I want to thank everyone for their reviews. If anything motivates me to keep going, it's the support of the readers. The closer we get to ME3, the better a grasp I have on how things stand as the game starts, and the more I can get done in this fic. I don't know how deeply into ME3 this fic will go, but I promise to be as true to the spirit of the third as I was to the second.

"Shepard, today I would like to talk to you about the Alliance Colony on planet Watson." Tolan said. "The colony was under attack by two Javelin class missiles. They were targeting two locations. The Spaceport, and the residential area. Can you tell the court what happened next?"

Shepard closed his eyes a moment, trying to keep the nightmare out. He'd been doing that a lot this month. "I was in possession of only one missile kill-code, and therefore could only stop one missile."

"You chose to save the Spaceport, and let the residential area burn. Thousands of casualties."

Shepard nodded. "I know. It wasn't like that was preferable, but the Watson colony was a key defensive position for the Alliance in the Skepsis System. Without that colony, the defensive line would have been strongly weakened, and the-"

"And when your imaginary monsters came along, you wanted the colony there to fight them."

"It was the only way!" Shepard ground out. "Whole colonies were vanishing already. Those four thousand weren't even close to being the only ones lost."

"And so you killed them."

"Objection." Anderson interrupted. "Commander Shepard didn't launch those missiles."

"No indeed, the missiles were launched by Batarian radicals, weren't they? Not civilians like the ones you killed, enemy combatants. Tell me Shepard: Were you looking to balance what you did, nuking the innocent people on Watson, by returning the favor tenfold upon the Batarians?"

"Objection! Tolan is testifying." Anderson snapped.

"Sustained."

The trial went for another six weeks. Shepard wasn't required to attend every day of it. The rules of this trial were different than a civilian court, or even an Alliance Tribunal. The prosecution and the defense called witnesses in turn. Anderson called people who could give glowing responses to the things Shepard had done in his travels, and Tolan had torn them all down.

Anderson went through Shepard's mail, including the myriad of people who had sent their gratitude to Commander Shepard on the Collector's Mission. Tolan had demanded to see the originals, and discovered that the Cerberus computers had been wiped clean of all correspondence going to Commander Shepard. A final act of spite from the Illusive Man.

On and on it went. John Shepard was rapidly becoming the most dissected man in history.

And every night he would be marched back to his room, and Ashley would come to join him, keeping him together. The easy chemistry they'd had on the first mission had returned. It was more mature, more balanced that it had been, the two years in between giving both of them confidence in themselves without the other, their relationship now stronger for it.

She did not stay all night. She couldn't. He was a prisoner after all, and on paper, she was responsible for guarding him. But they grew more comfortable with each other. More intimate.

"Sis, this is me you're talking to." Sarah Williams said over the vid-line. "You once left your rotation and came home to walk me to school after I had a run-in with a bad boyfriend. We both know how it screws you up. And this is so much worse. I was the one who had to clean up the debris after you burned out."

"I did not 'burn out.' I just crashed for a bit." Ashley shot back. "And of course I came to you. Alliance offered me a shrink, but you had the good ice-cream."

"Somebody has to provide these things. I just… I want you to be careful."

"We're taking it slow." Ashley promised. "There's… it's not so much anger or hurt feelings any more. That's gone now. But there's… distance. We getting closer, but we're not there yet."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Well, not good… I'm just worried about you. That guy is quicksand to you. You get in too deep too fast... Ash, it's six to one whether or not he'll be shot tomorrow." Sarah pointed out. "Mom is hearing some of the stuff they're saying about him, and… She doesn't know you two are back together. It's gonna be rough. You think what they're doing to him on that stand is bad, wait till you see what mom does to both of you when she finds out you're dating again."

"Actually we aren't." Ashley said firmly. "I'm supposed to be standing guard outside his door every day. The position is awkward."

"What position? Bending over to look through the keyhole?"

"Sarah!"

"Well how did you think I'd react?" Sarah demanded. "You got him alone in a room and you got handcuffs! You telling me you haven't pounced? You never know how to take advantage of an opportunity Ash, I've always hated that about you."

Ashley grinned. Her sister wasn't mad. "I'm disconnecting now."

"Love you!"

"Love you too."

Jack hated travel on spaceships. Confined spaces were too… confronting. And if she tore down the walls she didn't like, there was a better than even chance she could kill herself.

And wouldn't that be such a shame?

She distracted herself with TV. No such luck. Human TV was talking about the trial non-stop.

"Let's talk about Virmire." Tolan said silkily.

Shepard tensed. There was a hit coming. A heavy one.

