Chapter 25: Assault on Olympus

Hannah Shepard was in the process of clearing out the few belongings she possessed from her former office aboard the Citadel. After all, the office was reserved for the Human Citadel Councilor, and considering she'd resigned only a few days ago, it seemed like the right thing to do. She'd been running around the Presidium, making calls, sending messages, and gathering allies and support for her newly decided course of action, and hadn't had the time to pack until now.

Not that there was much to pack. Miscellaneous odds and ends, data pads with novels she'd already read, a sealed jar with dirt, air, and water taken from Earth as a reminder of why she was here, and an old armored chronosuit from her days in the Alliance Navy, still fully decked out and clutching the antique, slug-throwing P-90-4 she'd been issued decades before. She'd have to get the glass display case it was in boxed up. It was either that or wear the damn thing, and she chuckled at the idea of her walking through the Presidium in full combat gear, position and propriety be damned.

Next were a handful of photographs, old-fashioned physical ones in glass and wooden frames, mostly of her son: one was taken the day after his birth, with Hannah cuddling him in her arms, back when Humans were alone in the galaxy. In a second, his smiling face looked back at her from the day he enlisted in the Rangers, side by side with the one where he held his framed commission as a Geist. The last showed when he first donned the striped armor of the N7s, and received his promotion to lieutenant commander.

There were a couple photos of Hannah as well. The photo-op of her and Rael'Zorah shaking hands after first contact, their somewhat false and uneasy smiles carefully crafted to bind the Alliance and Flotilla together long enough to end the Contact War, perhaps even longer. That one always made her chuckle. The second was an official photo documenting her first appearance as Citadel Councilor, standing between Raan and Tevos on the Council platform all those years ago. It still baffled her why the Alliance High Command had chosen her of all people as Councilor, but there it was. She grimaced slightly seeing the faces of two people she'd once considered agreeable acquaintances and coworkers, if not necessarily friends. Now, Sparatus and Tevos were bent on taking the thing she valued most away from her, and she let out an unconscious growl at the thought.

"What did they think would happen?" she muttered to herself. "That I'd just go along with it to save my goddamn job? Fucking idiots."

Her ruminations were interrupted by the door to her office sliding open. Raan walked through the entrance, mumbling to herself and looking somewhat flustered. Her attitude immediately set Hannah on edge, since it was so unlike her.

"What is it, Shala?"

"It's your son." she replied after a moment "He sent me a message a few minutes ago, claiming Sovereign and the Geth were about to assault the Citadel."

Hannah dropped the small box with her belongings in shock. "When? Now?" she gasped.

"That's what he made it sound like, yes." she replied, looking uneasy. "Do you think he's telling the truth?"

"Shala, John may be reckless, he may be rash, he may even be rude, depending on whom he's talking to, but one thing he's not is a liar." she replied rapidly "If he says they're coming, they're coming. Do we…" she shook her head, "do you have time to close the Citadel's arms?"

"Hannah, I know how you feel, but this information isn't enough to act on like that, and you know it." Seeing Hannah's face, she continued. "Still… there was a second part to his message. Tali was with him, and she claimed Saren found a way to bypass the Citadel's defenses and board the station directly."

Hannah wasn't shocked. She didn't have time to be shocked. "Just him, or him and an army of heretic Geth?"

"Yes."

Hearing Raan's answer immediately triggered instincts in Hannah that had long lain dormant. She wheeled in place and grabbed her desk chair, before lifting it up and swinging it into the case with her armor inside, shattering the glass in one blow.

"What in the name of the Ancestors are you doing, Hannah?!" asked Raan with a squeal.

"If Saren and the heretics are coming here, we're a few minutes away from being thrown into a warzone." she replied, slipping out of her silken dress to her undergarments, modesty forgotten in her haste to don the armor. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not go in naked as the day I was born."

Raan gaped at her. "You haven't worn that thing in thirty five years!" she exclaimed in a scandalized tone. "We don't even know it the Geth are coming for certain! Have you taken leave of your senses?!"

Hannah finished slipping out of her skirt and quickly walked over to Raan, before grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "Damnit, Shala! If he's wrong and I suit up for nothing, I'll look like an idiot! If he's right, and I don't, I'll be dead! Now help me put this thing on!"

Raan sputtered for a moment, but did as she was told. Within a minute, the last seal clicked in place, and Hannah stretched for a few seconds, working out the kinks and catches the armor had accrued over the years, even in the sealed, oxygen-deprived display case. She racked the bolt on her P-90-4, and smirked slightly when she heard it click, even after decades of remaining unused. She slotted in a fresh magazine of armor piercing ammo into it, racked an initial round, then slung the strap attached to it over her shoulder and flicked off the safety. She quickly repeated the process with her sidearm, then checked her combat knife as well.

