A/N: Hello guys! What's up? Finally, my exams are over, though not exactly on a happy note. I screwed up my Pure Geography, real bad. Anyway, let's move on to better stuff. We have crew number 13 and 14! Welcome iBayne and S. Laurence! Can you believe it? Just one more and we'll have five times than that of Dear Diary! If you haven't checked out iBayne's N7: Galaxy At War, which you most probably already have, go check it out (Colburn's in the first few chapters, as well as the latest one. Note, this Colburn isn't the same guy. It's actually based after me, which means it's a stupid Colburn.). I have to say, if I'm supposed to keep track of so many characters, I would've jumped down a building. Lol. Anyway, hope you guys like the plot twists. But I kinda worry I'm overdoing it. Tell me alright? I don't want this to become some cheesy cliche trash.

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-Normandy, hangar deck-

Kaidan

"Thanks, amigo. Couldn't have done it without your help."

"No problem. Just don't try to customise your Omni-blade by yourself again. You're not exactly what I'd call a tech person."

"After all the sparks and fires and everything, I'm not planning to re-enact. Just feeling kinda lucky Loco's on Lesuss with Ash and Liara."

"Good for you. You'd better clean that up before he gets back."

"Good point.". Kaidan was about to return back to his office when his stomach rumbled. Damn. "Better get some grub. I've seen how much you biotics eat.". Wow, if Vega can hear it, it must be really loud.

"Yeah yeah.". Kaidan made a face at Vega. "Good luck with all that cleaning. Those marks look awful. You'll need a lot of luck.". He entered the elevator and pressed the button for deck three. His tummy rumbled again, this time even louder. Oops. Kaidan had spent the past few hours helping Vega fix his Omni-tool, after he nearly set the ship on fire.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he rushed out and made a beeline for Gardner. "Rupert! What've you got? I'm starving!"

"Just in time. I've just made a batch of calamari gumbo. Want some?".

Kaidan peered behind Gardner, and saw him scoop up a ladle of some stew-like green coloured goo. Holy Jesus, what the hell is that? "Here you go!".

Gardner held out a plate full of the disgusting liquid and stretched his hand out towards the ravenous biotic. Kaidan just froze, torn between filling his tummy at the expense of his tastebuds or dying of starvation in dignity. The random pieces of god-knows-what floating innocently in the sea of goo didn't help. His tummy rumbled for the third time, louder than ever. Ugh, whatever. He took the plate, thanked the cook, and sat down at the nearby table.

Relax, it's just calamari. He speared one of the unknown solids with his fork and brought it in front of him. Maybe not. It looks more like something from Tuchanka's sewage system. He shut his eyes tight. Come on, Alenko. He desperately tried to move his hand towards his mouth, but it seemed to have a mind of its own, just refusing to put the damn possibly-extremely-toxic piece of radioactive-substance inside. Things remained that way for a long time. He figured he looked like some idiot with his mouth wide open who couldn't seem to control his limbs, fork in hand, hovering in front of his face.

Just as he was about to give up, he felt a strong hand slam his back and he jerked forward, mouth open and sending the content of the fork right into his mouth. Immediately, he could feel his eyes water. The stuff was corroding his tongue like a piece of magnesium in acid. Holy shit! He spat it out immediately. He ran towards the sink and ran his tongue under the life-saving steam of water. Oh God, this is salvation. Satisfied that his mouth was rid of the biohazardous matter, he turned off the tap and spun round to find Garrus, mandibles twitching in amusement.

"Garrus!"

"Thought you had a little problem, so I decided to help you out."

"You're just jealous that you don't really have anything on this ship to eat other than those nutrient packs."

"Well considering that Gardner's your chef, I feel kinda lucky.". The Turian laughed out loudly, the flanging even more obvious than ever. Idiot.

The three-fingered bully was about to rub it in, when Liara came storming right into her room. They're back? He arched an eyebrow towards Garrus, but his friend merely gave him a shrug of the shoulders. Then he mouthed something. Ask Ash, I'll go to Shepard.

Kaidan nodded in reply.

