A/N: I own nothing except the laptop I wrote this story on.
For the longest time, no one said anything. It was like we were all in the middle of a very quiet art museum, and the guards were gonna kick us out if we so much as voiced our thoughts. Of course, this was a ship where my sister was in charge…though in the end she seemed just as confused as the rest of us. I can hardly blame her. Ever since we'd left the dead Reaper, she'd been utterly puzzled by the creature lying on a table in front of us.
The Geth hadn't so much as moved ever since we'd gotten it out of the mass effect core and dumped it here next to EDI's core. EDI had assured us that this was the safest action: by keeping the Geth closest to EDI, she was able to keep a better eye on him…her…it…do Geth even have genders? I have no idea.
"It's…tall." I said.
"Yeah…about Garrus' height." Sis finally said.
"So, did you talk to Tali?" I asked.
"Yup."
"And was she pissed?"
'Oh, blindingly so. But at the end of the day I'm the captain of this ship, and we've already cracked the lid on Pandora's box by bringing this thing onboard. To just keep it here unactive would drive me crazy." Sis said. She turned to look at me. "And I'm not selling it to Cerberus."
"They offered to buy?" I asked.
"Miranda made the offer." Sis said.
"And?"
"Bro, it was a sacriligeous amount of money. The kind you and I could retire on."
"Should have taken it."
She rolled her eyes. I chuckled.
"Yeah, I see why." I said. "Geth don't speak, as far as I knew, so having one here that knows you? That's pretty important…" And then I noticed something. "Sis…do you see its shoulder?"
"Yeah." Sis said. "It did a patchwork job with some…" She trailed off. "Wait, get a better light on it than that." She turned to the guard on duty. He pressed a button on his omnitool, and the infrared light on the Geth changed to a regular flourescant lighting. We took a look at the shoulder of the Geth.
"That's…is that N7 armor?" I asked. Sis shook her head.
"Son of a bitch." She said. She pointed to the red stripe and the signature N7 on the shoulder. "It picked up N7 armor to patch itself up. Smart little bastard." She stepped through the containment field (it had been modified to allow organics to walk through, according to EDI), and gently brushed her fingers against it. "It's almost like-" She stopped, her fingers resting on a particular spot on the armor. She was dead silent.
"Sis?" I asked.
"Turn it on." She said, turning to the guard. "That's an order."
"Aye!" The guard shouted, and began to punch in codes on his omnitool that would let the creature awaken.
"Sis, what the hell is going on?" I asked." What did you see?"
Sis stepped back, her face white as a sheet.
'There's a carving right underneath the N7 logo. It's a smiley face, carved into the armor with a KA-BAR knife." She said quietly.
"How…could you possibly know that?" I asked.
"Because I carved it in." Sis said, right as the light on the Geth's head turned on.
…
It got up slowly. It looked around, right as a barrier went up between us and it.
"I have isolated our systems, and have erected additional firewalls." EDI chimed in. "I am prepared to resist any hacking attempts."
The Geth stood up, and looked around. It looked at Sis, and then it looked at me. And then it looked back at Sis, where it seemed…expectant? It almost looked expectant.
"Can you understand me?" Sis asked.
"Yes." The Geth replied.
"Are you going to attack me?" Sis asked.
"No." The Geth replied. It's voice was synthesized and distorted, like listenin got several computer audio files overlapped on one another. But there was no sense that it was about to make a dangerous move. I still felt my hands drifting towards my Carnifex at my hip.
"You said my name aboard the Reaper." Sis said. "Have we met?"
A pause.
"We know of you."
"You mean I've fought a lot of Geth."
"We have never met."
"No, you and I have never met. But I've fought a lot of Geth." Sis said. She was getting a little annoyed.
"We are all Geth. And we have not met you. You are Shepard. Commander. Alliance. Human. Fought heretics. Killed by Collectors. Rediscovered on the Old Machine."
"Old Machine?" Sis asked. "You mean the Reaper."
"Reaper." The Geth said. "A superstitious title originating with the Protheans. We call those entities the Old Machines."
Wow. We just got told by a machine that we were a cowardly and superstitious lot.
"You seem to know a lot about her." I said. The Geth tilted its "eye" towards me.
"Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is retrieved. We watch her."
Well, I'll be damned. Sis has herself a stalker. And not nearly as attratcitve as it…he…she…might think.
"Yeah?" I asked. "And you know anything about me?"
There is a pause. The Geth's "eye" seemed to expand, with the flaps around it opening up. And then they closed.
"You are Shepard. Lieutenant. Member of Alliance Special Forces codenamed "The COBRAs." Fought on Torfan. Known by organics colloquially as "The Butcher of Torfan. Assumed dead…until now."
I have to admit, the last line made me chuckle.
"All that you got just from looking at me?" I asked.
"No. Brief scan of facial patterns feature noticeable similarities with Shepard-Commander. Consensus built to determine identity as brother of Shepard-Commander. Brief extranet search to double-confirm consensus."
"So do you watch organics, or just the Shepard family?" Sis asked, semi-jokingly.
There was a pause.
"Yes. Both."
"You mentioned 'heretics.'" Sis said. "What do you mean by that?"
"Geth build our own future. The heretics asked the Old Machine to give them their future." The Geth said. "They are no longer part of us."
"I don't understand-" Sis began, but then it clicked for me.
"So are you saying that the Geth that fought on the Citadel aren't 'true' Geth?" I asked. "That there are Geth that hate the Reapers."
"Hate is an organic concept. While we understand, we do not use or need such a concept. However, we did choose not to follow the Old Machines. We were studying the Old Machine's hardware to protect our future when we met you."
I'm getting an idea of what's really going on here, but I want to hear more before I come to my conclusion.
