There was that sense of incredible heat and unfathomable cold. An eon of nothingness passed between Ruth stepping out of the lab and her stepping into the dreadnought. Her stomach swooped with a coil of nausea and her skin prickled with goose bumps, but she was through.

After the fairly bright lights of the lab, the dark of the dreadnought was momentarily unpenetrable. She could sense distance in front of her, so she was at least in a corridor or a room, but she could see no details.

One hand in front of her, she walked forward as her eyes cleared. A hall stretched before her, and she quickly moved to one side, putting her hand on the wall as soon as she could identify it.

The Pio in her implants immediately came to life, linking to the wall and starting the integration. Ruth became aware of Osco's mind and sudden attention, a ripple like a shark turning in the unseen depths and disturbing the water around it. She was unsurprised when the wall began to enclose her, drawing her into its substance as Osco's presence became louder.

Ruth. You returned.

Pushing her true thoughts down as deeply as she was completely engulfed, Ruth did her best to answer. The sensation of motion told her she was being moved to another area of the ship, and as she became more involved with the systems, she started tentatively feeling out their functions.

Of course I returned. I was foolish for leaving. My place is with you…it has always been with you.

Air opened up above her and she slowly rose through a floor into the main control chamber. Green and blue lights still winked like stars from every distant wall, a trillion lights gleaming- every single one an eye of the beast turning onto her.

The 'floor' did not completely release her. Black still wound around her legs, consuming her feet, spreading in tendrils from her waist to cross over her arms, back, chest, and face. Full integration had begun and she did not resist it, still carefully hunting for any system she could take over from the massive computer that Osco had become.

All around her, inside her, she could feel that monstrous beast pressing in, assailing her with a thousand different thoughts, feelings, functions, sensations, and voices.

You will not leave me again?

No. No, I swear it. I swear it, Jelly. I will not leave you again.

Tears began to run down Ruth's cheeks. From the center of the room-from the massive pillar/dais from which Liara had witnessed Osco emerge before- there was motion. A seam appeared along the structure's length, and then it parted. Out of it came what was left of Gellian Osco.

Very little of anything human seemed to remain. A patch of grayed out skin here, a lock of hay-colored hair there. Her central shape still seemed to be somewhat bipedal, but her arms and legs had become enormous 'cables', joined with dozens of others sprouting from random locations along her frame. These cables emerged and sank into the floors, walls, and ceilings to maintain her connections and allow her motion. Her movements were like watching an octopus pull its way along a narrow underwater cavern.

Her body was almost completely consumed in tech, her face barely recognizable as such any more. More connections sprayed out of her head and down her 'back' to merge with the main cabling. The same blue and green lights that flowed over the walls flowed over her.

Her eyes were gone, replaced by some kind of reflective silver substance that formed a curved plane from her cheekbones over her skull. It was like the rounded end of an egg, and light seemed to not only shine off of it but play in intricate designs within it. Only a rudimentary mouth and nose were still definable as anything close to a human being.

The thing crept toward Ruth until that abysmal face was only inches away. Within that shifting silver, Ruth could see a thousand different images, darting and playing about like fish in a pond. Overlaying it, she could see her own reflection, bent and distorted with the curve.

Several smaller appendages, like the tentacles that had throttled Liara, sprouted out of the larger cabling and reached forward, coiling about Ruth's body and even lifting to gently caress her face. One small one brushed her cheek, almost affectionately banishing one of her tears.

I know you are afraid. Ruth, do not be afraid. Soon you will be part of me too, and I will be part of you. We will be merged, one mind and one purpose. We will be together, always.

Yes.

Ruth could feel herself shaking, trying desperately to keep her concentration, to focus only on Gellian. Shepard's Pio and the others it had communicated with were busy isolating weapons and shield systems and trying to make sure her integration with them was greater than Osco's. Gellian could doubtlessly sense their work but she would be assuming they were simply helping Ruth integrate fully into the ship and into Gellian. She had no idea they would not actually finish the job- at least, not until after it was too late. By then, Ruth would have at least a strong enough foot-hold to wrestle over control, to buy a few precious moments for the others to get back home before this beast overwhelmed her.

