MASS EFFECT WINTER EYES: CHAPTER 24

Betrayal

A wave of nausea came over Macha as she stood frozen in place. The Turian, just twenty feet away, stared at her with his familiar blue birdlike eyes. Everything that transpired seconds ago felt like an uncontrollable dream. Vakarian straightened his posture as he stood in the doorway. "There's an Alliance dreadnought on patrol in a nearby system. They can be here in two hours. Kahlee wants to know if we are going to evacuate these kids." His mandible twitched slightly as his voice remained rigid and firm. Pure professionalism. However, his eyes betrayed his outer appearance. He was hurt. A quick glance at Kaidan revealed jealousy and betrayal. The turian's arms remained poised at his sides, his talons curling up into fists as the muscles in his arms became tight.

Kaidan was the first to break the ice that formed in the room. "Garrus- "

Without acknowledgment, Vakarian turned on his heel and left the room quickly; the door closing seconds later. Spectre Alenko moved his pale brown eyes to her. "Macha…I'm sorry. I was out of line."

Sighing hard in despair, Shepard cupped her face with her hand and shook her head. Her mind felt foggy as if she was swimming in medigel. She had no explanation as to what just transpired in the room and the reason behind it. Her and Kaidan had a bad break after the Collector attack and they lost touch with one another. She developed feelings with Garrus after his recruitment off Omega. She moved on. It was painful at first when Kaidan entered back into her life prior to her hearing. Placed momentarily in San Francisco, she was to face the tribunal about her actions in the Aratoht system. Alenko was ranked Major at the time and he really seemed to have developed himself into a more capable individual while they were apart. He was distant to her. When they had time alone, he asked about their relationship. It seemed like he had continuous feelings for her and he expressed these on Mars at the archives. The decision was easy for Macha at the time. She couldn't hurt Garrus. She knew he was alive despite losing contact with one another. With him back into her life at Menae, her relationship with him grew even deeper. They had been through so much together; he was at her side the entire time. After all, he went to face hell with her when they squared up against Harbinger in London. He never hesitated to agree to come with her. She knew if she chose someone else, he would have insisted that he came along. Was her sudden draw to Kaidan justified? The attraction was still there. The way his eyes looked upon her. His soothing gentle voice brought tingles down her spine. She fought these longings yet years ago when he entered her life once more on the Normandy. Why now? What made the change? Was it some effect brought on by the chip? An anomaly? A neurological change in her brain? With her friends' help, she knew what year it was and knew things have changed. Drastically. No, this was not some wicked game by Erinyes. Dr. Archer confirmed Charon's hold was released when the chip was removed. No other backup systems in place. "Now is not the time, Kaidan," Her voice sharp. Anger seethed; directed upon him. Was she truly angry with him? Or herself?

"Mam," He stepped back to give her more space. Technically, they shared the same rank now as Spectre so they were equals. Military formalities were not needed. Still, the essence of them still resonated with him.

"I need to get these children off this station. This may be our only chance," Shepard matter-of-factly stated, moving swiftly to exit the room behind her turian counterpart.

"What the hell is going on? We moving my kids or not?" Jack walked into the room where Kahlee Sanders and Liara stood near the communications hub. Her outburst startled the pair.

"Garrus went to notify Shepard of the Alliance ship nearby. I don't want to patch through until Shepard gives the okay." Liara turned away from the console to speak to her. Just as she finished her words, she noted Garrus storming away from the direction of where he originally went. His avian eyes were transfixed upon the metal flooring with his fists clenched at both sides. He seemed upset. Dangerously upset. His appearance was very illusive.

Kahlee and Jack noted his demeanor. "About damn time. Garrus, what's the verdict?" Jack raised her voice to stop him. The turian lifted his head only slightly to look their way before he diverted his eyes back down and continued his route towards the opposite door. His slight angered the pony-tailed woman. "Hey. What the hell is your problem?" She moved to stop him, but the turian turned on her angrily.

"Back off, Jack," He hissed through his sharp teeth. Most people would avoid any confrontation with the ex-con given her strong biotic abilities. The fact that an ally was turning on her almost surprised her.

Jacqueline narrowed her eyes as she began to draw dark energy to her. "Hey, shit for brains, I'm on your side, remember?"

"Jack!" Kahlee snapped at her as she grabbed her right arm to stop whatever was about to transpire next. "There is no allowance for the use of biotic abilities in the facility except for instruction. You know the rules."

Liara rushed over to place herself between the two. "Garrus, go on." Her voice pained by his sudden change. Her deep ocean blue eyes moved over to Jack and Kahlee. "I'll get with Shepard." Seeing the hurt on the asari's face, Garrus untensed slightly before exiting the room to an unknown location.

Jack jerked her arm free from Kahlee's grasp. "What the hell is his problem?"

