"By day the skyscraper looms in the smoke and sun and has a soul…"

-"Skyscraper" by Carl Sandburg

In hindsight, it was probably a good idea that Shepard had driven the Mako into the building as it turned out that they did need the extra firepower. Passing through the automated checkpoints without much hassle, the tank had soldiered on until it came face to face with a series of doors leading into the building itself, guarded by soldiers wearing the familiar black armor.

Since the doors appeared locked and also that the guards manning the posts in the garage did not look to be so friendly, it did not require much consideration to arm the main cannon of the Mako and fire a round scant meters away from the surface, the concussion of the blast rocking the tank on all six wheels.

Those who were not immediately blown apart by the initial blast were either shredded by the mounted machine gun or run over by the enormous wheels as the Mako surged forward, knocking aside the shattered doors as if they were made from tin foil. The hallway that followed was large enough to accommodate the vehicle so, still being sloppily driven, Shepard maneuvered his way deeper into the heart of darkness.

A flashing light and alarm started up not before the first explosion had finished its resonation. There would obviously be more troops arming up and gearing for a fight now that their presence had been announced so dramatically. Currently, there was no one about in a lobby of sorts, the gigantic Mako squealing its tires as it skidded across the polished stone floor, creating ugly tire marks on the ground. A row of elevators sat to the side and based on their position relative to the building, one set led up into Reunion Tower itself. Shepard had no intel on which to base his theory on, but the less-than-subtle symbolism of the nuke being located within that highly positioned sphere seemed oddly appropriate. Never mind the fact that the previous bomb had been positioned in a meaningless place, this one had been announced in advance which meant that more planning had gone into the logistical qualities of its position. Might as well search the tower with that current line of thinking, anyway.

Before they could plan their immediate next move, however, armored men surged out of all hallways as they converged on the tank, weapons drawn. Some did not even wait to get into position, clenching their fingers on their triggers and letting the bright beams of light blast out and fizzle against the tank's shields. The turret swept across and returned fire in kind but this kind of assault was withering its defenses down alarmingly fast. It couldn't stay here if it was to remain in one piece.

A hatch on the safe side of the Mako was suddenly kicked open and, very quickly, Shepard and Tali tossed a pair of grenades into the fray, causing panic as a good chunk of the opposition was blasted aside, sending limbs and entrails into the air. Covered well by one of the enormous tires, Shepard swept his assault rifle on the left attacking flank, watching the exposed troopers fall from his precise assault, their chests cracked and smoking.

Tali was also having an easy time as well, cradling twin submachine guns in her hands as she sent out her attack drone, Chiktikka, in the midst of the right flank. Alarmed by the sudden appearance of the drone, one of the soldiers immediately began firing upon it and regretted his decision when the drone detonated in his face, his crumpled body tossed aside like a rag doll. Tali had no time to gloat as she determinedly fired again and again, hearing the rough chatter of the enormous Mako turret (now manned by Garrus) blast away at the enemies down the central hallway.

Even over the raging din, a tiny ding sounded as one of the elevators behind them reached their floor, despite none of them having called the lift to them. Since Shepard was busy covering the left flank, Tali took it upon herself to leave the right flank to Garrus, activating her omni-tool in preparation, engaging her specialized application that she had developed by herself, wanting to try it out.

The doors opened and a squad of five soldiers spilled out but they were completely unprepared for what was going to happen. As soon as they were out in the open, Tali sent a radio burst towards the troopers, connecting to the intricate implants just as she did with Randolph. However, Tali was not looking to control anyone right now as she sent an order for the implants to overload all at once, bracing herself for what was going to happen.

The effects were instantaneous, all five soldiers dropped as every single implant on their body burst, the force of the explosion sending blood and ragged bits of skin everywhere. Their faces disappeared in a crimson wash as the implanted webbing detonated, vomiting blood all over the tiles. The bodies barely twitching after that, Tali looked away as she tried not to retch, horrified by what she had done. The scale of the carnage had been so massive that she had not been prepared to see such horrors like this again, the violent nature unquantifiable.

