Having wiped out the last of the big bugs, the remainder of the team's transit to the tram platform itself was relatively uneventful. They easily boarded the tram and moved toward Rift Station, which was surprisingly vacant upon their arrival. There were only two exits; one went to the Hot Labs, but required a special pass they obviously didn't have, and the other went to Rift Station Central. Their options limited, the team climbed in and the elevator moved upward. When the elevator doors opened, they were greeted by a small ERCS security force led by Capt Ventralis. He was curious as to who they were, but was happy for any two-legged, armed assistance. Once he realized he had the talents of a Spectre team available, he gave them a quick rundown on the current situation. Only one person, a Volus named Han Olar, survived to get out of the Hot Labs alive, and Matriarch Benezia had gone down to the labs just the day prior; she had not yet returned. Security was tight, but the large creatures attacked every few hours and the guards were getting tired. They were surviving on long shifts and stimulants; not the best situation, but options were limited, given the circumstances. Happy to have a Spectre on board, Capt Ventralis gave Shepard a pass to the Hot Labs, and an offer of medical care in the main facility. Shepard thanked him for the information, and turned to her team.

"Chief, I need you and Tali, with her lovely little drone, to hold the tram station secure, and make sure the Matriarch doesn't slip out past us. If you see anyone or have any problems, call us and we'll come running. Liara and I will check out the med facilities, see what we can find out from the Volus, and meet you at the Hot Lab elevator. Good?"

Ash tossed out a quick, "Aye aye, ma'am," and they were on the elevator and gone in a flash. Shepard and Liara had just turned toward the main facility when they started hearing now familiar screeching and the captain shouted out, "Hell! Man the perimeter!" A grate near the elevator exploded upward and two of the large creatures erupted from the vents. Liara tossed a singularity over the vent and the security team quickly dispatched the bugs as they floated helplessly. After the captain thanked Shepard and Liara again for their help, the duo proceeded into the main room of Rift Station.

There was a strange combination of staff present in the room; humans, a Salarian, an Asari, and an Elcor. The Elcor actually turned out to be a merchant, and after a bit of bartering, Shepard happily unloaded a lot of the extra gear they had picked up along the way for some pretty decent credits; with the lockdown, prices were high, especially for weapons and armor mods. Shepard did not find the rest of the personnel so open to exchange. The Asari was very rude and uncooperative, claiming Shepard interrupted her meditations. She grudgingly answered a few questions, stating she was a molecular geneticist, Dr Alestia Iallis, but when Shepard asked if she knew anything about the Matriarch, she dodged the question by simply inquiring why the commander would ask her and not Liara. Liara eyed Alestia critically, and questioned why an Asari on a Spectre team should know the Matriarch better than a geneticist directly in her employ. Alestia's voice dripped in sarcasm when she replied, "Please. I work for Binary Helix, not the Matriarch. Yesterday's brief encounter was the first time I've ever seen her."

Shepard, unhappy with the evasiveness and condescending attitude of the scientist, was about to press the issue when she felt the soft touch of Liara at her back. The Spectre narrowed her eyes at Alestia and spoke with no emotion in her voice. "Fine. I'll let you get back to your meditations, but I may have some more questions for you later."

The Salarian, Dr Palon, was a little bit more forthcoming; he was also unwilling to discuss details of his job, but gave Shepard a bit of information on the labs and pointed them in the direction of Han Olar. After a very brief discussion, Shepard and Liara headed to the med bay to see what info the local doctor could provide. As soon as they left the main room, Liara grabbed Shepard's arm and spoke quietly in her ear. "That Asari is no geneticist, Shepard. She said nothing about the nondisclosure agreement, and spoke in vague generalities about her position. I have no evidence, but I believe she is lying. To what end, I do not know." As they continued to the med bay, Shepard agreed that something wasn't right, her sixth sense was hammering at the back of her head, but they had no course of action at the moment, so would just watch her as best they could.

