Remnants

by General Rage

From Halo's ashes, a mismatched Alliance is born. UNSC soldiers now serve alongside both Batarian deserters and shifty Jackal Space Pirates. Now Shepard and Master Chief have to keep these strange bedfellows from killing one another before they can stop an emergent new threat to the galaxy. The Next Swashbuckling Chapter of the Wormhole Chronicles.

14. Visions of the Forgotten

Chapter 13: Visions of the Forgotten

We stopped looking for monsters under our bed

when we realized that they were inside us.

-Charles Darwin

She had no idea why she was here. How Kasumi had convinced her to come to this little film fest was beyond her at this point. Was she so tired that she was losing the ability to say no? Or had spending so much time with silver-tongued pirates increased Kasumi's speech skills?

Either way, she was now stuck watching a bunch of old vids, starring some psycho in a hockey mask, murdering other humans at a summer camp. Currently, a young boy was getting a corkscrew shoved through his hand before a machete sliced through his face. Considering the young human had just lost his virginity mere moments ago, the in-joke was pretty clear. What wasn't clear was who the hell the Jackals were rooting for anymore. Taking all that in, she again asked herself, why was she still here?

"When you said they were playing culturally significant human cinema here, this was not the picture you put in my head," she informed Kasumi in an angered whisper. "Honestly, do humans actually like this?"

"This IS culturally significant," Kasumi stated defensively. "The rise of the slasher movie greatly altered the course of horror cinema for years to come. Jason Voorhees himself is one of the seminal icons of horror. He's simultaneously a victim and a villain! He works on so many levels."

"Most of them involving impalement it seems," Tali grumbled. "I also thought he was supposed to be using a chainsaw at some point."

"That's Leatherface, different character," Kasumi corrected. "Come on, it's not that bad. I mean, there's romance in it, you like that."

"I like it up until the point they're brutally murdered," Tali explained. "What is with humans and punishing people for having sex?"

"It's more complicated than that," Kasumi argued passionately. "By engaging in their baser instincts, they open the door to risk, that of death and trauma. They give up their innocence and enter the scarier more adult world. That takes the form of a hockey mask wearing, machete weilding maniac. Surely you can appreciate that concept."

"It still feels like your culture takes issue with one of the most important and intimate acts that a romantic relationship can create," Tali stated. "Quarians warn about the dangers of intimacy but we emphasize how brave one has to be to take such a risk for love. We don't need to create a boogeyman to discourage it."

At this point, the female protagonist was already on the run from the killer. That sequence more or less put Tali ill at ease. Too many bad memories from what happened on Halo. She shifted in her seat somewhat.

"At least this is the final chapter," she said with relief.

"Actually there's about, um, six more in the original numbered series," Kasumi admitted reluctantly. "Plus there's the rebooted series starting with the remake."

"Oh joy," Tali sighed, her deadpan tone highlighting her annoyance. "Which is the one where he starts killing them in their dreams."

"That's Freddy Kruger," Kasumi corrected once more. "He shows up in a crossover later. It's good fun, if a bit stupid."

That was about the final straw for her. She was not going to sit through who knew how many more vids full of blood and guts. No matter how much she enjoyed Kasumi's company, she was done.

"That's it, I'm out," she said sitting up. "I'm grabbing what's left the graxen and going to watch the sappiest interspecies romance story I can find."

"You'll miss the triple decapitation in part six," Kasumi teased. "They finally managed to restore it to as it was intended before the censors got to it."

"I think I'll survive, thank you," Tali shot back. "See you later, Kas."

---

Tali left the Vid Room and made her towards the exit hatch. For some reason the whole corridor felt a bit darker than usual. She shook her head in derision, of course the lights weren't working here. Zek's people slacked off on even the most basic of ammenities. They were probably brilliant engineers, but they had no proper work ethic. None of them would last a day in the Migrant Fleet with their lazy attitudes.

She moved through the darkened corridor at a quicker pace, mindful of her step. It would be just her luck if she stepped on some discarded ichor bottle or whatever and tripped. That was another issue with the Fallen Serpent, the grime and garbage buildup. They just threw whatever they were done with onto the floor and walked away, leaving it for someone else to pick up later. Jackals were very messy creatures and they didn't seem to think much about the concept of keeping things sterile. Another reason they wouldn't last long in the Migrant Fleet.

However, as gross as the Serpent could be, she felt something was off about the current disarray around her. Did it smell this bad? It hadn't when she came aboard. Was there this much greasy food dropped on the floor? Because it felt like she was walking in something squishy every other step or so. There was no way Zek was this dirty. They had the grunts to clean up a lot of this. They were pretty slow and weren't always available, but Kasumi said they did a decent job playing Janitor. They couldn't be suddenly slacking off, unless they had gotten fed up with the Jackals' treatment of them.

No, there's no way, she'd have heard about a strike from Kasumi. Even if they had stopped cleaning, the Jackals couldn't generate enough trash and gunk to make something smell this bad. Her olfactory filters couldn't be overwhelmed like this unless she was in the middle of a giant dump and even then it wouldn't smell this bad. Also, was it getting darker as well as getting slimier? Her feet felt coated in something and she could barely see anymore.

As she rounded a corner she expected led to the exit hatch, her head pounded slightly. This had been happening more and more lately. She chalked it up to stress or some kind of infection, but even sleeping didn't alleviate it and Chakwas kept saying she was okay. No sinus infection, no concussion, no nothing. She was in perfect health as far as she could see. So why did Tali feel so rotten all the time? Why did her head hurt so much that she felt her skull was pulsating?

More to the point, why were the walls pulsating?

As she looked around, agitated at it all, she found no exit, only more mold and grime everywhere. She looked around, thinking she had taken a wrong turn. Maybe she needed to go back and retrace her steps. Or at least she would, if behind her wasn't some kind of light eminating from a corridor that wasn't there before.

She approached it cautiously, unsure of what was it was, until she started hearing voices.

"It can't be over. This can't be our end."

"It won't be, we will make sure of that. We will live on. We will endure."

"But how? As what? It is all taken from us. It is all gone."

When she finally rounded the corner, she was astonished to see who it was speaking. It was a trio of quarians, here, on the Fallen Serpent. How? She wanted to say something but her voice seemed caught in her throat.

"We have not lost, not yet," One of them claimed. "We shall rise from this defeat reborn, renewed. We will be stronger, greater."

"But this plan, it will change everything we are," another stated. "We will no longer be who we once were. We will be something else."

"There is nothing left for us if we remain stagnant," the third declared. "Nothing left if we do not act now! What was rightfully ours has been stolen! Taken by those lesser than us, who are undeserving of anything but our rage!"

"And that rage will be enough," the first quarian shouted, clenching his fist. "They wish to rule in our stead? Then we shall test their mettle, their desire for control. We shall see if they truly have the will to face us when we are the scourge on their lands, on their planets, on their fleets! Our rage will guide us! Feed us! As will the cries of anguish from their dead!"

Tali didn't understand what was going on, why these quarians were talking like this. It sounded like they were speaking of the exile, of the fleet fleeing the homeworld. But, that was centuries ago. These quarians sounded like they had been there and that was impossible. But something stranger than that now occured. Every other moment, the images of the quarians shifted, turning into something foreign, alien, ghastly. Some different unrecognizable species, with distorted voices and whizzed figures, decaying and rotting even as they spoke.

"We shall be a new plague, a new calamity," the first quarian continued, his body shifting and morphing every other word. "We shall spill out across the stars, humble them before us. They shall all be consumed, along with anyone else who has dared to defy us."

"And what will we become?" The second quarian spoke, his form shifting in a similar matter. "We will forever be unsatisfied, forever unquenched. They must pay, but must we truly surrender ourselves in the process?"

"I will not die defeated and forgotten!" The female quarian shouted, her voice becoming monstrous as her shape shifted and contorted. "We will allow our rage to fester and boil over! It will burn them! Feed us! And from it a new galaxy will be born! One free of them! One we shall control! If it is a ruin so be it! As long as they suffer and die! As long as our revenge is secured, even after death!"

"We shall be remembered, if not as we were than as what we shall become," the first quarian stated. "They shall fear us, they shall crumble and we will rise again!"

Tali tried to back away, whatever these things were, they were not quarian. She had to warn Kasumi and Zek. Tell them what had come aboard the ship, some strange shapeshifting race with some crazy plan. She had to get out of here. She moved back but took a tumble slightly. The shapes turned, now noticing her at last. The first creature, now in his true hedious form pointed at her and screamed a bloodcurdling cry. The other two charged towards her.

Tali pushed herself up and continued to run, only for some kind of tentacle to wrap around her leg and force her back down. She looked back and saw a terrifying maw of some kind, bearing down on her, pulling her in, as the two other creatures advance. It snarled and spat, bile pouring from its gums as she struggled to free herself. It pulled her in more rapidly and then finally seemed to scream into her very mind.

Revenge is everlasting. Timeless as Death.

Tali jumped up with a start, her head pounding and heart racing. She looked frantically around to see where she was, what horrible nightmare she had been dragged into by that thing. But... there was no monster, no creature, no terrible beast. She was in Shepard's bedroom, on the couch.

Everything was quiet, save for the low hum of the ship and the filtration system for the fish tank. All of Wade's little ship models were clearly visible through the display case. On the coffee table was that weird Prothean relic they had found when chasing after project Firewalker. Everything was normal, nothing amiss. She looked around to find Shepard, who was still asleep in his bed, although slightly stirring. Her suit was still on, so that answered at least why she wasn't in bed with him. Her head was still hurting though, not as much as before, but she could still feel a bit of pain.

"Tali?"

She looked back over to see Shepard fully awake now, pulling himself out of the covers.

"Tali, what's wrong?" He asked concerned.

"Nothing, just... I thought," she could barely explain, her head swimming. "I... I guess I just had a bad dream."

Was it though? Everything had felt so real. Her head was all mixed up and Shepard could tell.

"Are you sure you're alright? No fever or anything?" He asked again.

"No, nothing," she swore. "It... it was just some really crazy nightmare. I probably ate something that didn't agree with me is all."

"Or you're still not getting enough proper sleep," Shepard suggested, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You sure you don't want Chakwas to look over you again?"

Tali laughed slightly.

"What? And be told the same thing as before?" She asked sarcastically, almost laughing. "I appreciate the thought, Shepard, but really, it's nothing. Just more stupid headaches aggravating some dreams I'm having. That's all."

She sat more upright as she rubbed her temples.

"Ugh, I think maybe I'm just guilty about apparently sleeping in and missing out on Kasumi's little vid marathon with her pirate friends is all," she explained. "That's how the dream opened at least."

"Vid Marathon?" Shepard questioned, sounding confused.

"Yeah for a bunch of scary vids or something," Tali explained. "I should've realized something was up when Kasumi said your people made several films starring some crazy person in a hockey mask."

Tali noticed Shepard looking at her oddly, and her concern suddenly rose. Shepard never looked that way unless something was scaring him.

"Tali, you did go to the Serpent to watch vids," he explained. "Kasumi called EDI to let us know you were coming back. You walked in, came up to my cabin and I found you sleeping on the couch so I didn't wake you and gave you a blanket."

He checked the clock with a brief glance.

"That was over two hours ago," he informed her. "You.. you don't remember getting back to the ship?"

Tali looked flabbergasted and more than a little freightened. She didn't remember. She didn't remember any of that.

---

An early morning check up was supposed to yield something different this time, instead neither Chakwas or Mordin could find anything. No illness, no brain damage, no concussion. All Chakwas could do was offer some medication to ease the headaches. There was still no explanation for the memory loss, save for maybe that the migraines were somehow affecting her sense of time. Not the best of explanation, but it was the only one they had right now.

Chakwas had made Tali promise to come back in later for more tests, so they could keep working to figure this out. Just more damn delays, she didn't need this kind of crap right now. She had work to finish, they were making some actual progress for once on the Slipspace-Mass Effect Tech merger. All thanks to the Engineer Triplets and their tireless work effort. Despite the slight language curve, the friendly gasbags seemed to know exactly what to do. The work was complicated and it needed their help as much as the Engineers, but it was progressing.

Tali just wanted to get this done, before something else as equally insane as a Forerunner ghost ship popped up on the radar. Which, given they had changed course back to Reach, would probably be soon. The faster she got this done, the sooner she'd have time for other equally important matters. Legion still had a glitch to fix after all and she had somewhat neglected his treatments in favor of getting this project working. And she would get it working.

Two of the Engineers were currently making some further adjustments to the Drive Core, the goal being to better integrate a Mass Effect Field with the Slipspace rupture itself. That seemed to be the key. If they could just get a rupture entangled with a field they could use them in tandem to propel their ship through that was accomplished, speed would no longer be an issue. Even better for the UNSC, they could reverse engineer the process for their own slipspace drives.

Daniels and Donnelly were already monitoring the systems fluctuations as Tali oversaw the Engineers' refit directly. Their tentacles were going deep into the core, fiddling with various components and system. The third one was over near the recently installed Slipspace drive, managing things on that end. It was amazing how in tandem they all seemed. Mordin had studied them a bit and concluded they were capable of a form of mental communication. A sort of wireless signal they could use to speak to one another faster than any kind of vocal speech could manage. Daniels called it telepathy, but it was nothing so supernatural. It was no different than how a Geth communicated with other Geth, it was just these creatures were more organic than synthetic.

"Systems reading nominal," Donnelly reported. "Tech sync is... well it's actually working."

"Why are we surprised anymore?" Daniels asked. "We've made more progress on this in the past week than in all the months we've been working on it by ourselves. Those Huragok are a lifesaver."

"They still need our help to make this work," Tali insisted. "They can sync up the technology, we have to make it function."

"At least we know why the Covenant have such powerful ships," Donnelly added. "They got whole teams of these guys in their fleets."

"Yes, but remember ONI's notes," Daniels reminded him. "The Covenant don't upgrade that much. They have all this incredible tech, but they purposely keep things stagnate. They don't innovate, they just maintain."

"Well with how the war is going they don't have much reason to," Donnelly stated.

"Which will be their downfall," Tali assured. "You either adapt and evolve constantly, or you die. Krogan know that, quarians know that, eventually the Covenant will see the error of their oversight."

