And here you go folks. The Finale and then some.
POV: ATorchbearer
On most levels in me I knew that what I had just done was needed. This fight wasn't like the game. The geth were insistent on eradicating the whole population of the Citadel as best they could. On another level in me I knew that I had just sent thousands to their deaths with that speech. It was the definition of a gamble but I couldn't find it in myself to feel bad.
Sitting down against the wall in the room Cam and I were in I took deep struggling breaths. Almost all my wounds were open again and my new ones weren't helping the matter. I wasn't out of the fight quite yet.
Cam stared at me silently for a few seconds and then sat down next to taking labored breaths with me. He too was sporting his own wounds. We stayed like for a few minutes just breathing and thanking the Lord that we were somehow still alive. At least I was, couldn't say much about Cam.
"Time to go," I spoke after a few minutes of rest.
Standing up I didn't look back at him as I left the room. Taking strides back to the entrance of the building. As I walked there was an uneasy sound starting to hammer on all sides of the building. Like a giant of old taking steps all around but as soon as I got to the entrance the sound stopped.
Looking around at the surviving officers and Sha'ira no one said anything as they readied their weapons for the next wave. I joined them in readying myself and made sure I still had plenty of ammo left and my weapons were ready. Thinking it might come down to it too I grabbed my pistol and loaded the specialty rounds Volio had given me. Saren had to be here and they had his name on them.
As I loaded the mag into my pistol the sound from before started again but this time it was close. Picking myself up from where I sat and readying my rifle I got to see what the sound was. Around the corner from where we had hidden them came the civilians.
Young, old, short, tall, and of all races they stopped at the edge of the entrance looking at us with apprehension and weapons from the armory in their arms. Still, with that apprehension there was determination. A will to fight and live by their own hands than to just hide and pray. I was happy they had heeded my call.
Then one of the younger humans, no older than 16, strode forward. Hefting his AR he looked me dead in the eyes and spoke. "We choose to fight."
"Then be ready," turning to look at the nearest officer. "Get them shield generators, poach from the dead if need be."
He didn't say a word and just nodded before getting to work. He gave the officer closest to him a meaningful look before running off to the armory. The one he had looked at began going around the area poaching shield generators off dead officers. It wasn't pretty and many of the civilians looked squeamish at first but were quick to resolve themselves. Good.
Going to the civilians I walked around and quietly talked to every single one of them. Reassuring them, giving them hope or in the case of a few of them turning off the safeties on their rifles. They gave me sheepish thanks but I just waved it off. There was time enough for thanks later, not now.
After that the sound came again and I risked going outside the base and out of cover. Not stupidly and just walking out but making sure nothing was out there and then looking up and around. From the sounds and sights that were becoming clearer outside of the HQ I realized what it was. It was the civilians, they were fighting the Geth literally everywhere on the Citadel.
I let out a shaky breath at that. That speech, if you could call it one, was made out of desperation. A want, a will, to survive this. To not go quietly into the night and fight with everything I had left. Guess it was more than that to the people.
Getting back to the HQ I was greeted with all the civilians now having shield generators on them. It was sorely needed for them and I was happy that they had what they needed. Once more making the rounds with them I did it with the officers and medics too. It didn't truly seem like some of them needed it but they got it from me regardless.
After doing that one of the medics came over and grabbed me by the arm. I had opened my mouth to say something but one look from the Turian medic and I closed my mouth. They brought me over to the side and started strapping up my arm with new bandages. The old ones had bled through. He then got me to take off the top half of my armor and when he saw the wounds on my chest he stilled for a second. As did everyone else.
Slowly he looked to me and then back to my wounds and gave an exasperated sigh. Taking the bandages off he took out a staple gun and me a meaningful look. Nodding at him he proceeded to staple shut the wounds that had reopened. With that done he reapplied new gauze and bandages over them. Guess we were completely out of medi-gel.
As he finished up doing his work on me he took out a device and put some of my blood on it. I let the device do whatever it was doing but when it beeped signaling it was done I hacked it and erased all data while the medic looked at it. He gave me a deadpan glare before taking out a strip of white tape and putting on my bare chest and writing AB+ on it. He could have just asked.
With his work done I put my armor back on and stood up and went to the entrance looking out into the Citadel. For a few minutes no one came over. No one even made an attempt to but after a few minutes I got company. Sha'ira stood silently next to me as we looked out into the Citadel. The sounds of gunfire and shouting could be heard clearly. Along with a few explosions every couple minutes.
