A/N: Thank you to those that are still reading and welcome to new followers! Enjoy!
Next morning found Kaidan nursing a hot mug of coffee while Nick pulled up the galaxy map to pinpoint the different missions the Normandy had received in the past day. To be fair, from Rannoch almost everything was far away.
"The two missions marked with highest priority," Nick said, "are the Prothean dig site currently under Cerberus control and an Asari monastery. Yes, Liara," she held up a hand to stay the asari, "you want to go to Lesuss but the dig site on Eden Prime is closer. Marginally."
"I haven't lost my passion for Prothean history, Shepard," Liara retorted mildly. "I was going to say that's a difficult choice."
Nick blinked. "Well, yeah. That's why we're in this meeting. Yes, I can just make my choice but I value all of your," she gestured at the assembled group, "input. It's a team effort." She turned back to the table, frowning, and pulled up a projection of Eden Prime. "Scientists reported finding a Prothean artefact and Cerberus hit the colony here, hard. There were no survivors." Everybody shifted slightly, low murmurs briefly filling the room.
"Do we know what they found?" Liara asked. "A part of the Crucible, maybe?"
Shepard shook her head,"We don't know what the scientists found. Whatever it was, it was worth a massive attack by Cerberus and that means we have to get it back. That was mission number one. Number two is an Ardat-Yakshi monastery under Reaper attack."
She filled them in quickly.
Kaidan almost felt like laughing. To think they might head back to where everything began; he could only hope that no Spectres died on this visit to Eden Prime, though.
They were headed to Eden Prime.
Not quite directly—there were one or two minor missions on the way Alliance Command wanted Nick to deal with. "I guess it makes sense," she reasoned. "We'll take a look and if they're not too time intensive we'll do them. It's all for the war effort. No need to double back again if we can get them done with now."
Nick had, Kaidan knew very well, spent the previous evening going through her messages and sorting them by priority and then by availability before sending out the mission specifics. A rush of apprehension surged through him as he read through them. Knowing they were going back to the planet where everything started was a strange feeling. All he saw when he closed his eyes were dragon's teeth turning colonists into husks and the wide-eyed gunnery sergeant trying to fend off the attacking geth, alone.
He opened his omnitool and fired a quick message to Ashley. Hey Ash, headed to Eden Prime. Won't be the same without you. Kick ass and stay safe.
Kaidan hadn't heard from her for several weeks but then he didn't know where her unit was currently. Strictly speaking, he didn't even know if his friend was still alive but considering Liara hadn't mentioned anything contrary, he was going to assume she was alive and kicking.
He snorted. Ash would be insulted at him thinking the Reapers could put her down. Sitting back, he gazed out of the view port listening to the hum of Normandy's drive core for a few moments before shifting his focus to the reports he had to finish. They wouldn't, unfortunately, write themselves.
The trip to the human colony took longer than expected thanks to an increasing number of missions that suddenly popped up in Nick's task list marked urgent. It seemed as though every day brought a new crisis that needed their attention
"You'd think we're the only Alliance ship out here," she muttered under her breath after returning back to the Normandy, frowning at her Valkyrie. It had jammed twice on her while she was groundside. She dismantled the weapon with practiced ease, critically inspecting each part before cleaning and reassembling. Satisfied, she cleared it away. Her patience for side missions on the other hand was running rather thin.
"We kind of are, aren't we?" Kaidan put in, stowing away his armor. He wasn't wrong, per se. Most ships had been called back to the Sol system as a final defense but not all. And Normandy was the fastest ship the Alliance currently had.
She cast him a sour look, waving his words aside with a swipe of her hand, "Details, shmetails."
On her other side Garrus snorted. "Come on, Shepard. It's just like old times. Hackett was constantly popping up with new things he needed you to do, and that was without there being a war on."
Kaidan gestured at Garrus, "What he said."
"Would you two just let me whine for a moment?"
"Doesn't that count as undermining morale?" Garrus mandibles twitched.
"Fuck off, Vakarian," Nick grumbled. She closed her locker and scrubbed a hand over her face. "I hope this was the last detour we have to take, though. I mean, I didn't much mind at first but this is just excessive. One moment it's 'hey, we need you to go here real quick' and the next it's 'oh, and stop here while you're in the area or not, and here, and here.' The only good thing that came from this one is we're fueled up and communications are stabilized."
"Estimated arrival in the Utopia System 2 days, 3 hours and 47 minutes," EDI's voice rang out over the comm.
Nick sighed, "Yes, thank you, EDI. Let's just hope it doesn't get delayed. Again."
"You could always tell Joker to put the Normandy through her paces," Kaidan pointed out, clearing away the last bit of gear. "Though that would mean needing to refuel again sooner, so maybe nah."
She tilted her head to the side, considering, before scrunching up her nose, "Yeah, nah."
Some higher entity must have heard Nick's plea, Kaidan thought wryly, suiting up two days later and listening to Liara's ramblings about Protheans with half an ear. The asari was a lot more excited about reaching Eden Prime than either Nick or he were. He glanced up, meeting Nick's gaze briefly.
