Chapter 20: Siege

The rachni vessel was massive. From a distance Shepard had misjudged its size, only fully realizing its impressive bulk upon their approach in what apparently passed for a shuttle among the insect-like rachni. Its pearlescent hull had to have been as long as a turian dreadnought, possibly even approaching the size of one of the quarian liveships he had seen when he had encountered the Migrant Fleet.

Memory of the quarian fleet struck him suddenly. Events had occurred so rapidly that the Spectre hadn't had time to come up with a proper plan for the Flotilla to retake Rannoch. Legion had claimed to have a plan but he'd never reviewed it in detail. His only solace was in knowing that they had made their retreat in an orderly fashion. As long as the Admirals weren't foolish enough to re-enter Rannoch's system the rogue geth should have remained neatly contained.

"Too damn many ifs and maybes," he sighed.

The wander-singers' decisions worry you. Their actions are not your responsibility.

It was the darker of the two large rachni. Shepard had decided that its song reminded him of a cello or other deeply resonant stringed instrument.

"They're free to make their own decisions... but I don't want them to make one that gets their entire species killed."

The other rachni with its reddish carapace sang into his mind, the sound of lighter strings being plucked and awash with blues and greens. Amusement.

You also wish to sing the harmonies of mating with Devotion-Singer. We do not understand but we hear it in your song. It gives you fire.

"I... yes, Tali... Devotion-Singer is very important to me," he replied and, feeling decidedly odd to be discussing anything of the sort with what amounted to a telepathic bug, changed the subject. "You two sound different, how is that? I thought the rachni were a hive mind?"

Now the blue and green came from the darker rachni, though the feeling was more muted than it had been from its counterpart. It sounded almost bemused.

All rachni sing in harmony. The knowledge of one is the knowledge of all but we are not a single mind. Some memories sing stronger in others. The small ones, those that you call workers and soldiers, have minds like those of children. Only the most exceptional among them are ever truly aware. We are brood warriors, like queens we have songs of our own. We defend our queen and carry out her will.

"So do you have names?"

Of course. My name song is Sings-Twilight-Among-Broken-Stars.

The reddish rachni waved its pedipalps next to him before interjecting.

Mine is Sings-Fury-of-New-Life!

"That's a mouthful... I'm just going to call you Twilight and Fury. Sound good?" Shepard suggested.

A flash of yellow confusion from Fury.

Then how will we know that you address us and not Sings-Fury-of-Fallen-Queens?

"Is... Sings-Fury-of-Fallen-Queens here?"

No?

"Then we'll worry about that when I have to keep track of more of you..."

This shortening of name-songs confuses us but we will agree to this name-song for now.

Twilight's level tone sang in his thoughts.

Sings-Fury is young, his memory songs are only from a single generation of brood warriors at the time of the diminishing, when the sour yellow notes drove us to war against long-singers and the singers-of-bright-brief-songs. Such youth is easily unsettled without the memory of years to guide it.

The Spectre attempted some rapid translation in his head, using what he'd learned so far to try and reason out the designations for the various species.

"You mean the asari and the salarians?"

Yes.

While they spoke the shuttle had slipped in to dock with the larger rachni ship. The door, an almost perfectly round portal, opened to reveal an open bay. His two brood warrior escorts quickly scuttled out of the small ship and onto the open floor while Shepard followed more cautiously to look out the door. The angles of the ship were all wrong to his admittedly biased perspective. Openings and corridors didn't seem to be evenly spaced or even the same level, while the deck itself seemed to slope upwards on one side. Even the room itself was far from a regular shape, more closely resembling a trapezoid.

"You two are going to have to give me a crash course on rachni history."

Fury seemed to wave him on.

Our queen will sing to you the memory-songs! Come, she waits within. Her songs are tinged with orange, she wishes us to hurry.

Shepard gave one more look behind him out of the single window afforded by the shuttle. Utukku spun below, a brown, unremarkable planet choked by storms and traced by seemingly bottomless canyons. A place where things could be left behind and forgotten. At least for a little while. He turned back and nodded at the two rachni.

"Lead the way."


Six hours.

"Do you copy, Novem? Move to support sector Sedecim. Your area is secure."

"Copy that, Control. We lost men kicking Cerberus out of our sector. Twenty percent casualties."

Tali didn't actually hear Garrus curse, but she could see the way his head dropped slightly and saw his mandibles twitch from her position sitting on the nearby bench. The lull during attacks at least gave her time to clean her shotgun.

"Understood. I'll coordinate with any medical teams available," the turian replied.

Cerberus' assault had begun in earnest less than an hour after they had secured the Commons. Shuttles loaded with fully equipped, combat ready soldiers had seemed to swarm the Citadel all at once. As much as she hated Cerberus even Tali had to admit that the plan was brutally effective. Without communications it would have been easy to take even C-Sec's numerous defenders apart piecemeal. But they had an advantage Cerberus hadn't anticipated. Legion.

The geth platform had been able to dedicate all of its considerable processing power to locking down the emergency communications grid. It wasn't much, mostly restricted to voice only communications and limited total simultaneous connections, but it was enough to turn a panicked mass into a somewhat organized mass. Especially in the right hands.

"Septem! Move to the next ward. Bailey said there's an arms dealer there that they suspected had a small stockpile," Garrus ordered on another channel. "Secure it, rearm, and reload as necessary."

The Presidium's artificial dawn had come and gone, leaving their surroundings lit with an all too cheerful warm daytime light. The pristine white of the Commons was now marred with the signs of battle. Most of the glass windows of the numerous storefronts had long since been shattered, while black score marks dotted the walls. They'd lost three of the C-Sec officers in the first assault.

"You have changed since last we met, Tali'Zorah," a labored voice said from behind her.

She looked to her left to find Thane had already taken a seat next to her in almost absolute silence. All the engineer could muster in response was a simple shrug before continuing to focus on the shotgun across her lap. Fingers found catches and buttons, fitting the shroud back over the barrel snugly.

Thane and his son Kolyat had managed to reach them just before the first assault hit, along with the rest of the Normandy's ground team. They'd just long enough to exchange greetings and for Kolyat to inform her that Lia had returned to the Flotilla when the call had gone out before the first black and gold armored troops had come into view.

"I was impressed with your abilities," the drell continued despite her muted response. "Clearly you have continued to improve. Officer... Nguyen, I believe it was, owes you his life for dragging him back into cover."

Behind her visor Tali frowned.

"I couldn't save the others."

"No, but you saved one. Do not discount the value of that."

I couldn't save the one that mattered, could I?

The words almost slipped from his lips but Tali wouldn't let them, instead biting her lip and voicing a different question.

"Shouldn't you be with your son?"

It was the drell's turn to shrug.

"We have spoken at great length in the past months. My time is too short pay penance for all that has passed between us," Thane explained. "He has forgiven my failings and I have done my best to impart what wisdom I could to him. Kolyat will... be a better man. Better than I was."

