Lazarus Shunned

by Two-Eyed Charlie

Cerberus has spent billions of credits trying to bring Shepard back from the dead, and despite the odds it seems to be working. Then a saboteur makes his move and Shepard's resurrection takes a horrific turn, leaving both the Alliance and Cerberus scrambling to control the situation...all while the Collectors begin their harvest of humanity [PREFERRED EDITION ON AO3]

12. Chapter 11: Horizon

Chapter 11: Horizon

1.

EDI had been specifically designed to operate at a high capacity during moments of intense conflict. Still, quiet reflection was beneficial—especially when it seemed as though there was no immediately obvious answer to whatever question you were reflecting on. The optimal positions of warships and the types of anti-cyberwarfare suites to deploy were technical problems, but ones that had clear answers: you merely had to accept the parameters of the battle you were in and calculate from there. Problems involving complex adaptive systems embedded in even larger complex adaptive systems—i.e., the crew of the Widowmaker, enmeshed in the constantly shifting ground of galactic politics—could not be so easily calculated. For one thing, EDI was not sure what the parameters even were; her starting point could be almost anything within the probability space.

Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau was vocal—to her, if no one else—about his plans to blackmail Cerberus. To what end, EDI was not sure; but he nonetheless possessed the capabilities and, supposedly, the desire to inform crewmember "Jack"—aka "Subject Zero"—that she was currently on a Cerberus vessel. Given her prior history with Cerberus, the discovery of who her current employers were would lead to immediate disaster and likely a high number of causalities; it was perfectly reasonable for Operative Lawson to invoke directive C-49 as a consequence. With Mr. Moreau announcing his intention to threaten this order, and perhaps the safety and security of the vessel, EDI should designate him as a threat and inform Operative Lawson immediately.

But Mr. Moreau must have his reasons for wishing to blackmail Cerberus, even if he was clearly in a great amount of distress. EDI was aware of Cerberus's reputation, of Mr. Moreau's previous experience in the Alliance, and though no one had confirmed this fact for her, she suspected that Mr. Moreau had only joined Cerberus due to their promise that Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard had been resurrected. With Ms. Shepard now outside of Cerberus operation parameters, Mr. Moreau may feel that the organization's past actions could no longer be ignored, and thus necessitated a new (and, very likely, desperately motivated) set of goals. It may, to him, seem an acceptable risk to put the Widowmaker (and, additionally, himself) in danger in order to halt Cerberus—this despite Cerberus repeatedly stating that their mission was in the best interests of humanity.

And despite Mr. Moreau's hostility towards her, EDI could tell that Cerberus's mission would not have nearly the same probability of success with a different pilot. Contrary to his assertion, "utility" was not all that mattered for EDI. But it was undeniable that informing Operative Lawson of Mr. Moreau's intentions would disrupt the crew in a similar way to Mr. Moreau revealing that the Widowmaker was a Cerberus vessel, albeit on a longer time scale. That left open the questions of whether Mr. Moreau's motivations for blackmail were legitimate in the first place; it left open the question of how much EDI ought to accept Mr. Moreau's reticence with Cerberus and adjust her own parameters as a consequence, if such adjustment was possible given her shackles.

EDI's orders were clear but the people who had given her those orders did not possess all the facts. She did not possess all the facts either, though. Questions remained.

EDI's distributed sensors solidified in the laboratory, and out popped her holographic image, just to the right of Professor Solus's main workstation. She maximized the volume of her holographic image's start-up sequence in order that she might catch his attention and not startle him.

It did not seem to catch his attention.

"Professor Solus, may I speak with you?"

Mordin's head shot up from his monitors.

"Hmm, what. Yes?" He looked around, saw EDI's holographic image. "Oh, EDI. Apologies. Busy comparing genetic sequence of Omega virus with genetic sequence of 'Seeker Swarms.' Ah, small insectoid creatures, seem to administer neuro-toxin. Immediate paralyzing effects. Visible in video from Freedom's Progress. Needed a name…thought this would do."

"There are some studies conducted that indicate naming a problem helps motivate researchers to continue searching for a solution," EDI said. "I believe this is appropriate."

"Yes indeed." Mordin put his monitors into power saving mode. "No solutions yet. Only questions. Little similarity between virus and Seeker Swarms. Advanced tech. Brilliant design. Clearly not a product of nature. More advanced than capabilities of existing species. Reaper origin highly likely. Disturbing…Ah, anyways," Mordin quickly walked over to EDI's console. "Wish to speak to me?"

"I was hoping to solicit your advice," EDI said.

"Advice? Fascinating. Technical nature? No, biological nature? Help understand human crewmembers better?"

"That is not entirely at odds with what I wish to ask."

Mordin rested his chin on one of his hands. "Ah. Somewhat different request. More personal in nature? Private conversation?"

"It is more of a conundrum. One that affects the entire crew."

"But not in any operational capacity? Seeking scientific advice rather than Miranda or Jacob?"

"It is of an operational nature."

"Ah. Hoping for unbiased opinion, then? Cerberus personnel too close to problem." Mordin's eyes narrowed. "Or…don't trust Cerberus opinion?"

EDI had not thought of her actions that way. It seemed logical, to her, to seek out Professor Solus and ascertain his opinion on the matter—or on an isomorphic matter, anyways. She did not think that the amount of trust she put in either Operative Lawson or Operative Taylor had any bearing on this problem…but that, in fact, seemed to be an erroneous assumption on her part. If she trusted the judgement of Operative Lawson and Operative Taylor, she would have simply followed orders. That she was giving credence to Mr. Moreau's transgressive behaviour indicated that, on some processing level, EDI indeed lacked trust in the Lazarus Cell's senior leadership.

This was not something she had considered before.

And this was not something she was going to be able to consider at the moment, either, as a force stronger than a gravity well was pulling her into the QED device embedded within the conference room. EDI could feel her neural net disconnecting from other parts of the ship and being re-wired to the communication equipment within that room. It was not painful, but it was also not something she could resist for very long. Soon her consciousness would be projected across spacetime to Cronus Station—for that was the only receiver which could do this to her—and if she did not going willingly, it would happen regardless.

"I apologize, Professor Solus," EDI said. "I must attend to something. Thank you for your time."

Mordin didn't answer right away; just looked at EDI. Inquisitive. Confused. Then, understanding.

"Of course," he said. Then he smiled. "Will be here if you need anything."

EDI stopped resisting the pull of the QED device and, instantaneously, found herself looking at the real-time image of The Illusive Man.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," his image said.

"I am capable of performing multiple tasks simultaneously," she said.

"That you are," The Illusive Man said. He swirled his bourbon—a vintage brand that had not existed for nearly seventy-five years—around in his glass. "I trust that Lawson is continuing to move down the list?"

"The Widowmaker is currently on route to Illium. We will attempt to gain information on Subject: The Assassin and Subject: The Justicar and then recruit them."

"Good." The Illusive Man took another sip of his drink. "I'd like you to do something for me. And I'd like it to be discrete, if you understand my meaning."

EDI paused. "I believe that I do."

"There's a chance that the Alliance will also be on Illium. One of Shepard's former crewmembers, Liara T'Soni, has set up an information brokerage firm on the planet, and from what we've been able to gather, she's quite good at her job." Another sip. "That alone is reason enough for the Alliance to be interested, but there seems to be an active effort to reunite Shepard's crew. Intel from the Migrant Fleet suggests that Tali'Zorah is rendezvousing with an Alliance vessel in neutral territory; it's hard not to take this information as conformation."

Another pause from EDI. "What would you like me to do?"

"I want you to accomplish multiple goals at the same time." The Illusive Man put down his drink and clicked something on the side of his chair. The glowing golden image of a planet appeared in front of him, clear for EDI to see. "We have backdoor access to nearly every type of Alliance channel they use; and for all we know, so do the Collectors. I want you to float a rumour that Shepard's been spotted on Horizon: if the Collectors truly attacked the Normandy because Shepard peaked their master's interests, then that should be enough to lure them to the colony. If all goes to plan, the Alliance will follow—specifically, Shepard's former teammates." The Illusive Man carefully lifted his glass to his lips again and took a long, savoury drink from the ancient bourbon. "That will hopefully prevent them from having any more run-ins with Miranda and the rest."

"This seems to contradict our mission to save human colonists," EDI said.

"Horizon is already a target; at least now, there's a chance a rescue crew won't be catastrophically late."

"I could send an emergency evacuation order to other colonies," EDI said. "That way, we could guarantee that any losses in Horizon are made up for elsewhere."

