Chapter 24
Shepard nervously bit her nails as the Normandy approached the Cerberus base. Even through the Alliance's Fifth Fleet had cut through most of their defenses, she still worried about what awaited her on the inside. As the base drew closer and closer, Shepard could feel time slow as her anticipation spiked. Shepard turned and glanced at Joker whose stone-faced expression helped calm her nerves.
"EDI, Inform the team to meet in the shuttle bay" Shepard said as she began to leave the cockpit
"The team?" EDI asked, trying to clarify the statement.
"I need everyone on standby for this mission."
"Understood." EDI said standing up and joining Shepard.
"Wait Commander," Joker said trying to get Shepard's attention. Shepard turned and returned to the side of Joker's chair. "Do you really think this is wise?"
Shepard knew Joker would have a hard time chancing the loss of EDI. "Joker, no one knows Cerberus better than her." Joker swallowed hard. "Don't worry I'll keep her safe." Shepard said setting a reassuring hand on Joker's shoulder.
Shepard turned and entered the elevator, riding it down to the bay. The door opened and all six of her squad mates faces met hers. She continued to walk until she stood at the door of the shuttle. Taking a deep breath, she began her orders.
"As you all know we will be assaulting the main base of Cerberus. It's not going to be easy, so that's why I called all of you here. The moment we land the Illusive Man will throw everything he's got at us. We have to hit this base fast and hard. I want team of four to head straight for their communications. The moment we have those signals being sent in and out permanently offline the base will be crippled, giving us ample time to find the Catalyst. In the mean time, two of you and myself will be headed for the Catalyst. Liara and EDI are going with me. Garrus, I want you to lead James, Ashley, and Tali to the comm. station, EDI will give you directions along thee way." Liara and Ashley nodded in understanding, but Tali didn't move. Her eyes stared into Shepard's, formulating a response. Shepard let out a quick breath. "We're almost there and this is the last step to winning back Earth and taking down the Reapers."
Shepard watched her team enter the shuttle, and as suspected, she was pulled aside by Tali.
"Shepard, What is going on?" Tali said sternly, "I've been hearing rumors…"
Shepard paused and decided to go with the blunt route, "Sean was taken back on Illium."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Tali almost yelled.
"I needed you to focus on the task at hand, knowing Sean was captured would have sent you into a fury." Tali didn't respond, but Shepard saw her eyes tighten in anger. "This is the best way to get Sean back. I could tell Cerberus was still in his mind. They would never leave on their own. When you get to the comm. center you can shut down all signals out and then we can find Sean."
"And what's to stop me from just going after Sean?" Tali said, emotions quickly rising inside of her.
"The clinic on Illium couldn't stop the device. Cerberus is still in control of him, and now that he's back, who knows what they have done to him. If the chip is brought back to its full potential, he could kill you on sight." Shepard took a deep breath in and put both hands on Tali's shoulders, trying to calm the writhing emotions inside of her, "This is the only way to get Sean back, the Sean you love."
With a staggered breath out, Tali nodded and entered the ship. Shepard sighed, she hated all the infighting that was going on between her, Tali and Sean, but this was the only way to end it. The only thing that she hoped for what after all of this, they would still have a heart to forgive her. Shepard grabbed the rail and pulled herself into the ship and joined Cortez at the front.
Tali's boots thudded against the manicured floors of the Cerberus base. Fueled by worry with a sprinkle of revenge, Tali sprinted in front of her team. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her face as her suit tried to keep a controlled temperature.
The path to the communication center was relatively quiet. Except for the occasional guard, Tali hadn't hit any major hold-ups, but she knew that the Illusive Man was keeping an eye on her.
Tali's omnitool beeped at her, signaling that the communications room was growing nearer. "This might be it." She said slowing her pace as she reached a locked door. Kneeling down, Tali brought her hands up and began to furiously hack at the door controls. She could hear Ashley and Liara bantering behind her, but chose to ignore them.
