Chapter 10: The Asari Damsel in Distress

"We're now entering the Hades Gamma Cluster on our way to the Artemis Tau Cluster," Joker reported as I walked to stand behind him.

"Right. Hopefully it won't take us too long to find the right ruins that Liara is at," I replied.

There was a sudden beeping and Joker looked up to a red light pulsing. "Looks like we've got an incoming message. You want to take it here or at the map?" Joker asked.

"I'll take it at the map," I replied before jogging over to the Galaxy Map.

"Commander. I'm glad you were in the area," a voice filtered through the comm and I recognised it as Admiral Steven Hackett. "We've got an emergency situation, and you're the only one I trust to get the job done."

"What's the job, Admiral?" I asked.

"Biotic fanatics have hit a medical research station with a psychotropic drug. The drugs have temporally driven researchers crazy and the biotics are effectively using them as human shields," he explained.

"So no shooting like crazy, right? Finesse is needed," I replied.

"Exactly. A normal team could handle the biotics, but a lot of innocent researchers would die during the operation. That's why I contacted you. I'm hoping that you can keep the casualties to a minimum," Hackett stated.

"I'll do what I can to bring those researchers back safely, Admiral," I promised.

"I know you will, Commander," the Admiral replied. The signal suddenly distorted as data was transmitted along with the voice. "I'm sending you the station coordinates now. Fifth Fleet out." The transition was cut.

"Continue to Artemis Tau, Joker. We'll help those researchers out after we rescue Liara," I notified the pilot.

"Rodger that, Commander," he replied.

I then paused. 'Doesn't that mission pop up after you reach 80% Paragon? Wonder why I got it so soon?' I wondered. I then shrugged. 'Meh, doesn't matter anyways.'

"FuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKK!" I yelled as I felt myself plummeting out of the Normandy and freefalling a few hundred feet before the stabilizer boosters kicked in and the Mako righted itself before impacting the ground and bouncing hard a bit before coming to a complete stop.

I looked at Dawn, whose face was as white as a ghost. I was willing to bet that mine was the same. "Well that was… fun," I replied with a nervous chuckle. I had no idea on what to expect when I would be shot out of the back of the ship in the Mako. Turns out that the inertial dampeners on the vehicle only made sure we wouldn't die on impact and did nothing to rid the feeling of your stomach being pushed to the top of your body and the heavy jolting of the landing.

"Yeah… fun," Dawn replied as colour seeped back into her face.

"You two alright?" Kaiden asked from the back.

"Uhh, yeah, sure we are," I replied quickly. I was glad that I had the knowledge to drive this thing so I shifted the Mako into the correct gear and pressed the acceleration. What I didn't expect was for the Mako to shoot forward suddenly as if I was driving for the first time. And I had 5 years of driving experience already back home.

"AAAAHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL!?" Dawn screamed out as I put on the breaks and we jolted to a halt.

"You're driving sucks, Josh!" Tali yelled angrily as she picked herself off the ground in the back.

"It's not me, it's this stupid machine!" I replied before a memory flashed into my head of Garrus working on the Mako.

"Garrus! What the hell kind of calibrations did you do to this thing?" I asked.

"Just amped up the speed, braking and handling, that's all, Commander," Garrus replied from his position as the main gunner operating the machine gun and mass accelerator cannon.

"Next time warn me of any tweak ups please," I replied as I accelerated, a lot softly this time, and we began to move forward easily this time.

"Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like, off the damn charts," Joker notified me through the intercom. "It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few klicks away from the drop zone."

"Josh is a little preoccupied driving at the moment, but thanks for the heads up, Joker," Dawn replied.

"Thanks," I said through gritted teeth as I drove the Mako very gently. I needed all my concentration on this. The suspension on this thing was nuts. Every little bump I ran over made us catch some reasonable air and it was hard to steer while in the air.

"Sure thing," she replied.

For about five minutes we went without incident. Until a geth drop ship blasted over our heads. "Ok Garrus, time to show us your skills!" I yelled as I continued ahead.

"I've got this!" he replied as he swivelled the cannon and gun slightly, pointing to where the drop ship had stopped and was preparing to drop geth in front of us. He let off a round and it shredded the first Geth Armature into pieces even before it had hit the ground.

"Whoo! Nice one!" I congratulated. The second Armature was quickly overwhelmed by machine gun fire.

We continued on. It wasn't long before we came across a stronghold with three Geth Heavy Turrets blocking the way.

