A/N: A big thank you to Blausen, Revolution Assassin, MECHANICALCHEESE, and DandereGoneFishing for your reviews last chapter, as well as to all those who clicked the favorite and follow buttons
Also, I can't definitely promise it, but I am going to try, try, try my hardest to put out chapters out no later than two and a half weeks from the last post, so you guys won't have to wait a month or longer for the next installment.
-16-
It didn't take long. For the air to feel stifling. Breaths to be sharper, a slow ache in the lungs to take a healthy gulp, a request she could not grant.
She made another two passthroughs, coming up with nada, absolutely nothing to show for her efforts. At first she thought maybe a switch was hidden inside one of the ridiculously bright lights, but a quick survey of that confirmed that was a no-go. A lot of what was in this capsule was a no-go. She just couldn't believe no one would have installed a security override in case someone got stuck. She wished she had a more solid plan of action, but there was nothing in the N7 handbook covering what to do when trapped in an iridium vault on the Citadel Archives all due to a nefarious plot by your very own clone.
How long had it been since she regained consciousness? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Thirty? It couldn't have been more than that, could it? Jack was right. Time does get funny in a cell.
She decided to go on another run while her body could still deliver precious oxygen to her muscles, this time focusing more on the walls of the capsule.
She could only imagine what her enemies would think, seeing her trapped like this, like an animal, with little chance of escape. She was sure they would enjoy it, the thought of the great Commander Shepard going out like that. She could see the Illusive Man being delivered the report by Kai Leng, sneering at her having finally been bested yet carrying slight disappointment her death hadn't been at his hand. The Illusive Man reading the news, drinking away at his brandy. Then he'd reach for his cigarette, rolling it between his fingers and remark how it was a pity her talents had gone to such waste, that if she hadn't been so trusting and short-sighted, it would never have come to this for her.
Then he would go about his merry way bringing everyone under Reaper control without even realizing he was one of their thralls, dooming the entire galaxy to a repeat of the cycle.
He wouldn't get away with it. Even if I'm gone, the others would stop him.
Would they, Shepard? She practically heard him question in her ear, felt the smoke of his cigarette strike her cheek. They couldn't go to the Collector Base without you there to sort out their problems.
That was different. They needed clear heads to go on that mission, had personal issues to sort out beforehand. There was none of that now. There couldn't afford to be.
It took Shepard a moment to realize she had just spoken that aloud, to the Illusive Man who was currently safely tucked away in his bunker of a space station. Certainly not trapped in this time capsule with her. She couldn't have been that depraved of oxygen that she needed to start hallucinating people beside her, especially the Illusive Man. Didn't she have anyone better for her to conjure up?
Hallucination or not, it did make her wonder what was going on with the others. Was the clone leading them to the Archives right now? Had any of them figured out the clone's deception? If they were here and escaped the clone's trap, would they even have a chance of finding her in this death maze of an archive? The more she paced the capsule, the more the hope was sucked out of her that she could escape it on her own. Being replaced with the hope they would find her prison in time.
She hated this. If she was to die, she would rather go out fighting on the battlefield, taking a husk, a Phantom, or better yet, a Reaper down with her. All this reminded her of was that teenage Jane Shepard hiding in that windowless shack, hugging her shivering body tightly, holding her breath as batarians passed by firing shots at screaming civilians. Trapped, with nowhere else to run. Terrified they would set the shack on fire or search it, leaving her no chance of escape. Completely defenseless and alone. A memory she could do without.
When it was already starting to creep into her mind. The never ending list of things she wouldn't get to do again. The types of things and short moments that kept her grounded: never sharing drinks with James or Ash or Chakwas, never answering one of EDI's queries about organic behaviors, never watching another late night vid with Tali, among so much else with so many others. Worst, never teasing Garrus, feeling his heated plates against her skin. Seeing the look of pure enjoyment on his face when surprising him with a sniper upgrade. Making her feel better just from the sound of his dual-toned voice telling her he believed in her and would stick with her til the end...
