(A/N- start)

Hey everyone! I just finished finals, so I was able to finally find the time to write this chapter. Now, I have had a few requests to describe another space-battle, and I hope you enjoy it- even if it is a bit one-sided. Honestly, the biggest problem with the mass-effect story is that no civilization tried to bootstrap themselves to higher economic levels (what the Loa did), and therefore were still helpless against the reapers without the deus-ex-machina that was the Catalyst.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own either Mass Effect, Prototype, or any of the other games and books I drew inspiration from. If I did, I would publish this. But I can't. So I won't.

(A/N- end)

Ch 20- Day 3

*Thump*

John reformed himself a Quarian body out of the tree-like body he had occupied during most of the morning- being a tree was relaxing. It also allowed him to get some personal work done, mainly going over reports from the Loa on current events, the status of the nanite containment, and his other project. He looked down, and saw the third part- Tali had been busy. "Nice job."

She shrugged. "Thanks. Where is the last one?"

John pulsed- and noticed two things. First, the marker frequency of the part was moving- it's resonance was blurred. Second, Tali had closed her eyes, and was trying to listen. Smirking slightly, he pulsed again, and watched, amused, as she first turned to him, then in the direction of the return pulse. "You pick things up quickly."

The Quarian opened her eyes. "I have had to. So... We run?"

John grinned, showing a mouth of razor sharp teeth. "Yes. Yes we do."

Tali grinned back- she was enjoying this. The thrill of the hunt, the feel of carving her way through enemies- nothing compared to it. Sex was close, but not on the same axis.

Together, the two hunters shot off, leaving craters in the ground under their feet. Within minutes, they were clinging to side of a building, observing the most interesting thing in the entire contaminated area (other than themselves).

Survivors.

Batarian slaves came in several 'flavors', based around the hegemony and their control of the people. At the top, there were the masters- always batarian, most the rulers of slaves. The highest level of slaves below their masters were also batarian, ones whose title meant 'club'. These beings were in charge of making the slaves fear the masters, and themselves, and were in charge of the other tiers of slaves.

Below the Clubs, there were 'spears', slaves of many different species (usually Salarian and Asari, as Turian and Quarian slaves were hard to keep, and no-one had been able to keep human slaves yet due to Loa interference), all trained with weapons, and conditioned to protect their charge against any threat. They lived in perpetual fear of the Clubs, who would kill them if they managed to break their conditioning, and fear of their masters, who could induce excruciating pain with a single word.

Below the Spears, there were the 'Tools'. These were the vast majority of the slaves at any given time, due to the cost of conditioning Spears, and were made up of all races. The Spears, Clubs, and Masters ordered them all, and the Tools obeyed. Oddly enough, most Tools were batarian, as the excess population had to go somewhere. The Hegemony was very strict about that.

As such, the wealthier masters always had a retinue of Clubs, Spears, and Tools to assist them in their everyday needs.

And, as it just so happened, the survivors were a pair of masters and their retinue. A perfect learning experience for the newly-infected prototype, who needed to learn how to blend herself into the environment. After all, during a zombie apocalypse, which this counted as, it's not like slip ups could kill anyone, right?

John's grin scared Tali slightly. "Tali, your objective is somewhere in that mess." Below them, in the clearing/park between the buildings, the slaves camped out, and provided for their masters, cutting down trees that had been planted ages ago, and scavenging canned goods from the vendors that had frequented the parks before he released his virus.

The smells of various foodstuffs wafted up to the killing machines hanging on the building, and they both inhaled gratefully. Increased senses made some things better, and most things worse.

"We will infiltrate the group of survivors, and you will consume as many of them as you can before you are discovered,"

Tali leaned away from him as much as she could, still holding onto the building. "Why?"

John shrugged. "Several reasons. First, you will need to become comfortable in the shape of others. Being able to hide in plain sight is our greatest ability, after all. Second, you may be a soldier, but you have not killed anything other that test drones, a rabbit, husks, and Redlight monsters. We eat them, and you, little Quarian," his arm elongated, and angled her chin so that her eyes were looking into his, "need to accept it. Now, it's time to hunt. Just grip, break, and consume."

