Chapter 2: Decisions

"Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings from the surface," Navigator Pressly told Shepard as she watched Joker bring the Normandy closer to Ilos. "It's Saren all right. He's got a bunch of geth with him, too. I can't find a place to land, though."

I saw the agitation in her eyes as she looked at Pressly. "There has to be somewhere we can drop the Mako."

Looking up at his screens, he shook his head. "There's not enough room. We need at least a hundred meters to safely drop the Mako, and all I can find is twenty meters."

"We're going to go anyway."

"Commander!" Pressly yelled, "Please listen to reason. We can't do it! End of story!"

"I can do it," Joker muttered under his breath. If I could hardly hear him, I'm sure Shepard and Pressly didn't catch what he said.

"What?" Shepard asked him.

With pure confidence, Joker said, "I can do it. I can do it! Hurry and get into the Mako, Commander, before I change my mind."

I followed Elizabeth across the bridge, and Kaiden, of all people, came up to her and said, "I'm ready to leave, Shepard."

She pushed past him and said over her shoulder, "Sorry, I already have my squad picked out and ready to go."

"I'm ready. And I want to go with you, Elizabeth."

That must have been the first time he called her by her first name because she stopped in front of the door leading to the stairs and turned to look at him. I stood behind Shepard, slightly pushing her towards the door so we could leave.

"Kaiden, we really need to leave..." she started.

"But Shepard, I..."

"Kaiden!" I growled. "We don't have time for this. We need to leave right now!"

Kaiden hardly ever became angry, but now I could see the fury in his eyes. Humans are so easy to read.

Shepard and I met Tali at the Mako. Tali asked, "So, are we ready to leave?"

"Yes," said Elizabeth. "Joker's going to drop the Mako down on Ilos so we can follow Saren." With that said, we climbed into the Mako, Shepard choosing the driver's seat, me the passenger seat, and Tali the back.

"Shepard, I don't know if you should be driving for this mission. You do have a tendency to wreck the Mako every time we use it," I said.

She gave me a quick smile and said, "Don't worry. As long as you have your seat-belt on, you won't hit your head on the roof if I flip it over."

We landed outside a closed bunker with no other way inside. Shepard cursed under her breath. Before we landed, we witnessed Saren and geth slip under the huge bunker door and we knew we had to do something and quick.

"Shepard," Tali began, "We have to get inside before Saren gets to the conduit."

"Maybe there's a security override somewhere," I said.

"Alright then, let's get out and look around."

After exiting the Mako, I discovered a pathway behind the Mako leading somewhere. I walked towards it and yelled, "Commander, I think I found somewhere to start looking!"

When Shepard and Tali met up with me, we all took our guns out and moved forward.

"Geth!" Shepard warned us, and we immediately took cover behind geth shields that were unoccupied at the moment. A barrage of bullets hit my shield, but it did not get destroyed. Elizabeth got out of cover to shoot and when more geth came into view, she ducked back out of the line of fire.

All of a sudden, two geth armatures came out of nowhere. Shepard looked back at me and Tali and screamed, "I'll shoot the geth! You two fire at the armatures!"

Quickly pulling out my sniper, I aimed at one of the giant heaps of metal and looked for a potential weak spot. There were wires leading from its legs to its head. That seemed like a perfect spot to fire at. Tali, on the other hand, shot the armatures head. In no time, we took that one down and it crumpled to the ground. The other armature was firing rocket after rocket at Shepard's shield. She hurriedly ran to a wall closer to me so she could hide behind something more solid.

"Garrus!" Shepard yelled as she winced from a rocket hitting the wall behind her. "Do what you did to the last one!"

Doing what she ordered, I shot at the wires again. This time, Elizabeth joined in on destroying the armature. Eventually it exploded, raining pieces of metal on us.

When the shower was over, Shepard walked over to Tali and me. "Was that difficult for you two?'

"Not at all, commander. We handled it just fine, don't you think?" Tali said.

"Absolutely. Keep up the good work." She paused to look around and view her surroundings. "I think we should split up to cover more ground. Tali, go left. Garrus, go down that pathway. I'll go right."

We disbanded and I headed down the pathway cautiously. There was a sharp turn up ahead, so I sprinted towards a statue of a Prothean on the turn and hid behind it. Quickly glancing over the edge of the statue, I noticed that there were no geth here and that it was a dead end with nothing but a few crates. What a waste of time.

