It had been far too easy, Saren mused. Sovereign had burst through the Citadel fleet like Thresher Maw cutting through a group of school children.

And Shepard thought they stood a chance against the entire Reaper Fleet.

He glared, the thought of insolent human causing him to hasten his stride in anger. Shepard, she was a thorn under his plates that refused to be removed, despite his best efforts. And Benezia, he knew she was with her. Somehow, she had finally slipped from Sovereign's grasp.

The traitorous bitch was most likely on her way right now, having divulged all she knew of Sovereigns plans to the human. But Saren had been clever, he knew better than to trust the slippery old shark. He had only told her somethings, but regrettably it seemed she had somehow learned of the Conduit.

Likely from that daughter of hers.

He growled and shot a nearby keeper, the pathetic bug creature splattering. Under normal circumstances he would have found the sight quite satisfying.

The Council podium stood before him now. He took a breath, desperate to calm his nerves. This was it, the penultimate moment to the coming of the Reapers.

He laid one talon on a terminal situated behind the Councilor's seats. The Reapertech within him reacted, and the podium grew red as a massive holoscreen flew up before him. Using the haptic user interface, he closed the Citadel arms, and saw Sovereign descending upon the Presidium Tower.

He grinned. It was a frightening, mitrthless thing that scared some hidden corner of himself that still cried out at what he was doing.

He ignored it.

Benezia could now with confidence say that she knew what the most disorientating feeling in the galaxy was. Stepping through a Mass Relay.

It took a second for her head to stop spinning. The others were in a similar state. Shepard was holding on too Garrus while Liara was shaking her head.

Virgil was floating slightly above them.

"I shall follow you to the Presidium Tower, but I should warn you, there are hostile entities approaching."

Benezia saw them first. Husks were running down the pathway that led to Presidum Tower elevator. She threw out her hand to cast a throw field, but ended up launching herself back onto her rear. In a less dire situation this would have been quite funny.

Shepard Garrus had reacted second, firing at the mutilated humans with his assualt rifle. Someone picked her by her collar, and she realized with some embarresment that it was Liara. "Get up, quick!" Liara yelled as she practically threw Benezia into a standing position.

Again, normally she would have a rather scathing remark, but right now she had worry about cybernetically enchanced zombies running at them. She tried again with her biotics, and this time they worked, and three to four of the coming stampede was sent hurteling back, knocking into those behind them and causing a rather funny domino effect.

There was a staticy explosion has Shepard blew out their shields, allowing Garrus and Liara to fire at will into the crowd. In the end, all that was left of the husks were bits and pieces of grey bodyparts and faintly glowing wires, drowning in greenish goop.

The four of them just stood there for a second, breathing heavily. Virgil seemed to have vanished somewhere.

Then there were footsteps behind them and all four spun around, guns drawn.

"Finally, you lot are late!" said Wrex, stomping up to them with his massive shotgun hung limply at his side. Behind him, trailed the rest of the Normandy squad.

Shepard breathed a sigh of relief. "Wrex! Thank God. What happened?"

Wrex shrugged, "Exactly what it looks like, and what we said would happen. Sovereign appear, along side an armda of geth and blew the Citadel fleet to shit. Soon enough, geth and husks started swarming the Citadel."

"What about the Council? Where are they?"

"They're on aboard the Ascension, or should be at least..."

Benezia's stomach dropped, "Shepard, I know stopping Saren right now is a big priority - and it is - but if the Council gets taken out all at once..." she trailed off.

"It'll possibly mean war." Garrus finished for her.

Shepard sighed, "Great. But we don't know where they are, and the only way to know is to reach Citadel Control."

Wrex nodded, "Yeah, we'll head that way, you lot should should go up to the Tower and deal with Saren."

What followed was a long slog up the Presidium Tower, as none of Elevators worked. The stairs, built-in as an emergency exit, where nearly unending, steep and literated with geth. Fighting geth troopers in a tight, claustrophobic staircase was an experiance Benezia would have liked to forget.

Eventually, they reached the top, which led out into the wings of the Council Chamber.

