The blistering winds zipped by their faces, threatening to slash at their bodies from the ice being whipped around. Tali felt snow start to accumulate around her boots but she stood perfectly still, gathering condensation as she watched Grevel stare at her impassively. The joints of her suit creaked and frosty edges began to crawl up her visor, clouding it.

The more she looked at the masked turian though, Tali could feel her shaking begin to subside. Her toes ached as they began to warm and her fingers cramped from the heat blossoming inside her. Tali bared her teeth in a snarl as the sight of this cocky person enraged her directly to her core. Hate flowed through her freely and she let it consume her fear, burning it out of existence.

In that moment, she forgot what had been done to her on Anhur. She forgot dangling by a rope in the middle of a musty room while a shadow cackled over her. She forgot the terror that had revealed the weakling buried inside of her. All that was left was only anger.

Grevel held out her arms slightly in a mock greeting, the wind snapping her coat around. "Welcome, Tali'Zorah. Your performance in getting here quickly is admirable. I must commend you for getting this far."

"Where is John?" Tali growled, Grevel's congratulations going ignored. She wiped at her visor and shook the condensation off her hand.

"Inside," Grevel said in amusement. "Still alive, too. Fear not, quarian, for he is not in any mortal danger. I haven't even begun to work on him like I did with you."

"And you won't get to that point," Tali snorted. "I'll stop you right here before you will ever lay another hand on him."

Grevel threw her head back and laughed, holding her belly as the raucous noises quickly died in the wind. "You are certainly just as determined as I remember you!" she crowed. "I like that about you, Tali'Zorah. You're a fighter. You don't settle for less and you go out and reach for your goals instead of lying down and giving up."

"Seems to sum me up perfectly," Tali said as she quickly drew her shotgun from her back in one fluid motion and fired, the blast ripping through the snow towards Grevel.

Grevel, having seen the blow coming, dived to the ground, her shields catching some of the impacts. They fizzled where they had been shot but she stood up, unharmed. From her large coat, she drew out a suppressed pistol and fired at Tali in quick succession, her finger a blur on the trigger.

Tali threw herself behind a snowdrift and yelped as a few shots passed through the slight embankment, creating red hot trails in the white matter. Grevel soon paused to eject the spent thermal clip, causing it to burn a hole through the snow, which was when Tali leaned out of cover, prone, and fired the shotgun again.

The brunt of the blast caught Grevel in the chest and she grunted as she was pushed back a few feet. Incredibly, she still managed to remain standing but her shields were nearly drained. She dug her boots into the icy mix and started to swerve this way and that, avoiding the rest of Tali's shots as she traded bullets in kind.

A patch of snow near Tali erupted as a bullet struck it, sending snow into the quarian's visor. She flinched backward, forgetting that she had been taking cover. As the top of Tali's head poked up from the snowdrift, Grevel fired another expert shot and Tali was thrown forward from the kinetic energy with a cry as the shields on the back of her helmet sparked angrily, reacting toward the projectile aimed at her.

Tali groped blindly at the ground, cruel laughter echoing in her mind as she brought her shotgun to bear. She blinked stars from her eyes and straightened for a second before the snowdrift exploded directly in front of her, caused by an onrushing Grevel who had thrown herself through it to reach Tali.

Screaming, Tali fired, but the shotgun blast cleanly missed as she shook from fear, the unwanted feelings encroaching upon her once again. The anger was slowly dissipating and the cold panic was back in force. Streaked with snow, Grevel swung her arm and knocked the weapon out of Tali's hands violently, causing it to spin end over end until it clattered near the edge of a steep slope marked by heavy boulders. Both of them slipped on the ground and fell hard, but they cushioned from the fall by the snow.

Grevel had lost her pistol when she had rushed through the snowdrift, but was unconcerned at the loss of one weapon when she had plenty more at her disposal. Tali was rolling on the snow, reaching for her pistol at her side as Grevel began to crawl determinedly over to her, her fingers clawing at the ground, scraping at it to propel her towards her prey.

