SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Realm LDR-15 – Aluc System – Lucavos – Aboard the Normandy II
"Dire news from Earth: off the radar, reaping begins in rural areas. Millions are dead in the Central-Asian wilderness, even more in Sub-Saharan Africa. We'll give you the gruesome view of what happens when the Reapers don't stop to indoctrinate. Now, in the Battle-Space."
As Allers filed her rather dismal report, Shepard wandered through the halls of the Normandy's second deck. It had been a couple hours since his team had saved the small garrison groundside and extracted Gamma-3. Speaking of which, Kaede was currently actually spending time with Asa; neither of them were saying too much, with Kaede instead trying to get re-used to being in the other girl's presence without hostility (they were very carefully avoiding the topic of Rin Tsuchimi, he noticed). He entered the starboard lounge to check on them, and found another pair of old friends doing some catching up of their own, with Kaede and Asa casually listening in.
"Enough about me" Garrus said. "What were you doing before we met up?"
"Oh, you know," Liara replied, "this and that."
"Come on. Spill it, T'Soni."
"Very well. I fought several explosive battles with Cerberus, I helped Shepard stop a robotic assassin on Mars, and I discovered plans for a Prothean doomsday device that had been buried for 50,000 years."
"Yeah, so just 'this and that', huh?"
"Right. So… 'Archangel'."
"You heard about that, huh?"
"Your sojourn on Omega generated quite a few articles… not to mention security footage. There's one thing I couldn't dig up, though. Did you really take out three Blue Suns mercenaries with only one bullet?"
"No, of course not. The third guy had a heart attack; not fair to count him."
Shaking his head with a slight grin, Shepard headed up to the CIC.
"Commander," Traynor said, "Captain Torbin, the one you spoke with, just sent up some data. They've narrowed down the general area where the PreCure team is the best they could; it'll be up to us to pinpoint them. The girls are somewhere in a town in contested territory, along the coast."
"Alright. I'll take EDI, Liara, Fuyō, and Shigure down there with me."
"Make room for one more, Shepard" a certain Krogan said as he came out of the War Room. "Mordin says he doesn't need my tissue sample just yet, so as long as I don't get myself killed I can come with you for this op."
Shepard smiled. "Glad to hear it, Wrex. Head down to the hangar; I'll be there soon."
-SCENE BREAK-
The UT-47A Kodiak headed toward the coastal town, signs of infantry-scale battle already visible. The sensor-cloaked shuttle touched down along the outer border of the town, near a market area in the east quadrant of town, and Team Shepard hopped out, weapons ready. As Cortez took the shuttle out to a safe distance, Shepard visually scanned the area, but there were no hostiles nearby. The faint sounds of gunfire were heard from deeper in the town.
"Can either of you sense for any flares of magical energy that might be one of Hoshizora's team?" Shepard asked Kaede and Asa.
"Let me try…" Asa replied, closing her eyes and expanding her 'senses'. After several seconds, she looked to the southwest, further into the town. "That way," she said, "about 400 meters."
"Alright, let's go. Everyone keep your eyes sharp; any building could have Husks in it."
The team moved out, Kaede taking point and Wrex bringing up the rear. Cautiously they made their way down the street lined by shops selling various merchandise, now quiet and empty. Directed by Asa, they moved down an alley, walking between two three-story buildings. As the moved, a few of them noticed faint scratching sounds and metallic chittering echoing through the narrow alley. Suddenly, Kaede aimed up and fired her shotgun, blasting a strange new Husk that had been crawling down the side of the building wall directly above her. More of the sounds came from above and behind them.
"Move!" she shouted. "Out of the alley!"
Everyone hurried through to the next street, with Wrex turning and blasting another of the new Husks, allowing everyone else to get a good look at its body. It was lithe in build but with powerful muscles in its limbs, which were tipped with huge claws that enabled them to cling to surfaces. Faintly-glowing tendrils formed a mane around its head, and it had a long, thin tail tipped with a stabbing spike, and a wolf-like muzzle held razor-sharp metallic fangs.
"What is that?" Liara said.
"It's a Leaper," Kaede replied, "a Kyyreni Husk."
With chittering screeches, three more Leapers emerged. Liara and Asa fired their automatic weapons at one of them that was clinging to the wall, but the Leaper propelled itself with startling speed and distance, launching clear over to the wall of another building several meters away. It hissed, and then launched itself over to a power pole, and then right at the team. EDI hit it with an Overload mid-leap, and it crashed as the shock ravaged its systems, tumbling across the ground; Wrex put it down with a shotgun blast. The other two Leapers, meanwhile, had engaged Shepard and Kaede. One of them leapt at Shepard, claws out, only for him to let loose a perfectly-timed Biotic Shockwave that, combined with the creature's momentum, slammed into the Leaper like a gravity hammer, killing it instantly. The other one landed right in front of Kaede and attacked with a flurry of claw swipes, but she channeled Lightning chakra into her hands for a 'Shock Palm' attack that stunned the Husk, synthetic muscles seizing and locking, allowing her to finish it with a blast from her M90A shotgun.
"Looks like the Reapers decided to re-use the Geth Hopper design I encountered during my hunt for Saren" Shepard observed.
"Lucavi and Elvaan get turned into normal Husks," Kaede said, "so when the Kyyreni that the Reapers took showed up as these, it was a nasty surprise."
"Anyone with poor reaction time will get shredded by these things" Wrex remarked.
