The Citadel was locked down tighter than Rigel had ever seen it. The Blind Well was hailed on approach and ordered away from the Citadel under threat of hostile action if the ship didn't comply. The only reason the Blind Well was cleared to land was Tela taking control of the comm and throwing around her weight as a Spectre.

Before the ship had even fully touched down, Tela was lowering the ramp and leaping to the ground, in a full sprint towards the nearest skycar, Rigel hot on her heels. A human C-Sec officer tried to stop them, but Tela shoved her aside and slammed the door shut in her face, the vehicle already lifting into the air.

Shepard's call had only revealed that Tevos had been injured. The human Spectre refused to say anything else until they were meeting face-to-face.

Nova had been scanning the net since Shepard's call in an attempt to turn up information on what had transpired. All the Ghost was able to find was an announcement that the Citadel was undergoing a security drill and residents were expected to comply with C-Sec personnel to end the exercise promptly.

Tela and Rigel both knew the public story was bullshit, but they also knew that whatever had happened had injured Tevos and caused C-Sec to lock down the Citadel. Whatever they were walking into was bad.

Tela brought the skycar down outside Huerta Memorial Hospital and kicked the door open, standing and storming towards the entrance.

An armored C-Sec officer, a salarian, stepped in front of Tela as she and Rigel approached, holding up his hand. "I'm afraid I can't let you in, Spectre Vasir. I'm under specific orders to–"

Tela's glare was that of a gorgon, causing the salarian to freeze in place as she said, "Let me be clear. If you try to stop me from getting in that building, I will throw you over that railing." Tela growled, pointing to a railing set to guard passersby from a very long fall.

The salarian was petrified. He stuttered, stepping back and saying, ""I–uh… Well… I mean, you should–"

Tela grabbed his shoulder and bodily shoved him to the side, walking right through the glass doors behind him.

Rigel spared a greeting nod at the turian C-Sec officer standing on the other side of the door, looking too terrified to get involved, and followed Tela inside.

Tela called the elevator, and she and her Risen companion climbed on, riding it to higher floors.

Tela was unfocused. Her arms were folded over her chest, hands balled into fists. Her foot was tapping impatiently against the ground. Her eyes were narrow. Her breathing was fast, enraged.

"Hey." Rigel said comfortingly, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Tela flinched at the contact, relaxing slightly when she looked up to meet Rigel's eyes, revealed as Nova transmatted his helmet away.

"Nova's read up on this place. Tevos has the best medical care in the entire galaxy. Add that to the cytomachines we brought, and she'll be fine. She wouldn't have become the Asari Counselor if she wasn't tough."

Tela closed her eyes and sighed heavily, anxious tension slowly bleeding out of her as she did. She reached up to her shoulder and covered Rigel's hand with her own. "I know. I just… They hurt my friend. Someone needs to die. I don't know who yet and that pisses me off."

"We'll get them. But you need to put a lid on that anger until we know where to direct it. When we know who to blame, I'll clear a path for you so you can blow the bastard to hell. Until then, we need to be smart."

Tela started nodding and inhaled deeply, opening her eyes and straightening her posture. "Thanks, Rigel."

Retracting his hand, Rigel said, "No thanks necessary. Let's go help your friend."

The whirring elevator came to a gentle halt. The door hissed open in front of them, and Tela and Rigel stepped into a reception area. There were stairs leading down to an offset floor with couches, plants, tables and a collection of screens. Ahead, there was a counter with a tired looking human woman behind it. She looked up groggily as Tela and Rigel approached and said, "I'm sorry, but visitations are–"

"Where is Councilor Tevos?" Tela demanded, pulling up her omni-tool and displaying her Spectre credentials.

The woman's eyes shot wide, rubbing at the bags under them in an effort to focus. "Um, Spectre Vasir, ma'am, I'm sorry, but–"

"Fuck it." Tela said, stepping around the counter and walking down the hall. "Haleez! Xaness!"

"Um, ma'am, you can't–"

Tela ignored the timid receptionist, proceeding deeper into the hospital, Rigel following behind her.

"Tela?" a feminine voice called from the direction Tela and Rigel were walking.

A large, dark door slid open in front of them into another, much smaller waiting area. It was packed with people.

There were six Asari, all heavily armed and armored. Two of them stood sentinel on either side of a silver door. The one nearest the entrance Tela and Rigel walked from was looking over as if she'd just called out.

Standing on the opposite side of the room were two humans and a Turian. Rigel recognized Garrus immediately, quickly making the connection that he was standing with Shepard and the woman she'd brought to meet them the first time – Miranda, the Cerberus operative. The three were huddled together as if they'd been having a quiet discussion.

Tela ignored Shepard, walking right up to the guard at the door. "How is she?"

