A/N: Happy 2012! So I left you guys (and girls) with a pretty big cliffhanger to end last chapter, so I'm gonna let you get right into it. Enjoy!

The Darkness Surrounding

Where's Ian?

Oh god…

"Guys…where's Ian?" I whisper into the radio. Immediately, every other head turns toward where the Brit used to be.

"S'kak!" Garrus yells, sounding incredibly loud against the silence of the rest of the facility. "Ian! Where are you?"

"Garrus, calm down," Jenny orders sharply. "You and Dylan search the right, and Liara and I will search the left. Keep quiet. We don't know what's out there." Oh, but I do, Jenny, and it's not pretty.

Following her orders, we split up into our assigned groups. I don't see anything on my thermal as Garrus and I slowly make our way over to the right side of the room. It almost looks like a cafeteria: there are tables all around the middle of the room, and there's an elevated area on the right. Walking up the short flight of steps, I'm constantly scanning the area, fully expecting a rachni any second.

At the top of the steps, there's a large pile of snow.

There's also a small source of heat inside it.

"Garrus," I say, tapping the turian detective on the shoulder. He jumps just a fraction at my touch, but I bet we're all feeling jumpy right now.

"What?" he asks, stopping to look at me.

"I've got my thermal vision on, and there's some heat in the middle of that snow pile," I explain, pointing to said pile.

"Let's check it out." I simply nod, and we slowly head over to the snowdrift. We're right in front of it, and I'm about to start digging through—

"RAWR!"

"HOLY FUCK!" I yell, recoiling from the shape that just leaped from the snow. Shitshitshitshit, this rachni is right in front of me! It's gonna eat my face off! I'm gonna…

Why is it laughing? Can rachni even laugh? Wait a second…I know that laugh.

"Ian, you fucking bastard!" I yell at the little Brit who's now lying on the ground, laughing hysterically. "I swear to god, if we weren't on a serious mission right now, I would kill you!"

"What the hell is going on here?" Jenny shouts, running up to where I almost died of a heart attack.

"This little British bastard here almost scared me to death," I say, still sitting on the ground. For some reason, that only makes Ian laugh harder.

"Ian, what in spirits' name were you thinking?" Garrus asks him hotly. "You scared the s'kak out of m—us when we saw you weren't there."

"Relax, Garrus," he says, still chuckling a bit. "I just thought you were all being kinda uptight. I thought I'd lighten the mood."

"By trying to kill me?" I ask, acidly.

"Not my fault you're wound tighter than a crab's asshole," he replies, glibly. As much as I'm pissed off at him, I can barely hold back a few chuckles at that. I mean, "tighter than a crab's asshole"? How does that make sense?

"Ian, that was a little much for trying to lighten the mood," Jenny tells him, calmly. "Now everyone, get back into formation." With only one more evil stare at Ian—which he can't see because of the mask—I get up off the ground and take my place behind Jenny. Everyone else complies, and we continue on our excursion of the labs.

The rest of this cafeteria area holds nothing but the pure blackness that has permeated every other room so far. There was a long strip of air vents along the floor, but we passed by with no incident.

The door at the end of the cafeteria leads to a short hallway, which in turn leads to an elevator. In no time, we're slowly making our way higher into the facility. You know, I just thought of something: How are the elevators working if the power is out?

…

I guess the elevators run on separate generators or something. Whatever, I'm not complaining. I would hate to be stuck in a staircase with rachni…

God! I really need to stop thinking about that!

The elevator opens before I can fall deeper into depressing thoughts. I'm trying to remember the layout from the game, and I think that the VI core should be close. I sure as hell hope it is; these lights need to be turned back on fast.

Unfortunately, the elevator opens to another long hallway. A long, narrow hallway. A long, narrow hallway that somehow seems even darker than previous ones. A strange feeling is starting to come over me. I feel…alone. Helplessly and inexplicably alone.

I look at my squad mates, seeing the glow of their bodies on my thermal and trying to reassure myself that I'm not actually alone, but…somehow, seeing them only accentuates that acute loneliness. Even seeing them, I can almost feel the darkness that separates us. I almost can't explain it. This is a stupid feeling—I know—but I can't keep it at bay. I simply cannot shake this feeling that, in the end, I'm alone. I'm not even thinking metaphorically: I'm alone in this universe. I have no family, no friends…no one.