"I don't know…" Liara glanced towards the way their troubled friend went. "We do not need another fight on our hands."

As if on cue, Macha Shepard entered the room. Her facial expression was guarded and Liara found it hard to read to determine the origin of Garrus' anger. "Liara, there is an Alliance Dreadnought nearby?"

"Um, yes." Liara stumbled for her words as switched her focus from what just happened to the task at hand. She moved back to the console to bring up the terminal screen to display the comm buoy. "I can get a message through to them."

"Your call, Commander," Kahlee spoke up. "I lost many students last time when Cerberus attacked the facility."

"Cerberus was there to grab your students years ago for testing. From what has been disclosed to me about Charon, I believe they have no interest in them." Macha grimly explained, a lump forming in her throat about the honest truth.

"Over my dead body." Jack growled through gritted teeth.

"I will send the mass communication out to the parents about the evacuation so I can coordinate a pickup designation." Kahlee activated her omni tool.

"No." Macha reached out to hold her arm to stop her. "No communication to them. We go silent for now."

"What?" The dull blonde hair woman stared at her, dumbfounded. "The protocol mandates that we inform the parents or guardians if the students are to be moved away from the facility," Her words citing the code.

"We do that and Charon will be all over us and that ship." Jack seemed to read Shepard's mind.

"Liara, send transmission to the dreadnought. We need a pickup ASAP and tell them not to convey their change of route to command. Let's assume that Charon can hack Alliance communications as well."

"Got it," Liara' s fingers swiftly moved over the keyboard to send the message as directed.

"I'll gather the students and the staff to prepare them. I will mandate no communications to be sent until further notice." Kahlee chimed in. "Jack, come with me." The two left leaving Dr T'Soni standing there with her former commander.

The silence became awkward between the two. Macha felt like her legs were concrete. She knew she needed to find Garrus and talk to him, but her body wouldn't budge. She felt helpless. She wasn't the type of person to confide all her emotions to anyone. Kaidan walked in and noticed the two distant beings before him. "Did I miss something?" He kept his eyes fixed upon Liara, avoiding Macha's.

Liara noticed the unspoken words between the two humans in the room, then she thought back to Garrus' sudden change upon leaving Macha's makeshift room. Her mind dashed to what all that could have happened. At first, she thought the conversation was between Macha and Garrus. Now, it seemed Kaidan was another factor. Her keen mind automatically assessed that something must happened between the trio and the result was not favorable to Garrus. Macha quickly spoke up to break the disturbing silence. "Kaidan, help Kahlee and Jack evacuate the students. I will be down at the airlock. Liara, maintain communication with the Alliance. Send a message to Wrex for krogan aid against Charon. Once the students are safely evacuated, send transmission to the Salarian dalatrass, the turian Primarch and the asari councilor. We will need all the help we can get."

"Building alliances? That sounds remember," The blue asari teased gently.

"Roger that," Kaidan kept his attention shielded. He wondered where Garrus went. There was no mention of him. Their current mission was priority and the conflict among the team would have to wait. Was Charon currently on their way? Would the time window be sufficient? The request for aid may be too late.

"You have done quite well," Erinyes was in awe at the glass orb that she held between her thumb and index finger. The room's dim lighting seemed to make the glass surface glow. Gently maneuvering the orb around, the faint painted fake iris could be seen on what used to be Zaeed's eye replacement. The woman flashed a wicked smile to her counterpart standing in the room for the mission debrief. Avery untensed slightly from the "job well done" comment.

"That thing creeps me out," She tried to divert her eyes away from the prized possession. She had no idea why her employer wanted the trophy.

Her comment made Erinyes cackle. "Why? It's just glass." She set the orb down on her desk next to the stack of datapads that she was examining before Avery's arrival. "Harmless."

Embarrassed that she showed weakness, Avery crossed her arms to regain her confidence as she stood before her, awaiting the next mission. "Any word on Shepard?"

"No," Erinyes scowled. "Aria betrayed me. She betrayed the Illusive Man before. Perhaps she is cleverer than I give her credit for. A mistake. One that I plan on rectifying." She pressed against the plush back of her red leather chair and moved her eyes upon one of the datapads. A flicker of pleasure moved across her lips as her eyes lifted back up at Avery. Normally, she wouldn't bother on sharing knowledge with her lackies, but Avery proved herself so far. Young, Avery was categorized as xenophobic and pro-human fanatic. A must for any member of Charon. She was ambitious and willingly accepted challenges to help their cause. She genuinely believed in their chaos and rhetoric. Avery almost reminded Erinyes of herself in her teenage years, even though Avery was nineteen. She enlisted at seventeen after running away from her home on Eden Prime and taking a shuttle to their recruitment center. Somehow, Avery survived the raids on the colony by Cerberus during the Reaper War, but their assault never deterred her. Avery spoke opposingly against the colony's open-door policy to all races. A sleeper recruiter picked up on this. "Avery, what do you know of the Andromeda Initiative?"

