Recap: 'Hold on guys. I'm coming for you.' Shepard thought ready to stop the Thorian and save his friends.
Now
Shepard checked his grenades. The number was at 10. That was the amount he could carry. The amount of chances he had to knock the colonists out. He then remembered something. He quickly approached Dr. Gavin Hossle. Hossle noticed Shepard approaching.
"Any luck finding my workstation out in the ruins?" Hossle asked.
"I managed to find the data and transfer it to your OSD." Shepard said as he tossed the OSD to Hossle who lunged for it.
"Excellent news, thank you." Hossle said.
"Well, I need to get going." Shepard said. Hossle nodded.
"Good luck Shepard. Here. Just in case you manage to find more grenades in the colony." Hossle said as he handed more Thorian gas mods. Shepard nodded in thanks as he moved to the mako. Shepard then checked his helmet for any leaks so the spores would not get in. He then entered the mako and began driving. As Shepard drove down the skyway, he thought of various questions. Is his team okay? Will he have to fight them like the colonists? What can the Thorian do?
"Shepard, I think it's best if you come up with a plan." Isaac said.
"Yea, I got one forming in my head right now." Shepard responded.
"Want to tell me what it is?" Isaac asked. Shepard was about to say something when he noticed they were coming up to the entrance to the colony. Shepard stopped at the door and waited for it to open.
"What the hell?" Shepard said aloud.
"I think we might have to hack the door." Isaac said. Shepard got out and noticed something. That something was curled up into a ball right in front of the door.
"What the fuck is that?" Shepard asked Isaac.
"I..I don't know." Isaac said completely bewildered.
"Well let's just get the door open." Shepard said as he made his way over to the door until he suddenly stopped when he sensed something about the thing.
"Shepard what's wrong?" Isaac asked, noticing Shepard stopping.
"Remember when I said that I felt something similar to a mist covering the colony and it was heavier around the colonists?" Shepard asked as he slowly turned to the thing.
"Uh yea, you were sensing the spores right?" Isaac said.
"Yea, and this thing feels like the mist except it's more heavier, condensed. Like it's completely made out of it." Shepard said as he kept his eyes on it.
"Yea but for all we know it could be a flower or some-" Isaac said until he was cut-off.
"Ooohhh." Shepard watched as the thing unwrapped itself and stood up, showing to be some kind plantlike creature similar to a husk, but without the wires. The thing then looked at him and attacked. Shepard dodged, but decided not to hit back. Instead he thought it best to watch and study it's movements.
'So this thing has no ranged attacks.' Shepard thought as it swiped at him. He then heard Isaac's voice in his helmet.
"Shepard, I've analyzed this creature's biology. It's very susceptible to fire, shredder rounds and the neural shock." Isaac said.
"Thanks, but I'll watch a little more." Shepard said before he kicked the thing. The thing... the creeper got back and swung its arm harder this time.
'1... 2... 3!' Shepard mentally counted before dodging. 3 seconds was the time limit before it swung its arm. The creeper began to swing another attack at Shepard once more, but this time Shepard caught the attack and held on. The creeper used its other arm and the result was the same. Then the creeper opened its mouth.
'Is it going to speak?' Shepard mentally thought to himself. He was proven wrong when the creeper suddenly barfed this disgusting green goo all over him.
'AWW DAMMIT! Come on!' Shepard mentally yelled out.
"Shepard this stuff is acidic! It's ignoring your armor's shields." Isaac informed.
'Okay I can't let these things get to close, they don't have any real ranged attacks. They obviously aren't smart enough to adapt when fighting someone. Now, is the Thorian watching or not?' Shepard mentally thought out. This was a new enemy who might have had something watching through its eyes. The creeper then ran at Shepard who sidestepped it putting his hand behind his back. Before the creeper could turn around, its head exploded. As its corpse fell to the ground, Shepard was revealed holding his shotgun with one hand. He then stared at the corpse waiting to see if it could move in its condition. Luckily it didn't. Shepard quickly took off his helmet and ran to the edge off the skyway before throwing up. His head was pounding and he was nauseous.
"Isaac what's wrong with me?" Shepard asked Isaac since he had never been sick since he had arrived on Omega. Shepard's omni-tools lit up since since his helmet was off.
"That vomit from the creeper was toxic. Since this is your first time going up against this stuff, it is going to make you sick." Isaac informed. Shepard then started to feel better and his headache went away.
"Did my genetic tailoring adapt to it that quickly?" Shepard asked aloud. He wasn't expecting Isaac to answer this time, so he was surprised a little.
