#pathfinder raeka

[who-is-riley]

👽

[shizuu-chann]

Who do you save on the Archon's ship and why: Raeka or Drack's scouts?

I know this is a volatile topic, and there's a lot of conflicting opinions, but I'm curious. Myself, I always save Raeka, and Drack's response to that has always been frustrating.

Of course I feel for Drack, and I completely understand why he's pissed and hurt. But I hate hate hate that you can't make the argument of "It's not about krogan versus salarians, never was. It's about scouts versus Pathfinder. and civilians" Especially when, if you save the scouts, he tells you straight up that tough choices have to be made and to brush this off, ultimately this was a victory and you slapped the Archon in the face.

My reasons for why I save Raeka:

1. First and most important, in my opinion, she's a Pathfinder, and an OG Pathfinder. I know some people like if all the Pathfinders are newbies who all learn together and whatnot, and while that's a nice thing to romanticize, pragmatically it makes more sense to have one of the originals. For multiple reason, too. Raeka can offer guidance, answer questions if they arise, and she knows all the protocols and how to make the hard choices. 2. Raeka is an expert biologist. If there's going to be any form of countering exaltation, etc., she's one of the best people to help with that. Are there other expert biologists in the Initiative? Most likely, but having another one who was responsible for saving an entire planet's biodiversity is nothing to sneeze at. 3. The salarian ark's population was decimated. I know people like to argue that more salarians came to Andromeda than krogan, but the salarians still ended up in a worse situation than the krogan. Out of all the arks, I believe it's the salarians that lost the most people, including most or all of their leadership. They also reproduce much slower than krogan. With the krogan and Nexus docs working on reversing or reducing the genophage--and Kesh having an entire clutch of viable eggs, if you choose to save the scouts--the krogan will be just fine. It's probably a ways into the future, true, but brings it back around to the fact that krogan live SO much longer. They have plenty of time to kick the genophage in the teeth and have babies. Salarian lives are short, they don't lay nearly as many eggs, and producing a new, viable population with the remaining salarians is crucial. 4. The writers did a piss poor job of making me give a damn about the scouts. I care about them, of course, because I adore the krogan and who WANTS to leave them in kett hands? But these scouts are only mentioned a few times in passing! I don't know them, they're not brought up on that mission until the very end (like, I know it's supposed to be spur of the moment or something, but it just feels cheap), and after Raeka helped create diversions and wanted to save civilians that she found? I'm sorry, but I'm helping Raeka. Drack never asks you to help look for them, not like Wrex does in ME3 with the rachni shit--and even then, I save the Queen I released on Noveria because, again, pragmatically it makes more sense. Both are unfortunate, difficult decisions that I hate making, but in terms of survival, there are very clear answers as to which decisions are best, in my opinion. 5. Finally, those krogan are scouts. Scouts know that there's a possibility that they won't return from the mission. Raeka made a bad call, and she owns that, but I don't think one bad call means she should die. One could argue that the scouts made a bad decision and got caught, but we really don't know how or where they were caught, just that they were. And sure, there's no guarantee a Pathfinder will return from a mission, either, that they know what they're getting into, too. But after all the shit that went down on the Archon's ship, I still feel it's more important to save a Pathfinder and the civilians she went to rescue than a group of scouts.

I really wish I could save both. I hate binary choices, and I hate that Drack can't seem to see the decision as anything other than salarians versus krogan--which it's just not. Not for me or how I choose to play Ryder. If you choose to save the krogan because you enjoy Drack's special, exclusive "mission" after you beat the game, I get that. I've saved the scouts before, just to do something different and get that mission, but I felt terrible doing it. It felt like the wrong decision, one made with pure emotions as the motivator and not thinking about what would benefit everyone, yes everyone, who came from the Milky Way.

I really do dislike the "poor krogan, poor krogan" undertones to that mission. I help them out in every other scenario, too. I give Morda the Remnant drive core, I nail Spender and exile him because he's a little bitch, I help Drack save the seed vault. I'm sorry it upset him that I chose to save a Pathfinder and some civilians (I cannot stress enough that they're civilians, who didn't sign up for this shit and woke up to terror) over four random scouts, but for the writers to paint that mission's end as either you care about the krogan or you don't is just stupid.

[ezrisdax-archive]

Ah Ryder, my hero.