Standing up, she walked over to the side of the Mako and tapped Shepard on the shoulder, gesturing to the open lift along the back wall. He nodded once and straightened, banging on the Mako for Kaidan and Liara to take their places defending the area. Trying not to slip in gore, they hurried along and pressed the solitary button for the top floor, the last view being of an enormous tank spewing death and fire as soldier after soldier fell from the endless barrage.

The doors shut, the chaos of the outside world became suddenly quieted, a void in an ocean of violence. Feeling the sudden pressure of gravity as the elevator ascended, the room became lit as the spires of Dallas were revealed to them from the rear window. Shepard and Tali said nothing as they beheld the infinite skyline, watching as they rose higher and higher until darkness fell upon them again, having reached the interior of the tower. Weapons raised, they apprehensively studied the doors of the lift until they opened, but found no one there to greet them with any incoming fire.

Shepard shot out the door and stopped just feet from the entrance, covering all sides just to make sure that they were not about to be ambushed. Still less than assured, he gestured to Tali to follow and they cautiously walked down the carpeted hallway, thankful that the material suppressed the sound of their feet against the floor.

There was a solitary door up ahead, windowless and black. There was no evidence to suggest that it might be locked so Shepard held out a hand and applied the gentlest of pressure, feeling the door yield an inch. He looked through the crack to determine if he would not be triggering any tripwires before he pushed it open all the way and stepped into the circular room.

The interior of Reunion Tower was completely windowless, a circular platform lining along the walls and a small staircase leading towards a depression in the center of the room. In this depression, a cylindrical object laid put, dull grey with a few wires sticking out of it. As soon as Tali spotted it, she stole down the stairs to closely examine the object in question, her breathing becoming sharper as she beheld the nuclear bomb in their midst.

Shepard stowed his rifle and knelt down by the panel. "This bomb is certainly bigger than that one on the Citadel, I'd assume," he noted grimly.

"Yeah," Tali breathed, astonished. She cautiously began typing on the bomb's interface but after a few seconds, she shook her head and backed up a step.

Shepard frowned at that. "What is it? Do we not have enough time?"

"No, it's…" Tali appeared confused. "This bomb isn't even active, John. It doesn't even have a wireless link connected to the console. Unless someone activates it in person and manually, this bomb is not going to blow up."

Now his brow scrunched in concern. "But that doesn't make any sense. What do you think that means?"

"It means, Commander," a voice announced suddenly, "That our goals have been achieved and that the nuclear weapon has been rendered obsolete thanks to your actions."

Three pillars of light shot up in equal intervals around the circular platform surrounding them. From it, three discernable figures, a human, a salarian, and a batarian all stood straight, looking down at the two in a gesture of victory.

The dark-skinned human above them shrugged. "Even in death, it appears Randolph had indirectly succeeded in his objectives after all. Bravo, Commander, for making it this far."

This was making less and less sense by the minute. "What the hell are you talking about?" Shepard asked incredulously. "Who are you?"

"We're talking about you, Commander, and what you've done," the salarian said grimly. "Your involvement has provided us the solution we have always sought. And your other question is wasted on someone like me, given that I know you've met with at least two of us personally before."

Shepard scowled, "I just didn't think that you would have the nerve to pull something like this off, Dalatrass Linron." He scanned around the room before settling upon the batarian. "And you, Balak, you just couldn't set your personal feelings aside for good, could you?"

Balak grinned cruelly, "Once again, Shepard, you fail to understand that this is not about the humans, but about so much more. About what is rightfully ours and what was taken from us!"

Ignoring the devout bluster, Shepard now looked at the human for a moment. "You, however, I don't recognize. Let me guess, considering the facts, former Cerberus?"

"Correct," the human dipped his head. "My official designation while working under the Illusive Man was the Director, a title I still use today, given the circumstances. But I must say, now that I have the chance to talk to you personally, you have been quite the exemplary individual in recent history. I was very impressed with the prowess you showed at the Battle of London and how you showed courage in the face of impending danger."

"Thanks for the compliment but I'm still not giving you an autograph," Shepard growled, cautiously turning in place as he viewed the hated beings above him. "Did you lure me here to Earth just to say hi or is there another motive towards your madness?"

