Author's Note: Big thank you once again for the awesome Kat-killer-V for beta-ing this story, and a quick apology for the delay in the chapter. But it's here now, so it'll have to do.


Act 1: Trouble in Paradise


Chapter 7: Ruins


"What… What happened?" I asked as I sucked in the still air heavily as small fires crackled and burned around me. I was no longer plunged in darkness - so to speak, and the sudden appearance of the destruction around me was somewhat terrifying. The fact that I was still upright and alive was about the only good thing I could see in the first few moments.

I recognised the surrounding ruins, what was left of them anyway, as the remains of the Nest. Rubble littered the ground that I stood on, and there were seemingly countless bodies lying still, pools of blood drowning out most of who they had been.

My foot squelched as I moved it and I looked down to see it covered in gore. I immediately staggered away from it, retching at the sight, and the motion caused me to empty the contents of my stomach onto the floor which only made the nausea worse.

"Greg!" A deep, booming voice called my name. I raised a hand in response as I tried to spit out the last bits of vomit that clung to the inside of my mouth. As I straightened up I noticed that the figure I had stepped through was a Salarian, and the anger that had been triggered by Daesh and Sugorn promptly resurfaced.

I turned to see who it was that had called out to me, and saw Clank forcefully pulling both Ratchet and Valeia behind him before he approached.

"Clank? What happened? Where's Sugorn? And Daesh?" I asked, the fury in my voice dilated by a fit of coughing and the worst headache I'd experienced yet. It was bad enough that I was tempted to start calling it a migraine.

"Daesh is under you." Clank informed me as he approached, his arms raised forwards in a strangely peaceful gesture.

"He's.. he's what?" I breathed. "Did… did I do that?" I pointed at my feet, unable to look at the havoc I'd wreaked.

Clank nodded slowly as he stepped within arms reach of me, his eyes never leaving mine even as he took hold of my arms and pulled me out of the green goop that was the remainder of Daesh's head.

"What happened?" He asked calmly. His voice reminded me of my Dad's, and it acted like an anchor.

"I don't know… I remember the gunship, the missiles… It… Are the others ok?" I tried to look around Clank to see if I could see the others, but he guided my head to look back at him.

"What happened after the gunship, Greg? Do you remember?"

"No. I… I stopped the missiles and then I destroyed the gunship, I remember that. But after that it all... stops… How did I get here? We were in the courtyard… Why are we in the garden?"

"Come with me." Clank let go of me and turned around, his heavy steps creating small dust clouds as he went. I followed behind slowly, the gore on my legs seizing up the servos slightly. They would need to be cleaned deeply… I wasn't looking forwards to that. Perhap even have some parts replaced if the scorch marks, dents, and scratches were anything to go by.

Moving quickly began to hurt. As I followed Clank I became acutely aware that most of my armour had been literally destroyed, the undersuit barely intact. It looked as though it had been melted by a hand that had been dragged across my shoulder, fingers leaving gouges where the gilded wings were supposed to shine. My arms weren't any less damaged either, the shattered plates dangerously close to falling off my body.

The others weren't particularly far away, so despite the stiffness of my walk it didn't take long to reach them.

Guy was awake, although he wasn't standing. Tom had him in a brace and Ben was fussing over him, making sure that the wounded man had whatever he needed. The similarly injured James was unconscious and had been placed on a stretcher, burn marks covered most of his visible skin. Which, unfortunately, was pretty much all of him. The blast that had hit him must have destroyed most of his armour.

For their parts, Berrilius and Sibus weren't any better, although Berrilius was actually awake and groaning quietly to himself whenever his plates shifted. A bit away from the group, sitting together on a bench, were Valeia and Sel'ama. They both looked exhausted, but despite a few marks on their armour, they were for the most part unharmed.

Victus was sat on the rubble, a troubled look on his face as he cast his gaze over what had once been the compound.

His compound.

"He's back." Clank announced, upon which those who were conscious seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief that I didn't realise they had been holding.

"What happened?" I asked warily, casting sidewards glances at everyone as I hoped to actually get an answer.

"You don't remember?" Sel'ama scoffed, the disbelief more than audible.

"No. The rockets were coming for us and I stopped them… Stopped the gunship. But then there's nothing… Just… Black. What happened? Please?"

"You really don't remember anything?" It was Tom this time, though his tired voice at least sounded confused rather than untrusting.

"No!" I cried. "What did I do?"

