<Excerpt from longer work. Possible Jeff “Joker” Moreau/OFC fic, with face claim for Athena and Artemis being Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johansson), Maleshep for Astraeus. Don’t know if this is what I’ll keep for final (thinking about taking a SI-OC maybe). Title is from song “Dancing With the Devil” by Demi Lovato and farther in: “Seven Devils” by Florence and the Machine
Twins, even though science dubed it blasphemy, always shared a connection.
Athena and Artemis Shepard were no different.
It had been while she was planet-side on Illium, wrist deep in the guts of a junkie that had swallowed a data chip, that Athena's grief hit her full force.
{Heartache is a hell of a wake-up call.}
Artemis managed to slip away from her handler for an hour, enough to call up Nena.
{Her little sister looked like death warmed over.}
{She wished, not for the first time, that she could reach through the screen and hug the woman.}
"I'll see you soon Nena. Hang in there."
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The sheer panic Artemis felt race down her spine had nothing to do with the Shadow Broker's forces hunting her down planet-side... and everything to do with the shitstorm Athena faced.
Something was wrong, but Artemis didn't know how she could help, knee-deep in her own shitfest as she was.
{The betrayal of a friend would eventually scar over, as it had before.}
Artemis took a breather in the shelter of a rock cropping, omni-tool flared to life with a notification, a new message.
From Athena.
[There's something I have to do.]
[Don't know if I made the right choice.]
[Till the end of the line, Missy.]
The ex-Phantom choked on a sob, feeling the crushing weight of something settle on her chest. She couldn't tell if it was hers or Nena's.
[Till the end of the line, Nena.]
Artemis had no more time, she had to move.
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Till the end of the line.
That had been their goodbye since they were pre-teens, having watched an early 21st century film where two best friends, surrogate siblings, had spoken those words to each other. It was powerful and it became the Shepard siblings' way of saying, 'I'll be there for you to the end'. Even their little brother Astraeus had picked it up.
With Athena's memorial service, the words reached their truest meaning. It was at Athena's end that the ex-Phantom would have to move on, take care of those left behind....It wasn't easy to do for a Spectre, no matter her relation.
At the service Artemis finally saw Jeff again.
It had been almost two years since she had given him the service entrance code to hijack the Normandy and asked him to keep an eye on Athena for her. Whatever had happened, Artemis held nothing against him. Her little sister had obviously seen the same worth in the pilot the ex-phantom had. If Athena Shepard had to die for someone, Artemis supposed she could be proud that it was for someone worthy of it.
What she could not be proud of... was her reaction to Ashley Williams.
The Gunnery Chief had pratically exploded in her face about her lack of grief, supposedly, and when Artemis had told her firmly that Joker would not be getting punished for his actions- She had sucker punched the Chief once her limit had been met.
"Listen to me, you wretched bitch. Athena was my twin, my family, and my lifeline. I don't give a flying fuck who you think you are, you have no right to tell me how to feel or how to show my emotions. She was my sister before she was ever your commander. If I hear one more word out of your goddamned mouth I will run my blade through your gut. Get the hell out of my sight."
{She wasn't lying about that last part either. The urge to gut something or someone was at the forefront of her mind.}
{Goddamn Phantom instincts.}
Jeff hadn't spoken to her at first, ignoring her presence besides him on the bench until she spoke first.
"It was her choice, Jeff."
That had shocked him out of his stupor, twisting to face her and going pale at the sight of her.
{She tried to not look exactly like the woman they had lost.}
{She was sure her pale skin emphaized the bags under eyes from the lack of sleep, her cropped blonde dyed hair not helping change that. She didn't even bother to cover the tattoos on her forearms, the black ink stark in contrast. Her tacvest hung unzipped on her frame, exposing her tshirt, ratty as it was.}
{It had seen better days, much like herself.}
"You...."
She offered a tiny smile in return, that hopefully conveyed her understanding, "My name is Artemis."
