They made a stop in Bekenstein rather than the Citadel, both to ditch the Salarian shuttle that neither of them trusted wasn't sending data home and to pick up replacements for their destroyed equipment. They might not have bothered with that last bit in their hurry, but while handing the translation earbud back and forth worked from a technical standpoint it was a painful process. Bekenstein was a technology hub and perfect for their needs, plus it was also not the Citadel, which was better for keeping a low profile. Okay better for her to keep a low profile, looking as she did.
All caution aside, Shepard just wanted to land somewhere. She was starving, which Garrus took as a good sign, but she wasn't so sure. The hunger wracking her limbs was still nausea inducing when it hit her and left her feeling even more drained each time it happened; but rather than worry her friend she instead emptied the containers and side panels of the shuttle looking for food and began devouring some kind of protein bar she found in an emergency container. It tasted terrible and was probably expired but she didn't care, shoving blocks of it into her mouth and chewing hard before choking it down with water. There were other choices, lying in varying meal-sized plastic shapes but all she could remember about Salarian dietary requirements was that they ate insects, which wasn't inspiring. Three of those bars gave her more of a full feeling, so she stowed the trash and returned to her seat. Despite the culinary misgivings her steps felt a bit more sure, so she nodded confidently to Garrus while considering what to do next.
She didn't ask why they pulled into an isolated lot full of moldering shuttle chassis; he knew what he was about and she was grateful for his steady direction. When he hopped out and meandered into a building mutely colored with the dusk around them she found herself with some time to kill...but couldn't send any of the messages circulating in her brain without a secured Omni, so she waited alone with the implacable torture of her most uncomfortable thoughts. After several minutes she rose from her seat and cracked the back hatch to get some fresh air; taking in the scent of good old human industry rather than the forever tainted flowery essence of Sur'Kesh.
Staring out the front window several minutes later it occurred to her that he might be gone for awhile; an itch to get out of the potential Salarian deathtrap altogether forcing her to have a look around for anyone that might see. She wasn't stupid, taking the time to run shuttle scans for cameras and other recording devices; but this area seemed focused on bulk recycle which held little value to scavengers and rarely went beyond closing time. With a deep inhale of resolve she pulled the side door open and stuck her head out to look around anyway, then quickly stepped out to stretch her legs.
A look at her hands in the dim light found them fuller and less mummy looking, which brought some measure of relief. It was clear that whatever was happening to her was using a tremendous amount of energy and bodily resources, but it felt good to know that the hunger was just...plain hunger. Her mind drifted to thoughts of all her favorite dishes waiting back home. Patience , she told the next nagging pull at her innards. We're on our way. Shepard's head fell back in the meantime, pondering the light polluted stars above.
Her imagination must have gotten carried away, because she could swear she smelled something baking. It smelled warm and earthy, like...pie crust just a tad farther than cooked. Her mouth watered and her stomach made rude noises, which made her straighten from where she was leaning against the shuttle and look around for the source. The lot still looked deserted, so she had no idea who'd be here much less using an oven in a place like this, but she clung to the shadows as she walked around looking for the source of that irresistible fragrance.
The more she searched the more she smelled it, but her steps brought her only to more rusting wrecks. In frustration she began picking vehicles at random, peering inside to see if there might be some faerie baking leprechaun taunting her within. The hunger was growing maddening, and at the end of her patience she clenched her jaw and slid down to a seat against one of the cars, resigning herself to failure.
The skycar was probably a hundred years old, it's lines reflecting the sweeping aesthetics she'd only seen in vids from her parents' time period. Sections of it were missing and other parts bashed in as if it'd been in an accident; the exposed metal rusting off in sheets to cover the ground in slivers of reddish-orange debris. She scooped some of it into her hands, imagining living in that time as she let them slowly slide between her fingers and back to the ground; a time when the galaxy spread her arms wide and gave humanity a glimpse at innumerable possibilities.
Shepard rubbed her eyes in fatigue, but froze before she could pull her fingers away. She inhaled delicately, the smell of pie-crust covering her palm. "The hell?" she whispered, taking another sniff. It covered both her hands, and she breathed in deeply before grabbing up another handful of the rusted bits and pulling them close to her face to confirm. She found herself overwhelmed by the scent filling her nostrils, hunger suddenly railing and pulling at every nerve-ending in her body. Her hands dropped the rusted metal immediately, instead bracing against the ground with the ferocity of the feeling.
