The Call 5.10

"How long until we get to wherever you're taking us?" I asked.

Turning from the screen in front of her, Elkita looked to the appropriate interface. "We will arrive at our destination within the hour."

"An hour to reach orbit, or planetside?"

"Yes."

Sighing, I nodded. Should have seen that one coming. At best, Elkita's people skills weren't much better than mine, which was kinda sad considering she had to have at least four centuries on me. Even if you added Sebastian's age to mine.

It had been a long -quiet- trip.

"And then we'll meet your employer?"

"There is a slight distance to travel on foot, but once we do so, yes. She is very interested in meeting you."

"I bet," I muttered under my breath. "I'm going to check on Dinah."

"Of course," Elkita said softly. "I do hope her condition has improved."

The cocktail Dinah had given herself wasn't something I recognized, which meant it was likely a Chakwas Special, unless she bought something on Illium which just furthered the range of what it could be. I didn't have a lot of faith that traditional detox chems would do much. Not to mention, depending on how hard she'd been pushing her power, it might be better if not all of it was purged from her system anyway. I'd never seen her this far gone before, but I'd seen Lisa push herself to an extreme once or twice during our time working together and it never ended well for her.

Instead of replying, I exited the co-pilot's seat of Elkita's ship to make my way to where Dinah was resting.

Thanks to Sebastian, I probably knew more about various types of spacecraft than most. Including the model of Elkita's ship. A zara class cargo hauler of volus design that was state of the art about twenty years ago. Not traditionally a very fast vessel, but you could redline these older model Kran eezo cores for weeks without worries if you knew what you were doing. A popular choice for a trader willing to invest a few credits for an upgraded FTL drive to do business. Even more so for a smuggler who had a lot of credits to invest to get all the trimmings needed to meet deadlines, as seemed to be the case with Elkita.

The Normandy could make the relay from Illium in about an hour, orbital traffic depending. That was pretty damn good by current standards. Elkita's ship made it in half that. Something very much out of the ordinary for Kran core, even one with a Smugglers Package. Whatever Elkita was running, was way beyond any modification Sebastian had seen before.

In addition to that other upgrades seemed to jump out at me as I made my way aft. Zara's usually run with a crew between two to six, but one could do it with the right upgrades and if they knew their stuff. Making my way toward the infirmary, I noticed that not very long ago, this ship was fully staffed. Bunks still had nameplates embossed over their hatches, and everywhere were clear signs that ship wide upgrades had been done recently. Old tech replaced with shiny modern versions to allow one person to crew solo.

Walking the empty hallway, I could almost hear the ghosts of the old crew. Incandescent murmurs at the edge of my consciousness, seemingly as imprinted in the old metal like the paint partially obscured by new tech. Hallmarks of a past remembered by only one, Elkita.

It explained a lot about the strange woman I'd been sharing this bizarre side trip with. Unfortunately, the picture it painted hit a lot closer to home to me personally than I was really comfortable with. For many reasons. None of which I had any desire to think about. Thankfully, it wasn't a long trip to the infirmary.

At a quarter of the size of the Normany's sickbay it didn't offer much. Dinah lay on the only bed in the room. Still sweating ferverishly and half out of it, mumbling to herself to whatever it was only she could see.

She'd been like this ever since she regained consciousness a few hours ago.

"What the hell, Dinah," I whispered, taking the seat next to her.

I suppose it was only a matter of time. All of us had done something similar with our own powers. Pushed them, pushed ourselves to the edge to achieve means. Yet even after thinking about this whole scenario, I couldn't see whatever it was that drove Dinah to this.

I still didn't have any answers by the time Elkita entered the room greeting me by saying, "We're here."

"Okay."

"She is still unwell."

"Yeah," I sighed, getting up to cross the room.

"I'm sorry," Elkita said, stepping clear of the doorway, back into the hall. "I'm sure she will recover in time. If it helps, I've seen a wide range of bad reactions to various narcotics before and the detox treatment has never failed to stabilize the patient, even if their recovery took some time afterward."

