A/N: Bit of a time jump here. Sorry if it's confusing.
2: Reunion
Two years.
Garrus lay on the floor of the hideout, slowly bleeding out.
Two years.
Figures, just when Shepard returns to the world of the living he winds up leaving it.
Two years.
Dimly, like it was from a thousand miles away, Garrus heard a boom. He felt armored hands shake him and distantly heard a familiar voice say something: Garrus…
His eyes flew open and he took a gurgling breath before coughing on something wet in his throat. He searches wildly for whoever had spoken and his eyes finally focus on a human female with midnight black hair, tan skin, and piercing blue eyes identical to her brother's.
Alice.
He feels someone apply medi-gel to the right side of his face. He looks and sees the dark-skinned human male that was with Alice and Shepard. Shepard is standing over him, hand raised to his ear, his mouth moving incoherently. Finally, his gaze fell back on Alice and her worried expression. Her mouth is moving, like she's saying something but her can't hear her. His vision started to go dark around the edges and he finally sank into oblivion…
…"Commander Shepard?" Garrus acknowledged the human leading the trio who had just emerged from the elevator. "Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."
Shepard gestured toward the retreating form of Executor Pallin "Who were you just talking to?"
"Executor Pallin, head of Citadel Security. My boss." He added bitterly "He'll be the one presenting my findings on Saren to the Council." He snarled out the treacherous Spectre's name.
Shepard cocked an eyebrow. "Sounds like you really want to bring him down."
Garrus crossed his arms over his chest "I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way." He shook his head "But, he's a Spectre; everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence."
One of the two humans flanking Shepard, the male one spoke up. "I think the Council's ready for us Commander."
Shepard nodded and passed Garrus with the two other humans, the female shooting Garrus a wary look. "Good luck Shepard." Garrus said to the Commander's retreating back "Maybe they'll listen to you." He watched the three humans go and when they were out of sight, he turned and headed back toward the elevator. Just as he reached it however, the doors opened suddenly and another human charged out, running into him.
"Ooof! Watch where you're going!" the human female said angrily.
Garrus stepped out of the human's way. "Well excuse me." He replied sarcastically.
The woman glared at him and put her hands on her hips. She had short, styled, midnight black hair, tan skin, and striking blue eyes. She wore entirely black light armor and Garrus noticed a sniper rifle on her back. "Are you getting snarky with me buddy?"
Garrus rolled his eyes, "Does it matter? You look like you have someplace to be."
The woman shot him one last glare and was about to run off when she stopped and asked "Hey, did a human male pass this way not to long ago? Broad shoulders, light skin that really needs to see the sun more, shaved black hair, blue eyes, probably wearing N7 armor, you know with a red stripe down one arm?"
Garrus nodded "Yeah, he just headed over to the Council."
The woman nodded "`Kay thanks!" With that she dashed away.
Garrus shook his head and got into the elevator. Humans were really weird…
…Garrus felt a sharp pain in the right side of his face and his eyes flew open. He was in a bright medbay, lying on a gurney with none other than Dr. Chakwas and a chattering salarian standing over him. "What happened?" he winced as pain shot through his right mandible.
"You got hit by a missile." Chakwas said, scolding him. "You're lucky you're alive."
Garrus winced again, this time not from the pain. If there was one thing he did not miss about serving under Shepard, it was the way Dr. Chakwas could make him feel like he was being scolded by his mother. (Well okay, he bore no love for Shepard's driving skills either.) "I… uh… remember that part, I meant afterwards." Damn, his face hurt.
"The Commander and Alice took down the gunship and brought you to the Normandy as quickly as possible." Chakwas shook her head "You were in pretty bad shape, that missile did a lot of damage to your face."
Garrus nodded then frowned "Wait, the Normandy? But… it was destroyed."
"Cerberus rebuilt it" Chakwas said "Along with Shepard."
Garrus mulled this over "Where're Shepard and Alice?"
"Shepard's in the debriefing room with Jacob, the Cerberus agent that accompanied them to get you and Alice is- Wait Garrus you're still not fully healed!" Chakwas tried in vain to prevent Garrus from getting to his feet but it was no use.
Garrus marched out of the medbay- right into a worried Alice. "Garrus!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the turian in a hug "You're awake!"
Garrus was, needless to say, quite flustered. Alice had never been one to hide her emotions outside of combat, and it looked like she hadn't changed in the last two years. Still, she took him by surprise. Alice released him but her smile faltered upon seeing his face. "What?" he asked, worried.
"Nothing," Alice said, quickly regaining her composure. She grabbed his hand and started leading him toward the elevator. "Come on, John will want to know you're up."
