I am so so so sorry that this chapter took so long. School and swim practice has me swamped, but I promised myself I'd give you the Sanctuary part, and here it is! I thought Thane was so cute when I was writing this :,)
As always, I hope you enjoy!
Thane stood in the full length mirror and studied his facial and body features. Never had he really stopped to look at himself. His reflection still seemed unnatural, despite becoming used to his human form. Some features were similar to when he was a drell, like his straight nose and full lips; but he had soft, fleshy skin instead of it being green and scaly.
And the muscles. This body was a lot stronger and has a bigger built than before. Yet, Thane adapted, and it became easier to move fluidly and silently like he used to. Placing the N7 armor on his chest and legs, Thane caught in the mirror Jane's reflection approaching. She had already geared up, looking like a goddess of war. It stunned Thane everytime to know that this beautiful, strong, and incredible being was his.
He turned to face her, watching as her lips created a smile that resulted in the sensation of his heart wrenching from his chest.
"Looking good," she said as she ran her fingers over his breastplate with affection.
His hands caught hers and intertwined their fingers. "You're not so bad yourself." She was silent for a moment, and after a while, he asked "what's wrong?"
Her head was bowed so she looked upon her boots. "I'm just. . . scared, Thane. I don't want to lose again. Lose to him."
"Hey," he murmured, gently forcing her gaze to meet his own. "It's going to be alright. We'll do this together, an unstoppable force of nature."
The delicious grin that he loved so much returned to her face as he held her tight against him, causing their armor to clink together. "Forever."
"What do we know, Shepard?" Thane asked as he gripped onto the handle in the shuttle.
She was watching the video feeds of Sanctuary with an intense stare. "EDI?"
Her cybernetic female voice transmitted over the intercom. "The Sanctuary facility was devoted to aiding refugees from Reaper controlled systems. The facility went offline recently and no communications have come and gone since. It is unclear why Kai Leng or Cerberus would be interested in Sanctuary."
Shepard grabbed the handle as well when the shuttle experienced slight turbulence, her hand lightly touching his own. "If there's anything linking this place to Cerberus, we find it. No exceptions."
From the cockpit, Lieutenant Cortez shifted in his seat. "Sir, I'm picking up a signal from the facility. It's weak - I'll try to boost it." Thane watched Shepard move to the back of the pilot's chair. He could barely hear the message from where he stood.
"This is Oriana Lawson. Stay away from Sanctuary. It's not what it seems. Please, you must listen to me. They're using-," then the signal was suddenly cut off.
"Oriana?" Shepard asked, mostly to herself. "That's Miranda's sister. If she's here Miranda can't be far away."
"That's our link to Cerberus," EDI added.
The Lieutenant's hands moved quickly over the holographic dash. "Approaching the LZ. Seeing some damage, Commander, but no activity."
The side door opened. "I will not let Cerberus get the jump on us this time," she swore, leaping out before the shuttle touched down.
They navigated through all the debris, with guns reloaded and ready. Thane examined the area through his scope, when unexpectedly a Cerberus shuttle flew in at an incredible rate, completely out of control, and crashed into the building ahead of them.
"Shepard, watch out!" He said, pulling her to cover next to him. A phantom escaped the wreckage first, and Thane was able to place a headshot before she dodged any assaults. Shepard threw a singularity, allowing the team to easily pick off the ones shielded by cover.
When the coast was clear, they pressed on through the main entrance into Sanctuary. The lobby was completely destroyed; small fires were burning, datapads and desks overturned and scattered everywhere, and some infrastructure of the building lay in rubble on the floor. Over the speakers, a woman's voice was still transmitting instructions in an eerily sort of way.
"Looks like they were in the middle of an evacuation when the Reapers attacked," Garrus guessed, examining the damage.
"About time they started fighting each other." Shepard said rather darkly.
On the far side of the reception area was an exit to an unlit room. Thane followed Shepard closely as they approached a terminal whose signal was jammed. She was able to clear it up, and the message went through. "This is Miranda Lawson. If you've managed to get this far, you must be desperate or stupid." Pictures of Sanctuary appeared on the screen like a slideshow as she spoke.
