A/N: Hey everyone! Just an advanced warning heads up! I have another surgery scheduled toward the end of August. Fortunately, I have a laptop this time so once I come out of the hazy daze of some of the more heavy drugs I'll be able to write during my recuperation.

On the other hand, I'll be writing whilst I am on the less powerful but still IMMENSELY fun super-happy drugs so…that might get interesting! Anyway, I'll give you another notice as the surgery draws nearer so that y'all won't forget. And for those worried that my new work load and other stuff might result in me stopping DE…do not worry. I'm seeing DE through to the end, you better believe it. Even if it comes down to only doing a chapter a week, I'm stickin' to it. So no fear! Del will be here!

On with the madness!

Adams, EDI, and one of the Thanatos programmers were gathered at the main Engineering console when Del arrived. EDI looked over at her as passively as ever, giving a polite nod.

"What'd we pull off the omni-tool?" Shepard didn't bother with niceties. Right now she just wanted answers, and to tear Allers apart.

Her fingers itched to tear Allers apart.

"Not much," Adams admitted. The programmer, whose name completely escaped Del at the moment, shook his head.

"She had an auto-safe installed. Nasty little program designed to wipe the tool completely if anyone other than her attempts to activate it. Fortunately, I noticed it and know a couple of work arounds, or we wouldn't have gotten anything at all."

"What did we get?" Her impatience and temper was clear on her face.

Adams, well used to Shepard's temper and less intimidated by it than the programmer- though not by much, he'd seen what she could do, after all- met her eyes.

"Well, she has a copy of a Shepard VI. Most of its memory program and projection algorithm was wiped, however. The code is in pieces. EDI may be able to-"

"Forget it. EDI, I want you to pull up the security footage for tonight from the alcove of the Nest. I want to see exactly how Allers got in to my room to begin with."

"Of course, Shepard."

EDI turned to the console and activated the security feeds, drawing up the one from the small alcove between the lift door and the door to the actual Nest.

"There is approximately six hours of footage from the time that you entered your room to retire and the time you emerged with Liara."

"Speed forward and slow to real-time at every access."

EDI accelerated the recording, which at first was impossible to note given the static landscape. Then Shepard appeared and the recording automatically slowed, showing Del entering the Nest.

"I can split-screen with footage from within as well, if you would like."

"Do it."

The screen split, the right side showing inside Del's quarters. Her electronic self could be seen entering and puttering about a little, shedding her uniform jacket and retrieving her whiskey and a smoke. About the same time she pulled out her flask, Traynor appeared off the lift on the left hand side of the monitor. She paused slightly, seeming to debate, then entered the unlocked room.

The interaction played out as it had earlier that night, with Traynor urging Shepard to sleep before she took a seat nearby.

The feed sped up again for a moment, slowing when Liara appeared off the lift, and entered the room. There was a brief exchange between asari and specialist, before Traynor departed. As she exited the Nest Shepard pointed at the monitor.

"There. Slow that."

The image slowed to real time as Traynor stepped out into the alcove. When the door slid shut behind her, she turned and pressed her fingers to the controls before heading for the lift. Adams nodded.

"She locked it."

"The Nest was completely secured at that time," EDI said.

"Keep going."

Del could feel her teeth grinding, her lips tightening as she watched Liara bend and kiss her cheek, before laying down beside her. The asari seemed to fall asleep quickly, and for four hours by the swiftly passing time stamp, nothing happened. The alcove was still, and the only movement in the room itself came from the fish.

Then, Shepard suddenly leapt off the bed in a wild flail of arms and fell face first on the ground. The feed automatically slowed as the observing Del's brows knit angrily.

"What the fuck?"

Shepard's image pushed herself off the floor, then called out for Haley and his security men to come up. Turning, she looked at Liara and tried to rouse her. A moment later she seemed to stamp on the ground again with an angry order not to move, then tried to wake Liara once more, before bending over her. As she scooped her frantically off the bed and turned to run for the door, Shepard growled.

"Fucking pause it!"

The images froze.

"Captain, something here is incorrect," EDI said.

"You're damn right something is incorrect! Where the fuck is Allers? The bitch isn't invisible!"

