Garrus didn't know how he got here, This big cavern of rock that sent a swirling chill all around and deep into his bones, reminiscent of the Rachni queen's nest. The wracking, painful sobs in his throat didn't even let him remember. But he couldn't care. Not when there were two bodies laying on either side of his kneeling frame.
"I'm sorry, Garrus," came the voice of his once most trusted friend in the galaxy. He was standing in front of him but looking in the opposite direction as if the rock walls of the cavern were much more interesting. His hands were clasped behind his back.
"They were too far gone."
Garrus struggled to keep the confused tears out of his throat.
"They were never gone in the first place!" He sobbed lightly. Then he hissed. "The Reapers are gone!"
The last thing he wanted to do was talk. He wanted to sit there and just grieve over the two souls next to him, but he needed to know why the lost Savior of the Galaxy did what he did. Their lives were fresh, and their deaths too sudden. He couldn't believe...
He caressed his sister's cheek and rested his other hand on his dad's body.
Oh, Spirits!
The shock was still dominant, and he didn't know what feeling to pursue next. Grief, hatred, curiosity.
All he knew was that he was lured to this cavern near Sanctuary. For what reason, he didn't remember nor cared, just that he was supposed to bring his family and Tali for protection. He left Tali...somewhere, as well as some guards, but only took his family deep into this big cavern. The next thing he knew, they were separated by an explosion. Stones fell all around him and he had to dig back to their location, only to see his old friend pull out a gun.
He was concerned for Shepard's mental stability before, but now...the poor hybrid had completely lost it. It stood for a reason. No man could do what he had done and escape without any scars. But Garrus had to admit, he didn't know how Shepard didn't break sooner. Perhaps he was already broken, it just took time for him to finally fall apart.
He hated Shepard. He hated him for what he did. But he hated it more that he knew exactly why he was driven to that point. The point that made him pull that trigger. He hated that it was hard to hate.
But as true as all things, as the principles he stood for his whole life, justice had to be served. For his family. His whole family. Even for Shepard himself.
And at that moment, he had to come to the soul-crushing conclusion that his human brother was no longer with them.
No, his soul had departed for the realm of the Spirits long ago. Now his body was inhabited by nightmares of the past come back to haunt. The Reapers were indeed gone, but they would not go without taking something with them. They had to have the last word.
"The Reapers never left!" The corpse of Shepard shouted in response. "Their bodies still litter this galaxy! Anyone who comes close will turn!"
"You burned out the damn Reaper tech! They're just empty husks!" Garrus yelled back, the irony in the statement did not at all humoring him.
Shepard lowered his head and sighed. "We can't risk it. Not until we send out teams to dispose of each and every dead Reaper."
"Then what? You just going to shoot the teams, too?" Garrus gave half a nervous laugh.
"If I have to."
Bewilderment cast over his head. It was like another slap in the face, and it enraged him. He shot to his feet as Shepard turned around, and took long and fast strides to the monster that used his friend's face as a mask, readying a blow. Shepard took a step back, lifting his hand and catching the strike almost too easily.
"Why aren't you standing with me on this, Vakarian?" The monster asked through clenched teeth, squeezing his fist to hurt Garrus's hand.
Garrus grunted as it felt as though his hand might pop underneath the grip of the tiny human's, but snorted and brought about another blow with his other hand. He wasn't lucky with it either as Shepard also caught that one.
"If you cared for your family, you would come with me and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else!"
"SHUT UP!" Garrus shouted, enraged that the murderer would say such a thing. He brought up his right leg and went for a kick, but was taken off guard as Shepard lifted his own as well. Seeming to have anticipated his movements, Shepard used his leg to kick Garrus's out from underneath him, sending him across the cavern onto the wet floor, his jaw smacking a small rock.
"The real Vakarain would have joined me!"
Garrus looked back, ignoring the pain in his face and spat onto the floor, a mix of saliva and blood sinking into the ground. He didn't believe what he was hearing.
"You're nuts."
"Why do you Reapers need to take everything I love?!" Shepard almost shouted, ignoring Garrus's words.
The turian glared as he got back to his feet, readying himself for another round.
I'm sorry it came to this, Tali.
Wait, Tali.
Almost as if reading his thoughts, Shepard went quiet for a moment and looked away back at the rock wall. Garrus heard a click in his tongue. Then the monster looked back.
