Disclaimer: Bioware owns Mass Effect and its characters. The only thing I can take credit for is the OC's and changes to the plot.

POV Garvil

The pounding had stopped for a minute before Garrus and I decided to peek out of the Normandy. The landing pad was entirely deserted. Whatever had been attacking us just a few minutes ago in force was completely gone. Joker had said the colonists were behind the "attack", but that explanation didn't make any sense. If we're here to save them from the geth, why would they attack us?

Garrus took the lead as we headed towards the colony. Garrus had already been there, so he knew the way. We saw no one until we reached the colony. When we did, we found only one colonist standing, along with Shepard, Liara, and Ashley. The man pointed his pistol at Shepard, but slowly dragged his pistol hand away with his other hand. With a single shot, he fell roughly to the dirt, a hole in his head.

Shepard noticed us and ran towards where we were standing, near the head of the colony. "Garrus? Garvil? Weren't you guys on the ship?"

Garrus responded before I could. "According to Joker, the colonists were trying to break into the Normandy. We decided to investigate after we heard the banging stop."

Shepard nodded, then turned to me, raising an eyebrow. He gave me a disapproving look. "Aren't you supposed to be resting your nerves?"

I smiled in response. "I'm fine, Commander. No biotics from me, and I won't go all hero mode like last time. I promise."

Shepard sighed and shook his head. Liara gave me a worried look, but Ashley gave me a fierce glare. Doesn't this girl ever smile or laugh? Why does she always have to be so livid all the time?

"Wait," Garrus said, looking over his shoulder back towards where we came. His voice had jarred me out of my thoughts. "Do you hear that?"

I listened for a moment, and I heard a soft clang. Suddenly, one of the shed's doors opened. Kaidan stumbled out and crashed onto the ground, breathing heavily. Wrex and Tali stepped out after him. I walked up to Kaidan and offered my hand. He gave me a look of surprise, as if he hadn't expected me here, then grabbed it and let me help him up. Afterwards, he turned back to Shepard.

"Y-You do not want to be alone in a small room with a Krogan, especially with no ventilation. Yech."

Wrex crossed his arms menacingly as the rest of us laughed. Kaidan's face became flushed, but he dropped the subject. Shepard walked back to the crane controls and activated it. Suddenly, one of the sheds lifted, revealing a stairway. Garrus gave an impressed whistle as we approached. Shepard turned and motioned for us to follow. The rest of us stayed close as we descended, making sure not to get too close in case someone tripped.

Shepard hesitated when he reached the bottom. I was towards the back, so I couldn't see what was going on through all the bodies in between us, but I soon saw him slowly walk forward as the rest of us reached the bottom of the stairway. I realized the source of the hesistation soon enough. A giant bug, no, a plant... a... what the hell is this thing?

Suddenly, the tentacles in front of the creature began to twitch, more and more violently each time. With a disgusting noise that made me want to vomit, a green asari appeared from its "mouth". She took two steps forward and looked at us threateningly.

"You intrude upon the Thorian's rest." Thorian? "You are sensed only as meat, to be devoured in your final resting spot. Turn back, or find yourself lost to the world."

Shepard scoffed in return. "We're not afraid of an overgrown bug. Your mind control won't take effect before we take you down." Mind control? So Joker WAS right about the colonists...

The asari didn't even change expression. "Our final warning was not heeded. Feel the wrath of the Thorian!" With that, she suddenly glowed in biotics. Shepard ran up and punched her square in the face. I flinched as the asari's head was forced backward, causing her to lose her balance and fall into the chasm behind her.

Shepard looked around the large room where the Thorian was housed. To me, it looked like the giant bug... plant... thing was taking up the entire center of it, suspended in midair by several tentacles grabbing the walls at various levels. Shepard noticed the same thing, as he turned and told us, "Split up and take out these tentacles. If we destroy enough of them, this thing should fall into the chasm." He flinched, and immediately I found the source. I felt something in my head, comparible to a door slamming in your ears. I shook my head and ran off in one direction without waiting for Shepard to finish his orders. I saw what looked like charred human remains, except brown. I wrinkled my nose and grabbed my shotgun to test the upgrades. The monster stumbled forward, one of its legs being blown clean off. I looked at my shotgun in wonder, impressed at its power.

I felt myself being pulled back and saw Garrus in front of me, shooting down another pair of the same monsters that had been rushing towards me. Liara stood beside him, using her biotics to keep them away from us. I facepalmed in my head at my stupidity. I had been so impressed with my shotgun that I wasn't using it. I stood up from where I had fallen roughly and sniped another creeper with my shotgun. This thing really DID pack a good punch.

We progressed through the various rooms, destroying the creepers as we went along. We found the same asari soon after, but we plugged her full of holes without trouble. I was surprised to see her again only two rooms later.

