SSV Normandy, March 14, 2183
He really didn't know what was happening to him. He saw flashes in his mind. And once they ended, they started anew. It was a cycle of constant wonder, confusion. AND SO MUCH PAIN.
He knew he definitely wasn't awake. But the pain made it seem otherwise. Much as he tried to focus on an anything but the flashes, he failed, every time they returned, every time it hurt, every time he wished he would die.
He gave up. Was this hell? He remembered the beacon, he remembered getting lifted off the ground before the beacon exploded and knocked him unconscious. So yeah, this had to be hell.
Right?
Well, no. He knew he was alive. Every once in a while he could hear someone say his name. He could feel as someone shook him or put anything in his body. Needles and IV. He could also hear the heartbeat monitor every time it made a beep at his heart.
There was nothing he wanted more than to just wake up. To just end this pain now.
And that's what he did. He focused himself on moving. On waking up. And his body responded. He was doing it.
It took a lot of effort, but eventually the flashes stopped and his eyes shot wide-open as he sat up almost immediately.
"Woah there! Don't move." He heard from his right. The voice came from Chakwas, and his surroundings were enough to tell him he was in the Normandy's infirmary.
"Wh-what happened?" He asked as he held a hand on his head. Quite honestly if it wasn't for the insurmountable pain he had just felt seconds ago, he would have laughed at just how many times he suffered a head or brain injury. Biotics or otherwise.
"You got knocked out cold. You've been out for 15 hours. Something must have happened with the beacon." Chakwas responded.
Behind him he heard a sigh. Looking back he saw Ashley standing there. How he had not noticed her before he didn't know. And behind her, he could make out the form of a turian. Nihlus...
Ashley spoke as she crossed her arms and rubbed her left shoulder "It's my fault. I must have triggered some form of field when I approached it. You had to push me and the LT out of the way."
John noted that Ashley's tone was apologetic. Too apologetic for something she didn't know would happen "Look, you had no way of knowing what would happen. Just... be more careful around weird alien things next time." His words had apparently been enough to make Ashley's arms drop and for her to smile at him to which he nodded.
"So." John said as he turned to look at Chakwas "What happened with the beacon? And where's Jane?" He asked as he tried to scan the room for any sign of his sister.
"According to Kaidan, the beacon exploded. He thinks it must have been an overload but we're not sure. As for your sister. She's in the mess hall, I can get her if you want." Chakwas said to which John nodded and she left the room, coming back with Jane only a few seconds later.
"John!" Jane yelled out in excitement as she sprinted towards him and enveloped him in a hug.
John patted her back "Hey."
As Jane broke the embrace she slapped his shoulder "Would you stop scaring me by going unconscious like that?!"
John smirked "Ah, I'll just scare you by actually dying next time then." That comment earned him another slap on the shoulder.
"Now. You should be fine to walk out of here without problems." Chakwas interrupted the 'sibling energy' "You're fine physically. But what worried me was your brain activity. Abnormal beta waves. Did you see anything while unconscious?" She asked with a concerned look.
John frowned and looked down. He felt as Jane squeezed his shoulder and he looked back up to see her nodding at him.
"I... I don't know what I saw... death. Destruction. A warning maybe?" John shook his head and covered it with his hands "I just don't know..."
They heard as the infirmary door cycled open and Anderson entered. He closed the distance between them before speaking "Good to see you're alright Commander. I must speak to you. Privately."
Everyone took that as their cue to leave but not before Jane gave John another hug before she left the room as well, leaving Anderson and John alone in there. Not counting the unconscious turian behind them.
"How are you feeling son?" Anderson asked.
John shook his head and frowned "Like the morning after shore leave... What happened?"
Anderson sighed and sat down next to John "The mission didn't go as planned." No shit... "The beacon was destroyed and we have an unconscious spectre with us."
John looked in front of him as he remembered the events on Eden Prime. He remembered going over the hill and seeing Nihlus in the distance. He remembered yelling his name and raising his gun towards the attacker. Another turian. "There was another turian." John said in a low voice.
Anderson's face turned into one of something John had barely seen from him. Rage. "Saren." He said with almost a growl "I saw the footage from your suits. Damn rain made it impossible to see him. But I could make out enough to know. That was Saren Arterius."
"Who is he?"
"Another spectre. Just like Nihlus. Actually, he was Nihlus's mentor." He said as he pointed towards the unconscious turian.
John's expression turned into one of confusion as he replayed the events one more "That doesn't make sense. Why would Saren try to kill him then?"
"He was working with the geth. That alone is enough to say he has plans that extend beyond compassion or caring." Anderson sighed "Did you at least get something from the beacon?"
John groaned "I got a massive headache and... a vision."
"A vision?"
"Felt more like a nightmare really. But I think I saw the protheans. Their last moments."
Anderson let out a hum before answering "We're currently heading to the Citadel. We need to inform the council about all of this."
John crossed his arms and raised a brow "The council's heads are so far up their own asses. You know they won't care." John shook his head "Besides, what are we gonna tell them? I had a bad dream?"
"It's all we have right now. But it's worth a shot. And if Nihlus wakes up before then maybe it will go smoothly."
John looked back at the turian and groaned "Fine. And if we need to find evidence? Like we most likely will have to?"
"Let's just hope that what we have is enough." Anderson said as he stood up "Now come on. We're reaching the Citadel in 10 minutes."
