"Thinking"
"Talking"
"Impactful word"
Location: Serpent Nebula - Widow - Citadel – Presidium - Huerta Memorial Hospital
She woke up to the pungent smell of hospital disinfect invading her nostrils. The room was silent apart from her heavy breathing and the beep-beep sound that could often be heard in hospitals that indicated one was still alive.
She slowly opened her eyes, squinting in an attempt to sharpen the blurred images before her. Akane glanced around and took in the deserted, blue and white colour schemed hospital bedroom. How long has she been here? She shut her eyes, trying to remember what had exactly happened. Then it all hit her with a bang. The memory of it all began to occupy her thoughts.
Heaven above, it felt like ages, as if she had experienced a lifetime in her mind, but only hours passed in the real world.
The stark smell of bleach was overwhelming. Akane scrunched her eyes at the bright light that was sipping through her closed eyelids. She felt powerless and heavy; she could not move her hand, head or body.
The Uchiha couldn't remember how she got here but she knew for sure that she wanted out as soon as possible. Preferably right now— No. Accepting, and not to mention processing, everything the beacon had passed onto her was too much too quickly and it nearly tore apart her consciousness. With great effort and perhaps luck, she managed to sew the pieces back, but it was still a tiring process. She ought to rest for now.
She looked out of the window on her left, feeling her eyelids grow heavier each second, then fell close. The first she had gotten in a long time.
Location: Serpent Nebula - Widow - Citadel – Presidium – Human Embassy
Shepard POV
"This is an outrage! The Council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!" Ambassador Udina ranted at the three holographic postures in front of him and Shepard was sure that his voice was so loud that no one in the Presidium needed to eavesdrop to know what this was all about. Even if Jane didn't like Udina as a person or his way of doing things, she had to agree with him on that one.
Donnel Udina – Jane knew of him, although having never officially met him before. He took over the position of humanity's ambassador to the Council races from Anita Goyle, an impressing feat, she had to admit, even if she wasn't a cognoscenti.
"The turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador." The Salarian Councilor replied, not wavering by an inch from Udina's accusations.
"It's not like we had much of a choice."
Shepard gripped the railing of the balcony, she held no particular dislike for the other races nor did she feel resentment towards them, but this aura of superiority she was getting off the Council set her off to an immeasurable extent. Just because they were longer around than the humans didn't give them the right to scold humanity's decisions.
"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse." This time, the Asari Councilor added her two cents, supporting Councilor Valern with her statement.
"Of the batarians of course, but not of the geth!" Jane bit her lip, disgusted how Councilor Tevos made it sound so insignificant. People died down there, experienced horrors that the Councilor couldn't even dream of and she blamed it all on the humans. Heaven above, that was why she hated politics.
"What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre. I demand action!" Udina shifted the conversation elsewhere.
"You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador." The Turian Councilor bit back.
"Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss the C-Sec findings at the hearing. Not before." Councilor Tevos intervened before this could break out into a heated conversation between Ambassador Udina and Councilor Sparatus, successfully breaking off contact.
The human diplomat sighed, letting everybody in the room know how displeased he was with the outcome, then walked up to Captain Anderson and Shepard's team; consisting of Kaidan and Williams.
"Captain Anderson, I see you brought half of your crew with you."
"Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions," Anderson responded before Jane joined the Captain's side, dispatching herself off the railing.
"I have the mission reports. I assume they're accurate?"
"They are. Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience." Anderson tried to cheer him up a bit.
"They were not happy about it. Saren's their top agent. They don't like him being accused of treason," Udina stated, which made Jane frown.
"Saren' a threat to every race out there, he won't stop with the humans. He needs to be stopped. The Council has to listen to us," Shepard exclaimed.
"Settle down, Commander. You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres." Udina let his sour mood out on Shepard, accusing her of nearly wasting the only chance humanity might get a human in the ranks of a Spectre, which made Jane bit the inner walls of her mouth.
"The mission on Eden Prime was a chance to prove you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus ended up dead and the Beacon was destroyed!" Udina continued and Jane swore she would have punched the man in the face for a moment, but had enough self-restraint to remain cool.
