A/N: Here's another chapter because why not. This one proved really difficult to put together for some reason.

Responses to reviews are as follows:

Guest: I've already responded to another guest reviewer who made the same point. The crystal was not made from omni-gel. That was explicitly mentioned earlier in the story.

AnarionRising27: Great to hear! Not long to go now. Plenty of cool stuff to come, though.

Guest (False Masks: Chapter 9): Thank you. :)

Chapter 28: Stalemate

As Wessa had expected, the moment she opened the door to her office, three quarians turned to face her. They were each sitting just in front of her desk in chairs of the same cheap yet durable model common to medical facilities across the galaxy, practicality taking priority over comfort in the case of the off-white pieces of furniture. To be honest though, it was fortunate she even had enough chairs, given the shortage of virtually everything that had resulted from the war with the Reapers. While they were hideously uncomfortable, they were still chairs at the end of the day.

Her desk was positioned near to the far wall from the perspective of someone entering the room, a chair of the same design as the first three sitting behind it, meaning the asari matriarch had to carefully squeeze her way past her three guests to get there, given the office was rather cramped. She could have demanded a more generous work area, of course, but Wessa had never been one for excessive space. She much preferred to be out actively helping her patients when she could, the office really a necessity borne out of the unfortunate requirement for someone in her position that was paperwork rather than being something she actually wanted.

Settling herself into her chair and resting her forearms on her equally as unadorned and simple desk, Wessa allowed her eyes to move between the different family members in front of her, all of whom were waiting for her to speak with varying levels of patience. On the left sat Rissel, who was the most obviously on edge in terms of body language of the three quarians, the green-suited young woman unable to remain still as she fidgeted, her eyes darting around the small room as her feet tapped against the ground. She stilled slightly, however, and gave Wessa a small nod as she noticed the matriarch was looking at her. The asari returned the nod before moving her gaze to the person next to her.

In the middle sat Rissel and Shaela's mother, her grey enviro-suit the least eye-catching of the ones in the office, though the colour was still attractive thanks to a light fixture above her causing it to appear as a range of hues instead of just one. Her gaze, unlike her daughter's, remained trained on Wessa without so much as wavering, but her eyes were as filled with desperation at the thought of Shaela being in danger as Rissel's were.

Finally, on the right sat Shaela and Rissel's father, his enviro-suit coloured a darker shade of yellow than Wessa herself would have picked as he surveyed her grimly. That same desire to help his eldest daughter was every bit as present in his eyes as his partner's, but there was also a considerable amount of anger in his gaze. The asari hoped his fury was due to the fact that those holding Commander Shepard captive might seek to do Shaela harm rather than being due to her choice not to see them immediately. Internally she steeled herself. She had made a decision not to prioritise her student over the dozens whose care she oversaw, something she knew Shaela would have agreed with. She would stand by that decision if challenged.

"I'm sorry I couldn't meet with you right away," she began, looking between the three family members as she spoke, making eye contact with each of them in turn. "Please believe me when I say I wanted to. With so many still needing medical help, though, I had to prioritise those under my care."

"And Shaela isn't?" the room's only male occupant, Jaral—Wessa remembered—retorted, voice low as his gaze bore into her own. "She's spent months helping you. Isn't that worth anything?"

"Dad!" Rissel gasped, the youngest member of the family staring at her father in disbelief before shooting Wessa an apologetic look. "How can you say something like that? Of course Wessa cares about Shaela, she just has lots of other people to worry about as well."

Wessa gave Rissel a grateful look before continuing. "In case you have forgotten," she replied acidly, matching Jaral's look with one of equal intensity, "I let her borrow the ship she needed. You may not be aware, however, of the fact that vessel is the last thing I have left of my bondmate. I would ask you not to doubt that I care about your daughter a great deal."

"Matriarch," Shaela's mother—her name was Visela, if memory served—interjected, "all of us know you care about Shaela," she shot a pointed look at the man sitting next to her before continuing, "but even though she's been gone for days, we've only received one message from her, which we think you got as well. Did you receive the same message about Commander Shepard?"

Wessa nodded. "I did," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. She hadn't meant to lose her temper like that, but she had nonetheless. "I almost couldn't believe what I was reading. Shaela told me she was going to help her boyfriend and that it could be dangerous. I assumed she would find him and then they would return to Rannoch. Why she has decided to involve herself in a quest to rescue the commander I have no idea."