Valeia sighed, standing up and walking over before taking me by the hand. She led me over to a fairly large pile of rubble, away from the others, before we both sat back down.

"You went berserk." She began, "You made fighting back against the Matriarch's people both a little easier, and a littler harder. You began to focus on getting to Sugorn and Daesh, understandably, of course." There was a pause, as though she was unwilling to retell the events and forcing herself for my sake. "We were playing catch up with you for most of the fighting. You'd push through their ranks, we'd have to cover you before you got yourself killed. It was a mess. Like an animal chasing after something it had smelt."

"I was like that?" I swallowed, trying to remember anything and failing. "Why?"

"I don't know… We don't know. We were hoping you would be able to tell us what happened." Valeia responded, then shook her head once before continuing on with her description of events. "You weren't just behaving differently though. When we managed to catch up to you we realised that you were moving like a completely different person, talking like one too."

"I talked like a different person?" I had to raise my eyebrows at that.

"Yeah. It might have been funny if it wasn't so terrifying. You had a sort of stutter when you talked, you kept getting stuck on harsh sounds. And you stomped about like a child having a tantrum."

"I had a speech impediment and stomped around. Really? I mean, the gore and stuff gives you credibility but I don't think I'd ever talk like that."

And that was when she got out her omnitool and played a short video of those of us who were conscious walking into the armoury. And clear as day, there I was. Each foot coming down with a hard crunch as though I was trying to grow roots into the ground with each step I took. "See? We need these. Det.. Det… Det.. Detpaaacks." My laughter rang out as the recording ended.

"I… What?" I struggled to understand just what it was that was happening. Just as she'd said, I'd both stuttered and over-accented the consonants in each word… and the laughter at the end...

I must have looked insane to them. Hell, I probably still did.

"Why did we need detpacks?" I queried softly, the contrast of my voice and the recording almost comical.

"We… well you, blew up a couple of the shuttles that came to pick up the troops. One of them crashed into the compound, next to the garden." She sighed, nodding her head to our left, where the smoldering wreck of a shuttle still lay. "The fighting up until that point must have lasted an hour. Then you got all worked up. We tried to stop you, but… Well whoever you became... he knows how to use biotics very well, even without an amp."

That… didn't make sense. I'd read a little on biotics, and Humans weren't supposed to be able to do much of anything without an implanted amp. Either I was absurdly unique… or the Matriarch had done something to my brain that the scans had missed.

"Sel'ama and I must have chased you around the compound for what seemed like an eternity before we lost you." She continued even as I fretted, "When we found you again… You'd killed the few Asari who'd survived the crash, executed them while they were wounded we think, and you'd rounded on Daesh. It was like you were burning in warpfire, as you went up to him… And then you began interrogating him."

Valeia sighed again, all of her focus on me. It was most likely to see just how I'd react to being told what I'd done. Which was still mostly confusion, really… with a side of fear. It was like I was being told that some other person who looked like me had come in to save the day and fuck shit up. I didn't know what to make of it all.

"You beat some information out of him, stuff that we couldn't get out of the Asari anyway… But it was all still gibberish to us."

I blinked. "What did he say?"

There was a shrug. "Some crap about the Matriarch not being in control. It was something about some giant squid thing."

"Giant squid?" Had he meant the Reapers? It had to be right? But then… That didn't make any sense. The Matriarch had always said that it was her goal to aid Shepard. If that was true then she literally couldn't be working for them. So who…or what had she been talking about?

Had she been lying about even that much?

"That's what he said." My friend shrugged again. "Well after you got what you seemed to want out of him you went to kill him. We tried to stop you."

"Tried?" I asked.

"Myself and Sel'ama both approached and made to get you away from Daesh, but you turned and attacked us as soon as we began to move you away. You threw us across the yard. We weren't hurt as much as stunned, but when we saw you move next, you were bringing your foot down onto Daesh's head."

"Jesus. So I was… I was this person for over an hour?"

"More or less, yeah." Valeia's confirmation did little to make me feel better. I didn't know it, but evidently I had another person living inside my head, just waiting for the chance to come out. And that person was apparently very angry and more than a little crazy.

"So…" I swallowed. I had no idea what to do about that, but I doubted I'd think of anything right this moment. "What do we do now?"

"Well… We go to Victus. We need to heal our wounded first, and then we go on from there." With that she stood up and began to head back over to the others. When I didn't follow immediately she stopped and turned, beckoning me to follow with her head.

