Purely intellectually, Tisiphone had already known before how overcrowded the Migrant Fleet was. After the Alliance had dumped her after her torture on Gagarin Station, she had made a concerted effort to catch up with the world, to get some education. To be more than the mindless mob who had no idea what the government was doing and just blindly approved of everything it did. She aspired to be better, more civilized, more knowledgeable. Thus she had read up on just about everything and hence she had known about the living conditions of the quarians.

However, she had never actually realized what those conditions meant.

On a human ship, chances were the group could have gotten a guest room. Or maybe, if space was tight and security not a problem, they would have been spread among several bunking rooms. On the Neema, though, every bit of non-essential space had already been converted into habitats. Used habitats at that. There simply was no room to be given to them. Thus, the quarians had basically stored them into a docking bay. And, pragmatical as they were, it was actually the bay the Golden Dog was connected to. So much for seeing much of the Fleet's interior.

Another reason for their enforced location was the risk of infection. Even aboard their ships it seemed the quarians had to wear envirosuits, and everybody who did not had to be treated as a risk to quarian health. Especially if they were aliens potentially spreading foreign biomaterial. Luckily, docking bays were designed to be easily sterilized and besides, few people lived there anyway. But even here some did. That was how Tisiphone was able to see just how overcrowded the ship was: Even in the docking bay, there seemed to be some quarians at least temporarily living there.

The group had been placed as far away as possible from those makeshift dwellings, and the quarians had not allowed them to go anywhere. The only exception to that was Kahlee Sanders. In the last hours, quarians had brought her to some interviews, back to the group, back for some more interviews and so on. Every time the VI specialist was in the docking bay, she shot dark glances at Tisiphone. Meanwhile, Gillian stayed with Hendel Mitra in the bay, but the two kept some distance from Tisiphone and her group. At least we got her out. We successfully fought to end her abuse. That's something Marc would have appreciated, too.

The quarians had separated the group's area of the docking bay with pieces of cloth. That was all the 'housing' they would get. Tisiphone would have protested, if not for the fact things appeared to not be much better for the quarians themselves. For many of them, too, some bits of cloth were everything denoting their living space and protecting their scant privacy. That was something she had already read somewhere once before. As she found out now, there was a difference between knowing about it and seeing it. The almost slum like conditions some quarians seemed to live in, at least in terms of pure habitation space, depressed her.

Yet the quarians did not actually seem downtrodden. Resource poor, sure, but that was something different. All quarians she could see seemed to carry their fate with a stoicism and a serenity that astounded her. Here they were, trapped in their awful envirosuits, herded together on these overaged ships, with barely any privacy - and yet, they simply worked on, like busy bees all over the ship, keeping it fit. They did a good job with it, too. Quarian craftsmanship, engineering quality and work ethics were quite, quite far from being slum-like; they were superb.

But then, of course they'd just carry on. After 300 years, whom are they to rage against? The geth? They seemed to do that actually, from what she had gathered from Tali. Their hate of the geth even surpassed her hate of the Alliance. However, the geth were far away, isolated behind the Perseus Veil, nothing they could strike at. Or the Council, for keeping them that way? Instead, it seemed the quarians were more focused on simply surviving another year, another decade, another generation.

There was one difference between the humans' temporary habitation and the habitation of ordinary quarians: Ordinary quarians did not have guards all around them. Just outside the areas marked by the pieces of cloth, several Migrant Fleet Marines had taken up position. Among them was the one Tisiphone had negotiated with, the one with the bright red envirosuit. I wonder if he also takes that into battle. Might as well paint a target on it.

He seemed to be in good standing with his comrades. They approached him with problems and they seemed to look for orders and advice from him. Tisiphone could not listen to everything they had to say, but he seemed to respond to everything calmly and collectedly. He also seemed to joke a lot with his marines. Good leadership qualities. Tisiphone had won the trust of her people by going through fire with them and showing dependability again and again. They knew she would die for them, that she valued any of them higher than living on. However, them learning that had been long, painful process. Simply socializing with one's people, as the quarian did, was a better idea, but Tisiphone just was not a social person.

The biotic walked up to the quarian and made her presence known with a cough.

"Ah, Ms... hm, we didn't even introduce ourselves, did we?" he began the conversation. "Sorry about that. I'm Kal'Reegar of the Migrant Fleet Marines."

"Tisiphone. Just Tisiphone," she introduced herself.

"All right ma'am. What can I do for you?" Kal asked.

"I was wondering..." Tisiphone began. "About Tali. About how she's doing."

"Ah." The question seemed to please Kal. "I just heard from the docs a couple of minutes ago, actually. They say she's in bad shape, but things look worse than they actually are. They say her state is 'non-trivial', whatever that means, but they also say she'll get through it. No lasting damages, most likely"

"That's a relief," Tisiphone commented, and meant it. "I was really worried about her."

"Yeah, so I noticed," Kal answered and it sounded approving. "You showed a practically quarian concern for shipmates there. Or teammates, as things were."

"Quarian?" Tisiphone asked amused. Well, why not?

"Meaning no offence, ma'am," Kal explained, "but from what I hear... and heh, from what I've seen on my pilgrimage, but I don't want to dwell on that... the bonds among crews of other species don't seem to be that close."

"Well, I can only speak for humans, but it wouldn't surprise me," Tisiphone answered. "Caring is a rare quality among humans."

"Strange way to speak about your species," Kal remarked.

