Here we go folks. Have a good time reading!
POV: TorchbeareRed Eyes
It's been about two months since saving Daria and I can say that in that time it's been a bit hectic. Although, that would be a bit of an understatement but we'll get to that soon enough. First off though was the next morning when I woke up. Turns out Ceelo had put a virus into my arm and whenever he called it would give me exactly 5 seconds to neutralize the virus or it would shock me.
I don't think I've ever strung a series of swear words so perfectly as I did when my own arm shocking me, woke me up. Answering the call he looked at me smugly for a second before saying 'good morning' and then hanging up. When he did that I seriously considered chartering a flight back to the Citadel just to smack him around. Cheeky fucker.
He would do it periodically throughout the rest of those two months. Sometimes at midnight, sometimes when I was sleeping and a few times when I was on a job. Those last ones especially got me good at isolating the virus before it could shock me. Which got me really good at multitasking with my omni-tool thanks to him. Couldn't purge the bugger though, Ceelo put a lot of effort into that virus to fuck with me.
Now, that being said about the virus I hadn't been able to purge it from my arm but I had been able to copy it. Made attitude adjustments remarkably easy when they were being shocked, worked the best on Salarians. I didn't do it often but there were a couple instances I did. Mostly on a few people who needed to get their shit kicked in instead of killed. There was a line I was still working on defining but it was getting easier with the detective's help.
You read that right. Detective Anaya had become a sort of advisor of mine. Kinda like Gordon for Batman, a little cocky of a comparison, but that's what it amounted to. She originally got in contact with me through one of the kids. Apparently, she used the same system.
Now for the people I was sent after, if they didn't deserve to die or the law could take care of it I would send the evidence her way and she would do the rest. On the other end of the spectrum if she couldn't get something done she'd send the info my way.
The first time she would do this would be just two days after Daria. I had taken those days off to rest and find a new target but Anaya provided one for me. She had credible info that a Salarian had been running illegal experiments and they were eerily similar to Saleons. Not in the way of letting people divulge their own organs but using the homeless and desperate and seeing if he could splice their organs. Simply put, he was trying to see if cross species organ donation could work.
Normally, I would back this as the applications it could have would be amazing if it worked. However, he was doing it using people who weren't volunteers and usually had no idea what they were signing in terms of agreements. Just picking them off the street and seeing if it could work.
Coincidentally it would be the first but not last time that the kids I picked up would come through for me. It had been one of the orphans specifically and he told me that there was a rumor on the south side of the city that there was someone offering shelter and safety if they signed a few papers. Following up on the kids tip it took me a few days but I eventually saw one of the homeless people taken away.
Following them from a distance they got into a car and I hit it with the same virus I had to Numiy. As soon as it stopped for over a minute it pinged me it's location and that's how I found the Salarians lab. It was a lot cleaner than Saleons had been but it had that same oppressive feel.
Getting inside wasn't all that difficult and only took a couple hours of waiting for the security to leave. On the inside it looked like an up and up operation so I just planted some surveillance cameras and waited it out back at my place. That's when I saw what was going on.
The surgeries were meatball at best and when a patient would die they would take out all their organs and then throw their body in an incinerator. It was not a nice place at all and I made sure that once I had enough evidence it found its way back to the detective. They busted the place within hours after receiving the info and videos. They also found a connection to a Salarian owned medical company but there wasn't enough evidence to pursue at the time but I'll get back to that.
Over the last two months that's what we would do for each other. I would scratch her back and she would scratch mine. It wasn't anything crazy for the most part and when I would send her stuff or she to me the subject would always come out alive. As much as a few of them deserved to have their heads blown off it wouldn't work if I wanted the relationship to live. She had told me that through one of the kids after the Salarian job.
Now, that condition didn't pertain to the jobs that I did myself. I had done 5 jobs for myself in these last two months. The first had been against an Asari diplomat that was using her political weight in Nos Astra to try and loosen the structure of indentured servant laws to be closer to slavery.
I didn't kill her but I did kill her Krogan bodyguards. Walked right up to them with my knife as they stood in front of her door and cut them both in the quick little struggle we had. My knife had been coated in the Rachni venom and it took only a few seconds for it to take effect. They both dropped to the ground paralyzed.
