done with him.”
“Sure…” She gave the man a hard stare at the strange tone he took on.
“Jacob.” She prompted.
“Joker lost a bet when the Eden Prime Eagles lost to the Terra Nova Tigers last Saturday.” He began.
“Jacob.” Miranda sighed.
“Bet was that he had to show the next alien around.” The man winced.
“EDI, where’s Joker?” Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose.
“In the medical bay, Commander.”
“Dammit.”
Certain that he had done everything normal people did when they cleaned up, Crow decided to make do with the loaned uniform and have Glint decompile his armor for the time being, as he wanted to savor this 'fresh' feeling for a bit before he put the worn stuff back on. When he came back into the med bay, the lights were back to full brightness, and an older woman talking quietly with the bearded man from earlier.
“-kind of bet?” the woman was saying as the doors opened. Both their eyes were on him and Glint the moment they entered.
"Hey, it's the zombie!" the man cheerfully mimed a toast, looking Crow up and down. "You still look like shit."
"Language!" Glint beeped, peeking out from behind Crow’s shoulder.
"It's kidding, right?" He thinks the man raises and eyebrow, but the hat hides enough to make him uncertain.
"He's not. He’s not an ‘it’ either.” It looked like people confusing Glint as a machine would be common.
“I’m Glint!” his Ghost introduced himself cheerfully. “I like scanning things!”
"Huh. Never thought the coming overlords would have parental settings on." The man shrugged as Glint nudged Crow’s shoulder encouragingly. "But really, you look like shit."
"...Okay." Crow didn't how not to look like shit, so there wasn't much he could say in response to that. “I’m uh, Crow.”
"Play nice, Flight Lieutenant." the woman chided. "I'm Dr. Chakwas, Normandy's Chief Medical Officer. “I’m going to have to give you a few scans, just to get a basic feel for your physiology."
"I can give you whatever you need, doctor." Glint offered. "You don't need to scan Crow, I know every atom of him."
"Yeah, that isn't creepy at all." The ‘Flight Lieutenant’ scoffed.
"Joker." Chakwas warned.
"It's part of my job. Can't reconstruct someone from disintegration without knowing the blueprints." Glint explained. "Where do I upload what you need? I can give you everything down to his digestive flora, it actually gets quite interesting in there!”
“Glint.” Crow hissed.
“Dude, TMI.” Joker’s face scrunched up a little.
“What’s TMI?” Glint asked, shell shifting curiously.
“’Too much information’.” Chakwas informed him, activating her omni-tool. “Just upload it to my omni-tool, and I’ll run a scan with my own equipment for comparison.”
His Ghost complied happily, as soon as the woman started scrolling through the data, her face went from dumbstruck to completely slack.
“This is… the level of detail…” She looked up at Glint with wide eyes. “Could you do this with anyone? Or just him?”
“I suppose? I would have to look closer at them, though.” Glint tilted in the air thoughtfully.
“You just blew some the most advanced equipment I know of out the water.” She looked back down at the data he had given her, and Joker leaned in slightly to see what the fuss was about. “Could I get you to scan some volunteers later? I can think of a few people on the ground team I want to examine closer. We have some unique individuals on board.”
“Of course!” his Ghost beeped, twitching excitedly. Crow touched his shell lightly, amused. “I like scanning! There’s always something interesting to find, even in a pebble.”
Crow could attest to the truth in that statement; his Ghost was always stopping to scan the most random of things. It often made him wonder about his friend’s time wandering unbonded.
“I… think I’ll spend some time going through this before I do my own scans, it looks like I’ll have to account for this energy signature of yours…” the woman trailed off, before shaking her head. “Joker, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if you showed them around a little.”
“I thought someone named Jacob was doing that?” Crow questioned, frowning.
"Yeah, but I lost a bet. So now I gotta do it.” The bearded man sticks his hand out. “Just call me Joker.”
“Nice to… meet you?” he didn’t mean to make it sound like a question, but it took him a few moments to remember what a handshake was. In those few moments, Joker lowered his offered hand, and Crow winced internally. Oops.
Note to self; ask Glint to brush me up on human social customs.
“Now let’s blow this joint before Shepard comes in and steals you from me.” Second note to self; ask Glint to brush me up on City slang. Although, it was entirely possible that ‘City’ slang didn’t exist here, being an alternate reality. Hopefully, it was similar enough for his Ghost to help a little.
