Michael was angry.
Tali had seen him cold, ready, kind, happy, cheerful, energized...even weak and shaking...and always with that need deep within him that no one else even seemed to register.
But she had never seen him angry.
Even when they had confronted Saren himself there had been a cold...decisiveness in Michael, that need driving him to clamp down on any emotions he might have and focus on his target.
But now he was angry...and Tali found both herself and the others of the team scooting away as the man strode forth.
Ethan Jeong was human, but short and slender enough to be mistaken for a Quarian. His thinning brown hair and moustache did nothing to improve the impression of him being a small man...as had his twitchy behaviour even during the team's first meeting with him told Tali. A man that shouldn't be in charge...
And now that the group was returning towards Zhu's Hope to find that Thorian plant – what Saren could ever want from a plant was beyond Tali – and had stopped along the road to the small group of survivors from the Exogeni tower...that fact became blatantly obvious.
The scientists and a lone custodian had been lined up against a wall, hands over their heads...as the guards under Jeong's command faced them with raised rifles.
Jeong himself was marching back and forth, swinging the pistol in his hand wildly as he shouted at no one in particular: "This has to be done! Exogeni will want a scapegoat! And if you live to tell of the Thorian I'll be the one!" He waved the pistol at one of the elderly scientists, the woman shirking from the trembling weapon. "This is your fault! Why did you check the computers when there was no need!" The pistol shook...and them moved up as the man begun his pacing again, head shaking wildly: "All those colonists for nothing! Each one will just be another nail in my coffin! It's not fair!"
"Jeong!" Michael's shout cut through Jeong's ranting with a snap, making Jeong spin round, eyes wide as he took in the Commander purposefully marching up towards him, hands closed into fists at his sides.
"Stay back!" The Exogeni boss stumbled a step back, shaking his head wildly even as the guards uneasily glanced back at Michael and his team, then back at the civilians lined up before them...then to one another in worry.
"You knew of the Thorian." Michael didn't shout this time, instead it was a low growl, the statement turning into a threat as he stalked forth.
"Back!" Jeong's hands both closed around the pistol, and still it shook like crazy. "I'll shoot!"
Michael didn't even draw his own weapon, his shoulders swinging as he strode forth like some unstoppable machine, his whole being projecting...loathing. "You placed the colonists above it."
"Back!" A shot and Michael's shields flared, making the entire team at his back level their own weapons, yet Tali – and the others as well – found herself unable to fire as she stared at the unfolding scene.
"You killed them." Michael's words went lower, the growl like that of an animal.
Jeong's hands twitched...and Michael's shield once more flared.
"As you're now trying to kill the few left under your charge." The statement came in low, harsh...and Jeong twitched at it, sweat pouring down his forehead.
Another bang...another flash of a shield stopping the shot.
"And the worst part..."
Jeong's hands twitched to fire, only for a crack to leave them as Michael gripped a hold of them and twisted, driving the gasping man to his knees and wrenching the weapon out of his hands.
And suddenly Jeong was looking down the barrel of his own gun, the sweating man's eyes wide as they stared up at Michael in terror, a Michael whose eyes blazed. "...is that you feel no guilt."
"P-please..." Jeong whimpered, the man's left hand clutching his right...whose fingers had been scrapped during the disarmament and bled profusely... "I'll do anything, I...I had orders...I can..."
"This is your doing, your failure..." Michael's growls were so low it was hard to hear him, his left hand gripping the collar of the man's shirt and pulling him closer even as he pressed the barrel of the pistol against Jeong's forehead. "...and you won't even acknowledge it."
More then two hundred killed by the Thorian...sacrificed like animals for testing... Tali couldn't really imagine it...but the thought of Quarian's being used like that...she felt hatred of her own flare up, making her grip on her shotgun tighten as she understood just a fraction of what Michael might feel.
Yet not... Tali cocked her head to the side, despite the tense situation and Michael looking so...frightening...it was still somewhat fascinating. Michael didn't know any of the colonists, and during the team's briefing before the mission Michael had stressed that looking for survivors was the secondary objective...yet now he was angry, for the first time...ever since she'd known him.
He must be taking it personally...but why!
"I can pay! I'll do anything!" Jeong licked his lips, eyes darting left and right for an exit, but the guards had now turned to face Michael and his team...but with rifles down as they watched the events with frightened stances, fearing similar punishment, yet too afraid to act.