"Yeah…" Kaede replied. "That's what I've seen so far…"
"We should keep moving" Asa spoke up. "One of the Smile Cures is nearby."
"I am detecting energy spikes that match moderate magic usage coming from the sporting goods store down the street" EDI reported.
The team made their way to the store, arriving just in time to see a Husk take a green-hued cannonball of compressed air to the chest, the concussive force killing the cyber-zombie. The team finally got a look at a girl in a white and green outfit with bright-green hair (more-so than Asa's, even) as she spun around and used an Omniblade to gut another Husk. Suddenly, a Leaper dropped from the ceiling directly behind her. She spun around, but the Kyyreni Husk had already begun its attack… but then it abruptly froze as a bluish field encased it, Liara's Stasis attack grabbing hold. Shots from Asa and Kaede then took it down. The girl breathed a sigh of relief.
"Commander Shepard" Cure March said. "I didn't expect to meet you in person in this sort of situation."
"How are you and your teammates holding up?" Shepard asked. "And where are they?"
"We're okay so far; a bit tired, but still good. Come on, I'll take you to our little 'base'."
March led them out of the sporting goods store, down the street a little and then hanging a left through a short alley. They came to an unmarked one-story structure, and Cure March placed her gloved palm against a panel next to a door, sending a tiny pulse of her magical energy into it. The TSAB-designed lock pinged softly, and the door unlocked, allowing the group to enter.
"Candy and Yayoi-chan were able to set that lock up when we picked this place" March explained.
"Nao?" a girl's voice called out from inside.
"Yeah, it's me!" Cure March shouted back as she de-transformed. "I've got Kaede-san with me, and she brought friends!"
In the central room of the building, the other four girls and their little 'mascot' fairy looked up as Nao, Kaede, and Asa entered, followed by Shepard, Liara, EDI, and Wrex.
"Team Shepard's here?" Akane asked.
"That we are" the Commander replied. "How's the situation?"
"We're holding up so far" Miyuki replied. "We've cleared out most of the Husks in this area, and have been trying to get long-range communications set up. Also, we've confirmed there are quite a few survivors spread out in the south and west areas of the town, and also the Reaper forces have been taking Lucavi they capture to a camp or something in the north. We were planning on trying to figure out a way to help them, but even though we five can probably take all the Husk forces out no problem, we're worried they might turn their guns & claws on the civilians if we try."
"Well," Wrex said, "maybe with us along for the ride, we can prevent that."
Shepard nodded. "We can head out as soon as you girls are ready."
Miyuki looked around at her team, and then nodded. "Just give us a few minutes."
-Break-
The two teams made their way north together, taking out a few Husks along the way. During their 'stay' here over the past few days, the girls had acquired a few weapons from fallen Lucavi soldiers to supplement their powers; Cure Sunny carried a shotgun, while Cure Beauty wielded an elegantly-designed sniper rifle. The group had been as quiet as they could, sneaking past Husks or terminating them with as little noise as possible.
Finally, they arrived at an overlook that gave them a view of a lower-elevation area close to the beach. In this wide open area down below, a sizable force of Husk types, including a significant amount of Marauders and even a few Brutes, were standing guard around their prisoners: hundreds of Lucavi civilians – men, women, and children – gathered in a makeshift 'camp'. All of them looked worse for wear.
"What are they planning here?" Wrex rumbled.
"Nothing good…" Asa replied. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Alert" EDI suddenly said. "There is a vessel of Reaper design approaching."
A ship, around 400 meters long and composed of the sleek black metal that Reapers built their tech out of, flew in from over the ocean, taking position a couple hundred meters off the ground over the area. An element-zero-based gravity lift beam shone down from its underside. Team Shepard and the Smile Cures noticed as the Reaper forces started forcibly herding civilians toward the gravity lift. A mother was wrestled away from her family by a Marauder; her child, a girl no older than seven, tried to get to her, only for the Turian Husk to coldly smack the child away. Shepard scowled as he looked through the scope of his N7 Valiant at the Marauder's head, preparing to fire…
Suddenly, there was a flash of red light. A figure in black and red armor appeared holding a unique-looking staff, her helmet dispelled to reveal a young face with long black hair and faintly-glowing red eyes. She immediately lashed out with a focused pulse of force that slammed into the Marauder's face, snapping its head back violently enough to break its neck. As the Marauder fell, the other Husks in the area turned their attention to the newcomer, who shifted her staff into its double-energy-bladed form and prepared to fight, all while the civilians watched in shock and awe.
"I don't believe it…" Shepard muttered. "It's Eve…"
"Uh…" Wrex said, staring at him. "Pretty sure that's not the Eve I'm thinking of."
"Eve T'Lesh, the Lucavi who got a power-up from The Fallen and now wants to wipe out humanity because of what the Sol Confederacy did to her…"
"Oh yeah, now I remember. But what's she doing here?"
"Well," Liara replied, "this is her homeworld, and those are her people…"
Meanwhile, the first of the Husks had reached Eve. The formerly-human monsters leapt at her, claws swinging, only to be decapitated, stabbed, or bisected by her energy blades. She fired a concentrated bolt of Psionic (Force) Lightning at a Marauder, downing its shields, and then a sustained burst that fried its synthetic systems, killing it. She split her weapon into two, and pulled off a Saber Throw to slay a quartet of Cannibals and then continued cutting down basic Husks. A Marauder with an Omniblade charged at her from behind, only for a sniper's bullet to cut through its skull. Eve turned to look where it had come from, and saw a glowing blue 'cannonball' shooting down at great speed. Shepard came out of his Biotic Charge in the midst of a pack of Husks, the shockwave scattering them every which way. He immediately had his pistol and SMG out, dual-wielding them and firing at Husks and Marauders, bringing them down. He tossed out a Chain-Shockwave that took out a few more Husks and Cannibals, and then he and T'Lesh made eye contact.