"Mate, you alright?" Ian suddenly asks, coming up behind me. "You're just standing there."

As quickly as it came, the feeling of loneliness is gone. I'm not alone; I have new friends here that I've come to know and love. I may have lost my family by coming here, but as corny as this will sound, the Normandy crew is starting to become my new family. No, I'm not alone. My friends will always have my back.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say, shaking my head to clear the last of the depressing thoughts. "I think this darkness is starting to get to me."

"You'll be fine," he says, sounding as cocky as ever. I don't know how the little bastard does it, but it seems like nothing can get him down.

"Yeah…I will be. Let's get going," I say, seeing that I appear to have held us up. No one responds verbally, but we continue walking.

Even though this hallway is longer and narrower than any previous one, there aren't any doors, so we literally just walk down the hall. Unfortunately, there appears to be about five separate air vents along the ceiling. As we slowly advance, I keep a close eye on each one. We reach the end of the hall without incident. Opening the door to the next room, it looks like—

CLANG!

My heart skips about three beats as we all turn around at the terrifyingly loud noise. There on the floor, one of the vent covers lies motionless. But that's all. No horrifying rachni soldier ready to spit acid in my face. No swarm of workers ready to explode all over me. Just the same empty hallway.

I think they're toying with us.

Slowly, once we're sure that nothing is coming out of the vent, we continue through the door. The room on the other side looks like a laboratory. The strange thing is this is the first one we've seen, even though this whole facility is supposed to be a lab. Weird.

Just like every other room so far, this one is empty. However, there is one thing that sets this room apart: There's an active terminal. I can't actually read what's on the screen because it's just a mass of heat. I guess this is one time when thermal doesn't work so well. It doesn't really matter, though; Jenny quickly sits down to start extracting data from the terminal.

The rest of us take positions around the room. There are only two doors in this lab, so Garrus and Ian guard the door we came in through while Liara and I go towards the other one. Opening the door, I'm met with a hallway similar to the one we came in through. I program the door to stay open, so nothing can sneak up on us.

For a few long minutes, the only sound in the room is Jenny typing away at the terminal. Whatever's on that thing must be heavily encrypted if it's taking her this long. Compared to the pure silence that had surrounded us earlier, her typing seems too loud…like a beacon telling every rachni—

No! Bad Dylan! I've told me to stop that!

Suddenly, I hear a bang as another air vent cover falls. Turning toward the other door, weapon ready, I fully expect an oncoming horde of rachni. When none is forthcoming, my heart starts to slow down again. However, I keep an eye on that door for a bit, making sure that—

skitter skitter skitter.

…

What was that? It sounded like a bug crawling across a metal floor…right behind me. In absolute terror, I whip around to look down my own hallway.

There's nothing there. Not even a fallen vent cover.

"What is it, Dylan?" Liara asks quietly, causing me to jump slightly.

"Didn't you hear that?" I counter.

"Hear what?" she responds, sounding completely oblivious to what just happened.

"The skittering noise from this hallway," I say, pointing down said passage.

"I did not hear anything emanating from this hall," the young asari tells me. "Are you sure you are alright?" I stay silent for a while, simply staring down the hall. I could have sworn that I hear something move in there.

"Yeah…I'm fine," I say, slowly. "Let's just keep up the watch."

"No need. We're done here," Jenny says, suddenly getting up from the terminal.

"What'd you find, Shepard?" Garrus asks, walking up to her.

"The last log entry was just after Benezia supposedly arrived," she explains, sounding grim. "It said: 'Creatures escaped. Falling back to Rift Station.'"

The previous silence now returns tenfold. That proves it right there: there are creatures—rachni—loose in the labs. We all share looks of (presumably) apprehension. It's kinda hard to tell behind the helmets.

"Whatever these creatures are, we need to keep going," Jenny says after a few long moments of silence. "Benezia is our top priority." We all nod our understanding. Without another word, we leave the small lab and enter the hallway Liara and I had been guarding.

