Nick didn't notice him stepping into the elevator. Not right away. Too busy smoothing out his own uniform, for one thing; he'd gotten too used to civilian suits and ties, loose clean-cut things inspired from all the latest fresh from Thessia. And to be quite honest, Nick had probably gained a couple of pounds since the last time he wore his dress blues. Those few years of standing guard outside a supply closet on Arcturus Station had been dreamy in their seeming unreality, and the Alliance made it as clear as politely possible that he was in no way soldier material (right before thanking him for his mandatory service and funding his way through law school). If you'd told him a year ago that he would be in Vancouver, in his dress uniform, defending Commander Shepard (of all people!), Nick thought he likely would have laughed so long and hard he would have needed an application of medigel to get up off the floor.
But here Nick indeed was. And here he indeed was.
"Wright." A slight incline of the head as he entered the elevator, making Nick look up. Miles Edgeworth. Hair slicked back, impeccably tailored (yet with definite Turian fashion influence) suit well pressed and starched, omni-tool already lighting up on his wrist as he flipped through some files.
Nick grimaced. "Hey. I, uh…"
"You were hoping the Council wasn't going to send me." The barest smile twitched at the edge of his mouth.
Edgeworth's reputation was well-deserved, after all. The Council's hatchet-man. The officials could express disapproval, the Spectres could kill, but it was Edgeworth they sent when they really wanted someone to bleed. Money, resources, whatever - if it was even vaguely under Council authority, Edgeworth was their top champion.
"Well, to be honest." He cleared his throat. "I wasn't exactly expecting to see you again."
After all, they'd met in court last time, and not the way anyone would expect. Edgeworth looking especially small on the defendant's stand, Nick desperately arguing for his innocence, and a keen-eyed turian glaring him down every step of the way. Nick still felt a clawing anxiety in his chest when he considered that case. Of course he was glad to have cleared Edgeworth's name. He was not quite so glad to have ended the case with General Karma being dragged from the courtroom while screaming that he was only sorry he could not have killed Gregory Edgeworth earlier at Shanxi proper instead of after at the treaty negotiations. The story of the boy adopted by turians and raised to follow his adopted enemy father was, of course, sensational and salacious reading from Palaven to San Francisco and beyond. There had nearly been riots on the presidium. All in Edgeworth's name. To his credit, he had only delivered one lecture to a group of Terra Firma protesters.
"And why is that?" Edgeworth's voice was damnably calm as he flipped through menus on his omnitool's interface.
"I did sort of ruin your life last time we met."
Edgeworth glared at him flatly. "Don't be absurd. You revealed the truth. And I thank you for it. …Unless you were the one who disclosed my address to Cerberus, in which case, I am going to knee you in the groin, get an MP to slap you in handcuffs, and then yell at you about how incredibly disconcerting it is to wake up one night surrounded by very coordinated agents in very coordinated armor there to deliver a message that really only made me think that this Illusive Man is part of some old mafiosa family and I should worry about waking up next to an Elcor head one of these days."
It was a hard thing to tell, but Nick actually did notice Edgeworth was joking - a last-minute twitch at the corner of his mouth allowed Nick to burst out into relieved laughter. He'd been expecting a grudge and it was slightly surreal to not see it come. "Seriously, though, I was called in because I thought this is a court martial of sorts. I know you're not with the Alliance, and the charges -"
"These are other charges, Wright. Honestly, I would have expected even you to pay more attention to the dossier before trial. I'm here on the Council's behalf."
"But she's a Spectre -"
"Not all crimes are unforgivable."
"And most of her actions were against Geth, or Collectors - which I know for a fact the Council either denies or doesn't give a damn about - and -"
"You're forgetting the Batarians." Something in Edgeworth's face hardened even as he scrolled through his omni-tool.
Nick couldn't help but visually eavesdrop, reading the menus on the other man's omni-tool despite himself. Supplements - Medication - Pre-Set - Pre-Trial 1. 500 mg beta-blocker cocktail. 500 mg Videlicet. Surely Edgeworth knew that Videlicet was illegal on Earth, as opposed to strictly monitored in its usage on the Citadel. Perhaps there was some diplomatic immunity at play. Perhaps the edge that Videlicet gave to short-term memory and quick thinking simply were too good to pass up. Perhaps he was addicted. Videlicet was, after all, addictive. Nick's heart clenched a little.
He realized he hadn't spoken. "Well, they've cut ties with the Citadel, haven't they?" His voice wavered.
"There are some crimes so heinous the Council can't ignore them."
