Chapter 45: Rites and Reunions

Family is a place
Just as it is a people
It can be given or earned
But it is still where you belong
If it is real
It can never be taken away

Terra was checking on their upgrades' progress the next morning when Jacob asked to see her. Apparently, before they started closing off the ship from Cerberus channels (or trying to, at least, since she was certain there was still some means of watching them), he'd received a notice that the ship his father had been stationed on ten years ago was suddenly sending out a distress call. She couldn't exactly blame him for wanting to go check it out, so with no other missions to worry about, they headed straight there. By the time they were done there, she almost wish they hadn't bothered. They saved the survivors, sure, and Jacob found some closure, but seeing the atrocities his father had committed there was difficult to come back from.

Actually, Garrus seemed to think that more than she did if the way he was clinging to her was anything to go by.

"Garrus," she finally had to tell him, "I'm fine. You're starting to make me think you're not."

He just looked at her. "I…I just thought that…what happened back there was so much like…like…"

Ah. Like slavery. If it was, it was a different kind than what the people of Mindoir endured. Though perhaps it was less how she was marked by such things and more how she could have been. She smiled softly as she took his hand. "Just another reason I'm glad to have you."

He smiled. "Should I be listing all the reasons I'm glad to have you?"

She laughed. "You'd start me off. We'd be here all day." She leaned in to kiss him, her heart set aflutter the second he touched her—

CRASH!

They separated sharply.

Terra blinked… "…did you just hear…?"

BANG!

Garrus winced. "Yes."

"Shepard?" EDI came over the PA, "I believe your presence is required on the engineering deck."

Terra barely paused to give Garrus an apologetic, "we'll pick this up later" look before rushing for the elevator and heading down to deck 4. She was worried the issue might be the engines, maybe even that one of the upgrades upset something, but that was quickly rectified when she stepped off and heard the chaos coming from Grunt's cabin. Not sure whether to be wary or angry, she headed in and found him stomping on a box. "Hey! Grunt! What's going on?!"

He growled furiously. "I…I don't know! I need…something!"

"Then talk to me. You don't have to smash the whole deck!"

"That's the problem! I'm tense, angry, more so than usual, like I just want to…to…RRRAAAHHH!" He stormed over to the window peering down at the cargo bay and slammed his head against it, cracking the glass. "See?! Why do that?! What's wrong with me?!"

She was pretty caught up on the fact that he had just cracked the glass on a spaceship window—albeit one that wasn't on the outside of the ship—to try processing what the issue might be. "I don't know, but you could rein it in before you break something we actually need to fly?!"

"I'm trying! When we're moving, fighting, it's under control. But here, my blood screams, my plates itch, everything I hear is noise, even you! I'm tank-bred. What's doing this?!"

Even with her experience with Wrex, though, she was no krogan expert. She wasn't sure what to do besides ask the AI. "EDI, do you or Mordin have any records of a medical condition that could cause this? Maybe a disease or something?"

"Cerberus has a number of autopsies on file," EDI answered, "but nothing on a living krogan of this age and situation."

Grunt shook his head. "My people were defeated by doctors and labs. They'd never let that stuff leave the home-world."

Terra wasn't letting the fact her operations were restricted to the Terminus Systems get in the way this time. Grunt needed her help and she was giving it to him. "EDI, tell Joker to set a course for Tuchanka."

Grunt breathed a little easier. "Thank you, Shepard. I don't like this. Anger is my choice, not a sickness."

Grunt seemed to get a hold of himself now that they were on route to a solution and Terra had made it clear he had to, but there were still crashes sounding from his cabin every few minutes all the way to Tuchanka. It didn't help that Tuchanka was such a long ways away from the Rosetta Nebula that it was practically the other side of the galaxy, a trip that would take almost a full day even with mass relay transport, and they didn't have anything to stop and kill on the way there to keep him calm. The crew was so anxious to get this taken care of that, by the time they actually arrived, Terra and Garrus were already on the shuttle ready to go and everyone else was about ready to push Grunt out the door with them.

They had landed at the krogan compound for all of 15 seconds before Garrus started getting glares from the locals. Terra kept her arm around him and her eyes on the offending parties, ready for anything. It wasn't likely the krogan would try anything with Grunt right behind them, but unlikely didn't mean guaranteed. He was still a turian, and turians weren't exactly welcome here. All the more reason for her to hurry to the clan chief who was likely to have their answers.

