Shepard, Wrex and Ashley moved towards the entrance to Chora's Den. They had to find out what Fist knew about the quarian, who had evidence against Saren. As they reached the door, they heard nothing inside. Like the place was empty. One would think Fist's men would be ready for them by now.
They opened the door. They were greeted with devastation. Tables turned over, bodies everywhere. All the guards Fist had at the club were already lying dead on the floor, a few on some of the tables. There were definite signs of a firefight on the walls.
Ashley spoke up first: "What the hell happened here? Who did this?"
"Someone got here before us", Shepard said. "Let's hope Fist isn't in a similar condition."
"And I was hoping for a fight.", Wrex muttered.
They made their way into the warehouse area, where they saw a few warehouse workers lying on the floor. Apart from them being unconscious, they were otherwise unharmed.
"So all the guards were killed, but not them.", Ashley said, looking at the workers.
"Whoever did this isn't blindly killing everyone.", Shepard said. "We haven't run into anyone coming out and this can't be a very old scene. Maybe they are still here.". She looked at the door leading to Fist's office.
As they approached Fist's office, they heard no commotion inside. Shepard hoped they weren't too late and opened the door. They saw Fist on the floor covering before a tall, hooded figure. The figure was completely clad in black. The figure didn't react to the door so either they hadn't heard it or ignored it.
Shepard and others readied their weapons and she yelled "Wait!".
The figure turned to face them. He turned out to be a human. A man. He looked like he was in his thirties, though his face reflected knowledge and experience. All in all, he could be a soldier, a mercenary or an assassin. Yet, as Shepard looked at him, she couldn't help but to feel there was something strange about the man, something she couldn't quite grasp. She also noticed two objects hanging from his belt. She assumed they were some kind of weapons but she couldn't be sure.
The man looked at the trio and made no move attack or anything that signalled aggression.
He then turned slightly towards Fist and said: "You are popular tonight.", with a deep voice.
Wrex pointed at Fist and said: "He's mine."
"And why is he 'yours'?", the man asked, unfazed by the krogan, tilting his head slightly.
"The Shadow Broker wants him dead. And no one takes my contract from me."
"Really, why?"
Wrex raised his shotgun ever so slightly.
"What do you think?", Wrex sounded annoyed that he would have to explain himself like this to some random human. "He was an agent for the Broker, but he betrayed him".
The man wasn't expecting that. He looked at Fist, then looked back at the trio, as if that was his way of asking "really?" He finally turned back towards Fist and bluntly said: "Idiot.".
He then looked at Shepard and said: "You are Commander Shepard."
"You know who I am?", Shepard asked.
"You have quite the reputation.", the man said, then continued: "Since when does the Alliance involve themselves with krogan mercenaries?"
She sighed slightly. They didn't have time for this; every moment spent here would lessen the chances of them finding that quarian with proof against Saren. But if this man really did all this by himself, it might not be the best idea to provoke him. So she tried to quickly explain the situation.
"Have you heard about the geth attack on Eden Prime?", she asked.
"Of course.", the man replied. "Geth outside of the Veil is already news, but them also attacking colonies is even more so."
"The attack was organised by a Spectre, Saren. He is working with the geth, but the Council won't believe it. We heard about a quarian who has hard proof against Saren, but she was attacked by Saren's men and is now on the run from them. She was going to give the proof to the Shadow Broker in exchange for protection."
"And that is where the pieces come together", the man quietly said to himself. He then continued: "This quarian came to Fist, who as an agent for the broker could have arranged the exchange, but Saren had already won him over. And the broker is not pleased about it.". He looked at Wrex, then finished: "And you are here trying to find out where the quarian is."
Shepard nodded slightly. That was the short version of it.
The man turned towards Fist and said with a low, threatening tone: "I recommend you tell her. Now."
"She's not here, I don't know where she is, that's the truth", Fist said quickly.
"He's lying", Ashley stated.
"Yes, he is" the man said.
"The quarian isn't here, she said she'll only deal with the Shadow Broker himself", Fist said.
"Face to face? Impossible, even I was hired through an agent", Wrex said and moved in closer.
The man gestured towards Fist who stood up and said: "No one meets the Shadow Broker. Ever. But she didn't know that. I said I'll set up a meeting, but it won't be him, it will be Saren's men".
"Give me the location. Now", Shepard said with a threatening tone.
"Here on the Wards, back alley behind the markets. If you're fast you can make it there in time."
"I know the place. We should move quickly." The man said and moved towards the door. "All yours. ", he added, tilting his head towads Fist.
Fist yelled "Nooo...!", which was cut short by the sound of shotgun shot.
Shepard's team moved towards the door as well and she asked: "Are you coming as well?"
"You think I am going to stand still and let innocent blood be spilt? Think again.", he replied.
They arrived at the alleged location, where the quarian's deal was supposed to take place.
"We need to get someone to the other side, to cover it", the man said quietly but audibly, pointing the other end of the alley.
Shepard replied "There's no way we are getting anyone there without being seen."
"I beg to differ."
"How exactly are we...", she turned to face him, but he had disappeared.
