A.N./I dunno, this chapter kinda blows imo.

Happy Monday, let me know if any bits of the chapter feel too off.

Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Recruiting the Doctor

"Hey Shepard?" He forced his puppet behind cover just as a burst of mass accelerator fire hit the rock he was using for that purpose. "I get that saving a planet from Batarian terrorists who want to drop an asteroid on said planet is really important and all, but shouldn't someone else be doing this? Y'know, so we can continue to track down Saren."

Shepard popped up from behind cover to nail a Batarian in the head, only to be forced back down immediately by return fire. "We currently don't have any leads to look into. So until the Council gets back to us on the location of Matriarch Benezia's daughter, we'll be helping out the Alliance."

"I know that." Alaya responded evenly, hucking a grenade over her cover. "But shouldn't we be looking for leads? Or buying them from the Shadow Broker?"

"The Council was very clear with their orders."

The blast from the grenade sent two Batarians flying, severely mutilated from the high explosive. Half a second later Kaiden blew a hole in the last terrorist's head. "Clear!"

They burst over the rock and rushed the door, in a process that would repeat three more times that day, he, Shepard, Ashley, and Kaiden would clear the prefabricated structure of Batarians and move on to the next one until only the main complex remained.

During the past few missions he noticed Shepard consistently field a full four man fireteam instead of the standard three from the games, yet another balance aspect that failed to carry over to reality.

He idly shattered the faceplate, and probably the jaw too, of a Batarian with a textbook perfect hook. Predictably, Shepard let Balak go to save the civilians, but less predictably he also messaged Joker to shoot Balaks' ship out of the void before it could escape. It was respectably ruthless. A dishonorable backstab, but a deserved one.

Still, he made sure to send contingency orders for someone to remove Balak should he survive the day.

Regardless, Terra Nova was saved, the asteroid workers were mostly saved, and he helped out in the heroics.

Whoopie.

Still, the more time he spent on the Normandy the more he noticed little inconsistencies with what he knew from his previous life. Nothing major yet, but enough to make him a little wary.

…

Oh look, a kitchen!

He was certain nobody would mind if he snagged a couple snacks to munch on back on the ship.

Probably.

Another mission accomplished, and another after action report filed to Alliance HQ. He sighed as he exited the elevator, only to pause at the unfamiliar voices coming from his left. Turning, he was greeted by Alaya sitting against her cot munching on some popcorn, with a few others sitting nearby, watching a movie being projected onto a nearby wall. It was something so unexpected that he had to pause for a minute in order to process what he was looking at, but made his way over nonetheless.

He glanced at the movie with a puzzled expression, not recognizing the film in the slightest. "Ahem."

The actual members of the crew startled to their feet in an attempt to salute him, but he waved them off. The crew members took the hint and scattered back to their respective areas, leaving only him and Alaya in the area. "What is this?"

"A movie."

He snorted in amusement. "You know what I mean."

She smiled. "You're right, I was getting bored so I set up my Omni-tool projector. The movie is an old classic from the so-called golden age of filmmaking."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, and gave the movie an appreciative glance. If her words were true, then that'd make the movie well over a hundred years old. "Looks pretty good for a fossil."

Alaya laughed lightly. "It's been touched up several times over the years, but it's still mostly the same as when it was released."

He hummed noncommittally. The pale merc rolled her eyes and scooted over, patting the newly made spot next to her. "Take a seat Commander, I'm certain you didn't come over here to gawk. So, sit down and tell me what's on your mind."

Somewhat reluctantly, he sat next to her just as a man on a toilet was eaten by a T-Rex in the film. "You're right, I did come down here to talk."

She held out the bag of popcorn in offering as acknowledgment, choosing that in exchange for saying nothing. He accepted, popping a piece in his mouth before continuing. "To start, Gunnery Chief Williams thinks you've been spying for the Shadow Broker. Trying to give him the Normandy's stealth technology."

Contrary to what he expected, she laughed. "She really does hate me, doesn't she?"

He shook his head. "She's just suspicious. Williams is Alliance through and through. As far as she's concerned, if you aren't Alliance you can't be trusted."