Garrus couldn't help the strange feeling in his chest as Alice pulled him along. He didn't hear the salarian mutter to himself "Hmm… increase in hormonal levels. Fascinating."
Alice pulled Garrus into the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor, not dropping his hand. "Dr. Chakwas said that we were on the Normandy? And that it and Shepard were rebuilt by Cerberus?" Garrus questioned Alice as the elevator slowly rose up one floor.
Alice nodded "Welcome to the Normandy SR-2."
Garrus frowned "But what about Shepard? He died didn't he? You can't just 'rebuild' someone like a ship."
Alice glanced away "Turns out you can if you have the scientists and the money."
At that moment, the elevator doors opened into a large CIC reminiscent of the old Normandy's. Alice led Garrus to the left, through an armory and into a small hallway behind the elevator. As the door to the debriefing room opened, Garrus heard a dark-skinned human male, Jacob if he remembered correctly, saying "…full functionality but…" Jacob stopped talking when Garrus and Alice entered the room. "Tough son of a bitch." Jacob said, cracking a smile "Didn't think he'd be up yet."
Shepard turned and cocked an eyebrow when he noticed that Alice was still holding Garrus' hand. Alice seemed to realize this and quickly withdrew her hand from Garrus'. Doing his best to ignore the strange feeling in his gut, Garrus said casually "Nobody would give me a mirror, how bad is it?"
Shepard smiled broadly and laughed "Hell Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there and nobody will know the difference."
Garrus' mandibles flared as me laughed at the glare Alice gave her twin, and then winced as pain shot through his face. "Don't make me laugh, damnit, my face is barely holding together as it is." Garrus sighed sarcastically "Probably for the best, everybody was ignoring you and always hitting on me, time you got your fair shot with the ladies." Shepard shook his head in amusement. "Then again," Garrus said with a turian smirk "Some women actually like facial scars," he glanced at Alice "Mind you most of those women are krogan."
Jacob wisely decided to leave at that point giving Shepard a salute as he left. Once the Operative was out of earshot, Garrus grew serious "Frankly I'm more worried about you. Cerberus Shepard?"
Shepard smiled at him "That's why I'm glad you're here Garrus. If I'm walking into Hell I want someone I trust at my side."
"You do realize this plan has me walking into Hell too?" Garrus' mandibles spread into a smile "Just like old times. Is there anywhere I can be of service?"
A blue holographic orb appeared over the conference table "The forward batteries could use a Gunnery Officer." A cool female voice said over the coms.
"Uh… Shepard?" Garrus said warily "Who's this?"
"EDI." This time it was Alice who spoke "The ship's AI." She started to leave the room, beckoning Garrus to follow her. "Come on, I'll show you to the main batteries."
"Yeoman Chambers can do that," Shepard cut in "I'd like to speak to you, Alice." He addressed Garrus "Chambers is the perky redhead near the Galaxy Map." Garrus nodded and, after exchanging a puzzled glance with Alice, left the twins alone.
Yeoman Kelly Chambers was more than happy to show Garrus to the main batteries. After making an assessment of the Normandy's weapons, Garrus started to run through a list of possible ways to improve them and was in the process of checking to see if any of his old contacts had access to schematics for the new Thanix cannons when the door to the main battery opened and a human woman strode in.
"Garrus Vakarian," the woman said professionally "I'm Miranda Lawson, Shepard's XO. EDI has informed me that you have decided to take the position of Gunnery Officer."
Garrus turned away from the console and addressed Lawson. "That's right."
Lawson nodded "Good. Any reports you have for the Commander will be sent through me."
She turned to leave but before she could, Garrus asked "How'd you do it?" Lawson stopped and raised her eyebrows at Garrus inquiringly "How'd you get Shepard to work for Cerberus?"
Miranda shrugged "We rebuilt him, showed him the abductions and he happily joined us to stop the Collectors."
"And Alice?"
"She joined Cerberus two months after Shepard's funeral," Miranda stated. "I approached her and asked for her assistance with her brother's reconstruction. When she learned about what we were doing she joined us readily." She noticed the way Garrus tensed at this. Interesting… "Is that all Officer Vakarian?"
Garrus nodded "Yeah… I, uh… have some calibrations to do." He turned back to the console, not even registering Lawson's departure as he processed this new information.
…
John leaned against the debriefing table, staring at the hologram of the Normandy that hovered above it. "You seem happy to see Garrus."
Alice nodded, though for some reason she felt blood rush to her cheeks. "Yeah, he's a good friend. And trustworthy; I know he'll have your back."