The air was dour when we got back to the others, although it wasn't exactly to figure out why. There must have been close to a hundred people that lived here. And now all that was left of it all was only a quarter of that number, if that. The smell of death hung in the air as sirens began to wail in the distance as the local police force approached.

We were all huddled fairly close together when they finally came, arriving in a flurry of brightly painted aircars, although Clank was busy shifting rubble. He was still trying to get bodies out from the ruined compound.

"New Islington Police!" A gruff voice called out as the sirens were now obnoxiously loud. "Identify yourselves!" We could tell that there were weapons pointed at us, though no police were yet to be seen in the open, staying in or behind their vehicles.

"Marcius Victus, owner of the compound, accompanied by residents." Victus responded, loudly enough for them to hear as he stepped away from the rest of us. Although his voice was calm and level it was easy to see that he was tired.

"Mr Victus, sir! Are you alright?" A squad of men and woman walked out of cover, most of them scanning the area with their weapons for signs of hostiles, though a heavy set man with a large handlebar moustache was the one to talk, his body language more relaxed than those around him.

"I'm quite fine, thank you sergeant." Victus sat on the rubble rather than remain standing, and the sergeant offered the ancient Turian a quick salute before taking control of his squad. I and the other relaxed a little as he ordered them to help Clank retrieve bodies from the rubble, and then he returned his attention to Victus.

"I heard the report and got here as quickly as I could." The evident officer continued. "What happened here sir?"

"This is Matriarch business, Dennis. Don't involve yourself too heavily or you'll end up… what's the human saying? Up shit creek without a paddle?" I belatedly recognized Dennis as soon as I heard his name. He'd visited the compound a few times to see a few of the residents and to speak with Victus, though he'd never stayed long or spoken to me.

"Ah." Apparently he was involved enough in the politics of the Nest to know that whenever something was 'Matriarch business', it was best not to get involved. "I've still got to complete my report however."

"I understand." Victus said graciously before Dennis the sergeant began asking him questions.

The rest of us were ushered aside by other members of the local police force and led over to the police shuttles where we found a few ambulances by the police's vehicles. The doctors and medics that emerged from them immediately moving forwards to work, several being directed to the more seriously injured who had yet to be risked moving, while only a couple were pointed in our direction to take care of the less grevious injuries.

Valeia and Sel'ama were given saline solutions to help stave off the symptoms of biotic exhaustion, as well as getting prescribed rest to prevent any further damage to themselves. Jun and Ben had the least of all our injuries. They were still bruised and battered for sure, but that was essentially the extent of it, bar some shrapnel needing removal.

I had minor burns on my chest where the heat from the warpfire had made it's way through my armour, as well as multiple lacerations along my arms. One of the doctors joked that it was just as well that most of my legs were already missing or I probably would have lost them all over again judging from the amount of damage the prosthetics had warded off.

I hadn't laughed.

Once they were done inspecting me, I looked around at the few who had made it through the entire ordeal and found myself feeling... empty.

Out of the hundred or so people that had called this place home, barely twenty were left, and most of those were the security team. Aela was looking rather distraught, and without Lily beside her I could see why. There was an Asari-Human couple who were holding each other, the former had clearly been the protector of the other given the amount of bandages that she had. Most of the others I knew by face, but not by name.

Clank stood solemnly a few feet away from the main group and I found myself searching the few remaining faces for the one person who I wanted to see. He caught my eye and lumbered over, a slow shake of his large reptilian head confirmed what the emotions welling up inside me already knew.

"He's not here, is he?" My voice trembled slightly as I spoke, my hands curling into fists that dug my nails into my own hand, threatening to draw blood.

I was almost irrationally angry at the fact that he was gone, despite my anger being entirely justifiable. It dropped a red haze over my eyes and I began to pace. I felt like a caged animal, strong and wild, but helpless to do anything. Was this what the other me had been like?

"Control the blood rage, Greg." Clank rumbled, a sagely edge to his deep voice. "Don't let it control you."

"I just… He was the first person I felt I could trust since waking up, you know? And now that someone has taken him…" I had to shut my eyes and take a deep breath in order to stop myself from lashing out at the nearest object as tendrils of blue light snaked their way out of my skin.

"I know, he's my friend too. Didn't see them take him, but he's not among the dead. We'll find him." I could see in his eyes how furious he himself was, there was a raging inferno hidden behind his eyes.

In return, I simply nodded once. Whatever it took, together, we would rescue Ratchet.

