A/N: Surprise!
And still my usual slightly left of canon! Happy Saturday!
"Can you hear me?" Liara asked, her blue eyes reflecting back the supernatural green light that cascaded from Shepard's gaze. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes," came the reply.
"Is…this the AI?"
"No," Shepard answered, which surprised the asari. Del was clearly not in control of what she was saying, the resonance and cadence of her words was not her own. She didn't even know if the commander was conscious or…in truth, even still alive.
No! Don't think that. She is alive. You know that, you have to trust it. Shepard's alive in there, somewhere.
However it left a conundrum. If it was not Shepard speaking, and not the AI, then who was it?
"Do you have a name?" she asked. "What is your name?"
"David."
Archer's brother, the human mind they'd linked into the AI. Liara blinked, brows knitting. Was it possible? Could the integration not have been as fully successful as they thought? No one had ever tried to connect an organic computer to a synthetic one. There was no way to predict the outcome. Clearly they had expected a seamless melding but instead…could it be that the AI and the human man were conflicting? Struggling against one another for control?
"David…" Liara tried to sound soothing, compassionate. "David, I am Liara. I want to help you, but you have…you have taken over my friend. I need you to…please, I need you to let her go."
"No…no…can't. He is loud. He will come here instead. He wanted to walk her off the cliff. He wanted you to crash. No…have to stay. Please…please, he is loud. Make it stop."
Liara's mind was spinning. She could only assume 'he' was the AI program, and that by 'come here instead' he was indicating that if he left his control of Shepard's body the AI would then take it over…likely with more tragic results.
"He was the reason that we crashed? That Shepard di….n-nearly walked off the cliff?"
"Come…come…"
Shepard reached out, her motions jagged and unsteady. She moved more as a marionette tied to a string than a normal human being…a marionette that was resisting the tug.
Her hand closed on Liara's, hanging on as she turned and began a halting course down the hallway.
"Hard…"David lamented with her voice. "Hard…she is fighting...she is angry…"
Liara tried not to gasp in relief. So, some part of Del was at least alive, and apparently doing what she did best.
"She's probably afraid," Liara told him. "She doesn't understand what you are doing to her, doesn't know what's going on. Can…can she hear me?"
Shepard's head craned to the side, her green-tinged gaze sweeping around to Liara. "I can allow it," David said. "She likes you. I will let her hear you, let her speak-…"
Shepard grunted and trundled to a halt. The fire never left her eyes but suddenly her motions seemed a bit more fluid, and the words that emerged were unmistakably her own. "Li? Li, where are you? What the fuck is going on?"
"Shepard! Shepard, I'm here!" Liara grasped her cheeks.
"Where? I can…you sound far away. What…what am I seeing? What the fuck is all this? Tianlán, where are you? You sound far away… I can't find you."
"I am right in front of you, Shepard. I am touching your face…can you not feel me?"
"N-no," Shepard replied. "No, I can't…feel anything. What the hell is going on? Was I shot?"
"No, you are not injured," Liara assured. "Shepard, listen to me. David has taken over your nanites and cybernetics. He has control of your body, but he is allowing you to hear and speak to me. I am standing with you in the corridor on Atlas station."
"The AI?" Shepard said in a low, horrified voice. "The AI took me over-…Li, you have to get away! It's dangerous! It'll hurt-"
"No, it is not the AI!" Liara interrupted. "It is David. I…I do not think the integration was seamless. I think both entities retained their full identities and are now trapped in a struggle against one another. David merely wants it to stop. He told me that he took you over so that the AI could not. He needs our help."
"Tianlán, I don't…" Shepard sounded helpless, and Liara knew the woman was afraid. Who would not be in such a situation? Then after a moment's pause she murmured, "Yes, I see him now…I think I can see him."
"See…David? Shepard, tell me exactly what you can see, what you are experiencing."
"It's dark but…but it isn't. I can't feel anything. I have…there's no sense of my body being there. Everything is numb, but I can hear you. I see…I see numbers. I see…it's like a waterfall, a shimmering curtain but it's all…it's all mathematics. I can't explain it…I don't even know how to really comprehend it."
"You said you could see David?"
"Yes, I can see him. He's far away but…I can see him, sitting there, but he's not…" Shepard let out a snarl of frustration. "I can't explain it. There just aren't any words to describe it. I'm not even really seeing it, it's just…it just is, somehow."