The doctor in the Medical Lab was a human, who seemed rather on edge. After a brief discussion, they found out his name was Dr Zev Cohen, and he was a microbiologist, not a medical doctor. He told them the automatics, run by Mira, could handle basic treatments, and unfortunately that was all that was available. Shepard glanced at Liara, "Help me out of my armor and I'll hit up Mira to do what she can for me. You know what we need. See what you can find out." After pulling Samantha's upper armor off yet again, Liara turned to Doc Cohen, and introduced herself simply as Dr T'Soni, leaving out the minor detail that she was actually a Doctor of Archeology... She eventually discovered the injured men in the med lab were suffering from some type of toxic poisoning, and the cure was almost complete when the quarantine was activated. It would be a simple procedure to follow the notes and create some of the antitoxin, if they could just get back into the lab to do so, but Ventralis denied them access. The toxin breaks down after a very brief period of time, so the threat no longer existed; there was absolutely no reason other than unsubstantiated fear for them to not access the lab.

Liara filled Shepard in on the information she had gleaned from Cohen, and Shepard instructed Mira to terminate the current procedure. She had managed to complete all of the bone and major tissue work before Liara walked over, so only the bruising was left untreated. The commander would be sore, but fully functional. Liara helped her get all her gear on again and they headed out to go talk to the Captain. He wasn't very hard to convince, and soon Shepard and Liara were on their way to the Quarantine Lab. The route there took them through the barracks area, and they ran into the sole survivor of the accident, the Volus, Han Olar. As they walked up, Olar started talking. "You came to find out about them, didn't you?"

Shepard was surprised, as no one else had been willing to say anything to them; Olar spoke without even being prompted. He was very informative, telling them the creatures were called Rachni; that an egg had been found in an old derelict ship and brought to Peak 15 to be hatched. Other scientists in the room were adamant about Olar keeping quiet, saying he was going to get them all killed. When Shepard pressed him for more information, Olar answered, "I've told you all I can. We brought the Rachni back from the dead. In retrospect, a bad decision." Shepard asked Olar how he managed to survive when no one else did. His response indicated pure luck. He and a colleague had just decided to go to lunch and were preparing to board the tram when the alarms sounded. Olar ran onto the tram and closed the door, leaving his colleague behind. He talked with no emotion in his voice, "She banged on the window, once, and they sliced her to pieces. Her head came apart like a melon. I closed the door. I killed her."

After a brief moment, Shepard shook her head and continued, having no idea what she could possibly say to comfort the Volus, not even sure he was worth comforting. Instead, she asked about Benezia, and the odds of her surviving in the Hot Labs. Olar thought it was possible, "The specimens were sensitive to biotics." Shepard thanked Olar for the info, and they pressed on to complete the cure. When they got to the door of the Quarantine Lab, the Turian guard gave them a hard time about going into the lab, but finally acquiesced. Once in, Shepard checked all the lockers and storage containers for anything worthwhile, and Liara quickly found the notes and started working on the cure.

Shepard was not surprised when the evasive Dr Iallis suddenly showed up, saying, "Your mission ends here, Shepard." Shepard and Liara immediately noted the two Geth Troopers and additional Asari commando that rolled into the room behind her.

Liara commented, "I thought she seemed rather calm under the circumstances." Shepard was confrontational, asking what happened to the door guard. Continuing to be evasive, Iallis merely stated that the guard got in her way, leaving Shepard to interpret her response.

A dead calm then washed over the Asari, and she made a most unexpected direct statement. "I was ordered to eliminate you, should the opportunity arise, and here you are, trapped in this lab." She then shouted to her comrades, "Weapons free!"

Liara immediately launched a singularity, trapping both Iallis and the Trooper standing directly behind her. Sheppard rolled behind some crates and pulled her assault rifle all in one smooth motion, but before firing, she warped Liara's singularity. The resultant explosion, threw Iallis and the Trooper across the room, killing them both and evening the odds. The second commando warped the crates Shepard was hiding behind, causing them to smash into her and throw her off her feet, reducing but not dropping her shields. In the mean time, the commando left herself open to attack by Liara, who quickly blasted her with her Shuriken. Shepard didn't even bother getting up. She quickly rolled to her stomach and took aim on the remaining Geth, blasting it from the prone position with her assault rifle until Liara finished it with a warp. After a quick glance to confirm all targets were down, Liara called out, "Clear!"