Yes, she said again. That's all I ever wanted, Jelly. I only ever wanted to be with you.


Moments after Ruth had passed through, almost simultaneously with her placing her hand on the wall and the Pio beginning connection, Del turned to face the waiting troops. "She's in! Go!"

Liara, Sokka, Ashley, Deefa, and the Alliance soldiers immediately moved forward, passing in the archway and on to the ship.

The moment she set foot on board, Liara could see Ruth's back as she was swallowed into the nearby wall. Wordlessly she gestured to the others and they moved out, weapons up.

Sokka- dressed in a mask and a cobbled-together hard-suit similar to her aunt's-could feel the hair on her neck and arms lifting. She had seen many mind-boggling things in the short time since leaving Nakira, but this place…this place she did not like at all. It was like being inside a beating heart-the heart of a cold and patient murderer, a catika coward who would slaughter from behind without honor.

While they had no idea where to actually find Tali and Delphine, Liara knew the trick to locating them fast. They had long since worked out how the black tech could be manipulated with thought. While Gellian was the controlling mind of this ship, brasa ships were also designed to carry others…others that would have need of doorways and hallways to move about, so long as they weren't troops being carried in stasis.

The trick would be opening a corridor that lead directly to their kidnapped friends without Osco consciously realizing what was happening- a near impossibility. They could only hope Ruth's distraction would be enough and that she could integrate fast enough to at least delay any action that could be taken against them.

They had no time to hesitate. Every second spent here only made their deaths closer and more certain.

Planting her hand on the wall, Liara closed her eyes. To speed up the process, Ashley and Sokka did the same, all three with the same thought in their head-open a hall to Tali and Delphine.

Unlike the slow formation of the corridor when Liara had done so alone back on Tuchanka, the result of their three minds working in tandem was all but instant, the black substance moving so fast it seemed to merely vanish before them, leaving a tunnel in its wake.

The moment it was there they were off, rushing down the hall at top speed.


Tali's first vision of full consciousness was a smear of light, and something clogging her throat, choking her and making her lungs burn. Weakness seemed to have oiled its way into the very fiber of each and every muscle.

Something rushed to splash around her, and suddenly unsupported, she collapsed forward to her knees, then her hands, heaving a cough in a desperate bid for air. Warm and metallic wet rushed up her throat, spilling across blackness.

Hands descended as air rushed into her lungs, her eyes clearing a bit. She looked up to see blue eyes looking at her from behind a helmet face-plate. She was trembling as the asari captain all but pulled her to her feet.

"Tali, you are safe, just breathe. Sokka, we need to get them back through the archway immediately."

A strong arm wound around Tali's waist and she was lifted. Dizziness spawned by vertigo swamped over her and she slumped, unable to do anything but be carried. Darkness came over her again briefly, and the next thing she was aware of was warm and soft under her back, the familiar sight and smell of a medical pod around her. Disoriented and confused, she lifted a hand and pressed it against the transparency. A face loomed over her, covered in a helmet.

A very welcome face.

"Tali, you're ok, just hang tight," Deefa said, placing her hand over the lid as well. "You're safe now. We'll get you taken care of."


Each moment that passed since the last of the extraction team crossed through into the Fold, Del could measure by her pounding heartbeat. Poised by the console, ready to activate the barrier and start shutting down the archway, she could feel every muscle in her body all but singing with tension.

Her mind wanted to race with everything that could possibly go wrong. Ruth could fail. Tali and Delphine could be dead or impossible to find. The extraction team could be killed. The Fold could collapse and cause a rebound explosion that could destroy them on an atomic level.

She could lose Liara forever.

Focus, Del. Just stay focused.

Behind her, Sam and a pair of Alliance privates remained, the N7 poised behind the Davy Crockett, finger all but on the trigger. Beyond them, a set of medical pods had been brought in, locked into frames that were bolted to the floor. They had no idea the condition that Tali and Delphine would be in when they were brought through, but chances would be greatest that they would no longer be secure in their hard-suits. Even perfectly healthy, they'd have to be sealed in the pods to protect from any nuclear radiation that may blow back through the Fold before it could close.

