A/N: A big huge thanks to the wonderful, beauteous Bladhaire once again. Only she could take my evil and make it even more deliciously evil. Love you baby!

Melara felt almost as if she had been gut-punched, a near physical jolt pressing through her abdomen and chest.

She knew instantly of course that this was Doctor Shepard from Ashley's home volume. The lumbering hitch to her few steps told of someone not particularly used to the weight of a full hard-suit and weapon's pack. The fact that the pack itself was poorly fastened, and several pieces of her armor loosely connected, also spoke of someone not terribly familiar with the gear putting it on alone and in haste.

What Melara didn't understand was what the pack was for, and what had possessed her to come charging through the Fold into a universe that wasn't her own in the first place. She had to be fully cognizant of the risks involved!

Somehow, Mel managed to pile in all of her surprise, concern, anger, and bafflement into one single word.

"Doctor!"

"Captain, I think I'll need help," Shepard said, awkwardly getting down to one knee and pulling off the pack. "I don't think my armor is entirely secure."

Vina, far closer, crouched and was already reaching for the woman's armor, tightening connections. Shepard set the pack carefully on the ground in front of her, as Melara reached her side and crouched as well.

"Doctor, what are you doing here?" she asked, breathless, her tone tense.

"We reached the anchor site and were able to secure it," Del said calmly, meeting her eyes. The action, as innocent as it was, seemed only to increase the surreal feelings rushing about in Melara's mind. "It was half buried in an underground chamber. We got it cleared, got it moved off the toxic world and to Liara's ship. The anchor wasn't the only artifact, however. Several more strange devices were scattered about, half buried themselves. We took them as well. I've been working in concert with a small team trying to figure out their purpose or functionality and we have a very strong working theory about a few of them."

She dug into the pack and almost gingerly pulled out a black orb, crisscrossed with thin etchings, just larger than a clenched fist, as she continued to talk. "These in particular. I was just opening communication to your volume to let you know of our findings and that we had the anchor secure for Ash's return when EDI answered and filled me in on what was happening."

"Filled you in?" Melara said. Her emphasis on the word 'you' spoke volumes that Shepard immediately understood, and colored slightly.

"I kind of acted…rashly. Liara wasn't in the room, and I didn't have a choice. The only people that can safely pass between volumes are the ones that do not have a doppelganger currently there, and-"

"That's why Ashley was safe when she came through," Vina said, straightening and refastening Shepard's weapon's pack. "Because her equivalent was centuries dead."

"Yes, and that was the reason I knew I'd be safe…but Liara or any of the others, it was too risky-"

"Does Captain T'Soni know you're here?" Mel asked. Del colored a bit more.

"She probably knows by now. I kind of locked her out of the room on a pretense, quickly geared up, grabbed what I needed and came through. She probably isn't very happy with me right now."

"You deceived her," Mel said.

"I didn't have a choice," Del said, anger starting to come through. "I'm the only one that we knew could safely come through, and I knew she would never let me take the risk with these. I didn't have time to convince her. She'd let her feelings get in the way."

On the word 'these' it was clear she was referring to the devices gathered in the bag. Vina was now taking an interest in them. As she reached for the orb in Del's hand, the human woman retracted it against her chest almost protectively. "Don't. These are implosion grenades of no small force. I have ten of them."

"Implosion grenades?" Mel asked.

"Yes. It may be our only chance to safely stop this ship."

"Can't we just drive it into a sun, or activate the self-destruct?" Mel asked.

"I highly doubt it. From what I understand of this superweapon, it is designed to go into the very heart of a galaxy and then detonate," Shepard said. "If it can survive being sent into the galactic core long enough to detonate, then it can certainly survive being sent into the core of an ordinary sun. And detonating it anywhere, even outside the core, would likely be catastrophic. It may not be enough to wipe out the whole galaxy but it would take out a very significant portion of it. Also, this weapon may not be eezo powered but the fabric of your reality is already thinned, weakened, and full of holes thanks to the dark energy tearing through it. An explosion of a large enough size, even without being directly powered by eezo, might be enough to lead to the collapse of this universe and all the volumes around it. The people who built this superweapon may have taken that into consideration but they also might not have; do you want to bet on it?"

"So how do we destroy it then?" Melara asked. "We can't risk leaving it intact."

"That's where these come in. I'm hoping that if we set these in strategic areas around the engine or energy focus driving this weapon and then set them off all at once, the resulting implosions will rip the weaponized core apart and create a focused singularity."

"You're talking about a man-made black hole."

"A tiny and temporary one. Not large enough or long enough to affect this system, but giving a powerful enough burst of gravity that this vessel is crushed to the size of a pea."

Vina eyed her. "Wouldn't imploding the weaponized core cause the very detonation we're trying to avoid?"