"You won't have everything I love."
No.
Shepard made for the cavern exit, which was a small fold in the rock that hid a large but thin hole that led to the outside. Garrus was closest to it.
NO!
Garrus slid across the wet floor towards it, dipping behind the fold in the rock and clawing his way through. He moved as fast as he could, but Shepard's slow footsteps echoed behind him, urging him as he tried to outrun the man.
The footsteps kept echoing, and no matter how fast Garrus moved, the sound kept a consistent distance behind him. It was unsettling as his armor grazed along the rock.
"You won't take her from me!" Shepard's voice shouted, followed by a gunshot. Garrus gasped as part of the wall on his right sprayed out, covering the back of his right leg in pebbles and dust.
Dammit! I need to get out of here!
It was difficult to judge how far behind the gone-psychopath was, but that didn't matter as soon as he saw a light along the walls, signifying the exit. He finally remembered now, he left Tali just outside the cavern, instructing her to stay behind because he had a bad feeling when they showed up.
Sometimes I hate being right.
He scrambled further and further until he could see the gray overcast in the sky. He popped out in a frenzy, looking for his quarian friend.
"Garrus, what's going on? Where's your father and sister? Where's John?" came a thick, honeyed accent. Garrus twisted to see the purple hooded figure leaning against the side of the hill. Garrus wasted no time and yanked her wrist away.
"Hey!"
"No time! Shepard's gone insane!"
"What are you talking about?" Tali asked, struggling to get out of his grip.
"Let's go! Run!"
Where are the damn guards?
He scanned the horizon and saw the facility of Sanctuary resting beneath it. His memory sparked again, remembering he left the team of guards there to secure the highly sensitive area because he didn't want any nasty surprises when they first arrived on this planet.
How damningly ironic.
Thankfully, Tali didn't react as she allowed herself to be pulled towards the facility. The fields of grass were a long stretch, and Garrus looked behind himself to get an idea of how far away their pursuer was. To his surprise, he could see Shepard, but he was not following.
Instead, he stood there at the mouth of the small passage to the cavern. His pistol was holstered, his face unreadable by the golden mask.
"Garrus, look, it's John!" Tali squealed happily, digging her boots into the dirt and making Garrus cringe.
"That thing is not Shepard, now run! Zig Zag!"
"Hey!"
Garrus grabbed her and ran in sharp angles as to avoid any potential shots that the monster might take at him. Not that he would expect Shepard to do something like that while holding the love of his life, but he had to remember that this was no longer Shepard, and that meant he was unpredictable.
Garrus lungs burned the whole run through, with Tali giving off slight whimpers of confusion the whole time. At the same time, Garrus thought back to the bodies back in the cavern. The bodies of his sister and dad. He didn't know how much more he could take. He wanted to stop and grieve, but he couldn't.
I'll come back for you two, I promise.
He only began breathing a little easier once they reached the facility entrance. But his breath caught up in his throat when he checked back again only to see that Shepard was no longer where he used to be.
Instead of being in front of the passage, he was now underneath some trees, standing on a boulder that sat top of a hill that was near the edge of the facility. He didn't look like he had even moved a muscle, almost as if he just teleported to that spot. It unnerved Garrus to a near extreme, like he was going to fall prey to a supernatural demon straight out of a horror vid.
We need to get to the tower.
Garrus didn't know why they needed to get there, but still, he was grateful that the path to the tower was pretty much a straight shot through the facility. He got a firmer hold on Tali's wrist and nearly dragged her through the entrance doors, not looking back to see if the N7 beast had continued pursuit.
"Garrus, please!" Tali whined. "Just tell me what's going on!"
"We need to protect you," Garrus declared. "I'll explain it when we're safe, but right now, I need you to run like your life depended on it. Can you please, just do that for me?"
Tali's speaker light flickered, put off by Garrus's sudden rush to get away, but she did not ask. Instead, she just nodded her head and kept running while her lungs wheezed audibly through her helmet. Garrus was grateful that she had faith in him but felt terrible for doing this to her, and even more terrible still when he would have to explain all this. But it was necessary if she was going to stay out of the Ghost of Shepard's grasp.