"Alright." Hannah declared, moving to the door. "We may not be able to close the station's arms, but at the very least, we need to evacuate the rest of the Council. If we can get them aboard the Destiny Ascension, they should be safe until this is over. I hope." She added as she ran a hand across the holographic display on the door. It opened, and when her personal secretary looked up and saw Hannah standing there, her jaw dropped.

"Close your mouth before you swallow a fly, Caroline." remarked Hannah with a small smirk. "Find a safe place to hole up for the next few hours. Hopefully, this is just-"

She cut off suddenly as a massive tremor shook the Citadel Tower and sent her crashing to the ground. After a moment, she picked herself up, before helping Raan to her feet as well. In the distance, she could make out the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The symphony of war, in other words.

"Move!" she ordered, all but sprinting to the door that led to the hallway connecting the other four Councilor's offices. She emerged into the long corridor, only to be greeted by the sight of the other three Councilors and their aids stumbling from their respective offices, with looks of confusion and worry painted on their faces. They gaped once they saw her armed and armored form.

"What in the name of the Goddess do you think you're doing, Hannah?" shrilled Tevos.

She replied in a voice more suited to giving orders on a ship than to speaking with a politician. "Saren and the heretic Geth are attacking the Citadel. We need to evacuate to the Destiny Ascension, ASAP."

"Who do you think you are?" growled Sparatus. "There's no evidence-"

He cut off as Hannah sent a sustained burst of machine-gun fire into the ceiling a meter above his head. He barely had time to finish shouting before she teleported to directly beside him and grabbed his arm. Before he could so much as twitch, he was on his knees with one of her arms twisting one of his behind his back and her other arm wrapped around his throat.

"USE YOUR GODDAMNED EARS, SPARATUS!" she screamed, her mouth only a few centimeters away from the back of his head. She paused for a moment, and the sounds of battle carried through the walls and into the corridor. "That's gunfire out there, you idiot!" She loosed her grip and dragged him to his feet before spinning him around roughly. "We're evacuating to the fucking Destiny Ascension, now! You either walk, or I'll drag your unconscious metal ass there in cuffs! UNDERSTAND!"

He nodded quickly, and the Asari and Salarian Councilors were right behind him.

"Good! NOW MOVE!"

They moved.


Pain.

"I'd better not be in the fucking Medbay again." groaned Shepard.

"No problem there." came Tali's pained voice from somewhere above him. That confused him slightly. He was in the turret of the MIAFV, so how could she be above him?

He opened his eye and found out. The tank was virtually belly-up, with the armor smashed in and dented in in several areas. He could see through the cracked window in the rear hatch and tell it was blocked by rubble, and the turrets wouldn't be opening anytime soon either. He unbuckled his safety harness and flopped unceremoniously to the floor/ceiling, where he landed with a thud and a moan.

"Sound off." he ordered through clenched teeth.

"Tali here."

"Garrus here.

"Wrex here."

"Liara here.

"Ashley here."

"Good. Any injuries?" he asked.

"Bumps and bruises, but nothing serious." replied Liara, helping him to his knees. "You may want to have your suit inject some medigel to dull the pain."

"Not a half-bad idea." replied Garrus, typing a short command on his omnitool. A moment later, he let out a relieve sigh. "Ah… much better."

"Pansy." rumbled Wrex.

"Hey, not all of us have redundant organ systems and regeneration factors." replied Tali, typing a similar command on her tool.

Shepard did the same, then stood fully and stumbled towards the middle of the tank. "We need to go. Saren has a lead on us, and it's getting bigger as we speak." He began trying to pry off the grated plates that lined the floor, but it was difficult due to the damage. "There should be an emergency hatch somewhere underneath this paneling. Wrex, a little help?"

The Krogan stood and gripped the panel Shepard had been working on. With one swift yank, he pried it loose from its place and dropped it to the floor. Beneath it was a pair of levers with simple instructions to pull them simultaneously, which he did. There was a muffled bang as the explosive bolts holding the panel in place blew it out of the way, and then the tank was plus one exit. Wrex clambered out quickly, and then reached a hand down to Shepard to haul him out as well. The scene that greeted the Human's eyes as he emerged was one out of a nightmare. There were dozens of bodies scattered around the Presidium near where the vehicle had landed, including at least one that had gotten caught underneath it when it appeared. All that remained of it was a bloody smear and bits viscera along the side of the tank. There were multiple fires burning out of control all along the Presidium ring, and the air was a hazy orange-black from smoke and heat. Klaxons blared in the distance, and sporadic bursts of gunfire came through as well.

