"I don't know why you're even entertaining the idea of fighting me. A Spectre. I mean, really? I didn't get this position by tap dancing."

The woman glared at me, hand going to the holster at her hip. "I don't give a shit. I'm going to enjoy taking you out. You've been an annoying thorn in my side for far too long. It's time someone took you out."

"Oh, yawn. Are you done with the bravado?" I drew my pistol and shot one of the people behind her.

My team open-fired.

It was only a matter of minutes before I was copying Lorik's data onto his OSD.

"And... we have what we came for."

Everyone moved toward the door, a flash of a vision making me call out for them to wait.

I walked the rest of the way alone, greeting them with a friendly smile. "Fancy meeting you here."

Kaira crossed her arms. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Is anyone really supposed to be anywhere?" She was unamused. I held up my hands. "I can come and go as I please now, remember?"

"Anoleis would throw you off-world for what you did here. You know what we did to cop killers on my world?"

"No, but on mine, we gave them the tar and feather treatment."

Her eyes narrowed. "Very. Funny."

I mean, I wasn't lying.

I rolled my eyes, holding a hand out toward her and gestured for her to come at me. "Bring it on, Sergeant."

That fight didn't last long, either. Especially once my team joined the fray.

"You make enemies of security guards often?" Ashley joked.

I laughed. "Only Anoleis' guards. Most other places, I'm diplomatic and respectable."

We walked out together, running into Gianna.

"There have been reports of noise from the Synthetic Insights office. Would you know anything about it?"

"Why don't we go to the hotel bar and talk about it?" I offered, a secretive smile.

"That sounds like a good idea."

We made our way there together, the others keeping a safe distance. Dispersing and taking up various positions around the room, once we'd gotten there.

After picking a table for ourselves, she gave me a less uptight smile. "Allow me to reintroduce myself. Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs."

"About time. How long have you been investigating him?" I reached into a pocket, linking a blank OSD to my omni-tool.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. "Six months." A pause, holding herself higher. "I want to convince Qui'in to testify before the Board. With his evidence, this planet can run profitably again."

"I need his pass."

"I can give you one."

I leaned back in my chair, my expression unreadable.

"Look, Shepard." She leaned forward, arm on the table. "I don't like this either. You Spectres play fast and loose with the law. That's bad for business."

A ping, and I held out the OSD. "Here's the information I've loosely been collecting over the years, since I'd first stepped foot on Noveria. You'll find everything you need, and more."

"You-" She blinked, at a loss as she took it. "Thank you. I honestly wasn't expecting this."

I shrugged. "I like to help. I don't normally make a habit of treating politicians with anything less than respect. I have my reasons for why I treat Anoleis the way I do." I stood, earning the attention of my people. "I've got to go give Lorik his OSD. It'll be up to him, if he testifies or not. I won't push him, especially with the information I've just given you."

"I understand." She fished a card from her pocket. "The pass, as promised."

After accepting it, I went over and handed Lorik his disk. With me already having a pass, he settled on paying me.

I fanned myself with the pass, grinning, as my team converged on me. "Now we can get to Peak 15. Everyone ready?"

Various nods met my words.

...

"It's like they didn't want us getting-" I stopped, eyes widening.

A noise, I distantly registered it, in the ceiling. The floor.

Rachni burst from the vents above and below us. I stood frozen, my team dealing with them.

Liara was in my face when I snapped out of it, waving a hand. "Viridian? Are you alright?"

"Shepard?" Wrex was frowning at me.

"Sorry." I blinked rapidly. "Yeah... Sorry. You, uh, don't happen to hear that, do you?"

"Hear... what?" Kaidan asked, concerned.

"The singing."

"The... singing?"

They couldn't hear the beautiful, lamenting singing?

Glances were exchanged. Worried glances.

"Ah, no matter." I pushed it aside, giving myself a shake. "Let's push on."

Only, the farther we went into the facility, the louder it grew. Not much, barely noticeable, but it was getting louder, nonetheless.

