She was just so angry. It had railed at her the entire trip back to base. The idea that Harper would create a clone – because really, who else would do it and what else could it be? A clone of Garrus, the one person who's death had pushed her over the deep end.
She wouldn't fall for it, she damned well wouldn't fall for it.
Hell.
She walked off the ship in a zombie like trance. She acknowledged those around but got through the conversations as quickly as possible.
Her emotions were catching up with her, these past three years finally creeping up with her.
She chose the quickest route to her room, avoiding any further conversations as she felt her iron will start to crumble.
She barely made through the doors before her knees buckled. She had enough good sense to lock the door before the sobs finally came forth.
Alone, leaned against the door with her legs askew, she let her grief and stress pour out in gallons from her eyes.
At some point she had pulled down her mask to allow herself to breathe better, the mask becoming soggy from her tears.
Resting her head back against the door, her eyes focused on nothing as she remembered the face watching her leave Omega.
The same blue markings, the defiant posture… Scars to match the deadly injuries.
She shuddered at the memory of limp, heavy limbs as she pulled the body against her. Warm blue blood crawling over her suit and through her hands. The smell of death permeating her being as she tried to will her love back to life.
It was a bad dream, it was all a bad dream. It wasn't Garrus who had been chasing her on Omega, it was a poor substitute.
It was Harper's substitute. He was the only one who would gain anything from bringing a Garrus look-a-like around. He was the bait. Once upon a time she might have fallen for it, but not now. She was not that naïve anymore.
Isabelle wasn't allowed to wallow in her self-pity and memories for too long. People started knocking, demanding to know what was going on, why she hadn't checked in, and so on. It was Jack and Massani, alternating at first and then together.
She just wanted some damned time to herself, to collect herself. She knew that was wishful thinking. She allowed herself one more shuddering deep breath before she started to pull herself back together.
She stood, swapped out her mask for a clean one, fixed her makeup and put her strong face back on.
She could deal with this. She always dealt with it in her own way.
She opened her door to two very concerned looking friends.
They were her friends, she could admit that to herself. Her and Jack had very different pasts, very different upbringings, but they had become close. Massani had taken Isabelle under his wing as she explained her plan to him and he promised to help.
They had always had a good working relationship, she and Massani, when she was with the Alliance, joking and taunting each other rather harmlessly given the usually severe circumstances. When he had heard about what had happened to her, what she had done, he had sought her out at the prison.
He wanted to see if his old "rival" was still there. He had gotten more than he had bargained for when he found her.
She had unloaded her issues on top of the grungy, beat up old mercenary, and in return he had just hugged her.
She didn't realize how much she needed a hug. Then he had asked what he needed of her in the same sentence where he was promising to help her. She knew he was using her emotional state to garner help for himself, but she was doing the same.
It was mutually beneficial so she never questioned it further.
Jack started railing in to her first, "Why the hell did you leave me here? And why the fuck did you just zombie-walk back to your room. I heard something on this side of the door that was too pussy for someone like you and I'm not going to even put it in to words."
Massani cut to the chase as well, "Omega didn't go as planned?"
She sighed and allowed a slight slump in her shoulders to show before she glanced around to make sure they were alone.
These two knew already, thanks to nightmares and circumstance.
"The job was as described, but Aria forgot to mention the part where she sold me out to Saren and Nihlus at the end. They had others with them, John, I think, and two others. One looked like Garrus… Harper's work, no doubt."
Jack let out a colorful string of explatives and Massani just closed his fist. Before they could say anything Isabelle raised her hand. "I'm fine, I promise. It was just a shock and a bit too close to home. It won't be an issue."
Massani looked over her with a critical eye for a moment before speaking, "If she ousted you early enough, they may have tracked you. I'll have the ship scanned."
She nodded and they started to walk to the main port for the station.
It only took a few moments for the station to shudder and explosions to ring out.
"Shit, I don't think that scan will be necessary." She mused as they spared one more glance at each other and prepped for a rough night.
Rushing to get information from the lookouts and to scramble whatever forces they had, they moved into a well-practiced rhythm.
They were ready for something like this, it came with the territory. She did hope that their advance scouts had gotten word back to the quick response team, but judging from the lack of word to them she doubted it.
Every plan had its' flaw and hers had been allowing the goddamn scouts to hire non-gang mercenaries.
Minutes turned into a half an hour and a half an hour turned into a few hours. Their unwanted guests were making a hard push for the station, but weren't outright destroying it. Surprising until you really thought about it.
They wanted the inhabitants alive – at least an inhabitant.
She caught a glimpse of a symbol on a few of the uniforms of the ground teams that were slowly making their rounds on the base, a weird circle-like shape with an arm on each side. It reminded her of the screaming man paintings she had seen as a kid, his hands holding each side of his face.
