Chapter 51:
One foot in the grave.
They followed his path of destruction up several floors. Shepard had finally stopped long enough for Miranda to get a fix on him. Garrus was watching through his scope, but he wasn't sure he could believe his eyes. "This... you have to see." Garrus told her as he fiddled with his omnitool, sending the image from his rifle's scope to her visor.
Miranda was silent for a moment, her mouth opening and closing as her brain tried to form a coherent thought. "Is he arguing with a gunship!?"
"No, I do believe he's taunting the gunship." Garrus pointed to the dark energy field surrounding a large stack of shipping containers two floors above the loading dock where Tombstone stood. "He's trying to bait th..."
Garrus' voice trailed off when the ship fired a rocket. They both watched trepidatiously. When the rocket neared him, Tombstone swatted it from existence with a disappointed wave of his hand. Turning to his left so his flank was exposed to the pilot. Head down, he put his hand up and motioned (You'll have to do better.) for the Merc to try again.
The frustrated pilot had enough of his efforts being ignored. Making a run directly at Tombstone, he fell right into the trap. You could see the ion trail from the drive core flare in the cloud of dirty air around the dock, shortly before the twin auto cannons opened up. Raining a wall of Tungsten death toward the center of the biotic corona, where a dark figure now stood in prayer.
Garrus turned on laser-mic embedded in the scopes hardware, just fast enough to catch the last of the soft words whispered. The calm, even voice of Tombstone, almost masking the rage that he was no longer attempting to contain. ("...dess. For you shall find no peace in this realm.") The biotic field flared, blue lightning starting to dance across the molecule thick skin of his barrier. ("For the innocence lost at your murderous hands, I name you, and all who wear your sigul... Ath~iik!") Tombstone whispered as he raised his hands up in a praising motion, lifting his head as he did. One green eye, and one gold eye clearly visible now that the glow from the implants was gone.
Even at the limit of the scope's visual range Garrus could see what the Merc pilot obviously could not... the Bloody Shepard had arrived, and he was preparing to cull the flock. Garrus looked down as he sighed heavily. "Those poor hapless bastards."
"Do you see his eyes?" Miranda asked, unable to hide the waver in her voice. "Is that a good thing, or do we nee...?" She ducked back into cover, typing on her omnitool as fast as her shaking hands could manage. "Ok…I just sent a ping to Liara, hopefully she can tell us what we're dealing with."
Their comms crackled to life, the static doing nothing to hide the smugness in Liara's voice. "I do believe your exact words were that the people of the Galaxy need The Beast, yes? We all need Tombstone if we are to survive the Reapers. Isn't that what you told me when we first met?" Liara could be heard chuckling over the comm. "Be careful what you wish for Miranda. I told you many times that Tombstone is Bo and John working together. What you see now and what you are about to see. Is what Cerberus was trying to accomplish with the Zeus project."
Miranda was silent.
"What was that word he spoke? The one that confused my translator so bad I had to reboot it. Athee… something?" Garrus asked, never taking his scope off Tombstone. Lest he miss the show.
"Ahh… Ath~iik is from a very ancient, and quite dead Asari dialect." Liara offered amusedly.
Garrus rolled his eyes as he tapped the keys to reboot his translator again. "Thanks Liara, you did that on purpose. Just so I would have to reboot again. Without saying it, what does that word mean?"
The conversation paused when the ship got close enough for Tombstone to spring the trap. He lowered his hands and turned his back to the ship. Walking away without so much as a backward glance as, the multi ton stack of shipping containers flew toward the Eclipse gunship. Slamming into its side, and crushing it to the wall of the dock as it slid into the bay.
Stopping just 40 meters from Garrus and Miranda's position, They could hear the screams of the gunships crew. Yelling in vain for help that would never come. When the smell of charred flesh reached them, they decided to vacate their cover, and meet back up with Tombstone.
"Garrus…?" Liara's voice reached them before they caught up to him. "That word was used during sacrifices to the god of death. It means nonexistent ones." Liara paused, the silent comm amplifying the dread they both felt. "It's what they called the people who were to be... given to an Ardat Yakshi." The humor had drained out of her voice.
"What does this all mean? He's using words from a dead language. The glow from the implants is gone completely, even his eyes are different. Are we safe, or do we need to intervene?" Miranda asked cautiously.
A heavy sigh slithered over the comm, the static on the channel only managing to enhance the depressing sound. "It means you got your wish." Liara whispered.
Miranda looked over at Tombstone, then back to Garrus. "Meaning?"
