A/N: The last time we were here, Dakkben had found himself captured by Duron and his men, who happened to be working for Saren. Take your time to read, and review afterwards! Oh, btw. I decided to try out writing this chapter entirely in third person, make sure to give feedback on if its better than the first person of the previous chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect and its characters. They are owned by Bioware. But however, I do own the OC, Dakkben Slade, along with some OC's I might put in.
Chapter 5: Rescue
Everyone, even the Turian Councilor was silent as they observed Dakkben as he glared at Duron. Duron merely chuckled coldly before motioning for one of the turians behind Dakkben. The turian behind Dakkben slammed the butt off his assault rifle to the back of Dakkben's head, receiving an angry jerk in response from Dakkben as he tried to fight back.
"See? Your friend is nothing but a freak. An animal that knows nothing but to kill." Duron coldly snapped as he glares at Shepard.
Tali could only fidget nervously as she watches Dakkben struggle against his shackles while being brutally beaten. She felt an slight bump on her shoulder, and she turned to face the source of the bump. The krogan, Wrex merely shakes his head before saying.
"Your friend will survive. He is strong." Wrex bluntly said as he watches the event unfold on the holoscreen.
"I-I hope so..." Tali meekly replies as she continued to wring her hands together.
"STOP THAT!" the deep, commanding voice of Shepard roared out loud.
Duron only chuckled before motioning for the turians behind Dakkben to cease.
"Feeling sentimental, aren't we, human?" Duron replied.
"What do you want?" Shepard bluntly said, straight to the point.
"What do I want? WHAT DO I WANT! I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT THIS GODDAMN FREAK!" Duron roared as he kicked Dakkben across his side.
Dakkben only stiffened in response, not giving any sounds in reply.
"SEE! IF HE WAS HUMAN, HE WOULD BE SCREAMING LIKE A NEWBORN FROM THE PAIN! BUT NO...HE TAKES IT LIKE IT IS NOTHING! MONSTER!" Duron continued as he continued to kick Dakkben's side.
Dakkben refused to give the enraged turian pleasure in knowing that he did feel the pain, intensively.
"ENOUGH!" Shepard roared as he took a step closer to the holoscreen.
Duron only sighed as he took a step away from Dakkben, he took a moment before motioning one of the other turians off screen to hand him something. He brought the datapad in front of the camera, waving it back and forth.
"Do you know what I have on this datapad?" Duron darkly remarked as he skimmed over his datapad.
"What?" Shepard said as his hands clenched into fists in anger and frustration.
"I have here the proof...that your so called human friend" Duron said with venomous distaste of the word 'human'. "That he is Cerberus! That your so called friend was an engineered freak to be used to wipe out anything that stood in the way of Cerberus' goals."
What Duron said elicited gasps from several people including Ash and Captain Anderson. Shepard's fists only clenched even further tighter as he took all of his willpower to not go on a warpath. Not only was this Duron had captured one of his teammates, but he is accusing Slade of being part of an infamous terrorist organization.
In everyone's surprise, Dakkben only laughed at Duron's words. Duron turned to face Dakkben with an angry glare as he approached Dakkben.
"Care to tell us why this amuses you so much, freak?" Duron snapped.
"Eh? Is that so-called information of your up-to-date? I left Cerberus a while ago after one of my assignments went haywire." Dakkben smugly said as he took a deep breath.
"Is that so, human? Care to tell us why?" Duron inquired as he motioned to the camera, indicating that the others wanted to know as well.
Dakkben only glanced up to the camera, or more specifically, Tali. Giving a small sad smile, he only replied "Hmmmm. Sure. If I'm going to start, might as well do it right. It all began when I..."
xXx
Dakkben sighed as he got off the shuttle, his omni-tool beeped as he did so. Shaking his head, he activated it. The orange glow of the hologram resonated as the link was established.
"Remember, Operative Slade. You must get into the Blue Suns base and eliminate any obstacle in your path. Make sure to keep the environmental damage to the Factory to minimum. We want to take over, not destroy. Godspeed." The cold calculating voice of Illusive Man resonated before the link was quickly ended as it began.
