Against the looming, silken wall of unending black, the asari felt as tiny as a flea next to a slumbering varren. It had only taken her a few minutes to cross the cavern and reach the side of the structure, and so far no apparent alarms had been triggered. If they knew she was there, they were being quiet about it.

She had since made her way around nearly a third of the strange structure, and yet had encountered no doors, no seam- no indication of a break or a flaw in the metal at all.

It did not seem as though the ancient species who had constructed it were fond of airlocks, windows, ports, or vents of any kind.

She had lost complete communication with the surface now, Ferris having left her position at the edge of the shaft in order to help the krogan scout out some other way in to the cavern. That such a one existed Liara didn't doubt- after all, Osco and her men and supplies had not all come in the way Liara had.

Though her biotics had been nearly exhausted on the descent, she had activated her specialized suit systems. Hair-thin needles were injecting nutrients and electrolytes directly into her bloodstream, hastening recovery. Hopefully by the time she found a way in, she'd have enough biotic strength to make the difference in a fight.

As she came around one of the monstrous stalagmites that held the structure firmly in place, she suddenly spotted a form standing a few yards away. Immediately and silently stepping back behind the rock, she held her breath and waited a few seconds, until she was sure she had not been seen. Silently she drew her pistol, edging around the rock just enough.

The figure was a woman, wearing no protective suit. She was staring into the distance, and beyond her Liara could see half a dozen men in Orthrus colors, making their way across the cavern.

A guard contingent, possibly? Set to guard the main entrance and alert if it is discovered?

The woman was human, middle-aged- but not Osco, of that much Liara was sure. From what Liara could see, she was apparently unarmed. Her hands were in front of her and out of sight, making it possible she was actually holding some kind of gun blocked from view by her body, and her stance was odd…favored toward the left.

For a moment, Liara weighed her options. She had enough biotics to be able to hold the woman immobile instantly, long enough for her to at least disarm her and take her hostage. However doing so would make her presence known, and without knowing who this was or of what import they were to Osco, there was no quantifiable advantage to such a tactic.

Then the woman shifted a little, and Liara caught sight of what she was holding. It was a cane…and seeing it, she suddenly knew exactly who the oblivious watcher was.

Ruth Wyatt- Dr. Wyatt's missing wife.

Deciding discretion and observation were called for, Liara eased back behind the rock, retreating a few feet. Sliding her hand to her belt, she found the control for her tactical cloak, and activated it.

There was a faint sound, a hum as the cloak switched on. The sound was only momentary and not loud, but it was audible. She'd moved away to help mask it and held her breath a moment. Wyatt made no motion or indication she'd heard, and after she was certain, Liara moved forward again.

The tactical cloak was a rare item, generally only found on the black market. This particular one had been given to her by one of the best thieves in the galaxy- a woman named Kasumi Goto. Liara had recruited her aid during a particularly intricate mission a year or two back, and during events had ended up saving Goto's life. In return, the thief had given her the cloak.

While activated, it bent light, rendering its wearer all but invisible. Unfortunately, it could only be activated for short periods…half an hour at the most, before the battery expired and deactivated it. If one knew how to search for it, it also emanated an incredibly faint but very distinctive EMF signature. The signature was easily dismissed by most instruments as background noise, but there was no telling the advanced equipment Osco had within. Even with the cloak, Liara might stand out as if lit with neon.

Still, it was a shot to get in unseen, take stock of what they were up against, and plan strategy. She had to try.

She stepped quietly around the stalagmite just as Wyatt turned. Her brows were knit tightly, and her eyes swept right over the spot where Liara was standing, oblivious. Leaning on her cane, she nevertheless limped smartly to the nearby hull and planted her hand against it.

A doorway melted open, the metal parting and flowing away. Wyatt moved in as soon as there was room, Liara as close on her heels as was safe.

Instantly, she found herself in a hall of horrors.

The passageway was the same as the rest of the architecture had been- velvet black and smooth, floor, walls and ceiling. The corridor was long, stretching easily several hundred yards before it appeared to dead end. At even intervals along its length, there were shallow alcoves. Each was filled with fluid, blocked with some transparent medium that looked like frozen water or glass.

