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Loyalty and Limerence
Part 1
Chapter 18
Ilos
"I always hate this part…" Jane muttered from her spot strapped into the Mako beside Garrus. With a jerk, he felt the telltale rumble of the cargo bay door opening. A heartbeat later, the Mako was hurtling through the air toward its makeshift landing strip and he glanced over to see Jane's face drawn and her eyes shut tight. There was a short moment of near weightlessness before the thrusters cranked into high gear, doing their utmost to fight against the gravity of freefall. Moments later, they hit the ground with a sharp thump and a few hard bounces.
"The door is closing!" Kaidan yelled an octave higher than usual as he grabbed his harness with a panicked expression. Before them, Saren was disappearing behind a quickly narrowing gap.
"I see it!" Shepard replied with a strained voice, and he slammed his foot on the breaks, cutting the steering wheel to the side. They came to a sudden screeching halt and the ground team took a collective breath of relief. Quickly, they all piled out to examine the door through which they'd just lost Saren.
It quickly became apparent that they were going to need to find either a way to get the blast door open or some sort of alternate route, and the only way to do that was going to be searching the surrounding ruins. So without further ado, they set out to do just that, only to be met with considerable geth opposition.
Garrus wasn't sure what he'd been expecting of the mythical Prothean planet, but this hadn't been it. The air sparkled with dust motes hanging in the thin beams of sunshine filtering down through the reddish clouds choking the sky. They picked their way between towering, intricately carved spires made of some material that almost, but not entirely, resembled stone. The buildings had spent the past few eons slowly being reclaimed by the land and were now covered in vines, ferns, and other colorful vegetation.
The most eerie part of it, Garrus thought, was the silence. When they weren't fighting off groups of geth, the silence was broken only by their own footsteps and the occasional gust of wind. There were no birds, no skittering creatures, no signs of life besides the plants devouring the Prothean structures. Whatever had happened to the Protheans here, the intervening years had not been kind to this planet.
Soon, they found themselves picking their way through a network of tunnels and bunkers, weak light pouring down from the skylights above. From the increased geth presence, Garrus had to guess they were getting closer to finding some sort of way to catch up to Saren, but they were all starting to feel the wear as they shot down machine after machine after machine. He had no idea how long they had been searching, but it felt like it had been an eternity. All he could hope was that Saren was moving slowly on foot and that once they got the door open, they would be able to catch up eventually in the Mako… If the route was even traversable in the large vehicle.
As another group of geth fell, Shepard called a halt to stop for a short break, noticing the run down state of the group. Garrus happily slumped down on a toppled statue, trying his best not to look at the strange, faceless image.
"I still can't believe I'm here. On Ilos." Liara murmured as she wiped her sweaty brow and glanced around the surroundings, her shoulders heaving with her labored breathing. "Now that I'm here, it seems obvious that this was the place in your visions, Shepard." Everyone glanced at the Commander, who just shrugged as he glanced at one of the unsettling statues.
"Yeah, I suppose so. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess." Shepard agreed as he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the tension from non stop fighting.
"What are these things even supposed to be?" Ashley grumbled as she walked up to one of the statues, her arms crossed.
"Do you suppose this is what the Protheans looked like?" Kaidan came to stand next to her, leaning his head back to look up at the face of the towering creature.
"Ugly fuckers, weren't they?" Jane chuckled as she pulled up her omni-tool to take a quick photo.
"I'm not sure, there's surprisingly little known about Prothean physiology, but I feel like there's something off about these." Liara started cautiously, "They seem almost as if… as if they're in pain. Like there's something wrong with them."
"They look like those husks we keep running into." Wrex grunted, causing Liara to look up at him sharply, her eyes wide. She looked back at the statue with new curiosity shining in her eyes.
"Yes… Yes, I agree. I see the resemblance. You don't think…"
"Commander, I'm getting some odd readings on my scanner." Tali cut in, standing up suddenly as she looked at her omni-tool. The atmosphere changed suddenly as everyone went on the alert, grabbing for their weapons. Suddenly, Tali's head shot up. "Shepard, right behind you!"
