38 Days ASR

Shepard's eyebrows headed straight for her hairline, then plunged back down toward her nose. She didn't know if she could buy Nihlus's theory that Harbinger had started all the madness on some quest to figure out why it didn't have a soul. Granted, on one hand, it fit what they'd seen, but, the idea of making the Reapers even the slightest bit sympathetic rankled. She needed to fill them with bullets, and having some pathetic, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion image stuck in her head wouldn't help that process.

"Would an AI even care about that?" she asked, hearing the words before she realized she was going to speak them out loud. She reached out and pressed her fingertips against his chest, a vaguely apologetic gesture, as she continued, "It seems a little … touchy feely for genocidal robots."

Nihlus gestured toward the machine. "Melting billions of people into goo … taking them apart to analyze them, turning them into monstrosities … ." His mandibles dropped. "I don't think we're looking at their search having anything to do with wanting hugs." She watched, admiring the wheels turning beneath the surface as he shrugged and walked over to the machine.

His head cocked a little as he stared at it through the casing of chia. "I think it's more along the line of the geth building their megastructure. You heard Legion … all geth would be united, their intellects combined, their potential unlimited. They could imagine new futures for themselves that they can't even comprehend of now."

Shepard nodded, her lips pressing into a thin line, impressed with Nihlus's line of reasoning. "So, it's about completion of a sort, the ability to grow beyond what they are." Lifting the gauntlet of chia clinging to her wrist, she asked them, "Is it safe to approach the machine with your people encasing it?"

"Yes," the genderless, comfortingly impassive voice replied. "The chia are not in contact with the machine at any point. If they touch it, they may be corrupted."

Shepard stepped around the massive computer, looking down at the blackened, dead chia. What remained of the construct looked like the stuff of bee's nests or termite mounds, a dessicated reminder that they'd been living beings. Not familiar, but people nonetheless. "They're dead?"

"Yes. The kinetic energy released when the chia impacted the machine freed them from corruption."

"The chia freed us?" Shepard turned to look at the door, it remained shut. Of course, the chia in their single state amounted to molecules, so could easily get through cracks.

"Your will commanded the chia to save Nihlus. They did so in the most expedient manner available to them. When the machine transferred power from maintaining the field of corrupted chia, the uncorrupted chia shattered the construct. They surround it to prevent further contact."

Shepard jumped, heavy banging against the south door yanking her attention away from the machine. She took a deep, steadying breath as her heart tried to smash its way out through her sternum. "Here comes the onslaught of certain death." She shrugged her Mattock into her hand before glancing over at Nihlus. "So, do we wait for them to break in, or do we go out guns blazing."

"Shepard? Spectre Kryik?"

"Miranda." Shepard hurried over to the door.

"So … go out with guns blazing then?" Nihlus asked, his expression guileless. He shifted, bracing his bad leg then pulling his shotgun. Thank god for the durability and resilience of turians.

Shepard grinned as she glanced over at him, but called out, "Lawson, is that you?" Hope sparked bright and fierce in her chest. With the addition of the rest of the team, they had a real chance to get down into the mountain and back out alive.

"It is." The tone more than the words reassured the captain. An edge of haughty impatience sliced straight through the metal door, chastising Shepard for being so ridiculous and wasting valuable time. Definitely Miranda.

Shepard unlocked the door, pleased to see Liara's small army. At least, until she saw several of the asari wrestling with their compatriots. Her gut twisted and dropped. Damn, didn't things just keep looking more and more pear shaped?

"Come on, everyone in," she ordered, sealing the door behind them when they complied.

"Shepard." Miranda's intense, blue eyes studied the captain like a bug pinned to a board, the ever-present omnitool scanning even before the operative made it through the door. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She nodded toward the commandos, hoping for any explanation that didn't include them being indoctrinated. Hell, she'd take bitten by feral, rabid Thessian hamsters or zombie apocalypse. "What's going on there?"

Continuing her scans, Miranda stepped right into Shepard's face as she replied, "They bolted, leading us to an entrance further down the mountain. Once they got there, they couldn't operate the door, and we were able to apprehend them."

So much for hope. Shepard let out a harsh, noisy breath. "No indoctrination serum?" Her exciting mission to investigate something fascinating on Thessia seemed determined to roll right on past pear-shaped to shit-shaped. But ... .

