When you vilify, I start to ponder every battle ever fought.
Every thought, imploding in my head…
If you vilify, it's a bitter pill that I will force you to devour.
Enough, why don't we end it right now?
- Device, Vilify
The temperature in the AI Core was noticeably cooler than the medbay. In fact, Shepard shuddered against the chill the moment she walked through the door, wrapping her right arm around her waist to keep warm. Still fighting off several tears that dared to trickle down her cheeks, she glanced around the room, in an effort to avoid Chakwas' concerned and scrutinizing gaze. At first, it seemed as if nothing had changed, but upon further examination, Shepard's stomach lurched when she spotted an unmoving humanoid form lying underneath a white sheet where Legion once lay inactive.
A limp and pale taloned hand peeked from beneath the bleached linen. From the silhouette, the body was clearly turian.
"Chakwas? Who is that?" Shepard whispered. She racked her brain, struggling to recall if there had been another turian with whom she ought to be concerned.
The doctor sighed heavily, "Her name was Tanaquil… We found her in the cell next to yours… still conscious…"
"Tanaquil…," murmured Shepard. Another torrent of forgotten memories flooded her mind as she echoed the name once more.
Two sentries dragged her back to her dark cell, tossing her violently onto the cold, damp concrete floor. Hands tied together, she scuttled to the furthest corner, as far away from her captors as she could manage. The larger of the two charged after her, hauling her to her feet by the front of her tattered shirt and slamming her back into the wall with an audible "thud".
His fetid breath hot upon her face, he seethed, "If the boss didn't find you so damn important to this project, I would kill you where you stand for that little stunt you just pulled."
She screwed up her courage and smirked at the guard, "Untie my hands, and I'll show you another neat little trick."
"Idle threats," he said. "Tomorrow, you'll be under our control. Then we'll see who has the last laugh."
She frowned. She didn't like the sound of that. "Under control? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
The guard released his hold on her, allowing her to crumble into a heap at his feet, her own legs to weak to support her own weight, as he stood laughing mercilessly over her. Still sniggering, he turned on heel and walked out of her cell as she shouted after him, demanding answers. Reaching his partner, he whispered something she didn't quite catch, but before she knew what was happening, she was met with a face full of water, freezing in temperature. The pressure was turned up so high, it caused her to slide across the concrete floor, and crash once more into the wall. The water stung and bit at her like dozens of sharp knives across her burned skin. She struggled to cry out in vain, but when she opened her mouth, she was met with nothing but silence.
The minutes dragged on as the water continued to pound into her, the coldness seeping into her bones. She shuddered violently, tears beginning to flow freely down her bruised face. It wasn't until the two guards tired of their amusement did they finally stop, leaving her alone in the darkness, hugging her knees and sobbing uncontrollably, with only the decadent whispers to keep her company.
An eternity later, and interrupting her despair, a different voice echoed through the shadows, dual toned and hoarse.
"They don't like it when you talk back to them…," Turian… Female…
At first, she only replied with a whimper, struggling against the wet restraints around her wrists as they dug and chafed against her skin.
"If they had their way, we'd all be dead a hundred times over," the turian said again, inching her way closer to the bars that separated them.
She could see with what little light there was, that the turian was also bound at the wrists. Her plating was marred with burns, blue blood seeping through opened sores. Her deep purple clan markings were distorted by a large scar running across the front of her face.
"Who did you say you were?"
"I didn't." the turian chuckled. "But since you asked nicely… Tanaquil… My name's Tanaquil…"
She snorted darkly, "Wish I could remember my name…"
"Eh…," Tanaquil shrugged. "It happens… So… what are you? Soldier? Engineer? Sentinel?"
"Soldier… I think… Maybe…"
"If you're a soldier then how'd they capture you?"
She looked at the turian, eyebrow arched hesitantly, and asked, "You're full of questions, aren't you?"
Tanaquil laughed, the sound of her amusement echoed eerily off the concrete walls of their prison, "I haven't had much in the way of stimulating conversation lately… So… Yea… I suppose I am…"
A flash of a blue design, gentle grey eyes and a scarred mandible flickered in front of her, and she frowned at the memory, "I think I've worked with a turian before…"
"You sure about that?"
She frowned, "Gallus? Gaius? Garrus?... No… I don't know…"
The turian gazed at her sadly, at a loss to say anything that might be even remotely helpful.
The pair spoke long into the night, keeping one another company, all but forgetting they were in hell.
The next day, after the guards returned her to her cell, she couldn't recall their conversation from the previous night and had to be reminded of the turian's name.
"What a shame…" Shepard said in a low tone. "What could warrant doing this to someone?"
"Did you know her well?" Chakwas asked quietly.
Shepard sighed, closing her eyes against the stinging tears, "She was the closest thing I had to a friend in that cell… No one deserves to die alone…"
"She didn't… Garrus stayed with her until… until it happened," Chakwas said softly.