It wasn't too long before Sgt. Dennis and Victus returned to us, the former advising us not to leave the Serpent Nebula for a few weeks so that C-Sec and the Bekenstein branch of said police force could still reach us. They would apparently do so if there was any new information that cropped up for the no doubt long investigation that was going to follow.

Dennis assured us that an APB had been sent out looking for the shuttles going off-world, and any Republics vessels in the local cluster would be searched, but with the head start that they had it wasn't hopeful. And from the slight stress on the Asari nation's name, I could only guess that politics could also make that complicated.

Meanwhile the medics had managed to stabilise the gravely wounded few, and were already in the process of taking them to the hospital where I had received my prosthetics. They would stay there for a while before no doubt being transferred to a larger hospital on the Citadel.

I had collapsed onto a large piece of rubble as I was beginning to feel too exhausted to even stand, scrubbing at the plates on one of my legs to begin cleaning out the grime and gore. Best to do it now while I could barely think straight… still, I would need to get some cleaning fluid to remove the crud that was slowing the servos down soon. And I had no idea how to even check if they needed replacement.

"How are you holding up?" An Asari officer asked, causing me to look up from where I sat with a tired wave.

"As well as can be expected really." I snorted in return.

"I've been informed of what happened here today. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but I've got to ask... have you been taking any drugs?" The officer seemed nice enough, but she came across as wanting to be slightly too involved in business that was none of her concern.

"No." I snapped at her, tracing the edge of a dent where a shot had glanced off the plating. "And what exactly, have you been told?"

"You've had a psychotic break, Mister Greg." She seemed to hesitate slightly before continuing. "I don't want this to be any harder than it has to be, but you probably need a mind healer."

"I hate to break it to you, but that would kill me." When she gave a look of disbelief I explained. "I've got floating mind. It's the entire reason I'm in the situation that I am. About a month and a half ago I was mind-fucked by one of your Ardat-Yakshi."

"So I heard…" She nodded slightly, accepting the point I'd just made. "Still. Even just talking to a mind healer would help your mind become whole again."

"How do you even…?" Was all I got out before she simply gestured to everyone else nearby, almost all of whom were pointedly not looking my way, besides Clank who was glaring darkly at the Asari next to me. It seemed as though my own distrust of her was mirrored in Clank's. "Right. I'll take it under advisement."

"I suppose that's the least I can ask for." She replied. When I pointedly turned back to work on my legs, she let out a quiet sigh before returning to wherever it was that she came from.

It was a few hours later when we were finally able to leave the compound. I had gathered what belongings I could - of which there were remarkably few. It wasn't just myself doing that though, all of the survivors had spent time mourning their losses, gathering what things they could before waiting for the C-Sec shuttle to arrive that would be taking us to the Citadel.

We were headed for the capital of council space now. Victus had a place where we, meaning the ground team, could stay for a few days, but the others would have to find elsewhere to live. As much as I felt for them… We were all in the same situation really. The Nest had been compromised, and now we had to fly the coop. With as much of the compound that was left, it would take far too many resources than we had to rebuild and reinforce our homestead. And as much as Victus wanted to help all of his people, most of his money had been tied up in the Nest.

So... we were leaving.

In any case, I had my own plans to put in motion. Plans that would hopefully set me on a path that would let me fuck with the matriarch something fierce. And maybe help prepare the galaxy for the Reapers along the way.

If I remembered correctly, Barla Von was a financial advisor and emissary of the Shadow Broker. I needed information, I needed a way to strike back at the Matriarch, at Sugorn. And if C-Sec couldn't help me, the Shadow Broker would be able to. At least, that's what I hoped. Despite the fact that I didn't have enough money to my name to buy information from the jumped up Yahg, I was willing to provide an exchange of services. I wanted to get my friend back, before that twisted hag got her blue claws stuck in him.

It wasn't long before we were boarding the shuttles out of there. The door slid shut as we took off at a steady pace, and I managed to catch one last glimpse at the mess that had been my home for the past month and a half.

A couple of buildings had collapsed completely, and there wasn't one visible that hadn't been marred by something, be it an explosion, a fire… one even had the burnt wreck of a shuttle jutting out at a strange angle on the first floor. We should have had defenses in place. Automated turrets, security systems, barricades… We had none of that. Why would we have? For the most part we were left alone by everyone else, Victus had had good contacts with the locals, we ran security, and did a few jobs on the side. That was pretty much the whole of it...

But now that had all changed.

"What a shit show." I muttered quietly to myself as it vanished out of sight behind the armour plated door.

