"Steady yourself and assess what might have happened." Thane encouraged from about a meter away. "Then try again."
Crow let out a huff of breath from where he lay on the ground, fresh from a rez after the void consumed him. "Well, for starters, my will faltered. That's why it killed me."
"Why did you falter?" Thane asked. Crow frowned, thinking back to the moment.
"I... wondered if you were far enough away." he concluded. "In case something went wrong."
"You say the void doesn't come to Hunters who fear it." the drell stated. "In fearing what it would to my person if you lost control, you doomed yourself to exactly that outcome. Do not fear your power, even for others' sakes. You have never lost control of your fire; I know your will over your Light is absolute. Treat it as such"
The Hunter let out another heavy breath. He had mastered some of the more tactical aspects of void Light, like invisibility, truesight, and most recently the ability to make smoke with varying properties (he was also getting into 'okay' territory with overshields), but diving into the more obscure and volatile aspects, like devouring and various types of grenades, was proving to be more challenging.
That wasn't even getting into the process of summoning a dusk bow, which was an incredibly complex 'super' with a lot of different parts to it. In its most basic form, it pulled enemies in and ensnared them, but it also caused disorientation, and weakened their structural integrities much like a biotic warp. Theoretically, it was perfect for working with a large team like the Normandy's.
Then there were wraiths. Nightstalkers who, instead of using a bow, preferred to become one with the void and strike from within it with blades. That involved keeping oneself in a 'shadestep state', which was similar to invisibility but also much more complex. He wasn't ready to touch that with a ten-foot arc staff, and not just because he still has trouble with arc Light if he isn't overdosing on caffeine.
He had just died trying to summon the bow. It was the closest he's come. At least I know I'm making progress.
"Come on!" Glint nudged his shoulder. "Let's try again."
Crow sat up, running a hand through his hair and almost startling himself again when it felt shorter than it had before. Upon returning to the ship after their night out, Glint had realized they forgot about the haircut. Things turned out alright in the end, but he swore, the sight of Ken with that razor had put holy fear into him.
"Trust me." the engineer behind him said, putting a hand on Crow's shoulder. The mirror allowed the Hunter to see the ahamkara grin that spread across the other man's face as he turned the electric razor on. "My gran's a hairdresser."
Far from reassuring, given Ken's reputation for wit and the way the others had been watching apprehensively (they had decided the 'correction of the weed-hacker cut' needed an audience). Gabby had looked like she was praying. Turned out, Ken's gran actually was a hairdresser, and he'd learned quite a lot from her.
He stood and pulled once again on his Light. Called on entropy itself and visualized it taking form in his hand. Rolled space-time between his fingers and asked it to widen the space between atoms, ensnare, pull. A shape began to materialize in his outstretched hand, and he had to force down the elation he felt at the sight of it; he couldn't afford the distraction. He stomped down on his previous worries about Thane. Ignored the sound of the elevator opening.
The void was all there was right now, all that mattered.
He focused singularly on shaping the instrument of delivery he needed. Bow. I need a bow of entropy, and arrows of [space between atoms] to let loose from it.
The Light solidified into a curved shape that felt as solid in his hands as it would if it were rea- it was real. He couldn't fall into the trap of thinking it wasn't, because it was real. Temporary, but real. Now for the true test. He visualized the arrow and its properties between his fingers, raised, the bow, and pulled back.
The arrow flew. The void sang. The anchor planted itself, hungry and waiting on the far side of the shuttle bay.
Still channeling, not willing to let the bow go just yet, he turned back to Thane, grinning, and was surprised to see Shepard and Tali at his side, both of them gawking at him.
"Hi guys!" He greeted, holding up the bow. "I'm a Nightstalker now."
"Damn." Shepard whistled. "That thing will be gone by the time we need the shuttle, right?"
"Yeah, don't worry." He assured her, still grinning. When he had come to this reality, he had finally been free to study and practice with his Light in a way he'd been hindered from doing under Spider, and either too young or too afraid of attracting the wrong kind of attention as a loner in the wilds. He had almost mastered sol Light, though he had been paying more attention to the healing aspects as of late.
