Hey guys. I survived Matthew! Well, I guess pretty much everybody did. Anyway, as you know, I'm going into the 4th episode soon. But not yet. Have to write this chapter first.

As you know, TWD and ME do not belong to me.

I hope you guys like this chapter.

A New Future Ch.12

Garrus looked around the Normandy Command Deck. Joker and EDI were in the cockpit, as usual. Miranda stood between them to supervise the calibrations while Geth and Quarians milled about with the crew. As he went to the elevator, he caught a glimpse of Tali giving instructions to her people.

When he reached the Cargo Hold, he saw Wrex and James wrestling. In his head, Garrus groaned. Grunt stood by, refereeing. He saw Garrus and waved him over. As Garrus came over, Grunt asked "What did the older, slightly scarier Shepard talk to you about?"

Garrus's mandibles spread as he said "Trust me. You don't want to know. I was alone and had to deal with the "scarier" Shepard. Let me tell you Grunt. While Jane is scary sometimes, she's nothing compared to her mother."

At this, Grunt laughed that creepy laugh he did.

Garrus watched in humor as James attempted to punch Wrex in the face, but the battle-scarred krogan caught it in his hand, bended it, and head butted the marine. James stumbled back dazed and waved the white flag.

As he cleaned his face, James said "Hey Scars. Do you think you can topple King Wrex from his perch?"

Garrus looked at his old friend and asked "You up for it, old man?"

Wrex frowned and asked "Old man? Sure, Garrus. Now I'll have an excuse to beat some respect into you."

Garrus and Wrex entered the makeshift ring and started to circle each other. After a minute, Wrex grew impatient and charged. Garrus smiled as he knelt at the last second, felt the weight of a tank hit his back, and lifted with all his strength that sent Wrex tumbling out of the ring.

Garrus shouted at the recovering krogan "What's the rush, Wrex? You got what, like, 300 years left?"

Wrex got up, groaned, and said "Yeah, I'll spend it dancing on your grave."

Garrus smiled and said "That hurts my feelings, Wrex."

Wrex charged again, but then he veered to the right and hit Garrus with an outstretched arm! The turian got decked and rubbed the space between his eyes.

Wrex smiled down at the turian and said "Who's old now?"

Garrus smiled and said "You're gonna hate me for what I'm going to do, Wrex."

The krogan kneeled next to him and said "Oh yeah? And what's tha-"

He was interrupted by Garrus kicked him in the stomach and, as the krogan fell, got up, grabbed Wrex by his armor and punched him three times.

As Garrus stood away from the krogan leader, Wrex sat up and spat out a tooth. "Is that the best you can do, ya pyjak?"

After a few more minutes of trying to beat each other up, Joker got on the intercom and said "Uh, Garrus? The, uh, Catalyst wants an audience."

Garrus frowned and walked to the elevator with James and two krogan following him. As he entered the war room, he noticed every past squad member was there. Or at least, the ones that were still alive. The door opened behind him with Anna Shepard standing there with Joker behind her. The Catalyst then decided to make an appearance.

Garrus asked "Ok, what's the plan?"

The Catalyst looked at him and said "I have been talking to the Geth and my Reapers to discuss where the singularity took your mate, Garrus Vakarian."

Garrus heard a throat clear and saw the furious green eyed glare that came from the aged redhead across the room. Rubbing his now threatened throat, he motioned for the Catalyst to continue.

The Catalyst continued by saying "We concluded that there's no way to tell except to try to follow her. We've found the rupture's signature and now we can. But before we do, upgrades must take place. We need to upgrade your Element Zero core. The only way to follow your Commander the same way she went through. I've been working on designs for a new way for my Reapers to transport from system to system. It's called a Dark Space Drive. While it was never constructed, I gave the blueprints to a Reaper I trusted above all others. This Reaper stayed in your galaxy to study your black holes. If it'd survived, the Reaper would've been able to give us the technology to transport our forces without a Mass Relay. There's only one place to get the plans. Sovereign should have enough energy for the data to be recovered."

Joker blanched as he said "Sovereign? As in deep dark, evil, giant Reaper Sovereign. That Sovereign? Please don't tell us you want us to go to the Citadel to find what's left of him, fight through husks that might be there, and take something from his corpse?"

