David Anderson was having a hard time sleeping. He stood beside one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room of his apartment, still fully dressed in his PT gear, having just finished his midnight workout. It helped him think, being active before bed. He patted his forehead with the towel draped around his neck as he looked down at the Presidium below him.
He couldn't help but wonder what trouble John Shepard and his seemingly unkillable sister were causing. He'd caused a bit of a stir three days ago when he'd punched Ambassador Udina to get the Normandy clearance to Ilos. That had had its own repercussions that he was still dealing with, but he hoped that John pulled through for him on this one and proved him right. Maybe they'd have a chance in this damn war.
Anderson had taken John under his wing after he'd found the boy on Mindoir. He'd been the closest thing to a son Anderson had ever truly had, and he felt for the boy after losing his father. He hadn't known Renee Shepard personally, but after doing a little digging into her background, he understood why the boy didn't want to be sent to live with his mother. He'd pleaded with Anderson when he was younger to rescue his sister from that hell, and showed him her emails. He'd come in on the boy crying more than once when he'd stayed with him between school breaks.
And he'd tried his best to rescue that poor girl. He followed Renee Shepard's emails, pulled her service record, spoke to her commanding officers. Hell, he tracked down some of her subordinates, even. Commanding officers might give a glowing report, but he'd found time and again that the real story comes out of how you treat your subordinates. All of her subordinates felt bad for little Mia.
When she enlisted, Anderson tried to pull the strings he could for her, but she was outside of his sphere of influence- and entirely in her mother's. So Anderson took to gathering the data, systematically ordering all the evidence of her abuse and neglect of her daughter, not to mention a fair bit of evidence of her drinking on the job, and compiled it in a neat little folder.
It took years, but when Mia finally came into his sphere of influence, he was determined to keep her. He sent a copy of that folder to Renee, along with a suggestion to retire. A thinly-veiled threat that could get him seriously reprimanded, but he doubted this woman would be brave enough to try. She was probably shitting herself from getting a message from her son's commanding officer.
Anderson shook his head. He'd had very few conversations with Renee Shepard, but his take away from her as a person was that she was sad, miserable, and scared and she was determined to make everyone else feel the same way. Somehow despite that, Mia had turned into something of a beacon of hope for their galaxy. Both of his kids had, really.
He was so immensely proud of how far both of them had come, and he made a mental note to tell them that the next time he saw them. A spike of anxiety ran up his spine as he felt the room jostle a bit. If he saw them again, that was.
He looked around, frowning. The Citadel arms were being closed? He looked back out into the courtyard of the Presidium, frowning as Avina's voice started to fill the station. He originally moved to this apartment because of the view of the statue of the mass relay, and its location to the Tower. It made commuting a lot more bearable when he didn't have to deal with transit. Now, in the middle of the Citadel's sleep cycle, the holographic sky reflected fake stars blinking distantly as the rumble of moving metal and explosions echoed through the station.
" Critical failure detected across all available systems. Please begin emergency evacuation." The robotic voice echoed through the tower, in every building. Anderson didn't have time to process the words before something caught his eye. The mass relay replica began to glow. Like a real one, the circular center began to spin, gaining speed as the relay seemed to be powering up. Suddenly, an arc of blue energy sprang from the relay, shooting a vehicle across the courtyard. Anderson had to do a double take; he knew that vehicle. That was the Normandy's Mako, he was sure of it. No one else would be crazy enough to drive a Mako through a mass relay onto the Citadel except his kids. He held his breath, waiting for them to emerge from the tank, which had flipped from the momentum of the relay.
John wiggled out of the driver's seat, followed by Mia in the passenger seat. One by one, their crew climbed out of the vehicle, checked themselves and their weapons, then on a hand signal from John, moved together as one.
Anderson smiled down at the team. He knew then that they were going to be fine. But now he had a job to do supporting them. He needed to find Joker and bring him home, station-wide evacuation be damned.
Garrus Vakarian Enroute to Citadel Tower 0115 hours
"We're never letting you drive again, Shepard," Garrus groaned as he shook his shoulders out. "A Mako through a mass relay? You just shot us across the galaxy in a tin can out of a cannon that was calibrated fifty-thousand years ago!"
"You lived, didn't you?" John smirked playfully. Garrus chuckled, shaking his head.
