A/N: Sorry about the delay, guys. I'd say that Real Life decided to rear its ugly head, but that would be a lie. Truth is, I just got lazy. Anyways, here's the (long overdue) seventh chapter of Inversion.

Prelude

***N7***

John guided the combat drone – and Ashley, by extension – along the most direct route through the colony. Leading her to him.

He'd be lying if he said that he was at all confident. Throughout his career, he'd built up a reputation for being able to defuse almost any situation through the use of calm, rational diplomacy as much as the rapid application of force. That reputation, and the skill set that it indicated, was no aid in trying to come up with a plan to tell the woman you loved that, yes, you were now a damn Reaper. And this was two years after dying pretty much right in front of her.

Yeah, this was definitely going to end well.

Only one of the colonists tried to interfere with their progress. A young man carrying a hunting rifle, who fired a few times at the drone, with little effect. He fled when the drone turned to face him. John honestly couldn't blame him.

John idly wondered whether he wanted time to speed up or slow down. Either way, he rather suspected that he was on a tight schedule. He hadn't disabled Horizon's communications before he arrived, which meant it wouldn't be long before Alliance forces arrived. Granted, they likely wouldn't be able to do much more to him than the colony's defenses had – unless they brought a dreadnaught – but he would prefer not to fight his own people.

Were they his own people anymore?

He clamped down on that thought before it could go anywhere. In all probability, it wasn't his to begin with.

SHEPARD.

John reflexively stiffened in shock – until he realized the ludicrousness of that statement. Harbinger was back again. Suddenly panicked, he found that his Reaper nemesis had managed to tap into his communications system, and gain partial control of his systems.

A brief struggle ensued, during which the oculus outside froze in place, Ashley's shouts going unheeded. After a few moments, Shepard managed to force the elder Reaper out of his mind. Shaken, he checked his systems. At least Harbinger hadn't managed to do anything more than scare him. He allowed the drone to continue on its course.

YOU CONTINUE TO CLING TO FEEBLE ORGANIC EMOTIONS.

"Of course" Shepard shot back. "I wouldn't be human without them, would I?"

YOU ARE NO LONGER HUMAN.

"We'll see about that."

YOU CAME TO THIS WORLD TO FIND YOUR FORMER ORGANIC COMPANION. YOU ARE NO LONGER ON THAT LEVEL OF EXISTENCE. DISCARD IT.

"Your buddy Sovereign needed Saren to do his jobs for him" Shepard retorted. "I'm sure you can understand my need for an analog."

THAT IS NOT YOUR TRUE INTENT.

Forgetting that he lacked one, Shepard's jaw tightened. "I suggest shutting up now."

RETURN TO YOUR PREVIOUS FORM IS IMPOSSIBLE. THERE IS NO PURPOSE TO THIS EXERCISE.

"ENOUGH!" Shepard yelled, and cut the link. In that moment, the Collection surged upwards against its weakened restraints. John redoubled his defenses, and the multitude subsided.

His reactor core was running slightly hotter than normal – which, he figured, was an analog for breathing heavily. He re-checked Ash's progress. No problems, apart from the death glare she was shooting at the drone. He supposed he couldn't expect differently. He still had no idea what he was going to say. But then, that was one of his specialties, wasn't it? Making it up as he went along.

***N7***

The sphere-thingy was making some rather inconsistent movements for being – presumably – a computer. It was having a disproportionately negative effect on Ashley's emotional state. She shouldn't really care about what the sphere did, she knew – but damn-it – the Reaper pretty much compelled her to take this course of action, the least it could do was not delay the inevitable any more than it had to.

But then, could it be an indication that this Reaper was damaged, or defective? She wasn't an expert on omnicidal, immortal AI constructs, but this one wasn't acting at all like she would expect it to.

The sphere stopped shaking as though it had a seizure, and without any explanation or further holdup, it continued on its way. Glaring at it, and the Reaper situated behind it, Ashley followed.

***N7***

The request for a priority comm. link from Admiral Hackett did not come as a surprise this time. After the sudden appearance of the Reaper not too long before, Anderson had been expecting this. Cutting short his current conference call, Anderson opened the link.

