Zaeed walked side by side with Aranya. The Asari merc had suggested that the best plan of escape would be to say that Eclipse high command had ordered him to be transferred to a more secure location. Although he wasn't particularly happy to have his hands bound, much less to be cooperating with the woman who betrayed his trust, if it meant living for another chance at Vido's head, it was very much worth it. They were making their way to docking bay of the base; hoping to commandeer a shuttle and sneak out of the base with no one the wiser.
"Halt!" Two Asari commandos stopped them at the end of the corridor. "Where are you taking the prisoner?"
"Major Aranya T'konis, prisoner transfer to outpost one-zero six. Orders from the top," Aranya explained.
"Apologies, Major, but I need to see proof of the transfer order before I can let you pass," Aranya responded by handing her a data pad with forged orders from Eclipse high command. "Everything checks out, sorry for the inconvenience ma'am," the guard said after examining the data pad.
"I'll show you an inconvenience..." mumbled Zaeed under his breath. Aranya reached for her pistol and struck him on the back of the head with it. "Quiet human!" They then proceeded to continue through the next corridor.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Zaeed asked as soon as they were out of ear reach of the guards. Aranya responded with a wicked smirk.
"Not as much as I enjoy angry-sex with you," she replied. Zaeed chuckled.
"Don't flatter yourself love, let's just get out of-" Zaeed was interrupted by the screaming alarms that began to sound throughout the base as the lights in the hallway turned to a flickering bright red color.
"What the hell is that?" Zaeed asked in confusion.
"Intruders have entered the base! Repeat intruders-" the intercom turned to static. Aranya proceeded to tap a few controls on her omni-tool.
"Looks like it's time for plan B," The tritanium binds then unlocked and rolled off of Zaeed's wrists.
"And what exactly is 'Plan B?" he asked. Aranya drew her pistol and held it above her shoulder.
"Shoot our way out."
"Still a hard bitch," he said with a chuckle.
"Still an ass hole," she replied. Zaeed shook his head and smiled.
"Touche..."
...
After Sovereigns unfortunate escape the remaining crew of the Normandy gathered in the med bay where Shepard was being tended to after being knocked unconscious by Sovereign's attack. Tali, as usual, found herself a place by his side, not bothering to leave for food, sleep, or any other common necessity. Garrus had been pacing back and forth for hours behind her, venting his anger in the form of silent curses. How they could have possibly missed this. Sovereign; he had been destroyed at the Citadel two years earlier. But somehow Cerberus had managed to recover a fragment of his core, and now...now he was lose in the galaxy once again. Even worse, he had taken their valued crew member, Legion, and was using its body as his vessel. Doctor Chakwas had been staring at a data pad showing readouts of Shepard's vitals for hours. His current condition dumbfounded her. She rose from her usual seat by the window and stepped over beside Tali who stared up at her hopefully.
"It's strange, I can't find any reason as to why he's remained unconscious this long. Even stranger, his brain waves are very erratic, consistent with that of a coma patient but with an extra wavelength pattern I can't identify," Tali turned back to Shepard and noticed that his eye movement was rapid under his eye lids. Was he dreaming perhaps?
...
Shepard found himself in complete darkness; void. He couldn't feel his legs, his arms, his heartbeat. It was as if he had been disembodied. "What is this? Where?" He could hear his words echo in his mind.
"WELCOME," A deep bellowing voice seemed to pierce his very thoughts. Suddenly, all his past visions, the visions he had seen of the Protheans as they were slaughtered and harvested like cattle by the ancient evil they had come to call the Reapers, started to flash before him. "S-Stop!" he yelled, pleading for the grotesque images to leave him; for the torment to cease. They continued even faster, Shepard felt that his mind would be obliterated by the endless scenes of suffering. "AARGH!" Shepard screamed as the visions became unbearable. After what seemed like an eternity the visions came to a sudden halt and he found himself engulfed by the endless void once again. He tried to calm himself, but then the void became a vision he had seen two years earlier. He found himself flying through space over a dark planet with crimson skies. The light from the nearby star being the only source of illumination. The planet came closer and closer until he found himself consumed by its dark side. A familiar figure emerged from the darkness. A Reaper. It flew towards him and halted in arms reach of him Shepard looked up to see the hulking machine dwarf everything around him. "Where am I?" he asked nervously.
"A PLAIN OF EXISTENCE BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING," It replied.
"What—who are you?" He asked with overwhelming fear ever present in his voice.
"ALLOW ME TO COMPENSATE," A hoard of images flashed through his mind once again. Only this time, it was memories forgotten. He saw the day he set down on Eden Prime, the day he met Tali, when he defeated Saren, when he woke up on the Cerberus station, and all that lead up to his current state of unconsciousness. The visions ended and he found himself once again mere feet from the massive entity.
