Content Warning: Gun violence
Reader discretion advised
Omega
Kima District
First Lieutenant Jax overlooked an old bridge from his position. The metal surface had rust and scorch marks that told a story from long ago. Mech debris littered the walkway as unknown rodents often peaked or scurried along to darker corners he could not see.
His orders were to patrol the set perimeter for any of that horrid vorcha. They picked clean any place their persons settled into. Even bodies.
His superior made a deal with the Talons to occupy this part of the district. They were not allowed into the aging building across the bridge. Something terrible happened there; it became rumored and avoided until now.
Jax lifted his sniper. He set the scope to view a spot closer inside the building. A dark figure rummaged around in the third story, hastily placing a pulsated purple object before shutting down. The cold feeling crept up his spine.
Two more figures appeared, helping to set a base of operations. Terminals and a portable comms station were being put together. Whatever they're doing, it spelled doom for them all.
First Lieutenant turned on his comms with static interference. It lasted a few seconds until he heard Cyra-Le on the other end.
"Lieutenant.", she responded.
He made sure his voice was hushed low. "Report to High Commander. They followed us."
Silence played back at first before Cyra spoke. "Acknowledged. Return inside, Jax."
He lowered his rifle, still staring across the bridge. If the remnants of the directive are here now. Can the hybrid stop them? Or will she join them?
...
Normandy
Captain's Quarters
Shepard finished her last report. Sitting back in the comfort of a leather office chair, she stared around the room. Her figures are displayed neatly on the glass wall. Each ship or shuttle shined with memory.
Over to her left, the terrarium bloomed with tiny buds and long verdant leaves. Her cabin smelled fresh. It was oddly calming.
Maybe she's ready to let go? To finally retire from protecting this galaxy and settle. Raise Natalie, help Satima with her young adult life, and listen to Garrus when he wakes up.
Shepard laughed at this. It didn't last. A soft whimper escaped her lips, and before she could process it, the captain began to cry. Hot tears puddled on her palms when she covered her face. Sighing from the heavy weight of it all.
It's done. Shepard's tired. They all need to move on.
...
Kima District
Jax stood to attention in front of his high commander. She sat uneasily in a small chair. Mem-Zurah's injuries were still healing when they came to the home galaxy. Seeking refuge on a station that some called lawless and others evil.
"First Lieutenant, tell me of what you've seen.", she asked in their sentarian language.
He cleared his throat, trying not to stare at the large scar across her dulled jade features inflicted by the explosion on the warship Edina. "Ma'am. There are directive scouts in the damaged building across the bridge. They have set up a small base. Cyra-le is a Stalker. She can swiftly dispatch this group before they call for more."
Mem-Zurah gazed hard at him. She weighed his words and his worry. "We are too few to attack. I will not sacrifice more of us for the sake of a handful of days in safety."
Jax disagreed, shaking his head to show discontent but obeyed her order. "Ma'am."
Cyra-le approached. A sentarian with enhanced cybernetics due to their people's advanced nanotech, the stalker stood directly across from Mem-Zurah. "I can dispatch them easily. But I fear I would succumb to control. They have brought a link to this system, and more could be set up throughout this galaxy."
High Commander Mem-Zurah understood this. "We will need help. But first, we must move from this location. It has been compromised by their presence." She nodded to three of her men. "Speak to the Talons. Tell them we have more weapons to offer if we can buy sanctuary within their walls."
The leader of the squad saluted and led his team off into the district. She gazed at her remaining top soldiers. "The turians' protection will buy us time, but it will not last. I need to send a message."
Jax stared in alarm at this. "Ma'am! That will reveal our location."
"Yes.", Cyra-le spoke. "It will."
Fumi district
Veliraka met the sentarians at the entryway into the Talons' base. There were four groups of them. Some had five or eight soldiers, each carrying their own means of survival and protection.
A team of two carried the large weapons cache that was promised. Unique advanced weaponry that could turn the tide of their faction's control. It was only a matter of time before the people finally threw Aria off the edge of an eezo mine.
Alliance patrolled Gozu, Carrd, and Tuhi districts. Sat with the queen, entertained by her and those that worked for her. Everyone knows why they're here; they just don't like the idea of it. And neither does he or the Talons.
