Re: Fill: FemShep & Garrus "New Game" (5.25/?)
anonymous
April 28 2012, 04:16:17 UTC
---
Captain Taylor offered them an airy apology for the mechs, pandered and rationalized and lied through his teeth about everything else. The family resemblance to his son was striking. And disturbing. She forced herself not to look back and forth between them.
She and Garrus snapped to high alert when Jacob raised his gun against his father, but the Cerberus soldier just stood there for a long moment before lowering it again.
He shook his head wearily. "...I don't even know who you are."
Shepard pressed a hand to his shoulder. "I'll arrange pickup for the rest of the survivors."
Garrus moved off, a watchful eye on the hunters skulking beyond the perimeter. Shepard gave the king of the castle a cool stare. "Well, Acting Captain Taylor, can’t say it’s been a pleasure. The Alliance will send ships and medical support for your crew. In the meantime..."
She glanced over at Jacob, considering. Ever the good soldier. His face was perfectly neutral. She could see in his tense back, his clenched fists, just how much effort it was costing him.
He deserved better.
"Captain, I can see you’re a busy man," she said evenly. "We’ll leave you to your work."
Jacob nodded. "Let's get out of here."
"Now wait," the older man stammered. "Son. You have to take me with you."
"You don’t get to call me that," Jacob snarled. "Not anymore."
"I can’t wait for another ship. Please! You don't know what they'll do to me!"
The hunters paced back and forth behind the fence, eyes hungry, teeth bared.
"I think we have an idea," Garrus said quietly.
Jacob turned his back on Captain Taylor, and the three of them walked away to meet the Normandy.
---
She let herself into the battery.
Garrus didn't turn around from his console. "How's he doing?"
"He'll be okay. Jacob's a tough guy."
"So, it's 'Jacob' now," he said.
Shepard shrugged. "There were two Taylors down there. Didn't want it to get confusing. Plus..." She leaned back against the wall. "It’s kind of hard to walk side-by-side with someone through their own personal hell, and then keep calling them by their last name."
"Makes perfect sense." An exquisitely judged pause. "Shepard."
She folded her arms. "I said personal hell. Sorry, Garrus, regular hell doesn't qualify. Even if you get extra credit for doing it twice."
There was a long pause. The room was warm and quiet. He'd left the lights off, and the walls were bathed in the faint orange glow of his console.
She looked at his back, trying to remember when it was that she’d finally stopped calling him Vakarian.
"Dr. Saleon," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "...I'd finally hunted him down. And when we were there on his ship, standing face-to-face, you wouldn't let me kill him."
"Mind reader," she accused.
He turned his head fractionally, regarding her out of the corner of one pale blue eye. "Admittedly, it’s been a while, but I think I recall the gist of the conversation we had." He tapped one long finger against his chin. "Something about... how you can’t control how others act, but you can control how you respond. Sound familiar?"
She grinned. "Nothing in the regs against recycling your inspirational speeches." She looked at him for a long moment. "You know, Taylor reminded me of you back there, a little bit. All fired up about injustice. Full of outrage."
"Hmm," was all he said.
"...You aren't still annoyed with me because of Saleon, are you?"
His good mandible flicked up in a lopsided smirk. "I think I'll let you wonder."
She scoffed. "You think you’re such a man of mystery. I know the score, Vakarian."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Shepard closed her eyes, soaking in the steady warmth of the battery walls at her back.
Re: Fill: FemShep & Garrus "New Game" (5.5/?)
anonymous
April 28 2012, 04:33:30 UTC
"So, what about you?" Garrus said.
She opened her eyes. "What do you mean?"
He looked over his shoulder at her. "Too good to have your own personal hell like the rest of us?"
Shepard just laughed.
She'd woken up in an unrecognizable galaxy on top of an operating table, jammed together from spare parts, a Cerberus logo stamped on her ass. She'd been given command of a beautiful, expensive, top-of-the-line mockery of her old ship. Crewed by beautiful, expensive, top-of-the-line people she couldn't dare trust.
The Alliance wanted her to shut up and go back to being conveniently dead. Kaidan, it seemed, felt the same way. Anderson was the only family she'd ever had, and he wouldn't even look her in the eye.