"I don't think so. I'm hoping not," Del said. "I won't know for sure until we get a better idea of what this weapon is powered by or what causes it to reap the devastation it is designed for, but one thing I've found consistent- in my universe at least. Most explosive weapons of mass destruction of any size rely on a fusion of materials, nuclear or otherwise. That is, elements that are separated and must come together in order to cause the chain reaction that results in the explosion. I'm betting that this weapon, while its elements may be beyond our technological understanding or scope, relies on a fusion reaction as well."

"So setting the grenades at certain points ensures that those elements are torn further apart before the ship collapses."

"Right. Each grenade causes its own micro-singularity, pulling matter toward each of them before their own singularities will pull them toward each other into a larger singularity which would collapse the ship. The elements of the weapon would be pulled apart, each into its own micro-singularity, which would then compress them so tightly and so suddenly that it will change the very atomic structure of some of them before the gravity compression of the singularities attracting one another forces them together again, eliminating their reaction and thus halting fusion."

"Wouldn't the compression itself cause a smaller fusion reaction to take place, making an explosion anyway?" Vina asked. Shepard nodded.

"Yes, but at a vastly reduced scale to what would happen otherwise. The gravity of the smaller singularities would be able to contain the released energy and draw it back inward before it could reach escape velocity. There is a high likelihood that a highly radiative burst may move fast enough to temporarily escape the smaller singularities, but it wouldn't be enough to do much more than harm or kill someone standing only a few feet away."

"Not that it would matter," Melara said. "Anyone still on this ship when those grenades go off would be dead in the next microsecond anyway, as the singularities merge into the larger one, and the ship collapses into it. If we can set the grenades to go off in a timed reaction, we can afford us a few minutes to get back through the Fold and to safety before they detonate."

Del looked at her hesitantly. "That's…going to be a bit of a problem."

"Why?" Melara asked.

"Well, for one thing, the grenades don't really have that kind of a timer function…"

"We have Pio," Melara said, gesturing over toward the far wall where the synthetic was still silently working. "If anyone can figure out the timer function, Pio can."

"The problem isn't in figuring out the timer function," Shepard said. "The problem is that particular kind of timer function simply does not exist in these grenades. They have a biolock instead."

"A what?"

"The grenades are designed to biologically link to a single individual. Near as we can determine, they were meant initially for suicide bombers. Once they are touched with bare skin, they are bound to that person's very DNA. There is a type of timer but we haven't been able to figure out how or when it kicks on or how long it gives once it does. So far as we can determine, it hasn't kicked on yet, but that doesn't mean it won't any moment, and the timer could be set anywhere from hours to seconds. More likely it would be minutes to hours, give the bomber long enough to actually reach his target."

Mel stared at her, suddenly realizing something. It would have made far more sense for Shepard to simply throw through the bag of grenades through the Fold and then send a comm through explaining their use. Instead, she had literally risked annihilation by jumping through the Fold into an alternate universe to bring them personally. Sure, she had good reason to believe she wouldn't be obliterated, but she couldn't know for sure until she actually came through. Why risk it at all when the same thing could be accomplished far more safely?

Unless…it couldn't be.

Though Melara already knew the answer to her next question, she asked it anyway.

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying that these grenades are biologically linked to me. Only I can set them off."

Mel felt cold, disbelief and anger both rising in her. She looked at the bag. Shepard had said that she had ten of them. Incredulously Melara asked, "How did that happen? How did you touch a whole case of grenades?"

Shepard colored a bit behind her helmet face-plate. "I opened the lid, they were all neatly lined up... they looked so pretty..."

Vina looked at Melara. "She's more like your father than she seems."

Before Melara could respond, her comm lit up, Pio speaking. {Captain, I have concluded my scan and have tapped into the system. I am returning to you and maintaining connection wirelessly.}

"Good. We have a problem. We need you to examine something when you get here."

Looking back at Shepard she said, "Perhaps Pio can figure out this biolock and deactivate it somehow."

"I would definitely not argue," Shepard said. "I would gladly die if it means saving both our universes, but I'd prefer not too if there's any way around it."

Pio reached them just a moment later, looking at Shepard with puzzlement. "You are Dr. Shepard correct? Why did you risk coming here?"

She reached out and handed him the grenade she was still holding. "This is why. I was hoping to use these to collapse the ship safely. Are you familiar with them?"

He looked at the thing in his hand in concern. "Yes, I know what these are. Where did you find them?"

"They were buried with the anchor they found on their side," Melara said. "The doctor says they have a biolock-?"

"Yes, they were initially designed for the brasa's suicide bombers. Unlike most cultures, their bombers were not…volunteers. They used prisoners of war, criminals, slaves, or in the end, even the Iovino survivors they found. These devices are a particularly insidious design. They link to the DNA of the first being to touch them with bare flesh. The timer on the grenades has to be set and activated, usually by a wireless signal sent by whomever is controlling the bomber. The controller can grant a particular amount of time between activation and detonation-usually however long it will take for the bomber to get to its desired target location. Once the timer is set, however, there is no halting or altering the process."

