Wincing away from the macabre display of twitching limbs and flickering lights, Shepard resisted the urge to cross herself. "Are they in pain?" she whispered, not sure afterward if she'd spoken aloud or not. It almost seemed indecent to speak at full volume, like when she was six and her aunt caught her laughing merrily and running around the local cemetery. Enough nightmares lurked in the hidden corners and passages of her mind without being haunted by slaughtered geth.
Steeling herself, she edged forward, Roger sweeping the narrow tunnel that cut through the carnage. That tunnel . . .. She peered into a low-hanging spot, a flashlight head dangling down, dark headlamp staring straight through her. They'd have to crawl through. The further they progressed, the blacker and stranger the place became.
Oh good, you've found the tunnel to hell, Janey. Don't you just visit the nicest places?
"Are they suffering?" she asked again.
"Geth do not feel pain as organics do," Legion supplied. It stopped, its omnitool flaring to life as it scanned one of the twitching chassis. "This platform is experiencing a short in its motor functions. Higher level processes have ceased."
Shepard nodded, relieved. Even enemies didn't deserve to be stuck up like flies awaiting the spider's fangs.
"I guess we know why we didn't meet any resistance on the way in," Garrus's voice barely managed to cross the two metres between them. "Whatever the hell these things are, they're efficient killers." He ducked under a heretic stuck to the ceiling of the tunnel, its arms hanging down. "Why would they stick the platforms up like this?"
"Possible territorial response," Legion replied. "The lifeforms gain nothing by storing units as a nutritional source."
Shepard let out a startled chuckle-cough. "Yeah, I think we're safe ruling out their using the heretics as food." She nodded toward the tunnel. "Let's keep moving. Stay sharp. I don't want to end up stuck into this mess." Leading the way, she got down on her knees and crawled through the narrow passage. On the other side, she helped pull Garrus through and up onto his feet before taking point once more. She picked a weaving path through the room, following the sound of a malfunctioning door. Webbing stuck it half open, caught in a continual cycle of trying to close, then retracting back.
Like every horror movie in the history of the galaxy doesn't have the stuck retractable door.
She shuddered. The dread that had gripped her from the moment they entered the facility's garage sunk its claws deeper into her spine, sending sharp, stabbing pains through the muscles in her neck and into her skull. The headache from earlier dug its fingers back in, sharp nails burrowing through to her eyes. Darkness pushed in from the outside, narrowing her field of vision, but she took several slow, deep breaths and managed to push it back.
Setting her jaw, Shepard crawled through first. Legion followed, the both of them needing to pry the door open to get Garrus through.
"You know, I think I'll tell evolution that I'm going to stick with my bra and the whole flopping issue, Brother C-Sec," Shepard sighed once they pulled him loose. "That carapace is a pain in tight spaces."
He dusted himself off and cracked his neck. "Well, females have smaller ones." His mandibles fluttered. "Beautiful necks too, very elegant. Don't get me started on their waists . . . ankles . . .."
Shepard shook her head at the note of teasing wistfulness in his voice and took the lead. "Holy blessed backsides of the Enkindlers, you're rampaging through TMI territory, Brother C-Sec." His answering chuckle forced a smile onto her face. He could be such a brat.
The grisly walls closed in tighter, a ghoul's embrace that wrapped steel bands around Shepard's throat and chest, as the trio picked their way through a large, curved room and a short corridor. Although she could stand upright most of the way, here and there mechanical corpses created choke points, forcing them to crawl or even wriggle through on their bellies. Heretic fingers scraped over her shoulder and down her back, stabbing the urge to run into every muscle, every nerve. Exhaustion wore her down, the constant tension and dread more debilitating than ten bullet wounds. At least bullet holes could be treated with a hefty shot of medigel. All she could do against the fear was grit her teeth and force one foot in front of the other.
She reached the lab door to find it sealed. After running several bypass programs, trying to get past the locks, she crouched and turned to face her squad. "It's complete fried, just like the other entrance off the tram station. I can't bypass it.".
"I'm getting the feeling someone has barricaded the lab," Garrus said.