"They may be my species, but I care nothing for them," Tisiphone stated. "Not after..." She stopped and shrugged. What would human history be to a quarian marine?

"Not after what? Why would you say so about your own race?" Kal asked. He sounded genuinely puzzled.

"Because I loathe them!" Tisiphone burst out. "Because I loathe humanity and 'human nature' and all that comes with it. There are decent humans of course. Good humans. But humanity - well, the best thing that can be said about humanity is that we aren't krogan or batarians."

"I see," Kal just said. He did not sound pleased at all.

Tisiphone shrugged again. She had never cared about the approval or disapproval of other people. Maybe Jeanne had, once, but that was long ago. Tisiphone in any case would surely not start now. "In any case, what I wanted to ask is if it's possible that I could visit Tali."

"Hrm," Kal grunted. "Way I understood it she's conscious and awake. And really, just you shouldn't be too much of a risk. Not if I come along to guard you." He paused. "And I think you have a right to see her. So, now?"

"It's not like I have anything better to do here," Tisiphone reminded him.

Kal led her through the corridors of the ship. There were quarians everywhere, standing around, chatting with each other, working. At times it was even difficult to make a way through the crowds. If the Neema had been a human heavy cruiser it would maybe have had about a hundred crew. As a turian ship, where they used less VI-assisted systems, it would maybe have had a crew of a hundred and fifty or two hundred. As a quarian ship, though, the Neema was apparently coming close to housing a four digit figure of people. And while for humans and turians deployment on ships would just be a service post, for the quarians, the ship was their home.

The biotic saw many heads turning as she passed by. She realized there was a good chance none of the quarians here had ever seen an alien aboard one of their ships. Wherever she and Kal went, all talks stopped and after they had passed an excited chattering and whispering began. At least I got those people something to talk about. There's some use in that at least...

The section they entered had a weird shape, and the access to it looked very makeshift. Tisiphone wondered what it once had used to be. Surely not habitation space originally, that much was plain. Maybe it once had held a mass driver gun or a large sensor array or something like that. The quarians had apparently converted it into their ship hospital. Even here, conditions were crammed. There was no entrance area or corridor or anything like that, just a large room with rows of beds. Distances between them were minimal.

Her arrival seemed to cause some unrest, but a quick chat between Kal and one of the quarians working here seemed to resolve the issue. The other quarian, a woman in a grey-bluish envirosuit, led the two to an area separated from the rest by curtails. Only four beds were inside it, which by the standards Tisiphone had seen aboard was an almost luxurious use of space. Tali was lying in the extreme left one of the four.

Tisiphone walked up to her. "Hey."

"Tisiphone," Tali acknowledged her. It sounded a bit strained. "Good to see you. I heard there was some trouble after docking. Good to see that was resolved."

"Yeah, well, more or less," Tisiphone answered vaguely. There was no need to stress Tali with details about the affair. "And I hear you're going to get better, too."

"Yes. I..." Tali hesitated and continued in a low, quiet voice: "On our trip here I really thought that would be the end. So, I feel relieved. Even if my body still hurts in a dozen different places."

Tisiphone nodded and wanted to reply, but she was distracted by commotion from outside the curtails. A group of quarians entered, led by two men. One of them was wearing a grey-brownish envirosuit, the other's was in black and white.

It was the latter who spoke up. He completely ignored Tisiphone and addressed Tali: "It's good to see you alive, Tali. I hear you took great risks."

Tali just nodded.

The man continued: "Foolish risks, even. And then you bring these people here," now he looked at Tisiphone, and even though his face was hidden there was no doubt it was a hostile glance, "to the Fleet, endangering its security. Just what were you thinking?"

Tali's answer lacked all the spirit Tisiphone had found in her before. Her voice was formal to the point of almost being monotonic: "I understand several people here have already placed great value on being able to speak with Kahlee Sanders. And I brought this ship for fleet use."

"You stole it, you mean," the man continued. "We cannot accept stolen ships here, that would invite all sorts of trouble. We aren't thieves, no matter what the galaxy thinks of us. You of all people should know that best, Tali. I thought I had taught you this."

Anger boiled in Tisiphone. To see Tali treated like this, after all her heroic deeds... "Just who the hell do you think you are?"

There was excited whispering among the quarians. Judging by their stiff gestures, they seemed to be shocked by Tisiphone's outburst. It was the man in the grey-brownish envirosuit who spoke up now. "We're Admirals of the Board."

That explained the shock. Maybe quarians were cowed by such titles and positions. Tisiphone certainly was not. "And that gives you the right to attack her like that mere hours after her arrival, while she's still being treated?"

"I'm Rael'Zorah," the man in the black and white envirosuit spoke up. "I'm an Admiral of the Board, and I'm her father."

"Her father?" Tisiphone repeated. You gotta be kidding me! "Then how about you act like it?"

Tisiphone turned and walked out. No sense in inviting retribution upon me with further outbursts. No quarian tried to stop her. Only Kal showed any reaction. Continuing the role as her guard, he followed her outside.

…...

Four days. Four days already.

That was how long the humans aboard the Neema had been in their makeshift camp in one of her docking bays already. Four days without the quarians coming to any decision regarding them. Four days during which Tisiphone, her group, Mitra Hendel and Gillian could do nothing but idle in their meagre living area designated by pieces of cloth. Unsurprisingly, tempers began to boil, nerves began to show and tensions began to flare. Many felt that what had begun as them being in simple temporary custody until things were cleared up was developing into much more.