Tali looked to where the younger drell was tending one of the wounded C-Sec agents. He really was different than his father, seeming far more relaxed even in their current stressful situation, but at the same time she still saw some of Thane's fluid grace in his child's movement. In the heat of the recent firefight Kolyat had kept his cool despite his relative inexperience. The thought that struck her with its oddity when the quarian remembered Kolyat was only a few younger than she was.

"I'm glad Shepard was able to help him," she said quietly.

"As am I, which is why am disturbing your moment of peace now."

Her head turned at that, polite denials already falling from her lips. "You're not disturbing me... I was just..."

"You were going through the motions. Letting the body lead and the soul follow," Thane replied. "It is a comfort when the pain is too great to face, to simply act. I know it well. I described it to Shepard as my battle-sleep. Without the soul to get in the way one can become... most efficient at it."

"That sounds like exactly what we need right now. Soldiers. Fighters."

"This is true. But it can be like a drug: far easier to turn to when you feel pain than self reflection."

"What are you trying to say, Thane?" the engineer asked crossly.

He smiled, the expression maddening to her in its serenity.

"Only that the pain you feel is familiar to me. I know that you wish to shut it out. To take revenge on those you blame for his death. But I do not believe Shepard would have wanted that path for you. And as one that has experienced it... I would agree."

"It doesn't matter what he wanted!" Tali blurted before she could stop herself, seeing Thane cock one of his scaled brows.

"You do not truly believe that."

Her fingers tightened around the edge of the shotgun, not looking at the drell next to her.

"He's dead. I was so mad at him. He promised that he'd come back to me, but I've finally grown up. I know now that promises don't matter. Dreams don't matter. The only thing that matters now is the war. My people. Shepard... h-he knew that. He tried to protect me, but you can't protect someone from the truth forever."

Beside her Tali heard the rustling of cloth as the drell stood and a hand lightly touched her shoulder.

"No matter our intentions we cannot control every aspect of our fates. My time knowing Shepard was brief, but I am certain that whatever his reason for making the choice he did... your life, your happiness, did matter to him. The feeling in his gaze when he watched you was the same I saw in my Irikah's eyes long ago. Do not let yourself forget everything good in your time together because of the pain."

By the time she was able to force down the lump in her throat the former assassin had gone, moving away to assist his son with the wounded. Tali wanted to lash out at him, but of any of those present the drell was the one that she couldn't accuse of speaking useless platitudes. Everyone aboard the Normandy had experienced loss in some form or another, but Thane's mirrored her own far too closely.

His words couldn't change the feeling that gripped her soul. John had been the first person she had shown her face to since being given her first suit. Since then a few others had seen what lay behind the violet faceplate that separated her from the outside world. Chakwas. Liara. Legion. But with Shepard it had been a gift, a gesture of trust and love. A gesture that she would not make again.

The man was gone, but his war remained. In a way it was the only way she had left to feel close to him. Every event since they had first met had been defined by Shepard's unflinching quest to stop the looming annihilation. So she would follow Garrus in taking up his burden. Tali would become the soldier that the galaxy needed.

"Repeat that, Centum?" Garrus' voice demanded, breaking into her thoughts.

Static was thick on the line from Cerberus' interference even with Legion's filters and constant corrections, but she could still make out the words.

"Large force, at least a platoon. Heading in your direction!-"

The steady crack of an automatic weapon being fired drowned out the voice on the other end of the line for a moment before he continued.

"-think they know someone is coordinating our forces. You're going to have company. Ten minutes max!"

"Damn!"

The turian's fist slammed into the table that had become his makeshift war room. A map of the Citadel had been spread over it and dozens of random items had been drafted into service to mark troop positions, enemy movements, or any number of other variables.

"More are coming."

It wasn't really a question but Garrus nodded, stabbing a finger at the haphazard map.

"An entire platoon. I shouldn't have expected Cerberus to stay ignorant forever, but spirits I wish they could have for awhile longer. Trying to coordinate an entire station with communications that would have been the standard for the humans two centuries ago is hard enough, but I can't do it while I'm being shot."

"Then don't," she suggested.

The turian laughed darkly.

"I don't think Cerberus is going to wait nicely while I organize C-Sec to kick their asses off this station."

"All that time I spent with you and Shepard... I learned a few things. I can't organize an army, Garrus. But I can fight. I can handle the defense. You can focus on defeating Cerberus as a whole."

"Tali... what you're suggesting isn't easy. You'll have to fall back as our defenses weaken. That can mean leaving people behind. Ordering people to fight when you know they're probably not going to survive," he cautioned.

Someone else might have thought Garrus was being patronizing, but she could hear the quiet concern in his voice. He knew all about Haestrom. The team that had been lost nearly to a man on a foolish mission for the Admiralty Board. He was trying to spare her that responsibility again.

"I know. But... thank you for asking," the quarian replied, giving him a nod. "Now you worry about driving these bosh'tets back into space."

The newly minted Spectre's mandibles quirked.

"Yes, ma'am."


"My god..."

The room was cavernous, sloped walls arching far enough overhead to fly a shuttle through with plenty of clearance on all sides. It seemed the rachni did not have what other races would have considered a bridge, but rather a cross between a throne room and a command station. At the center of the room Hope-Singer's massive form sat on what looked like a massive divan. Workers, tiny by comparison, scuttled over and around her. Holographic images appeared to be projected from crystals that surrounding the queen.

Sings-of-Endings. We sing in whites and blues to see you have emerged from the darkness.

His two brood warrior escorts offered what Shepard could only assume was the rachni equivalent of a bow to the much larger female, their entire bodies lowering closer to the ground as they approached.

"If not for you I would never have left that world. I owe you my life."

Every daughter born of our brood owes her existence to your mercy. You could have consigned our song to eternal silence on the frozen planet but you did not. Our repayment is only minor... now we offer you our true worth.

One of the queen's limbs stretched out to tap a crystal to her left. A new image appeared that caused Shepard's breath to catch once more. White, teardrop shaped vessels stood out starkly against Utukku's dull brown surface and the equally dark void of space. Nine ships that looked almost identical to the one that he was on moved slowly through space. Surrounding each were a veritable swarm of much smaller ships barely the size of the original Normandy.

Our daughters have heard the call to war. Nine singers of my brood, nine queens to lead our people to war.

"You did all this in three years?" he asked in amazement.

The queen's song flashed brightly in his mind, rich green-blue and a sound like chimes. Rachni laughter.

Breeding songs of the rachni are not like those of your people. In the times of the memory-songs our numbers were easily controlled. When our losses are great and numbers few a queen can produce countless warriors and workers. When we left the frozen planet we were the only one of our kind. This was not acceptable.

"Impressive."

We knew the dark-song destroyers would come. We sought to fulfill our promise.

Shepard looked at the assembled vessels and nodded his thanks. The exact capabilities of the rachni warships was a mystery to him but from what he could tell at the very least the rachni added ten dreadnought class vessels to their forces. Finding a way to add them to the ad-hoc alliance he had been slowly building would be the trick. He also needed to actually rejoin that alliance himself.