"Damn it!", she cursed to herself. She proceeded to look towards the alley, where she saw the quarian being approached by a group of turians and salarians.
"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?", the quarian asked.
"They'll be here. Don't worry", one of the turians replied, touching the quarian in a creepy way.
Sensing a trap, the quarian quickly said "No way, the deal's off."
The salarians drew their weapons, but they didn't notice the concussive grenade that the quarian had thrown on their feet. The explosion sent them flying. Shepard, Wrex and Ashley took care of the turians before they could draw their weapons.
What Shepard, her team or the quarian hadn't noticed was a lone turian assassin standing in the shadows.
The assassin moved in and quietly said with malicious tone: "Suit rat. You're dea.. "
-a red sword blade emerged from his chest, accompanied with a hissing sound similar to when hot metal is submerged into water. Simultaneously, there was another flash of red, and the turian's weapon fell on to the floor, with his now-severed hand still gripping onto it.
Shepard looked and saw the man standing behind the turian. He then said quietly, but audibly, to the turian: "she will stay alive, thank you."
The turian tried to speak, but all that came out was barely audible whining.
The man finally pulled his sword back and the turian collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud; the wound on his back was still smoking. A faint stench of burnt flesh rose from the turian's body.
Now Shepard got a good look at the man's sword for the first time. The two objects on his belt were in fact the hilts of a sword. The hilt were made out of shining silvery metal that had a gold trim on them. The blade was little over a meter long, just a couple of millimeters wide and three centimeters in 'height'. It was immediately obvious that the blade wasn't made of any metal. It had a strange shimmering effect on it and looked almost like liquid that was in motion. It also lit up the man's immediate surroundings. Shepard deduced that blade had to plasma or some other form of energy, given the looks and the damage it could cause. Her suspicions were confirmed when the man flicked a switch on the hilt and the red blade vanished into the hilt.
The man spun the hilt in his fingers for a moment, before placing it back onto his belt.
The quarian was angry and yelled: "Fist set me up! I knew he couldn't be trusted!"
"Are you unharmed, young one?", the the man asked. She calmed down and said "I'm fine. Thank you for saving me. B-but who are you people?"
"You have something the Commander needs", Ashley said with a demanding tone.
"You have proof about Saren, we need it", Shepard added.
"Then I can repay you for saving me", the quarian replied. "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. I found this audio file from one geth i disabled."
She brought up her omni-tool and played the file:
"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit!", Saren's voice said in the recording.
"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers.", an unknown female voice said.
"the first voice was Saren's", Shepard said. "But I don't recognise the second voice. And what about the Reapers?"
Tali said: "according to the recording, they are a hyper-advanced machine race, that existed 50 thousand years ago and are tied in the Prothean extiction. The geth believe them to be gods."
"If that is true...", Shepard started "We need to bring Tali to a safe place."
"Human embassy", Ashley suggested. "Udina will want to hear this anyway."
All five began moving towards the elevator that would take them to the Presidium. Once near the elevator, Shepard asked from the man: "how about you?".
"You are going to go after Saren. If you will allow it, I would like to join your team on your hunt."
"Why though", Shepard asked. "To me you seem like someone, who works alone."
"And you are right, I tend to keep to myself. But this is bigger. Saren has attacked Eden Prime. He has already betrayed the Council. The geth are on the move and there is the potential threat of the Reapers. This is no longer simply about bringing Saren to justice. This is to stop him, the geth and possibly the reapers Regardless if you truly need me or not, if I did nothing, I would regret that. And if the worst comes to pass and the Reapers are indeed returning with the intention of destroying us all, everyone would be needed to rise up against that threat."
"Yeah, you have a point in that", Shepard said.
"Shepard.", Ashley said quickly. "Can we trust him? I mean we only just met him and just like that he is now offering to join us. What if.."
Shepard raised her hand to interrupt Ashley and said: "As did Garrus and Wrex. And you saw how Chora's Den looked. If he wanted to harm us he could have done that hundred times over by now."
"Being cautious is healthy. To an extent.", the man started. "but your Commander is right. If I truly wanted to harm any of you, I would not bother to go through any elaborate plan to pretend to be on your side and then strike at an opportune moment."
Wrex seemed to understand. "You would just do it", he said.
"Indeed."
"Then, welcome to the team", Shepard said to the man.
At this point, he grabbed his hood with one hand, pulling it back letting it drop onto his back.
"I appreciate it. And in that case, my name is Vrik", he replied.
"Good to have you Vrik ", said Shepard and shook hands with him.
They arrived at the corridor that led to Udina's office. Garrus and Kaidan were already waiting by the door. Once there, Vrik was introduced to the rest of the team.
They stepped inside Udina's office, where Udina and Anderson were already waiting. News had already reached Udina and he was not happy at all.
"You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards? An all out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many...".
Udina finally turned to looked at the group.
"Who is this?", Udina asked and looked at Vrik.
"And a quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"
"Just someone providing assistance", Vrik said.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Shepard", Udina said; Vrik 's presence seemed to make him slightly nervous. "And the quarian?"