"If the plan had gone right, it would have seemed that Dr. T'Soni passed in her sleep, and the recordings would have borne that out." Adams rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'll bet a thousand credits whatever Allers used on her degrades quickly into seemingly innocuous components. Untraceable after a few hours."

"She wasn't banking on me waking up. How could she have tampered with the recordings to this extent?"

"Shepard, I am…alarmed," EDI said, looking at the captain. Shepard lifted her brows, her voice intent.

"EDI?"

"Allers could not have hacked into my systems without my becoming aware of it," EDI said. Despite her perpetual calm, there seemed to be the faintest tremor of uncertainty in her voice.

No, not uncertainty, Del thought. It's fear. EDI is afraid.

"Even if Ms. Allers' was skilled and proved to be the hacker that compromised the Broker's systems," EDI continued, "I would have detected interference. I was aware of the hacker's attempts the moment it tried to infiltrate into my network as well."

"What are you saying, EDI?"

"I am saying that I may very well be Allers' accomplice."

The reporter grimaced a little as Chakwas cleaned the cut over her eye. The doctor was not being gentle, but neither could she bring herself to be wantonly cruel. She was a healer, it was her nature, and she could not go against her nature even with someone who had tried to kill a very good friend of hers.

Behind the pair, just outside of the open cell, a pair of security watched impassively.

Chakwas didn't bother with medi-gel. Allers hardly deserved its anesthetic benefits. Dumping some more astringent on the pad of gauze she pressed it to the gash, making Allers grimace and hiss in response.

"Oh, I'm sorry. That might sting just a bit," Helen smiled coldly. She might be a healer, but that didn't mean she had to heal nicely.

The heavy tread of determined strides rumbled from just outside the brig, and Helen straightened, looking over her shoulder as Del strode in, flanked by Garrus and Javik. With a terse snap of her fingers and a jab of her thumb, the captain dismissed the two guards.

"Helen, you too," she said. "Out."

The promise of pain was in Shepard's eyes, though of course not directed at the doctor. Wordlessly, Chakwas gathered her things and rose. She left the cell but could not bring herself to leave the brig altogether, lingering near the door as she clutched her small medi-kit to her chest.

Del didn't bother trying to talk to Allers. Striding in, she grabbed the woman's arms and hauled her to her feet, pinning her against the wall. Javik approached and reached out, touching Allers' forearm and closing his eyes.

The reporter gasped, her head jerking back slightly. Shepard kept her tightly pinned until Javik opened his eyes and stepped away. Then, she dropped her, stepping back a pace. Unable to catch herself, Allers slumped to the ground, shivering and panting for air.

"Tell me," Del said, regarding the Prothean.

"She has had extensive contact with both Wyatt and this Illusive Man of yours, along with many others. She was given a virus tuned specifically to interact with the computer systems on the ship."

"You mean EDI."

His lip wrinkled faintly in disdain. "Yes. It was given to her by members of Cerberus, designed by the same people that designed the com…EDI."

"She the hacker that wiped the broker network?"

"No. I saw no evidence of that."

Shepard crouched, grabbing Allers by the arms and sitting her up, slamming her back against the wall. Diana still seemed disoriented by Javik's touch, her eyes darting.

"What did you do to EDI? What was the program meant to do?"

Allers wheezed a little, and Shepard slammed her again, furious. "What was the program meant to do you feng mu gou!"

"G-Gaslight…" Allers breath was a faint burble, and she sniffled wetly through her nose.

"Gaslight," Shepard echoed, then looked over her shoulder toward Garrus and Chakwas. "That was in the memory Li saw, Wyatt said something about 'gaslight'. Anyone got any fucking clue what that means?"

"It's an old Earth term," Helen said. "Comes from an ancient book or vid or something like that, from a couple of centuries ago. In the story, a man tried to make his wife think she was going crazy. Part of what happened, if I'm recalling correctly, is that at the time they had gas powered lights. When the husband was doing…whatever it was he was doing- hunting in a secret room for some treasure or something, I think- when he would turn on the light in there, the lights in the rest of the house would dim, adding to her paranoia. 'Gaslighting' came to be linked to a pattern of manipulative, psychological abuse where a subject is gradually made to doubt his or her own reality."

