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Chapter 32.2 Saren.
A thin squeak pulled his consciousness out of the darkness, forcing him to realize what he had heard. The silence of a small room, the barely perceptible rustle of ventilation. Another squeak. The sound from the life support device. Too quiet. Muted. That's right, he turned it down himself so that it wouldn't get on his nerves and irritate sensitive hearing. The familiar rumble of engines running at full power, the vibration reverberating throughout the body. The information has passed awareness: he is on the Kratos.
And then came a wave of memories: a conversation with the Sovereign, the capture, Shepard and her sharp, cutting words, the realization of her short-term freedom and the attempt... free yourself.
Unsuccessful.
Again...
His chest began to tingle, and his breathing was habitually labored from lack of air. Saren growled softly and opened his eyes. Overhead is the familiar ceiling of the infirmary. "Kratos."
"Kratos"?
Saren blinked, sat up abruptly, with a jerk. What is he doing on the Kratos? He asked a question, and immediately found the answer: Shepard! Irrepressible girl! Why did she drag him with her? Doesn't he realize how dangerous he is? The Sovereign's control can return at any moment!
The Turian growled angrily, clenching his fists so that the claws pierced his palms and sank deep into the flesh. Stupid girl! Familiar, somewhat relieving pain, clearing the mind... Saren shook his heavy head and habitually wiped his hands on his hips, smearing blood on the blanket. He should... the thought stumbled. The wrongness of the situation reached the mind and passed awareness. Saren slowly raised his hands and froze, staring intently at the bloody palms. On TWO bloody palms.
"How..." the quiet, hoarse voice was barely audible.
Saren stared at his hand without blinking. Lively. Not the Geth's prosthetic leg, which had already become familiar, but his own, native hand! He was perfectly aware of the pain in his open palm, the slight coolness of the air, the stinging elbow and the slight irritation from the catheter.
"How is this possible?" he whispered, feeling his forearm.
With a soft hiss, the door opened, admitting... Saren gasped for air, staring in dumbfounded disbelief at the young Turian who entered the infirmary, reading something from a datapad as he walked.
Impossible! He's dead! He shot him in the face himself!
"Nihlus?"
A hoarse, cracked voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence.
Nihlus jerked his whole body, stopped abruptly, the datapad slipped out of his fingers and thudded to the floor. Confused green eyes stared at Saren in surprise. A short pause, realization of what he saw, and:
"Saren?"
A quiet voice, full of endless surprise and confusion, stirred up memory, mercilessly splashing memories into a tortured mind: a powerful blow to consciousness, plunging it into a murky mass of direct control, a hand raising through force, a trembling rifle, barely noticeable recoil from shots, rage, hatred, despair at the realization of what was happening, anger at his own impotence, the falling body of the one he even mentally called brother, and the barely audible, choking with blood, full of surprise and incomprehension, native voice:
"Saren..."
A voice that echoes in both memories and reality... genuine surprise and confusion in the green eyes... Saren shuddered all over.
The images were superimposed on one another, reality and visions of the past, causing conflicts of perception, pulling out half-erased memories one after another. Waking up to the Sovereign, a voice full of wonder... awareness of what has been done... with my own hands... looking into the eyes... on the orders of this creature... The touch of icy metal against the soft skin under his jaw, and a heavy hand unable to finish what he started, the voice is the thought of the Sovereign in his head... the murky weight of control, the orders, the anxious eyes of Lady Benezia. Unreasonable rage...
My mind couldn't stand the strain and the intensity of emotions, getting confused in reality and memories, and my consciousness turned off, plunging into blessed darkness.
* * *
In the morning, I was thrown out of bed by a wave of fear mixed with panic, and a scream:
"Rin!"
Garrus jerked up next to me, staring at me blankly with sleepy eyes. It took us just a moment to realize this scream, and he asked suspiciously:
"Nihlus?"
"Rin, help me!" Another shout came over the ship's intercom.