This isn't real , she thought frantically, Am I awake or am I dreaming ?
But no mental exercises or self-pinching changed her reality. After a moment of consideration she used her fingers to sift through the unassuming piles of rust to find a larger flake the size of her pinky-nail. All the reasons this might be a bad idea circulated in the back of her mind, but she blinked hard, then placed it on the pad of her tongue before pulling it gingerly into her mouth. The taste was not unexpected; she'd held wires and tools of various types of metal between her teeth before, but the tang of it was different this time. Sweet. She gently sucked at it and her mouth watered over it like a sugar lozenge before the flake also faded away like one . Shepard jumped up at the realization and skittered away from where she'd knelt as if the location teemed with snakes or spiders.
"Okay," she said in the same calming voice she'd use on a rook in response to the violence with which her hands shook, "Let's just think about this for a minute."
The leftover taste on her tongue resonated positively. She wanted more. She needed more, her body told her without a shred of doubt. How could she have dissolved a piece of rusted metal with her saliva? Her resolve, however, shattered in moments and suddenly there was no room for thought; the woman falling to her knees with a snarl and shoveling fistfuls of the stuff into her mouth with a groan.
With a couple of taps on his new Omni, the comforting blue light of a tactical visor finally re-illuminated his left eye. He played with the settings while he walked, packages slung on his right arm, until the information he wanted displayed was juuust right before stepping out of the warehouse. Enfolded by the deepening twilight outside he paused once more to dial up the light sensitivity before finding his way back to the shuttle.
Garrus tilted his head back and forth to relieve some of the lingering tension from their little 'getaway'. Linron wasn't supposed to be there. Hell, she wasn't supposed to be alive. If he were a war-criminal just exposed by a Spectre he sure as hell wouldn't have let her go to tell the galaxy about it. No, he had no idea how Shepard managed to convince the sourest Salarian he'd ever met to let them go at all, much less give them a government shuttle to use; but she had managed to pull them out of darker places in their past so for the moment he just savored the ability to breathe free air. She'd make it all clear to him in time...though he had to push his fears about her health deep in a hole, along with the thought about the cost of their release.
He'd never seen her so gaunt, so...lifeless. He practically had to carry her to the shuttle, she was so weak; and while he wondered how much of that was the EMP the deathly pallor of her skin, not to mention the fact it was peeling off in sections, told an entirely different story. Could she, would she have agreed to something stupid to protect him ? If the roles were reversed he might have considered it. Someone had to protect Tali and Liara after all...and all the kids if something went bad. His mandibles tightened and he suppressed the thought with the shuttle coming into view.
"I'm back," he announced in awkward English before entering as he'd taken the earbud with him on the shopping trip. When she didn't answer he peeked inside to find the shuttle empty. Shit , he thought as his mind zoomed immediately to bad assumptions. No, he reassured himself. She probably just took a walk.
"Shepard?" he whisper-shouted as best he could outside, then began walking a pattern around the vehicle to cover the largest possible space in his search. "Shepard?" he called repeatedly, then, "Where are you?" in his own tongue.
He heard a metallic clang to his left and headed carefully in that direction, wishing he'd picked up one of the cheaply made pistols that were the only weapons available at the kiosk. He heard another clang a few seconds later, again to his left from a row of piled skycars just ahead.
Turning the corner he found a huddled shape bent over and ripping at something like an animal. Garrus took a quick look around for anyone else in the area before stepping forward, but he froze again as the figure turned, two hands gripping at the jagged walls of a rusting hulk and tearing at it until a piece broke off before hunching over it again like a prize. The size was right for Shepard. The shape, too; but the infrared sensors in his visor had trouble picking her up, the radiating body heat from her head, hands and feet too cold to be a human being.
Garrus had seen a lot of shit in his life, but the last time he felt his plates prickle like this was at that old Ardat-Yakshi monastery. Back then he had Shepard and Liara at his side along with a metric ton of weaponry. Now he had nothing but a chill breeze and his own tingling sense of self-preservation.
"Shepard?" he called again gently, but loud enough that she'd hear.