And now, he could say he had more than rudimentary capabilities with void Light. He had accomplished more in nearly two months than he ever thought he would be able to. He still had a lot to perfect, but with two disciplines of the Light under his belt, he finally felt like a threat worthy of the Collectors. He hadn't seen them yet, his experience with them limited to footage Garrus recorded with his visor during both of Shepard's encounters with the mysterious aliens, and advice on fighting them from the few people that had done so.
Feeling the strain on his Light from a long day of practicing, he finally, reluctantly, let go of the dusk bow. He hopes it comes easier to him now that he's managed it once, like his blade barrage had. "Is there something you needed, Commander?"
"Yeah, I was about to pay Anderson a visit, since we'll be going through the Omega 4 relay soon. We need you to sign the transmat blueprints and pass him that codex you and Glint put together." she explained. "We also wanted to freak him out a little."
"I thought he was an N7 like you." Crow pointed out, approaching and taking the data pad Tali handed him. "Isn't transmatting into his office like asking to get shot?"
"Who said we're transmatting?" she asks as Crow uses a stylus to sign his name and Glint's. He arches an eyebrow at Shepard.
"You have it written all over your face, Commander." If there was one thing she and Joker had in common, it was that they loved abusing the transmat. In his own reality, using transmat to bypass a short walk wasn't uncommon. Here, though? The crew had been docked here for a week since the bomb was removed from Glint, Shepard wanting to give the crew some leave before the suicide mission, and there were several trending extranet conspiracies related to people vanishing into thin air or appearing out of nowhere on the Citadel. No matter how careful they had been, people had noticed.
The crew of the Normandy was now a ghost story. And apparently, he himself was now some kind of unusual cryptid. Clearly, they hadn't seen him at the dance machine.
"I'm warning him, don't worry." She pats his shoulder. "Think of it was a demonstration of what you're about to give the galaxy."
"The Alliance, you mean." he corrected, handing the data pad back to Tali. Though the races of this reality liked to put up a united front, they all put their own people first. It was sapient instinct to do so.
"Yeah. But don't worry." she added hastily. "We have crew members from pretty much everyone. They'll be sending the specs to their people before we leave tomorrow."
"It will simply be a matter of who can integrate it the fastest, and to what extent before the Reapers arrive." Thane interjected.
"And if they can beat Cerberus to the punch." Crow added. "Light knows they have a head start, with EDI's involuntary updates."
"I'll get this copied for they others who need it." Tali said, ejecting an SD chip form the pad and handing it to Shepard. "Thane, I'll leave yours in Life Support."
"Thank you." the drell bowed slightly. "Though I foresee issues with making it work for hanar."
"You guys realize how rich you might be for 'inventing' transmat?" Shepard teased. "I know Joker does."
"I don't really care about money." Crow shrugged. "And I didn't really invent it. Glint just happened to have to blueprints in case we needed to fix out ship. I'm not sure we can make money off of building something that's already been invented, and subsequently leaked to every military in the galaxy in the hopes of given them an edge against an army of mechanical cuttlefish from dark space."
"Well, your name's been accredited." Tali waved the data pad he'd signed. "And so have the rest of the teams. If nothing else, we'll go down in history for making teleportation tech from another universe work in our own."
"Speaking of, you've got ten minutes to wash up before we leave, Crow." Shepard told him.
"Yes, ma'am." he nodded, before dashing off to the elevator. Shepard glances at the void anchor, and as she watches, it dissipates.
"Anderson, sir." Shepard greets when she answers her omni-tool. She's standing in the helm of the ship with Crow, and Joker gets up from the pilot's seat as she speaks, grinning in anticipation.
"Commander, where are you?" Never a man to waste time, he gets right to business. "You're late, and I have an appointment with the elcor ambassador in twenty minutes."
"Sorry sir, I just wanted to put together a little demonstration of some tech Crow helped us with." She explained, trying to keep the grin out of her voice. "Are you alone? And I mean guards, too."
