Baggage

Korri did not react even as Jak and Lara tensed. She stared at the geth, her dark eyes wide.

"You said this is not real." Korri said carefully. "Am I having a nightmare?"

"No." Jak hugged her gently and she was shivering slightly. "You are in no danger, Korri. None."

"There is a geth standing there and I am in no danger?" Korri asked. She jerked. "I wanted to shout that. What is going on?"

"We are keeping you calm. The rachni and I are working to keep you calm." Lara said quietly, hugging Korri as well. "Your life has been stressful enough. AF-13765, please leave. She is terrified of you."

"Creator Korri has cause." The geth replied. "We wished to give apology, but we have hurt Creator Korri. We will depart." With that, the geth simply vanished.

"That is not possible." Korri said weakly. "I don't know a lot about geth, I am a medic, not a tech. But I do know they are linked to each other. With each one that links, the group gets smarter. When only one is present, it is not that smart. Certainly not smart enough to talk."

"That wasn't one geth, Korri. That was hardware, geth are software." Lara held her as the quarian shivered. Jak retreated just a little, but kept his arms around Korri as Lara soothed the other with both words and barely audible music. "AF-43765 is not a name, it is a designation for a unit of geth. Almost ten thousand of them." Korri's eyes went huge and Lara nodded. "I freaked too when I woke the first time." She slumped a bit. "Zumin was there and calmed me down. It took him a little while."

"I don't blame you." Korri slowly raised her arms and hugged Lara back. "They... geth destroyed my people. Drove us from our home world It was our fault, but they did it to us. And now, you humans have lost so many on Eden prime and so many lost at the Citadel." She bowed her head. "Why not me? I want to die. Why won't anyone kill me?" She begged. "Why didn't the geth kill me?"

"They don't want to." Lara said sadly as she hugged the now sobbing quarian. "You are sick and hurt and scared. But Korri… You are not alone now. Zumin was my friend. He helped me through the worst time in my life. What can I do but try to help you?"

"You can't." Korri said weakly. "No one can help me Drugs, somatic units, nothing works. I can't sleep. Even with all the help the Flotilla could give, It was slowly killing me."

"Korri." Jak shook his head. "You are asleep right now. Your body is recovering. But we needed to explain. To show you. AF-43765 did show you."

"You are working with geth?" Korri demanded, only to stiffen as Lara chuckled. "What?"

"Jak asked the exact same thing in the exact same tone, twice." Lara smirked at Jak's expression. "We had to explain when he was finally coherent, Zumin and I. He took a bit of convincing. Then to save a lot of lives, he gave up his memories of us. I spent years in recovery after the separation and then went looking for him. The last time, he was calmer and I had help from the rachni."

"Rachni." Korri looked around. "That is the music I hear." Both Jak and Lara nodded. "It is beautiful, but…" She shook her head. "Did my father know the rachni?"

"Not that I know of." Lara paused. "Then again, he did work to track me when I ran away to look for Jak. They got Illia in on it and found me quickly with her help. I don't know..." She paused as a new voice sounded in the mindscape.

"May I come in?" Illia asked. Jak and Lara looked at Korri who shrugged a little.

"What is one more load to my already broken mind?" Korri asked sourly. Jak smiled and hugged her again." This is weird."

"It is." Illia appeared nearby, her face worried. It cleared a little as she scrutinized the odd trio. "Since you are a medic, I thought you might like to know what is happening." Lara eyed Illia who smiled at her. "And Lara will pester me to find out as well."

"I do not pester." Lara said with a glower. She gasped as Jak tickled her 'Hey!" She batted at his hands and Korri stared at the pair, wide eyed.

"Don't mind them. They cannot help being human." Illia smirked at Jak's betrayed look. "Your body is different from mine and the rachni wanted to be totally sure there wouldn't be any complications before they treated you, but they are. You are in treatment now. Your blood is being filtered as we speak."

"My blood?" Korri asked, confused. "What was wrong with my blood?"

"Overabundance of fatigue toxins, low critical nutrients, too few carriers for the oxygen." Illia ticked off her fingers. "And the poison."

"Poison?" This from all three of the others.

"Yes." Illia shook her head. "Someone really did not want you leaving, Korri. Your father fled his captivity. They apparently did not want you dong the same." She sighed as Korri made a soft noise of grief. "Girl, it is okay. You are safe now. We will heal you."

"They will find me and kill me." Korri said weakly as Lara hugged her again. "I won't be safe anywhere."

"There are places that the quarians do not dare go." Illia said softly. "At the moment, we are in one of them. The quarians marines who took Jak and Lara managed to sneak into and out of the Veil, but the geth have warning now and such a tactic will not work again." Korri was shaking her head, but Illia was stern now. "And no, we are not in the Veil. Where we are is a secret. From everyone. Even me."

"You don't know where we are?" Korri perked up a little at that.

