This had been someone's home, Tali noticed with a pang.
The remnants of the apartment lay in shambles around her. Broken drywall scattered in pieces on the ground. Porcelain tiles cracked and clattered when pressure was put upon them. Dust completely coated the walls, illuminated by the shafts of light that speared through the cratered openings into the outside world.
It would be just enough to house a small family. Two bedrooms, a single bathroom, a living room and a tiny kitchen. This place had been full of life once; perhaps a child had been raised here. Tali could see crumpled up bits of colorful wallpaper on one of the rooms, barely visible after being exposed to the elements for so long. Pots and pans were unevenly dispersed in the kitchen, seared along with the rest of the furniture from plasma burns. Spent thermal clips on the ground were evidence enough of a fierce battle that had taken place here, if not for the bullet holes pockmarking the walls.
Tali's arms burned from having dragged Leveque up a few flights of stairs, but if Garrus, who was standing next to her, was winded in any way then he was certainly doing a better job of masking his discomfort from his part in the team effort.
The human had been clumsily deposited into a chair appropriated from the ruined kitchen and with the help of some rope procured from a nearby closet, he had been trussed up good and tight in his sitting position. The cut on his head where Tali had struck him had congealed at this point, the blood beginning to encrust over the wound, but a lot of plasma had been spilled and coated a good portion of his head at this point. Medi-gel had been sparsely applied to the man's wounded leg and hand, just enough to stem the bleeding but not enough to begin the process of skin healing across the gaping holes that exposed raw muscle and bone. If it were not for the doping effect of the medi-gel, Tali surmised that the chilling wounds would have produced enough agony to stir Leveque back into the realm of consciousness.
Groggily and conveniently, Leveque made a few groans as he came to, his head lazily lolling back and forth as gravity imparted all its force on his relaxed muscles. His eyes drooped heavily, a side effect of the narcotics currently streaming through his blood. Right about now, his body must be feeling like it had passed into some weird temporal, partially floating while a burning sensation nipped at his insides. Leveque winced as his injuries became more apparent and his brow began to sweat.
Tali was about to make a threatening move on Leveque when Garrus beat her to it first. The turian stepped forward and grabbed a fistful of the human's hair before abruptly yanking his head up. Judging from the strangled cry Leveque made, it certainly appeared painful for him on top of the wounds he had already accumulated.
"Ah, good. You're awake," Garrus said as he released his hold on Leveque. The human began breathing erratically as he sweated in the chair, fearful of receiving more pain. "We were hoping that you wouldn't be out for too long."
"M…Medi-gel…" the human whispered through parched lips.
"You've already got a small dosage in your system and I'm willing to give you more," Garrus said. "But that all depends on how cooperative you are, Danton Leveque."
Leveque's eyes desperately tried to focus on his captors, not even bothering to deny his own identity. "I…I know you…" he mused as he squinted at the turian first.
Garrus' eyes narrowed and Tali fidgeted. The lack of responses from both of them seemed to give Leveque a swell of pride as he caught his captors in a moment when they were lost for words.
"You...you're Garrus Vakarian," the man proclaimed with a smug grin. "Which makes you…" he looked at Tali, "…the quarian Tali'Zorah. Former crewmembers under the late Commander Shepard, I believe. Now why would you two be interested in me at all, I wonder?"
"If you're just going to be difficult," Tali stepped forward, "then we're going to make you regret that you were ever born, Danton. We're not going to be cryptic with you at all. You know that Shepard is alive, so just do us all a favor and tell us where he is."
"He's alive now, is he?" Leveque raised an eyebrow as his bound hand (the one that had not been shot) tapped their fingers on the wooden armrests of the chair. "This is news to me, quarian, as I could have sworn that he had been killed a year ago, during the final assault. But if he is alive, then I guess this calls for a celebration, doesn't it? Grab the trumpeters and the floats, we're going to hold a parade in our savior's honor. I'll drive the-"
"Garrus," Tali intoned.
The turian swung his fist and Leveque's head snapped to the side with a wet snap. Blood mixed with saliva began to drip out of his gasping mouth and he spat, clearing his palate of the coppery taste.
"You're not helping anyone with this denial act," Garrus said as he shook his fist, was dispersing the pain that his armored gauntlets had not absorbed. "Or your sarcasm. We know that you work for Cerberus, Danton. We know that you were high up in the organization to get an idea on their more important projects."
"Worked," Leveque grimaced. "I worked for Cerberus…you know, back when it was still up and running? Back when it actually had a leader? You ought to know this, after all. You were part of the team that took it down in the end."
"So you expect us to believe that Cerberus has not reformed since then?" Garrus snorted. "Widespread organization like that doesn't just fold overnight, no matter how optimistic I am to the contrary. After all, you're still around."
"Scraping together a living on Earth hardly qualifies as being in the loop, in my opinion. Would you really expect to find me in a drug lab here if I really was still with Cerberus? It's funny, because you seem to know a lot about me, Vakarian, yet at the rate your erroneous insinuations keep coming, I'd say that you don't really have much of an idea of what's going on, do you?"
Garrus scowled. "You know nothing about us or our motivations, Leveque, and yet you're remarkably well informed as well. You managed to recognize the both of us which is telling of your involvement in Cerberus' command. They don't just hand out sensitive intel like our dossiers to anyone, from our experience."
"Please," Leveque snorted. "Don't flatter yourself. It takes more than a change of face paint and a hood to hide your identities. Don't forget, you were among Cerberus' most wanted up until the end, for working with Shepard, as were you, Tali'Zorah. For being such supposedly informed individuals, you're remarkably dense."
Garrus said nothing at that, but rather swung his sniper rifle in a lazy arc, giving Leveque's shattered leg a solid whack. The man's eyes bulged in his sockets and his arms rattled so fiercely that it seemed his bones would break long before the chair ever would. Leveque could not hold the scream in any longer and he belted it loose before he devolved into tremors once the pain had subsided.
