Chapter 72: Progenitors
Life breeds distance
Yet still we must return
Where we began will call to us
With lessons to be learned
No one seemed particularly surprised that Garrus and Terra brought their family back with them. Chakwas actually seemed to have been expecting to take Solana on as a patient and assure her that her leg would be back to normal in no time at all thanks to 22nd-century medicine. While Garrus was following Violet back into the AI core, presumably to tell her more about his family, Terra was staying close to Solana and waiting for Castis to inevitably start debating this arrangement again.
He didn't disappoint. "You really don't need to do this. The Citadel is in contact range."
"It's also getting overcrowded," Terra countered, "And in case you haven't noticed, Garrus and I have a vested interest in not losing the rest of our family if anything like the Cerberus coup happens again. We already cut it close enough."
"Yeah," Solana sighed, "We really did. We did everything you said, we ran for the evac shuttles the second word reached us they were coming, but they hit so fast…"
Terra had known that was what happened, but hearing it now made her question the rest of the story. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the rest. Still, she asked. "How'd you hold out?"
"There are still emergency shelters in Cipritine. We didn't expect them to hold as long as they did. Dad and I, along with a few civilians who managed to follow us down, stayed out of sight, down where there were rations and air filters. Never thought I'd see the day our cities were so trashed that their ashes became a breathing hazard. A few of the evac shuttles were still intact on the other side of the city, no one had managed to get to them. When the krogan came through, it gave us all time to run and a distraction during which to take off." She nodded to her leg. "The running part didn't go so smoothly." She smiled, glancing at her father out of the corner of her eye. "But some people aren't so easily deterred." She ignored his response, shrugging to herself. "We made it, though. And now here we are. Not to mention you've got a rescued sister and a shiny new ring, so I think we can chalk this one up as a happy ending."
Terra shook her head. "I wouldn't go that far. War's still not over yet."
"We heard about Tuchanka and Rannoch. You keep that up and it will be soon."
Terra smirked. It was nice to hear Solana believe in her like that. "Just rest your leg. I want to see both my sisters walking around before this over." She turned to Castis. "And if you're still not convinced you have a place on the ship, I can set you up at a tactician's console in the war room. It's certainly no stranger to turians these days."
Whether or not he still wanted to debate the matter, he seemed to see there was no talking her out of it and that she had a genuine excuse with this offer. So he nodded. "Alright. Show me what you've got."
While Terra was taking him up to show off the vast array of war assets they'd gathered so far, Garrus was with Violet. The former prodigy had only received the basics of the story from Terra and was very interested in learning more about her sister's adopted family. It was only when Garrus realized he had run out of stories of Terra and Solana (most of the time the two had spent together had managed to somehow exclude him, after all) that he suggested she ask Solana directly and get to know her.
Violet shied away from the offer. "I…I will, I just…" She sighed. "I'm still getting used to all this."
He nodded in understanding. In a way, what Violet was going through really was a reflection of what Terra endured when she first came to Palaven. This time, he knew how to handle it: give her time, be there for her when she needed someone. So far, she was recovering even faster than Terra had, a true testament to the famous Shepard stubbornness.
Then she suggested something he wasn't expecting. "I was actually hoping I could keep getting to know you first."
He looked at her warily. "What do you mean?"
She sighed. "I can't help but notice I'm the only one on the ship who needs an escort on the Citadel."
"That's just Terra being cautious. You're still a civilian."
"So was she once. And you taught her not to need anyone."
He picked up on her hidden meaning then. She wanted him to do what he'd done for Terra and teach her to fight. "Wait, no. Violet—"
"I just want to be able to look out for myself," she asserted, "I'm tired of being helpless."
He was ready to argue that that was exactly how it started for Terra, that there was a very fine line between defense and offense when it came down to it that neither he nor Terra would want Violet to have to cross. But he just as quickly realized that this was different. Terra had been a helpless witness. Violet had been a helpless victim. Terra wanted justice, wanted to make her survival worth something. Violet just wanted peace, wanted to survive at all without staying that helpless victim forever. Terra had needed to go out and face the demons that escaped her. Violet needed to conquer her own. Part of him was still unsure, but there was a simple way to fix that. Asking Violet to give him a second, he turned and whispered into his COMM where she wouldn't hear. "EDI, have you been monitoring her sleeping patterns?"
"Yes," EDI answered on his private line, "She has been experiencing restless and erratic nights punctuated by spikes in her adrenal levels and brain activity that indicate nightmares."
