I don't believe this.
Garrus picked up the sniper rifle he spent almost all day yesterday modding. He wasn't upset with the mods themselves, he was upset with the events of the day prior to when he started working on all the mods. The reason why his rifle needed mods in the first place.
I swear, we spent years putting our lives on the line to save the damn galaxy and this is what we get.
He remembered spending that morning having fun shooting bottles with Tali, before she had to run off for that urgent meeting with her aunt, Shepard, and Liara.
His day following that was just fine. He continued impressing the little crowd with his bottle shooting tricks until noon came around. Then he went out for lunch.
Lunch was nice considering he was among a fellow dextro species. But he wished the quarians immune systems would get stronger sooner than later. There was only so much paste he could suck on before he about lost it and actually went out hunting. The only thing he found were berries and even then he wasn't sure about their taste.
The day got better though as he and James downloaded a vid off the extranet and watched it in the Kodiak shuttle by hacking its virtual windows. Needless to say, Steve wasn't too thrilled about them using the shuttle as a private vid theater.
He then went out with Joker and EDI to the monument building to see if they could get Joker to help out with moving ships down from atmosphere. That's where he ran into Shepard and Tali and they told him their plan to get him off Rannoch to figure out how to handle Chimera. He spent the rest of the day conversing and arguing with them about the whole idea, but in the end, Garrus relented.
He then secretly spent that night trying to get support from anybody in the galaxy without Shepard knowing. He knew his old friend was a little touchy on the subject of recruitment, but he wasn't going to let his friend die just because of some feelings.
Garrus wasn't too successful, though. He couldn't just give away the nature of the mission to just anyone, which made it difficult when it came to recruiting. The only person he trusted that wouldn't reveal such sensitive information was either the Council or Admiral Hackett, and given the Council track record when it came to helping Shepard, he could bet the skin on the left side of his face that they wouldn't help him unless it involved them. So obviously, Garrus called Hackett.
"A whole fleet after Shepard?" He said through vid com. "The man can't catch a break, can he? Thank you, Vakarian. I'll see what few resources I can manage to pool together. I don't think it will be much, but hopefully it'll be enough...and hopefully they can get there as quick as possible."
"Thank you, sir. Tell me when they can be sent over and I'll give them the coordinates to where we'll be."
"Sure thing, Hackett out...and Vakarian, thank you for being with Shepard all these years. It means a lot."
"Yes, sir," he replied with a salute. "There's no Shepard without Vakarian, sir."
"Glad to hear it," finished the human Admiral as his holographic blue form disappeared.
Garrus then spent the next day modding his Black Widow sniper rifle that Shepard bought him from the Spectre requisitions office months ago. Of course Shepard bought enough of the rifles for every sniper user on the ship, but Garrus knew he only bought them so he could give one to him. It was such a nice gift that Garrus spent everyday afterwards, "calibrating," it. Garrus mentally smacked himself in the head. I really need to stop using the damn word. Maybe I could get Silont to find me a synonym so I can finally abstain. He shook his head, trying to rid his thoughts on his vocabulary and return to making sure his rifle was at the best it could get. But even so, his thoughts slowly dragged him to places much worse.
I should've taken this instead of the Mantis to the Citadel the day Shepard and Tali got shot...
Maybe I could've...
No...I couldn't have...
But...
He wouldn't be stuck in that damn chair...
I know Tali doesn't blame me but still...
Images of the attack flew back into his head. The day he almost watched his two closest friends die to one man. I should've shot...but the civilians...screw the civilians! My friends-! He growled to himself as he tightened the barrel on the rifle so much that his hands began to hurt. He shook his head again. No...they wouldn't have wanted that. No one would've wanted that. I've changed. I'm not the same angry C-Sec officer turned vigilante...I-I'm better...
His head spun as he tried to sort out his thoughts, his guilty conscience. He knew Shepard and Tali weren't ever angry with him, but he was more angry with himself. He knew the only way Shepard would be upset with him if he actually did hurt a civilian if he attempted the shot to save him. But he couldn't tell if it was worth watching Shepard possibly die. He was obviously happy that they were still alive, but he still felt like a failure.
Shepard, why didn't you get on the damn ship!
He shook his head in surprise as his thoughts and memories took another turn.
Shepard, get on the damn ship!
You could've died! Look at Tali! She's freaking out!
A diving mech? Are you serious?