Once they were both paralized I hacked her door open and then dragged both the Krogan inside. Positioning them so she would see them as soon as she opened her bedroom door I slit both their throats. Knocking on her bedroom door I backed up and stood behind the still warm and bleeding Krogan bodies.
When she opened the door she opened her mouth to scream but I simply raised my pistol at her and shook my head. She got the message, stayed silent and took a seat at her dinner table. I joined her and had a nice little chat with her. Well, it was really just me talking but she got the idea. If she continued down the path she had chosen I would kill her. Plain and simple.
No police report was filed and the Krogan deaths were chalked up to them getting into an argument and attacking each other. She did follow through however and dropped her push to change the indentured servants laws. A week after our little meeting and she was found dead in her apartment. Her replacement immediately went back to trying to push those law reforms.
I then had a chat with her. I didn't bother with her security though as she had a full Commando squad with her and instead did what I did on my first job. Went to her room through the one above it. The people in that room nearly had a heart attack but calmed down when I told them I wasn't there for them and to calm down. They did so and I left them alone.
My little chat with the replacement went much the same way but she told me that she was being forced into it. I didn't answer her statement and waited for her to elaborate which she did. A few of the companies that had names on my list wanted looser laws so that they could get better profit margins. They would do anything for it.
She gave me their names and they ended up being my next four jobs actually. I would be remiss in saying that I didn't enjoy it immensely.
The first to go was an Asari by the name of Sashia Calenus, CEO of a medical company. Blew up her car as she got in it IRA style. Wired to the engine directly and as soon as it started the bomb went off. She had a whole news story on her and a couple sob stories but I didn't give a flying fuck. She dug her own grave.
The next was a Turian by the name of Luccus Brucdus, owner of a pharmaceutical company. He had just gotten his kitchen redone in his apartment so it wasn't all that hard for me to engineer a faulty wire in there. He would burn alive the next day while his door 'mysteriously' wouldn't open for him when he tried to escape.
The next two were an Asari and Salarian, named Jesley Pesara and Nastaf Janiki respectively. Jesley was a rather well known marketeer for 'indentured servants' who was already on my list. Nastaf was actually linked to the Salarian from earlier, the one running experiments on the homeless. There hadn't been enough evidence to pursue her as I said before but this was enough for me.
In the end I didn't end up killing Jesley. When I confronted her in her apartment she took the easy way out and blew her own brains out. I honestly hadn't expected her to do that and had to high tail it out of the building. I used the same program from my first job to make sure no cameras caught me leaving but her two ex commando guards definitely saw me.
I had to fight them both and it might've been my hardest fight. If I didn't have my augmetic arm I don't think I get out of there alive, those Commando's were fucking good. Either way, I left both of them alive but both had broken jaws and one had a shattered kneecap while the other had both shoulders violently dislocated. They wouldn't be the same again but there wasn't enough evidence to tie it back to me.
As for Nastaf I simply kidnapped her by impersonating her limo driver. She had left her guards behind after a day of work and just jumped in the limo never checking me. I honestly didn't even lay a hand on her until we got to our destination.
Ripping her door open and roughly grabbing her I threw her down on the ground. She started to get back up but a worn work boot slammed her back to the ground. I brought her to where the lab had been picking up homeless people. I left her at their mercy.
Now, you can imagine my surprise when they didn't kill her. Instead they forced her into signing a contract, notarized by a notary who was sympathetic to them. It amounted to the idea that most of her salary would go towards creating orphanages and shelters for the homeless while creating jobs for them in turn. It turned out a lot better than I expected.
Two days later the replacement Asari diplomat who had been pushing 'indentured servant' laws stopped her push and reneged on them. She had been slowly doing that since the first one died but she made it official then. It was a good day for me and seeing that I spent the rest of my day sitting around, drinking and watching movies.
Now, as I said before there wasn't enough evidence to tie back to me officially but everyone knew. They all knew I had been the puppetmaster of the deaths and the other major happenings. Which presented a problem that I had several bounties out on my head. The biggest one was for four million credits from some Biotic Amp Company.
No one's even come close to cashing in the bounty and most didn't even try. Say what you will about Mercenaries and bounty hunters but they had a lot of self preservation and stayed away from me. Hell, there was even one Eclipse techie that stumbled upon me when I was planting bugs at one of their Red Sand operations for Anaya.