Dakkben only sighed again as he began to walk towards the direction he was given. Pushing his way though the overgrowth of the trees and vines, he could smell the pollution in the air get stronger as he continued. Using his strength to easily cut through the resisting vines as he traveled. He made his way to an overlook on a cliff that was easily ten stories high. He let out a soft whistle at the sight he had before him. The base he was sent in to single-handily capture was not just a factory, it was a massive fortress. Its walls were made out of thick gray mason stone that dwarfed the large trees that had grown around it. There was several smokestacks located in the center, the dark pollution lingered above it, giving it a slight doomsday feel as Dakkben could see several men patrol the top of the walls. The men had the typical blue armor with the trademark Blue Suns symbol painted on the chest piece.
"Capture a factory? That place's a goddamn fortress. Can't blow the walls down. I could try climbing up it, better make it quick." Dakkben muttered to himself as he looked through his inventory. He had his pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, couple grenades, a couple packs of medi-gel and two titanium military-grade machetes.
"Could use the machetes to climb up, could come in handy in close combat as well." Dakkben sighed as he put everything away and slung the machetes on each of his shoulders.
He looked over the cliff, it had a steep slide down to the bottom, he took a deep breath before jumping off the cliff. He quickly took out one of his machetes and took it in both of his hands before slamming its blade into the steep slide just as he got to nearly a story away from the ground. Letting in a breath of relief as he pulled the machete out and landed in a roll on the ground. He slowly stood up as he looked himself over, making sure he didn't lose anything in the drop. Brushing off the dirt from his shoulder he only chuckled to himself before making his way to the fortress wall.
"Even though I certainly can survive that drop, I would rather not try it during an assignment." He remarked as he took out his another machete as he made a running start at the wall.
Dakkben jumped as high as his enhanced strength allowed him as he brought both of the machetes down. The machetes making a loud crack as they broke into the stone, Dakkben looked down and calculated that he was at least 1/3 up the wall, meaning that he had to climb up another 20 stories to the top. He pulled out the machete in his left hand as he pulled himself up using the one in his right before slamming the machete back in again. He continued to climb as he continued to keep his eyes on the top, making sure to not attract any Blue Suns mercenaries. As he managed to get nearly to the top, one of the Blue Suns, a batarian, happened to look right over the top and spotted Dakkben. But before the batarian could utter a word of alarm, Dakkben quickly leapt up and grabbed the batarian by his throat, easily crushing it despise the feeble struggles the batarian gave. Dakkben quickly pulled the dead batarian over the edge and let the corpse fall to the ground in a sickening thud as Dakkben made his way over to the top of the wall. He peered over to the other side of the wall, noticing there was several Blue Suns mercenaries walking about, some of them were located in what he assumed to be the mess hall building.
He glanced over to the right and spotted some stairs leading back to the ground and made a beeline for it. As he approached the stairs, a Blue Sun mercenary made his way up the stairs, in a swift motion, Dakkben used one of his machetes to easily slice through the gap between the mercenary's chest armor and helmet, easily decapitating the mercenary. He quickly grabbed the body along with the head, making sure to slow their decent to the ground to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. Quickly, Dakkben ran over to the door on the building adjacent to the one leading to the mess hall. He opened it, only to find himself facing several rows of assault rifle muzzles facing him.
"Hands up, human!" a batarian shouted from behind the firing squad.
"Must be the leader..." Dakkben quietly muttered to himself as he slowly raised his hands, his bloody machete still in his left hand.
"Drop it!" the batarian leader ordered.
Smiling slightly mischievously, Dakkben complied by dropping the machete with its bladed tip facing the firing squad. The machete fell almost horizontally as Dakkben quickly spun to deliver a spinning kick to the base of the machete's hilt, sending it directly to the chest of the batarian leader. The batarian only let out a surprised gurgle as he fell.