"…I remember you" Eve said. "The human Commander on Al-Hazred… Why are you here?"
"The same reason you are, I'd guess" Shepard replied. "To save people from the Reapers."
Before Eve could make a retort about a human wanting to 'save' anyone, there was a metallic snarl as a Brute came rushing in at the two of them. They rolled out of the way of its charge, and Shepard blasted it with a Warp while Eve fired a strike of crimson energy bolts, the blasts weakening its armor but not dealing anything fatal. An Incinerate blast from Shepard weakened the Brute's armor further, and a Saber Throw from Eve took off its smaller arm. The creature roared and charged at Eve, but Shepard hit it in the face with a Cryo Blast, freezing its head; Eve sidestepped the failed charge and lashed out with a precise and powerful kick that shattered its flash-frozen skull.
Meanwhile, the Smile Cures had leapt down to join the fray, followed by Kaede and Asa; Asa had then used her magic to help Liara get down safely, and she & Liara had then used magic and Biotics to get EDI and Wrex down in one piece as well. The old Krogan charged into battle, shotgun booming as he bulldozed through the Husks in his way.
"Shigure!" Shepard shouted. "The civilians!"
"On it!" Asa called back. She flash-stepped into the center of the group of civilians, and her body and eyes glowed green as she focused her power. With a grunt, she pushed out a dome-shaped shield that encompassed the whole group, deflecting any stray shots. Realizing what was happening, the Lucavi civilians packed in closer to her, allowing her to shrink the barrier and thus use less of her energy to keep it up.
The five Smile Cures worked together with Eve and Team Shepard to clear out the Husk forces. Sunny and Wrex used their strength and shotguns to cut down basic Husks by the bushel, while EDI's Overload and Peace's attacks stripped the shields of Marauders and made their semi-synthetic bodies spasm and lock up, leaving them easy pickings. Cure Beauty formed an ice blade and darted amongst Cannibals, dodging their fire and cutting them down, at times positioning herself so their shots hit each other instead of her; Kaede repeated Reika's tactics with bone-blades on the other side of the area. Cure Happy blasted a Brute point-blank with a Happy Shower 'set' to physical/lethal damage type, dealing a significant amount of harm such that a shotgun blast from Wrex finished it off.
"Harvester!" Shepard called out, pointing out the huge winged creature that flew in, letting out a metallic shriek as it landed atop a building. It fired its head-mounted guns at him and Eve, forcing the two of them into cover. After a few seconds, he fired an Incinerate at it, smacking it in the face but doing little damage.
"Hey, Commander!" Cure Sunny shouted. "I think you'll need something a little bigger than that! PreCure: Sunny Fire BURNING!-!"
A sizable torrent of flame shot out, engulfing the Harvester. The creature screeched as it burned, emerging from the magic-enhanced flames badly damaged. A Peace Thunder finished it off, and it keeled over, falling off the building as its power core exploded with enough force to blow its chest cavity open. By now, Wrex had come over to join Shepard and T'Lesh.
The next minute or so was hectic but one-sided, as the allied forces quickly cut down the remaining Husk forces, Asa's barrier ensuring there were no further civilian casualties. However, the Reaper vessel overhead began to act, turrets along its edges starting to warm. Just when it was about to try anything, however, a relativistic beam of molten metal came screaming in from the southeast, punching/burning clean through its unshielded hull. Explosions tore through the vessel, which began to 'list' in the air. The Normandy II continued its high-speed approach, firing Javelin disruptor torpedoes that detonated with considerable force along the wounded enemy ship's side. Finally, something blew inside the Reaper transport ship, and it began to plummet, falling at an angle toward the nearby ocean.
"And that's twice I've saved you guys like that" Joker said over the radio.
"Good timing, Joker" Shepard replied.
"Shepard," EDI said as she came up, while Asa dispelled her barrier, "Jeff and I have found something. Reports indicate that similar transport ships have taken Lucavi prisoners from other locations around the globe, and using what remains of the satellite network, tapping into reconnaissance reports, as well as my own calculations, I have located their terminus point. It is on a sizable island in the northern ocean. There is a hastily-constructed Reaper facility there, and there is a signal emanating from within. We have seen this energy signal before, Shepard: in the heart of the Collector Base."
"Damn it" Shepard frowned. "They're not just kidnapping people to make Husks; they're 'harvesting'."
"You know what they're doing with the Lucavi they capture?" Eve asked.
"Yeah, I do. And you're not gonna like it…"
-SCENE BREAK-
Normandy II, Deck Two, War Room
"So let me get this straight" Eve said, hands braced forward on the edge of the holo-table. "Those things are trying to make a Reaper out of my people?-!"
"It's how they make more of themselves" Shepard replied. "In specialized facilities, millions of individuals from a single species are 'processed', broken down by nanites into a genetic paste of sorts… while alive and conscious, screaming as their bodies melt into blood. The resultant genetic material is pumped into the core, which is built into a shell that superficially resembles the species it was made from. Once it's complete, the rest of the Reaper is constructed around it, ending with the familiar squid-like shape."
