Author's Note: Sorry for the brief hiatus. Apparently, my muse decided to go on vacation when I did. Anyway, this chapter has some epic Wrex, the reappearance of Mordin and Kirrahe, and ends on a pseudo-cliffhanger. As always, I love reviews!


Nameless stared down at the flap of skin in his hands, his gaze tracing along the lines of the tattoo as tiny runnels of blood slowly traced their way down his arm. It took Vega four times calling his name to finally break through his reverie. "Geez, Tats, you fall in or something?"

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he pressed the tattoo back against his arm, the flesh adhering and the blood slowly being absorbed back into his skin. "Or something. The audio files Tali has been providing are bringing back more memories, and it's easy to get lost in them."

Vega chuckled. "Don't get too lost. We'll be in Tuchanka orbit in ten minutes, but the whole place is full of those smaller Reapers." He crossed his arms, watching the immortal rise. "Obviously you got a lot of tats – hell, I think some of them are layered. What's so special about that one?"

The smile fell off Nameless face, his mind's eye still full of Deionarra's furious ghostly face, hovering there in the Fortress of Regrets. "Torment," he said curtly, stalking towards the elevator.

"Torment?" Vega asked, brows furrowed as he ambled along behind. "Why would you get something like that tattooed?"

"It's a reminder of what you've experienced and lost," Liara said, chiming in as they stopped to wait for the elevator. "A tactile recording of the emotional toll that life has taken on you. Don't you have anything like that, Vega?"

The burly marine grinned. "Nah, unless you count losing at cards a little too often." The three of them stepped into the elevator, descending to the shuttle bay. "What, you got one too?"

Liara just held up her hand, showing the small tattoo of the symbol on the base of her palm. Frowning, Nameless grabbed her hand, placing a fingertip over the purple ink before suddenly relaxing. "You had this done yourself?"

She smiled, pulling her hand free. "It may not have the mystical properties of your own, but I found that it did actually help ease my mind. Since you never actually gave me one, I had it done after the destruction of the Normandy."

Vega shook his head again. "I think I have enough tats that I don't need to get a matching one. Unless it's a whole squad thing, then I can find room for it somewhere." The doors opened, and they joined Shepard by the shuttle. "So, what now? We taking another Reaper on foot?"

"Goddess, I hope not," Liara muttered. "If we are, I'm trading places with Garrus."

"We're here to find Wrex, as well as stopping some Cerberus troops the turians tracked here." Shepard opened the shuttle, moving to a seat while they waited for Cortez to run the pre-flight checklist. "Wrex first, but Garrus is trying to track what Cerberus is up to while we're there."

Other than some sudden maneuvers to dodge missiles fired from the surface, the shuttle ride passed uneventfully, and they set down in the underground facility in Urdnot territory. The scarred battlemaster was waiting for the shuttle, striding forward before the doors had finished opening. "Shepard! It's good to see you again. Got some old buddies of yours waiting inside." One hand grabbed Shepard, shaking firmly, while the other still held a ready shotgun.

"Wrex. Which old friends might those be?" Shepard looked around, blinking in surprise at a pair of salarians standing further back near the entrance.

"Shepard. Good to see you again," Mordin said. Next to him, Major Kirrahe nodded respectfully to both Shepard and Nameless. "Should have expected this."

"Mordin and Kirrahe? What the heck are you two doing here?" Shepard inquired, stepping over to shake both of their hands, a brilliant smile spreading across her face.

"Cerberus attacked us on Sur'Kesh, trying to kill off the handful of krogan females who survived Maelon's experiments," Kirrahe explained. "Thanks to Mordin and myself, we got most of them out safe in the confusion."

"That's right. Four females, completely fertile, and one of them a shaman!" Wrex gloated, his own mouth spread in a grin. "Not to mention the salarian mage squad."

Nameless frowned, mentally flipping through his still spotty memory. "I don't remember training any salarians."

"You didn't. We acquired copies of the spells Conrad Verner has been working on, and studied them ourselves in the STG. Those who showed aptitude started a special training program." Kirrahe raised one hand, magical green light suffusing it. "We even recreated the spell you used on our first meeting. It proved most effective in keeping the krogan alive during our escape."