Tali and Grevel stood at the same time but Grevel was the first to react. Swinging her arm, she solidly whacked Tali in the side of the head, who yelled out in pain. The quarian staggered backwards, but Grevel maintained a leisurely pace as she approached.

"Weak," Grevel growled, flexing her fingers. "Pathetic, Tali'Zorah."

Gnashing her teeth angrily, Tali whirled and connected a fist with the side of Grevel's helmet. Tali screamed again as her hand pounded uselessly on the unyielding surface, while Grevel just clacked her helmet's mandibles disapprovingly. The punch had barely moved the turian's head at all.

"Is that really the best you can do?"

"Shut up!" Tali roared as she leaped at the monstrosity. Taken aback, the two fell to the ground in a tangled heap, trading blows on the other. Tali had abandoned all reason and began whaling on Grevel with her fists, pushing past the pain as her skin was sliced open underneath the enviro-suit, the blood beginning to pool in the joints.

A stray fist found Grevel's neck and the turian gagged before she brought her cybernetic leg around to push the quarian off of her. Clutching her throat, Grevel got to her knees as Tali flopped on her back, out of breath.

With a flick of her wrist, the long knife embedded in Grevel's gauntlet popped out and she raised her arm as she approached Tali, ready to sink it into her neck. At the last moment, Tali whipped her pistol out, but instead of aiming it at Grevel, she held it sideways above her head and caught the knife perfectly in the trigger guard as it traveled downward, causing it to stick in the weapon.

Grevel growled in frustration and tried to yank the knife out, but the ridged edges of the blade were caught around the trigger, locking it in place. Tali grunted as she held on to her pistol, worried that Grevel would tear it out of her hands entirely. She pulled with all her strength and Grevel momentarily jerked her way.

Tali twisted the pistol in her grip to the side and then backwards. With a shattering noise, the wrist knife snapped cleanly off from Grevel's gauntlet, weakened from the cold and the foreign pressure applied on it. Tali jerked the blade out of the guard and, taking advantage of Grevel's hesitation, lifted the pistol up and fired at Grevel's face. The turian roared as the blast caught the mask full on but did not penetrate the shields. However, it still allowed Tali to bring her legs back and ferociously kick at the armored woman's chest with a surge of energy. Grevel flew backwards, stunned, and Tali shakily got back to her feet, pistol still in hand.

Taking aim at the dazed Grevel, Tali loosed as many shots as her clip had left, watching as the bullets finished off the remnants of Grevel's shield. Aware that she no longer was protected adequately, Grevel surged back to her feet and rushed through the snow at the firing quarian. Grevel yowled as a round caught her in the shoulder, producing fat drops of blue blood that stained the ground below her, but she kept running.

Tali, now alarmed at Grevel sprinting her way, pulled the trigger again hastily but steam rose from the barrel of her pistol uselessly. She needed to eject her thermal clip before she could fire again. Grevel, however, shot out a hand and yanked the pistol from Tali's grip, almost breaking a few of the quarian's fingers in the process, and threw it away. Grevel's hand smoldered from the hot barrel touching her armor, but she paid the heat no mind.

Grevel danced around a hasty punch thrown by Tali and answered with her own blow right into the quarian's solar plexus. Tali made a horrific cry as the wind was forcibly pushed out of her and doubled over, providing the perfect opportunity for Grevel to lift her knee up and crack Tali on her visor, propelling her backwards.

Lying on her back in the soft snow, Tali felt blood trickle out of her nostrils. She could taste the coppery tang on her tongue and mumbled in disgust. There was a tiny spider web of cracks on her visor from Grevel's knee but it had not breached the suit. Still, it worried Tali that her fragile state was being taken advantage of and that she might have made an error in coming here. She tensed her body, preparing for another blow to be made upon her frame, but the seconds ticked off with no further assault. Confused, she rolled to the side and saw Grevel simply standing there, arms at her side as she waited patiently.

