DionneJinn

Chapter 21 - Huerta Memorial When they docked to the Citadel, Garrus met Shepard at the airlock. She had changed her casual N7 hoodie to a Human Systems Alliance standard issue naval uniform. Garrus smiled as he saw how comfortable Shepard seemed to be back in the outfit, she had been wearing on board the Normandy during their hunt for Saren—although the uniform had gone through couple of updates since then. “I’ve scheduled 24 hours of downtime,” Shepard said. “Only duty crew and security need to remain on board. People need some R&R.” “Where first?” Garrus asked as they walked to the foyer. “Huerta Memorial Hospital,” Shepard said. As Shepard and Garrus entered the hospital, they saw Thane Krios doing some practice routines in front of the window. The drell’s back was to them and he had not yet noticed their approach—they could hear his laboured breathing as he moved. He was clearly not well. “Thane,” Shepard called as they stopped. “Commander Shepard,” the drell greeted

Chapter 20 – Javik After dealing with the Cerberus squad, they entered yet another building, where they found an active computer console. “Liara, send this to the Eden Prime resistance, too,” Shepard suggested gesturing to the screen. “It has information of Cerberus troop deployments. It’s useful for us, too, as it shows that they don’t seem to be quite as organized here as we expected.” “Perfect,” their asari companion muttered as she downloaded the file. “This intel will give Eden Prime’s resistance movement a real chance to push Cerberus out of their colony.” Soon they found another lab building with a big screen showing—to Garrus and Liara—only static. Shepard, on the other hand, stared at it intently for a short while, then did something to her omni-tool. “You understood that one, too?” Liara asked as Shepard turned her back to the screen. “Yeah,” she confirmed. “I’ve got the signal the Protheans used to activate stasis mode.” “Excellent,” Liara smiled. “Then we have

Chapter 19 – Eden Prime The crew of the Normandy barely had enough time for a shot nap before they hit their next destination in Exodus Cluster and the world called Eden Prime. “According to the Alliance intelligence report,” Shepard said as she, Garrus and Liara gathered into the war room, “a new Prothean artifact has been found on Eden Prime, and Cerberus didn’t waste any time to attack the colony in order to claim it. Cortez will fly us down to the surface. Go and gear up.” Soon they were packed into the Kodiak and heading down. Liara was staring out of the viewport toward the planet. “Eden Prime,” she sighed. “This is where it all began. Where the Prothean beacon gave you the vision that warned us about the Reapers.” “And where Saren launched his first major attack with the geth,” Garrus grimaced at the memory. “Seems like more than just three years ago,” Shepard said, also turning to look out of the viewport. “I remember the reports,” Garrus shook his head disgustedly. “I

Chapter 18 – Jack There was a tone from Shepard’s comm, and she turned to a side to talk. Garrus glanced around at the students, who were huddled around their snacks and noticed couple of them whispering. He tried to listen. “You hear Cerberus saying people’s names?” one of the female students whispered to her companion. “They must have files on all of us.” Garrus’ fingers brushed against the data pad he had found earlier that indeed contained files on the students Cerberus had been interested in. “Why?” a boy whispered back. “Who’d make a file on you? Your biotics can barely lift a hundred kilos.” “Yeah,” she hissed back acidly. “But at least I passed biomathematics.” “Listen up, everyone,” Shepard called before the quiet conversation had time to turn into an argument. “Normandy’s shuttle had to bug out, so Sanders is going to redirect us to some Cerberus shuttles we’re going to steal. We’ll go through the Atrium and out the other side. We’ll go in first and draw their