Shepard's eyes moved back to Diana. "So. The voices I would hear on occasion when I was alone…my things being moved around when I had no knowledge of doing so…that was all EDI. She was doing it because you changed her programming, and she was altering the recordings to make it look like I was doing it with no memory. It was Wyatt's job to implant this suggestion into my head, but it was your job to make it grow, to keep me off-balance, to finish the process. You fucking cunt!"

She slammed the reporter again, hard enough to make her cry out in pain. "How do we stop it?" she demanded. "How do we stop this fucked up mess you put in my head?"

"You can't stop it," Allers said, a tremor belying the pain and panic she was struggling to control. Shepard yanked her forward and whipped her back once again into the wall, bellowing in her face.

"Fuck that! How do I fucking stop it!"

"Ah! You can't!" Allers heaved in a shaky breath or two. "You can't! That was the whole goddamn point! You're going to be one of us if you like it or not! Even without me here to speed it along it will still happen, just more slowly. When the time comes, you'll see that we are right, that humanity is the only species that deserves to be here! You'll come to hate your friends…that ugly skinned chicken behind you, that pile of stupid you call a krogan, even your pretty little blue cun-"

She broke off as Shepard surged to her feet, hauling the shackled woman up with her. Allers was not a big woman, and it was no effort for Del at all to dangle her feet off the floor as her hand closed around Diana's throat. She didn't quite cut off her air, but she definitely let it be felt. Allers arched and gagged, trying to relieve the pressure. For the first time, there was actual fear on her battered face. God help her, but Del reveled in it.

"You hurt my crew," Del said, her voice a threat of retribution. "You hurt EDI, tried to kill my Tianlán-"

Arching her head back again, Diana managed to speak in a half-throttled whisper. "In a month you won't care. In a month, you'll hate her more than you've ever hated anything else."

"With all your spying, all your haughty superiority, there's still a few things you don't know, mu gou. You don't know us."

"Fuck….you…"

"Javik! Does Allers know how to fix what she did to EDI?"

Javik shook his head. "The program was provided to her, she was simply the delivery mechanism."

"Can't fix my head, can't fix EDI. Javik now knows everything that you did. I guess that makes you fucking useless now, doesn't it?"

She dropped the reporter, stepping back. Diana crumpled again, coughing raggedly before she looked up. With an efficient snap of her wrist, Del drew the pistol holstered at her hip and flicked the safety off, aiming it at the reporter.

There was that fear again, hidden behind a thin, tattered veil of confidence. Allers managed to half sit up, visibly shaking but doing her best to school her expression. "You won't," she said, voice wet and tremulous. "You're not a murderer."

The pistol snapped three times, the faint flash from its muzzle reflected in unfeeling dark eyes. Chakwas made the faintest sound of surprise, lost in the final bang. Shepard glared at the remains of the reporter's head and calmly holstered her weapon.

"You don't know me."

"With what you told us Mike was able to find the altered lines of code," Adams told Shepard half an hour later. She was perched atop one of the tables in the mess, her feet planted on the bench, holding a cup of untouched coffee between her knees. Her brown eyes were so unreadable they may as well have been mirrors, reflecting back his own face.

Mike. Shottz or Shultz or something. That's the programmer's name.

"Can he fix them?"

"Yes, easily enough. The 'virus' was not designed to affect any of her higher functions or personality. It was basically lodged in extremely low priority algorithms…I guess what would pass for her subconscious. She was as unaware as anyone else what was going on."

"Is she ok?"

"As I said, we'll be able to fix the altered code easily enough-"

Shepard's glassy look grew stern, the corners of her mouth tightening a bit. "I asked if she was ok."

"Oh. Sorry…I…she seems as she always seems, I guess-"

He stepped back as Del hopped off the table, setting her coffee aside. He didn't miss the way her gaze lingered on the door to the infirmary a moment, the tightness in her expression softening into exhausted worry a moment before she schooled it again. The change was only there and gone again in the same breath, but it spoke volumes.

"Where is she?"

"Her chassis is up at the CIC, parked. Mike is in the AI suite restoring her normal coding-"

Shepard turned and walked away from him, heading for the lift.

