Chapter 63: Compromise

We see only differences
When we do not want to see truth
But even the sea must meet the shore in the end

By the time the summit commenced, Terra already knew it was going badly. All the envoy ships were carefully out of each other's range, not able to settle on a neutral meeting ground. It was only when Terra reached out and pressured them that they decided the Normandy would have to do.

Because having three angry diplomats in the same room with her on a warship was such a good idea.

True to her expectations, they were already yelling when she made her way into the meeting room. She was a little surprised that the salarian dalatrass proved to be the most hotheaded of the group, looking down at Wrex as if he was hardly worthy of even breathing the same air as her. Terra already didn't like her, if only on principle because Wrex was her friend. When she walked in, Wrex simply nodded to her, a more terse greeting than she had expected but the most he could afford under present conditions. She couldn't blame him for already being worked up since he said Reapers were already being sighted around Tuchanka. The logical part of her figured it made sense that the Brutes were most likely made of krogan while the rest of her was outraged and disgusted at the prospect. Tuchanka had been through enough. Palaven was already teetering dangerously on the edge of following suit. She was doing whatever it took to end this.

While Wrex clearly agreed, he knew that this would be his only chance, that he was now and only now the decider in the negotiations. So he played his hand: "I'll tell you what I need. …a cure for the genophage."

Naturally, the salarian dalatrass reacted badly. "Absolutely not! The genophage is non-negotiable!"

But Terra thought otherwise. "No, it's really not! Your people only made it as a deterrent, and there's a reason it wasn't supposed to be deployed! The krogan know they made a mistake, they've been suffering for it long enough!"

"1,476 years," Wrex snarled, "if you're keeping count."

"It was 1000 years of peace!" the dalatrass snapped, "Free of these brutes!"

Using that word in light of what had just happened was a step too far where Terra was concerned. She was more than prepared to show the dalatrass what she thought of her, too.

Until Primarch Victus stepped in. "Enough! Whether or not the krogan deserve a cure is academic. It would take years to formulate one!"

"My information says otherwise," Wrex countered. He then used the monitor to display the evidence—some of the krogan females Maelon had experimented on had survived…and were being held on Sur'Kesh.

"Dalatrass!" Victus turned to the salarian, appalled, "Is this true?!

The dalatrass saw that she couldn't deny it, sputtering for an excuse. "How would curing the genophage benefit my people?!"

"You think the Reapers won't come for your people eventually?" Terra asserted, "The krogan would help you if you helped them. But if you don't, they won't be helping any of us…"

"…and I'll be the last friendly turian you ever see," Victus completed for her, staring down the dalatrass insistently.

The dalatrass was outnumbered three to one. She finally relented. "The females are being held at one of our STG bases. I'll send the coordinates."

"We're going," Terra nodded to Wrex.

"What?! You can't just barge in! This will take time—"

"It happens now," Victus said, "As a Council Spectre, Shepard can oversee the exchange."

Terra gave Victus a grateful smirk before leading Wrex out and to the cargo bay. On the way there, she called to Joker to take them down to Sur'Kesh, which was only about ten minutes away, and to Garrus and EDI to prepare to move in. Time to see what EDI's new body could do.

"I still don't trust a word they say," Wrex was sneering as they geared up, already stowing a shotgun while the squad was seeing EDI off.

"Let diplomacy play out, Wrex," Terra shrugged as she finished holstering her weapons, "You'll get what you want."

"Don't worry, Wrex," Liara nodded, "we're all behind you to see your people home safely."

"Thanks, Liara," Wrex nodded back, "Wouldn't want anyone else along for the ride."

"AHEM!" Garrus immediately spoke up from where he was readying his rifles.

"Ah, I suppose I can make room for you, too, Garrus."

Garrus shook his head. "You sure you haven't gone soft sitting on that throne, forgot how to hold a gun?"

"He wouldn't be king then," Javik remarked, leaning against the back wall.

Wrex eyed him curiously. "Who's that?"

Terra blinked. "Uh…he's a Prothean."

Wrex shook his head again, walking past her to the shuttle. "Sometimes I'm not sure whether the Normandy's a warship or a traveling freak show…"

Honestly, Terra couldn't fault that opinion.