Shepard took all this in while Wrex hauled the rest of his team out of what was left of their APC. After a minute, they finally got their boots on the ground.

"Alright, chances are Saren's headed for the Citadel Tower." said Shepard. "He's got a head start, so we need to move." He suited his words by starting forward, his sniper rifle drawn and at the ready. A few meters ahead, some of the bodies on the ground began to twitch and rise, making it clear they were husks of their former selves. A few quick bursts from Shepard's team put them down for good.

He approached a nearby Avina station, and started in immediately. "Status report."

"We have lost all primary power to the level." replied the hologram, flickering sporadically. "Environmental controls are not responding. Class three fires are burning in sectors two, three, six, and seven. Civilian casualties are high. I am also detecting numerous synthetic life-forms throughout the station. They are believed to be hostile. Please approach with caution."

"What happened to the Council?" asked Shepard anxiously.

"The Council has been evacuated to the Destiny Ascension."

"Where's Saren?" asked Tali.

"Former Spectre Saren Arterius is nearing the vicinity of the Council Chamber. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, though Citadel Security is unable to respond at this time."

"No kidding." mumbled Garrus.

"I'm glad to know the Council's safe, at least." said Liara.

"Let's go." ordered Shepard with a curt nod.

A minute later, the team of six was silently riding an elevator towards up into the heart of the Citadel Tower. Through the curved glass window, they could see the full length of the Citadel, and the battle between the CDF and heretic Geth that lay beyond it. After a moment, something appeared that they'd all been dreading. The hulking, midnight-black form of Sovereign came through the clouds of the Widow Nebula, and quickly plowed through the blockade the CDF had established like it wasn't there, despite the battle damage from its encounter with the Normandy on Virmire. As it approached, the Citadel's arms began to close, but they'd never shut in time to keep the Reaper out.

"FUCK!" Shepard swore. "Saren's gonna lock the CDF out. We need to stop him before Sovereign can gain control of the Citadel and open the Relay."

Just as he finished speaking, the elevator slammed to a halt, and threw all six of them to the ground. They picked themselves up and quickly assessed the situation.

"Saren's locked the elevator." declared Shepard, activating his chronosuit's helmet. "Suit up – we're going for a little walk."

"Damnit." cursed Ashley donning her helmet. "I hate EVA."

"What's EVA?" asked Garrus, slipping on his helmet as well.

"Extra-Vehicular Activity." replied Shepard with a small smirk, aiming his heavy pistol at the glass between him and vacuum. "Space walking." He did a quick check to ensure his team was suited up, and then fired several shots into the glass, which quickly cracked at shattered at the onslaught. The broken fragments of the window blew out into the void, and only the team's magnetic boots kept them from following.

Shepard exited the disabled elevator and quickly oriented himself with the new 'down,' before beginning a slowly, laborious walk along the along the side of the Citadel Tower. He had to make sure to let one foot magnetically seal to the side of the structure before lifting the other, lest he go flying into open space. His team followed at the same plodding pace, and he cursed internally at how long the trek would take at this rate. After a hundred meters or so, his team entered an elevator shaft, and began to move more quickly, bounding off the walls, floor and ceiling from point to point now that they no longer had to worry about floating off into the void.

There was a blast of explosive decompression directly ahead, and several Geth platforms burst out of the hole they'd just created, guns blazing. Shepard quickly took cover and pulled the trigger on his rifle once, only to have the weapon click uselessly. He stared at it for a split second before reality came crashing down on him.

"Fuck! No air in space, dumbass!" He glanced over his shoulder to find Garrus in a similar predicament. "Garrus, our rifles use chemical propellant! They don't work in vacuum!"

Garrus nodded once, the replaced his sniper rifle behind his back before drawing his conventionally powered assault rifle. He sent several bursts downrange, and Shepard quickly followed suit with his sidearm. A few seconds later, the last of the Geth fell, and the team began moving forward again. They soon emerged from the elevator shaft and were once again forced to creep along with magnetic footholds. The Geth platforms and occasional Krogan mercenary they encountered suffered from the same difficulty, but without the armor-piercing capacity of two Chronorift rifles, the Krogan were much harder to deal with. Shepard eventually began using his Temporal Dislocator to deal with them, simply because it was easier, if not necessarily faster.

The Geth had managed to erect a hasty blockade using omnigel shields along the way, but it quickly fell to the overwhelming firepower of the six organic members of the team. Liara was particularly effective, using her C-Dis and biotics to grab synthetics and Krogan alike and fling them into space. Eventually, the team came upon a wide expanse of open 'ground,' and ducked behind cover when a Geth drop ship flew overhead. It began disgorging troops by the dozen, and showed no signs of letting up.

