Waves washed over him repeatedly, chipping away a sin every time. And with every sin gone, so was the memory, relieving him of a continued torment. He was free of guilt, of the sadness and anger of his past life decisions. It was time for him to start anew, and if the gods and goddesses be true, maybe they could give him a second chance.
Surrounding him were the iridescent and pure forms of the ancient gods of the drell ways. Beautiful, magnificent, humbling, and gracious. They did not speak words, but he could understand them. He had learned a lesson that needs to be taught to others, and by returning him to the world of mortals, he shall fulfill his prophecy, a legacy remembered in the name of the ancient gods.
"Thank you," He said to them, and in return, they let the ocean of life consume him. His world had turned black once again.
The Citadel was full of refugees in need of a variety of different things. Medi-gel, housing, clothing, food. It was a sad sight to see, and Shepard wished she had enough time and resources to help all of them. In the hospital, the rooms were at max capacity with wounded and dying C-sec officials and citizens of the Citadel. Damn Cerberus.
She saw the chair that Thane had been sitting at when she had met with him on the Citadel. He didn't have the strength or the energy as he once had, and he knew it. It saddened her to see him that way. But the fire was still there, the way he spoke to her, and longed for her.
Shepard sat in the chair, and felt the tears threatening to flow. Clenching her teeth, she looked out the window. The vista was of the lower Presidium, a beautiful sight to see before the coup. But it did not give her any comfort. Being here only reminded her of the war, and how easily it can take the ones you cared about.
Her next mission reminded her to return back to the Normandy, and Shepard left the citadel with a heavier heart than before.
He awoke in a makeshift medical laboratory with tubes and wires attached to him that hooked up to machines. The smell was sterile, like a hospital, but the room contained no one else. It was dark, with lights that flickered overhead in an ominous sort of way. Only after he had begun to remove the wires from his chest that he realized he wasn't himself. Not completely. He expected to see his light green skin that he inherited from his mother, and instead saw tanned skin of a human. Examining his hands, he had ten fingers and ten toes, all of which had curious hardened shells over the tips. Fingernails; for self-defense, maybe? He never had time to really examine the anatomy and physiology of humans. Looking back, he wished he had.
Why had the gods reincarnated him into a human? It made no sense. It was by the gods that the drell had existed, thus creating the religion, but now he began to have doubts. Maybe it wasn't just the drell beliefs, maybe it was just the will of the universe, and it only made sense to him to see it as the gods of his religion.
But these were just theories, and why did it matter? He had been given a second chance. It was an opportunity to put what was right in his past life, in spite of how short it had been.
His thoughts went immediately to his Siha, creating a tingling sensation in his human stomach. He had to get out of here to protect her - she had to survive this Reaper war.
There was a door on the far side of the room. He immediately started toward it, when a Cerberus trooper entered through. He had his back turned from him, probably unaware he had awoken. He hid behind a stack of medical mech, trying to melt into the shadows as he once had, but this human body was clumsier than he had predicted.
"Yeah, tell Delta Squad that we're moving in five down to vorcha territory to secure the area." The door shut behind him, and then silence.
He began to radio out to another trooper, but Thane cut him off by tightly choking his neck. He quickly disabled his radio, and matched the same frequency that the Cerberus operatives were using to communicate through his omni-tool to track their movements. Thane bined the trooper with wires, unsure of why he was doing this. Killing him would have been much quicker, but for some reason, he avoided his past ways. He then found a plain medical jumpsuit, put it on, and snuck out through the same door, hopefully undetected. Thank the gods that he wasn't a drell to stand out.
Outside the door was an alleyway he recognized as Omega. It made sense that Cerberus had control of it, he had seen Aria T'Loak when she was on the Citadel. He wondered if they had frequent shuttles coming in and out with supplies that he could possibly hitch a ride on.
His omni-tool lit up as he weaved through crowds of refugees, and citizens of Omega, criminals and city-goers alike. "Cobra, what's the status on the Alliance operative we found?" The comm was silent for a moment, then the voice repeated it again. "Cobra, what's the status?"