Turning around, I went back to where we killed the geth and headed to the right where Shepard decided to go. After a little while of walking around, I found an opening with a statue in the center of it, the light shining down on statue, giving it a somewhat holy appearance. There, looking up at the statue, was none other than Elizabeth and Tali.

"Well, well, well," I began as I walked down to them. "What do we have here?"

Shepard whirled around and smiled sweetly. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing but a few crates. Definitely not what we were looking for at all."

Pointing to Tali, Shepard said, "She found something. And we both think it will help us."

"What is it?"

"It's an elevator," Tali answered. "We were waiting for you to come so we could use it."

"What are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's get out of here."

Tali lead us to a dark corner in the opening, and there in the shadows was an elevator. We went inside ,and Shepard pressed a button on the wall of the elevator. As we descended, we stood in silence, looking at each other. Finally, Elizabeth looked at me and declared, "This place is amazing. All the history. All the beauty. Ilos would make any historian drool."

"Your starting to sound like Liara," I teased.

"So? What's wrong will sounding like her?"

"Well, she... she takes her work too seriously. She never joined us for our little drinking parties, and she hardly ever leaves her hidy hole."

"Okay, so she may not be social, but she's brilliant."

"She doesn't even try to fit in with us. She just sits in a dark corner and listens to us having a great time."

"Maybe if we pulled her into our conversations, she would start talking to us."

"She's not normal, Shepard. You can't have a normal conversation with her because all she talks about is artifacts and her research," Tali said.

The elevator door swung open, and 3 geth poured into the elevator. Shepard slammed the butt of her gun into the leader's head. It's head almost completely ripped off its metal shoulders, but a wire kept it from falling off. As the geth's body fell to the floor, Tali and I shot the other two, and they were quickly added to the pile. We stormed out the elevator to find more geth roaming around what appeared to be the security station. When the geth saw us running toward a wall, they immediately began to fire upon us. The three of us got to the wall just in time.

Out of breath from the run, Shepard bent over to catch her breath. "Tali... I saw a... armature repair station. Get over there and... turn the armature on. Garrus and I will... cover you."

As Tali hurried to the console, I killed the geth trying to stop her. Shepard later joined in on shooting. When Tali reached the console, she ducked down and began to hack it. After killing only about twelve geth, it seemed there was no more here. Elizabeth stepped out of cover and walked around, gun raised and ready for a surprise, but there were none.

"Commander, the armature is ready!"

An armature stood, lumbering over Tali. She looked up at the machine, proud of her work.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Tali, but I don't think we need that armature anymore," Shepard told her.

"It's fine. It was good for practice." Tali looked across the room, then said, "Well, it looks like those stairs over there is where we should go."

"I agree," I said.

We ascended the stairs to find the security panel. Elizabeth approached it and pressed a few things here and there on it. "There, that should do it. Let's go find Saren."

As I was turning towards the stairs, a bright flash from the panel caught my eye. Looking over at it, I saw a hologram. It was clearly damaged because the image was flickering and the message coming from it didn't make sense.

"Shepard, come look at this."

She approached it yet again, but this time cautiously. As I tried to find out what the message was saying, I noticed Shepard was listening intently as if she understood.

I said, "I can't understand it. It seems like it's in some language I don't know."

Without looking at me, Elizabeth said, "It's in Prothean. The message is all broken up, but I can understand some of it. I think it's a warning about the Reapers."

"Is there anything important it is telling you?" Tali asked.

"It said something about the conduit, but everything after that I can't understand."

"We should get going then," I suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's head back to the Mako."

As soon as we entered the bunker in the Mako, we saw pods lining the walls. It looked like there were thousands upon thousands in here.

"What do think are in those?" I asked Shepard as she drove and looked at the same time.

"If Liara was here, we would know."

"We don't need her. We can just make an educated guess."

Shepard laughed and asked, "Okay then, make an educated guess and tell me what you think are in those pods."

I though and I thought, and finally said, "People. Or bodies. Dead bodies."

She glanced at me to see if I was joking. "Okay. There are thousands and thousands of people, no, dead bodies, in those pods. Am I right?"

"Absolutely."

"I'm going to take your guess a step further. I think there are thousands and thousands of Prothean dead bodies. I mean, this place is Prothean, so there would be Protheans in there."

"No, they're just dead bodies."

"I'll make a deal with you. If there is only dead bodies, then I owe you ten credits. If there is Prothean dead bodies, you owe me ten. Deal?"

"I can't refuse."

Suddenly, Tali screamed from the back. "Shepard, would you stop making bets and look where you're going!"

