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Chapter Forty-seven

Unknown Location

Liara glanced at the cockpit yet again, despite knowing that she would only see the negative-mass corridor the ship was traveling in. She couldn't help it. She was impatient to reach the Citadel and see Shepard again, but this time with a legitimate excuse to speak with her.

"Looking into space isn't going to get us there any faster," Aethyta commented dryly. "You might as well rest up so you don't look like shit when you meet up with Shepard again. Military types place a high value on dress and appearance."

Liara blushed a bit. "I couldn't sleep," she admitted. "I'm still trying to figure out the encryption on the files Miss Goto got us from Donovan Hock's mansion."

"Little Wing, some of the best computer specialists I know are smacking their heads on their keyboards over that. You're bright, but your specialty isn't computer systems or cryptography. What makes you think you're going to crack it?"

"I handed the files over to Glyph."

The matriarch blinked before slapping her own forehead. "Oh, right, Shadow Broker's resources. I can't believe I forgot about that."

"I've been getting progress reports from Glyph and the Broker's experts. They've made some progress deciphering the code, but the next part is mainly guesswork. Glyph is compiling an algorithm based on what they know to speed up the process."

"Well that doesn't sound like something you can make any meaningful contribution to, so again, get some rest. You haven't slept since Agent Lawson disappeared."

"I just can't relax. Since Glyph told me about Dr. Solus admitting that he was behind the Culexus Project escape, it feels like something big is going to happen."

Aethyta frowned. Truth be told, she felt the same way. Her instincts rarely failed her, one of the reasons she'd lived to see her seven hundredth cycle. But with how volatile the galaxy was right now, it was a toss up where the next trouble spot would flare up.

Both women jolted as Liara's omnitool chirped. She looked at the message and paled.

"Something wrong?"

"C-Sec and the Alliance Embassy are under attack," the younger asari whispered.

Citadel, Alliance Embassy

It felt like he was rising above water. Distant sounds and sensations became louder and more clear as he opened his eye and tried to rouse himself. Then suddenly, his consciousness was wracked by familiar screaming, the likes of which would drive most men insane.

"Gyuh!" He rose up on his hands and knees, shrugging off the debris that had covered his prone form. Then he shook his head violently, as if the motion would combat the screeching in his mind. "Shut…UP!" he roared to himself, his eye flaring purple as his power activated. A buffering aura surrounded him, silencing the screams.

Next, the room swam into view through the residual tears streaming from his left eye. Surprisingly, the room was emptied of Embassy staff, except for one other person who was curled up and twitching rather badly. Once he recognized the man's uniform, it made sense. The only other person in the room was Ambassador Udina, who was unfortunate enough to lack the psionic strength to shield himself.

The familiar sound of plasma fire came through the shattered front of the building. He snarled, rising to his feet before staggering back down to one knee. Just as he managed to get back on his feet, the building shook violently once more.

Underneath the two men, the critical support structures surrendered their integrity as the weight of the three story building became too much to bear. The first floor collapsed, creating a massive cloud of dust as the second and third floors pancaked in a chain reaction. Many of the marines looked on in horror as the central building folded on itself, burying the shelters underneath with tons of debris.

But the compound defenders had their own problems to deal with. The attacking force had managed to push far past the front gate. Eighteen marines were already dead, to the consternation of the captain trying to establish control of the scene. The situation was not helped with the sudden reappearance of Major Bailey at the command post.

"Someone get me a sitrep!" the major ordered.

"Sir, we are under defense plan Charlie. Our men are pulling back to those positions and we're trying to get a headcount on the civilians before we send out the evac convoy to the docks. I am trying to raise Citadel Security to alert them about the route, but their headquarters have gone dark."

"You're not going to get much of a response, ma'am," Sergeant Finn said as he entered the room, nursing a nasty burn on his left shoulder where an enemy unit had managed to tag him through his armor. If either officer had to guess, the sergeant had made it pay for that shot.

"Do we know what's happening?"