"They led you in here?" Nodding, Shepard clenched her jaw and set her spine, refusing to let her queasy gut pull her down. The rest of the team needed to get the hell out alive, and more importantly, they needed to investigate what the Collectors were doing there, and shut it down. The damned mountain amounted to a trap, pulling people in and either killing them or turning them into monsters. Her people were no doubt seriously outnumbered; she needed to use every tool at her disposal, even if it meant being ruthless.

Nodding to herself, she took another deep breath and cracked her neck before shrugging to settle her armour on her shoulders. "I guess Liara won't be joining us on another mission without sufficient indoctrination serum for her people."

And neither will you. You're going to need bigger belt pouches. A backpack, maybe?

"Meanwhile," Shepard continued without pausing, "we can use their indoctrinated radar to get to whatever is emitting the signal." For a second, she almost continued, saying that the asari needed to prepare themselves to leave some of their comrades behind, but she swallowed the words. That could wait until the moment reared its ugly head.

Turning to the group, she said, "We're going to release the indoctrinated and follow them to the heart of the mountain. Those of you who still have indoctrination serum, don't neglect it, and don't share it. We're in for a hell of a fight, and we need gun hands, not semi-cognizant zombies." Meeting a host of angry stares as evenly as she could, she ploughed through. "We'll do what we can for those already affected, but we can't risk the mission for them."

She pointed to Javik. "You're on point with Nihlus and myself. Miranda, Jack, and Thane, drag. The rest of you, stay frosty." She nodded toward the door and the sound of running feet on stone. "The Collectors we've faced so far haven't used biotics, just assault rifles, but they've been luring asari here for a very long time and turning them into monsters. The mutated asaris' biotics and barriers are strong. They use charge to close, and if they get close enough to grab you, they'll gut you before you can blink."

Shepard strode across the chamber to take cover behind the furthest medical bed, giving her a nice long line of sight for Ingrid. "We're going to be fighting our way out, so take cover." She gestured for Javik to move up to the left side of the door when Nihlus took the right side next to the control panel. "Biotics, keep them bottlenecked in the door." She waited for the rest of the team to get in position, then nodded for Nihlus to open the door, her gut settling as the fight crashed down on them. "Let's give them hell."

A platoon-strength squad of Collectors rushed the doors, but the biotics managed to keep them from getting through while Shepard and the rest of the team mowed them down. Once the bodies began to pile up, the charge slowed, but not enough to make Shepard worry about any great ability to adapt or employ strategy. Numbers without a mind behind them were nothing more than bullet sponges. One small blessing.

When the Collectors stopped coming, Shepard gave the asari holding onto the indoctrinated the nod to release them. Falling in quickly, the team followed, saved from having to climb over the pile of bodies by a shockwave from Jack. The commandos moved quickly, the certainty of their path and their surefootedness down the steep, treacherous tunnel upping the churning in Shepard's from vague nausea to 'Dear god, I'm going to throw up everything I've ever eaten'. Their behaviour spoke to something much larger moving them; empty puppets rather than hypnotized people following a call.

Rage spiked, stabbing all the way down her spine to lodge in her pelvis. Everything about the Reapers consisted of, and formed, abomination. They fouled everything they touched, and then she was supposed to give a flying fuck about their existential angst over having no soul? How about not visiting horror and corruption on every sapient being that evolved over time? That might be a hell of a start toward finding their souls.

Shepard tripped, cursing silently as the sound of her boots echoed off the walls, speeding ahead to let the enemy know their location. Not being indoctrinated and having their perfect knowledge, she needed to stay focused. She didn't have room for sloppy, or for letting her emotions get the best of her. One hundred percent focus and clarity, one hundred percent professional soldier. It hadn't taken concentration before she died. She could ape insanity, torment three people into trying to kill her, flirt with two more and still never lose focus on the mission.

Death messes with everything, I suppose, Janey. It might take some work to get back there.

Letting out a soft, resolute breath, Shepard nodded and concentrated on the mountain looming around and over her. Somewhere a trap waited. Somewhere, a mind watched and calculated … so much older and more clever and diabolical than she could imagine. She needed to stay sharp and ready.

