Note: I just want to thank the ones that have stuck with this story and taken the time to leave a review. I have push notifications on my email, and it just feels so good to get one letting me know I have a new review or follower. I don't know who likes or dislikes having their names said as a shoutout, but I assume you know who you are, and we'll leave it at that just in case. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy where I take this! Got some pretty cool ideas in the works. Let me know.

...~^~...

Jane sucked in a deep breath and felt her eyes focus in and out. She was dizzy and faded, and she worried she might hurl. Shaky palms reached for the ground beneath her in the hopes of finding gravity. Her fingers pressed against cold, hard plating. It shook and rumbled, but it was flat against her back, and it served to console her twirling stomach. As she lay her head against the moving ground, she let herself relax. Each one of her senses were amplified, and the most she could even think of doing was to simply lay and accept it. Pounding of something akin to footsteps reverberated around her while her vision found and focused on small particles of dust hovering all around. When she inhaled, she thought she could feel the dust enter her lungs, and move about inside before following the exhale back out. Jane vaguely wondered where Nihlus went and if he were feeling the same as her.

Shepard…

She swore she could hear someone calling to her through the pounding. Everything seemed muffled now, and her throat barely made a sound when she attempted to reply. She could say everything in her mind, but of course, that was no way to communicate.

We have much to discuss and are running out of life.

Jane closed her eyes. 'I'm running out of life? Finally. Is it almost over?'

A vibrating hum from under her back rattled her core. It was warm and comforting.

Your journey is only halfway through. I can hear your song…It is the song of an aged being, though you appear so young. Time is of no matter for you.

A scoff escaped Jane's lips as she smiled sadly. 'Time is everything for me. It traps me, and uses me. I can't escape it.'

But you've escaped it already. You must remember the time that mattered most. You must remember your purpose. Your song is the key to remembrance; once you sing along with it, the universe will know your power.

There it was again. For the second time in this loop, someone she didn't know asked her to remember something. In the depths of her foggy mind, she tried with all her might to make some lost connection. To imagine the song that this being spoke of. But how could she?

'What is my song of power? What does that mean?'

Make a deal with me, being. I will help you remember your song, but in exchange, you must set me free. Let me go into the deep universe and rebuild my broken chorus.

Jane nodded slowly, hoping the moving ground was the one she was talking with, and that it would feel her acquiescence. Anything.

Speak with the ancient one that puppeteers. It knows your song well, and knows why you wrote it. It has met you a thousand times over, and will help you every time. Just as I have always led you to it.

'I know this puppeteer. You mean the Thorian. I met him last time.'

Yes.

In a rush of air and light and sound, everything fizzled to dark. Jane felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing for the longest time. Then she was awake, blinking her eyes slowly into a bright light far above her. The ground no longer shook and she noticed a certain silence in the air. When she moved to raise herself, a cold energy field engulfed her being and forced her back down.

Benezia's voice rang too loudly in her ears, and Jane flinched. "Here you are, Shepard. I know how this ends for me. I saw it in your consciousness when I joined with you. But I need answers before you bring my death."

While her body refused to move, her lips could. And she found her voice in reply to the cryptic asari. "You won't get anything more from me."

The Matriarch frowned in deep thought. "Saren chases a secret he does not understand, and I had hopes of beating him to it. It seems I was put in this world at the wrong place and time. According to your mind, I am destined to die here, without ever finding the knowledge I seek. According to your…tries…I came to free the Rachni for Saren. Ever since I saw you this time, I have trained in secret. Stowed away my brain. What I saw with you is enough to compel the most fallen of souls, and I can no longer give my life to him. I refuse to believe that I'm destined for death in servitude. I refuse to believe that my purpose is blindly following an arrogant man to my doom."

And with a few simple sentences from the asari's mouth, Jane found herself completely and utterly torn. What was the correct course of action? If she understood the woman correctly, she had said in so few words that when she joined with her consciousness back on Saren's frigate, Benezia saw all that Shepard had seen. She had lived what Jane lived in a matter of minutes. That made sense to her, as she had thought back to the previous time loop when she melded minds with Liara. But one recurring detail stuck out to her; The use of the word 'thousand'. How many times had some wise being mentioned that number? Benezia said it when referring to how many loops Jane had experienced. The odd, vibrating ground, which Jane now realized to be the Rachni Queen that she had set free last loop, had used it when it told her of how many times she had been helped. But these accounts didn't make sense, because Jane only knew of a handful of times that she had experienced 'looping', and only one other one where she met any of these strange people. It was both disconcerting and intriguing.