Up ahead, seven geth were running towards us. I wondered if they thought they could outmatch a wild woman in a Mako. Shepard swerved to the right and hit a few. The one's that were not run over shot at the back of the vehicle.

"Oh, shit!"

There was an armature blocking our path. Shepard looked at me, waiting for me to tell her what to do, but before I could say anything, she stepped on the gas, and the Mako lurched forward, heading straight for the armature.

"Shepard! No!" I yelled, but it was too late. As soon as we hit it, our bodies slammed into whatever was in front of us. My face smashed into a small console. For a minute, I lied there, stunned by the force of the blow, and the taste of blood filled my mouth. I could feel the Mako still moving somehow. Maybe Elizabeth wasn't hurt by the impact. I forced my head up to see what was going on, and that's when my head banged against the roof of the Mako. We were rolling. My seat belt was beginning to come apart, so I held onto it to keep it on. I closed my eyes to keep from vomiting all over the place. Then, suddenly, it was over. With my eyes still closed, I breathed in deeply, trying to calm myself. A hand grabbed my shoulder and shook me. I cried in pain and opened my eyes to see Shepard hovering over me.

"Garrus! Garrus, you alright?" She looked at my face and frowned in disgust. I must look really bad.

Shoving her hand away, I said, "Why did you do that? You could have killed us, damn it!"

Defending herself, she replied, "It was completely necessary."

"No, it was completely stupid!"

"What would you have done? Huh?"

"I would have went around it, not through it!"

"Would you two stop fighting! We need to go!" Tali interjected.

Shepard sat in her seat, strapped on her seat belt, and continued to drive. No one said a word to each other until we reached a huge barrier blocking our path.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Shepard hit the side of the Mako in frustration.

"Shepard," Tali began, "Another barrier just appeared behind us. I think we're trapped in here."

Elizabeth sat back in her seat and covered her face with her hands. "So we can't do anything," she said, muffled by her hands.

"Well, we could get out of the Mako and go over to that elevator and see where it brings us," Tali suggested.

We climbed out of the Mako and went into the elevator. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, we saw, in the middle of a massive room, a broken VI that flickered on and off. As we neared it, it began to talk.

"You are not Prothean, but you are not machine, either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons. I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other that passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope."

"How come I can understand it?" I whispered in Shepard's ear.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived. I have translated my output into a format you will understand. My name is Vigil. You are safe here for the time being, but that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe. You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. To stop it, you must understand or else you will make the same mistakes we did."

The VI explained to us how the citadel was actually a mass relay that linked to dark space, letting the Reapers slip through. It also explained the Keepers and their role in everything. It told us about what happened to all the Protheans, and how the last ones left alive were in those pods, but it had to kill them to preserve itself. Its words sent chills down my spine.

"You must destroy the Reapers. You are the only hope. Take this data file. It will give you temporary control of the station so you can stop Sovereign."

Shepard took the file. I felt that there was absolutely no way we could stop Sovereign and the other Reapers, but I didn't let it show. Elizabeth, on the other hand, looked determined, like we actually had a chance. I wish I had her determination and bravery.

"There's the conduit!" Tali exclaimed from the back.

"I think it's beginning to close, Shepard! Hurry!" I yelled.

She stepped on the pedal and the Mako rushed towards the conduit. Geth were surrounding it. They shot at the Mako, but Elizabeth kept going, ignoring them. As soon as we entered the conduit, we were transported to the Citadel.

"Shepard, slow down!" I screamed.

When we landed, she tried to make a sharp turn, and she ended up flipping the Mako upside down. My head hit the top and almost knocked me out. Sparks flew everywhere inside as the top scraped the sidewalk. When the Mako stopped sliding on the ground, I crawled out of a emergency hatch and plopped onto the ground, breathing heavily. I didn't bother looking to see if Tali or Shepard got out; my head was spinning, and my body hurt to much to turn over.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something trudging over to me. After it moaned, I knew what it was. I tried to feel for a gun on me, but my arm touched nothing but armor. My weapons were in the Mako. When I tried to stand to get away from the husk, my legs gave out and I tumbled to the ground. Feeling hopeless, I lied there, waiting for the husk to kill me. Then I heard gunfire and a thud. Someone lightly tugged on my shoulder, flipping me over so I was on my back. I coughed and blood flung on Elizabeth's face as she held my head in her hands.

"Garrus, you with me?"

"I'm still here," I responded with strain in my voice.

She wiped the blood leaking out of my mouth with a hand. "You don't look so good."

I laughed, flinging more blood on her face. "How is it that you seem perfectly fine after two crashes?"