The tunnel curled down through the mountain, offering nothing in the way of cover. As she jogged downhill, trying to keep the asari commandos in sight, the roughly arched ceiling pressed down more heavily with every step, so much more than the weight of the mountain teetering over her head. Millions of years of history, thousands of extinctions, tens of thousands of races all waited to see what she intended to do about the situation.

No pressure, Janey. Well, unless you count the thousands of species and cycles that lay ahead if you blow it.

The gentle spiral downward ended at an abrupt right angle left. Shepard held up a hand to bring team to a halt, then signaled for them to spread out and take cover against the walls while she moved forward alone. Pressing against the inside corner, she leaned out a little at a time, peering into a dimly lit space. Someone moved in the dark—one of the commandos, no doubt—and the sound echoed high and with a long space between bounce backs. So, a huge, dark space. Not exactly ideal conditions.

Lights flared to life around the cavern, a strident brilliance from many metres up searing into Shepard's eyes, blinding her while leaving the floor in shadow.

Right, conditions devolving from not exactly ideal to complete crap.

"Shepard, you've become an annoyance." The deep, mechanical voice from earlier—Harbinger—boomed through the cavern, echoing off a forest of shadows. She reached up to rub her eyes. What were they? Stasis pods?

The voice continued, "Do you fear death even now? Is that why you fight against inevitability: dust struggling against cosmic winds."

Shepard shored up her walls as the voice chipped away at them, and glanced back at her people. "Huge chamber, four gallery tiers on all sides, lots of cover on the floor, but the lights are in our eyes." She signalled them into position. "Stay together, square formation." She felt rather than saw the rest of the team form up.

While they took their places, Shepard switched to Ingrid and changed scopes. "Okay, double time people. Keep sharp, there are a lot more of them than us." She raced into the room, Javik at her elbow, moving into the forest of stasis pods a few rows before taking cover. Raising Ingrid, she leaned out around a pod and took aim. Placing her shots carefully, Shepard quickly thinned the herd on the upper balconies. She heard Nihlus and Thane's rifles on two other sides, sharp coughs of sound amidst the chatter of the assault rifles and submachine guns.

"Thousands have risen over the cycles, Shepard." Harbinger's voice roared over the gunfire, seeming to come from everywhere. A single Collector stepped out of the inky shadows that clung to the walls at floor level, its carapace cracked open, a fierce magma glow bleeding through. "They have all fallen before us. You are less than nothing; not even truly alive ... an animated puppet"

Shepard shot the Harbinger-Collector in the head, but it barely flinched, still moving straight for her at a leisurely pace. It lifted its hand, flinging something at her. She ducked into cover, but then something that felt like a massive fist punched her out of cover, staggering her. Another attack flew at her, but that one glowed like a ball of fire, revealing itself, and she threw herself out of range.

"Where one falls, four more rise to take its place. Behold the futility of your resistance." Lights turned on all around the chamber, illuminating the room in detail.

Shepard winced back a little, her eyes taking a moment to adjust before she lined up another shot. As Ingrid kicked against her shoulder, one of the banshees appeared less than an arm's length away. She reeled back, heart practically punching out her chest and running screaming back the way they'd come before she realized that the asari husk stood immobile inside the pod.

"Sweet baby Jesus," she said, gasping as her heart calmed. Stasis. Thank the blessed Enkindlers. Of course ... whatever slept could be woken. They needed to take out all the Collectors before Harbinger decided to call in screaming banshee backup.

"Your civilizations will fall as millions rise to sweep you from your planets," Harbinger continued. "Your military and governments will be laid waste before you realize the harvest has come."

"Shepard," Liara called, "the talking one is closing on you."

Throwing herself back against the pod, Shepard raised Ingrid, sending another shot through the glowing eyes. That time, she saw it stagger.

"They're flying down from the galleries and closing," Nihlus said, his voice strong and determined. She didn't need the heads up, clearly able to see dozens of Collectors flying down from the upper levels to close on her tiny group.

"Everyone, use your cover, take your time and stay safe. Biotics, keep them back the best you can, and Jack, shockwave the shit out of them." Shepard fired on Harbinger again, that one shutting the bastard up as the host body incinerated.

"Glad I signed up, Shepard," Jack said, hooting with a manic sort of glee as a shockwave thundered across the chamber, tossing Collectors like bowling pins.