And either her sanity had splintered under the stress, or she was now some kind of unkillable demi-god. Or both.
She slid down the wall to sit on the floor, and buried her head in her hands. "...I think I'm in my special hell right now."
Garrus turned around to face her and crossed his arms over his chest. "Keep sweet-talking me like that, Shepard, and people will start to wonder about us."
"Not what I meant," she muttered. "And you know it, you ass."
He tilted his head to one side, considering.
She dropped her hands with a sigh, and leaned forward to rest her chin on her knees. Her hair fell over her face. She ignored it.
"So... about the YMIR," Garrus began.
"The YMIR?" Shepard looked up. "That’s what you’re being all weird about? I thought-- well, you know. The last two years. Getting into bed with Cerberus. Alenko. There’s a lot to cover."
He waved a hand irritably through the air, batting her personal demons aside like gnats. "That's not important right now. Uh," he paused suddenly, peering at her face, "I mean, unless it is, and you want to... talk... about... it?"
He looked terrified. She smirked. "...Maybe another time. Or never."
"Thank the spirits." He exhaled. "Anyway. The YMIR."
She kept her posture deliberately relaxed. "Yeah, what about it?"
"It wasn’t on our radar. You knew it was there anyway."
Shit. Stupid of her. Old Garrus wouldn't have pressed the issue; he deferred to her in all things. She’d forgotten that New Garrus was something different.
"I heard it clanking around," she tried.
He tapped his visor. "I pick up mech chatter with this thing, you know. It hadn’t activated yet."
She huffed. "Then I saw it. Or it was just a lucky guess. To be honest I don’t really remember, Garrus. I was too busy concentrating on keeping our asses out of the fire."
"Which you did admirably. I don’t think my shields took a single bullet."
"Thank you," she said, mollified.
He leaned forward. "...Which is really weird."
"Sorry for being good at my job," she snapped.
"That’s not what I’m saying, Shepard." He spread his hands. "After the Praetorian, and then the YMIR, and then that pack of hunters you rooted out, I just-- I know something’s up. I know you know it too. You don’t have to talk to me, but will you at least check in with Lawson? I’m starting to worry."
"Worry about what? That I’m doing what they brought me back to do, and I'm doing it really well?" She rose to her feet. "I’m here for two reasons: to find our colonists, and to kill bad guys. The colonists are still a work in progress, but I don’t think anyone can complain about my job performance when it comes to killing things."
Instead of replying, he reached behind his console, and held up her ruined breastplate. The light shone wan and orange through the hole in its center.
When the fuck had he hacked into her quarters? She crossed her arms. "Seriously, Vakarian?"
He took a deep breath. "Shepard, I don’t know what kind of fancy and probably illegal tech Cerberus put in your brain to bring you back. With everything you went through..." He shook his head. "I saw some of the reconstruction photos. Frankly, I’d be surprised if you weren’t a different person after that.
"But even if there are wires holding parts of you together now, even if you’ve changed, I know it’s still you."
He looked up, met her eyes. His voice softened. "...And I’m really glad you’re here."
Re: Fill: FemShep & Garrus "New Game" (5.75/?)
anonymous
April 28 2012, 04:52:28 UTC
He glanced down, fussed with a bit of peeling ceramic. "Anyway. My point was, the Collectors already killed you once." He straightened abruptly, mandibles pulled tight against his face. "I’d appreciate it if you could stop trying to finish the job for them." He threw her ruined breastplate at her.
Shepard caught the armor neatly. Turned it over in her hands, looked down at her feet through the hole in the center.
She brushed her fingertips over the jagged edges.
"Hah," she said quietly. "I’m invincible."
He tipped his head back, looked up at the ceiling in a silent prayer for strength. "Shepard--"
"Garrus, I--" She bit her lip, looked away. She knew he trusted her. His faith in her was so strong it was tangible; a heavy, reassuring warmth at her back. But this situation was about forty steps above a brothers-in-arms confession. She’d only barely managed to admit her suspicions to herself, much less out loud and to someone else.
And Garrus knew exactly how high the stakes were, more than anyone else on the ship. If he judged that she was crazy and a threat to the mission, he would be compelled to remove her. She'd be compelled to stop him. They’d probably kill each other in the process.