"Still unconscious, but the doctor says she'll make a full recovery." the Asari replied, stepping forward to meet Tela, hand extended. "It's good to see you again, Tela."

Tela took her hand, seeming as if a debilitating weight had been lifted from her shoulders after hearing Tevos would recover. "You too, Xaness."

Xaness's eyes tracked over Tela's shoulders to Rigel and narrowed slightly. "Who is the human?"

"Rigel. I trust him with my life." Tela said immediately.

"I trust you, Tela, but he needs to stay out here all the same. I made a mistake once and Councilor Tevos nearly died. That isn't going to happen again."

"Xaness, he–"

"It's fine." Rigel cut Tela off. When the Spectre turned around, Rigel gave her a reassuring nod. "Go check on her. I'll wait out here."

Tela nodded back, and followed the other Asari through the door. Rigel caught a quick glimpse of a blue body atop a hospital bed and satin sheets before the remaining Asari stepped into the space created when Xaness left, stern expressions on their faces. The door slid closed behind them moments later.

Have you managed to find anything yet? Rigel said internally.

Exactly nothing. Nova replied. Everyone in this room wiped their omni-tool recently. Tevos's presence isn't listed on the hospital records and there is no report about what caused her to be injured on the net. Whatever is going on is being kept very hush hush.

So it's bad.

We already knew that. Now we know that it's really bad.

Joy. Let's see if we can figure out just how really bad this is, shall we?

Rigel stepped away from the assembled Asari and walked over to Shepard and her crewmates.

Garrus nodded as he approached and said, "Rigel. Good to see you again. Just wish the circumstances were different."

"Likewise, Garrus, and speaking of circumstances, does someone want to fill me in on what exactly happened here?" Rigel said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Miranda tilted her head curiously. "You don't know?"

Rigel raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not omniscient, just really good at finding data, of which there is none regarding this event. What happened?"

Four o'clock! Nova screamed in Rigel's head.

Ace was in Rigel's hand a fraction of a second later, leveled at the intruder Nova detected. "Cloaked combatant!" he called.

The Asari guards responded immediately, raising rifles and pistols in the direction Rigel indicated.

Before any shots were fired, Shepard threw herself in front of Rigel's gun with her arms waving in front of her. "Hold your fire! Friendly! Friendly!"

Rigel didn't lower Ace, but he did look at Shepard with his eyes, holding his fire for the moment.

Shepard let out a tense breath as she slowly lowered her arms. "Kasumi, uncloak."

A disjointed, digitized cloaking array slowly unraveled, revealing a small human woman with her hands up and a nervous smile on her face. "Um…surprise?"

As the Asari slowly lowered their weapons, one stormed forward, seething at Shepard. "You had a cloaked soldier here the entire time? Were you planning on telling us?"

Shepard's brow creased as she met the Asari's glare and said, "No. If Sparatus was compromised, the Citadel may as well be compromised. I know Tevos is clean. I wasn't going to risk one of yours making a move against her."

"You have–"

"Alright, shut up!"

The tense room turned to see Tela and Xaness emerging from Tevos's room, both holstering weapons.

Tela walked up to Shepard and the other Asari and looked between them. "We're on the same side here, and we're all pissed off. Let's stop being pissed at each other and figure out who to be pissed at. Now," Tela turned to fully face Shepard. "How did my boss end up in a hospital bed?"

Sighing as she looked away from the still irate Asari that had challenged her, Shepard turned to Tela and said, "Sparatus shot her. He was moving in to finish the job when I got there. We had to kill Sparatus."

Tela's eyes widened. "Sparatus tried to kill her himself? That… that doesn't make sense. If she confronted him, wouldn't he have tried to cover his tracks after she left?"

Shepard shook her head. "People are impossible to predict when they're indoctrinated. I've seen a woman driven to try to kill her own daughter. Sparatus might've decided it was only a matter of time before he was ousted and tried to cripple the Council as much as he could on his way out. I'd ask him, but he's dead. Believe me, if I could have taken him alive I would have. He could have answered a lot of questions I have."

"Indoctrination." Rigel said, drawing the attention of the room and stepping forward. "You said indoctrination. You have a name for the mental influence. You know what it is?"

Shepard shook her head. "I only know the basics, and everything I do know could be incomplete or outright incorrect. The Reapers use indoctrination to control races prior to their return."

Miranda Lawson stepped forward, her attention focused on Rigel, ignoring the rest of the room. "Indoctrination operates on some form of energy emitted from Reaper technology. The more time one is exposed to Reaper technology, the more likely they are to be indoctrinated. It is possible that Councilor Sparatus became indoctrinated when studying the remains of Sovereign."

"You're saying that entire teams of scientists are compromised similarly to Councilor Sparatus?" Xaness said, stepping forward to intervene in the conversation.