"Oh shit!" I swore as I twisted the steering wheel to the left and waited as Garrus began to fire at the turrets.

"I don't think it's a good idea going head to head with those things!" Kaiden cried out.

"Relax! Those things may fire rockets, but they only move in a straight line and move very slowly. I'll just move us out of the way and let Garrus handle the turrets," I replied.

And that's exactly what happened. After another five minutes, all three turrets were destroyed. "I don't think we'll be able to get past that wall anyways." I stood up and opened a small manhole above me. I looked around and saw an alternate path. I closed the manhole and sat in my seat again. "There's a path to the right of us that looks like it'll work its way around this wall. Garrus, be ready. I doubt the geth would leave such an obvious path unguarded."

As predicted, another Geth Heavy turret blocked our way on the path. But it was quickly taken care of and we continued forward. We entered the stronghold and Garrus went nuts on the geth inside the base. A few rockets and bullet fire impacted the Mako, but the shields withstood the brief onslaught long enough for Garrus to take care of them all.

After getting out and activating the gate controls needed, we got back in the Mako and continued forward. We came across a few more geth blocking he path, but after ridding them, including one where I simply drove right into it and sent it flying into the lava, we moved on. When we came across a Geth Colossus, we implemented the same strategy for when we took out the Heavy Turrets. After five minutes of Garrus blasting it and me dodging the kinetic energy blasts it fired at us, we reached a tunnel.

We were met with two Geth Rocket Troopers on the other side, but they were dealt with quickly enough. In the second tunnel there were more geth, and this group was a little harder to deal with, since there wasn't much room to maneuver with. But we came out on top and continued on.

"Jeez, aren't we there yet?" I asked loudly.

"Not too much longer now," Dawn replied as Garrus blasted three geth with a single cannon shot.

Just then we came across a bunch of rocks that we simply couldn't drive over. There was a small gap in the middle. "Guess we continue on foot from here," I said as Kaiden opened the side door to let everyone out.

We continued on and ran into several geth guarding the path. They were dealt with quickly through well-coordinated strikes. Soon we came across a construction area.

"Stay vigilant. This looks like it's a good place for an ambush," I warned before I spotted something. It was one of those Geth Ghosts above us clinging to some scaffolding. I took out my sniper rifle and blasted a round through its chest, creating a sizable hole, which dropped the geth to the ground. However we couldn't pause for breath as four more geth dropped from the sky, including an Armature.

"Scatter!" I ordered and we spread out. "Take the small ones first before concentrating on the big guy!" I then proceeded to snipe a Geth Sniper in the head.

Tali got a second Ghost with her pistol. Kaiden and Dawn took down a second sniper with biotics and Garrus sniped a Rocket Trooper, leaving the Armature.

I then grinned as an idea flew into my head. "Dawn, Kaiden. Can you both use your biotics to pull on the left and right of the Armature respectively?" I asked.

"Sure, but I don't get what you're trying to do-," Kaiden began but Dawn interrupted him.

"Just do it, Kaiden," she replied.

"Right, sure thing," he nodded.

The sight was spectacular to watch. Dawn pulled with her biotics on the right half to the right while Kaiden did the same on the left, to the left. The result was a tug of war with the Armature in the middle. Eventually something had to give. And it did. The geth was ripped apart as the biotic forces pulled the two halves away from each other.

"Booya!" I cried out in victory, slapping Dawn a high-5.

"I gotta say, that was an impressive idea, Commander," Kaiden approved.

"That was amazing!" Tali agreed.

"Truly," Garrus nodded.

"Ok, let's keep moving everyone," I ordered and we moved into the construction site. I saw the entrance to the underground complex Joker had told us about. "There's the entrance," I pointed. "Everyone ready? If the geth were here then they'll definitely be in the ruins already. So stay sharp."

I received a chorus of positive replies. So, without any more words, we entered the complex.

Inside we were faced with a long, circular metal tunnel which was lit by large lights every 10 meters or so. About halfway down our scanners began to go haywire, meaning that geth were jamming the scanning frequency.

"Get ready," I whispered over the com channel inside my helmet, having long since unfolded it.

The first encounter was right at the end of the tunnel. Dawn used her biotics to lift the geth into the air before blasting it backwards with a shotgun round. We made our way down the catwalk, blasting geth as we went. When there was a break in the action, we took a few seconds to look around. The cave we were in was formed in a very strange fashion.

"It looks like this cavern formed around the ruin. After it was built," Tali said as she took in the sights.

"50,000 years is enough time for something like this to happen," Kaiden replied.