"Halt," the guard at the dais spoke as soon as they approached, "You must wait until the chief summons you. He is…in talks."

Terra wasn't sure whether to argue that their business was urgent or agree to follow their customs.

She didn't have to decide before she heard a familiar voice call "Shepard?"

When she realized the voice was coming from the throne, she gave the guard a smirk and pushed him aside. "Good enough?" She made her way up.

And found none other than Urdnot Wrex standing there, beaming at the sight of her. She didn't know if he started it or her, but they wound up in a bear hug as he guffawed heartily in her ear. "Shepard! My friend! I should've known the Void couldn't hold you!"

She laughed gleefully as she stepped back to look at him. "Wrex! It's so good to see you again!"

"You look good for dead, Shepard. Ah, the benefits of a redundant nervous system!"

She blinked. "Yeah, humans don't have that."

"Oh…it must've been painful, then."

Garrus shook his head as he stepped in. "Speaking of pleasant surprises, you're chief now?"

Wrex smirked to Terra. "Come back from the dead and he's still following you around, huh?" He turned to Garrus to exchange the friendliest greeting a krogan had given to a turian in centuries. "Yes, after Virmire, I knew action had to be taken. I came back, took my place as leader of Clan Urdnot, and began uniting the krogan. When I am done, we will be one people again."

Terra couldn't help but smile. It was hard to believe this was the same mercenary who had told her the krogan were past all hope. He was the leader Tuchanka needed and deserved. She actually felt kind of proud.

The krogan standing behind Wrex disagreed. "You abandoned many traditions to get your way. Dangerous."

Wrex turned to the krogan in question and immediately head-butted him. "Speak when spoken to, Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether it likes it or not."

Terra didn't bother to repress the smirk she tossed to Uvenk as she followed Wrex back to his throne. Very proud.

"So," Wrex finally asked, "what brings you here, Shepard?"

She gestured to Grunt. "I have a krogan on my crew. He, uh…hasn't been feeling well lately."

Wrex carefully examined Grunt as the young krogan stepped forward. "Where are you from, whelp? Was your clan destroyed before you could learn what is expected of you?"

"I have no clan," Grunt explained, "I was tank-bred by warlord Okeer. My line distilled from Kredak, Moro, Shiagur…"

Uvenk scoffed. "You recite warlords, but you are the offspring of a syringe!"

Terra glared at the krogan. She officially didn't like him.

"I am pure krogan!" Grunt snapped, "You should be in awe!"

"Okeer is a very old name," Wrex said as he came over to speak to Grunt directly, "A very hated name."

Grunt shook his head. "He is dead."

"Of course. You're with Shepard. How could he be alive?"

Terra glared at him. "Just tell us what's wrong with him!"

"There's nothing wrong with him," Wrex answered, "He's becoming a full adult."

Garrus groaned. "Adolescence? Can't we just take him to Omega and buy him a few dances?"

"What?" Terra immediately turned to glare at him.

"I don't care what aliens do!" Wrex waved them off, "Krogan undergo the Rite of Passage."

"Too far, Wrex!" Uvenk snapped, storming off, "Your clan may rule, but this thing is not krogan!"

Terra glared after him again. Now she officially hated him.

Wrex scoffed. "Idiot." He turned to Grunt. "Well? Are you willing to stand with Urdnot?"

Grunt considered for a moment, looking out at the home-world he was seeing for the first time. Then he stood with purpose as he faced Wrex. "It is in my blood. It is what I am for."

Wrex smiled. "Good boy. Speak with the shaman. He'll set you on the path." He smirked at Terra. "That means you, too, Shepard. Hunt well."

Terra nodded. "It was good to see you again, Wrex. Don't be a stranger."

As they made their way up to the shaman, Terra kept an eye on Wrex. He seemed fit for his throne, like he was made for it. She was happy for him. If only his detractor wasn't raising so much trouble, already complaining to the shaman when they arrived and eying Grunt in disdain. Or was that disgust?

Terra stepped in immediately. "I don't care what this guy says. Grunt has the right to be here!"

The shaman smirked. "There's some fire. And from an alien! Oh, the shame this heaps on those who whine like pups."

Terra smirked in some measure of triumph at Uvenk.

Uvenk simply growled. "If this must stand on ritual, then I invoke a denial! My krantt stands against him. He has no one."

The shaman glared. "You try my patience. But Uvenk invokes correctly. Grunt, who is your krantt? Your allies who would fight and die on your behalf?"