"She only did it to save us - to save the rest of us, I mean, from the incoming Reaper invasion -"
"She killed an entire solar system, Wright! Men, women, children - largely civilian settlers." Edgeworth seemed to realize he had raised his voice within the confines of the elevator, and reached up to adjust the stiff high collar at his neck. (Nick couldn't meet his eyes. Instead he looked at the other man's hands which was even worse, because he could see the soft glow of the micro-fabricated single-use needle coming from Edgeworth's omni-tool, slithering underneath his skin, and the soft line of bloat as it pushed the chemical cocktail into his system.) "And neither of us know that Reapers even exist. The Council is not ready to pardon a genocider just because she is scared of a fairy-tale."
The elevator doors opened. Wright bit his lip as Edgeworth strode confidently on; it took him a few moments to decide to follow, having to jog to catch up.
"Have you met her?"
"What?"
"Commander Shepard. Have you met her."
Edgeworth's eyes narrowed and he gave Nick a sharp glare out of the corner of his eye. "No. I see absolutely no reason to. The evidence is clear, she admits her guilt -"
"Do me a favor," Nick all but begged. "Go see her. Even if it's just for five minutes. Introduce yourself, talk to her -"
"I don't have that much time to waste on Earth."
"Five minutes. She's not kidding about the Reapers, Miles, you can tell -"
"The insane often believe in their delusions, but this does not make them true."
Nick grit his teeth in frustration. "What if she is right?"
His voice had been a little too loud. The entire hallway was looking at them, now, military personnel scurrying from place to place and now pausing to gawk. He stood still in his tracks even as he watched Edgeworth turn smoothly to face him.
"She's not."
There was a deeply ingrained finality there. He knew with certainty that it was going to take court to change Miles' mind. But until then -
"Nick! Mr. Edgeworth!"
A familiar voice shouted at them from down the hall. Edgeworth's eyebrows raised, and Nick let himself smile wide. A slim Asari, still too young to properly fill out her ceremonial robes, ran along, her footsteps clattering before she caught Nick in a hug which she happily returned. Maya. His mentor's little sister. It always reminded him of his time with Mia, even if those years seemed centuries in the past now - living off noodles and studying a different set of law every night to see how it formed a united whole in Citadel law and barely making the rent on his Zakera Ward apartment before his first case -
Maya was all smiles, though, and that brought him back to present. He laughed as they pulled out of the hug. "What are you doing in Vancouver?"
"A surprise! Well… I sort of hitched a ride from Kurain, really. The Abbess told me I needed to develop my skills abroad but I'm pretty sure that means she was just getting frustrated with me. …And wow, Nick, nice dress blues. I always thought you just made that thing about Arcturus up."
"Hey…" Nick whined, smoothing out his uniform. "I served proudly, thank you very much!"
"But you told me all you did was play cards while -"
"Shhh!" Nick fussed, looking up to realize that Edgeworth had been waiting for them - watching quietly the entire time, and now was chuckling to himself. "Fff… okay, I guess my military days are universally hilarious. We can at least all walk to the courtroom together, I guess."
"Yeah! With Mr. Edgeworth here we'll probably only get lost twice!"
"Hey! …I'd, uh… I'd know where we were going if it was Arcturus Station…" Edgeworth at least had the decency to keep himself to a quiet snickering as they all walked along. For a very pleasant moment, it was almost like they were all friends. Even Edgeworth. And perhaps Nick realized a little more just how much his heart was yearning for that idea -
The ground beneath them shook.
Immediately Edgeworth tensed. In the distance he could hear klaxons starting to sound. People began running outright in the hallway.
Maya parted her blue, sandaled feet and curiously stared at the floor. "I didn't think Vancouver was on a fault line…?"
Edgeworth gulped hard. "That wasn't an earthquake," he whispered.
Nick was the first one to sprint past the end of the enclosed hallway - the other two dogged his footsteps as the klaxons began to sound more loudly. Announcements over loudspeaker were lost in a blur of noise. The room was in a panic by the time they saw properly out of the wide set of windows to the city around them.
"…Oh my God."
Something - something large, and dark, and horrific - clawed at the city, and so many of its brothers were streaking in behind it, raining down destruction and coming in wreathed in flames of re-entry.
It made a noise. Nick was not sure that was the proper word for what happened. A call came from it, and it was so loud that he saw the glass quiver. It resonated with something deep, deep within him, shaking the marrow of his bones and scrambling his thoughts into panic and disorder. He looked at it, and he felt the noise pressing hard at his eardrums as it filled the air, and he knew.
The Reapers were here.
It was hard to move but he found his feet. Maya screamed. He didn't blame her in the least for doing so. A red beam sizzled through the air, coming from the Reaper, bearing down on them with ruthless efficiency. But Miles - looking, for an instant, so very much like that kid on the first day of school, a silver-haired ambassador's son anxious and overdressed and unsure of himself, that child that Nick had decided at that very second to become fast friends with - stood perfectly still. Deer in headlights. Eyes were wide in numb terror.