"I knew you were different, like Shepard, but I didn't expect that speech," she finally spoke.
"Necessity," was my only response. She hummed at that before responding again.
"And the wounds? Opened and old, must be painful."
"Naturally high pain tolerance," doctors confirmed that in my past life.
"When it's all said and done I believe we should talk again. I'll make sure I'm open for you," I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at that.
"Maybe. I don't particularly like people in my head though," she gave me a small smile at that.
"Still as paranoid as ever."
"Never stopped."
That was when I saw it. Another Geth transport was coming around the corner and was making its way to us. Looking at Sha'ira I motioned for us to get back inside. Doing so I looked at the few SWAT officers still up and gave them the signal with a swirl of my fingers. They immediately began to round up civilians and bring them into cover with them.
With that done I too got into cover and prepared for the attack. We didn't have to wait long and within a minute the geth were pouring fire through the entrance of the HQ. All of us stayed in cover as they fired and waited, and waited, and waited until for the briefest of moments it stopped. Then as one all of us popped out of cover and fired back.
A full sail barrage of fire from at least 50 guns fired off as we fired on the geth. A few of them were caught at the entrance of the HQ and were immediately cut down. The rest behind them didn't fare much better but were able to get into cover in time. From there it was a pure battle of attrition against the geth.
They didn't stop though and as the machines they were they kept on coming at us. Never stopping and never taking a break but we were determined and reinforced. Reinforced with untrained civilians but we were going to make it work. Neither of us would stop until the other was dead.
The minutes that followed stretched out to seem like hours but we held the line against the geth. We were too determined to die here and the geth were too determined to let us win. It was a stalemate but we wouldn't give in. This was our home, this was the Citadel and we would win.
Our determination and fire didn't stop the geth though and eventually they just charged us barrelling through the door wholesale. Still, we fought tooth and nail and when they reached close enough to get into melee range my speech came true for some of the civilians.
As the geth closed the distance civilians broke cover together and charged the geth. Each side firing the whole time as they converged on each other. In a matter of seconds the fight turned into a brawl.
Knowing my handicap with all my injuries I stayed out of it for the most part and took shots where I could. However, the geth wouldn't allow this and singled me out. Four of them charged at me with wild abandon. Two never made it as Sha'ira caught them in a singularity and I hit it with an Overload eviscerating the geth but the other two did.
Diving out of the way of the first one I got to one knee to fire only for my gun to get knocked out of my hands by the second geth. Activating my torch construct and ripping out my knife I attacked the one that had knocked my AR away. My construct went through his gun and I made to stab my knife into its face only to get tackled by the other one.
Still, I kept my grip on my knife and as he tackled me and pinned me to the ground I stabbed it through its neck with my knife. It whined mechanically at the pain but didn't die and started punching me on the left side. Thankfully there were no wounds there but it still hurt. However, that opened it up for my construct that went straight through its head melting bits of the geth that dripped onto my chest melding into and warping my chest armor.
It died then and there and flopped onto me pinning me to the ground helpless to the other geth. I could do nothing but I wasn't alone, even in the hectic place of battle. Two civilians came out of nowhere and dived at the geth tackling it away from me. Then a third came behind them with my AR in and shouted at the other two. They each dived off the geth and the civilian with my AR unloaded on full auto into the geth. It died quickly.
Pushing the Geth off of me the same civilian that had killed the geth picked me up and handed me my AR. From there the battle continued and we fought. And we fought, and we fought. People and geth alike dying in droves but at the end of it we stood victorious. We killed the wave and survived.
Standing up from behind cover I did a headcount and found that of the civilian reinforcements that had joined us about a quarter had died. Another quarter was injured but the rest were able to fight. We would continue to survive this.
Walking to the front again as a scout to see when the geth were coming I saw it. Out in front of us over the lake where the mini relay was, Saren shot out of it with a group of geth with him.
"Cam! Take control," I shouted as I began to step out of the entrance.
"What!? Where are you going?!" he screamed and looking back at everyone I could see the despair in their eyes at the prospect of me leaving but I had to. Someone had to delay that maniac. This wasn't like the games, he could have the time.
"I'm going to go kill the puppetmaster of this chaos," not bothering to look back again I took off towards them. The HQ could hold without me but I could slow down Saren. Well, maybe not but I could give Shepard more time to reach the Council Chambers.