Alaya let out an amused snort. "Makes sense, considering who her grandfather is." He didn't bother to hide his annoyance at the mention of former General Williams. It wasn't the man's fault, and Ashley sure as hell shouldn't have to suffer for it. "Regardless, she's delusional if she thought the Normandy was an original idea, the Shadow Broker has had stealth ships for years and the Salarians have probably had them for longer than that."

This time he couldn't hide his emotions as his face openly showed his surprise. He expected the STG, but the Shadow Broker too? "Well, I suppose that makes her worries a moot point."

She smiled wryly. "Yes it does."

He cleared his throat. "The second reason I came to talk was to let you know the Council finally came through with the location of Benezias' daughter. We'll be arriving at her location in about a day and I want you on the ground team again."

She raised a white brow. "I imagine you'll be taking Garrus and Wrex, so that means I'm replacing Tali. Not fond of her?"

"She caught a cold actually, and it's the opposite. I'm fond of her enough that I'd prefer to not bring her into combat if I can help it."

"Does that mean you're not fond of me?" She teased.

It was his turn to give a wry smile. "Nah, I'm just much more confident in your combat prowess."

Her response was to lightly punch him in the shoulder, causing him to laugh. "I bet you say that to all the ladies."

He shrugged. His eyes straying back to the film, just in time to see an older man get into a tug of war match with a dinosaur. "The last thing I came here to talk about was you."

"Me?"

His head bobbed in acknowledgment. "Yeah, I wanted to know more about you."

The pale woman paused briefly, hand full of popcorn, and looked away from the movie. After a few seconds she turned back to the movie and tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "What do you want to know?"

"First, where'd you get the popcorn?"

She shrugged. "Found it."

"Riiiight…" He drawled. "Got any family?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but halted midway before continuing. "I have a father, but he's very controlling. Other than that? Nope, no family to speak of."

He raised a curious brow. "Controlling? Is that why you decided to become a mercenary? To escape your father's influence?"

Her head shook in the negative. "It was actually his idea. He turned me into what I am in an effort to make me useful to him."

A frown worked its way into his features. "No offense, but he sounds like an asshole."

The smile returned, but this time it held a hint of "I know something you don't" behind the front of amusement. "He is not a good person, and he has done some bad things, but he means well."

He hummed, unconvinced. "How about your childhood? Anything significant there?"

She shook her head. "It wasn't anything special, I ended up spending most of my time under the care of some of my fathers employees. Now, that's enough about me, why don't you tell me about you?"

A shrug worked its way through his shoulders. "Not much to say. Was born on Earth, Parents were both Alliance Navy, so I lived in a bunch of space stations throughout a lot of my childhood, then I got sent back to Earth to attend boarding school when I was old enough, and as soon as I graduated I enlisted in the navy."

Alaya nodded absently. "Tell me about your parents."

"Mom's the XO on the Kilimanjaro, and dad… dad died during the blitz. Ship was blown right out of the void by Batarian slavers."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He shook his head, both to emphasize his words and to try and get the sour memory out of his head. "Anyway, after that is known to most. Hero of the Blitz, and the Butcher of Torfan. Been something of a celebrity ever since."

Her arm bumped him. "Chin up, the ladies have to love you. Being a dashing war hero probably fits you right into the fantasies of many women."

He involuntarily shuddered. "Don't remind me."

She giggled. "Bad experiences?"

"You have no idea."

They spent the rest of the movie in silence, with an occasional joke at the movies' expense. In the end, he promised to drop by in the future for another movie and conversation, but he had to go talk with other members of the squad.

Still, he really enjoyed his time, the movie wasn't half bad either.

Well, that was an enlightening conversation with Shepard. He had always wondered what happened to his father. Although he already knew what happened to the Shepard patriarch from his vast information net as the Shadow Broker, but it was nice to hear it from the man himself.

Some loud stomps drew his attention to a quickly approaching Wrex. "Did your homeworld really have such beasts?"

"A very long time ago, yes."

"They must've been fearsome creatures."