Shepard nodded. "Hopefully a whole lot of friendly someones." She studied the door a little closer. "I've got nothing that will cut through material this thick."
"This platform's omnitool is equipped with a cutting laser," Legion stated. Shepard crouched down a little lower to see the geth past the bulk of Garrus's armour. The unit cocked its head a little one way then the other.
Shepard sighed. There wasn't enough room in the tunnel for Legion to get past her let alone Garrus. "We're going to have to back up to a spot big enough for you to take point, Brother Legion. Let's get in there." They backtracked about five metres before they reached a spot with enough room for them to change positions.
Shepard watched Legion take point, her stomach clenching so tight that, for a few moments, she worried she'd embarrass herself one way or another. Since Elysium, she'd made a career of being the first one into danger, the shield that soaked up bullets before they could hurt anyone else. Sending the geth in ahead of her killed a piece of her, but other than Legion crawling back out so they could shuffle the order again, she didn't have much choice.
"Make the hole as big as you can, Legion," she called into the tunnel. "We have to get Mr. Elegant-neck-giant-carapace through." Her lips quirked a little when she saw Garrus shake his head. The half-smile bled away as she watched him shift uneasily, eyes and weapon in constant motion. C-Sec had joined her insane mission voluntarily, eagerly even, but . . ..
Despite feeling like you can't function without him at your back, you know that you should've left him on the Citadel, Janey. No matter what, this adventure isn't going to end well for all of them. He deserved that other life.
Shepard nodded. Yeah, Garrus deserved better. Hell, all her people did.
"See if you can't clear a little room inside the door as well. I'd rather avoid you going in without us covering you," she said, pushing up as close as she dare with sparks of molten steel flying everywhere.
She lifted her hand to her ear. "Nihlus?"
"I read you, Shepard. What's your sitrep?"
"Hunkered down in a creepy-ass tunnel made out of freaky spider webbing and dead geth heretics. We're waiting for Legion to cut its way through a door. How long do we have before annihilation?"
"Sixty-five minutes."
Shepard set her omnitool to count down. "Roger that."
"Task complete, Shepard-Captain," Legion called back. "However, route of ingress is blocked by a crate too heavy for this platform to move. Requesting assistance."
"Got to go, Nihlus. Shepard out." She chuckled at the exasperated sigh that preceded the channel closing. It did him good to wait around. Patience definitely wasn't his primary virtue. She cut off her inner voice before it got through the first syllable of its retort.
Dropping down onto her hands and knees, she crawled up beside Legion, wedging herself into the small space. Luckily, he'd cut some of the webbing away as well, so she could crouch next to the door. Setting her shoulder into the crate, she braced herself, three fingers counting down.
Three . . . two . . . one.
Digging in, they managed to move it about six inches.
"Sweet baby Jesus, what's in this thing?" she whispered. "Osmium?"
"Osmium is unlikely due to its comparative rarity," Legion replied.
"Thank you, Brother Literal." She slammed her shoulder back into the crate. "Come on, let's get this thing moved."
"You taking any fire up there?" Garrus asked, peering through a narrowing in the tunnel. "I feel like I've gone deaf it's so damned quiet in here."
Shepard held his stare as she listened then shook her head. "No, you haven't lost your hearing. This whole place is just fucking creepy-ass silent." As far as she could tell, a pin dropping on the other side of the crate would resound like a cannon shot. Her teeth squeaked as she clenched down. If it was just another empty room . . ..
Pushing that thought aside, she dug in her feet and pressed her back into the polymer box once more. Whatever waited there . . . horror, survivors, or nothing, they needed to get past the damned crate to find out. It took them five tries, but finally it shifted enough for them to crawl out and get some decent leverage.
Shepard wedged herself through the narrow space and stopped dead, horror and denial battling for control as her mind tried to process the carnage spread out before her. Geth, krogan, asari, and even the human husk creatures lay heaped into a long, grisly pile, their sheer numbers staggering. More than a hundred bodies lie stacked like cordwood or sandbags banked to stem a flood.
