John, Ritual Arena, Tuchanka

"Allright, this is where we split," John said as he shook out his right arm. One of the Gatatog warriors had gotten ahold of him and dislocated it. But Grunt helped him pop it back where it was supposed to go, so it was all good now.

"What?" Garrus asked with a flat deadpan. Glancing around, it was pretty clear that the rest of his crew held similar reactions, with the exceptions that knew what the plan actually was.

"Most of you are heading back now," John continued. "I'm taking a small group to Weyrloc territory. We are going to do a quick infiltration mission, rescue a hostage, and be out before they know we were there."

"John…" Tali frowned darkly. "You can't go alone. Your clandestine stealth missions almost never work."

"In the past yes," John admitted with a small nod. "But this time I actually have some profesional infiltrators. It's not like I'm asking Jack or Grunt to tiptoe around enemies."

There was a heavy pause as Tali glared daggers at him before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Slowly, she let it out and opened her eyes again. "You have to come back to me."

A slow grin crept over John's face as he nodded. "Tali , I will always come back to you."

"I'm holding you to that."

Clan Weyrloc Territory

"That's a krogan hospital?" John blinked, looking up at the massive stone building.

"Krogan are large, strong. Tend to have a habit of biting when in extreme pain," Mordin nodded. "Need strong building."

"Good point," John chuckled, before keying his comm. "Kasumi, what do you see?"

"Pair of guards by the main front door," the thief came back, softly. "They aren't very good guards. I think one might be asleep and the other is...eww...picking his nose. Did you know krogan snot is orange?"

"What about the door itself?" John asked, humor in his voice, though he did his best to not laugh.

"Big, metal and closed. Probably big enough to fit a truck through. There is not getting it open subtle, if that's what you were thinking," Kasumi reported.

"You said main front door," Thane spoke up. "I assume that mean you found another way in?"

"Ummm…" Kasumi hesitated for a moment, clearly considering. "There is a hole in one of the walls that I can wiggle through. Than and Mordin could probably get through fine as well. Samara….maybe. But no way for you, Shep."

John frowned a moment, wracking his brain for an answer, but nothing was quite coming to him.

"Old STG tunnel nearby," Mordin spoke up, cutting through John's thoughts. "Used it for infiltration in the past. Leads to the small base used to monitor the krogan after the release of the modified genophage. Was heavily damaged on our extraction, but should be able to get us into the main structure."

"Right," John nodded. "Kasumi, you and Thane go through your entrance. Do a sweep and locate exits and enemies. If you find targets of opportunity that are sure bets, take 'em."

"Roger," he could almost hear the salute in Kasumi's voice.

"I'm on my way," Thane gave John a nod before slipping out of the small crevice the team was in, promptly disappearing.

John blinked one before shaking his head. "Nope, That's not creepy at all…."

Kasumi, Weyrloc Base

Getting inside the dase was easy. In fact it was one of the easiest things she had ever done. Hell, she had snuck into shower rooms that were more difficult. Not that she made a habit of slipping into male shower rooms to watched hard, muscled bodies, flex, all soapy and wet….

"Guard in front of that small door," Thane's gravely voice popped her out of her thoughts. "It's the only door on this level with it's own guard."

Kasumi frowned and looked at the clearly bored krogan. It fidgeted, looking over its rifle, adjusting its stance, worrying its armor.

"Also on the far end of the building, nice and isolated…..Should we?" the thief glanced at the assassin.

Thane was watching the guard as it turned its rifle around and looked down the barrel for some unknown and probably stupid reason.

The assassin's eyes narrowed as his finger flickered blue. He made a small pulling motion with the finger and…The krogan's rifle went off, a short burst ripping through its eye, then through the plates on its head, dropping the large body in a lump.

"Sometimes….it is as if the gods wish for success," Thane smirked as he glanced at Kasumi.

"Seriously," she laughed quietly as she gave his body a nudge. His...hard, lean body. Hmmm….

No was not the time for that, and Kasumi knew it. She was a professional, after all.

Instead, she pushed herself into a crouch, her body shimmering as she dropped silently to the floor near the guard's body. A quick rifle through his belongings netted her one-hundred fifty credits, an old, well worn, copy of Fornax, featuring Humans, and a passkey. She left the Fornax.

"For the door," Thane spoke quietly behind her. He was good. She almost didn't hear him approach.

In silent answer, she slid the key into the locking mechanism, and hearing the satisfying click.