A grimace overtook his features as he considered the implications for the first time in what felt like an age. The Council, the Alliance, everyone must consider him to be dead at this point. Missing in action at best. His friends, his crew... Garrus and Tali. He would have apologies to make, but for now he had to focus on simply getting back.

"The Normandy would probably have headed for the Citadel after my... death," he said finally. "But I left Garrus in command. It's possible that he carried on with the mission without informing the Council, which could mean they're as far away as Rannoch by now."

Your cold songs are strange but we have attempted to learn them! Fury interjected.

Before he could ask exactly what the brood warrior meant by that statement, Hope-Singer silenced the smaller rachni with a wave of one of her forelegs. The queen's head turned in his direction.

Sings-Fury-of-New-Life is impatient but correct. After we escaped the frozen world we decided our children would not be ignorant of the other singers in the galaxy. Your songs of communication between ships and stars were difficult to master, but we have learned to use them. Our fleet is already moving towards the relay leading to the great hive known as the Citadel.

"The Citadel? Jumping your entire fleet in there might panic them. We need to approach this carefully."

Listen to the song that our scouts heard across the stars. Then we will accede to your wishes.

Another crystal was touched lightly and the view of the assembled rachni fleet disappeared, replaced with a swirling distortion and white noise for a brief moment before an image appeared. Shepard immediately felt his muscles tense when Joker's familiar face appeared on the screen.

"This is Flight Lieutenant Moreau to any friendly ships in system! The Citadel has been occupied, I repeat, the Citadel is under Cerberus control. Multiple cruisers have taken up close orbit within the Citadel's arms."

A surprised looking turian visage joined Joker's on the display. The man had only a few vertical lines of paint across his features that gave him an even more severe look than most turians.

"Normandy? This is Admiral Aerus Retarian. We copy your transmission, please clarify. We were ordered to engage a possible Reaper threat at the edge of the nebula."

"Yea, well it was a damn trick, Admiral! Cerberus moved in as soon as your fleet was out of position. They've already started an assault. C-Sec headquarters had been bombed and Cerberus had goons in the streets by the time we pulled out!"

"That's... that's not possible!"

"It's not just possible, it's fucking happening right now! People could be dying right now. Our people! Now we need a plan!"

The raw emotion on Joker's face was enough to apparently give an experienced turian admiral pause. Retarian gathered himself and nodded curtly.

"What about the rest of the Normandy's crew? It's my understanding that Shepard... I mean Vakarian's team is among the best special operations soldiers in the galaxy."

"They're already on the Citadel! Garrus ordered me to leave them behind, he said he would try to hold out as long as he could. Now what are you and this big ass fleet going to do to help them?"

Retarian's answer was honest, even not comforting.

"I don't know, Lieutenant. I'm transmitting coordinates now, join the main flotilla. Our options are limited if your description of the Cerberus' forces is accurate... but we will begin planning out counter-assault."

The transmission ended abruptly and the hologram disappeared, leaving him looking at three sets of glowing blue eyes. After all that had happened now his people were trapped on the Citadel under siege by Cerberus forces. Shepard had literally climbed out of his own personal hell to find his way back to the people that matter to him. He would be damned if the Illusive Man and his power mad schemes would take them away.

Shepard met the queen's many-eyed stare and nodded.

"Get us to the Citadel. And bring your whole damn fleet."


Fourteen hours. Garrus was all too pointedly reminded of Omega, right down to enemies charging straight into his field of fire. The barrel of his rifle glowed cherry red to match the heat sink that ejected a moment later. He heard a cry of pain and saw one of the C-Sec officers crumple, blue blood splashing from his armor where a shot bypassed his shields. One of the troopers had made it through the blistering hail of fire and attempted to vault over the nearby barricade.

The Cerberus soldier was sent tumbling backwards by a shotgun blast to the chest before he even cleared the obstruction as Tali filled the space left by the fallen agent. Her shotgun continued to roar, filling the corridor with flak and adding to his own fire. The barrage ended the attempted rush quickly with the few surviving Cerberus troops firing wildly as they retreated.

"They'll be back soon," Tali said.

He nodded and tossed the quarian a wry grin. "And in greater numbers."

"Bosh'tet."

There was no force behind the invective. It was a good memory of a simpler time when all they had to worry about were rampaging geth and a single rogue Spectre. At the time he thought it was the most insane thing he'd ever done or ever would. Now Garrus would give anything to have those days back.

Even as they were talking Tali had knelt next to the fallen turian and begun to apply some of their limited supply of medi-gel. The man wore the same blue as Garrus, though a slightly different pattern, and was doing his best to live up to the stereotype of turian stoicism. Finally Tali got the agent back to his feet and sent him stumbling back towards their impromptu field hospital.

"How are you holding up?" the turian asked her, scanning the corridor for any remaining hostiles but finding nothing.

"Don't worry about me. You should be getting back to Legion and the command area," Tali insisted.

"I'm going to soon, but I figured shooting a few bad guys instead of just telling other people to do it would be good for my spirit. Plus Tartus there was looking dead on his feet. Should have known it would take a bullet to get him to lay down."

"Sounds like a turian I know."

He grunted in acknowledgement and leaned against the wall, checking his rifle and seating another fresh thermal. At least they were well stocked thanks to Bailey's appropriation of the local gun dealer's wares, otherwise they'd have been down to fighting with fists and talons hours ago. Garrus had developed a new appreciation for the gruff C-Sec commander in the past hours. Bailey had always been likable enough but he had proven he wasn't just all bluster. Even now he was taking Garrus place in their little 'command' area.

"Are we winning?" Tali asked after a moment.

"We're not losing."

"That's not much of an answer, Garrus."

The turian sighed and gestured down the battle-scarred corridor that made up one of their two main defensive positions. Dozens of Cerberus troops lay down the length of the chokepoint. The bastards had even tried to get clever and bring in men wielding what looked like heavy riot shields to absorb fire in an attempt to break their line. A good idea... against anyone other than two of the best snipers in known space. It made Garrus smile darkly to think of the Illusive Man fuming wherever he was about the blatant weakness of having a viewing slot in an otherwise impenetrable shield.

"It's the best one I've got, they're definitely not happy. Any ideas the Illusive Man had for a swift takeover are over. C-Sec is holding strong on most the contested areas of the station. But they've got more numbers that I would have ever expected."

Tali crouched behind the heavy crate that made up her part of the barricade, resting the barrel of her shotgun against the ground. Her shoulders slumped for a moment but he watched her quickly shake it off.

"They can't keep it up forever," she said.

"Neither can we. Half of the surviving agents here are walking wounded. Bailey is trying to find any C-Sec units that are close enough to offer us support but our advantage is also our downfall," Garrus explained. "The Presidium is harder to access than any other part of the Citadel, which makes it harder for Cerberus' troops to just swarm us..."

