ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
Liara felt a curt jab on her shoulder. Turning to see where the offending finger came from, she saw Tali with a glare that burned fiercely. With an expression like that, Liara was surprised she hadn't been graced with a fist to the face yet.
"Tali."
"Don't." Tali threatened.
John caught up and put a hand on Tali before offering Liara an apologetic look.
The quarian didn't budge. So John pressed his hand harder into her shoulder to try and stave off Tali's temper. It was beginning to worry him, seeing her consumed with this much hate. John could literally feel the rage radiating through the woman's bones.
Teri and Talukh were too hungover to really pay attention to the feud between the two. That or they were pretending not to notice.
"Liara." John acknowledged with an abrupt nod.
Tali's hands made this noise that reminded Liara of what it sounded like when you choked someone's neck. If it were her guess, Tali's hands wanted to be around hers.
Liara gulped and subconsciously rubbed her throat with a clammy palm.
"How'd you know we'd be here?" John began with a frown.
"Information spreads fast. It's what I do now." Liara intoned before giving Tali a look, "That and every channel on Illium is talking about the Commander's not-so-subtle return. Your 'confrontation' with Tali yesterday is the hottest talk of the planet."
"I meant every word, you bitch."
Liara's gaze fell to the floor; Tali's insult ignored. "I would have come sooner if I'd known you were coming to Illium. It's good to see you again, John."
"Likewise, Liara. But you have a lot of explaining to do." John said as lines of worry creased his forehead, "A lot."
He drew the asari in for a hug and suddenly felt a large salvo of laser beams trying to carve a hole into the back of his head. The burning sensation, as John guessed, was probably from Tali's eyes. He willfully separated himself from the friendly embrace before putting a fist over his mouth to awkwardly clear his throat. John then turned to face the two not so sober quarians.
"Teri. Talukh. Go ahead and go outside. Wait by our taxi."
"O—okay."
"Yeah. You got it, Shepard."
Tali inwardly growled at the relatively distressed asari in front of them. Had they been anywhere else beside a police station, she would have obliged Liara with a lovely set of black eyes no one would ever mistake for eye shadow. And a swollen crotch from a hard kick. With luck, it'd be more painful than giving birth.
John's gaze remained fixed on the two quarians shuffling awkwardly across the lobby before giving Liara another look.
"Look," John started, ever the mediator, "This isn't the place nor is it the time to discuss whatever's happened between you two."
Liara nodded vigorously in agreement. "I agree."
Tali's gloves chaff harder against the bone-breaking grip she held around nothing.
Just as Tali was about to give Liara a good piece of her mind, John placed a hand around her shoulder again and squeezed.
"Tali?" He tugged at her arm, "This can be discussed later."
Tali forcefully jabbed a finger against Liara's chest. "Don't think you're out of this. Ever."
Liara eyed the offending finger before looking back to the translucent glass mere inches from her nose.
"I can understand why you're mad. But you don't have an idea of what you're saying." Liara murmured with an even tone.
Tali didn't have an inkling of an idea of what happened these past two years. It took sleepless nights and sacrifice and dedication and perseverance to find John. She had willingly forged an alliance with the hands of those who tampered with fate like gods trifling with pawns on a chessboard. She did it for the galaxy. For Shepard. And, more importantly, for Tali.
She did it for Tali. And all she did was shout and spit words at her.
Did Liara handle it perfectly? No. But she hadn't anticipated Tali's reaction to her lying would be this bad.
Tali gave Liara a mirthless laugh. "Two years, Liara. Two. Years. I thought he was dead." Her vocalizer hovered over her Liara's lips menacingly. Tali could almost feel the shallow sucks of breath Liara took, "I deserved to know. Everyone did. I asked. I pleaded with you to tell me."
Liara's shirt rumples from the two fists that grab her collar. "Did you like watching me suffer and pittle around in my own emotional filth?"
"Is there a problem, here?" An officer approached John with both her hands settled on her hips.
"No." John said between a long and drawn out sigh. Tali kept her daggered glare on Liara.
"You sure? Because I'm about to sepera—"
"I think a former Spectre can handle this, thank you."
"Up to you pal. But as soon as your quarian friend here spills some blood, you're responsible for cleaning up the mess."
Tali largely ignored the unintentional compliment.
"Tali. We don't have time for this."
"John. You have no idea."
"I don't. But you know this isn't right."