"Okay, I guess." he answered uncertainly. Glint phased, causing the man to blink in surprise, before seeming to accept it.
"That door yonder lies the lair of the coming overlord." Joker began in a thick, almost reef-like accent, much to Crow’s confusion, "And here, you see, is the med bay, where we find one Doctor Karin Chakwas in her natural habitat-"
“Jeff.” Chakwas warned, still absorbed in the data Glint had given her. The man threw his hands up in surrounded, and motioned Crow to follow him. He walked at a slow pace, with a strange, hobbling limp to his gait that probably would have marked him as an easy target if he lived on the Shore.
"And this is the mess hall, we got a rotating schedule Shepard or Miranda will probably slot you into once you’ve settled in.” Joker waved a hand at the general area; there were a few people preparing food in what seemed to be the kitchen at the moment, but nobody else. “Next meal is in about half an hour, Chakwas will probably have something waiting for you.”
"Why? I already had something today." Which he had only eaten half of, but there was no need for the man to know that.
“What do you mean ‘today’?” This time the lighting allowed Crow to see his raised eyebrow as the man looked back at him. “People only eat once a day where you come from?”
“S-sometimes? Usually?” at least on the Shore that was how it went, though he would hesitate to call most of the rations he was given ‘edible’ by mortal Awoken standards, they were mostly Eliksni food.
“Well, buddy, that would explain why you look like shit.” Joker poked him in the side, and he leaned back, bewildered. “Your Skeletor-looking ass is going to get three meals a day now. Welcome to civilization.”
Glint. Help.
“You’re doing fine! And yes, humans and Awoken with access do tend to eat three times a day. This isn’t the wilds or the Shore.”
“Anyway, other side is Miranda’s office.” Joker motioned to the door mirroring the one to the med bay. “Technically she’s the Executive Officer, but Shepard still does most of those duties herself, sometimes she lets Garrus take ‘em over. Doesn’t trust anyone that die-hard Cerberus.”
“Cerberus?” he questioned.
“Long story short is that they’re funding our mission.” Joker didn’t sound very pleased about it. “But they’re shady murderous assholes who will probably betray us eventually, so watch out for that. But up that way is the main battery. Garrus spends every second of his existence there, so if you want to talk about Eden Prime, he'll be there. Moving on."
He grabbed Crow's sleeve to tug him in a new direction, and it caught the Hunter off-guard, causing him to jump backwards and nearly pull the other man off-balance.
“Sorry.” He muttered through grit teeth. Was all of humanity this… physical with each other? Light, it would be hard to get used to if it was. Most people on the Shore avoided him like the plague, and Guardians only attacked him.
"Yeah, yeah." Joker waves him off, much to his relief. "Anyway, up here."
They come into the hallway he and Thane had come into when they got off the elevator. Joker points to their left;
"Samara lives in Port Observation, the crew bunks down the way from her, women's bathroom across from that."
Then right;
"Kasumi hoards her stuff in observation, Thane's holed up in Life Support across from the wee boys room."
"Okay..." Crow tries to stick it all to memory. He would have to walk around by himself later, solidify a feeling for the place. And he wouldn't mind bumping into Thane again, now that he was well-rested and feeling a little braver.
His bearded guide hobbles over to the elevator, and swipes away at the interface so fast, Crow can't tell what's happening. He hadn't been paying much attention to what Thane had done, before, and if he was going to be staying on the Normandy, he should at least know how to work the elevator.
"Wait!" He halts Joker before he can step on the elevator. Crow shuffles his feet self-consciously. "Could you do that again? Slower, this time? I don't know how to work this thing."
"Sure, whatever." He backed out and reactivated the interface. There were five levels to the Normandy, and Joker showed him how to set a destination. On the way down to engineering, he detailed how to add a sequence of multiple stops if someone joined in with you while you were riding. The door opened to a hallway with a glass wall that gave a view of the hanger, and there were multiple doors at either end.
"This is engineering and auxiliary cargo. Aka; krogan daycare down that way," the Lieutenant pointed to port, "and dangerous mercenary that way."
"What's a krogan, exactly?" Crow asked. And does everyone get their own space?
"Think big, angry lizard." The other man explained, spreading out his arms to indicate size. "His name's Grunt, and to make matters worse, he's a teenager."
