Edem Kodsoh's life had been filled with a crushing silence by his work. The work of silence and fakery: how to makes something appear what it's not, how to create words that festered in the public mind - a poison that stayed subtle until it was too late. Everything from creating fake reports to lying about technology that could never exist in the hands of the Hegemony.
His family happily disrupted that silence with their cheerful singing, laughter, and a truth that they'd offered to him, although those times had been rare.
Edem had to travel off world too much and far too often, but at least he was able to provide a home for them on Aratoht. They couldn't afford servants, but his family was free, and he meant to keep it that way. Even if he had to create more lies until he was dead.
His wife, Patia, was a proud and brilliant environmental engineer who could manipulate the landscapes and oceans for his people's benefit. The sweet, honeyed air he breathed was thanks to her.
She brought results that seemed almost fake as if it were just more propaganda to be spread to his people. But with his wife, he knew her to be true, something he couldn't find in his work.
Why she was with him, he would tease her? He wanted to offer a life where she could just focus on her career, not worrying over chores or money.
And even with that, she gave him a daughter. Besine. She had shown through a darkness that he didn't even know was there until she came into his life. He lived for her laughter from games they used to play. He'd blink one eye and then she'd mirror him with a giggle. Or how he'd tried to coach her through saying her name. Be-si-ne, Be-si-ne, he would repeat.
"Bezzz," is what she used to sing back at him.
His little Bes, who used to scoop at the ground and build and play and pretend to be like her mother. It was her curious mind that asked and begged her mother to teach her more. She'd listen to her mother rattle on, she was so young, but it seemed like she could understand it more than him.
That was three months ago when he had a family and a purpose. That brilliance was gone. That curiosity was gone. His family was gone.
When he found out of the destruction of the Alpha Relay, his office became crushing and confining.
He didn't believe it; he desperately searched for any excuse that they were still alive or that it wasn't true. Maybe they had a chance to leave the system? To visit him on Khar'shan maybe? Patia had always said she wanted to see their homeworld, even if travel was highly restricted, maybe she got access.
He waited for their ship and occupied himself by searching fondly through old family photos and planned out activities. Maybe a picnic in the park? The one near his work, that he used to walk endlessly around on his breaks. Patia could point out all the different types of species of plants while Bes could pick them out and collect them.
But as the days went by and no shuttle ever came, Edem had to finally realize the truth. They weren't coming. Those photos were the last thing he had of them.
For three weeks, Edem continued to work on Khar'san. He buried himself into his work and their lies until the news finally broke: The Alliance had one responsible for the destruction of Bahak in custody. And thus Edem began to plan, he was going to kill the monster who took his everything.
Every batarian knew Shepard's face. She was known across the batarian worlds, a person that had taken too many families -proud, hard working civilians. If this planned worked out, all those worlds would chant his name in the streets as a hero.
But that didn't matter to him; he wasn't doing this for pride or to be remembered. He wanted to stare the monster in the eyes who had taken his family and make sure her slow and silencing death followed.
Everything he had saved up, it went to getting to Earth. Money saved up that was meant to go to classes for Bes, and gifts and plentiful food for Patia, it went to getting to Earth. He was smuggled to Omega, stuffed away in a compartment of a compartment. More confining walls.
His life before always had someone watching, eyes always following his movement. Luckily, cloaks were in ever growing supply on Omega's market. Stealth systems that could go undetected for an hour, even more. His was supposedly Salarian.
Edem was undetected, unwatched for once. There was peace underneath that cloak, but there was a loneliness too. He shouldn't have to be doing this; he should have been with them.
Why them and not him? Why not the woman who brought so much life into her work? Or the child who had so much potential, who wanted to learn and create just like her mother.
Edem had passed many of his own kind within the market, protesting, begging for the head of that savage on a stick.
He wanted nothing more than to join into the fervid mass of anger and scream along with them as he passed. But he needed to keep moving, every second need to go to getting to Earth. Every second she was allowed to take in air was an insult to his family's memory.
Edem hurried to buy his weapon of a choice. A gun could be detected, and to be honest, he hardly knew how to shot one. A knife worked with him more; he wanted to be close when it sunk the blade into the monster.
Edem swallowed as he watched the neon lights bounced off the blade, Patia hated violence, always saying there should be another way to solve one's problems. But there wasn't, this was the only way he could get back to her and Bes. She would have to understand.
The rest of his money went to getting plans into the base from an information broker. It was a steep price when the Shadow Broker wasn't selling that kind of information. That didn't matter; he would be with his family soon. Edem didn't need the money.