"On your feet, Tali'Zorah," Grevel said as she motioned for her to stand. "Get up. I'm not keen on this ending too quickly."

Mumbling a few choice curses, Tali wheezed as she complied, her knees shaking rather badly at this point. "You're going to regret not killing me when you had the chance."

"Doubtful," Grevel shrugged. "You still haven't given me your all today. The best that Shepard could muster was a fight that barely lasted a minute. I'm curious at what you can accomplish. Already you managed to hurt me, which was more than Shepard did. The life of your lover hangs in the balance, Tali'Zorah. Show me how much he means to you!"

She's toying with me, Tali thought, but the thought was abandoned as quickly as it had arrived.

Tali bellowed as she yanked her knife from her boot holster before she ran at Grevel. She got to within a foot before she pivoted on the ball of her foot and slashed at Grevel's neck. The turian simply stepped backwards and avoided the blow entirely. Furious, Tali swung the knife in diagonal arcs, trying to catch the blade on any part of Grevel within reach but every time, Grevel would evade the slashes, too quickly for Tali to react against.

Becoming more and more enraged, Tali panted as she steeled herself for another blow, but halted her next move as she fully realized what was going on.

She's trying to tire me out. She wants me to exhaust my energy so that she can dispatch me with ease!

Controlling her breathing, Tali turned the knife over in her hand, tip up, as she advanced more cautiously this time. Grevel tilted her head as the quarian's more methodical approach clashed with the series of brazen charges she had just exhibited seconds ago. The change in behavior was puzzling, but Grevel knew that Tali was very intelligent and that she could possibly have gotten wise to her act.

Oh well, Grevel thought, there's plenty more to do anyway.

Bounding forward instead of waiting for Tali to make the next move, Grevel yanked her fist back, ready to plow it against Tali's helmet, but Tali ducked the blow, lightning fast, and slashed upward with her knife. Grevel could see the flash of steel cut through armor and flesh and she was able to witness the blur of blue as her blood trailed behind the blade. Her mouth gaped open for a second and Tali used that to turn in place and deliver a cut at Grevel's opposite shoulder, a whirling dervish basking in the spilled plasma.

Alarmed and shocked by her wounds, Grevel backed off a few steps. That action gave Tali a burst of confidence, a brief glimpse of the light ahead.

She can be hurt! She's afraid of me!

With renewed vigor, Tali gently eased herself through the snow, feeling it weigh down her feet. Breathing heavily, she hefted her knife as she crouched down in a defensive position, her military training running through her head.

Grevel felt the blood drip off of her and watched the quarian pose herself in the manner of a Fleet marine. That brought a chuckle hissing out of Grevel's helmet and she slowly reached across her chest and produced her own combat knife, matte black, and scuffed from prior usage.

"The prodigal soldier…" Grevel mused. "You have returned to me."

With a roar, Grevel bent her knees and leaped forward to engage Tali again.

The crackle of small arms fire caused Garrus to wince as he crouched behind a stack of pallets. Woodchips sprayed all over the place as stray bullets took pieces off. With a deep breath, he waited for a lull in the enemy fire before he jumped across the empty middle of the hallway to land behind a few heavy containers.

The entire facility was comprised of the same standardized materials as the off-world colonies frequently used, which meant drab grey floors, walls, and ceilings. The underground portions were stabilized with extra beams running across the ceiling for support, which did not add much to the looks department.

On top of that, the new residents of the base had so little time to unpack that the majority of the halls and rooms were piled with so much stuff that it made a simple stroll down the hall hazardous. If it weren't for the motion detectors that had been installed on his armor, he would have gotten ambushed five minutes ago from the enemies taking cover behind the myriad crates.

