Chapter 20.

"How are you not freaking out?" Ash asked Harry. They were being tossed about inside of the Mako as Shepard expertly dodged incoming fire from the Geth. He was busy tinkering with the biotic amp he purchased earlier.

"Huh?" Harry asked, looking up at Ash. The ground beneath the vehicle seemingly exploded, as though to illustrate her point, causing it to tip dangerously to the side be fore settling back down on its wheels and continuing its journey. Harry looked at Jane and shrugged before going back to his tinkering.

"I trust Jane with my life. We'll be fine." Harry said, wincing as a power line shorted on the amp and produced a bright flash and acrid smelling smoke.

"Whoops." Harry said.

"Brace!" Shepard shouted, Harry responded by lazily reaching one arm up and grabbing an overhead storage rack moments before the Mako shook violently and rolled, causing the occupants minus Harry, Jane and Wrex to scream. It came to a stop inverted and Kaidan started panicking.

"Oh god we're going to die!" Kaidan shouted.

"Where's the fucking lever on this model?" Jane said./

"Left knee." Harry said.

"Ah, thanks!" Jane said, pulling a lever. A series of mass effect fields controlled by the onboard computer manifested around the Mako, righting it.

"Are we there yet, mom?" Harry asked with a grin.

"I'll turn this thing around and go right back, mister!" Jane said, laughing before continuing on towards the onslaught.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Tali said. Harry waved his hand at her producing an orange light to flash into existence and collide with Tali's abdomen. He got a series of curious looks.

"Nausea charm." Harry said.

"Wow!" Tali observed.

"Uh... Harry?" a green looking Ashley said.

"Nausea charms all around!" Harry said with a maniacal grin before curing everyone's nausea with the spell.

"Ok, we're here." Shepard said.

"God, Finally." Harry said.

"I'm allowed to smack Civilians." Shepard said. Harry laughed, and removed his seat belt, then retrieved his weapons from the storage bin above his head.

"Harry, scout ahead and find out what we're up against while we get our equipment settled." Shepard said.

"Sure thing, boss." Harry said. He attached his rifle to his back and withdrew the elder wand, tapping his own head, causing him to disappear. The non-humans marveled as they watched a pair of footprints walking through the snow towards the entrance of the building at Peak 15.

"Goddess... he could go anywhere like that?" Shiala said.

"Not really. Disillusionment isn't perfect, he still shows up on infrared and and when he moves it ripples, it looks like heat radiating off of asphalt on a summer day." Shepard said, gesturing at where he was.

"Oh, yeah I see your point." Shiala said, noticing the rippling air around him.

"In a secure environment, like a top secret corporate research lab for example, visual data is compared to thermal, weight and chemical sensor data and when t here's a discrepancy it alerts someone or locks the room down." Shepard explained.

"Then why is he bothering with the disillusionment charm?" Ashley asked.

"Two reasons. 1. Gianna called ahead and had them lock out the local administration's stations from the sensor grid so Benezia and her group can't use sensors to track him, 2. He's a showoff." Shepard said. She got a ping on her omnitool and looked down, nodded and ordered them to follow her. They made their way into the building, stepping over several disassembled geth and a dead Krogan only to find Harry standing at a counter, seemingly attaching pieces of Geth to his biotic amp.

"This floor is clear, Didn't want to solo the next floor, I heard something heavy thumping around up there." Harry said, frowning.

"Hmm... I need a quartz crystal." Harry said.

"What are you doing?" Kaidan asked.

"It's a surprise!" Harry said, smiling. He put his project into a bag then shrunk it and stuffed it in a pocket and headed to the stairwell.

"Why aren't we taking the elevator?" Kaidan asked. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Benezia is working with the Geth. Do you want to really use an elevator in a building controlled by intelligent machines that can hack anything with a circuit board?" Harry asked.

"Ah.. Right." Kaidan said, looking embarrassed. They followed Harry up the stairs and stopped at the door.

"Can you cut through this?" Harry asked Ash. She nodded and fiddled with her omnitool, producing a cutting torch tool. While she cut he peered through the glass in the window and grinned.

"Hey Wrex?" Harry said.