Another cracked-magma glow appeared above, the possessed Collector flying down to land on the first level. "You will not leave this place alive, Shepard. Surrender to the inevitable."

Shit, he just kept coming. The Collector fired off a ball of black energy—no doubt the attack that had thrown her out of cover—a fireball following right on its heels. She flipped to the other side of the pod, but it wasn't enough distance. The black one hit, sending her staggering, but then arms closed around her, yanking her out of the path of the fireball.

"If he wakes even half a dozen of these banshees, we're screwed," Nihlus's voice whispered next to her ear. He set her back on her feet.

Shepard didn't respond. What could she say? The situation had only one positive solution, and that one meant taking out all the Collectors before the situation fell further into the crap. As if to mock the possibilities of avoiding the crap pile, Shiala went down, screaming in agony.

"Shiala!" Liara cried from Shepard's right and spun to go to her, but Shepard grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"Stay on the line, or we're all dead. We can get to the wounded once the bullets stop." For a moment, she thought Liara intended to rebel, and kept a tight grip on the asari's arm. "How are you doing, Shiala?" she called over her shoulder.

"I'll live," the asari answered.

"Hey, Princess Blue!" Jack hollered. "I could use a singularity here, so quit fucking dancing and get back in the fight." A shockwave rumbled across the room, but carrying noticeably less punch than even two minutes earlier.

Shepard switched guns, going for her assault rifle as the Collectors on the floor took advantage of the momentary distraction and swarmed toward her position. Calm, all ruthlessly efficiency and deadly aim, she moved from ugly bug-head to ugly bug-head, three bullets per customer, very little waiting.

Two more asari went down and Shepard could hear Nihlus wheezing with every breath before a singularity, a heavy throw from Thane, and another shockwave threw the Collectors back far enough for her to finish them off. Legs and arms shaking, she leaned against the stasis pod, sucking in long draughts of air. Ten seconds. When she reached the count of twenty, she ducked back out, dealing lead sixteen shots at a time.

Shepard felt the pulse first as a tingle in the soles of her feet, but with every beat it gained strength until it pounded through her entire body and throbbed through the air. It's rhythm resembled a heartbeat, but off, as if the heart had an extra chamber. The fire from outside the circle let up, giving her hope that the number of Collectors actually was finite. Then, it stopped, and everything fell to silence but for the throbbing thump-thu-thump.

"I know that sound," Nihlus said. He gestured to Jack and Javik to take the remaining commandos and secure the room.

"It's a prothean heartbeat," Javik said as he passed Shepard, three sullen asari trailing behind him.

She watched after him for a few seconds, then turned to see to the wounded. Miranda, Liara, and Aethyta were already cutting leathers away from wounds, so she left them to it, moving out into the dense forest of stasis pods. When she reached the inside edge, she turned back and looked up, her gaze travelling up the lit galleries. Stasis pods, who knew how many deep, stood in rows up there as well.

"Sweet baby Jesus," she whispered, her mind counting the rows and columns she could see. Tens of thousands of pods. At least.

"The Collectors have spent the last fifty thousand cycles preparing for the Reapers' return," Nihlus said, raising his voice to be heard over the throbbing pulse. "Given another couple of cycles, how many of these things will they release across Thessia?" He lifted a hand to press against the wall, sagging a little.

Shepard nodded. "Harbinger said that their numbers will sweep our homeworlds before we can even mount a defence. That means there is somewhere like this on Earth and Palaven … who knows how many other planets." She winced as the throbbing grew even louder. "What the hell is that?"

"The way our luck is running, we'd better go find out now." The Spectre held out an arm. "Give an old torin a hand?"

Shepard considered arguing with him and leaving him to rest, but he was right. The luck couldn't get much worse; she might need him. Giving him a weary smile, Shepard slipped under his arm, bracing her shoulder in against his side. "I can't wait to see what new nightmare awaits."

Nihlus sighed. "I was going to bark at you for jinxing us, but … who cares?"

Shepard just raised her eyebrows and nodded. They'd actually reached a point where it just didn't matter.

The cavern walls formed an almost perfect cylinder, but the five-metre-tall stasis units negated whatever line of sight might have been allowed by the shape of the room. Shepard's first hint as to the depth of her mistake in believing them unjinxable came when Nihlus's entire body stiffened as if bracing to take a heavy blow. The next hint crawled up the wall, interwoven tentacles of tech and corrupted chia that looked like a grisly bloom of squid or man-eating vines from a horror vid.