"Wrex, take that damn thing out!" yelled Shepard, firing his pistol over the low wall he was crouched behind. The ancient Krogan Warlord grinned, and began charging his PRISM Gatling while the rest of the squad laid down covering fire. After a few seconds, he stood and let out a wordless roar, which was accompanied by a blast from his weapon. The PRISM beam slammed into the Geth vessel and blew it to scrap, before refracting off of it and felling most of the remaining platforms it had delivered.

After fighting their way through a second elevator shaft and more Geth patrols, the six organics found themselves in another open expanse of terrain. This one was guarded by nearly a dozen Geth snipers, all of which sent deadly accurate shots towards the squad, dropping shields and biotic barriers alike. They made it to cover quickly, but weren't able to counterattack without the use of their own sniper rifles.

"Anyone got any bright ideas?" asked Garrus, blind firing his assault rifle towards the Geth marksmen.

"I do, but I wouldn't call it bright." replied Shepard, steeling himself for what he was about to do.

"John, you've got that look on your face." said Tali concernedly. "The last time I saw that look, you were nearly killed by a Thresher Maw."

"You can't see my face." he countered through his helmet. "But you're right. This is stupid, but we don't have time for smart. Cover me."

Shepard activated his chronosuit and teleported to a position nearly a thousand meters above the surface of the Citadel Tower. He began floating listlessly in open space, unconstrained by gravity or electromagnetism. Waiting for his suit's capacitors to recharge, he said a small prayer to whoever was listening to please keep the Geth from looking up. After several interminable seconds, he activated his com unit.

"I'm about to hit them from behind. I should be able to take out a few before they figure out what's up. While I do, you need to move."

Shepard's team acknowledged the order, and he once again teleported down, this time behind the Geth lines. His T-Dis made quick work of three assassins before they could locate the new threat, and he was working on a fourth when the first sniper round slammed into his shield, dropping it instantly. Just after the Geth marksman he was erasing vanished, a second round flew over Shepard's shoulder. He traced it back to its' source, and found the hostile sniper in question had been blown in half by Tali's Tesla Cannon.

"You big, stupid bosh'tet!" she yelled through his com unit, blasting a second Geth platform. "Get down, damnit!"

He did, and after another minute or so, the rest of the Geth snipers had fallen beneath the onslaught of fire from two different directions. After they did, Tali stalked over to him and slapped him firmly on the back of the head. "Don't ever do something that reckless again, you idiot! If we weren't in such a hurry, I'd beat you senseless!"

Shepard said nothing, and simply patted her gently on the shoulder. "You can hit me all you want when this is over. Let's end this."

A short distance ahead, the airlock to the Citadel Tower appeared, and Tali quickly hacked it open. The team stepped through, and began advancing on the Council platform.

"Garrus, take Ash and Wrex and keep the Geth off us. Tali, Liara, and I can handle Saren, but not if his friends are taking potshots at us."

"Roger that, Shepard." replied the Turian, drawing his sniper rifle. "They won't know what hit them."

Shepard nodded, and then motioned for his two companions to follow as he slowly made his way to the Council platform. Besides the fire and the smoke, as well as the shots from Garrus' team behind them, the expansive chamber was eerily quiet, and it unnerved the trio slightly. They forged ahead with caution, and eventually saw the object of their anger and mission: Saren was standing on an elevated platform before a holographic display, rapidly entering commands into the console in front of him.

'That must be the master control unit Vigil was talking about.' thought Shepard.

As if the thought had been a cue, Saren wheeled in place and began to levitate above the ground, held aloft by his own psychic powers. Shepard had just enough warning from his senses to shove Liara out of the way and tackle Tali to the ground before a blast of psionic energy slammed into where they'd just been standing, exploding with the force of a grenade.

"You're too late, Human." taunted Saren. "Soon, the Relay will open, and the Reapers will return."

"I'm not here to talk, Saren." answered Shepard, focusing his mind. "I'm here to kill you. Pray to whatever spirits you believe in, you metal freak, because you're about to meet them."

Saren let out an unholy scream of rage, and began gathering energy for another attack. Shepard was faster, and plowed into his mental defenses with the force and fury of a new-born star. The first line of defense he encountered was electronic, in the form of anti-MC headgear, built into Saren's skull. It lasted for a short second, before the pressure of Shepard's mind caused it to short out and shock the Turian traitor, temporarily distracting him and breaking his concentration.

