Chapter 52: A Mother's Love

Rift Station, 09:34 am

Peak 15 Research Station

Zach stepped out of the tram and looked around. There wasn't any of the strange creatures roaming around, so it looked safe enough for them to walk around. He waved Liara and Tali the all-clear, and the two women walked out to join him. They got lucky here with there being no danger, but how long would their luck last? They entered the next unlocked room to see it was clear as well.

"So far, so good." Zach mumbled under his breath. An elevator was open but there were no passengers onboard. With no other real options, the group hopped onto the elevator, taking it up to what was likely a lab.

They were greeted by rifles being pointed at them on the other side.

"Stand down." A balding man in medium white Explorer armor spoke. "They're not any of those things."

The soldiers at the makeshift barricades lowered their rifles. Zach approached the man, who appeared to be in charge, to speak to him.

"Sorry about that." The balding man spoke. "We couldn't be sure whoever was on the tram was friendly."

"Can those things work a tram's controls?" Zach asked.

"Hell if I know; I ain't assuming any goddamn thing. Look, you're human and that's reason enough not to shoot. But I'd like to know who you are."

"My name's Shepard. I'm a Council Spectre."

"Huh, well I won't look a heavily armed horse in the mouth. The aliens came out of the hot labs. This card should give you access to that area. If you need medical help, Dr. Cohen is down in the medical wing. They sent an asari to clean up the mess, but we haven't heard from her since. I can't send any of my people down there. We've lost a lot of staff to these things so I can't send them off to take care of the problem."

"I'm not going to let any more of your people die. We can handle the creatures."

"Yeah, I hear tha-" He stopped and looked around. A loud screech could be heard coming from the vents. "Hell! Man the perimeter!"

Zach turned around with his rifle at the ready as two of the aliens popped out and attempted to fight. The sound of five guns killed them before they could cause any trouble.

The man in charge panted. "Thanks for the help. Every hour or so a few of those things crawl up the vents."

"Do they always come here? It's an obvious killzone!"

"I don't know why they keep throwing themselves at our defenses. Even animals should know not to stick their noises where it hurts."

"These ones obviously don't." Zach stated as he walked over to the door further into the facility. He approached a large room where there were scientists of many types with security standing near every door. It looked crammed, and everyone looked like they were lacking sleep. A salarian in scientist clothing was tossing and turning on a cot on the other side of the room. It looked bad; if a large swarm were to come invade the place, they would all get slaughtered.

"What exactly are we looking for, Shepard?" Tali asked.

"Anything out of the ordinary." Zach whispered. The walked over to the med-bay, catching eye of an asari randomly standing as if she were glaring at them. Tali glared back and walked down the stairs into the medical wing with the other two. A man who must have been Dr. Cohen was typing on a machine next to a person on a medical cot. There were two others around the area, and all three of them were acting strange. Were they sick?

"Excuse me?" Zach asked, startling the doctor.

"What-what-what do you want?" Dr. Cohen asked nervously.

"I didn't mean to disturb you."

"No, you did nothing wrong. I'm just distracted with everything that's happened. That's all."

"What happened to these people?"

"There was an accident. Quarantine procedures failed during an experiment. I have a non-disclosure agreement, though. We're not supposed to talk about company interests to anyone."

"But, you're going to because I may be able to help."

Dr. Cohen shrugged. "I'd like to think that the company values our lives more than their secrets. You know Mira, the Peak 15 V.I.? She handles everything here."

"We reactivated her on our way through the station."

"That was you? I'm grateful. Until Mira came on, the automatic equipment wouldn't work. There was an accident during one of our procedures when the quarantine failed. These three were exposed to a toxin." Dr. Cohen hesitated, making Zach kick in his more aggressive side.

"I need full cooperation if I'm going to help out here. Do you want these people to die?"

"No, wait!" Cohen panicked, lowering his voice to a whisper. "It's a bioweapon based on an exotic lifeform out on the frontier. They wanted something that could kill the creature, but there was no profit in something that affected one species. We kept working on it and adapted it so that it could affect more species. Thoros B is highly contageous, but can't pass from one person to another; like a biomedic plague without a pandemic spread."

Liara grew angry. "Do you really that disctinction makes this ethical?!"

"Militaries, governments; they'll get this weapon eventually, and we're trying to limit the damage. I know you can't see that."

Zach glared right at him. "There's a reason the Citadel Council forbids bioweapons, Doctor."

"I didn't expect you would understand. Our notes and equipment are locked in the quarantine labs. Captain Ventralus has locked it to avoid contamination."

"Is he right to keep it locked?"

"No! The toxin has a brief active period. After that it breaks down into simple protein chains, but he won't listen to me."

"I'll talk to him. Maybe I can convince him to let me in."

"I can't ask you to do this for me, but I would be grateful if you could help them."

