Magnusvictor-Well, there's certainly going to be some development between Garrus and Samara for sure. No doubts about that. As for your concern about Jack opening up too early? I can definitely see what you're saying. But given that she either open up to Garrus, or get sucked out to vacuum, she kind of respected him for that. Weird when you jumble that thought process together, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
Smashbrawlguy-Really glad you enjoyed the story. And do I really got my homophones mixed up some places? (That's embarrassing) It'd be great if you could send me a PM of where those mistakes are at so I can get it fixed ASAP. Thanks!
Deovan-Glad you like the story and are all caught up!
ErzaSmanlovesHalo-Really wondering what the quarians will look like in ME:A. :) Really excited for the high textures and graphics.
In Garrus' eyes, a cop turning a blind eye to a coming atrocity for a bribe of credits was nothing short of wickedness. To be that self-absorbed to abstain from the duties bestowed upon you as an officer of the law? You were supposed to be an upholder of justice to protect and serve the populace; not when it wasn't convenient for you. It was treason to your community. Your government. A subversion of what people expected of you.
Garrus of all people had the right to feel the way he did about it too. He was a cop himself years ago. Rose through the ranks of C-sec; starting at the bottom, from the gleaming presidium, to the hearts of the Citadel's dirtier wards.
"How many cops so far, boss?" Gregg Folly said, cocking a brow and giving Garrus a smirk, "Four? Ha."
Garrus kept staring at the officer who'd just pocketed her chit until she was out of view.
"Four seems about right." Garrus murmured. He knew the bribe he gave the woman was the right thing to do in this circumstance. But how many bribes had this woman taken for the wrong reason? One too many, for sure.
"Let's move." Garrus ordered.
They passed through the restricted area and entered the alleyway. Garrus glanced at his chrono and decided it was a good time to update the Normandy on their current whereabouts and progress.
"Tagger-2 Actual to home-base, respond, over."
"Copy, 2-Actual," Miranda replied, "go for message, over."
Garrus took a spot next to a pillar and stared ahead as Sidonis and Folly moved up. "Be advised, we're on the move for asset 5-5. Will notify of further developments on HVT, how copy?"
"Fully copy, 2-Actual. We're standing by with exfil, over."
"Copy home-base, out."
They kept moving and crossed two empty streets before taking a ladder up to a better position of where they needed to go. Taking a knee at the ledge on the top of the building, Garrus didn't waste any time setting up.
It'd only been six hours since they'd met Samara. And, as Garrus guessed, it didn't take long to actually find her either. Inside the ten minutes it took to get acquainted with the woman, Garrus' group learned she was after some crazed asari named Morinth and needed to know where she was heading. Fortunately for all parties involved, (Including the police officer under orders to detain the Justicar), EDI overheard and still had access to Eclipse's tactical net to highlight who Morinth was and where she was heading.
Garrus deployed the bipod on his rifle, lay prone, and took a good look at the asari transport freighter Morinth was going to be boarding. His HUD translated the letters on the side of the ship that read the AML Demeter; the very ship the eclipse had booked for her to get on.
"It's the ship alright. Just have to wait now."
Sidonis simply nodded as he got his gear and cheat sheet setup for their mission. Folly took the rear and watched their backs as they got their stuff ready.
"What do you have for me?" Garrus murmured quietly as he took a slow breath.
"Range to predicted target at… 894 meters. 8 kilometer per hour winds coming from west to east. It'll probably change when the target arrives."
Garrus nodded and they waited for their target to arrive.
Six more hours pass.
Sidonis and Garrus switched off every once in a while to reduce eye fatigue while Folly kept guard, though more laxly with a helping of chocolate to keep him company.
"Jesus Christ, guys; when is this chick coming?" Gregg grumbled.
Garrus peered and saw an asari woman matching Samara's description of Morinth.
"Finish your chocolate, Folly. I see her right now."
Surprised and relieved, he scarfed it down.
"Yeah… I think that's her." Sidonis whispered quietly in agreement as he peered a little closer to the figure down below.
Garrus called it in to Samara who'd been hiding in the shadows somewhere nearby.
"Asset 5-5, this is Tagger-2 actual, we see possible positive ID on target, how copy?"
Six full seconds pass before Garrus got his reply.
"That is her." Samara answered, "Thank you for your help. But I now must confront her alone."
Both the turians give each other disbelieving stares.
"What? That was not part of the plan! Asset 5-5, stand down, the target will be unstable; you're going to risk innocents."
Samara didn't hear him. She had discarded her radio and stood out in the open for Morinth to see her.
"God damnit." Garrus growled before looking at Sidonis, "I thought Justicars were supposed to protect innocents no matter what?"