"Matriarch," Jaral said softly, causing her to glance sharply at him, though her expression softened at the look in his eyes now, "my daughter could be in serious danger. We don't own a ship and even if we did, getting the fuel for it would be impossible given the current restrictions on spaceflight. Is there anything you can do to help her?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "I gave Shaela all the assistance I could before she left. However," at this she activated her omni-tool, gesturing for the three quarians to rise so they could move closer, "I was able to contact someone else who can."

He really did feel as though he might pass out at any moment.

Sweat ran down his face in thick rivulets, dripping from his chin to the ground beneath him as he sat next to the mouth of the cave, his body concealed from the view of those outside by the large rock he was propped up against. Rassen could honestly say he didn't think he'd ever been this hot before. He certainly thought he would remember it if he had been.

Glancing in the direction of the pair of eyes he could feel staring at him in concern, he tried to give Shaela a reassuring smile, although it was doubtful he succeeded in making her feel any better about his current condition. Of the four of them, she was the only one who was at least partially able to stomach the brutal temperature, her enviro-suit protecting her from the heat for the most part, though he could tell she too was uncomfortable.

"It has to be your turn soon," Shaela said worriedly, glancing in the direction of the ship before looking back at him. "Kasumi has been in there for a while already."

Rassen shook his head. "Give her a bit longer," he managed. "She was almost unconscious earlier. She needs it more than I do."

Feeling his eyes slowly drift shut, Rassen had to admit that Mandalore and Balak's plan was an ingenious one. Instead of following up their probing force by trying to clear the mines immediately, they had instead seemingly opted to wait, rotating their troops so some would take shelter within their ships while the others would continue to monitor the cave. With so many at their command, they were able to ensure that a sizable number were ready to fight at any given moment despite Venture's heat.

The four of them had decided upon realising what their enemies were doing to do the same, meaning they had taken to cycling between Shepard, Kasumi, and himself, one of them spending half an hour or so inside the ship where it was cooler before another took their place. While he had initially tried to insist that Shaela should get out of the heat as well, she had quickly dismissed the idea, arguing that her suit protected her well enough that it was not nearly as bad for her. As he forced his eyes back open to find her still giving him a worried look, Rassen could tell she hadn't been exaggerating when she had said that. If she had the energy to worry about him, that was proof enough.

"You can't take much more of this Rassen," the quarian insisted. "If you don't get out of this soon, you're going to get heat stroke."

"She's right, kid," interjected Shepard, who looked as bad as Rassen felt as the Jedi glanced over to find him staring down the sight of his rifle at the valley below with sweat pouring down his face. "Right at the start of endurance training in the Alliance, a lot of recruits thought that if they were determined enough they could keep going almost indefinitely. While most of them survived everything that was thrown at them without any long-term problems, some insisted on overdoing it and made themselves seriously unwell. We'll give Kasumi another couple of minutes, and then it's your turn."

Nodding reluctantly as Shepard looked over, Rassen then peered around the side of the rock and down at the Mandalorians and batarians below. They had to make a move eventually. Mandalore had even said she knew the Alliance would come to investigate what had happened to Horizon, had been counting on it even, which meant they couldn't wait forever. Even so, there was still no sign that anything had changed from the way it was several hours ago, even when he reached out with the Force to make sure.

So what are they planning?

He moved back fully behind cover, about to ask Shepard if he had any ideas, only to glance over at the ship as the ramp lowered and Kasumi emerged from the vessel. The thief looked exhausted, but she did at least seem a little better than she had before she had entered it. Nodding to the other two as they looked at him, Rassen slowly rose to his feet and headed towards Kasumi as she approached from the other direction, the two of them passing one another with a quiet acknowledgment. Neither of them had the energy to do much more.

As he placed one foot on the ramp, Rassen suddenly felt something. A slight shift at the edge of perception. A warning through the Force. Turning around to find Shaela looking back at him, her silver eyes wide as she sensed it too, he hurried back to where he had just been, prompting a look of alarm from Shepard and Kasumi.

"Something is about to happen," he explained quickly. "I have no idea what exactly, but the Force is telling me they are about to make a move."