"Touched a nerve, did I?" the shaking human managed. "That's surprising. Given that you utilized information from your good friend Liara T'Soni to your fullest extent, I expected such an interrogation to have been handled with a little more finesse."
The drop of the asari's name caused Garrus' face to go blank and Tali's posture to stiffen uncomfortably. To Leveque, they might as well have spilled the beans for their reactions were so telling.
"Yeah," the human chuckled, "I am aware that T'Soni, in addition to being a dealer in pertinent information, is actually the Shadow Broker. All of us in Cerberus were made aware of this fact when Shepard had completed that mission concerning the original Broker in 2185. Of course, it's not like I get notifications any more regarding such developments in the galaxy."
"Then are we to assume that you know nothing about the Illusive Man's reappearance? You are not aware that he is currently in possession of Shepard in the same reasoning that we are currently now in possession of you?" Garrus asked mildly as he gave a look of confirmation to Tali. She nodded, feeling emboldened by Garrus' support. He was never the type to abandon his dear friends, even when the logic sounded crazy at first.
Leveque grimaced, clenching his teeth. "News to me as well. If the Illusive Man is indeed resurgent, then I haven't heard a thing."
"And why do you think that is?"
Leveque made a noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a cow being strangled. "How the fuck should I know that? I wasn't part of his inner circle, if that's what you're thinking. Sorry to disappoint you, but I was only a lowly lieutenant when I was with Cerberus and was not privy to the goings on of my superiors. Fuck…man, and you're insinuating that I could have some knowledge of the Illusive Man's supposed appearance as well as Shepard's? You literally just told me evidence to the contrary concerning these guys and I'm just supposed to take your word on that, is it?"
Tali now stepped forward and prodded at the hole in Leveque's hand. "A lowly lieutenant that was never implanted with Reaper upgrades?" she asked while Leveque gasped in agony, the blood starting to flow from his wound again. "That's either a coincidence or maybe you had information that someone didn't want to take the risk of getting corrupted."
"The upgrades were voluntary, if you can believe it," Leveque said as he clenched his ruined hand into a fist. "The grunts had no say in the matter. The officers did. Your attempt to prove some sort of conspiracy based on slim circumstantial evidence is not really getting you very far, from my point of view."
"Perhaps," Tali admitted. "But we still have yet to pry the answers we seek out of you."
Leveque rolled his eyes as he gave an involuntary jerk in the chair. "About what? About Shepard? You put a few holes in me, drag me to this godforsaken place, drop a few bombshells related to my boss and your commander somehow being alive, and you expect me to just somehow know everything? Either you've got the wrong guy in this chair, or you've gone completely off your rocker."
Tali was getting angrier and angrier at the arrogance of this human and she made sure to reflect her displeasure with every single word that came out of her mouth. "You don't have to know the specifics, but you should have an idea of where a highly prized captive such as Shepard would be held."
A highly prized captive…my John…
Spitting up a gob of blood-flecked mucus onto the ground, Leveque gave a stained smile. "'Should?' You're in over your head, quarian. Like I said before, you've got the wrong guy in this chair. I have no clue how to find Shepard, whether he be alive or dead. But, there are others that still live who would be better candidates for knowing how to locate that bastard who-"
Whatever Leveque had been attempting to say was rudely interrupted when Tali's foot abruptly rose and hit the human in the stomach, digging hard into his gut. Leveque wheezed, his eyes full of terror as the chair that held him began to tip over slowly, tormenting him with its pace that the call of gravity seemed to have slowed just for him. The chair, plus Leveque, hit the ground hard, rattling the human so badly that a few vertebrae were bruised from the impact.
Leveque did not have much time to see the quarian's three-toed boots walk up to his head before one lashed out towards his face, breaking his nose. He squealed as blood gushed in a sudden torrent after a loud snapping noise had resounded through his skull. Leveque felt dizzy and it took him a moment to realize that Tali had dropped to a knee and had begun whaling on him with stiff blows, pummeling the soft flesh of his face while he reeled on the ground.
"You're the bastard!" Tali screamed in his face as she pushed her blows to her natural limit. She did not notice Leveque's face rippling from the impacts, nor the bursts of blood that erupted with every hit. "Where is he?! Where is John?! Where?! Tell me where!"
Tears were stinging Tali's eyes and her arms quickly felt sluggish. Overcome by a sudden tiredness, she was unable to resist the pair of hands tugging at her side, standing her up and away from the captive.
Garrus' face looked shocked as he took in the sight of the quarian with blood stains all the way up to her forearms after pulling her off Leveque. "What is the matter with you?" he hissed, out of earshot of the moaning human on the floor. Continuing to shoot Tali disapproving glares, he bent down and lifted Leveque's chair up so that he was sitting upright instead of on the ground.
The human's face had certainly seen better days. In addition to the cut on his forehead, which had reopened in the brief struggle, and the broken nose, Leveque's face was now marred with a plethora of wounds that had managed to accumulate in the small time frame that Tali had been beating on him. A deep cut from the top of his nose to across the eyebrow wept fluid, his left eye was beginning to turn bloodshot, and his cheeks were so heavily bruised that they were already purple and puffy.
Garrus sighed at the damage. Already this had gone too far too fast. He was about to reproach Tali some more when Leveque gave a wheeze through the blood streaming past his lips, frothing at the corners. In spite of how much he had been hurt, the human gave a smile, to Garrus amazement.
"You…didn't let me…finish…my sentence," Leveque croaked through his smashed lips. "I said…that I did not know…how to find Shepard, traitor that he was…or perhaps is. But…I do know of…another that should."
"Tell us," Garrus whispered as he dropped to a knee, making sure that Tali was out of his sight. Leveque's head had drooped downward and Garrus tilted his head to make sure that he was still visible. "Give us a name and we'll let you go. We'll drop you off at a hospital if you wish, but you have to give us a name if you want this to be over quickly."