She rolled her eyes and he bit down a smirk.
"It feels wrong being here without Ash," he said.
"Yeah," Nick agreed, frowning at the incendiary grenades before adding a few more charges to her pack. "That'd be one hell of a trip down memory lane. I can do without the dragon's teeth and hostile geth and certainly without some goddamn Prothean beacon knocking me out for hell knows how many hours, though. Never want to do that again."
"It was fifteen hours," Kaidan said, rolling his shoulders. "Is the dig site anywhere near the old LZ?"
Nick snorted and shook her head. "Of course you remember how long I was out. And no, it's not."
He shot her a crooked smile. It wasn't as though he would ever forget those long hours of waiting.
Cortez stuck his head out of the shuttle, "I'm all set, Captain. We can get going any time."
"Let's go then." She shot Kaidan a grin, climbing into the shuttle, "This is different from last time, too. No skydiving into the LZ."
He barked a laugh, strapping in while Cortez eased the shuttle out of the cargo bay.
The descent was uneventful. Apparently Cerberus wasn't expecting them, or else there surely would have been some sort of anti-air defense.
They disembarked the shuttle a bit less than a klick from the occupied colony—boots touching soft, springy grass—and breathed in fresh, crisp, unrecycled air. Mountains rose around them, some rolling softly, others with jagged cliffs. The colony itself was located on a plateau and looked nothing like where they had been three years earlier. No trees, no gas bags floating around idly.
The only thing that was the same was the almost oppressive silence.
Everything was silent apart from the wind rustling the grass, whistling softly as they approached the first outlying prefabs. Equipment stood strewn around the digsite, seemingly abandoned.
Nick frowned, adjusting the grip on her rifle.
"Stay sharp," she said in a low voice. "Cerberus has to know we're here by now."
"Think it's a trap?" Kaidan asked just as quietly.
She tilted her head to the side, considering. Then she flashed him a sharp grin. "Well, we know what to do with traps."
Rolling his eyes, Kaidan returned the grin, "Spring the trap?"
"Spring the trap," Nick confirmed, moving along a trodden path between two buildings.
"I'm sorry," Liara put in, "but that doesn't make any sense. Why would you want to spring the trap?"
"It's a movie quote," Nick replied, keeping her voice low. "And at the moment it's our only option, if we want to find out what they dug up here."
They entered the camp proper and still there was no sign of movement, but there was…something below at the digsite. A crate or capsule, perhaps. Or a sarcophagus. It reminded Kaidan oddly of the pods they had seen on Ilos. Nick activated the elevator and stepped back as it rose to meet them.
"Look at this," Liara breathed, taking a step closer as soon as it came to a stop.
"Kaidan nodded, "Remember the structure on Ilos? All those pods hanging on the walls? Kinda looks like one of those."
"By the Goddess, I think you're—" Liara's voice trailed off, staring at the module in front of her.
"You think he's what?" Nick asked, stepping beside her.
"—right."
They looked down into the face of what Kaidan assumed had to be a Prothean. He cleared his throat, "Well Liara, how does it feel to find a dinosaur?"
"And an intact one at that," Nick remarked, eyes never leaving the inert body in the stasis pod.
"I'm not a paleontologist, that's a completely different field," Liara began before catching herself and letting out a huff of laughter. "You were teasing me."
"Just a little," Kaidan admitted, glancing at the reading on his omni-tool. He raised an eyebrow, "This dinosaur is not only intact, they're alive."
"Can we get them out?" Nick asked, slowly circling the pod.
Liara checked the pod's readout and frowned, "No, it seems Cerberus damaged the pod during the excavation."
"There might be a remote override somewhere," Kaidan pointed out. "We just have to find—"
A shuttle thundered overhead, interrupting him. It hovered well out of shot range while Cerberus troops rappeled. Swearing under his breath, Kaidan ran forward, taking cover behind a crate and aiming at the first Cerberus soldier to touch the ground. His finger pushed the trigger in short bursts. He was aware of Liara on the other side of the platform, gathering her biotics around her like a coil, her pistol still holstered. The hair in the nape of his neck stood on end as she released a wave of dark energy, caauing several Cerberus troopers to stumble.
Before they regained their footing the sharp retort of Nick's Valiant sounded, and the first trooper dropped.
Kaidan cast a quick glance around the edge of his cover, taking in the situation. Several Cerberus troopers were blocking their way while at least three took off toward one of the buildings further back. "Shepard!"
"I see!" Nick called, urgency tingeing her voice.
He wasn't sure how much time passed as they moved slowly forward, taking care of the Cerberus troopers in their path. Nick had gotten two of the soldiers making for the other buildings but at least one was at large.
"Did one of you see where he went?"
"Negative," Kaidan answered.
Liara shook her head, "I'm sorry, Shepard."
Nick frowned briefly, then sighed, "Well, we have to find the controls either way. We'll deal with Cerberus as needed. Move out!"