We looked at each other for a few long seconds as neither of us said or did anything. Then he looked at the box next to me where a wrench was sitting and back to me. I silently handed him the wrench and he left without saying a word. I immediately left after that not wanting to be caught up in a fight without my grenades and I would see him leaving through the main entrance mere moments after I left. It actually made me laugh.
Now, one last thing before the two months will be recapped completely. Daria's father and I had a chat about a week after the job and I was happy to find out the smuggler had done his job and gotten her home. It was a quick chat all things considered but it came with the greatest bonus of all time.
You see, Mr. Alexeyev didn't pay me with money for my bonus for killing Koto. Instead he asked me what type of weapon I wanted. Initially I was hesitant because I didn't want him to get caught for weapons smuggling. The man seemed like a good guy and his daughter would need him. However, he told me he was an antique weapons collector and owned a small private shipyard and would custom build ships.
Before I even had time to process that the words were already out of my mouth. I asked for a FmW 35 and a ship. He agreed to both but since the ship would be expensive he told me that it would be on the smaller side and I would have to return the money from the job. I did it without even thinking. And I don't regret it at all.
He would drop the ship off 5 weeks later in a private hanger Liara had gotten for me and the thing was absolutely gorgeous. Only about 10 meters in length but about 5 meters tall the thing was in perfect shape. Jet black coloring with thin lines of red along the hull and polarized mirrors reinforced for durability. Sleek and slim with a slight undertone of badassery, this thing wasn't gaudy or cocky. It said: don't fuck with me, in the purest of ways without words and I loved the thing as soon as I laid eyes upon it. It unfortunately didn't have weapon systems but was, as he promised, the fastest ship he'd ever made and did have anti-missile systems.
Now, the inside wasn't almost as perfect. Cheaper design than he was used to making, his words, but it was all about function over form and everything was perfect that way. Bathroom, bedroom, dinner area and cockpit. The thing even had an integrated autopilot and VI system so if I didn't want to fly I wouldn't have to.
The best part about it though was opening up the smallish cargo hold. There sitting in the middle of it all on the box was my FmW 35 with several cans around it. Now, for those of you who don't know, an FmW 35 is the german flamethrower used during WW2. With the cans around it I had to ask Mr. Alexeyev if they were authentic too and when he told me yes I had a nerdgasm.
For those of you who don't know the FmW 35 was an incredibly deadly weapons system during WW2 but as flamethrowers go it was run of the mill. What made it stand out was the fuel it used. They put Tar in the fuel and figured out a way to shoot it through the flamethrower. This actually increased the range it could shoot and it made them shoot fire that would stick to you. It wouldn't just set you on fire, the tar would stick to you and burn you that way. A truly gruesome weapon and something I've wanted since I was a little kid.
Still, since then it's just gathered dust in the ship but I wasn't about to break something like that out for nothing. When it comes out it will be for a deserving enemy or occasion and nothing else. To bring it out for anything else would be an insult to the weapon.
Now, that is the final thing for the last two months. Nothing else has happened and right now I was sitting in front of my terminal with a drink in my hand going over options. The options being whether to kill X or Y and honestly they both deserved it. X was someone who routinely screwed people out of their pensions and Y was a serial rapist but there was never enough evidence to convict him. When there was evidence though it got dismissed because the officers obtained it illegally. Either way they would both die by my hand, it just depended on when it would happen. Fuck it, let's see if there's anyting on either of them from Liara.
"Liara," I shouted out, "who has the larger bounty? Povus Hilados or Opiso Sanmius?" Povus was the pension stealer and Sanmius was the rapist.
"Povus has a higher bounty at the moment but Sanmius has more suitors."
"Recommendation?"
"Sanmius. More will pay out for that. Should I consider the contracts closed?"
"Yeah, Sanmius will die tonight, Povus will go within the next few days."
And that was it. Liara and I had established a rather essential equilibrium. As long as I cleared the clutter from her desk she would look the other way from me. It equated the same way too if it came down to it. As long as she provided me with prime targets then I wouldn't come after her. It was a near perfect system even though she didn't know I would never go after her. Shepard might try and kill me.
