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Echoes of the Past	By : ArcadiaJones Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6854 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or ideas of Mass Effect. I am not making any money writing this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Ransom
- 2-Ambush
- 3-Hunt
- 4-Memories
- 5-Hunt
- 6-Rescue
- 7-Escape
- 8-Healing
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- 3
- 4
A/N: I forgot to mention this earlier, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm using the 24-hour clock. I am aware that the alien planets of Mass Effect run on a very different time clock, but for simplicity's sake, I'm just gonna stick to good old-fashioned human time.

Chapter Three
Hunt

Thane roared as he sent a biotic punch through the glass walls of Shepard’s fish tank. Water poured out in a torrent, little fish flopping out on the ground as they struggled to draw breath. In his fury, he ignored them; right now, killing something was exactly what he wanted—what were a few fish?

He was angry at Shepard because she had made him stay behind; he was angry at Jacob and Mordin because they hadn’t protected her; but above all, he was angry at himself, because he had known something was wrong and he hadn’t done a thing to stop her. Now Shepard was gone—gods know where—and he felt helpless.

Jacob and Mordin were in the med-bay, recovering from multiple bullet wounds, broken bones, and a concussion in the former’s case. Thane had tried to get some information out of them, but when they resisted and he began to grow violent, Dr. Chakwas had ordered him to leave. When he defied her, she called several guards in to forcibly remove him; eventually Garrus was forced to get involved, too. Once he had been thrown out, Thane stormed away, heading up to Shepard’s cabin where he now continued to take out his aggressions on the upholstery.

There was a knock on the door a second before it swished open. Thane looked up hotly at Garrus as he entered the cabin, a stern look on the turian’s angular face.

“What do you want?” Thane hissed, another surge of biotic fury at his fingertips.

Garrus didn’t answer at first, pausing a moment to take in the disheveled condition of the room. The sheets had been ripped; several walls supported massive dents; and, of course, the fish tank was in ruins, the fish already suffocated. When he turned his avian gaze back to Thane, the blue eyes cold.

“I came because I thought that you might be trying to figure out what happened to her and I wanted to help. But now I see that you’d rather throw a tantrum.”

Thane’s eyes flared. “Leave. Now.”

“I will leave, because looking at you right now is making me sick. When you want to stop feeling sorry for yourself and decide it might be a good idea to start looking for the woman you claim to love, I’ll be in the CIC.”

The turian turned to leave, but before he could make it through the door, a blast of biotic power struck him from behind, hurtling him into the wall. Garrus got to his feet quickly, crouching down as he pulled his omni-tool out, preparing a tech attack. He hadn’t brought his guns because, well, there shouldn’t have been a reason for him to use them.

He peeked around the corner of his cover, expecting another attack. But instead, he spotted Thane slumped on the ground, face buried in his hands. Still wary, Garrus straightened and started to head towards the drell, omni-tool still at the ready if he needed it. After a moment, though, it was obvious there was no more fight left in the man. His shoulders rocked slightly as he silently cried.

Deciding that this was not something that he really needed to see, Garrus powered down and turned away, looking over Shepard’s desk for any clue as to what might have happened. He took a seat in front of her terminal, going through the message database. Other than some junk mail, her Inbox was empty. Garrus brought his omni-tool up, manipulating it so that he could delve into the terminal’s memory. There was a lot of information she had deleted over the past few weeks, and he was beginning to think that his search might be a waste of time when the subject “GOOD MORNING” caught his eye. With some easy manipulations, he recovered the message, scanning its contents carefully.

“Thane, come here.”

The drell had finally managed to compose himself, his face put carefully back into its impassive mask. He leaned over Garrus’s shoulder, reading the message. His eyes widened in shock and the turian was sure that he would begin yet another angry tirade, but instead Thane ran to the phone on the other side of the desk, fingers flying over the numbers. The phone rang twice before it was answered:

“Hello?”

“Kolyat? Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me. Have you been snorting red sand, dad?”

Thane heaved a sigh of relief, nearly falling down as his knees went weak.

“What’s the matter?” A note of worry had entered his son’s tone.

“We received a message that you had been kidnapped.”

“Why would someone do that?”

Thane hesitated, the implications of this discovery finally clicking together in his head. This time his knees did give out, and he slumped to the ground, leaning his forehead against the edge of the desk.

“They wanted…Shepard…or me…I don’t know for sure.”

“Wait, wait—what happened? You sound terrible.”