"We've seen it before" Garrus said. "Several months ago, in our Realm, the Reapers' pawns kidnapped the entire populations of outlying human colonies, tens of thousands of people. We found their base in the galactic core, and after fighting our way into the center, we found the embryonic 'Human Reaper'. We… watched as several colonists were 'processed' right in front of us, and barely got our ship's crew out before it happened to them, too. In the end, Shepard and Lanstar were able to destroy the 'embryonic' Reaper."
"Dios Mio…" James muttered. "Is… Is there anything we can do for them?"
"If they haven't been 'processed' yet, they can be rescued" Shepard replied. "But after that… no; there's nothing left of them. The only thing that can be done is kill the thing they've been made into."
"We need to get in there" Miyuki said. "We have to rescue the people who haven't been 'processed' yet."
"Plus," Wrex added, "that base has probably been operating long enough that a 'Lucavi Reaper' is already growing. We'll need to kill it."
"Priority is getting the civilians out and wrecking the processing machinery" Shepard said. "We'll kill the baby Reaper if we can, but if it'd put the people at too much risk we'll get them out and call in an orbital strike once the Phoenix League gets here."
"Why do you pretend to care so much?" Eve remarked.
Shepard turned to her. "I don't 'pretend' to care! No matter the species, if people are in trouble I'll do everything I can to help them. …If I had been active 17 years ago or so, you can be damn sure I'd be helping bring down the Sol Confederacy; what they did to you and their other victims was sick. And I can assure you, I'm not the only human who thinks that way."
"Bastards deserved more than they got" James chimed in, a scowl on his face as he remembered reading the reports.
"How will we be getting into the facility?" Javik spoke up, getting the topic back on track.
EDI called up a hologram of the structure. "The structure is built into the shadow of the dormant volcano that formed the island" she said. "It is not large enough to house an adult Reaper Dreadnought; most likely the Reapers mean to progress the new Reaper's 'construction' to a certain point and then move it into orbit for completion."
"Or they're making a Destroyer out of the Lucavi instead of one of the big ones" James added.
"Either way, we can't let them finish" Shepard said. "We have to get the people out of there, and – if possible – put that thing down before it's finished. EDI will hack in and disable their auto-defenses, and we'll take a few teams in." He turned to Eve. "How are you with weapons besides your saber-staff?"
"Before the Confederacy got their claws on me," T'Lesh replied, "I was a scout marked for commando training. I'm 'proficient' with all weapons, with a commendation for marksman and sniping skills. Plus, if anything gets close I have my staff and my powers."
Shepard nodded. "We'll get you set up with an Omnitool and a long-range rifle, and maybe try and retrofit some kinetic-barrier projectors to your armor."
"I already have shields."
"Alright, then. Everyone get ready; we're all-in for this one."
-SCENE BREAK-
Two Kodiak shuttles, their stealth systems engaged, approached the isolated facility in the shadow of the mountain that dominated the 10km-wide island, flying under the thick and low cloud cover that hid the sky. The facility's auto-defenses had been hacked by EDI to receive false readings in the form of looped footage for their visual-spectrum scanners, while the shuttles' stealth systems took care of any other emissions on the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing them to approach undetected. The two craft set down on a Harvester landing pad near one of the base's upper entrance, dropping off the Normandy's ground team along with Kaede, Asa, Eve T'Lesh, and the Smile Cures. They quickly and quietly made their way into the structure.
Inside, the familiar Reaper design style of sleek, curving black metal dominated. Thanks to a scan by the Normandy II, the team had a map of the facility; toward the center of the base, there was a circular chamber with connections to a much larger chamber below – most likely the location of 'processing pods' and the embryonic Reaper, respectively. They moved out along the only available hallway, Cure Sunny and James taking point while Wrex and Kal'Reegar brought up the rear. A little ways in, the pathway widened somewhat, allowing the group to not be so bunched up. Suddenly a trio of Husks emerged right in front of the group; two were immediately blasted by James and Sunny, and the third fell to a pistol headshot from Shepard.
"Well," the Commander said, "they know we're here now."
After a few more minutes of travel unmolested, passing a handful of empty side passages, they came to a large locked door. EDI got to work on it, and several seconds later, as if summoned by that, a pack of Husks emerged from the side passages around and behind the group. Wrex, Kal, James, and Sunny used their shotguns to cut down on the attackers' numbers, and Liara tossed out a Singularity that snatched four Husks up, leaving them exposed and helpless to Javik's particle rifle and Garrus' Phaeston. EDI got the door open, and the heroes moved on.
The trek deeper into the facility continued in this pattern for the most part, moving down scarcely-populated corridors and then holding the line against Husk rushes while EDI, Garrus, or Shepard opened the doors. Finally, after a good while of traveling and fighting, they arrived in a circular central chamber, not very high but quite large in diameter. Lining the perimeter of the room were hundreds of pods, around half of them occupied by Lucavi; scans showed they were sedated, but alive. As the team walked into the center of the room, there was a sudden clank and hiss from the pipes and machines connected to the pods.
"Damn it!" Garrus said, eyes widening. "They're about to be processed! There's no way we'll get them all out in time!"