Thane held his heavy, silenced pistol at the ready as he cracked the door, then frowned. "I believe we have found the missing Urdnot scout."

Samara, Weyrloc base, First Floor Stairwell

"Human. Puncture marks, signs of many injections. Seeing many internal mutations. Probably control group," Mordin shook his head sadly.

"Why humans?" Shepard frowned slightly as he shared a glance with Samara. "Wouldn't something from Tuchanka make more sense?"

"Humans are so varied," Samara chuckled. "In all my years, I have never come across a race that had so many colors, sizes, shapes. Most species, by the time they reach the Council, have been a united world for so long, they have become more of less homogenous."

"Yes, human ability to mutate exceptional. Cells are very useful for creating new medicines. Things like this?" Mordin gestured to the human body. "This is too much, too fast. They are desperate for a cure. Probably pushing Maelon hard."

For a moment, Samara watched the salarian. He was unlike any other that she had met in her years. He had a level of world weariness that his people seldom achieved in their single minded pursuit of their goals.

"Well, either way, these assholes will get what's coming," Shepard frowned at the human body. It was interesting, how he reacted. In her experience, a sapient species would have expressed more anger at a member of one's species being treated this way. Shepard, however, seemed to close off, become calmer. More focused than anything else. It was impressive.

Now, however, they needed to breach a door.

Mordin moved to the inside wall as Samara moved to the outside. Shepard took place in the center, hefted his crusader once, then jerked forward, a biotic field flowing over his legs as he kicked the heavy metal door clear off it's wall mountings. It skittered into the room, sparking as his scraped across the floor and crushing a pair of armed vorcha.

"Welcome!" a loud krogan voice boomed from above them, drawing their eyes up to a small knot of krogan that stood on a walkway. The speaker leaned over the railing to leer down at the team. "Congratulation! You shall be the first to witness the rise of the New Krogan Empire! I am the Speaker for the Great Weyrloc Guld! My men shall ride the asari, while I have my way with you, human! But you shall not die! No! You shall be- ARRRGGHHHH!"

The krogan screamed and fell back as jets of gas flame erupted from a shattered pipe that ran along the underside of the walkway. Shots from the team finished off the group of burning krogan, leaving only the stench of roasted flesh.

"Didn't want to hear the full monologue?" Shepard chuckled as she gave Samara a sidelong glance.

With a small shrug, Samara glanced at the man. "I have a hard limit as to how much darkness I can listen to. He found it."

Shepard laughed and held up his hands. "No arguments from me, but if that isn't going to have alerted-"

"Shep!" Kasumi commed in, as if right on cue. "What happened? Thane and I just got that missing Urdnot scout up and out before everything went crazy!"

"Ah...nothing. Just a small weapons malfunction. Everything's fine now. How are you?" Shepard bit his lip as he seemed to be fighting down his laughter.

"Oh my god, Shep…."

Tali, Urdnot Holdings

"Do you always let your varren growl at your customers?" Tali glared at the krogan shop keeper as she gave the varren in question a sidelong glance.

"Not my varren, "the krogan snorted. "Urz there is a veteran of the fighting pits. Now he pretty much just does what he wants. Last person that tried to make him do anything lost a hand. And an eye. Most of his face. Well...he's dead now…."

"Uh huh," Tali turned to the varren and crossed her arms.

At first the varren growled deeply in his throat as his spines raised up. But Tali just narrowed her eyes, growling back.

Then, Urz took a menacing step forward, his thick claws gouging small ruts in the stone floor. Tali took a step forward, her growel growing deeper.

Urz lowered his stance, letting out a single lound, threatening sound that was half bark, and half wet gurgle. Tali's hands snapped forward, grabbing the varren by his long tusks. She gave a violent twist, throwing her whole body into the motion the way Wrex had taught her, and with a startled yelp, the varren was thrown violently to the floor with a loud thud. Tali was not done, however, as she lept upon the prone beast, raising its head once and smashing it back down into the floor, stunning it.

"Any more?" the quarian growled in the varren's ear as the wide fish-like eye swiveled to regard her. Urz froze for a moment before going limp in her hands. With a satisfied nod, Tali stood off Urz, dusting her hands off. "Didn't think so."

"I….huh," the Krogan looked from Tali, to Urz, and back. His eyes were wide, and a little wild.

"You're not so bad," Tali smiled under her helmet as she squatted before the varren. Reaching to the table, she pulled down a chunk of meat, offering it to him.