Each alcove held a figure- the same vibrantly colored and deadly aliens that had fought them on the black ship. They seemed to be unconscious at first, but as she followed Wyatt the truth became plainer. They were not alive at all. Some seemed to be in varying states of mutation or decay-flesh peeled away to display teeth or half-mummified internal organs.

Are these stasis chambers? Liara wondered. Did they linger here for untold millions of years until equipment failed and they began to die?

Perhaps it was that, or perhaps something far more horrible. They knew nothing about this alien race, save they were single-minded and incredibly deadly. Perhaps some leader or warrior of note was simply displaying the bodies of his enemies, and these were nothing more than preserved war trophies…a warning to those who might become ambitious.

Something Liara was becoming more and more certain of-these particular aliens did not build this complex, nor the black ship from the galactic core. They seemed far more like mindless soldiers or directed troops- sentient weapons that were pointed at a target and released.

Perhaps they were slaves of another species, who are the true architects of these wonders. Perhaps they were genetically created and built to be nothing more than an army, assassins.

They were nearing the center of the corridor now, Wyatt still walking with purpose. Abruptly, the aliens vanished from the alcoves…though the remainder were far from empty.

Through one clear barrier a human man peered out of the liquid gloom at Liara, his eyes half-lidded, nothing more than foggy, lifeless marbles. While he looked a bit fresher than the alien corpses, he was no less obviously dead, his flesh was a grayish-green.

The next alcove held another human, a woman this time, and just as lifeless. Locks of choppy blonde hair floated serenely around her face. When Liara saw that her forelock had been colored a bright pink, she abruptly recognized her, and realized she knew the man as well.

How many hours had she stared at their photographs? Seventy men and women that Liara had wondered if she could have saved, if only she'd managed to get to Lawson and stop her sooner. She'd memorized their faces, their names, all seventy of them.

The man is Dexter Sigarthian. This woman is Louisa Val-Kernberg. She moved to the next, where another man's body rested in its aquatic crypt. This is Richard Terkinswal, I am sure of it. Kelly Chambers…Jacob Taylor…Goddess!

It was the crew of one of the four ships that Miranda had sent through the relay. The crew, in fact, of the one they had found attached to the belly of the black ship at the galactic core.

They made it through, found the ship and locked on. They must have activated the archway and passed through folded space…ending up here. That means there is another archway here somewhere, a connection. The question is…did this complex do this to them, following some automated system- or did Osco?

She abruptly imagined Shepard floating in one of these alcoves and immediately fought to push the vision aside.

Focus, Liara. You must focus, if you want any hope of finding her.

Turning she put her attention back on Wyatt, who was now quite a distance ahead, and continued her pursuit. Given the woman's limp, it was nothing for the asari to catch up without running, as the beat of her boots on the cold metal would have given her away.

Here, near the end of the corridor, the bodies changed once again. These ones looked almost alive, floating serenely in their baths. The first she passed was a dark haired man…and the second. In fact, they seemed to be twins.

No, triplets…quadruplets? Goddess…they're all the same!

The final twenty alcoves on either side of the corridor all held a copy of the exact same human man. More, she was certain she'd seen him before, searching her mind before she came up with the answer.

Orthrus. That is it. No wonder we could not trace the money she was using to pay her mercs…she was not paying them; she was creating them! Every Orthrus trooper is a genetic copy of the next, and they are all probably programmed to obey her unconditionally. With enough time she could have an endless army.

Wyatt had reached the dead-end, and unsurprisingly the blank wall in front of her began to melt and part as the outside wall had done, metal flowing away until an aperture was formed. She stepped through, her silent and unseen asari shadow following right on her heels.

A round, domed room spread in front of them, ringed by soft blue and green lights set into the wall. A sort of stepped platform dominated the center of the space, and some kind of equipment bank hovered in a faint waterfall of light just over it.

Then, as Wyatt walked forward, the bank turned and then opened up. Out of a space in the center floated a structure resembling a chair with no sides or legs.

