A/N: Well, I'm back in the zone. If anyone can legitimately tell me they saw this one coming I owe you an Internet cookie.

###

When the team got back to the colony Lizzie could immediately tell something wasn't right. The biotic bubble was down and every single Asari colonist had vanished. They found the other two teams clustered in a defensive position in the centre of the colony, surrounded by bullet-riddled Collector corpses.

"Report."

Anderson and Auhelu explained how the colonists had suddenly vanished, leaving them on their own against the wave of Collectors that had swarmed over the encampment. One of the Atavira soldiers was dead, a Turian critically wounded. Saren unleashed a kick into one of the dead Collectors before rallying his soldiers.

"Normandy, report. I need to know the ETA of the nearest Collector team."

The response was quick.

"This is the Normandy. We've been using our GARDIAN lasers to shoot down any airborne Collector forces so they're moving on foot. Closest ones are thirty five minutes out."

Saren nodded slowly, thinking about his options.

"Okay then. Anderson, Auhelu hold the colony. I have an idea where they might have gone."

He strode over to the cargo crane and tapped a couple of buttons, bringing the crane online. With another button a section of the freighter that was the centrepiece of the colony lifted up, revealing a tunnel entrance. Saren grinned smugly.

"I knew there was something off about how they were weirdly protective of the crane."

"Good catch, boss. Shall we?"

Saren rallied his team and led the way down the hole as the others secured the colony.

###

Ko's team were halfway to their destination when Zu's voice rang in their heads.

"All Stalwarts return to base. We are under threat."

Sharing alarmed glances, the team morphed their weapons back into the crystal blocks on their backs and started sprinting, diving into the nearest crystal node and sending their consciousnesses flying through the vein of crystal. They erupted from the other end of the crystal vein, sprinting the fifty metres across to the next node and remorphing their bodies, flowing through the landscape like fish leaping through the waves. At one point they ran headfirst into a small group of Collectors, extruding decidedly gothic bladed weapons from their crystal packs and leaving a scattering of body parts and black blood splatters in their wake.

When they erupted back into the cave they found the majority of the other Stalwarts had already arrived and were ready for battle. Zu nodded briefly at them.

"Excellent, you're all here. There's a crystal vein that will lead you to where the Collector forces are amassing. Your objective is to destroy them at all costs."

Nodding grimly, Ko joined the remainder of the Stalwart warriors in diving into the crystal vein.

###

Lizzie looked around the room in amazement, gawping at their surroundings. The long stairwell had led the fire team into a straight corridor that extended ahead of them, branching off at regular intervals into what were undoubtedly laboratories of some sort.

"So what are we looking at?"

"Um ... Labs, I guess."

"No shit."

The team continued in silence, marginally unnerved by the quiet of the corridor. Every time they spoke their voices sounded like intruders in the hushed rooms. Picking their way along the corridor, they finally reached the central chamber, passing through a doorway and looking up in surprise at what greeted them.

The room was long and slightly pinched in the middle, each bulge containing a different wonder. The one on their right contained an enormous, grotesque plant-like creature, slow breaths filling the chamber with a rumbling sound, tendrils dripping slime onto the ground. To their left, an enormous prism of blue tinged crystal, slowly pulsating with waves of luminescence. The walls of the chamber were completely covered, plant growths merging seamlessly with crystal struts and plates in a bizarre clash of organic and crystalline matter. Saren's mandibles drooped in amazement.

"This ... is not what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

All four of them whirled around as the second voice sounded, a pleasant male baritone with a flanging effect similar to a Turian voice.

"Who's there?"

Another voice, this time a female one sounding slightly strained.

"Show yourselves!"

After a moment of hesitation, Saren motioned them forward, stepping out into the open. Then they caught sight of what was hanging on the ceiling.

Asari. Hundreds, if not thousands of them suspended by their wrists, plantlike tendrils plugged into the back of their necks. They ranged from babies to adults of what Lizzie guessed were about four hundred years old, all the exact same shape, size, colour. With a jolt, she realised what she was looking at. Clones.

Saren apparently realised this too.

"What in the name of the Spirits is a clone army doing down here?"

The strained female voice responded once more.

"I speak for the Old Growth."

A tendril shifted, opening up to reveal an Asari body plugged into what looked like wickerwork restraints, her body covered in pulsating plant tendrils.

"I speak as I once spoke for Benezia. I am Shiala."

###

Ko erupted from the crystal once more, instantly aware that his surroundings were very, very different. He had never seen such a place as the one he found himself in. Silently stalking into cover, he peered round, listening in on the conversation taking place between two of what were undoubtedly alien life forms. Somehow he could understand them.

"Benezia? Is she here?"