That being said, in those five minutes, both Liara and him had managed to traverse twenty meters into the base before they were summarily fired upon. The enemy soldiers were well trained in the aspect that they were not stupid enough to come running out of cover to try and take them unawares, which made progression agonizingly slow.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that, at the onset, there was a fork in the path that diverted to either the left or the right. Cautious about their chances, the both of them took the right path, which deposited them into their current position: pinned down in a narrow hallway by troops with no room to maneuver whatsoever.

Garrus fired blindly around the corner and grimaced as incoming bullets narrowly hissed by him. Liara did the same, holding her back to the wall as she held her submachine guns akimbo, eyes wide from the heat of battle.

"We're not going to get anywhere if we continue down this path!" Garrus yelled over to her.

"I noticed!" Liara yelled back. "We're wasting too much time."

A grenade clattered near Garrus feet, glowing red. Quickly, he surged forward and threw it back over his head, hopefully near the sender. A muffled boom and a scream of pain sounded, causing a momentary silence to fall over the hall.

"You'd better go check out the other path," Garrus said as he slammed a fresh clip into his assault rifle. "I'll hold them off here and see if I can make some headway with these guys."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"What choice do we have? At this rate, we're building too much risk by being stagnant. We have to find Shepard quickly!"

"Agreed! But how do you propose that I get out of here? We're pinned down, in case you haven't noticed."

"Got a fix for that," Garrus grinned as he shifted his weight. "I'll cover you, go!" Leaning around the side, Garrus yelled as he loosed his rifle down on full auto, feeling the kick of the weapon buck against his shoulder. He adjusted his aim continuously, spraying every cover point so that the CAT6 soldiers would remain too timid to poke their heads out.

Liara wheeled out of her hiding spot and double-timed it down the hallway. No one was able to fire in her direction and she made it past the choke point with ease, disappearing around the corner shortly after.

Now all Garrus had to do was take care of these guys, but the thought was easier said than done. The soldiers were not taking any chances of running out into the open and Garrus did not have an idea of how many were left standing. A few minutes ago, he thought he detected four separate bursts, but ever since he threw the grenade, there had been no more than two at a time. Of course, Garrus couldn't assume the best, he had to suspect that there were four bad guys lying in wait beyond the series of crates.

Perhaps it was simply time to flush them out.

Priming a flash-bang, Garrus leaned over and threw the sphere behind him in a backwards motion, making sure to give the device plenty of spin. He counted to five silently and at the instant he heard a distant bang, like the name suggested, Garrus wheeled out of his cover and towards the screams of pain. Two seconds before he reached the intersection, Garrus put his weight on his heels and went down on the floor, skidding across the smooth surface as he angled his body to the right.

It turned out there were still three of the guys, one on one side and two on the other. Garrus, thankfully, had been pointing towards the side with two guys on it, both still stunned from the loud noise and the bright flash of light. Midway through his skid, Garrus lifted his rifle and his first few bullets caught a man under the chin, blowing out the back of his throat. The guy behind him had only started to recover, but his weapon was pointed at an angle that indicated that he was expecting a foe to come running out, not sliding out. As a result, the return fire passed over Garrus' head and into the man on the opposite side, a trio impacting on his chest, throwing him to the ground.

Garrus continued to fire just as the man realized his fatal mistake. The human's helmet shattered in a mix of metal and brains as Garrus' bullets ricocheted around inside, essentially exploding the mercenary's head. Picking himself up from the gore-laden ground, Garrus barely had time for a breather before enemy fire erupted from another hallway around the corner, pinging off the nearby walls.

The turian barely had time to spot the mass of troops headed his way before he sprinted across the hallway to the door in the corner. At his rate of travel, he almost smashed into it at full speed before the motion detectors finally were alerted to his arrival and quickly slid open, causing Garrus to topple to the ground painfully.

Gasping for breath, Garrus lunged for the door controls, barely ordering it to lock from the inside before muffled blows sounded from the hallway. Quickly, he backed away from the door, worried that the metal separating him from the mercenaries was about to be hacked open very soon.

