Chapter 38: The Snap

Saren's heart was pounding with anticipation, he finally had a plan to be free of the control chip. No, he hadn't asked Shepard first but, the Human didn't have many options right now. He always knew Harper was running the show for some secret grand design, Saren just never imagined it would be to work with the Reapers. If Saren was a betting man, he'd assume Sovereign had somehow indoctrinated him since his own death. The problem was that Harper wasn't acting nearly as irrationally as he was at a similar point. According to Garrus, he had framed his brother for killing countless innocent people. They had been Humans but, Saren would've killed them himself and only if they got in his way, not pin it on the only close family member he had left. Regardless of his theory, Cerberus was working with the Reapers and so they had to be stopped.

If they had learned this hard evidence a few days ago, he would have gone to a surgeon on Illium and had the chip removed during the chaos. Unfortunately, with Shepard potentially planning on taking the Normandy over after their mission here, Saren didn't get to have the luxury of a sterile environment. So, he and Garrus had come up with a quick plan that was risky but had to work. At some point in a lull of fighting, if there was any to begin with, they would stun Jacob so Zero could tear off his back fringe. Then the Quarian would hopefully be able to find the chip and remove it. She didn't really know her part of the plan yet but, Garrus had assured him Tali thought fast on her feet. The question was, would she want to?

Saren decided to act like this was a real mission even though he was counting on Shepard to do the leg work for Jacob's benefit, "I want everyone to perform a comm's check. We don't want to be caught off guard in a firefight."

Kal was the last one to check in and responded with, "Be careful Jack, stay close to Garrus and Tali."

He was amused that Kal had asked the girl to stay close to anyone else but him. Did the Quarian really assume he was a maniac that killed all Humans? Sure, that was his only prior experience with Saren before but, he had been indoctrinated. Furthermore, Saren wouldn't have become the Council's best SPECTRE if he just killed Humans for the fun of it. He saw Zero as a valuable asset in his private war against the Harper's. Someone had once said rage was a powerful anesthetic and they had been right. The girl was a tool for him, he wasn't about to throw that away because she was Human.

Zero responded with an edge that made even Saren wince, "Will do dad, now if you'd just piss off, we have work to do."

As they walked through narrow halls of organic material, Tali gave her a curious look with a tilt of her head, "You know, Kal can be a bit of a bosh'tet sometimes but, he's never coming from a bad place."

Jack scoffed, glaring in Tali's direction, "No offense sister, but I don't think he ever lied about your childhood torturer to your face. So why don't you just keep to your own god damned business?"

Tali cleared her throat not knowing the full extent of their relationship, "No he didn't...but...he did hide the fact he was gay from me until the night before we were supposed to have our wedding. Do you wanna know why he did that?"

Jack shook her head with a laugh, "Why does that not surprise me? And I know why, because he's a fucking asshole."

Tali sighed patiently, "It was because he cared about me and didn't want to hurt my feelings. He knew I was attracted to him since the time we were small and he didn't want to ruin that dream for me. Was it shitty? Yes it definitely was, but he wasn't trying to hurt me."

Jacob spoke up for the first time since the comm check, "No, Kal didn't tell you because of the flotila's policies against gay people. Don't try and make him into some white knight Tali, he's just as selfish as Shepard when he wants to be and you know it."

Garrus' subvocals flared with a cringe worthy amount of defensivness, "That's just not true, Kal saved countless innocent people for two years on Omega despite plenty of risks."

Jacob rolled his eyes as they approached a door, "I said when he wants to be Garrus. I'm not about to argue he doesn't have any heroic moments."

Sensing this could turn into a brawl, Saren raised his voice, "Like Zero said a few seconds ago, we have work to do. That work doesn't involve arguing about the morality of other crew members."

He opened the door before anyone could debate the point and they all gasped. The central tunnel of the Collector ship must've had millions, if not billions of life pods lining the walls. Thank the Spirits he didn't have access to this technology when he was indoctrinated, he would've sent it right at Earth. He wondered how many of the pods were full from all the colonial abductions that had already occurred. The more important question was why did the Collectors need this much raw organic material? Other than the hull breaches, this ship was in too good of a condition to need that many repairs. The only thing Saren could think of was Sovereign somehow converting all of this matter into his 'shell' at the 'forge.'

Jack kept marching ahead, "The sooner we get the data, the sooner we can get out of this creepy place. Shall we?"

Saren noticed she was heading towards what appeared to be an elevator going up to the bridge and he couldn't help but grin to himself, what a smart girl. An elevator would be isolated enough to conduct their makeshift surgery without unwanted interruptions. If the Collectors were still alive it could be a problem but, since they hadn't attacked yet, Saren was starting to doubt any were alive. Admittedly, that was going to make the Jacob side of things more complicated since they wouldn't have Collectors to blame for him passing out but, if Shepard pulled this off they wouldn't have to explain anything to anyone.