Seconds crept past like ice ages, turning into minutes. Shepard felt the damp of sweat gathering on her forehead beneath her helmet, fingers on the controls starting to ache a little. In the room, no one made a sound. The silence was broken only by the faint hum of machinery.

Then, something leapt in through the Fold. She was so tense that Shepard startled, hands whipping back from the controls for an instant before she realized who it was. Sokka, able to move faster than the others, landed several feet beyond the archway, a naked, wet, and limp quarian in her arms.

Sokka immediately moved toward the nearest open pod, laying her down as another marine rushed in, cradling Delphine. The girl was just as wet, limp, and naked as Tali. Recovering from her surprise, Del got a better look at Delphine as she was carried past than she did of Tali. The girl seemed incredibly emaciated- far more than she should have been in her short absence, even if she had been denied all form of sustenance for the entire duration. Her skin had a grayish cast to it, her eyes sunk in reddened hollows.

On the heels of the second marine came the rest of the extraction team, Deefa at the head, shipping her weapon as she ran in and going immediately to the side of Tali's pod.

Ashley was the second to the last who entered, and Del didn't let out a breath she had been unaware she was holding until she saw the familiar lines of Liara's hard-suit appear immediately after the N7.

"Clear!" Liara shouted the instant she was fully out of the Fold, she and Ashley quickly moving away from line-of-sight between it and the Davy Crockett. "Fire!"

Sam hit the trigger and the rocket blazed to life, trailing a tongue of flame and smoke behind it as it tore away from the tripod, crossed the dozen feet between it and the archway in a nanosecond, and vanished into the black. The same moment it disappeared, Del activated the barrier generators and a curtain of blue suddenly shimmered over the Fold.

Now, she just had to get the damned thing shut down.


It seemed Jelly was either completely unaware of the extraction team boarding, or was completely unconcerned by it, choosing instead to focus on Ruth and their growing assimilation. It wasn't until the team reached the fluid-filled hibernation chambers she had stashed her two perfect specimens in, that her attention turned, quite abruptly focusing on what was happening there. Feeling the shift of attention, Ruth immediately began to grapple with the far stronger entity, forcefully trying to thwart her every action and almost physically attempting to tear down any connection she had with her weapons and shields.

The sense of sudden heartache and betrayal at the action that Osco felt, sang through Ruth as well, the pair joined together enough for the feelings to be shared. It was such a powerful, such a human thing to feel that Ruth almost forgot herself in that instant, almost stopped fighting what suddenly felt very much like the woman she had loved.

But, no. Even if this was genuine, even if there was that trace of Osco and her humanity left, that changed nothing. Death was better than living as this twisted thing. Gellian needed peace.

They both did.

So she redoubled her efforts, and in return the heartache turned into something far hotter, far fiercer. Ruth had been right when she had said she could not contest with Gellian for any length of time. The woman was far too smart, and had been joined with this ship for far too long. Whatever small leeway Ruth may have made in the systems was nothing compared to the overwhelming presence of Osco's control. Ruth felt herself being crushed, being torn away from integration, her very spirit seeming to shred under searing blades of incredible, cataclysmic force.

Just before her integration was torn away completely, it came. A sudden, overwhelming agony, like having a limb ripped free by wild dogs wielding fiery teeth. She felt the pain through Osco as well, Gellian's scream a viscous thing, sensation more than sound.

The pocket nuke had passed through the archway, sailing down the straight corridor for less than half a second before it came into contact with a wall, blooming into a swelling ball of incredible devastation on impact. The explosion tore through the dreadnought, vaporizing, incinerating, and rending everything around it. The EM pulse from the blast wiped out every Pio in half the ship, the radiation burning and scalding the decks and hull like fire eating into flesh.

Ruth and Gellian felt every bit of it.

Ruth's agony was, thankfully, very short lived. Even as the fire of the explosion sang through every portion of her being, Osco ripped her physical shell apart. Blood washed in a wave over the floor, and for a moment Ruth was herself again, small and human. Her eyes fell on that incredible splash of color and the only thing she could think was how pretty it was against all the unending black…before she could no longer think anything at all, the hollow ghost of relief following her down into eternity.