"You mentioned protection." Sis said. "So the Reapers are a threat to you too?"
"Yes."
"But they're machines." I said. "Why would they attack other machines?"
"We are different from them. Outside their plans."
"And what future are you building?" I asked.
"Ours."
"And what about the organics?" I asked. "They gonna be affected by your future?"
"If they involve themselves, they will."
That can be taken either one of two ways: either they mean that negatively, and that organics are outside of the Geth's plans for the future and will be viewed as a threat.
Or…
…Or they simply view us as "outside" of their future, and would rather not be bothered.
But one thing still remains.
"Time to cut to the chase, flashlight." I said. "Are you with us or against us?"
"We oppose the heretics. We oppose the Old Machines." The Geth said. "Shepard-Commander opposes the Old Machines. Shepard-Commander opposes the heretics. Cooperation accomplishes and features mutual goals."
"Are you asking to join us?" Sis asked.
"Yes."
Sis nodded, and lowered the barrier.
"And what should I call you?" Sis asked.
"Geth."
Sis frowned.
"No, I meant you."
"...Geth."
"You, specifically."
"We are all Geth."
"Who's on first?"
"Be quiet, John." Sis said. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "What is the name of the individual before me?"
"There is no individual. We are all Geth. There are 1,183 platforms currently active within this platform." The Geth said.
At this, EDI popped up next to me.
"My name is Legion, for we are many."
"Damn." Sis said. "That timing was as Biblical as it was appropriate."
"Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor." The Geth now dubbed Legion said. "We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth. We will integrate into Normandy."
Sis, rather instinctively, offered her hand towards the Geth. I don't know why she did it: there was no way that the Geth was going to recognize what to do with-
-Aaaaaand now they're shaking hands. I need to either stop drinking or start drinking even more.
…
It was the strangest damned thing. It had been about an hour since we left Legion in the AI core, and currently he…it was in there, conversing with EDI. It was all just squeaks and buzzes, so whatever their conversation was, I had no idea. I just assumed that all was well, and chose not to think about it that much.
Sis and I were sitting in the mess hall, helping ourselves to whatever it was that Gardner had cooked (Zaeed had been released from mess duty, to the grave disappointment of the crew and even the kitchen staff: the old bastard had been an excellent chef), when the elevator opened. It was Thane. He looked around, surprisingly agitated for a Drell, and then he saw us.
"Ah, Commander. Just the person I was looking for." He said. And then he looked at me. "Actually, Jonathan, if you wouldn't mind coming too? I have something to discuss with you."
Wordlessly and more than a bit confused, we both got up from our unfinished plates and followed him to wherever it was that he wanted us to go.
He led us down to the life support room where he stayed, and brewed himself a cup of tea. Sis had gotten him one of those expensive Keurig tea brewers on our last run to the Citadel, and Thane had gotten plenty of use out of it. He took a sip from his cup, and turned to look at us.
"This is admittedly a personal question for the two of you, so I understand if you don't wish to answer." He began.
Sis and I nodded, letting him continue. He finished his cup, and then poured himself another. He looked at us.
"If I may ask, what was your relationship like with your father?"
He's right. That is a personal question. And by the way she goes silent, I know that Janey is thinking the same thing. And then she speaks.
"He was…wonderful." She said. "Loved us to pieces, always made time for us. Always there to help us out whenever we needed it." She's starting to tear up a bit at the thought of it. "He was bawling when I got my first commission to Elysium, and then looked like he was gonna burst with pride when I got a citation of honor for my actions in the Blitz."
"Loved mom. Was proud as hell of me that I passed my training tests to get into the shock troopers." I said. "Taught me how to throw a splitter. Taught me how to throw a punch, and how to be a man."
Thane looked contemplative for a moment.
"He sounds like he was a good man." He said. "Is there anything that you regret?"
"That he wasn't with us longer."
Sis and I both said it at the same time. Thane nods pensively.
"I suppose that doesn't surprise me. Even the most doting of fathers can create a hole in their childrens' hearts if they are absent for too long."
"Why do you ask us this, Thane?" Sis asked. The Drell paused.
"Once upon a time, I was a married man. To a woman named Irikah." He said. "She was…my everything. And yet there were times where my job kept me away from her. It…eventually led to her death, because some of my enemies discovered her existence and tried to get to me through her death. The only thing that they did was get my attention…and in their last, agonizing moments, I am sure that they regretted their decision." He closed his eyes. "But I was not just a grieving husband. I was also a father."
"Is your child…dead?" I asked.
"No." Thane said. "But I was barely in his life growing up, as a result of my job and in hunting down every last one of the people that took my wife from me. On one hand, it was necessary to enact justice…but on the other, it denied Kolyat his father." He sighed. "I have received tips from some of my underground contacts that Kolyat might be following in my footsteps."
"As…an assassin?" I asked. Thane looked incredibly bitter.
"I have never questioned my position nor my career choice, because I was raised as one and I have been impeccable at my profession. But it was my life. Kolyat deserves the right to choose for himself. And the Krios family line has already added enough blood to the galaxy."
There was a silence in the room. And then Sis spoke.
"What do you want us to do?" She asked.
"I believe from my contacts that he is currently hidden in the Citadel somewhere." Thane said. "I hope to find him and put a stop to whatever it is that he is planning or that he was hired to do. I have walked the path of darkness, on the road to perdition. But I will not allow such a life for my son."
The way he spoke, and the conviction with which he said every word…they reminded me of someone. It was eerie, because it had been more than ten years at this point since I had heard his voice. But at the same time, I heard it all the same, even if I had closed my eyes.
Thane sounded like Dad used to. And how could we…how could I say no to his request?