Sprinting away from the HQ I made my way to where Saren was. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it on to the elevator they were heading for but I might be able to get on the one beside it before they turn them off.
The whole run only lasted a few minutes but the entire time I was sprinting all out towards them. Hurdling over fallen bodies and jumping through a few standing fires as I made my way to them. The harder I pushed myself the harder my wounds pounded and more blood I lost. It wasn't a good thing.
As I neared the elevator I saw more and more civilian bodies and my heart ached for them especially as I noticed they all had catholic robes on but now wasn't the time to stop. I kept on pushing myself towards the elevators. My lungs burning and legs feeling heavy I kept pushing myself shutting out the pain and blood loss with pure adrenaline.
As I got there it was too little too late and I got to watch from a 100 feet away as Saren shot open the doors to the elevator and stepped in. I made it to the elevators just in time to watch him start to go up. The geth and him never even bothering to shoot at me as I ran at them. The ghost of a smile on Saren's mouth.
"FUCK!" I screamed out as I then realized that I couldn't take the elevator and disable Shepard and co from going up.
It seemed it was a little premature though as I heard a cough behind me. Spinning around to look I saw a man dressed in what had once been white robes now stained rained from blood, a broken staff ling a few feet from him. It took me all of a second to recognize the man as a Cardinal. An agent of the pope but what the hell was he doing here.
"The Lord guided me here son. Jump and I will send you up," he gave me a meaningful look towards the elevator. I nodded in thanks to the Cardinal.
"The Lord protects the faithful," I spoke to him, turned off my armor's biotic dampener and then took off my ears catching his response as I jumped into the elevator.
"I knew it."
As my feet left the ground and I went into the air inside the elevator I could feel his Lift hit me in the back and then I was shooting up the elevator. Now, it wasn't anywhere close to a smooth ride up. I banged off the side of the elevator shaft a few times, reopening a few of the recently stapled shut wounds. Not to mention the spinning. End over end and like a ballerina it made me nauseous.
Still, all and all it fulfilled its intended purpose and before long I was coming up to where the elevator had stopped. However, I wasn't slowing down and as I approached the underside of the elevator I braced myself.
Slamming into the bottom of the elevator I felt my left forearm, the one that had been shot, crack under the pressure of the contact. Then it was my right shoulder, I felt it pop out of its socket. And finally it was the fingers of my right hand; the middle, ring and pink all broke from the impact. Not to mention that my head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, probably a concussion. At least my legs were okay and I was able to grab onto one of the beams below the elevator by hooking my left arm around it, holding on at the elbow.
Hanging there for a few seconds I silently dealt with the pain. Taking a few deep breaths I slammed my right shoulder into the beam putting the shoulder back into its socket. Not the best way to do it but with no other options it was the only way to do it. This elicited a few more groans of pain and then that was it. My job wasn't done.
Unhooking my left arm I grabbed onto the beam with both hand and swung myself to the ladder behind the elevator. Neither the landing and grabbing onto the ladder or the swinging did anything to help my injuries. They were the least of my worries though.
Going up the ladder I didn't bother getting onto the elevator but did use it to get to the ladder on the other side. Deciding to go up another level on that ladder. Specifically to where the ledges where you see people stand at the beginning and end of the game. The one overlooking the chambers.
Getting there I hacked open the door and slowly pulled myself through. Neither the Geth below of Saren noticed me and I took the time to get the gauze, the medic had given me earlier, out. Once it was out I wrapped it a bit around my broken fingers setting them as best as possible. Once that was done I got out my AR and began creeping forward staying as far from the ledge as possible waiting for a moment.
As Saren walked forward to the podium I saw the Geth he had brought with him start to fan out and kill the Keepers in the area. I paid them no mind and continued to wait for a moment. As Saren made it to the podium a 4 geth went up to him and stopped behind him close together. This was the moment.
Sending an Overload into the middle of the four geth all but one got their shields ripped apart. Wasting no time I fired at them slamming shots into their heads killing two of them before the returned fire. Saren did of course as well but I was able to get the final geth who had his shields taken down by the overload before I jumped back away from the railing to get cover.
They didn't have line of sight on me because of the angle so I moved back the way I came and popped out again after a few moments. Hitting Saren with a Dampening I held down the trigger on the final geth near him, who hadn't gotten into cover. I got just enough shots in to punch through his shields and headshot him before my shields broke and I dived back again.