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked, the other man's voice slightly doubtful. "It's definitely the Force and not exhaustion?"

"I felt it as well," Shaela interjected, causing everyone's attention to turn to her. The quarian looked down at the valley for a moment as she continued. "Like Rassen said, though, I don't… Wait. What's that?"

Moving over to her side, Rassen squinted for a moment before spotting the lone batarian who was venturing away from the bulk of the army and towards them. While he could see the individual in a small amount of detail at this range, he couldn't quite make out the weapon he was holding clearly enough to tell what it was beyond the fact it appeared to be a firearm of some kind. It was coloured a jet black and was rather bulky in appearance, with a barrel that seemed almost too wide for the rest of it. Whatever it was, it didn't look like either a blaster or a mass accelerator weapon.

Staring at the figure in confusion for a moment, Rassen's eyes then widened as the batarian suddenly aimed his firearm in the direction of the cave before tilting it slightly upwards and pulling the trigger. There was no gunshot. Instead there was a barely audible coughing sound as, with a trail of white smoke of some kind spraying out behind it as it arced through the air, something landed near the top of the slope before beginning to roll down the incline, more smoke spraying from it in all directions as soon as it made contact with the ground. The batarian fired again at another point high up the slope, another projectile—another shell, Rassen suddenly realised—landing with a trail of the same gas following it through the air before it too began spraying smoke in all directions.

"They're trying to blind us so they can disarm the mines," he heard Shepard grunt, the commander beginning to aim at the batarian just as the latter disappeared behind the smokescreen, which was growing at an astonishing pace. Shepard cursed as he tried to relocate his target, but Rassen just about managed to hear several more coughing noises as the first tendrils of smoke began to enter the cave.

"I think it's harmless," Kasumi announced, causing him to look at her to see the thief had retaken her place at the left-hand side of the cave mouth. Her omni-tool was active as she scanned the continually growing artificial cloud that was now even managing to partially block out Venture's unbelievably harsh sunlight. "That thing have a thermal imaging scope, Shep?" she asked, not looking away from her wrist.

"No," Shepard replied, the frustration in his voice obvious to Rassen despite his exhaustion. "I take it your Locust hasn't either?"

"No."

"Neither does my pistol," Shaela added, the quarian having attached the firearm to her hip after the first hour of waiting.

"Damn it," Shepard muttered, still looking down his scope as he attempted to catch even the slightest glimpse of a target, not that there was any chance of that. "I didn't see any guns with something that would be useful on the ship when I looked through our weapons earlier. We won't be able to see them until they're right on top of us."

"Perhaps we do not need to see them," Rassen said slowly, unclipping his lightsaber from his side and resting his thumb over the activation switch as the others turned at the sound of his voice. "While the presence of so many nearby will make it difficult, I should be able to sense those they send to clear the mines through the Force. I may be able to catch them by surprise and take them out before they disable too many."

Shepard was shaking his head before he had even finished. "That's too risky," the older man argued. "As soon as everyone inside the smokescreen realises what's happening, they'll start panic firing at anything they think is nearby… assuming they don't have thermal imaging scopes themselves, which they almost certainly have if they're smart."

"I know," Rassen nodded. "I can protect myself against projectile fire, though, Shepard. As long as I move quickly I should be fine."

"I'm coming with you."

He turned to face Shaela. "Not this time," he replied firmly. As the quarian's mouthpiece blinked blue, he elaborated before she could protest.

"I would not be surprised if a few commandoes like the ones we encountered on Watchman attempt to sneak through the smokescreen despite the minefield, possibly using their stealth field generators to make them even harder to notice." He turned to gesture to Shepard and Kasumi. "We need someone here who can detect them if they try something like that. If both of us go after the mine clearers, we leave the ship vulnerable."

"I'll go with you."

Rassen turned as Kasumi approached, her submachine gun held loosely at her side as she reached the two of them. "You don't know how to reactivate the mines if they manage to disable too many of them, big guy. I can do that, and this way you have support."

"I should go instead," Shepard said instantly, giving the thief a concerned look as he walked over to join her. "You don't have any real protection beyond your kinetic barrier, Kasumi. If they do have thermal imaging scopes, then this," he tapped his chestplate to empathise his point, "will at least do something against a direct hit."

