I'm glad everyone has stuck me this far, as always enjoy!

Kirill sat in a ratty old chair in the corner of the outpost; he was watching the alien woman closely. He had carried her all the way to the small hide out that was built into an old tractor trailer. It was in an alleyway so it had some cover from observation but it was still one of the more exposed outposts in the area. Kirill had managed to get her inside and he had set her down on one of the two racks that were in the cramped makeshift home. The only light came from the few lanterns that hung around the outpost. The filter was converted from the AC unit that kept the trailer cold. The stalkers had picked this particular trailer as it was one built to keep its cargo refrigerated and with some metro jerry-rigging know how the AC unit became a filtration unit. The airlock was easy as the trailer had two sections, part for unrefrigerated goods and the other for goods that required to be kept cool.

It had some basic furnishings, a small fire stove that used a double door system to keep the toxic outside air from flowing through the chimney. Two small beds were in the trailer along with a few footlockers and the chair that Kirill was sitting in, carefully watching his captive or the woman he rescued, he had yet to decide. The young Russian held his revolver loosely in his hand taking care to point it at the alien.

He had been able to treat her wounds as she was surprisingly very similar to a human, in fact the only thing he had seen that indicated her as an alien was her blue skin, her lack of ears and the strange crest's on her head in place of her hair. Kirill had been as respectful as possible in treating her making sure to preserve the alien's dignity as much as he could. She was still asleep, her breathing steady and even.

"What are you?" Kirill wondered aloud as he stood up to check on her. He walked over to the bed and looked down at her. She looked peaceful in her sleep and despite his initial shock at being the first human he ever knew or heard of to find an alien, something about her was attractive. He placed two of his fingers on her neck checking her pulse. It was still there, and strong which was a good sign for her. Kirill pulled the blanket back and checked the bandages that were wrapped around her ribcage. They were still snug and the blood had yet to soak up to the top. He pulled the blanket back over her making sure that she was warm.

"Well, you seem alright friend" he told her before he went over to the stove and set about starting to cook up some of the meat he had. He licked his lips as the sweet smell of the large mutant creatures that were common in the swamps and rivers filled the air, they called them shrimps. The meat sizzled on the stove as Kirill checked the fire in its small closed in pit under the steel of the stove's top. The small red flames danced with merriment as they licked the steel and cooked the shrimp meat. Kirill smiled as he flipped the steaks and they sizzled up again.

He heard the sound of the bed spring creek and he thumbed the strap on his holster that ran over the back of his pistol. He glanced over his shoulder at the alien woman; she had pushed herself of the bed and was rubbing her eyes. She had yet to see him or the room that they were in; he drew his pistol and positioned himself across from her, his weapon at the ready.

Liara felt herself wake and she sighed, that was all a dream it was just a bad dream she thought to herself as she began to become aware of her surroundings. She was laying down on something soft, a warm weight was on top of her and her hands felt it as she brushed her hands against it. It was soft but something about it seemed off as it didn't feel like the blanket on her bed on the Discovery. The Asari slowly sat up and felt a sharp pain in her ribs as she used her arms to push herself up grimacing from the pain in her side. I'm okay, I'm going to open my eyes and be on the ship. Tali just got me a different blanket is all she told herself as she rubbed her eyes. It was then that she noticed the smell of something sweet cooking, whatever it was it sizzled and popped making her doubt her own self-reassurance even more.

She slowly opened her eyes and gasped. She most definitely was not in the Discovery with its clean walls, soft lights and clean air. She looked around her at the yellowed steel walls, the rust spots and stains covered them. The only light was coming from a few candle lit lanterns that hung from the ceiling by wire. Another bed, one of the only familiar looking things in the room, was at the far end of the narrow room. She moved her eyes down looking at her own bed as the other one was dirty with stains and a dirty, brown blanket covered her. She looked disgusted as she looked up and to her left; she saw a box looking thing with a glass window behind which a small fire danced. On top of it was a steel plate that the meat she smelled was cooking. Her eyes continued to scan till she saw it, her eyes grew wide and her heart rate raced as her breathing started to go crazy.

Liara jumped out of her skin and she scrambled back trying to distance herself from the thing. She pressed her back against the wall and curled up her eyes still wide and locked on the alien. It stood taller than her; some sort of fur or hair covered its head and hung down around its face. The hair was messy and dark color almost pitches black, it looked oily as if unclean. The creature's face had small hairs that covered what she guessed was its jaw, she was able to make out a lot of the aliens features due to the fact it looked like an Asari only more masculine.