Shepard's head turned, and Garrus felt his breath catch in his chest as a geth unfolded to stand mere meters behind the Commander, its weapon already leveled at his chest. There was no time to think. A flash of red, and Garrus' eyes went wide as Jane flung herself between the attacking machine and her brother.
He'd always thought moments like these were supposed to happen in slow motion, as they did in the vids, leaving enough time for lives to flash before people's eyes. In reality, it happened before anyone had a chance to register what was going on. The plasma shot caught her in the shoulder with enough force to shatter her barrier, causing her to spin as she fell, crashing into Shepard as someone screamed. Both the N7 marines fell to the ground with a spray of vivid red blood, the Commander doing his best to catch and cradle his sister, his eyes wide.
Instinct and training set in and Garrus' weapon was leveled with the machine a second later, an entire clip emptied into its excuse for a body before he could blink. The geth hadn't stood a chance, as two others in the group had also shot off a few rounds in retaliation as well. The bullet riddled corpse fell to the ground as the light it had instead of a face flickered before fading altogether.
"Jane!" Shepard cried out as he placed her down on the ground before pressing a hand down onto her bleeding wound in her shoulder. Garrus quickly holstered his weapon before dashing over to kneel beside her, his mind buzzing in shock. Jane hissed and convulsed in pain, her other hand coming up to grip her brother's wrist. "What the fuck was that?!" Shepard yelled, his eyes flashing with anger.
"Just… Saving your life." Jane groaned, cracking an eye open as she attempted to smirk up at her brother. "You're-" She hissed through her teeth as she shifted slightly, "You're welcome." Garrus quickly pulled up his omni-tool and readied some medi-gel as Shepard quickly set to work evaluating and cleaning the wound.
"Jesus Christ, Jane. You can't keep doing shit like that. You're going to get yourself killed."
"Well, excuse me." She grunted through clenched teeth before crying out as Shepard used his knife to peel the fragments of armor away from the plasma wound. "Next time-" She panted, sweat prickling her forehead, "-I'll just let you die, then." Garrus winced as the blood oozed up from the wound. Evaluating the shallow depth of it, he sighed in relief that her barrier had taken the brunt of the damage. Medi-gel was quickly applied and the bleeding slowly seemed to come under control. It could have been so much worse.
"You have some sort of savior complex, and it needs to stop." Shepard snapped as he wiped the sweat off his own forehead, accidentally leaving behind a smudge of her blood.
"What the fuck are you getting at?" Jane glared up at him before glancing down at her slowly healing shoulder with a wince.
"What I mean is that you're always doing this. Putting yourself at risk to protect others. You nearly choked to death pushing Liara out of danger on Noveria. You nearly fell to your death pushing Ashley out of the way on Feros. And then that stunt you pulled on Virmire… It's going to get you killed one of these days, and-" Shepard's voice cut off with a sudden sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"John, I was not going to just sit there and let you die. You're the big goddamn hero here, the world needs you." The emphasis on that last word made the follow up unnecessary, but clear. You, not me. Garrus swallowed hard as his mouth went dry. He was tempted for a moment to speak up, but somehow, it didn't seem like his place.
"That's bullshit." Shepard snapped, glaring at her as they helped her sit up slowly. When he continued, his voice was softer. "We talked about this after Virmire. For a hot second there, I thought you were dead, and it destroyed me. I can't do this without you, Jane. Please don't risk your life unnecessarily. Please don't do that to me." The siblings looked at each other for a moment before Jane lifted her good arm up to pull Shepard in for a one armed hug, causing the older man to smile wearily.
"I'm not going to lie and say I'm sorry. 'Cause I'm not." Jane muttered as she let go, causing Shepard to sigh and roll his eyes. "But I'll… keep that in mind in the future." She conceded, and Shepard stood up to offer her a hand up. Garrus placed a careful hand under her injured arm and assisted as she slowly stood up, catching her as she wobbled slightly.
"Easy there, take it slow." Garrus muttered quietly, and she glanced at him before letting her weight rest on him slightly.
"I'll take that, I guess, if that's the best I'm going to get from you, Jane." Shepard sighed, "Are you good to keep moving? We need to catch up with Saren as quickly as possible." He asked as he gave her a quick once over.