"Partially. It's mostly due to the medical exoskeleton you grafted into your armor." Isaac said. Shepard then thought of the things that upgrade could do. There was a very fast application of potent medi-gel, it also help replenish his fatigue levels to use his abilities more and then there was... a very high toxin resistance. So that was what helped. Shepard got back up and walked over to the garage door. Shepard then used his sixth sense to feel what was on the other side. He felt more of those creepers just right at the door.
"Great, I'll need to adjust my plan for those things." Shepard said.
"Want to fill me in on it?" Isaac said.
"Yea it could help." Shepard said before he filled Isaac in on things as he began switching all of his guns' rounds to shredder rounds.
With the Thorian.
The Old Growth had spent thousands of years alive. It had been here before the so called protheans. When they landed, it studied them. Curious about them, it sat and waited until one of them came close enough into its cloud of spores. The prothean was then enthralled and was used to lure others to the Thorian who would also share the thrall's fate. For a few thousand years it had worked until... they came. Those colossal machines attacked and wiped out all of the protheans, including its thralls. It tried to use the other protheans that machines allowed to live, but for some reason the spores didn't work. Eventually the Old Growth fell into a deep sleep and waited for those blasted machines to be gone. It slept peacefully until something woke it up. A new race, different from the protheans had arrived. The Old Growth watched until it took control of a few of them. Life was peaceful until that fleshling came into its domain. It should have just destroyed him, but unfortunately he came with the cold ones, the ones they call geth.
They talked and bargained. When things were done, the fleshling betrayed it. He ordered the geth to destroy it's thralls and then it. It used its tools to the best it could, losing many. When it believed that its time was coming to an end, they came. A band of fleshlings of different races. The one who led them was after the fleshling Saren and the geth. The Thorian, seeing its opportunity, commanded the thralls to help in anyway possible. The Thorian watched as the band helped the its thralls. First by pushing the geth back, by getting rid of them and finally helping get the thrall's community a chance to survive. That was when the Old Growth decided to keep them all. When the leader separated from the group, the Old Growth would've struck if the leader hadn't been going to wipe out the geth. The Old Growth couldn't see that far, but was sure the leader would succeed, but die in the process.
So the Old Growth turned its attention towards the group and listened for their progress. It couldn't see anything until the group came upon one of the more strong willed thralls. To prevent discovery, it caused the fleshling great pain and made the group believe that he was crazy. The Old Growth lost sight of them for a short while before they reentered the thrall's home. It listened as they confirmed what the thrall's needed to survive. Pleased by the outcome it had its thralls strike. It had been pleased when 2 of its thralls managed to knock out 2 of the team. It then sent its 'children' to bring the group to it. The Old Growth had been surprised when the others hadn't gone down as quick. Almost as if they had been expecting it. But that was obviously impossible, no being could sense its control over its thralls without some kind of scanner. They hadn't expected the children since they fell after that. The Old Growth then had the group brought to its inner chamber. Incredible tools such as these need to be kept close, and recreated over and over again. It would take time, but it seemed to have that when one of its thralls watched the geth ship fall. The group members were placed in pods so they could be enthralled quickly, so to replenish its numbers. The Old Growth couldn't control them yet, but it was connected to see their memories. In the big one, it saw a world that the Old Growth would never want to be. A world with no water and predators. It could see recent memories of the leader and other creatures. In the one that was like Saren it could see a place full of other fleshlings. It could sense the creatures frustration and see what had caused it. With human male, the Old Growth saw the looks of a space station full of only his species. The memories turned to where he and the leader were facing some of their enemies, protecting the defenseless. The memories then turned once more to a more bloody battle involving the leader. It then switched to the females. The Old Growth could see that they were thinking of people that were close to them. The one thing it noticed was that each of the group's memories involved the leader in some way. For easier enthrallment, the Old Growth put each of them in a state of euphoria. Making their inner desires come true in a sense. Their perfect world. Next the Old Growth sent out the children to secure the area and protect its thralls as well as itself in its chamber. Some time later it felt a disturbance near one of the children further out.
The Old Growth tuned in only to see the leader. So he had survived. It commanded the child to attack and bring him for enthrallment. The Old Growth was surprised by how easily the leader avoided the attacks. Granted the human female and the krogan had either gunned one of them down or needed more than one to finish it, but still. The leader wasn't attacking, merely dodging almost as if... he was studying it. So that's what he was up. The Old Growth thought the child had him when the child poured its life essence on the leader, only to be shocked as the leader shrugged it off and quickly killed the child. The Old Growth saw that the leader was now a threat and directed its thralls to defend. The Old Growth could feel the emotions of the group and looked in to see what they saw.
Wrex was in a world where the krogan had been cured of the genophage. Shepard had nudged Wrex back into leading the krogan towards a brighter tomorrow and Wrex eventually gave into it. The krogan were now welcomed back into the galactic community with open arms and he was the one who led them to it.