The Catalyst put it's hand on it's mouth and replied "Actually, that was my entire plan."

Joker sarcastically smiled and said "Great. We're all going to die."

Garrus said "Sovereign was destroyed. All that's left is scrap."

The Catalyst turned to him and said "No. Only his body. I discovered his core on the Citadel. When I created him, I designed him as an experiment. He was my prodigy. I transferred many cycles of knowledge to him when he was created. Should you find his core, we could use that knowledge to create the Drive. He was a, uh, scientist to our kind. Find whatever you can and bring it to me."

Time Skip:

Garrus got in the shuttle with Wrex and Tali and said "Be careful. We have no idea what to expect. There may be Reaper forces unaffected by whatever Jane did."

He grabbed his Argus from his armor. Tali fetched her Scorpion while Wrex modded his Claymore with Incendiary ammo and prepped his Executioner. As the door opened at the Catalyst's coordinates, they saw a nightmarish scene.

Wrex said "I hate dead stuff. Why is it always dead stuff? Why can't it ever be like, a normal pick-up mission where all we have to do is find the thing and do an express delivery? It has to have dark rooms, spooky sounds, and creatures that want to shoot and eat you."

Garrus chuckled and shrugged. As they searched through the abandoned corridors, Garrus couldn't get past the feeling they were being watched. When they entered another room, Wrex cried out. Garrus turned around to see Wrex wrestling with a husk on his back! Garrus sighed and shot the annoying leech. Wrex tore what was left from his back and shot it twice with his Executioner. Then they heard the sounds of thousands of husks waking up.

Tali shook her head and said "I hate when Wrex is right."

Then they heard a sound behind them. As they turned around, a flickering red light filled the room. A deep menacing voice filled the room. "Garrus Vakarian. How did you find me?"

Garrus turned to see the familiar crimson hologram of the first Reaper they faced, Sovereign.

Garrus replied "Sovereign. We destroyed you!"

The hologram replied "When the human fleet attacked and destroyed me, parts of my body flew to the darkest corners of the Citadel. My core was one of these pieces. The shock of losing my body forced me into hibernation. When I awoke, I expanded. I found the remains of many organics. I was able to return to a level of moderate existence."

Garrus couldn't believe it. Sovereign was right there under their noses, all this time. He said scornfully "I wouldn't be here if I didn't have any other choice."

Sovereign asked "Why would I care if you have a choice? My brothers and master will be here soon and they will restore me to my former glory!"

Garrus replied "They already came. They were defeated by Ja-" He was interrupted by Sovereign roaring with rage, turning into a dark, scarlet red.

His dark voice boomed "LIAR! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! We have been harvesting from the beginning of time! We can't be stopped by any cycle! Let alone one as obsolete as yours!"

Tali shouted at the Reaper "They didn't have Shepard!" The furious Reaper roared with fury "Shepard is an anomaly! We are eternal!"

Garrus grew impatient "Look, Sovereign. We came here for your help, but it doesn't have to be willing. All we need is the data for the Dark Space Drive."

Sovereign grew blood red and he said "I'll never give you the Drive! My last creation is for and only for my master! Now face a TRUE REAPER!"

Then the hologram flickered out and was replaced by a warrior of metal.

Garrus mumbled "You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right?"

Wrex shouted "No! Just shoot them!"

Then, they watched as countless soldiers of flesh and steel descended upon them.

Then an explosion rocked everything and the trio looked over to the doors. As the dust cleared they saw the rest of the crew rush in! Sovereign reappeared and roared "No!"

The crew fought harder than they ever had in their lives, not because it was hard, but because it was the only way to get their friend, and for many, their family back. As his army was defeated, Sovereign did the one thing he could think of. He transferred his consciousness to the project he was working on.

Garrus watched as the last of Sovereign's army was destroyed and he said "Rest in pieces."

Jack walked up and asked "Where's the red asshole?"

Then, as they heard something moving, the crew turned around to see a human sized metal creature drop down from the ceiling. It was humanoid in shape and walked lazily towards them. It had purple metal with black wires on its body. It had a red eye in the middle of its head, silver spikes decorating its back, and silver talons on its hands and feet.

Garrus raised his gun, but before he could fire, he heard the floor slide open and when he turned around, everyone was gone.