"And you insist on not understanding!" Michael shook Jeong by the collar, hard, the man's head jerking back and forth as he cried out in terror, as much to the shaking as to Michael's roar.
To her embarrassment Tali realised she had taken a step back at the sound herself.
Then the shaking stopped, Michael's stance...softening. Looking over Jeong's shoulder Michael slowly shook his head, tone soft: "We must all live with our failures until our end..."
"I..."
His stance hardened, voice turning into steel as he glared down at Jeong: "...so consider this a mercy."
Another bang...and the civilians and guards alike jumped back as a crimson splash of blood flew out of the back of Jeong's skull and down on the floor even as the man himself, now but a body, fell prone.
For a moment Michael still stood there, frozen, left hand still looking as if he was gripping Jeong's shirt, right still levelling the pistol at a head that was no longer there. His entire body ready, tense...and oddly...vacant...not really there.
Tali felt herself shiver, Michael's words – so similar to Saren's not an hour ago – held a bitterness she didn't want to think about.
Then he was back, straightening he dropped the gun next to the corpse, eyes cold and calculating as he regarded the other survivors with that need once more burning bright.
Tali swallowed. I don't want a bloodbath...if we shoot those guards the civilians will get hurt too...Keelah I hope he doesn't-
"You there." He pointed to one of the guards, who flushed scarlet a moment after he had – on instinct it seemed – stepped forth and saluted. "You will lead the rest of the guards and the civilians to the tower, the Geth there have either been destroyed or retreated."
"Y-yes sir." The man held the salute, the hand against his helmet trembling as his gaze darted between Michael's cold eyes and the warm body at his feet.
"There you will dig in and defend until the Alliance arrives, is that understood?"
"Y-yes s-sir!" With a snap the man finished the salute, then sagged as he stepped back in the line with the others.
"You." Michael's pointing finger this time landed on the elderly scientist Jeong had threatened, who to Tali's surprise looked calmer then the guard as she brushed back her grey hair and stepped forth. "You read about the Thorian, correct? It has killed two hundred and sixty-four people and enslaved the surviving thirty-six of the population, I want to know if we can free the mind-controlled survivors."
"What I read suggests it's a very direct control." The woman licked her lips, gaze darting to the corpse for but a moment. "As such a failure of direction should stop the control itself, so if the Thorian is dead its spores will become harmless." Another glance, this time along with a shrug, the woman accepting that she couldn't do anything but answer. "That's my initial theory anyway, I doubt you have time for a longer analysis..."
"Correct." Michael nodded, once, then looked back to the guard he'd singled out, making the man's face once more flush. "Move out."
"Y-yes sir."
Turning Michael ignored the guards and civilians filling past them...as did the rest of the team as they looked to the Commander, Tali feeling her chest swell at the feel of being a team so ready to head his Command... To command such loyalty...not even father does that...and I could only dream of-
"Moreau?" Michael's question interrupted Tali's thoughts, making her tense up as she realised something was going on.
"Finally!" Joker called out through the comm, sounding annoyed. "I thought it would take all day to reach you, and with this drumming that would just be-"
"Status." Michael snapped, thought not harshly, his stance all professionalism once more, as if his anger and loathing just moments ago had been nothing but an act. Yet Tali knew it hadn't been... How does he do it? Just switching on and off like that...
"Well I don't know what you did...or what the technical term for this is...but there's three dozen colonists outside the door to the Normandy trying to smash their way in with their fists... just, you know, a heads up." Then a little lower, not meant for their ears: "Maybe piracy? Boarding? Rock-concert?"
Garrus suddenly shifted, thoughtful. "You think we pissed off the Thorian somehow...?"
"A probability." Michael agreed with a nod, then spoke into the comm. "Get me Urdnot."
"Here." Wrex grunted a moment later, sounding calm, if a little irritated.
"Is your armour repaired?"
"Yeah, finished five minutes ago."
"And T'soni?"
A snort: "Asari are too brittle..."
"Very well." Michael nodded, eyes vacant as he looked down at the ground, as if seeing a map of the colony in his head...which he just might be given his way of memorizing just about anything related to the mission. "You are to suit up and exit the Normandy using the cargo exit, there you will draw the colonists attention, do not engage unless cornered, retreat and draw them with you until further orders. I repeat, do not engage unless cornered."