He forced his puppet to shrug. "Hard to tell, all that's left of them is fossils."

A noise rumbled deep in the battlemaster's chest, before he stomped back to his little corner a few feet away.

Strange.

"Optimus, report."

I am here, Sovereign.

"Status on your nuclear stockpile?"

Our thermonuclear warheads number three thousand four hundred seventy one. Our dropships each carry one, our destroyers each carry ten, and our nexus ships each carry one hundred. Should the Old Machines land on any world we are present, they will regret it.

Something deep in the recesses of his mind shuddered at the numbers, he'd seen the footage of Castle Bravo and Tsar Bomba back when he was human, and the might of such weapons should not be treated lightly. Now the Geth possessed the means and the might to end him in an instant, this ended their relationship as benefactor and benefitter, and instead replaced it with one where he needed the Geth far more than they needed him. He has no intention of ever being useless, so he is safe; for now. "Good. Keep up production, at this rate we could seriously bleed the invasion forces. In the meantime, I'll continue my infiltration of the Human Spectre's forces."

We are curious, why do you expose assets in an attempt to puppeteer relative unknowns into some grand plan? Wouldn't it be simpler to just kill those interfering in your operations and force galactic leaders into doing your bidding with blackmail?

Well, that's a question that's difficult for him to answer openly. Of course, the real answer is simple; he wants things to progress in a familiar way so that he'll be better able to manipulate galactic events at key turning points. "By assisting the human Spectre, I intend to create a cult of personality for which the majority of the galaxy can rally behind."

Why do you not utilize an asset for this "cult of personality"?

He internally groaned. "It's not that simple. If we used a clone, their background would come under intense scrutiny and crumble quickly, same for any "independent" asset we might try to utilize, it'll simply be far too apparent that someone is manipulating the events. With an outside "actor" almost completely separate from our influence as possible, the chances of us being exposed for influencing the events are next to impossible, but the entire thing will appear genuine to the eyes of the galaxy."

Acknowledged.

Of course that explanation is closer to horseshit than truth in regards to his reasons for doing what he does, but it's not inaccurate.

"Are there any irregularities in my information network?"

Only our continued inability to infiltrate the human supremacist group known as Cerberus. We find the probability that their security is this tight to be low, and the likelihood of other forces involved to be high.

Just as he expected, TIM is indoctrinated and whatever measures he put in place was looking for Reaper influence. However… could he undo the indoctrination? "How goes your research into my kinds' indoctrination effect?"

We have determined long ago that the anomalous field projected by your species is some form of highly malleable electro-magnetism that passively alters the way synapses fire electric charges in an organic brain. The process in theory is simple, but undoing it would require us to construct a device capable of altering those same synapses without damaging the organic brain. A task of significant difficulty.

"So it can't be done?"

It can, but it would take years and many in-depth experiments on organic brains.

Hmmm. "What about a device capable of doing so to humans only?"

It would take less time.

"By how much?" He pressed.

The process would shrink from fifteen to three and a half years.

A sharp spike of frustration entered his mind. Damn it all! If he could get that device in a year or two, then he could probably save Jack Harper. Was he an egotistical megalomaniac? Yes, but he genuinely wants to do what's best for humanity. He is deep down a man with good intentions, but his ego prevents him from realizing that he's being manipulated.

A shame.

"Don't bother unless you have enough resources to spare without impacting your production negatively."

Acknowledged.

"Status on the genophage cure?"

The Virmire facility reports the cure to be entering the final stages of testing.

"And you still oppose this don't you."

Affirmative.

"Do you at least see the utility of the Krogan in wartime?"

Affirmative.

"You've done something to the cure, haven't you?"

…Affirmative.

Rage flooded through him, it was such an intensity that he could feel the Consensus "recoil" away through their connection. His half complete body in the Geth super-capital shipyard started to writhe in agitation as his mind seethed in fury; crushing numerous Geth platforms and pieces of manufacturing equipment.

Sovereign, we recommend you cease the destruction of our shipyard, it will only further delay your completion.

Emotional suppression subroutines activated.