"Hopefully when it is too late for them to correct it," Daniels suggested.

Tali kept watch on the Engineer working on the Slipspace Drive now, as he continued making interface changes. Tali had her omni-tool hooked up to a diagnostic of the drive itself. Things seemed to be progressing well, as the systems were linking up nicely. Everything seemed green across the board, better than expected when she came up with the modifications. The Engineers had improved on her designs significantly. It was only matter of time before this little dream of theirs was a reality.

As she was working, she heard the door to the engine room open up. She went back to see who it was, seeing it was in fact Miranda. What was she doing down here? She rarely showed up in Engineering unless she had to. Mainly because Jack lived below and, while their relationship had improved, she wanted to limit the time they were forced to talk to each other.

"Hey, Miri," Daniels greeted rather friendly. "What brings you down?"

"Just working on a progress report," she explained. "I hear things have improved."

"They have," Tali confirmed. "Integration is actually making headway. Thanks to the Huragok's assistance."

"I've heard they've done more than get the Slipspace project up and running," Miranda noted. "Your reports say they've increased general maintenance by fifty percent."

"That is accurate," Tali admitted a bit befuddled by the comment. "They've become quite valuable members of the team."

"Not worried about them supplanting you?" Miranda asked rather plainly.

Tali glared a little at that.

"They still need us for direction and proper diagnostic scans. They spend more of their time on the fixes we can't always detect. We stay focused on general issues and assist in the more complicated tasks when need be. Like I said, they're part of the team now, extra tentacles if you will."

"Fair enough," Miranda shrugged. "It's good to see you don't feel threatened or insecure. Considering how successful they've been with everything."

"This is a complicated project, Miranda," Tali explained, trying not to be curt in her tone. "We all knew it would be. Integrating two technologies in order to advance both of their capabilities while minimizing drawbacks would be hard to do if they both came from the same dimension. Mass Effect Fields and Slipspace Drives are entirely new fields. I've needed to study the ins and outs of Slipspace mechanics in general just to keep up."

"We still need to fast track this research," Miranda insisted. "We've had too many setbacks already and things are ramping up considerably. We need to start thinking about testing."

She looked to Tali inquisitively.

"You have considered testing, haven't you?"

"I have, actually," Tali assured. "I've been running subsequent tests for a while now."

"I mean more of a legitimate test," Miranda corrected. "One that proves the Huragok's modifcations are working."

Huragok's Modifications? What was that supposed to mean?

"The modifications are based on my studies," Tali informed her. "Like I said, the Huragok are just able to make them a reality. This is still my project."

"Well if you want to take credit," Miranda told her, "than perhaps you should consider putting in more of the work besides supervising."

"More work?" Tali said, rather insulted. "You have no idea how much work I'm putting into this project. It's not just watching the huragok do their job. Like I said, they still needed direction, planning, proper guidance. I need to run diagnostics, go over a ton of prep work, I've needed to explain to them what we're trying to accomplish so they can translate it into reality. I've had to get in there more than a few times to assist them."

"We all have," Daniels cut in suddenly. "We've put in a ton of hours on all this, Miranda. Tali especially."

"I'm sure you all have," Miranda sighed. "But we've still yet to see some real results. I keep hearing about progress, I want to see it. And Holland agrees."

"We're not ready for a full scale test," Tali explained. "We still have some major integrations. Not to mention a proper configuration of Mass Effect fields into the cyclic shaft I still need to do."

"Why not just have the Huragok manage those?" Miranda asked skeptically. "Your reports say they're doing wonders already."

"I'm building it, they're improving on it," Tali insisted, her tone shifting more hostile. "I'm not obsolete here, I'm not just supervising."

"Never said anything of the sort," Miranda stated bluntly. "But I feel it would be prudent to at least show us something."

She may not have said it, but she implied it, Tali thought. Miranda was always implying something with her superior sensibilities and tone. Subtle hints she picked up on, that she wasn't as good an engineer as she claimed. That she wasn't as capable an engineering chief as she was. That she couldn't figure this out and should just turn it over to the Huragok entirely. Alright, she wanted results? She'd shut her up.

"I have one test we can try," she stated. "If nothing else it will show the systems are linking up correctly. It won't generate a slipspace rupture yet, but we'll be able to see the core interacting with the drive, powering the general systems. If we went further than that right now we'd risk creating some instability in the core."

"Good enough for now," Miranda accepted. "Lets get it working then."

Tali had Donnelly call the Huragok in out of the core chamber. She then powered up the system, running through the checks. She could feel Miranda hovering over all the while, silently judging her as she worked through the systems. When she looked back, she just saw Miranda looking innocent, as if she was just doing her job. Yeah, if that job meant finding a way to make it look like she was a failure. Something to bring back to Shepard and undermine her.

Well this would show her.

One final check and she started the system. The drive core switched on like a four hundred watt lightbulb, resonating with brighter than usual. Tali kept watch on her systems as one of the Engineers floated nearby.

"Connections are good, power guage is stable," Tali reported. "Daniels, status on the Slipspace Drive?"

"Testing phase initiated, cycling through processes," Daniels replied. "Connection prep set."

"Good," Tali nodded. "Donnelly, spin up the Field Cycles, feed them into the Slipspace Drive, in sequence."

"Gotcha, going through Field Cycle sequence now," Donnelly declared.

Donnelly typed up the commands on the console and Tali watched the powers feeds on her own. terminal. This would show that the system was connected and capable of handling mass effect fields interacting with its own processes. The next step after proving that, would be making the drive create its own fields to feed into the ruptures it would create from now on. First though, prove it could handle and maintain a Mass Effect Field sequence.

The power poured into the drive, the levels holding steady. Tali kept careful watch on the fluctuations as everything lined up more or less. The Slipspace Drive was humming nicely now, the field processes holding and syncing with its rupture sequences perfectly. Tali looked to Miranda, grinning under her mask.

"See, connection stable," she informed her. "And this is partially my work. I designed the connection sequencer that's making this possible."

"Which the Huragok installed and perfected, right?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Tali admitted, her annoyance growing. "But I still came up with the idea that we needed to feed Mass Effect Fields into the drive's main system. It's the only way we can properly sync the systems and allow it to speed our ship through the Slipspace Rupture."

"True, but it was the Huragok who set your idea into motion," Miranda explained. "You wouldn't have gotten this far without them."

"I got plenty far to start with," Tali argued. "Why are you being so dismissive of my work?"

"I'm not dismissive of your work, I'm dismissive of how long this is taking," Miranda explained sternly. "Despite your accomplishments, even with the Huragok, we're still a long ways off. Any of the progress comes from the Engineers themselves from what I can see."

"They're helping, greatly," Tali stated. "But I keep telling you, it's only because I've given them the designs and proper procedures to get it all working. Engineering is more than just attaching wires and turning screws you know. There's a lot of research, practice, development..."

"I know all this, Tali," Miranda informed her. "What I don't understand is, why, given every tool at your disposal, this whole thing still eludes you. Do you need something else? More manpower? Access to more Slipspace tech? Maybe better allocation of time?"

"Allocation?" Tali asked befuddled.

"All I'm saying is you could be focusing on the wrong things," Miranda stated. "Maybe there is a faster route to the answer than what you've settled on."

"I know in my gut this is where we need to focus," Tali insisted. "We are close, increasingly close. If I need something, I'll inform the right people."

"This project isn't just centered on giving the UNSC and edge against the Covenant," Miranda remidned her, crossing her arms. "It's about making our ship more readily independent of the fleet itself. We can't keep relying on piggybacking off the Justice. We need to be able to travel under our own power. I need to know if you can get the job done or not and soon. We're out of time concerning this, we're going to be at Reach again in a few days. We need to be at our best."

"We will be, because I'm in engineering," Tali declared. "I know what I'm doing and I'd appreciate it if you respected my abilities for once."

"I respect your abilities," Miranda informed her. "I'm wondering if they're enough."

Tali glared at her incessantly, thoughts swirming around in her head. Miranda, always so pompous, so perfect. Thinking she could run this ship better than anyone. Always getting on her nerves, always judging her silently. She thought she was better than all of them, just because her daddy made her that way. Keelah, she just wanted to scream at her, let it all out, tell her off every time she had some backhanded comment to spout off at her. Bitch, little miss perfect hair and teeth, genetically superior harpy. Why not just explode on her? She deserved it! Jack did it all the time, never got in trouble. She should do just that, finally stand her ground, just dish it back as harsh as she did to her.

She was just about to tell Miranda where to shove it, when one of the Engineers started tapping on her shoulder. Tali turned quickly, causing the gasbag to back up a little. That revealed her terminal and the fact some of the sequences were fluctuating. Tali raced back into position and started looking at it.

"No, no! Field integrity is failing," she realized. "Daniels, can you reignite the sequences?"

"Trying, trying," she stated, rapidly tapping at the controls. "Systems aren't responding fast enough."

"Try pooling power back into the cycles, reset them," Tali ordered.

"Can't, system lockout," Donnelly reported. "We're going to lose connection, it could fry our subsystems."

Tali feverishly worked at her console, trying to reset, but nothing doing. One of the Huragok took off, floating over to the core directly. It attached its tentacles into the system, its bioluminiscence pulsating at it connected with the system. Tali looked to her screen and saw the fluctuations stabalize in seconds. The field held and she breathed a sigh of relief. The test was complete, success assured. The Drive could maintain a proper field now. Thank the ancestors.

But when Tali looked back to Miranda, she could only see "disappointed" etched across her face.

"Perhaps the Huragok should be more in charge of the next few tests you run," she said. "Before we start having the Slipspace Drive start generating its own field output."

"It was a minor problem, we fixed it," Tali assured. "It's why we don't rush testing."

"A Huragok still saved this test regardless," Miranda informed her. "I need to tell Shepard of what happened in any case. Hopefully you will be ready in due time."

Miranda left, not even saying a "goodbye" or "good luck", she just flipped her hair and kept walking. Tali fumed, clenching her fists hard. In her head swam a mix of angry thoughts, pounding horrendously hitting her temples. Harpy, judging bitch, perfect little XO, thinks she's better, looks down at her constantly, if she had her way... if only she could... she didn't deserve...

Her thoughts were interrupted when one of the Engineers lent a reassuring tentacle onto her shoulder. Instantly her thoughts calmed as the creature cooed at her softly. He was soon joined by the other Engineers, and Daniels and Donnelly.

"Don't let her get to you," Daniels tried to reassure the quarian. "She's hard on everyone, always has been. It's just how she runs things."

"She's harder on me," Tali grumbled. "Doesn't think I belong here. That's why I wasn't on the original list of candidates for the suicide mission. She didn't want me anywhere near this ship. Still doesn't."

"Miranda didn't make the dossiers," Donnelly stated. "And she does want you here. She's just trying to push you to be your best, I think. It's how she ran Project Lazarus."

"I am at my best," Tali declared. "I'm always at my best. I don't need her constantly judging me and second guessing every decision I make because I'm not genetically perfect."

The Huragok cooed again, patting her on the shoulder. Whatever anger she was feeling dissipated somewhat. She scratched under the Engineer's neck.

"At least I know you guys believe in me," she said sighing.

"We all do, Tali," Daniels added. "You're the brighest engineering mind in your field."

"Yeah, you've kept this ship running better than the original Normandy since you got aboard," Donnelly added. "And we're not just saying all that cause you're a quarian or our friend. We're saying it because it is true and Miranda knows it too."

"And this project is proof of that," Daniels continued. "What you've accomplished is amazing, with or without the Huragok. Just... don't lose sight of that. Hell, do what you always do, use whatever is flung at you as fuel. Prove them wrong."

Tali took a breathe and clutched a bit at her temple.

"Yeah, you're right," she admitted. "I should've seen the problem in that test and corrected it before it got out of hand. I guess I'm still dealing with some stress."

"You could use a break," Donnelly agreed. "You've been working all morning since you got back from Chakwas. Take some time off, we can finish up here."

Tali just nodded.

"Alright," she relented. "Just keep me apraised on things."

"You got it, boss," Daniels assured. "We'll be ready for the real thing before long. You'll see. That will get Miranda off your back."

"I can hope," Tali sighed.

She went to leave the engineering bay, heading for the elevator. As she passed the stairwell down to Jack's hideyhole, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She peeked down below, trying to see the shadow. Something slender and waving, moving in the dark.

And then she felt something next to her, something slithering along her shoulder and a voice in her ear whispering darkly.

From darkness we struck to take what was denied... vengeance can be yours. It can all be yours.

She looked to her shoulder and tried to grab what was there, pulling back and away. But where her fingers reached she found nothing, felt nothing. The voice vanished the same way and Tali looked about in a fright to see where it had come from. She grabbed at her head, pulsating now, unable to come up with a reason.

What had just happened? What was going on with her? Perhaps she should see Chakwas again, see if there was something she missed. As suddenly as the thought came, she struck it down. No, if she did that Miranda would have a legitimate reason to kick her off the project. She would not give her the satisfaction. Besides, it was nothing, just stress. She could beat this, she just needed to relax a little, decompress. She'd find a way and then she'd finish her work and everything would be fine.

It had to be.

---

"Then she basically said she'd replace me with a Huragok, she actually suggested that," Tali ranted. "Right to my face, she threatened my job, questioned my competance."

"Do quarians have a different meaning for the word decompress?" Kasumi asked. "Because when you said you needed some girl time to do just that, I wasn't expecting this."

"I think Tali just really likes letting down the nice girl wall once in a while," Garrus explained half-jokingly as he rummaged through the nearby bar. "It helps her unwind. That and firing shotguns into things."

Tali groaned a bit, she had wanted to let loose a bit in Kasumi's quarters, just get this all out of her system. Kas was okay with listening most of the time. She had not expected Garrus to be there to chime in every other word.

"Why are you here again?" Tali asked the turian.

"I'm looking for turian brandy," he explained. "Unification Day is coming up back home and I want to be sure I have a glass ready for when it happens. Also for later on during movie night. I'm going to see if I can convince some Marines to take in some turian culture for a change. I have a few turian historical dramas based on the Unification Wars they might actually be interested in."

"Wouldn't they have to suffer the Jackals' company to enjoy any?" Tali asked.