…
We docked at the station in the Citadel, and as we were getting ready to suit up for whatever it was that we'd need to deal with, I noticed that Sis had pressed a button on her omni-tool. The way it lit up, I could see that she was accessing the team roster. There were a few silhouettes of the team members, all from the shoulders up, and she was rotating them through with an annoyed look on her face. Clearly she was having trouble with deciding.
"Aren't Thane and I enough?" I asked.
"I just want to make sure we have everything covered and…fuck it, here goes nothing." She sent in the request. That gave us a few minutes before the squad member showed up, but the way Sis had acted in sending out her request…that was not normal. She was planning something. And knowing her, it was probably gonna be crazy or insane or-
The door opened.
No fucking way.
"We are ready to assist, Shepard-Commander."
"Fuck you, Sis." I said. "You cannot be serious."
"I'm curious." Sis said. "Legion here is unlike any Geth that I've ever faced before. And besides, keeping him off the Normandy might help discourage it from any hacking attempts."
"We have zero interest in attempting to breach the security of the Normandy. We have built a unanimous consensus that the artificial intelligence knowned as 'EDI' is against the Old Machines. Therefore, there is no need or interest to breach her defenses."
Wow. When it acts like that, it almost sounds reasonable. Still…
"Commander Sheopard, while I have no trouble with your judgment…" Thane began. "All the same, this is a Geth that we are bringing on the Citadel."
"And your point?" Sis asked.
"Commander, it is likely that the general population of the Citadel is aware of what a Geth looks like." Thane said. The sarcasm in his voice was subtle, but definitely appreciated. "The sight of one…might cause a panic." Thane said.
Sis looked at Thane, and raised an eyebrow.
"Thane, I offered the Citadel irrefutable proof that there was something out there that is bigger than any of us with Sovereign, the Reaper that led the Geth attack on the Citadel. I spent months after the battle cleaning up Geth operations and submitting evidence that the Geth simply weren't capable of creating the technology that Sovereign was representative of. And each and every time they either brushed it off or denied the evidence. And then, I watched as the Citadel settled into life as usual, pretending that nothing was wrong, and that everything was fine. They would rather play make-believe with a comfortable fiction than deal with the ugly truth. I could waltz through customs right now with Legion, claiming that he is my personal synthetic assistant, and they would let me through because 1.) I'm a SPECTRE, and 2.) because at the end of the day they don't want to deal with anything scary."
There was a pause.
"We notice that your statement betrays a very low opinion of the cognitive functions of organics, Shepard-Commander."
...
Sometimes I hate when Sis is right. Because she is usually right. But I hate it most when she is especially right. And when we walked to customs, Sis was proven especially right. The lady at the desk was the same one that had entered us into the Citadel the last time we were here, and when she looked at us she had a bored and tired tone.
"Welcome back, Commander Shepard." She said. "Scan yourself in here for record-keeping purposes." And then she noticed Legion standing right behind my sister.
Oh boy, here we go.
"You have a permit for your synthetic assistant there, Commander Shepard?" The lady asked. Sis raised her eyesbrows.
"What? Is my personal assistant really that dangerous-looking that it has to be documented? What do you think it's gonna do, run around the Citadel and start stealing shit?"
"Geth do not infiltrate." God bless Legion, I'm sure that it was trying to be helpful. Even Sis seemed to wince at the platform's comment. The customs officer raised an eyebrow, and typed something into her terminal.
"You might want to get your assistant's speech box checked, Commander." The agent said. "People won't like hearing something like that, even if it is a joke."
"Wait, you don't believe that it's a G-" I could not finish because Sis stomped on my foot. Hard. As I was hopping around, clutching my no-doubt bruised foot, Sis turned back towards the customs agent.
"Okay. I was actually coming to the Citadel to get its programming updated. So are we good to go?"
"Hold on…just taking note of the number of people with you, in addition to your synthetic." The agent said. "And, done. Enjoy your stay at the Citadel." She looked at Legion. "And keep an eye on your assistant, please. They aren't allowed on public transportation anymore here on the Citadel."
There was a pause.
"Geth do not intentionally infiltrate."
As we walked through customs, and got cleared to enter the Citadel, Thane spoke for all of us as we entered the Zakera Ward concourse.
"I…literally cannot believe that worked."
…
The Zakera Ward C-Sec office seemed pretty hectic as we walked in to the main lobby. The secretary saw us coming, and pointed over to Captain Bailey's office. He was sitting at his desk working on some paperwork, no doubt, and he gave a wave as we entered. He shut the door behind us.
"Welcome back, you two." He said. "I figure that there might be something that you need me looking into on an unofficial matter?"
Sis wrinkled her nose slightly. Try as she might, she just couldn't really accept the fact that Bailey was willing to bend the rules to the point of breaking for our sake. As far as I was concerned, however, a crooked cop is fine so long as he is bent the right way. And with enough pressure, you can always get them bent the right way. So I decided to lead the conversation.
"Our colleague here is looking for his son. He thinks that the kid's been hired out by a local criminal." I said. Bailey nodded.
"Shouldn't be too hard. We don't see too many Drell here on the Citadel." Bailey said. He started typing away on his computer. "Bingo. One of my men reported a Drell, recently. Hmm, interesting. Apparently he was talking to Mouse."
"Mouse?" Thane asked. From his tone of voice, it was less confusion and more…familiarity. But he wasn't about to tip his hand yet.
"He's a petty criminal." Bailey said. "Probably not the guy that hired your boy, but a messenger. He's a former duct rat, and runs errands for anyone that will pay."
"Duct Rat?" Sis asked.
"It's a local sland for the poor kids who grow up on the station." Bailey said. "Whjen they're small, they tend to play in the ventilation ducts, where adults can't get to them."
"We conclude such a practice seems highly dangerous for organic life." Legion commented.