Grunt looked down almost…sadly. He hadn't grown up on Tuchanka with friends among the krogan, he didn't have a clan to stand behind him.

Terra saw it differently. He had spent his entire life aboard the Normandy with them. He was a crewmate. To her, that made him family. So she stepped up. She wasn't krogan, but she didn't care. "Us. We stand with Grunt as fellow warriors."

The shaman accepted, but Uvenk instantly started arguing again. "Aliens don't know strength! My followers are true krogan! Everything about Grunt is a lie!"

That did it. Terra already couldn't stand the guy, but now she was outright seeing red. So she acted on that rage.

Which ended in her following Wrex's example and head-butting him so hard he doubled over.

Garrus struggled not to react. If he did, he wasn't sure if he would start showing concern she might have hurt herself or if he'd burst out laughing.

The shaman fell in the latter camp. "HAHAHA! I like this human! She understands!"

Uvenk growled, glaring at all four of them. "We'll settle this elsewhere." With that, he stormed off.

Terra glared after him, waiting until he was gone to straighten herself up from that strike that definitely did not just crack her skull. …she hoped.

The shaman led them to a proving ground. Terra was ready to let Grunt take charge on this one, but he let her do it, starting with her readying weapons and hitting the keystone that would signal the beginning of the rite. At first, it wasn't so difficult. Waves of varren swarmed in from across the arena, easily sniped down by Terra or Garrus or charged and shotgun-blasted by Grunt. It was after that, when they were being assaulted by herds of fire-breathing klixen that it got a bit difficult, but still nothing they couldn't handle. No, what actually gave them trouble was the thresher maw.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Terra groaned as she and Garrus ducked behind cover and Grunt started cheering.

It wasn't as simple as emptying every clip they had on the thing since it would just duck underground every 30 seconds. Luckily, she still had that flamethrower, but it didn't have a lot of range. Garrus had the range, but a sniper rifle could only do damage to a thresher maw if he got it right in the eye. So it was a matter of Terra drawing its fire so it would turn its flank to Garrus and take a sniper round in the face. Then while it thrashed in pain, Terra would be able to get close enough to flame it until it ducked back down. The tactic worked twice, wearing down the beast. The third time, Grunt outright let off a battle-cry, charged in, and jumped onto the beast's back, shooting it until it threw him off and, when it lunged to eat him, sending a full-powered shotgun round down its…well, maw. He wound up covered in guts while Terra and Garrus stared at him in amazement, but it was dead.

When it was over, though, Uvenk showed up. "You live. And you brought down the thresher maw. That has not been done in generations. Urdnot Wrex was the last."

Terra was content to believe that meant her krogan friends were the two strongest, but Uvenk thought otherwise. He wanted Grunt to join his clan, not as a warrior but as a trophy.

Predictably, Grunt preferred to kill the guy. And he did, emptying his shotgun into Uvenk as Terra and Garrus wiped out his krantt.

When they returned to the shaman, Grunt was named Urdnot…and claimed Terra as his battle-master. She felt…well, "flattered" was too light a word. She was happier than ever that they had brought the young krogan aboard.

"Well, that was fun," Garrus shook his head as they made their way back to the shuttle.

"It sure was!" Grunt hollered with delight.

Terra smirked. "Let's just head back to the ship and—"

"Shepard! Need to speak with you before we leave Tuchanka."

Terra quickly answered her COMM. "Mordin? What's going on?"

"Shouldn't speak of it around krogan. Meet me in lab."

Terra had yet to hear such urgency in the salarian's voice. When they were back on the ship, she headed straight up to the lab, not even bothering to drop off her gear. "Mordin, what's wrong?"

Mordin sighed. "Just received intel. Still processing." He looked at her seriously. "Back in STG, led team to investigate Tuchanka. Discovered krogan were adapting to genophage, recovering numbers."

Terra smiled. "That's wonderful! Why didn't you say something?"

"Because of response. Team developed genophage modification to counteract adaptation, bring krogan numbers back down."

She stopped smiling. "You…you did what?"

"Had to! Had krogan recovered, would have sought revenge! Chaos throughout galaxy!"

"Mordin, the first genophage was a war crime! Even the turians realize that! How could you recreate it?!"

"Necessary. Regrettable. …not why I called you. Fellow teammate, Maelon. Received word he was captured by Blood Pack on Tuchanka. Might…torture him. Make an example."

