Greenish ichor splattered against the wall as Wrex finished off the last of the Rachni with his gigantic shotgun. Tali looked herself over; the nasty mix of innards, blood and brains of the nightmarish things was all over her at this point. Most of the others hadn't fared any better, particularly Wrex, who had charged forward and engaged the beasts in close combat more than once, while the rest of the team was frantically trying to keep their distance from the things and their deadly tentacles, lest they end up like so many of the Binary Helix scientists and guards they had found dead all over the facility. Last of them had been that chubby man who had given them the access key to the neutron purge. Tearing herself away from the grizzly sight on the floor in front of her, Tali zoned back into what was going on. Shepard was conversing with the hot lab's VI, which was just finishing it's explanation of the neutron purge – and the fact that not only could it not be activated remotely, they would only have sixty seconds to evacuate the lab once they had done so. Nervous glances were shared, and once more, it was one of those occasions were Tali was actually glad people couldn't see her face. She probably appeared much braver as she actually was, she mused – after all, nobody could see the color draining from her face. She had seen her fair share of action since she had joined up with Shepard, but this topped them all. They would have to shoot their way out of here, trough Rachni, of all the things, and with a one minute timer to boot. This bordered on a suicide run. She felt her fingers tremble and tightened her grip on her shotgun to hide it. She could see that Liara was feeling it too, having paled ever so slightly. The rest of the team didn't look much better, even Wrex seemed somewhat uneasy. Shepard stood in the center of the room, looking at the ground beneath his feet.

"Get to the elevator."

Confused, unsure glances. "Who?"

"All of you."

Tali wasn't sure if she had heard right, but apparently she had, since judging by his outburst, Wrex was about as perplexed as her. "What!? You wanna die here?"

Shepard raised his head back up, steely determination in his face – but his eyes, it seemed to her, betraying something else, something she couldn't quite place.

"You heard me. Get out of here. I'll activate the purge and be right behind you." The big Krogan grumbled and shook his head at the commander, but said nothing; though Tali was pretty sure that was because he was at a loss for words, not because he accepted this. Her own thoughts were racing in her head; what in the name of the ancestors was Shepard playing at!?

Ashley seemed to have no problems formulating her thoughts. "What the bloody hell, Skipper!? That's a suicide mission!"

"It's a suicide mission either way!", he snapped back. "No use to risk all of us when one can do the job."

"Bullshit! ...Sir!"

Shepard's voice was strained. "Williams..."

"With all due respect Sir, she is right. We made our way in here , we'll make our way out of here, too." , Kaidan came to the Gunnery Chief's aid, as usual presenting his case in a more agreeable manner than the headstrong woman.

"You don't know that! I'm not risking the entire team in this goddamn cellar!"

"Shepard..." , Garrus tried chiming in, but was cut off by the man in question.

"Don't argue this with me, Garrus. Just go." Tali had remained quiet, straining her eyes and mind to try and understand what had gotten into the commander. Now she saw it, the thing he was hiding behind his blue eyes. It was something she hadn't seen there ever since Edolus, where it had flared up for all of two seconds when the thresher maw had ambushed them.

Shepard was afraid. Her head spun with the revelation. Her captain, after cutting through hordes of Rachni on the way down here, was suddenly scared. But why? Yes it was a really bad situation, but -

"...think I'm going up there without you, you've lost your mind, Shepard.", Garrus finished, speaking loud, snapping her back to paying attention.

Wrex laughed. "Same here."

Shepard slammed his fist into the terminal. "I give the orders here! I order you to get into the damn elevator!" Keelah, he's pulling rank. That was the first time since.. that's the first time ever. He is desperate.

The Turian just shrugged. "I just don't get it. You're telling us to leave you to almost certain death, when the team as a whole would have a much higher chance..."

"I am not taking a goddamn chance!", Shepard almost yelled. He turned towards his fellow Alliance marines. "You two, I'm your commanding officer. Move." Wordlessly, Ashley and Kaidan left the room, stopping to look back more than once. "That goes for the rest of you too."

Wrex stepped up to him, growling. "Have you lost your mind, Shepard? You're going to send me away from a fight against the Rachni? For what?"

"For the team, " Shepard replied coolly. "And now move. You're not on my team to fight Rachni, you're on my team to follow orders."