Still, with her input I decided to go after Sanmius first and told her as such. She didn't say anything at all for what was going on and just gave me a last known location of the fucker. Not long after I was able to track the guy down and when he was tracked down I hacked into his omni-tool. Such pathetic cyberware that I was able to do it from the safety of my own location.
Quite literally five seconds later I had the guy pinpointed to his own apartment. From there it was the easy way of making absolutely sure that nothing else would interfere. Once I was sure that nothing else would come between us I made my move... Shutting down everything in his apartment I shut him in and made my way to his room from across town.
On my way there I made sure that his entire apartment was completely shut off from doing anything and everything. Ensuring that he was absolutely trapped and had to wait for me. That being said, the walk to his place was rather pleasant. To make it to his place was completely through back roads and the few homeless I would see on those roads avoided me. They also kept their mouths shut when I was around.
Getting to his building I walked in the back entrance and took the employee elevator. One of the maids saw me but like with the Eclipse techie she just looked away from me, pretending she saw nothing. Riding up to Sanmius' floor I exited the elevator and walked straight to his door. Releasing the lock on the door I walked in.
Sanmius was sitting on his couch watching TV and when the door opened he snapped his eyes to me. They widened in surprise for a second before he ran off into his. I calmly shut the door and followed him into the kitchen. He stood there shakily holding a gun pointed at me. I took one step towards him and he fired, the shot splashing against me shields and doing next to nothing.
"Seriously?" at my question he dropped his gun and started begging. No wonder this guy became a rapist, he was pathetic. I didn't bother wasting anymore time and took out my knife before shoving it through his neck. Waiting a few moments while he futilely tried to survive, once he finally stilled I took a picture with my omni-tool and sent the picture to Liara. She responded mere seconds later with a wire transfer to my omni-tool. A cool 500K.
Smiling to myself I left the way I came and headed back to my place. No one saw me on the way back and it was a nice and quiet trip. Getting back to my place I started going over Povus and how I would kill the guy. He generally went from work straight to his apartment and didn't do anything else. Probably just hotwire his air car and blow it up IRA style like before. It would be the simplest solution.
Just needed to make the bomb and get to his car to set it up. Would take me a couple hours to make the bomb so I got started. About 3 hours later I was done making the bomb but there was no point in going to his work now, Povus would be gone by the time I got there with the bomb. I'll do it tomorrow.
Leaving the bomb on the desk I got ready take off my armor and go to sleep when I stopped myself. My paranoia was acting up and it felt like someone was watching me so I hit the pulse on my helmet. Sure enough there were four red dots around my place. Hitting the pulse again after a few moments they were closing in on me.
Picking up my rifle I got out of my room and climbed up to my spot on a floor above me. I had prepared for something like this and had made sure that this spot would have a good line of sight to the main entrance along with the side door. It had a blindspot on all other entrances but those were blockaded behind fallen parts of the building. They would have to come to me.
Sitting there in my hole I waited for whoever it was to make their move. I wouldn't have to wait long as a minute later the entrance exploded inwards and four people in jet black stormed in. I wasted no time and threw a grenade at them.
However, they were quicker than I expected and one of them shone in biotic power before snatching the grenade out of the air and threw it back at me. It exploded before it could get close to me but the shockwave and shrapnel still fucked me up a bit and threw me to the ground. Absolutely shredded my shields all the way down to 5% and a few pieces of shrapnel punched through my shields. None penetrated my armor but the impacts hurt all the same.
Before I could do anything else my augmetic arm started humming and I dived out of the way before a singularity appeared above me. Seeing the biotic in the middle of the group I poured all my fire at him but I didn't get many shots off before I had to drop into cover as they started to fire back.
While in cover they expertly started to suppress me as they fanned out and began to surround me. The only reason it didn't work was because I decided to test out if my armor was up to the job of stopping a few rounds.
Picking out the soldier closest to me through a scan I sprinted out of cover surprising the man and shoulder checked making him stumble back a foot or two. He hadn't expected the charge at all and was caught off guard. Those two or so feet was all the space I needed. Raising my rifle to his face and blowing him away. The round punched right through his helmet, he never stood a chance.
As soon as I had killed him one of the other soldiers tackled me from the side, sending my gun sliding a few feet from me. He then started trying to pummel me into submission but it was next to fruitless. I covered up and waited for my moment.
