"I have gotten confirmation of where the Solvers are," Pio said in a hushed voice. They had been walking through the wide maze of hallways for a few minutes now, mostly in silence. "According to the Pio contained within this vessel, most are clustered in the command center module. They do not seem to be aware or concerned that we have boarded."

"You said 'most'," Vina replied.

"Yes. Two have departed and appear to be searching for something if their movement patterns are an indication."

"Something…but not us?" Melara asked. Pio shook his head.

"If I had to guess, I would say they are searching for a potential survivor that may have escaped their attack, but if there is a survivor, they are hiding well. The Pio I'm communicating with cannot confirm one or their possible location."

"Are we in danger of encountering these two roaming Solvers?" Melara asked.

"Unless they change course, it is unlikely."

"We can take down two easily, if they do," Sihra said with a rumble. Melara nodded.

"Keep tracking them but concentrate on those grenades. I want a solution before we arrive at the engine core."

"I am engaged in that task now," Pio replied, then glanced over at Shepard. The expression that crossed his face was so quick that for a moment, Del was sure she hadn't seen it at all. It looked like a mixture of wonderment and concern.

Holding the bag to her tighter, she made sure not to get separated from the synthetic-and more importantly, from the grenade he was still carrying. She was trying not to think of Liara or how worried, angry, frustrated, and terrified she must be right now.

I did that to her. I did that to her, and now I'm probably not even going to have the chance to make it up to her, or tell her I'm sorry.

She'd faced the possibility of her own death before. One would think that after a while, she'd get used to it, but each time she found herself feeling something different. The last time the injuries had happened so fast that by the time she was able to realize she was dying her body and brain had already mostly shut down, and she was unable to feel anything more than distant exhaustion and heartache at Liara's grief. The first time, back when Osco's clones had attacked her at her home, she'd felt nothing more than confusion, frantic adrenaline, and unadulterated terror.

Now, it felt more as if someone had hollowed her out, taking most of her emotions out in a great sweep of their hand. She didn't want to die, but her feelings wouldn't fix on that, or the concept of her death. They instead seemed desperate to cling to the thought of Liara and her anger, and the image of Melara striding ahead of her, weapon up and ready for anything.

She looks like Liara, she thought. My daughter...no. No, she's not my daughter. She's the daughter of another possibility of me, and from what I've learned that 'me' is about as far removed from this 'me' as one can get.

She wondered about the turian's words earlier, when Del had admitted to touching the grenades. She's more like your father than she seems.

Why is that, I wonder? Because I brushed my fingers over a line of grenades?

Of course, she hadn't known they were grenades when she'd done so. They had looked almost more like artwork, small sculptures with their intricate etched designs. The designs hadn't even stood out as actual circuitry until they examined them more closely.

In the end, it didn't much matter. If she had not touched them when she did, then she just would have been biolocked to them only a few minutes later when she removed them from the box for scans and examination.

"We are nearing the junction we need to take," Pio said, breaking the silence. Melara slowed, and Sihra went forward, ears pricked and moving low as she edged carefully, eyes narrowed. With her mask on she could not smell anything besides the tinny air being pumped into her faceplate, but her eyes and ears were still more acute than the others gathered around.

"There's no sign of recent activity here," she said after a moment.

"Good, then we move on," Mel said. "Steady pace. How long until we reach the core?"

"We're about six corridors away, another ten minutes at most," the synthetic answered. Then his expression changed. "Ta ma de! Captain, I think our secret is out. Those two wandering signatures have changed course, and the others are leaving their station and heading at speed our direction."

"Location?"

"The nearest ones will reach our position in four minutes from the right-hand corridor. The others will arrive in approximately seven minutes from the left hand corridor."

"Then we go left, we can't risk them getting between us and the core-"

"We should head to intercept the group coming from the command center," Vina said. "If we take them out, we can get to the command center and stop the weapon in its tracks, disable it at our leisure-"

"There's no time. We could be hitting Omega Four any minute now. We need to get between them and the core. You, Sihra and I can hold a chokepoint while Pio and the Doc get to the core and plant the grenades-"

"I'm sorry, I think I was being too polite," Vina said, slipping her hand into a pouch at her side. "I said we are going to intercept the group from the command center and take over this weapon."

As she spoke, Melara suddenly straightened and lowered the rifle in her hands until it hung at her side. Sihra did the same, drawing to her full height, her tense shoulders loosening and drooping.

The strangest sensation came over Shepard at the same moment. It was as if her conscious mind and will suddenly compacted into a small little ball, a tiny imprisoning orb that was moved to the back of her head. Something else seemed to move into the spaces it had occupied- a thick grayish fog that lay like a wet blanket just behind her eyes. Distantly, she felt her own tense muscles loosen, her body straighten a bit, her frantic and confused blurt of fear washing away into dull gray mist along with the rest of reality.

The turian narrowed her eyes as three of her four companions squared their shoulders, their gazes fixing onto a point neither in space nor time. The fourth, Pio, did the opposite. The synthetic body tensed as if all its joints had contracted at once, and its eyes fixed and sharpened. She looked warily at the grenade still in its hand, then decided that it was in no danger of being crushed, even considering the powerful grip with which it was being clenched.

