Chapter 14: Hostis Humani Generis

"Yuri." breathed Shepard.

The now thawed lunatic sank to one knee, catching himself before falling further. He recovered fairly quickly for a man who'd been a Human icicle for two hundred years. He stood slowly, and his head rose, his eyes locking with Shepard's. That sent a cold chill down his spine; it was as if he was gazing into the abyss… and the abyss was gazing back.

"I see you know my name." he said, his voice breathy. He glanced around the room, a look of mild surprise coming to his face when he saw the synthetic guards surrounding him. His look of amazement deepened when he saw the chamber's non-Human occupants, but was quickly replaced by a mask of curiosity. "How long was I asleep?" he asked softly.

"Two hundred years." said Hannah tersely.

"Such a long while… I'm surprised you didn't simply eliminate me." He spared a curious look for the anti-MC gear the organics were wearing. "It appears you came to this meeting prepared."

"I will be brief." said Hannah, her face and voice tight. "You are the most hated, feared, and despised war criminal in Human history. The only reason we haven't simply killed you is because we require your… expertise."

"I thought as much." he said with a small smile. That sent a second wave of terror and dread through Shepard. It was like seeing Death smile. "And how may I be of assistance?" he asked with a small, almost imperceptible, bow.

"We're facing an enemy that has the power to control minds. Our present technology" she said, tapping her headset "can block influences like yours, but not those we've encountered."

"Ah. So you've finally encountered the Reapers, have you?"

Those few words were like a bombshell being dropped in the crowded room. Hundreds of weapons were leveled and cocked at the psychic madman, and Hannah swayed on her feet, almost fainting. Raan actually did faint, although Sparatus caught her before she collapsed entirely. Hannah recovered quickly, but not quite as quickly as her son.

"You've been frozen for two centuries: how the fuck do you know about the Reapers?" he demanded, pointing his pistol at Yuri's head.

"If you fear that I obtained the knowledge from someone's mind, you need not worry." he replied calmly. "Your… toys are quite effective at blocking my powers, and the robotic guards you employ are impervious to them as well."

"You haven't answered the fucking question." he growled, pressing his gun against the man's forehead.

"I imagine I obtained the information in the same way as you did." he said, looking directly at Shepard. "I received it from a vision, which was given to me by an alien knowledge repository."

"A beacon?" asked Tali, looking even more stunned than Shepard. "That's impossible."

"I assure you, it is quite possible, madam. I doubt you would be interested in the story, however."

"She might not be interested, but I am." said Shepard, trying to kill the man with his gaze. "You will tell me about it."

"I will tell you whatever you wish to know… if you tell me one thing." he replied.

"And what would that be?"

"Your name."

"Johnathan Shepard… but why the fuck do you care, you crazy bastard?" spat Shepard.

"Because I dislike being at a disadvantage, and you already know mine. And I have never met another like myself. It is… fascinating. Truly exhilarating."

"Like you? What the hell does that mean?" asked Shepard, suddenly extremely wary, and slightly terrified.

"Another Human with psychic powers, of course." Yuri answered, saying it as if he were reciting a passage from a book. It was calm, simple, almost off-hand; the most natural thing in the world.

Shepard's mind went into immediate denial, then almost completely blank. "Bullshit."

Yuri laughed darkly, and it made Shepard's heart skip a beat, then another. If his smile was like that of Death itself, then his laugh was that of Satan.

"Of course you would deny it. So did I, at first." he said, still smiling that demonic smile. "I imagine that you wrote your influence off as something else. What is the American expression? A…" he paused for a moment to let the words sink in. "… silver tongue?" he hissed.

Shepard felt his pistol slip from his fingers, but he didn't hear it clatter to the ground. His mind was numb. 'No… He's lying… He's manipulating you. He HAS to be. You can't… you aren't… Oh GOD!' He found himself on his hands and knees. He didn't remember falling, nor did he remember vomiting, despite seeing the bile on the floor in front of him and tasting it in his throat. He felt the barrel of a gun press up against the back of his head, and for a single instant, he prayed for death. He welcomed it with open arms, but it didn't come. The barrel was quickly pushed aside, and a pair of soft, three fingered hands helped him to his feet. It was Tali.

"John…" she said, almost meeting his eyes. He quickly looked away, as if her gaze was scalding. He couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes: to see what must be there. Through his daze he saw that nearly half the guards in the room had their weapons trained on him, instead of Yuri. Every face he could see was filled with fear, except for two. Yuri's was a mix of curiosity and amusement, and Hannah's was simply stoic.

"You should be glad, Johnathan Shepard." said Yuri, unfazed by the unfolding scene before him. "You and I represent the next evolution of Humanity: Homo Superior."

