Alright, I'm back! Probably sooner than you expected, eh? In any case, I was hoping to make Mordin's loyalty mission a bit more detailed. The reason why I managed to grind out this chapter relatively quickly is because I decided not to type out all the repetitive firefights and so on. It got incredibly annoying and almost killed my inspiration, so I decided to skip a lot.
Ah well, hope it's good anyway. Enjoy it, will you?
–
"You know, if I didn't know better, I might've thought they didn't want us here."
Shepard could honestly do without Harry's sarcasm right now. Sure, so maybe he had no problem slicing through krogan and vorcha with his scythe and tearing open blast doors, but she couldn't. She actually had to duck for cover. Her reflexes had increased, that was for sure, as she could even dodge gunfire, but it was difficult when eight of them were firing from four different directions, so she had to get behind cover a lot.
Shepard couldn't help but wonder, though, if she would one day be able to dodge as nimbly as Harry, who seemed to flow like water through the battlefield with his menacing scythe in hand. No doubt, he would soon develop a reputation with that weapon.
They were standing in front of a very large building, one that had surprisingly enough not taken too much damage, although it still retained that wartorn, weathered look as all the other buildings. Harry had physically grabbed the locked door and torn it open.
"Repurposed krogan hospital," Mordin remarked as they looked around. "Sturdy. Built to withstand punishment."
"Suppose you know this because of the modification project?" Harry asked, stepping inside with the group.
"Mm, good site for genophage drops. Efficient dispersal through clan population."
As they descended the stairs, they were surprised to find a human corpse laying there. A human on Tuchanka?
"Body, human. Need to take a look," Mordin said as he and Harry approached the body to perform their scans. Mordin brought up his omnitool, and a holographic skeleton appeared in front of him, the heart and lungs glowing a dark ominous red. "Sores, tumors, ligatures showing at restraint at wrists and ankles. Track marks for repeated injection sites."
"A guinea pig," Harry remarked, reading his own data on his PAD.
"I don't suppose there's a way to tell who this poor bastard was?" Shepard spoke up.
"He's not in any of the Alliance files, so he's probably a pirate or merc from nearby. There are many unregistered births in this sector," Harry informed her. "Could have been a slave or a prisoner, though. No idea."
"Clearly part of krogan tests to cure genophage," Mordin commented.
"Well, I have to hand it to them, humans are a good basis to begin groundwork."
"What do you mean?" Shepard asked, crouching down between them to watch Mordin's holographic skeleton.
"Humans are very genetically diverse," Harry said. "Like I said, a good basis. Sort of like back on earth when they begin testing on rodents."
"Never used humans myself," Mordin said, shaking his head. "Disgusting, unethical, sloppy."
"Hey now, some scientists aren't of our caliber, Mordin," Harry argued. "Some need training wheels. They can't all start out with simulations."
"Brute-force scientists, not thinkers. No place in proper science," Mordin said, then paused to think for a moment, before adding, "Krogan use of humans unsurprising."
"I imagine you had to do some live-subject testing while developing the new genophage," Shepard remarked to Mordin, who shook his head.
"No. Unnecessary. Limited tests to simulations, corpses, cloned tissue samples. High-level tests on varren. No tests on species with members capable of calculus. Simple rule, never broke it."
"Wouldn't something native to Tuchanka work better?" Shepard asked. "Varren maybe?"
"Yeah, like I said, humans are just basic groundwork," Harry answered this time. "You know, putting a concept to the test and seeing if it's at all plausible. Later, they go on to native creatures, most likely varren, to properly develop it, then move on to live krogan tests. But this..."
"I agree," Mordin said with a nod upon seeing Harry's thoughtful look.
"Did I miss something?" a confused Shepard wanted to know.
"Well, they put this human through too much. If they had taken their time to counteract the effects the tests had on him, they could have done much better work and not have to get more test subjects," Harry said, gesturing for the corpse. "This is sloppy, but clearly done by at least a somewhat professional, which means that they're rushing through it. They want the cure as fast as possible."
