Edi came over Lili's com. "I am opening a door on the far side of the room; you must hurry, Shepard."

Running into the room, she froze for a moment as the door quickly slid shut, the lock displaying red. Her momentary pause was short lived as several husks began to fill the room. She really hated those things. It was bad enough having to fight the Collectors and Reapers, but to know that the ground minions they threw at you were at one point her own people was like a twist to the knife in her gut. She had no problem killing, she'd been doing it for almost as long as she could remember, but these people – if you could call them that anymore – weren't enemy soldiers or rival gangs. Sure they were attacking her, but they were under Reaper control. They were no longer human, just as the Collectors were no longer Protheans; just twisted monsters used by the Reapers. It really was a mercy to put them down.

She stood, preparing herself to charge into the group that was advancing them. She was determined not to let the same fate that had befell the Protheans happen to her people. But her first order of business was to get off this damn ship, then hunt down the Illusive Man and kill him for his betrayal. Just as he was about to take off across the room, one of the giant Collector bugs slowly flew into the room, a Pretorian, Mordin had called it. "Fuck!"

Ducking down behind the meager cover that was provided, she tried her hardest to stay out of sight of the monster's particle beam as well as fight off the husks that were closing in on her. "I am going to kill that bastard!" More Collectors filed in from the other side of the room as she let out a shockwave, knocking down the husks and sending them flying. If there was one thing she hated more than a liar, it was someone who unnecessarily put those who trusted them in danger. While she didn't trust the bastard that have given her a second chance at life, she did trust him to provide her with reliable intel to get the job done and allow her to bring her team back safely. "Zaeed, Grunt, take care of those things. I've got this bastard." She was tired of hiding while the Collector bug shot at her. She sent as much of her biotics to her barriers as she could before she grabbed her arc projector off her back charged it. Standing she gave a cocky smirk to the creature and fired, knocking out its barrier. She threw a heavy warp at it while she waited for the heavy weapon to recharge, knocking out a small portion of its armor. She grunted in pain as she felt guns from more than one enemy tear through her barrier. She was thankful that her team managed to quickly get any other enemies attention away from her and she was left with only her single large enemy. She bit back a scream as it easily burned through the armor on her leg. Her gun fired, once again hitting the creature and knocking out more of its armor before it landed on the ground to recharge its own barrier.

Hunkering back down in her own cover and allowing her own barrier to regenerate, Lili looked down at the charred flesh she could see through her armor. While at the moment she had heavy doses of medigel running through her system to dull the pain and prevent infection, she knew that as soon as her adrenaline quit pumping through her veins that she would definitely be feeling it later.

They repeated the process of her taking out the creature's barrier and a portion of it remaining shields again before it once again dropped to the ground, sending out a shockwave that she was unprepared for. She took half a step back to brace herself against it and clenched her jaw to fight the pain that was jolted through her injured leg. She didn't know how she was going to make it back to the shuttle, but she knew that wasn't her concern at the moment. It was the annoying, flying fuck in front of her. It almost reminded her of fighting those stupid Geth Colossus back in the old days.

As the Praetorian lifted back up, Lili repeated the pattern again, shooting through its barriers and taking out the remainder of its armor until at last the bug-like thing exploded, just as the one on Horizon had done. She dropped down for a moment until she heard the hurried foot falls of her companions and she stood to see Grunt pinned down by three Collectors, she charged one, throwing him into the wall as she turned and pulled out her shotgun, firing at it while it was down. By the time she turned back around, Grunt had taken down the remaining two.

"Edi," the Commander called out, hopeful that the AI that she had been slowly learning to trust would come through for them.

"Lili, you're leg…" She waved away the gruff sounding man as she continued to try and find a way off of this damn ship. She knew he was worried and she knew he had reason to be. The burning pain in her leg was starting to turn numb and she knew that couldn't be anything good. But at the moment her main concern was to get both Zaeed, Grunt, and herself out of there before they were more than injured limbs, not even wanting to imagine what the Collectors would do to them, or her, if they got their hands on them.

