AN: Inspiration has slowed a bit and my sleep schedule is off. I'm still plugging away and hop to get a better flow here shortly.

Xera, A Small Office Off The Space Port, Illium

Xera tapped the side of her helmet as she frowned darkly. There was that damned buzzing again! It was not quite static…. More like some sort of computer code. It was garbled, just on the edge of her hearing. Or...was it? It almost felt like it was coming from the back of her head…

"Miss?" the older human girl spoke up. "You okay?"

"Yeah...yeah," Xera shook her head and turned back to the small human girl she was examining. "Think there is something up with my helmet. Might be a speaker issue. I'll deal with it later."

"Oh, okay," the girl shrugged. "How is Lily?"

Xera looked over her omni tool and winced inwardly. The girl, Lily, was probably around four or five years old. She was malnourished and so skinny one could count her ribs. Scars crossed a lot of her body, signs of hard labor and harsh punishments. The worst was the thick scarring on her skull. It matched the other children. Fucking Batarians….

"Not as good as I would like," Xera sniffed. "I swear, vorcha smell better than you assholes."

The older girl...Emma? Blinked. Then she scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you really a doctor? You seem more like a raging bitch."

"Why can't I be both?" Xera snorted this time. "Kid, I'm a Migrant Fleet Marine. I have four doctorates in xeno-biology, xeno-medicine and xeno-botany. I don't work in a hospital because i don't like kissing little shits like you."

"That's three subjects," Emma glowered now. "And I think you made the last one up."

"I did not," Xera turned to face the human. "And the last one is xeno-shut the fuck up so I can work."

Legion, Unnamed Ship, Illium

There was an issue. They could feel….geth. There were geth on Illium. They arrived two standard days ago. At first, they seemed far away, almost like an echo. Now, however, Legion could hear them.

They were unlike any other geth that Legion had encountered. They were not of the Heretics. They were not of them. They were...different. Outside. They seemed, broken, yet whole. Something….something felt like the Creators. But didn't.

Consensus must be reached.

John, SR-2 Normandy, The Loft

"Garrus…." John smiled as his best friend came in. "Come in and sit."

"Uh huh…" Garrus's eye narrowed slightly as his mandibles pulled tight to his face. "You are going to tell me something bad, aren't you?"

Letting out a long sigh, John passed a hand over his eyes. "Just sit, Garrus. I've had a hell of a week. I am apparently part of Clan Urdnot, I have the potential cure for the genophage in my metaphorical pocket, Tali is trying to get me to let her bring a varren onboard and I've received breeding requests."

Garrus let out a small snort as he dropped onto the couch. "You and Tali have been pretty tight. Can't imagine anybody dumb enough to try anything."

"I wish," John almost laughed as he sat opposite his friend. "Apparently our showing at the krogan Trial was impressive…."

"What?" Garrus's mandibles went slack for a moment before pure, unadulterated glee filled his eyes. "You mean...you have requests...from the female krogan?"

"Should have kept my mouth shut," John groaned. "Grunt got a bunch. Hell, even Jack got a couple."

"Jack did?" Garrus sat up, his brow plates rising in surprise. "Did they not realize Jack's female?"

"No idea," John shrugged, another long suffering sigh escaping him. "But she went out to give it a shot. Hope she makes it back."

"As hilarious as that all is, I assume you didn't call me here for that," Garrus turned to regard John, all traces of humor dropping away. "What's up?"

John stared at Garrus for a long moment. His friend had been on edge for a while. His anger was showing through in places, even if he tried to hide it. Even his time with Miranda seemed to be getting a little tense. Maybe...maybe Garrus was better off not knowing…..

"Got a message from Liara," John leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, as he stared at Garrus. "She has a lead."

"She...what?" Garrus looked confused for a short moment before his eyes widened. "Sidonis?"

"Yes," John confirmed with a short nod. "She has a line on the guy that is setting up a new identity for him."

"Then let's go!" Garrus stood suddenly. "I can't let him get away! If he goes to ground it will be that much harder to find him!"

"There is another issue," John waved a hand, indicating for Garrus to sit again. And noting when the turian did not. "The same broker that is working with Sidonis is also a middle man for a drell assassin."

"...Thane?" Garrus frowned. "Why….?"

"No, Garrus. Not Thane," John stared Garrus in the eye. "Thane's son. The man is trying to drag Thane's family into this mess."

"So...we kill that guy too," Garrus grunted. "We kill lots of people. This guy seems to deserve it."

"Maybe he does. But Thane's son is our priority here, Garrus," John blinked slowly as he watched anger, cold fury, roll through Garrus. It almost radiated off the turian in waves. John noted how Garrus's fists clenched and unclenched, even as his body went still as only a predator could.

Then, a moment later, it was all gone. Like it had never been there. It was as if Garrus was some sort of black hole that swallowed all the emotions, crushing them deep inside his gut.