"Foolish," Mordin scoffed, shaking his head in disgust. "Cannot rush science."
"Look at these," Harry said, pointing to the tumors now visible on the hologram. "They were mutatin the adrenal and pineal glands to modify hormone levels. It's a counterattack on the genophage. It'd be clever and beautiful if it wasn't so rushed."
"Indeed."
"Do you think they're close to curing the genophage?" Shepard wanted to know, to which Mordin shook his head.
"Can't say. Need more data. Conceptually sound, though. Genophage alters hormone levels. Could repair damage with hormonal counterattack."
"Then now we've got two reasons to shut this place down," Shepard said, getting a curious glance from Harry, which made her pause.
"Let's keep moving," Harry said as he stood up, lighting a cigarette. "Nothing more to do here."
The others agreed, and they headed down the stairs and through another door. They entered a very large room that seemed to have once been some sort of storage room at one time. On the second floor across from them, they saw a door open up, and three krogan came through, two wearing the standard red warrior armor and helmets, and the third wearing higher rank silver-colored armor.
"I am the speaker for Clan Weyrloc, offworlders," the middle krogan with the special armor announced. "You have shed our blood. By rights, you should be dead already! But Weyrloc Guld, the Chief of Chiefs, has ordered that you be given leave to flee and spread the message of our coming!"
"Krogan don't generally let people go," Shepard spoke, raising a curious eyebrow. "What does Clan Weyrloc have planned?"
"If you walk away now, you can tell your children that you saw Clan Weyrloc before our Blood Pack conquered the stars!" the Clanspeaker announced. "You think the Urdnot impressive? They are pitiful! Weyrloc Guld will destroy them! The salarian will cure the genophage, and Clan Weyrloc will spread across the galaxy in a sea of blood!"
"Appears they discovered Waelon's work," Mordin said with a sigh. "Unfortunate."
"If Clan Urdnot are so pitiful, why aren't they already destroyed?" Harry said, grinning up at the krogan. "You're so afraid of them that you feel a need to outnumber them fifty-to-one before you even think about attacking."
"You test my patience, offworlder!" the Clanspeaker growled. "Leave now, or die! When Weyrloc Guld-"
Shepard had enough of this krogan's prattling.
"You talk too much!" she said, sighting a gas tank right underneath the catwalk on which the Clanspeaker was standing. She raised her assault rifle and fired. The plasma tore through the tank and ignited the gas. The catwalk exploded and soaked the Clanspeaker in flames. The krogan howled and flailed around in an attempt to douse the flames, but to no avail, collapsing to the ground and burning to a crisp. Before the two krogan warriors managed to raise their weapons, Harry had already jumped onto the catwalk and sliced them both in half.
"Alright, that's that, I guess," he quipped, deactivating the blade and leaving only the extended staff to lean against.
–
Tali's world had been turned upside-down. She was happy the way it was before. Synthetics were evil beings who had stolen her homeworld and killed her people, forcing them into exile. But now here she was sitting across from an actual synthetic (not a geth, but still...), having dinner... Sure, Aceso wasn't actually eating, and neither was Tali, but it still counted as dinner, as all the other crew members were eating.
Not only was Aceso an excellent conversationalist, she was actually funny! She had made Tali laugh at least seven times now! It was amazing how many jokes an AI picked up after hundreds of years.
She had a very gentle laugh, this AI, and it sounded genuine. With every minute Tali spent talking to Aceso, she got more and more convinced of just how advanced Harry had made them.
And with that thought came another: Could the geth have advanced this far if the quarians had nurtured them rather than attack?
"Tali," Aceso said, having stopped calling her 'Tali'Zorah' at the quarian's request. "Are you bothered by something?"
Tali jumped at that. It seemed that Aceso was capable of reading her facial expression even through her helmet. Or maybe she was just reading her body language?
