I didn't want to replay Mass Effect I, so I changed the names of the minor characters. I don't remember any of them.

Gabrielle Henson: Thanks! Rushing things is definitely a problem I'm still working on.

The shuttle touched down quietly. Shepard turned to the pilot, "You'd better take off, Jeffries. I'll radio a pickup, but it's too hot for you to stay down here."

"Sure thing, Commander."

Shepard was about to organize the squad when Nihlus spoke up. "I'll head out on my own, Shepard. Keep in radio contact."

Frowning, Shepard responded, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Nihlus smirked. "I move faster on my own. Good luck, Commander."

Shepard turned to Kaidan and rolled her eyes as Nihlus moved away. Shepard often fought on her own, but not against unknowns. And something seemed off about this colony.

Her face became hard once again, however, as she fell easily into her commander role. "Okay. I'll take point, Kaidan on my left, Jenkins stay right. We don't know what we're up against here, I need you following orders, no questions. You can ask me whatever you want once we're on the ship, but until then you do as I say. The second I tell you to get in cover, you get in cover. Understood?"

Kaidan nodded firmly and Jenkins responded, "Got you, Commander."

On Shepard's signal, the three began the approach to the colony. It was daytime on Eden Prime, and the sunlight highlighted the land's natural beauty. Eden it is, Shepard thought. The spiritual part of Shepard wondered what it meant that Heaven was on fire.

"I haven't been back here in years," Jenkins whispered, "I can't believe I came back to this."

"We'll get the colony back, Jenkins," Kaidan promised. Shay said nothing.

A couple hundred meters in, Shepard signaled for them to get in cover as she mapped their approach. Both soldiers obeyed, but then a faint whistling was heard.

Behind Shepard, Jenkins stood. Kaidan called out to him to get down, but the private left cover and raised his weapon. Too late, the commander noticed and yelled, "Jenkins, get down!"

Kaidain looked ready to leap to the private's side, but Shepard barked out a command, "Kaidan, down! We need to deal with the drones."

Shakily, Kaidan turned back towards the two enemies approaching at a high speed. "Lieutenant – I want you to push as hard as you can against the first one while I deal with the second."

Not understanding but remembering earlier, Kaidan complied and pushed as hard as he could against the robot's resistance.

Leaning out of cover, the commander fired her pistol at the farthest drone until it exploded. Looking to her left, she saw Kaidan struggling to slow the second. "All right Kaidan, let go!"

The drone's momentum took over and it flew past them, unable to react quickly enough. Before it could turn around, both Shepard and Kaidan fired their pistols. As soon as it went down, they both ran to Jenkins, medigel ready.

Shepard took one look at the wounds and knew it was over, but Kaidan was frantic. The commander realized he'd probably never lost a squadmate before.

"Lieutenant…Kaidan. We need to go. We'll come back for him later, but right now I need you to focus on the mission."

The lieutenant lifted his head, his face contorted in pain. He couldn't reconcile the smiling, excited private with the motionless body before him. Shepard's hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his reverie and he nodded.

"On your mark, Commander."

With one last look at Jenkins, Shepard stood up and trotted forward towards the trees. "Trees ahead. It'll mean cover for us, but we might get surrounded before we realize there are enemies. Stay close, we'll stick to the side."

Kaidan stared after her for a moment before nodding and following her. He couldn't understand if it was professionalism or coldness that allowed Shepard to so readily accept the private's death.

Ahead, Shepard internalized the guilt she felt over Jenkin's loss. She would deal with that later. For now, she entered the forest and immediately gestured for Kaidan to get behind a tree. She'd heard a branch snapping ahead. Looking around the corner, she saw two robot type things. She waved for Kaidan to halt and lifted her hand. With her biotics, she pushed one into the other, disorienting them. As they stumbled, she easily took them down before they could raise the alarm.

"My god…Those are geth," she said into the comm.

