[ ]

CITADEL

PRESIDIUM

Wrex busted out of the stairwell exit at full tilt, legs scraping the stone floor, vaulting over pieces of debris in hot pursuit of the screaming turian. Anires' jacket swinging in one fist, his pistol in the other, Wrex fought to disregard the blue behemoth in the sky, though it's massive shape was just inside of his peripheral vision. This was his best, and possibly last, chance to reacquire the rag for Tyson.

Wrex dodged a large cement block of ruin and stuffed the Venus jacket into a side-satchel attached to his hump, losing sight of the turian momentarily as he rounded a fallen tree in the embassy waterway. He jammed the pistol into a holster at his side and took hold of the asari's assault rifle swinging around his neck and shoulder, rounded the tree and hopped back onto stone ground, regaining eyes on his target as the other man ran towards a cul-de-sac in the shopping district.

Where is he going? Wrex thought, frustrated.

Then, as he neared a cracked embankment at the edge of the park, Wrex spotted it. An elevator, situated between an Avina kiosk and an unscathed café storefront. Wrex wasn't sure where it lead, but he didn't suspect Tully did either.

The turian turned now, noticeably out of breath and panicked, backpedaling towards the doors as he fired several shots from a small semi-automatic in Wrex's direction.

Small brown chips of bark exploded from a tree several yards to his right, a puff of dirt rising from the grass to his left and a round pinged and ricocheted off the metal balustrade of the embankment.

"Alright, enough horseplay, kid," Wrex grumbled between breaths, raising the rifle and returning fire as he tore across the embassy grounds. The first volley struck at the ground five feet from Tully's scampering legs, sending up pieces of stone in every direction. Wrex rode the shot group up, trailing a line of bullets faster than his opponent could run. The turian came to a jarring halt against the elevator, his back crunching against the cracked safety glass that stopped him from falling into the shaft.

Wrex stopped running about ten yards from the young turian, looking down at his quarry from the top of the raised stone embankment. Water splashed around his feet as he stomped into a miniature creek created by the quakes. He reasoned the water must've been a runoff from the quad a few paces behind him, but he wasn't about to turn and check out the damage.

His breaths came hard and fast as the adrenaline of the chase began to fade. He noticed Tully was doubled over from his own exertion. And that he wasn't firing back.

"So what now," Wrex shouted down to him, "You gonna wait for the elevator?"

Tully shot him a look. Then he reached out one hand and slapped the call button. "Suppose so!"

"C'mon. Look around, kid," Wrex said, sweeping an arm out at the destruction. "You really betting that lift's even going to work?"

The gang leader hesitated, his eyes searching wildly to his left and right for an alternate escape route.

"I'll take my chances."

Apparently, he hadn't found one.

Before either of them could say anything else, the giant floating in the sky moaned, shaking the world around them in the resulting vibrations. Pebbles danced on either side of the creek Wrex stood in and Tully braced himself against the safety glass, which began to spider web more cracks along its surface.

The vibrations died down shortly thereafter. Tully shrugged his semi-automatic in the creature's direction. "What is that thing, anyway?"

Wrex didn't take his eyes of the turian. "I don't know. But I'm sure I'll be dealing with it soon enough. First, though, I'm gonna need that rag."

Tully huffed and eyed the ground, tired. "You doing all this just for fifteen-hundred lousy credits? It's ridiculous- wait."

His face shot up, a spark of realization in his gaze. "Wait! 'A quick fix on creds without the work'!"

"What?"

"That's what you said. What you told me and Serina in the stairwell. You called us punks, looking to make easy credits without doing any of the work, which means you did do the work! Shit, you aren't just some tweaked krogan who heard about Tyson's offer, you're the guy who took out the elcor!"

Wrex scowled. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I need that rag."

"I bet you do!" Tully laughed, "What are you, a mercenary? Professional hitman? Ha, I bet retirement's looking like a pretty good idea right now, huh?"

Wrex adjusted his weapon against his side. "I got a few good kills left in me." His eyes narrowed. "Wanna see?"

Tully stopped laughing. He was quiet for a long moment. Then he started walking towards the embankment, holstering the pistol, his other hand digging in his pocket. "For what it's worth, you may have taken out my crew, but at least I didn't leave the only piece of evidence that could link me back to a murder I committed at the crime scene."

He pulled a small plastic bag out of his pocket. He was ten feet away. Wrex spotted the rag inside the plastic.

And then the elevator doors hissed open behind Tully.

The gang leader stopped. They stared at each other for one long, interminable moment.

Then the blue behemoth above them wailed, the ground began to tremor and Tully turned tail and vaulted for the lift's entrance.

Wrex swung the assault rifle up to bear, trained it on the turian's legs and pulled the trigger-

-just as the stone embankment he stood on cracked, rumbled and gave away beneath his feet.

Amidst tumbling stone and sprays of falling sod and earth, Wrex came crashing onto his rump as a rush of water that had built up from the creek on the embankment washed around him, carrying him sliding in an arc to the base of the hill, his assault rifle chattering all the way down.