"If I had to guess, they were attacked before we were in order to keep them out of our fight. We're on our own over here. I wouldn't rely on getting the local patrols to pitch in. Knowing how they're outfitted, buggers might as well cap themselves." The sergeant mimed shooting himself in the head.

The command staff heard a distant rumble, and Finn grinned. "I took the liberty of ordering our armored unit to move up and retake some ground."

"That's not part of the fire plan!" the captain objected.

"We can't just hole up, ma'am. Have to push them back in case they got their own armor. Our boys need time and room to get the civvies loaded up, and enemy artillery would make a right bloody mess of things if we let them get too close."

"I'm going to trust you on that," Bailey said, cutting off any further argument. "I saw our psionics are having a rough time on my way in."

"We're not sure what it is," the captain bit her lip nervously. "The few that can talk at all are saying something about screaming in their heads."

Bailey and Finn shared a glance. "Reapers."

"Looks like the geth have sided with that Vyrnnus bugger."

Bailey blinked. "Wait, who told you about him?"

The question was cut off by another violent quake, and the lights flickered. "What the bloody hell is going on up there?!" Finn snarled into his radio.

"Rift! Rift incoming! Pull back!"

The assault force was halted in its tracks by the large swirling purple vortex emanating from the collapsed main building. The geth closest to the rubble were torn apart by an explosion of malevolence that made the entire compound shudder. From the dust, General Summers emerged, hunched over, breathing heavily from exertion. His right eye burned purple and his left glowed an ominous blood red, both a testament to the fury coursing through him.

A new wave of blue plasma surged toward him, only to be casually deflected by a purple barrier. Debris from the building levitated into the air and shot back in response. While the enemy geth had stronger barriers than normal, they were torn apart by the shrapnel.

The general sank to one knee, winded from his action, as the enemy backed off and regrouped. Then something new caught his eye.

From behind the mass of geth strode a new figure, with eyes glowing bluish-white and traces of cybernetics all around its face. The face was disturbingly human, and it moved in a manner reminiscent of a marionette.

What's more, Summers could now feel a renewed strain on his mental barriers as the alien presence that tormented him with screaming increased in pressure.

The general lashed out experimentally, sending a lance of psionic energy at the strange human cyborg. But it merely shattered the protocomposite ground as the enemy unit dashed forward at blinding speed before ramming a fist up against the hardlight shield emanating from his artificial right arm. Mere human reflexes were not enough to evade the follow-up that sent him flying almost ten meters away.


In a small room, insectoid forms chittered as they interacted with the screens before them. In the center of the room, the container that had been rigged to a generator and computer bank lay open with wires trailing from inside, and traces of a greenish fluid coated the edges.

A large screen showed electronic readouts of a humanoid figure, displaying the status of various cybernetic components as well as the massive data stream connection that the portable servers in the room were handling. And at the bottom of the screen were three words: Project Avatar Engaged.

The Normandy, Bridge

"I don't care what protocol says!" Garrus snapped at the traffic controller over the line. "I'm overriding it! The Alliance vessel Normandy has my authorization to enter the interior space! Justification?! Are you fucking serious?! C-Sec headquarters was attacked! That's my justification! Yeah, you want to get your supervisor, be my guest! We're going in!"

"We're reading a distress beacon from the Embassy," Pressly explained to Silva, Nagase and Foulke as Tali exited the elevator. "According to protocol, the 23rd detachment is inbound to evacuate our people, but they're a ways out, and our people would still have to safely make it to the docks. We're sending your boys down to secure the egress, and you'll make your way toward the Embassy, coordinating with our boys on the ground. When you meet up with the evacuees, escort them back to the docks and keep them safe until they're aboard the ships. Then mount back up and support the garrison as required."

"Secure the escape route and then back up our fellow marines. Understood, sir," Silva acknowledged.

"Commander Pressly?" the XO turned to regard the quarian girl. "I got a message for Shepard from LEGION, the geth from Haestrom."

"How important is this?" the commander asked. "I don't mean to be rude, but we're in the middle of a crisis right now."