"John. You. Have. NO. Idea." She repeated.
"Maybe. Maybe not. But we have responsibilities to take care of. And those take priority." To patronize his point, he placed a thumb behind him to the two quarians waiting outside.
Tali let go of her collar, turned around, and nodded once before walking out of the station to the patiently waiting taxi.
"Liara. Sorry." John breathed with a small shake of his head.
Partial shit storm averted.
"Don't be. I probably deserve it."
"Look. Hold off on the judging for another time. Tali's angry and I hardly have an idea of what's going on. I wish we had more time to talk... but I've got a lot to do."
There was a brief moment of silence after Liara gave him a melancholy nod.
"Was it wrong?" Liara's eyes glisten with tears as she asked him the question.
"What do you mean?"
Liara was about to offer some reply; an explanation, or even an excuse, but it never came. Instead, Liara simply bit her lip to stop herself from tearing up any further.
"N— nevermind. Go. Keep in contact. If you ever need my help, don't hesitate to call me on my omni-tool. Same number as always."
"I will." He dipped his head, "I'll see you around Liara. And thank you for bailing out our two friends here."
"They signed themselves into indentured servitude, actually. I managed to buy them just in time." Liara rifled through one of her pockets to reveal two shredded contracts, "Brought them here so we could lawfully dispose of these."
John took a look at the papers and sighed. "Liara, Jesus. Thank you. You saved us a lot of trouble."
"I was the highest bidder at the auction. If I hadn't gotten there when I did... you wouldn't have had them now."
"I'll make sure to tell Tali that. It was good to see you."
"Thank you. Be well," Liara murmured, "Be safe."
And with that, Shepard walked out of the station before meeting up with the three quarians waiting by the air car.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
The ride to port was quieter than John liked. He kept his head forward, while tapping thoughtlessly at the steering wheel to an equally thoughtless tune. He decided it best to distract his thoughts by driving the taxi himself instead of having the automated machine do to it for them.
The two that sat in the back constantly rubbed at the sides of their helmets with the occasional groan to remind them of their nausea.
More importantly was Tali, whose legs and arms remained crossed with her eyes aimlessly wandering between the day's pearly stars and passing air cars.
"Do you know when we're leaving?" John asked to stir up some kind of conversation.
"In a couple hours." Tali murmured between a low sigh, "Turn right here."
John did as she said.
"You know," He put a subtle laugh in-between his words, "I think Liara near pissed herself."
"She should've. Shame doesn't even come close to what she deserves."
"Was it really that bad, Tali?"
"More than you can imagine."
Talukh's gruff voice spoke up.
"Ah, you know how it is. Women. Am I right?"
Teri and Tali both give him an unimpressed glare, which only made him shrug.
"So. I heard you guys accidentally signed yourselves into slavery." John began.
"Yeah." Teri said, holding off a wave of nausea traveling up her stomach.
She whipped her head around to face them both. "What?"
"Yeah. Your friend Liara bought us at the auction."
"How much were you bought for?"
"Ha," Talukh chuckled as he squeezed his shoulder embarrassingly, "Not as much as we were expecting."
"Two-hundred." Teri admitted.
"Two-hundred thousand?" Tali asked, her eyes as wide and shocked.
"No." Teri wrung her neck even harder, "Just, uh—...two hundred."
Tali blinked several times as she digested what she just said.
They almost got sold into slavery for a measely two hundred credits. Could you really stack shame on top of what was already considered a cruel and wicked practice?
To get sold at a price like that? Embarassing.
"That's it?" John rose a brow, "No offense, but I would expect it to be a bit higher."
"We were drunk." Teri murmured.
"And we looked like shit." Talukh added.
Teri shrugged. "Still look like shit."
"Both valid points."
"How'd you end up signing yourself into slavery?"
"Don't remember. The, uh— details are a little vague." Talukh said with a frown.
"Thinking we should keep it that way." Teri mumbled.
"Better make up a good story for Prazza then." Tali sighed at the absurdity.
John gave Tali's thigh a good pat.
"Don't worry hun. Everything'll be better soon."
"I guess," She said with a partly forced smile, "I'm just... glad everything worked out."
When John brought the air car down to park just outside the spaceport, Tali clicked her tongue and gave Teri and Talukh a frown. "I called it by the way; about you two signing yourself into slavery. Idiots. Both of you."
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
It had been a very bad day, to say the least.