"Yes, why?" He asks suspiciously. The old war dog knows her too well, he can tell she's about to do something bombastic and he wasn't an N7 for nothing; he had an instinct for when people were cooking up mischief.
"Don't shoot; it's only us." She told him. She turned to address Glint. "Glint?"
"What do you mean, don't-"
"Shoot?" The man blinks, jumps, and reaches for his sidearm when they appear. He halts himself before he can shoot them, thankfully, and stares at them as a grin spread across her face. "What the actual..."
"Councilor, may I present to you Normandy's transmat system?" She introduced, fighting off the residual queasy feeling that Crow had assured her would go away after repeated exposure. "Crow helped our techs put it together, it's from his universe. We've already used it for one combat insertion, and we've spent the last week putting it through its paces."
The Councilor just continued staring at them, eyes wide as he tried to reconcile their sudden appearance with his understanding of reality. She could hear Crow shuffle his feet behind her, and the faint creak of Joker's braces as he shifted his weight.
"We brought the blueprints with us for you to pass along to the Alliance." She added. Anderson's mouth opened, but then shut again, as if he was having trouble deciding which thought to voice. "Sir?"
"What the actual fuck, Commander?" he settled on what was undoubtably the completion of what he had nearly said before.
"Teleportation, sir." Joker answered.
"Transmat." Crow corrected. "It's called transmat."
"And you just..." he waved a hand to indicate his office. "Does Cerberus know about this?"
"Unfortunately, that was inevitable." Shepard informed him solemnly. "I deemed the risk worth giving my people a better chance of surviving the mission."
"We've included blueprints for transmat blockers along with the system itself." Crow assured him. "Something that Cerberus won't have, or at least you'll have it first. Chances are they'll find out about them eventually, but by then you should be able to implement them before Cerberus can take advantage."
Anderson sighed, holstering his sidearm, and ran a hand down his face. After a few moments, he glared at Shepard between his fingers. "Does this have anything to do with the strange rumors bouncing around the wards?"
At her side, Joker coughed awkwardly.
"Possibly, sir." she answered. "We've tried to be careful, but these things happen. We're hitting the Collectors soon, so I've given most of my crew some leave."
"Try to keep the public's exposure to this to a minimum from now on." the Councilor sighed. "Use the docks like normal people."
Joker let out a small huff of annoyance that she hopes Anderson didn't hear. Maybe I'll make an exception for him. Even though transmat dropped him from several inches above the ground, Joker had perfected his landing technique to where it wasn't so hard on him, and even though he had never said it out loud, it was clear to her that his excessive use of transmat wasn't just because of the novelty of teleportation. Being able to go places fast was something he wasn't used to having. She never used to see him outside the ship much, but since the transmat system was installed, he'd been out and about almost constantly.
If anyone deserved a free pass to abuse the transmat, it was Joker. She was sure she could make some excuse about mobility assistance when she cut down on the rest of the crew using it.
"I'll talk to the crew about appropriate usage." They would still have to finish conditioning the ground team to the side effects, of course, but that could be done on board.
"Good." Anderson nodded. "I think this technology is best kept on the down low until we really need it."
"Glint and I put together a codex of sorts on our reality to pass along to you as well." Crow interjected. A month ago, he probably would have stuttered, but now he stepped forward and activated his omni-tool. Anderson didn't need much prompting to open up his as well. "Hopefully it will clear up a lot of questions. We've marked the sections on the Hive for your convenience. Not sure if it will tell you anything that wasn't in our original report, but still."
"Good." the older man said. "Hackett says they've confirmed the facility is clear of any more Cryptoliths, by the way. He's assigned some brass to set up shop and keep exploring, try to pinpoint the origin of the corruption."
"Facility?" Shepard queried.
"The prothean ruins that Cerberus was digging into." Anderson told her. "It was much bigger than we originally thought, and so far it's looking like the Hive growths are origination from somewhere deep within it. There still hasn't been any contact with hostiles, but we're still taking things slow regardless. There's still power in some sections of the ruins, and even if there aren't any Hive, nobody wants to run the risk of breaking something important or running into a prothean booby trap."
