Saren glanced up as an alarm set into a nearby console went off. Scowling in annoyance, he brought it up. His annoyance changed to puzzlement as he realized it was the alarms that alerted him to unusual activity on Virmire. From inside or outside the complex.
He frowned, trying to bring up a report from one of the geth or scientists there but the communications kept fuzzing out. He could get enough to know alarms had been set off at several points during the day but had stopped abruptly. Disabled? Internal problems? Tests of the systems? Or something else?
It couldn't be...
The turian growled in frustration as he was unable to pull up any more information. He paused and looked up, focusing on a voice only he could hear. His hands went still on the console for a long moment before he nodded once and sat back. Waiting.
"You know, we spent too much time on Noveria, I think. I'm getting entirely too much of a charge out of all this wanton destruction," Shepard said, grinning over at Garrus.
"We noticed, Commander," the turian replied, his voice dry. He moved around a dead krogan and put a bullet into the skull of a husk.
Shepard glanced over her shoulder where the salarians they had freed had disappeared a while ago, hoping they'd make it back before they blew this place. The labs in Saren's base were a nightmare. Enslaved krogan, captured salarians tortured and experimented on until they were nothing but indoctrinated husks. Garrus followed her gaze, picking up on what she was thinking. "I didn't really understand when you described what happened to Liara's mother. I get it now. How could anyone do that to another person?"
"I don't know, handsome. I really don't."
"It never occurred to me to wonder before...how do you think he controls this indoctrination process? Obviously the real power comes from this Reaper, wherever it is, but how does he channel it? I think there might be more to those cybernetics he has...that's what they have to be. I saw those pictures the STG managed to get. He doesn't even look like a turian anymore."
"Could be..." It didn't seem that way though. She didn't know how to describe it, but that just didn't click with her. She was hoping they'd get answers from this place. She clicked her comm but there was nothing from Ashley. They had done all they could, from disabling alarms to destroying comm towers, to try and make it easier on Ash and the salarians but it was clear they were still under heavy fire. "But if he's the one indoctrinating the others, why is he doing so much research on it, I wonder...?"
They both winced as they heard Wrex curse and fire off a couple of shots into the krogan scientist they'd just taken down. The fact the krogan they had been fighting on the way in were obviously little more than walking, fighting drones had not improved Wrex's mood. The realization that it was a krogan scientist, one of the few they had, working with Saren to do it had pissed him off so much he'd almost torn the other krogan apart. "Son of a bitch. 'Glorious salvation' for our people, is it? What are all these krogan you've helped enslave? Necessary sacrifices?"
"I'm betting that's exactly what he told himself, Wrex," Shepard said, coming up beside him.
"Doesn't have a problem turning some of your people into husks either. Bastard." Wrex turned from the dead krogan with contempt.
"Commander," Kaidan's voice crackled over the comm. "We have one of the scientists here. Rana Thanoptis, she says her name is."
"We're on our way." Shepard led the way, moving out of the lab gladly and along a walkway to what appeared to be an office. Tali was guarding the door and Kaidan had his gun pointed at an asari who was cowering behind a desk. She was babbling at them as Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex came in. "You think indoctrination only affects prisoners? Sooner or later, Saren will want to dissect my brain too!"
"She's a neurospecialist, Shepard," Liara said quietly. She was giving the other asari a hard look.
"You're the one doing the indoctrination experiments," Shepard said, her voice sharp.
"Sovereign's effect on organic minds, yes."
"Sovereign's effect?" How did the influence of a ship spread when it wasn't even around? Benezia had mentioned Sovereign but she had actually been spending time on it. Shepard had assumed it was the Reaper that owned it that was the real source of the power.
Thanoptis shrugged. "It emits some kind of...signal. Undetectable, but it's there. I've seen the effects. Actually, signal isn't exactly the right word. It's more like an energy field coming from the ship. It changes thought patterns. Saren uses it to influence his followers, to control them."
