Who Saves the Hero by Kudara

Chapter 4

Zaeed: The Price of Revenge

It wasn't as if Shepard didn't understand being driven to hunt someone down for the wrongs they had done. She had chased Saren across the galaxy for his betrayal of the Council, and for his betrayal of his oath as Spectre to uphold the safety of the galaxy and be the protector of galactic peace.

But as she had said to Garrus long ago, do things right, not fast and just because you could break the rules and get away with it didn't mean that you should break them. If anything the fact that Spectres didn't have to obey the law meant to Shepard that she had to hold tighter to her morals, and that she would voluntarily follow the rules up until the point that they clearly jeopardized her mission and/or her oaths to protect the Council, the galaxy, and galactic peace. Case in point, working with Anderson to steal the Normandy so she could follow him to Ilos after the Council and Udina had grounded her. That had definitely been one moment during which she had not followed the rules at all, had not even obeyed the Council, all because she knew that doing so would endanger the galaxy.

Zaeed was reckless and ruthless. She could still hardly believe that the bastard had set the refinery afire, endangering the workers they were supposed to free just on the off chance that it might kill Vido. Burnt alive, not a nice death at all, and then he hadn't cared one bit that he put the workers in danger, that others, innocents, would pay the highest price for him to get his vengeance. She had been so furious with him that she had turned and headed into the refinery to turn on the fire suppression system before she gave into the impulse to pull her weapon on him and kill him right then and there, both for what he had done and for how callous he was about it.

Shepard had managed to find her way through the flames and turn on the fire suppression system, and it hadn't taken her very long at all. Unfortunately, after that there had been a lot of Blue Sun mercs to fight their way through and Vido had managed to escape while they died to cover his retreat.

Then there had been the little scene on the shuttle pad after Zaeed had spent his entire clip firing after Vido's gunship. Shepard had no idea if he had actually hit anyone or anything vital, the vehicle hadn't seemed to be damaged. That was not surprising, gunships were heavily armored. There had been their little standoff with weapons drawn on each other that had been interrupted by an explosion from the refinery and a beam that had sailed thought the air and landed on the mercenary pinning his legs. At the time it had been poetic justice as far as Shepard was concerned.

"You know if you hadn't blown up the refinery, you wouldn't be under that beam right now," she commented, staring at him coolly.

"Screw you," he growled at her, "now get this off me and let's get out of this shit hole."

Shepard knelt and stared him in the eye, "I'm not sure I need someone like you on my ship." She had been entirely serious, she was very close to telling him they would swing by Omega and he would be off her ship.

He stared right back and she could see the lack of respect he had for her in the way he did it. "If you didn't need me, Cerberus wouldn't have paid my fee. I'll do what I was paid to do, nothing more, nothing less. Now stop screwing around! Let's go!" He was still trying to give her orders, as he had throughout the entire mission. This attitude of his wouldn't work, there was only one leader here and it wasn't him.

She stood and backed away from him, staring down at him and allowing her displeasure to show, "You put your own goals ahead of the mission. That's not the way this works." Her tone was stern, unyielding, the tone she would use with a disobedient marine who had fucked up royally. There was nothing but the Commander standing in front of him now.

Zaeed was the one to break their staring contest first, he lowered his gaze and actually unbent enough to explain, "I've survived this long watching my own back. No time to worry about anyone else."

If asked exactly why she had done what she had done next, Shepard couldn't have explained it; she wasn't entirely sure why it had worked herself. Only instinct and the things Zaeed had said earlier about Vito having shot him in the head prompted her to take a step forward and pull her pistol. She pointed it at him, only a few inches from his face, conscious of Garrus jerking and staring at her in surprise. "You're part of a team now Zaeed. There's no way we can do this unless we're all working together."

She had let him stare at the business end of the pistol and her for a few seconds before moving it away. It had almost been like dealing with a krogan, having a diplomatic way with words didn't generally get you very far with them. You had to back up your words with a show of strength before they believed you were actually serious about what you were saying.

"You have a point," he allowed, "I'm not done with Vido, but I can put that behind me long enough to get your mission done."

Shepard holstered her pistol and bent down to lift the beam off his legs. It was easier than she had expected, Zaeed hadn't been able to shift it and the man was definitely not weak. She couldn't deny that Cerberus had done a very good job rebuilding her body; she was quite a bit stronger, faster and her reflexes were quicker than before. Still, thinking about it made her feel distinctly uneasy; it would take a lot of reinforcement of bone and replacement or enhancement of muscle tissue to enable a human female to lift a beam that heavy. The fact that she had done it just made it clear the amount of cybernetics and bio-synthetics that had gone into rebuilding her body. She didn't feel entirely human anymore and every time she did something that she couldn't have before she died that feeling only grew. Shepard sighed, there wasn't anything she could do about it, she had the body she had now and she simply had to deal with it. At least there was a definite silver lining to the whole deal; she wasn't spending as much time in the medical bay these days and she wasn't bruised and stiff for days after each battle.

