Shepard: Another chapter. Good. I was getting impatient.

Jasmine: So was I. Why must we wait so long for updates?

Rain: I'm sorry Commanders but life you know. Plus for each chapter, I tend to play through the game to get it as accurate as I can plus…The Benezia fight on the insane setting is brutal!

Shepard: Well in the future, updated more often!

Rain: Yes sir!

Mass Effect: Sins of the Future
Chapter Twenty-Two: Battling The Matriarch

Secure Labs – Noveria
Team Jasmine

"I now realize I should have been stricter with her," Benezia replied before she raised her arms, her eyes glowing with biotic energy. "Jasmine, Liara...I led you both to happiness but on this day, I lead you both to despair!"

The team felt biotic energy encase their bodies before falling to the ground, unable to move, unable to even talk.

It was then the sounds of glass could be heard and four Asari Commandos repelled down to the ground and pulled out their guns.

Jasmine and her team felt the biotic force around them weaken and then shatter, allowing them all to move once more, and quickly stood up and returned fire, their shield glowing with each impact of the bullets again them.

"Kaidan!" Jasmine yelled.

Kaidan nodded and used his biotics to lift up a discarded metal sheet and moved it in front of the team to shield them from the bullets before he pushed it forward in an attempt to hit the four Commandos.

But unfortunately, two of the Commandos rolled beneath the sheet while the other two jumped above it but the minute they came into view, Wrex let out roar and rammed into their bodies, sending two of the Asari to the ground while he charged forward and slammed the other two Asari into the steel wall.

Jasmine, Kaidan and Liara immediately lowered their weapons and began to fire their guns at the two relentlessly, first hitting their shields before tearing through their bodies while Wrex pulled out a shotgun and a pistol and fired into the chests of the pair of Asari, leaving them dead against the wall.

Jasmine then reached behind her and launched a grenade towards Benezia, who caught it with her biotics and launched it towards Wrex, where it exploded, which sent the Krogan flying backwards onto the ground.

Kaidan leapt into the air with a biotic-assisted jump and lifted up two metal crates and launched them towards Benezia, who held out her hand to halt the crates dead in their tracks before launching them back at Kaidan and then using her biotics to lift another crate and tossed it towards him.

Using his biotics, Kaidan forced the two crates away from him but was nailed by the third crate, which sent him sailing backwards into the ceiling before Benezia lifted her left hand andused her biotics to hold him there.

She then saw Jasmine and Liara running towards her and smiled before four more Asari Commandos landed in front of her and began to fire their guns, which caused Jasmine and Liara to roll to the left and right respectively behind two large craters.

Wrex began to rise to his feet and saw a red dot being aimed at his chest and slammed his hand into the wall beside him to push out a jagged piece of the wall, which took the shot from the Geth Sniper and then used his biotics to push the jagged edge towards the sniper at an angle, which caused the jagged piece to slice through the Geth Sniper's upper chest.

Wrex stood up and grabbed both of the dead Asari Commandos and launched them towards Benezia, who lifted a finger on her right hand and stopped them from hitting her before she twirling the finger, making them turn to Wrex and launched them both back at the Krogan.

Wrex rolled to the left and fired his shotgun repeatedly at the Matriarch, who returned the deceased bodies of her comrades to absorb the bullets before launching them at Wrex once more, who punched each one aside before he slumped over, unable to move due to her putting him in stasis.

Benezia then looked to the struggling Kaidan, still being held against the ceiling wall and then to the two spots where Liara and Jasmine were hunkered down in and a smirk appeared on her face.

She pulled her left hand back, which forced Kaidan to float from the wall and swiftly waved her left hand down, which caused Kaidan to slam down to the ground hard behind the crate Liara was behind jerked her hand back sharply, which pulled Kaidan's body forward to slam into Liara while breaking shattering the crate.

Liara and Kaidan rolled against the ground and stopped at the feet of the four Commandos, who immediately aimed down at the pair.

Seeing this, Jasmine reloaded her weapon and quickly stood up and fired two shots into at the head of the closet Commando, which caused the bullet to be absorbed by the Asari's shield. "Yo! Over here bitches!" Jasmine yelled.

The four Asari turned around and began to fire at Jasmine, who ducked back behind the crate and pulled out an ice grenade and rolled it towards the four Asari's feet.

Liara shook her head and saw the grenade and picked up Kaidan and rolled away just as it exploded, leaving the four Asari encased in a thin layer of ice, slowing down their movements. Jasmine quickly stood up as she pulled out her shotgun and fired the entire chamber at the slow moving Asari, killing all four of them by the time her weapon overheated.

But before she could do anything more, she felt a bullet collide against her shield, which caused her to look up to see a Geth Sniper running to the left. She scowled and lifted up her weapon but without warning, her body seized up as biotic energy swarmed around her.