Two weeks in, she went under Alliance guard. News of what was going on went quiet. The Alliance kept shut and away from its civilians. It reminded him of Khan'shan.
Edem now stood on Earth, Shepard's own home planet, while his was more than dust.
He holed up with one of the gangs that he had met through his connection from Omega. He got to stay with them, and they didn't ask questions.
Humans, they were an ugly bunch. They had too few eyes that were far too light like the stories of demons he'd use to scare Bes with. They were hairy and squishy, like a pyjak. Pyjak was the right word for her and the entire species, they swarmed and invaded like any other pest into the Terminus.
Edem watched and waited within the base. He was never close enough to her because he had to be careful, move in and out of the base undetected. There were too many countless times when he could have been caught.
He learned a lot when he was under that cloak; she wasn't just some damn scapegoat, so at least he wasn't wasting his time. He learned about her time stopping the "Collectors" and heard many rants on so-called machines called the "Reapers" that were trying to destroy all life in the galaxy.
A blazing anger built within over those three days. His family died because some damn Alliance soldier lost their mind. Weak, monster, or crazy, Edem didn't care. He was still going through with this.
Edem followed her through the committees and her detention area. There was a guard, the main one who stay by vigilantly during the day and another at night, always blocking any entrance to her. She was hiding behind her own confined walls.
Except there was one time when she couldn't hide, where a guard wouldn't be at the door to stop him.
Shepard liked to run: an hour a day, always at the same time, with the same pace around the Alliance track.
He watched for three days before finally making his move. Pride swelled in his heart, three days among them and they never found him.
Edem unsheathed the knife, light from the Earth's sun bounced off the blade and into his eyes, he ignored it and moved quickly. He would be with his family soon.
Edem's life had been dictated by rule, to follow the word of his government. Every action in his job he did for them. This action of plunging a knife into the monster to see if she'd actually bleed would be for his family. And while the Hegemony called for Shepard's head, her death would not be because of what he was told do, but because he wanted it.
But it went wrong so quickly. The knife should have plunged into her heart, but she moved too fast. It barely passed two inches into her shoulder. A shocked curse from her and screeching sound of metal upon metal were all he heard as dug it in. Orange light escaped from the wound; maybe she didn't bleed after all.
Edem screamed as tried to drive the knife in. Biotics exploded from her skin and enveloped her. She grabbed him by the throat as her biotics shorted out his cloak. She pressed his back into the ground of the turf.
It was far too quick; he didn't even get a chance to register that he barely got the knife in before he was on the ground. Pressure built up behind his eyes as air escaped from his throat. Edem could barely breathe, but she had to know their names before he died.
"Patia Semmark! Besine Kodsoh!" His voice spat out their names in a rough tone. They deserved better than that.
The pressure fell as her hand loosened. Shepard titled her head to the left as she tried to look him in the eyes, not knowing where to focus. A harsh laugh escaped from him as she tried. She couldn't even look him in the eyes correctly.
Flares of biotics died down and dissipated. Shepard clutched her shoulder as blood escaped out. She was giving up. Edem felt his heart sink at the realization.
"What are you waiting for? Kill me like you killed my family!" Every second away from them was torture. Why would she just do it already? He needed to be with them.
She spoke between bated words, almost like a Volus. "There was no other way, I tried to get them out, I-I'm sorry." They were soft remorseful words. As if she actually believed it craziness of the Reapers that she spouted off about in committee meetings. But that didn't matter to him, words, no matter how remorseful, wouldn't bring them back.
"Coward," he had yelled, spitting in her face as felt more arms and pressure tried to drag him away. He let out one last ragged scream as felt legs drag beneath the Earth. She should have killed him.
Her eyes watched him as he was dragged off, they were dark green surround by a wide white, and too damn ugly. He should have plucked them out of her skull when he had the chance.
Edem's cell was quiet, apart from the occasional sneer that came from the human that brought him food. Solid concrete surrounded him with a small window letting into barely enough light to illuminate the room. He was deaf to the Earth outside those walls.
The Alliance would make sure that he'd die in a cell before giving him over to the Hegemony. He would rot here between the walls. She should have killed him.
At least his family's death was quick, he hoped and prayed for it to be true. He'd never know if that was true if they were at least given a swift and painless death.
But Edem knew one final truth; he had a backup plan, Shepard's death would not be so swift. His knife had been more than just metal. It was coated in a poison; it's antidote only reachable within batarian space. It was a silencing poison that would steal her air, just as she did to him.