"Okay." He had pretty much zero experience with children or angry lizards. This… is going to be a learning experience. He felt cheerful a pulse of agreement from Glint across their link.
"Anyway, just steer clear of them. We also have a murderous psycho squatting in the maintenance area below, so..." he trailed off. Staying on the Normandy was starting to sound like a bad idea.
"This ship is starting to sound a little dangerous." Glint echoed his sentiments, appearing to hover over Crow’s left shoulder. Joker shrugged.
"We've got a mad scientist on the top deck, if you wanna round off the list. Gotta have the best for a suicide mission. But engineering isn't so bad, the people in here are mostly sane." Crow tried to squash the unease that was rising in his chest as his guide led him to a door around the corner.
"Suicide mission?" He asked. Commander Shepard had mentioned her mission, but she hadn't specified it as a 'suicide mission'.
"The Collectors take the colonists, and go through the Omega-4 Relay. Any other ship that goes through Omega-4 never comes back, so we have to find a loophole." Joker explained, gesturing with his hands.
"Relay?" This reality had a gift for being confusing. He could guess that it had something to do with space travel, at least.
"Hold that thought." He said as they walked into a room that seemed to hum and vibrate. A woman was operating a console directly ahead of them. "Hey Tali, explain the Relay system before I confuse the new guy!"
"You're the pilot." The woman, presumably Tali, responded without turning around. Her voice had a thick accent and sounded slightly mechanized.
"Eh, I don’t know if I can dumb things down to ‘guy from another universe’ level." The bearded man at his side shrugged. "I was just telling him about Omega-4."
The woman jabbed at her console once more with a three-fingered hand before turning to face them. She wore a helmet under her veil, and he could only get vague impression of her face, but her eyes glowed like an Awoken, so there was one thing he could see. Her whole body seemed to jolt at the sight of him.
“What is that thing?” She asked stiffly, the glow of her eyes fixed on Glint as he twirled around Crow, trying to look at all the equipment at once.
“Hi, I’m Glint! I love this place!” his Ghost introduced himself. “There’s so many new things in here, I can’t wait to-“
“An AI is not messing around in my engine room.” Glint shot back behind his shoulder, startled by the sudden hostility, and Crow glared at her. She glared back.
“He’s not an AI.” He stated, jaw clenched. “He’s a sentient energy construct.”
“I don’t care what it is. It’s not messing with any of my equipment.” She shot back.
“Anyway, we use Relays to fling ships across the galaxy at really stupid speeds by reducing their mass!” Joker interrupted with a nervous laugh, developing the sudden ability to dumb things down to ‘guy from another universe’ level, tugging on Crow’s shoulder to turn him back to the door. “There, lesson over, bye Tali you look great today, did I mention that?”
Crow, coward that he was, decided to relent and follow instead of defending his Ghost.
“It’s okay. This world is different.” No, it wasn’t. He still couldn’t stand up for the only friend he had.
“And just what do we have here, Joker?” The doors opened to reveal Commander Shepard waiting in the maintenance access hall with a dark-skinned man who looked slightly put out.
“…the Eagles lost?” Crow wasn’t even certain he was curious enough to ask about that. He was too busy resisting the urge to turn around and… say something, he wasn’t sure what, but it would be nasty.
But Glint hates nasty… Surely he would understand this time, though?
“I need to talk to Crow in private for a bit. Jacob can take over afterwards.” Shepard said.
“I’m fine with Joker” Crow told her through grit teeth, he didn’t feel like meeting anyone else new right now.
“Looks like your about to deck him.” She commented, raising an eyebrow. Joker snorted.
“Oh, no, it’s Tali he wants to deck.” The pilot explained. “She snapped at his glowing little conscience.”
“I can still hear you, Bosh’tet!” Don’t turn around, don’t turn around, don’t channel any Light, don’t turn around…
“Let’s… go to my cabin, Crow.” Shepard sighed. “I still have to have a chat with the rest of the crew about you, there are some basic things I’ll need to know.”
“Okay.” He breathed out, following her as she turned to leave, only for her to stop just before the door closed and look at the other crew.
“Jacob, Joker… no more bets on crew duties.” She ordered.
“What about-“
“Except janitorial. Can’t blow the whole ship economy, I guess.”