"You must not have heard over BBR," Kasumi cut in. "A few Marines, Soldiers and ODSTs want to set up their own viewing area in one of the many vacant rooms on the Justice, since there are so many. I mean, the place is supposed to have a bigger crew. Important thing is they want a free room to watch vids and stuff themselves, like the Jackals. Holland is allowing it and supposedly it's open to everyone, even Jackals and Batarians. The Justice is the neutral ship of the fleet after all."

Hopefully that wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe it would actually help breed a sense of camaraderie among the various factions. Worth a shot at least. But that wasn't really important to Tali right now.

"Back onto the subject at hand," she stated. "Miranda getting on my case."

"Miranda gets on everyone's case because she's a bit of a control freak," Garrus reminded her. "You've known that since you met her. We've all known this. She's the XO, it's part of her job. Everyone has had issues with her because of it, including me."

"I don't," Kasumi noted, still sitting on her couch with her book. "I get along with everyone, even Samara, and she feels I belong in jail. Could be worse I guess, she could want me dead."

"My point is, why has this suddenly become an issue now, Tali?" Garrus asked. "You never let her get under your skin before now."

"Well she's poked long enough for it to happen," the quarian snorted. "Before it was just little snide remarks, now it's full on inspections. I know she never wanted me on this ship. She doesn't even like me. Hasn't since we first met and she tried to take a member of the fleet away to torture for information."

"She was a different person then," Kasumi reminded. "Hero worshipped the wrong guy, she's far less xenophobic now. Plus you can't hate her too much, she's the entire reason you even have Shepard back."

"That doesn't make me and her friends," Tali insisted. "I have enough on my plate right now without her snooping over my shoulder and trying to undermine me."

"I don't think she's trying to undermine you, Tali," Garrus informed her. "Take it from me, I'm not fond of her either on the best of the days, but I know how she works. I think she knows you're under stress with everything you've placed on your shoulders these past few months. I think she's worried it might be getting to you."

"We all are, actually," Kasumi cut in, closing her book. "You do so much keeping this ship running and now you're putting your hands in every other project you can think of. Maybe she just wants to see about getting you more Huragok. A few more Engineers wouldn't hurt."

"It would make me obsolete," Tali grumbled.

"Never," Garrus assured her. "No number of hyper intelligent Bio-Synthetic tentacle creatures could ever replace THE Tali'Zorah. Not even Miranda thinks that, as much you might think she does."

Tali just sighed, taking a seat beside Kasumi and cupping her face in her hands, resting her elbows against her knees.

"This isn't really about what Miranda said to you," Kasumi told her, moving over to comfort the quarian. "This is about everything. Legion, the Forerunner tech, the Slipspace Drive, the Engineers, the Normandy, I could go on. You do so much for everyone on this ship and in this fleet, you keep removing time for yourself."

"I make time to spend with Shepard," Tali argued.

"Yeah, but that's for your boyfriend, not you," Kasumi argued. "You're a workaholic girl. Your whole race kinda is. You never really let yourself go loose as much as you should. You're almost turning into him."

Kasumi pointed to Garrus, causing him to glare at her.

"I'm loose, I'm probably the most loose person on this ship," the turian shot back.

"Please, you're always calibrating something in the gunnery," Kasumi laughed. "You're more rigid than anyone, Vakarian. That is not Tali, she knows how to have fun."

"So do I," Garrus stated. "Honestly, how can you say that knowing my background? I'm the loose cop on the edge."

"Former loose cop," Kasumi corrected. "Now you're just a gunnery officer with a cannon math fetish."

"The Thanix is an incredibly complicated piece of tech," Garrus informed her. "It's not my fault-"

"Guys," Tali shouted. "Hello? Remember me?"

Garrus sighed, clearly sorry he had gotten distracted.

"Look what Kasumi is trying to say, I think, is that you can't let your work overtake you," he explained. "Take a breath, count to ten, put some things off for another day and just try to be yourself. Disconnect, don't worry about tinkering. Just do you and stop worrying about what you have left to finish."

"It's not that easy," Tali told them. "Legion's glitch is still a problem and was probably aggravated by the fight on the Dauntless. They said they might have detected some process lag and even Master Chief confirms it might have happened. I won't let Legion fall victim to that systems error, I can't. And when you factor in all the work that's just been added with the relic we found and Taq thinking it will lead us to some crazy sword..."

"That is not going to go away by tomorrow even if you throw every second of the day into them," Kasumi stated firmly. "Look, a bit of time away from all that will help you reorganize your thoughts. Maybe garner a solution or two you didn't think of because you stepped back a bit."

"She's right," Garrus stated. "Even the hardest of C-Sec Detectives needed to seperate themselves from their work. Otherwise it would've destroyed them and they never would've been as effective as they were at stopping bad guys. Same goes for talented starship engineers."

Tali was clearly outnumbered if even two of her best friends were telling her to layoff. Maybe she was getting overworked and angry at nothing because of it. Question was, how did you wind down when you had wound yourself up so much?

"What do you propose I do?" She asked them.

"Jackals are having another marathon later," Kasumi suggested. "We could go check that out."

"It's not another bunch of teenagers getting murdered vids is it?" Tali asked groaning.

"No, no, that was just to get them acclimated," Kasumi assured her. "I convinced Retz to try out the Twilight Zone, the original series from the 1960s. Far more high brow, way less blood and guts."

"They don't mind the black and white?" Garrus asked. "I heard those were the only colors vids came in back then."

Kasumi just shrugged.

"Jackals don't really think much about color, visuals are good enough," Kasumi assured. "I guess that happens when the foundation for a ton of your cultural heritage is sea shanties and old pirate stories."

"Fine, I'll be there," Tali promised. "But I still have some things to do first. Legion is in dire need of a check up."

"Okay, but after that you unwind, maybe talk to Chambers, release some pressure and you meet up with me so we can travel to the fifth dimension beyond all sight and sound," Kasumi informed her. "I will hunt you down otherwise."

"I know you will," Tali relented. "And I know you're just looking out for me. But can you at least keep Miranda off my back until I get through this?"

"I'll find some things to preoccupy her," Garrus promised. "Bury her in a little paperwork and such, that sort of thing."

Tali smiled at the turian.

"You're the best, Garrus," she told him.

"Can you say that again but into an audio recorder?" He asked, queing up his omni-tool.

"And now you're terrible again," the quarian said rolling her eyes with a laugh.

---

The inside of the AI Core was as dimly lit as ever, but it was the best place to run Legion's diagnostic. Between Dot and EDI helping, it was thought the runtimes would complete quicker in here with the extra processing power available. It was for Tali's sake as much as Legion's. The fast this was done, the sooner she could call it a day and just try and decompress all this stress in her head. Legion was sitting processing node in the back of the room. The Geth was comtemplative, at ease, more than Tali could say for herself. Her head felt like it was running at a thousand miles per hour, but she fought through the delirium and focused on getting the job done.

"So, describe what happened," she began to ask as she set up. "You were tracking the Lead Crawler. The system said you had a clean shot."

"This assessment is correct," Legion concurred. "Records showed a ninety-two percent chance of a critical hit to hostile systems. Firing command was inputted, but no shot was logged."

"You lagged," Tali concluded. "And this time you were aware of it?"

"We have updated systems to log all failed or delayed commands," Legion explained. "A precaution in case of re-emergence of glitch error. Did not want to risk loss of time as previously."

A good preventative measure, it gave Tali more data to work on. But it did raise some concerns, not the measure itself though. It was the fact Legion hadn't actually lost any time.

"If you're remaining aware of the glitch now it's a double edged sword," she warned. "On one hand, you're aware of everything. You don't lose any information. On the other hand, you are basically now in a paralyzed state and not a coma. Which in a way is worse. The ability to be aware of everything going on around you but helpless to do anything could have severe reprecussions on your behavioral systems. It could further excerbate some of your outbursts, the one that make you violent."

"Another possibility," EDI warned. "The glitch might be trying to override preventative measures, further infecting the neural net. Legion being able to input the command, but it being blocked, poses an even greater danger than general lag of runtimes. Systems function could fail at random when most needed."

"That's what we're going to need to find out and see if we can plug up before it gets worse," Tali explained. "We have to perform a deep manual scan. A direct feed from my omni-tool into your neural net should help determine the scale of any infection from the glitch."

Tali moved from her set up, just a few feet away to open Legion's main processor for a hardline connection. The Geth, antcipating her action, Legion opened the port for her. She connected the line to Legion's port and and went back to her terminal, preparing the program to run.

"DOT prepare for a full system sweep," she informed the AI through her omni-tool. "Check neural net connectivity, hardware functions and combat system as priority."

"Affirmative, Tali'Zorah," Dot replied. "System Analysis Sweep ready to run on your command."

Tali stood over the terminal, hunched, as the process began to warm up. Her head was still swimming and she felt ill at ease, she wanted this done with quickly. Her feelings were not lost on Legion.

"Creator-Tali'Zorah, are you unwell?" It asked inquisitively.

"Just overworked," she explained. "Lot of projects going on at once."

"Perhaps we should delay this until you are at optimal capacity," Legion suggested.

"No," Tali insisted. "We're not delaying. We need information on the glitch now. We've been far too complacent, just trying to contain it. We need to work on killing it."

Legion's plates seemed to droop, Tali's visible change in tone disturbing it somewhat.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't like hearing that," Tali sighed. "I know the glitch is a touchy subject, but it's dangerous. I... I don't want to risk you getting killed for something this... stupid."

"We are concerned about the glitch," Legion assured. "But we are just as concerned about you. We do not wish for a problem that affects us solely consuming you to this degree."

"For once in over three hundred years a quarian finally cares about the well-being of a Geth," Tali grunted at him. "Please appreciate that."

"We do," Legion stated. "We cannot stress how important your concern is to us. We only hope you are not destroying yourself just to save us. That is not preferable."

Tali calmed herself, she appreciated Legion's concern. But it was getting a bit tiring to keep hearing this over and over. She was stressed, overworked, she needed to give herself a break. Fine, she got it, but half the time doing work did calm her, it did make her feel better. None of this felt normal to her. This whole thing about her cracking under pressure wasn't her. She didn't need to be told these things constantly. She didn't need everyone looking over her shoulder and acting like she was falling apart. She wasn't, she didn't crack. Not when things this important were on the line.

Luckily she didn't need to keep thinking about that, as the system sweep was ready.

"Executing scan now," she told Legion. "You'll be powered down for a bit while it runs. Safer that way."

"Understood," Legion said. "Entering stand by."

The Geth powered down as the scan took effect. Tali watched as lines of code came across her screen, technical read outs of Legion's systems. Alongside it, detailed in red, were glitched code. DOT did a good job parsing it out from the other stuff. What she could read was that EDI was right, the glitch was slowly overtaking their preventative measures, infecting that code and attempting to reassert itself. It still seemed to feel there was another program, another AI trying to interface that the neural net needed to account for. No matter what they did, the system seemed to think otherwise about what was happening in the net. To some of the systems, the glitch was being prevented from interfacing, fooled into thinking it had data to share. If they wanted to fix this, they needed to convince it otherwise.

Tali kept looking through the code, trying to find a way around this new development. Between all the runtimes and lines and processes though, it would take hours to figure out alone. She didn't have the time for that. She just wanted to find some kind of place to start for EDI.

Something caught her eye as she peered over the screen, a beeping, changing bit of wording in the code. Curious, she closed in on it. She saw a fairly defined word right there in the middle of everything.

0010101010010101

1010010101011011

0 ENEMY 1101010

1010101010100110

And just as quick as it appeared it was gone in a flash. Tali shook her head, probably a line of code from the glitch, something wrong with the sensors. That was what she thought, until a few seconds later it appeared again.

010001010011001100

CANNOT TRUST 01

011010001001010111

The code kept changing randomly like that before reverting back. Was the glitch this messed up that it was shoving thoughts into Legion's head. Was this the glitch interacting with the individual program in Legion that didn't like her?

00011011100

KILL IT 0110

11100110001

Tali tried to focus in on where the words were appearing in the code. Trying to figure out what the glitch was messing with. Maybe if she could find it she could stop it and slow things down a bit. They could get ahead of the problem.

00100111 KILL

THE GETH 001

Wait, kill the Geth? Why would the glitch be making Legion hate itself, or themselves? It no sense what so-

001101101 KILL THE

SYNTH, TALI 011010

Tali's eyes went wide in shock, her fingers coming off the board. That did not just happen. The code did not just say that. It was not talking to her.

KILL IT, 0001101100110

BEFORE IT KILLS YOU

011010100101010010101

This wasn't happening, she thought, this was a mistake.

00011101 IT HAS KILLED

YOUR PEOPLE 110101010

No, she snarled in her mind, grabbing her head.

1101010 IT WILL

KILL AGAIN 101

Tali was frantic now, almost panicking.

110110101010110

TAKE REVENGE

101101100110011

She grabbed at the controls, trying to shut this off, shut it down.

00110101000111001

DO WHAT WE DID

11110011001001101

Stop talking, she said in her mind, stop talking.

0101 YOU KNOW

WE'RE RIGHT. 01

No, no you're not, she thought. She couldn't be hearing this, she couldn't be seeing this.

01101 KILL IT NOW,

IT IS VULNERABLE 01

Stop it, she screamed inwardly, just stop it! The code changed faster now, every second, some line changing randomly.

IT DESERVES IT 001011

01101010101 THEY ALL

DESERVE IT 110101011

00100 DESTROY THEM

110101 BE FREE 0110100

0111010101100 BE MORE

Tali grabbed at the terminal and executed fail safe, halting the scan sweep before it coud be completed. The sudden halt jolted Legion out its powered down stasis and alarmed both EDI and DOT.

"Tali, why'd you halt the analysis sweep?" EDI asked concerned. "It was almost complete."

"We do not have a full map of the neural net or potential damage," DOT stated.

"Did you see anything odd in the code?" Tali asked DOT.

"Clarify, please," DOT requested.

"Words, sentences, something that shouldn't be there," Tali stated frantically. "Did you see anything?"

"Negative," DOT confirmed. "All data regular."