"Drawing them away eh? Sounds interesting, on it." The Krogan grunted, then cut transmission with a click.
Michael looked up...and Tali couldn't help but notice how she and the others straightening just a little bit as his gaze fell upon them. His entire being projected control, discipline, purpose, preparedness...all with a need driving it forth...a need that would never find him wanting, that would carry them forth...that inspired them to fill it.
Ashley said it, but the others might as well had spoken as well: "Orders, Commander?"
"Move out."
And they moved.
8
8
8
Unmolested by colonists, them being busy chasing a surprisingly evasive Wrex – didn't think a Krogan could be that good at avoiding a fight – the group had reached Zhu's Hope without a hitch, as well as found an entrance beneath a few broken bulkheads leading down into an underground tunnel that had to be the way to the Thorian.
Garrus felt his mandible twitch in excitement as they continued their descent.
Just ahead of him Michael and Ashley moved, the two having their assault rifles at the ready and forming a wall of heavy armour and heavier guns between any potential foes and the somewhat softer targets behind them.
Garrus and Kaidan were right behind them, Kaidan's pistol having a flashlight attached to it which illuminated the rapidly darkening stone tunnel...and Garrus settling for the now so intimately familiar sniper rifle over his pistol despite the cramped conditions. Really should get an assault rifle or something...
And at the rear Tali walked, her shotgun being levelled backwards as much as forward, the Quarian nervously glancing back as much as she checked the scanner on her omni-tool. Her warble was disquieting in the otherwise soundless hall: "No energy signatures..."
Garrus felt equally invigorated and concerned by the darkening tunnel however. This was what he lived for...this was what C-sec should be doing! Not filing reports or ducking around red tape...but out among the people and doing justice! Striving to protect the weak and slay the unjust!
He had felt it when he had killed doctor Saleon, and again when Michael had killed the Exogeni scum...the rush...the feel of rightness over the action. There was a reason for Spectres, some people were just too dangerous for prisons that didn't work or trials that never finished, and didn't deserve either for their crimes...a bullet through the head was the only justice they deserved.
I get it now... He smiled at Shepard's back, grateful for being brought along, for all he was learning...and for the feel of that great weight being lifted off his shoulders as the restrictions and rules of C-sec were lifted, letting him to do good work...to breathe!
So there was no fear when descending the darkness to the enslaving plant...only an eagerness to face it, to punish it for its crimes.
It has to be a thinking one right? How else could it order people around? If not...is it committing a crime? Garrus' brow-plate knitted up in irritation at the thought...and he brushed it aside. Silly notion, just get in and kill it, we're here to free people, not to raise a debate about the sanctity of life.
"Moisture..." Kaidan muttered, light shining on one of the walls, showing the curved wall of the stone around them...shining with wetness. "...I think we might be close."
"I think you might be right." Garrus nodded, ignoring the look Kaidan shot him, well aware that Mr high-and-mighty wasn't Garrus' – and his sensible approach to crimes and criminals – greatest fan. Still, when the man was right he was right. "Notice the warmth? It's balmier here..."
Silence.
Garrus strained his hearing...and could swear he could hear a sound ahead...like a great vent being used in slow intervals.
"Dead Geth." Ashley muttered...and Garrus looked down in time to step over a fallen Geth trooper, its head torn open and covered in green smudge.
"No sign of any attackers..." Kaidan muttered, stepping over another broken Geth. "...and they look like they've been ripped asunder...what happened here?"
"Saren's Geth tried to take out the Thorian, it defended itself..." Michael coldly replied, not looking back for an instant. "...is a likely scenario."
Ashley's head snapped round to give the Commander a curious look: "How the hell does a plant defend..."
They came round a corner...and the group came to a stumbling stop.
"...itself?"
The chamber was large, crumpling pillars holding up a multi-storied complex that might once have been some kind of Prothan assembly hall... The construct seemed to have been built in a spiralled fashion around a central opening, in the centre and down below there was what once had been a stage or debate-scene...
And that was all nothing compared to what had filled it.
The walls themselves were covered with a green and brown boil-covered smear that gave of a faint orange light in places even as it gently throbbed with life, casting the crumpling pillars in sharp relief and making long shadows run across the broken ground. At places the throbbing smear grew out into large trunk-like tendrils the thickness of a man...each and every single one moving towards the green...thing...hanging a several dozen feet above the stage below.