The large doors over the facility's pathways kept opening and closing as Garrus and Tali ran through them, almost in a comical sense of someone swiping their hands down a keyboard in a slow glissando. This happened all the way down until they reach an entry to a courtyard that sat beneath the tower. To turian war hero's relief, his squad of guards was right where he'd thought they would be.
One of these soldiers, a man in a red suit of armor that was shaped similar to that of human knights of old, saw them and lifted his arm in a salute. Garrus recognized this man, even though he could not recollect why.
"P4! We need help!" He called out.
"Please, Vakarian, sir, it's just Kerberos to you," the guard said cheerfully, unfazed by Garrus's sudden burst of appearance. A reaction that puzzled the turian, but still, he shook his head and ignored it.
"Kerberos, we have...we have...a thing that looks like Shepard trying to capture us," he breathed heavily. "We need a secure place to hold out until we get reinforcements."
"Reinforcements? For one guy?"
You don't know him like I do.
"Trust me, we'll need it. Now, have you discovered anything like a panic room? An armory, maybe?" Garrus asked anxiously.
"Scouts picked up some kind of underground bunker from one of the maps. We can get you there, but it's a little complicated."
"How complicated?"
Kerberos sighed and shifted on his feet. "The only way there are through automated package transports. There are no actual elevators to it."
What constituted as Garrus's eyebrows furrowed. "You're telling me I have to mail myself to the bunker?"
"In a sense."
As if right on cue after his words, two cracks in the concrete ground appeared on either side of him underneath the support arches of the tower. The cracks opened wide and produced two glass containers from the floor, one being a small chamber, the other more of a pod, which looked eerily familiar.
Garrus went for the chamber first, still keeping a hold of Tali. Kerberos had snapped his fingers, and the glass chamber detached from the floor. Garrus swung her underneath it unceremoniously.
"Hey!"
"I'll meet you down there, but right now, you need to hide."
Kerberos stepped closer from behind Garrus, something held in his hands. Garrus shifted his gaze and beheld a black tarp clutched in the man's fingers. He looked to him quizzically.
"It's going to take a while before the system boots up to take you down. For now, I'd suggest you hide her with this."
"Thanks, Kerberos," Garrus accepted thankfully. He took the tarp and closed the glass case over his quarian sister, her confused noises now muffled. "Don't worry, you're going to be alright," Garrus reassured her, even though it was unlikely that she could hear him clearly. With one last regretful look at her scared eyes, he threw the thick tarp over her chamber.
He wasted no time, however, and rushed towards the pod. He leaned into it with his back, allowing his face to look out over the courtyard. Kerberos had followed and was making sure that the turian was secured to the pod. Once finished, Garrus gave the guard a thumbs up and waited for the cool glass to cover his face.
Something sparked his memory as he heard the hiss of escaping air as the pod was slowly shut closed. For some reason, he knew he hated being inside a pod like this.
For some reason, Garrus began to feel very tired. All reason slipping, he allowed his eyes to close. Familiarly, black triangles and hexagons swam in his vision, yanking him by the stomach and taking him to a black and ear-shatteringly loud place.
He didn't attempt to move this time, wherever he was. He just waited for the pod to take him down to the bunker.
Then suddenly, somewhere in the dark, a green light began to flash. He could only assume that this was the beginning of his departure of the tower courtyard, but it was not.
Now he was falling. Black triangles and hexagons swam in his vision again, but this time they were going in the opposite direction, like they were falling faster than he was. This went on until he felt like he hit something, like a bar, with his stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up. Instead...
His eyes opened.
He still felt tired. His eyesight flickered, and he found out through the ice of his pod, that he had not departed the courtyard of the tower. The sky was also suddenly clear without a cloud in sight. It was completely blue as blue could be.
What's going on?
He looked out further and was shocked to find smoldering debris and burning corpses littered about the place.
The hell? It looks like an all-out war happened!
Garrus continued to peer out over the courtyard. The wreckage of some Atlases and a couple of shuttles could be seen, as well as a fresh corpse of a man with a bullet hole in his helmet.
Off to his left, he heard a rustle in the concrete dust through the pod.
Horror hit him, as he found that the Shepard monster was yelling for a bloodied Kerberos, who had ducked out of sight through a doorway in a building. Rage filled him at the sight of the wounded guard. He could only assume what that monster Shepard became had done to him.
