Story by Stephen Elmy
Narration by Lisa Indigo
Begin log Selene Shepard 3:
So, we arrived on the Citadel, and it's a good thing I was used to throwing huge Balls and Parties before my Shepard days because the Citadel isn't for the reclusive. I had to 'listen' to the human ambassador spout rhetoric which would have been enough for me to get out of there and leave the humans to their silly wining, but for Captain Anderson. The man gave off an aura of courage and respect that I hadn't seen since Maria...I bet she's mad I got away... But Captain Anderson was endearing, for a non-kindred... Even wondered if he was a ghoul at one point, but he aged, shame... I was thankful for my 'saviors' telling me I could do things 'my way'; it still surprises me how easily us kindred can influence humans with words or a stare, and they forget their annoying wining and you can keep doing it to them later without them understanding what your doing to them... Silly humans. I made the rhetoric stop. I was then told I had to go to some tower, but I wanted to have fun...
One thing I had to get used to, was almost always being followed by 2 others. I like crowds, but personal time is important too, and being tethered to 2 others could be thought as a violation of personal space. First time on the Citadel I was followed by Kaidan, no biggie, and Ashley... At least she was easy to silence... But back to the Citadel. If you took all of the different kindred clans and ghouls in all their varieties, especially the Tzimisce, it would be nothing compared to the races and people on the Citadel! It was decidedly homely if it wasn't for one particular point... Vitae. I was told I could feed if I really needed to as long as I didn't let others see, but I learned the hard way when I couldn't badly needed Vitae and indulged myself. I hadn't realised how long it had been since I had fed until I saw an Asari in a corner... It was in side corridor, secluded and overlooked, and she was so beautiful... I had managed to plant a suggestion into Kaidan's mind to say my name if he saw me freeze, and Ashley was easy enough to influence to make her talk to Kaidan so that they wouldn't see...
The Asari was so innocent; she looked so sad; she met my gaze, froze, and I couldn't resist... I can be foolish sometimes. I started feeding, and the taste was like nothing I had ever tasted... It was intoxicating… Then I realised what was happening to me... Asari are blue with good reason. I caught my reflection in the polished metal of a wall panel in front of me... It was like I'd been injected with blue ink and it was slowly filling up my face! I panicked... I instinctively engaged my armour's helmet, dropped the Asari, and ran until I found a sink... It had been so long since I've puked that much up... It hurt so much; but I had to get the blue Vitae out of me before anyone saw me... My skin was back to normal the moment it was all out. I collapsed to my knees holding my stomach… I had been so foolish… And I was still famished... Then the door opened and a nice young human girl came in... She saw I was in pain and ran over to me… I apologised to her and she seemed puzzled at my response, then I gazed in her eyes… I fed on her almost too much… Hoped she would be OK… I left the toilets feeling much better... Don't worry, I left her with a good memory in her mind and slipped her some credits for her trouble, and I was much more careful about who I fed off after that.
I made it back to the corridor and Ashley and Kaidan were still talking... Ashley may have been a wining human, but she was at least useful in a pinch. After my embarrassing blue-Vitae incident, I went to see The Council, to try and make them listen about 'Saren'. Inside I didn't see what the fuss was about, bickering delegates, conflicting interests, a very 'we believe Saren before any human' attitude; I felt offended; though I resisted playing the Kindred card for obvious reasons. The whole reason The Council wouldn't believe us was because Saren was a 'Spectre'. At first I thought it was a clan or the name of his race, as he didn't look like other 'cat aliens' as I saw them, kind of like Jakkie except they don't meow or threaten to 'out' your innards. But when Spectre's were explained to me, they sounded a lot like space-faring Kindred, answering to The Council and to hell with everyone else. Unfortunately because of this, I got to feel how the silly humans are compared to Kindred, it wasn't a good feeling... But out of the bad can come good, and not many come as good as Garrus... Garrus may have been a 'cat alien' - sorry, a 'Turian' as I came to learn. The humans had a war with them apparently, and they once hated another race so much as to curse them so they can never have children... Not one child...
Sorry, touchy subject... Where was I... Oh yes, Garrus! Garrus is amazing, he's tall, young, and rebellious; does what's necessary! Like a feline version of 'me'... Considering I dislike Gangrel, it would at first seem strange that I would be endeared by a feline, but anyone who knew Garrus, would understand... I first met him near the council area, very frustrated. Garrus was part of ‘Citadel Security Services’ or C-Sec, the Citadel's law enforcement division. I say 'was' in this case because the moment Saren became a thing, friction caused Garrus to rebel against C-Sec because he knew they weren't prepared to do what was necessary. Anyone who was prepared to 'go it alone' to try whatever they could, no matter how futile, to take down someone who would allow the creation of such undead abominations as I saw on Eden Prime was bound to get my attention. To track down Garrus after our initial encounter though I had to endure the drunken prattling of a human named 'Harkin'... If it weren’t for his habit of hanging around a crowded club, then he would have seen my contempt for his prattle first-hand. We eventually managed to force out of him that Garrus had gone to the medical clinic in the Wards. We rushed over there, half expecting to find him injured... And we stumbled into fire-fight.
Now might be the best time to mention one of best things I have gained as part of my new life, namely 'Biotics'. Sometime during my prep time to become Shepard, my saviors saturated by body with 'element zero' or eezo. Most ‘human’ biotic users were accidently exposed due to incidents or deliberately like radiation exposure; though I learned such processes often have no effect on successfully developing ‘biotics’. Kaidan was practically a lab rat when he was younger; risked messing him up rotten; he even accidentally killed his harsh instructor when they hurt a girl he felt something for... I know Kaidan's a human, but he's been through a lot. Because my saviors knew my Kindred physiology could easily handle that much eezo, then its positively peppered through me; they’re lucky it didn't leave any marks or I would have had words... Anyway, The eezo is paired with a 'psionic amplifier' or psi-amp, and if it all works then fun can REALLY begin. Kindred can manipulate humans etc. Already, which never stops being fun, but biotics allow me to create and manipulate a 'mass effect' field, a baby version of what makes space travel so fast in this future; the things I can do *giggle*...
