A/N: Thanks to those who have reviewed, favorited or are following this story. Really means a lot! :).
-3-
With three of them, it didn't take long to push to the defense systems.
"Jarral, defenses are down. Signal the ships to converge on the rendezvous point," Aria said, issuing instructions while watching the Cerberus cannons deactivate.
"Approach projections plotted. We're already cuing up," Jarral replied through the static-filled comm link.
"Bray, come in, status!"
"Rendezvous sight secured." Maybe for once things would go as planned. "Hangar doors enabled. We'll have them open soon."
"Need them open now!" Aria stressed. "My birds are coming in, prep for reception."
"What exactly is this rendezvous point?" Shepard asked, pulling away from the console.
"That's where we're headed. It's a bunker I established on D deck for my more…sensitive operations. It's utterly impenetrable with its own secret hangar and dock. Independent power source, life support, munitions. You'll see." Aria assured, her eyes trained on Garrus, who had been surveying the area in case more troopers appeared out of thin air.
"Mine has never been compromised. I hear your bunker was elaborate, but not enough in the end," Aria remarked when his eyes finally met hers.
Insinuating he failed to properly protect his team, not the best thing to do.
Shepard studied Garrus's face for any sign of a violent reaction, but he maintained his cool. At least externally. "Only so much you can afford on a vigilante's salary."
A faint sound above her distracted her from Aria's response. A zooming noise, one a camera makes when trying to focus in.
So much for things going as planned.
"There's a good chance the General knows where we're going," Shepard interrupted Aria's reply, pointing to the camera attached to a beam near the ceiling.
Aria followed Shepard's motion, narrowing eyes landing on the camera, the lens clearly centered on Aria. She answered its growing attention by firing a bullet right into the middle of the lens.
"Then no time for sightseeing. Take the far exit. I've locked down the way we came." She then contacted Bray. "Bray, heads up. You might get visitors."
"Terrific," Bray replied, not bothering to conceal his sarcasm.
The door at the end of the hall revealed yet another elevator. A Cerberus operative, who sounded like blocked nasal passages dampened any possible authority in his voice, attempted to deliver an alert to Cerberus across the compromised station.
"We're causing a stir. Good." Surprisingly nonchalant for Aria.
When they stepped out the elevator, they were greeted with more gunfire, but fortunately there were only a few. Once they were dealt with, the garage door at the end of the hall opened to reveal a sight that took Aria's breath away.
"The Omega skyline. Now I feel like I'm back."
Shepard looked up at the skyline, trying to see what Aria did. All she could see was how sterile it all seemed, the smog which muted the synthetic light squeezing through the buildings, grunge caked on their exteriors. But Omega was never going to win any awards for being aesthetically pleasing. It was the polar opposite of Citadel, its atmosphere perfectly symbolic of the type of people this station attracted.
Aria's brow furrowed at the barrier ahead of them. "Strange. What are those things in the distance?"
"Looks like some kind of force field," Garrus replied, analyzing it through the scope of his Viper.
A nearby holographic terminal caught Shepard's eye, small sparks spewing from its console. She pressed the activation button on the terminal to replay its message.
"Non-humans currently without supervision are required to report to the nearest civilian containment area," the holo-image of a woman, presumably one of a Cerberus personnel, relied.
She made it sound so pleasant, so forgiving if a non-human tried to escape, that the only thing that would happen is they would be sent back to their prisons unharmed. Shepard doubted any of the soldiers would have been so lenient if they caught them, not with becoming the monsters the Illusive Man had molded them into. There was no room for any humanity, any compassion.
"Sounds like the non-humans were essentially prisoners, taken from their homes."
"Unsurprising given Cerberus's reputation, but doubt the humans on this station are any better off. We need to stop this," Garrus said, a low growl entering his voice.
"Something we can agree on," Aria replied.
It was a start.
A little further down, they encountered more of Aria's men, all vorcha, only to watch them cut down by Guardians and an Engineer's turret.
"Feels good to let loose!" Aria cried, her biotics wrenching a Guardian's shield from his grasp and slamming it right into his head.
When they entered the next elevator, Shepard noticed the symbol painted on the wall above the controls. A white circle encompassing crimson lines, three twisting horizontally, one vertical right down the middle of two horizontal, ending at the edge of the white circle. Though it was most likely done with red paint, the lines almost looked like blood when caught in the light.
"I know that symbol," Garrus said as he entered the elevator.
"Looks like a gang tag," Shepard remarked, her fingers tracing down the vertical line of the emblem.
"The Talons. They used to deface my property too," Aria added, moving next to Shepard to activate the elevator controls.
"Did you have many run-ins with them, Garrus?"
"A few, but they were small-time in comparison to the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack. A turian-centric group," Garrus said, his words fighting for dominance over those of the Cerberus announcer sending out another station-wide alert.