The sound of a chair bangin into something could be heard over the comm. Liara's image blinked into view in Miranda's holographic visor. The heated glare she wore seeming at home on her delicate features. "Do you know what it's like to look death in the eyes Miranda?"
The Cerberus Operative stopped walking but said nothing.
Liara continued her rant. "To stare into the abyss and feel it looking back. Studying you for weakness. Reading your very soul, searching for… whatever it is that… that… This entity looks for, before it decides if you are its next meal, or victim, whichever." Her tears were flowing freely down her face.
"Liara I…" Miranda offered, but had no words of comfort to ease her friends suffering.
"I knew what he was, what he really was. As soon as I joined with him the first time." Liara wrapped her hands around herself in false comfort. "But I was so young, I didn't trust my own instincts."
"But you always said that Bo could keep him contained. John wouldn't be a threat…" Miranda argued, but was cut off.
Liara barked an incredulous laugh. "John?! Are you that naive? After all this time you still don't understand?" She put her head down, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fists on the desk. "He… they survived melding with an Ardat Yakshi. Did you never wonder how that was possible? Not one survivor in recorded Asari history. She didn't only pass on her knowledge."
Miranda visibly flinched when the realisation hit her. "Something else was transferred as well. Some small piece of her… affliction." It came out but a whisper.
"Not a piece Miranda. The darkness I spoke of when this all began, the abyss I left him to. Was not some metaphor for his near death state at the time. It is ever present, waiting, watching. Hoping for the chance to get out." Liara looked up, the normally smooth freckled cheeks. Blotchy and swollen from her crying. "Project Zeus, how aptly named." She gave Miranda a weak smile. "The Demon, the Devil himself, although none of the nicknames are as eerily close to reality as Angel of Death. But I suppose God of Death would be a more accurate description of what we have set loose upon the whole of the Galaxy."
Miranda straightened herself up. "Then what's our next move?"
"Keep your wits about you, and your weapons close." With a click, the image cut. Leaving Miranda face to face with someone she didn't know. Broad shoulders framed by shoulder length, silver-gray hair. One green eye, and one gold eye, watching her intensly. She may have been there from the infancy of his reconstruction, but she didn't know this man any more than she knew the address for the person who wrote the Magna Carta. His lips were moving, but she was having trouble hearing any sound.
Even with her perfect hearing, she had to strain to register the words. "Is there something you find more pressing than the mission we are currently in the middle of?" Tombstone waited for her answer, his passive expression making her uncomfortable.
Miranda swallowed. "No Sir, that was related but personal in nature."
He turned and started walking off. "I won't wait again." Came through her comm thanks to Garrus' quick thinking, and ability to turn up the gain on Tombstone's mic. Miranda had little doubt as to what he meant by that statement.
"Understood Sir. Have you had any luck finding the Intel?" Miranda asked, hoping to steer the conversation back to less dangerous ground. "So far all we found were allusions into their many other illegal activities. Nothing on the ship, or the fugitive."
"Wasea, was all that I have managed to pry from the three of them that could talk. She is the only one who would have the knowledge we seek." Tombstone pointed up to his left as he led them from the dock. "She is waiting to receive us."
They followed the meandering path through the offices toward their goal one flight up. Outside the break room, near the snack machines. The team found a seemingly inebriated Volus stumbling around. Garrus stiffened when he bumped into Tombstone, but Tombstone just knelt down to the Volus' level. "Watch yourself mortal! I am a biotic god, I think things and they happen. Fear me lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh."
Tombstone put a steadying hand on the biotic god. "Who are you, are you with Pitne For's trade group?"
"I was Niftu Cal when I was a mere mortal. Now I am a great wind. I will sweep all before me, like a… a great wind! A great biotic wind! Yes, the Asari injecting me with so many drugs scared me at first. But then I began to smell my greatness! They may laugh when I fall over, but they don't know what I know in my head... that I know that I am amazingly powerful! Fear me!" Niftu Cal wobbled on his feet.
"Tombstone, having this intoxicated Volus running around our combat zone will only complicate things." Miranda offered.
Garrus put a hand on Tombstone's shoulder getting his attention. "We don't need any distractions."
"Agreed. Tell me great wind. When was the last time you slept?" Tombstone thumped the Volus on the forehead with his index finger, causing him to drop over on his side.
Niftu got back up, unsteady on his feet. "Wha…? What was? But biotic god, great wind. You're right Earth Clan. I think I'll go rest. Nap now, destroy the universe later." He stumbled into the break room, and dropped face first on the floor next to the couch.