Normally, as a sort of de facto group leader, Tisiphone was supposed to calm people down, ease their minds, decrease tensions. She knew this, yet it went totally against her nature. She herself had already protested her group's state several times to the quarian marines guarding them. Like the others, she had been mostly ignored.

At least Gillian thrives. The girl, who had been so quiet and emotionless on Grissom Station, seemed to come out of her shell here. She talked freely to the marine guards and had even followed some of them around. The quarians on their part did not seem to mind and even allowed her some strolls with them outside the group's designated 'quarters'. Apparently, they were not insisting on rules and orders so much when it came to children. Tisiphone found this to be a very endearing trait. Seeing how family focused the quarians seemed to be and considering the close bounds of their ship communities, she was reasonably sure nothing would happen to Gillian on these little trips.

Mitra had suggested it was all due to the envirosuits. When talking to quarians instead of humans, Gillian did not have to fear any actual physical contact, at least not skin to skin, and as the quarians' faces were obscured by their masks she also did not need to put up with facial expressions. Both were things she was very uncomfortable with as part of her autistic condition. It seemed the envirosuits of all the quarians around her were almost like a therapy alleviating those symptoms. Mitra saw that in different terms though; he thought that Gillian had to learn to deal with her condition at least to a degree and that the contact with the quarians was not truly helping.

Kahlee Sanders, too, was spared the boredom and restrictions the rest of the group suffered. She continued to be paraded around the quarians, talking to them about various matters of programming and software. In the short moments she had dropped by she had actually looked somewhat stressed. It was a stress Tisiphone almost envied.

The biotic was currently sitting on a pillow, doing nothing. The quarians had provided many of those. She thought that it was a very generous contribution. In fact, given how stretched the quarians were for resources it was already generous how they had been able to scratch together enough levo-amino food for the group, from reserves normally kept on the Fleet as trading goods. One would think that means they'd be happy to get rid of us as soon as possible.

She heard some voices from outside the 'walls' of cloth surrounding her. Stepping through them, she saw that their marine guards seemed to have gotten some reinforcements. Several more Migrant Fleet Marines had entered the docking bay. They were led by Kal'Reegar, the quarian in the red envirosuit.

He spotted her. "Ah, Tisiphone, ma'am. I need to talk to you."

The last time Tisiphone had seen him she had just burst out at one of the most powerful five people of the Migrant Fleet, one of the five highest military superiors of Kal. Neither had spoken a word to the other afterward. She hoped this would not make matters too awkward. She did not greatly care what others thought of her, but she was the de facto spokeswomen for the humans, while Kal seemed to be the military officer most often tasked with guarding them. Communication between the two was necessary.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Your group needs to evacuate your camp for some hours," Kal explained. "We're getting a shuttle in. Somebody seems to have returned from his pilgrimage with a really big haul." He sounded amused in a condescending way.

"If the Admiralty would simply let us go, we wouldn't be taking up any space here," Tisiphone reminded him.

"I know, I know," Kal answered. "But I'm no admiral, so spare me your anger. I have no influence at all with their decisions."

Tisiphone grimaced. "And that's the problem with military hierarchies. People just following orders."

"From what I've seen on my pilgrimage," Kal answered, "that isn't much different in other parts of the galaxy."

"Hah, your pilgrimage. Just how long was it?" Tisiphone asked.

That question made Kal hesitate. "Ah... I don't think that's your business. But I saw enough of the galaxy. "

"No, you didn't," Tisiphone answered. "You don't know what these things lead to."

"And what has that to do with anything?" Kal demanded to know. "None of us can do anything about this order right now. If you try to resist it you'll just cause trouble. Not just for you, you'll also cause trouble in our docking routines and everything and for what?"

"Ah..." Tisiphone paused. Then she laughed sharply. "You're right. I hadn't even meant to argue against the order, I just got sidetracked by my own comment." It was a bit embarrassing, actually. "Sorry. It's just... the inactivity here isn't doing me any good." She knew that this was a rather lame excuse, but she hoped it would do as a saving face gesture. "I'll tell the others."

Some moments later Tisiphone, her group of biotics and Hendel Mitra had packed their meagre belongings and were walking along one of Neema's corridors, escorted by six Migrant Fleet Marines led by Kal. Sanders was still talking with some quarian software experts and hence was absent. Gillian had been following some Marines again, which was just as well, as it meant she would be occupied for the time that the new ship would dock. Kal was in contact with that group of marines, so there was no need to be worried for her.

Tisiphone was walking next to Kal. She realized that in his eyes she might have made herself a fool several times now already. Even before she had snapped at him she had feared how this might sour the necessary communication between them, and now it seemed that problem had only gotten worse.

She decided to approach the issue head on. "Sorry again for my outburst. I hope this won't lead to any complications between us."

"I hope so as well, ma'am," Kal answered. "But as long as you respect Migrant Fleet authority, it shouldn't be a problem."

"I will, I think," Tisiphone agreed. "Well, depends on what you mean. I'll follow orders as long as I'm here, but don't expect me to apologize to Admiral Rael'Zorah. I behaved foolishly in the docking bay, I admit, but the incident in the hospital is another issue." She paused. "I hope you understand."