Locating the base didn't prove to be a problem. What did prove to be a problem was getting clearance to land the shuttle there.

Naturally, Wrex couldn't accept one minute's delay. "I knew they wouldn't keep their word! Let's see them try to stop a krogan airdrop!"

"Wait, what?" Terra reacted, "What does that me—?" Then the shuttle rumbled as the door opened and she realized what exactly he did mean. "Wrex—!"

Too late. The krogan chief leaped out of the shuttle and landed with so much force that he probably triggered an earthquake on the other side of the continent. When the salarians attempted to move in to restrain him, he tossed them back with a biotic field and drew his shotgun. Terra was finally able to jump in and calm everyone down, Garrus and EDI right behind her, when the salarian in charge ran in and informed them they had just received word of the mission. They had clearance now, but they also now had to leave Wrex under guard. Wrex responded in an appropriately krogan manner.

Terra quickly intercepted him. "We can handle it from here, Wrex."

If anyone other than Terra had made the request, he would've fought back. As it was, he holstered his shotgun and warned them all "If anything goes wrong, all bets are off." Perfectly reasonable. If a bit intimidating.

They made their way through the facility, only pausing to speak to Major Kirrahe (who they were definitely pleasantly surprised to see) and to admire the view (which EDI had a new appreciation for now that she was seeing it "in person"). Terra had never been to Sur'Kesh before and was tempted to capture that view while she could, but they were on a mission. And the fact that the base started mobilizing in response to an alarm just as the squad was getting on the elevator didn't bode well.

What did bode well was who they met when they went down. "Shepard! Excellent timing! Good to have you here."

"Mordin!" Terra had never been so happy to see a salarian in her life. A handshake certainly didn't seem like the best way to convey that, but they had a lot going on right now. "You're back with STG?"

"Of course. Recovered females. Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong." He quickly checked that no one was listening and turned to whisper something to her. "Sent word to Clan Urdnot. Encouraged political pressure to free females."

Terra smiled. "You're Wrex's inside source."

"Yes. Can discuss later. Alarms not normal." He led her off to the side. "Females' immune systems compromised, side effect of Maelon's cure." He gestured to a lab sadly. "These…didn't survive."

Terra's heart broke at the sight of so many krogan bodies. More casualties of Maelon's malpractice. "I thought we saved the data."

"We did. Useful for reconstructing cure from living tissue. …couldn't save them."

She sighed sadly. "I know you did everything you could, Mordin."

He nodded. "Too late for them. Need to hurry. One female still alive."

Terra moved faster when she heard that. Her hope was hanging on a thread right now. She couldn't let it be cut.

The female was restrained in a pod, probably as a sterilization measure to prevent her weakened immunities from killing her as it had killed the others. She eyed Terra with suspicion from the second they approached. "Are you here to kill me?"

Terra might've been appalled at the insinuation if she couldn't guess what this krogan had likely been through. "No. You're the future of the krogan race. I'm fighting for that."

As if on cue, the building shook, prompting the female to give her a wary glance. "Then I hope you brought an army."

Wrex quickly called down to warn them. Cerberus was there. They were assaulting the base. He would have to meet them on the roof to extract the female if they wanted this to work. Mordin quickly initiated the release procedure and took up position in the pod to monitor her vitals.

"You'll see Tuchanka again," Terra assured the female before leading Garrus and EDI off into the thick of it, "I promise."

Garrus couldn't help but admire her determination. She always kept her promises.

Cerberus was definitely after the female. Terra couldn't fathom what they would have to gain from preventing the alliance that might be their sole hope of defeating the Reapers. All she knew was that they had to be stopped. Cerberus knew how to play defensive, but not defensive enough. EDI proved herself invaluable in no time, not just for overloading shields and incinerating turrets, but for taking fire organics couldn't through a defense matrix and then sending out a decoy to draw fire so the squad could flank their opponents. Between EDI's tricks, Garrus' precision strikes, and Terra's firepower, it was all too easy to fight their way to the top.

Until Cerberus dropped in the heavy mech. Which wouldn't have been a terrible problem had it not been dropped right on top of them. They had to fall back at top speed, thankful the mech could only move one step every five seconds, and take cover long enough to wear down its shields. Once the shields were down, though, Terra couldn't help but notice the light armor around the controls. Poor design choice. All she had to do was tell Garrus to hit it with a few sniper shots and it cracked right open. Allowing her to toss a grenade inside.

