She did not dream.

It was only black, dark...empty.

She wasn't fazed, confused, or even frightened. She knew that she was asleep, but she lacked the ability to care. There was no reason to. She didn't feel anything. Emotions had no place in this...place. Emotions were irrelevant, pointless, mundane even. The only thing that came to her was understanding. She understood the blank environment she was in. She understood everything about it. Its blackness...its darkness...its emptiness...its shadows...its silence...its vacancy...

Everything outside of her head did not matter, Nothing mattered. and she understood every detail about it.

Then emotions did come, but only in small doses. She felt a small sense of a pleasant surprise as Nothing produced to her a gift. The shadows unwrapped around it, revealing it to her eyes.

The gift had two legs, arms, ears and eyes. It also had a torso, head, mouth and nose, and a heartwarming grin and a light to its brilliant blue eyes. She noticed that the gift oddly had extra digits on its hands and it seemed to magically stand on its own without the curve to its calves. The gift was also armored, black, with a long white stripe going down its right arm and a thinner red one overlapping it. Upon its chestplate she noticed an odd letter and a number, something that she knew.

She smiled, she wanted this for so long, and finally she had it. She drank in every detail about her gift, joy and love filling her heart. What did she do to receive such a gift? She didn't deserve it. Nothing seemed to know that, and it revealed its intentions. Fear then struck and gripped her heart.

Nothing's shadowy tendrils began to circle around her gift's legs. No. It licked at the armor without mercy. She watched in horror as the gift still held its smile, but the light in its eyes turned into an unbearable sadness. She understood why the gift had to go. But that didn't stop her from trying to keep it for a little longer. She opened her mouth to scream at Nothing, but no noise came. She tried again, and the same result occurred. She thought as hard as she could in her head, hoping that the words would leave her mouth.

Please, I just want to see him...one last time.

She understood why the gift had to go. Nothing's tendrils wrapped around the gift and shadows drank it, sealing it from sight, enveloping him into a sea of blackness. She again tried to yell at Nothing, pleading to produce the gift again. But she knew that it was no use, the gift wasn't returning. She settled for the infinite sadness swirling like a storm inside of her. She understood Nothing. She poured everything into her gift, her very soul and being went into him. Now, she felt hollow, an empty shell, a ghost of what she once was.

She understood Nothing. She kneeled down in sorrow. Nothing's tendrils began to circle her, but she didn't care. She held onto Nothing. She understands it, and she became its friend. She wanted to stay forever with it. After all, misery loves company.

Then light shot through the darkness, Nothing released her and recoiled from it. She looked to the light, it seemed to promise her something she didn't want. Her time has come, but she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay here, to converse with Nothing, her friend. But she understood why she had to leave. She looked sadly to Nothing, a small tear forming in her eye. Nothing seemed to understand why she had to leave, it wasn't her place to stay, it shook its tendrils, as if nodding its approval.

She found the beauty in the pain, but she couldn't stay longer to admire it. She did not want to leave her new friend, but she had to go. She nodded her own appreciation back to Nothing.

Thank you...for Everything.

She turned her head to the light and grasped onto one of its own tendrils inviting her somewhere, this time, she was holding onto Something. She stood as the light enveloped her, taking her beyond.

Her eyes fluttered open as everything that just happened was forgotten. Instead, her old memories returned.

She did not dream.

The first thing she noticed was the purple tint her visor made her view. Next she noticed that she wasn't in a regular bed in a regular room. Where am I again? The room had glass scaling around with a pearly white floor and ceiling with walls encasing the glass. She instantly remembered where she was. Behind the glass were silver boxes hanging on the walls glowing a light blue. Is the decontamination room...in the server room? It was. She was near EDI's, "brain." The hum echoed throughout the chamber.

The next thing she noticed was the black bandages that wrapped around her. Right, suit ruptures. She tried to prop herself on her elbows, only to have pain shoot through her. She hissed and laid herself back down. The numbing shot must've worn off. She also noticed that the bandages she didn't see, she felt underneath her suit to stop blood loss. She quickly saw the flaw in this. How am I supposed to take off the inner bandages without ruining the outer ones for my suit?

She looked through her toes through the doorway into the medbay and saw Doctor Chakwas standing with a datapad in one hand and some sort of medkit in the other. She gazed over to her right and saw a seat and a desk where her purple cloth was cleaned and folded, with her other suit ornaments laid on top of it. Near the seat were her boots, the boot knife still strapped to the left one snugly.

