MASS EFFECT CHASM: CHAPTER 26

"Reaper!" Cortez's high alert hit Zalena just as she started to regain full consciousness aboard the Kodiak. The dampeners helped the craft bank a hard right to avoid a collision with the deadly machine. All hell was breaking loose!

Suddenly the same familiar sound of the pulse could be heard outside the shuttle's exterior. All the crew braced for another hit that would knock them from the sky. Opening his right eye while wincing the left one shut, Steve bravely looked at the outside visual scan to see that the approaching Reaper just went offline. It grew stiffer and plummeted down into the ocean waves below. The sheer weight of it made it sink fast beneath the surface to its watery grave. The pilot couldn't withhold the immense satisfaction of seeing it being taken down. "Whoo-hoo! Now we're talking!"

Kaidan and Liara looked towards Steve, confused by what was going on since they were no side windows from where they were to allow them to see outside. After a few taps on his holo control keypad to set auto course with the Normandy, Steve leaned around with a big smile on his face. "I'm so glad that Leviathan is now on our side." He gave a thumbs up over to Zalena. "You did it, Commander!"

"By the Goddess," Liara gasped. "Did it to take down the Reaper?"

"Oh yeah, it did!" Steve was still giddy by what he just witnessed. "When you talked about Leviathan and the Reaper corpse in Dis, I thought it had to be crazy. Now, I know this guy means business. I'm so glad he's on our side."

Kaidan detected that Zalena didn't look so cheerful. She sat in her seat with a bothered look on her face. "You feeling okay, Shepard?"

"Yeah, now I am." Zalena shivered. Her body still felt cold, but not nearly as it was when she first escaped Leviathan's hold on her. Her body temperature was increasing to its previous regulated state.

"What happened down there, Shepard? Did you talk to Leviathan?" Liara moved over to sit next to her.

"Is he going to help us out or keep hiding?" Kaidan added.

"I did talk to him…in my mind, which was weird." Zalena thought back to her conversation with the ancient being. "There's more than one down there….in fact, there's more in hiding across the galaxy that we don't even know about."

"Well, are they just going to hide?" Alenko pressed again.

"Leviathan agreed to join us on our fight. I was able to talk sense into him."

Liara breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Then we now have more of a chance."

"At least now this guy will stop hunting you down and release its hold on those on the Citadel," Kaidan thought back to how they came about this mysterious creature to begin in. "We are not the enemy. I mean the Reapers fear it."

"And it fears them," Zalena finally met his eyes with her own then they fell to the floor. "I just hope I made the right decision."

"You have so far," T'Soni gently assured her with a soft smile. "You have the entire galaxy behind you. You have accomplished so much."

Kaidan could tell that something was eating at Zalena. She was always confident in what she decided. This time, she was somewhat withdrawn. "Shepard? What's going on?"

Chewing her lip, Zalena looked at them both as she continued to reflect upon her dialog in the depths below. "Leviathan's race is much older than I thought. They refer to themselves as the Apex race. Every race besides their own are lesser and they see them only as servants to meet their needs."

"Sounds like the Protheans," Alenko mumbled.

Liara watched on with anxious eyes, then her expression turned to rage. "We are just as equal as they are!"

"I agree, but they didn't see it that way and…I don't think time has altered their thinking," Zalena's words trailed off as her thoughts disturbed her. If they did destroy the Reapers, what then? What would Leviathan's intentions be? The salarians and turians were already hesitant on getting the krogan the genophage cure due to prior history after the Rachni Wars. That mistrust did falter some since Wrex was in charge and was counseled heavily by Bakara. That didn't mean things could change after the fact. She trusted Wrex, but what if someone else took his place?

"They just expect that we will go back into their view of the order of things?" Kaidan was aghast by this. "We are trading one devil for another."

"Yes, but this is a devil that we know," Zalena countered optimistically.

"Do we?"

Liara glanced over at Kaidan with a furrowed brow. "I'm with Kaidan on this."

"Leviathan seemed interested in me. Very interested. He kept referring to me as an anomaly and said that he knows Harbinger fears me. I took down Sovereign and the Collectors. Harbinger knows I'm coming for him."

"If they are hiding from the Reapers and know that we are trying to stop them, then why attack you?" Kaidan still was not satisfied by what Zalena uncovered so far. The more he heard, the more afraid he became. Were they so despairing to turn to an entity that had plans for the galaxy after the fact?

"His race enthralled all the lesser races to do their bidding. However, those races created synthetics to help them. Just like quarians and the geth, the synthetics rebelled against their creators and many of the enthralled races were wiped out. In the end, the Leviathan created intelligence to preserve life at all costs."

"And it backfired," Alenko scoffed. "History loves to repeat itself."

"That it does," Zalena continued. "The intelligence saw the Leviathan as a threat and used their form to create the first Reaper."

"Harbinger…" Liara shook her head. "Do the Leviathan look exactly like the Reapers?" Zalena nodded her head. "Goddess…it would be hard to just have a cordial conversation with one like that."

"It was massive," Zalena thought back to the brief glimpse she got of the being before it entered her mind. Then all her dialogue was with various people that were under its control versus Leviathan itself. It explained that her memories gave voice to its words. This method reminded her of how the rachni queen conversed with her on Noveria at Peak 15. Maybe, this race had more in common with the rachni than Bryson knew.

Leviathan's end exchange haunted her mind, "We will fight, but not for you or any lesser race. We were first, the Apex race. We will survive, and the Reapers, who trespass on this world, will understand our power. They will become our slaves. Today, they pay their tribute in blood."

"Déjà vu….," Zalena muttered.

"Huh?" Liara blinked at the woman's comment.

"Human saying," Zalena looked up at her friend from where she sat. "Around 1 CE, the salarians had a rough time with the rachni. They turn to the krogan for aid against a formidable foe and uplifted them. Depends on who you ask, the krogan turned on them. The turians and salarians teamed up."

"And thus, the genophage," Liara grimly finished for her.

Frustrated, Kaidan held onto the rail bar that went across the ceiling of the shuttle for support. His body swayed back and forth as the shuttle crested from the planet's atmosphere. "You think Leviathan will come at us once this is over…you know to enslave us all?"

Zalena held her head. The pounding headache that she experienced post consciousness intensified into a migraine. "Ugh, I hope not."

Liara frowned as she watched on. "Another one, Shepard?"

"I don't know. I think it's the side effect from being under Leviathan's control back there." She rubbed her temples to try to ease the tension. "Maybe, it was him all along."

"I thought you had to be near an artifact to be enthralled," Alenko looked on with worry.

Zalena shrugged. "Me too. This war is draining."

"Now, we just need to light up Cerberus," Kaidan smiled down at her.

"Yes, for Thane."