John stood up slowly and got off the bed. While walking out he checked the turian's condition and could make out the bandages adorning his body.
He left the med-bay as Chakwas went back inside and he made his way towards the CIC. Once there he went towards the bridge where he came upon his teammates, Ashley, and Jenkins whose torso had a bandage on it and some blood too.
Over ten minutes had passed until the Normandy came upon their destination. Through the Normandy's window, each of them could see the massive structure come into view.
The Citadel.
The pinnacle of evolution, and one of the remnants of the long-extinct protheans.
They could see the hundreds of ships above its arms - and the Destiny Ascension - all waiting to dock, or staying guard.
The grandeur of it was obvious. After all, the Citadel was something no one could have ever thought possible.
Unfortunately, whatever feelings of amazement there were, were replaced by annoyance as the Normandy spent more than an hour over the Citadel until it was cleared to dock. The 'Not enough spots' bullshit had also been used, despite them seeing that there most definitely were enough.
Only reason they had gotten to dock had been because of the unconscious spectre aboard.
None of them were surprised though. After the start of human-quarian relations, the galaxy had lost any kind of respect it may have had for humanity.
Every species - minus a good amount of turians - saw the humans as ignorant, and weak. Any kind of relations humanity tried were blown off except by the turians. After all, who in their right minds would ever ally with the quarians? Suit-rats, beggars, and thieves they were.
But that just made it even more surprising, when humanity had looked at the complaints of the other species, and their attempts to tell humans to cease relations, and told them - for lack of a better word - to fuck off.
Of course, the relations had proved more valuable than either side had expected. Military strength for humanity increased by almost twice, thanks to the numerous Migrant Fleet vessels, and the quarians intellect had paved way for upgrades they couldn't have achieved in the next several decades had they been alone.
As for quarians, humanity had offered them supplies. Their stance with the turians meant that they could easily afford enough dextro provisions for the 17 million quarians. And Earth had enough resources for them to improve engines and air filters as well as their hulls. Though they had only began accepting human help after the Rayya incident. The same incident that had taken Tali's mother.
So it was obvious that neither humanity or quarians were willing to end their relations just yet.
After the Normandy had finally docked, Nihlus had to be wheeled off to a hospital. Unfortunately, that meant that explaining what happened to the Council would be much harder.
Jenkins had also tried to go with the group, but the medi-gel they put on him during Eden Prime had passed its effect and he could barely walk without tripping. Instead, he had been forced to stay on the Normandy, but not without a lot of objections.
John, Jane, Ashley, and Kaidan made their way through the Presidium to head to the human embassy. Sure, the galaxy didn't have respect for humans, but the fact that humans were such a powerful military now meant that they preferred to stay on good terms. Thus, humanity had been given an embassy, an embassy that was regardless ignored by most.
Once they had reached the embassies and gone up the stairs, they stood outside the door where they could already hear the argument going on. Entering the room, they could see Ambassador Udina yelling at the holograms of the turian, asari, and salarian councilors.
"This is an outrage! The council would step in if geth attacked a turian colony! I demand action!" It was clear that this argument had been going on for quite some time, evidenced by the exasperated looks of the councilors.
"Humanity knew the risks when you established colonies out in the Terminus Systems." The asari councilors responded with as much of a clear voice as she could muster.
"And, the turians don't establish colonies out in the Terminus..." The salarian councilor added with a far more hostile voice.
"And what about Saren?" Udina asked "He needs to be brought to justice for what he did!"
"You don't get to make demands of this council." The turian councilor was the most hostile of the bunch, body posture and irritated voice giving it away.
"C-Sec is investigating your claims about Saren. We will discuss them during the hearing, not before." The asari councilor said as she cut her connection, the turian and salarian councilor following.
Udina sighed as he looked to his right to see Anderson the Normandy's crew and Anderson...
Wait, when did Anderson get here?
"Captain Anderson... I see you brought half your crew with you..." Udina said in almost just of a hostile tone as the turian councilor had just used.
"Only the ground team from Eden Prime." Anderson responded.
Udina sighed as he went towards the window of the embassy and leaned against the railing "That mission was a failure... It was a chance for both Shepard's to prove themselves. Instead, we ended up with a destroyed beacon, and an unconscious spectre..."
"That's Saren's fault!" Anderson argued as he stepped closer to Udina "Not theirs!"
"Right... Saren..." Udina shook his head as he looked at where the holograms of the councilors had just been "Those ignorant jackasses will never believe that. Even if we had a plethora of evidence, they would never want to believe their top spectre would betray them..."
"So you got us an audience with them?" Anderson asked to which Udina looked at him.
"They were not happy about it, in the slightest."
"I bet."
Udina sighed as he began walking towards the door, only stopping to look at Anderson "I need you to come with me Anderson. We have things to discuss." He then turned to look at the ground team, specifically John and Jane "I'll give the two of you access to the Council chambers. Get there soon." He said as he walked out of the embassy with Anderson following.
Looking back at the door, they heard as Ashley sighed "If I knew you would have to handle politicians. I would have stayed on Eden Prime."
Jane let out a small laugh "And I would have mutinied to stay on the Detroit."
"Same here." John added.
"So you three would leave me alone?" Kaidan asked as he crossed his arms with a smirk.
John grinned as he looked at Kaidan "Well. You would still have Jenkins..."