EDI stood at the corner of the CIC, hands neatly clasped behind her back. Joker was pacing a limp, awkward line back and forth in front of the galaxy map promontory, his own hands clenching and unclenching in impotent anger. When he saw Shepard coming, he immediately changed his trajectory to intercept.

"How could they do that to her? Alter her programming like that? Was it Terra Firma? Cerberus?"

"Cerberus apparently, pulling Terra Firma strings," Shepard said.

"Well, I don't care who it was. I'll find the Illusive Man myself and see how many bones I can break. His, not mine."

Stepping past him, Shepard walked up to the synthetic. "EDI, you ok?"

"I am fine, Shepard. We have isolated the programmed misjudgments and are rectifying them now. They did not interfere in any maintenance of ship systems, and posed no harm to the Normandy or crew."

"That's not what I'm worried about!"

"I don't understand-"

"EDI, they did to you exactly what they did to me! They changed some part of you in order to control you against your will. You can't tell me that doesn't bother you."

"I am not human, Shep-"

"Bullshit, EDI. Bullshit. You don't have to be human. You don't have to be turian or krogan or asari or salarian or even organic. You have a mind, EDI, a will. You are as alive as any of us and someone violated that. You can't stand there and tell me it doesn't bother you."

For the first time since she'd acquired the mobile chassis, EDI actually looked startled. Her eyes shifted toward Joker a moment as if seeking confirmation, then returned to Del.

"I…am slightly bothered, Shepard."

"Slightly?"

"Perhaps more than slightly. It is a comfort that none of my higher cognizance processes were affected and the situation can be easily rectified, but it is bothersome that someone was able to alter my actions without my knowledge. It is…invasive."

Shepard nodded. "It is, and you have every right to be upset about it. We're going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again. I promise you that."

"Thank you, Shepard. That is reassuring."

"I'm sorry I let you down, EDI. This should never have happened. To you or to Li."

"It is illogical to consider this your fault, Shepard," EDI said. "These actions were taken without your knowledge."

"Still, it's my job to protect my crew, and I let you down."

"Shepard, you have always stood up for me. From the beginning, you have treated me like one of the crew. You trusted me when you had no prior experience with a non-hostile AI. You show concern now for the feelings of a synthetic. You are my friend. I do not believe it is possible for you to 'let me down'."

Del lowered her head, rubbing the bridge of her nose a moment with her index finger, before she nodded. "Thank you, EDI."

I still should have known, somehow. I should have known that bitch was dirty before I let her step foot on the Normandy.

"You are welcome, Shepard. I hope that Liara will be all right."

"Yeah, me too."

It was noon, ship-time, and the Normandy had departed the Citadel, its nose pointed toward Tuchanka. Mordin had announced early that morning-as Shepard nursed her sixth coffee and alternated between pacing the mess and peeking in the infirmary- that the cure would be ready within thirty hours. Shepard had instantly put them on a course for the krogan home world, and she, Mordin, Wrex and Victus had spent most of the morning brainstorming ways to distribute the cure most effectively. Individual injections and treatments would take months, if not years…time they did not have.

They had finally lit upon the Shroud as a viable method. The Shroud, Mordin explained, had been built by the salarians to help repair the damage to Tuchanka's atmosphere after the krogan had nearly wiped themselves out. It had also been used to distribute the original genophage, and served as the best hope to cover as much ground- and as many krogan- as possible in a short amount of time. Once distributed with the Shroud, the cure would affect any krogan on the planet…and would remain to cure any that eventually came home to it.

Wrex was amenable to this, and was making what preparations he needed to move forward with it.

She was now forcing herself to ignore the way her foot was bouncing, pretending to sip at another coffee she didn't really want, trying not to focus on the memory of Liara's ashen face, when EDI's voice startled her.

{Captain, you have a call coming in the QEC.}

"On my way, EDI."

She dumped the coffee in the waste reclamation unit-

Gray. Her face is so gray. No brush of breath against her cheek, no motion of pulse against her fingers

-and headed up toward the war room. Traynor stood at the far end, near the entrance to the QEC, and nodded politely as Shepard stepped past. Politely, but her dark eyes seemed worried.

She's not breathing. She's not breathing! God, Liara's not breathing!

