A/N: A thank you to everyone who has already taken the time to review. I've set myself a goal: finish this story before Dragon Age: Inquisition comes out. Do I really think that it will take another year to finish this story? I wouldn't be surprised that's for sure. I finally decided to go through and write down a chapter-by-chapter overview of this story, during which I learned that my initial estimate was WAY off. When I finished, the chapters totaled at 86. 86! That's TWICE the amount I originally predicted! Then again, this is the last chapter with a full rough draft, and since I always find myself having trouble focusing when I'm transcribing, maybe I'll be pumping out chapters more often. Then again (again), I'm going to be starting college soon, so my free time will be significantly reduced.

9: Rescue

BANG!

Garrus watched as Carn blew a hole in the target with the rifle. It was only their second practice session and already his son was showing some skill with the weapon. However, he didn't like how long it took Carn to line up a shot. Taking your time was all well and good, but spending five minutes on a large target at the shooting range was a little absurd in Garrus' opinion. Patience, he scolded himself. Speed will come with practice, he has good aim; he just needs to have confidence in his skill.

Garrus noticed that Carn was looking at him expectantly. Nodding, Garrus said "Very good, you almost got the bulls-eye that time." He pressed the switch to reel the target back in. "Let's try something a little different." Once he had replaced the hole-riddled target with a fresh one and sent it back out, Garrus pressed another button and the target started to move back and forth.

Carn's shoulders slumped "I can't hit that." He moaned.

"You're going to need to learn to." Garrus said, "You're enemies won't just stand there waiting for you to shoot them."

Carn sighed and lifted the rifle up to his shoulder once more. After several long minutes there was another bang as Carn pulled the trigger, followed by a distant ping as the bullet struck the back of the range, leaving the target unharmed. "You see!" Carn said, lowering the rifle "It's impossible!"

Garrus cocked a brow-plate "Really?" Without even looking, Garrus drew the pistol at his hip and fired at the target, hitting dead center. "You're giving up too easily." he scolded "Again."

They kept at it for another couple hours until Carn's arms and shoulder were too tired to continue. Overall, Carn had only managed to hit in the target's rings once, and he was clearly not happy about it. He sulked the entire ride back to their apartment, ignoring Garrus' attempts at conversation. When they got back, Carn headed straight to his room, mumbling something about calling Anna.

Alice must have noticed Carn's behavior, because it wasn't long before she came up to Garrus and asked "What's wrong with Carn? Did you two have a fight?"

Garrus shook his head "No, he's just upset because I started him on moving targets today and he wasn't very good at it. He'll get better with time."

Alice frowned "Don't you think you're pushing him a little too much? He's only just started practicing with you after all."

"He's a good shot Alice, he just needs to realize it." Garrus grinned "Don't worry, he'll be fine."

Upstairs, Carn was talking with Anna on his omni-tool "I don't know why he insists on these training sessions. It's not like I want to join the military after all."

"Have you told your dad that?" Anna asked. "I'm sure he'd understand."

Carn hesitated "But he seems so happy when we're training, I don't want to hurt his feelings." He paused for a moment before changing topics "So, how's summer camp?"

Anna's eyes lit up and she immediately launched into a detailed description of what she'd been doing the past couple of days. For a long time, Carn just sat there, listening to her talk, forgetting all about his own problems. That was one of the things he liked best about Anna, no matter how bad his day was, she could always make him feel better.

…

Lily sat in her chair in the cockpit. It had taken four days to travel to the remote location of the transmitter somewhere in the Horsehead Nebula, mainly because it appeared to be located in a particularly thick part of the dark nebula that interfered with the signal, causing them to spend three days wandering the cloud, trying to pinpoint its location. A few hours ago, Mars, Dex, and Kal found what they believed to be the signal, and they were headed there now.

Without warning, the Hermes shook violently, sending Lily out of her chair and through the galaxy map. "Watch it Nyn!" Lily said, climbing back into her chair as the tremor lessened.

