Vega snorted, trying to raise the Commander at once when she turned her communicator off, but to no avail. She was clearly ignoring any incoming calls, as one might expect.
"What is it with heroic people and looking for ways to cause more trouble for themselves?" he huffed dismally, glaring over to Thane a moment later.
"Why didn't you tell her not to go? Not to be disrespectful, but she might listen to you. And Garrus can take care of himself, you can bet he won't be happy to…" He broke off abruptly, as Thane shook his head.
"Shepard listens to no one; least of all when someone she cares for is in danger," he said calmly. "I'm assuming you all tried to dissuade her from coming after me, didn't you?"
Javic snorted. "Tried and failed; it was like talking to a stone wall-I believe humans use this metaphor rather aptly,"he confirmed.
Kasumi nodded. "Yep, Shep is exactly like that; you'd be wasting your breath and you might talk to her till you're blue in the face, James, but she'd still do what she wanted to do".
Vega grunted, though he knew everyone was pretty much right by now. He didn't have to like that, though, he thought stubbornly.
"Plus," Kasumi commented smoothly, giving Thane an almost quizzical smirk under her hood, "I'm fairly sure Krios wasn't planning to let her go alone anyway".
Thane rolled his eyes, smiling faintly. "You're a good judge of character, Kasumi," he said suavely.
"That I am, but you're just predictable," she retorted smugly. "And you're not going after Shepard where there might be thresher maws, mind you," she continued in a much more serious tone. "I saw your med-scans when I broke in here before".
Vega frowned, getting over his earlier irritation in a second. "Yeah, not happening, sorry," he nodded grimly. "Not with your chest all bandaged up; I'll take threshers over Shepard-if-something-happens-to-you any day," he remarked as he hefted his assault rifle. "I'm going after her".
Thane did not seem amused; if anything, there was a dangerous glint in his eyes now. "I can take care of myself; I've done it far longer than you've been alive, probably," he warned tersely, but Vega was far from fazed.
"I've no doubt, but not right now," he said simply. "Shepard's no less a friend of mine…OK, maybe a lot less, by comparison," he smirked, ignoring Kasumi's shaking her head at his somewhat amused tone.
Thane was still glaring at him, though he knew the young human lieutenant was right. Still…he had not seen Shepard in so long, he sighed inwardly and just when they were about to find one another, this had to happen-of course, humans called this thing serendipity, he recalled, doing his best not to roll his eyes.
"Fine," he finally said, though he sounded more than a little terse. Saving the woman he loved was something he should be doing; but of course, the woman he loved rarely ever needed any saving, since she was excellent at saving herself.
He smiled faintly at that thought. Wasn't all that and more precisely why he was so in love with her?
Javik handed Vega a few of his spare clips. "I think I should go with you; I know more about thresher maws than you do," he said coolly.
Vega merely shook his head, as he strapped the extra rounds onto his own gear. "Yeah, those thresher maws you people used to keep as pets have nada to do with our version of them, if you recall. And besides, I bet you'll be more needed here. Evacuating civilians is never easy," he groaned as he turned towards the passageway that would take him back towards the lower levels and hopefully to the others' trail. "Won't be long," he said airily, before walking off.
"This was a bad idea on Shepard's part; too many of those in a single day," Javik remarked tersely, though none of the other two got the chance to answer- though Thane was clearly about to, glaring at the Prothean.
There were footsteps, not too many of them, coming down from the far side of the passage, past the limp bodies of the incapacitated Cerberus mercs.
Kolyat nodded to the other group standing across from them, as he and Liara came to stand at the far side of the room, both pausing to look at the sight that greeted them…and the other three people across the small space from them. It was them that held the younger drell's attention at the moment.
Namely, his father, standing there, in the flesh, alive and well, but for the bandages covering his chest like a shirt.
