1. The Snake in the Garden
"Saren?" The inquiring voice behind him was familiar, sub-harmonics tinged with shock.
He turned. A younger turian, brown-plated with white markings, stood at the base of the steps leading up to the station platform, mandibles spread wide in surprise. Saren knew his face well.
"Nihlus," he noted. Saren stepped forward and his former student approached, lowering his assault rifle and pointing the barrel to the ground. It was an unwarranted display of trust.
Saren disapproved.
"This isn't your mission, Saren," Nihlus said, green eyes wide and earnest. "What are you doing here?" The younger turian's sub-harmonics vibrated with confusion, but no suspicion at his former mentor's unexplained presence.
Eden Prime was burning and Nihlus acted like they had just bumped into each other on the Citadel. Saren thought he trained Nihlus better than this. It was an embarrassing failure if he allowed Nihlus to become a Spectre without learning this most basic lesson.
Saren walked up to him. "The Council thought you could use some help on this one." He clapped a hand on Nihlus's shoulder.
Nihlus didn't even flinch. He has no idea why I'm here. Saren walked past, noting that his old trainee didn't turn around. Too sentimental by far. I warned you, Nihlus. Trust no one.
The humans had uncovered a Prothean device, so naturally the Council would want supervision. It was an easy lie. Saren just hadn't thought they'd send a Spectre so soon. That it happened to be Nihlus was unfortunate, but ultimately changed nothing.
He couldn't let the Council find out he was here. Nihlus had to die.
"I wasn't expecting to find the geth here," Nihlus said. Saren silently drew his pistol, attaching a Shredder Rounds mod. "The situation's bad."
Saren smiled grimly at the irony of Nihlus's words.
"Don't worry." Saren turned and aimed for Nihlus's head. At this distance, he couldn't miss. "I've got it under control." Nihlus's back was still turned and Saren felt a flare of anger. What a senseless waste of training.
The shot echoed through the valley. Saren holstered his pistol and knelt next to his former student.
Nihlus was face-down, the air thick with the smell of smoke and the metallic scent of the blood rapidly pooling around his head. A small hole in the base of his skull marked where the bullet entered. Saren knew the shredder rounds would have scattered shrapnel inside his skull, liquefying his brain on impact.
Even so, Saren rolled Nihlus over, testing his optical reflexes just to make sure the Spirits hadn't granted some miracle. His student's eyes stared blankly at the sky, his mandibles gone slack beside his jaw. As oblivious in death as he was in life, Saren thought. Idiot. This is the only result of trust.
Satisfied that no divine intervention had occurred, Saren nodded to himself. Based on the trajectory, the bullet would have hit the brainstem first and Nihlus wouldn't have felt or known a thing. It was as good a death as he could afford give his fool of a former student.
Saren briefly toyed with the idea of tossing the body in the nearby fire but discarded it as a waste of time.
Nihlus's plates would take too long to burn and there was no time to clean up the blood. That tell-tale blue blood would testify to his deed even if no one found the body. Trying to cover up the evidence would only draw more attention to it. No, leaving him there was the best idea. Anyone looking would figure the geth had killed him.
Besides, if he succeeded, it wouldn't matter if anyone figured out how Nihlus died.
Saren headed to the cargo train platform.
If the Council had sent Nihlus here, the Alliance would have demanded an escort accompany him. The geth had no problems with the human soldiers already stationed here, but additional troops meant possible backup if a ship was in orbit. It was a slight hitch in his plans, but nothing he couldn't account for.
He set the train to go to the spaceport. If the humans were following Nihlus, they needed to be dealt with immediately. There was no time to wait for the geth to finish the search. They would have to deploy the demolition charges, with or without the colonists.
New orders: All geth on ground focus on extraction and retrieval of collected colonists, Saren typed into his Omni-tool. Additional Alliance forces on ground. At least one hostile ship in orbit. Geth at spaceport; divert a contingent of forces to cargo transport. Alliance hostiles likely inbound.
The humans would probably stop to investigate Nihlus's death, buying Saren time and allowing the geth to ambush them.
Saren sent the orders, then paced the platform.
The train slid towards the spaceport, far too slowly in Saren's opinion. He stopped in front of the train's terminal and fiddled with the controls. It was already going at maximum speed. Leave it to the humans to rely on such inefficient transport, Saren thought, tapping one toe impatiently. He bared his teeth in disgust. Every moment he was stuck on this freight loader, the greater the chance the humans would disrupt things further.
Saren felt the shockwaves of Sovereign's takeoff before he saw them, the sudden spike in air pressure sending a wave of smoke and debris past him. Sovereign rocketed through the atmosphere, a storm of intense, rapid-fire static discharge crackling along its surface as it rose.
No doubt moving to intercept should the Alliance be calling more ships to arrive. If Sovereign found a ship in orbit, it would be scrap metal before it could send a distress call. It didn't like having a hitch in the plan, either.
