Shepard was standing in the comm room on the Normandy, watching as the projection of the Council members slowly appeared on the holoscreen. All three of them appeared, standing as motionless as ever, however it was visible that Tevos was devastated deep inside. But to be honest none of them looked good. Their faces were tired, worn down, as if they were at the stretch of their last remaining strength.
"Commander" they greeted in unison.
"Councilors" she greeted them back, nodding her head. She moved a bit, obviously waiting for others to join. Just a couple seconds later Admiral Hackett flashed up on the holo, closely followed by the Quarian Admiralty Board with a new additional geth member and eventually Wrex, Garrus and Victus. They all greeted each other, running the official rounds. Once all done, they all turned to Jane as one.
"What is the state of the Crucible?" she asked, directing her question to Hackett and the Council.
"Ready, currently silently orbiting at the perimeter of the system neighbouring Mu." Hackett replied.
"The entire Citadel Fleet is protecting it" Valern added. "What is the plan, Shepard?"
"The Normandy is now orbiting Ilos" she started, her voice official and cold, sketching the plan "In 10 minutes we'll touch ground. The Illusive Man is on Ilos with Vendetta after a crash land, as confirmed by our scans, no reapers present in the system yet, but still we need to be cautious. We need the Crucible to remain dormant until we can confirm the Catalyst is indeed the Citadel. Once that happens, The Normandy will arrive at the Citadel, using the Conduit, and the Catalyst can be moved to Ilos." she put her weight on her other leg and crossed her arms, deep in concentration. "But we will need time with Saren to find the Catalyst and activate it on the Citadel. We do not know how many reapers are orbiting the station, and if they set up any alarm systems. Until we can pinpoint the Catalyst exactly and find a way or plan to activate it, the Crucible cannot pass through the Conduit."
"That is most wise" Sparatus added "Premature arrival can cost us the Crucible, and with that our cycle.."
Jane nodded in agreement. "Exactly. I will radio when the Catalyst is confirmed, and once again when the Crucible can pass the relay."
"What is our task during all of this?" the quarians asked.
"Remain in your current status until the Crucible can reach the Citadel. But if it will reach it, we will need you and the geth, as well as the krogan, turian, salarian and Alliance fleets to start simultaneous attacks on the reaper troops circling your homeworlds. This is to distract the reapers and keep them in the range of the relays, so that we can activate the Catalyst and make it reach all reapers in all systems possible, especially the species homeworlds." she was explaining confidently, rock solid in her plan "But it is extremely important not to start the attack before our signal. It will alert the reapers of our plan."
Jane still hated nuanced tactics, but this was the most simple and bulletproof plan they could come up with. There was no way around it, it had to be done.
"What happens if the Catalyst is not confirmed to be the Citadel?" Tevos asked, worry in her voice "I should imagine you understand the asari forces integrated into the Citadel Fleet cannot take any further damage, after Thessia.."
"We will either have to improvise, or abort the mission and come up with another battle plan." Sparatus replied instead of Jane.
"What I'm really worried about" Wrex started, looking right into Jane's eyes "Is Saren Arterius."
Jane exhaled, visibly frustrated as soon as she heard him say that.
"What are you sighing about, Shepard?" the krogan asked. He wasn't against the plan and he trusted Shepard, but he still wasn't sure about Saren… "The turian who almost pushed the galaxy to doom once is now a key figure in this plan? Are you sure about that?"
"I vouch for Saren" she said immediately "And you would do well to trust me."
"I trust you, Shepard, you know that" Wrex nodded "But I don't trust him."
"I do" said suddenly Garrus, making Wrex look at him, dumbfounded. And Jane was just as surprised: she knew the two turians weren't exactly on the worst terms anymore, but hearing Garrus say he trusts Saren… was still unbelievable."He lost his arm just to save Shepard, and it wasn't the only time he proved he's on our side now." Garrus continued.
"I stand by that" Tali added, nodding at Jane.
"I don't care what he did" waved Wrex "He betrayed us once, and he can do it again."
"Enough, Wrex!" Jane called out, cutting him short. Anger took its place in her eyes now "This is my operation, and he is coming with me, whether you like it or not!"
Saren still remembered the sound of the mako hitting the ground years ago, on Ilos. He watched as Jane and her team landed, but now he was the one sitting in the craft, meters away from landing at the same spot they did back then. And when they landed, the mako's impact into the ground shook them, before it all went away, and now they were on solid ground.
He pulled the break and removed his hand from the wheel, exhaling raggedly as the vehicle stopped. He looked at Jane, and he saw the same nerve on her face that he felt as well.
The last time they were here, they were on opposite sides, trying to fight for the fate of the galaxy. And now they are here again, together, for the same exact purpose. It seemed like the events on Ilos happened only yesterday, as time warped in his mind. He was so delusional, so lost back then.
"Let's go" Jane said, her face serious. She looked at the tunnel ahead of them, and swallowed her nerves. Saren gave gas without giving a response, and slowly drove the mako into the tunnel. When inside he sped up, pushing through the tunnel that ran under the colossal rooms that housed the millions of protheans fated for eternal sleep.