We exchanged glances. The only sensible explanation for this panic came to us at the same time. Exhaling, "Saren!" we rolled off the bed. I was already getting dressed on the run, my bare feet slapping on the icy metal floor.
In the infirmary, I was greeted by an epic picture: a panicking Nihlus, holding Saren by the shoulders, who was in a deep swoon. The mental plane has been plowed into the trash. One look into those confused green eyes was enough for me to reconstruct the picture of what had happened.
Great job...
Cursing softly, I walked over to Saren. I yanked the catheters out of his hands and pointed to the next bed:
"Put it here and stop panicking!"
Nihlus silently did as he was told, and I covered our victim with a blanket and climbed onto a chair with my feet so as not to stand on the rather cold floor.
"Beauty! There are no words, only the matyugs!" I muttered, dumping a bundle of vital energy on the victim of irrepressible care. Garrus shook his head, pulled over a second chair, and sat down next to it.
"Nihlus, do you want him dead?" In response, a wave of panic and a guilty look. What a damn poor kitten!
"Yes, from such shocks, his last brains will fall off!"
"I didn't expect him to wake up so quickly." Nihlus replied in a trembling voice.
"To be honest, neither do I." Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I frowned at Saren, who was quickly recovering. "Okay, there's no point in panicking and eating your brains out, it's too late anyway. But you should have thought a little about the consequences! I warned you that he thinks he killed you!"
"you warned me." the Turian agreed quietly, slowly calming down. "I didn't expect such a reaction."
"What's unexpected about that? I told you, his mind is VERY receptive right now. Naturally, when he saw you, he remembered the circumstances of your last meeting. I couldn't help but remember! I told you that these memories are strongly tied to the emotional sphere to knock him out of the Reaper's control! And here..." I shook my head. "At least he had enough willpower to survive all this relatively smoothly for the personality. And so everything is plowed over there!"
Saren flinched slightly, blinked, and opened his eyes. Seeing the unspoken question in the blue eyes, I lazily said:
"No, you're not imagining it. Yes, this is reality. And yes, Nihlus is alive and well, out there, blinking his eyes."
Blue eyes narrowed, Saren slowly raised himself on his elbow and sat up with difficulty, staring intently at the confused Nihlus.
The real Saren was completely unlike his canonical prototype in character and habits. No lofty pathos and majestic poses. In front of me sat a withdrawn, taciturn and unsociable man who did not know what to do now, indifferent to his life and so nervous that not even the slightest glimmer of joy from his own survival flashed through his emotions. And there was only relief from the realization that Nihlus was alive. And burning, impotent shame... For what he did.
Nihlus approached Saren, staring intently into blue, guilt-filled eyes. Silently, he raised his hand and squeezed his shoulder tightly. The left one. And then he just grabbed him with a jerk and hugged him tightly. The mental was ablaze with a storm of emotions.
"Saren! Don't! Do it! So! More!" Nihlus growled, releasing the confused sworn brother from his iron grip. "If you get carried away on questionable adventures again... At least warn me... At least for me..."
Saren didn't know what to say to that, he just remained silent, staring intently into the bright green eyes. And it dawned on me that at this rate he would quickly wind himself up so that I wouldn't figure it out in a year. And he's not going to talk. He just sits and watches, carefully following the slightest gestures and glances, analyzes, trying to understand and realize the big picture.
Nihlus said softly:
"No matter what happens, I will never refuse to support you, brother."
The blue eyes widened in disbelief.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't even be trying to save you."
"It's too late to save me." Saren said distantly.
Nihlus choked on air and lost the ability to speak coherently for a moment out of anger. Looking at the twisted face and green eyes literally glowing with rage, I chuckled and said ironically:
"Really. It's too late to save." At these words, Nihlus choked on the prepared words, and Saren shuddered. "We've ALREADY saved you."
At this life-affirming moment, I got up, went to the table and picked up a small mirror I had prepared in advance.