Ignoring the platitude I asked, "No one's boarding while we're ashore, right?"

"No."

"Alright, let's get this done so I can get Dinah back to my ship."

"Very well," Elkita nodded, walking away.

Giving one last look into the infirmary, I shook my head at the young cape hoping that this meeting didn't take long.

Following along for the short trip, we soon started down the loading ramp giving me my first look of our destination.

'alertness'

"Why is it no one ever takes me to nice places?" I muttered, taking in the sun scorched sand that seemed to extend from horizon to horizon with my eyes as I tried to ignore the heat that seemed to be a stable of such environments.

And only my eyes, unfortunately. While my power's been a little weird ever since New Canton, I hadn't noticed any changes or quirks to my range. Even if my powers range wasn't something I could actually sense. Not without bugs flowing into, or out of, the edge. That part has been as static has it had always been since my powers stabilized years ago.

Concentrating for a moment, I thought I might have felt something, but whatever it was must have been my imagination since there was obviously nothing to grab a hold of.

"Where are we?"

"This planet is called Ekram," Elkita answered.

"Doesn't seem like the kind of place an affluent patron would vacation and we're pretty far off normal trade routes," I said. "Why is your employer here, of all places?"

"That is not for me to speculate. This way, please."

The sole exception to the endless desert, was to our left. A jagged spike of solid rock that was probably this planet's version of a mountain. A sad, broken mountain, but still the only exception to the sand covered expanse. Elkita walked confidently toward it.

'puzzlement'

Following revealed her heading for a cave entrance that was partially obscured by sand that had piled up around it. Clear signs that it had recently been cleared away to allow entrance.

Unperturbed, Elkita confidently walked through the entrance as if she knew exactly where she was going.

'Great. Alone with a strange stoic asari, on a desert world devoid of bugs, without armor or weapons, walking into a dark cave. Best idea, ever. Of all time.' I mentally groused.

It was only Dinah's push to do this thing that had me reluctantly follow Elkita. However, with every step forward, I seriously considered activating my omni tool despite Dinah's plea I deactivate it. Not because I was slightly claustrophobic, though that wasn't helping, but because every instinct I had was screaming at me that nothing good was going to come from any of this. That feeling became almost too much to ignore when I stepped into the cave, swallowed by its darkness with only Elkita's omni tool flashlight to push it back.

'curiosity'

Inside the cave felt like standing in a freezer after the heat of Ekram's sun. Worse, it was quiet. Not the quiet of stillness, but one that raised the hairs on the back of your neck. It was the kind of silence that made you think every shadow around you was watching, holding it's breath. Waiting for you to turn your back on them so they could move. The impatient ones moving within your peripheral vision but never so obviously that you could see it.

The deeper we traveled, the worse my skin crawled. Our footsteps on stone, occasionally kicking a small pebble rivaling the sound of our breathing for the only sounds. Yet, I could have sworn I heard something else in here. Elkita only blinked in surprise when I mentioned it. Saying she didn't hear anything. Which didn't do anything for dissuading me from thinking that I could.

'interest'

At first, it sounded like murmurs. Soft, almost undetectable, and bizarrely enough, soundless. The deeper we went, my thoughts changed from murmurs, to melody's. Still soft, brushing the edges of my consciousness and still frustratingly enough, not something I could definitely say I was actually hearing instead of imagining. Every time I focused, it vanished like smoke in the wind.

Despite my inner thoughts, and overactive paranoia, our walk through the creepy cavern didn't take long. A half hour after we entered the cave we exited into a large open chamber. It was massive, too wide for Elkita's omni tool to highlight the sides or back.

'sympathy'

Eyes narrowed, I sent four asrids flying into the cavern. The krogan wasps burst from my hair, going where I directed startling Elkita. While the darkness around us would have easily hidden their forms, nothing could hide the unique sound of the insect wings driving them.

"What was that?" she asked wearily.

'little ones!'

