Chapter 65: Crash and Burn

When we dream, we can reach for the stars
When we reach for the stars, we can fly
But when we fly, we might crash and burn

Violet took a cot in the med bay for now, in case Mordin needed to keep her under observation while they were finding room for her elsewhere aboard. She promised she wouldn't intrude on his work on the genophage cure and he claimed he didn't mind looking over two patients and Eve seemed to appreciate the company, so everyone went along with it. The entire crew was shocked at the news that Terra's long lost sister was not only alive but here. Well, shocked for all of one hour before they seemed to collectively reach the conclusion that obviously any sister of Commander Shepard's would withstand even batarian slavery long enough to find a way home. She was shaken and traumatized and likely never to be how she was before. But she was with her family again, or at least what little was left of it, and that was good enough.

Terra spent the entire ride to the Citadel explaining to Violet what had happened to her after the raid. The only thing that could pry Terra from her sister was EDI informing her they were able to establish contact with Anderson. The admiral was happy to inform her they'd been able to establish a resistance on Earth and she was happy to inform him that everyone from Grissom Academy was safe and joining the battle and that her sister was alive.

"What?!" Anderson naturally reacted.

Terra smiled. "I can't believe it either. But she's here."

He smiled back. "Well. It's nice to see some good things can still happen at times like this."

"It really is. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Kahlee Sanders is also safe and sound on the Citadel. She asked me to tell you to stay alive."

He laughed. "Did she now? Thanks, Shepard. Let's hold onto the good news. It might be hard to come by more."

"You're telling me. Take care, Anderson."

Just as the call was ending, they docked on the Citadel. Terra offered to show Violet around but was met with a refusal, simply stating she wasn't ready yet. Terra figured it was best to give Violet time, show her around the Normandy before taking it any further, and left her to Mordin's care so she could take Jack, Sanders, and the students to where they would be deployed from.

With Terra off the ship, Garrus took it upon himself to step in. Violet was withdrawing into herself in the med bay without Terra there to lean on and the sight of a Shepard quiet and reserved did not sit well with him. Luckily, he knew just how to handle it. He went straight up to deck 1 to retrieve what he needed and then entered the med bay with it, careful not to bother Mordin.

Violet was still startled by the sight of him but quickly recovered, reminding herself he was Terra's friend. More than that, from the sound of the story. Plus, he was hardly more intimidating than the krogan sitting across from her.

He came over to sit on the cot beside her. "Are you OK?"

She didn't look at him but still nodded.

He figured it was best to cut to the chase in this instance, holding out what he had brought her. "I believe this is yours."

She froze at the sight of it, violet blue eyes growing wider. Her hand trembled as she reached for the case, opening it as if she was afraid it would break. Inside, as pristine as the day she last saw it, was the violin her father had crafted for her and her sister had decorated with painted violets.

Garrus smiled to see her reaction. "Your 'disaster-proof box' survived the raid. Terra kept everything in it. It's up in her cabin now. But you should have this."

She ran her fingers across the strings, feeling the tension as if she could tell it needed tuning just by fingering them. "…I didn't let myself forget. They tried to break me and I went along with it, but when they weren't watching, I'd play. Every night, I'd remember how Mom's songs sounded, remind myself…"

He believed it. He could tell just by looking at her or knowing her name what she was capable of. "You're as strong as your sister."

She turned to look at him, the things Terra had told her about the past 16 years seeming to connect when she met his eyes for the first time. "You're in love with her?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

At first, she wasn't sure how to take the news. Then she slowly began to smile. Finally, she closed the case, setting it safely beside the cot to tend to later, and laid her hand gratefully on his. "Thank you."

He knew enough about humans (and about Shepards in particular) to tell what she meant. Not just for returning her violin. For taking care of her sister where she couldn't. He laid his hand over hers in return before turning to go. He'd consider this the first step towards making good on that brother status he was more or less certain he'd gained.

