Chapter 67: Coup

Change is a rainfall
It can grow
It can heal
But if it comes too quickly
It can flood

Ironically, what tipped Garrus off that his human needed his attention wasn't her eyes or her posture or her quietness. It was her clothes. For the first time since he came back onboard the Normandy, she was in civvies rather than her uniform. Needless to say, it caught his attention and raised a red flag in his mind. Terra Shepard was an artist, spontaneous, passionate, colorful. She didn't just wear black.

Unless she was observing human mourning practices.

He knew for certain he had to take action when she came to down to the mess for food and, instead of interacting with any of the crewmen or finding a new course to set, went straight back up to her cabin. He briefly looked in on Violet to make sure was faring better, finding her wistfully turning a crystal in her hands, before heading straight for the elevator and going up to deck 1. He didn't know what he was going to say. He just knew his mate needed him and he was going to be there for her like he always had.

When Garrus walked in, he found Terra curled up on the bed in tears.

As soon as she heard the door open, she frantically attempted to pull herself together. Even when she saw it was Garrus, she tried to push the tears away and turned so he couldn't see them.

It didn't matter. He had already seen, and he could smell the salt of her sorrow on the air. Without a word, he took her side, wrapping his arm around her and drawing her close. It wasn't like her to cry like this, to have to lean on him for strength, but he couldn't blame her. He knew why.

First Mindoir. Then the original Normandy. Now Earth and Palaven both. Every place she'd ever called home had burned. True, Palaven had some hope of being saved now, at least partially, but the cost had been the life of a close friend and there still was no word yet of their family. Even the great Commander Shepard could only take so much devastation before it threatened to break her.

Terra had some difficulty chasing away the tears enough to speak. "It's not getting better."

Garrus sighed, running his talons through her hair in a manner he hoped was somehow comforting. "I know. It's not for any of us."

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

Terra quickly pulled herself together as best she could. "It's open!"

Liara walked in. "Commander, there's something you need to—" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Garrus sitting next to her. "…is this a bad time?"

"No, it's fine," Garrus stood up, "Just…talking."

Liara could clearly tell there was more to it than that, but she didn't say anything. "The salarian Councilor called the COMM room. He wants to talk to Terra."

"Is everyone calling me by my first name now?" Terra scoffed as she stood up.

Liara smirked. "Well, there are two Shepards on the ship now."

Terra smirked with her. "Fair enough."

Garrus turned to Terra as Liara left the room. "You should probably talk to Violet after you're done on the COMMs."

Terra nodded. "I will. Thanks for taking care of her last night."

"Anytime, Terra."

Ten minutes later, the ship was en route to the Citadel to speak to the Councilor in person, and Terra was headed down to see Violet. She found her sister running her hand along a workbench in the med bay as the other hand turned over a small crystal. "Vi?"

Violet jumped back, clutching the crystal tighter as she turned to face her.

Terra held her hands out in a signal to stay calm. "It's just me. Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Violet simply looked at her. "Right."

"Are you OK?"

She cast her gaze back to the workbench, Terra only now realizing it was the one Mordin had been constantly working on. "I just can't believe he's gone. He was good to me and E—Bakara. I felt better knowing he was there. And now…"

"You still have me," Terra quickly stepped in, laying her hand on her sister's shoulder, "I'm sticking with you this time."

"I know." She sighed. "We were running. I tripped on something. When I looked up, you and Nathan were gone. I tried to catch up, but I lost you. I turned a corner and they caught me. Nathan came running in right as they tried to strap me down and—"

"I saw," Terra cut her off sadly, fighting the way her mind jumped back to that moment under the hill when she had watched Nathan's neck snap and Violet get dragged away kicking and screaming.

Violet clutched the crystal tighter, remembering how Bakara had said it would help her fight the darkness and hoping it rang true. "It all runs together after that. Years of pain and loneliness and struggling just to remember who I was. Until the Alliance came and brought me back. I knew Nathan, Mom, and Dad were gone, so I thought you must be, too. So I just had them take the implant out and then let them send me off to the Academy. I was so certain I had no place there." She turned her newly hopeful eyes to meet her sister's. "And then you found me."