Ashley tensed, feeling her jaw set. Oh no, please don't...

"Your team and a squad of Salarian Special Forces were attempting to infiltrate and destroy a base under the command of Saren, a Rogue Spectre."

"Not Rogue." Shepard corrected. "Indoctrinated. His proximity to Reaper Tech had caused-"

"Yes, yes; The Boogeymen brainwashed him." Tolan waved that off. "Regardless, the mission was to destroy the base, for which you, and you alone, I might add; decided to employ the use of Nuclear Weapons. Is that correct?"

"Actually, it was a Salarian drive core adapted into a weaponized fusion explosive, but... yeah."

"According to the reports of your crew, the bomb was activated, when Saren sent in reinforcements. Enough that the position was soon to be overrun. You split your squad in a holding action, and Lt Alenko stayed with the bomb."

"Kaiden was my friend." Shepard said shortly. "He gave his life to make sure that the mission was completed, the enemy defeated, and the rest of his team survived. That is what soldiers do in any military. He died a hero."

The feeling in the room changed. If Tolan was about to use Alenko and his death as a way to score a point against Shepard, he was certain to lose any support he had gained from anyone.

"I don't doubt the bravery or the nobility of Lt Alenko's sacrifice." Tolan said sincerely. "But my question was not about the soldier you ordered to his death, but rather the one that lived. Ashley Williams, now a Specter."

Shepard tensed. Ashley's file came up on the viewscreen, her photo visible to the whole court.

"Your squad was being overrun at most points, and you made the choice to fall back to the AA tower and defend her position." Tolan said, as though making sure of the facts.

Shepard nodded thickly. "That's right. I couldn't save them both; and I had to make a choice. It is... the nature of war."

"Indeed." Tolan said, so terribly sympathetic. "But perhaps your judgement was clouded by the fact that you were sleeping with Ashley Williams at the time?"

The crowd reacted with a roar.

"A relationship that is against the regulations of human military, though I don't suppose regulations mattered to you any more then than it did when you blew up the Relay. Did Lt Alenko know why you chose to save her over him?"

Shepard couldn't answer. He was stunned that Tolan knew. The crew of the Normandy were the only ones that knew for sure, and Shepard was certain that nobody had talked...

Unless someone who didn't survive the first Normandy Wreck had said something... sent a letter home, gossiped about the CO having a girlfriend...

"Lt Cmdr Williams herself has an interesting family history on the subject of hostile aliens. It's a reputation for surrender and failure that has dogged her career even now, three generations later." Tolan added. "Were you trying to score a victory for your girlfriend when-"

"Objection!" Anderson roared. "Lt Cmdr Williams is not on trial here. Nor is Shepard's personal life."

"Sustained." The Court ruled. "Tolan, we've warned you about bringing the rest of the human race into this."

Jack let out a shriek. She didn't know if she was screaming at the trial, the prosecutor, or the picture of Ashley Williams. A very attractive woman by any measure.

"It's your own fault!" She snarled. "I warned you! You had a choice! Why the hell do I care? Why the hell am I even going to Mars? Huh? Answer me that smart-guy! I had a sweet deal on Omega. I had what I wanted, and it's your fault." The crazy built up again and she lost it, hurling the small screen against the bulkhead. "IT'S YOUR FAULT! I HAD EVERYTHING I WANTED, AND IT'S NOT ENOUGH ANY MORE AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

She jumped up and down on the wrecked screen a few times, breathing hard, not caring that she was coming unglued. The old Jack was coming back. Crazy Jack. Feral Jack. Subject Zero: Purgatory's Worst Nightmare. She needed a knife. She needed a smoke. She needed sleep. She hadn't had any of these things for longer than she liked to think about.

You know what you need.

She pushed that thought away. She was going to Mars. All the crazy could stop till then. She counted her pills again. She took more than the regular dose to make them work for her. More than was healthy...

She heard boots coming down the metal corridor and swept her pills back into their bottle, tossing it in her bag and stretching out on her cot.

Just in time. A moment later, the door to her room opened, and three Black Sun Mercenaries came in. they were all armed.

"So." The lead Mercenary snarled, gearing up. "We've been watching TV."

"That crap will rot your brain." Jack didn't get up. Didn't move, didn't tense, she just kept staring at the ceiling. "But then again, where's the risk?"

"The trial showed footage of you." The captain continued, as though she hadn't spoken.

"Not me, my twin sister." Jack said without moving.

"Please. It's not like it's easy to confuse you for anyone else." He snapped. "Word is, you're the one that's worth half a million credits to turn in. Dead or alive. Emphasis on dead."