"Yeah, what?" Wrex asked.

"Colossus in the next room." Harry said.

"Keelah!" Tali cried. Wrex grinned and cocked his shotgun.

"There we go." Ash said, the door slowly swung open.

"Go get 'er." Harry said. Wrex roared and charged through the door, not even losing momentum after sending three stalkers flying as he collided with them. Harry slid back into the stairwell and sat on the floor, pulling out the bag and working on his contraption again.

"Hey anyone got a watch they don't care about?" Harry asked.

"Shouldn't we be helping him?" Tali asked anxiously.

"Not if you don't want him to kick your ass. He'll be fine. Ooh wait, there's quartz in my carnifex." Harry said, withdrawing his sidearm, ejecting the heatsink and bashing it against the floor. It took only moments before he found the component he needed and started soldering it to his contraption.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE FUSION GRENADES, ASSHOLE?!" Wrex bellowed.

"YOU TELL 'EM WREX!" Harry shouted, not even looking up.

"This mission is doomed." Kaidan said.

"Well it is with that attitude... aaaand done!" Harry said, closing the panel on the Geth component. He'd produced a strange, asymmetrical light with a flashing LED on the top of it, and a big red button on the front.

"Seriously, Harry, what is that?" Liara asked. Harry responded by smiling and winking but saying nothing. He stood just in time to see a sweaty Krogan making his way back to the door, panting.

"That was fun." Wrex said, laughing.

"I promised you a colossus. Now let's get going." Harry said. They walked through the door into a corridor with rooms on the right and glass windows facing the outside on the left. Liara held up a hand to stop them.

"Wait..." Liara said.

"I hear it too." Wrex said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Something... I don't know. It's like an irregular tapping and hissing." Liara said.

"I've heard this before but I can't put my finger on it." Wrex said.

"Nothing to do but keep moving." Shepard said, and they pressed forward. That is until they were greeted by a sight most unwelcome to Wrex.

"Rachni..." Wrex growled.

"You feel that Jane?" Harry asked. Jane nodded.

"What?" Tali asked.

"It's not magic, but it's.. similar? Adjacent maybe. It's similar to what we felt coming off the clones of Shiala in at Feros." Shepard explained.

"Goddess." Shiala said. Harry withdrew the Elder wand and pointed it at the Rachni, chanting a few things under his breath before sighing. He detached his rifle and looked up his expression sad.

"Their minds are too far gone. We can't help them." Harry said. Shepard nodded.

"Take them out!" Shepard ordered. Had there been fewer of them, Shepard's team may have had serious trouble. Instead, it was a slaughter. The Rachni never had a chance. They had numbers on their side, but with their minds compromised they could do little to resist. Wrex went to comment but held his tongue, seeing how miserable Harry looked.

"Are you ok, Harry?" Shiala asked. He shook his head but said nothing.

"Let's go." Shepard said. They encountered the occasional Geth unit or group of rachni, even the occasional Krogan merc, none of which gave them any issue. There was no further joviality from Harry however. He looked like he just wanted to be done with the place. The managed to make their way into a room which was being defended by several people that almost took their heads off when they arrived. Shiala froze when she saw the human with a gun over in a corner of the room.

"Thank God, I Thought nobody would find us. I'm Captain Ventralis head of security for Elanus Risk Control Systems here at Peak 15. Sorry about the not so warm welcome. The bugs have been coming up from the hot labs all day." Ventralis said.

"I'd do the same. I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre..." Shepard said, s tarting a conversation with the man. Harry wasn't listening however, as he saw Shiala slinking away, trying not to be noticed. Harry walked over to her and cast a notice-me-not charm as he moved.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked. Shaila shook her head and gestured for him to keep It down.

"I cast a charm, nobody notices us over here." Harry said. Shiala nodded.

"The Asari over there. She's one of Benezia's acolytes. Until Feros I saw her as an older sister." Shiala said. Harry frowned.

"I can't incapacitate her without raising suspicion. That ERCS guy Jane is talking to doesn't exactly scream 'trustworthy' in my opinion." Harry said. Shiala nodded.

"Please, when the time comes, try not to hurt her." Shiala asked.