Bullets speckled the ground and walls around Tully, rounds pinging from and denting into the turian's ugly, rusted armor, pushing him, his arms flailing from the force, into the open elevator entrance.

Tully slipped at the lift's opening, his right ankle twisting, his body turning to compensate until, falling backwards, his adrenaline-filled gaze met Wrex's. His back slammed into the rear wall of the lift, his hand at the butt of his pistol, gripping it, sliding it from the holster once more.

The lift doors began to close.

Wrex slid across the trembling walkway on his back in the surf of crashing water, the assault rifle still firing, the overheating gauge blinking red at him, the gunfire peppering the turians chest plate inside the lift as the Plexiglas doors closed on either side of him.

Sitting with his back against the wall, knees up and splayed, Tully swung the semiautomatic up. The wind sucked from his lungs as round after round punched at his armor, Tully fired back wildly at the krogan sliding in the water along the ground towards him, holding the pistol one-handed, careless of aim until the lift doors whooshed shut in front of him.

The krogan and the water crashed into the doors a second later and, through some bit of luck Tully had begun to suspect he'd run out of, the Plexiglas didn't shatter.

The safety plate lowered a second later, trapping dirty brown water several inches high in between the cracked plate and the doors. From outside, the krogan's red eyes blazed at him in fury, pounding at the disintegrating plate.

Tully sighed with relief and, clutching the plastic bag holding the rag tightly, struggled back to his feet. He eyed the control panel, not sure (and not entirely caring) which floor he should get out on.

"Going down?" A voice to his left asked suddenly.

Tully jumped, turned, raised the gun.

Not fast enough.

The second-to-last thing Tully saw was a human in his thirties, wearing a brown suit, glasses and a smug expression, holding a shotgun.

The last thing Tully saw was the butt of the shotgun racing towards the side of his head.

[ ]

Wrex, on his feet now, was puzzled as the safety plate lowered and the elevator opened up and the gang leader's unconscious body tumbled out onto the wet ground.

His confusion only got worse as Rickard West stepped out next wielding a shotgun.

Wrex reflexively tensed his trigger finger on Anires' rifle, the act of which was not lost on the human.

Rickard tsked and rolled his eyes. "Relax. I'm not here to pick a fight."

"Why are you here?"

Rickard held the shotgun out to him. "Unless I'm mistaken, the shotgun is your weapon of choice."

Wrex eyed the weapon warily for a moment; then studiously. "Palaven," he said, "that's a series twenty-six hundred, the Inferno model."

Rickard nodded. "Aptly named, I assure you."

Wrex frowned. "It's top of the line equipment. Wide release to the interstellar market isn't until next quarter."

"And yet it's extremely heavy right now, so if you'd please…" He gestured with the gun still held out.

Wrex shouldered Anires' rifle and took the Inferno from Rickard. "How did you-"

Rickard smirked, held up a hand dismissively. "When I loot, I only loot from the best."

"-know where I would be?"

"Oh." Rickard shrugged, "just a happy coincidence, I guess." He bent down over Tully's unconscious form and pulled the plastic bag from his grip. He held it out to Wrex.

"I believe this also goes to you."

There was a long pause after this. Wrex glanced from Rickard to the bag and back to Rickard who remained still, bag in outstretched hand, knowing smile on his face. His stupid, punchable face, Wrex thought glumly.

But when he took the bag, he only said, "Don't tell Shepard."

"It doesn't matter how I know- wait, what?" The smirk fell from Rickard's face, and for the first time Wrex noticed how pale he'd become, a sheen of sweat covered his forehead and how his leg with a belt tied around it constantly trembled.

"I said, 'don't tell Shepard.'" Wrex reiterated as he stepped into the elevator, holstering the shotgun.

Rickard stood still for a moment, stunned. Then he slowly followed, the doors closing behind him.

Wrex shoved the plastic bag into his side satchel and pressed a button on the control panel.

"You're Urdnot Wrex. You have been killing people professionally for centuries. You have-"

"I don't need you to remind me of who I am," Wrex grumbled, "…or what I've done."

The slightest hint of remorse in his voice gave West pause.

The elevator shook to life and began to rise.

"You know about Tyson and why I need this rag. You know I lost my shotgun to a damned stripper. I don't care. Just don't tell her about this. Any of it." Wrex said.

"Well, no…" Rickard said, "I didn't know she was a stripper."

They were both silent for a long time, the only sounds being the electric thrum of the lift and the soft tapping of Rickard's heel on his wounded leg.

Wrex eyed the other man curiously. "What happened to you?"

"I shot myself in the leg and fell out of a window on the thirty-seventh floor."

Wrex chuckled and returned his gaze to the view outside. "Fine, don't tell me."

Rickard huffed. He glanced at the control panel, spotted the single lit button. "Why are we going to the roof?"

"Big thing in the sky. Pretty sure Shepard wants it taken care of."

Rickard nodded. More silence. Then-

"I liked that thing you did."

Wrex frowned. "What thing?"

"That thing in the water, when the embankment collapsed; you know, with the doors closing and the water pushing you down? Sliding while firing. Action vid stuff."