It all started when Sidonis, who'd been happily munching on a helping of sandwich meat, realized the offending plastic in his back pocket (Which had been constantly irritating his backside when sitting down) was really a tracking device with the words 'Fuck you Archangel :)' written on it instead of his wallet. The stare Sidonis gave Garrus, who accompanied him for the meal, was completely deadpanned. He couldn't blame him. Sidonis was at a loss of words just as much as he was.
Things spiraled downward from there.
When their first trip wire went off, shit was about to hit the fan.
Garrus, along with the rest of his team, stared out at their respective perches at the site below to prepare for the coming siege. Only to come across a sight they were not anticipating.
Men and women, clad in white armor, marched across the bridge from the burning buildings behind them.
Soon enough, Garrus recognized, through a long drawn out sigh, that Miranda woman, the one in Cerberus, was leading them.
Before long, she was standing in front of him with her hand outward for him to shake.
He reciprocated the gesture. He wasn't going to be rude. They just saved their asses.
"Lawson. That's the name, right?"
"Correct, Mr. Vakarian."
The fact that they knew exactly where he was didn't come off as much of a surprise. If you kept in contact with Liara, you kept tabs on anyone friends with her. The Archangel of Omega included.
That sucked. But, like Garrus said, he wasn't in a position to be an asshole about it.
"I wasn't expecting such a welcoming party." Garrus intoned with a slight cough. Miranda ordered her men to secure the building's local perimeter before speaking.
"Shepard is alive and well. We're here to recruit you."
"Straight to the point, I see." His disparaged voice fell several decibels. Miranda could tell it was a growl of dissatisfaction.
"Where is he?"
"Shepard is on Illium with Ms. Zorah and Dr. T'soni."
"Spirits. That's not good. Tali and Liara? Together? After all this?"
"We're aware of their altercations on the Citadel. It's a pretty hostile relationship." Jacob said.
Garrus wasn't surprised they knew about that. They were Cerberus.
Garrus' team of misfits stare on skeptically at the Cerberus soldiers maintaining overwatch on the perimeter.
"Hostility or not, it was necessary to keep it a secret," Miranda corrected, giving herself a moment to stare at Jacob, "The less people knew about the Commander, the better."
"You could've added her to the list. Justify it all you want, but Tali deserved to know. But you kept it a secret, like you do with everything. That doesn't win over the minds you need most. And it's probably why John's on Illium instead of him being here right next to you isn't it?"
If Miranda was taken aback by the astute observation, she didn't show it. "Your team is more than welcome aboard our ship."
"I'm not going anywhere with you. Nor will my team." Garrus said as respectfully as possible.
"You're aware of the collectors, yes?"
Garrus flexed his fingers around his gun instinctively before warily glancing at a dark corner behind him. It'd been nearly a week since he thought about them. Usually there wasn't a day that went by without him dwelling on that dreadful week on Ullipses. He shuddered.
"Wh—what about them?"
"They're on the move. And they're abducting entire human colonies."
"I've heard about that. Does Shepard know?"
"He does."
Garrus stared at his boots and tried to bring himself up to speed with everything that was going on. "So he went to Illium with Tali. How? Why?"
"Ran into her and her friends on Freedom's Progress: The latest city to go dark. They were looking for a lost quarian who happened to find proof the collectors were behind the abductions."
"Still doesn't explain why he isn't with you now."
"He left with them. Without us knowing."
Garrus couldn't bring himself to words.
"We're working on it." Jacob said to desperately save face.
It was Garrus' turn to cross his arms. "So Shepard really ditched you guys."
Jacob nodded and scratched the stubble on his chin at how bad that sounded. "Look. It sounds crazy."
"It isn't."
"Okay. It isn't. But I'm trying to make a point here." Jacob took a deep breath, gave Miranda a quick glance, and spoke. "Yes. We're Cerberus. We eat babies and shit. As bad as that sounds, we're here because we're trying to stop the collectors. And we need help trying to convince John to join us. But it looks like he'll be heading to the Flotilla with Tali'Zorah to get things figured out first."
"How can I trust you?" Garrus eyed the black man with a steady eye. Garrus was a good judge of character. Being a cop did that.
Jacob definitely was not a baby eater.
"You'll just... have to see for yourself."
"If I go with you… my team can go?"
"If they're willing."
Many of his team shook their heads. "Arch, we have family. We can't just up and go."