We continued on and quickly came across a lift. We took it down and watched as we passed several containment rooms to the side of the elevator.

At the bottom we were attacked by geth assault drones. After several accurate fire from Dawn and I, we pressed on and found another elevator.

Everything went smoothly until there was a large jolt and sparks erupted from around and inside the elevator. "What's going on?" Kaiden asked.

"Seems there's a bug in the system. Either that or the geth tampered with this elevator," Tali replied.

"Probably the later," I said as the elevator came to a sudden halt, three feet from where it would originally have stopped. We vaulted off the edge and down the half destroyed catwalk when I heard a voice.

"Uh… hello? Is somebody there? Could somebody help me? Please?"

We turned down the last corner and saw that a large energy shield had been placed over one of the holes in the ruin. Inside was an asari and there was a shimmering shield of energy surrounding her, levitating in the air.

It was Liara T'Soni. She was very beautiful indeed. The game version of her did not do her justice. "Can you hear me out there? I am trapped. I need help!" she called out. She then settled down and took a good look at us. "Are you… Are you real?" she asked us before smiling to herself. "Oh no, don't be stupid, Liara. Humans do not come here. You're hallucinating," she said to herself. "And talking to yourself. Ha! Oh Goddess, I'm going to die here."

"I dunno what you're smoking, but we certainly are real," I smiled amusedly. "And we are getting you out of here."

"You're oddly lucid for a hallucination. They don't usually claim to be real," she replied, still not sure that we were real. "Or do they? I guess I wouldn't know. I don't usually hallucinate. At least, I don't think I do."

"Ok… how bout we start off slow. My name is Commander Josh Kitsuné. I'm also a Spectre, but it's recent news so you probably haven't heard of the Citadel Council approving the very first human Spectre," I said.

"A Spectre? Ha. That's good. What else would I conjure up? A protector figure. Yes, perfect. Comforting. Well, I'll play along," she resigned, thought it was still clear that she thought we were apparitions created from her mind. Boy, was she going to be embarrassed when we brought down the shield.

"That's a good idea," Dawn agreed.

"As you can see, I am trapped here. If you're as real as you all claim, find a way to get me out," she replied.

"So how did you get yourself in there?" Tali asked.

"Ah, yes. The figments of my imagination want me to retrace my steps. See if I can figure out where I went wrong," Liara replied.

"Whatever makes you happy," Tali muttered quietly and I grinned but didn't laugh.

"I was exploring the ruins. When the geth showed up, I ran here and activated the defences. The barrier curtains could protect me. When I turned it on, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I became trapped in here," she replied.

"Stay calm. We'll bust you outta here, no sweat," I replied with a comforting smile.

"Of course. What good is a hallucination if it can't offer false hope?" the asari replied.

I turned around and showed everyone my massive grin. "What's that for?" Kaiden asked.

"Well, if she becomes part of the crew, this is all becoming great blackmail material," I replied.

Kaiden's mouth opened in shock before shaking his head. "You're evil, Commander."

"Ok, we've got ourselves an asari damsel in distress. Let's go slay the dragon and all go home," I said as I hefted my sniper rifle like I was Ranbo and led the way down to the ground level.

"What?" Tali asked in confusion.

"It's a human cliché saying, don't worry," Dawn replied with an amused smile.

We didn't get halfway down the catwalk when something started shooting at me. I brought up my rifle and pointed the scope at where the shots had come from while the others moved behind me and continued on. I spotted a geth rocket trooper and downed it from a shot to the optics. I then followed the rest of my squad as they took out a Shock Trooper. Another shock trooper rounded the corner but Garrus took care of that one with a shot from his sniper rifle.

"What's this thing?" Kaiden asked as he poked a metal contraption.

"Looks like mining laser controls," Tali noted. "If we activate them, it might blast an opening for us to get to the other side."

"Worth a shot, but let's clear the area first," I suggested before moving forward. There was a loud bang and my shields fluctuated wildly as a sniper round pinged off my kinetic shields.

"Fuck!" I swore before darting behind cover. The shot had come from up ahead. "Garrus, can you circle around and get it?" I asked over the radio.

"Give me a moment," the reply came back. We waited for a few moments before a loud bang rang through the cavern. "Scratch that one," Garrus reported his kill.

"Can you see any more?" I asked.

There was a pause. "None that I can see from here, Commander."

"What about you guys? See any more bogies?"

A few replies of 'no' came back to me.

"Ok. Let's go activate that laser then," I said.