"But with Cerberus in control of so many important areas it makes it hard for anyone on our side to get to us either," the engineer concluded.

He nodded. "That's the problem. I've sent out a call on any local bands that haven't been jammed in the hopes that anyone that is holed up nearby might be able to join up... but so far no takers."

"How long?"

It was a startlingly blunt question from the usually more diplomatic quarian, but Garrus didn't see any reason to mince words. The two of them had been nearly killed too many times and seen too much to bother trying to 'sugar coat' it as Shepard would have put it.

"Maybe another twenty four hours," the sniper admitted. "Turians don't really do any better than humans when it comes to endurance in combat situations. Eventually we're just going to run out of people. Five men dead in the last few hours. Equal number too wounded to fight. Thane is trying but I can see his rifle waver every time he takes a breath..."

"Kasumi isn't doing too well either," Tali added quietly.

His mandibles snapped tight against the side of his face and he felt his teeth grinding against each other, but Garrus forced himself to keep his voice level.

"I've... been staying busy with the command center. How..."

"Aethyta has been making her stay put and having her hack terminals with Quin, try to locate people and get through Cerberus' viruses that they've flooded the Citadel systems with. It keeps her occupied but I can tell she's in pain."

"Where is Chakwas when you need her?" he growled.

Tali stood and moved over to his side of the corridor, reaching out to touch her arm.

"Why don't you go talk to her? Short range comms are working, if they make another push I can call for help."

"There's nothing I can say, Tali. I know enough about human physiology between C-Sec and the Normandy to know that if she has internal bleeding unless we get out of this damn hole I've dug for us..."

He trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.

"If you think she blames you for it then you're even stupider than when you used to blame me for the geth during the damn elevator rides," the engineer said.

"I never did apologize for that, did I?"

"No, but you saved my life a few times. I figured that made up for it."

"It doesn't... I was wrong. And I'm sorry," Garrus said.

Tali shook her head.

"I think after talking to Legion that we were both wrong. But that doesn't matter anymore. Just go."

He hesitated for a moment longer before finally giving in. Garrus gave the quarian's shoulder a squeeze and headed down the nearby steps to the open area that they'd turned into what amounted to an armed encampment. As soon as he spotted a familiar face, in this case Kolyat, he flagged the man down.

"Go help Tali keep an eye on the west barricade. I don't want anyone left alone, especially considering that Cerberus has started getting creative."

"Of course," the drell agreed immediately.

A few refugees that had been caught outside in the initial assault had filtered in, but most people had actually listened to the automatic emergency bulletins and stayed in their homes. To his right one of the shops had been converted into a medical area. It was reaching capacity far too quickly. He had just been lucky that most of the C-Sec agents had been up on their standard medical training and a few of the civilians had kept their heads enough to help.

The turian didn't head into the medical area, though. Instead he made his way across the open area to the small bar Aethyta had been operating and pushed past the curtains that separated the employee area from public view. As soon as he entered two pairs of eyes turned to fixate on him, one set glowing behind a visor, the others just visible from beneath a hood.

"Is something wrong?" Quin'Sala asked immediately.

Kasumi responded before he could. "Nothing like you're thinking Quiny. He'd be all in that bristly predator stance if violence was imminent..."

He couldn't help but wince at the sound of the thief's voice. It was far more subdued than her normally cheerful tone. She was sitting on one of the full body chairs that the asari seemed to favor with a holographic interface open in front of her.

"You can tell the difference?" the young quarian asked.

"Yep. His shoulders tense up and he moves his head side to side more. Tends to stand up straighter too," she explained as if he wasn't standing right there.

"Oh, well... that's interesting. I'm going to check on Aethyta and make sure she isn't over doing it. Claims she's as tough as a krogan but she isn't three hundred anymore."

Quin'Sala deactivated her terminal and slipped past him with surprising speed, leaving him standing awkwardly in the room. He glanced around until he spotted a stool likely meant for the bar. Grabbing it he carried the stool over and finally took a seat next to Kasumi, trying to find somewhere to rest his feet that didn't involve his claws catching on the rungs of a piece of furniture clearly meant for humans and asari. For her part the thief simply watched his shuffling with bemusement.

"So... are you... does anything hurt?" he asked, mangling any attempt at sounding casual with his hesitance.

"Only when I laugh?"

He chuckled quietly. "You're not the first human to say that... they were usually lying too."

Kasumi's lips quirked at the edges.

"How do you know I'm lying?"

In one smooth motion Garrus reached out and pushed back her hood and touched the heel of his hand to the thief's face. She looked surprised by the gesture but didn't pull away even as he spoke and brushed away the fine sheen of perspiration across her brow.

"Because you're pale and you're being still. You're never still... and you're doing that sweating thing that humans do."

"I guess you caught me," she admitted with a weak smile. "Too good of a detective."

"Not that good. I can just cheat because turian's have a better sense of smell."

Garrus drew his hand back after a moment's consideration. The gesture had felt natural but he was also suddenly reminded that humans had all sorts of rules out touching and personal space. To his surprise his hand didn't make it all the way back before Kasumi reached out the grab one of his talons.

"It's okay... I..." Kasumi trailed off, apparently for once at a loss for words even as she pulled his hand to the armrest of her chair.

Her more numerous, pale fingers wrapped around his hand and squeezed, as if testing the feel of it.

"We've been trying to get support from one of the nearest districts but Cerberus has them cut off," he replied. "I'm sorry. Just hang in there and I'll fix this, I promise."

"I'm not gone yet, big guy. One little bomb isn't bad... besides, humans regenerate blood really quickly. We're like krogan."

"No you're not. You'd think a famous thief would be a better liar."

Kasumi shrugged and then immediately winced in pain. He felt her grip on his hand tighten considerably.

"I've been lying to people for most of my life. Almost by reflex. Shep, Tail, you... you guys are the only people since Keiji that I've ever felt like I didn't need to. I guess I'm out of practice."

"There are worse reasons to be bad at something I guess," he quipped.

"Yes, there are," the thief agreed.

Silence stretched for long minutes and he noticed that Kasumi had closed her eyes, hand still gripping his. Garrus found himself studying her face, so often obscured behind the hood she wore. It was a small wonder she had bonded so quickly with Tali. He could still see the tightness in her lips and around her eyes that spoke of pain.

The small dot of color on her lip and chin had always reminded him of turian paint, but like many things he'd never thought to ask. Like everything about her it seemed to be a contrast. Void black hair, but pale skin. A career criminal that at C-Sec he would have done anything to catch and put in a cell, but now she was one of the few people in the galaxy Garrus trusted completely. And that all of those traits made him think of words like graceful and beautiful.

A small part of him was telling the rest that he was crazy. That he didn't have a thing for humans. Sure, a few guys at C-Sec had helpfully set him up on dates with some girls that were just dying to 'go xeno' but nothing had ever come of it. But he couldn't deny how right it had felt when he'd touched her face in the gunnery bay. Or even when he had come to her in the hours before they'd breached the Omega 4 relay, asking her to help him with his own paint.