Garrus and Miranda turned back around when they heard the door open, Tombstone had already walked through, into the Eclipse ran warehouse.
A dark skinned Asari was standing at the far end of the warehouse, behind her desk. Wasea was studying a datapad. She set the datapad down and picked up her drink. Finishing off the glass with one swallow, and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Things have gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off world. First a Justicar shows up, now you. At least I can take pleasure in turning your head into a pulpy mass!" She biotically threw a Minagen cannister at them when she screamed.
The cannister broke open upon impact with Tombstone's barrier. Garrus and Miranda ducked for the nearest cover, but Tombstone just leaned down. Scooping a handful of the dark red chemical up, he looked at Wasea with a grin. "Thank you..." With a nonchalant motion. He snorted some of the Minagen out of his hand, then poured the rest into his mouth.
As Wasea was trying to hide her shock at his actions, and Miranda and Garrus were silently panicking. Tombstone charged the Eclipse leader. Slamming into her desk, then into her, then the wall of shipping containers that sectioned off the back of the warehouse. When the dust cleared he stood there scanning the datapad, his right hand out toward Wasea as she lay writhing on the floor.
Miranda looked at his biometrics on her HUD. She had been so preoccupied with what she saw, she failed to notice the level of toxicity he had sustained since before he took down the ship. She sent a quick message to EDI and Liara, then followed Garrus's lead covering Tombstone. They cautiously approached, coming late to an interrogation.
"So this ship, the AML Demeter. Is this the ship she left on?" Tombstone asked the downed Asari without even turning from the datapad. "Answer me truthfully and I will make your undoing quick."
Tombstone's fingers flexed, plucking invisible strings of dark energy. He manipulated the hateful web and Wasea screamed in agony. "Yes! Goddess ! For the fifth time yes!" Her eyes fluttered, then focused on Miranda. "What is it you want from me?!"
He leaned down chuckling, it was a cold dark sound. The kind of noise one makes when they hold all the cards. "I want nothing from you Ath~iik." Wasea's eyes went wide when she heard the name. Tombstone smiled and continued. "Your fate was set when you attempted to extinguish the light of a Justicar." With a twitch of his hand she exploded from within. Several biotic bubbles bursting forth from her flesh, then blinking out of existence.
"What we need?" Garrus asked him, stepping around the puddles.
Tombstone synced up the datapad to his omnitool. "Yeah, let's head to the station." He wobbled a bit when he stood, then his barrier flared. Burning the remains of Wasea covering him to ash.
Garrus and Miranda followed him through the maze of shipping containers to the same freight elevator they had came up in, although many floors higher. Taking it back down to the commerce floor. They stepped off the lift, seemingly cornered by three dockworkers. "Hey sweet thi…" The closest one started to say only to suddenly find himself floating in the gravity well of a singularity, along with his friends.
Tombstone stumbled a little after he threw the singularity, but regained his composure before reaching the police substation. Justicar Samara was sitting at rest, meditating next to Detective Anaya. She opened her eyes when they walked up to Anaya's desk, her expression pensive but curious. Syncing his omnitool to the Detective's computer. "I've found proof of Pitne For's smuggling operation. An Eclipse Sister fledgling named Elnora was the murderer. Although her career has been put to an end."
Tombstone leaned forward heavily on the desk. Looking Samara in the eyes. "I found the name of the ship she left on, as well as the tracking number. The relay jump coordinates, everything."
Samara unfolded herself from her sitting position. "Shepard, you surprise me. I did not expect such results from one so young." She stepped over next to him. "I will join you on your mission, but first I must bind myself to your service. By performing the third oath of subsumation I will be yours to command. Be advised, if you make me do anything truly dishonorable. I will be forced to kill you once released from my oath."
Detective Anaya stood and watched in awe. "In all my years, I never thought I would see anything like this."
Samara kneel down in front of Tombstone, her eyes going white as her biotics flared. "By the code I will serve you, Shepard. Your choices are my choices. Your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code."
Tombstone bow to her most formal. "Goddess willing… you will never know the distaste of…" But he collapsed on the floor, red foam bubbling from his mouth as he tried to speak.
"Shepard!"Samara helped Miranda get him righted so he wouldn't drown in his own body fluids, as Garrus called for the shuttle to evac him to the Normandy.
The Detective quickly moved to the medical cabinet, and injected him with the gathered stims. "I've seen these symptoms before." Anaya offered as Miranda was scanning him. This is the red death. He has Minagen poisoning."
