Chapter 42: Old Friends in New Places

We are constantly searching
For home
For love
For recognition
Sometimes searching merely takes us back to where we began

They knew where Tali was. The second Terra saw her favorite quarian's name in the dossiers, she told Joker to floor it towards Haestrom. All of the people on this ship who had served with Tali aboard the original Normandy (all four of them) were beyond delighted to hear she would be coming back.

If she wanted to. She was still a full-fledged fleet member now, being sent on special assignments and all. Still, Terra was certain that just seeing Tali again and having her support would be enough.

From the moment they landed, Terra was in awe. Most of it was in ruins, but they were seeing actual quarian architecture. It was amazing, but it made her regretful for all the architecture and artwork and perhaps even music was lost when the quarians lost Rannoch. How much of it had the geth ignored or even destroyed? Even the quarians believed they'd made a mistake by creating the geth, but Terra merely saw it as unfair. Even if the quarians took back their home-world someday, there some things they could never regain.

Those thoughts were sort of sidelined when she saw the more immediate issue. The atmosphere was breathable, but the sun was out of control. One step out of the shade felt like a spike in temperature of about 1000 degrees, which actually didn't sound so impossible when they discovered it was hot enough to fry their shields. No way around it, either, so they had to run like crazy to get back in the shade. That would be bad enough, but then there was also the issue of geth dropping in the second they entered the actual structure. And speaking of unfair, somehow the geth's shields were programmed perfectly to ignore the heat so they could walk freely and flank them.

Ridiculously unfair, if you asked Terra.

They knew how to handle geth, though, so it didn't even slow them down. Tali was in here somewhere and they were going to find her. They tore through the geth forces as quickly as they could, racing through the shadows to the next sector. There were a few damaged geth lying around, but there were also a few quarian corpses, each one hurting Terra's heart, making her lament that they had failed to arrive sooner. It was only when she heard a voice over a fallen quarian's COMM that she dared to hope there were any survivors.

"This is Squad Leader Kal'Reegar of the Migrant Fleet Marines," the voice said when they connected, "Our orders are to hold here and protect Tali'Zorah."

"Where is she?" Terra quickly asked, "Is she alright?"

"She's holed up in a server not far from your position. I have eyes on it."

"Stay put. We're coming to you."

"Wait! You've got a geth drop-ship incoming!"

The ship in question elected to forego dropping in more troops and simply shot down a pillar, making it drop on a small squad of quarians still fighting nearby. Terra couldn't move fast enough to even warn them before they were all crushed and the door behind them was blocked. That, however, was not a problem. She fought even harder to clear the geth in this sector and acted on what she was starting to think should be a life philosophy for this squad.

If all else fails, use explosives.

Even when they got into the outpost the quarians were apparently using as a sort of base, though, it was still the site of a bloodbath. The quarians had been no safer from their enemies in here than they had been outside, but at least in here the majority of the casualties were geth. And some of the gear they left behind was intact.

Including a holo-COMM console. "Tali'Zorah to base camp. Come in, base camp."

Terra was delighted to hear that voice but disheartened that she had to deliver such unfortunate news to her friend. "Tali, it's Terra. I'm sorry, no one else made it."

Tali sighed sadly. "We all knew this was high-risk. But, Shepard, what are you doing here?"

Terra smirked. "I heard my favorite quarian was in trouble. Thought I'd lend a hand."

Tali almost laughed. "I appreciate it. It's good to hear your voice."

"Trust me, that feeling's mutual." She turned to look at the way that would lead towards the servers. "The door's locked and the console's damaged. Can you open it from your side?"

"Let me see…yes. That should do it."

The door opened.

As she readied to go, Terra looked to Tali over the COMM one last time. "We're on our way. Hold tight."

"I will. …be careful."

Terra hurried now. She knew Tali could take care of herself, but even she could only handle so many geth at once. She wasn't losing another friend so soon. She was taking down every geth in her way, even—

Oh, crap.

"COLOSSUS!" Kasumi cried out the second Terra let up the lockdown on a security checkpoint and gave the geth in question a shot.

While the thief leapt aside, Garrus reacted so quickly that he practically slammed Terra on the floor to get them both out of the way of the energy blast that would've vaporized them had their shields not been up. He groaned as they crawled to the door to get back out of range. "…definitely like old times…"

Terra gave him a look as they raced down from the checkpoint. Though she kind of wished it was like old times so they'd have a Mako that could take a few hits and fire back with a massive cannon. Taking on a Colossus on foot…usually only a good strategy for people with death wishes.

When they turned the corner, they saw a quarian crouched there. "Kal'Reegar!" he called as they ducked down nearby, "We spoke over the COMM! I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but this isn't the time to be picky!"