Tali was able to quickly hack her way through the override sequence. The mining laser then activated for a brief moment, but that was all it took to burn through the floor of the cavern and open up an access point to the other side. We walked through the opening and on the other side was the control panel. I touched the metal and a green holographic interface flashed up. Then the platform we were on moved up to show the spot where Liara was. She was still facing the force field and seemed not to notice us.

"So, believe us now?" I asked.

"Now I am hallucinating that you all are inside the tower. I must be getting worse. Earlier, I even imagined I heard thunder," she replied, still not convinced.

"Yeah… that was us. We bore our way through with the mining laser," I sighed.

"You bore through?" she repeated as finally she seemed to believe that she was speaking to real people. "You're real… aren't you?" she asked, hope entering her tone. I nodded. "By the Goddess, you're real!"

"Yep, sure are," I replied. I then walked over to the control panel and deactivated. There was a loud sound as the asari hit the ground with a grunt of pain.

"Sorry. I guess I should have warned you first," I apologised.

What came next surprised me. She stood up and threw her arms around me, crying in relief and joy. I just stood there, not sure how to react in this situation. This never happened in the game, but I guess it was typical for someone who thought they were going to die in isolation, only to be rescued. So I simply patted her awkwardly on the back. After a few more seconds she pulled away.

"I… I'm sorry. I thought you were a hallucination. I thought I was going mad before I died. Please get me out of here. Before more geth show up," she pleaded.

"That's why we're here. I assume you're Liara T'Soni?" I asked.

"Yes, I am. There's an elevator back in the centre of the tower. At least, I think it's an elevator. It should take us out of here. Come on!" she urged. We nodded and all piled on the platform.

"I… I still cannot believe all this. Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?" she asked as we clambered onto the lift.

"Well you are an expert on the Protheans. Saren's currently looking for a piece of Prothean tech, and would want you to help him find it," Kaiden explained.

"It's called the Conduit," Garrus added.

"The Conduit? But I don't know-" at that point there was a loud crash from above us.

"What the hell was that?" Tali asked in an alarmed voice.

"These ruins aren't stable. That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event," Liara explained.

"Whoops?" I asked with a nervous grin.

"We need to get out of here now!" she urged as she ran over to the controls and began imputing commands.

I tapped a command on my Omnitool to connect my radio to the Normandy. "Joker, we need a pickup immediately. Lock on to my signal and get the Normandy over here. On the double!" I ordered sharply.

"Aye, aye, Commander. Secure and aweigh. ETA eight minutes," Joker replied.

"Any chance of putting on the nitrous there buddy?" I asked. I got no response. At that point the lift began to take us up. Dust and rock fell on the lift as we reached the top. Only for another obstruction to appear.

"Aww shit," I groaned as a small group of geth and a krogan battlemaster stood in front of us. "It's obvious that they're not here to help. Let's waste these idiots!" I cried out before pulling out my handguns and destroying the closest geth to me before I dove for cover. I replaced my handguns with the sniper rifle, poked around the corner and killed off the geth sniper. Meanwhile Garrus and Dawn handled the remaining geth. Kaiden began shooting at the krogan, but he almost seemed to shrug them off.

"We need more powerful stuff to handle him!" I called to Kaiden as he dodged to the side, missing the charge the krogan tried to deal to him. I pulled out a grenade and threw it at one of the boxes that were scattered around. As the krogan lumbered past, the grenade went off and engulfed him in the explosion. He came out of it still standing, but he looked a little worse for wear.

It took a combined effort of biotics and gunfire from all of us, but eventually the krogan battlemaster went down.

On the other side the ceiling was collapsing quickly. I turned around. "Everyone, RUN!" I yelled before we took off. The falling rocks began to loosen the catwalk from the side of the cavern. The whole surface buckled from the impacts.

"The walkway is coming down!" someone yelled.

"Just keep running!" I ordered. Against my better judgement I turned around to see if everyone was getting by, and saw a huge chunk of the ceiling come start to break away. "MOVE!" I shouted as Liara ran past me. I took off behind her, hot on her heels. We reached the entrance tunnel before a wave of dust overwhelmed us. But I continued to run and didn't stop until I saw daylight. And even then I continued to run down the walkway a bit before the adrenaline wore off and I almost collapsed to my knees in exhaustion. But we were safe.

"Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulphur," Joker said through the intercom as Kaiden, Ashley, Dawn, Tali, Garrus, Wrex and our newest addition, Liara, met up in the conference room. The pilot was referring to the lava eruption that happened seconds after the Normandy had left the site with us inside. It was indeed a close call. "The Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for future reference."