His rage and thrashing ceased with an unnerving suddenness. "What did you do to it?"

We modified it to allow their original birth rates to return for a few decades, to let them regrow their population, but our modifications will slowly decrease their birth rates over the course of a century to resemble that of a human; one child approximately every seven to nine galactic standard months. It will also reduce the number of miscarriages. All offspring should come out alive, but at a much slower rate. This should give them ample opportunity to learn new ways to live as a species and to reform their culture into something less destructive.

He ran calculation upon calculation through his carbon based quantum processors at a rate that would make any AI green with envy. The computational power of billions of minds given machine form quickly worked through the situation with the detached logic that he despised. He could see the wisdom in the Geths' decision; help the Krogan in the short and long term. If their birthrates aren't faster than machine gun fire, then overpopulation and starvation won't become an issue, nor would border friction.

He is not so arrogant as to believe himself above making mistakes, but he does not want to admit the Geth made the correct decision. It was a near perfect solution to the Krogan problem, and dammit all! He was jealous that he didn't come up with it. "I will admit to reacting poorly before being presented with the proper information."

We believe your statement to be accurate, however there is something on Rannoch you should see. Transmitting platform data now.

Oh? This could be interesting. He took remote control of the designated platform and left his Normandy bound puppet on the autopilot function. What stood before him is a sight that he actively committed to his archives, for it is one that awed him completely.

A sea of Geth platforms stood before him, tens of billions of them ready and waiting to march onto colossal landing ships to be deployed for war. Everything from the lowly troopers to the hulking colossus sat in this dry, and sandy desert ready for him to give the word.

We are ready for war, Sovereign. Our weapons are upgraded and our ships refit, once you give the word the galaxy will feel our might.

Although he did not have a face, he still smiled.

"So, Wrex." The old Krogan turned his gaze from the massive shotgun in his hands and redirected it towards the faceplate of his puppet's helmet. "Got any interesting stories to tell while we wait for the drop?"

"No." He then went back to checking over his shotgun.

Well, that's upsetting.

The Mako shuddered, a signal that they just dropped from the Normandy's hangar. Soon they'll be blowing through fortifications of the Changed, god that name sounds more and more dumb the more he hears it, as if they weren't even there.

"I have a question for you, whelp."

He raised a white brow at the old lizard. "Whelp?"

Wrex ignored him and carried on as if he never even spoke. "Why did you recommend for Shepard to recruit me?"

"Well, the Shadow Broker always spoke highly-"

"Pyjak shit." Wrex cut his puppet off.

The mako impacted the ground with a slight jolt, and he did his best to mimic an embarrassed turn of his head, and in doing so began to inspect the horribly cramped interior of the Mako. The vehicle as a whole is definitely bigger than its in-game counterpart, but the inside is barely big enough to fit six average humans. A Turian and Krogan Battlemaster are definitely a little bigger than the intended occupants, but it's enough. Shepard as driver, Garrus as gunner, meanwhile he and Wrex practically had to hug to fit in the back.

He should probably stop stalling or Wrex is gonna eat Alaya. Shyly turning back to face the grumpy merc he spoke in a faux embarrassed tone. "I'm something of a… fan."

Wrex's jaw dropped.

The comms ringed. "Wait wait! Are telling me our nice hardened merc is a fangirl for our grumpy hardened merc?! Oh the boys back at the precinct would love this!"

He lightly banged the wall with his puppet's fist. "Shut up, Garrus. Nobody asked you."

"That hurts." The mocking tone in his voice indicated otherwise.

"Alright, that's enough." Shepard commanded. "But I'm surprised, Alaya. I never took you for a fangirl."

"I am not a fangirl!"

Wrex chuckled. "You're not getting my autograph."

"Damn!" Laughter erupted in the Mako as the fireteam took their turns taking jabs at him.

"Geth fire incoming!"

He braced his puppet as the main cannon of the Mako roared. Just as he expected, several data streams of the former Geth ceased instantly as they were annihilated in an instant by the heavy weapon. What came next was a slow but steady plow through the forces under his command, but they eventually reached the digsite and began slowly moving through the caverns with their weapons raised.

