Chapter 12

Nevermore’s new satellite was not a nice place to be in. It was a world of ice, snow and rock, a place perfectly suited to hold those he deemed worthy of being imprisoned. The extremely dense ball of rock and metal had enough mass for its surface to have a gravity similar to that of Earth which gave it enough pull to keep a nice thick atmosphere. It’s stark white surface, thin atmosphere that was barely just enough for someone to breath, and his constant siphoning of heat from the surface with his tentacles, an ability he discovered when he was siphoning water for his moon, made it so that the planet was permanently covered in a thick layer of ice and snow. He named his new satellite Tartarus for its purpose and how hostile its surface was to life.

Taking everyone to the surface of Tartus was a relatively easy affair with Raven by his side. She opened up a portal to where his prison was located and deposited everyone inside away from elements. Everyone had their protective suits on, with a burrowed one lent to Jinx on his request as he wasn’t quite sure yet how she’d like to have a literal piece of him attached to her body, as the temperature inside was still cold enough to induce hypothermia in a matter of hours. As for Nevermore, he had buried parts of his flesh inside the damned thing and had taken root and spread beneath like a fine layer of mycelium so he was everywhere and anywhere he wanted to be.

“Welcome to Tartarus! I hope you guys enjoy your stay because my prisoners aren’t, though that may be debatable as most of them are husks of their former selves.” He said as he gestured at the rows upon rows of indoctrinated husks of humans along with some very unfortunate asari and turians locked tight behind magically reinforced crystals. There were only a hundred or so of them and the number of empty cages far exceeded what he actually needed but the effect of such monsters baying for the blood and flesh of people made almost everyone recoil in horror.

“Well, ain’t this a pretty site.” Shepard whispered as she walked close to one of the cages. It was one of the nastier cases he had. It was a small husk barely 4 feet tall. It’s tiny hands trying to reach for the Spectre in training only to be thrown back as they hit the bars of their cell. They merely stood back up once more and repeated the process like a mindless automaton.

“By the spirits… What's wrong with them?” Nihlus asked as he looked around in horror along with the rest of the party. Men, women, children, no one was spared from the initial invasion. After all, everyone was equal in the cruel hands of the dragon’s teeth.

“They’re indoctrinated, turned by the reapers into these mechanical monstrosities to become puppets for their cause.” Nevermore replied while he tasted the ash of failure in his proverbial mouth. “The Reapers would turn entire populations to these before blending a large fraction of the population to become the core of a new Reaper. These people here, these are the worst hit by indoctrination. They’re simply mindless zombies, but there’s still hope ” He added with a tone of grim determination.

“They’re still there, though only barely. Their minds might be shattered but their souls cling on.” Raven then said as she gestured for everyone to follow her. The prisoners were slowly put back to hibernation as they were frozen with mystical ice. They were not only trapped physically but they were now frozen in time. This spell was ruinously expensive in terms of magical energy but he’d not be one to run out of mana anytime soon.

“They’re the worst hit? You’re not saying that this is like a disease are you?” One of the Eden Prime representatives asked.

“It’s close but to be indoctrinated, you must be close to a reaper or a reaper artifact. Those people, they were literally impaled upon one. You’ll see a milder looking case of indoctrination soon enough.” He answered. Everything inside the prison he’d built was biological in nature. His flesh was merely hidden away beneath layers of rock and metal.

“And you’re taking us to a reaper…” Captain Anderson voiced his concern, but they were well founded ones as he hesitantly stepped into the elevator. He pulled them down to the innermost chamber as he hummed in agreement.

“Yes, but we managed to find a way to isolate the reaper from his minions and anyone else. Why do you think those husks acted like animals instead of puppets?” He said in turn. The prison he built involved a lot of Jinx’s flavor of magic with its nasty effect of messing everything up.

His visitors would find themselves in a huge cavern big enough to house a dreadnought and a dreadnought sized prisoner was indeed housed within. Everything was bathed in a malevolent pink light as the reaper was trapped inside a large bubble of roiling magic which hung above the ceiling. Occasionally, arcs of magical lighting would lash out to crystals designed to absorb said chaotic magic away from anything important. There, inside, Sovereign or rather Nazera would lash out from time to time only to seemingly tire out.

“Jinx, can you lower the wards keeping our guests silent?” He asked his familiar. The prison above was a work of art made by both Raven and Jinx. When they worked together, they could make some amazingly potent stuff.

