0930 Hours AST, May 1, 2183

Western Courtyard, Zhu's Hope Settlement

Feros, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster

Shepard sat on a crate, in full battle dress, staring at his left hand on his knee. He bent his pinkie finger, then straightened it again.

The full complement of the Normandy's living Marines stood nearby, including Abishek Pakti in his new hardsuit, as well as the nonhumans (save Tali). They paced, conversed casually with the newcomers, or simply sat and waited like Shepard was doing. All of them, no matter what they were doing, occasionally cast nervous glances towards the now exposed door in the wall that would shortly take them down into the bowels of the skyscraper. Except Wrex, of course; his glances weren't nervous in the slightest.

Shepard ignored them and focused on his finger. He bent it, then straightened it again.

Dr. Chakwas had, miraculously, been able to reattach it when he finally had reported to the med bay three days ago. To hear her tell it, twenty more minutes and the nerve endings would've degenerated past the point where that would've been possible. "In just these past few weeks, you've pressed your luck more than anyone else I've ever known," she'd said. She wasn't wrong. And now I'm getting ready to press it some more.

Pressley had composed and sent off Shepard's preliminary report, with the basics on what they were up against and the requests for support and supplies, within thirty minutes of receiving the orders to do so. The Normandy had received an acknowledgement and confirmation that the requested reinforcements were being dispatched from Alliance Command within an hour.

Four hours ago, the reinforcements had arrived in-system: two Talavera-class frigates, SSV Eleventh Isonzo and SSV Golden Spurs, escorting the STUFT (Ship Taken Up From Trade) freighter MSV Duchess. One hour ago, they had arrived in the upper atmosphere of Feros. Since the docking bay of the skyscraper only had one functioning docking umbilical, Shepard had ordered the Normandy to take off so that the other two frigates could take turns landing and disembarking their Marines; the Duchess, loaded with the various things that would not be of help in combat, would remain in orbit and only dock once the Thorian had been purged and the colony made completely safe, once and for all.

"Sir?" He felt a shadow loom over him and glanced up briefly.

Lieutenant Miller, commander of the Golden Spurs' Marines, stood there, awe, anxiety and nerves of a kind Shepard recognized all too well written on his face. A butterbar, a junior lieutenant fresh out of university ROTC, Private Jenkins with a commission, starstruck by the presence of humanity's great hero. "Pardon me for asking, sir, but perhaps you could give me and my men something of a briefing on exactly what we'll be facing? What these plant monsters are, how do we kill them, that sort of thing?"

"We've decided to call them creepers, Lieutenant. And I've already told you that I'll conduct a general briefing on tactics when the Eleventh Isonzo's detachment gets here. I shared everything I know so far about the Thorian with your captain over comms as you worked your way in system, and he should have shared it with you. As for how to kill creepers, I advise shooting them repeatedly. If you want more detail, I suggest listening to Private Grenado, as I can see six of your Marines doing right now."

Miller mumbled an apology and retreated. Shepard returned his attention to his finger. Bend, then straighten.

The Golden Spurs had been the first of the two new frigates to dock and drop off its Marines, some forty-five minutes ago. It had taken back off around fifteen minutes ago to make way for the Eleventh Isonzo. Both of the newcomers, in addition to their reinforced Marine detachments, were carrying military supplies that were going to be sorely needed.

Eleventh Isonzo was carrying six M825 shaped charges, typically used by Alliance combat engineers to crack bunkers and other fortifications. Although Shepard had yet to actually lay eyes on the Thorian himself, simple logic had told him that the central nerve nexus of an organism large enough to span the entire continent was going to be enormous. In a different environment, he might have gone with Pressley's initial suggestion and simply blown it up from orbit. With the thing stuffing itself into the lower floors of the skyscraper, he'd sent instead for the biggest man-portable demolition charges the Alliance had to offer.

Golden Spurs' extra cargo hadn't been so immediately vital for the securing of Feros, but would be essential for the coming larger search for Saren, regardless of whether or not Shepard was there to see it. Three crates of grenades, two crates of small arms, more ammo blocks, and two full hardsuits. One male, to replace the one Private Abishek Pakti had had ruined by creeper acid on Chasca. And one female.

Shepard bent his finger, then straightened it.

Before Dr. Chakwas had put him under for the surgery to reattach his finger three days ago, there'd been five people in the med bay: himself, Chakwas, Private Grenado and Lieutenant Alenko with their minor wounds, and Gunnery Sergeant Williams, who'd been tending them. When he woke up from the anesthesia, the latter three had disappeared. Dr. Chakwas had looked him over, given him a set of exercises to make sure his newly-reattached pinkie finger was responding correctly, then left to take over treating the subdued colonists from Williams. Shepard, meanwhile, had left the med bay, crossed the crew deck, and collapsed into his own bed for a nightmare-plagued sleep. He was so exhausted and battered that he'd managed to sleep for five hours despite the visions of the beacon.

When he'd woken from that, he'd returned to the med bay, to have a conversation with Dr. Liara T'Soni.

Dr. T'Soni—no, Liara. She keeps insisting I call her by her given name—was an odd individual. Despite Shepard removing the guards watching her before the Chasca mission, in the days since he'd never seen the asari outside of her cramped storage compartment. He'd been told by others that she would occasionally leave for food once or twice a day; hurrying into the galley with her head down, shoveling a mound of food onto a plate, then scampering back into hiding, all the while avoiding every gaze. Not that Shepard could blame her. Other than himself, Kaidan, and Dr. Chakwas, attitudes towards Liara aboard the Normandy still ranged from coolly neutral to outright hostile.

When he ventured into her compartment to speak with her directly, her demeanor varied wildly: practically bouncing with excitement when discussing the Prothean civilization or what the visions the beacon had jammed into his head might have been intended to convey, only to fall into a state of mumbling awkwardness when asked anything about herself that didn't pertain to her research. She maintained that she had had no contact with Benezia, but informed Shepard that she'd begun reaching out to distant relations and people she knew had worked with her mother in the past for any clue for where Benezia might currently be and what she might be doing.