"It is all right," Liara soothed. "I am here with you and I am not leaving your side. We have to find a way to David and the heart of the AI. We have to shut all this down…free him, and prevent the AI from making its way off-world. Then this will all be over."
"He's coming closer," Shepard said, and then a breath later jolted again. She stiffened, her voice once more no longer her own.
"We must go," David said. "I must show you. You must make it stop. It's loud…loud in here…"
"Can Shepard still hear me?" Liara asked.
"Yes. She is here. She can hear. Please, must show you."
He took her hand again and started on his way once more. This time his motions seemed to be smoother, almost natural. Shepard, it seemed, was no longer fighting him as hard.
Her entire body language had changed. Gone was the confident stride Shepard always possessed when in uniform or hard-suit. The square back and set shoulders of a seasoned military soldier had vanished. Instead her body language spoke of timidity, hesitation. Her shoulders were rounded forward, her head lowered slightly, her gait less sure.
David, it seemed, was a rather reserved spirit.
His brother said he was the kindest, gentlest person that he knew. I can see that in the way he walks. He has a softness about him…he was not made for something like this.
They entered a large laboratory and Shepard released her hand, approaching a dark console. Spreading her gloved fingers over the controls the display suddenly lit up.
"He cannot get into systems if I am there, but I am small and weak," David told her. "He is strong, so loud…but I can show you."
An image took over the console, a recording. Liara could see Archer talking with a young man. There was no sound but she could tell by the way the second man stood, a stance mirrored in the woman beside her, that this was David.
Then Archer's lips moved and to her surprise, so did Del's, and she was speaking in Archer's voice.
"David, can you recite yesterday's logs for me?"
The voice switched back to David, as he replied on the screen. The younger man seemed distracted, not paying attention to the older. "The square root of 875 is 29.58…the square root of 876 is 29.59…"
"David, please pay attention!" Archer snapped, and the smaller man hunched, slapping his hands over his ears. Even Shepard did so as the log played, mimicking the man on the screen.
"Loud! It's loud!"
"I'm sorry, I won't yell again, David. Would you please recite yesterday's logs?"
The image fuzzed then changed. Now David was absent and Archer was talking to an unfamiliar woman.
"It'll work, I'm telling you," Archer insisted. "David is not only a mathematical savant he has a completely eidetic memory. Anything he's ever read or heard he can recite perfectly, every time. His is the only mind that is even capable of keeping up with the AI program."
"You are forgetting that your brother is also autistic. He is a mathematical genius, yes. He can understand and speak to the geth. He is amazing on levels I still cannot believe, but the fact remains that the AI cannot just be integrated, it must be dominated. David's is not a dominating mind, Gavin. There is absolutely no way to predict the outcome if we connect David to the AI program. Even putting that aside, do I really need to remind you that given his condition, David cannot actually volunteer to do so. He is simply not capable of understanding the risks and accepting their consequences willingly. It would be like hooking up a child!"
"I would never do anything to hurt David or put him at risk," Gavin insisted. "I have custodial authority over him and I am authorized to make decisions on his behalf-"
"For his own well-being! This is not for his well-being, Gavin…this is for your ambition!"
"This is for the well-being of every human man, woman and child!" Gavin replied angrily. "How many would die in a war with the geth? How many were slaughtered at Eden Prime? Need I remind you of the ships destroyed at the Citadel? The only way to prevent that from happening again is to see this project through…stop the geth on their most basic level. No other human being we've found is capable of what David can do. No one else can calculate as he can. No one else has the gifts that he possesses and it is those gifts that make any of this even potentially workable!"
"Then take down the AI," the woman insisted. "Wipe it. We can create a simple VI interface instead and then-"
"No," Gavin sighed. "No, the AI is just as necessary. David has the calculating skills and the human will to drive this thing but even he has limitations. The AI is needed to spread the new commands through the full geth network as swiftly as possible. It must hit every geth everywhere nearly simultaneously. David cannot do that on his own and even a VI would be too hobbled, unable to compensate quickly enough or to full practicality. We need that melding of the two to achieve ideal resolution. If we cannot do this we may as well shut this project down."
"Then perhaps that is what we should do," the woman sighed. "This is your brother, Gavin. Your brother. And you would sacrifice his life and mental well-being for this…"
"If it saves so many more…" Gavin murmured. "I have to."
