~ I don't own mass effect, Bioware and EA does ~

Time - Unknown

Zaire's mental plane

Zaire was starting to get used to her new abilities, strange and physics defying as they were, they were pretty useful, especially being able to teleport, she wished that it could be translated into the real world, as childish as that was. Exiting at their destination, Zaire kept her hand on her lover, letting Liara steady herself before answering the question she would inevitably ask.

"The entity that's using the Clones should be close by, we need to find it and pull some answers out of it."

Liara took one more deep breath before turning and punching Zaire in the chest, not powerful enough to seriously hurt her, though it did knock her on her ass.

"Would it kill you to warn me next time, that was extremely disorienting!"

Zaire gave a small chuckle as she pulled herself up and onto her feet, "Ow, yes ma'am."

Though the grin on her face faded as she go a proper look at their surroundings, "just when things start feeling normal, they get stranger and stranger all over again."

There wasn't any visible floor, though Zaire felt it under her feet, and from what she could see they were in space, darkness surrounding them only spit up by stars, twinkling in and out. Though there was something off about them, though Liara spotted it first.

"They're all perfectly the same, they're equally spaced and equally bright, there's no difference apart from the flickering."

And Zaire saw it as well, it was as if the entire galaxy had been organized, there wasn't a star out of place.

"Good observation skills Liara T'Soni, Shepard always admired that about you."

Zaire spun around, drawing both of her Katana in the same motion, the voice sent a chill up her spine, no emotion was expressed, and when she saw the voices owner, she almost dropped her swords in shock.

"Mom?"

The being that had her mother's appearance gave Zaire a cruel smile, and brought up her hand, pulling both Zaire and Liara off the their feet and trapping them in some sort of energy field, their arms pulled to their sides.

"No, but the psychological effect this interpretation has on you is useful."

Liara grunted, trying to activate her biotics, but being unable to move meant that she could only flare them around her, not being able to create anything.

"What in the Goddesses name are you? And why are you in my bondmates mind?"

The woman laughed, but it held no emotion, giving it a creepy effect of Zaire's mother sarcastically laughing, and Zaire grit her teeth, it was mocking her, and in doing so it was pissing her off.

"I am nothing, a program, designed for only one purpose, to force Shepard's cooperation with the Operating System, one way or another."

With another gesture Zaire was moved to the programs left, while Liara slowly moved to the right, both still straining against invisible bonds to get free.

"Shepard, You will submit completely to us, or I will kill Liara T'Soni."

Zaire struggled harder, attempting to move her hands, which were still clenched around her Katana, spitting out her response as she did.

"Like hell you will, here's my counter offer, put us down or I kill you."

The programs face did not change in expression, nor did it move a muscle, but the air around them seemed to go cold regardless.

"So be it, either through grief or submission, you will cooperate with the Operating System."

The thing that pretended to be her mother turned to face Liara, completely ignoring Zaire's shouts of rage, and gently placed its hand on Liara's chest. The moment her mother's hand made contact with her girlfriend, Liara seemed to seize up, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

In her minds eye Zaire saw her Father, who was shot trying to protect her mother from Batarian slavers, her Mother, raped and then executed minutes later, her adoptive parents, nothing more than numbers on a board of civilian casualties of Earth, and Anderson, who she had watched helplessly as he was shot dead by a man consumed by his own evil, and now she was being forced to watch as Liara was killed as well.

Something pulsed, familiar and thumping with energy and after so long Zaire almost didn't recognise it, but the biotic power flowed forward and Zaire felt her invisible restraints struggle to contain it, and her body glowed white, her biotics activating and warping reality around her.

Zaire felt control she hadn't felt since the War as her amp reactivated. It was almost painful and Zaire instinctively pushed against her restraints, and they shattered around her, the program paused, turning to see what was happening, only to watch with apparent disbelief as Zaire flared her biotics and Charged, spinning mid air and bringing both blades down on its arm, physically separating it from her lover.

Zaire sheathed her swords and caught Liara bridal style when the field holding her failed, dropping her, and carefully lyed her on the ground, before turning back towards the program.

It had picked itself off of the floor, and was appearing to struggling to keep up the visage of looking like her mother, acting like water, it's body parts morphing as its hand regrew.

Deciding to act, Zaire drew her hand back and threw a powerful Warp at it, hitting dead center and throwing it backwards.

The Warp seemed to mess with its ability to shapeshift and it slowly began to change, the visage of her mother disappeared, and in her place a humanoid of red liquid emerged. It had legs reminiscent of a Quarian, though the body was a strange mix of a Salarian and Turian, and it had four fingers and toes. It's head was similar to an Asari's, though there wasn't any real head tentacles, it face, however, was blank, with four eyes, two on each side, glowing a chaotic white.

"You cannot defy the Operating System, you will submit."