Tali watched with bated breath while Garrus spoke softly. She dared not take sharp inhalations lest she miss anything from Leveque but the beating of her heart was so loud it was like drums were playing right next to her ears, pounding away at her head to drive all other noises away.
"There are…many who could…know of where Shepard is," Leveque said cryptically. "But…most of them…are dead. Killed by…the Alliance…by the Council…by people like you. The Cerberus leadership…most did not survive…the war. Shepard saw to that…himself…and now…you want to find him...a man who would have killed me…given the chance."
"I don't care who it is we have to talk to," Garrus said frantically as his clawed hands gripped the front of Leveque's ruined shirt. "You said that there was someone left, someone still alive. You know who it is, tell us!"
"Surely it would be…obvious. Shepard was the one who imprisoned him…in the first place…on the APV Gehenna."
"Who? Who, damn it, who?!"
Leveque leaned forward, his breath reeking of blood and death. "Oleg…Petrovsky."
Just then, a scraping sound, like boots over gravel, came through the shut doorway of the apartment. Wooden boards creaked and all eyes were instantly upon the threshold, the air so still it seemed to take on the consistency of liquid – thick and sluggish.
Leveque's ruined face twisted in a nasty grin and he craned his head and bellowed, "Here! In here! They've got me in-"
Furious cracks unexpectedly shot through the drywall, punched forward from a hail of bullets. One moment everything was silent, the next completely filled with noise. Garrus grabbed Tali by the shoulders after a bullet just barely missed her, causing her shields to briefly flare up, and forced her down to the ground. They shut their eyes and curled up into balls as their unknown assailants tore up the room from the automatic fire, spraying dust and debris everywhere.
Flashes of light pounded on Tali's shut eyelids and the booming bursts from the guns outside threatened to rupture her eardrums – despite the audio dampeners in her helmet. She rolled onto her stomach and kept herself low while she watched Garrus fumble for his assault rifle on his back. She dared not to move while hell raged just inches above her head.
Loud clicks then snapped from beyond the shredded walls. Garrus turned his head and met Tali's fierce gaze. They both knew what the ejection of a thermal clip sounded like. Now was their chance.
From their prone positions on the floor, Tali and Garrus aimed their assault rifles up and returned fire in short bursts. They each methodically took different areas that flanked the door, aiming their guns in straight paths that cut down the middle, right into their attackers. Panicked screams rose up and were stifled as bodies thumped to the floor. A concussive burst from Tali blew the remains of the door off its hinges, slamming wooden splinters directly into a human that had been standing behind it in the hallway, shredding him to pieces.
Distant thumps off to the right denoted that one of the attackers had panicked and was currently running away, but there was a faint zip and a sound of glass breaking which was then followed by the telltale noise of a body in motion collapsing to the ground.
The pair waited a few moments to discern if they could hear anything beyond the ruined room slowly crumbling upon itself. Hearing nothing, Garrus swiftly stood and managed a quick peek into the hallway, followed by a slower, more relaxed glance as he appraised the aftermath once he confirmed that their assailants had been taken care of.
Three humans, dressed in ragged clothing, lay dead on the floor in front of them. The one that had been torn apart from the door lay directly across the hall; large slivers of wood had impaled him in several places, skewering his torso and one of his eyes. It was amazing that the corpse was still in one piece.
Two more bodies flanked the first, both lying face down on the floor. Pools of blood had begun to spread out from where they had fallen, merely leaking at this point due to the fact that their hearts had stopped pumping. Based on the trajectory of Tali's and Garrus' relatively controlled lines of fire, the other two gunman had been cut down from the returning bullets, which had sliced through their organs like knives.
At the far end of the hallway lay another corpse, which worried Garrus. This human had fled far away from the skirmish that there was no way that he or Tali could have gotten a shot off at the man. Yet, the man was collapsed near the stairwell with the broken remains of a window crumpled around him. Either one of his comrades had shot him in the chaos for cowardice or he had somehow managed to accidentally shoot himself and break a window at the same time.
Garrus' could not afford to reflect on the contradiction right about now, as he heard a disgusted sigh come from Tali back in the room. He headed inside and saw Tali standing in front of Leveque, who was still tied to his chair. It was not until Garrus stepped around to face the trussed up human did he realize why Tali was acting so dejected in the first place.
Leveque was dead; there was no contesting that fact based on the huge hole in his forehead. A bullet, one of the first throughout the exchange, had come from the thugs in the hallway and took the top of Leveque's head off as well as half his face, spraying blood, brains, and bits of bone that had solidified onto the window. Whatever was left in the human's skull had dripped out, coating his face in a gory mask that was beginning to stink something awful. Leveque's bloated tongue lolled out from his mouth, turned black from the copious hemorrhaging. Tali just stared blankly at the bound corpse, not even nauseated from looking at the place where Leveque's eyes used to be, revealing just a pulpy center of red ooze. There would be no more chances to question him, but that did not mean that she was going to mourn his passing. He managed to serve his purpose up until the end; that would have to be enough.
A popping sound caused Tali to turn around from the grisly sight. A stone had broken through the window to land at her feet, spreading granules of glass over her boots. The rock went unnoticed, as Tali had spotted a more worrying sight beyond the hole it had left behind in the translucent window. She edged as close as she dared before pulling her head back with a sharp intake of breath.
"Oh, Keelah…" Tali whispered. "That is very troubling…"
Garrus, to his credit, kept his cool. He also took a quick peek out the hole before leaning back with a worried glance. The courtyard had been empty just previously but now there had to be at least a couple hundred humans milling about in the open area three stories below. Some humans were dressed in rags, others were bare-chested. All were touting weapons of some kind as they crowded around the entrance of the establishment, crowding the place to the brim.