Tali could hear herself hyperventilating, her head still swimming. Had she imagined it all? She had to have been. She saw something, but she couldn't have. The distress she felt was clear to every AI in the room.

"I'm noting a sudden spike in your heart rate, Tali," EDI stated. "Perhaps you should lie down. I can call Doctor Chakwas to-"

"No, no, it's fine," Tali said frantically.

"The inflection in your voice suggests otherwise," Legion stated plainly.

"I said I'm fine!" Tali shouted. "EDI, restart the sweep, send the results to me later, I need to get some air."

Tali rushed out of the AI Core, leaving a rather confused Legion behind to ponder the curious shift in behavior. Tali had been so adamant to do this scan. Why had she so suddenly changed her mind?

---

Tali sat at the counter in the mess area, doing her best not to look back at the AI core. What was happening to her? Why was she seeing these things? Maybe she was sick, Chakwas just hadn't picked it up because it wasn't your normal virus. She shook her head, no that's not how quarian biology worked. No virus would give you hallucinations but no fever or other symptoms. Her body would warn her if she was sick like that.

She couldn't deny though that she had seen something that EDI and DOT had not. She doubted that was due to an error on her part. She was stuck with the possibility that for whatever reason she was now seeing things. She remembered the last time that happened, how it happened. Back on Halo, in the swamp. The thought of why that happened filled her with fear.

It couldn't be that though, she thought. This isn't like that. Again, back then she had a fever, her body was seizing up, she felt physically weak, she was in constant pain. None of that was happening to her now save for headaches. Mordin and Chakwas had both assured her that every single Flood Spore was eradicated before it could do any real harm to her. Their shock treatment worked.

Then again, there was that experience she felt on the return trip to the Truth and Reconciliation. When her mind seemed to reach out and warn of her the existince of some highly dangerous Flood organism aboard. They found it, infecting Captain Keyes, and the Master Chief killed it. It shot a pain through her as the monstrosity died, but that was it. As soon as it was gone her head cleared and her mind felt more at ease. There was the suggestion that this was her body adapting to the intrusion into her mind by the Flood. Some kind of psychic resonance that triggered her fight or flight instincts, or whatever Mordin had rationalized it as. She didn't experience a single hallucination or anything of note during the event. It couldn't be that. It couldn't have anything to do with what happened between her and the Flood.

But the similarities were all there to plain to see and it made Tali shiver at the very thought of it all. Her mind plagued by the Flood again. Visions of horror haunting her once more. Reality and nightmare becoming indistinguishable. She could not go through that again. She had to tell someone, she had to...

No, she declared to herself, no she didn't. She wasn't going to give Miranda an excuse to ground her. She could use this to leverage against her. She'd suggest she be locked in sickbay, maybe quarantined. Hell, Tali wouldn't put it past Lawson suggesting she be thrown into stasis and left there. She'd love that, the perfect way to get rid of her.

This wasn't the Flood, it couldn't be. She could fix this, she could fix anything, she just had to figure out what was wrong with her. Maybe it was just stress, maybe it just had to do with the headaches or something. She could figure this out and then everything would be normal again.

A bottle of something was suddenly placed in front of her, she looked to see Gardner standing over her.

"Soda water," he informed her. "Don't worry, safe for dextros. I'd offer something harder but I hear thats a bit of a problem for your people. Either way, you look like you could use it."

"Thanks, Gardner," Tali sighed, pulling the bottle over. "Today has been weird is all."

"When isn't it?" He asked jovially.

Something prevented her from elaborating more. Something kept her from talking more on the specifics. She refused to look insane in front of anyone. She would not look like a crazy lady. She couldn't remain silent either though.

"Gardner," she spoke up, fidgetting with the bottle in her hand. "Am I a workaholic?"

She had no idea why, out of all the questions on her mind, that was the one that worked its way out. Why of all questions was that the one she asked? It didn't matter, it caught Gardner's attention.

"Nothing wrong with working hard in my mind," he explained. "I know you quarians are big on that. One of your best qualities in my mind. Then again I'm old, I guess I think most everyone younger than me is especially lazy so anyone who breaks that mould gets my approval. Why you ask?"

"I guess it has just been a thing that has been nagging at me all day," Tali relented. "Everyone says I'm pushing myself too hard, that I'm overstressed, letting work get to me. It's just person after person keeps saying I need to take a break or something and I'm wondering if I have a problem. Maybe I do bury myself in jobs too much."

"Uh, you sure you wanna bring this to me?" Gardner asked a bit befuddled. "I'm sure Chambers could help you with this more."

"No, no," Tali sighed. "If I stop now it's probably not going to get brought up again. The thing is, when you're in the Migrant Fleet, work is life. You're constantly repairing ships, constantly fixing things, doing menial tasks, researching new tech, refining old tech. You're always busy... and me especially so."

Gardner settled in, he may have admitted he was not cut out for this, but he was making an effort. Tali was happy for that much at least. So she continued.

"Being the Admiral's daughter, you couldn't expect special treatment," she explained. "In fact, there was more pressure. I didn't want to look like I wanted a free ride or anything. I wanted to work for it, earn whatever I got. To prove to everyone my value to the fleet... to prove to dad I..."

She choked up a bit, Gardner just nodded understanding her point without her needing to say it outloud.

"We all want to prove something to our parents I guess," he admitted. "It's either to spite them or to earn their gratitude or whatever, but we all want some kind of approval from them. Some admission we've done good. I remember when I was young, old man refused to let me near a stove. 'You'll burn half your skin off' or 'you'll poison the whole family', but I just became more determined because of that. One day I actually managed to cook the best damn steak ever. Better than anything he made, everyone else said so. He didn't though... he just nodded, more or less. I guess I figured that was enough. He let me keep cooking after that at least."

Tali smiled a bit, but it was a bit of a sour one in her mind. Gardner was lucky, she never even got that from her father. She was never that accepted, never acknowledged that way. And now she never would be.

"I guess after a while I just got so hooked into doing whatever I could to impress him that overworking myself became natural," she confessed at last. "I never thought it would catch up to me like this."

"Look, I ain't no psychologist, but I'll tell you now, it's probably not that," Gardner stated pretty firmly. "Too damn simple in my book."

"It sounds like it's the most logical answer," Tali replied, her tone low and moping. "I mean, it would explain why I've been feeling like crap more often than usual these past few days."

"Yeah, but everyone knows how much you've stretched yourself before and after all this crazy stuff got thrust into your lap," Gardner informed her. "In my honest opinion, there's more to what you're feeling than just a few missing sleep cycles and your super busy schedule. That's some crappy movie cliche from back in my day. If relaxing and easing off was all you needed, according them you should already have the solution. Namely going upstairs to see the Commander, if you know what I mean."

Tali rolled her eyes, but laughed a bit all the same.

"Yeah, I doubt that would solve all my problems," she concurred playfully. "Although it might be worth a shot. I'm sure Wade would be up to it at least."

Gardner returned the laugh.

"Laughing about it is a good start though," he told her. "You want some real advice? Do try to relax a bit more, ease up, it will help. But when you can, work through the problem. Figure out what it is that's making you feel so damn low all of a sudden. Talk it out with yourself mostly, or anyone who will listen. Only you can decide what's best for you in the end."

"Good advice," Tali agreed. "But I'd like to know where to start. Why do I feel this way? How come I'm feeling so tired and worn out and angry every other minute?"

"Hey, like I said, no psychologist here," Gardner reminded her. "But if you can figure out how to increase this tub's shields and integrate two different methods of interstellar travel, a bit of introspective self-reflection should be a cakewalk for you, kiddo."

Tali smiled more genuinely this time.

"Thanks, Gardner," she told him. "That means a lot."

"Don't mention it," he grinned. "Seriously though, don't mention it. I need these jerks to keep thinking I'm a crusty old grump so they'll leave me the hell alone."

"My lips are sealed," Tali laughed softly.

Gardner walked away, leaving Tali once more with her thoughts. And the soda water of course. Perhaps there was something deeper to all this, why she was feeling like a walking pile of crap half the time. If she was this overstressed that she was seeing things, perhaps something more than just working too hard was the cause of things. She needed more time to think, to figure what was really bothering her. She imagined it would take more than just her talking to herself incessantly. Kelly was always there to talk, Gardner had more or less suggested that was where she should go. Just an hour, how long would it really take just to get some things off her chest?

Before she could make a final decision, in strode Thane and Jack suddenly. Jack was talking abrasively and loudly, as per usual. Thane was being contemplative and attentive, again, normal. Tali had noticed the two kept spending time together for some reason. She imagined their shared experience in the swamp on Halo had something to do with it. She knew her time there had left an indelible impression. She mostly let them be, wasn't her business anyway. The only really weird part that made her cock her head a bit, was how friendly Jack sounded when they were together. Well, as far Jack could be considered friendly.

"So that's when the whole damn container fucking flips, just ass over end over and over. I'm able to avoid it hitting me because I use my biotics in time, but it still keeps going and slams right into the fucking Blue Suns anyway! Fucking hilarious, I had next to nothing to do with it, save for the fact the missile completely missed in the first place."

"You have had some rather strange bar crawls in your life, Jack," Thane informed her.

"Nah, you know Omega," Jack chortled. "That's just Tuesday, man. You want an epic night out story? I rammed into the wall of this dive once with an escape pod. There's a whole other story as to why I was in the pod of course, you see I had snuck aboard this elcor cruiser..."

That was when Jack noticed Tali and shushed up.

"Oh, uh, hey there, Zorah," she greeted. "Getting your nose out of the grindstone for once?"

"Taking a break, yes," Tali responded, somewhat annoyed.

"Oh good, no offense, but you've been keeping me up lately with your tinkering," Jack claimed. "I mean, those walls down there are a lot thinner than you think."

"She means you've been working harder than usual, Tali," Thane corrected. "We've all noticed it."

"Yes, as everyone keeps saying," Tali stated, a bit curt in her statement.

She began digging for something in one of her pouches, but Jack had already picked up on the nerve that had been tread upon.

"Hey, come on, I'm just busting your chops a bit," Jack tried to reassure her. "No need to get bent out of shape over it."

"I'm fine," Tali insisted, pulling her bottle close. "Absolutely fine. I'm just trying to work through some things, that is all."

"Well, you quarians are all about problem solving," Jack replied aloofly. "Can't be that hard to work through. Unless you're having a burnout of course."

"I. Am Not. Burned. Out." Tali informed Jack, gripping her botttle tighter. The ex-con's words had echoed too closely to Miranda's from earlier in the day. Even Jack seemed a bit caught off guard by the more assertive tone.

They didn't keep her from talking though.

"Geez, relax, Zorah," Jack requested. "I was just saying-"

"You were letting your mouth run, like you always do," Tali grumbled as she fixed the bottle's lid, slowly inserting the emergency induction port into it. "It's fine, you have no filter. What else would I expect from you?"

Tali's curt tone became more pronounced. While Thane remained concerned, Jack's grimace returned quickly and promptly.

"What's your damage, girl?" She demanded to know. "I was trying to apolo-"

"I don't care," Tali snarled at her. "I really don't care. I have a million thoughts in my head and a million problems that you don't have to deal with because you don't want to. Just keep chatting up Thane about your reckless excursions and leave me alone. Okay? I'm not in the mood for another damn lecture about this or that, I just want quiet so I can think this through on my own. It's not your problem, so leave me alone and get back to trying to get into Krios' pants or whatever is you're interested in with him."

Jack's ire was completely lit up at this point, but Tali had no time for it. She rushed past the two of them, taking her drink with her.

"Alright, enjoy your little sodey with a bendy straw then, Precious," Jack called out. "See if I give a shit anymore!"

"Emergency Induction Port and I don't give a shit if you do!" Tali answered back just as viciously.

Tali entered the elevator, leaving an irate Jack and beffudled Thane behind.

"The fuck was that about?" Jack asked, still angry but equally confused. "Always the friggin nice ones, right?"

"You may have unintentionally antagonized her," Thane explained. "You shouldn't blame her entirely."

"Hey, I did nothing wrong, Lizard-Lips," Jack argued. "If anything I was trying to cheer her up. Friendly banter and all that crap. Not my fault she took it the wrong way."

"You did nothing wrong, but that's no reason to think less of her," Thane explained. "I can tell Tali is worked up about something personal. Something I don't think is isolated to just work. You should try to be more considerate to that if you can."

"It's not my place to be her therapist anymore than it is hers to be mine," Jack insisted, crossing her arms. "I mean, what was with that shit about me trying to get into your pants? I mean come on, that was low, especially for her. She's fucking the Commander. Who cares who or what I do? Even if I was interested in that, not her place to criticize."

Thane raised a brow at that.

"So... is there something wrong with the idea?" Thane asked.

"No!" Jack suddenly responded. "I mean, I'm just saying I'm not interested in that thing! It's not personal, it's just... why are we bringing this up?"

"We didn't, you did," Thane reminded her. "That specific comment is getting to you that much?"

"I told you, no," Jack repeated. "It doesn't bother me! I just feel it was a low blow is all! I don't bring up her love life! I mean, I'm not saying I even have one, I'm not looking for one. Not with you anyway."

Thane looked a bit curiously at Jack.

"The idea of sleeping with me seems to put you off a bit," he informed her.

"It doesn't," Jack stated, sounding more and more flumoxed. "I mean, I don't really care one way or the other. It's just... well that's not why I'm hanging out with you, okay? I'm not here for a quickie or some other shit. I just hang with you, we're cool. That's all! Hell, me sleeping with you isn't the point! My point is... I just... my point is I shouldn't have to... She... Arggh!"

Jack stomped away suddenly.

"Where are you going now?" Thane asked, even more confused.

"Now I need to clear my head," she grumbled.

"Um, okay," Thane relented. "If you need to talk more-"

"I don't need to talk more about screwing you! We're never talking about me screwing you!" Jack insisted loudly. "Never again! Ever!"

Jack was already gone before Thane could correct her, tell he didn't mean "talk about sex." He had just meant talk in general. He sighed briefly.

"Too bad, I really wanted to know what she was doing on the Elcor Cruiser."