And then-- if she wasn’t crazy-- she'd come back to life again. Without him.
"...I know you’re allergic to being serious, but come on, Shepard." His voice dropped. "It sounds like Cerberus cleaned out their savings accounts to bring you back. I doubt they can pull it off twice."
She tilted her head, looking him over. His shoulders were slumped. He rubbed at a spot on his forehead underneath his visor. He was doing that New Garrus thing again, the one where he went from furious to exhausted in the space of a heartbeat.
Old Garrus had always stayed furious right up until the moment his bullet exited from the back side of the bad guy’s skull. He’d seemed so young to her back then. Limitless energy and determination. Fueled by the fires of his righteousness.
When she’d met Archangel on Omega, he’d been half-dead from weariness and emptied of hope. Two years had the weight of twenty.
Shepard looked him squarely in the eyes and put all the force of her insane, impossible conviction into her words:
"Don’t worry, Garrus. They won’t have to bring me back again. I promise."
His shoulders lifted. "Thank you, Shepard. That’s all I want."
She nodded and left, her lips twisting in a sad smile.
Hngh this fic!!! This is so amazingly in-character and wonderfully written, right down to the snarky bits of introspection. I can't even-- I keep trying to figure out how to put my love into words so I can give you a decent revew, but my fingers just want to kasddjkfhdasklfjsdhf all over the page.
I love your Shepard. I love the way you write her and Garrus. I love innocent Jacob, and Zaeed being such an asshole and lighting up a cigarette while Shepard confronted Kaidan. I loved Kaidan and Shepard's interaction and how sad she was that she didn't get to do that part over.
This story so far has yanked me around from hilarity to squick to sadness to anticipation to all the feelings and more-- and it's been a wonderful ride so far. I cannot wait for you to continue.
In a nutshell, I love it.
Also, randomly: The Horizon mission with that damn Praetorian is exactly the mission that spawned the idea for this prompt. I think I replayed it about seven billion times, roughly.
Holy shit you're the OP!! I figured you'd be long gone since I'm so late in filling your prompt. I'm so incredibly glad to be wrong!
Thank you so, so much for your comment, and for reading, and most of all thank you for your brilliant prompt. It is a fantastic jumping-off point full of a million interesting options to explore, and I hope many others decide to dive in as well.
I am so glad you are enjoying the story so far, and also glad that you had the same experience with that goddamn Horizon mission. I feel like a slightly less crappy Shepard now :)
Captain Taylor offered them an airy apology for the mechs, pandered and rationalized and lied through his teeth about everything else. The family resemblance to his son was striking. And disturbing. She forced herself not to look back and forth between them.
She and Garrus snapped to high alert when Jacob raised his gun against his father, but the Cerberus soldier just stood there for a long moment before lowering it again.
He shook his head wearily. "...I don't even know who you are."
Shepard pressed a hand to his shoulder. "I'll arrange pickup for the rest of the survivors."
Garrus moved off, a watchful eye on the hunters skulking beyond the perimeter. Shepard gave the king of the castle a cool stare. "Well, Acting Captain Taylor, can’t say it’s been a pleasure. The Alliance will send ships and medical support for your crew. In the meantime..."
She glanced over at Jacob, considering. Ever the good soldier. His face was perfectly neutral. She could see in his tense back, his clenched fists, just how much effort it was costing him.
He deserved better.
"Captain, I can see you’re a busy man," she said evenly. "We’ll leave you to your work."
Jacob nodded. "Let's get out of here."
"Now wait," the older man stammered. "Son. You have to take me with you."
"You don’t get to call me that," Jacob snarled. "Not anymore."
"I can’t wait for another ship. Please! You don't know what they'll do to me!"
The hunters paced back and forth behind the fence, eyes hungry, teeth bared.
"I think we have an idea," Garrus said quietly.
Jacob turned his back on Captain Taylor, and the three of them walked away to meet the Normandy.
---
She let herself into the battery.
Garrus didn't turn around from his console. "How's he doing?"
"He'll be okay. Jacob's a tough guy."
"So, it's 'Jacob' now," he said.