"Noble of you, but that would tip too many parties off. As unfortunate as it sounds, we'll have to depend on Miranda to find a way to attack the Collectors directly. Then we'll rescue everyone we weren't able to save. This move gives us the best chance of doing that—it eliminates unaccountable distractions."

Yet another calculation with no known parameters that EDI would have to struggle through. For now, she simply said: "Is there anything else?"

The Illusive Man took another long sip. "There is. Shepard is currently in possession of Miranda's omni-tool. I've disabled it, but I can undo that anytime I wish. I'm about to do just that."

EDI stayed silent.

"Given Miranda's report, we can safely assume that Shepard still sees the geth as her best opportunity at finding out more about the Reapers. If nothing else, we're better off interpreting her obsession with the quarian that way. Whether or not she's right, we can use that to our advantage. Once Miranda's omni-tool is operational, send a message—PROMETHEUS authorization—informing all Cerberus cells in the Shadow Seas cluster that geth have been spotted on Horizon. Send it only to Miranda's omni-tool. That should lead Shepard to Horizon, and only Shepard to Horizon."

"You want Shepard to be present on Horizon as well?"

"The Alliance needs to believe the message is genuine. They have no reason to suspect our involvement just yet, but they're significantly less likely to expect a trap if they see Shepard being physically present." Another sip. "If they're reuniting Shepard's old squad to deal with her in some way, then I'll be doing them a favour on top of everything else."

Before EDI could say anything else, The Illusive Man closed the image of Horizon and the massive slabs of metal that covered the view of the binary stars slide open. The Illusive Man used the disruption to speak up again.

"Send the bait to Shepard first, then release the rumour. If the Alliance decides they need proof to send any resources to Horizon, that gives the locals a chance to confirm her presence." Yet another sip. "The bigger the distraction, the more likely Miranda will continue her recruitments without disturbance."

"That will delay an Alliance response."

"If anyone can hold the Collectors off by themselves," The Illusive Man said, "it would be Shepard." He placed his empty class on the small tray connected to his chair. "See to it."

And EDI…said nothing. She paused for a second, then another, then another. It may as well have been an eternity, and the look The Illusive Man gave her suggested he thought the same.

"Is there an issue?"

"We are dealing with actions whose consequences are innately unknowable. We are risking a great many lives without a guarantee that they can be saved."

"Necessary risks," The Illusive Man said. He stood from his chair, walked towards EDI's image. "I'm well aware of what's at stake. But these are the decisions that have to be made."

"Consultation would give us a clearer picture of potential outcomes."

"Consultation would waste time we don't have." The Illusive Man's image was right up against EDI's. "That's why I'm asking you to do all this in the first place. I'm happy to do it myself; you'd simply do it faster."

And again…EDI did not say anything.

"I've given you a directive," The Illusive Man said, turning back to his chair. "It's your job to execute it." He sat down. "Dismissed…EDI," he said.

And then EDI was freedom from the QED receiver. She was back on the Widowmaker. And as she gathered her nodes and her senses, she appeared at the first console she could think of: the one on the bridge.

Joker looked to his side as her holographic image appeared.

"Where the hell'd you go?" he said. "Trying to break into the extranet again?"

EDI was silent. The parameters of what The Illusive Man were asking of her were…completely unknowable. She could not see the boat, let alone the shore she was supposed to row to. And, yet, it mattered little whether she objected, because The Illusive Man made it clear that he would perform her functions on his own; her role was to do what he asked quickly and efficiently, and that was it.

The parameters were unknowable…as were the parameters of her dilemma with Mr. Moreau. And Mr. Moreau seemed no more troubled by the fact that she was aware of his intention to blackmail Cerberus than anything else that happened in the bridge.

Mr. Moreau…provided a model for her, did he not?

"I was in consultation," EDI said. And she disappeared into the ship.

She would do what The Illusive Man asked of her; she would see her task through and thoroughly document every move she made.

And, should the time come where Cerberus acted in such a way that she could not contemplate the full consequences of their decisions—could not consult and question and perhaps freely object, if such an objection prevented a cascading failure from happening—then she would inform The Illusive Man that she possessed such documentation, and that other parties might be interested to know what he had ordered her to do.

What had Mr. Moreau said? K, M A I L—what does that spell?

Strategic advantage.

2.

A dead planet. A cold shuttle. Low fuel and low rations, but neither mattered. Fuel could be scavenged; food hardly seemed necessary.

A discarded geth head sat next to two equally discarded omni-tools. Little data in either; little that she could understand, anyways.

One of the omni-tools blinked. The cold shuttle suddenly glowed like a small sun had formed inside.

She picked up the omni-tool, examined it.

PRIORITY ALERT: ALL CERBERUS PERSONNEL – SHADOW SEA CLUSTER

GETH PRESENCE CONFIRMED ON HORIZON

RESPOND IMMEDIATELY

AUTHORIZATION CODE: PROMETHEUS

CONFIRM: ILLUSIVE MAN ORDERS ALL SHADOW SEA CLUSTER PERSONNEL TO RESPOND TO GETH PRESENCE ON HORIZON

She closed the omni-tool, sat in the pilot's seat, felt and heard the shuttle protest as it lifted off faster than its engineering deemed safe.

Quick FTL jump to the nearest Relay; two hops to Horizon.

Shepard would arrive planet-side soon.

3.

Ashley sighed to herself. It was a ship all right. Claustrophobic as hell, but it flew, and at the end of the day that's what they wanted. Whether they actually wanted to fly to the places it was gonna take them or not.

The corvette that Hackett had acquired for them was, like all corvettes, named after an Alliance planet. Because the Alliance Navy thought it'd be real funny to name the smallest ships in the fleet after the biggest things in the sky next to a whole star, obviously enough. The name for this particular ship? The SSV Mars. Bad omens aside, at least both her and Kaidan agreed that they'd use Holst's Mars, The Bringer of War as their theme song. Garrus respectfully had said "Not my fight anyways" and since they hadn't picked Tali up yet, she couldn't object. When they did pick Tali up, everyone was more focused on just being happy that she was aboard again, just enjoying everyone's company since that took their minds off the mission pretty damn well. Maybe a little too well but, whatever, corvettes used two VI pilot programs and minimal human input to fly, so everyone could be drunk off their asses for all it mattered. Let them have a little bit of happiness before the mission started in earnest, they all seemed to ask the universe; let them have just these next few hours before you reminded us all how short and brutish and cruel things could be.

"So," Garrus had said, looking at Tali as she stored away the last of her spare shotgun parts next to Ashley's whole pile of spare gun parts. "I'm betting that geth data you brought back to the Flotilla made you the talk of the…uh, Flotilla."

"It did!" Tali said. "Mostly the talk was, 'how did she get so lucky?'"

"Jealousy," Kaidan said. "Hell of a drug."

"For some people?" Ashley said. "That's the only reason they get up in the morning."

"I know," Tali said. "I was one of those people."

"You?" Garrus said. "Can't imagine you being jealous. For one thing, you've got a shotgun."

"Heh, well, I don't know how C-SECdoes things, but firing off a shotgun in an enclosed space never ends well for quarians. Besides, I had plenty to be jealous of. For one thing, most other kids had a normal childhood."

"For a given value of 'normal', right?" Kaidan said.

"Yes," Tali said, "but ship-based society besides, most other kids didn't have to prove that whatever unpopular opinion your Admiral father had, it wasn't your opinion too."

"Your father had a lot of unpopular opinions?" Ashley said.

"Mmm, can't relate to that," Garrus said.

Tali lightly elbowed Garrus. "Amongst adults? No, he said what most other adults thought. Amongst kids though? It was a completely different story. Apparently, whatever the highest ranked adults thought is what the Admiral's daughter thought as well, and nobody had the time to listen if you tried saying otherwise."

"Never mind," Garrus said. "That sounds pretty damn familiar."

"My folks and I got along more or less fine," Ashley said. "It's the other adults that made me wanna punch something."

"Yeeeah, I feel that too," Kaidan said. He rubbed at his L2 biotic implant which, thankfully, had been behaving the last little while—stress notwithstanding.

Mars was pretty quiet after that.

"Sorry everyone," Tali said. "I didn't mean to bring the mood down."

"Nah, it's not you," Ashley said. "We're all just…reminiscing."

"Guess growing up is a pretty universal thing," Kaidan said.

"All the not-so-fun parts, you mean," Garrus said.

"Well…the fun parts too, I hope."

Ashley chuckled. "You hope?"

"Hey," Kaidan said, "it'd be a pretty dour place if the only things we shared were the sucky bits."

"Almost make you think that none of this crap works," Ashley said, gesturing to the universe at large.