Kaidan looked over to her. "Geth? They haven't been past the Veil in years. What are they doing on a human colony?"

"Let's hope we find out. Be wary – I've read that geth have a hive mind. It's likely they noticed the loss of two units."

The trees evened out eventually with no sign of further enemies. Ahead, they could hear gunfire and they began to run. It was the woman in pink armor. Three geth were moving to flank her.

Shepard ran forward, and as she did she drew out her sniper rifle. She ducked behind a rock and with a headshot dropped the geth that was closest to the soldier ahead.

She watched, impressed, as the soldier rolled towards that side and took out a geth that came upon her cover with her shotgun. As the last geth neared the soldier, Shepard could tell the woman's shotgun was overheated.

"Kaidan, lift!"

Just as Kaidan lifted the geth, Shepard did too. The lieutenant's biotics were much stronger, and together they lifted the geth high into the air. Kaidan held the geth while Shepard fired her sniper rifle again. Heaving, Kaidan dropped the robot to the ground.

The woman ahead checked around her corner before looking behind her for the unexpected rescuers.

Once Shepard got there, the woman saluted. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Thanks for the help."

Shepard nodded, "Commander Shepard. This is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. What happened here?"

Ashley's shoulders slumped, finally giving into some of her exhaustion. "I have no idea. We were on a patrol when suddenly a drop ship landed near the beacon. By the time we got there, the robots were everywhere. My squad was killed. I was pushed back to here. I would have died as well if you two hadn't shown up."

Shepard closed her eyes. "I'm sorry about your squad. Are you injured, Chief?"

Ashley shook her head and Shepard said, "The lieutenant and I are going to try to save the beacon. I could use a third squadmate. You up for it?"

Suddenly, Ashley remembered the woman in front of hers name. It was Commander Shepard. Realization hit her. If it were anyone else asking her that, Ashley would have doubted that three people could take back the colony…but she'd heard stories of the commander. Her face hardened. "Yes, ma'am."

"All right, Williams. Lets go geth hunting."

Geth, Ashley thought. It was good to have a name for the attackers, even with the implications the attack suggested.

Shepard took point again and the three made it to the outskirts of the colony before they ran into trouble. A lot of trouble. At the wall, a giant geth machine stood, surrounded by a different sort of geth soldiers that climbed the walls around them. "Stay back!" Shepard shouted. "Stay behind the walls and switch to pistols. Ignore the giant one, go for the ones around it."

Quickly, the three soldiers took down all the geth around them, avoiding the giant blasts from the colossal robot in the middle. Panting, the three regrouped behind a wall. "Okay. We need to hit it when it's about to fire, so spread out. I'll distract it, you two hit it with everything you've got when it tries to hit me."

Shepard shot out of cover, and immediately the colossus began to fire up its beam. Kaidan and Ashley began to fire at it until it unleashed its beam right towards where Shepard was running. The commander easily evaded its fire, diving back into cover. She repeated the routine twice more until she stole a glance. It wasn't going down.

"Cease fire."

Shay popped out of cover and ran at, zigzagging the whole time. She slid beneath the legs and rolled behind it. When she stood, she leapt onto its back, slamming her combat knife between its neck and body. Electric shocks began sparking, and Shepard yanked her knife out and leapt from its back. It exploded a moment later.

"I don't know what the hell that thing was," Shepard stated, "but good work. Let's move out." She looked over the combat knife carefully and Ashley caught a glimpse of what looked like a blue blade before the other woman placed it in the sheath at her hip.

Kaidan and Ashley shared a look. They'd never seen someone move that efficiently before.

"Hell, Commander, you have got to teach me how to do that," Ashley finally said.

The commander spared the two speechless soldiers a glance and shrugged before moving forward, leaving them no choice but to follow.

…..