Garrus wasn't sure what was worst. That only now he was starting to figure these things out... or that he had at all when it was likely to slip through his fingers like everything else in his life.

"You're staring, big guy."

He started and blinked, not even having registered that her eyes had opened to small slits.

"Sorry... I..." Garrus stammered, finally swallowing and trying to find the words to continue.

"It's alright. I know... you've got a war to run but could you just... sit here with me for a few more minutes?"

The turian nodded.

"I'm not going anywhere."


Our scouts have moved ahead. They detect many ships in the system, but the treachery-singers you call Cerberus have their ships all around the great hive station. The other ships stay away. We believe they fear to damage the hive station.

"Of course they do," Shepard told the queen. "The battle against Sovereign devastated the Citadel. Two years later they were still repairing the damage. If they go in now then enough stray shots could turn it into the same situation all over again... but in the middle of a war with the Reapers."

You fear that the weapon-songs will err and strike your own? Fury asked.

"Exactly. And if we try to land support troops those cruisers and their fighter support will tear us apart."

Twilight reached out with a claw and tapped a crystal near the queen. The readings of the dozen Cerberus warships were highlighted with a different colored glow.

Then the only course of action is to annihilate the ships of the treachery-singers.

"How do you intend to do that?"

Sing calm, Sings-of-Endings, the queen hummed into his mind. The dark-song destroyers created the mass relays to control the evolution of life. But our kind has long lived apart. We sing songs that are only our own. We will deal with the treachery-singers vessels. And a thousand fold of our brood will stand behind you to sweep them from the great hive station.

Shepard arched an eyebrow at the massive rachni but assumed she was being truthful. Considering the rachni's method of communication he was beginning to wonder if they were even capable of lying in the traditional sense.

"Okay, assuming that all works... I'm wearing pants. And I have a pistol, three thermal clips, and a combat knife. This is going to be an interesting fight."

Suddenly workers seemed to appear from nowhere and dance around his feet, tiny legs clicking on the hard floor of the ship before they stopped and all looked up at him in unison. He looked over his shoulder to see more behind him doing the same thing. At the very edge of his consciousness he could hear thousands of tiny sounds, like tinny cheers or chirps. He realized it must have been the voices of the workers, so much weaker than the others, but numerous. Hope-Singer's laughter rang in his head once more.

Do not worry. Just as we would not send one of our brood-warriors to face an enemy unprepared, so will we not send you forth unarmed. Our ways will be strange to you. But remain still.

And then the little workers surged forward.


The turian rubbed his eyes and checked his omni tool. Nineteen hours and the Presidium's glow was beginning to dim into the artificial sunset that marked the stations night cycle. It was almost peaceful seeing as how the last Cerberus assault had been nearly an hour ago.

He had left Kasumi asleep in her chair, albeit reluctantly, with Quin'Sala's promise to continue keeping an eye on her. Their running battle with Cerberus had continued to go as well as could be expected. To anyone else it would have been a victory. Cerberus troops only controlled a scant fifteen percent of the Citadel. Some of those areas were important, such as the docks, but the fact that with limited communications and weaponry they had managed to fend off a much better equipped force would have at least earned him a spot in the turian military strategy books.

For Garrus it wouldn't be a victory until he managed to break themselves out of stranglehold Cerberus had them in. Until he could get Kasumi and the other wounded to a real hospital.

"Well, even if they eventually kick us out... we made the bastards pay, that's for sure," Bailey said next to him, staring down at their map.

"If I ever get off this station I'll make sure the Illusive Man pays even more," Garrus growled. "The Reapers come first, but when it's all over... there won't be anywhere he can hide."

The C-Sec commander smiled. "Tell me when that day comes. I'll be there with bells on."

He was about to ask Bailey what the hell that particular human turn of phrase meant when his comm lines exploded with activity. Practically every unit in and around their area was trying to contact him at once. The turian stabbed his omni-tool and opened up the nearest.

"What the hell is going on?" Garrus demanded.

"I don't know! But they're going crazy! They just stopped attacking, Septum sector said that the troops in their area just went right past them headed for the station core, like they were making a run for the tower! They're not even returning fire if we engage them."

He blinked.

"What?"

Before he could get a response the comm lines cut out and Legion's voice replaced them.

"Vakarian-Spectre. We have disabled our communication link algorithm due to new data. We believe you should see the external feeds we have been able to access."

The previously inert geth that had been standing in the corner linked by hardwire to one of the Citadel terminals turned and activated the nearby console. A image, clearly from one of the external cameras around the docking ring, appeared.

"What in the fuck is that?" Bailey asked.

He could see the drives of the Cerberus' cruisers flaring to life as a massive new ship appeared. It looked like the scale of one of Palaven's native predators, pointed at the front and wider at the back, an almost uniform white in color. As they watched the large ship turned towards one of the Cerberus ships and a glow seemed to gather around the ship.

Garrus was about to yell for everyone to take cover. If it fired and missed the shot could hit the Presidium. But there wasn't the telltale flash of a mass driver firing. The glow brightened and cascaded down the ship to what he assumed was its bow... and then a burst of energy tore through space and directly into the enemy cruiser.

The cruiser's kinetic barriers flashed and disappeared, a split second later the warship seemed to buckle and explosions rocked up and down its length. Then came the explosion as its drive core detonated. In less than ten seconds an entire cruiser had simply ceased to be. And on the display he could see more of the same white ships.

"I don't even know what I'm seeing, but I like it," the older C-Sec agent said.

One by one Garrus watched as computer systems came back online. Communications, extranet connections, lighting up like embers sputtering to life. It didn't take long for Tali to come running.

"What's happening? My connection to the Normandy just came back online! I'm even- Keelah! What are those?"

It took everything he had not to howl in triumph, instead he forced himself merely to grin.

"It's the rachni! And all of our communications just came back online because all those cyberwarfare AIs that Cerberus was using were housed in the databanks of those cruisers."

On the projection another of the ships disappeared in a ball of fire. The debris would still cause damage where it impacted but with nowhere near the force as when Sovereign had exploded within the arms.

"The rachni..." Tali breathed. "They kept their promise."

"Yes... yes they did."

The emergency comm system game back online seconds later. Reports poured into his omni-tool. One caught his eye and he opened a channel to the C-Sec office in charge.

"Novem, this is Vakarian. What's your situation?"

This time he got a visual feed of a haggard looking human face instead of just a voice. The man looked as tired as Garrus felt and a little panicked but clearly was working hard to keep his tone level.

"Cerberus just hit us with everything they had all of a sudden, I think they were trying to make for the elevators... and then... just look..."

The C-Sec officer extended his arm to give them a wider view of the point they'd been holding. Scatter gunshots were heard but most of the defenders simply stood there with guns in hand, watching with slack jawed amazement. Cerberus troops weren't firing at them... but at the sudden swarm of claws and teeth that were pouring over them like wave.