His head began to flood with more images of Shepard nearly getting killed on past missions and his more prominent thoughts during those times. He remembered Shepard putting himself in so many dangerous situations, with him and Tali pulling his ass out of the fire almost each and every time, and him doing the same for them. He grunted as he fidgeted with the scope. Why is it that one man...that one man in between thresher maws and collectors that managed to get that close to my best friends while on my watch!
He picked up the rifle and looked through it's scope, making sure the alignment was as accurate as possible. He could see the face of the Citadel attacker on the other side. His trigger finger flinched but Garrus stopped himself before he could let off a round inside the main battery. He didn't want to have to explain to anybody why there was a scorching black hole in the wall.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to relax the tension in his body as well as his mind. He needed to focus. But it was getting increasingly difficult as the day of departure drew near. At least we had almost a couple weeks to unwind. Speaking of which. He ducked under his personal modding table, pushing back boxes and experimenting with the ground until it gave a result. The result was a tucked away object of cylindrical shape laying on the floor. Pleased, Garrus wrapped his hand around it and pulled it out to reveal a spare bottle of turian brandy he kept stashed in order to relax on long stressful days.
Maybe I could use just a drink. He gazed back over his rifle and contemplated whether if he should wait or crack it open now. He thought hard, but each glance at the bottle drew his temptation higher and higher until he gave up. He double checked his rifle, then triple checked, then finally quadruple checked to see if there was anything on it that needed tampering before he headed to the observation deck that had a bar.
Come on Garrus, you been messing with the thing all day yesterday and most of today. You need a break.
The turian war hero let out a deep breath as he agreed with his thoughts and opened the door of the main battery. On his way out he stumbled across Kaidan, sitting near the counter of the mess, cooking. "Hey, Kaidan. What are you doing?"
"Making some food," he said simply as he threw some sort of human spice into the pan. "You know, it's kind of weird to see a kitchen over here. Years ago I always stuck around this spot, monitoring some panel. I mean this is a big step up, but...it's odd to see how things change, no matter how little."
"I hear you, I don't live in the cargo bay anymore, scared that a krogan could easily waltz over and try to rip out my spine," Garrus joked half hearted.
"Heh, yeah. Good old Wrex...I remember Ashley was down there, too."
Garrus lowered his head, a little disheartened. "I still wondered about that. She never really liked anybody down there except for the requisitions kid. So we never really talked."
"And I still wonder why Shepard chose me," Kaidan said, ignoring the last couple sentences from Garrus. "You know, some part of me thinks that was the only time Shepard made an easy decision...and let some selfish desire in."
"Kaidan!"
"I know, I know, I should be grateful. But the event still ticks at my head sometimes. A little less so now, but still there."
"You can't be suggesting Shepard made that decision easily. It was a very different kind of choice. He had to make a couple tough calls, and always did what he believed was right. We just have to accept his decisions at the time were the right ones...You weren't a mistake Kaidan."
"But Ash was?"
His eyes narrowed. "You know that's not what I meant."
The human flipped the food in his pan and took a deep breath. "I know. There's just a lot of people that should still be here, now that the war is over...I still can't believe it was just several months ago. Feels like a whole other lifetime."
Garrus snorted slightly. "I know, but that's war. You can't win without losing some people along the way. Just be happy that we're here now."
"And yet we're going back out into the fire. Save the galaxy and there will be some idiots who still want your head."
"You heard?"
"Everybody did, where were you yesterday?"
Embarrassment crawled over his back. Shepard must have held some kind of meeting while I was focusing on my rifle. As second in command I should've been there for support. Spirits, am I stupid. "I was simply getting ready. I'm sorry I didn't realize Shepard already told the crew."
"It's alright. It was a good break while it lasted. But I guess we can't go rusty until whenever the galaxy needs us again." He picked up his pan and poured whatever food in there on a plate. "It'll be kind of weird seeing Shepard command us from a wheelchair though."
His mandibles clicked, "What?"
Kaidan looked up from the plate with a forkful of food in hand. "Well, he's obviously not sticking on the planet." He shoved the food in his mouth.
"I get that, but are you telling me that he's going to roll around with a gun in his hands?" He set the bottle of brandy on the counter and leaned over the counter with both of his hands splayed, his eyes staring into Kaidan's. Kaidan must have felt awkward staring at Garrus with a mouthful, so he made to eat as fast as possible so he could talk. Which was a mistake as he still had the fork in his mouth.
"Ow! My teeth!" The fork dropped from his hands onto the floor and the food fell from his mouth back onto the plate.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just bit the fork...God, now I'm going to taste metal for the rest of the day." He stretched down to pick it up. "And about what you said. If you're asking if Shepard is going out onto the field with a wheelchair, then no. But I wouldn't be surprised if he kept a pistol under that seat of his from now on...Ow!" He massaged his jaw with his palm and inspected his teeth with his fingers.
