***Author's Note***
Thank you to Gamer072196, for their tireless support in this story :)
WARNINGS! Violence and adult things ahead...maybe you should skip to the end if you don't fancy any of that, hmm?
Enjoy and stuff :)
Chapter 26 - Arrival
He checked and rechecked his weapons as Garrus piloted the shuttle to the coordinates Hackett had given him. He knew his weapons were perfect thanks to Jacob's insistent and obsessive need to make the weapons all they could be. And even Garrus had modded his shotgun for him himself. He checked and rechecked his weapons to avoid looking at his turian.
After pulling rank on Garrus, albeit jokingly...kinda, the turian had avoided Shepard. And he wasn't ashamed to admit that it hurt.
"ETA five minutes, Commander." He called from the cockpit.
Shepard took a deep breath and swallowed his pride. "Garrus." The pleading lilt in his voice made Garrus tilt his head and turn to Shepard, worry clear in his eyes. "I have to do this."
Those worried eyes narrowed dangerously. "No you fucking don't, Elliot. It was a request! And you're too good-natured to say 'no'. You should have demanded that you take a team." His eyes were back watching where he was going.
"But...they might kill her."
"She could already be dead, Shepard! What if this is all a setup to get hold of you?"
"Hackett wouldn't set me up, Garrus." He quickly came to the defence of the Admiral.
The shuttle came to a stop and Garrus turned in his seat, looking up at Shepard with his mandibles drawn tight to his face.
"I'll be back before you know it, man."
"Hmph." Was all he said before Shepard climbed out of the shuttle and watched it fly back out to the Normandy.
"Okay. I'll sort that out when I get back." Another deep breath and the calming click of his shotgun coming away from its mag-strip. "Let's do this, guys." No answer and he looked around with a cocked brow. "Oh. Yeah." He chuckled lightly to himself before beginning.
He cut the power to the exterior doors and dove inside, pressing himself against the wall and breathing through his nose. I am invisible. He lamented on the white on his armour and sighed. I'm gonna be seen.
He ran through the stone tunnels and was promptly pounced upon by the largest Varren he had ever seen. "Holy shi-" He battered the butt of his shotgun against the nose of the beast as it tried to make short work of his armour, scratching and denting it with its razor-sharp canines. After the head of the Varren caved under the force of his hits he took a heaving breath, gagging at the smell of the brain matter now scattered around him. "Fucking Varren. The batarians must send their prisoners down here to die." He wiped his brow and sighed. "I have to find Doctor Kenson now."
He found stairs leading up and followed the corridor at the top of them. "This place is run down...even for a prison." The growling of Varren distracted him from the red lasers that block of a section of the corridor. Fuck sake...He quickly disposed of the threat and moved deeper into the maze of crumbling walls and old cells.
"Bring the human in for questioning." He overheard a growling voice.
"Get your hands off me!" That must be Dr. Kenson. Need to hurry. After another maze of stony passages and walls of fire he made it into a place that seemed somewhat lived in.
"They wanted to slam an asteroid into the mass relay."
"Can they even do that?"
"What difference does it make? We caught 'em."
He ran through the building, avoiding the areas where he thought the voices was coming from. And then he was outside.
The rain was getting more annoying by the second as he ducked through buildings and hid in shadows. He picked his moments to move and decided to only use his gun if he absolutely had too. That's the point in being stealthy, he thought.
He cut the power supply to some alarmed lasers and took his chance jumping up and dashing across the walkway, ducking down behind a dustbin once he reached the other side. The rain made its way down the back of his armour and chilled his neck.
Pfft, Kasumi and Thane don't got shit on me. He smiled to himself and made his way inside.
He watched the pincer filled with electrical energy descend over doctor Kenson's head. He carefully made his way to the batarian questioning her and swiftly knocked him out cold.
"Who are you? What are you doing?"
"Doctor Kenson? I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out." He began to hack into the device holding her.
"Commander Shepard? I heard you were alive. Hackett must have received my message."
He barely nodded as he finished his hacking program. "We're not safe here. Can you walk?"
She stumbled out of the device and took a moment to collect herself. Shutting her eyes for a moment and shaking her greying hair away from her face. "I'm fine. Just give me a moment..."