Shepard shrugged. "There were two Taylors down there. Didn't want it to get confusing. Plus..." She leaned back against the wall. "It’s kind of hard to walk side-by-side with someone through their own personal hell, and then keep calling them by their last name."
"Makes perfect sense." An exquisitely judged pause. "Shepard."
She folded her arms. "I said personal hell. Sorry, Garrus, regular hell doesn't qualify. Even if you get extra credit for doing it twice."
There was a long pause. The room was warm and quiet. He'd left the lights off, and the walls were bathed in the faint orange glow of his console.
She looked at his back, trying to remember when it was that she’d finally stopped calling him Vakarian.
"Dr. Saleon," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "...I'd finally hunted him down. And when we were there on his ship, standing face-to-face, you wouldn't let me kill him."
"Mind reader," she accused.
He turned his head fractionally, regarding her out of the corner of one pale blue eye. "Admittedly, it’s been a while, but I think I recall the gist of the conversation we had." He tapped one long finger against his chin. "Something about... how you can’t control how others act, but you can control how you respond. Sound familiar?"
She grinned. "Nothing in the regs against recycling your inspirational speeches." She looked at him for a long moment. "You know, Taylor reminded me of you back there, a little bit. All fired up about injustice. Full of outrage."
"Hmm," was all he said.
"...You aren't still annoyed with me because of Saleon, are you?"
His good mandible flicked up in a lopsided smirk. "I think I'll let you wonder."
She scoffed. "You think you’re such a man of mystery. I know the score, Vakarian."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Shepard closed her eyes, soaking in the steady warmth of the battery walls at her back.
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She opened her eyes. "What do you mean?"
He looked over his shoulder at her. "Too good to have your own personal hell like the rest of us?"
Shepard just laughed.
She'd woken up in an unrecognizable galaxy on top of an operating table, jammed together from spare parts, a Cerberus logo stamped on her ass. She'd been given command of a beautiful, expensive, top-of-the-line mockery of her old ship. Crewed by beautiful, expensive, top-of-the-line people she couldn't dare trust.
The Alliance wanted her to shut up and go back to being conveniently dead. Kaidan, it seemed, felt the same way. Anderson was the only family she'd ever had, and he wouldn't even look her in the eye.
And either her sanity had splintered under the stress, or she was now some kind of unkillable demi-god. Or both.
She slid down the wall to sit on the floor, and buried her head in her hands. "...I think I'm in my special hell right now."
Garrus turned around to face her and crossed his arms over his chest. "Keep sweet-talking me like that, Shepard, and people will start to wonder about us."
"Not what I meant," she muttered. "And you know it, you ass."
He tilted his head to one side, considering.
She dropped her hands with a sigh, and leaned forward to rest her chin on her knees. Her hair fell over her face. She ignored it.
"So... about the YMIR," Garrus began.
"The YMIR?" Shepard looked up. "That’s what you’re being all weird about? I thought-- well, you know. The last two years. Getting into bed with Cerberus. Alenko. There’s a lot to cover."
He waved a hand irritably through the air, batting her personal demons aside like gnats. "That's not important right now. Uh," he paused suddenly, peering at her face, "I mean, unless it is, and you want to... talk... about... it?"
He looked terrified. She smirked. "...Maybe another time. Or never."
"Thank the spirits." He exhaled. "Anyway. The YMIR."
She kept her posture deliberately relaxed. "Yeah, what about it?"
"It wasn’t on our radar. You knew it was there anyway."
Shit. Stupid of her. Old Garrus wouldn't have pressed the issue; he deferred to her in all things. She’d forgotten that New Garrus was something different.
"I heard it clanking around," she tried.
He tapped his visor. "I pick up mech chatter with this thing, you know. It hadn’t activated yet."
She huffed. "Then I saw it. Or it was just a lucky guess. To be honest I don’t really remember, Garrus. I was too busy concentrating on keeping our asses out of the fire."
"Which you did admirably. I don’t think my shields took a single bullet."
"Thank you," she said, mollified.
He leaned forward. "...Which is really weird."
"Sorry for being good at my job," she snapped.
