A/N: I'll be honest. I'm not 100% happy with this chapter. Plot heavy chapters are harder for me to write, and I'm big on accuracy. Buuut, these sort of situations aren't something I'm super familiar with? I just decided at one point to write out the scene as is and let it be. Hope it doesn't detract from the story too much.
It's been twelve hours, and the Clone hasn't heard a single word from Brooks. She paces floor of the warehouse, knowing her partner went dark for good reason, but she still feels antsy. Negotiations shouldn't keep Brooks this long, at least not out of contact. Should it matter? This could be the Clone's chance to start her own life, but she also remembers what happened the last time she abandoned the plan. Going out on her own, with no one at her side? Sounds like hell. And she can't leave things between them like they ended last night. What they have isn't love, but whatever it is, the Clone doesn't want to lose it.
At thirteen hours, the Clone calls the mercs to attention. They assemble on the floor, but they fail to quiet. First the Clone clears her throat. Then she shouts. Finally, when that fails to shut them up, she throws the nearest man into a singularity.
A hush falls over the room, as the mercs gape at not only her behavior, but her power. The Clone drops the man without paying attention to whether he breaks one bone, or five. "Now that I have your attention," she pulls up an image of Brooks, casting it to the screen behind her, "Maya Brooks has not reported for duty for over twelve hours." Swiping to a schematics map of the Citadel, she adds, "Your mission will be to find her, and bring her back, alive."
One woman calls out from a few rows back, "How-"
The Clone raises a glowing hand.
"-Ma'am, how do we know she hasn't gone rogue?" The woman shifts on her feet nervously. "She's did it to Cerberus, didn't she?" A fair notion. A notion the Clone does not entertain.
"Cerberus no longer aligned with her objective."
Another merc calls out, "And we do? Ma'am?"
Doubt stabs the Clone in the gut. She ignores it. Maya wouldn't go to all this trouble only to abandon them, would she? "Maya Brooks has one goal, and only one goal. To save humanity, at any cost." The Clone highlights one of the overrun docks. "Hatchet will enter here." She circles another. "Dagger here." Making eye contact with the three mercs standing closest to the stage, she adds. "Razor Squad, you're with me."
Since they can't smuggle in weapons without Brooks, the Clone has the mercs infiltrate the wards, armed only with omni-tools. She has the secondary squads cause a ruckus on the docs while Razor infiltrates Citadel-Security. Donning a wig and contacts, the Clone borrows one of Maya's old identities: Captain Channing. It's a risk, using one of her old names, but in this case, the risk might be exactly what she needs. Hacking into one of the terminals, the Clone grants Channing access to the room with the camera feeds, and she posts Razor in what she hopes are discreet positions outside the door.
Narrowing her search to the day and place Brooks arrived, the Clone speeds up the video until the moment Brooks takes a sky car from the docks. She trails the license plate and finds its flight path with that time signature, and follows it to a warehouse in the Zakera ward, one that has been out of use since 2185. Brooks leaves the car at the terminal, and heads inside. From their countless meetings over meals, the Clone knows the background, appearance, and personality of the contact Brooks intended to meet with-the person inside the warehouse isn't them. A cold feeling settles in the Clone's stomach. Someone set Brooks up.
"You're not Jax." Brooks reaches for her pistol, but it's already too late.
"No. I'm not."
The Clone watches in horror as the Asari, likely a commando from the way she uses her biotics, catches Brooks in a singularity and then reaves her until she's unconscious. Swallowing hard, she speeds the video up again, watching as the mercs quickly tie her to a chair, and begin what looks like an interrogation. As awful as it is to watch, the Clone is relieved to know that the mercs want her alive. What for, she has no idea.
Using one of Brook's credit lines, the Clone rents a sky car, and takes it to the warehouse with her squad. On the way, she summons Dagger squad to watch the perimeter, and has Hatchett watch their escape route in case more trouble shows up. The Clone stages two men from Dagger at the windows on the sides of the warehouse, ready to launch omni drones. She has Razor equip their omni blades.
One of the mercs from Dagger returns with schematics on the warehouse. While there is only one door, there are windows lining the sides. "Take out the windows in the back in 5 minutes. I'll keep them busy."
"Signal, Commander?"
It does thrill the Clone to hear that title. Maybe it suits her. "I'll cough twice. How many?"
"They're all inside. Half a dozen, Ma'am. Three are posted in the rear of the warehouse. The rest are around Brooks."
