Note: Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy this early morning chapter. Sorry for the delay, but it took me awhile to get my wording right. Hope you all have a great rest of you day, and as always, feel free to ask questions or leave some comments.

Shepard was checking and rechecking his Spectre issued assault rifle. It was a nervous habit of his he'd developed back on Elysium. Anytime there was a lull in the firefight, he would pull out his weapons and go through every check he'd learnt back in basic. It was something to keep his mind off the impossible situation he was in and it stuck. Now, he did it to focus his thoughts on his mission and distract him from his own emotions. The words Admiral Hackett had spoken still rang in his head.

"We've found a connection between the scientists, and you. They all worked on a classified project several years ago, on Akuze."

It infuriated him knowing that the hell he had gone through might have been orchestrated by Alliance scientists. He wanted to kill them. He wanted to beat this "Dr. Wayne" bloody when he found him. Scream at him, demand vengeance for his unit, his friends who had died. Most of all, he wanted answers and this doctor was going to give them to him, whether he wanted to or not.

Tali glanced around the Mako; Kaidan and Ashley were quietly whispering together, Garrus was taking his place in the driver's seat, Wrex was being his usual stoic self and Liara hadn't said a word to anyone. I can't imagine what she's going through, even if her mother was being controlled, no one should have to go through that. She was worried about Liara, but even more so about Shepard. He had barely said a word to anyone since they had landed on Ontarom.

She observed him carefully, he was checking his rifle for the 7th time. He was being methodical, as if he was acting out of pure muscle memory more than anything. She saw the same glint in his eye that he'd had when the Admiral had mentioned Akuze. He always looked ready to kill on missions, but this was different. She knew Shepard didn't like killing; he always preferred the peaceful solution if there was one, but this time, he was giving off the impression he wanted to kill someone. Badly.

Tali wasn't stupid, she knew something awful had happened to her Commander on Akuze, but she could never get anyone to tell her about the incident. It frustrated her to no end. She wanted to ask Shepard himself, but every time she came close her courage faltered. It pained her to the see the man she was coming to care about in such distress.

"Shepard, we're 5 minutes out," Garrus warned.

Shepard immediately stood up, "Alright Garrus, ease up. I want to go over the plan." He threw the holo-projection of the facility in the middle of the Mako. Shepard never had to ask for their attention, he just had a way of imposing silence on the crew when he talked. "Okay people, our scans show that at least 3 shuttles of unidentified hostiles landed 15 minutes ago. They are heavily armed and 3 shuttles can carry a lot of troops. That's why I brought all of you. They don't know we're here yet, but they will. We're going to hit them hard and fast." Wrex grunted in approval. "Kaidan, you'll be taking over the Mako and softening up the group outside as Ash, Tali, Liara, Wrex and I advance from the south. Garrus, you'll be on overwatch up here," he pointed at the mountain to the east, "until we get to the entrance, then Kaidan will pick you up and from there your job is to guard the shuttles. No one escapes, if they're unarmed or surrendering detain and hold until I get back. Understood?"

Wrex grunted.

Ashley answered, "Aye Skipper, I won't let you down."

Garrus chimed in, "You got it boss."

"Good. Garrus go on ahead and get set up. Ground team on me."

They disembarked the Mako and set up on the small hill just south of the facility. Now we wait, he thought impatiently.

"You okay, Skipper?" Ashley whispered.

"I'm fine Ash."

"I know this must be hard-"

"Now's not the time, Chief," he replied stonily.

Registering the use of her rank, Ashley knew the conversation was over. Tali, who had been watching the exchange curiously, decided to use a different route. She gently grabbed his wrist and turned him towards her, looking right into his eyes.

"Just don't do anything you might regret," she pleaded softly. "Don't forget who you are."

Her pale eyes had an unexplainable soothing effect on him. He was grateful that someone wasn't asking him how he was for once. He knew his crew cared about his well being, but Tali was the only person he considered telling about his past. He found her words resonating deep within him, as, wordlessly, he nodded to her thankfully. She gave his wrist a quick squeeze and returned to her post.