Terra smiled, taking her hand. "I would've found you sooner if I'd known where to look. Or thought there was a chance they'd keep you alive this long." She scoffed. "I should've known that much. You wouldn't give up."

Violet responded silently, her eyes falling back to the crystal in her hand.

"I know there's a lot going on…and losing Mordin was hard…on all of us…" She sighed, shaking off the sensation of grief and wrongness that had struck her when she'd stepped off the elevator and seen Mordin's name on the memorial wall with Kaidan's. "…but you're safe here with us. We're going to stop this."

"For Mindoir?"

Terra nodded. "For Mindoir. For Earth. For Palaven. For everyone who isn't here anymore."

Violet gave her sister a curious look. "You were really a turian."

Terra released a small laugh. "Something like that."

"With Garrus. What about the rest of his family?"

Terra hesitated, finally sighing sadly. "His mother was sick, she died a couple months ago. His father and sister were supposed to be on the first evacuation ship off of Palaven when the Reapers hit, but the city fell too fast. They might have made it, but we lost contact, so we don't know."

Violet's curiosity turned to sympathy. "They're coming back. I want to meet them."

Terra smiled at the thought, but only a little. If her past experience was anything to go by, she was balanced in the middle of a seesaw of gains and losses where family was concerned. She lost her entire family on Mindoir to gain Garrus and his family. Then she'd lost Kaidan and 20 crewmen on the Normandy to meet everyone on the squad she would come to view as a battle-family (which was perhaps the translation of the krogan concept of krantt, now she thought about it). She could only hope that regaining Violet was the balance for losing Garrus' mother and not that it would also cost the rest of his family. It would be devastating enough for her. She couldn't see Garrus fall apart.

Thankfully, EDI drew her focus from those thoughts. "Commander, we are approaching the Citadel."

That was fast. Terra turned to Violet. "I have to go take care of this. Don't worry, I'll be back before long and you can still call me or Garrus anytime."

"I'm just waiting here?" she asked, glancing around the sterile room that was now completely empty except for her.

"We'll find you a real place to stay when I get back. Plus, Dr. Chakwas will be coming back here before long, and she's one of the best."

Violet nodded warily. "OK."

Seeing her sister's hesitation, Terra hugged her. "We're going to get through this. We're still family."

Violet smiled, returning the embrace. "Always."

Reluctant to leave Violet's side though she may have been, Terra quickly made her way up to the bridge. She arrived just as Joker was contacting the control tower and asking for docking permission. So she shared in his suspicion when they were met with silence. That wasn't right. The control tower was like an Earth airport, constantly manned, and as Joker was quick to point out, they had backup generators to prevent any power outages from causing crashes within range of the Wards. Something was wrong. Joker took the initiative and began scanning open channels for some other means of contacting someone on the station. As luck would have it, he managed to connect Thane to the COMMs.

"Shepard," Thane said, "Cerberus is attempting to take over the Citadel."

She wasn't sure what was worse—the act itself or the timing. Either way, she was going to make sure Cerberus regretted it. "Is C-Sec holding?"

"I don't think so. I'm headed to their headquarters now to make sure Cerberus doesn't capture it—they'd take the whole station if they did."

"What about Ashley?"

"She made it out of the hospital, but we got separated. She went to protect the Council."

Good. That was good. As long as Ashley was safe, she'd be the best hands the Council could be in, and their survival would be crucial at a time like this. "Alright, stay out of sight as long as you can. We're moving in." She turned to Joker. "Get us as close to C-Sec HQ as you can." She then started racing for the elevator, calling out orders through the COMM with every step. "Cortez, get the shuttle ready! Garrus, Liara, get down to the armory, we need to move fast! EDI, filter Thane into our COMMs, keep the ship safe, and see if you can't hack a few Cerberus systems to give us an edge."

They managed to deploy in two minutes. The shuttle couldn't have gotten through the C-Sec any faster if it had FTL jumped. When she saw that Cerberus was indeed assaulting the HQ and the last C-Sec officers guarding the main doors was downed, Terra didn't bother waiting for the shuttle to land before she threw open the door and leaped out to jump right into the fray. Garrus and Liara reacted with similar haste, jumping out behind her to open fire. Cerberus hadn't been expecting them, so they managed to get a few good sneak attacks in before their shots gave them away and called in nearby reinforcements. Even with the extra numbers, though, Cerberus couldn't regain the advantage and found their siege broken.