"Talk to you later." Zach started walking up the stairs.

"I hope you can do something." Cohen replied.

Liara scowled. "Bioweapons, of all things."

"I know." Zach agreed. "It's the coward's best weapon. It disgusts me. Why anyone would think it was a good idea to create something like that is beyond me."

"What would happen if terrorists got ahold of those weapons? What then?"

"It's the same thing. Chaos. Everybody who wants to start a war just wants chaos. It's sickening." Like when Will destroyed Metropolis. He silently thought to himself as he reached Captain Ventralus.

"What do you need?" The captain asked.

"I've heard about your trouble with your staff in the quarantine labs. I'd like to recover the toxin cure."

"God, I wish we could help those people, but we can't risk contamination."

"Your superiors will likely want a report for me once the facility is clear. I don't think they'd take kindly to you letting a few people die from a secret experiment."

Ventalus sighed. "Look, you want to gamble with your life, you're not under my command. I'll let you into the lab, but you have to prove you're not contaminated. Otherwise, you stay there."

"Those are reasonable precautions."

"I'll radio ahead to let them know you're coming." He shook Zach's hand. "Good luck."

"I've got work to do."

"You and me both."

Zach walked past him and headed back to the large room with Liara and Tali right behind him. Tali took another quick look at the asari before running to the elevator, watching as Zach pressed the down button when she was inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Tali murmurred.

"Don't we always?" Zach joked, but realized how alert Tali was. He took that as a sign to be cautious, and as the elevator door opened, caution seemed to be thrown out the window. A volus was just standing around right in front of them, silently mumbling to himself about how they awoke something ancient. The volus immediately looked up at them as they approached him.

"You came to find out about them, didn't you?" The volus asked.

"You mean those 'things' that are out there?"

"Yes. I'm the only survivors of the hot labs, you know. Han Olar is my name."

"Can you tell me anything about those creatures we've encountered?"

Han breathed into his filter. "About the rachni?"

Liara's eyes grew wide. "Rachni?! That's proposterous!"

"The krogan wiped them out a thousand years ago!" Zach agreed, surprised at this revelation.

Han breathed in again. "They found it in a derelict ship; an egg, frozen from the end of the war. They brought it here."

Two scientists near a corner turned towards Han. The human spoke first. "Shut up! God, do you want to get us killed?!"

Han faced his lab partner that had interrupted him. "I have no control over who lives or dies, *sniffs* do I?"

The other scientist; a turian with dark skin, snarled. "If you're going to be crazy, be the quiet kind."

"Crazy?" Han waved them off, turning back towards Zach. "I'm sane. God, am I sane."

"Tell me what you know about the rachni."

"*sniffs* I've told you everything I could. We brought the rachni back from the dead. In retrospect, a bad decision."

"How did you make it out of the hot labs?"

"I killed her."

"Who?" Liara asked.

"Dr. Zhonmua. sniff We were going to lunch when the alarms went off. I ran into the train, sniff and I closed the doors. She banged on the window once, sniff then they tore her to pieces. sniff Her head came apart like a melon. sniff I closed the doors, sniff and I killed her."

"If you hadn't, you would have been dead, too." Zach responded.

"sniff Yes, sniff that is true."

"Could Matriarch Venezia survive in the hot labs?"

"sniff It's possible. sniff The samples were sensitive to biotics."

"I'll be going now." Zach walked over to the door with the guard standing at it.

"sniff Yeah." Han replied quietly, being left alone.

"You're not part of the crew!" The turian guarding the science lab growled.

Zach stood his ground as he stared into the turian's eyes. "I have Ventralus's permission to go in there."

"Yeah. He radioed. He also said you have to prove you're not contaminated before I let you out. You got a death wish, you should tr standing watches at the barricade."

Try running through a minefield of thresher maws while you're at it, punk. Zach thought of saying before the door opened, making him drop that rude comment before speaking. The three of them walked in and saw the terminals meant to make the toxin. "Liara, see if we can figure out how to make the toxin cure."

Liara walked over to the terminal and typed away on a bunch of keys. "They had already come up with a formula for curing the toxin. Just mix these particular compounds in the correct amount and we'll have the cure."

"Perfect. Tell me which ones to use." Zach looked at the bottles of chemicals and waited for Liara to tell him which ones to grab.

"Start with the pink one."

"Pink?" Zach asked as he grabbed it. "What kind of chemical is pink?"

"Do you really want me to explain that?"

"No."

"Then pour the liquid into the mixer until I tell you to stop." Liara spoke harshly, reminding Zach of how a mother would scorn her child for misbehaving. He poured the pink liqid into the tube.

"When?"

"Now." Liara spoke, causing Zach to stop pouring and set the bottle down back in it's place. "Now the blue one."