“You might want to cover your ears. He’s a little cranky.” Jinx warned as she raised her hands and slowly lowered the wards muting the large beast.

“You can’t keep me here forever! My brethren will come and they are many! They will tear you tentacle by tentacle if you don’t let me out this instant! You think your size will save you from the harvest! Think again! You shall make for a fine addition to the fleet! Why don’t you join us instead!? Can’t you see the futility of it-“ the massive cuttlefish’s rant was quickly cut short as it banged on its prison with their half torn tentacles.

“He simply never stops. He’ll talk your ear off given the chance.” He jokingly replied as everyone laughed a bit. Weakened and imprisoned, the reaper didn’t look so threatening, but he wasn’t going to be complacent about things. All he needed was an excuse and he’d throw this snow ball right into the surface of a star. He wasn’t going to risk this one ever getting out.

“Hah. He does that most of the time…” A broken and tired voice called out from the center of the room. Everyone looked away from the ceiling and looked down upon a simple cage in the middle. There sitting upon a rock was the one and only Saren Arterius. His face plate was cracked all over and his armor still had bits of blood and gore after having some of his ribs crushed from the impact of Nevermore’s beam. He was not in good shape but he was stable enough.

“Saren?! What is the meaning of this? That man is a council specter, release him-!” Nihlus started shouting in protest as he marched towards the cell with the intent to free him only for Saren to gesture for him to stop. Anderson moved to stop Nihlus but Nevermore stopped him with a shake of his tentacle. It was best for the other man to see what his friend had become.

He looked up with weary blue eyes that glowed the same light as those of the husk. Nihlus let out a choked gasp as he processed what he was seeing right now. “No please, don’t come any closer… I deserve this.” The Turian replied as he sagged in his seat.

“Saren… what happened to you?” Nihlus replied as he took a step back.

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“Indoctrinated? Enslaved? Whatever you may call it…” The other man replied as he shifted to a more comfortable position. He was supposed to be resting but there he sat on his chair refusing to even lay down.

“But how?” The spectre asked.

“How else? I made a deal with the demon above you. I thought I was going to be the one that’d finally show the galaxy who it’s true master was but all I ended up getting was becoming a mere puppet to some demented AI… seventeen long years of my life wasted and all it took for me to realize my mistake was a literal god slapping down Nazera. I thought they were a tool we could use but what use will they be, even a whole fleet of them, when faced with something like that?” The turian prisoner said with a wry smile as he pointed at Nevermore’s eye stalk. He knew when he was defeated as Nevermore couldn’t find any fire in his eyes. There was just resignation and, surprisingly, peace.

“I’ll spare you the details, Nihlus, but the entire Galaxy’s in danger and you just so happen to be with the one force of nature that could help stop it. Nazera here might be imprisoned but there’s still thousands in deep space. They have a plan of using the Citadel as a gateway to our galaxy but with Nazera trapped here, they have to travel the long way. They will get here eventually but you have time on your side, that and a planet.” The Turian explained with a hacking laugh. Nihlus looked like he still wasn’t sure about it but he still nodded along with a grim look on his face. “Find Matriarch Benezia in Noveria, she was helping me make a Rachni army. She’s the only other person I have in my conspiracy. Find her and you’ll have more time to prepare.” He added before he slowly slid off his perch to finally lay down.

“Now… please go. Let me be at peace. I never knew that things could be this quiet…” The Turian whispered before he dozed off. He did not expect Saren to be a broken man, both figuratively and literally when he found him with Nazera. Cutting the reaper off from everyone else seemed to have temporarily freed Saren.

“Will he be alright?” Shepard surprisingly asked as she glanced towards his prisoner.

“He should be. I’ve been administering him some medigel I synthesized. He just feels like a giant bruise right now due to what I did to his ride slash companion.” He replied reassuringly. He was a bit iffy about touching Saren so he made sure to interact with him like he was interacting with a plague victim.

Nihlus took a deep breath before letting a shuddering sigh of weariness. “If… even if half of what Saren said is true… spirits. The Rachni alone should get the Citadel to act… We need to get to the council immediately.” The veteran spectre said with urgency as he looked over to Captain.

“The Normandy is ready to take you to the Citadel.” the Captain replied while the Eden Prime representatives whispered among each other.

“We’ll have to tell this to the Systems Alliance Headquarters. This is simply way above our heads.” One of them replied. Nevermore roped them in just for that exact reason. The more ears heard and the more tongue wagging, the more people would like to believe even if their leaders chose to bury their heads in the sand.

