A/N: I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, but I've been fiddling with it and I can't make it any better without rest and hitting it again later. Feedback on what I need to fix would be very welcome.

I've had this battle in my head for a while. The whole series of events on Feros made so little sense to me (unlike Noveria, which was well done, and Therum, which was mostly okay) that I always tried to get past it as quickly as possible. IF the Thorian has spores everywhere, why isn't everyone dominated? Why does Saren try to blow up the Beacon and Eden Prime and not take out the Thorian when he has the chance?

I think this, if not better, at least leaves fewer unanswered questions.

Updated 1-10-2018.


Shepard adjusted the choke on her ODIN shotgun as Shields operated the crane, thoughts racing, hands seeking something to do. The area was almost too quiet, her armored feet sliding slightly in the green-spattered muck near the cargo doors next to the crane. The pounding on the doors from the creatures within had suddenly and ominously stopped a few seconds before, and Shepard wondered what was happening.

With a creaking lurch, a segment of ugly gray duracrete was levered out of the way; scrape marks and deep gouges showing this movement was a frequent occurrence. The block swung up, ponderously slow, hoisted by the crane's whining servos. It revealed a dimly lit metal staircase leading down, with packed earthen walls visible below the concrete foundation the ship was parked on. Shepard exhaled and glanced over her shoulder.

Wrex was standing stolidly, his battered red armor discolored from the Thorian thralls he had blown to bits. He reloaded his weapon, swapping out his usual incendiaries for a shredder mod that would spray out clouds of hyper-sharpened flechettes in a broad swath. His helmet nodded as her eyes flickered over him.

Shields was locking down the crane, her silvery-gray armor pitted and scored, the ExoGeni symbol on the left arm almost invisible under the green gore caked there. Her gray eyes met Shepard's for a moment, blasted, cold, and… wounded, and Shepard looked away.

Shields' voice was cold and steady as she spoke a moment later. "It's all clear, and I put a quick password on the controls so someone can't just come along and lock us in."

Shepard nodded. "Good thinking. Garrus and Ashley will be here, of course, but better safe than sorry." She glanced over to Liara.

The asari was nervously checking her pistol. Shepard's lips curved into a slight smile behind her own helmet as she took in the weapon Liara had chosen – a Kassa Fabrication Razer, one of the best light pistols on the market. The weapon probably cost a small fortune, but it was an older model, maybe ten years or more, and didn't have any mods at all.

Liara looked up as Shepard considered her, and gave a nervous smile. "Do… do you think my mother is here, Commander?"

Shepard's smile died and she gave an exhale. "Not sure what answer is best, doctor, so… let's just see what we have." She turned as Shields picked up her assault rifle and led the way down the stairs.

The metal stairs rang hollowly with each step, quickly giving way to a crudely constructed pathway - overlain with metal panels - that sloped gently downwards, curving slightly to the right. The small group advanced with Shepard in the lead, shotgun ready, followed by Shields with her assault rifle, and Liara, pistol gripped tightly in her left hand and her right fist wreathed gently in biotic energy.

Wrex brought up the rear, towering over all of them despite hunching slightly. "Stupid humans can't build their tunnels big enough."

Shields' voice was almost amused. "Sorry, Wrex. If you'd called ahead, I'd have gotten you a cup of jaaki and we could have caught up on old times. But the tunnel was dug by those things, not us."

Wrex snorted. "Figures. You have jaaki?"

Shields' laughter was soft as they rounded the corner. The walls were now all dirt, moisture laden and soft, reinforced by close set metallic supports every meter. The sounds of their footfalls were almost muted, the metallic floor now covered with a thin layer of grime and something slimy and sticky, seeping out from the bases of the walls. A corridor branched off to the right, but Shields ignored it. "Leads to where we debriefed, ah, whoever the Thorian used that week. Dead-end."

Shepard nodded, moving along as silently as possible, as the floor turned back into a staircase. A geth lay shattered at the top, its head torn to bits, amid the green splashes of slime that indicated Thorian thralls. Six or seven of them were scattered about, two of them burned black, one torn in half, and the rest spattered about as if struck by a giant fist. Three more had been sliced in half, seemingly at the same time, and a fourth had burned slashes across its torso.