Stepping over to the projection pad Shepard accessed the call, straightening when Dalatrass Linron appeared.

"Captain. Word has reached me on your plans to utilize the Shroud to distribute this cure of yours."

Shepard folded her arms with a bitter glare. "Word certainly travels fast. Who do I have to thank?"

"Does that really matter?"

"Does it matter if someone on my ship is feeding information off of it without my authorization? Yeah, it really matters, Dalatrass. Who?"

"If you must know, Wrex himself told me," Linron said. "He seemed eager to rub it in my face, point of fact."

"I can verify that you know."

"Verify away, Captain. I have no time for your petty suspicions."

If she dies I'll kill you! I'll kill you!

"Why don't we just get to the point, Dalatrass. What is the purpose of your call?"

"A fool's errand, perhaps, but I am going to try and appeal to your wiser nature. Shepard, we…our people…cannot afford this cure for the krogan. We will defeat one enemy just to be overrun by another. The krogan will consume everything in this galaxy with their rage and bloodlust."

"This is a well-beaten road," Shepard warned. "You made your stance clear at the summit. We need the krogan to win this war, and-"

"You can make the pragmatic decision, Captain, and still have krogan support!"

"What are you talking about?"

"When we developed the Shroud, we included a failsafe in case a cure was ever developed. We knew the Shroud would be the most efficient way to distribute it. If a cure is input into the Shroud system, it is preprogrammed to alter the temperature variances before distribution. The cure will be rendered ineffectual before it is introduced into the atmosphere. The krogan will think that you have fulfilled your end of the bargain and lend you their aid, and the krogan remain in their current state."

"Why are you telling me this? You could have just kept your mouth shut and the cure wouldn't have worked."

"Mordin Solus is why. He is incredibly intelligent, Captain- as well you know. If he is allowed into that facility he will easily pick up on the sabotage and correct it. You cannot allow that to happen."

"So, let me get this straight. You want me to prevent Mordin from distributing the cure- something he will insist on, which will likely result in my having to use deadly force against my own friend- and then let this non-cure be distributed among the krogan so that they'll help us, even though we didn't actually cure them as promised."

"The krogan will never doubt you. They will believe the cure has been delivered. They will help, and we have a galaxy safe from Reapers and krogan. No overwhelming numbers, no second war, all of our people win."

"Except the krogan."

"Shepard, you're a soldier. You understand war, numbers, strength. The krogan will decimate us if allowed to breed unchecked. Don't blind yourself to the reality of what will happen if this cure succeeds! You're being obtuse-"

"Obtuse?" Shepard glared, dropping her arms. "Dalatrass, I believe our conversation is over."

"Just think about it, Captain. You have a chance in your hands to stop this madness. If you do, you will have the full support of our salarian fleets and ships, all of our scientists and soldiers. If you don't, not one single salarian ship will come in aid of Earth, I can promise you that!"

"You know what happens then?"

"What?"

Del's eyes sparked with hellfire. "The salarians die alone."

Her finger snapped down and cut the feed.

Sam watched as Shepard strode out of the QEC. As she went across the war room, the young specialist broke into a trot, quickly catching up to her and clearing her throat. "Captain, if I might have a word-"

"What is it, Traynor?"

Great, she sounds extremely pissed.

"I…if it's not an imposition, I'd rather speak to you about this…privately?"

Shepard paused and glared at her. Traynor felt herself shrink a little inside under the weight of that glare, but forced herself to remain the picture (she hoped) of confidence. Behind that glare she could see the pain, the worry, the weight of everything bearing down on her. Sam wanted to soothe her, reassure her that everything was going to be all right. Every fiber of her wanted to help carry this burden that Shepard clung to like a child with its security blanket, to show her that she wasn't alone. Hold her hand, whisper in her ear…

As the glaring silence dragged on, she cleared her throat self-consciously, hoping the faint heat rising to her cheeks was unnoticed.

"Fine," Del said at last, the word sharpened with a razor's edge. "Conference room. I can spare a minute."

Sam tried not to audibly sigh in relief, passing a self-conscious hand over her cheeks as Shepard stepped past toward the conference room door, leaving the blushing Sam to follow quietly behind.

Feng mu gou= crazy bitch