The nightmare that lived in Shepard's body laid there on the ground for a few moments, struggling to get up. The frozen turian couldn't help but feel pleased to see the sight.
Kerberos must have put up a good fight.
But the monster stopped, still breathing heavily, and suddenly got to his feet. At the same time, Garrus felt his pleasure plummet.
The beast made to follow after the guard.
Crap!
Although feeling it against his better judgment, Garrus couldn't help but shout out to his dead brother, distracting him from his current objective.
"Shepard!"
He felt a tinge of instant regret as the monster stopped in their tracks and looked at him.
"Garrus!"
Shepard bolted to his position up the steps. Garrus's anxiety peaking as the mask of his old brother covered the front of the pod, staring him down, trapping him. The skin on his neck crawled.
"Now, how do I get you out of this thing?" The ghost yelled out, muffled by the glass.
Despite the fear that shook him, a strange beeping noise also came through the pod, making an annoying noise coming off from his right. His eyes darted to it and found that Tali's chamber was still in the courtyard as well.
Oh, crap!
"Shepard!" Garrus shouted, trying to keep him distracted. But it was too late, the monster was already aware of the noise and made to cover his audio receivers. He glanced around to see where it came from and found the tarp-covered chamber.
Oh, shit.
"Hold on! I'm going to get you out of there!" Shepard said with a muffle through the pod, then ran off to the chamber.
Shit, shit, shit.
Garrus watched in terror as the madman took the black tarp in his two grubby fists and tore it off of Tali's chamber, his fear coming to light as it found its prey.
"Tal!"
Garrus could imagine the hungry look on his face as he watched her sitting there, her hooded head in between her knees. She looked up at him, more scared than Garrus had ever seen her before in his life.
"GET AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" She screamed, scrambling on the floor away from him.
Dammit, I need to do something!
Garrus inspected the pod from the inside, scrambling for a switch, a lever, something.
"Tali? It's me! I'm going to get you out of there! Just hold on!" Shepard shouted.
"NO! Leave me you–you–you...m-monster!"
Spirits! What happened while I was out?!
Garrus's finger snagged on something by his hip, like some sort of pin. He started jiggling at it in desperation.
"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked with a shaky tone that surprised Garrus. But the turian didn't have time to think as the pin finally gave way and he fell out of the pod, hitting the ground painfully with his hands and knees. Before anything, he gave one last shout in hopes that it would distract Shepard from trying to get inside Tali's chamber.
"Shepard!"
He twisted around.
"Garrus!" The hybrid exclaimed and extended out a hand, "Please, come help me get her out of here! She needs help!"
You're nuts.
"The only help she needs," Garrus began to gasp quietly, "is to stay away from you." Venom laced his every word.
Garrus found a predator pistol laying by a corpse, and swiftly lunged for it. In an instant flash like lightning, the heavy pistol was brought up and aimed down at his old brother's face. The breath catching in the turian's throat.
I'm so sorry.
"Garrus," the hybrid used his name again, begging pitifully as it rose off their knees and extended a hand, "whatever you remember, forget that for just this moment, it's not real, come and help me get Tali out of this...cage."
That almost sounds like the Shepard I know. Garrus blinked. But he's already done his deeds. The Reapers really broke him, turned him against himself.
He felt a vile hatred for the large machinic race. Whatever infected the soul of his closest friend was going to pay. They were going to pay for using Shepard against him, and against everyone Shepard ever loved.
"You must be really stupid if you think you're going to fool me that easily."
"I'm not who you think I am!" The virus begged. "Just help me get Tali out and I can explain everything."
"No! I've had enough of your explanations!" Garrus roared, the hissed, "I trusted you!"
I trusted you to come back up for air. To stay being my pal...not become...this.
With a tear bulging behind his eye, Garrus made to pull the trigger.
"Stop!"
What was left of Shepard came sprinting towards him, and Garrus let off two rounds from the pistol in succession out of fright. It slowed him down and for a quick moment, he was stunned as he thought that he might have actually killed his old friend. But no...it was still the monster, and they were still very much alive.
Unexpectedly, the human stepped forward and shoved their hands up underneath his grip on the pistol, Garrus letting out a few more rounds in surprise. He made a frustrated noise as he tried to bring the pistol back down, but Shepard was tougher than he thought.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the smaller brother said, "but we need to get out of here!"