"Saren fought his way in, looks like. And the cuts there, a warp sword. Benezia, probably." Wrex's voice was wry. "With any luck, they'll be too worn out to fight. That would be a shame, seeing as half the reason I'm doing this is to get some good fights going." He shrugged under the heavy armor, the tone of his voice showing he was joking.

Shepard didn't even bother to snort, her nerves almost jangling. The quiet darkness of the corridor, the silence, the closeness, the utter foulness of the crap on the floor, was all adding up to remind her of the last of the tunnel fighting on Torfan. With a firming of her jaw, she stepped down the stairs, and then down another flight.

She was about to head down the third when Shields put a hand on her arm. "After the next flight, there's a long tunnel, leading to the Thorian. You ready?"

Shepard nodded, and with a deep breath they set out.

O-OSaBC-O

Saren's eyes were still shut, and Benezia focused on finding her center, even as she glanced at Ganar Skal, who was shifting his feet. "How long does this shit take, Benezia?" His guttural voice seemed to almost violate the otherwise silent chamber.

The asari matriarch didn't even respond, her beautiful features muted behind the smoked glass of her ancient battle armor. Built off of old designs for asari commandos, the suit had heavy plates over the shoulders, breasts, and hips, with thin ballistic cloth everywhere else, emphasizing curves. A skirt of stiffened leather reinforced with strips of shock-proof nanotubing guarded her legs, and her hands were wrapped around a vicious Disciple shotgun, the smooth lines comforting in her hands.

The only others in the room, aside from Saren, the Shiala-clone, and Skal, were two geth – one a communications unit, the other a mere guard. Although she disliked the machines, they seemed utterly unaffected by indoctrination, which had given her researchers an interesting idea. Now, though, the geth stirred.

"Benezia-Prophet, forces topside report strike team entering this area."

Benezia nodded. "How long until the reinforcements arrive?"

The geth paused, for several seconds, before clicking. "They have just completed FTL jump. ETA is twenty-five minutes. Be advised – we have no units monitoring the system's mass relay."

Benezia smiled coolly. "We'll be done soon, machine, do not worry. Have Cera Pectoris prep the ship for departure." She turned, walking over calmly to stand next to Saren, and delicately laid a single hand on his arm. After a long moment he shook his head, and the Shiala-clone stepped back.

Saren swayed, his mandibles drunkenly levering out and in, before shaking his head again, jaws clacking. "There's… too much of it to make sense… like fire on my mind."

Benezia nodded. "We will deal with that once we get back to our base."

Saren nodded, wincing, and exhaled. Turning to the Thorian, he gave a smile. "Your assistance was… most welcome. Unfortunately, it looks like we have overstayed our welcome here on this world, so it is time to go."

The green-tinted clone of Shiala narrowed her eyes. "We have sampled your meat. It is superior. But those coming flesh creatures, wish to kill, to rend. You will stop them."

Saren glanced at Benezia, who shrugged. "Shepard and her band of idiots."

Saren gave a confident smirk, and turned back to the creature. "I think you'll find we can handle a few pitiful humans, creature."

He tossed his head confidently, and in that moment there was a sharp crack. Saren was hurled to the ground, shields overloaded and a massive bolt of agony in his shoulder. A second shot impacted the clone of Shiala between the eyes, splattering her skull and sending the naked, headless corpse spinning to the ground in a boneless heap.

A cold voice rang out into the silence of the amphitheater. "Saren Arterius. Time to die."

O-OSaBC-O

Shields cursed, ducking into cover. Saren's movement ensured that her shot had been off, but she had at least downed the turian. Shepard called out her challenge even as she moved, ducking to avoid any incoming fire as she hustled forward.

The room was huge, with half-broken pillars, dimly lit tunnels opening into darkened pits, and a domed roof that was twelve meters up. But Shepard's breath was taken away by the misshapen thing at the center of a vast pit that the ruin was built around, a pillar of polluted, plant-like flesh festooned with dozens of pulsing, throbbing nodules, and branching out into tentacle-like roots anchored into the walls. "That's the Thorian?"