Bailey sighed.
"Every couple of months, we pull a little body out of them. Lacerated by the fan blades. Broken by a deadfall. Suffocated by vacuum exposure." He shook his head. "Those are just the ones we know about. More just disappear. Maybe they get sucked into space. Maybe they fall into the protein vats that the keepers run. Mouse survived long enough that he can't fit in the ducts anymore. He was one of the smarter ones. Or one of the luckir ones, depending on your point of view."
"And what kind of crimes has Mouse gotten into ever since he grew up past being a duct rat?" Sis asked.
"Odd jobs for shifty people." Bailey said. "Duct rats take whatever's available in order to get by. Data fencing. Fencing stolen goods. Selling illegal VI personalities." The last one made him chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Sis asked.
"Actually, Mouse was recently picked up for selling one of you."
"…Me?" Sis asked. Captain Bailey chuckled.
"Yeah. When you erased a file, it would say 'I delete data like you on the way to real errors.'"
I couldn't help it, I started to chuckle. And then Sis started giggling too.
"It was buggy, though." Bailey said. "It crashed every half hour. The error message claimed that the galaxy itself was at stake, and that you should fix the problem yourself."
Sis stopped laughing, which only made me laugh harder.
"What?" She hissed. "I don't…I don't crash! I am efficient!"
"If your VI is anything to go by, there are a lot of frustrated consumers that would disagree." Bailey said, a wry grin on his face.
"That's bullshit!" Sis said. "Well, at least there aren't too many people that bought the thing."
"Scanning. VI obtained. Diagnostic running…ERROR. "My name is Commander Shepard. I'm too busy to fix your stupid little problem. I have a galaxy to save. So stop whining and go to tech support…VI purged from system. Consensus: VI program poor condition, would not recommend."
Sis looked positively deflated. While her ego was wrecked, I decided to steer the conversation back to the relevant stuff.
"Where can we find Mouse?" I asked.
"He is usually outside the Dark Star." Bailey said. "He works out of a public comm terminal. You should pick up a copy of that VI, while you're at it. A pretty funny thing, I think." He turned to Thane. "It sounds like your boy is running with the wrong crowd."
"Yes. He is." Thane said solemnly.
"If Mouse can't get you in touch with your boy, he'll know someone who can. And I promise to help any way that I can."
Sis and the others nodded, and walked off. I leaned in and looked Captain Bailey in the eye.
"Why bother, Captain?" I asked. "As far as you know, this is just another Drell. Just another statistic."
"No, son." Captain Bailey said. "He's a statistic if I have to arrest him, or if I have to notify his family that he's been killed in a drug sting or suffered an OD while in the projects. Right now, he's walking in the dark, but he isn't lost yet. And if I can write a happy ending to this story when I finish the report, then I'll consider it a victory."
With that, he turned to his desk, a wordless and yet not-so-subtle signal for me to get lost.
…
"You didn't tell him that Kolyat plans to assassinate someone." Thane was speaking to Sis as I rejoined the group.
"And he's a cop." Sis said. "I say that, and the alarm bells go off. Someone tries to stop Kolyat, and either he or the cop or even the target get killed in the interim. We can stop this before it gets too far."
"Yes…of course." Thane said. "Thank you, Shepard."
We walked through some of the storefronts, ignoring the randos that were asking my sister for an endorsement. I know that Sis was sorely tempted, but she wasn't about to be a free shill for publicity. Hmm, that makes her a bigger person than I. I'm pretty sure that if I was in her position, I'd whore myself out for a quick buck. But, then again, "I'm Jonathan Shepard, the Butcher of Torfan, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel" is not exactly the best kind of marketing endorsement.
We found Mouse in the corner, talking to someone on his holopad. He was scraggy, with a thin mustache and a beard that he hadn't shaved in a while. But he was too young for it to be a real beard; it looked more like peach fuzz, to be perfectly honest.
"Yeah. Sure." He was talking. "I can get two cases for you by the end of the day."
"You Mouse?" Sis asked. He turned around.
"Yeah, sure. What do you-" He saw Thane and violently flinched in shock. "Oh, shit! Krios!? I thought you retired!" And then he got a look at my sister. "And…Commander Shepard? I thought you died! What do you want with me?"
Thane leaned forward, and gently rested a hand on Mouse's shoulder.
"Be still, Mouse." He said. "You can change your pants in a moment."
I had to fight so damned hard not to start laughing at the kid right then and there.
"You know Thane?" Sis asked.
"Krios? He didn't-?" He clammed up. "Uh. If he didn't say nothing, I ain't either."
So I drew my Carnifex and gently aimed it towards his knee.
"Would you say something if it keeps a slug out of your patella?" I asked.
"When he said the same name, I didn't think it could be the same Mouse." Thane said. "He was a contact on the Citadel when I was active. He and some other children would gather information for me on targets."
"You'd put children in danger to spy for you?" Sis asked, quite justifiably appalled. Thane sighed.
"Children. The poor. My people's word for their kind is 'drala'fa': the ignored. They're everywhere, see everything. Yet they are never seen." He said.
At this, Thane grabbed Mouse by the collar. Clearly, his fatherly patience was wearing out in comparison to his fatherly concern for his own son.
"You gave another Drell instructions for an assassination. Who's the target?" He asked.
"I…I don't know." Mouse said. "I didn't ask. 'Cause the people I work for…they can make me disappear."
At this, I clicked off the safety on my pistol, and kept it pointed at his knee.
"And you think that we can't?" I asked. Mouse sighed.
"I'd like to help you, Krios. You always did right by us, made sure that we always got paid. But I ain't gonna die for you."
"Look, you know Thane." Sis said. "He wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. Do it. For him."
At this, I lowered my gun.