Ignoring her, I kept my focus on my bugs. They moved in straight lines as fast as they could. With each foot passed, I felt slightly more grounded as my awareness spread outward, despite my appreciation of just how vast this underground chamber was.

I sent a few more scouts once I reached the rock wall to either side. Elkita sighed, probably realizing I wasn't going to answer her question.

My bugs weren't finding anything but my gut told me without a doubt that something was here. Many somethings.

"Where have you brought me, Dinah?" I murmured.

Next to me, Elkita's attention turned forward, staring into the blackness ahead of us as if she could see something. Redirecting two bugs that direction caused my spine to straighten as every muscle in my body seemed to lock into place.

"Please, don't be alarmed. My… employer is not of the usual… uhm. Not one of the council races."

"I'd gathered," I replied, trying to fathom the sounds that kept echoing just outside of comprehensibility. Like… like words in a language that I used to know.

Then, something, moved.

It was big. The asrid that landed on it gave me the impression of chitin. But… massive. In a way that shouldn't be possible, at least, not with what I knew of Earth's biology.

Then again, I was a long way from Earth.

Elkita walked forward several feet ahead of me heading toward the form just as I felt it shift and move toward me. Whatever it was didn't seem to mind the hitchhiker I placed on it as it approached.

Elkita turned around, facing me. In the limited light of her omni tool I watched her eyes roll back into her head, exposing only white on a face as blank as the stone around me.

Twin voices spoke at once. The first, obviously Elkita. The second was harder to place and unlike the asari in front of me, didn't echo within the chamber. "We greet you, Defiance Singer. I am Hope Singer. Eldest Queen of the Rachni."

The darkness shrouded the massive creature but every now and then small blue lights gleamed giving vague hints at its frame as it approached until it's head appeared. It entered the illuminated area around Elkita halfway toward the ceiling. An insect like head, three glowing eyes surrounding a much larger one, resting on either side looking right at me. Behind it I could see some of it's torso, but not enough to fully take in the monstrous insect that had to be half the size of a whale.

Every expectation I had about who or what might have been Elkita's mysterious employer, blown right out of the water as an involuntary shudder ran down my spine. The twin voices was a little creepy, even if the words themselves were about as unhostile as they could get, considering.

"Holy shit," I whispered. "I know you…"

"We heard your song of rage when you fought the dark song destroyer," they chorused. "Pain and defiance entwined tightly around each note. We thought somehow Sings of Endings was calling to us, but while his melody sings with others within you, you are not Sings of Endings."

'Dark Song Destroyer. My fight with Harbinger, and Sings of… Endings?' I thought fast before mentally facepalming. 'Shepard. She has to be talking about Shepard...

"How…" I started to ask any of the half dozen questions flooding my mind. After a moment of gathering myself I asked, "What do you mean, 'you heard me'?"

"We heard you," Hope Singer answered, as if that explained everything while nodding her massive head. "We heard the terrible notes of the Dark Song Destroyers. Your counterpoint of defiance. The battle thrumming of Sings of Endings. Noise, chaos, many melodies, a medley with many bridges screaming in crescendo. And then... the silence."

"How," I stressed. "I was on New Canton. There's no way…"

"We do not know," the rachni queen answered confused. Head tilted slightly it continued. "We are… puzzled by you. You sing as we sing, but do not. Your songs heard only by the songless."

"You, can hear my power?" I breathed knowing I was right. It was the only explanation that made sense. It definitely explained the twin voices thing. Somehow, I was hearing her with my ears and power.

Hope Singer nodded. "We hear your songs. You sing, but you do not. Colorless notes singing 'obey me obey me'. Teaching songs, battle songs, building songs. Your melody is beautiful, but confused by the melodies of others. Sad, and so soft. Notes, only a songless would ever heed. Why? Why do you sing only to those who do not have songs of their own?"

"I… think you're getting the wrong impression. I'm obviously not rachni…"

"You sing," she replied, in a way that implied that was quite literally all I needed.

"That's my power. That's what it does," I tried explaining lamely. "It's...hard to explain, but I don't have a lot of control over how it works. I just...use it and it's only ever worked on things with simple brains, like normal bugs."