Urz sat up slowly, blinking. He leaned forward, taking the meat from her hands,, gingerly, and gobbling it down. Then, lips smacking, he sat up, his long wet tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he panted, his small, stubby tail swishing back and forth behind him.

With a laugh, Tali stood and patted Urz on the head as she turned back to the shopkeeper. "Back to our business, how much was that control board?"

"Uh….Normally it'd be fifty thousand. But I can let it go for forty-five," the krogan shopkeeper's eyes kept flickering between Tali and Urz.

"Really? It can't be worth more than twenty-five tops!" Tali's fingers absently scratched the top of Urz's head. For the varren's part, he seemed to sense Tali's dislike of the krogan and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Sure! Sure! Twenty-five! Sounds good! I'll throw in that meat for free!" the krogan surrendered, giving a weak smile.

"Great!" Tali clapped her hands together before pointing over the krogan's shoulder. "And how much for the model of the old krogan battleship?"

Grunt

"...And when you get called to the female's camp, don't forget to wash up first, they can get loud about it," Wrex told him as the pair walked through one of the larger rooms.

"Pheh," Grunt waved a hand. "I don't have time for that kind of thing. I have battle to find."

Wrex paused to regard him with a small smirk. "Boy, there is almost nothing more important than our people. If we are going to become a force in this galaxy again, we will need to become more than we are."

"More?" Grunt scoffed. "The krogan are weak. Broken. What is the point of it?"

Grunt missed the dangerous glint that formed in the old krogan's eye. "We are strong. We survive. We are krogan. We will find our glory, recapture who we used to be. But we will be smarter."

"Bah, words from an old fool," Grunt waved a condescending hand. For a moment. Then there was a red blur. A powerful hand clamped down on his forearm with enough force to leave small dents in the armor, as he was jerked forward.

"Boy, you are young. You may think you have knowledge, but you don't," Wrex growled, his face inches from Grunt's. "You may think yourself strong. But you aren't. If I even think, for a second, that you might be a treat to our people, I will break you on my knee and hang your corpse from my throne as a trophy. Shepard, or not."

There was motion behind Wrex. Grunt saw it for a second, before he found himself swung around like a small child in Wrex's hands.

There was a clash, and impact rang across Grunt's back as he felt a blade skitter across his back. Wrex laughed as he stepped back, pulling the younger krogan off the ground, swinging him again.

This time the impact was with another body, as the air was blasted out of Grunt's lungs. He collapsed onto the krogan that had attempted to assassinate Wrex.

"Only three of you?" Wrex sighed as h reached down and grabbed Grunt by a leg. Then, again, the world blurred around grunt as he was lifted, Wrex spinning, using his weight to smash Grunt's body into the body of another assassin. "Boy, you take care of that one."

For a moment, Grunt wasn't sure where he was. There was a struggling body underneath him, so Grunt just hit it. Again. Then again. And again. Until it finally stopped moving. Bleary eyed, he forced himself to a sitting position and turned to look at Wrex. "Uh...what….what happened?"

The old Battlemaster stood, a knife in one hand, the bloody, dripping krogan head plate in another. Wrex grinned down at him. "We teamed up. You did great."

John

As the last Weyrloc guard fell, John stepped over the body, keying open the door. He froze.

It was the smell. The stench of death. Of decay. Pungent, sharp cleansers fought a losing battle with the rot of bodies, combining to make each worse.

"Goddess," John gasped, his hand clamping over his mouth and nose as he looked around the room.

At the bodies. Tables, slabs, even, lined the walls of the large room. Ten, twelve, maybe even fifteen…. It was hard to see for sure, the stench burned his eyes, making them water.

"Krogan females," Mordin said, grimly as he walked to them. He lifted one of the tarps to look at the krogan underneath. John saw the salarian's jaw tighten as his eyes narrowed. "Experimented on. Mutations. Scars. Many surgeries. She died in terrible pain. Desperate…."

"It's what the Genophage reduced them to," John swallowed hard, pushing past the smell. Which, for some reason, seemed to slowly be receding. Maybe another weird side effect of the cybernetics. "They are cornered. Dying. You saw the world they live on, Mordin."

"No!" Mordin dropped the tarp, and spun to face John. "Had to be done! Think I wanted to do it? Challenge intellectually, of course. Interesting. Inflicting it? Another thing. Math. Numbers. They don't lie. They can't lie. Simulations. Thousands. Millions. All point one way. Devastation. Extinction. Annihilation. If not the krogan, then the rest of the galaxy. The krogan birth rate is too much. Too strong. They are too aggressive. They couldn't handle the worlds they had been given. they stripped them, spoiled them. They weren't ready for the uplift. They didn't know how to handle the technology."