"We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked incredulously.

"He tends to do that," Dawn replied.

"They may be bad, but he saved our asses. If continuing to rely on his top class piloting skills means we need to put up with the joking, then that's a good trade off in my books," I explained.

"I see. It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander," the asari replied. "But I am grateful to you. All of you. You saved my life back there. And not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me. Or dragged me off to Saren."

"Saren knows that you are a one of the top Prothean experts in the galaxy. He's looking for a piece of Prothean tech called the Conduit. Do you know of it?" Kaiden asked.

"Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. That is my area of expertise. I have spent the past fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them," she replied.

"How old are you anyways?" Dawn asked.

"I hate to admit it, but I am only 106," she replied embarrassedly.

"Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm your age," Ashley grinned.

"Don't we all," Dawn agreed with her own grin.

"A century may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours. But among the asari, I am barely considered more than a child," Liara explained.

"That's gotta put up quite the blockade when trying to get your theories proven to the galactic community, I bet," I noted.

"You're right. My research has not received the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans," she agreed.

"Well, interested in learning the truth about it?" I asked.

"Excuse me?" she replied, confused.

"The demise… or rather mass genocide of the Protheans," I clarified.

"With all due respect, Commander," Liara replied with a very slight haughtiness creeping into her tone, "I have heard every theory out there." The tone probably came from her fifty year study experience. I didn't blame her for it, but it partially annoyed me. "The problem is finding evidence to support them. The Protheans left remarkably little behind. It is almost as if someone did not want the mystery solved. It's like someone came along after the Protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of clues. But here is the incredible part."

Here Liara leaned forward, as if about to divulge some deep, dark secret. "According to my findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. The cycle began long before them."

"Must've taken some intense in-depth sifting to find that out," Dawn said.

"I thought there wasn't any evidence," Ashley asked.

"I have been working on this for fifty years. I have tracked down every scrap and shred of evidence. Eventually, subtle patterns start to emerge. Patterns that hint at the truth," Liara explained. She then paused. "It is difficult to explain to someone else. I cannot point to one specific thing to prove my case. It is more of a feeling derived from a half century of dedicated research. But I know I'm right. And eventually, I will be able to prove it. There were other civilizations before the Protheans. This cycle has repeated itself many times over."

"I wonder who the first were," Tali pondered.

"I don't know. There is barely any evidence on the Protheans. Even less on those who came before them. I cannot prove my theory. But I know I am right!" Liara replied. "The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down. Only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their empire spanned the galaxy. Yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of those that came before. Their greatest achievements - the mass relays and the Citadel – are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like the other forgotten civilizations throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared. I have dedicated my life to figuring out why."

"Well we've landed ourselves on the truth, or I have. They were eradicated by a race of sentient machines. They are known as the Reapers. Whether that is their true name, or one given to them through the ages, remains unknown," I explained.

"The… The Reapers? But I have never heard of… How do you know this? What evidence do you have?" the asari asked, but it sounded like a demand.

"Settle down; I'll tell you," I replied gently. "On a recent mission to Eden Prime to transport a recently unearthed Prothean beacon, I came in contact with it and it burned a vision of events into my mind. The information is disjointed and there are gaps in the vision, as if I only received part of it or some of the information is locked from access somehow."

"A beacon? Yes. That makes sense. But the beacons were not programmed to interact with human physiology. I am surprised you were able to make any sense of it at all," Liara replied, both surprised and impressed.

"I'm just that awesome I guess," I grinned in a cheesy manner. A few laughs were voiced before we fell silent again. "So, come do your mind meld thing with me and see for yourself," I said as I moved my hand in a quick 'come hither' gesture.

"Uhh… ok. I see what it is you want me to try and do. Maybe my knowledge will help clarify your vision," she nodded and stood up.

"Let's do this," I said as I walked over to stand roughly two feet from her. I took this chance to study her face a bit more. Since she had no hair anywhere, her eyebrows were painted on. Her eyes were a greyish blue and there was purple pigmentation around her eyes. The rest of her face was a beautiful shade of sky blue, except for her lips which were a shade of purple, as if she was wearing lipstick. But I knew this wasn't the case as she had only recently been plucked from her dig site so she wouldn't bother with such cosmetics.

"Relax, Commander," she said as she closed her eyes. I did the same and all went black.

"Embrace Eternity!"