Garrus gasped as Shepard made another move to get the gun away by twisting one hand up and over, trying to get the gun to fall away. Although he was strong in his own right, Garrus took note that he was being far less aggressive. Perhaps he was being cocky.
That will be the end of you.
With a glint in the sun, Garrus spotted a grenade sitting out in the open on Shepard's hip, and with his own swift move, he grabbed the hybrid by the waist and pulled him closer, getting a hold of the grenade. He tried to detonate it with one hand while he still had a hold of him. But he was unsuccessful as Shepard pushed him away.
Not like it mattered.
Click.
Garrus stopped. He knew he won with that flex of his thumb, and only had a moment to think about what he was doing. He felt regretful, but instantly reminded himself that he was doing this for his dear old friend. This body in front of him was consumed by a virus, but still, Garrus still hoped that there were bits left of Shepard in it, just so he could take the final moment to put how much he was going to miss him in his next actions. And that started with a soft smile.
"I'm sorry," his mandibles clicked, "maybe now you can finally find peace."
"What?"
That one word had something in it that completely threw Garrus off from what he expected, and he looked deep into the golden mask at the eyes behind it. There was something in the combination of the word, and that look, that completely crushed all of Garrus's previous thoughts. And he had no idea why.
But it was too late.
Garrus lifted up his hand and produced a grenade for his brother to see, his eyes immediately widening at the sight of it.
"No! Stop!"
Garrus moved on some kind of instinct. The dominant instinct in him to protect his old friend and to get rid of the danger in his hand. So he made a mistake and ended up doing both, then everything went white.
He saw the black shapes again within the harsh white, and he felt like he was falling, but his vision told him that he was still standing on his feet. In an effort to reorient himself, Garrus fell to his knees. But his hands didn't meet the concrete of the tower courtyard steps.
Instead, he met the cold metal panels of a silver room in front of a pod.
He felt cold and sick. He vomited on the floor in front of him.
"Oh, gross."
Garrus tried to look where the voice came from but only got halfway before he vomited again.
"Oh, keelah."
He fought his stomach from forcing itself through his throat, and edged his fingers away from the ever-growing pool of abdominal fluids. It took him a couple of minutes before he felt comfortable enough to lift his head again.
"What...where..."
"Take it easy there. I'm going to get you all out."
Garrus squinted against the harsh light in the room that seemed to enhance the shivering in his body until he found a dark blue quarian mask looking back at him.
"Who..?"
He dropped another mouthful of vomit.
The unknown quarian woman sidestepped the mess on the floor and kneeled down next to Garrus, wrapping her arms underneath his and making to help him to his feet. She wasn't very successful because he was much bigger, but Garrus was appreciative nonetheless as she gave him something steady to hold onto as he stood up.
It was extremely difficult. He didn't remember ever feeling so weak before, like hadn't used his limbs for a long time. With a grunt of frustration, he wobbled to his feet.
"Please, save your strength Mr. Vakarian," the quarian responded. "And my name's Operative Bokins, I'm here to rescue you."
Garrus was still hazy and shaking like he was waking up after a hard night drinking.
"Operative, huh? That's a-funny name," he slurred.
"Keelah. Snap out of it!" She raised her voice, hurting Garrus's head but still bringing things back into focus. His vision snapped to his surroundings in the moment of clarity, and he finally remembered this place.
"Spirits!"
The flood of memories came back, the pod, the cold, the woman in his eyepiece, and Tali.
As well as...
Him.
He turned back to the now-opened pod. He was standing in the place of that man now. He could only imagine what it would look like putting himself under. He wanted away from it. What he experienced...Where they took him...
He struggled to keep the burning tears from coming back to his eyes. He didn't know what happened. He had lost everything and the next thing he knew he was thrown back into whatever place this was. His eyes cast down.
I just want to go home.
It didn't matter. Whatever place this was, he already knew how bad it was, and the most important thing was to escape.
He turned back to Agent Bokins. "Alright, what's the way out of here?"
"Not yet," she responded, and danced her fingers along with his eyepiece. After a bit of fiddling, It started flashing red. Surprised, Garrus grabbed her wrist and forced it away.