I plonked myself down into one of the seats that they had lining the walls of the shuttle just as I felt the inertial dampeners kicking in while we gained speed. Leaning my head back against the shuttle wall and closing my eyes, I enjoyed the coolness of the metal do wonders in numbing the throbbing that was making itself known again. I felt and heard someone sit down in the seat next to me, and I barely opened one eye to see Valeia copying my actions.

"Goddess that feels nice." She groaned gently as she shifted her weight so that she was slightly slumped. "We'll find them, Greg. By the tides we'll find them, and get them back."

Her voice was more than soothing, and she placed a hand on my thigh in a comforting gesture that I couldn't help but appreciate.

"What model were the shuttles that they were using?" I asked after a short while, opening both of my eyes to look at her.

"They looked like old X9's… Why?" There was concern written on her face as she answered my query. "What are you thinking?"

"If C-Sec doesn't know where the shuttles went, there's bound to be somebody who does." I replied. At the abrupt look of concern on Val's face I hurried to placate her. "Look I'll wait a couple of days so see if there's any news, and if not, then I'll go looking myself."

"You won't be alone in your endeavor, Greg." Clank's rumbling voice seemed to shake the shuttle as his voice disturbed the otherwise quiet air.

"I know, Clank…" I shook my head, "But it's not like everyone's going to be there to help us."

"That just means there'll be more for us to kill." Clank's shark-like grin disturbed me slightly, although I found myself agreeing with the sentiment which slightly surprised myself. Until I remembered what I had promised.

It wouldn't be killing for the sake of killing. It would be killing to protect those who needed protecting, it would be killing to save my friends. And there was still the fact that those whose lives I would end up taking would almost certainly deserve it.

"That there is Clank, that there is." With those words the shuttle fell silent for the few hours it took for us to reach the Citadel, most people too exhausted to really do much except sleep.

We were arriving ahead of our grievously injured, but only by a few hours, which we would need to get through C-Sec headquarters, where we had arrived. Victus' had been in the shuttle ahead of us, along with Jun, Ben and Sel'ama as well as a few of the 'civilian' remainder of the survivors. If nothing else, that meant that the process of getting us onto the Citadel had already begun, even if it only saved us a few minutes.

I wasn't paying attention for most of the process, instead I was looking around at it everything. The walk to the station from the shuttle docks was short, but the view was spectacular. Air cars whizzed by in the distance while lights shone on each arm of the Citadel, revealing them to each contain an enormous city. The purple nebula shone brightly over the tall spires of buildings, casting long shadows that only served to highlight the beauty of the place.

I might have been awestruck if I were in a better mood.

As it was, I stopped for a second or two to take it all in before sighing and carrying on.

"What a beautiful lie." I muttered to myself.

"Did you say something?" Tom asked, turning his head from where he was walking to look at me.

"Huh? Oh no, nothing." I absently replied. He didn't need to know the truth about this place. None of them did, not yet. Now that we were here though… I would need to prepare a diary of sorts, write out everything I knew about the games so that I wouldn't need to keep a mental library of what was canon and what wasn't.

As we walked into the station, there was a fair amount of hustle and bustle going on behind the scenes that we could see, the rest of our group already crowded around the desk of one of the officers on duty. There was a large service elevator at the back of the room that was currently carrying a load of Alliance marines up to whatever level they were going to, a receptionist's desk at the front that looked like it was reinforced to be used as cover should anyone be stupid enough to attack. What caught my eye however, was a large screen that currently showing footage of urban combat as smoke billowed into the air, a new logo visible in one corner. It took me a moment to place it, but the spires in the background of the shot sort of looked like Nos Astra from the games.

"It's been two months since the Blue Sun's failed attempt to destabilise the Eclipse on Illium with two thirds of their leadership removed." What sounded like an Asari spoke from unseen speakers, though her accent was unlike anything I'd heard before. It was sharp, almost cold, nothing like Valeia's smooth tones. "The culprits behind the attack's, one Chaksin Ul Shaaryak along with his accomplice and wife, Yi'ren Ul Shaaryak were killed by the inhabitants of Illium's own Khar'shan Minor, who, for their own protection will not be named. It's believed that this attempt to overthrow the Eclipse at their main base of operations was to further the Batarian group, 'The Fist of Khar'shan', currently for purposes unknown. Viewers are advised that the following footage may cause distress."

The images on the screen switched to a different view of the fighting, whereupon a couple of shuttles touched down in what I assumed to be the Eclipse's main compound if the large insignia were any indication.

