So I no this has been a bit since I updated this story. I have been feeling sick the past week so a real motivator to get nothing done.
Along with writing another chapter for my Rainbow Six Siege story too.
But here it is.
Hope you enjoy it, finally up to the 'canon' Of ME 1
also a small thing, since this story has started could someone please tell me if my writing has improved since the beginning of this story.
I would like to think so but a second opinion would be welcomed.
(John POV)
We were approaching the the Mass Relay that would take us to the Citadel. I hadn't been there personally but I heard it was a spectacular sight for the first time.
Walking into the CIC I walked up to Joker, Ashley joining me on the way up.
"Hitting Relay in five." Joker alerted us, prompting those who hadn't seen the Citadel stand up and head for the nearest view port.
"Just wondering, what do you think of Draco?" I didn't think the guy was bad or anything but he was kind of strange. Certainly someone who took a little getting used too.
"He's... An interesting person. Not a bad or evil kind of person or anything, just kind of neutral." Ashley tried responding, seconding my previous thought thoughts.
"Yeah, that was along my thoughts on him as well." I agreed as the ship broke through the fog surrounding the Citadel.
Anderson was right, it is an impressive sight sure.
"I personally don't see what is so impressive about it." A voice speaks up startling both of us. Turning around we saw Draco looking at it impassively.
"How can you say that, it's amazing and just look at that ship." Ashley states in amazement spotting the flag ship of the Citadel fleet.
"The Destiny Ascension The flagship of the Citadel fleet." Kaiden adds as Joker speaks up. "Well size isn't everything." almost sounding slightly jealous.
"Why so touchy Joker?" Ashley retorts.
"Just saying you need fire power too." He responds with now positively sounding jealous.
"That ship isn't that good, no matter how big it is it can only be in one place at a time." Draco adds into the conversation, confusing us all slightly.
"What do you mean by that?" I ask the others curious as well, while Joker talked to Citadel control to have us land.
"Well, if its protecting the Citadel, its not protecting the supplies going to the front line. If its protecting the supplies then its not protecting the Citadel. They would have to choose between the seat of power or the supplies for the war." Draco answered, I sort of got what he was saying but still.
"Oh we're here." He says heading for the airlock, leaving the rest of us slightly stunned.
For five minutes we spent just looking where he used to be before his voice woke us up from our stupor.
"Well are you coming or not, you have to see your council don't you." He shouts again from the airlock.
"Coming." I answer as I get everyone who needs to go ashore together.
-o0o-
(POV Ryvern)
After Shepard had spent another half hour gathering everyone that needed to go ashore.
Hopefully I wouldn't have to go with him to the council, I had to do things as well, like getting things to alter my weapon so it would also be a rocket launcher, and gather things so I wouldn't get bored on the trip to stop Saren.
Finally he gathered everyone and we were at the airlock.
"You don't need me to go with you to the council do you?" I asked as Kaiden, Jane, John and Ashley stepped through the airlock.
"Probably not, why do you have something you need to be doing?" John asked sort of suspiciously.
"Yes, I have to get some parts for my weapon." I answered turning and walking away. "Call me where to meet up at." Leaving the vicinity before they could answer.
Heading for where one of my people would have a black market shop, selling just what I would need.
Heading for the back alley where Tali was ambushed, arriving there I looked for the shop that was there too. It should be the usual thing, nice and shady and not quite easier enough to stumble upon.
Ah there it is, just in a little alcove.
Approaching the man "Hey, I would like to see some of the 'special stock'." I say flashing my ring, the previous junk that would've have normally shown got put back, the Wraith standard stock brought out.
"Thank you, you should also relocate too, someone might have seen this exchange." I advise looking through what he had available.
Grabbing a couple of doohickies, few hundred pieces of sheet metal, several interchangeable mechanisms. By the time I was done I saw Saren's agents arriving, preparing for Tali's arrival.
-o0o-
She'd finally arrived, looking as nervous as she should, meeting in a darkish alley way.
Saren's Men asked "Did you bring it." Tali answering how she should. "Wheres the Shadow Broker, where's Fist." She returned looking around the alley way.
"They'll be here don't worry, where's the evidence?" The agent asked again.
"No, No way the deals off." Tali responded pushing the agent away.
Deciding to intervene now I raised my hand cannons firing at the two guards of the agent, sending them lifelessly to the floor. This startled both the agent and Tali.
Looking towards the agent I pointed my gun at him. "Now who do you work for?" I ordered him as he goes very quiet.
Staying silent for a few more seconds my patients runs out. "Alright never mind then." I fired my cannon his whole head disappearing from sight. Turning to Tali I asked. "You okay?"
Tali still stunned at what happened just stands speechless for a few seconds. "Who are you, what do you want?" She takes a nervous step back as I just sigh at her reaction.
"Okay if I wanted to do something with you I would've done it already." I answer as John and everyone arrive along with Garrus in tow.
"Draco, what are you doing here?" John asked surprised seeing me here.
"Well, I was just doing some shopping when they started attacking this young woman here." I answered surprising Tali, probably not being used to being called that.
"Is that true?" John asked Tali slightly hurting me, he trusts some one he's just met compared to some one he's known for several weeks.
