-Garrus-

"Fucking dammit!," Jane curses, slamming the Hammerhead's controlling levers back and setting the heavy vehicle down behind a towering, natural column of rock. "Garrus, get in the god damned driver's seat. I can't take it anymore."

Garrus raises a brow, but stands from his seat, the height making him hunch in the small compartment of the new ground vehicle never meant for a Turian occupant. He can't say that he doesn't know why his mate would be so frustrated with a seemingly straightforward approach of dodging Geth drones with trying to find and destroy the generators blocking their access. In typical Cerberus manner, they've been chasing a near cold trail and half-leads halfway across the galaxy for days, this being the last possible location of Dr. Manuel Cayce, Cerberus' leading researcher into the supposed Prothean artifacts in this area of space and missing since the ship he was on, the MSV Rosalie, fell under Geth attack.

He still doesn't quite know how to feel about being an unwilling participant in an open disregard of the law demanding all Prothean tech be cataloged and handed over to the Council, but he's not really in the position to complain. None of them are with the Illusive Man's threat to ground them at every port they take through some failsafe in the AI whenever the hell he feels like they should be dropping everything for 'a wild goose chase', as he's heard some of the crew call it.

Should it come down to it, he's sure that, in her own form of rebellion, his wife will have her own special response should they actually find something here that doesn't involve handing potentially ground-breaking technology over to the human supremacist group. Also, he doubts any of the crew would argue her decision – even congratulate her in some cases with certain people on the ship beginning to question their employer.

It's almost a relief to begin to see the subtle shifts in the human crew – those who were once fiercely loyal to Cerberus despite its shady past – away from the man that gives orders from light-years away and towards the woman that eats, lives, and breathes the same air they do. In her uniquely 'Jane' way, his mate as slowly turned the Normandy into her ship, sucking in the Cerberus loyals, ripping away their false beliefs, and throwing them back out as stronger, independent members of Commander Shepard's loyal crew. Even Miranda, the one he had believed would offer the most resistance, has begun to see that she'd rather follow the orders of someone inside the line of fire than in the safety of whatever space station the Illusive Man sits by and plays puppet master from.

A loud blast, followed by the flat 'heh, heh, heh' of their Krogan team mate, shakes the Hammerhead and Garrus doesn't need to look at the visual sensors to know the drone following them up the path is gone in a shower of sparks and scrap metal. Sitting into the pilot's seat and adjusting the harness to at least somewhat fit his broad, rounded cowl and chest, he considers that at least it seems like Grunt is enjoying himself. A good thing, too, because even he could hear the murmurs of uneasiness concerning the odd way the Krogan's been acting, which must be nothing compared to the amount of complaints Jane's been getting because Garrus was said to never leave the Main Battery.

"Alright, you do this fucking shit," Jane huffs as she straps her harness closed, taking out her frustration in the force she uses to slam the clasps closed. "And with luck, this will be the last fucking place we need to search for this doctor. I swear, these people get around like an STD on Omega."

He cringes at the thought, knowing their companion is too focused on the next target he can blast with the giant cannon at his fingertips than their conversation. "Please, Jane. I don't think I, of all people, need a reminder of that place."

He's pleased to see the slight hint of amusement in her eyes when they cut to him as he takes the controls, lifting the giant hover-tank off the ground. The frustration and anger at the whole situation of their past week is still there, but he'll take what little he can get, enjoying when she responds, "You wouldn't be the reason Mordin was researching the outbreak of scale itch on the Normandy? My, you've become adventurous…"

"Jane, you wound me," he says in mock hurt as he motions silently for her to give him the readout from her console. Listening for her callout of the situation of the machine's thruster reserves – this thing has the oddest exchange rate of power and upward/forward thrust I've ever seen – he pushes forward and around the large kinetic barrier they've been trying to drop, chuckling once he gets the Hammerhead into a steady acceleration back into the field. "And if I'm not mistaken, you haven't found any reason to complain about my sense of adventure."

She snorts to hold in her laughter bubbling in her throat, but he takes the heated look in her eyes as agreement enough to that statement, knowing how to read her better than the entire galaxy that only knows the Commander. She moves to speak as he boosts the tank up the cliff side, most likely to say something about just what she has to say to his 'adventurous side', but is interrupted by the clearly unamused Krogan at the cannons. "Will you find me something to shoot, already?"