"Oh my sweet baby Jesus," she whispered, her entire body flushing numb and cold, her blood replaced by ice water. She stumbled two steps forward on wooden legs, then ground to a halt again. The massacre represented someone's last stand, all those lives . . . those people throwing themselves in front of the enemy to hold back a terrible tide.
Garrus bumped into her from behind, nudging her forward until he had room to stand. His warm, solid presence returned enough feeling that she realized she'd let Roger sag in her hands, its barrel almost touching the floor. Arms stiff and argumentative, she lifted him to high ready, bracing the stock in against her shoulder.
A strong hand rested on her shoulder, gently moving her a foot to her right. "Spirits," the turian whispered. He stepped around her, his assault rifle leading as he picked his way forward, trying to bypass the pile without stepping on the bodies.
Shepard turned to Legion, pushing back the cold and paralysis. "Legion, left flank. Garrus, sweep to the right. I'll go up the middle. Don't take any chances." Taking a deep breath, she shook off the rest of her reaction, breathing in time with her steps. Warrior inside and out . . . at least until they got clear of that hell.
A set of stairs stood before her, the length of them strewn with asari bodies, all clad in the leather armour of commandos. She slid her gaze over them without allowing herself to linger on the terrible wounds that punctured torsos and severed limbs. Here and there she spotted one of the strange, crayfish-spider corpses amidst the others, but how could so few of them have killed so many? Maybe they took their dead with them, but if that was the case . . ..
At the top of the stairs, a platform opened up to the right, the section ahead of her leading to a set of stairs back down. The door at the bottom said it led back to the tram: the first barricaded door they encountered when they arrived at Rift Station. More bodies lay there, but facing toward her, as if they'd fought to cover someone's retreat.
A soft sigh of sound to Shepard's right drew her attention. An asari in a long, formal gown and headdress lay, half propped up against a broken crate. Blood stained her dress almost a uniform violet, yet her chest hitched in a faint flutter.
"Lady Benezia?" Shepard walked over, eyes scanning the room for attack. Her heart flipped back and forth between hope and fear. Answers. At last, but suddenly she wasn't sure if she wanted them. How had the universe turned from comprehensible to . . . this madness in a few short weeks?
The asari's eyes opened. "Shepard?" Her voice came out thin, but with an underlying strength that left Shepard with no doubt as to why she remained alive. She'd willed herself to wait. A hand, the fingers broken, reached out. "Must hurry."
Crouching by the matriarch's side, Shepard shook her head. "I've got medigel. We can get you out of here. Liara is on my ship."
A smile drifted like mist across the severe, beautiful face. "Tell her . . . tell her that she's my greatest joy. I'm so proud that she forged her own path." Her hand rested on Shepard's boot, and the captain reached down to cradle it in hers. The skin felt cold and clammy. "You must listen, Shepard." Benezia's eyes closed. "Save the queen. The Reapers are afraid of her, of the rachni."
"Rachni?" Shepard lowered herself to one knee. "That's what killed all these people?" She glanced up, movement behind a thick layer of glass attracting her attention. A creature hunkered down within a large container. "Is that the queen? Why would I save her when all this death . . .?" She stammered to a halt. "Where are all the people who worked here?"
The hand in Shepard's twitched, as if shattered nerves ordered broken bones to squeeze her fingers. "Not the queen's fault. Saren . . . found her egg, thought to enslave offspring, turn them into an army. Separated . . . driven mad." She gasped, the breath whistling as she exhaled. "Save the queen. The Reapers cannot win."
Shepard glanced behind her as Garrus and Legion arrived on the platform, her heart beating stronger with the other part of her warrior-self returning to its rightful place.
"She's the only living soul, Shepard," Garrus reported.
The captain nodded. "Legion, start cutting us a way out of here through that other door."
"Affirmative."
After the geth walked away, Shepard turned back to the matriarch. "What's Saren after?" she asked, her voice soft and gentle. "Why is he doing this?"
Benezia's eyes fluttered but didn't open. "He discovered artifact . . . led to Sovereign. Is indoctrinated. The council . . . all indoctrinated. They believe they can convince Reapers to spare our races. A trade." The asari slumped. "Trade your race . . . other races to save theirs. Must stop."