Slowly but surely the code began to fall in place. She was ready for whatever lay behind the doors, but most of all she way ready to get Sean back once and for all. As she began to punch in the final line of code, her finger slipped. The door locked itself once again, scrambling the code. A stream of Khelish curses streamed from her lips as she tried to force her way back into the controls. Another foolish mistake caused the door to clamp shut once again followed by more profanity. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Garrus approach and squat next to her.
"Tali, I know what you're going through is hard, but take a breath and calm yourself. There's a lot riding on you and we need you at your best."
Tali didn't respond.
"Tali, you're one of the best damn engineers I have ever seen, and you're going to let a simple door lock stop you?"
"I don't have it in me." She said in a barely audible tone, "Everything that I know and love is in jeopardy. If I screw up, it'll all be blamed on me."
"I know a lot of pressure is on you, but you have it in you." Garrus replied, "Do it for Sean. He's counting on you, you're his only hope."
Tali closed her eyes and took a staggered breath in, then slowly let it out. She opened her eyes, feeling a sense of rejuvenation and got back to work on the door. Within seconds the door unlocked.
"I knew you could do it."
As the door slid open, Tali was greeted with a shotgun blast to the chest, the force of the shot sent her skittering across the floor.
"Hostiles!" Garrus yelled as he ran to cover Tali from a few shots meant for her. Ashley and James opened covering fire as Garrus pulled Tali around the corner. "Are you alright?" He asked, furiously eyeing Tali up and down checking for any bullet holes or blood.
"I'm fine, just got the breath knocked out of me." Tali said, slowly standing up.
"Then you're going to need this." Garrus said tossing Tali's shotgun back into her hands. Tali loaded a fresh clip into it and prepared to enter.
Shepard continued to move forward. This was a momentary lull in the action that faced her on the way to the Illusive Man's personal office. She turned a corner and faced a long corridor, with only one door situated at the very end.
There it was. A door, like all others, but this held all the secrets of Cerberus. The fate of the entire galaxy rested in the hands of her team, the only thing that could stop her waited behind the door.
"EDI, can you get this open?" Shepard asked as they stopped in front of the door.
"This should not take too long." EDI said as she began to hack into the locking mechanism. A moment later the door clicked open.
Shepard nodded her appreciation towards EDI and rushed into the room, gun drawn and ready. The room was empty. Across the polished floors that reflected the darkest depths of space sat a lone chair and a holographic screen. Shepard shuddered as she pushed on further into the room. The extreme lack of sound helped force everything to feel off. Her boots clicked on the floor as she walked forward to the chair that overlooked the central star of the system. The light the star gave off basked the room in a blue color.
Taking a seat in the chair, Shepard began to scan through the files. "We need to find the Prothean VI."
"Shepard." The Illusive man said from behind her. Shepard whipped around, gun drawn, to see the Illusive Man's figure on the holographic pedestal. "You're in my chair."
"This chair is the last thing you have left. Cerberus is finished." Shepard said, trying to hide her rage.
"On the contrary. We've achieved everything I have ever imagined… Almost everything."
Tali worked through the mess of codes trying to individually shut each one down and not cause a total system blackout or worse. Wires around her feet had slowly begun to knot themselves around her toes, and already her hand motions had to be fine-tuned to pull any important wire. She hated being stuck in the rafters, but this was the only way to get to the system after the Cerberus Troopers destroyed the main server banks. The rafters reminded her of the Collector base, where she was sent through the ventilation shaft, of course without the heat threatening to cook her alive.
"How's it going in there?" Garrus shouted from below her.
"Its a mess, but its unraveling slowly." Tali yelled back downward, carful not to look away from her screen.
"You or the codes?" Garrus playfully teased.
"Hilarious, Vakarian." Tali said, sarcasm dripping from her lips. "Hit any more reinforcements yet?"
"Not yet, though a few stragglers wandered through the door."
"Good to hear. I don't want to get riddled with bullets while I'm up here." Tali then turned on her comm and tried to reach Shepard. "Shepard, come in Shepard. We have reached the communications center and I am currently shutting it down." No reply. Tali growled as she blamed the lack of a response on a scrambler.