Thane guessed that Cobra was the trooper whom he had bound. He stopped in the middle of a busy walkway, listening for what they'd do next.
"Striker, go investigate the operative. If he's alive, then terminate him, and don't bother interrogating him. He's too much of a threat."
"Sir, he was in critical condition and relied on life support when we left him in the medical lab," Striker responded. "There's no way he could have been a threat."
"I don't care, I ordered you to check on him!"
This didn't make any sense to Thane. An Alliance operative in critical condition? Well, that explained why he was attached to life support machines, but it didn't explain how he was walking at a brisk pace with ease. For the first time in what seemed to be a long time, Thane drew in a deep breath, feeling his lungs expand willingly. His heart beat strong and healthy, and he predicted this body was no more than its mid-twenties.
Yes, he knew from the start that this body was not his. He felt as though he was a foreign invader, like Harbinger once had through his Collecter drones. It was an unnerving feeling, but he continued forward to the docking area of Omega. Thane wasn't about to break down and ruin everything he had been given.
Ahead of him, a squad of Cerberus troops held a security line through the check-in points, scanning everyone and everything that passed through from the shuttles. But he saw no way out, only things coming in.
On the side of one the checkpoints was an air vent well hidden in the shadows, and not too far from the ground. He quickly used his omni-tool to cut through the metal and opened the shaft. As he crawled through the vent, his omni-tool illuminated again. "Commander, Cobra was tied up, and the operative is gone. I don't know how-"
"Doesn't matter," the Commander interrupted. "Finding the operative is priority one, do you hear me? Tighten security on the docks, I have a feeling he might be wanting to leave."
Thane quickened his pace. Hopefully, if he hurried enough he might bypass the added security. He stopped suddenly when he had passed over the first opening of the air vent. He peered down and scouted out the area below him.
This vent went directly over the cargo area, which was exactly what he wanted. From the looks of it, troopers were nowhere in sight; another added bonus. This might be easier than he had expected. But the drop was too high from where he was at, so he continued down the shaft until it curved downwards; dropping silently and absorbing the impact with his knees and the balls of his feet. Useful, he thought. Human joints were more resilient to impact than drell joints.
Silently, he slid the metal covering away from the shaft and proceeded to make another quiet jump in the cover behind a shuttle.
"Hey! You aren't cleared to be in here-" A Cerberus dock worker had spotted him, but Thane had quickly silenced him by covering his mouth with his hand.
"Please, I do not wish to harm you," Thane said softly into the ear of the worker. "Give me your shuttle schedule, and return to your family. Cerberus is not the organization you want to work with."
The man nodded his head fervently, and when Thane released him, he handed over his datapad with shipping times. "You're right, whoever you are. I don't like what Cerberus has been shipping into Omega."
He looked up at the dock worker, into his watery blue eyes. "What have they been bringing into the station?"
He looked around behind his shoulder and then leaned in and whispered, "Not only have they been bringing in heavy artillery, but some sort of experimental instruments. I don't know what they're used for, but they don't look pretty. And . . . I'm afraid they're going to use them on the civilians here." His voice quivered and faltered. "I only took this job to support my family. It's been hard since we had to be evacuated from the colony. And now Cerberus? Look, I don't know who you are, but there are people who need help here."
Thane's heart went out for those here who were threatened by Cerberus, but this was his only shot to get off the station. . .
"Listen to me, and listen to me well," Thane started, overwhelmed by the compulsion to assist. "Gather all the dock workers that you can trust, the more the better. Stop all shipments through security and look for anything that can be useful for a fight. Do it fast, I've been monitoring their comm channels and they're going to tighten security."
The man's eyes widened for a moment, then he nodded, placing a strong hand on his arm. "Thank you for helping."
After he had turned away and called over a few of his friends, Thane had responded inaudibly, "I just hope it's enough."