This place was haunted.
The discharged panels gave out faded, dim yellow lights, painting the walls even more greenish, that were already riddled with local flora that took over the complex aeons ago. The sun that was going down shined in from the sky, making the dust particles in the air visible.
The atmosphere completely sucked them in.
They were sitting in the mako, slowly driving through, not saying a single word to each other. They felt like they were back to the beginning, just as if time reverted and pushed them back from the present, to a completely different world. It was so strange that now, towards the end, they were living through their memories and in such a place so close to their heart.
Jane eventually removed her left glove, but not revealing her reason why.
"Look" she said, raising her left hand towards Saren, who looked in her direction, keeping the vehicle on track.
The ring on her hand was glowing in an emerald light.
"It remembers" Saren said, looking at her. A faint smile appeared on her face, bittersweet. The ring protected her from the reapers, and she suddenly remembered why she loved him. His mandibles slowly moved in response, imitating a very discreet smile.
He looked back at the road and found that they already reached the Conduit.
It was in its original state, just like how they left it the last time. He drove up the garden to the base of the relay to get as close as possible. There was no one here. He started wondering, why there wasn't a single reaper present, or at least some troops. And to take it further, a question formed in his mind: Why didn't the reapers take the Conduit to attack the CItadel at the beginning of the invasion?
But he had no time to think as Jane suddenly jumped out of the mako, running around it, towards the base of the Conduit.
There was someone there, on the ground.
Jane ran, and found a body underneath the relay control console. It was the Illusive Man, shot dead in the head, his hand outstretched, a gun not far from him.
"Fuck..." she hissed, looking at his pale, lifeless face that had an empty look on it. It was immediately apparent that he shot himself in the head. She took up his pistol, put it away and checked his pulse, just to make sure, but he was indeed dead. But it all seemed recent, maybe a couple hours ago. "It's the Illusive Man.. he shot himself."
Saren exited the mako, looking around. As he made her way to Jane, he found a tiny globe on the ground, and reached down to pick it up. It could only be one thing.
"I think I found Vendetta" he said, and motioned to Jane to come back to him to the vehicle. She ran back, and once she was there, Saren activated the little globe, bringing up a holo of the prothean program, Vendetta.
"Vendetta..." Jane sighed.
[You are attempting to recover me from indoctrinated forces?] the construct asked.
"Yes. The Illusive Man is gone. Now tell us what the Catalyst is!"
[Reapers are vulnerable to concentrated, large amounts of dark matter. But the Crucible was not strong enough to harness such a power and convert it into a large enough weapon. The Catalyst was discovered to harness dark matter to fuel the Crucible and use it as a weapon against the reapers.]
Saren's heart throbbed from pride.
[The Catalyst is the only thing capable of fueling a superweapon. It is part of the core of the galactic civilizations.]
They looked at each other.
[The Catalyst is the AI core of the Citadel.]
"That's it." Saren replied "This confirms it." The construct looked puzzled for a second.
[Were you expecting this?]
"Yes" he replied again "There were some signs pointing to this, but now we're sure."
"Saren, three years ago, when we were here" Jane started, turning towards the turian "You activated the Conduit. Can you do it again?"
That sly, always confident smile appeared on his face. "Of course." he said smoothly, already turning away and walking to the relay console. Jane in the meantime raised her omni tool and started calling the Council.
"Sparatus? Ok, so what we have here is…." she started the call as she slightly turned away.
Saren didn't even bother looking at the Illusive Man's corpse. He just stood above it, the Conduit's control panel taking his attention as he skimmed through the familiar code. This relay, because it wasn't used often, therefore not maintained properly in the last 15 000 years, had long lost its touch and for it to work, it required an extensive amount of charging time. He only prayed that since the reapers last used it, it had time to recharge.
But what he found he did not expect.
The logs showed that the last usage entry was from three years ago. He looked at the code. It was his own. He took a step back, trying to re-analyze the situation… something wasn't right here.
"Vendetta!" he spoke, still looking at the code "Do you know why did this man shoot himself in the head?"
[He failed to put his ship down and crash landed. He then proceeded to learn that he could not activate the Conduit to get to the Citadel. In his desperation, he shot himself.]
Of course he coudn't activate it. He never had the Cipher, and Vendetta clearly wasn't able to help him.
"Why did he want to use the relay? To break the Catalyst before we could use it?" Saren asked again, not satisfied.
[Incorrect. He wanted to activate the Catalyst. He believed he could control the reapers using some virus, distributed via the Catalyst, but he was wrong. Reapers cannot be controlled.]
Virus? Was this the same virus he used to infect him? Why was he trying to help if…
"But he was indoctrinated… How could he?"
[He was never indoctrinated] said the construct, shaking its virtual head. [His organization was. He avoided all physical contact with the reapers, and instead sent his lapdogs. Soon, all fell to indoctrination, but him.]
At this point, Jane who was discussing the coordinate details with the Council also turned around, as she listened to the conversation with one ear. Saren looked up at the Conduit, now confused more than ever. The reapers never used the Conduit apart from when they initially found it (which he thought the reapers were using to attack the Citadel the last time), and the Illusive Man is also not indoctrinated? What was going on here?