-for @tali-zorahs

[crqstalite]

i need help developing motivations for this silly fic lmao

[matchbet-allofthetime]

I JUST FUCKING FINISHED ANDROMEDA

Over a week of playing nearly every single day, 56 hours and 42 fucking minutes-

I have loved every single second of this game

Upgrading armour and crafting, doing silly side quests, loyalty missions, collecting data from all around, upgrading the Nomad (which I despised at first, and then... I loved so much)

This game was an absolute joy from start to finish and I don't understand how, even with the ME trilogy having come first, people don't like ME Andromeda

This game was stellar and beautiful and I felt like I could really sit there and appreciate the silliness, the seriousness, the awkwardness, all of it

Every little decision mattered

Every little decision defined my character and looking back at the files and all? I got to play a perfect rendition of myself in my Pathfinder and I have my own story I've made along the way, just helping wherever I could

I got Wrex back in my good side after I chose to save Raeka and we're closer than ever, I've done every loyalty mission, I won a damn bar fight, I got blackout drunk, I lost poker, I got a Turian girlfriend, I spared Akksul, I got Evfra and Reyes and Kandros and Tann and everyone else on my side so we could protect all our worlds and make a home

And I'm so emotional over this game because it was perfect

The nods to the trilogy- the nomad paint that says "hold the line" in its description and the other salarian's words in battle as a nod to kirrahe? Mordin's photo being in the Salarian info stuff at one point while he smiles? The archangel paint? The collection of model ships?

It's all incredible

People don't seem to like this game but it opened up a whole new side of our universe and it doesn't take away from it at all

It's just the other side of it all that we have so far

It connected everything and I couldn't have asked for a better game

This game has broken me in the best way and I love both Andromeda and the trilogy

Anyways, little freakout over, just really happy right now

I love almost every character and interaction and I really hope they make another Andromeda game because these characters are wonderful and deserve a chance to keep growing just like Shepard and their friends did

[agirlwithachakram]

Ryder isn't Shepard, isn't really a soldier. I think they should get to scream more.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN RESCUING THE PERSON WHO SAVED ME, THE ONLY ORIGINAL PATHFINDER WE ACTUALLY HAVE, AND SAVING MY FRIEND'S TEAM OF SCOUTS

WHY WERE MY OPTIONS WATCHING THIS DUMB AS ROCKS ASSHOLE DRIVE KADARA INTO THE GROUND OR WATCH HER GET MURDERED THROUGH A DISHONORABLE DIRTY TRICK BY MY FRIEND WHO'S BEEN LYING TO ME THE ENTIRE TIME

I am just someone's dumb kid WHY am I in charge of rescuing 60,000 people, hunting down General Bodysnatcher on his own ship, and literally creating places to live for everyone.

Why do I have to make the choice between Addison doing something stupid as shit (lying to everyone about a bad choice, a lie they will 100% find out because a literal teenager figured it out by herself?!?!) or something morally upright that exposes us as dumb assholes?

WHY WON'T MY TWIN WAKE UP.

you think she was horribly sick after choosing Raeka or the scouts? I do.

[clairedelune-13]

So my new headcanon is:

Two years after Meridian was founded, The Initiative turns into Hollywood and all the Pathfinders essentially morph into “The 7” from the Boys (except the Pathfinders are The Five: Avitus Rix, Sarissa Theris, Raeka and the Ryder Duo)

Just a Media Monster, really.

But before she moved back to Meridian, Dani lived on Kadara for two-plus years - 2820 to 2822 (the Port is renamed to “New Port” and has grown to where it’s a slightly smaller New York).

Reyes surprises her by having rebuilt NYU after Dani told him (at the start of their situation-ship) she attended it back on Earth from 18-19. But was forced to move back home to LA when her mom got sick and Alec cut her trust fund, which paid for her education. Something she’d always resented him for.

Reyes rebuilt the campus and entire system so she could finish her schooling where she left off. He called it an “early-24th birthday present”.

Yeah, that’s how it starts. It gets sadder but this is a Tumblr post. And I’m bored and the game’s story ain’t continuing… so I’m finishing it.

[skyeknight-hyperfixations]

Personally, choosing 'Newbies' as Pathfinders when they all didn't get much of a formal training....

I like it.

It kinda makes me feel like Scott/Sara won't feel so left out as being the only Pathfinder who was appointed because the original perished.

If players chose to save Raeka and keep Sarissa as Pathfinder, it would pretty much only be Ryder and Macen as the suddenly appointed Pathfinders.

So, I kinda like all of them being newish.

Ryder. Avitus. Vederia. Hayjer.

My go-to Pathfinder squad.

[nightingaletrash]

I'm on track to finding the Archon's Flagship, and I'm reminded that I'm definitely in the minority of people who let Raeka die.

I know people are like 'why tf would I save some random scouts when Raeka is right there!' but in my mind that's... kind of the point. Those scouts are Krogan, who have historically been used and discarded every time they're no longer of use. Against the Rachni, against the uprising, and potentially against the Reapers if you sabotaged the Genophage cure. These scouts are just some krogan who happened to be in a bad situation, and they need help. They have nothing to offer you, they have been of no use to you, but they will die without help.

