A/N: Sorry for the delay. I was in a different city for training part of the week, and being this is kind of an emotional chapter it took a skosh longer than usual.
How long Melara stood there, smudged with dirt and painted with blood, staring upward at the gloaming sky after the geth and her mother, she could not say. She felt weak and shaky deep inside, as if part of her spirit or mind had collapsed in on itself like dust.
A thought passed through her mind. She wasn't entirely sure why she thought it, or where it had come from, but her entire heart and soul were behind it.
Don't let her stay, Bába. Please, she needs to come back.
"Mel."
Vina's hand dropped on her shoulder, firmly but gently. It jarred her back into the here and now, the world around her snapping back into place.
She looked at her turian second, and did not like the expression she saw in the woman's eyes. Wordlessly, she tore her gaze away and then looked toward Daenys, who still had not risen from where she was half-kneeling, half-crouched over a form on the ground.
Forcing her body into motion, Melara walked toward her bondmate.
Hearing her bootsteps, Daenys looked up and over at her, then rose to her feet. Her expression was set but her eyes were damp, and she stepped forward and caught Melara's shoulders as if to prevent her from going forward.
"There is no purpose in seeing," Dae said softly.
Mel's voice felt ragged. "I need to."
Dae loosed her grip and Mel stepped past her, moving over and then kneeling down.
That Beth was dead was unmistakable. She had hit the wall with incredible force and had probably been killed with the impact. She lay there among the rubble, blank eyes fixed toward the wall that had killed her, a sizable pool of sapphire surrounding her head like a halo. The impact had been enough to break her skull, and though it was turned away from her, Mel could see the left side of her forehead and cheek were collapsed inward.
Leaning over her, Mel's shaking hand reached out and touched the cheek that was still whole. Her lower lip trembled and tears broke up her vision. The hollow ache that had already gored her dug deeper and harder.
Dae knelt down at her side, winding her arms around Melara's shoulders and holding her close. Mel reached up and gripped her arm almost frantically.
"Are you hurt?" she asked. "Dae-?"
"I am fine," Daenys said. "I am not injured."
"I couldn't protect them," Mel told her. "Beth, and Mama…if anything happened to you too…"
Dae just held her tightly again, leaning her head against Melara's as the tears began to fall.
"Captain, we shouldn't linger," Vina said gently a moment later. "The battle seems to have moved toward the far end of the city but the tide could turn this direction again any moment. Athena-?"
"She's dead," Mel said, unable to even muster up the venom she wanted to put behind the words. She felt like she'd been ripped in half.
Why? Why this? Why were we made to love each other and then her illness, her isolation…and this. She did not deserve this, Goddess…we did not deserve this. What did we do to earn such cruelty? Why do you hate us so?
Her XO was right. They were still in a dangerous situation. Mel was still captain, and she needed to pull it together.
Gripping her wife's arm again gently, she got up to her feet. Dae rose with her, moving back far enough to hold her hand but refusing to release her completely. Mel steeled herself, then looked at Vina.
"Laws went down to retrieve Athena and the device she apparently came here to activate. Help her and sound the general retreat- pull everyone back to the anchor and through the Fold. We need to get out of here."
"We only have enough power to open the Fold again for two standard minutes," Irie said, her fingers flying over the console controls. "That is not going to be enough to get everyone back through, and if that Fold closes while someone is in the middle of it…"
"I have the solution," EDI replied. "We have the proper coordinates for their location. There is a functional Anchor aboard Goruba. I will simply link the Fold from there. Her power cells should be fully charged at this juncture."
"EDI, you are beautiful," Irie said with a grin. "Do it. I'll send a communique through to let Mel and the others know-"
Her omni-tool suddenly lit up, Ashley's voice filling the room. {Irie, we need the Fold open now.}
"There is only enough power for two minutes, Ashley," she replied. "We are planning to re-establish the Fold using Goruba-"
{Two minutes is enough, we got a prime heading here top speed with…someone badly injured. Just open it long enough for them to get through.}
"Oh, Goddess! Yes, yes of course." As she input the parameters to expand the micro-Fold to full capacity she called over to the Alliance guards lingering nearby. "We need medics, and get my daughter too if you can. Ashley, the Fold is opening now."
The barrier dropped, the tiny dot of black transforming in a snap to the black empty abyss of the fully expanded Fold. A few seconds later, Ashley came running through. She looked none the worse for wear- perhaps a bit dusty. She dropped her helmet to the side as she came in, and immediately headed over to Irie, taking gentle but firm hold of her.
"They're heading through," she said, even as she did so.
Irie was no simpleton, and the fact that Ashley had not named who needed medical attention, and had immediately come over to block her from moving forward, was not good news. Her heart tightened and then sped up as first a geth soldier, then a prime ducked through the Anchor and into the room. When she saw what the Prime was carrying and the amount of blood, she let out a cry.