"Veliraka. We have your weapons as promised. Does your captain offer us sanctuary?" Mem-Zurah asked.
He opened the cache inspecting the two rifles, four pistols, and a battle rifle with a thicker barrel. "Looks good. Follow me, High Commander."
As Veliraka led them inside the base, he wondered who knew they were here. Indeed, the Alliance would find out, but they are crafty in being hidden. Aria most likely knows of them. Her little informants littered the district like unwanted vorcha.
"Captain Caelion would know who you are running from. In case they decided to attack our base. I'm sure you have nothing left to offer.", he wondered aloud.
Jax stepped behind Mem-Zurah with Cyra-le, already unsure and indifferent about this exchange of places. His High Commander replied to the turian. " A dangerous enemy. One you do not want to face alone. That is what we can offer. A joint force to combat the ones that oppose us."
Veliraka smirked. "Oppose you? And what exactly "opposes" you?"
Cyra-le offered the answer. "The Directive."
...
Presidium
Citadel
Satima watched Natalie and her friends play in the park while sitting on a bench next to Tiberius. Solanna preferred to stand and brood. The turian woman was not wholly unpleasant, but the apparent brush-off towards the hybrid is quite loud.
A rush of warm breeze generated by the hidden vents carried the smell of fragrant flowers newly bloomed around them. Trees imported from Earth and Thessia were cut to a manageable height.
The peaceful atmosphere masked the darkened feeling at the back of Satima's mind. She's been sensing it in the last two days. Nightmares that were forgotten robbed her of sleep, and the family surrounding her felt more like strangers.
Distant, antisocial, and hardened. The hybrid hated every moment of it. Fortunately, Natalie couldn't pick up on it. Instead, she enjoyed hearing old C-sec stories from Tiberius. Solanna took her to see Garrus a few times.
To everyone on the outside, it was expected. Multi-species families were becoming more usual than a decade ago. This typical kind of family outing is something the girl needs in her life.
Satima's thoughts were disturbed when Natalie came back. Her face was flushed and hot from running. "Some of my friends are going to the Armax Arena. Can we go? It's in the lower wards, on the Silver Strip."
Tiberius chuckled with Solanna frowning. "We'll miss visiting my bro- your father, Natalie. Are you okay with that?"
Natalie stopped smiling and looked down. Tiberius stood while side eying his daughter. "I'm sure your father would want you to have fun today. We can check on him after visiting the arena. Bring him something for his room?"
Satima leaned off the bench, using her crutches to stand. "I think it's a great idea." She tried to smile at Solanna.
"Well, fine. We'll check out some vendors too. I'd like to look for a few things." The turian woman mentioned.
Down from the park, the group took their stroll toward the tower lift. Bypassing the embassies to reach the lower ward stairs. Natalie walked briskly as the trio tried catching up. Satima, most of all. "Nat! I'm using crutches!" she shouted.
"Oh, sorry! I'll slow down." Natalie began at a moderate pace.
People passed by them, gently moving around or sometimes not even paying attention. A keeper ignored them as it continued monitoring an Avina terminal.
Noises from distant celebrations and events echoed from afar. Then, at last, they reached the stair entrance. Satima furrowed her brow at the long flight down. "Figures."
"We'll help you down slowly.", Tiberius suggested.
Solanna suddenly stepped next to the hybrid. "Let's get this done, then."
Feeling like dead weight, Satima sighed loudly but agreed to the help. Natalie had already been down two steps when a sudden rumble happened. The floor shook, and the walls made eerie bending sounds. The child ran back up to them, wrapping her arms around Satima, who almost lost her balance.
"What's going on?" Natalie yelled.
Satima didn't know, worried something sinister had come.
Solanna walked away from the stairwell and lost footing when another more intense quake shook the floor beneath them. She regained her stance as Tiberius stood next to her. "Look at the lake.", he gestured.
The water moved in small waves, then rippled violently before settling into a smooth reflected surface. In the sudden silence of the ward, far-off screams and what seemed to be gunshots echoed to them from the Tower entrance.
The lift came down with a sudden hard thud, sparks flying outward as the doors opened to reveal splattered blood. A few lifeless bodies slumped over in a corner, covered in shadow.
A deafening boom startled the entire area. Shouting in panic, citizens began running away from something unseen.