The younger drell realized he must look so silly, at the very least, standing there, all but staring, not even blinking-he could feel his eyes sting as they went dry, but he dared not close them, even for the shortest fraction of an instant a blink would take. Even after having heard they had indeed found his father, that he was alive, a small part of him wondered if he might disappear if he took his eyes off him.
He finally blinked, reflex more than intention. Thane was still there, standing between Kasumi and the Prothean, pistol in hand.
Neither of them moved, Thane watching his son as intensely as he himself was being watched.
"You two are giving me a headache," Javik remarked drily, glaring at both the drell as the stillness and silence were beginning to become uncomfortable. "I thought this kind of hormonal…rioting was exclusive to humans in this cycle".
Kasumi giggled, ignoring the offended look the Prothean shot in her direction-with his eyes, it should have been quite intimidating-and Liara concealed a bemused smile.
Thane merely sighed in the Prothean's general direction, making his way carefully through the unmoving bodies towards his son.
"We really have no time for this," Javik rolled his eyes, but Kasumi nudged him into silence, ignoring the near-lethal look he now shot at her. "I kind of want to watch this", she said, sounding as unruffled as could be.
Kolyat stepped forward almost dazedly, though he was self-conscious of the other people in the room, even when his father really didn't seem to notice-or care, for that matter.
The two drell paused a few paces from each other. Thane took the final step forward, clasping his son's arms tightly before pulling him into a hug-not a very usual drell greeting, to be sure, but he found he liked this human trait he had adopted. Kolyat was staring at him when he let go, smiling at the younger drell fondly.
"It's good to see you again," Thane said quietly. "Gods be praised…I thought I'd never see your face again".
Kolyat nodded, staring at his father as he had before. "I thought the same; I am so sorry…"he started, but stopped dead. He was about to say he was sorry he had not personally escorted his father's body to their homeworld, but had he done that, Thane would probably not be alive right now, he thought, the realization making him speechless.
Thane nodded, having guessed at his son's thoughts. "It's all as it was meant to be," he said simply. "It took me some time to realize the past is sometimes best left behind, though I have, it seems, some of mine to catch up on".
Javik groaned, recalling everyone to the grim reality, just as another tremor shook everyone back to alertness. "This is not the best place for that catching up," he said wryly. "We have work to do".
Liara sighed. "Give them a moment, Javik," she said calmly. "This kind of situation doesn't really come up every day".
Javik snorted in response. "Perhaps not, for other people; for your crowd, asari, this kind of thing seems to be such an everyday occurrence it's almost tiresomely commonplace".
As if on cue, a small throng of people appeared, coming up the passageway carefully, a few armed men at their lead. One of them, a grizzled-looking veteran by the looks of him, stepped forward, taking the scene in before letting out a low whistle.
"You lot clean up nicely," he said coolly, nodding at them all appreciatively. Javik already had his pulse rifle trained on him, frowning impressively.
"I'd say these are the people we're supposed to escort to the surface," Kasumi remarked pointedly; the Prothean lowered his weapon, albeit with some wariness.
The older human nodded his agreement. "That they are; mostly civilians, and a few of my men; you took care of the ones who didn't much like the idea of evacuation," he said airily, nodding to the prone bodies littering the small space.
"Most of them aren't dead, just knocked out," Liara offered calmly.
Wagner-for this was who the veteran was-nodded. "Much appreciated; they're idiots and they're definitely misguided, but they're still my men," he shrugged, nodding to the few soldiers with him. They holstered their weapons, hurrying to check on their fallen comrades, deftly picking up those still alive as best they could. A few of the civilians following them came over to help, moving with some clearly anxious haste, as a series of consecutive tremors made the very walls around them all rumble.
"We're running out of time," Javik commented through gritted teeth. "Shepard had better get a move on".
Thane frowned, glancing past the growing crowd of people towards the tunnels leading back down into the compound's bowels with some longing. He didn't even want to ponder the alternative to the Prothean's words. Surely, no fate would be so cruel, he thought, murmuring a prayer under his breath as he nodded to Kolyat, the both of them joining the others.