"Opening another door on the other side of the room." Letting out a relieved sigh at Edi's words, Lili ran to the best of her ability to the other door. She wanted to cry as both exhaustion and pain set in at the sound of the moaning that could only mean one thing…husks. Looking ahead, she could see where they parked their shuttled, but she could also see the swarms of husks that were crawling out of the walls and floor it seemed. The familiar presence of both Zaeed and Grunt warmed her some, but she was unsure how she was going to make it down there in her condition with the current obstacle.

"Commander, we're out of time; you have to get out of there now."

Lili gritted her teeth again at Joker's information and pushed past her exhaustion and pain. Summoning that familiar blue glow that buzzed across her skin, she threw an enormous shockwave down the hall. The husks that had been shuffling toward her were all sent flying in different direction while others continued to climb their way out of every nook and cranny it seemed. She scowled as she realized that there were so many of them that all her shockwave had done was clear the way for the next wave of the pitiful bastards and she still needed to make her way safely through the hall and to the shuttle. With each jagged step she took toward the shuttle, she threw a warp, a shockwave, or literally threw one of the little fuckers out of her way.

The sound of gunfire behind her didn't sit well with her and she immediately ordered her two companions to focus on the Collectors that were flanking them while she cleared out the husks that seemed to crawl out of the godsdamn walls. More throws and slams were sent out as she slowly inched forward with her two team mates following her closely. The distraction of stray bullets making it past the two men did little to distract her from her current goal…the shuttle.
"Commander, we have to go, now!"

At the pause in gun fire, Lili staggered in exhaustion at the immense amount of energy she had used. She looked to her team and pointed to the direction the shuttle had been parked in. "You heard the man, move!" She tried to run after Grunt and Zaeed, only to have her leg give out on her completely. She cried out in pain as the damaged leg collided with the hard floor of the Collector ship and her burnt armor pulling at the already angry wound.

Zaeed turned at her pained cry, and reach for her. He had known that she wouldn't make it to the shuttle alone, but also know that if he had offered to help her in the beginning she would have made it a point to continue on her own even after she had fallen. It seemed both he and the Krogan had known Lili would require help and had held back in their retreat to the safety of the shuttle. The Krogan stood by him, firing his shotgun at any husk that got close enough to the pair of them as he slowly backed his way into the shuttle after the couple.

oooOOOooo

At Edi's insistence, Chakwas met Lili and her team in the shuttle bay upon their arrival. As soon as her gaze landed on the pale redhead, she quickly pulled out her omni tool as she tried to figure out where the best place to start was. Gasping at the sight, her gaze zeroed in on the burnt portion of her greaves and decided the best place to start was where her flesh was missing, exposing her bare muscle to the cool artificial air of the ship.

Lili rolled her eyes and stumbled past the doctor as Chakwas huffed at her blasé attitude toward her own injury. She knew she was severely hurt and that as soon as the stims and the adrenaline wore off that she would be in absolute agony. But she wanted just a few moments to herself before she had the doctor fussing around her nonstop. "I'm fine, just tired and starving. I used a ton of energy."

Zaeed was leaning against the shuttle watching Lili carefully, as she staggered to her locker and pulled out a rations bar and quickly consumed it. "I really need to remember to store some of these on the shuttle."

"You should have seen it! Shepard faced down an entire room full of those husks and wiped most of them out with a single move." Grunt pounded his fists together in satisfaction.

Lili rolled her eyes as she sat down on the floor, leaning against the lockers. She began unfastening the seals on her armor and winced as she moved down to her leg.

Chakwas glanced over at Lili as she heard her hiss in discomfort. The Commander had removed her leg grieves to show that a portion of her under armor had been burnt away and there was a deep and wide cut on her leg, the edges looking red and angry. "Shepard, I'll expect to see you in the med bay." Lili looked up at Chakwas and nodded; her face pale. A look of concern crossed Chakwas' face, knowing how much agony she truly had to be in to be so compliant in her order to the medbay.

Lili removed the rest of her armor carefully and glance up at the hand that was in front of her face. Zaeed stood there waiting for her to remove the armor so he could help her to the med bay. Chakwas had already left and they both knew the good doctor was probably getting ready for her.

Lili took Zaeed's hand as she stood to remove her under armor; she managed to get it down to her waist before her leg buckled from the pain. Now that she no longer had the medigel pumping through her, the pain was excruciating; Zaeed quickly caught her and helped her to the elevator. "You know I could always carry you, love. No one would look down on you for it after what you got there." He indicated the wound on her leg with a nod of his head. Lili narrowed her eyes at him and tried to walk off the elevator without his help, staggering before she made two steps.