Garrus' voice crackled in his helmet's receiver, "In position, Commander. I'm seeing at least 15 mercs between you and the facility"

"Thanks, Garrus. Ground team is holding on your signal, Kaidan."

As soon as the first explosion was heard, the team rushed from the hill with Shepard leading them. He could see 4 mercs laying in a bloody heap with a crater near them. Nice work. He sprinted forward towards the crates in front of him, while firing his rifle at the disoriented mercs. He heard a sharp crack and watched a merc crumple. Shepard quickly dispatched 2 more from behind his crate. He spied a krogan rushing Liara's cover and fired 4 bursts into him, before he was tackled to the ground, and promptly pulverized by Wrex and his shotgun. Another shot from the Mako destroyed the barrier the last mercs had sought refuge behind. The squad directed all fire towards the opening, and it wasn't long until most the mercs lay dead or dying before them.

"I counted 12, what happened to the other 3 Garrus?"

"They retreated into the facility before I could get a clear shot."

"Understood, everyone on me," he ordered hastily. "We've got to move on them before they can entrench themselves inside. It's going to be messy and close quarters, so shotguns out if you've got one. If not, stay close to somebody who does."

They took up breaching positions by the entrance with Shepard spearheading with Tali right behind him, hacking the door's locking mechanism, while Ashley, Wrex and Liara were on the opposite side of the door. Tali signaled it was unlocked and Shepard put his hand up to count down.

3…2…1… "Now, Ash!", he yelled, opening the door. Ashley tossed a handful of grenades into the room and put her head down. As soon as he heard the explosion and smoke exude from the entrance, Shepard dashed into the smoke-filled room and stepped over several bodies while dispatching 3 coughing mercs he saw to his left. The rest of the team flooded in from behind to support him, as the mercs fired wildly towards the doorway.

"Singularity is up!" Liara called. 4 mercs lazily drifted into the air.

Wrex turned from the storage locker he was behind and fired 4 slugs from his shotgun. "Got 'em."

Tali was working quickly with her omni tool, "Sabotaging weapons in: 3…2…1… Done."

"Not bad… for a quarian," Ashley teased. Taking advantage of the lull of incoming fire, she vaulted over her cover and pushed the mercs in front of her, neutralizing 2 more.

"Bosh'tet," Tali mumbled to herself. She heard Shepard snicker to her right. I was hoping no one would hear me.

He leaned out of cover and caught a retreating merc with a burst from his assault rifle. "You still haven't told me what that means."

"Nor will I. Quarians are very secretive about our language. Especially our insults," she replied jokingly.

She heard another appreciative chuckle before he shouldered his rifle and moved down the hallway, picking off any mercs that were exposed with lethal precision. A krogan merc saw an advantage and began rushing towards Shepard. Fuck.

"I got your back, Shepard," Tali assured, overloading the krogan's shields and moved in to support him.

He fired a concussive blast at the still charging krogan, staggering him and giving he and Tali the opportunity to concentrate their fire. With their combined firepower, even a krogan's organ redundancy wasn't enough to keep him standing. He nodded to Tali gratefully.

"Shepard, the last of them are holed up in the back, behind those barriers," Liara warned.

"Ashley, Tali and I will keep their heads down. Wrex get ready to charge them. Liara singularity on my mark," he ordered confidently.

"Haha! Finally!" Wrex shouted in anticipation.

Shepard was firing short, controlled bursts at the barriers in front of the mercs, waiting for the right moment. He saw a shield shatter and yelled, "Now!"

Liara's singularity field appeared and trapped 4 of the 6 remaining mercs, as Wrex charged the other 2 men. He broke one of their necks with a sharp motion and used him as a shield, while he blasted the man's comrade with his shotgun. The rest of the squad finished off the floating mercs easily.

"Room's clear, Shepard," Wrex commented, disappointed.