Wrex' agitated features slowly morphed into an expression of contempt, before he finally scoffed and began to stomp away. "Fine, human. Get yourself killed then."

The giant Krogan having relented, Tali could feel her courage to stand up to her commander's insane orders waver. If he wasn't taking backtalk from Wrex, who would he take it from? Garrus' seemed to think among similar lines, his mandibles flairing. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again not having spoken a word, apparently having thought better of it, and turned away. Seeing him leave, Liara's shoulder slumped, her eyes fell to the floor, and she started shuffling after him with small, uncertain steps. In the end, it was only her and him in the room, his blue eyes boring into hers, and they still held the same urgency they had had for the entire exchange, even though the features of his jaw and mouth had somewhat softened.

"You heard me, Tali."

She held his gaze, taking a moment to find words as she finally understood. She had known that Shepard was a great man, a good captain, someone who truly cared about those under his command. But only now she understood the true extent of it. The man looked at her with a fear in his eyes usually reserved to those desperately fearing for their own life; but it was the lives of others he was this scared for, and his own that he was willing to put in more risk than necessary in return – on short notice, just like that. It awed her and terrified her at the same time. "Please, Shepard. This is a bad idea. Please don't make me abandon you."

He shook his head. "No arguments. I'm not going to ask this one of any of you, even if you want to. Now get to the elevator."

She couldn't have said anything to him even if she had come up with something; looking at him, desperate yet determined at the same time, she felt a knot in her throat, and so she turned around, quickly fleeing the scene, fighting down sniffles as she made her way through the corridors, a hot tear flowing down her cheek at the thoughts of him quite possibly being about to die here, and about the anguish there had to be in him to drive him to something like this. Of course he would choose this approach; she should have expected it, after what he had told her of Akuze. The man had seen too many die under his command, and now he was burned. Damn him, she thought; damn him for being so stupid and stubborn and selfless.

Still in feverish thought, she reached the elevator and stepped in. Looking down to her large toes, praying to the ancestors to preserve the bloody bosh'tet of a man, it took her a while to notice that they weren't moving. Finally, she lifted her head up and gave the others, who all had their guns out and taken positions, determined looks on their faces, a series of confused looks. "What's going on?"

Garrus shrugged and twisted his mandibles in what may or may not have been a turian smirk. "He told us to get to the elevator, and here we are. So what are you waiting for?" She couldn't help but let out a short laugh at that, the absurdity of the situation suddenly striking her in force, but she quickly, still shaking her head and chuckling to herself mirthlessly, got out her shotgun and took a knee by the entrance to the platform, using the waist high railing for cover. Garrus nodded and activated his comm. "Alright Shepard, we're good. You can start."

"Good. Send me the elevator down, will you? I don't intend to die here if I can help it."

"It's on it's way, commander." , Garrus lied, and a moment later the hallway was filled with the blare of an alarm, and the voice of the VI.

"Neutron Purge activated. Please evacuate, remaining time in seconds, fifty-five..."

Several panels in both the floor and ceiling came open, some of them simply being blown out of their fixings, and Rachni of both the worker and the warrior types came spilling into the hall; for a brief moment she wondered if they were intelligent enough to comprehend their impending doom, and if they perhaps sought to escape it, or if they had just been stirred by the noise. A split second later those thoughts had vanished from her mind as the weapons of her shipmates came to life, spitting death and deafening noise towards the insectoid abominations. She shook off her still recurring shock at seeing them scuttle about on their disgustingly numerous legs and joined in, her shotgun penetrating the armor of and maiming a warrior with a prepared carnage shot, the follow up shot finishing it off, the weapon shutting down and beginning to hiss excess heat as she dropped it to the ground unceremoniously, already bringing her pistol to bear on the aliens.

The Rachni pressed them hard, but none succeeded in coming closer than a couple of meters; but it took all their firepower and some use of biotics to achieve it, none of them daring to utilize grenades for fear of hitting Shepard if, when, she insisted to herself, he emerged from the door on the other side of the hall.

"Thirty-three ..."

Keelah, it has only been twenty seconds of this?

Wrex deep, bellowing voice carried over the carnage. "We need to get out of here in twenty five!"

Keelah! No!