---

After her experience in the galley with Thane and Jack, Tali didn't want to talk to anyone. Especially not about her problems. She'd save that for later, when she wasn't in as much of a funk or as angry as she was now. She did not want to deal with any of this nonsense, she just wanted to forget things. That meant getting as far away from the ship as possible, clear her head. She contacted Kasumi as she stepped out of the Normandy.

"Kas, it's Tali," she began. "How long until that Twilight Zone marathon thing?"

"Still a while, why?" Her friend asked in response.

"No reason, just letting you know I'm going to be there for sure now, and early."

"Awesome!" Kasumi encouraged. "Trust me, a few hours with Rod Serling and you'll be right as rain. Promise!"

"One can hope, see ya then, Kas," Tali sighed, shutting the comm off.

Well, now she was committed to something, that was good. Perhaps that was all she needed, a goal to set herself on, an idea to focus in on. Get her mind as far away from this other crap as possible.

The further she got away though, the more her head didn't seem to want to let what happened go. Why had she gone off on Jack like that? That wasn't like her at all. The ex-Con hadn't even really done anything, not intentionally. Getting angry with her had done nothing really resolve things and it didn't make her feel better. Instead it just made her feel worse.

Jack was not the source of her anger, it wasn't fair to lash out at her like she did. That was the inescapable conclusion she couldn't help but reach. She had been in the wrong back there, plain and simple.

Whatever regrets she had gained from a clearer head were suddenly put on the backburner though. As she passed through the hangar bay, she caught sight of Miranda. The XO was talking with Kat, of all people. She wasn't sure why, but she stayed out of it for the moment. Mostly she just tried not to look at her. Better to not start something again, not after what happened to Jack. She was in no mood for another stupid outburst, she already felt bad enough.

Miranda did notice her standing there as she walked away, but engaged in no conversation. There was a slight acknowledgement that Tali existed and then she kept walking. That gave the quarian her moment, she went over to Kat to find out more about what had been going on. The Spartan noticed her approach instantly.

"Tali, you're out of the Normandy," she observed. "That's becoming rare."

"Busy with work, I'm sure we all are," Tali explained. "What were you and Miranda talking about?"

"Lawson and I were just talking a bit about Reach and the upcoming mission there," Kat explained. "Chief wants all Spartans to head down with him of course, so she's just working through some of the technical aspects of the operation with me. Nothing serious, just getting down some possible scenarios to expect when we arrive."

'What scenarios?' Tali thought, as the chances were that the whole place was likely going to be one giant ball of glass. Tali supposed some structures would be intact of course, but not many. It did make her think of one thing though.

"Is Miranda going to be headed down to Reach then?" She asked Kat.

"She isn't sure yet," Kat explained plainly. "She's working through some squad recommendations for Shepard to look over, but he'll have final say of course."

If she doesn't fudge the reports to force her own stupid bias of course, Tali thought to herself, inwardly growling. She thought she was being subtle, but Kat seemed to notice something off about her. Maybe it was her arms being folded, or her general posture, or the fact Tali kept eyeing the direction Miranda had left in.

"Any reason you're asking?" Kat finally questioned.

"Nothing specific," Tali stated. "Just curious I guess."

Kat probably didn't buy that, Tali knew it from the second the words exited her mouth. She was not good at lying.

"You worried you're going to be left out of the mission because you're too busy?" The Spartan asked innocently.

"There might be other factors," Tali grimaced in response.

Kat just nodded.

"You don't particularly like Lawson, do you?" She prodded lightly.

Tali just sighed, forgoing cliche attempts to avoid the question and just accepted the fact that she had more or less been asking for this. She was asking for this the second she started talking to Kat. Avoiding it would not help anyone.

"Ever since we've met, it has been tense," Tali explained, sounding tried. "There was this colony we were on, everyone had been taken by some invaders, it's a long story. I was there with a team that was trying to recover a quarian who had gone there on his pilgrimage. When we found him, he was traumatized, scared for his life. But because his omni-tool had information on the attack, Miranda wanted to stick him in an interrogation cell! A traumatized kid who had survived a horrific ordeal and she wanted to stuff him in a small room to force more info out of them that he didn't have."

"What happened in the end?" Kat asked inquisitively.

"Shepard convinced her to drop it, that they only needed his omni-tool," Tali sighed. "But Miranda still looked disappointed she hadn't been able to torture someone that day."

"That might be reading a bit much into things," Kat cautioned.

"It was what I felt at the time," Tali clarified. "When I actually got to know her better, I still didn't like her. She'd prefer if I never stepped foot on the Normandy in the first place. I can tell, she thinks I'm incompetant or a waste of resources or whatever reason she can come up with."

"You sure there aren't other reasons you dislike her?" Kat asked.

Tali looked away, her posture becoming less upright and more guarded. She wanted to say no, but she couldn't lie to Kat, she already knew that.

"Maybe there are others," she confessed. "More personal reasons. You know how it is in a very tight group, everything is more personal. Being a quarian just enhances that problem further."

"Does Shepard factor into any of this?" Kat pressed further.

Tali said nothing, which was as good as admitting it anyway. She knew well enough by now that Kat had her suspicions about her and Shepard. She hadn't said anything, Tali didn't know why. She hoped it meant she was fine with it or she just didn't care either way. She was grateful for the respect towards their privacy at least.

"I don't think you have to worry about her at this point, honestly," Kat explained. "I imagine she's already figured out where she's not allowed to tread."

"Doesn't mean she hasn't given up in some way," Tali stated. "Look, I don't want to sway your opinion on her or anything and I don't want you to take on my baggage. I'm sorry I even brought this up. Whatever is going on between me and Miranda isn't something you have to deal with."

"Maybe not, but I'd suggest you figure things out for yourself soon," Kat warned. "It's not healthy to walk around with those kind of thoughts. Especially not in a combat situation. Not to say you wouldn't do anything that would compromise things because of Lawson, I'm just saying it's not good to hold onto that."

"I get it, I get it," Tali relented. "I'll figure this out, don't you worry."

Tali left another of her friends, her mind still swimming with her angry thoughts and regrets. Kat was right, she needed to confront this sooner or later. The last thing she wanted was for Miranda to use this against her somehow after all. So, one way or another, she'd have to resolve this... once and for all.

---

"It's a cook book!"

Of course it was, Tali thought. Of all the things to subjugate the human race with, it was a pun that was the final nail. It would almost be funny if it wasn't so horrifying. Zek had a different opinion though.

"Ugh, why do so many sapients want to eat humans?" He grimaced. "I'm not surprised Jiralhanae do, but I figured most everyone else had more sense and the unggoy weren't that stupid. They all need better taste."

"How would you know we'd taste bad?" Kasumi asked suspiciously.

"It's the smell," Retz explained. "You're too, what's the word I'm looking for... clean, I guess."

"We smell too clean?" Kasumi asked. "Even Zaeed?"

"He's oversimplfying," Zek corrected. "You don't have the same kind grunge or aroma we associate with good eats. Any Jackal who eats a human is pretty much a bottom feeder, no real class. We only serve quality aboard this tub. Like Grilled Selter Slug, now that is food."

Tali kept quiet, Kasumi was probably used to these lines of conversation. She wasn't interest in morbid curiosities, especially not now. She was still nursing a swimming head and only focusing on this old show seemed to help even in the slightest.

The Twilight Zone was certainly better than the murder fest from the other night. The series explored various high concept ideas. For the time period it was made in, it was pretty progressive. Exploring themes of fear, loss, social disconnection, race, religion, the nature of good and evil, all interesting stuff. There was soom good episodes so far, the mannequin one was pretty disturbing, so was the creepy doll. Thankfully no spiders so far, at least not as the main subject. She wouldn't have been able to stay if spiders were involved.

"I keep thinking about that poor guy from the last one," Zek spoke up again as the credits on the latest episode rolled. "I mean, he just wanted to read a damn book or two. Why did the world hate him so much?"

"If only they had vision correction technology more widely available back then," Retz sighed. "He could've had a happy ending after all."

"He could probably stick it really close to his eyes," Kasumi offered. "Not comfortable, but he could at least sorta read the words."

"Ms. Zorah, can a quarian's visor on their helmet act as a pair of glasses?" Retz asked.

"Uh, yeah," Tali replied. "We can switch out the glass for a proper prescription. Some can even adjust slightly. But that's not really a big concern honestly. Gene therapy has given pretty much everyone twenty-twenty vision."

"Once again, another reason to be happy we're in the glorious modern age of genetic engineering," Retz declared.

"I'll drink to that!" Zek concurred.

"You'll drink to anything," Kasumi reminded him.

"Hey, so long as I got an excuse," Zek replied, before pouring more ichor into his mouth.

Tali only really spoke up whenever someone directly asked her a question. She wanted to remain as focused on the holoscreen as possible. The more she focused, the less her head seemed to hurt. If she lost herself in the narrative, she could avoid the crap feeling she had. She could look normal, long enough for this ridiculous headache to pass.

"Even if the stories might seem dated, their message feels timeless," Kasumi cut in. "They just work as powerful little snippets about social issues, our anxieties and fears. That's what makes a good story last really, when it can comment on things that are still relevant to us."

"I think the Maple Street Monster episode was a bit too on the nose for our situation," Zek noted. "Well, maybe not an exact replication of things, but fairly close. Trust and all that, you know?"

"The Mannequin one was very surreal," Retz added. "Very big on the head trip, the nature of reality and memory. A lot of layers to that one."

"You got any favorites so far, Tali?" Kasumi asked.

Tali gave it a moment's thought before settling on a choice.

"I guess there was something beautifully tragic about the man who just wanted to go to a simpler time," Tali admitted. "A better time, one that wasn't going to run him down."

"That is a good one," Zek agreed. "Forgive me though, I thought you were gonna go for the story about the ugly people who think they're beautiful."

"I'm not that predictable," Tali countered. "But that one was good too. With a good message."

Truth was, she liked being reminded of said lesson. It kept her thoughts at ease, told her what she already knew. That nothing would change what had happened and no one could take it away from her. It made her anger subside ever so slightly.

"Well another classic is coming up next," Kasumi assured. "You're going to love this one ,you guys. Trust me."

The intro sequence was already starting, a spiraling tunnel twirling into the vastness of space as the voice of Rod Serling welcomed them back to the Twilight Zone again. All at once, despite the forboding tone, Tali felt more at ease. At long last, the marathon of old black and white vids had finally worked its magic. She settled in to her seat, finally comfortable, ready to just enjoy the episode in full.

Rod Serling appeared himself on the screen, standing in front of a map of what was once known as the United States.

"Tonight's episode of the Twilight Zone is somewhat unique. It calls for a different kind of introduction."

Suddenly, the holoscreen began to flicker and stretch strangely. Was there something wrong with the file? Tali just hoped it would pass quickly, that they wouldn't be watching static constantly. Instead, when the picture became clear, the map behind Serling had changed. It was now a planet, the quarian home planet, Rannoch.

"You might recognize the map behind me as a depiction of Rannoch," Serling continued. "Three hundred years ago it was home to a noble civilization, but then one day, something happened. The inhabitants of this world were forced to flee by their own ungrateful creations."

Tali was a confused at first, but now she was more concerned, this was not normal. None of this felt normal. Did anyone else see this? Why wasn't she abel to tear her eyes away? Why couldn't she look to Kasumi to ask her if she was seeing this too?

"Little did they know that they shared their undesirable fate with that of another race," Serling continued. "One that was equally betrayed, equally usurped by those beneath them. Unlike the former species, however, they took more charge of their destiny. They created something terrible, horrifying, and monstrous enough, that in its ravenous hatred and hunger... it would drag the unworthy into the depths of decay and darkness. Forcing them to commit the most egregious of sins, that no one since has surpassed."

The image faded to one of the Halo Array, of a light spreading across the galaxy, wiping out all before it. Tali was paralyzed with fright, as Serling's face returned, staring directly into her.

"Oh yes, I did forget someone didn't I? I almost forgot to introduce you to the one this creation now speaks to," he explained. "The one who will bring about a new terror. That will soon embrace a new path and lead her own people towards it."

The pictured turned again and this time Tali went white with fear. There she was, on the screen, swinging on a little fence door.

"This is you, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," Serling stated. "You are now a conduit for something far greater than yourself. Within your mind your anger feeds its influence. And when that influence reaches its peak, watch out. Because the new mind behind your silver eyes will be absolutely in charge. Welcome to your Twilight Zone, Tali'Zorah."

Tali's breathing became more heightened, pronounced. She felt a lump in her throat, scratching, thumping, clawing. The images on the screen turned, still black and white, showing her with her crew. But they weren't in the Normandy, they were in some kind of house.

"Jack shouldn't have thought those mean thoughts about me," the Tali on the screen said. "That's why I made her go on fire!"

There was a brief flash on the screen, of Jack screaming in flames. Tali brought her hands up to her face in horror, but couldn't force herself to pull her eyes away.

"I don't like Legion, anymore," Tali on the screen claimed. "I make him dead now. Legion! You be dead!"

Legion's crushed head and body appeared on screen, broken and torn to bits. More scenes followed, more small snippets of pain and death, Tali at the center of all of them. Before long, Tali was staring down Miranda.

"Someone grab a bottle or a lamp and end this!" Miranda shouted in fear.

"You're a bad woman! A real bad woman! And you keep thinking real bad thoughts about me!" Tali's screen counterpart accused. "He's mine! You can't have him! I won't let you!"

In the next instant, Miranda's head was done up like a clown, wobbling from some kind of spring. Tali wanted to scream, but nothing came out. And then Rod Serling appeared again.

"A glimpse of the future, even if embellished," he explained. "Just a small taste of what your rage will bring. You will be like us and you will see that you can be so much more. We can make you all so much more."

Tali brought her hands up to cover her eyes, but instead found no hands. Just tentacles, slimy, disgusting tentacles. The same she saw on the combat forms, growing out of her own arms! She began hyperventilating, still unable to scream. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She shrieked slightly and looked over to see Kasumi staring at her, concerned.

"Tali? You okay?" She asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"Was the episode that scary?" Zek asked. "I'm not fond of creepy kids myself."

Tali looked at the screen, it was the closing credits. She had missed, and yet seemingly had not missed, the entire episode. Her hands were normal, but she did not feel it at all. She was shaking now, she wanted out, fast.