Commander Bailey was still alive, injured by the door. Terra managed to get him on his feet so he could help them into the headquarters and secure it. Once that was taken care of, he was able to put them on the path to finding the salarian Councilor. They had to fight their way through the upper floors of C-Sec HQ to get on the way to the Presidium, trying to funnel the enemy forces to—

"RIDGEFIELD!" Garrus called when they reached a locker room, "LAMONT! YOU ALIVE?!"

"Could you maybe not alert everyone in the station?!" Liara hissed.

"If gunfire doesn't put them on notice, I sure won't!"

Liara rolled her eyes even as she consented he had a point.

Terra elected not to take sides in this matter, focusing on leading the way up out of the station and to a Presidium office building. "Are we going the right way, Garrus?"

"Yeah, the Councilor's office is just up those stairs," Garrus nodded, pointing out the way.

So Terra headed up and took point. The room was free of hostiles, but… "Bailey, Cerberus beat us here. They took out the executor and two salarian bodyguards."

"Well, keep searching anyway," Bailey replied, "If you don't see the Councilor's body, don't count him out yet."

Garrus started using his knowledge of the area, searching for some sign of where the Councilor might be hiding. It didn't take long for him to catch sight of movement in the dining area below. "Terra."

Terra came over to see what he'd found, turning just in time to see the cause of the movement coming out of a cloak to reveal itself as the Councilor. "Got him. We're heading down now." She turned to return to the stairs, Garrus and Liara moving ahead of her. But stopped when her cybernetic hearing caught something. More movement. Confused, she turned back to the window.

An actual ninja had just dropped from the ceiling. She wouldn't be sure how to take that, but it was hard to miss the Cerberus logo on his uniform.

She moved fast, one pistol shot shooting out the window so she could dive through it and land in a roll right in front of the swordsman. "Unless you think your brain could use a cool breeze, I'd back off."

"Shepard, he's going to kill us all!" the salarian Councilor called, careful not to turn his back on the swordsman.

"Not if I can help it."

"I mean Udina. He's staging a coup. He led Cerberus here."

Terra was surprised that she was shocked. She had never trusted Udina, but she hadn't thought he would stoop that low. Still, the Councilor was a salarian and wouldn't make a claim like this without proof. She was going to take Udina down for this. First things first, though, she was going to take down this swordsman. She could hear Garrus and Liara taking up position behind her. "Three against one. It's already over."

But the ninja just smirked. "No. Now it's fun."

Terra was primed to make him eat those words, but she didn't have to. Someone else got the jump on him for her. Thane appeared from nowhere, arming a Phalanx at the swordsman's head. Unfortunately, the swordsman heard it, whipping around to counter before Thane could fire. The two wound up in a spectacular melee during which Garrus and Liara pulled the salarian Councilor aside to safety. Terra was prepared to rush in and give Thane a hand, but the brawl was moving so quickly that she would only get in Thane's way if she rushed in and she couldn't risk firing into it without possibly hitting him. It was only when Thane lost sight of the ninja long enough for him to activate a cloak that she could take action, even if it was simply to focus her cybernetic-enhanced senses to try to track the silent, invisible movements. The swordsman foolishly let his cloak down before striking, the sound of him drawing his sword prompting Thane to whirl around and open fire. The two charged each other, Thane readying a biotic strike…

…and the swordsman readjusted his stand at the last second, driving his blade into Thane's gut.

Terra felt it as if she had taken the hit herself. "Thane!" When the initial shock of watching her friend fall in a pool of his own blood wore off enough for her to take notice of the swordsman retreating, she let her rage take over and stormed after him, firing every chance she got and hitting nothing but shield. It was only when the would-be assassin hopped on a skycar and sped away that she calmed down with a cathartic growl of fury and noticed Thane limping over to lean against the wall and help her attempt to shoot down his attacker. She quickly holstered her weapon and rushed over to help him, lowering him to a safe position. "Are you OK?"