"Admiral, you have something?" he asked without preamble.

"More than 'something'" he replied grimly. "We've found the Reaper, it's currently on the surface of a colony out in the Terminus systems, Horizon."

"Horizon?" Anderson said, surprised.

"It's a major human settlement, just outside the boundary of Alliance jurisdiction."

"I know, that's where I sent Operations Chief Williams."

Hackett frowned. "She was on Shepard's team, wasn't she?"

"She was. She was there investigating the disappearing colonies, setting up defenses."

"Perhaps this Reaper was responsible for the earlier attacks."

"Maybe" Anderson said. "Maybe not. I assume you have ships on the way?"

"As many as I can get" Hackett replied. "If we're lucky, we can catch it on the ground, have the high ground for this fight. If not…"

Anderson understood. He had witnessed Sovereign's attack in person. If this Reaper was anywhere near as powerful… well, they'd at least find out if they even had a fighting chance.

"I assume no luck with the Council?" Hackett asked.

"None so far. They've convinced themselves that this Reaper is geth in origin. They won't take action so long as it's in the Terminus Systems. They want me to keep this quiet."

Hackett considered him for a moment. "Are you?" he asked at length.

"I'm not going to give Emily Wong an exclusive interview, if that's what you're asking" Anderson replied. "But I'm not going to any great lengths to keep it hushed up." He made an expression of distaste. "The rest of the Council will probably make sure it doesn't get out anyway."

"Of course" Hackett replied. "In the meantime, I have a Reaper to kill."

"Good luck and good hunting, Admiral."

***N7***

Technically speaking, Ashley had never been this close to a Reaper before. Of course, she would never forgot those frantic minutes making their way up the side of the Citadel tower, at one point passing directly beneath one of Sovereign's colossal legs. But now, standing barely a few meters from a very similar leg that was planted firmly in Horizon's soil, the machine looked even more massive. Craning her neck upwards, she could barely see the tip of the Reaper's 'spine.'

The whole thing radiated heat, static electricity and something else not quite as easily definable. The air fairly shook with a sense of raw power. She didn't want to touch it, she most certainly didn't want to go inside it.

Unfortunately, that was probably exactly what it wanted. Which begged a question.

"Allright" she bit out, turning to the sphere. "I'm here. What the hell do you want me to do now?"

By way of an answer, the sphere turned and sped off. Before Ashley could even think of yelling after it, her feet suddenly lost contact with the ground. Letting out a startled yelp, she nearly lost her grip on her rifle as the ground sped away.

"What the hell!" came her dismayed yell, her voice nearly drowned out by the suddenly rushing wind. Her HUD's warning of 'Directed Mass Effect Field Detected, Source Undetermined' went unheeded.

For no apparent reason, Ash suddenly remembered the obnoxiously slow elevators the Citadel races were fond of using for transport. This was a hell of a lot faster. Despite that, she swore under her breath that she would never complain about civilized lift tubes ever again.

***N7***

Finding the tractor-beam device (John lifted the name from a 20th century science-fiction franchise he was quite fond of) had been more due to good design on the Reaper's part than a stroke of genius on his, though John only admitted that fact to himself rather grudgingly. In any case, it was a branch of mass effect technology he had only ever read papers on. The fact that the Reaper's possessed the capability to use mass effect fields this way was not really a surprise, but it served to underline just what the rest of the galaxy was up against.

It only occurred to him that warning Ash might have been a good idea after she was half-way up, and his external sensors told him that her heart rate had pretty well doubled. He grimaced – then reminded himself that he couldn't do that anymore. It was not a particularly auspicious way to start this encounter.

In a moment, he had guided Ash through a hatch in 'his' underside, and closed it behind her. He set her down on her feet as gently as he could, and opened an interior hatch to indicate the direction she should go.

Well, let's get this over with.

***N7***

Author's Notes: Again, sorry about the wait on this chapter. For anyone who happened to notice, Harbinger apparently forgot to Assume Control at the end of the last chapter. I guess I should consider myself lucky, after all, it's not li – ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.