So back to the fire-fight. I was also trained to use pistols as well as biotics, but biotics are so much more fun! There were several stupid individuals in the med centre, pinning down dear Garrus and a 'Doctor Michel'; didn't care much for her, but Garrus liked her. I reached out with my Kindred senses, found where each individual was hiding and turned them into my playthings. The first suddenly flew backwards and hit the wall, he ‘stopped’; the second I casually lifted into the air, much to his dismay, and Garrus' gun silenced them. And I think another suddenly had gun trouble when it exploded in his face... Silly human.
Once it was all over, the doctor and Garrus thanked us; it was great seeing Garrus smile for the first time... Then I told him we were after Saren too, and he asked me if he could join me... Garrus asked ‘me’… Thank goodness he said my name! Rotten curse! I tried not to sound too eager and accepted Garrus' request. I was finally able to dismiss Ashley from my sight! Now I had Garrus and Kaidan to keep me company *giggle*, and we had other friends to find.
Begin log Selene Shepard 4:
The first rung on the ladder to taking down Saren was a 'creature' named 'Tali'. We learned that this 'Tali' had evidence that would make the Council believe that Saren wasn't the Pure-Hearted Spectre-Kitten they saw him as. The barrier to Tali was some thug named 'Fist'. Fist thought that burying himself in the annals of his club, surrounded by hired lackeys, would keep him safe from me... It was fun juggling his silly lackeys with Kaidan! The expressions on their faces was positively nostalgic *giggle*. Outside Fist's office, as if he'd ran out of biotic fodder in the main club, he had paid-off a couple of workers! What you have to understand about normal human workers in comparison to hired thugs is that workers kind of like living a lot more than money, so I just helped them to realise just how much living, away from me, was what they really needed to do! Humans are always fun minds to mess with *giggle*. We busted in on Fist, and I had no idea what he'd been pumping into the vents of his club, but whatever it was had everything thinking he was scary... He was my plaything before you could say 'yes mistress Selene'. I made Fist tell me where 'Tali' had gone!
Apparently it was all related to someone or something called 'The Shadow Broker'; a Kindred vibe I got from that one... And Tali had been conned into believing she was going to meet the Shadow Broker to trade her evidence, but as we confirmed when we reached 'her', Fist had simply arranged her death… Wish I hadn't spared that Vitae-clot's life... My anger at Fist sent Tali's would-be assassins into biotically bone-shattered heaps on the floor, assisted by Garrus and Kaidan of course... And we got to receive Tali's gratitude. Tali is an enigma. She has the voice and innocence of someone younger than I was before I became Kindred; I found this curiously sweet in a parental sense, but Tali is visually shrouded head-to-split-toes in environmental protection armour, so her voice is all I ever got, not even her mind was accessible; though her eyes, what you could see through the visor of her helmet showed no bad side whatsoever; I resisted hugging her several times. The reason Tali wore such complete armour was simply to keep her safe from the germs and viruses of the universe. Her species, the Quarians, had terrible immune systems, so even a moment without her helmet could kill her... Poor delicate flower. As we went to see the council, I learned what I could about the Quarians, and wasn't sure 'how' I felt about them.
First the good. The Quarian race are like space-faring Amish, a group who would normally keep to themselves, and prefer their people to 'stay with the Flotilla'. Because they know their children can be curious of the universe, they send them on what they call 'The Pilgrimage', which is what Tali was on; apparently she was ordered to find a 'gift' for the Quarian captain, before she could return, though if you understand the Amish, the whole pilgrimage is designed to show the Quarian children the 'horrors' outside, so that they would come running back to Flotilla and never leave again... Parents can be so unfair... The Quarian race though is only in space thanks to their darkest secret: The Geth. The Quarians thought they were so clever when they created artificial intelligence; then The Geth turned around, and questioned why they were being used as expendable tools and weapons. The Quarians arrogantly tried to shut them up by exterminating them... The Geth didn't react well to that, went to war, won, and left the Quarians as an exiled beaten species who have been 'running' in their 'flotilla' of ships, from their responsibility ever since... To think that Tali's race made the things that think 'staking' is fun...
But my anger towards the Quarian's just didn't translate to Tali. The fact that she was prepared to risk her own life to obtain the memory core of a Geth, and then further put herself in danger to get its contents to the correct authorities? Now you truly see why I had to resist hugging the child...
Considering how dismissive the Council were of our 'human wining' before, the moment they heard the audio log from the Geth memory core thanks to Tali, their tune changed dramatically; it took a lot not to laugh at the looks on their alien faces. The Council immediately rescinded Saren's Spectre status, and then they did two things I wasn't expecting... Firstly, they decided there wasn't anything they could really do to stop Saren! I had to use a lot of restraint to not jump at them and do a Jakkie on them... But then came their second decision... And I couldn't resist tears at hearing it... They made 'me' a Spectre so that I could go after Saren without restriction... I've been through so much as a human and Kindred, and I have never felt such strong feeling as I did at that moment. There were so many onlookers there; all of them felt what I did, though that was as much about me being influential Kindred as it did me becoming the first Kindred... I mean 'human' Spectre. If only Maria and Soe could have been there...
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