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Deliverance-Chapter 1

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She could almost feel the stares, but she didn't really care; her entire attention was focused on the screen before her. Absently, she thought she would have done better to take this incoming mail upstairs in her cabin, but it had been too late to do that the moment she read the opening line.

"We have someone you're familiar with…"

Normally, she'd have dismissed the transmission at once, consider it a cruel, malicious joke or even a scam-there were a lot of those going round the extranet, after all-but she had instead read through it. And she was sure she had been staring at her screen for a goodly amount of time by now; given she normally didn't stand still for this long, it was no wonder people were getting concerned.

"Everything…alright, Commander?" a hesitant voice finally asked and she blinked, recognizing it as her appointed assistant. She had been the one to point her to the unread message…a few long minutes ago; she nodded, looking up, trying to seem as focused as ever. It had got harder lately, to maintain this façade of unshakeable strength and she hated having to fake it, but there was nothing for it. Hero of the galaxy, one and only chance against the Reaper threat, there were expectations-she tried her best not to wince at the recurring thought. She was bone-tired of those expectations, if she wanted to be honest with herself, all she really wanted right now was out. She had never wanted any of this and, though she would not change a single thing, a single call she had had to make along the way, there was a bitter, numb feeling when she pondered the disdain, distrust, haughtiness her actions had been faced with.

"Well, that is a hoax if ever I saw one," another voice, rough and a little raspy startled her out of her fugue for good; she shook her head, looking over her shoulder; as expected, Garrus, reading the screen in front of her. "You know this can't be true, right, Shepard?" he asked evenly now, ignoring the frown she was giving him as his eyes darted along the laconic text flickering on the screen.

"…Yes," she finally answered, turning the message off. "It might be a hoax,"she added, though she didn't even sound convincing to herself.  

"Shepard," Garrus said simply, the reprimand obvious in his voice. "It can't be true; we were there…when he died," he continued quietly, nodding for her to follow him. Conversations like these were best held out of earshot of the crew, he thought, his old C-Sec training taking over.

"Carry on," the commander snapped at the lingering crew members. "I don't see why me picking up my messages has everyone stalled; if we were about to be blown up by a passing Reaper, I'd let you know". She must have sounded like her usual self, she thought, not without satisfaction, as everyone hustled back to their jobs.
She had to roll her eyes when they reached the top deck-the captain's own cabin and one of the few places aboard the ship one could actually have a private conversation. She wasn't even surprised when she spotted Liara, leaning against the wall just outside the cabin door.

"Let me guess, you know about  the message," the commander rolled her eyes.
"I am the Shadowbroker now, remember? No communications slip past my nets, least of all communications pertaining to you, Shepard," the blue-skinned Asari answered, exchanging a glance and a nod with Garrus, as well, both of them ignoring Shepard's giving them a mild glare of her own.

"Spying on me, then, Liara?" the commander asked, as she let all three of them into the cabin and headed to feed her fish-something she had taken to doing almost mechanically every time she needed to by now.

"I spy on everyone, Shepard; nothing really personal, that, it's…well, technically my job now, I suppose," Liara replied with a sigh, making herself comfortable in the small sofa across from the commander's bed. Garrus took a seat across from her, stretching his legs out on the glass table in front of him, as Shepard herself joined them, sitting at the edge of her bed, the only spot with space by now.

"Is there any truth to it?" she asked Liara now, trying to make her voice sound steady and cool, but even she could hear the hope in it.

Liara hesitated. "Shepard…we saw him die, you know he didn't make it…" she started.
"I was dead too, Liara; you ought to know, you're the one who came after my body," Shepard cut her off a bit more sharply than she intended.

"Cerberus spent millions of credits trying to bring you back; and it was touch and go, but they had a goal for you and reason to spend the money, Shepard. Bringing people back from the dead is neither cheap nor easy; why bring him back?" Liara asked evenly.

"To get to me, apparently," Shepard frowned back.

Garrus scoffed. "Well, that's a very expensive piece of bait, then, Shepard; and you know it's bait for a trap, real or not. My vote is on not, by the way".

Shepard huffed. "I have not lost my mind, you know; and I can see the looks you two are exchanging," she frowned at the both of them-Liara tried to look guileless, probably out of reflex, though Garrus frowned right back to her grimly. "I know this is probably a trap or a scam or whatever else like that; but I intend to check it out regardless," she continued coolly.

