Virmire.
"What is that Turian doing?" Oriana asked.
Rana Thanoptis said, "Nothing. His mind was destroyed after Saren shot him on Eden Prime."
"How is he alive?"
"That's classified."
"You were supposed to answer my questions."
"The truth is above my paygrade." Rana replied.
"Fine." Oriana said.
Feros: The Thorian's lair.
"Oh my god!" Miranda said.
Shepard looked at it, and said, "This isn't just a thorian."
"How can you tell it isn't just a thorian?" Garrus asked.
"The beacon, it had information about the species, I think. This, I believe, is the first thorian." Shepard replied.
When they reached it, the thorian spat out a green asari. It looked at Shepard and said, "You stand before the Old Growth."
"Why is it enslaving the colonists?" Ash asked.
"The alien promised them in exchange for the Cipher."
"Why does Saren want a Cipher?" Shepard asked.
"He didn't explain. You; however, have violated the deal made with the alien Saren who came with those whom cannot feed the new growth."
"The geth." Shepard corrected.
"A name given them by their makers. The Old Growth knows them as those whom cannot feed the new growth. You will be taken now, to pay for your transgressions against the Old Growth." the asari said.
Shepard drew her pistol and shot it in the head, before pulling out her assault rifle and pointing down a hall for the team to go down.
The Cipher was only partial!" Saren shouted. "There is another piece that we do not have."
"The Cipher may only be partial, but it is enough. We will prepare for the journey immediately." Sovereign said.
"We cannot be sure of what we will encounter. The protheans on Ilos may have developed countermeasures for the arrival of a reaper, such as the Conduit self destructing!" Saren argued.
"We will be ready to go to this, Ilos, in five days time. We will have Nihlus stay here as our last line of defense against possible attack on this facility."
"Is it really necessary to keep him under control in such a way? He is no more useful to our cause alive than dead."
Shepard shot one of the thorian's nodes, and it screamed, before she was overwhelmed by creepers. Miranda and Wrex used their biotics to then fling them off, and Shepard woozily got up. Staggering for a second before Garrus helped steady her. Meanwhile, Ashley had killed two more asari clones, and crippled another node. By then, though, they were being overrun by creepers. As Shepard regained her balance, she handed Garrus a grenade and said, "Give 'em hell." before collapsing. Garrus quickly threw it down in the midst of the horde, the anti thorian gas clearing out the creepers. Garrus, Ashley, and Wrex set about making sure their position was secure, while Miranda checked up on Shepard. Three more asari clones arrived and opened fire with their biotics, taking out Ashley. Garrus and Wrex killed them, but not before a creeper dragged Ashley off. Then a moment later she rolled back down the incline. And out walked non other than Qael'Tharn.
"Jessica wake up!" Miranda said as she applied some medigel, "You promised me you wouldn't die!"
"That won't work." Qael said.
"Who the hell are you?" Garrus asked.
"Qael'Tharn. Formerly Qael'Tharn vas Qwib Qwib." he replied.
"Why are you helping us?" Garrus asked.
"Because I've lost faith in Saren, and his masters." the quarian replied.
"Why would you betray the ones you betrayed your people for." Shepard asked.
He looked at Shepard and said, "I won't tell you everything, but he gave away a friend of mine to get his precious prothean cipher. He fights for what he thinks is right, but what he does to get the job done goes too far."
"You said medigel wouldn't work. Yet she's standing right here." Miranda said.
"Yes, but you don't have much time." Qael replied. "At most you have fifteen minutes before she becomes one of it's thralls. Just as Saren turned the asari into one in exchange for the cipher."
"Right, why don't you go back to Saren and your reaper friends?" Shepard inquired.
The young quarian looked at her and said, "I'm not supposed to let you get the Cipher. Saren made it clear that if I return to Virmire without you dead, I might as well be."
"Anderson, good work on the AI op." Said TIM.
Looking down, Anderson said, "It doesn't seem like a job well done. A man just trying to get what was promised him, dead."