"Good… I'll be sure she gets a proper burial when this is all over," Shepard nodded, a bit relieved.
"That's been taken care of," said the doctor.
"Already?"
"Yes, Primarch's perogative… Beside's you, of course," Chakwas stated. Shepard frowned at her, "I didn't realize the Primarch had a hand in this…"
Karin arched an eyebrow at the Commander curiously, "You mean… he hasn't told you yet?"
Shepard was growing impatient, "Tell me what?"
"Garrus… he's the new Primarch… or at least has been for the last six months or so…," Karin said in disbelief, rubbing the back of her neck. "He didn't say anything?"
She shook her head despondently, her eyes bigger than saucers. She couldn't believe her ears. Garrus? Primarch? Sure, she had joked with him about the possibility, but he had never been keen on the idea, brushing away the very mention of it, sometimes even avoiding the conversation all together.
One overwhelming revelation after another was beginning to make her head spin, leading her to a dozen other questions. How much more had she actually missed? What else had changed in time she had been gone?
She tapped her earpiece, hailing Garrus, "So… Primarch Vakarian, huh?"
"Yes," was his monotone reply.
"And you failed to mention it, why?"
"I don't know Shepard…," he groaned. By his subharmonics, she could almost see him shrugging his shoulders indifferently. "With more pressing matters at hand, it didn't seem all that important, I guess."
"Garrus! You're the Primarch for crying out loud!"
"We'll talk about it later…," he muttered.
"But Garrus!"
"We'll talk about it later…," he repeated. "Besides… I thought we had a plan to get out of this mess… Or did you forget already?"
Shepard rolled her eyes, "Alright, alright!"
Taking several steps forward put her directly in front of EDI's console. Staring down at it, there were dozens of keys, some with letters and numbers, and others with various symbols she had never seen before. She had no idea where to begin.
"Okay, EDI. What is it that I'm looking at? Because I don't exactly see a big red button I can just push."
Garrus' mirthful snort was clearly audible through her earpiece.
"Laugh it up, Garrus," she chided, though the corners of her mouth played upward, into a small smirk.
"Tali's sending you a hacking program via your omni-tool that should allow you to override the firewall," EDI said, her blue orb materializing next to the console. "Dr. Chakwas has a microdisk that'll you'll need to sync with Tali's program. It should only a few minutes."
"Should?" Shepard said skeptically. "Should is not a word I would prefer to hear right at the moment…"
"The technology we're using to do this is a bit… archaic," said Tali, chiming in. "There's always a chance it could fail."
"Great…," muttered Shepard. "So why are we using it then?"
"Keelah, Shepard! We're using it because they won't be expecting an attack from tech this old," exclaimed Tali, as if it were common knowledge. "And because, if you remember correctly, I'm pretty good at what I do."
"That you are, Tali," Shepard agreed. Her omni-tool beeped, signalling the completion of the hacking protocol transfer.
"Now, you're going to have to slide the disk into my console," EDI directed, but not before Joker could interject. "Can I slide my disk in there too?" he asked, stifling off a fit of laughter, with chortling distinct in the background.
"You should have stayed, Lola," Vega said, joining in the conversation and adding his input. "It's a fucking fiesta down here."
Shepard rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand, annoyed, "Guys! Now's not the time!"
"Sorry Commander," came Joker's sheepish reply. "Just trying to make light of a shitty situation…"
EDI continued, unamused, "There's actually a drive just underneath the monitor. Tali and Legion installed it just before the Rannoch mission last year."
Chakwas handed Shepard a very small disk that she had pulled from the depths of an inside pocket, who in turn, inserted it into the specified drive.
Picking up her limp arm, Shepard set it down onto the console for easier access to her omni-tool, and said, "I miss Legion…"
"There's something else you should know, Shepard…," Tali said quietly.
"If it's about the geth… I already know," Shepard said regretfully, bowing her head. "It was a painful decision… but it had to be done…"
"Shepard?" Garrus started.
"I'll explain later," she said. She wasn't ready to have that particular discussion quite yet. "Okay, Tali's program is running… And… so far, so good. It's already at fifteen percent."
"Good," Tali answered back. "Keep reading off its progress to me."
"Thirty percent. And this will bring down that firewall EDI mentioned?" Shepard questioned. She wanted to be sure. The last thing they needed right now was for this to somehow corrupt EDI and turn her rogue.
"Yes," the quarian said. "In theory… Never actually got a chance to test it before though…"
"And you're just telling us this now?!"
"You worry too much. Just keep reading the percentages," said Tali, oozing confidence she never had before.
Shepard scratched at the bandages at the base of her head, a constant reminder of the hell that she had gone through. Echoing doubts Garrus once had, she said miserably, "I want something to go right… just once… Fifty percent…"
"It will, Shepard," Garrus said to her. He must switched his comms to a more private and secured channel. At the sound of his calm and collected voice, tears began cascading down her cheeks, and she changed her frequency to match his.