"Mama! Oh, Goddess!"
Ashley gently stopped her from moving forward for fear she would get in the way. Not seeing the medics immediately on hand, the Prime kept up its momentum and strode past and through the link into the second prefab. As soon as they had passed, Ashley let Irie go, and the asari rushed after them. EDI immediately took her place at the console and shut down the Fold.
"I will go to Goruba and open the Fold there to allow the others back home," she said to Ashley.
"I'll get the static barrier back up over this one. Go on, they had just called a full retreat when we came through."
The geth were halfway through the second prefab when a pair of Alliance medics hurried in, Lily hot on their heels. When she saw her grandmother the young doctor paled, but did not lose her calm.
"Lay her down, right there," she ordered quickly, directing the Prime to lay her on the floor. One of the Alliance soldiers peeled off her jacket and passed it to Lily, who quickly rolled it up and put it under Liara's head, before she started checking her vitals.
"Oh…" Nearby, Irie made a miserable, helpless gesture toward her mother. She wanted to get closer but she didn't want to get in the way. After a moment, Lily looked up.
"I need everyone that can to get out of here right now." She gestured at one of the medics. "You, I need field sterilization. Mama, come here."
Those who could shuffled out as the first medic started digging in his bag. Irie hurried over to her daughter and knelt down. "Wh-what do you need?"
"Blood. They can bring in some units but it'll take time and she has none left. I need to run a line from your arm to hers to sustain her until the extra blood can get here."
"Of course." Irie quickly wiped her eyes, then immediately began adjusting her sleeve. Lily kept talking, even as she dug the necessary items out of her own kit.
"This is going to be hard for you to watch, Mama, but I need to do surgery right here and right now. That piece of metal is sharp. Every movement made has been sawing it deeper into her chest. It's caused a lot of damage and shifting her again may sever a major artery. We cannot wait to move her safely. I need to get it out and get the bleeding stopped."
"Do whatever you need too, love," Irie told her. Lily quickly got the needle into Liara's arm, then uncoiled the tubing and ran the other end into Irie's arm, binding it in place with a few quick swatches of tape. As she did, the other medic got the field sterilization generator up. A sweep of blue light passed brightly over them and everything in the immediate vicinity to kill any germ or pathogen, and then a shimmering dome hovered over them to prevent the area from becoming recontaminated.
That done, Lily and the other two medics set to work. Every motion was fast but incredibly precise and done with the utmost care. As Irie's blood moved in to keep Liara's heart beating, they carefully cut and cauterized around the hunk of metal, sealing bleeds as they could access them and freeing the shard from her flesh. One of the medics put a mask over Liara's face after he got it set up, feeding her oxygen and a small mixture of medications that would help boost her vitals. Her brain scan was obtained by two small pads that were pasted on her temples. Lily kept glancing at it every few moments.
Irie knew enough to know that what the scan showed was not good, but she was not a medical doctor and could not point out specific areas of concern. She knew her daughter was watching it in part to insure that Liara was not in danger of suddenly coming awake , which would have been agonizing, but also to monitor just how much time they had to get her vitals up again.
Irie had enough education to know if the scan went completely black and purple there was no longer any brain activity whatsoever. If that happened, her mother was gone. Right now, it was already far too dark, only a few flickering patches of greens, yellows, reds, and whites glimmering here and there…like stars in the night sky.
She held Liara's hand in her own as Lily and the others worked, closing her eyes and praying to whatever voice or god or power might possibly hear her, even Liara herself.
Do not leave us, Mama. Ash needs you. Sam needs you. Mel and I, we still need you. We love you. Please…please, do not leave us.
Lily's eyes flicked once again from the wound to the brain scan, and she shook her head. "Her pulse is down to thirty and is becoming erratic. Where the hell is my blood?"
"They are on their way," the second medic told her. "Should be any minute…"
"She hasn't got a minute," Lily said, then shook her head. "It's not just the blood, her nervous system is collapsing. She's…Goddess, Mama, no!"
Motion had caught her eye, just a little of it, and she had looked toward it to see her mother had shifted her grip on Liara's hand.
Her eyes had gone black.
Lily knew immediately what her mother was doing- joining her nervous system to Liara's to act as a sort of living life-support system. The problem was doing so was incredibly dangerous to the one who did the meld, even if they had years and years of training in the art- which Irie did not.
If Liara died while Irie was still connected to her, Irie would feel every moment of it as if it were her own death. She could very well die too, and in the slim possibility she did not, the psychological strain would be overwhelming.
Asari had gone mad before, melding with total strangers who had died during the meld- and this was Irie's mother, not some stranger with whom there was no emotional investment.