Zach found the obvious blue bottle and started pouring some of its contents into the mixer.

"Stop." Liara spoke.

Zach did as was asked and put it back on the shelf.

"Now the red one."

Zach did the same until Liara requested he stop again.

"Now the green one."

Zach went to grab it until he noticed a problem. "Uh, which green one?"

"The one that glows the brightest. What else?"

"Hey, I didn't have as great of an education as you, Liara. I didn't take a chemistry class in the Alliance."

"Just do it."

Zach grabbed the lightest green, which had a glowing pulse. The look of it reminded him of toxic waste from the nuclear reactor at Metropolis, which he was glad none of it affected him during his childhood. "This isn't toxic waste, is it?"

"It is highly radioactive, if that's what you're asking."

"If this crap makes me sick, or worse: sterile, you're paying for my medical bills."

"It's not going to do anything like that unless you rub it all over your skin. But you're in body armor, so you'll be fine. Now start pouring." Liara watched him pour the liquid, but tilted his right after a second. "Not too much!"

"Hey! Be careful."

"You put enough in. Now cap it and let it spin so the liquids can mix into a viable cure."

"I'm not sure anything with high accounts of radiation actually helps make a cure, Liara."

"It's not irradiated."

"What?"

"It's not irradiated. I was only making a joke."

"You are a very evil woman."

"Relax." Liara activated the machine. "Take a joke for once."

"We're on a high-profile mission that involves ancient aliens and you want to make jokes?"

"Better than being serious all the time."

"You know what, I can't handle this. I'm going to sit over here. You can finish the cure all by yourself."

"Good. It's almost finished, anyways." Liara smirked as Zach sat on a crate, brooding.

Tali smirked behind her helmet. It was funny to see him behaving this way, and towards Liara, who rarely got him to convey any emotion towards her at all. Usually, he only showed his true colors either when talking to her or laughing with their friends.

Her helmet's receptors picked up a familiar sound over the machine's noise, and she turned towards the door.

"Shepard," Tali started. "I don't think we're alone, anymore."

The machine stopped whirring and Liara pulled out the cure. "Got it. Let's get back to the medical wing and-" Liara stopped talking as she saw three asari and four geth walk into the room. Zach stood up from his crate and recognized the leader of the group.

"Your mission ends here, Shepard." The asari in charge spoke.

"I thought she seemed odd." Tali noted as she pulled her shotgun off her belt.

Zach immediately grabbed his rifle. "She's surrounded by Geth and is pointing a gun at us! Shoot her!"

"You're not as stupid as you look. Weapons free!" The large group of enemies raised their weapons, but Liara's singularity hit them first, propelling the geth and random items into the air. Zach and Tali fired their guns continuously, smiling at the sound of burning ashes and exploding frozen corpses.

"How many more people will be sent to slaughter?" Zach asked.

Tali holstered her shotgun. "Hopefully not too many. Come on. Let's give those people the cure."

Zach nodded and opened the door out of the lab, seeing that the turian that was guarding the door was dead, laying in a pool of blood.

"She killed the guard, Shepard." Tali exclaimed. "Just for being in her way."

"He'll rest easy knowing that his murderers are now in the same position he is." Zach noted.

"Perhaps." Tali shook her head as Zach walked back towards the elevator up to the other survivors.

"sniff They came out of there." Han Olar's voice spoke up.

Zach looked at Han and saw that he was pointing at another door in the room. "You mean the ge- the inorganics that attacked us."

"sniff Yes. Benezia brought them with her."

"How would I get into there?"

"sniff The maintenance room? A team lead would have like Dr. Cohen. sniff He's in the medical wing."

"Thanks for the information." Zach spoke as he walked for the elevator again.

"sniff Yeah." Was all he heard from the volus as the doors closed.

"So, do you believe Han Olar is telling the truth?" Liara asked.

"I was expecting trouble of some kind. Whether or not he's right, it's best if we take his lead and follow the path the Geth took. Dr. Cohen will hopefully have the key."

"Hmm." Liara responded as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. They walked through cautiously as they passed by a few armed guards in the room, keeping a watchful eye on their movements until they were walking down the stairs to the medical bay.

Dr. Cohen turned to face Zach at the sound of his heavy footsteps, looking to see in his hand that he held a medical tube. "Is that the cure? You did it?!" He reached for the phial only for Zach to pull it away.

"First things first, that asari out in the mess hall; she just tried to kill us."

Dr. Cohen became confused. "Allestia? That's unbelieva- but I-" He stopped as he realized where the Commander was going with this. "I, uh, I don't really know much about her. She arrived here a month ago. One of the shareholders pulled some strings to get her here."

"Let me guess," Tali spoke, crossing her arms. "Saren, the Spectre?"

