Chapter Text
“Where is she, Hackett?” A loud dual-toned voice demanded as soon as the door opened to the his office. “Where’s Shepard?”
Admiral Hackett dismissed the corporal he’d been speaking with as his office was now suddenly very crowded with the Normandy’s ragtag team of heroes. They looked haggard, but alive. Didn’t they all?
“What have you heard?” Hackett asked, diplomatically. All that did was piss off half of the team. But thankfully the asari, Dr. T’Soni, stepped forward.
“We haven’t heard anything. Our comm systems have been offline since the wave and we landed about 20 minutes ago.”
“Is she up in Huerta?” Admiral Zorah asked.
“Huerta hasn’t been re-opened. There isn’t space in the Citadel yet for anything but construction.” Hackett knew that he was just dodging their real question. He hated to be the one to give them the news. “You may want to sit down.”
Not one of them moved.
“Very well,” he continued. “Commander Shepard has been officially declared Missing in Action.” He watched as every one of their faces fell. “It’s been supposed that she was vaporized in the explosion that took out the Reapers. That station has been torn apart as we’ve been putting it back together. We would have found her by now.” He stopped and let them process through the news. “I’m very sorry. She was a damn fine soldier… and a good friend.”
Garrus walked ahead of the Primarch down the steps, naturally scanning the darkened street as they left the hall. The street was quiet but not deserted. Fairly typical for the ward they were in at this time of night. The valet pulled up the skycar. Garrus held open the door for the Primarch before getting in the other side and driving away.
“I swear, these benefit dinners get longer every year,” Primarch Victus said as soon as the doors were closed. Garrus nodded in agreement.
“Last year, Hackett kept his speech short and sweet. Too bad the councilor couldn’t do the same this time.”
“Asari are known for many things. Brevity is not one of them.”
Garrus chuckled a little. “Food was better than last year.”
“Yes, supply lines are steadily improving.”
Garrus merged into traffic and started on the familiar path back to the Turian embassy.
“There’s another gala next week,” Victus broke the silence after a few minutes.
“What’s this one for?”
“Third anniversary of the end of the genophage.” The bright lights of the ads in the Zakera wards rolled past the windows.
“Has it really been three years?” Garrus mused.
“Hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“Feels like… feels like a decade has passed and no time at all at the same time.”
Victus hummed in agreement. “As major players in that event, we’re both expected to be there. So you won’t be going as my…” Victus hesitated.
“Lackey?” Garrus filled in.
“Protege,” he finished. Garrus nodded. They sat in silence again. “You know, if you’re unhappy, Garrus, you don’t have to come with me to these things. I thought this experience would be useful for--”
“It is.” Garrus merged out of the major flow of traffic. “I’m sorry, I’m still… adjusting. It took them so long to figure out what the new order was after the war. I just never really expected ascension to be a real possibility.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Victus said, his voice sounding weary.
Garrus glanced over at his friend turned mentor. Victus had never expected to be Primarch either. He’d done a fine job anyway, in Garrus’ mind. And while he liked Victus well enough, his new reality loomed ahead of him like an inescapable noose.
“So if this is celebrating the genophage, will Urdnot Wrex be there?” Garrus asked, trying to pull the conversation to lighter topics.
“Yes, he’s on the guest list.” Victus nodded slightly. “I believe Urdnot Grunt is coming too. Dr. T’Soni as well; she’s ubiquitous at these events.”
Garrus nodded a little. “It’ll be good to see them again.”
“How long has it been?”
“Oh, many months now.”
“Do you still keep in touch?”
“Mostly. Everyone’s so busy these days it’s hard to really exchange more than a mail or two.”
Victus looked at him and Garrus hoped very hard that he wouldn’t ask the obvious question. To his credit, the Primarch didn’t say anything more. Garrus was grateful. He’d spent the better part of the last two and half years coming up with more and more blithe things to say when people asked him. ‘She’ll always be with us.’ ‘We’re proud to carry on her legacy.’ ‘It gets easier as time passes.’ Absolute bullshit. But people didn’t want to hear what mourning was actually like. And Garrus wanted to tell them even less.
He landed the skycar on the platform outside the Turian embassy. Again he glanced about the area. He thought he saw movement on a balcony, but when he looked again there was no one.