He nodded in acknowledgement, "Everyone stack up on me. We'll push through the rest of the facility."

They moved through the door at the back of the room in wedge formation. They moved through the corridor where it branched off in 2 directions. "Wrex, Liara you two clear the room on the left." Shepard's group continued to the door on the left.

A terrified scientist was standing in the middle of the room with a merc who had his pistol pointed in his face. He thought the merc looked vaguely familiar.

"Stay back! I've got no grief with you! All I want is this bastard!" the human merc shouted.

"Please! He's a madman!" Dr. Wayne begged, close to tears. "Mr. Toombs, you're insane! You need help!"

Toombs? Shepard's eyes widened as his brain pieced it together. That voice. I haven't heard it since it screamed at me for help, as a thresher pulled him under. Tali noticed Shepard lower his weapon, his face a blank stare of confusion.

"Shut up! You don't get to lie! You don't…", Toombs trailed off as he recognized the man who barged in. "Shepard? My god, Shepard, is that you?"

Tali observed the disbelief on her Commander's face. "Toombs? But you were on Akuze! I saw the thresher maw pull you under! I watched you die."

Tali turned to Ashley to see if she was following the conversation, and for the first time; Tali saw a flash of fear in the soldier's eyes. Suddenly, everything clicked in Tali's mind. That's why he froze on Edolus when the thresher maw attacked. It shook him to his very core. This man must not have been the only one he lost on Akuze. She wondered just how many men had died there to make a soldier like Shepard freeze on a mission. She recalled the carnage on Edolus and that had just been a squad of 6 marines. It made her shudder just thinking about it.

"They took me, Shepard. The scientists," Toombs cried out.

"You can't prove any of this! This man is delusional!"

"See, they were running test on the thresher maws. They let those things hit us just to watch and study. I woke up in a holding cell. The scientists were delighted I'd survived. Now they had someone to run tests on."

All the guilt he had put on himself over the years came flooding back in earnest. He left Toombs behind, after they'd all promised to never leave a man behind. He had to explain himself, he had to make Toombs see.

"Toombs, I- I didn't see anybody. If I'd seen you, I'd have come back for you. I swear," he begged, his desperation evident in his words. "Please."

Tali's heart broke for him, hearing the raw emotion in his voice. His plea told her all she needed to know. Shepard blamed himself for what happened on Akuze. She got the forceful urge to hold him in her arms.

"You can't believe Toombs, he doesn't have any proof! I demand a fair trial!", Wayne screamed.

"He was there, Shepard, he knows the truth!"

The words filled Shepard with a cold rage. Tali saw his eyes flash dangerously and knew not to interfere. Shepard now had one purpose and she silently prayed to the Ancestors that he wouldn't kill the man. He stepped like the Grim Reaper himself would have, his eyes fixated on the scientist. He seemed not even to hear Toombs' protests.

"Shepard!" Ashley yelled and tried to grab his arm, but Tali stopped her and shook her head.

"He won't kill him," she said with confidence, even though she wasn't so sure. She understood that this was something he had to do.

The door behind them opened. Liara and Wrex walked in with their weapons drawn, as Shepard hoisted Dr. Wayne by his collar and threw him against the storage lockers violently. He held him a foot above the ground.

"Goddess! Shepard- ", Liara began.

Wrex, who had plenty of experience with blood rages, caught on quickly. Put his hand on her shoulder and said, "No. This is something nobody should interfere with." He himself was shocked. He didn't know the fleshy human had it in him.

"You mean to tell me all 48 of my friends who wear torn apart on Akuze, died because of a fucking experiment?" he asked coldly, his voice razor sharp and deadly. "Because you wanted to observe a thresher feeding frenzy? I hope to God for your sake that isn't true."

Tali had never heard him sound so menacing before. The frost of his tone sent shivers down her spine.

"No I had noth-", the doctor cried out.

Shepard slammed him against the storage units. "I didn't come all this way to hear you grovel," he spat with intense disgust. "I came here for the truth, and you should know I'm not leaving without it. One way or another," the threatening undertones clear to everyone.