"My son is nothing like you, you evil son of a bitch." snarled Hannah.

"Your son, is he?" asked Yuri, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he half-turned to face her. "Then you should be proud of him. He is the future."

Shepard recovered far enough for a single word. "How?" he asked in a ragged voice.

"The…beacon, as you call it." replied Yuri. "When it interacted with you, it unlocked your potential. In fact, I believe it can do the same for any Human that uses it... assuming of course that it wasn't destroyed."

"It was. When I die, there will be no more." he wheezed, feeling nauseated.

"You sound eager for death. Have you surrendered to the Reapers already?" asked Yuri.

"He hasn't surrendered to anything, you sick, twisted bosh'tet." said Tali, coming to his defense, placing herself between the two of them. Shepard couldn't understand that: she hated him. They all hated him. He hated himself. He was a monster. How could she defend him?

"Then he needs to learn to master his abilities. I sense potential in him, far greater than even my own. When I have finished training him, my powers will be but a candle beside his bonfire."

"You stay the fuck away from my son." growled Hannah, her voice filled with indescribable rage. "If you lay a single finger on him, you'll be praying for death for the rest of time."

"And would you throw him to the Reapers as he is now?" Yuri asked, a bit of anger in his voice. "Without training, his powers will grow uncontrolled. He may very well destroy himself or those around him before he masters them. It took me fifty years to conquer my own abilities, and I very much doubt he has that long."

"And why the fuck would you want to help him?" snarled Hannah.

"Because he has the potential to do that which I could not: he can unite Humanity,…" he glanced at the other species in the room. "… and others, to fight the Reapers, before it is too late."

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Hannah, clearly confused. This wasn't Yuri. This man sounded almost… sane.

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning." he said, adopting an almost lecturing tone. "I was born in 1904, in a small village near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia, to a pair of peasant farmers. When I was very young, barely four years old, my father took me on a hunting trip to gather meat for the family. While we were out in the forest, an object impacted the ground several miles from where we were. The impact, now simply known as the Tunguska Event, was covered up as a meteor strike, but that is far from the truth. The… device which arrived that day was a repository of knowledge… alien knowledge."

"It was Prothean." explained Tevos, almost recovered her shock from everything that had happened.

"Is that what they were called?" asked Yuri with mild curiosity. "Regardless, the… Protheans… imbued the artifact with knowledge of their destruction. Knowledge they believed would prevent their fate from becoming ours. My father and I were the first people to arrive at the device after it landed. I was… drawn to it, as if by some invisible force. It showed me something. A vision. A dream of what the Protheans had seen. It showed me a warning of their fate, and how to avert it. After it had finished with me, it destroyed itself."

"You knew about the Reapers?" questioned Hannah accusingly. "Why didn't you tell someone?"

"Are you really so foolish?" he asked angrily. "I was a young child; the child of a peasant. Who would have believed me?" Hannah had no response for that, but she continued to bore into him with her eyes. "At first, I didn't understand what had happened to me. I had flashbacks of the vision for years after that, nearly every day for my entire childhood. When I was older, I began to understand the visions… and I discovered the true extent of my abilities." he finished with a dark smile.

"And you used them, didn't you?" Hannah asked furiously.

"Of course I did." he replied automatically. "It was only natural. Just as man is superior to the beasts of the Earth, I am superior to man. I was chosen: whether by chance, or by fate, or by god, I was chosen to lead man to victory over the Reapers. And I fought for my entire life to make that happen. I used my abilities to ensconce myself as an advisor to Stalin after the October Revolution, seeking to use his power to unite the world beneath one banner. I very likely would have succeeded… if not for Kane."

"Kane?" asked Shepard, his mind beginning to work again through his shock. "Who's Kane."

"I… do not know." replied Yuri, looking uncertain for once. He almost looked afraid. "Kane was also an advisor to Stalin, and he possessed a… charisma; an influence even greater than my own. It was not the same as my abilities; it was deeper, more… primal. My powers had no effect on him; he didn't resist them, it was as if he didn't even exist, in body, in mind… or in soul. He commanded Stalin and those around him better even than I, despite being almost completely unknown to all of us. He disappeared shortly after the Allies won the Second World War, and I have never been able to determine what happened to him. I knew almost nothing about him, and… and he frightened me." he admitted, his voice filled with finality.

That revelation very nearly cost Shepard his consciousness. Anything that could frighten Yuri…

"Is Kane a threat?" asked Shepard softly, shaking off his astonishment.

"I do not believe so. When I activated my Psychic Dominators, I was privy to the thoughts and senses of the entire world. I believe Kane is gone, likely forever. How, where, and why, I cannot say."