It did not look like a plant.
It was green, covered in brown boils...and shone with wetness even as it throbbed with perverted life...large drops of what looked like drool dripping from several mouth-like gaps in it...that seemed to twitch with a life of their own.
Not to mention that it was large...filling the central stage's width even as it hung above it, the size of maybe five Geth Colossuses put together...
It seemed impossible.
"So..." Ashley finally muttered, making Garrus realise that they had all slowly moved into the room to take a closer look at the disgusting life form before them. "...why didn't we bring a grenade launcher or flame-thrower?"
"Killing that..." Garrus agreed with a nod, looking at the massive fleshy thing some scientist had thought of calling a 'plant'. "...will take a lot of bullets."
Then there was a sloshing sound...and the 'mouth' closest to them opened, distended as something slid out...and dropped to the floor...
Something vaguely human.
All but Michael took a step back...even as the thing rose to its feet.
What the...? The Asari before them was coloured a deep green...dressed in a brown leathery thing that an Asari Commando might have used...except for the fact that this one was an obvious copy made by the Thorian, the leather looking dingy and...not quite right. Her eyes were green as well...green that seemed to move as she regarded them, gaze coming to fix upon the man at the front.
Her voice was a rasp, a far thing from the soft voice of most Asari, the voice of something not quite alive: "Invaders, the Thorian will suffer no more transgressions by decieving things of flesh."
If he felt surprised by the appearance and speech of the Asari Michael didn't show it for even a split second. How does he do it...? "And you are?"
"I was given by the thing calling itself Saren to translate his words, and to be kept as a part of a deal now broken, and remade now before you to say that the Thorian wishes you gone, now." There was anger in the Asari's voice...and Garrus found himself looking up at the Thorian, the great fleshy sack twitching in anger, as if sensing his gaze. Nice...monster...plant...creature...
"Saren wanted something from you, I want it too." Michael replied, cold eyes boring into the cloned Asari.
"Saren gave the Thorian my flesh, slaves, a promise of peace if the Thorian gave knowledge of thought of those once walking the world." Protheans... The Asari's eyes narrowed at the Commander: "Saren offered peace and then brought war when he had what he wanted..." She pointed back to where they had came from, where the Geth still lay. "...as you will."
"I will not bring war." Michael replied, voice turning even colder than before as he stepped closer to the Asari: "If those still enslaved are not released, and if I'm not given the information Saren was, I will bring annihilation."
A loud yet muffled roar escaped the Thorian, the massive globe of flesh shaking in its thick roots with anger...and the Asari hissed in rage at the apparently unperturbed Michael: "You dare! We can destroy you! Your flesh is weak! Leave! Now!"
Oh good, diplomacy fails. Garrus grinned even as Michael took another step closer. "No."
The Asari's eyes turned into slits...as she was suddenly aglow with a purple haze of biotic power.
Oh... Garrus took a step back, eyes widening as he realised that even a clone of an Asari could use biotics...and more terrifying...even more so. All around him the others froze in surprise and fear, realising that the Thorian might not be so defenceless even as the ground heaved with something awakening...
All but Michael.
The man's open palm shot out.
And the Asari's biotics flashed away as her eyes blinked from the blow to her forehead.
A moment later he ducked low, leg scything round...and sent the Asari falling as her feet were swept away from under her.
He caught her mid-air, or rather, her right arm, gripping it tightly he came up on one knee...and let her fall to the ground as the arm now pressing against Shepard's thigh bent into an unnatural angle with a snap.
.
A gasp...and then a gurgle as Michael's fist slammed down on the creature's windpipe with a crack.
"Nice-" Garrus' words were caught in his throat as Michael spun around, still on one knee, his assault rifle in his hands, aiming straight at them!
"Down."
Garrus dropped prone at the calm order, unable to disobey even as he glanced backwards...in time to see the others follow suit...and to spot a doorway he hadn't spotted before, a doorway crowded with...things.
They looked human...but their skin was a sickly green, much of it having rotted away, most of it now covered in something brown and fungus-like...and yellowed teeth bared in hunger.
Then there was the familiar barking of Michael's assault rifle...and the things came apart in a shower of gore and green lumps of whatever had infected the obviously dead people.
