"FORGIVE THE INSUBORDINATION, BUT YOUR BOYFRIEND HAS AN ORDER FOR YOU. COME BACK ALIVE. IT'D BE AN AWFULLY EMPTY GALAXY WITHOUT YOU."
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LOG II: EVERY ENDING HAS A BEGINNING
The SSV Normandy SR-2: Captain’s Quarters
The air in the Captain’s Quarters was saturated with bubbling energy as a different pact of friendship was shaped between the eight people within. Glyph took it upon himself to serve drinks to those who wanted one, tuning the radio to a warm, low jazz.
Garrus was nursing a drink after tossing back three shots in a row, his gaze light years away from his surroundings as he ran through the plan once more, searching for any holes that could prove fatal. He couldn’t lose anyone else.
“To be clear, mostly for myself” he said, swirling the amber liquid absently, “there’s no real proof, we’re just basing this on a gut feeling. Man, Palaven would run me out of their operations if they knew what I do with my training.”
“It’s all we’ve lived by these past few years,” Kaidan said, drinking deeply from his beer, “a gut feeling. I see no reason to not trust them again.”
Garrus looked over at Joker. “You’re sure you’re okay flying back into that mess? There’s no telling what kind of debris field we may be looking at.”
Joker’s eyes were hollow, and tired. “I can do it. I have to.”
Tali sat down beside Garrus and took his hand in hers.
“Will you tell me a happy memory? Please, Garrus,” she said, squeezing his hand lightly, “I can’t go back there with this much dread, it’s too much.”
A tsunami of moments coursed before his eyes, and he blinked rapidly to stop himself from losing them to gravity. Tilting his head up to the ceiling, he took a shaky breath.
“Did I ever tell you we were going to adopt?” Garrus said, oblivious to the shared, timid surprise that sprang up in the room. “After this was all over, we were going to find somewhere warm and sandy to settle down in. She used to joke that we couldn’t have kids because our physiology was just a bit too different, and suggested adopting Grunt once, ha.”
His voice caught on the memory of her laugh. “Spirits, Val…”
Five rapid knocks on the door made everyone inside jump, Kaidan reaching for his pistol automatically.
“Um, hello? It’s Specialist Traynor,” the voice called, “I apologise for interrupting but I’ve got something you all need to see right away!”
Tali got up and let Samantha Traynor inside, her own puffy eyes and soaked face mirrored back at her. She clutched a small datapad to her chest, the Cerberus logo on its face-plate glimmering from between her fingers. She almost shoved it towards Tali, pale as paper.
“Just read it. I need someone else to read it, please.”
“What is it, Sam?” Kaidan asked, suddenly by her side and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Steady now. Come sit down.”
Somewhat pink in the face, the two walked to the bed and sat down. Traynor scooted herself back on the bed to sit cross-legged beside Kaidan, rubbing her arms feverishly. Tali, however, had said nothing as she scrolled through whatever Samantha had given her. A quiet gasp compelled Liara to come and read over her shoulder.
Garrus watched the asari scan a few lines, her face flashing from curiosity to fascinated horror. Liara whipped her head around to stare at Traynor.
“How did you obtain this? This is highly classified intel from Cerberus’ servers,” she asked, the accusatory tone not lost on anyone.
Samantha swallowed. “Well, while you were all inside HQ, EDI and I did some digging in their systems. There wasn’t time to analyse anything, and almost all of it was heavily encrypted and bugged. We just did a mass extraction, and agreed to go over it after… anyway, EDI taught me a few things, and with everything that was happening, I decided to see what I could find, if anything, and…” she simply gestured to the tech that had taken the rest of her words away.
“And you’re sure this isn’t a decoy? Cerberus would absolutely have something like that to sidetrack any potential traitors or spies,” Tali questioned, and Garrus noticed that her mask was fogging up near the edges.
“Positive. I went over it with a fine-toothed comb for Trojan traps, catastrophic data-miners, false key encryptors, logins and passwords - everything. It’s clean.”
“Are we really considering Cerberus information right now?” Ashley asked, frowning darkly. “Did we collectively forget that they’re a) the bad guys too and b) they’d love to see us dead?”
“Read what it says, Samantha, please” Liara said, clasping her hands behind her back.
“Uh, I’m not into that, but the gist of it is that by using both the blood and DNA from both you,” you nodded to Garrus, who blinked, “and the Commander, they were able to create a biostimulant that’s meant to bring either of you back from fatal incidents.”
“Although it looks like they didn’t mean for it to work both ways,” Tali added, looking up at Traynor and Garrus. Seeing the turian’s overwhelmed face, she held out the datapad. “Maybe it’d be better if you read it yourself.”
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>TO: Illusive Man
>FROM: Project Lazarus
The failsafes, their main components, and the back-ups, have all been secured. Casualties were more than projected - the asari named Aria was tipped off and sent some of her men to greet us. I will be going through the personnel assigned to this task thoroughly to find the mole and deal with them.
Tissue and blood samples are going through rigorous testing now, and the stem cell growth has shown much promise. We should be able to see the first results within the next five to ten days, maximum. As soon as the team reports in, I will let you know.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
I will be honest. There are a lot of questions, and some concerns, about why this particular process is necessary to Project Lazarus. We play the long game, of course, but the lengths we’re going to go to secure a foolproof back-up plan that may never come to fruition are quite… extensive. I will say that I am curious as well.
