A/N: trololololol! You guys and girls have no faith in me. Seriously, what could I possibly ever have done for you to believe I'd leave you hanging like that for two weeks? :P

So yeah… this update has absolutely nothing to do with tayg publicly holding me to ransom (seriously, thank her), or the torrent of *cough* loving *cough* abuse you guys were so kind to leave ;)

Enjoy the short (sorry, length constrained by 2hr train journey) cliffhanger-less (mmmhmm?) chapter… I'm out before the other half throws a Shepard-esque fit. See what I do for you… group hug? A bit more lovin'? ;P

Shepard barked in pain as the air was driven from her lungs. Acting on instinct, she reflexively threw up a barrier, even as she felt her body slide to the floor. Tucking herself into a ball, she pushed off from the wall, rolling into cover behind the lab machinery. Shaking her head vigorously to clear the fog, she glanced around, cursing internally at how she had let Ventralis confiscate her weapons and armour; he had given her some horseshit excuse about how they would interfere with decontamination procedures.

Besides, Commander, aren't we all already exposed? Shouldn't make a difference if you go in helmeted or not. No need to worry about the bugs, either. Labs are sealed with irradiated positive pressure ventilation systems. Ain't no critter gonna make it through without getting fried first.

You're a goddamn fool, Shepard. She had been careless; too impatient to get the cure and get off this damn facility. Under normal circumstances, there would have been no way Ventralis would have gotten his way. She needed a weapon, and fast. There was no way she and her trusty boot knife would survive unarmoured in a toe-to-toe battle against three well-armed, and apparently well-trained, biotics. The only thing she had going for her was that they were unhelmeted. Asari mercs could be arrogant like that.

C'mon Shep, think! At this rate, you'd be lucky if you could so much as give one of those bitches a gigantic fucking wedgie before they blow your brains out.

The silly thought made her smirk, even as she surveyed her surroundings. Buy some time.

"You know, just for once, I wish one of your meatheads would surprise me with a fucking pizza delivery… or flowers… or chocolate. Hell, even a fucking Chihuahua would be preferable to every single one of you fucks trying to blow my brains out all the time. Number one rule of dating. Don't. Be. Predictable."

"Do you always talk this much Commander? Come now. Stand up and I promise I'll kill your two companions quickly. I do hate breaking a sweat."

Shepard grinned as she spotted what her assailants were standing under. On the desk she was crouched beside, there was some pencil and paper. Archaic, but she supposed it was useful for on-the-fly record-taking.

"Yeah? Couldn't have guessed that, 'cos you smell like vorcha shit. I think it's time you had a shower."

With that, she yanked the emergency contaminant leak cord, letting out a laugh as alarms started wailing and the decontamination shower activated. In an instant, all three asari were bombarded by powerful ice-cold jets of water, causing them to jump and yelp in surprise. That was all the distraction Shepard needed, as she lunged for the pencils, grabbing one in each hand. Spinning, blue wisps of power skimming over her bare arms, she hurled the makeshift projectiles, letting out a whoop of glee as each found their target. The two asari flanking the leader crumpled to the ground, the only evidence as to their cause of death being the streams of purple flowing from the holes in their foreheads.

The remaining asari, to her credit, recovered quickly, diving out of sight before Shepard could unleash another barrage. The Commander ducked back down swiftly as a torrent of gunfire was unleashed, peppering the wall behind her with bullet holes. The decontamination shower was making it difficult to pin-point the asari's location. Not only was it loud, but it also reduced visibility drastically. Shepard supposed it at least meant the assassin was having the exact same trouble locating her.

The Commander inched along the machine, quietly removing her boot knife as she did so. As she came to the edge, she paused, pressing her face into the corner, trying to see around it without giving away her position. Goddamn shower. Admitting it was pointless trying to see through the relentless jet of water, Shepard looked around, trying to find a concealed path by which she could flank her attacker.

Suddenly, a glint caught her eye; a feral grin spread across her face as she realised it was a reflection off her would-be assassin's flaring biotics. Rookie error. Gotcha, shit for brains. Shepard watched as the asari extended her arm, preparing to arc a singularity to trap her prey. The moment her focus was diverted towards creating the sphere of dark energy, the Commander leapt from her hiding place, charging towards her target. She barely registered the searing iciness or the brutal beating of the waterfall she passed under as she materialised next to her target.