One thing remained consistent: Liara T'Soni wanted to help. In any way she could. She'd been the one to propose taking up arms and fighting alongside the rest of them: "at least until your superiors send you real replacements." Chasca had made Shepard give serious consideration to it. The death of Gladstone, here on Feros, had made him accept it.

"Will you need me to aid you in dealing with this…Thorian?" she'd asked, when he'd told her of his decision.

"No. We should have more than enough in the way of temporary reinforcements to deal with this. I need to figure out how to prepare the crew for this. We'll look to ease you in on something more routine. I just dropped by to let you know."

"I understand. And Commander," she'd added, when he turned to exit the compartment, "thank you for trusting me."

Shepard snapped back to the present, as fifteen more armored Marines tromped into the courtyard. Most of them were occupied in carrying the demolition charges, which were big enough that each required two men. Their leader, a burly Hispanic man, stepped up to Shepard and briskly saluted.

"Lieutenant Adrien Martinez, commander of the Marine detachment of SSV Eleventh Isonzo, sir. Awaiting orders."

"Your men can put down the explosives. Give their arms a bit of a rest, they'll be needing it." Shepard picked up his shotgun (the only weapon he'd be bringing with him), stood on top of his crate, and raised his voice. "All of you, gather round and listen up." He waited a moment, as three frigates worth of Marines, a turian, and a krogan, packed in around him, then continued. "If you're on my crew, what we're about to do needs no introduction. We've been over this multiple times in the last three days. Somewhere down in the guts of this building is a giant thinking plant that's decided to use its brain to be a jackass. Its mind controlled the colonists here via chemical torture, killed one of us, injured several more, and according to ExoGeni's files is on speaking terms with Saren Arterius. We are now going to repay it by walking downstairs, shooting all its creepers, strapping a bomb to its face, and blowing it the hell up."

That got a loud cheer from every single one of his crew, including Garrus and Wrex. The detachments from the other two ships looked mildly confused and unnerved. Shepard addressed them next. "I gave the basics to Alliance Command when I asked for you guys to come, I gave some more detail to your captains when you arrived in system, and you just heard me address my guys just now. If you don't have the general idea of what needs to be done there's no helping you at this point. The main threat to us down there is going to come from what my crew and I have decided to call 'creepers'. Best we can tell, they're the Thorian's equivalent to fruits, except these fruits are basically shaped like a human, have acid for blood, puke acid at a range of about three to four feet, and have talons that can lop your limbs off in one good swing. They go down fairly quickly under weapons fire, so they're no threat if you see them coming, but they have a nasty habit of quickly popping out of nowhere. Stay sharp, be constantly checking your corners. And be wary, because the Thorian is likely going to send them at us in swarms to defend itself. We might be talking hundreds at a time here, who knows. No matter what, we protect the explosives at all cost. They're the key to bringing this thing down. Are there any questions that I have not already addressed?"

For a moment, the group of forty plus soldiers in front of him was silent. Then the Golden Spurs' butterbar, Lieutenant Miller, tentatively raised his hand. "Sir, do we have any idea exactly where we're going in this building? Do we just start going downstairs and hope we find a giant plant?"

"Two days ago the Normandy did a careful flyby of the lower floors of this skyscraper. The atmosphere is extremely choked with dust down there, which both hampers scanners and the ability to fly, but we were able to penetrate the building enough to reveal a large open central shaft that takes up almost two-thirds of the skyscraper's diameter, and starts about sixty floors below us. It's going to be quite a walk, but I'm positive that's where we'll find the central nexus of the Thorian. Anything else?"

"Are we certain that this staircase is the correct way to the objective, sir?"

"Given that before you arrived the colonists had this sealed off with a small freighter, and that over the past three days we've had to deal with four creeper incursions from this route, yes, I'm certain. Anything else?"

"… no sir."

"Good." Shepard hefted his Katana, then hopped off the crate. "Wrex and I will take point. I want the explosives carried in the middle of the column; Miller, your Marines will take them for the first fifteen flights of stairs down, then my crew will switch in. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled at all times. Let's move."

As he moved towards the entrance to the long stairwell, Shepard cast a glance back over his shoulder, over the jostling crowd of armored warriors forming up behind him. Through the cluster of prefabs that made up Zhu's Hope, he could just barely see the opposite side of the courtyard, where the colonists were being kept under guard (as well as Lizbeth Baynham, who'd been retrieved from the skyway by the Navy crewmen and restrained immediately after the colony was retaken). He didn't feel particularly happy about the situation he'd been forced to keep them in, tied up and penned in an outdoor corner for three days, but their behavior had confirmed its necessity. When the colonists had woken up, they'd spent most of their time screaming nonsensically at their guards, struggling against their restraints, frothing at the mouth, and attempting to literally bite the hands that fed them. Gunnery Sergeant Williams and Doctor Chakwas had had a hell of a time treating the injured ones. The Thorian did this to them. Just one more thing that it needs to answer for. Time to finish this.

He turned and passed through the doorway.

The first forty stories or so were eerily uneventful. No sign of creepers, no sign of vegetation. Just the same decaying duracrete that everywhere else on Feros had been made of, with the same dusty air. At around twenty floors down, the stairwell widened, enough for three soldiers to move abreast, allowing Shepard to condense the long line of Marines stretching back up towards the surface (though it didn't particularly help him personally; Wrex was wide enough to count for two men by himself). Every dozen floors or so, the force would pause and swap out the Marines carrying the demolitions for fresh arms.

In spite of himself, the total lack of opposition, or any sign that they were really two-thirds of the way to their objective was beginning to make Shepard doubt they were on the right track… then a horribly familiar smell, faint but distinctive, oozed its way through the bottom of his helmet and wormed its way up his nostrils.

Mold, stagnant water, rust, with just a dash of sulfuric acid. At least there's no human blood like there was on Chasca. Or maybe it's just too faint for me to pick it out.