"And put it this way: I can make the people who'd make you disappear…disappear." I said, putting on my best menacing voice. Mouse gulped. He didn't know who I was, but if he was more afraid of me than he was of his erstwhile bosses, then I was doing something right.
"I…want to." Mouse said. "Thane was always really nice to us! But these people…they ain't nice."
"Mouse…I swear that you won't be named." Thane said.
"And if you are, I'll kill the people that hear it." I said.
"All right, all right." Mouse conceded. "He came with that holo you took of me. Said that he wanted a job." He turned around. "I ran through your old contacts to see who might give him a shot. The guy who offered up was Elias Kelham."
"Who's Kelham?" Sis asked.
"Human." Mouse said. "Moved to the Citadel about ten years ago. He was little people when you were here, Krios." He shook his head. "But he got big after the Geth attack. Lots of the big guys from before got cacked. All in them big fancy apartments up on the Presidium." He looked annoyed at how things had changed. "Now Kelham runs the rackets on the lower end of the Ward. Shin Akiba. He's seriously bad news."
"You just saved yourself a world of pain, kid." I said.
"Yeah, right." Mouse said. "When Kelham finds out what I've done, I won't live long. And I can't do nothing about it but hide." He turned to Thane. "Krios, you got any kindness for me, put a bullet in Kelham before you go."
He walked off, shaking his head. And then I grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Sis, you take the others and go ask Bailey about Kelham." I said. Sis looked at me.
"Don't hurt him, John." Sis warned. But she listened, and led the others back to the C-Sec offices. As soon as they were gone, I looked Mouse in the eye.
"Kelham won't trouble you no more." I said. "But do me a favor…take these credits." I passed him some. "And book yourself a flight back to the home planet."
"Why?" Mouse said. "I have a good gig working information."
"And you'll be dead by the end of the year." I said. "So take the money and find a way to start over. Or don't. Just know that moments like these don't come around more than once. And it ain't gonna end well for you the next time." I walked away.
…
I caught up with the others right as they entered Bailey's office. He looked up from his desk.
"Back so soon?" He asked.
"Can we talk about my associate's son?" Sis asked.
"I'm betting you talked to Mouse." Bailey said. "You get the name of the guy who he's working with?"
"Elias Kelham." Sis said.
At this, Bailey's smile faltered.
"Kelham. Shit."
And here's where the benefits of having a crooked cop on your side fall. Because just because you have a crooked cop one way doesn't mean that the bad guys don't have him bent in another way.
"Got an 'arrangement' with him, I take it?" I asked.
"Ah…look, this is awkward." Bailey said. "Kelham and I have…an agreement. He doesn't cause too much trouble, and 'buys tickets to the C-Sec charity ball' from me. In return, I ignore him."
"What?" Sis snarled. "Are you telling me that you're being bribed, officer?"
"What did you expect, Sis?" I asked. "You thought that because Bailey bent for us, he wasn't gonna bend for the other guy?" I turned to Bailey. "Can you bring him in?"
"I'll get some of my people to bring him in and set him up in a private room. You can interrogate him yourself." Bailey said, shaking his head. "I'll stay out of sight. If I'm lucky, Kelham will believe that I had nothing to do with it."
"We can be discreet." I said. "Just do it."
"Who's the commander here, John: you or me?" Sis asked, sufficiently miffed.
…
He didn't really come quietly. You could hear Kelham swearing up a storm as he was dragged into the interrogation room, all the while howling for his lawyer and for Captain Bailey to come. Each and every time, the women officers holding him rmarked that Captain Bailey was out of the office on a business conference and couldn't be reached. This only caused Kelham to shout even louder about the horseshit of it all. It was kind of funmny. Finally, he was led into the room, and fitted into a restraining chair. As we got ready to enter the room, I turned to Sis.
"Let me go in there, Janey." I said.
"Why?" She asked. "I can handle myself."
"Yeah, in an Alliance courtroom or investigation." I said. "But we don't have the luxury of that time. He's held up on phony charges right now, and his lawyer is gonna be on his way. Give me and Thane a few minutes, and we'll have him singing Bohemian Rhapsody."
"Our consensus suggests this is an unlikely occurrence. We shall stand outside and monitor for sufficient change in pitch and vibrato to determine if song is being sung."
"Thank you, Legion." Sis said. She shook her head, clearly starting to stress out. "Fine. Fine. Just make it quiet…and don't kill him." I just shook my head.
"Where's the fun in that?" I asked. At this, Captain Bailey walked up.
"He'll expect me to get him out of this." He said, sighing.
"Captain?" A voice came in on his omnitool, broadcast so that we could hear. "His lawyer's here. Bet Elias has his VI set to page him if C-Sec gets within ten meters."
"Shit." Bailey said. "I'll stall him, and act like I don't know what's going on." He turned to Thane and I. "Get in there and work fast."
We started walking to the interrogation room.
"Thoughts?" Thane asked.
"Yeah, I got an old trick." I said. I glanced over at the maintenance desk nearby, and a few of the things lying on it. "Here's what we're gonna do…"
…
The door opened, and we saw Elias Kelham was sitting down in his chair.
"Who the hell are you two?" He snarled. He looked like the kind of greaseball who started out poor and low-rent, and was now dressing himself the way a poor person thinks that the rich and famous dress and act like. I could practically smell the fakeness radiating off of him.
I pressed a button on my omnitool, and the restraints came off.
"Figured we should let you know that Bailey has nothing to do with this." I said. "And we're just here to talk. Off the record. Figured we'd let you know we mean business with the lack of restraints and all."
"Off the record? In a C-Sec interrogation room? Suuuure." Kelham said, standing up and rubbing his wrists. "Now what the hell is thi-"
Thane cut him off with a punch to the face.
