It was understandable to Thane that he would need a cover-up name, considering he was now a human, and that one of the Alliance crew members might have recognized him. Yet, it was strange to see his name on the Memorial Wall on the Normandy, with all the other fallen crew members. The feeling was an almost out-of-body experience, as if he were seeing something he shouldn't have.
Now, as he placed his N7 armor on in the shuttlebay, Lieutenant James Vega approached him. "Look at this fresh meat! Where were you stationed before you were recruited to the Normandy, Lieutenant Johnson?"
Thane did not need to lie. "Omega. Alliance special ops, I'm afraid it's classified."
Vega crossed his bulky arms. "Never trusted that branch of the Alliance, but if you're here now helping the Commander, well. . . then I trust you. Takes some guts to be here, Lieutenant."
"So I've heard. You suicide crash into another Cerberus shuttle to prevent some evil robot from taking the Crucible blueprints?" Thane clasped his hand on his shoulder. "Nice one, Vega."
He grinned ear to ear. "You like that? Well, there's more to come. You'll see."
The elevator door opened from the far side of the shuttlebay, and Thane turned to see Shepard with Tali'Zorah and Legion, all suited up and ready for the mission. "You two done making acquaintances?" She asked slyly. "We have a geth server to shut down."
Thane saluted to her, then took his place by her side. "Whenever you are, ma'am."
While his siha was unconscious within the geth server pod, Thane was a nervous wreck within; yet he kept his appearance completely composed. What if she could never resurface? What if some virus ruined her consciousness, and turned her into a mental vegetable? These questions ransacked his mind all the while he and Tali guarded Legion and Shepard.
Admiral Raan radioed in from the Migrant Fleet. "Hello? Commander are you there?"
Thane answered the radio. "No, this is Lieutenant Johnson, Admiral. What's your status?"
"The geth squadrons have arrived, but something is amiss - half their fighters have stopped functioning, but we will continue to hold off as long as we can."
He looked upon Tali, whose expression he could not see within her envirosuit, then to Shepard, whose body was unchanged from her stasis.
All his fears seemed foolish now. Thane should've known Jane Shepard had more willpower, strength, and determination than anyone in the galaxy.
He just hated waiting. Especially in a geth base full of disconnected geth Primes. If something was to put Thane on edge, that surely did.
"I'm glad the Commander is doing this," Tali said, looking around as well. "Being here on my homeworld, with the geth in control. . . makes me want to blow them all to hell and back."
His homeworld Rakhana had had the same fate, only under different circumstances. Overpopulation begun to deplete the already limited resources of the planet. Back then they had not yet achieved space travel. When the hanar arrived in their ships. . . well, there are many stories about the encounter, and the grief of leaving eleven billion behind to perish. He was one of the lucky few to have ancestors that were saved.
"Felt the same way with Earth," Thane said, continuing with his cover. "But the geth and the Reapers will get what's coming to them."
"And we'll be there with Shepard, at the front of the fleets."
Thane found that Tali was an interesting person to talk to. He listened to all the stories of Commander Shepard back from Eden Prime, where she discovered a Prothean beacon and had it transmit information into her mind. Or on Noveria, where she fought her way through rachni and geth to find Matriarch Benezia, Liara's indoctrinated mother, finding a way past the Mu Relay for intel of the conduit (from a thought to be extinct rachni queen). And if that wasn't enough, on Feros, the Commander took down a geth dreadnought - sent by Saren, no less - and came across a human colony being controlled by a Thorian, which was being studied by a corporation called ExoGeni. She killed that, too.
"Yet, no one can really believe that when we killed Saren, Sovereign had possessed him, brought him back to life. And when we took him down again, I hypothesized that the entity controlling him was Sovereign's very essence. That's why the Alliance fleet was able to take it down when the shields faltered."
It was unclear in the reports of Sovereign's attack on the Citadel on how they managed to defeat it. Even though it was hard to believe, so was him returning to the living as a human. Sometimes the unexplainable happens, and it's whether they choose to accept it is completely up to them.
The radio comm channel raised as Admiral Raan patched through again. "Something's happening to the geth. The fighter squadrons have. . . stopped. We detect no more active programs inside their ships. Admiral Han'Gerrel's fleet is driving them back. The liveships are safe, Commander."
Not a moment after the comm channel went silent, Shepard's pod opened, making a hissing sound as the seal broke. She stumbled down, Thane grabbed her arm to steady her. "Commander, are you alright?"
"Did it work?" She asked, looking worn-out.
"Yes," Tali nodded, "geth fighters are disabled. The rest that were attacking the liveships have retreated."
Legion regained consciousness as well, and with him the geth Primes that were dormant in pods. Thane moved close beside Shepard, aiming his Avenger at the nearest Prime.
"Are you sure?" Shepard asked with a pistol raised. "What's happening?" She demanded fiercely when they became surrounded.
Legion looked like a dwarf geth compared to the others. "We have transferred the geth programs from the server into these platforms."
"Why?" Her voice was raised.
"They wish to join us."
Tali lowered her weapon. "They what?"
"While Shepard-Commander removed the Reaper infection, we judged we could persuade any hostile geth programs to reunite with ours," Legion explained. "We were correct. These geth have renounced the Old Machines and will oppose the Reapers. . . they are now us."
Shepard also proceeded to lower her weapon. "Just give me a heads up next time you decide to convert a platoon of geth. This whole mission could've gone wrong."
He followed his siha out of the base, with a dozen primes at his back. Thane was relieved to know she was okay, but at the same time nervous of their new allies.
A new message at her terminal deterred her away from the galaxy map. The title, I'm sorry for your loss, made her hand heavy as she opened the message.
Commander Shepard,
It brings me great displeasure to inform you that Kolyat Krios passed away last night. He was sent directly to Huerta Memorial when a shootout occurred in the bank on the Presidium. From the reports, Kolyat died saving an innocent bystander. I had my best doctors working on him, Commander, but he had lost too much blood.
He asked me to tell you that your strength and courage had changed not only his life, but his father's as well. Kolyat wished for me to thank you, for everything you've done for the Krios family.
If you decide to have a memorial service for him, I can make the arrangements for you.
Best Regards,
Dr. Michel
Her heart felt as though it stopped beating; her vision began to have darkened blotches, threatening to black out. Thane needed to know, he needed time to grieve, but how was she supposed to tell him that his only son had passed away?
Shepard stumbled up the elevator, pressing level one on its interface. On the comm, she raised Thane. "I need to speak with you, it's urgent."
There was silence for a moment, she knew he could hear the strain in her voice. "I'll be right up."
Feeling feeble, she went over to her bed and sat upon it, not trusting her legs to hold her up. When the elevator door opened, Thane did not say anything until he took the spot next to her and held her hands that rested in her lap.
She looked upon him with eyes already damp with tears. "Thane, I-I . . . I'm so sorry," already her voice was getting choked up in her tightening throat. "Kolyat - he's gone. He . . . he passed away. I'm so sorry-,"
His expression was vacant, almost like he wasn't there. He no longer looked at her, but out into the distance, as if he could see something beyond the room. Then the tears fell fast and silent down his cheeks. "I should have gone to see him, but I was afraid, siha. I was afraid he wouldn't understand like you did-," the words cut off as he uttered horrible sobs.
No words of comfort came to her lips. All she felt the need to do was take him into her arms, and hold him against her, letting his head rest against her chest. His tears soon soaked her shirt as they wept together.
"Kolyat, forgive me," Thane whispered. "But I must condone the sins of those who took you from this world."