Chapter 82 - The Twisted Sister
"I can't decide which is more unnerving," Shepard says quietly, keeping very close to Liara as they continue to search through the dark halls of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery. "The darkness or those horrible shrieking sounds."
"The shrieking. Definitely the shrieking," Liara replies, just barely keeping her voice even, Shepard now and then sensing the asari shuddering by her side. "I don't want to think what sort of creature could make those sounds."
"I'm afraid I do not have any data that could shed light on the source of the sound, Dr. T'Soni," EDI replies, somewhat unhelpfully. "However, perhaps the corpses directly ahead of us will offer an explanation."
"Corpses, what corpses... oh," Shepard falls silent as Liara directs her flashlight to illuminate the gruesome scene of battle, a fallen asari commando surrounded by five dead Reaper cannibals. "Damn it, so it was the Reapers, after all! The Ardat-Yakshi must have sent the distress beacon themselves."
"Yes, they might be innocent victims in all of this," Liara nods, then cringing as the terrible shrieking noise resounds louder than before, the source now appears to be much closer to them. "I'm not sure why would the Reapers target such a remote place?"
"I doubt we will be very overjoyed once we find out," Shepard mutters at herself, growing increasingly tense from the horrible screaming, and her imagination is working overtime to supply her with vivid images of what creature could be responsible for such infernal noise. None of these images are particularly pleasant or friendly.
Liara is busy checking the omni-tool of the fallen commando. "It seems they were planning to set up a bomb in a place called the Great Hall," the asari says.
"Right. I wonder if they intended to look for survivors, first?" Shepard asks, Liara looking up and shaking her head at Morgan. "Thought so. Charming. Well, we will do that, before setting off the bomb. Don't care if the asari High Command believe that the Ardat-Yakshi need to be eliminated together with the Reapers, just to be on the safe side. We're not going to do that."
"Good," Liara nods. "I do approve. I guess I'm just not a very good asari, am I?"
Shepard is about to reply to that, but gets interrupted by EDI, the synthetic having wandered off somewhere to the side, in the darkness. "Commander, you might be interested to see this. The data terminal here holds several messages you should be aware of."
Liara and Shepard quickly join EDI in the more lavish quarters of obviously someone high in the staff hierarchy here at the monastery. "Matriarch Gallae," Liara reads a plaque on the working desk, nodding at herself. "She would have been the one in charge of this facility."
"The encryption on her personal files was very weak, Commander," EDI explains, allowing Shepard to access the computer console. "Obviously, since the Ardat-Yakshi had limited extranet access and no expertise in hacking, she did not feel the need to protect this information better."
"Let's see what do we have here... the basic set of rules... the daily schedule... boring stuff, what am I looking for, EDI?" Shepard asks.
"The message from Superintendent Jethra, dated six weeks ago," EDI explains. "I believe it involves someone you are familiar with."
Shepard finally finds the relevant message, opening it. It is a warning that Jethra has sent to Matriarch Gallae about an extremely dangerous criminal, wanted for serial murder in over twenty-three systems. Attached are the letters sent by this criminal to her Ardat-Yakshi sisters, who have found shelter in this very monastery. "Gods..." Shepard exclaims, when she realizes the truth. "Morinth... her sisters are here. Samara's two other daughters are here! Oh gods, please, let them be alive and well..."
"This is alarming," Liara says, peeking over Shepard's shoulder. "What does she write?"
"Let's see..." Shepard focuses her attention back to the attached messages, starting to read them. "She wrote to let them know about Samara's death. I wonder if these bastards at least told her daughters that their mother was dead? As for the rest... she wanted to persuade them to escape this place, to join her in freedom. She would have seduced them to her dark ways, of course, but... nonetheless, I feel that she still cared for them, even loved her sisters. Never expected to see this side of a heartless killer."
"A person can be a twisted mass murderer and still care deeply for their family," Liara says. "One does not automatically exclude the other."
"Too true," Shepard nods. "We should hurry, though. If there is a chance to save these girls, Rila and Falere, we must make the best of it. I need to do something to make up for Samara's death..."
"I'm sure it wasn't your fault, Morgan," Liara speaks softly, putting her hand on Shepard's.
"Trust me, babe, when I say that this one was," Shepard replies, then shaking her head and moving onwards, Liara and EDI following closely.