"What do we do Vakarian?" Sidonis asked.
"I don't care what Samara wants, we're a go." Garrus said as he took aim, "Range it."
"Alright… Adjust to 8-9-0 meters. 7 kilometer per hour winds still coming from west to east. Full value… Push two quarters left. On target?"
Garrus watched Morinth casually walking toward the ship with a measly bag and ticket in her hands. If Garrus didn't take the shot now, Morinth would soon see Samara and a giant biotic fight would ensue.
"Yes."
"Fire when ready."
Garrus fired without an inkling of hesitation. He'd seen firsthand what a biotic tussle looked like between two powerful people. It never ended pretty when there were unsuspecting noncombatants around. How stupid did you have to be to think picking a fight in front of a restaurant and boarding ship was a good idea? Garrus couldn't fathom it.
Sidonis watched the passing vapor trail and the subsequent hit to center mass. Morinth was dead before she even had the time to drop her bag and ticket.
"One less piece of shit to roam the galaxy." Garrus murmured.
When Morinth fell to the ground, Samara stopped dead in her tracks, amidst the panicked screams and running civilians, and looked up to Garrus' position with an impassive glare on her face.
"Tagger-2 to home-base, job's done. We're ready to leave, over."
"We're sending evac, Garrus." John answered over the radio, "Good work."
Garrus sighed and got up to a kneel before turning the radio off.
"Samara looks pretty pissed Garrus." Sidonis said, watching her through his range finder.
"I don't care. She was about to make a really bad call. Let's pack up. She can discuss that with us when we exfil."
It took two minutes to pack, three to go back down the ladder, and five to arrive at the pickup.
Samara was there first and kept her icy visage on Garrus.
"I did not permit you to fire."
Garrus walked passed her and put down his gun case. "And I told you not to risk the people around you. You personally may not harm innocent people, but, given the description of our target's character, that monster certainly might have."
Samara said nothing and Garrus turned around to finally face her. "There's one thing you have to know about us and the Normandy. We work together as a team. The solo stuff you've been doing for 400 or whatever years? It stays behind."
Samara was going to reply, but the Kodiak turned the corner and opened up for everyone to climb in.
"Let's move." Garrus said, urging everyone aboard, "I want to debrief and eat some damn dinner."
Samara was the last to step in and stood for the entire ride back.
. . .
"An honor to meet you, Justicar." Shepard greeted before offering a hand to shake.
Accepting the human formality, she took the hand and shook.
"The honor is mine, Commander Shepard. Your commitment to integrity precedes you greatly."
"Well. I'm flying under the banner of Cerberus. So not completely." Shepard admitted with a frown.
"Your commitment to what is right still stands."
"Thank you, ma'am." John replied graciously, touched by the compliment, "I hope Mr. Vakarian specified the reason for you being here."
"He has. You wish to stop the collectors from abducting people away from their homes. It is in the defense of those who've done no harm. Something that the code compels me to do."
John remembered the knot in his gut at the mention of her code. There were people on this ship that she'd kill in a heartbeat, given the opportunity.
People like Zaeed. Or Jack. Or Kasumi even.
That wasn't going to fly with the crew, and frankly, it wasn't going to fly with the Commander either.
"Your code…" John started, "I've researched a lot about it and understand the ramifications of coming across people who've done bad." He explained before taking a steady and thoughtful breath, "…The people on this crew come from many different backgrounds. And I need everyone on here to work together to do what we need to do to stop the bad guys."
"I understand." Samara said very formally, "An oath to your cause will satisfy all parties involved. Do not worry."
"Did Garrus help you with what you needed?"
Samara looked down for just a solitary moment before answering with a single nod. "Yes."
John was pretty good at reading the nuances of body language. There wasn't any doubt that some emotions transcended species seamlessly. So the lull between the two caught John's attention enough for him to raise a brow.
"Are you alright ma'am?"
"I am fine."
"If there's anything you need to discuss, you know where to find me."
"There is something we need to discuss," Garrus interrupted from behind Samara as he entered the conference room, "We need to set something straight regarding Samara's vague interpretation of ROE."
John gave the man a concerned look. "What's going on, Garrus?"
Garrus crossed his arms and frowned at Samara. "Justicars are supposed to protect the innocent at the exclusion of all else. I know how the code makes you operate. I took the shot because I had to. So why did you think approaching Morinth was going to be a good idea?"
"Because she was my daughter." Samara said with a straight and unyielding expression.
Suddenly, Garrus felt a thousand times smaller than the woman he was standing in front of.
"...oh."
Juel set his tray down across from Tali and took a seat next to Olasie who'd busied herself with something on the extranet.