When they cleared the stasis units and the entire construct appeared, Shepard took a long, shuddering breath, her mind struggling to comprehend what stood beneath the brilliant lights. Five of the indoctrinated asari commandos stood within tubes of corrupted chia, their bodies still, their expressions impassive … blank canvases waiting to be painted. Behind their tubes, a machine crawled up out of the floor like some sort of living nightmare, sinuous veins of corrupted chia woven over and around the blocky, recognizable prothean tech.

"Dear spirits," Nihlus whispered. He released her, limping forward, his eyes riveted on the heart of the machine. A clear amber panel stretched flat and transparent over … something.

Shepard followed the Spectre, angling to see what lie beneath the window of chia without getting too close. The last thing she needed was to add, 'walked into a trap for the second time today' to her log entry. Reflections from the lights obscured her view even when she faced it head on, so she crept closer, straining … her mind racing, trying to piece together the puzzle of visuals.

Tubes, wires, and tech of all sorts encapsulated something. She squinted against the glare. Was that an arm? Faint teal-blue skin, but two fingers and a thumb at the end. Blessed Enkindlers, was that a person in there?

Nihlus let out a strangled moan. "No." His voice dropped to a dessicated whisper. "Spirits, no."

Tearing her eyes from the machine, Shepard looked to her partner. The Spectre wobbled precariously, his knees buckling. She ran up, slipping an arm around him to help keep him on his feet.

"What is it?" she asked, worried stare searching his. "Is it your wound?"

"Tashac." He inclined his head toward the machine. "The heartbeat." Closing his eyes, he lowered his brow to rest on the top of her head. "It's hers."

Shepard eased out of his grip, taking one step toward the machine before stalling. Her heart fluttered a couple of times, then stuttered to a near-stop even as the booming beat of the prothean's grew stronger. "I never saw her," she whispered. "I was always on the inside looking out." One hand crept up as if to touch the clear, amber casing but stopped well clear. "Dear baby Jesus, what did they do to her?"

The weighted hand, that old companion, pushed down heavier and heavier, crushing Shepard into the floor. Panic … pure white, blinding panic sliced through her, freezing her to the spot even as it screamed at her legs to run. It demanded that she run until her heart and lungs gave out. She could run that far, her heart already fluttered, its beats uneven and rabbit-quick. She could run from that place and die somewhere under Thessia's velvet-blue sky … just stop as she'd been meant to all those months ago. She and her Callor could lie under a warm sun, his arm cradling her head, and he could read to her. They could … . She backed up a step. They could make love and just let it all go. Maybe the cycle and the Reapers … maybe it was all meant to happen. Maybe it had to happen.

"I'm so proud of you," her father whispered, his face pressed against the hood, his breath heating the coarse material. "I've never been more proud … no, not proud … in awe of anyone or anything in my life, my beautiful girl." She felt a kiss, a soft blessing high on her cheekbone. "No matter what, you have to survive this, Janey. Something big, and probably terrible, is waiting for you, but I know that you'll face it. I know that you'll beat it, kiddo."

No! Shepard stumbled backwards another step. He couldn't have known how huge and black and monstrous it was. It was all too immense. All of it. She turned to look over the thousands, the tens of thousands of stasis pods, each containing one of the banshees. That many monsters … so many more on every homeworld … . What army could even hold against it, let alone defeat it?

"Millions suffer, thousands rebel, hundreds lead, but it only takes one … the right single heart to beat them. You are that heart, my beautiful girl. You are that heart."

No. Not her. Thousands of others braver and stronger than her had stood in almost that exact same spot. Tashac … Tashac was the last. And look at what the Reapers had done to her. Shepard spun back around to stare up at the ruined face of her future. The bravest of the prothean people, turned into a nightmare, the beating heart of Thessia's destruction.

In the end, the Reapers had denied Tashac everything, eating her from the inside out, then encasing her in a living hell, stealing away even the peace of death. Shepard reeled back. No! No, they did not get to … . She wouldn't … couldn't spend the next fifty thousand years trapped in a barely-living hell, being used against the races yet to come. And they would. The Reapers' tentacles already crept through her mind, dark and insidious. How long before they strapped her into a stasis pod, indoctrinated, stripped of her soul, unable to see even the bleakest light through their corruption?