"We have to go. Now." He gripped her arm, ready to move her forcefully if need be.
"If we find a console, I can hack security...make us an escape path." She shrugged out of his grasp and picked up a pistol from the unconscious batarian. Alarms began to ring.
"Then we'll find one. Go!"
He winced when she casually brought her foot down on the batarian's neck who had just began to regain conciousness.
"Ready."
Shepard groaned when the last batarian fell. His shoulder ached and he was pretty sure his nose was broken if the burning pain and metallic taste was anything to go by. His leg screamed with the pressure he put onto it. Looking down he saw blood seeping through his armour. Damn it. A swift application of Medi-gel gave him some reprieve.
He moved from behind his cover once Doctor Kenson announced she was succesful with hacking them a way out.
A bridge before them opened up and they crossed it quickly, tapping the terminal as they did so. The elevator rose upwards at an excruciatingly slow pace. Does every elevator in the galaxy move this slow!?
"Oh, one last thing: The hangar doors are hard-locked. We'll have to get those open the old-fashioned way."
"Leave that to me." He said with his usual cockiness and a sideways grin.
She nodded at his enthusiasm and fell in behind him, ready to fire her pistol at the first sign of an enemy.
There was a lot of cover and Shepard used it to his advantage. He did not like the idea of opening up his leg wound and shoulder again.
Enemies fell one by one and as the last one fell he turned his attentions to blasting the doors open. Be back home soon. He smiled to himself at the thought of Chakwas chiding him over his damaged state and Garrus shaking his head in relief and annoyance.
Together, he and Doctor Kenson entered the shuttle and primed it as enemies attempted to sneak up on them. He felt giddy when the boosters kicked in and the shuttle hovered precariously. He turned it with gentle touches to the controls and tilted the back-end down. He grinned wickedly when he hit the forward thruster and the fire from the booster ignited the ground and the enemies behind them. He cheered when the shuttle saw the open sky. Home free.
He locked onto the Normandy's location and Doctor Kenson nodded. "Engaging autopilot. We should be well out of range before they get their security measure unscrambled."
Shepard leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head. "Do you think they'll come after you?"
"I'm not taking any chances. Batarian's don't take kindly to humans who plan to destroy their mass relays."
That made him sit straight. "So...the charges against you are true?"
She shrugged and held her hand to her face. "Well. To be fair, that's about half the story. My people and I were here investigating rumours of Reaper technology out in the fringes of this system."
"I guess you found something."
"We found proof that the Reapers will be arriving in this system. When they get here, they'll use its mass relay to travel throughout the galaxy. We call it the 'Alpha Relay.' From here, the Reapers can invade anywhere in the galaxy."
Shepard sighed and frowned at her back as she turned from him. "So you decided to destroy it."
"Exactly. doing that would stop the Reapers' invasion. Even at FTL speeds, it'd be months or years before they got to the next relay. We came up with what we just called 'the Project': a plan to launch a nearby asteroid into the relay and destroy it before the Reapers could arrive." She turned to face him then and shrugged once more. "Of course, the resulting explosion would probably wipe out the system."
Shepard thought to himself. Destroying the relay would make an explosion like a supernova, so many batarian's could die. How does she even know all this? "I still don't see how you learned about this supposed invasion."
"The evidence came from what we call Object Rho, a Reaper artifact we discovered among the asteroids near the relay itself. when we get back to Arcturus Station, I'll explain everything and provide copies of all our notes on the artifact."
Arcturus station? He glanced at his coordinates, they were still locked onto the Normandy. "The stakes are too high. If you were willing to destroy a whole system over this, I want to see your proof."
"I guess I can't argue with that. Give me a moment." She moved away from him and accessed her comm systems. "Kenson to Project base."
"Good to hear your voice, Doctor. You coming home?"
"Affirmative. And I've got Commander Shepard with me."
"Shepard? Really?"
"Tidy up the lab. The Commander needs to confirm the artifact."
"Right. I'll get everything set up for your arrival. Project base out."
She quickly typed in new coordinates into the shuttle and moved back to sit opposite him. "All set. Just sit back and relax. We'll be there in no time."
The asteroid they were coming in to land on had a small section of it glistening with the human habitation on it. Electric lights formed a small spiderweb overs its surface that got bigger and bigger the nearer they got.