"That’s not what I’m saying, Shepard." He spread his hands. "After the Praetorian, and then the YMIR, and then that pack of hunters you rooted out, I just-- I know something’s up. I know you know it too. You don’t have to talk to me, but will you at least check in with Lawson? I’m starting to worry."
"Worry about what? That I’m doing what they brought me back to do, and I'm doing it really well?" She rose to her feet. "I’m here for two reasons: to find our colonists, and to kill bad guys. The colonists are still a work in progress, but I don’t think anyone can complain about my job performance when it comes to killing things."
Instead of replying, he reached behind his console, and held up her ruined breastplate. The light shone wan and orange through the hole in its center.
When the fuck had he hacked into her quarters? She crossed her arms. "Seriously, Vakarian?"
He took a deep breath. "Shepard, I don’t know what kind of fancy and probably illegal tech Cerberus put in your brain to bring you back. With everything you went through..." He shook his head. "I saw some of the reconstruction photos. Frankly, I’d be surprised if you weren’t a different person after that.
"But even if there are wires holding parts of you together now, even if you’ve changed, I know it’s still you."
He looked up, met her eyes. His voice softened. "...And I’m really glad you’re here."
She opened her mouth to reply, but had no words.
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Shepard caught the armor neatly. Turned it over in her hands, looked down at her feet through the hole in the center.
She brushed her fingertips over the jagged edges.
"Hah," she said quietly. "I’m invincible."
He tipped his head back, looked up at the ceiling in a silent prayer for strength. "Shepard--"
"Garrus, I--" She bit her lip, looked away. She knew he trusted her. His faith in her was so strong it was tangible; a heavy, reassuring warmth at her back. But this situation was about forty steps above a brothers-in-arms confession. She’d only barely managed to admit her suspicions to herself, much less out loud and to someone else.
And Garrus knew exactly how high the stakes were, more than anyone else on the ship. If he judged that she was crazy and a threat to the mission, he would be compelled to remove her. She'd be compelled to stop him. They’d probably kill each other in the process.
And then-- if she wasn’t crazy-- she'd come back to life again. Without him.
"...I know you’re allergic to being serious, but come on, Shepard." His voice dropped. "It sounds like Cerberus cleaned out their savings accounts to bring you back. I doubt they can pull it off twice."
She tilted her head, looking him over. His shoulders were slumped. He rubbed at a spot on his forehead underneath his visor. He was doing that New Garrus thing again, the one where he went from furious to exhausted in the space of a heartbeat.
Old Garrus had always stayed furious right up until the moment his bullet exited from the back side of the bad guy’s skull. He’d seemed so young to her back then. Limitless energy and determination. Fueled by the fires of his righteousness.
When she’d met Archangel on Omega, he’d been half-dead from weariness and emptied of hope. Two years had the weight of twenty.
Shepard looked him squarely in the eyes and put all the force of her insane, impossible conviction into her words:
"Don’t worry, Garrus. They won’t have to bring me back again. I promise."
His shoulders lifted. "Thank you, Shepard. That’s all I want."
She nodded and left, her lips twisting in a sad smile.
He should want more.
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Your Garrus is so alive and Shepard is so great it burns. This entire situation is exquisitely, painfully awesome, and I look forward to more.
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More is coming soon!
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I love your Shepard. I love the way you write her and Garrus. I love innocent Jacob, and Zaeed being such an asshole and lighting up a cigarette while Shepard confronted Kaidan. I loved Kaidan and Shepard's interaction and how sad she was that she didn't get to do that part over.
This story so far has yanked me around from hilarity to squick to sadness to anticipation to all the feelings and more-- and it's been a wonderful ride so far. I cannot wait for you to continue.
In a nutshell, I love it.
Also, randomly: The Horizon mission with that damn Praetorian is exactly the mission that spawned the idea for this prompt. I think I replayed it about seven billion times, roughly.
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Thank you so, so much for your comment, and for reading, and most of all thank you for your brilliant prompt. It is a fantastic jumping-off point full of a million interesting options to explore, and I hope many others decide to dive in as well.
I am so glad you are enjoying the story so far, and also glad that you had the same experience with that goddamn Horizon mission. I feel like a slightly less crappy Shepard now :)
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I'm glad you are enjoying this!
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I love it to pieces.
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