Shepard yanked the asari's arm backwards, spinning her around, just as the singularity began to take shape. Smirking at her attacker's surprised yelp, she ferociously swung her combat knife at the asari's bare neck. The assassin was no pushover, though. In a surprisingly swift recovery, she blocked the incoming knife, swatting Shepard's arm away with a pulse of biotic energy, before ramming the butt of her rifle into the Commander's unprotected midsection.

Shepard stumbled backwards, gasping for breath and against the pain in her stomach. Out of the corner of her swimming vision, she vaguely registered a right hook hurtling towards her face. Not enough time to block. Oh well, sorry, Chakwas. Gritting her teeth, she allowed the punch to meet her jaw, turning her face with the impact so as to lessen the force of the blow. Immediately, while the asari's centre of gravity was off, she reached up, yanking on the assassin's outstretched arm and pulling her forwards roughly. There was a satisfying crack as her attacker's nose impacted her knee.

Pausing only to spit out some of the blood flooding her mouth, she grasped the asari by her crest, barely able to maintain a grip, as they were both soaking wet. The assassin's eyes flashed in anger as they met Shepard's. Ignoring the torrent of blood flowing from her broken nose, she lunged at the Commander, blue fire dancing all over her body. Shepard feigned to the right, letting out a soft laugh when the asari fell for it. Without giving her enough time to recover, the Commander plunged her knife into the assassin's neck.

"Next time, go with the candy and flowers, dumbass."

Angrily wringing her hair of water, Shepard stalked over to the now-manufactured cure, hauling the boxes under her arm as she wiped her knife off on her trousers.

Cohen better be fucking right about this, she fumed, as she slapped open the door to the lab. The quarantine break was just too convenient. She did not trust the man; he was a serpent if she had ever met one – it seemed out of character for him to want to help the refugees – and her – out of the goodness of his heart. Whatever his intentions, she was going to need someone a lot smarter – and a lot geekier – to make sense of the damn mess. She shook her head lightly, trying to clear the remaining haze. Tali would be busy trying to fix the water systems; much as she hated to postpone her objective, a couple of hours would probably be needed to beat some sense into Cohen, anyway. That, and the survivors deserved the chance to make it out of this mess alive.

Liara, then.

She sighed; the last thing the asari needed right now was to worry about trying to disentangle the complexities of a bioweapon. Her mother was in deep in the mother of all dung piles, and they might very well have to take her down. Then again, Shepard figured she did not really have a choice. There was no way she would be able to figure this out on her own; especially not if Cohen was up to something else and was trying to misdirect her. Reluctantly, she activated her omni-tool, opening a comm link to Liara.

"Hey, Monday, how's the scavenging going? Listen, uh, I'm gonna need to pick your brains on something… meet me in the mess in a couple of minutes, alright?"

Kai Leng's gaze was fixed intently on the approaching quarian, his finger tensed over the trigger of the viral spray. Suddenly, his attention was drawn towards a scratching sound off to his right. Keeping an eye on the street rat with his peripheral vision, he glanced over, trying to make out the source of the noise. He knew that there had been a problem with breeding the rachni here; Cerberus had managed to acquire some of the choice specimens a week or so ago, though, so he had not concerned himself much with the research. He had not had the time to fully appraise this particular situation – he knew that a few rachni had escaped confinement, but what the exact problem was, he could not be sure.

Still, he could not risk the Illusive Man's plans going awry. He prided himself on getting the job done, and this particular one was made all the more fulfilling since it involved making aliens suffer. He glanced back at the quarian, cursing internally when he realised she had stopped in her tracks, her weapon drawn. Damn girl must have heard it, too. He briefly considered moving closer towards her, or attacking, before deciding against it. She would continue on soon enough. Besides, the Illusive Man had been very clear that he wanted as little intrusion as possible; they were to attack and intervene without anyone even suspecting their involvement.

The quarian had backed up a little, scanning the room intently with her shotgun.

She's not getting away!

Kai Leng was watching his prey so intently that it was too late when the next sound hit his ears. Spinning to his right, his eyes widened as he found himself face-to-face with three gigantic insects. He cursed his carelessness, even as he dropped onto his back, unsheathing his boot knife in one fluid motion. The ruckus was an acceptable compromise; with luck, the street rat would put it down to the rachni and be on her way. He would just have to take care of business without firing his weapons.