"I'll pass..."
They stayed inside the embassy for a few more minutes before they left to the Citadel tower. The walk there was filled with looks from several aliens, looks that were once reserved to quarians. Sure, they didn't really care much. Racism had always been a problem on Earth, not exactly anything new to humans. But it was annoying to say the least.
Even so, they still had it better than quarians. At least they could walk around without being arrested by C-Sec for no good reason every five minutes. But when humans were known for being quite hostile when suddenly attacked, of course they would want to stay as far away from them as possible.
The ground team made their way towards the elevator that would take them to the council chambers at the top of the Presidium. And after a long argument between John and Jane over who had the most kills on Eden Prime, the elevator finally reached its destination.
They had to walk up several stairs before they could get to the main level of the giant room. Filled with trees, grass, and flowers with the nebula being ever-so-present through the many windows that adorned the chamber.
As they walked through the chambers to reach the hearing, they stopped as they heard a small argument to their side.
"Saren's hiding something. Just give me more time! Stall them!" Looking over to the voice, they could see two turians arguing.
"Stall the council?" The other turian asked with his arms crossed "You're way out of line there Vakarian. You're off the case." He said as he walked away.
The other turian sighed when he realized he was being watched by the four humans. Immediately he made his way over to them and recognized two of them "I take it you're Commander Shepard?" He asked as he pointed at John, to which he nodded. The turian then looked at Jane "Lieutenant-Commander Shepard right?" Jane nodded as well "I'm C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian. I was in charge of investigating your reports against Saren."
"Find anything useful?" Jane asked.
Garrus shook his head and sighed "I'm sure you just heard the argument I had with Executor Pallin. I was close, but I didn't find anything in time."
Jane groaned "Well, thanks for trying at least. Now my brother will have to go through political bullshit just so they probably don't believe anything he says."
"It's the council..." John said as he began walking away "Of course those assholes won't believe a word we say."
"Well, at least one person does," Jane said as she pointed towards Garrus to which John rolled his eyes and walked off with Kaidan and Ashley.
Jane stayed behind briefly and looked at Garrus "If possible. You think you might be able to find something regardless? Despite being off the case?"
His mandibles widened in what she considered to be a grin "I'm not going to let what just happened stop me from bringing Saren to justice."
"Good." Jane said as she began walking towards John and the others "Good luck!"
"I think you will need it more than me!" Garrus yelled as Jane went out of view. Huh... she's... nice... He thought as he walked towards the elevator when he received a ping on his omni-tool.
03/14/2183, 16:23
DrM: Garrus, I know you're trying to find evidence against Saren. I have something that may be of interest to you. But be quick, I think others are looking for it as well.
Doctor Michelle
Garrus's mandibles turned into what he could of a frown as he walked faster towards the elevator. She might be the best chance to bring Saren to justice, and she may be in trouble. But no matter what, Saren's crimes would be revealed.
...
John had met with Anderson to talk with the council about Saren. Of course, Saren had also been there in hologram form. And obviously, the council were useless. John's video footage had been too foggy, dark, and rainy to make out Saren shooting Nihlus, and with Nihlus being unconscious, there was really nothing that would change the council's minds.
Anderson had also ended up mentioning the visions John had from the beacon, making the council even more convinced the humans were making false claims. After all, they were practically bringing dreams into a hearing.
In the end, Saren had walked away scot-free, to their dismay.
However, not all hope was lost for them. Despite getting screwed over, they still had that turian who had been investigating Saren. They just needed to find him. And to their luck, Udina knew just who would know where Garrus might be. Harkin.
It also did mean another long ride on the elevator where John and Jane had to heard Kaidan and Ashley argue over just how useless the council was for over five minutes.
Once they did manage to leave the elevator and begin arguing over how slow they were, the group made their way towards Chora's Den. The bar where Anderson had told them Harkin would most likely be in.
Located in the lower wards, getting to Chora's Den was a pain from just how many people were there. It didn't make it any easier when they came upon assassins outside Chora's Den who were bad shots, but told them enough about Saren knowing what they were doing.
Eventually, they reached the bar. Not exactly a place any of them would deem 'appropriate', Harkin had indeed picked the one spot neither John or Jane would ever want to be in.
Apparently Kaidan didn't care however as Ashley caught him staring at the half-naked asari that danced at the top of the bar. And she punched him for doing that, leaving him rubbing his shoulder.
As they searched for Harkin, they made out some very deep voices coming from a small hallway, looking over there, they could see two krogan arguing. They could make out what they were saying even with the loud music, thanks to their deep voices.
"Get lost Wrex. Fist ain't coming out." The one that looked like a bouncer spoke first. Much smaller than the other krogan, but brave, if not stupid.
"I don't need him to come out. If I have to, I'll fight my way in there." The red one said, definitely much scarier and definitely stronger.
"You won't get close to him." The small krogan said trying to lean closer to him, but failing to make the red krogan flinch.
"And who's gonna stop me?" Wrex spoke as he pushed the bouncer back with one hand "A little pyjak like you?" He laughed.
"No, me and all of them." The bouncer pointed back towards the bar where there were several guards looking at Wrex with their hand hovering over their weapons.
They heard and saw as Wrex growled and looked at the bouncer "You better warn Fist. I will kill him." He said as he began walking off. He almost stumbled onto Jane as he walked away "Out of my way humans. I have no quarrel with you." They saw as he left Chora's Den and were left confused.