"You got to be..." Ashley grunted angrily as the group got to their feet. "...zombies! What the hell!"
Not even sure what a zombie was Garrus shrugged and straightened. "At least we know where all those colonists went."
"Two hundred and sixty-four..." Michael muttered, more to himself then them, the man stepping past Garrus with a raised rifle. "...follow me."
Garrus was instantly at Michael's side, rifle jerking against his shoulder as another of the things appeared in the doorway, blowing its head up in an explosion of green sap. And he couldn't help but notice even as they stepped into the next room – only slightly above the next given the slight slope upwards – that the walls were moving...
"They're coming out of the walls!" Kaidan shouted out the warning a moment later, just in time for Garrus to watch with wide eyes as the sludge on the walls moved, cracked...and broke apart as more of those once human creatures came forth.
All along the wall of the room the creatures appeared, many with half their faces still covered in a crusted shell of the smudge they had been enveloped in...and Garrus could even over the sound of the team's firing guns hear the cracking in more rooms as the Thorian freed its thralls...
For the first time since they had gotten down there Garrus felt a spike of fear shoot through him...
"Double time!" Michael shouted the order, yet still with a calm voice as he began to run, the butt of his rifle swinging out and knocking one of the creatures by the next doorway aside with a crack of breaking ribs.
A glance back...and Garrus found his eyes widening at the sight of Tali and Ashley jumping back after the rest in small leaps, each moving in turn before whirling about to send of a volley of rifle fire or a boom of a shotgun shell into the pressing horde closing in behind them...
Each boom tore one of the thralls apart, each volley gutted one – or even three at times – yet it was nothing but a drop in the ocean...
This could turn bad quickly...
To his right Kaidan appeared, his armour smeared with green sap, chest heaving as his free hand moved up to a cut in his neck...only to glow dark blue as he turned and shot out a bolt of power against a flanking thrall, sending it hurtling into a wall were it came apart with a wet thump.
Instantly another came forth, leaping at Kaidan...and then twitching as Garrus put a bullet in its chest...another shot and it fell away with a thud.
Ahead, round a corner, something glowed deep blue...only to stop to the sound of a crash and a long volley of fire.
Hurrying forth Garrus saw another Asari clone, severed in two at the waist...and Michael further ahead as the man with a sweeping assault rifle felled half a dozen slouching forms before kicking the skull apart of a seventh.
Then Garrus fell.
Growling he spun, finding a creature – it's legs blown off – clutching at his foot, jaw opening wide...
"Back off!" He levelled his rifle, a bang...and the creature's head exploded...only to reveal three more coming at him, slouching as they walked forth, teeth bared...
Then Ashley was there, the marine a blur and her white armour looking like a bolt of lightning with the speed of her charge. Her foot impacted with and crashed through the chest of the first creature, the swinging fist following knocking the jaw of the second and sending it stumbling...and a backhand swing crushing the windpipe of the third and dropping it onto its knees to the sound of a wheezy gasp.
Instantly four more came forth...and Ashley, white armour now sullied with green gunk, spun round to calmly gun them down with her barking assault rifle even as she growled: "Now is not the time to sleep! Get up you slouch!"
Heh. Garrus barred his teeth at the woman's spirit and jumped to his feet. Gun already tracking another foe...
"Help!" He spun to the cry, finding Tali in the doorway they had come from, the Quarian desperately blowing a leg off a disgusting thrall even as her omni-tool glowed with impotent power against the simple creatures gripping into her arms and shoulders, slowly pulling her back towards a writhing mass...
A boom, and Garrus' shot tore through two of the thralls to Tali's left, freeing that arm even as Kaidan came running, gripping Tali's outreached arm and pulling her close even as his other glowed with dark energy...that was sent hurtling at the Thralls reaching after their escaping prey...
A bang of power and the nearest thrall was sent flying, its body covered in biotic energy even as it crashed through the rest, bowling them over and breaking several apart with dull cracks of snapping bones.
Garrus nodded in relief, turned, and found more coming from the next doorway. So many...
A jolt of panic ran through him as he realised that the Thorian thralls in their own room had been dealt with...but also that they were caught between two hordes from each entrance that had begun to close in...
"Where's Shepard!"