"He was an enemy of Cerberus." TIM replied, "As a Cerberus Operative you had no other options. You know how we operate."
"Isn't it time we re-imagined what Cerberus can be? How we can go about advancing humanity?"
"Not until we have achieved our rightful place in the galactic community."
"What is humanity's rightful place? You say it's to rule over the other races, but what if it's to work with them to better life for everyone in the galaxy?" Anderson asked.
TIM said, "In Meus Mundus, Homines dei erunt."
Shepard charged through the remaining creepers, feeling her sense of self draining from her blood. As she threw a frag grenade into the last node, Shepard felt herself return to normal, as if the spores died with the thorian. She walked forward, and saw a single sac tear open, revealing a green asari.
Qael ran up and said, "Shiala! Are you alright?"
"I, I think so." The asari replied."
"Saren used you to acquire the cipher, correct?" Said Shepard.
"Yes, but you shouldn't need it. You were able to tell that the thorian was the Old Growth, the first of it's kind." Shiala replied.
Miranda glared at the asari, and said, "Just give us the bloody cipher already."
"Very well, Commander are you familiar with how to join minds with an asari?"
Shepard replied, "I have studied the theory, but never wanted to do so myself."
"Then you don't need any explanation." the asari said, as she reached for Shepard's open-hostile, but open-mind. She then implanted the partial cipher the thorian had given her. When she finished, Shepard turned to Qael and said, "Take your friend and go. I don't want to see either of you ever again."
Shiala interrupted Qael's attempts to take her to his ship saying, "I would like to help the colonists to make up for the pain I helped put them through."
Shepard glared at her, and said, "I meant it when I said leave. You've meddled enough with these people's lives." When the asari and quarian were gone, Shepard said, "There's something we need to investigate. I didn't want to mention it in front of Saren's people, but there is more than just a cipher that we need from here."
Wrex asked, "What the hell else do we need?"
"Justice."
"Justice?"
"It's a VI. We need to find it. It was designed by a group called, the People of Justice. They viewed it as their god, that it was the spirit of all good taking the form of a virtual intelligence so that it's People could understand it." Shepard replied, grabbing Miranda's hand when heading down a path that a hole in the wall Shiala's prison had been covering.
"Where did you get this information? Are you sure it's safe, or even real?" Miranda asked.
"Shepard squeezed her hand and replied, "Yeah, I have several sources within the People. They asked me to find it, and destroy it, because their faith didn't need the actual VI to have power, but it could turn some against their faith."
"Why are you helping them?" Ashley asked.
"Because," Shepard replied, "There is a very large reward for destroying it. And knowledge to gained, which is a reward in and of itself." After Shepard said this, Miranda burst out laughing.
Wrex looked confused and said "What's so funny?"
Jessica replied, "It's an inside joke."
POJ HQ.
"Sovereign, the VI shall be gone within the next few days. The enemy is working on destroying as we speak." said a turian with blow eyes with three glowing white dots arranged in a pyramid pattern.
"Good." the ship replied, "We cannot allow the knowledge it holds to fall into the wrong hands."
"What is on Justice?" the turian asked.
"That is classified."
Justice VI core.
"It's defunct, but we can still recover the data on it, before we destroy it." Miranda said.
Shepard looked at it and said, "No, we're keeping it. This machine is a key, to galactic history."
"How can you be sure." Miranda asked.
"It's arthannel. hundreds of thousands of years older than the protheans." Shepard replied. "And still in a usable state. Recover what you can and send it to Alliance Command." Jessica said, quickly kissing Miranda before walking out to check on Garrus, Wrex, and Ashley.
"Well, how are you doing?" Saren asked Oriana.
She looked at the turian and said, "I want to go home."
"You will never return there."
"Why?"
"They're all dead by now."
"What you up to Garrus?" Jessica asked.
The turian looked up from his omni tool and replied, "Just trying to figure something out."
"What?"
"Nothing important," he replied, "but how do you plan to breach Saren's defenses on Virmire?"
"We will have to go in quiet and hit them hard before the geth realize we're there."
"That isn't much of a plan."