There were geth all over the place. Whoever thought the excessive staircase were for intimidation were wrong, and had never had to fight their way up them while being shot at. Okay, that was granted, but still.

Geth were position behind many of the plants and trees. It was mission to even see them, much less get a clear shot. And then their was a whine, like a hovorboard but louder, and the next thing Benezia knew she was fifty feet in the air, hoisted up by her collar.

"Matriarch."

Sheer panic exploded in her chest as that cold, metallic voice that was at the same time organic.

Then she was free falling. She could see the glint of Saren's pistol as he aimed it down at her. Time seemed to slow for a second, and she was certain that death awaited her. Then, Saren was almost thrown of his hoverboard, and Benezia was caught in someones biotics.

How none of the Geth had shot her was astounding.

She landed with a thud, between Liara, who was focused entirely Saren, and Shepard, whose biotics slowly faded out of existence.

"Thanks..." said benezia, whilst hastily climbing to her feet. Saren was still hovering above them and the Geth were still pouring in from around them.

The situation was more than a little dire.

Then Liara hit Saren with a Warp. The result was amassive, bright explosion of light, and Saren stumbling. Seeing the oppurtunity, Benezia yanked the turian off of his board with a biotic pull. He soared through the air and hit the council podium with a crunch and loud groan.

"Keep the Geth off me." said Benezia, and then ran toward Saren, who was slowly getting up.

Just as she reached him, with the full intent to drive a biotic-enchanced punch up into his gullet, and struck out with palm open, and Benezia was sent stumbling back. Growling, Saren aimed his canon of a pistol at Benezia's head. There was a brief moment of stillness, where all Benezia could do was stare into the barrel of the gun. And the Boom!

The shot burst through Benezia's shields and into her abdomen. Agony lanced through her entire body, and she was brought to her knees.

Her left hand flew to her abdomen whilst her right stopped her from falling completely. Warm, purple blood was gushing through her fingers, and her vision was starting to blur. Their was a cold, metalllic voice talking. But bo longer from within her head, outside. She looked up, natural eyes met unnatural cybernetic ones. A cold turian grun, the press of metal against her head.

So she had failed. Failed to redeem herself, and failed to stop this mad turian. That was actually not surprising now that she thought about it. Her entire life had been a series of failures. Failed bondmate, failed parent, failed Matriarch and now failed to kill one thrice-damnded turian. Who was the reason she was no longer welcome back home... and tried to kill her daughter... and is the reason why she was going to forever be associated with Galactic terrorism...

Oh hell no. If she was going to die, she was taking the bastard who was responsible for her whole miserable situation with her.

Adrenaline burst through her, and she lurched forward. Her biotics flared instictively, causing a massive boost in her projections and she ended throwing them both off the edge of the podium.

They smashed through a layer of thin glass and landed on hard, unforgiving soil. Saren took the brunt of the fall, and in his surprise, he had dropped his gun.

In one smooth motion, Benezia pulled out her pistol and shot him in the head. The turians head exploded, covering Benezia in blue gore and leaving nothing much behind but a stump of bone and cybernetic wiring.

Panting, she just sat there for a moment. For the first time since she had initially boarded Sovereign, she felt good. A weight had been let of her shoulders. Sure, there was still the problem of her being kicked out of asari space, and the end of her life as she knew it but hey, she had saved life for everyone else. And, a future spent outside of asari space was a lot better than a future fighting horrible eldritch machine monsters.

And vengeance felt extremely sweet.

And then agonising pain resurfaced and she was reminded that there was a hole in her abdomen. That was a problem.

With extreme difficulty and string of Armalian curses, benezia dragged herself to her feet. With each step a monumental effort, she managed to get a few feet away from Saren. Then she look up. She was stuck down here, she realized.

Then Shepard appeared, peering down from above. A relieved smile appeared on her face, which Benezia instinctively mimicked. It was rather surreal. Then, Shepard's expression changed to one of horror, and her gaze flicked over to where Saren was.

The there was a sound similar to wires crackling, and heavy, laboured shuffling. Slowly, Beneiza turned around and froze in sheer horror.