"Joker called me while you were out, he said to pass on a message." Garrus said, as soon as Shepard walked through the apartment door. "He said that if you don't get back to the Normandy soon, he's taking over as Commander and flying her off the station."
Shepard set down her pistol on the counter in the kitchen, pulling a beer out of the refrigerator. "He might get his wish. I just left from meeting with Dr. Ann Bryson, we have a lead on where Leviathan might be."
She saw the interest on Garrus' face as he looked up from the book he was reading on his omni-tool. He had been relaxing on the couch, but sat up at her words. "Really? How did you manage that?"
"We let the artifact indoctrinate Ann, and EDI tracked its location while it spoke through her to us."
Garrus nearly dropped the glass he had been holding loosely in one hand. "You spoke to Leviathan through Ann, again? What did it say this time?"
"More of the same bullshit about the darkness, and not breaching it." She took a sip of the beer, trying to ease her way into the things that had been said. "It called me a threat this time, that's a new one." She added conversationally, as if the phrase hadn't caused her to rethink pursuing the lead, if only for a moment. The sight of James struggling with a tiny woman half his weight wasn't something she was going to forget in a hurry.
Garrus waited until she sat on the couch next to him before speaking. "It called you a threat… anything else?" His voice was carefully controlled, she knew he was trying to not overreact.
"Then Ann said it wants to kill me," Shepard said, hurriedly rushing through the words. "But hey, what doesn't these days?" It didn't work, Garrus was staring at her anxiously.
"So we still don't know what this Leviathan is, but we think it's a rogue Reaper who can kill other Reapers. And now it wants to kill you. And you still want to go chasing after it?"
"Garrus, we're at a stalemate." Shepard sighed, bringing up their current position in the war yet again. They had been confined in the apartment for almost a week now, and had been through this several times. "Traynor and EDI are still trying to track where Kai Leng went after Thessia, but no luck yet. We have no other lead on the Catalyst to finish the currently-useless Crucible. Finding an ancient monster that can kill Reapers seems like the best thing we can hope for at this point."
Garrus shook his head, pushing off of the couch and walking to the next room. She heard a bottle clink, it sounded as if he was pouring himself a drink. "Are you sure you're ready to jump back into this, Shepard?" She heard him call out from the next room.
She wanted to say no. She wanted to say that the only thing she felt ready to do was hide here, in the comfortable apartment, for the rest of the time they had left before the Reapers made it to the Citadel. She wanted to say a lot of things, none of which were appropriate for Commander Shepard to feel about her position in the war.
"Yes." Was all she said.
Garrus was watching Shepard closely, while fighting off the Reaper forces aboard the tossing ship. He felt slightly ill between the waves throwing the ship around, being surrounded by water, and the constant worry that Shepard was going to throw herself into harm's way yet again, like she had done to try and save the gunship pilot on Thessia.
Shepard seemed to be back to normal, when it came to her fighting at least, despite this being the first fight since her defeat on Thessia. She was sticking to cover, only ducking out in order to fire off a round from the new shotgun she had requisitioned. Garrus let himself breathe a sigh of relief –for just a moment –after taking out a husk with a controlled shot from his sniper rifle.
Cortez finally managed to get the shuttle back in the air, but it wasn't for long. Garrus felt a shockwave shake the ship, and Cortez' voice sounded over their comms. "Another pulse hit me! Flight control's scrambled!"
Garrus watched helplessly as the shuttle went into a tail-spin, crashing onto the far-end of the ship. Shepard's voice yelled in his ear, over the comm. "Damn it! Cortez is in trouble! Get to him!"
And it happened again. She leapt over the cover she had been behind and ran forward, charging straight towards two marauders as she tried to get to Cortez. Garrus took aim at one of the monsters, taking it down as Shepard's shields failed from return gunfire just as she got behind another shipping container, using it for a makeshift cover. "Shepard, if I see you step out of cover before your shields regenerate, I'm throwing that damn shotgun overboard!" Garrus said tersely, taking out the other marauder.
She didn't answer, but EDI did. "I'm holding the husks off of the shuttle, Shepard. Garrus, can you target the enemies that are attempting to flank us?"
"Got it, EDI." He responded, steadying his gun and taking aim again. It didn't take long to whittle down the remaining forces, especially once Shepard's shields were back up and she was able to join the fight again.
"Okay, we're clear." Shepard said, making her way across the ship to Cortez and the shuttle. Garrus scanned her with his visor as she walked in front of him, towards Cortez. She hadn't been injured in that firefight, and he thanked the Spirits for that.
"Nice work, Commander, but there's a development." Cortez replied over the comm, sounding grim. "We need to talk."