"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to startle you."
Kaidan squinted one eye in an annoyed manner. "You din't, wath jutht trying to talk and forgoth I thtill had the thing in there," he said over the finger in his mouth. He gave his teeth a few more rubs to soothe and sucked on it when he was done to clean off any excess saliva. His finger exited his mouth with a small POP sound. He then moved to clean the half eaten food from his plate into the waste disposal and then made to wash his hands. As grossed out as Garrus was, he was glad that Kaidan had made the effort to keep the place clean to the best of his ability, unlike some other people on the crew that he knew of.
"Ah," Garrus replied, "Well I bet you'll be fine. I'm going to go hang out on the bar observation deck to relax a little. You know, before we go on another Shepard mission. Feel free to join if you like." He grabbed his bottle and shook it a little. He knew Kaidan couldn't drink it of course, but it was more of an act of invitation. There was more human liquor on the shelves, anyway.
"Nah, I'm good, after I'm done eating I'll hang out on the other deck like usual. Need to get some groundside sleep."
"Alright, see you Kaidan."
The human nodded, but before Garrus could get away completely, he spoke up. "Hey, thanks for talking to me, Garrus. I know the whole thing about Ashley offset me, but I'm still with you and Shepard a hundred and ten percent. I guess I just needed to air it out a little."
"No problem, and take care." With that, Garrus walked to the deck, bottle in hand.
Garrus had to admit, he liked Kaidan a lot more recently than he did all those years ago. Back then he was more or less just...there. He never really did much, and it made Garrus furious when the guy that was just there blow up on Shepard back on Horizon when they were inspecting the collector attacks. He even heard from Shepard that before Kaidan's little accident, when he got back on board, that he was still a little suspicious of Shepard. I guess all it took was a crazy robot scientist to literally knock some sense into him.
The door to the deck opened and Garrus was surprised to see a figure clad in black quarian armor sitting in a familiar wheelchair that had its wheels extended to lift the user higher. For a split moment Garrus thought it was Silont, just getting out of the hospital. But that was before he noticed the long red and white stripe crossing down their right arm to a gloved hand with extra digits. The person's arm was rested on the counter top and holding their head in their hand. Meanwhile, a little white machine sat next to their arm and was whirring.
"Shepard? What are you doing down here?"
The captain was slow to answer. "Trying to relax." He said. His voice was warped by the helmet, but Garrus noticed that he sounded low, stressed.
"I thought you decided to calm down on the alcohol."
"I am, Tali let me have a cheat night."
Garrus felt concerned. Shepard didn't look up yet and his voice was rather monotone. Clearly there were many things going on in his mind. Maybe he's upset that he can't be out in the field if trouble came knocking, or maybe he just doesn't want to leave Rannoch. Garrus picked out a stool next to his human-quarian hybrid brother and sat down. The man didn't even move an inch in reaction.
Garrus set the bottle down next to the machine that sat in front of him. It was at this time that Garrus found the instrument extremely intriguing, as he began to study it close. The machine had a little knob on top near the end, the whirring came from it as it spun around. A little lower a red light blinked in rhythm with the whirs.
"Where is Tali? Haven't seen her in awhile."
"She's been in admiral meetings all day yesterday. Right now she's up in my cabin with Kasumi working on some projects."
"And what's Kasumi up to?" Garrus picked up the machine carefully as to not accidentally yank out the black cord that fed back into Shepard's suit. He was surprised when it extended outwards in both directions, much like equipping a weapon and getting it ready for action. Even further to Garrus's surprise, the machine revealed little tiny vials of red blood with tiny instruments examining it, feeding their analysis into a very small and delicate screen. Most of the words on the screen were abbreviated and changed colors from red to green, as well as a few diagrams of Shepard's DNA and internal systems.
"Careful with that," Shepard said, still not looking up. "And Kasumi is helping plan the bonding ceremony."
"Hmm," Garrus replied as he set the machine back down again where it folded back into itself. He took his own bottle and quickly opened it with one hand and grabbed a glass with the other, pouring it in one simple motion. He took a small sip and gasped when he was finished, savoring it, letting himself take it easy. It was at this time that Shepard's little white machine beeped and its light turned green. Garrus was once again embarrassed at his actions when he realized how easy it was for him to simply open a bottle and drink, but Shepard had to wait for some contraption to analyze every little thing from his DNA to his liquor to make sure it was even remotely safe for him to consume.
