Rebirth The Mass Effect is old

"The third is Saren's rescue?"

"Yes. The chances are slim. Even worse than Nihlus. Saren doesn't have a single gap at all, and he ends up dead by my hand or his own. But there is still a chance. We will arrive BEFORE we have to, there will be no assault, the chain of events has been disrupted from the very beginning. A small group will go. We'll fly to Feros later. A Thorian can be killed at any moment, he is not particularly valuable."

The Turin man cupped his face in his hands and muttered dully:

"Why do I believe you?"

Nihlus and I exchanged glances.

"You tell us."

"It's so crazy that it could be true." The confused ligth blue eyes looked somehow lost, but at the same time, stubbornness was growing stronger somewhere in the depths. "Such lies are meaningless."

"An interesting thought."

Garrus snorted.

"Does it make sense to ask where accurate knowledge of history comes from?"

"No." The blue eyes narrowed. "Not yet." I corrected myself.

Garrus nodded slowly, accepting my decision, but he looked hard. He won't forget, and sooner or later, he'll shake out the truth. Meanwhile, Nihlus, who was lazily listening to our conversation, pulled the chair closer to him with a sudden jerk. I was taken aback by this turn of events. What is he going to do?

"Rin, please explain one thing to me..."

The soft, vibrating voice with a barely audible rumble made my hair stand on end all over my body.

"What moment?" I asked cautiously, looking into unexpectedly angry green eyes.

"What were you thinking when you exposed your head to the rays of a ghost? One finger to the right, and what did you say? Hello, a new rebirth?"

"Op-pa... And what can I say? It's pointless to make excuses, he won't understand. To say that I'm kind of a Spectrum too, and it's only natural that I might get hit... It's also pointless. He knows that very well himself. And he's right about something. I really shouldn't have put my HEAD up. Remind HIM that HE can change reality now, too? If I say anything, the usually calm Nihlus will just strangle me. By himself, so that it wouldn't hurt if they shot the idiot. Thoughts about this were VERY clearly floating in the upper layers of my mind, and what scared me the most was that completely similar ideas, only in a different interpretation, were running around in Garrus' head.

I just spread my hands. She turned and met Garrus' gaze. Exactly the same expression. Complete solidarity! Did they conspire? I looked at Nihlus. The same displeased expression on his face, eyes narrowed, looks hard and intently.

"I remember what you said about enhanced regeneration, Rin. As well as the fact that guaranteed death is either the loss of the head or the destruction of the body. In other cases, there is a chance to survive. And the very next day, you expose your head to Geth's shots. Knowing WHAT's at stake. Knowing..."

Oh my... Her voice is trembling with rage. Garrus's lingering anger is at the back. At the same time, the rays flew over the ridge, but that's okay, it's normal...

I had no idea that the usually calm and reasonable Nihlus could SO inventively devour a brain from scratch! And Garrus also helped.

I listened in silence, without objecting a single word or even trying to cut into this monologue in two voices. Yes, they talked about duty, about mission, about saving civilization, about fighting the Reapers, and other kind of right things, but... the real reason was much simpler and more natural. I wasn't listening to the words. It's just a shell for feelings and emotions, from which the mental was bubbling. All the objections or the desire to somehow justify themselves or shut up these two in any other way crumbled under a single feeling that pushed them to do so... violent display of emotions. An ordinary and completely banal fear. Fear of loss.

Chapter 23: Rollback

Three days flew by swiftly in one chaotic layer of memories. Work, work, work, work, occasionally interrupted for food and sleep. And that's forced. I hardly left the infirmary, spending long hours in the mental space of the matriarch's mind, untangling the numerous cords that attach the drill to the victim's consciousness and subconscious. And there were just an obscene number of these strands, from strong to almost imperceptible, affecting the shades of meaning and the smallest nuances. All this required accuracy, patience and, most importantly, time. And, as always, there is not enough of it at the right moment, but at the wrong time — it stretches and stretches, exhausting the nerves...

I shook my head. Unnecessary thoughts. In eleven hours, Normandy will come out of the tunnel at the Citadel repeater, and I haven't even finished with the drill yet! May this Nazara burn in the flames of decay! Paranoid creature! The ancient bastard! That's WHY it was necessary to tie this fucking drill to a subconscious layer of instincts? What for??? No, I understand that these are the rules of the mentalist's work: to stabilize the aggressor's structure as much as possible, tying it to the body's natural reactions! But not to the same extent! Give me a quiet ten days, and I'll take all this crap off without a trace, it's elementary, though unnecessarily complicated! But! I DON'T have those ten days!