"MILES!"
He didn't move. The red beam was moving closer. Nick could only vaguely guess at what it would do, but it was sizzling in the air and thrumming with a distinct menace. Edgeworth needed to move. He needed to get out of the way, but he was petrified. It was coming closer, swinging down onto the lower part of the building. There was only one thing Nick could think to do.
With a running start, he flung himself into a tackle. And as he brought Edgeworth down with him, the room exploded into shrapnel, sparks, and smoke.
Darkness. A short but indeterminate length of time, but that odd sense of loss that came with even temporary unconsciousness. When he came back around, Maya was still screaming, but it was drowned out by another call from the Reaper. For a moment Nick thought his eardrums would burst. Something on top of them - metal, sheetwall. They weren't trapped, not really, and that was good. Edgeworth, finally, seemed like he could move, even if he was in a wide-eyed daze.
Nick had to admit that he wasn't much better. Two years of playing Poker outside an Arcturus Station storeroom did not prepare him for this.
"Maya! Over here!"
Soldiers were already dashing along the hallway, rifles at the ready. A formidable-looking Lieutenant saw him drag Edgeworth out and moved them on. "Go, go! They're going to flood this breech -" He did not stop to ask who 'they' were, and to be honest, he was not sure he wanted to know. He just grabbed Edgeworth's wrist in one hand and started to run.
Edgeworth's omni-tool had already opened of its own accord, showing a blinking arrow towards the nearest evacuation shuttle. And then recalculating. Then a different direction. Then again - another - and back to recalculating. Edgeworth stared at it in mingled confusion and horror before looking up - part of the ceiling had been cut away, now, and there was the smell of smoke in the distance - a streak of orange across the slim blue of revealed sky -
"They're being shot down… My God, they're all being shot out of the sky -"
"Miles, come on - please - we don't have time to panic -"
Edgeworth was starting to tremble haplessly. Maya was clutching his arm, whimpering softly. He blindly led them on through the smoke and the noise, heart beating heavy and quick in his throat. Basic training had definitely never covered this…
Part of the wall ahead buckled, and then fell, leaving them all coughing helplessly. He could hear gunfire in the distance, and screaming. Real, awful screaming, not something done by an actor in a vid, but by someone in horrible pain. It made his gut churn by some base instinct. Edgeworth was panting in panic, trembling hard, trying to not completely dissolve into uselessness but nonetheless becoming trapped in fear. Maya was simply sobbing, a reflexive weeping as if the asari girl was not entirely aware of what she was doing as she clung to the sleeve of Nick's dress uniform.
There was no way forward. Nick started to feel the panic seeping into his mind as well. There was no way forward, and -
Footsteps, up above him, somewhere in the smoke. A voice. Familiar, feminine and strong.
"Hold on Anderson, just a minute!"
The sound of boots scraping against exposed and crumbled drywall. Then, finally, a figure through the smoke - in mere civilian clothes, but a pistol in her hand. And her red hair, as always, messy and tousled.
He barked out a half-sob of relief. "Commander Shepard!"
"Mr. Wright? Come on, let's get all of you out of here." No more needed to be said; she leapt down to help them, sticking an unlocking program onto a door Nick hadn't noticed. "Technically illegal but I don't give a damn right now, it's going to take a little bit…" She turned around, looking behind her, apparently now noticing Edgeworth - pale, trembling, eyes distant.
Something in her voice changed as she approached him, holstering her pistol and putting her hands up. "Hey. …Hey, it's going to be all right. My name's Delia Shepard. You must be… Edgeworth, right? The one the Council sent?" She put a hand gently on each of his shoulders, steadying him, and he nodded yes.
Nick had heard about Shepard's natural charisma, of course, and even experienced it. But this was different. Something base and animal about her, maybe, something subliminal made people want to follow, but this was quiet and gentle. It reminded him about old vids about horse-whisperers, quasi-mystic tamers of the West who were able to merely stare down a wild and untamed creature and get it to behave with soft words.
"All right. Just take a deep breath for me, Edgeworth, all right? You're going to get through this. You're going to be just fine. All of you." A little, gentle smile. "The path to the next evac shuttle should be clear. When you get there, you'll be safe. You understand?"
It took Edgeworth several gulps before he found himself able to speak. "Yes, Commander."
"Just Shepard, now." That smile went a little sad. "Take a few more deep breaths. You can do this, Edgeworth. Stronger than you know, all right? All of us are stronger than we really know until we're put to the test."
