A/N: Standard disclaimer that I don't own the rights to Mass Effect etc. Cover image credit to .com(slash)art(slash)Love-496557395 by kate-n-bd.
The Presidium was quiet that morning, or as quiet as it ever was; the only sound was the distant hum of early-morning traffic high above the embassy offices, barely noticeable from so far away. A lone turian Citadel security officer was making his way across the courtyard to the embassies' front entrance, the heavy tap of his steel boots against the concrete echoing off the stone walls of the building.
He walked with the same air of authority most turians held, head raised, chest pushed forward. Whether it was a product of his militaristic culture or simply his anatomy, even he was unsure. Walking with any other gait felt unnatural.
The turian's broad chest was covered in heavy blue and black C-sec armor, two rifles strapped across his back, thermal clips loaded. A sniper's visor covered one eye and glowed a soft blue, a single white ring in the center highlighting one of his hawkish blue eyes.
At the entrance to the embassies, he swiped his identification against a scanner and the door chirped affirmatively before sliding open. Inside was cold and quiet. At its busiest, the reception area would be filled with people of every species, waiting to meet with ambassadors, councilors, C-sec officers, perhaps even Spectres; or else screaming at the poor turian receptionist. For the moment, however, the reception room was empty, save for two guards posted at the front entrance and said receptionist.
"Good morning, Garrus," she greeted the C-sec officer airily.
She was a waifish thing, if such a word could be used to describe a turian. Her chest was not as broad, her mandibles not as pronounced, and while females had noticeably shorter and smaller fringes than males, she hardly had any to speak of. Still, she was friendly enough, Garrus supposed. He knew that she was interested in him, but he wasn't particularly interested in her. He preferred his women assertive and strong and he very much doubted she was either based on her frame alone. He forced a fleeting smile, nodded to her, and brushed past her toward the Earth Ambassador's office.
The office was down a long, narrow hallway, not far from a C-sec office manned by a human officer he didn't care for. He stopped at the locked door to the office and peered into the camera next to the door's controls, then pressed a green button and spoke.
"Ambassador Udina, it's Garrus Vakarian," he said, the sub-harmonics of his voice producing a flange that almost sounded like a purr when he spoke so softly.
There was no reply, but a moment later the door unlocked and opened to allow him entry.
The Earth ambassador's office was much too large, in Garrus' opinion. There were far more important things to devote Citadel resources to than a non-council race's embassy; even the elcor and the volus had to share embassy office space. The ambassador did have assistants and other humans working in the space, but the enormous room was still too large.
The ambassador was waiting for him behind a lavish desk made of some dark wood shipped all the way back from Earth. Whatever term Udina had repeatedly used for it the last time Garrus had asked, his translator couldn't make sense of it, and untranslated human speech sounded like jibberish to the Turian.
The man himself was wearing a sour expression as Garrus approached him. His face was pale, his greying hairline receding, forehad marred with wrinkles. Garrus hated his meetings with the ambassador, but they shared a mutual interest of bringing another turian to justice: Saren, a Spectre who both men believed was abusing his power. This shared passion was enough to make Udina just barely tolerable for the brief meetings they had to discuss the matter.
Udina had called Garrus personally early that morning to request the meeting, much earlier, in fact, than Garrus cared to be awake, but he knew it would be worth it. Udina rarely requested a meeting himself; it was usually done through his assistant or else Garrus was the one reaching out with an update on another dead end.
"Vakarian," Udina said, his voice sharp, eyebrows furrowed.
Eyebrows were such a curious human aspect to Garrus. What purpose hair could serve there was beyond him. And there was such nuanced expression in their movement. He had been living amongst humans on the Citadel for nearly nine years and he was only finally beginning to understand the meaning of all their body language, though he found that some body language was universal across species. He knew enough to know that furrowed eyebrows usually meant anger.
"I have another tip from a black-market dealer down in the wards," Garrus explained, taking a seat in front of the ambassador's desk and bringing up the information on his omni-tool. "I'm planning on following up on that after our meeting here."
"Forget that," Udina waved his hand dismissively. "I've had word from the SSV Normandy."
"I'm unfamiliar," Garrus shook his head.
"An Alliance navy vessel," Udina said. "Manned by Captain David Anderson. His Lieutenant Commander, Rembley Shepard, is the one with the report. They're on their way back from a mission on Eden Prime. I wanted to let you know before the news breaks. They bring news of Saren."
Garrus leaned forward, his full attention now focused on the ambassador. "What news?"
"Shepard and her squad encountered Saren, or at least news of him, while on assignment on Eden Prime. A turian spectre named Nihulus was killed during the mission. They claim a resident of the colony saw Saren shoot him," Udina explained.
"Do they have evidence?" Garrus asked, brimming with excitement.