"On."
I handed it to Saren and waited patiently until he reached out and took it, and then returned to my seat. Saren stared at me with a hard stare.
"Look, look."
The cold blue eyes slowly lowered their gaze to the mirror, squeezed until the knuckles turned white.
It took him a long half minute to realize what he had seen and, most importantly, to believe in what the mirror was showing him. Indifference cracked, completely washed away by boundless amazement and disbelief. Saren slowly raised his eyes, looking at me in confusion.
"It was impossible!" He typed. "I've researched everything related to indoctrination. She can't be turned!"
"To convert — no." I nodded in agreement. "But you can REMOVE all the excess from the body. Nanites, the tissues they have altered, and... everything else that is not a naturally occurring part of the body."
Saren slowly closed his eyes and clenched his fingers with such force that the mirror cracked. Well, at least he understands what condition he was in. And that makes me happy.
"I should be dead by now."
"You were on edge." I corrected him.
"How much... How long has it been?"
"More than five days."
The blue eyes widened. Saren raised his hand, clenched his fingers into a fist, turned his gaze back to me and slapped:
"There is nothing on board the Kratos that could give such a result."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"I used something called "body plastic": I connected directly to your body like a symbiote and put you back together." I replied calmly. "It's a disgusting sight, by the way."
"A human can't do that." Saren said, staring intently into my eyes.
"What makes you think I'm human?" I asked ironically.
Saren blinked in surprise.
"Irene Shepard is a human being."
I stretched out my hand, turned my palm ostentatiously, and slowly grew long claws.
"Nope!"
She smiled at the startled Turian. Watching Saren Arterius' face stretch out in amazement is an unreal pleasure! I never thought that I would like it so much! Otherwise, his indifferent face made you want to do something... It's not good to break this stone mask. However, he quickly got over his surprise and was now staring at me intently.
"How did Nihlus survive?" he asked dully, avoiding the green eyes.
"He ended up in the Normandy infirmary about seven minutes after the shooting." I replied nonchalantly. "All it took was promising to wring someone's neck."
In response, a skeptical, incredulous look.
"You shouldn't doubt it." I grinned at him. "I have quite a good reputation. However, recently someone has forgotten about it... I had to remind you." I added dryly.
Garrus chuckled.
"Are you talking about the seven idiots you threw out in the airlock?"
"Six of them were pumped out... But notice how the productivity of the work immediately increased!" I grinned cannibally. "Well, it can't be helped if someone's brain starts working only when they're killed."
Garrus grinned and... gently stroked my head with a tender look in his eyes. The bastard is adorable, he ruined the whole effect! But Saren's thoughtful look pleased me a little.
"How did you find my base?"
"I pulled Lady Benezia out of her brain." I replied.
"Is she alive?"
Oh, wow! Anxiety? And they said he didn't give a shit about anyone. As it turned out, this is far from the case. However, the vast majority of the rumors turned out to be extremely far from reality, to my undisguised happiness.
"She's on this ship with her daughter. Anticipating your possible question: her mind has been cleared of the Reaper's influence."
Saren nodded slowly and his expression darkened even more.
"Yours, too, by the way." I added, watching with interest as the blue eyes widened. "So be it, since you're not really asking the questions you're really interested in... I will say: yes, I managed to COMPLETELY rid you of indoctrination, its consequences and the control of the Sovereign." The steely eyes narrowed sharply.
"We know perfectly well what Sovereign is, and how you got into it!" Nihlus muttered, drawing attention to himself. Seeing the promising gleam in his green eyes and feeling a rising storm of emotions, I exchanged glances with Garrus. The same thought shone in his crystal-light blue eyes: "It's time to get out!".
"Okay, you guys talk here, and we'll go..."
We hurriedly rolled out into the corridor, and from the infirmary came the soft, insinuating, growling voice of Nihlus:
"What were you thinking when...!!!"
The closing doors of the infirmary cut off the end of the sentence.
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