Chapter 21: Virmire V

Ratchet and Kaidan ducked behind a pillar as another group of krogan returned fire on them.

"There's three left!" Ratchet yelled over to Kaidan, who was taking cover on the other side of the hall way.

"I see them! One's rushing!" Kaidan said, pushing himself further against the wall as several bullets buzzed past his barriers.

Ratchet tried to peek out, but the other two krogan were laying down heavy suppressive fire. "Kaidan, can you put a barrier around me?!"

"Yes!" Came the reply, followed by an immediate blue barrier being erected around the Lombax.

Peeking out, Ratchet saw that the rushing krogan was only five meters away, roaring with his shotgun at the ready. "Keep those other two krogan down!" He yelled as he leapt upwards and kicked off the wall, Kaidan's barrier soaking up the hail of bullets. With a flick of his wrist, Ratchet manifested the Negotiator and two rockets immediately spat out from the small frame.

Without even waiting to assess the damage, Ratchet swapped to his Razor Claws and descended on the third krogan from above, stabbing his Claws deep into the krogan's skull. With a savage yank, Ratchet separated the krogan's head from his body.

The lombax looked up just as he saw a burst of tech grenades explode around the other krogan, keeping them down on the ground. Stowing his Razor Claws, Ratchet reached behind him and aimed his sniper rifle. Scoping in, Ratchet let off two quick bursts, the modified rounds piercing the krogan's helmets and dropping them instantly.

"Let's go!" Ratchet motioned to Kaidan, already moving down the hall.

Kaidan quickly followed, still slightly unnerved by how fluid and brutal Ratchet was in battle. He had only seen N7 soldiers like Shepard move that instinctually in a firefight. Ratchet was young, but the way he fought was beyond that of your typical soldier.

"Base layout says that this elevator should take us to the AA gun where Shepard is," Kaidan pointed out.

Ratchet nodded and pressed the button to hail the elevator and called Joker on the radio. "Joker, come in."

"This is Joker. I read you, over," Came the fuzzy reply.

"We only have 6 minutes left before the bomb goes off. How far are you from the AA tower?"

"Less than a minute," Joker responded. "But I still can't get any of the ground team in the area to respond."

"Alright, come in fast, and we'll try to clear up any hostiles and get boarded ASAP."

"Roger, *buzz* see you in a *buzz*" Suddenly, the line cut out.

"Whatever's jamming Shepard and the ground team is probably jamming us now," Ratchet growled in frustration.

Just then, the elevator ground to a halt, and the doors slid open.

"Shepard!" Kaidan shouted in horror, as he aimed his pistol.

Saren was gripping Shepard by his throat over the edge of the AA turret platform. It was probably a 100 meter drop if he didn't hit the rocks first.

"Drop him!" Ratchet shouted, firing an explosive round from his sniper rifle. With uncanny speed, Saren turned and raised his hand, erecting a biotic barrier that absorbed the impact.

But the turncoat wasn't ready for Shepard's fist to slam into the side of his head with the force of a jackhammer. The blow stunned Saren and caused him to stagger back as his grip on Shepard's neck faltered.

For a heart stopping moment, Shepard dropped. Suddenly he reached out and grasped the edge of the platform, barely hanging on by the strength of his arms. Immediately, everybody swung into action.

"Shepard, hang on!" Liara yelled as she slammed a biotic warp field into Saren's barriers. The strength of Liara's biotics caused Saren's barriers to falter just for a hair of a second, but that was all Ratchet needed. Still scoped in, Ratchet fired another round right into Saren's side.

The turian yelled in pain as the modified heavy slug lodged itself in his stomach, but still had enough strength to throw a biotic field at Ratchet, who was too slow to dodge and was sent flying into the wall behind him with bone crushing impact, putting him out cold.

But Ratchet proved the perfect distraction for Wrex to Warp Saren's weakened barrier and Lift him up into the air. "Liara, throw him over the edge!"

The asari immediately called a ball of condensed biotic energy and shot it at Saren, who had already broken Wrex's Lift field and was falling back down. With supernatural reflexes, Saren encased his fist with biotic energy and struck Liara's Throw aside with a scoff. "Try again," he growled, before sending out a shockwave that flung Liara and Wrex into some nearby fuel tanks.

The explosion rocked the platform. "Liara! Wrex! You bastard!" Shepard yelled, even as he scrabbled for something to pull himself onto the platform.

