Disclaimer: Mass Effect isn't mine. Original characters have been created for this story. Eira is mine.

Who'd have thought I'd have another chapter for you so soon!? I hope you enjoy! Be sure to let me know your thoughts on this chapter, dear readers! As always, each comment is deeply appreciated!

Chapter Thirty-Two

Gabby was nervous when Eira had been gone for fifteen minutes but by the time fifteen became twenty and then twenty-five, she was terrified. Dragging Kenneth from the bar, she shouted her concerns to him and rallied the rest of the crew to search the club for her. After ten minutes of searching, she opened her comm-link and hurriedly begged for EDI to send Shepard to Afterlife.

Eira's head spun wildly and when she made a weak attempt to touch her pounding temple, she realized she was upside-down. Someone's grip tightened on her calf and she faintly registered panicked voices before something soft was pressed over her mouth. Confused, Eira tried to speak, only to catch a whiff of the potent fumes emanating from the cloth, and her entire world went black again.

Shepard sprinted from the Normandy, a confused Garrus in close pursuit.

EDI had only just relayed Gabby's message and the only thing he could think about was how angry she'd been with him when she'd left. And now, that was it, that was how it could end between them. He'd seen in hurt and disappointment in her eyes, saw the tension in her as she tried to maintain her façade…

"Shepard, slow down!" Garrus called as they exited the docking area, having finally caught up with him, "We need to be smart about this –

"Eira is missing," Shepard snapped, not bothering to spare Garrus a passing glance.

He had a single thing on his mind and he wasn't in the mood to listen to anyone who advised caution or going slow.

He made straight for Afterlife, pushing past the bouncers with a lethal glare that silenced the krogan who tried to stop him. Gabby was waiting for him near the dancefloor. She was pacing the narrow corridor, clearly in a panic.

She stopped when she saw him, eyes bright with sudden hope.

"Commander –

"What the fuck happened?" he growled, voice booming against the onslaught of music emanating from the dancefloor.

Gabby shook as she stumbled over her words.

"S-She said she had to go to the washroom and I just thought maybe she couldn't find us when she came out…"

"Did you check the washroom? See anything suspicious? Signs of a struggle?" Garrus asked as he scanned the room.

Gabby shook her head, "N-No, nothing. Kenneth and the others searched the whole place…she's just gone."

Heart racing and the once pounding music softening until he could hear nothing save the terrifying 'what ifs' running through his mind, Shepard frantically scanned the room, desperate to see her amongst the throng of dancing people. He thought for a moment he saw her near the bar and relief flooded him only to be snatched away when he blinked and realized it wasn't her.

Garrus and Gabby were talking behind him, trying to coordinate a thorough search with the crew they had, but he wasn't paying it much attention.

As he scanned the room, he noticed Aria on the balcony, surveying the dance floor with a smirk on her lips. A sudden, stomach twisting fear engulfed him as the realization hit him – nothing happens on Omega without Aria's knowledge.

Pushing through the crowd, he made his way to the staircase that led to her lounge, giving the turian guarding the entrance a cold look. He was going to draw his pistol and force his way through, when the turian's focus turned to his comm device and he finally got out of his way, albeit reluctantly.

Garrus had caught up with him and followed him up the stairs to the lavish balcony Aria ruled from.

"Commander Shepard," Aria said with a wry smile as one of her lackies topped off her drink, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"One of my team has gone missing," he said, voice tight as he tried to remain composed.

Aria took a sip of her drink as she eyed him with something akin to curiosity.

"That sounds like a personal problem, Commander."

"Nothing happens on Omega without your knowledge," he seethed.

"She's been missing for an hour," Garrus interjected, having seen the tension in Shepard's stance and the biting tone in his voice, "she's young, has a condition the humans call albinism."

"Ah!" Aria exclaimed brightly, "I believe I saw her on the dance floor, pretty little thing."

"Where the hell is she, Aria?" Shepard demanded, his voice shaking.

"Maybe she found someone to occupy herself with?" she offered, "pretty little thing like her surely doesn't have to be alone…"

Shepard took a step forward and Aria's lackies moved with him, a particularly pissed off krogan going so far as to draw his gun.

Garrus quickly matched him, drawing his pistol to cover Shepard's back as tension thick enough to choke them all settled on the balcony.

"Where…is…she?" he asked again, seemingly oblivious to the standoff happening behind him.

"No idea, Commander."

"Uh, Shepard…" Garrus tried to warn as the other lackies began to draw their weapons.

Shepard gave no indication he heard him though and instead, terrified and furious, drew his own pistol and aimed it straight at the cocky asari's head.

"Shepard!" Garrus hissed, trying to elbow him to get him to see sense and recognize the gravity of their situation.

"Nothing happens on this shit-hole of a space station without your okay," Shepard snapped, his once shaky stance now firm and resolute as he stared at her down the sight of his firearm, "You can't expect me to believe you had nothing to do with it."