Jacob was the first one in the elevator and glanced at the controls, "It's no good Jack, this console is in a language I can't even begin to describe.. EDI, could you-"

As he followed Jacob inside, Saren felt a spark of pain to the back of his head and his vision faded. At first, Saren just assumed something with the Collector technology was making his control chip go haywire. That was until he started seeing visions of the Reapers. Large ships identical to that of Sovereign were landing on an unknown world and started killing the beings there. His gut twisted several times realizing that these creatures being slaughtered looked extremely close to that of the Collectors. They had the same four eyes, brown carapace, wings, as well as tiny insect like swarms hovering around them. This wasn't the control chip, it was the vision he had seen on Eden Prime, triggered by seeing something Prothean for the first time.

Garrus rushed over to his side since he had collapsed, "Hey, are you alright? Here let me get you some medi-gel."

Saren stood up quickly and brushed away the pack knowing they'd need it later, "No I'm fine.."

Jacob turned to gaze in his direction, "What did you just see? Shepard made that exact same expression right after he saw a part of his Eden Prime vision on Freedom's Progress."

Saren didn't answer him immediately because of the implications of what he saw, "Everyone get on the elevator, I'll be able to man the controls."

Tali stared at him in disbelief, "Oh Keelah...if he can do that...that means..."

Jack finished her sentence for her, "That means the Collectors were the Protheans. We get it sister."

Garrus stood right behind him, "Is that true?"

Saren wanted to say no to calm his brother down from the fear he must be feeling right now but, he couldn't, "Yes."

He was about to make his surprise move on Jacob in the middle of this stunned silence but, the lights flickered off a moment later. Suddenly, the roof of the elevator was torn off by a squad of Collector soldiers with their guns pointed down at them. Out of pure instinct, Saren raised a biotic shield on the top of the elevator and was pleased the girl had done the same. She was already taking his early lessons to heart. The two of them managed to keep the barrier up until the Collectors were done unloading an entire clip of their acid based weaponry into it. When they started reloading, Saren and Zero lowered their biotics so the other three could unexpectedly return fire and kill the first wave.

Saren immediately started barking orders, "Zorah, I want you on that terminal to get this thing moving. Humans, take point at the door to make sure we aren't ambushed from that direction. Vakarian and I will watch the ceiling from more coming that way."

They all moved to their places but, Tali had concern in her voice, "I don't know the language Saren so I don't know how long this will take!"

Saren snarled after warping a Collector off the edge of the elevator, "Just do your best!"

EDI had to turn up the volume to be heard over the gunfire, "Let me assist your efforts, one of my primary functions is translating alien languages. Plug your omni tool into the device and I can begin."

Saren ducked and killed another Collector when Shepard's voice yelled in his ear, "We have as much data as we could get in time and are pulling back to the Normandy for extraction. Get out of there as fast as you can!"

EDI responded for him, "I suggest SPECTRE Arterius and the rest of team 2 takes this elevator to the top floor and rendezvous with the Normandy at a secondary hull breach."

Hearing the Human pilot speak made Saren's head ache, "Whatever you do, do it fast. The Collector ship is charging up for combat and I won't lose another Normandy."

Garrus gave Tali a smile while covering her, "You ever miss those talks we had on that slow ass original Normandy elevator?"

Tali wasn't in the mood for jokes as she was hacking the terminal with EDI's help, "What? No!"

Knowing Tali worked best when she didn't feel the pressure, Garrus continued, "Come on, remember how I'd ask you all about life on the flotilla? How about Kaidan's hair gel?" He headshotted another Collector, "It was an opportunity to share!"

Tali continued tapping away at the control panel, "This conversation is over."

Garrus killed another Collector charging for her, "Tell me again about your immune system and how it's different from Kal's!"

Tali took the opportunity to kill a Collector Jacob had missed, "I have a shotgun if you didn't remember CSEC."

Saren growled having to break one of the Collectors neck since it landed in the elevator with them, "This isn't a pleasure cruise, focus on getting us moving."

Garrus was trying to not look embarrassed, "Maybe we'll talk later then."

Saren was about to have to resort to grabbing the Collector's weapons since he was running out of ammo but, the elevator thankfully started moving. Not only that but, it was moving so fast that the Collectors weren't able to keep up with their wings. Originally, Saren thought they were going to have to scrap the plan because they wouldn't have enough time but now. As long as Garrus was right and Zorah worked quickly, they could get the chip out and blame it on Saren taking a hit from the acid. Even if they weren't able to remove the chip, Zorah could at least locate it for future removal. The only thing standing in his way right now was Jacob.

The elevator reached the top floor and Saren tapped his omni tool, "AI, how long will it take for the Normandy to reach us?"

EDI responded not knowing what he was planning on doing with that information, "With Shepard just now coming aboard, I would estimate 300 seconds."

He motioned for the others to turn their omni tools off while making sure to be out of Jacob's view, "We'll be there. Saren out."