Shepard grabbed the machine and heaved it under his wheelchair, and made sure the cord was strapped tight to avoid any accidents. He then turned to the drink and again rested his head in his hand on the counter top. With his other hand he stuck a straw into the glass and lifted it underneath his helmet, prodding the straw into the little port where he would eat nutrient paste. Shepard then gave a sarcastic chuckle, "Emergency induction port." He took a small sip. "A toast, Keelah Se'lai." Another sip.
Garrus didn't ask what he meant by any of that. All he knew was that his friend was feeling down, and it was finally his turn to help him feel better.
"How are you, Shepard, really. This seems kind of obvious."
"In need of a break."
"You've got one for a couple weeks."
"Yeah, I know. Not sure if it did any good, though."
Garrus perked an eyebrow. "You seemed happy when we got here."
"I was, but this whole...Chimera situation is ruining it for me. In so many ways."
Shepard took another sip of his drink and Garrus followed suit.
"We'll take care of this Shepard, we've been through a hell of a lot worse," he assured, raising his arm and patting it on Shepard's shoulder, looking at him. This time Shepard actually moved his head and returned the look, his eyes difficult to see through his golden visor. "This is not much different then when we stormed the collector base. You'll be back here with Tali before you know it. Then we'll throw one crazy bonding party and you two can go adopt a couple a kids or something. You'll be fine."
Shepard snorted a half hearted chuckle. "Yeah, I know. I don't know about the whole kids thing just yet. But I hope the rest of the crew will be fine...You guys are practically risking your necks just to save my life. It's a little...difficult...to accept."
"Yeah, well. As rising captain of this ship, I think that if you're not going to save your own life, then we might as well do it for you." Garrus couldn't tell but he figured Shepard must have rolled his eyes. He let the corner of his mouth curl up into what he could manage as a smirk. "Besides, we owe it to you. You saved our lives more than we can count, and that was before we went to fight the reapers. It's the least we can do."
Before Shepard could reply, he gave a painful grunt and twisted a little in his seat.
"You alright?" Garrus asked, poised to call for help.
"Yeah, just the machine taking some blood. It's no big deal." He gave another grunt.
"Sounds like it hurts. Is it supposed to be like that?"
"No...yes...My body tenses up in places as the days go on. Normally it wouldn't hurt but because of my...condition...it causes some discomfort."
"Spirits, I'm sorry," Garrus said with concern. He saw where the cord entered his suit at the side of his waist. If it hurts, wouldn't it cause some bruises?
"It's alright...oh, crap."
"What? What is it?"
"I probably shouldn't have been drinking. It's probably going to mess with the analysis or something." He pushed his glass away from him on the table. "I probably shouldn't be drinking anyways for my health in general."
Garrus sighed, it wasn't easy to see his close friend suffer through all of this. The Savior of the Galaxy reduced to a near malnourished and currently disabled hybrid.
"You think Cerberus put anything in those cybernetics of yours to help clean everything out?"
"The quarian toxin filters help with that. But not the cybernetics. They do play a huge role in monitoring my vitals and DNA, however. The machine wouldn't have a lot of information if they were offline...and I probably wouldn't be functioning as well as I am right now without them."
Garrus scoffed, "Thank Cerberus for keeping you from being bed ridden but hate them for winding up as Chimera to keep you stuck in a wheelchair."
Shepard scoffed as well, "I'm a dead man walking...yay, Lazarus Project."
"Yeah."
"You know, EDI and I managed to scavenge the procedure for the Lazarus Project when we were storming their base," Shepard said suddenly.
Garrus's was at full attention and at high alert at these words. "You did? You know how to bring back people from the dead who have been spaced?"
"Well, yeah. I guess. Really it works on anyone with a well preserved body. Just make a few modifications to take in account for the cause of death and it works."
"Spirits," Garrus's mandibles clicked. "We sure could use that in case of another...galactic event." He picked his words carefully, he didn't want to make Shepard think that there could be another thing like the reaper war. But even so, there was still a minor awkward silence. He had to admit that, "galactic," and, "event," didn't really make anything better. He cringed slightly, adopting a human phrase in his mind. I'm on a roll, aren't I?
The turian took another sip of his brandy, trying to ignore the awkwardness and continue the conversation. "But it's really expensive, right? It's probably not practical to pay so much for the resources to bring back a single person."
"Or you could get the geth to make the resources and perform the procedure for free."
Garrus raised an eyebrow, "Huh. That works. Medical robot miracle workers. From geth, no less. That's something to think about."
"Or know."