After fixing the VI core and the power situation, the main reactor. After all of it, the trams system was finally back online. And I was more than eager to reach the other side, a fact that was causing even more concern among the others. Whispers reaching my ear, questioning what was wrong with me.

If only I knew the answer to that, myself. I wish I knew where this music was coming from, and why only I could hear it.

"We weren't sure what was on the tram." The man, the leader, said, giving me an apologetic look.

I blinked. "Rachni can operate trams?"

"Hell if I know. I'm not assuming any-goddamn-thing."

"That's fair."

"Look. You're human, and that's enough that I won't shoot. But I'd like to know who you are."

"Oh, right. I'm Viridian Shepard, a Spectre."

He looked me up and down. I thought, at first, it was a judgement.

"Huh. I won't look a heavily-armed horse in the mouth." Not a judgement. "They overran the hot labs last week. Only Han Olar got out, and he ain't all there anymore. The first we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post. We had a lot more staff then."

I shook my head, thinking.

"The board sent an asari to clean up the mess. She went to the hot labs yesterday. Haven't heard from her since."

Benezia.

Did Saren want the rachni for something? They were able to fight, based on the information from the Rachni Wars. Was that it? Or was there something more, that I didn't know?

"There's an emergency elevator out by the trams. This card," He held it out to me. "will let you activate it. It can take you down to the hot labs."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Just as I was about to walk past him, I heard a rustle underneath me.

"More!"

My team jumped into action, taking them out as they crawled from the vents. In a matter of seconds, it was over.

I liked my team.

"Thanks for the help. Every few hours, a group comes up the tram tunnel. It's actually better since we locked down the elevator."

"I can leave some of my people here, while the rest of us go and clear everything out on our way to Benezia." I glanced at them. "Any volunteers?"

Ashley stepped up, as did Wrex and Tali.

I wasn't surprised with Wrex. There was no promise of how many we'd encounter. Here, he knew they showed up every so often and that, as we swept through the hot labs, more and more would come this way, to escape us. And run right into these guys.

Tali, I was a little surprised with. Then again, she could just set up turrets and have them ready to go for when the rachni appeared.

Ashley, well. That wasn't a surprise. She was always the first to volunteer for anything.

Which left me with Garrus, Kaidan, and Liara.

"Alright, you guys stay here and kill some beasties." I motioned ahead. "We'll be back. Eventually."

We split up once inside the next room. The others questioned people up top, while I went down to the makeshift medical ward.

"I- I have a non-disclosure agreement." The doctor was saying. "I shouldn't discuss it with anyone outside of the company."

I reached out and touched his arm. "These people will die, if you don't. What is this poison?" And was it something I might have a cure for?

His shoulders relaxed a bit. "It's a bio-weapon. Based on an exotic life-form discovered on the frontier. They wanted something that could kill the creature. But..." A sigh. "there was no profit in something that kills one species on the frontier. We kept working on it. Adapted it to affect more species. Thoros-B is highly infection, but can't pass from one person to another. Like a biowar attack without a pandemic spread."

"Is there an antidote I can get?"

"Our first priority was getting it working." Frustration. "Our notes and equipment are locked in the quarantine labs. Captain Ventralis doesn't want to risk more contamination."

"Give me access, and I can get you a working antidote."

"If you can save these men, I'll do it."

I tapped into our comms link. "Ashley, tell the captain we need access to the quarantine labs."

There was silence. Then, "He wasn't happy about it, but he said he would radio ahead and let the guard know. He said that if you don't pass a scan, you won't be allowed back out, though."

"Ah, it's fine. We'll be fine. Thanks, Ash."

We took the elevator down to the next level, where we'd be able to get access to maintenance.

Everyone fanned out, talking to the people down here, and I walked past a man, a volus, who stopped me.

"You came to find out about them, didn't you?"

I paused, intrigued. "Yeah."

"I'm the only survivor from the hot lab, you know."

This was Olar, it seemed.

"How did the rachni get here?"

