Reckoning
"This way," Garrus said quietly as he led the team through the dark maintenance tunnels under the Council Chambers. Usually the Keepers would be taking care of this section but it sustained minimal damage and was not a priority. They walked past pipes and cables that had been integrated into the wall. Finally, they reached a room with a control panel sticking out of the wall.
"This is it," Garrus said. Tali went up to the control panel and began to hack it.
"This will take a while," she said as she began to work.
"I'll stay here and watch her," Garrus said. "I've already told you where to place the bomb." Bane nodded and he pulled a small contraption from behind his back. It was about the size of a small novel and looked as if it had been made from every piece of scrap possible. The team jumped when they heard a loud clang down the hall. Wrex grumbled anxiously and took out his shotgun.
"I'll check it out," he growled.
"I'm coming with you," Liara said, drawing her machine gun. Bane, Ashley, and Sidonis turned and went down a different hall to place the charge. The maintenance tunnels were like a maze. Fortunately, Bane had a map installed in his omni-tool. It did not take long before they found the location they had to place the explosive charge.
"This will only take a moment," Bane said as he kneeled down and placed the charge on the wall. He began to wire the bomb and calibrate the charge. Bane smiled at his creation. He loved chemistry. Poisons, explosives, medicine, all of these require chemistry to some degree. In his explosive charge were several chemicals. Alone they were harmless, but if they were ever mixed they would create an explosive compound so volatile that dropping it would be dangerous.
Sidonis watched Bane work quietly. Everyone was quiet. The whole room was quiet. He could hear everyone's breathing in the silence. The room was dead silent, but Sidonis could hear a quiet scuttling noise. He could hear rapid tapping, almost like someone was quickly tapping their fingers on a metal frame. Sidonis did not trust the sound. He quietly drew his handgun and snuck off to find out what it was.
"I'm finished," Bane said, standing up.
"Great," Ashley commented. "Ready, Sidonis?" She looked around but realized that the Turian had disappeared. "That's great!" Ashley said sarcastically. "Sidonis ran off!"
"Troubling," Bane said flatly. "But, we must continue the mission."
"We have to find Sidonis first," Ashley said firmly.
"You cannot let your emotions affect you," Bane said.
"I'm not!" Ashley snapped.
"You are," Bane hissed. "You're afraid you'll lose another squad member. You've lost so many. You lost Kaiden on Virmire. You lost Sheppard on the Normandy. You're afraid you'll lose another one. Do those memories still haunt you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The memories of Virmire; you heard Sheppard's voice, he had to make a decision. You wanted him to choose Kaiden but he chose you. Was there a way to change his mind? The only way he'd pick Kaiden was if he thought you died. If he thought you died he would have left you behind. Doing so would have condemned you to death from the nuke. You were afraid, as you were afraid during the attack on the Normandy."
"How do you know this?" Ashley breathed. She felt the guilt coming back, overwhelming guilt flooding her mind. She felt that she should have been the one who died back in those battles. But, at the same time, she felt grateful to be alive, and she hated herself because of that. Kaiden would still be alive if it was not for her. Sheppard would still be alive if it was not for her.
"Maybe it is your fault. Maybe if you stayed with Sheppard he'd still be alive. Maybe Kaiden would still be here if it wasn't for you."
"SHUT UP!" Ashley yelled, drawing her gun and pointing it at Bane's face. Bane simply chuckled.
"You're being affected by emotions right now," Bane said. "You must not let them affect you, Ashley, or someone can use them against you."
Down the hall, Garrus was pacing back and forth, waiting for Tali.
"You done yet?" Garrus asked, looking behind him.
"Nearly," Tali replied. "I still have one more firewall to hack through."
"Well, hurry it up, would you. This hallway gives me the creeps." Garrus looked back in front of him and froze. A tall figure wearing a black cloak and a hood head appeared in front of him. Garrus was almost stunned by the ominous figure, but he could not hesitate. In a split second, Garrus pointed his gun at the figure. He was about to fire when the figure suddenly slapped him across the room.