Rickard mimed shooting an invisible gun while shaking from side to side. He stopped when he realized Wrex was glaring at him.

They didn't speak for the rest of the ride.

[ ]

"Ah," Garrus' breath hitched through his teeth as Jordan Falks tightened the makeshift splint around his leg.

"Too tight?"

Garrus shook his head, reached up and gripped the side of the ATS vehicle he was sitting against. Grunting with exertion, he pulled himself up.

They stood by an elevator shaft in the ruins of the embassy quad on the second level near a damaged Avina kiosk and what used to be the postern for a pharmaceutical drugstore in the wards.

Garrus tested the splint, a rectangular steel bar tied to his leg with a strip of cloth ripped from an asari's discarded robe, putting more and more pressure on his leg.

"No," he told Falks, "it's just tight enough."

He gave the blond human a weak smile. "Thanks."

Jordan nodded, smiling back, hands on his hips. He squinted out at the ruins. "Now what?"

Garrus opened the door of the automated transit cab, unhooking his sniper rifle from its strapping on his armor and tossing it in the backseat before leaning halfway in, his body lying on both front seats so he could see underneath the dashboard. "Now we make our way to the rooftops."

"Which one?"

"Whichever one gives us the best vantage point on that thing-" He nodded at the beast floating far above them in the distance, "see if we can't buy Shepard some time to find the source of the signal that's calling it."

"Wouldn't it be faster to find a working lift?"

"Depends on my leg," Garrus said, cracking open a panel underneath the dash, exposing bundled strips of wiring and circuitry, "but mobility whenever we need it would be nice."

Falks bent down and examined Garrus' progress. "Where'd you learn to do this?"

Garrus shifted onto his back, freeing his right arm and moved his omni-tool next to the open panel. "I worked for C-Sec until recently. Sometimes we'd have to commandeer a vehicle in pursuit of a suspect and sometimes said vehicles weren't always running when we needed them."

"So what, did Citadel Security have gang members brought in to teach the ins-and-outs of carjacking?" Falks laughed. Garrus noted that the man's laugh was short and clipped but honest in it's humor. From that and Jordan's stocky build underneath the civilian attire, his high and tight haircut and simple responses, not to mention the way he'd helped push Garrus to climb from the Wards and the ease of which he'd built the splint, Garrus had little doubt in his mind that the human was former Alliance.

"Certainly not," Garrus responded, "we were taught less intrusive methods of the art."

"There are methods?"

Garrus disconnected a particular inlet from its home on the circuit board, winding the small collection of wires that came with it around his wrist. "Of course. Your average criminal, also known as an idiot, will just bash into the automated response circuit board, cut through the regulator cables and the CPS coupling until he finds the wires he needs, twist them together and 'spot on', he thinks to himself, 'I've got a running vehicle to cruise around in'."

"And he'd be wrong?"

"No, technically he'd be right." Garrus ejected a thin wire from his omni and connected it to the inlet he'd pulled from the board, then wound the bundle of wires together. His omni blipped to life and projected a holographic three-dimensional display against his wrist. "Unless of course he wanted to slow down, park, do a whole lot of steering; anything involving having command over the vehicle. Most light passenger transit these days have safeguards in place to prevent theft. Unless of course, instead of using brute force against the system…"

Garrus' talons swept through the holographic menus above his wrist as he hacked into the transit cab's system. A few seconds later the vehicle shuddered to life.

He smirked, a mandible twitching in self-satisfaction. "-you politely ask it to move out of your way."

Jordan nodded, watching Garrus disengage the omni-tool from the panel before reattaching the inlet. "Very impressive, Mr. Vakarian."

Garrus slapped the panel back into place and sat up in the driver's seat, wincing as he adjusted the fractured leg, his hands grasping the steering wheel. "Why, thank you, Mr. Falks. Care for a lift?"

Falks jumped into the back seat, moved around Garrus' rifle and slid into the front passenger seat. "Don't mind if I do."

[ ]

"I'll kill him, I really will! Leaving me down there like that, running off, sonofa-"

"You know," Liara grumbled, "you were much easier to help when you were unconscious."

The salarian she walked with through the remains of the park balked, looking hurt.

She sighed, "I am sorry. I did not mean that, it is just… the situation is stressful, and if you could not ramble on quite so much-"

The salarian blinked. "But I have no idea where he went. He just left me in the tunnels."

"I am sure your friend is fine, let's just continue on our way."

Her companion scrunched up his face and stalked ahead of her, stomping on the grass. "He's not my friend. Friends don't abandon you, greels, no idea if he's alive or dead, should've just run after him, gotten myself killed too-"

Liara opened up the comm on her omni to Shepard's frequency, following the salarian. "Shepard, can you read me? …Commander Shepard?" There was no response.

Liara stopped beneath a sapling, frustrated and exhausted.

The salarian pouted at her. "You're not even listening. You're just like him. 'Sami, not now, Sami, focus, I don't want to be here all day,' stupid, self-involved-"

Liara glanced sharply at him. "Sami?"

"What?"

"You're name is Sami?"

"Yeah…" He tugged at his work suit in the shade of the sapling, showing her the thick leather badge with his name stenciled on it.