"Hey guys."
"Hey." They both reply kindly, minding their business.
"So, I was doing a lot of research about Justicars last night." Juel started.
Olasie looked up momentarily. "They the boogeymen everyone makes them out to be?"
"Depends on who you are." Juel said, shrugging.
"Anything interesting?" Tali asked as she messed around with her food.
Juel tore open his juice box and sighed at the delightful taste. "Yeah. Plenty."
"Tell us."
"Sure," Juel nodded, "Recorded case three centuries ago. Right in the middle of the geth uprising. Only the fourth recorded time in history of a Justicar leaving asari space. Apparently that's a really big deal."
"Go on."
"Well, she left. Fought the geth and protected escaping quarians. Confirmed to have killed 242 geth units. Then she martyred herself by plunging her ship into a geth frigate."
Olasie looked up from her article again with a raised brow. "How come we've never heard of this?"
Juel just shrugged. "I don't know."
"Wow." Was all Tali had to say.
"Yeah. And we have one of their kind on the Normandy right now. That's kind of scary."
"What's there to be scared of? Did something you're not supposed to?" Tali asked with a glint of a dumb smile, "Strangle someone with that robot arm of yours?"
"Maybe I'll strangle you." He uttered as he rolled his eyes. Olasie typically would have laughed at the stupid banter, but she was too wrapped up with whatever it was she was reading.
"What the hell are you looking at, Olasie?" Juel said, leaning over to see what she looking at.
"Fan-fiction." She retorted before showing them the screen, "This shit is nasty. And they keep spelling stuff wrong."
Tali gave her a weird sideways look. "Why are you looking at that?"
"For all the raunchy sex scenes," Olasie replied, returning to her read, "They're so bad."
Juel and Tali share a look.
"Oh my god," Tali snorted, "Alright. Come on. Lay it on us."
All Olasie did was look up, past the tablet, to Tali. "You sure?"
Juel panned between both of them and shook his head.
"Oh yesss, give it too me all of it i love it" Olasie supplied with a cheeky grin, "dont stop halsie, i love you"
"Okay. Alright. Stop." Juel said, all show of hands, "That's terrible."
"You wanted. I delivered."
"What's the fanfic even about?" Tali asked between a helping of ice-cream, "Because that was pretty bad."
"Oh, just some dumb crossover," Olasie said somewhat disinterestedly, "Just my opinion— but crossover's are kinda stupid."
"You look up the weirdest shit." Juel grumbled, "Can't you just look up cats again? Like you used to?"
Tali massaged her pouch of food and decided to change the subject. "So... I'm surprised you guys haven't asked me how my conversation went with EDI."
Juel finished his juicy snack and set it down. "Figured you'd tell us about it when you were ready. It wasn't even that long ago you talked to her."
"It."
"Her." Juel countered.
"It went fine, if you were even concerned." Tali spat with a grumble, unsatisfied with Juel's remark, "But she talks a lot."
Juel gave Tali a not so impressed look. "Not five seconds pass and you just anthropomorphized EDI."
He laughed at the irony and tapped Olasie's shoulder for her attention.
Olasie stared at her offender. "What?"
"Tali's making progress with the AI."
"Amazing." Olasie said disinterestedly before going back to her fan-fiction.
Shepard walked by and Tali smiled at him.
"What's up?" John grinned meekly as he rummaged through the kitchen fridge, "What are you guys up to?"
"Just our daily get together." Juel answered, "How's our newest recruit settling in?"
"She's fine." John answered with a straight face as he read the label on a bottle of water, "She's in the observation center, starboard side."
Olasie set down the tablet and faced Juel. "Why don't you go ahead and say hi? Tell her you spent all last night looking up what they do on Wikipedia."
"I think I'll pass." Juel replied, "I don't want her to write me off as obsessed."
"Juel? Obsessed? No way." Olasie rolled her eyes.
"You know, I could be reading trashy fan-fiction." Juel argued jokingly.
Tali laughed at Olasie's expense and Juel followed shortly after.
"Keep laughing you guys," Olasie said, totally unfazed by their jabs, "Make fun of me all you want. But I own that shit."
It was John's turn to laugh, but he didn't. Instead, he grabbed his small tray of food, and left without a word.
Tali kept staring at him until he was out of view while Olasie frowned slightly.
"Huh. Not really like him to just leave like that."
"Yeah..." Tali agreed, "I'm gonna go see what's up. Can you take my tray?"
"Yeah, sure."
She stood up and went after him.
As she turned the corner, the elevator doors closed.
"Why does that happen," Tali sighed, marking her stroke of bad timing, "And it's always when you've got something important to do."
