Whole, Part 2 (a Mass Effect fanfiction)

What They Had Come For

Shepard was all for rushing through the facility to get to Miranda, never mind what they had been doing here, but Garrus was intrigued and disturbed by the Sanctuary facility, and he kept pressing buttons on monitors to hear more about what had gone on here.

Henry Lawson's voice came from all of them. This facility had been his brain-child, a place where they could draw unsuspecting victims for a never-ending series of tests. He used the phrase "processing efficiency" with a coldness that sickened Shepard.

"'No shortage of subjects'," Garrus quoted. He clenched his fist. "That bastard. I hope he's here."

"They were decoding how the Reapers communicate." Kaidan drew nearer the monitor, fascinated and horrified. "'How the Reaper signal interacts with the nanides implanted within the subject's body.'"

"Seriously, who cares?" Shepard snapped. Once upon a time, maybe she would have, wanted to know what kind of monstrosity had been practiced here, but it had been too long, too much, and all she really wanted was to find Kai Leng, get her data, kill him, save Miranda, and end this war.

"What if they have more facilities like this? Or they're already using what they've learned?" Garrus pointed out. "They were learning how to make the Reaper nanides work more efficiently in the bodies of every species that came here, Shepard. Who knows what they've begun, and where."

Kaidan shook his head, staring at the video. "What kind of monster does this to people?"

"The kind who doesn't see anyone else as people. We know what he did to Miranda and Oriana, and they were his own daughters."

"Spirits, Shepard, they drugged these people with red sand first. To 'speed up' the process."

"Before deciding that adrenalin—and its cross-species equivalents—were more effective. Efficient," Kaidan spat. "Like a living assembly line."

Garrus said thoughtfully, "Here I thought Cerberus and the Reapers were getting along."

"Well, maybe that's why the Reapers attacked," Shepard speculated. "Because Lawson—and Cerberus—were getting too close to their secrets."

"That could help us," Garrus suggested.

"I don't want to use anything that came from this. This isn't like keeping Maelon's research on those poor female krogan—they wanted to be used, to help their people. These refugees ... they came here because they were promised it would be safe, and they were betrayed and slaughtered. Worse than slaughtered." Shepard shook her head violently. "No. I want no part of anything that was learned here."

Another monitor was a message from Miranda to whoever might see it. She was trying to get to the communication scrambler, to get word out and stop anyone from arriving at Sanctuary. As far as Shepard could tell, refugees had pretty much stopped coming already, but broadcast warning signals couldn't hurt, in case anyone else was on their way.

"She thinks her father is trying to learn how to indoctrinate people. And she has confirmed he's doing it for Cerberus." Garrus groaned. "Well, isn't that what we all need, the Illusive Man able to mimic Reaper indoctrination."

Kaidan held up a hand for quiet, listening to Miranda's message intently. "She mentions shipments. If we can figure out where those shipments are going, that could lead us to the Illusive Man."

"If we can catch up to Kai Leng and kill him very slowly, that could yield the same thing."

Garrus and Kaidan exchanged concerned looks. Whether they were concerned about her increasing blood-thirstiness or about her ability to actually capture and kill Kai Leng, Shepard didn't want to know. There was time to worry about her humanity later.

"Can we go?" she snapped at them.

"Hang on, Shepard." Garrus was bent over another monitor. "He says that while their husks weren't 'true' husks—whatever that means—they still responded to Reaper signals. Spirits! They weren't just trying to create indoctrination in refugee subjects—they also captured Reaper forces and were trying to control them."

"They thought they had it figured out, too. 'As long as the Reaper troops remain in close proximity to our signal, we can maintain control indefinitely.' The Illusive Man wanted to go further, to extrapolate the same technique and use it on the Reapers themselves. To control the Reapers!" Kaidan looked up at Shepard. "Is that ... is that possible? Imagine if—"

"No," Shepard said coldly. "I don't want to imagine. If we are to survive—if any civilization is to survive, ever again—we need to destroy the Reapers entirely. Wipe them from the galaxy. Control is only ever going to be an illusion. Do you think no one has tried that before, in any of the countless cycles that came before us? The Reapers are too smart for that." She looked both of them in the eye. "To entertain the idea that the Reapers can be controlled is to take the first step down the road to indoctrination. We know the Illusive Man is already well on his way; maybe Lawson is, too. Either way, I want no part of any speculation of that nature."

"I guess now we know for sure why the Reapers attacked here," Garrus said in the silence that followed her words. "Tough break for the Illusive Man."

"If the Reapers were a tough break, I intend to be his worst nightmare." Shepard searched the bank of controls in front of her and punched a button. "I'm lowering the access ladder. Let's get to the tower, save Miranda, kill Kai Leng, get our data back, and then hit the Illusive Man where he lives. Literally."

"I like the sound of that." Kaidan popped a new heat sink into his gun. "Right behind you, Shepard."

"Hang on." Garrus was leaning over another monitor. "Lawson says the Reapers attacked to keep the galaxy from learning what they figured out here, Shepard. The Reapers have a weakness."

"Does he say what it is?"

"No, but he does say he's compiling the research data."

Kaidan shook his head. "Great. More data hidden somewhere. Maybe Kai Leng has that, too."

"All the more reason to find him. Let's move." Shepard grasped an upper rung of the ladder and started to haul herself up. They had spent too much time on data—now they needed action, if they were going to get what they had come for.