"It's been more than a thousand years, Mordin," John gave a small, sad shake of his head. "The krogan are spent. They are driving themselves to extinction by inches because they see no hope. They only know that they were used by the Council, and tossed away when they became inconvenient. Maybe you're right. They probably weren't ready to be uplifted. But they were. Your people did it. It was up to you to help them. I've seen how the Council works. Once the krogan stopped being a tool, and tried to think for themselves? They Council probably ignored them. Look at what they did with the quarians. Three hundred years ago, the Geth drove them from their homes. In answer to their pleas for help, the Council took everything they had left and threw them out. Do you really think the krogan were treated better?"

Mordin looked down at the tarp, gently laying a hand on the female's head. "Rest, young mother. Find peace where you go." Slowly, he turned to look at John again. "We...must find Maelon. I have a terrible suspicion."

Mordin

"Maelon?" Mordin blinked. His eye flashed over his former student. It was...strange. "No injuries. No ligature makes, no signs of torture. Don't understand. Why are you here?"

"For such a smart man, you can be blind!" Maelon strode forward, shoulder checking the older salarian as he walked past. "I came here to help the krogan."

"Help them? Mordin frowned. "This is help? I taught you medicine. Not...this mockery! This butchery!"

"There were...unfortunate loses," Maelon seemed to hesitate for a moment before bringing up a screen and plotting equations. "Some lives had to be sacrificed. What are a hundred, two hundred lives. Even a thousand. What is that to the millions of stillbirths a year? What is that to the blood that drips from our hands!"

"They are lives!" Mordin shouted. "You saw the numbers! You saw why we did what we did! You agreed!"

"No!" Maelon spun, a frenzied anger burning in his large eyes. "No! I was a student! I looked up to you! How could I question the 'Great Mordin Solus'! If it wasn't for what we did, the krogan could have been going through a renaissance! Instead we destroyed them!"

"Why are did you come here," Shepard stood apart, his arms folded as he watched. "Why Weyrloc?"

"I tried other clans. Urdnot, Gatatog, others. None of them had the stomach. They weren't willing to make the sacrifices needed to do what had to be done! And you won't stop me! Yeaaah!" Maelon crouched before flinging himself toward Shepard, his fingers held like claws, madness in his eyes.

The Mordin hit him. His fist cracked into Maelon's face, staggering the younger salarian, spinning him around, and crashing him into a console.

"Enough, Maelon," Mordin said quietly. His voice had the cold certainty of the grave. "Enough. Medicine is supposed to heal. Not destroy. But you are too far. Too gone. Only one way to stop you….." Mordin slowly raised his heavy pistol.

"Mordin…." Shepard said quietly, stepping next to the man. "You aren't a murderer. The things you did. They are yours to deal with. But you are a good person. Killing Maelon won't fix anything."

"Have to, Shepard," Mordin sighed wearily. "My mess. My responsibility. I should have looked harder. I should have noticed. This….is wrong."

"Shooting him won't help," Shepard said again, as Maelon gave a weak half smile, shaking his head.

"Fine…." Mordin stepped back, refolding his pistol. "Go, Maelon. Never let me find you again."

With a hard swallow, Maelon slid himself away from the console, slowly backing away. Then, all at once, he turned and ran for the door, disappearing into the darkness.

"What now?" Shepard turned to look at the larger screen Maelon had been working with. "Can a cure be made with this?"

""No...well, yes," Mordin nodded. "Maelon was brilliant. Crazed, but brilliant. His methods, flawed, but a good basis. It is an amazing stepping stone."

"Keep the data," Shepard said at last. "So many suffered for this. Maybe their lives won't be for nothing."

Mordin stared at the data feeds for another moment before downloading the information, wiping it from the systems. "Maybe…."

Maelon

Fools! Did they think this was the end?! He would fix it! He had to! There were other clans. Other places. He could always get more subjects, start over!

Mordin….That sanctimonious fool! If he was half as smart as he thought he was….

It hurt!

Pain!

Slowly, Maelon looked down at the knife deep in his chest. His breath slowed as the world spun. He fell.

Strong hands caught him, slowly, gently lowering him. "Kaihera, guide this one to your shores. Let there be purity and warmth. Let them be at peace." The voice was deep, full of gravel. But...oddly, soothing. He...yes. It was time to rest….