Liara's eyes were gloss as the console fell silent again. Archer had lied to them. David hadn't volunteered, he'd been forced. Archer knew the risks, but because he was so insistent upon his vision hundreds of people had died, his own brother was suffering, and the entire galaxy was at risk.
Not to mention, he had nearly taken Shepard away from her again.
Her face was grim as she thought silently a while, then looked at her companion. "David, did the AI take over the crawler?"
"Yes," David told her, bobbing his head a little, helplessly. "The little things, inside of her. The little things that let us come here…they sing like the computers sing, like the geth sing. It was hard but he followed the song here, then followed the hard path into crawler."
Song…he must mean the wireless signal. And the 'hard path'…that must mean a direct connection. The AI infiltrated the wireless signal of Shepard's nanites and then had gone from her along the connections of the electronics in the crawler to take over the engine computer. The moment Shepard touched the HI interface in the crawler the AI was able to take it over.
"How did he control the steering?" she asked.
"He was still here," David responded. "She fought very hard…like she fought me, but he was still here."
"So…she wasn't actually fighting the steering wheel for control, but her own muscles," she said. "This still does not make any sense. If he had her, if…if he was there, why did he leave?"
"Songs in here are foreign," David told her. "She fights very hard. Hard for him to infiltrate the songs, hard for him to stay, maintain connection. He was angry, could not achieve full integration. So, he left…shut off the power inside here and left."
"Shut off the…you mean he cut the electrical signals from her brain to her heart and lungs…that is why she-…but if it was so hard to…to 'follow the songs' of the nanites or to retain control then…how did you manage to…to get there."
"Tried to follow the songs too. Hard. Only touched…here and there, before she shoved me down, made me fall out. But the hard paths…not so bad. I slept in the console, and when she came and opened the hard path, I am here. Still, very hard to stay. Harder when she fights…better now. She is not fighting, she is listening. She is angry. Very angry at Gavin-"
His voice suddenly changed and it was Del once more. "You're fucking right I'm angry at that festering piece of shit! Li…we need to get into that core and shut the AI down. David is right. He can't stay in here very long, the programs for the nanites are too foreign for him to retain a full hold. It's like…slipping on ice. I can feel it too, through the math. If he cuts his connection here then that just leaves me open for the AI to try and take hold again. This time I'm sure it'll just hang on long enough to get me to shoot myself in the fucking head…or shoot you. I'm not letting that happen."
"Neither am I. David, we need to get to you. Can you help us with that? Can you take us to where you are?"
"I am here," David replied.
"No, I know you are inside Shepard right now but I need you to take us to where your body is…to where he is…can you do that?"
"Yes," he replied. "There are machines waiting. I will try and talk to them but they may be his. If they are, they will hurt you."
"No, do not try to talk to them. If you see the machines, if they are going to attack I need you to let Shepard have control again. Can you do that?"
"I can help her to hear, and to speak," he said after a moment's puzzling. "I can try and help her to move her arms but…I cannot help her to see."
"Why? Why can you not help her to see?"
"Hot…hot in here," David replied. "Hot…and loud…we must go now."
He clamped down on Liara's hand again and rushed for the far door, lurching again a little before his motion eased. Apparently it was still Shepard's instinct to fight him a bit, even though she knew he was not the enemy.
Having someone else in control of your body must be disturbing, she thought. Why, though? Why can he not help her to see? What does that mean?
They climbed down a set of steps, Liara drawing her side-arm just in case. A security panel shimmered next to a heavy door but when David touched it, it flared red.
Mouth dropping open, Shepard began making the strangest sound. A rapid chittering, grinding squeal emerged from her throat and pulsed over a tongue that was swiftly clicking. Liara was so startled by it that it took her a moment to realize it was very near the same sound the geth made when they 'talked' to each other.
Shepard's eyes brightened in a sharp flash and suddenly the interface switched to amber, flickered, then activated. The door slid open.
It was the room they had seen from the observatory window. Large enough that their footsteps echoed, the room was centered by the huge ring of machinery, draped with those massive cords, and home to that flashing orb of white light that radiated cold instead of heat. Turning her head, Liara could see the observatory window…and noticed Tali staring down at them. The moment she spotted them the quarian banged on the glass and waved, then seemed to turn away. Apparently she was beckoning to Kasumi who had likely been trying to get the door open, for a moment later the thief also appeared. The window bore marks where the pair had tried to shatter it with gunfire in a bid to escape…apparently, it was bullet proof.