Taking his opportunity of the firing squad's hesitance, Dakkben primed one of his grenades and tossed it to their feet before taking cover outside of the doorway. The Blue Suns firing squad only screamed as they scrambled over themselves to try to get rid of the grenade, a turian managed to grab it, only to have it explode. Loud screams of pain resonated as the mercenaries were blasted back.
Dakkben got out of his cover and made his way into the doorway, he quickly covered his nose with his right hand. The turian that had grabbed the grenade had his entire upper section missing, a human who was right to the turian's left had the right half of his skull blasted away, easily spilling the contents onto the concrete floor. One batarian was barely alive as he was the furthest away from the grenade, however, his left arm was badly torn, and his left leg...half way across the hallway. The mercenary could only grasp the bloody stump where his leg used to be before crying out in pain.
Dakkben pulled out his pistol and aimed it towards the batarian's head before pulling the trigger. He took a slight moment to search the hallway before he found what he was looking for, his machete was still embedded in the chest of the dead batarian leader. Reaching down to grasp the hilt, Dakkben pulled the machete out and made his way down the hallway.
"I'm surprised that that explosion didn't alert everyone else..." Dakkben muttered to himself as he opened a door, revealing a massive cargo hangar. One of the Blue Suns mercenaries spotted him and shouted out "There he is! Battle Stations!" the mercenary managed to shout out before being cut short by Dakkben's pistol shot slamming to the side of his face, silencing him.
The other mercenaries didn't waste time and began to fire on Dakkben as Dakkben quickly made his way to take cover behind a conveniently placed cargo crate that was easily ten feet high and was made out of metal. He could hear some of the mercenaries argue amongst themselves.
"Damn it! Who the hell left that goddamn crate there!" an angry voice rang out.
"erm...I did sir..." a meek, flanged voice replied.
"Then you go up there and flush him out yourself!" the angry voice ordered as Dakkben could hear the nervous shuffling of the turian running to his location.
Dakkben sheathed his machete as he timed the footsteps and positioned himself to the side the turian would come around, he could see the telltale sign of the assault rifle muzzle nervously moving from side to side as the turian got to the front of him. Dakkben calmly raised his hands in a neutral manner as the assault rifle in the turian's hands continued to shake slightly.
"Tell me, what is your name, turian?" Dakkben calmly said to the nervous turian.
"Wha-I'm Leio! I'm gonna take you back to the boss!" Leio replied as he took a step closer, the barrel of the assault rifle mere inches from Dakkben's chest.
Dakkben only chuckled before replying "Easy, rookie. Your safety's still on" as he glanced over to his right, seemingly to not care about Leio's words.
"What the? You can't trick me! I'm a ten year vet!" Leio snapped at Dakkben. Dakkben only grunted a slight 'whatever' in reply. Then Leio leaned over to look at the side of his assault rifle, taking the break in Leio's concentration, Dakkben grabbed the barrel of the assault rifle with his right hand. Yanking it away from Leio as he slammed his left hand into the chest of the turian. The slam easily knocking the turian to the ground as Dakkben whipped the assault rifle around to point it at the turian's head. Leio only let out a small whimper as he brought out his hands in a surrendering gesture.
"How the hell did you survive ten years?" Dakkben asked the stunned turian. But before the turian could reply, he knocked the turian out cold with the butt of his own assault rifle. He sighed as he observed the assault rifle he had taken from Leio, it seemed to be the basic Avenger assault rifle compared to the modified version he had. Dakkben took his modified Avenger and held it in his right hand while still holding Leio's stolen Avenger in his other hand. Taking position right at the edge of the crate, Dakkben took a deep breath before running out.
The mercenaries shouted out in surprise as Dakkben ran at speeds beyond a human could ever imagine of running. Dakkben started to fire both of the Avengers from the hip, taking out two mercenaries at once as he ran to the left, avoiding the other mercenaries gunfire. He noticed there was a crate hanging from one of the cranes right above a group of Blue Suns seemingly to be oblivious of the plan in Dakkben's mind. Dakkben used his modified Avenger to keep the group of mercenaries pinned as he aimed Leio's Avenger towards the cable holding the crate up, he pulled the trigger, while he missed most of the time, several bullets managed to tear through the cable.