"I... I gotta go," she said nervously.

"Tali, what-"

"I just gotta go, Kas, I'm sorry," Tali said frantically. "I'm... I'm just sorry."

She couldn't think straight, she had to run. She had to get back to the Normandy, she had to get out of here. Something was horribly wrong with her and she needed to stop it before it was too late.

---

Tali felt sick, sicker than if she had gotten over a dozen simultaneous suit breaches. She wanted to vomit, but couldn't even bring herself to do that. Her whole body wanted the seize up, but she pushed it on. The pit in her stomach grew with every step. She kept looking over her shoulder or in the corner of her eyes, dreading what she might see there. All the while, she could hardly think, but she could remember the freakish daymare she had. As cryptic and strange as it sounded, the more she thought about it, the more parts of it made some kind of strange sense.

She couldn't sort through it on her own though, she needed help. There was only one person who could get her that very help though, the only other Forerunner expert in this fleet. She made a beeline for her study quarters on the Ascendant Justice, after the Syndicate attack she felt even less safe staying too long on the Fallen Serpent. She also wanted to be close to the relic of power, currently held in isolation within one of the many vacant rooms aboard the Justice. If anyone could tell her if the nightmares' messages had any merit, it was Taq.

Tali didn't bother knocking, she rushed in through the door to find Taq. She was still awake, pulling an all nighter it seemed. Her terminal was filled with information and data streams. Tali tried not to look at it, fearful of what this one might have on it. Taq didn't look away though, but she knew who had barged in.

"This is what I get for picking the one room on this ship with a broken lock a Huragok hasn't gotten to yet," the jackal bemoaned. "Hello, Tali, did you want something?"

"I'm sorry for rushing in so late, but I needed to speak to you," the quarian quickly explained. "I wanted to ask you some questions about the Forerunners."

Taq's interest was suddenly piqued. She turned from her terminal, looking curiously at the quarian.

"Why not look in that journal for answers?" She asked. "It has quite a bit of information the way I hear it."

"If you think I'm an expert, hardly," Tali corrected her. "I'm more a student than anything, just barely getting to know their technology. You know more about them as a people, their history. That's what I want to talk about."

"Any specific subject?" Taq questioned further.

"Yes, but it might seem like an odd one at first," Tali explained cautiously, wary that she was probably about to sound crazy. "The Forerunners, do you know anything about their society before they ruled the galaxy?"

Taq scratched her beak, contemplating the question.

"You mean, what they were like before they started looking like Gods to the casual outside observer?" She replied, keenly interested.

"Yes," Tali answered frantically. "To get really specific, did they have any enemies?"

Taq seemed to grin at that.

"Enemies? From before the Flood showed up you mean? Hmm, more than likely," she admitted. "Not many religiously motivated scholars care to suggest the Forerunners were ever weak or had to claw their way up to the galactic throne. Chances are though there were other civilizations before them and the Forerunners themselves stole their position from someone before them. From a society they had to crush or pick up the pieces of when it collapsed."

"Does this mystery civilization have a name?" Tali asked.

"Why would it? No one can say if it exists or not," Taq laughed slightly. "There's no record, no remains, nothing. If they did exist, I imagine the Forerunners wiped out any evidence of them. Standard procedure, make everyone forget your enemies, rewrite history, Forerunners weren't above that spin doctoring I imagine."

"But to the people who believe they existed once," Tali pressed further. "Do they have a name?"

"No specific one," Taq answered thoughtfully. "I keep hearing a few things tossed around among the heretic types now and then. At least the ones who run in my circles anyway. The layman's hypothesis of the theory is that before the Forerunners there was a Precursor race. So, a lot of people call this supposed hypothetical civilization the Precursors. But again, there isn't much evidence they ever existed."

No evidence except the creepy voices in her head. That wasn't something she wanted to share with Taq right now. She needed to keep playing this cool. As cool as you could when you were freaking out about something going wrong inside of you.

"But, is it possible they did exist? That, maybe, the reason the Forerunners got all their impressive technology was because they might have stolen it or built it off what these Precursors made? Perhaps that's why you never found any evidence, it all looks like Forerunner to you."

Taq looked intrigued.

"It's an interesting hypothesis, but while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, it is a stretch," she explained. "That's basically saying, we can't confirm this exists because someone else made it look like something else. It's a bit muddled."

"Okay, but just suppose they did exist," Tali continued to impress upon her. "Their civilization used to rule, but the Forerunners surplanted them. How would they react?"

"You're getting into social science here, that's a bit outside my expertise," Taq explained. "If a cilization begins to fall, there's little they can do about it. Except maybe course correct policies, but if they were beaten militarily, no dice there. If the Forerunners overwhelmed the Precursors, then any survivors would probably have feelings of old glory brewing in their heads. A lost cause they would have to reclaim from those who wronged them, no matter how long it would take."

"Like sitting on a Flotilla constantly planning how to retake their homeworld?" Tali asked mumbling.

Taq got up from her desk from that and moved over to the quarian from across the room.

"Does this have something to do with your species' predicament?" She asked. "I understand you lost your homeworld. Although the specifics elude me."

"It's complicated," Tali confessed. "But that is part of why I'm asking. I guess I'm just thinking about lost civilizations more. With everything that has gone on."

"I guess, it's just a little overly specific," Taq explained. "And sudden, of course. In any case, I imagine we don't have to worry about supposed Precursors these days. They're all long dead by now, that's a given."

Maybe so, but Tali wasn't so sure anymore. As Taq went back to her seat, the bird looked back at her briefly.

"Tali, are you certain everything is alright?" She pressed. "You seem a bit frazzled."

"No, I'm fine," Tali tried to lie. "Absolutely fine, just curious. I'll let you get back to your work."

The truth was though that Tali was concerned. What Taq was talking about, it rang way too closely to her own people. Which in turn matched far too closely to the nightmares. If these Precursors were real, and the visions were right... they did something unforgivable. Something the quarians could one day do themselves if they weren't careful.

She made to leave the room, to try and sort this whole thing out. But when the door opened there was just a black sickly void staring back at her. She froze in place, shaking as she looked on. Why did this keep happening to her? What did they want? Why were they torturing her like this?

All are welcome in the grave. All are welcome in the tomb. There is room for all.

Another voice, clawing in her head, screaming it was there, answering her question. A sicly black tentacle reached out and grabbed at her arm. She blinked for only a moment in fright and when she opened her eyes again, the void was gone. She wasn't in Taq's room any more at least, she recognized the area though. She was near the Normandy's hangar section, where it was in port. She had walked all the way here from Taq's room in seconds, but that was impossible.

"Another blackout," she growled. "More lost time."

She needed to figure this out, it was clear to her now what was happening. She was losing herself more and more.

---

Once more, Tali sat in the Crew Quarters' eating area, only this time at the table. She had taken some nutripaste to eat, hoping it would clear her head a little. She needed to figure out exactly what these visions and why they were happening to her now. There had to be a reason, she just needed to think it out.

If what Taq had told her was true, then the likely subject of these dreams revolved around the Precursors. If they actually existed of course, but at this point Tali decided to presume they did exist. Otherwise they couldn't be screwing with her now. So if they were real, the Forerunners had beat them. Some or all of the survivors couldn't accept that, so they decided to strike back. For some reason, the visions had latched onto that desire for revenge and connected it with the quarians and their conflict with the Geth. That much was obvious.

What was a bit more troubling were the implications of the means the Precursors used for their revenge. Everything in the visions seemed to spell out what it was plainly. The thing that clinched though was how similar the message was to what she experienced in the swamp on Halo. When the Infection Form infected her with spores. The connection was pretty self-evident from that alone. The Precursors and the Flood were connected somehow. Their adventure on the Dauntless had proven the Forerunners could alter themselves into digital beings. What if the Precursors did the same but into a different organic creature?

It seemed so outlandish, insane even. To not only alter yourself for revenge, but to become something so monstrous, so absolutely evil. How did you possibly justify that to yourself? How could anyone? But part of the theory didn't make sense. If the Flood were once something else, another race, why did they still have a desire to destroy and assimilate more? Their enemy was dead, the purpose of their creation accomplished. Why had they still been so intent on continuing? Did they just not know or, more likely, did they not care?

None of that answered why this was happening now, to her. Yes, she had similar visions in the swamp, but those were compounded by a fever and how close to death she was. She wasn't sick now, not physically anyway. Why was this happening now? Had something aggravated her? Was it the stress like everyone was saying?

Mordin had said the encounter with the Flood Spores had left an indeliable mark on her psyche. Her mind now seemed to warn her of the Flood and their danger. That was how she helped Shepard and the team navigate to find Captain Keyes after all. Was this a side effect? Were the Flood here then? No, that didn't make sense, she didn't have the same feeling like she did before. So what else could've triggered this?

She went to eat some more nutripaste out of the tube, maybe just a little more food would help her break through to an answer. However, her train of thought was interrupted when someone sat down from across her, banging her open palms on the table. Tali looked up and saw Jack staring at her, a serious expression on her face.

"We need to talk," she stated.

"Jack, I'm sorry for blowing up at you, but not now," she requested. "I'm not in the right frame of-"

Jack didn't listen, she was already sitting down, a scowl on her face.

"Look, I get you don't like me," she admitted. "Not many people do."

"I... I don't dislike you, Jack," Tali tried to plead. "Honest, I like you fine. I was just working though something before and-"

"Look forget about that then," Jack insisted. "I was pushing your buttons, that was uncool. If you like me, then even more cool. Right now I need to talk to you though, trust me, it's important."

More important than her potentially going insane, Tali wondered to herself. She shook her head, she'd let Jack talk. After what had happened earlier, Tali felt like she owed it to the ex-con after blowing up on her before.

"I'm working through some shit, you see," Jack began. "Like some major shit. Trying to figure out some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Tali asked.

"I don't know, stupid stuff I haven't thought about in years," Jack explained. "Things that you can't afford to happen. To let it get to you because it's going to get you killed in the end. Like relations and attaching to things and garbage mushy team building crap that everyone on this ship is super addicted to."

"Well I suppose that's a reasonable thing to be working through," Tali admitted. "I mean, you're no longer on the run from the law here. So, you're starting to get more comfortable with how much safer things are."

Jack just chortled.

"Please, this isn't safe, this is hardly safe," she argued.

"Relatively safer I mean," Tali corrected. "You're not dealing with selfish criminals out for themselves anymore."

"Fine, it's not like prison or being in a gang," Jack admitted, sounding agitated. "But that's probably my point. I'm not used to this, I've never been used to it, but part of me wants to be and it's messing me up."

Jack always sounded pissed or annoyed about something, but this was clearly different. Usually, her problems related to people getting on her nerves. This sounded like something, something Tali knew she was not qualified to deal with at all. Even if she wasn't having nightmare visions telling her horrible things.

"It's just, I've never felt safe, I guess," Jack explained further. "I've never felt open. I lived my life keeping on the move, making sure I was never in one place. Always hopping from station to planet, job to job, on whatever shuttle I could either stow on or hijack. And now... maybe... maybe just I've been here so long, with the same people, with more of a regular routine... fuck, it just feels so weird to me."

"In your line of work I guess it would," Tali agreed. "But, what does that have to do with me?"

"Because you got your shit together," Jack informed her bluntly. "You've been through this weird emotional attachment longing shit and it got you somewhere. You got to bed the ship's Captain. That's gotta be like a big time goal for you quarians, right?"

Tali had no idea how to respond to that. Mainly because the first part of that whole statement was currently the least true. She had none of her shit together, at all. She feared it was all going to explode any second in fact.

"I'm not the best person to talk about handling emotional issues in a healthy way," Tali tried to inform her, somewhat hoping Jack would give up and go away. "Kelly is the psychologist, she'd be able to talk this out with you better."

"I don't need a shrink, I'm not crazy," Jack stated firmly. "Well, not in the regular way anyhow. My point is, compared to everyone else, you're great at this whole emotions thing. Probably because you have to be extra expressive with that mask on all the time. My only other choices for this kind of talk are Kasumi, who can't help but make wiseass comments and gossip, Samara, who half the time has to mention she'd probably kill me if she wasn't under oath, and Miranda. So, yeah, fuck that shit and fuck her, that's one thing I know we both agree on."

"No argument there," Tali grumbled in agreement.

"Point is you're trustworthy and you're a fellow female and you're in a relationship so you know your shit about all this," Jack elaborated quickly. "So, I just need to know how to deal with these... things I'm feeling."

Tali would have answered instantly, if not the fact she and Jack were no longer alone. Tali could just barely see a shape behind Jack and when she looked she had to hide her horror. It was one of the strange disfigured creatures from the vision she had the other night. It was glaring at her now, stepping out from behind Jack, appendages writing, a filthy mandile jaw opening and shutting with jutted pointed teeth.

This one's feeling is of a creature lost, confused and dysfunctional. Her rage is all encompassing, both within and without. She is not long for this world. She will break. You know this. End her suffering now.

Ignore it, Tali, she thought, thinking it would go away if she just didn't respond. Even as it slithered over to sit beside Jack, just off to the right. The Ex-Con, of course, didn't see it, couldn't see it. Tali did her best to keep the conversation going, she couldn't draw suspicion to herself.

"I think it would be easier to go through all this if you told me what these feelings are," Tali explained. "And who they're toward."

"I'm not comfortable with that," Jack explained. "Not that I think you'll tell, I'm just not into revealing names right now. It's complicated, mainly because I don't know what I feel. Only that it isn't right, at least not for me."

She spurns her own happiness. Her own chance at true bliss. She is weakened by joy. Death would cleanse her.

The creature was moving its head and appendages around Jack, grasping at her. Still, Jack did not react. Not even a little bit. She carried on as normal.

"Whatever you're feeling can't be so bad," Tali tried to tell her. "I mean, you don't sound like you want to get rid of it."

"It's not a question of it being bad or good, Tali," the tattooed woman corrected her. "It's... well the thing is I've been down this road before and I got hurt. And... and this isn't a question of me NOT getting hurt again, I know if I go further with this I will get hurt. And it won't be anyone's fault but my own this time because it is inevitable."

All life is hurt. She knows this. She has always known this. You know it too. But there is no pain in the grave.