"Fuck!" Kelham shouted, hitting the deck with a bloody nose. He got up. I grabbed Thane.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked. "This isn't part of the plan!"
"I don't care about plans, I care about who this man hired to have assassinated!" He said. He was as angry as I'd ever seen him. If I wasn't careful, he might try to break my neck.
"Thane, listen to me. You're emotional. This isn't going to work. Just…just let me talk to the guy. You wait outside, alright?"
"With no support?" Thane asked in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind?"
"No. But keep this up and you might be." I said. I looked at him pleadingly. "Please, Thane."
He stared at me. I could feel the hate burning in his eyes as I denied him a quick way to get to his son. But then he sighed.
"You have five minutes." He said. "If he clams before you get him talking or his lawyer gets to him…just make sure that doesn't happen." He stormed out of the room.
"Jesus, what a hothead." Kelham muttered. "Guess the frog man needed some cold water to rest in, huh?" He reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigar. "You got a light?" He asked.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my lighter. As he took a puff to get it burning, he looked me in the eyes.
"So, what are you supposed to be? The good cop to his really shitty bad cop?"
I just smiled.
"Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop."
He was still smiling when I stabbed him in the side of the thigh with a nail.
As he clutched at his knee, screaming in pain, I shut him up by cracking him over the head with a hardcover book I'd stolen off of some C-Sec officer's desk. It was a copy of an old Law and Ethics book.
I like ironic pain.
"You know, back when I ran deep cover, I used to see some freaky shit." I said. I knelt down next to the guy, as he alternated between trying to grab the nail and rubbing his nose and head. "You know what I discovered? Sometimes the old ways worked the best." I took out a copper wire and wrapped it around the nail, keeping him pinned to the ground and preventing him from resisting. His wimpy little slaps were like a tickle. "And then you'd have to be careful, 'cuz the target might get fuzzy and lose focus. So lemme ask you a question…"
I grabbed the battery I'd stolen out of my coat pocket, and pressed it to the copper wire.
"YOU FOCUSED YET?" I roared.
He howled, and then I let go of the battery and picked him up by the scruff of the neck. I carried him over to the wall, and slammed him up against it.
"I want a name." I said. "Who's your boy gonna gat? Who do you want dead?"
"Fuck…you…" Kelham whispered.
"Okay. That's a rib." I said. With one of my hands, I swung a hammer fist into the side of his rib cage, and felt at least two ribs cave in. He had the wind knocked out of him, and fell to the ground on his hands and knees, gasping in pain.
"A. Name." I said. "And this is over."
"Nice…try…" Kelham whispered. I rolled my eyes.
"That's a finger or two."
I stomped on his left hand as hard as I fucking could, and felt his index, middle and pinky fingers break. I rolled him over on his back, and put my boot on his throat.
"I'm on your schedule, bub." I said. "You wanna die before you talk? I can oblige you."
"Do your worst…" He managed to hiss out. I chuckled.
"Don't tempt me." I said. I decided to press my foot down on his ruined ribs.
"Talid!"
I let go.
"What?" I asked.
"Joram…Talid." He whispered. "Turian politician. Running for intendent of Zakera Ward. That's…that's your guy."
I let him go, and helped him back up.
'There, was that so hard?" I asked.
I knocked him out with a forearm to the face.
…
I entered the main lobby, and rubbed my knuckles. The lawyer was sitting there, looking positively pissed. Sis had apparently invoked SPECTRE authority on him, and claimed that I was under her detail. That meant that there was nothing he could do.
"What's the deal?" Bailey asked. "Why did he hire the boy?" I looked at the lawyer.
"Your boy just admitted to hiring a contract out on a Joram Talid." I said. I looked at Bailey. "Who is he?"
"You might have seen his posters around." Bailey said. "He's promising to end organized crime on the ward."
"Talid is a racist!" The lawyer said, indignantly. "He's blatantly anti-human."
"Are things so bad that people can openly campaign as anti-human?" Sis asked.
"Before the Battle of the Citadel, the alien population thought we were violent upstarts. Look what's happened since then." Bailey said. "A human fleet guarding the station for months. C-Sec filled with humans. Anderson does what he can but some people have lived on the station since before humans had starships. They see it as a coup."
"If the majority votes for him, then that's how democracy works." Sis said. "That's democracy for you."
Bailey frowned.
"That's a nice ideal, Shepard." He said, the frustration dripping off of every word. Sometimes Sis could be a little…idealistic for reality's liking. Bailey shook hs head.
"Knowing Talid, he's probably taking to campaigning in the 800 blocks." He looked over to the sergeant nearby. "Get a squad car, sergeant! These four need to get to the 800 blocks."
The sergeant nodded, and with that we made our way to the garage.
…
Joram Talid looked like every politician: dressed to the nines, a fake smile on his face, and eyes that didn't even bother betraying contempt for those that didn't vote for him. As he was shaking hands with potential constituents, I noticed that he was actively avoiding any human contact whatsoever. His Krogan bodyguard looked rather bored.
"There he is." Sis said. "What's the plan, Thane?"
"Someone needs to follow Talid on the maintenance catwalks. Tell me what he's doing. The Krogan bodyguard will make him easy to follow."
"I'll take Legion with me." Sis said. "Best not to have a Geth out in the open. Legion, do Geth still not intentionally infiltrate?"
"If Shepard-Commander wills it, then this platform shall intentionally infiltrate."
"Good. Let's go."
"What about me?" I asked Thane as Sis and Legion disappeared. He turned to look at me.
"Jonathan, I need you…present. Simply make your way through the wards after Talid. Use your training as a COBRA to stick to the shadows." He paused. "I took advantage of Cerberus' record-gathering process to discover more about your past as a black ops specialist. You were good at what you did. I need that man with me on the ground, looking for Kolyat."
