"Glyph, what the hell?" Del asked. "Why did you leave the target?"
"She did not wish to be disturbed. And she wished me to shoot you."
"Did you explain to her you are not a combat drone?" Liara asked.
"I attempted to do so, but that is when she informed me that she did not wish to be further disturbed."
"I don't care what she said, go disturb her!" Del said. "And don't obey any more of her orders."
"As you wish," he said, and zipped off into the dark again.
The teams split up again, continuing deeper into the vaults. Only a few minutes after Del had sent Glyph back after her doppelganger, did he report back with her location.
"We'll have to cut down through the lower level," Liara said, but as they started down the steps another rattle of gunfire echoed in the distance.
"Report!"
{Just a handful of pyjacks, we're fine,} Wrex said.
{Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I can hear whimpering from all the way over here,} Vega said.
{That would be me, sorry!} Brooks said, before Wrex could respond.
{Shepard, we're heading down as well, we've got a route,} Ashley said. {I think that-}
Tali's tap into Cat6 picked up again just then, and she broke off as some of the merc chatter filtered through.
{I think Shepard is still alive!}
{The next fucking person who says that I will fucking shoot myself!} the clone raged back. {How hard is it to blow that bitch's head off? I just need a few more minutes, god damn it!}
A booming krogan voice echoed loud through the Archives, audible even without the comm connection. Wrex sounded downright gleeful as he called out, "SHEPARD IS STILL ALIVE!"
{Shit! Can they…can they hear us?}
{Get them off our line! Shit, shit, shit!}
{Well, they have a quarian, and an AI, I mean-}
{You incompetent assholes didn't secure the goddamn comms properly? I am going to fuck you with my shotgun so hard you'll shit pistols!}
Wrex's laugh was almost as loud as his shout had been. Del let out a snort, desperately trying to contain her own laugh. "I need to remember that one."
{Shepard, they have blocked Tali's comm patch,} EDI reported.
"How fast can you get it back?"
{It will take some time-}
"I do not believe we have to bother, we have her positive position from Glyph. It should not take much longer to reach her on our path," Liara said.
"Don't worry about it, EDI. Everyone just keep moving."
On the ground floor and off the catwalks, they entered into a lower complex that seemed set up for analytics, or administration work. A series of holographic suites were more or less powered down, but would allow a visual record to be played in the same three-dimensional holographic manner as VI assistants or vid-calls.
Del could see Liara slowing down a little, her eyes lingering longingly on some of the input consoles, and smiled affectionately. She looked like a little kid being forced to walk through a candy store without pause. "Li?"
"I am sorry, I just…the amount of knowledge that must be contained here-"
"I know."
"How much do you want to bet that there are vid records down of the Council discussing the Reaper threat amongst each other, while at the same time handing the galaxy a handful of crap about how they don't really exist?" Garrus asked. Del scowled.
"If there are, better I don't hear them," she said. "I…"
She had reached the far door of this particular block when she suddenly paused and looked around.
"What?" Liara asked. "What is it?"
"Is it just me, or have all the bad jokes stopped?" Del asked, and touched the side of her helmet. "Mako? Hammerhead? You guys still out there?"
She could hear the hum of an open line, but no response.
"Report! Let me know you are still on the line!"
Nothing.
"Shepard, I have a direct text line to Glyph," Liara said. "He believes they are jamming the comms."
"I guess Evil Shepard decided to just block everything to solve the problem of us tapping into their feeds," Garrus said.
"I so can't wait to put a serious hurt on her. Let's keep moving."
As they stepped through the door and onto what looked like a loading dock for the vaults, gunfire cracked again through the air- the familiar ratcheting sound of yet another heavy, mingled with a lot of return fire. Del broke into a run, Liara and Garrus hot on her heels.
On the far side of the platform, there were a few open vaults awaiting loading. Past those was a second platform, and as Shepard reached the vaults, she could see the staccato flashing of weapons and hear a few cries of pain. A large loading crate was blocking a direct view of the battle.
A familiar black fury swept over her. If that bitch and her goons had so much as scuffed the pads of her crew-
She ran through the first open vault and jumped onto the second. She crossed it in a heartbeat, little of her speed lost with the jump, when a blue curtain of light suddenly snapped up in front of her.