M, Project Lazarus
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>TO: Project Lazarus
>FROM: Illusive Man
If something happens to her again, we need to have an emergency reset. Intel has pointed every and all fingers at this one, right from first contact, and it has only been solidified with her recent communications.
The rest is of no one’s concern.
Ensure the numbers are run correctly, we cannot afford to make any mistakes on her. If there are further questions from your team, direct them to me personally.
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“Project Lazarus brought Shepard back from the dead,” Garrus muttered, thinking, “Miranda spearheaded that one, right? And what’s this about ‘recent communications’? Any ideas?”
“I’m not sure what it means, I don’t have the authorizations to look through those messages,” Samantha said apologetically, “but… you should now.”
“No, she didn’t keep anything. Her Sent messages are empty.”
“Keep reading,” Liara said, pacing around the room.
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>TO: Illusive Man
>FROM: Project Lazarus
Revivification has been observed on a cellular and muscular level, and at a much more elevated rate than we previously projected. Initial samples have shown to be operating as healthy, organic cells normally would. We have one sample that produced blood clots, so we are running several more tests on that one in particular, but barring that, the stimulant will be ready for surface-wide application upon single contact with injured, dying, or dead cells.
Have you decided the best course of administering this yet? We can hardly walk onto Omega and ask for a meeting, let alone sneak up on him. He’s very… in tune.
M, Project Lazarus
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>TO: Project Lazarus
>FROM: Illusive Man
Reach out to our contacts on the Citadel and Omega, advertise whatever you need to get interest. It has to be done through a third party, we can’t afford to have this traced back to us in any capacity. As long as it’s done cleanly, no waste.
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>TO: Illusive Man
>FROM: Project Lazarus
It seems we were lucky: Subject Jupiter has been operating on Omega under the alias Archangel, and is currently wanted dead or alive by all the local gangs. They’ve banded together for a last stand to ensure Subject Jupiter’s demise, but our intel advised it’s a siege, not a tactical entrance.
Our people have replaced all their ammo for our short-injection versions. It’s not traceable, and hasn’t shown any side effects when testing, so if he’s as good as they all say he is, a couple of bullets won’t put him down.
M, Project Lazarus
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>TO: Project Lazarus
>FROM: Illusive Man
Clean up any loose ends from this, and ensure his dossier is at the top of Shepard’s files when she wakes up.
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Garrus set the pad down beside him on the bed, reeling from this information. He tried to think of something to say, anything to pull him out of the sinkhole of possibilities and questions as they filtered down to just one, singular thought: Shepard could be saved.
“... and I would need to see the formulas the first few times, just to make sure I understand precisely what it is I need to do, but yes, I think I could replicate this,” Karin’s voice brought Garrus back to the room, speaking to Liara, the datapad now in her lap.
“If you need any supplies or materials, please let me know, I want to help as much as I can,” Liara said, Ashley sitting beside her silently.
“Garrus?” Tali was sitting on his right, Kaidan still on his left and watching him.
“We can save her.”
He looked straight at Joker, a tingling starting in his talons and creeping up his forearms. His words were for the room at large, but the Normandy’s pilot was Shepard’s oldest friend here. He understood, quite keenly, what Garrus wanted.
“We can save her,” he repeated, breathless.
“So we’re going back?” Ashley asked, staring incredulously at the others.
Javik uttered a strange grumble and pointed a finger at her.
“Why did you volunteer to come?” Karin and Liara fell silent as eyes turned to Javik. “You have contributed nothing but distrust and arrogance, and yet you still persist. We go into a very dark unknown, and for one reason. You seem to have a second reason. What is it?”
Ashley sat back, her lip curling as she got to her feet. “That’s none of your damn business.”
“You made it mine by being here,” he snapped back. He didn’t move, standing stock still and staring at her until she let out a wounded noise of frustration.
“Fine. I accused the Commander of a lot of things that had to do with Ceberus, alright? I was angry, but she was understanding, even put me in my place a couple times. I-I feel guilty, especially knowing we’re going to use those scumbag’s work to fix this.” Ashley bristled, drawing herself inward as she finally met Javik’s gaze. “There, happy?”
“Yes.”
The Prothean took a step forward to rest a hand on her shoulder, not unkindly. “The Commander forgave you a long time ago. It is time you forgive yourself as well, or you will complicate this entire operation. Captain,” he addressed Garrus, “are we returning to the battlefield? Are we going back?”
Garrus nodded once, feeling as equally heavy as he did light. “We’re going back. Right now. Joker?”
Joker got to his feet, saluted Garrus, and left without a word to anyone.
“Sounds like it’s go-time,” Kaidan said, giving the others a meaningful glance as he stood. “I’m off to give Joker a hand, he could probably use it. Will keep you posted on our ETA, Captain.”
“Hang on,” Ashley said, holding a hand up, “we can’t all go out there to look for her. Who are you taking with you, Cap?”
Garrus studied each of their faces briefly, mentally humming the turian national anthem as he ran through the pros and cons of each.
“Tali, Kaidan, Javik, you’re with me. The rest of us, get us ready for anything. I have no idea what to expect, but since when has that stopped us.”
The room emptied quickly once the order was given, and Garrus returned to the aquarium once more, watching the sunfish swim circles around the others.