Terra still had strong feelings about the genophage she was ready to air out, but if one of Mordin's friends was in danger and they were already on Tuchanka, they didn't have time to debate. "Alright. Meet us at the shuttle, we'll head back down."

Mordin nodded. "Thank you. My student. Want to see him safe."

Terra went back down to the cargo bay to wait for him. Garrus apparently hadn't bothered leaving the cargo bay and was instead tending his rifle when she came down. She wouldn't have minded joining him, but Mordin prepared fast and was down in only a couple minutes. They headed straight back to the Urdnot compound and talked to the scout about the captured salarian. The scout pointed them to Clan Weyrloc, and they wasted no time heading over. There were Blood Pack all around the building, but they barely proved an obstacle. Even the locks on the door couldn't keep them out with Garrus there to hack in.

Mordin looked around as they entered the building. "Repurposed krogan hospital. Sturdy, built to withstand punishment."

Garrus sighed. "That's unfortunate. Hospitals aren't fun to fight through."

Terra gave him a curious look. "What is 'fun to fight through'?"

He shrugged. "Gardens, electronics shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."

She smiled. Leave it to Garrus. She had to wonder how he developed those rankings, but that was a conversation for another time.

Krogan barred their way at every turn. It would've been a real struggle had Mordin not been capable of wearing down their armor or even immobilizing them. Good thing, too, because Terra didn't want to have to repeat her strategy with Garrus again and tackle every single one of these krogan. As it was, they all wound up easy targets and the squad was able to push through to the labs. What they found there confirmed that Weyrloc had captured Maelon to work on a cure for the genophage. Through some rather unfortunate methods.

Mordin stood firm over the subject until they found the body of a krogan female in one of the labs. He started looking her over. "Krogan. Female. Track marks showing repeated injections. No restraint marks. Volunteer. Infertile female, hoped for cure. …pointless…pointless waste of life."

Terra stepped in. "I didn't expect you to be so upset about this."

"Why? Because of genophage work? Irrelevant! No! Causative! Genophage necessary. Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions, all pointed to krogan aggression."

"The genophage was an act of desperation. We can find other ways now. Especially with Wrex in charge. It doesn't have to end in war."

Mordin shook his head. "Naïve viewpoint."

Terra wasn't going to stand for this. Mordin was her friend, but so were Wrex and Grunt. The turians had done what they thought was necessary because they'd been running out of options, but it had still been wrong. She couldn't stand by while he defended it. "The alternative was this." She gestured pointedly to the dead krogan woman. "How many more is it gonna take for you to see?" She didn't let him argue. She kept walking, heading into the next area. Mordin and Garrus followed without a word.

The last of the krogan opposition was accompanied by the Weyrloc chief himself, but Terra had lost the patience to deal with him. She only spent as much ammo as it would take to let his barrier down, then she had Mordin wear down his armor and shot a concussive shot at his feet that sent him plummeting down three stories. If that didn't kill him, the varren would. All that was left was the room where Maelon was being held. The second they opened the door, though, they found he wasn't being held at all.

"Maelon," Mordin said, "Alive. Unharmed. No signs of restraint, no evidence of torture. Don't understand."

Maelon shook his head. "For such a great scientist, you always had trouble believing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions, doctor. How long will it take for you to realize I'm here because I wish to be?"

Terra looked at him in shock. "You went to the Weyrloc voluntarily?!"

"Impossible!" Mordin cried, "Entire team agreed. Project necessary!"

"How was I supposed to disagree with the great Mordin Solus?" Maelon sneered, "I was your student! I looked up to you!"

"Experiments performed here! Live subjects! Prisoners! Torture and executions! Your doing?!"

"We've already got the blood of millions on our hands, doctor! If it takes a little more to make it right, I'm willing to pay that!"

Much as Terra stood against the genophage, this was too far. "Forget it. We're shutting your project down, Maelon."

"Shutting down more than that," Mordin sneered.

That's when Maelon drew a gun. "You can't accept it. Won't accept that your brilliant mind forced you to commit an atrocity!"

And that's when Mordin lost it. He punched Maelon, knocking him back into the terminal he'd been working on and pinning him there with his own gun. "Unacceptable experiments. Unacceptable goals. Won't change. No choice. …have to kill you."

But much as Terra agreed that Maelon was in the wrong, this was no solution. "Wait!" She rushed over, grabbing Mordin by the wrist before he could fire. "You don't have to do this. You're not a murderer."