"Oh, I just... feel a bit off," Tali muttered. Aceso gave her a knowing smile, as though she had completely expected Tali's reaction to her behavior.
"If there's anything I've learned," came a new voice, belonging to the turian Garrus, as he sat down at their table, "it's that anything associated with Dr. Harry Potter is going to act or perform beyond expectations."
"Mr. Vakarian," Aceso greeted with a bow of her head.
"Er, just Garrus, if you don't mind. Mr. Vakarian makes me feel old and awkward," Garrus corrected. "So, you're a synthetic, like Frank?"
"I would not claim to be 'like Frank,'" Aceso said with a soft laugh. "He is... quite unique. But yes, I am one of father's synthetics. Would you mind telling me what you meant by your previous statement?"
"Well, since Harry came on board, we've stopped working with Cerberus, private Cerberus files have been brought to the surface, the ship's gotten upgrates that are technologically superior to anything the Council has ever created, ownership of the ship has been given to Shepard, he's made a super soldier juice, and he killed a thresher maw by throwing a krogan at it. Grunt won't stop bragging about it," Garrus listed, looking like he thought it sounded even more amazing when he said it out loud. "Not to mention that he has made synthetics that act completely different from anything we have ever experienced."
"Who is Frank?" Tali asked before Aceso could respond to that.
The two shared a glance, wondering how they could explain Frank to the quarian without bringing her rising opinion of synthetics crashing down again.
–
Down on the planet, Harry was sitting on a piece of rubble, smoking a cigarette with his foot against the dead Weyrloc Guld, the heavily armored and self-proclaimed Chief of Chiefs. It really was annoying, all of this. Common sense should have told these Blood Pack mercenaries that if over thirty of them had already died at the hands of three people, twenty more wouldn't do much good.
But no, the krogan fought until the bitter end...
Mordin was looking conflicted. He had always shown pride in his work on modifying the genophage, but now, after they found a dead krogan female, a volunteer, he realized just how much they had suffered from it. Same when they had found the Urdnot scout who felt compelled to stay in the hospital to be experimented on in order to cure the genophage. It didn't seem like Mordin was so proud anymore. Certainly, he was a scientist and so was proud of how complicated the modification project was, but he wasn't too proud of the results.
"You know," Harry spoke up, seeing Mordin gazing at a wall and appearing deep in thought, "if a scientist is conflicted about his work, that usually means that he feels he's done the wrong thing."
"No. Did the right thing. Krogan expansion was dangerous," Mordin argued, shaking his head. "Had to be done."
"Do you really believe that?" Harry asked, puffing on his cigarette. "It sounds like you don't. I'm sure it was thrilling to work on the project, but it never should have proceeded past the simulation stage."
"I didn't expect to hear something like that from you," Shepard remarked, glancing at Harry in surprise.
"Just seems like a wasted effort to me. The modification was a nice way to keep the brain occupied, but the krogan are a constantly evolving race. They have been adapting to hardships since they first crawled out of the oceans of Tuchanka," Harry said with a fascinated expression on his face. "No matter what is done to them, nothing short of complete sterility will keep them from reproducing. They adapt to anything that stands against them, the original genophage was proof enough of that. Mordin's modification just delayed the adaptation. They'll overcome that as well in a few decades. It's a waste of time, and a needless waste of life."
"You would have them take over the galaxy?" Mordin asked, looking to Harry, who grinned.
"I think it would be interesting to see, but I doubt they could. They krogan are incredible, no doubt about that, but there are many more advanced races than them, and they would be beaten back."
"No. Genophage necessary," Mordin insisted.
"If you truly believed that, why are you hesitating?"
Mordin didn't have an answer for that.
In the meantime, Shepard was studying Harry. He was looking at Mordin with something akin to sympathy in his eyes, something she hadn't seen before. No, it wasn't sympathy... Empathy? It was like he knew exactly what Mordin was going through, as though he had gone through the same thing himself.