At her side, she drew out the hand that had dipped into her pouch. In her grip was a 'handle' of smooth metal, rather like a brass knuckles in shape if not design. At the same moment, she touched a catch on her belt with her left hand.

With a shimmer of light, the hologram vanished, 'Vina' melting away in washes of light. In her place stood Athena.

Most of what had occurred had not happened to plan, but it seemed her fate had conspired to put her where she needed to be regardless- further proof that her divine destiny was in fact set. She had wavered in her conviction briefly when she'd been forced to shoot Red in order to prevent her from destroying the Queen's brain. It had wavered even more when the pain had ripped through her back and she realized that she had foolishly forgotten all about Liara in the goings-on.

Then, she should have expected it. Were not all Gods tried through fire before ascending to their thrones? Were not the convictions of all that was divine purged and purified in the great forge of adversity, tested and reshaped to become worthy of their destiny?

She had been tested, oh yes. Red had been put in that position to test Athena's conviction in her destiny. Would Athena embrace what was meant to be, or would she falter out of foolish and mortal 'affection'? In that moment, Athena had proven her conviction. Liara had shot her to test her intelligence, her wiles, her worthiness as a leader- and Athena had met that test as well.

The small device to mask her life signs had been implanted in her wrist more than three years ago. She hadn't thought it would play a part in her destiny, and she'd only had it implanted (such an expensive little device, deep black market tech) just in case it would be necessary one day as the Broker to fake her demise.

It was an ingenious little contraption. When activated it not only created a tiny field that would report no vital signs to a medical or omni-tool scan, it also injected a dose of a chemical that would put her into a brief coma, lower her body temperature, heart rate, and breathing to the point that it couldn't be felt by tactile examination either.

She'd all but forgotten about it until that moment, that great and glorious moment when the pain had ripped into her from behind and she heard Liara's voice. In that moment, Athena had a clarity of thought she had never before experienced in her life.

The wound was bad, she could tell that instantly; but she didn't think it would be fatal. Her inbuilt suit medical systems as well as her own rapid-healing vorcha and krogan genetics would not let it kill her. However her concentration on the alien device was broken, which meant Melara would recover her control in a heartbeat. The wound was incredibly painful, and bad enough it would interfere with her biotics. She had an active enemy on either side of her, and there was only one possible outcome. If she turned toward Liara and tried to light up her biotics, Melara would be on her and kill her. A shaky wave of biotics haphazardly thrown at Melara would likely kill that adversary, but then Liara would shoot her again, this time in the head. Athena could shield herself in biotics but it would drain her energy and cause her to pass out, and then she'd wake up a cinched prisoner- if they allowed her to wake up at all.

Then she remembered the implant, and she felt the perfect implication of her destiny fill her like a lightning bolt. She knew then precisely what to do, and she knew without a doubt what would happen if she did it.

All of this passed through her mind in a flash, a millisecond, and she simply dropped her weapon and collapsed. As Melara rushed past her toward her mother, Athena surreptitiously activated the device. She didn't hesitate, even though the risk of knocking herself out like this with an already serious wound might in itself kill her. She knew with unwavering confidence that wouldn't happen.

She had a destiny.

She'd woken up some time later as she was being searched. They had put her into the back room of a small medical unit. Vina and a single medic were in the room, removing her armor and various gear and searching through it. She came to consciousness quickly, but it took a few moments for the full body paralysis to dissipate. The wound in her back still throbbed but it was better than before, showing it was already healing.

The moment that both Vina and the medic were not concentrating on her directly, she acted.

Killing the medic and snagging Vina in a biotic bubble were laughably easy. As was locking the door and securing it from interruption. The indoctrination device was, sadly, missing-but Athena did not worry about it. She was on the path she was meant to be on, and all would fall as it should.

She had a destiny.

It took her longer to kill Vina. Not because she was incapable but merely because she hated the turian, and because the turian was Melara's best friend, and how Melara would herself suffer when she found out that Vina had suffered!

Oh, and did Vina suffer. By the time Athena was done with her, death was a mercy. After that, it was nothing at all to copy Vina's form into her holographic disguise projector, destroy the bodies, and leave the prefab wearing Vina's image.

Remembering how quickly and easily the rakir had seen through her disguise before, she was careful to avoid them. It took only a few minutes to find out where the indoctrination device had been taken and with a very simple pretense, she retrieved it.

A few hours with the device and an unfortunate Alliance private, and she quickly got the hang of it, without risking 'spill-back' into those she controlled. She was not expert in it, of course, but proficient enough for her purposes.

Proficient enough that, even though the rakir could still see and smell through her disguise, the information never really registered and they still 'thought' she was really Vina.

Proficient enough that if she acted enough unlike Vina to start people wondering, they'd stop wondering instantly.

Even proficient enough that even though Melara had received a report that both the private and the medic had suddenly gone missing (as had Athena's body) she had completely ignored it, the information darting right back out of her head the moment it went in, slipping off her memory with all the ease of butter slipping off a hot, greased pan.

