Survivor

Chapter 24

Garrus
  "Has anyone seen Shepard?" Garrus demanded, stalking through the building for the fifth time, still getting no answer.
His brow plate was cut open from some shrapnel thanks to an enemy grenade, the pain making him even more irritable.
He growled in frustration and stalked out, climbing in the Skycar to go check the hotel again.
"Officer Vakarian," Hackett called out to him.
He held the door open impatiently, facing Hackett, who surprisingly climbed into the Skycar with him.
"Do you really think it's best to be stalking around scaring everyone further in a search for Shepard when she's probably fine?"
Garrus clenched his jaw, his mandibles pulling close to his face. "I think it's best that I find my girlfriend before those mercs do."
Hackett sighed and Garrus started the Skycar, taking off immediately toward the hotel.
He landed, despite not seeing her outside, and exited the Skycar, leaving it running while he checked inside the lobby. The clerk still hadn't seen her, which irritated Garrus beyond words, so he went back to the Skycar were Hackett was patiently waiting.
"Dammit Samantha!" He exclaimed, punching the hood of the Skycar and began to pace outside the door.
She probably left cover as soon as he lost sight of her, which wouldn't have been long after he left.
Who knows where she could have gone after that.
"Let's go back to Strike HQ, Garrus. We won't be doing any good siting out here. We'll get everything organized so we can send out proper search parties and find out if anyone saw anything. Right now everyone is still too shaken to do any good. And quite frankly, so are you."
Garrus shut his eyes, breathing heavily.
He couldn't lose her again. Why the hell did it seem like every time things were settling down, something else went wrong? And why the hell couldn't Samantha keep out of trouble!
Garrus cursed and climbed back into the Skycar, piloting them back to Strike HQ as Hackett had suggested.
As soon as they landed, someone was there at the door waiting to report to Hackett.
Hackett exited the Skycar and beckoned him over. "What is it?"
"Sir, Lieutenants Jameson, Pryman, Flinn, Wessley, Seval, and Boone were found dead outside the SouthEast exit, and Lieutenant Thomas Greyson is missing along with Samantha Shepard. Private Hopper thinks she saw them all go out the SouthEast exit together. That was all she saw, though."
Hackett pursed his lips in an unhappy line before he spoke. "Put out an alert on both Lieutenant Greyson and Shepard. High priority missing persons. Immediately. The sooner we find them the better."
Garrus was frozen in place, his heart pounded in his chest so hard he would have been thinking it would burst out if he hadn't been going through scenarios as to why Shepard would go with a group without seeking him out first. It wasn't quite bad enough to leave where he had left her, the Alliance soldiers were holding them off pretty well.
The only explanation was that she had definitely left her spot to fight with the others and it got too hot for them to stay.
He closed his eyes and begged whatever God the humans had to keep her safe.
He didn't know much about their religion, but he knew it helped them through and he could only hope that it would do the same for both of them.
It certainly didn't make his feeling of worry or anxiety any better, though.
To make things worse, a Cerberus shuttle landed, with a furious Miranda stepping out immediately before it even shut down.
"What in the hell is going on? Where is Shepard?"
Garrus made a sound between a groan and a frustrated growl, folding his arms.
"What are you doing here, Miranda?"
"I'm finding out why the hell
you thought it was a good idea to take Shepard off the Citadel, to Earth, where I told you it was a bad idea to take her! And I'm here to take her back!"
"They were burying Anderson! She wanted to be here, so we came. It's not like it was going to be a permanent residence here! Only overnight and we could have boarded the Normandy if there was a problem!"
"If she wanted to jump off the top of the Presidium would you let her do that too? There's a problem with her immune system! In case you forgot, she also just had surgery!"
"Do you think I could forget something like that? Really? No! I didn't forget but it means that much to her to be here!"
Miranda stalked up to him, getting as close to being in his face as she could for being a short human. "Where is she?"
Garrus opened his mouth, then shut it, guilt taking over as he looked at the building.
Miranda turned to see it, seeming to just notice the fresh damage as her jaw dropped and she turned back to him with fresh fury in her eyes. "What in the hell happened here?!"
"Mercs raided the place... I don't know why-"
"Really? You have a high profile soldier in the building and you don't know why?"
She suddenly looked tired, and she moved to sit on the floor of the Kodiac, whose door was open.
Garrus approached slowly, now suspicious.
"Miranda, what do you know?"
She sighed and looked up at him, suddenly seeming much older. "When I took Cerberus back, there were some that weren't happy with the new objective of Cerberus. It's to be a human version of the Shadow Broker, but to be only for the benefit of humanity. No more outright terrorism, no more 'improvement' experiments like those that were done with Reaper technology and Jack. Those that weren't happy with this... They made a break for it. I managed to dispose of some but a lot got away. I got word that they were hunting down my most well known accomplishment. Shepard. She was safe on the Citadel but as soon as she was on Earth, she was fair game to them because you didn't know. And I didn't know you intended to leave the Citadel!"
Garrus shut his eyes, his stomach turning, threatening to lose the food he had eaten before the battle.
"So what now?"
"Now? We find her before these rogues do."
Miranda stood, her confidence seeming to have returned.
"We will find her, Garrus. I didn't come this far just to lose her to some Cerberus traitors. They'll wish they hadn't betrayed me. They'll wish they had never even thought of hurting Shepard."
Garrus glared at Miranda. "This talk is inspirational and all but can we do a bit more than talk? You know, so they don't actually find Sam first and kill her?"
  "Your wise crack mouth is going to get you shot one day," Miranda muttered as she strode to the building that was Strike HQ, hips swaying to further emphasize her attitude.
  Garrus glared at her back but followed her, eager to find Samantha and bring her safely home.

((A/N: I have to admit, these little arguments between Miranda and Garrus are pretty fun to write! Anyways, here's chapter 24! I've been seeing the reads on Survivor go up so much lately, I can't even say how exciting that is!!! You guys keep me writing and on schedule for chapter releases! I can't thank you guys enough for the support through your reads!! You're amazing!
  If ya like this chapter, don't forget to leave a vote! And hey, if there's something you would like so see done in the future of this fanfic or just wanna let me know what ya think, leave it in the comments! I love to see what you guys think! Thanks a ton guys!!!))