Jack finally turned her eyes to the left to look at him. "Turn around. Leave the room. Forget you saw that." She said coldly.

"See, the interesting thing is, the reward is actually double if you're dead. Normally there's more money for bringing them in alive."

"Take that as a hint." Jack bared her teeth.

"Don't think you can intimidate us Zero." One of the other mercenaries snarled. "I'm a biotic too."

Jack almost smiled. "Oh please. Amaze me."

The Mercenaries snap-drew their guns and tried to aim at Jack, still motionless on the bed. Blue fire filled the room as they were slammed against the walls with enough force to shatter their armor and bones alike.

Jack was up a nanosecond later, checking them over. Those that still had a pulse she slammed again.

Jack turned again, heading for the bridge. She had just killed the captain and some of his trusted crew. It was a cargo hauler, so there wouldn't be that many more. If she was going to get this thing to Mars, she needed to make sure she could focus on piloting, and that meant the rest of the crew had to be taken out.

The trial had adjourned for the day, when Anderson was called away on Alliance business.

Shepard looked ready to kill something. So did Williams. Vega, man-mountain that he was, tried to be very small as he walked with them.

"So." Shepard said finally. "I'm not sure which of us got the worst of that, but I think it was you."

"If Tolan was right and you wanted to send me an olive branch, you could have sent flowers." Ashley shot back through grit teeth.

"Ugh, how cliché." Shepard returned. "James, quit acting like you're not listening."

"Words are very dangerous right now sir." Vega said quickly.

"Smart man." Shepard said shortly and turned back to Williams. "Ash, keep the whole thing in perspective. The Council made you a Specter. You can have him shot later if you want."

Ashley nodded as they escorted him back to the room. "And don't you let the sabre-rattling get you down." She counseled him quietly, so that nobody could hear them talk. "They'll roast you, but they won't carve you up afterwards. At most, you'll be dishonorably discharged."

"At most?" Shepard repeated.

"John, it could be a lot worse. Without the Alliance, you'll still be able to get a job somewhere. If you want to. I could honestly see you chucking it all in and setting up on some uninhabited world somewhere, making a vacation spot for yourself. If I had any brains at all, I would go with you."

He looked at her. "You would, huh?"

Ashley flushed. "Sounds pretty good right now. A world without people, a billion light years from anyone. You, me, a beach and nothing else? Gotta be worth thinking about at least."

Shepard smiled. Whatever else Ash had just confessed, she'd confirmed that she wasn't going anywhere this time.

"Specter Williams, report to C-in-C. Specter Williams, report to C-in-C immediately." The PA announced through the halls.

"Command and Control?" Shepard responded. "Whatever called Anderson away, it must be big."

"Hmm." Ashley agreed, and keyed Shepard's door open. "See you soon?" She asked him. It came out as a question, and she didn't know why.

"Sure." He said. He wasn't sure why it should be uncertain either. She'd come by often enough during the trial...

Ashley sent a quick glance back at Vega, who was pointedly not looking at either of them, and she leaned in, pressing her lips against his quickly. A moment later she was gone, marching down the hallway to answer her summons.

Shepard smiled after her, standing in the doorway. "All right, how much of that little chat did you hear?" He asked finally.

"Everything after you two planning to run away together to some forgotten oasis of a planet." Vega said without turning. "It might not have been the smartest move to be less discreet right now."

"I guess there's really no point in being discreet right now, is there?"

"Possibly not."

Silence.

"Vega, why'd you turn us in?"

Vega's face fell. "I swear, I didn't sir. I... The door gets logged. Everyone who goes in and out. I had to think up some way to explain it in the daily reports. I was discreet, I swear."

Shepard took measure of him, and nodded. "I believe you. My guess is someone got a look at those daily reports, read a few things between the lines, went digging. It's not your fault."

"After the things you've done… you should get a medal." Vega said, not for the first time.

Ashley came in and saluted. "Sir."

Anderson waved her over to the view-screen. "Jupiter Station went dark six hours ago."

Williams reacted. "Transponder?"

"Also offline. This isn't a hardware glitch. The base is gone."

"Jupiter Station? That's... more than thirty Jovian outposts. Civilians too."

"Gravity sensors are off the charts!" Someone shouted.

"Gravity sensors are for reading incoming asteroids and stellar matter." Ashley blinked. "What the hell is coming our way?"

"With Jupiter gone and everything further out dark, we can't even get a look at it till it reaches Mars orbit." Anderson said. "Williams, I want you to go to the spaceport, use that fancy clearance of yours and get to the Normandy. I want her ready to fly starting thirty seconds ago."