Shepard stood up, laughing, and locked her assault rifle onto its storage clips. Adrenaline still rushing from the fight, Liara watched Samantha quizzically, wondering why she was laughing. Walking over, Shepard reached out one hand and pushed the barrel of Liara's SMG down, so it pointed away and toward the floor. Shepard's other hand gripped Liara around the neck and pulled her in for a deep kiss. After a very brief moment of shocked resistance, Liara figured it out and partook fully in the offered affection. Finally breaking in order to take a breath, Shepard whispered quietly in Liara's ear, "God, you're sexy when you take charge." Liara suddenly jerked back, eyes wide, shaking her head in denial, "What?... uhhh... No!.. In charge?.. That is not.." Sam dipped in again and silenced the stammering Asari with a second, much more brief kiss, then a finger resting over Liara's lips to keep her from starting to talk again.

"Relax, Blue. You did exactly what you should have done! I'll trust you to have my back any day of the week." Shepard then winked at her, and followed up with a grin. "Just don't expect that kind of reward after every firefight!" The shy Liara returned, and she blushed and stared at the floor. Shepard reached over and gently punched Liara on her upper arm. "Come on, holster that weapon and let's get this cure back to the Doc."

As they walked out of the Quarantine Lab, Han Olar approached them again, informing them that the Geth had initially arrived with Benezia, and then he pointed at the door they came through just five minutes prior. Shepard asked how to get into that area, and Olar told her it was a maintenance area, and any team lead would have access... like the med team lead, Dr Cohen. Shepard raised her eyebrows and once again thanked Olar for the information, before heading toward the med lab. On the way, Shepard contacted Ashley and filled her in on what had happened, and told her to meet them back in the main room, expecting to need their help in the maintenance area. They delivered the cure to the grateful Doctor, and he was more than happy to provide them his maintenance pass, swearing he had no knowledge of the attack by Alestia. He thanked them by providing them extra packs of medigel; it was all he could spare, and let them know there would be more labs in the back, once they passed through the tunnels. Shepard and Liara then returned to the barracks area and the entrance to maintenance, picking up Ash and Tali along the way.

As soon as they entered the maintenance tunnels, they realized it was literally a tunnel carved through ice and snow. Sensors indicated only one hostile ahead of them. They approached cautiously, Liara had a singularity and Shepard had a warp hovering in the power in their hands. It turned out to be a single Rachni soldier, easily dispatched. They passed through another doorway, and reentered the facility proper. Since they no longer had the tramway secured, Shepard pushed the pace, trying to minimize the window for anyone to slip out behind them. What Shepard hadn't realized was the additional labs behind the maintenance area included the Hot Lab, and before they realized where they were, they came face to face with Matriarch Benezia.

The Hot Lab was basically rectangular in shape, with raised catwalks all the way around the outside edge. From where they entered the room, the catwalk directly in front of them and the one to the right also accessed raised platforms. The Matriarch stood near the entrance to the platform directly in front of them. She was dressed all in black, looking very foreboding, and started speaking as soon as they entered the room. "You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. I won't be moved by sympathy, no matter who you bring into this confrontation."

The commander responded, "Liara's here because she wants to be, not because I asked her to." While they spoke, Ashley and Tali moved out along the right-hand catwalk to a flanking position

Benezia's voice was cold. "Indeed. What have you told her about me, Liara?"

Liara was taken aback by the Matriarch's lack of emotion, questioning, "What could I say, Mother? That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?" The pitch of Liara's voice climbed the more she spoke, making it blatantly obvious the situation was very difficult for her.

Liara's pleas did nothing. The Matriarch faced the group and delivered a not so veiled threat. "Have you faced an Asari commando unit before? Few humans have." Shepard glanced over, focusing on Liara's overwrought expression.