"LEGION says it's urgent, and Shepard has to know right now. I can patch him through into the Normandy's communications."

"Do it," Shepard ordered as she exited the ship's armory. "EDI, pull him up."

Tali brought up her omnitool and forwarded the channel to EDI just as Garrus pushed past her. "I'll be waiting on the dropship," the turian said brusquely as he entered the elevator.

"Garrus, wait!" the quarian just barely made it inside before the doors closed.

"I think that's our cue to leave," Foulke noted, and the three officers headed for the lower deck.

Shepard and Pressly turned their attention to the central screen as EDI established the link. "We are online, Shepard."

"Greetings, Shepard-Captain."

"What is it?" Shepard demanded impatiently.

"Alert: enemy faction involved in assault on Systems Alliance diplomatic compound. Faction under Vyrnnus-Commander."

"You mean they're facing enemy geth down there?" Pressly asked.

"No," LEGION shook its head. "not geth. Vex."

"'Vex?'" Shepard repeated.

"Geth defined as 'servant' in Khelish, old language of creators. Vex defined as 'judge.' Vex are allied with the Old Machines. They seek to render judgment against the Creators, and all who stand with them."

"So these 'Vex' are basically rogue geth?" Pressly queried.

"Vex have been augmented with technology from the Old Machines. Combat platforms equipped with signal emitters designed to suppress Alliance psionic units, more energetic power cores, stronger kinetic barriers, plasma armaments. Significant upgrade from previous encounter five cycles ago."

Shepard clenched her fist, thinking of her little brother having to fight these machines down in the city.

"Can you tell us how many of them there are?"

"Quantity of combat platforms unknown. Intercepted communications indicate Vex objective is complete destruction of Systems Alliance compound and extermination of all personnel."


"I'll drop you two at C-Sec HQ, and then you're on your own," Foulke warned.

"Understood," Garrus snapped, keeping a disapproving glare leveled at Tali as they sat opposite each other near the ramp exit. Despite his strongest objections, the quarian refused to stay on the ship. She was determined to go with him and find out what happened to his family. Deep down, a part of him was grateful, but he didn't want to worry about her safety when they could very well be heading into a free-fire zone.

Everyone aboard was jerked against their restraints as the dropship leapt out of the Normandy's bay.

"Five minutes to drop point!"

It was a tense five minutes, accompanied with all kinds of outraged chatter over the radios as the Normandy and her deployed craft violated traffic space restrictions. However, Garrus's authorization had made the rounds, and reports were starting to come in about the attack on the Embassy. Everyone agreed that the Alliance was in a foul mood, and no one wanted to risk pissing them off even further when one of their warships was sitting inside the Citadel.

Finally, the craft slowed into a hover and the ramp opened up. Garrus slapped the quick-release and bolted for the ramp, diving off it and allowing his armor flaps to activate, slowing his descent. Tali opted for the more sane route, hooking onto the deployment line and sliding down safely.

The building was still standing, but several windows were shot out, and a few uniformed corpses lay strewn around the main entrance. The two hefted their weapons and cautiously entered the building.

The interior resembled a warzone. Chairs and desks were overturned. Papers and datapads scattered everywhere. And many more dead C-Sec personnel laid to rest on the floor. Notably, the bodies of the human officers were in far worse condition than their comrades. Garrus grimaced, and Tali muttered "Oh Kelah…" before raising her off-hand to her helmet as if to ward off the nauseous images.

They moved deeper into the building, unsettled by the silence. Then the turian saw something that made his stomach drop. "Mom!"

Tali spun around as Garrus dashed over to a pair of bodies in a corner.

"No…no! NO!" the Spectre shouted, as if denial would change the reality of what lay before him.

Solana was slumped against the wall, missing almost one third of her face. Her right forearm was almost completely disintegrated, and a coagulated puddle of dark blue sat directly under the stump. A short distance away was a discarded pistol with her missing appendage holding it in a death grip. Mirala was sprawled on her chest, with her back ripped open from two shotgun blasts. From all appearances, she'd been trying to crawl away after the first shot when the second one ended her life.