We had just killed her again when I heard the most earsplitting roar I ever had the misfortune to have go through my Thorian flailed, but stayed firm. We were coming up to one of its tentacles. The asari again was present in the tentacle room, giving the same hateful smirk as she darted around us. Liara threw her off the platform and she made a disgusting sounding plop when she hit the Thorian before falling into the abyss. Garrus coughed after she disappeared from view.

"Er, Liara. Was that necessary?"

Liara smiled in response. "Probably not, but it felt good."

The Thorian's screams started again, and only compounded when I saw the tentacle recede from the wall in front of our eyes. I looked towards one of the other sides to see Wrex pumping his shotgun's shells into yet another tentacle. With a final shot, the Thorian screamed more loudly than it had before. The rest of the tentacles receded from the wall, unable to support the body's weight any longer. We watched, far back from the edge in case it flailed us off the edge. With a final crash as the Thorian's body slammed into one of the upper floors, the Thorian fell beyond view.

I walked towards the edge, looking up and around. Finding Shepard, we began to walk up various stairways and through rooms filled with dead thorian creepers. Obviously, they no longer were a threat with the Thorian dead.

Shepard was in front of what looked like a giant scab connected to the wall, pulsating. I felt bile rise up in my throat. I really, really don't want that image stuck in my head.

The 'scab' burst open to reveal the same Asari that had been fighting us throughout the giant room, only with blue skin this time. I blinked in surprise as she stood up.

"Thank you for freeing me from the Thorian, human." Shepard nodded. "You were the one Saren spoke about. The human with the beacon's secrets." Shepard nodded again.

The asari stumbled backwards, as if she was exhausted. "I see. My name is Shiala. You came here just in time."

Shepard leaned his head forward, as if in thought. "Why are you here as the Thorian's slave?"

The Asari thought a moment before responding. "I was with Matriarch Benezia when she joined Saren. Initially, her thought process was to attempt to guide him back to the right path. However, Saren's will is stronger than she had anticipated. Instead of guiding him, she joined him. Because of my proximity, I eventually was swayed as well. Saren found out about this creature fairly recently, and offered me as a link between him and the Thorian."

Shepard interrupted her at that point. "Why would he need that?"

"The Thorian has been around for a long time," she responded. "It was around when the protheans walked the planet. Its mind control abilities have a secondary function: with enough of a certain species bent to its will, it gains access to their thought processes, the way they think. It did this with the protheans, and Saren was very interested in accessing that information. I became part of the Thorian, walled in my own mind as I acted outside of my will. Through me, the Thorian gave Saren the Cipher."

"The Cipher?"

She nodded. "You accessed a prothean beacon, but the images are unclear, confusing. You can't make sense of them because the beacons are made for a prothean mind. The Cipher is simply the Thorian's accumulation of the prothean brain processes gained through its mind control. It's the acculation of what it means to truly be a prothean. With it, you can make sense of the beacon's message. I can give the Cipher to you, as I did Saren."

Shepard nodded and stepped forward. "I'm ready. Do it."

Shiala took the last step forward needed to be directly in front of Shepard. "Relax, Commander. Slow, deep breaths. Let go of your physical shell; reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another. Every action sends ripples throughout the galaxy. Each mind must touch another to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit." She was now staring directly into Shepard's eyes. "We are all connected, every living being united in a single glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander. Embrace Eternity!"

With the last statement, the asari's eyes turned black. Shepard's body twitched, but remained still otherwise. After several seconds, the asari's eyes turned back to normal as she stumbled backwards. She barely retained her balance. Shepard simply held a hand up to his head, as if he had a headache.

Kaidan walked up and put his hand on Shepard's shoulder. "You ok, Commander?"

Shepard suddenly noticed that he was not alone. After a slight hesitation, he nodded. "I'm not sure what I saw. The images still didn't make any sense."

Shiala had regained her balance at this point. "You were given a great gift, Commander. The existance of an entire species. Your mind will have to process this information, and it will take time. After your mind understands the Cipher, the vision from the beacon should become clear."

Shepard nodded his trust in the asari's words. "What about you? What are you planning on doing now that this is all over?"

Shiala answered immediately. "If you allow it, I'd like to stay with the colonists. I played a part in their suffering, and I'd like to make amends."

Shepard smiled. "The colonists have had enough problems here. If you can help them get back on their feet, I'm sure they'd appreciate it."

Shiala simply gave a brief nod. "Thank you, Commander. May fortune smile upon you."

The walk back up to the surface was uneventful. Shepard led the way, although he stumbled now and again due to his new knowledge. As we funneled back into Zhu's Hope, I noticed that there were several new faces in the camp, ones I didn't see unconscious when I first came here.