Meanwhile, Terra was again making sure nothing on the Citadel required her attention just yet. She was eager to head back to her sister, so she was glad to see nothing pressing arose. But when she came across certain asari matriarch stationed on the Presidium, she couldn't help but divert her attention for a few minutes. So she sat down by Liara on a balcony overlooking the reservoir. "That bartender?"

"The one the matriarchs sent to spy on me?" Liara retorted snidely.

Terra sighed. "…she's your father."

"I know."

Terra blinked. "You know?"

Liara smirked. "I'm a very good information broker."

"And you're not talking to her?"

"Why should I? This is hardly the time for family reunion—" She cut herself off when she remembered what had happened the night before.

And noticed the way Terra was glaring at her. "This is exactly the time for family reunions!" She accented the assertion with a nod in the direction of the bar.

Liara couldn't exactly argue this. "Oh, fine." So she went over and met Matriarch Aethyta, her krogan-sired father, and spent the rest of their stay on the Citadel talking to her.

Terra couldn't help a self-satisfied smile as she strode past. Yet another thing wrong with the galaxy she had somehow managed to correct. If only everything had so simple a solution.

While Terra was headed back to the ship, Mordin was checking on both his patients. "…no, no, no, organ redundancy results in new period before metaphase, can't change that—damage to telomeres, premature aging…"

Violet blinked at him. He clearly didn't notice. "Does he do that often?"

"Incessantly, it seems," Eve shook her head.

Violet smirked, turning her attention to the krogan. "I didn't hear your name."

"I surrendered it. The day I became a shaman for the female clan."

This drew Violet's attention. "How do become a shaman?"

Eve didn't hold back. "You're locked in a cave for a week with just enough food to last. On the eighth day, you'll starve."

Violet appreciated that the krogan wasn't coddling her, but that was still shocking to hear. "What does that prove?"

"Your resolve. Wisdom comes from pain…and the genophage has made us very wise."

Violet leaned forward on the cot, her attention entirely on the krogan woman. "How did you survive?"

"I started digging the wrong way. I was deeper and deeper in the darkness…until I found this." She reached into her pocket and removed a Tuchanka stone. "A simple crystal, but it became my chisel. I dug my way out of the rock and found my way back to the gaze of the sun." Eve quickly took notice of the rapt way Violet was watching the crystal and, with a wry smile, stepped over. "Take it."

Violet looked at her. "But it's yours."

"I do not need it anymore. You should have it. Take it as a reminder that in the darkest times, you can always find the light."

That would be a good thing to remember. So Violet carefully took the crystal, placing it in her pocket until she could find it a new home.

It was about then that Terra came in. "You OK, Vi?"

"Getting there," Violet nodded with a small smile, "I still can't believe you have your own ship."

Terra smirked. "Perks of the job."

"It is good to see humans treat their women with respect," Eve nodded as she moved to return to her own cot, "Your people have placed a great weight on you, commander."

"No more than yours have on you."

Eve smirked as she sat down. "Then maybe we can show the men how it's done."

Terra smiled before turning back to her sister. "We're going to Tuchanka now. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"I'm fine," Violet assured her, "I can call you if I need you."

"Do that." Terra was glad to see her sister was already doing better. Still, she couldn't help but worry. On her way out, she stopped to talk with Mordin. "How are they doing?"

"Both adjusting well so far," Mordin answered, "Could use softer blankets."

Terra smirked. "I'm glad to see they're in good hands."

"Of course. Had to be me."

"Someone else might've gotten it wrong?"

Mordin smiled back. "Don't worry. Will take care of them, have cure ready in no time."

"I know you will, Mordin. But what about after that? What are you going to do?"

"Hmm. Will help with Reapers, then not sure. Many things to consider—work on genophage, work against Collectors, decisions, mistakes. Might go somewhere sunny, sit on beach, watch sunsets, collect seashells."

Terra couldn't help a scoff. "You'd go crazy inside an hour."

Mordin considered… "Might run tests on the seashells."