"Sovereign!" he yelled. "How!" The Reaper began to move its massive metal limbs as it replied.
"YOU HAVE YET TO REALIZE HOW INSIGNIFICANT YOU ARE BEFORE US SHEPARD. OUR EXISTENCE IS BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION."
"What do you want?"
"WE WANT WHAT YOU WANT, PEACE. BUT PEACE CANNOT EXIST IF ORGANIC LIFE IS LEFT UNCHAINED, LEFT TO GROW WITHOUT RESTRICTION. THROUGH US YOU WILL RECEIVE SALVATION, YOU WILL ASCEND AND BECOME PART OF THOSE INFINITELY YOUR GREATER. THAT WHICH YOU KNOW AS REAPERS WILL GRANT YOU YOUR DESTINY."
"It's a destiny we don't want! We choose our own destiny! And we'll continue to fight you for it!"
"WHETHER YOU WILL IT OR NOT, IN THE END YOU BELONG TO US. YOUR CONTINUED RESISTENCE WILL DO YOU NOTHING. YOU CANNOT STOP THE CYCLE. THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER..."
...
Everything around Shepard faded into nothingness as light pierced through his eye lids and he began to stir. "Shepard? Shepard! Doctor he's waking up!" yelled Tali as Shepard slowly opened his eyes.
"Shepard, oh Keelah are you alright?" Shepard looked through her visor at her bright glowing eyes as they shone through the veil that hid her beauty.
"Hey beautiful," he said softly. Tali's gaze widened.
"Shepard? Are you..." Tali jumped slightly and squeaked as she felt a hand squeeze her butt. "Does that answer your question?" Shepard said with wide grin. Tali slapped his hand away as her cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
"You Bosh'tet, not in front of the Doctor!" she whispered nervously. Chakwas leaned against her desk as she stared at the re-united couple.
"Don't mind me Ms. Zorah, I was young once too. Besides, it brings back fond memories." the doctor said with a chuckle. Ignoring the Doctor for the moment, Tali hugged her lover tightly; nestling her head into his neck, the spectre could have sworn he heard her sob silently before Garrus walked up behind her, making her release him quickly and inhale her tears of joy.
"Good to see your back to your old self again Shepard, I'd give you a hug but...things aren't exactly looking up right now..." said the turian, dropping his head to look down at the floor.
"I know..." Shepard replied. "Sovereign..."
"He's back. Even worse, he's escaped through the Conduit with Legion. As of now we're a Geth short. I tried to stop him but I wasn't fast enough... Dammit! I should have noticed the signs sooner! I'm sorry Shepard."
"It's not your fault Garrus. There's no way you or anyone of us could have known. At least he's off the ship. Another day or two and we would have all been indoctrinated. And how did he manage to take control of Legion anyway?"
"I dunno Shepard, Mordin asked for Legion's assistance in the lab, next thing he knew, the capsule popped open and that glowing shit flew out and into Legion. Fortunately Sovereign's only a spec of what he once was. Literally. Most he was able to do was drive us a little insane. But you saw the data, he grows over time and if we don't find and stop him soon, we may relive the battle of the citadel."
Tali joined in. "If he went through the Conduit then he is most likely on Ilos right now. Dammit, Shepard, we never should have trusted Cerberus!"
"I know..." the spectre replied. "We need to inform the council. Mordin collected data from his examinations of Sovereign's energy. There's no way they can dismiss it. But first, I need to have a word with the Illusive man," Shepard stormed out of the med bay and headed straight up to the CIC. Rage clouded his mind as he thought about what to say. Sending them into a trap on the Collector ship was one thing, but researching Reaper energy? Cerberus knew no bounds and eventually they would pay for it.
"Joker, patch me through to the Illusive man."
"Establishing up-link commander," Joker replied. The table merged with the floor and the scanning grid activated as Shepard stepped into it. The Illusive, sitting in his chair, was met with the enraged visage of the spectre.
"Shepard," he said. "I take it there's a complication with your delivery run?" Shepard felt all his anger rush out of him as he spoke his first words.
"Save your bullshit for someone who's actually that gullible! I know what you were doing on the Bermuda! EDI decrypted every last bit of data!" The Illusive didn't lose a single bit of his composure to Shepard's fury. Instead he managed to reply in his usual calm tone.
"I knew you wouldn't approve of the research we were performing. That's why I kept it from you. Think about it Shepard, by studying the very life-force of the Reapers we can discover their weaknesses and find the means to destroy them."
"Thousands died on the Bermuda for your reckless ambition! And now because of you, Sovereign is lose once again! He managed to work his way inside the body of my Geth crew member and escaped through the Conduit!"