As for Zaeed, she still wasn't sure that she had made the right decision, but she would give the mercenary the opportunity to prove he was focused on the mission and not on his revenge. As for his loyalty to her, she wasn't sure she even wanted it, but these days she shouldn't afford pass up any opportunity to bring the crew around firmly to her side and the man was a damn good fighter.

"EDI"

"Yes commander?" Normandy's AI responded promptly.

"Keep an eye out for information on the Blue Suns and their leader Vido Santiago, and let me know if you come across anything. Also, send a notification to Zaeed that you are doing so by my order."

She didn't mind throwing Zaeed a bone. If it didn't jeopardize the mission and if there weren't any innocent bystanders around to get hurt in the crossfire, she didn't mind going after Vido for him again if the opportunity arose.

"That's all I needed EDI, thank you," she said belatedly, realizing the AI was probably waiting for her to either give more instructions or indicate she was done.

"Logging you out, Shepard."

She rose to from her desk; it was past time she took up an old habit. Doing the rounds of her team, seeing how they were doing. Spending some time with each of them and making the effort to get to know them, to understand what motivated each and what their potential weaknesses were that she needed to address.

Shepard had barely spent any time with Mordin, Zaeed or Jack, and only a little more with Garrus, Miranda and Jacob. She would leave Zaeed alone today unless he sought her out to ask about EDI's message.

The Crew

Shepard used to keep her observations about the crew in an encrypted file onboard the ship's computer, but that wouldn't do for the new Normandy. She would just have to keep it all in her head. Currently her mental file on each of the crew went something like this:

Miranda Lawson - Genetically engineered by her father and raised to be his replacement, she sought out and joined Cerberus as a teenager in exchange for protection from him. Miranda had a high level of loyalty to Cerberus, and quite possibly saw the Illusive Man as some type of mentor. Shepard was unsure whether or not the woman knew the true extent of some of Cerberus' shadier activities. No matter what, she knew she needed to progress cautiously as any questioning of Cerberus' actions incited a defensive response from the woman, most likely because Miranda had a lot of her identity invested in her role as a trusted member of Cerberus.

Personal notes: If she could see Miranda's brain activity, Shepard was sure she would see reward centers light up whenever Miranda rejected anything which might put Cerberus in a negative light. Her XO would be her toughest one to wean away from Cerberus.

Jacob Taylor - Former Alliance. Loyal to Miranda due to their past missions together. If she could find evidence that Cerberus wasn't what the Illusive Man claimed it was Shepard hoped that Jacob would willingly leave them.

Personal notes: She needed to proceed very cautiously so as not to give any false impressions that she was personally interested in the man.

Garrus Valkerian - It was becoming more and more evident to Shepard exactly how bitter and vengeful Sidonis's betrayal of his team on Omega had made the turian. His current behavior reminded her of how he had been about Dr. Saleon, so set on coldly executing the salarian that he had been surprised when she insisted they bring the salarian in for questioning and a trial. Only this time it was worse, what Sidonis had done was personal to him, and it was clear that he had a deep need to deliver justice in the form of a bullet.

Personal note: Shepard was very worried about her friend. She hated seeing him so hurt and angry, but she understood it too. Something told her she was just going to have to play this one by ear and hope that inspiration struck during crunch time. She just hoped that their friendship was strong enough for him to allow her to help him.

Mordin Solus - Brilliant scientist, former member of salarian Special Tasks Group. His last task for them included releasing an altered version of the genophage on Tuchanka because the krogan were adapting to the original.

Personal note: Shepard couldn't think of a single time she'd ever been as conflicted after a short conversation as she had been today. Talking to Wrex it seemed so simple; the genophage caused krogan mothers to have stillborn children, surely a heartbreaking thing to do to any female. It devastated the krogan people, making them loose all hope that their race could surive and turning them into mercenaries that hated all of galactic society for being complicit in the crime committed against them.

Then there had been Patriarch, certainly overhearing him talk about pre-genophage birthing pools and the young taking up their first weapons and killing off their weaker siblings didn't raise images of krogan mothers and fathers grieving for every lost child. It sounded more like there were so many children in each birthing that their parents didn't really care about them individually at all.

Now Mordin, who sounded so sincere in defense of the genophage, was saying it was the only way to allow the krogan to live at all; otherwise they would multiply so fast that once again the galaxy would unite against them and this time they might simply kill them all. He was convinced the genophage was the only answer to that, it kept krogan birthrates to pre-industrial levels, and made sure there were never enough krogan to present a threat to galactic peace while still preserving them as an existing race.

