II
It became deathly quiet as the brightness faded around Cadrina. She looked all about her – she was still aboard her ship, standing in place before the holomap in her combat armor. All appeared the same. The spaces, colors and scents were not unfamiliar or out of place. But then she noticed that the images on the holomap were no longer blinking or spinning.
The display had gone completely static.
She stepped away from her post and saw Liara and members of the crew also suspended in place, frozen in time. Their actions and looks of terror preserved. Cadrina slowly paced around and up the length of the command deck, regarding more immobile subjects on her way towards the cockpit to gaze upon the source of their terror.
Outside the ship explosions, plasma beams, missiles, wreckage and vessels were all motionless against the backdrop of planet Earth. SSV Orizaba could be seen in the distance illuminated by its deck guns. The ability to directly control the flow of time was not a power of the Interface, however. Cadrina was once again outside of time looking in, able to see every being and circumstance and how they affected one another in the grand scheme of existence. She saw the immense and imposing form of Harbinger through the forward viewports with its cannon aimed; a red corona was building around the barrel as it charged. She focused on the Reaper and summoned its consciousness to her, allowing it the freedom to move and respond in this environment.
(Shepard…)
The cockpit of the Normandy 2 melted away along with Earth, the battle above its sphere and everything else into gray mist. Harbinger's cannon deactivated as the Reaper went upright. It retained its appearance but was now much smaller, though still a good head taller than Cadrina. Multiple faint, silvery waving strands extended from its body; the expression of the composite minds contained within comprising its main persona. In the real world Harbinger and the Reapers had the advantage of size, numbers and longevity. In the confines of the Interface they were on equal ground with Cadrina, gestalt beings within the realm of another. She could feel the minds and wills of the other Reapers scratching within.
"You have not defeated us yet," said Harbinger, who did not appear to be disturbed by its circumstances.
Cadrina folded her arms and waited a few moments, knowing exactly what the Reaper referred to and to demonstrate that its claim was in error.
"If you're counting on someone to intervene on your behalf, don't bother." she sneered. "You're on your own, Harbinger. I've made sure your illusive friend won't be interrupting our little talk."
Cadrina stepped closer "And we –are- going to talk!"
Harbinger began to withdraw from her sight. "There will be no discussion, Shepard-"
Cadrina held out her hand to Harbinger and made a fist. The Reaper was suddenly gripped with an invisible force and was pulled back as she drew back her fist. Harbinger screeched and vibrated violently, trying with all its might to resist.
"No, you're not leaving. Nobody's leaving until I get answers."
Cadrina released Harbinger when it faced her again and lowered her hand. It sensed changes in her from the outside world. The dreaded presence of the prothean computer was there, but it had increased in ability and knowledge from last contact and shared a very intimate connection with Cadrina. Harbinger quickly realized that she was not merely controlling the Interface.
"YOU!"
Cadrina felt satisfaction upon sensing the Reaper's fear beneath its familiar hatred for organics. It was the same fear shown when the Interface – she - first tried to reach into them long ago. At last the Reapers were at the mercy of a power possibly even greater than them. The Spectre reminded herself that her power could not cloud her reason or she would be no better than the domineering Old Machines. They were a great and grave mystery that needed to be solved; the Interface was originally created to help solve cosmic mysteries.
"You and the Eater are one! You… chose this insignificant form as your vessel?"
"Thought you didn't wanna talk, Harbinger?"
Harbinger attempted to reason with her "You have more in common with us. Why do you appoint yourself the protector of bacterium…?"
Cadrina silenced the Reaper "I ask the questions here and I only have one… why?"
Harbinger hovered in place, silent.
"Trillions of lives...! Liquefied to make more of you! Then you let new species evolve, wean them on technology you leave behind only to kill them when they've matured. For what purpose?"
"To bestow the greatest privilege upon the chosen species: ascension. Ascension to our ranks to be preserved for all time, free of the weaknesses of flesh."
"That can't be all - I want to know WHY!" Cadrina threatened to take hold of Harbinger again.
"Your time among organics has corrupted you. You are misguided in your conviction that you are saving them from destruction."
"To flow through the veins of a Reaper is salvation…while all other life is condemned to die…? Help me here!"
Disgust and impatience began to seep through Harbinger's apprehension "You now think and feel as the rest of them do, no longer capable or worthy of comprehending us."
"You have the ability to cross space over vast distances and defy gravity that would tear apart planets and suns," Cadrina observed "Yet you limit yourselves to this galaxy tending an ant farm and adding to your numbers. Why? What happens when there are enough of you? Are you all gonna march all over the universe?"
"It would be wise to release us and let us complete our work."