"I don't know where they came from but they're tearing Cerberus' troops apart. If they come this way I don't think we can stop them, sir."

"Do not fire on them!" Garrus barked immediately. "Do you hear me, captain? Do not! They're on our side."

"Our side?" the agent asked, looking confused.

"Order your men to stand down. Do not open fire on the rachni!"

"Y-Yes, sir."

He could hear the captain yelling at his men to safety their weapons as he disconnected the line. When the turian looked up Miranda and Thane had joined them. The operative cocked one dark brow.

"The rachni?"

"Our new allies have arrived," Garrus said curtly, his smile fading. "The price was too damn high but I can't complain about their timing. Cerberus' forces are completely cut off, but it sounds like they're making a push for the Citadel tower."

"Why would they bypass us just to reach the tower? There's no way to escape from there. It doesn't make any sense," Bailey objected.

Thane shook his head. "It only does not make sense if escape is their objective. Cerberus' forces have shown themselves to be nearly fanatical in their attacks. If their mission to secure the Citadel for the Illusive Man has failed then clearly they are attempting a secondary mission."

A guttural cursed escaped the Spectre's lips and he slammed his fist into the table. It was a simple answer that he should have seen before, but he was too tired and too wrapped up in a dozen other problems before now.

"The Council," he explained. "If you can't hold an objective then you do as much damage as possible on your way out. They're going to try to take out the damned Council!"

"If the Council is killed in the middle of this war... it would be devastating. Even if they could appoint new members, people's confidence would be broken," Tali said.

Garrus looked at the small assembled group. "Exactly. We can't let that happen. Bailey, I need you to get everyone on their feet. With Cerberus not focusing on us anymore we can get the wounded to medical facilities."

"Not a problem, we can start moving them out immediately. I'll make sure your second story girl gets to the first doc we find."

He nodded his thanks to the human and tried not to let mix of relief and concern show on his face. Bailey would get her where she needed to be.

"Most of the team will stay with you to provide support and make sure Cerberus doesn't get any ideas. Tali, Miranda, I want you with me. We're all tired but we can't let these bastards succeed after fighting this hard. Even if they lost their leadership on those cruisers they've still got enough troops to overwhelm any guards the Council has left."

"They won't be without any kind of leadership," Miranda interjected. "I haven't heard any reports but I can guarantee you that the Illusive Man's current right hand would have been here with the ground troops."

Tali cocked her head at the woman. "He replaced you already?"

"No. I was one of his favorites, but I was never a true believer. Not like Kai Leng. He's an attack dog and the Illusive Man is the only one that's ever been able to hold his chain. I've killed. He is a killer. I think he... enjoys it."

"He sounds like someone that never needs to make it off this station alive," Garrus ordered.

Miranda stepped forward and caught his attention with a gesture.

"Garrus, I need to make sure you understand, if we encounter Kai Leng you cannot negotiate, do not ask him to stand down. Just shoot the son of a bitch. I've seen what he can do and I'm sure he hasn't been idle since I left Cerberus. And if he makes it to the Council first... a few bodyguards won't even slow him down."

"Understood. Now grab your gear and let's move out."

Each of them immediately left at a brisk pace except Thane. He was preparing to ask the drell exactly what he was doing when the former assassin spoke.

"I will not be going with the wounded. My skills were never particularly suited to being a guard. I can, however, move quickly through areas others might find inaccessible. I know the mind of a killer, with luck I will be able to reach the Council first."

"Thane, I can't force you to do anything but in your condition..." Garrus trailed off.

"My condition will not improve in a hospital, my friend. I was told by a doctor six months ago that I had only three to live. The past hours exertion have taken their toll, the tingling in my extremities, blurred vision."

He grimaced, but understood what the man was saying.

"If you could reach the Council before this Kai Leng it could be the difference between them being caught by surprise and being able to hold out long enough for support to reach them. I can give you access codes that would get you past any C-Sec blocks..."

It was apparently what Thane was waiting to hear. The drell reached to his belt and produced a small injector, placing it against his wrist and depressing the button on the back. Garrus heard a faint mechanical sound and a hiss, the faint smell of something acrid reached his nostrils.

"The drugs I was provided will increase the oxygen in my blood and help control my symptoms for a time. I merely wished to inform you of my intentions so that you might... explain my decision if it becomes necessary. If I reach the Council I will contact you."

Garrus extended a hand and clasped wrists with the drell.

"Good hunting."

"Amonkira watch over you as well, Garrus Vakarian."


Sometime ago Thane had told Shepard that it was liberating to have no obligations or responsibilities, to have accepted his death. It had been true. The old ways brought their comfort with the promise of peace in Kalihira's embrace and the chance to see his siha once more. Commander Shepard's aid in reconciling with his son had helped give him the final peace he needed to embrace his fate.

But part of him still railed against the quiet acceptance of the end. The old gods that so many of his people had forgotten were born on a world of hardship where arid wastes would claim the weak and every dawn was a struggle for survival. It might have been the hanar that had saved the drell species from extinction when their world began to die, but it was the drell themselves that had refused to die off long after they should have. They scraped and clawed a life for themselves long enough for the hanar to arrive.

"Amonkira, lord of the hunt, guide my hand to strike down those who would unleash evil into this world," he whispered as he ran.

The drugs that the drell had injected himself with were a liberation of their own. Artificial cells to increase his oxygen intake. At one point he had held out hope that they could provide a cure or at least an extension to his life, but that hope had died when the side effects had been explained. The body couldn't tolerate the artificial cells for long, they would break down quickly and build up in his bloodstream, eventually becoming toxic unless he was under constant dialysis. Even then the treatment would cause his condition itself to deteriorate more rapidly as his body relied on the artifice to oxygenate his blood.

So instead he had requested a single dose of the drug and taken it to another, less reputable physician. A contact from his old life. The potent cocktail that had been created with the artificial cells and highly illegal stimulants left him without pain for the first time in countless months.

"Arashu, goddess of life, watch over Kolyat and those in his care in the darkness that is to come."

With agility born of years of practice he scaled the elevator shaft, exiting on the next floor up to bypass the security locks put in place by Cerberus. His omni-tool glowed on his wrist, scanning frequencies for anything identified with the Council. Each hit pinged and narrowed down the Council's location.

Around the next corner a pair of Cerberus troops waited, while a third knelt by the elevator controls, apparently trying to hack the device. Thane didn't slow, but rather ran faster. The first hadn't even raised his gun when the assassin's arm wrapped around his neck, using his forward momentum to yank the man to the ground with a vicious twist. A single crack told the drell everything he needed to know even as the other soldier leveled his rifle.

Thane's pistol was already in hand, two shots ringing out and catching the trooper in the throat. The third squeezed off a panicked burst of his submachine gun that went wide before the same double tap sent him to the ground as well. He released the dead Cerberus trooper's neck and let the corpse fall to the ground, moving to the elevator controls and shoving aside the other fallen man. With the codes Garrus had provided it was a simple matter to bypass the security.