"Shepard…whoever sent you this message, wanted you to jump at it and rush off clear across the galaxy to check it out," Liara started condescendingly.

"I am not jumping at the message, Liara and I am no fool, either, no matter what you might think. My feelings for Thane," she winced at the first mention of the name, it somehow always seemed to ache to utter it, "do not command this decision".

"Right, I'm sure they don't," Garrus rolled his eyes, though he sighed when Shepard turned to glare at him again.

"I am not going to explain my decision," Shepard said calmly, slipping into her authoritative self, the one who didn't much take impertinence from anyone under her command. "We're going to travel to the place mentioned in note; and if you two don't want to land with me, hell, I'll go alone. Even money says I've faced worse odds".

"We're not leaving you alone," Liara exclaimed, almost scandalized. "But let me…at least look into that note; see if I can find out what we're dealing with".

Shepard nodded. "You have until we get there, Liara; I am not going to sit on my thumbs and wait for answers; I prefer finding my answers for myself".

Liara shrugged. "I know that, all too well," she said calmly. "And I know how much you want Thane to be alive, I understand how you feel, Shepard; all I'm asking is that you do not let this desire overcome your common sense".

The commander nodded, after a short silence. "I know; and you know me well enough to know I can take care of myself".

"Yes, and if you fail at that, it's a good thing you have us watching your back", Garrus interjected smugly.

Shepard actually smiled faintly, the tension receding from her face, even briefly. "Or me watching your backs, Garrus; hero of the galaxy and all that," she shook her head, a bit amused despite her previous mood-that she knew would probably persist until they got to the bottom of this.

Garrus snorted. "Those who have given you the title have no idea how lousy a driver you are, Shepard," he teased, getting to his feet. Liara followed suit, significantly less amused-this kind of banter was beyond her, after all.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked, as Garrus headed towards the elevator. Shepard nodded, the brief smile fading.

"I have no choice but to be alright, do I?"

"I have no choice but to be alright, do I?"

The words echoed off the bare, metallic walls of the corridor she found herself standing in; she wasn't sure if she had said them out loud or whispered them, or even just thought them, but they echoed out all the same, louder with each passing moment until they reached what should have been an impossible crescendo and she had hold her hands over her ears to keep them out, gritting her teeth at the fact not even that seemed to help.
She knew this corridor, she thought, drawing a deep breath when the din finally died down; an eerie, unnatural silence replaced it and she winced at the sharp, harsh sound of her own footfalls when she finally dared take a step forward.

She had walked down this corridor, or perhaps many more just like it, a million times, it seemed like, ever since Harbinger had tried to worm its way into her very mind. Part of her, even now-the sensible, analytical soldier that was the very core of her being-wondered if perhaps her mind had not recovered from that; awake, she even wondered if it ever would. She knew well, after all, there were some wounds that just went too deep to heal completely; and she had received enough of those to last several lifetimes…

She abandoned her thoughts without much effort-somehow, they never seemed important when she was here-as she stopped in front of a pair of sliding glass doors. There was no reason to stop here, she thought absently, she didn't even recall walking here, for that matter. And it had not been like this, nothing like this, when he had died; but there he was, now, looking back at her through the glass and it wasn't doors, after all, but some sort of window; she frowned as she looked over  the massive, reinforced glass pane, looking for a catch, a way in. There was none, of course, and she gave up soon, focusing on the man watching her every move as he stood stock-still on the other side, so close, so far away. He seemed resigned and grim and still, like the first time she had met him, a man well in control of himself and well at ease with his fate, whatever that might prove to be.

"I love you, siha", a whisper came, faint as if it had somehow slipped through the airtight glass, making her skin prickle at the sound of his voice. Words unspoken, words they had not got the chance to exchange, words that would remain unsaid, to haunt her, at least, for the rest of her life. "I love you too", she whispered back, her words echoing down the never-ending corridor once more, turning this time into a hissing, seething mess of overlapping whispers. She didn't even notice, reaching one hand towards the glass; she felt moisture on her face that she knew to be tears and then she knew, without looking over her shoulder, that there was a fire coming down the corridor, the same way she had, coming to consume them both. All her dreams seemed to end with fire these days.