"What was that about?" Kaidan asked as the guards relaxed once Wrex had left.
"Don't know. Probably better to stay as far away from it as possible though." Ashley answered.
After some looking, the group came upon a man who was very clearly drunk, but who fit Anderson's description of Harkin perfectly.
"You Harkin?" John asked as he crossed his arms.
"Who wants to know?" The man asked with some very clear drowsiness in his voice.
"I'm Commander Shepard. I'm looking for C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian." John answered.
"Ah. You one of Anderson's men? Old man is still trying to bring Saren down I see. Well, if you really want to find Garrus, then how about you first tell me if he ever let you into his little secret?" Harkin asked.
"Huh?" John was growing aggravated at Harkin avoiding telling him where Garrus was.
"Never told you huh? Well, he was given the chance to be a spectre. But old bastard blew it! Hah. Said Saren was the reason for it, and then he began his hunt to bring Saren down."
"Wha-" He was about to ask further, but quickly remembered what he had gone there for in the first place "Yeah, sure. Where is Garrus."
Harkin just scoffed "You know. I could have been Alliance Military. Instead I joined C-Sec, biggest mistake of my life."
Oh for fuck's sake... John slammed his fists on the table "Stop avoiding the question."
Harkin took a sip of his drink and took a look at Jane. After putting it down he whistled "Whoa, gotta say. That soldier getup looks real good on that body of yours." He said with a smirk.
Oh this motherfucker... John quickly grabbed Harkin's arm, put it behind his back and slammed him against the table. He grabbed his weapon and pointed it at his head "You take that back you son of a bitch!"
Harkin hissed as John stretched his arm, almost breaking it "Fine, fine! Shit!" He looked at Jane who was giving him a death glare from his comment "I'm sorry okay?! Now let me go!" He yelled to which John let his arm go, but continued to point his weapon at his head.
"Now." John said with irritation in his voice "Where is Garrus."
"You'll likely find him in Doctor Michelle's office. Other side of the ward..." He said as he rubbed his almost broken arm, growing red where John had grabbed it.
John motioned for his team to follow, but he was stopped by Kaidan as they left the bar "Hey commander?"
"Yeah?" John asked as he stopped to look at Kaidan.
"You remember that krogan we just saw?" Kaidan asked to which John nodded "Maybe he could help us."
"How?"
"Well. Think about it.." Kaidan did as he pointed towards the assassins "If we can get that krogan on our side, it would be easier to not get killed when more assassins attack. You know it'll happen."
"We have no idea where he is though." John said.
"Well, maybe we could try C-Sec. Big angry krogan is likely to catch their attention." Kaidan said.
"We need to find Garrus though." Ashley intervened "You know. For evidence?"
John rubbed his chin as he looked at Jane "You think you can get Garrus? Me and Kaidan can see if we have luck finding that krogan." He asked towards her. "And get even luckier getting him to help us." He muttered.
"I can do that." Jane responded.
"Okay. Ashley, go with her. Kaidan, with me." John said to which both of them nodded.
Both groups left the place and parted ways. John and Kaidan headed to C-Sec, Jane and Ashley headed to Michelle's office.
The close proximity to the little Clinic allowed Jane and Ashley to make it to it not three minutes after parting from the others.
As the door to the Med Clinic opened however, they immediately spotted Garrus. However, he was crouching and holding up his gun. And looking up, Doctor Michel was there too, being confronted by what looked like thugs.
"I didn't tell anyone anything! I swear!" Michel cried out trying to back away from the thugs but failing as one of them grabbed her arm.
"Good. Now if Garrus comes around you would do well to keep your mouth shut or we'll..." The thugs looked up and saw Jane and Ashley standing at the door. As soon as they saw them, one of the thugs grabbed Michel and pointed a gun at her head.
"Who the hell are you?!" One of the thugs asked as Jane and Ashley pulled their guns out.
"The ones that will screw your day up if you don't let her go." Ashley said.
Jane risked a glance at her side and saw Garrus watching them. She nodded towards one of the thugs giving Garrus an idea of what she was telling him.
"And just why would we do-" The thug was silenced as Garrus came out of cover and shot him in the head with a clean shot. Michel yelled as she was covered in the thugs brains and took cover. The other thugs tried to point at Garrus, but were bombarded with rounds from Jane and Ashley.
The survivors of their onslaught took cover behind a wall as Jane rounded the corner to be next to Garrus.
"Good to see you again." Jane said to which Garrus's mandibles and eyes widened in confusion.
"Is now really the time for talk?" Garrus yelled trying to stay focused.
"No, but it helps distract them." Jane said. Garrus realized that the thugs had indeed thought the conversation was their chance to go after them and had gotten out of cover. He took the chance and shot three rounds at the thug that had come out of cover, killing him and splattering blood on the one behind him.
As they tried to take cover again, Jane saw a fire extinguisher next to the thugs position. She looked at Ashley and nodded to it which she responded to with a nod. Jane then looked at Garrus and began counting with her fingers. Once she closed her palm, Ashley went out of cover and shot the fire extinguisher causing it to explode in a mist.
