I

It was futile, all of it. Benezia knew this, she had known since she had first set foot on Nazara. She had lied to herself those first few weeks. She had told herself that she was strong enough to resist the ancient machine. That she would not end up like Saren, and that she could actually help him. Save him, and the galaxy. How pitifully wrong she had been. Instead, Nazara had implanted an ungodly presence in her head. It had completely taken over her body, she was no longer in control at all. She could not talk, or even lift a finger. She was quiet literally trapped within her own mind. And, as a result, she could not save Saren, or the galaxy. She had gotten completely in over her head. Aethyta had always said something like this would happen. Benezia wondered if she would glad to be right. She had tried to fight the presence, to take back some control. When that had become to exhausting, she simply screamed at the thing, which then screamed at her, told her to shut up and continued to use her like a marionette. She could only watch on has it took advantage of her natural asari ability of synthesis, and forcibly extracted knowledge from the rachni queen's mind. Benezia would have screamed, would have fought but after Feros, she could fight no more. On Feros, were she had let- no, she had been forced to. She had been forced to watch as Saren handed Shiala, quite literally as well, over to the Thorian. The Thorian was a plant, as much as a kraken was a squid. She refused to remember it, refused to remember Shiala being absorbed by the creature, to be used in much the same way Benezia was being used now. After that horrible event, and Eden Prime before it, Benezia was much too tired to fight the presence anymore. She was ready to die.

That made the presence laugh, a horrible sick laugh. It was not going to let her die anytime soon, she would be forced to watch her body slowly die, or be turned into a cybernetic abomination like Saren, and that amused the presence. Benezia was too tired to even be angry about that. Besides, death might be arriving quite soon, in the form of the human Spectre Shepard. The presence was arrogant, and had convinced itself that the annoying human and its band of accomplices were no match for it. It had positioned her perfectly, that when Shepard came through the doorway on the left, she would find Benezia standing facing the Rachni queen's tank. Around her stood her commandos, the true tradgedy in the whole affair. Like Shiala, she could not save them. If she survived this, their deaths would be entirely her fault.

Geth troopers were their too, but their deaths would be entertaining. She could not wait to see Shepard turn them into scrap metal. She remembered the data that the presence had made transcribe into an OSD, and how that OSD was still quite conveniently in her. She hoped that Shepard would find it, she had too. For the sake of the galaxy, she had too. At that moment, the door slid open and through walked the human herself. She pranced forward, gun drawn, and flanked by… no. That asari could not ne Liara! The presence cackled to itself, and through her mouth spoke of being a mother, and taunted Liara. A spark of anger, just enough, awoke within her, and she started pushing again. She ignored whatever villainous varrenshit the presence was spouting, instead she pushed. This had the unfortunate consequence of her losing any focus on her body. When she finally pushed through, a pain in her abdomen took her breath away. She looked down, a bullet wound. A wet sticky heat was slowly spreading across her abdomen.

She ignored the pain, she had to tell them. "You… you must listen! Saren wanted to use the rachni in a private army. To use them against you…"

She was cut off from saying anymore by Shepard raising her hand sharply, and glaring from beneath her helmet. "Wait, weren't you just attacking us?"

Benezia ignored that, "Listen!" she yelled, pulling out the OSD. The presence started screaming, she ignored that too. "Saren wanted to find the Mu Relay, he needed the rachni queen to do that! Or rather the knowledge stored in her mind. I transcribed the data to this OSD, take it please!"

Shepard took it gingerly, and the presence exploded. Its screaming intensified to the point where Benezia could hear nothing, her ears felt as though they were bleeding. Her hands instinctively slammed to the side of her head, and she dropped down into a crouch. She might have screaming too, as Liara's expression changed to one of pure horror, and Shepard was kneeling beside her, doing something on her omni-tool. Whatever she did, did not take long to come into effect. A blissful silence slowly spread through Benezia's mind, as though she had slowly submerged herself in water until that accursed voice became nothing but a dull, distance noise.

II

Benezia awoke, pleased to find that she was completely back in control of her body. If the excruciating pain everything was in was anything to go by at least. When that presence had been in control, she had not been able to feel anything. It was likely that the excruciating pain was due to the hunger and thirst she suddenly felt; it was not likely that presence had taken a moment to give her body any form of nutrition.

She opened her eyes slowly. They were burning. She blinked several times, each lasting a good five seconds, as her eyelids felt like sandpaper. Eventually her vision cleared up enough for her to take in her surroundings. It was very dark, but not like Nazara had been. Everything was blueish as well, and the metal walls suggested ship. Their flat, angular shape suggested human. That suggested that she was on Shepard's ship, which was good but also very, very bad.

The thought of explaining indoctrination- that is what she was deciding to call it- to the Council and to the Matriarchy, and explaining it well enough that did not execute her anyway, was enough to make Benezia's already splitting headache worsen.

A soft, hissing sound came from Benezia's left, and a grey haired human came in. She looked startled at first, but seemed to relax once she had deemed Benezia was not a threat. And she really was not, as she was restrained and in enough pain to bother a krogan. ''Ah, you are awake. Good, Liara will be pleased. How… are you feeling?"

"I have regained control of my body and the presence in my head has left. Whatever Shepard did seems to have worked. Also, I feel like I was just sat on by krogan."

The human regarded her for a moment, then simply held out a cup of water. Benezia's pride could not less for what the scene looked like, a human having to the hold the cup to her mouth. She was much too thirsty to care. Besides, no one else had seen it.

Her throat no longer feeling like fresh sandpaper, Benezia found talking to be a lot easier. "What did Shepard do anyway?"

The human did not answer immediately; as she was too busy scribbling something on a clipboard. "She killed you, then immediately resuscitated you. Her theory was that if you were dead, then Sovereign would no longer want to control you, as it would see you as dead, and useless."

Benezia pursed her lips, clever human this Shepard was.

"I am sorry, but I did not get your name."

"Docter Chakwas, I am the ships medical officer."

Benezia nodded, and before she could say any more, the medbay door hissed open again. This time a very angry Liara stepped through. Her eyes were puffy as well, it looked like she had been crying. They widened and filled with something akin to relief when they fell onto Benezia. "Mother…"

A voice, Shepard's it sounded like, came from behind Liara and she turned around, back to her very angry state. "She is my mother! I have the right to see her, especially after all this!"

"But Liara, she could still be a danger wait until Doctor Chakwas-"

"She's no danger. Liara can come in." the doctor said nonchalantly. "Shepard I must speak with you, outside, Liara you may talk to you mother."

Once the doctor left the medbay, Liara rushed over to her and through her arms over Benezia's shoulders. It was a little awkward due to Benezia being in horizontal position, and Beneiza could not hug back. Instead she simply leaned her head into Liara's shoulder and whispered "It's okay, Little Wing. It's all going to be okay."