Swinging wildly, he sneered as he felt his knife glance off the hard exoskeleton of the rachni. Glancing through the vent covers quickly, he saw the quarian rapidly backing up. He was going to have to chance it. Knowing he did not have long to act, he brought the spray to his mouth, yanking the cover off with his teeth. Instantly, a hiss filled the room as the pressurised contents of the canister were released. Throwing up a barrier with one hand, he flung the canister through the vent cover, directly at the quarian. Immediately, she dove out of sight; there was nothing he could do now, but get out and monitor the situation from the video feeds.

He hissed in pain as his barrier collapsed under the relentless barrage of the three rachni. How he had gotten himself into this situation, he did not quite know – it was completely uncharacteristic. Obviously, his desire to see the street rat dead was stronger than he had thought. Later, Leng! Concentrate!

The self-berating could wait; if he did not kill these bugs currently trying to eat him alive, there would be nothing left to rebuke. A blast of biotic energy sent the rachni careening backwards; he was careful not to direct any of them into the room lest the quarian come back with help and see where the canister had come from. He scrambled to his feet, preparing to charge. However, just as he was pushing himself off the ground, three jets of acid came flying towards him. Reflexively, he managed to bat two away, but could not react to the third in time.

He snarled in pain as the jet whizzed past his left ear, a proportion of it falling onto his face and neck. Should have worn a damn helmet. Instinctively, he brought a hand up to his head, trying to swipe some of the corrosive material off before it ate into bone or an important blood vessel. With his free hand, he hurled his knife at the rachni, cursing as it struck the bug's exoskeleton, clattering to the ground without making so much as a scratch.

He whipped out his pistol; to hell with subtlety, his priority now was to get out. With luck, the insects would be dead and he would be gone by the time the quarian returned. With a growl, he unloaded an entire clip into the first rachni, falling to his stomach even as he reloaded the second clip. Another two jets of acid sailed overhead. He struggled to train the sights of his weapon on his target – distance perception was notoriously difficult with one eye. He felt his heart hammering in his chest as some acid started to drip from the top of the vent; some of the cursed stuff was falling onto his other eye, and he could not maintain a barrier, shoot and protect the injured side of his face all at the same time.

He tried to roll onto his side to avoid the dripping acid, but unfortunately that just gave the two remaining bugs time to charge. He fired his weapon, and diverted his energy momentarily from the barrier to hurl a projectile at the oncoming rachni. One of them fell, but the other kept coming. The acid was in his other eye now, and his vision started to blur as he glared at the remaining foe. He was vaguely aware of a sharp pain in his side as a razor-edged claw pieced it. With all the strength he could muster, he swung the butt of his pistol, hitting the rachni again and again.

He felt himself crash to the ground as the insect's hold on him loosened. Not waiting to check if the accursed thing was dead, Kai Leng hastily erected another barrier as he stumbled desperately back along the path he had come from. The mission still needed completing, but he had to get to a decontamination spray immediately if he were to have any hope of saving his vision.

His muscles tensed as he heard more scratching from all around him.

This was far from over.

Ariadne blinked, her follow-up swing freezing in mid-air. The asari she had been pointed to was lying crumpled on the floor, wincing in pain. She had one hand pressed against the gash on her temple, and another clenching at her stomach. Snarling, Ari grasped the injured woman by the fastenings of her hard suit, hauling her up and fixing her with a furious glower.

"How the hell do you know my name?"

The asari was gasping for breath, and her eyes were brimming with tears from the pain. Ari immediately felt compelled to apologise, to sit her down and tend to her wounds; it had never been in her nature to inflict pain for the hell of it. But the hologram's words haunted her.

When Saren's mission is done, she will kill Commander Shepard.

She could not take the chance that those words may be true. So, she steeled herself and hardened her eyes as she shook the trembling asari roughly.

"I said, how the hell do you know my name?"

The other woman, despite being in obvious agony, admirably showed no fear. Her soulful blue eyes searched Ari's dark brown ones piercingly as she took a deep breath, obviously trying to steady her words.

"Jessica told me."

Ari blinked, her grip faltering in shock. Apparently, that was all the leeway the asari needed. Ari squinted against the dazzling blue inferno which seemed to radiate from her opponent. She did not even have time to register what was happening as a blast of biotic energy sent her clattering to the ground. She cried out in pain as she heard a soft, but distinct, crack. Her vision flashed white, before the colour returned as she drew her next agonising breath. She looked around, disorientated, trying to find her enemy. A flash of blue caught her attention, and her own biotics flared as she attempted to counter the attack. It was too little, too late however, as she felt the crushing force of the asari's foot against her chin, the back of her head crashing mercilessly into the floor.