“I appreciate the thought, Garrus,” Victus said in an amused tone. “But you worry too much.”
Garrus frowned and looked more intensely. Something didn’t feel right. Suddenly, he saw it. A barrel of a rifle poked out between two curtains.
“Get down!” he cried, throwing himself at the Primarch and knocking him to the side. A shot pinged off a pillar, right behind where Victus’ head had been moments before.
“Spirits,” Victus swore, sitting up behind the flower planter. Another shot fired blasting a hole in the ground. The sound echoed around the courtyard.
“Stay here and call C-Sec.” Garrus rolled for the next planter over, a shot narrowly missing him. He half stood and dashed for one of the doors at ground level. The sniper wouldn’t be able to get him from this angle.
He threw open the door and ran for the stairs. The sniper was four floors up at the very end of the hall. He dashed past startled translators and trade officials. When he reached the last door, he paused a moment to pull out the shotgun he always kept with him. Checking that he had a fresh heat sink, he kicked open the door.
The room was empty. The window was open and the curtains blew gently in a breeze. He looked around the room but his visor saw no heat signatures. He cautiously approached the window. A chair had been pulled up near it. He touched the seat. It was still warm.
He looked out the window and could hear the unmistakable C-Sec sirens in the distance. Victus was still crouched behind the planter. He was loathed to admit it but this was the perfect angle to see the whole courtyard of the embassy.
Garrus and C-Sec did a full sweep of the building. Nothing was out of place besides the chair. Security tapes were reviewed, employees interviewed. If it wasn’t for the blast marks on the courtyard, it would seem like nothing at all had happened. It haunted Garrus.
“Heard you had a run in with an assassin last week, Victus,” Wrex said with all his usual tact.
“Yes,” Victus admitted. “A sniper as I was returning to the embassy.”
“Cowards snipers. The lot of them.” Wrex smiled broadly at Garrus who was standing next to the Primarch. He smiled ruefully back but didn’t take the bait.
“Well, thanks to Garrus here, no damage done. Save a planter or two.” The gathered group laughed politely. Ah, the soft humor of diplomats. If there was one thing Garrus missed, it was the gallows humor of the barracks. Those were real jokes.
He excused himself and wandered over to the bar where Liara was engrossed in her omnitool.
“Are you ever not working?” he commented, setting his empty glass on the bar top. She looked up and made an apologetic face.
“Sorry. There’s an uprising in Ferris Fields and I’m trying to get in touch with one of my agents,” she explained. But she put the tool away and picked up her glass to turn back to face the party.
“What’s this one about? Medical supplies?”
“Food. They haven’t gotten a shipment from the Alliance in three months. People are starting to starve.”
Garrus frowned. “I suppose that’s understandable.”
“These are ...interesting times we live in.”
“I don’t know about you, but I could go for something a little more boring.”
She nodded.
“Speaking of.” He turned to look at her and lowered his voice. “Have you heard anything from your sources about the mystery assassin?”
She started to speak but noticed the bartender. She gestured with her chin and walked away from the bar. “I’ve found nothing. Which is very unusual.”
“Nothing at all?”
“No. No one’s claimed it. No one heard anything before. It’s like it was...” She hesitated to find the right word.
“A ghost,” he finished for her.
“Yes. But I have my agents combing for anything that can help the C-Sec investigation.”
“And in the meantime, I’m playing bodyguard as well as pupil.” The sentence came out more bitter than he meant it to be. Liara looked at him with concern. “Sorry. I don’t...”
“No, it’s fine. I understand,” she said simply. He wasn’t sure that she actually did. He didn’t understand it himself. But he let it go. “Victus seems to be doing well, despite the circumstances.”
“Yes. He really fought being moved to a safe house, but the Hierarchy didn’t want to take chances.”
“Couldn’t he just go back to Palaven? Surely, he’d have more security there.”
“He and the Turian councilor are working on some scheme to help speed reconstruction back home. I don’t know the specifics, but Victus doesn’t want to leave till everything’s in writing.”
“Understandable. Will you go back with him?”
“I suppose I ought to,” Garrus said resignedly. Liara frowned at him again, but he didn’t look at her.
“Have you read Tali’s most recent mail?”
“No, I haven’t had a chance yet.” A lie. He’d had many chances. He just hadn’t wanted to read it.