"I'm sorry Captain! It's not like I'm trying to fly us through the deep space equivalent of a thunderstorm or anything!" Nyn snapped back, gritting her teeth as she tried to keep the ship steady.

"Why is it getting so bad?" Mort asked from one of the chairs behind Lily "It was fine earlier."

Nyn opened her mouth to speak but surprisingly, it was Kal who answered Mort from the other chair "If I had to guess, I'd say there's a singularity at the center of this cloud- not a large one mind you, just big enough to cause us some turbulence." Upon seeing the curious looks everyone was giving him, Kal shrugged "What? I'm a quarian. We know a thing or two about space travel."

Nyn gave him an approving nod "There's a reason nobody comes out here Captain. Pilots call it the Horse's Maw." Another tremor shook the ship, this time sending Mort tumbling from his chair. "Ships go in, looking to evade pursuit, they don't come back out."

"And you decided not to mention this before because…?" Lily asked.

"It's just a ghost story Captain. I can give you the names of a dozen ships who've made it through unscathed, and that's just off the top of my head." Nyn paused "Granted, they didn't go through the center like we are, but Zorah said it himself, it's probably just a small singularity. We'll be fine."

Kal shook his head "What I don't understand is why Kronov would take Carn here."

"It's hidden out of the way and hard to get to." Lily noted "Sounds like the perfect place to hide a secret base to me."

"How much you wanna bet Kronov and his pals are the reason for the 'ghost stories'?" Mort asked.

Kal glanced at Lily and Mort "Really? A hidden lair tucked away in some remote, hard to get to location? You guys have been watching way too many vids."

At that exact moment, the shaking stopped and the Hermes emerged from the thick cloud and into a large bubble of clear space where the nebula around them was strangely absent. In the center of this bubble was a large space station with an even larger ship attached to it. Lily smirked as she saw Kal's eyes widen beneath his faceplate. "You were saying?"

The station was a large halo attached to a sphere by four arms. While it was nowhere near the size of the Citadel, or even as large as Arcturus had been, it was still larger than average. What was really impressive was the behemoth docked to it. Dwarfing the station, the ship was larger than the Destiny Ascension, larger than a Sovereign-Class Reaper- hell, it may even have been larger than the Crucible. The ship had an asari ring-engine in the center, with four arms branching out from it. Each arm was shaped like a three-sided pyramid with the tip reaching forward, like a claw that was just waiting to grab them.

"Mars," Lily said, her tone calm "Activate the stealth field."

Mars' avatar popped up at his spot on the projectors next to Nyn. "I already did."

Kal got up, moving to stand behind Nyn "Look," he said, pointing out the viewport past the ship and station. "You see how the nebula seems to be converging at that point? That must be the singularity. I wonder how they managed negate its pull… A large mass effect field perhaps? But then how did they clear out the nebula around them? I wonder if-"

"Have a nerdgasm on your own time Zorah." Lily said with a roll of her eyes, standing up. "This is it people. We get in, free Carn, and get out. Any questions?" When she was met with silence Lily grinned "Time to spring a rescue."

…

Carn sighed as he looked out the viewport at the swirling dark cloud of the nebula from his seat on the couch in the module's common room. He'd been stuck here for almost a week so far and nobody had come to take him anywhere since the first day. He rubbed his neck, his whole body still ached. Whatever the "Harvesting" had done to him, it had not left his body at 100%.

"Alright, I can't take it anymore." Alec said from behind him "You've staring out that window almost non-stop for six days. What are you looking at?"

"I'm not looking at anything." Carn said flatly, not tearing his eyes from the view. "I'm waiting."

He heard Alec sigh in exasperation and mutter something. Ignoring the human/batarian hybrid, Carn rested his head against the glass. After a while, his eyes started to droop. Shaking his head Carn struggled to stay awake. He'd hardly slept this whole time and he felt his strength waning. Just for a second… Reluctantly, he allowed his eyes to shut and fell into a half-dose, his mind's eye opening as he drifted into a familiar dream…

He was standing in the midst of a thick fog that obscured his view. In the distance he could hear faint crying. "Hello?" he called out, searching for the source, black sand crunching beneath his feet. Not this place again.