I choose to save those scouts every single time because it's about proving that, in Andromeda, things will be different. Krogan do not exist purely to be useful. Their lives are valuable, and their allies will come for them, and they don't have to fend solely for themselves. Raeka is a great character and I don't fault people for wanting to keep her around, it's just my preferred read of the situation.

And I love my 'I didn't think I'd actually be a Pathfinder' club 💜

[anderwhohn]

One of the most agonizing decisions Sara has to make in Andromeda is aboard the Archon's flagship, when it comes down to saving Pathfinder Raeka at the cost of leaving Drack's scouts behind. While some might think it is a pragmatic choice, to have at least one of the original Pathfinders that had first been assigned to the arks, the truth is far more emotional than most people might consider unless they're familiar with Sara on a personal level.

She never wanted to be Pathfinder, and she frequently has doubts and fears, especially when the fate of the whole cluster rests upon her shoulders. And as much as she respects and adores Drack, frequently going to him for his insight, she's terrified of being the most experienced of all the Pathfinders, and it's that fear that drives her to choosing to go after Raeka rather than the krogan scouts.

Sara is utterly heartbroken in the aftermath, when Drack refuses to speak to her - only his staying aboard the Tempest gives her any hope whatsoever that she didn't completely ruin their relationship. She does her damnedest to make it up to him in every way she can, supporting the krogan on Elaaden, helping him get the seed vault back without a moment's hesitation, exiling Spender, ensuring the krogan reunite with the Nexus, and more.

Though every time she goes to speak to Raeka in Pathfinder Hall on the Nexus, she's struck with both a wave of relief and guilt, knowing that her own fears are the only reason Raeka is alive while Drack's scouts suffered at the hands of the kett.

[n0va-ryder]

The Basics

GENERAL INFORMATION

Full Name: Nova Andromeda Ryder

Combat Profile: Adept

Weapons: X5 Ghost assault rifle, Talon pistol, Omni-Blade, Biotics

Armor: Pathfinder Scout Armor

Main Conversation Choices: Emotional & Casual

Morality/Alignment: …

Love Interests: Reyes Vidal & Liam Kosta (she breaks up with Reyes and ends up with Liam) (more info →)

APPEARANCE

Height: 5’4”

Body Type: muscular, lean, athletic

Eyes: hazel (brown & green)

Hair: brown, thick, usually kept in a ponytail

Tattoos: none

Piercings: none

Scars: …

Birthmarks/freckles: various, random beauty marks on her body

Typical makeup style: winged eyeliner

Typical clothing style: she usually just wears her Pathfinder sweatshirt or her standard Andromeda Initiative outfit around the Tempest.

BIOGRAPHY

Nova was born on the Citadel one minute before her twin brother Orion, on March 21, 2163. When she was 6, her biotics manifested, and she later received the L3 implant when she was 14. Ellen’s connections allowed her to receive the best implant and amp, allowing her to reach her full biotic potential. After receiving her implant, Nova trained at Grissom Academy until she was 18, when she joined the Alliance with Orion. After boot camp, Alec was dishonorably discharged from the Alliance, and the twins’ military careers were essentially over. Nova was assigned a peacekeeping role to defend colonists in the Attican traverse from raiders and pirates. A year later, she was able to join a Prothean research team, where she spent most of her days scouting possible dig sites, defending the researchers from raiders, and using her biotics to help dig up artifacts. Prothean artifacts were interesting at first, but Nova quickly grew bored of them and wanted more adventure in her life. When Alec contacted her and Orion about the Andromeda Initiative, she didn’t hesitate to join.

PERSONALITY

Nova is adventurous, and loves discovering new things. She is smart, but she can also be reckless at times, which doesn’t always go well for her. She’s generally easy to get along with, as she is casual and laid back, and she’s sarcastic and likes to joke around. She loves to spend time with her crew in between missions, and she’s loyal to each and every one of them. She can be obnoxious and impatient at times, but she’s got a good balance between her smarts, urge to explore, and recklessness that makes her good at being a Pathfinder.

