Artifice Part 3


Earth, USA, Washington

Washington D.C., ACIS, Interrogation Cell

March 7th, 2195, 11;13 PM

"He came quietly." Ziva noted as she, McGee, and Dax looked through the two way 'window' towards Hernandez Alleron who was looking towards the reflective surface with impotent rage.

"Because that little display of his biotics was just that, a show. Alliance brass made it a point to remove his implant when they let him go, he's unable to do more than flash people when he gets pissed." Explained a much relieved McGee as Dax simply stared balefully at the man. "And then there's Dax here. Anytime he gets angry, he can back up his threats with more than a fancy light show."

Dax didn't move from his spot in front of the window, his arms crossed as he continued to stare. "Ya know I can hear ya, right McGee?"

"Yeah but I'm wondering why you look ready to tear Mr. Alleron's head off with your bare hands."

Dax flicked his gaze towards the computer tech but otherwise remained still as a statue. "Man's a coward and he let his men die. That good 'nough of a reason for ya, McGee?"

"He means, why do you take it so personally?" Ziva gently stated as she put a hand on the turian's right arm just as a dark blue glow began to emanate from his body. The glow died down just as quickly as Dax relaxed with a heavy sigh, but the hand on his arm didn't move. "Tell me, if not Timothy."

The tension was slow to drain away from Dax's tall, slender frame, but he met Ziva's soft gaze all the same after some internal debate. Once he'd relaxed, Dax began to speak, his dual flanged voice hardly above a whisper. "I know turians aren't always paragons of the community by any means, Ziva, but most of us take our responsibility to our fellow man very seriously. Turian, asari, krogan, salarian, doesn't matter what ya are when you're sheddin' blood in the same mud. For a man like him though, he's worse than varren shit as far as I'm concerned b'cause of his willful act of cowardice."

"We don't know the whole story, but if it helps, I agree with you." Ziva replied, just as softly as McGee slowly backed away to give the two some room. Without looking, the former Mossad agent rolled her eyes. "You don't need to make yourself scarce, Timothy."

"I was actually gonna go and interrogate Mr. Alleron before Gibbs got back and wonders why we didn't get anything done."

"Ah...right. Excuse me." Without waiting for an invitation from either of them, Dax and McGee could only watch as Ziva flew towards the door from the listening post before entering the interrogation room long before the first door had reached its halfway point on its track.

Dax had to blink as he tried to process what just happened as the doors shut in Ziva's wake. "Did that...just happen? I feel like I just got swindled after a round of drunken strip Skyllian Five poker."

"I'll give you this much Dax, Ziva runs circles around most everyone. It's part of her training, or her personality, I'm actually not sure which." Standing beside Dax in front of the window, McGee watched as Ziva appeared utterly bored as she looked through the information they'd been able to dig up from their extensive search of Hernandez Alleron's life.

"So explain to me how someone like that goes gaga over an asari after only just meetin' her?" McGee had no answer for the former C-Sec officer turned ACIS agent as they waited for the interrogation to begin.

They did not have to wait long as Ziva finally looked up towards Hernandez after putting the information she'd been looking over on the holographic overlay against the right wall, in full view of those in the listening post as well as herself and their suspect. "You've served on half a dozen Alliance war ships in your time. No distinguishable achievements to speak of, but your scores were somewhat above average. Your biotic ability however, were exceptional, especially for a surprisingly stable L2."

"L2?" McGee asked, having not read up much about the various ranks that biotics fell under before now, having never had much of a reason to.

"Combat capable in most cases. L1s are barely able to move chairs across a wet floor. Anything at L2 or above are pretty dangerous, especially if they have the implant to match their power." Dax explained as Ziva continued her interrogation. "And before ya ask McGee, I'm at an L4 implant, my old one had to be upgraded durin' the war at great personal risk to my health. Lucky ta be walkin' and talkin', let alone still able to fight well above my former level."

"I'm cooperating with you Officer David, despite the fact your two moron friends drew on me."

"You were glowing with dark energy, we didn't know what you were capable of. What would you have done in our place?" Ziva countered as she stood up before she slowly began to do her best impression of a lioness circling her prey as she walked around the table. "Tell me about Hirsum, and try not to lie because I don't need a gun to kill you."

"Geeze Dax. Suddenly I find that my respect for you has gone up significantly." Gaped an astonished McGee as he looked between the turian and the window.

