AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry guys, was having some weird screw up with the upload, it evidently loaded correctly for one person, but incorrectly for others, including myself when I'm trying to see the weird shit myself. I look at the Preview, and I find this chapter fine and dandy. I go to it through the standard URL link that everyone else uses, I have the error. So I'm re-uploading, sorry for the notification if you were able to read it just fine

Commander John Shepard

Only three of us would fit in the hammerhead, and I'd much rather not reduce the ground team. Miranda would take the shuttle up with Garrus, Tali, and I so that she could take the shuttle back down while the rest of us got the Hammerhead down and to Vulcan station. Miranda would pick up Samara and Grunt and follow behind as we cleared a path. A hassle, but necessary. The Normandy making a slow pass by Hermes station, the comms facility, to hasten matters, and we got on our way. Simply speeding along towards the cave network that leads towards Vulcan.

Large cable structures along the walls, both transferring power and providing support for the cavern. It wasn't long before the rock took on a far more volcanic appearance and we exited the cavern, already a lava flow ahead with what I would figure to be a more minor geothermal plant on the other side. Still, simple for the Hammerhead to cross. The wall we needed to traverse naturally appeared, but some unnatural cuts in the rock that looked like they were made with the express purpose of being traversable by the project's own Hammerhead allowed passage. Though a damned turret in the small cave took some time to deal with. The hammerhead can't take a strong gust of wind without serious damage, and the weird angle of ascent meant that we were basically bunny hopping while firing as many missiles as we could at the turret while it was in view until it broke through the armor and destroyed it.

On the other side of the cave, a pair of larger lava flows and a more significant thermal plant. A bridge had been built over the lava flow for ground transports, but it had been blown in the center. Metal sunken into the lava flow. Still, the amount above should provide enough distance for a hammerhead thrust to get across. And once across, another carved step ladder for the Hammerhead up and over, bypassing the facility. Unfortunately, another damnable turret in our way that slowed us down. Past that, the same lava flow we crossed a moment ago but before the pair of lavafalls, just a singular larger one here. There were the remains of a suspension bridge, kept up by attaching supports to the raised rock walls of this lava flow to get across, though the other side was down the lava flow. Not enough of it remained, but there was large debris floating along, large rocks, mostly. Scans showed that the Hammerhead would be able to safely hop along them provided it didn't stay long. Between that and the remains of the bridge, we got across. Another lava flow, more bridge remains, but this time it was the main facility waiting on the other side. We got across and the shuttle, having been following behind us, set down beside us as the hammerhead came to a stop. There were two large garage doors, closed, ahead of us barring entry, but a few well-placed rockets let that fall forward, allowing entry. Shooting cameras as we went, we quickly realized Vulcan station was falling apart.

Pipes had burst or collapsed, catwalks had fallen or blown, steam blowing over our way across while the remaining pipes were struggling, looks like a bullet would cause a strong burst, blasting away anything in its way. Took a short amount of time but we found the bypass valves to redirect the steam flow where it blocked us from proceeding. Our hardsuits are all environmentally sealed and temperature regulated, but there's only so much it can protect from. We made our way up the stairs only to find LOKI mechs and a few Assault Drones waking up to fight. The LOKI mechs were simple enough, but the Assault drones perched up by some of the weak pipes. One shot and the burst took down a firing line, crashing them against each other and into a wall.

We made our way up a few floors, finding that the VI had put most of what it could muster here at Vulcan in the room we already cleared. Right before the control room and the override, only four LOKIs and three Assault Drones, a YMIR mech lumbering out but only when two Assault drones were left, the LOKI's quick and easy pickings. It should go without saying that it didn't last long, Grunt having gotten behind it and then wrestling it's MG arm up and being far too close to use its Rocket arm, we just lit it's less armored backside right the hell up, granted we still had to blast through the shields first, with our hail of gunfire it was quick work. Samara, however, did not have much to do in that engagement. Grunt being too close to use her own biotics effectively on the YMIR. Up one last staircase to the room with the override for an… interesting sight. There was a LOKI mech trying to destroy the Override. First by shooting at it, and then by kicking it. It turned its head back and saw us, the lights of its head green rather than the standard red and… it put it hands up?