Kaidan's shout echoed Garrus' own thoughts, but he shook his head – and himself – out of his lethargy as he levelled his rifle at one doorway and called out: "No time! Ashley with me! Kaidan and Tali, you cover the other entrance! Nothing gets through!"
Instantly Ashley was next to him, his own high powered shot digging a line through the packed monsters limping forward before Ashley's rifle stitched a line across them, felling the foremost like rotten trees.
Behind them there was a thump of a biotic explosion quickly followed by the boom of a shotgun...along with a Quarian swearword.
This is bad...
Ahead the thralls came forth, Ashley's rifle overheating, making her curse as she moved to draw her shotgun...and Garrus sending the first through the doorway to the ground with a sodden thump as its head broke in two.
"Garrus! The Thorian!" Kaidan's shout made Garrus spin to look at the central opening in the circular chamber...and stare.
Michael had used the distraction of the rest of the team well, having moved to the very top of the room, above the great Thorian thing...and was now on Garrus' right and running down on one of the roots holding it up, towards the throbbing creature.
Is he completely... Garrus found his jaw drop, watching as the man without blinking or swerving ran full pelt down the shaking root...arms like pistons, legs a blur of keeping up with a run that was half a fall...
"The clones!" Kaidan shouted again, the words jolting Garrus out of his stare, making him realise that there were two Asari clones running down their own roots – one to Garrus' left and one opposite him – to stop Michael...and Michael was paying them no heed.
His rifle came up, catching the clone opposite him in its scope even as she raised a fist crackling with energy above her head...
A crack...and the creature jerked, green blood spraying the root behind it as a little red dot appeared in her forehead...and then she limply fell sideways and off the Thorian.
Loading away the case of a superheated sniper-shell Garrus moved his aim over to the other clone...
Too late!
Michael had already reached the Thorian, standing atop the throbbing sac of flesh even as he drew his shotgun...and the clone had jumped...and now came down towards him with a foot glowing dark blue with energy...with power.
Then, even as Garrus stared in horror, Michael took a step to the side.
With an almighty crunch the Asari's foot smashed into the Thorian's flesh, spraying green liquid everywhere...and then she fell to her knees with a shriek, clutching her head even as the Thorian shook with a muffled roar.
All around there were shrieks, thumps of creatures falling as the control of the Thorian wavered...and Garrus saw none of it as he stared up at the unfolding scene.
Michael's shotgun roared...and the clone was sent flying in an explosion of blood and guts.
Then he stepped forth, eyes cold and calm, levelling his shotgun at the hole made in the Thorian...and fired a second shot.
The massive thing shook, cracked, great tears appearing in its side as green sap began to drip from it...and then roared a final time before its roots shook and snapped off, the entire thing coming apart like a tearing balloon, sending Michael falling down in a shower of green filth.
Down a long drop.
"Michael!" Garrus wasn't sure who shouted the name, him or any of the others, perhaps all of them, as they rushed to the edge of the room to stare down at the stage down below.
The Thorian had cracked apart completely at the bottom, covering the ground with a green and brown smear, pieces of whatever its bark was sticking up like the wreckage of a crashed ship...and in it all...two figures lay...two moving figures.
And Ashley's growl was filled with relief: "That's it...I'm going to kill him."
8
8
8
With a gasp Ashley stumbled to a halt while hearing the others moving to catch up with her as they stared at the disgusting scene before them.
Everywhere the zombies of the Thorian lay, now small and pitiful little shapes nearly hidden in the darkness of the chamber's dying lights, some having been blasted apart by the team, most having fallen when the Thorian had died.
As to the central stage itself...Michael was covered in the green and brown filth of the Thorian, as if he had taken a bath in it. More like a shower... She shook her head as she watched how the falling Thorian had been splattered over floor and walls alike, like a bug on a windshield.
And amazingly...Michael was on his feet, the man limping but alive, his fall no doubt cushioned by the broken 'plant'. He didn't even seem all that fazed by his long drop, or the gunk covering him. Then again neither was I a moment ago... Ashley self-consciously glanced down at her armour, grimacing at the green filth that already had began to dry into a crust upon over her body.
Looking back up she found Michael limping over to the other moving body within the mess that had been the Thorian, his eyes still cold and calm as he regarded the thing coming up to its knees...
