As always, thank you to my lovely Beta for editing everything for me!
It had been a little under a week since Aeryn had returned to Omega and things had only gotten worse.
At first it had just been some light headedness - but now it was full on blackouts and coughing blood.
Aria had insisted that Aeryn see her private doctor. Much to Aria's displeasure, the brilliant salarian had no real idea on how to cure or even treat Aeryn.
Manufactured bioweapon. That's how he described whatever it was she had contracted – no, what she had been injected with.
The wound Aeryn had gotten from the quarian who had run in to her on the Citadel had ached at first and Aeryn thought little of it. The quarian had been apparently running for her life from a merc; at least that's what Aeryn had originally thought. A complete accident.
Now with her puncture wound festering and infected veins streaming away from the tiny hole… Aeryn realized that she fell victim to another plot.
She knew who was behind it, too. Dr. Tolorin was the only person she knew of who would infect her with one of his compounds. Probably in hopes that she would return to him for the cure.
He was sadly correct. Aeryn had been contemplating it since her last black out spell. She had awoken to being unable to breathe properly. Chunks of clotted blood had eventually ejected from her throat and the salarian announced that while he was certain he could find a cure – he wouldn't be able to do it before she had died.
She had been good about keeping her predicament from Garrus for a while, but he was more astute even through vid call than she had realized.
He knew she was sick, but she had managed to keep the severity from him.
"Aeryn, are you going to check yourself in to a medical center?"
It had been an ongoing question for the past two days. He couldn't be there yet as they were across the galaxy on a mission.
She had just worked out a solution with Aria and Darius were adamantly against her plan until the doctor had said he couldn't manufacture a cure in time to save her.
She flinched at the question and nodded, speaking softly and carefully as to not break out in to a coughing fit again.
"Yeah, I'll send you how to get in touch with me after the call. It's a lot to say."
Garrus had witnessed a few of her coughing fits and knew that it was important that she not talk too much. He had reiterated his love for her and ended the call moments later after requesting that she rest.
He was worried and she hated to admit that he had every reason to be.
Aeryn typed up her mail to both Garrus and John. She had it on a delayed send so that they wouldn't try to talk her out of it. They couldn't, and they were much too far to stop her… But she didn't want to have to try and justify something that she knew was the only way.
They hadn't dealt with Dr. Tolorin. They didn't know how serious he was about his 'property'.
"No Aeryn! Absolutely not! It's suicide!" Darius exclaimed. He was furious and Aria seemed to be fuming, abnormally quietly in the corner.
Aeryn sighed and brought up the empty syringe.
"If I don't try I'm dead. If I try and we succeed, you and the Normandy will be able to retrieve me. Aria's doctor has already said that if the tracker is completely undetectable unless you're looking for its specific signature. They probably won't even scan me until I'm on the planet so at least you can get the general location."
She swallowed hard again in an attempt to stop from coughing again. It was getting worse and she didn't want to blackout before explaining her plan.
Darius went in to another tirade as Aeryn hung her head. Her breathing was getting more ragged the longer she tried to keep from coughing. Just concentrating on her breath was enough to distract her from Darius' angry words.
Aria finally made a move and walked over to Aeryn, placing her hand on the ill woman's shoulder.
"I'm going to hold you to the promise that this will work, Aeryn. Failure is not an option and will be intolerable."
Aeryn just nodded and the asari turned back towards Darius, "She's right, as much as I hate to admit it.
I've never seen anything advance as fast as this and be this debilitating without killing her. It's manufactured and if this asshole is as arrogant as Aeryn thinks than her plan is the best one."
She looked back down at Aeryn, "Do you want to tell Shepard, or shall I?"
Aeryn shook her head, "I will. I'll send the message with the particulars of the tracker and how to find me. I'll also encrypt it so that only they'll know how to get in to the message – a password of sorts. I can't trust anyone beyond you two, John and Garrus. The entire crew of the Normandy knew where I would be, as did our entourage from here. I want to keep this just between us if possible."
Aria nodded, as much as she hated to admit it, the human was right and they couldn't trust anyone with this information.
Aeryn sighed as she finished the message and set the encoding. She included the same warning she had given Aria in regards to keeping this entire situation under wraps. She knew John would have a harder time with that than Aria did.