"Hey, lady! What are you doing!" He exclaimed.
"Shorting a commlink. That way they can't track you." She explained, attempting to wrestle her hand out of his grip. "Now, let go! We need to be as far away as we can before they realize you're gone."
So that's how they found out where I was.
Garrus released her and tapped at his eyepiece, making sure everything was in working order. Satisfied, he looked at the quarian woman in blue and remembered something.
Tali.
"Did anyone else escape Sanctuary? Did they take anyone else?" He asked fervently.
"Sanctuary? Don't you mean Tali's father's gravesite?" Bokins asked back, puzzled.
"No, I mean Sanctuary! The facility on Horizon I was taken from! Did they take Tali? Shepard?"
"Mr. Vakarian, your last reported visit to Horizon was over six months ago before the end of the Reaper War," Bokins explained. "You've been stuck on this ship ever since you were captured, and I've been biding my time since then to get all three of you out of here."
At the end of her sentence, her eyes darted back to the pod. "Whatever they did to you. I don't know. I think they must've induced nightmares into whatever thing they had you doing. But I can assure you, we haven't visited Sanctuary."
His head went to his hands as he processed the information.
But, I was just there!
He needed a break. He was far too confused while he pondered on her words.
"Wait, get three of us out of here?" He asked.
"Yes, you, Tali, and Captain Shepard had all been captured from the gravesite. I'm here to help you all escape, and we can't to that if we don't move."
But that woman said...
He looked back at the pod, processing more of the information, and the pieces started lining up.
Oh, Spirits! What the HELL is this thing?!
He backed away from the pod in shock. Everything from those memories. Everything he saw. Everything he did. They were all fake. The stunning silence of it all engulfed him, confusing him. Until he felt a sudden rush, no, a need to get out.
That must mean...
He grabbed the quarian's hand and ripped her away from the pod and out of the room into the so-called armory hallway. Garrus could only rename it as the place of living nightmares.
"Let's get everyone the hell out of here right now."
"Okay, now slow down there, mister! I very well where I'm going!"
Garrus instead moved his feet even faster, returning to the corner that led down to the offices below. "Great, then you can show me the way to Shepard after we get Tali."
"Mr. Vakarian, stop! I have a map!" Bokins grounded her feet into the floor in an effort. She nearly collided into the turian's back when he suddenly stopped.
"A map?"
"Yes," she breathed heavily and summoned the omni-tool on her right arm. "I swiped it from one of the control terminals on the ship."
With a couple of taps, a schematic of a ship in the form of orange light hovered above. Bokins pointed at three points in particular on the map, causing them to glow bright, and then twisted her wrist, causing the schematic to rotate, opening up into a three dimensional visual of the entire ship. She indicated to one point in between the other two.
"This is where you are, and down here," she pointed a glowing spot on the lower side, "is where Tali is."
"And I'm assuming the other point is–"
"–Shepard, yes. We don't have much time, so we're going to need to get all three of you together soon."
"Do you have a plan?"
The quarian looked up at him, annoyance in her voice. "Of course I have a plan, if you don't mind bothering to listen?"
Garrus answered with a shake of his head and a step in his feet. "Let's just go get Tali."
"No," the quarian stopped. "I'll go get Tali, you need to get Shepard."
"We're splitting up? Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Just trust me. I think we both know what we're doing."
Garrus thought very carefully on the agent's words. He hardly knew this woman. But given that she was quarian, and an operative, he had to guess that she was part of the same force that Silont was a part of. That bought her some way into his trust. But even so, it wasn't like he really had that many options, so either way, he reluctantly agreed.
Ergh, okay. She better know what she's doing.
With a flick of a wrist, Garrus summoned his own omni-tool and beckoned the young quarian to cough up her map. She obliged, and with a buzzing sound and a flash of orange light, Garrus had his own map of the entire ship at the length of his forearm.
He inspected it closely. Marking the point and setting himself a waypoint to his eyepiece. Given the information, it looked like Shepard was being held in the front and center of the top deck of the ship.
And he's gotta be heavily guarded.
"Here," the quarian said, bringing attention to the both of her hands that pulled a couple of things from behind her hip where a sniper was attached to her back. In her right hand, she had a predator pistol, and in the other, a hurricane sub-machine gun. It was only then that Garrus noticed the blood that splattered her suit. Looking closer, he realized none of it was her blood. She handed him the pistol.