That was all he needed to hear. She could fight the trauma in her waking hours, but she needed something to lean on to deal with the memories. Terra had had his family and her lessons with him. Violet had the Normandy crew, so there was only one other thing he could do to help. And as an honorary brother to her, it was his duty to do so. So he turned to her and agreed. "Just the basics. Just enough to defend yourself. If there's ever an actual fight, you don't engage, you call us."
She nodded. "You've made it pretty clear I always can."
He smirked. That they had. "One thing, though. Terra and I traded."
"You what?"
"When I was teaching her how to fight, she was teaching me how to draw."
"You want me to teach you something?"
"Considering we're family—or at least about to be—you don't have to, no."
She thought it over. All she could teach would be musical, and she was pretty certain a turian's talons would be a major hindering towards playing a violin or a flute. She could show anyone around a piano, but she didn't exactly have one handy. What else could…?
…
Oh, wait. She smiled as an idea came over her. "I've got one thing. Something I know Terra would never be able to teach you that would really impress her."
He smirked. "You have my undivided attention."
Two hours later, Terra could safely say things were going well. Castis, upon seeing the forces at their disposal and voicing how impressed he was, had settled into the war room the way he once would've settled into a crime scene. Garrus and Violet had spent an hour in the core before coming out with Violet unusually excited and immediately latching onto Solana to talk. Terra had to ask Garrus what exactly he'd done to get her to start opening up so quickly only for him to give an offhand remark about how he had his ways, some of which he'd learned from her. She had smiled and taking a few moments for him before EDI had informed her that Hackett had something on the Citadel for her to look into before they took off. So she headed straight to the lab to see what was going on.
She traded that one question for 100.
Garrus started to worry something was wrong when she didn't come back within half an hour. He finally asked EDI what was going on only for her to tell him that she had monitored a C-Sec call at the lab and was arriving to check on Terra even as she spoke. He was worried enough to ask if he was needed and receive a simple "I'll let you know if she asks for you" as an answer before talking himself down with the thought that Terra would've called him first before bothering with C-Sec if she was in danger. So he just settled into the battery and waited. When he finally heard them plotting a course for an asteroid in the Caleston Rift, he went out to head off Terra as she came down to deck 3 and ask her what had happened.
"Oh, you know," she shook her head with a heavy sigh, "Scientist finds out the Reapers are looking for something, gets shot by his assistant who then immediately gets amnesia about the whole thing, the usual."
"So I take it we're now hunting down this thing the Reapers are looking for?"
"Yep."
"We should really consider a new line of work after this."
She smirked. "And miss out on all the excitement?"
That was one way to describe it. As soon as Terra, Garrus, and Tali landed on the asteroid, things felt wrong. It wasn't until they fought off the Reaper advance team and went into the mining facility that they knew something was wrong. Everyone inside was acting strange, to put it mildly. It took a lot of investigation just to figure out where the doctor they were chasing down was. Then when they found him, he immediately flipped out like something had hacked his brain and led them on a less-than-merry chase outside past the full contingent of Reaper forces.
"Wherever we are," Garrus shook his head, "expect a 70% chance of Reapers…"
It wasn't an easy fight by any means, but Terra wasn't letting this guy get away that easily. They finally managed to push through and catch the doctor in the last room of the facility. They weren't fast enough to stop him from setting off a detonator that killed him and destroyed the artifact he'd found. Then Tali managed to find data that indicated not only that the artifact was the same as one in the lab on the Citadel but that their dead doctor had been in contact with one Ann Bryson. Terra was ready to head back to the Normandy and go straight back to the Citadel to start taking care of this when the miners came around, snapping out of whatever trance they'd been in with no idea what was going on.
"Cortez, can you bring the shuttle?" Terra asked her COMM over speaker once she was certain they'd done all they could here.
"Affirmative, commander," Cortez responded, "Funny thing—a few minutes ago, the Reaper forces broke off and left."
"Reaper?" one of the miners asked, "What's a Reaper?"
Terra tensed. That was a red flag if ever there was one. "What year do you think this is?"
"2176," one of the other miners answered.
"…that was ten years ago."
Those words sent them all into shock. Terra rushed her team out of there after that. She knew what it was like to lose time, even if she couldn't imagine having lost that much. The best thing they could do for it would be to get them home as soon as possible—assuming any of them still had homes to get back to—and then make sure this didn't happen again.
Once they were back on the Citadel, EDI was able to shield the artifact in the lab and determine where Ann Bryson went. Then it was off to the Pylos Nebula to continue the search that was likely to last all week. Garrus and Tali stuck with Terra yet again (they worked best when it was the three of them and everyone knew that), though some part of them sort of regretted that when the shuttle was nearly toppled by a blizzard of Harvesters. The three of them had to scramble across the entire dig site, nearly overwhelmed by Reaper forces being dropped almost endlessly by the Harvesters at every turn, just to get to the building Ann was in. Getting her out wasn't exactly any easier.