Amanda wasn't sure what to think anymore; certainly she'd met enough krogan to know they weren't all like Wrex, and that Mordin might be entirely right when he predicted they would do the exact same thing as they had before if the genophage was cured. The galaxy didn't need the Second Krogan Rebellions and neither did the krogan.

Jack - Raised in a Cerberus research facility from which she escaped as a child. Shepard wasn't certain what they had done to the younger woman, but she knew that Jack dreamed of hunting them down and killing them for it. Safe to say it hadn't been anything good.

Personal note: Jack was a living testament as to why Shepard hated Cerberus and why she was certain the Illusive Man was nothing but an immoral megalomaniac. Torturing children rated about as low as you could possibly go in Shepard's book of grievous offenses to both mortals and the Creator/God/Goddess. As for Jack herself, she was an abuse survivor, and obviously decided that her best bet was to kill anyone she thought was a threat before they had the chance to kill her. So long as Shepard didn't get on her bad side, she didn't think she needed to worry about anything but Jack killing Miranda.

Okeer

Shepard was glad that she hadn't had to deal with Okeer; she doubted he would have ever accepted her command, or put aside his own goals in favor of completing the mission. Everything Wrex had taught her about krogans and the information the Illusive Man had sent about him had set up red flags in her mind that this krogan would be a constant source of trouble for her. She already had Jack, she didn't need another disruptive force on the team demanding her attention and draining her energy. But then perhaps that's what the Illusive Man had wanted, Shepard's eyes narrowed as she considered that, if she were constantly distracted by issues with her team she wouldn't have any energy left to think about other things. Hmm...a possibility she would definitely have to consider further.

She hadn't known much about krogans when she hooked up with Wrex to go up against Fist. She hadn't known how lucky she had been that it had been Wrex and not another krogan she had recruited. He was far more forward thinking and adaptable than the average krogan, and, as they became friends, he had taught her a lot about his race and how to deal with them and how to tell which ones would be more trouble than help to her.

As for the asari helping Okeer...what were the odds on running into the same asari who had opened Saren's personal lab for her on Virmire. If Rana Thanoptis hadn't, Shepard doubted she would have ever realized the lab was there. With Ashley and Captain Kirrahe's team under fire, Shepard had been taking the most direct route she could find through Saren's facility. She had been solely focused on her goal of taking out the second AA tower and allowing Normandy to land and place the improvised bomb to blow up Saren's lab.

Without Rana pointing the area and its significance out to her, Shepard would have never taken the time to explore the area. She would have never known there was another beacon or obtained the message from it filling in the missing gaps from the first and completing her understanding that the message was a warning about the Reapers and a starchart leading the way to Ilos where a group of Prothean scientists had hidden from the Reaper attack.

She would have never spoken to Sovereign, or realized the true extent of the danger facing the galaxy. She would have been stymied on where to go next, how to track Saren past Virmire. She would have been caught flat footed when Sovereign attacked the Citadel having never been to Ilos, never talked to Vigil, never found out the Citadel was actually a mass relay linked to dark space where the rest of the Reapers waited for it to open and start their invasion. She would have never obtained the virus from Vigil that allowed her to take back control of the Citadel and open the station's arms so the Alliance could attack and destroy the Reaper.

Without Rana Thanoptis pointing out Saren's lab and opening it for her to explore, Sovereign probably would have succeeded, and they would now be in a desperate fight for their lives against the entire Reaper fleet. For that reason, and the fact that the scientist was unarmed and had turned off the security cameras for them, she had let the asari scientist go with only a stern warning to choose her next job more carefully.

But speaking of krogans, there was Okeer's 'son' waiting in the cargo hold. A complete unknown and something the Illusive Man probably hadn't foreseen. Shepard got into the elevator and took it down to the fourth deck, engineering. The krogan was in the port cargo hold. She stepped into the room and walked up to the tank, the 'glass mother' as the one tank-bred krogan who had spoken to them had called it. She examined the figure inside; this was Okeer's pure krogan, bred to ignore the genophage, whatever that meant.

"The subject is stable, Shepard," EDI spoke up, "Integration with onboard systems was seamless."

Curious, she inquired, "Can he see anything in there? Does he know where he is?"

"Unlikely," the AI replied, "current neural patterns indicate minimal cognition. Barring ship wide power loss, the nutrients in the tank could sustain him for over a year."

"What about the imprints Okeer used," she asked, "would they make him think like Okeer?" If that was the case the krogan could just stay in his tank.

"No, Okeer's technology could only impart data, not methods of thinking. The subject may know of his views, but not necessarily share them."

Shepard's eyes narrowed thoughtfully at this news, interesting. "Scans detect anything unusual about him?" she asked next.

"The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary and tertiary organs, where applicable. No defects of any kind, aside from the genetic markers of the genophage present in all krogan. I cannot judge mental functioning."