MAJOR DECISIONS

Fully explored Habitat 7 (Planetside)

Scientific/research outpost established on Eos (A Better Beginning)

Protesters’ demands refused, situation defused and ended peacefully (Sleeping Dragons)

Saved angara from Exaltation facility, kett Cardinal killed (A Trail of Hope)

Refused Sloane Kelly’s deal about Vehn Terev (Hunting the Archon)

Murders in Kadara Port stopped (Murder in Kadara Port)

Oblivion formula returned to Dr. Ryota (Modern Medicine)

Reyes Vidal runs Kadara Port (High Noon)

Remnant drive core given to krogan, outpost established on Elaaden (Search for the Stolen Remnant Drive Core)

Secret water supply taken from Annea (Water Supply)

Sarissa remains pathfinder, her secret is kept (Cora Harper: At Duty’s Edge)

Avitus Rix convinced to become turian pathfinder (Turian Ark: Lost but Not Forgotten)

Pathfinder Raeka and other salarians saved (Hunting the Archon)

Rensus Nilken released from prison (First Murderer)

Angaran AI destroyed (Uncovering the Past)

Akksul lives (Jaal Ama Darav: Flesh and Blood)

Peebee saves Kalinda (Peebee: Mysterious Remnant Signal)

Primus’ deal refused (Dissension in the Ranks)

Captain Dunn lives (Meridian: The Way Home)

August Bradley chosen as ambassador (Epilogue)

All outposts established, all crew/loyalty missions completed, and all of Alec Ryder’s memories unlocked (Jien Garson’s death also investigated)

[who-is-riley]

WIP of the cutest Pathfinder

[roughentumble]

ughhhhh i cant decide whehter to go after the krogan scouts or the pathfinder raeka........ like on the one hand krogan have been treated as expendable for so long, and in another lifetime i promised wrex i would do right by the krogan. but on the other hand, not to be callous, but she's literally a pathfinder and a good one at that, and the krogan scouts are like....... theyre scouts.... and im here FOR the salarians, to try and save the salarian ship. so surely i should save the people im here to save, and the experienced leader who just risked their life to save everyone, right? like those salarians are alive. i should be getting them off the ship.

but. so. are the krogan??? like im just. its soooo. its literally equal its exactly equal how am i supposed to pick..... i think this is the very first hard decision in mass effect andromeda

[thetrashbagswasteland]

I spy your tag and so I raise you: POV!

Oh ho so I really like writing the same events from differing POVs so here we have... baby pathfinder Ryder desperately looking for an adultier adult and very much not finding one in a morose old ex-spectre!

Heart Of A Dancer, Ch 1: The Lifeline

“Older than that.” He completed, and his eyes were a long way distant. Stuck some six hundred years in the past. It aged him something terrible, in truth. Maybe SAM had some clue how old he really was. He had to be like… late thirties, right? Young enough to still be a soldier, old enough to have spent the fifteen years he’d once claimed to have spent as a spectre. “Avitus Rix was born in 2129. In the alliance standard calendar, the date would correspond with the fourth of September.” SAM informed her, quite casual about reading her mental questions these days. So that made him… fifty eight. Just twenty-odd years out on her assumption. Turians aged unfairly well. And, shit. He was three days younger than Dad. That was weird to think about. She’d genuinely assumed that he was younger than that given how he threw himself headfirst into firefights, given the stories already being told about how he took on the kett like a one-person army. Given how angry he was with the universe at large. Fifty eight and a widower with a damaged AI he’d not intended to host forced into his head. Actually, it was little wonder he was this pissed off with his life. He… hadn’t signed up for this part of the job any more than she had. Did he know he wasn’t alone, though? “You know… you’re not the only one with a SAM issue.” Sara said, desperate to fill the yawning silence as much as to reach across the metaphorical gap and remind him that there were people who could understand some of his pain. The slow way his head turned towards her, one eye laser focused and distinctly more sober than she’d expected, wasn’t pleasant or friendly. A flash of teeth with his intake of breath and a low rumble that her translator stubbornly refused to parse vibrated through the air. It was weirdly reminiscent of that classic horror vid with the dinosaurs. Only… this velociraptor one was clever enough to talk and had a fuckoff big gun strapped to his back to go with the claws and teeth. “My dad shoved a bunch of his own memories in the human SAM and locked them up tight, I’ve had to jump through hoops to get them accessible.” She continued, a thought coming to her regardless that she was being sized up like dinner by a prehistoric monster. “They were… tough to see. Wish I hadn’t.”

And to compare

Beyond Familiar Stars, Ch 1: 2821 - Anger

“Older than that.” He admitted cagily. Avitus wasn’t about to admit that he’d come up here to drink and mourn the fact that Raeka was right; he had nobody to miss that had not died by now. There was nobody to miss him, there was nobody to care that little old Rix was still clinging to life. Hell, the closest thing he had to a friend in either galaxy was the twenty-two year old kid of a man he’d given war trauma to, and wasn’t that just fun? “You know… you’re not the only one with a SAM issue.” Sara said, quite out of the blue after they had lapsed into companionable, sorrowful silence. At this, he looked over, senses dulled to a point where he did not feel the immediate urge to snap at her that she had no idea, nor to react with outright hostile suspicion at whatever she was about to admit. “My dad shoved a bunch of his own memories in the human SAM and locked them up tight, I’ve had to jump through hoops to get them accessible.” She said, and the haunted look only deepened. “They were… tough to see. Wish I hadn’t.”