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-Comm Room-

Shepard

Shepard leaned against the wall and ran his fingers through his blonde hair. The mission did not go as expected. No wonder the Asari Councillor had snuck them the intel. Seeing Samara was nice. The circumstances that accompanied were not. Shepard let out a sigh. The Reapers were seemingly unstoppable. They don't need supplies, they make their troops based off their enemies', basically attacking their strongholds mean you're attacking your own home... The whole thing just felt like a lost cause.

A knock roused him from his depressing thoughts. "Shepard, you okay?". Shepard instinctively recognised the deep throaty voice, with that unique flanging. Garrus.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands and stood straight. "Yeah. What's up?"

"Just wondering what happened. Liara was pissed."

"We went to this Ardat-Yakshi monastery. Those commandoes were all wiped out."

Garrus' jaw dropped, or would've, if he was human. "Damn."

"Yeah. Turns out the Ardat-Yakshi were the victims instead. Reapers attacked the place. They turned them into Reapers too. Banshees."

"And I thought the Husks and Brutes and Marauders were bad enough. No wonder she was pissed. Probably reminded her of her mother. Benezia was indoctrinated by the Reapers too, remember?"

"Yeah. Guess so.". Shepard couldn't think of anything else. Liara was a confidant. It worried him to see her like that. "How is she?"

"Horrible. But don't worry. Kaidan's on it."

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Liara

Liara's mind was still struggling to process the information on Lesuss, which was ironic, with her Shadow Broker business and all. Her emotions threatened to break loose when she saw what the Reapers had done at the monastery. Sure, they were Ardat-Yakshi, but they were also a part of the Asari. Furthermore, the fact that they were residing on Lesuss had proved that they were in different leagues from Morinth. They were good people, like the rest of those on Illium, on Thessia.

She realised how meaningless her words were on Mars, when she said that she was sorry for the fall of Earth to Ashley. She didn't realise how devastating it was, to fight their own kind, even though their friends were Reaperised and long gone in actual fact. Now that she had experienced it firsthand, it was too horrible for words. Marauders, Brutes, Husks, Cannibals... And the Banshees. It was like a perverse collection of Reaperised races.

Swoosh. She heard the door to her room open. Judging by the footsteps, she knew who it was. "Hey Liara.". The husky voice that used to make her smile lost its magic today.

"I didn't- I didn't know it would be so...". Her words trailed off. She didn't exactly know what to put to words.

"Hard?". Kaidan sat on the bed. He cupped her chin with a hand and lifted her face up, his black eyes staring warmly and kindly into hers. "Ash told me about it."

"How are we supposed to win this war, Kaidan?"

"They've already lost. They just don't know it yet. We've got Shepard."

"He is only one man."

"Sometimes, that's all the galaxy needs. With him, the Krogan, Asari, Volus, Salarians, Turians, Humans, Hanar, Drell, Elcor, and even the Batarians, they'll all come together, under one flag. Together, we'll exterminate the Reapers, once and for all. We'll end the cycles. We'll do what the Protheans couldn't.". His voice was unwavering, tone sure, confident and doubtless.

But it wasn't enough. "Palaven, Earth, Lesuss, Omega, Horizon, Kahje. What about them?"

"Thessia, Tuchanka, Sur'Kesh. They haven't fallen.", he countered. "We've got the full force of Aria's mercs, the Krogan are already helping to liberate the Turian homeworld. All we've got to do now is to get the Quarians to join in the fray. Then, we go to Earth. We eliminate every single Reaper, we rebuild our homeworlds. We start our lives anew, clean slate. We go merrying with family, friends, loved ones.". Liara fell silent. "We'll win this.".

"We'll win this?". Her voice was soft, uncertain.

"Definitely.". He leaned in and kissed her softly. His lips were warm, comforting. It filled her with renewed hope. "You just gotta believe.", he whispered.

A/N: Eww! That's enough! *gags* Anyway, I thought of giving Kaidan and Liara some limelight. I didn't want Colburn and Ashley to overshadow everyone else and make this something I really hate. This chapter marks the debut of Liara's POV. I'm trying to do everyone's at least once. If you find anything off about their characterisation, let me know! It's kinda hard juggling so many characters.

Edit: Just realised that Tali was in chapter 21. Lol. She's not supposed to be in here. Not yet. I've edited the chapter already.