"Umm, yes. I think that was the name. I don't pay too much attention to any of the shareholders." He quickly looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Look, the guards; they're a bit more on edge ever since you arrived. I think they were expecting you. There are more labs in the back; some of which I can't get into. Just people with clearance."

"What about the maintenance area?" Zach asked. "Do you have access to that?"

"The maintenance area? Yeah. Take my pass, but it's just snow back there." He held out his pass, and Zach traded him the cure. "Let me see that phial. An extension on Phelps' work? I thought he was on the right track. I can't thank you enough, I mean- God, what a cliché. You saved their lives, you know that?"

"That's what I do."

"I need to administer this. Thanks again." Dr. Cohen nodded as he went to a machine and inserted the phial in. Zach looked at the pass and nodded to his crew.

"Let's get to the maintenance area. It might lead us to Benezia."

"The sooner we finish this up, the better." Tali nodded.

They moved quickly back to the elevator, shutting the doors before Ventralus's men could try anything that could endanger the mission. Once the elevator doors shut, Liara began to speak.

"Once we wrap things up with my mother, we should try to find a solution towards the rachni problem. They may continue to try attacking again."

"If we can put a stop to them, we will." Tali replied. "But your mother has always been our top priority."

"I know." Liara only spoke as the elevator doors opened. They passed by Han Olar again, as well as the two scientists in the corner. One of them resorted to an old joke that only annoyed the other one. They never payed attention as the three of them walked into the maintenance area, taking care of a rachni that was guarding the door. It was only a minute later that they found the door to another lab.

It was there that Liara froze.

Tali turned and faced the young asari. "Liara?"

"She's here." Liara spoke. "Right behind this door. My mother."

"How do you know?"

"I know." Was all she replied with. Tali looked at Zach, who only shrugged.

"Only one way to find out." Zach pressed the button to the door and watched as it sprung open. Atop a staircase stood an Asari Matriarch in an elegant brown dress with a matching hair piece. A giant creature within a large glass cage resembled the rachni, and Zach could only guess that it was the Queen. Its blue skin tone was different from that of the drones they fought trying to find Benezia, and it was far larger in comparison.

"You do not know the privelage of being a mother." Benezia began, not even caring to glance as the human soldier walked forward with her daughter and the quarian that had aquired the information about Saren. "There is power in creation; to shape a life, turn it towards happiness or despair..." She stopped her rambling and turned towards the intruders, her eyes fixated on Liara. "I won't be moved by sympathy, no matter who you drag into this conflict."

Zach looked at Liara for a second before turning back towards Benezia. "Liara's here because she wants to be here, not because I asked her to."

"Indeed." Her eyes remained fixated on Liara. "What have you told them about me, Liara?"

"What could I say, mother?" Liara asked, her voice coming off as a plea. "That you're insane? Evil?! Should I explain how to kill you?! What could I say?!" Her arms shaked as she waved them during her questioning, but Benezia was not moved by her daughter's pleas.

"Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."

Zach began to reach for his rifle. "I guess there's no talking you down, is there?"

"Indeed." Benezia stated coldly as she raised her arms and threw a biotic field around the group. Suddenly, Zach couldn't move his body. It was then he realized he was thrown into stasis. Liara and Tali had suffered the same effects as him, but the field was fading. Two commandos were already lining up, but Zach could spot from his vision an explosive canister next to their position.

As soon as the field dropped around them, Zach pulled his rifle out and pulled the trigger, destroying the canister and knocking down the commandos to the floor. Liara immediately hopped into action a second later, throwing up a singularity attack that ensnared them. Tali's shotgun took care of them quickly, knocking their bodies back and turning them to ash.

A shot from his right brought his attention to a few Geth snipers to his right. Taking a grenade off his belt, he flung the disc towards the group and let it explode once it was in the center of a large group of them. Another group was forming right across from them, so Liara and Tali worked together to take out the Geth quickly. Zach caught sight of Benezia summoning more of her forces, but she looked like she was weakening. He took it as a good sign and focused on finishing off the remaining forces that appear.

Once Liara saw the last commando reinforcement fall, she headed over to Benezia, who was kneeling on the floor. Zach and Tali walked over and joined her, ready to make a move if Benezia tried anything.

"This is not over." Benezia spoke, begining to stand up. Her back remained turned towards them. "Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear."

"The rachni didn't cooperate. Why should I?" Zach asked.

Benezia turned and faced them for only a second. "I will not betray him. You will... You..." Benezia's words trailed off before she turned around; her voice seemed to be a plea as she spoke to them, like a prisoner of war towards those willing to help them. "You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions briefly, but the indoctrination is strong."

"Why are you suddenly able to break free of him, now?"

"I sealed a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. I saved it for a time where I might be able to help stop him."

"We met Shiala on Feros. She told us about the indoctrination."