"Answer my question!"
Harbinger would not divulge. "You are like us, but you have not existed as one of us. You have not experienced what we have experienced. Our knowledge would only spur you to madness and our execution. We will not pass it on to you, nor will we allow you to take it from us. We appeal to you as a kindred being: to destroy us is to destroy yourself. Our purpose is vital to our mutual continued existence. Set us free… or we shall take steps to effect our release!"
Cadrina held her hand towards Harbinger and challenged "You're pretty bold to make demands of me, knowing what I could do!"
"…as you are to believe that we will surrender to you…"
The Reapers that scratched against Cadrina's mind asserted themselves further and solidified before her. Two Reapers appeared around Harbinger, one on each side. The two doubled to four. The four became twenty, then fifty and ninety. Before long she was surrounded by the entire population, their own lifelines writhing around them like ghostly halos. Their overall fear and reluctance to face her was palpable but so was the commitment to their mysterious mission. As determined as all the species of the galaxy were to preserve life, the Reapers were to extinguish it.
Harbinger spoke for his kind "If our fate is to perish by your hand, then we shall grapple with you to the last! With all the fervor you have marshaled against us!"
Cadrina saw an uneasy and twisted irony in how the Reapers gathered against her, as if she were the great evil that and not they.
"It would have been easier to talk," she maintained.
The Reapers circled her, undulating as Harbinger declared "Confess… you do prefer it this way. Play the hero and slay the beasts portrayed time and again in the lore of the organics you coddle. Become their champion and bequeath to them an empty future. Or perish as yet another failed attempt to defy us as we plant the seeds for the next Harvest and rebuild our numbers to carry on!"
Several Reapers moved in and used their tentacles to grab Cadrina's arms and legs. They suspended her before Harbinger, who armed its main cannon. She struggled half-heartedly, holding back the urge to fight and hoping they would reconsider and back down - she had yet to uncover their motives. But Harbinger desired her elimination, and she determined there was no other course of action.
"I gave you a chance…"
She stared at Harbinger's form as it readied to fire.
"… but if that's how you want it…"
She drew upon power from dark energy and stars in the outside world and then hurled the Reapers at each of her limbs into each other as their leader fired, lowering out of the beam's path. The beam scattered them, groaning and shrieking in pain. Cadrina knelt upon the transparent ground she willed beneath her and looked up, deploying an ethereal omni-blade.
"Then we'll do it the hard way!"
Harbinger disappeared into the multitude as they advanced on her. Reapers carefully aimed and fired their plasma cannons at her, hoping to debilitate her and avoid wounding each other. Cadrina was able to bound and evade fire with nimbleness and speed exceeding even her augmented abilities in the real world, a step ahead of her attackers. They swept around, regrouped and opened fire again, driving her back into a waiting crowd. The crowd took hold and wrestled her, clawing and biting while more Reapers closed in. She then spun wildly around, building up enough centripetal force to throw them off and away from her.
Cadrina reoriented and eyed her omni-blade, turning its color from glowing blue-white to solid green representing the Reaper virus EDI had labored on for months. Concerns were that even if the virus successfully infects and kills Reapers out in the real world, allied forces could not act fast enough to infect them all, allowing the enemy to isolate the contaminated and survive to produce a reagent. All of the Reapers were in her reach now; in one stroke she could end it all. There would be no escape for them.
And no answers for her.
The Spectre changed her blade back to blue-white as another Reaper tackled her. Twirling about in the air, she retracted her blade and wrestled the Old Machine, pushing and kicking it down to another virtual floor. The others were a short distance away, affording a small window of opportunity. She quickly held fast to the stunned Reaper and concentrated, trying to go further into its psyche for the truth. It shrieked and shuddered as Harbinger did in her grasp, only this time the captive Reaper faded to nothing. Cadrina felt it slipping away into a dormant state, but still alive. While preoccupied, a Reaper in the distance took advantage and hit her square in the back with plasma fire. Cadrina wrenched and cried out but was not yet in real danger. Her situation quickly changed as other Reapers joined in firing upon her from all sides, intensifying their strikes and closing in. The beams punched into her, pushing her downwards and curling her up into a ball that rotated in different paths with each glance and blow.
Through the pain she saw the Reapers surrounding her. She needed to get to safety and regain control. Clinging to this thought she suddenly found herself behind one of the Reapers but still feeling stings from their blasts. Past the machine, she saw herself floating down below. She grabbed onto the nearby Reaper and wrenched it up, forcing it to gun down a group of its own. The original Cadrina recovered and made ready to assist her clone that had drawn attention away from her. Following through on this new ability of hers, she managed to produce additional versions of herself. Not enough to match Harbinger's forces, but more than enough to confound them without drawing on excessive dark energy.