"Your actions and the plague combined decimated the other merc groups' numbers. They left a power vacuum which the Talons wasted no time in filling. Proving that no matter how many mercs you kill or how many gangs you weaken, someone or something will always take its place."
"So, in the end, fighting against all injustice is pointless?" Garrus argued.
Aria shot him an irritated look, the callousness carved into the hard lines of her face. "If that's how you want to interpret it."
Shepard shot her own cautionary glance to Garrus, to not rise to Aria's bait, that she was looking for an excuse to brand him a threat. He gave her a curt nod, though Shepard could still sense his displeasure just by his stiff body and hardened eyes.
The elevator arrived a few seconds later with a small jolt.
"The Talons symbol again," Shepard said at the sight that greeted them stepping out of the elevator.
"Could be evidence of a resistance," Aria murmured.
The barrier was in sight, along with a vorcha examining it. Only to be set upon by a mech hopping down behind him. The vorcha tried firing back, but the omniblade that jettisoned from the mech's armor overpowered him. As he stumbled to his feet, the mech struck him again, this time into the force field, the vorcha's screeches lasting only a few seconds as his body turned to ash.
The mech, its shields the same searing orange as the force fields, turned its pulsating red eyes on the trio. More of its kind were already on approach, passing through the force field without going up in flames.
"Stand still, you pieces of shit!" Aria snapped, carnage blast spiraling from her shotgun.
"At least she makes battles more lively," Garrus said dryly, firing more armor piercing rounds from his Mattock.
"The new variant of mechs aren't enough?" Shepard asked, activating sabotage on an unshielded mech, taking great pleasure in watching it fire on its former allies.
"At least they're keeping us on our toes."
One of these days Cerberus is going to have a full-blown Reaper with them.
As soon as she thought those words, she realized with a start how true that could have been, if she had agreed to the timed radiation pulse instead of insisting they blow up the base. Not only for fear of the Illusive Man's ambitions, not only to honor the Collector's victims, but a deep-seated belief they could win without the technology, without sacrificing the soul of their species.
What they were dealing with now was a headache; if the Illusive Man had had access to a Reaper prototype, they would have been in such a pile of shit they may not have been able to unearth themselves from.
Once reinforcements stopped pouring through and Garrus finished off the last one with an explosive overload blast, Aria rushed over to check out the force field.
"Something tells me these force fields are going to be a problem," Aria said as Shepard and Garrus approached.
"Are we blocked?" Shepard didn't see any way around this unless they all magically morphed into klixen.
"Not this time. This way."
Aria led them through a door to their left, seemingly revealing a room with no other means of entry.
"What are you doing?" Shepard asked, stepping up to Aria, who was typing away on her omnitool.
"Letting you in on a secret," Aria replied, the panel in front of her lifting off the ground, exposing a lone ladder.
Shepard slid down first, followed by Garrus and Aria. They only got a few steps further when Shepard heard rustling in the shadowed corner. Something was there, studying their movements.
All three of them pointed their guns at the source of the sound, Shepard demanding the figure reveal itself.
The figure still insisted on clinging to the shadows, aided by her all black clothed figure and the hood veiling her face.
"Spirits, look who's back. Aria T'Loak."
The figure was a woman, that much could be discerned from voice alone, but the sub-harmonics clearly indicated she was not human. As the woman slinked closer into the light, Shepard took in the narrow mandibles which sloped down the sides of her face less than Garrus's did, the red clan markings across the center of her face, fully covering her flat nasal openings. Unlike the males of her species, the plating on her face allowed for more hide surrounding her metallic yellow pupils.
"Nyreen." Aria looked taken aback for a brief second before regaining her composure. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Playing cat and mouse, mostly. Just trying to stay alive," Nyreen replied. Weariness stalked her steps as she paced back and forth. "If it wasn't for these tunnels…"
"My tunnels…" Aria articulated. "I'm sure glad I showed them to you." Though Aria's voice stayed monotone, Shepard could sense the effort to keep it emotionless.
"If you hadn't, I'd be dead or locked up by now," Nyreen said, shaking her head.
"Aria doesn't trust easily," Shepard commented, thinking how that was the understatement of the century. Or centuries, as the case may be. "I guess you're a good friend."
"I don't know." Nyreen paused in her pacing, giving Aria a pointed look. "Are we, Aria?"
"Shepard, this is Nyreen Kandros, ex-turian military. We…go way back," Aria introduced, allowing a hint of pleasure in her tone.
"This is…" Shepard began to introduce Garrus to Nyreen, noticing how Aria acted like Garrus wasn't even there.
Nyreen's eyes flashed in recognition. "Garrus Vakarian. Why am I not surprised to find you here?"
Wait…what?
"You two know each other?"