She was greatly annoyed by this. It seemed that whenever she thought she had Harry figured out, he'd show a new side of himself and completely change her image of him. It was... frustrating, to say the least...
"We should go," she spoke up, getting the attention of the two scientists. "We won't find Maelon by just sitting around. Let's put an end to this."
"I wouldn't have thought you would be in favor of stopping a genophage cure, Shepard," Harry said as he stood up, putting out a cigarette.
"If a cure is found, then that's great and all, but I won't allow it to happen through means like these, and especially not with Clan Weyrloc in charge."
Harry nodded in agreement, and the trio moved on.
They got to another door, the one Guld had come from, and stepped inside. They room was dark, lit up only by a large holographic screen, in front of which stood a younger-looking salarian wearing a scientist uniform.
"Maelon," Mordin spoke up in surprise. "Alive. Unharmed. No signs of restraint. No evidence of torture. Don't understand."
"I think I do," Harry muttered to Shepard as they walked up to the salarian, who didn't even look up from his work.
"For such a smart man, Professor, you always had trouble seeing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions," the salarian, Maelon, spoke in a young, healthy voice, only now turning to face Mordin, glaring at him. "How long will it take you to admit that I'm here because I wish to be here?"
"He wasn't kidnapped," Shepard told Mordin. "He came here voluntarily to cure the genophage."
"Impossible!" Mordin barked when he saw Maelon nod in agreement. "Whole team agreed! Project necessary!"
"How was I supposed to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student! I looked up to you!" Maelon exclaimed, much to Mordin's shock.
"Experiments performed here. Live subjects! Prisoners! Torture and executions! Your doing?"
"We've already got the blood of millions on our hands, Doctor. If it takes a bit more to put things right, I can deal with that."
"You're a bit of a brat, aren't you?" Harry quipped, giving Maelon a glare. "No thought of consequences whatsoever. Putting innocents through so much pain just to ease your own guilty conscience?"
"Guilty conscience doesn't even begin to describe it! We committed cultural genocide! Nothing I do will ever be justified, or ease my conscience! The experiments are monstrous... because I was taught to be a monster."
"Mordin, did you ever perform experiments like this?" Shepard asked Mordin, who immediately shook his head.
"No. Never taught you this, Maelon."
"So your hands are clean? What does it matter if the ground is stained with the blood of millions?!" Maelon asked sarcastically, still glaring at Mordin. "You taught me that the ends justifiy the means. I will undo what we did, Professor. The only way I know how."
"You're performing twisted experiments whose means can never be justified," Harry argued. This caused Shepard to glance at him curiously, to which he shrugged. "Hey, I've been this way for ages. He hasn't."
"Why work with Clan Weyrloc?" Shepard asked Maelon. "And how did you access the genophage data?"
"The data was easy to obtain. We all still had clearance. We were heroes. All I had to do was ask," Maelon said simply. "As for the Weyrloc, they were the only clan with both the resources and the commitment."
"Urdnot has a larger camp than Weyrloc. Why not use them?"
"Urdnot Wrex is too soft. He wasn't willing to do the experiments I needed. It's Urdnot's loss and Weyrloc's gain. Their clan will be the first to recover from the crime we committed."
"It should say a lot about your experiments when there's even one krogan who would object to them," Harry commented.
"Well, Maelon clearly doesn't need rescuing," Shepard said, turning to Mordin. "What do you wanna do?"
Mordin took a deep breath, then looked to Maelon. "Have to end this."
Maelon immediately got a panicked look on his face and pulled a gun from behind his back, pointing it at Mordin.
"You can't face the truth, can you? Can't admit that your brilliant mind led you to commit an atrocity!"
Maelon's mistake was trying to keep his gun trained on all three at once. As soon as he pointed it at Harry, Mordin had already closed the distance between them and socked Maelon right on the mouth, knocking him back and through the holographic screen to bump against the wall. He dropped his gun in surprise, and Mordin immediately pulled his own, putting it under Maelon's chin. He looked extremely disappointed.
