In the end you will find out everything…
In the end you may question your belief…
In the end you will realize someday…
How you were deceived…
-Disturbed, Asylum
"Ugh, the stench is nearly unbearable …," Miranda Lawson said quietly, entering the first level of the holding cells. "I dread what we'll find down here."
"Not sure I want to know," replied Admiral Shepard, wrinkling her nose.
The floors reminded Hannah more of a prison block on Earth, than holding cells on a Cerberus station. Three levels stacked one on top of the other with stairs and pathways arranged neatly for patrols. Low hung lights swayed gently to and fro from the high ceiling, throwing eerie shadows on everything in the vicinity.
Hannah cast quick, furtive glances around, examining her surroundings and noting any sort of place that could easily hold an ambush waiting to happen. She clenched her Avenger tightly in her hands and was aware of Miranda skirting on the edges of her sight, checking each cell.
"Admiral…," Miranda croaked, her voice breaking as she spoke, pointing toward an iron-barred door. "They're dead… They're all dead…"
Hannah whirled around and clicked on her flashlight. Shining her light down the rows of cells, her eyes widened. There were bodies, mangled, disfigured, twisted bodies in each.
"This is no research facility," the Admiral whispered, knees trembling. "It's a tomb." If this had been any other place or any other mission, she wouldn't have been the least bit shaken from all this. "Oh Aurora, please don't be down here," she whispered to the ghosts still lingering.
"If I had known they were doing this sort of thing," Miranda said, voice quaking. All remaining color had drained from her pale face. "I would have left sooner."
"Surely you had to have had some idea…,"
Miranda shook her dark head, "I… Cerber-… We were trying to raise humanity above all this. Prove to the other races we had an equal place among them." She swore angrily, "It's no wonder they think of us as the lesser species… Always trying to destroy ourselves and others for what? Greed? Money? Power? Damnit!"
"That's not something we can think about at the moment," Hannah said frantically. "We need to search every body… Make sure Aurora's not here…"
Miranda inhaled deeply, nodding her agreement, "You're right. Let's find her and get the hell out of here."
The raven haired ex-Cerberus operative and the desperate and anxious Admiral spent the next 20 minutes combing every nook and cranny for the missing Commander. By the time Garrus Vakarian's voice came over their comms, they were even more distraught than before.
"Wrex? You guys find anything yet?" the turian asked, Hannah unable to read his subharmonics.
"No, well unless you count the incinerator down here," Wrex responded unenthusiastically.
"What kind of place is this?" Hannah heard Liara ask, dread haunting the asari's voice.
"Make your way to the third level of the labs," Garrus ordered irritably. "We just got done searching the first and moving to the second. Hannah? Miranda? Anything?"
Miranda was further down the cell block, still searching. Neither of them said anything at first and Garrus took note. "Admiral?" he asked again.
"Yeah… There's bodies down here… in cells," Hannah finally replied. "Some of them looked to be changed halfway between normal and something grotesque…"
"Are any of them-" the turian was unable to finish his question. Hannah knew how he felt, however. Though her daughter was not among these poor bastards, it still left a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach to think that Aurora could have been anywhere near here.
"No…" she said as reassuringly as possible.
No sooner had Garrus let out a sigh of relief over the comms, did Miranda say, "Hang on a second. There's something down here…"
Hannah took off at a sprint to catch up with her. Miranda stood in front of one of the cells, her finger pointed downwards, shaking.
There's a human in this cell…" Hannah said quietly, her eyes widening at the sight.
"And a turian in the next one. Both female… And both alive… though... just barely…," whispered Miranda, and quickly added, "But not Shepard."
Admiral Shepard heard a pause in Garrus' voice, as if he were attempting to regain his composure, but he quickly recovered and said, "Alright, I want you to take both of them back to the Kodiak, get them on board the Normandy and to Dr. Chakwas. Cortez?"
"Yeah?"
"Hail Chakwas and let her know she's got two patients incoming, in dire need of medical assistance," Garrus instructed.
"On it,"
Both Hannah and Miranda switched off their earpieces when Garrus finished his orders, Hannah still too shocked at the sight that lay before her.
The human female was badly wounded. Severe third degree burns covered a large majority of her left side; some were crudely healed. Various other slashes, cuts, bruises and welts covered the rest of her. Her head had been shaved, for what reason, Hannah wasn't sure, nor did she really want to know. She was clad in a ripped and tattered sleeveless shirt that had just as many holes in it as she did, and from beneath what little clothing the woman wore, Hannah noticed a series of black tattoos running from the base of her skull, all the way down her spine. Scars also ran over the markings as if the tattoos were guidelines to some horrific surgeries.
"Jack…," muttered Miranda.
"Excuse me?" Hannah said, confusion ripping through her.
"Sorry… Am I safe to assume you read up the reports from the Collector base?"
"Yes… Why?"
"Jack… Subject Zero… has similar markings… also a Cerberus test subject," Miranda said, shifting her weight and looking particularly uncomfortable. Hannah nodded her understanding, "Ohh."