Just as my shields started to recharge I saw a grenade soar through the air towards me. Sprinting away from the grenade I got hit with something and I was pulled through the air towards Saren. Of all the times to forget something now was the absolute worst time. I had forgotten to turn my armor's biotic dampener back on.
As I flew through the air to Saren I grabbed my knife and readied myself. Once I was within reach Saren reached out and grabbed my head with his augmetic hand courtesy of Sovereign and slammed my head into the ground making my vision swim. I could feel my pistol dislodge from my back and skid away, its destination unknown.
Blindly stabbing with my knife I managed to lodge it into the offending arm that had grabbed me. Ripping his arm away with the knife still lodged in it he went to slam his fist into my head. Rolling out of the way and getting to a knee in the same motion I threw a punch at his face. Only for his other hand to come out of nowhere grab it. Not to be deterred I sent another punch with my left and he grabbed that one too.
Letting go of my right hand he backhanded me with his now free arm making my head ring as he held onto my left arm. My head was swimming even more than it was before I didn't have the energy to defend myself as he lifted me up by my left hand and proceeded to break my left arm. It was already fractured and shot so it took him barely any effort. When he did so he threw me to the ground and stood above me.
"Don't you see the futility? You can't fight me, you can't fight the Reapers. We can only help them and survive as their tools," was this fucker really monologuing to me.
"Better to die on your feet than live on your knees," I got out, letting out a few coughs as I did so. I slowly got to my knees in front of him and he let me still looking down on me.
"That is where you are wrong. We won't be living on our knees. We will be the conquerers with them, an alliance between man and machine. Where we have all the purities of both and none of the negatives. None of you have ever been able to see it so I'm giving it to you."
"Giving? You mean forcing," I coughed out some blood after I got the words out. Not good.
"I am forging an alliance! One where we could survive the upcoming genocide!" he screamed at me but I just laughed in his face. Partly because the man was so insane he was believing his own bullshit and partly because Shepard and co just got out of the elevator.
"We survive by fighting together. Not by giving in. You gave up, like a coward."
"It doesn't matter what you think, Shepard and you still failed in the end."
Then, blindingly, his normal arm shot out towards my broken left forearm and grabbed my wrist. Wrenching me up by the wrist his augmetic shot towards where the bullet hole was and stabbed into it with his dagger like fingers. Wrenching, cutting and pulling inside my arm I screamed in pain and started punching at him in desperation. It mattered not and soon enough he pulled one last time and ripped my forearm off where I had been shot. Leaving only the jagged and broken bones of my forearm jutting out of the stump that had been my left arm.
"Failure," he spoke before tossing my arm over me.
I heard it thump into the glass below us but I wasn't focused on that as he turned around and looked at Shepard. I know they started talking but I wasn't focused on that either. I was losing blood extremely quickly so I reached into my pockets and the tourniquet the medic had given me and wrapped it just below my elbow. Pulling it tight I started to lose feeling in the arm.
Sighing in partial relief I laid back down and turned my head towards Shepard and co. They were all taking cover near the ledge of the walkway but from the few that peeked their eyes over I could tell they saw me. There was sadness and there was anger in their eyes but I pushed that out of my head.
I had one more trick, one more go ahead before blood loss took me. I reached into another pocket and pulled out the final syringe Frank had given me. I prepared to stab it into my neck and get that boost but for a second I stopped. I didn't have a weapon. My AR was somewhere and looking at Shepard my pistol was lying on the ground two feet in front of Saren. As for my knife it was still lodged in his augmetic arm. Breathing out a deep breath I prepared to just conserve myself but then I caught sight of my stump... the bones were jagged enough.
"Under my own power," I whispered out, words and world barely coherent as I put the syringe back into the pocket.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I started to get up. Channeling my anger and spite I pushed myself onto my stomach. Then onto one knee and then standing I steadied myself. One step forward, and then another until I stood behind Saren.
As I readied myself to attack him I saw him reach to his side and pull out his pistol before putting it under his chin. I let him pull the trigger instead of acting but as his body began to fall I reached out and grasped the handle of my knife. It was so firmly lodged inside his augmetic arm that it almost pulled me over with him before it finally got loose. Letting Saren fall over the edge and through the glass below.
"What a waste," and I collapsed backwards but I never hit the ground.