He was a powder keg with a short fuse.

"Yes," Garrus said after a moment. His voice was strained as he fought to keep emotion out of it. "Yes. An innocent life comes first. I...understand."

Standing, John walked to his best friend and clasped him on the shoulder. He looked into Garrus's eyes for a moment before nodding. "We'll get him Garrus. No matter what, we will get him. I will be with you every step."

For a moment, Garrus stared back, dead eyed. Slowly life, iron will, rose in the turian as his mandibles dropped into a grin. "Of course you will be. There's no Vakarian without a Shepard."

Mordin, SR-2 Normandy, Science Lab

"Mordin," Shepard nodded as he entered. He still seemed to be favoring his right side. Understandable.

"Shepard," Mordin nodded as he handed Barbara a small dish. "I believe I may have a way to boost the seeker swarm antiserum."

Shepard's eyes widened in pleasant surprise. Probably. Humans had tiny little eyes. Not as bad as krogan. Turians were worse. Quarians stood out well, though the visor was annoying. Asari...depended. "Did you?" That was annoying. Humans seemed to need that annoying reassurance. As if he would joke about serious medical matters.

"Of course," Mordin just nodded. It really wasn't worth the effort. At least Barbara seemed to take what he said as how he meant it. Still needed to convince her to go to medical school. Maybe after mission. Yes. That would be optimal. "Stronger now. Also, dosing before encountering the swarm will help initial resistance. Might have antidote injector soon. Implant, I mean. Already have syringes, of course. Can probably rig one for Tali's suit, though I don't believe the stingers are able to penetrate. Same with Grunt. Hide too thick. Originally surprised they could effect Garrus, but turian plates, not as thick as krogan, too many gaps."

"Uh…" Shepard blinked for a moment, then nodded. "Sounds good. From what Tali said the stingers can penetrate her suit, if it is unarmored, but it would be take some work."

Good thing about Shepard, smart. The had a little trouble keeping up with him, but mostly due to speed issue, not comprehension. Also admits when doesn't understand. Accepts ideas, to work with a commander that wasn't a cloaca.

"The reason I came down here was to see how you were doing, though," Shepard continued. "I wanted to see how you were holding up after the whole mess with Maelon."

"Me?" Mordin blinked. Commander, kind, maybe too much. "Fine. Maelon was smart, can see it in his works. Not as smart as me, of course." Mordin allowed himself a small smile before it died on his lips. "Still, he came far by taking rash actions. Monstrous decisions. Can probably cure the genophage….soon. Couple of years, maybe."

"Sounds like you are considering it," Shepard crossed his arms as he leaned his hip against a work table. Notable that it wasn't near any current work. Yes, enjoyable to work with. "You seemed a bit spiritual there in the pit."

Mordin stopped, looking at his hands. He felt Barbara pause next to him, looking at him. Almost worship in her eyes.

"Have...seen consequences of genophage," he said at last. "Had to. Went back. Loss of life...staggering. The concept, in and of itself? That was sound. Method of attack? Not so much. Genophage is supposed to limit krogan population growth to pre-uplift levels. Made sense. Krogan breed fast. Grow fast. Tuchanka required it even before they devastated themselves."

"However….." he paused again. "Stillbirths. So many. Desperate females, shamed, throwing themselves off cliffs to escape shame…. Monstrous in itself. The numbers...they didn't lie. Past experience. So many simulations. All pointed to war and genocide, one way, or another. No time to look for other solution. Find better method. Un...avoidable."

"My ass," Shepard grunted, a dark frown on his face. "The krogan were always treated as tools. I've seen the Council in action. They look out for themselves. Only. They are willing to sell other species for pitance. The krogan were attack dogs, kept as a threat, and the moment they became a problem, military force. And luckily for them, the turians were handy."

"You...are probably not wrong," Mordin sighed. Shepard...saw things. Too many things. He could see the cracks in civilization. The vaneer that everybody held up. And when he found those cracks, he poked them. Prodded them. He made everyone look at them. Made them see their own darkness.

"Look at the quarians," Shepard gave a disgusted shrug. "The moment they made a mistake? The moment they were no longer useful? They took everything the quarians had left and abandoned them. Treated them like they were garbage for three hundred years."

"You are right, Shepard," Mordin ran a tired hand over his face. "I know. STG files….some of the things that happened…. I believe in something more than...this." He waved a hand around. "There has to be. Life is energy, and energy never dies. It changes, yes, moves, becomes other things, but always exists. After the genophage work I spent several years exploring religions, spirituality, philosophies. No real answers. I am getting older, Shepard. The years I have left are yours. I trust you to do good things in this universe. Maybe it will balance something."

"I…" Shepard blinked, surprised before ducking his head for a moment. "I will do everything in my power to make things better. I am one man, however. So I'll need all the help I can get."