The two up front share a soft chuckle as Garrus pushes forward, guiding the Hammerhead through a column of towering rocks. Hearing Jane call out an incoming group of three rocket-armed drones - and confirming with his own radar's visuals – he slides the vehicle out of the first launched rocket and corrects the strafe just as he hears the cannon priming, lining up the hover-craft for Grunt to get a direct line of sight.

The sound of the cannon is muffled from the heavy plating of the tank, the soft rattle of unbuckled harnesses against his and Grunts metal armors from the heavy vibrations the only thing that signals Jane to switch power to upward thrusters as they 'hop' the next fired rocket. She confirms one down as he occupies himself with dodging and lining up a shot for the next. The two remaining defense drones in their path fall in much the same manner, leaving the generator responsible for the remaining strength of the dig site's barrier openly accessible.

Without any readings of possible synthetic interruptions in the area, Grunt is able to take out his full aggression on the defenseless shield generator. Taking the moment to let the almost overheating engines cool – it's clear this thing is still in testing stages when fifty degree Celsius is frying its engines or freezing up from Lattesh's ice. The Mako definitely managed in worse, at least until Jane sent it through a miniature relay – he glances over at his mate to see a scowl still hammered into her features. It's almost as if she has fed off the Krogan's aggressive state, and while that would be all too accurate to compare his mate with an out-of-control Krogan, he knows her better than that – she's still frustrated with the subtle control techniques of their 'employer'.

"I take it this seat switch wasn't just because you wanted a chance to see my amazing driving skills." He chuckles when she blinks, her innocent expression of being caught with her mind elsewhere making her look years younger – like a child in an armor costume two sizes too big. At her continued confusion, he explains as a call from the onboard computer confirms the kinetic barrier has finally fallen around their destination. "You can't possibly be upset because the Hammerhead couldn't handle your knack for running things over before the gunner can take them out."

She snorts at that, as if he's the blaring alarms and overheating systems that had them all on the edge of their seats in fear of dying in a fiery crash. "Not my fault this thing blows a gasket with just a little tap."

He'll take the slight amusement in her features as reason to continue as he lifts the prototype tank off the ground and swings it to drop back down from the rocky platform they're on, heading towards the Prothean dig site. "I certainly wouldn't use that term-"

"Love tap, then."

"-especially not when flames were billowing out of an engine that was stuttering, causing our lift to bottom out."

She rolls her eyes as Grunt hops off the gunner and struts, heavy-footed, to the hatch in preparation. Hopping up, herself, Jane moves to their gear and grabs helmets, shoving the Krogan his despite his groan of protest. "Suit up, Grunt. It's fifty Celsius out there," he snorts in dismissal as she pointedly continues, "and there's no atmosphere. Helmet, tough shit."

The Krogan grumbles as he pops on his massive silver helmet and she ducks back under the overhang dividing the cockpit from the open cabin. Garrus chuckles when she holds out his own helmet, raising a brow at her special form of 'motherly concern'- as most of the crew call the various instances where she would often bulldoze her way into their lives and concerns under the guise of 'helping'. Not what he'd call the 'put your fucking helmet on or I'll make you, dammit' attitude she often has, but he guesses it better to have a commander insist with force than just let you step out into a thin atmosphere and suffocate.

The gray helmet nudges into his shoulder in her silent insistence and he chuckles again at her determined scowl, but she doesn't force until he sets the Hammerhead completely down, shutting off the main systems. "Alright, alright," he says with a hint of humor to his voice when the helmet wordlessly nudges again. "But you still have to answer me."

"Answer what?" she asked, confused, as she slips on her helmet, he slipping on his own. Both pieces of equipment lock and pressurize just in time for Grunt to open the hatch and hop out, leaving Garrus a moment to stop his wife and give her a look, knowing she understands it through their tinted helmets. "Fine, fine…" She sighs over the comms, the sound barely audible over the disruption filters. "I'm still pissed about all of this." She waves around them as she heads towards their weapons stashed by the exit.

"You mean cleaning up Cerberus' messes?" He accepts his rifle and magnetizes it to his back before grabbing his Mattock. "It's not too big of a surprise, really. Weren't we always cleaning up someone's mess?"

He hears her snort as she hops down, shotgun in hand. "Not the point. The Alliance held my leash because they were my boss and I actually saw the good it would do in the long run. The Illusive Fucking Prick tells me what to do because it's either that, or he holds my freedom over my head – fuck, everyone's freedom. He's choking me with the god damn leash, Garrus, and I can't do a damn thing about it." She waits for him to hop out behind her before slamming a fist on the controls to shut the hatch. "And I can't shake the feeling that each thing I do for Cerberus is another nail in my coffin should I ever piss them off. They have perfect blackmail material."