Shepard halted on the stairwell, Wrex stopping beside him. The krogan turned his massive head and fixed Shepard with an amused red eye. "You only smelling it now, Shepard? I got a full face of it ten stories back. We'll be in the thick of it soon enough."

"Yes, yes, congratulations, Wrex." Shepard turned back and addressed Corporal Chase, Private Pakti, and a Marine off the Golden Spurs, next in line behind him. "Seal your helmets. Canned air only from here on out. Feel free to use helmet comms, there's no danger of eavesdropping. Pass it along."

From that point on, it became more and more obvious that they were, indeed, on the right track. Tendrils of vegetation appeared on the stairs and walls, coalescing into slick grey tangled mats, forcing their progress to drastically slow to avoid slipping. The light began to dim, as the webs of plant matter sealed off the occasional rents in the side of the building that had been providing light much of the way down until now, and great clouds of spores began to appear, floating in the air. All the while, Shepard kept count of the levels in his head. That was fifty one… fifty two… fifty three…

Even now, as they got closer and closer, there was no sign of creepers, and by now Shepard understood why. The stairwell was a long, unbroken series of stairs and landings, stretching all the way back up to Zhu's Hope. There'd been no side passages for creepers to suddenly burst out of, and any attempt to simply rush the column from the front would be both choked by the stairs themselves, and exposed to the fire of nearly the entire group as they fired over Shepard and Wrex's heads. The Thorian would instead unleash its minions on them in its own lair, he knew.

….sixty. Even if he hadn't been keeping count, he would've known they'd reached their destination, for the stairs ended here, in a hall that continued straight ahead for perhaps twenty feet, then took an abrupt turn to the right. It was almost pitch black here, at the bottom of the stairs.

But ahead at the end of the hallway, from around the bend, he could see a dim gray glow through the spores.

Shepard readied his shotgun and quickened his pace, going as fast as he could without breaking into a run. In but a few seconds, he'd covered the length of the corridor, Wrex keeping pace besides him and the next three Marines hard behind him, and turned the corner. Then he stopped dead.

Everything he'd learned from ExoGeni's files, questioning of Baynham, scans of the lower floors of the skyscraper, and his own basic logic had told him to expect something like this. But it's one thing to know something in theory, and another to see it for yourself.

He was standing in the entranceway to what could best be described as a gigantic enclosed atrium. A massive open space dominated it, extending both upwards and downwards out of Shepard's sight. This open space was encircled by terraces on every floor of the skyscraper. The area he'd just emerged into had several thick duracrete columns holding up the ceiling, and a small lip extending out into the great open space, all of which were carpeted by vegetation; the wall immediately to the right of the doorway boasted something new, in the form of a large, fleshy sac bigger than himself and that looked like a cross between a blister and a tumor. He couldn't see enough of the other levels to the left and right to confirm if they were constructed the same.

Shepard couldn't see anything at all of the opposite side of the skyscraper across the void, due to the colossal bulk of the Thorian nexus in the way.

A Marine slammed into him from behind as he stood transfixed in the doorway, nearly knocking him over; Chase, by the sound of her apologies. He shook her off and strode forward onto the lip, as his Marines emerged from the stairwell behind him.

The Thorian nexus was incredibly huge. Just the part in his immediate view was the equal in size to the largest thresher maws he'd ever seen (he forced back the memories of just where he'd seen those), easily thirty feet thick. Leaning out over the abyss he saw that its trunk disappeared down into the darkness below, getting thicker as it went. The Thorian itself, unlike its sickly gray creepers, was a golden-brown color, with splashes of red. For the most part, it appeared to be an amorphous blob of fleshy tissue, hanging suspended in midair, save for one protrusion that almost resembled a head with a face. There were no actual eyes or nose or ears on this "head" that Shepard could see, but it did appear to have a mouth, albeit one completely shrouded by long fleshy tendrils as long as Shepard was tall. Odd. And disgusting.

That did not interest Shepard nearly so much as what was keeping this gigantic lump of xeno plant-flesh suspended in the air. Just as he'd suspected, there were several massive fleshy anchoring cables sprouting from the central nexus and connecting to the wall of the skyscraper on several levels. He counted five from where he was standing, extending above their level, below it, to the left, to the right. That didn't take into account the probability of more, currently invisible anchors, extending behind the thing. This may be… problematic.

Behind him, he could hear the shocked exclamations as more and more of the soldiers under his command filed into the chamber and got their first look at the Thorian.

"It's huge!"

"Holy shit! Are we sure these charges are going to be enough?"

"That's a fucking PLANT?!"

Shepard turned and surveyed his force. By now nearly all of them had wedged their way in. "Alenko, Vakarian, detachment leaders, front and center." He moved back off the lip as the specified individuals pushed their way to the front of the crowd, the lanky form of the turian easily distinguishable amongst the humans.

"Okay, you four, we're in a bit of a pickle here."

"A what, Commander?"

"Human expression, Garrus, don't worry about it. Where are the explosives, still out in the corridor? I can't see them."

"Yes, Commander. There's not enough room here until we sort everyone out into a more disciplined formation."

"Fair enough. Now, like I said, we have a problem here. We don't have enough explosives for all of those anchoring cables."

"What makes you say that, Commander?" Kaidan asked, as Miller and Martinez leaned to the side to get a better view themselves. "I'm seeing five cables. We brought six charges, that should be enough for everything plus a spare."

"Kaidan, if there aren't at least two more anchoring cables stretching out behind this thing I'll eat my helmet. Plus after taking a look at this, I'm not sure just blowing it loose is going to kill it. We're going to need to find a way to attach at least one charge onto the nexus itself. I'm honestly shocked we aren't already drowning in creepers, so let's hurry up here. I'm thinking we're going to want to divide up into five teams of nine to tackle these tendrils-,"

HHHHHRRRK

A deep rumbling noise, something like a cross between a bullfrog's croak and a spit gargle only much much louder, echoed through the vast space. As exclamations of shock rippled through the crowd of Marines, Shepard turned back around to face the Thorian with a sense of creeping dread.