Just like the one before, it's rather long and narrow…

That's what she said.

…

Anywho, we continue down said corridor, ever wary of the vents along the ceiling.

skitter skitter skitter.

Immediately, I wheel around to face the door we just came through with my weapon raised. There's nothing behind me besides Ian, who's the rear guard. I stand stock still, pointing my Mattock down the hall.

"You gonna put that thing down, mate?" Ian asks, sounding put off. I shake my head a little, realizing that I was basically aiming right at him. Slowly, I lower the weapon.

"Sorry, big guy. I thought I heard something behind us," I explain, sounding kinda sheepish.

"I didn't hear anything, and I'm making it a point to look behind at random intervals. If something gets by behind us, chances are I'll see it." I just give him a nod and a pat on the shoulder before continuing on.

The next room finally yields something valuable: the VI core. From what I can see on my thermal, it looks pretty much like it does in game: a short walkway with doors on each side leading to a rather large bank of servers. I let out a quiet sigh of relief; hopefully the VI can tell us how to get the lights back on. That's assuming we can get the VI working again. I remember in the game, it was just a simple Tower of Hanoi puzzle—I learned the secret to that in eighth grade. It's probably something slightly more complex in real life.

We slowly advance towards the server bank, keeping a constant eye on any vents that appear in our path. Just like almost every other vent we've come across, nothing happens. I'm starting to wonder if the rachni are even here.

skitter skitter skitter.

With a tremendous amount of will, I manage to resist the urge to turn around. I have to have faith that Ian will guard our backs. The fact that nothing has ever been there and that no one else has heard the noise makes me thing that I'm getting paranoid.

But just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out there…

…

NO! STOP!

As Jenny descends into the VI core, I lean against a wall, taking deep breaths and trying to calm myself down. I don't know what's going on, but something is definitely not right. I'm almost afraid of my own mind right now. Do you have any idea what it feels like to be afraid of your own mind? The one place where you should be able to go and feel safe? It feels like my last bastion of sanity is slowly slipping away. It's a terrible, frightening thing when you can't trust your own thoughts.

"What's up, Dylan?" Ian asks from next to me, causing me to jump slightly. "You seem really on edge." I exhale sharply, trying to expel the enormous tension I'm feeling.

"I don't know, man," I respond in barely a whisper. "This place was a little freaky before, but now that we know there are creatures here? I'm starting to freak myself out a little. It's almost to the point where I don't feel safe in my own head." He's silent for a while after my admission. While I'm not proud of it, I feel a little better for having done so.

"It's understandable to feel freaked out with all this," he tells me, trying to sound reassuring. "I mean, we're in a pitch black facility with some sort of unknown creature on the loose. We're all on edge, but you have to trust in the rest of us. No one here is gonna let anything happen to anyone else."

"You're right," I say after a while. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna stop being paranoid. I'd rather be paranoid than dead."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," he replies with evident amusement in his voice.

A short time later, Jenny ascends from the VI core. A moment later, the VI comes online in front of us.

After a hurried discussion with the facility's VI, we now have a new current objective. Well, a few actually. We need to get the main reactor back online, and we need to repair the landlines that connect the tram to Rift Station. I'm really, really glad that we're going to turn the main reactor back on first. That should get the lights working again. Then I can stop feeling completely helpless.

The lift taking us to the reactor room finally opens to a medium-size, square room. There's a door on either side and what looks like a terminal directly opposite us. If it is, in fact, a terminal, it's not working; there's hardly any heat radiating from it: certainly not enough for it to still work.

We go through the door on the right and find ourselves on a walkway suspended over the snow. Well…most of it, at least. There's a rather large section that just isn't there anymore. Tentatively, I start to walk forward of my own accord. Being an engineer (kind of) I think I can determine the reason that a long strip of walkway is gone. As I pass Jenny, she puts a hand on my shoulder, stopping me momentarily. I stop and look back at her, giving her what I hope looks like a confident nod. She seems to read it correctly because she lets me continue without a word.