Garrus scooped up his mother's corpse and cradled her head against his shoulder, his rifle forgotten at his side. "We were supposed to be together again…" he whispered. "You were getting better…"

Tali looked away as the Spectre mourned his family members. Eventually, the turian set his mother back down and stood back up, tightly gripping his rifle.

"Why were they here?" Tali wondered.

"Dad wanted to show mom what he did while she was gone," Garrus answered bitterly. "He was going to retire soon so he could be home with her."

"Where is he?"

The turian looked down the hall towards the central conference room, which sported a large hole in the wall. The two made their way over, and stopped dead at the sight of the carnage.

Garrus recognized several of the senior officers whose bodies lay on the ground. What little hope he had vanished when he saw his father among them. In another area, he also saw Tela Vasir and Jondam Bau, their corpses riddled with gunfire. Each body sported a wound to the forehead. They had all been executed.

Grief was now giving way to rage. "Tali, find a terminal and see if we can find out who did this."

Tali spotted a data port in the wall and interfaced with it. The conference room projector flickered to life, displaying a shaky image on the wall. "Security camera footage," she explained unnecessarily.

"Reken, why?"

"You are protecting the humans. They don't deserve to live!"

"They deserve to choose for themselves!" Tallus responded defiantly.

"Then you will die with them!" A single gunshot echoed through the speaker. The turian who fired turned his pistol on Executor Pallin. "Join them in extinction!"

Several more gunshots, and then the only moving figures on screen were the traitorous C-Sec officers. The turian named Reken then received a message.

"Lieutenant, status?"

"Headquarters is secure. We're just mopping up the last of them."

"Good. Now get some of your guys over here! I found the Councilors. They're holed up in a bunker, and I need help breaching this thing. And after your people finish with the HQ, load up into the transports and head over to the Embassy."

"Vyrnnus, we're hearing reports that there are geth attacking that place."

"They're on our side. Give them a hand taking out the humans."

"Understood." The turian began barking orders to the others, and then the screen went blank.

"They're after the Councilors," Tali breathed.

"Who is?"

The quarian shrieked in surprise, while Garrus spun around, only to lower his rifle in surprise. "Chellick?"

"Yeah," the officer greeted. "Before you ask, I just got on duty. I came here, and was wondering what the fuck was going on. Nobody is answering their radio, and then you two showed up."

"Some asshole named Reken and his pals wiped out this place," Garrus bit out. "They killed my dad, my mom and my sister."

Chellick's eyes widened. "Reken?!"

"What's the deal on that shitstain?"

"Hugely anti-human, he's been getting reprimands left and right ever since he joined up with the force. But I didn't think he would go this far!"

"He was answering to Vyrnnus. He sent some guys over to help him get to the Councilors."

"Fuck!" Chellick swore. "You better go after him!"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to try and get this place back up and running, reestablish contact with the rest of C-Sec."

Garrus paused. "Tali, stay here and help him."

"What?! Garrus!"

"You can do more to help him than me. Besides," the Spectre continued darkly. "I have a score to settle."

Citadel, Alliance Embassy

"What is it, EDI?" Shepard asked as the dropship ducked and weaved through the crossfire while seeking a safe landing zone.

"Shepard, I knew that the encryption would take a great deal of time to crack using only the Normandy's resources, so I decided to ask the geth for assistance."

"What?!" Shepard hissed.

"I will take responsibility for this, but you need to know what they found. Thanks to the geth network, they had enough power to crack it almost immediately. The data packet contains two files."

"I'm dying of suspense," the red-head said dryly. "What is it that you think might justify your breach of security ex post facto?"

"The files are experiment logs. They appear to be records of brainwashing experiments conducted on Saren Arterius and Captain Lethe Vyrnnus."

Shepard froze. "Say again?!"

"The files date back to the time of the Second Contact war. Specifically, directly after the Second Fleet retook Shanxi. During that time, both Saren Arterius and Captain Vyrnnus were Alliance prisoners."