Their path onward leads through several halls and corridors, signs of sporadic battle here and there, mostly the bodies of dead Reapers, but now and then also some of the asari commandos. As they arrive in a wide, beautiful central hall that is almost like a small park with giant ferns and several small trees, Shepard realizes that the horrible screeching noise has finally ceased. However, its absence suddenly feels even more disturbing, as is the complete silence surrounding them now, it makes her think that the creature is no longer making the noise because it has finally located them, quietly waiting for its prey to approach.
Suddenly, the horrendous, deafening screech resounds almost next to them, forcing Shepard and Liara to nearly drop their weapons from the shock. "There!" Shepard points at a platform slightly to their right, stairway from it leading right down to the central hall. On the platform, there stands a creature of nightmares, almost reminding Morgan of ancient Egyptian mummies, slowly shuffling towards them, glowing with powerful biotics. "What the... what the fuck is that?" she manages, taking aim with her sniper rifle, the appearance of their foe unnerving her.
"I don't know, Shepard, but I don't like this," Liara mutters, looking rather disturbed. "Those barriers look difficult to disable," she says, launching one of her warp fields towards the slowly staggering creature, but just as Liara's biotics are about to hit it, the monstrosity suddenly glows brightly and makes a biotic jump several yards forward, then more and more jumps, quickly moving to the ground level and uncomfortably close to them.
"Fuck, that's just unfair!" Shepard swears, as their foe suddenly unleashes a biotic sphere in their direction. "Scatter!" she shouts and they desperately hurry away, but the powerful detonation still causes damage to their shields. The encounter becomes a dangerous battle of attrition, as they are at first completely unaware of the creatures abilities, and thus do not have a ready strategy on how to deal with it. Fortunately, Liara is able to formulate her tactics on the run, realizing that the best time to unleash her warp fields is after the creature has finished her sequence of biotic jumps.
Slowly and unavoidably, they whittle down the creature's barriers and armor, but while being so focused on avoiding its deadly attacks, Morgan completely misses a patrol of Reaper cannibals flooding into the hall from the northern entrance and catching her completely unaware. Her shields quickly fade under their weapons fire and at least couple of shots score hits before she can activate her cloaking, the instant application of medi-gel preventing blood from seeping out and revealing her location.
The disgusting screeching thing is on its last legs, when it finally catches up with EDI after a series of jumps and picks the struggling synthetic off the ground, raising its talons to pierce EDI's chest as if wielding a spear. Fortunately, it is not intelligent enough to realize that its prey is a synthetic with no easily penetrable flesh, and while the thing of horrors manages to leave deep scratches on the AI's platform, it mostly damages its own claw by ineffectively scraping at EDI's armor. It throws EDI to the ground with an angry scream, and the synthetic uses the moment to unleash a plasma charge at the Reaper monstrosity, at the same time as Liara hits it with another warp field and Shepard unleashes a series of shots aimed at the back of the creatures head. It slowly slumps on the ground, leaving them only with the cannibals to overcome, which after dealing with this new horror seems like a trivial task indeed.
"Goddess... what have the Reapers done?" after the battle is over, Morgan finds that Liara has gone completely pale, shaking with rage and disgust. "That... used to be a person. An asari!"
"Dr. T'Soni appears to be correct," EDI agrees. "This new form of Reapers was a mutated shape derived from an asari. I would also propose a theory that this creature could only be created from asari with genetic anomalies similar to the Ardat-Yakshi, otherwise the Reapers would have created an army of them on the occupied asari colonies, and yet this is the first time anyone has encountered a creature such as this."
"That theory seems sound, EDI," Shepard says, then turning to Liara. "I'm sorry for having made jokes about this on Palaven. Gods, this was... disturbing, just so very disturbing..."
"No need to apologize, Morgan, you could not have known," Liara says, still looking shaken as they quickly stride across the hall, suddenly wanting to quickly complete this mission and leave this accursed place.
They open the doors leading out of the central hall to come across a scene of a Reaper cannibal cornering a young and innocent looking asari, trying to protect herself with weak biotics that don't seem to have much of an effect on the Reaper. They probably would not encourage the Ardat-Yakshi to develop their biotic potential, in fact, they might have actively suppressed it, Morgan realizes as Liara quickly throws a singularity on the cannibal and EDI perforates its head with several perfectly accurate shots of her pistol.
"Thank you," the young asari breathes in relief. She looks a little like Shepard remembers Liara during their first meeting on Therum, except that this asari has elaborate, dark facial markings. "I thought it was safe to come out of hiding, but these things are everywhere! You... you are not one of the commandos, are you? No, you are one of those aliens that everybody fears... human, are you not?"