The vast bulk of the Thorian nexus was twisting and heaving in space, and somehow moving itself closer to the level that the Marines were standing on, straining at its anchoring cables.

HHHHRRRK

The great mass of the thing convulsed as it moved within a few feet of the terrace, the headlike protrusion that Shepard had noticed earlier now directly over the lip where he had been standing just a few moments before. Lieutenant Miller raised his rifle next to him; Shepard shoved the barrel back down. "What the hell do you think that's going to do?"

The Thorian began rapidly expanding and contracting, emitting a wheezing noise like a gigantic pair of bellows. The fleshy tendrils around its "mouth" raised, revealing an orifice that looked like nothing so much as a giant sphincter. It almost sounds like it's going to… oh please no…

BLARRGGGHHH

In a rush of slime, the Thorian's sphincter-mouth opened and vomited forth something onto the lip, a bare few feet away from him. What is it with this thing and its spawn and puking everywhere? But where the creepers just vomited acid, the thing unfolding itself in front of him was a good deal more complex. And a good deal more impossible.

It was… an asari.

Can we just stop with the breaking of basic laws of reality already? No?

The asari turned to face them, apparently utterly unconcerned that she had just been vomited out of a gigantic plant, or that she was stark naked and dripping in slime. She was also green. Asari were not supposed to be green.

"Invaders."

Her voice was deeper than Liara's, a contralto carrying a note of imperiousness and utterly without fear. Where Dr. T'Soni had exuded an aura of sweet innocence, and Councilor Tevos serene elegance, this asari was a feral predator, surveying the force with emerald eyes. Every inch of her trim, athletic, nude body was covered in Thorian muck that gave it a slick sheen. It was both disgusting and erotic at the same time.

"Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, fit only to dig or decompose."

That sounds like the Thorian itself talking. I suppose that should've been obvious enough. Is she carrying a message or is it directly speaking through her? Messenger or comm device?

"I speak for the Old Growth, as I did once for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

Saren.

Shepard had never entirely forgotten his overarching mission, but the sheer abnormal lunacy that had been enveloping them all since Chasca had driven the rogue Spectre to the back of his mind. Now, the traitor came rushing back to the fore. Saren came here. Saren is responsible for half of this. He did all this so he could talk to the thing that's responsible for the other half.

"You'll have to forgive me, I already got my awe and terror out of the way when I first came down here." He looked past the nude asari, addressing the colossal mass behind her directly. "Saren came here to talk to you. He must've wanted something. What?"

He wasn't expecting an answer. To his surprise, he got one.

"Saren sought knowledge of those that are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the long cycle. Trades were made."

Trades? What kind of… and more importantly, why did it just tell me? This is vital information, by itself. "Those that are gone" could only be the Protheans. It only took a second for Shepard to realize why.

Because the Thorian doesn't expect me, or any of us, to leave here.

The emerald asari continued, her voice rising in pitch. "Then cold ones came, and began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle! Flesh fairly given!"

"That 'flesh' wasn't his to give, you bitch!" Corporal Chase snarled from somewhere behind Shepard's left shoulder.

"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry! Your lives are short, but have gone on for too long!"

Shepard's shotgun was halfway to his shoulder before she finished her sentence, but he still wasn't quite fast enough as the naked asari sprang into motion, faster than any human could and suddenly blazing with a blue nimbus of biotic power. She lunged at the Golden Spurs Marine that had been right behind Shepard coming down the stairs, collapsing his windpipe with a single palm thrust, then whirled on Lieutenant Miller and broke his elbow with a snap kick.

Commando. Shepard had never personally witnessed one of the legendary asari elite in battle before, but he'd heard the tales of their abilities well enough. As the familiar guttural moans and groans of creepers echoed around the cavernous space, coming from the left, from the right, from above and below, he backpedaled and turned, trying to bring his weapon into line… no, wait.

The asari extended her hand towards Corporal Chase, who was also attempting to draw a bead with her rifle. The corporal yelled, then suddenly floated up into the air and slammed with vicious force into the nearest concrete pillar with a flick of the asari's wrist. Shepard heard something crack, and prayed it was just Chase's armor plate.

"Everyone! Double ranked semicircle, around the entrance! Charges in the middle! First rank kneel, second rank fire over their heads!" He shouted the command over the intercom: with the rising cacophony of Marine voices and steadily louder creepers sounds, he wouldn't have been heard otherwise.

He pulled his left hand off the stock of his Katana, a corona of blue energy gathering around it. As the asari turned towards Private Pakti, he thrust out his own arm and flung a biotic warp at her. The sizzling biotic fire slammed into the biotic barrier gently glowing around her, severely weakening it and knocking the asari off balance. Fatally. A blizzard of rounds from Shepard's own weapon and at least six others tore the green alien into chunks.

Shepard ran forward and helped Corporal Chase stagger to her feet. "Up! NOW!" He pushed her, unsteadily, towards the nearly complete formation around the entrance they'd used.

They made it just in time.

Shepard had thought he'd seen a lot of creepers during the fight to retake Zhu's Hope; he'd believed them terrifying on their first encounter on Chasca. Neither held a candle to this.

A solid wave of creepers flooded towards the force from the right, from the left, crawling up the supports from the next level down; a wall of groaning, grey-green grotesque plant people. He didn't even bother trying to count them. He just pulled the trigger on his shotgun, again and again, as the weapons of forty one humans, a turian, and a krogan did the same, their rounds lancing out to meet the oncoming tide.

The fight seemed to last for hours, though as was usual in combat, it was more likely a few minutes. Despite their numbers, not one creeper managed to make it intact to the force. Several, though, made it close enough that their acidic blood, as their bodies were shredded by a hurricane of bullets and shotgun pellets, sprayed the closest Marines.