Garrus was now one of the most respected turians in the galaxy, leading his own special forces to take in dangerous criminals. He kept true to Shepard's creed of not harming people and getting them out when they fell into the crossfire.
Kaidan had become part of the Alliance Brass. He had tracked Rahna down and got to know her again. Over the years, they dated until he finally popped the question and she said yes. The years passed and the happy couple had 2 kids together. As Kaidan turned around he saw Shepard in an Admiral's uniform along with Ashley and the rest of the Normandy crew including Wrex, Tali, Garrus and Liara for the reunion.
Ashley was in a world where she had cleared her grandfather's name and made the Williams' family a more respectable name in the Alliance forces. Shepard had quit being the Ghost of the Terminus and had become an Admiral in record time almost on par with Admiral Hackett. Shepard and her had been dating for over a 2 years now and he had finally asked her to marry him.
Liara was in her own world where Shepard had managed to talk down her mother into helping them defeat Saren. Afterwards she and Shepard spent the time to get to know each other better over the years. When it all culminated in their wedding to them having children.
Tali found herself in a world where she and Shepard had gotten together after defeating Saren and the Geth. Shepard then spent the next few years helping the Quarian people take down the Geth and retake Rannoch. Shepard and her eventually settled down on Rannoch after finding a way to allow the Quarians to live outside of their suits.
The Old Growth watched this with mild interest as it waited for the leader to come.
Back with Shepard and Isaac
"Seriously? You want to go in like that?" Isaac asked skeptically.
"Yep." Shepard said as he put the mako into a remote control state with his omni-tool. He had the mako fire a mass accelerator round at the garage door, weakening it. Shepard then played ACDC: Shoot To Thrill on the mako's radio.
"This is a song meant for a mako." Shepard said as he moved the mako back and then charged it toward the garage door.
On the other side
The 4 colonists had been compelled to guard the garage and waited silently for Shepard to enter. That was when they heard a pretty awesome song. This in turn made the creepers right by the door to wake up and look around. Then the sound of tires screeching sounded out and suddenly the door exploded in fire and debris with a mako flying through it all, running over the creepers fast. The mako crashed into the other side and the song then started to sound like a broken record at EEEE sound until it died out. The colonists both looked at it in confusion when they heard a metallic ping in between them. Looking down they saw a grenade. It exploded in a green mist that knocked them out.
Behind them Shepard had uncloaked himself smiling a little. His helmet back on he started talking to Isaac as he made his way to the elevator.
"And you were skeptical." Shepard accused lightly.
"Yea yea." Isaac responded.
"Hey did you find out how many colonists are here?" Shepard asked wondering how many people needed to be saved.
"If nothing happened to them while we were away, 16." Isaac said.
"That was 4 we took out so that leaves 12 then." Shepard said as he put his tactical cloak back on as he entered the elevator. He pushed the button for down, grabbed a grenade and quickly hung on the ceiling as it descended. The elevator stopped and as soon as the doors opened, 2 colonists were revealed having been waiting for it and fired as soon as the doors opened. After overheating their weapons they saw that the elevator appeared to be empty and cautiously entered it. When they did that Shepard dropped the grenade and swung out of the elevator. The elevator doors closed on the colonists as the grenade went off, knocking them out.
'That leaves 10.' Shepard mentally thought out.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap." Isaac said.
"Thanks." Shepard whispered as he snuck down the stairwell with his cloak still on. He then looked over the corner and could see the entrance to the colony as well as 4 more colonists and a creeper. Shepard then snuck to the left before he threw another grenade in the middle. The colonists couldn't dodge in time before they got knocked out. What made Shepard interested was when the creeper was caught in the blast. It withered and degraded instantly.
'Thank you Baynhams!' Shepard thanked silently as he continued on. As he snuck around he mentally counted out how many colonists and grenades he had.
'Okay that was 4 colonists, reducing the number to 6. I used 3 grenades out of 10, that leaves 7.' Shepard thought until he saw another colonist. He quickly threw a grenade at her, knocking her out. That was when Shepard heard more footsteps headed in his direction and then his cloak ran out.
'Shit!' Shepard mentally cursed. He quickly took out his pistol and a grenade when he saw 5 creepers running in his direction now that he was visible. Quickly throwing the grenade between him and the group he then pointed his pistol before he set the grenade off. The explosion killed 4 of the creepers, leaving one alive before Shepard used his pistol to correct that. The creeper was given a headshot, instantly killing it. Shepard then stuck to cover as he looked over to where the rest of the colonists were. He could see the remaining 6 in groups of 2. Luckily there weren't anymore creepers around for the moment. Shepard took out 3 grenades, putting each of them in between his fingers, linked them all to a switch in his hand before throwing them at the groups in one throw. As soon as he saw each grenade land on the ground, he hit the switch. He could see the colonists were down and out. Shepard then walked forward to the controls for the ship, having figured out that the biggest sense was thorian. He easily hacked the controls and managed to get the machine to lift the section of the ship, revealing the passage to the Thorian's inner sanctum.