Despite the severity of the situation, he couldn't help but crack a little smile.
Time to add a break-out story to my autobiography.
He noticed the small quarian woman was still watching him, her stance confused as she noticed his smile.
"Come on, then," he said, giving a grin with a glint in his eyes. "Let's give these guys a taste of some real action."
The quarian didn't seem all the comforted, but she took one last look at her copy of the schematic and prepared to move out.
"Lead the way, then."
Garrus nodded and initiated action. He danced softly on his feet through the hallway, carefully opening a door to the stairs that led to the lower offices.
All of those years training in C-sec had kicked in now that he had a gun in his hands again. He angled his body and had the gun in front of him at all times, checking his corners sharply and minimalizing the risk of surprises. Well, except for one surprise. There was already blood spilled all over the place when he reached the offices. A few bodies were on the ground and leaning against the walls.
"Hm, good work," Garrus complimented the agent.
"Thanks, sure wasn't easy getting to you."
He kept his pace inching forward until they reached the elevator. The same one where Garrus fought the two goons.
That was fun, I wish I could do it again.
It was also the elevator where the paths diverged for the two partners.
"Quick to get together, even quicker to separate," Garrus muttered an old turian saying.
"It's fine, I got this," said Bokins as she smacked the haptic controls with her fist. "You, on the other hand, need to watch out. Just stay alive, and we'll all get out of here. I'll ping your eyepiece when I've gotten Tali. Stay where you are with Shepard, we'll be coming to you."
"Alright, be safe out there Operative Bokins."
"Please," the quarian woman said with a hint of a smirk as the elevator opened. "Call me Das."
With that, she jumped to the top of the elevator as the door closed and clung to the roof. Garrus could hear an emergency escape hatch open from behind the closed doors as the elevator descended, followed by the soft metallic footsteps above. Garrus couldn't help but shake his head and give a small smile.
Oh, quarians. Always surprising me.
After judging how long it might take for the agent to reach the bottom, Garrus summoned for the elevator again for his turn. The doors slid apart, this time to reveal the still opened emergency hatch and, a ladder. Garrus rolled his eyes.
Thanks.
He pushed a button for the elevator to ascend, and at the same time ascended the ladder to the roof. He yanked the small ladder out and reclosed the hatch once out.
Alright, Shepard, I'm coming.
He opened the map in his omni-tool and watched as his glowing spot rose to the top floor. He took a closer study of the ship. It seemed wherever Shepard was, he was in a wide-open space. Taking a direct route to where he was would be suicide, so he opted for a more unseen path, which was also kept out of sight from peering eyes.
After some studying, Garrus found that there was a series of maintenance vents all around the top of the ship, which was absolutely perfect.
As the elevator reached the top floor, Garrus could see an opening to one of those vents now. But his heart jumped when a large flying machine dropped out from underneath it, making a clicking noise. A drone.
The drone was white and hovered from the top of its body, which was circular and had a red glowing eye. Beneath it was an assortment of tools that draped down almost like tendrils. A claw extended maliciously, but it didn't seem to have noticed the tall turian just yet.
Until it did.
The drone's red eye glowed brighter and began clicking faster, another tool extended, and the tip of it erupted to sparks.
Oh, I don't like that.
The drone dropped instantly, getting a grab on Garrus's left shoulder. He made to rip it off but a buzz sounded and the next thing he knew, his arm was jerking erratically into muscle spasms. It set his veins on fire.
"Gah! Screw off you little one-eyed freak!" Garrus yelled, and brought his pistol to the drone's head and fired.
Little mechanical pieces sprayed out into a mess of metallic black, white, and silver. The clicks died out and the arms loosened, dropping off his arm like a bug and careened into the bottom of the elevator shaft. Garrus gave a relieved sigh and shook his now sore arm back into action.
Great way to start. He thought sarcastically.
With the vent now above him just out of standing arm's length, Garrus holstered his pistol and grabbed the nearby ladder with his right hand. He positioned it to the vent and began his climb into it, feeling it as a red portal to the small world of the drones.
He was way too big for something like this, but nonetheless, he pushed on.