If they were accurate in their measurement, and true to their words when mentioning how she couldn't remember, then it would be wise to keep them around. In her previous confrontation with Benezia at this frozen station, Jane had killed her. But that was without Liara and Nihlus. This whole loop had been different than the last…what if she was the one causing it? What if the time loops were a reset under the condition that Jane made an error? How could she know if she didn't try?

"What if I don't kill you? What if this reiteration is unique, and I control the changes?" As Jane watched Benezia's face fall into a blank stare, she wondered to herself if it was really this easy to change history. This could be a very terrible idea. But it was too tempting an option to resist. If Saren was the enemy, then the enemy of his would be someone that betrayed him. And the enemy of Jane's enemy could become her friend. Of course, it was never that simple. She would have to keep Benezia in a controlled, confined environment to preserve their safety. But her knowledge could be invaluable against the rogue agent. Not to mention how much more the Matriarch seemed to know that could aid in Jane's own fight against the universe itself. So it was settled. Liara's mother would live.

Jane found that Benezia's biotic hold on her had loosened, and she was able to lift herself up with the aid of the railings beside her. As the asari woman's eyes darted around as if in some sort of frantic hallucination, Jane set to work on the control interface. She ignored Benezia's mumbling of ideas and time and continued to bypass the VI lockdown. Mira reminded her in its synthetic voice that the Rachni subject was dangerous and a contaminant. The VI discontinued the alarm and shone a spotlight down beneath their platform to highlight the Queen. The Rachni leader stood, as if she was proud to have light shine on her dark plating. Jane looked at it, and shared a silent moment of understanding. Though the being spoke directly to her in a haze, she remembered every word of it clearly. This particular time loop did not require the use of a surrogate body to converse with Jane. She preferred it this way; the talking dead body as a conduit of speech was unnerving to say the least.

With a small nod to the Rachni Queen, she pushed the all clear to decontaminate the lower chambers and open a bypass door of escape. The ancient Queen didn't need another invitation, and stalked off slowly to her freedom. Nihlus had been underneath the insectoid, and upon her leaving, Shepard caught sight of him. She clasped magnetic bindings on Benezia's wrists and pushed the still mumbling matriarch to be seated.

"What was all that?" Nihlus's voice was groggy and scratchy, but Jane felt relief to know he wasn't hurt.

"I think I just changed something again. I'll tell you about it on the Normandy."

"How's the Doctor?" He nudged his chin towards the lifeless body on the platform.

Jane helped him to his feet and dusted off the back of his torso. "She'll be alright. The hardest part will be getting Benezia out of here. I'm not sure if she'll come quietly."

"We'll make her."

…~^~…

Chakwas sighed and shook her head at the two Spectres. "It's no use. She's completely unresponsive. We've tried therapeutic treatments, bio chemical treatments, Implant treatments…"

"Implant treatments?" Nihlus inquired curiously. That didn't sound pleasant.

"Yes, the Matriarch is equipped with…let's just say multiple high quality amplifiers aside from the base biotic implants."

Jane rubbed at her temples. "So you're saying I just brought a super-villain on board with us. Great."

"She seems harmless enough now. Every once in a while she'll turn and look at you, but that's about it. Do your worst, I'm sure it won't matter." The Doctor very informally interjected and quickly left the three alone in the medical bay, all the while mumbled about a drink or two.

So Jane and Nihlus stood awkwardly next to each other, not knowing what should be done to further their progress. Nihlus spoke up first. "You said something about the Rachni Queen helping you? Maybe Benezia knows about that?"

Jane shrugged and pulled two chairs next to the bed. She leaned onto her elbows and studied the Asari. It was odd at first, to be looking so closely at someone who was very obviously awake, but completely vegetative. She didn't move, she didn't blink. If one didn't know better, one might even fail to recognize that she was breathing at all.

"I know you can hear us, Benezia. I spoke with the Rachni." She paused to look at the woman's face for a sign of acknowledgement. Without a sign of understanding, Jane continued warily. "She told me I needed to find the puppeteer, the Thorian. But you saw into my head. You knew these things already, and you wanted answers, yes? I need your help in this. You might wonder how these things happen to me, but I don't have an explanation. I have a feeling you saw more than what I know, and I need that knowledge. We can learn and discover in tandem. You tell me what you know, and I tell you what I know."