Even worse, twice more during the fray, the Thorian vomited forth another green naked asari, identical in all respects to the first one. The first inkling Shepard had that it had done this was when he was bowled over by a biotic throw, straight into Kaidan, disrupting the formation and nearly paying dearly for it at the talons of the nearest creeper before Wrex blew the thing in half. The asari herself was promptly riddled with bullets as ten Marines immediately focused on her.

A clone. Somehow this plant, in addition to all its other crazy abilities, can clone sentient beings. How? And where did it get the genetic template?

Eventually, the creeper tide slowed to a stream, then to a trickle, then ceased. He knew it wouldn't be forever—he could hear more groans echoing from deeper in the skyscraper—but this would be the breathing space they needed. "Sound off! Casualty check!"

Three Marines dead, six injured to varying degrees. All from the Golden Spurs or Eleventh Isonzo. Not good, but sustainable for the time being.

"Okay! Listen, here's the plan! Most of you are going to hold this position. I am going to take a team of nine, that is, you, you, you, you…" he indicated nine soldiers at random, including Gunnery Sergeant Williams and Garrus, "with one demo charge, and we are going to go blow up the nearest cable on the left! Lieutenant Alenko will also take nine, and do the same to the nearest one on the right! While we're doing that, the rest of you will defend the remaining demolition charges, until we come back for the next ones."

"Commander, I have a-,"

"Normally, I'd welcome questions, Alenko, but not now. We need to move."

"Commander, those charges are heavy and there are giant pools of acid blood blocking our routes to the target, we can't jump those carrying the things."

Shepard raised his hand and gestured. One of the charges floated into the air, over the heads of the Marines, over the creeper remains and smoking blood, and plunked down on the far side of the green pool. "Pick your nine and move, Alenko."

It wasn't all that far to the first massive organic cable, at least if they'd been going in a straight line, and weren't under attack by creepers the whole way. Sadly, they were walking on matted vegetation in a very dim environment over rubble and up two flights of stairs, with a growing stream of creepers coming at them from the front. Shepard and Williams, on point, spent almost the entire time shooting.

Consequently, what should've been a five minute walk turned out to be more like fifteen.

Up close, the tendril was easily almost as thick around as an oak tree; enough to make Shepard question whether a single charge would be enough to sever it. Or it would've been, had he not already known what the M825 was capable of.

"Lieutenant Alenko, are you in position on your side?"

"Almost, Commander," came the reply. Over the intercom, Shepard could hear a grunt, scuffling noises that presumably indicated Kaidan shifting position, and a rattle of submachine gun fire. "Last creeper between us and the objective is down, Commander, moving to attach the charge."

"What's the fuse been set to on these?"

"Six seconds, sir."

"Fair enough. Attach yours, start the timer, and start moving back towards the others immediately." He received Kaidan's acknowledgement, then cut the connection.

Shepard looked over his shoulder at the two Marines carrying the demo charge, ignoring the noise of Williams' Avenger as she cut down another couple of creepers. "Attach it there. Angle it away from the wall." He indicated a spot on the massive trunk about five feet away from the end, and stepped aside.

The Marines moved forward, grunting with the effort as they lifted the massive ordnance above their heads and placed it against the giant tendril. One of them hit the button to deploy its grappling clamps—the M825 was designed to breach bunkers and fortifications, and came with a set of mini drills/claws to punch through the walls of such things and hold the charge fast.

The other punched in a tri digit code and started the fuse.

As soon as he heard the beep of the armed device, Shepard abandoned his lookout for more creepers and pelted back the way he'd came as fast as his legs would carry him. "Alright, back to the entranceway! MOVE!"

The explosion, when it came a few seconds later, was earsplittingly loud, almost loud enough to drown out the Thorian's screech of pain, which seemed to echo both throughout the vast chamber and inside his head. A wet tearing sound came on its heels as the last few strands of plantflesh that the charge hadn't cut snapped on their own and the massive cable recoiled back toward the Thorian nexus.

But the next sound that came was the reason Shepard had ordered everyone to run. They'd never been in danger from the charge; it was specifically designed to channel its force into one spot only. But the cacophony of groans that rose behind them was another matter entirely. The Thorian, for the first time in its nearly hundred thousand year existence, had been injured, and it was unleashing another wave of creepers as big as the first on the scurrying creatures that had dared harm it.

They barely made it back to the entranceway and the rest of the force in time; Kaidan's group, a scant few seconds later, had the three Marines in its rear dragged down and torn to shreds by the flood of grey-green plant-men behind them.

The ensuing fight lasted nearly as long as the first one had, and was even more intense. The group remaining at the doorway had been unable to open fire until the bomb groups rejoined the formation, allowing the leading edge of creepers to get close. One poor Marine caught a jet of acid vomit square in the faceplate and visor of his helmet, with predictable and horrific results.

Yet this wave was beaten off as well, in the end. As the flow of creepers began to slow to a trickle once more, Shepard commed Kaidan.

"Pick out another nine, and head out again the instant this wave stops. Go left this time, I'll take the right."

It was a longer walk this time, almost twenty minutes escorting the charge, treading over vegetation and the mangled remains of the unfortunates from Kaidan's squad from earlier. God, that's not even going to warrant a proper body bag for all three of them.

But the basic sequence remained the same. Find the anchoring point of the cable, attach the charge, trigger the fuse, and run like hell. Retreat back to the entranceway, and beat off the newest wave of creepers sent after them by the agonized Thorian. This time, there were no casualties. The Marines from the Golden Spurs and Eleventh Isonzo had been shocked by the nature of their foe and the quick casualties they'd taken, but they were adjusting.

"We're going to do it differently this time," Shepard said over the comm, this time making sure the whole force could hear it, when the last creeper of the third wave dropped. "Wrex?"

The krogan, who'd been mostly quiet ever since they'd entered the Thorian's lair, swiveled a red eye in Shepard's direction. "Shepard?"

"We've got two charges left. We're only going to use one on a supporting cable. You see that one?" Shepard pointed his finger in the direction of the last cable that was visible from their position by the entranceway. Wrex turned his massive head, following.