"It is a terror to be trapped inside your mind; forced to maim and torture while you beat against the glass. I was powerless to stop it. Saren sent me here to find the Mu relay. Its location was lost thousands of years ago."

"How does something like that get lost?"

"Four thousand years ago, a star went supernova, propelling it away from its location. It is difficult to pinpoint its exact location; particularly when it is hidden within clouds of hot dust."

"Someone on Noveria found it?"

"Two thousand years ago, the Rachni inhabited that region of space. They discovered the relay. Queens can spread memories across many generations. I took the information from the Queen's mind. I was not gentle."

"How did the rachni discover the Mu Relay?"

"They searched patiently. The rachni are ones that take their time and wait for the right moment to strike."

"You can still make it right. Give me the information."

Benezia looked down. "I was a willing servant, but I should have been stronger." She pulled out an OSD and stepped forward. "I transcribed the data on an OSD. Take it! Please!"

Zach grabbed the disc and hooked it onto his belt. From the sound of her voice, she might have been slipping away, back to her dangerous state.

"Knowing the relay's coordinates isn't enough." Liara spoke. "Do you know where he planned to go from there?"

"Saren wouldn't share his plan with me. But you must hurry. I sent him the coordinates just before you arrived. You have to stop-" She cut out for a second, turning around and grasping her head. "Me. I- I can't. His teeth are at my ear, fingers down my spine- you should- you should-" She cried in agony as the transformation continued to torture Benezia's mind.

"Mother!" Liara cried, stepping forward next to Zach. "I- don't leave! Fight him!"

"You've always made me proud, Liara." Benezia spoke before she turned around, harboring a look of rage back at her daughter. "DIE!"

A gunshot went off.

Zach hadn't even pulled the trigger on his rifle before Liara had shot her mother in the leg, slowing down the matriarch from unleashing a biotic attack. He slowly turned to see Liara pull the trigger on her pistol again, making her mark in her mother's right shoulder. The wounds Benezia had sustained could easily be repaired with medigel, but the last shot Liara fired was incredibly severe: straight through her mother's chest.

Liara's face held a look of terror the whole time.

Time had seemed to move slowly for Zach as he watched Benezia's daughter pulling the trigger three times, but as he came out of the moment, he realized Tali had been trying to speak to him.

"Shepard!" The quarian in front of him yelled. "More commandos!"

Without wasting another second, he found one commando and opened fire, not even realizing that Liara was still frozen in terror as Matriarch Benezia fell to the floor. Tali had combined her tech attacks and her shotgun to take out an entire group of commandos, and Zach had his assault rifle constantly firing, making short work of the weaker shields of the enemy with his rifle's higher stopping power.

Once the smoke had cleared, Zach saw Liara was still pointing her pistol at her mother, who was attempting to stand. He grabbed her arm and slowly lowered it, not wanting to trigger a response in Liara that could lead to someone getting hurt. Liara slowly came back to reality, noticing the commander's action. She took a moment to try and breathe again, realizing she had held her breath for a long time.

"I cannot go on." Benezia spoke weakly, appearing to have gotten out of her mental bindings for a second time. The purple blood flowing from her chest continued to pour onto the floor, and Zach immediately saw that Liara's shot had gone straight through her chest. "You will have to stop him, Shepard."

"Hold up." Zach spoke. "We've got medigel. Maybe we could-"

"No!" The matriarch yelled. "Saren still whispers in my mind. I'm still not entirely myself. I never will be again!" She stood up, but immediately fell backwards into the wall.

"Mother." Liara cried, tears forming in her eyes.

"Good night, little wing. I will see you again with the dawn." Benezia's body slumped to the floor, lying still on Noveria's deadliest research station. Liara fell to her knees and sobbed continuously, comforted by Tali's hand on her shoulder.

Zach himself crouched next to Benezia's body, closing the eyes of the martyr that would help them stop Saren. "Meritis quietem prudens mater. Requiescat in pace."

Liara stopped sobbing for a second, looking at the commander. He turned towards her with a look of sorrow, and Liara choked for a moment before she could speak. "Shepard, I could not understand the language you spoke. What did you say?"

"'You have earned your rest, wise mother. Rest in peace.' It's in Latin; a language used centuries ago by humans. A man I knew named Father Callahan taught me some of the words when I was a teenager. He was one to cling to the past a lot. 'No being should ever leave this world without being shown kindness', he used to say. I followed that example for your mother."

"Why?"

"Because she was important to you. Liara, we may not be the best of friends and I can admit about how I have been a jerk to you, but I wasn't going to put you through any suffering about your mother. I was about to take her out so you wouldn't have to, but somehow you shot first. I don't blame you for it; Saren had corrupted her, but I didn't want you to go through that pain. I knew what it felt like to kill someone you care about, and I know you are now going through a tough time." He stood up and held his hand out. "But right now, we have to finish the mission. The imprisoned rachni must be taken care of, and you can mourn once we're back on the ship. I promise."