"Always with the calibrations," Mia chided, and his eyes searched for hers. He wasn't sure what it was about her- maybe Starchild had something to do with it- but being near her always gave him a second wind. Her playful grin, the way her eyes lit up when she saw him… he had it bad for this girl.
He was going to tell her, Kaidan be damned. He'd given him his chances, hand-fed him the right responses. He had to know for sure if it was all in his head, or there was something there. And the only way he was going to do that was asking her.
But not now. Not during this mission. Hopefully their final mission. That hadn't sunk in yet.
"Hey, you know that thing about space, right? It moves?" Garrus quipped, trying to keep the mood light. "Why don't you ask your scientist girlfriend how much space moves in about fifty-thousand years, John?"
"He's actually got a point," Liara said, looking up at John. "The fact that we didn't plow straight through a planet is kind of amazing, really."
"We're with the Shepards," Tali pointed out. "I'm not surprised."
"Fair point," Garrus allowed with a chuckle. "Never been part of a crazier crew. And never been prouder."
John made it up to the elevator to access the Tower. They piled in and anxiously huddled together while the small compartment zoomed upwards, only to be surprised when it suddenly stopped.
"He's locked the elevator," Mia assessed. A cold chill ran down Garrus's spine as Mia touched the button on her earpiece that equipped her helmet.
"Suit up, guys. Looks like we're going outside." She ordered, making sure everyone had their helmets on before raising her pistol to the glass and firing. She took one step out, then activated the mag locks in her hardsuit boots, securing her firmly to the side of the tower before turning around, headed upward. The rest of the crew followed her.
" You two have had some ideas today ." Garrus groaned into his comms. " Let's drive the Mako through a relay! Let's climb the Citadel Tower the hard way !"
" Oh come on, Garrus ," Mia chuckled as she took out a shock trooper from forty meters. " You can't tell me this wouldn't make a great story for your friends at C-Sec. "
Garrus thought about that for a moment. He hadn't really thought about any of his friends at C-Sec since he left with Shepard. He hadn't really informed anyone of what he was doing, other than Executor Pallin. He'd quit his job to go chasing ghosts with some human was the story his father was telling. He wasn't sure his C-Sec friends would be too terribly impressed with everything they'd done. Mostly because they likely wouldn't believe half of it.
Like fighting geth as they climbed Citadel Tower. The Citadel was shaped like a strange flower that could open and close its petals- called arms- with the Presidium, and moreover, the Tower, in the very middle. The station was massive- even with the arms closed, someone would need a ship to get from one arm to the other. It was why rapid transit shuttles were so popular when traveling between the wards. It was easy to forget, though, when standing in the artificial sunlight on the Presidium, that the whole construct was just a cold object in space. Now, scaling the tower from the outside, Garrus could see the lights of the Citadel wards surrounding him, the orange glow cast on them reminding him of twilight. Not that he had much time to admire the view with geth troops blocking their path.
Mia got to the top first, shooting in the glass of a window in the lower waiting area of the Tower. Garrus couldn't help but shake his head as they ran up the stairs towards the Council's dias. Of course the control panel was here. There was a reason the Council picked the area to use for their public meetings. A shiver ran up Garrus's spine seeing Saren standing before a yellow VI interface. It almost felt violating.
Mia and John moved forward at once, taking up positions on either side of the pedway, eyes trained on Saren. The others hung back, taking up defensive positions and letting the Shepards work. Garrus didn't let Mia out of his sight.
" I want to talk to him, Mia." John said quietly over comms.
" If you think it'll work, " Mia nodded, looking over her other shoulder hesitantly. Garrus could see the gears turning in her head.
"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard." Saren called to John from the middle of the room, resting his assault rifle on his shoulder, barrel pointed at the sky almost lazily.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. How rude of me. Let's end this." John deadpanned and Garrus felt his mandibles widen in a grin. His sister's sarcasm and wit was really rubbing off on the man.
"End this? You've already lost. You know that, don't you? In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of all the Citadel's systems. The relay will open. The Reapers will return." Saren proclaimed.
Garrus watched John make eye contact with Mia as he spoke again. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve." He called.
"You mean your sister, who somehow survived our encounter on Virmire? I have to admit, you Shepards are hard to take down, but I'll give it a go." He spat, switching his focus. "I've changed since our last encounter, little girl. Sovereign has upgraded me. Still think the voice in your head gives you a chance?" He motioned to his face, which was lined with black biotech, his eyes glowing a faint blue.