One of the women smiled when she noticed us, and approached us gleefully. "You did it, Commander! The colony has been saved! We're not exactly in a great spot, but we'll be able to recover. Thank you for all you've done."

Shepard shook the woman's hand. "Glad to help, Lizbeth. Keep everyone safe."

Despite the problems the colonists would be having getting the colony up and running again, they appeared to be ecstatic. The Thorian's mind control must have been that painful to have. I remembered my own brain being assaulted when we first met the thing. I shuddered at the thought, not wanting to repeat the experience.

We walked back to the ship, glad we were finished with another of our leads. This planet was too bleak for my tastes.

We stopped when we saw someone in front of our ship. It was an arrogant looking woman, smoking a cigarette as she sat on one of the boxes scattered across the path.

"You considered my offer, Shepard? The colony don't need me anymore, and you need people who get things done."

Shepard sighed. "I have to ask you, Jentha. Why?"

The woman gave an amused laugh before inhaling from the cigarette again. Exhaling the smoke, she replied, "I haven't had any fun assignments in years. You're a council spectre. That's equivalent to saying that you're one of the most interesting people in the galaxy."

Shepard sighed again, this time in defeat. "If you wish. Get whatever you need and meet us in the briefing room."

She gave that amused smile again. I had a very bad feeling about this woman. Her gaze gave the impression that she didn't care who lived or died, as long as she got what she wanted. She gave me a sideways look, inspecting me as she passed. The smile never changed, but it was a smile without any happiness behind it. What is Shepard thinking..?

POV Shepard

The debriefing was fairly uneventful. Liara offered shortly through to meld with my mind as well, since her expertise on the thorians could help me process the Cipher more quickly. I agreed readily, but prepared my mind. As I felt her probe my mind, I pushed my feelings for her to the forefront. As the Cipher shifted in the background of my mind, all I could feel was a split second of happiness. As soon as the melding began, it ended. I took a second to regain my footing, and saw that Liara was doing the same. I noticed that she has a small grin on her face, difficult to see if you weren't specifically looking for it. She shyly looked towards the ground for a moment, then sat back down. I had a feeling that she was having trouble finding the words she was going to say.

"The... The beacon you found on Eden Prime must have been badly damaged, Commander. I was able to make sense of the message, but large sections are missing. If you were able to find the missing sections, then I might be able to piece together the message in its entirety."

I sighed inside my head. Where would we be able to find a second beacon?

I turned to Tali. "We found information from the geth in Exo-Geni headquarters. Can you crack it and see what it says?" She almost seemed offended at the question. I had a feeling that she knew a lot about geth encryption codes.

I stepped back to the terminal and turned back around. "We've had a long day. Go and get some rest." Jentha smirked at me a moment before following everyone's lead in standing up. Did I make the right decision letting her join the squad? She seems like she could be trouble if she wanted to.

It was too late to go back on my decision, as we were already outside of orbit. I turned towards the terminal when Joker contacted me over the intercom. "Commander, the council are on hold. Want me to patch them through?"

"Do it Joker."

The council's holograms popped up in front of me. The Turian Councilor started the conversation this time.

"You killed the Thorian? Do you have any idea what we could have learned if you had only incapacitated it?"

The Salarian councilor cut him off here, as if he was just as annoyed as I was by the turian. "The Commander has done what he deemed best for the situation. The loss of the Thorian is unfortunate, but I assume you had no other choice." I nodded at him, which caused the Turian to scoff.

The Asari jumped in to defuse the situation. "We have another lead Commander. One of our scouting units was sent to investigate a planet in the Sentry Omega cluster. We recieved only a single update, which turned out to be simply static."

"We assume the message they were trying to send through is important," continued the Salarian from where the Asari had left off. "It was sent through comm channels reserved for mission critical information."

I nodded in understanding. "Send me the coordinates. I'll figure out what happened to your scouts."

The Asari Councilor smiled. "We'll await your next report, Commander. Good luck."

With that, the three holograms vanished. I stretched and turned off the terminal. I left the room and began to think about the images in my head. I walked as I thought, and only snapped out of it when I found myself in front of the door where Liara usually worked. I looked around the medical bay to see Selwyn giving me a strange look. I smiled reassurance and walked into Liara's workplace, hoping for a chat.

She turned and smiled widely when she saw who it was. Standing up, she asked me with hope clear in her voice, "When we melded, was what I felt real?"

I walked up to where she stood, my smile being the only answer.

Somehow, her grin grew even wider. With unhidden happiness, she ran up and hugged me close. I returned the hug, truly happy for this one moment.

My thoughts jumped towards Saren and the Conduit for a moment. With a sharp exhale, I pushed he thoughts from my mind. While I had a job to do, I was content for the moment simply holding the woman in my arms.