Shepard's mind spun with questions. What the hell was Miranda doing? Where did she find encrypted files like this? "Can you contact Miranda?"

"Agent Lawson is not responding to attempts to communicate."

She swore. "Contact Fleet Admiral Hackett, and tell him what you found. Use the highest level of security. This sounds like the mother of all diplomatic incidents waiting to happen!"

"Heads up! Dropping in twenty!" Nagase called over the intercom.

Training took over. Shepard shoved all thoughts of EDI's breach of protocol from her mind and refocused on the fight down below. Against all odds, she hoped that Kyle was safe from the battle.

Citadel, Council Bunker

"Where are your precious humans now?" Vyrnnus sneered, leveling his pistol.

"Commander, please be reasonable," Tevos begged with a shaky voice. "I'm sure we can talk this ou-" She screamed as Vyrnnus fired a shot above her left shoulder.

"Talk, talk, talk. That's all you worthless scumbags ever do," he growled. "The time for talk is over! Now is the time for action! It's time for us to stop playing nice with the humans!"

"Vyrnnus, this isn't you," Sparatus cautioned. "You're being indoctrinated by the implants."

"No, I've been freed!" the rogue turian snarled. "They freed me from the humans brainwashing! I know exactly what they did, and I'm not going to let them get away with it!"

"You haven't been freed," Valern countered coolly. "You've merely traded one form of brainwashing for another."

"Look who's talking! I'm sure that the human ambassador has been twisting your thoughts, making you believe the humans are your friends!"

The suggestion was particularly unsettling. Valern wasn't about to deny that the thought had crossed his mind several times.

"Please don't do this," Tevos said.

"Oh but I have to," Vyrnnus leaned in close. "You're too soft to do what has to be done. But I'm not."

The asari councilor's eyes widened. "No!"

Sparatus stared in horror as a bolt of relativistic material erupted from the back of his colleague's head. He watched as Tevos's body collapsed to the floor as if in slow motion.

Vyrnnus wiped a few specks of blood from his armor. "One down, two to go."

At that moment, one floor above, the entrance disintegrated as a pulse of dark energy shattered the door, riddling two traitorous C-Sec officers with shrapnel. The one remaining Vex unit from the team that had accompanied Vyrnnus to the bunker was torn apart by a hail of high-powered shots before it could even turn around. A blue-armored figure stepped into the facility.

"VYRNNUS!"

The turian in question swore. "Vakarian!"

Four more renegade cops sprinted up only to be converted into a pulpy mass of tissue and bone fragments, courtesy of a Nova round to the wall in front of them. Shortly after, the Spectre's armored figure appeared on the stairs.

"You're going to pay, Vyrnnus!" Garrus roared before lunging forward with his armor thrusters.

"Get down!" Sparatus tackled Valern and pulled his colleague to safety as the two turian soldiers engaged each other.

Vyrnnus dropped his pistol and rammed a glowing blue fist into Garrus's chest. The biotic pulse transferred from his fist onto the armor, delivering an impulse that briefly overpowered the thrusters and sent Garrus sprawling across the floor.

The Spectre barely had time to shake his head clear before he was forced to roll out of the way from a thunderous stomp that cracked the protocomposite floor.

"It just figures the humans would send their favorite lapdog against me!" Vyrnnus screamed as he kicked his opponent with impossible strength into the wall.

Garrus blinked away stars before glaring through his helmet at the rapidly approaching supersoldier. "Your fucking lapdog killed my family!" he snarled, triggering his pulse shields and blasting Vyrnnus away. Seizing the advantage, he flew forward, drawing his pulse baton.

Vyrnnus landed on his feet and raised two glowing forearms just as Garrus brought down the baton. An explosion of dark energy ripped through the room, blowing the furniture away from the epicenter and flinging both combatants in two directions.

"Human lovers get what they deserve!" Vyrnnus sneered, directing his biotics at several pieces of furniture and sending them at the Spectre.