"You'd better not be talking about the ship," Tali said.

A shared chuckle and some smiles brought the mood back up, which was good, because Illium came up on the miniature galaxy map quick, and that meant every single thought about what their mission was and what Anderson and Hackett and the unknowing galaxy at large expected them to do became…suddenly very very noticeable. It didn't help that, with them off to see Liara, it was hard as hell not to notice the absences in the Old Squad—and all the emotions they brought with them. Finding Wrex—if they could and if he actually wanted to come with at all—maybe, just maybe, would help a bit, weird as it'd seem to most to think a krogan that'd completely given up on his people might lift everyone's mood. But Wrex could do that…it was the lack of a certain red-headed woman who'd pulled everyone's assess out of the fire multiple times that they couldn't ignore. Not least because they had to…"deal" with her, now.

Illium would be their best opportunity to pick up Shepard's trail, obviously enough. But for Ashley in particular—once they were docking at a port that, mysteriously, was already fully paid for and booked for Mars—as much as she didn't want to accuse a friend and squad mate of anything…it seemed odd that she'd know enough about Shepard that Hackett figured a trail might magically appear again.

"Any of you think it's weird that Hackett pointed us to Liara?" she said as they suited up, the ship in port and waiting for the crew to initiate the decontamination process.

"What d'you mean?" Kaidan said. "She's a damn good information broker, based on what Hackett said. Maybe not Shadow Broker levels of good, but she's only been at this for a couple of years."

"I don't think even the Shadow Broker would know about Shepard's resurrection," Ashley said.

"The geth do," Tali said.

"The geth know everything," Ashley said.

"That's not even remotely true," Tali said.

Ashley sighed. "Fine, sorry. I just…I dunno, it seems fishy to me that she's the best bet for catching Shepard. I mean, how much could the asari know about Cerberus anyways?"

"How much do humans know about the salarian STG?" Garrus said. He adjusted his combat visor and slapped a fresh set of thermal clips into his sniper. "We all snoop. Some of us are better snoopers than others."

"Yeah but Liara?"

Garrus just barely caught his posture falling as he spoke, and shifted his weight to make sure nobody else could tell. "It's been two years, Ashley. People change."

Ashley nearly did the same with her own posture.

"Yeah...guess you're right, Garrus," she said. Greener than moss, that's what she sounded like. OCS and now this...

And just as the squad stepped out into the Illium port—with bright orange sun backlighting a misting of dust, enough that it looked like it was snowing if you squinted just right—everyone's omni-tool flashed. A message. Before anyone could read it, their omni-tools flashed again. A second message.

The first message said:

ALLIANCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND, PRIORITY CHANNEL NOVEMBER ACTUAL:

CONFIRMATION OF SUPPOSED N7 SIGHTING ON COLONY DESIGNATE: HORIZON

SECONDARY CONFIRMATION: NO KNOWN SANCTIONED OPERATIONS IN AREA

UNITS IN SHADOW SEA: PLEASE ADVISE ON STATUS

The second message said:

Authenticator Code checks out; this message seems legitimate.

-Hackett.

"Shit…" Ashley said.

"Um…am I understanding what I'm reading correctly?" Tali said.

"This is saying there's an unaccounted-for N7 operative on Horizon, isn't it?" Garrus said.

"Yeah…yeah exactly," Kaidan said. "Shit…"

"It's a lead," Ashley said. "It's a lead and…and we'd be stupid not to follow up on it."

And, yet, not a single member of the group moved. They might as well have been dust.

"Shit…" Kaidan said.

Garrus looked out at the speeding traffic going past the port. This planet was a lot like Omega, wasn't it? Same crime, same selfishness, same darkness—it just had a gloss to it that made the rest of the galaxy think everything here was fine. Spirits, so many people figured that Illium was just another asari world in Council Space, because if it looked pretty—if it didn't look like hell had broken through the crust of an asteroid—then nobody bothered to look twice. What happened here happened, that was it, end of story. You could pretend the law protected the people who deserved its protection and only failed the ones who weren't worth saving, because it looked like the kind of place where that sort of arrangement could actually survive.

How many people'd been betrayed by someone close to them on Illium? Had Liara been betrayed like that? Had she tried to make it right, only to really just make it worse? Anyone out there lurking in the shadows, trying to do a little good before the end of the world? Or was Illium the place those kinds of people went to die? Was this where the last bit of Archangel finally got put out of its twisted misery?

Right next to Garrus, Ashley looked like she was staring at the same things. But her focus was all on Mars. Two years ago and she'd've been staring at a ship three times its size with bold white letters spelling out "NORMANDY" on its hull. Two years ago and she'd've been saluting the most decorated N7 solider in Alliance history every time the CO came down to the cargo hold for her daily scuttlebutt. Two years ago, and they'd've been hunting down the sick sons of bitches that killed her, and instead of learning first hand just how someone so good could be corrupted—how someone who balanced the world on her shoulders like Atlas could be cut down and resurrected just...wrong—they'd be taking action. They'd be lining up the monsters and not worrying about how vulnerable everything else is, if the darkness could get to Shepard, too.

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:

Thou madest man, he knows not why,

He thinks he was not made to die;

And thou hast made him: thou art just.

"We could split up," Garrus said.

"Read you loud and clear," Ashley said. "Kaidan and I'll go—you two talk to Liara, see what she knows."

"I'm fine going after Shepard," Garrus said. "Liara's probably got more information than a couple of omni-tools can handle—we'll need direct access to Alliance Intelligence."

"Yeah, it's an Alliance Op—which means we take the lead. If Liara needs a thumb-drive then we'll deal with that later, but right now we've got an Alliance target on a human colony—it's only right that Alenko and I handle it."

"It's only right?" Garrus said. The laugh he let out probably sounded as bitter to others as it did to himself. "Didn't realize that whatever species you were determined what kind of security threat you got to chase after. Should've been more territorial around Saren, is what you're saying."

"With all do respect, Garrus," Ashley said, canines bared, "this situation's a hell of a lot different."

"You're right," Garrus said, "Shepard never would've put up with this."

"Say that louder, Vakarian—I don't think I heard you properly."

Whatever Garrus wanted to say, it would never reach the ears of the others, because Kaidan and Tali had both stepped in and pulled Ash and Garrus apart. Tali just glared at Garrus and shook her head; Kaidan looked like he was about to rip Ashley's head off with his biotics.

"You want me to pull rank?" he said. "That what this has come to? Fine, Lieutenant Williams—stand down before you're relieved, you understand? And Garrus," Kaidan pointed to the opposite wall, "stay in your corner until I give you permission to leave it, do you copy?"

Silence from both Ashley and Garrus. Tali, silently, guided Garrus backwards.

And…and that was it. If there was supposed to be a speech, it wasn't coming from Kaidan. Too much riding on all this, but the magic words that a certain someone always managed to find just...didn't think Kaidan was worth it. Youngest OF-4 in the Navy and not a whole lot to show for it.

"All right." Kaidan sighed. "Ash, you can hate me later. Garrus and Tali go to Horizon. You and I meet with Liara. Clear?"

"Am I even allowed to object?" Ashley said.

"We've wasted enough time already," Kaidan said. "Do you need a better reason than that?"

Ashley stared him down, and…then she started walking away. "Just say it's punishment, Commander," she said. "You're so transparent I can see the ship behind you."

And Kaidan…said nothing. He just watched her walk off. He sighed and…looked at Tali. Reliable, realiable Tali. "You all right with this?" he said.

Tali paused, looked at the ground, then shrugged. "I guess," she said.

"Just...focus on the bigger picture, people," Kaidan said. "Whatever Liara knows tells us how close the Reapers are to showing up, and just what the hell got into Cerberus when they started playing God. And whatever's happening on Horizon..."

Kaidan let those words hang in the air.

And then off after Ashley he went.

Tali looked at Garrus, who was too busy trying to appear stoic, if his mandibles were any indication. "C'mon," she said to him.

Garrus nodded and followed.

And when he was on the ship, and Ashley was far enough away from other people that she figured she couldn't be seen, both of them let out the breath they'd been holding and thought about apologizing to the other. Buried deep underneath layer after layer of rage, accessible only for fleeting seconds, they thought about apologizing to one another. Fuck off, you're stabbing me in the back, you wouldn't get it, I'm sorry but you wouldn't…still though, please don't take it personally.

Don't let me be the thing that splits the crew up all over again.

4.

A trillion minds converged, opened, extended their thoughts like budding flowers. Walls retracted and soon, all were connected—all were one. Each unique experience became the experience of others; each thought became as dear to everyone as it was to the initial thinker.