Shepard nodded, stepping closer to the tank and giving the armor the krogan was wearing a close examination, identifying its weak spots. The krogan looked young and she had a strong suspicion that the first thing he would do would be to test her, or test himself against her. The two were really closely related in krogan psychology from what she gathered from Wrex.

She reached behind her and drew her pistol, changing the settings to regular ammo. She didn't want to kill him unless she absolutely had to, but she needed to be prepared to use this. She re-holstered the weapon. Then she closed her eyes and centered herself, thinking of who the krogan needed to meet in order to gain his immediate respect and get him to follow her. The Commander yes, but not necessarily the diplomatic one, he needed to meet the experienced marine, the skilled N7 Special Forces leader.

Her light grey eyes opened, "Stand by, I'm going to open the tank and release him," she declared, stepping toward the controls.

"Cerberus protocol is very clear regarding untested alien technology," EDI stated.

Shepard's eyes narrowed, in her current mindset having her orders questioned only annoyed her. Still she explained her reasons, "He's either a powerful addition to the crew or a ticking time bomb. I'd rather deal with it now."

The terseness of her explanation must have made it clear to EDI that she was not going to be dissuaded. "Very well Shepard, the controls are online. The switch...and consequences are yours."

"They always are EDI, that comes along with being the Commander." It was simple fact.

EDI was actually silent for a moment, "Yes, Commander," the AI responded. She sounded surprised? No matter, her attention needed to be focused on the krogan she was about to wake up.

She stepped up to the controls, tapped out the commands to release and wake up the krogan and then took several steps backward away from the tank. She knew the front would open from both the bottom, which would slide down, and the top which would swing up, but she didn't know if the krogan inside would remain there or fall forward. He fell forward onto his knees, coughing and expelling fluid from his mouth.

It took the krogan a few seconds to recover enough to rise to his feet. Shepard wasn't certain how aware the krogan was of his surroundings yet so she approached slowly, watching him closely. Sky blue eyes opened, that was startling. She didn't think she'd ever seen a blue eyed krogan before. Her surprise was unfortunate, she almost missed the focusing of those eyes on her until the last moment and then the krogan growled and charged, picking her up and slamming her against the wall.

Without a hard suit on and only in civilian clothing, that would have certainly stunned and perhaps hurt her before her death. Now it wasn't exactly something she wanted to have happen again, but she was still clear headed, relatively unhurt, and more importantly, she had her pistol drawn and in the krogan's gut. Her feet were on the ground supporting her, and she had her hand on the krogan's forearm stopping him from pressing it against her throat.

She met the krogan's gaze unflinchingly, noting that despite his actions he didn't appear to be enraged. "Human, female. Before you die I need a name."

"I'm Commander Shepard," her eyes narrowed on his, "and I don't take threats lightly. I suggest you relax," she would shoot him if he showed any further sign of aggression toward her.

"Not your name." the krogan clarified, "Mine. I am trained. I know things, but the tank... Okeer couldn't implant connections. His words are hollow. Warlord, legacy, grunt...." The krogan paused for a second, "Grunt was among the last, it has no meaning, it'll do." His gaze focused on her, "I am Grunt, if you are worthy of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me."

This was the challenge she had expected, prepared herself for. "You wouldn't prefer Okeer or Legacy?" she asked, her tone cool.

"It's short, matches the training in my blood," he responded, "The other words are big things I don't feel. Maybe they fit in your mouth better. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. I will do what I am bred to do-fight and determine the strongest-but his imprint has failed. Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you."

And that was her in; she knew what he wanted now, a place to belong, a worthy opponent, a good fight. All fairly standard desires for a krogan. She met his gaze; spoke honestly, "I have a good ship and a strong crew, a strong clan. You'd make it stronger."

He stared back at her for a long moment and she met his gaze steadily, not backing down and more importantly not showing any fear. "If you are weak and choose weak enemies, I'll have to kill you." Shepard knew that was actually a statement and not exactly a threat, or it was only a threat if she did choose weak enemies. It also meant that he was seriously considering her offer.

"Our enemies are worthy, no doubt about that," no need to even pretend any sincerity, she just let it show. Collectors and Reapers, if there were stronger enemies out there she really didn't want to ever meet them.

"Hmm.. Humph!" the pressure on her hand that had been holding his arm away from her throat eased, "That's acceptable, I'll fight for you."

He drew back, his forearm easing up completely, "I'm glad you saw reason," she commented.

"Hmm?" Only now did he look down and realize that she had had him at weapon point this entire time. He stepped back, "Ha, offer with one hand and arm the other. Wise Shepard, if I find a clan. If I find what I...I want," he nodded to her, "I'll be honored to eventually pit them against you."

Lovely, a krogan compliment, Shepard thought as she watched him stomp away to look around the cargo hold. She knew it really was a compliment, but it just pointed out why krogans could be so difficult to get along with for anyone other than another krogan.

Continued...