Miranda spared her an irritated glance. "If Councilor Sparatus was indoctrinated, it is near certain that others on the Citadel are as well."

"We need to do a full sweep. Lock down anyone that is acting suspicious. We need–" Xaness was cut off by a new arrival.

"To act like it is business as usual."

All eyes turned to welcome the smartly dressed human Councilor into the room, a trio of Alliance guards spreading out behind him. "Conducting a witch-hunt will do nothing but weaken us. Once my colleague Councilor Tevos awakes, we will be able to discuss plans for subtly ferreting out traitors. Until then, however, dividing our strength with baseless accusations and distrust is the worst thing we can do."

Tela looked at Rigel. "Can you wake her up with your cryomachines?"

The attention of the entire room shifted once more to the Risen. Rigel noted Miranda Lawson hungrily staring at him, seemingly wanting to pounce but containing herself.

Welp. Safe to say that secret is out.

It was just a matter of time before we spread them around anyway. Besides, it's not a terrible idea. Rigel responded to the voice in his head.

"Cytomachines." Rigel corrected Tela. "And maybe, but I don't want to use them just yet."

Tela stepped forward, head tilted in confusion. "But you said you would use them to help her."

Rigel nodded. "And I will, but I was expecting her to be far worse off than she is. Unless I've read things wrong, she's not in any immediate danger." Rigel looked at Xaness and received a hesitant nod of confirmation.

Turning back to Tela, Rigel said, "Then I'd prefer your people look them over first. I've never used them on Asari, and while they should function perfectly fine, I'd rather your experts make sure of that before resorting to them if they're unneeded lest we accidentally worsen her condition."

"What about… Forget it." Tela trailed off, having noted the intensity with which Miranda was observing the conversation.

Rigel, understanding what Tela was getting at and appreciating her hesitance to openly speak of his powers, said, "I'd prefer to let her wake up normally."

Tela nodded and let the topic drop. Darting glances from the rest of the room clued Rigel into the fact that they were aware something more was being said, but no one openly questioned what.

"I'm sorry," Councilor Anderson said, stepping up to Tela and Rigel. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting your…associate, Vasir."

"This is Rigel. Rigel, meet Councilor Anderson." Tela quickly introduced the two.

Anderson's eyes widened for a brief moment before he schooled his expression. He extended his hand, saying, "It is a pleasure to meet you Rigel. I have heard many things about you. I'd be interested in meeting with you privately later if you are available."

Sparing a glance at Tela, Rigel said, "Provided we sort this mess out first, I would be willing to meet with you at some point, but I can't promise when that will be."

Anderson nodded. "Thank you. There is no major rush. Come by when you have time.." Stepping back to address the assembled crowd, Anderson said, "I will release a press statement shortly thanking the Citadel for its cooperation and congratulating its citizens for a well executed lockdown drill. I'll likely spend the rest of the day taking calls from various heads of governments to reassure them that everything is fine. As far as any of you are concerned. Councilor Sparatus is seeing to a private matter, and Councilor Tevos is preparing for her planned trip to Thessia next week. Hopefully Messana will be awake by then and will be able to spin this mess in a way I can't."

Xaness looked between the assembled Asari before saying, "Respectfully, sir, we shouldn't rescind the lockdown. We don't know who else is involved in whatever this is and reopening the Citadel increases the chances that they will escape."

"I don't intend to leave us unprepared for a future attack. You forget I was a soldier before I became a politician. I've already coordinated with Citadel Security and some old Alliance contacts. Patrols will monitor ships entering and leaving Citadel space and our officers will keep their eyes out for any suspicious activity. Aside from that, I would like your help investigating this further and ensuring Councilor Tevos's safety, Xaness, Haleez."

Xaness nodded, a second Asari stepping up beside her. "That goes without saying, Councilor."

"What about us?" Shepard said, arms crossed over her chest.

"I need you to keep doing what you're doing, Shepard. The timing of this attack worries me. If the Reapers are trying to pull your focus away from the Collectors, then it is even more important that you deal with them."

"So we really have no leads other than blaming the Reapers? We have no idea who else is involved?" Tela said, smothered fury plain to hear in her voice.

"Unfortunately, yes. I'll keep you both updated on the investigation, but I need you out there doing what you do best." Anderson said, looking between Tela and Shepard.

"We can't do anything without any leads." Tela argued. "We don't know where the Collectors or Reapers will hit next. The only thing we have to go on is Tevos."

"Not necessarily." Rigel spoke up. "We have that frequency from the ship that tried to trap us."

"Wait, what happened?" Shepard asked Rigel, confused.

Tela quickly summarized their experience on Ilos, adopting a considering expression as she finished catching everyone up.

Shepard shook her head, eyes focused on the floor. "I had a run-in with the Collectors a little while ago too. They hit Horizon minutes before we got there. We weren't in time to save the colonists. Only Ash… We only got a few people out."