Shepard cannot help but to smile at that. "Yes, I am a human, but you have nothing to fear from me," she says kindly. "My asari friend is not a commando either. And that..." she looks at EDI, wondering how to explain best. "...is just our mobility assistance mech. We have been sent to finish what the commandos started, but unlike them, we wish to search for survivors first."
"Then you must save Rila!" the young asari exclaims. "She is in danger, I just know she is! Oh... why did she choose to follow Morinth to the Great Hall..."
Shepard jerks with sudden alert. "Wait, Morinth? Morinth is here?!" she asks, feeling her head spin with elation. If she is here, I can fulfill my promise to Samara! I cannot let this opportunity slip by! "You are Falere, aren't you?" she asks then, looking at the young asari, who just blinks at her in surprise. "Rila and Morinth are your sisters. And I knew your mother, Samara. She was with me on the mission to stop the Collectors, she died a hero's death in my arms. My name is Commander Shepard."
"Shepard! Yes! Yes... my mother mentioned you in the last message she sent to us!" Falere's eyes widen in realization. "I... I am glad you are here to help, but quickly, we must hurry, Morinth will do something awful to Rila, I am sure of it!"
"Morinth is undoubtedly evil, but I don't think that is what she intends to do, Falere," Shepard says, as they quickly follow the young asari through the monastery halls, wary of ambushes.
"You don't think so?" Falere sounds surprised. "But you must have heard of Morinth from my mother. She is evil beyond redemption! Mother always claimed so!"
"And I am not denying that, she is a heartless killer. However, you probably never knew this because Matriarch Gallae intercepted all her messages, but Morinth wrote to you and Rila constantly," Shepard explains. "I read her letters. She wrote about missing you two horribly, and I got the feeling that her sisters were the only thing in the galaxy she genuinely cared about. I could barely fathom Morinth being capable of such feelings, but apparently she dreamed and hoped to free you from this place, so that you could all be together."
"I... she did? But... we should never leave this monastery, this is the only safe place for us..." Falere shakes her head resolutely. "Anywhere else we would have to live like criminals on the run. No, I... I could not live like that, always worrying that I might give into my dark instincts and follow Morinth into oblivion."
"But we will have to evacuate you and your sister from the monastery," Liara says. "You would not be safe here, and we cannot allow the Reapers to capture you."
"I... I agree," Falere finally nods. "They have been turning my friends into those... into those... banshees!"
"Banshees? That's actually a very appropriate name for those freaks," Shepard adds.
Moments later, a swift elevator ride leads them down to the Great Hall, where at the bottom of a wide set of stairs, they see the massive bomb delivered by the commandos, meant to reduce the monastery into a smoldering crater. There are two asari, crawling on their knees around the bomb, going through the possessions of the fallen commandos in search of something. Both are easy to identify, the young asari in a robe of identical cut to Falere's is her sister Rila, both sisters would look almost like identical twins, if not for Rila's white facial markings, compared to Falere's darker ones. And then there is the other asari, the one that Shepard does recognize, wearing a tantalizingly shape-fitting black suit, it is Morinth, Samara's unruly daughter.
"Rila!" Falere exclaims with fear in her voice. "Get away from her, quickly!"
As Rila raises her head, looking at them confused, Morinth's eyes meet Shepard's and she bolts back in instant understanding. "You, I recognize you! You're that Alliance hero... Shepard, the one my mother traveled with," she speaks, her voice urgent, not sultry like on Omega. "I never did thank you for saving my life at the Afterlife, but... something tells me that you are not here to do the same again."
"Not really," Morgan shakes her head. "Your mother died in my arms, and the last words she heard in this life was my promise to hunt you down, Morinth."
"We don't have time for that now!" Rila exclaims, sounding frustrated, when Falere attempts to pull her away from Morinth's side. "I came here to help Morinth arm that bomb, and I will not allow you to interfere! Our friends here... they have been turned into those terrible Reaper monsters! We must... we must grant them peace in death, their existence in this state is an atrocity!"
"I assume you were looking for a detonator, when we came across you," Liara speaks, approaching to stand at Morgan's side.
"That's right, we thought one of the commandos here would have it, but so far we haven't been able to find it," Rila admits.
Shepard catches Morinth staring intently at Liara, before suddenly taking a few short strides to where Liara's eyes had inadvertently pointed at, bending down and pulling out the small detonator, wedged in between two heavy crates. "There we go," she says, sounding satisfied.
"Hand it over, Morinth," Shepard orders, understandably not trusting the Ardat-Yakshi murderess with tools of mass destruction.