"Wait. Are you saying that you built the Dominators to unite the world so you could fight the Reapers?" asked Shepard. His voice was stronger now, and he was almost recovered from Yuri's revelation.

"Yes. I believed it was the only way that mankind could be united, so we could be strong enough to resist our destruction. Apparently I was wrong."

"Don't pretend you did what you did out of selflessness." hissed Hannah. "You may have intended to fight the Reapers eventually, but you were perfectly happy enslaving the rest of the world in the meantime. What makes you think you have the right to do something like that?"

"What gives man the right to enslave beasts of burden?" he countered. "Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, any of them? I had the right because I am superior to man. As is your son."

"You're a twisted, evil, murdering psychopath." retorted Shepard, his voice firm for the first time in a long while. "Even if I have powers like yours, I'm not arrogant or insane enough to believe something like that. If these powers allow me to fight the Reapers, then I'll use them. If you can teach me to do that, then I'll use you. But I will NEVER become like you. I'll kill myself first."

"Are you sure about this, John?" asked Tali, her voice trembling slightly.

"No. But any man who's sure about making a deal with the devil is already lost."

Shepard sat in his quarters aboard the Normandy, alone in the dark. He had been there for over an hour, trying to process everything that had happened in the past day. He had stumbled here in a stupor after the… revelation. Yuri was being debriefed by a group of synthetic commandos, Alliance High Command trying to gain as much information from the criminal as they could before deciding his ultimate fate. And Shepard's.

There was a soft chime from overhead, indicating that someone wanted to enter his locked room, but Shepard ignored it. After a few seconds, it repeated, and was followed by a good old fashioned knock at his door.

"Just go away." he mumbled.

The knock repeated, louder. Finally, there was a brief surge of electricity in the holo-lock, and it turned from red to green as it was hacked. The door slid open, and Tali walked it. Seeing her, Shepard quickly faced away, staring at the wall. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He couldn't bear to see the hate and fear in her eyes that he knew must be there.

She walked over to his bed and sat down slowly next to him, saying nothing. She reached out a hand to touch him, but he jerked away as she brushed his arm, and he slid away from her.

"John, look at me." she said.

"Go away, Tali."

"Look at me." she repeated softly.

He turned his head slowly, but he looked down, towards the floor, seeing only her legs. She let out a sigh, and reached out her hands towards his face. He tried to jerk back, but she was faster, and she caught his head with both hands and forced him to look upwards.

"What do you see, John?"

"I see you, Tali." he said, trying to turn away. She wouldn't let him, and her grip got stronger.

"What do you see, John?"

"I…" He looked into her eyes for the first time. He was sure he would find fear. He was sure he would find hate. But he didn't.

"I see… concern." he finished weakly.

"You see love, John."

"No!" he said, almost pleadingly, finally breaking her grasp and looking away. "You can't say that. It's not possible."

"You big bosh'tet." she said quietly, grabbing his head again and roughly yanking his head towards hers. "Look into my eyes and say that."

"You can't…" He couldn't finish. "How can you say that?"

"Because it's true."

"WHY!" he yelled. He deflated immediately, and his next words were barely a whisper. "How can you stand to look at me? I'm a mon-"

She cut him off with a finger to his lips. "If you finish that sentence the way I think you were about to, I might do something I'd regret. And I don't regret this." she said, lowering his face to her and kissing him lightly on the lips.

That opened the floodgates. He found his hands entwined with hers, and she squeezed gently. Tears began rolling down his face, and all the fight went out of him. He sagged forward, his head on her shoulder, and he cried. He let loose sobs of raw, unfettered grief and fear, and tears poured from his eyes in rivers. He felt Tali's arms wrap around his body gently, and she pulled him into a soft embrace, holding him close. He cried for what felt like hours, trembling in her grasp, but it was only a few minutes.

"I'm… I'm so scared, Tali." he sobbed, over and over. "I'm so scared."

"It'll be alright, John."

"But what if it isn't?" he bawled. "What if I'm as bad as him?"

"You aren't." she said gently.

"But-"

"You aren't." she repeated firmly. "I know you, John. You're nothing like him. It doesn't matter what you can do. You're still the same person you were before. The same kind, loving, caring person you were yesterday." She laughed gently. "You might be a bit rough around the edges, but you're still you. Everything that makes you special, everything that defines you, it's still there. You're still Johnathan Shepard, the same boy I knew growing up, the same friend, the same soldier, the same man. And I still love you." she finished, kissing him once more, this time on the forehead.

His tears slowed, and his shaking stopped. "What if I change?"