She crossed her arms and waited for the lift to come back down to pick her up.
Tali found him in their room, munching away slowly on his meal as he looked over some papers.
She went up to him and put her hands on his shoulders to squeeze. "Hey. You okay?"
"Mhmm. I'm okay." John said simply as he took a bite out of his burger.
"Oh, okay." Tali said sarcastically, "I'm convinced."
John did chuckle a little before setting his plate down on their desk and sighing. "Okay. We have, uh, kind of a problem."
"What is it?"
"Garrus killed Samara's daughter."
"What the fuck."
John rose his hands up to stall him some time to give Tali some context.
"Whoa. It's okay. It was Morinth. Morinth is Samara's daughter."
"Keelah, John. Tell me that first before giving me a heart attack."
"Sorry. But it's still not good."
Tali took another breath and played with her small necklace a bit before biting her lip. "What's going on?"
"Apparently Samara wanted to face Morinth and deal with her alone. But Garrus shot Morinth anyways. Did it to protect civilians."
Tali crossed her arms and chewed on her tongue in thought. "Then... Garrus did the right thing."
"I think so too." Shepard said in agreement.
"This is going to make things complicated, isn't it?"
John rubbed his chin and bit his lip. "Yeah."
"What's your plan to fix it?"
"No plan." John said with another sigh, "What's done is done. Samara is going to have to reconcile with it."
All Tali did was nod and lean on the pillar next to their desk while John chewed on his thoughts and food.
"At the rate we're going, Tals, I wouldn't be surprised if this team shook itself apart before the reapers or collectors do."
Tali nodded grimly and decided to put an arm around his shoulder.
"I'm not doubting that there's some serious challenges to face, but you're doing better than most."
"Yeah." John nodded, "Just hate how everyone looks at me like I'm the second coming of Jesus."
"Not sure what that is." Tali said, furrowing her brow, "But I'll take it as a metaphor."
"Just your common mill of human mythology." John supplied with a small smile, "But, as for Samara's problem? Garrus is going to figure something out between them."
"You haven't had any other problems with the crew have you?"
"Grunt broke a window in his room."
"Was that what that loud thud was earlier today?"
"Yeah," John nodded, "And Jack disappears from the ship for hours at a time."
"Brilliant."
"She hasn't had the most endearing development. I'm sure you've learned that."
"Only from what Mordin told me." Tali answered.
John nodded, yawned, and took a bite out of his food. "We're leaving port as soon as everyone comes back. Heading to Bekenstein."
Tali took a breath. "Kasumi realizes how much energy we're putting into this mission of her's, right?"
"She knows."
"She steal anything of yours yet?" She joked.
John laughed. "She's actually a very sweet person, underneath that hoodie of hers."
"When you look past how nosy she is." Tali huffed, "She keeps asking about our relationship."
"How much more is there to tell?" John wondered, "Not two minutes into meeting Kasumi and you spill that we've slept together. Remember?"
Tali chuckled. "Wasn't so subtle was it?"
"Hardly." John said with a grin.
"No sense hiding it. We're together and sleep in the same room." She shrugged, "I'm sure it's crossed people's minds that we've done stuff."
Her brows furrowed at a sudden thought. "Huh. You don't think us being together fraternizing is jeopardizing crew morale or something right?"
"I really don't think so. And what does it matter to them?" John said, giving it only a meager amount of attention to thought, "We're not military."
"I don't know. Was just a thought. That's all." She said.
"Alright John. Eat up. I should probably get back to work. Have some stuff to look over."
"She the maintenance nightmare we thought it would be?"
"Insofar? No." Tali explained, "Would even go to say it's easier than the first Normandy."
"I'll stop by sometime and say hi."
"Please do. We can sneak off somewhere and make out."
He grinned at her. "Oh Tals, I'd love that."
She took off her mask real quick and gave him a quick peck on the lips before smacking it back on.
"Duty calls, boo."
"That's a cute nickname." John said with a soft smile.
"Was thinking about nicknames earlier. Thought it'd fit you. Better than just calling you huneey all the time."
"Used to have a cat named boo." John said, "Maybe we'll get one for the ship."
"We can put it on our wedding registry." Tali said, half serious, "How about that? Or we can ask Olasie to pick one out since she loves them so much."
"Speaking of getting married," John said as he pursed his lips together, "When should we do it?"
"Sooner the better, I'd say."
"Should I get down on one knee for you?"
"I get down on two for you." Tali said before winking at him.
John gave her a very amusing look and laughed. "I love you, Tali."
"Love you too, John. Very, very much. I'd love to talk about it later tonight, okay?"
"Sounds good hun. Stay pretty."