When the barrier came up, Shepard's fingers continued to fly as she worked on shutting down the actual Fold. What made her glance up at that particular moment she would never be able to say for sure after that. Perhaps it was merely waiting for the shoe to drop, the anticipation of the nuke explosion and whatever uncertain aftermath it would bring. Perhaps she had some kind of intuition warning her of what was to come.

Whatever caused it, that moment would be imprinted on her mind for the rest of her life, with perfect and stark clarity.

The archway was filled with the ebony curtain of the Fold, masked slightly by the shimmering blue barrier. Liara and Ashley, who had stepped away from it to the opposite side from Del and her control console to clear a path for the rocket to pass, were now moving back. Ashley was closer to the arch, only about five feet away from the barrier. Obviously she was confident that any blast would be contained behind the protective screen, that any radiation that came through would not harm her through her hard-suit, and that if anything more catastrophic occurred than this she would not survive anyway no matter how close or far from it she was.

Liara was at more of an angle, a bit further away from the Fold than the N7 marine-ten or twelve feet as opposed to Ashley's five and change. Her head was turned toward Sam but she was walking toward Del. Through her face-plate Shepard could see her mouth moving in slow motion, forming words that she didn't hear.

She never had time to hear them.

In that moment, there was a rumble, and a flash. The ground felt like it had dropped an inch or two, throwing Del off balance in reaction, and for a moment she was utterly blind. Then something of incredible size and power seemed to tackle her from behind, throwing her forward off her feet and slamming her hard to the ground.

Her air barked out of her painfully at the impact, and realizing she was sliding head first her gloved hands scraped over the concrete floor, trying to halt her momentum.

Bright and sudden as the flash had been, it was not what had blinded her. She was wearing a full military-grade helmet, one built with numerous safeties. It was designed to darken automatically, to filter out light that might be bright enough to harm vision or cause real physical damage. The flash had been so brilliant that for a second, the helmet had gone completely opaque. It clarified a second later, as Del was trying to stop her slide, and as it did she gaped in horror.

She was sliding fast toward the Fold, only a couple of feet away from it now. Her face-plate clarified just in time for her to see Ashley's helmet and outstretched hand disappear into that unending black.

Shepard was not being pulled or dragged by anything. She was not sliding due to an incline or a sudden shift in gravity. The chaotic whistle and almost deafening roar of wind surging around her told the true tale- she was being blown right into the Fold.

Even with the scope of her terror she knew instantly what had happened. The nuke had gone off, and just as they feared might happen, its detonation had destroyed the dreadnought's archway. The Fold had lost its anchor, but it hadn't just collapsed, and fortunately, it hadn't caused a rebound explosion. Instead, it had linked to another anchor point.

She had considered the possibility that the link could open a connection deep underwater, resulting in a massive flood, or to some toxic atmosphere. For some reason, she hadn't actually considered this.

The Fold had found a new anchor in empty space. Something- either the energy generated by the instantaneous transfer of the Fold from one anchor to another; the presence of high solar radiation seeping through on the other side of the Fold; or some other less obvious cause-had caused an EM burst strong enough to short out the barrier generators. The generators had dropped instantly, the barrier had vanished, and now this room was explosively decompressing into space, through the archway.

On a ship or other enclosed environment, explosive decompressions were brief- only a few seconds. They stopped the moment all the contained atmosphere was vented and the two sides were balanced by vacuum. In this case, however, there was an entire planet's worth of atmosphere now blowing into a vacuum through a hole the comparative size of a needle. It would take weeks, possibly even longer, for the entirety of the moon's atmosphere to blow through the arch, provided nothing was done to halt or contain it.

Ashley, being the closest to the arch when it switched, had had no time to react before she was blown right through it.

This took Del only a moment to realize, but in that moment Shepard knew her fate. There was no way she could halt it, nothing to grab on to or halt herself with. Desperately, she did throw out a hand toward the edge of the archway, trying to grab hold of it as she slid past, but it was inches away from her grasp.

Less than four seconds after she had looked up from her console at the prompting of nerves or intuition, Del Shepard- blown like a leaf under the power of a tempest- passed through the Fold, and into the unknown.