"We served together on the Intrepid many years ago. Your first military posting, wasn't it?" Nyreen asked, eyes still locked onto Garrus. Was that disdain in her sub-harmonics Shepard detected?
"Second, actually. Good to know you at least remember me after thirteen years. Makes me feel all warm inside," Garrus replied, sarcasm palpable.
"You dry wit hasn't changed much, it seems," Nyreen remarked, crossing her arms.
One thing was for sure. Garrus was definitely in for a serious question and answer session when Shepard and he were alone.
"If you two are done with the touching reunion," Aria interjected, impatience shining in her eyes. "I've got a lot of questions myself, Nyreen, but they'll have to wait. We need to get to the bunker before my fleet is overwhelmed."
"Agreed." Shepard turned to Nyreen. "Ready to put that gun to good use?"
"You have no idea how ready," Nyreen admitted, the zeal etched on her face.
Shepard led the charge forward, salvaging any scrap metal she stumbled upon in the vicinity.
Nyreen didn't allow the eerie silence that filled the hallway to linger for very long, cautiously asking Aria why she came back.
"To reclaim what's mine," Aria replied, as if it was that simple.
"Left something behind, I take it?" Nyreen asked, as if feeling her out.
"Not something. Everything."
"And you, Vakarian? Why are you here?" Nyreen directed her line of questioning to Garrus.
"I am one of Commander Shepard's squad. She asked me to accompany her."
Shepard heard Aria scoff at his false words.
"I see. So you've officially left C-Sec, then? After being so eager to leave the military?"
"I'm not some teenage grunt fresh off boot camp for you to lecture anymore, Kandros." Shepard was surprised at how forceful Garrus sounded. "Besides, you don't look like you're part of the military anymore. Couldn't stand being a Cabal?"
"It wasn't that simple," Nyreen said sharply, regret dense in her sub-flang. "I wanted to continue serving, but... I felt I wasn't of use."
Shepard saw a flash of empathy cross Garrus's faceplate, mandibles fluttering slightly, a sign of surprise.
"I can understand that." The defensiveness was gone.
An awkward silence fell between them then, all the while with Shepard trying to figure out what had happened to produce this type of underlying tension between them.
Then it suddenly crossed her mind, the realization hitting her like a speeding skycar. Could this possible be the turian from his reach and flexibility story? The story that had been the catalyst for their own relationship?
"Aria, you were right. We're under attack!" Bran sent out through the comm, bringing Shepard out of her thoughts.
"What's the fleet's status?" Aria asked, urgency clear in her voice, while Shepard unlocked the door with her omnitool.
"Still landing, inside the bunker."
"Keep the enemy out at all costs! Lock it down!"
They made their way down a ramp way, thankfully no signs of Cerberus infiltration or knowledge of the tunnels. The ramp way led to the bottom of yet another ladder, the sounds of gunfire and frenzied shouts from above much more prominent.
"Bray! Why aren't the cannons online?" Aria demanded as she popped up from the ladder, having brought up the rear.
"Something's jamming them, trying to identify."
They all separated to flank Cerberus, trying to provide cover for the ground team. Shepard found firing incinerate blasts at the rampant mechs worked quite well, in some cases exploding in a sea of metal. She could have easily sabotaged them again once their shields were down, but with the firepower Cerberus had, they wouldn't have gotten more than a few shots in.
With Nyreen and Aria providing support closer to the inactive cannons, Shepard found herself exchanging sniper shots next to Garrus again, after almost rolling into him to escape a trooper's electric baton.
"Still that irresistible to you?" Garrus questioned with mandibles flaring as he fired an overload at a nearby rampant.
"Shut it, Vakarian," Shepard shot back as she directed an incinerate at the trooper, though her affectionate tone betrayed her.
She unhooked the Widow again, spotting a Guardian on approach. Drowning out the sounds of gunfire and roars around her, she zeroed in on the narrow slit in the Guardian's shield. Her shot flew right between the eyes of his helmet. He crumpled to the ground with an audible thunk. She wasted no time in prepping herself to fire at a Centurion.
"It's not her."
Shepard jerked at the sudden sound of Garrus's voice, her shot missing slightly and cutting through the open air like a knife.
"What?" Shepard asked, repositioning her sight and firing a clean shot this time at her target. How did he know that thought came to her mind?
"Nyreen Kandros. She's not the one I got in that sparring match with," Garrus continued, his concussive shot knocking a trooper to the floor.
Shepard honestly didn't know what to think or say to that. There was no reason for her to feel relieved over the news. Even if it had been the same turian, it had been a one night blowing off steam. Garrus had made it very clear that his relationship with Shepard was more than that. Shepard was the only woman he would ever love, had ever loved, beyond family. Nyreen being the flexible turian just would have provided for a clear explanation rather than anything else.
"It wouldn't have mattered even if it was," Shepard finally replied, reassurance in her voice though Garrus showed no sign of nervousness. "So how do you know her? She said you served on the same ship together."