"That's Saren's fault, not hers!" Anderson stuck up for Shepard.
"Then, we better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accusations. Otherwise, the Council might use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres." The ambassador folded his arm behind his back.
Exchanging last looks with Shepard, he spoke to Anderson, "Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing. Shepard – you and the others can meet us at the Citadel Tower. Top level. I'll make sure you have clearance to get in."
And with that, the Captain and ambassador made their way out of the embassy.
"And that's why I hate politicians," Williams quipped when they were out of earshot. Shepard couldn't agree more.
Akane feigned to be still comatose so the doctors wouldn't start to ask her questions about her identity or anything related to her at all. Questions she had no intention of answering to anyone anytime soon.
In this fragile state, bound to the bed, she had to be patient and regain her strength. Her chakra was almost back to normal, and she was capable to activate the Sharingan in her right eye, which was mostly hidden by the shoulder-length bangs of her hair.
Whenever that one particular human nurse came into her room to check up on her, she cast the generic genjutsu of her Sharingan on her to suggest false information about her medical condition and to spread this information to the doctors whenever they asked. While she didn't want to forcibly take control over her, she kept her influence subtle so the nurse or staff wouldn't notice, yet couldn't refrain from prying into the nurse's mind for additional information.
She had learned quite a lot from the nurse's memory and while she knew that most likely everything she discovered about this world was true, it required a more universal source to convince her. She had come up with an escape plan, a decent one for a change. However, she had to wait a little while longer, waiting for the lights illuminating the Citadel to dim.
Location: Serpent Nebula - Widow - Citadel – Presidium – Citadel Tower
Shepard POV
Shepard and her team just made their way up to the top level of the Citadel Tower, prepared to meet the Council, when she caught glimpse of Executor Pallin arguing with one of his officers.
"Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them." The officer - also of turian race - on the left demanded.
Ho-ho! Somebody has guts!
"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over, Garrus." Pallin snorted before taking his leave.
The turian whom Pallin referred to as Garrus, recognized Shepard's presence right off the bat and turned to greet her, "Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren.
"Sounds like you really want to bring him down," she stated, waiting to see how he would react.
He folded his three-fingered hands in front of him, "I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. But he's a Spectre, everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence."
Jane had expected as much, she knew that it wouldn't be easy, but maybe with Garrus's help, they could achieve better results.
"I think the Council's ready for us, Commander," Kaidan reminded. Shepard made a mental note to seek the Garrus out for help if the meeting with the Council turned out badly, which was likely the case with the lack of valid proof regarding Saren's involvement in the geth attack on the human colony.
"Good luck, Shepard. Maybe they'll listen to you."
"Appreciated, see you around, Garrus." She walked past the turian officer to meet up with Captain Anderson who had been waiting on her in front of the staircase that led to the Council.
"The hearing's already started. Come one." Shepard took a deep breath, following the Captain to the meeting.
Here goes nothing.
About half an hour later...
To claim the meeting went in their favour would have been a lie; the Council refused to help Shepard and C-Sec cancelled further investigation, so Shepard chose to take matters into her own hands and investigate. However, she still needed a place to start; a lead.
Udina advised Shepard to meet up with one of his contact in Chora's Den. Anderson wasn't very fond of Udina's contact at C-Sec, but let his personal judgment aside and stepped off the investigation in hopes of not making it for Shepard more complicated than it already was.
Before she could run off investigating, Captain Anderson gave her something of a lead if Udina's lead wouldn't get her anything. Barla Von – an information dealer at the Presidium. Well, everything was worth a try. For a moment, Jane wondered how Akane was doing, though how should one feel when in comatose. Still, she hoped the child was more fortunate than they were.
Words dictionary:
Genjutsu: Sharingan 幻術・写輪眼 - It broadly refers to a range of genjutsu performed with the Sharingan. By establishing eye contact with a target, the Sharingan user traps them within a genjutsu which can be exploited for one of the various purposes, such as: causing instantaneous - but temporary - loss of consciousness or paralysis in the target, forceful extraction of information, relaying memories, removing genjutsu placed on the target by others, and controlling a target's actions.