Fortunately, to Garrus' immediate right, there was a grating for the air conditioning system that looked perfect for his size. He hooked his fingers around the thin covering and with no effort at all, pried it off and threw it to the side. He glanced down and checked to see if the passage was clear. It looked dusty and was pretty dark but clear of enemies.

Garrus dropped to his knees, about to crawl through when the atmospheric hum of the room finally caused him to turn around in curiosity, wondering exactly what was making that noise in here with him. He stood back up and cocked his head as he finally realized what the console, ablaze with lights and figures, was detailing. A diagram of a power reactor shone brightly on a large screen and an icon winked on the console, awaiting a command.

Even from this distance, Garrus could read the bright red letters "AUXILIARY POWER CONTROL" all the way over on the screen. Heart in his throat, Garrus raced over to the keyboard, hoping that he could act in time before the mercenaries broke their way into the room.

The clone stood in the corner, her arms crossed while Shepard grunted in pain on the table. She analyzed and watched the human thrash about in his delirium, his maimed leg doing all the torturing on her behalf. The quarian stepped forward, drawn to this…repulsive creature. What was it about her that made her drawn to this man genetically? Was it just defective traits? The result of nature imparting an alternate course? The clone just stared a foot away from the table, taking in every feature on Shepard's face.

Sweat pouring down his skin, Shepard tilted and spotted the clone standing just next to him. He followed with his eyes the shape of her body and looked directly into the dark red visor that the quarian possessed, draped by a grey hood.

"Tali…" he moaned out, very much in pain.

The clone stiffened at the name. "Do not call me that," she said forcefully. "I am not Tali'Zorah, Shepard. I may be her genetic equal, but I share nothing in common with that woman."

Shepard blinked in confusion, apprehensive at the clone's words. "Why would you think that?" he croaked. "Why do you hate her so much? Why are you angry at the one whose genes you carry? You're just as much equal as her."

"How I feel is not meant to be rationalized," the clone shook her head. "You wrongfully think that I should bring logic into the equation and see that I have no reason to be in conflict with you. Unfortunately, Shepard, that is not the case."

"But…why?"

"Because I was created to hate you," the clone said. "I was created to hate Tali'Zorah. I was never meant to be a perfect copy, just a tool designed for one specific purpose: to obey the orders of my master."

"Grevel?" Shepard coughed. "What do you owe her? She brings you nothing but pain and yet you continue to follow her."

The clone audibly sighed. "I see what you are trying to do, Shepard. You think that because of my faults that Grevel manages to find grievance in is enough cause for me to be itching to join your side? Wrong again, Shepard. Grevel, although her methods can be sometimes medieval, acts accordingly to my mistakes because I am genetically prone to operating outside of my set parameters.."

"Your mistakes?"

"Yes. A clone with accelerated aging like me will never reach their full potential, unfortunately. My personality quirks such as speaking out or voicing my opinion are glitches in the cloning process. Mistakes in the copying process, you see. I know I am supposed to be obedient, but I cannot help but think contextually as Grevel so fears. Tiny personality shifts that cannot be initially detected are gradually revealed over time and Grevel does what she thinks is necessary to suppress them in me. It's what I am designed for, to obey."

"At the cost of your individuality?" Shepard pleaded. "You realize that you're not even living a full life yet you want to continue on your current path? You actually want just to be a drone that mindlessly follows orders?"

"And you could offer me something better?" the clone countered, her head cocking in amusement. "Fix my errors and finally create the perfect copy of Tali'Zorah? What sort of a life could I do with that? A flash clone like me is designed to age so rapidly that my internal organs will fail within the next five years. They weren't designed for long-term use, flash cloning doesn't work like that. In order to have gleaned a fully matured clone, the Broker and Grevel wanted results quickly at the cost of my operating life. Could you offer me a longer life, Shepard? A whole new identity? What could I get by coming with you? How could I even fit into a 'full life?'"