She slammed the palm of her hand on the nearest container, not-at-all mindful of disturbing its contents, too focused on the growing emotional pain inside of her. Damn it all, she couldn't deal with this now.
She ignored the all too familiar sting in the eyes, quelled the slight tremble of her lip, glancing down at what her good hand had used as stress relief. The container was similar to the other one encasing the Albinoni piece, which also seemed to hold another sheet of music. The title and composer names were completely unreadable and the rest of the sheets' contents were not too far behind.
Her eyes fell on the datapad, but it too did not seem to have the piece's name or its composer. Her fingers brushed against the screen of the pad and it seemed that's all it needed for the datapad to begin the playback of the piece.
The first notes echoed through her ears, her brain once again sensing she had heard this piece before. Taking her away to another time, another life. To a place of safety...
She was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to focus on doing her math homework, but she was finding equations less interesting than daydreaming out the kitchen window, thinking about a certain classmate of hers, how wonderful it would be if he reacted to her confessions of a crush in the same way. Or even better, if he told her first. Though she had known him ever since they were four, it was only recently that she, as one of their classmates coined it, liked him, liked him. But Bran could be just as shy as she was. She'd be more likely to admit it; only if she could summon the courage to do it.
Her father had left the radio on in the den, having been listening to his daily dose of classical music before going out to help her mother. Though not as interested in it as him, she did still like to listen, even if the days of conjuring up adventures for her doll alongside the music were long gone. It did seem to help her concentrate on schoolwork. Least when her thoughts weren't preoccupied by how perfectly combed Bran's hair was or how wide a smile he had the few times he did.
Shaking the images away, she focused on the music instead, hoping that would get her to focus again. It had started out softly, now was building in tempo and volume. Then just as suddenly as it rose, it fell back. She couldn't remember ever hearing this one before. Maybe they were doing a new rotation.
"Still doing alright in here, dove?" She hadn't even heard her father come into the kitchen until he was standing right across from her.
"Yeah." Just still on the same problem she had been on when her father went outside about a half hour ago, but she wouldn't mention that. "Hey, Dad, do you know this? I don't think the channel's played this before."
It had been a game when she was younger, having him guess either the title or at least the composer. In all the years they had done it, he had never been wrong. He seemed to be a walking encyclopedia on the subject.
Sometimes he'd humor her, scratch at the stubble of his chin, proclaim this was a tough one then blurt out the answer before the piece's conclusion. So she didn't think much when he did it now. Until she spotted and heard the genuine puzzlement.
"It feels a little too subdued for a Romantic-era piece. The style would almost suggest Mozart, but I'm not positive." He gave a wry smile. "Guess they finally found one to stump your old dad. Or I'm losing my touch."
She ignored the barb about his age (a too recurrent one on his part) just as she overlooked the gray streaks in his hair, the hunch in his shoulders, his reliance on his eyeglasses. She still saw her father as she saw him when she was younger. Strong, smart, always able to make her and her mother laugh, knowing the right thing to say when she was sad or hurt, not afraid to stand up and speak out. Larger than life. "Only one out of a million wrong. I'd say that's good."
He gave a small chuckle, shooting her an affectionate smile. Though she didn't think her comment all that incredibly funny, his laugh was infectious as it traveled to her. He was about to go over to the radio to satisfy his curiosity when her mother stuck her head in the doorway, saying that one of the Mindoir council members was coming up the way. Looking disappointed at having to wait, he asked her to find out the name of piece and composer for when he was able to escape the clutches of colony politics.
Relieved at continuing her respite from mathematical equations, she journeyed over to the radio, pulling up the information screen. Just as her father had suspected, his guess had been wrong. The scrawl read: "Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56, "Scottish Symphony," I. Andante- Felix Mendelssohn."
The hitch in her breath had nothing to do with her inability to properly breathe and everything to do with finding this, remembering. This piece by Mendelssohn.
The one her father hadn't gotten right.
Despite the dire straits she found herself in, she couldn't help the weak smile her lips were forming into. She wasn't typically a religious or superstitious woman, but this. She'd take it as a sign, a good omen.
Or at the very least, a comforting presence in her final hour.