Eyes riveted to the ancient rictus of agony on Tashac's face, Shepard backed toward the cavern entrance, her legs picking up speed with every step. No. Harbinger had one thing right: she was nothing, a corpse dragged back across the void. How in the name of the holy fucking Enkindlers could she hope to weather the coming storm?

A large hand impacted between her shoulder blades, that one very real as it held her up rather than crushing her into ash. Nihlus. He didn't speak, stepping up to grip her tight against his side, his hand slipping around her shoulders. She looked up to find him staring at the prothean. A soft keen trilled through his subvocals before he turned to her, meeting her eyes with very familiar storm clouds of fear and sorrow rolling across his expression.

"She prayed for one thing," the Spectre said, his voice soft and laced with another keen of grief. "All she wished for was the arms of her mate and children when her time came." The clouds parted, rage flashing through. "We don't let them get away with this, Shepard. We can't."

She opened her mouth, but the beasts rampaging through her thoughts scattered them too quickly for her to put anything together.

"We all get these moments, Jane." He pulled her in tight against him. "It's all too massive and terrifying, and every once in awhile, it flattens me like a dreadnought. When that happens, Garrus drags me off the floor, sends me to Chakwas to sober up, and then carries me until I find my feet again."

Shepard pulled free of his arms, taking a hesitant step toward the machine. "They'd turn me into that, Nihlus." She threw a hand at the Prothean. "They'd turn me black as sin and chain me to their will, using me against everyone I love. They'd leave me like that." A huge, gulping breath tore its way into her lungs, smashing its way down her airway.

He recaptured her, hugging her against his side. "I'll never let that happen, Jane. Garrus will never let that happen. The three of us … Anderson … the kid … hell, all of Archangel will never let that happen. You aren't alone." Holding her shoulders, he pulled away far enough to bend down, meeting her eyes on a level. "You're not alone. The weight isn't only yours to bear."

Anchoring herself in his stare, Shepard drew a long, slow breath. She wasn't alone. She hadn't been since Eden Prime. Another breath and her heart began to take full beats, easing into a steady rhythm. Even after she woke up on the Cerberus station, they'd been there with her. All of them, even Liara.

Her family.

Lifting a hand to brush Nihlus's mandible, Shepard nodded, a quick bounce of her head as her thoughts finally settled. "We start by blowing this whole place to hell." She backed out of his arms and lifted the gauntlet of chia. "Can your people take the information off the computer on the upper level?"

"Affirmative, however, chia may be corrupted in the process," they responded.

She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders, sliding a solid steel blade down through her spine. "If that information assisted us in ending the Reapers and the threat of corruption forever, would they consider that a worthy sacrifice?" She stared down at the device, trying to keep her will neutral. If she had to command it, she would, but that needed to be a last resort.

"EDI," she called into the open channel. "Find me a way to blow this machine and all these stasis pods to hell."

"Aye, Captain. Analyzing."

"Blow the stasis pods?" one of the commandos demanded, striding ahead as Javik's squad approached them. "There are a hundred thousand of my people in these things."

Shepard nodded and raised her Mattock, turning on the flashlight. Shining it into the closest pod, focusing the light on the banshee's face, she glanced back at the commando. "You recognize her?" The small slice of cruelty slid down her throat, bitter and slick, but helped pull her back, centering her. Softening her voice, she said, "These aren't your people any more. Mourn them, but don't delude yourself about being able to save them."

She turned off the light and looked to Nihlus. "We should police up whatever we can find to help accomplish the whole blowing this place to hell maneuver."

A quick nod answered her, and he started calling out orders, rallying everyone over to the passage back to the surface.

Javik approached the machine, his lips drawn back to bare his teeth. He walked right up to the chia and stared up at the prothean encased within. After a moment, Shepard saw his shoulders rise and fall in a deep breath. "She was once the most stunning and remarkable of takune." His head tilted a little to one side. "I have often wondered what our offspring looked like, whether they favoured me or her."

A bitter chuckle cut the silence between them. "I hoped her genetic code dominated." One hand reached up. Shepard moved to stop him from touching it, but she didn't need to.

