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Garrus might have been annoyed with the asari for taking so long to take the war seriously, but he couldn't help but feel for them when he and Shepard and Liara landed on Thessia and saw how hard the asari were fighting to hold back the Reapers. Liara was stricken, looking around her at the destruction of familiar and well-loved places with heartbreak clear in her eyes. Garrus remembered what it had been like to live through that on Palaven.
He put a hand on Liara's shoulder. "We're going to win this thing."
"I know. But Garrus—" She gestured helplessly at the destruction around them.
"Let's go get this artifact and get this over with, then."
Liara pulled herself together, nodding briskly. "Yes. Let's."
"Do you know anything more about what we're looking for?" Shepard asked.
"These coordinates are for the Temple of Athame. It's several thousand years old. My mother took me there once," Liara added softly. Then she frowned. "And for some reason, it has classified government funding. I was curious about that, so I went digging through her old files. She had heavily encrypted records on this place, some dating back centuries. I still can't crack most of them. Whatever's going on, it's well-hidden."
"Anything as valuable as the Catalyst would have to be. Sounds like we're on the right track," Shepard said crisply. She hit her comm link. "Joker, any luck raising the scientists who are supposed to meet us at the temple?"
"Negative, Commander. All channels are scrambled across the spectrum."
"Thanks, Joker. Liara, can you get us there?"
Liara looked across the ruined city, frowning slightly. "Yes. I think so. But we should hurry."
"No argument here. The sooner we get this done and get out of here, the better for everyone," Garrus agreed.
"Then let's move out." Shepard pulled her gun. "After you, Liara."
They followed Liara across the rubble of the city, finally reaching the temple after more fights with Reaper troops than any of them had anticipated. And none of them were surprised to get inside the temple and find the scientists dead—although the fact that they appeared to have been executed, rather than dying in combat with Reaper forces, surprised Garrus and put him on his guard. Someone had been here already. The question was whether they had found what they were looking for. For the sake of the galaxy, Garrus hoped not.
Shepard looked up at a tall statue. "Who's that supposed to be?"
"It's the goddess Athame. Over time, she has been rendered as looking more and more like us."
"What did she look like to begin with?" Garrus asked, looking at a bust on a pedestal. It looked very familiar.
"I'm not sure."
"Because if this is her over here, she looks awfully Prothean to me."
Liara followed him to the ancient artwork at the back of the temple. "That is her, a primitive rendition, at least. I admit it does look that way, but that is … troubling. This is thousands of years of asari history in question if we consider that a possibility."
While she was talking, Garrus was looking around at the artifacts on display. "Are all these Athame's?"
"Yes. This codex talks about Athame granting us the gift of biotics as a reward for worshipping her … and this one describes how she taught our ancestors mathematics. This one is a bust of Lucen, Athame's guide who taught our ancestors about the stars."
Garrus studied the bust. "I say we're looking at another Prothean."
Liara frowned. "Possibly."
"And this one? Also clearly a Prothean?"
"That's Janiri, Athame's guide who brought enlightenment to Thessia. He gave my people seeds and taught them the seasons so they could grow crops."
"So … the Protheans are the reason the asari are so advanced," Shepard said.
"Oh. That does seem … possible, but to consider the Protheans were involved in our past, especially so heavily—it would change everything we know about ourselves."
"It would also explain why this is a government-sponsored facility, and why it may hold an artifact that leads to the Catalyst." Shepard looked around, frowning. "The question is, which one?" She moved in front of the statue, staring up at it as though she expected it to speak to her. Slowly she reached out toward it, as if in a trance.
"Shepard!"
"There's a Prothean beacon here."
"From what I understand, these beacons are a mother-lode of information. Makes sense that there would be more of them hidden around the galaxy," Garrus suggested.
"If we had only known about this from the beginning, we might not have been in this mess." Shepard shook her head. "And now we have no time. We need to access that beacon. And quickly."
"There must be something that awakens it, some code."
Shepard nodded at a display cabinet toward the back of the temple. "What are those?"
"Athame's sword and shield. Legends say she used them to protect Thessia when the heavens grew angry, wielding the sword against jealous gods who threatened our ancestors."
"Sounds like the Reapers to me." Shepard moved toward the display. She touched them both, one with each hand, and a stream of light moved from them to the statue of the goddess.
Liara gasped. "By the goddess."
Garrus chuckled. "Literally."
From the hand of the goddess appeared a ball of light, floating down toward them. As it came near, it resolved itself into the glowing figure of a Prothean VI. "Reaper presence detected," it said. "This galactic cycle has already reached its extinction terminus. Systems shutting down."
"Wait! No, it hasn't!" Shepard called out. "There's still time! We need answers!"
"To what question?" the VI asked.
"The Catalyst. We need to know what it is in order to finish the Crucible."
"I was created by Pashek Vran, overseer of the project you refer to as the 'Crucible'," the VI told her. "I can answer your question."
Shepard frowned as though trying to remember something.
"Pashek Vran died fighting the Reapers in the battle of Tranvir Nine. Your remaining time is also at an end."
Since Shepard was still tilting her head, looking as though she was listening for something, Garrus asked the VI, "What happened to the Crucible in your time? Why didn't you use it?"
"We were sabotaged from within. A splinter group argued that we should try to dominate the Reapers rather than destroy them. We eventually discovered they were indoctrinated, but it was too late."
"Please," Liara said. "There's still hope for this cycle. We need to know what the Catalyst is. Trillions of lives are at risk."
"Trillions of lives are always at risk. But if the Reapers have arrived to end your cycle, this discussion is too late. The Crucible is the work of countless galactic cycles stretching back millions of years. Each cycle adds to it, each cycle improves it. None have successfully defeated the Reapers with it."
"Then we can! Tell us what the Catalyst is!" Liara pleaded.
Shepard was watching the VI, still distracted by something.
It looked at her, nodding its glowing head, but before it could speak again, it flickered as if in alarm. "Indoctrinated presence detected. Activating security protocol." To Shepard, it added, "You have what you need." And then it was gone.
"What did it mean?" Garrus asked.
She shook her head. "I couldn't get it."
"Get what?"
"The song. Didn't you hear it?"
"No." He looked at Liara, who shook her head as well. "What kind of song?"
"Something I've heard before, but …" Shepard frowned, trying to hear it again. "It'll come to me. It'll have to."
But nothing was coming to her right at the moment, because standing in front of them in the VI's place was another hologram: the Illusive Man.