Dax chuckled humorously as he rubbed the back of his neck, where the implant resided, largely hidden by the lightly armored suit he wore when he was working. "Don't envy me McGee, I wasn't given much choice. Hierarchy needed more powerful biotics for the war, order came down, my unit got picked just as the first Reapers began to hit Palavan. I was out on the ground six hours after surgery was done when I shoulda been out for six days, minimum, recoverin' from the reimplantation. Been stuck with this thing since. Surgery went good, but I get real bad headaches when it rains, and I've since found out, D.C. rains, a lot. Shoulda really did a bit more research 'fore I jumped on your team's boat."

"I don't know why you're wasting your time with me when you should be looing for Hirsum's killer." Hernandez growled as once again, he began to glow a dark, iridescent blue, but unlike last time, Ziva hardly reacted save to fold her hands behind her back as she continued to pace just behind his chair.

"Because you're currently our prime suspect, Hernandez. So, naturally, I have to assume someone paid you for the shuttle routes which would allow the kidnappers to find and intercept the refugees."

"No."

"And, that's when Hirsum found out you were the one responsible, you fled but not before hiring someone to question and kill her."

"I didn't-"

The loud bang from Ziva slamming a hand against the table as she got right next to his left ear made Hernandez jump and pull as far as the restraints around his wrists would allow. "Don't lie to me! I can have you sent on the first flight to Leavenworth, put in general pop after letting the rest of your fellow inmates know the kind of cowardly scum you are. I'd not like your odds since I hear people like you are considered just slightly above child rapists." She'd chosen Leavenworth as part of her threat because he'd already spent time there, and from the way his face turned to an ashen gray, she knew he didn't have pleasant memories of the prison as she slowly backed away from him. "Or you can start telling me the truth and I might consider cutting you a deal. You can start by explaining how your dog tags wound up clutched in her fist."

Dax raised an eyeridge when Ziva pulled up an image of the ruined dog tags they'd found in the salarian's grasp. Pointing at the picture with one taloned finger, he turned to McGee and asked, "Abby and Athame found out they were his?"

McGee looked confused as he cocked his head to the side. "Last I heard she was still trying to recover the data while running the three sets of prints she found on them."

"So Ziva's lyin'." Dax stated rather than asked although his tone of voice made it hard to tell if he was impressed or just stating a fact.

"She does that." McGee replied, having long grown used to the team's at times questionable tactics when it came to handling suspects.

"Huh. Whatever works I suppose."

It had the desired effect as Hernandez slumped in the chair and bowed his head, his voice cracking with every word. "Hirsum….Hirsum left me for some asari she'd met shortly before her investigation started. I gave her my tags in the hopes she'd...she'd come back before she passed."

When she saw the tears running down the older man's face, she knew they didn't have the murderer. With a sigh and a subtle shake of her head towards McGee and Dax, she sat down across from Hernandez once more. "Do you know the name of this asari?" She asked, far more softly and gently than she'd been only moments ago.

"No….no I don't know. Hirsum only talked about her once, but she sounded so….alive, as if she were twenty years younger. I didn't think anything about it at the time, but-" The realization hit about the same time it did for Ziva. "You don't think she killed Hirsum?"

"It's likely, especially if she knew about the refugees and was attempting to cover it up by removing Hirsum." Hernandez lowered his head once more with a curse escaping his lips as Ziva pulled up the pictures Tony had sent back to the office before he and Gibbs had gone to investigate another lead. "These were taken from Hirsum's apartment. Someone was looking for something. Do you know what it might have been?"

"Hopefully a means to find the refugees, because despite my making substantial money off of our deal, I genuinely do care about them, Agent David. I only know what Hirsum told me, but if I know her half as well as I thought I did, she kept backups somewhere. Backups on top of backups, and no, I don't know where she kept them."

"We'll find them, and we'll find her killer." Ziva promised, and while she wasn't entirely convinced Hernandez hadn't killed Hirsum, she was determined to find the one responsible.

Despite her lingering suspicions, Hernandez looked up and said, "I believe you, Agent David."

"I don't." Dax muttered but whatever anger had been fueling him had since began to bleed out of his body. "He's lying about somethin' but not Hirsum. He didn't kill her."

"You think he knows that asari he mentioned?" McGee asked.