She made a mental note to figure out what the symbol meant, but for now they were being overrun.
Massani had let the internal alarm system final start blaring throughout the station – the universal sign for get the fuck out now.
The final warning in their best laid plans.
She would have to grill any of the surviving lookouts on why the fuck this failed so epically.
Couldn't trust anyone to get the job done right unless their hands were fucking held.
Isabelle started booking it to the rendezvous point where Massani and Jack would be waiting. She had attackers quick on her heels, but this was her home turf. She had jogged these halls regularly and knew all of the shortcuts.
She managed to have a good lead as she turned the final corner and stepped onto the ship just as gun shots started to ping off the metal around her. She turned and let her biotics flash over her as she let out on singular shockwave into the hall as they pulled away and the doors shut.
They'd regroup at the next base and form a new plan of action.
This would not get her down, this would only add to her list of things to be pissed about.
Garrus was furious that the Enforcer had gotten out of their grasp. He had only missed her by a few feet, and then she had brought that tower of shit down on him.
He had to admire her quick thinking, even if it just ruined his chances of catching her.
He watched the ship leave orbit and turned to meet back up with the group. Hopefully they had a plan B.
He met back up with Saren and the others in Afterlife, walking up behind an angry John interrogating Aria about the Enforcer's quick escape.
"I said I would get you to her, not that I would give her to you. So she slipped past your man, not my problem. I held up my end of the bargain, if you didn't prepare for this inevitability than that's on you."
The conversation was obviously over because Aria's guards quickly moved to block her from sight and usher them out of the VIP lounge.
Once out of ear shot, and out of Afterlife, Garrus finally felt comfortable discussing their options.
"So, what do we do now?" He ground out.
"I managed to bribe a dock worker to tell me which ship was hers, they wouldn't disable it, but I was able to get a tracker on it. I'll forward the code to your omnitool. Garrus, we should go to our ships and settle on a plan of action from there." Nihlus said while looked at Saren for confirmation.
It wasn't a bad plan, go to the ships, leave and then follow the coordinates to the Enforcer. It was probably Blue Suns central, but they could fly under a banner of peace and go from there.
It was a flimsy plan, but it would have to do. If it came down to it they could infiltrate the Suns… Well, John and Garrus could, possibly Nihlus if he changed up his clan markings. Saren were too well known, too famous for his publicized missions.
He nodded his agreement and they went their separate ways. Chloe was quick on his heels, silently. He was thankful that she had chosen this moment to be quiet and not ask him how he was doing.
It was pretty damned apparent how he was doing.
He stalked to the ship and the moment they were on he gave the order to disembark. Chloe moved on to her quarters without another word, her mind obviously on something else.
He didn't question it. Instead he went out into free space and waited for the go ahead from Saren and John's ships.
They would find this Enforcer and he would get his damned answers.
He stalked his way up to his private quarters, throwing his gear off as the door closed behind him.
He needed to either hit something or fuck something – hard. He was going out of his mind. He should have asked Saren or Nihlus for some sparring before they parted ways, but there really wasn't time for it.
Instead, he stalked over to his desk and planted himself there. Reading over reports about the colonies, reading over reports about Isabelle Shepard sightings… Just reading.
He was so lost in his thoughts that suddenly the overwhelming scent of woman seeped through his pores. It was wrapping him up, the lust driving him in to an unseeing haze.
He felt hands on his shoulders, breath on his neck.
He growled deep, his motions becoming completely automatic. He turned and stood all in one motion, thrusting the willing woman against the wall.
He buried his face against her neck, his mandibles stroking the soft hide there. He was groping her, his hands on her waist, behind her fringe…
Fringe was all wrong, it was no what he wanted to feel! He wanted hair and velvet skin. He wanted the smell of Jasmine and Vanilla, not mechanical lubrication oil and dirt.
He pushed himself back, hard, away from the woman. He was gasping for breath, the force of his need making the denial of that need harder than he would have liked.
"Get. Out." He ground, the growl turning from lustful to angry. He didn't want to mate with her, however superficial an act it would be.
She moved to speak and his growl intensified. She gave him a disdainful once over before turning on heel and flaunting her way out of his cabin.
After taking a few moments to collect himself, he stomped over to the door and locked it – barring entry from any other women looking to take advantage of his situation.
He was sure they were all versed on turian physiology, they all knew that he needed to rut or fight.
There were no men on this ship that he could unleash on, he wouldn't put Kenn through that, and none of the women seemed particularly combat trained. At least not in the hand to hand tactics he would need to use to work out this level of tension.
He wouldn't risk their lives just for him to relieve his stress.
He wasn't sure he had ever heard of a turian being this bad off while not being able to fuck or fight. He certainly had never had it this bad before. It usually wasn't this intense of a need.
