A/N: I just wanted to say thanks for all the support this story has been getting the past few days! The website is finally posting reviews again (I can finally read them!) and it means a lot that you guys are enjoying this as much as I am. Hope you continue to, and I hope you like the chapter!


"Stay on the ship."

He could see the irritation buried in her eyes, but Shepard refused to back down. They were docking on Purgatory, a Blue Suns prison, at the Illusive Man's suggestion, to purchase Jack, a powerful human biotic. The funds had cleared, but Jack was yet to be released, and docking to pick her up was necessary. Shepard didn't like it whatsoever, and if he didn't, neither would Ashley. He and Garrus had barely made it up to the airlock before she appeared, fully armed.

"You're not going in with only Garrus backing you up," she said. "And I'm not sitting here when you're walking into a ship full of mercenaries that are ready to kill you."

"Lawson's coming, too," Shepard said. "She has the necessary clearance to deal with the transaction if need be, and she knows what she's doing." Ashley bristled at that. "And besides, Chakwas has you on ship duty because of that ankle. Stay here."

"I'm fine," she retorted. "You're going over there to finalize Cerberus' recruitment of a criminal, Shepard. A criminal with freakishly powerful biotics. You need me."

"If we're putting this to a vote, I'm with her," Garrus chimed in.

Shepard ran a hand down his face, only moving when he heard the sound of Miranda's footfalls, stopping alongside Ashley. He removed his hand to see Williams giving Lawson a dark look, but still waiting for the go, no go. After a minute of debate with himself, running down as many outcomes as possible, he sighed. "All right, let's go. But if this thing goes south, stay behind me."

Ash rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Try not to strain yourself, Commander."

He elected to ignore that comment, waving the three of them after him as he exited the Normandy. The walk through the docking tube was brief, landing them at an elevator leading to the upper levels of the ship. Shepard gave an annoyed sigh, but hit the button, and the four of them piled in. Miranda was on his right, Garrus behind him, and Ash in between. Theoretically speaking, she actually had the best spot, affording her enough space to snap either of their companions' necks should the need arise.

Shepard could imagine her doing it right now without batting an eyelash.


"Are you fucking serious?"

"Those shields look pretty damn serious to me, Commander," Ashley quipped over the comm.

He groaned. "One more smart comment, and I'll shoot you myself." He heard her laugh, just barely, over the gunfire crackling overhead. A bullet hit the metal railing just behind his head and he winced, leaning forward to rub the sore spot. "Where the hell did you get off to?" Garrus was across the room from him, making his way up to a viewing platform that led straight to the warden, a turian named Kuril. Son of a bitch intended to sell them off for his own personal gain, just like he was doing with Jack. And Miranda was a few feet away, taking shots at the nearest generator for Kuril's shield bubble.

He cursed at the creaking above him, rolled out of his cover as a steel support beam fell to the floor. In a fit of irritation, Shepard released Jack on the ship, which was now being destroyed from the inside out thanks to her biotic abilities.

"Generator," she said after a moment. "To your right."

Deciding to push his luck, Shepard lifted his head just a bit, looking in the indicated direction. The energy beams firing up toward Kuril were leading back to three generators, scattered around the room. One was a couple feet away, the other to his left in the direction Garrus was headed, and another was to his right, in the direction Ashley claimed to be going.

The sound of a shotgun being fired reached his ears. It was close, probably aimed at Lawson. Her pistol went off not long afterwards, quickly followed by another burst of shot. He readied a charge in his fist, watching in the mild fascination that never went away, and popped up from cover, throwing the purple energy towards the merc with a shotgun. It toppled him over easily, clearing up his line of sight. While Miranda dealt with the unarmed merc, he aimed his shotgun for the generator's weak point. It only took a few shots for the thing to crash in on itself, falling back to the ground with an electric pop.

"Go help Garrus!" he ordered, pointing up to the deck he was fighting his way through. Miranda nodded without a second of hesitation while he backtracked, headed for the path Ashley was following. He had to squeeze between a couple storage containers before he could reach her. When he was through, he looked up to see a heavy mech lining up a shot with its missile launcher. It didn't take much thought to figure out who it was aiming at.