Looking back at the Matriarch, Shepard challenged. "I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter." The Matriarch's only response was that perhaps she should have been more strict with Liara while she grew up. Without warning, she launched a stasis field, trapping Shepard, while the first pair of commandos ran into the room. Tali quickly fired up an overload on her omnitool and Liara launched a warp, while Ashley drew a bead with her assault rifle and started firing away while moving toward cover. The stasis field wore off and Shepard charged toward the second commando, assault rifle at the ready. As she approached the commando, Shepard tossed out a lift, floating the commando helplessly in the air. Unfortunately, the commander also crossed through an open space, allowing the Matriarch a clear shot, launching a powerful warp, completely dropping the commander's shields and throwing her off her feet. With a grunt, Shepard rolled clear so Benezia couldn't get in a kill shot. Shepard boosted her shields, jumped up, and finished off the floating commando.

Benezia motioned again, and Shepard picked up that a commando and at least two Geth Troopers had rolled in, before jamming blocked her scanner data. Ashley and Tali had completed their loop and were now flanking the enemy, and Ashley put her first target in the crosshairs of her sniper, a Geth sniper that was part of the group. Tali had launched an attack drone that was certainly providing great distraction, shocking the commando at every opportunity. Benezia realized they were making fairly quick work of her forces, so she made yet one more gesture, releasing two more Geth into the mix. Liara launched a singularity, floating a Sniper, who Ash was more than happy to remove from existence. The action left Liara exposed, and just as with Shepard earlier, the Matriarch launched yet another powerful warp, catching Liara and throwing her against the wall behind a pile of crates. She laid there a moment, aching and dazed, a terrible realization suddenly dawning. My Mother just tried to kill me!

Shepard was furious. While Ash and Tali finished off the last commando and the final Geth Trooper, Shepard turned her assault toward Benezia, to find the Matriarch kneeling on the rear of the platform. She spoke once again, "This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear."

Shepard scoffed, keeping her assault rifle trained on the Matriarch. "The Rachni didn't cooperate with you, why should I?"

The Matriarch seemed to waiver, standing, unsteady on her feet, looking weak. "I shall not betray him! You will...you... ach..." She suddenly turned to Shepard and spoke clearly. "You must listen! Saren still whispers in my mind, I can fight his compulsions, briefly, but the indoctrination is strong."

Shepard did not trust what she saw. "Why are you able to break free of his control, now?"

Benezia answered quickly, "I sealed a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. Saving it for a moment when I could help destroy him! It will not last long."

Shepard continued, "So you could turn on us again?"

Benezia looked shamed as she responded, "Yes, but it would not be my will, Shepard. People are not themselves around Saren. We come to idolize him, worship him. We would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnaught of incredible size, and its power is extraordinary."

Shepard interdicted, "Sovereign's not like other ships. Where did it come from?"

The Matriarch did not know, but she did recognize that the technology was beyond any of the known species within the galaxy. She admitted that she was arrogant in her strength, but in the end she proved no match, ending up doing his bidding, searching for the coordinates to the Mu Relay. She revealed the Rachni had lived in that area of space, and it was the Rachni that found the relay, The Rachni are able to share knowledge across generations, with queens inheriting the knowledge of their mother. When they discovered the Rachni egg and it hatched a queen, Saren sent the Matriarch to extract the information. She hung her head in shame when she stated, "I took the location of the relay from the queen's mind. I was not gentle. I was not myself, but... I should have been stronger. I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it. Please! Saren wouldn't tell me his destination, but you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived." Benezia then started getting frantic, feeling her control breaking. Liara stepped forward, reaching toward her mother, and begged her to fight the compulsion, to stay with them. With her ebbing strength, Benezia turned to Liara one last time, "You've always made me proud, Liara!" Then, she was gone. As Liara hung her head in distress, her heart breaking, Saren's tool spun to face them once again, glowing with power and shouting, "Die!"