Gesturing at them to stay put, Liara looked around. There was no sign of David's body still…but there were geth.
She saw the first of the face-lights bloom out of the corners of the room and lifted her pistol, firing. "David, I need Shepard!" she cried. There were a dozen of them. Potentially she could take them out alone but she would far rather hedge bets in their favor. Lighting with biotics she sent a blast sailing across, throwing two from their feet.
"Liara, where are you?" Shepard suddenly barked in her own voice, snatching out her rifle. "I…I still can't see anything but the math-"
"I am at your eight o'clock," Liara called back. "Can you feel your arms?"
"Yeah…kind of…they're distant but I know I'm holding my rifle. Just tell me where to shoot!"
"Eleven o'clock!"
Shepard instantly twisted and opened fire. Two geth units collapsed as the rest ignited their guns with a roar. Liara flung up a barrier in front of them, the bullets sparking off of it in flares of sapphire.
"I am keeping a barrier between us and them so you will have to do all the firing," Liara shouted. "One unit at noon, one at two-thirty, two at four!"
Shepard turned, taking out two at four o'clock before swinging her fire over to the one at two-thirty. As he dropped she aimed toward noon but the synth had moved, strafing to the side.
"He's drifting right!" Liara panted. Shepard's shots followed him and finally managed to chew through his legs. As he squealed and dropped, he fired a spat that slammed into the floor. One ricocheted on the wall and skipped past the edge of the barrier. Liara felt the heat of it skid across her cheek and half fell, biotics dying.
"Are there any more?" Shepard shouted, craning her head and gun around. "Li? Li!"
"The last of them are down," Liara quickly responded, regaining her balance. Her fingers pressed the gash on her cheek and she winced. It was not deep but it was long, and had narrowly missed taking her in the eye. Swiping some of the blood away, she gripped Shepard's arm. "They're down."
Shepard lowered her rifle, then shivered as David came over her again, punctuated by the way her shoulders and the rifle suddenly sagged. He dropped the weapon.
"Sad when they die," he lamented. "Sad when they disappear into numbers."
"David, we're nearly done," Liara soothed. "Where is your body? We need to power this down, get you unhooked. Then you can go home."
David took a few paces forward, then lifted a hand and pointed…directly into the spinning orb of light. Liara squinted at it, then shook her head.
"That is the AI's main power transfer," she told him. "I need to know where you are."
"Within," he replied. "Such pretty light…all around…I am within."
He was inside the light? "No…surely even your brother would not do something so cruel…" she whispered.
There was only one explanation. David's body was not only connected to the AI interface but was suspended in a Faraday cage directly within its power interface. No one would be able to free him without taking out the power first, and the moment the main power died it would leave David's own bio-electric energy available as a back-up power system. The AI would latch on to him as a battery and David would be utterly destroyed within a few minutes…just long enough for the AI to reboot the generators and restore its own main power grid.
"This is monstrous…" she whispered. Wiping her face she touched Shepard's arm. "David…can you let Tali and Kasumi out? I will need their help."
"He has the door," David told her. "I…will try, but he is loud…so loud…"
"I will help you, David," Shepard told him, voice shifting again. "I will help the noise a little if you can get them out. Then we can stop him and the noise will end."
"Yes, I will try…"
Shepard turned and walked over to one of the main struts from which the gigantic cabling sprouted. Opening the side to bare electronics she stuck her hand within, taking direct hold of a coupling. Immediately the smell of burning leather filled the air as the high-temperature of the coupling began to sear Shepard's glove.
Her mouth dropped open and she began to make those sounds again, that unearthly geth-speak that, until today, Liara would have sworn an organic throat could not produce.
Looking up at the observation window, she could see Tali and Kasumi still staring down at them…the former with her hands plastered to the glass. As she watched, both suddenly turned, looking over their shoulders, then ran from view.
The door must have opened.
"Thank the Goddess," Liara breathed as Shepard withdrew her hand from the aperture. The glove was burnt badly along the palm but the inner padding and reinforced mesh had prevented serious injury to her skin.