Rassen looked back at Kasumi as she crossed her arms before replying. "Sorry, Shep," the thief said gently, "but Rassy and I are going to have to take this one. We need speed this time round, and the two of us are the fastest here. You and Shaela need to guard the ship and watch for anyone who tries to sneak in here."

She turned to face him, and Rassen nodded instantly upon seeing the expression Kasumi wore. They didn't have time to argue. For all they knew the first few mines were already down. If they didn't go now… well, it might be too late to do anything if they wasted any more time.

"Kasumi has a point, Shepard," he seconded quickly. "And we have to make a decision now. I know this is not an ideal course of action, but I too believe we should be the ones to go."

Rassen watched as the other man's expression shifted from worry to reluctant acceptance before he nodded once. Dipping his own head in reply, Rassen suddenly felt himself being turned around by a hand on his forearm, Shaela pushing a small device into his hand as she looked up at him.

"I don't like this, Rassen," the quarian murmured. "But you're right about one of the two of us needing to stay here." She pointed to what she had just handed him before continuing. "I should have thought to give you a kinetic barrier earlier, but hopefully this will still help now. I'm not sure if it will do much against a blaster bolt, but it will stop mass accelerator fire if you don't get hit too many times in one go."

Smiling at her in thanks, Rassen curled his fingers shut around the device before pulling the quarian closer, gently embracing her and resting his chin on the top of her helmet as she pressed her mask into his shoulder. "We will not be too long, Shaela," he said as confidently as he could.

"Good," Shaela replied, pulling away for a moment before turning to Kasumi. "Make sure he comes back."

The thief shrugged. "I'll watch his back if he watches mine."

Even for someone as used to sneaking around as she was, it was still undeniably eerie.

As she continued to make her way down the gently sloping ground, the green of the rock beneath her feet the only colour she could make out apart from the white of the smoke around her—it was more like fog really—Kasumi found herself unable to keep from shivering. It was still outrageously hot, even more so than it was inside the cave, but the sunlight that normally would have been beating down on her from above was barely visible even when she looked up, so thick was the gas around her. The only indication the sun was indeed still out was the fact that the smoke directly above her was a slightly brighter shade of white than that which pooled around her feet. No, the temperature wasn't responsible for her shuddering. It was the fact the whole situation felt completely unnatural. The fact that she couldn't see more than a few metres in front of her.

Rassen was walking next to her on the right, and he seemed as on edge as she was despite not needing to rely on his eyes as much as she did. As they carefully weaved their way through the mines using their omni-tools and descended towards where they knew their enemies lay, she noticed him beginning to frown. After they had progressed a few metres further he suddenly gestured for her to stop, lowering himself into a crouch as he pointed at a position somewhere ahead of them, though how far away it was she had no idea. Given how far they'd come already, it had to be almost at the very bottom of the slope, which made sense. The Mandalorians and batarians had to start there and work their way upwards.

Following his lead, she likewise dropped into a crouch, instinct telling her to reduce the size of the target she represented. Not that it would do her much good if they were currently being watched through thermal imaging scopes, however.

"Over there," Rassen whispered, eyes trained on where he was still pointing as though his gaze could penetrate the artificial fog that surrounded them. "Four of them, I think. All batarians."

She nodded in reply as he glanced at her, her eyes dropping to her Locust as she quickly switched from standard to disrupter rounds. She only had a limited supply of the specialised ammunition, but they needed to make this quick. Disrupter rounds would tear through the batarians' kinetic barriers like they weren't there, making them perfect for the current situation. She also had an armour piercing ammunition block on her for any Mandalorians they encountered. It never hurt to be prepared.

"We will not see them until the very last moment," Rassen continued in the same barely audible voice. "Are you ready?"

"That's a stupid question and you know it, Ras," she whispered back.

Forcing herself to suppress the laugh that attempted to escape as her companion's jaw tightened at the nickname, Kasumi began inching towards the group of batarians she still couldn't see, Rassen doing likewise a moment later. After perhaps fifteen seconds, though, the vague silhouette of a batarian who was crouching like they were came into view. A second in the same position appeared next to the first a moment later, and then two more loomed out of the smoke just beyond the first couple. These ones were standing at full height, however, sweeping their assault rifles around as they looked for any sign of trouble. Kasumi couldn't help smirking. They were about to get it.