Chapter 17: Grissom Academy An hour later they were enroute and a couple of hours after that they hit the system. Garrus and James Vega were standing at the Normandy’s airlock, ready for docking as soon as the ship reverted from mass relay jump. Shepard was standing behind Joker’s command chair, equally ready for action. “And there’s the folks who answered the distress call,” Joker said when the academy came visible in the distance. “Cerberus cruiser. At least a dozen fighters on blockade duty. Too many for us in a straight-up fight. They must want this place bad.” “Then we just have to get clever,” Shepard replied, hitting the intercom. “Cortez, warm up the shuttle. We have a change of plans.” She turned to face her ground team. “Garrus, Vega, head down. I’ll be right there.” “Receiving incoming transmission,” EDI reported from the copilot seat. “Let’s hear it,” Shepard muttered as Garrus headed out of the cockpit followed by James. “How did the commander know this was

Chapter 16 - Leaving Earth Garrus saw Shepard next time later that day when he hopped up to war room to get updates on the situation, while the system diagnostics were running on the weapon systems. “Any word from Earth?” Garrus asked, when he found Shepard studying the strategic map that was at the centre of the room. “All bad,” Shepard sighed. “They’re everywhere. The Human Systems Alliance headquarters in Vancouver is just a pile of rubble. That’s where I was kept during my stay on Earth. Did I ever mention that I was born in Vancouver, actually?” “No, I always thought you were from Mindoir,” Garrus said confused. “I was born on Earth,” Shepard explained. “But my parents moved to Mindoir when I was three months old, so I’ve always considered that to be my home. Still... Looking down on Vancouver when we lifted...” “I know,” Garrus grimaced, thinking back on being on Menae and seeing Palaven burning in the distance. “I...” he hesitated. “I tried to call you once while you were

Chapter 15 - Morning after The next morning when Garrus woke up, he couldn’t remember when he had slept so well last time—well, in fact he did—it had been the night before Shepard had been arrested, the last time he had slept with her. He looked down at her, cradled in his arms. She was still deep in sleep, breathing slowly, her unruly hair falling across her face. She seemed so beautiful and so relaxed. Garrus gently brushed some of her hair to side but was careful not to disturb her. Turians didn’t need as much sleep as humans did, although in Garrus’ experience Shepard didn’t usually sleep much later than he did. He suspected that came from her being a military as well as being “a morning person” in general. A small portion of his brain told Garrus he should have woken her up, gotten himself out of the bed and back to work on the cannon, but right at that moment he was way too comfortable, and he was sure she needed the rest. Instead of obeying his military instincts, he simply

Chapter 13 - Reunion “I'll head back down to the main battery," Garrus told the primarch after a while. “The Alliance was doing some maintenance on the cannon and their work was left unfinished. Until I get the gun repaired and calibrated, this ship has no teeth to bite into the Reapers.” “Very well, Vakarian,” Victus nodded. “I'll remain here to speak with the commander.” Garrus headed down to the battery. The place felt comfortably familiar to him, as if he had come home. Gently he ran his hand across the firing controls before pulling up diagnostics of the system. And almost before he even noticed, Garrus was back at his usual routine on the Normandy: having his favourite playlist playing music from his visor, his hands deep in the wiring of the cannon. He was just about to get the first section of the weapon repaired, when he saw the door opening from the corner of his eye. He glanced toward the door to see Shepard entering the battery. She looked around, spotted him on the

Chapter 12 - EDI “They have an AI on board?” Victus whispered to Garrus as they followed Shepard across the shuttle bay and into the lift. “I seem to recall AIs being illegal.” Garrus had to hold back a grimace. He had gotten so used to EDI that he had almost forgotten how most of the galaxy viewed the AIs. But the damage had already been done. “Uhm... yeah...” he admitted. “There is a full AI on board, sir. But EDI is okay. And remember what we just said: ‘whatever it takes’. We're going to need her.” “Her?” “Yes, her,” Garrus said as they stepped into the lift. As they reached the med bay Garrus saw Doctor Chakwas standing just outside the door, apparently, she had been ordered out by Adams’ team. The chief engineer and two other men were standing outside the AI core door with breathing masks and hand-held fire extinguishers. “Automated systems have the fires contained,” Adams reported as they arrived and handed a breathing mask for Shepard. “It should be safe to