Without warning, a series of explosions resounded from above. Satima slowly stepped out from the stairwell entrance using her crutches for balance. She couldn't keep her turian eyes off the presidium revolving skyline. It shook intensely as the structure began cracking in a powerful burst.
The lower base that is aligned to the presidiums' circular ward began creaking under stress.
"Spirits...", Solanna barely spoke in shock.
Shattered holo-glass fell in small piles and loose shards around them. The skyline started to break into jagged lines. Another hard knock on the ward confirmed the truth.
"The tower has been destroyed!" Tiberius yelled. "Pieces are falling into the citadel's gravity. We need to run!"
As Solanna gathered Natalie, she spotted Satima, standing there, staring at them. Her father had noticed it too. The hybrid cannot run.
"Satima.", he started. "I'll carry you behind Solanna and Natalie." He approached her, but it was too late. The tower base had begun its violent descent. Large pieces of the structure fell in front of them, splashing into the lake, causing citizens to trip and slide down the bridges.
Some asari tried biotics to hurl away the debris. Giving a path for others to flee.
The path back became covered in tower hull walls with the stairwell on lockdown to the lower wards access. Fires started in the gardens and on damaged buildings. It was the attack all over again, just like with the reapers.
With their little family trapped, they huddled around each other. No way to escape. Satima couldn't accept this. Natalie cried on Solanna.
"I don't want to die!" she screamed fearfully. "I want my mom; I want my dad!"
Tiberius wrapped his arms around them, "It'll be okay. We'll make it through." But there was no way out. The asari fled, and keepers ran into tunnels that disappeared as quickly as they showed.
Alarms blared in the distance, with people dying and screaming in places they couldn't see.
Behind them, a rage of fire came hurtling down the upper residential suites in the ward. Debris threatened to cover them and the fire to burn them alive. Satima felt chilled.
Cold and detached.
Her mind filled with anger, tears streaming down warm cheeks. Natalie caught her gaze and gasped. The hybrid let go of her crutches as the fire engulfed the area. She held out her arms, hands raised and palms facing a threat in front of them.
A large crimson biotic shield encircled them, fending off the flames and various loose debris. Natalie screamed from fear as Solanna shouted curses in panic.
Satima struggled under the force of the fiery heat, grunting from the pressure as she continued to protect her family. Her legs ached and surged with agony each second. Making her weaker from the concentration needed to fend off the fires.
Alarms sounded above them. The flames were being sucked back into a large vent leading outside the station. Tiberius watched the entrance to the stairwell clearing from all fires, with the doors unlocking for entry.
Now that the area was safe, Satima felt a wave of exhaustion take hold, dropping her arms to fall unconscious on the floor.
Solanna stared as the hybrid lay asleep; blood dripped down from her left ear and both nostrils. The palms of her hands were scalded from the thermal burns of the fires. If it wasn't for this hybrid, this reaper born; they would all be dead, realizing Satima's dark gifts of unknown biotics and reaper enhancements saved them.
And Solanna hated her for it.
...
Citadel Docks
The Normandy latched onto the docking tube. They received the comms call through quantum entanglement.
Shepard listened to the holo report, fearful of what had happened while they chased a directive monster.
Although they entered citadel space hours earlier, the Normandy had to wait for space traffic to calm. Considering the attack was local and nowhere else.
On their way in, Joker called for Shepard to view the pieces of the tower floating in space inside the presidium ward vacuum. Ships were sent to collect what they could tow and to bring in bodies frozen in horrified expressions.
Kester was only able to send an emergency broadcast that the presidium was under attack at the time. He, along with C-sec, met Shepard and the team hastily leaving the warship. Troubled, the captain spoke first. "My family?! Are they okay?"
Kester nodded, "They are at the hospital. Along with hundreds more. And that's the ones we could find."
Ashley stood with Shepard, "Sir? What happened?"
He began to inform them of the current events. "The tower is no more. It's in pieces."
"What?!" Ashley replied in shock. "What do you mean, in pieces?"
He stepped closer to her, "Someone set explosives at structure joints of the tower. They knew where to strike and how to take it down."
"Joker and I witnessed the aftermath floating around the presidium," Shepard spoke. "How many are dead?"