I approach the edge of the gap with understandable caution; who knows if the rest of the walkway sustained damage from this…collapse? About two feet from the edge, my foot impacts something rather soft. Looking down quickly, I don't see anything on my thermal, but…I know there's something there. Switching to normal night vision, I…

Oh dear. That's…that's unexpected.

Lying on the walkway is a torso.

Just a torso.

Swallowing back my revulsion, I start to inspect the corpse. There's a straight cut right at the edge of the walkway, telling me that whatever cut through the path also probably cut through him. The disgusting thing is this isn't a clean cut, in any sense of the word. I'm not sure how to describe the wounds, other than that I've seen their like before: they look similar to Ash's from Feros. This was acid.

Fuck.

This poor bastard was killed by rachni acid. Not just killed, bisected. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. The fact that the body didn't show up at all on my thermal means that it's been dead for quite a while.

I sigh quietly. Since this guy was killed by rachni acid, it's a logical conclusion that the walkway suffered the same fate. Having my answer, I slowly make my way back to the squad.

"What happened?" Jenny asks once I take my previous place.

"Acid," I tell her quietly, looking at the ground. "It ate right through the metal. There was also a body there. Same fate." I pause and look up at her. "Whatever creature is running loose in here can spit acid. It's not pretty." She nods slowly before saying anything.

"We'll go around the other side. There's no way we can cross that gap." Without another word, she leads us back inside the previous room and through the opposite door. Thankfully, the walkway on this side is still intact, so we reach the reactor core without any further difficulty. Jenny starts to mess with the reactor's interface while the rest of us guard her back.

After that mess with the body, I'm sticking to night vision. I hadn't really considered the possibility of something matching its heat to the surrounding area. I guess that's the one fatal flaw in that system. So now everything has that classic green tint. I'm a little disappointed that the technology hasn't really advanced in 200 years, but who am I to complain? It works, and that's all that—

Did that shadow move? Staring intently at the offending shadow, I…I can't really tell. I quickly switch back to thermal vision and see that there's nothing there. Phew. I think I'll stick to thermal.

Suddenly a low hum starts up behind us.

"Main reactor core online," the VI says, its voice sounding much too loud. "Error, all facility lighting still non-operational. All other facility processes are fully functional."

…

The lights are still out. Why—and how—does everything else work? Why can't the lights come back? Even after Ian's little pep talk, I'm still not ok with being pitch black all the time. It's not even the fact that I can't see—I can with my night and thermal vision. It's the fact that I know it's all around me. I'm not even sure this is something that can be put into words; it's just that…I don't know. A part of me still thinks I'm just psyching myself out.

It's the other part I'm worried about.

Now that we've gotten the reactor back online—even if the fucking lights still won't work—and the landlines to Rift Station fixed, we can finally get away from this fucking facility.

Oh, did I not mention that we fixed the landlines? Well we did. Just like everything else in this place, there were absolutely no rachni. On a very positive note, we had to go outside to fix the thing, meaning we escaped the dark for a while. I didn't even care if I was freezing my balls off, I was just happy that I could see without technological assistance.

Going back inside was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But like I said, now we can leave, and I'm pretty sure the Rift Station will have power, seeing as there should be survivors there.

We finally enter the tram station after quite a few long, dark hallways. It's a fairly large room, and the tram is, of course, on the other freaking side. There are lines of benches here and there, making the place seem even emptier through their vacancy.

skitter skitter skitter.

Ok, this noise is really starting to get on my nerves. I've come to accept the fact that it probably isn't real. The fact that no one else ever hears it is a fairly strong indication. I just wish it would go away.

Skitter skitter skitter.

Wow, now it's happening more frequently. That's the second time, and we're not even halfway across the room.

Skitter Skitter skitter.

I stop suddenly, causing Ian to bump into me. This is starting to get more creepy than usual.

"You ok?" Ian asks. "Why'd you stop?"

"Are you guys sure you can't hear anything?" I ask the others, ignoring Ian's question.

"I haven't heard anything," Garrus says, giving me a look. "And turians have better hearing than humans do. You're imagining it."

I look around the room. I can't see any air vents, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

Skitter Skitter Skitter.

Suddenly everyone snaps to attention. Slowly, they all come to look at me.