Ashley focused on the woman leading them for the duration of the trip to the beacon. Shepard moved with a proficiency that was ruthless, almost inhumanly so. The commander didn't speak unless it was to occasionally bark out an order, but she seemed to trust the chief and the lieutenant enough to watch her back if she pressed forward. Ashley found herself surprised by this trust.

Kaidan wanted to check the homes for colonists, but the commander shot him down. He stupidly attempted to argue, but he was fixed with a cold glare. "Do I have to explain my orders to you, lieutenant? Assuming there are colonists alive, they are safe where they are. We are taking out any opposition on route to the beacon, so any humans left behind us are much safer than they would be if we- what? Gathered a train of unarmed colonists and had them follow us? There is no point in wasting mission time just so we can tell them to stay where they are. Move out."

She didn't hold his gaze long enough to see him nod in acceptance before she trotted forwards.

Ashley faltered when they arrived at an empty dig-site. She shook her head at the commander's questioning glance and so the commander activated her comm. "Nihlus, we're at the dig site, the beacon is gone. Status?"

"Commander. I'm on my way to the space port. I met with heavy resistance, but it looks clear for now. I suggest you and your team meet me there."

"Agreed. Shepard out."

Shepard deactivated her visor and looked around. "Grab some ammo and look for any spare weapons- pistols only. I'm expecting trouble."

Kaidan and Ashley gathered what they could from the boxes milling around, and Ashley noted that Shepard didn't join them in selecting another pistol. She instead loaded as much ammo as she could onto her belt and waited for the other two to finish.

….

They finally arrived atop a hill looking down at the space port. Shepard froze and her two subordinates looked to her for permission to move forward. They followed her gaze to a group of metal spikes sticking up in the distance and two geth lowering a human body to one of them. The soldiers watched in horror as the spike lifted into the ground, the man's screams echoing.

Shepard lifted her sniper rifle and instead of shooting the geth, she shot the human through the head. She followed with focused shots to the geth before the other two soldiers could raise their weapons.

"My god," Kaidan whispered. "What are they doing to them?"

"Don't go down there yet, we have incoming."

Only moments after Shepard spoke, dozens of grey humanoid creatures appeared from around the corner, racing towards the squad.

"Williams, rifle! Kaidan, follow my lead."

Ashley fought the urge to vomit as she unloaded her rifle into the mass of bodies. Kaidan and Shepard took out those they could with their pistols, but a few got past their fire. With a yell, Shepard once again drew out her combat knife, but it elongated into the size of a short sword. She sliced off the wrist of a creature reaching for Ashley before following with a move that decapitated its head from its body. Before Ashley could blink, the commander had pressed forward into the fray. Spinning around the creatures' clumsy movements, she expertly maneuvered her sword, her face stoic though she was outnumbered. A shot from her pistol ended the screeching from the last creature.

Covered in gore, Shepard briefly looked over the forms of the other two, checking for injuries. Seemingly satisfied, she wiped her blade on the grass but kept it at her side. She took in the carnage around them and muttered to herself. "Cannon fodder. What's the point in this?" Shaking her head, she turned to Kaidan in sympathy; he had emptied the contents of his stomach when he realized what happened to the dead colonists.

Ashley was frozen, her face pale. Of the three of them, only Shepard appeared unfazed. "Best not to look," Shepard said softly. "The space-port is down there. Keep your heads on straight. The best we can do now is make sure…this doesn't happen again."

Ashley stood straighter and saluted in response. She could do that. A glance at Kaidan saw that the words affected him the same. They had Shepard's back.

As they walked towards the port, the events that had just occurred caught up with the gunnery chief. A fucking sword? Where did that come from? She shook her head clear of the thoughts. Like the commander said, their minds needed to be on the mission for now. Everything else could come later.

….

Shepard's eyes hardened at the sight of the dead Spectre.

"Nihlus. This isn't good," Kaidan stated.

"This is the Spectre you were working with?"