'That's all the colonists, but that leaves me with 3 grenades left.' Shepard mentally went over. He then heard someone slowly approaching him from the side. He quickly drew his pistol and looked over to saw Fai Dan lifting a pistol from the ground. Shepard noticed that guy was fighting it, but it was taking a toll on the poor man if his pained expression was anything to go by.
"I tried to fight it, but it gets in your head. You can't imagine the pain." Fai Dan said with the pistol in his hand.
"What did you do with my team?" Shepard asked evenly.
"The creature made us attack and knock them out. Those things dragged them inside there." Fai Dan gasped out pointing to the passage. He then looked over at the knocked out colonists in sadness.
"I was supposed to be their leader. These people trusted me." He continued.
"What happened here was not your fault." Shepard said with his own Master HMWP pointed at Fai Dan.
"It wants me to stop you... but I... I won't" Fai Dan said as he took the pistol and pointed at Shepard. Fai Dan then pointed the pistol to his head.
"I WON'T!" Fai Dan roared out. Shepard didn't hesitate as he shot the pistol out of Fai Dan's hand and threw a grenade at the man's feet. The grenade exploded, causing Fai Dan to be knocked out. Before he drifted off into unconsciousness he pointed towards a crate near the controls.
"Grenades..." was all he said as he went out. Shepard moved toward the crate, opened it to find it was stocked with grenades. He took out 8 and modified them with anti-thorian gas before he headed down the passageway.
A few minutes later
Shepard had not run into any enemies yet as he went down into the sanctum. But he took out his Master HMWA and didn't dare lower his guard one bit. The feeling of the Thorian's spores had increased drastically as he continued down. On the colony it was like a mist, but in here it might as well have been the air itself. As he continued making his way he knew he was almost there. He could feel the Thorian itself. It was practically the mist solidified. When he made it to a wide open area he saw more and more vines. He began looking for the Thorian's main body which wasn't hard to find. Shepard saw the bulb figure and what looked to be tentacle like vines of what looked to be a mouth. If that didn't convince him, it was the fact that what looked to be saliva was flowing out of it.
"That is one ugly plant." Shepard said aloud.
"You can say that again." Isaac said in mild disgust. Shepard then felt something that seemed to be a mix of the mist feeling and a biotic feeling. The Thorian then made some hacking sounds causing Shepard to back, thinking it might throw up. Instead of puke though, an asari came out. Shepard would have asked if she was fine if he didn't think she was a creation of the Thorian. The fact that her skin was green and she looked mad at him told him he was right.
"Invader! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig and decompose." the asari said.
"Well that's not very nice." Shepard said in fake tone.
"I speak for the Old Growth as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe." The asari said. Shepard didn't answer, or bother to hear the Thorian's little monologue as he tried to sense where his team was at. Even in this place he could still feel the subtle differences. All of the team's biotics were together and if the static feel near it was any indication, that meant Tali was with them! Hopefully that meant they were all grouped together. Knowing where his team was, he looked at the asari in fornt of him.
"You gave something to Saren. Something I'm going to need." Shepard said.
"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!" the asari said.
"I won't let you keep your thralls. Release them and my team, or I will kill you." Shepard growled out.
"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry. Your lives are short, but have gone too long." The asari said before Shepard used a throw on her knocking her down into the abyss.
"Bad move." Shepard said as he ran to the left. He kept moving and weaving by creepers, gunning them down until he came upon a node. Shepard fired at it until it exploded. The Thorian groaned, or screamed, in response.
'That must be important.' Shepard thought. He was about to continue when he felt something near the Thorian.
'So it can make more than one of those. Of course.' Shepard thought having identified it as another asari clone. He then ran up the stairs near him coming up to a room that had 7 creepers in it along with the clone.
'How did she get up here so fast?!' Shepard thought as he switched to his Master HMWSG and began firing. The asari came up to him and he used throw on her once again, knocking into the chasm. Shepard then turned his attention to the remaining creepers, finished them off and attacked the next node. Shepard then moved on to the next level above him, fighting through more creepers. Shepard switched to his pistol and grabbed a grenade when he felt a large number of creepers coming up. When he finally found the third node, it was surrounded by 12 creepers and another asari clone. He used Neural Shock on the asari clone and threw the grenade in the middle of the creeper group. The explosion took out 7 of the creepers. Shepard managed to grab another grenade before one the creepers got too close. Shepard noticed that it was about to use that vomit ability on him and used that to his advantage. He took the grenade and tossed it into the creeper's mouth and kicked it back to the creeper group. He hit the switch causing the grenade to go off killing the rest of the group. Shepard noticed the Shock wearing off on asari clone and quickly fired on her right in the head. Shepard then turned his attention to the node. He took out his rifle and dual wielded both weapons on the node, destroying it.