With that, Mordin went back to work and Terra went off to see the ship to the relay. Violet watched her sister go, marveling at how they'd changed. While Violet had been fighting to stay sane under years of being used and abused and mistreated, while she had somehow succeeded for just long enough to survive, Terra had been pulled into a fight of her own and conquered it, become a hero with friends she could depend on. Violet knew she probably wouldn't live up to that, but she was fine with it. She preferred it this way. When this was over, she could rejoin the galaxy and proudly say that Terra Shepard was her sister.

Terra was reluctant to go out on another mission while Violet was on the ship, but she was still a soldier and she was still needed. In this case, especially, since it was the primarch of Palaven asking for her help. She called Garrus and James down to the shuttle as they approached Tuchanka, all of them ready for whatever this crash site would bring them.

"EDI, what have you got for us?" Terra asked as they flew down.

"The officer in charge of this mission was Lieutenant Tarquin Victus," EDI said, "I am attempting to raise him now."

"Victus?"

"The primarch's son."

Terra and Garrus exchanged glances. If it was Victus' own son in charge of this mission that had clearly failed, it wasn't good for the primarch. They had to make sure the rescue went better. EDI had a shaky connection to Lieutenant Victus by the time they landed, so Terra was able to establish contact and figure out where they were headed. Now it was just a matter of getting to them.

"A secret mission on Tuchanka is especially odd," Garrus noted as they started moving, "Thoughts?"

"You're the turian," James remarked, "You tell me."

"…I got nothing, lieutenant."

"Yeah, me either," Terra sighed.

The Reapers were crawling all over the crash site, but none of them seemed to expect anyone to come in from behind to save the turians. Their funeral, because this meant Terra, Garrus, and James had a rare opportunity to sneak attack them all. Sitting ducks for the snipers and James' grenades. The only part of the mission Terra thought was genuinely difficult was when the Harvester came and started firing on both them and the surviving turians. But she wasn't letting any of her adopted people fall. The first couple times, they managed to simply chase off the Harvester, wearing it down along the way. It was only when they came to the main crash site that they were forced to truly stand their ground. The Harvester dropped a host of Marauders and Cannibals in their way with a Brute just behind. But with the surviving turians laying down cover fire and Terra and Garrus both channeling every bit of anger they had on behalf of Palaven as a result, the Brute went down all too quickly. Then all they had to do was take cover and let Terra tear into the Harvester, sniping it in each eye and then wearing down its armor to let off one last shot at its heart. It exploded ferociously as it died, taking the last of the Reaper troops with it.

The second it was clear, Terra made her way over to the turians. "Lieutenant?"

"Commander Shepard," Lieutenant Victus stepped up, "My men and I are in your debt."

"What happened here?"

She kind of regretted asking when one of the soldiers snapped, grabbing Tarquin by the armor and glaring at him. "He screwed up!"

"Stand down, soldier!" Tarquin glared back.

"These men are dead because of him!"

"Hey!" Terra quickly intervened, pushing them apart, "We're not going to fix anything by yelling!"

While the soldier shook his head and waved her off, Tarquin turned to her. "I'm sorry, commander, we're all on edge."

"I can see why. What were you even doing here?"

"There's a bomb on this planet. We were sent to disarm it."

Terra was ready to say they should abort and evacuate, but those words stopped her cold. "A bomb? How big?"

"Enormous. …Cerberus has it."

She immediately hit the opposite extreme, standing firm. "Lieutenant, if Cerberus has a bomb on Tuchanka, we are finishing this."

"We're down over 30 men! And even if we could finish this, my men don't want to."

"I'll take over from here if I have to, but you can't just give up. Convince them."

"How?"

"What do you mean 'how?'! You're turian! We don't back down, and we don't dishonor the fallen. We honor them by finishing what we started."

She didn't know what Tarquin heard in her words—wisdom, conviction, strong leadership, a bold turian nature—but whatever it was convinced him. He quickly summed up his own of all of it, facing his platoon. "Men, I own what happened here today. But we have to go on."

"Who cares about a few dead krogan?" one of the soldiers retorted sharply, "It's over!"

"No! We are turian! We must stand for the good of the galaxy! Now move!"

Terra couldn't help a small smile. He was unproven, but he had the potential to be a good leader even if he didn't live up to his father's war-blooded name. She respected that.