Taking it as their chance, Garrus and Jane went out of cover and charged at the thugs. Garrus went over the cover of one of them and pointed his weapon directly at the thugs chin, firing it and killing the guy instantly. Jane took her combat knife and stabbed the other one in his eye and slit his throat for good measure.
Panting both Garrus and Jane looked at each other and nodded.
"Nice shots." Jane said.
"Well. You weren't so bad yourself." Garrus said.
Before Jane could continue, she heard Ashley clear her throat and point at a shaken Michel.
"Spirits!" Garrus said as he hurried to Michel who was shaking on the ground holding both of her legs "Are you hurt?" He asked as he extended his arm for her to take.
It took her a few seconds before she looked up and gulped as she grabbed Garrus's hand to help her get up "N-no... I'm okay. Thank you Garrus." She looked at the marines behind him and nodded "And thank you too."
"It was no problem. What were they after though?" Ashley asked.
"They wanted to know about if I had told Garrus about the quarian." Michel answered.
"Quarian?" Jane asked. She knew what a quarian was of course, but she hadn't really expected that answer.
"One came here a while ago. She'd been shot, she was so scared, and she had evidence against... Saren." Michel answered.
"Where is she?" Jane asked.
"I sent her to Fist. He works for the Shadow Broker, so she could give him that evidence and get out of that trouble."
"Yeah... that's not the case anymore." Garrus interjected "He works for Saren now."
"Hold on. What? He does?" Jane asked.
"I intercepted a transfer to his account. Far as I can tell it came from Saren. And looking at his messages was enough to reinforce that." Garrus explained.
"So, he betrayed the Shadow Broker?! Fist must be either very brave or a complete idiot." Michel said as she looked away.
"Well. Even so, it looks like we know who to go after." Jane said "I'll contact the Commander. That krogan was going after Fist after all, so..." Jane said as she opened her comm to contact John. After some brief explaining, she closed it and nodded to Michel "Thank you for telling us this. We'll go and get Fist now." Jane said as she motioned for Ashley to follow.
However, before they could walk out, they heard Garrus yell out to them "Wait! Let me join you."
"Huh?"
"I've been going after Saren for some time. If Fist has that evidence, I want to be there when you take him down, so I can see Saren fall." Garrus explained.
Before she could answer, Jane heard Ashley scoff "Please. We don't need any more aliens on our team."
Immediately, Jane looked at her and narrowed her eyes before looking back at Garrus "Actually, we could use the help."
"What?! Come on LTC we do-" Ashley tried arguing but was stopped by Jane.
"Yes we do. He's coming with us. End of story." She said as she walked out of the clinic, now with Garrus following behind her, and a very frustrated Ashley.
...
Getting to C-Sec was easy, only really delayed by the slow-ass elevators which were quickly growing even more annoying every minute John had to spend inside them.
Once he and Kaidan did reach C-Sec, he felt Kaidan tap his shoulder and point over to a spot filled with officers. Sure enough, Wrex had been there. Well, at least it wasn't for nothing.
As they got closer, they could make out the argument occurring "This is your final warning Wrex. Stay away from Chora's Den, and from Fist." The turian officer said. Despite trying to sound intimidating though, it was obvious there was fear in his voice which Wrex had caught on to.
"Oh, don't be scared little pyjak. So long as you stop getting in my way, my shotgun won't be on your face." Wrex said as he grinned at the officer.
When John got closer though, Wrex's grin dropped as he saw the human. He looked at the C-Sec officer once more and patted him hard enough to cause him to flinch as he walked over to the commander.
"You. I saw you before didn't I." Wrex said without the hint of a question.
"Yeah. Chora's Den. You were going after Fist right? Why?" John asked.
"Got hired by the Shadow Broker to take him out. Supposedly betrayed him."
"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? Why?" Kaidan was surprised at the revelation while John was confused Who the hell is the Shadow Broker?
Wrex shrugged "Don't know. I'm just here to take him out."
As Wrex finished John groaned Yeah. This krogan is not going to help us.
"Yeah. This isn't going to work Commander." Kaidan said.
"What won't work?" Wrex asked.
"We came because we thought you could help us. Saren's got assassins after us, but we thought you could help us with that." John explained.
Wrex quickly shook his head "I'm here to kill Fist. That's what I will do. I'm not here to play bodyguard."
"Yeah. Waste of time this was." John muttered "Sorry for bothering you, we'll be on our wa-"
Before John could finish, his comm blared open and Jane's voice came through "Hey, John do you read me?"
"I hear you." He said as he answered, raising a finger to stop the krogan from asking who he was talking to.
"So. Funny story. Seems like Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker and he knows someone who has evidence against Saren." Jane said almost chuckling.
"Someone?"
"Yeah, a quarian. She's likely got the evidence we need. Went to Fist to get rid of the evidence, but he probably betrayed her." Jane responded.
"Shit... Head to Chora's Den then. I'll get this krogan to help us get Fist then." John answered as he closed the comm.
Wrex was looking on in confusion at John "What was that about?"
John chuckled "Well, looks like me and my team will be going after Fist ourselves after all. Now, I don't know about you, but if you want to help..."
Wrex cut him off by laughing "How could I say no to that one? Besides, I've heard your human saying 'Look for the enemy of your enemy and you will find a friend'" He said with a grin as he extended a hand which John took.
"I think we might get along just fine." John said as he broke the handshake "Now c'mon. We got some evidence to find." John walked over to the elevator to get back to the wards, now followed by both Kaidan and Wrex.