"Admiral Rael'Zorah is a member of the Admiralty Board," Kal answered in a stiff and formal voice "He is one of my five most senior military superiors. As a Migrant Fleet Marine, I cannot condone what you've done. We owe respect to his rank and position." He paused and continued in his usual relaxed tone: "But speaking as just me, my own rank and position aside - given certain rumours I've heard on this ship, he might've been direly in need of your little reminder. You didn't address him as an admiral, after all, but as a father."

Rumours. Of course. The Migrant Fleet housed seventeen million quarians, but due to their lack of resources, contacts between single ship was rare. Thus, most single communities only had some hundred members, on the smaller ships even only some dozens. And the bonds between their members were tight. Given such conditions, of course there would be many rumours. In any case, Tisiphone was relieved by Kal's answer. Truth be told, she was even a bit touched; the man did not seem to be purely military professionalism and duty as she had thought at first.

" 'On this ship' ?" she quoted him. "So this isn't your ship?"

"I'm part of the Migrant Fleet Marines' mobile teams, ma'am," Kal told her with a certain pride in his voice. "We're sent wherever it's necessary, sometimes even outside the Fleet. Once it was decided you'd dock at the Neema we were sent here."

"Elite troops, huh?" Tisiphone asked with a slight grin, "Well, you quarians need..."

She stopped when Kal raised a hand. Everyone else paused, too, and the group came to a halt. He seemed to listen to something intensely. For a moment he seemed to hesitate; then he took his assault rifle from his back and raised it.

Before Tisiphone or anybody else could protest, and while his marines did the same thing, he explained: "Orders again, ma'am. The docking bay's a battle zone. Armed troops are emerging from the shuttle we expected. Armed humans, shooting everyone in sight!"

"What in the name of..." The docking bay was full of civilians as Tisiphone knew. She shook her head and forced herself to focus on the issue at hand. "So you think we're with them?"

Kal hesitated. Goddamn military hierarchy. Going by his silence, he did not seem to believe that himself, but apparently he would not say so about a superior's order.

"This can't be a coincidence!" Tisiphone almost shouted. "It has to do with us. It... it has to be Cerberus! They were already willing to send two ships full of armed troops to get Gillian, why not a third?" She hesitated. "Gillian! Where is she?"

"They are shouting for Gillian I'm told," Kal admitted. There was a pause; Kal apparently was contacting other patrols. "The marines she was with have been ordered to the fight. They told her to stay put."

"Oh nonono, that won't work out," Tisiphone answered anxiously. "We have to get her!"

"Yes. We can't allow her to fall into their grubby hands," Kal agreed.

He spoke with such a conviction that Tisiphone raised an eyebrow.

"They're the enemy, she's their objective and a Migrant Fleet Marine prevents his enemies from reaching their objective," he explained impatiently. "Look, we all know what they did to her. Most of us say you're too much trouble, but a kid getting abused like that? No quarian can accept that. So my team and I will go and we'll save her. We were told to watch you, but you're obviously no threat."

Idealist fool. Tisiphone doubted the quarians were as wholly good as he made them out to be, but still, she was again moved by his attitude. She disliked idealism; all too often that led to people sacrificing others for that ideal. However, she thought empathy was a quality found all too rarely.

"You can still watch us. We'll come along," she stated in a cool but determined voice.

"You?" Kal asked. "Your weapons are ancestors know where and..."

He stopped. Flames of blue energy burst forth from Tisiphone's body. It was a spectacular show-off, which she knew she would regret later. She doubted the quarians had levo-amino painkillers aboard. However, at the moment she just had no time to argue. Her people understood. Four further blue human flames erupted. Only Mitra and the sole non-biotic[1] in her team did not take part in this.

"Do you really think we need weapons? Do you really think you had us under complete control the whole time?" she asked. It was an exaggerated boast, but it was not completely divorced from reality. That had been the reason she had been able to make her promise to Farooq. If the quarians had turned out to be abusive, the biotics surely would have been able to take some of them down with them in the ensuing fight. The show worked on the stunned marines, unacquainted with biotic power as they were. "We'll go, we'll destroy them, and we'll save Gillian."

And with that, she led the way, in the direction back to the docking bay. None of the quarian marines dared to stop her. She and her group let their auras of dark energy recede again. So, this is it again. Battle again. She was ready. Gillian was a cause to fight for. In the end, that was all she still lived for anyway.

She would use her biotic powers, that curse the Alliance had forced on her, that companion of her constant pains she had never asked for. Just like the Uncle Toms, the people like Mitra and Alenko, did in the service to the Alliance. But there was a difference: They were soldiers. They did what they did because they were ordered to. They were ultimately just tools and replaceable. Tisiphone, on the other hand, was a warrior, and that was actually a very different thing from a soldier. She fought for what she believed in, for causes she herself thought worthy. She could at any time leave this fight. Not that she would, of course, but that was due to her own choice. She was nobody's tool.

The collaborators would say such things like they had joined up for their own reasons, or that those people who had had them tortured held no power over their lives anymore. That was ridiculous. Those people high up in power did not care for what reason the collaborators would serve, or why they remained passive on the issue of their torture. They only cared that they were served and that no unrest was stirred. The Alliance had tortured the Uncle Toms, and they served it. Tisiphone, on the other hand, would use her powers for her own ends. Preferably against the Alliance. Or against Cerberus.

In the end, Kal had to take the lead again: Only he knew where the other marine patrol had left Gillian. The marines and biotics ran towards that location. They all hoped they were not too late.

"That's the place," Kal finally announced when they reached a corridor crossing. "She was left behind here." Nobody could be seen, neither at the place nor in any of the crossing corridors.