"Wouldn't surprise me none. Man in love, with a temper like his? Coward or not, man like that would go a long way in gettin' revenge." Something in Dax's voice made McGee wonder if he had personal experience with such things. Gibbs certainly did, according to Ducky the few times he'd heard about his first wife and daughter. But whereas Hernandez was very vocal and obvious about his anger, Gibbs was much quieter when it counted, often exploding with unexpected yet calculating ferocity. And now there was Dax, despite the visual cues he gave with his biotics.


Earth, USA, Washington

Washington D.C., ACIS, Ballistics Lab

March 7th, 2195, 11;27 PM

"I love my job sometimes." Declared a cheerful Abby as she gingerly lifted the fried remains of the dog tags she'd received some time ago.

"Only sometimes?" Athame asked, her lips pulling up into a playful smirk as she watched Abby move to another part of their lab before setting the dog tags down within the confines of a scanner that would hopefully allow them to extract whatever information remained within the device.

"Okay, all the time." Abby replied, a light laugh escaping her as she waited for the scan to finish up. "These things, despite having been smashed by some incredible force, were made to last. Despite their best efforts to dispose of the evidence, I believe I can pull the ID information off of its internal data storage. Not only that, but I was able to lift three sets of prints, two of which I've already matched with Hirsum and that guy Ziva's giving the third degree to. It's the third one though I'm hoping will reveal who our mystery asari is."

"Here's hoping, while you're doing that though, I'm hoping my own search will reveal something as to what the Hell's going on." Abby raised a dark haired eyebrow as Athame's fingers tapped furiously at the keyboard in front of her. Sensing her eyes on her back, the asari rubbed the back of her wrist across her forehead and said, "There's something about all this that feels vaguely familiar to me. Why would a salarian allow herself to be interrogated and subsequently murdered, but only after someone took the time to sleep with her first? I know I've heard come across something like this before but I can't for the life of me remember where or when."

"Don't asari meld with their partners during sex?" Abby pondered and looked at Athame quizzically. "Maybe that was her way of getting information? And the rest was… some sort of sadistic game?" She'd heard of some pretty sick people long before ending up in this time, so nothing would have surprised Abby anymore.

"It doesn't exactly work that way." Athame was quick to shoot that idea down. "When we meld with our partner during sex we aren't getting much in the way of thoughts more… sensations, pleasure, emotions. Nothing coherent at least, although there have been reports of those that have been together for a long time being able to 'hear' the other's thoughts during a meld, but that only happens for those that truly feel deeply for each other and aren't exactly shy about sharing each other in that sense."

"So it's more empathetic than telepathic, gotcha. So that would at least explain why Hirsum was injected with a truth serum. Even if this salarian felt for her killer at all, chances are they hadn't been together long enough for them to share thoughts with each other. And if they had been that tightly bound, then she wouldn't have had to go to such lengths in the first place to find what she was looking for." Abby emphatically waved her hands around as she paced to and fro in front of her work station, running through her thought processes at near light speed as she did. Her caffeine intake probably didn't help with her antsiness, but she normally didn't bother to notice.

Athame did but didn't feel the urge to say anything, too caught up in the puzzle currently in front of her. "That sounds about right to me. I'd almost say she was…." Abby paused as Athame spun around on the spot, her eyes wide as a horrible idea hit her like a comet. "Oh goddess I am so stupid!"

"What?" Abby blinked as Athame dashed out of the lab. With no other choice but to follow after her as she hit the button for the elevator that was just down the hall a ways, she didn't ask as she saw they were heading for the morgue. "I'm gonna take a guess, and say you need to talk to Ducky."

"If she died the way I suspect, it'll show up all over her nervous system." Athame replied as she reached out and impatiently pressed the down button repeatedly until Abby pulled her back.

"Take a breath, whatever it is, we'll figure it out, that's what we do."

"You're one to talk." Abby smirked but shrugged even as Athame took several calming breaths to get her whirling thoughts under control. "I'm sorry, but it should have been obvious to me. I had a bad feeling the moment I heard Hirsum had spent her last moments with an asari, but I don't think I wanted to imagine it were possible. Using the meld for anything other than to procreate or to give comfort to our partners….it's one of our most sacred aspects of being an asari, so to think one of us might be capable of using it for something insidious as this….it was too much to consider so I blocked it from my mind without consciously being aware of it."

"It's a pretty big deal for your people huh?"

"You have no idea." Athame muttered just as the elevator door opened, allowing the stil upset asari to disembark with Abby hot on her heels as they made their way the short distance to Ducky's part of the building. They found the good doctor and Hamu still working over Hirsum's remains when Athame stopped. "Doctor Mallard, I need to know if you found any significant nerve damage throughout her body."