"Matriarch Benezia left this planet several hours before you arrived. She got what she wanted and ordered the Collectors to destroy the Old Growth and the crystalline one. Your intervention is most welcome."

Ko shifted slightly, confused. None of this was what he was expecting.

"What is this ... Old Growth?"

There was a brief pause before another voice took up the slack, this one male, very similar to a Grassa voice yet coming from no visible speaker.

"Like me, the Old Growth was moved to this planet by the Protheans for study around fifty five thousand years ago. I am Yggradissil."

Ko couldn't take it any more. Stepping into full view and ignoring the sound of weapons snapping up, he faced the chunk of morph crystal, fists clenched as he angrily glared.

"What! What is this?"

The crystal didn't move but Ko sensed the attention of the vast intelligence within turn to him.

"Ko. I am so sorry for what you are about to learn."

###

Lizzie spun round, her rifle tucked into her shoulder as a crystal armoured creature stepped out, facing the central chunk of crystal with clenched fists.

"Ko. I am so sorry for what you are about to learn. The Grassa died out almost one hundred thousand years ago, slaughtered by an enemy we couldn't hope to comprehend. As a last resort the consciousnesses of every survivor were concealed in this morphic crystal monolith, fused into a gestalt intelligence named after our lost home planet, Yggradissil. We drifted in space for forty five thousand years before being found and moved here by the Protheans."

There was a slight pause as other crystal men emerged slowly, Lizzie realising with a start that the Normandy team had been surrounded.

"Over time the gestalt decayed and certain consciousnesses became detached, those who had been Stalwarts before the final uploading. Together your minds created the fiction of our home you have been living in."

The one called Ko raised an accusing finger, pointing angrily at the crystal.

"Then why did we experience a Collector attack if we've been living in a happy little fantasy?"

There was another pause as a slighter crystal form stepped up beside Ko, slipping a hand into his.

"Because we did experience a Collector attack. What you perceived as a Collector plague weapon was a hacking attempt that dealt severe damage to our central programs. What you perceived as attacking Collector patrols and saving infants was your consciousnesses attacking Collector programs and recovering vulnerable segments of the gestalt."

In the stunned silence the Asari mouthpiece of the Old Growth spoke.

"I am truly sorry. Over the years, Yggradissil has been a friend to me, stove off the loneliness and the anger it brings. I can tell you that the Grassa yet live in him."

Anxious to get the conversation back on track, Saren addressed the Old Growth.

"What was Benezia after?"

"The Cipher. Benezia needed it to understand the data from the Prothean beacon she encountered on Thessia."

"What is this Cipher?"

There was a rattling boom from somewhere nearby and six of the crystal creatures split off, weapons seemingly extruded from their own body as they moved towards the source of the sound.

"The Cipher is the sum of Prothean mentality, the very essence of being Prothean. It subtly alters the receiver's brain, allowing them to correctly interpret Prothean data."

Gulping, Lizzie stepped forward.

"Sir, this Cipher could help me understand the data from Eden Prime."

Saren turned to her, frowning as Garrus laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Lizzie, no. She said it would alter your brain."

"He's right. I won't order you to do this."

She shook her head at Saren.

"No need sir. I'm volunteering."

At Garrus's protest she turned to him, inclining her forehead to his.

"We've been one step behind Benezia this whole time. The data could help us get ahead. Please Garrus, I need to do this."

He growled low in his throat and stepped back, letting her make the decision. She stepped forward to the Asari suspended in the Old Growth's tendril.

"Lieutenant-Commander. Take a deep breath and clear your mind. Open yourself to the universe around you, everything connected, part of a whole."

Her eyes flicked to midnight black.

"Embrace Eternity!"

###

Garrus fought the urge to punch something as Lizzie went perfectly still, linked to the Asari who was in turn subsumed by the plant creature. To say he was worried was a colossal understatement. For all he knew the Asari could be brainwashing his girlfriend.

He started as Lizzie suddenly slumped to the floor, rushing towards her and helping her stagger to her feet.

"You okay?"

She grunted and rubbed her helmet.

"Bit dizzy. Just need a lie down."

Then she collapsed, drawing a pained cry from Garrus as he caught her. Shiala looked down at the pair of them.

"It will take time to process the Cipher. It is a great gift but also a burden."

Without warning, the crystal calling itself Yggradissil pulsed rapidly blue.

"The Collectors are pulling back. They mean to bombard the area from orbit."

There was a brief silence.

"I'm sorry."

The next words were a deep rumble - the voice of the Old Growth itself.

"Do not grieve for me, my friend. It is possible to grow tired of life, something that happened to me long ago. Take my soldiers. Their DNA is still in flux, perhaps the Grassa may live again as they once did. Goodbye, Yggradissil."