Ashley went cold. That's a lie. He knows Joker will never let Normandy get dusty. She's been ready to fly since Shepard left her. Anderson wants Shepard free and moving. She thought. He thinks it's the Reapers.

"Redeploy the fleet!" Anderson roared. "Protect the Martian perimeter at any cost! Where the hell is Admiral Hackett?"

Williams was already running.

"What have we got EDI?"

"The fleet is redeploying." The ship's voice reported. "I don't know why, but it looks massive."

"Are you picking anything up on the standard Alliance frequencies?"

"I'm afraid not Jeff. In fact, I'm not even receiving telemetry from Jupiter Station any longer. All the Relay Monitors are offline."

He blinked. "See if you can reach the Luna Colony Monitors."

"I am attempting to do so, but I'm getting some heavy interference. It's hard to determine the cause."

Joker started counting on his fingers. "Blacked out communications, outer rim going dark, and everything watching the only way into the system is out of contact. What do you do next?"

"Standard military tactics would suggest you begin the Invasion."

Joker turned and hit the ship intercom. "All Hands: Battle-stations!"

"Too late. I am picking up weapons fire."

"How much?"

"Lots. And approaching our position rapidly." EDI was typically unflappable. "I would recommend evasive manoeuvres. I'm too pretty to die."

"Amen to that!" Joker agreed and worked the controls. A moment later the view ports flared with red ruby light.

Ashley pushed the controls harder, begging the shuttle to give her a little more speed. From where she was watching, it seemed like Humanity was in the middle of a fighting retreat, trying to get far enough ahead of their pursuers to regroup, and they were failing.

She was keyed to the Alliance frequency. Every few seconds the starscape in front of her would light up as another immense cruiser came apart.

"This is Hackett, I'm taking command of the fleet with the Command Ship destroyed. All wings, attack!"

"We lost the George Washington!"

"Three more coming in from the three o'clock!"

"Good Hits! Good Hits!"

"We didn't even put a mark on the surface!"

"God, we have to hit these things eight times before they even notice us!"

"Then be eight times as accurate! Fighter wings, provide cover!"

"Provide cover? From what! AGH!"

"We lost the Titan."

"And the Excalibur!"

"Regroup to the-"

"We lost the Dreadnought! Echo Seven!"

"I'm on i-"

"He's gone! Picking up five more marks!"

"God, how are they doing this? Where are they coming from? WHAT ARE THEY?"

And then the shuttle began to make it to the battle proper. Her craft was buffeted by nearby explosions from the human side. One after the other, after another. Normandy had been parked on the Terminus between Luna and Earth. How had the battle got here so quickly?

Red lightning forked across space, shredding hulls and engines and people. Ashley gunned the engines, trying not to see the bodies drifting, space thick with destruction. Ashley started praying hard, not realizing that she had ever stopped. She keyed her radio. "Normandy, this is Williams, do you read?"

Joker's voice came back quickly. "Chief? That you?"

Ashley squeezed her eyes shut, never so happy to hear his voice. "Joker, track my signal, and do it fast before they do! Hurry! I gotta get to you!"

"On the way!" Joker responded. "Closing fast. Can you make it here?"

"I'm trying!" Ashley roared back. "They're going through our most powerful ships like a hot knife through butter. It's a slaughter!"

"No kidding!" Joker shouted back.

Her radio crackled again, the chorus of combat filling her ear. "They broken through! They've broken through!"

"Set course to pursue! AGH!"

"They've landed! They've landed!"

Ashley felt a cold spike go through her. The Reapers weren't even stopping to finish the fight before making their way to Earth.

"We lost Tertiary Command! Who's in charge? Who's in Charge?"

"Ashley, bank left now!" Joker's voice roared.

Williams spun the controls and saw a huge derelict float past, more bodies drifting…

The Normandy was in front of her, locked in a furious dance, trying to evade the instant death that the immense invaders were passing out in every direction.

"Lt Cmdr Williams, this is Anderson! I've got Shepard!" Her radio crackled.

Joker's voice called through in the same instant. "Ash, I've got the shuttle door open! Cut your engines when I tell you, we'll swallow you."

Williams shivered. The manoeuvre in question was banned by the Alliance because two thirds of pilots that tried it died.

If anyone can do it, it's Joker. She thought. "Say when!"

"Williams! Williams, can you hear me?" Anderson called again.

Ashley grit her teeth, unable to talk to both of them at once. Hang on Skipper!

"NOW!" Joker shouted.