Mia's eyes glowed, her gaze finding Garrus. " Oh fuck this ," She murmured into her comms before pulling up her Omnitool and activating her tactical cloak. Garrus had gotten really good at tracking the distortion her cloak caused across the battlefield without giving her position away. What was she doing? He watched her zip up the stairs to the balcony just as John spoke again.
"Spoken like someone afraid of a little girl with a voice in her head. You let a sentient ship put a chip in your head…why? Are you insane? A little girl shook you up that much?" John called. Mia made it to the balcony and Garrus watched her sprint to the end closer to the dias where the Council would normally be standing. Saren was standing on top of the same odd platform he'd had on Virmire, the one Garrus had watched him enter on before the Normandy hauled ass out of there. That meant he could have the high ground easily, and Garrus didn't like those odds. Just as he noticed it, Saren activated his platform and lifted himself about ten feet in the air. Shit.
"I suppose I should thank Mia. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what she said. About Sovereign manipulating me. About indoctrination. The doubts began to eat away at me. Sovereign sensed my hesitation. I was implanted to strengthen my resolve. Now my doubts are gone. I believe in Sovereign completely. I understand that the Reapers need organics. Join us, and Sovereign will find a place for you, too."
"I'd rather die than live like that!" John exclaimed, and Garrus's heart clenched as he saw Mia's distorted figure shimmying along the back wall on a ledge only a few inches wide. His heart dropped to his stomach as he watched her slip, the distortion swinging for a moment before she regained control.
"Then you will die. And your companions. Everyone you know and love. Everyone you've ever met. Don't you understand? You will all die ." Saren hissed, just as Mia softly dropped to the dias floor behind him. Saren was too invested in his speech to pay her mind, not to mention she was ten feet below him, in his blind spot. She quickly moved to the console, not risking breaking her tactical cloak as she input the data they'd acquired from Vigil.
"The Reapers cannot be stopped," Saren continued. "Not by the Protheans, not by you. The cycle always continues."
"We can stop Sovereign from taking control of the station. It's not won yet. Stand aside and the invasion will never happen." John exclaimed.
"We can't stop it! Not forever. You saw the visions! You saw what happened to the Protheans. The Reapers are too powerful." Saren admonished, shaking his head.
"Some part of you must still realize this is wrong," John called. "You can fight this! You're Saren Arterius, Council Spectre."
"Maybe you're right," Saren said, sounding more lucid and looking down at his feet, much like Benezia had during her moment of lucidity. "Maybe there is still a chance for… ungh!" Saren grasped his face, almost clawing at his head as a guttural scream erupted from him, likely due to pain caused by the implants. "The implants…Sovereign is too strong. I'm sorry. It is too late for me."
John stood from behind his cover then, his rifle hanging at his side. "There's still one way to stop this. If you've got the guts."
"Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you." Saren said, almost serenely holstering his rifle and pulling out his pistol. He placed it to his mandible and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A profound silence shook the room as he swayed on the spot for a moment before falling from his pedestal and down over the side of the pedway, shattering the glass ceiling of the room below as he fell. John moved up to the pedway, the rest of the crew following suit. Garrus made a beeline to Mia, who had finally disengaged her tactical cloak.
"The station is ours, sir," She reported, looking back at where John had stopped halfway across, looking down at the body.
"See if you can open a communications channel, Shepard," Tali said, moving to the other side of Mia.
She nodded, pulling up her Omnitool and inputting a few quick codes. An audio feed popped up on the display in front of them.
" -the Destiny Ascension. Main drives are offline. Kinetic barriers down forty percent. The Council is onboard, I repeat, the Council is onboard."
Suddenly, another transmission came in, an all-too familiar voice that washed Garrus with a sense of relief.
"Normandy to the Citadel," Joker's voice came through. " Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that's you, Captain."
"Joker! It's Mia, I read you," Mia said into the comm channel.
" We caught that distress call, Commander. I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension. Just unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll let the calvary in." Joker said.
"Are you sure about this, John?" Tali asked, looking to John hesitantly. "Human casualties will be very high if you send your fleet in now."
"This is bigger than humanity," John said, his eyes still trained on Saren below.