The second line of defense was mental, and it took longer for Shepard to break. Saren used his own meager abilities to try and distract Shepard from his goal, but the Human soldier was too driven by rage and hate to be fazed by the traitor's efforts. When le last of Saren's mental defenses crumbled, Shepard dove into his psyche and nearly collapsed in shock from what he found. There were two minds in Saren's body, one filled with an equal amount of rage and hate as Shepard's, and a second that was… mechanical. Cold. Calculating. Emotionless. And indescribably powerful. It left Shepard in awe, while still wanting to make him vomit.

'Now you know the truth.' sent Saren through the psychic link. 'The Reapers are far greater than you could ever imagine, Shepard. They are the end of all things.'

'Not of me, they aren't.' replied Shepard firmly, trying to overwhelm Saren's body. He was slowly gaining the upper hand, but it was like he was attempting to pull a tank with his teeth. 'You were too weak and too cowardly to fight them. I'm not!'

'Resistance is futile.' droned the mechanical presence.

"Futile THIS, you metal motherfucker!" yelled Shepard, pushing through the last vestiges of Saren's resistance and seizing control of his body. Saren's pistol snapped up to his chin, and a single round blew through his head, snuffing out his mind in a single instant.

The moment it did, Shepard felt like he'd been hit by a meteor, and he was nearly overcome by an indescribable sense of loss and coldness, as if his soul had been ripped from his body. Even though Saren was dead, and even though he deserved to die, a thousand times over, if not more, Shepard couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness for the fallen Turian. In the final instant of his life, Saren had revealed everything that had led him to this point: all his memories, all his emotions, and all his experiences… and they resonated with the Human psychic. It showed him the truth: Saren wasn't always evil. He was just a pawn of the Reapers, and he deserved better than this.

"John… are you OK?" asked Tali, slowly guiding him to his feet. When had he fallen?

"I… no. But I will be." Shepard stood shakily and made his way over to the platform with the master control unit. He saw Saren's body in the atrium below, where it had fallen once his life ended. He frowned sadly. "Tali, upload that data file."

She moved ahead of him and did so. After a moment, her omnitool flared. "That's done it. I've got control of all systems."

"Open the station's arms." suggested Liara. "Maybe the Citadel Defense Force can stop Sovereign before it's too late."

Tali nodded and entered a command, but Shepard shook his head. "They couldn't destroy Sovereign when it first arrived. With the Geth out there, they stand even less of a chance."

"We have to do something." exclaimed Tali as the Citadel's five arms began to slowly glide open.

Shepard nodded and opened a conventional com channel to Admiral Hackett, praying he was in the system. "Admiral, this is Commander Shepard. Do you read?"

"Roger that, Commander." came the grizzled Admiral's immediate reply. "We just came through the Relay. I scraped together every ship I could, but it's not much." He let out a small sigh. "God almighty, it's hell out there."

"Admiral, you need-"

Shepard cut off as a second voice came through his com unit.

"Johnathan?"

It was his mother.

"Mom?"


"Mom? Is that you? Where are you? Are you alright?" Shepard's concerned voice echoed weakly in the bridge of the Destiny Ascension, but it was quiet enough in the small room for the Council and bridge crew to hear.

"I'm fine, John. I'm on the Citadel right now, in one of the lower wards." she lied. No one had the capacity to say anything to contradict her. "Raan's with me, and we're fine."

"Oh thank god." he said, his voice filled with immeasurable relief.

"John… the other three Councilors evacuated to the Destiny Ascension. I can see it from here, and it's badly damaged. If they don't get help soon, they're done for."

The entire bridge held its' collective breath as they waited for Shepard's response. "Mom… Sovereign should be our top priority. If it opens the Citadel Relay, it's all over."

Hearing his answer, the faces of every person on the bridge fell, and were filled with looks of fear, hopelessness, and dismay. After a long moment, Shepard spoke again. "But… I'll do what I can to slow it down. Admiral Hackett, are you still there?"

"Damn right I am, Commander." he replied in his grizzled voice.

"I'd like you to divert the Alliance fleet to save the Destiny Ascension, then make for Sovereign when they're safe." He paused for a deep breath and gentle sigh. "As infuriating and obstinate as I might find the other three Councilors… they don't deserve to die because they disagreed with me." He laughed harshly. "Despite what they did when they found out about the Genophage cure and Rachni."

The Admiral hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure about this, Shepard?" he asked grimly.

"Absolutely."

Hackett sighed. "Alright. Good luck, Shepard. Hackett out."

Shepard cut the line as well, and the entire bridge turned to face Hannah.

"How… how did you know?" asked Sparatus meekly.

"Faith, Sparatus." she replied quietly. "I had faith in him. Maybe you should try it sometime."


"All Alliance vessels, this is Admiral Steven Hackett." he intoned over the flee-wide communications channel. "Head for the Destiny Ascension. We're going to pull her out of the fire."