Garrus rolled to the right, dodging a chair while tossing a flashbang. Vyrnnus's eyes widened before the room was engulfed in white. Then his body jerked as Garrus rained punches on him before winding up and smashing him in the chest with the baton. Sparatus yelped as the man flew overhead and slammed into the far wall.

Now Garrus snatched his rifle from his back and lined up a shot with a Nova round. "DIE!" Another flare of dark energy and the wall fragmented. Pain shot through Vyrnnus's enhanced limbs as his body protested the abuse. His nervous system began spiking as he was forced to draw on more and more of his reserves to deflect the rapid hail of sniper fire that kept him pinned inside the wall.

But he knew he couldn't do that forever. He clenched his mandibles before generating a biotic pulse against his back, propelling himself forward and body slamming the Spectre, knocking the mans' rifle away.

Garrus instinctively triggered his pulse shields just as Vyrnnus leapt at him again, this time shooting the other turian into the air before launching after him. The two collided with the ceiling before Garrus threw him back down to land with his back on the edge of a table. Just as Vyrnnus rolled off it, he descended back down with the pulse baton ready.

The room shook as one final pulse exploded, shattering the table and breaking a number of the latter's ribs. The super soldier coughed as he used his biotics to try and stand back up, but Garrus whipped him across the face with the spent baton, spinning him around before tossing the weapon away. Then he grabbed Vyrnnus's right arm with both hands and triggered his flight system again, sending both of them forward and crushing the elbow joint between his armored knee and the wall.

Vyrnnus screeched in pain as the Spectre then flipped him over, grabbed his left foot, and viciously stomped directly on his kneecap, snapping the joint and bending his tibia completely the wrong way. Then he again used his flight system jerk Vyrnnus around, keeping a grip on his leg and forcing it to flex around the broken knee joint before whipping him back down onto the ground with a sickening smack.

Garrus was overcome with a wave of exhaustion as the rush of the fight drained away. Despite his broken condition, Vyrnnus still found it in him to laugh weakly.

"You…fucking idiot…the humans are using you…like they used Saren."

"Shut up!"

"They probably brainwashed you…programmed you like they programmed us!"

"Shut. Up!" Garrus snarled as he picked up his rifle.

"You'll see…" he let out a broken raspy laugh, "they'll destroy us all. If only you let me try and stop them!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Several high-powered shots tore into Vyrnnus's head, reducing it to a pulply mash.

Silence filled the room, then the remaining two councilors got to their feet.

"Is it over?" Sparatus asked.

Garrus heaved a sigh before opening his helmet. "He is, at any rate." He keyed his comm. "Chellick, this is Vakarian. Tevos is dead. Send someone to get the other two Councilors to safety."

"Copy that. My boys are enroute."

"Do you think there was any truth to what he was saying?"

Garrus stared at the body before looking up determinedly. "I think Shepard and I are due for a chat."

Project Avatar. Same name, different race and goals. What do you think it involves?

What do you think is going to happen next chapter?


Rage, as Zaeed says in canon, is one hell of an anesthetic. Vyrnnus's enhancements increased his durability to absurd levels, but it wouldn't have helped him all that much if he didn't have the mental fortitude to power through the abuse Garrus heaped on him. He shrugged off multiple pulse baton strikes, which I've already shown could liquefy the average enemy and pulverize a futuristic analogue of concrete, and he survived a point blank Nova round detonation.

Notice how the Culexus fights have increased in order of relative difficulty each time. Garm was simply a mindless brute. Jona was running on fear and instinct. Taniks actually had training and discipline, and almost killed Mordin flat out. And now Vyrnnus, by himself and almost criminally under equipped for the fight, still almost matched Garrus wearing Alliance armor and wielding prototype Citadel military technology. Discipline and training plays a big part in their relative effectiveness.

Vyrnnus did most of his damage without ever showing up in person. He kept his mind and planned things out, which is what none of the others did. Out of the four, he was the most effective of the Reapers pawns.


RandomKitsune, I will send you your spoiler tonight.

And then there was one: the fates of three of your favorite characters.

Specify which three in your review if you want it.