[Something does move, a lookout, and Garrus drops them. It's nice to have a Widow in his hands again, even if it's a simulated one and not his. That should come soon. He hopes.]
Neither of you figured out it was a trap.
[He can hear the disbelief in her voice. That makes this better. He's pulling one over on her by telling the truth. Also it's good to unwind, so very good.]
You kept falling. Hit a billboard or two, tumbled into some freezer storage for a place, and got contacted by intelligence analyst Brooks, who informed you someone was stealing your ID codes and wanted to kill you. You followed her guidance, being shot at by mercs along the way, to try to find your way to a car.
Meanwhile, Joker let all of us know what was going on and we started mobilizing. Liara got to you first. I would have. But Sparatus and Victus wouldn't stop talking.
[A sigh. He still hates that he wasn't able to get there sooner, even if he knows there's nothing he could have done, and that it worked out.]
Wrex got there second. Apparently he dropped down from one floor onto a stolen C-Sec car, smashing it and helping get you to safety. Gonna skip a lot of details after that, like us infiltrating Silversun Casino's security measures and office, and skip to the point where we called in everyone and started chasing after the person responsible for taking your codes and trying to kill you.
[He stops, mandibles flaring, letting the shuttle settle down as he pauses for dramatic effect. She won't buy this. She will not for a second buy this and he is having a fantastic day.]
Your clone. With Brooks as assistant.
[Garrus steps off the shuttle, so proud of himself, sinking into cover and looking back at Shepard.]
[Okay, the over detailed account of her inglorious escape from the badly engineered trap was one thing, but no. Clones. Clones. The door to the shuttle pops open, a gentle hiss as it lifts, but Shepard doesn't move to disembark. Instead she fixes Garrus with an exceedingly flat, interminably long stare.
And I haven't even told you how she stole the Normandy and then we used your girlfriend's toothbrush to take it back. Damn. And here I thought you could tell when I was telling the truth and not by now.
[Garrus takes a step toward the base, skimming for enemies even while staying aware of her. It's satisfying that every word is true, and she doesn't believe a bit of it. He tilts his head toward the base.]
[Her eyes are narrowed, her weight's all in her heels, but eventually Shepard rocks forward - makes for the door of the shuttle craft with her weapon in hand and hops the short drop down to the rocky terrain underfoot.]
Take point. [Because don't think she's missed that inclination to do it, Vakarian. It isn't until they've left the shuttle behind, making their way along the approach to the base, that Shepard backtracks mentally, snags on something and shoots him another glance.] --Hold on, girlfriend?
[--And then a shot rings out, cracking against a nearby ledge that makes small stone and chips of shale sprinkle down on them - prompts a low noise of irritation in her as she levels her weapon and sights down it, lines up a shot and pulls the trigger three times. The rifle's a mid-range weapon, but it performs admirably; some simulated bastard out there is saying their sweet goodbyes to a few vital organs right about now.]
[They're only going in with two people, and he needs to stay on his toes, push himself in all of the positions. Green's mission is protection. He has to be ready for anything. And yet he's almost hit when the person shoots, because he's a little surprised by her surprise. Thankfully she's got the guy, and no one else moves just yet.]
Traynor. Sam Traynor? You and she...
[He jerks his head to the side in a sort of shrug.]
Don't think the crew doesn't know. I mean, sure, you guys have been discreet, but it's a small ship, Commander, and you don't recruit stupid people. Well. Other than Grunt, but that's really not your fault. I won't hold it against you.
[Someone comes out of cover up ahead, and Garrus fires twice, chuckling as they go down.]
Come on. Don't tell me you really thought we didn't notice.
Sorry-- didn't think you wouldn't notice what exactly?
[She's still moving from one point of cover to the next, so habitual that holding conversation - even one as confusing as this (clones and toothbrushes and girlfriends, apparently) - while keeping her head on her shoulders is simple enough. Hell, she even has time to fire off the requisite arch look or two in his direction before she leans out over a slab of stone, breathes out, fires toward a merc manning one of the gate houses-- lines a second shot up, does the same again.]