"I've never heard of prothean ruins having traps in them." Shepard commented. "Except for that incident on Therum, and that was more of case of hitting the wrong button than a trap."
"The place is filled with stasis pods, and they've found extensive armories." the Councilor grimaced. "It was clearly a military base. If I were planning on going to sleep for a few centuries and there were Reapers strutting around topside, damn right I'd set a few traps in case something unpleasant came knocking."
"Makes sense." Shepard shrugged. "Must be an archeologist's nightmare; possible functioning prothean technology, but some assholes from another universe are gunking it all up and making a mess of the place."
"For once prothean tech is a secondary priority." the Councilor shook his head. "Never thought I'd say that. But plugging this leak, for lack of a better term, is more important. They've managed to keep the growths contained by burning them, as per your suggestions, Crow, but they're still cropping up. It would take a live ass prothean to make us switch objectives at this point."
"Careful sir, weird things happen around us." Joker warned. "'Live ass prothean' is the one of the few things we haven't done yet aside from going through the Omega 4 Relay and time travel. If you speak it near us, you're tempting fate."
"It's been fifty thousand years lieutenant. I think it's safe to say the chances are one in a million and covered in Hive chitin." Anderson shook his head, a small, amused smile playing with the age lines on his weathered face. For some reason, Shepard felt a chill of dread run down her spine. It was gone just as fast, so she dismissed it. She got those 'someone walked over my grave' feelings all the time, increasingly so as her career went on. She had learned to ignore them.
"Joker, give the man the goods." She decided to move things along. The pilot took off his hat and removed all the Cerberus intel he had datamined since their last rendezvous out of his 'hat pocket'. "You and Crow can go, there's something I wanted to discuss with the Councilor in private."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." Joker and Crow both saluted. She couldn't remember when Crow had started saluting her. "Come one, let's hit Macs."
"Sure. Glint?" the three of them disappeared in a frenzy of transmat particles. Anderson gave her the stink eye.
"Wouldn't it look weird if they left through the front door having never been seen entering?" she defended.
"I can't argue with that, but like I said before; please stop your crew before they become an urban legend." he tapped Joker's OSD against his palm and set it on the desk next to the SD with the transmat blueprints on it. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"
"We're hitting the Omega 4 Relay." She informed him solemnly. "I plan on making an announcement to the crew when I get back, let them get their affairs in order while we still have access to comm buoys. We finished installation of the Reaper IFF a day earlier than we thought we would."
"I see." he frowned. "How do you like your chances?"
"I like them better than I did before." Shepard told him. "The team has finally meshed in a way I almost wasn't sure they could. Garrus got us a crazy new main gun for the Normandy, Jacob got us access to some hull plating that probably costs his weight in ezzo, and Tali just finished installing cyclonic barrier tech, so I'd say the Normandy is much better prepared for the Collector's cruiser than last time, at least."
"And you've got an immortal soldier who gave you teleportation technology." her old Captain added. "I doubt the Collectors know about either of those. It'll be a bad day for them when you bring him onto the field."
"That's partially what I wanted to talk about, sir." Shepard told him. "Crow. If we make it back, I know the Alliance will have to detain me, intel or not. I plan on giving my crew the option to turn themselves in with me, but Crow doesn't have anywhere to go if he declines. He wasn't even born in this reality, he's not a citizen of any government or species faction. Have you told the rest of the Council about him and the situation on Eden Prime?"
"I had to tell them about Eden Prime since there are prothean ruins with possible functional technology inside." Anderson sighed. "And I couldn't tell them about that without telling them about Crow. So yes, they know. And they're... alarmed by his existence."
"Would he be in danger if he left the Normandy, sir?" She questioned quietly, dread sinking its claws into her stomach. Just because Crow couldn't die, didn't mean he couldn't be in trouble. The situation he'd been in before the Normandy was proof of that.
"I can't say for certain." Anderson closed his eyes tiredly for a moment. "The consensus is that he's better off... 'contained' once you're done with him. That something like him is too dangerous for any one species to have access to."