"The fuck?" I muttered. Still, it's only a mech, so I shot it in the arm, blasting it off, and a shot to the other, the VI making the same strange noises as before, but no hint of "Stop" at the end this time. The mech lowered its head and the green faded to red. The Mech 'coming to,' and just… it began running around the room. Grunt deciding it would be fun to chase it around. Not at full speed, obviously, while I went and pulled the override, but slow enough to let it be a chase or to launch out in front, causing it to turn around and run away again. But we're done here now, and Grunt, having noticed, grabbed the Mech by its shoulder as it was running and launched it into the floor before curb stomping it, crushing the metal head beneath his rather large boot.

"Heh… heh… heh…"

Commander John Shepard

While Miranda, Grunt, and Samara returned to the shuttle, Garrus, Tali, and I took our seats in the Hammerhead and began backtracking, to get to Prometheus, we had to get back to… I'm not sure what to call it. It's the area just outside of Hermes and surrounds Atlas.

"John," Tali began. "Do the names of these stations mean anything? The translators aren't doing anything with them."

"Not surprising, I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Making conversation. I don't have a lot of power to manage over here. And I'm trying to keep a calm mind. Thinking about the insult to my people's suffering this 'Overlord' is, does not help."

"Yeah, I can't imagine it does. Yeah, the names have meaning. Old Human Mythology. Greek mythology, with the exception of Vulcan. That's Roman, came later, but has a lot of overlap. Same pantheon of gods essentially, just different names. Hermes? He was the messenger god. Obviously back in the days where you sent messages, and someone had to physically run them across the country if they didn't have an animal to ride. Horses, for us. Romans called him Mercury, which is also the name of the planet closest to Sol back in our home system. Vulcan is the Roman god of fire, but the Greeks called him Hephaestus, though they also gave him the forge, or blacksmithing for his sphere. Atlas and Prometheus are Greek, but they're two of the Titans, not gods. Their predecessors. Prometheus gave the gift of fire to man, and got punished by the Greek gods for it, and Atlas, I don't remember if he was being punished for anything more than being a Titan, but he was to forever hold the world upon his shoulders. Prometheus station fits well, at least with what these idiots were thinking, but Atlas is just interchangeable. Doesn't work in particular but doesn't… not work."

"For presumably being ancient mythology, you know a good deal about it," Garrus remarked.

"As far as for what's still classified as mythology?" I shrugged. "The Greek, and by extension the Roman mythologies, can be… interesting is a word for it. It's the root inspiration for a lot of things. Mostly kinds of monsters for fantasy settings. The Minotaur, the Hydra, Satyrs. Hell, even Cerberus is named after Greek mythology. The three headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld. The mythology itself can be funny because the majority of the stories even happened because Zeus, the king of the gods, is a massive fucking pervert who's endlessly horny, and had sex with a mortal woman who then either gave birth to the story's hero, or magically seduced her while in the form of an animal and she birthed an abomination. Like the Minotaur, half man, half bull."

"How… colorful…" Tali murmured.

"I think I'm starting to see why Humans are starting to rival the Asari in xenophilia," Garrus remarked.

"You know what? I'm not even going to touch that."

Eventually, we were close to Prometheus station, as evident as the Geth debris in the valley we were passing through, until the valley came to an end with a drop off with the head of the Geth ship and wide open landscape beyond that. But at the drop off, it led to a plateau that had several shield domes up, the entrance to the Geth ship also being shielded, including a giant fucking Geth cannon. With some visual enhancements, I could tell that the smaller domes housed shield generators, the cables transferring power likely underground. Well… that gun is probably strong enough to break the shields. But here's the thing… it has a long barrel, and kinetic barriers can't keep larger physical objects out, at least not unless they're travelling fast enough. So, I launched the Hammerhead forward getting as close as I could to the shield before the Turret began targeting. I then slowed down, and passed through the shield harmlessly, moved to the Turret's side, and let Garrus light it up. After a few missiles, the gun leaking coolant and plasma venting, the turret was clearly destroyed. The Hammerhead and Shuttle set down on a landing pad just outside the ship's entrance, which, was little more than an Airlock bored into the ship by Cerberus and designed to not reduce structural integrity. And on the far side of the airlock, a massive Geth was suspended within another barrier, seemingly interfaced with some of the ship's systems normally. It was a Prime, no doubt. And its eye glowed a light green, indicating the VI had control. Yeah, I'm not dealing with that later. I took out my shotgun, Grunt eager to do the same, and we both poked our barrels through the barrier before pulling the trigger, center mass, basically point blank at the Prime's torso. Tearing through wires and cables, hydraulic fluid and coolant spraying out as the lights flickered and died on the prime, and another blast for good measure.

