The three of them cautiously walked the corridors of the Lower City, even though the Vulkar base had been raided and most of the members killed or routed, Brejik still held power so the gang war was still raging on and there was still the chance for an ambush.
Luckily however, they were able to make it back to the Bek base without running into any trouble, the lookout waved them through and the three of them approached Gadon at the end of the hall. Tali still felt anxious as the Bek's looked at her with suspicion and judgement, Zaalbaar was standing beside Gadon and the Wookiee instantly started walking towards Mission once he noticed her approaching.
"Big Z!" Mission exclaimed as she hugged Zaalbaar tightly, the Wookiee didn't instantly reciprocate the gesture, Tali watched him as he seemed to exhibit embarrassment as his Twi'lek friend hugged him, but the gesture could easily have been something else, Tali made a mental note to research Wookiee behaviour so she could understand him without knowing the language.
"Mission! It's good to hear your voice." Gadon said as he turned to face Mission, his artificial eyes jittering slightly from side to side. "We started installing the engine as soon as Zaalbaar arrived, Zaerdra is down there now."
"I guess that means we won't get the same 'warm welcome' as last time." Carth remarked as he smiled from the less than satisfactory joke. Tali and Mission both cringed as soon as he said it.
"You'll have to forgive Zaerdra, she just wants to make sure nothing happens to me. It's… comforting." Gadon replied, ignoring the joke entirely. Tali noticed that his eyelids closed slightly and a warm smile came across his face for a split second. "The engine should be installed soon, but the race isn't until tomorrow." Gadon quickly said as he flushed away any emotions he had been displaying before, secretly hoping that nobody noticed how he had talked about Zaerdra.
"What should we do in the mean time?" Tali quickly asked as she stepped forwards, gathering the attention of Gadon who jumped slightly at the unfamiliar sound of her voice.
"You're welcome to stay here, if you have anything to do then you are free to leave and come back as you desire." Gadon stopped rather abruptly, as if he had noticed something important, a serious look came onto his face "Where is Nick?" He asked with a demanding tone in his voice.
Mission and Carth looked to one another as they contemplated what to say, finally Mission spoke up: "Nick had a run in with the wrong end of Sith Assault droid, we took to him to Zelka though."
Gadon had a look of slight relief on his face but he still looked concerned, "I know Brejik put a price on his head, I'd feel a lot safer if I sent someone to look out for him." He pushed a few buttons on the console in front of him.
Mission and Carth looked at each other and nodded, they hadn't even considered the possibility that the bounty hunters might go after him again, "Alright, but make sure they don't draw too much attention."
Gadon nodded and brought up a comm line to one of his security detail, "Greeda, I need you to go and guard Nick. He's at the Medical Facility. Be discreet, don't even let Zelka see you. You'll know what to do."
"You got it boss, nothing will get through me." Greeda replied cockily, she switched off the channel before Gadon could.
"Do you have beds that we can use?" Tali quickly asked, sounding exhausted through the light static of her helmet. She hadn't realised just how exhausted she was until this moment, after all she had been on her feet a whole day at least.
"Of course, I'll get you all a room right away. Just through the doors behind me, the rooms are there." Gadon replied as he gestured to a wall, Tali figured that his blind state was to account for that little misstep, but she understood which doors he meant.
The group stepped through the doors and stopped in front of the rooms in question. "What are we all going to do then?" Mission asked as she opened one of the rooms to peek inside, they were all singles.
"I need to rest; all this has been a lot to take in." Tali slowly said as she leaned against the wall, Mission and Carth both offered sympathetic nods, given what she had been through they were not at all surprised that she needed the sleep.
"I'm going down to the garage, I need to see if this engine works or not." Mission set off back to the main hall to ask Gadon where to go, "Come on Big Z, with me." The Wookiee closely followed behind as the door opened and then closed behind them.
Tali entered her room as Carth stepped into the doorway, leaning into the frame "Are you alright?" He asked as he watched the Quarian observe the room.
"As good as I can be." Tali replied a little coldly "I'm sorry, I just need to be alone for a while." She didn't turn to look at Carth, she was holding back tears. After everything that had happened she hadn't yet had the time to come to terms with it.
"Oh, okay. I'm going to the Cantina." Carth said as he shut the door behind him leaving Tali alone with nothing but her thoughts.
Tali sat on the bed and took off her armoured vest, there were a few scrapes and scratched but her suit had not been pierced, she considered herself lucky as if one of those energy weapons had pierced her suit she was sure that would be the end. She wanted to crawl out of her suit which was feeling more like a shell, but she knew she couldn't, she sighed softly as she pondered it all. Tali lay her head back on the bed, the padding in the back of her helmet acted as a cushion and her hood dropped a little revealing the back of her helmet. She tried emptying her mind as the exhaustion took over and she drifted into a deep sleep.
It was black, nothing but black, Tali could not move until he appeared in front of her. His black armour blending into the background – only the red stripe stood out, they moved towards each other, both removing their helmets. Once they met they shared a deep and passionate kiss, holding each other tight, saying nothing but comforting each other anyway.
Then they were in London, just before the citadel beam, as they pulled away she watched the beam strike the ground and track its target into a red explosion. Her hope was restored when she viewed is vital, he was just barely alive and as soon as the beam pulsed the connection was lost and she had no idea what had befallen him.
Then she was watching it happen, the Citadel engulfed in fire, the Crucible detonating in a massive shockwave destroying Reapers and allies alike until finally stopping, she knew he was gone but he would never leave her heart.