Even as her eyes went black it was too late to stop her or break the meld. Liara's vitals immediately improved, her heart rate steadying, her breathing deepening and becoming more regular. It was merely a stop-gap, however, until they could get more blood. Irie was about at the limit of what she could safely donate, and that limit had gotten a lot closer now that she was further straining her system by melding with Liara.
Fortunately, just then, beating footsteps announced another pair of the medics, these ones part of Lily's team from the Normandy. They hurried in with a heavy case carrying several pouches of replacement blood. Lily directed them with a snap of her fingers to unhook Irie from Liara and start on the replacements instead, and continued to work. The sooner she got Liara out of danger, the sooner her mother could stop her meld, and the less danger they'd both be in.
The trouble was, even with the 'life-support' and the additional blood, there was a very, very strong chance Liara would die…and now it looked like she may just take her eldest daughter with her.
The group on the alien world was streaming back up the hill toward the guarded anchor at the top. Vina had her hand to her helmet as she listened to communications coming through. Melara couldn't hear them herself- she did not have her helmet or her ear bud, and using her omni-tool was impossible at the moment. Beth's body was in her arms.
Behind her, Laws followed with Sihra close by. Athena was slung haphazardly over the rakir's shoulder as if she carried nothing more important than a bag of rocks. Another rakir was carrying Red.
They were still in danger, of course. The explosions of the ongoing fight were not so distant as Mel would have liked, and one of the alien fighters seemed to have taken an interest in them. It wasn't firing on them directly, but its curiosity was unnerving, and it might decide to at any point.
With a nod, Vina dropped back to Melara and Daenys' side, lowering her hand.
"The anchor in the prefab is out of power," she said. "EDI is opening the Fold from an anchor on Goruba. We'll be coming in through there."
Melara nodded. "The moment the last of us is through I want that Fold closed down and that anchor resecured," she said. "Laws, I want you to give that object directly to EDI for analysis. Athena seemed to think it was the answer -or related to the answer- to our 'plague'. If she can figure it out, then EDI can as well."
As they reached the ruins, they could see the biotic bubble the rear guard had erected around the Fold was being held in place, though it was clear they were tiring. As they neared and Vina signaled the Fold to be opened, they dropped it.
"Everyone through, right now," Mel said. "Go!"
Only when they were certain the last of their people had cleared back home, did Mel, Vina, and Dae follow.
Stepping through the Fold and from the heated atmosphere of the alien planet into the cool one of Goruba was like being slapped in the face with ice water. The cold should have revitalized her but oddly it only shook the hold she was maintaining on her exhaustion, her emotion. She did her best not to let it show, looking over to where EDI was already looking over the strange 'handle' like device Athena had used to attack her.
"We're clear, shut it down," Mel said, and the Fold vanished as Pio terminated the connection. She felt Dae suddenly touch her arm and looked over at her.
"I will take her," Daenys said gently, and held out her arms. Mel met her eyes, then nodded and carefully passed Beth's body over to her wife. She had to talk to EDI.
As the others went on to take care of the bodies or the wounded, Mel headed for the old synthetic, Vina trailing beside her.
"You say this device is related to indoctrination?" EDI asked as she approached.
"Yes. She took a chip out of the brain of one of the Jabberwock queens and inserted it into the device. She used it to control me, enter my mind…inflict pain."
"I recognize this device," the Pio said, approaching. "Yes, that was its purpose, back when the creatures you call 'Jabberwocks' were first engineered. It was a method to control the hive mind captains, who would in turn control their drones. This one has been modified- it would utilize the chip that was taken out to exert direct control on the mind and nervous system of any sentient creature, even one without a chip already implanted."
"She seemed to think she could use it to stop the plague, or to stop the aliens from detonating their superweapon in the core."
"She was partly correct," EDI said. "If this device functions as Pio has indicated, it is possible it could be used to control the alien crew piloting the superweapon. However, I do not see how it can be used in any capacity to solve the problem of dark energy."
"She had the answer, damn it. Or at least, she was convinced she did. I nearly had it too. When she used that, I caught brief snatches of her own mind and feelings. I don't think she intended me to, and it was only moments, but she was convinced she knew what the cure was. The only time I got close to it, though, the only thing I saw was her."
"Her mind was undisciplined in the use of this device. It is possible in such cases for the victim of the control to reverse the influence and turn it back onto an undisciplined user," Pio said.
"Seeing an image of her could mean many things," EDI said regretfully. "It is highly likely the image was born of mere ego- she saw herself as the only one who could save us. Or, it could mean that if she did in fact discover the solution, it was hidden somewhere on her person."
"I will have every inch of her searched," Vina said. "Anything she has on her, no matter how small, and we'll find it."