"Yes."

"You're going to be in charge of blowing it up. Take a charge, work your way to it, and contact me once you get there. Let me repeat, once you get there, contact me before you do anything else. Got it?"

The krogan snorted. "Call you for permission to do the job you're sending me to do in the first place. Got it."

"Not permission. Coordination. Take a team with you, no more than nine."

Urdnot Wrex snorted again. He moved from his position in the formation, lumbered over to where the remaining two demolition charges were sitting in the center, bent over, and picked one up with one hand. Tucking the massive piece of ordnance that required two Marines to carry under his left arm like a loaf of bread, the krogan then moved over to where Ashley Williams was standing, close to Shepard.

"Williams. Shepard says I have to have a team. Follow along, and keep anything from jumping on my back."

Williams' eyes widened for a moment behind her visor, then narrowed. "Why do you want me?"

"Because I can't take Shepard and you're the best shot after him. Let's go." Not bothering to say anything more, Wrex turned and marched towards the right archway that would take him, eventually, to the final tendril they needed to destroy. He effortlessly hurdled the smoking pool of acid where three successive waves of creepers had been destroyed with the charge still under his left arm and his Claymore shotgun in his right hand.

Ashley Williams didn't follow him immediately, instead looking towards Shepard as if pleading not to go.

Shepard simply shook his head and indicated the way Wrex had gone. I let him pick, he picked her. His choice carries my authority, whether or not her prejudices are comfortable with it. Williams reluctantly hefted her rifle and set off.

As she disappeared through the right archway, his earpiece buzzed with Kaidan's voice.

"What do we do now, Commander?"

"We wait for Wrex and Williams to reach the last tendril and contact us."

"And then what?"

"We tell them to go ahead and blow up the tendril."

Shepard could almost hear Kaidan's unflappable calm crack over the comm; not quite, but almost. "Commander…"

Shepard sighed. He'd been keeping the exhaustion, and all that came with it more or less at bay over the past three days, being so busy. The adrenaline of the fight down here had helped even more. But now, with the final end on Feros almost in sight, it was beginning to press back in. Something flickered in the corner of his eye; he ignored it.

"I mentioned earlier, before the thing puked out its first green asari clone, that we both didn't have enough charges to blow every tendril off the wall and that simply knocking the nerve nexus back down to the planet's surface is not going to be enough to kill the thing. Remember? I didn't get any further before the first clone showed up."

"Kaidan, we're going to need to directly place a charge on the nexus itself. Unless you want to try jumping out there to it, there's only one way I can see. When Wrex calls in, you and I will carry the last charge out to the lip, arm it, then one of us will biotically lift it and the other will biotically throw it, and attach it right to that disgusting tentacle sphincter thing it's been popping asari out of. That should do the trick."

There was a long pause over the comm, Kaidan's disbelief almost palpable. "Commander, that's-,"

"The only way. We're obviously not going to be able to trigger the clamps biotically, so I'll hold it in place for the last few seconds of the fuse. All I need from you is to help me carry it out to the lip and throw it."

"Commander-,"

"Enough, Lieutenant. All we need to do right now is wait for Wrex to check in."

Despite the fact that it was a longer distance to the last tendril than it had been for the previous ones, and despite the fact that Wrex only had one person with him rather than eight (or maybe because of it), it was a scant twelve minutes for the rumbling voice of the krogan came through into Shepard's headset.

"We're here, Shepard. Can we get this over with?"

"Almost, Wrex." He signaled Kaidan, and together the two of them picked up the last charge and moved towards the lip. He hadn't bothered telling the rest of the force what his plan was—they had no part in it, after all—and the Marines looked at them curiously as they moved forward.

"Put it down for a second." The M825 clunked down on the decaying duracrete, and Shepard tucked his shotgun onto the hardpoint at the small of his back. A rattle of rifle fire sounded behind them, one last creeper trying and failing to intervene.

"Okay, Kaidan. You arm it, I lift it, you throw it, I'll hold it in place. In that order. Ready?"

"Ready, Commander."

Shepard tensed his muscles and called up the familiar surge of power. "Do it." Kaidan's hand flashed down towards the arming pad. "Wrex! Arm your charge!"

The red light flicked on next to the pad. Shepard yanked the charge into the air with a pulse of energy, then saw it shoot out over the chasm, rotating as it went, until it stopped just outside of the Thorian's "mouth". The charge's narrower end, the one the blast would be channeled through, was pointing straight at the sphincter-thing.

Three… two...

In his mind's grasp, the clunky piece of metal suddenly transformed into a lance of fire with a roar. Even though only a tiny fraction of the force pushed against Shepard's lift, it was all he could do to hold steady. The strain of containing and channeling the explosion demanded a massive amount of biotic power from him, more than he could remember ever using before, setting his nerves to burning. But he managed it.

The blast from the levitating bomb punched straight through the "mouth" of the Thorian, through whatever inner workings the colossal abomination had, and carried sufficient leftover force for a small flicker of flame to burst out the other side.

A second later, another blast echoed from where yet another tendril was recoiling, severed, from the chamber wall. It proved too much for the Thorian. With yet another deafening bellow, the remaining tendrils ripped free from the back wall, taking chunks of duracrete with them and revealing the gray sky of Feros beyond. Trailing smoke, the nerve nexus of the mighty Thorian plunged down into the abyss, hitting with a massive unseen impact fifteen seconds later that set the entire skyscraper to shaking, worse than ExoGeni's HQ had shaken days before.

And just like that, it was over. Feros was saved. Except for all those geth heavies that are still wandering in circles out on the skyway, I suppose. Someone will have to figure out a way to deal with them.

Right now, Shepard very much didn't want to be that someone. As he turned from the lip and walked back towards the Marines at the entranceway, fighting to stay steady on his feet due to the shaking skyscraper, a wave of exhaustion once more surged through his mind.

"What's the butcher's bill, Kaidan?"