Looking up from what they were doing, Ducky cocked his head to the side as he held up his forefinger in thought as he walked towards his own personal terminal. "You know, I think we did. I wasn't sure what to make of it at the time, but I suspect you do." Ducky ripped off his gloves before tossing them into a nearby waste bin before beginning to rapidly tap at the keyboard in front of him. In a few short seconds, he had Hirsum's X-ray and scan data displayed on the screen. "Yes, there was indeed an unusually large amount of activity throughout her entire nervous system, consistent with what I'd almost say was a near instantaneous shutdown of her conscious mind. She'd have been-"

"In a vegetative state, if she didn't outright expire immediately…..goddess, I know what did this." Breathed a suddenly very pale Athame as she felt her legs nearly buckle from whatever horrible realization had hit home.

"Care to clue us in?" Abby asked from the side and sent an uncertain wave towards the asari. "Or is this something asari don't like people knowing and you'd have to kill us if we find out."

"It's not exactly forbidden to tell others." Athame explained slowly a rubbed her temples in frustration. "It's just something we don't like getting out, our dirty little secret if you will." Taking a steadying breath, the asari sighed heavily as she met the curious and worried glances from her compatriots. "I'm half human and half asari on my mother's side, or at least the equivalent of such in your understanding. Any asari born, regardless of the parents involved, will always be asari, but we're able to pick and choose those traits we find desirable anytime we meld with a partner. Some of us stick with a single person for as long as we can, some of us simply choose a partner for a single evening. Whatever the case, the result is the same. But when two asari meld together for the sake of continuing our species, the result is what we'd call a pureblood, but therein lies the problem because there's always a chance a genetic defect will raise its head. It's also a terrible insult to purebloods to be called such to their face, but that relates to this genetic defect that we don't like to talk about."

"I take it this explains how Hirsum died, this asari has this genetic defect?" Hamu asked, to which Athame nodded as her gaze fell on Abby.

"That joke about vampires I made earlier has some bearing on this because what's created when a pureblood asari is discovered to have this defect are not so dissimilar from your people's myths about vampires. We call them Ardat Yakshi, or roughly translated, 'Demon of the Night Winds'. When an AY melds with a partner, instead of a gentle melding of the nervous systems as is common between asari and their lovers, an Ardat Yakshi will violently overwhelm their partner's system. They drain away everything that makes you who you are, and you're left in a coma and die in a couple of weeks, assuming the experience itself doesn't kill you right away."

"Good lord." Ducky murmured, his face paling considerably as he too began to put together what it was they were up against.

"Oh it gets better." Athame muttered as her hands involuntarily clenched up around the arms of the chair she had all but collapsed into. "While it's incredibly rare, even among AYs, to develop the lethal variety of their defect, it's much more common for those afflicted to find it much easier to seduce anyone they set their eyes on. It's a perversion of what makes us so desirable to everyone, even other asaris that aren't prepared for their influence, but even the strongest of them still must take at least two or more weeks for any noticeable effects to their partners' psyches to manifest themselves, and even then enough time away from the AY in question will begin to undo their hold upon them."

"That sounds less like a vampire and more like a succubus to me, but that doesn't matter right now." Abby was quick to say when Hamu, Ducky, and Athame all gave her funny looks between them. To Hamu and Athame's surprise though, Abby walked right up to Athame's chair and squatted down so they were almost eye to eye. "But don't beat yourself up over not saying anything sooner Athame. We're going to get her, and we won't say anything about this, I promise."

"Th-thanks Abs, but it's not me or my people's already tarnished reputation I'm worried about." While she was touched by Abby's efforts to reassure and comfort her, Athame was more concerned with what would happen if Gibbs or anyone else stumbled across the Ardat Yakshi before they were prepared for what they were going up against. Then another thought occurred to her and Athame could only groan. "Goddess, Gibbs is gonna kill me."

"That would be a problem, wouldn't it?" Ducky agreed, a ghost of a smile making itself visible on the older man's face. Abby smirked a little herself as she helped Athame to her feet and led the way back to the lab, leaving Hamu and the good doctor to finish up. "Is it just me, or do they seem to be joined at the hip these days?"