Liara glanced it over quickly, trying to take in all the details about it. The creature's arms were exposed as its shirt had no sleeves, the things left arm was covered in markings of some sort. She could see definition of muscles beneath its skin and she knew that if the alien really wanted to he could over power her. Held in its hand was a strange weapon, she didn't know what it was but the shape of it was evidently a weapon. Her eyes found it and what she saw there frightened her, it had dangerous eyes. The alien's eyes had the look of a hunter to them, a predator, but what was most striking about them was that they didn't match. The creatures left eyes was a bright green color and the right was a striking blue.

"By the goddess" she whispered as the two locked eyes, both familiar yet entirely alien to each other.

Garrus sat up his head was on fire and his entire body ached as moved from laying down to a sitting position. He opened his eyes and looked around him; he was in a small cage of some kind that was sticking out from a wall. He couldn't see any of the others right away, the room was dark and it was hard to see as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. He took a breath and instantly wished that he hadn't, the air was disgusting smelling of death and who knew what else. The turian crawled his way to the front of the cage to get a better look at his surroundings. He was in a tall vertical room, a pale light came in from the top but it didn't do much to penetrate the darkness. He could see other cages and shapes inside them but he couldn't make out exactly what they were. He strained his eyes to try and make out the details of the prison as the only logical conclusion is that is what he was in.

What he saw as more of the prison came into focus horrified the turian. In the center of the room, suspended from rope or cable was the bodies of the same type of aliens that had taken him and the others hostage. Around the prison were more cages and inside them were more of the strange Asari looking aliens. Many of them looked dead or as if they should be dead. Garrus's mouth dropped as he took it all in, this wasn't a prison it was a nightmare.

"Garrus?" came a soft voice from the cage next to him. Garrus looked over and saw Tali kneeling in the cage next to him. He could see her glowing Quarain eyes in the dark of the prison.

"Yeah, do you see any other the others Tali?" Garrus asked as he checked around him.

"No, I am scared"

"I know, me to" Garrus whispered as he checked himself over for anything that the hostile aliens hadn't take from him "we got to get out of here"

"How?" Tali asked him quietly "I already tried hack but there is nothing to hack!"

"Damn it, great" Garrus grunted as he checked his wrist to see if his Omni tool was still there. Oh thank the spirits he thought as he felt the small chip still in place on the slot on his armor. He looked around and didn't see any guards around so he quickly turned it on and checked its functions. In the light he could see that most of the strange aliens were looking at him with wide eyes. Their faces wide in fear, eyes wide and they were all trying to distance themselves from the turian as much as possible. Garrus quickly shut the tool down checking to see if any guards had seen it but thankfully the prison chamber was still only full of the prisoners.

"Tali, I have an idea"

"What is it Garrus?" Tali asked him keeping her voice low.

"Omni-tools have wielding functions on some models including mine" Garrus told her as he grabbed the first set of bars, and pulled the omni-tool back up "I'm going to cut myself out then you"

"Okay, I'll keep watch" Tali whispered to him. The Quarain looked up at the center platform that was connected to a host of some kind. She watched with baited breath praying to anyone that would hear her silent cries for help that the guards wouldn't come back. Tali heard the sound of a torch next to her and she glanced over as Garrus began to cut his way out. She held her breath as he popped on bar after the next.

Garrus made sure to grab the bars to not let them fall as he cut them out of the cage. He finished with the last one of the steel rods and set it down next to him. The turian pulled him out and stepped lightly as he could manage down onto the catwalk that ran along the level of cages. He grabbed two of the bars and looked at them; they were solid and didn't have any rust beyond the surface. He slide the two bars into a pouch on his leg as he crouched low and shuffled his way quietly over to Tail's cage.

"Stand back Tali" He said as he began to cut "would hate to cut your suit off"

"Trust me, a rupture here would kill me in seconds" the Quarain whispered as her slide back from the front of the cage. Garrus began to cut, he focused on what he was doing and didn't hear the footsteps above him.

"Garrus!" Tali hissed causing the turian to stop. Garrus looked up at her as she pointed to the elevator; the turian whipped his head back and saw one of the aliens in the lift as it began to descend to their level. Garrus quickly looked for a spot to hide and he found one right underneath Tail's cage. He quickly crawled onto the large steel beam and waited in the shadows. The beam was what was holding the catwalk up and he could see them all around the room as he looked for options.