"We didn't know how they were tracking, but they were. A small quarian ship followed me as I left the fleet environs." Illia shrugged. "When we disabled the trackers in your suit, its onboard VI activated a toxin dispenser. If we hadn't had medics right there, you wouldn't have woken." She smiled a little. "Rachni have a thing for toxins, if you didn't know. They are very good with them, both the toxins and the antidotes now that they have reason to use them."

"Rachni were extinct." Korri said slowly. Illia nodded and the quarians continued slowly. "But now they are not?"

"That is a long story." Illia replied. "It involves greed and scientists with less common sense than a houseplant should have." Korri stared at her and then shivered. "For now? You are safe. We are building you a new suit, but you will need to be fitted for it. We have one of your father's self contained fabrication systems coming. It has a suit fabricator."

"A what?" Korri asked. "But..." She shook her head. "Where do the geth come into this?"

The humans looked at each other and then at Illia who shrugged. Jak spoke when no one else did.

"Well… From what I understand… It is like this... I was a patient in a mental ward. A human institution for the insane..."

Two hours later

Korri was crying softly and Lara was crooning to her as Jak finished explaining what he knew of his own past.

"...and then the geth found Lara and me on that slaver ship." Jak took a breath and continued. "Lara was all but dead. I was all but dead. But I was sending information in recognizable fashion and Lara was responding. Or she was sending and I was responding, they didn't know which. They were curious. I didn't remember any of this until recently. I cut myself off from them, to save a ship foll of colonists. Lara?"

"My first view of your father, Korri, was waking to find a blank faceplate in my view. I was strapped down and unable to move." Lara bowed her head. "I um… I screamed a lot. Not that I made any noise, the bullet that hit me tore through my speech center. It took the geth over six weeks to put my head back together, but they were motivated and careful. As a bonus, they worked hard to keep me all organic, no mechanical parts."

"And yet..." Korri mused. "You could still communicate with them and with Jak."

"Not sure how." Lara agreed. "But it works and I am glad it does." She smiled and hugged Korri again." The quarian hugged her back. "Illia?" She asked. "You had an idea?"

"Do you know anything about quantum entanglement, Korri?" At the quarian's look of bafflement, Illia shook her head. "Never mind. Suffice it to say, what the rachni do and now you three can is not telepathy, mind reading or anything like that. But it works similarly to what tales among my people and others say telepathy should work like. Someone says something in their mind and I hear it in mine. I try hard not to pry." She reassured Korri when the girl looked worried. "My queen takes her ethics very seriously and so do I."

A feeling of reassurance swept through the music that was still surrounding the four of them. Korri smiled at that and then she looked at the floor.

"I… Um..." The quarian shook her head. "Please don't hate me, but..." She paused as Jak coughed.

"Whatever you are going to say, Korri, we wont' hate you." Jak said with a smile as Lara hugged the quarian again. "But let me guess. Before you left, someone in Fleet security told you to betray us. Either let them know where you go or something like that." Korri stared at him, eyes huge and Jak sighed. "Korri, I know black ops when I see them. I lived such for years. The Admirals likely didn't know about what was done to you. Did they? I cannot see Shala'Raan for one condoning poisoning you. She doesn't seem the type for such tactics."

"I..." Korri swallowed hard and shook her head.

"Oh, Korri." Lara exclaimed, hugging the quarian tight. "You can talk here. No one else can hear you but us and we won't judge."

"After my first attempt, I woke somewhere I didn't know." Korri muttered. "They did things to me. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I didn't!" She seemed to shrink as Lara held her.

"What did they do to you, girl?" Lara demanded, her face angry.

"I don't remember it all." Korri was crying again as Lara held her. "It hurt and then it felt good. It was weird. I couldn't see and then there were pretty colors. I felt so strange. I couldn't think clearly."

"That was likely the plan." Jak's face was a terrible thing when the others looked at him. "After all, who is the best spy? Someone who cannot be a spy. Who would suspect a crazy person of being brainwashed?"

"Brainwashed?" Lara and Korri exclaimed. Illia would not meet their eyes when they looked at her.

"Illia?" Korri asked, a bit timid.

"There is a sour note in your mind, Korri." Illia said with a sigh. "The queen identified it. The hive is working to ease it or erase it, but they fear causing more damage. You are so hurt, girl. They do not want to cause more. It has likely added to your mental instability. Your body will sleep for some time to recover. Your mind, we can keep occupied with music until we can heal the damage."

"That sounds like the kind of thing Cerberus would do." Jak said with a snarl as he laid a hand on Korri's shoulder.

"It wasn't Cerberus." Korri said quietly as Illia laid a hand on her head. "They were all quarians, but no one ever spoke to me. They just did things now matter what I begged or promised. I woke back in the medical bay and thought it a nasty dream. Until I got instructions and obeyed them." She shook her head. "I nearly set fire to the Rayya because I was trying not to do what they told me to do!"

"And you couldn't tell anyone." Jak sighed and hugged her. "Because who could you trust?" Korri nodded, silent. "Well, trust us, Korri." Jak said with a grunt. "We are not going to let you go without trying everything we can." She shook her head mutely and Jak sighed. "Illia, she cannot believe us. Can we link to her? Like Lara and I are? We need to show her and there is simply no way she will believe it any other way."