Relaxing her stance, Avery shrugged. "Not much except what was on the extranet. I was twelve then. Something to do about launching ships to another system. A fresh start."

"Who funded the project?"

"Beats me. The Alliance? No one talked about it. It just existed."

Erinyes stood up from her chair with her wine glass still in her hand. "Jean Garson was the founder of the project. The face of its existence if you will. However, I funded it."

This admittance made Avery tilt her head in confusion and she uncrossed her arms. "You? I'm confused, mam. Why would Cerberus back an exploration and invite aliens?"

Erinyes tried not to let the accusatory tone in Avery's voice anger her. She had every right to be angry with her. Living in a co-existence with aliens was not on Charon's agenda, let alone Cerberus'. Setting the glass down, she stared across the table at her agent. "I never said that Cerberus backed the project." Truth. Cerberus never did. The Illusive Man turned the mission over to his daughter to run the show, but his guidance is what kept things running smoothly. That and his funding. "The idea of an imminent Reaper invasion was absurd to the leaders of humanity. A shove under the rug if you will. The one thing that Cerberus and Commander Shepard agreed upon. We couldn't let humanity die out like this. The Andromeda galaxy was out of the Reaper's sights or so we thought. We needed to send people out there to continue our populace. The aliens…they were a footnote. The project was too big to keep under wraps. It took lots of resources and time to construct and prepare everyone for the journey. Unfortunately, that's where the aliens came in. A weakness, but time was of the essence."

"Was it successful?"

Erinyes paused for a response and Avery grimaced. Did she press too much? Picking up the wine glass again to enjoy another sip of its dark contents, the leader of Charon sat back down at her desk. "The Andromeda galaxy is over six hundred light years away. Quantum entanglement messaging is a whole new ball game, Avery." Her reply was short and curt. "I have faith in my agents stationed on the Nexus and Hyperion."

"I thought a N7 was the human pathfinder." Avery searched her memory bank for details that she absorbed from all the different articles on the net.

Erinyes smiled again knowingly. "I have it all under control." One trait she inherited from her father was the way to manipulate human emotions for your goals. Though, the current situation with Macha Shepard was under fire. A grim reminder of what was transpiring in their current galaxy. "That will be all, Avery." She picked up the glass eye one more time in her fingers as she admired her prize while the woman in front of her left. Turning around to face her monitor, she initiated a call to Omega to Aria T'Loak. Several minutes passed until Aria's purple face appeared on the screen.

"Miss me already?" T'Loak got off the first shot.

"Skip the pleasantries, Aria," Erinyes cut her off. "I know you have Shepard."

"Do I?" Aria grinned. "Are you sure?"

Erinyes noted that the usual bodyguard that accompanied T'Loak was not in the video. She shelved this finding for now. "Cut the crap, Aria."

"Such hostility. Is this how you treat all your partners?" The asari played into this.

Her snide comments lashed at Erinyes relentlessly. Her face grew hot. The asari seem to know how to get under her skin and she found herself shaking with pure hatred and rage. "Shut up!" She could hear herself scream at the monitor. "My father was a fool playing into your schemes. He should have never trusted you."

The sheer admittance made Aria calmly lift an eye ridge. "Your father?" The asari stared at the monitor closely. "Just who the hell are you…." Her blue eyes narrowed.

Realizing that she fully disclosed her past without intention, Erinyes fumed as she paused to take a breath to compose herself. Aria gained another point against her. She was damned to let her beat her again. "Consider this a courtesy call, Aria. You lost Omega once, but Oleg's mistake is that he kept the station intact. I won't be as generous as he was." Severing the connection, Erinyes privately cheered herself on as she took a much larger sip from her glass wine. Her right-hand fingers moved over to the terminal to pull up the current status of her ships. Sixty-five percent were marked with active status after passing the final checks. The ETA for the remaining checks was eight hours. Another twenty-four to get to Omega after take-off. Too much time. Too much time to allow Aria to bolster her station's defenses. That's if she didn't consider Erinyes' call to be a threat. No matter. Erinyes pulled all her resources and her newly assembled fleet could slice through anything that the scumbags of Omega could throw at them. She was sure of it. Remembering what she uncovered during the call, she switched her terminal screen to the information she had on Aria, filtering the data down to known accomplices. A batarian by the name of Bray was listed as one of her top bodyguards and was noted to be around her majority of the time. Surprisingly, he was not present. Normally, she wouldn't care, but something in the back of her mind told her to check. Pressing a button on her desk, she connected her office to her intel team. "Get a message to one of our sleepers on Omega."

"Go ahead, Erinyes, what is your message?" A female voice promptly answered on the other end.

"Aria's bodyguard, Bray, is missing. Find out where he went. Report back to me in two hours."

"Acknowledged."