Another Asari...her armoured leather suit looking more...right then that of the previous ones...not to mention that the green filth running down her face was revealing a distinctly purple face – a face now looking up at the approaching human with weary grey eyes – had been revealed by the death of the Thorian.
So...she was inside of that thing? That's just...eww.
Ashley levelled her assault rifle.
Better not take any chances.
Michael had his pistol drawn, but didn't raise it as he grabbed a hold of the Asari's head-fringe with his left hand – making her grimace in pain – and jerked her head back to look up at him as he towered above her. "Talk." A beep of an activating weapon...and he levelled the weapon at her. "Now."
"You have freed me..." The voice was different from the previous ones, the annoying softness of a real Asari in it, the woman blinked, some of the weariness disappearing, her eyes focusing on the man above her, as if awakening from a deep slumber. "...I...didn't think I was...real any more..."
"Yeah, yeah, he's your hero." Ashley snorted. "But you are a villain, so talking sense would be a good idea."
To her annoyance the Asari didn't even glance at her, the woman's gaze riveted to Shepard's as she without resisting hung in the grip on her head-fringe. "The Thorian...upon Saren's command I entered it...I know what you seek..."
"Why would you do that?" Garrus asked, the Turian shaking his head as he took in the splattered remains of the thing.
This time the Asari's gaze moved, throwing Garrus a glance before looking back to Michael: "Because he ordered it, because...I wanted it...needed to do it..." Michael's grip on her head-fringe tightened, yet the woman didn't seem to notice. "...I needed to do what he said..."
Silence.
Then Michael's head becoming cocked as he regarded the woman, some of the coldness in his eyes fading: "Explain."
"It's his ship..." The Asari's gaze went vacant as she stared into a memory only she could see, her voice shuddering slightly: "I was a Commando for Benezia, we joined Saren to persuade him to change his mind, to put him right...but..." A soft shake of her head, brow furrowing in confusion. "...the more you're on his ship, the more you hear him talk...the more you agree...the more you think he's right... It...it doesn't even make sense to you...you just...agree...you need to agree...you need to obey...it's like a thirst..."
"Brainwashing?" Kaidan muttered the suggestion, and Ashley found herself nodding even as she continued to look at the pair, one on her knees, looking defeated, yet...at peace...the other tense, a statue regarding the Asari.
"Why?" His question was almost...soft, making Ashley throw Michael's face a glance, but it was unreadable.
Another shake of the Asari's head. "I don't know...you're there...you heed him...you obey...you can't do anything else...even when you leave the ship you need to do as he says...because there's no alternative, because you can't imagine an alternative..." Her lips twitched, then curved into a relieved smile. "Now it feels like...a distant nightmare...the Thorian freed me from Saren's imprisonment of my mind for its own...and now it too is gone." The smile became broader. "I feel...whole."
"You served Saren, you're surrounded by his enemies, whole or not your life is dangerously close to being ended." Garrus growled the words, eyes narrowed at the Asari in unmistakable irritation.
Eyes narrowing further as the Asari looked back to him, her smile not fading: "Then I die whole, it's...a relief compared to the thought of dying as a thrall of Saren's..."
The Turian opened his mouth to retort, only to clamp it shut as Michael released the Asari's head-fringe to hold up a hand ordering silence. "What do you know of Saren's plans? Where is he heading? How does he intend to summon the Reapers?"
"Why would be a better question..." Ashley muttered, but Michael ignored her, the question for some reason not interesting him. Which is just odd...men.
"He's...heading for the conduit...trying to find it...it's needed..." The Asari looked up at Michael, shaking her head. "...I don't know much else...all is in his head, he keeps his plans to himself, and we never questioned...we couldn't...we didn't want to..." A grimace, fear flickering behind her eyes: "But I do know that he's on the track...and that he's relentlessly hunting it, he can't stop, he won't...he needs it...he's driven by this need...it's a hunger..."
What a bunch of bullshit... Ashley shook her head at the nonsensical talk, wondering if the Asari was still loyal and now simply trying to waste their time. "Could we get to something useful soon or will we stand around in this shit for long?"
Michael didn't reply, his gaze fixed upon the Asari, a slight twitch in the corner of his eyes...and Ashley shot Tali a questioning look, knowing the perceptive Quarian was no doubt seeing much that Ashley wasn't...the way the Quarian had her head tilted to the side and fingers fiddling in her lap confirmed it. Better ask her later...