Vaguely, she registered a cry of rage, as she felt herself being dragged viciously along the floor and shoved against the far wall. She was only semi-conscious of being yanked to her feet, before she again found herself face-to-face with the asari. For a while, she thought she must have been hallucinating. The asari's face was filled with rage – not something unexpected – but there was also betrayal, hurt and sorrow in her expression. Tears streamed down her face as her captivatingly-expressive eyes pierced Ari's.

"Why, Ariadne?"

Ari shook her head roughly, trying in vain to figure out what the hell was going on. She felt like she had been hit by a sledgehammer; her mouth was swimming in blood, and some teeth felt like they had been knocked loose. Still, she had no doubt in her mind now that this bitch could kill Jess if she wanted to.

"Why what?" she spat, sneering in grim pleasure as red blotches mixed in with the purple marring that pretty face.

"Why would you ruin something so beautiful? She trusted you!"

Ari felt her jaw go slack. The asari's words had been choked, and her entire body was shaking with emotion. If Ari had not known better, she would have thought she had betrayed the asari, not Jess. No one could possibly be that good an actress, to be able to fake that kind of hurt… could they?

But how the hell does she… oh… Jesus Christ. No…

The realisation hit Ari with the force of a freight train. Of course that bastard had lied. She had no idea why, but she cursed herself for even lending him an ounce of credence. Jess had bloody taught her better than that. This asari was not out to kill Jess; the only way she could have known all that…

Ari's chest ached; she felt like she had been stabbed through the heart. She no longer cared if the asari tried to kill her; in fact, she almost wanted her to. She felt her own eyes heat with tears as she felt her gaze waver. She could no longer look the other woman in the eye. It was like trying to look Jess in the eye when she had… the thought of the cigarette only worsened the searing agony she felt inside; her physical pain felt dull in comparison.

They love each other.

"I…" Ari's voice was barely a whisper; she was fighting to keep it steady, let alone audible. "I'm sor–"

"Liara!"

Both women's heads snapped towards the familiar voice. The asari's eyes widened in relief; Ari could not quite see the source – there were some crates in the way – but it was a voice she knew all too well. The sound had once been sweet music to her ears, her eye of the hurricane, her solace. Not one day had passed since that fateful moment when she had not longed to find comfort in it again. Now, now it was here again – it had not changed one bit. Yet, paradoxically, Ari felt herself shrinking from it, terrified at the prospect of coming face-to-face with its owner. This was the moment she had both longed for and dreaded for 11 years.

"I am alright, Shepard. Please wait there a moment. I…" the asari glanced momentarily at Ariadne, her expression uncertain. "Shepard I do not know how to say this… I think she tried to kill me, but… I think it would be better if you saw for yourself."

Cautiously, the asari loosed her grip on Ari. Despite her initial anger and hurt, her entire countenance shifted as she seemed to sense Ari's terror. The look she gave Ari was not one of fury or betrayal, but one of empathy and understanding as she laid a hand gently on her shoulder. Ari was confused – this asari had no reason to trust her, and certainly had no reason to be kind to her. She could not possibly know Ari's side of the tale – if all she had was what Jess had shared with her, then surely she must want her dead. What in heaven's name was she up to?

Ari swallowed, feeling herself pushing her body back into the wall. She could not face Jess… not like this. The hand on her shoulder tightened, the grip firm, but still gentle, as it guided her away from the wall.

"Monday… what the fuck is going on here? You're bleeding!"

Ari could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, hear the familiar concern and impatience in that voice. Her heart was thumping so loudly in her chest she was amazed she could even hear anything else. The asari's hand was still on her shoulder, but her body and head were now faced towards the approaching woman. A hand reached out from behind the crates, concernedly exploring the asari's injury. Liara. Her name is Liara.

"I am alright, Shepard. Please… you need to see her."

Liara's free hand reached up to the wrist, gently grasping hold of it and stopping its fussing over her head. Ari's heart stopped in her chest as the wrist turned into an arm, then a shoulder, then, finally…

Her.

Jess' face went pale, the gun she held in her other hand clattering to the floor.

"Ari?"

Ari's voice had deserted her. It was all she could do to mouth the name of the woman she had loved. Still loved.

"J-Jess…"