"It is no surprise Ducky, as Athame herself said, most people can't help but be drawn to the asari." Hamu chuckled to himself as they soon surrounded Hirsum's body once more. Now that they had a much better idea of how she'd died however, they both couldn't help but take a moment to look down in quiet respect for the poor girl. "As for you, to have your heart so tampered with by the one you thought you loved….I cannot think of a worse way to die, realizing that your lover is in truth simply using you for their own ends."

"Yes, which means our black widow just took on a much darker aspect than even I had expected it would. Being manipulated under normal methods is bad enough, but from what Athame implied, simply being around this Ardat Yakshi is enough to evoke a similar neurochemical reaction we call 'love', in her victims. A truly scary thought. It's no wonder the asari are ashamed to speak of this often with what I know about them myself."

"It is truly an unsettling thought." Hamu agreed his black eyes fixed on the dead body in front of them. "It would be best if we were to inform Agent Gibbs of this immediately, I can do so if you wish."

"No need, I'm quite used to him and his antics." Ducky was quick to assure him with a gentle smile. "Besides, we've known each other for many years, it's even safe to say that we've been best friends for nearly as long."

"That a fact Duck?" Hearing Gibbs' voice coming from his terminal, Ducky grinned as they saw the man had made a vid call to the morgue. "You got somethn'?"

"Quite a bit in fact, thanks to Abigail's assistant, but it's a quite sensitive subject for the asari from the sounds of it." Ducky knew that Gibbs wouldn't much care about such things, as long as he got his man that was enough for him. Still, he wasn't so callous or insensitive that he didn't care altogether, he was just a very goal oriented man was all. Before Ducky could try and explain what Athame had told them though, Abby's face appeared on the other half of the vid screen. "Oh, hold on a second Gibbs, Abby's on the other line. Yes Abigail?"

"I got a match on the third set of prints! And I found something else on the dog tags outside of the ID information we were looking for. Which do you want first?"

"Better start with the prints, Gibbs is looking mighty impatient on the other line." Explained Ducky as he glanced towards the silver haired agent as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

"Hey Gibbs! Okay, after hitting an impressive firewall and having to bounce my fingerprint search halfway across asari space once we knew what we were looking for, I found our mystery girl's record. She was apparently a 'guest' at a monastery up until nine years ago, where it was believed she had been kidnapped by the Reapers during the attack and turned into a Banshee. Instead, it seems she got off the planet unharmed, and with her mind intact no less, and has been in hiding ever since otherwise one of the asari Justicars might have hunted her down by now."

"We have a name Abby?" Gibbs asked, and he was rewarded when Abby sent an ID page back in short order.

"Say hello to Yanis of the Kallini Ardat-Yakshi Monastary. It might as well be a prison for the asaris' unwanted genetically defected members since the only choice AYs have are to live in isolation or to be executed. I'd want to escape too if I was in her shoes." Abby immediately regretted her words as she glanced towards an offscreen Athame. "Sorry….but if it helps, you're still awesome."

"Thanks Abs." Athame replied as she squeezed in next to the goth. "Agent Gibbs, be extremely careful if you find Yanis. Do not engage her up close if you can help it. If she's been killing her mates as we know she did to Hirsum, she'll be much stronger than most asari her age since their affliction makes them addicted to the act of melding, despite knowing full well that they'll always kill their partners. To make it worse, if she's not working alone and if they've been around her for a sufficient amount of time, her allies will likely be willing to die for her if she simply asks them to, giving her time to get away if it looks like you're going to arrest or kill her."

"Great, sounds like a real picnic." A just visible Tony muttered from Gibbs' side.

"Thanks Abs. And Athame, we're going to have a talk about you holding out on us when I get back." Without further preamble, Gibbs disconnected the line on his end, leaving Ducky and Abby to share a look as Athame sheepishly slunk off screen.

"Don't worry... he won't do... much... I hope." Abby threw over her shoulder, but her lack of certainty didn't help in Ducky's opinion as she absentmindedly disconnected her side of the vid call next.

Ducky for his part only chuckled and shook his head as he turned back to Hamu. "She'll be fine."

"Your lack of worry is reassuring." Mused Hamu as he too chuckled in response to the doctor's infectious cheer.


Earth, USA, Washington

Washington D.C., Germantown DZ (Dead Zone)

March 7th, 2195, 11;43 PM

Flying through the remnants of the suburban area, Gibbs was quiet as Tony's eyes immediately fell on the massive dreadnaught sized squid like machine that had fallen to ground where the Montgomery Campus Germantown College once stood. "Can't believe we were lucky enough to miss the rise of the machines, boss."

