"Get to checkpoint, Shepard!"

"What do you think I'm trying to do, Mordin?"

"More enemies remain, stay vigilant!"

I could hear voices, blurring and warping over the sound of gunfire. Cold metal cooled my cheek, and I slowly brought myself up to my hands and knees. The floor morphed, whirling around as I opened my eyes and I had to take several quick breaths to stop the bile from rising. I wobbled and let my head fall forward.

"Breathe, human." The voice that reached me through the pounding in my head soothed me a little. "All will be well, but you must get up. You must fight. Your team need you now." I looked up at the female krogan, drawing strength from her steady gaze. "Get up and fight." Her hand came out, clawed and covered with ancient scars. I reached out, taking it and letting her pull me to my feet. I didn't let her lift my entire weight, knowing she was still vulnerable.

"What happened?" I asked, turning to face the blue field around us, watching as Shepard and Javik were pinned down by the Cerberus troops between them and us. I growled, wanting to be with them, standing beside them where I belonged. "Let me out, Mordin!" I picked up my shotgun, moving to the door. "As soon as I'm clear, lock it down."

He hesitated, but the glare on my face convinced him to do as I asked. As soon as the door hissed, I ducked through before it opened fully, not wanting them to be exposed for too long. I charged forward, a roar leaving my lips, despite the pain in my head. The Cerberus agents didn't expect a secondary attack from behind, nor did they expect my ferocity. I was pissed, more angry than I'd ever been. I raised my weapon, firing as soon as I'd locked on to the back of a guardian's head. He tried to spin, to bring his shield up, but it was too late. Brain matter and bone exploded, lashing me in blood and goop, but I didn't care, I just moved on to the next.

Shepard and Javik caught sight of me, my entrance giving them the distraction to move from where they'd been pinned. They both grinned as they joined the fray. My shield crackled, sparks of electricity flaring over it as bullets rained down on me. I rolled into cover, slamming home a fresh clip. Taking in the chaos, I tried to push down the pain in my head. I raised my hand, feeling a huge lump throbbing at the side of my temple and my fingers came away sticky and coated in blood. The sight of it only fueled my rage, and once again I jumped to my feet. Shepard glowed blue in front of me, standing behind a pillar as she dragged a white armored soldier out and into my cross hairs.

We worked as a team to finish off the last few, Shepard and Javik coming toward the pod while I hovered around it, keeping everything away. My shoulder ached from the constant fire of my shotgun, and the many small wounds I'd received since the fighting broke out began to scream in protest. We had to end this quickly. Javik, as if he'd heard my thoughts let himself go, coming into battle with even more ferocity than I'd ever witnessed from the normally aloof prothean. His biotics were like an extension of him, deadly and precise, tearing soldiers apart easily. His roars and growls of victory were like music to my ears as Shepard called a warning and lit up the area with a grenade. Limbs and fire flew through the air, sending me diving for cover.

"Clear!" Shepard called, her words taking a second to register. My head ached, and my body burned, but I slowly got to my feet and limped over to the pod. "You alright?" she asked the two inside the pod. She bent, picking up several clips and distributing them between the three of us. She took one look at me and handed me a small tube of medi-gel. "Your head is bleeding." She checked her shields while I tried to apply the gel to my head without being able to see.

Javik let out a weary sigh, snatching the tube and pulling me around to face him. Four golden eyes met mine as he gently smeared the gel over the wound on my head. "You humans break too easily," he said gruffly, stepping away once he was done. I smirked at his attitude. It was funny, a fifty thousand year old prothean struggling with the fact he actually cared. I resisted the urge to tease him mercilessly and kept my mouth shut.

Shepard and Mordin were speaking quickly, the commander clearly used to the rapid fire way Mordin thought, nodding her head and answering just as fast. I was totally lost, only catching one or two words before I looked helplessly at Javik. He shrugged, looking around. "Something is wrong," he said, his hands tightening on his weapon. I felt a prickle of apprehension at his words. Javik had an uncanny way of knowing when things were going to happen and always seemed to be one step ahead. "Atlas!" he hissed, spinning around and putting me behind him as the huge, metal machine landed, crashing into the ground and straightening up.

