Shepard didn't tell anyone. She didn't know why, but she just couldn't bring herself to.
For the next few days she prepared as much as she could. She had a gut feeling that they would take their sweet time coming after her for whatever reason, but during that time, Shepard wouldn't just sit around waiting for them.
A switch inside of her seemed to have been flipped because before she even realized it, the gears in her head were already turning and her body was moving on its own (as best as it could anyway)...she never imagined herself to even be able to think about holding another weapon.
But...well...the soldier inside of her was not going to be put to sleep that easily. She was tenacious and vicious.
Her weapons were dragged out of hiding, the house was rigged with trips and lasers, the already heavy security of her general area was beefed up and had added layers of protection (courtesy of herself). Barriers disguised as floor tiles were in every corner of her house, the windows were reinforced, ammo packs and extra weapons were available in hidden slots in the walls or floor that would spring open with her fingerprint and chip identification.
Most of the things had already been put into place by the Salarians before she had moved in for whatever reason. The only things she added were the trips and lasers.
Although, doing that alone in itself was like hell. Bending over in her chair caused extreme vertigo making her feel nauseated and then top of all of that, the only arm she could move was her right arm. But somehow she had gotten it done and was quite proud of work actually, it had turned out better than she could have anticipated.
Shepard went on a final round inside of the house checking everything to make sure it all worked and fit together perfectly.
Flawless.
The veteran commander stopped her chair in front of the entrance of the house, "Now all I have to do is wait." she breathed and absently clutched her left arm with her right. The day had faded fast and it was already dark out. The lights in her home had flickered on illuminating everything inside, there were no shadows. The lights were too bright.
Shepard eyed the SMG pistol strapped to her thigh. Again, she thought to herself.
-.-.-.
"Have you heard Vega?" Joker gingerly took a seat next to the haggard lieutenant. It was a rare visit from the pilot but not unwanted. He usually had a lot of news from the outside world to talk about with James.
"About what?" James asked absently as he tried to reconfigure a code in his omni-tool. All of his contacts had been screwed up somehow and he was in the midst of fixing it. Better this than ripping his hair out over yet, another dead end in his search for 'Shepard'. It felt like he had been getting close too...and just as he had been worming his way into a Salarian database of all the refugees currently in London, he had been shut down by a Salarian ambassador and tech specialist.
He didn't know how the trail of clues had led up to the Salarians (long story with a lot of migraines and almost-sobbing on James' part) but it did and well...there was nothing he could do right now. It was probably nothing though, James thought as he tweaked another code in his omni-tool. Why would a search for Lola end up going through a Salarian database? After much thought, he had sent in paperwork and a request to the 'top brass' in the Alliance requesting permission to look into the Salarian database of refugees. It was probably nothing...but he had to be thorough.
James was informed that it would take at least a week for processing and then another week for approval. Two weeks. At the least.
When he heard that, he almost laughed and cried at the same time. Fuck politics. Fuck intergalactic peace. Fuck alien courtesy.
He just wanted to do his job, not go through all of this red tape.
"There's an evil cult group in existence right now that formed after the destruction of the reapers." Joker said and looked intently at James for some reason.
"Still better than reapers." James muttered a reply not understanding why something as trivial as this was being brought up into conversation. It was just a cult, there were tons of cults out there.
"I mean...it's a cult that formed because they're trying to bring back the reapers." Joker explained a bit more, "Also...they kind of hate the commander for stopping the end of the galaxy." he added the last bit in lightly, "Apparently they're searching for this 'Shepard' too." he held up his hands to make air quotes.
James stopped fiddling with his omni-tool and looked at Joker, "You're being serious aren't you?" he didn't even have to ask but he did anyway.
Joker rolled his eyes and adjusted his cap, "Oh yeah, I would totally lie about something like this." he muttered to himself sarcastically and then looked at James, "Of course I'm being serious."
"But I mean...come on." James laughed, "Bring back the reapers? That's impossible now." he shook his head but an unsettling feeling was starting to creep into his gut, something about this was a little eerie, "And search for Shepard? Why?"
The pilot shrugged his shoulders gingerly, "Like I would know." he replied, "The Alliance is running wild trying to catch the cultists though."
"Why?" James' brows wrinkled and he looked at Joker in confusion.
Joker looked down at his hands suddenly and then he looked at James with a seriousness that was not characteristic of the pilot, "Because they've been doing human sacrifices."
A chill ran through James. It immediately reminded him of what Shepard had told him about the human reaper she had seen.
"How do you know all of this?" James suddenly asked. He hadn't heard a word about this from the conferences and debriefing meetings he had attended...albeit...the last one he had attended was a week ago when he had asked for permission to search through the Salarian database.
"There are vids that the cult leader posted up on the extranet." Joker said, "Can you believe the guy?" he tried to lighten the atmosphere, "The moron is telling the world what his evil plans are. They even have an official site...I don't know why the Alliance is leaving it up there for everyone to see though..."
"Send me the links to those vids." James told the pilot ignoring the attempt at humor. This had to be connected with 'Shepard'. Somehow this was all connected.
But of course...
This was Lola he was talking about. All he had to look was where it was noisiest and she would invariably be at the center of it all.
Joker sighed, "I think I just started something." he muttered to himself as he scrolled through his own omni-tool, "I don't know what, but I'm sure it's something."
"You're a genius Joker." James replied as he searched the extranet, "What's the name of the cult?" he asked. He was feeling good about this now, for once in a long time, he felt like there was a sure lead. A path to finding Shepard...if it really was her that is...He couldn't forget.
This might not even be Shepard.
Joker frowned but didn't say anything, "It's really...early 20th century." there was note of extreme disapproval in his voice, "Whoever made the name has poor taste."