John handpicked his crew, he trusted them with his life. He wouldn't want to believe one of them could betray him like this… And maybe they hadn't. Maybe Doctor Tolorin had more reach and knowledge than she had known… But she had a feeling that it was much deeper than that.
She didn't know who to trust.
Aeryn didn't even bother with her hood as she set the message timer and got up to leave. She bundled herself in a sweater and moved out of her apartment without looking back.
John's message terminal alert silently went off. He had set it to silent when he and Liara had gone to bed.
It was their date night and he wasn't going to be distracted by Alliance messages and issues in the Terminus Systems.
John was too engrossed in 'embracing eternity' to notice the soft green light pulsating on the other side of his cabin.
It wasn't until someone was pounding on his door that John finally pulled himself away from his lover and began to come back to the present.
Garrus had been asleep when the droning light started its impulsive display. He hadn't been sleeping well with the knowledge that Aeryn was sick – sicker than she was trying to let on.
Garrus lie in bed for a few minutes before getting up and moving to his desk to retrieve the message.
Huh. It was encoded. The apparent pass code was the answer to a riddle.
It was a riddle that Garrus' father had used to use on him when he wanted Garrus to pay attention in order to get something.
He hadn't told anyone about the riddle – anyone except for John and Aeryn.
Garrus hastily typed in the answer and read the horror novel in front of him.
He hastily closed the message and closed the encryption before bolting up towards John's cabin.
John barely had enough time to slip in to his boxer briefs before Garrus had hacked the door and busted through.
John let out a surprised and mildly angry shout before Garrus moved over to his private terminal and brought up a message.
It was waiting for John to enter something.
"This had better be good Garrus!"
John stormed over to the desk, knowing that Garrus wouldn't be calming down until John at least looked at the message.
It wasn't like Garrus to be this rude or impulsive, and once John got over his initial annoyance he finally was able to read the riddle in front of him.
It was one of John and Aeryn's childhood pass questions to get in to their fort in the field behind their house.
His gut bottomed out when he typed the answer and began to read over the message.
John and Garrus,
I am writing this because, as you know, I've been sick. What you don't know is that this is not a regular illness nor was it received via natural means.
I was injected with a virus when that runaway quarian knocked me down on the Citadel.
I have had a doctor look in to manufacturing a cure, or a treatment, or something with no real success.
This is Doctor Tolorin's work. This is what he is best at. I don't know how, or by what means, but he managed to get an agent on the Citadel and infected me so that I would return to him for the cure.
The doctor I've been seeing is ex-STG and worked with Mordin. He said that while he is almost as brilliant as Mordin was (can you imagine any salarian saying that they weren't the best at something?!) in bioengineering, even he could not figure out a cure until I had already succumb to the disease.
So, unfortunately, I am going to give myself up to Tolorin's mercs.
I've included the transponder signal for the tracker I have injected into my body.
I know you two will be upset, but please believe me that there is no other way – this is how the disease was manufactured to work.
Please be careful, only a few people knew I was on the Citadel and singing at that benefit that night. I hate to call in to question anyone under your command, John, but I feel as if there is a mole either within your people or Aria's.
Aria is dealing with the people who knew on her end.
Please only tell those you trust of this. Contact Aria when you are ready to start your pursuit.
I love you both.
Please come find me.
- Aeryn.
John just sat there for a moment. Liara had taken the cue from the expressions on both John and Garrus' face and had taken advantage of their distraction with what was on the screen to get dressed and to look over their shoulders.
She gasped at the letter and then sighed.
She understood Aeryn's reasoning and also understood that John and Garrus might not.
Before she could comfort John, he interrupted her thoughts.
"EDI, monitor everyone's communication both incoming and going out from this ship. Everyone's, no exceptions. If there are any unusual or suspicious contacts – people out of the blue, messages that seem to be in code, or messages to someone not in a system we have recently visited, you are to copy the messages and alert me immediately."
EDI's voice echoed over the quiet room, "Yes Shepard… I have, for privacy, elected to not monitor certain living quarters. Would you like me to now monitor everyone without fail?"
"Yes, EDI."
EDI paused for a moment, probably turning on observation software, before announcing, "Then I would like to inform XO Vakarian that Tali is currently trying to access his terminal."