Jacob frowned looking around the corner outside the elevator, "The Collectors could be right around the corner, we should probably hide in here until the Normandy is closer."

Saren subtly yet quickly moved so he was right behind him, "For once we agree on something."

Making sure he acted before Jacob could tell what was happening, Saren hit him in the back of the head with his assault rifle. He made sure the hit wasn't powerful enough to kill him but, it would be enough to keep him down for a few hours. Hopefully by the time he woke back up, Shepard would be in full control of the Normandy and they'd be heading for Alliance space. Otherwise, they were going to have to make up a story about how the Collectors had ambushed them miraculously from the back of the elevator.

Tali pointed her shotgun at him and made a show of highlighting the fact that it was loaded, "Once a traitor always a traitor huh? I suggest you put the gun down before I blow your brains out."

Garrus rushed over towards Saren and put a knee on his spine to keep him flat when he layed down, "We don't have time to explain but that was part of the plan. Just follow our lead."

Jack went around to his other side and he could feel her biotics wrapping around the fringe coming off of his skull, "You sure that you can handle this? I don't want to drag around two dea-"

Saren interrupted her with a snarl, "We're wasting valuable time, just do it!"

He instantly regretted the command when she didn't count to three and just did it. With her biotics alone, the girl was able to snap off the three central rows of fringe he had off of his skull. If the pain wasn't so overwhelming, Saren would've admired how clean a cut she made without any medical equipment. As it was though, all Saren was experiencing was the pain ripping through his body like a whirlwind. She had effectively torn a part of his skull off so they could get access to his brain. He could hear his brother saying something but, everything was a mush besides the pain. Garrus and Tali were going to have to handle the rest of the mission, he was starting to see things.

34 years ago, Flux:

_o0o_

Saren strode into the newly opened bar with a sense of pride rolling off of him. He was a SPECTRE now, at nineteen, he was the youngest Turian SPECTRE in a generation. Not only that but also, one Harper was dead and the other was blinded in prison for the rest of their lives. Desolas could rest with the Spirits now knowing vengeance was served. Other Humans would surely follow in Harper's misguided footsteps, and he would be the first to stop them, but not tonight. Tonight, he was going to celebrate a victory for the Turian Hierarchy, and the galaxy as whole. Once again he had been able to prove that Humanity couldn't be trusted and the Turians were the ones to keep the peace.

While this bar had just opened, Saren was disappointed with the lack of a crowd. Maybe it was just because it was a Monday night and everyone had work in the morning but, a new bar in the Zakea Ward would've been big before he left for the cabal any day of the week. No one was at the gambling tables and only one group of friends were embarrassing themselves on the dance floor. He wondered what it was like to be that carefree, to not worry about all the galactic politics running everything into the ground. Saren couldn't have that luxury, but he could use his new SPECTRE ID to get alcohol before he turned twenty one and he was going to use it.

The short Volus bartender hobbled towards him, "Good evening Palaven-clan...shhhtt... What can I get for you...shhhtttt...this evening?"

Saren cast a casual blue eye over the menu, "Why not some rynchol? I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow and some Krogan piss sounds interesting."

The Volus put both of his small hands on his wide hips, "You do not look old enough...shhhttt...to be having that kind of drink Palaven-clan."

He was about to whip out his new SPECTRE ID with smugness when another Turian voice spoke first, "Just put it on my tab Doran. I'll make sure he gets home tonight."

Saren turned his head to see an even younger looking Turian stroll towards him like he owned the bar. He should've been offended that a younger Turian thought he could make sure Saren could get home but, he had to pick his jaw from off the floor first. The Turian was tall and lankey with a dark chocolate carapace and white facial markings. He was the very definition of 'stud' for a Turian. And that was even before he got a good look at those bright green eyes staring at him. Even though he was adopted by the Vakarians, Saren was a bareface, this Turian shouldn't even be looking at him let alone want to talk.

Doran grumbled and waddled away leaving the two of them alone and Saren cleared his throat, "You know I definitely didn't need your help. I'm a SPECTRE."

The Turian raised a browplate and smirked, "If your a SPECTRE, I'm actually old enough to buy that drink for you hot stuff."

Saren tried not to react to the flirt but his mandibles were practically flying against his face with embarrassment, "Well that's good because if I knew you weren't legal drinking age I might have to turn you in to my father." He pulled out his SPECTRE ID with a cocky grin.

The other Turian coughed up his drink and readjusted his collar, "Well shit...I ummm I'm seventeen, I just have a good Quarian friend on their pilgrimage and forged me a fake ID."

Saren chuckled softly amused, "Don't worry about it.. I don't know your name anyways so I can't exactly report it. And the Volus must be blind not to notice your younger than me."

The Turian gently extended his hand for a shake, "Why don't we start with Nih...that's what my friends over on the dance floor like to call me..."

Saren gave that warm hand a tight grip, "It's nice to meet you Nih, you can call me Saren."