Shepard then moved on to the next level, after putting the pistol away. Finding less enemies than the other rooms and seeing the gap going down to the abyss, Shepard used his biotics on the creepers and tossed them off the level. A new asari clone jumped at him. He quickly threw his rifle into the air, took his omni-blades out and scissored her head off. Without stopping, Shepard caught his rifle, destroyed the fourth node and went up some stairs. This time he got mobbed by several creepers on the way up. He dropped a grenade which covered him and the creepers in a green mist upon explosion. The creepers withered in the cloud as Shepard moved on. He came to what had to be the final node. The creepers and another asari clone jumped him. In retaliation he used a biotic field repulse which either crushed them or sent them off into the abyss. Shepard then walked to the node, noticing that all of his team were on this level. He got a little worried when he noticed they were all contained in some kind of pod. Thinking that killing the Thorian would free them, Shepard aimed his rifle at the node when something used pull on him.
'What the hell?!' Shepard thought as he was pulled away. Something then used throw on him sending him into the wall. As he fell to his knees trying to get up, he looked at what had done that to him. His eyes widened in shock as he saw 3 asari clones in front of him.
'How? Wait when I knocked them off the levels, 2 of them must have grabbed onto a ledge or tendril. The other must be newly created.' Shepard thought as 2 of the clones levitated him into the air. The third grabbed his head, her eyes went black and Shepard knew what was coming.
"Embrace Enthrallment." The asari clone whispered. Shepard's view went black for a second. He then found himself waking up in a hammock.
'What the...' Shepard thought as he got up and looked around. He found himself on Mindoir in civilian clothing.
"There you are John. Talia has been wondering where you are." Shepard heard a voice from behind he quickly looked around to see Liselle.
"Lis? Who's Talia?" Shepard asked confused. Liselle looked at him confused.
"Who's Talia? She's our daughter silly! Come on, everyone but you is there! You can't miss your daughter's birthday party." Liselle said as she took his hand. She then led him to where everything was. As he came up to a house he saw everyone there. He saw Aria, Chun, Isaac in his hologram form, Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, Liara and Talitha. Even Anderson and Joker were there and then he saw... his mom. She was smiling at everything. Then he saw Talia. She was a beautiful asari 2 year old who looked like her mother, but had his deep blue eyes. Shepard waited until everyone sang happy birthday to Talia as the little toddler clapped and blew out her birthday candles. He then left the yard to see the meadow that the house overlooked. The sun was setting and it was all tranquil. He was then approached by his mother.
"So when are you going to tell me it's all fake?" Shepard asked coldly as he looked at the visage of his mother. She looked confused at him for a moment.
"Fake? None of this is fake John." Hannah said.
"Really? Then how are you alive? How did I meet Lis and everyone else if you didn't die? Besides, I'd never allow Chun to come to a 2 year old's birthday party. So tell me, Thorian." Shepard demanded. Hannah looked shocked until she looked down. The house and everyone in it vanished. They were both in the middle of the forest now, back in his inner world. The sun had disappeared and the moon had come out, it was still in its blue crescent form. Shepard could see the fake's cruel smile as black veins appeared on her face. She looked up at him with pitch black eyes. Faster than he could move, the fake's hands were latched tightly around his neck.
"Your not going to win!" Shepard struggled out as he tried to get out of the strangle hold. He struggled for a few minutes but the grip was too tight. He looked at the fake and noticed she wasn't smiling anymore. He then looked at the moon and wished he had the strength to break this hold. He then looked back at her and grabbed her hand.
"Mom!" Shepard called out. Then a great biotic light exploded from under them and enveloped them. Hannah then let him down and he walked over and hugged her.
'This is impossible!' The Thorian thought as it watched the whole scene. The whole area seemed to crack. None of them noticed the moon change into a first quarter.
"I'm doing fine mom. I'm still keeping myself safe and eating right. Can't say I stay out of trouble though. It really seems to like me for some reason. I've made a lot of worthwhile friends too. I'm still getting by somehow. So don't worry about me." Shepard said as he looked at his mom with heavy emotion in his eyes.
'He's breaking free of my direct enthrallment! How can he have such power?!' The Thorian thought as it wrestled to stay in control.