They came to a docking point and Shepard carefully guided in the shuttle to the docking number they had been sent over the comm. They climbed out, Kenson immediately looking like she belonged there. A slight tension in her shoulders had evaporated and a small smile was set on her lips.
"Here we are. Welcome to Project base."
He looked around and spotted a large timer being projected onto the wall above a set of blast doors. "What's this?"
"That's our countdown to Arrival. When that gets to zero...the Reapers will have come." Shepard sucked in a hissing breath. Two days, three hours, and twenty-five minutes? "Just over two days and counting. Puts things into perspective, doesn't it?"
"You're saying the Reapers could be at Earth in two days? There's no time to waste!"
"Then lets' show you that proof. That doors exits the hangar. The artifact is in our central lab area."
They made their way through the station and Shepard listened carefully as Kenson explained the various aspects of their project. Eventually they came to a door that Kenson worked at typing in codes to.
"We have to get the Project running again." Shepard suggested as he watched Kenson work. "It's probably the only chance we have."
She nodded with a smile. "One sec. Let me get the door." A final code and the door turned green and opened easily for them both.
Shepard's mouth fell open at what he assumed was Object Rho. A giant pulsing beacon of purple metal. It reminded him vaguely of an Earth flower, but the flowers on Earth didn't set his teeth on edge and make his mind throb with every pulse of the bright blue lights.
"Commander Shepard, I give you Object Rho."
He growled at the feeling in his head. This thing isn't shielded. "You have the Reaper artifact just sitting here...out in the open."
"When we found it, it showed me a vision of the Reapers' arrival."
"Kenson, this is not good." His headache peaked and he winced.
"Give it a moment, Shepard. It'll give you the proof you need."
The wind left him as his mind exploded. Giant Reapers were silently drifting toward a relay a screeching sound filled his eardrums and a blue painful light enveloped him. He felt himself fall to the ground and gasped as he managed to sit back on his haunches.
A click behind him made him turn his head. Right into the barrel of a gun.
"I can't let you start the Project, Shepard. I can't let you stop the Arrival." He stood slowly and spun to disarm her, breaking her arm as he did so. Enemies filed in from either side of the room. "Take him down!"
He fought and he fought. He swapped out his guns when he ran low on thermal clips, and his biotics were screaming at him to stop. He could feel his amps overheating beneath his skin and his cybernetics glowed with the strain on his body. He cried out when he felt the wound his leg reopen and his shoulder was torn anew.
"Do not resist. Give yourself over and be spared."
Another headache made him shut his eyes for a moment, the darkness beckoned to him, promising peace. I can't!
A blow to his head made everything go black.
"Take him to the med bay and patch him up. We want Shepard alive."
Who...wha-?
The crew of the Normandy had all gathered in the CIC. EDI had patched Shepard's life signs up onto the display and they all waited with bated breath.
Three hours, Shepard had said cheerfully. Three hours, and I'll be on my way back.
And so, for three hours the crew had waited. Waited and watched the spikes in Shepard's heartbeat, the rise and fall in adrenaline.
Joker's voice sounded out over the comm. "Umm, guys? Shouldn't he be on his way back by now?"
Garrus crossed his arms and nodded to nobody in particular.
"There was a shuttle locked onto our position a short while ago." EDI said from the comm. "But then it diverted its trajectory."
Garrus frowned at the crew around him. Why would it divert its trajectory without letting us know?
The display above them turned red and all eyes were locked onto it. There was a massive spike in heart rate and blood pressure for a moment and then adrenaline made itself known. Huge doses of medi-gel were pumped into his system and then his heart rate flattened, its beats per minute were dangerously low.
Garrus gripped the railing, willing the heartbeat to rise. He was aware of the trilling sounds he was making but he couldn't make himself stop.
"Commander Shepard has lost consciousness." EDI announced.
The crew fell silent and listened to Garrus' small sounds as the First Officer thought of a plan.
"Where is he? We'll go get him."
"Something is blocking his signal. His last known location was just outside the asteroid belt, I have confirmed he was present on the shuttle before it disappeared."
"EDI, get us to the asteroid belt and find Shepard."