Seated upon it was Osco.

Liara's hand gripped the butt of her pistol tightly but she did not draw it, not yet. She could not tell what barriers or other measures might be in place to protect the mad scientist, and she did not want to give herself away just yet. Instead, her sky blue eyes narrowed with electric fire as she regarded the infamous scientist who had caused so much suffering and death.

Osco looked like her pictures…and yet, did not. She seemed to have lost twenty or thirty years in age, a young human maid now instead of the weathered matron she had been. There were strange marks on her cheeks, even yet ragged lines of black glimmering with blue that Liara at first took to be tattoos…before she realized they were some kind of cybernetic implant. Her eyes seemed to be a color beyond color, too bright to be natural.

What has she done to herself?

As the 'seat' neared the floor she lightly rose and stepped from it to even ground, her inhuman eyes fixing Wyatt…who looked almost horrified.

"Gellian…what have you…those implants…?"

Apparently, at least part of her appearance was a new development. Now that Osco was on the ground and closer, Liara could see the faint signs of inflamed flesh outlining the devices on her face. As she reached her hands out toward Ruth, yet more of the odd tech was visible, coiling over her forearms and wrists, fanning in thin threadlike hairs over her hands.

She reached toward Wyatt's face, the gesture an oddly affectionate one- but the other woman recoiled back from her touch, flinching a little. Osco's smile faded into concern.

"You fear me?" she asked, sounding hurt.

"N-No…never, Gellian. I just…what have you done? What is this?"

Gellian smiled again, the expression almost beatific. "This is the beginning of our future, Ruth," she said. "Oh…oh, but I was a fool. So limited in vision!"

Ruth's expression contorted a little, a mixture of wonder, fear, and grief. "You did it, didn't you? You went deeper into the complex systems…look what it's done to you! This tech, this alien tech it's-"

"It's opened my eyes!"

"It's changing you! God, baby, it's infecting you-!"

"It's improving me," Osco said softly, her voice filled with euphoria. She reached out again, this time catching hold of Ruth's face, her thumbs caressing her cheeks affectionately. "It's perfecting me, don't you see? My vision was so limited, my love…but now I see, I understand! The PMD means nothing! This is so much more than I thought possible!"

"Stop it," Ruth told her raggedly, grasping her shoulders as tears welled in her eyes. "Please, Gellian, you have to stop it…"

She moved a hand to stroke the other woman's hair, slim gold brows knitting. "Oh, my sweet loyal Ruth. Baby, you have trusted me for so long. You need to keep trusting me-"

"I trust you! I don't trust…all this! Listen to yourself! The PMD means nothing? You worked all your life, struggled for that PMD. Your blood, sweat, and tears went into its construction, your plan…and now that all means nothing to you?"

Liara, still undetected, listened to the exchange with increasing disquiet. It was now clear exactly what Wyatt and Osco's relationship was, and she very briefly wondered whose idea it had been to use Ruth's slimy husband as a pawn to get him out of the way.

That, she filed away to examine later. Of far more concern were these strange implants, Ruth's mention of 'going deeper into the complex systems', and Osco's claim that the horrific plague she'd engineered now meant nothing.

What new horror is to come about that would overshadow the PMD?

Surreptitiously, she activated her omni-tool to record, its faint light hidden by the cloak as she was. Looking around as she listened, she did her best to commit everything she saw to memory as well.

"I have seen the glory of an old dawn, Ruth," Osco continued, "and the coming of a new one that shall be even more glorious! The PMD was a faint ghost of a dream of what is possible, don't you see?"

"No, I don't…I don't understand…"

"The hands that built these wonders are not gone," Osco said, almost in a whisper, eyes dancing with malevolent delight.

"Wh-what?"

"I am one with this great soul now, Ruth. It is me, and I am it, and I shall bring back the hands that built these wonders! I-"

She broke off, suddenly looking upward as she took a step back from her companion. She seemed to be listening a moment, before her eyes languidly closed, a smile returning. "The black ship has reconnected with the Fold," she said. "They are sending troops through."