Block it out, Tali struggled within her own head. Block it out, do not even look at it. Ignore how it keeps trying to slither its tendrils around, how it wraps around Jack's head and all the human woman does is keep going on about whatever it is she's trying to relay. Tali felt the horrible urge to reach out and stop this thing from trying to entrap her shipmate, but she knew it wasn't there. It could not be real! Nothing that horrible could be real. So why was it here taunting her?

"We can't close ourselves off to good feelings because of pain," Tali tried to state.

Why are you lying to her?

"If I hadn't been honest with Shepard, I never would've known where it could go," she continued, trying to shut the creature out. "Not knowing hurts more than anything. If I were you, I'd try to work through these feelings, find out if they're genuine-"

The only genuine feeling is that of suffering. Of hunger. Of fear. It is better to let go. End this charade. End them.

"Just find out if they're real, Jack," Tali insisted, louder, trying to blot out the monster's words. "Find out if they're real and just go with it. You're a risk taker, you don't let pain get to you right? Well, just go for it then. Be yourself! You're a person who headbutts robots at full biotic speed! Remember?"

Jack now looked concerned more than anything, mainly because, as Tali herself had noticed, she was now getting louder, more aggressive and was currently standing.

"Uh, Tali, is something wrong?" Jack asked. "Did I touch another nerve?"

Kill them, Tali. Kill them all. Let them know true peace. Everlasting. Final. Become one with us at last.

Creature moved to wrap its tentacle around Jack and start strangling. Tali couldn't stop what she did next. She leapt over the table and tried to tackle the monster. To wrench Jack free of whatever this thing was and leave her ship, her home, her family alone! She brought the monster to the ground and began beating it into the bulkhead beneath, pounding her fists into its disgusting decayed face.

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up to see Jack looking over her. More concern on her face than she had ever had before. Tali looked back to the floor and saw nothing and her own hands felt sore and numb from pounding on the metal beneath their feet.

"Tali, what the hell is-"

Tali bolted from the ground and rushed to the elevator, wrenching herself away from Jack. She rushed inside before the human could catch her and slammed on the button. She needed to get back to engineering, she needed to get to her comfort zone. She needed work. Yes, work would keep these things at bay. Work would help steady her. She could make it through this. She could fight this.

Then the doors opened and another of the monsters attacked her, pinning her against the back wall of the shaft.

You cannot fight us. We have already won. Our revenge is complete. The usurpers are dead! Your people could be like us. They could sing victory for eternity. You could be the first.

It spoke in her mind like a thousand screeching sickly birds at once. Tali struggled from its grasp, trying to pull herself out.

"I'm not like you!" She shouted in defiance. "My people will never be like you! You're abominations! Monsters! What you've done is worse than anything the Forerunners did to you!"

Poor miserable child of entrapped flesh. You have such little true understanding of what we've done. The beauty we created. We shall show it to you! Impart the history long forgotten. The glory stolen from us and what shall be ours again.

The monster grabbed Tali's head and in one horrible second she screamed a shriek so loud it felt as if it would shatter her own visor. Images flooded into her head, horrible, terrifying images. Wars, death, pain, revenge, hunger, suffering, a whole cavalcade of horrors. The monster had not been bluffing, it shared everything. It was all true, all of it. What they had done, what they now planned to do. It hurt too much to bare.

The monster released its grip and Tali dropped to the floor.

Struggle if you wish. We are inevitable. Your friends, your family, you will all be with us soon.

The creatures vanished as a light shined down on her. She half worried it was THE light. Instead, it was just a flashlight from Dr. Chakwas. She did not look happy at all and she was surrounded by other people.

"Med Bay, now!" She ordered.

Tali blacked out after that.

---

Tali woke up in the med bay, in a rather familiar situation in fact. She was still in her suit, but this time she was strapped down by her legs and arms. She pulled at them, annoyed, also frightened. Eventually, Chakwas came into view.

"Tali, please," she pleaded. "Do not hurt yourself."

The quarian finally got a better view of everything, seeing most of the crew in the room with Chakwas, watching over her. All of them were concerned, she didn't exactly blame them for that. She still didn't like being strapped down.

"What is going on?" She asked, no, more like demanded. "Why am I restrained? Unlock this."

"I don't think that would be wise, Tali," Chakwas warned. "You're... you're not well."

Tali wanted to lie, say she was fine. She knew they wouldn't believe her. Besides, she now knew what was wrong with her.

"Listen, you need to understand, I learned something," she tried to explain.

"We imagine you have," Chakwas admitted. "Tali, have you been... seeing things?"

Tali was silent for a moment. She reasoned there was still no sense in lying.

"I have been seeing something, that's what I'm trying-"

"Tali, please," Chakwas told her. "Right now you need to listen to us."

Mordin approached next, holding up a datapad.

"Performed deep neural scan. Several other tests," he began gravely. "Discovered increased brainwave activity. Subtle. Below baseline of less invasive procedures. Different wavelength. Feeding into neurological centers resposible for the subconcious mind."

"Just get to the point," Tali requested, already guessing at the obvious. "Something is making me see all these things."

"Yes," Chakwas confirmed. "More specifically, it seems to be feeding off the lingering psychokinetic markers left by the Flood Spores that tried to infect you. Activating the parts of your synapses that create dreams and drawing on your underlying subconcious mind for further power. We didn't see it at first because we weren't looking for any of that while we were checking on you. None of those thing have anything to do with blacking out or memory loss. In short, you've been dreaming while you're awake."

"Yes, I've guessed as much at this point," Tali assured. "Somehow, whatever is happening to me is connected to my experience with the Flood. It is using that to force memories into my mind, feed on my fear, connect me to something else."

"Tali, please start making sense," Kasumi requested. "You're scaring us."

"You should be scared," Tali informed her sternly. "This thing looked into me, saw what was in my head and started using that against me. I can see that now. It's in there and trying to drive me crazy, just like in the swamp."

"The spores aren't active again, Tali," Chakwas assured. "They're gone, dead, we got them all before they could do any real damage. We double checked just now. This isn't the Flood."

"It is, but it isn't," Tali corrected her. "This isn't happening because of the spores, not exactly. It's because of the relic."

The whole room looked confused.

"The Forerunner relic is making you see visions?" Chakwas asked, confused.

"No, let me explain," Tali tried to clarify frantically. "It's like with Shepard and the Prothean Beacons. The relics contain knowledge as well as power. When I went to grab it, the power surge that was unleashed must've... I don't know, supercharged the mental warning system in my head. Connected me to... to something. And just before I blacked out again, it revealed to me why."

"Why what?" Kasumi asked. "You're not making sense, Tali."

"Why this is happening to me," Tali shouted aloud. "Why getting zapped by the relic gave me visions and put voices in my head. It filled me with a bunch of memories stored inside it, transfered it to my mind. Something picked up on all that and now it's trying to drive me crazy! But it made a mistake, it told me everything just now! Everything we need to know about the relics!"

"What about the Relics?" Miranda asked.

"They're not Forerunner," Tali snarled at her. "The Dauntless was just carrying the thing, but it is not from their culture. It's an artifact from another civilization, the one before them, the Precursors. The relic belonged to them. They made it!"

The room looked at her in disbelief and confusion. Even Shepard, who looked as distraught and frightened as anyone. But she had to go one, they needed to know.

"Listen, the Precursors were real," she continued, speaking in a pitched frenzy. "They ruled the Galaxy before the Forerunners. They could create things, life, all at a whim. But the Forerunners turned on them. They... they tried to survive, tried to find a way to come back after the war. Something went wrong, they were changed, altered, became consumed by hatred. They didn't even try fighting it, they let it change them and loosed their new forms on the Forerunners!"

"Wait," Garrus interrupted, a look of worry still on his face. "Are you saying... the Precursors... created the Flood?"

"No, they are the Flood!" Tali insisted, pulling at her restraints. "I know it sounds fantastic, but I swear, it all became so clear. I told you, the relic's power surge somehow fed this knowledge into my head, that's why I kept seeing things and blacking out, it has to be. I couldn't process it all. But then, whatever is... whatever is connected to me sorted it for me. Made it clearer!"

"Tali, for all we know, whatever you thought you saw was a delusion," Miranda tried to argue. "Now, we've already concluded that the relic might have had something to do with triggering this... psychosis. But I would not be so quick to conclude a bunch of a strange daymares would be feeding you information on some long lost civilization."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Lawson?" Tali snarled. "You'd like me to just be crazy, wouldn't you?"

"No one is calling you crazy, Tali," Chakwas assured. "But our scans only detect increased neurological activity. We're not picking up seperate brainwaves or anything. You're not connected to another mind, nothing is speaking to you. It's probably just your subconcious, drawing from your memory of what happened in the swamp."

"Then explain why it keeps talking to me! Comparing me to them!" Tali demanded. "I didn't make this up! I was shown it!"

"Possibility your mind trying to rationalize trauma," Mordin explained asutely. "Precursor's theorized plight similar to quarians. Mind may have created worst case scenario. What you fear quarians will do. Unlikely to be eons old memory. Scientifically improbable."

"It's not improbable!" Tali shrieked at him. "It is happening! Right now! To me!"

Chakwas pulled up chart for her to see on her datapad. On it was various bits of information, detailing brainwaves and scans. Tali didn't understand until Chakwas explained.

"All these scans say is that you have an increase of subconcious mental activity," she stated. "Triggering mental hallucinations and bizarre waking dreams. This compounded with your lack of sleep is making you see images that aren't there. While it is possible this was triggered somehow by the relic, there is also the possibility this is a latent byproduct from the spores affecting your mind. A symptom of the scars they left when we removed them. We still don't know what the total extent of your mental trauma from the experience was. You were almost infected by a malicious parasite with some kind of hive mind."

"Exactly and I think that hive mind or some kind of remnant of it is speaking to me!" Tali insisted. "I didn't even learn about the Precursors before I talked to Taq about them. How could my mind just make this story up on its own? How is this any different from the Beacon on Eden Prime?"

"Because as far as we know the relic we found is a some kind of power source," Miranda interjected. "It is not an information repository. We have people analyzing it and they have come across no evidence it contains any such historical information."

"No one asked for your stupid opinion, Miranda!" Tali screeched. "I'm not insane! I'm not making this up! It's real! It happened! It is happening! Stop trying to turn people against me!"

"You're doing a fine enough job of doing that by yourself," Miranda claimed disdainfully.

Tali struggled against her restraints, knowing it was useless. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to punch out every perfect tooth in that stupid human's face.

"Bitch! You've always been a bitch! You've always hated me!" Tali shrieked. "Why don't you just shut up already and jump out the airlock! No one would miss you! No one would even fucking care!"

Miranda was unmoved, but Shepard pulled her aside. He motioned to the door and Miranda left without even looking back. Tali glared at her the whole way. Shepard took over, and Tali's features softened.

"Shepard, you believe me, right?" She asked pleadingly. "I'm not crazy, you've been through this. You know what this is like. These visions... they're not just dreams. They're something else."

"Tali, I want to believe you, I really do," Shepard tried to calmly explain. "But you're scaring me right now and-"

"I already told you! You should be scared!" Tali yelled frantically. "Don't you know what this means?"

"Tali, please," Kasumi said, a begging looking in her eyes. "We just want to help you."

"If you want to help, then we need to find this voice," Tali imposed sternly. "We need to find it and kill it and shut it up. It's out there somewhere and it is going to come after us. We need to stop it or we're all doomed."

"Do you even know where this voice is?" Shepard asked.

Tali couldn't answer that right away, her mind fraught with worry. Then she hit upon an idea.

"Wait, the relic," she reasoned. "The relic is the answer! If I just had it, with the right analyzation software and materials and everything I could find where it is transmitting and-"

"Tali, no," Shepard stated, steadfast and firm. "If that thing did do something to you, I am not about to expose you to it even more. We need to figure out a way to stop these visions before you lose your mind-"

"I am not losing my mind!" Tali screamed. "This is the only way! The only way to stop it! I'm prepared to risk it!"

"I'm not," Shepard informed her. "You need medicine, something to supress these visions, put the sub back in subconcious."

"Sleep could assist," Mordin suggested.

Tali shook her head violently, that was the last thing she wanted.

"No, no, when I'm asleep it's even worse," she tried to explain, scared beyond all belief. "It claws in and it stays there. It's like hell, you can't put me to sleep! It will kill me!"

"We won't let that happen," Chakwas insisted. "Whatever this is happening to you, Tali, we can beat it, but you have to trust us."

"You don't even trust me!" Tali growled. "Why else would I be restrained like this?"

She looked to Shepard again, her tone and eyes pleading for his ear.

"Please, Wade," she begged. "I am telling the truth. It's out there and it will kill us. It will kill me. You have to let me fix this. I'm the only one that can fix this. We have to kill it before it does the same to us. It's the only way."

Shepard looked at her, crestfallen and lost. He bowed his head and sighed mournfully.

"I need to figure out what's best for everyone right now, Tali," he tried to explain. "That includes you. I'm not going to risk you damaging yourself more by getting close to that relic again. I'll have Taq look at it more, but you're staying away from it."

The words hit hard, Tali felt utterly defeated. Even the man she loved wasn't listening. No one was listening. They didn't trust her, not anymore. Pulling back onto her restraints, Tali placed her head back and accepted there was nothing she could do. Not right now anyway.

She heard words of encouragement, people saying she could beat this, that they were all there for her, but none of them registered. She just watched them all leave, Shepard especially. How could he not trust her? Why didn't he believe her? Why were all so adamant that this was fantasy? Perhaps they just couldn't understand. But she had hoped Shepard of all people would.

Through the glass of the med bay she saw him, looking saddened, heartbroken, barely able to even look back at her. She felt sick, like she had pushed him away. He thought she was insane. And in the next instant she saw the reason why. Miranda approached, offering a hand on his shoulder. Rage boiled in Tali's mind. She looked back and forth to see Chakwas and Mordin busy with other things involving her care. But she wasn't completely helpless, she still had her suit and she could use that. She whispered a voice command.

"Visor, activate laser mic attachment," she requested.

The visor activated the laser mic function and she closed in on Shepard and Miranda. Before long, her head set was picking up their conversation.