He gulped a few more times. "I… I always thought you had… hallucinated the Reapers, or -"
The smile she wore widened a little more, but there wasn't an ounce of glee in it. Instead it was somehow worse than tears. "I've spent every night praying that I had."
A call from above. A voice Nick thought he recognized from training vids and news clips. "Shepard! We have to keep moving!"
"On my way, Admiral!" Suddenly her voice was all business again. She scrambled over part of the rubble, returning moments later with two rifles. "The soldiers over there don't need these anymore - but you two, go, make use of them, just in case -"
Nick shook his head even as he accepted the rifle (large, weighty, familiar from basic training). "Ma'am, I'm sure you need this more than us -"
"I'm fine. I've got an old friend in this SMG." She patted her hip before drawing her gun.
"Shepard -"
"Coming, Anderson! Coming!" Then she was scrambling back up the debris. The door behind them gave an affirmative click. "Remember, go, the shuttle's the way out - good luck -"
And then she was gone back into the haze and smoke.
Maya was still sobbing out of reflex. Edgeworth was slightly less pale, but cradled the standard-issue Alliance rifle as if he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. Nick realized - very uncomfortably - that everyone was looking to him to know what to do.
"Come on," he whispered, opening the now-unlocked door. The lawyer part of him noted that whatever program Shepard had used was probably illegal. The rest of him realized that it did not matter in the least. There was more smoke in the hallway, but at least it was a way forward, and right now that was all they cared about. He tried to hold his rifle with confidence and remember basic training - to be quite honest, it didn't work very well. But it did help him forget, even for just a few moments, to be terrified.
They were nearly at the end of the hallway, hearing gunshots ahead of them, when something in the building buckled and groaned, and there was a loud noise, perhaps of an explosion, and then everything fell in around them again -
This time Edgeworth gave a loud shout. Nick wasn't there to pull him out of the way, and he was trapped underneath a beam, straining to try and free himself (don't look at the wound, Nick chanted, don't look at the wound, medigel will fix it, don't look at the blood on the steel and the bone and the oh god, oh god, legs don't bend that way oh god) - there was gunfire coming closer -
He could see them, now, at the end of the hall. Not Alliance marines. Maybe bits and parts of these soldiers had once been marines. But they heaved and wheezed, lurching closer with menace - blue glow pouring out of many eyes and one gaping mouth, not holding a gun but having the gun be part of them -
A new and damning clarity seemed to have fallen on Edgeworth's shoulders as he struggled to sit up, gaining just enough leverage to brace the rifle against the beam in preparation of shooting off a few rounds. "Nick - take Maya and go -" He looked back for a split second, making eye contact, as Nick found himself prepared to argue. "Just - GO - take her and r-"
His mouth had started to curl around the word when a round from the enemy hit him neatly in the forehead, and Nick saw his jaw go slack and his eyes glaze over before stiffly toppling back in lifelessness.
He took Maya's hand. And he ran.
A sharp sting on his left shoulder. Suddenly his right calf wasn't cooperating. Two hits. Nick could deal with that. As long as he was pushing Maya in front of him, and it was him instead of her - he was vaguely aware of her struggling, screaming his name, pleading with him to go check on Edgeworth or find Shepard or something, or something - the rifle felt more comfortable in his hands as he twisted back and let loose a few rounds, the gun spluttering bullets into the cover of smoke they were blessed with - his fingertips ran over the indentation in the wall of a closet door -
Nick acted on instinct. What sort of instinct, he couldn't say, but he flung open the door and shoved Maya in it. She screamed and let the shriek lapse into a shrug. "N-Nick, what are you -?"
He pressed the rifle into her hands.
"Take this. Be quiet, I don't know how much they can hear -" The smoke was starting to lift, and he could hear them nearing. It would only be moments now. "Lock it from the inside. I'll draw them off. I can double back around, check -" He gulped - "Check on Edgeworth -" for what little use it would be - "Listen, and wait, Maya. Only unlock that door when things are quiet."
"Nick - !" She struggled back against him, tears rolling down her blue cheeks.
There was such an odd peace that had abruptly fallen over him, gentle and elegant like velvet curtains at the end of a play. The sudden surety of knowledge of what he must do. It was a relief, and he smiled at her in true happiness.
"I promised Mia I'd keep you safe, and that's what I'm going to do."
Before she could argue more, he closed the door. She huddled back in against the mops and cleaning supplies. Then footsteps running off. Then gunshots, and more footsteps, many, irregular and plodding. Then the smell of smoke in the distance, and farther off still, screams - so many screams - all following the drumbeat of the warning klaxon…
Maya covered her mouth as she cried, but couldn't keep all of her whimpers inside her.
The end of the world was even worse than she imagined.