"Your friend is Merl?"

Sami brightened. "Yes, you saw him?"

"In a fashion. He is fine, I assure you." Liara studied the area around them. "He's in the most protective of company," she added bitterly.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," she responded, heading off again towards the edge of the park.

"Well, where are we going?" Sami asked, trotting to keep up with her.

"I need to get you to safety before I attempt to regroup with my team."

"You have a team? Can I come? Safety from what?"

Liara shook her head and kept walking until-

"Ah," she exclaimed, breaking through the trees and arriving at the edge of a demolished, bullet-riddled embankment. A newly formed waterfall cascaded down the edge, through the rocks and rubble, pooling around the storefront ground below.

The cracked safety plate of an elevator showed the path of more gunfire. "Urdnot," she said.

"Safety from what?" Sami asked again, coming up behind her. "Great Kraxxus, would you look at this! What happened here?"

"A friend of mine is looking for something, I think."

Sami blinked, staring in awe at the destruction. "And this is how he looks for things?"

Liara nodded. "Usually. He's a very angry friend."

A distant moan sounded from the sky then. Liara watched the water traveling towards the ruined embankment tremble.

"Oh no," Sami whimpered. "Not again. I know that sound."

"Yes, it is quite disturbing. So, to safety then?"

Sami gulped. "Kay."

[ ]

Shepard wandered down the back alley of a weapons shop, her eyes scanning the area, searching for something.

"You mean to tell me," Anderson said angrily through her comm, "that a gigantic alien life form was living within the depths of the Citadel for centuries and nobody knew anything about it?"

"Well, kind of," Shepard said, walking further down the alley, "I mean it was hidden, but they knew at the very least that there was a security system called 'Legend'. They just didn't know it was a sentient being."

Merl appeared from around the corner, spotted her and came jogging towards her.

"Well," Anderson said, "the Council didn't know. I would've heard-"

"Didn't know what," Merl asked, catching his breath.

"About Legend," Alice whispered back, "now shut up."

"Yes they did," Merl argued.

"What?" Anderson asked through the omni-tool. "Shepard, who is that?"

"Merl Orthanc, sir. I located him underground-"

"You located me," Merl said, incredulous, "you were unconscious-"

Shepard smacked him upside the forehead. "What do you mean, 'the Council knew'?"

"They had to," Merl glared at her, rubbing his head, "I sent daily reports on any findings. Besides, the manual C-Sec and the custodians gave me in the first place mentioned Legend as being a potential threat. You think the Council wouldn't have read that thing at some point? They're old as dirt!"

"Dammit," Anderson grumbled.

"Well, not you, Councilor…um, human," Merl backpedaled, "I'm sure you're not as old as dirt."

"You think they're keeping you in the dark, sir," Alice asked, ignoring Merl.

"That's not something you need to concern yourself with, Shepard. You got me this position, it's up to me to fill it. We're working on a removal plan for this… Legend, but it'd help if we had a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"Of course, Councilor. We're working on reaching higher ground right now. We'll locate the beast and hopefully ascertain the source of the signal as well-"

At this, Merl tapped her and Shepard looked at him questioningly. He gestured back at the alley he'd come from.

Shepard nodded and shooed him forward.

"Just see what you can do until the reinforcements arrive, Shepard. Don't piss this thing off."

They ran around the corner and Shepard spotted the ladder Merl had discovered, bolted to the side of the building. "Not making any promises on that front, this thing was pretty steamed from the get-go. Hence all the relocating."

Shepard grabbed onto the metal rungs and quickly began to ascend the ladder, Merl following after her.

"Shepard…" Anderson said warily, "I have other news… I'm not sure now would be the appropriate time-"

"Go ahead, sir, I'm all ears."

"Well, I wasn't sure if you'd heard, but we got some of the damage intel from the Presidium and the Hotel Verisota… it was completely demolished. Top to bottom."

Shepard frowned, still climbing. "Hotel Verisota? Sir, why-," then it clicked. "Thirty-seventh floor, suite twelve."

"Pardon?"

"West. He was staying there."

"Yes, that was what I was getting at. We're still looking into it, but right now the casualty reports are very high. We have no idea if he made it out."

"Right," Shepard grunted, cresting the last rung of the ladder, pulling herself onto the roof. "Well, we can always hope for the best."

"That's very generous of you, Alice."

Shepard smirked. "I said 'hope for the best.' That doesn't necessarily mean I'm hoping for Rickard West. Any more transmissions from the krogans holding Ambassador Korlak?"

"None. We seem to have caught a break on that front."

Alice brushed dust from the legs of her uniform as Merl stepped onto the roof behind her.

"Alright, sir. Look, I don't mean to be rude, but I've been topside for the better part of fifteen minutes and I need to check-"

"Gather your people, Shepard," Anderson cut her off, his voice understanding, "I'll see what I can do from my side."

Behind her, Merl gasped.

Alice looked at him over her shoulder, then followed his gaze up into the domed sky.

There the behemoth floated, twisted and swimming slowly through the air.

"Councilor," Alice choked out, "one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Legend. I'm looking at it right now."