He really would have thought Brooks would have had mercs waiting for them when they opened the door. Well, more like dropped from a secret entrance in the ceiling. In fact they had made it through a couple of rooms, Teams Mako and Hammerhead on the rafters, them on the ground, and they hadn't encountered anything but some overturned desks, tossed papers and sputtering consoles.
Jane was taking point as she always did, leaving her ground team to watch her six. A ground team that consisted of not one, not two, not even three, but count them on both his talons, four. Four squadmates.
Hard to say he hadn't been surprised when she declared she wanted him, Javik, Miranda and Liara to come with her. While he was relieved he hadn't needed to make a big fuss and question her authority in front of everyone (though she saw them as equals, she never forgot she was still in command), the number of squadmates was larger than usual. He could never recall a time she took more than two. Even on the Collector Base and if any time warranted it, that one did. Jane had reasoned they didn't know what to expect, but when hadn't that been true on other missions? This did seem a bit like overkill. And he was pretty sure Liara agreed from the perplexed look she sent him and ones she was directing at Jane's back.
He was brought out of his reverie by Jane's call of something up ahead. "Security checkpoint."
"Likely an entrance to the vaults on the other side," Miranda said.
"We must tread carefully. They could have soldiers stationed by the entrance, ready to ambush us," Javik warned, always prepared with a pre-emptive strike.
They ducked as they approached the checkpoint, but once again found no one waiting for them. Brooks was a terrible tactician. Either that or it was part of her grand plan to lull them to sleep, only to shoot them in the back. Could explain why they heard no chatter on the comm channels either.
Assuming they could even find Brooks. A task that seemed quite daunting when they bypassed the checkpoint and entered through the door to the other side, revealing the catacomb of walkways and neatly lined up and endless rows and columns of capsules.
"So what do you think Brooks is looking for in here, Shep?" Kasumi asked through the comm.
"Anything's possible at this point."
"The Archives house records dating back millennia. It is, as humans would say, like finding a needle in a haystack," Liara said.
Jane turned to the drone floating beside them. "Glyph, can you scout on ahead and see if you can spot any mercs?"
"At once, Commander." Glyph then zoomed off, on the hunt for any CAT-6 mercs lurking nearby.
"Glyph is really not a combat drone, Shepard," Liara began.
"Then bringing it along was pointless," Javik interrupted.
Both Jane and Liara ignored him. "I know, Liara, but he's the only one who get a good vantage point and see far enough ahead and what might be coming our way," she explained.
"Perhaps the drone can spy in on the mercs' conversations, find out what they are here for," Miranda added.
"Glyph is quite good at gathering information," Liara agreed, looking more placated at that.
They journeyed up the rafter, climbing on top of one of vault capsules. Just focusing ahead, rather than on the steep drop that could swallow them whole below.
"This seems way too easy," Miranda murmured as they made it across.
The sound of gunfire not even a minute later finally confirmed the suspicion all of them had harbored since they first entered the Archives.
"We're taking enemy fire on the far side!" Cortez radioed in, though he didn't sound panicked or taken unawares by the assault. Must not have been too many for Hammerhead to handle.
"Finally some action!" Grunt said through heavy pants, likely rushing to get into the fray before Hammerhead took all the kills away.
As they headed towards the source of the commotion, Glyph veered back into view. "Commander, a large contingent of soldiers calling themselves, "Razor Squad," is just ahead. They are engaged with Team Hammerhead and Team Mako is on approach to join them."
Liara thanked Glyph for the intel, even if they had already been aware of the unfolding situation. He could have sworn he heard Javik mutter under his breath, "Useless machine."
"Looks like they're getting serious!" Cortez cried. Cavalry must have arrived.
"Oh yeah, Esteban? Then maybe start hitting something for a change."
"Biggest target I've seen around here is your mouth, Mr. Vega!"
They made it to the open area just behind Mako, who had jumped down to try and surround the mercs so all four sides were covered. Miranda, Javik, Liara and Jane went down to join the others while Garrus stayed up high, content with his perch to pick targets from.