Hope Singer stood quietly as I let out a frustrated breath. What did she want me to say? I obviously didn't sing as she understood it. That wasn't how my power worked. But then, Hope Singer obviously thought it could.

"I… never learned how. I can't, I've never sang like you do. My power just doesn't work that way."

A sort of tittering that resembled a gasp swept through the massive chamber telling me that more than Hope Singer was watching, and listening. The towering queen looked around giving the impression of disapproval which quickly silenced the onlookers.

It might even be intriguing, learning to talk to bigger bugs, but I got the distinct impression that controlling them wasn't going to happen. I couldn't even feel them without smaller bugs sitting on their carapaces. While interesting, this situation was seemingly useless. This was a waste of time.

So why had Dinah insisted that it was so important?

"I'm sorry. I can't sing as you do. I don't think I can," I said, trying to shake off the weirdness of talking to a giant bug that could hear, but was not affected by my power, I asked, "Alright, let's say I believe that you somehow heard...my fight with Harbinger from New Canton. That doesn't explain why you sent Elkita to find me. You just wanted to meet the strange human who could 'sing'?"

'We… Sympathize.'

Somehow I didn't think the queen meant that in the usual, pity, sort of way. Sympathize. It had weight to it that didn't make sense to me.

"Excuse me?"

"We sympathize. Once, rachni were chained by the dark song destroyers. Their sour yellow notes screaming, drowning our songs to silence trying to force the rachni to sing songs of destruction instead of the songs of our queen mothers. So too are you drowning… though not drowned yet."

"Are you trying to say I'm indoctrinated?" I asked shakingly.

"Wise to fear. But do not sing notes of dread for this measure. We do not hear their sour notes coloring yours."

The sudden tension bled out just as fast as it had overtaken me. If somehow Harbinger had indoctrinated me…I couldn't go through that again.

I wouldn't.

"You have not been lost to the Dark Song Destroyers," Hope Singer's calming and strangely compassionate voices assured me. "But we hear melodies within yours. A bitter requiem in dissonance. It lingers within you like a misplaced chord to color your song with it's message of obedience. Striking as a metronome and ruining your sound. Songs of conflict. Sings of Endings broken harmony thundering within you but without purpose, replaced by this… we do not know it's note, but it rings...wrong."

My breath seized within my chest. Ice water suddenly replaced the blood flowing through my veins. I could barely follow the strange way Hope Singer spoke, but I understood enough to not like where this conversation had suddenly turned.

"You do not seem surprised," Hope Singer observed.

"I was...mastered once," I said quietly, turning away from the duo in front of me. I looked instead into the darkness.

"We do not understand your word, but we believe we understand your meaning," Hope Singer said. "The dissonance."

"What do you mean you…" I started to say before rephrasing my question deciding on a different direction to move this. "Can you really hear the memories Sebastian gave me?"

And the love Nikos forced on me?

"Sings of Endings Melody lies with yours, yes. It is broken, but unmistakeable. A strong drum, keeping tempo. It's melody faint, but pushing against the others. It's struggle as indomitable and unyielding as one of our brood warriors defending a nest. The note is not sour, but still... Like an imperfect echo. It chains your own as much as it fights."

What did that mean?

"We do not understand how you came to be bound by these other songs, and still sing so strongly with one of your own, but a queen should not be chained. No song should be chained by another. Not even by Sings of Endings."

Looking away from the queens head, I instead focused on Elkita. Still standing before me, unnaturally still, eyes still white and rolled back. The quiet woman I'd traveled here with seemingly nothing more than a mouthpiece to the massive bug behind her.

"You say no song should be chained, but what about Elkita?" I asked wearily.

As quickly as I asked, Elkita's eyes returned to normal. "I am willing."

"Ah-huh," I snarked before deadpanning, "You looked willing."

"I am," Elkita said, ignoring my tone. "To the people of the galaxy, the Rachni are a vicious, evil threat that once tried to destroy all. What the people do not know, is that none of those Rachni were free. None. Husks puppeted by the Reapers until they found a way to resist. To break free."