Garrus listened to Cortez explain his plan to Shepard, keeping watch of the deck along with EDI to make sure the husks stayed at bay. He was content listening to the two discuss tactics until Cortez mentioned the diving mech, Triton, drawing Garrus' attention away from the husks.
"As long as the seawater hasn't corroded it, you should be good to go." Cortez was saying when Garrus left his post. She was planning on getting in the damn thing. He knew Shepard was a risk-taker, and he knew that lately she had been taking every risk presented to her. But this was pushing things too far.
"We chased Leviathan this far. Let's finish this." She said, throwing her shotgun and assault rifle in the shuttle. She kept the pistol that was strapped to her hip after she caught the look Garrus gave her when she reached for it.
"It's a long ways down." Cortez answered, taking a long look at the mech. "Not going to sugarcoat it."
Garrus looked from Shepard, to the sea, and then back to Shepard before finally speaking. "Shepard, there has to be another way. Hold on a minute and let us think this through."
"Shepard, perhaps you are unaware of the degree of risk." EDI spoke up, firing at an approaching husk. "There is serious endangerment to your life, including the possibility of-"
"I know what there's a possibility of, EDI." Shepard cut her off, looking at the Triton standing behind them. She made her way to the diving machine, Garrus at her heels as she walked away.
"Shepard, let me do this." He finally managed to get the words out as he watched Shepard surveying the machine. The thought of going into that water in that machine terrified him. But the thought of Shepard going down in it made him feel like his heart was going to stop beating at any moment. "You stay up here, keep searching for a way off this ship, and… and I'll go down there and find Leviathan." He finished lamely, unable to come up with a good reason as to why he should go down instead of her.
"I need to get in the water before those Reaper forces come back." She answered, ignoring his pleas to take her place. The Triton opened and she climbed in, and Garrus moved forward, unable to keep the panic from his voice.
"Listen, Shepard, I'm all for crazy ideas, but this one's off the charts." He reached a hand out to her, needing her to take it. To get out of the mech. To not go into that water, where he would be useless if anything went wrong. "Please, Shepard, don't do this."
"We can't get off of this place unless we find Leviathan." Shepard replied, reaching out and taking his hand in hers, and squeezing it. But not getting out of the mech. "We've come too far to stop now. The way home is through Leviathan."
"Okay, seals check out. Oxygen pressure is nominal." Cortez was rattling off figures as he checked the stability of the diving mech. "Systems are a go. It's as ready as I can make it."
"I'm going." Shepard said, and Garrus met her gaze again. He felt her grip slacken as she let go of his hand.
"But Shepard-" He reached for her hand again, but she made the mech move back a step, and closed the domed hatch between them.
"I'll be fine." He heard her voice over his comm. He walked by her side as she made the mech walk, trying desperately to find some way to hold her back, but there was none.
Instead, he had to watch in horror as she walked to the edge of the platform and dove into the water below. As she sank out of sight, Garrus had never felt so helpless in his life. A turian stuck aboard a ship, unable to swim. If anything happened to Shepard in the water, he knew he wouldn't be able to do a single damned thing to help her.
After Shepard's comm cut out only a few minutes after she dove, Garrus started searching the ship for another Triton. He needed to go into the water, he needed to find Shepard and get her back to the surface. He ran to each shipping container, throwing the doors open and searching the contents to confirm that there wasn't another Triton available.
He finally approached the shuttle again, breathing hard. Partly from the exertion, partly from his frayed nerves. "EDI, how can I get down to where Shepard's at?"
EDI looked at him, an expression of unease on her face. "I'm sorry, Garrus, there is no other way available to us with the shuttle out of commission." Garrus swore, not at EDI, but at his own incompetence. "Even if you were able to swim, you could not swim down far enough to help her should she require it."
"I know, EDI." Garrus leaned against the shuttle, rubbing his head as he ran through scenarios in his mind. Scenarios in which he had managed to talk Shepard out of diving. Where he had sat her down before this mission and had a talk with her about the way she seemed to be doing everything she could to put herself in the way of danger.
He stayed that way until the Reaper forces came back, and then it was time to fight. With EDI at his side, it wasn't difficult to keep the creatures at bay, but he was distracted. He was listening for Shepard every moment, and when, what seemed like a lifetime later, a splashing sound came from off the side of the ship, he looked out above the cover.
There was the Triton, with Shepard inside, making its way back onto the ship. His heart rose for only a moment before the hatch opened, and he caught sight of Shepard. Her eyes were closed, and he could see blood running down her face as she pulled herself out of the mech. She didn't so much as climb out of the mech as she did fall from it, landing hard on her hands and knees on the deck, near two Brutes. Shepard tried to stand, but her legs seemed unable to hold her, and Garrus was running for her before giving it a second thought, yelling to EDI for cover fire.