"Damn it!" Tisiphone cursed. "Where is she?"

"Wandered off, most likely, just as we feared," Mitra said.

"Hostiles!" a quarian marine shouted.

Both the quarian marines and the human biotics had battle instincts drilled into them. They immediately turned around with drawn and raised weapons, into the direction of the shout. Armed and armoured humans were running towards their position and began firing. The biotics and marines dispersed, sought cover behind the corners of the crossing and returned the fire.

Tisiphone had no doubt that those humans belonged to Cerberus, that this was an armed attack by Cerberus on the Migrant Fleet. So not only was the organization willing to ruin the life of an innocent child, they were even willing to use violence to regain her, willing to shoot down every quarian in sight according to Kal's report. As far as she was concerned, the Cerberus troops all deserved to die, just as the ones on Grissom Station already had.

Unfortunately, crammed as quarian ships were, none of the corridors were empty. There was lots of equipment and supplies stored there simply because there was no other place for it on the ship. That meant it was easy for the Cerberus troops to find cover, too. On the other hand, they were facing biotics.

"Yong, Maria, lift that crate!" she ordered. Together with her, the two biotics removed that piece of Cerberus' cover. The other biotics understood and also began to coordinate to dismantle the enemies positions. It was a draining process, but it allowed the quarian marines a free line of fire and forced the Cerberus troops to retreat some meters, behind the next line of crates.

However, there was no way the biotics could keep up this exhausting process forever. It was just a temporary boost they could give to their side and nothing with which they could chase the Cerberus troops away. The enemy would simply temporarily retreat and then advance again at the end of the biotic push. It looked like this would become a drawn out firefight.

Suddenly, Tisiphone heard loud noises from behind her. Somewhere down the corridor in their backs something was happening. Something or somebody seemed to loudly smash and crack stuff with an incredible power. It seemed they had another flashpoint right in their backs.

"Shit," Tisiphone cursed. "Is that them, too?"

"Who else could it be?" Kal asked in return.

"Then we can't allow them to encircle us!" Tisiphone stated.

"Agreed," Kal stated. "Group Nerada, stay here. No heroics, just keep the enemy at bay. As long as you stay well covered that should be possible in these corridors. Group Leskun, with me. Tisiphone, you better leave some of your biotics here, too."

"Right," Tisiphone confirmed. "Farooq, Yong, you stay here. Follow the quarians' commands and support them. The rest with me. Including you, Hendel. If you all can, raise barriers."

"Group Nerada, suppressive fire on my command," Kal ordered. "The rest, those coming with me and Tisiphone, run on that command. Ready... now!"

Six quarians and four humans began to run. None of them looked back. They could only hear how the quarian guns run hot to keep the enemy in cover. The only other thing that registered was when their shields flickered up. Luckily, the quarians had allowed the biotics to keep their shield generators. In fact, since the biotics had also pulled up biotic barriers they formed the rearguard. Blue flickering was all around them as bullets began to overcharge shields and barriers. However, there was no time to worry. They simply ran on, along the corridor, towards where the noises were coming from.

Still, Tisiphone could not help but worry. Both of Kal's 'groups' seemed to encompass six quarians. All in all, quarians and humans, Kal's and Tisiphone's makeshift unit thus had been composed of nineteen people before splitting up. Yet, the Cerberus troops had seemed to be only slightly outmatched by those numbers. Given that there still was fighting in the docking bay itself, and that further Cerberus troops seemed to be in their rear, that meant the terrorist organization must have invested quite much into this expedition. She wondered how so many people could have fit into a vessel small enough that it could have landed inside the docking bay.

The corridor ended at a surprisingly large door. The noises were emerging from behind them, without any sign of lessening. Strangely, while it sounded like conflict, it did not sound like a gun fight. In fact, Tisiphone could hear no gun fire at all. Instead what she heard rather sounded like two titans were fighting hand to hand, smashing everything in their way.

"The mess hall!" Kal commented and opened the door.

What Tisiphone saw astonished her. The room might well have served as mess hall, so much was true. But it seemed not a single table, not a single bench or a single chair was still standing. They were cluttered all over the room and many of them were broken or badly dented. Dozens if not hundreds of nutrient tubes were scattered all across the floor. Cerberus troopers huddled among this wreckage, trying to approach what was in the front of all this unrest: Gillian. She glowed in the brightest biotic blue Tisiphone had ever seen. A table and two chairs were circling above her head.

To see a child defend herself like that against over a dozen armed people triggered all of Tisiphone's anger and hatred. Again, blue energy flickered all over body, but this time it was not deliberate. She felt like a living gun, an embodiment of revenge, ready to fire at any moment. Even though she had no authority over the quarians, even though they were outnumbered, she ordered: "Kill them all!"

"Do as she says," Kal confirmed her order to her surprise. His voice was ice cold and determined. "Charge!"

And that was exactly what the quarians and biotics did. Running between ruined chairs and tables, they crashed right into the enemy's flank. Tisiphone let her powers flare up and with a frightening war cry sent a massive biotic warp to clear the space in front of her. It flared across the room and impacted on one of the few Cerberus troopers who had possessed the presence of mind to return fire against the assault. Maybe it was a bit mad to charge into a gunfight without any weapons, but Tisiphone did not care. She would not let Gillian fall into the hand of those barbarians.