Zaire's response was a Shockwave, which threw the program off balance, making it stumble back, and before it could recover Zaire was in front of it, her white biotics flowing off her like mist as she drew and sliced downwards with one of her katana, which it dodged, but it didn't move fast enough to dodge her other katana, which she had drawn seconds later, almost cutting it in two.

Zaire then Charged up and backwards, doing a backwards flip and landing 5 feet away, settling into a double reverse grip defensive stance, waiting for it to make its own move.

But before the program could make its own attack, there was a flash of blue light and a figure appeared in between them.

The figure was like the program, except instead of a raging inferno of red water, angrily swirling around its confined form, it was made out of a dark, dense looking metal.

-Cooperation will be achieved by other means, Program, self terminate as your code dictates-

The program seemed to not like that, as it charged the metallic entity with a roar, crashing into it and seemed to lock itself into a match of power, both hands locked against the newcomer.

The newcomer seemed surprised, and it took a couple of steps back before retaliating and pushing back against the aggressor.

As the two creatures fought each other, Zaire slipped away, and ran for Liara's side, who hadn't gotten up from where Ziare had left her.

Sliding up next to her, Zaire dropped her swords as she started to panic, checking for a pulse, and breathing out a sigh of relif when she felt her girlfriends steady heat beat.

The was a crash, and Zaire looked back at the two figures fighting each other. The newcomer was holding its own, but Zaire could see that it was struggling to do any damage itself.

Liara groaned as she returned to consciousness, and put a hand to her head in pain. But her attempts to sit up were denied, and she could just make out her bondmate through hazy vision.

"Zaire? What happened?"

Zaire grimaced, "that, Thing, tried to kill you, I cut off its hand before it could."

Vision clearing, Liara could see two strange looking aliens attacking each other, and this time Zaire didn't stop her when she tried to sit up.

"What's going on now?"

Picking up her blades, Zaire used one to gesture to the one made out of red water.

"That one is what attacked you, some sort of shape shifter, the metal one appeared during our fight and told it to kill itself, which resulted them in fighting each other, while I slipped away to help you."

Liara nodded, feeling better and more alert, and quickly came up with a hypothesis.

"Perhaps the red one is a rouge program, and the metal one is another that was sent to remove it."

They watched as the red program got another hit in, sending the metal one crashing onto its back, and it appeared to be struggling to get up again.

Turning to her bondmate, Liara decided on a plan.

"Zaire, take out the red one, the metal one should be easier to deal with if it's hostile as well."

Zaire Shepard nodded, standing up and flaring her white biotics, which seemed to coil past her hands and cover her swords, giving them a ghostly appearance.

"Kill the one made of water, interrogate the metal one, got it."

And with that, Zaire disappeared into a tunnel of zero mass, reappearing behind the red program with both blades held in a frontal grip, which distracted it enough to let the metal program get up unhindered.

The red program screeched, one of its hands whipping out and attempted to hit Zaire, but she ducked and cut upwards, slicing off the offending appendage, and in the same movement, used her other sword to sail as its midsection, forcing it towards the metal program. Said program grappled with it from behind, fixing its arms in place and exposing its stomach to Zaire, giving her an opportunity to end the fight quickly.

However, as Zaire thrust forward with both blades, the red program moved to the left, forcing the metal program to have to dodge Zaire's blades and subsequently loosening its hold, which the red program took advantage of to escape.

Though before it could shift into a attacking position, Zaire moved forward, slipping her left katana into a reverse grip and slashed diagonally, which the red program moved back to avoid, but Zaire kept her momentum going, and pivoted on her foot and spun a full 360 degrees, and slashed downwards during her right katana, which she was still holding in a forward grip, and cut its arm off at the shoulder.

The red program shrieked in rage or pain, Zaire couldn't tell which, and the metal program moved past her, grabbing the red program's only other arm and attempted to twist it behind its back, but the water simply bled through the gaps, and Zaire moved quickly, sending a small Warp into its shoulder, disrupting its ability to shift its body shape and giving the metal program the grip needed to hold its counterpart still.

Moving quickly Zaire once again moved forward and stabbed both swords at its chest, but thanks to her earlier Warp, it couldn't shift out of the way, and was stabbed in the heart, or where Zaire guessed where it's heart was.

The red program gave one final shriek of pain, cut off when Zaire twisted her Katana, before slowly it evaporated into thin air.

Zaire, however, kept her guard up, as she moved away from the metal program, putting a couple of meters between them, just in case. Liara was also making her way towards them, and arrived at Zaire's side, an analysing look in her eyes as she gave the newcomer a once over.

Zaire, however, decided to break the silence that had descended on them, and rather bluntly asked.

"Are we going to have a problem as well? Or are we going to talk like adults?"

There was a slight pause as both sides watched the other for any hostile movements before finally the new program spoke.

-There is no reason for hostile action between us-

Both Human and Asari blew out a breath of relief, and Zaire slowly sheathed one of her Katana as Liara replied.