It was strange, being inside a Geth ship, destroyed or no. I had seen the recordings from the teams that Infiltrated the Geth Cruiser for the Prothean relics some time ago. The design feels more alien than any other vessel I've seen. Unsurprising, as what can be more alien to an organic than the synthetic? All interior space is clearly strictly utilitarian. There's no purpose for physical Geth to walk around anywhere except for when physical maintenance of the ship is needed. But even then, they have other drone like bodies for that work. Meaning anywhere we walk only exists because it must for repairs or storage. The equipment Cerberus had scattered for their research looking incredibly out of place. And as we continued through the partially collapsed halls, the AI began screeching at us again. I still can't make out the first portion of it, but I swear the rest sounds like it's saying, "Make it stop."

Every Geth body we found, some of which were set up in Storage rooms by Cerberus, we shot. Right down the eye. Or Grunt just ripping the head off entirely. It's good that the Quarians designed the CPU to be in the head. And that the Geth haven't changed that, just adding some armor. Miranda had been accessing terminals as we passed, not with her Omni-tool obviously, checking data logs. One had an audio recording. Talking about someone named Lanigan having run around in Geth parts to scare people for Halloween the day before. I checked my chrono. Well shit. It's November 2nd.

"Ah damn it, really? How'd I lose track of that?"

"Of what?" Grunt asked, not really seeming to care regardless.

"Ah, nothing. Later, back on the ship," I grumbled.

"We have been busy, Shepard. In… some ways more than others," Miranda remarked, a sideways glance between Tali and I. Shit I'm gonna need to check is that really when that happened? Anyways, we kept pressing forward, still taking out any cameras and Geth we passed by all so that our exit would be that much easier. Eventually, we came to a flooded room, large, open, and after taking a moment to look around, it was clear that this used to be a hangar bay, as evident by the presence of fighter craft. Just as insectoid in shape. On the other side, I could see the override, to get there we'd have to cross the flooding. There were some platforms on rails, and a control panel on our side, but we have a pair of biotics. While I'm not eager to try to swim in this water, as it's probably electrified heavily, Samara and Miranda should be able to work together to get the lot of us across without bothering with whatever's up there. Samara lifted Grunt to the other side first, as he's the heaviest, but was able to send both Tali and I across at once, Miranda starting Garrus while Samara hurried that along effortlessly. The pair of them just using their own biotics, in Miranda's case, for an extra-long jump, and in Samara's, to basically float across. The sensations were odd, but I've felt em before. Shot a few more inactive Geth and pulled the override. The VI made it clear it was not happy, screaming at us as I pushed the override switch back into place. And it had no Geth, at least in here, to wake up on us. We backtracked, hurrying that process as best we could. With less Geth to wake on us, the VI was seeming to resort to power surges with explosive results, trying to block our path. It only served to delay us by seconds, and almost before we knew it, we had returned to where the Prime was at the entrance. A few Geth from other areas had managed to make it there, but less than us, making them easy targets, and they continued to come in almost single file, and we simply left back through the airlock. All that remains now, is Atlas.

Commander John Shepard

On our way, Archer let us know that once inside, all we should need to do is access the main server room to be able to shut him down. Because, you know, that's a great place to have a dangerous VI experiment connected. And we arrived at the bunker in short time, leaving the Hammerhead and shuttle just outside, and taking the elevator down. What a lovely entrance, a man in the secretary seat with his head popped by a plasma round, blood and melted brain and bone having pooled into his lap or against the wall behind him. And of all things a soda machine infected with the sickly green of the VI. But… why was it playing an audio log from Archer?

"Log number 155.2. For years, my brother's condition has been a handicap but now it may be the key to our project. His autistic mind might be our breakthrough. He can communicate with the Geth! Such a wondrous grasp of mathematics! It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 22nd century." My hand clenched hard around the foregrip of my Mattock.

"Miranda, I don't suppose you know if he's high functioning? That would at least make me less inclined to beat Archer to a pulp," I asked.

"He did say that David volunteered. But then why would the log have him describe it as a handicap?" Miranda added.

"What's this about?" Tali questioned.