"Listen to me, this is not a refugee camp. This is a Cerberus facility run by my father, Henry Lawson. Turn back now. There is no help to be found here. All communications are being blocked from the central tower. Sanctuary is a lie. Stay away." The message cut out, and Shepard walked away from the terminal, out into what looked like a garden plaza with pools of water.
Next to the water was a control station, for water pressure Thane guessed.
"A security panel," Shepard said, typing in a hacking code. "Shutting it down."
The ground shook slightly as the water levels began to secede. "What's happening?" Thane asked, moving close to Shepard protectively.
Large, industrial pipes began to show as the water was drained away. "They were trying to hide something." She said, stepping around Thane. "We have a back door into the facility." She drew her gun before taking the latter down into the pit.
Shepard watched with an unfathomable hatred and disgust the vids of innocent refugees being experimented on. "They're being turned into husks."
A horrible and sickening feeling ran up the length of her spine and raised the hair on her neck. She walked down the steps of the control center to a console next to a glass wall for observation. She pressed the lights button, revealing husks confined within the labs, retreating from the sudden exposure to the light.
When they all appeared to be gone, a husk had suddenly flung itself at the glass, creating a loud thud that startled her. Thane had shielded her from it in less than seconds, with his gun raised at the pitiful and ugly creature. But it continued climbing up the glass until she couldn't see it anymore.
"Come on," he urged, pulling her through to the next room.
"I don't get it," Garrus said as he followed them. "Who would go through all this just to create husks? What is the Illusive Man playing at?"
"The Reapers attacked because this place was a threat," Shepard said, now looking upon Thane with determination. "We need to find out why."
He didn't like the feeling that this facility gave him. The experiments that were going on unnoticed were sinister and horrible; Thane couldn't imagine a sane person with morality to do such a thing to an innocent refugee. Perhaps now he understood why Miranda was so hateful towards her father.
Shepard played the logs as they advanced through the research rooms, and Thane listened to Henry's voice. He was extremely well educated, but it troubled him about the motives this man had. Controlling husks without Reaper intervention? It seemed impossible.
"But we are making progress."
After the log ended, from down the hall he could unmistakably hear the ear-splitting screech of a banshee, and ducked into cover next to Shepard, who already had been targeting at a Ravager and broke open one of its sacs.
"Looks like leftover troops from the attack," She yelled out as she glowed with biotic power before she launched a pull, finishing off the Ravager.
"MOVE," Thane commanded, and pushed Shepard out of the way of a biotic charging Banshee, using Overload immediately after to bring down its barriers. It screamed again, which caused Thane to stumble backwards onto the floor.
He released his entire thermal clip onto its jaw, but the creature was still alive. Thane could smell the stench of rotten flesh as it leaned in close with its elongated and sharp fingers, ready to impale him.
Before he closed his eyes with acceptance of his inevitable death, a flash of orange focused his attention. It was Shepard with her omni-blade, repeatedly stabbing the Banshee until it slowly disintegrated into ash.
After a moment of utter silence, she stood up straight and brushed back her red hair that had stuck to the sweat on her face. Her eyes caught Thane in an almost angry gaze. "Don't ever scare me like that again, Lieutenant."
But then, her glare softened and she extended her armored hand out to him.
He took it, and she pulled him up with so much strength and force that they collided together. But he captured the advantage of the moment to hug her tightly against him. "Thank you."
Garrus cleared his throat. "Can we get a move on? You two are not much better company than these husks here," he joked, opening the next door to reveal a malfunctioning terminal chopping up Miranda's recorded voice message.
Shepard left Thane's arms to examine the terminal. "Looks like it's been damaged," she said, rewiring a few cables. "Hang on."
"Reapers wanted this place shut down," Garrus said as he scanned the area. "Maybe we'll find out why."