The figure straightened, and he could make out her head turning sharply at his call before she slowly rose to her feet.
The claws on his own bare feet dug into the soil below him, gripping it for purchase as his body poised for fight…or flight.
She turned and he could just make out the sleeve of her underarmor running across the lower part of her face before she moved toward him at a slow pace. A normal pace , he told his instincts, calming them...for now.
"Yeah," came the soft and measured voice he'd hoped for. "You have the Omni?"
He'd never been so happy to hear her voice and that was saying quite a bit. He held out the package and she took it, ripping the frustrating plastic container open like paper. They stood there in the dark while she fitted and configured it, orange light illuminating her aspect as he watched. When she was done she pressed a button and pointed at the packaging on the ground, disintegrating it into neutral elements with a brighter light that reflected dully against oddly darkened skin.
She looked at him for a moment after the night had consumed her again before his visor registered a tilt in her head.
"Say something," she said.
"Uh…" he started, suddenly fumbling for what to say. "You don't look at all scary, right now?"
Her eyes widened, then crinkled in amusement before her hand reached out lightning quick to slap him on the shoulder. "I meant check the translator, but thanks."
He forced a laugh, then motioned toward another part of the yard, glancing at her periodically as she joined him.
"So...are you...okay?" he posited carefully as they walked. The delay in her answer told him more than the words themselves.
"Sure," she said simply.
"Please do better than that," he added sincerely.
They walked in silence, the glow of the surrounding city rising to blot the stars. "You saw that back there, I'm guessing?" she said finally.
"Enough to wonder," was his answer.
He saw her head nod. "We have a new shuttle?"
"Yeah," he said, "Few minutes walk."
She nodded again and sighed. "Figuring out where to start," she admitted, and went silent. "Valern is dead," she said after about a minute.
He nodded sadly, but didn't interrupt.
She sniffed, but in an aggressive way he'd noticed she did only before committing to a decision. "Linron had Wrex assassinated."
Garrus tripped over a claw at the statement, but caught himself. "Wait...what?"
"Yeah," she confirmed. "The Salarians hacked the attacking ship and had it destroy the Crakador."
His mind reeled, but he kept walking resolutely despite the blossoming anger contorting his face. Her cadence said there was more, but after another near minute he couldn't contain himself. "She told you this? Why would she tell you this?"
"She didn't tell me," Shepard said in a muted voice. "I...took it from her."
His mind tried and failed a dozen potential ways she could have done so and failed. "How's that, exactly?"
Shepard shook her head as if to dismiss a bad memory. "The Illusive Man infected her before the end of the war," she said. "With the Thorian virus. I knew that, but it's been so long I'd forgotten."
Garrus had never fully understood this part, so he just listened.
"He ordered her to attack Tuchanka," she explained with an outstretched palm, "To try and capture Bakara and perhaps to simply take over their homeworld for Cerberus. She was.." Shepard laughed angrily, "Personally onboard with it, for reasons, but she was 'technically' in the Convergence with the rest of us on the Citadel. She was just separated from us all, so nobody knew until Valern visited Talak a few weeks ago."
Shepard pulled a hand over her face demonstrably before she continued. "That's what I was trying to tell you before the bomb went off. I went into the share looking for Valern, but found her instead." She turned to look at him, to check in, but must've seen his continued confusion and broke it down simply. "In the Convergence I can get any information I want. All I have to do is think about it."
He blinked. "What made you think about Wrex?"
She grimaced and dipped her head. "She was taunting me about the Krogan after I woke up. Dragged me into her room because she thought I was gonna die. One last twist of the knife, I guess."
He couldn't measure the amount of anger for Linron her words inflated, his face burning hot with it. Somehow he managed to rein it in, though, and followed up with a more pressing question. "Shepard," he said grimly, before pointing in the direction they'd come from. "What was that, back there? What did the Salarians do to you?"
She turned her face toward him to speak, the low ambient light around them brightening the contours of her face, sharpened by her ordeal. "Nothing," she said flatly. "It was the EMP."
Garrus made a sound that lived somewhere between disbelief and laughter, looking around to see the used shuttle just ahead.