And each one looked hungry for blood.
Now we know why Liara was adamant that we exercise caution, Tali thought to her displeasure as the mob began to chant in an unfamiliar language, creating a steady roar that began to rumble the loose panes.
Garrus said nothing, choosing instead to remain perfectly still and quiet. Tali held her rifle close to her chest, noting that her own heartbeat managed to make the barrel of the gun twitch ever so slightly, for that was how hard she was holding it against herself.
Without being cued, the foreign chanting began to cease and Tali could see out of the hole that a swath had been made in the crowd, making way for what had to be the largest human Tali had ever seen in her life.
Tali had always taken the concept of weight for granted, seeing as quarians like herself always followed a strict diet that never really allocated for the excess consumption of calories. Similarly, turians were bound by their militaristic routines which influenced their overall lifestyles, therefore any weight gain was practically impossible for them to achieve. Humans had been the most varied, in terms of body size, in Tali's experience. She had seen some humans with a little fat on them, but compared to Shepard – her personal standard of fit, they might as well have all been overweight.
This man took her perceptions and hurled them all out the window. He was so heavyset that he had to use a cane to support his legs, which wobbled with every step. Fat bulged over his belt and drooped downward, like a mushroom. His neck was nonexistent, as was his chin, a giant blob of flesh covered by a sloppy patch of fuzz that could remotely be considered a beard. He had to have weighed at least two hundred kilograms, judging from his size alone. He was the most disgusting human Tali had ever laid eyes on.
Next to her, Garrus gulped. "That is one fat bastard."
"I think we're looking at Argeir in the flesh," Tali grimaced.
"Him and his five chins."
This was exceptionally puzzling to Tali because, although she had no use for such things, she knew that there were cheap solutions to curing excess weight. Humans had done well to breed the trait out in recent years and gene therapy had done the rest. Surgery to correct problems after the fact was inexpensive and quick these days, but apparently the gigantic man had either not given any consideration to such cures or, for some reason, found some small amount of satisfaction in his ailment. Either way, this man was probably not right in the head.
Down below, a thin man passed a rudimentary device over to the humongous warlord. To Tali, it looked like a black stick with a wire that trailed over to a nondescript, darkly colored box. Before she could wonder any more at its purpose, Argeir raised the stick to his lips and began to speak, his voice instantly amplified through the speaker.
"Attention, to the dumb fucks in the apartment!" His words were fierce but his voice was raspy and hoarse, brought on from the intense amount of weight pressing onto his esophagus. "Whatever you have planned to do with my associate, you need to rethink your goals and aspirations. Did you not consider the ramifications of traversing onto my territory and trying to make off with my loyal soldier? You are arrogant to have lingered here, not to mention stupid for even crossing me at all!"
Tali gave a glum glance at the practically headless Leveque, who was still slumped in the chair. Apparently Argeir or his goons had not considered the fact that Leveque had been killed by sloppy fire from their own guys. If these were the sort of terms he was providing, then he was going to be all kinds of disappointed.
Garrus seemed to realize that too. "What do you want to do, Tali?"
"I don't know. You think you can lob a grenade that far?"
"Even if I did hit Argeir, you think that would stop us from getting ripped to pieces by the mob?"
"It was just a suggestion," Tali said.
Meanwhile, Argeir was still drolling. "Since you've undoubtedly taken care of my advance party, I'm going to make a final offer to you, whoever you idiots are. First, you send Leveque out of the door – alive and unhurt, and you're going to follow him soon after with your weapons and armor left behind. If you comply with that, I'll only cut off the fingers from your hands and let you live. Any deviations and I'll simply have to kill you in the most excruciating way imaginable. You have ten seconds to respond."
Garrus couldn't resist yelling out this time. "Your men already killed Leveque, you fool! Might as well send in everyone you've got because we're not surrendering to you at all!"
Tali felt on the verge of throwing up but she swallowed the sensation of bile back down. Garrus looked at her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You ready for what's coming?"
In return, Tali flipped the safety off her assault rifle, a deep breath drawn despite her shaking. "There was no other alternative anyway," she whispered, mainly to herself.
For some reason, Argeir did not look angered by Garrus' challenge. Rather, he looked puzzled and stuck a finger in his ear to clear it of wax buildup. "What did he just say?" he spoke through the microphone, out towards the mob. A few grumbles went up followed by a lot of shrugging. Confused, Argeir spoke louder, back to Garrus this time. "What the hell did you say, man?"
Garrus blinked. "I couldn't have been any clearer," he muttered before he shouted louder this time, "You deaf and stupid too? I said that it was because of you that Leveque's dead, now shut up and bring me more of your punks to kill!"
Despite the added enunciation, Argeir and his goons still looked like that the turian had spouted a made up language towards them. Their faces were bewildered and some scratched their heads as if Garrus had thrown out a challenging riddle for them to decipher.
"I don't think they have implants, Garrus," Tali said quietly as she watched the crowd of humans wrack their brains.
"You sure?" Garrus said as he was about to yell out for a third time.
"Look," Tali pointed out. "None of them are using any omni-tools, they're using low tech equipment, and I bet that the reason why they haven't understood you yet is because they don't have a program that can translate our words into whatever language these humans speak."
"Crap," Garrus said as he stood up for a better look. "You might be right about that."
But Garrus was too clumsy in his attempt to get a visual. As he craned his neck to see through the hole caused by the thrown stone, he brought his face into full view for a brief moment, but that was enough for one out of a hundred pairs of eyes to take notice.
"Turian!" someone in the crowd screamed. "There's a turian in the building!"
"Alien nationals!" Argeir yelled through the microphone, his fat wobbling in alarm. "Those aren't normal street thugs, they're radicals! Kill them!"