"So, are you offering to stay behind and trigger it?" Morinth stares at her mockingly. "This detonator will only work in limited range."
"She is not lying, Shepard," EDI says, having silently analyzed the bomb mechanism while the others have been bickering.
"What do you propose then, Morinth?" Shepard asks, crossing her arms on her chest, facing down the Ardat-Yakshi.
"I came here for one reason, Shepard. To save my sisters," Morinth replies. "I had hoped that the three of us would escape this place together, but... I realized soon enough that this would not be an option. I could never persuade my sisters to come with me, they would never trust me, and I cannot truly blame them. And now that you are here... you would not allow me to leave this place alive, would you?"
"No, I would not," Shepard says tersely.
"Does your thirst for vengeance demand that you destroy me by your own hand?" Morinth asks, her large, expressive eyes making Shepard wonder if she truly is speaking to a heartless killer, responsible for killing hundreds if not thousands. "Or will you allow me to save my sisters as the last thing that I do in this life?" she asks, gingerly rolling the detonator between her fingers in a way that makes Shepard extremely nervous.
"Can we trust you to do that?" Liara asks suddenly. "Perhaps this is simply a ploy to escape this place?"
"There is only one exit from this floor, the elevator we took to get down here," Falere says thoughtfully. "Morinth may be speaking the truth, for once." As soon as she has finished speaking, they are greeted with a cacophony of shrieks, coming from somewhere uncomfortably close, it sounds as if several of these disgusting banshees are close on this floor.
"You know what I am, Shepard," Morinth says urgently, looking at her. "I crave to seduce you, to Join with you and then leave you a charred, drained husk, that is what I do. What I have done to hundreds. I would do it to your asari, too," she looks at Liara who involuntarily takes a step back. Then Morinth's eyes fall on her sisters and her face changes, expression becoming softer. "But as difficult as it might be to believe, I love my sisters, and I wish to see them safe. It is important to me, now that circumstances have created an opportunity for them to escape this gilded cage. Let me do this for them, please."
"Damn," Shepard curses helplessly. Well, better Morinth than anyone else here, I guess. And our time is running out, those banshees will arrive shortly. "Alright, Morinth. EDI, how much time do we need to get back to safety?"
EDI pauses for not more than several seconds, before responding. "At minimum four minutes, Shepard."
"We need to go, those... those creatures will be upon us soon," Rila says, looking at Morinth. "I'm sorry, sister... I wish things would have worked out differently... I wish that you had never escaped this place."
"I regret nothing," Morinth smiles. "The only thing that I ever missed was you, sweet Rila. And Falere, you too."
"You deserve to be punished for your sins, Morinth," Falere says sternly, but then her face softens as well. "But... I will pray for you, sister."
"Thank you, Falere," Morinth says, remaining behind and looking determined as Shepard pulls her sisters away and towards the elevator.
Grimly and without saying a word, they stand in the elevator, setting into a run as soon as the doors open on the upper floor, rushing through the hallways until they finally reach the exit, Shepard and Liara almost forcefully pushing the two young Ardat-Yakshi into the shuttle, both Falere and Rila muttering something about leaving the grounds of the monastery being a sin punishable by death.
"Girls, the Reapers and their invasion are rewriting all the rules in the galaxy," Shepard tells them, as the sisters can't stop fidgeting nervously onboard of the shuttle. "Even if we manage to defeat them, nothing will ever be the same after the war is over, I can safely promise that."
"But... where will you take us?" Rila asks, holding her sister tightly. "Nobody will want to give shelter to Ardat-Yakshi! And without Matriarch Gallae and the rules of the monastery, how can we avoid succumbing to our dark desires?"
"You will survive by being strong and looking out for each other," Liara answers softly. "Your love and support for each other will keep you safe, I know it will. And... perhaps together with Spectre Shepard, we will think of some place for you to find shelter."
"I have an idea, already," Shepard smiles, forcing Liara to look at her curiously. "I'll tell you later, after I've had a talk with a certain... relatively friendly asari."
"Shepard, no respectable asari will agree to harbor two Ardat-Yakshi," Liara shakes her head.
"Does that mean you are not respectable, Dr. T'Soni?" EDI pipes up from the pilot's seat, as the two sisters embrace each other even tighter, but at least they appear less frightened.
"EDI has a point," Shepard chuckles, as the Kodiak shuttle slowly closes in on their designed rendezvous point, settling into a slow drift as they wait for the Normandy to pick them up. "But I guess it's a good thing then that the asari I was thinking of is far from respectable..."