"And don't think we owe them just because they just got done saving our arses. We coulda' handled 'em." Yelled Gregg.
Garrus turned back around to Jacob. "Did you clean house?"
"We have two Hammerheads out there with another platoon of men outside establishing a perimeter. Any sorry ass that was planning on killing you is dead."
"Any idea how many people were massed up for an assault?"
"Close to two hundred people, Archangel. Most of them were in the buildings we leveled with charges."
Garrus let out a hoarse air of breath.
Yeah. The bravado could only take you so far. They definitely wouldn't have survived that.
Miranda stepped up next to Jacob and offered a potential solution. "Their families can be situated at a Cerberus facility for safety. If that isn't an option, we can always find them a new place to live."
Gregg, and the other human, Skyles, were the first to raise their heads at the proposition.
"You'd really do that? If we help you, I mean?"
"Absolutely. You'll be provided with a salary and allowance for your families. No questions asked."
Gregg stepped up to the plate with the biggest and most sincere smile a man could make. "I'm fuckin' in! Baby eatin' or not!"
Skyles nodded emphatically. "Same here. I'm ready to get my family off this freakin' rotting hell hole. This is not the place to raise a family."
Garrus was the objective. But if they could recruit his entire team? Even better.
"Sidonis," Garrus called out, "What do you think?"
"They're terrorists." Sidonis said aloud without a care who heard him.
"I know," Garrus nodded, thinking, "but would they really go all this way just to lie to us? They may be bad, but they're doing something right."
"They're terrorists." He repeated a little harsher this time.
"We have the chance to do something bigger and better, Sidonis. As much good as we do here… it wouldn't compare to saving entire colonies from the collectors."
"When Cerberus asked you to help them the first time, you refused without a second glance. Why the change in heart?"
"It's different. It doesn't even have to make sense. But we're being given an opportunity to right bigger wrongs. Facing an enemy a lot worse than mercs while we're at it."
"Garrus. I trust you. If you think this is the right choice, then I'll be right behind you."
Garrus put a rough hand on Sidonis' shoulder. "Good."
Jugath, the batarian explosive expert, spoke behind both of them with the other two salarians and krogan.
"Same here, Archangel. We're all in."
Garrus nodded.
Garrus turned to Jacob with an adamant stare. "We're in."
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
Hours later.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
To say the least, Prazza was happy things hadn't ended worse. They damn near lost two people to the slave trade. If that happened? Prazza probably would've contemplated suicide. But it didn't happen. He wasn't even going to bother handing out disciplinary actions. Not even a harsh rebuke over everyone's lack of responsibility. Due largely in part of the fact that he'd been just as drunk as everyone else.
"Question, Tali." John muttered quietly as they walk along the ramp into their ship.
"Yes?" She said from behind him.
"When we get to the Neema? Where am I going to sleep?"
"John. You'll be living with me. We'll be sharing my room." She gave him a giddy grin.
"Really now?"
She beamed at him. The idea of cuddling John every night?
Oooh…
Hope he's okay with some over the suit action.
"Tali?"
"Uh—Yeah? What's wrong with that?"
"Absolutely nothing." He took one last look out the door before closing the hatch behind him, "So everyone's on board?"
"Prazza and Juel checked to make sure. Everyone's on."
Dull thunderous sounds of magnetic clamps could be heard releasing their ship.
They both silently walk down the hallway to the conference table and take seats next to each other while some quarians mill about in the hallway.
"The suit's oddly comfy." John began with a small smile. He got a wave from Juel who walked by.
"It's expensive. It's supposed to feel comfortable." Tali said as she acknowledged Juel with a nod.
"Digressing a bit, but what's next on your itinerary? Any upcoming missions that you'd like to mention?"
"All of it classified, I'm afraid. Can't talk about that here."
"How important?"
"Really important. And I actually want to use that as an ice-breaker between you and my dad. Is that okay?"
John blinked blankly. "Doesn't your dad think I'm dead?"
"Erhm. Yeah." She bit her lip, "That's going to be really weird explaining that."
John looked up at the ceiling at the implication before facing her with an expectant stare.
The only answer she could give was the biggest shrug of her life and shitty advice. "As John'Shepard would say: 'Time will only tell'." She mimicked his voice with a terribly deep and raspy one.
The imitation was awful. So he lightly shoved her into the chair before rolling his eyes.
"I love you too, John." She remarked with a slight giggle.