"It was Cerberus! I work for Cerberus!" he began to weep uncontrollably, fearing he had just sealed his fate. "Please, the Illusive man can be very persuasive!"

"So that's what all their lives were to you? A project? Test subjects? That's what their lives were worth? What about their families? What about the widows? What about the children who'll grow up without one of their parents? All the lives you've affected for some fucking research project? I remember every goddamn one of their names: Realez, Freeman, Willets, Patil, Martinez, Clark, Matthewson, Deirdre, Di Lorenzo, Valentine, Watson, Richardson, Ossenburg, Brown, Thompson, Lopez, King, Campbell, Phillips, Parker, Evans, O'Connor, Hoolihan, Smith, Wong, Carter, Johnson, Kikoba, Wasserman, Schneider, Martz, Moore, Reed, Hughes, Flores, Haverson, Hayes, Graham, Cole, Owens, Murray, Chan, Tucker, Knight, Vasquez, Wheeler, Sato, and Hale", he recited, perfectly, from memory. It was clear to all he would never let himself forget a single one of his comrades.

Unbidden, Tali felt tears in her eyes. She was watching the anguish mar the face of the man she harbored such strong feelings for, and it tore at her that she could do nothing for him in that moment. She tasted a slight saltiness, as the warm, silent tears cascaded down her cheeks and into her mouth. He had committed them all to memory. It touched her to know the depth of Shepard's feelings for the fallen. She peeked at the others. Ashley was standing a silent vigil, armored to the teeth, but Tali could see tears flowing from her own eyes. For Liara, understanding had taken over her initial confusion, and she too, could not help but shed tears. Toombs just amazed, mingled with hostility. Even Wrex looked somewhat uncomfortable.

"All dead. Every single soldier," his voice was shaking with suppressed rage. "Because of you, and fucking Cerberus." Shepard tossed him unceremoniously onto the floor near Toombs, who readied his pistol. Shepard slowly and deliberately strode towards the cowering scientist, his hand moving towards his holster. "I can't reach Cerberus, yet, but you're just an arm's length away. I think I'll settle, for now," he growled threateningly.

Please, don't do it, Shepard, Tali begged internally. He withdrew his hands from his side, revealing a pair of omni cuffs. He passed them to Ashley, who almost dropped them out of surprise. Keelah! Thank the Ancestors. He stepped over the whimpering refuse and faced Toombs, who was now sputtering indignantly.

"I should have known you wouldn't have the stomach! Get out of my way!" he screamed, raising his pistol, level with Shepard's forehead. "I demand justice! He has to die!"

The entire team visibly tensed. Ashley, having secured the doctor, joined Tali and Liara in pointing their weapons at Toombs.

"You're better than this, Toombs. You're not like them and neither am I."

"Don't tell me who I am! You got away with a few scratches and a scary reputation! The rest of the unit died, and I was tortured for years, Shepard. You can't judge me. You don't have the right."

Shepard grabbed the tip of the pistol and pulled it right up against his visor. "If you want to bury your past, you can start with me! Go on, shoot me. You'll be no better than him. Running from your past won't work, trust me I've tried. The screams won't just leave with a bullet."

Toombs' resolve wavered, he lowered the gun an inch. Shepard softened his tone and continued, "Let me help you, please. I couldn't help you on Akuze, but I can now. You don't have to do this and you don't have to be alone."

The pistol clattered to the floor. Toombs fell to his knees and wept. "I'm not a murderer," he repeated, until his voice was hoarse.

"I know," Shepard muttered softly, his own voice uneven.

Tali moved forward and put a hand on his shoulder, and his own immediately grabbed at it, latching itself on to anything that could keep him from losing control.

"Come on, Shepard," she cooed gently. "Let's go home."

PS: I'm going to be really busy this week ,so I'll write when I can, but don't worry if there's a bit of a delay between this chapter and the next.