There was no hesitation from the mob. They rushed en masse at the moment the words left the large warlord's lips, all screaming unintelligibly. Many hopefuls began firing their weapons indiscriminately into the air, celebrating the intensity of the moment as they crowded at the doorway.
"Garrus," Tali said quickly. "Give me a grenade right now."
The turian complied without a word and handed over the circular disk to Tali. She quickly depressed the switch for a five second delay, reached her arm out of the hole in the window while being careful not to slice open her suit from the jagged glass, and casually dropped the device to the ground.
There was a boom and screams of pain mingled with the ones of rage. As the cloud of smoke began to dissipate in the afternoon sun, Tali could see the effects of her grenade placement. Several men lay on the ground, blood oozing from blown off limbs, as they had nowhere to go when the explosive had landed in the middle of the crowd. Other mangled remains were distributed across the cracked ground and the humans who had been away from the killing radius of the blast hunkered down on their knees, their hands clasped over their bleeding ears – temporarily deafened.
The more fortuitous aspect of the grenade was that it had collapsed the archway that had hung over the entrance to the apartment complex, causing a small landslide of extremely heavy stone fragments to block the way of the door. The members of the mob that were mobile enough from Tali's grenade either stood in place stupidly at this development, or frantically began to run out of the courtyard to look for another way in on the opposite side.
The celebration was short lived as shouts and yells coming from the nearby stairwell told her that several humans had managed to enter the place before the exit had been blocked off and that they were coming at them at breakneck speed. Tali barely had time to turn around and get her rifle properly oriented before the first human, sporting only shorts and a pistol, rushed out from down the hall and towards the room she was currently bunkered in.
A short burst from her rifle cut the first man down but there were still several more coming towards them, based on the echoes headed their way. A trio of armed denizens arrived next and began to approach Tali's position in the same brazen fashion. Garrus was the one who opened fire next and the three idiots bunched up in the hallway fell with newly formed ventilation in their chests, their faces stiffened from excruciating pain.
"Come on," Garrus said as he pulled at Tali's arm. "We're leaving."
The turian led the way to the other stairwell at the opposite end of the hall while Tali continued to cover the rear. Her weapon coughed each time a new target popped into view, her shields engaging every time an errant shot headed her way. Tali was very surprised by how easy that the humans were being felled until she realized that, not only were these gang members not implanted, they did not have personal shield generators either. But even though these thugs were ill-equipped to take on two battle hardened warriors, they still had the upper hand in numbers.
Garrus, meanwhile, was slow and methodical as he crept forward at a steady pace. He loosed only single shots at his enemies, not even bothering to boast out loud when he landed a headshot, for he was concentrating so hard. Blood and gore had stained the steps of the staircase by the time the two had reached it and they took their steps carefully so that they would not slip in the spilt brains.
The humans were not even attempting to mask their approach as they were still electing to shout and stomp their way forward while they ran at an unstealthily pace. Tali tapped Garrus on the shoulder as they descended to the second story and they hunkered into the next hallway, avoiding a patrol that zoomed up the steps without as much as a furtive glance.
"These boys have to be doped up on something," Garrus whispered as they carefully crept down the empty hallway. "Either that or they've had no formal combat training to meet our approach."
"You were the one who used to be a cop," Tali shrugged. "You'd know better than me."
"Well, if it's drugs then it isn't red sand, I know that much."
A swooshing shadow caught her eye at the same time Garrus rotated to examine a nearby room. Tali had her gun up again but lowered it in the split second that it took her eyes to register the hazy shape.
A new figure was standing in the hallway; its outline was a little hazy like a mirage, but it seemed corporeal enough that Tali was having a hard time deciphering what it actually was. It was not attacking, but it was only when Tali moved forward did she manage to pierce the veil of shadow and bring light to where there had been darkness.
A face, heavily scarred and saddened, stared mournfully at her in the middle of the corridor. Tali's forearms went limp and her assault rifle dipped downward immediately as her jaw gaped open.
This isn't…it can't be…
"J-John?" Tali squeaked as the image of the familiar human looked at her, his eyes spearing through her to her soul from his stagnant position in the hall. "My…my love?"
"Why did you let me die, Tali?" the man with Shepard's face simply asked, his expression holding no anger but no warmth either. A cold reflection.
"Die?" Tali asked in confusion, helpless as the image began to shrink away from her. "No…no, I didn't…you're still alive!"
"No, Tali. You let me die!" Shepard roared before the outside light broke through his form, dissolving him into a billion dark wisps. They vanished into thin air like smoke, blending into the stuffy recesses of the foul air that permeated this section of the world.
"NO!" Tali screamed as she took a few steps forward, her arm outstretched to futilely grasp at the black strands. Her hand clenched, just as she expected deep down, upon nothing.
"Tali!" Garrus roared from one of the rooms nearby. "Watch out!"
The quarian turned just in time to see a thin human barrel towards her from the stairs, attracted from her shriek. He held a wicked looking knife in his hand as well as a sick grin on his face. Spittle drooled down his chin and he laughed manically as he ran forward, intent on sticking Tali in the gut with the blade.
Damn… Tali's mind raced as her arms reacted too slow. Damn it!
With a grunt, Garrus sprung from the doorway and slammed the human into the wall, making him drop the knife and saving Tali from being slashed. With his own blade procured from the sheath on his chest, Garrus gave a brutal roar and sliced the thin man from clavicle to sternum, creating a gush of blood and exposing the white shock of bones. Tali finished him off with a rifle round to the head as she recovered, dispersing the human's cranium on the floor.
Another human sprung out, this time headed for Garrus, but Tali returned the favor by leaping forward and smashing the man in the face with the butt of her rifle. The man screamed as his temple began to bleed heavily. Tali dropped the gun and grasped the stunned head of the man before driving his face into the wall with a crunch. Blood splattered around the cracked indentation in the surface and the human dropped, either unconscious or dead. Tali was strangely unconcerned either way.