She caught a climpse of a number of dark, metallic looking objects sailing through the air, falling on the ground in the middle of the the wall of chitin, flesh and disgusting ichor in front of them. Before she could discern their nature, said wall was, at least for a couple of seconds, torn apart by a series of deafening explosions, shrapnel clattering against the walls and ceiling, the elevator itself, and their shields, making them flare. And there Shepard was, barreling through the reeling swarm like a god of war, wielding his assault rifle in his right hand, firing wildly without bothering to aim at all, the signature machete in his left raised over his head, ready to fend off whatever dared coming into range, the blade covered in green liquid.

"Twenty – eight ..."

Upon seeing their leader, the team narrowed their target area, focusing their fire on his immediate left and right in a maneuver that would have every drill instructor or range sergeant in every military of the galaxy throw a fit over muzzle discipline, but they were not some grunts, they were Shepard's team, they were something special, she knew it; under her mask, she was smiling now, he was going to make it, the crazy bosh'tet, he was still insane, but he was going to live. The only thing missing as Shepard sprinted past the most forward elements of the scurrying mass of beasts was triumphant music.

And then his faceplate was rammed into the floor with brutal force as a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and brought him to a fall, his rifle slipping from his grasp as he tried to catch himself.

"No! SHEPARD!"

Before she knew it, she was storming forward, howling in rage and terror, barely noticing the giant, reddish-brown form of Wrex to her right doing the same, let alone the fact that she was breaking all of her personal records for fire during movement, racking, aiming and firing the shotgun like a perfect machine without slowing down her rush at all, her powerful quarian legs propelling her towards her target faster than the giant lizard could keep up with. By the time she had reached Shepard, who, still on his behind, was somehow continuing to hold on to his blade and had even managed to sever the appendage that had brought him down even though his movements had become sluggish, she had killed another of the beasts that had tried to pounce the downed commander, Wrex' artillery piece labeled a shotgun claiming two in the same time.

"Eighteen..."

Having collapsed her shotgun to her back, Tali grabbed the sling at the back of Shepard's harness with both hands, not even trying to do this with one, and started to pull. Shooting his arms out in confusion for only a second, her commander quickly caught on and drew his hand cannon, beginning to level shots at the advancing horde, the massive Krogan looming over both of them, laughing and growling like a maniac, his weapon spitting death. A particularly brave warrior leaped at him just as the massive thing finally overheated, just to be battered aside with it, blood and knocked out teeth trailing through the air. But there were already three more jumping, the others back in the elevator blocked from supporting them in the center by the forms of Tali and Wrex in their lines of fire.

"Fifteen..."

Shepard pumped the head of the leading one full of bullets while it was still mid-air, obviously not stopping it's momentum but at least killing it, turning it from a lethal mass of chitin and claws into a mere one hundred fifty kilo flesh projectile. His gun was overheated now, but Wrex pushed one of the others away with his biotics. The remaining one came ever closer, tentacles and forward legs extended towards her and Shepard . Straining her burning legs to go faster, she frantically looked for a way out as time seemed to grind to a halt, they weren't going to make it, they – suddenly, the world lit up in brilliant azure, blinding her before her mask's dampeners could react. When she opened eyes again, the Rachni horde was sprawled out on the ground in complete disarray several meters away, limbs and bodies entangled. Before she could comprehend what had happened, the sound of something falling to the ground heavily, followed by someone worriedly shouting "Liara!" answered it for her.

"Eleven..."

With some help from Wrex, they finally got Shepard into the elevator. His feet weren't even entirely inside yet when someone already slammed the button, the concrete of the shaft coming dangerously close to turning their commander into a cripple as the elevator quickly ascended. She slumped against the railing and closed her eyes for a second, her breath coming in deep, greedy inhalations, her chest heaving from the exertion. Nobody spoke; the elevator was filled with the sound of heavy breathing and some silent groaning from Liara. Tali opened her eyes and picked up the pistol she had discarded for her mad dash. Kaidan kneeling down to look after the Asari who was clutching her head, a drop of blood flowing from her left nostril, Tali shook herself from her daze and rushed to Shepard's side, joining Ashley, who was already applying medigel to a bleeding wound on the inside of his right forearm. Blinking multiple times, he tore his gaze from his fellow marine and, with some difficulty, looked her in the eye, as he always did. "T-Tali. Hi."