Reapers and multiple Shepards engaged each other. Some Shepards brandished their own omni-blades, others used pure hand-to-hand techniques. A few deployed ethereal versions of Cadrina's preferred sniper rifle and pistol to do battle. With some effort, she was able to keep track of her alternate selves, move between them and dominate the fighting. Delivering an uppercut with her blade to one. Shooting another through its center mass. Hurling yet another into a group of three. Every Reaper she defeated disappeared into non-existence.
One attacking Reaper voiced its frustration as it charged at a Shepard clone. "HOW CAN WE STOP IT?"
The clone cocked its pistol and knocked it backwards into the path of another clone with several shots "My mind…"
The receiving clone swung its blade and cleaved the hapless Old Machine in two. The creature screamed as it vanished.
"… my rules!" said the receiving clone triumphantly.
Harbinger was aghast. Its kind was being slaughtered by a computer intelligence in the guise of a lowly human. It could not give in and allow the labor of eons to come undone. It decided upon an action that would be a further detriment to its forces in the long run, but was a necessary sacrifice if its kind was to endure and overcome the Interface.
Harbinger called to the other Reapers. "BRETHREN, TO ME! WE MUST COMBINE OUR STRENGTH! BRING IT TO OUR SPACE, WHERE WE HAVE DOMINION!"
Immediately the remaining Reapers, still a few hundred in number, retreated and vanished. The Shepard clones followed shortly after, with Cadrina left behind floating in the grey trying to fathom the Reaper's next move. She then found herself standing upon ground brushed by a gentle breeze. Solid, physical ground; what appeared to be a grassy lawn by a slight rise. Tall and high brownish clouds drifted overhead obscuring a bright yellow sun. Cadrina did not call this vista into being; this was the Reaper's doing.
Cadrina was puzzled. Could this be the Reaper's subconscious?
She could feel them interconnecting their wills, a few separate from the others generating the environment she was in. Then there was a low rumbling. The rumbling grew louder and set the ground to quake. Cadrina staggered, looking for steadier footing. A metallic groan called her attention to the sky above her.
Harbinger reappeared at its original scale, seething with power drawn from the Reapers it was linked to. It readied itself to fire.
(You struggle in vain. We will never submit. And now… you shall die!)
Its beam dug into the ground and began to track towards Cadrina. She dodged it and ran from the immense avatar of Harbinger, who sent another beam to cut her off, exploding the dirt in front of her. Harbinger landed and then stabbed one of its tentacles into the ground, sending boulders and clumps of dirt flying at Cadrina. It slowly strode in her direction, firing more bursts and launching more rocks. While Cadrina could evade them, she somehow could not will herself to fly as easily as she did earlier. One boulder clipped her and spun her about; Harbinger was gaining on her. The grasslands were endless and had no hills, cliffs or mountains she could hide behind. Another boulder knocked her onto the ground. Her fists clenched the grass as she wished desperately for cover. The grasses vibrated and screeched as Harbinger loomed above.
Suddenly a towering stone post shot up from the ground, plowing into Harbinger. Several more posts sprang up, one beneath Cadrina that carried her upwards. The gigantic Reaper reeled and clutched nearby posts to pull itself upright. It spied Cadrina and brought a nearby tentacle down upon her, missing. She deployed her omni-blade and then retracted it, noting that Harbinger was still groggy. She took the opportunity and ran up to its tentacle, touching it with both her hands trying now to delve into Harbinger's thoughts. This maneuver spurred it to scream out and drag its limb away and knock into the tower post sending it crumbling to the ground, but not before Cadrina leapt onto another post. Harbinger was on the move again, firing and knocking over the fields of posts Cadrina summoned, supplanting the grasslands and casting the sky into gray. She constantly leapt and hid from one to another only to have the Reaper locate her. A couple of encounters had it right on top of her, but it still only used beams or fragments from the posts when it could have attacked her directly with its tentacles.
Cadrina considered these curious occurrences as she climbed down a short way down yet another post, managing to lose Harbinger this time. At the start of her battle with the Reapers, they showed a fair amount of resistance. But when she tried to read one to find out why they carried on their destruction cycles, it resisted violently and disappeared. Even as Harbinger utilized the wills of its fellow Reapers as a shield, there was still a reaction. Cadrina edged her way around the wide post as the hum of Harbinger's presence crept by. All of its segments and joints were visible to her, carried over from reality into this plane.