"Madness?" Linron laughed. "Hardly. Our secession was in fact the most logical thing to do, considering all the previous empirical evidence."

"That still didn't fully answer my question."

"You're quite right," the salarian acknowledged. "To fully understand, you have to take a step back and wonder why anyone would secede from the Council, after all that had been accomplished in the last few years. You proved it yourself, Commander. United as one front, we can overcome any obstacle, rise to meet any challenge, stand fast with a courage we never could hold on our own!"

"If you realized all that, then why go to the trouble of this Coalition? What was the catalyst for this?"

Linron now glared at him more icily than ever. "The problem with all that was the fact that it took sacrificing the lives of billions to come to the conclusion that the galaxy had to unite in order to face the Reapers. The Council's endless posturing and debating delayed action for so long that we almost lost the war, all from their cowardice. We were close, Commander, so close to being rendered extinct and yet the councilors, the ones who we trusted to guide us through this turmoil, continued to drag their heels until the last minute. Do you now see the flaw in that?"

Shepard blew air quietly out of his mouth. "I admit, they moved a lot slower than I would have liked but they all kept their word eventually."

"Eventually as opposed to immediately. Were it not for their supposed caution, you would not have turned to the krogan in desperation, or even the rachni. You were forced to take extreme measures to save us but we cannot fathom the consequences from your actions yet."

"Is that supposed to be some sort of an apology?"

"No," the dalatrass said flatly. "But it was the need for rational behavior and lack of politicking that warranted this alliance in the first place. The batarians also shared my point of view and the human here," she gestured to the Director, "Had enough resources to make our idea a reality."

"Did your reality have to involve the bombing of innocent civilians in the first place? What prompted that course of action?"

The dalatrass shrugged, disinterested. "Sometimes, to extinguish a fire, you light another one next to it. A few dozen people were a small price to pay for our impatience, but did you really think that we would transition so quickly to wipe out a couple hundred thousand people in the blink of an eye? All to hasten our departure from the Citadel?"

Now Tali stepped up, completely incredulous. "Only a hundred thousand people? You showed the galaxy that those people on the Citadel were meaningless to someone like you so who would argue that you wouldn't stoop that low to attain your unknown motives?"

"Simple, my dear," the Director now said calmly. "The option to take things in a diplomatic manner was always open to us but expedition was our main goal at the time. Our hastily derived solution was regrettable and we are ashamed at the loss of life all the same. But after our little demonstration on the Citadel I then took it upon myself to involve you in the investigation utilizing the assets I had at my disposal, in order to further reduce the number of casualties in the future."

"Assets?" Shepard tilted his head. "You mean guys like Randolph?"

"Exactly. He knew little about my master plan because that was all I needed him to know at the time. And Randolph played his part to perfection. He attacked you in your own home, he motivated you to get involved from his intrusion into your lives, and now you're here in this very room."

"But…but what is the significance of this?"

"The alternative option lies before you," the director gestured to the bomb. "If we were unable to gain your involvement in tracking us down, we would have been forced to utilize the nuclear bomb and kill everyone in the blast radius. But now that you're among us, that option is now defunct, so you have saved thousands in your final act by simply walking into this room."

"But why?" Tali yelled. "Why do you need John at all?"

Linron shrugged, "Because, Miss Zorah, the involvement of Commander Shepard and the deaths of several thousand normal citizens would be considered with equal weight in our societies. The comparative loss of life would be staggeringly unbalanced on one end but each outcome would be treated all the same. You see, killing you or not killing you, Commander Shepard, does not force us to use the bomb to attain our secession, we simply deprive the galaxy of the one true hero that ever existed and everyone would know of our capabilities, allowing us to settle away from the Citadel, away from the damn Council and its band of corrupt morons. And even if you do survive, you would not let such a thing like this go unwarranted. You'll notify everyone. The Council, now fully invested upon your every word, would believe you and would realize the scale of our capabilities. Rather than pushing blindly into war again and favoring an option with minimal bloodshed, they'll find it in their best interests to simply let us go, preferring to utilize the pen in place of the sword."