She couldn't help herself, a burst of laughter escaped her. If only he could have seen the wide grin on her lips at the realization that they had all made it, that he had made it, settling in. "You crazy bosh'tet."

A shit eating grin appeared on his face, as he replied. "Still didn't tell me what that means. I'm telling you, when we finally get that shore leave, we're getting you drunk out of your mind. I'll recruit Garrus to brief me over dextro drinks. Right, Garrus?"

"Wha ? I mean, sure Shepard, whatever you say."

He laughed, the first genuine one for days. Ancestors, he really was insane. But then his demeanor changed, as he palmed his face, groaning as he rubbed his eyes, before he dropped the hand again and looked around, addressing them almost sheepishly. "Uhm...thank you, people. I never would've made it out of there if you hadn't stayed down with me." He looked unsure, as if he was looking for words that were eluding him; a rare sight, but right now, Tali could have cared less. Standing back up, she could only shake her heard at the man.

Garrus rose up to the task. "That would've been much easier if we had just done it as a team, Shepard." Dropping the flippant tone, he added, "But the...intention is appreciated. Just don't pull such a stunt again, okay?"

Shepard snorted mirthlessly. "Not making any promises."

Tali simply stared at him. She had known he cared, but what had just transpired here was almost madness. It most definitively wasn't healthy. It was, however, a thing a good captain would be prone to do,even if it was not exactly an example of good judgement. Perhaps they couldn't make him see reason, but at least she could make sure he knew he was appreciated. "May you stand between your crew and harm as you lead them through the empty void between the stars. Keelah'Selai, Shepard."

He looked up to her, appearing unsure how to react, perhaps even embarassed. "What was that?"

"A quarian captain's greeting. It encapsulates what every captain should strive to be. A-and...what you just did."

He cleared his throat, looking at Ashley's hands, still working on his right arm. "I try, but...I'm not actually a captain, Tali."

Yes," she said. "Yes you are, Captain."

…...

"Sour notes? What are you speaking of?"

Tali followed the conversation between Shepard and the dying Asari who was being psychically controlled by the Rachni Queen, because her life now was officially completely and utterly insane , with as much attention as she could spare while helping Ashley tend to her wound; the final fight against Benezia, her Asari bodyguards and the last of their Geth had not left the team unscathed. It had been a brutal battle, and the fact that they had already been fighting on and off against Rachni, Geth, Krogan, and even Binary Helix own security personnel for the better part of a day did not help. In the end, they all still drew breath and their enemies did not, but the group was battered. Shepard had been the main focus of Benezia's biotics and taken a bad beating, his face, now free of the helmet he had pulled off eagerly after the fighting had finished, coated in blood from a vicious laceration on his forehead, and while he remained disciplined and focused as ever, she was sure that she was seeing a certain sluggishness in his movements; no wonder after hitting his head twice in a day, the memories of their clutch escape from the hot labs still fresh in Tali's mind. Wrex was a patchwork of cuts and bulletholes, Kaidan was sitting in a corner, groaning from his headaches as the fight had taxed his biotics to the greatest extent, and Garrus was limping. Tali herself was very thankful for her new armor, given the two marks on her chestplate where bullets had pierced her faltering shields, and favoring her left leg since her right ankle appeared to be badly sprained if not broken from a biotic assault that had slammed her into the wall. Ashley had it the worst; not only had she , courtesy of Asari biotics, suffered a strong impact with a hard surface herself – in her case, the floor – she had also sustained a shot clean through her shoulder, and so Tali was now using a syringe from the Alliance soldier's personal medkit to apply MediGel directly into the bullet canal, Ashley hissing in pain and gripping Tali's knee so hard she feared it might break. Liara, who as of now was cradling her mother's broken body in her arms and sobbing uncontrollably, was the only one who hadn't suffered anything more than an ineffectual scratch; perhaps even in her ...mind controlled state, Benezia had had some compassion for her own blood left.

"A long time ago, our foremothers lived ...in peace. Then the one with the sour... yellow notes came and changed... their song. It turned our singing into..noise. In their agony, our foremothers...lashed out..."