The cargo train neared the spaceport. He could see the lights of the geth platforms waiting at the other end. They stood, motionless, as the train stopped at the station.
"Return to the loading platform." Saren stepped off the train and made his way to the stairs. "An unknown number of hostiles are likely on their way. Stop them by any means necessary."
The geth got on the train, including one destroyer. Saren nodded to himself. The destroyer should prove a decent distraction.
A remaining trooper led him to a loading platform on the upper dock where the Prothean beacon had been set on the platform's edge. It was just like the one at his base on Virmire. At his arrival it started glowing verdant green, faintly at first but stronger at his approach.
As Saren marched down the ramp, two of his geth prepared to lower a transformation spike. The colonist impaled on it was nearing completion, the cybernetics' slight blue tendrils glowing under its skin.
The plan had been simple— find the colonists, spike them, get the beacon, take the transformed colonists and bomb the colony to wipe out any clues. Nice, clean, and efficient; a plan with no annoying loose ends. Now there was no time for that.
"Set the charges," Saren growled at the nearest geth. "Destroy the entire colony. Leave no evidence that we were here."
He wasted no time checking to ensure they complied.
He turned his attention to the beacon. It hummed as Saren came closer. The air around him started to distort, ripples of green energy reaching out towards him, pulling him in. They wrapped around him, jerking him up and dangling him mid-air. A wave of light hit him.
Red and orange. Circuits and flesh. Visceral, bleeding. Run, run! They're coming! There is no escape! The overpowering stench of rotting flesh. Suffocation. I can't breathe! The sharp tang of metal on this tongue. Fight and die! There is no escape! White-hot agony. High pitched screeching. Teeth. Grinding metal. Someone prays, kneeling, face lifted. A light in the sky, running, terror. Something screams. Despair. Despair. Despair.
Saren hit the ground and stumbled to his feet. He passed some of his geth setting the charges. They needed to hurry, but he didn't have the energy to spare on barking orders. There was no time to think. A ship waited nearby and Saren started to it, half carried by one of the geth.
On the ship, he sat in the bow and took measured, deliberate breaths, counting his heart beats until they begun to slow in time with his breathing. He felt the inertial dampeners kick in as the ship left orbit.
"Benezia," Saren radioed over his comm, his voice gravelly with exhaustion. He waited for the click to indicate she was receiving. "Prepare for immediate extraction. All colonists into stasis. Keep the beacon in isolation until we reach the base."
"Understood, sir," the asari's voice came through, clear and unruffled.
Her voice was quickly swallowed by the mechanical whirr of the ship, leaving nothing but metal and the buzzing of electronics. Even the ambient noise of the geth ship sounded dead. It was unpleasant, like claws against his plates.
He leaned back on the bench. It was uncomfortable, but he was too tired to care. He shut his eyes against the visions playing in his mind. The darkness behind his eyelids only sharpened their intensity. He opened his eyes again and the visions retreated behind his sight, shadows flickering at the edges of his mind.
Saren stared straight ahead at a seam in the wall, focusing all his attention on studying it. As long as he kept focus, the visions couldn't intrude, couldn't interfere with his ability to act.
He just had to keep his mind on the task.
Sovereign, as usual, numbed things. Sovereign was alive, abuzz with constant sound. It pounded with relentless energy, like a massive heartbeat. It was something the geth could never hope to match.
Benezia met him in the dock as he stepped off the geth ship. Other ships were arriving, the geth unloading transformed colonists and transformation spikes. Saren ignored them and strode purposefully toward Benezia.
"Saren," she greeted him, dipping her blue head gracefully.
"There is a ship in orbit," Saren demanded. "What is it?"
"We are still looking into it, sir." Benezia frowned. "There was a ship in orbit. It appears to have vanished. We are looking for it and I will let you know when there is an update on the situation."
"Good." Saren turned to go, then paused, looking over his shoulder. "I trust you are capable of dealing with this?"
"Of course," she said, with a touch of pride.
Good, he felt like saying, because I don't feel like dealing with you right now. Instead, he nodded and walked off.
Deep within Sovereign, the omnipresent thrum was enough to override the visions. The halls and passages within Sovereign met at strange angles but here, in the silent dark, Saren didn't have to look at them. He didn't have to look at anything.
No unblinking green eyes stared back at him from the shadows. No Protheans screamed, bled and died in these halls.
Saren set the datapad aside.
Jacobus had sent him an update prior to landing on Eden Prime about the quarians he found poking around their excavation site on Acaeria. They'd managed to escape to the Citadel. He hadn't received further updates from Jacobus, so it was safe to assume he had failed.
Saren wasn't worried about it; he had plenty of contacts on the Citadel who could take care of them. He'd already sent a message to them to be on the lookout. He doubted the quarians were any kind of threat, but it paid to be prepared.
His thoughts turned to Nihlus. How many times did I tell him not to trust anyone but himself? Saren shook his head, putting one hand to his face. For the right price, you can buy anyone. You simply need to know their currency.