"We noticed." Shepard heard Liara shift behind her and glanced back at the asari, who was still staring at Thanoptis.
"Direct exposure to the signal turns you into a mindless slave, like the salarian test subjects. But there's collateral damage too. The signal is too strong, even spending time near the ship can influence you. It's like a whisper you can't quite hear. You're compelled to do things but you don't know why. You just obey. Eventually, you just stop thinking for yourself. It's degenerative though. There's a balance between control and usefulness. The less freedom the subject maintains, the less capable it becomes."
That explained why Benezia's commandos were so clumsy and easy to defeat. Shepard felt that horror rise through her she'd first felt when speaking with Shiala and fought it down. She'd held it back facing off with Benezia for Liara's sake, but seeing the scientists...hearing how easy it seemed to have it influence you...
"It happens to everyone in the facility," Thanoptis continued. "My first test subject was the man I replaced. Now I just want to get out of here before it happens to me."
Maybe the krogan scientist was indoctrinated too. She hoped that was a little bit of comfort to Wrex. "So...why does Saren want to research it if he's controlling it?"
"And how in the hell is Saren not indoctrinated?" Garrus demanded. "He isn't showing any signs of slowing down."
"I'm not so sure he isn't. The signal comes from the ship and it makes everyone obey Saren, but I don't think he controls it. Not exactly."
"Starting to have doubts about your overlords, Saren?" Shepard murmured.
Thanoptis nodded. "I think...he's scared it might be affecting him too. Indoctrination is subtle. By the time the effects are noticeable, it's usually too late. I think that's why he's tried to keep us in the dark as often as he can."
"You helped him and you don't even know why?" Liara's voice was cold in a way Shepard had never heard before.
"I didn't have the option of negotiating!" Thanoptis said defensively. "This position is a little more...permanent than I'd expected." She glanced at Liara and shuffled back hurriedly. "L-look, I can help you! See that elevator? It goes to Saren's private lab. I can get you in." She hurried over at Shepard's nod and typed something into the keypad next to the elevator. "See? Full access. All of Saren's private files."
Shepard's breath caught, a surge of excitement going through her. A chance to finally get a step ahead Saren, see exactly what it was he was planning. Maybe even where the Mu Relay went and how to find the Conduit.
Rana must have noticed she'd made a good move. "Are we good? Can I go?"
Thinking of the salarian's from Kirrahe's team below- the one that had killed himself, the ones that just wandered around, dead eyed -made Shepard give her a wicked smile. "Sure. But just so you know, we're going to blow this place to hell and gone."
Thanoptis's eyes went wide. "What?"
"Better start running," Liara added with cheerful malice.
"You can't...but I'll never..." The scientist broke and ran past them with a strangled cry.
"You two enjoyed that," Kaidan said. He didn't sound particularly condemning.
"That's a rank accusation, isn't it, Liara?" Shepard said, glancing at the asari.
"Paranoia." Liara tsked and shook her head.
It was an object both familiar and completely unexpected that awaited them in Saren's lab.
It was a Prothean beacon. Just like the one on Eden Prime. Exactly like it, in fact.
Shepard's eyes went wide and she stepped toward it, looking almost hypnotized. Kaidan had to fight to keep from hauling her back, images of her being dragged upward and then tossed across the platform flashing through his mind. It was a horrible sense of deja vu, the event that had started all of this coming full circle.
The beacon started to glow as Shepard came near. She put out a hand toward the odd interface that glowed before it. Liara murmured a warning and then watched, her eyes wide with both worry and fascination. Kaidan heard the sounds of surprise come from the others as Shepard rose from the ground, green light dancing around her, and realized dimly that he was the only person among them that had seen the beacon in action. Garrus actually took a step forward and Wrex growled. Liara made a slashing motion. "Don't touch her!"
"It let her go on its own the last time," Kaidan tried to reassure them without being at all certain himself.