The evidence seemed to indicate that this "Leviathan" the Reapers were chasing was a Reaper itself. Terra would've doubted the sense in that assumption had they not found tribal paintings on the mountainside of some race native to this planet bowing to something that was definitely in the form of a Reaper. Ordinarily, she would be awed to find that artworks from a race millions of years dead had survived so long since erosion on a planet this arid was apparently not enough to degrade it, but right now, she was too busy wondering why a Reaper would be actively avoiding or even working against its kindred. She didn't get a chance at finding an answer before they reached the landing pad to find that some of the Reapers forces were using one of the artifacts.
"They've activated it somehow," Ann said, astonished, "I've never managed anything—" She froze, the astonishment fading from her eyes, then suddenly began to step forward.
"Doctor?" Terra prepared to pull her back.
"They've learned too well," Ann spoke again, her voice not her own, "The darkness cannot be breached."
Terra reacted on pure instinct, rushing over to grab Ann by the arm and drag her back before the Reapers could start shooting. Just that much prodding was enough to make the doctor fade from consciousness, leaving Terra to pull her to safety even though she was standing right in the open.
Garrus' reaction wasn't so much instinct as panic. "Terra!" He rushed over, helping her back behind cover even as the Reapers caught sight of them and prepared to open fire.
"Take that thing out!" Terra ordered.
Since Garrus was distracted, Tali took care of this one, two shots from her gun destroying the artifact and throwing the entire scene into chaos. The three of them quickly took cover around Ann and waited for Cortez. Waiting quickly turned into a life-or-death matter when a Harvester came down right on the landing pad, but they managed to take it out and run. The Normandy was already moving back to the Citadel when the shuttle came back into its bay.
As soon as he had the chance, Garrus pulled Terra aside and started looking her over. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine," Terra pushed him back, "Though I can't say I would've been if anything had happened to you while you were charging over without a care! What were you thinking?! Putting yourself in harm's way doesn't always get me out of it!"
He winced. "I wasn't thinking. I was…I was just worried." He sighed, taking her hand. "That's what love does to guys like me. Turns 'em into a nervous wreck with something to lose and the aim to make sure he doesn't." He looked at her, the dread from that moment still echoing in his sapphire eyes even as they found the sympathy in hers, one talon reaching up to gently stroke her hair. "Nobody better hurt you."
She smiled softly, finally leaning over to kiss his scars. "You're getting better at this. One day, you might just outdo me."
He smirked, laying his head on hers. "Not a chance. You're the master."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far…but I love you, too."
When Terra and EDI went back to the lab, James meeting them there, Ann told them her brilliant plan: she could let the artifact in the lab take control of her again so EDI could trace the connection to Leviathan. Terra's brain was starting to lose the ability to consider plans like this insane, likely from overuse. James did that worrying for her, taking position to both lend Ann some strength and restrain her. What followed was unsettling, to say the least, so Terra let James put the shield back up as soon as EDI had the signal. Ann warned them on the way out to be careful—"I think it wants to kill you."
Terra resisted the urge to scoff "Doesn't everything?"
EDI had been able to narrow down the search to one star cluster but not the exact system. At first, Terra thought the time spent scanning would be a nice change of pace in which they could prepare for what would lie ahead (ignoring the brief periods in which the Reapers in the vicinity caught their scanner signal and they had to FTL jump out to reboot the stealth systems, a situation for which Terra genuinely wished they had a red alert button). After nearly two whole days had passed before they found the signal on literally the last planet they checked, she was again feeling put out with this entire situation. She filtered that irritation into purpose, determined to find this thing before the Reapers did, and led Garrus and Tali back down to the armory to mobilize.
The shuttle made it halfway there before they crashed. They managed to land on a fallen ship rather than in the ocean, but that didn't stop the Reapers from following them down and attempting to kill them. Cortez was able to figure out a way to turn their crash site into a weapon, salvaging a mech to turn on the Reaper forces…and then dive down after the probe to track down Leviathan's signal. Now Terra knew the part of her brain that filters out crazy plans was broken because she was certain her every thought should be screaming BAD IDEA! Unfortunately, they didn't have much choice, since trying to take off again without tracking this thing down likely meant they would just crash again, so she went along with it, clearing the area of Cannibals and Brutes to get the mech ready to go.
Garrus took that opportunity to pick up the slack on objecting to this arrangement. "Alright, look, Terra, I'm all for crazy ideas, but this one's off the charts!"
