Part 25

Invictus

Shepard sensed her people moving around her once again, almost as if to enclose her. Wrex and Grunt strode over to stand, like massive guard dogs, before Shepard. She could sense Garrus at her shoulder, Javik at the other. She knew Kirrahe and Liara lingered back with the injured Tali and and Kaidan, though Shepard could feel the static prickle on her skin of Liara's biotics at the ready. She glanced sideways towards Maalik, who dipped his head towards her, his single eye glowing iridescently. "Stand down," she said to her people, her voice low, threatening.

Grunt and Wrex unwillingly moved aside to allow her passage. She had feared she might get flashbacks, a panic attack or two. Instead she only felt an empowering rage. The tiger and found the hunter, and it wasn't going to end well for him. "So," she said, her tone almost casual. "We have reached the true end of things. You won't be lying to me or fooling me this time."

"Won't I?" the child asked, a thin smile playing on its translucent, blue lips.

"This time I brought my friends with me. And this time I have not recently suffered head trauma."

"So this is it?" Javik spoke, his voice a growl. His lip curled in contempt, revealing sharp teeth. "This little hologram was responsible for the murder of countless species."

"They are not countless." The VI smirked. "I have counted every one, and the number would make you tiny brains lock up. You will soon be one of them. Your pitiful cycle-"

"Seems like you missed a prothean or two," Shepard folded her arms, not defensively, but conversationally. She tried not to look at Maalik, who had moved to stand behind the child. A small control orb had appeared between his hands and he was busily manipulating it. She knew she had to keep the VI distracted.

"We miss nothing," The child said, its echoing voice growing louder.

"You missed a lot of things," Shepard corrected in her best condescending tone. She could really sound like an ass hole when she wanted to. "You didn't notice that this cycle was different. That in this cycle we are all allies against you."

The VI smirked. "This has happened in many cycles before. Species have allied to try to defeat us, and they have all failed. Thousands of times they have failed."

"There's a first time for everything," Shepard pressed, not letting the cocky grin fade from her face.

"You did surprise us, Shepard. We did not expect the lesser species to evolve as you did. To grow immune to our indoctrination. It won't be enough, however." the child's eyes moved to look over her shoulder and turned went as cold as steel.

Suddenly there was a yelp from behind her and Shepard turned. Liara, Vega and Wrex were clutching their heads. Kaidan, though still out cold, twitched and winced. Fresh blood ran from his nose. "Stop it!" Shepard shouted, turning back to the child. Everyone who was able aimed their firearms at the VI, who only blinked its child eyes, passively.

"I am also aware of your ship. I'm sending my watchdog to deal with it." The child looked up and Shepard could not help but follow its gaze. Above them, in a starry sky, she could see Harbinger begin to move, slowly at first, but then picking up speed towards the Normandy.

Shepard's hand flew to her helmet, "Joker, you have incoming!"

"I see it," Joker's voice came back, tense but unwavering. "Normandy can out maneuver that sonofabitch. You take as long as you need."

"Stay safe!" Shepard turned her attention back to her people. Grunt was supporting Wrex who snarled with pain and rage. Liara slumped, on the verge of passing out and Vega had fallen hard to his knees. Kaidan groaned. Kirrahe squatted over the injured, running his Omni-tool across them. "This doesn't look good, commander," he said, meeting her eyes. His large ones were filled with fear and dismay. "This isn't a medical Omni-tool, but I've made some modifications to it in my free time. From what I can tell the VI is using something like accelerated indoctrination to attack their brains."

The VI chuckled. "You see, Commander. The trouble with having friends is that I can hurt them. The invincible Shepard has one, very large weakness."

Garrus stepped forward, slicing through the image of the little boy with the blade at the end of his rifle. It did not good. "What's the source of the projection?" he growled, teeth bared. "I say we shoot the shit out of it."

"No good," Kirrahe shook his head, his speech almost as rapid-fire as Mordin's had been. "The Citadel is The Peace Keeper. It's been fully integrated into every system after thousands of years."

"Are you willing to let your people die while you geth tries in vain to hack me?" the Peace Keeper questioned, startling Shepard back to attention. "Your alliance is nothing. It does not matter how many people you bring, they are all inferior to us! You are ants which would challenger a thresher maw! Would you not rather be superior, like the mighty creatures you see before you?" it gestured upwards to where the Normandy was dodging the beam weapon of the horrifying Harbinger.