Shepard and Tali stood silently in the center of the room, letting the three spires of light gently flood their vision. Shepard let his eyes slowly roam around, perceiving every one of the holographic figures silently judge him as they stared. A few heartbeats passed before Shepard sighed. "So, what happens now?"

"Now?" asked the Director. "Now is when you'll make your choice, Commander. You may walk out of this room, leave this planet, and scurry back to the Council where you'll relay everything we just told you. Or, you can stay here and exhibit your tendency to favor the solution with the most pyrotechnics and try to kill everyone in this building. Your survival in that option is less likely but still achievable but the outcome would remain the same on our end in either situation. We would prefer to not kill you, Commander. The galaxy still needs room for heroes like you, but this fight, for you, is now over."

"I thought my fight had ended long ago," Shepard mumbled, staring down at the ground before letting his gaze work back up to meet Tali's eyes, watching them glimmer from behind her purple visor. He peered intently, searching for a sign of some sort. He saw nothing but determination and anger in her eyes, a fierceness that dictated the need for action but for life as well.

And how could he even bring it in himself to refuse Tali what she desired?

Shepard gave a faint smile before turning back to the Director. "You raise some valid points there. But…I've never been too keen on others firmly dictating my choices for me."

The Director gave a smirk of victory. "Learn to be humble, Shepard. You will find that it can be quite a rewarding experience. There's no shame in admitting defeat."

"True, but I've never been content on letting the bad guy get away…so I think I'd prefer a solution of my own." Widening his grin, Shepard raised his arm and turned his hand so that the back was facing the human on the hologram. A glowing bead of light was pulsing where his omni-tool would be and it remained unwavering as Shepard held his fist up triumphantly.

Linron leaned forward, suspicious. "What the…what is that?"

"That," Shepard laughed, "Is the bulk of your conversation being recorded and transmitted to my ship where the source has ultimately been traced at this point."

"Wh- WHAT?"

"Huh, so I guess you guys forgot that I still had a fully functioning AI aboard the Normandy. EDI, I presume you got a lock?"

"Affirmative, Shepard," EDI's smooth voice filtered through. "Alliance ships in the area have been notified and will arrive in the designated system in minutes. All relays have been blockaded and are awaiting orders."

Beholding the salarian's pale face and the human's dark scowl, Shepard could not resist chuckling loudly. "Did you really just think I was born yesterday? I will be leaving this place with full knowledge that any danger will have passed and that there will be no more duties required of me from here on out. My time has yet to expire, while yours just ran out."

"Funny," Balak pondered from above. "Because from where I stand, you are in the same boat as the rest of us." Before Shepard could inquire as to what that meant, the light from where the batarian stood abruptly faded but the image of the user did not. It took Shepard a split second to realize that the batarian still standing on the platform was not a hologram but quite real and in that time, it was almost too late.

With a war cry, Balak vaulted over the nearby guardrail as he produced a traditional sword from behind him. Pushing Tali out of the way, Shepard held up his rifle to block the blow but the sharp metal from the blade cleaved it in two, sending the barrel clattering down on the ground. Shepard leapt backward to avoid the backslash and retreated up the small steps as the remaining two members watched in silence.

Balak twirled the blade in his hands and Shepard now noted that the air seemed to be shimmering near the weapon itself. It was not the air that was being affected, the sword was in fact a vibro-blade, a weapon that vibrated back and forth in milimetric increments. These subtle vibrations allow blades to cut through tougher surfaces and to part softer ones quicker and more violently, hence how easy the rifle had split when the blade had touched it.

Shepard drew his pistol at the same time Tali drew hers from across the room. Lining up the crazed batarian in his sights, he loosed a trio of bullets but watched them harmlessly splash across the alien's shields, Tali's attacks also doing the same thing. It would take more firepower to bring them down quicker but his rifle was the only other weapon that he had brought along for this mission and Tali was too far away to utilize her shotgun at the moment.

Teeth gnashing together, Balak snarled as he approached Shepard, who was still mentally trying to formulate an effective battle strategy. "Sheparrrrd," the batarian growled. "I've always wanted to tell you, I regret not killing you over Terra Nova."