"That's unfortunate..." The Illusive man replied emotionless. "Then we have an old enemy laid before us."
"No thanks to you! You've endangered countless lives as well as those of my crew to satisfy your sick delusions of grandeur! I won't have it anymore! If you contact me again, I will hunt you down and personally see to it that the only thing your researching, is how to build yourself a new head!" The Illusive man remained silent as Shepard cut the transmission. He had said what needed to be said. Never again would the Illusive man use them for his personal gain.
"Joker, send a message to Anderson, tell him what happened, and tell him I need to speak with the council immediately.
...
Shepard met up with his old friend, Councilor Anderson, in his office on the Presidium soon after calling for the meeting. When he told him it concerned the Reapers, Anderson immediately responded and awaited his arrival with great anticipation; anticipation that the rest of the council did not share. Ever since informing them of the existence of the race of evil sentient machines they had done nothing but label him as a delusional war monger and shun him for any evidence he had brought them. However, this time the data was solid. The data Mordin had recorded of Sovereign's 'life-force' showed properties unknown in any other source of energy. On top of that, he had yet to present them with the data recorded from their assault on the Collector base in the galactic core. If they didn't believe him this time, then they were more than blind, they were fools in denial. Shepard proudly walked into Anderson's office with Tali, Garrus, and Mordin following suite. Anderson was standing in his usual spot leaning over the railing but quickly turned to them upon hearing the door hiss open.
"Shepard!" He said happily as he walked over to shake the hand of the spectre. "Good to see your still in one piece. I imagine your trip through the Omega 4 Relay wasn't so relaxing."
"Always a pleasure old friend. I wish could say I had some good news prepared for this meeting." Shepard replied as he humbly shook the councilors hand.
"As long as the Reapers are out there, my expectations of hearing something pleasant remain low," Anderson replied in a rather sad tone. "The rest of the council wasn't exactly thrilled to attend a meeting without knowing its full purpose. If I hadn't told them it involves the Reapers, they would've never showed."
"When they see what I have to present, they'll see that their time was well spent," Shepard replied as he and Anderson took their places in front of the three holographic projectors that activated momentarily, revealing the glowing, holographic, orange figures of the Citadel council. The Turian councilor was the first to speak.
"I hope you have good reason for calling upon us on such short notice councilor Anderson. In case you haven't noticed, we're being drowned by protesters demanding an explanation for the disturbance on the Presidium. The Krogan citizens are particularly agitated at the destruction of their monument."
"I assure you, my reasons are valid," Anderson replied. "Commander Shepard has brought forth new evidence concerning the very real threat of the Reapers," he turned to Shepard and motioned with his hand for him to upload the data into the terminal. The three councilors all looked down into their consoles and began to review the data for themselves.
"Where did you say you acquired this data?" asked the Salarian councilor suspiciously.
"I didn't" Shepard replied. "Where I acquired this data isn't important. The fact is, it's there and you can see for yourself how crystal clear it is. The Reapers exist, and they're more than happy to let us know," The Turian councilor remained silent as did the Salarian councilor for a few moments.
"This is indeed a lot to take in Shepard," said the Asari councilor.
"There's more," Shepard interrupted before she could continue. He began to explain the incidents leading up to Sovereign's resurrection and his escape. He made sure to create a believable facade as to how sovereign acquired a body too, using the ruse that his geth body was a geth infiltrator unit that managed to stow away aboard the Normandy during their last mission.
"Every rational thought of mine tells me that I shouldn't believe you," said the Salarian councilor. "However, the data you've submitted does show that we have a clear threat to galactic security on our hands. From Sovereign, and from the coming invasion..."
"I agree," The Asari councilor interjected. "This threat must be met with immediate action," the turian councilor finally broke from his dumbfounded state and joined the debate.
"The best course of action would be to have you travel through the Mu Relay and meet this threat head on Shepard. As long as you perform your duty discreetly."
"My crew stands ready and willing councilors," Shepard replied.
"It is decided then. Shepard, you will take any measures necessary to quell this threat. Report directly to us the moment you have an update on the situation. This meeting of the council is adjourned," the holographic projections faded as Anderson made his way back to the railing and leaned over it.
"Sovereign, the Collectors, now Sovereign and the rest of his race..." Anderson said with a heavy sigh. "What will they throw at us next..."
"I plan to make sure he stays dead this time. Besides, this time around he doesn't have a Geth armada backing him up," said Shepard as he stepped up beside Anderson. "Hopefully we can settle this with a quick bug hunt on Ilos."
"I hope your right Shepard... God knows I do..." With that said, Shepard and his team headed back to the Normandy. It was time to prepare for their next the mission.