//------------------------------// // Treason // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 132 Treason [You know what? Buck it!] 78% Rainbow paced around in the hallway outside of engineering, trying to bring up the courage to enter. She could see Grunt give her the occasional glance through the window of his cargo bay room as she'd been there for a while now. Come on Rainbow, you're not a chicken are you?... Who am I kidding, that's exactly what I'm being right now. Rainbow glanced at the elevator, it wouldn't be to late yet as she was pretty sure Grunt wouldn't be the one to ask questions if she'd just left. Oh come on, it's not that bad. If she says no we can at least be around each other without awkwardness and if she says yes... Rainbow shuddered as butterflies fluttered in her stomach, the answer yes is what she really feared. This sappy stuff? What if she wasn't good at it? Would she hurt Tali more if she screwed things up later down the line. Scraping all her courage together, Dash opened the door to engineering, passing through the little hallway before opening the second door which led into engineering proper. The two human engineers were standing at their consoles though they both shot Rainbow a glance of concern as she entered. “Lass, I don't know what ya two did before, but ya need to fix it. She ain't talking to any of us.” Ken pointed at Tali who sat in the corner of her side of the engineering bay, her knees pulled up and head resting in her arms. Rainbow nodded, carefully approaching Tali as she could hear muffled sobbing through the helmet. “Tali?” Rainbow's voice cracked slightly, getting no response from the quarian. “Tali I'm sorry.” Dash still didn't get a reply as she sat down next to Tali. Opening her wing, Rainbow wrapped the appendage around Tali who for the first time now looked up to see who was there. Tali's eyes connected with Rainbow's magenta ones, droplets running down the inside of her visor. “Rainbow?” She said surprised, her voice just over a whisper. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I-I just… couldn't keep my stupid mouth shut.” Rainbow said, leaning against Tali. “N-No, no, that's not… I wasn't…” Tali brought up her shaking arm and pulled up a message from her omni-tool, sending it over to Rainbow's. Quickly reading over the text Dash's mouth fell open. “They WHAT!?” She exclaimed, her nervousness scorched away by a raging inferno of anger. She couldn't believe what she was reading. They accused her of treason!? Who do those numbskulls think they are! “They're wrong,” Rainbow growled, pulling Tali closer. “Q-Quarians don't just accuse one of our own to be a traitor, those are serious charges that get levied extremely rarely,” Tali sobbed, resting her head on Rainbow's. “Shepard needs to hear about this,” Rainbow told her. “I can't ask him to do this for me, the collectors need to be stopped.” Rainbow pulled away from Tali, looking straight into her eyes. “He wouldn't hesitate for a second and you know that.” she plainly stated, activating her omni-tool and calling the Commander. “What's the problem, Rainbow?” Shepard answered nearly immediately. “Nothing with me, Tali needs help,” Rainbow informed him, “Like, soon.” “I'm on my way down, be right there,” Shepard replied, closing the connection. Less than a minute later the commander stepped into engineering, making a beeline for Tali and Rainbow. “What is going on?” “The migrant fleet's admiralty board has a-accused me of treason,” Tali sniffed, sending the message over to him too. “That's-” “Horseshit?” Dash finished for Shepard. “Pretty much,” he agreed. “I take you need a ride to the Migrant Fleet?” “But Shepard, the collectors-” “Can wait until my team is one hundred percent and going into the mission with a fully clear mind,” Shepard cut off. “Send the coordinates of the fleet to Joker, We’ll head there as soon as we’ve refueled and restocked at Omega.” “Thank you Shepard, I… I don’t know what to say.” “A thank you after we get those charges cleared will do,” Shepard said, helping Tali off the ground. “I know you might not be in the mood but there’s someone I wanted you to meet, Tali... Legion, mind coming in?” The door to the hallway outside opened again as the geth they picked up on the reaper stepped in. Tali tensed up immediately, reflexively reaching back to her shotgun that wasn’t there at the moment. “Creator Tali’Zorah, we would like to not be shot while moving around this vessel,” It simply stated, Tali said nothing as she stared at the geth. “Tali, this is Legion, he’ll be coming along with us. I know you have your issues with them but I really think you should ask him some questions,” Shepard carefully told Tali, ready to intervene is she’d go ballistic. Rainbow carefully nudged Tali in the side with a wing to pull her out of her trance. The quarian took a careful step forward, holding her hand out to the geth. Legion, equally careful, grabbed the hand and shook it. “A truce.” “That is agreeable.” Tali looked down at Rainbow. “I know you were here to discuss… things, but I want to talk to ‘Legion’ here.” “Y-Yeah, go ahead. We’ll talk later...” Rainbow stammered slightly while blushing. Tali following legion out of engineering to wherever they could talk in private. “That could have gone much worse,” Shepard sighed as the two were gone. “Definitely,” Rainbow agreed absentmindedly. Shepard raised an eyebrow as he picked up on Dash's strange distracted state of mind. “Hey Rainbow, does your kind have a fetish for aliens?” Shepard smirked, Rainbow's face brightening further as she looked up at him. “I'm going to take that as a yes.”  “You humans are horrid teases,” Dash grumbled, walking out of engineering along with the Commander. “We try,” Shepard chuckled. “Though I would like you to sit in on those two to keep them from doing something stupid regardless.” Rainbow nodded, “will do, Commander.”  “Tali'Zorah and legion are currently located in my AI core.” EDI informed them as the elevator opened up on the crew bay. “Thanks EDI, see you around, Commander.” “No problem, now go check up on your girlfriend.” “She's not!...” The elevator door had already closed. “...My girlfriend?”