"Ten dead, sixteen more wounded to various degrees, sir. All KIA either from the Spurs or Isonzo. Corporal Chase has two cracked ribs, Private Dubyansky has a concussion and minor acid burns on the left arm. There's a few more injuries among our crew as well, but that's the notable-,"

Maybe it was the shaking of the building. Maybe it was the demise of the Thorian. Likely it was a combination of both. Quite suddenly, the large sac just next to the entranceway suddenly ripped open, and a figure half-fell, half-rolled out of it with a wet splat.

A murmur of shock rolled through the collected force, and several of the closest Marines wheeled upon the figure, raising their weapons. Abandoning his conversation, Shepard pushed through the crowd with Kaidan at his side, one hand reaching back for his shotgun.

It was, unmistakably, an asari, clad in the tattered remains of a leather commando jumpsuit. Of course. Of course. I wondered where the Thorian was getting genetic material for those clones. How the Thorian had gotten that genetic material out of her was obvious as well; long, root-like tendrils extended from the remains of the sac, penetrating the asari's body via every available orifice. Every orifice. As if I hadn't seen enough disgusting stuff today. She appeared half-conscious at best, in a pool of milky goo, and was quite obviously choking on the things.

"Garrus! Kaidan! Help me get this stuff off her!"

It only took the three of them a scant few moments to rip the tendrils free, Garrus's talons proving invaluable. With the roots removed from her body, the asari rolled over on her back, gagging, then tried to stagger to her feet.

"Easy, now…"

She stood. Shepard, Kaidan, and Garrus did likewise, and retreated a few steps. "I… I'm free! I'm free, I can't believe it!"

Her voice was identical to the husky contralto of her clones. Her features were the same as well, filled with a feral beauty. But where her clones' skin and scales had all been an emerald green, the original was a dark purple, with violet eyes. The voice of her clones had dripped with cold contempt; the original's radiated joy and gratitude. I like this one a lot better.

"Yes, you're free. Are you physically unharmed? Do you need immediate medical attention?" Garrus' flanging voice bit through the air from Shepard's right.

"I… no, I believe I am well."

"Then if you don't mind, we're going to need you to answer some questions. Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Garrus' mandibles were twitching.

Shepard opened his mouth inside his helmet to rebuke the turian for treating a victim this way, someone who'd clearly just been through a massive ordeal… then shut it again. Saren had come to Feros with asari bodyguards, ExoGeni's records had mentioned this. The alien woman was quite clearly wearing the remnants of military gear…

Just when I'd thought we'd run out of leads on Saren. Eleven lost lives on this planet. Please let this all be worth it.

For the first time, the asari seemed to really notice the large force of armed warriors surrounding her. Her eyes widened, and she took a deep breath, or tried to; it turned into a hacking cough instead, and she spat up a gob of mucus.

"Very well. My name is Shiala Arienal. I serve… I served Lady Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, for the past seventy years as one of the lieutenants in charge of her commando bodyguard. I came here to this planet by her orders as the head of a commando detachment serving as a bodyguard for her… associate Saren Arterius."

"Why was Saren here?" Garrus pressed.

"To communicate with the…" Another realization seemingly struck her, and Shiala turned her head and stared at the space the Thorian nexus had occupied until a few minutes before. "You… you killed it. You killed the Thorian."

"Yes, we did. And we already know Saren came here to talk to it. What did he want to talk to it about?"

"I… do not believe that knowledge would be of use to you."

Garrus let out a hiss at that and flared his mandibles.

"I am not deliberately concealing information from you. I have no desire to aid Saren anymore, in any capacity; I do not believe I ever truly did, now. As for Benezia, it grieves me to say it, but she has become lost and is no longer the woman I swore to serve. I simply do not believe you can make use of the knowledge Saren gained from the Thorian."

"Hold on a moment." Shepard raised his hand to cut off whatever Garrus was about to say. "Why do you not desire to aid Saren anymore? Why are you saying that you never did? You were literally his bodyguard here, were you not?"

"It is…difficult to explain."

"Everything is. Try anyway."

Shiala looked as if she was struggling to form the right words. "Saren has… a ship. I do not know where he found it, its exterior and interior design is like nothing in any organic or geth fleet I know of. You may have seen it, in footage of his attack on your planet of Eden Prime, human. He calls it Sovereign."

"That's what he calls the giant flying cuttlefish? Yes, I believe I know the ship you're talking about."

"I am afraid I do not know what a cuttlefish is. Nevertheless, that ship is at the center of Saren's power. Its main armament is stronger than that of any warship in the Citadel fleets, its thrusters swifter, its shields tougher. But its greatest ability is something far more sinister. Sovereign emits an… energy field. I do not know how else to describe it. It cannot be seen. It cannot be heard or smelled or touched or measured with any instrument I know of. But its effects are undeniable. Spend enough time near Sovereign, inside its hull or outside it, and you will feel a growing compulsion to obey Saren's every word. It starts simply, his words seem more charismatic. But as time goes on, it does not matter whether you find his words charismatic or convincing. He will speak, and your mind may disagree, but your limbs move to obey. Spend enough time in Sovereign's presence and you will lose yourself. There is no other way I know to describe it."

This brought up so many questions in Shepard's mind that he didn't know which to ask first. He settled for turning to Kaidan and asking, "Are you recording this?"

Thankfully, he received an answer of "Yes, Commander."

"You lost yourself and became a brainwashed puppet that couldn't control its own actions. Interesting. So why are you able to start helping us now?" Garrus asked. His voice was positively dripping with sarcasm.

"I do not know. Perhaps I am still under Sovereign's influence in some way," Shiala answered, her brow furrowed, ignoring the overtones of Garrus' voice. "But I do not believe so. When Saren finally came here, to the Thorian's lair, I served as the medium by which it transmitted the information Saren desired to his mind. After that, the Thorian demanded and received me as tribute in exchange for giving up that information. I had no choice. The will of Saren was too strong. I stood against the wall and let it envelop me in that cocoon, though my mind screamed to flee. That was the strength of the compulsion. I no longer feel it. My only guess is that the Thorian overwrote it while it absorbed me. And now it is dead, and its own compulsion is gone."