[crqstalite]

[1] so much (for) stardust —

I feel like something bad has stretched out over and over again Until I'm creased and I'm about to break down the middle Split me right down the middle, right, right down the middle, yeah

In the aftermath of Meridian and the fight against the Archon, the crew of the Tempest finds their footing in Andromeda. Being pathfinder never came with a manual, but with six races depending on the young Talis Ryder to find them all a home, she wishes for one more every day. Not to mention trying to keep them from being at each others throats, a whirlwind romance, a brother who's turning out to be more trouble than he's worth and a plot against the Nexus, something's got to give.

And Talis is afraid it might be her.

A collection of stories about Pathfinder Ryder as she discovers herself and the cluster amid the political upheaval of an adolescent galaxy.

[set post-mass effect andromeda.] [female ryder/jaal ama darav, male ryder/cora harper]

chapter specific warnings: vomit mention, general sickness. whump.

-

February 25th, 2821 [1 year and 11 months since arrival to Andromeda] - Nexus Wards.

Logs: Mateo Sirius Ryder-Lucero

Mateo has thought about how this conversation would go at least three or four times since he left the Nexus nursery center, and it’s weighing him down more and more the closer he gets to Talis’ apartment. He only really has so many options and so far, the lint in his pockets and the hair product sticking to his fingers do not hold the answers that he needs. She’s pissed at him (rightfully so), as far as he knows, still hasn’t spoken to Cora after she overrode her order back on Voeld (arguably rightfully so), and the lack of having emotional stability through Jaal being gone had everyone on the Tempest walking on eggshells.

(He cannot wait for his future brother-in-law to get back. The sooner he can either get to her or get her to visit Lexi for a psych eval, the sooner everyone would be happy -- Talis included)

Whether he disagreed with her or not (he did) right now he needed to apologize. Just so he didn’t make everything worse than it already was. So after he'd dropped Ahri off with one of the attendants, he'd quickly made the trek out to the Nexus Presidium, considering both exactly what he was apologizing for (probably for insubordination and generally being a bit of a dick), and considering how she'd respond (probably not well). Little fires everywhere that he'd been ignoring for too long, too quick to get off of med-watch to realize his sister was drowning in responsibilities she wasn’t prepared for. Almost two years out from when they'd arrived in Andromeda, and regardless of her titles, Talis was still only twenty four. Same as him. Neither of them with any major 'leading' experience (they'd both held jobs on the Citadel like any other teenager, but. Well. False equivalent), and neither of them had done anything like this. The only other Pathfinder that had the necessary experience to be leading anyone was Raeka (he thinks that was her name), but everyone turned to his sister for help.

Talis only had so much help to give. Only had so much advice lying around before she was forced to say she didn't know, and if there was one thing his incredibly driven sister was horrible at, it was saying she didn't know how to do something.

Her newly discovered short fuse however was likely the direct consequence of this. He remains unsurprised, but her blowing up at him after the Tempest had rescued him from Voeld was new. And he wasn't exactly sure if he liked this new side of her. He was glad she wasn't as shy anymore, probably a good trait to shed as a Pathfinder, but perhaps he was just a smidge afraid of her now.

He probably hadn’t helped adding to her mounds of problems and causing her a shitton of stress on top of it. Who knew most people didn’t enjoy high stakes rescue missions in the middle of blizzards to find their twin brother when he wasn’t ever supposed to leave the station?

(According to Cora, most people knew this already. Go figure.)

When he buzzes the door to her apartment, she doesn’t answer immediately. Unusual for her, she usually came to the door as soon as she was able or would buzz him in at least. Frosty then. Ok. He could work with frosty.

(He should've brought food -- his mother would hit him upside the head with a sandal if she were awake.)

He rocks back and forth on his heels, considering whether he should come back later. She could still be in her meeting with Kandros and Addison from earlier, God knew those usually ran long. But he didn't really want to run all the way back to operations, and he imagines he'd look horribly pathetic waiting for her outside her apartment door like a lost puppy.

Which...is a weird way to refer to himself. Still the mental image works, but if he has to play the part of pathetic younger brother to get back on her good side, then so be it. He wasn't exactly above it at least.

He waits a few more minutes, checking the time, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket. He reaches the end of his hoodie string into his mouth, typing off a message to his sister before his SAM implant buzzes to life in his ear.