Looking up at who had caught me Shepard is there as he slowly lowers me to the ground. I see Kaiden's face next as he drops down next to me and starts to do first aid on my multitude of injuries. Then it was Tali who slid into my right side speaking fast words that flew over my head and grasped my right hand. The rest of the group followed after and looked down at me.
It was mere seconds after the rest of the group got to me that Shepard left and went over to the controls. The arms of the Citadel stopped closing and then at a few words from him Wrex and Garrus dropped down to double check Saren's death. As this went on I could feel someone's hand near the clasp of my helmet and I weakly tried to fight them off but Tali wouldn't let go of my hand and she kept patting my chest trying to calm me. I eventually stopped resisting and a moment later my helmet was taken off.
I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot brighter without the helmet on. Tali leaned over me and looked into my eyes as she took her free hand and put it on my cheek. It was there that my hearing started to come back.
"You are a Bosh'tet," her voice shook and Kaiden on the other side of me let out a weary sigh before looking at Tali.
"I need your help here Tali. Get him naked, I need to know where exactly he's injured," for a second she didn't respond but then she proceeded to take my armor off. I'm so thankful I wore underwear today. It takes her maybe 30 seconds before I'm naked besides my underwear. As soon as Kaiden saw my *AB+ strip on my chest I could hear his audible sigh of relief. Still, I don't know about blood transfusions but I'm guessing it was a good one.
"Arm, I need my arm," I moan out with what little strength I have.
"Wrex, toss his arm up," Tali shouted over the side and instantly the arm flew up to her and I'll be honest, wasn't expecting it to be that quick.
Reaching out with my one arm left I took my left forearm and hand from her. Opening up the omni-tool on the hand I sent a message to Frank with a picture of my severed arm with the bones jutting out. It wasn't a long message, quick and simple. It had three words: need new arm. He should have a few contacts who could whip something up.
Rolling my head to look at Tali I asked, "Gun?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth she put it into my hand, closing my hand around the gun with her own hands. I immediately put on the safety and laid it onto the ground next to us pointed away from everyone before reaching out to her. She gladly took my hand.
Kaiden did not like the amount of movement I was doing but kept his mouth shut for the moment. Though he did start to be a bit more forceful with his treatment, making sure I wasn't moving while he worked on me. It's not like he was doing much but it was annoying and did fucking sting. Cleaning solution on the wounds, then medi-gel, and gauze and bandages as a finale. As for my arm though he took care of that before my hearing had returned and had applied a generous dose of medi-gel and wrapped it up with plenty of bandages.
When it was all said and done with the bandages he got out a rather long tube with a needle, a bag that also had a tube and a needle and a lot of other things. I knew a good amount of first aid but this was a bit beyond me. When he took out a numbing agent and rubbed it along his elbow it hit me. An emergency blood transfusion.
"Am I even your type," I whispered out to him. I was weak at the moment but the world wasn't getting dark.
"You're AB+ Wynne. You can receive blood from everyone. Now, don't resist."
Kaiden was just about to insert the needle into his arm when there was an inhuman roar. All three of us instinctively grabbed our guns and prepared for the worst. Only for something to hit the underside of where we were and shake it enough to send both Tali and Kaiden over the side. It was at that moment I remembered Saren had a second phase. I had forgotten all about that stupid shit.
I layed there for a few moments just looking up at the ceiling and out the window. Out in the expanse of space in front of me I could see the Geth fighting the Navies that had been assembled. Along with Sovereign there as well destroying damn near everything that came at him.
Listening to the gunfire and erratic orders from Shepard coming from below my vision began to swim again. Not like it still wasn't from before but it intensified now. Taking deep steadying breaths I slowly pushed myself up. Falling down for a moment as I went to push up with my left hand only for there not to be a left hand there.
Sighing and swearing at that I made the adjustment and pushed myself up to a kneeling position. There I began to look for my pistol and saw it a few feet away from me, it had vibrated or slid a couple feet back to where Shepard and co had come from. Crawling towards it every movement screamed in my body to stop and rest but not now. I wasn't going to be out of this fight.
Finally getting to the gun I held it in my hand as if it was my one lifeline and collapsed back down to lie face down. Taking a few steadying breaths I rolled over and pushed myself up onto my butt and looked over the edge. Seeing the fight happen from above was weird not being in it but I did see Saren jump around like a squirrel on crack. Doing hit and run tactics on everyone while a few geth came to help him.