"Autism. It's a mental disorder. If that doesn't translate, maybe Quarians don't have that, or at least something that's different enough to warrant a different name. Veetor was 'nervous in crowds,' right? I figure that's a disorder of some kind, so not too terribly different. People with this have a tendency to be smart as hell, Math, science, tech, at least with one of those. Socially, they struggle hard. High functioning? They at least don't need a lot of help and can live a largely normal life. And I could trust to make their own decisions," I explained. "If he's not, then I'd never call that a volunteer." Tali was quiet. Everyone was, as we proceeded. More bodies, plasma scoring on the walls. Down a hall, I have to figure in the VI's attempts to at least slow us, pushing one door's button opened another instead. There were Geth bodies on the ground, look like they got hit pretty hard by something, we still shot them to be safe. Up ahead, three different doors. As we approached, they all three closed on us before their haptic interfaces lighting up and changing display like a slot machine before green, for unlocked, orange, for locked, and red for broken before one of them, the door on our left, opened for us, and another log from Archer began to play.

"Log number 157.8: Unless we get results, The Illusive Man is shutting us down next week. I have no choice. I'm going to tap David directly into the Geth neural network and see if he can influence them. The danger should be negligible. David might even enjoy it." My grip tightened once again. Sounding less and less high functioning by the moment. I couldn't see Miranda's face through the helmets, but her body language was telling me plenty. Her posture was that much less perfect for starters. No one said anything, we had to get an elevator up to us. But the controls, while not busted, were… fucked with. We could only get it to rise two levels, while we were on the seventh. We found a terminal behind us that raised it by another three, and a nearby monitor lowered it by one, to level 4. Up by three again, and the elevator came to our floor. But instead of opening normally, something began cutting through and we took cover immediately, making a wall of guns. Once it opened, a Geth prime and two standard Geth were on the other side. Samara's biotics slammed one of the standards into the side of the Prime, which staggered it into the other, immobilizing it for critical seconds between the Prime and the wall, while we mag dumped into the prime. An overload from Tali and myself finishing off the last standard Geth. The VI howled. The elevator, when we tried to use it on the inside, went all Tower of Terror on us. I had been on the ride years ago, when I was a kid, and my parents were both on leave. But this was quite the different atmosphere to a nice family vacation. Still, after the literal ups and downs, we ended up at the bottom of the elevator, no worse for wear.

The door opened, and there were more Geth. Fortunately, these were inactive and hooked up to what I could only describe as a Geth charging station. We shot them as another log began to play.

"Log number 168.4: I'd be lying if I said no harm could come to David. His autistic mind is as alien to me as an actual alien. Anything could happen when we plug him in, but I have to try, don't I?"

"Miranda?" I called out nonchalantly. "Don't try to stop me from knocking his teeth out. Or… anything, really, to him. It won't end well."

"Don't worry. I'll be helping." That surprised me, pleasantly.

"Oriana?"

"I'd hook myself up to the Geth a thousand times before I'd even consider hooking her up. Much less if she couldn't make the choice herself." I just gave her a nod, and we continued. Arriving at the server room.

"Defensive positions, not sure what might happen," I warned. Every corner of the room had a member of the squad pointing a gun at it by the time I put my hand against the haptic interface to unlock it and begin the shutdown. I felt a jolt of electricity before the room went dark, a surge of electricity popped out giving a jolt to the squad, but I didn't feel it. I was too busy screaming as my limbs, and my insides from the neck down felt like they being cooked in sun fire and turned inside out by a black hole, and my own body moved against my will, quickly towards the door that opened behind us. I heard nothing, everything taking on a green tint and the door shut behind me as I collapsed onto my knees. It was excruciating and I threw up inside of my helmet. The internal systems quickly starting cleanup, a vacuum to suck it up and out into the fluid recovery while some of the water ration sprayed out to wash. That's how it all works, but none of it registered at the time. My neck was turned to look to the side, and I saw Archer walking alongside who I assumed was David and a Cerberus tech down the hall through a closed door. I was not in control of my body as it got up and followed. Just a fucking passenger.

Is this how indoctrination feels?