This was the first real lead he'd had since being assigned to Saren's case months earlier. They'd only assigned him because Udina wouldn't stop complaining that Saren had gone rogue. Garrus knew Saren, and he didn't trust him one bit. He was eager to take the case, and volunteered as soon as C-sec was assigned to it.
"Not that I know of. They're going to speak with the council as soon as they arrive."
"I'd like to be there when they do. When do they arrive?"
"They should be here by midday," Udina said, glancing quickly at a clock on his desk.
"I'll be ready for them then. Midday at the citadel tower."
"Don't get your hopes up, Vakarian," Udina warned. "It's a solid breakthrough, and I believe them, but without proof, the council never will. What's more, I worry that Shepard will be blamed for Nihlus' death. That has poor repercussions for humanity. She was being assessed for Spectre status."
"A human spectre?" Garrus marveled. "This commander of yours must be something else for the council to even consider granting her Spectre status."
"I'm loathe to say it," Udina's voice was dripping with disdain, "But she's one of the best officers the Alliance navy has ever seen. If she could achieve Spectre status, humanity would be one step closer to a spot on the council."
Garrus let out an involuntary snort of disbelief, which he quickly tried to turn into a cough. Udina narrowed his eyes, another sign the turian had learned to associate with anger, or suspicion.
"You're skeptical that humanity will ever have a spot on the council?" Udina asked.
"It's nothing against humans," Garrus shrugged. "But the council are hard to budge on any topic. They're just like C-sec, try to get anything done, and you're drowning in red tape."
He stood up and punched in a request for a taxi into his omni tool. "I'm still going to look into the black-market dealer. See if I can't turn up any evidence to help this Commander Shepard. If she's got anything on Saren, I want to give her all the help she can get. I'll see you at the tower, Udina."
"Vakarian." The ambassador said curtly, nodding as he left.
The turian headed for the embassy exit with a renewed hope. This might finally be the chance he needed to get Saren's Spectre status revoked and put him behind bars where he belonged, and he apparently had a human to thank for it.
Rembley Shepard was dead tired when the Citadel finally came into view from the window of the crew quarters aboard the SSV Normandy. The trip back from Eden Prime had felt like a century and the weight of what had happened there was heavy on all of the crew. They had picked up an Alliance gunnery chief on the colony, and left behind one dead turian Spectre and an alliance corporal.
Shepard had been affected by the Prothean beacon herself, in a quick effort to save her lieutenant from its effects. Whatever nightmare it had seared into her brain, it had left her with a pounding headache that was just finally beginning to ebb, though it had been hours since Dr. Chakwas had given her medicine for it.
She sat with her head against the cool glass window, looking out at the endless black of space and the approaching Citadel, its four massive arms stretching out as if to embrace the ship. She was replaying the images from the beacon over and over like a movie in her mind.
"Commander?" A man's husky voice interrupted her thoughts.
She jerked her head up and found her lieutenant and the gunnery chief standing in front of the table where she sat. The lieutenant, Kaidan Alenko, was a man of few words, but he always had a look of concern in his amber eyes. He was like a puppy with muscles, Shepard thought, and true to form, he was giving her those stupid, concerned puppy-dog eyes at the moment. She felt a twinge of guilt at her annoyance with the look. He was genuinely concerned and she ought to be thankful she had anyone that cared about her in such a selfless way. Still, she could sense a hint of pity behind the look as well.
The gunnery chief, Ashley Williams, was a plucky and opinionated girl: this much Shepard knew just from a few days of her company. She had her arms crossed over her chest, a slight frown on her face. Her look of pity wasn't masked behind honest concern at all, not that Shepard doubted her sincerity; she just didn't know her well enough.
"Would you both not look at me like that?" Shepard groaned.
"We were just coming to see if you were okay, Commander," Kaidan said. "You've kind of had us worried since that encounter with the beacon."
"I'm fine, really," she assured them. "It can't be worse than your headaches, Alenko. Anyway, I don't have time to worry about it. We have a lot of information to present to the council and we've already got word from Udina that he expects a very detailed report for them."
"He wants you to pull up evidence where there is none," Ashley complained. "You can't just fabricate proof that Saren killed the other Spectre. It's not fair of him to ask you to do this."
Shepard rubbed her temple and sighed. "If only politicians knew what 'fair' meant," she laughed hollowly. "Udina especially has no concept of the term. If the galaxy were 'fair', he'd have a seat on the council. Which is exactly what he's gunning for by having humanity present evidence of a turian Spectre's betrayal. I appreciate the concern from both of you, and you're right, Williams, we can't fabricate evidence out of thin air. We'll just have to tell the council the truth."
Kaidan and Ashley exchanged a look pregnant with meaning. Shepard didn't have the energy to decipher it, so she was glad when Kaidan spoke.
"Er…Commander? Don't take this the wrong way, but are you going to tell the council everything?"