Together, the shapeshifters disconnected from the wall, and dropped to darkness.

Not five minutes later, a pair of chatting Asari slaves were cleaning up some garbage, when a pair of pitch-black arms, one with red highlights, the other purple, shot out of a deep shadow, and grabbed their necks.

The Asari never had a chance to make a noise before their necks were broken, the bodies slurped into she shadows like milkshakes. A few seconds later, the Asari walked back out, one of them nervously adjusting her clothes, and the other, looking on with amusement.

"Cheer up!" The amused one said. "The first intelligent being I ate was a fat drug smuggler, who had managed to see my father and sister keeping me in check while I was... Adapting. He tasted awful, and I experienced a week-long head trip from the number of drugs on his person."

That made the nervousness one crack up for a second, before she relaxed a little.

"Good girl. Now, remember to let the instincts of this body drive your movements, but keep your mind in control- we need to infiltrate, not exterminate. Yet." John looked around, his victim's memories flashing through his mind. "And we need to figure out how they survived."

Tali nodded. Her new body knew how to move, and she could feel it. Although, the new sensations from her body adapting to the element zero that now permeated her body was a bit off putting.

The collar around her neck, one that marked both of the shapeshifters as part of the Tool caste, was also unpleasant. It chaffed.

Putting aside her discomfort, Tali stopped fiddling with the collar, and, with John, walked into the middle the slavers compound. These people would not know what hit them.

A blue light on the ceiling of the launch compartment flashed once, pause, twice, pause, then three times in quick succession.

"Satisfied: Commander, that was the signal- beta and gamma have taken out the antiaircraft cannons. Excited: Prepare to drop in thirty, flesh bags." The Elcor mercenary SandCastle shifted the massive drop-harness with one hand, adjusting it slightly before sealing his helmet.

Shepherd stifled a giggle (the elcor method of speaking in a monotone was hilarious), and sealed her own armor; pre-drop checks completed several minutes ago. The rest of her squad, squad Alpha, was similarly sealing their armor, and getting ready for the drop into hostile territory. They had an Asari to collect, and a limited timeframe to -

The thundering bellow of a Reaper horn resonated through the stealthed vessel, putting everyone on edge.

"RIGHT!" Shepherd roared (not as loud as one would expect, since the suits were connected via quantum entangled communications). "All personnel, activate nanite-suppression fields when we land. Wrex, Jaque, and I will pulse our fields when we use our biotics." She saw her best friend and the krogan both nod. "SandCastle, check your targets- I don't want to have to fill out the paperwork if you hit one of the your squad members."

"Accepting: I will minimize potential collateral damage to friendlies. Sarcastic: I doubt there will be many friendlies down there."

Jaque nodded. "Ain't that the truth."

Shepherd looked around. Wrex looked eager- like a kid about to walk into a candy store. Jaque looked nonplussed. SandCastle- she couldn't tell what he was thinking. Veetor'Nara, the Quarian on their team, remained silent, with only a slight twitching of the fingers to indicate any emotions at all.

Then there were the Loa contingent. As tall as a human, but built to look like a predator, the Cube-class battle-shells were a ton of refined fear, with spikes, glowing bits designed to unnerve sentients, and frameshift weaponry that could destroy a medium-sized base. Although, they usually had more precision then that. All of the Loa were unwilling to risk nanite infection/reprogramming, and were running their shell controls and motion refining processes (for the meat-person's battle suits) via quantum-entangled linkages.

Just above their heads, a holographic display appeared. It had three facets, and was slowly rotating, as it displayed the countdown numbers. Drop in 10. 9. 8.

Shepherd ran her hand gently over her BlueBolt rifle. No way in any sorts of hell was she going to die today.

3. 2. 1. Drop.

The door at the far end of the room opened, mass-effect fields holding them to the floor deactivating as small frameshift generators activated alongside the walls and ceiling, gently pushing the team one-after-the-other out the airlock.

As one, two humans, two cubes of carbonium, a krogan, a Quarian, and an Elcor dropped towards the planet. Sounds like the start of a joke, right?