"Hundreds. Maybe thousands." Kester replied.
"And the council?" Ashley questioned.
Kester gazed at her gravely. "We need to go inside, meet in C-sec HQ. There's much to discuss, Shepard."
...
Citadel Security Headquarters
The group encountered panicked citizens yelling at two C-sec humans while more guards posted help centers to gather the living, injured, and dead.
Some C-sec cops finished gearing up as they waited for their commander to rally them. Spacesuits for a walk outside, collecting bodies and loose debris.
Kester led them further upstairs to another lift and into a fourth story within the expansive HQ. Once they stopped, the team had only a few steps before entering a large meeting room. In the corner, lounging on a couch while nursing a wound to the head, was the asari councilor.
She shot daggers at them but did not speak a word. Some of her personal attendees helped her to relax.
The middle of the room contained a round table with eight chairs, plant basins in corners filled with ferns, and smaller budded flora. Blue tinted windows shaped in tight rectangles shielded them from prying eyes.
A typical office that sets the mood for them. "Cheerful.", quipped Ashley.
Kester stood in front of the table, letting out a long-frustrated sigh. He eyed everyone standing on the opposite side, including Shepard. Hands gripped the chair he would not sit in. Knuckles lightened on deeply tanned skin.
He was angry and helpless at the same time. Shepard knew it well. More than she ever wanted to.
"We're ready for the debrief, sir." She spoke. "What has happened to the tower?"
Kester lowered his head, "We were taken by surprise. An attack completed by elite squads of soldiers I've never seen before." Now roughly pulling out the chair to sit. One by one, the others did as well.
He continued. "They led an assault into the tower. Somehow planted explosives in the base. Destroyed the council. Or nearly the whole council."
Ashley leaned forward, eagerly worried. "Is Tevos the only one alive?"
He nodded, no. "Khalee is in ICU. She was-" he looked too stunned to continue, now staring straight at Shepard. "Councilor Khalee was thrown out of the tower base third story window. She was on her way down to greet some personnel. That's when they arrived and started shooting."
Shepard tapped her finger on the glass table surface as a chill danced up her spine. "Kester-do you have any footage that we can see?"
Her mind filled in the pieces all too perfectly.
With a nod to a C-sec guard, the holo footage of the attack from the lower floors showed figures in dark armor over the table. Some used heavy rifles that blew apart limbs, putting large holes in innocent bodies as they tore their way through the slaughter.
The biggest question is how the hell did they get here in the first place.
...
Huerta Memorial
Presidium
While Kester busied with a plan for an offense, Shepard oversaw Archer's removal to a quarantined cell. There was nothing out of the ordinary about him or whether he knew about this attack. Will he be just as surprised when Kester interrogates him?
She acquired the leave to see her family immediately. Then, dashing from the lift to speed walk straight to the information kiosk. A receptionist gave out the numbers of both rooms.
One for Garrus, who had improved and was moved to a recovery room, and the second was Satima's. Falling unconscious from an unknown biotic strain on her body.
Something that had been surfacing for quite some time.
Shepard found Garrus resting soundly inside the recovery room as the steady beeps of his health monitor assured her that he was doing well. Leaning over the bed, she planted a soft kiss on his plated forehead, whispering to him her love and support.
He didn't move or make a sound. Shepard held his taloned hand tightly, watching over him for the small amount of time she had to spare. It pained her that she couldn't stay longer, but Satima's reaper abilities and the attack on the tower needed her undivided attention.
...
Burn Ward-Level Five
Shepard hadn't acknowledged Satima since the attack on her family and what happened with the Alliance. As well as the torture her daughter and husband both endured.
In her mind, she knew logically that it wasn't Satima's fault, but her heart ached from the facts. Shepard's hybrid daughter is dangerous when provoked. She has unpredictable abilities. Chaotic at best.
Charlotte came to terms that she was a villain from the perspective of the Alliance. Even though all she wanted was to protect her child, it resulted in violence and death.
Outside the long hall, the captain wandered past victims of the newest assault on the citadel. Injured by thermal or chemical burns, citizens formed lines, now standing in place, or sitting on chairs, depending on the severity of their wounds.
Nurses and doctors tended to as many as possible. Putting the worst afflicted in recovery here. Shepard overheard one of the medical groups complaining about a shortage of room capacity.