"I can do that, Thane." I said. At this, Thane clasped his hands together.
"Would you like to pray with me, Jonathan?" He asked.
Nine times out of ten, I would have said no. I would have told him it wasn't my style. That I didn't believe in that sort of thing. But when I saw the serene look on his face, I simply couldn't say no.
I didn't remember how to pray as a human, so I decided to follow Thane's lead and clasped my hands together.
"Amonkira, Lord of Hunters. Grant that our hands be steady, our aim be true and our feet swift." Thane began. "And should the worst come to pass…grant us forgiveness."
I blinked, and he was gone.
…
I made my way through the streets, listening as Talid made his sales pitch to the masses. They were all listening intently and with excitement. It simply boggled the mind. He wasn't saying anything of substance. He was repeating a feew buzz phrases over and over, and was always appealing to their fears and insecurities. If he'd been a psychiatrist, he'd have been discredited for quackery. But here he was, winning them all over left and right. It was utterly ridiculous.
But that's politics for you.
Sis and Thane were chirping back and forth as they followed him from a discreet location. That left me basically to my own devices.
There were two ways that I could go about doing this. I could simply stick to the shadows, or I could just act like I didn't give a damn. Hmm…maybe there was a way for me to stick it to Talid…
I watched him step in front of a few voters, and began to spew his rhetoric against us. The people were listening to him, enthralled. I made my way up to the group, my headphones on and my iDroid playing some music.
"That's close enough." The Korgan growled. Talid and the others turned to look at me.
"Can I…help you, human?" Talid asked. He was putting on a fake veneer of sweetness, but he wasn't about to pretend that he was my buddy or my friend. I saw the shifty look on the eyes of those around him. They didn't trust me. I pointed in front of them.
"There's…there's a donation kiosk." I said, pointing to the kiosk in front of me. The one that Talid was standing in front of, in an effort to look good to the others and the voters. It was a little donation for the Citadel's equivalent of the Salvation Army. I wordlessly stepped past them, and made a big show of the donation I was giving. It was Cerberus money, so I didn't give a shit how much I spent.
"Well…I suppose that even humans, as troublesome as they are, have moments of compassion." Talid said, as I walked away. But I noticed that some of the people might not be buying what he was selling wholesale anymore.
I was about to walk away entirely, but then I noticed a figure off to the side. He was watching Talid and his bodyguard as they made their way to the elevator. I would have brushed him off in any circumstance, but in this case, I noticed two things.
For one, he was wiping the sweat off of his brow.
The second reason? He was a Drell.
And in that moment, I knew.
"KOLYAT!" I roared.
He froze, staring at me in shock. But that galvanized him into action. He drew a pistol and aimed it towards the politician.
The Krogan bodyguard pushed him out of the way.
"Call C-Se-guh!" The Krogan took two to the chest, and dropped down to the ground. Talid sprinted up to his apartment, and Kolyat was in hot pursuit. I checked the Krogan.
"Take this." I said, handing him some medi-gel. "It'll stabilize you until the medics arrive." I said. At that, Sis, Thane and Legion all ran up to me.
"They made it to Talid's apartment." Thane said. "We have to go."
We ran for the elevator.
…
Joram Talid was kneeling on the ground of his immaculate apartment, his hands behind his head. Kolyat had a gun pointed to the back of his neck. As we entered the room, Sis took a moment to draw her gun. Thane stepped forward. His voice was soft and calm.
"Kolyat." He began.
"This…this is a joke.' Kolyat hissed. "Now? Now you show up?"
"Help me, Drell!" Talid said. "I'll do whatever you want!"
Almost on cue, Bailey and a Turian officer walked into the room.s
"C-Sec." Bailey commanded. "Put down the gun, son."
"Get out of my way." Kolyat said. "I'm walking out. And he's coming with me."
"They'll have snipers outside." Thane said. As he spoke, I could see police sirens flashing outside the window.
"Kolyat…you'll die." Thane said.
"What do you care?" Kolyat snapped. "You left me! You were always gone! Do you know how many nights Mom was sad because you weren't there with her? Do you know how many nights I asked her when you were coming back? And do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep when you were gone, 'doing what you needed to do' when she died? Where did I factor into your plans, Dad? I was your son! And you abandoned me!"
Thane tried to speak, but Kolyat just pressed the gun into Talid's head.
"Not a word. You can't defend yourself. You know that everything I said is true." He said.
"Then just get it over with."
Everyone turned to look at me. I stepped forward. I gestured to Kolyat.
"Go ahead. Pull the trigger. Splatter his brains on the ground. Get some of the blood on my shoes, I guess. It'll be irritating, but I can clean 'em. Or buy new shoes. Whatever." I said. I cocked my head to the side. "You ever killed someone before?"
"O-of course!" Kolyat snapped.
"No you haven't." I said. "You probably haven't even thrown a punch in your entire life. You don't know what it's like, pulling that trigger. Because it isn't anything to kill someone. Just pull it, feel the recoil…and that's that. But that's not the hard part. It's the living with it afterwards. And living with the sound of their head exploding, of their body falling and hitting the ground. It's always so fast, and they always fall so hard." I sighed. "And in the end, you can't get it out of your head. You have nightmares. You try to drink them away, or pill up to forget. Anything to forget the sound of the bodies. Of their last moments."
I looked up, and stared him in the eye. I shrugged.
"But whatever. You're a man. You can make that choice. And if you wanna spite your daddy by doing so, I guess I can understand this. But lemme tell you something." I closed my eyes. "I didn't see my father as much as I'd like. It was part of the deal, because mom and dad were never on the same ship. We had to shuffle back and forth in order to make it as close to a fair family as we could. That did make the days that we were all together, the four of us…pretty special. And I didn't get to see Dad as much as I liked, and yeah, it hurt. But the time together was good."