Melara let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "So, we're good then. The timer can be set to however long we like. If we set the grenades and then the timer, we can give ourselves as long as we need to get out of this ship-"

"That will work for the rest of us," Pio said, looking at her. "But I'm afraid not for Dr. Shepard."

"What do you mean?"

"The failsafe," Del said miserably. Pio nodded.

"Yes."

"What goddamn failsafe?" Melara asked, her anger rising again.

Pio looked at her. "It is true that we can set the timer for however long we like but these devices have a failsafe that is activated the moment they are biolocked. If Dr. Shepard separates herself from these devices by more than a specific distance-usually only a few meters- a secondary timer starts automatically. That timer is also set to a specific allotment of time, usually random and anywhere from seconds to a few minutes. The further away she goes from the devices, however, the faster that timer counts down. It is designed so that the bomber has no chance to get to safe distance before the devices detonate."

"The brasa apparently took the 'suicide' part of 'suicide bomber' very seriously," Shepard said sheepishly. Melara turned on her.

"You knew about the failsafe?"

"Yes. Thankfully we figured that bit out fairly quickly, or Liara's entire ship would be the size of a pinhead right now. As it was, I very nearly walked out of range before our quarian engineer discovered the biolock and the failsafe and managed to stop me. I've had to haul that bag around ever since. They were still trying to find a way to turn off the biolock when I…made my departure."

"I may be able to at least determine the length of time and distance programmed into these devices in the failsafe," Pio said thoughtfully, still scrutinizing the one in his hand. "So we will know what we are working with. There is a slim chance I may even be able to alter the time or the distance just enough to allow Dr. Shepard to escape with us before the detonation takes place, but I cannot promise that."

"Anything you can do," Melara said. "I am not leaving anyone behind to die on this ship if I can help it. Were you able to find out anything about the situation here? About why they sped up, or why Blithe isn't answering?"

Pio lowered the device, looking troubled. "Yes. About twenty minutes before you detonated the Crucible, a hostile force of Solvers entered the ship and slaughtered the few crew that were aboard."

"Damn it! Blithe?"

"Currently unknown, but I do not believe any managed to escape. Still, this vessel is huge, even for Pio to travel around. The possibility of an escapee or survivors remains."

"How many hostile are aboard?"

"Between ten and fifteen. Blithe's crew only numbered six."

"We can handle ten or fifteen," Vina said.

"With luck we won't have too," Melara told her. "Pio, were you able to find the weapon core and a route to it?"

"Yes, I have that information. It is elsewhere on this deck, but not particularly close. It will take us about thirty minutes to reach it."

"Good. If we can get to that core and set these grenades, we can hopefully be back here and gone before the Solvers can interfere. Is half an hour long enough for you to come up with a way to get Dr. Shepard home with us?"

"I will do my best," Pio said. "I will need to keep possession of this grenade to continue my analysis, so Dr. Shepard I would suggest staying close to me."

"What about the Fold?" Shepard asked, gesturing back at the arch. "Is there a way to secure it so that more Solvers don't come pouring in?"

"No," Pio said. "The anchors were specifically designed so that securing them from one side would not be easy or quick. Only containment of the anchor with an energy field or mass that would prevent anyone passing through would suffice, and we have nothing here that would serve, unless Melara decides to stay and hold it in a biotic field."

"I couldn't hold a field that long, even if I wanted too," Melara said.

Pio nodded. "Fortunately, you don't need to worry. More Solvers will not be coming through."

"How can you be sure?"

"The few Solvers that got here are the last survivors of the assault on their base. There are no more of their company left to come. This final effort was their own 'suicide mission'."

"Please, don't say 'suicide mission' again," Del said, turning pale. "I'm really trying not to think about it."

Melara activated her omni-tool. "EDI, do we have communications?"

There was a moment's silence, and she tried again. "EDI?"

{Here, Captain. I have re-established the micro-fold. However, Captain T'Soni is also trying to establish a micro-fold from her volume.}

"No doubt she wants to peel a layer of skin off my ear for coming," Shepard said, her voice slightly shaky.

"Two Folds of any size cannot occupy the same anchor," Pio said. Melara looked at Shepard, who read her look easily. Del quickly shook her head.

"Not…not yet. I can't talk to her yet. It would only upset both of us."

Melara nodded. "EDI, we have to move. Maintain your micro-fold for now, and keep communications open. I'll fill you in with what we're planning in route, and you may have to drop your Fold suddenly to allow the Captain to establish hers."

{Understood, Captain.}

"All right, it looks like Sihra found us a door, so let's move. Weapons up, eyes peeled. Doctor, you just hang on to that bag and keep close to Pio, let us do any heavy lifting if we have too. Ok, let's get this done, people…and go home. All of us."