"You needed to heal krogan?" Vega butted in.

"Immune systems compromised. Suffering from fever, frailty, organ impairment. Transfer symptoms to STG, disease hits radically different physiology and fails." Mordin nodded. "Effective."

"That's good to hear, Wrex, but then what do you need from me? I need krogan troops to help on Palaven and Earth, stopping the husks long enough for the turian and human forces to gather and counterattack." Shepard stared down the krogan, who shifted slightly as he finally put away his shotgun.

"Mordin finished developing a cure for the genophage. But we can't distribute it because there's one of those damned Reapers sitting practically on top of the building maintaining the Shroud." He grinned. "That's where you come in."

One hand slowly raised to her face. "Naturally, because I'm the only person capable of destroying a Reaper," she said, her voice thick with sarcasm.

"Not the only one, but the best. That's why you're in my krannt," Wrex boasted.

"I think you are in Shepard's krannt," Liara said, smiling sweetly when Wrex turned to glare at her. "And on that note, I'm calling Garrus. He can take down a Reaper on foot again. The last one almost killed me."

"You took down a Reaper? On foot?" an astonished Kirrahe blurted out.

"Technically, we were on a building, with missile launchers and turrets and crap," Vega said. "Only one who actually went mano-a-mano was Tats here."

Every krogan in the room turned to stare at Nameless. "You took on a Reaper in hand to hand combat?" Wrex asked slowly.

"Uh, not exactly. I stabbed it in the foot to distract it so the missiles could actually do some damage," he protested.

The entire room was silent. "Right. Shepard, let's go hit the bar. Just toss Nameless in the general direction of the Reaper." Wrex clapped the scowling immortal on one shoulder. "Just kidding."

They spent the next hour planning, studying old maps, blurry shots of the area taken from orbit, and listening to the female shaman recounting the abridged history of the place. The Shroud tower was actually the last remaining installation of a climate control system, but it was ideal for distributing the cure, mainly because it was only fifty kilometers away from Urdnot headquarters. The limited dispersal would ensure Urdnot and the four nearest clans would reap the benefit.

"So, let me see if I've got this right," Nameless finally said, leaning back in his chair. "The Reaper set up near the Shroud building, probably to spread bioweapons into the atmosphere. The building is in a pre-uplift temple dedicated to the god of the thresher maws. We can't approach by air because it's on a hilltop with good firing angles. We can't approach underground because thresher maws. Our only option is to drive at it in krogan trucks, then get out and take it down with sidearms and harsh language."

"Pretty much," Wrex said, nodding.

"You could always try praying to Kalros," the shaman added. "She might hear your prayers."

"By ringing the giant dinner bells, assuming they still work," Shepard said thoughtfully. "Let's save that for a last resort."

"Come on, Shepard. I thought you had balls of steel," Wrex teased her.

"How are we going to take it down? We don't have a handy quartet of Javelin missile launchers, do we?" Nameless asked, glancing around. Three of the krogan promptly put their heads together, arguing heatedly over available weapons.

"We can't bring the Normandy down. The stealth system is still working, but they can track the atmospheric wake. We might be able to get some shots off if we can get it to take off," Shepard said.

"Still leaves four other Reapers present on planet. Will swap guard duties." Mordin shook his head. "Need to take it out and distribute cure before replacement can arrive."

"Well?" Wrex demanded of his engineers. They paused, and two of them shoved the third one forward.

"We have the helix gun fixed," he said, and Wrex's face erupted in a scowl.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but what's the helix gun?" Garrus asked.

Kirrahe, covering his eyes with one hand, explained while Wrex was still spluttering for words. "You know how chemically propelled weapons used rifling to make them more accurate?"

"Sure, the rotational force keeps the trajectory straighter. They do it when they're ice mining comets for terraforming, too." The turian was obviously still confused.

"They decided to try setting up a rifled mass effect weapon, large enough to be the main gun on a turian cruiser." Garrus' jaw dropped, Shepard paled, and Nameless was just confused.

"Is that supposed to be really big?" the immortal asked.

"It's two hundred meters long, and fires off hundred kilo bullets at around point one percent of lightspeed," Kirrahe explained.