Honestly, I have other priorities right now... Shields for two overprotective Turians, who, I sensed perfectly well, were currently discussing something with Karin in the next room. Three mother hens, e-May! Oh, yeah... Five mother hens! Liara suddenly joined in, singing along with Karin almost instantly, and was torn with excitement between her mother, the limp doll sitting in front of me, and, in fact, my person, who now looks like a not-too-fresh corpse. Besides, Rex showed some attention, at least unobtrusively. But this red-faced, aggressive bastard had driven Garrus to a state of almost uncontrollable rage over the past three days, and the calm Nihlus to frenzy! As a result — sparring in the hold in full contact and with almost no restrictions! How Garrus got up the next day after such a beating, Chaos alone knows! Rex still walks cautiously, and turns his whole body, hissing and swearing at the "bony, nimble bastard". At first, Nihlus gave him a hard time, and Garrus added. The next day.

The weight finally thinned and disintegrated, releasing the connection with the instinctive reaction to bright light. Damn it, when I saw those three faces yesterday, I almost felt sick! I never thought that a Krogan could be so decorated in hand-to-hand combat in six minutes that Karin would mend him in the infirmary for an hour!

The door leading into the wall rustled, letting Garrus enter the infirmary, happy with his life. The Turian examined me carefully, noticed that I was no longer in a trance, nodded in greeting and handed me a food container.

"Are you feeding them?"

Garrus twitched his mandibles and smiled broadly. A Turian smile is something! An unprepared person will have a heart attack! Dilated mandibles, a completely carnivorous grin in all sharp wedge-shaped fangs... Lovely! And the eyes are snide, snide!

As it turned out, Vakarian is still an ulcer! Where is there a canonical image! During these days, he got used to it, calmed down and.. Here we go! Lively, sharp, quirky mind, rich imagination and perverted humor... It's just lovely! Moreover, Nihlus sometimes supports him in bullying his neighbor. And where did his tact go at the right moment? Wonders... Alenko was fucked up by these two brain bugs for half a day to such a state that he ran away to Liara and Rex. To study... Well, well... Rather, the unfortunate biotic asked Krogan for political asylum in the arsenal! But she's really studying now, and Liara has taken up a useful job, otherwise Azari was constantly jostling in the infirmary and hypnotizing her limp mother, greatly interfering and clogging her mental with bright powerful emotions. When I was ready to kick her out in a not-so-good way, Nihlus, who noticed my feisty face and a storm of emotions, talked the idle Garrus into it, and the two raped Kayden's brains, engaging the nervous Liara in at least some socially useful activity.

Garrus spread his hands, feigning remorse, and purred:

"You have to, since you regularly forget." I couldn't help but smile. He knows how much I appreciate your concern. After opening the container, I began to eat under the attentive gaze of incredibly bright blue eyes. The menu, as always, includes meat, meat, meat seasoned with various sauces, no side dishes, some kind of interesting salad and something unidentifiable, but VERY tasty. The food is clearly inhumane in the form of green lumpy mashed potatoes, but it tastes like fried potatoes with mushrooms and... mmm... a slight hint of pepper. After all, our chef is a genius!

"Have you tried on the role of a personal babysitter?" I raised an eyebrow, twirling some long green stuff around my fork. Garrus sprawled on the next bed, his mandibles twitching slightly from the pain in his injured shoulder. The tank top revealed in all its dubious glory juicy bluish bruises blooming on coffee-colored skin, and deep lacerations from claws. Atas... a domestic cat after the division of the territory... And the muzzle is just as pleased.

"Do you mind?"

"If I'd minded, you'd have been the second to find out. Right after me."

Garrus whinnied, involuntarily clutching his aching ribs.

"You tell me one thing. What didn't you share with Rex?"

"We just drew a line under old disagreements." The former C-Sec investigator grinned. "I've worked with him more than once... I've encountered it." The Turian diplomatically called them repeated shootings. "So the questions have accumulated."

"And you decided to discuss them in a fight?"

"In sparring." the guy corrected me, but the mug, the mug! He's positively beaming with joy.