The walk back to Chora's Den felt longer than walking to C-Sec. After all, when you have a krogan on an elevator with you, it is only natural that you fear if they're going to decide to attack. Still, once they opened the door to go through the catwalk to Chora's Den, they were instantly greeted by Jane and Ashley, with Garrus behind them.
"So. Fist's got the evidence we need then?" John asked.
"According to him," Jane said as she pointed towards Garrus "Yes, he does."
"Okay." John now looked at Wrex who was growing impatient to kill Fist "Do me a favor. Don't do anything against Fist until we can interrogate him. Okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll leave him with a few breaths left for you." John narrowed his eyes and groaned as he looked back at the walkway.
Motioning for everyone to follow, they realized something once at the walkway.
"Place is locked up." Kaidan said "They must know we're coming..."
"Good. I was hoping for a fight." Wrex grinned as he pushed Kaidan out of his way.
"Yeah. Door's locked though. Might take me a couple of minutes to get it open." Garrus said as he looked at the door preventing them from entering.
John however, grabbed Garrus and pulled him out of the way "No. Let me do that. We don't really have the time."
"You know how to open locked doors faster?" Garrus asked.
"I learned from the best." John stated as he pulled out his omni-tool leaving Garrus confused as to who he was referring to.
It took John only ten seconds to bypass the door's lock and its red holopad flashed green, signifying they could enter. However, before they could act Jane stopped him from opening it "Wait. If they know we're coming we should get into positions."
John pulled his hand back and nodded. Since John was terrible with choosing things like these, Jane took it upon herself to give the orders. "Okay, so I'm thinking the krogan..."
"Wrex."
"Yes, Wrex. He could go in first. Don't mean to make you a body shield but..."
Wrex laughed as he pushed John out of his way "I prefer being at the front. More bullets coming at me, and more enemies to kill for me."
"Okay then." Jane looked at Garrus "So. What is your specialty?"
"I'm good with long range." Garrus simply stated.
"Okay. You should go in last then. Let us take out the close range ones so you can focus on anyone who might be on top of the bar or out of reach." Jane said to which Garrus nodded. Not exactly his style to go in last, but it could work.
"John, Ashley. You two should take the right side, me and Kaidan can take the left side."
The orders were simple enough. John and Ashley took cover on the right side of the door with Jane and Kaidan covering the left side. They saw as Wrex got into position to charge the door, and Garrus pull out his assault rifle. As soon as he got a nod from everyone, John hit the panel and the door open. Immediately, bullets came firing at Wrex, but he shrugged the off and charged one of the guards at the front, hitting him against the bar and breaking his spine on impact. Garrus realized that there were indeed several enemies on top of the bar, using his assault rifle, he took them out with almost perfect precision. The others quickly entered with John and Kaidan using their biotics to get rid of enemies covers which gave Ashley and Jane perfect opportunities to hit the exposed hostiles. As they dispatched the enemies quickly, Garrus came into the bar and took out any that he could see with his assault rifle at the back of the bar as the others shot their way through. Wrex continued to charge enemies into walls and obliterating some with his shotgun, covering him and the walls with blood.
The krogan bouncer from before tried to get the jump on Kaidan and Jane by hiding behind the wall, but Ashley saw him and threw a grenade at him causing the krogan to flinch and jump in fear. Now exposed, Wrex saw the other krogan and charged him against the wall. Before the bouncer could get up, he was now staring at the end of Wrex's shotgun and had his entire face blown off by one shot from the mercenary's weapon.
The firefight took less than a minute with the combined effort from everyone and they made their way towards the door that would lead them to Fist.
As the door opened, they saw as two workers got out of cover and pointed their guns at the group. But John noticed that they were most definitely still young. Couldn't be more than 19 or so.
"S-stop right there! We-we'll shoot!" One of them said trying not to stumble over his words.
John raised a fist to stop his group from firing and looked at the workers "We just killed what must have been well over 50 guards in less than a minute. You really think you're gonna do something to us with those pea shooters you have?" He asked as he crossed his arms.
The worker however, was unwilling to relent and shook his gun trying to look intimidating but failing miserably "We-we're not like them! We will k-kill you if you come closer!"
John put a palm on his head and sighed "Here's the deal." He said as he looked back up at the workers "I'm going to give you five seconds to run, or I'll let my krogan friend here take you out. In any way he pleases."
Wrex grinned as he began walking closer to the workers. John began counting slowly, once he reached three one of them dropped his weapon and ran. However, the other one didn't. Unfortunately, the worker thought that the close proximity to the krogan would mean one shot would kill him instantly. It did not. So before John could reach zero, Wrex grabbed the worker and began tossing him around with ease. John sighed at the sight of Wrex practically mutilating and killing the guy in one of the most horrific way possible. Poor kid... I did try to warn him though. He reasoned as he nodded for everyone else to follow, seeing that Kaidan was close to throwing up at the sight of what Wrex was doing, but everyone else was either unmoved or refused to show it.
They walked towards the door that would finally lead them to Fist's office and walked in. Before they could go to where Fist would be, they came under fire from turrets, forcing them to get into cover "Shit! That's gonna be a problem to get through." Ashley yelled through the gunfire.
Before any of them could do anything though, John took out his omni-tool and grinned "Not really." He stated smugly as he input a few commands. They heard as the turrets locked and broke apart from his hack.