Embers started to fall from the sky, blowing about in a nonexistent wind, like the stars themselves were falling to earth, cast down from the heavens. As Carn wandered around in the haze, something happened that had never happened before. The fog parted, revealing a frail figure- a child- curled into a fetal position as its cries echoed around it. Carn rushed to the tiny child "Are you alright?" He knelt down and cautiously stretched out a hand to the child. Without warning, the child looked up. Carn recoiled, scrambling back away from the child as he saw its face.

As he saw his own face.

"Save us…" it whispered. The child doppelganger did not share Carn's voice. Instead, it sounded like a million people, all crying out for help at once. "Save us…"

"Save you? From what?" Carn asked, confused.

"Save us …" the child repeated, reaching for Carn "Save us…"

"From what? Who are you?" Carn pressed.

"Save us…"

"Carn?"

Carn snapped awake at the sound of Erin's voice. He glanced to the side to see that she was sitting next to him on the couch, looking concerned. Must have dozed off… "How long was I asleep?" he asked.

"A couple hours." Erin said "How're you doing?"

Carn snorted "Oh I'm doing great! It's not like I've been kidnapped, found out I'm not the only human/turian hybrid in existence, mind-raped by a crazy asari, forced to relive one of my worst memories, beaten up by a freakishly strong cyborg, and endured more pain than I thought was possible or anything!" Carn saw Erin wince at his harsh tone. He immediately felt his anger extinguished by guilt. "Sorry," he said gently, turning back to look out the viewport "You didn't deserve that."

He heard Erin sigh "It's alright, being trapped here must be worse for you than it is for me. I've never known anything else, but you have friends and family out there. It must be horrible, being cut off from them like this."

Carn didn't respond. A minute of silence passed before he heard someone else speak "What's it like out there?"

Carn turned to see that Sara had sat down in a chair across from him and was now looking at him intently. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised; Sara had hardly spoken at all to him the whole time he was here. "What?"

"What's the galaxy like?" Sara asked, he voice almost a whisper "I've only seen it on the extranet."

"Yeah," Erin added "You never did answer any of my questions."

Carn hesitated before replying "It's… hard to explain."

"Try," Erin insisted.

Carn got one look at Sara and Erin's hopeful expressions and caved "The galaxy… it's… big… and um… vast…" he sighed "You can't really sum it up in a few words. It's different for everyone, the only way to really know is to go out there and experience it for yourself."

Sara's shoulder's slumped while Erin pouted. "Fat chance of that happening." She grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

Carn was about to reassure her that it could still happen when, without warning alarms started blaring. A cool, mechanical voice boomed from the speakers, talking over the sound of the siren. "ALERT! INTRUDERS DETECTED! ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL REPORT TO SECTOR 19 IMMEDIATELY! ALL RESIDENTS ARE CONFINED TO QUARTERS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"

Carn grinned, standing up "I guess that's my ride." He marched over to the module's locked door and started inspecting it.

Alec came out of his room, looking worried "What's going on?"

"My ride's here." Carn said casually.

"What?" Alec shared confused looks with Erin and Sara "What are you talking about?"

Carn turned to face Alec "It was only a matter of time before my cousin Lily came to the rescue. She'd never rest until she found me." A thought suddenly occurred to Carn. He turned to face Erin and Sara "Come with me."

"No way!" Alec said before either of them could reply. "You don't even know if it is your cousin! Or if you'll even get away! If we're caught with you then we'll be in serious trouble! Besides," he crossed his arms over his chest "Why would we ever want to leave? We're fed, we're looked after, and not all of the people under Vilvia's command are as heartless as Kronov. We have friends here. Why should we go with you?"

Carn didn't even have to think on his answer "Because this isn't living." He met Erin's eyes, "Remember what I said about how you need to experience the galaxy for yourself? This is your chance."

Erin's expression grew determined. "Alright."

Carn smiled and looked at Sara. "Well?"

