Catching up (closed)

((Closed thread))

For a bar that called itself “The Office” Pharos was pleased to note the establishment he’d chosen was actually more in line with his tastes than he’d been expecting. Pictures and holoprints of Alliance soldiers and memorials to the fallen decorated one wall, and a selection of old guns were mounted on the others. A lot of dark wood and bare metal made up the fixtures and the clientele seemed to be majority human, with only a pair of asari and a single turian providing any alien presence.

“Nice place.” Observed Weiss at his side, the short woman looking around the bar briefly before choosing a booth and heading for it, obviously expecting Pharos to follow her.
With a grunt and a roll of his gold eyes the large soldier gave up any pretence he was in charge and slid into the booth she’d selected.

A holographic menu that sprang up across the tabletop as the pair sat and Pharos noted with no small pleasure it had a number of different –and highly palatable- scotches, one of which he selected with a flick of his hand. He looked across at Weiss’ selection.
“Kümmel?” he asked, pulling a face. “How can you drink that stuff? It tastes like cough syrup.”
“The English have no taste for good liquors.” The woman chuckled, sotto voce. “Anyway, you’re not drinking it. I am.”
Pharos grunted and hid a smile. “Yes, but I have to kiss you.”
“Have to?”
He pulled another face, eliciting a giggle from Weiss, the let his gaze drift around the bar once more, waiting for their drinks and their guests to arrive.

The front door opened, and in entered Sarah Thompson, a former agent of Cerberus. Glancing across the bar, one that she hadn't been to in ages, she pieced through the crowd for Pharos, immediately moving to take a seat opposite him and Weiss. She reached out to the bartender, waving over for a beer which was set in front of her. She glanced across the bar at Pharos, getting a good look at him and his plus-one. "So. Here we are." She leaned back, taking a drink of her local-brewed. The woman brushed a hand through her platinum hair and took a deep breath, trying to think of things to say. It'd been a long time coming, and now that the day was here, she didn't know what to say or do.

"Sarah." Only a faint smile played across Pharos' lips at the sight of the blonde woman, but the warmth in his voice was obvious enough. "It's good to see you again. It's been too long." He gestured to the short woman sat next to him. "This is Julia Weiss. Julia, Sarah Thompson."
Weiss nodded to the other woman and gave her a smile. "James has told me about you. It's nice to finally meet you."

"So," Pharos leaned back in his chair and studied Sarah, his golden eyes whirring slightly as he did. "How have you been?"

The woman offered a smile to Weiss as she's introduced, then shot a glance over at Pharos as he spoke. "I- I'm doing okay. I'm really torn up about the shit I did. My wife's got her own business going, I'm working and trying to drive the straight-and-narrow, but I feel a lot of regret and .. this feeling I'm not doing enough." She slid her hands forward, moving to take another drink of her beer, her wedding band tapping hard against the metal table. "I don't know how she handles it. Cerberus put a kill-order on me when I left, and they went overboard when I went back to Bekenstein and killed -everyone- in that estate except for me, her brother and her. Her brother died on the shuttle out. I keep worrying that she's going to crack or something." She tightened her grip on the bottle.

"So, not great then?" Pharos took a deep sip of his drink, slid a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and placed one of the pale cylinders between his lips. With a flicker of an antique silver lighter he lit the end of the cigarette and drew heavily, pluming smoke across the bar.
He studied Sarah again, more carefully this time. The worry was obvious in her now. Whereas he'd found life after Cerberus relatively easy, Grey's final revenge notwithstanding, Pharos tended to forget not everyone who'd left the organisation had faired as well as he had.
"It's been a year since everything went crazy Sarah." He said, his voice as gentle as he could make it. "The way I see it, if Chris has held it together that long, I think she'll be ok. She has you, that's got to help her, but if you're worrying yourself to death..." He shrugged and drew on his cigarette again.

"Cerberus did a lot of terrible things in the last few weeks of its life, but it's nothing we should feel ashamed of. We had all left by then. It doesn't stop people assuming we had something to do with it all, though."

"Or," he continued, his eyes narrowing, "Are you talking about things you did before the Reaper War?"

The woman clasped her hand together and made hard eye contact. She glanced down at the table and ran a hand through her hair, moving to cross her arms and lean over them. "I've made amends with the law. Everyone who know who I am looks at me like I'm a monster. I was one once, but a person can fucking change. I did what I did under orders. I did what I did for humanity. I have all of these fucking go-to statements but not ONE of them makes me feel better, because no matter what I say, I'm haunted by what I did." She took another drink from her beer, then stared at Pharos, tears in the wells of her eyes. She spoke in a low, quiet tone. "I was liability elimination and asset retrieval. I did what I was asked to do. It was my life. My family -WAS- Cerberus. Mother. Father. Brother. If people know why I left? Why I was disgusted with the way the group was going? Cerberus used to be different, we used to be humanity's shield, and we turned to the fucking god-squids and petty terrorism! No more discourse- She paused, covering her face with her hands. "...I'm sorry. I left, they came after my step-family and after that, I dreamed of murdering Thanatos and Grey and those other jackoffs."