I hear a sniffling. I can tell it's Sis. But I keep going.
"But you know what hurt even more than the fact that I couldn't see him as much as I liked?" I asked. "The fact that he was taken from me. From us. He died, and you know what my last conversation…face to face…with him was about? Just baseball. Trivial stuff. About how our team was going to do better, and how we finally had a chance." I felt something wet and warm running down my eye. "If I had known that was my last conversation with my father…you better believe that I wouldn't have wasted it on something so…superficial. I'd have hugged him. Told him he'd shaped me into the man I was. Told him I loved him. Wanted him to know that the galaxy aligned perfectly for me to luck into someone like him as the man that shaped and defined my life. And no, that wouldn't have removed the pain when I found out he was gone. It might even have made it worse. But…I wish it had been, all the same. Because I never told him, to that degree, just how much I loved him. Sure, I said it, but usually in a low-key way. I would destroy myself to see him again and tell him what he meant to me. I will go to my grave wishing that I'd said more. Always. Forever."
There was dead silence.
"He's going to die soon, Kolyat." I said. "And if you pull the trigger, then so be it. That will be the man that you are. But this will be the last time that you ever see him. And the hole in your heart? It won't ever go away."
"Kolyat…" Thane said. "I wasn't there for you when your mother died. And it was my fault that she died. She died because they wanted to get to me."
"…What?" Kolyat asked.
"After her body was given to the deep, I went to find them. The triggermen." Thane said. "The ringleaders, too. I hurt them. Eventually, I killed them. When I went back to see you, you were – you were older. I should have stayed with you."
"I guess it's too bad for me that you waited so long, huh?" Kolyat's trying to act tough. He's really trying. And yet…
"Kolyat. I've taken many bad things out of the world. You're the only good thing that I have ever added to it." Thane said. "I cannot gain back those lost years…but I love you. And I cannot let you do this."
The tears start flowing down Kolyat's cheeks. His arm goes limp, and the pistol clatters uselessly to the ground. He closes his eyes, utterly defeated. I look at Talid, and gesture for him to get the hell out of dodge. He mutters a brief thank you, and then disappears.
Kolyat starts sobbing, and Thaen rushes forth to hug him. His son returns the embrace.
"This isn't the place to have this conversation." Captain Bailey said. "Nor is it one you should have in front of strangers." He looked around. "Boys, take Kolyat and his father back to the precinct. Give them a room and all the time that they need."
The officers nod, and quietly lead Thane and Kolyat out of the building. As soon as they'd left, Sis turned to Captain Bailey.
"Why are you letting him do that, Captain?" She asked.
Captain Bailey's next words cut to our core.
"Do you honestly believe he's the only man who's screwed up raising a son?"
There was a silence.
"I have to get back to the precinct." Bailey said. "Come on. I'll give you a lift."
…
After we returned to the Zakera Ward, I asked Sis if I could borrow some credits for a shuttle elsewhere. She asked me where I was going.
"Something that I think I need to do." I said. "Something that I didn't realize I might need to do."
With that, she handed me the credits, and I was on my way. Kolyat had been through a lot. This might take a while.
I landed in the Presidium, and in a few minutes I was walking through the pristine gardens. I stepped inside the Council building, and soon came up to the front desk.
"Can I help you, sir?" The Asari receptionist asked.
"I'm here to see Councilor Anderson." I said. She frowned.
"I'm…sorry. The Councilor doesn't usually take public appointments." She said. I sighed.
"Just…tell him that John wants to talk. He'll know what I'm talking about." I said.
She sighed, rolled her eyes, and typed in the request. She looked at her screen, clearly shocked, and then looked at me.
"He'll…see you right away, sir." She said.
Councilor Anderson was standing out on the balcony of his office, overlooking the Presidium. He turned around and smiled.
"You look good cleaned up, John. I apologize I don't have any Udinas to throw off a balcony right now." He said. I smirked despite myself. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I sighed, and I reached into my pocket.
"Councilor, how well connected are you to the Alliance military today?" I asked. He smiled sagely.
"I didn't give up my contacts when I donned the Council robes, you know." He said. "What do you need?"
"I need you…to find something for me." I said. "I think it's been discontinued but…considering the circumstances of what I'm about to do…I think I'd like the closest we can get to the original." I handed him the sheet of paper that I'd scribbled the serial number on. He stared at it with some interest, and then looked up at me.
"I can find this." He said. I nodded.
"Good." I turned around and walked away.
"Is everything okay, John?" He asked. As I was in the doorway, I turned back and looked at him.
"Yeah…" I said. "Things are alright. Just getting ready. You never know. But I'd like that…if you can find it."
With that, I left
The gardens of the Presidium were pretty, and there was a little breeze that was rustling through the place as a result of the massive fans somewhere in the distance causing a backdraft. I reached into my pocket, and I pulled out a cigar. After a few moments, I was smoking it. It was a good one. The kind that Dad often smoked whenever he had a chance. I looked at the gardens around me, and sighed.
"I meant it, you know." I muttered. "I'd do anything to say something to you again. Tell you what I really felt. And…" I closed my eyes. "And I'll always miss you terribly. I just hope that this…what I'm doing…makes up for the things I did to avenge you."
There's a buzzing noise. A message on my iDroid. Thane just got out of the room with Kolyat. It's time to go.
And so I walk off, lost in memories of a better time.
A/N: A damned long chapter, I know. But I hope it was a good one! The very next one is probably going to feature some action, some terror, and then a very big moment at the end. I guarantee it. Put it this way: John might be becoming the man he once was…but he's not rid of The Butcher yet.