Rolling his eyes at her, Zaeed stepped up to support her weight again, passing everyone in the mess. She was bare foot in a white tank with a Spectre symbol on it, her under armor pulled down to her waist with Zaeed arm wrapped protectively around her to help support her weight. She couldn't help but think how weak others might see her.

Lili stepped into the med bay with Zaeed to see Chakwas with a needle in hand, waiting on her. Lili's face paled at the sight of what seemed like sixteen inch needle. "Set her on the bed." Lili went to lift herself on the bed before almost passing out from the pain. "Don't be ridiculous Shepard; you can't get up there on your own. I'm surprised you even made it this far without collapsing, even with Massani's help; it isn't going to hurt you to let someone help you every now and then."

Zaeed grabbed Lili by the waist and hoisted her on the bed, they managed to get her injured leg up onto the medical table so Chakwas could work on it.

Lili closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as Chakwas injected the syringe into her thigh, on both sides of her wound. Her face paled at the pain. She weakly cracked an eye open at the rumbling chuckle beside her. "Don't tell me with all those tattoos you had, you're afraid of needles."

Lili narrowed her eyes at Zaeed as he reached behind her and pulled her hair out of the knot that had half way fallen out of. "Don't be ridiculous! That is completely different and you know it; the needle on that syringe is as long as my arm…..FUCK!" Lili looked down at what Chakwas was doing to her thigh, she was surprised to see while that while Zaeed had her distracted, Chakwas had cut away the cloth of her under armor around her injury.

"Oh be still, Lili." Chakwas shook her head as she grabbed another syringe of astringent and began cleaning out Lili's wound. "Looks like what ever hit you cut into and destroyed part of your muscle; it will take a little while for your cybernetics to regenerate your destroyed muscle." Taking a deep breath, Lili nodded. While she wasn't looking forward to sitting around the medbay for hours on end, she was extremely grateful that she did have the ability and the means to recover fully from an injury such as this.

Chakwas moved to the bed and gently placed a hand on her shoulder while Mordin applied some cooling gel to Lili's laceration, before wrapping it loosely with some medical gauze. "How are you feeling Shepard?"

Opening her eyes at her forced nap, Lili groaned and winced as Mordin wrapped her leg. "Honestly, I'm hungry and that hurts like hell!" She indicated her leg with a nod of her head.

"Shepard, I would like you to stay here for a few hours so I can keep an eye on you…don't look at me like that, Lili. You aren't confined to that bed, but I want that leg elevated." Chakwas gave Lili a stern look before Lili nodded her head in agreement.

"You already put me to sleep," Lili mumbled. "Can I at least have something for the pain? And some food? I'm starving!" Her stomach chose that particular moment to prove her point by groaning loudly at the lack of calories after her extreme biotic display on the Collector ship.

Smiling Chakwas handed Lili two pills. "Here, take these with food. You should be fine out in the mess. I'll keep an eye on you from here…" Smiling in relief and without a second to spare for the doctor to change her mind, Lili stood and began limping her way to the mess hall for food. At this point she didn't care what she shoved down her throat, so long as it was edible and wouldn't kill her, she'd take it. "Keep that leg elevated or I'm bringing you back in here Shepard!"

Mordin watched Lili leave the med bay with a wave of her hand to show she had heard Chakwas' warning. He was intrigued by her more every day. It seemed the rather small human defied everything he had been taught about humans and their pain tolerance. "Endurance impressive; must ask, was Shepard like this before cybernetics?"

Chakwas smiled affectionately as she watched Lili hobble out into the mess hall and Zaeed bring her a large bowl of the stew that Gardner had cooked. "Yes, she has always been very stubborn when it came down to her health and safety. I give it two hours tops before she is trying to go about her daily routine…against my orders."

"Commander, Illusive Man's on the line; I figure you have some words for him too."

Lili gritted her teeth at the mention of The Illusive Man and the memory of the recent crap he had pulled on her and her team. "Thanks Joker."

Standing, Lili spared a single glance to the medbay to ensure that Chakwas was preoccupied at the moment before she quickly limped to the elevator and into the debriefing room to meet with the image of The Illusive Man.