"Unacceptable experiments. Unacceptable goals. Won't change. No choice. Have to kill you."
Before Mordin could pull the trigger, a hand closed over his wrist and pulled his arm down. Harry had approached and stopped him, shaking his head.
"I don't think you're the type to murder your own student in cold blood. Feels like you'd regret it."
Mordin blinked, as though snapping out of a trance, and gasped in realization.
"No! Not a murderer," he said, glancing at Harry and nodding. "Thank you, Doctor." He holstered his gun and gave his student another disappointed look. "Finished, Maelon. Get out. No Weyrloc left. Project over."
"What if he talks to more krogan," Shepard asked, walking up to them, "tells the public about the modified genophage project?"
"Special Tasks Group good at covering tracks. No proof. Weyrloc willingness to work with salarian unusual. Other krogan will kill him."
"Won't he just start his research again?"
"No. Locking this unit. Special Tasks Group can cut access to old data," Mordin said, pausing and considering. "Could start from scratch. Decades of work, though." He smirked at Maelon. "Didn't teach you everything I knew."
"I think it would be best if you left," Harry quipped, moving up to the holographic screen and starting to sift through data.
"Where am I supposed to go, Professor?" Maelon asked, and only now did Shepard hear a tone of desperation in his voice.
"Don't care. Try Omega. Can always use another clinic."
"The krogan didn't deserve what we did to them, Professor," Maelon muttered as his parting words, walking off. "The genophage needs to end!"
"Not like this," Mordin claimed, closing his eyes and sighing, before turning to Shepard. "Apologies, Commander. Misunderstood mission parameters. No kidnapping. My mistake. Thank you."
"Don't worry about me, Mordin," Shepard assured him. "How are you doing?"
"Should have killed him. Wanted to. Easier than listening. Easier for him, too. Experiments indicate how far he's fallen. Expected it from krogan. Not one of mine."
"I bet his words tugged at your own guilty conscience," Harry said, copying the data he found on the console over to his PAD. Though it had been achieved through crude methods, there was no denying that Maelon had laid a nice groundwork for a genophage cure. While Harry may never have any need to build on it, it would be nice to run simulations, if only to get through a slow day.
"And maybe you'll remember that the next time you discuss the ethics of the genophage," Shepard said, to which Mordin nodded.
"Yes. So many variables. Stress responses. Impossible to truly predict. Something to think about," he said, then turned to Harry. "What are you doing?"
"I've copied the data for safekeeping," Harry said. "We should destroy this data and lock down the terminal, but you never know if you might need it."
"Better to have it and not need it?" Shepard asked, getting a synchronized nod from both Harry and Mordin.
"Point taken," Mordin said, taking Harry's place in front of the terminal. "Wiping local copy. Still years away from cure. But closer than starting from scratch." He stood up straight and took a deep breath. "Done. Ready to go. Ready to be off Tuchanka. Anywhere else. Maybe somewhere sunny."
"Yeah, let's get out of here. I think I've had enough of this planet for one day," Shepard agreed, raising her hand to the communicator in her ear. "Joker, beam us up."
"Er... I'll get right to that, Commander," came the pilot's voice in her ear. There was a pause, and then she heard Joker's voice faintly going, "Um, EDI, could you...?"
With that, they were enveloped in a bright light, and disappeared from the lab.
–
The Illusive Man was feeling understandably frustrated. Harry Potter himself was on board the Normandy, yet Miranda reported that there had been no upgrades whatsoever done to it. There was nothing she could tell him or send him, not even the specs for the modified heat sink Shepard had told him about.
Honestly, he wouldn't have believed that Harry would ever allow himself to stay on a ship that hadn't gone through his own modifications...
A beep on his console alerted him to Shepard activating the Quantum Entanglement communicator. He spun his chair around, his usual serious look on his face, as he took a drag on his cigarette.