Shepard sighed and crouched next to the body. "Key word. Was. This was an execution. He must have trusted someone to let them this close." Her head snapped up and she looked at a pile of crates in the corner. Kaidan and Ashley raised their weapons and pointed it towards the boxes. "We've got company. Cover me."

:"I know you're there. Come out with your hands raised or I'll use my biotics and rip you apart." Shepard figured this was no time for niceties.

An unkempt man stumbled from cover, "Okay, okay! Jesus Christ!"

Shay eyed the man carefully before placing her sword at his throat. "Did you see what happened here?"

The man stuttered, "Yes! There was another turian – Saren- I think that's what your friend called him. They were talking- he said he was here to help – and then he shot him!"

Shepard nodded. "Saren. Now, how did you escape the geth?"

His eyes widened. "Geth!? I was…working…I got tired. I fell asleep behind those boxes and when I woke up everything was on fire."

Ashley stepped forward. "You're alive because you're lazy," she spat out.

"Calm, Chief. He's not just lazy. He's a smuggler."

"No, I'm not! Why would you say that!"

"I know your type. I strongly suggest you hand over whatever you may have that could help us before I decide to kill you."

As her sword pressed deeper into his neck, words came spilling out of him. "Everything is in the box over there! I swear, I was only taking small things. No one would miss anything!"

Shepard took her sword away only to deck him. "Men and women died protecting your ass. Missing weapons you stole." Jerking him up by his collar, she dragged him to a pole and handcuffed him. "If I remember, I'll send someone to pick you up for questioning."

"You can't leave me here!"

Shay ignored him and grabbed what she could from his smuggled goods. They were going through ammo fast. She smiled in grim satisfaction at the collection of sniper rifle mods and fitted what she could to her belt.

…

We're too late, Shepard thought grimly. The beacon was there, but the turian, Saren, had escaped on that creepy looking ship.

"Normandy, this is Shepard. Colony is secure, enemy has escaped.

"Commander. It's glowing. It wasn't doing this before." She walked towards it, only to gasp as a force began pulling her towards it.

What the hell. The commander didn't hesitate; she launched herself at the other woman, knocking her out of the way before she felt herself lifted into the air by the strange energy.

A scream erupted from her mouth as pain took over her senses. Her body coiled itself against the agony, and then darkness seized her.

Children turned into abominations killed adults unable to turn their weapons on those who might be their sons, their daughters. Screams as a city burned. Tears as a man watched his wife torn apart. Shepard could only watch as worlds ended. This was worse than Mindoir. Worse than Elysium, than Akuze.

She learned to fear the red beams that came out of the metal creatures, for they were not mere ships. Giant metal squid. She would have laughed if they weren't so terrifying. Disjointed images of the carnage they wrought tore at her mind. Through the haze, she learned their name. Reapers.

….

The first thing Shepard was aware of were the tiny daggers piercing her skull. It occurred to her that that didn't make much sense, and she began to struggle against the fogginess that clouded her mind.

"Doctor, I think she's waking up." A voice. Female.

Where am I? She remembered the thresher maws, her squad lying around her. Was anyone still alive? "Riley?"

The commander heard a choked gasp from somewhere in the room, and she finally opened her eyes to a face she remembered but couldn't place. The concern in the brown eyes prompted a flood of memories, and Shepard felt the pang of an old loss.

"I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, ma'am…Do you remember? You saved my life."

Shepard waved her off. "No worries, Williams. You couldn't have known what would happen." Shay saw the beginnings of a smile on the other woman's face before she felt a hand press against her cheek.

Shay's expression faltered at the intense stare of the doctor. "How long was I out?"

"Sixteen hours, Commander. You gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?"

The commander saw the real questions in the older woman's eyes and nodded her head. She glanced at the gunnery chief and measured her reply. "I was injured on Eden Prime. I'm on the Normandy under the command of Captain Anderson. Joker is flying the ship. Besides all of that, I'm doing all right, Doc. Just a headache."