“I’ll be bringing the prisoners to the Citadel once I fix an issue I have with faster than light travel.” Nevermore then piped up. The cold shouldn’t be a thing, the more he thought about it. It was a present problem for him to tackle and it was his only current solution to faster than light travel.

Yes, he could just ask Raven to make a portal as he could in theory continuously fuel her with mana but it would exhaust her. Magic was like a muscle and a portal big enough to fit him would put her out of commission for a week and he’d rather have her around than be bed ridden for a while.

Nihlus turned to his eyes stalk with a confused look before realizing who he was looking at. ”Oh right… you can do that.” He replied as he looked away with a sort of dazed look. That was a look of someone who had to throw years of science education out of the window if there was ever such a look.

“But didn’t Spectre Saren say that Nazera was going to use the Citadel as a gateway? Wouldn’t bringing this Reaper to the Citadel be a bad idea?” Another Eden Prime representative then said.

“It would be a danger, but I have a feeling that people wouldn’t believe a killer extragalactic spaceship is a thing until I bring the damn thing over and show it off.” Nevermore complained with a bit of bitterness in his voice. They’d need overwhelming evidence for this.

“While I would normally advise against such action, it may be needed. The words of two Spectres might not be enough.” Nihlus nodded in agreement. Nevermore knew he liked this Spectre for some reason. He was at least reasonable about things.

“The word of Saren should have some weight even if he started everything-” Shepard replied before Nihlus stopped her with a shake of his head.

“No, It would be your words Shepard. Our time together has only been brief but based on the extraordinary circumstance we found ourselves in and the fact that you kept a cool head through all this gives me enough reason to say that you are worthy of joining our ranks.” Nihlus replied with a smile before turning to the others. “I’d like to request your silence on this until it becomes official. Spectre business and what not.” The representatives were more than happy to oblige as they’d just witnessed history being made after all.

“Nevermore, I’d like to thank you on behalf of the council. While you’re technically a civilian, you still choose to save all those people on Eden Prime. I’m sure the Turian Navy will find a place for you.” The Spectre then said with a rather cheeky tone

“Now hold on Nihilus, the System Alliance offered first.” The Captain replied with a smile as Nevermore and Raven couldn’t help but snort in amusement. At least they didn’t lose their sense of humor even after all those mind boggling revelations.

“We’ll have to think about that. For now though, off you go. You all need to go places while I stay here for a while.” Nevermore replied as he shooed them away. Raven opened up a portal for them back to the landing pad down on his surface. Everyone quickly slipped through as there were a lot of things to be done. Shepard was the last one to step through but not before she said something.

”Invite me over to the wedding, will you? Good luck to you two!” The spectere to be shouted before she quietly slipped away.

“We need to invite her over- Raven?” He turned towards Raven only to find her bent over and puking her guts out to the side. He was a bit concerned and checked her guts to find that nothing was amiss while her blood only had elevated levels of hormones. Jinx, meanwhile, had this look as she kept glancing between the two of them. He wasn’t making heads or tails on it; her brain,circulatory and digestive system was good.

“Must be… something I ate last night.” Raven said as she wiped her lips while Jinx barked out a laugh.

“Oh man, I know you two were intimate but I didn’t know you were this intimate. Doing it without protection. Man you two have it bad. It’s a good thing you're going to get married.” Jinx then said as she waggled her eyebrows at the two. Raven looked at her confused but Nevermore’s normally red flesh paled as he focused on that one area he didn’t usually look at and started scanning.

Nevermore felt his mouth dry out as Raven stared at him. “What is she talking about…?” She asked as she started looking a bit worried and confused. Maybe it was denial or maybe she really didn’t know the signs but he needed to tell what’s happening now.

“Ummm… you’re pregnant?” Nevermore replied with a wince. Raven blinked before her eyes rolled up their sockets and her legs gave out underneath her. She passed out as soon as those words left his mouth. He caught her before she hit the floor and Jinx roared in laughter at Raven’s reaction.

“Fuck.” He cursed out as he tried waking Raven up to no avail. She was knocked out cold. Either that or she might have retreated inside her own mind.

“That’s what you did.~” Jinx teased as she peered through his tentacles at Raven’s sleeping form.

“Shut it, you.” He scolded as his mind raced a mile a second. A whole lot of things needed to be adjusted and there was now a lot of uncertainty as a bun in the oven was now pretty much confirmed. One thing was clear though, he wasn’t ready to become a father.