"It's time for me to go, everyone's waiting for me. Listen to me mom... I'm sorry I couldn't protect you back then, but I've always wanted to tell you... thank you mom... for protecting me." Shepard said as Hannah looked up, eyes back to normal and smiling at him. She then disappeared and Shepard's vision went pure white.
Shepard then saw that asari clones were still holding him. He quickly used a mini biotic repulse to knock them off their feet. He grabbed another grenade and dropped it as the clones got up and pounced him. The grenade went off and the gas caused the clones to suffocate from it. They then turned gray and began to rot.
'That's different.' Shepard thought as he turned toward the node and made a power strike. He then ran it and made a direct hit, instantly destroying it. The Thorian screamed as its support structure weakened and collapsed under its weight, causing it to fall into the chasm below. The pods containing his crew ripped open letting one of them tumble out. Shepard noticed each of them looking around as if they were confused. Shepard realized immediately that they had been under the Enthrallment thing.
"Hey guys." Shepard said. They all looked at him and wondered what happened to him. He was caked in green goo, had scrapes and marks all over his armor.
"Shepard what happened?" Kaidan asked.
"You all were nearly enslaved by a 10s of thousands year old sentient plant and I saved you." Shepard informed.
"So it was all a dream?" Ashley asked disappointed.
"It was all part of its enthrallment. Put you into a world that you believe is perfect for the least amount of resistance." Shepard said noticing she must have enjoyed her's a lot. Hell he had to admit if he didn't know about the Thorian, he would have wanted to stay in his.
"You sound as if you know it by experience Shepard." Garrus observed, causing everyone to look at him.
"Yea, almost had me too. But I got out." Shepard said. Then another pod along the wall opened up. Another asari, the original one that followed Saren, fell out. Everyone stared at her since only Shepard was the one who could use a gun properly for the moment. Before she could speak though the place shook. Everyone was trying to stay on their feet as Shepard suddenly felt something. It was coming from the pit and from he could sense it was coming from inside the Thorian's corpse. It was almost like the creation of an asari clone from the biotic feel, but it also felt like part of the Thorian had been seperated and condensed. Shepard started to believe whatever this thing was, they couldn't fight in here.
"We got to go now! Get up, grab her and let's go now! Now, now!" Shepard yelled as he grabbed the unnamed asari and began running to the exit with everyone following him. As they made it to the stairs Shepard felt the thing fully form and start to rip its way out of the Thorian. Shepard and crew finally made it out of the place and into the colony as the shakes became weaker. Shepard saw all of the colonists were back in the colony. Shepard handed the asari over to Kaidan.
"We need to get everyone into the docks and away from here!" Shepard shouted out to everyone.
"Why, isn't the thing dead?" Fai Dan asked.
"I'm not sure, but what I do know something was inside it and now it's making it's way up here, GO!" Shepard commanded as felt the thing making its way up. As everyone moved to the docks, Shepard ran to the ship controls and closed the passage. He then made a break for the entrance to the docks where his teams was when heard the sound of metal being wrenched and folded reached his ears. He slowly turned around and saw something that made him almost freeze in fear. The creature that had ripped its way up to the surface looked like a combination between a creeper and an asari clone. Its form was mostly asari, at least with the head crest. Its skin was gray and its torso was similar to a creeper's but more... lean and buffed out. It had claws like a creeper, but shorter. It's mouth was more like a creeper's too: teeth and no lips. Then Shepard saw its eyes gaze on him. Its pitch black soulless eyes. If that wasn't enough, the green biotic aura surrounding it made it look far more monstrous. (If you cant figure out, just picture what an Banshee and Creeper would look like combined without the wires. Scary isn't?)
"You are one ugly motherfucker." Shepard said. He could sense his team making a double for him. He knew immediately that they were at the entrance on the account of the sounds of their footsteps stopping right at there.
"Motherfucker." The creature said as if sounding it out to see if it liked how it rolled of its tongue. It's voice was deep, distorted and baritone with whisper finish. Shepard and everyone else was shocked. It could speak?
"What the hell are you?" Shepard asked coldly. The creature then looked at him specifically and its eyes narrowed at him.
"I am New Growth, successor to the Old Growth of which you killed." The now named New Growth said shocking Shepard.
"How do you know it was me?" Shepard asked.
"We inherit the memories of our predecessors. In the Old Growth's final moments, it instructed me to kill you because you were the one that killed it." New Growth explained.
"What will you do after you kill me? What do you want?" Shepard asked.
"To control Feros and then the galaxy! So Shepard, ready to die?" New Growth said. Shepard created his second power strike in response.
"I was born ready motherfucker." Shepard said.