Trapping his left arm with my arms I pulled him close into a bear hug and wrapped my legs around his waist keeping him close so his teammates wouldn't fire at me. Then I released my right arm, grabbed my knife and stabbed it into the back of his head. He went limp immediately.
I threw the body off me and scrambled towards my rifle only to get barely a step before my arm started humming. Diving out of the way a Warp flew by right where I had been. Then they started firing at me but my armor held up as the shots pinged into it. Hurt like you wouldn't believe but it was better than actually getting shot.
Grabbing my AR as I ran to cover I got behind one of the last standing pillars in the building. Blind firing out of cover after using my pulse to locate the soldiers worked to stall them. As my shields recharged I popped back up from cover and fired at them. They covered each other effectively and when one's shields would get low the other would cover for them.
My arm hummed again and I got behind the pillar only for the Push to go around the corner and slam into me. It sent me flying out of cover and through one of the walls, my gun flying out of my hands along the way. Groaning as I got up I hit the pulse and saw the soldiers start to make their way to the hole.
Running at the hole I jumped through pulling my left hand back and superman punched the first one that got to the whole. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and I didn't bother to check on him. Turning and burning straight at the final soldier my arm hummed and I dodged out of the way just as they threw a Warp at me.
Dodging the warp I threw a punch at him with my right and catching him in the face. Then I buried my left into his stomach, doubling them over. Pulling my arm back I raised it high and brought it down in a hammer fist on the back of his head. They collapsed straight to the ground. I wasted no time and straddled the soldier pummeling his face until it was just a bloody pulp.
Standing up I walked over to the hole, stepped through and grabbed my gun. I then went through the four soldiers and put a bullet through each of their skulls just to make sure. When it was all said and done I found a piece of rubble and sat down on it. Removing my helmet I let out a low groan, I could feel the bruises from the shots that hit my armor already forming. Sighing I put my helmet back on and went to check the soldiers bodies.
Checking them they all had filed down teeth, burnt off fingerprints and no discerning marks I could find. Exactly like when Ceelo had been taken. These guys were Cerberus, no doubt about it. That or the Shadow Broker. Neither was exactly appealing but it is what it is.
Sitting back down on the pile of debris I contemplated what to do with the bodies. I sat there for a couple minutes thinking up a solution when one of their omni-tools lit up. A message just went through and it caught my eye.
Walking up to the omni-tool I checked the message. It was from Miranda Lawson and it read as such: my men have flatlined. I know you are alive, we should talk - The Illusive Man. I sighed. I honestly had expected this at some point but not now. I'm too god damn tired for this but I'll answer the call. So I typed out a message and sent it back, one word. When?
The answer came back within moments after I sent it.
Miss T'Soni's place of work. Tomorrow, 2pm.
When the message came through the omni-tool dissolved. As did the rest of the omni-tools. Though the bodies remained. Sighing, I dialed Liara's number and called her. She answered after the third ring.
"Wynne, what the hell?" she spoke wake and alert but had definitely just woken up.
"I need a body pickup near the dilapidated hotel below shuttle station 12C."
"You got hit?" I nodded my head. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need to get the bodies out of here and I'll have to move because of this," she played on her omni-tool for a few moments before responding.
"Authorities will be there in three hours, I initiated a delayed notification for them. Anything else?"
"Yeah, tomorrow at 2 o'clock I'll be swinging by your office."
"Why?" there was an accusatory look in her eyes
"I got a meeting with the man who sent the soldiers. Meeting place is your office," the look she had intensified.
"I assume you didn't exactly have a choice in that."
"No."
"Then I'll expect you here. You should start to pack up Wynne, time's ticking."
I spent the hour packing everything up. Everything that I had was pretty bare bones at the moment. Just clothes, weapons and equipment. There wasn't much though and at the end I was able to put it all into a backpack and two suitcases. One of those suitcases had my extra equipment and the bomb I had just made. It was fine in there since it needed an external power source to go off.
Once everything was packed up I made my way to the private hanger Liara had gotten me a month ago for the ship. I had to put away my armor and stuff it into one of the suitcases along with my helmet before getting a cab to the hanger. I wasn't particularly happy about that but it was damn near on the other side of town and I wasn't about to walk 3 hours with a full backpack and 2 suitcases. Would've been too much of a hassle and I was too tired.