He picked off one with a clean headshot. "Perfect vantage point with a sniper rifle. Doesn't get any better than this!"
Well, it would have if he hadn't had his evening plans ruined in the first place, but he would take what he could get. The small things.
"That's it, Eezo! Rip the fucker to shreds!" Garrus looked through his scope and spotted Eezo on top of one of the mercs, overpowering him. He had to give Jack credit. She had conditioned him with the perfect balance of domesticated pet that animal-enthusiasts would "oww and ahh" over while keeping him trained to tear someone's head off.
James let out a whoop on beat with the firing of his shotgun. "One big happy ass-kicking family! See that, Williams? That's how a legend does it!"
"Should I take a picture to commemorate it?" came Ash's reply.
"To frame in the shuttle bay for all to see, baby!"
It was clear the mercs were being outclassed, yet they still tried to keep up the pressure, bringing in some more heavies with fancy shields.
"They have a krogan! Why don't we have a krogan? Or a Prothean?" he heard one of them shout.
"Uncle Urdnot's here, princesses!" Wrex cried in reply. "And he brought the boom!"
He wouldn't have thought Wrex was one for slogans in the middle of a firefight. "That a catchphrase or something, Wrex?" Garrus asked.
"Thought I'd try it out, see what you thought!"
"Try again!" Tali said, beating Garrus to the punch.
Garrus looked through his scope again, taking aim at the shielded merc right through the mailslot, the one vulnerable part of the CAT6 heavies to target. His scope then picked up Jane swiping at a merc with her omni-blade, firing at the disoriented merc with the... silencer pistol. Wait, didn't she have the Predator in her hand when she jumped down? He scanned her armor and saw the Predator holstered at her side. Had the new pistol felt better to her than the Predator with the fancy new upgrade? He doubted it, considering how attached she got to her model of guns.
"All hostiles terminated," EDI announced after the gunfire died down. His cue to join the others.
A ladder lay ahead of them, as well as another door. Jane told Mako and Hammerhead to go up the ladder and travel on the rafters again while the five of them would head through the door, cover all possible routes. Jane sent Glyph off again ahead to search for more hostiles (and even better, search for Brooks).
What awaited them on the other side of the door were vaults pushed to the sides of the hallway, waiting for someone to indulge their curiosity and activate them.
"Can you imagine the history in this place?" Garrus asked aloud.
"If there wasn't a war on, I would have loved to just spend a day here, exploring and looking at all these records," Liara admitted, her inner scholar appearing that had been overshadowed (literally) by the toughened Shadow Broker.
"If you even could. They're pretty selective who they let in here," he replied. As he told them, even his fairly high C-Sec clearance wouldn't let him in
"Nothing that a forged order from the asari government couldn't handle."
Guess there was no harm if all Liara did to abuse her power as the Shadow Broker was to get her free reign to the Archives to indulge her scholarly curiosity.
"My people did not keep records like this. If such a thing as this Archives on the Citadel existed, it was long gone by the time I was born," Javik said, eyes glancing over at the image of a krogan charging at an asari and a salarian in a nearby vault.
"You had no other means of maintaining records?" Miranda asked.
"Few. For all our pride in our past and what our empire was, we were forced to pour all our resources towards the war with the Reapers. Our beacons came close to fulfilling a purpose of record preservation, but only Protheans can understand them. Little use to the species of this cycle."
"You still have the echo shard. That is something," Liara pointed out, trying to sound consoling, like a mother to a wailing child, though Javik was far from fitting such a profile.
Garrus wasn't sure what that was, but Javik understood, a look of contemplation growing on his face. "Yes."
Jane hadn't added anything to the conversation unfolding behind her, completely intent on staying on point. He sped up his steps so he ended up side by side with her.
"Everything ok?"
"Just great, Vakarian." Still she looked ahead, still she would not spare him a glance, still she sounded cold to him. Well, she did hit him in the jaw.
"I noticed you switched back to that silencer pistol. Liking the new toy?" he asked as if the fight between them never happened.