She had no time to slow or even stop. She hit the barrier curtain with her full momentum, colliding so hard she left her feet as she rebounded backward, crashing to the ground with a bark of pain.
"Del!"
Liara was there even as Del registered what had happened, taking hold of her. Shepard brushed her off, coughing a little as she got to her feet, quickly looking around.
The entire open vault had been sealed in the barrier. Lifting the butt of her rifle she slammed it into the energy field with a snarl of rage, but of course it had no effect other than to send a cascade of crackling lightning dancing over the curtain.
On the other platform, the flashing lights and sound of gunfire had stopped. Around the loading container that had blocked her view of the fight, came a single figure.
"Well, hello again," Salinos said. He was holding something in his hand, something small that she couldn't make out.
"Wang ba dan! Cao, if they're fucking hurt-"
"You'll do what, precisely?" he asked. "Sweat in my general direction?"
She tore her helmet off, slamming that into the curtain as well. Naturally it bounced right off, dropping at her feet.
"My, my! That temper really will get you into trouble someday," he said, then squeezed the whatever-it-was in his hand. As he did, a holographic projection of flashing lights, roaring gunfire, and cries of pain emanated from it, before he switched it off again. "You are so incredibly predictable."
"Yes, she is. But what else can you expect from a stupid gutter punk?"
Salinos didn't even bother to look around as another stepped from around the corner.
"I've got what I need," Not-Del said, reaching his side and then eyeing the three trapped in the vault. "How are you feeling, gutter punk? Trapped like a rat in a sewer? It should seem like home to you."
"Where are my crew?"
"Where are my crew," Salinos mocked in a whiny voice. "Oh, pwease, pwease don't hurt my fwiends!"
Not-Shepard laughed. "Pathetic," she agreed. "This is so fitting, isn't it, gutter punk? We've programmed that vault as hazardous material, no access for at least a hundred and sixty years. Not that it'll make much difference to you. Best I figure, once we shut you up in there, you've got about an hour before you run out of air. By the time someone opens that vault up again you'll be nothing but dust; dust to be swept right back into the gutter where you belong."
"You are pretty obsessed with gutters," Garrus said coolly. "You should probably see a therapist about that."
She ignored him, still glaring at Del. "Your time is done. The Cult of Shepard is over. I've got your Spectre codes, your hand print ID, even the Normandy's command codes. I've got all the logs and records I need to slip seamlessly into your ship and your life. I'll stop the Reapers, I'll be the hero, and you'll get what you deserve- rotting away with your crew, locked and forgotten in iridium vaults, like the trash you are."
Salinos activated his omni tool. "Any last words before we seal you in?"
Del's voice was low and even as she said. "Don't get too comfortable, either of you. Enjoy your last breaths of free air. I'll be seeing you soon."
Not-Del snorted, then rolled her eyes. "Lock that fucking mu gou in and let's go."
Salinos hit a command on the tool and the vault jarred before it slid into its housing, closing them in the dark. Del stood, arms folded and fingers tapping on her pads as Garrus and Liara both lit their omni tools, cutting back the dark. The floor jolted more under foot, and she felt a swing in her belly as the vault was lifted high into the air, turned into a slot on the wall, and locked in.
Just one in a sea of millions, Del thought.
"I think she may have overestimated the amount of air we'll have," Garrus said, looking around. "I give us forty-five minutes at best."
"Do I really swear that fucking much?" Del asked, looking over at him. He blinked at her.
"Uh, as much as she was?"
"Yeah. I don't really curse that much, do I? I mean, I'm open for feedback you know. It's not ladylike to talk like that."
Liara smiled a little, gently, as Garrus gaped at her. "Uh…"
Del grinned. "Relax, asshole. What? The rest of the fucking crew can drop bad jokes all over the place but I don't even get one? Fuck that noise."
"I take it we have a way out of here," Garrus said dryly.
"I don't," Del said, and gestured at her love. "She does."
"I love that you know me so well, Shepard," Liara said gently, then touched her omni-tool. "Glyph?"
