Don't forget to comment! I think this will be the last installment in this series, but it won't be the end of these two characters. Thanks for reading!

Nick stopped to catch his breath for a moment, his heart racing. It was getting dark. He was having trouble seeing, shadows were beginning to play tricks on his eyes. He kept seeing something at the corner of his vision, only to look and find that nothing was there.

He had ventured back into one of the main settlements, where he had last seen the turian. This time, the alien was no where to be found. Nick stood, surrounded by small buildings. He felt defeated. Part of him wanted to just lie down and hope that death would be quick.

He stopped again, leaning up against the cold metal exterior of one of the buildings. Nick lay his rifle across his lap, flicking on his omni tool. There was no way a signal would reach anyone, even if Nick was able to get to a larger transmitter. But if it would keep him from going insane, then he would keep trying. At least the electronic beeping of the omni tool broke the unsettling silence. Nick noticed the usually clear beeps sounded garbled, like they were slightly distorted. He stopped typing, listening intently. Nothing but uneasy silence. Just as he was about to punch another one of the holographic keys, he heard the noise again. It wasn't his omni tool.

Nick grabbed his rifle, and quickly recovered into a kneeling position. The sound was getting louder. An electronic clicking sound, that varied in frequency and intensity. Nick inched his face around the corner of the metal dwelling. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. He could see a pair of purplish lights hovering in the partial darkness only a few meters away. He squinted, trying to make out the source of the faint light. A glint of metallic white flashed abruptly just underneath one of the lights.

Nick quickly took a step back behind cover. Maybe a bit too quickly, the butt of his rifle had collided with the side of the building, creating a loud reverberating bang. Nick froze, raising the rifle to his shoulder. He waited, his sights trained on anything that might come around the corner. His heart was pounding, and his arms shaking slightly.

Nick could hear footsteps. He tensed up some more, squeezing his weapon even tighter to his shoulder. He placed a finger on the trigger, and held his breath. The footsteps stopped just on the other side of the building. The electronic buzzing and clicking sound resumed. This time, Nick knew what it was. The geth still surprised Nick when it appeared from around the corner, even though he knew it was coming. Nick squeezed the trigger and held it. The mass accelerated slugs ripped through the synthetic creature's shields, and tore into its armor. Nick only stopped firing when his weapon had overheated, and the geth was in a heap on the ground.

He maintained his stance, waiting for the other geth. He could hear more electric chatter. The geth did not round the corner. He heard a footstep, this time from behind. Before Nick got a chance to turn around, the second geth soldier brought its rifle down across his back. It impact caused him to loose his footing, and sprawl forward. Nick's rifle tumbled out of his hands landing out of his reach. The geth brought a forceful stomp down on Nick's stomach. He screamed out in pain, trying to roll away. The geth responded with another sharp kick, this time aimed at Nick's ribs. The geth stomped again, pinning Nick to the ground. It raised its own weapon, and pointed it at Nick's face.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Nick shouted, desperation showing in his voice. The geth appeared to stare for a moment, before its shields fizzled out. The shot wasn't heard until a couple of seconds later. This meant it must have been some kind of sniper at long range that had fired. There must have been a colonist that had escaped into the woods during the attack. Soon after the first audible shot, the geth was struck by a second round. This shot struck the geth solder in the back of the head, almost removing it completely. The robotic soldier teetered on its feet for a second, before collapsing directly on top of Nick.

"Help!" He could barley speak under the crushing weight of the dead geth. His arms flailed about, trying to find a way to push the weight off. It was futile, the geth weighed too much, and Nick was in an awkward position.

"Hey! Help me!" Nick shouted hoarsely, this time only a bit louder than the last. He could hear a different set of footsteps approaching."Thanks for taking care of that geth for me, I-" Nick stopped as soon as he saw who had fired the shot. The turian who had warned Nick earlier, the turian Nick had almost killed...

"You!" He was able to raise his voice a bit, having lifted the geth a couple of inches off of his chest. "Come on, get this damn thing off me!"

The turian did nothing other than stand a few meters back, cradling a sniper rifle with an angry look on his face.

"So you're just gonna fuckin' stand there and-" Nick stopped for a moment, collecting himself before continuing. "Alright, alright. Sorry I- Sorry for almost shooting you earlier... And about the geth... But I believe you now!" Nick nodded to the dead geth that was crushing him. The turian turned slowly, and took a couple of steps away. The alien set the rifle against the nearby building, and turned back to face Nick.

"Come on... Take pictures and post em on the extranet if you want, just get this damn thing off me."

"How can I trust you?" The turian spoke abruptly.

Nick squirmed under the dead geth, readjusting himself. "Well... You were telling the truth..."

"The other human. The one you were with. He killed two of my shipmates, and is still out there somewhere. How do I know you won't try to kill me?"

"Cause-" Nick squirmed again. "Cause I don't care about that old crazy bastard. Listen, I'm just a smuggler. My loyalty to that guy was just in my paycheck. Which now I'm not getting because the cargo is gone."

The turian stared Nick down for a couple of seconds. He then stepped forward, and pulled the dead geth off of Nick.

"Thanks..." He said, taking a deep breath in. He sat up, and cautiously climbed to his feet. "O'Neil. Nick." He held out his hand, expecting a handshake.

"Vox Castus." The turian relied simply, ignoring Nick's handshake offer.

"Well, Vox... What next?" He lowered his hand, slightly annoyed that the gesture had been ignored.

"There is a hierarchy ship on its way. We were able to send out a signal before we entered orbit. It should be here sometime tomorrow."

"So we just wait it out until then?" Nick hid the fact that the idea of being a lone human on a turian ship terrified him. But at least it was better than being stranded on a planet full of geth, right?