She collapsed before he reached her, she was trying to crawl out of the way of the monsters. But as he made it to her side, one of the Brutes began to fight the other. Ignoring the oddity in order to focus on Shepard, Garrus reached under her arms to pull her up, then looped one of her arms around his neck, grasping it with one hand while the other went around her waist as he pulled her along the deck. "Shepard's back! Cortez, talk to me!"
"We're good to go!" Cortez' voice came over the comm, sounding relieved. "I don't know what the Commander did, but the pulse is offline!" The shuttle came soaring over Garrus' head and touched down nearby.
Shepard took a few steps here and there as he dragged her towards the shuttle, but soon became limp. Bearing the dead weight of Shepard and her armor, Garrus picked her up and heaved her into the shuttle, climbing in after her. He pulled on her arms to move her away from the door as the shuttle lifted off, EDI climbing in after them at the last second.
Garrus ignored Cortez' warnings of a Reaper as he ripped off his gloves and slapped his hands against Shepard's face, trying to get some warmth back in her skin. Her eyes were closed, she wasn't responding, and she was as cold as ice. "Shepard! Wake up!" His voice was strained as he shook her shoulders. "She's freezing!" He said anxiously, looking up at EDI, who was scanning Shepard with a worried look on her face.
"Shepard's body temperature is roughly 5 degrees below human ambient body temperature." EDI said, kneeling on the opposite side of Shepard. "If it does not raise soon, she will begin to go into organ failure."
He wiped the blood from her nose and pressed his hands back to her cheeks, praying to the Spirits that she would open her eyes. "Shepard, wake up, please." He pleaded, pressing his forehead to hers.
A loud noise next to his face made him pull away, as Shepard began violently coughing, fighting against him until she realized who he was. Garrus pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her shaking shoulders, as EDI commented. "Body temperature rising, blood pressure rising, and pulse rising. At this trajectory, vitals should return back to normal within minutes."
"Thanks, EDI." Garrus responded shakily, pulling away to sit down in one of the seats against the wall, tugging Shepard up to sit next to him. He scanned her with his omni-tool, checking for any wounds. "How are you feeling, Shepard?"
"Hell of a headache." She replied, sounding slightly hoarse as she put her head in her hands.
"Never do that again." Garrus answered, closing his omni-tool after it showed no immediate danger to her life. "What happened down there?"
"I found Leviathan." Shepard said, looking up at him. Instead of looking exhilarated as he had expect, she looked even more tired than when she had originally dove into the water. "I threatened it, told it that the Reapers would come after if it didn't fight. Leviathan said it's going to fight."
"That's good news, isn't it?" Garrus asked, hopeful that there was more to what she had learned. More than the defeated tone she had come back with.
"It's not going to fight for us." Shepard said, putting her head back in her hands. "It was very specific on that. It's fighting for its own survival, nothing more." She paused for a long moment, drawing a deep breath. "It's not on our side. This was all a waste of time."
"I am sure the intelligence you gathered on the Reapers will be a massive help to everyone involved in this war, Shepard." EDI said, her tone one of calculated optimism.
"We needed them to help us, EDI. Not to tell us stories." Shepard answered, sighing as she leaned back in her seat, resting her head against the wall behind her.
"I've got Ann Bryson on the comm." Cortez spoke up, drawing Shepard's attention with his words.
She sat in silence for a few moments, as if contemplating whether or not she wanted to answer. After a long silence, she answered. "Put her through."
Shepard threw her armor down in the shuttle bay and made a beeline for the elevator. Garrus quickened his pace to catch the door before it closed, and hit the button for deck 3 while cancelling Shepard's request for the elevator to go to her cabin.
"You're going see Dr. Chakwas first." He said, meeting the frustrated gaze Shepard was sending his way.
"I don't need a doctor, Garrus. I'm fine." She said, crossing her arms. He could still see the streaked, dried blood that had been pouring from her nose when she exited the Triton.
"Like hell you are." He answered, holding the door open and motioning for Shepard to lead the way. She begrudgingly left the elevator and walked towards the med bay. "You collapsed, were completely unconscious, and your skin was cold as ice. All while nearly giving me a heart attack. Let her check you over, at least." He knew his last sentence sounded like begging. He wasn't above begging at this point, if only to make sure she was okay and to ease his worries.
Shepard didn't argue with him, she looked too exhausted to try and fight him. Instead she walked into the med bay, walked over to one of the examination beds and laid down, motioning to Garrus. "He can tell you why he thinks I should be in here."
Dr. Chakwas raised an eyebrow at him, and he began to explain.