Correction: If you started reading this story before March 15, 2011, please go back and read Chapter 3. It was left out of the original upload. Thanks! - Nik


Shepard leaned against the wall of the ruins, gasping for breath. Her gun felt like it weighed a ton, and she could feel the sweat trickling down inside her suit. She signalled Kaidan and Garrus to halt, and they collapsed on the floor of the ruins to catch their breath.

"Why couldn't Dr T'soni be on a nice tropical planet?" Garrus panted, pulling off his helmet. "I can't wait to get off this shitheap."

"Amen to that," Shepard declared. "God, I hate Therum. I hate the lakes of boiling lava, I hate the reek of sulphur and I hate the stupid prothean ruins."

"Well, you can certainly see why the protheans left," Kaidan said, with a wry smile. "This place stinks worse than a vorcha's armpit."

They fell silent then. Nobody mentioned the very worst thing about Therum, although they were all thinking it. The worst thing about Therum was the geth. There were hordes of them, more than Shepard had ever seen before. Everywhere she went there were geth, forcing her to fight for her life over and over again. A week ago she had never even seen a geth, and now she hated them more than any other foe. If looks could kill, every single one she saw should have spontaneously combusted. But they didn't combust; they kept coming and she had to keep fighting.

"Rest time is over boys," she said, trying to sound cheery. "Time to get moving."

Kaidan jumped to his feet and extended his gloved hand to her. She let him help her up, but couldn't resist having a dig at him.

"Alenko, we're not living in 2020, you know. I can get up on my own."

"Sorry Ma'am, you just looked tired. I guess I'm old fashioned." He looked a little sheepish, but unrepentant.

"So can I expect you to open the Mako door for me, too?"

"That depends." He chuckled. "When we're under heavy fire I'd rather not stand there holding the door open while I get peppered full of holes."

"Bah, whatever happened to chivalry?"

She set off down the stairs, and wearily the three resumed their search through the ruins. Through the haze of exhaustion it started to feel like a dream to Shepard. Here's an elevator, does it work? Yes, going down. Doors open, more geth. Shoot the nearest ones and let Garrus flank and snipe the others.

She ducked out from behind cover and quickly took out two geth that were getting uncomfortably close. She retreated and heard bullets rushing through the air where her head had been. Sweat trickled down her face and she blinked hard to clear her eyes. Two more left.

She heard the distinctive crack of Garrus' rifle – just one geth left now – and after that there was silence. She snuck a look and saw the final geth floating helplessly.

She looked over at Kaidan and saw him sheathed in a blue shimmer, eyes ablaze with blue fire. He raised his arm in a fluid, almost casual motion and the levitated geth slammed into the far wall as though it had been hit by a rocket. It slumped and lay still.

Kaidan's blue shimmer faded and he languidly stretched his arms, as though he had done nothing more strenuous than hail a taxi.

Damn you Kaidan, Shepard thought. Why do you have to make it look so easy?

Of course, Dr T'soni would have to be trapped in stasis. Nothing was ever simple. Shepard wanted to groan aloud, but she put on a brave face.

"Don't worry boys, I'll find a way to free her," she said.

"I know you will, Shepard," Garrus said, trying to hide the weariness in his voice. Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck and tried to give an encouraging smile.

She began to explore the area, wondering how the hell she was going to disable the force field, and then she spotted the mining lazer.

"Back up," she said, and flipped the switch. There was a blaze of light, a loud explosion and rubble rained down around them. Shepard peered through the haze and saw that her hunch had been right – they had blown a hole through the rock.

It wasn't until they had taken the internal elevator up and freed Liara that Shepard finally started to relax – only to feel the ground start shaking beneath her feet. There was a sickening roar from the bowels of Therum, and she had to shout to make herself heard over the din.

"We have to find a way out!" she yelled, trying desperately to keep her footing.

"The laser must have triggered a seismic event!" Liara said. "We'll have to risk the elevator."

The ascent of the elevator seemed to take an eternity, and they could barely see through the cloud of dust. The elevator's ascent was so painfully slow that Shepard wanted to scream, but she contented herself with gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. She was dimly aware of the angry crackle of her biotic energy licking along her arms, but she ignored it.

The elevator shuddered to a halt, and she was met with the sight of a heavily armed krogan backed by a squad of geth.

"In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart!" Shepard yelled. "If we stay here we're all dead!"

"Doesn't bother me," he growled, and reached for his gun.

Shepard ducked behind cover, shaking with rage. After all her squad had been through, a suicidal krogan wanted to kill them all. In those split seconds she thought of Kaidan, who always had her back, risking his safety to protect her. And stoic Garrus, her friend, who would follow her to the ends of the galaxy if she asked him. This crumbling ruin would be their tomb.

Hell no. They would not die. She would kill the sonofabitch and his geth; smash them against the walls, tear them to shreds. She saw a blue film spreading over her eyes and felt the thrumming power fill her body, beginning to spill out of her. She started to stand up. Die, scum.

Suddenly she was jerked back behind cover by Kaidan, and the blue film dissipated.

"No," he hissed, "you're not focused!"

Christ, what had she been thinking? Struggling to quash her biotics, she snuck a look around the rail and aimed at the charging krogan's ugly head. The bullet took him between the eyes and he dropped like a stone.

Regenerate that, asshole.