Shields nodded, even as she fired again, her sniper shot downing one of the geth units, the high-powered bolt shattering its head and sending splinters of armor fragments over its companion. Shepard opened up as well, heavy shotgun blasts dropping the other geth, and its bulk crashed into Benezia, knocking her askew. The matriarch arose from Saren's side where she had been trying to assess his wound, and her face twisted into an inarticulate mask of rage. Benezia snarled, and azure light raced down her arm in a flare, erupting into a bolt of biotic energy that lanced out at Shepard. The bolt crackled as it flew through the air, arcing down to smash into Shepard, and instead blazing into a fiery blue light as it struck a barrier field erected in its way.

Liara stepped out from the cover of the tunnel, eyes wide and angry. "Mother!"

Benezia's expression was ice, but Shepard had no time for that. She let off a brace of rounds, closing the distance and dropping into cover behind a broken pillar. Benezia almost arrogantly blocked them with a barrier of her own, her hand moving languidly and almost insultingly, and her voice disapproving and cold. "Liara, your actions are a disgrace to our Family. I warned you. Consorting with these lesser creatures has shown me you are no longer my daughter or worth my time… or restraint."

Lifting her fist she sent out a cascade of pure biotic force, the titanic wave shattering a low stone wall as it rolled forward, but Liara merely gritted her teeth and braced her shoulders. Her barrier held, the energy surging and flickering across its unyielding surface like an ocean breakwater in rough surf.

The two krogan hadn't even paid attention to the others as they charged, firing shotguns as they went. Wrex took three vicious shots to the torso, the second flaring with phasic energy and dropping his biotic barrier and the last cracking the plate over his stomach. Wrex roared out a battlecry in Korogish as his own final blast knocked Skal literally off of his feet, slamming him to the floor below. Shepard and Shields faced the krogan, lining their guns up to shoot.

Then a giant shockwave slammed into the team as biotic energy swirled around them both. The wave picked up Shepard and Shields like kindling, smashing them against the walls. Shepard shook off the blow, rolling behind a pillar, but Shields had been caught flat-footed. She hit the wall with a heavy thud, her rifle falling from limp hands, clattering on the concrete. She didn't move after slowly slumping to the ground.

Saren stood with blue radiance curling around his outstretched hand, a trickle of blue blood seeping from the still smoking hole in his shoulder plate, and his voice was almost calm. "You are a tenacious one, human. Maybe you'll put up a better fight than Nihlus did."

Wrex cursed and with a pulse flung his krogan opponent away from him, tucking his bulk behind a half-wall, while Liara flicked her barrier forward, scooting behind a pillar even as her mother took a few steps back. Saren himself moved behind the bulk of one of the low walls, pulling his Sunfire pistol. For a long, tense moment there was no movement or sound.

Shields groaned, and Wrex gave a wry smile. "Three biotics against three biotics, Shepard. I'll take the stupid one if the asari can handle her mother and you take out Saren."

Skal gave an incredulous snort. "Wrex, your brain is as addled as your armor if you think your idiotic sidekicks can take Saren and Lady Benezia. There's still time for you to reconsider this stupidity."

Saren nodded. "There's time for you all. You've seen what I've seen, haven't you? They're coming. There is nothing to be done about it, except to die fruitlessly and in futility… or try to survive the coming storm."

Shepard rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake, you aren't actually going to give me the goddamned 'join me in my evil empire' speech, are you?"

Saren chuckled. "Actually… no. I was waiting for my omni-tool to charge the proximity mines I placed earlier." Before Shepard could even move there was a loud beep and a series of blasts literally right behind her. Shepard came flying out of cover, armor smoking, her shotgun spinning away.