The assault sowed mayhem among the already disordered Cerberus positions. Suddenly, within seconds, marines and rogue biotics were in their midst, shooting them, lifting them to the ceiling or just plain punching them. With a ferocious growl, Tisiphone threw herself at the Cerberus trooper nearest to her. Trusting in her shields and biotic barriers, she completely disregarded the gun in his hands and began a series of vicious kicks and punch against him.

Already as child she had always been very large for her age and her sex. Other children had always teased her for that, and even as a grown woman it had come to haunt her now and then: She did not exactly fit into common standards of aesthetics and attraction. On the Migrant Fleet she had towered over all quarians so far, even Kal, who was tall by his species' standards. Even among the Cerberus troops there were few people larger than her, and the guy in front of her was definitely not. Thus, she was able to overpower him with sheer mass.

A series of well placed punches confused him. The grip on his weapon slackened - something Tisiphone immediately used for a biotic push that threw the rifle several metres away. It was then that he looked up with a scared expression on his face. It was an expression Tisiphone enjoyed. So far she had not been able to take revenge against the people who had committed the atrocities against her, but dishing out against people who would have done the exact same, for the exact same bullshit motives of 'human power' and who in fact had come to abuse another girl, that was nearly as good. Certainly she would show no mercy to such scum; to her they were not actually people. She flashed a grin and let dark energy run through her body. And then she began to pummel her enemy with biotically charged punches and kicks.

When she was done, he slid to the ground, unconscious, with several of his bones broken, and with bleeding wounds and bruises all over him. A puddle of his life liquid formed underneath him. Tisiphone stood in a predator's position, with slightly bent knees, elbows bent outwards and bared teeth. Behind her downed enemy, she saw a group of Cerberus people in a far corner of the room. They seemed to have no interest to join the fight and merely watched it intensely. She recognized one of them. Leng! Kai Leng! The monster who had nearly killed Tali.

She already considered attacking him, but even in her half-mad battle trance she knew she would have no chance weaponless against four people. She growled in frustration and was about to turn when she saw a sudden motion in that Cerberus group. Without any warning, Leng fell to his knees. Somebody seemed to have punched him right into the face. The other Cerberus guys tried to grab that person, but he or she eluded them. There was a bit of a struggle, but finally the person wrenched himself... Definitely a him... free and came running towards the battle scene.

It's Grayson! Unbelievable! Gillian's 'father'. The person probably most responsible for the years long abuse of the girl. He came running right towards her, fleeing from the other Cerberus members. It was an almost absurd situation.

"Don't shoot!" he shouted when he spotted her, "I'm on your side."

Tisiphone narrowed her eyes... and when he had reached her, punched him right in the face. He went down. "I don't think so."

"No, I am!" Grayson insisted, holding his face and then leaping behind a table into cover. "On Grissom Station... when you retreated into the ship... Leng was taking shots on your people. It was me who knocked him down."

Tisiphone remembered. The second shot had gone widely off the mark.

"He had no qualms with shooting even Gillian!" Grayson went on. "He's crazy!"

"A bit late to care for her now," Tisiphone sneered.

"I always have!" Grayson insisted. "I always have. But look at her! Look at what she's capable of! Just look!"

Tisiphone did. In the time it had taken her to grind her enemy into the dust, Gillian had wandered off a bit and was hence in some distance away again. However, her biotic energy still illuminated the entire room. Without any effort she tossed around Cerberus members, chairs and tables alike. She seemed like an immense vortex of never ending biotic power.

"That's humanity's potential!" Grayson pleaded. "That's why Cerberus... why I did what I did. Think! Think about a humanity with such a potential!"

Slowly Tisiphone turned around to face him again. "Oh I love your kind," she growled in a dark, sarcastic voice. "Claiming to care, claiming to be oh so sorry for what has happened to us - but then spouting nonsense of why it was 'necessary' or whatever. If you ever truly cared you wouldn't be making excuses." She laughed bitterly. "Biotic potential? You want to see biotic potential?" She clenched her fists and let biotic power run into them. Then she cried out and threw herself at Grayson. Her blue glowing fist hit him square at his right shoulder. She felt bones shattering beneath the impact.

"There's your biotic potential!" she said with clenched teeth. "We biotics aren't just tools for you to be used, and I swear I'll make you all realize that. We're people. We have our own agenda." She tried to grin, but it ended up as a rather sickly grimace. "And I'll show you mine."

She looked around. Gillian was far enough away, and focused on other things. The child would not get to see this. Tisiphone raised her fist high again. It loomed menacingly over Grayson as its blue aura expanded. Maybe he had broken with Cerberus. However, it appeared he had learned nothing. Either way, as far as she was concerned, some people just did not deserve any chance at redemption.

"No..." he whispered. He tried to crawl away, but was bound at his place by his shattered shoulder. "No..."

Tisiphone struck. Right at his head. She had accumulated enough dark energy to do what she had set out to do. Under her strike, his skull scattered. Blood and a squishy grey matter splashed in all directions, sullying both the ground and Tisiphone.

When the biotic stood up again, she felt a throbbing in her head. It begins already. She knew soon she would hardly be able to move at all due to all the pain. I have to wrap things up here before that.

And with the pain came a familiar rage. A rage at the Alliance, at humanity, at the callousness and cruelty of her species. At the kind of people who had done such things to her. The kind of people like Cerberus. It was almost enough to make her forget the beginning headaches. Rage is a hell of an anaesthetic.