"So the giant spaceship brainwashed you, making you not responsible for your own actions." Garrus' voice was somehow even more sarcastic than before. Shiala attempted to say something but the turian steamrolled over her. "And then the giant ancient plant canceled that out with its own brainwashing, which means you're now not brainwashed at all and can go free. Also, the important information that Saren went to all this trouble for somehow isn't useful to us. I see." Garrus turned to Shepard. "Shepard, she needs to be taken into custody and interrogated at great length. By your Alliance, or maybe give her over to her own people. Maybe even the Hierarchy. I don't believe a word she's told us."

"Shepard? Commander Shepard?" Shiala's eyes had widened, and were boring into his own.

"…yes? You've heard of me?"

"It would have been hard not to, with how often Saren raged about you after Eden Prime. Despite what your companion believes, I do not shirk my own responsibility at all. Whatever Sovereign may have done to me, I made my choice to follow Lady Benezia into her folly, and it is only right that I pay a price for that. If you believe that said price is to rot in the jails of your kind or my own, then I will submit without a struggle. But before you do anything more, I beg you to listen to what I am about to tell you."

"Okay, then. Go ahead," Shepard said, impressed in spite of himself at the asari's attitude.

"I said before that the information Saren received from the Thorian would be of no use to any of you. I was mistaken. Commander Shepard, you, other than Saren, are the only person in the galaxy the Cipher would be of use to."

Why, Shepard was about to ask. Then his mouth dried. Information relevant only to himself and Saren…

"You begin to understand already, Commander Shepard. I can see it in your eyes. The information Saren received from the Thorian, the Cipher, was the ability to catalogue, order, and understand the visions he received from the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. Visions that you received as well. It is of no use to myself, as I was never touched by the beacon, but I served as the medium for the Thorian to grant the Cipher to Saren, and I can grant it to you as well. Please. Allow me to do this, as the first step of my penance for the crimes I committed in Saren's service."

Shepard could barely breathe. The solution to the nightmares and visions that had been tearing his brain apart for weeks? The key to understanding Saren's goals? A full night's sleep? All of that at once, just like that?

Wildly, he cast a gaze back over his shoulder. The force was staring at him completely nonplussed. His own Marines, with the exception of Chase, hadn't been on Eden Prime, and none of them had any idea what the beacon had done to him. The contingents from the Spurs and Isonzo were even more out of the loop. Kaidan and Garrus were the only ones present who understood exactly what he was being offered.

"What… how… how is this possible?"

"The Protheans made this world into one of their greatest, but the Thorian was here before them, and it endured after them. When the Protheans died, the Thorian absorbed their bodies, as it undoubtedly would've done to me in time. It absorbed their memories, their flesh, their thoughts, everything about them that made them unique. That is the Cipher. I cannot put it more plainly than that it is how to think like a Prothean. The visions the beacon granted you and Saren were not meant for the mind of a human or a turian."

"And how would you go about granting it to me?" Garrus made a noise of protest at this, but Shepard cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"The Cipher cannot be taught. I cannot explain it to you. It must be experienced. This is a large part of the reason Saren requested an asari bodyguard to this planet in the first place. It is an inherent ability of my species to join our minds to that of another, and that is what I will do, if you permit me. I will transfer the Cipher directly into your mind."

Garrus could not contain himself at this. "Shepard! This is insane! This is an admitted high ranking lieutenant of our enemy, you can't just let her start poking around in your brain!" Even Kaidan was making disbelieving noises.

Shepard held up his hand. Normally he would've agreed with Garrus without a second thought, but the potential here… "Are you absolutely sure this is the only way to get this 'Cipher'? And another thing. I think I've heard of this mind joining. Isn't this called melding? Isn't that how you asari have sex? Are you literally propositioning me?"

Shiala's face flushed an even darker purple. "I… no. I am not propositioning you, Commander. Though I see how the misunderstanding could arise. This is a variation of the same process that we asari use for reproduction, yes. But only a variation. In order for… sexual pleasure… to be derived, or for a child to be produced, the minds of the individuals in question would need to be fully joined, to the extent that neither could be distinguished from the other. I will but lightly brush your mind with mine, just enough to transfer information. Nothing more. And yes, this is the only way."

Shepard could not remember the last time he'd faced this difficult of a choice. On the one hand, the potential for information that could break open the hunt for Saren and preserve his own sanity. On the other, the potential for a spy to shred what was left of his brain and leave him nothing. He closed his eyes, trying to think…

Spinning, bioluminescent jaws, dripping with neon acid as the thresher maw reared high into the sky.

Amelia Fry's terrified scream as it plunged downward onto her.

Stanley Toombs' white face, before he vanished under a pile of rubble.

Shepard's eyes popped open. "Do it. Do it now." He might as well not even have heard the furious exclamations of Garrus or Kaidan.

"Thank you, Commander. I swear, I shall not harm your mind. Please remove one of your gloves, the connection works best against bare skin." He almost tore his body suit in his haste to rip his right gauntlet off. As soon as it went clattering to the floor, a slim purple hand took his.

"Try to relax your mind as much as you can, Commander Shepard. Embrace Eternity."

A/N: So, yeah. This happened.

I didn't want to procrastinate like this again, but I inevitably did, which has resulted in another multi-month delay between chapters. I greatly apologize. Next up will be Hannah Shepard II, which will be much much much shorter and should hopefully be out around Christmas.

I will say in my defense that this entire Feros arc has turned out to be much more massive than I originally planned. I'd originally planned for the entire planet to be done in 2 chapters, one of Garrus and one of Shepard. Instead it turned into four, with the second split coming after I finished writing Shepard V and realized that it clocked in at 82 pages in Word and 22k words.

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy these latest two chapters, and I'll see you again relatively soon! Hopefully? Maybe?