The door slammed shut behind him and a bright light made him protect his eyes with his hand. He shuffled through the long narrow corridor, with metal plating on one side and bricks on the other.
His eyes felt raw and dry, but at the end he could see another door, monitor and a gun. It was lying on a silken pillow, like a royal present. His heart jumped, but as soon as he checked it, he noticed it only had enough clips for a single shot. It wouldn't do him much good against whatever the Illusive Man had in store for him next. Obviously it was meant to be used, but he didn't know how. Not yet.
He turned his attention to the monitor and saw it had two words engraved in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Touch me. Shepard hesitated for a split second. Was he going to get electrocuted? Was this a trap? He had no idea, but seeing as the rusty old door was closed off with thick steel barricades, he didn't have much of a choice.
As soon as his fingers touched the LED-screen, it went to static and the Illusive Man's silhouette appeared again.
"Shepard," it began, "you may not yet realize the seriousness of the situation, but that is soon about to change. Observe."
The metal wall to his left sank into the ground, revealing two separate rooms behind bars of thick steel.
"Samara! Joker!" Shepard banged his fist on the glass to raise their attention and they looked up in confusion. Samara, on the left, was enveloped in a blue biotic haze, straining to keep something up in the air. She paid Shepard little attention, keeping her mind focused on whatever she was doing. Joker, in the room on the right, was sitting on his knees, holding a data pad. The pilot scrambled to his feet and walked over to Shepard.
"Commander! What the hell is going on here?" he shouted.
"No idea," Shepard said in a soothing voice, trying to calm everybody down. "Hold on one second, I'll try to get you out of here."
"On one hand, you have Samara," the silhouette on the monitor continued, making Shepard turn back to it, "a Justicar who knows no equal. She has spent centuries tracking down criminals and punishing them for their evil deeds. Then, we have Joker. A brittle-boned shade of a man, whose only accomplishment in life is being the pilot of the Normandy. As you can see, your pilot and the Justicar are in a precarious situation. Hovering above Mr. Moreau's head is a gigantic block of granite, held only in place by Miss Samara's biotics. The moment her strength gives out, he will be crushed. In turn, in Jeff does not enter the exact same five digits into his data pad every minute, she will be vaporized and the rock will crush him all the same."
"What the fuck is this?" Shepard wheezed, banging the monitor in frustration.
"He's right, Shepard," Joker intervened, pointing above him. Shepard now noticed it as well, what looked like the ceiling in Joker's room was bobbing up and down and the contorted look on Samara's face made it clear she couldn't hold on much longer. "I've been entering these digits for hours now, too. Didn't want to take the risk. We got the same message when we woke up here."
"You have a gun with one bullet, Shepard," the silhouette spoke. "Firing it will either hold the block in place, or disable the bombs in Samara's room. It all depends on who you choose to shoot."
"What?" Shepard and Joker said simultaneously.
"Will it be the asari matriarch you secretly admire, or will it be the pilot who has flown you to hell and back? Who lives, Shepard? Who dies? Make your choice."
"Fuck, no, I won't do this!" Shepard shouted at the monitor, throwing it from the table in frustration. It crashed to the ground with a loud bang, components spilling everywhere as its frame burst open.
"You have to choose! That's the whole point!" Samara shouted from her room at the other end of the corridor. "If you don't, we will both die here. I can't hold on much longer, which means Joker will be crushed. And if he is, he will no longer be able to enter the digits, and I will die as well. So be quick about it, and shoot me!"
Shepard's hands started shaking now that he truly realized the situation he was in. This is what the Illusive Man meant by having his loyalty tested. Apparently, Samara was offering to sacrifice herself, but even so, he could not just pull the trigger.
"In another time. Another life."
The words kept on going through his head. This woman, paragon of beauty and power, did not deserve to die in a shithole like this.
He watched as his subconsciousness took control of his body. His arm moved in Joker's direction and he cocked the gun.
"Shepard, what the hell are you doing?" Joker stumbled away from the bars, trying to get as much distance between them as he could. "Don't shoot me!"
"Shoot me, Shepard!" Samara insisted. "I will never forgive you if you don't! The Code will force me to kill you, do not do this to us!"
Shepard realized she was right. His arm shaking, he pointed the gun at the Justicar.
"Another time?" he asked. "Another life?"
Samara looked over at him and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"Another time," she replied. "Another life."
The gun fired a single shot. Shepard barely even realized it. All he heard next in his haze of anger and sadness was the block clicking in place and Joker's muted thanks.