Ashley's wound taken care of for now, Tali stood up, her mind spinning with what she was hearing. The Rachni had been driven into their mad aggression? But by whom? The queen spoke as if it had been just one being. What could have done such a thing? And why?

Shepard appeared to be already ahead of her. "Who did this to your people? Where did they get the means to do so? Prothean beacons?"

"The one who tainted our song...is the same who tainted the songs of these who now lie dying."

"Saren!?", Garrus blurted out. "That makes no sense."

The freakish, dying Asari shuddered in the psychic bond controlling her like a puppet being flung about by a set of clumsily handled strings. "The one this one's song describes ….as Saren... is not the singer of the sour yellow notes. It is another. The dying singers call him...Sovereign."

Shepard was squinting now, looking confused, but determined to milk this well of knowledge for all it's worth. "Who is Sovereign?"

"We do not...know. They do not, either. Not...truly. They do not understand it."

The commander took a step back, his face relaxing, as he seemed to try and digest what he had heard; but the queen pressed forward her own matters now. "You hold our...fate in...your hands. Will you release us? Or will you resign the Rachni to oblivion?"

Keelah.

The commander seemed to feel the same, for he didn't answer, but looked at the ground instead, eyes wide, jaw working. Wrex growled behind him. "What are you waiting for, Shepard. Dissolve the bug!"

Garrus nodded and clicked his mandibles. "I'm with Wrex on this one. The Rachni almost tore the galaxy apart. They're too dangerous." Of course he'd say that, she thought. But was he wrong? She honestly did not know. Exterminating an entire species felt wrong. Like a sacrilege. But if she could destroy all Geth with a flip of a switch, would she not do it? No, she corrected herself, it's not the same. The Geth are guilty, this queen is not.

Shepard was still not speaking, and so Ashley, the medigel apparently numbing the pain enough to make it somewhat bearable, stated that she agreed with 'the dinosaurs'.

Shepard acknowledged none of them, instead bringing his head back up to look at the queen, ignoring her puppet still swaying in the corner. "If I let you go, what would you do?"

"We would..leave...and hide. Find a place where...we could live in peace...teach our children to sing in ...harmony."

It was completely quiet in the room now, except for Liara's occasional sniffles. Until Shepard let out a long sigh, took a few steps forward, and hit the button that would release the queen.

"God, I hope I'm not going to regret this."

….

"You did WHAT!? Do you have any idea how many generations until the Rachni overrun the galaxy again!?"

Shepard clenched his jaw and had to fight to not look down. He had no problem with facing the music for his decisions – when he was convinced that he had done the right thing. This time? He wasn't sure at all. "I understand your reservations, Councilor, and I share them. However, what you would have had me do would have been genocide. A violation of this council's own- "

"Do not presume to lecture me about the charter, human!" , Sparatus thundered. "I knew your race didn't have the guts to make the difficult decisions." Mandibles and nostrils flaring, the turian councilor cut the connection. Shepard took a deep breath. He had been prepared for a backlash, but this was bad. He forced his focus away from the now empty spot where Sparatus' hologram had been and faced the remaining two councilors. Valern stood still as usual, with his typical neutral expression on his face, while Tevos, the Asari, actually looked almost sympathetic.

"It was a difficult decision, Commander. I understand why you could not do it, I just hope our children won't have to pay the price for your mercy."

He sighed and finally, broke eye contact. "So do I, Councilor."

She nodded. "Was there anything else, Shepard?"

"As a matter of fact, yes..." he straightened himself and clasped his hands behind his back. "I realize that the validity of this intel is questionable, but some of the things the queen said are potentially groundbreaking – and troubling." With both councilors just looking at him silent and attentively, he took it as his queue to go on. "As I already reported, Benezia claimed, by my as well as her daughter's estimation truthfully, to have been a victim to some form of mind control or indoctrination. The queen further supported this by stating that Benezia's 'song' as well as those of her followers had been 'tainted'."

Valern stroked his chin and blinked twice. "Interesting. Rachni known psychics. No obvious reason to lie. If true, could hint towards nature of Saren's means of control."