That wasn't to say that he had never been hard up before, but it was never to the point where he would be so overcome with it that he would just jump at the earliest chance.
He ended up doing some calisthenics, working his muscles by holding difficult positions and using his body weight as resistance, then he tried to move on to trying to read.
It wasn't helping.
He ended up browsing the extranet for a few hours, researching extreme responses like this, until he got the message from Saren and John.
It was time to go.
He changed course for the heading provided and just waited.
He was prepped and ready to go long before they arrived at the coordinates for the Enforcer's ship.
He was, however, not ready for the scene that greeted them.
The space station, or at least that's what he thought it was, was completely in ruins. Their ships bumping debris away as they pulled in closer.
"Shit." He heard John say over the radio. Saren and Nihlus muttered similar curses. Garrus just slumped.
This was getting beyond ridiculous. Every turn he was hit with a wall, blocking his progress.
He noticed something, however, in the debris. A Blue Suns' emblazoned ship.
"There could be something on these Suns' ships floating around. Coordinates to a rendezvous point or something. I doubt this was their only base of operations." He hated the hopeful tone invading his speech.
He was grasping at straws and he knew it.
"That's not a bad idea. We'll all break in to our own groups and search the ships that aren't floating swiss cheese and pick apart any information that we find." John sounded enthusiastic and that gave Garrus hope that maybe he wasn't hanging on to a stupid idea.
Though he had no idea what "swiss cheese" was, he assumed it was something filled with a lot of holes.
They all agreed and chose different sections of the debris field, agreeing to call out whenever they found something useful.
He prepped his team, Chloe and the quarian engineer Kenn. He found he genuinely liked Kenn the few times he had talked to him, and quarians were always resourceful.
They picked through three or four ships before finding one with anything even remotely useful. It seemed something innocuous at first, but the more he looked at the little piece of paper with gibberish on it the more it seemed to be something right up Isa's alley.
"The planet of water and paradise, amidst the storms that rage the sea, the place to rest and sleep will be."
"Spirits damned riddles. This might be something." Hell, it could be nothing, Garrus thought after he spoke.
They all nodded and made their way back to the ship, he sent out a message informing the group of what he found and they agreed to meet on Saren's ship to discuss it.
It seemed to be the only possible clue they had found among them. Apparently his wreckage's crew needed a reminder while the rest didn't. He thanked the spirits for little favors.
He left his "team" behind and entered into the safety of Saren's ship.
He felt safer on Saren's ship – less under scrutiny, less watched.
He brought out the handwritten note and laid it on the table.
"This is all we have, it seems to be a riddle about a planet. I suspect it's where they're secondary hideout is."
He sounded a lot more confident than he actually felt. It was surreal to have to be hunting for people by riddled notes left in damaged ships.
Spirits he felt like those treasure hunters always glorified in human vids. Follow the clues to get to the damned treasure.
The mulled over possible planets for a few hours, each planet being knocked out of the pool due to not meeting all of the apparent criteria.
The thing that was really throwing them was the part about raging storms on paradise planet. All the paradise planets were pretty much temperate in storms, the storming planets were overgrown hives.
Finally John perked up, "Virmire!" he announced excitedly. "It storms over the ocean constantly, but has supposedly nice beaches. There isn't a whole lot of land, but what is there is said to be a paradise. It was overrun by krogan extremists a few years ago, but was said to be cleared out. There's still a recommended ban on travel, though nothing really states why."
They all looked at one another, gauging the reactions of each other before they all nodded in agreement.
They would go to Virmire, it was their only real viable option.
Days later they entered the Hoc System slowly, running as silently as possible from the moment they entered system space. They stopped just outside of planetary sensor range to set up their plan.
Nihlus, John and Garrus dressed in their shittiest, most merc looking gear they had and they piled in to one of the unmarked shuttles from John's Normandy. He had scanned himself, and their transport for bugs on a hunch. Their last plan had gone up in smoke after his ship got the coordinates. This plan wasn't going to be risked the same way.
They were trying the infiltration route.
They had one of the captain's names from one of the ships that they had searched, Captain Crauser. They would claim to be a part of his group.
It wasn't the best plan, and they were relying on the Suns' to be less than organized after such a big attack on their station. It was a large group and they were also counting on them not having a running roster of their members.
Hell, they could just say they were his hired mercs checking for one of their own team.
John and Garrus kept their helmets on, precaution overshadowing any need for comfort as the planet was damn muggy.
Nihlus had altered his clan markings just enough to make recognition not necessarily easy without deeper inspection. He was posing as the leader of their little group and exited the shuttle first.
He was the first to be stopped by the guard in front of the main camp, it wasn't well hidden, but then again no one ever went to Virmire due to the posted travel warnings.