"Tali, we are going to get out of this" Garrus whispered to comfort her "I promise you"

Tali just nodded as she watched the lift stop not far from them at a bridge that went into the center of the room. The alien pushed a small gate open and stepped out onto the walkway; the creature glanced around before he started his way towards Tali. The Quarain was frightened as the hulking alien walked towards her. It had a weapon in it's handed, a rifle of some kind, and he looked as though he knew how use it well.

The alien walked over to Tail's cage and looked at her. Tali stared right back at it her heart beating fast as she held her breath scared out of her mind about what the creature would do. It chuckled to itself before saying something in some sort of strange lunged before it turned away from her. What happened next made her almost scream in shock but she managed to keep her head but only just.

Garrus grabbed one of the steel rods from his leg pouch and looked at the ends. One of them was slanted and pointed on one side, he growled low and under his breath as he got a firm grip on his make shift weapon. The alien turned away to move down the row of cages but before he could take a step Garrus was on him. The turian sprung out from the darkness, his free hand quickly wrapped around the creatures head and covered what Garrus hoped was its mouth. He pulled it in tight to his chest as he brought the steel straight up into the things head from under its jaw. The rod stopped when it hit the top of the alien's skull.

Warm red blood flowed over Garrus's hand as it drained from the alien's neck. The river of red slashed on the floor as the turian ripped his makeshift weapon free. He looked up at Tali whose eyes were wide as she starred at him. Garrus quickly went back to cutting the cage bars with his omni-tool's torch making sure to do it at an angle so they could use them as weapons.

"Come on" Garrus told Tali as the last bar fell free "we got to move now Tali"

The Quarain was still visible shaken as she took Garrus's hand and stepped out on to the catwalk. Garrus grabbed the strange rifle from the ground and looked it over; it only took him a few moments to understand how it worked. He hit a latch and the magazine popped out and he looked at the rounds before slotting it back in. Tali stood off to the side her arms crossed and shaking as the turian stripped the body of anything useful. He grabbed more magazines for the gun and put them away as he stood up. In Garrus's hand was a pistol of some kind, he was holding it out to Tali. She looked up at him her eyes pleading for something, anything other than what was going on. Garrus thrust the pistol at her and eyes snapped up to his eyes, they were set and hard but she could see the sympathy in them. She took the weapon slow, its weight strange in her hand as she got accustomed to its grip. She flicked a switch on the side and a cylinder of some kind fell out on a hinge. She saw six gold colored circles in it, the Quarain but together in her engineers mind what she was holding. She flicked her wrist and the cylinder snapped into place. She looked up at Garrus who gave her a nod, his eyes steel and his face cold. Tali took a deep breath before she looked him in the eye determined to survive and gave him a nod. The two started off together in the dark to find their fellow captive explorers.

Garrus took the lead with Tali trailing behind him; they searched all the cages on their level but couldn't find anyone. Garrus waved for her to follow him as he walked off to the lift making sure to keep his newly acquired weapon at the ready. The two climbed into the lift and Tali hit the only switch on the contraption and they started up to the next level. The lift shuddered to a halt at the next of the four levels up the prison.

Tali stepped off first as Garrus made sure that he checked above them for any hostiles, thankfully there weren't any. He maneuvered the strange rifle back down as he stepped from the lift and onto the catwalk. The weapon had strange wooden grips and a stock but it looked as if it operated simply which meant it was reliable. Tali heard the sound of a voice speaking and it was speaking in a language she knew. Garrus heard it to and he quickly ran with Tali over to an archway of some kind and peaked inside.

Mordin was standing in the middle of the room, three bodies of the strange aliens lay around him and the cage behind him was cut open. The two ran over to the Salarain who was muttering under his breath as he studied one of the alien's weapons. It was two tubes with a trigger group underneath and a wooden butt stock that had a built in grip on it.

"Mordin am I glad to see you" Garrus said happily as he clapped the Salarain on the shoulder.

"Good to see you to, thought I was only one" Mordin rattled off "good to be wrong for once"

"Do you know where any of the others are?" Tali asked as she grabbed more ammo off the dead aliens. Garrus looked hopefully at the doctor who just shook his head. Tali sighed as she punched the ground cursing as she did.

"No time for anger, we must find the rest of the group in prison" Mordin said as he checked his captured weapon "retrieves equipment as well"

"What about if they were taken elsewhere?" Tali asked Mordin shocked that they may leave people behind.