"I''ll stun her along with the rest of them when the time comes." Harry said, squeezing her shoulder. Harry stepped out of the radius of the charm and walked over to Shepard when she caught his attention and gestured him over.

"Harry we have another problem. There's a bunch of sick scientists quarantined down in the hot labs. One of the viruses they're working on got out. There's a cure down there, but there's also tons of rachni between the scientists and the cure." Shepard explained.

"What do we know about the virus?" Harry asked.

"It's completely airborne, gets in through the respiratory tract. Fatal within a week. Multiple strains, it affects Turians, Humans, Volus, Quarians and Batarians. Asari, Vorcha and Elcor are not affected." Shepard said. Harry turned to Ventralis

"So ERCS is working on bio weapons too? Jesus fucking Christ are there any reputable companies in the galaxy?" Harry asked. Ventralis shrugged.

"Above my pay grade." Ventralis said.

"I can take care of it. What about Benezia?" Harry asked. He spoke louder than was necessary, and as planned he got the Asari's attention.

"She's up in the secure lab, the tramway's out, mechanical malfunction. We can repair it, but it'll take a while." Shepard said.

"I'll go help the scientists. I'd recommend asking around and seeing if anyone knows anything else about what Benezia is doing." Harry said, before approaching Shepard and hugging her.

"The Asari is one of Benezia's commandos. Shiala identified her. Don't' stop her from following me." Harry whispered into her ear.

"Be careful, Harry." Shepard said out loud. Harry nodded and made his way to the sealed exit to the Hot Labs and hacked the lock, gaining entrance. Before stepping through the quarantine he cast a bubble head charm, it would stop any airborne pathogens so long as it remained in place. Harry made quick work of the Rachni he encountered, he hated killing the creatures, especially since they had been thought to be extinct, however there wasn't a choice. The kind of mind control that Shiala survived can be resisted by a sentient, humanoid mind, however the Rachni mind is designed to work in concert with the rest of the hive, it has no resistance to corruption. Any Rachni under the influence of mind control had to be destroyed.

He quickly found the room where the cure was stored, and frowned when he saw how little of it had been prepared. He measured it out and noted that there were five doses available. He had just barely had the chance to pocket the medicine when he was tackled from behind by a Rachni soldier. It managed to belch acid onto his armor before he was able to kill it, and now he had a new problem. The acid needed to be neutralized, and he did not have a potion or chemical burn kit with him. In a wave of inspiration, he cast a curse that he'd discovered during the Voldemort war.

It produced a thick, harsh smoke that would blind and choke your enemies for brief periods, After the third world war he experimented with it and he and a few scientist friends discovered that the smoke was extremely alkaline. He filled the room with smoke and grinned when he heard the sizzling from his armor come to a halt.

"Well that was lucky. Finite." Harry said, waving his hand, canceling out the smoke. The room with the scientists was not far, and he had cleared the remaining Rachni.

"You should'nt have come!" a bedridden scientist said, before coughing violently.

"I've got the cure." Harry said.

"Oh thank God." Another of the scientists said.

"How many of you are there?" Harry asked

"All but five of us died." the first scientist said.

"Oh thank God. I could only find five doses of this stuff." Harry said. He passed them out and the scientists all self-administered the cure.

"You'll have to sit in quarantine for a couple of weeks, but at least you're gonna make it." Harry said with a grin.

"What about you?" The scientist asked.

"Bubblehead charm." Harry said, reaching up to poke where the translucent veil should have been. He frowned when he felt nothing.

"Wait a sec... Oh goddamnit." Harry said. He rolled his eyes. The finite canceled the bubblehead charm too.

"I'm so sorry..." the scientist said.

"Don't be, I'll be fine. You got any environmental suits down here?" Harry asked.

"In the yellow cabinet." Another of the scientists said.

"You lot, go to quarantine, hydrate and eat. I'll make my own way out." Harry said. He stripped out of his armor and laughed, it had been smart to neutralize the acid, but the finite, that had been dumb. He pulled the environmental suit on, attached the helmet and tested the airlock between the suit and helmet. He then made his way to the decontamination room and entered a cycle. He was already starting to feel the fever coming on.