John chuckled as he heard Fist yelp in surprise at the turrets breaking Tali, I wish you could be here. I literally could kiss you for all you've thought me... Wait, no. I can't do that... She could get horribly sick if you every tried that. Besides, she's just your friend, nothing else...
John shook his head to snap out of his thoughts and walked to a trembling Fist pointing his gun at them "Stay back! I'm warning y-" Before he could finish his sentence, Garrus shot his arm causing him to drop his weapon and yell out in pain.
Each of them rounded the table he was using as cover and saw him holding his bleeding hand. At the sight of four pissed off Alliance marines and turian he stammered over his words "H-hey, look, what do you want? Credits? I've got tons of-" John kicked him and threw him at the wall with his biotics causing Fist's head to split open from the force and let out some blood on it.
"Don't even try to bribe us. A quarian was in here not long ago. Where is she?" John asked as he placed his boot on top of Fist's bleeding arm.
"That's what this is all about? Finding a goddamn suit-raAHHH!" He trailed off as John applied pressure on the arm.
"The next one will be your head!" John yelled as he released the pressure and put his boot on Fist's head "Now. Where. Is she."
"Fuck! I don't know where she is!" Fist yelled.
"Then you're of no use to us." John stated coldly as he began applying pressure to his head.
Fist cried out in pain before speaking "Wait, wait! She's not here, but I know where she will be! She told me she would only deal with the Shadow Broker themselves!" Fist yelled trying to get John to release his boot from his head.
"Bullshit. No one sees the broker in person. They use agents. Even I got hired through one." Wrex suddenly said as he walked into the room, covered in the kids blood.
"Yeah, no one ever sees them in person. Ever. Even I don't know their identity. But she didn't know that. I told her I would put her with the Shadow Broker, but when the meeting happens it will be Saren's men that will be there instead."
Those words were the perfect trigger for John to lose his entire cool, grabbing Fist's arm and pulling him up, John grabbed his pistol and pointed it at his head as he slammed him against the wall "Tell me where that meeting is or I'll blow your lying head off!" John yelled.
"Okay okay!" Fist was almost crying from the pain of John hitting him against the wall "The meeting is in the alleys! Behind the markets! She's supposed to meet them right now, you can make it if you hurry!"
John released his his grip on Fist and began walking away, Fist sighed in relief as the others began walking away too, but before he could do anything, he was grabbed by Wrex and lifted off the ground "Don't think I forgot about you pyjak." He said as he grinned and began hitting him against the wall, his screams being muffled by Wrex covering his entire face, more and more of his blood splattering on the wall for every hit. No one really cared though, as far ask the knew, the fucker deserved this and worse. Only Kaidan and Ashley looked troubled, but they knew better than to try and stop a krogan. So he along with the others decided to let Wrex have his fun and ran out of the room to reach the quarian.
However, before they could walk back into the bar, John realized that his scanner was picking up movement from behind the door "Movement at the bar."
"Damn. We don't have much time to get to the quarian." Jane said.
John sighed as he came up with a plan "I can try to get through them with a biotic barrier, but I'll need all of you to keep as many as you can off of me."
"We've got your back Commander." Garrus said as he pulled out his rifle.
John's body was enveloped in a barrier as the other nodded and began counting down. The moment he reached zero, Jane opened the door and they came under fire almost instantly. John used the covering fire from his team to run through the bar, his shields and barrier working in tandem trying to protect him. Once he got close to the exit, one of the guards popped up from behind cover and broke through his barrier. Not having enough time to deal with him, John enveloped his own fist with biotics and punched him hard enough from below that he went flying, almost hitting the ceiling.
Now outside the bar, John found no more resistance or anyone going after him. So he let his barriers relax as a headache began developing and he pushed past the pain to reach the quarian.
She had been waiting at the alley for the past hour. Growing impatient and more afraid for every minute that passed, she contemplated simply leaving and hoping to give this damn evidence to literally anyone that could help her. This had definitely been the worst kind of Pilgrimage anyone could have had, but of course, she just had to go to that planet and scan that damn geth. All for her curiosity. Great job you dumb bosh'tet. She had already blamed herself for the deaths of her fellow quarians. Sure, she had avenged them by burning that turian, but she still felt guilty nonetheless. Now, all she wanted was to get rid of this evidence, get a pilgrimage gift, go back to her home, and hopefully get to see Jo-
She heard as footsteps descended down the stairs and towards her location. Finally, this would be over. Looking at them though, she realized something. There was a turian, and two salarian bodyguards in suits. But they were definitely not the Shadow Broker Oh fre'eg. She tried to position herself in a confident stance, trying to hide the fear she was actually feeling. Not willing to let these bosh'tets, whoever they actually were, get the better of her.
The salarian bodyguards stopped once they reached the bottom of the stairs, now looking at her as the turian approached her "Did you bring it?" he asked as he got way too close for comfort.
Trying to get a grip on her voice and show as little fear as possible, she asked a question she already knew the answer to "Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?"
"They'll be here. Now where's the evidence." The turian asked as he stroked her arm.
Wanting to simply cry from the fear she was now feeling, she tried her last resort, one that would obviously piss him off. She shoved his arm away and used any remaining conviction she had to let out "No way. The deal's off."