The cable stretched as one of the Blue Suns realized what was happening.
"Wait, we gotta get out of-" but before the mercenary could finish, the cable snapped and the massive crate landed, easily crushing the Blue Sun mercenaries. Dakkben could see the mixture of blue and red blood spill out from the bottom of the heavy crate.
Dakkben slung his modified Avenger as he walked past the gory sight. He took the time to look at the Avenger he took from Leio, sighing as he tossed it away, having no need for it. Dakkben spotted some stairs leading upwards, so then he made his way up it. He continued on his path until he got to a door that had a glow of a red hologram, indicating the door had been locked. Dakkben took a deep breath as he dung his hands into the slight crack between two segments of the door, forcing it open at least an inch. That slight opening allowed Dakkben to fully push his hands into the opening and grasped the edges of the door. He grunted in effort during the whine of metal as the door refused to comply to Dakkben's brute strength, tearing the door further open.
Dakkben could see a human man in the Blue Suns armor cowering in the corner as he pushed the door completely open. Dakkben made his way to approach the human when the human pulled out a gray device.
"Don't get any closer! I'll blow this place sky high!" the suicidal human screamed.
That threat seemed to register in Dakkben's mind as he stopped in his approach.
"Why? Don't you value your life?" Dakkben questioned as he took a close look at the gray device the Blue Suns human had in his hands. The device seemed to be a typical detonator, hell even with a big damn red button on the top which is awfully close to being pressed by its wielder.
"I do! But I value my wife and kids' lives more than mine! I was ordered to liquidize this factory to prevent it from falling in the wrong hands. And...you come along and ruin everything! I should be a hundred miles away from here, not stuck in here!" the human replied as his hands began to shake.
Dakkben glanced around the room, he noticed there was a glass window leading outside. But the window was right above a ten story drop before hitting the ground. He glanced back to the human and sighed.
"Fine. Blow it. I won't be responsible for innocent blood on my hands." Dakkben sighed as he crossed his arms.
The Blue Sun mercenary seemed to be surprised by Dakkben's comment, he seemed to ponder something before glancing towards the window Dakkben was previously observing.
"Tell you what, kid. I'll give you a five second head start before I press this..." He said as he gestured to his detonator. He gave Dakkben a sad smile before he began to count aloud.
Dakkben gave a slight nod in the mercenary's direction before he made the break for the glass window, he brought both of his arms in front of him as he dived out of the window. He could feel the heat of the explosion from behind him as he fell to the ground. He could only groan in agony as he crawled on the ground, he snapped his left leg to the correct angle before giving it the time to heal. He slowly got up to the feet in time to be blasted away from the secondary explosion from the factory. The explosion sent him nearly through the stone wall of the fortress, making a massive crater in its side.
Dakkben could only pull himself out of the crater and began to hobble as fast as he could despise having several broken bones. He could feel the bones in his leg strengthening as it corrected itself to its original position. His tissue on his back began to knit as he tore his melted Onyx armor chest piece off as his pace increased. He stood upright as he pushed his spine into the correct alignment as a loud crunch reverberated in his ears.
Luckily his omni-tool survived the ordeal as he activated it to request an evacuation. He knew he was going to get chewed out by Officer Lawson when he reported that he failed in capturing the base, intact. But he didn't care, he was affected by the human mercenary's sacrifice, that he was willing to die so the Blue Suns mercenaries wouldn't kill his family. Family was something he didn't have, something he wished he had.
He made his way to the given evacuation coordinates, waiting for a moment he pulled out his machete, it being the only equipment he had that survived other than his omni-tool. Chuckling to himself, he just realized he left his other machete embedded back into the wall when he had to keep the batarian mercenary from giving away his position so soon. He could hear the faint hum of a shuttle getting closer, he turned to face the direction the sound was coming from.