“SAM?” He asks around the endcap, “Where’s Talis?”

"Talis' implant has been dysfunctional for some time now. I have been primarily focused upon keeping her both conscious and stable. While my systems did not go dark, I am in a brief moment of human 'clarity'."

"What?" Mateo chews on the fabric, heart stopping and starting again as he processes the information, "Why would her implant be in the fritz? I mean, I know she took a hit or two on Voeld, but --"

"Mateo, we do not have long," SAM continues, and while he's incapable of changing his tone of voice, Mateo does not like the way he's enunciating his words, "Talis has been made gravely ill. Her interior systems are deteriorating as we speak."

"What?" Mateo asks again, this time spitting out the hoodie string, "Injured? Shit, SAM where is she?"

The door slides open before him and he rushes inside. He does a sweeping glance of the apartment, the kitchen empty and almost barren, her bedroom empty with only a few scattered pieces of clothing to even clue him in she may be home somewhere. Not in the bathroom, though the medicine cabinet is strewn open, with a bottle of painkillers left uncapped on the counter. A bucket lies on it’s side on the tile, water spilling out of it. Considering it hasn't dried yet, this was still recent.

His heart is racing as he doubles back, scanning the ground. Tile, tile, tile. He's beginning to hyperventilate almost, calling her name a few times. She doesn't answer, and he runs around a corner into her office fast enough to smack his hand against it. No one. Then he darts into the living room, catching a glimpse of the dirty blonde hair of his sister laid out in the middle, curled in on herself.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Mateo mutters under his breath, pushing the coffee table out of the way, dropping to his knees to roll her over, carefully cradling her in an arm, "SAM--?"

"I have briefly relinquished control of her bodily systems to make contact with yourself and Dr. T'Perro. Most of my primary attention has been diverted onto keeping away the worst symptoms, but her illness is progressing faster than I can keep up," SAM answers in his ear, "She needs help, Mateo."

"I...I can see that, SAM," He says. Okay, as much as he’s panicking right now, he has to do a rudimentary status report. Talis is burning up beneath his fingers, barely clothed in a damp Initiative tank top that clings to her skin and shorts that are stained with what he thinks is vomit. He really hopes the few red stains are old as he brushes the hair that sticks to her face out of the way. She's flushed and somehow shivering under his touch, breathing labored. Her eyes flutter open for a moment, auburn orbs unfocused and glassy. She's not all there, and doesn't answer for a moment if she does recognize he’s here, head lolling to the side into Mateo's abdomen, "Tali, can you hear me? Sis, what happened? Are you okay--?"

She squints her eyes closed again against the light of the Nexus’ day cycle, voice crackling and rough, "Dad?"

Mateo's blood runs cold at that, and his voice creeps up an octave, "SAM, what's her base temp?"

"Her temperature spiked to almost 40 Celsius this morning, though I am working to lower it," SAM reports, "Hallucinations and confusion are not uncommon with fevers this high and consistent."

"Yeah...yeah that definitely sounds about right," Mateo squeaks out, glancing around for water, her freezer, whatever he thinks might cool her down, "What happened SAM? She seemed fine a couple days ago and now she just collapses middle of the day?"

"I am recognizing it as a toxin, though I am unsure of what origin, but it has damaged my reach over her physiological systems. With that, it has begun poisoning her, targeting organs and threatening to shut them down. Regardless, it seems the more I try to take back my control, the more I am pushed out. A virus perhaps, created specifically to target me and fatally wound the pathfinder."

"That--I don't...when did it even happen?"

"I am unsure. I can trace when symptoms began in earnest to about two days ago, but I could not pinpoint when exactly she became ill. Originally her symptoms seemed to have pointed to the common cold or influenza, but as they continued to worsen and become more severe, this became less of the case. If this virus is capable of shutting down the parts of her body I can control, then her body likely will end up in shock without my major involvement.”

Mateo’s head is spinning, and he barely understands what SAM is spitting back at him. He’s not a doctor, never has been, but he does understand that his twin is on the wrong side of ill. Poisoned, he can’t even begin to wrap his head around that one. Four days ago they’d been on Voeld, when the Tempest had come to rescue him. They’d only spent minimal time in one of of the raider camps, convinced they were friendly (or at least neutral) at the time. But…

Talis has been the only person he hadn’t had an eye on the whole time they were there in the ice shelf. But then again, they’d been taking care of something on Kadara prior to that. Elaaden even before that. All places that’d make sense if they’d hurt her with the concentration of exiles and possibly left over Roekaar. He has more than enough questions about that, but he can go over those concerns with Lexi when she gets here. If she gets here in time. He gently lays her back down to scuttle to his feet and rustle through her freezer for ice or water, fingers stinging against the cold shock and pulse throbbing in between his ribs, “SAM, ideas? When’s Lexi going to get here?”