The Fold…the archway portal. Ash and the turians must be on their way through to here right now. Liara edged back, closer to the still open doorway. Moving carefully, as silently as possible, she gingerly drew her pistol and lifted it to aim at Osco's head.

"We have three hundred Orthrus ready to waken, and still about two dozen crew," Ruth told her. "They should be able to hold them back-"

"There are others, coming in the main cavern. They have encountered our guards at the entrance." Osco opened her eyes and looked at Ruth again. "I will wake our soldiers."

That will be Feris, Sihra, and the krogan coming in the front door, Liara thought. One way or another, this conversation was done. Time to end this.

She pulled the trigger once. The flash of light from the gunshot was hidden by the cloak, but the sound was not. As the weapon barked only a couple of feet from her ear, Ruth jolted in surprise.

A hole appeared directly between Osco's eyebrows, and like a puppet whose strings had been cut, she folded.

"N-NO!"

Ruth's wail echoed in the chamber as her cane clattered aside and she half collapsed beside the fallen scientist, sobbing as she slid an arm beneath Osco's shoulders and tried to cradle her. Switching off her tactical cloak, Liara took half a step forward and bent, reaching out and intending to grab Wyatt's upper arm and pull her to her feet. Barely had her fingertips brushed cloth than something cold and strong suddenly wound around her waist and her arm, ripping her back and off her feet.

The force that yanked her arm back was great enough to break her pistol free from her grip, sending it flying across the room. Liara, mid-air and moving fast, felt something whip around her neck and instantly her air was cut off. She started to flare with biotics, when her back and shoulders crashed into the wall. Even with her helmet, her head cracked back hard enough to momentarily flash her vision white, and the impact drew what air she'd had in her lungs outward with a pain-filled bark, before the garrote tightened again.

Several feet across the floor, Ruth gaped at her, clinging to Osco's body as if Liara meant to steal it. Then her head suddenly whipped back toward the blonde, her hold loosening in shock as Gellian lifted a hand and gripped her shoulder.

Gellian Osco wasn't dead.

Ruth stared, then released her, scooting backward as that fear came over her face again. Gellian weakly pushed herself into a sit, and then looked over at Liara. The mark of the wound on her forehead was notably smaller, and as she rose and walked toward the immobile, suffocating asari, Liara could see tiny metallic hooks, like miniscule claws. They were reaching out of the wound, gripping the flesh at its edges and appearing to weave them together, laying bone and skin down with astonishing swiftness. Just as Osco neared, the last of the claws disappeared inward, the wound closing and then vanishing completely.

"Next time, Spectre T'Soni," she said with a curling smile. "Aim for my brain and not for my head."

Her voice didn't just come from her mouth, but seemed to echo from everywhere at once, emanating from the very air around them. The blue and green lights were flaring brighter, and the once smooth walls were now writhing with what looked like snakes. It took Liara a moment to realize the metal was flowing outward and forming into dozens of tentacle-like appendages.

No doubt the same structures were what had snagged her…and were now choking her.

Her eyes watered madly as she fought to breathe. Her throat was nothing but heated pain, not even the thinnest draw of air getting through. The tentacle had to be incredibly strong in order to throttle her through the neck joint of her hard suit.

It is actually crushing the metal, some dim part of her mind realized. Her eyes were watering so badly that Gellian was nothing but a yellow and pink blur, the warning from her HUD's vital monitor flashing in alarming blotches of red.

Dark was starting to gather. One arm was pinned but the other was free, and she was trying desperately to find and loosen the garrote, but her groping fingers couldn't find purchase.

I am going to die, she realized as her vision dimmed even further, the smear that was Osco retreating away down a tunnel, sailing further and further into the distance. Goddess, I am dying.

Numbly, a million miles away, her weakly groping fingers went limp and numb, falling at her side. Something rumbled, barely heard, unimportant. Light and life was now just a tiny dot marring the perfect black.

Just as it vanished, she thought of Del. She could see the woman perfectly, just for a split second. She was half turned, a smile just appearing on her face, seeming to light her from within.

Then, everything was gone.