Gasping softly, Eve then got a determined look on her face. She reached her arms out, her magical and psionic/Force power gathering. Her eyes glowed red, followed by her hands and the lines of her armor, as her hair floated upward like she were in water. The doors of all the pods began to rattle and shake, and then with a harsh cry she swept her arms inward, and every occupied pod's door was Force-Pulled off, shutting the pods down and freeing their occupants. Panting heavily, Eve began to tip forward, only for Cure Happy to catch her. The 'corrupted' Lucavi looked in mild surprise at the genuine concerned expression on the young human's face, as Happy led her over to a protrusion from the floor to sit down on.
"Impressive" Javik remarked.
"It was" Shepard added. "Good work, T'Lesh."
Over the next several minutes, Javik and EDI watched the doors and Eve caught her breath while everyone else checked on the now-awake civilians (with Eve warily watching Shepard and the other humans as they did, still not trusting them). Once everyone was determined to be alright, more or less, it was time to get moving again.
"The Cures, Shigure, and EDI will get the civilians out of here" Shepard ordered. "The rest of us will go downstairs and kill the Reaper embryo."
As the exfiltration group proceeded to escort the civilians out, Shepard led everyone else down a long circular flight of stairs. At the bottom, they emerged into the massive central chamber beneath the pod room. And, hanging from support struts in the middle of the chamber was a large construct, looking like a partially complete giant metal skull attached to part of a spinal cord, a few ribs that hadn't quite yet met in the front, and upper arms that terminated at the elbows. A glowing core was in the center of its chest, where the heart would be.
"Spirits…" Garrus breathed out.
"That… thing is made out of my people?" Eve asked, a slight tremor in her voice.
"It's not quite as far along in development as the one I encountered in the Collector Base" Shepard observed. "Hopefully it won't wake up and attack us like that one did."
"So how do we kill it?" Wrex asked.
"…Let's try unloading everything we have on the core, all at once" Shepard suggested. "Shoot it with our biggest guns and our biggest blasts at the same time."
After a moment's preparation, a short but very powerful barrage was loosed – a charged Warp and an Incinerate blast from Shepard, two concentrated explosive 'shells' of Biotic energy from Liara and Javik, Carnage shots from Wrex and James, full-auto armor-piercing fire from Kal'Reegar, and to top it all off, charged and powerful blasts of ki and magic from Kaede and Eve. They all struck the proto-Reaper's vulnerable core at the same time, the multiple explosions blowing the core apart. The embryo briefly came online, its eyes glowing faintly, but then they went out, the creature slumping lifelessly as its systems failed. Shepard then turned his sniper rifle on the tubes connected to its incomplete arms, shooting them. Without their support, the dead proto-Reaper broke free and plummeted into the pit below.
"We'll call in an orbital strike on this facility once one is available," Shepard said, "just in case. For now, let's get the hell out of here."
They made their way out of the facility, catching up with the civilians and escort near the exit. All of them were present and accounted for, mulling about on the rocky ground outside the facility.
"Joker, this is Shepard. We've killed the proto-Reaper and rescued the civilians; have the Tripartate send a few ships to pick them up."
"Aye-aye, Commander; they're on their way."
"I can't believe we actually saved them all…" Liara said. "This is fantastic."
The Commander turned as Eve T'Lesh walked up to him.
"I still despise your species for what they did to me, human," she said, "but… you saved a lot of my people here today. Whatever else happens, I… I have to thank you for that, regardless of the bad taste doing so leaves in my mouth."
He smiled. "I understand. I know that means a lot coming from you. Leaving these people to their fates wasn't an option for me; I can't stand by and let that sort of thing happen to innocents if I can do something about it."
"Let's hope the ships get here soon" James said. "Having all these people out in the open like this is kinda…"
"We'll all be fine" Cure March replied. "Now we just have t-"
"SHEPARD."
The sudden voice, impossibly loud and impossibly deep, rattling the bones of those who heard it, echoed from above. Through the low clouds, a massive shape descended, setting down a few kilometers away on the island. It was a fourth again the size of a normal Reaper Dreadnought, blue-hued 'running lights' along its body, and six glowing blue eyes gazed balefully right at the group, focusing on a particular human. It – He – was quickly recognized.
"Venator…" Shepard scowled.
"YOU ARE… LESS IMPOSING THAN LORD HARBINGER MADE YOU SOUND" the Command-subtype Reaper spoke, its voice rumbling the earth itself. "NEVERTHELESS, THE OBSTACLE YOU POSE WAS MADE QUITE CLEAR TO US. I HAD A SUSPICION YOU WOULD FIND A WAY TO INTERFERE SOMEHOW."
"Whatever you're planning here, it won't work. We've already destroyed the Reaper you were growing here."
"WE WILL SIMPLY CONSTRUCT ANOTHER, AFTER YOU ARE DEALT WITH AND CANNOT INTERFERE AGAIN."
"Not if I can help it" Eve snarled.
"…AN ORGANIC TOUCHED BY THE POWER OF PRIMUS' WAYWARD SON. INTRIGUING… BUT YOU CANNOT STOP US. NO ORGANIC CAN, REGARDLESS OF WHAT ABILITIES THEY WIELD."
The five Smile Cures stepped up, beside T'Lesh.
"Everyone," Cure Happy said, "get to cover. We'll do what we can here."
"YOU PRESUME TO THINK YOURSELVES CAPABLE OF STANDING AGAINST ME? I AM ONE OF LORD HARBINGER'S OLDEST GENERALS; I HAVE FOUGHT AND PURGED AT HIS COMMAND SINCE A MERE THREE CYCLES AFTER HE CAME INTO BEING."