The turian Spectre leapt over his own cover, outlined in the blue flare of his own biotics. He was firing his Sunfire pistol at Shepard, coming down at her with a biotic leap. She flared her biotics, pulsing them, and flipped herself out of the way and back on her feet. One blazing shot singed her shields, but she grit her teeth, cursed, and threw herself into a biotic charge. Flashing into a streak of blue light, she slammed into the other Spectre, forcing his shields to flare with the impact. The heavy pistol in his hands barked again, another bright line of fire flaring past her, close enough to melt a streak across the side of her helmet. She lashed out, hands limned in blue energy, slamming his wrist in a scissor lock and wrenching, even as she jabbed her right foot into his knee joint.

Saren's grip on his Sunfire failed as he fell, but he turned it into half roll, coming back up with a sweep kick that took Shepard's legs out from under her. With a snarl he hurled a warp field at her, but she rolled backwards and let the energy leach away at the broken concrete floor. She sprang up and straight at Saren with a series of biotic punches, and the battle was rejoined.

Liara and Benezia were trading biotic blasts and singularities, the younger asari's breath coming shallowly and sweat running into her eyes as she ducked her mother's vicious assaults. Every blast felt like a tidal wave slamming against her barriers, overflowing energy juddering across her slender frame in bolts of blue electricity. She barely evaded a bladelike slash of biotic force, shuddering as it severed a section of pillar behind her cleanly, and answered back with a pulse of force, not at her mother but at the loose-packed dirt she stood upon. Benezia stumbled only for a moment, her lush figure enveloped a moment later by a biotic field to levitate herself, and Liara smiled grimly.

"Predictable, mother!"

With an inhale, she hurled a shockwave at Benezia, the storming pulses of blue energy making a sound like a broken storm front as they knocked the matriarch back, disrupting her barrier and making Benezia's eyes widen. She fell heavily to the floor and then barely managed to roll out of the way of several shots from Liara's pistol, two sparking against her barrier and one drilling her thigh, making the older asari hiss in pain. The matriarch fired back with her own shotgun, and Liara gave a screech of pain as the white-hot rounds tore through her thin armor and left smoldering holes in her right arm.

The battle illuminated the entire cavernous room, blue light and flares of white radiance mixed with grunts of suppressed agony and the shriek of flaring, failing shields. Wrex and Skal were lost to the blood rage, biotically enhanced punches and kicks shattering each other's armor in a blind tide of anger. Wrex felt ribs shatter from a kick, even as he managed to grab his opponent's shoulder. Using a biotic field to stabilize his grip, he relentlessly pulled Skal's arm back, and back, and back until the other krogan's shoulder socket shattered, drawing a ululating scream of agony. With a grunt of exertion, Wrex sent Skal spinning around, driving his fist directly into Skal's hump and sending the younger krogan to his knees.

Shepard parried a straight punch from her opponent, and taking advantage of the momentary opening, backhanded Saren. She smiled grimly, her own fists also surrounded in blue flame as she advanced. Grinning at the sight of the turian spitting up blood inside his helmet, she performed a series of side kicks, pushing the larger Spectre back. He blocked two, his own martial stance firm, but missed her feint to rush him and instead caught an arc kick right on the base of the chin, literally flipping him head over heels.

"It's fucking over, you pointy-faced asshat." She pulled her Revenant off her back, the barrels snapping into place as she shoved the muzzle right in his face. "This is for Nihlus!"

She saw the blue eyes through Saren's helmet widen. A tiny piece of her brain said: Huh, glowing blue eyes, weird, even as she pulled the trigger… and fell back as the blast sprayed deflected bits of mass in all directions, a biotic barrier blocking the shot.

Shepard didn't even have time to turn as a naked green form lithely dropped behind her and, with a biotic kick, sent her flying six meters away. Saren grinned viciously and with a roll, grabbed his Sunfire pistol. Shepard staggered back to her feet even as he fired.

Three heavy red comets slammed into her midsection, the third punching through her stomach and out behind her, spraying blood everywhere. Liara's eyes widened as she screamed Shepard's name, a distraction Benezia didn't miss, recovering from her nearly prone position to hurl a vicious blast of biotic energy at Liara. The young asari's scream was cut off as she was lifted from her feet, along with a half-meter chunk of broken concrete, and smashed into the far wall with a sickening crack and a spray of blood inside her faceplate.

