Chapter 14

Wrex walked among the wounded Krogans, trying to give support. He wasn't as good at this as Shepard was, but he was trying. The battle had been hard on his army, too many had died. It was a good thing Shepard had cured the genophage or the losses would have been even harder on the krogan race. He looked up into the hazy sky. The sun had started to come up and the smoke from dwindling fires hung lazily in the still air. He wondered about Shepard, who was somewhere above them on the Citadel.

He shrugged off the worry, this was Shepard after all. He shook hands and slapped backs, congratulating his warriors on a good fight. Krogans who weren't injured were helping clean up the nonfunctioning Reaper forces. The scientists wanted to keep the bodies for study. Wrex shook his head, he would never understand scientists.

Wrex spotted Grunt moving a large piece of debris and hurried over to help. They heaved the metal beam onto a pile of debris and searched the area for any survivors. Wrex sat down and sighed. So much death and destruction, but somehow Shepard had stopped it. She always came through, a true hero. He looked up at the sky again and Grunt said, "I know she's fine. She's my battlemaster."

Wrex nodded and Grunt sat next to him. They shared a companionable silence, thinking fondly of Shepard. Wrex said, "I never imagined I would respect a human, but Shepard has done things no one could."

Grunt nodded. "She makes the hard decisions that others won't make."

Wrex smiled crookedly. "I remember a time I wasn't too happy with a decision she made. It turned out to be the right one, but at the time I was ready to kill her over it."

Grunt looked at Wrex surprised, "I never heard about that."

"It was on Virmire. Saren had cured the genophage and was breeding krogans." Wrex said, quietly.

Grunt growled, "You mean there was a cure before?"

"Yes, but you have to hear the whole story to understand." Wrex said, looking back at the sky.

...

Wrex looked out over the river and fired his weapon at the rippling water. He was angry. Angrier than he had ever remembered being. This was intolerable. He fired another round and saw Shepard approach out of the corner of his eye.

"Wrex..." Shepard said, softly.

Wrex growled and glared at her. "You cannot understand what this means. The curing of the genophage is something the Krogans have sought for ages. You WILL NOT destroy this facility!"

"We have to destroy this lab, Wrex." Shepard said, looking out over the water. "Saren must be stopped."

"You will never understand what it means to face extinction." Wrex growled. "This cure will save my people. I can't let even you interfere with that." He aimed his weapon at her.

Shepard looked from the river to Wrex. She didn't raise her weapon, but instead stared intently into his eyes. Wrex could see the anguish in her eyes. "I won't fight you Wrex. You are my friend and I will promise you this. I will make sure that we don't pass any opportunity to get the data on how Saren cured the genophage so that we can replicate it."

Wrex glared angrily at her, but her calm resolve weakened the anger he felt. Slowly, he lowered his weapon and said, "I only relent because of my respect for you, Shepard, but if you betray me..." As Shepard broke eye contact, Wrex saw Kaiden and Ashley lower the weapons they had trained on him.

Wrex watched Shepard approach the salarian Captain. He didn't have to hear the words to know that she was reassuring him that Wrex wouldn't be a problem. The salarian team had kept their distance from the moment he had exited the ship, eyeing him with suspicion.

Shepard motioned and Wrex joined the Normandy team as Shepard detailed the mission. "This is a research lab, but it is heavily fortified. There are Anti-Aircraft guns that will prevent the Normandy from getting close enough to deliver the bomb. It has to be placed precisely or the blast will not take out the lab. Therefore we have to disable the AA guns."

Captain Kirrahe, the Salarian team leader stepped forward. "We need two teams to do this effectively. I will take my troops to the front and we will create a diversion while the Commander takes her team and enters from the back."

"My team," Shepard said, "will secure the bomb site while Captain Kirrahe's team disables the AA towers allowing the Normandy to bring the bomb directly to the drop site. After the bomb has been deployed, the Normandy will pick up both teams. I need someone to volunteer to go with Kirrahe's team."

Wrex looked around at the group. There was no way HE would go with the pyjacks. He was counting on Shepard to look for the research data. Both of the other humans volunteered, he watched Shepard wrestle with the decision of who to send. It was obvious that she cared deeply for both of them.

Shepard finally said, "Ashley will go with Captain Kirrahe. Kaiden, I need your expertise with the bomb."

Both nodded and the teams assembled and headed their separate ways. Wrex felt the adrenaline rush that he always got when readying for battle. Now he had something to take this anger out on.

...

The laboratory on Virmire was spread out, heavily fortified and swarming with troops. It wasn't going to be easy to reach the AA guns. Hopefully Kirrahe's team would be able to keep the majority of the forces occupied, so that Shepard's smaller team could get there.

Wrex hated fighting in the cramped laboratory, the only thing that helped was that the height of the ceilings allowed him to walk upright and not crouched over. There were krogans among the geth forces at the base and they were extremely powerful. It was exhilarating.

Shepard had Wrex cover their flank and anytime they came to a computer console she had the quarian, Tali hack into the system. He knew she was trying her best to get any information about the research. The lab layout made staying in one group impossible, so she split the group in half. Garrus, Liara and Tali headed down one hallway, while Shepard, Kaiden and Wrex went down another.

Wrex didn't understand any of the clinical jargon Kaiden would tell Shepard when they would come upon a computer terminal, but he growled appreciatively when she made the decision to sound an alarm, alerting the enemy to their presence in the lab and relieving Kirrahe's team of some of the combat. He preferred a straight on fight rather than the sneaking around they had been doing.

They entered a darkened lab and a krogan roared and charged at them. Wrex roared back and braced for impact. He was pushed back several feet from the force of the other krogan's charge, but he pushed back against him and thumped the krogan hard on the head with his rifle. The enemy stumbled backward, shaken by the blow and Wrex hit his foe again, knocking him to the ground. He raised his gun, but Shepard stopped him.

"He might be able to give us the answers you want." Shepard put her boot against the enemy krogan's throat. "So, tell us, how has the genophage been cured?"

The krogan glared first at Shepard, then Wrex. "Never. I serve only Saren."

Wrex growled and Shepard put more weight on her foot. "Where is Saren?"

The krogan only grunted and Wrex looked at Shepard, this was getting them nowhere. He growled and fired his gun, killing the krogan. Shepard sighed, "Wrex, we're not going to find out anything if you kill everyone."

"We don't have time for discussions." Wrex stated and walked toward the lab tables. He didn't understand the science, but he knew that this didn't look like they were breeding krogans. There weren't any infants.

He approached Kaiden who was working at a computer terminal. "They are cloning krogans, not breeding them." Wrex raised his gun and shot the computer.

"Wrex..." Shepard said and put a hand on his arm.

Wrex shrugged it off. "Let's blow this place up." He growled.

"Shepard. There is another prothean beacon here." Kaiden said. "I got the coordinates before..."

"Let's go!" Shepard interrupted.