"That is true. That's why you shouldn't waste reinforcements trying to save the Council. You should hold them back until the Citadel arms open up and the human fleet can go after Sovereign." Tali countered.
"We need the Council" Mia said, her eyes faintly glowing as she looked at her brother. "But it's your call, John. What do we do?"
He looked up at his sister with an odd expression, leaning against the pedway railing.
"Open the relays, then open the arms. Let's save these fucking politicians." Mia smiled at her brother and nodded, turning back to the console and zipping through commands quickly.
"Opening the relays now, Joker. Save the Ascension, no matter the cost." Mia ordered.
"I hope the Council appreciates this." Tali shook her head.
A new com channel opened up as the Arcturus fleet arrived, and Admiral Hackett's voice could be heard giving orders.
"Alliance ships, move in. Save the Destiny Ascension. " Hackett's voice came and Garrus let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding when just a few short moments later, Joker's voice came over the comms.
" Destiny Ascension, you are all clear, repeat, you are all clear." Joker said.
" The Citadel is opening," Hackett's voice came from the comms. " All ships, move in! Concentrate on Sovereign."
Garrus turned to Mia, making sure her little acrobatics stunt didn't hurt her at all. But when he turned to her, he noticed she was turned to John. John, who was still staring at the dead turian below.
"Mia, Garrus," John said suddenly, nodding down at the body. "Make sure he's dead. The rest of you, head back to the docks. We'll rendezvous with Joker there when this is all done."
Wrex patted John on the back as he headed by him. "Don't beat yourself up, Shepard. It was a good, clean mission."
"It's not quite over yet, but I'll buy you a drink on the other side of it, yeah?" He smiled at the krogan.
"Hear that? Drinks are on the captain tonight, kids!" Wrex bellowed as he and Tali made their way back down the stairs. Liara lingered a moment more, pressing a quick kiss to John's temple and grasping his hand for a moment before following the others.
Garrus looked to Mia, who was watching her brother with concern. He nudged her arm gently, shaking her from her thoughts.
"Aye, sir," Mia responded finally, and Mia led them to a quick path to drop down and investigate.
Mia pulled her pistol, not daring to get too close, and fired one round into the head of the body. Above them, John watched. She glanced up at him through the shattered glass.
"Confirmed kill, sir ." She said, bringing her hand to her ear.
Suddenly, red energy waves began shaking the room, forcing Garrus to fight to stay on his feet as energy began flowing through the corpse of Saren, changing his body. The corpse got to its feet, groaning and spasming as the lines of red energy pulsed over him, emitting hissing noises. It was as if the hardware implanted in Saren was trying to take control of his body, and Garrus was suddenly reminded of the husks on Eden Prime again.
Another wave of energy burst from the dead turian and Garrus and Mia were knocked back, hitting the ground hard. Above them, the pedway where John still stood began to give way under the shock wave, partially collapsing and landing John hard on his face, closest to the threat.
He watched as the energy surge coursed over Saren's body, melting away skin and flesh, leaving only plates and bone in its wake, held together with tubing running through its emaciated ribcage. Its eyes glowed red now, the lower part of Saren's jaw having melted away, leaving an open maw where his mandibles splayed open above its glowing red ribcage.
"I am Sovereign," the corpse spoke in a voice that reminded Garrus of the voice they'd heard back on Virmire. "And this station is mine ."
Garrus got to his feet as quickly as he could, but the turian jumped away faster than a geth stalker, for as much as it acted like one. It crawled over the walls, clinging to high places and jumping around to dodge John's assault.
Garrus cursed, getting to his feet just as a swarm of geth troops dropped into the room from the shattered ceiling above. Shock troopers. Great.
" You two focus on Saren, I've got the small fries ." Garrus said into his comm, bringing his scope to his eye and taking down one shock trooper after another. Mia's eyes were glowing vibrantly as she tracked the turian corpse across the room, firing once each time it'd land.
Garrus vaguely registered a transmission from Hackett in the room above.
"Sovereign's too strong, we have to pull back! " A human commander's voice rang out over the comms.
"Negative, this is our only chance. Take that monster down no matter what the cost. " Hackett ordered.
Hackett wasn't giving in yet. The humans were surely getting their asses handed to them if they were insisting they pull back. But Hackett kept on going. Maybe there was hope for this galaxy, after all. Maybe that hope was humanity.