With a krogan shout of victory, Wrex shattered Skal's faceplate with the muzzle of his shotgun, before firing it directly into the other krogan's face. The explosive thunder of the shotgun was muffled slightly as Skal's head and helmet were both blasted to ruin. He dropped to the ground in a wash of blood, a spray of red-orange gore covering the concrete behind him.

Wrex then immediately reversed his shotgun, firing as fast as he could at Saren. The turian managed to block two of the shots with his own barrier. The third blasted him right in the face, sending him to the ground screaming, blue blood spurting out. Benezia gave a shout, and slammed both hands together in a gesture, sending two walls of biotic force at Wrex. They overlapped him and detonated furiously, the old krogan crumpling with his arms snapped in multiple places. His legs bent backwards and collapsed, still, he struggled to rise. With a half-sob of rage, Benezia emptied her own shotgun into him, and the quivering form fell still at last.

Only Benezia was left standing, her armor smoking in places from the strength of Liara's biotic strikes, blood leaking from several rents near her abdomen and the gunshot in her leg. Silence, mixed with the smoke of discharged weapons and the smell of several kinds of blood, dominated the space.

Benezia grimaced, and checked her faceplate. It had cracked. If I can smell anything, that's bad. She shipped her shotgun to her armor and turned to the clone of Shiala, gesturing to her comrades. "They are badly hurt. I need to get them to my ship. We need your thralls to help us."

The Shiala-clone tilted its head, and then gave something like a smile, the sort of smile one gives a small child or a dog. "Flesh thing, sad for you. I am still hungry. You will all make good sources of knowledge and power for me."

Benezia's eyes narrowed. "It is a pity you took Shiala's body and none of her wisdom." Without a single word more, her hands swept out to her sides, and two shearing arcs of biotic energy lanced out, slashing into the largest vein-like roots on either side of the Thorian, severing them in a spray of gelatinous, greenish fluids.

The Shiala-clone screamed as the chamber shook, several of the plant's pods rupturing to reveal the ruined, rotted forms of humans or other things, and the matriarch shook her head. "But then, it was her wisdom that led us to ensure that ExoGeni figured out your weakness before engaging you in conversation, plant. It was ignorant to believe that, in the long-run, we'd let you live. It was idiocy itself to force my hand in killing you. The survival of all is more important than your hunger, thing."

With an almost regal expression she held up a trembling hand, and then with all her force sent a gigantic wave of biotic energy outwards. Several pillars snapped like twigs, as the Shiala-clone was hurled across the chamber and came apart in a gory green splash on impact with the Thorian. The bulk of the Thorian was hit an instant later and simply split open like a rotted log, bizarrely-shaped organ-like structures deep inside its trunk deforming from the blast.

A moment later, Saren groaned, and Benezia rushed to his side. "Saren… we must go. The geth are on their way, but you are…"

The turian got to his feet unsteadily. "I can't see out of my… right eye… spores…"

Benezia shook her head. "We'll deal with it on the ship. We have to go."

Flinging Saren's uninjured arm around her neck, and drawing on her biotics for strength and support, the weary matriarch helped him to the tunnel entrance. She glanced at the ruined form of Ganar Skal, but even she could see he was dead, his head reduced to a shallow pool of blood and bits of flesh framed by the shards of his shattered helmet.

She used her free hand to tap Saren's omni-tool. "Rthar… we're hurt. We need extraction. Send what geth you can, and the commandos…" Her words trailed off as she winced in pain.

The radio was silent only a moment. "They're coming, Matriarch, hold on."

O-OSaBC-O

Garrus had shut down one nuclear device behind the colony ships, placed in between pallets by the support pillars. Those pallets were filled with strontium-90, the purpose of which was all too clear. He was finishing on the second, cleverly concealed under some loose paneling near a malfunctioning water conduit. Compared to the descriptions he'd heard of the bombs on Eden Prime, these were simple but rugged.

Ashley had gotten a call on her omni a few minutes ago and withdrew a bit, and now came running back, rifle out. "Joker says a goddamned geth fleet just entered sensor range, it'll be in orbit in minutes. We gotta get Shepard out of there."