"Shepard, looks like Edi extracted some interesting data before the Collector ship came back online. How is the leg?"

Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Lili pointed her finger at The Illusive Man as she fought the urge to call him every single explicative she knew, plus the ones she had heard Zaeed mutter that she didn't know. "Cut the act, you sorry son of a bitch! I knew I couldn't fucking trust you! You put me in danger, my ship and the lives of my crew. That is unacceptable!"

"We needed information on the Omega 4 relay; that required direct access to Collector data. The opportunity was too good to pass up." The Illusive Man inhaled his cigarette and casually blew it out as if her outburst was both expected and not a concern. "Yes, I put you at risk; but without that information we don't reach the Collector home world and you and every other human may as well be dead. It was a trap, but I was confident in your abilities and don't forget Edi, the Collectors couldn't have anticipated her."

Lili crossed her arms under her breasts and growled as she cocked her hip out to the side, easing the pressure on her partially healed left thigh. "Agreed, but you could fucking have told me. Why send me in there bloody blind? I could have been better prepared and maybe not left fucking injured!"

The Illusive Man smiled at her, eyes roaming appreciatively, standing there in her tight white Spectre's tank and a pair of black cargo pants. "I needed the Collector's to believe they had the upper hand, telling you could have tipped them off in any number of ways. Besides, I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't think you'd succeed, and your cybernetics helped you heal quickly."

Lili narrowed her eyes at him and starred daggers as she took a step forward, pointing her finger at The Illusive Man. Watch where you direct those eyes asshole. "You have one fucking job: Information! If I can't trust your Intel you're fucking useless to me! This is my mission and we're bloody doing it my way; you may have funded it and you may have the information, but I don't see you out here risking your godsdamn ass for the sake of humanity!" She scowled at him, cutting off his angry excuses as she continued to chew him out. Sure she knew it wouldn't do any good, but fuck it felt good to say it. "For us to succeed with this, the trust you are expecting from me needs to work both fucking ways. If you can't trust someone on this ship then I want them off, because I know the only ones that could be untrustworthy are your Cerberus lackeys! My team is fully committed, as am I. We all know this is a damn suicide run and that most of us won't bloody make it back, but we're here. Give us a little godsdamn faith."

The Illusive Man inhaled through his nose, angry at her outburst. "It's never that simple, you of all people know that."

"It is that fucking simple! You brought me back for this mission! Fucking trust me to do it!"

Ignoring what she was saying, he pushed forward in this conversation. The thing with Shepard was that she wouldn't change, nor would she trust him after this. It was one of the draw backs of having an outsider take care of this. "This is no time for petty grudges; things are tough and only going to get tougher. Edi confirmed our suspicions; the Collectors and Reapers are using an advanced identify friend/foe system that the relays recognize. All we need is to get our hands on one of those IFFs. We have a team investigating a derelict Reaper, long dead in the Hawking Eta."

Lili rolled her eyes at the convenience. "Another derelict ship; my, doesn't this sound familiar? Why do I get the feeling this isn't as simple as you're trying to make it sound. My team isn't going anywhere until you tell me exactly what is going on and why you want me to go out there to get it instead of having it sent to me like you do everything else?"

Taking a breath, the Illusive Man downed the remainder of his scotch quickly before he met Lili's hate filled gaze. "We lost contact with Chandana's team. I want you to go investigate it and recover the IFF; it is too dangerous to send another research team out there until we know what the situation is and why we've lost contact."

For once Lili agreed with him. "Agreed. I'm going to finish establishing my team before we do anything, there are upgrades that still need to be installed and I have teammates that have some unfinished business that they would like to take care of, so your IFF can wait." Lili turned and left the holo pad she was standing in, trying to walk without a limp.

She exited into the hall where Jacob and Mordin were listening with Miranda. "So The Illusive Man didn't set us up. Could've fooled me."

"Necessary risk."

Lili scowled at both men and eyed Miranda, surprised that the woman hadn't thrown her support in with the Illusive Man and instead remained uncharacteristically quiet. "Yes, but there is always a better way than to needlessly sacrifice people. It may take longer to find it and it may be more difficult; but there is always a better fucking way."