"I have time," he assured her, "Catch him."

Gladly. As soon as she saw Garrus and Liara rushing to catch up to her and confirming the Councilor was in a safe place, she hit her COMM. "Bailey, the Councilor's secure for now and Thane needs medical attention." Barely listening to the promise to send reinforcements to their coordinates, she turned to grab another skycar. "Get the word out—Udina's trying to seize power. Get me a route to the rest of the Council now."

That plan went about as well as could be expected. They made it halfway there before the ninja came back and disabled their motor, crashing them in the Presidium markets and running away before Terra could retaliate. Terra wasn't one to be deterred, leading Garrus and Liara past every Cerberus attempt to halt their progress. Phantoms, Nemeses, and even an Atlas stood in their way. All fell. It was only when they reached the elevators and found the ninja had jumped one ahead of them and taken off before they could catch him that their progress actually halted. But Liara took the initiative and used her biotic strength to force open the door of the next elevator over. Terra took half a second to look before leaping into the shaft. Bailey hacked the elevator they landed on to climb the shaft at top speed so they could catch up to the ninja's and shoot out its power supply, dropping it 30 floors.

"Good riddance!" Garrus triumphantly declared.

Terra wholeheartedly agreed. Then she looked to the other side and saw another elevator fast approaching.

Garrus barely scanned it before he found what they needed. "The Council's in there!"

"Jump!" Terra called, already doing so. Unfortunately, the occupants only heard the thud and assumed it was Cerberus, prompting Ashley as the Council's current bodyguard to open fire. Terra just barely managed to roll out of the way of the shots. When the elevator stopped to let the Council off, Liara again forced open the emergency hatch so they could drop in and follow. They caught up just as the Council reached a dead end and started to double back, just in time to seal the door behind them and prevent the obvious trap from snapping shut.

"Shepard?" Ashley asked, plainly confused, "What's going on?"

"She's blocking our escape!" Udina declared, "She's with Cerberus!"

Terra scoffed. "You could've come up with a more plausible excuse, you know. You clearly had time to think of one."

Ashley looked between Udina and Terra, still not seeing what was happening. "What are you talking about?!"

"Udina set this up. He brought Cerberus here. The salarian Councilor confirmed it."

Udina shook his head. "Please. You have no proof. You never do."

"Cerberus is closing in on us right now! If you go through that door, they'll kill you all!"

Having already put behind the concept of Terra working with Cerberus, Ashley knew there had to be more to this than Udina claimed. But she was still a Spectre now, sworn to protect the Council. Though she didn't draw her gun just yet. "I want to believe you, Shepard, but you're still the one with weapons drawn. It doesn't look good for you."

That Terra could fix. She was hesitant to lower their guns when the instigator of this entire assault was right there, but Udina couldn't possibly move fast enough to avoid all three of them anyway, so they could afford to stand down. So she promptly signaled Garrus and Liara to do so. "You know me, Ash. You know I wouldn't do this unless I was absolutely certain."

"This is ridiculous," Udina spoke up again, "We're wasting time. I'm overriding the lock." He went over to a nearby terminal to hack the door Garrus and Liara had sealed.

As soon as he said it, Ashley started putting the pieces together. She did know Terra Shepard. Not as well as Garrus or Tali or Liara, but she knew her all the same. The commander was a soldier, an adopted turian, unshakable in her ideals. She loved the galaxy they all called home in a way few could understand. She would die before standing with a syndicate that stood against the unity she had always aspired to, especially when their goal would leave that beloved galaxy divided and preyed upon to extinction. She'd seen the sorrow in Terra's eyes leaving Anderson on a burning Earth, heard the pain in her voice when she spoke in the hospital of Palaven's similar fate and their missing family members, remembered their conversations of the poetry and art she'd been inspired to create by seeing all the wonders the Reapers wanted gone that Cerberus clearly didn't care about…

Ashley made up her mind. Udina had never stood with them. Terra had. So she sighed as she reached for her gun… "I'm gonna regret this." …and turned it on Udina.

Terra smirked. "No. You won't."

"Udina!" Ashley ordered, her finger already reaching for the trigger as she took aim, "Step away from the console!"