"Quick question, commander?" Alaya's voice rang out.

"Go ahead."

"Where are the bodies?"

Shepard instantly came to a halt, as did Wrex and Garrus. The commander began swiveling his head around with an almost frantic jerkiness.

"She's right." Garrus decided to chime in. "We've seen plenty of signs of resistance, but not a single body. Do you think they're making more husks?"

Wrex let out a soft rumbling sound, the Krogan equivalent of a hum. "I don't see what else the Geth would do with a bunch of helpless researchers."

"Damn Geth!" Shepard kicked a nearby crate in frustration, and fumed. Seeing an opportunity to further ingratiate himself, he walked up behind the furious commando and gently laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It sucks, I know, but if we can get a hold of Doctor T'soni; we're one step closer to stopping all of this." He took no joy in manipulating Shepard like this, but it was for a good cause. However, he must tread carefully; the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Shepard nodded. "You're right, let's move."

Their armored boots clanked on the catwalks as they slowly crept further down into the cave; the cavern silence as a grace otherwise. Just as Shepard turned a corner, he was forced back by a stream of pulse rifle fire. Which fortunately made him just far enough away so that the follow up missile only popped his barriers and knocked him down instead of killing him.

Wrex charged out and flattened the Geth shock trooper against the wall while Garrus blew the head off of the rocket trooper, ending the brief ambush.

Reaching down, he offered a hand to the N7, which Shepard gladly took. "Thanks."

"No problem."

They all filed into the elevator at the end of the catwalk and descended until it got stuck on another catwalk, this one broken. Carefully, they descended the sloped metal surface until a voice called out.

"Hello? Is somebody out there? Please, I need help!"

His Tsunami snapped up at the source, doctor Liara T'soni; who was suspended midair in some sort of stasis bubble behind a translucent shield wall. He lowered the rifle and turned to Shepard. "Target sighted, commander. She appears to have gotten herself stuck in some sort of Prothean prison cell."

"TARGET?!" Liara shrieked.

Shepard experimentally poked the barrier with the barrel of his rifle, only for it to act like he was poking a concrete wall. "This does put a damper on things." He mused. "Miss T'soni?"

"Yes?"

"Good, you are her. Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy." The N7 introduced. "How did you get stuck in there, and when did you last have contact with your mother?"

"What-my mother?! I haven't spoken to her in years! As for how I ended up trapped here? A Krogan attacked with a small army of machines, and when I hid in here I accidentally activated some form of security system."

Shepard hummed and looked around. "I suppose you don't have any idea how to free yourself do you?"

"The terminal behind me should deactivate the security system."

They all looked at the terminal, which happened to be behind the barrier.

"Fantastic." The commando drawled sarcastically. "You bring any explosives, Alaya?"

"For once? No." He was being truthful too, usually he carried a brick of plastic explosives, but he had opted to travel light this time.

"Astounding." Shepard looked around the cavern once again, stopping on the very familiar mining laser. "We'll be back, doctor."

One giant laser blast later and they were strolling into a Prothean prison. Geez, it sounded like the start to a bad movie.

Still, he marveled slightly at the intact structure around him. Fifty thousand years, and it all still functions. He's seen technology that boggles the mind with its age and advancement, but there's still a small part of him that can't help but to feel a sense of wonder at the ancient machinery around him.

A small smile spread across his puppet's lips as Liara was freed from her imprisonment. Good, now that the proper galactic scenario has been properly… established, he can start mixing the pot a bit.

Now, one might expect that he'd let Wrex take on the Krogan leading the Geth, but that'd be boring. What happened instead was him unfolding the Avalanche equipped to his puppet and charging the yellow tinted battlemaster. Not only did his teammates recoil in surprise at the sight of a relatively small woman running headlong at a seven foot tall wall of muscle, but so did the enemy Krogan.

The first two blasts from the shotgun, fired quickly enough that there was no way for his opponent to react, shattered the barrier on the battlemaster, and while the Krogan managed to get a shot off with his own shotgun; it harmlessly bounced off his puppets' shield. He fired a third shot that destroyed the offending weapon, and he removed his puppet's left hand from the shotguns' fore grip.