Hackett frowned grimly as his flagship, the ASV Poseidon, diverted along with the rest of the fleet towards the limping Asari super-dreadnaught. The Poseidon was the only Alliance capitol ship he'd been able secure on such short notice, and the dreadnaught was old and outdated. Still, its' spinal PRISM cannon packed quite a punch, and began ripping through the smaller Geth cruisers with ease, though the dreadnaughts took a bit more of a beating than the smaller vessels.

"Damn." he cursed softly. "Looks like the Geth have adopted some sort of ablative armor."

The sentiment was shared by several different members of his bridge crew, but not the ship's captain, one Benjamin Sisko.

"We knew it was gonna happen eventually, sir." said the dark-skinned captain. "We've used ablative armor for nearly a century, and quite frankly, considering how long the rest of the galaxy's known about PRISM tech, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner."

"I guess. At least it's only first gen." replied the Admiral with a small nod. "It can only stop a couple shots from a cruiser class PRISM cannon, and maybe one from the Poseidon. Still, it's disturbing."

Sisko didn't respond, and Hackett glanced over his shoulder to find the man staring off into space. No, not into space, he corrected mentally, but towards the Citadel. "Holy Mary, mother of God... look at that." he breathed.

Hackett looked, and he gasped at what he saw. Visible in the distance was the hulking form of Sovereign, clinging to the Citadel Tower like some kind of metallic leech. It was beaten and scared, but still intimidating beyond belief. At over two kilometers long, it was well more than double the mass of the largest ship in the Alliance arsenal, the newly commissioned ASV Zerg, a Katz class Carrier.

"I read about that thing from the Shepard's report on Virmire." said the Admiral slowly. "I didn't wanna believe it, at first, but seeing that… thing in person… Christ, he detonated nine tactical nukes inside its' kinetic barriers, and that's all they did? What the hell is that thing made of?"

"God only knows, Steven." replied the captain grimly. "And we won't be able to nuke it into next week, not unless we wanna risk taking out the Citadel Tower with it. We're gonna have to stick to Mass Accelerator and PRISM weapons."

"It looks the Ascension's safe for now." Hackett grunted. He opened a channel to what was left of his force, which was down to about eighty five percent of its' former strength from the fight against the Geth fleet. "All Alliance vessels: make for that thing on the Citadel Tower and blow it to hell and back. Watch your fire out there; we have friendlies in the Citadel Tower. I repeat, we have friendlies on the Citadel Tower. You are not to use nuclear ordinance."

Hackett closed the com channel, and then continued in a whisper only he could hear.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Shepard."


Aboard the Citadel, Shepard began focusing his thoughts. When he was in Saren's mind, he'd felt the second presence. It was like a mechanical parasite, but there was something… off about it.

"Tali, Liara, make sure Saren's dead." he ordered. "I've got one more thing I have to do."

Tali nodded, and then she and Liara jumped down to the atrium below. As they did, Shepard reached his mind out towards the Reaper clinging to the Citadel Tower. At first, he felt nothing, but then, his senses began to widen, and he started to fully grasp the true enormity of the being before him.

He felt minds. Organic minds. Millions of them. They were… connected. Interwoven, like some sort of unholy tapestry. And they were backed by equal parts machine and AI. Next to them, he felt like a man beside a mountain, la child lost and alone in a crowd of strangers.

'INSIGNIFICANT CREATURE OF FLESH AND BLOOD.' came the Reaper's… voice?

No…!

'YOU DARE TO TRANSGRESS ON MY MIND? YOU. KNOW. NOT. WHAT. YOU. DO! FOR THIS, YOUR SPECIES WILL DIE A TRILLION, TRILLION DEATHS. YOU… WILL NOT. YOU WILL WATCH AS WE ERASE YOU FROM EXISTENCE. NOTHING WILL REMAIN TO MARK YOUR PASSING. NOT EVEN A SHADOW OF A MEMORY.'

Shepard felt the Reaper's thoughts, but beneath them, almost imperceptible, was something else.

'…kill us…'

The thought was small. Compared to the presence Shepard felt from Sovereign, it was the size of an ant beside a mountain. But it was there.

'… please, kill us…'

It came again, from somewhere else, from someone else. It was repeated, over and over, a single thought, echoing millions of times, in millions of ways, each from a different place.

'…kill us…'

'…kill us now…'

'…kill us…'

'…please, end it…'

'…kill us now…'

'…make it stop…'

'…kill us…'

Shepard hesitated, but only briefly. '…I will… I'm… sorry.'