"Say what?"
Shepard swirled the straw in the glass with his finger, unmoved by Garrus's question. "Nothing. The geth have great capacity for precise work. I'm just saying that they can be medical miracle workers...Thank god they're still around."
Garrus nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, why is that? I remember you telling me back on Earth that the crucible targeted all synthetic life...I mean I know the geth locked down their memory cores, but wouldn't the blast fry those, too?"
Shepard propped himself up and stretched out, looking like he was preparing himself for a long explanation. He grunted and sighed after his stretch and jumped right into it.
"Yes. That's why most of the geth didn't survive. The blast basically took out all synthetic life. But the only things considered synthetic life were things based off of reaper tech, like EDI, and the reaper code that was uploaded to the geth." He paused to make sure Garrus was following, who in turn nodded. "Tali can probably explain this better than I can, but the way I understood it was like having your personality separated from your brain. The geth's, 'brains,' was the reaper tech. The code that allowed them to become fully self aware individuals. What EDI and the geth did was separate all their processes and other things not involved with the code and put it in their chips or memory cores or what have you."
Garrus took a moment to repeat Shepard's words in his head, trying to understand the little details of what he was saying. He nodded for him to continue.
"So really, the blast took out the reaper code and EDI and geth were stuck, not being able to use their minds because, well...they didn't have one. They deconstructed themselves down far enough to not be considered synthetic life at all. So Tali and the other quarians had to create some new software to plug their chips and memory cores into. Like some kind of weird, synthetic brain transplant."
Garrus thought hard as he did his best not to confuse what Shepard was saying. "So you're saying synthetics tore their minds apart so they wouldn't be exterminated when the blast destroyed the reaper code. So then the quarians recreated the code so the synthetics could put their minds back together again?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"How could they recreate the code if it was purged?"
"I'm assuming memories. The crucible may have blasted the actual code, but it makes sense for the geth to remember how the code actually worked. Just plug it into a strong enough terminal and follow the instructions. Voila, a new code for individuality. Of course, Tali knows the whole deal better so I'm not entirely sure if it's the case."
"Makes better sense to me. I'm not sure if I'd be able to live through Tali's explanation."
Shepard shrugged, "It was more or less what she told me."
"Yeah, well. Surprising to say, I'm just happy they're still around."
"Same here," Shepard nodded. "Of course they had to get their bodies rebuilt. The crucible wasn't kind on technology, either. Not just synthetics."
Garrus chuckled, "I could tell, we were stranded for awhile."
Garrus thought back to those dark times when the ship was in a wreck and the crew wasn't sure if they would survive. But thanks to Tali, she pulled all of their asses off of that rock by restoring EDI. It wasn't easy for her, though, after believing Shepard had perished. But she pulled through, like she always does. Shepard really is one hell of a lucky man. Perhaps the luckiest of all.
"So, what do you think of the galaxy now that everything's over and everyone's rebuilding?" Garrus asked.
"Well, aside from the fact that there are still some assholes who want me dead. Not bad. Krogan are repopulating, turians are rebuilding, as well as humans and asari, obviously. The volus are providing economic aid...The rachni are all over the mass relays with the help of the keepers...Uh, the Salarians are focused on the comm buoys...Oh, and the quarians got back their homeworld. So yeah, everything's going good."
"Do you think it'll last?"
Shepard gave a sarcastic chuckle. "We're organics. Nothing lasts."
Garrus gave a depressive sigh. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But at least it makes moments like you and me, sitting at a bar, all the more meaningful."
"True...and hey, maybe once I get my ass out of this chair and my DNA unscrambled, we can go get drunk out of our minds at some place. Throw a long party, just the two of us."
Garrus picked up his glass and Shepard did the same. "There's no Shepard without Vakarian." The two brothers clinked and only Garrus took an extra long swig. If he can't drink, then I might as well drink for him.
Shepard put away his glass and stretched again. "I hate the be the mood dampener, but I'm not ready to go on this one last mission. Not to that rock in space anyway."
Garrus agreed, and thought about what he meant. He was reminded of Tali's trial. He shook his head. That sure was a thing. Still can't believe what happened.
Garrus put his hand on Shepard's shoulder again. "I know Tali and her father had a rather mixed relationship. But it would do her some good. She's willing to take the chance to pay respects. You should let her."
"That's the thing, Garrus. You know how you guys thought I was dead after the crucible? And my project here on Rannoch?"
Garrus nodded, not exactly following.
"You know the Lazarus Project?"
He nodded again.
"Garrus...there's no body in that grave to pay respects to."