Udina didn't listen. He never had. He never would. When the asari Councilor tried to talk him down, he pushed her to the ground and drew a weapon of his own.

Terra didn't even have a chance to pull her pistol back out before Ashley fired.

Ashley only had five seconds of shock, her hands shaking even as she clutched her gun tighter, before something drew their attention. The door was being forced open from the other side. Terra, Garrus, Liara, and Ashley all took aim on it until the moment it opened to reveal Bailey on the other side.

"I don't understand," the asari Councilor stepped up, "You said Cerberus was right here."

"They were," Bailey said as he stowed his own weapon and powered down his omni-tool, "But they beat feet into the keeper tunnels when they realized we were coming. Sorry, Councilors, I'll say it plain: Shepard just saved the lot of you."

The turian Councilor turned to Terra. "I suppose I owe you again, Shepard. Not just for my life but for Palaven as well."

"You don't owe me anything for Palaven, sir," Terra assured him, "It's my home, too. I did what I had to do to keep it safe."

That was the end of it. They cleared the area and C-Sec set to securing the entire station. There was no sign of the ninja—he wasn't even on the security cams thanks to a high-tech VI he'd jacked into their systems—but Terra knew they'd see him again. Her concern was making sure the Citadel stayed safe.

And Thane.

The second she had word that the hospital was back in full operation, she headed straight there. Kolyat was already there, donating blood for his father, but Thane was too far gone where his syndrome was concerned for it to make a difference. He was dying. Not at some distant point in the future when oxygen failed him. Right now. This soon after losing Mordin, Terra was certain it wasn't right. But she had learned long ago that life was rarely fair, especially where she was concerned. All she could do was be there for Kolyat and say goodbye.

"Commander," Thane nodded as she took his side, "It appears I won't be joining you this time."

She smirked. "You were there when it counted. And you'll be with us in spirit. That's enough. …you've been too good a friend to me to let me down."

He smiled weakly. "That assassin should be embarrassed. A terminally ill drell managed to keep him from his target."

She let out a small laugh, but the humor was dampened with premature grief. "You were amazing out there. The Councilor says you're a hero, and I'm inclined to agree."

"…thank you." He breathed, though trying that much roughened his voice and reduced him to coughing. "There's something I must do while I still can, I must…" He struggled to regain control of his breath long enough to speak so he could say what he needed to: "Kalahira, I ask forgiveness. Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and sand…" The coughing again intruded.

But Kolyat stepped in, adopting a prayerful stance. "Kalahira, wash the sins from this one and set him on the shore of the eternal spirit."

Thane looked proudly at his son. "Kolyat, you speak as the priests do. You have been spending time with them."

Kolyat nodded before turning to Terra. "I brought a prayer book. Commander, would you care to join me?"

Terra didn't feel like it was her place to, but it seemed disrespectful to her friend's memory not to accept. So she agreed.

"Kalahira, this one's heart is pure but best by wickedness and contention."

Terra leaned over to pick up where he left off. "Guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, and the hungry never starve." She smiled almost tearfully at the hopeful tone in this ode to the lost, as poetic and true as anything she had ever written. "Guide this one, Kalahira…and she will be a companion to you as she was to me." Confusion struck her, but something else struck her harder and first. Glancing back to Thane, she found his gaze locked on the window, on the Presidium outside already slowly recovering from the attack. He had already breathed his last. Sadly, she approached and did one of the gestures of respect for the fallen that she had found to be near universal, closing his eyes as his soul departed to the shore it had longed for. After a moment of silence in reverence of this passing, she turned to Kolyat. "…why did the last verse say 'she'?"

Kolyat was clearly struck with grief as she was, but he could explain this much. "The prayer was not for him, commander. He has already asked forgiveness for the lives he has taken. …his last wish was for you."

…oh. To think that he had cared for her enough to devote his final plea to her…she hadn't realized how much she had meant to him, how much hope and purpose in his final days she had been responsible for. Maybe one day she'd even realize that was enough. For now, though, she simply turned to give the fallen assassin—no, crewmate—her last fond farewell: "Goodbye, Thane. I hope you're back with Irikah now. …I'll meet you there."