Shepard muttered a curse that would at least earn her Jack's appreciation if she were to hear it, as she started awake. Even in the ideally calibrated for comfortable warmth cabin, her skin felt clammy with sweat and downright icy to the touch. She shivered, wrapping her blankets around her as she sat up gingerly; she glanced around her, around the room, drawing deep breaths to steady herself.

"Another bloody bad dream,"she muttered into the gloom, the only light in the room coming from the dimmed luminescence of the aquarium across the bed. After all these months, with the Reapers, for the most part, gone, the nightmares still came; but she had never seen Thane before this night. She'd hardly mind another nightmare if it meant seeing him again, she thought dismally. She had braved some pretty nightmarish things in her waking time, surely a bad dream was nothing, if it meant catching another glimpse of the man she loved, even for a brief, sad moment?

She huffed to herself and this absurd train of thought, tossing the coverlets aside, as she got to her feet. Thane was gone, dead at the hands of a foe that would have been no match for him had he been at full health, and it had been his health itself that had struck the final blow; reason, cold hard logic, said she needed to get over this, or else risk her sanity. There had been so much left unsaid between them and then he was gone, and she was alone…She had put up a brave front and those who cared for her had not mentioned him to her, not once, for fear that, to discuss him, would break her when she was needed to be at her strongest; they'd probably been right, but she needed to discuss him, even now, even though she couldn't bring herself to talk about him in the past  tense others employed.

She stopped suddenly, realizing she had been pacing as she thought; she frowned, glancing over to her personal terminal, the screen blinking at her, beckoning her over. She moved to the desk and sat down, scrolling down her messages till she found the one she was after.

"Commander Shepard,
We have someone you're familiar with in our possession; a valuable commodity, as we understand, by the name of Thane Krios. You might say his death has been somewhat…exaggerated. If you wish to learn more, you will look for us at Erghaz in the Far Rim; you will come alone and unarmed and perhaps we can do some business".


"So what can you give me?" Shepard went straight to the point, ignoring the puzzled glances some members present in the small meeting in the War Room were giving her and each other; if she had just one credit for every odd look she had got ever since this whole business with the Reapers and Saren had started-a bit over three years ago-she'd have enough by now to buy her own private planet, she figured.  As she was used to doing by now, she ignored the ones she was getting at the moment, watching Liara who moved to the nearest terminal. A 3-D projection of a planet rotated slowly in the holographic projector, drawing everyone's attention to it, instead.

"By all accounts, Commander," Liara started, stopping the rotation of the projected planet, "the planet is uninhabited. It's a desert planet, and up to now, considered of very little consequence. Ships that chanced to explore it, reported an infestation of thresher maws, and no other signs of life. Apparently, however, the underground of the planet is rich in minerals, so there have been a couple of mining expeditions attempted, but they were quickly abandoned".

"No fucking wonder, if there're threshers down there," Vega interjected with a huff.  "What's our concern with that planet anyway?" he asked.
Liara glanced quickly at Shepard.

"All in good time, lieutenant," the latter replied calmly. "Carry on, Liara".

"What's this all about?" James nudged Garrus, while the asari pulled up another image-a satellite picture of some red and orange desert plains, overshadowed by what seemed to be a crimson sky.

"You heard the commander," Garrus replied smoothly. "Shut up and listen".

Liara coughed as she continued, demanding everyone's attention again. "Scans have shown that there's one abandoned mining facility, complete with a small settlement right in the middle of one of the planet's most extensive plains;  the miners, as far as I can tell, called the place Crimson Plateau and used some sort of sonic cannon to keep the thresher maws away. It worked, to an extent, but they were forced to abandon the project, since they had numerous cave-ins. Apparently their sonic waves couldn't do much for thresher maws burrowing underground and causing trouble. After the miners evacuated, the facilities were taken over by Cerberus for a time. Of course, we have no clue what they were up to-or, are still up to, for  that matter, in any case my sources say the place is not abandoned right now," Liara concluded with a small frown.

"Cerberus…figures," Shepard huffed, sharing the asari's frown.

"One of their detached cells, you think, running some mystery op?" Garrus asked.
  
"We've dealt with Cerberus wholesale, but still…"Shepard shrugged, not finishing her sentence.

"Cerberus pride themselves on the way their organization is run; small, separate cells, each operating on its own, each unaware of other cells where that served their purpose," Liara picked up. "If they're indeed there, it might be they're operating under orders that are no longer valid; perhaps we can talk them into giving us…"she continued, stopping short; if anyone was going to say this, it would need to be the one in charge, after all.