"I'm fine, I'll walk it off." Jane muttered with a wince as she rolled her shoulder, which had completely stopped bleeding already. Medi-gel really was a wonder.
"Right. Garrus, keep an eye on her. Don't let her over exert herself."
"Yes, Sir."
"Pfft, you couldn't stop me if I really wanted to."
"Don't tempt me to test that. " Garrus grinned down at her, his mandibles barely flicking to give away his anxiety. "Maybe this is my chance to pull ahead in our wager, last I checked my kill count was catching up."
"Not a chance, Big Guy."
Vigil. The Prothean VI that had survived the ages hidden away here on Ilos. They stood there entranced and horrified by the story being unraveled before them, towering walls full of lifeless stasis pods stretching up into the heavens above them.
Horror turned to terror as the true nature of the Citadel was revealed to them, and the danger Saren posed became very real and very imminent. Suddenly, Garrus itched to be gone, to hurry after the rogue Spectre, to stop him. They'd always known that the galaxy was depending on this mission, but suddenly, that seemed so much more real, more urgent.
"There's a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station." Vigil's carefully moderated voice explained in a strangely calm tone, "It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols, and give you temporary control over the station." It paused for a breath before continuing, a strange hint of hesitation in its voice, "It might give you a chance against Sovereign."
"Wait." Garrus felt the cogs churning in his mind almost of their own accord, "Where's the Citadel's master control unit? I've never heard of anything like that." He'd spent a good deal of his life on the Citadel, he'd have heard of such a place, wouldn't he?
"Through the Conduit. Follow Saren. He will lead you to your destination." The hesitation was gone, now replaced by urgency. Shepard turned away from the VI, his eyes set and determined.
"Saren's got enough of a head start. Grab that data file and let's go!" Jane darted forward, her omni-tool already out and hovering over the VI's pedestal.
"... Got it. Should I grab anything else from him while we're here?" Jane looked back, hesitating with her omni-tool still out.
"The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit. Not yet. There is still hope if you hurry." Vigil murmured urgently.
"There's no time. Everyone, back to the Mako!" Eight pairs of boots hurried back into the elevator. The tension as they rode it back up to the surface was thick and broken only by a few stray comments, eyes trained mostly on the door and boots. Garrus looked up, his eyes finding Jane, as they always did. Her eyes flicked to him and she smiled, as she always did. But it was forced, not shared by her eyes. Garrus couldn't find it in himself to smile back, returning his eyes to the door.
Once they piled into the Mako and strapped in, Shepard took off like a bat out of hell. Usually a careful driver, he barreled down the corridors like he never had before. He completely ignored the geth clearly stationed to slow them down, simply bowling them over when he could. They flew off of overhangs and found themselves hurtling down a waterway. It pitched downward, and before them lay the Conduit.
It was beautiful in a haunting sort of way. The familiar blue glow was interrupted every few seconds by the huge, spinning circles at the base of it, the arms reaching upwards toward the heavens as if in supplication. The miniature relay seemed to hum and vibrate in a way that was dreadfully familiar which left a sinking feeling in Garrus' stomach. He'd seen its twin regularly over the past few years, nearly every day when he'd worked on the Presidium.
As Shepard drove the Mako over the end of the waterway into the creek at the bottom, Garrus noticed with concern as the rings seemed to be slowing, as if it were beginning to power down.
"I think we've got about 30 seconds to get through the Conduit before it closes, Commander!" Tali yelled from where she was strapped in, looking up from the energy readings on her omni-tool. Between the Mako and the Conduit, however, was what seemed to be a battalion of geth, including a number of huge, white colossi.
"Hang on, everyone!" Shepard warned, his eyes glued to the obstacles before them, "Things are going to get a little rough!" The Mako shot forward, absorbing shots and knocking over machines as it sped toward the waiting Conduit.
The looming relay seemed to fill the sky before them as they careened into it. Garrus felt a familiar tug as everything out the window seemed to elongate. He glanced beside him to see Jane's drawn, anxious face and he remembered her words during their earlier descent from the Normandy. Her eyes met his.
Garrus wasn't sure who's hand moved first, but he felt her fingers clutched in his as they were abruptly flung across space.