The jammed screen cleared again when Shepard had re-routed the right cable. "There it is," Thane said, listening in close to the transmission of Miranda's voice. "Heading to the tower to disable the communications scrambler. I have to get word out. Some refugees have turned into husks. Some are indoctrinated and shipped to the Illusive Man. Whoever is left is used in experiments," Images and feeds painted the holographic screen, causing Thane to clench his teeth in disgust and revulsion. "The data indicates that my father's trying to figure out how Reaper indoctrination works."
Shepard was hunched over the terminal in denial. "Tricking these refugees with food and shelter only to turn them into test subjects. And for what?"
Garrus sighed deeply, as if the whole situation had worn him down. "Draw them in and throw them in a meat grinder."
Thane crossed his arms, contemplating on what Miranda had said. "Note that she mentioned shipping indoctrinated refugees to the Illusive Man. We can use that to find him."
Shepard turned to him, and placed a hand firmly on his shoulder plating. "Good catch, now let's go. Miranda said she was heading to the central tower."
"Tower access granted," the VI said once they all were inside the elevator safely. Shepard leaned against the wall, completely out of breath from the sudden attack earlier. But they had all made it out alive with only a few cuts and bruises.
The ride up was short, and sooner than later they were just outside the door leading into the central control center. "Get ready," she said as she forcefully opened the door, guns loaded and ready.
"Shepard. . ." Miranda weakly called out, clearly wounded from behind a desk. But she had her barrel pointed at her father, who had just held a struggling Oriana to his chest as a shield, his other hand holding a pistol to Shepard.
"Ah, Commander Shepard," he said almost pleasantly. "Excellent timing."
Her steps were silent as she advanced toward them. "Put the gun down."
"No. Oriana tried to shoot me," his gaze had turned menacing. "Miranda's poisonous influence, no doubt."
"I'm sorry she missed," Shepard admitted, looking around the perimeter of the room. "Where's Kai Leng?"
"I don't know. Gone. He took my research and left us here to die."
Her eyes went to behind the desk where Miranda was injured. "Miranda, can you hear me?"
She struggled to get to her feet, but she was strong and persevered. "That's close enough, both of you!" Henry yelled, becoming angry. "Kai Leng didn't finish the job, but I will."
"This ends here," Shepard said sternly, thinking of all the images of suffering and sickening experiments these refugees had gone through.
"On the contrary. Now that the Reapers are taken care of, we have a way out."
Shepard was sick of this man's game. "Let. Her. Go."
"Shepard," Miranda paused to take a staggering breath, "don't let him take her."
As much as she wanted to put a bullet through the man's skull right at this moment, Shepard decided to play his game. She didn't want to see Oriana and Miranda suffer any longer. "I have no problem with you," the words didn't sound as convincing as she tried to utter them from her lips. "I just want Oriana and the research data.."
"You want a lot."
"You get your life in return." She began to take steps sideways, examining him from all angles. "How much is that worth?"
There was a pause of complete silence, and Shepard began to hold her breath. Henry's eyes squinted in suspicion, but he ultimately released Oriana and pushed her away. "Alright, take her, but I want out alive."
Shepard didn't even see Miranda charge up with biotics, but she definitely saw her shooting him out of the room through the glass with a powerful warp. The glowing faded, but the hole of shattered glass where her father had died through still remained. "No deal."
Thane had wrapped his arm around her shoulder comfortingly as they watched Miranda approach her sister who was still in shock on the floor. "Did he hurt you? Are you alright?" She pulled her up to embrace her tightly, much as she had done to Thane earlier. Shepard knew what it felt like to being on the verge of losing somebody so close. "It's okay, Ori. You're safe now."
She felt good leaving Sanctuary. The communications scrambler had been disabled, and Miranda's message would deter anyone trying to seek refuge there. Oriana and Miranda were finally free from their father, and can look forward to their futures. And now, in her hand, she held the tracker that would lead her right to the man she wanted to kill a thousand times over. As she looked upon Thane when they were arriving at the Normandy's shuttle bay, that desire only grew until it was all she could think about.