Garrus was stunned to the point where John and Liara were the first to react by going towards the elevator. Garrus followed once his brain clicked back on.
What was Tali trying to access his terminal?
Garrus followed John in to his quarters and eyed the obviously flustered Tali.
John wasted no time before getting in to the interrogation, "Tali, what are you doing?"
She fidgeted for a moment before straightening her back, "I believe that is between Garrus and me."
Garrus sighed, a headache was starting to build, this could not be happening right now. "Tali, whatever you have to say you can say it in front of John and Liara."
She seemed startled that Garrus wasn't immediately jumping to her defense and she pulled up some footage of Aeryn and another turian – the Talon leader, Darius.
The footage was shoddy at best and was depicting the two of them in less-than-desirable situation.
Garrus fought his initial urge to be angry at Aeryn, remembering that she had told him of her one-time romance with the gang leader.
In fact, the more he watched the videos the more he realized that all of the advances were from the gang leader and, knowing Aeryn's body language, she was refuting him.
Garrus let out an annoyed growl, "Tali, I appreciate your concern but there is nothing to worry about."
He was going to say something else mundane and reassuring when she broke out in to hysterics. "What do you mean 'nothing to worry about'?! She's cheating on you Garrus! She's leading you along while she's off fornicating with that other turian!"
He slammed his fist on his desk and glared at the other woman. "No, she is not! Tali, I said I appreciate your concern, but what I do not appreciate is you making something out of nothing. Aeryn is my bondmate, my future wife, and I will not allow you to spread lies about her!"
Tali was in shock. Garrus had just yelled at her! He had hit his desk out of anger – at her! She knew the video evidence wasn't anything, but he wasn't supposed to know that!
She couldn't think of anything else to do so she just whimpered and ran from the room.
She knew that Garrus would feel bad and eventually come talk to her; she was counting on it.
For him to be this stressed and easily aggravated then DT's plan had to be progressing according to plan.
She moved in to her quarters and sent an inquiry to DT to see if her assistance was beneficial. She needed some reassurance that things were indeed going according to plan.
Darius watched the security footage of Aeryn as she left her apartment and stumbled towards the lower docks.
He clenched his desk as she went to her knees several times. She hadn't told him nor Aria that she was leaving today – but he knew her well enough to keep an eye on her.
He watched her fall to her knees one final time while looking off camera. Her lips moved, she was saying something, and then she doubled over in a coughing fit.
A burly looking human walked to her and offered her his hand.
He was in the same uniform as the previous mercs; he was one of the Doctor's men.
She went to take his hand and broke out into a more violent coughing fit before the man bent over and, surprisingly enough, gently lifted her and carried her off to a cargo ship.
Darius watched as the ship departed with his sick friend and he suddenly felt the need to throw up.
Had all of these months been for nothing?
Aeryn awoke in a stark white room.
Did these people ever paint?!
She was right-side up, her arms splayed out to her sides and she was supported in various locations via straps and hoists.
There were tubes going in to her veins in both of her arms, a feeding tube in her stomach and a vial of black, viscous, liquid to her left.
She couldn't talk, her lips wouldn't move. She had an oxygen mask over her face, but it didn't feel as if that were the reason for her lack of vocal control.
She looked around the room and her eyes landed on Tolorin's assistant, a tall and slender woman with orange-red hair and black eyes. She would be attractive if she didn't always look so severe. Aeryn couldn't remember her name, Tolorin never spoke it and his assistant didn't really introduce herself to their subjects.
"You can't move because we've injected you with a paralytic. Luckily it also impedes your ability to talk. We found your tracking chip – clever. I can't say I won't enjoy seeing the look on your brother's face when he sees what we've made you. Just to be perfectly clear, they will be too late to save you."
Aeryn wanted to scream, kick, cry, do something. But all she could do was watch the woman as she moved to the vial of black and start to inject it in to one of her tubes… The black liquid mixing with her fluids and entering her blood stream.
Bugs, it felt like tiny bugs crawling under her skin. She managed to make a strangled whimper as the sensation overwhelmed her.
The assistant spoke again, detached and if she were explaining it to a child.
"Nanites. They will enter your blood stream and allow us to control your muscle movements. This includes your voice and attacks. We gave you a chance to work for us willingly and you rudely declined. Now you have no choice. You will now spend the rest of your life as our puppet."