I then felt a wonderful sensation as a feeling of a foreign, but pleasant entity seemed to meld with my mind. But then the images came hard and fast as Liara probed the vision. The onslaught continued for another 30 seconds before Liara separated herself from me, breathing a little hard.

"That was… incredible! All this time. All my research. Yet I… I never dreamed…," she panted out as she got her bearings back. "I am sorry. The images were so vivid. I-I never imagined the experience would be so… intense."

"Heh, you should have seen it the first time I went through it. Bloody knocked me unconscious for several hours," I replied as I backed up and leaned against the wall.

"You are remarkably strong-willed, Commander. What you have been through, what you have seen, would have destroyed a lesser mind," she praised.

"Uhh, hello? Awesome. Right here," I replied with a grin. At least until Dawn whacked me upside the head.

"None of that now," she said sternly.

"Yes Moooom!" I replied in an over exaggerated tone.

"Uhh, are they always like this?" Liara asked to no-one in particular as Dawn and I argued with each other.

"Every now and then," Tali replied.

"So come on! Get to the point. What'd you see?" Ashley asked impatiently.

"The beacon on Eden Prime must have been badly damaged. Large parts of the vision are missing. The data transferred into the Commander's mind is incomplete," Liara reported.

"That's what I said," I stated as I finished up my small squabble with my friend. "So nothing new?"

Liara shook her head. "Everything I saw, you already know. You were right about the Reapers. The Protheans were destroyed by a race of sentient machines. I think it is obvious there is a connection between the Reapers, the Protheans, and the Conduit. But I did not see anything that would help us find it."

"Damn," Garrus cursed quietly, but was still clearly heard by all of us.

"What's next?" Wrex spoke up.

"Saren knew the Commander was touched by the beacon on Eden Prime. He probably came after be because he feared I could help the Commander understand it," Liara answered the hulking krogan. She then turned back to me. "I was able to interpret the data relayed through your vision. What was there, at least. Find the missing protion, and I am confident I can put all the pieces together."

"Well, I guess it's official. You're on the team now. Good to have you here," I welcomed.

"Thank you, Commander. I am very gratef-" here she swayed to the side and closed her eyes. "Whoa… I am afraid I am feeling a bit light-headed."

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept? Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you," Kaiden suggested.

"It is probably just mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans' true fate. I need some time to process all this," she replied as her eyes started to droop. "Still, it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional. It will give me the chance to think things over. Are we finished here Commander?"

"Yep. Get some rest Liara. We'll chat later," I nodded. "Now excuse me guys, I need to report to the council. Dawn, can you show Liara to the Doc's?" I asked.

"Sure thing Josh," she nodded before directing Liara out of the room with the others following.

"Mission reports are filed, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council now?" Joker asked as the last person, Tali, left the room.

"Sure thing Joker," I replied as I turned around to face the projector.

"Setting up the link now, Commander," he replied.

After a few seconds, Sparatus, Tevos and Valern appeared in front of me.

"Councillors," I greeted.

"We've received your report, Commander. I understand Dr. T'Soni is on the Normandy?" Tevos asked.

"I assume you're taking the necessary security precautions?" Sparatus asked.

"She was found stuck in a Prothean isolation shield after running from the Geth inside the ruin. She had no idea someone would rescue her. I highly doubt she's with Benezia or Saren," I replied.

"Hmm, perhaps so," he agreed.

"Don't worry. I'll keep my eye on her for anything suspicious," I assured, even though I knew that Liara was on our side.

"At least the mission was a success," Valern said.

"If you call sinking the whole ruin into lava a success. Sorry about that," I apologised.

"Not to worry, Commander. The mission must always take priority," Tevos replied.

"Has there been any more evidence concerning the Reapers existence?" Sparatus asked.

"No, but Liara did mind meld with me and saw the incomplete vision I got from the beacon. As soon as she saw this she became a believer and she had no idea what the Reapers were beforehand. However she's uncovered the fact that the Protheans aren't the only galactic civilization to come to an abrupt end. While she doesn't have concrete proof, this points to the fact that the Reapers are much older than 50,000 years and the Protheans weren't the first civilization the Reapers have committed genocide on. We could be looking at a cycle that is millions of years old," I reported.

There was silence as the Councillors mulled this new piece of information over.

"This is grave news indeed. If proven correct, then these Reapers are now even more of a danger," Sparatus replied.

"I'll continue to find evidence to support this new theory and the Reapers as I carry out my missions," I assured.

"Good luck, Commander. Remember, we're all counting on you," Tevos replied before the link was cut.