"What was that?" Ashley wondered out loud when she heard Garrus's yell. She and Bane both took off down the hall.
Tali whipped around when she heard Garrus yell and saw him thrown against the wall by the figure. She grabbed her handgun and began firing at the figure. The figure jerked violently as each bullet met its mark but it kept walking. Tali finally heard her handgun click. She was out of bullets. The figure grabbed the wound on its chest where several of the bullets hit. Unfortunately for Tali, she did not hurt the figure; she only made it very angry. The figure tore off its cloak and hood, revealing its true form. It was a hideous, humanoid monster with six arms! Three red eyes glowed on its head and had three mandibles. The creature screeched furiously at Tali. It began to walk slowly towards her, clicking its claws as it moved. Tali desperately tried to put another round of bullets in her handgun but she was scared. She was trembling too hard.
"What's going on?" Bane yelled as he and Ashley got in the room. "WHAT THE…!" Ashley gasped when she saw the creature. She had faced Varren, Rachni, Thresher Maw, and other creatures but she has never seen a monster such as this. When the creature saw the two of them it grabbed Garrus's unconscious body and hurtled it at them. Had this been a piece of debris they could just doge it, but this was Garrus and Bane jumped up and caught him in midair. They both fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Tali finally got her gun loaded and began pumping rounds into the creature's back! The creature screeched in pain. It turned around and grabbed Tali by the throat. It slowly lifted her off the ground, squeezing the life out of her.
Garrus finally woke up, but he was still dazed by what happened and he was still on Bane.
"Get off me, you smell Turian!" Bane growled.
Ashley saw what was happening and she began gunning the creature. The monster flinched from the bullets but it did not drop Tali. Instead, it began to create a series of webs inside its mouth. It linked the webs together and formed a net. Finally, it spat the webs at Ashley. She was thrown to the ground as the webs completely entangled her. She tried to get out of the webs and get back up, but the harder she tried the more she became entangled.
During the delay, Tali was able to take the knife out of her boot. Just as the creature turned its head, Tali jammed her knife into its head. The creature screeched and pain and dropped Tali to the ground. Seeing Tali on the ground, the creature lifted its foot, ready to crush her into the ground when, suddenly, a grappling hook wrapped around its foot. The creature was yanked off balance onto its hands and knees. It looked behind itself and saw that Bane had fired his grappling hook and that he and Garrus had pulled it to the ground. The creature began crawling forwards as Bane and Garrus tried to pull it back but it began to drag them with it.
"Pull it down!" Bane yelled when the creature climbed up on a wall. He and Bane gave a single mighty yank. The creature was confident in its strength, but it underestimated Garrus's and Bane's strength when combined with gravity.
"Look out!" Garrus yelled when the creature fell off the wall. He and Bane both dove out of the way as it crashed to the ground.
As Bane jumped away he lost his handgun. He quickly looked around and saw it lying a few feet from him. The creature saw Bane leap for his gun and spat a web at it. Bane had just laid his hands on the gun when the web met its mark, trapping both his hand and the gun to the floor. Bane pulled out a knife from his sleeve and began cutting the web.
The creature realized that Tali had rushed over to Ashley and has begun using the knife to cut her free.
"If I can just get my rifle," Ashley groaned, trying to free her gun.
"Hold still," Tali said through gritted teeth as she tried to cut the tough webs.
"LOOK OUT!" Ashley screamed. Tali looked behind her and realized the creature had stormed up to them. Before the creature could deliver a blow, a piece of debris flew out of nowhere and slammed into the creature's chest. The creature stumbled backwards as Liara, Wrex, and Sidonis appeared from behind the corner. The three of them aimed their guns but the creature spat a web at the three of them. Liara and Sidonis jumped out of the way but the web entangled itself around Wrex, throwing him to the ground.