“ETA 12 minutes, she is bringing a small emergency team with her,” He answers, “It is not advised to cool her down too fast, Mateo.”

“I know, I know,” He says. SAM’s right, he needed to cool her down but not shock her. He'd do more damage that way, and the last thing he needed was to put her in any more pain than she already was in. He learned that much in basic. He drops the ice in favor for a cold water bottle, shutting the fridge and quickly walking back to the living room, “Other ideas then? Did she take anything for it before this happened?”

“She had been lucid up until an hour ago. I requested she take a form of acetaminophen for both her fever and bodily aches, she said she would soon. Unfortunately, her fever spiked and she began vomiting again soon after — she had been laying here for almost fifteen minutes before you arrived. I had contacted Dr. T’Perro, you were already on your way,” SAM says. That answered why the pills were on the counter abandoned, and Mateo’s starting to put together a rough chain of events, “I have running theories upon what may be ailing her, but symptoms are not consistent to what I have already been aware of. I have concerns it may be Andromedan in origin or perhaps entirely synthetic.”

Mateo tilts her head up enough to laying against his shoulder when he kneels down again. She groans as he parts her lips, sitting her up to be careful to keep her from choking on the water he’d found, “Is it contagious?”

“The crew aboard the Tempest reports no symptoms, alien and human alike. While I am not directly patched into you, I have not detected any of the same symptoms or changes within you. No reports of endemic level infections on any of the planets she had visited in the past week either. This was likely deliberate, and targeted. Considering the pathfinder’s more recent activities on Kadara, her immune system was already compromised. If I did not still have some extensive control over her and was actively suppressing the worst of this ailment, she would likely already be—“

“Okay, thanks SAM, but I really don’t want to think about that right now,” Mateo cuts off the AI before he can even mention the idea of Talis being dead or dying. Three times was enough in his opinion, and he wasn’t around for those times, but he’d rather not be around for the fourth. Mateo refused to admit to being scared of a lot of things, but losing his sister again was definitely one of them.

Talis is at least capable of sipping down a few gulps of water before beginning to cough. And with her coughing comes her retching onto the rug beneath them after turning her head away from him. Barely a glance and he can tell its tinged just enough with red and bile that whatever she’s working with is doing far too much for him to fix on his own right now. He considers going back to her medicine cabinet for an antiemetic, but then again he’s not sure if he’d do more damage that way.

Goddamn it, he was never sure about these things and right now, he really wished he was, “Have you called Jaal yet?”

“Jaal is still out of contact, though I have pushed a message through to his omni tool. Likely he is still on his mission and will be unavailable for some time.”

“Great. That’s just great.” Mateo responds sarcastically, biting down on his lip. He really needed someone who was more resourceful here.

He hates feeling powerless, unable to diagnose and unable to help. He can clean later but right now he holds his sister close as she still mumbles for their father. He wishes someone else was here to tell him what to do, someone tangible. Someone like Suvi might know what plant or whatever might’ve caused this, someone like Cora would have some sort of plan in place already, but Mateo doesn’t know anything. Even Jaal might've been better, it might give some comfort to his sister knowing her partner was at her side.

But no, he was gone for a few more days on a Resistance operation.

He’s been out of the outpatient medcenter for maybe two months at this point and arguably, he’s already been tossed headfirst into the fire. He was barely a private by the time they left Andromeda, and his inexperience is shining like a badge as he leans the cool bottle against Talis’s forehead. She leans into his touch, not unlike a child, and whimpers. He needed someone else here, literally anyone else who might know what his next move should be. Even Talis would likely know what to do, and she was the one who was currently out of commission.

(Oh why didn’t he just go into biotech like his mom wanted him to?)

“Please, please, please, just stay awake Tali,” Mateo begs, moving the water bottle back to her neck when her eyes shut for a moment. That seems to bring some more coherency back to her briefly as she relaxes back into the cool comfort of it, though her eyes are threatening to flutter back closed, “C’mon Tali, at least stay awake until Lexi can get here.”

“Mm, Dad, I’m — still here. Don’ go.” Talis’ voice is small and weak, weaker than he’d heard her in years, “Don’ leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” Mateo answers back. To some extent, he’s curious what she’s seeing, what she’s thinking about. But the other part of him that’s terribly superstitious at times does not like what it implies, "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here."