Not daring to so much as breathe as she did so, the thief raised her Locust to her shoulder, a glowing blue icon on the side of the weapon signalling that the disrupter ammunition was ready. Glancing over at Rassen, who gave her a nod, Kasumi looked back at the group of batarians just as one of the sentries turned to face them, his silhouette visibly freezing as he did so.

Now!

She slammed down on the trigger, sending a quick burst at his chest, her Locust shrieking as its fire cut the batarian down instantly. She heard Rassen's lightsaber ignite a split-second later, the glowing blue weapon sailing past her as the Jedi Knight threw it and took down the other sentry almost as quickly. The lightsaber then changed direction in mid-air with astonishing speed, catching one of the batarians who had been crouching from the side just as Kasumi switched targets and took out the final one with a few quick shots to the head. It was all over in just a few seconds.

As faint cries of alarm sounded in the distance, she rose to her full height and sprinted forwards, dropping to her knees just before the corpses and activating her omni-tool. Scanning the ground between the bodies, Kasumi gave Rassen a nod as he dropped down next to her.

"This one's still okay," she panted, feeling even hotter than before on account of the brief moment of combat. "It looks like they were just about to begin trying to disable it, but they didn't manage to even make a start before we got them. Damn, Shep really set a short detection range on these."

Rassen nodded before closing his eyes for a moment. "I can sense another group is nearby," he muttered, opening them before pointing slightly further down the slope and to the right of where they were. "We should get moving."

Jumping back to her feet and checking to make sure her current heat sink was still mostly empty, Kasumi fell into step next to the Jedi as they began heading in the direction he had indicated. They had barely gone more than a few metres before Rassen waved for her to stop, closing his eyes again as he murmured an update.

"They are changing position. Only batarians again, I think. Five this time. They must have just neutralised one of the mines and are moving on to the next one."

"Then we better hurry," she replied, Rassen nodding in agreement as they picked up the pace so they were almost running, the two of them tearing through the smoke as quietly as they could. Kasumi had to admit she was impressed. Rassen was quieter than she had expected he would be. He wasn't a patch on her, of course; her own footsteps weren't even audible to her, let alone anyone nearby. Still, the Jedi's footfalls were nearly as silent, and while she could still hear the shouts from various Mandalorians and batarians as before, none were close enough for her to be worried as Rassen guided her to their next target.

After a minute or so they stopped, both of them by now even more drenched in sweat than they already had been when they had set off. Kasumi was beginning to feel a little faint, but as she looked at the man next to her she had to admit he looked a lot worse than she was willing to bet she did. They had both dropped down low upon halting as they had before, but Rassen was rocking back and forth slightly, his eyes almost shut as he visibly struggled to remain focused. Internally she felt a small stab of guilt at thinking her own situation was bad. She had at least managed to spend some time out of the heat before they had left the cave.

"Just over… over there," Rassen managed, voice noticeably weak as he nodded to a point somewhere ahead of them. "We can sneak up as we did before and get the drop on them if we move in now. Given they have not fired at us yet, we can assume they are not looking out way, like the other group was not. It would seem the Force is with us."

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Kasumi asked, shifting closer in order to place a hand on her companion's shoulder so she could steady him.

"I have to be. We need as much time as we… as we can get, Kasumi. The wait before the smoke… Balak and Mandalore are counting on us being too exhausted by the heat to stop them from disabling the mines. We cannot allow them to… to win."

"Fine," she whispered, "but after this we're going back so you can get some rest inside the ship. Shaela can come back with me and we can carry on." Sensing Rassen was about to protest, she pressed on before he could. "You can help Shepard by sensing anyone who approaches the cave from inside the ship. Shaela can look after herself, Rassen. You know that."

"I know," he replied, rocking dangerously before she managed to steady him again, cursing the fact neither of them had thought to bring water. "I just… just…"

"Love her," Kasumi finished, giving him an understanding smile as he forced his eyes back open. "I get it, big guy. I feel the same way about Shep. Now, let's…" she trailed off as Rassen gave her a tired smirk.

"I knew all along, you know."

"You… What do you mean all along?"