Garrus opened his mouth to speak when he heard movement from the far entryway. He pulled his rifle, sighting down it, and then with widening eyes pulled Ashley down beside him out of sight. She stammered out a curse, but he held a talon to his helmet in a gesture for silence.

Whispering, he spoke "Eight asari and a handful of geth, coming from the direction of Saren's ship. Too many to take."

Ash glared at him. "If we let them get behind the Commander, she's finished!"

Garrus sighed, and nodded. "We'll stop them… we just—" He fell silent as voices sounded.

"Mistress?!"

The cold voice of Benezia could be heard. "Shepard and her ilk nearly killed us. We must get away before more of them arrive, Saren is badly hurt and Skal is dead."

Ashley's grip on her assault rifle tightened, but Garrus tapped her hand instead, still whispering. "The Commander may still be alive, Williams. We wait until they move out and then we check. Joker will stop them getting away."

Ashley frowned. Her mind was working furiously. She knew, deep in her heart, that she couldn't take a group of asari commandos and geth, and Benezia, especially if they had already taken down Shepard, Shields, Wrex, and Liara. But she keenly felt the deaths of her unit, her pain, and her shame. She wanted to just charge out so badly.

But as she watched the turian, as his eyes followed them moving off, she realized he was shaking too, his hand flexing around the heavy Talon pistol like he wanted to choke something. Kaidan's words hit her then, his soft, calming voice in the back of her head. "The way I see it, aliens are just people. Weird looking people sometimes, with scales. But they're still just jerks and saints. They still feel pain, and fear, and love. They still get angry and happy."

She sighed and put her hand on the big turian's wrist. "Vakarian. I hate this, but you're right. I know you hate it too… we'll… get the fucker later." She peeked over the top; the group had drawn out of sight, leaving trails of blood behind them. "Sides, looks like the Skipper might have killed Saren anyway. Let's go."

The two moved cautiously to the cargo ship, hearing what sounded like pained, faint moaning from within the ship itself. Turian and asari blood was thick on the stairs leading down, and Benezia's shotgun had been dropped at the top, sticky with Saren's blood. Ash kicked it out of the way, but Garrus paused to pick it up and pack it along, and they headed down the stairs.

When they got to the bottom of the ruin, Garrus stepped out first, mandibles slack. "Spirit sires of Palaven!"

The room was a disaster area, splashed with blood of all kinds and broken masonry, green spatters and bits of mass accelerator rounds on the floor. Liara lay brokenly against one wall, helmet dented and faceplate occluded with blood, her arm bent at an unnatural angle. Wrex was a ruined heap along another wall, while Shepard lay unmoving in a pool of her own blood. Shields was crumpled in the far corner, stirring weakly, and while Garrus moved to Liara, Ash moved to Shepard, turning her over.

"Oh, Skip… why the fuck…?" Shepard gave an inhalation, followed by a sob of agony and confused muttering. Ashley's voice erupted. "Omigodshit! GARRUS! She's alive!"

Garrus nodded, moving to Liara. "Head out to transmit range. Tell Joker to have the med-bay prepped." He lifted Liara away from the wall, and his voice flanged in disbelief. "Spirits, T'Soni's still alive too."

"G… urk… urh. Why…?" Wrex moaned and spat blood; the sound of a shattered bone re-shattering as it tried to right itself resulted in him awakening.

Ashley only nodded, somehow unsurprised the massive mercenary had also survived. "I'll do that and bring the Mako up. Stay here and use medi-gel on them."

The turian nodded absently, infusing Liara's omni-tool with a medi-gel capsule and a stabilization order before moving toward the krogan. "Spirits of fire, Wrex, your arms…"

With an irritated grunt, the krogan flipped himself over, slamming his broken arm against a pillar. A snapping sound and he waved it almost feebly. "Regeneration… sucks sometimes. Where… Saren?''

Garrus jutted his chin upwards. "Got past us, had backup. We came to get you. Shepard is alive. So are Shields and Liara."