"Yes, First Officer Vakarian. However, until the signal scrambling Shepard's stops, I will not be able to locate him. It would require me to scan every asteroid for life signs and habitats."
Garrus growled as the comm clicked out and stormed away to the elevator. Marie watched him go before bowing out of the group in the CIC and stepping into the elevator behind him. It was a cold silence he greeted her with.
"Garrus..." She called to him when they exited the elevator and ran after him, her shorter legs making it difficult to catch him before he closed and locked the door to the Main Battery. She stepped into his room behind him and the door shut behind her. She sighed a little in relief. "Garrus."
"What!?" He rounded on her and growled.
She winced and frowned at him. "We'll get him back. Have a little faith in him."
"Faith? You want me to have faith in him?" He glared at her. "What do you even know about him? How can you have faith in a man you barely know?"
She glared back at him and squared her shoulders. "How can you not? He took me in even after finding out I worked for Cerberus, he clothed me, fed me, gave me a home. He took me back to Earth so I could find closure, and then he saved me from certain death by the Collectors. He then blew up the Collectors and saved us all." She took a breath. "How can you not have faith in him?"
Garrus sagged beneath a weight that Marie could only guess at. "The last thing I said to him was 'hmph.' I was so annoyed that he wasn't taking me with him, that he was letting himself be some kind of errand boy. And now he lying somewhere, unconscious, and I can't get to him."
"Garrus, if he had taken you with him, we would be without guidance. Without you, who would keep the ship running? We'll find him...just be patient."
She left then, swiping the door and allowing it to his open. She didn't see as Garrus spun about and kicked apart the cot he rarely used, trilling out his anger and pain.
Marie awoke to a sharp pain in her leg. What the fuck? A thrashing beside her made her sigh and blink her eyes at her bed mate. With one eye, she watched as Thane fought in his sleep to get comfortable. His arms flailing in the blankets and legs kicking in all kinds of positions. How he did this whilst unconscious was beyond her.
She was too tired to wake him up. The stress on the ship had reached its highest levels yet as people planned to get Shepard back. For hours, Garrus, Thane, Samara, Grunt, Kasumi, Mordin, Zaeed, Jack, Jacob, and herself, had sat in the shuttle bay. They poured over rough maps EDI had made of the asteroid belt, highlighted on the display the likeliest ones that Shepard could be on. When that didn't produce any useful information, they had set out the sparring mats and fought one another. Trying to relieve the stress levels. However, it wasn't the same without Shepard and Joker making bets and rallying the squad and crew into a near frenzy as they watched various people fight.
The drell rolled onto his side, arms still shifting and legs squirming as his lips frowned at his dream. Marie groaned, for a moment regretting the decision to sleep beside him. Arashu, give me strength...She shut her eyes again and waited for him to still.
After ten minutes of this she grew tired of waiting for him to stop and decided to take matters into her own hands, literally. She wrapped her legs around the drell's and took his hands in one of hers, then she wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him to her. He writhed against her for a minute or two before settling with his head nestled into her shoulder, a happy humming coming from his throat.
She sighed in relief and lightly stroked the back of his head, mildly marvelling a softness of his scales beneath her skin. Her fingers drew patterns into the black stripes that fell from his head and she followed them down to his shoulder. Here, she found the scarring that announced his bonding to Irikah, she traced it gently, silently thanking the deceased woman who woke Thane from his battlesleep and showed him that there is more to life than death. Her fingers ghosted over the red folds in his neck and she followed them up to his cheek. She smiled when she saw that the ribbing would flush gently beneath her touch and his mouth would open a little when she would touch his cheek.
She jumped when she saw his eyes watching her face. She pulled her hand away quickly and bit her lip.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you..."
He smiled and shrugged before nestling his face back into her shoulder. "Do it again." He said simply.
Her fingers were back onto his scales, retracing the patterns she had already made in her head. He hummed when she let her fingers wander down to his shoulder and onto the folds of his neck. She felt him smile as he bent his head to allow her better access to the delicate pinkness on him. His arms snaked their way around her and he impossibly found himself closer to her, their bodies melding together as she traced her patterns.