Nihlus had always been unreasonable that way. It was why he never fit in the military, why his superiors had rejected him. Saren thought he would grow out of it with time. Nihlus had been resourceful, intelligent and surprisingly cunning. A truly promising candidate who became a good Spectre. But he was too stupid with his emotions.
The mission came first. It always came first. He'd taught Nihlus that and he thought Nihlus had understood it. The shrapnel in his skull and that stupid, earnest look still plastered on his face in death suggested he had not.
He put his emotions ahead of his mission. Saren hadn't. And that's why Nihlus was dead.
He could see now that he'd miscalculated when he approved Nihlus as a Spectre. He was paying for that mistake now, with his own hand rendering all the time spent training the fool wasted.
Saren hated wasting time.
He heard Benezia down the hall, the swish of her dress loud in the silent corridor.
She was another naïve one. The asari thought she fooled him, that he didn't know her plan. Saren could smell her self-righteousness. Her self-satisfied aura of moral superiority was so profound that even an absolute moron could guess her motives. Everyone knew Benezia was a philosopher and theology teacher, but as a Matriarch she was powerful, as were her commando followers. Sovereign would make sure they were useful.
Benezia stopped a respectful distance away and cleared her throat. Saren waited silently.
"We identified the ship that touched down on Eden Prime," she said. "The Normandy. A human Alliance vessel." Saren didn't move. "It was under the command of Captain Anderson." Saren felt his temper rising. Anderson. "They managed to save the colony."
"And the beacon?"
Benezia hesitated and the scent of fear rolled off her in waves, kicking Saren's primal predatory instincts into overdrive. His heart began to pound, spurred on by her terror. "One of the humans may have used it."
Saren leaned forward, digging his talons into the arms of the chair. Anderson! He snarled, baring his teeth. The human idiot.
He lunged to his feet, growling as Sovereign pulsed with rage. And they used the beacon?
I give them one simple task ... Saren lashed out, tossing the table next to him and sending the datapad flying. He paced, wanting to rend and tear, feel the blood on his claws. I will not tolerate such incompetence!
Benezia shifted nervously, the scent of her fear growing stronger.
Saren's heart raced in anticipation of the kill. She was weak, stupid flesh.
Her eyes widened as he turned to her. He would take her eyes first, blind her so she couldn't fight back. She froze, too shocked to pull away as he stormed over, snarling. He seized her head, thumb talons pointed inward.
Sovereign sent a warning pulse and he caught himself. Benezia's skin blanched a slightly lighter shade of blue than normal, also feeling the razor edge of pain Sovereign was promising. Saren forced down his impulse to finish her. He let go and pulled himself reluctantly away, talons clenching in frustrated desire.
"This human must be eliminated," he growled, sub-harmonics thick with unfulfilled rage.
Saren stalked off, leaving her standing in dumb disbelief. His ancient impulses railed against letting her go, but the asari was too valuable an asset to waste in anger.
He'd have to turn his fury to something more constructive, like learning how Anderson got involved. The explosion on Camala should have killed him. Even all these years later, Saren still didn't know how that plateless bastard made it out alive, but perhaps he would get a chance to correct that. If their paths crossed again, he would make sure this time the fool didn't make it out alive.
A.N.: This is something of a companion piece to my other fic, Unsettled, but it can stand alone. I'd like to think they enhance each other, though. I generally don't bother much with the idea of "trigger warnings" but obviously, since Saren is the viewpoint character of the fic, there's going to be lots of potentially disturbing stuff. Canonically, Saren tortures, murders, and subjects people to indoctrination until they're completely mentally destroyed. If you're not comfortable reading about those kinds of things, this fic isn't for you.
After looking through the fics on this site about Saren, I was a bit disappointed. There were few fics with Saren as the main character, and of those few, the majority were Saren/Nihlus. Everyone has their own tastes but I have to say, Saren/Nihlus is a pairing that I personally find extremely bizarre. I just don't see the appeal of pairing a murder victim with their murderer. This is obviously not a Saren/Nihlus story.
Saren is such an interesting character (even if he is a horrible person). I've said previously how I thought Saren was under-utilized. Well, since there is a lack of good Saren fics, I'm following the advice of 'write what you'd like to read.' Plus I'd like to address the many questions I had about Saren and what he was up to during ME1. I intend to follow canon as much as possible. On a related note, I'm a canon inclusivist, meaning that I accept the semi-canon background stuff (like Tali's Homeworlds comic) so long as it doesn't contradict the canon. For this fic ME1 is the canon, and any comics or books are semi-canon. Since I haven't read all the comics, details about the things that happen in them will be somewhat sketchy and only added when necessary.
Admittedly, my plan is a bit ambitious. This fic will definitely be longer than Unsettled. That's why I've sought the help of a beta to make sure I don't screw it up.
This chapter is cross-posted to deviantart, so if you see it there, it's me.