"Yes?"

"Merl said nobody had ever seen this thing before but… we have."

"We who? The crew of the Normandy?"

"No, sir. You and I. Almost every human… I know what Legend is."

[ ]

Jordan Falks seemed to be enjoying the ride. His fingers tapped against the door frame, his head bobbed slightly to a beat Garrus imagined must be playing in his head. His short blond hair was being tussled by the wind.

"You going to tell me anything about yourself?" Garrus asked.

Jordan gave him a sidelong glance and shrugged. "Sure; what do you want to know?"

"Little bit of personal history wouldn't hurt. Like why an Alliance grunt would quit years before retirement and take on the life of a pleasure rider?"

"That obvious, huh…?" Jordan was silent for a moment. He looked out the window. "We're chasing a massive beast capable of laying waste to an entire city. Now really the time for that kind of sharing?"

Garrus chuckled. "Just two weeks ago I helped defeat a creature capable of destroying all sentient life in the Traverse. And I did it with a crew I've come to know very well. It's a trust-building thing-"

Jordan's expression darkened. "I pulled you from certain death, that's got to build some trust."

Garrus shook his head. "No, no- don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, that's just not the kind of trust I'm talking about… I guess I'm saying this wrong. Don't worry about it."

Perturbed with himself, Garrus steered around the side of a half-collapsed building. He could see the Presidium Tower not far off through the windshield.

He pulled the pack of Hard Charger cigarettes he'd picked up from Harkin's apartment from his side pocket. The pack was a poor sight, crumpled and ripped and smeared with red. He wasn't sure if it was his blood or someone else's from the district of the Wards he'd been in.

Further inspection showed that the pack, half-full when he'd taken it, now contained only bits of shredded white paper, filters and loose tobacco. "Damn," he grumbled.

"A smoking turian, huh?" Jordan suddenly shifted in his seat, laughing quietly. He pulled out a pack of his own and flipped the top open, holding it out to the turian.

"Thanks," Garrus said, taking a cigarette and examining the pack. "Xena's?"

The human nodded. "Always been my brand. Full-flavored now, though. Switched from menthols couple years back. Got to keep my lungs in some sort of health."

Garrus lit the cigarette and handed the Palaven lighter to Falks, who lit one for himself.

"Had a human partner a while back in C-Sec, smoked your brand. You remind me of him a bit."

Falks grinned around the cigarette. "Hope that's a compliment." He inspected the lighter.

Garrus realized with a sudden, sharp pang of fear that he'd just handed a link to Harkin's beating to a man he barely knew. Ice shot into his stomach and he quickly reached out and snatched the lighter back before the other man could spot the engraving on the bottom.

Jordan gave him a bewildered look.

"It was," Garrus said, pocketing the lighter, "…a compliment, I mean."

"Memento?" Jordan asked.

"What?"

"The lighter. You're um… you seem kind of protective with it. Is it a memento?"

"Oh, no. You just seemed like the hard-bitten criminal type, didn't want you running off with it."

Jordan laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Alright. You had it right the first time, okay?"

Garrus flew over the roof of a discount hardware shop. The Tower and the beast in the sky beyond it were drawing closer.

"Joined the Alliance back in seventy-two, hoping to see a few worlds," Jordan continued. "Help people. Protect and serve, all that jazz. Do some good, I guess. Spent some time on Delphious in the Horsehead Nebula. Spent a lot of time on Carathorn-"

Garrus raised an eyebrow, smoke drifting from his mouth to the open window in a stream. "The batarian attacks?"

Jordan nodded grimly. "Yep. I was there…tell you the truth, I say I joined for all those reasons but honestly, they're just things you say when people ask you why you joined. I was twenty-two, you know, I don't really remember why I joined. I can only remember why I left. Can't seem to forget, actually."

Jordan was quiet for a moment, giving the horizon outside the thousand-yard stare.

In that moment, Garrus found himself wondering for the thousandth time if, when a batarian sneezed, all of his eyes squeezed shut at once. He felt absurd and a little guilty for the thought, given how dark a place Jordan was obviously in inside his head.

Then Jordan shook his head and took a deep toke from the cigarette, flicking a thick build-up of ash out the window. Smoke shot out from his mouth and nose in a thin mist as he spoke next. "Anyway, when my second enlistment was up in twenty-one eighty, I took off. I had a good amount of money saved up from my time in the service and in one year on the outside I'd tripled those savings. So a year and a half ago I sold my property and most of my belongings and started hopping from one interstellar cruise liner to the next."

"You ever miss the service?"

Jordan thought about this. "Parts of it. Little things. But as a whole? All the rules and regs, all the bluster and rhetoric? No. Never."

Garrus smiled, took a drag off his cigarette, stubbed it out on the windowsill and flicked the butt outside. "I understand completely."

Suddenly his omni-tool squawked to life. "Vakarian!"

Garrus' smile grew into a grin. "Urdnot; you're alive, then?"

"Krogan?" Jordan asked.

Garrus nodded. Jordan eyed the omni with clear disdain.

"I am," Wrex replied gruffly, "Where are you?"