“She sent pictures of her new house. It’s lovely, so many windows. I think she’s having a lot of fun decorating it. She asked if she could host the anniversary reunion and I said I thought that was a great idea. There should be enough time for everyone to clear their schedules--”
Garrus looked down at his glass. “I’m not sure I’m going to go.”
Her head snapped back to look at him, her expression fierce. “What do you mean you might not go?”
“Exactly what I said. I’m not going to go.”
She looked at him as if he grew a second head. “I know that Rannoch is a little out of the way. But if you talk to Victus now, perhaps--”
“It doesn’t matter where it is. I-” He sighed. “I don’t want to go.”
“Why not?”
“Liara, I don’t want to reopen that wound again and again as standing yearly date. We’re never going to get over it if we don’t move on.”
“Pretending it never happened is not moving on,” she replied through gritted teeth.
“It’s a start,” Garrus said simply.
Liara blinked rapidly, obviously searching for some sort of retort. She was practically shaking as she leaned in towards him. “ She would be ashamed of you right now.”
“Well, she’s dead. No amount of reunions is going to change that.”
It was like he’d punched her. She stepped back, a hand covering her mouth. Then she turned on her heel to storm away. A part of him wanted to feel badly for being so blunt. But the larger part assured him that he’d only spoken the truth.
The rest of the ‘party’ was dull and grating. Garrus couldn’t push Liara’s shocked expression from his mind. It kept coming back to confront him again and again. He owed her an apology, he knew he did. He may be bothered by most everything happening in his life these days but that didn’t give him license to be an ass, especially to his friend.
The ride back to Victus’ safe house was silent, thankfully. Garrus wasn’t sure that he could be trusted to string two words together without saying something cruel. He parked the skycar around the corner from the apartment and checked the dark empty street before opening Victus’ door.
The two turians walked in silence, both still on edge from the attack last week. But there was no movement besides the occasional passing cab. Garrus unlocked the front door and Victus walked in first. Everything seemed quiet and still.
“Thank you for--” Victus started, but stopped when Garrus put a hand on his shoulder. Garrus walked further into the apartment, checking around corners. Nothing looked out of place. Until he reached the back hall. He could have sworn they’d left the bedroom door open. He pulled out his gun again and walked slowly to the door before pushing it open.
The room beyond was dark and empty. Then he heard it. The unmistakable high-pitched beeping.
Garrus threw himself towards the door as the bomb detonated behind him. He was tossed against the wall, bashing his forehead on a picture frame. It dazed him for a moment and he wiped at the dent. He struggled to his feet.
“Victus?” he yelled as he staggered quickly back down the hall. He rounded the corner to the living room. Victus and a dark hooded figure were locked in a death match. Victus was taller, but the figure was faster. Their arms blurred with speed.
Garrus leapt over the couch and landed a solid hit on the attacker. It knocked them down to the ground but they quickly recovered. A biotic blast sent the two turians soaring to the back of the room. The figure jumped up and ran for the open door. Garrus gave chase, not far behind. He fired a shot and hit the floor at the attacker’s feet.
The attacker ducked into a stairwell. Garrus followed behind, shooting again and hitting the hand rail. Up and up the stairs they ran. The attacker slowly gaining ground ahead of him. His ears were still ringing from the explosion but that was being challenged by the pounding of his blood. He heard the door to the roof of the building open and slam shut. Garrus sprinted up the final steps and burst through the door.
He gasped for air, looking around wildly for his target. He spotted them sprinting for the edge of the roof. He took a moment to line up a shot and fired, hitting the attacker solidly. They stumbled to their knees but rolled back up into standing over their now injured shoulder. They reached the roof edge and stopped.
They turned and looked back at Garrus. He couldn’t see their face or even definitively determine a race. Then they stepped backwards off the edge. Garrus ran to the spot, but was blown back as a skycar accelerated up into the sky. Garrus fired wildly at the car and helplessly watched it disappear into traffic.
“Liara told me what happened,” Tali said, her voice sounding tinny over the omnitool projection.
“You should have seen this guy. I haven’t seen someone move like that since Kai Leng,” Garrus replied, shaking his head. “Victus is fine for now, but we still don’t have a clue who they are. All we know now is they’re too small to be a Krogan or a Turian. But that still leaves Asari, Drell, Human. Hell, maybe even a Quarian.”