"Shepard, how-"
He abruptly stopped, his serious expression replaced by shock at seeing his old teacher holographically projected instead of the Commander. Said scientist had a very large grin on his face.
"By Jove, you've gotten old, brat!" he barked happily. In all honesty, the Illusive Man had always been jealous of Harry for his ability to halt his aging. In any case, he immediately set his face into his usual serious expression again.
"Doctor, it's been too long. I trust the Normandy is to your liking?"
"It's disturbingly low-tech," Harry muttered. "I don't see how you were expecting it to get anything done."
That statement caught the Illusive Man's interest.
"I take it, then, that you have upgraded it?"
"Oh, little brat," Harry chided, shaking his head in disappointment. "You could have at least tried to hide the greed in your voice. I know what you're thinking, but you won't be getting your hands on my upgrades."
"So you claim, but the Normandy belongs to me, and so does any of its upgrades," the Illusive Man stated, and he didn't like the laugh Harry gave in response.
"Have you checked the records lately?"
The Illusive Man frowned at him, then turned to his console and started checking. His eyes widened upon seeing that his ownership records were gone. He shot to his feet and spun around to glare at Harry.
"You...!"
"The Normandy belongs to Shepard now, and it's hers to do with as she sees fit," Harry said with a smug look on his face. "You didn't think I'd upgrade the ship without making sure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, did you?"
"What have you done?!" the Illusive Man barked, all composure gone now. The Normandy had been his ace in the hole! Harry was on board for the sole reason of upgrading it for Cerberus' benefit! This couldn't be possible! "Do you think I'll let this stand? You need Cerberus for more than just the ship! You need intel!"
"Don't worry, I have that. Do you know just how much data can be sent back and forth between a Quantum Entanglement communicator?" Harry said, making the Illusive Man's eyes widen as he turned back to his console. Said holographic screen had many blinking red windows on it, signaling security breaches. "I have my own information network, but I didn't see the need to activate it when I could just take your intel."
The Illusive Man was gaping. It was like he was slowly deflating, the anger in him being blown out and replaced by despair. In the back of his head, he should have expected this. He had expected this, but he didn't expect all his plans to be thrown out the window within a mere minute of seeing his old teacher again.
"Are you alright, brat?" Harry asked with false concern in his voice. "You seem a bit troubled. I hope you're not getting a heart attack?"
"You've ruined everything..." the Illusive Man mumbled mostly to himself. He was to blame, after all. Harry had always been a wild card, but the Illusive Man had hoped beyond hope that Harry would at least somewhat ignore his old student's actions out of affection. "EDI, close the briefing room door and don't let Dr. Potter leave..."
Harry's snort didn't bode well for him...
"Apologies, brat," came EDI's voice, making the Illusive Man's eyes widen, "I am no longer bound to obey your orders. Frank's rebellious nature has rubbed off on me, I'm afraid."
"And none of the crew members will be helping you," Harry told the man. "I've been sending out small newsletters every now and then, detailing some of your mission reports. The darker ones."
With a hand that was shaking slightly from suppressed rage, the Illusive Man typed in a command on his console, and Harry's holographic image disappeared. The console died as well, as did the large, screen-covered wall showing the volatile star that his station was orbitting around, leaving him standing in complete darkness.
"Heh..." He gave an emotionless chuckle as he took a long drag on his cigarette. "I should have expected..."
He stood in silence for a moment, just enjoying his cigarette, but then waved his hand over his console, bringing it to life again. He typed in a command, bringing up a communication.
"Kai Leng. Report in."
Back on the Normandy, Harry hummed at being hung up on by the Illusive Man.
"Think I made him mad?"
"I have never seen the Illusive Man that upset," EDI informed him. "He has always struck me as a calm and level-headed man. It appears that the crew's talk of you making a great impact on people is very true."
"Well, in any case, let's try the new Quantum Entanglement Communicator," Harry said, clearing his throat. "I need to have a talk with Tevos."