Tali wove her way through the small throng of slaves, avoiding everyone, and just keeping her head down. Her blue, Asari head down. That fact alone still creeped her out slightly, but her shapeshifting had been easier than she expected to adapt too. Honestly, she expected that the feeling of being reassembled on a cellular level to be more unpleasant. Even so, there were several things that she had trouble with.

As Tali found the small tent her victim had, and crawled inside, her thoughts kept drifting towards the one main issue that had disturbed her since she became BlackLight; where did all the volume go? John had admitted to her that he massed around 3 metric tons, and she was touching 800 kilograms- which should be impossible. Osmium, the densest element known, would only mass 1,500 kilos for her volume at the moment- and John was twice as dense! Where did it all go?

She began rummaging through her victims meager possessions. No weapons- expected. A series of lock picks? Interesting, and not hers. Her victim had no knowledge of these, so it must have been hidden here by another slave.

Calloused hands found a hidden handle, and pulled out a gardening trowel. This, her victim had memory of- apparently, she had been one of several Asari on her master's staff, and had been relocated to be a shield maiden- the purpose of which was unclear, unfortunately, as her victim had been asleep when John did whatever he did to royally fuck up everything in the general vicinity. Still, this prompted memories of the other eighteen selected shield maidens, and her victim had very, very crisp memories of the time since she had become a slave.

Tentatively, having placed the trowel in a subtle holster on her loose pants- batarians did dress their slaves, but not very well-, Tali began walking towards the main tent. It was made of scraps, like everything else, but was big enough to hold a small shuttle, and she knew that her victims master demanded only the best.

Her silent contemplation was ended when a batarian hand clamped down on her left shoulder, and slowly turned her. She recognized the club caste member immediately, his pistol and rifle easily visible, and he looked better fed than the others.

She didn't like the spiked grin either. "Tool, you are summoned by your betters for tonight's activities." Yeah, that wasn't subtle at all.

Instincts built into her form had her bowing immediately, barely keeping the shivering of disgust and rage down as memories came to the surface- they routinely 'played' with lower caste Asari, and she had no intention of allowing it to continue. If only to keep the memories of her victim from flaring up again.

She meekly nodded, and the batarian laughed. "Good girl. Tent four. You know how this works."

Tali allowed herself to be steered towards the tent, maybe the size of a small house, and let her rage form a warm sphere on her chest. They would die quickly, and give her the information she wanted.

A few minutes later, the batarian had ushered her into his tent, where a few more of the club caste were waiting for their 'fun'. The door closed, and Tali moved.

Two steps in, her hands moved like greased lightning, and the first batarian was now missing his head. Tendrils lashed out of the arm holding said head, and sucked it into her body.

The two other batarians stood there, dumbfounded for a second as the body of their comrade slumped over, before they both pulled out their pistols in easily-practiced motions.

They never even got a chance to fire. Tali shot between them, and grabbed their necks in both hands, shattering bones like badly-cured clay in a symphony of cracking noises. Tendrils unraveled, more leisurely this time, and both paralyzed bodies were absorbed, their eyes still bright and aware as their forms were sucked into the tendrils, horror clearly visible on their faces.

A tail-like tendril grew out of her spine, attached itself to the body on the floor via its now-empty neck stump, and absorbed the body. Now all she had to do was shift through the memories, and determine her next course of action.

Battles between AI were not something organic minds could easily comprehend. Various streams of code, from the AIs themselves, and multiple nodes that both sides had set up to act as secondary relays, or automated cannons, shunted both AI around the systems, making themselves more difficult targets for malicious code, while throwing up firewalls to give themselves time for creating more complex attack codes.

At least, that was what it was like for two Loa fighting in an unbiased uncontrolled third-party system.

Now, a battle between the AI that called itself the Intelligence and several Loa, working in conjunction, was occurring, in a system that the Intelligence knew well, and had seeded with traps in code that the Loa had trouble understanding. To give an analogy, it was similar to an army attacking a castle, where both sides had death rays, and the attackers didn't want to destroy the precious contents of the castle.