Lexi arrives sometime later, he isn't sure how much later, the door to the apartment sliding open and Mateo jerking himself and Talis by accident, the latter of whom retches again onto the rug. Lexi’s not alone at least, with two others who carry a stretcher behind them. Her expression is already grim, brow bones furrowed and a deep frown across her face. She kneels down next to the pair, Mateo instinctively holding her closer.

“SAM already filled me in on my way here. We’ll take her to the Garson Memorial facility and contact some of our Angaran ambassadors — her scans don’t make me believe that whatever she ingested was Milky Way made,” The Asari confirms, waving her own scanner over Talis while a human and Turian come around his right, "Talis, can you hear me?"

When she doesn't immediately, instead squeezing her eyes shut against the light of Lexi's scanner, Lexi sighs. The Turian picks up the coffee table and discards it into the kitchen, while the human lays down the stretcher in it’s place. Mateo freezes in place, unsure of what to do next while so much goes on around him. A beam extends from the side of the bed, the human EMT quick to prepare what he thinks is an IV to hook up to Talis. Mateo hesitates to let go of his sister, in his right mind he knows they’re here to help and knows she’ll be fine but the last time he let her out of his sight…

So much has gone wrong. And he wasn't there for any of it to help. And he's about to be again if they take her away.

“Iz that—mom?” Talis warbles, her head turned towards Lexi. Her distress is more evident now, every wheezing breath she takes accompanied with the quivering that’s beginning to shake them both is scaring him more and more. Now that she can’t even differentiate between the ship’s doctor and their own mother, can’t differentiate between himself and their father, he just wants to know what’s happening. Wants SAM to shut her down again and just reboot her good as new, as much as that’s a pipe dream and would just as likely kill her outright, “Mom?”

“Mateo,” Lexi’s voice snaps him out of his panic, her cerulean eyes pinned on him. She seems to ignore Talis calling for her, though her stern look is starting to bleed into concern, “We’ll stabilize her and keep you updated on her condition, but we need to go now if we have any intention of getting her to the med center before she gets any worse.”

He allows himself one more second, cupping the side of her face with his free hand before relinquishing his grasp on his twin. The EMTs are as careful as they can be with her, the IV inserted and a monitor with her vitals appearing on her side when they attach it to her. The rest of the time that Lexi and her team are there blur into mush, as they ask questions and roll her back out of the apartment. Mateo does his best to answer with SAM filling in a lot of the major gaps, and makes a mental note to do his best on cleaning whenever he gets back, make sure to take care of what he can.

He walks alongside them as their brisk pace, an ambulance waiting for them and a small crowd beginning to form in the complex hallway. She’s rolled into the back of the skytruck, and one of the EMTs offers him a hand to pull him up. He takes it, hands shaking as he sits to her right.

Lexi is quick and efficient, attaching monitor after monitor to her. SAM assists her, rattling off reports. The sound of the EKG is what he thinks will haunt him after this, though. Talis had told him once that her prior two deaths were quick, like moments of being unconscious. She couldn't tell that she'd died, that she was dying. SAM had only given her a brief warning beforehand the second time, the third was quick and unable to have been predicted. The first, the first had been what had startled him most when she recounted it to him, her legs pulled up to her chest and almost at a whisper when he'd asked in the medbay.

She had been panicking. Had been terrified out of her mind.

Once the heart monitor is attached, the rapid and erratic beeping fills the back of the truck. Lexi glances at it, knitting her brows and quickly administering more medication after that discovery. He can't quite swallow around the lump in his throat, wondering if she's panicking now in her own mind. Wondering if she was, alone in her apartment and barely able to breathe. Likely hunched over a bucket, incapable of deciphering which was up or down or even who was right in front of her?

Why hadn't she called him? Texted him that she wasn't feeling well?He would've come running, even though he knows that thinking about this now wouldn't change the past. He knows the real answer, and doesn't like it much. Wish Talis stopped believing it.

Only SAM had known about this, and likely Talis had sworn him to some degree of secrecy. Mateo knew better than anyone Talis hated having people worry about her.

"God, you gotta stop doing this, Tali," Mateo whispers, throat scratchy and eyes burning, taking hold of her hand in between two of his own. Lexi diverts her eyes, carefully attaching an oxygen mask to her, "Gotta stop scaring me, gotta stop pulling the shittiest parlor tricks."

She doesn't acknowledge what he says, but her eyes are still open. Still flickering around the truck. They land on him briefly, lidded and dark, but at least he can live with the peace she's alive. She's still alive. And for all it's worth, will stay alive.

Because God knows he doesn't know what he'd do without her.

-

Rewinding...

[2] October 2nd, 2820

Logs: Talis Meissa Ryder-Lucero (Ark Hyperion Pathfinder)

[vampcubus]

I did the meme