"Motherfucker... I like that!" New Growth said before Shepard biotically leaped into the air and descended onto New Growth, power strike first. The explosion blinded his team for a moment before everyone was shocked especially Shepard. When he collided into New Growth's barrier, he knew it would be powerful, but not so powerful that his power strike didn't even cause it to ripple! New Growth however was not shocked. Having the memories of the Old Growth allowed it to have knowledge of Shepard's abilities. Now that he was mobile and more condensed than the previous Thorian, his biotics were on a higher level than the asari clones. New Growth saw Shepard's shock and took advantage of it by using a very powerful throw on Shepard, sending him to the power generator.
Shepard hit the generator hard enough that when he landed, one of the panels was dented and fell off, revealing 2 long wires which connected the generator to the colony. New Growth then moved in small flashes, similar to what Shepard had done to save Liara and Ashley. New Growth was on Shepard within seconds already swiping at the Spectre with its deadly claws. Shepard managed to partially move to the side, allowing New Growth to hit the wires instead, cutting them. Shepard then grabbed the electrified wires and jabbed them into straight into New Growth's chest.
"GGGGGGGYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" New Growth roared in pain. Shepard could feel the electricity course through New Growth as well as see the light making New Growth's organs visible. Shepard noticed that New Growth's organ system was very similar to a human's except instead of one heart, there were 2. Both were adjacent to the lungs. Shepard then had a plan forming in his head on how to deal with New Growth, when the creature mentioned biotically grasped Shepard and hurled him to the other side of the colony. New Growth stalked over to Shepard this time, with those wires having caused it great fatigue. It only got halfway when someone fired a round into it's back. Looking around, it could see that it was the human female. The others followed up by firing into its back before it turned its hand toward them and erected a barrier. The shots impacted the barrier causing no harm at all. The squad continued to attack using their abilities, but none worked. New Growth was growing bored of them already and decided that it was time to cause them true defeat. It waved its other hand and everyone's weapons instantly overheated shocking them.
"I know all about your technology and its weaknesses. For example, I caused a shift in your weapons mass accelerator part to make all of your rounds have more mass causing the load to be more than what you were using." New Growth explained causing everyone to be afraid for a moment.
Shepard had watched as New Growth turned to his team as they distracted it. Shepard saw all the holes on New Growth. What shocked him was the fact that each whole came from a different gun and yet none of the rounds even went that deep. Then Shepard watched in fright as the holes closed and heal up at a very fast speed. Then when New Growth disabled their guns and explained it he was nearly downright terrified.
New Growth then began to gather biotic energy into its hands and then fired them towards the team. Shepard was a little afraid thinking it may have been a power strike, but was relieved to see it wasn't. Almost instantly 2 barriers formed where his squad was before the attacks hit. The attacks caused a ripple but that was it. On one side was the girl's team where Liara was making the the barrier. On the other side was the guys where both Kaidan and Wrex created the barrier. Shepard seeing his chance formed a third power strike and attack New Growth, this time scoring a direct hit.
"RRRAAAAOOOWWW!" New Growth yelled out as the power strike bore threw it. When the power strike ended everyone was in shock at the results. This time Shepard had managed to hit New Growth hard but he could now see New Growth's organs.
'So it has no real bones, just incredible tough and dense plant-like flesh holding itself together.' Shepard analyzed until New Growth whipped and back handed him further into the colony towards the tower entrance. New Growth began walking to where it threw Shepard, when Wrex saw his chance. He quickly charged at New Growth causing it to be knocked back. Wrex headbutted New Growth, pushing it back. New Growth quickly regained itself and gathered biotic energy its flat hand struck Wrex right in the shoulder. The blow went through his shields, his armor, plate armor and into his shoulder a little. The damage may have been far worse if there wasn't a three-way effort of Wrex using Barrier, Liara using stasis on New Growth and Kaidan backing Liara up with Neural Shock. New Growth noticed this.
"Impressive teamwork..." It commented before pulling its hand out of Wrex's shoulder. New Growth then biotically threw Wrex to them like a rag doll. As Wrex flew towards them, Liara and Kaidan used their biotics to make Wrex's landing easier while Garrus used his Sniper, Tali used Carnage and Ashley used Overkill on New Growth. Its barrier wasn't even flashing at the payload they used on it. It decided to finish its statement, "but not good enough."
Everyone was shocked at this creature. They used everything on it and didn't even scratch it! The only one who even managed to cause it pain was Shepard and merely smacked him away like a bug. New Growth then decided to give them despair.