"I wasn't." Adri muttered as she too couldn't help but look towards the dead Reaper in the distance, her body rigid and her hands clenched on her upper thighs. "I've seen too many of those things to last me several of your lifetimes. I've seen what they were capable of, what they did to people I trusted and fought beside most of my life. The goddess must have been looking out for me because so many of my friends wound up indoctrinated, brainwashed by them…."

"How many you'd lose?" Tony asked hesitantly even as his gaze fell towards the utterly demolished town on every side. Streets were ripped apart, giant craters dotted the ground, entire buildings had been toppled and thrown aside like so much trash. And while they were hard to spot from the air, in the middle of the night, Tony could see countless burned and decomposing bodies hidden among the debris and the grass. The stories they'd heard were certainly proving themselves to be all too true as Tony's stomach clenched in horror at what his eyes were telling him.

While Adri had since put her balaclava back over her face, both men could tell this subject was not one they'd be spending a lot of time on as she whispered, "Too many. Far too many."

"Spectre Adri." The asari jerked at the commanding tone in Gibbs' face as she met his gaze in the rearview mirror. She nodded her thanks and to show she was okay now before Gibbs broke eye contact with her. "Looks like we'll be getting a closer look at the giant squid."

"If not for the fact they're truly dead and not simply brain dead, I'd order us to stay clear of it since it was proven that even a 'dead' Reaper can still broadcast its indoctrination signal. You might go into one as yourself, but you'd leave as its puppet without realizing it." Despite her assurances, Adri at least still didn't like the idea of approaching the dreadnaught sized killer machine as Gibbs drove their car ever closer to the monstrosity. "Once we're inside be careful, these things are a literal maze. And our friends have made their home in this one apparently, so they'll have the home field advantage."

"You haven't seen Gibbs in action." Tony countered but they took her advice to heart regardless as they soon landed just outside of the impact crater the Reaper had left upon its fatal descent back to the ground. The large, jagged hole near its center 'eye' spoke to how it had been defeated. "Orbital strike boss?"

"I'd say so DiNozzo." Gibbs said as he made his way to the back of the vehicle before he pulled out a suit of light combat armor for DiNozzo before he pulled out a spare set for himself. Adri stood guard some distance away, her gun out and her eyes on the Reaper for any sign of activity as they got dressed for their foray. "Anything?"

"Nothing. They must be further inside." Gibbs said nothing as he led the way forward. Despite the lack of activity on the outside, it didn't take them long to notice that someone had been busy in setting up the dead Reaper as their base from the simple, prefabricated walkways they found along with a number of simple storage shacks and utility buildings. "Lights are on but nobody's home." Adri noted as a series of automatic lights began to turn on when they got close enough.

"Keep your head on a swivel." Gibbs ordered them and drew his weapon. "DiNozzo you're with me."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"You are a spectre aren't you? Do whatever you want." Gibbs shot back and nodded once at Tony to take point. Without a word, Tony pushed forward, gingerly peeking his head around the first corridor they came upon before he beckoned them forward with a wave of his free hand as he led with his sidearm ahead of him before he pressed onward. They followed as quietly as they could, their ears strained for any sign of movement with every step, but nothing reached them as Gibbs couldn't help but look at the oddly angled walls of the corridor they were in. "This a normal thing?"

"Yes….although no one knows why Reapers are made like this exactly. Many hypothesize it's simply because they're efficiency given form, designed for only one thing." That 'one thing' became painfully apparent when they passed a side chamber, where Adri had to put a hand over her mouth when her eyes fell upon the walls and ceiling that were lined with cutting implements and grasping claws. "Ugh….a conversion chamber. People were….people were led into chambers like that all over the galaxy, having no idea that they weren't going to come out. At least, they weren't going to come out the same way. They'd be broken down to their most basic of genetic materials and fed into dozens of Reaper combat frames, Husks, Cannibals, Banshees, and more. I can't begin to imagine how many thousands of people went to their deaths in this one alone before it was over."

"Uh… Boss, maybe it wasn't the best idea to come here alone." Tony noted with some trepidation in his voice, but he was brought short when Gibbs none too gently slapped the back of his head.

Gibbs waited just long enough for Tony to look over his shoulder at the former marine before he asked, "Who are you more afraid of? The Reapers, or me?"

"Moving on Boss." Tony said as he once more began to walk forward, his stride noticeably quicker now after that rather heavy handed reprimand.

