They reached a long flight of stairs that led down into the bowels of the compound and Tali gave directions while John took point and kept an eye out for any more escaped skips. She was bearing up well, but he was worried about what would happen once they were back aboard the ship and had time to process everything that happened.

If they got back to the ship, that was. And no thanks to Doctor Alto I-gotta-make-a-huge- mess-of-everything-because-my-sense-of-fun-is-fucked Clef.

"How close are we, Tali?" he asked. Although he kept his voice down to a whisper, the echoes reverberated off the stained concrete walls. His whole body screamed that they were going the wrong way, they should be going up toward light and normal things and sanity and not down into whatever madhouse awaited them, but Tali confirmed that this was the only path to Gears' office, where the doctor was supposedly waiting for them with Cain.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and John cracked the door just wide enough to see that it opened out onto a large room with a few desks and a bank of three CCTVs against the far wall. They went out into the room and closed the door silently behind them. No more than three steps in, a woman in a white lab coat came in with her nose in a datapad and John and Tali ducked behind a desk just as she looked up and started toward the surveillance monitors. She unclipped a radio from her waistband and sat down, using a joystick to control the cameras.

Tali held up her shotgun and cocked her head in the researcher's direction (want me to shoot her?), but John frowned, held up a finger and pointed at his wrist (just give it a minute, Ms. vas Trigger-Happy).

Less than a minute later, there was a click and the researcher spoke into the walkie. "Doctor Armena reporting in: we're all clear here, sir."

"Good. We'll lock down that sector as soon as you get back."

"Roger that. Armena out." She stood up and made to leave when cold metal pressed against her temple and the walkie was plucked from her hand. To her credit, she didn't whimper or make any sound and surrendered almost immediately. John stepped around so she could see him, the barrel of his gun firmly on her head.

"A—are you the one they're looking for?" she asked, her voice quavering on the last syllable.

"Yes." She drew in a breath and he shoved the gun harder against her. "I don't want to kill you, but if you start making a racket, I will paint the walls with your innards, so help me god." She nodded and swallowed hard. Tali went to the CCTVs and started flipping through the displays, then fired up her omnitool to see what other information she could glean. While she worked, John had Armena sit down on the floor by the wall so they could talk. He hoped she would cooperate; there had been enough death down here already tonight.

"I'm almost done here, Shepard. I've stalled the lockdown processes, but I can't stop the override for long. We have to move fast—we only have a few more minutes until the Mobile Task Force arrives."

"Hear that, Armena? We'll be out of your hair soon enough. Now, I need you to do me a favor. Think you can do that?"

She nodded again, her eyes wide and hopeful that she might actually live through this night.

"Where is Doctor Gears?"

"This is his station—"

"I'm aware of that," John said patiently, but the barrel of the gun never wavered from her head. "I need you to get on the radio and ask for him." Armena nodded, eyeing the gun out of the corner of her eye.

"I can, but they'll know something is wrong, I know it. God, I just started here last week—"

"Look, I know you're scared, and that's okay. If you weren't scared right now, I'd be worried about you. Just do your best, hmm?"

Tali handed over the radio and Armena hesitated before pushing the button. "It's just . . . can you back the gun off a little? You can—you can still point it at me, if you really need to, but it's very distracting." John obliged and aimed down at the floor, giving her a 'hurry up' gesture. She depressed the button and took a deep breath before saying, her voice steady as anything, "Doctor Armena to base: what is the location of Doctor Gears?"

"Armena, this is base: that is not your concern."

She held up the radio as if to say, See? What did you expect?

"Tell him that his assistant needs to know so he can bypass the lockdown," John instructed.

"Uh, his assistant is here and needs the Doctor's location before he leaves the containment area so he doesn't get cut off when we lock it down."

"Doctor Armena," said Gears' even voice, "if you please, tell my assistant that we are waiting for him next to the Random Door."

"Thank you, Doctor," Armena replied with a long exhale of relief. "I'll send him over now." She clicked the radio off and handed it back to John, who clipped it to his own waistband.