Wrex laughed and said, "You turians worry too much about battle plans."
"And krogan focus too much on just charging blindly into battle." Garrus replied.
"Garrus, Wrex, we really don't need this right now." Shepard said.
"Sorry, Shepard." Garrus replied.
"Shepard." said Wrex.
Ashley walked up and said, "Why'd you do that?"
"Couldn't risk them coming to blows."
"They know what they're doing, it wouldn't happen."
"Williams, I know what I'm doing. Wrex gets very angry when the genophage is mentioned." Shepard replied.
"Right, why do you think Qael helped us?"
"Who knows, maybe Saren thought I'd trust him if he helped us."
"What's the plan, Shepard? Where will we be going next?"
"Virmire. Where Saren will die."
"Why are you so determined to kill him now? Before you wanted to just bring him in." Ashley said.
Shepard said, "He kidnapped one of the people here to use her against me. Williams, have you ever lost someone you saw as a little sister?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"The person he kidnapped I saw as the little sister I never had. Miri's been taking her capture hard." Shepard said.
"Why would she care about someone you saw as a little sister?"
Miranda walked in and said, "Because the one Jessica sees as a little sister, is my little sister."
"In mors non pacis eris." said Oriana.
"What?" Saren asked.
"An old saying." she replied.
Saren slapped her, and stepped on her throat saying, "If you want to say old sayings, say them where I can't hear them." Oriana choked out, "Fine, malus unus."
"Shepard, we received your report on what happened on Feros. The only information we can get off of the Thessia message is that it was forged." said Valern.
"Forged? Who did it?" she asked.
"Unknown, but we can tell you it was a member of the Alliance." Valern replied.
"Saren has a mole in the Alliance?" Shepard asked.
"Saren has only enemies in the Alliance." Sparatus said.
"Very well, do you have any information for me?"
Tevos replied, "Only that an STG that was sent to investigate reports of geth activity on Virmire went quiet yesterday."
"Their last message had a large amount of white noise, but we were able to piece together that they were requesting backup." said Valern.
"Understood. I was already headed to Virmire to investigate a lead, so it won't be a problem."
"Where did you find this lead?" Tevos inquired.
"Feros, ma'am."
"Were you sure it was legitimate before leaving for Virmire?"
"Qael, Shiala! Are you two alright?" said Rana.
"We're fine. It was close; however." Shiala replied.
"We should be fine, but we need to leave asap." Qael said.
"Why?"
"Because this isn't what any of us signed on for. We agreed to help Saren save the galaxy by helping the reapers, but he's not trying to help anymore." Qael said.
"Shepard, we'll be landing on Virmire in thirty minutes." Joker said.
"Good, it's time to show Saren what happens when you piss me off." Shepard said.
"No need to go all Butcher of Torfan on him." Joker said.
Shepard took a deep breath, and replied, "Torfan was a mistake, I'll admit it. But Saren is a threat that needs to be eliminated."
Captain Kirrahe's tent.
"Captain," Padon Wiks said, "The scouts report that Saren has captured a young human."
Kirrahe looked at him and asked, "How didn't we notice this before?"
"She arrived two days ago. From Feros."
"Can we get her out safely?"
"Not without backup."
"Then make sure that we get that backup." Kirrahe said.-
"Jessica, who will you be taking with you on this mission?" Miranda asked.
"You, Garrus, and Tali." Jessica replied, as she put on her armor and Miranda did the same. They walked out of the Captains Cabin and saw that the others were ready.
"Ground team, get ready to move. Because of the AA turrets we'll be going in hot in the mako." Shepard said.
Oriana ran as fast as she could. Trying to sneak past the geth before they caught her. Just when she saw the exit before her, the dead turian stepped in her path and said, "You shall not leave."
"Damn it! Get out of my way Nihlus." she said.
"We are not Nihlus, we are Sovereign." it replied.
Translations. In Meus Mundus, Homines dei erunt. In my world, mankind will be as gods.
In mors non pacis eris. In death you will not be at peace.
malus unus. evil one.