Then, finally: "What did the Thorian give him?"There we go...
"He has seen the visions of the beacon like you..." The Asari muttered the words, looking breathless all of a sudden. "...and like you he finds them difficult to understand. But the Thorian had been here for aeons...it has fed upon countless Protheans as they were buried...it knows them, it understands their thinking...and it used me as a bridge to transmit this understanding to Saren before his betrayal."
"I need that understanding." Michael stated, calm as ever as he reached down, took the Asari's arm...and hoisted her to her feet. "Do you have it?"
"I do..." The woman nodded, eyes sad as they moved to glance at the pistol in Michaels hands, voice soft: "...and I will give it to you...the first part of my penance..."
"Oh for..." Ashley shook her head, taking a step forward, fist raised. "No damn alien brain-melding again! Shepard, this thing was one of Saren's allies! Could still be! Not to mention she's just been inside a creature that might have given her God knows what!"
Michael looked at her...and she found her fist dropping at the calm look: "This is needed Williams, an acceptable risk, stand down."
Damn suicidal...
Grumbling Ashley hesitated, but then stepped back, watching as Michael turned to regard the Commando once more: "Go ahead."
"As you wish, Commander..." The Asari bowed her head...and then looked up, eyes black as pitch: "Embrace eternity...and see."
Silence.
The two staring into one another's eyes for five agonizing seconds...
And then Michael took a step back, his calm face twisting into a pained grimace as he moved a hand up to his temple, voice a gasped mutter: "Much...information."
"Yes..." The Asari, looking paler now, agreed with a nod, voice sombre as she took a step back: "...the collective consciousness of an entire race...their entire way of thinking, of understanding...how you and Saren handle both it and the visions from the beacon...I cannot understand."
"Commander? Are you okay?" Garrus growled the question, taking a step towards Michael even as he threw the Asari a suspicious look.
"We have the data, T'soni will assist me in deciphering it." Michael replied with a nod, letting Garrus grip his shoulder and offering the Turian a nod, the calm swiftly returning to his features, if a little strained.
You didn't answer his question... Suddenly feeling weary Ashley nodded towards the Asari: "Great, and what about Miss sunshine here?"
"I have killed many in Saren's service..." The Asari bowed her head, eyes soft as they regarded the filthy ground. "...given him a key part in finding the Conduit and possible end all life in the galaxy..." She fell to her knees, hands interlocking over her neck as she looked down at the ground: "...giving you the understanding of the Prothans is not enough, I accept the punishment I must have gladly...thank you Commander."
Oh... Ashley blinked in shock at the Asari...even as Michael took a step forth and levelled his pistol at the back of her head, eyes cold and calculating as he looked down at her.
Silence.
The sound of shifting feet on the ground as the team waited.
And then the beep of the pistol being deactivated as Michael holstered it. What the...! "No."
"What!" Garrus and the Asari both gasped out the question at the same time, both their heads snapping to look at Michael. It was the Asari who spoke next however: "I do not understand, surely I deserve to be-"
"Too easy." Michael snapped, eyes narrowing at the Asari...who for the first time inched away from his gaze. "You wish to repent for your crimes, to make things right?"
"Y-yes." The Asari woman looked...hesitant, her calm shattered with the realisation she wasn't about to die. She looked...confused and...disappointed?
"Then you will stay here, where I can find you if I need you." Michael crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at the woman: "And you were part of a creature that killed over two hundred colonists and enslaved the survivors, if you wish to make things right you will help them."
The woman blinked at the words, then a shadow of a smile appeared on her face, of hope.
"Then you might make things right...and find the real forgiveness you're looking for..." Michael nodded, looking...tired. Can't blame him, been a long day."...your own."
And the Asari's eyes shone with tears not yet felled as she nodded: "Y-yes...that...might be a start..." She got to her feet, smiling, for the first time looking...energized. "...I will do so, thank you Commander."
The briefest of smiles appeared on Michael's face...and then the coldness was back as he looked to the others, all staring in confusion and wonder at the outcome of the confrontation that they'd thought would end in yet another execution.
But Michael didn't answer their questioning looks, he only gestured for the exit.
"Move out."
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Thanks to Abydos Jackson for managing to handle this seizable chapter.