"It was when I was seventeen and she was about twenty-eight, I think. It was my second military assignment on a ship. She had been posted there for about two years, two citizenship tiers above me. Or was it three?"
He paused to fire a few rounds at a trooper. "Combine that with the fact she came from a family with a long-standing tradition for military service, she tended to think it her place to lecture us younger recruits about the importance of morality. Being by the book, playing by the rules. Not something a seventeen year old wants to hear from anyone, especially after hearing so much from my father. I told her as much, on several occasions."
"Same seemed to go for a twenty-seven year old C-Sec officer who thought helping a certain human would be a chance to get things done his way." Shepard recalled how straight laced she had been with Garrus back in the day. She had certainly done her own share of lecturing on that very subject.
"At first, maybe, but you got me to listen, earned my respect. You were unlike anyone I'd ever met. You still are."
Shepard had to stop herself from grinning like an idiot at the sheer warmth reverberating in his voice. When did she become such a romantic?
"Don't think you can distract me by being a sweet-talker."
Garrus's browplate lifted. "Who says I was doing it to distract you?"
Shepard shook her head, her lips pulling at the edges despite her best efforts, but he wasn't off the hook yet. She couldn't shake the feeling there was something else with Nyreen he wasn't telling her. Not to mention the more pertinent question still unexplored.
"Aria, there's a Cerberus engineer in here, hacking the cannons, keeping them offline."
"Shepard, you need to find that hacker! We'll keep them off you."
So much for Shepard being the one giving the orders.
Shepard bit back the frustrated growl threatening to rise from her throat. With Aria nowhere in sight, she could have asked him, switched to a private channel on their omnitool so Aria couldn't listen in. Guess they'd have to still find a way to be alone once inside Aria's bunker.
"I'm on it, Aria," Shepard replied through the comm, refocusing on the task at hand.
She took a quick sweep of her surroundings, but didn't spot him. She'd have to do a survey on foot.
Telling Garrus to keep providing Aria and Nyreen cover, she activated her cloak, on the hunt for the illusive Engineer. She discovered him at the other side of the room, attempting to hide behind a wall column, omnitool lit up as he continued his hacking. That quickly ended when Shepard materialized in front of him, slicing him with her blade.
"Cannons initializing… Aria, the cannons have to aug-ed manually," Bray informed.
Just as an Atlas plopped down ahead of them. When was it ever going to be easy?
"I'll handle it, just focus on the Atlas," Shepard commanded.
They took the Atlas down in relatively little time, with Nyreen and Garrus sounding off overloads at the same time to sap away the shields. An incinerate blast from Shepard and a biotic flare from Aria, with Nyreen and Garrus firing away at the armoring, resulted in its explosion, metal debris flying all across the battlefield.
Shepard dashed to the controls, her shield deflecting bullets, while the rest of her squad and the members of the ground team crossed over the extending bridge.
Aria flung a biotic flare at a Guardian that tried to chase after her. Shepard, Garrus and Nyreen fired at incoming troops while the cannons continued warming up.
The whish of a bullet caught her ears a second too late, lightly grazing Shepard across the cheek as she ducked. She let out a curse as she felt the small thin trail of blood tumble down her cheek and the burning sensation around the struck area.
More reinforcements dropped in, readying for another push, only to stumble right into the line of cannon fire. Shepard blocked out the startled cries as the cannons cut right through their shielding, their armor, blood splattering all across their bodies. She saw one try to levitate away with his rocket-propelled boots, but the cannon shots hit one of the boots, causing him to fall several feet off the ground.
When it was over, Shepard scanned the area for any further signs of movement among the mangled bodies lying on the floor. One lifted his arm and clinched his fist while in the air, but a second later it tumbled to the floor to rest beside his battered body.
"Nice guns," Nyreen complimented, breathing heavily as she tried to fill her lungs with oxygen.
"They'll keep the General's forces at bay for awhile." Aria took an approving glance at the devastation done to Cerberus by the cannons, no remorse on her face. This was just the beginning. "Bunker team, retract the bridge and lower the glass door. We're coming in."
A/N: Sorry out there to the people who wanted Nyreen to be the turian from Garrus's sparring story. It wasn't an easy decision to make; I really waffled on it. When I first heard about a female turian being in the game, I had thought I wanted her to be the same turian (fantasizing how awkward Garrus would act about it). After going back and forth, I finally decided not to go in that direction. After meeting her and learning about her, for me it ultimately went against her character for her to be the flexible turian (speaking of which, did anyone else notice that line from Aria about zero flexibility? The writers had to have known what they were doing when they wrote that). However, I did decide that I wanted them to know each other, as it still seemed to fit with the direction I want to take this in.
Let me know what you think about this or anything else with this chapter!