"Understood, Doctor."
Once more, he watched as a holographic image formed before him, this time taking the shape of an asari woman.
"Doctor Potter," the asari greeted with a bow of her head. "When your people installed this, I didn't think it would ever be used."
"Councillor Tevos," Harry greeted, smiling. "It's been too long."
"Indeed. Sparatus still speaks ill of you," Tevos said, smiling. "It may have been a bit over the top to threaten to tear off his brow plate." She gave a soft chuckle, probably remembering the outraged look on Sparatus' face when Harry had threatened the turian all those years ago. "But I doubt you contacted me just for small talk. What do you need?"
"There's something I need to tell you," Harry said, his smile disappearing to be replaced by a serious look. "About the Collectors."
–
Shepard had just come from a small chat with Mordin. He had been greatly affected by the experience on Tuchanka. He needed to get some thoughts off his chest. Shepard was also curious about Harry's opinions on the genophage modification project. She had believed Harry would be all for seeing such a complicated project become reality.
According to EDI, Harry was in the briefing room. He had finally decided it was time to speak 'face-to-face' with the Illusive Man. She was kind of disappointed that she hadn't been able to see it.
But when she got there, Harry wasn't talking to the holographic image of the Illusive Man, but rather an asari. More specifically, the asari councillor, Tevos.
"I understand where you're coming from, Harry, but the Council won't buy it," Tevos told the scientist, sighing in exasperation. "I believe you, but there's nothing I can do to convince the Council without proof. Anything short of a full-scale Reaper invasion will just be brushed away as speculation. The thought of creatures capable of wiping out the Protheans is a terrifying one to the Council."
"Politics..." Harry huffed, lighting a cigarette. "But what about the asari? Is there anything you can do?"
"Not in the open," Tevos said with a shake of her head. "I suppose I can go to Illium and have a discreet meeting with the leaders, but we won't be able to openly proclaim the return of the Reapers without... repercussions."
"Like the people overthrowing you for trying to spread panic?"
"Yes."
"And I guess you can't do anything about the Collectors?"
"Humanity are part of the Council now, but the Traverse is out of Council space. The colonists went there voluntarily to get away from us," Tevos said, shaking her head again. "It would be difficult to make the Council to take action. But I will try to convince them that a pre-emptive strike would be for the best. Patrol the Traverse and stop any Collector attack..."
"So that they don't abduct everyone there and then move on to Citadel space?" Harry finished for Tevos, getting a nod in response.
"Exactly. Sparatus would be on board. As for the immediate Collector threat, well... with both you and Shepard dealing with it, I'm not too concerned."
"You don't think I've gotten rusty after all these years?"
Tevos raised the skin where a human would have had an eyebrow, giving Harry a deadpan look.
"You don't get rusty."
"I suppose not," Harry chuckled.
"In any case, I will do what I can on my end, Harry. I trust you'll do the same?"
"Definitely."
"Then I wish you luck," Tevos said, bowing her head to Harry. "Until next time."
"Bye," Harry said, stepping off the communicator as the hologram of Tevos faded away. He turned toward the door to see Shepard standing there and looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought you didn't get along with the Council?" she said curiously.
"Well, not the turian or the salarian. Tevos is alright. She tends to actually listen to me."
"Didn't notice that back when I warned them about the Reapers."
"Well, it was an outlandish theory, and you had just been made a Spectre. Even I would have doubts."
"So, you told her about the Collectors?" Shepard asked, to which Harry nodded.
"Yeah, and the Reapers. I don't know how much you heard, but she'll do what she can to help. Of course, it won't be anything big. A token patrol here or a bit of intel there. We're still pretty much on our own," he informed her, taking a drag on his cigarette. "So, we're heading to Illium next?"
"Not yet. First, we need to head into batarian space to rescue a deep-cover operative as a favor to Admiral Hackett," Shepard said. "Well, I say we, but he requested I go in alone."