"Doctor Chakwas, my readings tell me that Miss Zorah has regained conscience," came EDI's robotic voice. The Quarian let out a painful cough in reply. She then noticed how sick she was, her head pounded from a headache, her sinuses felt stuffed to the brim, she still ran a mild fever, and her nose was stuffy. Worst...mix...ever. The Doctor set down the datapad on her desk and hoisted the medkit near her waist, swiftly crossing into the decontamination chamber.

"Tali, thank goodness that you're alright," Chakwas said as she set the medkit next to her cloth on the desk and sat down in the chair. "You were fidgeting in your sleep, made it hard to remove all the shrapnel." Tali felt vibrations from other ships guns stir the air.

"Did we win yet?" Tali asked weakly.

"The Crucible has been docked for awhile," The Doctor replied, "but its still yet to fire. Reports say that Commander Shepard is figuring out how to get it going."

Tali smiled at the name, "Thank the Ancestors, he's alive!" But a question formed quickly in her mind. "We have been fighting for over an hour?" Tali felt the galaxy crumble around her little area of peace.

"You woke up a little early, dear. I'd give you a good ten minutes early."

Doctor Chakwas stayed with the Quarian to keep her company. It was nerve wracking, the waiting, not knowing whether or not they were going to get blown out of the sky. Several minutes passed by, and Tali tried to break the anticipating silence, but as if on cue, a voice sounded.

"Commander Shepard did it! The Crucible is firing!"

Tali recognized the voice and she struggled to remember who it was, but after a few seconds she gave up and allowed a mix of happiness and relief to fill her. "My, my, the Commander actually did it!" The Doctor whispered, looking out the door. Tali smiled and raised a protesting arm to grab the Doctor's forearm who quickly returned her gaze to Tali, who grasped it tighter, "He did do it, he won, he saved us, he finally won." Even though she couldn't see her face, Doctor Chakwas returned her smile. Tali felt the only thing in her body that didn't feel any pain was her heart, instead it was filled with love for the man, and even more so from what he just accomplished. Soon, we will be living on Rannoch, in our home. She thought sweetly.

They both gasped as the Crucible's vibrations shook the Normandy, and felt gravity push harder on them as the ship lurched forward and jumped into FTL. It felt as if the Normandy was running as if all hell was following them, little did they know, that's what was exactly happening.

"Keelah, what is going on?"


Joker struggled to keep the Normandy from being shook to bits. He grabbed the controls and trashed the warning signs that kept popping up. Garrus just returned from the medbay and was with him on the bridge alongside Specialist Traynor. The comms crackled to life.

"All fleets, the Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the Rendezvous Point."

Garrus tried to grab Joker's shoulder but he shrugged it off. I'm not leaving the Commander...again.

"I repeat, disengage and get the hell out of here."

Garrus tried again a second time, "Joker listen, we have to go." Joker clenched his fist and cursed. How am I gonna explain this to Tali? He reluctantly jumped the Normandy to FTL.

But it wasn't over.

Hell chased them in the form of an orange glowing ball. Joker kept grabbing different controls, trying anything to get the Normandy to move faster, EDI hard at work next to him. Fear gripped him and he cursed his bones, convinced that they didn't let him move faster. "Jeff," EDI started. "Not now, EDI, we're about to get screwed!"

"Jeff!" Joker immediately paused and looked over. Did he just hear...fear? His eyes widened at the absolute terror that showed on the AI's face. She was gripping something in the back of her head. "Get...me...to...Tali!"

With that, EDI ripped out some kind of chip in the back of her head and instantly shut down, leaving just Joker as hell overtook them.

"EDI!" Joker screamed at the lifeless robot next to him.

But he had little time to pay attention to the metallic corpse that was slumped over in the chair. The Normandy got screwed, it just dropped off of FTL. Controls were blinking and systems were shutting down. We need to land! Joker looked around and saw a planet just below them. Joker looked back at Garrus and Traynor, shock plastered over their faces. Without looking he turned on the intercom. "We're going to make a crash landing!" They nodded their heads and ran off to prepare themselves.

The planet grew bigger and the Normandy flew dangerously fast through its clouds. Joker stabilized the ship and kept it parallel to the ground. He looked over systems to see how he could make the Normandy's descent slower. "Brace for impact!"

The Normandy rattled, threatening to throw Joker out of his seat. Hard crashes and thumps were heard as the Normandy's hull scoured the trees in the forest on the planet. The Normandy slowed down sharply, and then, an abrupt stop and a loud crash. Well that was sure something.

