Um, so… two years to update is pretty poor form and I'm rusty as hell so please be kind. But here goes… I promise it will get better as I get back into the swing of things. Going to finish this damn thing if it's the last thing I do! Plus I just desperately miss these characters.

PART 14

Kaidan lay on his stomach on the hard ground of the building's rooftop, Ashley on one side and Shepard on the other. Weak sunlight bathed them and after a long, cold night huddled in the dark, Kaidan was grateful for the small amount of warmth the sun offered. It didn't do much to thaw the chill that had settled inside his chest, but it was comforting to see the sunlight starting to beat back the shadows. He chose to see that as symbolic.

"The Lieutenant's info called them Dragon's teeth," Ashley said in a hushed tone.

"Are those… are those… people?" Kaidan asked quietly. He felt vaguely ill at the sight of the structures… and what appeared to be impaled on them. Bodies hung limply in the air, what used to be skin now turned to a dull, sickening grey with what looked like blue pulsing lights. He shuddered.

"It's hard to fathom, but yes," Shepard sighed. At the soft sound, he turned to face her. He'd rather take in the profile of her face, her dark lashes and dirt smudged cheeks than whatever was going on with the alien edifices nearby. Her eyes were locked on the sight below, her brow slightly furrowed. "Yeah, Nick – I mean, the Commander - first encountered these on Eden Prime. It's how the husks are created."

Kaidan frowned and glanced down at the structures in spite of himself and immediately regretted it. "Wait, so those things down there, that's how they turn humans into husks?"

Shepard's gaze met his steadily. Her pale blue eyes were troubled. "Humans are rounded up, and impaled on those things, and turned into husks then sent in to fight against their own people."

Ashley made a horrified sound of disgust at the back of her throat. Kaidan echoed her sentiment. The thought of what those captured people were going through- He swallowed back the bile that threatened to rise up in his throat.

"We have to help them," he said. His voice broke as he spoke. "We have to stop this from happening."

Shepard looked back at the dragon's teeth, her brow furrowed in thought. Kaidan knew she was scanning the area for any sign of reaper ground force activity, knowing that both himself and Ashley were doing the same. If the teeth were here, it stood to reason that more of the reaper ground forces wouldn't be far away. It also stood to reason that if there were only three teeth here, there were many, many more elsewhere. The thought left him cold.

Movement beside him brought him back to the moment. Shepard shifted, rolling back on her haunches and crouching with one wrist dangling over her knee. "I don't see any signs of reaper activity but we should keep our distance just in case. I want to give those things a wide berth. We just need to keep moving forward."

"I don't see how we can get through. The roads are blocked and we already know this part of the mass transit system has collapsed-"

"We don't have a choice. Those things are between us and Alliance HQ. And we need to get to HQ," Ash interrupted. Kaidan looked sideways to see an expression of utter determination on her face. She was fearless, he mused. A solider through and through.

"We need to get back to ground level," Shepard answered. "No point waiting around here any longer. Let's get moving."

Without waiting for a response, Shepard and Ashley both climbed to their feet and turned their backs on the scene below and Kaidan found himself trailing behind. His thoughts were still on the dragon's teeth, his medical mind trying to understand the technology and processes needed to create the husks. Was it reaper tech or geth? Was there more to them? In a purely military aspect, they seemed like an ineffective way to build your ground force. But then, he thought to himself as he followed the two women down the stairwell and back onto the street, turning the dead into a weapon to fight against their former population was a horrifically efficient way to win a war.

The three of them stuck to their familiar pattern of moving cautiously through the destroyed streets, always in the shadows, sheltered with one side to a wall as much as possible. The reaper's blaring horns had become an anthem of destruction in the background. Kaidan found himself jumping less and less each time one sounded.

He had been concentrating so hard on keeping one foot going in front of the other that it made his breath hitch in his throat when he realised where they were. They'd been travelling for almost two hours, going on foot and navigating through the rubble, avoiding the blasts of fire that always resulted in husks or cannibals streaking towards them.

"Wait," he called out urgently. Shepard and Ashley both paused, glancing back at him over their shoulders. Shepard looked concerned, worried even. Her obvious care for him warmed a tiny bit of the chill in his heart. "Wait," he said again, this time softer.

"What is it, Doc? You hurt?"

Kaidan shook his head at Ash's query. "No. I mean, yes. No, I think we should stop for a moment, catch our breath." He pointed into the distance. "I know a place."