"Focus fire!" Kaidan shouted, as the ground crew and the salarians still able to hold a gun began firing at Saren in desperation. But the turian's barriers were beyond belief, absorbing all of the damage being thrown at him.

"We're not doing anything!" Garrus shouted in frustration.

Saren chuckled before slowly turning to Shepard, looking down at the commander as he struggled to pull the entire weight of his body armor up.

"Now you see how futile it is to fight against Sovereign and the Reapers?" He asked Shepard with a bemused look. "And I'm only the beginning. I'll offer you one more time. Join me."

A look of unbridled disgust crossed Shepard's face. "You can go fuck yourself!"

Saren's eyes hardened. "So be it." He drew back his leg, ready to stomp on Shepard's head and end the commander.

"Shepard!" Tali shouted out in horror.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down as everything blurred around Shepard. The commander looked up at the turncoat Spectre with a cold hard look. "Don't be a slave to the Reapers, Saren."

A look of confusion seemed to flit over Saren's face for a brief moment, causing him to pause. "I'm… not a slave," He protested quietly, his eyes shifting color from a synthetic blue to their natural white as he started shaking his head, as if to rid himself of a bug crawling around inside.

"Screw this!" Ashley suddenly shouted, dropping her gun as she sprinted towards Saren.

"Ashley, wait!" Kaidan yelled, trying to grab her. But Ashley was already away and determined. With a yell she bulldozed right into Saren, gripping the turian around his waist.

"Ashley, no!" Shepard shouted as he renewed his efforts to pull himself up.

With one foot off the ground, and fighting an internal mental battle, Saren was caught completely off guard as Ashley tackled him. But the gunnery chief wasn't prepared for how heavy Saren was going to be. Grunting with an extra heave, Ashley managed to tackle Saren off the platform, but as she let go and tried to right herself, Saren seemed to regain control over himself and grabbed Ashley's arms.

At that moment, Ashley knew it was the end. She looked at Shepard as she was dragged right past him, his hand outstretched trying to grab her, a look of pure agony on his face. She didn't even try to reach for it. She would've just brought Shepard down with her, and that would've been stupid.

With a peaceful look, she closed her eyes and let go.

"No!" Shepard shouted desperately as he tried to reach for his gunnery chief and friend.

Kaidan started running towards Shepard before he was tackled to the ground by Captain Kirrahe. "Watch out!" The salarian captain shouted just as Saren's glider screamed over their heads and over the edge to save its master.

Tali and Garrus immediately ran over the Shepard to help the commander up over the edge. As Garrus and Tali pulled Shepard up and over the ledge, the commander glanced down just in time to see Saren right himself in mid air and land on his glider feet first. He was holding Ashley's unconscious form in his arm.

For a brief second, the two exchanged glares before Saren flew back to Sovereign with his victory.

As Captain Kirrahe helped up Kaidan, he could hear the Normandy approaching. He could see that there was still some desperate fight left in both Kaidan and Shepard. He shouted over the noise, "Commander! We need to get out of here! The bomb will blow in two minutes!"

Shepard turned to Kaidan and Kirrahe, a defiant look burning there that made Kirrahe fear that the commander wouldn't see reason, before it was replaced with the hollow look of defeat. "You're right. Get the wounded, and let's go."

Just then, the deep rumbling of the Normandy's engines could be felt as it flew in over the cliff walls surrounding Saren's base. "Get in!" Joker's voice buzzed over the radio.

IIIIIIIII

"Hold on tight!" Joker yelled as the Normandy began to pick up speed and altitude. Before the ship could clear the atmosphere, a massive shockwave rocked the frigate as the Salarian's drive core went nuclear. And suddenly, everything was deceptively peaceful as the Normandy broke into empty space and raced away from Virmire.

Shepard couldn't tear his eyes away from the Normandy's video feed of the massive explosion that consumed Saren's base of operations. Mission accomplished. But at a cost. They had lost Ashley. Liara and Wrex were both suffering from severe burns and trauma in the med bay.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. But this was war, and not everything was going to go right. Thank God that everybody else made it through, Shepard thought. No mission was ever a guarantee, especially one with limited intel like that one.

"Now what?" He muttered under his breath.

"Commander?"

Shepard turned to Joker, who was slumped more than usual in the pilot's seat. "Do you want me to gather up the crew for debrief?"

Shepard sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "No, give them 15 minutes. I think they need to cool down and process what's happened, and I need to send my report to the Council anyways."

