I'll follow you down through the eye of the storm…
As they plunged further and deeper into Omega's darkness, it soon became apparent to Garrus, Liara and Admiral Shepard, this would be a very difficult and arduous task. They searched every long corridor, every abandoned apartment and every hole and sewer grate, leaving no stone unturned. Garrus ticked off each section on his omni-tool as they progressed.
The only sound to be heard was their boots against the cement and their own labored breathing. Everything else was silent, and it was unnerving.
They were currently searching a small, derelict warehouse, but to no avail. The single floor building was nearly empty, save for a few old filing cabinets and a broken computer. Rummaging through the last of the cabinets, Hannah Shepard wrinkled her nose in disgust, "This place stinks of death."
Liara nodded her head in agreement, "It does. But where are all the bodies?"
"Vakarian, there's nothing here. I think we should move on," said Admiral Shepard, slamming a metallic drawer shut with a clang. Garrus was quickly becoming frustrated. Generally, his instincts were dead-on, but he was unsure what to make of this situation. They had been searching for the last three hours, and there was no sign of Cerberus ever being here, or Shepard for that matter. He didn't reply to the Admiral, instead he walked out onto the dark street and pressed his ear piece.
"Wrex, anything?" he asked quietly.
"Not a damn thing," replied the krogan, his voice echoing Garrus' own discouraged thoughts.
"How far from the clinic are you?" Garrus said. He heard Liara and the Admiral move from the building behind him, and watched their flashlight beams as they crossed the street to enter another office building.
"It's just a few blocks over. Think we should skip the rest of these buildings and just meet at the clinic?" Wrex suggested. Garrus considered it, but knowing their luck, they would stop searching and bypass an important clue in the next building.
"No… keep looking. We're bound to find something,"
"Got it. Wrex out," the krogan said, disgruntled.
Garrus followed his small team into the next structure. Upon entering, the Admiral informed Garrus that Liara had taken to the basement. He nodded his understanding and began searching an empty desk, occasionally coming across a broken datapad.
After several minutes of silence, Hannah Shepard ceased hunting. Wiping her brow with the back of her hand, she shined her flashlight at Garrus, saying, "What attracted you to my daughter?"
Garrus paused, taken aback by the abruptness of the question.
A dumbfounded "What?" was all he was able to say in response.
An uncomfortable Admiral shifted her weight to one foot, rubbed her eyes with one hand, while the other went to her hip. Damn, they look so much alike.
"Sorry… What I meant to say was… I would never have imagined she would have followed in my footsteps… Hell I wouldn't have imagined her to fall for a turian…," the Admiral said sheepishly, holstering her Avenger.
Garrus rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, waiting with baited breath to see where this conversation was headed.
"Growing up, she was always so gentle… She never liked to get her hands dirty. And she always wanted to play dress up," Hannah laughed. Garrus saw her eyes, wet with tears and, a deep sadness overtook her as she continued. "But I never had the time… Being a single mother in the Alliance… well… it hasn't been easy… I've missed out on a good portion of Aurora's life…
"One night I came back home from a mission. Aurora must have been 15 at the time. She was in our tiny room, playing games with some of the other military kids on the ship we were stationed on… I came home, distraught enough for her to notice. I had just lost a dear friend of mine and the mission was a failure… I won't bore you with the details… but she told the other kids to leave immediately, and came to sit next to me on the bed… All she said was, 'Everything will be alright. I'll make it better, when I join the Alliance.'
"It was the first and the last time she mentioned joining the military, until she turned 18. The day she left for boot camp, I cried as if I never cried before. Just before she left, she told me, 'I'm doing this for you, Mom… So one day, you don't have to.'
"I guess I'm just trying to understand my daughter better because who I thought she was as a child, that small, delicate flower, is nothing like who she turned out to be," she said, swiftly wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "She blossomed into a hero, and I don't even remember it happening..."