The other human/turian hybrid nodded. Carn turned when he heard Alec sigh "I guess I'm coming too then. Where Sara goes, I go."

Carn smiled at Alec before turning back to Erin. "How strong a biotic are you?"

Erin blinked "Um… I don't know. Why?"

"Do you think you could break open the door with your biotics?" Carn asked.

Erin hesitated for a moment before nodding "Stand back."

Carn obliged, moving out of the way as Erin approached the door. Spreading her legs into a stable stance, Erin stared down the door, her face determined. Letting loose a fierce battle-cry, she thrust her hand forward…

…and nothing happened.

Carn frowned as Erin glared at her hand, like it was to blame. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him "Erin?" he asked "You do know how to use your biotics right?"

Erin looked at him sheepishly "Um… maybe?"

Carn groaned while Alec chuckled "Didn't think of that did you?"

Carn ignored the human/batarian hybrid, and was trying to come up with another idea when Sara's small voice spoke up "Um… maybe I could do something?"

Carn turned to look at Sara, seeing that she was now holding her private terminal in her arms. "What did you have in mind?"

Sara set her terminal down on a nearby table, "I've been hacking into the station's systems for years. Mostly it's just so I can use the extra-net without restriction, but I've occasionally snuck out after curfew to get a midnight snack from the mess. I should be able to open the door for you."

I think that's the longest I've heard her talk to me. Carn nodded, moving to stand by the door. "Do it."

Sara tapped rapidly on her keyboard. Several long, stressful minutes passed before she finally said "Done."

The door slid open, and Carn was out in the hallway in an instant. He looked both ways, searching for any guards. When he was sure the coast was clear, he beckoned for the others to follow him. "Which way to Sector 19?" he asked once they had joined him.

"This way," Alec said, heading right down the hall. They dashed through the corridors for several minutes, occasionally having to stop for Sara to hack the heavy duty doors that separated the sectors. Carn was starting to wonder just how big this station was when they turned a corner…

…running right into three armed guards.

Before the guards could recover from their shock, Carn acted, running right into the middle guard, a human, and tackling him to the ground before he could draw his weapon. Not wasting time grappling with him, Carn struck the guard in the throat with enough force to crush his windpipe, silently thanking God and Spirits that the guards didn't have armor. He rolled to his feet before the other two guards could take aim at him. With a grin, Carn rushed the second guard, a batarian, and before he could strike him with the butt of his rifle, Carn lashed out with a jab to a nerve cluster just above the armpit. Careful to keep the batarian between him and the last guard, Carn wrenched the batarian's rifle from his grasp, bring the barrel up and jamming it beneath the batarian's chin before pulling the trigger. The batarian fell to the ground, dead, leaving the last guard and Carn facing one another.

The last guard, another human, looked at his two comrades, one dead, the other struggling to breath with a crushed windpipe, and dropped his gun, holding up his hands in surrender. "Look man, I'm just a guard, I don't want any trouble."

Carn considered briefly before slowly lowering the barrel of his gun.

Big mistake.

With startling speed, the guard knocked the gun out of Carn's hands, punching him in the gut. When Carn instinctively doubled over, the guard grabbed his throat, choking him. Carn clawed at the hands cutting off his breathing with surprising strength. Spots started appearing at the edges of his vision as his brain cried out for precious oxygen. Suddenly, there were several loud bangs and the guard's head jerked to the side, blood sprouting from a gaping hole in his temple. Carn took a deep breath of air as the guards hands fell away from his throat.

"Did I get him?"

Carn turned to see Erin being helped up by Alec and Sara, one of the guard's rifles lying on the ground next to her. She must have been knocked off her feet by the recoil. When she saw the body, Erin put a hand over her mouth "Oh God… I think I'm going to be sick."

Carn nodded in understanding, he still felt a little nauseous whenever he took a life. "Thanks." He said, picking up the rifle that had been lying next to Erin, "I owe you one."

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Alec suddenly asked.

Carn frowned, straining his hearing. Sara spoke up "It sounds like…"

Carn finished "Gunshots."