Wrex stood, unsteadily, then knelt weakly, his damaged legs unable to support his weight. His armor was blackened from biotic blasts, his own orange blood drenching it in small rivulets that had pooled beneath him, and formed a gory caul over his shattered helmet. He picked up his shotgun, leaning on it for support, and glanced over his shoulder at the krogan corpse behind him. "Figures. Fucker… beat us. Thought we… had him for a second. Went wrong so fast. Don't even know what happened."

There was ripping, squelching sound from one of the alcoves on the wall, and Garrus turned to see the slime-coated form of an asari in worn-looking commando leathers stumble out. Shorter than Liara, she was hacking and retching out the same green muck that saturated her skin and clothes. She looked lost and confused, her eyes glazed and unfocused.

Garrus frowned, lifting his assault rifle. "Who the fuck are you?!"

The asari looked at him a long moment, then held up her hands in a weary, almost disgusted gesture. "My name is Shiala. I… worked… for Benezia, before they… sacrificed me to this thing. Now I don't know… what to do." Her voice was a mix of tired and somehow broken, as if even speaking was a trial to endure.

Garrus's mandible twitched, but she looked almost as done in as the figures on the floor, and he gestured firmly with the rifle. "Alright, lady, kneel on the ground, away from the human in black armor, and don't make any sudden moves or biotic flares or I will kill you."

She merely nodded and complied, slumping where she stood. "I am not your enemy. At least… not any longer." She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself, and Garrus frowned. "But… you must know… what he found." She shivered, rocking back and forth slightly, as if in pain "What lies… waiting in the dark."

Garrus glanced at Wrex. "What's she talking about?"

The krogan shrugged. "Dunno. There was a green asari helping Saren, I think that's who got the drop on Shepard, and the blue bitch mentioned her name, I think. It's… not all clear." He shook his massive head, breathing shallowly and weakly as Garrus turned back to Shiala.

She looked up at him for a long moment before giving a wan, weary smile. "It is a long story, turian. But the simple version is that Saren… gave… me to the Thorian as the price for the Thorian giving him enough knowledge to… understand the Beacon. I was the… purveyor of this transfer. If you let me live, I can give to you what I was forced to give to Saren."

Garrus didn't even waste time thinking about it, but tapped his omni-tool. "Ash, we have a situation here. Found a… survivor, I guess. Says she has information about the Beacon. ETA till you get back?"

The human's voice was strained. "Five minutes, but we have to hurry. Tali and Cole had to fall back from the ExoGeni HQ, the geth stormed in and they're rolling back hard towards the outpost. We gotta move."

Garrus cursed, and then checked Shepard's vitals again and applied medi-gel. "Wrex, keep an eye on her. We'll let the Council or Shepard or whoever figure out what to do with her."

O-OSaBC-O

Shepard was unresponsive in the back of the Mako as it rolled along the Prothean skyway, as was Liara. The limited medical gear in the Mako was only able to pump their broken bodies with medi-gel and make attempts at keeping them breathing inside their armor. Shields was semi-conscious. Her armor scans showed a serious concussion or worse. Wrex was eating emergency rations in the back, gritting his massive teeth against the pain. He paused to work his other arm into a semblance of its normal shape. Garrus drove while Ashley updated Joker over her comm and monitored the medical readouts.

Joker had patched in Chakwas, who walked her through how to link their armor to the Mako's small computer so she could get medical telemetry from their omni-tools, and Ashley had complied as best she could. With a grunt, the last bit of work was completed, and she leaned back on her haunches, tensely. "Got it, doc. Thanks. Joker. Is the Normandy ready to go?"

The voice answering back was worried-sounding and hesitant. "Yeah, but the geth are here, Chief. If they make planetfall, there's nothing I can do in this thick atmosphere, and if I go orbital there's enough of them to kill us all. Orders?"

Ashley looked helplessly at the broken, barely breathing form of Commander Shepard and sighed. "Pressly's the XO. He'll have to make the call." She turned away, jaw set, and her voice was cold as she killed the comms and returned to watching the medical readouts. "Drive faster, Garrus."