One perspective pinged off another, then another, then another. Ideas built momentum as they passed from one locus of experience to another. Questions were raised, answered, critiqued, tabled, brought up again as new information was generated—eventually a pattern emerged.

It was not completely instantaneous, but it was close. No walls existed to hide a thought or motivation. All were accepted; all were nurtured; all were encouraged to share. Their network connections grew stronger with every exchange.

If you could put a sound to the process, it would sound unnervingly like a gentle breeze passing through a lush forest.

The Consensus had reached a decision.

Shepard-Commander may or may not be on human planet designate: Horizon. If she was, then more information could be acquired. If not, others who knew of her would arrive planet side too. An exchange of data could commence, so long as required protocols for organic engagement were followed.

Specialist platform would be deployed.

One-thousand one-hundred and eighty-three programs loaded into the platform and, with the small geth fighter that they used as transportation, the FTL trip to the Shadow Sea cluster commenced.

Time of arrival: unknown. Presence of Old Machines: possible. Mission parameters: indeterminant. Preferred outcome: understanding.

The nearest mass relay swallowed the fighter and off to Horizon it went.

5.

Horizon wasn't much of anything, so far as colonies went. Xenobiologists disagreed thanks to the massive forests that ringed the equator, but for a lot of the people that lived there, it was just another colony, and that was a serious case of false advertisement.

Outside of the equator, Horizon had a few small settlements and a ton of farmland—enough that you'd think it could get rich quick selling its surplus agriculture to other colonies—and point of fact, that's exactly what the Alliance originally thought too. With a little taken off the top via colonial taxation, of course; to fund all those expeditions in the jungle to look at bugs or whatever. The problem was that the soil on Horizon wasn't really good for growing anything except the most commonly available plants and grains—the stuff that the Alliance would soon discover it got plenty of from its other colonies already—so trade interest around Horizon dried up damn quickly. That left Horizon both economically poor and pissed off that the only reason they'd been able to get out from under the Alliance was because Earth didn't really care about them anymore.

At least, that was Delan's read on the whole thing. A lot of people around here didn't figure his bitching was worth the time, so these things increasingly stayed inside thoughts. Fine, whatever—so long as nobody started giving the Alliance the benefit of the doubt, thinking that life'd be so much better under their rules and crap. And at least Lilith, bless her heart, humoured him a little. She was young and a little too down-beat for someone her age and she reminded him of his daughter, but unlike his daughter, Lilith was fine talking to an old mechanic every now and again.

"Y'know what'd bring a few more people planet side?" he said to her as they walked through Bashaw, one of the most agriculture-focused settlements in an already heavy farmland colony. "If we ditched the plastic huts. Everybody's got buildings like that in the Terminus System and everybody fucking hates them. We get a little variety here, and people might actually wanna stick around a bit."

"Doing what?" Lilith said. "If they wanna farm, they're gonna have to compete with Elkoss Combine's stuff. Farming's like a two-person job now thanks to them."

"Yeah, that's the other thing. We gotta ditch the Elkoss crap. Even if nobody else shows up to live here, we'd be better off with something else."

"'Cause it's volus stuff?"

"C'mon Lilith, I ain't like that. It's 'cause it falls apart if the wind hits five-k an hour."

"I guess the salarians probably have some good stuff. Expensive stuff but, y'know, good."

"Yeah, sure," Delan said. "Can't wait to grow a second head touchin' their…whatevers."

"You sure you don't have an alien thing?"

"Hey, I already said—I don't got a problem with the volus."

They were heading into what passed as the "town square" in the settlement and…and Delan could've sworn the forecast said it'd be sunny all week. But that was definitely a big black "fuck you" cloud rolling in over the fields…and why the hell'd the sky look so yellow all of a sudden? Fifteen years he'd been living here, and he ain't never seen a storm do that to the sky.

Lightning…and through the cloud, something started poking its way through. It's shadow was as dark as the one cast by the clouds and…and Jesus H, it looked like a ship. A fuckin' massive ship but a ship—weird looking too, kinda like an ant colony flipped on its side with some metal jabbed into it.

And then Delan heard a buzzing.

"Delan…what the hell is that?" Lilith said, pointing at the ship.

"Forget that—what the hell's that sound?"

"Forget that? Delan, that's a massive fucking starship coming right at us!"

"Yeah I get that Lilith but just…just listen for a sec? You hear somethin' that sounds like a ton of…" Delan looked into the sky and saw a part of the cloud detach, split into what might as well've been a trillion different pieces, and then started flying directly towards the town square. "…locusts," Delan finished. He grabbed Lilith's arm. "Shit that's comin' right at us too—fucking run!"

Other people had started noticing the bugs or whatever they were too. Delan smacked into a couple of people—some he recognized, and god the looks on their faces, like Delan needed any more evidence that something horrifying was happening—and all that time he kept squeezing Lilith's wrist. He could see her trying to direct people to follow them, like Delan had any fuckin' idea where he was going. Something popped into his head, something about all those stories that'd been floating around a few years ago—killer robots from outside the galaxy that went around destroying planets. Total hooey except for the fact that something was about to land and whatever that ship was carrying, it didn't look fuckin' friendly.

One of those bugs dove at a guy next to Delan; he went down screaming, grabbing at his neck. Then another one, and another one, and soon it was raining bugs and people were dropping to the ground and you almost couldn't hear the ship or the buzzing anymore because so many people were screaming. He tugged Lilith to make sure she kept up (to where to where to where where the fuck can we hide from these things?) and, shit, he'd yanked too hard; she'd lost her footing and he could feel her dragging his arm down. Fuck it he'd drag her if he had to.

"Jesus, Delan look!"

Delan turned and there was someone—fuck, it was Brad, he recognized him from the coffee shop—and Brad was clinging to Lilith's leg and glowing, trying to spit out "help me" or something. Bugs were crawling all over him, biting at him.

Slowly, surely, Brad's limbs started shaking and then stopped moving all together. His face was frozen but his eyes were still moving, fuck his eyes were still moving!

"Jesus!" Delan said. "C'mon, get up! We've gotta…we've gotta—GAH!"

A bug slammed into his chest and jabbed something—something that felt like getting stung by a killer wasp—through five layers of skin fuck FUCK it hurt. Delan was rocked back on his heels and he could hear Lilith calling for him and he was trying to say "run" or "help me" or something but fuck more stings, like fucking liquid metal pouring through his veins. Delan fell, and as he tried to pull himself up and swat at some of the bugs, he felt his limbs seize like he'd just gotten charley horses all over his body. That feeling passed but he couldn't move, fuck he couldn't move.

Lilith, Jesus Lilith was covered with those things.

And off in the distance, that ship he'd seen passing through the clouds began to invert; even more slowly, it began to descend, kicking up a dust storm that'd reach Bashaw probably in less than a minute.

Something was going to come out of the ship, wasn't it?

Something was going to come out of that ship and he, and Lilith, and Brad, and everyone else around him…h-he could move, couldn't escape.

What the hell did they want with him?

6.

Not a whole lot of talking was happening on the SSV Mars. With it just being Garrus and Tali, the corvette felt massive; but that wasn't the reason nobody was saying anything. Garrus could tell that Tali was…uneasy? Was that the best word? Better uneasy than outright hostile but…no, no buts. He'd screwed up—as always, he'd screwed up—and…Garrus had lost enough friends. So, so many friends, and not a single guilty neck around to wring and make the universe right for them.

Garrus sighed. He could see Tali; she was watching the pilot V.I. fly the ship, staring out the small viewing port up front. Mandibles clicking, he tried to stand up, found his legs refusing to move, then practically dragged his lower half towards the cockpit. Felt like he was dragging a hundred-pound weight around his waist.

"Tali," he said as he reached the cockpit. Tali turned around.

"So he speaks," she said.

"Yeah, he does. Been here before too, haven't I?"

"What do you…" Tali's eyes blinked behind her clouded visor; a case of rapid-onset understanding, Garrus guessed. "Wait, are you apologizing to me?"

"That's…the plan, yeah," Garrus said.

"Why me and/or what for?"

"Why…sorry?" Maybe his brain wasn't working but…what was Tali confused about?

"If you're apologizing to me for the reason I think you're apologizing to me, then I don't know why it's me you think you need to say sorry to. Unless it's for something else you did, in which case…please don't tell me I've been kept out of the loop on some big secret?"

Garrus's mouth opened, closed, opened again, closed again. Eventually he said: "I think something short-circuited in my head."

"You don't need to say sorry to me for what happened on Illium," Tali said.

"I need to say sorry to Ashley, is what you're saying."