"So, basically, a remote and apparently oblivious regarding recent developments branch of Cerberus has something we want?" Diana broke the short, tense silence that had followed Liara's words, obvious excitement in her voice.

"More or less," Shepard replied drily, unwilling to actually say more in the presence of the reporter, right to veto her stories or not.

"Well, what is it? Some super-secret Reaper tech? A Prothean artifact?" the latter persisted.

"Classified intel", Shepard replied casually, turning off the holographic display herself.

"We're going to need a plan to deal with the thresher maws," Garrus changed the topic smoothly.

"Not worried about Cerberus?" James smirked smugly at him.

"Not really; are you?" the turian replied in the same tone, not taking the bait.

James chuckled in response. "Good one, Scars," he teased.

"Hold up," Shepard said quietly, as Diana headed off first, waiting for the reporter to be out of the room. "EDI, please lock this room down for a moment," she said calmly, the door lock going from green to red a short instant later.

"Ms. Allers is not pleased she is locked out," EDI announced, not sounding particularly perturbed.

"Inform her our conversation is classified and she can't be part of it," Shepard replied calmly.

"Will do, Shepard", the A.I. replied, falling silent.

"So, you gonna share that classified intel now, commander?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not really classified; just something I'd prefer to keep among as few people as possible at the moment," she replied calmly.

"Your pheromones reveal you are not as calm as you seem. Quite the contrary," Javik pointed out. "I think the term would be distressed".

She nodded with a sigh. "Correct," she admitted; there was really not much point in denying it, after all-let alone starting an argument with the Prothean. "This isn't about Cerberus or whatever they may or may not be up to," she explained, keeping her tone level. "It's…a personal operation," she continued, pulling up the text message she had received on the War Room display for Javik and James to read.

"Krios…The drell assassin, wasn't he? The one who helped save the Salarian Councillor?" James asked thoughtfully. "Your boyfriend? But he's dead…?"he paused, shooting an uncertain look at the others.

"She doesn't think so", Javik commented, rather unhelpfully.

Shepard rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot, Javik," she said tersely, having heard the reprimand in his voice well enough. "I'm well aware this is most likely a trap, but I still intend to look into it".

"Your species are ruled by their chemistry, clearly," the Prothean remarked rather thoughtfully.

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, hard to pass up this kind of thing, trap or not", he nodded.

Shepard nodded in reply. "Didn't much care to let Diana in on it, though," she shrugged.

"Woman's a pest; no need for her to know," the lieutenant replied with a snort.

"Knew there was a reason I liked you, Vega," Garrus nodded approvingly.

"Pity you're not my type, Scars," James retorted amusedly.   

"Pest or not, I expect with the war practically over, we'll be parting company with the press soon," Liara sighed. "Pity; Diana has been handy".

"Not the point right now, is it? You can work on recruiting her for your Shadow Broker business at another time," Garrus nudged the asari amusedly.

"Just…make sure no one outside this room knows about this," Shepard interrupted the conversation. "Cortez is in on it, as well, as is Joker; anyone else...As far as they know, we're going after some detached Cerberus cell engaged in dangerous experiments".

"The Alliance?" James asked a moment later, as the thought occurred to him.

"I'm a Spectre; I don't need to clear every single action I take with the Alliance, remember? Or the Council, for that matter," Shepard replied coolly. "If it proves to be of any concern to them, they can find out if things go well; Esheel will need to thank Thane properly, after all, she'd not be alive without him," she continued with a faint, if somewhat sad smile.

"Now, there's something I want to see; Thane will hate the formality, you know," he grinned to Shepard, who smiled again-a good thing to see, the Turian thought.

"Let him hate it all he wants; if he's alive, he can deal with it," she shrugged. It was a big if, she thought, though she knew none of them really wanted to say it out loud.
What if, after all was said and done and the Reapers were dealt with, there was a way-there came a chance-to save someone long-lost, but never forgotten?

Mass Effect 3 fanfiction,ongoing, so more coming!:)

Characters are property of Bioware-all but my Shepard's personality!;)
© 2012 - 2024 Ithildiel
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MassEffectGirl19's avatar
totally love it, cant wait to see wat happens next