Anyways, 30 minutes later I was putting everything into my ship. I had to leave my food back at my place so I had nothing to eat either which sucked. At least after another 30 or so minutes I had everything else put away and my cargo hold had been made into my equipment room.
Once that was all done I went to my bedroom and passed out. I woke up around 5 am and ran around the small hangar for over an hour. It wasn't my favorite thing to do but I needed to run, get the kinks out of my body. Didn't exactly help with the bruises that already formed from last night but it made the soreness a little more bearable.
Once I was done I took my bomb and made my way to Povus' place of work. It wasn't all that hard to shut down the camera's and then set up the bomb in his engine. With that done I left and went back to the hangar. That took me until about 11 to get there and back and with that done I just sat around and waited until 1. When 1 o'clock came around I got dressed in a nice suit and made my way to Liara's office. I got there at just about 1:30
"Can I help you?" her receptionist asked me as I walked up. Wasn't this girl working for the Shadow Broker? I can't fucking remember.
"I'm Miss T'Soni's 2 o'clock," I responded dismissively, pretending to barely pay attention to her.
"She'll be right with you. You can take a seat," While doing so I turned on my omni-tool and started hacking my way into her terminal. I didn't find anything incriminating at the moment. A few minutes later the door to her office opened and I went in.
"It's good to see you Wynne," were the first words out of her mouth. I smiled in return and went in for a hug. She returned it with a small smile on her face.
"You too Liara. Everything okay in your world?"
"As good as it can be. Nothing extravagant but I like it that way."
"You never told me how you got into the info business. I've been curious as to why?" she looked away from me for a few moments before responding.
"I had to do something I'm not the most proud of. But I had to do it."
"For Shepard?" her eyes shot to me instantly. She took a deep breath before reaching under her desk and pulling up a bottle and two glasses. She poured the alcohol into both glasses before offering me one and I accepted.
"Yes, for Shepard. How did you know?"
"Call it faith. I never believed him to be truly dead. What did you do?"
"Made a deal with the Devil. One that I'm sure Shepard won't be happy about."
"Cerberus?" I asked innocently and again her eyes snapped to me. After a long moment she nodded her head. I reached over to her and grabbed her hand.
"We do what we have to for love Liara. All things considered, it could have been much worse. You could have sold him to the Reapers."
"Never… But thank you for your words Wynne. When will this person be calling?"
"Soon. And you'll probably know him if he's the one that makes the call."
"The Illusive Man?"
"Yep. How'd you know?"
"Not that hard to figure out. Especially with the chatter going around," that was new.
"What chatter?"
"Cerberus wants you Wynne. I haven't been able to figure out their true intentions but they want you on a leash at the very least," I let out a small bark of laughter at that.
"I can't be contained. Or controlled. I work for no one besides those I deem worthy. And Cerberus as a whole isn't worthy."
"And if Shepard comes back with them? What will you do?"
"As long as Shepard is still Shepard. I will do what I did before, walk through hell for the man," Liara shook her head for a little bit before looking back to me, tears in her eyes.
"I don't know how you have this much faith in him. I loved him and I didn't have this much faith."
"It's because I know what he is Liara. He's a beacon for hope and unity. Without him the Reapers will kill us all, we need him and if I die protecting him then I'll die protecting the future of all species," silently she looked at me for a few moments before downing the rest of her drink.
"I've missed your particular brand of insanity Wynne," she said smiling.
"Always happy to help. You should keep a closer eye on your receptionist by the way."
"Your paranoia acting up?"
"Damn near always yeah. She's off though, I think she's working for someone else."
"Any evidence?"
"No. Just my paranoia."
"I'll take it under consideration then," I smiled and brought my drink up to my mouth. When I did Liara's terminal began to ring. She gave me a meaningful look before the window in her office darkened and then lit up. There wasn't anything there for a moment before the Cerberus logo popped up. That was it though before the voice came through.
"Torchbearer."
"Timmy!" I said it the same exact way Timmy said his own name from South Park. If you haven't seen him say his own name please for dear god look it up. It got the reaction I wanted too, a long drag of a cigarette which was the closest I would get to a sigh from the man.