Thanes eyes snapped open as he felt her lips peck the top of his head and he fought the shudder that passed pleasantly through him. They hadn't kissed since that night she had got back from the Collector base and he had wondered what it was he had done wrong, until now. He shrugged it off when he felt the weight of her head rest comfortably against his and he reveled in the feeling of her deft fingers tracing his scales.
He began to trace his own patterns. He shifted her shirt away from her skin and ran his hands up and down her back, noting mentally the places that made her shiver or gasp lightly. He felt bold, all of a sudden, and he smirked at the feeling.
He shifted his leg and slotted one between hers. Using it to hitch her further up the cot, he latched his lips onto her neck. He bit down gently before licking at the small sting it would have left behind. Her fingers gripped at his shoulders and he grabbed at her back. His heart rate quickened at the sounds she made as he let his teeth graze at the sensitive flesh on her throat.
He frowned when she moved away, his mouth opened to ask what he had done wrong, and she brought their faces together. Their lips crashing together almost painfully before she softened and slowed the pace. Her soft pink lips melded with his full green-tinted ones. Her arms found their way around his waist and he let his climbed up to her shoulders. His hands automatically tangled into her hair and he groaned throatily. Oh, that hair. The object of his curiosity or weeks, finally he could touch it freely. Tangle the silken strands between his fingers, let it fall through them with a ghostly soft sound. He pulled at a piece lightly and swallowed Marie's gasp.
Her fingers hitched his shirt up as his had earlier and for the first time, they felt what it was to press their bare selves to each other. The soft feeling of glistening green scales against the smoothness of pale skin. Thane felt his leg twitch against her and her hips rolled into him. He could feel the heat of her centre through the cloth that wrapped around their bottom halves. he shuddered at the feeling at groaned when Marie's tongue entered his mouth.
Marie could taste the mint from their tea on his breath. She heard his groans and breathy gasps as they moved against one another. The feel of his scales and the warmth of him made her skin pebble deliciously. She couldn't help rolling her hips against him and she delighted in the gasp it caused.
Suddenly, she was below him as he moved at lightning speed and braced his hands beside her head. He found comfort between her legs as she settled them on either side of his hips. He rose up and looked down at her with a quirk of his lips. The skin of her throat and cheeks was blushed from their heat and her eyes glistened with lust. He groaned low in his throat at the sight and ran his hands down her arms and over her waist. Her breath hitched at his movements and she arched her back into his touch.
Thane hitched his shirt up and over his head and let Marie look at him, vaguely wondering what she thought of him. His lean wiry muscles rippled beneath his scales, making them glisten in the pulsing light from the drive core. She licked her lips as she followed the contours of his body, highlighted by the black striping that flowed with them.
He swallowed thickly when he let his fingers follow the seam of her shirt and ghost below it, watching her carefully for any sign to stop, he gently began to lift it. She moved her back to allow it to easily bunch at her shoulders and over her head. Thane looked down at her revealed flesh, the ribbing of his neck darkening. He brushed his hands over her stomach and over her ribs. He slowly moved palms over her breast, an inch away from her skin. She whined when she couldn't feel the contact she desperately wanted and simply arched herself up into his hands.
The moan that came from her made Thane tilt his head and smile. He rolled his hands against her breast and groaned when she rolled her hips against him again. Hus erection brushing against her core with a mixture of frustrating contact and burning heat. Damn these clothes to the sea!
"T-Thane..." Her breathy voice made him chuckle darkly as he continued his ministrations.
"Hmm?"
She rolled her hips again and moved her hands moved to her pants and began to hitch them down. He watched, fascinated, as more and more of her was revealed. She was going too slowly, inch by inch was an excruciating experience. He gave up all pretences of patience and moved his own hands to hers, helping her divest of this piece of fabric.
She lay bare beneath him and he licked his lips.
"Your turn." She ordered.
He nodded and moved his own pants, lowering them over his narrow hips and strong thighs. His black markings flowed with his muscles and framed his erection. The ribbing on it pulsed slightly with his arousal and the tip glistened. He shuddered as her hand wrapped around him and her thumb brushed over the sensitive head.
He shifted and lowered himself to her entrance, watching her face intently as she bit her lip with a smile. She nodded at him and he took a breath.