Liara stopped crying and reached for his hand, standing up as he pulled her up from her depressed state. "Okay." She wiped her tears away, barely holding it in as he stepped towards the glass cage.

Zach looked at the giant blue creature through the glass, setting his arm to rest on the cage. It was barely doing anything; barely moving, barely breathing, barely-

The creature snapped at him and made him stumble back, bumping into a walking corpse of a commando. He had his pistol out, but realized the corpse wasn't doing anything except walking towards the cage. It turned around and began to speak.

"This one serves as our voice. We cannot sing; not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless."

Zach rubbed the back of his neck at this, confused as to what the voice was talking about. "Musics? What?"

"Your way of communicating is flat. It is different from that of my own kind. We are the mother; the one who had birthed the children you thought silenced. We are rachni."

Zach stepped back up to the cage. "How are you speaking through her?"

"This one's mind is following our commands. We pluck the strings, and she responds. Her soul has departed, and we only wish to hold her mind long enough to speak. The children still roam within the facility, and they will cause harm to any that approach if they are not stopped. End their suffering. They cannot be saved. They will only bring harm as they are."

"I don't understand. Why are your children killing people?"

"These needlemen take the children away for war. Children only know fear if no mother sings to them. Fear has shattered their minds!"

"I understand." Liara spoke; her voice back to its normal tone. "A child locked in a closet until she's 16 wouldn't be sane."

Zach sighed, crossing his arms across his chest. "If there's no other way this can end, we can do it."

"It is unfortunate, but it is the only kindness you can provide for them. Do what you must. Before you deal with my children, there is one thing left to do. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?"

Zach stepped back over to his friends, feeling Tali's hand tap his shoulder. "Look, Shepard. Those tanks: acid. Strong enough to kill any organic creature. They would not install that if they didn't think she could escape."

Liara's eyes widened at that option. "They made a mistake!" Liara protested. "They let the krogan go too far. This is a chance for us to atone. She has done nothing to us!"

"Your friends speak the truth." The queen spoke again. "You have the power to free us or to return us to the silence of memory."

"Are you a survivor of the war?" Zach asked. "A clone?"

"We do not know. We were only an egg, hearing mother cry in her dreams. A tone from space hushed one voice after another, until the singing planet sung no more."

"If I let you live, would you attack other races again?"

"No! We- I do not know what happened during the war. We only heard discordance; songs the color of oily shadows. This forced the singers to resonate with its own sour yellow note. We would seek a hidden place to teach our children to sing. If they could be taught to understand, perhaps we could return."

Zach crossed his arms and looked down, thinking of what choice he should make. The queen had made some very good points, but there was no guarentee she had been telling the truth. Freeing her would bring panic to the Council, but he figured they would argue with either choice no matter what. This essentially led him to the thought of killing her, but a valid reason not to kill her came up: he would commit a genocide worse than the krogan. They drove the rachni to extinction without a second thought, and he could easily kill off their final chance of recovery right now.

But he had enough deaths on his consciounce, and he would never commit genocide.

"I won't destroy your entire race." He finally spoke. "You'll go free."

"You would give us a chance to compose anew?" The queen sounded surprised by his answer, but gladly replied back as she realized she was being granted her freedom. "We will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children!"

Zach walked over to the console and typed a few keys, lifting the cage up to the upper exit. The body of the commando dropped, and the queen looked at Zach one last time, noticed the small smile he made.

With that, the queen left for freedom without looking back again.

"You did the right thing, Shepard." Tali spoke.

"I did. Now, let's make sure her children can't escape the facility." He walked through the door to the stairway, realizing it led back to the tram. "The hot labs is the only place on this station we haven't searched. Let's go see if the remaining children are there." He broke into a brisk jog, going back into the room with the elevators. He stopped at the elevator controls and waited for Tali and Liara to enter before he hit the down button.

Tali looked at Liara, noticed the sad look in her eyes. "For what it's worth, Liara, I know what it's like to lose a mother. You have my sympathies."

"Thank you." The asari responded. "It doesn't make me feel better, but it does help a bit. Let's just try to stay focused on the task at hand for now."

"Okay." The elevator grew quiet until it finally came to a stop on the ground floor. The doors opened to reveal a man sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. He wasn't moving but he was breathing, which revealed he was alive. Zach walked over to him cautiously, noticing the man look up right at him.

"Are you here to contain the situation?" The man spoke. His voice had a Russian accent and it sounded weak.

"That's right. I'm a Council Spectre. Who are you?"

"Yaroslev Tartakovsky. I am the Project Director. I would stand and shake hands, but..." He sighed. "You must listen to me. If we do not contain our mistake, they will drop bombs on the station from orbit. You understand?"