He couldn't help but wobble on his bad arm as he crawled through, and he had unholstered his pistol again in case any more drones came his way, which was difficult for his right hand as he tried not to smash his fingers underneath it.
Now I know how Tali feels whenever she's doing maintenance.
He kept an eye on his map. The progress was slow, and after several minutes his left arm started feeling decently better again, which helped speed things up some. It also came to his attention when Das had pinged his eyepiece, which meant that she had gotten to Tali already. He gave a soft sound of excitement.
But it was too early for celebration, yet. He had seen two more drones on his journey, but luckily they didn't spot him. It was just enough to keep him focused on the task at hand.
After what felt like forever, Garrus took another look at his map and found himself coming to an exit in the vents. It dropped into a room right next to Shepard's position and Garrus got excited again. He kept such a stern focus on the map that he almost fell out of the exit when he came to it. Garrus couldn't really blame if anyone did that in his position, though. The exit was dark, a simple panel covering that blocked out the red light from the room below.
"You hear that?" Came a voice from the room, causing Garrus to freeze.
"Sounds like one of the robots got drunk or something. I can hear it bashing around."
Garrus took more caution in his movements. He leaned his head over and peered through the cracks in the panel. Two guards were positioned just below him.
Easy.
He rested himself onto the panel with his left hand and angled his pistol downwards with the other. He took a deep breath, prepared himself for a fight, and fired from the vent.
One guard dropped instantly and the other raised his weapon, looking for where the shot had come from. Unfortunately for Garrus, the panel became dislodged and he fell out of the vent.
Before he even hit the ground, Garrus shoved the pistol between his knees and fired again, hitting the other guard in the head while he landed hard on his left shoulder.
"Oh, sweet Spirits!" He cried out in pain, and rolled over onto his back, letting go of the pistol and grabbing a hold of his arm. His face scrunched up and he rocked side to side. He let out a series of frustrating painful grunts.
Yup, totally easy. He thought with a wheeze.
Ignoring the pain and getting back on track, Garrus reclaimed his pistol and got to his feet. The room he was in was small and stuffed full of organized tech. It was easy for him to notice that he fell into a server room as things like consoles and...other techy things lined up on a continuous line of racks.
Interesting. I swear if there's an evil EDI on this ship, I am going to flip.
He gasped and lifted his arm painfully, looking at the map on his omni-tool once more. He edged alongside the racks of tech until he reached a door, and judging from the schematic. Shepard should be just on the other side of the door in a very large room.
Let's keep this clean and quiet.
A groundbreaking, bone-chilling, and most pained roar he ever heard in his life told him otherwise.
Garrus's muscles froze and his blood ran ice cold.
SHEPARD!
Garrus kicked down the door in an instant, and he was met with the most ominous sight.
The massive room was dark, cold, and empty. Save for a dim white light in the center, highlighting a table and a man on his knees sobbing his heart out. Meanwhile, up on the side of a wall, a bright room held a few figures behind glass. The most prominent being a blonde woman in a doctor's uniform. She was ranting words to the man. The man Garrus knew as his brother, Shepard...broken.
Garrus was afraid.
"We could have saved her! We could have! But the damned quarians would not let us have access to the Geth! I hate seeing this, Shepard! I really do, and I'm so sorry that we couldn't do more!" The woman ranted shakily, nearing shouting. He remembered that voice.
Garrus walked in closer, slowly, even though he wanted nothing more than to run to his best friend and find out what was wrong. But the closer he got, the more he saw what was wrong.
What he saw almost made him vomit again.
On the table, was a reaperfied quarian. Even despite the grotesque sight, Garrus wondered why it was putting Shepard under such great distress. That was until he saw the head wrappings. Tali's head wrappings.
But that doesn't make sense! Tali is...
"CONTAINMENT BREACH!" Shouted the woman.
Garrus remembered the goon. The one that tore Tali's hood off...
He looked back at the quarian reaper.
That's not Tali...
Shepard's head lifted up, his expressionless mask facing Garrus. His sobs had become ominously quiet now, and he slowly got to his feet...
It was one word.
One word was all that Shepard said. And Garrus had never heard him so pissed off in all the time he's ever known him. Not even back when they lost the Prothean V.I. to Cerberus. No, this was something colder, filled with a fury like none other. A rage that burned with all the stars in the universe.
And it was just one word.
"You..."