"The shockwave from the weapon firing killed twenty krogan and cracked the housing," Wrex growled.

"It did kill that Reaper," the engineer said, only flinching a little under the battlemaster's glare.

"Fine. Set it up." Shepard remained calm as Wrex glared at her. "Unless you have a better idea?"

"It's not like you can headbutt the puto to death," Vega muttered under his breath.


"Shepard?" Garrus shouted over the rumbling of the vehicles.

"What?"

"This is a really dumb idea!" He lurched sideways despite his death grip on a handy ceiling strut.

"I don't have any better ones!" She glared at him, and the turian looked away first.

"How about we throw your hamster at its eye and hope he's secretly the terror of the Terminus Systems?" Vega shouted, hoping to lighten the mood.

"You leave Mr. Cuddles out of this!" Her glare switched targets, making Garrus breathe a sigh of relief as Vega grinned and lifted one hand in surrender, the other holding a matching strut on his side of the tonkah.

"Are they always like this?" Wrex asked.

"It beats the racist joke competition between Garrus and Joker," she shouted, bouncing completely off her seat for a moment. "Haven't you heard of suspension?"

"This is still better than the Mako," Wrex replied, glancing out the window. "We're almost there!"

Whatever Shepard said was completely lost as their vehicle went completely into the air, rolling over to the left to land shuddering on all wheels again. "What the hell was that?" Nameless shouted as they lurched forward again.

"Kalros just devoured the first vehicle in the convoy!" their driver shouted. Nameless fought for a glimpse of the outside as they shot over the crumbled remains of an unknown building, seeing briefly a massive shape almost as big around as the Normandy sliding back into the ground.

They swerved recklessly, the entire convoy scattering to try and divide the attention of the massive thresher maw. The outrider vehicles, carrying only a driver and two gunners, were the most active, purposefully going for ramps and rough terrain, trying to make enough noise to draw Kalros away from the more important vehicles in the middle.

The helix cannon wasn't coming by vehicle; instead, several turian fighters were being pressed into service to lift it to the nearest building with a line of sight on the Reaper. The hope was that it would be too distracted by the swarm of krogan charging it to notice the cannon until it could be lined up to fire. Even then, the backlash would probably destroy the building it was resting on, and possibly the gun itself.

The temple to Kalros was in sight now, massive walls of stone and rusted steel, the only approach that blocked the Reaper's line of sight. As the truck slid to a halt, brushing up against a weather worn statue, they all quickly stumbled out of the tonkah. Shepard was surprised to see that only three vehicles hadn't made it, and at least one of them was still rumbling around somewhere out of sight. "Ready for this, Wrex?"

"You know it, Shepard." He jacked the pump-action on his shotgun, a gesture that had no actual effect on the weapon beyond the satisfactory sound it made. "Let's rip off his quad."

Thirty krogan, seven salarians, Garrus, Vega, Shepard, and Nameless, moved forward through the temple. Husks were beginning to crawl out of the woodwork, and it was their first opportunity to see the salarian mage squad in action. All of them had omni-tools at the ready, along with their pistols. They fired, moving from cover to cover, looking for targets the krogan couldn't shoot. Then, with a judicious word and a wave of their hands, finger-sized bursts of light would go zipping away, curving around cover and bypassing opponents, passing through shields without a splash and battering their targets. Kirrahe stood as a pair of scions lumbered around a corner, shouting something in salarian, and a blast of sound and force poured forth, catching every piece of gravel and shard of crumbled steel, engulfing them in a sandblaster-like wave of debris.

They broke free into the open space before the Shroud, the Reaper hunkered down in front of it, still as tall as the building. Even as everyone opened fire, the armor guarding the red eye opened, and it started glowing. "Everyone scatter!" Shepard shouted, ducking to the left to put one of the obelisks between her and it.

With the massive BWOOM sound, it fired, turning seven krogan instantly to ash. The salarians were knocked sideways, several of them hastily rolling in the dirt to extinguish suits that had caught fire from the blast wave. But the krogan simply continued to charge, firing wildly at the Reaper as they did. Part of Nameless found the effort useless, as their small caliber weapons couldn't possibly have an effect on shields strong enough to shrug off capitol weapons. Then again, it's not like they were going to miss.