[Some of the smug leaves his voice as he looks over at her. Maybe it's worries about Alliance regs that have her responding like this? But they hadn't bothered here before...]
There's no shame in it. I mean, tough mission, lot of stress, making a connection's a pretty good thing, I'd figure. And no one's gonna run off and report you to Admirals Anderson or Hackett.
[Humans. So hung up on who slept with who that they forgot their own needs sometimes and made a mess out of what should be easy. Then again, he's managing to make a mess of his own here with Noh-Varr. Garrus' voice shows a little bemusement, but the subharmonics are concerned.]
And after Jacob did his turn, well, I'm glad you've got her. You deserve to be happy.
[And shit. He probably should not have mentioned Taylor. He's glad Shepard's seemed fine about the guy finding someone else while she was imprisoned, but Jacob lost a lot of respect from Garrus for that move.]
[Okay, stop. She slides back down under cover, half to avoid the next volley of fire in their direction and half to legitimately take a moment and grind to a proverbial halt so she can sort out all these loose ends. Traynor? Jacob?]
I don't know where you're getting your scuttlebutt, Vakarian, but your source is about as unreliable as al-Jilani.
[Look, she's been on the other end of this. She knows how it goes. Superior officer is schtupping someone on the roster and suddenly everyone's drawing names out of a hat to figure out who the sub(ordinate petty officer) is. She gets it. But this is a little excessive, right?]
[There's a long pause while Garrus ignores the fire coming in. They're protected and he doesn't care about a simulation right at the moment. He opens his mouth to talk and then stops before his eyes narrow.]
It's not scuttlebutt, Shepard. I've seen you with both of them with my own two eyes. I heard his not-quite apology when we ran into him again, and saw you and Traynor at the... At the party that you don't remember.
[The words are slower, thoughtful.]
I'm not judging you. Even if you were sleeping with everyone on the ship I wouldn't be judging-- I take that back. If you slept with Massani I'd judge you.
[The constant gunfire gets annoying when he's trying to have a conversation and sort something out with her, so Garrus pops out of cover long enough to return some fire and throw a grenade. He's not sure he hits, but the firing stops at least for a few moments. They haven't really taken much time for casual chatting. At all. He's missed it, even though he knows full well that Ajna's complications entirely explain the absence..]
Hold on-- [A pause for the crack of gunfire, the explosive pop of the grenade that follows. Shepard holds for a moment, listening for the sound of enemy combatants then-- She looks back at him across the top of her rifle, her expression somewhere between amused and the complete opposite of that.] Is this after, I don't know, an appropriate mourning period? Or is future me just all 'What the hell, smoke 'em while you get 'em?'
[Real classy, self.
She doesn't actually wait to hear the answer - or rather, expects him to give it to her while on the move as she shifts up from her point of cover, throwing herself up over the incline in the quiet and making for a heavy collection of stones and brush that she slides in behind easily enough despite the fire the movement draws.]
[It's not the easiest thing to talk about, especially when he doesn't know all of the first-hand details.]
From what I gathered, he didn't get in touch with you after you got released. We ran into Taylor and he introduced us to his girlfriend, asked for there to be no hard feelings. Timed it, hah, pretty well. Because then Gavin Archer showed up and he got to take all of the... everything.
[She'd taken it well on the surface, but Gavin had been a handy scapegoat. Garrus moves behind her, keeping watch, covering, taking a shot here and there as opportunity allowed.]
And then you and Traynor started seeing each other some time after that. Don't really know when it started. But it wasn't like you got that blow from him and right away ran to her.
[It's strange telling her details of her past. Future, sure, he got. But this is just... odd.]
No, I mean how long do I wait after Thane to just-- [It's difficult to make an obscene gesture while holding an assault rifle, and yet she manages. Commander Shepard, would-be savior of the galaxy ladies and gentlemen.] --jump Jacob?
[So that would be a definitive 'no' in answer to your question, Garrus.]
[That hadn't been on the rumor mill at all, and Garrus doesn't even know when she would have had time for Thane in there. And then something else is coming into place - how she'd been a little stiff on the topic of Thane, how even her rescue hadn't been quite the reunion he might have expected.]