Shepard swallowed the fear that statement prompted, forcing herself to focus as dizziness and dissociation tried to take hold. Breathing deep, she threw up a wall to hold that storm at bay. "He thinks he can bring them back? How?"
"Conduit. Great key . . . opens to dark space." Her hand managed to grip Shepard's, the action ripping a thin shrill of agony from her lips. "Illium. Liara . . . find Aethyta. Entrusted legacy . . . holding it for Liara."
"Do you know where Saren took the quarian pilgrims?" Garrus asked. Shepard glanced back to see him crouched just behind her shoulder.
Benezia nodded, her breath fading. "Virmire. Breeding krogan . . . cure." She let out a long breath thick and rattling with the blood that trickled from her lips. "Tell Liara . . .."
Shepard stroked the cold fingers cradled in hers. "I will tell her that you love her. Rest easy."
A moment later, she laid the still hand in the matriarch's lap, knowing that just the shell remained. Faint sorrow drifted through the room like a silver cloud, a soft chiming of bells without sound. For a moment, Shepard let it move through her, mourning a woman and a beauty she'd never get the chance to know.
Her chrono flashed, fifty minutes . . . they needed to move. But first . . ..
Shepard stood and walked over to the glass to look in at the rachni queen.
"Can we risk it, Shepard?" Garrus asked. "What her offspring did here . . .. It took the full force of the krogan and the citadel's forces to bring them down before. What happens if they try to wipe us all out again?"
Shepard knew he asked a very good question. If she let the queen go, she could very well be responsible for an armageddon as terrible and final as the Reapers. However, if Benezia was right and the rachni would fight the Reapers, they'd be a hell of a force to be reckoned with. The queen's head turned to face them, her mouth? mandibles? beak? opening to press against the glass.
"Can you hear me?" Shepard called through the glass. "Can you understand me?"
An asari commando sitting slumped against the nearby computer console twitched, her head lifting to loll loosely. "We understand you."
Shepard jumped, Roger springing to her shoulder as quickly as her heart leaped back into her throat. Stumbling a little, she backed up a couple of steps, giving herself some room to react. "Wait. What?"
"This one serves as our voice. We cannot sing, not in these low spaces. Your musics are colourless." The asari staggered to her feet. Shepard edged forward, reaching out to grip the slender, blue wrist, catching the faintest twitch of a pulse before dropping the cooling flesh. Her gut churned in disgust at the indecency of dragging the dying off the floor to use as some sort of meat puppet.
The asari stepped up to the glass and turned to face them. "Your way of communicating is strange . . . flat. It does not colour the air." The asari shuddered a little as if held upright in tremulous hands. "When we speak, one moves all. We are the m . . . mother. We sing for the ones left behind. The ones you thought silenced."
"You're controlling her?" Garrus asked, his sidearm in his hand, aimed at the asari's head. He pressed up behind Shepard, the gesture of support both welcome and reassuring.
"Our kind sing through touchings of thought. One plucks the strings and the other understands. This one is weak to urging. She is ending. Her music sings with colours we have no name for, but it is bittersweet. It is beautiful."
Shepard looked between the queen and the dying asari. "Wait. This is fascinating . . . and revolting . . . but we're under a deadline here. There is a warhead about to be dropped on our heads. What the hell happened here? Benezia told me to save you, but all I can see around me are reasons to leave you in there and let that warhead wipe the rachni out . . . again."
The queen made a faint whining, mewling sound that vibrated inside Shepard's chest. "The children we birthed were stolen from us before they could learn to sing. They are lost to silence. Mad. End their suffering. They cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are."
Shepard felt as though a hand wrapped around her heart, squeezing. Sorrow that was not her own burrowed into her. "If they'd been left with you, they wouldn't be violent? They wouldn't be killing?" She stepped past the asari and up to the glass, pressing a hand against the container.
"These needlemen sought to turn them into beasts of war: claws with no song of their own. Our elders are comfortable with silence, but children know only fear if no one sings to them. Fear shattered their minds."
Shepard nodded. "Yeah, it does that."