He darted forward, leaping and tumbling from cover to cover as the weapon recharged. If he could get close enough, maybe he could do what he did before, cripple it to give the helix gun a clear shot at it. It seemed to be looking off to the side, tracking a krogan with a grenade launcher, so he darted for a piece of falling statuary.

There was light, pain, and dizzying confusion. After a few seconds, he pieced his mind back together enough to realize where he was, and who he was. Wait, no he still wasn't quite clear on who he was, but that was sort of a long-term worry. He tried to sit up, and then looked down his body.

Which currently ended somewhere just below his belly button in a set of horrific cauterized wounds. His mind was numb and fuzzy, the sounds of combat distant and tinny. Another brilliant bolt of scarlet passed by over his head, and he gasped at the sudden heat suffusing the air. I've been shot by a Reaper, he thought, still a little numbly.

Grasping the fallen statue, he pulled himself somewhat upright. The pain from grinding his burns into the dirt was … surprisingly, not all that more painful, just differently painful. Glancing over the top, he could see Shepard, crouched over Vega, doing some form of first aid as his feet kicked in agony at the dirt. Garrus was picking off the husks trying to flank them, while Wrex continued to hurl epithets and shotgun fire up at the Reaper.

"You bastard son of an orc," Nameless growled, "may the Lady of Pain curse you to oblivion!" The hand not desperately clutching the statue was flung forward, and a half dozen head-sized balls of electricity shot out, dancing erratically through the air, piercing the Reaper's shields. Purple-pink arcs of lightning danced along its body, causing the legs to dance and twitch as everyone still standing continued to pour weapon fire into the shields.

The electricity halted, and it settled its feet, stepping forward as the beam weapon charged up. A vicious crack echoed through the air, shattering eardrums and shorting out audio pickups in all the helmets. A whirlwind of dust blew across the open arena, finally settling enough to reveal the results of the helix cannon.

The Reaper still stood, the shot having dealt a painful but glancing blow. Half of the rear of the machine had been stripped away, and even the armor on the front side was cracked and crazed. The beam weapon had fired right as it was struck, carving across the temple in a crazy jerking motion, bringing tons of rock and steel down on the attackers. As Nameless looked around, he could see no sign of anyone else moving, and the toppled masonry and obelisks now even shielded the lower half of the Reaper from sight. Though if Shepard had a Mako, she could drive right up to the top of the damn thing, he thought crazily.

Even as he struggled to find another spell within him, the armor plates started to pull away to fire again, only to grind to a halt. "You obstinate machine," Wrex shouted, pulling himself out of the pile of rubble. "You are nothing but a scrap heap waiting to be made! This is Tuchanka!" He started forward, limping at first, then walking as his formidable regeneration kicked in. "This is my homeworld! We've done worse to it than you can even imagine!"

The battlemaster started running now, his shotgun lost somewhere in the collapse. "I am Urdnot Wrex! I am of the krannt of Shepard! I slew Saren Arterius! I stopped Sovereign! I will not be stopped by a petty little toy like you!" He was sprinting now, his bellow echoing through the arena, the other krogan working to dig themselves out. "Do you know why? Because I! AM! KROGAN!"

The Reaper had been moving, obviously preparing to swat him or step on him, and it did intend to do just that. But as he reached the edge of the destruction, the sigil of Torment, still emblazoned across his bony forehead, glowed with sickly lavender light. He leaped right past the leg poised to kill him, a prodigious jump thirty meters in the air, and head-butted the Reaper right in the armor plates guarding its eye.

As it had with Sovereign, the symbol was suddenly writ large across the Reaper, a hundred meters tall, purple light searing through its armor and into the machine below. As Wrex fell heavily to the ground, panting in exhaustion, it toppled over sideways, the red light already dimming.

"Anyone still alive out there?" Kirrahe's voice came through Nameless' omni-tool. "We need to be dug out before this shield collapses, or we'll never get this cure in there."

The immortal glanced down, trying to mentally track his regeneration. He had at least regrown an inch or two of flesh below his navel, and the cauterized flesh was gone. "I would, but I seem to have misplaced my legs." Kirrahe said something else, but his own exhaustion snuck up and clubbed him over the head.