Garrus folded his Widow and replaced it on his back. Choosing his words deliberately, he said, "You must understand… I looked up to Aurora, not only as my commanding officer, but also as a mentor and as a friend first, before we ever became involved… Every member of her crew respects her, and she'll go to great lengths to honor that admiration… even when she doesn't have to…"
He turned away from the Admiral, not daring to look her in the eye, and prayed once more to his spirits that Aurora was not lost to him. Running a hand over his fringe, he continued, his subvocals breaking, "She see's past the bullshit, past the species, and language barriers, and… and the scars… and tries to see the good in people… damn…" His words trailed off into the darkness, leaving only silence between them.
After several moments of neither Garrus nor Hannah saying anything, Liara's voice broke through the eeriness, and into their comms, "Garrus, you need to get down here. Now."
He whipped around and eyed the Admiral, a quiet understanding passing between them.
Sprinting down the broken and ruined staircase that led to the basement, Garrus hoped to whatever higher power was listening that Liara had found Aurora. Hannah followed swiftly behind him.
The sublevel was just as black as the upper streets, and the smell down here was horrific. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Garrus swung his flashlight from left to right, searching for the asari.
"Liara? Where are you?" he hissed, bringing an arm to cover his nose.
"Over here," she whispered, clicking on her light.
"Did you find her?" asked Hannah, desperation lingering in her voice.
Liara shook head, and pointed through a doorway.
Garrus shined his light into the space beyond, revealing a heap of adjutants. He drew a sharp intake of breath as his skin went cold and his heartbeat quickened.
"I thought Aria said-" he started.
"She did, but these are dead," answered Liara.
Hannah approached the bodies and nudged a limp head with her boot. It slumped to the side, blue tongue lolling out, and fluids seeping from ruined tubes onto the floor. This was unquestionably where the stench was coming from.
In the light of their small torches, the Admiral's face turned several different shades before it finally settled on a pale grey.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," she gagged. Covering her mouth with her hand, she bolted back up the stairs, disappearing from view.
"Why would there be a pile of adjutant bodies down here?" Liara said, looking to Garrus. The turian shrugged in defeat. More questions to be answered, and they were getting nowhere fast.
"I don't know, but I think we need to get to the clinic ASAP. Head back upstairs, make sure the Admiral is alright… I'll radio the others and have them meet us over there immediately."
As Liara headed back to the main level, Garrus examined the bodies for a final time. These adjutants couldn't be any more than a week dead. The stench was too fresh and rigor mortis had long since passed. Decay had barely set in and the abnormal colors of the reaper creatures were beginning to change.
Shepard, I better not find you like this. Shaking the disturbing thoughts from his mind, Garrus tapped his earpiece to hail Wrex.
"Did you find something?" came the krogan's voice. "Because we still can't find a damn thing in this place. Anything would be better than nothing at this point."
"Bodies. We found adjutant bodies stashed in a basement... of an office building no less,"
Wrex whistled low, "Anyone in particular among them?"
Garrus hadn't considered what may have transpired if they had found Shepard's body among the decaying reapers. He let out a low sigh, as he left the sub-level and followed Liara's path back up the stairs, "No, thank the Spirits. We're headed toward the clinic now. Meet us there."
"Yup. See you soon. Wrex out."
Once topside and on the street, Hannah Shepard stood from a crouched position when she spotted Garrus, wiping her mouth with the back of her gloved hand.
"Sorry about that. The stench was unbearable," she said. "I can't believe they've been down there that long."
Garrus' face plates twitched, as he said, "They weren't. Those adjutants have only been dead for about a week."
Disbelief overtook the Admiral's and Liara's faces.
"Are you sure?" said Liara incredulously.
"If that's the case… something isn't adding up," Hannah stated slowly.
Garrus nodded in understanding, "Agreed. That's why we're going straight to the clinic now, to meet up with the others, and to see if we can find anything else. This whole place makes me uneasy. We need to finish up and get the hell out of here."
Bringing up the navigation software on his visor, Garrus motioned for Liara and Hannah to follow him. As they fell into step behind him, Garrus set a steady and swift pace for them.
The short trek to the medical facility felt as if it took ages rather than ten minutes. And the whole journey, Garrus felt as if someone… or something was watching them from the darkest shadows.
Updated 6/7/14