Is Maya alright? The Clone wants to say, but she knows better. "Is Brooks alive?"
"Affirmative."
"Deal with the ones in the back as you come in. Wait for my signal on the others. I only need one of them alive."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Dismissed."
The Clone walks up to the door, and finds it unlocked. She knocks three times, and steps inside, letting Razor file in behind, blades aimed in front of them.
Brooks sits in a chair, still bound. Her nose is purple and dried blood trails down to her lip. She has other bruises on her head. As the Clone and her squad come in, Brooks' eyes widen and she lifts her head. The Clone nods at her, and then looks at the kidnappers, mercs, probably, by the quality of their armor and the banned weapons in their hands. C-Sec really needs to step up its game. An Asari leads them, vanguard, by the amount of armor she's wearing, and their leader, by the way the other kidnappers keep looking at her for direction.
The Asari aims her gun at the Clone, smirking. "Put your weapon down, or I'll shoot."
The Clone's hands glow with biotic energy. "Go ahead. I'll fry you before you have a chance to re-target. What do you want?"
Raising an eyebrow, the Asari snorts. "A human biotic against an Asari Commando? Please."
Racking her brain, the Clone throws out the first thing that comes to mind. "Nessa Tandros." She's not sure if it's her or the implants doing the talking. "She runs a training facility in New Serrice. Heard of her?"
The commando's eyes widen, and she pulls her finger off the trigger. Swinging the barrel of the gun away from the Clone, the Asari holds it up her other arm. "We got what we wanted." Her goons do the same.
She's stalling. Why? The implants flare up. Maya mouths at her, trap.
"You're mercs, right?" Who hired you? The Clone lowers her hands. She can still use her biotics if she needs to. So can the Asari.
"You'll find out soon enough. He's on his way." Shit.
Maya's not sweating, must be dehydrated. Not good. The Clone sees her shoulders shifting-she must be hacking her own cuffs.
Over Maya's shoulder, Dagger creeps up behind her and her kidnappers.
"Oh? How soon?" She does her best to keep her voice level, though the implants are blaring inside her skull DANGER DANGER DANGER. The Clone watches Dagger through her peripheral vision, counting beats in her head.
"Don't worry. He won't keep you waiting."
Maya's eyes narrow in recognition, and then she looks up at the Clone.
One breath. Two breaths. Three.
The Clone coughs twice, and biotically pulls the gun out of the commando's hands, just as the mercs jerk in tandem, watching omniblades pierce their midsections. Brooks overloads the Asari's shields and the Clone slams her to the ground, and fires the gun, making sure the commando stays there. She feels her amp heat up as she pushes her biotics to their limits, and she wills the energy to keep going, cooldown periods be damned.
With all the other mercs killed or disabled, the Clone walks over to their leader. The Asari commando's shields are damaged beyond repair, and they crack and sizzle as they try to regenerate. One of her feet has been shot, and she sits on the floor, laughing-shock, probably.
Stopping within spitting distance, the Clone holds up her hand, channeling the dark energy around her into a reave. It only serves to make the commando laugh louder. The Clone shouts over her. "Who hired you?"
The Asari looks up at her gun, and she smiles. "We all know Shepard wouldn't kill me."
The Clone's finger stays on the trigger, but she doesn't pull. "She'd have you arrested, wouldn't she?"
The Asari stars to nod. The Clone shoots her point blank. "I'm not Shepard." She stays there, with her gun hanging at her side, watching numbly as the blood spurts from where the head used to be. Miasma fills her nostrils, and the Clone distantly realizes this is her first kill. A person died at her hand. Shaking, the Clone's thoughts run in a loop. She's dead. I killed her. She's dead. I killed her. She's dead-
A hand lands on her shoulder and the Clone nearly launches the owner of that hand across the room. "You're right." The hand belongs to Brooks. The Clone deflates, and she feels tears forming in her eyes. But she doesn't feel anything behind that wetness. Maybe she really isn't human after all. "You're not Shepard." Maya turns her, pulling her into a hard kiss, marking herself with the blood spatter on the Clone's lips. "You're better."
A/N: Also, as you can probably tell, we're getting super close to the events of the Citadel DLC. I'm a little torn to be honest. Would you all appreciate a retelling of the DLC from the Clone's perspective, or would you rather me skip to the end and tell the Clone's story in the aftermath?