"I would like to offer you a job."
"Unless it has anything to do with Shepard I'll pass."
"Commander Shepard is in no condition to do anything at the moment."
"Then go on."
"I believe Shepard. I believe the Reapers are coming, I assume you do too?"
"Of course. If we aren't ready soon the Reapers will kill all of us."
"Then help humanity become greater. Do what needs to be done so that we are at the Apex of all species."
"And everyone who opposes us," Liara gave me a sideways look at that.
"They will be cast aside when we take over. If they don't join, then they are of no importance to us," It wasn't that bad of a deal honestly but I knew what this would lead to.
For all my faults I knew what type of person I was. I was the type to do whatever needed to be done to get the job done but what would that mean? What type of person would I become in the years to come and what type of person would Cerberus shape me into? If I even took one step down that road I feared the type of person I would become. The one to sacrifice millions for the barest of progress and that was something that was unacceptable. I would become the worst type of monster.
"I'll have to pass Tim. When Shepard wakes though, call me and I'll be there."
"That… is disappointing," and then he cut the connection. Fuck, that isn't good.
"I need to leave Illium," I spoke after a few seconds of silence. "He'll keep coming for me and I can't be here for that. He'll fuck up the whole city to get me."
"You believe that?"
"I'm an anomaly he isn't in control of. He'll do anything to get me under control."
"Where will you go?"
"I got a few ideas. But I'll call her first, see what she has to say," I said with a small smile.
"Tali?"
"Bingo."
"She'll be overjoyed. Should I call her," Liara spoke with a knowing smile but I didn't care. I didn't exactly keep it a secret and neither did she. We like each other, just were in the middle of deciding what to do about it. Tali was the best girl after all.
"Yes," Liara immediately pulled up Tali's contact info and called Tali. She answered after two rings.
"Hello? Who i-... Aedon!" she completely ignored Liara but Liara didn't make a big deal out of it. Just accepted it.
"Hey Tali. Mind if I come by the fleet? Need a place to stay for a little bit."
"O-of course. Is this channel secure?"
"Yes," Liara answered
"Oh! How are you Liara?"
"I've been good Tali. Send the info and Aedon," she emphasised the word giving a knowing look to both of us. I didn't care at all but Tali looked a bit sheepish, "will be on his way."
"Okay. Transferring info," two seconds later the coordinates for the Migrant Fleet came through. "Let me know when you're close Aedon. So you don't get shot out of the sky."
"I'll be sure to let you know Tali," I said with a smile. "I'll see you soon," now I don't know if she was smiling for sure because of her mask but I could tell that she was happy just from the way she was moving her body. That made me inordinately happy.
"Then I'll see you soon."
"You will," and then Liara cut the connection.
"Looks like you have a date to get to."
"That I do. Thank you Liara, if anything crosses your desk you need help with let me know. By the way, Povus will be dead by the end of the day."
"Car bomb?"
"Car bomb."
"As soon as it's confirmed I'll send over the money. Your ride should be completely full on gas. When will you be leaving?"
"As soon as I get my money for Povus."
"Then I wish you luck. Say hi to Tali for me will you."
"Of course Liara," I stood up and opened my arms for a hug. She came to my arms and hugged me. Stayed there for a few moments before I separated from her.
With a nod of my head I left her office and made my way to the private hangar. I stopped along the way and picked up some food from the grocery store and put it in the fridge when I got to my ship. Sighing as I finished putting the food away I put on my helmet and armor, feeling safe again.
Are you okay Pilot? I detect an elevated heart rate.
"Yeah, I'm fine Sam. Thanks for asking. We'll be going to the Migrant Fleet soon though, I'll need you to be careful. They might think you're an AI and try to delete you. I'd rather not have that."
Acknowledged Pilot. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Will we be seeing Tali again?
"Yes."
I like her. She's nice.
"I do too Sam."
A few hours later Povus died to the car bomb I had planted. Mere minutes after his death was reported by the news I got a wire transfer for 350K credits. With that I started up the ship, with the help of Sam's instruction, and left Illium. I felt a bit bad about leaving so early into my tenure there but it couldn't be helped.