All hell broke loose, everyone surging into motion at the same time. Liara and Shepard threw simultaneous warps, and Tali launched a useless overload. Ash had kept a bead on the Matriarch the entire time from afar, so all she had to do was squeeze the trigger on her sniper. The Matriarch's initial assault put Liara in stasis, while Tali conducted a fighting retreat off the platform to find cover. Shepard charged the Matriarch, fired the final shot that put the Matriarch out of commission, and watched her sag back against the wall. The battle was not over, as more commandos entered the lab. Liara had broken stasis and launched a singularity, while Shepard continued to pepper the commandos with her assault rifle and Tali launched a drone. Ash stayed tight on the Matriarch, and made sure she stayed down. Over the next few minutes, the last four commandos fell and the group returned to the Matriarch.

As they approached, Benezia spoke, "I cannot go on, you will have to stop him, Shepard." The Matriarch explained she was still under the influence of the indoctrination, that she could not keep it at bay forever and there was no known cure. As her head bobbed and her eyes started to close, Liara rushed forward, calling to her mother. Benezia completely collapsed against the wall, and spoke her last words "Good night, Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn." Liara cried, holding her mother one last time, as Benezia died in her arms.

Shepard looked on for a moment, her throat tight, then walked away to give Liara some privacy in her grief. She observed the Rachni queen and approached it warily. As she did so, one of the dying Asari commandos, rose and started staggering toward the Rachni. It was surreal. Shepard was intrigued and horrified at the same time. Somehow, the queen was controlling the commando's body, and once the commando leaned against the glass wall of the enclosure, she started to speak. "This one serves as our voice. We cannot sing, not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless. Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all. We are the mother. We sing for those left behind, the children you thought silenced. We are Rachni. The children we berthed were stolen from us before they could learn to sing. They are lost to silence. End their suffering. They cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are. These needle men, they stole our eggs from us. They sought to change our children into beasts of war, claws with no songs of their own. Our elders are comfortable with silence. Children know only fear if no one sings to them. Fear has shattered their minds."

Ashley shook her head. "I get it. Lock a kid in a room, alone, for a long period of time, they'll go crazy. They can't cope."

The commander realized what the queen was asking. "You want us to kill your children? Are you sure they can't be saved?"

The queen answered simply. "It is necessary. Do what you must." She then placed herself at Shepard's mercy to make the choice between letting her go, or destroying her as well and consigning the Rachni to silence once again. After the queen promised to disappear, to go to some hidden place, Shepard agreed to release her, refusing to be responsible for committing genocide and eliminated an entire species from the galaxy. Shepard raised the pod and opened the release hatch. Before she fled, the queen promised to remember, to sing to her children of Shepard's forgiveness; then she was gone.

The commander turned to Ash and Tali. "Can you handle opening the acid tanks on the other enclosures? If not, I'll do it..."

Ash shook her head, and looked at Liara, still on the floor with her mother's body. "You've got other things to do, Skipper. I'll take care of this."

Shepard reached out and gripped Ashley's shoulder. With a silent nod of thanks, the commander called the Normandy, reported the death of the Matriarch and asked them to contact Parasini to arrange for the pickup and delivery of the body to the ship. She then moved to Liara and crouched at her side, gently laying a hand on her back. "Liara. We've got to go." A tear streaked face looked up at Shepard, breaking Sam's heart, but Liara made no effort to move; it was like she heard the voice, but the words didn't register. Shepard shifted her hand to under Liara's arm, and stood up, giving Liara a little lift. This time Liara responded, and finally stood up. Shepard ducked her head and cupped Liara's cheek, turning her head until their eyes met. Shepard sucked in a shaky breath and closed her eyes, pulling Liara close. As the Asari clung to her, weeping steadily into her shoulder, Shepard hugged her tight, saying, "I'm sorry, Blue. I'm so sorry..."

The crew of the Normandy stood at attention on the loading ramp as the ERCS squad delivered the stasis pod containing the body of Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. As soon as the pod was secured, Lt Pressley dismissed the troops. Soon the only two still on deck were Shepard and Liara. The commander had made time to get cleaned up, and had presented herself in her dress blues to escort Liara. She now stood ramrod straight, with her right hand behind her back, and left arm bent, Liara clasping it tightly through the crook of her elbow. Liara had also cleaned up, and was silently stoic, her face devoid of expression, other than a deep ache reflected in her eyes. Shepard made no demands, and was prepared to stand there all night if Liara required. Shepard had already passed the OSD to Tali, telling her to get together with the crew and come up with a game plan. Garrus was to handle it; it would be a couple of days' transit wherever they ended up heading. So, Shepard simply stood, a pillar of unwavering support as the rest of the world shifted rapidly under Liara's feet.