"Is that what you've been hearing?" Jenny asks. I nod, not trusting my voice right now. "Everyone be on guard," she orders somewhat needlessly. "This isn't the best place to be caught. Wit nods all around, we continue through the room. We're so close. Why now?

Skitter Skitter Skitter Skitter!

CLANG!

I swear my heart stops as I spin around to look behind us. There…it's…it's right there.

"Goddess," Liara whispers in an awed voice.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

If my heart was still working before, it sure as hell isn't now. Quickly looking all around us…

We're fucked.

They've surrounded us.

We still have a good 70 feet before the trams, and there are rachni all around us. We were so close. Slowly, the creatures start to advance on us. Without waiting for orders, I start shooting into the mass of rachni that stand between us and the tram. Everyone else soon follows suit.

I swear, it looks like there are hundreds of the ugly fuckers. Certainly enough to surround us a few rows deep. And they're all soldiers. I don't see a single worker. Actually...I'm glad about that. Those little buggers (haha) are annoying as hell.

"What the hell are these things?" Garrus yells over the sound of gunfire.

"No clue!" Jenny shouts back. "Just keep shooting!" We do so. I'm firing so fast and so continuously that my Mattock actually overheats! This is the first time that's happened! In desperation, I pull out my Carnifex, hoping the hand cannon can do some damage.

…

This isn't working! We're running out of time! The front ranks of rachni are about 30 feet from us.

"How the hell are we getting out of this?" I ask, trying to think of a way out.

"Just keep shooting!" Jenny repeats.

"Fuck this," I hear Ian mutter from next to me. I look at him, and he looks like he's mentally preparing for something.

Oh no…

"ENGLAAAND!"

…

And then he charges the rachni.

The rest of us are too shocked by his sudden suicide charge to do anything more than stare at him. As he reaches the rachni, the trance is broken, and I hear Garrus let out a primal growl. We all start pouring fire into the rachni around Ian.

His battle cry soon turns into strangled cries for help.

There's nothing we can do.

The rachni swarm all over him, grabbing at his armor with those freaky appendages they have. Something seems off, though. It's like they're not trying to kill him as much as...grab him. What the fuck is going on? Finally, one manages to grab hold of Ian's shoulder. The rest of the swarm around him soon grab on as well.

Before we realize it, the rachni are gone, and Ian with them.

In complete shock, I fall into one of the numerous benches we were using for cover. Everyone else seems to think this is a great idea, and soon, we're all sitting on the benches, completely flabbergasted.

I…I don't…I don't know what just happened. He tried to break through. I don't know whether to call him brave or stupid. Maybe it was both.

After a few long minutes of stunned silence, Garrus abruptly snaps to his feet. He starts pacing wildly and growling that same feral growl I heard earlier.

"What the fuck were you all thinking?" he yells suddenly. "How could you let him do that?" The rest of us just sit there, looking completely dejected. "Why didn't we save him?" We remain silent. "Spirits, why did he have to go and do that?" All the hate is gone from his voice as he sinks back into his chair. "Why couldn't I protect him?" None of us have the answers he's looking for, so we opt to remain silent.

I'm not surprised he's acting this way. He just saw his best friend get dragged away by terrifying aliens.

"Come on," Jenny says quietly, standing up. "We need to keep moving." She looks at Garrus. "We'll find him, Garrus. I'll make sure of it."

The rest of us stand up slowly, still slightly in shock. In total silence, we all pile into the tram. Garrus sits alone in one corner.

The tram starts moving, but it's one passenger short.

A/N: Wow. This is the second chapter in a row I've done this. I really do feel like a terrible person after this.

So yeah, crazy times are had at Peak 15's main facility. Next up is the Rift Station. If the last two chapters are any indication, the events at the Rift Station will deviate from canon a bit.

I need to give another round of "thank you"s to iNf3ctioNZ. Not for anything specific, just a general helpfulness with this chapter. Sorry I'm being so rough on you, bud ;-)

Anywho, I suppose that's all for this chapter. Oh, actually, I just want to give a general thanks to all my great reviewers. Seriously, you guys (and girls) are awesome! So until next time, ta ta!