Chapter Text
Immortalized, over time their legend will rise.
And their foes can't believe their eyes.
Archangel
“Jane, sweetheart, please. Come on, gorgeous. Talk to me.”
Despite her promise to keep radio contact, Garrus’s spirits-forsaken girlfriend hadn’t made a single damned sound after shrieking his name in terror. The line was just filled with static. Garrus, along with Javik and James, were some unknown amount of the way through an increasingly narrow tunnel that two-thirds of the remaining squad were having difficulty navigating. Turians weren’t made for spelunking, and it seemed that Humans weren’t either if James getting stuck every few feet and needing a shove from Javik was anything to go by. How the fuck had Jane made it through here? Sure, she was much smaller than either of them, but if Garrus’s crest or spurs got hung on the rock one more damn time he was going to say fuck it and cause a cave in with his remaining grenades.
Bad idea, dumbass. What would Jane say?
She won’t say anything if she’s dead!
Garrus took a deep breath. It was Jane. She’d be okay. She always somehow made it out okay. She always came back to him.
Except for the one time she hadn’t.
Spirits, please don’t let me lose her. Not again.
After untold minutes in darkness and silence, the end of the tunnel finally came into view. Garrus and the others crawled out onto a narrow shelf of rock that dropped off about five meters to the floor. The eroded remains of other shelves around the edges indicated that there used to be water here. A shimmering gray sand coated the cavern floor and glowing blue moss clung to the ceiling in patches that resembled the nebulae of freckles on Jane’s skin. Dead husks, marauders, cannibals, and a couple of the modified Rachni littered the floor. Several appeared to have been impaled by something large.
That something was at the far end of the cavern. Garrus immediately recognized the Rachni Queen by the uncontrollable wave of revulsion that made his gizzard clench. Garrus swallowed hard to keep the mixture of half-ground food and pebbles from getting any ideas about exiting his body through the improper channels. The Queen was much, much larger than he remembered. Perhaps that had been his mind trying to reduce the threat after the fact.
“Dios mio…” James dropped his gun and stood alongside Garrus in dumbfounded awe.
Garrus’s eyes found Jane next. He might have been the only one with good enough sight to spot her. She rested against a rock at the far end of the cavern. The Rachni Queen kept her face lowered and turned towards Jane, but Garrus knew that at least a few of those fourteen eyes were looking at him and the rest of the squad. Something else was up there with them. It looked like a smaller Rachni from this distance, but Garrus wasn’t entirely sure. The dark exoskeleton seemed to blend in with Jane’s armor.
“What are you waiting for?” Javik demanded. He was already beginning his descent to the floor below. “We have to destroy the nest!”
“Garrus,” Jane said weakly through the comm, “anyone raises a gun to Queenie, put them down. ”
“Affirmative, sweetheart.”
Candidate
James and Garrus followed behind Javik. The Turian was incredibly wary of their Prothean squadmate and watched him like a hawk. It was like Garrus was waiting for something.
For his own part, James couldn’t get over the fact that Lola had gone full Disney Princess on a motherfucking giant spider. As they neared the end of the cavern housing the Rachni Queen, James became aware of not one, but two bigger-than-they-should-be bugs up there with the Commander. Despite one of said bugs being much, much smaller than the other, it was still the size of a baby cow. And it was laying there with its head in her lap like she was fucking Snow White! The big one just stood there with its weird skinny mouth on the Commander’s forehead. Somehow Shepard wasn’t afraid, or if she was, she didn’t look it.
Garrus outstripped James and Javik on the climb up to Shepard’s position. He cautiously approached, hands visible and unarmed. James could see the bones in the Turians crest wiggling up and down. Garrus was scared, at least, and that made James feel a little better about the deep-seeded, evolutionarily reinforced horror sitting in his gut like a lead ball.
“Jane promised no one would hurt you,” Garrus said to the Rachni Queen. “We’re friendly.” He paused, reevaluated his statement, and amended it. “I mean… We’re not hostile.”
James heard the click of a safety turning off as Javik aimed his beam rifle first at the Queen, then at the smaller Rachni using the Commander as a pillow. He didn’t get farther than that before the gun was out of his hands and he was pinned to the nearest stalagmite by his throat. Garrus’s face was barely more than an inch from Javik’s. The Prothean flickered with a green aura. “Let me go.”
“Jane’s orders. Nobody harms the Queen.”
“You’re all mad,” Javik choked out. His four yellow eyes darted back and forth between Garrus, Shepard, and the Rachni. They settled on James at last. “Surely you see it!”
James shrugged. This entire situation was above his pay grade. “If Lola thinks la Reina can help us win the war, I don’t think we’re in a position to refuse a giant araña.”
“Sweetheart, you say the word and Javik stops breathing.” Garrus pressed down a little harder.
The Queen’s words came out of a dozen dead Krogan scouts strung up in her webs. “You fight the machines, release our hollow children… We know you from before.”