As she guessed. That was obviously the wrong answer as the turian nodded towards the salarians and began walking away from her. Looking at them she saw them getting their weapons out and point at her. She quickly pulled out one of her last resorts against them and used a proximity explosive that blew up almost immediately after hitting the ground next to the salarians, knocking them and the turian away. She mentally high-fived - threed in her case - and thought that she had won. Of course though, the turian and both salarians survived the explosion and opened fire on her. She pulled out her shotgun and took cover behind some crates. As the bullets flew around her, she tried rising and fired her shotgun at one of the salarians. Unfortunately, the distance was too much for a shotgun and did nothing.
This was it.
She knew she was going to die. She would never get to see the fleet again. Would never get to visit Earth's surface like she had wanted to for the past 13 years. Would never get to see her father or her aunt ever again.
Would never get to tell John how she felt.
As that last thought struck her, it became too much and her floodgates finally gave in as tears ran down her face. She heard as the turian began walking closer to her position and leaned back, trying to at the very least raise her shotgun and maybe get a shot in at this bosh'tet of a turian. She sighed as she realized that it didn't matter, she was going to die here. And who exactly would care? Maybe if a human found her they would take pity, but nothing more, as far as any species would be concerned, she was just a suit-rat who got what she deserved. As she saw the turian finally get through the corner, she shot him, but the shotgun she had was old and rusty, not really doing anything except breaking through the shields of the turian. She heard him chuckle and raise his weapon and she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable Please, just make this quick. I hope I get to meet you with the ancestors again mother.
As the shot rang out though, she realized that she was still conscious, she opened her eyes and realized she was in the same spot, still had her shotgun, but the shots had stopped, replaced by the incomprehensible screams of the salarians. Looking to her right, she saw as the turian's body fell, a hole on the side of their head. A few more shots rang out and she heard the salarians open fire again. Using whatever had just saved her, she jumped over her cover and sprinted at the now distracted salarians, using her shotgun to kill one of them from point blank range, and the other one not having a chance to turn around before she drove her boot-knife into his skull.
As they fell, she quickly took cover once again. Sure, whoever this was had just saved her, but she had to be careful nonetheless. She heard as the boots of whoever this was hit the ground and saw them stop before rounding her cover. From what she could make out from them through the helmet they wore, they were human. But their armor. Clad-black, red and white stripe running down their right arm... and that N7 insignia. No. No it can't be him.
"Hello?" She heard the human's voice, and immediately her breath caught in her throat "Listen, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm Commander Shepard from the Systems Alliance, I heard that yo-" He stopped talking as the quarian stood up. As soon as she did, the gun he held on his side dropped with a loud clank, his breathing became uneven as he quickly took off his helmet. At the sight of his face, the buzz cut with the scar of his top left, and his piercing blue eyes, any tears that remained in her began flowing freely "Tali?!"
"John!" She yelled as she sprinted and pounced on him causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards. He felt her arms envelop him in a hug that if it wasn't for his armor, would probably hurt. But what worried him, was the way she cried over him. His head quickly went to so many scenarios, what had happened that led her here, how she got here, and what could hav- No, don't think that. She's safe. She's okay.
He caressed her back through his glove trying to comfort her as she continued crying. He heard as more footsteps came from the stairs he had just come through and he reached for his weapon, pointing it upwards before he saw that it was his team. Ashley, Kaidan, Wrex and Garrus looked confused at the sight of the commander holding a crying quarian, while Jane looked both surprised and worried as she realized who the quarian was.
He signaled them to stay guard in case any more came while Jane put a hand on Tali's shoulder to calm her down. Five minutes passed until all that was left was very small and spread out sniffles. He waited to ask her what he needed to know, but waited until no more tears or sniffles were left, and all there was, was her trembling body "You okay?"
Tali didn't speak, she simply nodded and held him tighter.
"I... I know you probably don't want to speak about it, but what happened?" He asked as he looked at Jane frowning as he felt Tali tremble beneath him.
Eventually, he saw as Tali released her grip on him and looked at his eyes through her mask "H-how... did you... find me?"
"Fist." Jane responded before John could, gritting her teeth at the name "Don't worry though. We took care of him." She stated as she nodded towards the blood-soaked krogan. Tali's eyes went wide at the sight, but right now she felt relieved Fist was dead, and that at least it had been John to find her.
"Hey. Look, I know you just went through something I have no idea of, but we came here looking for evidence against Saren. Fist said you had it?" John asked hesitantly, hoping that it didn't seem like he didn't care about her condition.
"Yeah." She said more calmly than her voice had been just a few seconds ago "I got that evidence. And that evidence is what got me into this mess." Tali said with clear hatred in her voice.
"We should get her to the human embassy. She'll be safe there, and we can show Udina the evidence too." Jane said.
John let go of Tali reluctantly and she pulled back to see him in his eyes as he tried lifting her up "Come on. Like she said, we can keep you safe there."
"O-okay..." Was all she could muster as she now stood just a little lower than John. He nodded and squeezed her shoulder as he let out the same smile she had grown to love and calm down at the sight of.
He signaled for the others to begin walking, and Tali saw as Ashley threw her an almost envious or hateful look, before she could try to think about it though, she felt as John put his arm behind her and pulled her closer. She looked up a bit to see him looking at her still smiling, and she almost melted at the sight as they walked together towards the embassy.