It exploded. She enjoyed it.

She also enjoyed the following scene, from Wrex pushing aside Mordin to play the valiant hero with the female to the female then snatching Wrex's shotgun to shoot down the last two Cerberus troopers herself with a scoff of "I can handle myself, Wrex." Not to mention Wrex's resulting eye roll and sigh of "Women…"

Mordin took up position in the med bay on the Normandy almost immediately, saying he only needed a little time and a male blood sample (which Wrex was hesitant but ultimately happy to provide) to synthesize the cure from "Eve's" tissue. Terra couldn't help but smirk at the name. Of course, while that issue was being resolved, three more popped up. Specialist Traynor had reason to believe Grissom Academy needed help, Primarch Victus had lost contact with a platoon that had crashed on Tuchanka, and Wrex had lost contact with a scout team that had been investigating the rachni relay. None of it sat well with Terra, but she prioritized. The cure would take them to Tuchanka anyway, so the turians could, against her better judgment, wait for last. She could take care of these krogan scouts first. So she plotted the course for Utukku and called Javik to take his turn at showing them what he could do.

Wrex sent ahead his top commandos—Aralakh Company. They landed to see the krogan troops in position at a camp. "Yeah," the leader was saying into a COMM, "shuttle just arrived."

Terra knew that voice. She couldn't help but beam at the sound of it. "Grunt?!"

"Shepard?!" The tank-bred in question quickly pushed his way to the front of the camp to see her. When he had confirmation it was his former "battle-master," he raced over to give her a greeting that redefined the term "bear hug." "SHEPARD!"

Terra laughed as she hugged him back. "Good to see you again, Grunt."

"You're telling me," he smirked as he stepped back to face her, "Didn't those idiots lock you up?"

"Kind of. They had to keep the batarians off me while they were preparing for war with the Reapers. What about you? You're in charge here?"

Grunt smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I earned a few scars earning my place, but these krogan respect me." He looked behind them to the last camp. "Looks like a sinkhole swallowed the scouts. Hard to believe this might be rachni." The words were disbelieving or tense but the look on his face was definitely hopeful and excited. "A chance to face the old enemy? Impossible to resist. Sensors show a lot of movement below. If we're lucky, it's a nest."

Before Terra could come up with a witty retort, Javik stepped up. "Ah. It's you. The krogan who occupied my quarters on the Normandy. …you left your mark."

"What?! Shepard, who is this?"

"You shouldn't be so eager to face the rachni. They were formidable opponents, even in my cycle."

Grunt simply looked at Terra demandingly.

Terra groaned, shaking her head and waving him off. "Ask me later."

"Yeah, whatever. We should get moving."

Garrus smirked as he readied his rifle. "Just like old times, Grunt?"

Grunt answered with his signature laugh.

Terra smiled. She wouldn't deny she had missed that sound.

Naturally, though, it wasn't as simple as they planned. The second Terra, Garrus, and Javik took point, cutting through one of the old camp's buildings, the whole thing tumbled down into the sinkhole. They managed to make it out without a scratch and regroup at the entrance to what they were assuming was a nest, but Grunt and his krogan were still at the top and would have to go around to find another route.

Terra had been skeptical that this was really rachni. She had been the one to cut the deal with the last queen, after all. The queen had kept her promise and disappeared. There was no reason for her to go back on it now. But when Terra saw what had really happened, her skepticism turned again to outrage. The Reapers had found the queen and her children. They'd harvested them. She was so furious that the Reapers would leave nothing untouched that she felt like she could've kept up with Grunt had he been right next to her. As it was, she had Garrus as a more-or-less-calming presence and Javik as biotic support that actually really came in handy. In no time, they'd worn down the nest and caught up with the krogan. If they could just make it to the central chamber, they could clear the whole place, but the path through was a small crawlspace that Garrus and Javik could squeeze through but the krogan definitely couldn't. So instead, Grunt stepped up to hold position and give them an escape route.

"Good luck," Terra told him earnestly.

Grunt scoffed. "I don't need luck. I have ammo."