They were deep in embrace again and this time whispering at each other.
"Tali." He said in that calming yet intimidating voice of his, "I'll always love you."
She looked deep into his eyes, staring right into his core, charging her timid yet fierce voice as she replied. "So will I… Shepard." She pushed her head into his chest as she wrapped her arms around him.
His arms fell limp as she looked up into his face, burnt and bloodied, the flesh melted off his face leaving the outline of his skull lined with what was left of his skin and blood. His body fell limp as she tried to hold him up, tears welling in her eyes. The red light appeared above her and she saw it, the towering monstrosity shining its light right onto her, all her anger and hatred bursting out as she stood to face it.
The Reaper made a metallic screech and fired its beam, vaporizing Tali in an instant.
Tali shot up from her slumber, panting and gasping as the images she just saw faded from her vision. She blinked rapidly as beads of sweat started forming on her forehead, it was getting too hot in her suit, she wanted out as soon as possible.
Finding it impossible to relax Tali decided to step out for a while; she had lost balance timewise and was sure that her body clock was in complete disarray. She materialized her omni-tool on her arm which caught the attention of a passing gang member who, in his amazement, nearly walked into the door before opening it. Tali held back a snicker as the man nervously opened the door and stepped through, as the small interface appeared showing her the time aboard the Normandy.
[11:23 AM]
Tali relaxed slightly as she read that it would have been morning on the Normandy and, given the fact that she had grown used to Earth Standard Time, she breathed in a sigh of relief and wondered for how long she had been sleeping. To her right there was a symbol on the wall that seemed to represent a vehicle, Tali assumed that it was supposed to be the garage where Mission and Zaalbaar were, and she had no idea if Carth was back from the cantina.
As Tali entered the elevator she pressed the only button within and it slowly creaked into life before heading down at a slow pace. The elevator was quite large, obviously meant for heavy cargo, the railings were rusty, and the walls were open allowing Tali to see the piping on the walls of the shaft. After a minute or so the elevator came to a sudden and shaky stop before the door screeched open, making Tali flinch at the ear-piercing sound.
The Bek garage was nowhere near as large as the Vulkar garage; there was a large durasteel door to the far left and on the far right was a door that led to an office. There were only two vehicles in the garage, one looked completely destroyed and the other looked serviceable enough. Tali could see Mission and Zaalbaar standing next to the destroyed vehicle, conversing with an alien that Tali had never seen before, it had a large head with no visible hair and large black eyes in the centre of its face. Tali was slightly taken by surprise as it looked exactly like the aliens present in human culture, big emotionless eyes and a body comprised entirely of one colour. As she approached, Mission turned around and greeted her with a smile. "Good to see you up, how do you feel?" Mission asked as she walked closer to Tali.
"I'm okay, have you seen Carth?" Tali said, slightly weary from her nightmare, things were bad enough she didn't want anything to get worse.
"I'm right here." Carth said, startling Tali as she spun around to greet him, Mission giggled quietly as she stood beside the Quarian.
"Good, now that we're all here we can ready for this race." Mission said as she gestured for Zaalbaar to stand beside her, "The race is going to be soon, the engine modification is completely installed, but we need to pick a rider."
"Why?" Carth started as looked at the swoop bike before him, "Surely Gadon has a rider already."
"It's not that simple." Zaerdra called out as she came from the offices beside them, Gadon was accompanying her.
"What now?" Tali said, irritated and gathering a disapproving look from Gadon's Twi'lek aide.
"You see, we've tested the modification, but the bike might not be able to take it. We're not going to risk one of our own riders, so one of you will ride instead." Zaerdra smugly replied, almost as if she wanted the newcomers dead.
"What?" Mission said, clearly aggravated, "We risked our lives to get this mod for you…" Mission continued to argue on until Carth interrupted her.
"I'll do it." Carth said, Mission and Tali both looked at him surprised, in reaction to their stares Carth decided to appease them "I've flown one of these models before and I'm a trained Starfighter pilot. I'm your best choice."
"He does have a point." Tali said as she crossed her arms, "I wouldn't know how to fly this thing, and you're probably too young to even enter." Tali pointed at Mission who had anger growing on her face.
"It's settled then, you'll ride for us." Gadon said mere moments before Mission could erupt at Tali. "Now, there won't be enough time to practice the course, so we'll have to just give you a rundown and to keep the bike up to scratch we'll give you one of our engineers."
"Okay, anything else I should know?" Carth asked, a sense of urgency bubbling through his voice.
"Everything else will be explained on the course, the race is in a couple of hours so head there now and set up." Gadon replied as the mechanic on the swoop bike began powering it up to transit it to the race course. The durasteel door opened to reveal a tunnel that would no doubt take them to the course. Carth followed the bike and the mechanic towards the door; Tali, Mission and Zaalbaar were close behind. "No." Zaerdra quickly said, causing the four of them to turn around "Only racers and mechanics are allowed on the course, you three will have to stay." She gestured to Tali, Mission and Zaalbaar, the trio drew suspicious and anxious looks but in the end decided that it was in their best interests to comply. "Good." Zaerdra replied, Tali detected a hint of smugness in her voice, however she decided that it was best not to jump to any conclusions as she really had no idea about Twi'lek manners and gestures. To tell the truth, she was amazed that her translation software was even doing its job, the chances of such a thing were mind boggling to say the least.
Carth and the speeder were led away towards the track while Mission, Tali and Zaalbaar watched.