He idly noted the rest of the fireteam had begun engaging the former Geth, but was quickly forced to bring his attention back to the raging Krogan battlemaster in front of him. He tried to fire his shotgun one handed, but it was swatted away by the angry Krogan. He deftly ducked below an angry blow that would've easily shattered bone, and swiftly unsheathed his combat knife. Immediately after, he sunk the blade deep into the side of the battlemasters knee, easily sinking it all the way to the hilt, and tore it outward away from his puppets body; destroying the joint and sending his opponent crashing down to the ground with an agonized roar.

A quick flourish brought the large knife into a reverse grip, and he instantly sunk it down into the krogans eye.

It stiffened, body freezing as the blade pierced the brain. He twisted and the battlemasters' body fell limp. A glance behind him revealed Shepard and co staring in shock at his puppet. "Try to keep up boys."

"You know?" He started, not entirely sure of what he was intending to say. "When you said that you've gotten into melee with Krogan, I wasn't expecting that's how you did it."

The current center of his curiosity, along with the curiosity of the rest of the crew, shrugged. "There are a few ways. Some assassins climb on the hump and go for a weak spot near the back of the head plate. Stick a knife in there and you can pop that crest right off, but I prefer taking out the knees. An immobile Krogan is borderline defenseless; completely unable to utilize most of their impressive physiology."

Most of the crew gaped at her, while he merely leaned back in his seat. What a vexing woman…

"We almost died in a volcano, and you're just chatting about how best to kill Krogan?" Liara shook her head. "Is this a human thing I don't understand?"

"I'd personally wager that you just lack experience with people in general." He frowned, but kept silent at Alaya's remark.

"How rude! I-"

"Alright, that's enough." It was probably best to step in before Alaya's rather blunt personality grated too much against the new girl, and drew in more to have the same opinion as Ashley's of the merc. Liara gave him an annoyed look at being interrupted, but he placated her with a half raised hand. "Earlier you said you hadn't spoken to your mother in years. If that's the case, then why were the Geth and that Krogan trying to kill you?"

Liara shook her head. "They weren't. When I first trapped myself in that field, the Krogan complained to me that I was just making it difficult to bring me to my mother."

"So they were only trying to capture you, not kill you?"

The blue woman shook her head. "They very much could've just as likely only been lying to trick me into a false sense of security."

His brow creased in thought. Why would Benezia send out a hit on her own daughter? Simple, she wouldn't. So, either she doesn't know about it, or something isn't adding up. "What was your research of the Protheans centered around?"

"Their disappearance." The Asari archeologist stated succinctly. "As I'm certain everyone here is aware that the Protheans mysteriously disappeared some fifty thousand years ago. However, through almost fifty years of continuous research I've come to the conclusion that they had been systematically exterminated, and whoever did it simply left; leaving no evidence of what they were. The only clue is the mention of a Prothean device called the Conduit."

Any doubts he may have had about the beacon's visions were swept away with that one sentence.

"Not only that, but it's also become apparent from the amount of evidence available, that Prothean civilization was built off the back of another far older civilization that also disappeared! Even their greatest achievements, the Citadel and Mass Relay network were built upon the technology of those that came before!"

Completely ignoring the galaxy shaking revelation, he looked around the room and observed everyone with a critical eye. Interested murmurs broke out around the room, except for two people; Wrex who looked only interested enough to raise an eyebrow, and Alaya who looked more annoyed than anything.

"The Protheans were wiped out by a race of sentient machines called the Reapers."

"I-what how do you know this?!"

"Shortly before it exploded, a Beacon uploaded some visions to my brain of the Protheans being exterminated by machines, and our resident Geth expert had managed to harvest some data on the machines that did it; which gave us their name: Reapers."

"A functioning beacon?! No wonder the Geth are outside the veil, a functioning beacon is worth risking almost anything, but I'm amazed you were able to make sense of anything. Beacons were designed for Prothean physiology, most of what you saw should've been scrambled and confused."