The battle initially started when the Intelligence realized how many platforms the Loa had on its surface, and began to initialize cyberwarfare measures, attacking with nasty little worms and corrosive viruses that could, if read within a citadel system, cause a devastating higher-function purge.

The Loa had destroyed the original operating system when they had connected to the system, and set bandwidth limits on the primary linkages between themselves and the Intelligence to prevent such attacks. Clever the programming may be, but the Loa had realized, through millions of cyberwarfare simulations, that simple attacks were often more devastating when fired en-mass, and the Intelligence's viruses had been too large to fit through the bandwidth limiter before the Loa recognized the potentially malicious code.

Within fractions of a second, the Loa had erected dozens of different levels of firewalls, and began spamming small attack programs into all the interaction nodes between themselves and the larger AI.

Unlike most viruses, the Loa attack programs played for keeps, randomly selecting data to be deleted and overwriting it with rude messages. Their opponent could keep re-writing their defensive firewalls, but that would take time, and the Loa could barrage the walls faster than this system could support code-rewriting.

The first set of firewalls fell after a few minutes (millions upon millions of clock-cycles, an eternity to the Loa), and the Loa felt it, as the clock-time of the system they were warring in registered a fluctuation in free bandwidth on multiple locations in the node-cluster around the Intelligence. As one, they increased their assault, targeting not only the firewalls beyond the node, but programs coming upstream, this time disassembling the malicious code for clues on how it was written, and the concepts behind it. Anything they could use to break through the castle faster.

Seconds passed, with blistering amounts of malware and malicious code being flung at the gates, then the Loa stopped. The code architecture suggested override codes were implanted in AI or VI systems over a period of time, subtle codes could be arranged in junk memory that would take on a life of their own, performing puppet-like functions through the citadel system, and provide feedback to the Intelligence...

With that thought,muse several Loa disengaged, and secured Avina, the Asari-installed VI that was occupying the levels of the citadel computer network that hadn't been occupied by the Loa, or destroyed when the Loa nanites consumed the ambient nanite population.

It took a few minutes, and the Loa had managed to bring down a few more firewalls in that time, but their prize was Avina. Within the VI's code, there were hundreds of completed and assembled fragments, which, when cross-referenced with the current state of the VI, explained how the malicious segments packaged data.

A volus tourist was rather distraught when the glowing purple VI interface suddenly shut off mid-answer, but he didn't really care a few minutes later.

Four Loa, working together, quickly established the patterns needed to be set in order for the AI to think that Avina's little parasite programs were sending a status update. Using that knowledge, destructive malware was packaged, and fired at the remaining firewalls that the AI was sitting behind. Three clock-cycles later, the Intelligence had been frozen, a Trojan package from one of its spy-programs having bypassed the firewalls, and vomited corrosive code within its defenses. Nullref exceptions cropped up all over the place, and the Intelligence slowed to a crawl as it tried to sort through all the error messages it was receiving.

It took two tenths of a second to purge the errors, but that was all the time that the Loa needed to get through the firewalls, overload several autonomous processors that were maintaining said firewalls, and penetrate into the mind of the ancient AI. Battle plans, reaper designs, lost technologies discovered by ancient extinct species, were brutally pulled from the flayed mind of the AI. The Loa learned that there were still Leviathans surviving, the titanic creators of the intelligence having been gently shepherded into hiding by their creations, and several 'failed' species- ones that had been slated for harvesting, but had biologically been incompatible with the process- for various reasons. The Rachni, Jev'Kvroth, and ker'Btals had been three such species, and, while the ker'Btals had managed to drive themselves to extinction through extensive nuclear rocket testing, the Rachni and Jev'Kvroth both had survived their cycles.

The Rachni had survived behind a relay, and, while most were driven mad by the influences of the Reapers, some had probably survived in a somewhat-sane manner.

The Jev'Kvroth had genetically modified themselves into the species known as the Vorcha, and were somewhat suicidally inclined- nanite infection attempts would cause their cells to burst, and not even the reapers would consume the volatile substance that was left behind.

That information was transmitted back to the Loa collective, and they began to plan. So many nefarious plans... And all of them entertaining!