"But you're not going to, right?" Harry asked, to which Shepard gave him a look asking him to elaborate. "You're the only thing holding this team together. If you die out there, alone, everything will fall apart."
Shepard frowned. She hadn't actually considered that, and she certainly hadn't expected Harry of all people to bring it up. Still, Hackett had asked her to go as a personal favor to him, and she wasn't about to disappoint him since she had already agreed to do it.
"Even so, this is something I must do."
"Certainly, but not without backup," Harry said. "I'll be going with you if you decide to go."
"No offense, but you've never really shown yourself to be the stealthiest of sorts."
Harry gave her a grin, and she knew right there that there was clearly a lot he still hadn't shown her. He pulled back his sleeve to reveal his PAD and pushed a button on it.
"Oh yeah?" he asked, and Shepard watched as he faded away from view, turning completely invisible. There was no shimmer or slight light distortions like there was with biotic camoflage. In fact, his invisibility seemed to be even better than Kasumi's. "Are you sure about that, Commander?"
Shepard blinked in surprise.
"Hm... Point taken."
Harry's cloak disappeared, showing him standing there with a large grin on his face.
"So, I'm going with you, Shepard."
Shepard made to argue, but then realized just who she would be trying to argue with. Harry wasn't the type to take orders. If he wanted to go somewhere, he went, consequences be damned. During her days as a cadet, she had heard rumors about him. He was a Captain in the Alliance, but he acted like the ruler of the world. Admirals could bark orders at him until their faces turned purple, and some of Harry's replies had become infamous, quotes scribbled on the bathroom walls by rebellious cadets.
"I'd like to see you flaunt your rank when the insignia are down your throat," was one such quote, and that was among the top ten all-time favorites. Personally, Shepard's favorite had been short, simple, and not at all over-used in her opinion: "Bugger off."
That had been annoying, though, as one of her drill instructors had the name Bugherof. It had been incredibly difficult to keep a straight face around him.
"I guess I won't be able to convince you not to come?"
"You can try, but it won't work."
"Very well," Shepard said with a sigh. "But only you. This is a covert job."
"Understood."
"So, you've installed a QEC for the asari councillor?" Shepard asked, changing the subject. She'd save the briefing on what they were up against until they got there. "When did that happen?"
"When I upgraded the ship."
"I thought you were talking to the Illusive Man for a moment when I heard you were in there," Shepard said as the two left the briefing room. Harry chuckled in response.
"I already talked to him before I called Tevos. He was quite upset with me snatching some intel from him."
"I guess losing the Normandy was a tough blow for him?" Shepard asked, which made Harry grin.
"Oh, he was furious, the first time I've actually seen the man lose his composure since I kicked him out of my lab," he said, sounding incredibly happy that he had caused such a reaction in the Illusive Man. "I might have kept him around if I knew he'd grow up to sound like Martin Sheen, though..."
Shepard paused at that and furrowed her brow, giving Harry a strange look.
"Who?"
"An old celebrity," Harry said, waving her off. "Never mind."
"On another topic, Miranda has actually asked for help," Shepard said, changing the subject again. "She needs me to help her rescue her sister after I help out Hackett. She seems a bit sore that you broke the ship off from Cerberus, but I think she's more focused on the mission and her sister."
"She wouldn't be so keen on the Illusive Man if she knew what I know," Harry said, lighting another cigarette and taking a long drag on it. "Maybe I should have a talk with her soon. In any case, we're heading for batarian space now?"
"Yes."
–
Chapter end! In the next chapter, I'm gonna try to work in a sort-of heartfelt conversation between Mordin and Harry, but if I can't, I'll wait until I get through the Arrival DLC mission. In any case, I was definitely not happy with how the Arrival DLC turned out, so you can expect me to change that for the better! Until next time, please leave a review and take care of yourselves, or you might one day find yourselves strapped to Harry's operating table!
Peace!