Shepard shuffled his feat awkwardly. The real kicker was still coming. "That's just it, Sir. The queen said Saren isn't the one exerting the control, but his ship, this...super dreadnought the footage of we acquired on Eden Prime you are no doubt familiar with. Apparently the indoctrinated Asari knew it or them as 'Sovereign'. The queen made no statements about Sovereigns nature, claiming that the Asari themselves did not know either."

Tevos looked very thoughtful know. "That is indeed troubling, Commander..."

"There's more."

A blue, hairless eyebrow was lifted. "Yet more troubling news?"

"I'm afraid so, ma'am. The queen claimed that it recognized the 'song' of this Sovereign from the memories it inhabited from it's foremothers. Allegedly, this Sovereign...somehow drove the Rachni into their war on the galaxy."

The Asari's eyes widened in shock, but Valern was quick to dissect the new information. "If true, highly troubling. However, queen possibly lying. Survival at stake; diverting responsibility for Rachni wars beneficial in swaying Shepard." He blinked. "Super dreadnought so far believed to be of Geth origin. Remains most probable hypothesis despite conflict with new intel. Truthfulness of queen's statements impossible to discern. Cannot know for sure. Shepard's hunt for Saren most likely avenue for gaining new information on this 'Sovereign'. Sufficient response to existing intelligence...for now."

Tevos nodded at that, before looking back to Shepard. "That settles it. I trust that was the last of the potentially history changing revelations for today, Commander?"

John nodded tiredly. "Yes. Ma'am."

"In that case, this debriefing is over. Good hunting, Shepard."

He saluted. "Councilors."

The connection was cut and he slumped, lowering himself into the closest chair and leaning back, allowing himself to look as tired as he felt, at least for a moment. What a day.

Later that night, he lay in his bed, thoughts still racing through his mind. Had he done the right thing? Half his team disagreed. The other half either wasn't sure or reluctantly agreed; he certainly didn't blame them, he half wished he had just ended the creature right then and there himself. If he was wrong, there would be a bloody war somewhere down the line, and it would be his fault alone. He shuddered at the thought, not for the first time since making the call. Should he have listened to his team?

His team. What did they think of him after he had ordered the to leave him alone today? Did they all take him for insane? Tali seemed to be, if anything, impressed by his, as she put it, selflessness, which he found surprisingly relieving even if he knew that in truth, it was merely cowardice to face the more unfortunate aspects of military leadership; but he was not so sure about the others. First the mission, then the team, then yourself; so much was true, so much had been his mantra ever since Akuze. But the course of action he had chosen in the hot labs today had not been the rational or smart one, no matter which way he tried to justify it. Had he died down there, the mission would have been severely compromised, if not doomed. He cursed himself for his feelings muddying his judgement again; what on earth was wrong with him? Had the damn incident with Toombs and the revelations about Akuze rattled him more than he had thought? And how had he even gotten this invested in this motley crew of soldiers and aliens? If he was honest to himself, he hadn't been this close to anyone he had worked with since...since Akuze. That day had taught him to keep his distance to his fellow soldier, so he could stay objective with his orders, and them dying would be more bearable. It had served him well enough on Elysium, getting him through that bloody day without too many additions to his personal nightmare collection. But this group was something else. Something special.

But his choice regarding the queen, his actions in the hot lab, or what his team thought of him were not the only things troubling him, or even the things that troubled him most. The implications of what the queen had said were staggering. Who- or whatever this Sovereign was and who had built it, it or they had lived far too long to be of any species he knew of. Krogan could live for several thousand years, but they had not even been a spacefaring species when the Rachni first appeared on the galactic stage. Perhaps it was an organization? But what kind of organization would have the means to influence the Rachni, and why? None of the races of the galaxy had profited from the Rachni wars, except the Krogan perhaps, and they were out, for the aforementioned reason. There was another race of course, a race whose very modus operandi hinted at them possibly being very long living, or possessing powerful stasis technology – the Reapers. But the Reapers weren't here., else Saren wouldn't be trying to bring them back. Unless of course, they had a vanguard, or at least formerly hidden assets now in use by Saren already inside the milky way... once more, he shuddered. What kind of lunatic was he dealing with here? Where would this rabbit hole end? Just what were the stakes if he failed?

Pondering this over and over again, his thoughts grew slower and slower, until eventually, to his own big surprise when he woke up seven hours later, he actually fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.