Shepard opened another door—and swore. The small room contained a few work stations. Above one a large screen showed only static but Nick seemed to see something else. She rubbed her temples with one hand and stepped closer to the console before casting a look back over her shoulder, "It's Prothean. Watch my back."
Kaidan gave her a short nod, taking up his post at the door, back turned to Nick and Liara. He scanned the area, listening to the soft murmur of the women as they discussed what to do.
Silence fell and he risked a quick glance at the other two. Nick's hands were stretched out, hovering over the terminal, her gaze distant as she stared at the screen. The blank look on her face reminded him of Virmire and Ilos. His gut churned. He knew how much it took out of Nick to interact with Prothean artifacts, they all did. The distant sound of at least two shuttle engines approaching caught his attention.
"Liara," he warned, checking the clip on his assault rifle, "we got incoming."
The first shuttle thundered overhead; he didn't have eyes on the second one. Kaidan aimed at the open hatch, ignoring the dark energy crawling under his skin for now and fired, the bark of his rifle loud in the quiet room. Beside him, Liara unholstered her pistol. Soon there was nothing more than the bark of their firearms and the Cerberus soldiers trying to kill them. Everything narrowed down to two things, holding this door and protecting Shepard as long as she was preoccupied.
He grit his teeth, focusing on the engineer setting up a turret. Two waves of biotic energy crashed into the man, the resulting explosion strong enough to knock several others off balance.
"How many more are there?" Liara called over the din.
"Heaven knows," Kaidan grunted, overloading another turret. He didn't dare check how Nick was doing, not until the immediate danger was dispelled, not even when he heard the sharp gasp behind him.
Relief sliced through him like a knife when Nick rasped out, "Sitrep."
He gave her a quick rundown. Nick grunted an affirmative—doing something in the room—and soon the sharp crack of her sniper rifle joined them as they took out wave after wave.
Finally, it was over.
Kaidan ran a hand through his hair and cast a worried look at Nick, "You okay?"
She nodded curtly, "Fucking headache, but yeah, I'm okay. Let's get out of here."
"Did you learn anything of interest?" Liara asked.
"Mmh," Nick replied, laconic, "I got the opening sequence for the pod."
They made their way back through the camp, clearing prefab after prefab from more Cerberus resistance, until they were back at the digsite proper.
Nick gave them a slightly wild grin, eyes shining as she entered the sequence for the waking procedure into the stasis pod controls before taking a few steps back. Liara stood beside her, fingers steepled and pressing against her lips, eyes trained on the Prothean within.
"Kaidan, how do the vitals look?" Liara asked, excitement in her voice. He couldn't blame her, this had to be one of the greatest moments in her life. "It's going to take a few minutes for the pod to process this."
He glanced at the medical readout of his omnitool, "Good, as far as I can tell."
"We got company!" Nick called out, already sprinting for cover, her gaze drawn to the landing platform at the far end of the site and the Atlas mech straightening up there. "Big company!"
Time seemed to crawl as they fought to keep the mech and other Cerberus forces at bay while the stasis pod slowly went through the waking sequence behind them. Kaidan Threw another Guardian over the nearest ridge, the biotic amp burning in the nape of his neck. Panik seized him for a brief moment when he couldn't see Shepard until the familiar retort of her rifle sounded faintly from the roof of the closest prefab and the mech stumbled to a halt, smoking.
The stench of burning circuitry and burning flesh wafted through the air. Trotting back toward them, Nick wiped her brow, "Looks like that was them for now. How's the pod coming along?"
The hiss of hydraulics answered her question. Carefully they stepped close to the stasis pod, eager to see who was inside it.
"We probably shouldn't get too close," Kaidan murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "They'll probably be pretty confused when they wake up."
Liara nodded, "Yes, you are right."
A groan came from the figure within. The Prothean opened his eyes, blinking at the sky before tumbling out of the pod, a wave of biotic energy rippling from his body. He stumbled to his knees, catching himself with one hand and struggling to his feet again. He turned slowly in a circle, eyes darting around wildly as he took in the situation.
Nick held one arm stretched off to the side, palm facing back to keep them from stepping closer to the confused man in front of them. Finally, he came to a stand still, staring into the distance. Kaidan gripped the rifle in his hands more tightly as she approached the Prothean slowly, hand outstretched.
The man spun, quickly, catching her by the wrist, and for a moment time froze. A cry crawled up in Kaidan's throat but he smothered it when the Prothean made no further move apart from turning his head to look at each of them and asking, "How many?"
Nick blinked, "You're the only one. How can you understand us?" She waved her question away. "Never mind. You do, so that's fucking useful. And, if I saw your memories correctly, you are Javik?"
"Yes." He looked around, a faint sneer on his face. "I appear to be surrounded by primitives. You fight the Reapers?"
"We do," Nick confirmed calmly. "And we would value your input, should you decide to help us."
"We shall see," came the haughty reply.
Nick held his gaze before tuning away with a shrug to radio Cortez for pick-up.
A/N: Hope you liked it!