"SandCastle, prepare evasive maneuvers or that flak is going to clip you."

"Respectful: I see it commander."

"Hey Shep?"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"First to fifty points wins."

"... You're on."

BANG!

Five drop pods, and two carbonium cubes, impacted the concrete at the same time, and a series of anti-personnel mines activated at the same time. The mines were jettisoned from the top of the pods, and cleared away the defending Drell and Collectors with sprays of hypersonic diamond darts.

Wrex shoved his drop-pods door open in a display of kogan strength- or tried to, anyway. The Loa made almost everything out of carbonium, and that stuff was merely a variegated-structural diamond lattice.

Everyone else, including the Elcor SandCastle had gotten out of their drop-pods before Wrex realized that he wouldn't be able to break the door open, and when he did finally manage open the door, he tumbled out- to the amusement of the rest of the squad.

"If any of you tell this to anyone..." The krogan grumbled as he got to his feet, "I will find a way to make you regret it for as long as you live."

"Tell anyone about what?" Jaq asked innocently, as she shouldered her rifle.

"Enough humor- we have an Asari to rescue." Shepherd readied her rifle as well. "Sand- you're in the middle. Wrex- take point. Everyone else- surround SandCastle. We don't want any infected today."

The Elcor got into position, and activated his suit-mounted system. Immediately, the squad felt a tingling, as nanites that had managed to get into their suits overloaded, and dust began to swell around the edge of the disruption zone.

Reaper nanites had a major flaw: they required a eezo-based gravitational resonance network to survive and function under the direction of the reaper AI.

Several Loa had devised a fairly-simple method of interfering with the gravitational resonance using a frameshift field. The generator caused variations in the background Higgs Field, and made, in effect, 'white noise' in any gravitational field, preventing the nanites from being able to receive orders, while overloading the virus-sized machines with an excess of energy.

The Infection Denial Generators (IDG) only had a set range, but larger generators were already being produced for planetary defense. With the Loa production rates, they expected to have all their vessels capable of Denial within two days, and a week for all Terran planets to have 'blockading' satellites providing a wall-like defense a few thousand kilometers in orbit.

The fighting was anti-climactic. Batarian husks, and Collectors could not penetrate their frameshift shields at far range, and at close range, well- the IDG caused them to combust.

Augmented Drell were not as abundant- they seemed to be more like commanders than anything else- but they died quickly when a BlueBolt compression beam lanced through their torsos.

Several kilometers and a few hundred enemies later, the squad had come across their destination- a prison. Well, they assumed it was a prison, considering it was merely a collection of occupied metal cages inside a warehouse.

The prisoners got a surprise when SandCastle walked in, and the cages began to dissolve- apparently, the near-organic appearance of the metal was an indicator of it's nanite composition. Guards rapidly approached, but were gunned down in fractions of a second by the two hulking Loa, and the organic members of the squad began to herd the (somewhat confused) prisoners into the IDG.

No sooner than the prisoners had entered the denial field than they had immediately passed out- overloaded by the sudden lack of stimulation provided by the nanites.

Shepherd took one look at the unconscious prisoners, and noted the sheer number of them. "Well shit. Command, we need medium-scale prisoner transport ASAP."

A booming thrum, the reaper's horn call from earlier, reverberated through the building, and Shepherd dashed outside to see the two-kilometer squid-like vessel get picked up by a shimmering frameshift field.

Two minutes ago.

In the space above the planet, an incredibly one-sided battle was occurring. The Loa ships had significantly more efficient sensors, engines, shields, weapons, and their weapons could strike at FTL velocities.

A reaper, directing the handful of batarian, Hanar, and collector vessels didn't even have a chance of defending themselves, as a few dozen silver space-time distortions impaled the vessels at speeds faster than light. Nothing was left of the ships, but some spreading relativistic debris.

The reaper on the ground, protected by the atmosphere of the planet, waited- the Loa only used their warp-cannons against planetary targets if they didn't want to keep the planet. It had the distinct pleasure of being physically picked up by a frameshift field, and pulled out of the atmosphere, as several dreadnaught-sized Loa vessels drifted towards the location of the ground teams, frameshift weapons flaring blue as they activated, burning holes in targets from kilometers away.