Another long breath and his shoulders dropped further. "She was once the most impressive of takune." Turning from the case, he met Shepard's stare with one formed of fire and ice. "She must be released, Shepard. Allow her to join her mate and children."

"Oh, yeah," Shepard said, her voice low and furious. "I will. I don't care if the entire mountain explodes because of it, I'm shutting this whole damned place down." She approached the case and looked up into Tashac's face. "It may have taken fifty thousand years too long, but you'll be free. I hope your family is waiting."

Swallowing the tears that balled in her throat and flooded her sinuses, Shepard spun away. "Come on, EDI, the pounding is getting louder. I'd bet an entire bag of peanut butter cookies that it's powering up to do something."

"It is currently channeling power to the pods holding the indoctrinated commandos. The machine has begun the transformation process. I believe I can utilize my cyber warfare suite to overload both computers. As their power source is nuclear, the resulting explosion will destroy everything within the chambers and collapse a considerable portion of the peak. You will need to evacuate to the Ypres prior to detonation."

Shepard looked to the pods with the captive asari, a pathetic sort of hope sinking clammy fingers into her guts. "Is there any way you can free the prisoners?"

"The machine has progressed too far into the process. I am sorry, but the prisoners are deceased, Shepard." Even knowing that she tended to anthropomorphize the AI, Shepard swore she heard genuine remorse in EDI's voice.

"Chia, have you finished downloading the computer data?" she asked, turning her attention to the gauntlet.

"We have not reached a consensus on whether the data contained within the computer core is worth the potential risk to millions of chia."

"Any chance of reaching a decision within the next minute?" Anger simmered, slowly rising to a boil. Planet ending threats didn't leave room for debate.

"The likelihood is negligible."

"Then do it. Retrieve the data. I'll take responsibility for their lives." Shepard lowered her arm. "Javik, the rest of you, come on, let's get the wounded to safety before this place blows." As she ducked between stasis pods, Shepard turned her attention back to bringing down the mountain.

"EDI, give me some good news, here. I want this place melted into slag in less than … ." She glanced over at Javik. "How long did it take you to get from the entrance to the chamber where you found us?"

Before the prothean could answer, EDI responded. "According to my scans, the ground party should be able to evacuate in under twenty-four minutes, given that several members are wounded. I will time and coordinate my attack to allow sufficient time for evacuation."

Shepard stomped down hard on the flare of hope that went off in her chest, sizzling up into her brain. Way too much could still go wrong. Way, way too much.

"Captain Shepard," EDI continued, "analysis of the pulse coming from the machine suggests a beacon or transmitter powering up a signal. I hypothesize that the machine was designed to indoctrinate anyone within range in order to defend the Collector base."

"Captain," Steve cut in, "what she isn't getting around to saying is that the signal is gaining strength with every cycle. In fifteen, twenty minutes, your indoctrination serum might as well be chicken soup for all the good it will do you."

The flare died. Always too good to be true. "Thanks, LT. EDI, get to work. This place goes up, even if we're still in it. We can't risk it. We're on our way out." She sped up, racing toward the wounded. "Miranda! Get these people up and headed out."

The operative looked up. "We have more commandos succumbing to the signal, Shepard. Two more just disappeared, and another three are experiencing hallucinations." She finished securing a bandage on Shiala's chest.

Shepard nodded, her gut clenched so tight it hung like ozmium in her belly. "Yeah, it's the pulse. It's an indoctrination signal and it's getting stronger. We need to get out now, or it'll get us all." She held out a hand to Shiala. "You ready to run?"

(A-N: October 1st, I have been writing Future Imperfect for two years. I posted that quick, uppity chapter within hours of getting the idea for a Nihlus LI, smartass Shepard story that would be a nice little break from the heavy drama of writing The Internal Machinations of Exploding Stars. HA! Now look where we are.

I have commissioned art to commemorate the momentous occasion, and have something pretty special planned, storywise. So, I will be putting out chapters this week aiming toward getting my big day all set up. As always, I so appreciate you readers … whether you've been here from the first day like Vulpixer, or just started reading a couple of weeks ago. You're unbelievably kind and supportive, and I love you for it.

A quick shout out to the people who have helped make this story what it is: theherocomplex, LilVy, Lachdannen, and Sinistra-sama ... thanks so much for beating up my sad words and making them shiny.)