It was Dr Chakwas who finally broke the deadlock. Ashley had filed the medical status report in the commander's stead, so Karin knew the extent of Samantha's injuries, unaware she had gotten interim treatment at the med bay at Rift Station. The commander saw her approach out of the corner of her eye, and held a hand up, halting the doctor momentarily. Shepard looked over at Liara and shifted her grip to pull the Asari into a hug before speaking softly into her ear. "I love you, Liara. What can I do?" She got no response other than a head shake, and increased force as the Asari seemingly tried to bury herself deep into Samantha's supporting arms. The commander mouthed silently over Liara's shoulder to the Doc, "Meet you in med bay, soon." Karin acknowledged and headed off, her heart breaking for her young Asari friend.

Samantha gently guided Liara over to the stasis pod, and a single quiet sob escaped Liara's lips before she was able to stop it. Liara spoke so softly that if Shepard hadn't been holding her so close, she never would have heard it. "Goddess, Shepard. I can't believe she's actually gone." Liara's trembling hand caressed the lid of the pod.

After a few brief moments, Shepard was able to encourage Liara to head toward the med bay, eventually getting her settled into her room. Even though she convinced Liara to lie down, and got her tucked under the blankets on her bed, Samantha feared sleep would be a long time coming. She gently caressed Liara's exposed cheek, and whispered, "I've got to see the Doc, Blue. You rest, and I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise." Shepard gently ran a thumb across Liara's forehead and flowed her hand softly across her crest before she kissed Liara on the temple, stood and walked out to speak with Karin.

Karin gave her the standard once-over, and had Shepard stretch out on one of the tables to complete the soft tissue repair. Based on the medical status report from Ashley, she was surprised at the commander's condition, until Shepard explained about the Rift Station med bay. Shepard wasn't in a very talkative mood, and laid on the table in silence, eyes closed, her thoughts swirling. She thought about the names in the back of her journal. She thought about adding Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, but the matriarch was not a member of the crew, not the commander's responsibility. Technically, she was the enemy, but who she was, combined with her ability to briefly break the indoctrination to help them, put Benezia in a unique category that Shepard was unable to reconcile at the moment. She had killed the woman right in front of Liara. She wondered if Blue would ever be able to forgive her. If not, Samantha would no longer be able to wash off the blood. This time it has to be different.

It was a somber group that sat around the conference room. It just felt wrong to be doing this without Shepard, though everyone understood the reason. Garrus stood up to get started. "Alright everyone, let's get this done so we can get to the loading dock for Liara. Tali, what'd you get from that OSD?"

Tali sounded disgusted. "Forget it. According to the coordinates we got, the Mu Relay's inside the Terminus Systems. Alliance ships are not welcome there. Neither are Spectres. It's going to take a fleet, not a single ship, even if that ship is the Normandy."

Ashley pitched in, "Screw the Terminus! Our stealth system can get us in, but Saren will have his entire fleet orbiting Ilos. We'll never make it down to the surface in a shuttle without reinforcements. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to alert either the Alliance or the Council...We need a fleet to take him on at Ilos..."

Garrus looked around the room, and everyone just sat there, silent. "Well, I guess that's in then, if nobody has any more to add?" He looked around one last time and no one said a word. "Ok, the Conduit's on Ilos. That's where Saren's heading. Just wish we knew exactly what the hell the Conduit is. Guess we go to the Citadel. Everyone dismissed."

The group stood up sullenly, knowing the commander was going to hate their plan, but no one had a better idea, so the Citadel Council was the best option open to them at the moment. Garrus opened a comm line. "Joker. Lay in a course to the Citadel. As soon as that loading ramp door is closed, I want us out of here and in full burn to the relay." Upon receiving confirmation, Garrus headed down to the shuttle bay. Somehow, it just all felt wrong.