Chapter 40: Something Old, Something New
Shepard stared, completely flabbergasted, at the retreating metal back of what was now EDI's body. The AI had been trying to access information deep inside the Cerberus synthetic's memory core. In her search, she had tripped something that reactivated the synthetic. EDI had dealt with it as she saw fit, but Shepard was still a little unnerved.
She never thought of EDI ever having a body, nor even the desire or inclination to have one. However, with how EDI and Joker had been treating each other since her return, Shepard knew that the AI was evolving, becoming closer and closer to a real person and opposed to an imitation of one.
The thought of an AI evolving to the point that EDI had, or even farther, made Shepard think. Was this the sort of thing that had been planned with the AIs that the Ghosts had been assigned? Was this the sort of thing that Rah dealt with?
Shepard didn't have the answers to those questions, so for now, she pushed them to the back of her mind to think about them later. In the mean time, someone had settled themselves into the main battery and hadn't reappeared since.
Shepard quickly made her way to the battery, and froze in her tracks after stepping into the room. The voice of Primarch Victus filled the room, only to shortly be followed by Garrus' voice. Shepard let a shudder run down her spine, it had been far too long since she had heard that gorgeous dual-toned voice of his.
"I'll call you back Victus, something came up." Garrus spoke, snapping Shepard's attention to trying to find him. He wasn't anywhere in sight, but she could just feel him nearby.
"Call me back when you can Advisor Vakarian." Victus replied before cutting off the call.
"Garrus?" Shepard asked, moving deeper into the battery, looning around the guns themselves for her mate.
"Come on." Garrus growled and a loud bang followed. "Fucking Alliance, can't do anything right."
Shepard spotted his leg sticking out from under one of the guns. Shepard walked over towards him and crouched down so that she could see him.
"Back on the ship for only three hours and you're already trying to break it?" Shepard asked with a smirk. Garrus was squeezed under the gun with one of the panels open and a few tools laying next time him.
"Trying to fix it." Garrus grunted, adjusting something in the gun itself. "Your techies don't have a clue when it comes to my baby here."
"Trying to make me jealous Vakarian?" Shepard asked with a chuckle. The heated look that Garrus shot her sparked a fire between her legs.
"You don't even compare Kate. Nothing ever will come close to you." Garrus purred to her.
"So no one stole you away from me while I was locked up?" Shepard asked, feeling slightly nervous.
"Too many tried." Garrus told her, one of his hands reaching out to cup her face. "None succeeded."
Shepard leaned into his hand, and a small smirk danced over her lips. "So will I have an army of angry Turian women trying to take your from me now."
Garrus chuckled and turned away from her slightly. "I uh-I didn't realize that women were after me until my sister pointed it out."
"Just like you Garrus." Shepard giggled. "Always were thick headed."
Garrus turned back to her and looked as if he was about to protest, or make some snarky remark, but Shepard stopped him. Her lips found his mouth plates, and soon enough, she was laying next to him, being held in his arms.
"I've missed you Garrus." Shepard told him softly and flared up her biotics. "I've missed you so much."
"If I have anything to say about it, you'll never be without me." Garrus old her, gently forcing her to look into his eyes. "Never again."
"God damn you Hackett!" Rah shouted and slammed his fist into a nearby bulkhead. Rah's furious gaze looked into the cool and collected eyes of Admiral Hackett over his QEC.
"You and I both know what that fucking ship was built for! You holding onto it for 'guard duty' is a waste of it's potential!" Rah yelled at the other man. "GIve me the ship or I will come and pry it from your hands my fuckign self!"
"Are you done general?" Hackett asked him, his voice irritated.
"I'm sure as all hell done with your shit!" Rah yelled. "You have no reason to be this much of a fucking cunt!"
"General." Hackett spoke smoothly. "What you are asking for is not possible. I can't simply hand over a dreadnaught while my fleets need its fire power."
"Hackett." Rah growled. "You're a smart man, so I've got a question for you. Do you have any idea why it is that I've made it as far as I have?"
Hackett blinked in shock. The older soldier hadn't been expecting this change in tactic.
"I wasn't picked to enter ICT just because of Elysium and my connection with Shepard. I was picked because I've shown that I know what the fuck I'm doing. Give me any force and I will defy every odd and slaughter forces four times its size. I am a tactical fucking genious. If someone says that something can't be done, I will prove just how wrong they are.
"I know just how much you need that dreadnaught, and it's nothing compared to what I need it for. Why are you insisting on wasting that greatest asset you have and not using it to it's full potential? Do you really want to hamper our own forces against the Reapers?"
Hackett seemed to consider Rah's words. After several silent minutes, Hackett relented, albet grudgingly.
"I'll send what you're asking for to meet you at the Citadel." Hackett told him. "Don't make me regret this."
"Final-fucking-ly." Rah sighed out and then cut the communication. Rah let himself fall into the chair of his desk and leaned back, feeling completely drained.
"Come in." Rah called out when a there was a knock at his door.
"Sir?" Maggie asked, stepping just inside his cabin. "Is everything alright?"