He could see the shuttle get closer as it made its way to his location. It hovered over the ground for a moment before landing on the ground with a soft thud. The door leading into the shuttle opened and a very pissed off Officer Lawson got out of it. Marching down the ramp to the ground, she got closer and closer to Dakkben. Barely stopping just short of running into Dakkben, she realized that he still had his machete in his left hand and, and he was gripping it tightly.
"Do you have any idea how badly you screwed up?" Miranda coldly stated as her cold blue eyes stared into Dakkben's deep silver eyes.
"Not like I could do anything about it, but yeah." Dakkben said as he glanced back to the shuttle, wanting to leave and eat something.
Miranda only sighed as she grasped something behind her, in almost instant motion she jabbed a syringe into Dakkben's neck during Dakkben's moment of distraction.
In surprise, and rage of Miranda's betrayal, Dakkben pushed Miranda backwards as hard as he could before he found himself stumbling to the ground. Miranda managed to form a biotic barrier around herself to absorb part of Dakkben's retaliatory attack before being launched to the shuttle. Sliding to the ground, she had blood dripping from her mouth as she applied Medi-gel to herself.
"Surprised? Operative Slade? We know your metabolism made you impervious to anything biological or chemical, but...not to a combination of both. A combination of the powerful acid of a Thresher Maw and a potent paralyzing venom synthesized from many different species of animals can kill anything, even a krogan. But you...it makes a perfect immobilizer for you." She cruelly explained as she stood up back to her feet.
Chuckling to herself, Miranda walked over to Dakkben's immobilized body before gesturing several other Cerberus operatives from the shuttle to come forth. Several of them had tanks filled with some kind of liquid.
"This is your punishment for your failure. You won't die, we made sure of that. But however, you will suffer." Miranda coldly said in pleasure as the Cerberus operatives poured the liquid on Dakkben's body. Dakkben's eyes moving back and forth from Officer Lawson to the Cerberus operatives, the liquid burning against his skin. His eyes snapped open as one of the operatives held out a lighter to Miranda.
Miranda took the lighter before opening it. She sparked it aflame as she waved it in front of her as she looked down to Dakkben's terrified eyes. "The Illusive Man sends his regards, freak." She said just before she tossed the lighter at Dakkben. The liquid caught on fire as Dakkben felt his entire body roast from the searing flames. Despise his immobilized state, Dakkben was able to somehow, somehow open his mouth and let loose a loud bloodcurdling scream.
xXx
Everyone seemed deathly silent as Dakkben told his tale. The C-Sec officer was to her right so she looked over to him, Garrus seemed to be surprised and she could hear him whispering to himself quietly 'Spirits'. Shaking her head, Tali glanced over to Wrex, Wrex seemed to be both shocked and strangely enough, excited. She looked over to Kaiden and Ash, they were silent during the whole tale. The both of them glanced at each other and she could see the terrified expression on Ash's face as she watched Dakkben. Kaiden seemed to be as surprised as she was, but he seemed to be more concerned about Ash's well being than to listen to Dakkben completely. She could see Captain Anderson's usually dark skin had turned ashen pale as his face seemed to twist in anger at Cerberus. Ambassador Udina seemed to be indifferent as he typed into his omni-tool, only taking a moment to glance around before returning to his omni-tool. She had half of a mind to run over and smack him to make him pay more attention, but she decided against it.
After all, she didn't want to make things worse than they already are. She watched the Councilors, the Salarian seemed to be more and more fascinated in Dakkben's abilities. The Turian seemed to be growing more and more disgusted, and actually gasped in surprise when Dakkben had spared the turian, Leio. The Asari seemed to be remaining neutral, but Tali could tell that she was curious about Dakkben, she even gave a slight smile as Dakkben spoke of refusing to be responsible for deaths of innocents.
She finally glanced over to Shepard. Shepard seemed to be in both shock and awe during Dakkben's tale. As Dakkben talked of his initial betrayal by Cerberus' bitch, Miranda Lawson, and how he suffered intense pain for his 'failure', everyone seemed to gasp at once, even Ambassador Udina who seemingly to be not listening. Tali could see the hidden rage in Shepard as his whole body shakes, barely keeping himself in check.