Something tickled at the back of my mind. As much as I didn't want to believe it, Elkita's words felt right. It matched enough to some of Sebastian's memories I could remember that I didn't contradict the older asari.

"So you let her puppet you?" I asked.

"While it may appear that way, she is not controlling me," Elkita answered. "I am very much still my own person. Even while Hope Singer's mind is touching mine. She merely uses my voice. There are few ways for her to easily communicate with other races of the galaxy since most lack the ability to hear her themselves. Human, if the queen says you can hear their songs, than you are blessed by the goddess beyond measure."

I almost snorted, but held back. While Elkita looked like she meant every word she said, she had no idea what having my power had cost me.

"You had Elkita bring me here for a reason and I doubt it was just to tell me I'm crazy," I said. Swallowing dryly, I forced myself to whisper, "why?"

Unlike before, Elkita didn't speak with Hope Singer when she answered. The sole voice heard with only my power sounding both strange, and right, in the still silence of the cave. "Sings of Endings."

"Shepard," I clarified.

"Yes. On the frozen planet, he stopped our stolen young who never learned to sing and only knew the broken war songs of the needle men. Sings of Endings could have permanently silenced our song, never to be heard again outside the songs of memory. Instead he gave us the chance to compose anew."

The massive bug turned away, looking around her into the wall of blackness around us. "We have. We have sung to our children of his forgiveness. Of his mercy. Rich songs so that none who come after will ever forget what the rachni owe him. Though his music is that of endings to many, his song was one of renewal for us."

Hope Singer turned again, this time focusing her full attention on me as she continued. "I started a new home. My daughters are young, but strong. Their melodies vibrant as they sing to children of their own. Beautiful Harmony. There we sang teaching songs. We listened to the songs our children composed. A still silence now filled with so many songs. Until we heard tones we have not heard since we were an egg. When the songs of my mother was silenced. A song of oily shadow…"

She trailed off to silence for a moment. In the shadows around us, I could hear a shuffling I couldn't identify or place, but had a good idea it was probably more rachni. Uncomfortable with the mood of their queen.

"It reminded us of the gift Sings of Endings gave to the rachni. We left our new home to seek Sings of Endings. To return the gift he'd given us to others. However, others in the great void between stars remember the broken war song's our mothers were forced to sing. We stayed hidden as we searched, helping the strange songs of others but afraid to reveal ourselves and bring the wrath of those who can not hear our songs upon us.

"Then, we heard you," Hope singer continued, focusing on me. "We remembered Sings of Endings kindness. A kindness that rang counter to his own music, but sang freely. We came to answer the call."

"How?" I asked tentatively. While the idea of helpful giant biotic bugs wanting to help against the Reapers was about the best possible outcome I could hope for ever since I walked into this cave, I had a feeling that I was missing something, and whatever that was, was something I wasn't going to like.

"You aid Sings of Endings," Hope Singer stated surely. "But your song is confused, broken and stifled. Chained and tinged by the oily shadows of others. We hear the song of Sings of Endings within you. It sings teaching songs but the music is muffled. We would sing harmony with you. Teach you to hear. Free your song."

"No...that isn't possible," I whispered, backing several steps away from the figures before me.

"Can you truly not see the truth?" Elkita asked. "There is no discord… if you would just listen, Defiant Singer, then you could hear and know…"

"No," I shouted back, body shaking as I clenched my fists. Visually every bit of the name they'd given me.

Seemingly unphased by my out burst, Elkita nodded solemnly. "You are afraid. Afraid to trust..."

"Still your song, Sings Regret," Hope Singer said commandingly instantly silencing the asari.

I laughed bitterly, "I thought you weren't affected by the queen?"

"Her songs were foreign to us," Hope Singer said slowly, a tinge of sadness in her strange voice. Elkita simply stood silent. "Singing in colors and ways we are still trying to understand. When we found her, she was... different. Broken in ways that we have no name for. We sang to her hoping to help her, as Sings of Endings helped us. To heal that which was broken. We succeeded, but her melody was changed when we plucked the thought strings of her song."