"You need to rethink this course of action, Commander –

"No," he bit back, "you need to realize I will fucking destroy this goddamn hole to find her and if you're not going to talk, I will pull this fucking trigger in a heartbeat."

"Oh, really?" Aria scoffed.

"I've killed before, Aria, and I can assure you I won't lose any sleep over it," Shepard said coldly, his ice-blue eyes devoid of any doubt as she looked at him closely, searching for any sign he was bluffing.

"She worth starting a war over?"

"You really want to risk finding out?" he countered, pistol unmoving.

Aria took a sip of her drink and chuckled, gesturing to her goons to lower their weapons.

"Months ago, I was approached by an acquaintance to whom I owed a favor. He helped me exact my own revenge years ago, so when he asked me to let him know if I heard or saw the biotic you'd scooped out of the Pylos Nebula, I agreed."

"How did he get to her so fast?" Garrus asked, still standing between Shepard and the thugs in case things became heated again.

"I'd let him know that the Normandy was docked here when you arrived two weeks ago. He had his men on standby."

"Who is this 'acquaintance'?"

"A human," Aria sighed, "Nikolai Marin."

Shepard's breath caught in his throat. Guilt immediately engulfed him.

I should have tried to find him sooner.

I should have made sure he was dead on Nafna.

I should have told Eira…

Dozens of 'what ifs' raced through his mind and he trembled at the thought of Eira with him, afraid and alone.

What if she was dead already?

Shepard slowly lowered his pistol.

"I'm not sure what he wants with her and frankly I don't care," Aria continued, "but Marin did say a friend of his was looking for Eira. I'm sure he's already gotten Eira off Omega, though I can't begin to guess where he's taken her."

The walk back from Afterlife to the Normandy was quiet. Garrus hung back, trailing behind Shepard with the rest of the crew that had gone with Eira to the club, abundantly aware Shepard was deep in thought.

The galaxy was massive, they'd both explored the bulk of it, but just now Garrus realized just how huge it was. And they needed to find a single person in it. He had no idea where to start and hoped Shepard would by the time they got back to the ship.

As they all boarded the Normandy, the crew going their separate ways, Garrus lingered with Shepard in the empty mess hall.

"Shepard –

"Do you still have contacts on Omega?" he responded abruptly, his tone distant and pained.

"Yeah, a few I trust."

"Reach out to them, confirm Eira's not on Omega," Shepard headed for the lift.

"Where are you going?"

Shepard took a deep breath, "To reach out to Liara. If she's not here, then there's no way we can track Eira down without her help."

The lift doors closed, and Shepard leaned against the wall as it carried him to his cabin. He was quiet, his gaze detached as the reality of what happened finally settled on him. When the lift doors opened, he stepped out and let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Standing in front of the door to his cabin, he remembered opening that door to find Eira more than two weeks ago, when she'd revealed all he'd kept from her and announced her plans to leave the Normandy.

He'd been afraid then but now…

He stumbled into his room and, one shaky, teary breath later, he was on his knees sobbing.

All the mistakes he'd made, from Virmire to Tuchunka, nothing he'd done had enraged him as badly as this. He'd been bogged down by his own fears, and now the one person who demanded nothing from him was gone, in the hands of a man who was probably going to kill her once he'd gotten whatever it was he wanted from her.

He slumped against the fish tank with a pained scream.

She was gone…

Eira was gone…

A large part of him wanted to reach for his stash of whiskey. It was familiar, comfortable, but it wouldn't get him any closer to finding Eira. And he had to, even if it changed nothing between them. He had to make sure she was safe.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself and stop the tears that were still falling, he heaved himself up and made for his desk.

"EDI, call Liara, tell her it's an emergency."

When Eira woke up again, she immediately realized she was strapped to something. She risked opening her eyes to get a better sense of where she was, only to be nearly blinded by a stark white light that dominated the room.

Groaning, she squinted and tried again, only to see that she was in a large room that looked like a warehouse. She looked down and saw that she was strapped to a reclined chair, a dozen straps crisscrossing her and holding her securely in place.

She immediately tried to use her biotics to free herself, but when she felt the familiar tingle of biotic energy surging through her, it fizzled out. That was when she realized there was an IV fixed to her right arm. Following the line, she saw a large unmarked bag of fluid perched next to her.

She let out a shaky breath as terror reignited, spreading through her body in uncontrolled tremors.

Desperate to be free, she tried again, using every ounce of strength she had to try to use her biotics to break the straps, only for a searing pain to shoot through her head.

Cursing under her breath, she tried to pull her hand from the straps, hoping to be able to reach the IV bag, the chemical ball-and-chain immobilizing her. The sound of a door slamming stopped her though and she braced herself as footsteps drew nearer.