She smiled. It was a good life motto, that was for sure.

Their path through the central chamber was barred almost immediately, but it was easy enough to fight their way through. What really halted them was what they found inside.

"Silence…" the bodies of krogan surrounding them began to speak.

"What the—?!" Garrus immediately jumped.

But Terra calmly took the front. She knew what this was. She could see the one behind it.

The rachni queen had grown. She was still in the form of a rachni, but she was ten times the size she had been on Noveria, watching them with icy eyes from behind the confines of a Reaper device. "The sour note of the machines has ceased," she spoke through the fallen.

"It is you," Terra stepped up, "What happened?"

"We kept our promise. But the machines came. They took our children and sent them to war."

"But you weren't affected?"

"The sour note of the machines was everywhere. But they cannot control us. We will fight for our children. Remove this last shackle and we are free."

"Shepard!" Grunt came over the COMM before she could make a move, "We're getting swarmed! We stay here and Aralakh Company dies!"

Terra quickly turned back to the queen. "Can you call them off?"

"No," the queen lamented, "They cannot hear us. We must go now. Release us!"

"Commander," Javik stepped up, "she is injured. She needs too much time to escape."

Terra could see that. She could hear the krogan struggling over the COMM. But she had stood with the rachni once already and she wouldn't let them die. Grunt was out there protecting his men. She had to trust him. "Grunt, listen to me. Aralakh Company needs to hold position while the queen escapes."

Grunt didn't take it well. Quite frankly, Garrus wasn't sure how to feel. "Uh, Terra…"

"We're not arguing about this!" she asserted, readying her pistol and taking aim on the Reaper device, "She's coming with us!" So she fired and the queen was free. "Grunt, get us out of here!"

As if he'd been waiting outside, Grunt blasted through the wall in a matter of seconds and began to lead them in a mad dash for the exit. He kept fighting all the way there, shooting down rachni—not rachni, Ravagers—at every turn without even slowing down. It was only when they prepared to turn a corner and saw a whole host of Ravagers across the way that they stopped. Yet still Grunt stepped up. "The shuttle's down that path. I'll hold them off."

This was where Terra drew the line. She wasn't leaving Grunt behind, wasn't letting the krogan who'd practically been born on her ship as part of the crew that she considered family…she refused to let him die in this cave. She stood ready to say as much.

He didn't let her. "Get out of here, Shepard."

She could see in his eyes what he meant. She had stood for him when no one else would. It was time for him to repay the favor, no matter how much she disliked it. Sadly, she laid her hand on his shoulder, silently letting him know that she was grateful, proud, and dismayed all at once. Then, before she could hesitate again, she led Garrus and Javik away.

They were on their way onto the shuttle in five minutes. She felt hollow as she managed to tell Cortez they were the last ones out. She wasn't ready to lose a friend like this. While Javik simply got on the shuttle, Garrus stayed by her side, ready to be there for her where Grunt wasn't. Against her better judgment, she finally looked back…and saw a certain bloodied warrior rising from the cave. "GRUNT!" Before she knew she was moving, she ran back over to him.

He stumbled closer. "Anybody…got something to eat?"

Terra almost laughed, almost cried, barely managed to catch him when he finally lost his footing. While Garrus came back over to help her drag Grunt onto the shuttle, she smiled to know that he was OK.

You couldn't keep a good krogan down. Tank-bred or no.

They managed to get Grunt to the med bay without anyone collapsing under his weight, Joker promptly setting a course for the Citadel to see him to a proper hospital. Terra then only needed to take the time to let Admiral Hackett know that they were sending the surviving rachni his way. He was certainly surprised. Whether it was a pleasant surprise or not remained to be seen, but she was content in the knowledge that it was the right choice, even it did cost them.

Wrex caught her on the way out. "Siding with the giant spider again, huh?" He smirked. "Good to see you still know how to fight and Grunt got out with just a few scratches."

Terra rolled her eyes. "Right. Don't worry, Wrex, this is the just the start. We'll take care of everything. Let's get back to work."

Wrex sighed. "…yeah."

Terra eyed him curiously. "What's the matter?"

"Mordin. He got his tissue sample." He hesitated, turning back to the terminal with a groan. "Let's just say scalpels were never meant to cut where he cut."