Ashley looked between the two in confusion. She guessed correctly that the doctor was wondering if the commander knew where she was, but didn't understand the subterfuge. Idly, she wondered who Riley was and why her name elicited such a reaction from the doctor.

Mainly, however, she was relieved that the commander didn't seem to blame her for her injury. In her opinion, the woman had every right to the blame if she felt like it. It was stupid for her to approach a foreign object like that. Her foolishness had nearly killed her hero.

Now her hero lied before her, her scar prominent against the woman's grey complexion. She looked weakened, a far cry from who she was just sixteen hours previously.

When the door hissed open, the commander sat up stiffly and drew into a salute. Ashley reflexively turned and snapped to attention.

"Gods above, lie back down, Shay. It's only Anderson." When Shepard didn't respond immediately, the doctor forced her back down.

Ashley blinked at the informality. She'd noticed when the commander was first brought in that the captain seemed more concern than would be expected. She was barred from the medbay after the captain had taken the wounded soldier from Alenko and her and carried her there himself.

"What happened down there, Shepard?" The captain asked.

Ashley stood up awkwardly, understanding she wasn't necessarily wanted for this conversation. Before she could leave, the commander touched her hand. "Thanks for helping me back onboard, Williams." At Ashley's look of confusion, Shepard shrugged. "Figured I didn't walk onto the shuttle unconscious. You did well down there. Dismissed, chief."

"Aye aye, Commander. Captain." Ashley saluted and hurried out the door.

The commander waited for the door to close before she leaned back and closed her eyes. A moment later, she felt a cold cloth against her forehead and smiled in thanks. "This is going to sound crazy. Are you ready?"

She half opened one eye to see Anderson's nod. "The beacon was a warning, David. It was filled with memories. From what I could gather, the Protheans were wiped out by a race of sentient machines. They called them Reapers."

David frowned. "You saw all this?"

"I did. I couldn't put anything in order, but I understood that much."

"You realize how this will sound if I put it in my report?"

Shepard sighed. "I know… I think you should just say that I saw the Protheans dying in some kind of war. Don't mention the giant machines. How bad is the situation? Nihlus dying…the beacon destroyed…I can't imagine the brass or the Council is taking it well."

"They're not. We're reporting to the Citadel, we're on our way there now. This is bad, Shepard."

"Everything went to hell. I'm not sure how they can pin the blame on us though. We couldn't expect the geth or a rogue Spectre to be waiting for us."

Anderson patted the commander's shoulder and smiled gently. "Let me deal with this for now, Shepard. Rest up and listen to Doctor Chakwas, she's got rank on you in this We're meeting the Council in twenty hours."

The doctor scoffed and shooed him out the door before coming back to her patient. She sat next to the younger woman and stroked her hair. "When you woke up…you were remembering Akuze?"

Shepard nodded and leaned into the familiar touch. "It was only for a moment. I'm fine."

Karin smiled softly. "I'm not asking so I can report you, Cordelia. Just tell me the truth."

"Sometimes I hate that you and David know my first name."

The doctor laughed. "I happen to enjoy the privilege. You were saying?"

All mirth faded from Shay's eyes and she looked away. "I thought I was rescued and that I was waking up in the hospital. I didn't remember that everyone died."

"I figured as much. I haven't heard Riley's name from your mouth in a long time."

"Enough, Karin. You know better."

The doctor sighed and pulled away, knowing there was only so much the commander could take. "I'd like you to stay here until it's time to get ready for your meeting. I'd like to give you a sedative, but I know you'll just refuse. Would you like anything for the pain?"

"No thank you. It's not so bad now." Karin frowned, but didn't protest.

"Sleep now, Cordelia."

The doctor waited for the commander's breathing to even out before she resumed running her hand through the younger woman's hair. She knew the commander wasn't very receptive to physical contact, but the unspoken restriction was lifted for her. Shepard trusted her, and Karin would do her best to return that trust by providing what comfort she could.