[He wanted to solve the conflict. By coming here, he thought he had an advantage on the reapers.]
"My point exactly" Saren said, turning back to Vendetta "How come he thought he'd have an advantage? How come that he was right and there is not a single reaper present here, when in reality they know this route very well? I helped them travel through it three years ago, Sovereign knew about it! His data was all sent out to dark space to the other reapers!"
"Hold off for a second" Jane said in the call to Sparatus "I'll call you back." She terminated the call, now turning to Saren and the construct. Something was not ok. She needed to hear.
[Incorrect. The Illusive Man provided me with insight, in case I'd need to pass on the information to help the cause of the reaper's demise. The Illusive Man and Cerberus has successfully recovered a large part of Sovereign's wreckage three years ago. He has data confirming that Sovereign's last transactions never reached the reapers in dark space.]
A chill so cold and frightening ran through Saren, he felt he was dead for a second.
"Then how did the reapers know about the Conduit? How did they recreate me if they never had the information?"
[They never knew about the Conduit, and they have never recreated you.]
An exhale so soft left Saren's mouth, like it never happened.
"But then… how..." he sighed.
[Cerberus used Sovereign's data to recreate you, Saren Arterius. The Illusive Man informed me that the human reaper's technology was more than enough to expose the technology and process required for a birth of a reaper. Extensive turian genetic data was used to create blueprints for a half organic turian reaper. Your current existence.]
Turian genetic data.
"So that's why Cerberus stole the data from the reaper of Haestrom?" Jane exhaled, recalling their conversation with EDI "Is that how that reaper got damaged in the first place?"
A great big world suddenly started to collapse in Saren's mind. His heart started beating so fast like it never did before in his entire life, and he couldn't stop himself. Like a robot, he rigidly, slowly turned to the corpse next to him, that was still there on the ground, just at his feet, facing the ground. It was a corpse of an old man.
"Why..." he breathed, barely audible. Jane didn't dare to move an inch. "Why would this man ever… ever..."
He stared at the body. His hand slowly moved as he leaned down, and for a second Jane could swear, she saw his talons shaking. He reached down and grabbed the man by the shoulder, turning him as he went, revealing his face. It was a face very familiar to him, old, wrinkly, but the hair, the…
He tripped, almost falling back from the realization that slammed so hard into him, his heart almost stopped beating. He knew this face very well.
"It can't be..." he hissed, staring at the floor, getting further and further away from the man with every step. "It cannot be..."
"What?" Jane asked, running to him, trying to keep him standing. It seemed that suddenly all of his strength left him, paralyzed from the shock of seeing a ghost. "Do you know him?"
"Jack Harper..." he hummed.
Jane's eyes widened in shock. "What? You actually know the Illusive Man?"
He swallowed his nerves. "I met this man during the first Contact war… he's Jack Harper. He helped stopping a terrorist attack against Palaven, that involved a possibly reaper artifact, the Arca Monolith."
"A terrorist attack?" Jane asked.
She had never seen a look quite like this on Saren's face ever before. His mandibles tense, his eyes completely lost their shine. He never talked about this to anyone before.
Not until now.
"I had a little brother, Desolas." He stopped. Gathering strength he never thought he'd need. "He was maddened by the Monolith. I killed him, bombing the entirety of Temple Palaven, to protect the homeplanet from him."
Now she understood that dull, empty shine in his eyes.
His brother went mad because of indoctrination.
She now knew why he pulled the trigger three years ago, on the Citadel.
Saren stepped further back, backing away from the corpse, the Conduit and Vendetta at the same time. A vague expression on his face as he fell so deep into his own mind, reality started distorting around him.
The yellow, emerald colours of Ilos seeped into his mind, making him dizzy.
He wasn't recreated by the reapers? To doom the galaxy? But by Cerberus, to protect it? That is why Jack chose him? Because of Desolas?
"Why..."
A strong, clear voice broke up the distortion in his mind. He saw Jane in front of him:
"He believed in you." she said, confident. "Just like I did."
He felt her hand on his mandibles, and his jaw naturally sank into her palm. He had found no words to describe the feeling coursing through him. It felt like his existence wasn't just a lie anymore. This was his way. He chose, and he chose well. His purpose was clear, clearer than ever before.
Stop this mad war. Once and for all.
And he was stronger for it all.
Jane saw the light come back to his eyes. She saw the same strength he pulled from somewhere every time, the force that could not let him break down. He was stronger than anyone she could have possibly met, ever, finding focus where only chaos remained. He was truly unstoppable. That's why the Illusive Man chose him. That's why she chose him.
Saren looked at the Conduit. He re-centered himself, now stronger than ever. There was no stopping now.
"Call the Council" he commanded "I'll finish the coding in 10, they have to make the jump." Jane nodded in reply. As Saren stepped to the console to open the relay to the Citadel, he looked at the Illusive Man, lifeless on the ground.
He nodded, deep, paying his respects.
It was time to go.