…

They had managed to dock with the station without any trouble, and now Lily and Kal were standing by the airlock, waiting for Mars to open the doors. "You're clear," Mars said over the Hermes' intercom, followed by the door opening.

Lily gave Kal one last look, "You ready?"

Kal pumped his shotgun "Let's go get Carn."

As soon as they stepped through the airlock into the station however, alarms started blaring, and a mechanical voice spoke over the speakers "ALERT! INTRUDERS DETECTED! ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL REPORT TO SECTOR 19 IMMEDIATELY! ALL RESIDENTS ARE CONFINED TO QUARTERS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"

Lily snarled "Mars!"

"It wasn't me, I swear!" Mars said frantically "I can't shut it off!"

Lily swore, readying her pistol, "Fine, where do we need to go?"

Her omni-tool pinged as Mars said "I've sent you the location of where Carn is being kept."

Lily nodded, pulling up the location "Alright, stay in the system and see what else you can do."

"Understood Captain." Mars replied.

Lily and Kal quickly head further into the station, weapons ready for any guards that might appear. According to the information Mars gave them, Carn was being held in Sector 7, so they had a lot of walking to do. They didn't get very far however, before their progress was stopped by a very large door.

"It's in lockdown." Kal said, "Mars, could you get this open for us?"

"No problem." There was a loud beep, and suddenly a set of blast doors slammed down in front of the others. "…I take that back, slight problem."

Lily heard the thud of boots on the metal floor back the way they'd come. Spinning around, Lily and Kal aimed their weapons back down the hall. "You might want to get on that. Fast." Lily gritted her teeth "We've got company."

Not five seconds later, a dozen guards wearing black and white uniforms rounded the bend of the hallway. Kal immediately sent out Dex, the holographic blue and yellow orb zipping towards the guards just as they opened fire. Hugging the walls, their shields flaring, Lily and Kal retaliated with the crack of their own weapons.

"Mars!" Lily shouted over the racket "Any day now!"

[Sorry about that.] Dex quipped as the drone overloaded a guard's gun, causing it to explode in his hand. [You really should be more careful with your toys.]

Kal and Lily exchanged fire with the guards for what felt like an eternity before the door finally started to open. Not wasting any time, Lily leapt through the gap before the door had fully opened. Once she was on the other side, Lily turned and set Clint to full automatic, laying down suppressing fire as Kal quickly retreated through the door.

"Close it!" Lily ordered Mars as Dex exploded in the midst of the guards, stunning half of them with the electric surge.

The door swiftly shut, the control panel turning red as it locked down. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lily lowered her pistol, listening to the sound of the guards trying to force their way through the sealed doors. "You okay?" she asked, turning to Kal.

The quarian nodded "Yeah. We better hurry up and find Carn before we run into any more guards."

They resumed their progress towards Sector 7, the alarm blaring in their ears as they moved through the white hallways. They were often hindered by more security doors and guards. Still, they were getting closer to their goal. Nothing would stop Lily from rescuing Carn. Nothing.

"Get down!"

Except maybe half a dozen turrets.

Kal tackled Lily behind a table as the spot they'd been standing mere moments before was ripped to shreds. They had decided to take a shortcut through a mess hall, only when they entered, they had immediately been targeted by a half-dozen defense turrets stationed in the room.

Flipping the table on its side for better cover, Lily swore heavily "Can't you do something about these things?!" she yelled over the gunfire.

Kal shook his head "I already sent out Dex and those turrets gunned him down in five seconds!"

Lily swore, her mind racing for a solution to their current dilemma. Suddenly, a new gun joined the cacophony, and Lily could feel the number of rounds impacting the table lessen. Risking a quick peak, Lily poked her head out from behind the table and grinned at what she saw. Taking cover behind the door at the far end of the mess, having already destroyed one of the turrets and getting two more to target him, was Carn.

Lily ducked back behind the table before the turrets could get a lock on her and turned to Kal. "Could you send out Dex again?"

Kal gave her a confused look "Yeah, why?"