"I'm in a transit vehicle-"

"You flyin' above the bank?"

Garrus gave a quick look outside the window and spotted the bank. Before he could respond Wrex spoke again.

"Never mind, I just saw your ugly turian face pop out the window. Land on the roof I'm on."

Garrus rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to know which roof that would be?"

"You know what we're doing. Figure it out," Wrex crackled back through the omni.

"Certainly has the countenance of a krogan," Jordan said, his tone noticeably acidic.

Garrus' eyes searched the rooftops of the embassy around them and laughed. "Yes, that he does."

He swept the vehicle up in a sharp arc, causing Jordan to grip the seat and windowsill tightly. "You know which roof he's on?"

"I have an idea."

The transit cab drove up and up, perpendicular to the Council Tower.

Jordan groaned with realization. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

[ ]

They landed on the roof of the Tower a minute later, the transit cab's thrusters and engine dying down in a loud whir.

Garrus reached around to the backseat to grab his rifle.

Jordan spotted Wrex standing next to another human amidst lines of yellow construction barrier strips.

"Can we trust him…completely," Jordan asked.

Garrus paused, hand on his rifle. "When it counts."

Jordan opened his door as the two men outside approached. "That doesn't answer my question."

Garrus shrugged, dragging the rifle over the seat. "It's the best answer I've got. We get into a firefight, I trust him with my life." The turian opened the driver's door and, carefully maneuvering his leg, exited the cab.

"Maybe I value my life a bit more," Jordan grumbled under his breath, moving out.

Wrex and Rickard West met them outside the transit cab.

Upon seeing Garrus, Rickard's mouth tightened into a thin-lipped grimace. He rubbed his throat absent-mindedly and adjusted his suit.

"Wrex," Garrus greeted the krogan, hooking his sniper rifle back onto the rear plates of his armor.

"Vakarian," Wrex responded, eyeing Jordan who was stepping around from the other side of the cab. He jerked his head towards Rickard. "Packed on some extra weight on the way."

Garrus nodded, giving Rickard a quick glance of disapproval, "It doesn't suit you."

"Tell me about it. Who's the other?"

"Oh," Garrus exclaimed, "Wrex, this is Jordan Falks. Falks, this is Urdnot Wrex, scourge of the criminal wastes and plates of medium-rare varren."

Wrex studied Falks for a moment before bowing is head slightly in a welcome. Jordan stiffly nodded back before turning to West.

He forced a smile. "Hey, how you doing," Falks said; holding out his hand.

Rickard didn't extend his in response. Instead he focused on Garrus. "He's civilian, yes? What's he doing here?"

"I ran into some trouble in the Wards. The life or death kind. Mr. Falks was kind enough to lend a hand and he decided to tag along after that."

"Doesn't take much with you people, does it?" Rickard mused, giving Falks another once over, focusing on his red-and-white striped single-piece suit.

"Is there a problem," Jordan asked, closing the distance between Rickard and himself. He stood easily a foot higher than the agent and the tone of his voice suggested to Garrus that if Rickard kept it up he'd soon find himself on the ground for a second time today.

Wrex rumbled out a laugh. "You should teach a class on making friends, West."

He turned from the group and started walking towards the edge of the roof.

Garrus followed, giving Jordan a look of understanding on the way. "Forget it, Falks. Our ship's caught a nasty virus and you're looking at a symptom. It's not worth it."

"Yes, yes," Rickard stated dismissively, "nobody likes me, whatever shall I do?"

Garrus, trotting with a limp, caught up to Wrex a moment later. "Did you-" He started to ask, looking back at West's disheveled, bandaged appearance.

Wrex frowned. "Did I what?" He followed Garrus' line of sight and shook his head. "West was like that when I found him; wouldn't let me in on what happened. No, I didn't do it."

"Too bad."

"Nice leg, by the way," Wrex said.

Garrus smirked. "Nice face," he responded, looking at the numerous fresh cuts and the dried blood crusting on the krogan's flesh.

They approached the edge of the roof, side-stepping the sites of reconstruction that had begun since Sovereign had crashed through it. Wrex knelt under a strip of caution tape and crested the ledge, Garrus following suit, careful not to put too much pressure on his right leg. From the highest vantage point in the embassy, they had a bird's-eye view of the destruction the beast had left in its wake.

And at this moment Garrus got his first good look at the thing that had almost killed him in the Wards.

Currently it drifted lazily through the air in front of them, large enough to swallow the Normandy whole. It was dark blue in color with segmented lines running the length of the flesh of its paler-blue belly. It had a large fin at its rear end, which was close enough to them that, were it to lash out with its tail, it could probably take out the circular embassy roof in a single direct hit.

"You tried shooting it?"

Wrex gave him a look of disbelief. "Habitual bloodlust I've got, Vakarian. I'm still short on crazy."

"Oh, wow," Jordan said behind them, looking at the giant creature. "You gotta be shitting me."

Garrus unhooked his rifle and brought it around.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Rickard asked, stepping from under the caution tape and coming up beside them. "You're going to get us all killed, you idiot."