The ex-phantom stood and faced the pilot again, hands gently rested on the bench arm and his shoulder with her face barely a few inches away, "Thanks for looking out for her."
Artemis carefully closed the reamining distance and gave him a kiss on the cheek, sadness curling in her chest at the motion.
{Her life was too dangerous for a relationship.}
{She had work to do, after all.}
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Phantoms were a menance on a good day.
Artemis had been one of the best there was, donning her own phantom armor in the Cerberus colors and monomolecular blade in her grasp. She still relied on that training to this day, even a few years after her defection.
{The tactical cloak was a nice bonus too.}
Even so, she hadn't been fast enough to keep her little sister's body out of the Shadow Broker's grimy paws. The snow of Alchera bled red with Artemis' blood and her blade had been lost underneath it, though she had made quite a dent in the numbers against her. They left her to bleed out among the rubble of the Normandy SR-1…
{Big mistake.}
Her old friends, Karliyah and Axel, were already on their way from the other side of the damned planet. All Artemis could do was concentrate on her biotics, forcing her shield tight to her skin to keep from bleeding out. Damn armor had been on its last legs anyways, bad timing on her part.
Artemis left a trail of red behind her as she crawled into the broken rubble of the cockpit for shelter. She could easily imagine Jeff at the helm, her sister standing tall at his shoulder. She wondered what moments they had shared, if he had made Athena laugh with his sarcasm more than her sister had ever spoke of. There had been esxperated fondness in Nena's tone when she spoke of the man, pride in every word she spoke when regaling her about his 'skills'. In another life, she wondered if she could've had that with Jeff.
{She couldn't stop the pang of envy in her chest, discernible even over the pain.}
Her head turned back to face the snow-scape that had been her battlefield, unable to help the image of her sister's body in a frozen grave. Athena’s armor had stuck to her body, the helmet cracked andmissing most of it's cranium. Her sister's face was frozen in a slow decomposition that-
{It would haunt her when she looked in a mirror.}
-The ex-Phantom would never forget.
The weight sitting on her chest became heavier, a croaked breathe of manic laughter escaped as Artemis tried to get her helmet off without strain on her wounds. She was the identical twin of Commander fucking Shepard, of course she couldn't forget her own face in death.
{Even if she remembered that face with cropped red hair and a small smile, green eyes filled with understanding as they clutched each other's bloodied hands.}
{God, she wanted to die.}
{She couldn't. Not yet anyways. There was too much work to do.}
{She still had a body to recover and a kingdom to burn.}
"I don't want.... your money-" Artemis softly sung, mocking tone evident, around her pained breaths. "your crown... I have...to burn your...kingdom down."
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Artemis' hair finally lost the last bits of blonde dye that had clung to it.
She had dyed her scarlet locks dark blonde when she had first undertaken the mission to infiltrate the Shadow Broker, almost symbolic of becoming someone else for the sake of a mission. Now, Artemis had to be even stricter about her appearance outside her miniscule circle of associates given her twin was the most famous Human to exist-
{She would punch the next person to call Athena infamous or a mass murderer.}
{Who the hell gave Athena that choice to make?}
Anderson was sympethic to the last Shepard woman and often made sure to visit her when he had the time. He was a good man and ambassador for Humanity, the same one who saved Athena before Cerberus got her too-
{The streetkids were easy pickings.}
{She was the eldest, it was her job to look out for her little sis.}
Athena had left all her effects to her sister, which included her dog tags-
{They were morribly comforting around her neck.}
-and her apartment, which Artemis rented out as a cheap dormitory for Quarians.
The Ex-Phantom made sure to save the info on Athena's crew as well-
{It had been kind of painful to reveal herself among them, grief tripled as she introduced herself.}
{Astraeus was the only one to understand.}
-considering the fact that her instinct, the same one that was responsible for her livelihood as it was, was sure her sister's death was only the beginning.