"Well, I'm not sure about the shopping but he did kill that Shadow Broker's agents that were going to attack me." She responded.
"I see, you went shopping here?" He said as everyone took in the location we were in.
"Yeah, what's so strange, a perfectly normal place to go shopping." I answered picking up my crate of materials.
"Oh kay, anyway, are you alright miss?" John asks deciding to forget about my shopping location.
"Yes, thanks to him." She indicates me, where I'm currently looking for anything that might have dropped on the ground in the fight.
"I guess good job Draco, now introductions are in order." John said surprising me, he congratulated me, would you look at that.
"Draco, this Garrus, Garrus this is Draco, he's another part of the crew that will join us on our hunt for Saren." John introduced us.
"Hello, nice to meet you, do we have anything else to do?" I asked sort of dismissively.
"Well, we need more evidence to convict Saren with charges of treason, Nihlus's word wasn't strong enough." John revealed, to be fair I didn't think that an alive Nihlus would do the trick.
"Ooh, the Geth that I managed to get some information that mentions Saren, this meet up was just meant to be a meeting with a Shadow Broker's agent, looks like that Fist set me up." Tali speaks up showing her omni-tool.
"Well you don't have to worry about Fist, with Wrex's help he has been dealt with." Kaiden assured her.
"Well, let's get this information to Udina then." John said as we swung by the ship to drop off my crate.
-o0o-
"You're not making my job easy Shepard, a fire fight in the wards and an all out assault on Chora's Den, do you know how much..." Udina began facing away from us, pausing when he noticed the extra faces.
"Who is he and that Quarian?" He asked noticing both of us.
"This man is part of the team that helped keep Nihlus alive on Eden Prime. The Quarian is the one who has the proof to convince the council that Saren was there." John told him as I discreetly gave him the middle finger, he was sort of an idiot as well.
"I see and what is this evidence is." He says looking at Tali.
Tali bringing up her omni-tool and playing a recording. "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Then another voice takes over.
"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." Benezia's voice rings out in the room, silence following it.
It was then that Udina spoke up. "That other voice, I don't recognise it, the one talking about the Reapers." At this I sigh, gaining all of the attention.
"Do you seriously not recognise a Matriarch's voice when they are some of the most important people in the Asari culture, and you an ambassador." I say condescendingly getting an insulted look from him and the start of the impersonation of a tomato.
John deciding to move us onto something else. "What are these Reapers that they spoke of?"
"Are they some new kind of alien species?" John continued.
"According to the memory core of the Geth, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago." She began about her findings.
"The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished. At least that's what the Geth believe." She finished getting a barely restrained snort from Udina.
"Sounds a little far-fetched." Earning another sigh from me.
"The vision on Eden Prime, I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers." John answered Tali adding more to the conversation, no one noticing me sneak over to Udina's desk and looking through his extranet history.
"The Geth revere the Reapers as gods. The pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring them back." Tali finished making Anderson and John look at each other with a knowing look.
Annoyedly Udina answered. "The council is just going to love this." Looking away, just a little short of noticing what I was doing, I found some very interesting Fornax sites in it.
It was now that Kaiden, Ashley, Tali and Garrus noticed me doing something on the computer. "The Reapers are a threat against every species in Citadel space, we have to tell them." John responded then noticing me doing something.
"No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor." Anderson looked around also noticing me doing something.
"The captain's right. We need to present this to the council right away." Now finally noticing me at his computer.
"What the hell are you doing?" He basically shouted as I continued looking through his files.
"I got bored and then I noticed this computer, so I just decided to look through it, by the way should you really be looking at some of those Fornax fetishes?" This made him go several shades of red as the others looked between shocked and halting their laughter.
Getting up after putting a bug in his computer I walked to the others heading for the door. "Well are we going to present this evidence or not." I asked as John and Anderson couldn't hold in their laughter any more.
"Okay, you have got to show us a copy of that history just to hold over his head." John asked me after we left the room.
"I've never seen Udina turn that shade of red before." Anderson laughed.
-o0o-
When we got to the council we heard the recording already playing, Udina who had finally recovered from the earlier embarrassment Along with John and Anderson.
"You wanted proof, there it it." Udina stepped forward.
The Turian idiot spoke up. "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."
Then the Tevos spoke up. "I recognise the other voice, the one speaking with Saren. Matriarch Benezia" I looked at the others with a told you so face.
"So she has joined the Geth as well." John stated.
She continued. "Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic, and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren." Tevos added.
The Salarian Councillor unsurprisingly wanting to know more about the Reapers.
"Only what we know that was extracted from the Geth memory core. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished." Anderson answered as I looked to see Tevos's reaction.
The look of realisation that what I was talking about nearly two decades ago is coming true.
John adding to what Anderson said. "The Geth believe that the Reapers are gods. And Saren is the prophet for their return." Anderson finishing off what they want to say.
"We think the Conduit is the key to bring them back. Saren's searching for it, that's why he attacked Eden Prime."
"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" The Salarian Councillor asked.
"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough." John answers.
"Listen to what you are saying. Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible, it has to be." The Turian Councillor unsurprisingly disbelieves the presented information.
"Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real , we'd have found something." He continues.
John spoke the voice of reason as ever. "I tried to warn you about Saren and you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again."
"I for one believe this tale that has been brought out before us." Tevos speaks up startling the other two councillors.
"I have had someone do some research into this and have found truth to this theory that the Protheans were wiped out by the Reapers."
"Either way we can all agree that Saren has betrayed the Council. We all agree he is using the Geth to search for the conduit, what we don't know is why." Tevos deflects the information that she has information on the Reapers.
"The Reapers..." The Salarian Councillor pauses looking at Tevos pointedly. "Are obviously just a myth, Commander. A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the Geth to his will."
"Fifty thousand years ago, the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilisation. If Saren finds the Conduit, it will happen again." John argued strongly.
"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights of the resources of a Spectre. The council stripped him of his position." The Turian continues his ignorance of the true threat.
The conversation then moves on to Udina and the Councillors apart from Tevos arguing about who has a bigger dick. How a fleet can't track down one man may have also been apart of it too. It was mainly about measuring dicks, safe to say that Udina was the smallest I believe.
Before the argument turns violent, which would be entertaining to see, would halt the progress of finding Saren even more. Tevos intervenes. "Ambassador, there is another solution. A way to stop Saren that does not require fleets or armies."
The Turian Councillor voices his nagging objection to the obvious solution. "No it is too soon, Humanity is not read for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres"
"You don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse and the Ambassador gets his Spectre. Everybody's happy." John suggests.
A look passing between all of them, they all start typing on their consoles. And then they go on about the duties and responsibility of being a Spectre and making John one of them.
When playing the game myself it wasn't this boring.
Or maybe it was, it was a long time ago now.
And just like that the meeting is adjourned.
"Congratulation Shepard." Anderson says as he shakes Shepard's hand. Then Udina goes and spoils it. "We've got a lot of work to do Shepard. You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies..." Udina says with a thinking face.
"You'll get access to special equipment and training now that you're a Spectre. You should head down to C-Sec Academy and speak to the Spectre requisitions officer." Anderson adds.
Turning to Anderson Udina more like ordered. "Anderson, come with me. I'll need your help to set all this up." Both then leaving the rest of us there.
"Hmmph, ain't he a barrel of laughs." I state before turning to John.
"Try not to antagonise him more than you have already." John said as we walked to the requisitions office.
After that we went to the Normandy bay, apparently Udina had some good news or something. Even though I know what it is doesn't stop me from hoping it was his dead body.
"I've got some big news for you Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is now yours."
"She's quick and quiet and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well Commander." Anderson reassured.
Moving on to business John asked. "What kind of leads do we have?"
"Saren's gone. Don't bother trying to find him. But we know what he's after, the Conduit. He's got Geth scouring the Traverse looking for clues." Anderson began Udina following up.
"We've got reports of Geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out. And there have been sightings around Noveria." He finished.
"Find out what Saren is after on Feros and Noveria. Maybe you can figure out where the Conduit is before he does."
"Is that it?" John asked.
"We have one more lead. Matriarch Benezia, the other voice in that recording? She has a daughter, a scientist who specialises on the Protheans."
"We don't know if she is involved but it might be a good idea if you can find her, see what she knows. Her names is Liara, Dr. Liara T'soni." He paused looking at Anderson. "We have reports she was exploring an archaeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."
"I'll start there then." John answered.
"And remember Shepard, your actions reflect on humanity as a whole. You make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up." When he puts it like that it's more like and incentive to make a mess, not prevent one.
"I'll be careful." He said diplomatically.
"Well I've got a meeting to go to, good luck Shepard." He says as he leaves, leaving us alone with Anderson.
"Well I've got things to do, have fun guys." I said heading inside ship, making the modifications to my weapon wouldn't make themselves... Actually they could but I digress.
-o0o-
(John POV)
Anderson now turned to the rest of us after Draco left. "Have any of you noticed what his workplace/living space looks like?" He asked prompting a series of head shakes.
"Follow me then." He answered leading us through the Normandy, the new members of the crew also interested in knowing more about the strange person known as Draco.
When we got there we were a little surprised, there were a series of hell themed picture frames with nothing in them. In fact the whole place was almost as if it came straight from Hell.
Hanging from the walls were chains, the interior entirely repainted black.
"Okay, either he's not the only one living here, or he's had a lot of time on his hands to do all this." Kaiden Answered in slight awe taking in the room.
"Well, I'm not blind or deaf either." A voice startles all of us including Wrex, as we looked to see Draco sitting above the door behind us.
"Also for the record if I didn't let you in here you wouldn't be in here, just saying." He added as he held up his hand, a hologram like projection appearing in it, he made sweeping gestures as things appeared or disappeared on the projection.
"Well... See you Draco." I said as we just watched him for a few seconds.
"See you." He answered not looking down from what he was doing.
Leaving his room Anderson announced. "Well I've got work to do. Good luck Shepard."
With that we prepared to go to Artemis Tau cluster.
So a little rushed at the end, I started running out of ideas.
As always Review and Suggest new ideas or people to add to the story.
Through Death I Get My Silence...