"And there you have it." Dakkben finished, taking a moment to take a breath for once after his story.
Duron seemed to be wordless as he paced back and forth, constantly stopping to read whatever he had on his datapad. One of the turians from behind Dakkben was noticeably shaking in fear as he was barely able to keep the assault rifle aimed at Dakkben's head. Dakkben only casually glanced back to the frightened turian and gave a small grunt, visibly making the turian jump, drawing a snort of laughter from Wrex.
"I-is h-he telling the t-truth?" The frightened turian stuttered as he tried to keep himself from shaking with no avail.
Duron only gave a nod as he continued to pace back and forth, visibly aggravated. The frightened turian only seemed to become even more frightened as his shaking became even more visible as he was barely keeping his assault rifle pointing in the general direction of Dakkben's head.
"What's matter? Freak got your tongue?" Dakkben quipped as he shifted from his kneeling position to a sitting position.
Duron only glanced back to Dakkben before snorting an angry response "How is this possible? You are telling the truth, yet Saren says you are a cold, calculating xenophobic".
Dakkben only shakes his head before replying "You'll be surprised how often someone lies to get things done."
Duron was enraged by Dakkben's words as he marched to Dakkben and grabbed him by his throat with his talons. Pulling Dakkben up to his height, nearly lifting him up in the process, both of their eyes met, angry turian against calm superhuman.
Tali could see Captain Anderson whispering quietly to Ambassador Udina as they both glanced from Ambassador Udina's omni-tool to watch the event unfold. Wrex seemed to be amused by Duron's anger as he muttered to Garrus "Human got a quad. Hell, I might as well start calling him Krogan from now on." Garrus could only nod in response as he continued to watch the face off between Duron and Dakkben.
"Are you calling Saren Arterius a liar?" Duron growled, his face mere inches from Dakkben as his talons began to dig deep into Dakkben's throat, resulting in slight drips of blood.
Dakkben seemed to be not bothered apart from a slight grunt before replying "Yes. The question is, do you realize it?"
Duron seemed to be taken off guard by Dakkben's response before saying "What, freak?"
"For the last ten minutes, both C-Sec and Alliance Marines are working together and is about to storm this place. You have at least ten, fifteen, maybe twenty strong. But there is more than fifty pissed off soldiers outside, ready to knock on your door with heavy firepower. The question is, will you surrender peacefully, or die fighting?" Dakkben said as he smirked at Duron's surprised face, or at least the turian equivalent of surprised face.
Duron seemed to think over his words for a moment before smirking "You lie, freak. You couldn't have given anyone orders to get here!" Duron roared.
Dakkben only shakes his head before replying "Never said I was the one doing the talking. NOW ANDERSON!"
Captain Anderson pressed an unseen command on Ambassador Udina's omni-tool and over at Dakkben's location, a loud explosion tore through the warehouse. Dakkben pulled his left leg back and then kicked Duron across the chest, sending Duron into the camera, knocking it sideways as it landed onto the ground.
Dakkben only could smirk to himself as he could see the turian dominated C-Sec and human Alliance Marines work side by side as they quickly cleared out the warehouse of Duron's men. Duron himself wasn't as lucky as he was personally shackled and taken into C-Sec custody.
One of the Alliance Marines and another from C-Sec walked up to remove the shackles from Dakkben's wrists. The Marine only shakes his head at the C-Sec Officer's attempt to put Dakkben in handcuffs.
"Didn't you hear how Cerberus treated him for refusing to be responsible of innocent deaths? He was Cerberus, not one right now. Besides, Captain Anderson says that the Council wants him to meet them before they decide what to do with him." The Marine explained as he took hold of the C-Sec Officer's handcuffs and hands it back. The C-Sec officer merely nods as the both of them escorted Dakkben Slade out of the warehouse.