"The world is ending and people are still playing politics." Rah sighed, and looked up at the woman. "Other than that, everything is just peachy."
Rah let his concern for the woman show on his face at seeing that she had a nervous look on her face. "Something wrong Maggie?"
"Your VI sent us a communication, a distress call." Maggie looked into his eyes with fear in her own. "General, it's from Grissom, they-they're under attack."
Rah's hands clenched and he immediately pulled up his omni-tool, calling the pilot of the Dawn. "Flight Lieutenant, get us to Grissom Academy, I want us there yesterday." Rah ordered the pilot.
"But sir, we're almost out of our supplies, we need to-" The pilot began to protest.
"We'll restock when we get to Elysium. I gave you an order, follow it." Rah snapped, cutting her off.
"Y-yes sir." The pilot replied.
"Someone has dared attack our home Maggie, let's go and teach them a lesson." Rah spoke to the other soldier, standing up from his desk. Even though he hadn't had a good night of sleep in over a week, he felt more invigorated than he'd ever been before.
"Let's." Maggie agreed and cracked her knuckles.
"Go let the others know. Tell Captain Vakarian as well, let's see how his guys and ours can mix as a squad." Rah ordered the woman, a look of surprise passed over her face. "No point in letting us have all the fun."
Maggie smirked at him. She saluted before leaving to go and follow his orders.
Rah sat back down at his desk. he pulled up one of the few images he had that wasn't war related on his terminal. Jack's face appeared on his screen. It was an image that he'd taken from his helmet feed just before running off to save Shepard and her squad on the Collector station. It was the only image he had of her, and it was one that had chased away his nightmares more times than he could count in the last month alone. Rah reached out and touched the image, wishing more than anything, to be near her now.
"I'm comin' Princess, just hold on 'til I get there." Rah spoke softly to the image.
The ground around her shook violently, Shepard looked around at the surrounding pre-fab buildings of the Edin Prime digsite. Around her, James, Garrus, and Liara were all doing the same thing. They'd had a minor reprieve from the onslaught of troops that Cerberus had been sending at them while they defended a Prothean stasis pod.
Another heavy thump shook the ground around them, and then another. After several minutes of thumps shaking the earth, a massive mech rounded the corner of some buildings. Just like the Ymir mechs that Shepard had fault before, this thing was huge with a machine gun mounted for one arm and a cannon for the other. Unlike the other mech, this was piloted by a Cerberus troop, a large yellow canopy protected him from harmful fire. Behind the mech, a squad of Cerberus troops rushed out, forcing everyone back into cover.
"Take care of the troops!" Shepard yelled out to the others. "I'll keep the mech distracted!"
"Kate, you're not going to-" Garrus began, popping out and blowing a head off a Cerberus soldier. Before Garrus could finish, Shepard flared up her biotics.
She jumped out of her cover and into the open. Every gun trained on her and Shepard grinned. She yelled out in challenge just before flinging herself at the massive mech. She crashed into the mech with a massive boom, but the mech only took a single step back.
Shepard snarled and unloaded her shotgun into the canopy, small cracks began forming, but not much else happened. When rounds began bouncing off her barriers, an idea popped into Shepard's mind.
She dove under the mech, through it's legs, and popped up behind it. Shepard grinned when the shots stopped firing from the Cerberus troops, while her friends unloaded into them. It seemed that these Cerberus lackies had two orders, capture either her, or the pod. The Illusive Man's fear instilled orders made his troops nothing more than mindless husks, something that humanity would never become, not while she was around.
Slowly, the mech began turning around. The lumbering thing wasn't able to keep up with her however, as she was able to easily dance around it, unloading her shotgun into the canopy each time she could. Soon enough, the others had dispatched the squad of Cerberus and began making more cracks in the canopy of the mech. When the entire thing was covered in spiderweb cracks, Shepard jumped up on the the mech and pulled her fist back.
Her entire form lit up in her swirling azure light. On her fist, her blade of biotic energy formed. Shepard grinned in grim delight when the Cerberus troop in the cockpit of the mech began scrambling for a weapon. Right when he grabbed hold of one, Shepard slammed her fist into the canopy. The entire thing shattered and collapsed inwards. Her fist didn't stop until it was pressed into the center of the soldier's chestplate, her blade buried into his heart. The soldier convulsed in his death throws, his head fell backwards and his grip loosened on his weapon.
Shepard jumped off the mech, leaving it as it was. She turned to see both James and Liara looking at her in astonishment. Garrus however, just stood back with a smug and loving look on his face.
"What?" Shepard asked and James managed to make his mouth work.
"Damn Lola." James spoke in awe. "Didn't know you could dance like that. Didn't think you were that good when we danced in the gym."
Shepard grinned. While in her confinement, she and James had spared with each other. Shepard was looking both for a way of getting some of the kinks from inactivity out of her muscles, and also to put James through his paces. Had she really been trying back then, James wouldn't have lasted a week.