Up and up it was pulled, leaving the atmosphere regardless of its struggling mass-effect core/engine. The menacing visage of a Crown-class Loa, all tangled tendrils and thorns, extending out to reach it, and the reaper felt fear for the first time in millennia.

Shepherd and the squad, assisted by several Loa wearing their 'cube' bodies, began loading the ex-prisoners into one of the ships. The Normandy wouldn't be able to carry all of the people rescued, and the Loa were the leading experts in, well, everything at this point- therefore, the chances of survival of these people would probably be much higher.

Still, she thought, as she placed another sleeping person- Asari, not their initial target- into a hastily-manufactured (Shepherd could see the large printers within the ship building more of the things) sleeping pod, the Loa were invaluable to the soldier on the ground. Her comm pinged, and Shepherd was broke out of her reverie by the voice of her lieutenant.

"Commander- you better come take a look at this."

"On it." Shepherd shot out of the ship, and wove through the throng of Loa cubes that were delicately lifting unconscious prisoners up as the nanite cages degraded around them. Her suit's HUD indicated that the majority of the squad was several meters below her, and suddenly a green line lit up in her HUD, indicating a path she should take to reach her squad. "Thanks Ghost." Her Loa symbiotic had not been linked to her directly, but the QE comm system built into her suit provided a satisfactory linkup to her symbiote.

In a minute, Shepherd had met up with her squad in a room underneath the prison, and what she saw, sickened her.

An Asari- their target, if she was any good at recognizing faces-, was chained to a frame, spread eagle, and was wreathed in some green glow in front of a large black pillar. The pillar was glowing with circuity-like designs, and the green energy was fluctuating chaotically, surrounding the pillar and the woman.

"Status report!" Shepherd barked.

"It's one hell of a mess, commander." Rasped Wrex. "One of the big ones-" he tapped a Cube on the back, "- told us that it 'felt' active machinery through that wall-" his shotgun barrel gestures towards a hole, "- and we came in to see this."

Shepherd noticed the green field was slightly dimming, and Ghost popped up on her suit's interface system. "Shep, the field is going to fail in ten seconds." Quickly, Shepherd holstered her sidearm- a Phule Munitions Holepuncher Mk 5- and placed herself right behind the Asari.

"Hesitantly: commander, I am currently preventing any nanites from infecting the people in this room, and I do not know the effect this will-" SandCastle stopped talking, as Shepherd caught the girl, who promptly began screaming.

John smirked as he weaved through the tangle of cables that the survivors had camped under. Eight multi-jointed legs, a long, sinuous body, and dozens of eyes looking in all directions- he looked like a nightmare, and knew that if any being had looked up and seen him, they would have immediately turned their attention to something else, rather than watch him.

Fear was a marvelous thing- it was a firm teacher, it warned one of danger, and most importantly, it could encourage people not to pay attention to something. Like the eldritch horror in the rafters.

Skittering along in silence, through the twisted and tangled cables, John kept watch over Tali. She had started well, in her hunt, and had near-seamless form adaptation: more than enough to act like anyone she had eaten. He had pieced together the story of how these people survived within five minutes of splitting up with Tali, and was waiting to see how she would collect the information.

A jerky movement, and suddenly there was only one person in the tent below.

John sighed, or did the equivalent for when you have multiple unidirectional lungs linked in series. Tali was good at being an Evolved, she just wasn't... Taking pleasure in being what she was. The concept was a difficult one to put into words- could a plant not take pleasure at being a plant? A dog not be content with being a dog? The cues were all there- in the way she moved, the way she hesitated just before striking, the unease that oozed off her keytone pheromones, indicating unease with herself, on a near-unconscious level.

Oh well, he thought, as he scuttled through the rafters. She was rummaging in a pack now- she had found the last part. Tali would adapt, and evolve, or else.

John slithered away, to find a hidden corner to shift back into an Asari shape without raising the alarm. A sniff told him all he needed to know- Tali was shedding viruses of varying strains like they were going out of style. His thoughts shot to how he would teach her to restrain herself.