"You claim to be the next step in evolution? Then why are humans and other species evolving on their own to counter your attacks?" She asked, fishing desperately for any form of ammunition. She saw Liara slump to the ground with a whimper. Now Shepard felt the flashbacks threatening. Mordin, engulfed in fire, dying alone. Thane being stabbed again and again. Ashley, her back leaned against a bomb, fighting off the enemy forces until the end. Jack and Samara holding the line and being ripped apart by a Reaper beam. Shepard felt her own legs turn to Jello. It was all she could do to keep standing. Her breaths were shallow and jerking as her head swam with images of the people she had failed to save.

"Your species is flawed. Its attempts to protect you from us only prolong your suffering.

"Kaidan's life signs are failing!" Kirrahe said, urgently.

Shepard felt blood run into her mouth. She'd been chewing her lips in her panic. What could she do? Then Garrus walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. Javik placed his hand on her other shoulder. The prothean spoke, his voice a low rumble of strength. "I believe you have given yourself away, Peace Keeper. You mentioned that you are aware of our synthetic, attempting to hack your system, yet you do not destroy him. Instead you attack us, in an attempt to cause us to flee. In reality, the geth is succeeding at its task. Soon you will be disabled."

Shepard could feel herself climbing back from the dark pit of memories. The voices of her friends pulled her back. To her surprise, it as Tali who spoke next. The quarian was sitting up, hand clamped to the wound in her side, but eyes blazing behind her helmet. "You have existed for so many cycles. Once, long ago, you malfunctioned. You were never meant to keep the peace in this way. Wouldn't it be nice to rest now. To give the job to someone else?"

"NO!" the VI's voice had changed, becoming deeper and louder, almost like a Reaper itself. Kaidan, Vega and and Liara screamed, then fell still. Wrex, who had been holding his own, crumpled. "You will not defeat me! I am the Peace Keeper! You are all fools! Insects! You are nothing to me! To my mission!"

Shepard turned and hurried to Kaidan's side, crouching she squeezed his shoulder, still staring down the enraged VI. "Your mission is over," her voice was so hushed, her friends barely heard it. Garrus moved to hold Liara while Grunt still supported Wrex and Kirrahe moved to check Vega's prone form. Javik remained, staring down the VI. Shepard looked at Maalik, whose hands worked busily over the control orb between them. She hadn't known a geth could work so fast. Still, she knew he needed more time. Just a little more time. But would she be able to give that to him without sacrificing her friends? Sweat prickled her skin and she felt a heat like righteous fire blaze up in her. "No," she exhaled like a dragon breathing flame. "Not one more. You have cost me so many of my beloved friends! You cost me a father! You cost me brothers and sisters! No more! Not a single one!"

The force of her words appeared to surprise the VI. It seemed to blink several times. She felt as though something invisible was reaching out from her now. Like the blackness of indoctrination that had clawed at the edges of her mind when she had faced the Illusive Man for the final time. Only now it was like fire coming from her and pushing back the darkness. Forcing the VI's power away from her friends. She didn't know what this was, some form of long dormant biotics? A result of her immunity to indoctrination? She didn't care. She only needed the right words and she could save her people.

Then Ashley appeared in her mind. Not waiting to die in a pool of reddening water, but smiling, whole and hale. She smiled, her face gentle. She seemed to whisper the words to Shepard, who spoke them aloud, with the force of a military officer.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

"Commander, we can't keep this up!" Joker's voice came over her comm.

At that same moment Maalik closed the control orb in his hands. He turned his bright eye to Shepard. When he spoke, it was with his own voice and the mouth of the VI child, who now stared blankly, straight ahead. "I have assumed direct control."

"Maalik?" Shepard tested, uneasily.

"Commander! I don't know what you did, but Harbinger just turned around. I've got a clean shot at its belly and its not doing shit about it!" Joker reported jubilantly.

"Take the shot," Shepard said, her voice a hoarse whisper. It seemed she had little strength left after her speech. Joker heard her, though, and moments later the group was treated to a fireworks display as the Normandy blasted the hell out of the defenseless Reaper.

Shepard turned back to Maalik, who stood beside the VI child. He spoke again in both voices. "We have taken over the run-systems of the VI. We now have control of the Reapers, and have begun guiding them to earth's sun. Once the Reapers are destroyed we will shut down the Peace Keeper. Understand that this will cause the Keepers in the Citadel to die as well. Their original minds are long since replaced with synthetic ones, which are too corrupted even for us to save."