The smirk widened. "Ever since you insisted we rescue him as soon as we found out he was being held prisoner I suspected. It was just as obvious with him when we… got him out, though. Then, of course, there was you wanting to talk to Shaela privately about something… and you deciding to wait for Shepard alone when he left the ship. She has not told me what you discussed, but it seemed rather obvious what it was. When you kissed a few hours ago… well, it was not much of a surprise."

"I… You… We have a job to do."

"Indeed." Rassen turned to face the direction they had been heading in and started to inch forwards, causing her to follow suit. It seemed quieter than before as they advanced. The alarmed cries from before had stopped. Kasumi's eyes widened at that realisation.

Oh no.

"Rassen," she whispered, causing the Jedi to glance back at her. "Something's wrong."

She watched him as he opened his mouth to ask what it was, only to close it as he frowned and shut his eyes for a split-second. "The squad is withdrawing," he muttered as he looked back at her. "It is difficult to tell, but I think every group is pulling back. Why would they do that when they have made so little progress?"

"We need to head back to the ship," she hissed, looking over her shoulder as though an attacker would loom out of the artificial fog behind her at any moment. "If they're trying to leave us alone in here… We need to get out as fast as possible."

Nodding reluctantly, Rassen rose to his full height as she did the same. Kasumi understood his hesitation. They had a job to do, and they had barely managed to do anything. They probably hadn't bought themselves anything more than a few minutes at best. For a moment she wavered. Perhaps she was overreacting. While her gut had normally been right in the past, it wasn't always—

The sound of a blaster firing came from somewhere behind her, causing Kasumi to whip round just in time to see a scarlet bolt fly wide to the right of her and Rassen before impacting against the slope, the projectile blasting a small fragment of stone free and leaving a scorch mark on the green rock. Staring in shock for a moment, she felt her heart drop into her stomach as a second blaster blot struck a point to their left. Then a mass accelerator rifle joined in, its shot sounding as though it impacted somewhere above them, though she couldn't see where exactly. None of them were even close to hitting either her or Rassen, but as the handful of weapons firing at them suddenly increased into dozens and then hundreds, she began to understand what was happening.

Knowing they were somewhere inside the smokescreen, the entire army was beginning to blindly fire at the slope. Most of them clearly didn't have thermal imaging scopes, but with so many guns at their disposal, they wouldn't need them.

"Kasumi, move!" Rassen shouted, breaking into a sprint a moment before she did, the two of them throwing any attempt at stealth to the wind as the ground exploded all around them, hundreds of batarians and Mandalorians firing into the smoke that was now their only chance of survival.

Panting as she and Rassen raced towards the top of the slope as fast as they could, her kinetic barrier flaring as it protected her from a couple of lucky hits, Kasumi let out a scream as a warning tone filled her ears, the sound issuing from her omni-tool as she realised they had forgotten about the mines. An explosion over to her right seemed to shake the entire planet and she was suddenly weightless.

Then she hit the ground and everything went black.

As consciousness returned to her, Kasumi moaned weakly, her head feeling as though it was splitting open. Her ears rang so loudly she didn't notice at first that someone was shaking her, it only sinking in when she looked up to see Rassen, his face tight with pain and his left side bloody as he shouted her name. His voice was drowned out by the constant ringing, but she could still read his lips. Nodding slowly, she grunted as she felt herself being pulled to her feet, leaning on the Jedi for support as he began to half drag and half carry her along, shards of green rock still exploding free of the ground around them as blaster and mass accelerator fire hissed through the air.

She didn't know how long they kept moving for, only that eventually she was able to straighten up and run unassisted and that somehow neither of them got hit as Rassen led her back to the cave. She didn't think they'd make it until it suddenly loomed out of the smoke without warning along with a horrified Shaela and Shepard, whose expressions turned to relief as she and the Jedi reached them.

Kasumi collapsed to the floor of the cave as soon as she was inside it, chest heaving as she inhaled as much of the scorching air as she could, barely hearing Rassen as he crashed to the ground on her left. Looking over at him, she saw the Jedi Knight's eyes were shut, his body unable to take any more as he lay on his front next to her.

A pool of red began to slowly grow around him.

As Shaela rushed over to Rassen's side with a gasp, Kasumi looked up at Shepard as he tried to help her into a sitting position, drawing a cough from her lips, which had cracked from the heat at some point.

"We… we got one of their groups," she managed. "But we couldn't… we couldn't…

And then she passed out again.