Wrex broke out of the stasis and stood up and used his biotics to lift up a crate and launched it towards the Geth Sniper, which was sent to the ground due to the hard impact of the crate. Wrex then used his biotics to lift the Geth up and threw it at the Matriarch, where it slammed into her side and sent her falling to the ground.

Wrex pulled the Geth into his hands and brutally ripped its head from its shoulders before tossing it to the ground and leapt into the air with a biotic-assisted jump towards Benezia but the Matriarch quickly rose to her feet and swung her left hand, sending seven crates towards Wrex, who managed to break through all of them before he landed before her.

"Hehehe," Wrex chuckled lowly as he lifted up his shotgun but without warning four Geth Snipers fell from the ceiling and began to fire down at Wrex.

Wrex felt his shield being pelted with the bullets and looked up and began to fire his shotgun up, managing to destroy one Geth Sniper but Benezia froze him in place before she pushed reared her right arm back and lunged it forward, which sent Wrex's frozen body shooting backwards and crashing through a wall.

She then turned around to see Liara's right fist coming close to her face where she used her biotics to halt Liara's fist just inches from her face. Benezia grinned and said "Very close daughter but not close enough."

Liara frowned and pushed Benezia backwards with her biotics and pulled up two metal crates and threw them at the matriarch, who batted them away with ease before she encased Liara's body with her biotics and pushed her backwards.

Liara crashed onto the ground and rolled backwards to her feet and began to fire her pistol but Benezia used her biotics to shield herself from the bullets and then pushed the shield towards Liara, who used her biotics to disperse her mother's shield.

"You have gotten better with the biotics. Very good," Benezia said with approval.

"You need to stop this mother!" Liara yelled. "I don't want anyone to die but you're forcing our hands!"

"Unfortunately, all of you must die," Benezia said. "Such is the order of Saren!" Benezia then reached her right hand back towards the wall behind her and with biotic energy surging in her hand and began to pull at an unseen force.

On the left of the matriarch, two large metal tanks that stood connected to the wall began to shake before being ripped off the wall. "Now perish!" Benezia shouted as she launched one of the large metal tanks towards Liara.

Liara's eyes widened in terror before they grew cold with fury and with all of her might, Liara managed to stop the tank from hitting her with her own biotic gritted her teeth, her eyes glowing violently as she let out a sharp scream and threw the tank back at Benezia.

Benezia swiped her right hand forward and the second tank flew towards the first one and blocked it, which sent both metal tubes crashing to the ground, barely missing Jasmine, who was still trapped in stasis.

"Mother, please! Don't make me do this!" Liara begged.

"I will not betray him! Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is c-clear…" Benezia then staggered backwards as she held her hand, her glowing blue eyes fading back to normal.

She then looked up at Liara and said with a strained voice "Little Wing. You must listen, Saren still whispers in my mind I can fight his compulsions briefly. But the indoctrination is strong."

"Indoctrination? What do you mean mother?" Liara questioned as she took a step forward but the matriarch lifted up her hand to stop her.

"People are not themselves around Saren," Benezia explained. "You come to idolize him worship him. Do anything for him and the key to this is Sovereign. His flagship. It is a dreadnaught of incredible size and power and it's amazing."

"The ship is the key to him controlling you?" Liara asked.

"Y-You don't understand it my daughter…" Benezia said. "Thoughts echo strangely within it. Its rooms are built at unsettling angles. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist instead I became a willing tool, eager to serve."

Liara felt her heart break at the sight of how helpless her mother looked to her but before she could say anything, Benezia gripped her head and in agony before the subtle glow of her eyes appeared.

"A-And I will do anything for him!" Benezia screamed as her body glowed with biotic energy, which forced Liara backwards into air where she crashed against the wall hard.

Liara let out a roar and with her own biotic energy, she forced her mother's energy off of her and flew down towards the ground and ran towards her mother as she launched two sharp pipes towards Benezia, who batted each one away before Liara leapt up and landed a solid blow to Benezia's face, which caused the matriarch to stumble back in alarm.

With biotic energy flowing around her, Liara let out a scream and tackled Benezia hard, which launched the pair off of the landing and down to the floor below the landing, where they both landed with a crash, which caused the biotic energy on Benezia's hands to fade away almost instantly.

Meanwhile, Jasmine pushed herself to her feet and said "I hate biotics so much right now…" She then felt a bullet slam into her shield from behind and turned around and shot her pistol at the Geth Sniper that was posted on the corner of the ceiling, sending it tumbling to the ground.