"Really?" Shepard did his best to put on an expression of complete indignation. "That's funny, because the feeling is mutual!" He punctuated the last word with a charge at the batarian, engaging his omni-blade simultaneously. Balak quickly blocked the first blow and chopped down but Shepard leaped aside, scurrying back down the steps towards the center of the room.

As the batarian followed, he suddenly staggered backwards as Tali stood up from behind the dormant bomb and fired a burst from her shotgun. Balak yelled but did not fall, jumping aside to avoid the follow-up attack which took him into Shepard's radius. He was forced to go on the defense as Shepard savagely brought his arm down to tear into the alien's body but the vibro-blade was there to match the attack, deflecting it to the side.

Tali walked around, making sure to stay clear of Balak's reach but was unable to fire with Shepard being so close to the enemy. She kept her gun trained on the pair, waiting for the opportunity to catch the batarian unawares.

The sword sliced inches from Shepard's scalp and he flinched backward. Balak, still smiling damnably, took a big step inward and lunged toward the human's center of mass. At the last moment, Shepard side-stepped and chopped his own blade down, sending Balak's weapon pointing downward as it was diverted off course.

Growling, the batarian whirled in a slash but Shepard was there to meet him, sweat running down his eyes as fatigue started to set in. Limbs quaking from the powerful blow, he called on all his strength to push aside the alien's weapon and swing his arm in a riposte that sent the batarian leaping backwards.

As soon as Balak disengaged, a pinkish light flooded the corner of one eye and he involuntarily glanced at it. All of a sudden, he shook in place as Chiktikka sent a beam of pure energy in his direction, electricity sparking throughout his body as Tali stood nearby, her eyes lowered as she ordered the drone to fire again. However, Balak avoided the next volley and savagely brought his sword down upon the drone, scrambling its processes and temporarily deactivating it.

Balak roared and ducked a return swing from Shepard, answering in a deadly swipe that bit into the muscle of the human's arm, causing him to cry out from the pain. Hearing the quarian's yell of horror, he readied to twist the sword in place when Shepard's blade passed within inches of his arm, causing him to instinctively flinch back. However, his reaction made his arm pass too close to the swing and the omni-blade ended up taking one of the batarian's fingers off as he reeled.

Staring at his maimed hand, Balak dropped the vibro-blade as he clutched his limb, trying to squeeze the agony out. Shepard advance, holding his omni-blade up, a little weathered but somehow still full of energy. "Stop this right here, Balak," he ordered. "Stop it, or this won't end well for you."

Balak's four eyes squinted in apprehension. "Giving me one last chance to surrender, Shepard?"

Shepard slowly shook his head. "I won't execute an unarmed prisoner. Stand down, and I'll see that you'll have your day with a trial of your peers. It's more than you deserve but I haven't turned into a monster like you yet."

"So noble of you," Balak spat. "But we all know how that's going to turn out. In the end, life in a cell is not preferable to death. And it's not like they'll ever let someone like me post bail. So, if I'm going to go down, then I'm taking you with me!"

Balak's four fingered hand groped for an object at his side and held it aloft. Shepard could see the batarian's thumb hit the timer button on the grenade and immediately moved without thinking. He swung his blade through the air and it sliced through bone, sending blood misting through the air.

The hand holding the grenade hit the floor and Balak howled as he clutched the stump of his hand tighter, trying to stem the flow of blood while backing away from where the explosive landed. As it tumbled down the steps, Shepard realized that he had maneuvered too closely. As if he was moving underwater, he made to head towards Tali's scream of danger when he suddenly felt himself being picked up and flung across the room as a blast of heat hit him in the back, an enormous noise following that made his ears ring dully.

His feet hit the floor first and he catapulted forward on the carpet, hearing something snap as his full weight was projected downward all at once. There was a shooting pain near his ankle and Shepard soon felt his entire leg slowly start to go numb, as if it had been saddled with a powerful sedative. He gasped and began coughing as the room filled with smoke, eyes watering as he strained to penetrate the haze. He could not see Balak or Tali for that matter. Two other points of light still shone through the murkiness, evidently the dalatrass and Director were still observing. Well, the show was not over yet.