He gripped her hips and slowly let himself fill her. Small panting gasps escaped her, as inch by careful inch of him brushed her walls. His thumb brushed over her clit and she moaned. The tightness of her hugged him and he couldn't help as his head fell back with the strength of moan that escaped him.
He began to pump, slowly at first, but then faster and faster. She grabbed at his arms as she cried out in pleasure. He snapped his head up and watched her as he felt her tense around him, pumping into her furiously. Her breasts bounced amazingly and he lowered his mouth onto one, suckling gently at the nipple.
They rolled against each other. Each fleeting touch of their bare bodies making them gasp and moan. Their cries filled the tight space between them, the heat became scorching, and perspiration made their movements easy. She rocked her hips with his, meeting each of his thrusts easily as her finger tips tried to claim purchase on his back. The delicious coiling sensation began low in her stomach and she could feel her muscles begin to tighten as she climbed this high to its peak.
And then, a sudden pressure was around his cock and she cried out his name, convulsing beneath him as she came. The increased tightness of her walls pulled at him deliciously and he didn't feel the end coming until it was upon him. He fell over the brink and emptied himself into her, collapsing atop her and nestling his face in the crook of her neck.
He heard her sigh happily and squirm beneath him. He rolled over and lay beside her, watching as her lashes fluttered against her cheeks. He gently brushed a ringer down her chest, between her breasts and looked at him from the corner of her eye with a grin on her face.
She turned to him and nestled her face into his chest, her warm breath flitting over him.
He grinned and pulled the sheets back up and around them both. Settling down to sleep again.
No words were needed to be said.
Garrus growled as he stalked back and forth in the cockpit. What was taking so long!? He saw Joker subconsciously dip lower into his seat and he rolled his eyes.
For nearly two days the crew had waited with wilting patience for new from the commander. Grunt had taken to head-butting windows again, Zaeed was smoking a lot more cigars than usual, and Jack was threatening everyone left right and centre. Garrus was having a hard time in keeping the three trouble makers at bay when everyone wasn't sparring in the ring. and this was without the misdemeanors given by Kasumi when she felt the need to cause havoc. Samara had kept to her room as she quietly meditated and had asked to be left alone. Jacob was taking every gun apart and deftly putting them back together in an almost obsessive fashion. Mordin was experimenting on samples he had somehow managed to sneak of the Collector base, muttering rapidly to himself, as was his nature. Tali and Legion were mostly in the Mess, tinkering with random scraps of tech or simply talking with one another about each others varied cultures or states of being. Thane and Marie had kept to themselves, only leaving Life Support for food and showers.
Garrus was at his wit's end.
"Joker."
"Yeah..?"
"What. Is. Taking. So. Long." He punctuated each word with an annoyed step in either direction.
"There's a lot of asteroids dude..." He hands flickered over the controls as EDI scanned yet another likely asteroid.
The comm clicked.
"Shepard to Normandy. Joker, do you read me?" Garrus almost laughed at the blessed voice of his commander, but the clear tiredness in his voice prevented him from doing so.
Joker chuckled. "Commander! Wow, you really had us worried then." There was no answer and the comm crackled. "Shit."
"Lock onto his signal EDI. Get him out of there, now."
"Yes, FIrst Officer. Locking on now."
A blip appeared on an asteroid. It was moving rapidly toward the mass relay. Joker steered the ship toward the signal and hit the boosters.
"What the hell is he doing!?"
They rounded the asteroid, getting as close to the blip as possible. Joker waved his hand at one of the comm specialist who hacked into Shepard's helmet.
"Commander Shepard. Normandy inbound for pick-up." He spoke simply into the mic.
"Roger that."
Garrus moved up to the front window as joker carefully landed the Normandy. He saw Shepard running with all his might toward the ship, a limp clear in his gait. What the hell happened? Joker flicked a switch and the airlock opened up and Shepard disappeared from his sight. He turned and began to move toward the airlock but he was turned around when Shepard darted past him to Joker.
"Get us out of here, Joker!"
Joker nodded and hit the thrusters, pushing the Normandy toward the relay as quick as it could carry them. The blue burst of energy enveloped them and they were slingshotted across the relays path. The display on the Normandy showed the decimation of the system, a ripple going dark as it spread outwards.