“Shepard was kidnapped last night by unknown assailants. I’m assuming that she received this ransom letter for you and took it onto herself to rescue you without telling me.”

Kolyat scoffed. “Your whore got kidnapped? Who cares? Just find a new one.”

Fury flared up within Thane once more; had Kolyat said such a thing to his face, the boy would be flying across the room right about now.

“Don’t you dare speak of her that way!” he hissed. “If it wasn’t for her, you’d be in prison right now for your own stupidity! If it wasn’t for her, I would still be disconnected. If I ever hear you say a disparaging word against her name again, you had better be prepared for the reckoning to come!”

Kolyat was silent for a moment, then replied in a chastened voice, “Yes, dad. I’m sorry.”

Thane sighed, the whirlwind of emotions he had been going through—in addition to the lack of sleep—finally catching up to him. His eyes drooped heavily, his limbs feeling like lead weights.

“I’m glad you’re safe. Watch your back, you hear? Who knows what these people will do next… I’ll call you tomorrow to make sure that you are still safe.”

“Sure thing. And let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’m not a full-fledged officer yet, but Captain Bailey likes me and I know that I can get into the systems here at C-Sec if you need any info.”

“Thank you, son. Be careful.”

Thane returned the phone to its cradle, eyes closed as he continued to let the details of this crazy incident sort themselves out in his mind. With his extra-sensitive hearing, Garrus had heard ever word of the conversation; he had a new respect for the drell for standing up against his son when it came to Shepard’s reputation. If Thane had not said something, Garrus surely would have the next time he saw the boy. Perhaps not “say” but definitely “hit.” There was no one he admired more than the Normandy’s stalwart commander, and there was no way that some little punk kid should get away even thinking ill of her.

“Who do you suppose would know to come after Kolyat to get to you?” Garrus asked.

“There is…only one group I can think of… But I thought that I had killed them all, a long time ago…”

“If you have an idea, then let’s hear it. The longer we wait around the less certain we can be that Shepard will be alive.”

Thane sucked in a sharp breath. The turian was right, of course; it was just hard to hear the truth. Guilt was consuming him as it had nearly ten years ago, and the pain in his lungs was starting to intensify.

“There used to be a group of batarian mercenaries working out of Illium as slavers. When they started kidnapping hanar, I took a job to eliminate the group’s leader. Afterwards, the group found my wife and killed her, because they were too afraid to face me. I thought that I had hunted them all down after her death…I thought that I had made them all suffer for what they had done…but perhaps I was wrong.” Thane looked up at Garrus, a pained look in his eyes. “It’s my fault that this happened. The sins of my past continue to haunt me, and now they’ve taken yet another person I love.”

Growling, Garrus reached forward and slapped the drell across the face. Thane fell back, stunned, while the turian loomed over him, shaking with anger.

“I thought I told you to stop feeling sorry for yourself!” Garrus snarled. “Shepard is not dead, and we will find her! If you give up now, I swear that I’ll kill you myself.”

Thane managed to crack a smile, one hand holding his quickly swelling cheek.

“You’re right. I apologize. We will find her, and we will make whoever dared to cross us pay dearly.”

Garrus gave a turian approximation of a smirk. “That’s better. Now, I’m going to go get this data to Tali. She’s an expert at salvaging tech. Maybe she can get an idea of where this message came from.”

Thane watched him leave, a part of him relieved that someone had finally gotten the nerve to break him out of his mania. He had been a step away from re-entering his battle sleep, and that would do no good to anyone. In his heart, he knew that Shepard was still alive, and he knew that if he gave up now, she would find him and beat his ass. That thought made him smile. His siha was a fierce protector, to be sure, but that also meant protecting those she loved from themselves.

“I’m coming, siha,” he murmured. “Please just hold on for me.”

Shepard hung listlessly in a haze of pain. She didn’t know where she was, or really even how she got there; the ambush waiting for them at the meeting place had been well-orchestrated. Mordin was right in his assertion that the people they were meeting might get there early to scope the place out, much as they had planned to.

At 20:49, the trio had arrived at the designated place. They separated and began searching the area, weapons at the ready. Shepard thought that they would be prepared for anything. With all that they had been through, pride had given her the self-assurance that no matter what happened, they would be able to overcome any obstacle.

It was pride that defeated her.

She remembered the sound of automatic gunfire, bullets ripping at her kinetic shields. Within moments, her shields were down to 30% and the bullets were still coming. She dove down an alley, keeping her back to the wall as she took a quick assessment of the damage.