"You did well. Now one last thing—where is the Random Door?"

"Just follow this hall east until you can't anymore, then turn left. It's the only wooden door on the hall."

Tali appeared at his side, her shotgun held casually by her hip. "All done here, Shepard. We should get moving."

"All right." He nodded to Armena and said, "Stay here for five minutes, then head back to your team. Lock the doors behind us, and keep an eye on those monitors. The MTF'll be here soon, and you can get back to work."

"You're not going to kill me?"

"Not unless you try to be a hero. Are you a hero, Armena?" She shook her head in an emphatic 'no' and tears spilled from her eyes. John almost felt bad for her. They left her there on the floor and heard the lock turn once they were most of the way down the hall.

"We're close," Tali said, following the nav point Clef had marked. "The turning's just up there."

They rounded the corner and found Gears and Cain waiting for them at the intersection. John's shoulders dropped as he let himself relax a bit, and clapped the doctor on the shoulder. "Sorry it took so long."

"Not to worry. We have been busy keeping the way clear. Cain was quite thoroughly entertained." His smile was serene and unconcerned, and for a moment John envied him his lack of emotional response. "The door is nearly half-way through its cycle, so we should be safe from any unpredictably random teleporting, but it could still lead someplace inside the facility. There are enough vehicles within the door's scope of influence that it shouldn't take many tries to link up with one of those doors, but still, we must be cautious."

Gears led the way and the others trailed in his wake. While he opened and shut the door, trying for an exit outside the facility, no one saw the mass of black shadow, thick as smoke, creep down the hallway toward them. It moved slowly, deliberately, the ponderous trek of a creature that knew nothing of haste and was used to biding its time.

The first long tendrils of shadow stretched out, probing the air, and its touch felt like a cold draft. John rubbed the back of his neck, but he was so intent on Gears that he didn't bother to question the sensation. It wasn't until he felt a tugging on his waist that he looked down and found that his midsection was swathed in black, smoky fingers. He cried out and the others whipped around just in time to see John sucked bodily into the shadowy mass. Tali screamed and reached for him, but too late—John was gone. Gears opened the door one last time and a cool, fresh breeze blew through the hall. They'd finally found an exit out of this hell, but Tali wouldn't budge.

"No! I won't leave him!" she cried, searching the blackness for any sign of John. She could hear him calling her, though, as if from the bottom of a well, and started toward the wall of shadow with her heart in her throat.

"You can't go in after him," Gears said, showing a rare concern. "We need to leave now and shut the door behind us—I won't risk another containment breach, especially not for that." He tugged at her arm but she tore it from his grasp. Cain watched the exchange with sadness for what he knew she was planning.

"I won't leave him," she said again, stepping slowly toward the murky mass. "Go to the ship and tell them to wait for a few hours. If we don't make it . . ." She was engulfed in darkness before she could tell them what to do if they didn't make it out. Gears sighed and shook his head sadly, then he and Cain went out into the night, shutting the door tight behind them.

Two minutes to MTF arrival.


Garrus pulled Jane down the hall with Clef pounding behind them, fleeing the Old Man and the rapidly disintegrating structure behind them. He'd gone into autopilot, calling upon his military background as they took turn after turn through dark halls and access tunnels, their feet thudding on concrete or echoing off corrugated metal. He gunned down three guards with hardly a thought and they bypassed a thick patch of rapidly growing vines that grabbed at them and tore holes in their clothes.

"Garrus, goddammit," Jane said, breathing hard, "you have to slow down!"

"No, we have to get what we came here for, and then we have to get the fuck out of here." Jane wrenched out of his grip and when he turned to grab her wrist again she disarmed him and stuffed the gun into the back of her pants. He glared at her but his eyes were wide, his mandibles flickering in barely disguised panic. She stepped around him and took the lead again with a look, one that would brook no argument. He held his tongue and took up his place in the middle again while Clef watched the whole exchange with a shit-eating grin on his face. Garrus growled menacingly at him, but held himself in check.