Ashley cut her engines, leaving herself in the hands of Joker and God. A pairing she never would have imagined before. There was a proximity alarm blaring for a moment, and then walls around her view-port windows, and suddenly she was inside a shuttlebay, having drifted while Joker steered the open bay door around her. She'd drifted down a starship's throat and missed death by a few feet.

A nanosecond later she felt the shuttle hurl her forward into the view-port as the shuttle slammed into the speeding walls of the shuttlebay. Ashley rolled with the blow, expecting it, cracking hard against the viewport.

She saw stars for several minutes, seeing six of everything around her, unaware of Anderson still yelling in her ear…

Her next clear memory was Chakwas waving something smelly under her nose, and she came back to her aching body with a thump. "Wha-" She asked, dazed. "Whe…"

"Since I'm not sure which question you're asking, allow me to guess." The older woman said calmly, waving an omni-tool over her. "You're on the Normandy, you were only out a moment, you got knocked around when you… docked, and we're currently tracking Shepard's signal from Earth."

Memory caught up, and Ash pushed the doctor away, rolling to her feet. "I got this."

Chakwas swore under her breath, but didn't stop her. The universe was burning, allowances had to be made from Specters. Even bruised ones. Shepard was the same way.

Ashley walked it off, following Garrus to the bridge quickly. "Report!" She snapped.

Technically, she wasn't crew, but Joker answered her immediately. "We're heading for sub-orbital insertion. I doubt we'll be noticed until we get sub-sonic. Look around."

Ashley did so, and felt worse. The skies above the earth was full of meteors. Hundreds. Thousands. The Reapers were falling from the sky, hammering down like shooting stars, bringing fire with them as they fell.

"My god, they're everywhere!" Someone said behind her. "How many ships does the Citadel have on patrol? A few hundred? A few thousand? It took a full mobilization to shut down Sovereign. A thousand to one and we got a draw!"

Ashley shivered. "Find Shepard." She said simply. "That's the mission right now!"

"He and Anderson are on the way to the spaceport." EDI put in. "It looks like that's one of the places the Reapers have already reached."

"Where Shepard is, that's where we go." Joker said seriously.

Ashley looked through the view ports as they got to the city, watching the immense ships carving up the city like a roast. She felt kicked in the guts.

She slapped Garrus's shoulder, and the Turian turned to chase after her without a word.

A strange sense of Deja Vu came over Ash as they ran through the halls. It was Normandy. She had been on this ship before, but this was a new feeling. She was running through the halls of a ship that had already been destroyed. She had lost Shepard and her ship that day, and she had got them both back from the dead.

Assuming he's alive.

The Cargo Bay door lowered as they came running; and Ashley paled. The city was spread out before her, hundreds of feet below, giving her a panoramic view of the cityscape. The skyline... the smoke. She thought for a moment that some of the towers were shifting, falling sideways slowly. But no. They were not towers. They were alive. Reapers, like the Sovereign, were marching through the city, killing indiscriminately as they went.

The towers of the spaceport were shattered, the boarding ramps broken and bleeding flame. She could see the enemy crawling up the sides of the infrastructure.

Garrus saw it too and armed his sniper scope. "Husks."

Ashley shuddered and gripped her rifle tighter. She had seen the Husks before, on Eden Prime. She was one of the first humans to see the tall spires that skewered innocent people, robbing them of life and leaving them as these foul inhuman things.

They climbed up the walls, their blank white eyes turning on her.

Without even thinking, Ash raised her rifle, tearing them down, one after another. The infrastructure was crawling with them, covered in them. Garrus started firing too.

And then the Reaper ships roared, like a satanic orchestra had struck a low note, the terrible siren sound loud and deep enough to send a thrill of horror through her every cell, vibrating her stomach apart.

Ruby flame and energy shredded down, destroying all in its path.

Ashley shuddered, seeing it all too clearly. She was in the presence of something awful. An unwholesome, unclean thing, walking through the streets of Earth, spreading it's unnaturalness and destruction. It was anti-life unleashed. This can not possibly be real.

The husks howled, reaching for her across the divide for her. Dark things from a dark place in service of dark masters. Looking back and forth between the Reapers and the husks, Ashley felt their... evil wash over her. They were not hostile, they were evil. You could feel it in your bones the second you saw them. Her eyes didn't want to look on them, there was just a sense of... wrongness about them.

Ashley felt like she was standing in a shadow, cold and cut off.

"I've seen the Reapers. I've seen the heart of them." Shepard's voice came back to her.

Is this what Shepard felt before the Reaper embryo?