She began gathering up dark energy for another warp to be sent against the remaining Cerberus troopers. They had become caught between the anvil, Gillian's unassailable position fortified by her immense biotics, and the hammer, the quarian-biotic joint attack. Probably the reason Leng stays outside. They can't win anymore.

They could still do damage, though. Suddenly, a door on the other side of the room opened. A handful of quarians walked in, apparently oblivious to the battle inside, froze and looked around scared. Only a moment later, the first of them went down, hit by a Cerberus bullet. The others dispersed and fled in panic.

Oh, you bastards!

Without further thought, Tisiphone rushed to the scene. Two of the fleeing quarians were chased by three Cerberus troopers. She realized that tactically this made absolutely no sense, and she could only see one reason why the terrorists would do so. Frustration. They can't get Gillian, but killing some unarmed civilians? Easy and satisfying to xenophobic assholes. That thought of course only heightened her hate.

She released her warp at one of the troopers, who was hit back by the accumulated dark energy. Then she lifted a table and had it float between quarians and terrorists, as a sort of primitive physical shield. It put quite a strain on her and her headaches were intensifying, but she kept up the biotic energy. When the two remaining troopers finally noticed her running towards them she swung the table at them. They went down under it.

When Tisiphone arrived, one of the terrorists had already begun crawling from beneath the furniture. She kicked him into the face, hard, but he still had the presence of mind to grab her boot and enough strength to make her lose her balance. She hastily summoned up another biotic warp. It was small and barely kept together but it was enough to hit a man still half buried.

Tisiphone cried out. Now the pain was so intense that her vision was all black for a whole second and even afterwards she felt dazed. When she came to her senses again, she saw that the other Cerberus troopers had wrenched herself free on the other side of the table and was now taking aim at her. She rolled herself sideways to avoid the first shot aimed at her and leaped to her feet. She has a shotgun. Which meant that at this range Tisiphone's shields would very likely break if her enemy hit, but on the other hand said enemy's fire rate would be mercifully low.

Pain throbbed through her head, but she was also full enough of adrenaline to ignore it. Again her enemy shot. In an act of desperation, Tisiphone dived under the shot. As it was a shotgun shot some stray matter hit, but as she missed its main thrust her shields held. She landed on her knee not a metre away from the Cerberus troops and with a slight biotic push against the ground immediately got up again. Again, her vision was distorted by a renewed wave of searing pain and she crashed into her enemy uncontrolled.

The Cerberus trooper struggled to get Tisiphone off herself, but as the pain receded back to 'normal levels', the biotic could fight back. Again she overwhelmed her enemy with sheer physical mass. This time she did not use dark energy to bolster her strikes, she simply hit and hit and hit while sitting atop the terrorist, half blinded by her agony.

Suddenly she heard steps near her. She got up from the Cerberus terrorist, who by that time was long unconscious. She turned around - and looked directly into the barrel of an assault rifle, held by Kai Leng.

Here we go again. Tisiphone did not even wonder just why Leng did not shoot. She only knew she was in mortal peril, and reacted to it as she always had: Summoning dark energy to lash out at her enemy...

...only that there was no dark energy. Try as she might she could not summon it up.

Leng grinned as he saw her confused face. "You biotics rely too much on your powers, even though they're so easily countered."

Tisiphone understood. He must have a dampening device. The way it completely suppressed her powers, it was probably quite a powerful one, too.

"The Illusive Man ordered that I should observe Gillian's power in a field test before catching her," Leng went on. "Luckily, I don't have to hold back with you. You might have won on Grissom Station, but that was temporary. It was quite fun killing three of that whining complaining scum there to get your shuttle. And now I'll show you that I'm superior."

Bastard. He seems to like his own voice. And who's this 'Illusive Man'?

Leng took aim. "So now prepare to d..."

A hail of bullets made his shields flare up. Leng swung around, returned the fire, jumped away and sought cover behind the table Tisiphone had used as a shield. She looked into the direction of the fire and saw Kal running towards her and Leng, swift and agile like a greyhound.

I never thought I'd one day be saved from certain death by a Migrant Fleet Marine...

Suddenly, a renewed assault of pain hit her. Her head felt like it would explode any minute, and her back, especially her spine, felt like it was on fire. Dark energy left her uncontrollably and flickered all around her. The dampening field... Leng must have suspended it. Thus, the build up of dark energy which the field had suppressed, now came to pass, but she had no control over it. The accompanying pain was so great that she nearly lost her senses, hardly seeing or hearing anything anymore.

Just as suddenly as it had come, her biotic power left her again. The dampening field was in place again. Tisiphone saw Kal lying on the floor, somewhat behind where she had last seen him. He has been knocked back... one of the Cerberus troopers must have been biotic themselves! Hence the suspension of the dampening field.

Only just coming to the conclusion exhausted her. Her eyelids fell shut... and when she forced them open again he saw Leng towering over Kal, who was still lying on the ground. She could barely recognize the silhouettes of the two people, and there was some shadow near to the Cerberus terrorist, but she could not quite see it.

She could understand the scene, though. Leng held his gun right at head of the prone quarian. His voice was cold and full of contempt. "Only quarian."

Suddenly, there was a person next to him, a man clad in black and white holding a pistol right at Leng's head. "Sneer at this." The person shot.

It was a point blank shot at such a short distance that Leng's shields did not trigger. He fell to the ground, dead.

"That's for what you did to my daughter," the man told the corpse. Admiral Rael'Zorah!