She sighed. "I'm not exactly looking forward to it myself, but the way home is through Leviathan. We're gonna have to try." Once Cortez gave the signal they were ready, she started to climb in to head down.
Garrus stopped her, grabbing her by the wrist. "…Terra…" When she faced him, his eyes were ringing with fear, something that had no place in that fierce gaze, and his talons reached to clutch the hand that had their engagement ring buried under her armor. His words from earlier rang through both their minds. He had already faced two years without her. He couldn't lose her again.
So she quickly laid a gentle hand on his scars and kissed him. "I'll be fine," she whispered.
He knew she never failed to keep a promise, but he also knew there wasn't one behind those words. She knew better than to make one now. Though there was still the hope of one, and that was enough for him to accept it, giving a small nod before stepping back as slowly as he could.
He didn't watch Terra go under. He just kept his COMM linked to hers. That proved insufficient when they almost immediately lost her signal to the depths.
It was his good fortune that Tali was there, just as concerned for Terra but assuring Garrus that nothing could keep Commander Shepard down and she would make it back to them in no time. In a way, it was also his good fortune when the Reaper backup arrived, giving them something to shoot at to distract them from the dread and how each passing second felt like precious air that Terra would be losing. Garrus was able to concentrate some of that dread into rage to reinforce his offense, blaming every Reaper that dared to pass his scope for putting them all through this chaos. He almost felt like he was back on Omega, taking out Terra's fate on every thug that crossed him, though this instance wasn't exactly as self-detrimental.
He and Terra had long since earned the chance to become each other's entire futures, to have the day when they would make the vow to. They were both going to live to see it, no matter what it took. He would make sure of that.
When the mech finally resurfaced and Terra scrambled out, he was somewhere between relieved and overjoyed. That instantly plummeted back down to terrified when she slumped to the ground, barely conscious, as the effects of oxygen deprivation seeped into her. To make matters worse, she was right in range of two Brutes, who instantly turned their sights on her for a killing blow. Garrus was about to furiously deny them that with an attack that…well, he wasn't really thinking it through enough to plan it out, so it was presumably meant to be something reckless, but he didn't even need to. Just before the Brute could rear back to strike, something gave it pause.
And it turned around to instead tackle its ally.
Tali was all but paralyzed by sheer confusion, but Garrus couldn't afford to be. He would question this strange occurrence later. Terra needed him now. He raced over without a thought, ducking away from the warring Brutes to dive down and take her into his arms. He practically carried her back to the shuttle while Tali did her best to cover them. They finally managed to race away from the crash site and back towards the Normandy, managing not to crash again or get shot down by a Reaper on the way.
The exact millisecond they were clear of danger, Garrus began running medical scans on his unconscious human, trying to figure out how to wake her. "Terra!" He pressed his talons to her pulse, finding it was weak and her flesh was cold. "She's freezing!"
Tali was about to respond, rushing to prepare her own medical systems, when Terra suddenly shocked awake, coughing up water and gasping for breath.
Garrus quickly shut down his omni-tool and took hold of her, helping her to an upright position to ease her lungs. "Are you OK?"
She took a few more seconds to steady herself before nodding. "…yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." She said it weakly, shivering and clutching an aching skull.
He finally drew her into his arms, as much for reassurance as for warmth. "Never do that again!"
She might've come up with some witty response, but she settled for burying herself in him. That was all either of them needed.
Terra had been back on her ship for all of four seconds before Chakwas rushed her into the med bay to be treated for hypothermia. Terra spent the entire time complaining about this even as she continued shivering and coughing and not complaining about how Garrus was staying close enough to warm and steady her. After she had been tended to by the doctor and worried over by everyone else, she explained what she had found down there.
Not a Reaper. One of the creatures that made them. She told the tale of a race that commanded the entire galaxy (the way she glanced at Javik while she said this did not go unnoticed), that watched its subordinates fall to synthetics and crafted a device to protect them, that succumbed to its own creation when Harbinger was born. A select few Leviathans had been able to retreat to the depths they had now been found in—the darkness that had been breached—and Terra had managed to talk them into fighting so that the Reapers would pay for all they'd done. The fact that these beings had watched the entire cycle from its beginning and agreed that this one had earned that chance was certainly a good sign.
They hoped.
"What does it matter?" Javik shook his head, "The Leviathans still fell to their own foolishness. The Reapers are still an enemy to be destroyed."
"It matters," Garrus asserted as he took Terra's side and unknowingly said exactly what she was thinking, "Sovereign said they were eternal. But this proves they had a beginning. …so maybe now, we can provide them with an end."