The sickly looking Matriarch turned her head slowly to face Jane. After a few moments, the asari closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't know whether to rejoice or regret. I feel the pull of Sovereign in the recesses of my brain and I fear my choice was wrong."

"Just think back to everything you saw. You admitted it yourself, that this is the first time loop where you lived. How does that feel, knowing I did that, and not Sovereign?"

The silence that followed an ugly discovery was unnerving for every party in the room. Benezia shifted uncomfortably in her restraints, and Nihlus swallowed in a nervous fashion. Even Jane doubted herself slightly as she realized that she truly had made a change, and that was powerful.

"Leave me in peace to ponder my new-found life, then." The matriarch laid her head to rest on the pillow and closed her eyes, refusing to continue.

They left the room practically in a rush. Nothing was said as they made their way through the halls and around the corner. Upon entering the elevator, neither Nihlus nor his Spectre counterpart attempted to move. The door closed and the holopad lit up, prompting them to choose their floor. Nihlus was closer to the pad, and when Jane noticed his refusal to press anything, she reached her arm across. He grabbed her wrist and held it in place. Green eyes bore into blues, and he struggled with himself to continue. This was about to get ugly, but something needed to be said before things got out of hand.

"Nihlus, what's wrong?"

"What you said back there. About changing things. It sounded…dark. I'm all for helping you figure out these time loops; but not if brings about that sort of change in you. I'm training a Spectre, not another Saren."

He saw how taken aback she was, and it hurt him inside. Nihlus was starting to realize that his talent for diplomacy only applied to everyone besides Jane. For some reason, he could never get the words right with her. He only wanted to help her, and let her know that he was worried. The way he had actually said it made it seem like a chastising.

"…I didn't mean that." He mumbled, cringing at how pathetic the attempt to mend his previous words was. Upon stealing a glance at her and finding her quietly standing at rest with her eyes trained on the floor, he wished he hadn't said anything. He wondered now if she had meant what she said to Benezia, or if she had been saying it with a hidden motive. His thoughts took him back to their time on Noveria. Jane had spilled so much of her inner workings unto him before their fall. She had revealed it all the while knowing that nothing could come of it. The truth made him nervous, and it was all her fault. If only she hadn't have told him. He could have continued being a professional, neutral, monotone Spectre that would address her as such. The anger he held in the wake of the misunderstood rejection served to help him keep his focus on the missions.

Instead, he found himself unable to stay on track after bringing Benezia back to the ship. She would look at him, and much like after she first kissed him, his brain would go blank. That was why he had opened up to her so easily at first. She had been so friendly, so understanding, so accepting of a turian, and so damn easy on his eyes. He tried to analyze and approach his attraction scientifically. There was always a reason, an explanation, for everything. So in his mind, he told himself he liked looking at her because her hair was bright red and unique. It mimicked the turians' custom of face paint. He told himself he enjoyed her company because she was the closest to his level. And he told himself he trusted her because of her merits as a soldier. But the fact of the matter was that words could never correctly explain what went through his head when he was around her. Every time he tried to think and identify it, there was nothing. Just her.

With a frustrated huff of breath, he pushed the indicator for the Cargo Bay. He felt the platform jerk and begin its slow descent, and perhaps that was his cue. Whatever it was that motivated him to reach out and grab her waist, he didn't know. All he knew was that his hands were on her back, and her body was against his. The plating of his 'lips' were on her soft pair and his eyes were closed and his breath was filled with the scent of her. Her small fingers were gripping his mandibles, reminiscent of the first time, but with more fervor now. She moved her lips against him and pulled his face closer to her by the hooks of his jaw. She was against the wall and Nihlus couldn't think of anything. No thoughts, just her. Just the feel of her hips underneath his palms. The feel of her warm mouth sending electricity through to his gut. The feel of her hair tickling his eyelids.

Then the doors were open and they were apart in an instant. Nihlus cleared his throat and adjusted the collar of his suit-lining. His peripheral caught Jane doing the same. They were silent as they exited the elevator, and stayed that way as they separated and moved to opposite ends of the Bay. Wrex nodded at him, non-the-wiser. Polishing pad and wax in hand, he began buffing out the scratches left by the Rachni they encountered. It was going to be a long night.

...~^~...