"This quarian can prove Saren is guilty; I would have told you that, if you hadn't jumped my throat", Shepard said sounding annoyed. She didn't like Udina. At all.
"I-I apologise. Maybe we should start from the beginning, miss..?"
"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya"
"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?"
"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of adulthood. I began to hear chatter about geth. I was curious. I managed to locate a group of geth, isolated one, disabled it and downloaded this recording".
Tali played the same recording she played in the alley.
"That's Saren's voice." Anderson said.
"The Council can't ignore this!" Udina said "although I'm not so sure about these Reapers."
"They're real" Shepard said. "the vision, I'm starting to understand it now."
"We must present this to the Council right away" Udina said.
"Are you sure they will listen this time?" Shepard asked. She still remembered the first meeting.
"Even if they don't believe the part about the Reapers, this recording proves Saren is a traitor."
"The Captain is right." Udina said. "meet me at the Council chambers. As soon as possible." He left the office.
"What about her, the quarian?" Wrex asked.
Tali seemed annoyed "My name is Tali! You saw me in the alley, you know what I can do. Let me come with you."
"What about your Pilgrimage?" Shepard asked.
"The Pilgrimage shows we are willing to give ourselves for the greater good. What would I be if I turned my back on this?"
"All right, you proved your point, welcome to the team. We should go to the Council chambers then. Before Udina embarrasses us again."
They made their way to the Council chambers, where Udina was already presenting the proof. The Council saw the proof as irrefutable and stripped Saren of his Spectre -status. After a lengthy debate, the Council named Shepard as the first human Spectre and gave her the assignment to apprehend or eliminate Saren by any means necessary. It was also revealed that the unknown female voice in the recording was Matriarch Benezia, a powerful biotic with many followers.
As Shepard joined her team, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, she received congratulations from all of them.
Udina told Anderson and Shepard to meet him in his office to 'set all this up'.
"Okay, Udina wants to meet me in his office. Once that is done meet with me at C-sec academy in the Wards. Vrik, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, if you have any items or gear you need to grab, now is the time for that."
Sometime later Shepard, Kaidan, Ashley and Tali were leaning against a wall at C-sec, waiting for the remaining three to arrive.
Garrus was the first to arrive. Apart from his standard C-sec issued pistol and assault rifle, he also had custom-made sniper rifle on his back. He couldn't wait to get out of the Citadel.
Vrik was the second to appear from one of the elevators. He had a bag of his personal belongings. His energy swords still hung on his belt. Besides his swords, he also had a firearm with him this time. It was a large revolver the same size as an eezo-powered shotgun. It was made out of grey metal, though it had similar gold trim as his swords did. The cylinder of the revolver had an orange glow, similar to an omni-tool.
Vrik greeted them as he reached them and Shepard said "Just Wrex to go."
"Should be here shortly" Vrik said. "Said he needed to see Barla Von about something."
A moment later: "Ah, there he is."
Finally, Wrex joined the group. He had nothing new with him, just his trusty shotgun.
"Okay, we're all here" Shepard started. "Anderson gave the command of the Normandy to me. It's an experimental stealth-frigate. Fast and quiet, a perfect ship for a Spectre. Udina also told me that Benezia has a daughter by the name of Liara T'Soni, a Prothean expert. He and Anderson believe that she has no part in Saren's or Benezia's plan, but they still recommended we find her, if she knows anything. She is currently in a dig site somewhere in Artemis Tau cluster."
They stepped into the elevator that would take them to Normandy's docking bay.
After the lift began to move, Ashley asked "So Vrik, how did you disappear at the alley behind the marketplace? Like you were behind us at one point and suddenly you appear behind that turian as you killed him."
"Cloaking." he said and after a moment it looked like his whole form had turned into liquid glass, then he vanished completely. After a couple of second the opposite happened as he decloacked.
"What about your weapons? I've never seen anything like them" Shepard asked. Garrus, Wrex and Ashley raised their heads a little when Shepard asked her question. They were interested to hear it as well. Tali and Kaidan were interested too, although not to the same extent as the others.
"These are my energy sabers", Vrik explained. "the blade is made of contained, concentrated plasma so energetic, they will slash through anything with virtually no resistance. Only very few and rare materials can resist the blade and even those will not resist it forever. The only thing it cannot go through is the blade of another saber. They also make very good throwing weapons, if you can control their trajectory."
"Can you?", Shepard asked.
"Of course."
"What about your gun?"
"I call it 'Grandhorn', a heavy-duty revolver that packs a punch "
"Can't wait to see them in action.", Shepard noted.
"You will, in time."
Afterwards the topic switched to the upcoming mission until they reached their destination.
Apart from Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan, the others saw the Normandy for the first time.
"Hmm, looks like human-turian design" Vrik remarked.
"It looks incredible" Tali said, amazed.
Together, as a team, they walked inside the Normandy.
-=
A/N:
My 2nd attempt at a story, please be gentle.
Hopefully there aren't too many mistakes, English isn't my primary language.
Assumption is that readers already have some knowledge about the ME universe