The smooth fabric of time was now noticeably beginning to feel warped for Tali as she stepped away from the bleeding human at her feet. Her breathing felt labored and deep, her vision blurred, and parts of the world seemed to be stuttering like they were caught in a loop. "Combat high," the soldiers called it, for the adrenaline had completely saturated her bloodstream to the point that she was swimming in the hormone.
It felt effortless to Tali as she plucked her pistol from her holster and lifted it up, almost nonchalantly. An armed gang member belted out of the nearest doorway but to Tali it looked like he was just running through mud. She could see the strained tendons in his neck, the droplets of sweat coursing off his face, and the puff of condensation emitting from his mouth as he had only death on his mind.
Pulling the trigger was therefore a simple matter and the young man collapsed with a hole in his neck. The next man foolish enough to be right behind his partner shared the same fate. Blood gushed into the air from the breached arteries, the flow gradually dying down as their hearts slowed in their beating – the very involuntary reaction that was pumping more blood out of their bodies, therefore killing them even faster.
"Garrus," Tali panted, her words sounding slurred in her head as the noises of battle evaporated like the last remnants of an echo. "Let's get the hell off this damn planet. Any plans on how to accomplish that?"
"First floor," the splattered turian coughed. "We'll try there. I have an idea."
On the opposite side of the street, Nitherius kept his own breaths comparatively shallow as he inched the crosshairs of his sniper rifle one millimeter at a time. His thermal scope was adept in distinguishing the humans storming the building across the way from both the turian and quarian that he had been following for the past couple days. The humans showed up as red blobs on his goggles, while the armor of his prey sufficiently masked their thermal signatures enough that they ended up appearing only orange on his screen.
With a careful inhalation, the little X focused upon the center of mass on one of these red blobs inhabiting the third floor of the apartment complex and he fired once he was certain that his target was going to remain still for at least two more seconds. He quickly saw the blob jerk, spun around from the impact of the bullet, and collapse. Another one just bought the farm.
Nitherius felt that he should have expected Zorah and Vakarian to make a mess of things in this city since they had previously been to two different places in the galaxy and not once did someone not end up hurt or something not get broken. This, however, was an all-new level of screw up. Not only were their intentions this time deliberately malicious, they also had managed to drag themselves into the middle of a gang's territory, starting their own little war right here in this damn city.
Biting his tongue to keep himself from audibly cursing his luck, Nitherius lined up another human in sights and pulled the trigger again, blasting a man's head off in the building a hundred meters away, causing the now ex-human's comrades to shout in alarm.
Nitherius had taken a few precautious to his presence in Prague. For one, he was bunkered down behind a stone railing on the roof of another building, with nothing peeking over the side so that a passerby in the streets could spot his position. Also, the railings plus the heavy overhang above him successfully muted the noises made by his already silenced rifle, creating a muffled sphere around him that prevented anyone from honing in on him through the audible signals.
The mob had not denoted his location yet and Nitherius wanted to keep it that way for the time being. There were enough problems on his mind that he did not want the additional challenge of enemy fire headed in his direction to be added to the list.
Zorah and Vakarian were no use to him dead; the Primarch had given him a task to bring both of them back to Palaven alive. Them being dead would accomplish nothing, which was what this cursed mob was threatening to spoil through their own actions against the two. Therefore, Nitherius had no choice but to throw himself into the confrontation; he was the one who sniped the retreating member in the advance party – the one that Vakarian had no shot at initially. He was loath to be on Zorah and Vakarian's side this time around, but he needed to make sure that their entire area would be cleared of enemies so that they could no longer screw up this operation any more.
If this job was going to be done right, then by the spirits, it was going to be done right.
He admired the initiative of Zorah; the little stunt of using a grenade to block the entrance of the building to the crowd was inspired. It had not allowed fifteen or so humans inside before the threshold blew, but it delayed them from being swarmed for a bit. All he had to do was pick off the humans still scouring the building before he could introduce himself. Now was a good moment to make his move – the heat of combat made a brilliant smokescreen for his purposes.
The remaining individuals, with the exception of the turian and quarian, were beginning to panic inside the apartments. They must have realized that their numbers were beginning to thin, having taken too many losses to only now spot a difference.
Panic did two different things to people: it either made them push themselves to work harder and faster, or it just made people freeze in place. Nitherius took full advantage of the ones that froze where they stood, creating three zips in succession from his rifle that tore through the humans he had been resting his sights on.
Just two more to go.
Quickly spotting the blazing hot blobs through the thermals, Nitherius had little trouble in putting another round through a man's spine before blowing the jaw off the final human who stood stupefied at the death of his friend. Mere target practice at this point.
With a satisfied grunt, Nitherius stood up from his position and slammed his folded sniper into the slot on his back before vaulting the stone barrier. He was now flying across the rooftops, his footing still very precise lest his trip on one of the tiles which would skid him off into the streets. A Paladin pistol found its way into the turian's hand and he held onto it tightly as he jumped from roof to roof, the apartment complex never leaving his sight.
Shouts of panic from the few remaining thugs in the courtyard reached his ears as well as the snaps denoting the sloppy fire being directed at him from below. Without so much as a second glance, Nitherius chucked a cluster grenade into the crowd and savored the screams of agony once the series of thumps blew.
Humans, always illogical.
He had almost reached the apartments by then, but he was not planning on removing the debris from the entrance to gain access. Rather, he had a different sort of introduction in mind.
Picking up into a sprint, Nitherius made sure his tactical goggles were properly secured over his face before he took a running leap over a thin alley. Mid-air, he covered his face with his arms and broke through the window of the complex to land amongst the blood-stained carpet of where he had previously sniped a few of his hapless victims.
Nitherius shook himself like a dog, brushing any stray bits of glass off him before he held his pistol aloft, finger planted to the side of the barrel like all his instructors instilled in him.