Ashley lifted her rifle, firing again, knocking the Husks down, one after another. They kept coming, and she kept firing, determined to wipe out these evil things.

And then from behind them, more gunfire sounded. The Husks were being attacked from behind, their mindless aggression working against them as they cast about looking for the source of their attack, pinned between two guns.

She saw him coming and let out a breath in gratitude. Shepard was charging up the stairwell, blasting the wretched things aside. Anderson was with him, but all she could see was The Commander. He was fast and mercurial. No wasted movements, no wasted aim. Time hadn't dulled his edge. The was worth a hundred enemies. A thousand.

Ashley could see the exact moment of realisation on his face. He looked up at his ship, and saw it flying Alliance Blue instead of Cerberus White.

A hungry grin across his face, he came up the stairs and didn't even blink before hurling himself across the gap, landing on the shuttle bay ramp. A leap of twelve feet at least, after getting a run-up on a steep staircase.

Ashley grasped his arm as he came down, Garrus taking a few more shots.

"Come on!" Shepard called to Anderson.

"I'm not going." Anderson called back. "Look around. There's still people here. They'll need leaders, but the fight is going to be out there."

"Earth first!" Ashley and Shepard shouted in unison.

"Earth is lost." Anderson said firmly. "Our mission now is to make sure humanity doesn't follow. I'll buy you as long as you can, but get back fast. We need allies. A lot of allies. That's your job now."

"Admiral, come with us, please!" Ashley shouted. "Look around, what can you do here?"

"I can buy you time." Anderson said. "So don't waste it."

He was offering to buy time with human lives, including most likely, his own.

Ashley glanced at Shepard out of the corner of her eye. The panic was coming back. Anderson was volunteering for a suicide mission. A feeling they were all familiar with, but they were also familiar with burying the volunteers.

Kaidan was his friend too. She reminded herself.

"The Council won't listen to me." Shepard said. "They're still bidding on who gets to pull the switch when I get the electric chair."

"Williams, go with him. Between two Spectres, and the wake-up call the galaxy just got... MAKE THEM HEAR US!"

There was a low moan coming behind them. A familiar tone. More Husks on the way.

Shepard grit his teeth. "I'm staying too."

"No your not."

"Ashley can handle it!" Shepard roared. "I'm staying!"

"You're going." Anderson said, cold and deadly. "Look at your crew. You're the one we need out there."

"Y'know, I don't have to take your orders any more." Shepard shot back.

Anderson smiled. The first real smile of the day. He pulled a familiar set of tags out of his pocket and threw them across to the ship. "Consider yourself reactivated."

Williams could feel it from a full two feet to his left. It felt like Anderson was a judge, and had passed sentence on Shepard. Charging him with a new mission. The Commander pulled the tags around his neck, and suddenly seemed a foot taller and a million years old. Just like that, the trial was over, and he was back on duty.

"Court is Adjourned." Ashley said under her breath.

"I'll be back." Shepard promised. "And I will bring friends. Enemies too. Anything that can fight."

"We'll buy you as long as we can." Anderson promised.

The door closed, and the ship started moving immediately. Shepard went to the console and keyed the microphone. "EDI."

"Online." The voice responded promptly.

"Tell Joker to rig the ship for Silent Running, and get us out of the engagement zone. Away from Earth Orbital." He sent Garrus a thick look. "This whole mission is for naught if we get vaped halfway out of atmo."

"That would be embarrassing." Garrus agreed, as the sounds of Normandy's machines started going quiet.

The three of them marched quickly for the bridge. Shepard was looking around curiously, noticing things had changed. The halls were full of people, working rapidly. All of them paused to salute as he walked by, returning to their tasks with typical military efficiency as he moved on. They were all wearing Alliance uniforms.

"We're on the clock now." Shepard told Garrus and Ashley. "Two clocks. We have to get enough forces on side before the Reapers obliterate all life in the galaxy, and before humanity is a memory."

"We are now at Silent Running." EDI reported dutifully.

The ship seemed amazingly still, like turning off most of the machines had turned her into a ghost town.

"Where's Miranda?" Shepard asked.

Joker bit his lip. "Anderson… did a deal. They don't come after any of the crew you had for the Collector mission, and in return, the Alliance gets the Normandy back. Anyone with a Cerberus uniform had to split."

Shepard sighed, adapting the situation in his mind quickly. Ashley felt for him. It seemed like every mission he had to start over.

"On the bright side..." Joker said lightly. "We got some great new toys. Wait'll you see the War Room."

Shepard nodded. "I think I need a debriefing. How long till we clear the hot zone?"