She laughed. It was a glorious, wondrous sound, like a choir of angels. It made his soul lighter just by hearing it, just by existing. "Change?" he asked with a giggle. "Johnathan Shepard is too stubborn to change. He's been the same overgrown child for twenty years. He might be a bit more… eloquent in his ways," she said, a hint of sarcasm belying her words, "but he's still the same as ever. And he'll stay that way, forever if I have any say in the matter."

"Tali… I…" There were no words.

"John, I want to make something clear. I want you to do this, but only if you want to do this."

"Wh-what?"

"I know enough about Human history to know how bad Yuri is. If you can use that sick, evil, twisted, insane, murderous psychopath to do some good, don't you owe it to his victims to do it?" she asked.

"Well… I guess…"

"Use him, John. Take everything you can from him. Strip him to the bone, and leave what's left for the varren. Turn his foulness into something decent, something beautiful. You can do it, I know you can. When it's over, when everything's said and done, I think… I think you'll have repaid their sacrifice." She grasped his face again, and brought his eyes to meet hers. "And I'll be right there, beside you, making sure you never lose your way."

"Tali… what would I do without you?" he asked, his tears finally stopping completely.

"You'd probably end up with some Asari floozy out in the Terminus systems." she said with a laugh. "You always did need me to keep you on the straight and narrow."

"… Thanks Tali. I guess I needed some sense slapped into me."

She rapped him lightly on the back of the head. "You always do."

It took nearly three days to get Yuri fully prepared to board the Normandy. Not only were there countless questions for him to answer, but he had to be outfitted with an internal cranial explosive. It was connected via QEC to Pluribus, who was in turn connected to the Geth Consensus. The synthetic would watch him every moment of the day on the ship, and if the crazy bastard tried anything, his head could be blown to chunky salsa with less than the flick of a wrist. And just in case Pluribus wasn't there to watch him, Tali and Shepard had manual detonators as well. It never hurt to be too careful when dealing with a modern day Mephistopheles.

Needless to say, the crew of the Normandy was a bit nervous around the man. Joker had sealed the cockpit when he was brought on board, and would only come out when he had reached the cargo hold. Most of the military personnel, like navigator Pressly, chief engineer Adams, Ashley, and Kaidan, were reserved around him, and kept their cool, at least on the surface. Doctor Chakwas was the exception.

"Medigel had better be enough to fix him if he gets shot. I'd sooner strangle him with the Hippocratic Oath than treat that evil bastard."

Most of the non-Human members of the crew seemed to agree with that particular assessment. They might not have known the complete history of Yuri, but they saw how the others regarded him. At first, Shepard had believed they'd regard him the same way, but he was very pleasantly surprised when he discovered they leaned in the other direction.

"So you can fight me with your mind." said Wrex dismissively, apparently not quite understanding how MC worked. "Big deal. I can still break you in half without thinking about it."

Garrus was a bit more light-hearted about the situation. "Well, this explains how you beat me on Therum. And to think, you accused me of cheating." he exclaimed, his voice filled with mock indignation.

Liara was almost as supportive as Tali had been. "I saw inside your mind, John. There was nothing evil in there. A bit… uncouth, perhaps," she said with a small laugh, "but not evil. I trust you."

Pluribus had seemed confused when Shepard asked him. "Your inquiry is illogical, Shepard Commander. You have taken no actions to suggest that you possess behavioral patterns similar to those of Yuri Scumbag." That made Shepard snigger. Maybe Pluribus was further along with his humor than he'd believed.

"I told you before, Shepard. I don't care if you're Human, or even if you have psychic powers, I only care that you can do the job." said Nihlus, when Shepard came to visit him in Huerta Memorial Hospital. "Besides, you needed them to snap me out of the Thorian's clutches before I got a second hole put in me."

"We're with you, sir." said Kaidan, when he had cornered him in the mess. "And so is the rest of the crew."

"He's right, Skipper. You're a billion times the man that Yuri is. If you can even call him a man." said Ashley.

" 'Monster' would far more apt, I think." said Kaidan.

Chakwas had seemed more concerned for him than he was for her. "I'd like to run some scans on you, John. I can't be sure he didn't do something to you, and I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"I think it's the beacon that did something, Doc." said Shepard.

"I disagree, Commander. In my professional medical opinion, you're no different now than you were when I first met you." she said with an honest smile.

Even Joker had reverted to his smarmy ways. "So, I guess this means I have to be so much of a smartass that you can't stand to wiggle your way inside my head. Sounds like fun."

"I don't think that's possible, Joker." said Shepard.

"Just you wait, Commander. Just you wait."

He was glad to receive so much support from his crew, but his spirits rose even further when he talked to his mother and Captain Anderson.