"Awoken came from humanity." Shepard informed him, the shadow of an idea forming in her mind. "That's his species, Awoken. They're... 'evolved' humans, for lack of a better term. Transformed by a fight between opposing ontological forces, the energy exposure changed them. Most medical scanner register Crow as human, his basic physiology is still the same as ours. Awoken are considered part of humanity where he's from. Going by all that, we could argue that he's technically human."
"He's still not a citizen, so there's not much we can do." Anderson shook his head. "Aside from lobby for his rights, and I would be one against three."
"He could be a citizen though." Shepard pointed out. "If he's technically human, he can enlist in the Alliance."
It was a long shot. Crow still had serious trauma to work out, the kind of stuff that would make even basic training hard. He was used to being ordered around by a cruel (literal)slave driver of a mob boss, an environment involving a DI who reamed you for every hair out of place might cause him to backslide on all the progress she'd seen him make.
But between getting 'contained' by the Council and Alliance basic training, she liked his chances with the Alliance more. He would probably handle 'containment' even worse than he would a drill instructor. The only other option she could think of for him was to have Thane take the Hunter with him when he left the Normandy, assuming the drell survived the mission, and help the Awoken disappear into the galaxy, and even that wasn't long term solution; eventually, Thane would be driven to staying near a hospital, out in the open. Not the kind of situation that was ideal for hiding immortal god-slayers.
Not that anything about this impending situation was 'ideal'. Crow was tasting freedom for the first time in who knew how long, he hadn't specified how long he'd been in Spider's tender care. She didn't want to win against the Collectors only to throw a good man to the wolves after he'd been through so much beforehand.
"That's... ambitious." Anderson said slowly, brow furrowing. "We're in peacetime right now, it would take a year for him to qualify for citizenship, and even though being one of ours might buy him wiggle room, I can't make any promises."
"We'll be at war sooner or later." Shepard pointed out, though she didn't want to. "Whatever chaos the Reapers cause will take their minds of us pulling this bullshit."
Being an Alliance soldier would make it so that detaining Crow just because he was a paracausal oddity more difficult. A soldier went where his superiors ordered him, and she knew she could trust Anderson and Hackett to put him with people who wouldn't order him to dance to the Council's tune. Ideally, he would end up with her eventually, if she wasn't court marshalled for working with a terrorist organization.
If he made it in the Alliance long enough to qualify for citizenship, that would make it even more difficult. The Alliance having an immortal soldier tailor-made for the post-apocalypse wouldn't sit well with the Council, or really anyone from alien leadership, but it was the best, easiest way to secure the man some more sapient rights than 'you're weird so we have to contain you'.
"The others won't like it." the older N7 pointed out. "'Political shitstorm' is the nicest way I can think of to describe the potential fallout."
"Maybe I've spent too much time on the ground, sir." Shepard started. "But the safety of my crew matters more to me right now than the Council arguing who gets Crow. He's a person, not a prize, and he's been through a lot. He got stuck here because going home would have meant leaving one of my men to die. He stayed to help with a suicide mission on his own volition for a chance to save the missing colonists. The way I see it, the Alliance owes him safe harbor at the least, a medal at most."
Some people would say her priorities were skewed. That she should think more about her species position in the galaxy, and that the collective good of humanity should matter to her more than the fate of one man who had no steaks in the affairs of the galaxy to begin with. But that was the Illusive Man's line of thinking, and she liked to be as fundamentally different from that egoist as possible. She'd seen what 'sacrificing the good of the few for the needs of the many' led to. It led to dead Rear Admirals, friends eaten by thresher maws, one brother wiring the other up like a puppet.
"I see." Anderson said slowly, diplomatically. Something on his desk pinged, and he sighed, straightening up and brushing the wrinkles out of his suit. "That would be the elcor ambassador. He likes to be early. Look, I can't make any promises about Crow. But I can talk to Hackett and practice selling the idea. Your vote of confidence will certainly help."
"I'll talk to you about it more if we make it and pitch the idea to Crow." She nodded, mind still trying to think of ways to give her Hunter a better chance out in the galaxy.