Fistfighting a turian, back to the mech. Fucking hell. "Ash!"

As soon as the turian went down, the mech fired its launcher. It clipped her shoulder as she went to turn, sent her flying into the far wall. She didn't get up.

Infuriated, Shepard wasn't exactly sure what happened after that. He felt himself draining the energy of his barrier, heard his in-suit alarm going off, but he didn't care. Taking a running start, Shepard leapt and slammed his fist into the floor right beside the heavy mech. His biotics sent out a wave of flashing energy, toppling the machine and breaking Kuril's generator, and launching any mercs unlucky enough to be within the blast radius.

He pulled his shotgun back out, storming over to the struggling mech, and let out a shot into its head. It exploded, and the rest of its body went limp. Satisfied, Shepard holstered the weapon and went to check on Ashley, but as soon as he got anywhere near her, he heard the familiar sound of shields falling. Sure enough, when he looked, Kuril's protective barrier was gone, and he was focusing his fire on Garrus and Miranda.

"Ash?" Shepard crouched beside her, rolling her onto her back, and let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding when she reached up to deal with her helmet. The visor went from black to clear, and her mouthpiece slid back into the pockets, revealing a very pained, but very alive, Williams.

She groaned, pushing herself up onto her elbows. "What happened?"

"The mech got you with a rocket," he said.

"Again?"

"Yeah, you should probably stop that," Shepard suggested, smirking.

"Commander, you—"

A shot rang out, and not a second later, he felt something rip through his shoulder plating just as his barrier regenerated. Too stunned to do anything, he sort of stared at the hole in his arm. Another shot, this time to the chest. It didn't go all the way through thanks to that damn barrier, but it still got past it.

And damn, did it hurt.

Ashley was on her feet the next instant, taking his handgun and firing it in Kuril's direction as she got her free hand around the collar of his armor. He felt something hot and sticky pouring down his chest, but it just made him colder. Behind him, up, wherever, he could hear Ashley firing her assault rifle again, focusing on dragging him out of the line of fire.

Shepard forced his head up despite the pain coursing through his body. Kuril was crouched behind a metal railing similar to the one he'd hidden behind earlier, but it seemed to be sturdier, withstanding all the bullets Garrus and Miranda shot at it. He figured Ash would've hit him by now, but she was far more focused on keeping Kuril from firing at either of them again, and getting him to safety.

"Shit!" She popped her clip, went to reload.

Kuril sighted at them. One shot, right to Ashley's chest. She went down. Another to Shepard, right in the gut, followed by one to the leg.

He let his head fall back, looking for her. She was fine, obviously; she was moving again in a matter of seconds, now completely focused on dropping the son of a bitch shooting at them. If he had the energy, Shepard would've watched before she got out of sight, backing away to the side, unloading. Lucky her; her shields didn't die on her like his barrier did on him.

Once there was a break in the gunfire, he heard running feet. Armor scraping as someone slid across the floor to his side. Oh God... He was seeing red, literally. There was a coppery taste in his mouth.

"Shepard?" He blinked, focused his vision on the pair of brown eyes staring down at him. "Shepard?" His eyes drifted shut. "No, no, no, no! Keep your eyes open! Come on, stay with me!" Breathing hurt.

Somewhere in his ear, another voice was saying, "Normandy, this is ground team. Commander Shepard is gravely wounded. I repeat, Shepard is severely wounded. Have Doctor Chakwas on standby."

"God dammit!" The visor for his helmet was hit and it closed over his face, but he didn't remember it ever being opened. "I can't do anything here. We have to get back to the ship."

"Then let's go!"

His arms were moved. Someone grabbed his leg, picked him up and carried him like a ragdoll. Faintly, just faintly, he remembered carrying a friend like this out of a life-or-death situation, but his brain was too foggy to remember any details. All he could get out of it was more pain, centered in his chest. Not...physical pain, not really. Something else. It hurt more than his wounds.

The last thing he saw was black and white armor.