Suddenly Shepard understood. "You mean am I going to tell them I saw images of the Reapers in the Prothean beacon?"
"Yeah, that."
"If it comes to that, I will. It's the truth, and a concerning one given everything that happened on Eden Prime. Geth attacking outside the veil, a rogue spectre. It seems like the image on that beacon might be relevant to the story."
"It's not that we don't believe you, Commander Shepard," Ashley insisted. "It's just that…"
"That it sounds insane?"
"Well…yeah," Ashley looked sheepish and found sudden interest in her feet.
"I know it does," Shepard shrugged.
Quite frankly, she felt crazy. Replaying those images over and over. It sounded even crazier saying it out loud. An old legend used to scare kids out of joining up with the navy: the Repears will come to get you in the deepest corners of space. Still, she knew what she saw. She wouldn't have made it off Mindoir, or Elysium, if she didn't trust her own instinct. She would have to do so here as well.
She knew her crew was just trying to protect her, worried about her mental state after the encounter with the Prothean beacon. She couldn't hold it against them for being worried. But she was their commander. It was her job to look after them and keep them in line, not the other way around.
They were still watching her with those looks of pity and concern.
"If that's all," she said quickly, before either could bring up anything else, "You should make sure all your effects are in order. We'll be disembarking soon. Anderson wants us all present at the council meeting. We were all there. We all saw Nihlus."
The two crew members saluted and dismissed themselves. Shepard leaned her head back against the window and watched as one arm of the citadel grew closer and closer as they made their descent into the docking bay.
The turian Spectre's death was weighing heavy on her mind as well. No one on board the Normandy had really cared for him. Aliens were rarely present on Alliance vessels and there were more than a few crew members who probably held xenophobic views. The turian in particular were not well loved by humanity for their role in the First Contact war. Still, Shepard hadn't minded him. He was friendly and encouraging. She knew he was there to assess her for Spectre status. She supposed she could kiss that dream goodbye now that she'd managed to get him killed on a simple recovery mission. She knew it wasn't her fault. She couldn't have known about Saren, but every death under her command ultimately came back to her.
She could just imagine how furious Udina would be about the situation too. That certainly wasn't helping anything.
"We're pulling into dock 422 now, Commander," the pilot's voice came over the intercom. "Ambassador Udina is already waiting for you outside. Just warning you, from here, he looks pissed."
"Joker," She heard the stern, reprimanding voice of their captain before the intercom shut off.
"Thanks Joker," Shepard sighed and made her way to the front of the ship.
It felt like it took an eternity to reach the bridge. The elevator on the Normandy was notoriously slow and Shepard's legs felt like they were stuck in quicksand. Her mind was swarming with thoughts and she was thoroughly exhausted. As she reached the command center and made her way to the bridge, the thought occurred to her that she couldn't remember her last meal. That couldn't be helping matters.
Captain Anderson was waiting for her when she reached the bridge. He was a distinguished man, tall, the bags under his eyes and wrinkles lining his forehead betraying his age. He'd spent his entire career in the Alliance navy and he was the one person Shepard respected most in the entire galaxy. He had been the closest thing she'd had to a father since her own family was killed. He'd been a mentor to her since the first month she'd enlisted with the navy. It was the greatest honor she could think of when she was asked to serve under him on the Normandy.
"Shepard, you look like hell," he greeted her. He was never one to blunt his words.
"Feel like it too," she replied.
"I'm sorry to say we won't have any downtime. Udina's waiting outside, as Joker told you," he said this last part with a biting edge and looked daggers at the pilot, who shrunk down in his seat in front of them.
Shepard stepped forward and leaned on the top of Joker's seat to peer out the side window. Udina was there, as promised, the same look he always had plastered to his face: like he'd just sucked on a lemon. She looked down at Joker, the top of his head hidden perpetually behind an Alliance-issue cap.
"You should come with us, Joker. Udina loves your company," she grinned.
"Very funny, Commander," he rolled his eyes. "Somehow, I'll have to pass. But you should get going, before his lips pucker so hard he swallows them."
She punched Joker lightly in the shoulder and turned back to Captain Anderson.
"I guess it's now or never."
"Are you ready, Shepard? This won't be easy," Anderson warned.
"Ready as I'll ever be, Captain."
Kaidan and Ashley were waiting for them in the airlock. They formed a neat group of two and two, falling easily into Alliance order, and waited for the airlock to open. Shepard was not ready, not really, not at all. But she would have to fake it. And anyway, she was dreading Udina more than the council, so if she could make it through him undoubtedly screaming her down for letting a Spectre die on her watch, then the council might just be a cakewalk.
A/N: This is my first ME fanfic, and I'm fairly new to the fandom in general. Always appreciate genuine constructive criticism. Much more to come!