"There…are ways," Shepard whispered as he trembled on the bench, the omni-cuffs keeping his limbs glued down. "It's in your nature to be complete, I can see it! If you come with me, I'll do everything in my power to save you. You can be able to grow old…fall in love…have a family…"

The quarian looked back at him, watching his eyes never leave her gaze. He was not blinking and she could not even find it in herself to smirk. She leaned over Shepard and her hip brushed the edge of the table, peering at him intently.

"What you suggest…" she whispered, "…is impossible."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because I can tell when you're lying, Shepard. You offer a fresh start, but you and I both know that I am beyond saving. Truthfully, I have no desire to do anything beyond my set mission because of my genetic programming. I will simply lose all direction after I see it completed and I will then die. My death has always been inevitable, Shepard. As has yours."

Shepard didn't move a muscle on his face, his chiseled jaw firmly set. He gave a solemn nod at the quarian's honest statement before he glanced at something beyond her, saddened nonetheless.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he spoke softly before he yelled, "Now, Liara!"

The clone whirled to the door just in time to see an armored asari level a burst of azure energy her way. As she turned, her holster brushed the edge of Shepard's leftmost cuff on his hand, allowing him to grasp the grip of the clone's pistol and yank it out. The biotic push caught the quarian dead on and threw her across the room, knocking her breath out with a whufff!

At that very moment, the lights abruptly darkened for a split second before a dim series of emergency lamps engaged. The room was cast in a twilight glare, shadows spilling out of the corners. Shepard sat up and looked down to see that the omni-cuffs had miraculously disengaged. Feeling rejuvenated, he held the clone's pistol aloft and struggled to turn around in place.

"Warning," an automated voice blared. "Main core is offline. Auxiliary power is now engaged. Recommend generator reset."

"Shepard!" Liara called. "Are you hurt? Are you all right?"

"Liara, watch out!" Shepard warned, still cradling the pistol in his palm, his mangled leg and right hand aching. "I can't see the clone from here!"

With a strangled yell, the clone suddenly sat up from behind the table Shepard was sitting on and thrust her hand out. From her palm burst a fiery red ball that sped on course towards Liara. The asari cried out as the tech blast electrocuted her, producing uncomfortable tingles all over her body. Her fingers twitched uncontrollably, causing her to drop the submachine gun she was currently carrying.

She barely had enough time to stand up straight when the clone rushed at her, enveloped in an orange glowing tech armor now while raising an omni-blade around her left arm. Liara ducked the blow and the blade sliced through the door, causing the surface to sizzle as the wiring was cut within. Liara summoned her energy and channeled it out in another push but the clone leaped aside, the blast narrowly missing her.

About to make another attack, the clone suddenly hissed and roared as her tech armor sparked, reacting to the bullets that Shepard fired from his position on the table. He held the clone's pistol in his non-dominant hand, the recoil pushing the barrel up uncomfortably but the shots were accurate regardless. Too far away to react and without any firearms, the quarian spat in fury and rushed out the door, leaving Shepard and Liara alone.

"Shepard!" Liara cried as she began to move over to him.

"Don't worry about me!" Shepard waved her off. "Catch the clone! I'll be fine here."

"Are you sure?" the asari asked, her face fraught with worry.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly mobile, but I can fight. By the way, where's Tali?"

"Off looking for you," Liara said, a dark possibility coming to light but one that went unvoiced. "She's…nearby."

Shepard's face fell in shock as he detected the hesitation in Liara's voice. "She's gone to fight Grevel, hasn't she?"

"I…" Liara shook her head. "I…honestly don't know…"

"God damn it," Shepard breathed as he hit the edge of the table with the butt of the pistol. "Tali's facing Grevel to protect me. God help me, I don't think I've ever deserved that woman…"

"She's doing it because she loves you, Shepard," Liara assured. "She's doing it because you mean everything to her."