"I know you're worried about her and I know why," Miranda stated. "But she is not herself. And we don't know if she'll ever get better."

"Don't say that," Shepard ordered angrily.

"I'm just preparing you, the damage could be irrepreable," Miranda clarified. "Who knows what those spores did or whatever activated it now, weeks after they were destroyed. It could be the relic, it could be she hasn't been sleeping, we just don't know."

"I'm not giving up on her," Shepard insisted. "She's a member of this crew, she's important to all of us."

"You need to look at this without emotion," Miranda informed him. "She's dangerous, to herself and the crew. We need to think about what she can do. I suggest we move her to a more secure observation room."

"A cell?" Shepard responded in shock, sounding disgusted at the very notion.

"And that we move the relic," Miranda added, not even slowing down. "Place it somewhere secure. Taq can do these tests, maybe she finds nothing and that proves to Tali that she's hallucinating. Then she can get real help."

Shepard looked thoughtful, Tali couldn't believe it. He was actually considering it, she could just tell.

"She's not our enemy, Miranda," Shepard stated. "We can't treat her like a prisoner."

"She is lashing out at anyone who even says something counter to what she thinks this dream is telling her," Miranda sternly reminded him. "We don't know what lengths she'll go to in order to get what she wants. And if she starts fiddling around with that relic, who knows what kind of damage it can do. We still don't know what it actually does yet, save for powering killer robots. The more secure it and she is, the better."

Shepard just sighed. Tali shook her head, recognizing the body language. No, she thought, he couldn't.

"It has to be somewhere comfortable," he ordered. "It is not going to be a cell."

"Of course," Miranda assured. "I can make the arrangements."

Tali turned off the mic, she couldn't hear anymore. The bitch, she had turned him against her. She knew this wold happen. She knew it all along. She was using this to destroy her! Destroy everything! She needed to stop her, needed to stop this. But all she could do right now was lay restrained against this slab.

Worse yet, the visions hadn't stopped. As Chakwas approached again, the Precursor creature appeared again behind her. Almost as if to taunt her.

They cannot understand. They will not understand. Your mind will soon be ours. And with it, everything you love will die. We will let you watch as the world crumbles around you and you become our vanguard. You will be grateful for this, in time.

Tali steeled her gaze as Chakwas prepared a injection device for her shoulder port.

"This is sterile," she assured. "It will put you to sleep for a while. Just a short while, so we can get some more readings."

"Don't, please," Tali requested weakly. "It will come again."

"We're going to beat it, Tali," Chakwas assured her. "I promise you. Everything will be okay."

The precursor appeared over her shoulder.

Delusions of one who does not know what we have shown you. Your mind is ours now. Embrace the song of the tomb, Tali'Zorah. The grave welcomes you, our instrument.

Tali couldn't even scream, Chakwas' injection was already taking effect.

---

Tali felt cold. She couldn't see anything around here. Just black. Darkness. Was she in her new cell Lawson had set up? Or was this a different prison? One of her mind. Had the other voice taken over? Were the precursors now in charge? She didn't know. How could she? Nothing made sense anymore. She was so sure of things only a few hours ago, now it was darkness, confusion.

All she knew for certain was that there was an other. That this thing was a Precursor. Maybe it was an AI that held its memories. Maybe it was Precursor trasmitting horrors into her head. More likely it was some kind of Flood creature, the same one that her brain off before. It was out there in the void, trying to make her do its bidding. Trying to make it kill her friends, betray her ship. It had already isolated her from them, turned them against her.

Shepard thought she was insane. Miranda was taking advantage of it. Kasumi, Garrus, everyone, they had no idea what was coming. It was after them, after all of them. She had to save them, she was the only one who knew the true nature of the threat. She had to do something, she had to get out of here and save them. By any means necessary. They needed her, Shepard needed her. How could she convince them of the danger? That she was right?

As she contemplated this in the dark, a small speck of light sudden poked out of the black. She couldn't help but look to it. At first in fear, but then in hope. Maybe something was breaking throuhgn the dark, trying to get to her. The hole of light became wider and wider and before long a hand reached out from the other side. Tali was cautious at first, but what other choice did she have? Wallow here in self-pity or do something about the situation. Tali had never been much for wallowing. She grabbed the hand and it pulled her through the hole.

She felt herself being nestled next and instead of cold she felt warmth. With it came safety, happy memories, some semblance of hope returning to her mind. Someone was cradling her. When she looked up, she was shocked to see who it was. Another quarian, but this was a face she had not seen in a long time. Ever since she passed so many years ago.

"Mom?"

Tali's voice was practically cracking as she looked up into her mother's visor. It carried the same pattern as her own hood, but a lighter shade of violent colored it. Her envirosuit was as elegantly designed as ever, just as it was so long ago. Tali at times barely remembered her mom on her best days, The images of her were so long past, so distant. She had trouble recalling her as much as she wanted, her mind always fixated on her father, on pleasing Rael'Zorah.

"My dear sweet child," her mother crooned. "I knew you would not forget me."

Tali placed her head in her mother's bosom.

"I'm so scared mom, something horrible is happening to me," she said, starting to cry. "Something is in my head, it wants to hurt Shepard, my friends. It's turning them against me. They all think I'm crazy, but I'm the only one who can save them from this thing. The only one that can destroy it."

"Oh Tali, always placing so many burdens on your shoulders," her mom said sadly. "I blame myself, I left you too early. I should've been there for you. A mother has to be there for her daughter. To guide her, to lead her."

"I don't blame you, Mom, it wasn't your fault you got sick," Tali sniffed.

She hugged her mom close, letting the return embrace envelop her.

"I... I missed you so much, Mom," she cried. "I... I tried to make dad proud but-"

"Sssh, sssh, your father was proud, Tali," her mother insisted. "He still is. He is with me now and we are with you. We can help you."

Those were just the words she needed to hear. A spark of hope now burst forth from within her, bringing to mind the thing that always helped ease her mind. She knew the problem, she wasn't alone, she could fix his.

"Yes, yes I need help," Tali pleaded, clutching at her mother. "Please, I need to know what to do. I need to stop this, before people get hurt."

"You already know what you must do, my daughter," her mother reminded her. "You must find the relic, it will lead you to the monster. Once it is slain, you'll end both your torment and that of millions."

"But how?" Tali asked. "I'm trapped, they won't listen to me."

"Then you must act on your own, as many quarians before you have," her mother informed her. "They will understand. Most of them anyway."

Tali looked at her confused.

"What do you mean most?"

"The human female," her mother sneered. "The perfect one. She cannot be trusted. She is still Cerberus. She poisons Shepard's mind. You saw it yourself. You must expose her, before she ruins all chance of hope for your salvation."

Tali was aghast.

"She... she's still Cerberus? But I thought-"

"She lied, she has always lied," Tali's mother claimed. "She hides behind her perfect smile and body, seduces your beloved Commander away from you. She intends to do far worse. Getting you out of the way is only step one. Besides, the information you need for your task is likely with her."

Tali thought about it, and slowly it made more sense. Yes, yes Miranda had to still be working with Cerberus. It was all a front, a ploy, a trick. She was trying to bring Shepard back to the Illusive Man's side. She would turn against them all. She wanted to keep him for herself.

"You're right, she has to be stopped," Tali reasoned stoically. "She's Cerberus, she hates the quarians. She'd see us all killed."

"There is no telling what lengths she'll go to in order to accomplish that," her mother warned. "She might even use Legion's vulnerable state to turn him against you too. And you'll need Legion."

"Yes, they're our only hope at ever creating peace between our people," Tali reasoned.

"True, but you may need Legion much sooner than that," her mother claimed. "First though, before you can do any of this. You must escape your confinement."

"But how?" Tali asked again. "How do I-"

"You are quarian and you are my daughter, Tali," her mother assured her. "They think you are weak, easily held down. Like so many others before them, they underestimate you. Prove them wrong, Tali. Prove them all wrong. Show them what you're made of and lead them to the true enemy... and their salvation."

"I will, mother, I promise," Tali swore, looking up at her mom's inviting eyes.

"I love you so much, my child," her mother said sweetly as she caressed her head. "You were always destined for greatness. Today, you will prove that. Do not fear the dark, Tali. I shall be with you. Every step of the way."

There was a flash of light that blinded Tali momentarily, she briefly feared it... but then embraced it and its warmth.

---

Faint music awoke Tali. As the darkness of her vision faded she found herself in a cell. Well not exactly a cell, it was furnished with a cot, a place to sit, a table with some datapads which probably had books downloaded into them for her to read. It was a cell though, one in the former brig of the Ascendant Justice. They must've moved her while she was asleep. Miranda had gotten what she wanted.

"Laugh it up now, bitch," Tali said to herself silently. "It won't last."

A Marine posted on watch noticed her stir and looked to her.

"Um, hello ma'am," he spoke to her sheepishly. "I'm... I'm sorry if this is a bit discomforting. We... Doctor Chakwas suggested moving you here-"

"I know who sent me here," Tali said rather plainly. "I don't need explanations."

"Would... would you like to see Professor Solus or Doctor-"

"No," Tali said flatly. "I don't want to see anyone. I just want some water or something."

"I can go get some for you," he assured her.

Tali motioned her head off to the side and the Marine walked off. That would keep him distracted long enough. And the music would hide any sounds she made. She could tell who the artist was, Iron Maiden, an old Earth band. She recalled this song, it was one of the many Joker liked playing now and then. This one was called "Dream of Mirrors."

Think I've heard your Voice before, think I've said these Words before

Something makes me Feel I just might Lose my Mind

Am I still inside my Dream? Is this a New Reality?

Something makes me Feel that I have Lost my Mind

Maybe she was losing her mind, but she'd get it back and kill the thing inside. She wouldn't let it win. She looked at her cell, following the creases in the paneling. She knew what to look for and how to use it. Eventually she spotted it, a panel on the wall. She moved over to tap it. As she suspected, hollow on the otherside. This led to a power coupling shaft, she had studied the Ascendant Justice's schematics long enough to remember that they passed by the brig. Hard to squeeze through for most people, but not her.

She looked for her tools, but found none. Of course, Miranda probably had them removed. Clever bitch, but she hadn't won yet. There was one thing she likely didn't consider. It was worth trying.

"DOT, are you still in my suit?" She asked whispering.

"Yes, Tali," the AI replied. "As per your own protocol, I concealed myself from detection from all scans."

A security precaution she created, in case she had been captured with DOT still in her suit. She designed it to activate during a blackout or signs of severe distress. She never thought she'd be using it to escape a cell her friends had put her in.

"Can you reactivate my omni-tool?" She asked the AI. "They've probably disabled it."

"Your omni-tool hardlock was instituted by Doctor Chakwas on direct orders from Executive Officer Lawson," DOT reported. "I do not believe it is standard protocol to-"

"Override protocol and failsafes," Tali ordered. "Remove hardlock."

"Acknowledged, Tali," DOT answered. "You have full control over omni-tool functions."

Tali didn't activate it yet, her guard was returning with her water. He placed it in a small shaft to the side of the cell door. Once activated, it opened up a compartment on her side of the cell, delivering her bottle of water to her.

"I had to get it filtered," he explained. "Health issue as I understand."

"I'm aware," Tali told him. "Can you leave now?"

"I'm ordered to stay here unless otherwise notified," he informed her.

Typical, but it didn't bother Tali, she had another way to get rid of him that wouldn't involve sending him off for snacks. She went over to the table and grabbed one of the datapads, putting him at ease. She was just going to read, as far as he was concerned. When she took the water, he turned around. His back turned, Tali activated her omni-tool, stealth mode. She pretended to be reading something while her back was turned, instead she was activating her hacking suite.

She connected herself to the security system and activated a fire alarm in a maintenance hub not to far away from their current location. She then waited for the results. The Marine soon picked up an alert on his omni-tool. He looked to Tali briefly, but then started to move off.

"Please remain calm, ma'am," he said. "There might be a problem. Need to check, I'll be right back."

"Take your time," Tali told him.

All the while the song continued.

I get up Put on the Light, Dreading the oncoming Night,

Scared to fall Asleep and Dream the Dream again.

Nothing that I Contemplate, Nothing that I can Compare,

To letting Loose the Demons Deep Inside my Head

If this went right, that would never happen to her. Once the Marine left the brig, Tali sneering behind his back. She only had a few minutes. She fixed her cot to look like she was in it, but taking a nap. It wouldn't work for long, pillows under bed sheets were hardly convincing, but it would work long enough.

Dread to think what might be Stirring, that my Dream is Reoccurring.

Got to keep away from Drifting, Saving me from Myself.

She rushed to the panel again and activated her omni-tool's engineering functions. She cut through the panel very carefully, so as not to make it look too out of place once she put it back. The music in the background hurried her pace, cutting through the sheath of metal, hoping the rock music would blot out any stray sounds from her work.

I only Dream in Black and White, I only Dream cause I'm Alive

I only Dream in Black and White, to Save me from Myself

A comforting thought, as long as she dreamed, even if it was a nightmare, she was alive. Alive meant she was still herself and she could win. As the chorus continued to play, she cut the final bit she needed. She pried the panel away, careful to make as little noise as possible. With the panel now off, she found herself looking down into a dark power line shaft, a pulsating cable running through it. A tight fit, but it was her only choice.

Tali shoved herself into the tight space, closing the panel tight behind her as she forced herself inside. The last bit of the song she could hear was the singer saying "The Dream is True, The Dream is True." No, she thought, not a dream, a nightmare, one that only she saw. One that she needed to stop. She could not fail, she would not fail. They all thought she was crazy, but she knew, she was only sane person left. The only hope they all had. They'd see it, they'd understand. When this was done, they'd all understand.

She crawled into the dark, her mission clear. Find the voice, kill it, silence it. End it before it ended them.

---

AN: Yes another horror based chapter, but this time more overt. Will Tali succeed in her mission or will she lose her mind to the Precursors? Are the two outcomes all that different? We'll find out. That's right, cliffhanger! Gotta come back to see how this all turns out! See ya then! Until then, do check out the profile page as we have more Hellfox audio links for you to listen to as well as a link to a short but insightful little behind the scenes notes piece. Enjoy!