Ahead of the lines, Shepard finally found the entrance to her daughter's room. Alliance guards stood sentry; both stared straight through her as if she were glass.
Satima sat up from her bed upon seeing the captain. Her hands were wrapped in temporary gel casts. Shepard stood her distance, both physically and emotionally.
" I heard what happened. They're safe and sound in the lobby. I didn't have time to see Nat yet." Shepard spoke.
Satima nodded sadly. "I don't know how it came, but it just happened. I wanted to protect our family. " She blinked her turian eyes hard, staring away to the window of the presidium damage below. " I felt it." Satima returned her gaze toward Shepard. " Whatever it is, it's heavy and cold."
The captain knew what she was speaking of. Indoctrination is not something anyone can walk away from. Slowly, Shepard stepped closer to her reaper child, curious and disturbed. " How are your hands?"
The hybrid glanced down quickly at them, raising the casted hands to view. " It hurts, but it's not too bad. I've had worse. I guess I need to expand the biotic field more. To protect me when I'm shielding."
Shielding? Biotic field? Shepard is adept but not totally dependent on it. She instead uses fists and bullets to end a foe. However, Satima is something different. An unknown spectrum of abilities directly gifted by the reapers. " Maybe you could use a tutor?"
Satima's eyes lit up. " You're going to teach me?" Her tone was excited.
Shepard shook her head. " Not me." Taking one more step closer, the captain settled emerald eyes on her child. " You need someone powerful. Someone who was born into it."
"Who?" The hybrid asked.
" Let me handle that. I need to speak with the remaining member of the council and Kester. We have Archer here. And-" She stopped before revealing his cryptic reveal in the Rim. "And we have a lot to discuss."
Satima agreed. " I'll see you soon?"
Shepard began leaving, stopping in front of the sliding door to reply. "Yeah." She left quickly.
...
Citadel Security Headquarters
Quarantine Chamber
Archer observed from the clear plated door of his cell as a compliment of alliance guards, and C-sec stood to watch. Shepard waited to speak with the Chief of Command and Asari Councilor.
More of the Normandy crew appeared. Attempting to plan by creating false hope. So assured of stopping the invisible foe that threatened the citadel and thus the entire galaxy.
An old one. Archer contemplated.
There's more to what happened here. A deeper plot the boy is playing. Destroying the epicenter of all this galaxy's trusted advisors and law. Putting an abyss of dismal outcomes to fracture a defense.
Clever. Too intelligent for him alone. He's just a tool, a puppet for the absolute master, and one that has been hiding in the shadows of the void for a long time.
They'll need more than their own foolish notions of superiority and might to fight this battle. They'll need her.
Archer's thoughts were redirected by Kester's disagreement with Tevos over her arguments. "We cannot force the entire citadel to evacuate. That would take weeks, months even! And where would they go? Two years does not make enough time to rebuild the damage the reapers have done."
The Asari Councilor scoffed, folding arms to glare at him. " How are we to protect the people of this station from an unknown enemy? The tower is gone! My colleagues are either dead or near the door. We need to make an active decision now!"
Ashley spoke between them. " We have the reaper droid. He knows what's going on. Shepard could interrogate him." She raised a threatening brow. "I'll help."
The Captain wanted this to end. Looking forward to retirement from all this chaos and her own foolish choices. " If Kester commands it." She eyed him.
Darwin Kester returned the gaze, reading her already apprehensive stance. " I know you'll find the answers as you've always done, Shepard."
Reluctantly, she nodded. Glancing at the droid before making her way to the door frame.
Archer waited patiently as she stepped inside his cell. No chair, no restraints. Only the two of them face to face. "Charlotte Shepard. The woman before the Reaper." He mused. " Are you finally going to listen to me?"
" It depends on what you have to say." She replied.
...
Burn Ward
Huerta Hospital
Liara snuck away from the party gathering at the headquarters with Archer's words in her mind. Javik's warning became an echo of doubt in her heart. She betrayed Shepard for it. Now she owes the woman repentance.
Satima is the key to the droid's message about Shepard. Archer's voice trailed its eerie sound of caution amid her thoughts. "It was his game all along. He and his master. The last of her kind. Or perhaps, so she thinks."