"Ok, commander," Joker said, foregoing his customary humor. Even he didn't feel in the mood to talk when he found out that Saren had taken Ashley. Saren was a monster. What would he do to Ashley?

The two sat together in dejected silence for a moment before Shepard blew another sigh, got up, and left without another word. That suited Joker just fine.

IIIIIIIII

Shepard walked into the conference room amid deathly silence. Tension hung heavy in the air, but before Shepard could say anything, Ratchet burst out.

"What happened down there?! Everything was going so well, and then Saren… He annihilated us. How?"

Nobody had an answer, as they all looked away. It defied all logic how strong Saren was.

Finally, Shepard spoke up. "My working theory is that Saren let himself be physically enhanced by the Reapers."

"I think a better question," Wrex, who had recovered from his injuries in typical krogan fashion, interrupted, "Is what are we going to about Saren?"

Everybody turned to Shepard, but the commander could only shake his head helplessly. "I don't know."

"There must be something!" Ratchet exclaimed. "Maybe something in Saren's data!"

Shepard shook his head again. "That data pertains mainly to indoctrination and the genophage.

"Is Liara okay?" Tali asked.

Shepard nodded gratefully, happy to talk about some good news. "Yes. Liara is in the med bay right now. She's slightly concussed, with a broken arm, and suffering from minor burns down her side. But thanks to Wrex," The commander nodded to the krogan who returned the acknowledgment with a grunt, "Liara's going to be ok."

"Is she well enough to do the mind meld thing with you again?" Kaidan asked. "Now that you've got the full vision from the Prothean beacon, maybe she can figure out where Saren wants to go."

"I'm going to see her after this and try to see where we can go from here," Shepard responded.

The lieutenant nodded. If Shepard said he would handle it, so be it. He needed time alone to think and process everything that had happened down there anyways.

"Did the Salarian team make it out ok?" Shepard asked Garrus, who had been interacting with Captain Kirrahe in the hold.

"Yes. They have a lot of wounded, but they can offload as soon as we get to the Citadel," Garrus replied.

"Ok. In that case, I'll call you all back here when I've figured out how we're proceeding after this. Dismissed."

IIIIIIII

Ratchet walked back to cargo bay in silence. He had woken up on the Normandy just as they escaped the planet's gravity. He hadn't at all expected the outcome of the mission. They had lost Ashley, and Saren had nearly killed Liara, Wrex, and Shepard in the process.

He had been taken so off guard by Saren's initial strength, that it had put him out of the fight early on. And it had cost them. No. It had cost Ashley and Liara.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over this," said Garrus just over his shoulder, startling Ratchet out of his reverie.

"What?" The young Lombax asked, taken aback.

"I got the sense you were thinking about how you were to blame for the mission going to hell at the end," Garrus said with a shrug.

"How did you know that?"

"Intuition," Garrus replied with a wry grin, "And a lot of experience. I've had a few C-Sec operations blow up in my face too. Lost a few good friends. I used to think beat myself up everyday, thinking that if I had just done something better, or sooner, maybe things would've turned out better."

Ratchet was quiet for a while. "But now?"

"Now?" Garrus parroted as he looked into some far-off distance. "Now I try harder next time. I learn from my mistakes so that I don't make them again."

Ratchet digested this piece of wisdom slowly. "Back when I've had to do the whole saving-the-galaxy thing," At this, Garrus raised a brow, but refrained from making a jab, "Clank and I would always do the whole thing solo, usually. And things usually worked out for us in the end. But now… I'm beginning to understand just how real the consequences of my actions are for others."

Garrus nodded. "That's what being on a team is like. Just don't let the fear of the consequences cripple you from acting. I had my doubts about belonging on this team, but after surviving that first shootout in the Citadel, I'm thinking that Shepard really does know what he's doing and not making it all up on the fly."

Ratchet laughed out loud. "It's a very Shepard thing to make improvisation look so planned."

Garrus grinned. "You got that right. In the spirit of planning for anything, I'm going to re-calibrate the Mako's guns and maybe modify the main gun a bit."

"Or work on the suspension," Ratchet said with a chuckle. "With the way Shepard drives that thing."

Garrus shared in Ratchet's laughter.

A/N: Hey guys. I'm so sorry I haven't been updating. At this point, I'm going to stop making empty promises, lol. I've just been so hectic finishing up my thesis and finals here at school, that I've had little time for anything else this semester. But it's holiday again, so I'm back on my computer and writing fanfiction. Thank you to everybody who has decided to stick around in this period of drought :) Your support is greatly appreciated.