"Not if you make it. After you make it." The man insisted, gaze hardening. "You kick their door in, burn their damn house down. But don't you talk about it like survival is an if. You treat this kind of thing like an 'if', it'll become one."
"Just like if you joke about finding live protheans around the Normandy crew it'll happen?" a smirk played at her lips.
"No, I think that one will remain one of the lieutenant's flatter jokes." he dismissed. "In all seriousness, Shepard? Be careful. And report back to me when you're done, first thing."
"Yes, sir." She saluted. He might not technically be Alliance anymore, but not saluting felt wrong. "EDI, get me back to the Normandy."
"Of course, Commander."
"Attention all hands."
Shepard sat at her desk, hands hovering over the 'send' button. She'd had a long time to think about what happened on Horizon. A long time to reconcile what had happened between her and Kaiden, both before and after Alchera, that a few months for her had been two years for him, that things had changed. But questioning her loyalty? That as the wound that stuck with her more. Lovers came and went, but she was a soldier of the Alliance, always had been, always would be. She could accept that their relationship was in question, after two years. But calling her a traitor? No, not yet. and at this point, she isn't sure things could work out between them after that. But...
He was the only person, who wasn't already on board the Normandy, that she could send a personal goodbye to in case things went horribly wrong. Wrex wouldn't care if she sent him a letter; in his eyes she would either die or rise victorious, no use worrying about the outcome. She had told Liara she planned on hitting the Collectors after her visit to the Citadel, so goodbyes and good lucks had already been said between them.
So, she still hit 'send'.
"In approximately eighty-four hours, barring emergencies or extreme circumstances, we will be going through the Omega Four Relay."
Thane sat down across from Kolyat, both drell fully aware of the tension in the air between them, as thick as the smell of cooking meat and greasy food that permeated the air. He was not the only member of the Normandy crew at Macs right now, but he was uncertain about introducing them to his son. He had still offered Crow a friendly wave as they entered.
"So, why a human place?" His son prompts after about a minute of awkward staring.
"A crewmate recommended it. I found it to be quite good." Thane told, shifting the menu in front of him. "Both the food and the atmosphere. It's... homey. I..."
He took a breath. He might as well be straight with him. The boy deserved it. "Kolyat, our mission is coming to an end soon. It will be incredibly dangerous."
The boy held no illusions. "You want this to be my last memory of you. In case you die on it."
"Yes." Last memories were important things, especially to drell. They could shape how you remembered someone. Kolyat's last memory of Irikah was of screaming and death. If he didn't make it... he wanted Kolyat's last memory of him to be a good one, even if things were still strained between them. "If you would rather go somewhere else, or not do this at all I-"
"No, no." his son shakes his head. "This is... this is fine. I've... never tried earth food like this before."
"I hope that you will enjoy it." Thane folded his hands on the table in front of him, relaxing; or, and least trying to. It wasn't something that came naturally to him. His body was honed for one purpose, his instincts sharpened to one end. Relaxing at a restaurant with his son was... surprisingly difficult, now that he was trying it. He had only been here a few minutes, and he had caught himself checking exits and glancing at the other customers more times than necessary.
"What even is a 'cheeseburger'?" Kolyat asked, brow furrowed as he regarded the menu.
"Perhaps you should find out."
"I know we've been through a lot to get here."
Crow saw Thane enter Macs with another drell in tow, the older offering a friendly wave in his direction, before leading the younger to a booth at the other end of the establishment, a clear statement of a preference for privacy. That must be his son. Ken and Gabby had joined him and Joker shortly after they arrived. Apparently, Shepard had made a ship wide announcement when she got back; they would be attacking the Collectors in three days. Whatever everybody needed to do, they had to do it before the ship left tomorrow morning.
Gabby had decided that barbequed ribs were something that needed doing. Crow had decided to try a bacon burger with curly fires this time. The curly fries, in his opinion, tasted just like regular fries but in a funny shape, with only slightly different seasoning. He tried a rib when Gabby offered him one, and discovered that he liked that, too. Both the rib, and the novelty of having people around him who would willingly offer to share their food with him; not even out of survival, it was for fun, just because they could.