He is quiet at that, not sure how to respond when he doesn't entirely believe otherwise. Her fears are completely understandable and he knows that when the time comes where she once again has to become the 'symbol of humanity', their involvements with this group will be more difficult to deny or brush under the rug once word gets out that they've been working behind Council law's back. He knows she's never choose that life of the Alliance and Spectre-hood that abandoned her without good reason, but what better reason is there to fulfill your duty than being the only few that truly know what's coming?

In as quickly as he knows of her, she shakes the frustrations off with a noticeable shrug of her shoulders, loosening them up for potential battle as she lowers her stance for recoil control. Her helmet glances his way and he nods, taking up his own weapon and falling beside her six. Grunt too, immediately notices the shift in to The Commander and takes his own large shotgun out to fall behind Jane as she leads down into the excavated ruins.

The deeper they climb, the more in shambles the site becomes, ruined by time and age. Bodies occasionally littering the dusty corridors are no longer recent kills, the blood from the blue armor already soaked into the dirt and dried up into black puddles.

Garrus doesn't feel too bad for them, though, as the stark white on the armor shows them as none other than Blue Suns. Of course, he knows the mercenary company stretches across the galaxy under multiple commanders and leaders, but that doesn't excuse the dead here. Not if they must have been using dangerous – and idiotic – force against the Geth to destabilize and collapse some of the tunnels as evident by numerous bodies pinned under heavy stone and concrete slabs. "Cerberus is apparently not against hiring merc-"

"Dr. O'Loy must have been indoctrinated by the Reapers. I found him sending our data to a Geth ship." Jane slowly approaches a couple of bodies, now including what looks like scientists or their assistants, and a partially destroyed datapad that seems stuck on loop. "I won't be responsible for another Geth attack, another Eden Prime," the male voice declares, a hint of fear in his voice, but also something akin to their days hunting Saren. "I've silenced O'Loy… forever."

"Reapers, huh? I guess the defeat of Sovereign didn't sway the Geth's beliefs," Jane says aloud as she crouches and tries to get more out of the pad. A few taps on it leaves it shattering in her hands as she huffs in disappointment. "Shit… let's keep moving. With luck we can find another recording, something, to help us figure out whatever the hell could have indoctrinated people."

The odd feeling around the ruins surrounds the group as they descend deeper into the cold darkness of the tunnels. An odd sounds echoes through their helmets, almost like a pulsing, mechanical energy, but they have yet to find the source when they approach another technician downed most likely by the Geth attack. Grunt bends down and grabs a cracked datapad, offering it to Jane, and it lights up as one of them must have hit the distorted activation command.

"It's too late for me. They're still in my head, stealing my thoughts. I can't keep them out. I've got no choice but to destroy this relic… and myself." The recording ends there, repeating as Jane's helmet glances the only direction forward, into a dark, shadowed cavern that is carved into the rock.

While the recorded evidence sounds like the indoctrination they saw when chasing Saren, some of it doesn't fit exactly. If Doctor Cayce had only recently arrived on the dig site, as his writings left behind in the upper camp state, the effects should have left him a mindless idiot like it did the Salarian STG team on Virmire. Yet, here, he was still able to question the influence and, if Sovereign took a time to assert control gradually without incapacitating its victim, how could something short of another Reaper assert itself so seamlessly without destroying the host? Or was something else at work here? Perhaps a combination of factors that made Cayce believe he was indoctrinated?

They slowly approach the last possible end to their search, the soles of their heavy boots cracking and grinding tiny rocks underfoot as they approach was really just looks like a wall. Jane lowers her gun, probably sharing the same thought that Cayce must really have destroyed the relic as he claimed, when the wall starts to shift, revealing a somewhat familiar sight. "Is that?"

"I'll be damned," she breathes, staring up at the silvery, liquid-like orb seemingly floating above a slightly concave platform. "That thing certainly isn't Reaper tech."

His brow raises under his helmet and he looks to her, seeing her putting her gun on her hip. He's incredulous, but they did have one of those exact things on the Normandy for a long time before she handed it over to the Council after taking Sovereign down. "How can you be so sure?"