Over her comms, Shepard heard a low growl. She shot Garrus a soothing look before replying the the marine. "There's a lot you don't know about me Vega. Stick around long enough and you might know about half of it."
Shepard glanced over to Garrus. She was relieved to see that he had relaxed slightly. For Turians, sparring was sometimes a form of foreplay for them, Garrus' story of him and that Recon scout was proof enough of that. Shepard using Vega's last name over his first, was a subtle tell for Garrus to know that it was just plain sparring.
"One thing you'll find out is that Kate can't dance." Garrus pointed out. Liara shuddered slightly at the memory.
"Yes, James don't ever let Kat dance." Liara spoke, holding her hands on her head, as if trying to dispel some horrid memory.
"Oh ha ha." Shepard rolled her eyes. "You guys always just assume that I have no clue how to dance. One day, you'll regret that."
"Kate, we've seen you dance." Garrus told her, a teasing look on his face. "It wasn't pretty."
"I'd love to let you guys make fun of me more, but right now, I'd like to see if our pod here is done thawing our Prothean friend." Shepard shook her head at the three of them, bringing attention back to the reason they were here in the first place.
The three of them began walking towards the pod when EDI spoke over their comms.
"Shepard, Specialist Traynor has an important message for you."EDI told her.
"What is it EDI?" Shepard replied and Liara began checking the pod's systems.
"There was a distress call sent out by Grissom Academy Commander." Traynor replied. "It was answered by a Turian patrol, but the signal of the Turians was off."
"Get to the point Traynor, kinda busy down here." Shepard replied and Liara nodded to her. The pod was done, it just needed something to trigger it's opening.
"Ma'am, the Turian's are really Cerberus." Traynor told her and Shepard cursed.
"Have Joker get a coarse ready, as soon as we're back on board I want to be at Grissom." Shepard ordered the woman.
"Yes ma'am." Traynor replied.
Shepard reached out and placed a hand on the pod. Heat radiated from the metal, burning her even through her gloves. Shepard winced in pain and pulled her hand way. The seals down the center of the pod hiss before splitting open. Everyone took a step back, unsure about what would happen next. The pod split open to show a Prothean laying in the pod, the same one that the pieces of Prothean tech around the dig site had shown her.
"It may take some time for it to regain consciousness." Liara spoke, unsure of what to call the Prothean.
"Him." Shepard spoke, not taking her eyes off of the Prothean. "He's a soldier, one that was of a high rank in his cycle."
After only a moment more, the Prothean began waking up. He was groggy, likely the effects of having been asleep for the last fifty thousand years. When his four eyes opened, he looked around at the four looking down at him.
"What?" He muttered, his dialect harsh to her hears. She didn't know how it was that he was speaking in a language that her translator could understand, but Shepard understood him.
The Prothean flared in a green color, just like he had in her visions. Shepard's own biotics flared up and they protected her from the biotic shockwave that he unleased. The prothean stumbled out of the pod, his muscles still suffering from the extended stasis.
"Kat! Be careful!" Liara exclaimed. "It's been fifty thousand years to us, but minutes to him!"
The Prothean stood up and hobbled over to the cliff overlooking the digsite. He stopped and stood straight at the sight before him. What must have once been a Prothean city, was nothing more than what had been excavated and wilderness.
"Calm down." Shepard spoke to him and placed her hand on his arm.
She hadn't expected what came next, and by his shock, the Prothean hadn't either. Shepard was pulled into another vision. This time, she saw the final moments of his cycle. She saw him try and save what troops he had left, but he wasn't able to do it. Shepard saw his rage at hearing that the base's self defence system damaged the sensors to the base. The finality that his VI told him that he would be the voice of the Protheans in the next cycle.
When Shepard was pulled back out of the vision, the Prothean, Commander Javik, turned to her.
"You came in contact with our beacons?" Javik asked her and a look of rage passed over his face. "The Reapers are here and you didn't heed our warnings!"
"Calm the fuck down!" Shepard barked at him.
"I do not answer to you primitive!" Javik shouted back. "My people ruled over you! Over all of you!"
"And you fucked up!" Shepard shouted back, shoving him back to the very edge of the cliff. "And I am your only hope of getting vengeance for your people! That's what you want right? To kill every last Reaper? To avenge your people?"
Javik looked at her, his four eyes seeming to bore into her soul and weight her words. He seemed to make up his mind about her words.
"Very well primitive." Javik spat. "If your words are true, you will have my aid in killing the Reapers."
"It wasn't a question to begin with." Shepard told him, her voice cold and unnerving, she could see that a chill ran down his spine.
"Joker, I need a pick up." Shepard spoke into her comms turning away from the Prothean. She could tell that he would be a useful assent, but he'd be a thorn in her side.
A/N: There we are folks! sorry bout the wait, been dealing with a pretty bad snow storm where I am and It's been cutting into my free time. Hopefully you all enjoyed this still! I very much enjoyed writing it and am looking forwards to both what I have next and also what you guys will think of that.
Anyways, please let me know what you thought. Once more, thank you all so much for the support!
Until next time!