Shepard had just finished her conversation with the Prothean VI and turned to EDI, ready to ask for her to search the Cerberus data banks for any more useful information. Her command was cut short as a blaster shot connected with one of the screens causing it to fall into static.
"He warned you not to overstay your welcome." Kai Leng said slowly pacing behind Shepard, a small smile creeping its way across his face. He then drew his sword and assumed a stance, ready to strike. Before Shepard could ready herself, another Cerberus operative dropped in from the ceiling. This one, clad in a grey and white full body suit, also drew a sword. Yet this one was different, instead of sleek armor like Kai, this operative had heavy plates on and a backpack. With a flick of its wrist, an electric whip appeared in the operative's hand. This operative would be easy at a range, but deadly up close.
Shepard couldn't wait for much longer and opened fire on Kai. Kai jumped away from the shots and began to assault Shepard's position. Before Shepard could duck away, the electrical whip from the operative wrapped itself around her throat. Electricity coursed through her system, causing her to lose control and her body to tighten up. The operative then pulled the whip, causing Shepard to fall to the ground and slide before him. The operative then raised its sword ready to hit with a killing blow.
"Shepard!" Liara yelled before tossing a warp towards the operative. The operative's hand paused for a split second, causing the warp to hit him square in the chest knocking him backwards.
Shepard rose up and opened fire once more. "Liara, EDI! Focus fire on the operative, I'll take care of Kai."
"Ooh, now its personal." Kai smirked.
Shepard opened fire, never letting go of the trigger as she traced Kai's movements with her rifle. Before she knew it, Kai was right in front of her. As he swung at her with the sword, Shepard reacted by raising her gun. The sword stopped by the gun gave Shepard a perfect moment to hit Kai. Lowering her right hand, Shepard drew her pistol and fired three shots into Kai's chest.
Staggered by the shots, Kai fell back, but then charged forward. The butt of Shepard's rifle met his face and sent him careening to the ground. Kai tried to flip out of his submissive state, but a barrage of bullets to his chest stopped him.
"Commander, come in Shepard!" Tali's voice sizzled through some static.
"Tali I read you. What's going on?" Shepard said, turning away from Kai's bleeding corpse, to the operative. It looked like Liara and EDI needed her help. The operative was warding off almost all of their attacks with either his shields or his whip.
"I have the code and am shutting down all communication in and out of the station." Tali said. "Turning it off… now."
Shepard raised her rifle, ready to take an unexpected shot at the operative, but a second after Tali's "now" the operative stood up straight and shivered before falling to the ground.
It couldn't be.
"Stop!" She shouted as she saw Liara and EDI prepare to take advantage of the situation the operative had fallen into. Liara turned quizzically toward Shepard, but didn't let her gun stray from the body of the operative that now lay motionless on the ground. "Take his helmet off." Shepard ordered as she approached the body.
"Shepard…" Liara began to object.
"Just do it!" Shepard ordered once more.
Carefully, Liara brought her hands closer and closer to the helmet, half expecting the person behind the mask to lash out at her at any moment. There was no movement. Liara felt around for the seal then with a wary press, released the helmet. The visor plopped off to reveal Sean's face.
"What…?" Liara could barely say.
"They had him all along." Shepard mumbled.
"Are they still in control?" Liara asked.
"I have no idea. EDI?" Shepard asked.
"I have no reading of any type of communication coming from the station. Perhaps when Miss. Zorah cut all communications it deactivated the signal to the control chip inside of Sean." EDI responded taking another read of the station.
Shepard noticed Sean's eyes begin to flicker. "Be on your guard," she warned, "This could not be who we're expecting."
Sean's eyes snapped open, and almost as quickly as they opened, fear shot straight through them. His body convulsed as he scrambled backwards, panting. Sweat began to form on his brow as he neared the wall.
Sean reached down and grabbed the sword his other self had been using. He pointed it at Shepard, jaw quivering. "Stay back."