"Where's Tali?!" Terra asked, having to raise her voice over the roar of geth fire, "Is she OK?!"

"She holed up in that server farm across the field! Sealed herself in! The geth have been trying to get inside, but it's a bit hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you!" He held up a rocket launcher to accent that statement. "There's a lot of them, though! Worst part is the Colossus! It's got a repair protocol—huddles up a fixes itself! I can't get a clear shot while it's down like that! I tried to reposition and one of them punched a hole clean through my suit!"

The second she heard that, she started worrying. "What?! How bad is it?!"

"Section seals clamped down to isolate contamination and I'm swimming in antibiotics! Geth might get me, but I'm not gonna die of an infection in the middle of a battle! That's just insulting!"

Terra almost laughed. She was starting to like this guy. "We need to get to Tali! Any ideas?!"

"Just one! I've still got a rocket launcher the sun hasn't fried yet, I can cover you while you move in!"

Not a chance. He already had suit damage and she could tell he'd been at this for too long to keep it up. "You don't need to do that, Reegar! We can take it from here!"

"Wasn't really asking your opinion!" He started to arm his weapon to open fire.

She quickly pushed him back down. "We don't have enough people on our side for you to take one for the team! Stand down!"

"I can't just sit here! My squad died for this!"

"And if you wanna honor your squad, watch my back! I need you here in case they bring reinforcements!"

He still didn't seem convinced, but a close shot from a geth rifle reminded him they didn't have time to argue. "Alright, Shepard, we'll do it your way! Hit them hard for me! Keelah se'lai!"

She did hit them hard. These were the same synthetics that attacked Eden Prime in the service of Sovereign that were now after one of her closest friends. They weren't stopping her. The only reason she was maintaining a cautious approach and not storming over to tear that Colossus apart with her bare hands was that her squad was behind her and she didn't want them exposed either. So they skirted the battlefield, mowing down any geth troopers that crossed their path, and flanked the Colossus. The geth were making every attempt to cut them off, but they had a clear shot even at the huddled Colossus from here. It was going down.

Garrus wore down its shields as best he could while Kasumi, cloaked for the most part, kept the troopers at bay. Then Terra started tearing into it as best she could from behind cover. When she had to duck under another energy blast that narrowly missed Garrus, though, she'd had enough. She immediately started firing straight into its head-lamp. Most weapons wouldn't so much as crack it, even hers, but she was relentless. And angry. Mostly angry. Not just about who all important to her this thing was endangering but about all the fears she and Garrus had shared the night before—once you face fears like that, they tend to mutate into rage. So she poured out that rage into her assault and just about did tear the thing open with her bare hands. She didn't even realize Garrus was scrambling to drag her back behind cover before it could shoot again until she had already broken its means of attack and thrown a grenade into the hole she left, tearing it open. When it stopped moving, her feelings properly vented, she simply shot down the few remaining geth dispassionately and took a moment to catch her breath.

Garrus looked at her in amazement. "That was…kind of scary."

Terra simply smirked at him. "For you or for them?"

He smirked back. "A bit of both."

She turned her attention to the door. "Tali! You're clear!"

In a few seconds, the door slid open.

Terra smiled with relief as she walked inside and saw her quarian friend inside.

"Thank you, Shepard," Tali sighed as she finished her work on the console and turned to face her old commander, "If not for you, I might never have made it out of this room. This whole mission has been a disaster. I should've joined you back on Freedom's Progress. But I couldn't let anyone else take my place on something this risky."

"I guess that means you're ready to get far, far away from this planet," Terra commented.

"Definitely. I'll send my report to the Admiralty Board and transfer to your ship."

"They won't have a problem with it?"

"Frankly, I don't care. I just watched my whole team die."

"Maybe not the whole rest of your team, ma'am," a certain quarian marine commented as he limped in.

"Reegar!" Tali called, clearly glad to see him, "You made it!"

"Thanks to your old commander here. You were right about her."

Terra smiled. Tali bragged about her? Aw. "Are you OK? Can you get back to the fleet?"

"Our ship is intact. As long as we get clear before more geth arrive, we should make it back to the fleet alright."

"Actually," Tali said, "I'm not staying. I'm going with Shepard."

"Ah. I understand. I'll let the fleet know." He looked at Terra in what seemed to be a very protective way. "She's all yours, Shepard. Keep her safe."

Terra nodded. "I will." Because the day something happened to Tali was the day she laid down her gun. She'd lost too many friends already.

They made it back to the Normandy with Tali in tow. Tali was clearly happy to see the ship she so admired rebuilt, but the upgrades and the Cerberus crew seemed to upset her. Terra couldn't blame her. Once the squad has put their gear away, Terra met Tali in the COMM room. She wanted to have a quick reunion chat with her and then give her a tour of the ship.