And behind him she could see more quarians storming into the room. They were not Fleet Marines. They seemed to be lighter armed, and their envirosuits had no armour padding. Armed crew members, most likely. The reserves have arrived. It's over. We've won.

…...

She had not passed out after the fight, but the pain had become so bad she had hardly been able to move at all. And it had not receded, not for a long time. The same was true for the other L2s in her group: Mitra, Farooq and a woman named Andrea. They had brought no painkillers with them from their hasty flight from Grissom Station, and the quarians simply had no appropriate levo-amino medication. They had been forced to withstand the agony the traditional way.

The quarians had taken great efforts to make matters as comfortable for them as possible. They had reserved a separate area in their hospital just for them, had made their beds as comfy as possible, and had brought them, from their meager levo-amino food reserves, whatever they wanted. It was somewhat odd. The attack on the ship had only come about because of the biotics, yet the quarians were grateful to them for their help in the battle, and to Tisiphone in particular for how she had defended civilians.

Most likely humans would've simply blamed us and to hell with what we did in the fight. Then again, Tisiphone knew she was always ready to assume the worst about human nature.

At least the Cerberus attack solved some problems for Tali. The quarians had absolutely no scruples anymore to integrate the Golden Dog, the Cerberus ship Tali had captured, into the Fleet. In fact, they had gone even further: Using the small craft with which the Cerberus attack team had arrived, they had been able to spot and approach a larger Cerberus vessel nearby, called the Stygian Fire. That was how so many Cerberus troops had fit into the smaller vessel: It was full of constructs similar to sleeping pods, minimizing the need for space, and the troops had spent most the voyage aboard the Stygian Fire. The quarians had managed to fake Cerberus signals while approaching the ship, and had hence been able to take it over, too.

Two of their vessels captured by aliens, two entire attack squads eradicated, losing two high ranking agents and a plant in the Ascension Project... Tisiphone smiled. The whole thing had been quite costly for Cerberus. In fact, it had been her who had ensured that the attack squad which had assaulted the Neema was fully eradicated. The quarians had wondered what to do with the prisoners they had taken, and, following her No Quarter policy, Tisiphone had recommended their execution. The quarians had accepted that judgement of a human over other humans readily enough, especially as all other members of her group and even Hendel Mitra had agreed with it. Kahlee Sanders was the only human who had protested. At Tisiphone's suggestion, the quarians had simply spaced the surviving Cerberus troops.

She had left the quarian hospital some hours ago, after her headaches had receded enough that she had been able to get some hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now she was standing in the docking bay again, the docking bay that had been her temporary residence for some days and the docking bay from where Cerberus had struck, together with her group of biotics and Kahlee Sanders. A shuttle was standing nearby. It was time to go home.

Not everybody would. Hendel Mitra stood opposite to her, with Gillian at her side. Next to the girl stood Tali. She, too, had been released from the hospital only recently.

"It really is the best way," Mitra told Sanders. "You've seen to what lengths Cerberus has gone. Gillian would be hunted everywhere in the galaxy. But here, on the Fleet... I doubt Cerberus has any other contact here they can use. The quarians are just too isolated. She's safe here."

Sanders nodded sadly. "You're right. Besides, she really seems to like it here. I just feel a bit useless. I wish there was more I could do for her."

"I know," Mitra answered. "But don't worry, I'll take care of her." He looked at Gillian, who stood close to Tali and grinned lopsided. "And I think I won't be the only one."

"You're right," Tali simply said. She looked at Gillian, too, and slightly tilted her head. Tisiphone was sure the quarian was smiling beneath her helmet.

"She can grow up here, free of Cerberus' poisons, and I can her help her unfold her biotic potential," Mitra continued.

"We'll see about that," Tali disagreed. "We still need to speak about that."

Sanders went to Gillian, slightly bent her knees to be on eye height with her, and said her good bye. Meanwhile, Tali spoke to Tisiphone: "It's good to see there are humans out there with the same passion and empathy as Jon. I hope you'll continue your work?"

"Most certainly," Tisiphone answered. She was a bit amused. Empathy is normally not the first thing people associate with me. "Though now with a bit more precision I think. No more random strikes; we'll just wait until Goyle or whoever needs our help again."

Tali nodded. "Good. Sorry we can't give you any of the captured ships, but I think we need them more. A quarian pilot will bring you to the next major colony, and you can get a transport from there. I called Goyle, and she told me she'd arrange everything."

"Her predecessor would simply have washed his hands clean of us," Tisiphone commented. "And so would most Alliance politicians. Goyle is a surprisingly honourable woman."

A signal came from the shuttle. "Time to go," Tali said.

"Yes," Tisiphone agreed. "Ah... take care of Gillian, will you? I mean, I know you will, but..."

"Don't worry," Tali replied. "I'll make sure she stays on the Neema. Father doesn't like it, but for once I'm not inclined to listen to him. Both you and I are the heroes of the hour, so there's little he can do. And yes, I'll take care of her. So will Mitra. He means well, but I think there will be some disagreements about her..."

"That seems likely," Tisiphone concurred with a slight smile. "Goodbye then, Tali. Unlikely as it is, but maybe we'll see each other again.

"Maybe," Tali agreed. "Keelah Selai. Go in peace."

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[1] Even though the story always just summarily refers to them as 'the biotics', in the group count in chapter 5 it was established that there's also a non-biotic in it, which fits to the canon description of Kyle's group that it mostly consists of biotics.