"Don't you say one word, Johnathan." she said, pulling him into a fierce hug. "I won't hear it."

"I'd listen to her, John. She's not a woman to be trifled with." said Anderson, with a small grin. "Besides, now you can disembowel Saren with your mind instead of a rusty entrenching tool. Though I'd rather you use one anyway."

His… lessons… with Yuri had started almost the moment the man came on board. They still had no leads on Saren or Benezia, and if he was going to do this, he may as well get it out of the way as soon as possible.

"You must focus your mind, like the tip of a spear. It's similar to how you repel the influence of others, but as a sword rather than a shield." said Yuri.

"I don't like the idea of using my mind as a weapon against other people." retorted Shepard angrily. They had been sitting across from each other in the cargo bay for nearly five hours, and he was frustrated beyond belief with the psychic.

"Your mind is a weapon, whether you like it or not." Yuri replied, somehow maintaining that ever present calm of his. "The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be. And the easier it is, the faster you can get away from me." he said, almost snidely.

That had lit a fire under Shepard. He would do anything to get away from this asshole. Unfortunately, years of experience can't be learned in a few days. After nearly a week and a half of eight hour days under Yuri's… tutelage, Shepard could barely scratch the surface of the man's mind.

"This would go faster if you had a live subject to practice on." said Yuri, after yet another failed attempt by Shepard at penetrating his mental defenses.

"I'll blow your head off if you suggest that again." growled Shepard.

"And do you believe that your powers will be used for no other purpose besides fighting the Reapers?" he asked contemptuously. "They will do little good against a race of omnicidal machines as they are now. You must learn as quickly as possible if you are to stand against them. Presently, you're barely a match for one of my clones."

"And who would you suggest practicing on?"

"Even in this day and age, there must be criminals in the galaxy. Use them."

"I'm trying to, but the son of a bitch I have as a punching bag is proving rather resilient."

"Most amusing, Commander. Perhaps if you put the same effort into learning as you did talking, you would actually accomplish something."

After Nihlus got back from the hospital, Shepard couldn't stand being cooped up with the maniac all day. Rather than try to keep his gorge down while he waited and worked for progress, he decided he needed to do something relaxing with his time. He made his way off the Normandy towards Flux, alone for once as he exited the elevator leading to C-Sec, and he was ambushed.

"Commander Shepard! Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, Westerlund News. Would you mind answering a few questions for our viewers?" she asked, gesturing to the floating camera behind her.

He sighed. Of course. He'd dealt with the media before, and he could keep his cool. "What do you wanna know?"

"You've been given a unique position to represent our race." she replied. "People wanna get a sense of how you'll do that." She tapped a quick command on her omnitool, and the camera activated. "Humans have been trying to get the respect of the galactic community for twenty six years. With that in mind, what are your feelings on being the first Human Spectre?"

"It's been a long time coming. The Spectres represent the best of every species in the galaxy, and now, they represent Humans as well." he said, moving to parade rest as the interview began.

"Some have said your appointment is motivated by concerns other than your skill as a soldier. Political concerns."

"The Council chose me for the job because they believed I'm the best." he replied, trying to keep his frustration in check. "If there are others who meet the standards of the Spectres, I'm sure they'll recognize that."

"You really do believe that, don't you?" she asked rhetorically. Not waiting for an answer, she continued. "You've been given command of an advanced Human warship for your missions. Is there anything you'd like to say about it?"

"The Normandy was co-developed by Quarian and Human engineers. It incorporates many aspects of our combined technologies, all of which are classified I'm afraid. We couldn't have done it without them."

She wasn't satisfied with that answer. Suddenly, he could sense she was digging for something else, and it made him angry.

"So, the Quarians have knowledge of the Normandy that's being kept secret from the Alliance public?" she asked accusingly. "Do you think it was appropriate to hand Earth's most advanced warship over to the Citadel?"

That cut it. "Miss, al-Jilani, I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions." he replied, his voice firm. He focused his mind towards her like a needle, and was surprised when he felt almost no resistance. Pushing gently on her psyche, he spoke. "This interview is over, and I suggest you refrain from publishing it."

"I don't think I'll publish it." she said, her eyes glazing over. "Have a nice day, Commander."

As she walked away, Shepard contemplated what he had done. It made him sick to his stomach. He hadn't even thought about it, and that scared him. He may have only nudged her, but what if he went too far? How long until it felt natural? How long until… until he didn't care?

Suddenly, he wasn't in the mood to relax. As he headed back to the Normandy for yet another training session with Yuri, one though played over and over in his mind.

'I need to learn to control this… before it controls me.'