Garrus pressed up on her again. "I don't know, Shepard. Too much rides on this to be a snap decision."
Shepard turned away from the queen to look into his eyes. For a long moment, she didn't say anything. He was right. If she made the wrong decision, she could destroy everything. Only . . ..
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him, C-Sec." Shepard glanced back through the glass and sighed. "G.K. Chesterton . . . yet another person wiser than I." She lifted a hand to the cage and the being held within. "The question then becomes, do we love what's behind us enough to give what's in front of us a chance?"
Legion walked up the stairs, returning to the edge of the platform. Its head flaps fluttered a little over its light. "Shepard-Captain, you repaired this platform and allowed geth to prove our forthright intentions despite the fact that the heretics previously attacked your people. The geth, if they wished to conquer, are as great a threat to galactic peace as the rachni, are they not?"
A thin smile pressed Shepard's lips together. She nodded and looked over at Garrus, one eyebrow raised. A tiny sigh escaped as her smile spread, a glorious feeling of humble gratitude blooming inside her chest. "I love being surrounded by people so much smarter and wiser than I am," she said. "Don't you?"
Garrus's mandibles dropped, and he rumbled low in his throat. It filled the air with his uncertainty, prickling the hair on her arms.
Her hand lifted, fingertips brushing his forearm. "Don't worry, Brother C-Sec. If the rachni turn from the Enkindlers' light, you can blame the whole thing on me. There is nothing quite as satisfying as an "I told you so' as you face the cusp of armageddon. Glory hallelujah."
He rumbled again, but the mandible flutter that accompanied it eased the tension. "I think I'd prefer to hear you say, 'I told you so' after this war is over, and we've won."
The asari took a shuffling step toward Shepard. "We stand before you. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?"
Still staring into Garrus's eyes, Shepard waited for the pendulum to stop on one side or the other. It finally did when the turian's mandibles dropped a little. He gave her a single nod that she returned.
"No, I won't condemn your race to extinction again." She walked over to the console and hit the container release. "You'll have to come with us. We'll get you clear of this hellhole and find somewhere for you to make a home."
"We understand and will follow. Your compassion and trust will sing down through the generations of our children." The dying asari settled gracefully to the floor.
Shepard stretched her neck a little, shifting uncomfortably. "Okay. First, let's get the hell out of here." She reached up to open a channel, focusing on small, simple orderly steps to keep her mind from going to the crazy place. Rachni. Saren and the council trading humans, volus, krogan . . . so many others to save the council races. Oh hell no. She shook her head. Small, sane steps. "Nihlus. Do you read?"
"I read you, Shepard. What's your situation?" The Spectre's voice sounded strained, impatient.
Shepard paced to the edge of the platform, catching a glimpse of the rachni queen as she made her way around the lab to join them. "Ah, we have the Peak 15 situation under control, but this place could use one hell of an antimatter enema."
"You've got forty-two minutes and a five kilometre safe radius, Shepard. You'd better get moving."
She groaned and nodded. Nothing like an impossible deadline to certain death to keep one focused. "Say no more, Brother Nihlus, we're running with all the swift certainty of the Enkindlers' light. Will let you know when we're clear. Shepard out."
"How much time?" Garrus asked, his mandibles pulled tight against his face. "I could use some good news here, Shepard."
She winced and shrugged. "How do you feel about forty-two minutes and a five kilometre safe radius?" Shepard nodded at his curse and glanced down at Benezia's body, then back up to the ceiling as she heard soft, distant cries and skittering through the pipes and ducts. "We need to run like hell. That doesn't allow for carrying a body. Damn it." She started toward the walkway. "Liara . . .."
"Will understand," Garrus said, following.
"We will carry her," Benezia's lips spoke with the queen's voice. "She sang in bright blues and greens of a daughter. We will return her to her child."
Shepard jumped and stumbled, arms pinwheeling as she flew backwards into Garrus. He caught her, setting her back onto her feet.
"Sweet baby Jesus, don't do that again." She pressed her hand over her heart, able to feel it pounding even through her armour. "Good lord." After a moment of recovery, Shepard nodded, glancing toward the queen. "Okay, if you can carry her without slowing us down, go ahead. We'll take point, make sure that we don't meet with any more unwelcome company."