"Good morning, my dear," a strangely familiar voice welcomed her, "how do you feel?"

The figure drew closer and Eira could finally make out his face.

Her heart sunk.

"Y-You…" she managed, her voice unexpectedly faint and dry.

Marin smiled, "Me."

She tugged at her bindings and scanned the room in a panic, desperate for some opening she'd not noticed before.

"You proved to be a real pain to track down, Eira," Marin continued, reaching over Eira to cruelly tighten the strap around her wrist, "made it hard for me to keep my word."

"Let me go," she muttered, tears welling as the true danger of her situation settled on her.

"I apologize but I can't do that," Marin dismissed as he set up a bizarre contraption in front of her.

Eira whined and tried again to free herself.

Marin snapped a large datapad on the device he'd set up in front of her and turned it on. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed what looked like medical reports pulled up on the screen, but she refused to look, to give him any satisfaction.

"There are some things I need to show you, to make you aware of," Marin said with a sigh, "Look at the screen, Eira."

Stubbornly, she shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

She felt Marin lean in, felt the tickle of his breath on her neck as he leaned in close to her ear.

"Open your eyes and watch what I have to show you, or I'll be forced to make you watch, Eira."

Afraid of him and the unspoken threat, she reluctantly opened her eyes.

"What…is this?" she asked, trying to make sense of the reports on the screen.

"Your mother's medical reports," he flicked ahead on the datapad, "Her name was Kathryn Eklund and she died as a result of the experiments Cerberus subjected her to in order to create you."

He flicked ahead, and Eira was confronted by the image of a bright, beautiful woman smiling. She had thick brown hair and big, vibrant green eyes. Despite her albinism, she knew she looked like the woman.

Was it really her mother?

"This is Kathryn before they began their experiments. And this," he flicked ahead, "is two months into her torture."

Eira choked on a sob.

The life she'd seen in the woman's eyes previously was gone, extinguished. Her hair was thin, dead and dirty, her skin slick with sweat. All color had left her skin.

The next picture was of her on an exam table and Eira was startled by just how thin she was…

"Oh, god…" she gasped.

The woman, Kathryn's, stomach was large. She had to be many months pregnant at the time the picture was taken.

"They tortured her to change you," Marin said, bringing up another image in which it was obvious the woman was dead.

Eira cringed and closed her eyes.

The woman…her mother…was dead.

"Open your eyes!" Marin shouted, pushing the datapad closer to her.

Crying, Eira reluctantly complied.

"She died," Marin seethed, "after months of enduring Cerberus' treatment, only for them to keep her body alive long enough to bring you to term."

"I…I…" Eira stammered, overwhelmed and disgusted by what she was seeing.

"You were brainwashed by the organization that murdered your mother. Knowles knew exactly what was done to create you and she thought it was worth it!"

At the mention of her mother-figure, Eira broke into a sob.

Everything that happened at Pragia with Jack had given her reason to doubt the things she'd thought were true; but this?

She wept for Corrine, missed her, and now to learn that she'd known what had happened…

"Stop," Eira murmured, vision blurred by tears as she trembled in the chair.

"No," he grabbed her chin and forced her to turn back to the screen, "you need to know! Kathryn poured everything she had into Cerberus, believed entirely in their mission, only for them to betray her and turn her into a fucking test subject the second you showed promise!"

She turned to him, "She…worked for them?"

Marin nodded, "We all did."

"We?"

"Kathryn, myself, and your father."

Teary eyes wide, she struggled to process everything she was hearing. Her initial fear and desperation to flee had been pushed to the back of her mind. All she wanted now was to know more, as painful as it was.

"M-My father?"

"Julian believed them when he was told Kathryn had died early on in her pregnancy. We didn't learn the truth until later. By then Kathryn was dead and you were gone."

"He's alive?"

"Yes, I raided Nafna and tracked you down for him. He'll be here for you in a couple of days," he turned back to the datapad, "until then, you've got a lot to be caught up on."

A video appeared on the screen and Eira's tears began anew. On the screen, she saw her mother, alive but thin and weak from god-know-what they'd done to her. She was hooked up to numerous IVs and monitors, as technicians hovered around her.

"Please stop," she whispered.

All curiosity, all desire to know more disintegrated as she took in the look of terror in Kathryn's face.

"You need to know," he said firmly, turning up the volume on the video, "Julian found these files in a series of raids we did on Cerberus stations leading up to finding you. He saw them, and now it's your turn."

Eira watched as the technicians withdrew from the room and various monitors flashed wildly. Kathryn bucked against her restrains, her back arching as she fought against them, her head tossed back as she screamed in agony.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Eira clawed desperately at her restraints. She tried to call her biotics to life, to gather the energy needed to send Marin flying through the damn wall, but she couldn't.

Bound, weak, and helpless, she was just as alone as her mother was. And just like her mother, there was no one coming to save her.