Lily grinned "Help's arrived."

Between the three of them, (four counting Dex) the rest of the turrets soon fell. When the last one had been destroyed, Lily climbed out from behind the battered table and raced to the other end of the mess. Carn, who was just coming out from behind the doorframe, barely had time to register Lily charging him before she flung her arms around him in a tight hug.

"I should have known you wouldn't let me play hero again." She said with a grin as she pulled away.

Carn rubbed the back of his neck "Yeah well, when I heard the alarm I decided it would be rude not to come and greet you myself."

Lily opened her mouth to make a witty reply when someone spoke up "Is this your cousin?"

Lily looked past Carn and saw three people hiding in the hallway behind him. Her jaw dropped "Carn?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me I'm seeing things, because it looks to me like there's a guy with four eyes and a hybrid just like you."

Carn chuckled nervously beckoning the three to come out. "Uh… yeah… you're not. This is Alec," he gestured to the four-eyed human "Sara," he indicated the other human/turian hybrid "and Erin." He said, pointing to the last of the three, a seemingly "normal" human. "They're all… uh… hybrids… like me."

"Well not exactly like you." Erin corrected "Alec's a human/batarian hybrid and I just have an asari nervous system."

Lily was pretty sure her jaw had hit the floor by now.

"I'm confused," Kal spoke up, joining them "I thought you were the only human/turian hybrid in existence?"

"Apparently not" Carn said sheepishly "Look, we can talk more on the ship, right now we need to-"

"Freeze!"

Snapping out of her daze, Lily quickly drew Clint and shot the guard that had appeared at the far end of the mess in the head without even looking at him. "Agreed." She said tersely "Let's get the fuck out of here."

…

Vilvia sighed as she read over the report again. 32 guards dead, 4 subjects escaped, and 6 turrets destroyed. "Well, this is… unfortunate."

Next to her, Kronov snorted "That's putting it mildly."

The floor opposite her rippled as the millions of microscopic nanomachines that made it up rearranged, rising to take the shape of the Matriarch's AI. The avatar scowled "You underestimated them."

"You're one to talk." Kronov shot back.

The AI snorted "Regardless, the fact of the matter is that you've made too many mistakes."

Vilvia sighed "It won't happen again."

"It better not." The AI sneered.

Vilvia looked back down at the report, "Has Cyan been fully scrubbed?"

The AI nodded "She should be able to function now."

"Good, have her link up with the station. I don't want a repeat of today." Vilvia stood up, turning to watch the galaxy spinning behind her.

After a moment of silence, the AI spoke up "You do realize that this means it is only a matter of time before Shepard finds us."

Vilvia turned to look the avatar in the eye "Then we'd best be ready."

…

Lily turned to Carn and the three new hybrids as soon as the Hermes had disappeared into the nebula. "Alright, explanation time."

Carn rubbed the back of his neck "Well… you remember how I was… created?" Lily nodded "I… wasn't the first."

"You're saying there are more human/turian hybrids?" Mort asked incredulously.

"Dozens," Alec confirmed "And that was just in out Sector."

Lily and Mort looked shocked, Mars' avatar looked confused, and Nyn looked like she just didn't give a damn. Kal, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. "It makes sense actually," he said "From what my mom and Aunty EDI told me, when these people were holding Alice, they not only were combining two incompatible amino-acids, but were also accelerating the pregnancy. Doing one is risky, doing both… it's a miracle you survived. Unless…"

"Unless they'd already perfected the technique." Carn finished.

"But why?" Mort asked "Why would they bother creating hybrids?"

Carn shot Lily a troubled look "The asari in charge of this whole thing, Vilvia, she said she was trying to create the 'perfect' lifeform."

Lily cocked an eyebrow, "Okay, so she's a bat-shit crazy mad scientist. Good to know." She looked at their three guests "Still, she'll probably come after you, so we'll need a place to lie low for a while."

Nyn groaned "Please don't…"

Lily flashed a wicked grin "Nyn, set a course for… TORTUGA!"