Jane's hand went to the Predator at her side, unholstering it. "Sounded like the old one was making a strange noise on the recoil." Least she was humoring him with his attempt at a conversation. "Decided not to chance it."
Garrus's browplates furrowed. "It was fine when I used it." And it hadn't been used since.
Gun in hand, Jane extended it out to him. "Wanna test it out for yourself?"
He did, actually, though he was going to refrain asking until they got back. Once they had gotten to the heart of her personality switches and made up.
He took the pistol, holstering it to his own side. "You didn't notice anything else about it?"
Despite their tension, he still wanted her to be happy with what he had gotten for her, repay her for the times she had gotten him surprise upgrades.
The shake of her head hurt him more than the punch to the jaw. How could the upgrade not be obvious? She had spotted the noise in the recoil quickly enough. The upgrade would have certainly changed how the pistol handled. Her inattentiveness should not have cut him so deep, but ashamed to say, it did.
He was spared from his thoughts becoming preoccupied with such festering wounds by two mercs positioned ahead. Jane fired her incineration blast at the one closest to them, the merc jumping up and down in an almost comical fashion trying to put out the flames. Jane and Garrus finished him off while Liara, Miranda and Javik took the other one. They then turned a corner, entering an open work area, vaults to the corners of the room, desks up against the walls, and mercs flooding in from every direction. Glyph was also in the room, whizzing around from merc to merc, stating that the term "floating butler" did not encompass all his primary functions.
"Team Hammerhead engaging hostiles!" Jacob said over the spurts of gunfire. They must have been on the catwalks again.
"Team Mako here," James said. "Showing Team Hammerhead how it's done."
"Hammerhead here. Showing? More like copying," Jacob replied, engaging in the back and forth.
In an unprecedented turn of events, instead of scolding the others for wasting such energy on talk, Javik joined in on the banter. "This is Team Prothean. I have a higher body count than all of you combined!"
Glyph was still darting to and from, evading the bullets, calmly asking the mercs why they insisted on fighting. "The Alliance offers a number of benefits and a generous retirement package," he continued.
"That drone's giving me a headache!" he heard one of the mercs loudly complain.
"He belongs to me!" Liara cried with a hint of pride.
"Keep it on a leash!"
"Glyph, keep talking! Lower their moral!"
"Attention, enemy soldiers: Your life expectancy is now 15 seconds and dropping. Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve…"
Glyph may not have been a combat drone, but he was doing well enough talking someone's ear off to the point of distraction, leaving it that much easier for them to go in for the final kill.
Garrus spied a CAT6 sniper hanging behind a wall, but at his vantage point, he'd have a clear shot. He decided to try out Jane's pistol, trusting he could switch between weapons quickly enough. He took aim and squeezed the trigger, the bullets flying through the air with the same precision as a sniper and striking their target. Perfectly functional.
Even as he narrowly avoided a strike on the head by a baton wielding merc and tossed a concussive round her way, the question whirled around in his head, adding another piece to this perplexing puzzle: Why the hell would Jane lie about that?
He wouldn't bother asking her, not now. He knew she'd just brush it off, like everything else. But damn it, why couldn't he decipher what it all meant?
Between all three of the teams, they made short work of this latest bunch of mercs. At least relatively short. When it was all said and done, Glyph hovered over to Jane.
"Commander, I overheard communications from the last enemy soldier. He sounded as if he was giving a progress report to Operative Brooks. Also, I discovered an elcor mating totem in vault 347B. Fascinating," Glyph reported, while adding their new historical fact for the day.
"She must not be too far," Miranda said, wiping away some merc blood that had gotten on her white outfit, though the faint stain was still there.
They continued making their push through the Archives, Garrus losing track of all the twists and turns they made (he liked to think he had a decent sense of direction). How could anyone working here keep track of where everything was?
"Hammerhead, we're headed to the next level. What's your status?" Jane called after they had gone down two more floors. No reply. "Hammerhead, do you copy?" Nothing but static.
"I'm guessing they got problems of their own," Garrus said.
"Or they have fallen into a trap," Javik interjected, ever the voice of comfort.
"Mako, I can't reach Hammerhead. What's your location?"