"They found it in a derelict ship. An egg." I blinked. "Waiting since the last battles. They brought it here-"

One of the scientists talking with Liara turned toward us and shouted. "Shut up! God. You want us to get killed?"

Sagely. "I don't have any control over who lives or dies here. Do you?"

I bit my lips together to hold in a snort.

The other one chimed in. "If you're going to be crazy, be the quiet kind."

"Crazy? I'm sane." He slowly turned back to me, staring up into my eyes. "God, am I sane."

There was silence for a few moments.

"How did you make it out?" I asked gently.

"I killed her."

I blinked, eyebrows shooting up. "Who?"

"Doctor Zhonmua. We were going to lunch, when the alarms went off. I ran into the tram. And I closed the doors. She banged on the window once. Then they sliced her to pieces. Her head came apart like a melon."

What a pretty picture.

"I closed the door. I killed her."

The others converged on us.

"I mean, if you hadn't, you'd be dead, too. So there's that."

"Of course. That is perfectly true." And he refused to say anything more.

Okay, then.

My team filled me in. Mostly that people wouldn't talk about whatever had happened down there.

I went up to the guard for maintenance. "'Yello."

"You're not part of the crew." His eyes scanned our merry little band.

"I have Ventralis' permission to go in there. He said he'd radio ahead."

"Yeah. He also said you'd have to prove you're not contaminated to get out."

"Thanks!" I smiled brightly as I walked past him.

Once inside, I hacked around a bit, of course. The others studied the equipment.

"How are we going to do this? I don't think any of us studied chem."

"It's alright. Give me a moment."

I scanned the possible outcomes, finding the right combination.

Once it was done, I gestured toward it like I was showcasing for a tv show. "Tada... All done. Now, let's get this back to the good doctor."

"That really comes in handy." Kaidan commented.

"You don't even know. The amount of times it's saved someone's life..." I did the chef's kiss motion. "Perfection. Also," I raised my voice. "you can come out now."

The asari I'd seen earlier walked in. "Your mission ends here, Shepard."

"I knew something was wrong when I spoke to her." Liara frowned, apologetic. "I'm sorry I did not pursue the feeling."

"Where's the guard?" Kaidan looked beyond them, eyes narrowed. "He wouldn't have just let you by."

"He got in my way." Her expression was blank. "I was ordered to eliminate you, should the opportunity arise. And here you are, trapped in this lab."

"Ah, some fun."

Geth poured into the small room as the four of us dove into cover.

"Wrex is gonna be pissed he missed all this action." I laughed as the last robot fell, leaving just the asari.

I darted behind her and snapped her neck. She'd been kind of a pain, with her biotics. Barriers to block incoming bullets. Couldn't block me, though, since it was only in front of her. Easy enough to kill her, after that.

We walked back through the door, Olar waving us down.

"They came out of there." He pointed to one of the doors. "Benezia brought them with her."

That answered that.

"Thanks for the information, Olar. You're a big help."

We made it to the doctor without further incident.

"An antidote, and the notes on how exactly to do it." I held out the three vials I'd made with a flourish.

"Take my pass."

We exchanged items, with him immediately getting to work.

"Thanks, doc." I opened my omni-tool. "I was wondering, would you like to keep in touch?"

He paused, slowly looking back at me. Considering. "Yes. I think I would."

Information was traded, and my little group was on its way.

"You make friends everywhere you go." Liara shook her head, bemused.

"I try. You never know when someone will be useful." I raised my arm high. "Let's goo! Onward!"

Chuckles from the peanut gallery behind me, but they followed without a word.

And... then we came upon a man, just sitting in the middle of a room.

He looked up at our entry. "Are you here to secure the situation?"

"I- How you doing there, champ?"

He blinked at me, unsure how to respond to that, I'm sure. After a moment, "You must listen to me. if we do not contain our mistake, they will drop bombs from the battlestations. You understand?"

Well, fuck. That put a time limit I wasn't prepared for.