"Indeed," EDI agreed, "The Reapers were unsuccessful in completely eradicating their creators. This proves that they are fallible, even on long term scales." She seemed to smirk as she reached her conclusion: "We can exploit this."
Liara nodded. "I'll start figuring out how best to utilize what we recovered. In the meantime, we should probably let Terra recuperate."
Solana scoffed from the cot opposite Terra's even as the squad cleared out of the med bay. "Isn't that what my brother's for?"
Garrus gave her a look even though she was lying down and couldn't see it. Apparently, it hadn't escaped her notice that he'd been in and out of the AI core a lot the past few days and had been retreating to the captain's cabin rather than the battery after every visit.
Terra quickly drew his attention. "Maybe, since I'm already treated, I could 'recuperate' faster in my own bed?"
Garrus caught her meaning, ignoring Solana's responding smirk in favor of delivering on of his own. "And you really shouldn't be on your own right now."
"Guess you're stuck with me then."
"Guess I am." He carefully helped her to her feet and up to deck 1, not even minding the barely concealed snickering coming from his sister's cot.
Terra hadn't been making an excuse for time alone when she said she wanted her own bed (…OK, well, she hadn't just been doing that…), she did feel a lot better when she was in the familiar confines of her cabin. Though she usually calmed down by lying on her bed and watching the fish tank, which was not exactly the most soothing sight right now considering what she'd just been through. One glance at the luminescent water set her shivering again.
As always, Garrus noticed. "I take it you're never going swimming again."
She scoffed. "I wasn't exactly big on it in the first place."
"Oh, good, 'cause I couldn't possibly go with you."
"Palaven has oceans, too. You're telling me no turians ever go swimming in them?"
"We're not exactly built for it like you are. There's a lot of flailing and splashing involved…interrupted by occasional bouts of drowning."
She shrugged. "Then I suppose it's a good thing we prefer to sit at the edge and watch."
He smiled as her words called back the memory of sneaking onto the keeper walkways on the Presidium reservoir, of the day they accepted each other as mates. "So we do."
She took his hand, sighing. "I wish none of this had happened."
He never expected words like that from her. He gave her a stunned look, not sure what to say.
She shook her head. "I wish the Reapers never existed. I wish you and I could've just had a life together without some stupid war getting in the way."
He finally drew her in. "We will when this is over." He let one talon drift over to wrap around her hand where their engagement ring rested, a shining silver and sapphire promise.
She turned her hand to entwine her fingers with his. "…sometimes I wish the raid hadn't happened either. That I'd gotten the life I wanted on Mindoir."
"…sometimes I do, too."
She looked at him sullenly. "Do you stop for the same reason I do?"
He nodded. "Because nothing could be worse than the thought of never meeting you? Or living one more day of my life without you in it? Yeah."
"I'd still like to think it would've been possible. That we might still have found each other and fallen in love in some world where my whole family could've met you."
He smirked. "Well, then, why don't I play storyteller for once?"
She sighed. "Garrus, really—"
"Just lie down." He gently nudged her until she complied, lying down beside her close enough to lend her warmth as he held her hand tenderly. "I might not have gone to Mindoir that day if the raid didn't happen, but you're right, that shouldn't have to be the end of it. So while I go on as a sniper none the wiser, you go on as an artist. When you start to forge a path for yourself, instead of enlisting, you go off to see the galaxy on your own, painting every horizon and absorbing every culture without ever losing contact with your family. Then one day, after I've finally caved and joined C-Sec, you come to the Presidium. I see you at work and have to come over to admire it. Once we've caught each other's eyes, we start stumbling into each other more and more and finally decide to spend some time together. Us being us, we realize we're a perfect match immediately but take another few years to realize we're outright perfect for each other. With no Reapers getting in the way, we get the romance we should've had." He smiled as he again ran his talon gently across the finger carrying their ring. "And so much more."
She found herself lost in the thought of it. It was a beautiful dream. But it was still only a dream. The second she remembered that, she felt the threat of tears come upon her. "I want that. All of it."
He drew her to turn to face him again. "You have it. What's happened can't take that from us." He reached up and threaded his talons through her hair to press her closer. "Nothing can."
She took that to heart, using it to push away the memory of that terrible, devastating-beyond-words-or-reason moment when Leviathan had her trapped and she was afraid she would never see her love again. In this moment, it was quite the opposite, as if they truly were inexplicably tied to where nothing could ever separate them. As if one could not exist without the other. "…I love you."
He didn't need to say it back, though he did. They both knew it. It was undeniable. He was her turian, after all, just as she was his human. Nothing could change that.
As they fell asleep in each other's arms that night, they dreamed of a world where they were free together. And of how it could one day be made real.