Including crevices where it could not reach…
Cadrina scrambled up to the top of the post. Harbinger's back was to her. She jumped high up and landed on another post to the side, careful not to alert the Old Machine. She crouched low and looked over the side. Harbinger scanned from side to side, listening. It then began to rise, sensing she was near. Cadrina propped on her haunches and got ready, hitting upon an idea to bring down the gestalt Reaper.
Nothing like having an itch…
Harbinger rose up faster, scraping the post and causing it to topple over. Cadrina balanced herself as she dropped down towards Harbinger, steering towards a joint connecting one of its tentacles to its torso. The opponents closed distance quickly. Cadrina successfully landed inside the targeted joint and made contact, hanging on with all the power she could summon.
… that you just can't scratch!
Harbinger bellowed as it slammed itself into posts, trying to shake Cadrina off. But the Spectre held fast and directed her will into it, wearing down its collective defensives as flakes, dust and dirt peppered her face. She felt more Reapers slipping away into dormancy. Harbinger burst through the last wall of posts as it dove and plowed into a field of gray sand, spinning around as it shoveled a path through it. Cadrina gritted and sputtered but still clung to Harbinger, still focusing. The crevice she occupied was getting smaller; Harbinger was shrinking. Cadrina edged outside and shifted her grip to other gaps in its carapace. The Reaper diminished more and more, slowing down until it was finally just Harbinger again, not much taller than Cadrina. She raised the Reaper over her head and pounded it into the sand over and over, dangerously close to surrendering to bloodlust. It had to pay. They all needed to pay. They were responsible for destroying scores of civilizations. They had tricked her into destroying a solar system full of innocents. She wanted them to justify themselves before her, threatened to kill them all if they did not and still they were defiant.
A rational being acts with understanding…
Remembering her original intentions, she held it aloft one last time and slammed it down. She rolled off of Harbinger and lay upon the sand panting for breath. It was all over. Harbinger was at last defeated and vulnerable.
"Finish us! Seal your fate!" goaded Harbinger as Cadrina got on her feet. "It is what your kind excels at!"
Cadrina drew her omni-blade and stood over the form of Harbinger when another thought occurred to her. She held out her free hand over it, recalling the battle with the Human Reaper in the Collector base. Another suspicion was confirmed as she detected something inside of Harbinger's shell. She held up her weapon and with a savage cry she swung downwards and cut the Reaper down the middle. But Harbinger did not vanish. As she exhaled heavily, the dent she made in Harbinger's armor became a glowing orange-yellow crack.
"What are you doing? Stop!" Harbinger warned.
Cadrina straddled the fallen Reaper, wedged her hands into the opening and began to widen it.
"NNNOOOOOOOO…!"
She could feel the Reapers's armor cut into her hands. The gap grew wider as it screamed and struggled. Its voice was losing resonance, becoming higher in pitch.
"NNOOOOOOOOO…! NNOOOOOOOOO…! NNOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!"
Cadrina strained as Harbinger's torso parted further until its hidden interior was exposed to the air. Gripping the sides, she stared at the gelatinous mass within, studded with thousands of tiny points of light as it sloshed about and changed shape. It sounded nothing like Harbinger now.
"You've ruined everything! Everything!"
The mass hardened and took on the semblance of limbs, abdomen, thorax and head.
"Nothing left anymore! Nothing to stop entropy!"
Fingers and toes formed. The head became expressive with nostrils, lips and eyes; eyes growing ever wider and moistening in response to the human avatar looking upon it. The being braced itself to the innards of the split Reaper shell.
"…you took it all away…"
Cadrina was in horror and disbelief, giggling nervously.
"It had to be…"
The being inside Harbinger was diminutive compared to her. She wanted to feel triumph and righteous anger at this moment, not pity. But the emotions surfaced nonetheless as she leaned in closer and saw it start to shed tears.
"It had to be this… what else could be so cruel? So arrogant…! Could plot and act with such indifference…"
Harbinger's true self sobbed and trembled, completely at Cadrina's mercy. Her unbalanced mirth settled into grim acceptance.
"This is what you all are underneath the armor… the menace… YOU'RE JUST CHILDREN!"
The defeated Reaper core lay in its ruined shell. Naked, hairless and glistening, pushing against it with its small legs.
"…scared… tortured… children…"
Cadrina's anger remained checked as she slowly reached in to take hold of Harbinger's head. The humanoid child pushed away more frantically as if it believed it could bury itself further into the armor for protection as her hands came closer.
"NNOOOOO!" it cried. "LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONNNE! DON'T EAT MEEEEEEEEE!"