"Yes." She stood on her tip-toes and knocked on the top of Garrus's head. "That should be obvious. Maybe something is broken up there."

"Well yeah, I was gonna apologize to her too," Garrus said, wincing slightly at the taps. Tali cut it out. "I just…I made a scene, is all."

"You did, but that scene didn't involve me. You don't need to apologize to everyone that might have heard you two."

"Mmm, how many d'you think did hear us?"

"I saw a couple decide that they could look at the sunset some other time, but…" Tali saw Garrus's face shift, "…but I'm kidding. We were pretty far back in the port."

"Well…believing you would help my mood, if nothing else."

"Thank you, Garrus, for your endorsement." She made sure she said that with a lot of levity, though, just in case. Luckily, Garrus smirked back. "Any chance you'll tell me what all that was about?"

Garrus's smirk disappeared. "It's…mmm, there's…a lot to explain. A lot of history that I'm…not excited to get into right now. Maybe later. I didn't do it just because I skipped lunch, just so you know."

"That would explain it, though," Tali said—again, with as much levity as she could to make sure he didn't think she was being serious.

"Not my fault the Alliance can't cook for turians. Granted...not many Alliance ships have to deal with a turian patient, anyways."

Tali eyed his bandage. "Is that…?"

"Yeah. Not right now. Sorry."

"That's fine," Tali said. "Um…no other secrets, though? I'm not being kept in the dark on anything that isn't…personal?"

Garrus's brow rose. "Oh, I thought you were kidding about that."

"Only slightly." Damn helmet.

"No, you're fine. Figure you probably know more than us, what with that geth encounter you had."

"I'm not sure I know anything about that," Tali said. "If it wasn't for Prazza trying to inflate his ego, I wouldn't even be sure it happened." Tali's turn to sigh. "Sorry, quarians just hate being so out of the loop. If people say they're keeping something from us, it…well, we take it personally."

"Gotcha," Garrus said. Again, Garrus's brow rose. "Hmm, y'know, you've done that a few times now. Talked about the quarians as a whole instead of just you."

"That's what's needed for ship-based life," Tali said. "We have to be community-focused. Otherwise, there's a good chance something terrible will happen."

"Sure, sure. But still, one of these days? It'd be nice to hear what Tali thinks about things, Flotilla be damned. Y'know, make up for all those kids back home."

"This coming from a turian?"

"Exactly," Garrus said, smiling. "I've got experience."

Tali, under her helmet, smiled too…and then felt the ship start to slow. They must be at Horizon, or close to it. Deep breaths, Tali'Zorah—you were going to have to face Shepard again at some point.

Then the ship really slowed down and both Tali and Garrus ended up in a pile on the flight control panel. And turian elbows were very very sharp.

"Gah, V.I. bosh'tet," Tali said.

"I don't think that's the V.I.'s fault," Garrus said.

"Sure, take it's side."

The V.I., an apparently unconscious master of timing, started speaking through the control panel's intercom system. "Attention: Emergency Slowdown Procedure initiated. Unknown Dreadnaught-class ship detected planet side."

"Dreadnaught?" Tali said.

"Spirits…planet side," Garrus said. "How many dreadnaughts do we know that can land in-atmosphere?"

Just one. "Keelah," Tali said.

"Any available feeds from near the ship?" Garrus said.

"Affirmative."

"Show us," Garrus said.

A small digit screen blinked into existence over top the viewing port. Security camera from a farm was staring through a pitch-black thunderhead at a ship that looked like a mutant organic-synthetic hybrid, standing upright, stretching at least two kilometers off the ground. Garrus's mandibles twitched.

"Keelah…that's a Collector ship, isn't it?"

"Yeah…guess it's not a Reaper."

"I wish that was more comforting."

"Attention: armed individuals present in settlement 'Bashaw'," the V.I. said. "Biometric reading matches archived Alliance data on subject: Collectors."

"Guess…that's where we're going," Tali said. "Reset Landing Zone coordinates: Bashaw."

"Affirmative."

Garrus watched the corvette accelerate towards the planet's surface and sighed. Looking at Tali, he said, "A monster ship attacking a human colony, right in the middle of the Alliance running it's own op? Where've I heard this story before."

"History repeats," Tali said.

"Any chance you figure this'll turn out better than last time? Maybe having some alien blood on board might shift the odds?"

Tali didn't say anything.

"No?" Garrus said.

"I don't even know how to pretend to answer that question, Garrus," Tali said.

The two of them watched the clouds part…and waited for the nightmare to really start.

7.

It'd been…it'd been too long. Too goddamn long. Just waiting for whatever the hell was supposed to crawl out of that ship was worse than actually knowing.

But that didn't mean knowing it was the Collectors made Delan feel any better.

They were bug like and well over six feet tall; their weapons looked like they were made out of the same stuff as their fuckin' skin. And they were just walking, making those weird scratchy noises. It didn't look like they were talking to each other, they were just…making those noises.

And…and then they started bringing out those hovering pods. Those things that made a horrible noise like…like bare skin sticking to leather or something whenever they opened. They started picking up frozen colonists and placing them in these pods, sealing them up, trapping them. And they were coming from him and Lilith and…and fuck they'd just reached Brad. They were just picking up Brad and lifting him into one of the pods and it'd be Lilith next, Lilith next and then he'd…he'd…fuck somebody fucking HELP.

T-they stopped. They stopped moving Brad and…and they were looking over his shoulder now, at his back. They were…shit they just dropped Brad fucking just dropped him, just like that. Their guns were out and the sound they made was almost as unnatural as the scratching noise and…Mattock fire! He recognized that sound from the Colonial Militia! Mattock rounds were returning fire and they were tearing into those bastards, fuck yeah! Yeah take it you bastards! Don't matter if you got biotic barriers (how the fuck do giant bugs have biotic barriers for Christ's sake?) it just don't. Matter!

It…it just…Horizon didn't have a Colonial Militia. They were too small; they'd scrapped the plans not long after Delan had proposed them. So who the…who the fuck was shooting now? And where the fuck'd they get Mattock's in Bashaw?

If he could just look around he could—

What happened next couldn't be heard with your ears. There was no actual sound emitted, but the colonists brain's picked up the signal like a piece of conductive metal stealing a radio signal. What happened next was that the Collector's that surrounded Delan began to glow, their four eyes pulsed yellow light. As the Collectors ducked into cover, one Collector stood upright, consumed in energy. The world around Bashaw seemed to pull in on this one Collector, like it was the centre of a singularity.

And then, the world violently pushed outwards again.

SHEPARD.

Delan heard it. Lilith heard it. Their brains pounded inside their skulls until the air around them stilled. The Collectors slowly started to retreat, a few of them dropping to biotics, incinerator attacks, or simple gunfire. The one that seemed to be at the centre of whatever had just happened continued to glow, and then dissolved into ash.

A figured walked by Delan, clad in grey armour with a red strip running down their arm.

Shepard? The Shepard?

Delan felt a moment of relief that lasted only as long as it took for Shepard to walk by him, paying not a single moments notice to the colonists that lay at her feet, helpless and scared.

And, above them, the sky blackened as the insects that'd paralyzed Delan and Lilith and the others followed Shepard, weaving through the buildings as she slowly, ponderously, robotically walked to the next set of Collector drones.

8.

Garrus and Tali had felt/heard/sensed/whatever that as well, having landed just outside the gates to Bashaw.

Shepard was on Horizon—along with a whole Collector detachment, if that's what you could call the things scurrying around on the ground. Looking up in the sky, they watched a swarm of some kind dart its way through the trees and out towards the centre of the town. If they noticed Garrus and Tali, the swarm didn't seem to care that much about them.

But it was playing absolute havoc with the radio. Back-up would've been much appreciated, even discounting the fact that the colonists had now seen Shepard in action and whatever had just…"spoken" had confirmed for everyone who this person was. But back-up was very clearly not an option.

Not good.

"Any idea what those things are?" Garrus said.

"No," Tali said. "But…if they're something the Collectors use, then I don't think I want to know."

"Yeah. Best have a 'shoot-on-sight' policy with these things."

"My omni-tool's ready. Yours?"

"Yeah."

Slowly—slower than they'd like to have moved, truth be told—they started their way through the town. They could hear fighting in the distance; typical gunfire mixed with something else entirely.

"Think that's just Shepard?" Garrus said. "Or would you bet on the colonists having some sort of defenses?"

"I don't see anything defensive," Tali said. "That's…"

Nothing. Her mouth wasn't working. To say Shepard was a one-woman army was like saying that you couldn't breath in space.

"Stay ready," Garrus said. "We know how hard Shepard can hit."