Jasmine then pulled out her own sniper rifle and rolled to the left to avoid two shots from two more Snipers and fired off a shot, nailing a Geth Sniper in its lightbulb head, before she stood up and fired two more shots at the third sniper, hitting it in the shoulder and neck, which caused it to fall.

Another Geth Sniper landed on the ground before the Krogan-sized hole but before Jasmine could fire at it, Wrex's biotic covered fist rammed through the machine's head where the mighty Krogan then pulled it out, a scowl on the scarred being's face.

"Where is Benezia?" Wrex growled out.

Just then, three more Asari Commandos ran through the doors to the left, which caused both Jasmine and Wrex to slump their shoulders in annoyance before they both lifted up their shotguns.

On the ramp beneath Wrex and Jasmine, Liara opened her eyes and felt an intense searing pain in her left shoulder and when she glanced at it, her shoulder was impaled by a steel rod sticking out from the ramp.

Liara let out a groan of pain as she pushed herself off the narrow metal rod and looked up only to gasp in horror.

Her mother was faced down on the ramp with metal rods piercing her right shoulder, her left hip and her chest. Liara crawled up to her mother and asked "Mother? Mother are you okay?"

Benezia let out a sharp gasp of agony."Little Wing?!" Benezia gasped out in alarm, which caused Liara's eyes to tear up.

"Mother…" Liara breathed out as she crawled to Benezia's side and pulled Benezia off of the rodsas carefully as possible and turned her around to hold her mother. "It'll be okay. You'll be okay," Liara told her as she placed her hand over her mother's wound.

Benezia smiled bitterly and said "I thought I told you that lying does no one good…"

"I'm not lying, I swear," Liara said with a panicked expression but then Benezia placed a bloody palm on Liara's cheek.

"It's okay little wing…" Benezia whispered, her breathing becoming slower. "It's better this way…"

"What were you all after? What was the point of all of this?!" Liara asked helplessly.

"S-Saren…He needed to collect the Mu Relay coordinates… Its positioning was lost thousands of years ago but t-two thousand years ago, the R-Rachni inhabited that region of our galaxy they discovered the relay…"

"But they were extinct for many, many years until recently…How could you have gotten it?" Liara asked.

"The Rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers. I t-took the location of the relay from the queen's mind. I was not gentle…"

"Why did he even need it the relay?" Liara asked.

"He believes it will lead him to the conduit I would tell you more but he didn't share his counsel with me nor did he tell me where he was going next and I never asked for I was merely an eager servant to his cause…B-But you must find him quickly. I sent the coordinates to him before you arrived," Benezia replied

The sounds of gunfire was heard above the pair, which caused Liara to look up. "His teeth are at my ear…His fingers on my spine…I can feel his icy cold grip filling my mind again but I my life is coming at its end…"

"Mother…" Liara said. "W-We can still save you…I-I have Medi-gel on me…"

"N-No…I'd rather die than go back to b-being a slave to that s-ship…" Benezia wheezed out before she lifted up her right arm with some difficulty and placed her index and middle finger to Liara's head.

Liara's eyes widened as she felt tears building up in her eyes and said "I should have never left…All these years between us for such a insignificant argument…"

"I don't blame you…I should have believed in your dreams…But despite that, I'm happy for I got to see and Jasmine again. That is all I ever wanted before my passing to the great light…"

"Jasmine…You mean a lot to her," Liara said.

"As she does to me…T-Tell her that I'm s-so sorry for hurting her l-like this…" Benezia said. "And I-I hope she forgives me…"

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Liara said with a small smile.

Benezia's eyes twinkled faintly as she asked "Do you l-like her…?"

"T-This is hardly the time to ask that," Liara stammered before she looked away with her cheeks darkening and said "W-Well. I d-don't know yet but I think she's neat…"

"Trust me when I say, y-you'll be in for a treat," Benezia said softly before she reached into her clothing and pulled out a small disk and handed it to her.

"What is this?" Liara asked.

"I transcribed the data I gathered from the Queen and placed i-it into an OSD. Take it please…And stop Saren…That is m-my final request as y-you mother…" Benezia murmured as she balled Liara's hand up over the disk.

"I will…I promise you I will stop Saren for good…" Liara muttered with determination.

"I know you will…You are a T'Soni after all…" Benezia said before a tear fell from her eyes. "I-I know I've done wrong by you…But I-I want you to know that youare the greatest gift I have ever brought into this universe and I-I'm so proud of you… Benezia said with a tender smile before the light dimmed from the Matriarch's eyes and her head slumped back, the smile still on her face.

Liara held her mother's head to her chest and wept softly, her crying hidden beneath the sounds of gunfire.

Rain: And that is where I will end it. The next chapter will deal with the fallout of this mission and will give the crew a much needed rest so until then.

Shepard: We'll bang ok?