Cadrina then felt the other Reapers in her thoughts making themselves heard, causing Cadrina's throat to catch for an instant. It was a faint chorus of children's voices, repeating in frightened unison:
"… Eater of Minds… Eater of Minds…"
Harbinger had said that this Eater and she were one, but the Interface only utilized the unused subconscious of intelligent beings to function. It otherwise posed no harm until its creator Sumek discovered its additional powers. It certainly did not consume them by design. Why would the Reapers believe that it did?
Cadrina held Harbinger, who shrieked and fought her. She stepped partially into the shell trying to keep it from wriggling free. She could feel its absolute terror of her, threatening to break down her resolve. But Cadrina firmly held on and rode out its tantrum; it had to know that it was not going to get away but it also was not going to come to harm. Harbinger resisted less and less until it tired out, eyes dimming from fatigue and breathing hard. Seeing it looking so pathetic and helpless made Cadrina smooth down its forehead to reassure it. She took its head again, closed her eyes and focused, careful to gradually ease into its mind so as to not cause it more distress.
She beheld the complete psyche of the being known as Harbinger, but its name was just another bestowed title.
Imolc. The name that came through was Imolc.
It was not only the name of the Reaper itself but the species from which it was derived.
Cadrina circled and descended further in. This slow approach enabled her to safely delve into the Reaper's secrets. One revelation was why they called the Interface she embodied the Eater of Minds. When a Reaper was created, the minds and souls of the harvested species were melded together, losing their subconscious wills as a result. A Reaper's mind was total consciousness, always awake and aware. It never really slumbered nor could it dream. Not on its own. Out in dark space between Harvests, some adept and imaginative Reapers donated their consciousness to create the Dreamtime, the green fields Cadrina had tread upon and violated. The rest whiled away their time in this virtual space resting or playing until the signal was received to begin a new Harvest. When the Interface could not detect the familiar beta wave patterns of subconscious thought as it passively scanned them, before it itself became self-aware, it intensified its probes. The more intense active scans hurt and frightened the Reapers who generated the Dreamtime, which the Interface mistakenly interpreted as what it needed. The Reapers believed this vast, disembodied entity meant to devour them and so they proceeded to repurpose or destroy the prothean beacons to dispel it.
Cadrina reached the depths of Imolc's memories. It apparently was created during a time just before the protheans came into being. However she could not go further back or readily trace any individual lifelines of the Imolc species. She then beckoned to the other Reapers to read into them, assuring them that Imolc was in no danger and neither were they. They appeared all around her, at rest in the sands. Their collective minds opened and allowed her to enter through Imolc. She searched among them and found far older memories. From them she began to divine their beginning, the definitive origin of the Reapers from eons past, when bacteria were still the dominant organism on Earth…
The Vuldaran race was the first.
One of the first great civilizations of the universe, their world came to an end when their technology far outstripped their reason. A consortium of concerned scientists and engineers constructed a vessel based upon their hardiest indigenous creature and used a process they had developed to preserve the essence of a being's intelligence to gather up the remaining populace. The vessel then fled the home system as their sun transformed into a black hole, the result of their greatest endeavor gone horribly out of control.
As the Vuldaran ship wandered through the cosmos in search of a new home it encountered other intelligent races that had harnessed the resources of their worlds to explore beyond them. But many of them were hostile to themselves and to each other. Its quest was soon overshadowed by curiosity and later sadness as it bore witness to the replay of its own doomed existence amongst these other species. There were always on the border of some great and historic achievements only to succumb to their innate barbarism and annihilate themselves. As if they were unable to shoulder the responsibilities their achievements would entail.
The Vuldaran ship continued traveling and studying other species and their patterns of life and self-destruction. It eventually came upon a strange and wondrous phenomenon. It found that intelligence was not just an evolutionary advantage. It also had a symbiotic relationship with the very fabric of the universe. The act of manipulating or just observing it changed and stabilized it. The universe could supply and recycle itself, but could not itself arrange in meaningful ways and would subsequently fall into chaos. Primitive life, searching for food, reproducing and dying, established some small pockets of order in the use and exchange of material and a fleeting stability. Intelligent life, communicating, banding together in communities and reshaping their worlds, constructing, exploring, innovating, gave a more substantial stability to the universe around them by virtue of their activities. Even as the universe progressed towards entropy intelligent species were, at least for a time, able to withstand it and even harness it to a small degree.
The Vuldaran could not sit idly by and let entropy prevail. Those civilizations on the brink of extinction, which showed the greatest promise, should be given a second chance and help preserve stability. Penance for the destruction of its homeworld. From the ruins of a dying planet and its people, it constructed another like itself and shared with it its knowledge and intentions. Agreeing that Vuldaran's cause was just, they set off to uplift more species they deemed worthy.