Ironic isn't it? Me, a ex-Cerberus is responsible for having humans and turians work together. Life sure is confusing sometimes...
xXx
Dakkben could only mutter to himself as both the Alliance Marine and C-Sec Officer escorted him through the Citadel to the Presidium to be taken from there to be escorted to meet the Councilors. He looked back down to himself, muttering in disdain. His blue jeans were mostly torn in the lower legs, and thankfully, there wasn't much of tearing in the areas above. His formerly white tank top was now grime covered and there was a massive hole where one mercenary shot him in the back and tore out the front, the areas around the hole was covered in crimson blood that had dried up. His leather jacket was in the worst, his left sleeve had been torn off completely by Duron when he kicked him away. There was multiple bullet wounds on the back of his jacket, shredding the once pristine leather padding into nothingness. He noticed that most, if not all people stared at him with wonder and horror, he wasn't surprised, after all, he did look like he got into a street brawl with ten krogans barehanded.
The Marine and the C-Sec officer had a cab waiting for him as all three got into the cab. Dakkben being slightly uncomfortably located between the Marine and the Officer. There was an awkward moment of silence as all three waited for the cab to reach their destination, the Council.
The cab finally reached the destination and the C-Sec Officer got out first, Dakkben got out after with the Alliance Marine behind him. Both C-Sec and Alliance escorted Dakkben up the stairs, Dakkben could see Kaiden, Ash, Shepard. He smiled in the inside as he saw that Tali did make it to Ambassador Udina. He noticed another C-Sec Officer that the Officer escorting Dakkben knew as Detective Garrus Vakarian. There was a Blood Pack krogan with vertical scars on his right side of his face, and that krogan was nodding his head in respect before snorting "Well, you must be the smallest krogan I've ever seen."
Dakkben only smirked before replying "Well, thanks. Don't worry, I'll do my duty to keep the numbers up."
The krogan only roared in laughter before replying "Name's Wrex, krogan. I assume you are Slade. Fine name, strong, and rhymes with blade...".
Dakkben could only shake his head in amusement as he walked past Wrex towards Shepard. Shepard seemed to be both angry and curious, Shepard only shakes his head and motioned for Dakkben to walk ahead. Dakkben glanced over to where Shepard wanted him to go, right up to the place where he co-
Wait. I gotta talk to the Council? Oh god...Hope they don't put me in prison. Granted, I didn't kill any innocents, I made sure of that. But, I killed whole a lot of people, bad people.
Dakkben could only swallow in an effort to hide his fear as he walked up to the railing, both Alliance Marine and C-Sec Officer right behind him. He could only look up to face the Councilors, he could see the Salarian was fascinated, the Turian was disgusted and the Asari seemed to be compassive.
The Turian Councilor only stares at Dakkben venomously before glancing over to the other Councilors and saying "I still don't understand why we are talking to this freak. He works for Cerberus! He should be put in prison and executed!"
Tali could only gasp as she barely kept herself from screaming at the Turian Councilor as he insulted Dakkben. Not only had Dakkben saved Tali's life, but he had suffered so much worse than death at the hands of Cerberus, if being set on fire wasn't the worst punishment, she didn't know of anything else worse.
"That's enough Valern" the Asari Councilor interrupted as she glanced over to the Turian Councilor. The Turian Councilor stopped with a huff as he grumbled to himself angrily under his breath.
"Will you answer our questions?" The Asari Councilor asked as nicely she could.
Dakkben only gives a slight nod before giving a glance in Councilor Valern's direction.
"How can you survive? What did Cerberus did to you? Why did you leave? And why are you still here, instead of trying to escape?" the Salarian Councilor questioned rapidly.
Dakkben pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a moment to think through his answers. "One: I can heal at speeds beyond even the krogan, no offense Wrex." Dakkben said, sparing a glance back to Wrex, who only gives a slight grunt in response. "Two: Don't know what exactly since they kept me in the dark about it. Three: I left because I was tired of being thrown to the varrens every time I put the lives of innocents before the mission. Four: I want to help, I want to find the bastard responsible for Eden Prime." Dakkben finished as he breathed in a sigh.
The Salarian Councilor seemed to be satisfied, albeit bothered that he didn't get information he wanted about how Dakkben got his abilities.