“Jacob! Mordin! Status!” she shouted into her comm.

“We’re getting hit hard, Shepard!” Jacob’s voice answered, the sounds of the fight nearly muffling him. “There are too many of them! We have—“

He grunted, and the link fell silent. Shepard made sure that she had a fresh thermal clip in her SMG and then steeled herself for what waited in the streets beyond. Inhaling deeply, Shepard dashed out of her cover, heading in the direction she had last seen her teammates. Several bullets hit her shields, but she ignored them. She knew that her barriers couldn’t take much more punishment, and soon the bullets would be striking at her armor. None of that mattered right now. She had gotten her friends into this mess, and she was damn well going to get them out of it.

Rounding a corner, Shepard came upon a collection of shanty little houses. It was here that the majority of the gunfire was coming from. Slamming her back against a wall, she peered around the corner. Mordin was only about twenty feet away, pinned down behind an overturned, junked-up speeder. Lying on the ground beside him was Jacob in an oozing pool of blood. Anger flared in her mind, and Shepard was on the move again, sprinting towards her teammates.

Had she considered the area they were pinned down in, she might have made a better plan. The only cover in the open street was the speeder where Mordin was; which left that full twenty feet of open space and screaming bullets. Her kinetic barriers took even more fire, but she was determined to reach the speeder.

Shepard didn’t notice that her shields had completely fallen until a bullet took her in the shin, ripping through her armor and shattering the bone.

Screaming, Shepard fell to the ground, her SMG skidding away as she lost her grip. A few more bullets struck her armor without going through, though one did take a small chunk out of her right ear. All she could do was huddle on the ground, gripping at her ruined leg.

“Hold your fire!” an angry voice bellowed. “She’s no use to us dead!”

The bullets stopped; the only sound now was that of armored feet plodding across the ground, moving closer to her position. Rough hands grabbed at her and Shepard tried to fight them off—tried to reach the pistol on her belt—but was stopped as a heavy boot came down on her wounded leg. She screamed again, the pain nearly causing her to black out.

“Shepard!” Mordin’s voice seemed far away.

“N-no!” she tried to call out to him, knowing that he must be heading to her rescue.

There was one last string of gunfire, the sound of something meaty hitting the ground, and then her world was washed in darkness.

Shepard had just woken up barely an hour before, her mind fuzzy and her body aching—especially her leg. But she could tell that the bleeding had stopped, and that the wound had actually been bandaged. So whoever had her didn’t want her to die just yet. Great.

Her wrists were chained together above her head, connected to a long, sturdy chain that descended from the moldy ceiling above. The pressure of the hold was tearing at the muscles in her arm, and she was positive that her left shoulder was dislocated. Her captors had removed her armor at some point, leaving Shepard naked save for the snug sports bra she always wore and the tight boxer shorts she favored for missions. Thanks to this, she was freezing to boot.

A light appeared in front of her as a door swung inward. The shadowed form of a batarian—she could always tell by their bulbous heads—entered the room. Apart from the dull glow from the open door, there were no other lights in the room and it was impossible for her to clearly see his face.

“Good morning, Shepard,” the batarian greeted in a low, callous voice. “I’m glad that you got my message.”

“Where’s Kolyat?” she demanded groggily.

He laughed. “You have no idea where you are or what we have planned for you, I have no doubt that your wounds are paining you, and yet you still show concern for others. How touching.”

The batarian took a few steps forward until he was standing right in front of her, the top of his ridged head just barely reaching her collar bone due to her suspended position. He reached out a hand and touched her bare stomach; the contact made Shepard’s lunch rise into the back of her throat.

“Get your fucking hands off of me,” she hissed.

He laughed again, ignoring her order. “Such spirit! It is no wonder that bastard chose you as his mate. It will be fun to break you, Shepard.”

With that, the batarian turned and started back towards the door. Straining against her chains, Shepard swung towards him slightly, ignoring the screaming pain in her dislocated shoulder.

“Wait! Where’s Kolyat? Answer me, damn it!”

He paused at the door, turning his head back slightly to regard her. From the glow of the door, she could just barely make out his four eyes and a logo on his armor. She didn’t recognize the symbol, but it was obvious that it was a mercenary badge.

“My name is Anu’ok, and I suggest you get some rest while you can. Very soon the fun will begin.”
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Echoes of the Past