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EDI returned to the Normandy to go over the Leviathan data while James accompanied Shepard back to the Presidium.
"Hey, Lola," he said abruptly as they entered the elevator.
"Vega?"
"I, uh … I made up my mind. I've decided to join the N7 program. Only, there's not exactly any official channels to go through right now, so I'm gonna celebrate by getting a tattoo."
"Sure. Why not?"
He grinned. "I know I'm just a recruit, but I figure with you as my training officer, how could I fail? Right?"
"I'm flattered, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm training you."
"Not officially, but what the hell is in this goddamned war."
Shepard nodded. "Good point."
"I'm just saying … I take my lead from you. And, you know, I'll take whatever advice you've got."
She raised an eyebrow. Vega wasn't exactly known for following advice. "Really?"
Vega laughed. "The good advice."
"How will you know the difference?"
"If I fall on my ass, it wasn't good advice."
"You never know … sometimes you learn a lot by falling on your ass. Seriously, Vega, congratulations. They wouldn't have asked you if they didn't think you could handle it."
He nodded. "I know it seems like I don't take things seriously—but when I commit to something, I fully commit. I won't let you down."
"The only person you need to prove yourself to is the one standing in the mirror every morning."
The elevator slid to a stop, the doors opening. Vega prepared to step out, then stopped, and looked back at her. "Hey, maybe we should get matching!"
"You want me to get an N7 tattoo?"
"Sure."
Shepard shook her head. "Maybe another time. Later, Lieutenant."
"Later, Lola."
Despite a long list of things to get done, Shepard's day was derailed almost immediately when she found Javik near the Embassy offices. He was staring out the glass windows across the Presidium in wonder.
"Hell of a view, isn't it?" she said, joining him.
"During our war, this place fell almost immediately. It became a myth to my people. A dream glimpsed only in the memory shards. The Citadel was both the heart of our civilization and its demise. No one I knew had ever seen it. To be here now …" He shivered.
"It might not seem like much, but a Prothean is standing on the Citadel, alive. In my book, that's a victory."
He looked at her, thinking about it. "Perhaps, Commander. Perhaps." Turning his head back to the view, he added softly, "When things were at their darkest, we used to tell stories imagining the wonders of this place."
Before Shepard could respond, a hanar floated gently toward them, its lights pulsing. "Pardon me. This one has been listening. This one suspects you are a Prothean."
Javik approached it, reaching out to touch its soft side so he could learn from it. Stepping back, he frowned. "I remember your kind when you were still minnows in the ocean."
The hanar was pulsing violently now in its joy. "This one is unworthy! This one has been touched by an Enkindler!"
An asari approached them, drawn by the hanar's shouts, followed by a young turian in a C-Sec uniform. "It's true? You're really a Prothean?"
"I am," Javik replied grandly.
"But … if you lost the war, what hope do we have?" the asari asked.
"For many, there may be none. The Reapers killed trillions in my cycle. The odds of being among the living are remote."
Shepard caught his arm. The last thing she needed was a report that the last Prothean had prophecied doom for the galaxy.
Javik glanced at her, no doubt reading her thoughts, or her emotions, from the touch of her hand. With a resigned sigh, he changed his tack, looking at the crestfallen faces in front of him. "You are still alive today. That alone is a miracle. And you have the power to fight. My people knew your kind when you were young. Asari, turian, hanar—there was potential in all of you. Now you must take that potential and become the weapon you were meant to be—the weapon that tells the Reapers we are not machines. We are alive, and we will fight back!"
By the time he was finished speaking, a small crowd had gathered, all of them standing tall and looking as though they had received a new purpose. The young turian approached Javik. "Thank you. That meant a lot."
Javik nodded.
The crowd dispersed, talking animatedly to one another.
Giving a last look out across the lake, Javik nodded in satisfaction. "I have enjoyed my time here, walking among the … young."
"Going away with a new perspective?"
"Not new, but … refreshed. I will see you aboard the Normandy, Commander."
Shepard watched him go, smiling. She headed for the Spectre office, checking in on the list of reports waiting for her. While she was there, she received word that a volus ambassador had gone missing, and was suspected of having sold secrets to Cerberus. Dropping everything else, she went after him, hoping he might lead her to Kai Leng.
But when she found him, he had led her to someone she had not expected to run into again, and certainly not on the Citadel—Zaeed Masani. Zaeed had been one of the team behind the kidnapping, but when he saw Shepard he immediately changed sides, and between the two of them they disarmed the rest of the kidnappers and convinced the volus not only to tell them what he had given Cerberus, but also to put the volus bombing fleet at Shepard's disposal. All in all, well worth the detour from her original plans, Shepard thought, leaving the apartment with Zaeed at her side.
"You know, I could always use more help," she told him.
"Figured you'd be too busy recruiting goddamn armies for this war you're in charge of."
"It's slow going, and there's more fighting than you'd think. What do you say? You ready to get back at it?"
"Not as young as I used to be, Shepard."
"None of us are."
He sighed. "But I've seen footage of what happened on Earth. I want those bastards dead as much as anyone. Tell you what: I'll see if some old contacts of mine are still around. Can't promise you anything, but if enough of them are still breathing … I can lend a hand."
"Thanks, Zaeed. Take care of yourself."
"You, too, Shepard."
She left him at the elevators, glad to see him still in one piece.