Shepard ran forward, trying to get into cover as a rocket screamed towards her. I watched in horror as it hit her shields, collapsing them and sending her flying. Fire concealed her from view making my heart almost stop. Javik roared at the same time as I did, and we both charged, darting around the lumbering mech. The prothean began to fire on the human back up as I took a running leap and clung to the back of the Atlas.

"Fuck. Yeah. Donkey!" I snarled, holding on and dragging myself up as it tried to swat me off it's back. I ducked under its arm, climbing to stand on its shoulders, my shields being pounded by the troops trying to get through Javik only to die within seconds. I took my shotgun off my back, pointing down to the window and firing, once, twice, three times until the glass shattered and the pilot was exposed. He brought up his gun, but I had already dropped a live grenade into the cockpit. Once it was rolling around his feet, I jumped, calling for Javik, trusting him to catch me.

The prothean did as I knew he would, scooping me out of the air and rolling us both under a desk. Metal sprayed the air around us, a whoosh of sound and flame scorching over the desk, blowing bodies and detrus around until silence fell. I didn't wait for Javik to let me up, just rolled out from under the desk and running towards Shepard. She lay on her back, her armor blackened by the rockets explosion and her eyes closed. She lay so still I feared she was dead, that her shields hadn't saved her. I fell to my knees, my hands moving to her face.

"Shep?"

"Rocket to the boob is . . . bad," she whispered, her grey eyes meeting mine as she peeled them open. "Don't tell Garrus." She coughed, accepting my hand and staggering to her feet. "Where's the mech?" she asked, obviously still disorientated. Her voice tightened with pain as she looked down at her dented armor.

Javik walked over as Mordin helped the female from the pod. "I considered not catching you after that ridiculous stunt," he said, crossing his arms. "Stupidity prevention. It would teach you not to ride an atlas like what you humans call a 'cowboy'."

"And how do you know what a cowboy is?" I asked, raising a brow. My mouth dropped open in realization. "Have you been sneaking into Jokers Clint Eastwood movie nights?" I snorted at the image of Javik wearing a cowboy hat and walking like John Wayne. "You totally have!" I accused when he said nothing. He looked away as if hoping a reaper would land on his head and end his misery. "You are so busted!"

A little huff escaped him before he turned to me, his expression like stone. He grit his teeth, baring his fangs and growled. "Make my day," he said, pulling off a rather convincing impression of Dirty Harry.

"Oh. My. God!" I laughed out loud, my hands on my knees as I let go of all of the tension the fighting had coiled inside me. "That was frickin' epic," I said, gasping as my chest heaved. Little chuckled burst from me every few seconds as Modin and the krogan looked at one another, bemused curiosity on their faces. "God, I needed that. Cheers, Javik," I said once I'd controlled myself, letting Shepard wrap her arm around my shoulders for support.

We limped to the shuttle Wrex had brought to the landing pad, all of us looking worse for wear, but smiling all the same. We'd somehow survived a full out Cerberus assault, and I had to admit, I felt pretty fucking good, considering everything. Javik prowled behind me, looking as if he regretted his behaviour and I shook my head. "Don't be worryin' none, Iceman, I won't tell anybody about your fetish, but you owe me big time," I called back to him as Shepard climbed into the shuttle. I smiled at Mordin as Wrex moved to stand beside me and the female.

She didn't look at me, or Wrex, she looked behind me. Her hand shot out, grabbing the shotgun from Wrex's back and raising it, firing twice. I spun around, my mouth dropping open as two troopers fell to the floor, their chests ripped open. The female didn't even speak, just handed the stunned male krogan his gun and walked into the shuttle, sass and swagger cloaking her. I looked at the bodies, then to Wrex. He looked at the bodies, then to me. Our faces split into identical shit eating grins, and we high fived.