In the Council Chamber, Sovereign and his six indoctrinated slaves marched across the platform. The master control unit appeared before them. Sovereign began typing commands into the controls. Once the geth systems in his body have control he will reactivate the mass relays and the Reapers will finally return.
Roaring, Wrex tore apart the webs like paper. He charged at the creature and slammed it against the wall. The creature climbed onto the ceiling, leapt behind the Krogan, and kicked him into the wall. As Wrex fell to the ground, power surged through the walls. Everyone looked up and the walls hummed with power.
"What's happening?" Ashley gasped as the walls hummed with power.
"Sovereign's activating the mass relay!" Tali said quickly. She finally sawed Ashley free of the webs and they both stood up.
Sovereign chuckled wickedly as he watched felt the entire relay power up. It was time he contacted the Reapers and tell them that it was time. Energy surged through Sovereign's veins as he powered the relays communications.
"It is time," he hissed menacingly.
Dark space: the empty void beyond the galaxy. The blackness seemed empty, but there was more than it appeared. A single massive blue ship emerged from the darkness. Its lights flickered as it powered up. Its eyes glowed wickedly.
"Harbinger acknowledges," a deep, cold, hollow voice echoed. "Preparing the fleet."
Bane finally cut his hand free. He began shooting at the creature from the ground.
"We must end this!" Liara said as she sent the creature flying backwards with a biotic blast.
"How?" Ashley wondered out loud. "Every time we hurt it, it heals itself!" It was true. Having Vorcha DNA, the creature healed its wounds.
"There's only one way," Tali said quietly. She leapt to feet and shot the creature straight in the chest. "HEY!" she yelled. The creature snarled viciously. Tali took off down the hall and the creature followed her.
"No!" Garrus yelled, trying to tackle the creature, but it slapped him to the side.
"Tali!" Bane yelled, racing after her.
Tali raced through the halls with the creature chasing her. She could hear its vicious snarls echo through the halls. She finally reached the room where Bane had set the explosive charge. She ran up to the charge to make sure it was still active. The explosive charge was active and ready.
"This better work," she breathed. Tali turned around and found the creature standing barely five feet away from her. Tali put her back against the wall as the creature slowly walked towards her, its fangs glistening with saliva.
"Tali!" Bane yelled as he and the team got in the room. "HOLD FIRE!" he yelled when he saw how close Tali and the creature were to the explosive charge. "Shoot it and the charge might go off."
"Blow it, Bane!" Tali yelled. "It's the only way!" More power surged through the Citadel as Sovereign began to attempt to activate the relay. Tali stared into the creatures three eyes. Though she was wearing a helmet, she could swear she felt its breath against her face.
Bane tried to remain calm and think of a solution. If they did nothing the Reapers would return. Detonating the charge would stop the Reapers' return and kill the creature but it would kill Tali. Shooting at the creature could set off the charge and approaching the creature could cause it to throw a blow and Tali and the impact might accidentally set off the volatile chemicals in the explosive charge. Finally it struck him; there was one way to save her. Bane fired his grappling hook between the creature's legs. The hook entangled itself on Tali's legs and Bane immediately began coiling the grappling hook. Tali fell to the ground she was dragged across the ground between the creature's legs. In a fraction of a second, she was dragged to safety, right at Bane's feet.
"Now!" Bane yelled as he pressed the button on the detonator. Liara created a biotic shield around the team just as the wall exploded. Flames engulfed them as Liara strained to hold the shield. The intensity weakened the shield and Liara was growing tired with every passing moment. The explosion only lasted a few seconds but it felt like an eternity to Liara.
Sovereign grinned as he began reactivating the mass relay. Suddenly, the master control unit shut off. Sovereign looked at the controls, surprised at what just happened. He kept looking at them, hoping they would come back online, but they did not. He roared in pure and utter fury.
In dark space, Harbinger felt the communications abruptly turn off.
"Communications cut," his voice echoed. "We must assume the organics are aware of our presence. I am assuming direct control of the Collector General."