Once he had his men behind him again, he turned back to her. "Commander, you said you were willing to take over? Come with us. We're a shell of what we once were, we could use a hand."

Terra nodded. "We'll move in now. My team can go down the front and draw their fire so you can sneak around to the payload."

"On it. Let's move."

They called the shuttle and followed the turians directly to the coordinates of the bomb. The whole way there, Terra started wondering why Victus hadn't told her that his son was involved or what the original mission parameters were. He had acknowledged her place with the turians. Why wouldn't he trust her?

"COMM check," Tarquin's voice eventually came over the shuttle systems, "this is the Ninth Platoon. Do you read me, commander?"

"We hear you, Ninth Platoon," Terra nodded, stepping up to the vid-screen, "We're entering the Kelphic Valley now. What can you tell us about this bomb Cerberus has?"

Tarquin hesitated. "…it's not Cerberus, commander. It's…it's turian."

That statement hit her so hard she would've thought she'd been shot. "What do you mean 'turian'?!"

"We planted it there after the Rebellions. It was meant to be a deterrent if the genophage wasn't enough."

How could the genophage possibly not be enough?! She couldn't deny the logic made sense, but she also couldn't deny that she had dreaded when something like this would happen—much as she admired the turians, their belief in no-such-thing-as-small-scale-war and the methods of prevention that resulted were always likely to come back and bite them one day.

Now it fell to them to make sure it didn't come back to bite the krogan as well right when they were most needed. The plan held up at first, allowing them to get inside while the turians snuck around the back.

"Once we've hacked into the system," Tarquin explained, "I'll reprogram the trigger mechanism and disarm it."

"Got it," Terra nodded, "No trigger, no explosion."

They kept moving, taking down any Cerberus that got in their way. That just proved they had more to worry about when they came to the point where Cerberus was moving the opposite direction. They were evacuating. That couldn't be a good sign. Terra definitely started moving faster when she saw what was happening, racing around the base to get to the bomb site. As soon as they got there, though, Cerberus started moving back in to chase them out. They clearly didn't know any turians. Terra quickly established a defense line with Garrus and James, keeping all of the intruding troopers away from Tarquin as he hacked into the bomb controls. With Garrus and Terra on the high ground and James demonstrating the origin of the term "the best defense is a good offense," Cerberus was forced to clear out again the hard way in a matter of minutes.

And it still wasn't fast enough. "Spirits!" Tarquin exclaimed, "Cerberus hacked the trigger! It's set to detonate!"

"Well, turn it off!" Terra called back.

"I can't! I have to manually separate the trigger from the bomb!"

So Terra focused on organizing their defense and holding their position while Tarquin climbed up the bomb and removed the trigger. It would've worked if one of the seals wasn't locked. He quickly climbed down the seal and removed the lock…destabilizing the supports on the entire structure.

Terra immediately saw what was about to happen. "LIEUTENANT!"

He looked back at her, determination not wavering for one second as he saw what he had to do. "…victory…at any cost." So he tore out the rest of the seal. And fell to his death.

The mission was successful, but it certainly didn't feel like a victory to Terra. While Garrus and James were following her onto the shuttle, she sadly took up the duty of informing the primarch what happened. He didn't respond at first, finally saying he needed to get back to checking on how Palaven was faring and disconnecting before she could respond. So she resorted to sitting down in reverent silence and trying not to think about who else they would all lose before this was over.

James kept his distance, but Garrus eventually took Terra's side. "We're a hard bunch to please…but he did us proud."

Terra nodded, attempting to smile and failing. "Yeah. He did."

Terra went straight to the war room after stowing her gear in the armory. When she opened the door, Wrex was already shouting at Victus for his people planting a bomb in one of Tuchanka's most heavily populated areas and never saying anything about it. She didn't bother thinking before stepping in. "HEY! That's enough, both of you!"

"Shepard, I know how you feel about the birds," Wrex shook his head, "but this is—"

"Too far? As it happens, I agree with you, the turians had no right to do that. But you also have no right to react like this when we're already in a war when you know as well as I do that your people brought it on themselves and, in the turians' place, would've done the same stupid thing!"