Now, where did those two go?
"Right here!" Garrus gestured as he walked into what appeared to be a master bedroom, based on the presence of a large charred framework of a bed in the corner. "I knew there was another way out of here!"
Tali ran into the bathroom and watched Garrus scrape aside a few tiles to expose a small hole in front of a hearth, a dark pit extending downward towards who-knows-where. The turian seemed remarkably pleased with himself.
"How did you know this was here?" Tali asked, astonished.
"I didn't," Garrus grinned. "It was just a guess. When we were in London, I noticed that all of the homes had passageways that led into the drainage system below in order to escape the Reaper troops on the surface. Since this city got hit just as bad, I imagined that an entrance to a similar network must exist in this building as well. Hope you don't mind traversing the sewers again."
"Credit where it's due, your guess was a good one," Tali admitted before glancing out the window nervously. "But, don't you think that the humans would have known about this tunnel and would have used it to get in here?"
Garrus also glanced outside, where he saw a group of ragged human males frantically try to claw away the debris from the foundation with their bare hands, creating bloody streaks on the rock from their torn fingernails; unable to heft the blockage.
"I think you're giving them too much credit in the brains department," he drawled with a hint of amusement.
"That's because I manage to compensate," a deep voice whispered behind the two. "Turn around, Vakarian. You too, Zorah."
Tali muttered a curse under her breath and slowly rotated in place. A turian, draped in white armor so clean it was almost blinding, stood in the middle of the doorway to the hall, with a heavy pistol pointed directly at Garrus' head. He had a few minimal white markings on his face – of which was the darkest color Tali had ever seen on a turian, and his eyes were covered with a pair of electric blue goggles, giving him a very cold and emotionless look about him.
Her nerves were beginning to flare again, but Garrus looked more exasperated than scared. "Verdis Nitherius," he sighed. "I was wondering when you were going to show your face."
"Only at the right time, you barefaced traitor," the dark turian growled. The hand holding the pistol never wavered. "Surely you two didn't think that your actions would catch up with you, right?"
"I've managed to hold some hope," Tali said, drawing from a newfound well of courage. "It's gotten me this far, at least."
"Well, it won't get you any further. I'm giving you this one chance to come in quietly. Zorah, Vakarian, this will be your only opportunity to avoid violence. Stand down and we can end this like civilized people."
"Civil? At gunpoint?" Garrus laughed. "Right, Nitherius. And we're supposed to just turn ourselves in to you after you've insulted my loyalty and my honor?"
"You deny your treachery, Vakarian?" Nitherius breathed, his subharmonics vibrating the very air around the group. "You expect me to believe that you played no part in infiltrating the Cipritini facility? I've seen the footage, Garrus. Your involvement in that little stunt is undeniable. As is your lack of honor."
Garrus began to growl unconsciously and his fringe began to twitch. Tali had never seen him look so angry before.
"You would lump me with Saren, call me a betrayer of my people when you are not aware of the entire story? I have been loyal to the Primarch this entire time! I would never think of turning against him!"
"Your actions tell a different story than your words. The supposed 'story' does not matter right now, either. We all have to face judgment for our deeds, Vakarian, and the time has come for your part to come to an end."
"I played my part to help out a friend, Nitherius. Although, I'm not sure you even know the meaning of the word friendship, much less loyalty. You would really take the political fallout by capturing me just to send me off to a controversial trial? Is this really the sort of action you would take to convince yourself that your soul is pure and your honor intact?"
"You forget, I'm a Spectre," Nitherius seethed as he pressed the barrel of the Paladin against Garrus' forehead. It was apparent that the taller turian had been ruffled by the comments, though, as his back teeth were visibly bared while his mandibles twitched. "I could shoot you right now and I wouldn't even get a slap on the wrist for it, but it's only on the Primarch's orders that you remain alive. Why only make it worse for yourself by trying to aggravate me, Vakarian? That won't do you any good, I'm afraid."
"Oh, you're right," Garrus theatrically rolled his eyes. "But it will give her the opportunity to strike while you're distracted. Tali?"
Nitherius whirled his head towards the quarian then bellowed as an electrical bolt knocked into his back, throwing him off balance. Tali's combat drone darted to the side and lined up another strike, but Nitherius quickly shook off his paralysis and leveled a singular shot towards the drone, causing it to fizzle out in a cloud of sparks.
Garrus was too close to use any of his weapons, so he did the only thing he thought was logical, which was to rush forward and wrap his arms around the Spectre in a hold, pinning his arms down.
Nitherius' head turned in bewilderment at the development, but he soon gave out a laugh. "So, that's the way it's going to be," the turian gritted his teeth.
The Spectre slid his feet across the gritty floor for a few inches, giving himself a little more wiggle room. He then used the opportunity to viciously shunt his elbow backward directly into Garrus' gut, freeing him from the hold while his opponent wheezed. Nitherius then lifted a foot and delivered an upward kick, striking at the pistol Tali had been trying to aim at him and caused it to fly away into the air harmlessly.
While Tali yelped in pain and clutched at her hand, Nitherius shook his head to iron out the remaining kinks, and grabbed at Garrus' neck with his artificial hand, lifting him off the floor a good couple of inches. "Assaulting a Spectre…" Nitherius said almost gleefully, "I have the legal right to execute you on the spot for that little infraction."
"Never had much use for rules anyway," Garrus managed to choke out.
"Neither do I, apparently," Tali snarled as her shotgun barked and blasted Nitherius to the opposite side of the room. The turian Spectre collided with the heavy stone and crumpled to the ground, his shield generator smoking. Garrus dropped to his knees, rubbing his neck, and Tali helped him up. "I'm sure you had that under control," she said impishly to her friend.
"I certainly did," he coughed. "But thanks anyway."