"We're…heavy…" Tali's voice broke in and out until the reception was just as silent as with Hammerhead.
"They're making a push. We got to get to them," Liara said. "Glyph, are you still around?" No answer from him either. He must have gone further ahead. They were flying blind.
They opened the door to another room of capsules, high above their heads. Nor Mako or Hammerhead could be seen on the walkways.
"They should have ended up right here. Where could they have disappeared to?" Miranda asked.
"They must have taken a wrong turn," Garrus said. "Easy enough to do in this place."
Jane frowned, trying to determine which way to go, whether to go through the door on the other end or up the catwalk. Then she suddenly motioned for them to get down, signaling over to their right, to some mercs that had just come from another door Garrus hadn't noticed upon their arrival.
"Should be able to take them," he murmured. They weren't heavies or snipers, just regular ground troops. Maybe an engineer among the bunch, but nothing they couldn't handle. They crept up behind them, darting from crate to crate to maintain cover, with Jane engaging her cloak. Between three biotics, overloads, and omni-blades, they didn't stand a chance.
"I wonder where they were coming from." Miranda wandered over the door, palm on the glowing green center. The door opened and from what Garrus could spot, there appeared to be monitors inside it.
"Looks like a security room. Might be able to figure out Brooks' location."
"And Mako and Hammerhead," Liara pointed out.
The frown reappeared on Jane's face. "Agreed, but we shouldn't linger. If this is a security room, they'll be sure to come by and check here."
"We'll just have to be quick, then." Miranda entered the room, Liara following right behind, Garrus, Javik and Jane bringing up the rear.
"I smell apprehension on you, Commander. More so than usual." Strange comment, but one that had Garrus's full attention.
"I feel like something else's going on here. This has been too easy. That's all it is," she replied in that tone that brokered no further argument. But they all knew it was a lie. That wasn't just all it was.
"Nor do I smell that sweet scent you coat your skin in," Javik continued, willing to take his chances. Glad it wasn't only Garrus who noticed that.
"This really isn't the time, Javik." Another deflection, another brush aside to excuse the out-of-the-ordinary, just like with him.
Javik did drop the issue, though he kept watching her, as if trying to unlock the mystery himself. Maybe they needed to compare notes.
"This doesn't look like the main hub, but it comes pretty close. Looks like it has got replay capability on the footage too."
Garrus swore he heard Jane's breathing catch at Miranda's words, but when he turned to her, her face was a blank slate.
It didn't take long between Liara and Miranda to spy the others on the cameras. Javik and Garrus approached the monitor where the firefight between the CAT6 mercs and the others was being televised. Strangely Jane was hanging back.
"Now we just need to find Brooks," Liara said, scrolling through the vid feeds.
Garrus's gaze drifted from screen to screen, assisting in the search so they could vacate the premise before more of the mercs' friends showed up. He tapped away at the console, shifting to and from feeds on two of the monitors, not spotting anything of use. Empty room, empty room, merc-filled room, empty room, merc-filled room, Ridgefield propped up against a desk with a woman beside him…
He quickly spun the footage back to the vid as his mind processed what he had just seen, zooming in on the two humans. A human with a clear C-Sec emblem that bore the same features as Ridgefield, whose eyes were shut and looked to have blood oozing from his side, while a woman beside him looked to be waving her omni-tool in an attempt to staunch the blood. He began to ask himself what Ridgefield was even doing there, but then it came back to him, Ridgefield mentioning he had patrol duty at the Archives that evening. The bastards must have ambushed him. And who was the woman? She didn't look like one of the mercs. Was she one of the people who worked there?
He was about to call out to the others what he saw, that he knew one of them, when Liara's shocked gasp caught his attention.
