Zealot’s
Five years prior.
It had been a year on that stupid planet, filled with dangerous animals. The Normandy had been ruined, half the crew slept underneath the engine bay. Garrus though, Garrus sat on top of the ship. Every night, he stayed in a watchtower that himself, Tali, James and Liara had spent a week constructing. He had spent many sleepless nights, curled up with Tail. Awaiting any dangers, it had been an awful time. But one night, he and Joker were in the AI core. Ken and Gabby wanted to talk with them. Something about a new VI that they were constructing. Garrus didn’t remember properly, it had been a VI. Based on psychological profiles of members of the crew, deceased members. A way of speaking with the dead to an extent. Chakwas had been, hesitant with the idea. He couldn’t remember why, but he and Joker agreed that it was an entirely possible plan, if they were there for much longer they would execute it. But for now, it was stored in the AI core.
It had been two months since then when a ship had flown in. An alliance cruiser, a series of transports flew in. He remembered Miranda and Jack walking off one. He remembered hugging them both harder then he had hugged many other people, Tail had joined the hug seconds later. He saw Jacob walk off the transport, immediately joining it as well. Then they went home, to try and repair a broken galaxy.
Today.
Garrus awoke, gasping for air as he looked around. He appeared to be in some sort of medical bay, holding his chest he felt the blood along his body. He also appeared to be dressed in mostly bandages and the avian leggings he wore under his armour. Taking a breath, he swung his legs to the side. Standing up he rolled his shoulders, looking around. It appeared to resemble an alliance medbay. He was about to walk out the door, when a blue light appeared from behind him.
“Hello Colonel Vakarian! Welcome to the Benezia. Flagship of the Shadow Broker.” Said the spinning blue orb, floating around. Garrus turned around, hand on his jaw. Before giving his version of a smile, “Glyph. I would think that I have Liara to thank for saving me then.” The orb floated though the air as the door out to the hallway to the rest of the ship, “That would be correct! I believe she will want to speak with you on the bridge. Come with me.”
Garrus soon followed after the floating orb, walking out into what appeared to be a main room. With lavish furniture and expensive machinery decorating the room, “This is the main intelligence core. Where much of the intelligence gathering by the Shadow Brokers most trusted agents occurs.” Garrus gave only a quiet nod. As they approached a staircase up to the bridge, Garrus gave a huff, as they stepped up onto it.
It was a standard alliance cruiser bridge. The lighting was a light purple, and the computer screens all hummed with the same colour. It had the hustle and bustle with the movement of tens of dozens of different species working in unison. And at its centre, was a blue woman. Her head tendrils flowing behind her, dressed in a green trenchcoat, gloves and boots. She turned around, revealing herself to also be dressed in a purple shirt with various tools strapped onto it, and military grade pants. Liara T’Soni stood, drinking a cup of tea as she looked at Garrus.
“Liara. I feel like I haven’t seen you in-“ “3 years, 4 months and 17 days. Not since your wedding.” Garrus laughed at her remembrance of that, crossing his still aching arms as he looked at her. “Yeah, and it’s great to see you. Now do you mind telling me who the hell that guy was?” Liara gave a knowing smile as she pulled up a image of Garrus’s attacker, cloak included. “He is called The Zealot. We don’t know incredibly much about him otherwise, he hasn’t been talked about or even known about anywhere before two weeks ago, when Kaiden’s transport went down. Kaiden’s been dead for two weeks.”
Garrus looked almost shellshocked, nobody had been informed. Nobody has informed Garrus at least, no one. “Why weren’t we informed then? Something that major?”
“The alliance is keeping it under wraps, you’re a vigilante now Garrus. Right now the galaxy is incredibly fragile. We are just starting to connect with a third batch of systems, there’s so many family members unaccounted for until we can get the relays fully back up. As it stands, someone killing an war hero with surface to air weapons. Is perhaps too troubling to make public, especially if the conspiracy minded link it to a return of CAT-6 or Cerberus. Which...” Garrus cocked his eye to look at the woman. “Which...?” “Wouldn’t be horribly far from the truth unfortunately. The Zealot has organized former members of both organizations, alongside a plethora of mercenary’s and terrorists. All of whom, from any files we could gather. Weren’t incredibly high on the commander, but. The organization is the Cult of Shepard. Something is happening there Garrus.”
Garrus looked shocked for a moment. Before speaking, “That’s a lot of people. What else happened...?”
“Zaeed. I sent him in to investigate an outpost. I haven’t heard anything back from him in a week and a half. All indications are that he’s dead. We’re being hunted Garrus. I wasn’t sure with Kaiden and Zaeed. But I can confidently say, we are being hunted.”
“What can I do to help then?” Asked the soldier. Garrus felt bad about Zaeed. He hadn’t been the most loved member of the crew, but he had still been family. That felt like crap
“Rest up. We’re outside Earth’s orbit for now, but please just rest.” She said, quickly turning back towards the view screen outside into space.
Garrus nodded as he relaxed his body, before giving a sigh. “All right, I’ll head back to sickbay.” “Thank you Garrus. Have a good night.” With that, the Turian walked off, now acutely aware of the situation and the bastard who killed his friends. He wouldn’t stand for that.