Miranda bent low to look at the lock on the door. Unfortunately it was archaic and couldn't be hacked, though Hannah didn't need an omni-tool. Pulling her sidearm from its holster, she aimed it at the door and fired, the lock falling away with ease, and clattering loudly to the ground.
The Admiral entered the cell, kneeling beside the woman on the cold concrete floor. Upon closer examination, Hannah discovered, with a stark realization, that the prisoner was bound hand and foot with thick rope and her eyes were swollen shut. Placing a hand gently on her unburned shoulder, Hannah said in total disbelief and sadness, "My God, what have they done to you?"
Almost as if on cue, the woman began thrashing wildly against her bonds, tearing away from Hannah's touch, her mouth opened in a silent scream.
"It's a wonder she's still alive," came a voice from the next cell. The female turian sat up, slowly, painfully, her back against the wall. Miranda stood up, and blasted the turian's lock away with her own pistol.
"Any idea who she is?" asked Miranda. "Or what sort of shit Cerberus was trying to pull here? Or why-?" She hesitated, "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?"
The female turian snorted darkly, but the laughter turned into coughing fit, and when she was finally able to speak again, her voice had gone raspy, "The name's Tanaquil… I think…"
Her head drooped shamefully, and she slammed the floor with her fist, "Though… I've forgotten my clan name… There's not much I'm remembering these days..."
"What would they want with a turian?" Miranda questioned. Tanaquil shook her head, "I don't know, but get me the hell out of here and I'll tell you everything I can."
Hannah nodded, and Miranda put Tanaquil's arm around her own neck, and hauled the turian to her feet. The woman in front of Hannah had finally stopped writhing, seemingly having passed out, unconscious. The admiral heaved her over her shoulder. Carrying her wouldn't be too much of a hassle, she was barely skin and bones and compared to a fully armored male, she weighed next to nothing.
"Shepard?" Garrus whispered breathlessly. The mechs continued to fire rounds in her direction. Somehow, some way, she was donning a full armor set and her shields were thrown up for good measure.
Garrus found his voice and shouted, "Shepard!"
She ducked behind her cover once more and reloaded as the mechs spotted the newcomers and fired their way. Shepard shot a wild eyed and half crazed look in Garrus' direction.
"About time you fucking get here Vakarian," she spat. The tone of her voice immediately sent Garrus into a spiral of confusion. No friendly banter, no sound of relief or even a warm and welcoming smile. Though it could have been the heat of battle and the adrenaline pumping through her that had caused her to warrant such a response.
"Get these bastards off of me!" she screamed.
Liara responded with a large singularity that enveloped the majority of the mech robots, suspending them midair as Tali sent Chikita down the length of the room. Garrus laid down some cover fire with his Widow, taking off at least three heads before the small combat drone reached the enemies. Chikita entered Liara's singularity and exploded with an energy force unlike any Garrus had ever seen. The singularity flickered and died as all the mechs dropped to the floor, unmoving. He looked down at Tali, Widow still in hand. The quarian shrugged, "I upgraded."
Garrus rushed to Shepard's side and knelt down beside her. He checked her over for any injuries as she complained that she was fine and unharmed. Satisfied that she was all in one piece, he placed his hand gently around the back of her neck and leaned his forehead against hers.
"I- I thought I'd lost you," he sighed. "Don't ever do that again."
He then made an attempt to kiss her, but she pulled away from him violently and jumped to her feet.
"What the hell do you think you're doing," she breathed, her voice full of… was that hate? Garrus stood as well, distress and bewilderment gripping him. Shepard glared at him with disdain and revulsion, eyes bigger than saucers. It was the look usually only saved for people or situations that disgusted her beyond comprehension, and yet she was giving it to him.
"I- we…," Garrus stammered, at a loss for words. He glanced over his shoulder at Liara and Tali, who were both just as baffled by this as he was.
Shepard wrinkled her nose and eyed him suspiciously once more, before turning on heel and heading back the way they came. Brushing past Liara and Tali, she said, "Let's just get out of this damn place."
As Garrus tapped his earpiece to hail Cortez, he felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach and shatter, the world around him breaking away. No Shepard without Vakarian was beginning to look like a lie.
Cyrus Shepard watched every monitor from his small office at the peak of Hyperion Station. He watched as the infiltration team hacked the loading bay doors. He watched as they divided into three small groups. He saw the krogan and the prothean searching the infirmary to no avail. He witnessed his estranged wife and Henry Lawson's daughter locate the two prisoners in their holding cells and extract them. He scrutinized the monitor in which the turian primarch, the quarian and the asari discovered the commander they so desperately craved to see returned to them.
This whole plan had not gone as he had anticipated, and it left an unsettling taste in his mouth.
"This isn't like anything we had discussed," he said into the darkness. A disembodied voice replied soothingly, "This is exactly what we wanted."
Cyrus Shepard thought the tinny voice sounded anything but reassuring.
"Our pawn is in place. Once this unfolds, you and your daughter will share a place amongst us... amongst the stars."
"And you promise she won't come to any harm?" he asked the voice.
It chuckled ominously, "Of course."
Cyrus felt the presence leave him, and he was left alone, stirring anxiously in the blackness, with only his thoughts to appease his doubts.
Updated 6/7/14