"Oh yeah... I saw your "sparring". And I heard it. "You won't have time to mess up what Rex told you in three years, even if you try, but you've done it in six months!"

"I am very responsible about my work." Garrus nonchalantly waved his hand, and I saw a suspicious swelling on his side.

"What's that?"

"And... this." Garrus glanced at me, but confessed. "Rex broke the plate."

I closed my eyes. She exhaled slowly.

"Your mother! We're leaving for Vermaer soon! And I have three of the strongest fighters who brought each other to the infirmary! Shine is simple! Garrus, you're not going ANYWHERE if there's even a scratch on your skin! Do you understand me?"

The Turian nodded slowly, staring intently into my eyes. I'm glad that at least I took the warning seriously.

"How's the shoulder?"

"It's almost healed."

That's... well, how could you get into a fight with a Krogan in full contact with an untreated through wound! And Rex is good! An adult man, fought a lot, but here... Okay, Nihlus only got off with bruises and a couple of deep scratches, but Garrus is something... And to hell with them, well, they got into a fight, but not a week before the landing! Oh well... but at least they closed all their grates, otherwise they would listen to the constant conflicts between Garrus and Rex on the basis of their skirmishes on the Citadel... I'm sick of it! It was necessary to assemble a mercenary and a C-Sec investigator in one squad, who poisoned his life with gusto and ingenuity. Yes, he poisoned them... He almost killed him! The gods truly love Rex, since Garrus MISSED him and the bullet slid across his forehead instead of entering his temple. I saw this vivid image in Garrus' head: the first shot to Batar's forehead, the translation of the sight, the shot, the unsuccessfully tripping Krogan, the miss, the flash of irritation, the beep of reloading and the enemy running behind the box. Interestingly, Rex remembers this moment too.

"I hope this doesn't happen again. You can punch each other in the face for your own pleasure, but not to the detriment of combat readiness! I'll give Rex a separate pump later."

Garrus chuckled.

"No need. Nihlus had already done it when he saw it... the results of the battle."

"At least some of you had the brains to assess the consequences."

There was a satisfied chuckle from behind.

"Wow, what a thing... a high assessment of my mental abilities." Nihlus tore himself away from the wall, which he had been propping up with his shoulder all this time, came over and sat down on a chair.

"Be grateful that I didn't go through your very abilities for fighting on board."

"It was sparring." Nihlus grinned toothily, which looked very interesting with his ancestral tattoo.

"Don't tell me stories. I am quite able to distinguish sparring from a banal fight."

In response, impudent fanged heads and contented faces.

"You're eating. Sebastian will be offended if his efforts are not appreciated."

"I think. His efforts have ALREADY been appreciated by the ENTIRE crew." I smiled.

Sebastian's cooking was simply divine, although he sometimes complained that the one who bought the food was clearly thinking of the wrong place. We'll fly to the Citadel and send him shopping. This kind of food definitely lifts the mood and morale.

"What is the progress?" Nihlus nodded at Asari, who was sitting blankly in a trance.

"What is it?" I was wondering how to describe the situation so obscenely, poking a piece of meat with a fork. "It would have been ten days... but it's lousy. I don't have time to remove the drill before the Citadel. The entire array of bookmarks will remain untouched. Take it off for at least a week."

"Do you want to leave Benezia at the Citadel?"

"I'll have something to do on the way." Before Vermeer, by you, and after... I grimaced. "I think Saren's mind is in a terrible state. I don't even want to think about what the Reaper could have brought him to with constant contact. So the matriarch will have to wait. Although... — the thought that came to my mind was quite interesting, although Liara is unlikely to appreciate my idea of using her mother as a training ground for studying the mental skills of the Ruler.

I must have a really expressive face, because the Turians looked at each other and stared suspiciously at the blue lady.

"Liara won't appreciate it."

"Of course! But leaving it as it is is also not good. I shifted my gaze to the matriarch, giving her the order to sleep. "Garrus, have you changed your mind?"

Bright blue eyes looked at me with a degree of doubt and misunderstanding.

"no."

"Go-od." raising my head to the ceiling, I asked loudly: "Joker, how far are we to the Citadel?"

"Ten hours to exit the repeater, three more to the station." the pilot answered me, shamelessly eavesdropping on all conversations on the ship.