The last of her kind? A dangerous force heading for them or most likely already here. Was he speaking of a single person or an army?
Regarding the hybrid's history with the reaper droid, Liara wondered whether the young woman would even listen to her questions. Or care? Considering what had been done to her, the imprisonment and torture inflicted on them for security.
Outside the door, Liara took a deep breath and entered. She was met with surprise.
"Why are you here?" Satima asked.
The old broker stepped lightly, walking around the bed to the window. Her deep blue eyes took in the new scenery of destruction. "Would it be possible to ask for your forgiveness?" A dry laugh escaped between words. "Or maybe what Archer is doing here?"
The hybrid raised her brow quizzically. "Forgiveness is not mine to give. As for him?" She looked away from the beautiful woman. "He's always had his own agenda." Satima didn't understand why Liara came to her. "What's going on? Shepard said Archer was locked up."
Liara crossed her arms and nodded. "He is."
...
Citadel Security
Archer stared at Shepard. Bright droid eyes settled on her, which drove a chill up the woman's spine.
He could sense it. The Captain was clearly uncomfortable.
"I see you have no desire to stay in this cell any longer than I do. Especially with me." Archer delivered a wry chuckle. " But before you bombard me with clueless questions; how is Satima? Has she recovered from the assault by your Alliance?"
Shepard's discomfort grew into bitter anger. Closing her left fist tightly only to release it with a threatening glare. "You drilled a hole in her head."
Archer began pacing in the cell. "I did." He stopped to stare away at the crowd of Normandy crew members and Kester's own team. The asari counselor averted his gaze by pretending to be preoccupied with her omni-tool.
"I had to know how the signal was attached to the hybrid. What it meant." He gazed down to the floor, far off in memory for more than a minute. " I realized too late, my hubris."
Shepard didn't understand stepping closer to him. "What are you saying?"
The droid turned himself to face her. "I used the relay. I led them here."
"Who? That Toren you spoke of on the Quarian mining planet?" Captain Shepard couldn't stand word games. "We need to know what in the hell is going on in this galaxy! Why the attack on the tower? Who are those soldiers in black armor?"
Archer grinned at her before settling a piercing stare. " Don't you remember what Satima looked like?"
...
Burn Ward
Satima didn't understand. "Well, if he's locked away, then why are you here?"
Liara decided to bridge the gap between them. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she looked at the hybrid. Her features included the jawline she shared with her mother and the same gaze that her father wielded.
"Archer told me Shepard won't listen because of vengeance in her heart. Charlotte will never forgive me for what I helped the Alliance do." Reaching out to grasp Satima's mended left hand gently, Liara gave a saddened smile. " You need to speak to him. Together I know both of you will solve what's happening in this galaxy."
Looking away, letting the hybrid's hand go, she sighed. "I'm an information broker of this timeline." Liara resumed a concerned stare towards Satima. "But not yours. All the intel in the universe you give cannot replace the first-hand knowledge you and that droid share. You are our last tether to that dark time of your life. And we need you to conjure every painful moment of it, to defeat what is to come."
Retreating from the side of the bed Liara sat on, Satima fought tears dripping from her eyes. Then, closing them briefly to this unbelievable moment thrust against her.
Satima stared at the broker. Liara may be sitting there, but it was Archer speaking through her. The awful truth is how right every word is. "Take me to him. We can't waste time." Wiping her eyes quickly with exposed arms.
Liara sat up, handing Satima her crutches. "Are you sure you can do this?"
The hybrid took off her medi-casts for the burned hands she sustained protecting her family. She stood, taking them with a pained grip. "No. But do I have a choice?"
The irony fell flat as the broker imagined a good laugh.
...
Citadel Security
Standing in silence on the lift ride down to headquarters, Satima thought about how unnerving it will be to see Archer again. Now with Shepard and others in the same room. All of them were ready to see what the hybrid and the droid abomination the reapers created could remember of their own dark galaxy.
She never really understood his madness in the Argos facility. Or why he needed her old sentarian implant. Whatever it was, it now has begun to infect this time.
The nightmares stayed with her since Argos. An obscure figure in crimson fields filled her dreams with whispers and shadows. Deafening sounds of far-off reapers and the screams of thousands of souls, all lost. All dead.