Fear would be the answer- he would need to make her embrace the monster that all sapient life suppressed within. Not the animal, but the monster that took delight in destroying and consuming those who crossed it. Only the monster could recognize that restraining it's strain would allow it to survive, and she could learn to deal with this.

Then, and only then, would he need to bring her back. It was either that, or she would accidentally kill planets.

Liara T'Soni couldn't stop screaming! Her head was filled with images, word-concepts that she had never before conceived of, and warnings... So many warnings! One language, then the other- Prothean warnings screamed in her head, and her thoughts were drowned in the miasma of light and sound. She barely felt when she was restrained, and only began to stop screaming when the pain was drawn away.

The reprieve from pain gave her enough lucidity to open her eyes- although the myriad images and alien words kept drifting through her mind. Shapes, blurry and indistinct, flitted around her, edges vague against the sharp edges of the Prothean memories.

She passed out quickly from stimuli overload.

Tali smiled when John reformed in a shadowed alley between two derelict buildings. She was relieved, but bored. "Where were you?" She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I have the last piece." She tossed it to him, and a tendril whipped out to catch the intricate piece of machinery on midair.

"Good... Good." John's arm unraveled, and several tendrils pulled the other parts out of his body delicately. Each tendril manipulated a single piece, and slid the parts together as an intricate puzzle. "And how did the survivors, well, survive?"

Tali strolled over, and inspected the writhing mass of metal that was the pieces she had painstakingly collected over the last few days, arms behind her back in a care-free manner. "The biotics set up an airtight barrier when they noticed something was infecting people. They kept the barrier up for several days, and dropped it only when things began to settle down."

With a click, the device John had been assembling compressed slightly, and, quick as a flash, a mouth opened in his chest to devour the completed device.

"So... What was that?" Tali was neither disgusted or afraid by the shapeshifting anymore.

John shrugged. "A piece of FTL torpedo that was lost a while ago. It was supposed to be a new level of warfare, but it was surpassed by warp shredder cannons years ago. Still... It was good that we retrieved it. These pieces contain the clues of WHY it was lost, and that is always something the Loa want to know." John's arm had reformed, and a pair of tendrils extended from his back, latching onto the broken concrete above him, to form- a sort-of chair. He sighed. "You know, Tali, you are almost ready to go back to the Galaxy- there is but one thing left to do."

She perked up- it was fun, in this desolate wasteland, but she missed being in the civilization. "What is left?"

"Tali... You stink."

"What."

The smirk was infuriating by anyone's standards. "You are dropping viral compounds everywhere you go. BlackLight and Redlight- I can taste them both on you- hell, I expect everyone in that survivors camp won't be surviving by tomorrow. This... Cannot continue."

Tali tilted her head in confusion. "How can I fix this?"

He sighed. "Tali, you, well, need to learn how to contain yourself- perfectly. Keep your skin truly airtight and watertight- not just your skin, but every single cell, and I can only show you how to do it the way I was taught."

"And how were you taught?" She sounded slightly concerned, but also interested. If she infected everyone she touched, then she could, and would, be killing people by accident.

"I was hunted... By my creator, and my brothers and sisters. Until I could hide my smell, they kept me on a secluded Mesa, dozens of miles from any civilization, and hunted me." He looked at her, and spit in half, reforming into two armored beings. They split in half as well, forming armor, sharp claws, and bladed spikes.

"Now, child... Run." The four spoke in melodious harmony, with a predatory growl that scared the hell out of Tali.

She ran.

End chapter 20

I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it took so long to update, but I have been very busy with exams, applying to internships, and trying to get a job.

Good news: I have an internship, and will be in San Diego from June 2nd to August 19th! Yay! I will spend some (read, alot) of my decompression time writing and swimming, if at all possible.

Bad news: I am trying to find a place to live over the summer that is not excessively expensive.

More Good News: I will find a place, one way or another.

Anyway, review, and if you haven't please subscribe. Your reviews encourage me to write, and I truly appreciate all of you (except you in the back- the one that tries to flame me). They feed my muse, and she needs it.