A lot of the people here were good people, loosely, and I wasn't willing to let them get caught in the crossfire. Either way I left Illium and within a few hours hit the Relay and made my way to the Valhallan Threshold. Mere seconds after I hit the Relay I was able to spot the fleet. It wasn't all that hard to spot 50K ships in the middle of space no matter how much space was between us. I then began to make my way there.
I sent a message to Tali letting her know I was in system and she sent me the passcode to get through the blockade. Memorizing the passcode I prepared to say it. That being said I was still prepared to get the hell out of there in case things went south. Can never be too prepared.
Roughly an hour or so later I got a notification on the HUD of my ship. Allowing the communication to go through a Quarian voice popped up from my ship's terminal.
"Our system doesn't have an identification for your ship. Identify."
"I stand against the abyss of destiny. Serving alongside those who share the same fate."
"Permission granted, friend of the fleet. A Marine squad will meet you when you dock."
"My ship is not clean and I request to dock on the Rayya. Is that possible?" There was silence on the other end for a few moments before the voice responded.
"Yes. A quarantine team will meet you when you dock along with 3 Marine squads. Proceed to the coordinates."
The coordinates came through and I followed them. A couple minutes later I was docking on the Rayya. As soon as the air lock opened with me in it, full up on armor and weapons, a quarantine team came through and began to clean the entire area. Once that was done they cautiously stepped away from me as I continued through the airlock.
Getting through the airlock three Quarian Marine Squads were all staring down the barrels of their guns at me. I made no moves to my weapons and stayed still and scanned the crowd. My eyes stopped on Tali and without thinking I made to move towards her. Completely ignoring the shouts of the Marines to stop and desist.
As soon as I started to walk towards her she started to walk towards me. We met in the middle and embraced in a hug. It felt good to be around her again, even if it would only be briefly. After a few seconds into the embrace we both pulled back from each other, arms still around the others waist and shoulders respectively.
"Sorry for the wait," I whispered loud enough for only her to hear.
"No messages Aedon. I am not happy."
"I'll make it up to you," I sheepishly replied. She had gotten that fiery look in her eyes, the same one she had after the omni-gel mishap. I liked it.
"You better," I went to continue the conversation but before I could someone cleared their throat next to me. Turning my head there was a Quarian standing there. He was garbed in what looked like ornamental parts to his suit. They weren't gaudy though and gave off a more intelligent vibe. I connected the dots after a second or two of silence.
"Admiral Zorah," I spoke, taking a step away from his daughter and stretching out my hand to him. "It's good to meet you in person," he took my hand after a moment.
"Likewise Torchbearer. I hope you brought gifts," Tali made to say something but I simply held up my hand to her.
"Of course. It would be better to discuss them in private, you may bring whomever you wish but I request some of your food be present, we may be there a bit and I already had my dinner."
Admiral Zorah gave me a quizzical look for a second before nodding his acceptance. Then he began to give out orders to everyone around us, even Tali. However, Tali didn't respond to any of her fathers orders and grabbed onto my hand with her own refusing to let go. I responded in kind by intertwining my fingers with her three and refusing to let go as well. Admiral Zorah saw this and quietly resigned himself not to interfere.
A couple of minutes later the area was cleared and a Marine Squad escorted us to a secure room. In the Marine Squad was Kal'reegar, I could tell from his red armor, and he was giving me apprehensive yet curious looks. I filed it under something to check later. Either way they escorted us to a room where some Quarian food was set down in the middle of a table.
As soon as we entered the room I seated myself on one side while Tali's father sat opposite of me. Tali had untwined our hands and sat at the head of the table in total silence. We sat there in silence until I undid my helmet, still with makeup on, and quickly reached out towards the Quarian food.
The Marines made to say something and stop me. They weren't the only ones though as both Tali and father did the same but neither were able to stop me. I had grabbed a bit of their food and shoved it down my mouth. At this everyone stilled for a moment as I swallowed their food and then the Marines began to prepare for something to happen to me. Only for nothing to happen.
"So," I spoke, staring at Admiral Zorah after a few seconds of silence, "As you can see. I am the gift."
There we go folks. The end of Illium's admittedly short arc, didn't want to waste too much time here. The Migrant Fleet is next obviously.
Review to help me get better. I wish you all a great Christmas!