"Rila! Falere!"

Morinth raced through the monastery, dashing past broken and overturned furniture, smashed ornaments, walls with holes blasted through and bits of debris that littered the once pristine floor. The beautiful architecture had been utterly decimated in the wake of the Reaper forces, though still intact. A group of Cannibals appeared from behind a collapsed pillar and the Ardat-Yakshi biotically tore them apart without batting an eye as she passed.

She had sworn that she would never set foot in this place, this abomination that locked up her people within its deceivingly pretty walls simply for being what they were. Depriving them of their freedom, restricting their access to the world outside and imprisoning them like lowly criminals brainwashed into being willing captives. Conditioned into thinking that it was all right for others to stow them away like this; as if they were nothing but trash. A shame to the race of oh-so-perfect-noses-up-their-asses asari that they must be hidden away from the rest of the galaxy.

No, she was different. She promised herself that they would never take away her freedom. She would either stay free or die free.

"Rila!" Morinth called again, briefly poking her head into what must have once been a meditation room before streaking away when she realised it was empty. As were all the rooms and halls she had been in so far. Since her arrival at the monastery, she hadn't met a single living being outside of a Reaper–fied monster – if they could even still be considered as being 'alive' – and she was beginning to worry. It was as if the entire place was deserted. Yet, they couldn't have evacuated on time since all the shuttles had been left untouched in the monastery's hangar. Which meant that everyone was still inside along with her sisters. Either they had found a really good hiding place or–

No, no. She couldn't bear to think of the alternative.

"Falere!"

"Mirala?! Mirala! Is that you?!"

Skidding to a stop mid-sprint down a hallway with expansive glass walls of the breath-taking view outside – daring to taunt them of the freedom they could never have – Morinth twisted around to the general direction of her younger sister's voice. "Falere! Where are you?!"

"Up here, on the landing!"

Morinth looked up – and there she was.

When had it last been since she had seen Falere? Four hundred years? More? Because she almost didn't recognise this grown asari maiden who was now standing by the stairs, clutching the railing and staring down at her with bright, wide eyes and rigid posture as if she had seen a ghost.

Taking a step forward, Morinth leapt into the air – biotics thrummed to life and ran all over her skin as she lifted herself up onto the balcony and set herself down gradually a slight distance away from her sister. As they faced each other, both suddenly silent and with a certain caution in their gaze, Morinth was uncomfortably aware that she was feeling hesitant for the first time in her life. For the first time she remembered, she was undecided as to what to do.

After a moment, she began approaching Falere with slow, careful steps; like how one would approach a frightened deer ready to bolt. Stopping at arm's length away, she paused, unsure. Falere regarded her with a wary stare, body rigid, her hands held stiffly at her sides, her back ramrod straight. Neither of them moved. Morinth didn't know what to feel – relief – anxiety – paranoia –

Suddenly, Morinth was scared – which didn't make sense. She was Morinth; an unstoppable force of passion and resentment, a whirlwind that didn't allow anyone, not even her own mother, get in the way of what she wanted. A representative of the 'disgrace' of the asari race and the injustice done to them, an avatar of the true Ardat-Yakshi. Justicars, councils, hired mercenaries, bounty hunters – she feared none. So why would she fear her own sister?

Then it hit her – she was afraid because it was Falere standing before her. This was her sister, not just another merc or enemy wanting to kill her. Both her siblings were the only real connection she had left to her heart and both were capable of inflicting greater wounds with a few words than any merc or opponent ever could with weapons. If Falere rejected her here and now...

So she froze up on the spot. Tense, uneasy. Her mind drew a blank. What was she supposed to say? What could she say?

After a minute of silence, she could bear it no longer and shifted a little – whether to speak or run, she didn't know. But then Falere made that decision for her.

Morinth stiffened when she felt a soft warmth encircling her neck and the next thing she knew, her arms were full of sobbing younger sister.

"Mirala! It's – it's really you–! I–I…" Falere wailed uncontrollably as she continued to cry fat tears into Morinth's shoulder.

"Oh, stop crying, you big baby," said Morinth with a tinge of embarrassment, bringing her hands around to awkwardly pat Falere's back. She wasn't ever any good at this sort of thing, comforting others. She'd been more of the headstrong, courageous type while Falere had been the sensitive 'cry baby', as Morinth had always called her, and a little naïve. Rila was the responsible–

Morinth's eyes widened.

She pulled back sharply, gripping Falere firmly by the shoulders. "Falere, where is Rila?"