"How close are we, Clef?"

"Should be just around the corner, to the left."

They went forward with more caution this time, and Jane knew Garrus was seething at her back—she could feel his eyes locked on the gun, weighing his chances of getting it back without royally pissing her off—but there wasn't anything she could do about that right now. Now, she needed to focus on getting them all out alive. The emotional decompression could come later, when they walked out of here with all their limbs.

They came to the door marked "SCP-073, Cain" and Clef scanned his ID badge to unlock it. Cain sat on the bed with his hands clasped loosely between his knees and looked up, totally unsurprised, when they came in.

"Ah, Clef," he said in a mellifluous voice tinged with the remnants of a Middle Eastern accent. "I thought all this commotion was your doing."

"Isn't it always?" Cain gave him a wry smile that spoke volumes, all of them incomprehensible to Jane, but Clef's face went serious and he took Cain's hand in his, clutching it tightly. Cain nodded slightly and stood, then followed them out without any more explanation.

"Okay, we're in the home stretch now," Clef said, moving up beside Jane. "Just keep heading west."

They managed to pass through the facility relatively unhindered except for a few remaining guards, who Jane dispatched before they could even draw their weapons, and had just turned down the last hallway before the exit when she jolted to a halt, her stomach jumping up into her throat.

"Shepard, what—" Garrus started.

"Don't. Blink," she hissed through gritted teeth, her eyes wide as dinner plates. SCP-173 stood facing them, its huge bulbous green eyes staring blankly through them.

"It's just a statue," he said, but he wasn't blinking either.

"Then how did it get out here?" She took a tentative step forward, then another, then edged past the sculpture with her eyes locked on it. "Clef, you got it?"

"Got it." Jane blinked the dryness from her eyes and riveted her gaze on the creature again. "What happens when we turn the corner? We can't look at it through a wall, and we can't let it out." She shuddered. "Not this one. I won't leave if it means 173 breaches containment."

"I've got it covered, don't worry," Clef answered as he slid past the statue, grimacing as he brushed against its warm, stony flesh. "Just focus on getting out of here." First Jane, followed by Garrus, and then Cain rounded the corner and there, just in front of her and blessedly close, was the short staircase leading to the exit. She stood at the top of the stairs and listened for a moment, but it was reinforced steel and would give up none of its secrets.

"Clef?" she called. "We need to go, now."

Clef backed up in sight of them, staring at 173. His eyes were getting painfully dry, but he didn't dare blink. "No, you need to go. Get Cain out of here, and get back to the Normandy." When Jane started to protest, he held up a hand and shook his head. "Cain," he said, only he pronounced it 'Kah-een'.

"I am here, Alto." Clef said something in another language, a tongue old as the stones, and Cain nodded. "I know. Me, too." He motioned for Jane to open the door, and the three of them stepped into the cool night air, edging toward the dawn.

When the door shut behind them Clef smiled, tipped his hat, and closed his eyes.

One minute.


Tali moved blindly through the thick black murk and even the readouts on her mask did nothing to clarify the situation. The walls kept jumping around—where there should have been a turn there was wall, where there was supposed to be a flight of stairs was flat floor that was beginning to feel more spongy by the second. She had no idea what she'd walked into, but she had to get to John and get him out of this place before it killed them both.

She turned off the digital display and foundered for a moment in the blackness when the walls fell away altogether and she was left with no bearings at all. The floor felt more like ground now, and she had a moment to wonder if she'd been transported outside before she saw a break in the smoke up ahead. As she emerged into the light, she was just as confused as she'd been before. The land around her was vast and green, trees grew up out of piles of wreck and ruin and stood tall in the rising sun. Below her stretched a wide valley with the remains of some city that was being reclaimed by the earth again.

Earth? She was still on Earth, right?

John stood on the edge of the cliff and stared forlornly down at the city, and when he turned to look at her his face was etched with sadness. "Who are you? I didn't think there was anyone else here."