"Listen to me." As if I wasn't? "Binary Helix found an egg." Already knew that, but go on. "It was on a derelict ship, thousands of years drifting."

The song reached a crescendo, making it hard to hear him.

"This was rachni ship. Inside, they find many eggs in cryogenic suspension. Binary Helix plan to clone rachni. Mass-produce them. Create an army."

"Yeah, because they were so willing to cooperate with all the species way back." Kaidan muttered.

I only heard it because the song grew softer again.

"But when they get here," The man continued, pretending Alenko hadn't spoken. "they find this egg is not a common rachni. It is-"

I gasped. "A queen!"

It explained so much.

"After she lays eggs, they move her to Rift Station. They are thinking that without her, they can raise the babies to be obedient."

"These rachni clearly aren't obedient." Kaidan crossed his arms.

"I am thinking that without a queen, rachni do not develop properly. Her mind is shaping theirs. These rachni are uncontrollable."

Was the song her way of communicating with them? Was that why it sounded so sad? Because her babies were outside of her reach?

"These rachni are beyond saving. It is a sad thing, but they must be euthanized. I am thinking that the neutron purge must be set off."

Skittering from below us. I narrowed my eyes, holding up a hand for quiet. Several rachni popped out from the vents, one in particular rushing toward the man. Running him through with a pincer. He was dead before anyone could react.

The rachni didn't last much longer than him.

I went over and pawed through his pockets, earning frowns from Liara and Kaidan.

"You're not really stealing from his body, are you?" He asked.

"No, I'm looking for a code. He's gotta have it somewhere on him." I found a piece of paper. "Ah, ha! Found it."

I made a shooing motion.

"You all go out and get to the higher level. I'll deal with this."

Various protests.

"That's an order, not a request." I rolled my eyes, shooing again. "We don't have long. If someone doesn't blow this place up, the entire facility is going to go up in flames when they drop those bombs. C'mon. Listen to me."

Once they'd finally given in and left, I turned toward the VI station. Mira came to life as I approached.

"Activate the neutron purge." I read the code off the paper, already poised to run.

"Code Omega execution in one hundred and twenty seconds." She disappeared.

With that, I bolted toward the elevator door. Of course, there was opposition, rachni literally pouring out of every vent. Above and below.

A sudden urge came over me, and I tried to mimic the song I was hearing. I'd gotten it close enough, apparently, because they all froze where they were. Unable to move with the song right there.

Keeping it up, I made my way into the elevator. As the doors shut, they seemed to shake themselves out of it. I was still in the small space, when the entire place shook from the force of the explosion going off.

The doors opened, and I stepped off, a little shaky from just how much the elevator had been moving. Like it was a near-empty ketchup bottle, and someone really wanted to have some for their fries.

"That was too close." Liara steadied me with a hand on my arm, looking me over.

I waved her off. "Ah, I'm fine. They're all dead, though. The ones down there, anyway. And boy, was there a lot."

A flash. I looked deeper into it.

"Ah, hell."

"What?"

"Ventralis got orders from Benezia. When we get there, he's gonna fight us." I rolled my eyes. "Because that's what we need right now."

"Is everyone else alright?"

"Yeah. He turned on them, but they all managed to get away. Also, I think he jammed our radios." I sighed. "Or we would've gotten word from them about what happened."

"Sorry about this, Shepard."

"Yeah, yeah. Spare me." I pulled out my pistol. "Just... come on."

After they'd all been dealt with, the multiple waves of them on the way to the hot labs elevator, we found the other half of us.

"You guys okay?" I looked them all over.

"Yeah, we're okay, Shepard." Ashley spoke for them all.

My eyes went to Wrex. "You missed so much. Geth. A small army of rachni."

"Yeah, well, if it wasn't for me paying attention to the captain and his men, these two would've been caught off-guard."

"He's not wrong." Tali sighed. "We were too focused on the rachni."

"That's fair." I shrugged. "At least you're all okay. And since you are..." I hopped onto the elevator. "Let's goo!"