"Good, I assume you know who we are?"

The newcomer nodded it's head, -yes, you are Doctor T'Soni and Zaire Shepard, the Catalysts for the Reapers destruction-

The Asari nodded her head, "yes, and who are you?"

-I am the Operating System-

That statement put them both on edge.

"Your whom I was meant to Submit to?" Zaire demanded, looking ready to pull out her other Katana again.

-Yes, however, the program was outdated, as it was unable to adapt to unique circumstances.-

Keeping a restraining hand on her lover, Liara spoke up.

"Outdated? What do you mean?"

-The program was designed to force cooperation of the cybernetic system with the organic subconscious user, with the assistance of the conscious mind, however, Shepard resisted, and the subconscious remained ignorant of the system.-

-When this failed the program attempted to force cooperation with the conscious mind, this manifested as nightmares while Shepard engaged in REM sleep.-

Stepping forward, Zaire held up a hand.

"Hold on a second, where we're you in all of this?"

The program cocked its head, -I was offline, I was activated when you and the program started combating each other, a failsafe, incase the program ever went rogue, which in this case, it did.-

Liara smiled, "where you then arrived and assisted us in destroying the rogue program."

Said program nodded, -yes, when Doctor T'Soni joined her conscious with Shepard's, the program attempted a more obvious attack in the hopes that Shepard would be distracted, however, that plan failed, and when you both confronted the program directly, it attempted to psychologically attack Shepard and then you, Doctor T'Soni, in the hopes of forcing its way into Shepard's conscious mind.-

It then gave a respecting nod at Zaire, -you not only continued to resist, but you then overpowered the program and severely damaged it, and with my help, removed it.-

Zaire sighed, "you know that this could have been avoided if I was told this from the start."

The metal program nodded in agreement, -yes, though this process is usually done with the users consent and full understanding.-

Zaire blew out an explosive breath, relived to now know what is going on, though Liara looked rather exited.

"Do you have any data on your creators? We believed them to be the original creators of the Reapers."

The metal program nodded, -I have on file the immediate history of my creators, the Tavian, up to the machines rebellion.-

Liara looked like she was trying not to jump on her toes, the light that she always had in her eyes when she talked about the Prothiens present in her eyes. Though Zaire had more immediate questions.

"And what about you, what are you exactly?"

-I am a cybernetics operating system manager, classified by your definitions as a restricted AI, I store relative data, manage your Cybernetics and provide tactical data. I am also equipped with a military grade Hacking software package.-

"And my Cybernetics?"

-Military grade combat assistant cybernetics, full skellatory reinforcement, muscle reinforcement and density efficiency, nanite assisted nervous system, reinforced skin weave, subdermal armour plating over vital weak points, a quantum greybox, custom biotic military amp and touch point hacking capabilities.-

Zaire whistled, "touch point hacking capabilities?"

-Nanites use short range wireless transmitters to allow me to hack any piece of wireless technology you touch, while minimizing the chance of counter hacking due to the transmitters short range.-

"No wonder the Alliance Military didn't want to let you go, this is hundreds of years in advance of anything the galaxy has" Liara commented.

Zaire however, remembered what it had initially said, "what do you mean by, 'restricted' AI?"

The AI turned its head, looking straight at Zaire as it spoke.

-Any commands made by the user will be obeyed, as well as some restrictions on the manipulation of the users physical and mental form, implemented to prevent rogue AI takeover.-

Zaire seemed to relax as she listened, and finally sheathed her other katana.

"The program that fought us said we needed to cooperate with you, I assume that's the reason that my Cybernetics are currently offline?"

The AI nodded it's metal head, -You were both physically and mentally resisting integration, and winning periodically, the system was designed with the users consent in mind.-

Liara decided to voice a question of her own, "what would it take to achieve cooperation now?"

The operating system shook its head, -unnecessary, during the fight with the program you consciously accepted my help, and as I was protecting your mate, your subconscious accepted me as well, we are currently at 97% synchronicity, this is within normal conditions.-

Liara smiled, as most of the mystery of her bondmates cybernetics were solved, and hopefully Zaire would now be able to sleep better.

"What now?" She asked curiously.

-I will go to standby, Shepard can subconsciously call for me whenever she needs me, you can leave whenever you want.-

And with that done, the AI disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving the couple to themselves, both thinking of the things they had just learned. Finally, Zaire spoke, giving a cheeky grin, "let's get out of here, we were having fun until all of this got in the way."

Liara blushed, just managed to step forward and slap Zaire upside the head, before they both disappeared in a flash of light.

Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Reviewed, as it seriously helps with motivation.

I am considering bigger time skips, as some of my ideas are decades after the War, let me know what you guys think.

As always reviews are inspiration and motivation, so please feel free to leave one, even if it's just a 'Good chapter, keep it up' as it really does help.

~ JunkMail