Shepard hung his head and turned away from the cockpit, brushing past Garrus with a heavy pat on his shoulder and a limp. Garrus followed him quietly, simply wrapping Shepard's arm around his neck and supporting him as they walked to the med-bay.
"What happened, Elliot?"
"I...I just murdered three hundred thousand batarians..." He sighed heavily, his voice thick. "I-it all came down to numbers in the end...and then." He coughed gently. "And then I shot the woman I had set out to save."
Garrus simply nodded as the door to the med-bay opened and Chakwas took over. He didn't need to hear any more. Shepard was back and that's all that mattered to the turian. The crew and squad watched through the window of the med-bay, all clearly relieved to have the commander on board once more. Zaeed went as far to gather drinks with Kasumi and begin a small party.
Shepard shook his head with a small, tired smile and lay down on the cot prepared for him. Garrus stood by his side as the commander drifted of to sleep as Chakwas worked on stitching his leg and shoulder back up.
"We've been hailed by the Alliance, Commander. Orders?"
Garrus shook his head at Jokers voice. "Get to their rendezvous. The commander needs to rest." He took Shepard's hand in his and bowed his head over him, nuzzling their foreheads together.
Shepard awoke a day later after Chakwas assured them that he was simply exhausted. Garrus had a brief word with Hackett when the Admiral boarded the Normandy and escorted him to the med-bay, where Shepard was getting a final once over from the doctor.
The door opened and he went to sit in the Mess, watching the commander and the Admiral talk through the window.
Shepard sighed when Hackett entered and sent him a brief smile.
"Hm. Looks like you've recovered." The older man stated simply.
Shepard nodded. "Admiral Hackett."
"Sounds like you went through hell down there. How are you feeling?"
He shrugged. "Fine. No more visions, if that's what you mean. I wasn't expecting to see you here." Why had nobody told me? he mentally chided himself for sitting in front of the Admiral in nothing but his loose sweat pants.
"You went out there as a favour to me. I decided to debrief you in person." He stood formally then and Shepard winced. "That was before the mass relay exploded and destroyed an entire batarian system. What the hell happened out there, Commander?"
Shepard bristled. "Have you received any intel about what happened?"
"All I know is that I sent you out there to break Amanda Kenson out of prison, and now an entire system is destroyed. I hope you could fill in the leap of logic between those two events."
Shepard stood and took a datapad from the table beside him and handed it over, his report on everything that had happened. "I confirmed Doctor Kenson's proof. the Reapers were coming, and destroying that relay was the only way to stop them." Hackett opened the report on the datapad and glanced through it. Shepard waited patiently for him to finish reviewing it. "Kenson sedated me for almost two days. I started the engines with little more than an hour left. I tried to warn the batarian colony, but...time ran out."
"The batarian's report no survivors from Aratoht. At least you tried." He frowned deeply and turned away. "And you believe the Reaper invasion really was a threat?"
"No doubt about it. We literally had minutes to spare."
"I'm sure all the details are in your report." He turned back, the frown still clear on his features. "I won't lie to you, Shepard: the batarians will want blood, and there's just enough evidence for a witch hunt. And we don't want war with the batarians. Not with the Reapers at the galaxy's edge."
Shepard took a wary step back. "What are you saying?"
"You did what you did for the best of reasons, but...There were more than three hundred thousand batarians in that system. All dead."
"they died to save trillions of lives. If I could have saved them, you bet your arse I would have."
"You're preaching to the choir, Commander. if it were up to me, I'd give you a damn medal." He sighed. "Unfortunately, not everyone will see it that way."
"So...what do you suggest?"
"Evidence against you is shoddy, at best. But at some point, you'll have to go to Earth and face the music. I can't stop it...but I can and will make them fight for it."
Shepard began to play with his hair. "I guess...I'll stand trial."
Hackett nodded. "Glad to see working with Cerberus hasn't stripped away your sense of honour."
"Sir...I'm not taking my team to Earth."
"Do whatever you have to do out here. But when Earth calls, you make sure you're there with your dress blues on, ready to take the hit." He turned and handed his report back to him. "In the meantime...you keep this. I don't need to see your report to know you did the right thing."
"Yes, sir."
"You've done a hell of a thing, commander."
And then Hackett left the ship and Shepard gathered his crew.
This is going to suck...
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