The Asari Councilor glanced over to Shepard before motioning him to step up next to Dakkben. "Spectre Shepard, I must remind you, Spectres can recruit anyone for their mission regardless of who they are, or what they used to be." she said as she glanced over to Dakkben.
Shepard only glances over to Dakkben before sighing. Shepard was pondering something deeply, perhaps he would trust Slade as he seemed to be honest in his desire to find Saren. But he wasn't sure since Slade had openly admitted he worked with Cerberus in the past, and he was shocked to learn that Slade had been punished so extremely for refusing to sacrifice innocent lives. That and there was something deep within himself that wanted Slade on his team, something that kept pulling at the back of his head. Something familiar, Slade did look familiar from where, he wasn't sure.
"Slade..." Shepard began, catching Dakkben's attention as Dakkben turned to face Shepard. Worry was evident in Dakkben's face as he waited patiently for Shepard's response. "If you had a choice, to save yourself but everyone else will die, or to save everyone else at the cost of your own life, what will you choose?" Shepard continued.
Dakkben quickly replied "I would rather die first than to let people die on my watch, especially when there's innocent people involved."
There was no doubt, no hesitation, and not even a trace of deception in Slade's voice. That gave all Shepard needed to make his decision. Shepard turned to face the Councilors and spoke "I will take him. If...he proves himself to be trustworthy, when the mission is over. Give him pardons."
Slade was taken off guard by Shepard's willingness to have Slade forgiven for his ties to Cerberus which sounds pretty good compared to what they usually do to terrorists. Councilor Velern seemed to be ready to argue before the Asari Councilor interrupted "Yes. We will give him pardons for his involvement when he proves to be trustworthy and loyal to you. Finally, the meeting is adjourned."
With those words, the Councilors left the meeting along with the Alliance Marine and C-Sec Officer. The Alliance Marine gave a quick pat on Dakkben shoulders along with the C-Sec's mutters of 'Good luck' as the both of them left.
Both Slade and Shepard gave a nod to each other in reply as the both of them made their way back to the others. Captain Anderson patted Slade on the shoulder before saying "At first when I realized you were Cerberus, I wanted to break in there and drag you to prison. But, honestly...when you explained how badly they treated you when you failed that assignment. I-I understand now why you never talked much about your time before joining the Alliance".
Dakkben could only give a knowing nod in response as both Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina moved to talk to Shepard. He noticed that Tali was constantly fidgeting with her hands so he decided to check on her.
"You okay, Tali?" Dakkben asked in a concerned voice.
"Huh? Oh, hey Dakkben. I'm fine, its just that..." she trailed off as she noticed the massive hole in his chest and the dried blood around it. "Keelah! What happened to that shirt?" she asked.
Dakkben glanced at her in confusing before looking down to see the massive hole in his shirt and gave out a chuckle. Tali only looked at him in concern before moving to apply Medi-Gel only to have Dakkben gently grabbed her small wrists.
"Don't worry, I heal better than the krogan. I'll be fine" Dakkben said, earning an approving grunt from Wrex. "Although, I do need something to eat, I'm starving." He said as his stomach growled in time as he emphasized on the word 'starving', earning a giggle from Tali. He did like that giggle, something about it helped him forget and think on the present, helped him feel...normal.
Tali was about to say something in response when Shepard interrupted "Slade, Tali. Captain Anderson's giving us the Normandy so we could get to-oh god! Get a medic!" Shepard said as he finally noticed the hole in Dakkben's chest. Dakkben only raised an eyebrow at Shepard before Shepard face palmed as he realized Slade wasn't entirely human.
"Sorry, Slade. A krogan, I can get used to. But you...are going to take a while." Shepard muttered, earning a laugh from everyone, even Wrex seemed to be slightly amused.
A/N: Now everyone knows that Slade used be Cerberus and was an experiment, it might lead to some changes around the Normandy. Also, I'm thinking about including a segment with Doctor Chakwas to explain what happened to Dakkben. But...they won't find out that Slade's Shepard's brother, yet. Click that review button! I know you want to.