"If not in prison, assume they are dead" Mordin told her as he moved towards the prison chamber "We must move Tali'Zorah"

"Mordin is right; as much as it hurts he is right" Garrus said defeated "we have to get out of here and reach the crash"

"Okay" Tali sadly replied "okay"

Kirill stood facing the alien woman as she pinned herself against the wall trying to get away from him. Her eyes were wide with fear as she breathed heavy and fast. Her eyes locked with his and saw the terror in the blue of her eyes. Kirill sighed as he took and slow drifted the revolver in his hand back to his leg. The alien watched him closely as he slide the pistol back into its holster and held his hands out showing he didn't have anything in his hand. The alien girl looked at him curiously her eyes studying him closely, watching him.

"Kirill" He said pointing to his chest. The alien looked puzzled for a second before her eyes brightened as she understood what he meant.

"Liara" the alien told him pointing to herself. Kirill nodded, he thought about how we could communicate he meant no harm to her now that he seen she didn't want to eat him or something. He looked around but didn't see anything he could use to help him. Then an idea popped in his head. He pointed at her making her flinch, and then he punched himself lightly in the leg before waving his hand.

Liara looked at the alien that had identified itself as Kirill; she didn't know if that was its species or its name. The alien pointed at her making her flinch back but then it punched its self and waved its hands across its chest as if he was saying stop or no. Liara looked puzzled for a second as her mind raced to put the message together. It clicked its means me no harm she told herself and she let out the breath she had been holding. She smiled at the creature which it understood as it's strangely Asari face went from being skeptical and dangerous to kind. To her surprise it also smiled at before it turned to the stove thing.

Liara watched it closely as it scooped up the meat from the steel top of the stove and put it on two plates. The Kirill walked back to her and held out a plate to her. She curiously studied the meat before taking the plate; she took a whiff of it. It smelled sweet and fresh, she looked up at the alien who was sitting in a chair across from her. It had a knife in its hand and was cutting a piece of the meat off before it shoved the chunk in to its mouth. Liara felt her stomach growl and she looked at the meat before she gulped and picked up the knife on her plate. The steel utensil cut through the cooked meat with ease and she stabbed the small piece she had cut off and put it in her mouth. She expected it to taste bad but it was not what she expected.

The meat was as sweet as it smelled and had some sort of spices on it that made it taste a bit like her favorite sauce for noodles. Her eyes lit up and she let go of her lady like discipline. The Asari grabbed the knife and attacked the hunk of meat like a rabid varren. She heard a sound that reminded her of laughter and looked up to see the alien holding its side. A bit of the stringy meat hunk from her mouth as she realized that the alien was laughing at her. She slurped the meat down, her cheeks a bright pink now as she finished the steak with more poise and manners.

When the two finished they looked at each other studying each other as if they were two varren or dogs that had just meet for the first time. Liara was trying to figure out how to communicate with the Alien beyond more than sloppy sign language and one word at a time. She had heard about how Asari diplomats had been trained to use the bonding process to learn the language of newly found species. She had never melded with anyone before but she had to give it a shot so she could learn the alien's language.

Kirill stood up and walked over to her. She watched him closely as he reached down and grabbed the plate. She had to act quickly; her heart raced as she reached out and grabbed the aliens arm. Kirill looked at her and their eyes meet, in that split second Liara saw confusion before she said the words and joined her nervous system to its.

"Embrace eternity"

Kirill felt the blue girl's hand grab his arm and he looked at her confused thinking she didn't want him to take the plate. His eyes meet her and he saw determination in her eyes before she spoke. The alien's voice was beautiful and the language she spoke sounded fluid and elegant. Kirill watched in shock as her eyes turned pitch black and suddenly he felt strange. He slammed his eyes shut hoping to break eye contact to stop whatever it was but instead of finding himself in darkness he found himself elsewhere.

He looked around him, he was standing on a black shadow while what looked like purple lines danced around him like lighting. They seemed to pulse as he moved and that's when he saw her, the alien. He reached to hip as if the grab his weapon but found that it wasn't there. He growled as he looked up at the alien anger in his voice as he yelled at her.

"What the hell is going?!"

The alien stepped back holding her hands up as she closed her eyes and looked deep in tought. Kirill held his head as he felt a strange feeling, like something was moving in his brain, and what happened next shocked him.

"Don…doesn't hurt me" he heard a voice saw and he opened his eyes to see the alien still standing their hands up. Around them danced words, phrases and letters as though they were shadows dancing from a fire.

"Did, did you just speak?" Kirill asked her shocked at what was going.

"Yes, I can understand you now" Liara told him "and speak your language"

Suddenly the vision in front of him went black and Kirill opened his eyes to see Liara still holding his arm and looking at him.