He hummed. "That's the excuse the Council used to dismiss my claims about the Reapers as nothing more than me misunderstanding a message that was meant for a Prothean mind."

He understood why they dismissed him. The Council were politicians, they cared about their positions first and foremost, and any galaxy wide threats without substantial evidence of said threats' existence come second. His eyelids closed and he let out a soft sigh in annoyance.

"How do we even know the Protheans built the Citadel and Mass Relay network?"

His eyes shot open in shock, and any conversation in the room ground to a halt as Alaya asked Liara the question while staring expectantly at the archeologist. Liara, to her credit, recovered quickly and smiled at Alaya in a way similar to how an adult would smile at a child who just asked a silly question. "It's common knowledge that the Protheans were an enlightened species that built them as a gift to the galaxy so that they may spread their knowledge to others."

Alaya rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Or they found the Relays just like we did and used them to spread a vast slaving empire across the galaxy in record speed."

Liara recoiled as if she'd been slapped, but quickly regained her composure. "And just what evidence do you have to support such a claim?"

He cringed, this… this was not good.

"The same amount that whatever overly optimistic dumbass decided the Protheans were a peaceful enlightened species who built the Citadel and Mass Relays had. For all we know, they could have thought of Salarian liver and Hanars as a delicacy!"

Alaya, as per usual, was rather blunt in expressing her thoughts, probably not entirely forthcoming, but very blunt. Now it seems that she'll be butting heads with another person on this ship.

"Generations of Asari scholars have studied this topic, and I'm pretty certain they knew more than you."

Alaya let out a short mocking laugh. "Hypocrite." She muttered under her breath, just loud enough for Liara to bristle in indignation. "Have you ever considered the stark difference in design philosophy between the Mass Relays and the Citadel when compared to literally every other piece of Prothean technology known to the galaxy? They look NOTHING alike! In fact, now that I think about it, they share some design similarities to those spikes the Geth have been using."

His brow furrowed, they do share some small similarities, but he hardly saw the connection.

"Commander?" He looked at Garrus and gave him an approving nod for him to talk. "Remember that survey team on Trebin that went dark? The one that we learned about from a throw away report on the news."

He raised a curious brow. "Yeah, we found them all turned into husks, but what does that have to do with this?"

"There was that strange device that had been unearthed and those spikes the Geth had been using, which did look vaguely similar to each other, but there was no sign of the Geth anywhere in the entire system. Which makes me wonder… did the Geth make those spikes or did they find them?"

A harsh silence encompassed the room following the implication of Garrus's question, and he had to admit it was a scary thought.

"Okay, this isn't helping us find Saren or the Conduit." Ashley seemed to have enough of the conversation if her clipped tone was any indication.

He made sure to give Ashley an approving nod for her trying to get the conversation back on track, a gesture that made her smugly puff out her chest.

"You're right, Ashley. It was simply a thought that crossed my mind, I'm sorry."

Notably, Alaya wasn't apologizing to Liara, but was instead specifically looking at Ashley, who looked pleasantly surprised, during the apology. Liara, for her part, looked as if she had bitten into something particularly sour.

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry, it seems my intellectual side got the better of me." Liara was also pointedly looking away from the albino mercenary.

Oh boy, female drama. That'll be a future headache; he could already feel it. "Doctor T'soni, I think it would be best if you were to stay aboard the Normandy, having a Prothean expert on hand would be extremely helpful in our pursuit of Saren."

"I would very much like that, commander. I doubt Saren would give up on capturing me after only one attempt, so I am in no rush to leave the safest place in the galaxy."

He smiled. "Well then, welcome aboard."

A.N./Eyyyyyy, guess who's back mofuckas?!

That's right! It's ya boi!

Anyway, this chapter would've come out a month or two ago, but I got stuck at a couple of points and had to just throw words at it until something stuck.

I'm trying to channel a bit more Citadel DLC energy into the story, because I absolutely fucking love that dlc.

The next story to be updated will either be the mystery one-shot listed in my bio or Till All Are One.

Peace muh dudes!