The rachni queen climbed up the stairs, moving toward the dead matriarch.
Shepard nodded for Garrus to cover her right flank as she swung Roger around to cover the left. Glancing toward the tramway exit, she cursed. "Shame we couldn't have just walked right through here on the way in. How long before that door's open, Legion?"
"Twenty-six seconds, Shepard-Captain," the geth reported without pausing its work.
"When you're through, I'll take point. C-Sec . . .." Shepard stopped. The skittering sound and cries grew louder. "Damn." She ran back to the section of the platform that overlooked their entrance. "They're coming through!" Pulling a grenade from her belt, she brought Roger up, couching his stock in against her side. "Suppressing fire, C-Sec. Let's bottle them up as much as we can, then blow it and run."
Glancing back to the rachni queen, who now held Benezia's body in her tiny forelimbs, Shepard shouted, "Head for the tram as fast as you can go. Legion, take point. Get the queen clear of the facility."
"Affirmative, Shepard-Captain."
She heard the laser die, followed by a metallic crash as Legion kicked out the door. Her pulse slowed a little as their escape route opened up.
"Here they come, Shepard," Garrus called, his sniper rifle booming like a small cannon. A large rachni soldier fell in the hole, blocking the path. Others started hauling the body clear. Aiming for what little of their insectile bodies showed through the opening, she and Garrus dropped another three, blocking the path further.
"Go ahead, C-Sec. I'll cover the rear." She peppered the small opening with rounds. "Keep those two safe."
"Shepard . . .." He hesitated, putting another two bullets into the head of a soldier as it tried to climb over its fallen siblings.
"I'm right behind you. Go." Shepard poured a steady stream of death through the hole cut in the door, glancing behind her to make sure that her squad made it clear. With the room as torn apart by battle as it was, she couldn't even be sure a grenade wouldn't bring the whole place down on her head.
"We're clear," Garrus's voice called. "Come on."
Shepard bought them another couple of seconds, then clicked the timer on the grenade and lobbed it into the hole. Spinning, she ran for the tram, reaching it just in time for the explosion to give her a good, hard shove through the door.
"They flanked us," Garrus's shout stopped her heart for a split second.
"Fuck!" Shepard bolted forward, racing up a long flight of stairs. Sure enough, when she reached the top, the tram waiting area crawled with both soldiers and the little workers. One of the latter raced at her and leaped, splattering all down the front of her armour. A few drops misted across her face, burning in her eyes. "Keep moving the best you can!" She swiped the back of her hand across her face, trying to clear the toxic, green goo, then opened fire.
Tossing grenades into the corners furthest from her squad, she managed to thin the numbers a little. Roger moved from one to the next, her finger counting off a rhythm . . . one, two, three . . . one, two, three . . .. Three bullets per customer, no waiting.
She'd only taken down a few when the rachni turned to meet her, forming a wall between Shepard and the squad. At least, they'd just about reached the tram doors. For a moment, she let Roger's muzzle sag toward the floor. The squad was clear. No point them risking themselves waiting . . ..
"Don't you dare!" Garrus shouted.
She looked up, seeing him battering his way back to her, shooting one second, beating the rachni back with the butt of his rifle the next. Damn him, coming back for her, but good lord, wasn't he was something to see? After a breath, she nodded, lifting her gun to her shoulder and wading in to clear a path.
A worker leaped at her face. She batted it aside, just in time for it to explode right in her eyes. Blinded, her face burning, eyes streaming tears, she swiped the backs of her fingers across her face again, but it did nothing to ease the burning. Blinking rapidly, she tried to clear her vision, barely able to make out light and dark . . . some movement. Not wanting to risk shooting Garrus, she turned Roger around, using the gun as a club. A soldier reared up in front of her, its tentacle claws stabbing and slicing the air. Spinning her rifle in her hand, she shoved the barrel into the creatures face and squeezed the trigger. In a spray of toxic blood, it went down, and then Garrus was there.