There was a window ahead that I was made to stop and look through, the VI began screeching again but at the end I could distinctly hear the human voice yelling 'Stop' rather than it sounding more digitized. It was a terrified voice. This window was looking down, clearly at the test itself. The VI's… face display had a mouth and nose this time as well, one that moved with the speaking. There were wires and supports in the center around… something. Someone? But it was encompassed by some dark sphere. Was it really there? Or part of this… Matrix bullshit? It continued to walk me along into another room.

"Square root of 906.01 is 30.1. Square root of 912.04 is 30.2," a new voice I had yet to hear was speaking. David, clearly. I could see him sitting cross legged on the ground in front of Archer, and a Geth hooked up in some sort of chair beside them. Archer was using a data pad.

"Time on this project is running out. There are no options left," Archer began. "How to get the Geth's attention?" The Geth made some… noises in response, and David sat up, responding with a rapid fire of zeroes and ones. I suppose those 'noises' was rapid 'verbal' binary that David had caught and knew how to respond with. The Geth turned its head and 'spoke' again. David turned to Archer. "The robot says hello." Archer dropped his data pad, frozen in shock. Why the hell would that be a Geth's response? A new display, David and Archer with a few other scientists, and a Geth platform upright, attached to a machine and suspended in the air.

"David, I want you to order the Geth to take a step forward." David spoke binary again, and the Geth took a few steps in the air forward.

"How does he do it?" One of the other scientists questioned, amazed. David sat back onto the ground; legs crossed.

"David is a mathematical savant. His autistic mind can break the Geth 'language' down to its roots, binary, obviously, and while he can't mimic any phonetics, of which there aren't technically any, he can recreate it in binary. In addition to his photographic memory, he's basically a human computer."

"And you're sure he can interface with the Geth neural network?"

"I do."

"Is that even safe, doctor?"

"I see no harm in finding out," he shrugged. Fucking idiot. The displays changed. David was repeating his square roots while Archer was working at a terminal.

"David, can you repeat my notes from Thursday's experiment?" he asked. David recited another square root. "David! Please pay attention." David put his hands against his head and began to shake.

"Loud! It's getting loud in here!" Archer took a deep breath and put a hand on David's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that. Would you mind repeating my notes from Thursday's experiment?"

"Log 187.3: The experiment showed no discernable patterns of Geth obedience. End dictation now, David. Hell, The Illusive Man will have my head for this."

"Thank you. And how are you feeling today?" David returned to his square roots.

"Earplugs would be good." I was being moved again, through a room, down a hall, and down an elevator. I was in front of the… experiment now, in the same room. I could hear David repeating his square roots again, starting with nine hundred… whatever, being the square root of 30.1. But he was doing it rapidly, faster than normal, his voice stressed badly. Archer was working a terminal in front of… the sphere, and another tech beside him on another. I could still see the wires.

"We're ready. Open a connection to the Geth network." A moment passed.

"QUIET!" David screamed as the VI face appeared above, Geth platforms, armed Geth platforms, surrounding Archer and the tech. The two putting their hands up.

"David no! Tell the Geth to stand down!" David continued to scream.

"QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" The displays disappeared, the VI began to have its strange screeching, the one with no language, while targets appeared in my vision over the wires. And I realized I could move my body again. Everything still had the green Matrix tint, but I could move. I reached for my Mattock, and just laid clip after clip into the wires until the targets moved, the VI continuing the screeching. I think David just fought the VI out of my… my cybernetics, it must be.

"Pull the plug! Tell Vulcan station to cut all power!" I heard Archer shout.

"It's too late! We've lost control!"

"David! You have to stop this!"

"David doesn't want to be here!" I spent the last of my rifle's clips on the last cable, and then the green went away, my sight returned to normal. The sphere vanished and in the center of it…

"My god…" David was suspended in these… abominable restraints, naked. Some sort of neck brace partially grafted into his skin, two tubes going into his mouth and likely down his throat. His eyelids being forced open by clamps. Needles and other tubes attached to his arms.

It was a torture machine. Fucking medieval.

"Commander! Wait! Don't do anything rash," I heard from behind me. From the last fucking voice I wanted to hear right now.