'FOOLISH, DELUDED, MEANINGLESS INSECT. YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST US. COMPARED TO US, YOU ARE NOTHING. YOU ARE LESS THAN NOTHING! YOU WILL NOT-'

'Sovereign… no... Nazara.' he sent calmly. Shepard began gathering his thoughts and his strength for one final push. 'That was the species that was used to create you. I didn't understand before. I do now...'

'I once told you to remember my face. But you won't.' Shepard sent out a single, massive blast of psychic energy towards the Reaper. He felt its mind resist. Shepard was like an ant trying to move a mountain. It was hopeless. It was pointless. It was... impossible.

'So is mind control.' he thought to himself with a small, internal chuckle. Then, he sent everything. Not just his mind, but his body, and his soul… his entire being.

And the mountain moved.

Ever so slowly, with less than the speed of a glacier… it moved.

'NO!'

'You won't remember my face, Reaper. I WON'T LET YOU!'


What remained of Hackett's task force darted around the massive bulk of Sovereign. They'd been hammering away at it for nearly two minutes, but its' kinetic barriers were damn near indestructible, and the armor it was made of ablated and shrugged off PRISM fire repeatedly, though a few decent blows in the same spot would open a hole. They tried focusing on the weak spots in its' hide, both those they'd created themselves, and those left there by the Normandy, but every time they manage to land a solid hit somewhere soft, the damn thing fired one of those red lasers from a tentacle, which vaporized anything they touched.

"Admiral, we're down to less than half strength!" yelled Sisko. "We need to fall back and regroup!"

"Like hell!" replied Hackett angrily, glaring at the Reaper, seething with icy rage. He piled upon the Reaper's black form the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would've shot his heart upon it. In that single, blinding instant, his normally unshakable, imperturbable calm was lost. "Lok'tar ogar!"

As Hackett finished giving the order, one which he expected would cost the lives of his entire task force, something inexplicable happened. No, not just inexplicable. It was miraculous. Sovereign stopped firing. Then, like the drifting of a continent, one of its tentacles shifted upwards. It shifted… and shifted… and shifted. And it kept shifting, until at last, it was pointed at the Reaper's own head.

Then it fired.

Sovereign's grip on the Citadel Tower loosened. Finally, slowly, it began to fall, teetering backwards from the structure. The massive, smoking hole left in its' carapace by the weapon of mass destruction it wielded was Hackett's in.

"FIRE EVERYTHING BUT NUKES AT THAT BREACH!" bellowed the Admiral over fleet wide communications channel. "BRING THAT MONSTER DOWN!"

The fleet complied, and thousands of rounds began pouring out of the Human vessels. PRISM beams, mass accelerator slugs, disruptor torpedoes, even GUARDIAN lasers, all flew in the hundreds towards the metallic monster that was slowly drifting away from the Citadel Tower. They impacted with the combined force of a star going supernova, and the Reaper began to glow brightly from within. After a moment, it exploded spectacularly, spewing debris and frigate-sized fragments in every direction. The entire crew of the Alliance dreadnaught, and every other ship in both fleets, erupted in cheers, shouts, and prayers, on every communications channel there was. Of the thousands and thousands of personnel on board, every single one was taking part in the celebration and jubilation.

All, except one.

"I don't know what you did, Johnathan, but I pray to god you're still with us." whispered Hannah Shepard aboard the Destiny Ascension. "Please, be safe. Please… be alive."


Tali struggled to lift herself out of the atrium where she and Liara had just fought what was left of Saren. The cybernetic imitation of a Turian had been more than tricky to deal with. It moved like a Geth leaper on steroids, but it had the shields and resilience of a tank. Fortunately, between her Tesla Cannon and Liara's biotics, they'd been able to hold it off and kill it, despite both taking injuries themselves. Tali was nursing a mostly sealed wound on her upper-left leg, which made walking difficult and painful, and Liara was busily applying medigel to a puncture on her right shoulder, which had left her arm dangling uselessly. They'd both recover, but it'd be a long road.

"I think I'll name you Chatika." said the Quarian idly to her Tesla powered shotgun.

When Tali finally made it up to what was left of the Council platform, she gasped at seeing Shepard's limp body splayed on the ground. Liara scrambled up behind her, but she barely noticed at she sprinted over to her Human lover. She ripped his helmet off and felt tears form and fall from her eyes when she saw Shepard's head. It was covered in blood. He was bleeding from his nose, his mouth, his ears, and even his eyes. The only reason he hadn't drown in his own blood was because he'd landed on his side. She felt his neck for a pulse, then let out a moan of relief when her fingers twitched against his throat.