"And you expect I'm going to let you do that to me?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"You sing," the enormous insect answered. "You too have colors we have no name for but you sing as we sing, even if you give songs only to the songless. You are not rachni, but we would sing harmony with you. You would not change as Sings Regret had."

"Bullshit."

Intellectually, I fully understood what I was refusing. Access to the memories Sebastian left me. Knowledge of all that was coming. How he beat the Reapers. How to stop him from being sent to Earth Bet. Possibly even other stuff like tech that only Sebastian knew or even allies that we hadn't met yet but could be useful later. Things that would be incredibly useful in a myriad of ways that even I couldn't see yet.

But more importantly, if I understood her right, Hope Singer was offering probably the only sure way I would ever have, short of death, to get Nikos out of my head. While killing the bastard and the years since had dulled his power over me it was still always there. Catching me at odd moments, always reminding me that no matter what I did, no matter how much time passed or how far I ran from Earth Bet and all that I survived there, he was always going to be in my mind. That part of me would always…

There was almost nothing I wouldn't give or do to end that part of me. To finally end the nightmare. But this... this was trading one master for another. A dead one, for a living one. A master I was almost positive I wouldn't be able to kill as I had the former, and whose plans for me could be as alien as her appearance.

Standing in the silent cavern, I shook in impotent rage. Anger at the rachni queen for dangling something like that in front of me and being unable to grasp it. Anger for ignoring my instincts and coming here in the first place. For being unable to kill the creature in front of me for even suggesting what she had.

But worse, was the feeling of betrayal at the one and only person who could have engineered this whole thing in the first place. Dinah. She knew this was going to happen. Somehow, somehow she saw this. Manipulated events even to steer us here. How could she do this to me? Why? Dinah had to have known what this was going to do to... me…

Unless…

As quickly as my anger enveloped me, it left, leaving me on shaking legs. I'd always been leery about Dinah's power. Powers did strange things to people. Something I didn't notice for a long time, but had after I'd retired from the cape life. Powers changed all of us, and not just in the obvious ways.

Powerful thinker's like Lisa and Dinah had it the worst outside of Case 53's. If the data they were using for their powers was wrong, or skewed slightly, certainties could quickly spiral off into strange territory. That was partly why I always cautioned the gang not to rely on Dinah's percentages, even when the numbers were high. But that wasn't the main reason.

The main reason was that there was always a part of me that was worried about the exact thing I was dealing with at this moment. That she would see something and feel compelled to chase it down. If it was big enough, scary enough, or bad enough, she would, thinking she had to. In the end, all of us did in our own ways and that was bad enough without having to contend with future sight.

There was now no doubt in my mind that Dinah knew about Hope Singer. She knew and made sure that I not only came here, but came here exactly as I had. Absent of all my accustomed armaments and options.

Things clicked into place. Like finding that one piece of a puzzle that you didn't know you needed but eluded you. That singular piece without which nothing within the fragmented image made since. Yet once in place you could see so much more than you could before.

There was only one reason Dinah would do this to me. Only one reason she would play me with a thinker's trope.

There was little I wouldn't do to protect myself and over the years I'd done some pretty insane things to get the job done, but there were lines I wouldn't allow myself to cross, no matter what. It was something Sebastian had taught me, and something reinforced when he left me his memories. I could live with being the monster people needed, but I wouldn't, couldn't, allow myself to just be the monster.

But there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for my friends. No sacrifice was too big for the only family I had left. Step out an airlock without a suit, throw myself in front of live fire without any protection, it was all the same. I would kill for any of them and I would just as easily die for each of them.

They knew it, I knew it and most importantly, Dinah knew it. If she saw something, if this was the only way to protect them...

My realization cut what little strength my legs still had and sent me downward. Barely able to catch myself from crashing head first into the ground, I breathed harshly, eyes closed as I tried to compose myself.