Tali frowned. It was still odd to see her outside of her suit on vid calls from Rannoch. Her wide bright eyes missed very little. “Yes, I heard about that too. But that wasn’t what I was referring to.”
Wonderful. Garrus suppressed a sigh and leaned back on his kitchen counter, crossing his arms. “What did she tell you?”
Tali’s frown deepened and she looked at him harshly. “She told me that you were being a bosh’tet in many more words than that.”
“I already have one sister who nags me, Tali. I don’t need two more.”
“Too bad,” she snapped. “Because you’re stuck with us whether you like it or not. How could you say those things to her?”
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”
“Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it’s kind!” Tali shot back. Garrus didn’t reply, just fumed and turned to pace away from the consol. “Look, grieving is difficult. I understand that. We all do. It’s not a simple linear progression towards what life was like before.” He stopped and looked at her. “But. Just because you’re feeling bad, doesn’t give you a right to take it out on the rest of us.”
“I know!” Garrus looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “I know. I was planning on calling her after we get Victus off the station.”
“You owe her more than that.” She waved forcefully with her hands. “You made her cry, Garrus.”
“She was crying?”
“Of course she was! One of the only family members she has left basically told her he doesn’t care how she feels anymore!”
Garrus rubbed at the new dent on his forehead. It was beginning to throb with a headache. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Doesn’t matter. You owe her a real apology, face to face.”
“Fine. I’ll go apologize.”
“And you’re coming to the anniversary party,” she added. He looked up to start to protest, but the look on her face made him stop. He almost missed her envirosuit; she was much less scary when her face was masked.
“Fine.”
“Good. Now I have to go. An electrician is supposed to be wiring my bathroom and I just know he’s going to do it wrong.”
“Talk to you later, Tali.” And the projection disappeared. He glowered at the top of the counter. He’d have to leave now if he wanted to make it to Liara’s apartment before the night cycle. He grabbed his keys and left his apartment, slamming the door behind him.
The streets were busy. Garrus didn’t bother ducking and weaving, just carved a path straight through. People seemed to jump to get out of his way. He kept running in mental circles of regretting his treatment of Liara but then also stubbornly holding to the belief he’d done nothing wrong. It was maddening.
He wasn’t paying attention to much of anything else. So when his world was turned upside down from a direct warp hit, it took him a moment to recover. He rolled to his feet and searched around. It wasn’t but a second till he saw them. The crowds were running away in a panic and there about a dozen meters off was Victus’ attacker. If Garrus could have seen their face, he would have guessed they were smiling. Or studying him like an insect about to be pinned.
They both stood still for an extended moment. Then Garrus reached for his gun. The assassin ran at him. He fired two shots. One went wide. The other struck the attacker in the same shoulder. A metallic ping rang out. The assassin still ran towards him at full tilt, biotics crackling around them. Garrus dodged a blast and fired twice more. The assassin ducked out of the way and launched themselves at Garrus. They pulled out their omniblade and Garrus just barely knocked it aside.
Garrus was blocking rapid strikes from the omniblade. His sides, his neck, he had no time to think, relying on instinct alone. The assassin swung around to strike again. Garrus ducked under their arm and then struck the back of their head. He doubled the attack with a kick to their ribs, sending them falling backwards against the wall. He ran at them and bashed his knee into their chest. Garrus grabbed their arm and flipped them over his shoulder.
But the assassin landed on their feet. The arm slipped from his hand and they grabbed his neck. He vaguely noticed between gasps that the hand was metal and five-fingered. The assassin pulled Garrus closer and then threw him back to the ground. They jumped after him. Garrus rolled to the side. The metal fist crushing the pavement next to his head. Garrus scrambled further away but didn’t stand.
The attacker pounced again but Garrus was ready this time. He kicked with both feet, hitting them squarely in the jaw and sending them flying backwards. Their mask fell to the ground and the attacker skidded to a stop a few meters away. Garrus jumped back up and readied himself. He noticed that the attacker’s hood had fallen back exposing long bright red hair. She stood up and looked back at him, cold rage in her expression.
“Shepard?” he breathed. She turned to face him.
“Who the hell is Shepard?”