“Yeah,” Shepard said. She smiled and kept her eyes closed. Her chest armor lay on the ground. Thin sheets of webbing left very little to the imagination. “He was one of the ones with me on Noveria.” She sat up and winced. One hand went to her side. “Shit, that still stings. Javik, Queenie’s an ally. She and her daughter patched me up after I got got by one of those cannon-face fuckers.”
“You’re too soft to lead, Shepard,” Javik spat. His green aura flashed and threw Garrus back onto the sand. Javik rubbed his throat and glared at the Rachni Queen. “We can’t allow them to live and be tools for the Reapers!”
“Ugh… my head…” The Turian did not attempt to rise.
“Stay down, babe.” Shepard then addressed the baby Rachni, “Hey, little one, can I get up?” It scuttled back as Shepard silently mouthed something else. Her lips barely moved. Anyone would have missed it if they blinked or looked away. The Commander got to her feet, gripping the rock behind her for a little more stability. James saw that the dusty sand on the far side of where she’d been sitting was caked with blood. Her web-bandages wrapped around under her sports bra with loose ends trailing behind her. It looked like the Rachni had overdone it on weaving, made too many, and started sticking them on wherever. Shepard took a few uncertain steps forward and pinned Javik in place using only her bloodshot eyes that James realized were puffy from crying.
“Javik, do not mistake my benevolence for weakness. This is my war. This is my squad. This is my mission. We do shit my way , because the way your people did it got them all killed except for you. I know that sucks. I know waking up after fuck knows how long to find everything you know changed and the people you love gone is a fucking nightmare .” Shepard pulled a breath in through her teeth. Her voice began to waver. “I have tried to be understanding with you, really I have. Even after you ripped through my goddamn memories– without my fucking permission I might add! I’m not sure how else I can make you understand. So you have two choices: get with the fucking program, or Garrus snaps your neck and I use your corpse as Rachni baby formula.”
Garrus sat up. “Please pick the second option, Javik. Make my fucking day.” James could tell he meant it, too. Garrus would have the best time killing Javik.
The Rachni Queen looked towards the ceiling. “What?” her dead mouthpieces cried. “The children return. They will destroy us. Release us!” She turned her fourteen pupil-less black eyes to Shepard as her baby scuttled to hide behind the Commander. James hadn’t expected bugs to behave so… familiarly. The insects and spiders on Earth couldn’t give half a fuck about their young.
Grunt’s voice cut through the radio static. “Mother, we’re getting movement. A lot of movement…”
“Copy that, Grunt,” Shepard said. Tears hung on the edges of her lashes. “Javik, I’m going to ask you one more time. Get with the program, or Rachni food. The choice is yours. This one just hatched, and I’m sure she’s hungry.” She patted the baby Rachni’s cephalothorax.
“How do we know they’re capable of fighting the Reapers?” Javik demanded.
Shepard merely looked up at the Queen, who answered, “We hate the machines. We will fight for our unborn children. Release us!”
“There you have it,” the Commander said. “James, pop out your omni-blade and start cutting Queenie out of this mess. Garrus, gun stays on Javik until we’re sure he won’t do something fucking stupid.” Shepard knelt to eye level with the baby Rachni. “Think you can help me get my armor back on?”
James began cutting the cables and tethers holding the giant spider queen in place. He noticed several injuries. “Commander, looks like she’s hurt. She might need too long to escape.”
“James, what is the first goddamn rule of the Normandy?” Shepard pulled her shirt over her head. A rip in the side exposed the white Rachni webbing holding her abdomen together. The baby Rachni began wrapping the trailing ends of web-bandages around Shepard’s waist.
Garrus and Grunt spoke in unison. “Nobody dies.”
A power node like the ones holding up the metal barrier doors was connected to the Queen’s restraints. James tossed a couple grenades into the shallow bowl and backed up. Once they’d detonated, he finished the job with a shotgun blast. The Rachni Queen staggered side to side, freed at last from her prison.
“Aralakh Company holds the Reapers off while the Queens escape,” Shepard said. She snapped her chestplate back into place and frowned at the missing chunk. She wobbled on her feet and held her side with shaking hands. “Fuck… I think some of the bleeding’s internal… Queenie, take your baby and run. We’ll buy you some time. I promise, these are the last children you’ll ever lose to the Reapers.” Shepard planted herself against a rock with her Mattock out. “Grunt, fall back to our position and lead us out of here.”
“Mother, I won’t leave my team!”
“Grunt!” Shepard barked. “I gave you an order, soldier!”
“Even now your hypocrisy comes to the fore for all to see,” Javik said coldly. He eyed Garrus, who’d silently kept the Widow’s scope trained on the Prothean’s head as he circled around to stand by Shepard’s side. James would not like to be on the business end of that gun after what he’d seen it do, but he agreed with Javik on some level about the Rachni. It was like Shepard had the opposite of a horseshoe up that shapely ass of hers.
“Jane’s wounded, Grunt,” Garrus said. “Badly.”
“Dammit!” Grunt shouted. “I’m on my way.”
“Queenie’s too valuable of an asset to lose,” Shepard said. She looked up at Garrus like she was asking for his approval. “Right?”
“I trust you, sweetheart. This will all work out for the best.”
And the dreadnoughts dread nothing at all.