I have nothing to do with the original story line, characters, or Microsoft. I have changed some of the actions of the charaters to fit my own tastes. Most of the situations are made up of my own interests.

Chapter One – Final Battle/Conduit

Kaidan stood and stared in disbelief. All the fights that he had taken part in over the past four years had pretty much been the same. This final battle was different; the sight was different, the smell in the air was different, the sounds were different.

The sounds that had haunted his dreams the most were the high-pitched screams of the Banshees, the converted Asari females transformed into monstrous husks, and they caused his skin to moisten and break out in a cold sweat.

This final battle brought a cacophony of sounds that pierced the eardrums like shards of glass and shook the ground violently. He almost felt like, what he imagined, a rag doll would feel in the mouth of a violent dog.

Kaidan had faced a Reaper just an hour ago in down town London, yet it instantly seemed as though it had been a week ago.

The Citidel's beam was before them, waiting to be penetrated and utilized for a way to destroy the Reapers. It was now visible why their shuttle had been hit and grounded.

The beam was blinding to look at and it resembled a dream he could be having. A dream where he was running as fast as he could, down a hallway that just kept growing longer and longer the more he tried to reach the end.

Fear flashed in his mind for a brief moment, fear that they were going to lose. Fear that he was going to lose.

Kaidan looked at Shepard, who stood slightly in front and to the right of him. He saw her mouth move in a sharp command and then saw her start running in the direction of the beam.

To Kaidan's left, Garrus began to run after Shepard and Admiral Anderson. Kaidan instantly fell into pace with Garrus and dodged fragments of flying debris and wreckage; while fighting to keep his balance without breaking stride.

Kaidan's eyes did not waiver, they were fixed dead ahead on the lighter, smaller form of his Commander, the love of his love. He knew in his mind that Shepard didn't need him to protect her, but his heart screamed something different. He fought his heaving lungs and ignored the painful plea of his body begging for more oxygen.

Garrus kept a slightly swifter pace than Kaidan, but he too was left behind by Shepard's steady sprint. Kaidan watched as Shepard dodged and swerved around flying chunks of gravel and metal that had been blasted by the Reaper's red plasma beam. Kaidan barely felt the sharp object that grazed his right cheek and caused a thin 1 cm line of warm blood to garnish his pale face.

The ground rumbled and shook violently while the Reaper's piercing high-pitched tones and bright lights blasted the atmosphere with a large red ray. Up ahead, Shepard stumbled yet continued to run. The next few moments happened in extraordinarily slow motion as Kaidan watched a tank explode in front of Shepard as she advanced further down the battlefield.

A cold fist tightened around his heart as Kaidan begged to a higher being to keep Shepard safe and unharmed. He tried to increase his speed, he tried to fill his lungs with more oxygen to fuel his legs, and he tried to keep from screaming her name; her first name, the name that only he whispered in her ear in the dark.

In one swift movement, before any thought could register, Kaidan caught the sight of

Shepard crouched on the ground behind the shredded tank, looking directly at him with a terrified expression. That's when everything was turned upside down. The right side of his head was throbbing and a deep searing pain was coming from his midsection. He was lying on his right side and he was on the ground. What ever had hit him had come from his blind side. He was nauseatingly dizzy and his biotics hummed like a threatened hornet on a hot day.

Kaidan tried to clear his mind and tried to rise to his knees. Shepard was beside him within moments and placing her arm around him. He knew he was running with her help, but he couldn't tell which direction they were going. Shepard pushed him down gently, behind an upside down tank, and he saw Garrus kneel down beside him. Garrus reached over and touched Kaidan on his left shoulder and looked into Kaidan's face briefly.

Shepard was yelling something into her com-link and he tried to pay close attention to each of her words. If he focused on her words, he might be able to keep the contents inside his stomach from rising. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in an effort to clear his mind and keep his vision steady.

"Normandy, I need an Evac, right now! Do you copy?"

Shepard's voice held concern and Kaidan wanted to sigh in relief. 'We're going to take a short break,' he thought. His mind allowed him to believed they could get back on the Normandy, clean up any wounds, change armor and get back into the fight in a couple of hours. He'll be okay in a couple of hours. It would be time that they could spend regrouping.

'What the hell happened?' Kaidan thought to himself. He had been running and then he was covered in blood and on the ground. He stretched his arm to the right and rested his hand on Shepard's left leg. Her armor felt hot from the scorching heat that was being generated by the Reaper's devastating ray. The air felt like Arizona in mid-August.

"Come on," Shepard's voice held authority but it also washed over Kaidan with a soft hint of affection and caring. She raised Kaidan's right arm and placed it behind her neck, to drape over her shoulder, as she eased him into a jog. Kaidan felt her left arm around his waist and knew she was holding onto the back of his armor for support.

Garrus ran ahead of them with a slight limp and reached the top the Normandy's ramp. He stopped and turned to make sure Shepard and Kaidan was behind him. Armed crewmembers laid down cover fire from the top of the ship's ramp as their commander, Garrus and Kaidan sought shelter.

"Here, take him," Kaidan heard in his right ear. Dumbfounded, he saw Garrus reach for his left arm and his weight was shifted from Shepard to Garrus.

The warmth Kaidan had imagined through his armor, where Shepard's armor connected with his, seemed to have disappeared. He stood a little more on his own feet as he turned to look at Shepard.

"Shepard," Kaidan didn't have faith that he'd heard correctly. He knew he was wounded but she needed to be checked out by Dr. Chakwas as well.

"You better get outa here," Shepard said almost apologetically and pointed in the direction of safety but she wasn't approaching the ramp to safety herself.

"Yeah. That's not gonna to happen," Kaidan replied with a slight tone of sarcasm. She wouldn't expect him to fly away and not face what they had all come to do together.

"Don't argue with me, Kaidan." Shepard's voice held impatience and frustration. A crease appeared between her eyebrows and her lips were set in an almost straight line. 'She's not joking," thought Kaidan with dismay.

The pain in his abdomen and the throbbing in his head became less noticeable as Kaidan's skin turned cold and slick with the sweat of trepidation. Fear crept up the back of Kaidan's neck and his heart began to ache.

Kaidan reached out for Shepard with his right hand while his voice softened from need and his eyes pleaded with her, "Don't leave me behind…" Kaidan could scarcely keep the sorrow from his voice. At that moment, he knew. He knew what she was going to say, he knew what she was going to do, she was leaving him, he was going to watch her exit his life. He saw it all in her eyes.

He saw her eyes water as she walked up the ramp and she reach her left hand up to his face, "No matter what happens," her gloved palm gently caressed his right cheek while her left thumb passed under his right eye in the loving manner she exercised when they lay in each other's arms during their down time.

Shepard's voice deepened as she fought control of the tears that threatened to choke her and they made her eyes look a brighter green as they threatened to escape her lower eyelids.

"I love you, always," her voice was almost a whisper on the last word.

"I love you, too. Be careful," Kaidan urged. He tried to give encouragement with a slight smile, but it killed him inside. He became aware, once more, that Garrus was holding him up. He watched Shepard walk backwards down the ramp and turn to look over her right shoulder. Her body tensed and she looked back at Kaidan and Garrus and yelled, "GO!" with a wave of her arm.

Kaidan saw her turn sharply and run toward the white beam that would transfer her up into the Citidel.

Garrus pulled Kaidan along with him and they entered the elevator, after selecting the third level Crew Deck, for the Med Bay.