Pointing my gun at him I began to line up a shot but my hands were so shaky and weak from everything that I couldn't aim. Knowing I might only have one shot at it and not wanting to waste more than one bullet I made an adjustment. Getting into a snipers stance while on my butt I extended one leg, propped the other one up at an angle, put my severed arm up onto and across the propped leg I put the pistol on my arm and pulled the hammer back. Aiming at the left wall hoping he would be there.
The sights finally as steady as they were going to be and the world beginning to spin less I waited. The world around me beginning to darken I slowly put my pistol down before I reached into my pocket and brought out the syringe, not even hesitating I plunged it into my neck. My world instantly getting brighter and my head pounding but my vision cleared and my hand steadied.
As soon as I had grabbed my pistol and propped it up it happened. Saren attached himself up on the left wall I had been aiming at and I pulled the trigger.
Now, the 1911 is a loud gun but when it went off with those rounds Volio had gotten me it was on a whole different level. A Titanium composite hollow point round with a C4 kicker and laced with Element Zero boomed out of my pistol with a sound akin to an artillery battery going off. And the impact was almost as similar.
The head, shoulders, most of his chest and half of his arms were just gone. Nothing left of him and the place on the wall where he had been had chunks of it ripped off as if a rocket had hit it. That, however, was all I had left and I promptly blacked out.
POV: Liara T'Soni
"What the fuck was that?" Wrex shouted out as the destroyed form of what had been Saren fell to the ground in pieces.
Knowing none of us had anything with that amount of power we all collectively looked at the one place it could have come from. Looking above us to the platform was Wynne sitting down with his pistol propped up on his severed arm and still smoking. We stared at him and he just stared at what his pistol did before collapsing backward. The thump of him falling down was the only sound we heard.
"Wrex, Kaiden! Get up there and get him to a hospital NOW!" Shepard shouted and without missing a beat both bounded their way up to get Wynne.
The rest of us just sort of stood around and looked at Saren's destroyed corpse. Only for the whole thing to get weirder than it already was and for the body to dissipate. I heard an audible sigh from Shepard and he just pointed up. None of us said a word of disagreement and we all made our way up.
When we all got up it seemed that our day just couldn't be over could it. Through the radio came Joker's voice shouting out that Sovereign was on a collision course with the Council Chambers. We all looked at the window, saw Sovereign coming at us and didn't need any encouragement before taking off away from it towards the elevator.
It was hectic and my legs and lungs burned from all we had done in the day on the run but when I heard the breaking of glass I kept on running. Then came the tremendous crash of Sovereign far louder than anything we had heard today, even Wynne's pistol shot.
I was knocked down and out by some debris but when I came too I was uncovered and being dragged away by an Alliance Marine. There was also some shouting around me and I looked around to see Tali, Kaiden, and Garrus all okay but no Shepard. Wrenching myself away from the Marine I got up and started screaming for Shepard. Joining me was Anderson, a man Shepard viewed as his mentor but neither of us needed to be worried.
Almost as soon as we had started screaming out his name Shepard came from below and stood atop a fallen remain of Sovereign in front of us all. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed a few tears upon seeing that and rushed to him. Huggin the man who had captured my heart and he returned the hug.
With that we walked away with everyone in tow and some of us wounded.
Over the next month things would go from hectic with the repairing of the Citadel and the saving of as many lives as possible to sorta tranquil in the aftermath and then devastating. With all of us being rewarded with Medals and even one, unofficially, given to Wynne. Apparently the Council couldn't have The Torchbearer, a ruthless and well known mercenary, be a part of the limelight.
This gave a lot of the general populace anger but with the amount of 'gifts' given to the Citadel they were quick to forget what had happened. Though the humans weren't and I couldn't blame them for it. During our time on the Citadel getting to Saren and during the cleanup it wasn't Asari, Salarian, Turian or even Krogan people leading the civilian charges against the geth. It had been humans.
Many were vocal about Wynne getting more attention and after I saw the video of his speech I agreed. Hell, everyone on the Normandy agreed. But I couldn't find it in myself to fault the Council. They wanted this to be about the joint operations of the first human Spectre who came and defeated the rogue Spectre Saren who led the geth invasion of the Citadel.
Still, this didn't deter the humans and they began to help rebuild even when they didn't get their wish for Wynne to get more attention. In the coming weeks they would even begin to forget about it; well not forget about it but stop speaking so openly about it. This seemed to be okay with the Council. Who now, after all that had happened and from the aid of Torchbearer and the System Alliance's fleet now had a new member. The Council now had a human ambassador.