"Thank the ancestors." she prayed, quickly applying medigel to his wounds. Whatever had happened, she wasn't about to let him go easily. She began hauling him upwards, intent on carrying him to… anywhere that wasn't here. Wrex, Ashley, and Garrus approached in the distance, and Liara shuffled over to meet them.

Tali finally managed to stand, and suppressed a pained groan when Shepard's weight bore down on her injured and newly reopened leg. Just as she finally managed to rise, she saw something that made her heart stop. Outside the massive, wall-sized window of the Citadel Tower, the Alliance fleet was hammering away at Sovereign for all they were worth. With a final salvo, the Reaper exploded violently, throwing shrapnel and debris in every direction. As she watched, a monstrous fragment of the destroyed vessel came barreling towards the Tower, and was mere moments away from crashing through into the Council Chamber… and her.

Knowing there was no way she could escape the impact zone in time, especially with her Human boyfriend in tow, Tali did the only thing she could: she wrapped her arms around his unconscious body and dropped to the ground, shielding him with her body. A moment later, there was a crash, followed quickly by pain, then blackness.


"Johnathan!"

Hannah Shepard's voice was desperate, and filled to bursting with terror and worry. Her son's entire team was still missing, but he was the one she was searching for. From what she'd been told, the six of them were here when the fragment of Sovereign hit. They had to be here!

"Johnathan! Please god, answer me!"

Dozens of members of C-Sec and Alliance security were combing through the Council Chambers, and were clearing away rubble and debris as fast as they could. The biotics among them were moving the larger pieces of material, and there were even some civilian volunteers helping as well. Even so, Hannah herself moved more of the twisted, flaming wreckage than anyone else, and the mounting pain in her hands and body was forgotten in her frantic search.

"He's alright, Hannah." said Sparatus softly, helping her to move a particularly heavy sheet of blackened metal. "We'll find him, any second now."

Ordinarily, she'd have told him to go to hell, but this time was different. Right now, anyone willing to help her search was an ally.

"Over here!" came a shout from somewhere in the chaos. It was a Human voice. "I think we've found them! Over here!"

Hannah immediately dropped the fragment of the Reaper she'd been holding, and Sparatus let out a yelp at the sudden increase in weight he was trying to lift. Hannah didn't hear it. She was already scrambling towards the source of the voice, far faster than a Human had any right to be moving.

"Take it easy." said one of the C-Sec guards, helping a battered Turian in blue armor to his feet. "You're gonna be just fi-"

"Johnathan?!" yelled Hannah, on the verge of tears. She skidded to a halt in front of the Turian in question. "Where's my son?!"

Garrus said nothing. He couldn't. If he said something, he'd have to admit it was real. So he said nothing. All he could do was turn his head and stare towards the bulk of the wreckage, further into the Chamber.

"Goddamn you, answer me! Where's my son?!" screamed Hannah, seizing the Turian sniper by the shoulders and shaking him roughly. When he averted his eyes and still didn't reply, her shaking got weaker, then stopped, and she slumped to her knees. "Tell me! Tell me, damnit! Where's my… where's my son?" She broke down completely, and let out a wordless, heart wrenching wail. Her vision blurred, and she vaguely realized her eyes were filled with tears. After that, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, and she rocked back and forth in their grip, keening for her missing child.

"Hannah…" said Sparatus, stroking her hair softly. "I'm… I'm so sorry, Hannah. He…" He couldn't finish. Sparatus looked up, and in that instant, he saw his third miracle of the day. Backlit by the glow of the Widow Nebula and Citadel Wards, a small, bipedal form stood amongst the wreckage. It was perched atop one of the largest pieces of the now-dead Reaper. Slung across its' back was a second form, even larger than the first. It began slowly walking down the sloped incline of the vessel fragment, taking care not to lose its' balance or drop its' burden. As it drew near, the figure resolved itself into a lone, injured Quarian, with a single Human soldier slung across her back. They were beaten… they were weary… they were injured… and one was unconscious… but they were alive. "Spirits above…"

Hannah sensed his change in mood, and glanced over her shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks. When she saw them, she was on her feet in an instant, and by Tali's side in two. She quickly ran her hands across her son's face, as if unsure if he was real. After a moment, her tears began to fall once more, but this time, they were tears of joy.

"Johnathan…"

"Mrs. Shepard, we need to get him to a doctor." said Tali, her voice labored and stressed from pain and exertion. "He needs help."

Hannah nodded, and then slipped her son's arm over her shoulder, helping the other woman in John's life carry him forward. He couldn't stand on his own… but then again, he didn't have to.


Author notes: A rather helpful reviewer has informed me that I should probably attribute any large quotes I borrow to their original authors, and he's right. Hackett's quote about shooting his heart upon the Reaper is from Star Trek: First Contact, and they took it from Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."