"Jak..." Illia stepped back, her eyes worried. "If you do, she may not be able to separate. You and Lara cannot without killing each other."

"Good." Jak said with a smile as he took Korri's head in his hands. "Lara? Do you remember what Zumin taught you? My memories are secondhand and fuzzy." Lara smiled and nodded, shifting her grip to hold Korri's hands.

"What are you-" Korri's eyes bulged as Jak's hands were suddenly glowing with dark green energy. "What? No!"

"Tell me true, Korri." Jak said as she froze in place, eyes wide in terror. "What is the single thing you want most in your life? What have you desired your entire life and been denied at every turn?" He took a deep breath and then blew out half of it, focusing himself. "I know what I wanted. I wanted to belong again. I had it in the Alliance, for a time. Until I was hurt. Then I was always on the outside, looking in. I wanted to be part of something and I was always a bit apart. Always alone in a crowd."

"No, please." Korri begged. "You cannot trust me. They did things to me. I was..." She broke off as Lara laid a finger over her lips.

"Korri." Lara said softly as energy flared from her to encase Korri in a cocoon of glowing white light. "I enslaved people. Three hundred and thirty seven sentients came into my care and I put wires in them, made them less than people. Things. I did that, Korri and I will never be able to forget it or forgive myself for it. I was a slave too, so I had no choice, but I did it. I did it to Jak."

"I killed people, Korri." Jak was very quiet as the energy from his hands encompassed her head, surrounding her as Lara's white energy seeped though every cranny and crack. "I was a murderer. In war, there is no 'fair'. There are those who survive and those who do not. I survived. Your father was a prisoner of war, Korri. Not a member of the Migrant Fleet. He didn't hurt anyone, did he?"

"No." Korri sounded distant now, her eyes had gone far away. "What are you doing?" She asked, mildly.

"Connecting our neural linkage to you." Lara replied as her energy coalesced with Jak's around Korri's head. "Sister."

"Sister?" Korri inquired, her tone small. "But… I..."

"No 'buts'. Sister." Jak said with a grunt as power flared around them both. Illia stepped back again, eyes wary. "You are not alone. You will not be alone. We have a proposal for you, if you wish. But only after we have helped you the way we can."

"I am not worth this." Korri said weakly.

"We disagree." Jak and Lara chorused quietly as the energy flared and then vanished. Korri gave a small cry of fear and then her face turned to wonder as Jak and Lara released her.

"What?" Korri stared at Jak and then at Lara who smiled ta her. "And they said I was crazy!" She protested. "That could have killed you both!"

"And leaving you to cry alone in your mind would have killed you." Lara said with a grin as she hugged Korri again. "Welcome, sister."

"But if I am brainwashed..." Korri pleaded, staring at Illia who shrugged.

"Brainwashing works on a single mind, Korri." Jak spoke as if from experience. No one asked. "I have heard stories about mass brainwashing, but alien minds are alien. Different physiology, different mindsets. I am not going to lie. There is danger. But I was a pilot, Lara is a medic and you… You can be whatever you want to be now."

For a long, long moment, Korri just stared at Jak, eyes huge. Then she slowly closed her eyes and opened her mouth. The song that came from her lips was in no language that Jak knew. Lara was equally mystified, but the tune was beautiful. Korri slowly stood up, Lara helping her when the quarian would have stumbled. Jak simply retreated to stand with Illia as Korri continued to sing. Illia winked at Jak and he smiled. It was clear when that this was what Korri wanted because she was suddenly standing erect, her features proud and haughty as she glared around. Then, like waft of dream, the song was gone and the old Korri stood there, her posture timid.

"Damn, girl.' Lara shook her head as she hugged the quarian. "That is talent. I sing, you make music. There is a big difference. Holy, I wish I had a recorder in here!" Illia just smiled when they looked at her, but said nothing.

"I didn't think I was any good." Korri said weakly as Lara hugged her tighter. "I never sang in public before."

"Let me guess." Jak said savagely enough that Lara recoiled, staring at him in shock. "Someone told you, over and over, that you were worthless, useless?"

"My foster father." Korri said softly, eyes downcast. "He had no other children. Just me."

"Well, he didn't know everything. Especially about kids" Jak stepped forward and hugged Korri as well. "Sister, no matter what, you are not alone. We may not be able to be separated from each other, but feel my mind. Do I want that?"

"No." Korri sounded stunned. She stared from him to Lara who smiled wider and hugged her again. "You both want me to sing for you and never stop as long as it makes me happy. But the Fleet, the geth, I..." She slumped.

"Korri, we are all broken." Jak spoke softly as he and Lara held their newest sister and she shuddered as they held her. "What we all need is a fresh start and I think I may know where to find one."

"Together?" Korri asked as Lara and Jake embraced her and her arms came up to enfold them as well. She was hardly the only one crying now.

"Together."