Shepard had chosen Udina as his pick. I was a bit surprised by this action in that he didn't pick Anderson but when we talked about it he explained his reasoning. Udina was far better at playing politics than Anderson and as much as he liked Anderson Udina would be better for the position. I didn't argue.
Now, speaking of all that let's move on to Wynne, he had gotten to the hospital in time to save his life. An emergency blood transfusion from Kaiden along the way helped things but it was a near call. He was dead on the table for almost five minutes before he came back. After that, he seemed to get out of the woods and was on his way to making a full recovery but was in a coma. Throughout it all his mentors, all four, never left his room.
Well, about the coma 'was' was the opportune word as about halfway through his second week asleep in the hospital he disappeared. No one knew where he went or what happened to him and all the camera's in the hospital caught nothing. Though, it took Tali all of a minute to figure out they had been tampered with.
Speaking of Tali she had been fervently looking for Wynne since then with the help of Wrex. Those two were the best connected to him but it seemed that they had no luck. As for the rest of the crew Garrus went back to C-Sec and resumed his job as a detective but was awarded with being a Captain's spot. Ashley, Kaiden, myself and Shepard had gone back aboard the Normandy and were sent by the Council to make sure no geth presence remained barely two weeks after the battle of the Citadel.
The Council had wanted to get rid of us quickly as Shepard was upsetting the status quo with speak of the Reapers. The Council would hear absolutely none of it and when we had gotten the video of Sovereign on Virmire from an unknown source, my money being on Frank, the Council still wouldn't budge. They said it was obviously tampered with in a way to get them to act on nothing.
None of us could believe the audacity of the Council but we couldn't exactly fight them. They were Shepard's boss and as a result our boss and could absolutely ruin us if they so wished. None of us wanted that so we resolved to find new evidence. The geth must've had something. However, we never got to find out.
Only a week into our journey we were ambushed in space and… and… Shepard didn't make it. He died making sure Joker got out and went out with the Normandy. I have marooned myself inside my room on the Citadel for the past week. Only leaving it to go to his funeral, something held by and granted by almost the whole of the Citadel. He was their hero, and rightfully so.
So, yes, the month had started with hope and life and ended with death and despair for me. Which leads me to the current moment. All of the ground team was in a room waiting for the arrival of the Council. Everyone was dead quiet as we waited in that room and it was suffocating. Seeing everyone again was just a reminder of Shepard.
As we waited for the Council to arrive someone else did. Wynne strode into the room barging through the door. He still had his faithful helmet but there were some changes. His armor for one was no longer the Predator X armor. He wore something a bit less bulky and streamlined but I could tell at just a glance it was just as strong as the Predator X armor. With a neck guard too that showed more than anything that this was a custom build, no armors have neck guards anymore.
Then on his back jutting out over his shoulder was a gun I didn't recognize but Ashley certainly did. Whispering a single word, "Mattock." I looked over at her for a brief moment before looking back at Wynne and noticed the biggest change. Where his left arm had once been was now an undoubtedly augmetic forearm and hand. It looked to be comprised of the same material his armor was built of. It looked powerful and dangerous.
We all stared at him in shock and no one made a move. He simply soaked it all in and walked over to Wrex and Tali. Wrex was the first to move and stood up immediately being brought into a hug by Wynne. Wrex returned it.
As for Tali she stayed in her chair watching the interaction. As Wrex pulled away he sat back down but Tali still stayed in her seat. Not waiting any longer for her to make a move Wynne leaned down to her and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't move for a moment but then exploded into action standing up so fast her chair fell down and returned his hug.
They stayed like that for almost a minute before he pulled away and gently put his helmeted head against her mask and spoke softly to her. I don't know what it was but it was definitely in Quarian, impressive given that Quarian is notoriously hard to learn. This seemed to satisfy her and she sat back down. After that Wynne proceeded to give Garrus what I've been told is a 'bro hug'. He shook Ashley's hand, gave a polite wave to Kaiden and then stopped in front of me.
He pulled me up from my chair and gave me a strong hug. Returning it, it took a lot of strength not to break down but I held fast and didn't. When he pulled away he didn't say anything and went back over to where Wrex and Tali were sitting next to Tali.