Shepard shuddered in front of them and the green glow faded. She dropped to the floor...at least it didn't throw her this time...gasping for breath. Liara ran forward and knelt beside her, helping her stumble to her feet.
"...Shepard?" Tali spoke in a small voice.
The commander half turned, Liara holding her up. The look of shock and horror on her face scared the hell out of Kaidan. She opened her eyes, a sort of terrible knowledge in them. For an instant, her eyes focused on them; then they tracked upward to fix on something above their heads.
They all turned slowly to see what she was looking at and noticed a glowing red hologram on the catwalk above.
Shepard stepped away from Liara and slowly moved up the ramp, her eyes never leaving that figure. Her face was sheet white.
"What is that?" Tali said.
"It's not good, whatever it is," Wrex growled.
"Commander..." Garrus went after Shepard, sounding worried, Kaidan and Liara close behind.
As they came around and got a good look at it, Kaidan felt a jolt of recognition. Speak of the devil, it was a holographic image of Sovereign, Saren's ship. The jolt of recognition was followed by an even harder jolt of shock as it spoke in a low, mechanical voice. It thrummed along Kaidan's bones, seemed to coil like white hot electricity through his brain. "You are not Saren."
Shepard leaned against the railing, staring at the figure. "You..."
"What is it, Shepard? Some kind of VI interface?" Garrus said, his voice oddly hushed.
The holographic figure buzzed. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."
"I don't think it's a VI, Garrus..." Tali whispered.
Shepard let out a strangled sound, somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "I'm such an idiot. Right there all along..."
"Shepard?" Kaidan looked at her in alarm.
"Oh, God, Kaidan, that's no ship..."
The hologram interrupted. "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."
Liara was the first one to start to grasp it. "By the goddess...no, it can't be..."
Shepard let out another of those horrible laughing sounds. "That's why we've never seen it. That's why the signal is so strong. Sovereign isn't the Reaper's ship. It is the fucking Reaper."
"Reaper?" The tone of Sovereign's voice remained cool and stilted. It didn't alter in the slightest, not a single inflection, not a single change in tone. "A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."
"The Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago!" Garrus burst out, sounding almost angry. "You couldn't have been there! It's impossible!"
"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die."
"Fuck you," Shepard almost whispered it.
Sovereign paid her no heed. "We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
"Wrong." Shepard's voice was stronger now. Kaidan glanced back at her. She was still leaning on the rail, but the look on her face sent chills down his spine. If she'd been looking at him with that much rage and hatred, he would have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
Neither her tone nor demeanor had any effect on the hologram. "Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken."
"Cycle? What cycle?" Tali sounded a little hysterical.
"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance. At the apex of their glory, they are extinguished."
"Every 50,000 years. The simplistic, insipid, narrow thinking of a machine." If Tali sounded hysterical, Shepard sounded half crazed.
"The Protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind. Your civilizations are based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. Your society forms along the paths we desire. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom."
"Corralling us," Wrex said quietly. "Rounding us up...bastards..."
"We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution."
"Bullshit," Shepard spat. "It would happen with or without you. Evolution doesn't need your help."
Sovereign was silent for a few humming seconds, then it simply said: "You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it."
All in that same clinical, matter of fact tone, Kaidan thought. He was so cold inside. It wasn't threatening them. It was simply stating the facts. God... "Why?" Kaidan managed. "Why? Slaves? Resources? You must want something."
"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weaknesses. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence. We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."
"Everything ends." Shepard had calmed down, was standing straight now. Her color was back. And her eyes burned. "Everything. Even you. Organics might die...but a machine can be broken."
Sovereign was unimpressed. "Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."
Every piece of glass in the lab exploded. Tali cried out in shock and Shepard's head snapped around as a piece of glass sheared through the air right next to her head, slicing a shallow cut in her cheek. She turned her head slowly to look at the spot where Sovereign's image had been, seemingly unaware of the blood running down her face.
AN: On a random note, "You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it." goes down on my list as one of the most epic lines ever uttered by a villain.