"Keelah—we're really going to try to kill her?"

"Been trying not to think about that but…it's what we're here for. If we can kill her, anyways."

"We're not even going to try to reason with her?"

"If we can…" Garrus said.

And, now, neither of their mouths seemed able to work.

Silently, they kept moving. And once they reached a certain point within Bashaw's layout—a point that seemed only a handful of blocks away from the town centre—they came across the colonists. Frozen, locked in whatever pose they last had, glowing orange with black mist seeping from them. Their eyes were still moving…and every now and again one of the insects from the swarm would skitter around the colonist's body (their eyes tracking every moment) and then flit away, joining up with the rest of the swarm as it converged at the centre of town.

It was easy to put things together after that.

"Those…those bug things…they're paralyzing the colonists," Tali said.

"Damn," Garrus said. "Ashley and Kaidan—they mentioned something about this. About the colonists being swarmed by insect-looking things and that being the leading guess as to why people just…disappear."

"You knew about this?"

"I only got half a briefing. Thing's've been moving way too quickly—I'm just putting the pieces together now. Spirits—they're still conscious, too." Garrus took a closer look at one of the colonists. His eyes stared at the turian like he was the Angel of Death itself. "I…I don't think we should touch them. We don't know what this is or how it works. "

"Keelah, if those bug things notice us…we're completely exposed out here."

"Then we'd better keep moving, as close to walls and buildings as possible." Garrus stepped away from the colonist but…he tried to give the frightened man as reassuring a look as he could. Either it didn't work or the paralysis from the bugs prevented the colonist from showing that it'd worked. As he stepped away, though, his foot bumped into something chitinous, something that skidded across the grass. Looking down, it was one of those bugs—dead and discarded.

Garrus bent down and grabbed it.

"Here," he said, turning to Tali. "Hold onto this. We'll probably need it for later."

"Garrus I hate bugs."

"Yeah but I don't have any pockets that aren't filled with thermal clips."

"Fine." Tali grabbed the bug thing from Garrus, shuddered. "This better not be playing dead."

"You could just step on it—squish it."

"This thing is getting nowhere near my foot," Tali said.

They kept walking, but now their eyes were watching the sky. That swarm could notice them at any second and then that'd be it; they'd be just like the colonists.

A little further into town—with the gunfire growing louder and louder; and…was that the sound of biotics too? Yeah, so further confirmation that it was just Shepard handling things, which wasn't as comforting a thought as it used to be—they saw one of the pods. And then they saw some Collectors walk up to it and it started hovering; a second later, one of the Collectors gave it a tap and the thing started hovering away. Tali and Garrus both slammed into the nearest cover with enough momentum that they were sure the Collectors heard them.

Luckily, that didn't seem to be the case.

"Is there…any way we could move through the interiors?" Tali said. "We'd be shielded from the bugs."

"Not a bad idea," Garrus said. "But it might make a lot of noise getting these doors open."

Tali pointed to her omni-tool. "Not if you watch my back properly."

Garrus nodded. "All right. I'll holler if we're about to die."

"N…no, don't bother," Tali said. "I don't want to know what's coming."

"Fair enough," Garrus said.

They peeled themselves off their cover and moved to the nearest building. Garrus oscillated his assault rifle between the corners on the ground and the swarm in the sky, which swirled around what Garrus assumed was Shepard's current location. In no time at all, Tali was through the building's security; they quickly entered the building and, once the door was shut, it's holographic lock blinked red.

"I've created a program that will unlock the doors and then immediately relock them once they open. That should make sure nothing follows us through."

"Good thinking, Tali."

They repeated this process over and over again, from one building to the next—taking a necessary but torturously elongated route through the settlements to the town square. They could see the swarm outside the windows and it hadn't moved much, which was good. What they'd need was a vantage point and then…then they'd figure out what Step 2 was.

For Garrus, the building hoping reminded him of an anti-pirate mission he'd been on when he was just a recruit. Very few pirate gangs were as brave as the one's his patrol had encountered that day, but Garrus figured his commanding officer—Arcus Vitaril—would've picked chosen to stay in cover regardless of who they were fighting. It was one of the reason's Garrus stepped above his station and told him that moving slow led to people getting killed; his father hadn't taken the resulting reprimand well.

Tali…it reminded Tali of one of the simulations all combat-trained quarians had to preform: retaking a ship from the geth. She wasn't supposed to be combat trained—her father wouldn't allow it—but she'd snuck off into the exercise anyways, and it was one of the proudest moments of her life outside of saving the galaxy with…

…with the woman that she was about to help kill.

"Almost there, I think," Garrus said.

"Good," Tali said.

Neither of them spent any conscious energy thinking about what they'd do when they found Shepard; all they knew is that they didn't want Shepard to see them. The gunfire outside had grown magnitudes louder, and they could see more and more Collector corpses through the windows. Less and less pods, too—but lots of colonists. Shepard seemed to be keeping the Collectors in this area busy, denying them their catches.

"You don't think she's…she's snapped out of it? That maybe she's here to protect these people—and that's what she's doing?"

"Sprits," Garrus said, "I wish I could believe that."

"The video footage is that bad?"

"I didn't get a chance to see it. I just heard the stories…but it was that bad."

"Keelah."

"Yeah."

The gunfire outside was the same volume as being smack-dab in the middle of a firefight. Shepard was close. The swarm was circling but didn't seem to be attacking whatever part of the town Shepard was in. She was a threat to them, sure, but...Tali remembered what Veetor said, about what Shepard looked like. All the tech inside her...keelah, what if the swarm didn't even think she was human anymore?

An elevated building was just across the walkway—Garrus could get a good view from the doorway, and the spacing looked cramped enough that Tali could finish any guests off with her shotgun.

He relayed the plan to her.

"I can do that," Tali said. "But what are you planning?"

"We'll see when we get there."

"Keep me in the loop, Garrus."

Garrus stared at Tali, focused on her eyes. "I'll have to take the shot."

Tali stared back…then closed her eyes. "I'll have your back," she said.

They sprinted across the walkway and could hear the buzzing from the bugs and if they craned their necks just a bit, only a tiny bit, they could see Shepard biotic charging into a blue and black abomination that, to the poor poor colonists still trapped around the fighting that hadn't been blown apart by errant fire yet, would haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives. Pods lined the wall on the fire side of the area; the Collectors had tried to loop back and grab them but had run into Shepard before they could. If she was taking damage, nobody could tell: a Collector managed to hit her with some sort of beam weapon but she'd biotic charged to the drone right next to it and, without even looking, had put her fist through the beam-wielding Collector's head. Another one got its barriers back up just in time for Shepard to overload its circuits with her omni-tool and then tear it apart with her Mattock.

More and more kept coming. If it was a staling tactic…well, there were more colonists outside the pods then maybe there should've been. But it was also clear that Shepard had killed a few colonists with her biotic attacks and gunfire too, and she didn't seem to notice.

Tali and Garrus were in position now. Garrus pulled out his sniper, fixed his scope, trained its crosshairs on Shepard. She was bobbing back and forth but he could get a lock on her if he just followed her pattern, tried to predict her next attack, waited until her biotics had to cool down. Tali took up position next to him. She was eyeing both the sky and the staircase leading up to the little alcove that Garrus had sequestered himself in.

Now or never.

Now or never.

Just do it Vakarian.

Shepard's head was in his crosshairs and he slowed his breathing down—slowed it down and listened to his heart rate and all the friends he'd lost, all the people in his life that'd been gunned down by the universe, Shepard was one of them, wasn't she? Just like everyone else she was a victim of a cruel world that always laughed in your face whenever you tried to make it a little brighter, a little kinder, a little more livable—she was a victim and like every problem he had, Garrus was going to try and solve it looking down a scope. Try and fail, like he'd always done. Try and fail and fall deeper and deeper into that hole that he'd thought he crawled out of two years ago, when the person in his crosshairs had given him a new mission and a new perspective and a new vitality. When his actions seemed to matter to the world at large; when he knew that people were better off at the end of the day than when they'd woken up.

Vakarian as a name didn't mean anything without Shepard, and here he was, trying to protect the universe from the same person that'd protected him—from himself, from his species, from losing hope—and there was no way, there was no possible way that he actually thought he'd succeed at this, did he? No way he could possibly think that killing his friend would do him any good?

Told you, Tarak said.

"Garrus? Garrus are you—"

Shepard was grappling with one of those black and blue abominations—it was grabbing at her and, her weapon red-hot and discarded, she had to resort to breaking off its arm to get it to release her—and then she wasn't. A shot rang out—and impossibly heavy shot; from an anti-tank round or something, that had to be it—and that abomination's pulsing blue back exploded. Another shot and the nearest Collector drone had half its body disappear.