"That's not—!"

"There's no point arguing about it now! His own son died today making this right!"

Victus finally spoke back up when she said that. "Commander, please, it's OK."

Wrex stood back, withholding a growl. "Fine! Shepard, you made your point. We have bigger enemies to face."

Terra simply turned to the console currently displaying the statistics surrounding Palaven's fall. "…we do."

After Wrex went back to his station, Victus took Terra's side. "I hope you appreciate the need for secrecy now, commander."

Terra scoffed, shaking her head. "I understand why you thought it was needed. But, with all due respect, primarch, secrets are for enemies. Secrets between friends get people killed. You just learned that the hard way."

"…yes. The hardest lesson I'm ever to learn." He looked at the console sadly for a moment. "My son…he died with the respect of his men. I wanted to thank you for that."

She nodded. "If there's anything else I can do for you, sir, you only need to ask."

He nodded with a sigh. "I know."

Terra was about to leave the room when Mordin stepped in. "Shepard! Good news. Finished synthesizing cure. Ready for release to krogan population."

Wrex stepped back in, much happier for this news. "Good, then you can put your knife away."

Terra elected not to respond to that or think of how she would've responded if she had. "What's the plan then?"

"Not sure," Mordin thought it over, "Voluntary inoculation risky. Population too scattered for airborne, unless…wait! Yes! The Shroud!" He turned to display the structure in question on the holo-table. "Created by salarians to repair Tuchanka's atmosphere." He hesitated to say the rest: "Also used by turians."

Victus flinched. "We…used it to spread the genophage. It ended the Krogan Rebellions."

Terra gave him a look. "I'm not sure whether that was a stroke of genius or just plain underhanded."

He shook his head. "Those were desperate times."

"…I know."

"But can use this," Mordin said, "Cure based on same modality. Insert into Shroud systems then disperse to blanket Tuchanka with cure!"

Wrex beamed triumphantly. "You clever little pyjak! That's our best shot right there!"

"Get on it, Mordin," Terra agreed, "I'll have Joker set the course and we'll be ready in the morning."

"Already begun," Mordin nodded, "Will need Eve to come with us. Have her ready when you are."

Terra took this as good news. They were actually about to end the genophage. Before that, though, she would have to tend to the heavy toll this day had taken on her. She headed for the elevator to go up to deck 1.

She stopped before even pressing the button when she thought she heard something. Was…was that…music?

Mordin was right behind her. "Something wrong?"

"Do you hear that, too?" Terra asked, "Did you leave an opera recording playing in the med bay or something?"

"Ah…not quite. Should probably follow me."

Curious, Terra stepped onto the elevator with him to head down to deck 3. As soon as the doors opened and she could hear the sound more clearly, she slowly started to realize what it was and descend into shock. She turned the corner to find half the crew was in the mess, listening to the same thing and watching through the viewing glass around the med bay. So she went over to see for herself.

Violet was playing her violin. Playing "Call of the Starbird" as if it had been written for the Normandy rather than for three little colonists.

"Garrus retrieved instrument for her while you were on Citadel," Mordin explained, "Started playing about an hour ago. Seems to be calming both patients…and entertaining crew."

Terra smiled authentically for the first time since they touched down on Tuchanka, fighting how her eyes threatened to tear up to hear her sister play again after so long. She tried to be analytical about it—the strings sounded a little worn from sitting in a box for 16 years and then suddenly being played, so they should maybe get some backups next time they went by the Citadel—but she kept falling back on the memory of her 16th birthday, waking up to that song, or countless occasions when Violet's violin had been a beautiful background to her daily life and reminded her how proud she was to call a genuine prodigy her baby sister.

Naturally, Garrus was right there for her to lean on and ground herself in. "She's even better than you said, even after all this time."

Terra nodded. "She's a Shepard."

Violet stopped playing long before lights out, but it probably wasn't an exaggeration to say that half the crew, or at least half the squad, fell asleep that night with the starlit melody still echoing brightly in their minds.