He asked her what was wrong. Instead of replying, she pointed up to the biggest of the monitors that took up a good portion of the top, the replay symbol flashing in the upper right-hand corner, showing a struggle between one of the mercs and a woman who was clearly not one of them either. The merc was on top of the woman, trying to pull the gun away she had in her hands, but she would not let go. The gun then fired, a clear shot to the head. The man appeared to have died instantly, toppling over her. The woman pried herself out from underneath the corpse, wiping away the blood from her face. It was then that Garrus took in her features. The casual Alliance uniform, the distinctive askew shoulder-length auburn hair. When she finally looked up at the camera, his mandibles flared as far as they could possibly go as he realized the identity of the woman before his eyes. Even with the blood on her face, the swelling in her cheeks, he knew.
It was Jane.
He slowly turned to look at the woman behind him, whose omni-tool had finished flashing. She stared back at him not with surprise but in defiance, as if daring him to ask about what he had just seen, as if she had something to hide, as if she weren't really…
It hit him. With such clarity, with such certainty, that same gut feeling he got during a case, the one he got when investigating Saren. This was it, the final piece, forming this absolutely insane, completely unbelievable picture, but it all added up. The truth had been staring at him, in plain sight, just as he suspected. But this had been the key to it all, unlocking the chest to the treasure trove within, a recording with a flashing time signature, a time in the evening when she should have been with them. But Jane hadn't.
She had never been.
"You're not Jane..." he breathed.
Time seemed to stand still as everyone froze in place, the implication sinking in with him and among the others (who likely put two and two together too before he even opened his mouth). Javik was the first one to make his stand, throwing biotic energy at the woman, the imposter posing as Jane. She quickly rolled out of the way, reaching for her silencer to fire three rounds at the four of them. They ducked, the bullets striking two of the monitors, rendering them useless. Not that they would be consulting them now, with the pretender sprinting out the door, in a move reminiscent of Brooks when Kasumi revealed her betrayal.
She could hear them nipping at her heels, clamoring after her in order to catch her before her tactical cloak fully recharged. Not that it mattered. With that visor of his, the turian would be able to keep her in sight. And that's what she intended.
She sprinted up the stairs to the catwalk, narrowly avoiding the biotic stasis the asari threw her way. She glanced down at her omni-tool. The cloak was now available for use. She activated it, if only to avoid biotics being thrown her way. She bolted left, hearing the turian cry out to follow in the same direction. She would lead them, on this song and dance, right into the vault Brooks had set up for them.
She hadn't envisioned this originally. She had planned to lure all four of them into a dark, isolated corner and pick them off one by one, but stumbling upon that damn security tape had forced her hand. When Lawson said the system had replay functionality, she knew it was only a matter of moments before they stumbled upon something incriminating. Brooks and her had agreed she'd keep tabs on her once her and Shepard's crew entered the Archives and stayed close by. A chanced to and from message via omni-tool not only confirmed Brooks had stuck to that plan, she had a capsule set up in seconds at her command. The same fate for Shepard. A fate she should have already suffered.
She supposed it was no surprise. The mercs she hired weren't the brightest in the bunch, but when she saw Shepard struggling with her own, hours after she had left the Archives, she knew there would be hell to pay for all those who let Shepard escape then failed to re-capture her and she would be the one to deliver it. At least one of those guilty had already paid a price.
She continued leading them through another work area, the cloak evaporating as it drained away. It wasn't much further now. She just needed to push a little harder, ignore the dull ache in her ribs just a little longer. She went through another door, this time able to lock it behind her, buy her precious seconds between her and them.
Brooks was waiting for her by the vault console. Once she darted through the capsule, Brooks set the timer on the barrier. They both made it over to the opening on the other side just as the others were coming up the rear. Though she couldn't see them, the shouts that followed made it clear their plan had worked. The situation with these four was now contained.
She turned to Brooks, asking if the log had been found. Brooks nodded. She quelled the excitement rising within her at the news.
Then the more important question: whether she knew that Shepard had escaped. Another nod from Brooks, peculiarly not betraying any emotion.
And the final: whether she knew if those idiots had finally been able to contain her as well.
The lack of a rebuke towards her was all the confirmation she needed.
A/N: I wasn't planning to end it where I did, but I felt like it flowed better breaking it here and putting the rest in another chapter. Stay tuned for the next installment and again, if anyone's interested in classical music, YouTube also has many versions of Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony to listen to.