Less than a minute later, both their companions rushed in the door.
"Are you two all ri—Keelah!"
Tali had caught sight of Shepard's glowing eyes and recoiled with a horrified cry. Liara lightly took her arm.
"David has taken control of her," she said. "David, not the AI. They are in conflict, the integration was not a success. He has been helping us. Shepard can still hear you and even speak if necessary."
"God, that's creepy…you ok in there, Shep?" Kasumi asked, brows knit.
"Oh, I'm wonderful," Shepard retorted.
"There is no time," Liara told them. "We have a major problem. David's body is in a Faraday cage in the center of the AI's power convergence."
"What…does that mean?" Kasumi asked, but Tali's eyes went wide. She felt herself go pale, though of course that was not visible outside of her helmet.
"That means if we cut the generators the AI will switch its power interface to the cage…and drain David's body directly of its bio-electric signature. In short, he'll be a back-up battery for a few moments until it can reboot the generators. We cannot shut them down without killing him."
"I thought this was Archer's brother? How could he do this to his own brother?" Kasumi sounded shocked and utterly disgusted.
"He apparently thinks David's sacrifice is worth the lives being saved…only no lives will be spared at all if this AI gets off this planet," Liara told her. "Killing David is not an option. We need alternatives."
Tali surveyed the equipment and the huge cabling around them. "We…would need to divert the power away from the AI systems rather than cut it…no, that wouldn't work. The way they have this set up diverting the power would only automatically switch it to the organic backup anyway."
"Could we get David out of there before cutting the power? If he's not in there then it can't switch to him…right?" Kasumi offered.
"Anyone trying to get close to that Faraday cage would get incinerated down to their constituent atoms in a nanosecond," Tali told her. "We would need to disrupt the power exchange, pass through very quickly, and cut the connection between the AI and David's body. Then we could shut the power down and the AI would be helpless."
"So how do we disrupt the power exchange?" Liara asked.
"A large enough mass would do it," Tali pondered. "Enough of the right materials…I'd say a minimum of about 30 kilos. Metal, silicone…salt water would even do it if it was sealed in a container."
Kasumi glanced to the side, then smiled. "I think we have a whole lot of volunteers," she said. Following her gaze, the others looked at the dead geth strewn across the floor.
"You are a genius," Tali beamed. "If we can drag two of the smaller troopers over here, we can drop them simultaneously against each of the transfer ports. Given their density and the level of electronics in their systems they will disrupt the power for nearly sixty seconds…long enough to get in and release David but not so long the emergency protocols switch to the Faraday cage."
With a great deal of effort, the three women dragged a pair of the smaller troopers over toward the center of the room. Shepard/David seemed distracted, talking in low voices to each other. It was an odd and somewhat disconcerting thing to observe, especially the way the tone of voice kept flipping back and forth.
They got the two geth propped. "Kasumi, you take that one. Liara, this one. When I give the signal, push them forward just enough they tip against the interface. Do not be touching them when they connect or your brain will boil in your skull."
"That's a pleasant image," Kasumi said dryly.
"The moment the exchange is disrupted I will go in and sever the connection."
"Be careful, Tali," Liara urged. She knew the quarian was the best qualified to cut the connection. If anyone could locate it and take it out fast enough, it would be her. However if the power burned through the geth and reconnected before she finished her work, she would be incinerated.
"I will," Tali promised, bracing herself to run. "Ok, on my mark. One, two…-"
She broke off as Shepard suddenly grabbed her arm and turned her head, looking into those unreal eyes.
"Tali," Shepard said in her own voice. "Wait…"
"Shepard, we have to do this. It is the only way."
"David wants to say something," Shepard told her. Her stance changed and a breath later the other voice spilled from her lips.
"He will try to hide, when he sees," David told her. "He will hide where he can. The machines are broken but…he may fix them. He will try and hide-"
Tali was beyond spooked, knowing this was the voice of a man that was basically possessing her friend and commander. She understood what he was saying, of course. The AI might make a final, desperate leap into one of the dead geth and…depending on the amount of damage the unit had suffered, he might be able to control one long enough to take them out. It was a very slim risk…but it was still there.
"I-I understand."
"Be careful," Shepard urged, and this time it was herself. Tali nodded, and the woman released her. Taking a shaky breath, she steeled herself.