Tali'Zorah vas Neema

No, no, no, no, no, no, come on! Open damn it! I don't know what had happened. The room went black and John began screaming as we were all shocked, a non-lethal amount of electricity, but enough to leave us unable to react as John stumbled out of the room, the door locking behind us. Grunt's been breaking them open, but it's taking time and I'm terrified. I don't even know how many more are left. Grunt began to charge the next door, and then, suddenly it opened, the Krogan charging through empty space and coming to a stop in another room. Now I could hear a voice. It sounded like Dr. Archer. He was asking for someone to stop. I hope that means its John, and that he's alright, not something else. There was an elevator that dropped only a short ways so instead of calling it up we simply hopped down, a bit of pain in my legs as defiance, but nothing bad. I looked to see that John had the Doctor pinned against a wall, his arm pressed against his throat as his right hand, balled into a fist, slammed into the side of Archer's head. He was bloodied, stopping halfway as I saw what was at the center of the room. A Human, David, clearly, suspended and restrained in the air in such a… horrid manner. But I had something to do.

"John!" I called out, finishing my run to his side as I grabbed his arm. The monster's breathing was very labored now. I had half a mind to let him finish, but I needed John back in control. "John, what happened?" His breathing slowed and he turned his head to the side. He stepped back, dropping Archer to the floor.

"I need to get him out of there." I noticed that there was a quiet voice over some sound system, repeating square root formulas. John rushed over to David and reached an arm out as if to grab before stopping. "How do I get him out?" he murmured. "Someone… help me figure out how to get him out of this… godforsaken thing!" He knew it was possible if we just started… pulling wires we'd harm him.

The bastard wheezed, and I saw he had his arm raised, pointing to the side of the room. There was a terminal knocked onto its side, onto the ground. John ran over in a panic almost, picking it up, turning it on. I noticed Miranda was just… frozen. Staring at David, her weapon having fallen to the ground beside her. Garrus was refusing to look. Samara, stoic, but… off. Somehow. And Grunt was, just Grunt.

"Come on, come on," I heard John muttering. "There." Wires began to hiss, even slacken. The wires and needles popped out of his arms first but the hardware that went through his arms, that the wires entered from remained. Then the arm restraints opened, letting them fall to his sides.

"Square root of 906.01 is 30.1. It all seemed harmless." David's voice was repeating on the sound system. His neck brace was still partially grafted into his skin, but John ran back over and helped pull the tubes out of his throat, the clamps on his eyelids opening and raising, allowing the tear stained eyes to blink. The clamps keeping his head in place opening, releasing, David's head falling as far forward as it could, the sound system silencing, his murmuring now just coming from him directly. John was there to catch David as the restraints suspending him released. He would have fallen to the ground otherwise. Miranda had now approached the broken body of Archer. She was down on a knee, her weapon in her hand.

"Why?" she asked.

"I had no choice," he managed an answer. "The demands upon us were incredible. The Illusive Man does not broker failure. You know that." He wheezed, then spat out a tooth. "I was tasked with preventing a war with the Geth. It would have been bloody. So bloody…"

"And this wasn't?"

"I cannot apologize for radical ideas. If my work prevents-" he coughed up blood. "A million mothers, from mourning a million of their children… my conscience will rest easy."

"Look at your brother. What you did to him. He trusted you. And you tell me your conscience will rest easy?" Miranda answered quietly. Archer looked down.

"The… the damage may not be permanent. He may recover some semblance of his mind…" Miranda bashed the butt of her pistol against his already broken nose. He cried out in pain.

"You are the monster Shepard has told me Cerberus is. You'd sacrifice your own brother for your ambition?" Archer turned from Miranda and looked at David, Shepard was sitting on the ground beside him, he's taken his helmet off. David was just sitting there, rocking back and forth.

"Square root of 906.01 equals…"

"30.1…" Archer murmured. "What I've done to him is unethical. If he dies… unforgivable. Let me take care of him. Please."

"You had your chance. And look at what you've done." Miranda stood, and walked towards John.

"Shepard," she began quietly, as to not disturb David. "What will we do with him?" He was silent a moment.

"I have an idea. With a bit of luck, and good security, he'll never have to even hear about Cerberus ever again. He'll be well taken care of."

"Ok."

"Can you find him some clothes?" Miranda nodded. "Thank you."

"How lo-" Grunt began. Samara put her hand to the Krogan's mouth, surprising him.

"As long as is required."

"N-No!" Archer coughed out, falling onto his side. Shepard glared at him with a fury I've only seen a few rare times. He set his pistol onto his lap.

"I've half a mind to use this right now if not for your brother. If you even think of coming for him, know it has your name on it."

"W-Where-"

"You lost your right to know."