"Relax, West," Garrus said, pressing his eye against the scope of the weapon, "I'm just getting a better look at the creature we're dealing with."

Jordan laughed. "Um, are you serious?"

Wrex, Garrus and Rickard looked back at him quizzically.

Jordan scoffed. "Really? Nobody knows what that is?" He looked to Rickard, pointing at the creature. "You don't know what that is?"

Rickard glared at him. "Enlighten us, pleasure rider. What wonders you must've seen on any given interstellar cruise liner. Perhaps you browsed a picture book of ancient mythological creatures in one of the bars?"

Jordan looked at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "No, you little cretin. I was born on Earth. You know, the planet every human invariably came from, one way or another. You-"

Wrex cut him off. "Much as I might enjoy watching you add to West's growing list of injuries, we don't have time for this. What is that thing?"

[ ]

"It's a blue whale," Shepard told Liara through her omni-tool as the asari doctor trampled through the wreckage of a department store, Sami close on her heels.

"Legend is a whale?"

"Yep. Largest mammal on Earth. They went extinct over a hundred years ago, though."

Liara waded through piles of clothing on the floor. "And your people survived for thousands of years with those things flying about, destroying everything around them?"

"No, no. They lived in the oceans and were pretty harmless, actually. A beached whale wouldn't last long out of the water. I have no idea what this one's doing on the Citadel or how it's swimming through thin air, but-"

"Sami, hey, SAMI!" Another voice shouted through Alice's connection.

Sami bumped into her back in a rush. He grabbed her arm and yelled at her wrist. "Merl! Guess what?! These guys have a krogan on their team, a really angry one, I got to see the massive destruction he left behind, Merl, he took out an embankment and shot up a café! Bullet holes and blood pools and piles of bodies were everywhere!"

"Awesome! Krogan vengeance!" Merl cried.

"Yeah!"

Liara yanked her arm away from him. "Stop that!"

A slapping sound resounded from her omni. "You have your own comm system," Alice said.

"Sami doesn't," Liara heard Merl whine.

She spotted a fire exit beyond the racks at the back of the store and turned to Sami. "Okay, this place appears secure. You should stay here until-"

"But I want to come too! I can be useful."

"Liara-" Shepard began through her omni.

"A moment, Commander," Liara responded, keeping her attention on the salarian. "I'm sure you can, Sami… but do you want to risk being eaten by the large blue whale outside?"

Sami took a step back fearfully, bumping into a display. "They eat people?"

"Shepard," Liara asked, her voice slightly pleading.

There was a moment of silence from her omni-tool. Then- "…Absolutely. Whales are known for it. And it takes about three years for them to digest you. Unless you build a raft or Jiminy Cricket helps-"

"Thank you, Shepard, that should suffice," Liara cut her off.

Sami glanced toward the exit, pouting. "I'll stay here."

"Very good," Liara sighed in relief, "hopefully we'll be able to take care of this and you can go home soon."

"See ya later, Sami," Merl said through the omni. "Be safe!"

"Yeah," Sami replied, "tell your human to be nicer to Liara, I think she's mad at her-"

Liara blushed. "Okay, that is enough." She made for the exit.

[ ]

Liara slipped out onto an emergency stairwell in a slate-gray alleyway and began to ascend the stairs quickly, the door clacking shut behind her in an echo that filled the alley.

"Merl's trying to locate the source now," Shepard was saying, "but we may need to wait for the next broadcast of the birdcall to find it. If Legend starts going ape-shit again I'm gonna need you-"

"I understand my role in this, Commander. I'll try to keep it at bay."

"Just don't draw attention to yourself. I don't want any heroics."

"Now is not the time for this conversation," Liara replied, jogging up the twisting stairwell, covering the steps two at a time.

"No conversation, who's conversating here, I'm certainly not… you just don't have to prove anything."

"Shepard," Liara griped, nearing the roof.

"Yeah, fine. This is me dropping it."

[ ]

Shepard spotted Liara several buildings down when she reached the roof.

"I can see you…" When Liara began to look around her, Shepard waved her hand.

The asari saw her a moment later. "I see you too," her voice came breathless through Alice's omni. She sounded calmed, happy even at the sight of her.

They stared at each other silently.

Alice smiled. "You're in one piece. That's good."

"Yes," Liara replied, the cool back in her voice, "and I did it all by myself. Imagine."

Alice sighed. The moment was gone.

A few paces away, Merl stood listening to the emergency broadcasting channel the signal had come from. He shook his head, squinting, looking out at the horizon. "Still not getting anything."

"Keep at it," Alice told him, "there's no way somebody just wanted this thing floating out in the open for no reason."

"Shepard," Urdnot called over the transmission.

"Wrex! Where are you?" Shepard walked around the roof, trying to spot him somewhere amidst the wreck of the embassy grounds.

"I see him, I think," Liara said through the comm, Alice glancing to her; the asari was pointing to the Council Tower. "Wrex," she continued, "who are the others with you?"

In the distance, at the peak of the Tower, Shepard saw several figures standing near the ledge.

"Made my way to the Tower," Wrex said, "picked up Rickard West while I was at it. Garrus and another survivor landed in a transit cab a few minutes ago."