You and Krios. I didn't... I didn't see any signs of that at all. You only had eyes for Jacob during the whole Collector mission. Despite whatever Kelly might have said about dancing with you, we all knew you were with Taylor.
[She's not in the perfect position to recognize the depth of his surprise - a volley of fire finds her cover point a moment later, the brittle snap of bark and twigs around her making her grumble. Leaning out of cover, Shepard lobs a frag grenade in the direction of fire, follows the explosion with a few well aimed shots and then moves again. It's a slow crawl forward from one point of cover to the next, generally slower and less direct than she likes, but this is all play anyway - she could charge forward while he covered her, but it would make conversation hell of a lot more difficult.
She's had enough of wrestling targets to the ground on Ajna anyway.]
I guess there's still time for Traynor [--because they're running sims and she can afford to make jokes--] but no. Taylor and I were strictly professional during the Collector mission, Garrus. [Not that there was anything wrong with Jacob's workout routine, but Kasumi was always going to be the most vocal supporter of that one.
A beat then, a moment of quiet. They're close enough that she can give him a frank look, mouth slightly drawn.]
You really didn't know?
[Mordin had. Hell, Jack had too so it wasn't as if there weren't intel leaks even if Mordin had been the epitome of discretion (ha).]
[And then he trails off, remembering back to something he and Noh-Varr had spoken about. Alternate realities. He knew, for a fact, that Shepard had been with Taylor. There hadn't been something with Thane. He would know. He knew his best friend.
He leapfrogs past her, taking down another goon up ahead. They have visual contact with the base now, and he nods to it.]
Cover me while I get the door open? And talk to me about what you think of the possibility of alternate realities. Because I've got a feeling that might be at play here. You weren't strictly professional with Taylor. Which, you know, might mean that you might not stand on top of a fish tank when being shot at in the future.
Well that's a relief. [Request approved. Shepard moves automatically to cover his line of approach, taking out three mercs between Garrus on the door in quick succession. They've got to get to it before he can do anything with it, but that's what she's here for: a shock troop, there to throw her weight around. She does it now, drawing fire and positioning herself neatly between him and their simulation mercenaries as she squeezes off a barrage of shots.]
Crichton's a fan. That's all I know. [Factually anyway. If she's spinning theories--] But sure. It would explain the timeline discrepancies. And how the CDC is so good at doing things that shouldn't be easy.
[Like, oh, raising the dead and stopping intergalactic wars. It'd explain a few other things too- things like how now that Garrus has said as much, she's thinking maybe Thane didn't know either. Awkward. Depressing, even - a word she thinks of in sterile terms, momentarily too entrenched in gunplay to give it more than an academic assessment.]
Noh's a fan too. He's traveled alternate dimensions, before. Noh-Varr, I mean.
[They're at the door, and Garrus starts to work, finding the pathways that will let him inside. There's something very, very satisfying about hacking. The pieces click into place, the walls fall down, and he moves to the side.]
[The entry room appears clear, but Garrus isn't sure.]
Throwing a flashbang.
[He does so, looking away as it goes off, buying himself a little time to think.]
I was dead. We're in another universe. They've got some sort of teleportation technology all over this ship. There's a lot they've got and they do we don't get yet. Or I don't get it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Neither of you figured out it was a trap.
[He can hear the disbelief in her voice. That makes this better. He's pulling one over on her by telling the truth. Also it's good to unwind, so very good.]
You kept falling. Hit a billboard or two, tumbled into some freezer storage for a place, and got contacted by intelligence analyst Brooks, who informed you someone was stealing your ID codes and wanted to kill you. You followed her guidance, being shot at by mercs along the way, to try to find your way to a car.
Meanwhile, Joker let all of us know what was going on and we started mobilizing. Liara got to you first. I would have. But Sparatus and Victus wouldn't stop talking.
[A sigh. He still hates that he wasn't able to get there sooner, even if he knows there's nothing he could have done, and that it worked out.]