Shepard began to stand and collapsed, screaming as his ankle flared as if it had been dipped in lava. That certainly didn't feel right. In an instant, he understood. His ankle had broken again, but somehow this felt far worse than before. He looked down upon himself and only blinked as he saw a single shard of bone poke from between the plating on boots, stained with red.

Oddly, he did not feel terribly worried about any repercussions this might have, considering the wound as if someone considered a scratch on a wall. In fact, the more he looked at it, the calmer he felt for some insane reason. Shepard turned back around, beginning to crawl across the floor to look for something to support him when a hand grabbed him roughly by the collar and forced him upright on his knees.

Easy, Tali, he wanted to say. I may have broken something so just be careful.

A series of deep and heavy breaths made his words catch in his mouth as he realized who was holding onto him. Balak's right arm, ending at the wrist with a circle of charred and blackened flesh, held him upright while his left positioned a small dagger underneath his throat. Cuts on the batarian's remaining hand wept fluid, apparently he had not escaped injury from the grenade as well.

Feeling the cold steel on his neck, Shepard gritted his teeth in pain as he felt the blade begin to break the skin, feeling his blood already start to trickle down. Balak positioned him so that he had the best grip on the human, despite the lack of a hand.

"You…stupid…alien," the batarian spat. "You should have just taken the elevator back down."

There was a harsh click and Shepard fearfully shut his eyes for a moment until a familiar voice rang out. "That was never going to happen. Now release John, you bosh'tet, and I won't have to put one between your four eyes."

Stepping through the smoke, Tali held her pistol aloft as she aimed precisely at the batarian across from her. Her knees were bent and her eyes murderous behind her mask. At once, Shepard felt a surge of joy, a realization that things were going to be all right. He tried to shift his feet somewhat but stopped as it felt like his foot was being torn off, the bone shard tearing into skin whenever he moved.

Ignoring his captive's discomfort, Balak grimaced. "I don't think so, quarian. In fact, you have no card to play. I hold Shepard, but what do you have?"

Tali did not waver. "I'm not going to ask a second time."

"Neither will I. Martyrdom is not a concept I oppose but it seems like you prefer life far more than I do. Lay down your gun, quarian, and I will let Shepard go."

Her arms tensed as she looked at Shepard's pained expression, watching him teeter on the verge of consciousness. "How do I know if you're just going to let us go?"

Balak lowered his front two eyes. "You won't."

There was little she could do at this point and Tali saw the fear in Shepard's eyes. Worried for his safety and for their future, she knew what she had to do. She had nothing left to play. Giving a nod of compliance, she slowly knelt down, holding her pistol by the barrel. Reaching the ground, she gently set the gun down, muzzle pointed to the side. Shepard, vision going blurry, was too addled to voice a word of protest, but he saw Tali's arm reach slightly behind her leg as the hand holding the gun descended. Something pounded within and he strived to control his breathing.

"That's it, quarian," Balak nodded in satisfaction. "Now step back to the doorway and once you're there, I'll release your…boyfriend."

"Wrong," Tali announced, surprising herself with her boldness. "He's not my boyfriend."

Balak's arm around Shepard's neck noticeably slackened at that, the knife torn away from his throat. He could feel the batarian's limbs loosen in confusion and subtly start to twitch. Balak tilted his head in an expression of bewilderment and Tali acted in that one instant.

Her right arm raised and surged outward, flinging an object across the room. Shepard saw Tali's boot knife part the smoke as it trailed across the room, watching the brief glimpse of his own reflection pass him by inches away from his face. Sailing past him, he felt a few blotches of warm liquid hit the back of his head as Balak's arms around him fell away, allowing him to lay down forward in a more comfortable position. Rolling around, Shepard smiled as he saw the knife sticking up perfectly in the middle of the batarian's face, bright blood oozing from the wound.

And across the room, Tali stood triumphant.

"…he's my husband," she declared to the now dead batarian.

Shepard heard a quick patter of footsteps and then tender arms around him as Tali helped sit him up. He wanted to speak but his jaw felt glued together, the words coming out all distorted. A fog fell upon his vision and it was starting to get dimmer in the room. He could still see Tali open her omni-tool and prepare a dose of medi-gel, concentrating on his maimed ankle as he slowly faded from view.