A moment after he sat down the Council came in along with an assistant carrying datapads. They didn't say a single word and walked over to the opposite side from us. As they got situated their assistant stood behind them still carrying the datapads and too was silent.
"Good, everyone is here," Udina got out not looking like he meant it at all as he, along with the rest of the Council, sent quick looks at Wynne. It didn't escape any of us but we were just as surprised to see him here as they were.
"Now, we have called you here today to talk about your time with former Spectre Shepard," Tevos began and immediately recognized that those weren't the best words to start with. Still she continued. "We are here to discuss your findings during your time hunting the rogue Spectre Saren."
"Now, certain things have come to the attention of this council and during this tumultuous time we believe that it is best for action to be taken," Sparatus said, looking over at everyone. With a wave of his hand, the assistant began to walk around the room handing out the datapads to everyone. Wynne was the first to get his and he had no reaction; nor did anyone else.
As I got my datapad and began to look it over I couldn't help the anger that came to the surface. It was an NDA, a fucking Non Disclosure Agreement. They didn't want us to say anything about the Reapers or what was really happening. That the whole of the galaxy was on the precipice of being attacked.
"You can't be serious?!" I exclaimed shooting up from my chair. "You saw the recording. You've seen Sovereign. The Reapers are coming, my own thesis supports this claim and yet you refuse to see it!" I shouted at them.
"There is no hard data supporting your thesis and the video was either tampered with or a Geth you spoke to," Valern snapped immediately. "As for the ship itself it follows along with our pattern of technology, there is nothing supporting that it is anything but a new Geth Dreadnought. One that for them to replicate is an impossibility without being tracked."
No one else said anything as the room descended into a deafening silence. Looking around the room Kaiden and Ashley looked at the datapad with apprehension. I knew they would sign it eventually, their careers were around the Alliance and Kaiden had barely managed to win Shepard's trust back during the battle. Garrus' face was a completely blank slate of nothingness. Wrex was much the same but Tali was shaking with rage much like myself.
Just as I made to look at Wynne something descended over the room. Covering us all in a blanket of pressure and fear. It was unsettling and it felt like pure bloodlust. An animal wanting to kill and maim.
SNAP!
Snapping my eyes to where the sound had come from Wynne was holding onto his datapad only it was broken in half. Each piece sparking with leftover electricity for a few moments before it died out.
We all tensed waiting for something to happen and watched as Wynne slowly stood up. Still staring at the broken in half datapad he gently put it down on the table. He stood there looking at the datapad for a moment before his helmet snapped to look at the Council. His normally dull red eyes lit up bright red like when he took care of Balak.
Without wasting a moment he raised his augmetic arm towards the Council. It glowed bright orange for a moment before shooting something towards them. They flinched and took cover as whatever it was impacted in front of where they had been sitting.
There, right where he had shot was his symbol. A hologram of a burning torch.
"Consider yourselves marked Councillors," and then he walked out of the room and disappeared. No one would hear or see him until he resurfaced on Illium 3 and a half months later…
or so I thought at the time.
POV Miranda Lawson.
I stood behind The Illusive Man as he took a long drag of his cigarette. Silently we watched the funeral of Commander Shepard but neither of us said a thing until it was over.
"You've seen my proposal. Can it be done?" He spoke as he turned off the feed.
"It would cost us billions. I don't see why?"
"Because Shepard is the best of us, Miss Lawson. Commander Shepard is the very definition of a leader. He shows the entire galaxy what Humanity is capable of and I believe him. I believe the Reapers are coming and a galaxy without him will fall. So," he took another drag of his cigarette, "don't ask why and answer the question. Can it be done?"
"Theorit-"
"Miss Lawson," his tone brokering no nonsense.
"It can be done sir."
"Then see to it," I need to find the body first. Turning to leave I was interrupted as he called out to me again. "Oh, and Miranda. Make sure to get his dog on a leash."
So what did y'all think of that? Now, some of you may have been expecting more for the aftermath but I felt that putting more than that would've just bloated the story and put unnecessary details in here. I'll go into a bit more detail with Wynne's new arm in the next chapter and it will go over what he had been doing for those absent weeks.
It'll explain everything about his arm and armor but from the story and everything I've dropped in here, it isn't bullshit (ch. 7,8,13 and 20 specifically). Just couldn't be explained from Liara's POV.
*1: AB+ is a certain blood type and explained later in the chapter that is a universal receiver for blood.