Wrex got there second. Apparently he dropped down from one floor onto a stolen C-Sec car, smashing it and helping get you to safety. Gonna skip a lot of details after that, like us infiltrating Silversun Casino's security measures and office, and skip to the point where we called in everyone and started chasing after the person responsible for taking your codes and trying to kill you.
[He stops, mandibles flaring, letting the shuttle settle down as he pauses for dramatic effect. She won't buy this. She will not for a second buy this and he is having a fantastic day.]
Your clone. With Brooks as assistant.
[Garrus steps off the shuttle, so proud of himself, sinking into cover and looking back at Shepard.]
Should I go on?
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Clones.]
Okay, I'm calling bullshit.
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[Garrus takes a step toward the base, skimming for enemies even while staying aware of her. It's satisfying that every word is true, and she doesn't believe a bit of it. He tilts his head toward the base.]
Ready to write another story?
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Take point. [Because don't think she's missed that inclination to do it, Vakarian. It isn't until they've left the shuttle behind, making their way along the approach to the base, that Shepard backtracks mentally, snags on something and shoots him another glance.] --Hold on, girlfriend?
[--And then a shot rings out, cracking against a nearby ledge that makes small stone and chips of shale sprinkle down on them - prompts a low noise of irritation in her as she levels her weapon and sights down it, lines up a shot and pulls the trigger three times. The rifle's a mid-range weapon, but it performs admirably; some simulated bastard out there is saying their sweet goodbyes to a few vital organs right about now.]
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Traynor. Sam Traynor? You and she...
[He jerks his head to the side in a sort of shrug.]
Don't think the crew doesn't know. I mean, sure, you guys have been discreet, but it's a small ship, Commander, and you don't recruit stupid people. Well. Other than Grunt, but that's really not your fault. I won't hold it against you.
[Someone comes out of cover up ahead, and Garrus fires twice, chuckling as they go down.]
Come on. Don't tell me you really thought we didn't notice.
hey dont talk about my son that way
[She's still moving from one point of cover to the next, so habitual that holding conversation - even one as confusing as this (clones and toothbrushes and girlfriends, apparently) - while keeping her head on her shoulders is simple enough. Hell, she even has time to fire off the requisite arch look or two in his direction before she leans out over a slab of stone, breathes out, fires toward a merc manning one of the gate houses-- lines a second shot up, does the same again.]
Too late
[Some of the smug leaves his voice as he looks over at her. Maybe it's worries about Alliance regs that have her responding like this? But they hadn't bothered here before...]
There's no shame in it. I mean, tough mission, lot of stress, making a connection's a pretty good thing, I'd figure. And no one's gonna run off and report you to Admirals Anderson or Hackett.
[Humans. So hung up on who slept with who that they forgot their own needs sometimes and made a mess out of what should be easy. Then again, he's managing to make a mess of his own here with Noh-Varr. Garrus' voice shows a little bemusement, but the subharmonics are concerned.]
And after Jacob did his turn, well, I'm glad you've got her. You deserve to be happy.
[And shit. He probably should not have mentioned Taylor. He's glad Shepard's seemed fine about the guy finding someone else while she was imprisoned, but Jacob lost a lot of respect from Garrus for that move.]
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[Okay, stop. She slides back down under cover, half to avoid the next volley of fire in their direction and half to legitimately take a moment and grind to a proverbial halt so she can sort out all these loose ends. Traynor? Jacob?]
I don't know where you're getting your scuttlebutt, Vakarian, but your source is about as unreliable as al-Jilani.
[Look, she's been on the other end of this. She knows how it goes. Superior officer is schtupping someone on the roster and suddenly everyone's drawing names out of a hat to figure out who the sub(ordinate petty officer) is. She gets it. But this is a little excessive, right?]
no subject
It's not scuttlebutt, Shepard. I've seen you with both of them with my own two eyes. I heard his not-quite apology when we ran into him again, and saw you and Traynor at the... At the party that you don't remember.
[The words are slower, thoughtful.]
I'm not judging you. Even if you were sleeping with everyone on the ship I wouldn't be judging-- I take that back. If you slept with Massani I'd judge you.