"I'm pretty sure you saved my life, in fact," she said softly. "If you hadn't covered me up when that thing went off…"
But he'd had enough; overloaded with information he didn't know how to process. "Nono," he protested, cutting her off. "Enough with the morale talk. An EMP doesn't change somebody like this. It doesn't have you.." He gestured both to her and again behind them wildly. "What were you doing back there? Because It looked and sounded like, like, you were eating that car!"
She stopped and drew a pace back as if shocked by his vehemence, before crossing her arms and looking at the ground. "I don't know," she admitted in a tremulous voice. "I...I don't know what's happening." Her face lifted to his and now the light reflected from her eyes like some kind of animal's; a piercing blue rather than the green he was accustomed to. "I don't know," she repeated slowly before finishing with, "And it scares the shit out of me."
The frank admission from someone who'd never backed down for a moment from the Reapers shook him to his foundations, and she must have seen it because her arms dropped and her back straightened like a rod.
"Look," she reasoned with a sigh, "I'd go rent my own shuttle but people would have to see me. Get another one, then go home and look after our families. I'll...contact you when I figure this out."
He stood there like a lummox, his mind about as useful as a doorstop.
"Garrus, where's the shuttle?" Shepard prompted him after a moment, her tone brisk and concise.
The thought of her leaving to fight whatever this was on her own was beyond repulsive, the negative response jumpstarting his thoughts again. "Forget it," he blurted. "You're not going anywhere." He brought a claw up to his forehead and scratched the plate there, gently. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is just… a lot."
She nodded and they commiserated for a second or two before he said, "But listen, I need to know something before we go any further."
"Okay," she said simply.
"How'd you get us out of there?" he asked incredulously. "Because Linron would never have let us leave alive, even on her worst day."
Her brows lifted in agreement and she tilted her head back in the direction they'd been walking. When they'd resumed their pace she spoke, looking only forward. "You remember when The Illusive Man controlled everyone onboard the Citadel?"
At his nod, she pursed her lips as if gathering herself. "Well," she said, "I think I figured out how he did it."
Now his eyes widened, and he whistled at the depth and breadth of that implication. "You can...tell her what to do?"
"Yep," she said. "I told her to let us go and she did."
"Spirits," he breathed. "The..possibilities."
"Yeah, well," she countered, "She dying, so there's only so many miracles I can work with her."
When they reached the rented shuttle she stopped him with a palm on his shoulder. Now that they were closer, he realized she was moving much easier than before, which made him feel both better and worse. Better for obvious reasons. Worse...because he couldn't wrap his head around how eating a skycar was going to improve things on the long haul.
"Garrus, you're my best friend," she said gravely. "We've been through a lot together and I'm...honored by the faith you have in me."
He could feel the 'but' coming.
"But there are things happening now I can't see the end of. A war is...easy," she said with a derisive chuckle, "But this is going to get messy in a hurry and I don't know who or what is waiting for us around the corner."
He shook his head, gesturing with a grin and a rising hand at her. "This might get messy, but the rest seems pretty straightforward to me."
"The devil's in the details," she replied with a squinch of her eyes. "Honestly, I'd feel better if you went home. The offer stands, no matter when."
With more bravery than he felt, he crooned, "There's no Shepard without Vakarian. The end."
She shook her head, the hand on her shoulder gripping tighter. "There's more than just us to worry about now. If things go sideways, you throw me to the wolves and make sure everyone else gets out of this. Deal?"
"Deal," he said without hesitation. It might've been a lie but if that's how it had to be...
She shrugged but her expression was impressed. "Alright, I've got shotgun."
Miranda...wasn't answering, but she was beginning to getused to it. She and Liara would figure something out together; she just needed to get home.
Shepard's first message from her new Omni was short and sweet.
Tevos,
Valern is dead. Whatever contingencies you've got, you should use them.
Shepard
She had no idea what the fallout would be, as far as the widespread knowledge of the Convergence might go, but figured the fewer details that could be officially documented, the better. There was no way in hell Linron hadn't already acted on the knowledge she ripped from Valern before Shepard arrived on Sur'Kesh and she kicked herself for not finding out more before their escape. To be fair, she hadn't been in the best frame of mind. One problem at a time.
Her second message wasn't much less terse.
Rentola,
Thanks for the cover in there. Dalatress Linron is alive and living in that compound. We made it out, but you've got a real problem on your hands. STG assassinated Wrex on her orders. Get your boss involved right away.