"We fought and killed something with a final form big enough to eat a Reaper whole!" Cure Sunny shouted. "We beat Pierrot, and we'll beat you!"
"CONFIDENCE BORN OF IGNORANCE. IT WILL BE GRATIFYING SILENCING YOU…"
As the six girls stood their ground, gathering their energies, everyone else had gotten into hiding.
"Are they completely loco?-!" James said. "They're gonna take on a Sovereign-class on foot?-!"
Staring up at the massive Reaper, the girls felt a bit of nervousness and fear, but quashed it. Eve looked at her unlikely allies, then nodded and focused her conviction.
"I have an old, powerful arcane spell that might let us win this," she told them, "but I'll need time to charge enough power to use it. Can you humans buy me that time?"
"We will do our best" Cure Beauty replied.
Venator lifted one of his tentacle-legs and pointed it at the girls. They scattered as a dull-red beam of heat faded into visibility, burning a line down where they'd been standing. As he watched from cover, Shepard recognized the secondary weapon that Sovereign had used many of against Alliance ships during the Battle of the Citadel; Venator wasn't even using his main gun yet. March and Sunny fired a few charged attacks, but the distance meant they took a little while to hit Venator, and the Reaper's armor and shields barely even noticed the hits; he hadn't even bothered to move out of the way. A Peace Thunder to one of his six massive optics got much the same (lack of) reaction.
"NOT EVEN ENOUGH TO BE IRRITATING…"
Another beam was fired from Venator's secondary weapon, with Cure March using her super-speed to get herself and Cure Happy out of the way. Eve continued charging power, hoping the titan didn't notice what she was doing. The super-Reaper sent out a deep horn-like bass blast, and in response Husks emerged from the nearby base, charging toward the girls. Cure Beauty unleashed a wide wave of Ice magic that froze a good number of Husks, and a Sagitta Magica barrage from Cure Happy shattered them. Cannibals and a few Marauders fired their guns as they ran forward, and March & Peace focused on them, the latter zapping their shields and systems and the former using her super-speed for crushing lightning-fast physical blows. A Brute charged at Cure Sunny, who focused her super-strength and, dodging a claw swipe at her head, lashed out with a blow that caved the monster's chest in, sending it flying a good distance.
Another near-infrared laser cut across the ground, narrowly avoiding Beauty & Happy. After dealing with the rest of the Husks, the girls returned their attention to Venator, firing a few more long-range attacks that did virtually nothing. By this point, the head of Eve's staff was glowing increasingly bright with crimson light, her power continuing to gather. Unfortunately, Venator finally noticed she was up to something. There was a building red light from the area at the center of the tentacles, and then a bright red 'beam' of relativistic-speed molten metal shot out, cutting a burning line across the ground as it swept upward right toward Eve. The Lucavi cursed as she teleported to the side, having to use a little portion of the stored power to do so.
'I've got about two-thirds of what I need!' she sent telepathically to the Smile Cures. 'Keep him busy!'
Miyuki fired a Happy Shower Shining, the large bright-pink wave of energy striking Venator's 'face'. Venator started charging another shot, but a Peace Thunder Hurricane struck the main gun, the enchanted lightning shorting it out and forcing it to shut down temporarily while auto-repairs corrected, making the Reaper rumble in annoyance. The secondary weapon was brought up again (Venator could only lift and fire one 'leg' at a time or else he'd fall over), and fired at Cure Peace, who barely avoided being scorched. Leapers and Marauders emerged from the base, heading for the girls, but then sniper rounds started cutting them down as Shepard and Garrus pitched in from afar. The reduced and scattered numbers were then easy pickings for Sunny and Beauty.
Finally, Eve T'Lesh finished charging power. She took position, and a large red magic rune-circle formed on the ground with her standing at the center. She twirled and waved her staff in certain ways, each motion making more component symbols appear in the rune, growing in complexity. Venator, his main gun operational again, started charging it, looking right at her. Soon, the rune was complete, and a bright red glow emitted from Eve's eyes, the lines along her armor, and the head of her staff. Just as Venator fired, the 'beam' cutting its way across the ground toward her, she swung her staff forward. She felt something 'catch', and then began pulling back on the staff with visible effort. The beam of molten metal abruptly cut off when it was less than 30 meters from her, and Venator let out a bass rumble, moving as if trying to brace himself against something. Eve groaned through clenched teeth as she pulled harder on her staff, looking almost like someone trying to reel in a particularly big fish. Finally, with a pulse of power and a cry of triumph, she yanked the staff all the way back. Instantly a huge cloud of bluish miasma was seen being ripped free from Venator's body, particularly his optics. After it was all out, the Reaper's eyes lost their light. Eve collapsed to her knees, panting heavily.
"What… did you just do?" Cure Happy asked as she and the others gathered near.
"It's… hah… a spell I discovered… during my travels…" Eve replied, speaking between pants and gasps for breath. "It's meant to… forcefully draw out a creature's… essence… their 'astral presence'… so it can be attacked directly… It's useful for… taking out really big… demons and the like… But Reapers… they don't really have that… Because of how they're made… how they are… their essences are… composed of the essence of millions of individuals… and when they're ripped free they disperse… Basically, this spell… can kill a Reaper… I can only use it once every… couple of days, though…"
Suddenly, the bluish miasma floating in the air stopped dispersing. Instead, it began rushing inward, coalescing at a spot across the flat rocky plain that the girls were on. Eve stared in shock.