Out of one of the shuttles emerged an enormous hulking suit of power armour, that even from this distance looked as though it had been cobbled together in a hurry. It was a miracle that whoever was in there was able to stay upright and move in the thing if the mismatching armour panels were anything to go by.

After a short gunfight, in which those who had been attacking the veritable fortress had been obliterated, the hulking form entered the building, accompanied by a few others, including what appeared on the screen as a person-sized blue light. I could only assume the figure was a ludicrously powerful Asari, and I made a mental note to look into weapons that could help me fight Matriarchs.

"Now that the waters have begun to calm, it is uncertain just what exactly is going to happen next for the mercenary group. I'm Ellana Y'den and this is the Citadel News Network."

My attention was diverted from the screen for a moment by a passing officer, the Turian shaking his head as he glanced at me.

"Awful stuff. I don't understand why they don't just name the people who took out those Shaaryaks, you know? They've already got bounties on their heads for spirit's sake." The turian said, his orange face paint denoting his clan.

"Staying out of the limelight has its perks you know. If they wanted to get away somewhere, where they wouldn't be recognised immediately, not having their names and faces plastered all across Citadel space would help with that." I replied matter-of-factly.

"You make a good point, human. Stay out of trouble." And with that, the officer strode off, no doubt to return to a mountain of paperwork that seems to be all that the police talk about. That was when I was waved back towards the others by Tom.

"We've been cleared through, let's go."

We began to move as a group, the not-quite two dozen of us moving wearily to what I recognised as a rapid transit lot, where we proceeded to journey into the wards. Part of me wanted to head to the hospital to wait for news of the others, to see if they were going to make it or not, but the ghoulish practice wasn't really a part of any of the alien cultures. In any case, we were all far too exhausted ourselves to warrant waiting for the others to arrive, only for us to then return to Victus' place.

Three cars headed in one direction, vanishing into the upper Tayseri wards as those who weren't staying at Victus' place left to stay at a C-Sec safehouse. They'd be allowed to stay until the investigation ended, at least giving them some time to recover before they had to job and house hunt. The rest of us sped off in a slightly different direction, going to upper Bachjret ward, where we would be staying.

Victus' apartment wasn't particularly luxurious, almost spartan in its design, but it was spacious enough for everyone to have a small area before more permanent housing could be found.

I found a nice quiet corner in one of the back rooms that reminded me a lot of ancient Japan, what with the miniature feng shui garden in its lowered center and the nice wooden flooring that surrounded it. If I tried hard enough, I could almost feel a soft breeze blowing through the room that had the crispness of being in the open air. It didn't actually seem to be a bedroom, but it would do.

Victus himself had entered the room and knelt next to a coffee table with a small pot of what looked like boiling water. "I see you've found a room you like?"

"Yes, thank you. It's very… human." I responded slowly, trying to find the words as my brain fell closer to sleep.

"Quite. I took inspiration from your Japanese culture for this room. I find it has a way of connecting me to the spirits, even all these miles away from Palaven." The pouring of water could be heard as his mandibles quivered. "Would you like some tea?"

"Please." I figured I could do with something to help me relax after the days events, and it might have been the Brit in me, but a nice cup of tea sounded like exactly what I needed.

"There's levo tea's in the cupboard above the sink, help yourself to something you like." I gave a short bow to Victus before heading back through the house to the kitchen, passing several people who were already fast asleep on sofas or on makeshift beds with blankets thrown over them.

Opening the aforementioned cupboard revealed an enormous selection of teas, spread over two shelves, one for dextro and one for levo. Most of the levo teas were Asari, but there were plenty still of human origin. I decided to try an Asari tea that was labeled 'Sel'muk' before returning to Victus.

He began to brew the tea for me, pouring the still piping hot water into the cup over a small strainer filled with what appeared to be leaves and seeds.

"What happens next?" I found myself asking as he worked.

"We fight back. I thought that much would be obvious." Victus' tired face spread into a weary smile as he looked up at me over the rim of his cup.

"But we still don't know what the Matriarch, and whoever else she's got working for her - which could be almost everybody in the Republics, have planned." I countered. As much as I loathed the idea of inaction at the moment, there was nothing I could do without information.

Knowledge is power - or as the G.I. Joe would say, knowing is half the battle.

"That may be, but she has put those plans into action already." Victus gently reminded. "It won't be long before we know what she's up to."

I exhaled slowly, then shook my head once. "Even that is too long."