Nitherius did not stay down for long. With a guttural roar, he shot to his feet and leaped back within striking range for another attack. Tali instinctively let off another blast from her shotgun but Nitherius easily avoided it and batted it to the side. He whirled and laid out Garrus with a hefty punch to the face and the smaller turian went down. Next, he turned and used his metal arm to thump Tali on the helmet, knocking her senseless, but placed precisely that he did not have to worry about creating a potentially fatal breach for the quarian.
Stars exploded in Tali's vision and she reeled with a gasp. Her gray hood was knocked askew and she stumbled in her temporary blindness. Her head hurt, like a knife had been jammed into her brain and given a quarter twist. It felt almost as if that blow had indented her helmet directly into her skull. Tali could feel blood beginning to trickle down the side of her head, the sensation damp and uncomfortable.
Garrus was also bleeding from the mouth, but he took his injury in stride. Recovering quickly, he bounced back and planted a two punch combination into Nitherius' side. The Spectre grunted and took a swipe, but Garrus jumped away just in time. Nitherius straightened and drew from his left holster so fast the movement was lightning quick, tired of playing games. Garrus ducked and used his arm to push the Spectre's artificial arm to the side, where the gun it was holding wen off and shattered the window beyond. Garrus' ears rung from the discharge so close to his ear, but he was inside Nitherius' stance now.
An uppercut to the jaw drove Nitherius back and a follow-up kick bruised the taller turian's chest painfully. Nitherius skidded back a few feet, coughing, but now had enough room to maneuver once again. With a dissatisfied snarl, he raised his Paladin one final time to put Garrus down permanently, but a thin shaft of light passed almost instantaneously through his metal arm, the bang sounding only nanoseconds later. Nitherius watched a hole punch itself through his left forearm and the gun tumbled out of his grip as his fingers released, the hydraulics malfunctioning.
Clutching his arm in surprise, Nitherius watched Tali straighten her aim from near the doorway and level off another shot from her pistol, which she had recovered from its position on the floor. Nitherius saw the attack coming and moved to the side, just missing the bullet but that proved to be an error on his part anyway.
A blue blur followed by a defiant roar hit Nitherius and suddenly he found himself sailing through the air as Garrus full on tackled him from a running start. The younger and smaller turian did not cease in his attack, to Nitherius' alarm, and he felt upon his back another windowpane shatter against him, and then the sickening feeling of falling came to him. He threw out his arms to arrest his fall but there was nothing to grab onto. All he could do was yell and curse himself for being so cocky as the sight of a band of discolored water rushed rapidly towards his head before it consumed him whole.
Coldness and dampness splashed upon him and Nitherius opened his mouth to yell, but only bubbles came out. Water shot into his nose, burning his sinuses and he spluttered as he kicked his feet, temporarily disoriented.
Meanwhile, Garrus stood panting as he leaned over the windowsill, managing to catch the last few seconds of Nitherius' impact into the River Vltava. White foam rippled from where the turian entered the water and he surfaced a few minutes later, gagging and furious. It was an amusing sight to watch the heavily armored turian attempt to swim, a species not known for their water tolerance to even begin with, and the air was peppered with strangled curses as Nitherius had to fight to keep water from traveling down his throat once again while he clumsily began to paddle.
As gratifying as it was to see the Spectre humiliated like this, Garrus knew that Nitherius would not let any body of water become his downfall. Without a word, he stole over to the hole in the floor, Tali already having entered it, and dropped to the ground where the air was noticeably drier and the smell equally danker.
"Did you take care of Nitherius?" Tali asked worryingly as they proceeded down the tunnel.
"He decided to take the scenic route," he responded. "But he'll be back. If he found us like this, he most certainly can find us again."
The two had picked up into a jog now, making their turns based off the cardinal directions on their compass in relation to the port on the other side of the city. Hopefully in here they would not chance upon any more surprises.
"I think we should have just killed him when we had the chance," Tali grumbled. "If he's going to keep pursuing us regardless, then we should have made sure that he would never get such an opportunity again."
"I don't think so," Garrus shook his head. "We're not going to garner any sympathy if we kill people that have been assigned legitimately to our case, even if they're just going to impede us. We're basing everything on Shepard being alive and when we find him, all of what we've done will be brought to light and we will be exonerated. We just need to hold out just a little longer."
"I cannot hold out any longer, Garrus," Tali said as she hung a right down another damp corridor. "Everyone will soon realize it if they haven't already. And woe to this Petrovsky if he chooses to delay me in this hunt, for he will discover rather quickly that he will not be able to hold out his secrets for very long when I get my hands on him."
"Considering your track record, I'm not too sure if he should be more afraid of your wrath, or that I should be from the prospect of witnessing it in action."
"We'll see, Garrus," Tali breathed as a lone shaft of light speared through the darkness, a beacon to the heavens. Tali stepped forward and watched as a ladder became pronounced from the ajar manhole above, the opening to the surface and freedom from this temporary purgatory.
We will soon see.
A/N: Got a chance to get some real action into this chapter - the intrigue is fun and all but at least the stakes can be heightened and accentuated with the occasional burst of violence. Now that Nitherius has revealed his hand, the window for Tali and Garrus to reach their goal has gotten a lot tighter. Only time will tell if they will be able to make it to their final destination.
With this chapter, we've passed the halfway point for Irreparable (a quick estimation means that I'll have another 100,000 word story on my hands soon - nice!) and things will only begin to escalate even further. As long as I don't goof off with my spare time or get run down by a vengeful cyclist (you have no idea how crazy these Californians can be) I should manage to get done with this story by the end of September. It'll definitely be the longest amount of time I've ever worked on a story thus far so I'm hoping that my quality of writing has benefited from this set schedule. I know that I won't be able to please everyone with my prose or from the wait in between chapters but I am doing this to the best of my ability so that the final product is as good as I can make it.
I only hope that you all find some enjoyment out of it, which is all that really matters in this case.