"This… This can't be!" she said. "I've used this spell on three Reapers since this whole war started, and they all ceased to be as the collective essences dispersed! How can Venator… How can he have an astral presence? The others… He's not a normal Reaper!"
"THAT MUCH SHOULD HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS…"
Venator's deep and loud voice, now possessing an ethereal echo, came from the thing that the extracted essence had formed into. It was around 130-150 feet across, a spherical bluish-white 'mass' of astral substance floating about 40 feet off the ground, with two crossing rings of energy encircling it.
"SERVANT OF PRIMUS' FALLEN SON, YOU ARE A MORE SERIOUS THREAT THAN I INITIALLY CONSIDERED. YOU MUST PERISH, HERE AND NOW, BEFORE YOU CAN DISRUPT THE CYCLE ANY FURTHER."
"We won't allow that!" Cure Happy shouted. "T'Lesh-san has had too much suffering in her life; we won't let you take away the chance for her to have a better life! And we won't let you harvest anyone else, either! The 'cycle' will be stopped!"
Eve stared in shock. 'She… She can't mean that… A human wouldn't say…'
"This is it, Venator!" Cure March joined in. "We're shutting you down!"
"THE TIME FOR TALK IS PASSED. …RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH, YOU WILL BE RETURNED TO THE DUST WHENCE YOU CAME."
The constantly-shifting bluish sphere turned red around its edges, and a crimson beam of energy fired from the center. The girls scattered to avoid it as it swept through the air, trying to catch them. When the beam cut out, the group counterattacked; Eve and Cure Happy fired a wave of red and pink magic bolts, while Cure March used Fūton: Shinkū Renpa and Cure Beauty fired her sniper rifle. The bullet passed right through Venator's form like it wasn't even there, while March's slicing wind waves were completely ineffective, but Eve and Happy's attacks crashed against the sphere, which let out a low rumble.
"Astral-form entities like this are completely immune to weapons fire, Biotics, and chakra-based attacks!" Eve called out. "Only magic can hurt them!"
"Good thing that's our main method of attack, then" Cure Peace replied.
The Venator-sphere fired two waves of bluish-black energy bolts that arced outward and then curved in to attack the girls from all directions. Cure March cast Aeroza, the wide-range high-tier Wind-type barrier deflecting some of the blasts, while a red-hued dome shield cast by T'Lesh stopped the rest. A March Shooter and Happy Shower struck Venator, harming him slightly and also distracting him as Cures Peace and Beauty synchronized their magical energies. After several seconds, they attacked:
"PreCure: Frozen Bolts!"
Ice and Lightning magic combined as a barrage of electrified ice spears, the double elemental-magic attack striking Venator's astral body. The magic ice spears stuck into the living essence, discharging their stored voltage and then exploding in a burst of sharp shards. There was an echoing, wavering bass note from the entity, and then the two angled rings of glowing white surrounding it began to spin. After a few seconds, once they were spinning fairly rapidly, their glow brightened and a veritable storm of energy bolts 'spun off' from them. Cure Beauty pulled out a tiny jewel of sorts and set it into her Smile Pact, and Eve watched in bafflement as what looked like a giant umbrella materialized… and, to her astonishment, successfully blocked the entire barrage of energy bolts, protecting the group before then dispelling in a burst of magic sparks. While this was happening, Cures Sunny and March had been charging their energies together, and now they launched their power as a combined green and red orb of magical energy. It sailed toward Venator…
"PreCure: Blaze Tornado!"
…and detonated into a whirling column of wind and fire that engulfed the energy being. After several seconds, the powerful magical fire-whirlwind dispersed, revealing Venator's astral form looking scorched as it 'wobbled' a little in the air. Then it let out a sort of mechanical 'roar', its edges tinting red. A point of crimson light built up in front of it, and fired as a large and lethal beam of energy. The girls barely got out of the way, their outfits scorched just from the proximity. As Venator followed up with another wave of energy blasts, Cure Happy stood beside Eve, already beginning to charge bright-pink energy into her pulled-back hands, while Eve held her staff out as red energy converged at the tip. After several seconds they fired, pink and red beams corkscrewing around each other and slamming into Venator's form, the raw magical energy blasting away at the floating blue orb. With a sound like shattering glass but lower, the two rings broke apart and disintegrated, and the blue orb that was Venator's essence wavered in the air.
"THIS IS LUDICROUS. I HAVE HARVESTED AND KILLED FOR OVER ONE BILLION OF YOUR YEARS; A GROUP OF CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO HARM ME!"
"We're not just kids" Cure Sunny replied. "We're PreCure!"
"Nothing is unbeatable!" Cure Peace said. "Not even your kind!"
"The nightmare will end!" Cure Happy shouted. "The Reapers will fall! We will beat you all, and live in peace! Your era is going to come to a close, Venator…" In bursts of multi-colored light, she and the four others summoned candle-like batons with pegasus-themed grips. "With us, and our friends, and Shepard, and everyone else, the Cycle will finally be over!"
[AN: Using romaji/Engrish transliteration instead of straight English at the end because… well, "Baasuto" is better when 'stretched out' than "Burst" is; also, am changing the dialogue a little]
(MUSIC: Smile PreCure OST 2 Track 29 – "Royal Rainbow Burst")
Everything burst into colorful lights as the five girls stood together, holding their staffs aloft with the tips together.