{I have already located the vaults containing the rest of the crew,} the little bot said chipperly. {They have not been injured. I have gained entrance into the automatic controls. They are being returned to ground level and released now. I shall have your vault returning to ground level in just under 3.2 minutes.}
"Just relax, it's almost over," Carter said as he sat back in the skycar, only half glancing at the brooding storm cloud in the seat beside him.
"I've heard that before," she said, and gave him a dark look. "Didn't you say that just before our men went into Ryuusei? Fuck, Rick, they should have just walked up and put a bullet into her head. I told you it was a stupid fucking idea."
"No, we've talked about this," he said. "They could not kill her in public, not like that. Our man puts a bullet through her eye and then what? She's dead and gone in front of thirty or forty witnesses? Hard to take over her life after that."
"She's been dead before," she snorted. "No one seems to bat a fucking eyelash when she comes back. This would have just been one more time."
"It would have created more problems than it would have solved," he said, ignoring her scowl.
The whole scene at the restaurant hadn't been to kill Shepard, though if it had happened he certainly wouldn't have shed many tears over it. No, the plan had been more or less what had happened- get Shepard on her own and hopefully injured, get her to call an alarm with C-Sec and use her Spectre access codes so that they could intercept them. Go down with a C-Sec shuttle and pick her up. Eliminate her quietly on the shuttle, his Shepard steps off that shuttle again and takes her place, with no one the wiser a switch had even been made.
The clone, however, had other ideas. As much as he needed her, she was becoming a right pain in the ass.
Much like the real Shepard, he thought. They do have at least that in common.
What Rick hadn't been counting on was a staff analyst picking up their initial hacking into the Spectre's omni-tool to get control of her accounts. That little bitch's interference had created quite the mess, as she helped Shepard alert the real C-Sec and members of her own crew to come and help her. His Shepard had been incensed when she found out that Shepard had survived Ryuusei, and had ordered the men to use mini-guns to take her out in the car lot, rather than just letting her get aboard the C-Sec shuttle as was planned. Granted, the asari had been there as well, but she could have been taken out just as easily.
In fact, it would have been even better, taking out the asari on the shuttle with the real Shepard. The story could be told that Liara had been badly injured in the firefight at the lot, and had passed away from her wounds on the shuttle.
They had already planned to take her out, and those closest to Shepard on her crew, in that fake Reaper battle- a means to not only get them out of the way but to explain away any odd missteps in manner or personality the replacement Del would have made. Liara dying on the shuttle and 'Del' being torn apart with grief would have only worked to their advantage.
But she had been too impatient. She ordered the mini-guns against his knowledge and then, when Shepard wasn't killed (again), tried to do it herself by hitting her with a skycar and throwing her off the lot.
I could even have spun that in our favor but no. The asari had to play hero and save her life, and then they both disappeared, along with most of the Normandy crew.
Knowing that there was a chance they would have traced one or more of Cat6's weapons, Carter had gone and taken care of the problem of Elijah Kahn. How delighted he'd been when he'd spotted his quarry in the casino, dropped like a neatly wrapped gift right into his lap! He hadn't found the chance to eliminate her there, but he at least had his fingers back on her pulse. Introducing himself as Tal Salinos, a man who had ties to one of Shepard's few weaknesses (her rather idiotic fan-crush on that talentless Flatwood), it would have been nothing to arrange a 'private' meeting with her and Flatwood that would have, once again, quietly gotten her out of the picture.
But even that couldn't go right.
Time and again Del Shepard had been gift-wrapped and handed to them on a silver platter, only for things to go sour.
He had learned his lesson. Although there was no possible way that he could see for Shepard and her crew to get out of those vaults, he wanted to be ready just in case.
As he started to lower the skycar, Not-Del looked out of the window and lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "This isn't the dock. I thought we were going to pick up the Normandy?"
"We are, but not just yet. There are a few more loose ends yet to knot, and I need to pick up some insurance."
Turning the skycar one last time, he gently lowered it to the private landing pad of the penthouse suite apartment. The door at the far end of the pad opened up and a pair of human women spoke briefly with each other, before the taller started toward them.
"Are you sure you have her down?" he asked, as he switched off the car.
"Positive."
"Excellent. Then let's not keep these two lovely loose ends waiting."