"Fight as long and hard as you can, it will not matter. I have extensive knowledge on your technology, my biotics are more powerful than all of yours combined, and I can endure as well as regenerate from attacks that would kill a geth colossus! I AM PERFECTION! You are nothing but vermin. Tools to be under my control. You and every other fleshling in the galaxy are going to be my slaves. WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" New Growth said, laughing at the end with its green biotic aura flaring as it laughed. Everyone of Shepard's team was feeling despair. With New Growth's abilities, it was more powerful than all of them combined. New growth stopped laughing to see the despair set into their faces when it saw something out of the corner of its eye. IT turned only to be struck by an incredibly powerful omni-tool covered, biotically powered fist. The blow was so strong that New Growth went flying back at 9 feet before it regained its position. It looked at who would dare strike it in the face only to be shocked. Everyone else saw it happen and were all in awe at who attacked. What everyone saw was Shepard in his powered up form.
"You made a big mistake attacking my crew and threatening to enslave the galaxy." Shepard said in a very even voice. (Think of how Shepard's voice is in the control ending of mass effect 3 if you want.) Shepard was covered in a very intense biotic aura with his eyes glowing pure white. New Growth knew Shepard was glaring at it though. Shepard then instantly created a Super Power Strike with both hands and fired it right at New Growth. New Growth put up a hasty biotic barrier to protect itself. The barrier held strong and took most of the attack, but didn't last as the power strike destroyed it and what was left of the attack destroyed New Growth's hands. (If you want play bleach ost: cometh the hour part a.)
'Impossible! How could he attained such power?! How?!' New Growth frantically thought as it stared at its stumps. It then saw Shepard have his hands curled into fists, encased in omni-tool blades, each covered with a Neural Shock Charge (courtesy of Isaac). Shepard himself was in a lunge like position covered with his aura now pulsing.
"This is my new move, Juggernaut Strike." Shepard said in a cold voice. (Think of the biotic charge but with a very sharp point. Like biotic dart.) Shepard then flashed into New Growth, stabbing the creature right through and kept going until they both hit the stone wall. The amount of power from the attack was shown as the wall cracked and exploded on the other side. After a minute, Shepard walked away towards his team who was in complete shock at how Shepard took on the creature. That shock turned to fear when they saw New Growth getting back up, heavily damaged. They could all see its organs were exposed while the rest was completely see-through. Its body regenerated fast enough, but it's green goo that was its blood had still poured out.
"Don't... you... turn... your.. back to me Shepard!" New Growth yelled out to him. Shepard's form went out and looked to be back to normal as he stopped and turned around.
"I can kill you right now I hope you know that." Shepard coldly said.
"Hehe you think that attack of yours is something I can't heal from? Please, I am perfect." New Growth said. Shepard stared at the creature for a moment before he responded.
"No you're not, you're a thief and a scavenger. I've already deduced where your knowledge came from. It came from the knowledge of my crew when they had been captured by the older Thorian as well as the Thorian itself. As for your combat skills that also came from my crew too. When it's your biotic capabilities, that's simple. When you 'hatched' you devoured and absorbed the asari clones I had thrown down into the chasm myself. That's mostly why you look somewhat like an asari. Your regeneration is also from the Thorian and a genetic splice from my krogan friend over there. Trust me, you're not that hard to figure out." Shepard said shocking everyone. Wrex merely shook his head at Shepard's ability to read into things. That was when everyone noticed Shepard lifting a grenade switch into his hand for all to see. He had his thumb up over the button on it.
"What's with the grenade switch? You going to blow yourself up to stop me? It won't work." New Growth said smugly. Shepard then smirked a little.
"I don't have any grenades on me. You do though." Shepard said making New Growth look to see where Shepard had attached the grenades on it, but found none.
Shepard was smiling now before he said, "To be more specific, you have anti-thorian gas grenades inside of you!"
New Growth was now afraid and tried to find out when Shepard did it as did everyone else who were smiling at Shepard. The man himself saw this and decided to explain things.
"After my battle with the older Thorian I had 6 gas grenades left. When I electrocuted you, I could see your organs clearly. Finally when I charged you with my last attack, it was to wound you enough to place the grenades inside you so you would heal over them. I held the grenades in both of my hands when I attacked you. When you were shocked the dust was kicked up, I stored one in each heart, one in each lung, one in your stomach and one in your lower intestine." Shepard explained before he added, "You may have something from each of my crew, but you are 100% thorian creation." Shepard then pressed the button.
Everyone heard the grenades go off inside New Growth and watched in morbid fascination as its whole body withered and rotted from the inside out as the creature itself was in a silent scream. Finally the creature's body turned to dust as it fell apart. Shepard then looked towards his crew and made a big smile.
"We got it! Nice job team!" Shepard said before laughing causing everyone else to laugh as well.
So what did you think? Come on tell me in the reviews! Bad? Okay? Weird?
Hope you enjoyed it at least!