Shepard
The problem with all of this bit was proof. If they caught Linron she might confess, but she might also die in their custody and take the plot with her. If Shepard was asked to testify, she couldn't exactly admit anything having to do with the Convergence, so she'd have to say she was informed while they talked. Spectre testimony carried weight, but so did being the ruler of an entire race, even if she was shadow-running the whole shebang from a secret compound. The result would be chaos not just between the Salarians and the Council but within their own people, and Shepard didn't see any benefit from it. Still, Kirrahe deserved to know. He was in a better position to make decisions about how the Salarians handled it than she was.
And yet…
The damage Linron had done to the Krogan people was unrecoverable. What voice would they have in all this? She checked the Spectre feeds for the latest on their internal conflict and found civil war creeping ever closer with Tyr locked down. The Dulak clan wasn't responsible for Wrex's death, that was certain, but they also needed proof of that before they could lay their conflicts aside; proof that would likely never come. Hundreds of thousands of Krogan lives would be lost killing one another while they waited; any chance for them to grow as a people crushed in the wake of another pointless civil war. Who knew what kind of nation would grow out of that? What threat they'd be to the rest of the galaxy long after she was dead.
It's not like she couldn't see Linron's perspective in all this. The woman had valid concerns about the Krogan's aggressive tendencies, born out of thousands of years of historical evidence. Hell, if she hadn't met Wrex, if she hadn't experienced his keen intelligence personally and seen the influence he wielded, she'd have worried, too. Above all her personal feelings about him was the tragedy of it all; that Linron and Wrex's own priorities would never allow them to understand one another. She felt some guilt about it, if she were honest. She had her own priorities too, over the last few years and they hadn't included curing their people's misconceptions about the other. A person's actions were their own though, in the end; and this last encounter with the Dalatress offered...additional options.
Shepard had given a final command to Linron before she and Garrus boarded that shuttle. She told Linron to perform any task she required as long as it followed a certain message; but she had no idea if it'd actually work.
Garrus' voice interrupted her thoughts, her elbow on the chair arm and her fingers rubbing incessantly at her right temple.
"What's the matter?" he asked matter-of-factly. "Anything I can help with?"
She appreciated how well he knew her while at the same time longing for the distance her rank would have afforded her on the Normandy. She didn't want to implicate him in a decision like this but god's truth she didn't feel comfortable with it on her own, either.
"What do you think would happen if Linron went to Bakara and confessed that she killed Wrex?" she asked wearily.
The Turian's eyes widened and his mandibles worked, but he said nothing for a long time; the rhythmic whirring of the shuttle's engines filling the space between them. After awhile he took a deep breath and looked at her. "I think Bakara would choke the life out of her."
He wasn't wrong, she surmised, though she doubted the demonstration would stop there. She kept her eyes on him, following up. "Do you think it would keep the Krogan from retaliating?"
He tilted his head before looking ahead again. "I think," he said slowly, "That entirely depends on who ends up in charge...on both sides."
A crapshoot , she thought to herself. Even odds they'd be right back in the same position in five years, maybe ten. Would it be worth it? She started running possible political outcomes, despite the dizzying effect. Flashing through it all, though, with a growing pain was the simple memory of Wrex's face. Her friend. After hundreds of years of suffering he didn't back down from the task of making things better and he damn near succeeded. What a loss. What a heartbreaking, earth shattering, debilitating loss his death had been; not just for her but for everyone in the galaxy.
"Listen," Garrus piped up unexpectedly. "I understand what you're thinking, but she's dying. Narra and Rentola will use Valern's death to purge the rest of the Linron clan out of politics and you'll tell Bakara that Dulak is innocent. Things will get better."
She felt him looking at her, so she returned the favor.
"This idea. It just...doesn't feel right. You know?" he said.
"Yeah," she said, looking back at her Omni. "I know."
She typed up another message, reviewing it carefully when she was done.
Do the right thing. Go to Tuchanka and confess everything you've done to the Krogan to Urdnot Bakara.
Shepard closed her eyes. She'd killed Wrex and Valern...and damn near killed her and Garrus afterward.
Fuck Linron, she thought with angry certainty, and hit send.