"Yeah, we know about the rachni. We need to stop them before we leave the station. Any ideas?"

"I am thinking the neutron purge must be activated."

"I'm not familiar with the purge system."

"It creates a burst of neutron energy; kills everything in the labs. There are hundreds of rachni down here. It is the only way we can eliminate them all."

"How do I activate the purge system?"

Yaroslev stood up. "Arming controls are nearby. All you need to do is insert the key. Then I will Mira destruct co-" His words were cut off as a rachni claw went through his chest, effectively crushing his heart. The man seemed to look at his grave wound for a second before he was tossed aside by the creature that ended his life.

Tali immediately fired her shotgun into the rachni, setting it on fire. She fired again and let the creature burst into flame. "It's dead now."

Zach went over to Yaroslev's body and took the key and the code. "I'm sorry we couldn't save you. We'll make your sacrifice count." He entered the next room and found the Mira terminal. He slid the card in and saw Mira appear.

"Connected. I have full control of the station and can process inquiries, Commander Shepard."

"Activate the neutron purge."

"I am sorry. I cannot do that without proper authorization."

"Code input: 871-0725 Code Omega Local Execution."

"Verefied. Neutron purge will be activated in one-hundred and twenty seconds."

Zach nodded and grabbed his rifle at the sound of a rachni squealing. Liara and Tali had their weapons drawn at the door, ready to fire at the large group that had appeared.

"We are in serious trouble." Tali spoke morbidly.

Liara formed a singularity attack and flung it to the center of the room, grabbing the soldiers that attempted to charge right at them. Zach fired his rifle and flung his hand as a command to the others.

"We're charging through! Make every shot count and watch each other's backs!" He ran first and continued to fire his assault rifle at the rachni, freezing two of them as he sprinted to the elevator. Liara followed along, throwing two others out of the way with her biotics. Tali ran as fast as her legs could carry her, firing her shotgun at any rachni she saw.

A sharp pain could immediately be felt at her thigh.

Zach turned to the sound of Tali's cry of pain and saw that a rachni had slashed a claw at her leg, cutting the back of her thigh and causing her to fall forward. Tears were already forming in her eyes and blood could be felt flowing from her wound. If that wound didn't bleed out or end up giving her an infection, the rachni was ready to finish her off now.

Zach felt his emotions collide, and he immediately sprinted towards her, rifle in hand.

"TALI!" He yelled as he fired off his assault rifle at the rachni, not letting go of the trigger until that thing exploded from the cryo-freezing effect of his shots. The adrenaline in his veins was giving him flashbacks of Akuze, and Tali's current state wasn't helping matters. "Liara, keep us covered. I'm bringing her to the elevator." He grabbed Tali's shotgun from the floor and handed it to Liara, who hesitantly took it and looked at the rachni pouring in from the broken windows.

"Go! I'll hold them off for you!" Liara assured as Zach picked Tali up in his arms, cradling her to his chest. Tali noticed this and tried to take as much comfort from it as possible, aware to the pain in her leg that might lead her to death. Liara fired Tali's shotgun at the rachni, but her lack of training with such a clumsy weapon meant she was killing them as effectively as Tali or Wrex would. As she approached the elevator, she accidently cocked Tali's shotgun back enough to activate the carnage ability.

When she pulled the trigger, she flung back into the elevator, hitting her back on the wall.

Zach bumped the elevator switch with his arm once Liara was inside, glad that Liara's final shot counted as the rachni closing in was obiterated. The doors closed and the elevator rose high enough to avoid the neutron purge that destroyed the hot labs. Remembering Tali's wounds he set her down, looking at a disoriented Liara.

"Liara!"

"I'm all right." Liara assured, crawling over to help him take care of her wound. "I'll hold her leg. Apply the blue packet of medigel."

Zach loaded the dextro medigel into his omni-tool and started spreading it around the wound. The bleeding was stopped but Tali would still be exposed to contamination unless her suit was sealed.

Tali held out a large patch of fabric.

"It's a suit patch." Liara spoke. "Put it around the medigel. It will connect with her suit and stop any further contamination."

Zach placed the patch over the wound and held it down until he heard a machine-like whirl. That was the cue that the patch had sealed on tight to her suit. With that, he reached for his earpiece and immediately connected to the Normandy's channel.

"Joker, fly the Normandy to my location now!"

"That might take time, sir. The docks still haven't authorized us to leave."

"Joker, this is a major emergency! Get the fucking Normandy out here now! Tali's injured and may need further medical care!"

"Tali's in trouble? Oh, shit! I'll get us to your location as quickly as possible. Joker out."