"Ok, on my mark. Three…two…one…mark!"
As Liara and Kasumi heaved their geth corpses forward against their respective interface panels, Tali broke into a run.
White light flared in a chaotic dance as the geth interrupted the power feed, metal bodies spasming in almost life as the hot plasma fire burned into ruined metal and silicone. The swirling orb faded and died away, revealing an atrocity.
The Faraday cage itself was actually rotating, a convergent series of metal hoops that spun in orbit around the man suspended in their midst. A great arching frame both held the supports for the rotating cage and for the thick nest of small cables that held him aloft.
Tali reached the orbit of the cage and slid in beneath their scope, grasping frantically for a connection in the base of the arching frame. Tearing it free shot a spray of embers across her face mask, the sparks bouncing off like fireflies colliding into a window. The spinning cage rumbled to a halt, the hoops resetting.
"Tali, hurry!" Kasumi urged.
Leaping up onto the platform right beneath the man she quickly located the bio-electric feed. "Bosh'tet," she murmured as she realized the actual connection to his body was out of reach.
Trembling, she steeled herself, then gasped a faint "I'm sorry."
Leaping upward she caught hold of one of the cables that dangled from his body, the weight of her own form suddenly suspended from it enough to tear it free of his flesh. Blood spilled down his side and she tumbled to the ground, rolling, and quickly darted back toward her companions…just as their make-shift geth buffers failed. The power reunited with a thunderous clap of energy. Liara grasped Tali's arm as the quarian steadied.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, just need…to get my breath. We…have to…shut down the generators."
"I have them," Kasumi called, already running for the manual control.
A moment later, there was an almost leviathanical groan, the white plasma fire slowly dimming down, funneling away as the generators deep below them drew to a halt.
"He is dying," David said with Shepard's mouth. "It is not so loud, it-"
"Shepard!" Liara cried out as the Commander's body suddenly snapped straight with a violently convulsive jolt. The green light flowing from her eyes suddenly deepened into crimson, and an inhuman shriek…the same that had dogged them since they had first landed on this cursed planet…erupted from her throat.
"No!" Tali gasped. It was happening, just as David had warned…but it was not one of the dead geth the AI was trying to escape to. It was making its last, desperate attack on both Shepard and the poor human savant that had become its unwitting rival.
Shepard slammed forward onto her hands and knees. Liara tore away from the quarian's side, rushing forward.
"Shepard!"
Tali nearly tackled the asari before she could actually grab hold of the human woman. "No! If the AI wins the first thing it will do is kill you!"
"It's killing Shepard!"
"Suspend her! Liara, suspend her!" Kasumi called frantically. Drawing on what biotic energy she could, Liara lashed out with flaring energy, Shepard suddenly lifting off the ground in an orb of biotic blue. Thrashing and shrieking, they could see light dancing along her veins, rippling along, illuminating her from within before fading away again. Her eyes flared a brighter red, then turned to green, only to flare red again.
Then with a final gasping grunt, Shepard suddenly went limp, light of both hues fading away. She dangled like a puppet with its strings cut, and for a few breathless moments the three women could only watch.
Then, taking a risk, Liara lowered her gently to the ground, letting her biotics die. Rushing forward, the asari dropped down at her side, cupping her cheek.
"Del…"
"Hmm…" Shepard groaned, grimacing as she licked her lips. Her brown eyes slowly fluttered open.
"Thank the Goddess," Liara gasped. "Is it…are you all right? Is it…you?"
"'s'me," Shepard murmured. "Feel a bit woozy but…"
Weakly pushing herself into a sit, Liara helping her, the asari then embraced the woman tightly. "Thank the Goddess…"
"Silence," a voice stated, faintly artificial and echoing slightly, as if it came from a com system. Though she had only ever heard the voice spoken through Shepard's vocal cords, Liara recognized it immediately. It was David, and he sounded exhausted, relieved. "He is gone. The loud is gone. It is quiet."
Turning her head, she looked toward the man suspended in the Faraday cage, and shuddered. His brother was not just selfish. His brother was not just cruel and callous.
The only creature that would be capable of doing this to another was nothing but a monster.
David, bald, naked and trembling, was hanging from dozens of different cables. Some attached to ports drilled into his skull. Some, like the one that Tali had ripped free, pierced his sides. A series of four for each arm were bolted through the flesh. A slow wash of crimson seeped from the wound created by Tali's interference, tiny pats of red dripping to the polished floor.