"Did it work?" She asked in perfect Russian.

Garrus quickly closed the door behind the group of survivors as they ran out of the prison and into the blackness of the tunnel ahead of them. They had found Trexo in a cage on the top level but he was in bad shape so Garrus had taken charge for now. Garrus signaled for Tali, Trexo and Mordin to stay quiet and low as they moved up to tunnel. He heard voices ahead of them but didn't see anyone, must be echoes from up ahead he thought to himself as he lead them along the darkened walkways on the side of the tunnels. It was pitch black in the dark tunnels.

Tali walked silently behind the two more experienced men making sure that she checked her back; the tunnel frightened her and made her skin crawl in its empty blackness. She saw a warm glow of a fire around the bend and Garrus held up a hand for them to stop. The turian reached in his pocket grabbing some of the sharp steel rods that they had got from cutting their way out of the prison cages.

"Take one; keep it quiet" Garrus whispered "Trexo stay back"

"Alright ill hang back" Trexo groaned as he held his side "You signal me when it's clear"

Mordin nodded understanding as he took one and activated a cloaking field. Tali grabbed one of them and followed the still visible turian along the path towards the fire. She heard a groan and looked up at a bridge that crossed the gap above them and saw Mordin slowly lowering a body to the ground. He was struggling with the weight as he set the alien corpse down on the bridge. The Quarain gulped as she looked to her right were Garrus was point his weapon and saw four of the aliens gathered around a table.

"Tali, stay low and in the shadows" Garrus whispered as low as he could. Tali barley heard him over the sound of laugher and muffled screams. She looked at him confused before he waved her to move.

"Go clear out the area behind us" he hissed. Tali gulped as she looked around and saw Mordin on the balcony holding a rifle now of some kind. She sighed as she slowly moved quiet as she could managed across the tunnel and towards the out cove area. She kept a firm grip on the steel shank and her captured pistol in her hand. She came in the first room and didn't see anyone but the noises were coming from a doorway to her right. She peaked around the opening and saw an awful sight.

Aeine lay on the one bed in the room, her hands bound above her head and her armor was gone on her chest and back. The Asari was laying on her back as one of the aliens laughed as he whipped her making her scream in pain. Tali felt her anger rise and she ran at the creature who wasn't expecting her to barrel into him like a krogan. She took her make shift knife and plunged it down hard into the aliens face. She kept stabbing it, over and over again as tears ran down her face under her mask. She didn't even hear the sounds of Mordin and Garrus opening fire on the four aliens around the table all she could hear was the thud as the steel rod buried itself into the creature's chest over and over again.

Tali yelled as she threw the shank away it clattered into a shelve full of boxes behind her. She looked down at her hands to see them covered in dark red blood that dripped of her suit. She started to hyperventilate, her eyes wide in shock and horror at what she had just done to something, someone. Her hands shook as she tried to stand up and but her legs were shaking beneath her.

Garrus ran over to her and grabbed ahold of her shaking her shoulders, but she just stood there in shock. He looked down and saw the body of the alien, its chest looked like ground meat as blood pooled around it and its face was caved in from her shoving her shiv between its eyes.

"Tali snap out of it" Garrus said shaking her. Mordin ran over to Aeine and cut her lose using a knife he had got off one of the dead aliens.

"I'm sorry Garrus" Tali said shuddering as she looked at him. The turian had a pack of some kind in his back and in his hands was an avenger rifle.

"It's alright" Garrus said as he put a pack down by her feet with a rifle attached to it "we found our supplies on the table, the aliens were studying it"

Tali just nodded as she picked the pack up, her hands still shaking as she did. Aeine walked over to the two of them and looked down at the alien then up at Tali.

"Nice work Quarain" the Asari said congratulatory. Garrus put a hand on her shoulder making her look up at him.

"Come on we are almost out of here, hold it together a little longer" the turian told her comfortingly.

"I'll try" Tali said as she followed Mordin and Aeine out of the out coves and to the main door at the end of the tunnel. Garrus waved at Trexo who was hidden down the tunnel and the black skinned turian come limping their way. Tali looked at the massive door, it resembled a ships hanger door but smaller. She watched as it opened, the massive steel walls shuddering and groaning as they slide apart. Up next to her walked Garrus and Aeine, Mordin and Trexo stood behind them as they stared into the inky blackness of the metro. The others started first and Tali watched them pass her before she took a deep, shaky breath and stepped out into the unknown.