"I do trust you, I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around your involvement with Cerberus." Kaidan says, putting a hand on her arm & turning her to face him.
"I did-" Shepard starts, but is cut off by the sound of crawling in the vents. She shoves Kaidan behind a truck.
"Later." Shepard breaths in his ear, getting goose bumps at his nearness. She pulls her gun free & flares her biotics, glancing around the corner of the truck.
The vent is kicked out, & out jumps Liara followed by three Cerberus solders, who are taken off their feet by her singularity. Liara finishes each off quickly with a gun shot to the head & slides her gun back in its holster.
Shepard walks out from behind the truck, shoving James gun away. They talk quickly & soon enough another group of Cerberus troops show up. Shepard sends James away after a lot of grumbling on his part, she'd have to have a word with him later about his lack of following orders.
They finish the troops off quickly & make their way to the balcony. The door opens & someone is shot down, thinking quick Shepard hides behind the wall. She inches along until she's directly behind a soldier. In an instant she shoots up & grabs the soldier, punching him in the throat, his airway collapsing. Then fast as lightening, she charges at the remaining as Liara throws a warp & Shepard's charge detonates the warp, killing all the troops simultaneously.
"I forgot how quickly you finish off targets, Shepard." Liara says, impressed.
"Your biotics have undoubtedly gotten stronger since our last mission together." Liara continued, giving her a small wink. Sneaking aboard the Shadow Broker's ship had been fun & challenging, he put up a good fight but in the end, Shepard was better.
Kaidan noticing the exchange remains silent, & they continue into the next room, where they unlock the door to make it around the facility. The door is wide open, & Shepard quickly makes her way through the room. The windows open & she turns her flashlight off, ducking behind a counter. The Cerberus troops ready to leave, & Shepard stands, flaring her biotics as she readies a charge. The troops see her biotics pulse up from her feet, to her core as she smashes through the glass into them. Kaidan & Liara understanding what she was going to do, throw in a reave & a warp, & the resulting detonation takes out all five troops.
They move through the next two rooms quickly, wasting no time. On the other side of the door they hear voices, & all three flare their biotics. As the door opens, Shepard shoots into the fray. She jumps & charges through each room, taking out & weakening the remain troops for Kaidan & Liara to finish. Even with ten Cerberus troopers surrounding her & without barriers, Shepard remains calm & comes away unscathed. She's been out of combat for too long, & as she looks around after the last solder is taken care of, the bodies are a mess. Not like she cares, but Liara must be right about her biotics, some of the bodies are in pieces.
—
Kaidan can barely keep the look of astonishment off his face as he looks around the room at the bodies. He knew her biotics were strong, as strong as his, but now it looks like she's surpassed him again. Maybe he hasn't been training hard enough, he'd have to look into it later. Taking his helmet off, the smell of burning flesh invades his senses.
"Oh God, what is that smell?" Kaidan asks, backing up in surprise.
"They turned the decontamination protocol on, with the staff still inside." Shepard says, her voice devoid of emotion. But he knew these kind of things haunted her later, believing that there was a way she could've prevented it. Shepard had no issue killing criminals, thugs, or people who harmed others, not even husks who used to be human. She understood that they had done wrong & would continue unless stopped. When it came down to the bare minimum it was either them or her. Kaidan had asked her one time about how she could easily shoot husks with no regard toward it, & she had simply stated that whoever it used to be was no more & was beyond care, killing them was freeing them. Shepard expected the same from her crew if she ever became something monstrous. Kaidan had a hard time accepting this then, but now it made much more sense to him. He was very narrow minded when it came to these things, something he hated.
They held their breath as they opened the door & moved swiftly into the adjacent room, breathing in the clean air when the door shuts behind them. Opening the next door, they're surprised by the turret firing on them but easily skirt around it. Shepard's biotics flare brightly & her eyes glow bright purple, her annoyance at being forced into cover evident. Kaidan throws a reave as Shepard charges into the middle of the group, ending the fight as quickly as it started.
Liara makes quick work at disabling the turret, but cannot activate the tram. An idea pops into his head & he shares it, then jogs out of the room & calls to Shepard when he finds a helmet intact.
Accidentally opening the helmet, he staggers backwards.
"My God, he looks like a husk." Kaidan says, unable to take his eyes away from the soldier.