You wouldn't find people like that on the Shore. He offered Gabby some of his fries in return, and discovers he enjoys sharing his food with others as much as he does others sharing with him. How had he gotten so lucky? He fell into this world running from his past, and now... he thinks he's found a future worth fighting for.
Worth facing whatever they would find at the Collector's base of operations.
"We've had triumphs and suffered setbacks."
Joker was trying really hard not to laugh as he watched Crow get barbeque sauce everywhere. Gabby had offered him one of her ribs, and he had to remind himself that Crow was a man who had never encountered messy finger food before, so it was understandable that he was giving most toddlers a run for their money. He tries really hard not to think about the fact that they've spent two months teaching this man how to enjoy things like food and sleeping without one eye open, and in three days' time they might get him killed permanently.
Even Crow wouldn't survive the galactic core if things went too far sideways.
"Bloody hell, Crow." Ken exclaims, looking their Awoken companion up and down. "You look like a bloody little kid."
"I wouldn't know." Crow rolled his eyes. "I've never met a little kid, nor do I remember being one."
"Hey, how old are you anyway?" Gabby inquired. "If you don't mind us asking, that is?"
"I don't mind." He rubbed the back of his neck looking a little embarrassed. "At this point I'm a little over two."
Joker inhaled some of his soda, and coughed up the carbonated beverage all over his fries, airway burning.
"YOU'RE BLOODY TWO YEARS OLD?" Ken exclaimed, shouting loudly enough to make the drell at the other end of the establishment jump.
"I really did think I mentioned it before at some point!" Crow defended himself.
"We've forged bonds that will carry us through this, and last between us long after this is over. We've come a long way in five months, and I know we're ready for this."
Miranda hummed as she cleaned her gun, taking comfort in the familiar action.
"Looks like someone is still in a good mood." Jacob commented as he walked past on his way out of the armory.
"You could say that." Over the past week, Shepard had finally relented and allowed her to finally shoulder the shipside duties she should have been running. After so long, there was finally an understanding... a peace, between the two of them.
"Have you spoken to your sister yet?" The other officer asked, well-meaning as always.
"Yes." She supplied diplomatically.
"I meant since Shepard made her announcement." he clarified. "You don't want to go into this thing with regrets."
"I won't." she told him. "I'll get to it, don't worry. It's the middle of the night where she right now."
"Well, I'm going to go call my mom. Maybe hit a movie when I'm done." Jacob informed her. "You're welcome to join me, if you want."
"Maybe." She said. She went back to humming after she registered the sound of the door closing behind him, running a q-tip delicately across the inside thermal clip housing. She would rather keep cleaning her gun, in all honesty. It helped take her mind off how Shepard actually trusted her now, about the way she could see the woman's perspectives on Cerberus much better after five months of serving with her than she had ever wanted to.
It helped take her mind off Akuze, the Archer brothers, and the encrypted message she'd gotten an hour ago asking for ideas on how to contain Crow.
It helped take her mind off all the ways Shepard had earned her respect and fealty... and all the ways she could stab the woman in the back if the Illusive Man asked it of her.
"If you have any unfinished business, now is the time to do it. Call your loved ones, make sure your affairs are in order."
Tali watched as all the people below her went about their daily live. Watched with a sort of distant feeling as they went between work and home or vice versa, to pick their kids up from school, or meet a friend for lunch. She had just sent the Admiralty the transmat blueprints, and courteously informed him that her next mission was extremely high-risk.
She had known Raan since she was a little kid. Some would say, with that kind of relationship, her honorary aunt, that she at least owed the woman a personal letter before she flung herself into a potential suicide mission. But-and Tali know it's one of her biggest flaws- she can be an incredibly petty person, and she was still hurting after that trial. Two of them were close friends of her parents, and they had agreed to setting her up to having her grief displayed for the whole fleet to see. Raan had said it was because the people needed to see her reaction, to make her look more innocent.
But all she could think since then was... What kind of bosh'tet does that to someone? Her only consolation was that the entire fleet also got to see Joker utterly lose it and go for the throat. Sure, he hadn't been very professional about it, but he'd managed to embarrass the Admiralty Board, and that was good enough for her.