They overheard Nihlus explaining who they were and answering the questions about their gear and why they weren't dressed the same. Nihlus answered easily, winning the guards trust and gaining them entrance. They weren't the only non-Sun mercenaries in the camp.
They were stopped a few more times while in the camp, their credentials checked again and again, questions asked repeatedly. Since they gave the same answers each time, it was eventually agreed that they were supposed to be there.
From that point they moved into the inner camp with ease. They had passed the security points so there was no apparent need to continue questioning them or trying to prevent access.
When they got to what seemed to be the main congregating area they saw Massani and the two women at his side. One was the Enforcer, not changed since the last time they had met her, and another woman. The other woman had a shaved head and wore cargo pants and… a belt, for a top.
Jack, Garrus remembered from the prison dossiers. Jack was lounging in a chair while the Enforcer seemed to be sharing animated words with one of the guards.
This guard looked different, more beefed up. Probably a secondary level of foot soldier. She was gesturing at him wildly for a few moments before he left and she sat heavily on the free chair to Massani's right.
Massani's right hand woman, was what she was called, and it was apparently true.
They made their way closer to the balconied area where the officers were sitting, discussing and drinking with their fellow gang members.
Garrus felt his blood start to pump at the sight of the Enforcer. He was so close.
Then, she caught sight of them. And tensed.
There was no way she recognized their gear, it was different than the last time. Which meant she recognized Nihlus. It was the only reason he could think of that would have her glowering the way she was at them.
She stood and he swore that they were made. They were going to have to fight their way out of here and would probably die. They were outnumbered 100 to 1.
Shit.
But then she did something different, something unexpected. She looked to Massani and said something to garner his attention. He looked at them as well and then back to her. She shook her head at something he said and stood.
She motioned to Nihlus to follow her and he nodded, hesitantly. They were going to follow her lead.
This was a bad idea.
They had no other choice though, Massani was now watching their progress with a grim expression – not that he ever seemed to have any other expression if his mug shots were anything to go by.
She led them through the crowd to a relatively deserted splotch of beach off to one side of the camp where she stopped and just put her hands on her hips.
"Nihlus what in the flying fuck are you doing here?" She demanded, much to their surprise.
Nihlus just stood there for a moment, stunned beyond words, when John spoke in his stead, "Isabelle?"
She turned and tore her mask covering the lower half of her face away and just glared at the trio.
"John, you fucking too?!" She was furious, but at what Garrus couldn't decide.
She was the Enforcer, she was the one who had tortured that krogan on Omega, who had tossed his decapitated head at them, who had managed to outrun and maneuver him. He didn't know whether to be horrified or turned on.
The love of his life was standing before him and he hadn't said a word.
He took one hesitant step forward just as John was removing his helmet. She turned her gaze to him, her piercing eyes digging right in to him.
She didn't say anything as he moved to remove his helmet, the latches unlocking in slow motion. He slid the helmet off and dropped it to the ground.
She said nothing, but the sharp intake of breath was all he needed. He took a few steps towards her before falling to his knees, he reached for her and pulled her in close, resting his forehead against her abdomen.
He found her. He didn't care what she'd done, she was here now. He was holding her.
She was tense as she stood in his embrace, her hands at her side.
"Nihlus, what the fuck is this? It's not Garrus, I watched him die. I held his dead body. This is not possible, so I'll ask you again. What. The. Fuck. Is. This?" Her speech was hurried and lacking the venomous tone she was obviously going for – a wobble in her words giving her away.
Hurt shot through him at first, but instead of pushing her away, he held her closer. She had every right to be suspicious, he reasoned. She had been out of the loop for so long. He felt tears burning behind his eyes as his subvocals cried out for understanding and acceptance that he wasn't sure he was going to get.
He needed the acceptance more than his next breath. If she denied him now…
"Isa, it's him. I know it's hard to believe. Saren will tell you the same. We don't know why, but Saren's brother brought him back. Not Harper. You can check yourself… I promise you, it's Garrus."
He felt her start to shake at Nihlus' words. He felt her walls start to crumble. He held her up when he felt her legs start to give, supporting her in the only way he knew how.
"Y-you swear?" She wanted to believe, he could tell from the shake in her voice. He wanted to give her all the assurances in the universe, but she wouldn't accept them from him.
The thought stung, but not as much as the thought of her not returning his embrace, of her walking away.
Nihlus must have done something behind him because after a moment he felt her hands on his fringe, felt her fingers on his hide. Felt the wetness of her tears slide down his face.
He heard Nihlus and John move back as someone else joined in. Muted voices, Massani's adding to the noise, discussing and then leaving.
It didn't matter, none of it mattered. He was here, with Isa, holding her. She was groping his fringe, his face, his neck, touching him everywhere she could.
The world could burn down around him right now and he wouldn't give a fuck, he had what he needed.