She smiled and stroked my sore face. "Luck, I suppose." She paused to look me over, then said, " Here, I'm going to help you stand."

As soon as I stood up, I became dizzy and almost fell again, but Shepard was there to hold me. "Take it easy, Garrus. Slow down."

"Where's Tali?" I asked, looking around for her.

"Over here!" Tali walked towards us from the other side of the flipped Mako carrying our weapons. There was a huge crack in the glass of her helmet. "Don't worry. I'm practically floating in antibiotics in here."

"That's good to know," I said with relief.

Tali looked over to her left and pointed. "Look over there. It's Avina. Poor thing. She's broken."

We all walked over to the AI. "Wel... wel... welcome to the Presidum... um... um. Do you... assistance?"

Shepard asked, "Who was here last?"

"A turian."

"Did he happen to mention where he was going?"

The AI flickered, then responded, "I believe... mentioned... Council Chambers."

"Of course. That's where the control panel is," Shepard said. She looked at me and asked, "Do you think you can make it?"

"I'll follow your lead no matter what, even if my intestines are hanging out and my..."

Elizabeth put up a hand for me to stop. "Okay, I get the picture. We don't need the nasty details."

"I like to make it sound more dramatic."

Patting me on the back, she said, "I know, I know, but right now we have to stop Saren. Let's get in the elevator."

When we were almost to the chambers, the elevator suddenly halted. I almost toppled over, but I held onto the side of the elevator.

"Damn it! Saren must have stopped the elevator." Shepard walked towards the front of the elevator with the glass and looked out at the Presidium.

"What are we going to do now, commander?" Tali asked with fear in her voice.

All of a sudden, Elizabeth punched the glass, putting a fist size hole in the glass. She kept punching the glass until there was a decent size hole to where someone could fit through it.

"What are you doing?" I asked, thinking she was crazy.

She looked over at me sheepishly and replied, "Taking a little stroll."

When I understood what she was doing, I rushed to grab her, but I was too late. She stepped out of the elevator and fell. My mind racing, I poked my head out of the hole to see Elizabeth walking on the side of the building.

"Come on you two. We have a job to do."

Tali and I, feeling better that we knew she did not just commit suicide, crawled out the hole in the glass and followed Shepard onto the building. It was exhilarating to walk on the side of a building.

We followed Elizabeth towards the chambers. Up ahead, I saw geth troopers coming at us. We killed every single one with ease.

"Shepard," Tali began, "look over there. It looks like a hatch."

Rushing over to it, Elizabeth opened it and allowed Tali and me to go inside first. When I landed on the floor, I glanced up to see that we were in the chambers, and geth were in here. Two on the stairs in front of me began to fire at me as I ran for cover. Shepard, being a biotic, pulled them into the air and slammed them into the ground. Tali shot three that were advancing on the commander. After finishing off the geth, we ran up the stairs towards the bridge. All around us, the once beautiful blossoming trees were now up in flames. I remember first meeting Shepard here. I was arguing with Executor Pallin over my investigation over Saren, and then she shows up with her captain. When Pallin left, she came up to me and talked to me for a brief period, but I felt a connection immediately. I wanted to follow her, and I was willing to quit C-Sec to do so. Feeling that connection changed my world. I'm stopping a Reaper from taking over the Citadel! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think of doing something like this.

When we reached the bridge, we did not see Saren. Shepard kept her gun aimed at the spot where he should have been, just in case. Then Saren, making a somewhat dramatic appearance, rose on a hover board and whipped a grenade at us. We dispersed, jumping away from it. I landed on my stomach in front of Shepard, who was hiding behind a rail, gun raised and ready for action.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it," Saren said with hostility.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Shepard said.

"Stop with the humor! I doesn't amuse me. You and I both knew it would turn out like this. You have lost, Shepard. In a few minutes, Sovereign will have control of all the Citadel's systems. Then the Reapers will return."

Elizabeth responded with, "I can still stop them."

He laughed at her courage. "You have survived so far. I have changed since our encounter on Virmire. Sovereign has... improved me."

"You let Sovereign implant you? Are you crazy?"

"I suppose I should thank you. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you told me. About Sovereign manipulating me. Sovereign could sense my doubts, so I was implanted to strengthen my resolve. Now I believe in the cause completely. Join me, Shepard, and we can assist the Reapers."

"Sovereign's controlling you! How can you not see that?" she yelled.

"I am the union of organics and machines. I have the strength of both, but none of the weaknesses. I am the future, Shepard. This is the evolution of organic life. Join us and be reborn!"