The twin beams of light above them winked out of existence and Shepard smiled, feeling Tali's hand press into his own, squeezing it to let her know that everything was going to be all right. From her, he heard nothing but a gentle touch on the head to examine him for any other wounds that she might not see. There was no need to worry too much as she continued to analyze him, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

You chose well, John. You certainly found the right one.

"Make sure the docs do it quickly," he slurred vaguely, feeling peaceful all of a sudden. "I can't be late for my own wedding…"

The Cradle

The image of Reunion Tower faded from view and the Director stood silently for a few seconds, watching the dalatrass' pained expression as he took in her displeasure. Looking down at his own console, he noted that the station's sensors were picking up dozens of ships registered to the Alliance and the Hierarchy converging around them. Clearly Shepard had not been bluffing when he had said that the transmission had been traced.

He tapped his fingers on his desk impatiently. "Well, my dear," causing Linron to bristle in discomfort, "It certainly seems that we bit off more than we could chew in this case."

"You humans and your damnable metaphors," the salarian raged. "I warned you about underestimating Shepard before and now look! Everything that we have built is about to become undone!"

"That sounds a little extreme," the Director replied mildly. "But this whole fiasco will only add to the legend that is Commander Shepard, ironically enough. This all makes me wonder if we could have done this differently and have succeeded."

"How can you be so calm?" Linron cried shrilly. "They're coming for us right now! I'm…I'm the dalatrass of the Salarian Union! What do you think they'll do to someone like me? I'll…I'll be put to death for this."

"Quite possibly. You did, after all, plot to overthrow your own government and as a figure of high authority, the courts will want to make an example out of you. I'd expect that you and your whole family line will be shamed for centuries in the historical records. Knowing salarian traditions, breeding contracts with your name will be rendered worthless. Your line will die out, all because of what you've done."

Having gone the color of curdled milk, the dalatrass struggled to speak as her throat did not want to cooperate with her. "A-A-And what about you? You're still part of this Coalition too! You will also be put to death for this as well, you know!"

"Highly unlikely," the human grinned. "I'd expect that they'd have to find me before any of that could happen."

"What are you talking about? You're going down with me together! I don't know how you can think of escaping when everything is falling down around us!"

"It wasn't escape that I was thinking of," the Director said sadly as his outline started to shimmer, pulsing a cool blue. "Considering that I was never here in the first place."

Blue lines wrapped around the edges of the hologram, like pulsing veins in a body. Widening, they enhanced the human's final smile as the light blurred together and converged into one sphere before condensing into a line and letting the dark swallow it up. Gaping, the dalatrass looked at the empty space the hologram of the Director had just occupied second earlier, dumbstruck at the betrayal, at the audacity of the human.

"You…you…" she sputtered to thin air, no one answering her.

Linron could now hear muffled sounds of a scuffle occurring from outside the conference room, muted bursts of what only could be gunfire, quieted shouts of her troops falling as the impeccable aim of the human or turian troopers bested them in combat. The blasts were getting closer and closer, the screams louder and louder, and the dalatrass began shaking helplessly.

Fingers fumbling at her desk, she opened the top drawer and brought out a steel-grey object. The pistol was in no means a powerful weapon, barely capable of puncturing the weakest of shields. However, its usefulness had just peaked as the salarian considered the weapon in her hands, eyeing the door and waiting for it to open.

With a final wrenching cry, the salarian was now presented with a few seconds of silence until a new voice, struggling to get through the door, began barking out orders to his subordinates, clearly right outside and meaning to open the barrier separating them. This was it, they were here to arrest her. There was no way out for her this time.

But there were alternatives to a lifetime of shame, even if it meant cutting those last few moments short. Linron quickly pushed the muzzle against the side of her head, breathing steady, eyes closed. She only hoped that she would look presentable for the ceremony afterward. As soon as she heard the locks disengage and the door slide open, she pulled the trigger, feeling the slight catch of metal as the parts slid into place.

The last sound she heard was a brief pop before the room was rendered silent for good.