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The city above is beautiful; the shining jewel at the heart of fifteen thousand years of their people’s culture. A place so remarked upon for its beauty that at least one Asari guidebook describes it as ‘so beautiful one could hardly believe it is turian at all’. Typical attitude.
If they knew what lay below the silver streets and towering, golden buildings, well, perhaps they would revise their opinions.
But as far as anyone outside of the hierarchy knew, there was nothing below there.
Saren knew better, primarily because he’d spent his own time down in this miserable place. Just shy of a year without seeing sun or sky, mired in grief so intense that he had rather got the impression that he’d buried himself in the rubble to the east of this non-existent place.
It was easy to remember his pain now, the genuine questioning of whether he had already died without realising it and whether this was simply all that came next. The damp, earthy surroundings were fitting of a grave, even without the pervading scent of rot - one could easily allow themselves to believe they would stumble across their own corpse in a place like this.
But this time, he knew that he would get to leave again.
Whether the man - still and quiet as if he’d given up life already - would be afforded the same good fortune that he would remained to be seen.
Realistically speaking, to even make it this far, Rix had already been unbelievably lucky.
He’d read the official report - it’d flagged itself given the content it held - and then out of curiosity he’d read the file of the man it discussed. Lifer, single, no dependents, no registered next of kin. Last of his legion.
And after this, not even a passing acquaintance who was willing to put name to knowing him.
He’d had that much, at least. Dirus had been a family and they at least had not turned their backs on him, even after everything he had done. He knew that was the only reason he had been lucky enough to be offered a chance.
“If you’re going to stare at me like a zoo animal, you could at least go do so via the cameras.” He… hadn’t even realised that Rix was awake, or that he was in any way aware that he was being watched.
“The cameras are offline.” This drew the first sign of life from him, one black eye cracking open. “They will remain that way for some time, I suspect. Perhaps we should use this time productively.”
“To do what?” The eye slipped closed once more with an exasperated huff. “Considering I’m still breathing, you’re not here to kill me, are you?”
Briefly, he entertained the thought. Get the answers he desired and then… put him out of his misery lest it be dragged out any further than was necessary. “I wish to question you about what happened down there.”
“You’re a Spectre, Arterius, go read the report.” He rolled onto his side - turning his back to him. “It was written by people a lot fucking smarter than me. I’m just the animal that pushed a button.”
Just the person who’d pushed the button. He’d said it about himself, once.
“They were not on the ground, were they?” He straightened up, waited for this to draw a reaction and… when it didn’t, continued all the same. “It was hard to think down there, was it not? You described their behaviour as cult-like and… there was an object which they were worshipping, was there not? Something which was impossible to describe?”
In an instant, Rix was on his feet, face pressed against the bars with a feral hiss. “How do you know that?”
Because he’d seen it before, first hand. Had paid too great a price in discovering that there was only one solution to that situation. He didn’t need him to describe it, didn’t need any other questions answered. The terror and anger in his subvocals was all the proof he’d ever need to know that bombing Dregir had been the right thing to do, for all that Rix was torturing himself over it.
Again, something that felt like kinship intermingling with pity bubbled up.
Lifer, single, no dependents, no registered next of kin. Nobody to miss him when the hierarchy’s attempt to save face and neatly apportion blame in one fell swoop landed him in an unmarked grave.
He’d been lucky.
Maybe it was time to share some of that luck with another unwitting victim.
Saren raised a hand - Rix backed off warily - and the door lock shorted out. ‘Come with me.”