"Damnit, Garrus," she cried. "I'm so fucked up… My mind… My memories… I can't do this anymore… I'm so damn tired…"
"Shepard, listen to me very carefully," he said firmly. From the corner of her eye, she could see Chakwas trying very hard not to listen in on their personal exchange, but at this point, she didn't care. "You have to… and you will... It's who you are… and it's one of the many reasons why I fell in love with you in the first place. You just have to push all these doubts aside… just for now… just like old times… We'll deal with them when this is over. Alright?"
She fought back more tears. How the hell did she wind up with someone who continued to show her never ending support, loyalty, compassion?
"Okay," she said, wiping away her qualms and misgivings. "I love you Garrus…"
"I know you do," he replied gently.
And with that, Shepard took a deep, steadying breath to regain her composure and changed her comm channel back, updating Tali in the process, "We're at eighty-five percent."
"Good. Now, when it finishes, you'll have thirty seconds to type in the code that pops up on your omni-tool, into the console."
"And if I don't do it in thirty seconds?"
"Then we'll just have to restart the override command, that's all," said Tali.
Shepard nodded her understanding and watched as the final percentages began to tick away. The screen in front of her was completely black, save for a blue progress bar.
"Ninety-five… Ninety-six… Ninety-seven… Ninety-" she stopped mid-sentence.
"Everything alright?" Tali asked, a slight hesitation in her voice.
Something else had appeared at the bottom left hand corner the blank screen. A very small and flashing prgrm{PJCT:/ALEYA}run/ to be more precise. Shepard furrowed her brow, confusion seeping its way into her brain.
"Tali… Is this a file name?" she bent her head close to the monitor to see the tiny font. "Did you forget a step? Project Aleya? What is that?"
"Project Aleya? That's not mine… That's-" Tali began, though Shepard interrupted her almost immediately when a huge white and orange Cerberus logo, materialized on screen, alongside a countdown clock with fifty-nine seconds on it, and counting.
"Alliance networks acquired. Virus uploading in fifty-seven seconds," said a feminine computer voice that was definitely not EDI's.
"Uh-oh…," Shepard trailed off as she backed away from the console. "I didn't do it!"
"Tali!" EDI warned. "It's not a firewall! It's a Cerberus virus!"
The quarian swore loudly over the comms, "My software must have triggered it…"
"What do I do?"
"Give me a minute, Shepard! Let me think!"
"We don't have a minute!"
"Virus uploading in thirty seconds,"
EDI interjected, "You're going to have to shut it all down."
Shepard came to an upsetting realization and asked, "But won't that shut you down as well?"
The AI's blue orb blinked at her, "Yes, but we can't worry about that right now. I'm looking at this virus code, and it's set to uplink with the Alliance's network and sabotage it."
"I'm not letting you-"
"Shepard, shut up," EDI snapped so viciously, it made her take another step backwards. "There's a junction box underneath my console. You're going to have to cut the power supply. Unfortunately, you can't just unplug it."
"Virus uploading in twenty seconds,"
Shepard stooped beneath the monitor, and sure enough, she found a metal box containing dozens of different colored wires.
"Oh this certainly doesn't make things any easier!" she muttered irritably.
"Virus uploading in fifteen seconds,"
Sifting through at least a hundred wires in a small panel hidden in shadows, was certainly not Shepard's idea of a fun time. Chakwas handed her a scalpel to use as a knife for when she found what she was looking for.
"All you have to do is find the power supply!" Tali panicked.
"Damnit, Tali! I'm a soldier, not an engineer!" she spat back angrily, flustered, and with sweat dripping into her eyes.
"Look for a large black cord. It should be larger than any other wire down there," EDI commanded.
"Virus uploading in ten seconds,"
"Got it!"
"Five… Four…,"
"EDI?"
"Three… Two…,"
"Do it!"
"O-" Shepard cut the cord one-handed, at the very last possible moment, and when the computerized voice faded out, she was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Head on the cold floor, she listened to the Normandy groan under the loss of power. One deck down, the drive core gasped and died with a stubborn whine. The propulsion units sputtered and powered down, and at last, the lights dimmed and finally went out all together, plunging them into darkness.
Outside the medbay, she could hear the Cerberus troops shouting to one another in an attempt to regroup.
"All power is shut down," Tali said through Shepard's earpiece. "Only basic life functions remain."
"Well that could have turned out a lot worse," Shepard whispered, head still lying on the metallic floor, heart racing in her chest. "The plans haven't changed. You ready Garrus?"
"Sure thing," he said. "You alright?"
"Yeah… considering I very nearly sabotaged my own military's network. I think I'll just stay here for a minute."
Updated 6/7/14