John turned his head to look at Alice "No, I mean you seem really happy to see Garrus."
Alice frowned "What are you…?" her eyes widened "No. You can't possibly mean… Ugh! John! He's a turian!"
John's lips twitched into a smile "So? I dated a turian once."
Alice's face scrunched up. "Yeah, but Cecil was just a fling you had when you were feeling rebellious as a teenager. And if I remember correctly it didn't exactly end very well."
John grimaced "Don't remind me, I would still have the scars if it weren't for the Lazarus Project." Alice noted how John froze at the mention of the project that brought him back to life.
Say hello to the elephant in the room. Alice thought dryly.
John looked back at the hologram of the new Normandy "Look, Alice, I… I know you don't want to talk about it but…" he sighed "I… I need to know…" when he looked back at her, Alice noted the lost look in his eyes "What happened to you over the last two years?"
Alice moved to stand beside her brother and mirrored his posture. "Well, after you died, I felt… lost. It was like what happened to me on Akuze all over again. I just couldn't stay, so I resigned from Alliance Intelligence, just wandered, looking for a fight."
She glanced away. The mere mention of Akuze sent shivers down her spine. She had just graduated from N7 with her brother. She was given her first command, charged with leading a squad of fifty marines to the remote colony to investigate its sudden silence. They found the settlement intact, but completely deserted. They set up camp in the settlement, determined to search the surrounding jungle for any survivors. Then, when night fell, the Thresher Maws hit. It was horrific, not even the constant gunfire could drown out the shrieks as of her men as they were dragged to their gruesome deaths. When the sun rose, Alice was the only one left.
She was never sure how she had survived; she could only remember events of that horrible night in her nightmares. She spent weeks wandering through the jungle in a daze, somehow surviving until an Alliance patrol vessel arrived to investigate why her team had not reported in. She remembered hearing how John had gotten the news that they had found her just as he was about to be recognized for his actions in defending Elysium during the Blitz. He ran off right as the ceremony was about to begin, determined to go to his sister.
Alice spent the next few months in therapy and when the Alliance psychologists finally determined that she was fit to return to duty, Alice hadn't wanted to continue serving in the Alliance Navy anymore. Thankfully, Alice's father had connections in Alliance Intelligence Services that were willing to hire her. Alice was already a proficient sniper, and had taken several courses in N7 as an Infiltrator although because she was a biotic, she never was able to pass the stealth portion of the training, due to other biotics always being able to detect when another one was nearby from the energy fields all biotics gave off. AIS got around this by outfitting her with a new implant designed to suppress these fields and make her virtually undetectable to other biotics. Thus her career as Operative Alice began.
Eventually, she learned about her brother's Spectre candidacy, and then what happened on Eden Prime and the charges he was laying against the Spectre Saren. She requested some leave and rushed to the Citadel to support her brother. She barged in on Saren's hearing and promptly interrupted when the Council looked like they were going to acquit Saren. She argued, and called the Council idiots for ignoring her brother (much to Udina's dismay). Unfortunately, she only succeeded in making things worse for her brother. When John finally got some proof of Saren's actions and was appointed a Spectre, Alice requested permission to join him on the Normandy. That's where she met Kaidan.
All this flashed through Alice's head in a second and she continued her tale. "Miranda eventually contacted me and said that she wanted my help in your… 'reconstruction'. The rest is pretty much just me working to gather some of the old crew back so that when you woke up you would have people you could trust at your side."
John nodded "Did you… ever learn what happened to Ashley?"
The irony was not lost on Alice that John had fallen for someone under his command; especially someone under his command that had an (understandable) mistrust of aliens and was, of all things religious. Their parents were New Galactic Christian, a denomination that split off from various other groups and adapted their beliefs to include the revelation that humanity was not alone in the universe. Alice herself still held some connection to the religion but John had, as a teenager with an excessive need to rebel, firmly told their parents he did not believe in a higher power. Alice still cracked up on occasion when she remembered how calmly their parents had taken it. Their dad had laughed and praised John on his willingness to not let others shape his views while their mom had smiled and said that it was his choice. Needless to say, it was not the reaction John had hoped for and, although his rebellious streak would continue for a few more years, he eventually gave in when Alice told him she was joining the Alliance. In spite of all their differences, there was not a force in the universe that could separate the Shepard twins for long.
Alice sighed and answered her brother's question. "No John, the Illusive Man told you we couldn't locate her. I'm sorry; her file's just too well classified."
John's shoulders slumped "I understand." He straightened up "Come on, we should return to our duties."
A/N: Let me know what I did well and, more importantly, what I can improve on.