"Who's the survivor, Garrus," Alice asked, "he the one who helped you out of the Wards?"

"Yes. Jordan Falks," Garrus said.

"Can he handle himself?"

"He's former Alliance, Shepard. He's good to go."

"Okay," Shepard said, "here's what I wa-" A sudden shrieking noise caught the Spectre off-guard.

Merl hopped and ran for the opposite edge of the roof. "Got it! It's back!"

"I noticed," Shepard responded dryly, following Merl.

Above them, Legend moaned and twirled in the air next to the Tower. From her spot on the roof of the clothing outlet, Liara watched the whale as it twisted. She saw the trajectory of its tail.

"Urdnot," she cried, "get everyone away from that ledge!"

Up on the Tower, the four men saw Legend's massive tail sweep suddenly towards them.

"Shit," Rickard spat, turning from the ledge and hobbling around the construction.

Jordan lunged at Garrus, grabbing the turian by his right arm and throwing it around his shoulder. "RUN," he shouted at Wrex as he bolted for the center of the roof, Garrus limping along with him.

Wrex surged through the caution tape, jumped over a pile of thin wooden planks and batted aside a series of standing metal bars blocking his path.

Legend's rear end crashed into the roof with a mighty WHUMPH, throwing all four men to the ground. It sheared through the edge of the metal Tower, debris and shrapnel flying above them, the entire building trembling and shaking so forcefully that Wrex's body bounced off the ground repeatedly, his head smacking against a jagged piece of rebar, his hands scrabbling along the ground for anything to hold onto.

Rickard, facing a similar predicament, snatched a handful of steel cable running the length of the roof and held on tightly.

The tail continued to carve its way through the building, construction equipment toppling off the side in its wake, metal cylinders, thick rungs of steel, coiled cables and plastic netting disappearing over the edge.

It hit a barrel filled with excess metals, sending the container soaring end over end, the sharp bits inside exploding out into the sky and down onto the roof. Garrus, lying near the center of the roof next to Jordan, saw the barrel's course and grabbed a thick iron sheet, hefting it over the both of them. A second later they heard the sound of metal striking the other side, some of the nuts and bolts leaving indents in the sheet. The barrel careened into the transit cab, obliterating the windshield and sinking home in between the front seats, sparkles of glass shards, large, blade-sized slivers and small, beaded ones misting and sprinkling the hood of the cab, the seats, the dashboard and the surrounding ground.

Rickard, barely able to outrun the destruction with a bum leg, missed being swept up by a foot's length. The cable he clung to did not, catching the tail and yanking Rickard along with it. Legend cleared the roof, sending immense, vehicle-sized chunks of the Tower sailing down to the embassy below; Rickard, still holding the torn cable, flew out after it.

For a moment, as the Tower debris silently traveled the long, long distance down to the lower roofs, the tumult was gone and an eerie hush fell over the area.

Then Merl shrieked as he caught sight of a piece of the wreckage soaring down at the Spectre near him. He rushed at Shepard, tackling her to the ground as the hulking fragment slammed into the spot where she'd been standing.

Shepard, beneath Merl looking over his shoulder, her eyes widening, immediately rolled the both of them, barely escaping being skewered by several broken steel tubes that sunk into the roof beside them.

Liara shot out a biotic force field around herself, watching as the shimmering blue bubble was peppered with bits of the Tower roof.

The area around her suddenly shaded over. "Oh, Goddess."

Through the biotic bubble, she saw a massive block coming down directly at her position.

Breaking the force field, she scampered along the roof of the clothing store as fist-sized chunks of metal rained down around her. She felt a solid punch along her shoulder blade followed by a searing, white-hot pain and she lost her balance, the rock of debris that hit her skipping the surface of the roof.

Liara toppled over the edge as the huge block struck the roof, caving it in, dust and metal shooting into the air around it.

She fell through the air for only a moment before hitting the fire escape she'd climbed up, her stomach slamming into the metal balustrade, the wind shooting from her lungs and out her mouth and nose. The fire escape groaned and shook from the falling rubble and with the shrieking of torn metal, as she struggled to regain her breath, she was weightless again. The entire metal stairwell separated itself from the side of the multi-level clothing store, fell ten feet to the ground below with a blow that almost knocked her from the top, then teetered on its own for a moment.

"No-no-no," she gasped.

The forty foot emergency stairwell tilted too far and fell to one side. Liara watched the clothing store drift away from her and the side of the adjacent building rush towards her. Lying on the top of the stairwell, she threw out a hand and shuddered, still trying to breath, terror in her eyes.

The biotic power didn't come to her.

The stairwell slammed into the side of the building, tossing Liara into the air. She flew up, tumbling through the air, cracked her head and shoulders and arms into the side of the building, the omni exploding into sparks on her wrist, and fell back onto the stairs, which were firm now, leaning against the building at a sharp angle. She didn't move after that.

Dust floated down around her still form.

The unnerving silence fell across the Presidium once more.

Legend swam through the air away from the Tower, slowly cruising back down towards the lower buildings of the embassy.