And so, she didn't write a letter. She toyed with the idea of calling Liara, but in the end decided against it; they hadn't really kept contact much over the last two years, Garrus was really the only one she'd kept in close touch with. She startles when her omni-tool pings and looks down at the notification. It was Crow in the 'Beam Us Up!' chat room, informing her that most of the transmat team was at Macs and she was welcome to join.
She decided to keep people watching for now; she wasn't feeling up for engaging socially at the moment.
But it was nice to know she had options.
"I'll do my best to get you all back alive, but for some of us, this may be a one-way trip. Thank you, for your support and your sacrifice."
Garrus tapped his talons on the edge of the extranet terminal, still internally debating whether this was a good idea. If he died, then they need never know what had happened on Omega. Was there really any point in worrying them with the sight of his... makeover so soon beforehand?
But the call was already synching. In fact, it had been synching for a good five minutes, and it was starting to tick him off. It was bad enough he'd had to deal with bureaucracy earlier, to deliver the transmat plans to the Hierarchy, but now he had to endure the steaming pile of nathak crap that was the public galactic communications network.
The call finally connects, and suddenly, all the imagined conversations he'd gone through in his head haven't prepared him nearly as much as he thought they would.
"Spirits..." It's only been two years, but his sister looks like she's aged five. He supposed that what having a sick mother, a hardass father, and a delinquent vigilante brother who never called could do to you.
"Hey, Sol." he barely manages a wobbly smile, the weight of what this conversation would be settling more heavily on his shoulders than before. "Is mom with you?"
"We'll be leaving at o six hundred hours and entering a comm blackout until we reach the Omega system. That will be all."
"Shepard out."
Say hello to the longest chapter in the fic... so far. Honestly not sure If I'll be able to top this one.
What follows after you accidently delete a giant chunk of a chapter is somewhat like a chasing a high; you try desperately to replicate the incredible original, but always come up short. I managed to mostly replicate what I lost in this chapter, except for Thane's segment. For the life of me, I couldn't make it like it used to be. I very nearly turned the entire 'Shepard's announcement' section into a chapter of it's own, but it would have been the shortest chapter aside from chapter 6, and I felt it meshed well as a conclusion to this chapter.
JGThorcross: That is hands-down one of my favorite pieces of lore aside from anything about the Iron Lords. Talk about unconventional warfare. And there's a lore tab on a Ghost shell that pretty much confirms excessive dancing might be a canonical Guardian instinct.
hornig3: Or I could just cheese the whole chapter by letting Glint break the heretics so that the whole team can just waltz through with no opposition. But the only cheese I've ever really bothered with is the Riven encounter, because I've done that thing legit and don't usually have all night, so I'm not going to let Shepard and co. cheese the heretic station.
Ebuc: I've seen a few fics where the hologram emotes are depicted as being Light constructs, and I fully support the theory. It adds a new layer to what Guardians are capable of. My personal head canon is that these constructs are more complex and more finely controlled than the weapons and abilities Guardians summon, but physically fragile because of this, like a bubble, or brittle glass. Otherwise we would have Guardians wielding flaming golf clubs into battle purely for comedic purposes.
Kataang00: Uhh, Akshully' THANK YOU FOR POINTING THAT OUT! All the weird things I've researched for the sake of this fic, from the mundane to things that have DEFINITLY gotten me on the FBI watch list(If you're my FBI agents reading this, don't forget to read and review, it was just for fanfiction I SWEAR, I have no intentions on vaporizing a human body now or ever, I just wanted to figure out how many joules of energy a Guardian puts out when they merc someone with the Light), that was the ONE THING I forgot to look up. I've fixed it. You also reminded me to put a content warning on one of the two(glances at the upcoming collector abduction chapter) three chapters that I feel truly deserve it. I keep forgetting that unlike Ao3, doesn't have tags that can let people know what they're in for.
But really, FBI, read and review. You thought you found a potential serial killer but all you got was this stupid fanfiction, enjoy it.
Fare Thee Well!