Joker saw damage reports flood his piloting terminal. Gases emitted all around the Normandy. Joker scanned everything to make sure the ship wasn't going to explode. Taking a few moments he leaned back, satisfied with his work. Everything seems ship shape. He chuckled at his lame pun. "EDI, run diagnostics and a supply report, we need to know how long it'll be before we can get off this rock." He received no answer. Confused, he looked to the seat on his right. "EDI?"

He saw her body slumped over, clutching something to her cold chest. "EDI!" He hobbled out of his seat as fast as he could over to the copilot's chair. He grabbed her shoulder and leaned her back onto the seat, her hand falling down to her lap, fingers curled. "EDI! Talk to me!" Her cold eyes stared back at him...dead. The sight shocked him, threatening him with grief until he remembered her words.

Get me to Tali.

He looked to her clenched fist. Carefully, he undid her fingers to reveal a large chrome chip that had a singular, glowing blue light running down the side. On the front stood some numbers and letters, MEM-EDI CERB-AI UN:549. He softly put the treasure into his left hand, curling his own fingers hard over its surface. Nothing will take this from me. He interlaced his fingers on his right hand with EDI's, her hum of life nonexistent.

"Joker! Where are we?" Garrus's voice sounded as he entered the bridge. He stopped short at the sight. Joker looked up to him with sorrow in his eyes. Garrus stumbled over his words, "Joker." He answered him, "I don't know, we're lost." Without her.

"Joker...I-I'm so sorry."

"Don't be...I should have left sooner than I did."

Guilt gnawed at him. The memory flashed in his mind's eye of the Citadel, explosions erupting and pieces falling to Earth. It was a horror show. I failed one friend twice, and now I might have failed another.

Grief flooded them over their fallen Commander. But they remained in denial for a few moments, hardly wanting to speak. Soon reasoning prevailed, there was no way the Commander could have survived the hell that was displayed.

Finally Garrus broke the silence. "Come on Joker, the sooner we get off this planet the sooner we get an understanding of where we are." He nodded his agreement and stood up, setting EDI's chip in a small clip on pocket. "Let's go assess the damage," he replied.

He followed Garrus off the bridge towards the airlock. Thoughts stormed through his mind. His mixture of relief at the reapers destruction, the confusion of the planet's location, the sorrow of EDI's incarceration, and the pain of failing his friend...twice.

"Joker, what happened? Where are we?" The thick stuffy accented tone jumped him from his thoughts and he spun around to see a purple visor and glowing eyes staring at him, filled with questions.

Not only did I fail my friend...I failed his girlfriend, too.

He felt the guilt rip at him like a pack of dogs trying to tear the flesh from his bones. He fought back tears as he responded, "I don't know, but we need to figure out where we are and figure out repairs for the ship. Would you like to come explore with me?" Joker didn't know why he asked the question, the last thing he wanted was the reminder of his failure walking around with him and talking to him like nothing happened.

"But why did we jump to-"

"Not now Tali, bearings first," Joker interrupted.

Tali's eyes narrowed at him, filled with suspicion as she folded her arms. But she seemed to know that she wasn't going to get anywhere.

"Fine, I'll go exploring with you. Be careful, though."

"Always am."

Joker was thankful that Garrus remained silent through all of this as they reached the airlock and activated it. It's doors creaked open as lush green trees and bushes with rich soil surrounded by boulders was revealed to them. Joker was the first to leave the ship, carefully picking his path down the heap of rocks that built up on the Normandy.

He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the bright sun, negating the purpose to his SR-2 ball cap. In the sky he saw a large planet and another astral body he assumed was a moon in front of it, the moon looking like a thin, curled claw in the sky. Sounds of alien birds chirped and called throughout the forest with an undertone of rushing water.

That's when he noticed Tali next to him. He and the Quarian shared a quick glance and looked out at the scenery. Heavy footsteps told them that Garrus had followed them outside.

Nice view, but I still have no idea where we are.

Tali then broke the silence with her thick, honeyed accent.

"Let's get to work."


Authors Note: Another fairly short chapter, but I wanted to get this done. I noticed how difficult to try to write long chapters, trying to fit in details without making things repetitive and boring. The next chapter also might be short, but my plans afterward might help extend things for your reading pleasure. I'd also like to know your thoughts on the symbolism at the beginning of the chapter. Thank you!