Zach let go of his earpiece and brought Tali back up into his arms, holding her close. The doors opened and he walked quickly to the tram, sitting down in a seat. Liara walked in still carrying Tali's shotgun, sitting across from the two of them. She realized that Zach was holding Tali incredibly close, and he was starting to form tears in his eyes. This caused Liara to cry on her own, still shaken up over everything that had happened on this mission.

Tali was slowly losing consciousness, hearing Zach cry and whisper to her. But suddenly she was remembering a good dream of hers about him. It might have been because of how he was holding her or how close they were to each other, or it could have been because she was about to die and she wanted to remember something good about him before she passed.

It had been a dream about them being together, living on Rannoch without the need of her envirosuit. He came behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach, resting his chin on her shoulder. Her black hair was let down, and she suddenly felt him start to pull up her white dress.

"I'm sorry, Tali." Zach whispered, tears flowing down his cheeks. Her blood stained parts of his armor, and he had at first been afraid it was his. Then he was afraid that she had lost a lot of her blood, which only added to his despair.

She stopped his hands and turned to face him, giving him a kiss on his soft lips before winking and walking to their room, swaying her hips in a seductive dance that only made her partner follow eagerly.

"I'm so sorry."

She stopped at the bed and pulled the shoulder straps down, letting the loose dress fall. She was completely naked in front of him, catching him off guard. Tali had planned this for his return from his job. The look on his face proved she had been successful.

"I didn't mean for this to happen."

He pulled his shirt off over his head, wasting no time to join her on the bed. His boots and pants followed after, leaving him in nothing more than the black boxer-briefs he wore. Tali watched as he crawled onto the bed, kissing her slowly up her body to her lips. The feel of his skin always sent new feelings through Tali; every touch a new experience for both of them. It excited Tali and sent an ache in the place she liked him touching the most.

"Please, don't die on me."

He brought his mouth to a nipple and began to suck and pull on it with his lips, gaining a moan of approval from Tali as his hand settled on her other breast. He did this for a whole minute before switching and giving the same attention to the other one. His free hand slid along her stomach and slowly began rubbing around her clit. Her moans grew louder as he did this, and as he finished with her breasts a finger slipped within.

"I don't want your death on my mind." Zach's sobs grew louder, and he realized that he was going to say more than he should. But he couldn't win the fight to stop himself.

His fingers pumped within her, making her hips follow along with the movements he performed. Minute after minute had passed until she felt her stomach tighten, and she knew she couldn't hold it in anymore as she let out a loud moan, shouting his real name as she climaxed and spasmed around his fingers.

"I don't want to think about you like I do with Robert. I don't want to think of you like I think of Red, or Tinker, or Commander Ericson or Johnson or Wesker or Pattinson or Lennon."

She felt the weight on the bed shift as he removed his final article of clothing, revealing his length. Tali always found it impressive, even when she hadn't seen it while on the Normandy. He pulled out a small package of protection and slipped one on. Tali smirked at her lover; he was overprotective with her health and she enjoyed that thought very much. Their hands locked as he brought himself on top of her, sliding himself within her walls.

"Most importantly, I don't want to lose you like I lost her. Like I lost Jessica."

He rocked his hips back and forth in a steady rhythm and she matched it, moaning into his kiss as their hands remained locked together. Already Tali could feel another orgasm approaching within her, and she let go of his hands and brought them to his buttocks, goading him to go faster. He responded by grabbing her own buttocks and increasing their pace, squeezing the flesh as she wrapped her legs around him tighter. She was very close to her climax, going higher... higher... higher...

"Her death weighs heavily on me the most, Tali. Because it was my fault she died.

Her walls clung hard around his length as she climaxed, screaming into his kiss as his own release came. They remained tangled for a few minutes until they climbed down from their high. Tali felt ready to fall asleep until she felt him get up and reach for a towel, wiping her post-orgasm juices from her legs. He removed the condom from his shrinking length and threw it away, cleaning himself up and throwing the towel into the laundry basket. Tali smiled as he climbed back into bed next to her and cuddled right beside her, drifting into sleep as Rannoch's sun descended into night.

"I can't lose you, too." Zach spoke out loud, losing himself in his tears as the elevator finally stopped.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's getting tougher to keep the drive to do this story, anymore. My busy schedule plus the amount of time slacking off or finding new things to like really kills inspiration. Does this mean this is the end, just like Zalgroth with the Painted Grey? No. I'm not giving up the story. Ever.

But I will retire this story for a while.

This isn't the end of writing for now, however. I have one more special chapter planned out for you; one that will be split into two parts due to how ridiculously long I know it will be. I am going to write and finish it for you guys no matter what. At the earliest, it will be up this weekend. At the latest, it will be up on Thursday or Friday for you. Soon, everybody that has followed me from the beginning will get the biggest question answered for them.

What happened on Akuze?

This chapter has been something I have planned for almost two years. It needs to get posted. I owe Shepard that much.