The answering look on her sister's face made her heart drop to her boots. The tears sprang fresh to Falere's eyes, "They took her! They took her to the Great Hall! I've been trying to reach her, but– "

The rest of her words were lost when a piercing, unworldly screech stabbed at Morinth's ears and clawed at her mind, threatening to overwhelm her mental defences. Grimacing, she twirled around to see a horrible, twisted being with a grotesquely wide mouth; opaque, empty eyes and unnatural gait, its skin and anatomy mutated into something beyond recognition. It shrieked again, emerging from the darkened corridor and beginning to advance upon the two. Biotic blue began to glow around the edges of its body, levitating it from the ground. Morinth immediately recognised the warning signs, powered up her own biotics and braced herself to cast a crackling ball of energy at the Banshee. But as she cast her arm back to throw, Falere wrapped her hands around her wrist and stayed her attack.

"Falere! What–"

"You can't, Mirala! What if she's–"

"If she is, then she's not our sister anymore!" Morinth yelled, ripping her arm free from Falere's grip and hurling the charged-up Warp at the abnormality. There was an explosion of light, a final shriek and the monster was gone. Shattered glass and damaged flooring were the only proof left it had ever existed.

Morinth quickly turned back to Falere, who was wearing the expression of a shell–shocked accident victim as she stood frozen on the spot, staring at the place where the Banshee had been.

"Look– Falere, get a hold of yourself!" Morinth said tersely as she grabbed on to her sister's arm and yanked on it to get her attention. "These monsters – these things, they're no longer people. You don't need to feel sorry for them, don't need to show mercy. You can't afford to–"

"That 'monster' could have been any of us!" Falere retaliated, snatching her arm back and keeping it to her chest – like having a barrier between herself and Morinth. "They were Ardat-Yakshi once, like us! I probably knew her, she might have been a friend–"

"You think I don't know that?! I don't fancy being turned into one of the Reapers' playthings myself – or anyone else, for that matter – but the damn fact is that they are dead, Falere! Those are just corpses being controlled from beyond the grave. Those people are no longer there!"

Falere's voice turned quiet as she looked upon Morinth with that pitiful, painful look Morinth could never bear seeing her with. "So if I got turned into one, would you kill me too? Just as easily as you killed her?"

"I– That's not– Your soft heart will be the death of you if you keep this up, Falere!" growled Morinth in a deathly low voice as she drew closer to her sister, looking at her right in the eye. "You have to fight to survive, now! The monastery is gone – finished. Do you understand? There is no one left to protect you– "

"She could have been Rila!"

A shadow of doubt, horror, briefly broke through her mind but Morinth shook her head, a determined set in her eyes. "Rila would never give up so quickly. Not to them."

"But– "

A sudden movement outside the huge glass wall caught the corner of her eye and Morinth whipped around just in time to see a navy blue Kodiak shuttle drift downward and land out of sight. She recognised the insignia immediately.

Holding Falere by the shoulders again, Morinth's tone took on a sense of rare urgency. Normally, she wouldn't trust anyone – let alone the humans – but the situation left her with no choice. "Listen, the Alliance is here. They can help you. Go to them, get out of here – it's not safe here anymore."

"But…" Falere protested, staring wide-eyed at her, and Morinth was forcefully reminded of the face of a much younger Falere who had given her the very same expression when she told her younger sister all those years ago that she did not intend to come with them to the monastery. "But… what about Rila?"

"I'll get her, you just go on ahead first," Morinth said insistently as she turned the struggling Falere around and pushed her toward the exiting hallway.

"No! I'll come with you– "

"Don't be stupid, one of us has to go warn the humans– "

"No!"

"Falere," called Morinth. The young asari turned very still, struggles forgotten for the moment. It had been a long time since Morinth had used this voice, she was surprised herself. Something so gentle and tender that it could never have belonged to the one called 'Morinth'. No, it was the voice of the one who was once called Mirala.

"Falere," she repeated, "please, trust me."

"Mirala, I– "

"Please."

The two sisters looked at one another, each assessing the other. Falere seemed to find something in her eyes because then she whispered, "I trust you."

"Then go," urged Morinth. "I'll be right behind you with Rila. I promise."

There was still hesitance in Falere's eyes, a kind of refusal, before they turned to the floor. "All right."

"Good," replied Mirala with an encouraging smile. "Go on, then. I should be going too."

Falere nodded and abruptly wrapped her arms around her in another hug. "Just come back. Come back with Rila." And with that, she left for through a corridor. Morinth stood, waiting for a moment, then turned and hurried down the hallway toward the Great Hall. Her legs carried her faster, swifter across the floor as she closed the distance to the door. Once she was through, she whirled quickly around and jammed the door, thoroughly hacking it with her omni-tool.