Mordin took a moment to consider, calmly stepping back. "No. Not a murderer. Thank you, Shepard."

Once Mordin had backed off, Terra dragged Maelon over and pushed him towards the door. "Get out. Before we change our minds."

"Where am I supposed to go?!" Maelon snapped.

"Don't care," Mordin snapped, "Try Omega, could always use another clinic." Once Maelon left the room, Mordin took a deep breath and turned to the terminal. "Apologies, commander. Misunderstood mission variables, no kidnapping. My mistake."

She didn't hold it against him. There was no way he could've known what was really happening here. And the reason they came didn't matter as long as it meant the experiments were over.

"Maelon's data. Should destroy. Still valuable, though."

Terra sneered at the terminal. "It's the data that includes experiments on living victims. It's tainted."

"Destroy data, deaths for nothing. Keep it, deaths mean something."

That was true. He even seemed to believe it. As if he knew he might one day use it. Maybe she had misjudged him. He wanted what was best for the krogan. He had restored the genophage to protect them as much as to protect the galaxy's current way of life. He had done the wrong thing, true, but for the right reason. She couldn't blame him for his actions. But she could help him redeem them. "…you feel sorry for the krogan. For what's been done to them. You see the horror of what happened here. But you see the loss, too."

Mordin sighed. "Yes."

"The krogan don't deserve this, Mordin. Save the data."

"Point taken, Shepard. Transferring data, wiping local copy. Still years away from cure, but better than starting from scratch." He turned off the terminal. "Done. Ready to go. Ready to be off Tuchanka. Maybe go somewhere sunny."

Terra smiled. "Let's go."

When they prepared to leave Tuchanka that night, Mordin was back in the lab, finding a safe place for the data before setting back to work on the ship and gear upgrades. After such a long day, Terra was glad to crawl into bed. Before she could fall asleep possibly restlessly, though, her COMM beeped. She smiled, already knowing who was there.

Garrus was in the process of setting aside the battery algorithms and heading to his bunk when he called. "So what's the plan for tomorrow? Taming a thresher maw?"

She smirked as she rolled her eyes and starting working on her sketchbook. "Maybe we should take a few days to calm down."

"Yeah, that'll be the day."

"We would eventually run out of things to shoot at either way."

He smiled while he was preparing to turn in. He was glad they'd started doing this. "Are you at least sleeping better?"

"A little. I think it actually calmed down even more when I stopped talking to the Illusive Man."

"Yeah, that would do it. Don't humans have psychological reactions to stress?"

"Well, all species do, it's just that humans sometimes have physical ones, too. I'm fine so far. …better with you." It was only after she said so that she realized she was sketching the Archangel mark from his armor. She smiled as she carefully etched the curves on the golden wings and thought of the one who carried them.

Two decks below, he was struggling to think of how to say what he needed to. "I, uh…I called Sol."

Terra froze when she heard that but quickly brought herself to keep going to take her mind off of it. "You didn't…tell her, did you? About me?"

"No. I just let her know that the 'private security' job I was working ended badly and I was going somewhere else. And I might be out of contact before long."

Understandable, though she suddenly wished she had been involved in the conversation, regardless of her reasons for not contacting the other Vakarians until the mission was over. "And your mom?"

He sighed sadly. "Not doing well, but not getting worse just yet. I'm honestly kind of glad I'm not there."

She hated to admit it, but… "…yeah, I kind of am, too."

"We're doing what we can from here. Hopefully, it'll pay off soon."

She nodded. "We can only hope."

He finally realized there was nothing more to say on the matter and leaving it there wasn't going to help her sleep. "Whatever happens, we still have each other."

She smiled again when she heard him say that. "Always. Those two years were hard enough, I'm not doing that again."

"You said it."

She kept talking until she was done with her drawing, though they quickly reached the phase where they were talking about nothing and just enjoying the sound of each other's voices. When she set her sketchbook aside, she told him they should probably stop talking and get some sleep. "I feel like I actually can right now. Thanks."

"Anything for you, Terra."

She could tell he meant that. Just as much as she meant it for him. "…I love you."

He smiled every time he heard her say that. Every time, it seemed like she meant it even more. "I love you." He knew he did.

After she hung up and started to fall asleep, the sound of his voice saying those words lingered in the silence. For the first night since her resurrection, she didn't have a single nightmare. She didn't remember any, but she woke up the next morning with the tranquil feeling of waking up from a blissful dream.