"At full Silent Running?" Joker checked his readouts. "There's a lot of... debris floating around. We could manoeuvre in and out of it easy, but at silent running... It'll take hours, at least."

Shepard shivered. Every hour made it that much more likely Humanity would be a dead race soon.

"Doctor T'Soni?"

Liara answered quickly. "Go ahead."

"I'm at the Phoenix Spaceport. The Dome has been breached."

"Are you all right?"

"I managed to get to a shelter, but once I got a suit, I didn't stay. If I had, the authorities would have realised I was here on a false passport. As it happens, that saved my life. The Reapers have hit all the pressurized zones. Including the shelters?"

Liara shut her eyes. "Any survivors?"

"None that I've found. I also checked the manifest. The Liner meant to bring Subject Zero has not landed."

"I'm not surprised. I would be stunned if it had survived. The Invaders did not focus on military craft. Are you reading anything still active in orbit?"

"I couldn't tell you if there was." The answer came. "There's a lot of interference... What about your position?"

"No activity yet." Liara responded. "We had better keep this brief, before someone tracks the signal."

"Yes Ma'am. What do I do now?"

"Get somewhere safe." Liara said, and disconnected. "Just hope Shepard gets here soon." She whispered under her breath.

There was a sudden boom in the air, and Liara ducked automatically. More sonic-booms followed, as something entered the atmosphere at many times the speed of sound, slowing down in the Martian atmosphere. Liara scanned the sky, and found the source. Even at that distance, with the white hot air building up around it, she could tell. It wasn't a Reaper.

It was a Blue Suns transport.

Liara drew her handgun reflexively, as a line of fire was drawn... heading toward her outpost. If the Blue Suns were coming in that fast, they were hoping to take her by surprise. She had no idea how the Blue Suns had found out...

A moment later, her jaw dropped as it became clear that this was not an ambush. The ship was totally out of control, in a free-fall. Liara was trying to figure out which way to run when the nose of the ship pitched downward pointedly, and the ship slammed several hundred feet short of her. The ground shook with the force of the impact. What was left of the ship was barely recognizable as the dust settled, and Liara stared at it in shock.

Liara ran forward, the crash close enough that the Rover wasn't needed, and she armed her weapon carefully, senses on full alert as she crept closer to the wreck. The crash was somewhat controlled, having skidded the last part of the... 'landing'. She went looking for the emergency hatch, and found it, every bit as twisted and mangled as the rest of the wreck.

A moment later, there was the sound of something banging on the inside of the hull, and Liara jumped aside as the hatch burst off it's hinges, flying forward in a flash of blue fire.

A familiar lean figure in a pressure suit that didn't fit climbed out, and Liara couldn't help the smile. "You survived."

"It's what I do." Jack growled. "If you want to keep your little outpost a secret, quit making phone calls while the rest of the planet burns." Still snarling, she stalked into the Base without looking back at the Asari. "I need a shower."

"Welcome to Mars, Meska'Jah." Liara said after her, somewhat amused.

Shepard came into his room and let out a breath like he'd been holding it for a two months. In a way, he had been. His room hadn't appreciably changed at least.

Except for the fact that on his couch was a familiar set of curves. Ashley was waiting for him, dressed comfortably, but with her face and hair done like she was getting ready for a night's prowl in a nightclub somewhere.

She was curled up with a book, her feet curled under her. She smiled up at him as he walked in. "Hi." She drawled.

Shepard gestured at the door. "I know I didn't get the wrong room."

"I was trying to find a book to read, and what's left of my library on the Normandy 1 is here." She demurred. "Besides, I don't have a bunk. I'm not technically crew." She smiled brilliantly. "Just like old times, huh?"

Shepard tilted the book in her hand to see the title. "Dante's Inferno?" He blurted. "You felt the day wasn't heavy enough?"

Ashley read a passage aloud. "The better to prepare you for strange truth, let me explain those shapes you see ahead: they are not towers but giants. They stand in the well from the naval down; and stationed round its bank they mount guard on the final pit of Hell."

"Whatever brought that to mind?" Shepard remarked drolly, and sat down beside her. She shut the book and laid her head on his shoulder, bringing his arm up to go around her shoulders. His fingers began stroking her hair automatically, and she sighed happily. It was such an easy familiar position for them, like the three years in between had barely happened. "I missed this." She said softly, relaxing into him happily. "During the trial, I wanted to just… have this back every night. It was hard, waiting till we could actually be alone instead of pretending we were."

Shepard didn't answer her.

"What are you thinking?" Ashley asked him quietly. "You've been barely holding it together since we left earth."

"Haven't we all?"