Shepard scrunched his face up as all his fears pooled at the bottom of his chest. He clutched at his heart, feeling its pained beat as he tried not to imagine the worst. He took a ragged breath and simply gestured for Liara to get a move on. "You'd better finish off the clone, then. The sooner you take care of her, the sooner we can find Tali."

"I'll be quick," Liara nodded breathlessly. "You have my word on it."

Bending down as she hustled out of the room, she scooped up her fallen submachine gun and ran in the direction the clone had taken flight. There was only one singular corridor that led in the direction that Liara was traveling, which seemed like the logical place to begin searching. Breaking out into a faster pace, Liara spotted the door at the end and pursued the fleeing clone through it.

However, she wheeled to a stop as soon as her boots hit the gantry. Liara now found herself atop a series of catwalks, suspended above the embedded element zero core that housed the power to the plant. Arcs of electricity cast beams of light on her and there was a sizzling noise as the entire structure groaned.

"Auxiliary power online," the intercom reported. "Main core stabilization required. Power fluctuations reported."

With the power core improperly diverted in favor of auxiliary power, the element zero was still producing energy, but it was not being distributed throughout the base. All of the connections had been shut to allow the alternate supply access. As a result, the blue-white glow doubled in intensity, creating beams of lighting that spread further than the protective shielding encased over it. It was not an overload but it was still a terribly unsafe environment.

Realizing that she had been distracted, Liara frantically looked down the catwalk and spotted no one in the vicinity. There were no signs of life on the level below her either, so where had the clone gone to?

A vibration in her boots made Liara turn around just in time to see the clone drop down from the piping, having stuffed herself up there knowing that the asari would follow. Quickly, Liara mustered her energy and laid down a singularity between them, the miniature black hole warping matter in front of their eyes.

The clone quickly tapped a command and she remained rooted in place, untouched from the singularity's gravitational pull. Despite the fact that the nearby railings were being wrenched out of place, the magnetic soles in the clone's boots kept it rooted to the grating, regardless of how powerful the singularity was.

As soon as the biotic attack dissipated, the clone deactivated her boots and sprung towards Liara. The asari barely got off a burst with her submachine gun but the clone ducked and delivered a perfect spin kick that impacted precisely on the weapon, spinning it out of Liara's hand and down into the core. Standing back up straight, the clone activated her omni-blade again and slashed downward, barely grazing Liara's arm as she sliced through the nearby railing.

Liara splayed her hands out and soon the clone was wreathed in an azure glow, finally held in place from the asari's stasis field. The quarian grunted against the invisible grip, struggling to free herself to no avail. Liara panted and fished the last of her strength out, looking to warp the clone out of existence when the quarian's tech armor rang shrilly and a bolt of electricity raced out, catching Liara in the chest. Letting out a yell, she flinched and the warp attack fired up into the ceiling instead, disintegrating a portion of the multitude of pipes and causing several pieces to rain down on the pair. With Liara stunned, the clone was able to shake free of the stasis field, her blade shining wickedly.

"Reactive tech armor," the clone growled. "Detects biotic attacks and provides appropriate defense measures against them. What's the matter, Shadow Broker? Did you not see that one coming?"

The clone punctuated her final word with a lunge, aiming at Liara's heart. The asari dodged but was too slow to escape the blade's biting edge. Liara felt something sharp on her arm and saw her blood fly through the air in horror. The clone growled in satisfaction at the look of shock on Liara's face.

To Liara, the reality of the situation only now came to light. The familiar body shape, the deceptively familiar voice, that same look in her eye, it was all reminiscent of Tali. Liara raised her fist to strike a blow at the quarian, but could only see Tali in her eyes for some reason. Even though she knew it was a clone, the very idea of killing someone like Tali was unthinkable.