"Ideally, yes. But the geth seem like they are making one last sweep through the area. And there is your friend who still poses a threat..." Vox strolled back over to his rifle, and picked it up. It collapsed in on itself as Vox attached it to his armor.

"Hey, I told you, he's not a friend." Nick snapped back at Vox.

"Either way, he still poses a threat."

Nick nodded silently. He didn't doubt that the old man had gone crazy. He just hoped that the old man and the geth left them alone until the turian ship could get there.

"I have a fortified position this way. We should get there before more geth show up."

"You going to lead the way?" Nick asked, confused as to why Vox remained standing in place.

"I don't want you walking where I can't see you. Its that way." The turian replied, pointing to a path that led into the woods.

"I assume this means you're not going to give me my gun back either?" Nick began walking, and Vox followed a few paces behind.

"You would be correct."

"Come on, man." Nick whined. "You're treating me like a god damned prisoner." He spoke over his shoulder.

"There's no reason I shouldn't. You were delivering illegal supplies to a colony run by terrorists. One of your crew members murdered two of my squad mates. You're lucky I didn't shoot you when we first met. The fact that you're not even in restraints amazes even myself." Vox was getting irritated. He should have forgotten about this human after they first met.

"You see, this is why people hate turians. Its all about the rules. All you care about is arresting some low level smuggler, while the fucking geth are starting to invade new systems." Nick turned around to face Vox, walking backwards for a few steps. He waited for a response for a couple of moments. He turned back, shaking his head.

"I should have left you pinned underneath that geth."

"Yeah, you should have. You know what, I'd almost rather ride home on a geth ship than on a ship full of uptight pricks like you." Nick kept walking, not noticing that Vox had stopped. "Did I strike a nerve with that one?" Nick raised his voice, once he noticed the turian had stopped walking.

"I heard something."

"Yeah, of course you heard something. I'm fuckin' talking to y-" There was a sudden blast of gunfire from the woods. Nick didn't stand still long enough to see what happened to Vox. He dove behind a large tree, listening to the gunfight happening further down the trail. After gaining in intensity, the gunfire finally died. Nick stayed behind his tree, hoping that whoever had started the shooting hadn't noticed him. He couldn't hear any geth, but that didn't mean there wasn't any.

"O'Neil!" An old crackly voice called out. Nick instantly recognized it. He stumbled out from behind the tree, tripping over roots. He saw the old captain of the cargo ship holding a rifle, standing over a heavily bleeding Vox.

"What- What the hell are you doing?" Nick yelled, now running over to the downed turian.

"I was listening to the conversation. He was gonna arrest you."

"Yeah but-" Nick swung his medkit from his shoulder, and knelt down next to Vox. "You didn't hear anything about the geth?" Nick popped open the medkit, and started pulling out supplies.

"Oh, I heard him talk about the geth." The old man nodded casually

"And?"

"I haven't seen any... I think he's pulling one over on you." He shrugged.

"Pulling one over? I killed two geth, and I saw him kill another! There's a hierarchy ship comping in a few hours and, you probably just ruined our ticket off of this rock!" Nick almost screamed, his rage showing through. He began to check Vox for injuries, noting that he had been hit in the chest, stomach, and leg. Nick pulled a unit of medigel from his kit, and prepared to administer it to control Vox's bleeding.

"I can't let you do that."

"What?" Nick asked, not looking up as he sealed one of the wounds.

"You're wasting medical supples on the enemy. Step away." The old man grumbled.

"The enemy? Listen, we're not friends, but we're definitely not enemies." He looked up, to see that the old man had his gun pointed directly at Vox.

"Step away."

Nick contemplated stepping back, but he looked at Vox one more time. He saw his pistol the alien had taken earlier. Without giving much thought to the move, he grabbed the pistol, stood up, and pointed it directly at the captain.

"No, you step away." He replied back, staring the man directly in the eyes.

"So this is what it comes down to?" The captain chuckled. "Listen, I'm going to count down from ten. Once I reach zero, I put this turian son of a bitch out of his misery. Unless you stop me first."

"Listen, I don't want to do this." Nick pleaded.

"Ten... Nine... Eight..." The captain began his countdown. He had a sick smile on his face, and his eyes were wild.

"Just stop, we can talk!"

"Seven... Six... Five"

"I don't want to do it! Stop!"

"Four... Three...Two..."

"STOP!" Nick yelled, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of his handcannon firing. The old man died instantly as the two heavy slugs ripped through his chest. He exhaled once after hitting the ground, and then lay still.

Nick quickly holstered his pistol, and then attended to Vox. He packed the rest of his supplies up, and swung his medkit back over his shoulder. He grabbed the turain under the arms, slowly dragging him the rest of the way to the fortified dwelling. Nick was getting tired as he reached the opening to the building.

"Come on man, help me out here." Nick panted when Vox's foot got stuck on the door frame. Vox only replied with a moan, but was able to free his limb so Nick could drag him the rest of the way into the fortified house.

Once Nick got the door secured, he tended to Vox's wounds. He had lost a serious amount of blood, and Nick doubted if he would be able to keep the turian alive past a few more hours. He worked to stop the external bleeding, patching up all of the wounds that he could. He wouldn't be able to do anything for the internal bleeding. The only thing he could do about that was hope that rescue would arrive soon.

Once he had done what he could, he sat back against a wall, exhausted. Just as he started to drift off to an uneasy sleep, he heard the distinct low rumble of a ship landing. He checked his omni tool, confirming that the ship was turian. He let his head rest back against the wall, and let out a long sigh of relief.