"Hang onto my belt," he called, grabbing her hand and slapping it against his waist. Without waiting to make sure she had a grip, he turned, his assault rifle singing out death.
Shepard gripped Garrus with one hand, the other aiming Roger behind them to keep the rachni from attacking their backs. A blurred sea of movement poured up the stairs from the lab.
"Damn it." She shouldered Roger and pulled a grenade, lobbing three in a row, each one a little further.
Then the tram doors shut behind them, and the vehicle began to move.
"Sit," Garrus commanded, "and lay your head back over the seat." He guided her to a chair and shoved her down into it none too gently.
She did as he said, laying her head back, sighing in relief a moment later as water sluiced over her eyes, washing most of the toxic slime away. When her eyes were clear, he poured it over her face and hair, then passed her a small square of towel from his hip pack.
"You really come prepared, don't you?" she asked as she blotted her face dry.
"One tends to after they've been pepper sprayed a few times." He crouched next to her. "How are the eyes?"
Shepard blinked a couple of times. "Okay. I can see, anyway. Damn, that goo stings." She leaned forward, her forearms on her thighs as a heavy wave of dizzy nausea crashed over her. "Uhh . . . I'm not feeling all that hot though." Without straightening, she opened her omnitool and hit her medigel.
Garrus nodded and crouched next to her, his face less than an inch from hers. "I don't know what sort of bullshit went through your head back there," he whispered, his voice hard and heavy on the growling subvocals, "but I never want to see it again." He pulled back and stared into her eyes. "You aren't disposable, Shepard."
She stood as the tram slowed, pulling into Central Station.
"Arriving at Central Station, Binary Helix Research Facility," the VI toned.
Saved by the bell, Janey . . . well, so to speak.
Shepard jumped through the doors as soon as they opened wide enough she wouldn't get wedged between them, and lifted into a jog. Spurred on as much by avoiding some deep 'You're important and worthwhile' crap with Garrus as their ticking clock and the horde of pursuing rachni, she weaved between the rows of seats. With any luck, they'd reach the Mako in under ten minutes. She'd have to drive like a maniac to get them clear, but at least that part would be fun.
Shepard caught movement on the far end of the mess hall, moving the opposite direction than the Mako. A familiar shape amidst a retinue of twenty or so geth troopers and hunters strode quickly toward a door.
She sprinted forward, racing down the short hall, hurdling the stairs like a speed bump. "Saren!" Her scream echoed through the empty lounge, bouncing off the walls. The Spectre didn't pause or glance back. "Where are all the people who worked here, Saren? What the hell are you doing?"
A large hand closed on her arm, yanking her to a halt. She spun, slamming up against Garrus's side.
"What the fuck, C-Sec? Get off of me." She wrenched at her arm, trying to pull loose, but couldn't break his grip. She settled for turning back, just in time to see Saren disappear through the door. "Dammit. Saren! I won't let you and the council fuck over the rest of us." She hurled herself against Garrus's hand. "I'll kill you! Do you hear me? I'm going to rip your fucking lungs out, you bastard."
Garrus yanked her closer, releasing her for a split second, just long enough to slip an arm around her waist and start dragging her toward the door. "This is not the time, Shepard," he said, his voice loud enough to break through her rage, but the tone calm and soothing. "You'll get your chance to put a bullet in Saren, but right now, we need to get out of here before we're just sludge at the bottom of a crater."
After a moment, Shepard let out a scream of pure fury, then nodded. "Fine. I'm fine, C-Sec. Let me go." When he set her down, she took off at a run, haranguing the others to move faster. They needed to survive long enough for Shepard to close her hands around that traitor's throat and choke the living shit out of him, herself.
(A-N: A big thanks to the small herd of betas who beat my sad prose into submission each chapter. The lovely LilVy, Chopped Bread, Lachdannen, Palaven Blues, Lady Amiee. You all rock. They are also damned fine writers, so give their stuff a look see. So worth it.
As always, thanks for continuing on this journey with Jane 'Sassy' Shepard and her crew. Glory be to the Enkindlers. May you walk in their light. ;) *hugs* Kim