The worst of it were the heavy pair of cables that actually vanished through his mouth…jaw wrenched so tightly open it looked almost as if it had been dislocated. His eyes, held open by tiny metal claws gripping tight into the flesh of his face, were staring, streaming a constant wash of tears.
"We…have to get him down from there. We have to unhook him," Liara whispered. Her heart ached for the poor man, and she felt nauseous with both grief and anger.
"I can probably sever the connections…a bit more gently than the last, if we can get him lowered to the floor. But he will need a great deal of medical care. We need to get him on board the Normandy, get him to Dr. Chakwas."
"Make sure everything is completely scrubbed of all traces of that AI first," Shepard mumbled, weakly getting to her feet with Liara's aid. "I don't want-"
"Commander! Thank God…wait!"
Running footsteps prompted the women to draw their guns as Archer rushed into the room. His face was streaked with sweat, taut and worn. Ignoring the weapons aimed in his direction he drifted to a halt, panting. "Thank God, you're all alright. You stopped it. David…"
"Hello, Gavin," David's voice piped in from the intercom.
"Hello, David."
"Do not speak to him," Liara said hotly. "Look at him! Look at what you have done to him!"
"If I had my way we'd take him down and string you up there," Kasumi nodded, the scowl on her face black.
Blinking, Gavin held up his hands. "No, no you don't understand-"
"What don't we understand?" Shepard growled. She had an arm slung over Liara's shoulder, her pistol in hand and aimed toward him. Liara could feel how weak the woman was…even the muzzle of her weapon was faintly trembling. "You used your brother like a guinea pig. He didn't volunteer, you forced him into direct battle with an AI he could not even hope to overpower. You confused him, hurt him, terrified him…you! His own brother! A man who should have been protecting him!"
"I-It was the only way," Gavin stammered. "I…it was the only way to stop a war that could have claimed billions of lives. I never meant to hurt him. I never meant for any of this to happen this way. I love my brother, Commander-"
"Love? That's love?" Tali demanded, pointing at the suspended form behind her. "That's grotesque! That's torture of an unbelievable sort! And you wired him up to be a back-up battery? To preserve the AI at the cost of his life?"
"We…we thought it was best-"
Tali suddenly darted forward furiously, intent on hurting the man who had done such a horrible thing. Kasumi flung her arms around her, barely restraining her.
"No, don't…he's not worth it," she soothed. "He's not getting away with this, not now."
"I hope Shepard tears you apart, bosh'tet!" Tali barked, jabbing an angry finger in his direction.
"Tali," Shepard murmured. "Scrub the system, then contact the Normandy and get a team down here with Dr. Chakwas. Then see if you can't get David down safely."
As Tali moved to obey, Kasumi walking with her with an arm around her shoulder still murmuring gently, Shepard's pistol drooped a little. Liara thought she was actually going to lower it before a pair of bullets spanked into the floor right at Gavin's feet, making the man yelp and dance back a step.
"As for you," Shepard said dangerously. "So much as think about moving and I'll light you up like the sun."
"C-Commander, I swear…I never m-meant…w-what are you going to do with him? With David?"
"Take him far away from you," Shepard spat. "You don't get to know where. You don't ever get to even speak his name, you selfish piece of shit. I will ensure that, even if I have to cut your goddamn tongue out to guarantee it. Now sit down."
Trembling, the man cautiously lowered himself to the ground.
"Tianlán, I heard him move," Shepard murmured softly to the asari she was still clinging to. "Is he sitting?"
"Yes, of…" Liara looked at the human woman, confused. "Of course he is sitting, Shepard. You can see-"
"No," Shepard said with an exhausted, wan little smirk, her voice resigned. "No…I can't see."
"What?" Liara breathed, grasping Shepard's face and turning it toward her. The commander's dark brown eyes were almost lost in a sea of black, her pupils fully fixed and dilated. The whites were patched with crimson where fine vessels had burst. Liara turned her face a half centimeter more, until light fell directly over the commander's gaze, but the pupils didn't even twitch to react.
"Shepard…"
The commander's hand crept up, taking gentle hold of Liara's blue one, and she ever so faintly shook her head.
"I think I'm blind…"