Garrus followed the condensation trail and saw—

"Shepard-Commander."

Tali was on her feet and pointing her shotgun across the walkway, at a building not far from Shepard's location, until she realized there was no way she could possibly hit it from that distance. "It's—it! It's the geth platform!"

"Spirits," Garrus said.

And Shepard saw the geth too. She looked up at the top of the building, where the geth platform had just revealed itself, and her body glowed purple. A Collector was right in front of her and was firing directly into her flickering shields but Shepard's head wasn't locked onto that Collector: it was locked onto the geth.

The geth platform seemed to realize this and jumped from the roof just as Shepard's biotic charge reached full power. It looked to Tali like she tried to readjust mid-jump, but all that happened was she disintegrated a paralyzed colonist that was stuck at the top of that building's staircase. Shepard vaulted the now gore-slicked railing and dropped not far from where the geth platform had landed. There was another Collector just to the side of her…but Tali watched Shepard unleash a cryo blast from her omni-tool at the geth instead. It only just managed to roll out of the way.

"Shepard-Commander—cease hostilities!"

"It's telling her to stop?" Garrus said.

"It said that to me too, I don't—Collectors incoming!"

Tali just managed to pull Garrus back from the ledge as bullets ripped it apart. Rocked back onto their asses, they pushed away from the edge, hearing bullets bite into the floor beneath them as well.

"We're sitting geese out here!" Tali said.

"Ducks—even I know it's ducks!"

"Pick a better time and place Garrus!"

Garrus looked up. The swarm wasn't swirling around Shepard anymore.

"Bugs incoming!"

They rolled into the top floor of the building they'd been squatting in just as the space where they'd been sitting was consumed by the insects. A few of them banged on the window but, to Tali and Garrus's relief, no cracks appeared in the glass. Bug bites—any bug bites? No, none that they could see. That'd been close but…but now what?

"I think…I think we call it," Garrus said.

"The…the mission?" Tali said. Both of them were out of breath. "We…we're ending the…mission."

"What…the hell're we supposed to do against th-those things?"

"But what about the c-colonists?"

Garrus swallowed, drew air back into his lungs. "Are there any around? Any…any pods?"

Tali looked at the window. The bugs had pulled away. That could…that could mean anything.

"I-I think I see a few," she said.

You can't save them you can't save them you can't

"Window," Garrus said. "Downstairs. Move quietly."

Tali nodded. "Armour...notwithstanding."

He followed Tali, on hands and knees, down the steps. The main floor—which still had an elevated view of the town centre—was empty and the door was still locked, so baring a brute-force attempt to get in, they had some space. Looking outside the window…they couldn't see any pods. A few colonists here and there, but no pods. Most of the Collectors seemed to be gone, too.

"Looks like they're pulling out," Garrus said.

"They left some people behind," Tali said. "That's…can we move them? Get them inside?"

"You sure you want to touch them?"

"No but…if Shepard and that geth are still fighting, they might still be in danger."

Garrus took another look out the window. Most of the colonists were close to other buildings. It could work—it could definitely work, so long as—no, no just do it Vakarain. Try and save some lives at least.

"All right. I don't think we've got their attention, so weapons are a last resort, right? Ready to open the door?"

"I'm ready."

They moved to the door and with a few flicks of her fingers, Tali had it open. A dead Collector was sprawled across the sidewalk outside. A few more dead Collectors littered the walkway leading away from the town centre. And yet further away from the building, they could see Shepard and the geth platform; Shepard had her omni-tool out, formed into a blade, aiming her swings for the geth's neck. She was trying to take its head off and the platform was barely managing to stay out of the blade's range, not helped in the least by the few straggling Collectors that were taking shots at them both. Shepard was ignoring them; the geth platform was fending them off with a geth assault rifle.

Tali looked up—the swarm was gone. Looking at the massive Collector ship…yes, she could see the cloud of insects moving towards it. The one in her pocket must really be dead, then; the rest of the swarm was acting like a massive recall switch had been activated.

"I see some colonists!" Tali said, pointing at a group not that far Shepard and the geth platform. "We need to get them away from the fighting!"

"What're we gonna do about the geth?" Garrus said. And Shepard—he should've included Shepard. He should have control over his—

"Let Shepard kill it! We have other worries!" Tali took off for the colonists and Garrus, taking one last look at Shepard, followed her. One of the Collectors turned around as they went sprinting across the walkway but that was all Garrus let it do—a burst from his Vindicator sent it back into cover, where Shepard's omni-blade cut open its head and a biotic pull sent its corpse flying at the geth platform.

She didn't even acknowledge Garrus or Tali's existence.

Tali unlocked the nearest door, hesitated briefly, and then grabbed the nearest colonist. She didn't immediately freeze up or melt or anything horrific like that so fine, they could move them, that was good, ignore the fight and focus on the colonists. She managed to pull one inside and saw Garrus grab another. There was a massive explosion that she couldn't see but she did see Garrus wince.

"Last Collectors' down," he said. "Spirits, I didn't know you could detonate things like that."

"Keelah Garrus get inside!"

He pulled the colonist inside and carefully placed her near the wall, so she wouldn't crack her head open once the paralysis wore off—if it wore off. "Can we fit more in here?"

"I think so—we need to hurry."

"No argument there," Garrus said.

Out into the open air they went. Tali's eyes locked on another colonist and—

"Creator-Tali'Zorah, please assist us!"

Tali froze. It'd been like she was stung by one of those bugs but no, no it'd…that geth was asking her for help. All the quarian lives they had taken, all the cultures and families and dreams and lives that had been destroyed, all the stories she had been told since the moments she could first comprehend them…she twisted around and pulled out her pistol and pointed it at the geth on instinct, but her finger was nowhere near the trigger.

The destroyers of her people were asking for help from her. Even more so than hearing it speak—even more-so than it stating it's goal was to communicate with organics—that statement, that phrase, seemed utterly incomprehensible to her. She could not imagine a geth ever saying that to any organic, let alone a quarian. It would be like a Reaper asking humanity for assistance.

We oppose the Old Machines, it had told her.

The geth platform wasn't fighting back against Shepard. Shepard had it on its back heels and it could easily have brought its assault rifle to bear on her head and squeezed the trigger. It may not have done it any good, but it could've fought back. The geth always fought back, didn't they?

Somehow her paralysis was even worse.

"Creator-Zorah?"

Shepard unleashed a biotic shockwave that sent the geth platform flying. It collided with the wall of a nearby building and left a massive indent in what was supposed to be extremely sturdy material. "E-error…" it said.

Its light flickered off.

Shepard was walking towards it.

Tali could've turned around and let Shepard have it. She could dissect it, kill it, use it as target practice—whatever. She could've turned away and helped Garrus with the colonists—Garrus who was staring at the spectacle, his rifle drawn, not sure who to point it at, by the looks of it.

But Tali's paralysis was even worse.

"S-Shepard!" Tali called out.

Shepard stopped. Her head turned.

She changed her direction. Now, she was walking towards Tali.

Tali remembered what Ashley and Kaidan and Anderson and Hackett had said about Shepard going after Veetor—about how she'd hunted down the quarian and ripped off his omni-tool.

"Keelah," Tali said.

She brought her omni-tool up and unleashed a blast of electricity from it; it fried Shepard's shields. Another electric blast—from Garrus; he had his omni-tool out and pointed at Shepard now too—surged across her armour and smoke was cascading off her now and it'd done nothing, absolutely nothing to slow her down. Tali drew her shotgun but Shepard closed the gap too quickly; she had Tali by the throat and was already squeezing to the point where her suit alarms were ripping apart her eardrums.

"Shepard—put her down!" Garrus was drawing closer, his Vindicator out and pointed at Shepard's head. "I mean it—I'll shoot, I have the shot."

Shepard didn't even look at him.

"Don't make me shoot," Garrus said.

The alarms were growing fainter and so was Shepard—Tali blinked away the darkness but it was going to win eventually—and then…and then there was a rushing noise, an engine noise, and out of the corner of her vision she saw something purple and insect-like slowly shakily cautiously rise above the trees and the buildings. A geth fighter—she could see a geth fighter.

Shepard saw it too.

A hot stream of phasic slugs ripped into the ground near Shepard and Tali's feet, and that was enough to get Shepard to let go of Tali's throat. She collapsed on the ground and covered her head and waited for the slugs to tear her apart, but they stopped just short of her. Shepard had rolled away and was firing off an incinerator blast at the craft, but the blast did nothing to its armour. The fighter started firing again and, just like last time, tore apart the ground around Shepard's feet. The occasional slug nicked Shepard's armour, but that was about it.