It still made it possible for Adri to smirk a little bit, allowing her to temporarily forget the fact they were walking around an ancient death machine. "Interesting dynamic you two have."

"It works." Gibbs merely acknowledged and continued on deeper into the metal innards of the dead Reaper.

The three of them silently walked through one empty chamber or corridor after another, the sound of their footsteps the only thing audible to them. While they found more signs of habitation, they didn't find any actual people until they'd been exploring the area for the better part of ten minutes when Tony slowed and held up a hand as they came upon a much wider, larger inner chamber deep inside the Reaper. A series of large metallic walkways, a part of the machine itself rather than added later for convenience, spanned the large chamber, along with a series of metallic boxes and dead, inert machinery scattered about the immediate area. "Movement up ahead." DiNozzo mouthed over his shoulder so as not to alert the enemy to their presence. It was all Gibbs and Adri needed as they readied themselves for whatever came next.

"-rsum might have given our location away to those federal agents. It seems even your 'charms' failed us Yanis." A deep, gravely voiced man growled before Gibbs, having since moved up to a metallic barricade with a gun slot cut out of it, spotted a heavily armored, hunch backed alien stomp past. The krogan was talking to a distant, slender, lightly armored asari some distance further in the chamber who glared imperiously down at the krogan, as if he were a mere servant that was getting out of line. "You can stare down at me all you like, but your little love affair is going to get us caught, mark my words Yanis. And your little defect won't help you with me since I know better than to get close."

"Be careful how you addre-" A young man, younger than Tony if Gibbs was to guess, began, but the krogan silenced him with a savage punch to the stomach before slamming his head into the man's face. The human fell backward in a boneless heap, knocked out cold long before he hit the ground.

"Shut up you little pyjak. The adults are talking."

"If you could stop breaking my toys, I would ever be so grateful." The asari said snidely and scoffed. "But he has a point, don't forget who you're talking to. Haven't I given you everything you could ever want from our little scheme?"

"I'll give this much to you, Yanis, you saved my hump during the war, and I showed you how to put a crew together and keep it together, but just because my life is yours doesn't mean you get to order me around like one of your 'toys'. And yes, you've done a lot of work, making us filthy rich, but you should have simply killed Hirsum when you found out she was looking into those weaklings we sold off instead of giving her time to find out more information."

"She surprised me. I thought my hold on her was ironclad, but her resistance was more powerful than I anticipated. She even resisted that truth serum you supplied me from our batarian friends." Yanis muttered, seeming to mollify her guard and friend's raising anger at the same time as she began to approach her downed human 'pet'. Kneeling down as the krogan backed away, either because she knew what she was about to do or because he was simply being cautious around her, Gibbs didn't know. He simply raised an eyebrow as Yanis's eyes turned pitch black as she cupped the human's face just as he began to stir. "Welcome back, John. Goodbye John."

What happened next was….not pleasant to watch as John's eyes bulged and his mouth drooped open as tendrils of dark energy lashed out between him and the asari. He twitched and spasmed on the spot as if he were being electrocuted, but from what Gibbs could see, John's face was soon locked in something akin to ecstasy even as something was torn away from him. Yanis shuddered and moaned as she finished feeding from the human in her arms before letting his head drop free from her hands about the same time the biotic display died down. "Mmmm….I should have been doing that years ago. No wonder Morinth took to this life with as much glee as she did."

"If you're done, we should get out of here while we have a chance." The krogan rumbled as he glanced over one large shoulder just as Gibbs ducked down out of sight. "It feels like we're being watched."

"It's just this dead husk we've built our home into, nothing more. But...I agree with you Razak, we need to abandon this place. We'll find another Reaper to set up shop in somewhere else, preferably somewhere with a much more available homeless population so we won't have to rely on outside help again. As much fun as it was to take Hernandez's lover away, he'll be a problem if he catches up with us. I might have to make a house call-"

Gibbs chose that moment to pop out of cover alongside Adri and Tony. "Freeze, ACIS!"

Yanis's response was a powerful biotic shockwave that forced them to take cover lest they were blown away. "Razak, now's your chance to get even."

"Got it." The krogan muttered and pumped his gigantic shotgun before charging down the center of the large chamber, simply shrugging off their combined fire. "Hehehehehe!" The large battle hardened alien cackled as he slammed into Tony's barricade like an armor plated rhino, smashing the metallic sheet with such force that he ripped right through it before turning to the agent that was desperately ducking for cover. "Gotcha."