The clone, however, was not wrapped up in that kind of conundrum. She did not have the mental conflict that Liara was going through, which made it easy for the quarian to slash her blade down, opening up another wound on Liara's side.

The asari gasped and flared her palm out, producing another biotic burst, but it was weak and barely fazed the clone. Ducking and weaving around Liara's back before she could even react, another slice from the omni-blade caused a line of fire to erupt on Liara's body. She fell to her knees, her armor soaked in blood and lifted her head up, her eyes silently begging.

"Tali…please…"

"Do not call me Tali!" the clone screamed as she grabbed Liara's head and savagely threw it against the guardrail. Bashing her head against the metal, Liara very nearly passed out and blinked as her blood began to run into her eyes from a cut on her scalp. She couldn't lift a finger to protect herself in her position, which meant that she could do nothing as the clone ferociously kicked at her stomach, pushing her off the catwalk and down towards the core below.

The moment of free fall was short lived because Liara felt her back flare with pain, along with an audible snap from her ribs. She groaned helplessly, knowing that she had fallen too quickly to have made it to the bottom in such a short amount of time. Her vision going haywire, she could see the clone standing triumphantly on the gantry above her, the omni-blade still extended. Liara then realized that she had simply been pushed down to the next level, still above the core.

Coughing helplessly, Liara twitched as she lay on the ground, willing her ruined body to stand.

Steel clashed on steel, throwing up sparks between the two knifes. As the blades grinded together for a few seconds, Grevel shoved and Tali sprawled out on the ground, coating her in a fine snowy powder. Standing above her, Grevel flipped her knife over and over again, using it as a metronome while she waited for Tali to get up.

"You're better than this," she growled at the quarian. "I know that you can still fi- arrrgghh!"

Tali had executed a leap from the ground and had twirled in mid-air. Her knife slashed across the back of Grevel's hand and she yelled, not from the pain, but from the rage that she had been duped so easily by the quarian. Grevel dropped her knife and Tali advanced, ready to sink the blade up to the hilt in Grevel's body.

Grevel sidestepped and hurled her arm forward. The armored gauntlet caught the edge of Tali's knife and it slipped free of her grip. It fell to the ground and the duo's scuffling feet buried it in a few inches of snow. Now free to attack, Grevel plowed her right arm into Tali's gut, producing a series of wet coughs, and she swept the quarian's feet out from under her, jerking Tali down on her back yet again.

But Grevel still refused to land a blow on her when Tali was defenseless on the ground. Still she persisted in letting Tali continue on with the fight, enjoying herself far too much to stop. Amused to no end, she laughed as Tali clutched at her stomach, but still groped to find her footing, lifting herself up on shaky legs.

The mask's red eyes gazed thoughtfully into Tali's white ones. "You don't give up easily, do you?"

Tali just chuckled at that, despite her wounds. "As long as there's still a fight going on, I'll never give up, you bosh'tet."

"I don't doubt it," Grevel admitted. "But, I believe it's time for the stakes to be escalated. What do you say? Shall I bring your human out here so that you can watch him freeze to death in the cold? Would that be the appropriate incentive to make you finally give me your damnedest?"

Tali's reply was only a guttural yell, a roar so loudly that she thought it could split the sky. She rushed at the hateful creature, her arms outstretched, ready to throttle the turian into submission. But Grevel turned at just the right moment, throwing out her left arm to impact directly on Tali's visor, barreling her over so hard it threw her legs into the air.

As she fell, Tali saw enormous chunks of purple glass fly up into the sky, glittering from the snow. There was an uncomfortable draft on her face, chilling her skin and producing a horrible realization as she continued to tumble. She eventually flopped face-down on the ground, moaning as she nudged the shattered remains of her visor, feeling tears start to form as she breathed in the air of Xawin. Pleas for forgiveness formed on her lips, all directed at Shepard as she realized that her fate had just been sealed.

Watching the whole thing, Grevel just laughed.