"Royal Queen, Watashi-tachi ni chikara o! (Royal Queen, grant your power to us!)"
(0:15)
Lights of pink, red, yellow, green, and blue surrounded the quintet. Their outfits changed, becoming a beautiful shining white tinted faintly with their respective main colors. The skirts lengthened into waist-length capes, the bows at the center of their chests lengthened and became glittering white, shining gold earrings formed on their ears, their hair shone and lengthened, tiaras with colored gems and wing-like protrusions manifested atop their heads, and a sort of thin golden halo formed over Cure Happy's head.
(0:24)
"Princess Happy!"
"Princess Sunny!"
"Princess Peace!"
"Princess March!"
"Princess Beauty!"
The girls leapt high as five beams of pink, red, gold, green, and blue light shot out from beneath them, forming into five spectral pegasus steeds that 'posed' behind and around the girls as they did.
"PreCure: Princess Form!"
(0:45)
In a flash of golden light, a pink and white object formed, dominated by a colorful clock-face on the front.
"Hiraké! Royal Clock! (Open! Royal Clock!)"
Cure Happy traced her finger around the clock-face's circumference, a musical chime accompanying the motion.
"Minna no chikara hitotsu ni suru! (Make everyone's powers as one!)"
She pressed down on the pink gem atop the Royal Clock, and two golden 'hands' appeared on the clock-face, spinning a full revolution and stopping at the 12. A brilliant golden light shone from the device, and the specter of a phoenix was briefly visible. The area appeared to become a mass of stars of all colors of the rainbow.
(1:04)
"Todoké! Kibō no hikari! (Deliver! The light of hope!)
At Happy's call, the girls flew atop their spectral steeds, tracing a pattern in the 'stars'.
"Habataké! Hikari kagayaku mirai é! (Fly! Into the future shining bright!)
The traced pattern formed the vague constellation-outline of a massive bird, and the girls flew through it, being encased in a golden glow as they zipped forward in formation.
"PRECURE: REINBOOOOOO…"
(1:25)
"BAASUTOOOOO!-!-!"
As the five girls thrust their staffs forward, a gigantic spectral phoenix made of golden flames formed, letting out a beautiful yet fearsome cry as it clutched a glowing point of light in its beak. It thrusted its head forward, and fired a massive surging beam of destructive magical power, looking like brilliant white flames tinted with all the colors of the rainbow. The blue sphere that was Venator fired its own crimson beam of energy that met the Royal Rainbow Burst halfway, but after only a few seconds of struggle the rainbow beam won out, punching through the Astral-Reaper's final attack and surging forward. The beam engulfed Venator's essence-form, and the billion-year-old entity was completely obliterated in less than a full second.
(1:48)
Cure Happy spun her staff with a flourish. "Kagayaké! (Shine!)"
"ETERNAL SMILE!-!"
A final, sparkling explosion erupted from where Venator had been, annihilating what little remained of the entity.
(END)
As the starry backdrop faded, Venator's Reaper body lost all of its light. The ancient construct, already starting to crumple under its own weight as its mass-effect field shut down, toppled lifelessly over to the side, landing with a mighty splash in the ocean nearby, as the rescued Lucavi civilians cheered.
"I'll be damned…" James muttered, looking on in awe. "They actually did it…"
"Multiple slipspace ruptures detected" EDI suddenly announced. "A large Phoenix League fleet has just arrived; they are already firing everything they've got at the Reapers. Dropships and orbital-drop pods are inbound to the surface."
"Commander!" Joker radioed. "I don't know what you guys just did down there, but between that and the reinforcements that just arrived, the Reapers are bugging out! They're falling back toward the warp-rift!"
As this announcement set off a new wave of celebration among the rescued civilians, Shepard headed down to where the Cures and Eve were. The five magical girls had de-transformed from slight exhaustion, but the victorious grins on their faces spoke volumes. Eve T'Lesh made to slip away, but when she turned she found herself face to face with Shepard only a few meters away.
"You did great, T'Lesh" he said. "We couldn't have done any of this without you. …You're intelligent, you're powerful, you're courageous, you're able to keep your calm in bad situations… and you went out of your way to save and protect innocent people, as well as providing vital help in taking down a Reaper. …That's the sort of person who'd be perfect for my team. I know you have grievances with humanity, but we sure could use your help against the rest of the Reapers. What do you say?"
Eve was quiet as she contemplated. Memories came to her – Shepard trying to reason with her on Al-Hazred, him showing such concern for her people and saying how he helped anyone who needed it regardless of species, Cure Happy supporting her after she exhausted herself…
'This guy…' she thought, looking at Shepard. 'It's almost like he actually means what he says…'
"…Fine" she said. "I still don't trust you, human, but… until the Reapers are dealt with, they're a threat to my race, to everyone… Until then, I'll… *sigh* I'll join your team."
The Commander smiled and gave a little nod.
"Glad to hear it" he replied.
'Humans are, as a rule, vile beings…' she thought. 'But… I suppose there are always a couple of exceptions to every rule… We'll see if that holds true here… Shepard.'
-CHAPTER END-
Because "BURRRRST!" sounds lame.
Next Time: Shepard finds an 'old friend' he met on Noveria, who has managed to get herself caught up in trouble once again…