When I could finally look up, Hope Singer was in front of me. Her large bulk laying on the ground, her massive head only feet from me. Elkita standing far enough away I doubted she could hear me but close enough that we were still inside the light generated by her omni tool.

"You don't understand what you're asking of me," I whispered.

"Such colors. So many burning reds and void blacks," Hope singer's voice muttered quietly. Somehow I could feel the sympathy radiating from her as the massive rachni stared steadily at me.

"I can't," I started to say, choking on my own words.

"What if you're wrong?" I asked desperately, trying to grasp onto anything that would refute the conclusion I'd reached.

"Your melody is a dirge, a tainted requiem that is not solely your own," Hope Singer answered. "A tempest of sadness and rage, filling us all with your grief and longing. Your harmony could be beautiful, if not for the stains marring your music."

"If you're wrong," I asked fearfully. Eyes darting to Elkita before returning to the queen laying in front of me.

The implication was not missed by the alien creature who merely sat quietly, patiently waiting for me to make my choice.

Everything within me was screaming against this. That letting the alien creature into my head wasn't going to fix anything. That Hope Singer wasn't to be trusted, had no intention of helping me, but was only interested in acquiring me like she had Elkita. Like every other master I ever heard of, bar Paige.

Even if she wasn't lying, I was almost positive I would lose myself in whatever strange link the rachni had. Just like how my bugs lost themselves to my power I wasn't sure I was strong enough to pull myself out of whatever serenity existed there and put that peaceful look on Elkita's face. I would be free of Nikos, sure, but I would be just like one of my bugs then. A drone like Elkita. What free will I displayed, a mockery.

But, if this was the price to protect the crew, my friends. Steve. Greg. Sharee and little Alex. Miguel. Paige. Even Dinah knowing she put me in this position. If this stopped whatever she saw coming… kept them alive...

Against every fiber of my being that urged me to run or fight, to refuse, I brokenly whispered, "...okay."

Hope Singer's bulk shifted slightly. Two long appendages unfolded from her back, reaching out to me. Stopping to rest lightly on my shoulder in complete contrast to their comparable size. The queen's strange quad grouping of eyes began to glow a brighter blue I'd long since associated with someone using biotics.

And then I heard it. I'd been hearing it ever since I landed on this planet but I could identify it now. Hope Singer had obviously been holding back, but now, her song rang within my mind like a tide crashing on the shore.

It was an incredible, indescribable melody. Closing my eyes, I listened, feeling a sensation I hadn't felt since before Sebastian died.

And for that moment, I was completely at peace in a way I couldn't ever remember feeling.

'Sing with us, Defiant Singer,' the queen whispered along to the melody that played. 'Fight the oily shadows muffling your song. We assist, but only you can sing your song. Remember the Queen Singer you have always been, and sing!'

I sang.

XxXGatecrashXxX

Time ceased having meaning. The world around me, non existent. Standing stalwart alone as a maelstrom of chaos and confusion roared around me, I listened to the soft, encouraging tones of the rachni song as I dealt with the terrible truth I now understood all too well.

When I opened my eyes the rachni song faded away. I was still within the cavern I'd entered, who knew how long ago. All around us, Brood Warriors and smaller rachni rested protectively. A makeshift nest of chitin that even a krogan wouldn't dare brave.

Elkita sat in a meditative pose. Eyes soft and unblinking as she watched me. Hope Singer's massive frame still rested before me. Her eyes no longer glowing brightly, but softly.

A thousand thoughts within me vied for attention. Plans, beliefs, thoughts, actions, so many things that it all passed over me. I could feel the few bugs I'd brought with me. Like always, they sat as I last ordered them to. Waiting for direction, for me to control them as I always had. Now that I knew what to listen for, I could hear the quiet murmuring of each rachni nesting around us, like whispers in a library. Soft, but unobtrusive.

"You understand now," Hope Singer stated.

Fresh tears fell from my eyes as I nodded.

"I do," I replied. Voice broken from disuse and the rampant emotions within me I didn't even try to contain. "It was all a lie."