"She just took your quad and put it in her purse," I said to Wrex. "That is one badass woman." I patted his arm in sympathy, before climbing in behind the other two and took a seat. "You'd better be careful, Wrex, the women on the Normandy gonna own your ass." Javik and Wrex fell silent, looking rather scared of the fact the women on the ship were a force of nature they couldn't control and I smiled in satisfaction. It felt good to know that they had learned a little respect, it would make winding them up all the more fun.

Once we'd settled in for the journey back, I turned to Shepard. "When are you gonna learn that being biotic doesn't mean you can stop rockets with your right boob?" I asked. "Now Wrex, he could've totally stopped that rocket. Wait, does he even have boobs?"

The giant krogan shifted uncomfortably under the weight of my stare on his chest. "Nah, I don't have boobs, I leave that to the asari."

"Riiigghht," I said, layering my voice with thick, playful sarcasm. "Lotta armor for someone with no boobs, s'all I'm saying. And Shepard, don't think I'm not telling Garrus what you did."

"Hey, I would have had everything under control if you hadn't been doing the two step with that engineer," she retorted, a little pout on her lips. "You're really gonna threaten me with Garrus? Do I need to tell Vega that you decided to get in the way when Javik was trying to save your ass? Or that you rode the Atlas like a cowboy?"

"Now that's not fair. He may have mind reading mumbo jumbo, but I don't. How was I to know he was throwin' that green shit right at me." I glared at the Prothean in question, the burns on my cheek evidence to his biotic-slinging prowess . . . or lack of it, in my opinion. "And anyway, I knew he'd catch me."

Javik smirked. "Human, had I been aiming for you, you would not be sat where you are. And next time, I won't."

Oh, you . . ..

"That's beside the bloody point, you were throwing it around like it was going out of fashion . . .. Then again, green biotics went out of fashion 50.000 year ago, you need to get with the color scheme, Iceman. And yes you will, cause you know I'd kick your arse if you didn't."

"Prothean biotics not like Human or Asari. Natural biotics, not caused by Eezo. Some other element involved," Mordin interjected, the rapid speech almost too much for me to understand.

"Yeah, yeah, thank you, Mordin," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "I was making a po- you know what, never mind. We were talking about the fact that Shepard thinks her boobs are Wonder Woman bracelets." I closed my eyes for a second, rubbing the lids. Grit, smoke-dust and the lack of sleep made them feel like the sandman had just danced his way over my eyeballs. "And you'd better not tell James."

"Then you don't tell Garrus. He worries enough as it is," Shepard retorted, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

I sighed, shrugging my shoulders in defeat as Wrex laughed. "She got you by the quad there." He winked at me as I turned my glare on him. "You going to get Garrus a pipe and slippers too, Shepard? Turn him into a real old man?" the old krogan asked, totally unrepentant.

The guilty look on her face told us all we needed to know, and soon we were all almost rolling around on the shuttle floor laughing as she stammered. The image of Garrus, bundled into a dressing gown, little slippers on his taloned feet would stay with me forever. He needs a fez too, cause fez's are cool.

"Approaching the Normandy, Commander," Cortez called from the pilots seat, a huge shit-eating grin on his face. "Let the Garrus slipper hunt begin."

The laughter continued as we docked with the ship, bets being placed on who'd find them first and what would be done with them. I suggested supergluing them to the nose of the ship, but Joker-listening on the comms like a creeper-nixed that idea, coming up with some excuse about it being burned during FTL.

Yeah, right, cause that's the reason. I think it's because he just doesn't want me to play with his toys. He's so mean.

"Hey, Joker," I called as we all bundled into the elevator, my voice muffled by the arm of the rather large krogan almost squishing me. "Tell me something . . . do you have slippers?" I shifted to the side, trying to get some air that didn't smell like blood, krogan or Shepard; who smelt like gun smoke, explosives and god only knew what else.

Shepard snorted, over the sound of the pilots stuttering. "He does," she said, pretending to whisper.. "Ask him what they look like."

"You think I can't hear that, Shepard?" Joker asked, his voice weary. "Fine. They have . . . Blasto on them, happy now? I have the matching onsie and boxers, if you must know. "

I laughed as Shepard winked at me. "He has the robe too . . . it has a hood."