Then she turned, and proceeded forward.

It didn't take long before Morinth heard the sounds of shouting and muted thuds as someone on the other side tried to break their way in. Turning a deaf ear to her sister's desperate calls, she advanced deeper into the monastery.

Following many twists and turns through dark passageways and destroyed antechambers, she finally reached what must have been the Entrance Hall. It was eerily silent though still intact and perfect, utterly foreboding. Morinth felt something her throat stick, her heart hammering wildly in her chest and her eyes darted every which direction in heightened paranoia. Something felt completely wrong about this place, something that made her instincts scream out at her to turn and run and never look back – instincts which had never failed her before. But the thought of Rila being just beyond that door, hurt, in need of help-

No, she could never abandon her sister.

Cautiously, she made her way through it, passing under the archways. Looking ahead, she saw that the doors to the Great Hall were only a few yards away. Her mouth went dry. What would she find in there? Was it already too late, or – Morinth shook her head vigorously, murmuring to herself. No, no. It can't be. Rila was fine, she had to be fine. They were going to go back to Falere together and escape this wretched place and maybe get to sort things out. She had to, they had to. With renewed resolve, Morinth approached the doors. She was close, so very close to saving her sister – saving Rila – when everything went to hell.

The air was rent into shreds by multiple, ear–shattering screeches as Banshees materialised everywhere. Morinth turned wildly, eyes flitting everywhere as she assessed the situation. Twenty two of them, horribly disfigured and disproportionate jaws wide open as they wailed their torturing lament and made their way towards her.

She was vastly outnumbered, there was nowhere to run, nobody to help her. She may be a ferocious fighter, but she was no fool. She had no delusions as to the outcome of this battle.

This was the end for her.

A tremendous explosion rocked the hall as Morinth cast a Singularity and Warp in quick succession which brought one of the monsters down with a final, dying scream that accompanied Morinth's own roar of frustration and despair. Its fellows quickly converged on her, their ungodly shrieks tearing at her ears as they clawed at her with talon-like hands. In her desperation and bitter defiance, Morinth summoned forth biotic energy from somewhere deep within her she never knew she had and an explosion of blue light took place all around her. Her enemies were blown away from the force and flung to the ground. The few closest to her lay prone and moved no more, but the rest steadily got to their feet with cries of incensed fury. Morinth bared her teeth in a snarl as she raised her brilliantly sparking hands, a biotic storm being raised around her and giving her the appearance of a battle angel in her final charge as she rushed at them.

Even then, the fight was a short one.

Bodies were strewn over the hall as Morinth stared defiantly up at the Banshee that held her in the mockery of a mother's embrace, cradling her head towards it's putrid mouth.

Once she was turned, she would cease to exist. Morinth and Mirala would both be dead. The Banshee that remained would be just a sad, empty, mindless husk. A mutated mockery of a living thing. So she glared at the beast that held her a grotesque imitation of an embrace, cradling her head up towards it's terrible mouth as it screeched. Stared right into the jaws of death that threatened to swallow her whole. Faced it with her head held high and a sneer on her lips, not a trace of fear in her eyes or heart. And so she would die as herself.

Morinth had known she was different, different from her sisters, different even from other Ardat-Yakshi. One that would reject the future chosen for her, refuse her fate and fight it to the end. She would be free – or die being free. Never as someone's slave.

Never.

A/N: Well, that's one thing completed at least. XD

This fic presumes that Samara's loyalty mission was never done in ME2 (or maybe Shepard chose Morinth instead Samara, I guess that would work too) so Morinth would still be alive. If she's still alive at the end of ME2 and you go to the monastery in ME3, one of the Banshees you have to kill in the Entrance Hall will have the target name of 'Morinth' instead of 'Banshee'. So Morinth had gone to the monastery, and was turned into a Banshee. Now the question was, why did she go there in the first place? I believe it was to try and save her sisters - the only people she still cared about, as evidenced by her intercepted letters.

I felt that being forced to kill her in ME2 if you didn't pick her was harsh and undeserved. If you just see things from her perspective; being told at a young age that due to a genetic deformity that entirely was not your fault, you had to leave your home and go live in a secluded place far away from the outside world for the rest of your existence and be denied a normal life - I can understand why she ran away. I mean, she may have killed all those people, but taking her life was still unfair. All she wanted to do was live. And live free.