Tali stopped in her tracks and it took her a moment to get her bearings. "Shepard, what are you talking about? We need to leave right now, come on." She tried to drag him back the way she'd come, but he wouldn't go.

"You look so familiar . . ." He reached out to run his fingers across her face mask and a flicker of recognition darted across his face. "You remind me of someone I used to know, a long time ago."

"Who?"

"A quarian, named Tali." Tears sprang up into his eyes and he turned back to the vista below them. "I miss her."

"Shepard, what—I'm right here. Where do you think I went?"

"She's been dead for years," he continued like he couldn't hear her. "When the Reapers came, she was killed. A few of us survived." He gritted his teeth and the anger and frustration in his voice made her take a step back. "I survived. I always do, that's all I can do. Fucking survive. Everyone else dies around me, but I always come out without a scratch. Me and Jane both. I was twenty-four when I stopped aging, did you know that?"

Tali knew it was meant to be a rhetorical question, but she needed him to come back to her. She had no way of knowing if they'd somehow traveled through time and this was all real or if it was an elaborate hallucination, but she had to get him to look at her again. "No, I didn't know."

"All this time I thought I was different, but it turns out I'm exactly like Able. Trapped here, unable to die, to rest . . . oh, god, all I want to do is stop. I hope there isn't a heaven, because that just sounds so goddamn exhausting. Eternal life is something dreamed up by those who don't have it."

The radio at his hip crackled to life and some disembodied voice said, "Base to alpha team, are you—crackle—you're never leaving this place alive—crackle–port to the Keter wing, and bring Agent Daniels with you—crackle—I'll see to that, Tali'Zorah, you both belong to me . . ."

The flat, menacing quality of that other voice, the voice of the void, chilled her to her bones, and even John reacted for a moment. The view flickered for a moment, becoming a plain full of thick smoke and yellow bones, barren earth and carrion birds, and Tali grabbed John's arm. He turned to her with such longing in his eyes, like he'd give anything for this not to be real, but it was all too real for him. This was his hell—living forever while the world and everyone he loved died around him.

"Come with me, Shepard."

"I can't leave now. I promised I'd look after her." He pointed at a pile of stones, meticulously placed in a beautiful swirling pattern. At the head of the pile was her face mask, chipped and ancient, with a tattered piece of purple cloth wrapped around it.

"She's still alive, and I can take you to her, but you have to trust me." She pulled him along with her, trying not to look at the grave (your grave, Tali), and he followed with dragging steps.

"Are you sure? She's really alive?" His voice cracked with the hope that clogged his throat and Tali had to fight not to start crying. Maybe later, once they were away from here, but not now where that sinister voice on the radio could hear them.

"Yes, now come on!"

"But, I promised—"

"Would you rather stay here forever mourning me—her—or do you want to do something about it?" she asked, the modulator in her helmet crackling. John nodded and followed her back through the dense fog and they almost immediately got lost. She grabbed his hand in both of hers and dragged him away from that valley of death while the radio on his waistband screamed with static and the despairing howl of the creature in the mist.

Finally, they stumbled back out into the industrial hallways and strobing lights of the SCP facility, and Tali let out a sob of relief. They ran down to the the Random Door and she tore it open, but it only led into another hallway identical to this one. Behind them, the shadow creature was reaching out with its searching tentacles and John cringed against the wall while Tali desperately tried to link up with an exit. Every time she closed and re-opened the door, a new location appeared until she finally hit on a door that led outside. She pushed John through the door and tumbled out after him, kicking the door shut behind her. Three searching tentacles were severed when the door slammed shut, and they dissipated into the air.

Tali got to her feet first and pulled John up, staggering a little under his weight. "Shepard?"

"Yeah." She turned his head so she could see his face, and felt the knot in her gut loosen when she saw Shepard, her Shepard, looking back at her.

"FREEZE!"

She whirled around with her shotgun in her hands before she was even aware of having drawn it, and John raised his own gun beside her. The Mobile Task Force had arrived in style, with armored trucks and a helicopter and two dozen men all loaded for bear.

Time had run out.