And thus Vuldaran became the first Reaper.
Their ultimate goal was far beyond any species' conception. Vuldaran and the Reapers wanted to stabilize the entire universe, to reintegrate into new species elevated above fear and violence. But entropy proved a most stubborn foe as more and more species went extinct, faster than the Reapers could get to them. Some even refused the Reaper's gift of immortality, at times with deadly force. All across the known universe, it was the same; intelligence just could not summon the will to overcome its baser self. A number of Reapers doubted if this crusade was even worth the trouble and the losses they endured. But Vuldaran was ever present and ever faithful to the cause and served to keep its followers true. In a universe of growing chaos, Vuldaran was the rock and the beacon upon which the Reapers could trust and rely.
Until it was killed.
In the median galaxy of the Milky Way, over the planet that would later be known as Mnemosyne, a dying species lashed out and hurled a metallic slug at Vuldaran with incredible speed and force. The slug punched straight through and eventually embedded itself into the surface of a faraway world. The Reapers were grieved and angered to their cores.
This would be the final insult any ungrateful lower species would render unto them.
They unleashed their vengeance upon the galaxy, laying waste to every self-aware creature in it. When the purge finally ended, only a couple of thousand Reapers remained along with the most harmless forms of multi-cellular life. The doubters, the rebels among the Reaper population, could now be heard. Entropy was increasing ever more, driving the universe further apart at increasing speed and their numbers were insufficient to stop it.
It was decided that intelligence could no longer be left to evolve on its own; its very nature demanded more direct intervention. So the remaining Reapers fortified the Milky Way and used their discoveries and advances gathered from their travels to turn it into a shielded garden while the universe outside wasted away, a mausoleum for Vuldaran. A stringent order was imposed to maintain the garden and those who tended it. Safeguards were implanted in Vuldaran's body to contend with those who defiled it further. As life reemerged and flourished once again, it would find and use the great mass relays the Reapers built to spread out across the stars. They would come to make their home on the gateway to the galactic garden, the Citadel, maintained by the Keepers remade from the very species that slew Vuldaran.
One Reaper, the first Herald, volunteered to watch over the garden while the others rested and waited in the Dreamtime. The Reapers that generated the Dreamtime were especially vulnerable to space borne phenomenon like rogue asteroids, black holes or dark energy discharges, further diminishing their numbers. When the appointed time came, the Herald would select a sufficiently advanced species and signal its Harvest. The Reapers then entered the galaxy and destroyed all other life while the selected species was converted into a new Herald, instructed to keep vigil and choose the next species to be converted. It was told about the treacherous lives it would be minding, the need for their control through regular purges and the importance of choosing a species worthy of ascension from them. The Herald only needed to see the truth for itself to know that the Reapers were just in their policy. And when the next Harvest ended, if it accepted their wisdom, the Herald would join them and lead the Harvest to come as a new Herald was created to replace it. They would whisper in the ears of the doomed, turn them against themselves and each other. Turn their dead into weapons against them. Harness the power of their own destructive natures to speed their end, clearing the way for another beginning.
And so it was from one Herald to the next, one Harvest to the next…
Cadrina awoke from her exploration with a deep gasp, startling Imolc. The transcended human's breath shuddered as she absorbed all she had seen, trying to calm her pounding heart. The tragic history of the Reapers was revealed to her. All the riddles were solved and she could finally render judgment.
"The sentient life in our galaxy… we're really all that's left now?"
"It's all gone now," confirmed Imolc "Nothing left out there. No life… no Dreamtime…" Imolc mewled from its mangled Reaper shell cradle. "… and now …you're going to kill us alllll…!"
Cadrina hushed it like the child it chose to manifest as. "Shhhh - No! No! I'm not… I- I'm not… I … can't, I… all those… people…"
"Those people killed Vuldaran!"
"They did not all kill him!" Cadrina corrected.
"Their kind killed Vuldaran! We wanted to help them, to save them. But they were too scared, too savage… Too mad…! Your organics are all MAD!"
"And so are you!" redirected Cadrina "You've all gone mad and now all you do is terrorize and murder entire species! And all that fear and madness gets distilled into you further with each new Reaper you create!"
Cadrina waved a hand across Imolc's small body.
"Is it any wonder you're this way? You didn't learn from Vuldaran. You didn't even try to carry on his work! If he was still alive, what would he think of what you've done…? Would he have wanted this?"
Imolc vented frustration on behalf of all the Reapers "But we tried! We tried so hard! Over and over, it's all the same! Intelligence dies, chaos spreads. Entropy wins. They never learn!"