"Not quite, but they've definitely done something to him." Shepard says, slipping the transmitter from the helmet.
"Meaning Cerberus? Is that what they did to you?" Kaidan says, crossing his arms over his chest.
"How can you compare me to him?" Shepard remarks offended, but humor seeps into her tone & Kaidan can't help but chuckle.
"Sorry, you're right you don't look anything like that." Kaidan says, the laughter from his eyes drain just as fast as it appeared.
"But I just feel like you're some stranger ever since Cerberus rebuilt you. I don't know anything about you & that scares me." Kaidan says, his voice cracking as he tries to remain mono-toned.
"Kaidan…" Shepard says, her eyes rest on the floor as she shifts away from him & she seems somewhat smaller than she was a moment ago.
"Don't try to explain it, I wouldn't understand it." Kaidan says, shaking his head & stepping closer to her.
"What I do want to know, is if my closest friend, one who is so dear to me, the strong & beautiful woman that I'd follow into hell, is she still there? Somewhere…?" Kaidan says, raising a hand to cup her chin & tilt her face toward him.
"There's nothing they could have done to change me, & what we have isn't something that can ever be broken or destroyed." Shepard says, running a hand softy over his cheek & the stubble growing there. He places his hand ontop of hers, as her eyes run over his face, taking it all in.
"It'll take a lot of convincing…" Kaidan says, looking into her bright golden eyes & he can feel the impact straight down to his toes.
"We'll see…" Shepard says giving a smirk & moving away from him.
"In the meantime, let's see if this works." Shepard says, talking into the transmitter.
Kaidan takes the left position, & Liara the right, while Shepard hides behind the door. As the door lifts, she charges into the center of the fray. She pushes the troops out & toward Kaidan & Liara, soon they're surrounded in the open. She jumps & dodges around in a circle, using troops as cover.
—-
They finish the troops rather quickly, unprepared for the ambush & thrown off balance by Shepard's herding them out into the open. They don't get very far on the tram before a bomb goes off, stopping their car. Another pulls up along side of them & Shepard pulls a group off, they helplessly fall into the void below. After kicking out the bodies, Shepard starts the tram as Kaidan & Liara prepare for the firefight ahead.
Wave after wave of troops go down, Shepard is on fire as the commands the center of the room. Kaidan & Liara are left with those skirting around on the edges in fear. They pick the bodies clean of ammo & move into the archives.
Kaidan remains on guard, skirting around the perimeter. He can hear Shepard & Liara talking to someone else. Then Liara's surprised & defeated voice, as he encounters a woman busy at work on a console.
"Stop right there." Kaidan says, pushing the barrel of the gun against her neck. In the next moment, he's on his face & a burst of sparks blind him momentarily as the woman sprints away.
Kaidan gets up in time to see Shepard hot on her tail. Kaidan & Liara try to keep up, but Shepard is gaining on the woman. They reach the roof, but the woman jumps onto a shuttle & they try shooting her down to no avail. Then out of the corner of his eye, he see's their shuttle hurtling down with speed toward the Cerberus shuttle. He pulls Shepard against him as he dives & flares up his barrier. The shuttle hits & flings them backwards, landing in a pile on the ground. He can feel the warmth of her body against his & her heart beating frantically. Kaidan picks his head up, & looks into Shepard's eyes, glowing light purple with their combined biotics. He untangles himself from her & looks for Liara, as Shepard waves James down.
He helps Liara up, but the door from the Cerberus shuttle pops out as the woman, no, robot, steps out from the wreckage. Kaidan pushes Liara behind him & pulls his pistol out, sending two shots into her head but she keeps coming. Gripping his helmet, she lifts him up & asks for her orders, his heart nearly stops when he hears the answer. This is it, I'm going to die. I'm so sorry Shepard. The last thing he hears before his brain shuts down, is Shepard's tortured cry calling his name. No, please don't cry…
—-
"Kaidan!" Shepard screams, her heart breaking into a million shards.
The robot drops Kaidan & runs at her, but Shepard is faster, stealing her shields & sending one bullet straight between her eyes. When it lays dead, she runs to Kaidan. Aware of Joker in her ear informing her of the incoming reapers, she uses all the strength in her body to haul Kaidan over her back & carries him into the Normandy. The same thought repeating throughout her mind, Please don't take this man from me, it'll be end of me if he dies, I love him.