Tali, SR-2 Normandy, Engineering

"Come on, bosh'tet," she muttered under her breath. She almost had the calculations. It was solid on the datapad. There was the energy in the reactor to fire the main gun, and not have the cyclonic shields drop for a nano-second, but there was something in the layout that was bottlenecking.

"I don't know, lass," Donnelly spat, nearly as irritated as she felt. "The couplers the Commander got us are working fine. Connections are solid. It should be working."

"Tali," Edi appeared on the small holopad next to her console. "I might have a clue."

"Yeah?" she raised an eyebrow, but didn't look up from her work. "I'll take almost anything I can get at this point."

"What did one magnet say to the other?"

That caught her by surprise. Looking up, Tali frowned slightly as she glanced at Donnelly. The human looked equally as puzzled. "Edi...I don't think this is the time for…."

"What did one magnet say to the other?" Edi repeated. It was probably her imagination, but it almost seemed like the little hologram was leaning forward slightly.

"Fine...Edi…" Tali let out a suffering sigh. "What did one magnet say to the other?"

"From behind, I thought you were repulsive. But after seeing you from the front, I find you very attractive," Edi said with an odd finality that didn't really fit her words.

"What the hell does that mean?" Donnelly blinked, frowning. "I thought you said you-"

"No! I got it!" Gabby began to laugh, cutting Donnelly off. "Magnets!"

"Yeah, i got the joke," Donnelly's cowl grew darker. "Do you mind not laughing like a bloody hyena?"

Gabby, however, was now bent over her workstation, laughing. Her hands slapped the the sides of the machine as she sucked in air, desperately trying to speak through the tears that were rolling down her face. "No...hee hee hee...that's it! Magnet….ha! Magnetic field! HA HA HA!"

Then Tali got it. "Ancestors save me," she rolled her eyes and ran a new set of numbers. "I see it now. The core's magnetic field is oscillating at the wrong frequency."

"HA HA HA!" Gabby wiped at her eyes.

Instead of speaking, Donnelly pointedly looked away from Gabby. A move that seemed to set her off even more. He worked over his own console for a moment before cursing. "Bloody hell. When the main gun fires it's altering the field oscillation, When the negative and negative hits it's shoving the power into the stealth coils instead of the shield array."

"Edi…." Tali stared hard at the blue orb. "You realize you could have just said that, right? You didn't need to make it a riddle."

"Ah," the AI seemed a bit let down. "My apologies. Mister Moreau was certain that you would enjoy that joke."

"It's the best ever!" Gabby held a fist up in the air.

"It's fine, Edi," Tali finally permitted herself a chuckle. "Your timing was a bit off."

"I will log that for further analysis."

Hestalia, ALM Demeter

"Percival, Percival, Percival," Hestalia breathed out. Her voice was pitched low and sad as she shook her head. "I really want to help you here." Her word were punctuated by a flash of light from behind her, accompanied by a male scream.

"LODANNA!" she called out, over her shoulder, satisfied when she heard the thermal torch go out. She then turn to look sadly bak down at the ship's executive officer. "Lodanna, when you finish with that gentleman, could you weld a couple of this man's fingers to the decking? He seems like the lying type."

"WAIT! WAIT You didn't ask me any questions!" ALM Demeter's executive officer Percival Jo Sedgwick half yelled, and half screamed.

Turning back to the officer, Hestalia raised an eyebrow, "I am looking for an ardat-yakshi. You moved her and some goods off Illium. I will be asking for the truth of where she is now."

"Sure! I'll tell you! Let me look at the manifest! Anything you want!" The man blubbered. If the man's smell was any indication, he had wet his pants.

"Oh, sweet Percival," Hestalia squatted down in front of the man, taking his chin in her hand. "I know you will. Just imagine, you are already begging to tell me everything you want to know. How much more will you tell me after a little bit of a chat with Lodanna here!"

Hestalia stood and took several steps away as the turian accountant took her place. There was a spark, then a roar of the torch lighting yup. Then, screams.

"Umm...Commander?" one of the newer girls on her team cleared her throat as she handed a pad to Hestalia, and pointedly not looking behind her. "We know where she is. It was obvious in the ship logs. I even went through personal logs to be sure."

"Good work, Cunnings!" Hestalia grinned widely, warm and parental. If it wasn't for Lodanna demanding to know who number three worked for, followed by gibbering crys of pain, Cunnings may have felt pride.

"So, why are we torturing the….." Cunnings couldn't finnish over the din of cries.

"Hmm?" Hestalia paused he reading to look at the human. "Oh! Yes! Well, he lied initially. If he had just accepted his fasit and not fought back we would have popped in, got the data, popped out and been on our way. Instead the ass shot at us. Gotta teach them not to fuck with Eclipse."

"I...see…"