Is this what Shepard sees in her dreaming torment?
The lift had stopped. Slowly she and Liara stepped out past wary guards. Hateful stares followed them past the lobby and into another stairwell leading down to a hallway. It took minutes more before reaching the cells.
Inside, a security guard led them to a quarantined level. High-powered magnetized doors opened with suction and closed with authority. No one is getting in or out so quickly.
Satima found a squad of Alliance outside the last door. They stood to attention, watching her go through with Liara in tow. The scene became different then. Shepard standing in front of Archer, arguing loudly.
"Why are they here?!" The Captain shouted.
Archer stared. "Because they followed me back. I didn't understand what the signal meant until it was too late. But, Shepard, I would never have compromised this galaxy after knowing my brother lives. Not to let them once again take him away from me."
The droid's demeanor changed; a disturbing attitude caught Satima's attention. It was so unlike him. And his brother? A subject he wouldn't tell her on Adas.
"They hit the Rekonda system. The sentarians were..." He paused in memory. Reflecting on his words. Archer looked straight away at the new occupants outside the cell. " Head Archon was not prepared. When I began my escape from Lithera, what time they had to rebuild was crushed."
Satima immediately drew close to the glass interface of the large cell. Fuming in anger and worry. "What happened to High Commander Mem-Zurah and her sister Akasia?"
Archer walked past a surprised Shepard, who had already settled a nasty glare on Liara. He stood directly in front of the hybrid with only the glass pane between them. "High Commander Mem-Zurah led the assault against the Directive. It was not going well the last few minutes before I used a rift gate. But, by then, I had already failed this galaxy. Toren had gotten the information he wanted from me. I barely escaped with my life."
Confused, the hybrid stared off in thought. "The Directive? Toren? How?"
Regretful, Archer blinked away his own remorse. " I followed the signal. Unaware it was my master's call."
The hybrid's turian gaze widened in horror. She knows who this master is. A grey and red mist of power and control that had spread across her home galaxy like a plague. "The reapers were your masters."
He catches the frightened gaze Satima scans him with. Then, backing away from the pane in despair, the hybrid shakes her head defiantly.
"It is no use succumbing to this defeat, Satima!" Archer shouts.
She doesn't listen at first, with everyone too terrified of this reality to ask or reply. Satima considers his words. "What can I do?" She asks meekly. "Reaper is gone. The sentarians are likely slaughtered. We're not ready for another war!"
Shepard steps beside Archer, nearly paralyzed with anxiety but determined in her heart. This was a different kind of battle, and one she is reluctantly ready to help Satima face. " We're nowhere close to being prepared, but we're not unfamiliar with it. We will face your Directive and stop them."
Kester began speaking. " With Archer and Satima, we'll have all the knowledge needed to form an offense. And hopefully, end this forsaken war permanently."
Everyone nodded, secured in their own strengths to help stop this new menace except for Satima and Shepard. The Captain stood off to the side as Satima entered the cell to approach Archer.
Studying him with curious eyes, the hybrid asked a new burning question. "Who is Toren?"
The droid gave her a grim smile, resuming to pace away as he spoke. "A survivor of the hive station." He answered.
Not satisfied, Satima followed him with her crutches, trying to keep pace as best as possible. "I've met a survivor of that station before. She tried to destroy Lithera and almost killed me. There were not any others from the paradoxical rifts. How could the sentarians miss this Toren?"
Shepard's interest became piqued. "You said he nearly killed you back in the warehouse, at the mining facility. "
"He?" Satima asked.
Archer faced the opposite side of the cell wall, staring away as he announced the truth.
Kester stopped the crew from following the guards and a few Alliance men out. Liara waited with Ashley. The droid continued, turning to face Satima. "Another hive cell had created a clone. Your clone, hybrid. It proved a challenge. Acted without restraint and total control. After the cell was destroyed. I locked it away in a containment pod for years."
Satima felt a chill and shook with anger and fear. She remembered something from all those years ago. A plea. Those eyes, her eyes.
Archer stared at her as she looked past him to the glass wall, seeing the figure in dark crimson haunting her every waking thought. "It was him you left behind on hive when you decided that place had to be obliterated."
The hybrid caught his stare. "And now he's here for retribution."