He checked his omni-tool against the locks in the system. Security lock downs on every floor up to the sixty second, nothing above. A simple trail of breadcrumbs to follow. Thane stepped inside and activated the elevator.

"Kalihira, lady of the seas, accept this tarnished soul into your embrace. Grant passage to those who would serve the path of the righteous. I beg the forgiveness of the sins of those who do not know of our ways," Thane muttered, lowering his head as the elevator ascended.

"Accept into your embrace Mordin Solus who gave his life to correct a past wrong. A brilliant mind wracked by the guilt for the past, but a bright soul that would alight the seas of the afterlife with his glow.

"Accept into your embrace Johnathan Shepard. It is through his will that my own soul was able to save that of my child from the path of darkness. He honored life in all its forms, but understood that the righteous must sometimes accept into themselves the responsibility of death."

"Kalihira, embrace these souls that would strive for the light despite the shadows in which they have dwelled. Grant peace to those we leave behind."

Thane Krios lifted his head as the elevator stopped and the doors opened.


"We can't stay here! This position is completely indefensible!"

Ashley gritted her teeth and backed away from the door, dropping into a crouch and tucking her rifle into her shoulder to cover the way they'd come.

"I understand that, sir," she said to the turian Councilor. "But Cerberus is burning through the lockouts as quickly as we can put them up. I'm a soldier not a quarian!"

"We need to get to the transport pad outside," Udina insisted. "We can take an aircar to a safer location."

"You are assuming that the automated aircar system is going to function, Udina," Tevos snapped.

"I don't see you offering a better solution!"

The elevator lights glowed brightly, the indicators getting steadily brighter.

"Everyone shut up!" Ashley barked.

To her surprise they actually listened. It had been Udina's idea to make her a Spectre. He kept insisting that humanity needed better representation, someone that understood their precarious position. There had been more but the soldier had tuned it out. In the end she had only officially accepted when the news had come across the wire. Shepard was gone. Something in her had clicked, the part that said she had a duty.

Now she had been a Spectre for less than a day and somehow had ended up being in charge of protecting the Council. When Cerberus' attack had come the Council had just finished affirming her appointment. Since then they'd been trying to avoid any enemy patrols and keep moving through the Citadel tower, unwilling to stay in one location for more than a few hours lest they become surrounded.

"Take cover, Councilors... we have incoming," she ordered, and noted that Sparatus had already done so and even had a pistol in hand.

The honor guard had consisted of a pair of turians when this had all began. One of them had died in the first minutes of the attack to what Ashley could only assume was a Cerberus sympathizer that had been in the Council offices. She hadn't even known his name. The other, Perinis, had fought with her for the better part of the day, only to fall to a sniper's bullet when they'd been forced into an open area.

Her finger tightened on the trigger as the doors opened, but she stopped when a single man stepped out of the elevator.

"Hold fire!" Ashley said to Sparatus.

The man was a drell, wearing a simple leather overcoat and pants and carrying a pistol in his hand. She couldn't imagine Cerberus would have recruited an alien for an attack like this and for some reason he looked familiar. She couldn't afford to take chances, though.

"Don't move! Drop the weapon and step away from it slowly."

Things only became more surreal when the man smiled faintly.

"I am not your enemy, Ashley Williams."

"How do you know my name... wait, I remember you now," she said. "You were at Huerta Memorial when I was recovering. I remember... I remember you watching me while I was doing physical therapy."

"It would appear I have allowed my talents of unnoticed observation to become... what is the human saying? 'Rusty'?" he explained calmly. "My name is Thane Krios. I apologize for not introducing myself before."

Councilor Valern's voice spoke up behind her.

"Krios? You were in Shepard's report regarding the Omega Four relay. An assassin formerly in the employ of the hanar. Extremely proficient."

The salarian's voice didn't sound accusatory but Thane still inclined his head in a conciliatory gesture.

"This is true, but I am not here as an assassin. Spectre Vakarian and his team are on their way to secure you, but Cerberus' forces are already on their way. Do you have an exit from this floor?"

"We can't use the elevator to go any higher, we've had reports of Cerberus units taking control of the Council chambers," Tevos said.

"Which still leaves us with the transport system outside," Udina said once more.

Thane glanced at the open area outside and frowned, likely thinking the same thoughts she had. The large open area for aircars to land offered no cover to speak of aside from the small console used to summon the automated cars. It was separated from the room they were currently in by thick glass and a single door.

"It is not optimal but I am afraid there are no other options."

"At least someone understands! I for one have no intention of staying here!" the human Councilor agreed and activated the door to the outer area.

The other Councilors looked hesitant but began to follow, just as the elevator chimed once more. Yellow indicator lights flashed once again, this time coming from above. Silently she cursed and readied her rifle as Krios moved to stand next to her, but looked over in surprise when his hand gripped her rifle and pushed it down, shaking his head.

"Follow the Council and secure the door. This is not your fight."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Ashley snapped back. "This has been my fight ever since we first ran into these Cerberus bastards."

Her anger didn't last long under the drell's gaze. There was something compelling about the way he looked at her, the unshakeable confidence in this voice.

"A Cerberus assassin named Kai Leng is likely to be leading the assault on the Council. He has likely been augmented with Cerberus' cybernetic technology. You are a soldier, Ms. Williams, and a good one from what Shepard told me of you. But you are not ready to face this man."

"And you are?"

Thane shrugged.

"Maybe it requires an assassin to defeat an assassin. It is irrelevant, I promised Commander Shepard to watch over you while you were aboard the Citadel. That promise has not lapsed. If you wish to protect the Council, then you will follow them outside and secure the door behind you. Otherwise they will be in an exposed position without protection."

She couldn't argue with the logic of his words, even if she balked at the idea of running away from a fight. If anyone knew what Cerberus was capable of, though, it was her. Two months in recovery from facing their synthetic creation was enough to tell her that the situation was serious. The elevator pinged again, only a few floors away.

"Alright," Ashley finally agreed, moving to the door.

"Thank you. I am sorry that our meeting was brief. I think I would have like to have known you better, Spectre Williams."

The soldier looked over her shoulder nonplussed to see Krios incline his head slightly in her direction before he turned to face the elevator.

"Yea, you too, Thane."

Ashley stepped out of the door and slapped the control behind her to initiate the locking sequence.


The entire operation was a disaster. Months of planning, millions of credits in resources and manpower... all squandered. Because of a damned cuttlebone and a fleet of insects. Kai Leng wasn't sure which infuriated him more, that Shepard's pet turian had thwarted their coup so stalwartly or that a bunch of bugs arrived before he could personally kill every member of Shepard's crew.

"Sir, overrides end at floor sixty six," one of the two troopers behind him said.

"Then we stop at sixty seven. Your priority is the Council. Secure if possible, otherwise shoot to kill."

"Yes, sir."