"Not yet!" Razak only had a split second to respond as Adri appeared between Tony and the krogan in a powerful biotic Charge. The mercenary was blown off his feet as most of his ribs were dented if not outright broken, even through the thick armor he wore as he fell on his humped back. Tony wasted no time in joining the asari as she began to unload in the krogan's face, but he lashed out with his left boot, catching Adri off guard as she was knocked to the ground, her gun clattering away in the confusion.

"Adri!" Tony yelled, but he was forced back down as Yanis shot haphazardly in their direction as she ran deeper into the dead Reaper.

Gibbs wasn't so limited in his option as he snapped his gun towards the fleeing asari's back. Despite her attempts to stave off his assault by enshrouding herself in a barrier, he was still able to put a round in her right leg, just below the knee before she was able to completely shield herself. With a cry, she limped off around the corner, but Gibbs had since turned to Razak as he rolled onto his front before clambering on top of Adri, one fist already poised to rain down on the asari's cloth covered head. Gibbs didn't give him a chance as he unloaded his side arm into the large alien's chest and head until the gun overheated, forcing him to wait for it to cool down before he could begin to fire anymore.

They needn't have worried however as Razak froze mid swing before he slowly fell to the side and off of Adri, who slowly lowered her arms away from her face to see that she was safe. "Where's Yanis?" She groaned as she slid out from beneath the dead krogan, only to be pulled right back down by Tony when several new assailants poured out of the passageway that Yanis had disappeared into.

"Gettin' a little hot in here boss!" Tony yelled as he popped up around the remnants of the metallic barricade to start laying into the new arrivals.

"You think?!" Gibbs shouted back as he leaned out of cover for a moment and shot three times in rapid succession. The first two shots shattered his target's shield while the third tore open the back of the woman's skull a split second later. A second fell just as easily as he attempted to charge the defenders down, a hard light shield taking shape along the man's right arm a split second too late to save him from the bullet that drove into his chest once his shields were also torn away. Gibbs grimaced as his shoulder was hit in turn by a third, but his own shields protected him from the worst of it as he ducked back down just as Tony popped up on the other side of the central corridor created by the various containers, inert machines, and metallic barricades.

While he was not a trained marine sniper, Tony was no slouch when it came to shooting down range. Snapping his gaze up towards a crane laden down with a pile of metallic beams and pipes, Tony shot the thick, industrial strength ropes holding it all aloft. While he was forced to duck as the attackers aimed towards him next, he heard their cries of alarm that turned to agonized screams, quickly cut off, as the metal beams smashed into their hiding spot. "Not bad DiNozzo!" Gibbs called out as the remaining two gunmen tried to back off, but Adri was there to meet them.

Both men watched as the asari put truth to the claim she was above the average rank and file as she effortlessly dismantled both of Yanis's followers. Having taken the time to flank them while they'd been distracted with Gibbs and Tony, the Spectre wrapped her arm around the first man's throat after spinning him around, yanked his gun free of his hand, and unloaded it into his partner's chest before viciously snapping his neck, letting his body fall about the same time the bullet riddled corpse did. Glancing towards Gibbs and Tony as they carefully approached, mindful of the possibility of more trouble coming their way, Tony looked towards the two dead men at Adri's feet and whistled. "Damn, starting to appreciate having you on our side."

"Marvel later, we need to move or she's going to get away." Nodding her head towards the dark blue blood trail Yanis was leaving behind, Adri spared Gibbs a momentary approving nod before she took point this time. Moving ever deeper into the labyrinth of disturbingly twisted hallways and wide chambers alike, they found themselves outside unexpectedly, staring at the remnants of the college's west wing. With only one way forward since either side led into the debris strewn crater's walls, they continued to follow the blood trail into a near lightless tunnel that had been carved out by a stray blast from the Reaper itself. They descended into the darkness as the sound of dripping blood and the creaking of metal slowly fell silent behind them.


End Notes: Vergil1989: This actually took some more time than I'd like to admit because between helping Nomad get a Persona 5/Mass Effect story going, (which I none too subtly hinted at in the beginning of Artifice with Adri's opening song lol), and not being sure exactly who would be the bad guy for this one, (although I had ideas, I just couldn't settle on one was all), this ended up being delayed because of this. Still, we're done now and while I'm still not entirely happy with everything, I'm feeling much better about this chapter than the last one and I hope you guys and gals enjoy. See ya next time!