"Yeah, but you aren't like the rest of the crew. You get more worked up about small tragedies than big planet killing ones." She said warmly. "It's why you can care so much about a total stranger. Stuff like what happened today make us fall apart, it just makes you calmer and smarter." She climbed down from the couch, and came around to kneel in front of him, putting them eye to eye. "So what happened?"

Long silence.

"There was a kid." Shepard croaked. "In the building… in the duct-work. There was a kid, couldn't be more than six. He was a SlumRat. I knew the type. I am the type. We made our living by scavenging or stealing. We were small enough to get through the air-vents, and they were narrow enough to hide from gangs and lawmen. The kid was there to find food or something he could sell. They grabbed everyone they could and put them on evacuation ships… The ship that kid was on never made it forty feet off the ground. He was… me. Twenty years ago, twenty five, I would have been in there with him. Human Vermin that nobody likes to talk about."

Ashley had nothing to say. She just leaned in closer, brought her other arm up to hug him tightly.

"Ash, how the hell did I ever get from there to here?" He croaked into her hair.

"John, there are SlumRats, and there are boys that happen to be born into Slums." She told him. "You are… exceptional. Someone like you is not meant to be a nobody from nowhere for long. You rose to the top John. You were made for better things."

"Is it enough?"

"It is for me. But… You remember all those prospecting missions we kept getting given when we were in the Terminus systems?"

Shepard choked out a laugh. "Hell. Sixteen hours driving the MAKO around empty worlds looking for probes and mineral deposits. Most tedious part of the life."

"Did you never wonder why I always came with you?" She asked him. "It wasn't because I enjoyed the damn tin can. It was you. Because when we were both there… it didn't seem so bad. You got the biggest heart I know John, but you can't carry the whole galaxy alone. Don't lay all that on your shoulders. Not unless you're willing to lay it on mine too."

Shepard was silent for a million years, before his arms came up and wrapped around her waist. She stepped forward, straddling his knees, sitting in his lap as they held each other, like they used to do a lifetime ago.

Shepard pulled back enough to look up at her. "You and me Ash. We'll hold the galaxy together yet."

"Damn straight we will." She agreed, and kissed him. It was their first serious kiss since his 'death'. It was familiar and comforting and warm and just perfect…

Too perfect. Shepard pulled away. "Ash." He stopped her. "Before we do this… there's something you have to know."

Ashley's face changed and she got up quickly, stepping away from him pointedly. "There's someone else." She said. It was not a question.

"There was." Shepard confirmed. "It's over now, but I needed to be honest with you. It was after Horizon, it lasted all of two weeks, but-"

"Tali?"

"What?" Shepard was stunned. "No, not Tali, why would you think Tali?"

"John, she was nuts about you three years ago, she still is now. I know you think of her as a kid sister but if I can tell she's not a kid anymore, you can too."

"It wasn't her." Shepard got back to the point. "She's not on the ship any more. She's not coming back. But I wanted you to know…"

The mood was dead, but not broken. Ashley nodded softly. She knew that the Normandy had lost people on the Collector Mission, and was still kicking herself that she hadn't come along. She knew better than to press for details. "Okay."

Shepard nodded, glad to have that out of the way. He held out a hand to her, and she took it, sitting in next to him on the couch. She kissed him again, as they reclined on the couch, resting her head over his heartbeat. He leaned into her in response. It was intimate and comfortable and warm.

"Shepard?" EDI's voice chimed. "We have passed through the Reaper's outer perimeter. We can safely leave silent running."

"So. Where are we going?" Ashley asked softly, tilting her head to look up at him.

He met her gaze. His answer to EDI was simple and frightening. "Mars."

"Understood."

There was a beat of silence after that, and Shepard and Ashley could hear the ship coming alive, powering up for flight. At full burn, Mars would take less than an hour.

"Mars is the site of the battle." Ashley told him. "Martian perimeter was where the counter-attack was prepped. We looking for survivors? Get some reinforcements?"

"Ash, the battle is over. The Reapers have reached earth, and that means that there's nobody left alive for them to kill at Mars any more. No survivors to help us."

"Then why are we going?"

"To ask help from the dead."

AN: You should know that the fic is tagged as a Jack/MaleShep, but the triangle in the coming chapters is… not fixed. I could yet end it with an Ashley Romance, but it will be marked as a Jack/Shep fic, because it's Jack's story, but this world is not one of happy fluffy endings. The ending has not been decided yet, and I'd like to hear what you all think. You've seen my version of Shepard and Jack, and now my version of Shepard and Ashley. You tell me: What works better?