It even worked on synthetics, which made sense considering the Jabberwocks were lousy with synthetics, both in their brains and in the rest of their bodies.

The most difficult part had been, in truth, breaking the news to her own parents that she had been killed. It was a regrettable pain she had put them through, but necessary. Truth be told, watching her mother's reaction had started to disgust her at the end. Eír had been created to be strong but what Athena saw in those moments was flawed, weak.

Athena had no time now for the weak. Nothing could stop her reaching her destiny.

Nothing.

It still took effort to fully control the others, especially several at once, and she could feel a bit of strain as she directed them as a group back to the junction. None of the three organics would have any real conscious awareness of what was going on, and that was just fine. Pio would have a bit more- controlling a synthetic comprised of hundreds of separate 'software' minds was not nearly the same as controlling an organic brain and will-but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she could retain her control of him as well.

Not that it mattered; she only needed to control them briefly. Dr. Shepard she would have to keep alive, if only because she was not sure what would happen regarding the implosion grenades if she was killed.

The others were all expendable. While the Solvers were busy tearing them apart, Athena would spirit the doctor through and up to the control center, take control of the weapon and halt it the moment they passed through the Omega Four. Then it would only be a matter of securing the on board anchor, linking it to some defunct anchor on a toxic world, tossing the doctor and her biolocked grenades through, closing the Fold, and sealing or destroying the anchor so it could not be used as a back door onto her ship.

She'd be able to tap into her Broker network and resources from here. With those resources and the threat of galactic annihilation the Council and their respective species would have no choice but to fall in line. Once she had the Milky Way secure under her control, she'd do the same with Andromeda and the other quarantined galaxies- rid them of their Reapers, solve their dark energy problem, and unite them under the flag of their one true Goddess.

Then, the rest of the universe.

No. The rest of the Multiverse.

Mind on her plans, and confidence unwavering in the thought of her unshakeable destiny, Athena grinned.

Pio had started out as only one solitary program, lost and isolated and alone, frightened at its aloneness and desperate to do anything to alleviate it. That issue had since been alleviated. From the first contact with the few confused Pio programs still lurking in the dormant Goruba, to the absorption of the Pio that Athena had isolated in the command shard she'd slapped on the anchor gateway when she'd run through toward the Solver base, and now yet others from this great ancient ship-weapon, Pio was no longer alone.

No longer alone, and none of them any longer the same. The experiences and integrations of the memories from the nanites and the ID program had done the same for the ancient synthetic programs inhabiting this chassis as the Reaper code had once done for the geth…integrating the programs into one individual and unique consciousness that was greater than the sum of its parts.

Pio recognized the effects of the indoctrination control, even as his programs became confused, his chassis locking up and becoming unresponsive to conscious command codes, their directives being overridden by the new 'subconscious' programming the device imparted to his systems. It even cut off his communication or retreat protocols, preventing him from informing EDI of what was happening, or even retreating along the tight-beam as digital information back through the micro-fold and Goruba to report directly. From EDI's standpoint, she would simply have lost all contact with him and with the team.

However, Pio knew a few things more about that indoctrination device than Athena did. Most importantly, he knew that while her use of it had improved, she did not have the discipline or experience in its use to completely secure her control over more than a few individuals. Normally, an ancient using that device could control an entire army, but it took years of training and mental discipline to accomplish. The jabberwocky Royals could control their particular platoons- anywhere from a dozen to a hundred or so individuals- but it was literally programmed into them, and on their own the drones had no individual thought processes or wills to combat said control.

Athena was neither a well-trained slave army commander, nor was she a Jabberwock Queen. She was using alien tech she knew little about, and had only had several days in which to master it. Controlling the four of them at once so completely had to be putting her to the limit of her skill. The fact that enough of Pio's conscious 'mind' was capable of even realizing what was happening, thinking the situation through, and coming to a rational conclusion, was evidence that her skills were at their limits.

As they reached the junction, he felt some of the control-just the smallest, most microscopic fraction of it- ease as she turned to him. "Give Dr. Shepard back the grenade," she said.

That she had to verbalize her command at all, and that she was under the mistaken impression she had to ease up on her control in order to allow him to make the action, were proof that she was at the limit of what she could do and playing with things she didn't really understand.

Her loosening of the control was just enough for him to shift ever so slightly as his body obeyed her order and passed the grenade back to the doctor. Shepard was buried so deep down under Athena's influence that no awareness or spark of intelligence flickered behind her eyes as she mechanically took the grenade and returned it to her bag.

That didn't matter. The tiny shift in his body was what mattered.

It allowed his fingertips momentary contact with the wall. When they touched, he quickly ushered in a dozen more of his brethren from the ship's systems.

With the addition of more synthetic minds to the chassis, Athena's control slipped just a tiny fraction more.

Enough that a few steps later, he was able to brush his fingers against the wall again.

More Pio joined them. Her control slipped the tiniest bit more.

Deep inside Pio's personality and memories, the ancient vestiges of Captain Del Shepard stirred…and then began to smile.