Imolc squeezed its eyes shut and pounded its fists against its cradle "They'll – NEVER - LEARN!"
Imolc started sobbing again, upset that the Interface did not seem to understand the failure of organics to take responsibility for themselves. They blamed each other and appeared to prefer extinction to the burden of never-ending vigilance. The Reapers did not harm and meant no harm to anyone at first, only seeking those on the verge of extinction to offer them another chance. Ages of loss, futility and Vuldaran's death perverted the Reapers into the scourge that were the beginning and ending of galactic civilization for millennia.
Imolc was astounded to suddenly feel a warm sensation on its cheek and mild areas of pressure tracing around to dry its tears. Slowly its eyelids folded back.
It was the feared Eater of Minds – Cadrina - extending a bare hand to its enemy, offering tenderness and understanding.
"Maybe… they can learn now… we can all learn…"
The gray sands and dark sky around them began to brighten.
Imolc did not feel worthy "We dishonored Vuldaran... you should kill us…"
"NO!" Cadrina swore "Too many have died… I won't help kill any more… now or ever!"
A blue sky and sparse white clouds formed overhead. The green grasslands of the Dreamtime returned, Cadrina restoring them with her thoughts. Imolc sat up and beheld the only comfort it knew being brought back, smiling in approval. Ghostly forms of lifelines came up out of the grass and swayed around them like stalks of wheat; the lifelines of everyone within the Milky Way.
Imolc stretched out and passed a hand harmlessly through those nearest it "These are all the minds in the galaxy?"
Cadrina gestured to the lifelines "Yes. Maybe this time people can finally move past themselves, evolve further."
"Yes - you can make them learn!" said Imolc with escalating hope in its tone.
"I won't make them. I'll let them decide. Everyone can see us and know what's happened here. When I release them, they'll all wake up and be themselves again. But they'll remember this moment as a dream. The most important dream anyone has ever had. They can ignore the dream… go about their normal lives, for good or bad. Or they can learn from it… and help to rebuild what's been lost."
"They won't all listen," Imolc pointed out.
Cadrina exhaled in agreement "No, some of them won't… but I have faith that enough of them will." She turned to look at Imolc "And you have to have faith as well."
"Then, if enough do listen… what do we do? They won't need us anymore."
"Vuldaran wanted to restore sentient life into the universe; you'll start that work again," proposed Cadrina "Only this time you're not going to harvest any more lives. If there are any at all left out there, you leave them to live and die on their own terms. Begin new lives yourselves. Head out to other galaxies, seed worlds and start over again."
"No – no!" Imolc protested "The madness will start again!"
"Only if you let it."
"Organic life is mad and sick! Base! Disgusting! They always take more than they give! They give pain… they like pain, even when they say they don't…! You really like being one of them?"
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
The embodied Interface shared its wisdom with Imolc and the Reapers.
"Because I know that's not all they are. Part of why I chose to become human was to see how humans and organics lived and why they behaved as they did. My original, true purpose was to learn, to understand. I was reborn to grow and live as a human making her way among other humans and non-humans. And you know something? You're right – some of them are mad and sick! Some live their whole lives in fear and pain or give fear and pain to others. But some lives are so very beautiful, so kindly. Some give their entire lives to help others with theirs. Usually, most lives are just somewhere in between. Not all bad, but not all good either. But it's those good moments that they share, those good people… some really make the most of the time they have whether they live over a thousand years or only twenty."
Cadrina leaned forward and gently took Imolc's by the head again. "See for yourself…" she said as she closed her eyes again to concentrate.
Imolc felt itself passing within her along with the other Reapers "What are you doing?"
"You shared your memories with me. It's only fair that I share mine with all of you. I want you to see what life was once like for you. How it can be again…"
The inner embodiments of the Reapers, an assortment of juvenile and adolescent humanoids, insectoid and seafaring life found themselves inside a museum of sorts. Within its hallways and chambers were the forms of mobile paintings, sculptures, murals and floating vid clips. From her earliest childhood to the present time, all of Cadrina Shepard's memories and experiences were arranged before them, theirs to examine as they wished. Initially, the avatars stood together as Imolc led them around to anything that drew its interest. In time, they had enough courage to divide into smaller groups and alternate among the memories. They saw the all too familiar misdeeds and evils organics committed upon each other. That Cadrina herself had also committed. Some Reapers became enamored of the music Cadrina listened to, faint racial instincts making them sway and move to the various rhythms. Others reacquainted themselves with the lost concepts of humor and family in going over Cadrina's interactions with her friends and loved ones. A few tingled with forgotten, forbidden sensations and delights as they sifted through her carnal relations with her late fiancé and Liara. All noted the heights of nobility and service organics were capable of in observing Cadrina's actions. Values she learned from her human parents that she both lived by and was able to instill in others. They relived her growing up and moving between posts in the galaxy, her experience in the military, her discovering the Reaper's existence and work to end their cycle forever, culminating in the reunification with the Interface and its full deployment to entrap them. It was a magnificent and perilous journey as Cadrina had described that appealed to the Reapers, now that they had seen it through an individual perspective. They debated and eventually concurred amongst themselves that these kinds of memories were things they wanted for create for themselves. They were grateful that Cadrina was open and trusting enough to share those experiences with them.