For ten years Kai Leng had been the Illusive Man's bloody right hand. Lawson had been his pet project, but Leng knew that he was the one that was always considered reliable. Nothing stood in the way of completing his mission. The fact that the Illusive Man had invested so much in Commander Shepard rankled his sensibilities. Humanity didn't need a saviour that spent more time with the likes of asari and turians than with his own people.

It had only been made worse when Leng had looked up the information from the Collector mission. He had already thought the man to be a fool taken in by the other species that would keep humanity under their heel, but learning that he had actually taken a quarian to bed? He felt his lips curl into a sneer. The Illusive Man might hold some dread fascination with the so called Hero of the Citadel, but Leng saw him as just another traitor.

"No better than bestiality," he muttered.

"Sir?"

"Nothing," Leng snarled. "Ready yourselves."

The elevator doors opened and Kai Leng ducked on instinct at the sight of an unfamiliar face. Two shots rang out and his soldiers fell back against the wall, dead before they had even fired a shot. He threw himself forward out of the elevator and rolled to his feet, activating his barrier generator and extending his hand that glowed with built up energy. He could feel the cybernetic implants the Illusive Man had given him like a hum in his bones.

"You are Kai Leng."

The man standing with his gun raised was a drell, and there was no doubt in his voice. Leng immediately identified his features.

"Krios. I've heard of you. Another of Shepard's menagerie."

"One of Shepard's friends," the drell replied.

He smirked cruelly. "And where is your friend now?"

"Beyond the cares of this life," Krios said calmly. "I will join him soon, I suspect, but you will not."

Leng lowered his hand. If the other man was going to fire he would have already. So what was he doing? He looked to his right and saw his objective. The Council was just outside the door looking at them through the glass. Udina was tapping at a console. He looked back to the drell.

"You're correct. I have no intention of dying."

Thane shook his head.

"You misunderstand. You will die. By my hand or by another's, but you will not experience Kalihira's embrace. She gives no solace to the souls of those who derive pleasure from the suffering of others."

He frowned and studied the drell more closely behind the optical units that covered his eyes.

"I knew of you before Operative Lawson mentioned your name. Those who do the things we have done operate in the same circles, speak to the same people. But we differ in that while my body has killed, my soul has never enjoyed it."

"Well... you're right about another thing then. I'm going to enjoy killing you, frog," the assassin hissed. "You're past your prime."

Thane dove to the side just as he was about to fire, the blast from his implanted weapon instead slamming into the glass behind and sending a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. He tried to line up another shot only to see the drell's pistol come flying through the air. Leng managed to turn but the grip still caught him in the side of the head.

He was staggered for only a moment but it was enough for Thane to close the distance between them. The first blow he caught on his forearm, but the second slammed into his midsection hard enough for some of the air to leave his chest even through his armor. Leng drove his fist into his opponent's side and then shoved him back with both fists. The drell didn't hesitate for a moment however, bringing a fist that crackled with biotic energy down in an overhand blow that he was barely able to block.

The sheer force knocked him down and caused a growl to escape his lips as he jerked back to his feet. Leng drew the sword from his back and charged forward, raking the blade through the air in a waist high stroke... but found only air. The assassin' enemy dropped to a knee and ducked beneath the strike with amazing speed, bringing both his fists up into Leng's chest with enough power to lift the human from his feet.

Rolling to his side Leng kicked upwards and drove his boot into the drell's ribs, feeling a satisfying impact. Thane lashed out with a kick of his own at the downed man, but Leng was quicker this time, blocking with one hand and slashing out with the blade in his other. It was a glancing blow but he saw blood trickling down his enemy's leg.

"Did you really think you could beat me?" Leng demanded as he pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the ache in his chest where Thane had punched him.

Thane didn't answer, simply adjusting his stance and motioning the other man forward. They impacted with a heavy thud, a sudden fury of blows exchanged between them. He could feel each hit, flashes of pain and promises of future bruises, but Leng could hear the drell's breathing becoming thick and labored when he delivered a knee to the man's midsection and pushed away.

When the drell looked up, though, it wasn't with an expression of defeat but rather with a smile and the barest of nods towards the elevator.

"I never intended to defeat you... only to leave you with the knowledge that a dying man kept you from your targets."

The elevator lights were glowing once more, pinging in time as it passed each floor on its way up. With a roar of anger he turned back to the drell and strained his implants to the limit, hurling his blade at his enemy.

Even in his best shape Thane didn't have the reaction speed to dodge the throw. The blade took him just under the ribs and the sheer force sent him back into the glass windows. Already damaged they shattered outwards, sending the drell tumbling out onto the open area and leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Leng smiled viciously and knelt to pick up the fallen pistol, activating his heavy barriers once more as he stepped over the threshold of the shattered window. He spared the human woman that was trying to push the Councilor's down behind the far too small console a contemptuous glance before advancing on the drell.

"What a waste of your life, drell. First I'll kill that girl, then the Council of aliens she's trying to protect."

He didn't get a response from the drell aside from a spit of blood at his feet. Leng reached for the blade embedded in the man's chest. With a vicious jerk he pulled it free and watched the blood pool.

"This wasn't a fight," Leng sneered, and raised the sword to finish his opponent. "This was an execution."

The assassin heard a heavy thump to his right and the crack of a mass accelerator a split second before pain tore through his wrist. His sword spun away as his fingers convulsed in pain.

"You want a fight?" a voice snarled.

Leng gripped his shattered wrist with his other hand and staggered, his back was now to the Council and to his right he saw the elevator opening. From within familiar figures poured out. The turian, the quarian. Even the Illusive Man's traitorous pet. But they didn't hold his attention.

His attention was fixed on the figure directly in front of him. The man was wrapped in gleaming black armor from head to toe, with the edges of every joint looking jagged and sharp, a single slit visor glowed a baleful red, the same as the only other color that broke up the pure black: a crimson splash that ran from his left shoulder to his chest. The stylized image was that of a rampant firebird.

"W-Who..." Leng stammered.

The man reached up with his free hand and gripped his chin, yanking upwards until the armor seemed to split open and the helm came away. He could feel his eyes widen and his mouth work in disbelief as the man's face was revealed to him.

"You're dead, Shepard!" the assassin yelled. "I saw the reports! From your own crew... You were dead!"

A frightening smile crossed the Spectre's features.

"Death and I have established an equitable working relationship."

Leng watched as Shepard's left hand balled into a fist. Where his omni-tool should be an azure glow crackled into life and formed into what could only be described as a blade the length of his forearm. The man that should have been dead stalked towards him with grim purpose.

"Why don't I introduce you?"


Sure you've all been waiting forever but at last there has been a return :D I think this one also wins the 'longest chapter to date' for Requiem.

Random question of the day: I was speaking with someone about the story recently and mentioned that I haven't decided whether to retcon Tali's appearance to 'canon' or keep it the same as in the original Razor's Edge. Since I can't seem to decide one way or the other... you guys tell me what you think.

Thanks for all of your loyalty in this crazy story arc... it ain't over yet!