"I don't like the timing here." Tela said, shaking her head. "We have two separate encounters with the Collectors days before this happens? The trap on Ilos was what originally led us to suspect foul play from the Council in the first place. That ship may have been in contact with Sparatus. Maybe he heard about our escape and was told to be on guard."

"Sparatus's call logs were wiped along with everything else on his personal terminal moments before he shot Councilor Tevos." Haleez said, her fist tightening into a ball.

"That seems too fast." Garrus said disbelievingly. "How would he be able to wipe everything in less than a minute?"

"I could do it." Kasumi said, raising her hand and smiling proudly before pulling her hood down a little lower when she became the center of attention. "That is, anyone skilled enough could pull it off. It's also possible there wasn't much he needed to get rid of. If he's been…indoctrinated for a while now, he might have been wiping his terminal regularly."

"Regardless," Tela said, drawing attention back to herself in an attention to get everyone back onto the topic of the Collectors. "It's looking likely that Sparatus was in contact with the Collectors, maybe even the specific ship Rigel and I encountered."

"So if we hit it, we might find out what he was trying to accomplish here." Rigel finished her thought, sharing a look of understanding with her.

"How about it, Shepard? Want to track down a Collector ship?" Tela asked her fellow Spectre.

Shepard shook her head. "I'd love to, but I have something to do first. There's a time sensitive problem I have to deal with on Haestrom."

"How time sensitive?" Rigel asked, turning to Shepard. "Do you have time to make a single stop? It shouldn't take longer than two days."

Shepard raised an eyebrow as she met Rigel's gaze. "Depends on what the stop would accomplish."

"You've been in open combat with the Collectors. Tela and I would have faced an entire dreadnought's worth of Collector soldiers were we not prepared to flee. When we meet them next, we'll need to be better equipped."

Anderson, Miranda, and Tela all looked at Rigel in varying degrees of shock while the rest of the room seemed confused. All save Kasumi who looked inquisitive.

"I agree. That's why I need to go to Haestrom. There's an old friend there who can help me improve the Normandy's chances against the Collectors." Shepard said, head tilted slightly to the side as she studied Rigel. "How urgent is your stop?"

"If you're picking up another crewmate, my stop can wait until you're done. That'll give me time to set things up on my end so I'm ready for you."

"Rigel, are you saying…" Tela trailed off, glancing suspiciously at Miranda.

"That thing we talked about? Yes. We're going back where I took you before. I'll need your help to set everything up. Once that's done and Shepard's grabbed her friend, we'll track down the signal we took from that Collector ship." Rigel replied.

Tela nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Holding up a hand, Anderson stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry, Rigel, what are you planning to do?"

Rigel smirked sidelong at the Councilor. "Tell Fyster to check his mail. Tela?" Rigel held out his hand to the Asari Spectre.

With an amused expression on her face, Tela took Rigel's hand, giving Anderson a salute with her other hand. "We'll keep you posted, Councilor. Shepard, I'll send you coordinates when we're ready to meet. Xanass, Haleez, take care of Tevos. And do me a favor and smack her upside the head when she wakes up."

Firing transmat. Nova said in Rigel's head.

Before anyone could question Tela and Rigel's strange behavior, they vanished in a flash of blue light.

"So, we're opening up the armory, huh?" Nova said, appearing in the Blind Well's cockpit in front of Rigel.

"It's been a long time coming, and open combat with the Collectors is as good of an excuse as we're going to get." Rigel affirmed. "Do me a favor and send out those data packages you've been preparing for the various governments in Citadel Space. When we outfit the Normandy, Cerberus will try to replicate everything, so it's best we give everyone else a small headstart to figuring out our tech."

"What are you sending out?" Tela asked as she took her seat, the Blind Well slowly rising away from the docking clamps and out of the docking bay.

"I'll send you a full list, but we're basically doing a wide wave of improvements to things you already have. We're introducing as few new systems as possible. That way you can make use of everything right away." Nova explained.

Tela nodded along. "Makes sense. So…" she said, slowly turning to look at Rigel as he sat down in the pilot's seat. "Back to Mercury?"

Rigel nodded as the Blind Well blasted away from the Citadel, Tela's Spectre codes allowing them to bypass the lockdown. "Back to Mercury. We'll outfit the Blind Well once we get there then make everything the Normandy will need. If everything works out the way I'd like, we'd have the Normandy land and do repairs on the surface, but we might need to let it land down in the cave. I'd have to find another hideout, but equipping Shepard takes precedent right now. Either way, once we finish equipping everyone, we'll trace that signal Nova pulled from the Collector ship and see if we can figure out who was pulling Sparatus's strings."

"Good." Tela said, her voice an anticipatory growl. "I'm looking forward to blasting that fucker apart."