Naturally, Jacob ruined the plan. "Cerberus saw footage of you in action, Tali'Zorah. Sounds like you'll be a real asset to the team."

Tali glared at him. "I don't know who you are, but Cerberus threatened the security of the Migrant Fleet. Don't make nice."

"That's one reason I need you here, Tali," Terra said, "I need people who aren't Cerberus, people I know I can trust. And there's no one I trust more than you and Garrus."

Tali shook her head. "I understand. I just assumed you were undercover, maybe planning to blow Cerberus up."

Terra almost laughed. "I mean, it's not off the table, but we're a bit short on options right now."

"Then when the time comes, I'll loan you a grenade. Otherwise, I'm here for you. Not them."

Terra smiled. "That's more than enough."

"We're giving you full access to the engineering deck," Jacob stepped back in.

"Please do," Tali nodded, "I can't be part of your crew if I don't know how your ship works." She started to head for the elevator.

Terra was about to follow her and offer to show her the way.

Again, naturally, Jacob had to go and say something. "Don't forget to introduce yourself to EDI, the ship's new artificial intelligence."

Terra only needed to hear the words to start wincing, let alone see the way Tali looked back at them before walking off without a word. Why? Why did Jacob have to say that? He had to know how quarians were about AI after what happened with the geth, especially Tali. True, EDI was different and Tali was going to find out sometime, but there was definitely a better way to break it to her. Now Terra was going to have to let her stew for about an hour before she could talk.

So she spent an hour setting a course for their next destination and even expressing her delight at having one of her closest friends back on the ship with her in her sketchbook. Then she headed straight to deck 4. She didn't even stop to see Garrus first, she just went straight to the engine room.

Maybe now Garrus was something more, Tali was becoming her best friend.

Tali had apparently let her resentment calm down, because she seemed perfectly fine when she saw Terra enter the room. "Shepard. What can I do for you?"

Terra shrugged. "Just wondering if you had time to talk."

Tali glanced over at Daniels and Donnelly before nodding to the drive core, prompting Terra to follow her onto the platform overlooking it. "We didn't really have time to chat while taking down geth on Haestrom, did we?" She sighed. "I still can't believe how badly it all went wrong. Thank you again for getting Reegar out alive."

Terra nodded. "It's what I do, remember?"

"…yes. Shepard, I…are you sure about working with Cerberus?"

"Of course not! They're obviously going to betray us at some point. And when they do, I'll be ready to shoot back."

Tali smiled. "Good to see you haven't changed."

Terra sighed as she slumped down to sit against the rail. "Yeah, well, I'm glad you think so. Ash sure didn't."

Tali looked at her in concern, sitting down beside her. "What? What happened?"

Terra reluctantly relayed to her the events on Horizon. As far as she was concerned, it made Haestrom seem like the lesser of two disasters.

Tali looked at her sympathetically. "I guess we both learned the hard way that even the most hard-won successes can still feel like failures."

Terra nodded. "Yeah, we did. I'm sorry you had to learn that. …I just hope we don't have to learn it again."

Tali shook her head. "We won't. If there's anyone in this galaxy who could lead a ragtag bunch of aliens and crooks straight through Omega-4 and then back again, it's you."

Terra laughed. "That's a real vote of confidence."

"Yes, well…what are friends for?"

Terra smiled. It was a question worthy of her poetry, honestly. They were for picking you up when you stumbled, for showing you the light when you were lost in hopelessness, for watching your back when you were up against more than you could face alone. A true friend would never leave your side, even in the heart of your greatest foes' lair. And that was certainly what Tali was doing for her. It meant more than she could say simply. So she said it less than simply: "For carrying the weight of life when it is too much for one to bear."

Tali gave her a puzzled look. She'd heard Terra wax poetic before, sure, but she wasn't usually so open about it.

Terra sighed. "I appreciate you coming back aboard, Tali. Let me know if you need to talk."

Tali stopped her from getting up, though. "…I hope you know I'm here if you need to talk."

The last person to make that particular offer to her outright (besides Garrus, obviously) was Solana. Hearing it now from someone else she cared about was hard to just walk away from. "Of course."

So they sat there talking for what had to be the rest of the day. After all they'd been through lately, it was nice to get to just sit down and talk with someone who really cared. Tali had been missing her friend a lot these past two years. No one else could really take her place. By the time Terra had to leave, she was already glad she had come back, Cerberus or no, and looking forward to some more time with…well, her favorite human.

Keelah, Terra was contagious. Next she'd be talking in prose.

Tali shook her head, setting the thoughts aside as she went back to looking over the engine specs. The Migrant Fleet was home, but the Normandy…the Normandy was where she belonged.