"The Council tested the one we found on Elentania. They don't know if it was Prothean or maybe a Prothean-something else hybrid piece of tech." She approaches a flickering datapad at the foot of the levitating orb's pedestal, picking it up and reading it as she talks. "It's like a beacon, but not. Like a connected net of memory banks. I don't know exactly. Too busy to pay attention at the time…"

"So we wasted our time on this?" Grunt grunts as he kicks a particularly big rock off the bridge that leads into the cavern, obviously upset he didn't get his chance to break and smash any possible Geth that made it through before the barrier was thrown up. "Let's get out of here, Shepard."

"Wait… O'Loy wasn't indoctrinated. He was working with the Collectors. He was going to hand over this artifact for supposed protection from the harvesting." She sighs and tosses the datapad down, turning back to the floating orb as her helmet cranes up at its massive size. "I don't think any of these people were indoctrinated."

Garrus tilts his head at that, finding it hard to believe someone as clearly unstable as Cayce seemed through his recordings would be openly allowed around sensitive ruins and research. This is Cerberus, though. The people who tried to train Rachni and Thorian husks. Just to be sure of what she's getting at, knowing from her voice that she has an idea already, he asks, "And Cayce? What's your take on him?"

"There was a man on Eden Prime who, if you were mistaken, could be taken as an indoctrinated nutcase, but he wasn't. He was just some mentally unstable man who happened to touch the beacon." She steps forward, standing beside him at the base of the orbs' slow rotation in the air. "The beacon, Garrus. The man touches the same Prothean beacon I did, most likely saw the same thing I did, and he couldn't handle it in his state. Perhaps that happened here."

"And I doubt Cerberus would care about mental instability when hiring specialists so long as they get the job done."

She snorts and chuckles over the comm. "They hired us. What's that tell you?"

"Ugh… can we go already?"

"Don't get your britches in a twist," Jane turns and starts off towards Grunt, jostling his shoulder. "We just need to get this orb thing and go." Her helmet looks to his and he can practically feel her smile as she rolls her hand exaggeratedly. "Go on, grab the thing, Garrus."

"Didn't you just say Cayce probably went insane because of it?" She shrugs and he scowls in distaste for losing whatever questionable sanity he may still have agreeing to half the things he agrees to do with her. Even if his helmet hides his expression, he's sure she understands as she laughs.

"I never said that thing did it, I said that a beacon probably did. I heard that guy was a brilliant scientist on Prothean artifacts and I know he didn't die on Eden Prime, so that was probably, most likely, him." She waves at the orb again. "Touch it, you big pussy."

He ignores Grunt's bark of laughter at that as his body turns back to the massive, glowing orb. He remembers well what happened to Jane when she touched it, how she dropped like she'd passed out for a split second, but he also remembers the story she told of some oddly fascinating experience of living another's life as if occupying their body. Though he doesn't see any appeal himself in that, it would be something he could share with her and she seems strangely adamant about him doing it in her stead.

Exhaling heavily with a 'why the hell not?' ringing in his head, Garrus reaches out through the static charge in the air around the orb and touches his gloved talons against the surface. Where he expects his fingers to slip into the liquid shape, he instead touches solid surface. A surface that flicks a flash of green light over it as his eyes see something very different from silver and reflection.

Jane? And Liara, Alenko… myself? This is… Elentania. Though he remembers the time well, he never truly saw all their shocked and awed expressions as he does now, as if in a memory. How could he? The orb never reflected their own visage and, yet, he sees it now as if it had, like a mirror, but that's not quite accurate considering the angle of the image. After all, he never was able to see the slight shrug she gives from his position standing further up the crater just before she reaches towards him.

Or it felt like me, he thinks with slowly returning realization as he comes to. His hand on his chest plate as if he moved to cover her curious touch with his own. He blinks a bit in surprise and looks down at the compressed form of the orb, his aching face telling him he's in the present once more. Soft boot steps approach him and he feels the weight of a hand on his shoulder.

"Did you see anything?" she asks softly, motioning to the orb. "You didn't drop out like I did… I'm a bit jealous."

That cuts through his confusion enough to pull a huff of a laugh. "Yeah," he responds, lifting a hand to his helmet as if he could feel the pulsing ache that had disappeared for a fraction of a moment. It's almost as if that is a bigger shock than the sudden shift between time, the one thing that helps to remind him of where he is when he can't really see or touch her outside of her armor. "I think these orbs remember us."

SquigglySquid says: Super sorry about falling off the face of the Earth for a while. I've been fighting big health problems and haven't had the heart to sit and write. I thank whoever has stuck with me and promise to do better.