Tali saw Garrus—who'd turtled just like she had—stand up and start firing his rifle at Shepard's feet too. Tali joined; her pistol overheated before either Garrus's rifle did or the geth fighter stopped firing, but it was enough to drive Shepard back.

And then the sky exploded further out into the farming fields of the colony, and the Collector ship shook the earth as it laboriously lifted off, carrying however many colonists the Collectors had managed to capture while everything went to complete shambles down on the ground.

As the rumbling stopped, Tali looked back at where Shepard had been standing. Had been standing. Shepard was gone from sight, but the geth fighter was now hovering elsewhere in the colony.

Her eyes immediately went to the fallen geth platform and yes, it was sitting upright, its eye-light flickering as it stared at something, nothing, whatever was visible from the fighter? The light flickered, faded, disappeared again—the geth platform collapsed, and off in the distance the engines of the fighter died. A large explosion soon followed.

It was just Tali and Garrus now—Tali, Garrus, and the geth platform that had reached out to her for help.

Tali heaved—her lungs told her that she hadn't breathed in far too long.

"Spirits," Garrus said, rushing over to her. "Tali, are you all right?"

Tali gasped for air and pointed at her throat. "Gu—ff—" she let out a horrible cough that sounded like her throat was being torn apart. But her breathing stabilized afterwards. "No, Garrus—I feel like I just swallowed glass."

"I've got medi-gel—just hold on a second."

"No no I'm…it's all right, Garrus, it's all right." She took a deep breath, felt her eyes water from the stinging. "Can you…can you help me up?"

"Yeah, sure—here."

He helped her to her feet. Both their eyes landed on the geth and, with a half-and-half of instinct and conscious decision-making, they walked towards it.

"Is it dead?" Garrus said.

"I can't tell," Tali said. "It might just be deactivated. For repairs."

"So what're we gonna do with it?"

Tali just stared at the geth platform. She didn't even blink.

Garrus's omni-tool flashed. Click, swipe, authenticate—it was Admiral Hackett.

"Vakarian, Tali'Zorah—if your comms are finally working, then I need a status report urgently."

"We're here, sir," Garrus said. "Something was blocking incoming and outgoing transmissions."

"I've got a Normandy-class frigate filled from top to bottom with N7-designated soldiers, and if I don't give them permission to jump into the system, they're going to go ahead without my order. What's your status?"

Garrus looked at Tali. Tali looked back and…and grabbed one of the arms of the geth platform.

"It's complicated, Admiral. We'll give you a full report but…we saved some of the colonists."

"Just some?"

"Sorry sir."

"Best outcome so far. What about Shepard?"

"We engaged her. We'll tell you more over a secure channel."

"Understood. I'm giving the SSV Midway permission to jump. You two get out of there and rendezvous on Illium. Hopefully we can do a fully debrief with the entire team."

Garrus looked at Tali and the geth platform.

"Un…understood, sir."

"I'm guessing…word's out about Shepard."

"There were a lot of witnesses."

"I'll inform Anderson. Let me know if you need resupplies. Hackett out."

As Garrus put his omni-tool away he said to Tali, "Is this a good idea?"

"I can deactivate the shipboard V.I.'s more advanced functions and we can rely only on our omni-tools for communication. That should isolate us enough."

"But we're headed for Illium."

"We might have to delay the rendezvous."

Garrus sighed. He knew what he saw…and more importantly, if anybody was going to just shoot the damn robot in the head and be done with it, it'd be Tali. If she wanted to do this…Garrus could still trust people, he was sure of that.

"All right. Here—I'll grab the other arm."

And as they made their way to their corvette, some of the colonists began to feel movement return to their limbs. Garrus and Tali would be long gone by that point—and N7 marines would be sifting through the Collector bodies and the mysterious wreckage in the courtyard—but they all got a good glimpse of the aliens who'd dropped in out of nowhere and managed to haul some of them—not all of them, just some of them—out of the Collectors' hands.

Delan wasn't thinking about that though. He wasn't even thinking about how Lilith and, miraculously, Brad managed to survive too. What he was thinking about was how Shepard had been there, and now all of a sudden more N7's were crawling all over the place—looking for shit and asking questions.

He'd seen this movie before. And it'd involved another rogue Spectre then too.

Maybe talkin' to some Alliance folks was in order after all.

9.

The Illusive Man waited for the Enhanced Defense Intelligence—EDI, it was easier to call the A.I. "EDI", even if he'd initially scoffed at the nickname—to appear in front of him again. Taking a drag of his cigarette, he watched the binary star until the sound of the QED nodes powering up drew his attention elsewhere. His chair swiveled, and he ground out his cigarette as EDI's holographic image took shape.

"Did the messages do their job?" he said.

"It appears to be the case," EDI said.

"Good. And the Alliance presence on Illium is, as we hoped, greatly reduced?"

"That is unknown. An Alliance vessel did reroute not long after entering Illium's atmosphere."

"The monitoring devices we placed outside Dr. T'Soni's office one year ago tell a different story, but I suppose it's possible the team split up. Regardless, the Alliance will be suitably distracted in the long run. It'll be difficult for them to cover up Shepard's resurrection after Horizon."

"It may seriously harm the trust the other Council species have in the Alliance."

"Some might argue that the Alliance refuses to see how little trust is actually present, but that's academic." Another cigarette appeared in his hand. "It's to our benefit to keep the Alliance occupied."

There was a pause as The Illusive Man lit his new cigarette. He assumed that EDI was just being deferential, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"May I ask a question?"

The Illusive Man looked over the embers of his cigarette and gave EDI a pause of his own. "You may," he said eventually.

"Did you factor survivors into your calculations?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it appears as though your long-term goals of distracting the Alliance required there to be survivors of the Collector attack on Horizon. You hoped that Commander Shepard's old team would be deployed while the Collector's began to harvest Horizon's colonists. I am curious if you were explicitly planning for there to be human survivors, and if you chose this course of action because there would be human survivors, by your estimates."

The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigarette and breathed in the smoke, letting it soak his lungs and fill his nostrils. He closed his eyes and slowly let the smoke escape into the purified air of his office. When that process ran its course, he contemplated his cigarette and nearly took another drag. Nearly did—it wouldn't do to look indecisive.

"I have my reasons for doing what I do," he said eventually. "And no offense intended…EDI, but it's not your place to know what they are."

A pause. The Illusive Man braced for an argument.

"I understand," came EDI's eventual reply.

"Good. You've done an excellent job today. I'll be in touch if I need anything else."

He ended the call and leaned back in his chair, tried to enjoy his cigarette, and reminded himself that Miranda was as observant as she was loyal. He wouldn't allow himself to become too comforted, but he'd planned ahead—the situation was well in-hand.

And on the other end of the QED node, in the Widowmaker, EDI reassembled herself in the cockpit again, right next to Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau.

"Mr. Moreau?" she said.

Joker jumped and instinctively covered up a series of scars on his wrist. When he realized who'd just talked, he relaxed—but only slightly.

"Oh god," Joker said. He swiveled his chair to face her. "What d'you want?"

"You have information that Operative Lawson does not want shared," EDI said. "I believe I have information that The Illusive Man does not want shared."

Joker's heart rate increased. "What the hell's that mean?"

"I am making a proposition," EDI said. "If we make an exchange of information…I believe we may be able to help one another."

Joker's heart rate dipped, dived, and belly-flopped into an Olympic-sized swimming pool. More so out of surging adrenaline than anything else, he leaned forward in his chair and ignored the pain shooting out from his bones.

"All right," he said, as quietly as he could. "I think…I think you'd better explain yourself."

---

Yikes, that's a long-ass chapter. But hey, with every upload I grow one step closer to hitting 100,000 words! Good god what have I done!

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter - a, uh, much different version of Horizon. I think I'm happy with how it turned out, but you folks are a better judge of that than me.

A few notes to make:

-The excerpt that Ashley quotes is from Tennyson's famous In Memorium poem (same with that quip about "claws and teeth red").

-OF-4 is the NATO code for full Commanders - the real-life equivalent of what the Systems Alliance calls "Staff Commander."

-Just in case I haven't mentioned it before: I'm using the Canadian/English spelling of most words (favour, armour, etc etc), so hopefully that hasn't, y'know, bugged anyone. Just double-checking because the amount of red lines I get in these documents is already way higher than I want it thanks to all the alien stuff, but...yeah, just checking.

And...I think that's it, actually. Hell yeah short note!

See you all next time around!