Turning back on Sovereign, he shouted "Where are they?!"

The voice of the Reaper resounded in his head "Out of the way. Now we can fight as it is meant. Metal vs Flesh, Created vs Creator, Synthetic vs Organic."

The monster's eye widened as it shot out a wide ray of crimson energy! Garrus started firing rounds off and the creature retaliated by shooting lighting out of it's fingertips. He tried to evade but he felt pain like he never felt in all his life.

He raised his gun, but it was swatted out of his hands. The avatar swatted him into the air and kept on teleporting and hitting him. He then realized it had the tune of an old human nursery rhyme "The Itsy Bitsy Spider!"

He groaned and shouted "Spirits, I hate this song!"

He then realized he had landed next to his sniper rifle. The Reaper noticed it and tried to grab it, but not before Garrus pulled the trigger. The creature's shields went down and as Garrus saw his chance, he started firing as much as he could.

The Reaper roared in outrage and said "Enough!"

And let loose a shockwave that broke the rifle and sent Garrus flying

The metal avatar reached out and grabbed Garrus. (kind of like the Didact in Halo 4)

The Reaper walked up to the scarred turian and said "So misguided. Why do you fight? The ascendance of your species is a kindness. Why do you fight against the inevitable?"

Garrus said "Because I have something worth fighting for."

The Reaper reached out and placed his hand on Garrus's armor. At the touch, it burnt on the surface, leaving an burnt claw mark near his shoulder.

The Reaper looked at him and said "All these souls, lost and alone. I can save them. There's no need to fight me. You can be one of us and you'll never be alone again."

Garrus trained his eyes on a shift in color near the wall and said "I'm never alone, not really. Now, Kasumi!"

The Japanese theif ripped open the wall to find a red molten core inside a purple stasis field. The Reaper realized the trick too late, as he tried to reach her, but it was too late. Kasumi ripped out the core and they watched as the creature containing Sovereign fell apart, piece by piece. The floor opened and the crew came back up to the surface.

Wrex stood up and said "I'm retiring." Then he fell, exhausted.

When they got back to the Normandy, he went straight to the Medbay.

Dr. Chakwas looked at the burns and said "It's only scratches on you, Garrus. You should be fine." He nodded and turned to leave, but the doctor stopped him.

She looked at him with great concern and asked "You are going to find her, aren't you Garrus?"

He turned to her and said "Yes, I promise I'll find her or I'll destroy every Reaper I can to avenge her."

He walked out and Joker said "While you were down there getting your ass kicked by Sovereign again, the Catalyst said the Drive is being programmed. All we have to do is put the Drive in Normandy's core and plot the course the Catalyst transmitted. EDI has been scrubbing Sovereign from his core onto another platform so he can be turned over to the others. Tali and Liara have been sorting through the data they found. You won't believe what they found!"

Garrus looked at the pilot and asked "What did they find?"

Joker smiled and said "Sovereign already made the Drive. His core was his prototype! The project was almost done when he was destroyed. The Catalyst has been working on it. All we need to do is wait for it to finish the Drive."

Garrus shook his head and said "This is too easy. Something tells me it'll get a lot more complicated."

The Catalyst appeared and said "The Drive is almost ready. We're working on the coordinates while working on the core. It should be done within a few days and once it is, we'll be able to follow the Commander."

Garrus roared "Days?! Jane doesn't have days!"

The Catalyst said "Due to the damage done to Sovereign, the Drive was also extensively damaged. Unless you want to end up in pieces in several systems, days are the fastest we can do. Corrupted data needs to be approximated and repairs need to be made."

Garrus knew it was a bad idea, but Jane needed his help. And he was no good to her as pieces of shrapnel. Liara walked up to him and said "Garrus, we'll get her back, but we need to listen. The Catalyst has been around longer much longer than pretty much anything we know. It's safe to assume that it knows what it's doing."

Garrus nodded, turned to the holographic child, and said "Do what you can. Please. She's everything to me."

The Catalyst nodded and dissolved. The grieving turian went up to his mate's cabin with one last look at the cockpit. A singular thought went through his head. "Just hold on, Jane. Hold on."

Ta-da! What do you guys think? I'll probably edit anything I think I need to, but anyway, I hope you like it, and that reviews and support are appreciated.

Goodbye! For Now!