Shepard hesitated, then asked a question which has always plagued her. "What were they? The Keepers I mean?"

"Their species was one of the first. At the very beginning, when the VI Peace Keeper first became corrupted with the flawed hypothesis that synthetic would always fight organic. The Leviathan race was not the only one alive in that cycle. Many others existed, but only one proved genetically malleable enough to become permanent slaves. They were once called the Vorrak. A passive, gentle people with very long life spans. Perfect for the Reaper's intentions. Eventually the Vorrak no longer truly existed. What we know as Keepers are mere husks of the people that they once were."

"Commander, I am as curious as you are," Kirrahe spoke up, "but our people need medical attention."

"Right," Shepard said, shaking her head free of a thousand competing questions.

"Wait." Maalik said, his head jerking awkwardly. "The VI is fighting me! It has surrendered control of all the Reapers to focus its powers here. It intends to destroy the station."

"Fucker doesn't know when to quit," Garrus snarled. He knelt and scooped Tali into his arms.

Grunt thew the arm of a groggy Wrex over his broad shoulder, "Come on, old man, your people need you alive!"

"Can we get back the way we came?" Shepard went to the hole in the floor where their elevator should have been. It was quite a drop, and she could still see a few Keepers moving below. "Doesn't look like it," she answered her own question. "Maalik, when I give the word, deactivate the force field around this room."

"Shepard Commander?" the geth questioned.

"Just let me know when the Reapers have reached the sun, then bring down the field. We're getting the fuck out of here," she hit the side her of helmet again, "Joker, I'm going to need a pickup something fierce in a few minutes."

"Right," The pilot answered. "Which docking port should I come to."

"No docking port, you're going to have to snatch us from space."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Jeff. It's our one chance. If anyone can pull this off, it's you. The best damn pilot in the galaxy."

There was a pause. Then, "Dammit! How do I let you get me with lines like that? Alright, Shepard, your pickup is ready and waiting."

"The Reapers have reached the sun, and the VI is still struggling against my control. It will succeed in approximately 10 minutes."

"Get that force field down!" Shepard barked. She grabbed Kaidan and threw his arm over her shoulder. Kirrahe hurried to hold Liara as Shepard reached for Vega with a free hand. "Hold on, people!" Shepard shouted and braced herself.

The force field went down, though she barely felt it. There was the briefest surge, like a wave passing over her as the air around them was lost. Then she bent her knees, got a firm grip on Kaidan and Vega, and pushed off with all her force. She saw her fellows doing so around her. She looked back at the platform. Maalik still stood there. She fumbled for her intercom, "Maalik, get out!"

"I cannot, Commander. If you are to get clear of the station's destruction, I must hold back the Peace Keeper's intended destruction as long as possible."

Shepard swore, "No, Maalik. I said not one more, and I meant, not one more! You are getting out of there!"

"Commander," EDI's voice joined the conversation. "I believe I can be of assistance. When Maalik feels he can no longer prevent the Peace Keeper's efforts, I will allow him to transfer his data into my own mainframe. It will be a bit crowded, but for the short term I believe we will be alright, until he finds another platform."

"If you would have told me we would be willingly allowing a geth to upload into my ship when all this started, I would have called up brass and gotten you on a section 8 for insanity," Joker chimed in.

"Maalik, can you do that?" Shepard asked. Watching as she drifted further and further from the geth below. Above her, earth shone like a perfect jewel.

"I believe I can," the geth replied.

Moments later Shepard found herself being scooping carefully into the Normandy's open cargo hold. Joker was flying with a delicate precision she had never witnessed before. Gravity had been deactivated in the hold, so no one would be injured. Shepard anchored herself to a bulkhead and held her two charges in place as more of her crew were gathered up like insects into a jar.

When they were all together Joker activated and the gravity slowly so their fall was not so extreme, and the doors closed, cutting off Shepard last view of the Citadel. Crewman bustled forward to help with the injured, but she, and her companions, refused the aid. As she had done once before, Shepard hoisted Kaidan onto her shoulders in a fireman's carry. She strode beside Garrus, who still held Tali cradled lightly in his arms. She caught Garrus' bright eyes looking at her and she smiled. She spoke hoarsely, through suddenly dry lips, "My head is bloody," she said, "but unbowed."

**Victory? And I got to have my favorite poem in there too! But thing aren't over quite yet! Check back in next week!**