James sighed, "Never mind that, just tell me the name." he impatiently glared at the pilot.
There was a loud sigh, "Fineee." muttered, "They call themselves, The New World Order." he sulked, "Even I could have picked a better name." mumbled.
James snorted, "Big dreams for a bunch of crazy shits." he typed the name into the search engine.
"I still wouldn't laugh about it though." Joker cleared his throat, "This cult actually has a lot of members."
There was a little blip, a sign that Joker's message had gone through. James opened the message and tapped the link and roamed the site when it loaded and went straight to the link that said 'videos'. Seriously...it was so official.
Ignoring the comment, James tapped a video to play it. It was the most recent one that had been uploaded, just a few hours ago actually. Why was this site still up? How come there was nothing being done about this?
A rectangle displayed itself in the air.
"Oh they have a new video up." Joker shut down his omni-tool and scooted closer to James to get a better look.
There was muffled sound in the background of the video but the screen was still blacked out. James looked at Joker when the screen didn't clear up.
"They usually keep the screen blacked out." Joker explained, "They don't show anything, they just talk."
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen." a robotic voice, warped and low sounded clearly from the video. Anyone could tell that the person was using a voice scrambler. Primitive. Effective.
"Why is he talking like a damn show host?" James couldn't hold back from commenting.
Joker sighed, "It's like you're not a soldier at all." the pilot shook his head, "Just keep listening." the disappointment on his face didn't bother James. He was used to it by now.
"It has been a while since our last talk." the voice continued on robotically, "As stated in our previous videos, the work to revive the reapers is growing to completion. We now only need the final piece." there were a few screams followed by sobbing that could be faintly heard in the background, "The final piece will be retrieved in 2 days time."
There was a pause and Joker and James exchanged glances. What piece? Had their progress already been that quick? Impossible. This was like a slap in the face.
"Many wonder why we broadcast everything." there was another pause before the voice continued, "It is because there is nothing that can stop us right now." there was no laugh, no gloating or overconfidence. The voice just stated cold hard facts, "And surely everyone wants to know what is going on?"
"How the hell did this happen?" James couldn't help but to lash out at Joker, "What is the Alliance doing right now? What is everyone doing?!" his voice tipped over to a roar that left his throat feeling raw.
"Woah woah woah." Joker held up both of his hands in the air as if surrendering, "Don't look at me." he looked visibly panicked and pale.
James stood up and started to pace, "Two days." he muttered trying to wrack his head, "Final piece." A panic was starting to work its way out and he could feel his breathing accelerate. But he knew nothing right now. Absolutely nothing. He had only just been informed of this cult when they had apparently been active for more than a few weeks. What was he going to do? What was he going to do? What was he going to do? His heartbeat was starting pick up its pace and a cold sweat began to seep through his skin.
"The final piece." the voice repeated once again going back to the original topic at hand. James froze and looked at his omni-tool, he had almost forgotten that the video was still playing.
"And I'm sure everyone wants to know who the final piece is." the smile was evident in the voice, "I won't reveal who it is. Although, I'm sure it is obvious to the inner circle of friends." the voice emphasized, "You are welcome to try and stop us."
"It's Shepard." James whispered, his eyes were glazed over and he looked at Joker, "The final piece they're talking about is Shepard."
Joker frowned, "And what makes you so sure? I mean, come on, are you sure you're not making some assumptions here?"
"Come on Joker!" James sighed, "How is it not obvious? You even told me yourself that they're searching for Shepard. Why else would they be looking for her?"
"Two days everyone." the voice said once more, "I will be back in two days."
The video cut out and the sound stopped leaving the room silent. The rectangle display box closed and his omni-tool automatically shut off.
"They can't know where she is." James looked at Joker, "There's no way right?"
Joker looked down and sighed, "Like I said lieutenant, they have some really smart people on their side." his voice was soft.
"You're fucking kidding me!" James raged and placed both of his hands on the table trying to calm himself, "Joker do whatever you have to do to get in contact with Kasumi." he straightened up, "I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner." he muttered hatefully to himself.
What had he been doing? Wallowing in his pain and emotions...all he had done was waste time he didn't know was so important.
"Yessir." Joker did a mock salute and hobbled out of the studio apartment. Oh, he was shocked alright but there was no time to freak out. He had a job to do and he would do it.
James watched Joker disappear behind the doors and then sighed to himself, "Alright." he took a deep breath and reopened his omni-tool exiting the site. There was no time to wait for permission from the top. He typed in a few codes which guided him to the Salarian database. It was do or die now. He knew he wasn't remotely anywhere as tech-y as Scars or even Esteban but there wasn't much of a choice right now. He tapped a link and then pulled up another black box beside it.
It had all started when he had noticed a group of Salarians bringing in a bunch of equipment to a certain building not too far from where he was actually. Of course, he had never gone there but it had been documented in a separate report of 'suspicious/abnormal' activity. When thought about it properly, it wasn't weird for Salarians to import large amounts of equipment...to be precise, there had actually been nothing abnormal about the report.
In fact, it had only been chance that James stumbled on something that caught his interest. He hadn't even expected anything to come from going through the hundreds of reports.
Literally it was serendipity...but it didn't mean it would lead to Lola...still...there was nothing else to go on from,, so why not?
James looked at the time. 19:34. It was going to be a long night.
**Author's note
This chapter might be a literal mess. For now I'll post it up but later on I'll probably revise and repost. There also might be kinks in the plot but I'll probably end up revising the whole story later on as well just to make things smoother.
At the moment I just want to focus on finishing the story.
Thanks for reading guys :)
And I really appreciate the reviews as well 3