"Damn it, Shepard! You're destroying my reputation here!"

Wrex rumbled a deep laugh that shook my whole body. "What reputation?"

His answer was cut off by the ding of the elevator. We came face to face with Garrus and James, both with their arms crossed over their chests, matching expressions on their faces. You know the one, the 'you're in so much trouble. Who do you think you are getting shot at?' look.

An awkward silence descended. Javik exited, almost running away, clearly picking up on the atmosphere. Mordin, pushing the female, followed behind. Wrex took one look between us, patting us both on the shoulder sympathetically, before waddling his way from the elevator.

Oh crap. Guess we don't need to tell them now.

"James . . .."

"Garrus . . .."

I looked at Shepard as she looked at me. We both snorted, shaking our heads. I gestured for Shepard to speak first, but she shook her head again. Pass the guilty parcel on to me why don't you. Commanding officer my ass. Okay, I've got this . . . I think.

Sighing, I looked up at the two men. "This . . . is not what it looks like," I said, pointing to the damage in our armor. "I mean, it is, but . . . it was totally not our fault."

James raised a brow. "Oh really? Cause, to me, and Garrus too . . . it looks like you two went playing with rockets," he said, a slight growl in his voice. Garrus offered his own annoyed rumble.

"We didn't . . . play with rockets, we dodged them . . . mostly," Shepard interjected, crossing her arms, her wince only just hidden. "It's not like you can even talk, Garrus. You took a rocket to the face, I only took it to the boob."

"Shepard, I'm a turian, we're not as . . . breakable as humans," Garrus pointed out. He winced as Shepard slapped his chest.

Oh no . . . he's dead, Jim.

"Did you just call me . . . squishy? Cause not even Wrex dares say that now," she snapped, holding her hand and shaking it a little. "You need to take your armor off more often, so when I hit you, it doesn't hurt."

The turian rolled his eyes. "If I did that, you'd hit me more, see the problem?" he asked. "Anyway, we're not talking about us, we're talking about you two."

"It wasn't our fault. Cerberus started it," Shepard said, her voice sounding almost childish, rather than the usual harsh, commanding tone she used. "I can't be held responsible for their stupidity."

I snerked, catching the amused quirk of James's lip before he could stop himself. "Beside the point, you need to be more careful. You don't see me looking like I've been through hell and back."

Oh, so not going there, Action Man. You ain't making it out like you're all saintly and holier than thou.

"You're being a hypocrite. One word, James. Sanctum." I planted my hands on my hips, daring him to argue as Shepard and Garrus had a whispered argument beside us.

He took my cue, backing down, his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay, you win. Dios, you're hard work sometimes."

Yeah, like he can talk. I thought that Phantom had him. Stupid boy, playing with swords.

I sighed, walking up to him and hugging him, needing to touch him. "I know, but you wouldn't have me any other way, right?" I rested my head on his chest, the exhaustion really starting to set in as Shepard and Garrus embraced beside us.

"Right," James whispered, kissing the top of my head. "But it doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about you, Muñeca."

"I know, and I'll still worry about you when you go 'Action Man,' all over the place," I whispered, looking over at Garrus, who had that 'I've just lost a row but can't help but be happy about it' look on his face. "Hey, Scars? Can I see your slippers?" I asked him.

His mandibles fluttered as Shepard giggled and hid her face guiltily. "I don't have slippers," he denied, stroking Shepard's hair in a tender motion. "Why would you want to see them anyway? You know, if I did have some . . .."

Shepard looked over at me, a secretive smile on her face. "They have tiny space hamsters on." She giggled as Garrus groaned, burying his face in her hair, one blue eye peering at me, the promise of retribution plain for all to see. .

I didn't care, I knew he'd make me pay, but the temptation . . .. I just couldn't resist. I bounced a little in James's arms, a grin spreading across my lips. "Oh, now that I've got to see!" I cackled, winking at him. "For science."