Garrus grunted as he took a hit to his shields, one of those weird energy blasts from the turian corpse was enough to get his head back in the game. John was getting increasingly frustrated with not being able to punch this enemy, and Garrus could see that he was having a hard time tracking him as well as Mia could.
"We're almost there!" Mia called, taking aim again at the body. "His shields have dropped. Concentrate fire, John!"
Mia and John filled the jumping corpse with as much plasma as their guns would allow without screaming at them. Finally, as John landed one last shot on the thing mid-jump, it fell over, the red energy disintegrating the body into dust where it landed in a heap.
Silence filled the room for a moment, then another transmission came in.
"Its shields are down, now's our chance!" Joker proclaimed.
"Give her everything we've got, " Hackett's voice grumbled over the transmission.
Garrus looked up to the windows outside, hoping to see some evidence of the fight for the station. His heart dropped when Mia's eyes found it first and she turned, pushing him towards the exit.
"Go!" She yelled, and his eyes widened as he saw a piece of Sovereign heading straight for the window above them. He pushed Mia in front of him, running with her to the nearest exit frantically. He heard the explosion of glass first. Then it was all instinct. He dove for Mia, his arms wrapping around her protectively as their world crashed in around them. His thoughts drifted to John for a moment- he'd been further back in the room, and would have had less warning.
Garrus looked down at the redhead in his arms, her eyes glowing faintly as a piece of warped scrap metal slammed against his back and head. He blinked a few times, trying to remain awake, but it turned out three head injuries were too many, and he let his eyes slip closed.
Kaidan Alenko Citadel Tower 0300 hours
Kaidan was beside himself after the Battle of the Citadel finally drew to a close. The adrenaline of Joker's flying and shooting down Sovereign was quickly replaced with concern when a piece of the ship went astray, crashing into the Tower and causing the Shepards to drop communications. They had to be alive, right? They couldn't have won this battle but lost the only hope the galaxy had against the Reapers, could they?
He'd demanded Anderson allow him to help in the search, and while the Rear-Admiral had been hesitant, he'd allowed it.
"Admiral, we found them! They're in here!" A voice came from across the ruined hall, his head poking out of a hole he'd just carved out of hunk of sheet metal.
Kaidan's heart leapt for a moment, and he rushed to the access hole only to be stopped by Anderson.
"You don't know what condition they're in, son. Let me go first. Please." Anderson said, a hand on Kaidan's shoulder as he met his eye. Kaidan thought about that for a moment, and then swallowed hard. He nodded once, stepping back and allowing Anderson to go in first.
"Take it easy, its over, you're safe now," he heard Anderson say, and he took that as a sign of life and ducked into the hole. His heart soared when he saw Mia sitting beside Garrus, both rubbing their heads, dazed. He couldn't help the wide grin on his face until Anderson's next question brought him back to reality. "Where's the Captain?"
John was nowhere to be found. Mia was staring at a point between her knees as if she was trying to make it catch fire with the intensity of her stare. Garrus just lifted his head to the rubble behind him, making it clear that he also didn't know what happened to John.
Anderson nodded, moving over to help Mia to her feet. "Come on, kid, let's get you patched up, yeah?"
"Thank you," She said suddenly, looking up into Anderson's face. "For always believing me. Always believing in me." She murmured, a faint smile on her face. "I wish I'd gotten stationed under you sooner, Admiral."
"Yeah, me too." A voice came from somewhere above and behind them. Kaidan looked up to see John cresting a pile of twisted wreckage, holding his arm to his side as though it were injured. "With the right leadership, I have no doubt she'd be every bit as good as me."
"John!" Mia called, and the siblings scrambled to get to one another. "Are you alright?" She asked as she gingerly hugged him so as to not hurt his arm more.
"I'll be fine after a visit to Chakwas." He said, hugging her back with his uninjured arm. "Takes a little more than an explosion to kill a Shepard, right?" He chuckled, ruffling her hair.
Kaidan let out a sigh of relief as he came over to clap Garrus on the shoulder. "You doing okay, buddy?" He asked, looking up at the taller man.
Garrus was looking at the siblings with an expression of wonder. Kaidan's touch caused him to jump a little, but he just smiled down at his friend.
"Better now, yeah. I just want to go home." Garrus admitted. Kaiden smiled and the two of them returned their focus to the grinning Shepard siblings.
They did it.