[The constant gunfire gets annoying when he's trying to have a conversation and sort something out with her, so Garrus pops out of cover long enough to return some fire and throw a grenade. He's not sure he hits, but the firing stops at least for a few moments. They haven't really taken much time for casual chatting. At all. He's missed it, even though he knows full well that Ajna's complications entirely explain the absence..]
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[Real classy, self.
She doesn't actually wait to hear the answer - or rather, expects him to give it to her while on the move as she shifts up from her point of cover, throwing herself up over the incline in the quiet and making for a heavy collection of stones and brush that she slides in behind easily enough despite the fire the movement draws.]
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[It's not the easiest thing to talk about, especially when he doesn't know all of the first-hand details.]
From what I gathered, he didn't get in touch with you after you got released. We ran into Taylor and he introduced us to his girlfriend, asked for there to be no hard feelings. Timed it, hah, pretty well. Because then Gavin Archer showed up and he got to take all of the... everything.
[She'd taken it well on the surface, but Gavin had been a handy scapegoat. Garrus moves behind her, keeping watch, covering, taking a shot here and there as opportunity allowed.]
And then you and Traynor started seeing each other some time after that. Don't really know when it started. But it wasn't like you got that blow from him and right away ran to her.
[It's strange telling her details of her past. Future, sure, he got. But this is just... odd.]
Guessing this is not what you remember.
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[So that would be a definitive 'no' in answer to your question, Garrus.]
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[Garrus leans against a tree, staring at her.]
After Thane?
[That hadn't been on the rumor mill at all, and Garrus doesn't even know when she would have had time for Thane in there. And then something else is coming into place - how she'd been a little stiff on the topic of Thane, how even her rescue hadn't been quite the reunion he might have expected.]
You and Krios. I didn't... I didn't see any signs of that at all. You only had eyes for Jacob during the whole Collector mission. Despite whatever Kelly might have said about dancing with you, we all knew you were with Taylor.
no subject
She's had enough of wrestling targets to the ground on Ajna anyway.]
I guess there's still time for Traynor [--because they're running sims and she can afford to make jokes--] but no. Taylor and I were strictly professional during the Collector mission, Garrus. [Not that there was anything wrong with Jacob's workout routine, but Kasumi was always going to be the most vocal supporter of that one.
A beat then, a moment of quiet. They're close enough that she can give him a frank look, mouth slightly drawn.]
You really didn't know?
[Mordin had. Hell, Jack had too so it wasn't as if there weren't intel leaks even if Mordin had been the epitome of discretion (ha).]
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[And then he trails off, remembering back to something he and Noh-Varr had spoken about. Alternate realities. He knew, for a fact, that Shepard had been with Taylor. There hadn't been something with Thane. He would know. He knew his best friend.
He leapfrogs past her, taking down another goon up ahead. They have visual contact with the base now, and he nods to it.]
Cover me while I get the door open? And talk to me about what you think of the possibility of alternate realities. Because I've got a feeling that might be at play here. You weren't strictly professional with Taylor. Which, you know, might mean that you might not stand on top of a fish tank when being shot at in the future.
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Crichton's a fan. That's all I know. [Factually anyway. If she's spinning theories--] But sure. It would explain the timeline discrepancies. And how the CDC is so good at doing things that shouldn't be easy.
[Like, oh, raising the dead and stopping intergalactic wars. It'd explain a few other things too- things like how now that Garrus has said as much, she's thinking maybe Thane didn't know either. Awkward. Depressing, even - a word she thinks of in sterile terms, momentarily too entrenched in gunplay to give it more than an academic assessment.]
no subject
[They're at the door, and Garrus starts to work, finding the pathways that will let him inside. There's something very, very satisfying about hacking. The pieces click into place, the walls fall down, and he moves to the side.]
It's opening. Alternate dimensions doesn't explain everything, though.
[The entry room appears clear, but Garrus isn't sure.]
Throwing a flashbang.
[He does so, looking away as it goes off, buying himself a little time to think.]
I was dead. We're in another universe. They've got some sort of teleportation technology all over this ship. There's a lot they've got and they do we don't get yet. Or I don't get it.