"I can stop Sovereign from taking control of the station. Step down, Saren, and the invasion will never happen."

"We can's stop them!" he growled. "You saw the destruction of the Protheans. The Reapers are too powerful."

"You know this is wrong! Fight it!"

I heard him pause for a second, thinking about what she said. "Maybe you are right. Maybe there is a chance... ugh!"

He screamed in pain. I quickly looked up from the floor to see him holding his head, digging his talons into his flesh. "I can't do this. Sovereign is too strong. It's too late for me."

Shepard stood then, lowering her weapon and approaching Saren on his hover board. "You still have a chance. Don't give up!"

He looked at her for a long moment, pain in his eyes. "Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you for everything."

Suddenly, he pulled out his pistol and shot himself in the head. Elizabeth gasped and rushed towards him, but before she could reach him, he fell off his board and into the glass below. Leaning over the rail, she looked down at his lifeless body.

"Shepard..." I started, but she cut me off.

"I'm going to try this on the console." She slowly walked up to it and used her omnitool to use the data. "It worked. I have complete control," she said over her shoulder. "I'm opening the arms to let the fleet inside to take care of Sovereign."

"See if you can open a communications channel first," Tali suggested.

Taking Tali's advise, she pressed a few things on her omnitool and someone came up.

"This is the Destiny Ascension. Our main drives are offline and our barriers at forty percent. The council is on board."

Then Joker's voice popped up. "Commander, is that you?"

"I'm here."

"We got the distress call. I'm sitting here with the entire Arcturus fleet. Unlock the relays so we can enter."

"We should send everyone after the Reaper. It needs to be destroyed," Tali chimed in.

I looked at her in disbelief for her ignorance. "We can't just let the council die! If they die, everything will end up in chaos. The council has been in existence for thousands of years. We can't just blow them off!" I told Shepard.

Joker said, "What do you want us to do, Shepard?"

"Send the entire fleet to stop Sovereign. We need to focus on it."

"Shepard!" I said angrily. "You can't do that!"

She turned back to look at me. "Why can't I? I'm not sacrificing thousands of lives for a couple of people that can be replaced!"

I shook my head, wondering how she could think that way. "I hope you know what you're doing, human," I spat.

She ignored me and said, "Make sure he's dead."

Tali began to leave, but I stared at Elizabeth for a minute. When she couldn't stand my gaze on her anymore, she dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Garrus, come on. Your commander asked you to do something, so do it," Tali demanded.

I dropped down first, landing roughly on the ground near Saren's body, and Tali followed. Pulling out my pistol, I cautiously neared his lifeless body. Aiming at his head, I pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through his skull. His head moved slightly from the force of the bullet, but nothing more. Using my earpiece, I said into it, "He's dead."

All of a sudden, the ground began to quake under my feet. Saren's body was then filled with red light so bright that I shielded my eyes. An explosion pushed me into a pillar, knocking the breath out of me. Glancing up, I saw that the bridge was collapsing, sending Elizabeth rolling down it to the ground below. Saren stood, the red light emanating from his body, and stumbled towards Shepard. Then his flesh seemed to melt, revealing a machine with glowing red eyes. It snapped its head to her, then jumped onto the wall with incredible speed. After pushing myself to get up, I hurried over to her and seized her arm to haul her up. Tali began shooting at the machine as it crawled all over the walls.

"Shepard! Get up!" I yelled. When she got up, she pulled her shotgun out and searched for Saren. He snapped to the ground and crawled on his hands and feet towards me, so I unloaded on him. Elizabeth shot him as he jumped back onto the wall, making him slip a short distance on the wall, but other than that, it didn't hurt him much. Shepard then pulled him off the wall with her biotics, sending him floating in the air. Landing on the ground, the machine fired rockets at us. We all took cover behind giant rocks that were placed here to make the place look nice. As soon as the barrage ended, I stood and shot at the machine's head, making it spasm. Elizabeth rushed over to its spasming body and shot it in the head. Immediately, it stopped moving.

"Good job, guys," she said as she looked down at the broken mechanical body. Then she glanced up and out the window. Her eyes widened, and she stiffened. Turning to look, I saw a piece of Sovereign floating straight towards the council chambers.

"Get out of here!" She commanded, and we all ran up the bridge. As I quickly descended the stairs, I looked over my shoulder to see the debris crashing through the window, and Shepard slowing down.

"Elizabeth!" I screamed, but then debris hit her, and I was next. All I saw after that was darkness.