“We were humanity’s shield, Sarah.” Said Pharos, his voice hard. “Never be ashamed of what you did. I’m not, and I never will be.” He glanced at Weiss but the doctor was staring into her drink, her face unreadable. Pharos turned back to Sarah.

“But you’re right; the ideal Cerberus fought for was corrupted, and when that happened the ones like us; you, me, Julia, Robertson… we left. If we’d stayed we’d have ended up like the others; puppets for the Reapers. What they became, and what they did to the rest of us…”
The gold-eyed soldier finished his drink and gestured wordlessly for a refill, then continued talking.
“There’s no way to ignore what Cerberus did to you and your family, but you can’t let it destroy you. You’re stronger than that; you must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be here today.”

“As for Thanatos and Grey… I don’t know what happened to skullface, but Grey has been dealt with. Permanently. ” He looked across at Julia again and this time she met his gaze. Her hand found his under the table and squeezed it.

“Sarah,” Said Julia, “You can only get over something like this with time. Trust me, I know. You’ve made it this far; I’m sure you can get through this. If you ever need to talk, we’re both here.”

Sarah straightened and gave a nod. "I appreciate it. I'm seeing a psychiatrist- And I'm thinking of joining the Alliance, unless another group comes up with a better offer. Don't see myself in any of the punk mercenary band, but I'm a soldier, and that's what I do best." She glanced between the two. "I'm unsure of what I -need- to do. Sticking around home all day and selling guns at Jaquento's .. just seems ..plain."

She was handed another drink, this one non-alcoholic. She stirred the ice with a straw and took a drink. "..But I suppose plain is good, if that's the way things are meant to be."

"The Alliance." Pharos allowed a wry grin to creep onto his face. "Didn't you try that once?"
He took a sip of his drink and ground out his cigarette, his hands working on autopilot to produce a new one, place it in his mouth and light it. "Then again, it's not a bad idea. It worked for me and Julia."

Pharos glanced around the bar before he continued, his voice lowered slightly.
"Look Sarah, if the Alliance is what you want, I think I might be able to help. I might not have the best rep with Command, but I'm still a Lieutenant Commander and I'm always looking for like-minded people to keep near me. You'd be a good addition. Say the word and I can get you transfered to my unit. You can stay on the Citadel, near Chris, and we never get sent far away for very long. And I can make sure your skills are appreciated."

"So," he asked, "What do you think?"

The woman's eyes lit up as he spoke. She seemed to be tripping over her tongue, thinking of a correct response. The idea was VERY exciting and one she was all for. "I- Uh-" She stammered a moment, then adopted a poker-face and stared dead ahead at the man, all smiles."I'll talk to my boss, and then my partner. I'll ask you to get back to me as soon as anything changes." She shot a hand across the table.

Her mood has improved considerably.

Pharos shook Sarah's hand, his grip machine-firm but gentle.
"I mean it Sarah, you're a hell of an operative and a good person; I'd had to see either go to waste. And if I can help you find a purpose and put some demons to bed..." he shrugged and finished the last of his drink, then gave the woman a brief smile. "What are friends for?"

"If you ever need to talk," Weiss interjected, "You know how to get hold of us. Chris too. From what he told me, you two helped James before the war, when Grey kidnapped me." She gave the broad-shouldered man sat next to her an affectionate smile before continuing. "I'd like to repay the favour. I'm a good listener."

The woman tapped her hands on the table and was all smiles. She gave a nod. "Okay. I- Don't really know what to say. Shit." She pressed a hand to her face, wiping her index finger around the edge of her eye. "Going to get me all weepy." The blonde chuckled, leaning back. "You can count on me, guys. We'll light them up. And- As for Grey, I'm only disappointed I wasn't able to be there to give him a biotic haymaker." She clenched her right fist, a biotic shift wrapping around her forearm.

"Believe me, you'd have been appreciated." Said Pharos, curling his lip at the memory, "That synthetic fuck put up one hell of a fight, at the end. Redford and I plus a few friends chased him all that way to Arvuna, where we found Julia and a few others he'd taken." He looked across at Weiss and squeezed her hand again. "But Grey slipped away from us. We didn't catch up to him again until the assault on Kronos. While the Alliance stormed the station, we headed for Grey's cruiser."

The former assassin lit another cigarette, smoke curling around his head as he gazed back into events a year passed.
"It was hell, aboard that ship. Grey... what he had become... was out of control. Somehow he'd enslaved reaper troops, or something that looked a lot like them. We lost a lot of good people that day." He looked across at Sarah "But it was worth it. We shut Grey down, and destroyed his bluebox once and for all."

The gold-eyed soldier grew silent until, after a few moments, he stired himself.
"So," he asked, sitting back and clearing his throat, "Another round?"

The woman raised her hand to the bartender, who brought another round of drinks and brushed his omnitool against hers, pulling away an amount of credits. "I think I'm good for another." She shook her head briefly. Placing an incisor between the groves in the bottle cap, she'd bite down and apply pressure, popping the cap off with her teeth. Spitting the cap to her boots, she raised the bottle. "To Humanity and her glorious stubbornness to refuse to lie down and accept defeat."

"I'll drink to that." Said Pharos with a grin, raising his glass.
"To Humanity." Echoed Weiss, raising her drink.