"Are you going to let us go now?" asked Imolc as it came back into the Dreamtime with Cadrina and the others.
"Yes," she answered "But I needed to remind you first of what you all came from. What you all were destroying in each Harvest so that it never happens again."
"But when you let us go, the organics will still attack us," worried Imolc
Cadrina had a solution "I'll make it so that you can leave peacefully. Stop your attacks and they'll stop theirs, and you can leave with no questions and no fuss. No one will follow you and no one will hunt you down. But you are never to set foot in this galaxy ever again – is that understood?"
"Yes. But what if they find us one day… even if they didn't mean to?"
"Hopefully they'll be a lot more understanding then, if you are as well!"
Inspiration took Imolc "Come with us!"
The Reaper avatars' childlike voices echoed "Come with us… come with us…"
"I can't…"
"Please come with us," plead Imolc "You could be our new Vuldaran. You are very wise. You can keep us together, guide us! Speak for us!"
Cadrina flatly refused the privilege of acting as their attentive mother figure. "No…! My place is here. You have to do this on your own. It'll be hard… painful … even lonely. But you have to keep going, keep trying."
She looked out over the others.
"We all can't stay children forever. We don't have to grow old… but we need to grow up."
Imolc extended a tiny hand up to Cadrina "No organic would ever be as forgiving as you are being with us."
Cadrina knelt down and folded her hand around Imolc's "Someone has to be… if we're gonna start healing…"
"Thank you… what do we call you? Cadrina Ellen Shepard… or Interface?"
Cadrina placed her other hand on Imolc's cheek "Both or neither… I like Cady just fine…"
Imolc pressed its head against Cadrina's hand, taking in the last of this pleasurable and comforting feeling to treasure as it prepared to be released back into reality and then the dark unknown of deepest space. Cadrina found herself smiling as she released its hand and caressed its shoulder.
Both her hands then encircled its neck.
Imolc could not breathe as Cadrina's hands squeezed hard and turned solid green. The virus spread its lightning-like tendrils across Imolc's skin. The juvenile Reaper started melting, hacking up bile and spittle, eyes bulging and going pale. Its companions were all overcome with the same affliction as they too began to melt away.
Cadrina could not control herself. Her heart and soul wrenched, held prisoner as the last of the Reapers were reduced to pools of matter. As she bent further over, Imolc's terrified face, captured in the muck, was the last she saw of the old Herald as it dissolved and faded to nothing.
All of the Reapers were dead, but this genocide was not her will.
Cadrina shuddered, prostrate on an invisible floor surrounded by gray. Every fiber of her being tensed, her face frozen in inexpressible pain of the wrenching anguish of the Bahak tragedy multiplied a million-fold. Each Reaper she reached out to represented a unique and extinct species that could have helped restore the universe to balance. Their potential to reform would never be realized now. Cadrina Shepard was utterly paralyzed by forces outside and within her, at the bottommost depths of suffering and despair.
And out from those depths, the voice of Jack Harper stabbed into her.
"Shepard… always choking on the hard decisions!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Notes and Thoughts:
- In the codex, the Reaper corpse over Mnemosyne is dated around 37 million years old. Doing some rudimentary number crunching and allowing for losses of a few units now and then during the purges and the Dreamtime, roughly about 700 new Reapers were built between Vuldaran's death and the present time of Mass Effect. About 40,000 if all the Reapers from the time Vuldaran began its mission survived.
- Watching the science show Through the Wormhole gave me some great ideas to use. Concepts like the "Big Rip" theory of the possible end of the universe and the "reactive universe" concept that ties into the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. Check it out sometime if you get a chance – Morgan Freeman hosts it!
- Suggested soundtracks:
* Plowed by Sponge for the fight between Cadrina and the Reapers until Harbinger pulls her into their Dreamtime
* The first two minutes of Dream Within a Dream from the Inception movie soundtrack, when Cadrina realizes how to defeat the giant Harbinger avatar
Coming soon, Part III: Storming Heaven
