It was silent as the void, and to look upon it was to know terror. It drifted above us with slow, liquid grace, and its gaze caused madness and despair wherever it fell. Those it came near took their own lives rather than endure its hellish presence.


The Transmigration Effect

Chapter 29


ve·he·mence (noun)

1. great forcefulness or intensity of feeling or expression.


The top of the Citadel Tower is close, and with it Saren and the Citadel's master controls. Unless we can get there and stop Sovereign, the Reapers will wipe out all intelligent life in the galaxy.

So, you know, no pressure or anything.

"What's the holdup?" Kaidan whispers. It's a little pointless, since there's no air to carry sound.

"Can't you feel that?" Garrus responds, talking normally. As he says it, I feel it. With our footsteps in the background it's almost impossible to identify, but there are more feet than ours falling on the steel panelling. Heavy steps, too.

"Krogan," Shepard announces, peering through her scope. Hey, for once we might be the ones doing the ambushing instead of the other way around. The commander walks up a wall, magnetic boots clinging to it as easily as they do the ground. No direction in space, after all.

"I've got a view," she reports, using her thin rifle, invisible against the black backdrop of space, to scope the enemy out. Garrus climbs up next to her, peering through his own rangefinder.

"Geth as well," he notes. "A lot of them. Did these all come through the Conduit with Saren?"

"How many?" Liara asks.

"Two dozen and six Krogan," Shepard replies, sounding slightly intimidated. That's a lot of Geth to fight head on, and who knows how many are biotics. Not to mention the Krogan. Mass matters in zero gravity, and Krogans have a lot of it.

"That's a big gun," Garrus contributes, sounding impressed, even envious. "That couldn't have come through the Conduit."

"Reinforcements from Sovereign?" Tali asks. They have to be, if they didn't come through the Conduit. That raises its own questions. Have all the wards been overrun? Is the Citadel completely controlled by minions of the Reapers?

No, they can't have complete control yet. C-Sec can't be completely eliminated, though it's almost certain now that they've lost control of the station. That means there'll be Geth both in front and behind us, unless the fires hold them back for a while.

"What's the plan?" I ask. Thinking and theorizing is all well and good, but time is a factor, and there's not enough time to go around.

"That turret is troublesome," Tali says, looking through Garrus' rifle. "I recognise the model, vaguely. It looks like a Quarian design from the Geth War, modified to draw power from the Citadel's systems."

"What kind of firepower are we looking at?" Shepard asks.

Tali hesitates. "The very dangerous kind. It was originally developed to counter light vehicles with only one or two shots. It tracks very quickly and it was also able to fire a shotgun-like projectile against infantry. Its main drawback was the energy it needs to fire, but they've hooked it up to the Citadel's power. We can't fight it directly."

Shepard stays quiet for a moment, thinking carefully. "You said it was Quarian tech. Can you take control of it remotely?"

"I don't think so. Not from here. Besides, the Geth would detect my intrusion into the system and eject me. Then they'd know we were here. I might be able to stop it firing for a few seconds, though."

Garrus speaks up quietly. "Ah, but can you overload it?"

Oh, that's nice. That's really quite lovely. If it draws a lot of energy, then it has to be unstable if it overcharges. Tali reaches the same conclusion, and smiles. "I think I can handle that."

"Explosions are always the answer," I reply sagely.

Shepard ignores me and nods at Tali. "Here's what we'll do. Garrus, you'll lead the main attack. Tali will take the gun and then focus on tech; turn them against each other if you can. Kaidan, Parker, Liara, you'll be with Garrus. I'll take care of the Krogan and give you overwatch support. Everyone good?"

Losing Wrex and Ashley really screwed us over in situations like this. Wrex's bulk and biotic power made him the ideal point man and Ashley's versatility and heavy armour was almost as good. Garrus is the next best choice, but if he's leading assaults he can't be using his sniper rifle. In addition, Kaidan, Liara and I don't exactly constitute conventional fire support.

We'll have to make it work. Tali opens a suite of hacking controls, locking onto the Geth turret and pulling more and more power from the Citadel mains. The Geth twitch and their heads flick from side to side, communicating soundlessly. The Krogan don't notice, continuing to patrol the area.

"Come here, you little bosh'tet," Tali grumbles, coaxing the turret to draw more and more power. "Good," she mumbles, still talking to herself. "Now, into the heating coils, carefully…"

The back of the turret blows out suddenly, shrapnel shredding six Geth trying to slow the Quarian mechanist down. The rest of the gun slumps forward, crashing into the deck.

"Go!" Shepard commands, suiting actions to words. She breaks a Krogan shield with Overload, and kills him with a quick double tap. Garrus leads the attack, shredding a pair of Geth troopers caught unawares before they can get into cover. Liara opens a biotic singularity, pulling four Geth standing too close together off their feet and into space. One Geth glows blue and motions towards his flailing comrades, but I snap a stasis field onto in place before it can finish the motion. Without intervention, the four Geth float away helplessly.

Kaidan takes careful aim, killing a Geth trying to repair the back of the turret with Omni-gel. It looks to me like Tali trashed it beyond repair, but better safe than sorry. The Quarian machinist announces her return to the battle by hijacking a destroyer, and the machine calmly shatters another synthetic with a twitch of its finger.

The vibrations of Shepard's rifle echo again through the steel structure, and another Krogan falls without even realising he's under attack. For once, our enemies need to breathe. Even Krogan need oxygen to survive, and if there's a hole in your suit, well, it was nice knowing you. Shepard doesn't even need a headshot to kill. Any suit puncture will work.

Of course, the same goes for us.

The trade-off is that with Shepard's second shot, Saren's forces have found us. We've had the advantage for the opening moves, with no sound to give away our position. Even the direction the bodies have been tumbling isn't any indication, since with biotics we can pull or push in whatever direction we want. I'd hoped we'd be able to snipe them down with impunity, but that's no longer an option. The Geth lift soundless arms and open fire, the only cue for their assault the muzzle glow of their pulse rifles. The bullets are no less deadly for their silence, and my barrier drops fast as the Geth track onto us. Tali's destroyer goes down in an instant, torn apart from point-blank range by Geth more willing to amputate the afflicted platform than salvage it.

The Krogan add their weight of fire, heavy rifles pitting the metal framework with craters. The Citadel's superstructure survived direct hits from a cruiser, so despite the relative thinness of the cover I don't feel particularly threatened.

"I'm blind," I call, unable to look out due to the Krogan's suppressive fire.

"One moving in on you," Shepard calls, another jarring impact rippling through the ground as her rifle discharges again. "The biotic you froze is down. I'm still undetected."

I leap to the side, the magnets in my boots drawing me back to solid ground. Just as Shepard had predicted, one of Saren's cloned Krogan barrels around the corner, slamming a meaty fist into the metal, the exact location my head had occupied seconds before. In some distant part of my brain, the rational part of me notes that had I not called in the suppression, I'd be dead. The other part of me just freaks out at coming so close to death.

Unfortunately, Saren's pet clone doesn't give me any time for navel-gazing, swinging another brawny arm at me with enough force to smash a small car. The problem with flash-cloning Krogan, I suppose, is that none of them receive any kind of training or initiative. Strength is good, sure, but in space, muscle is of limited use. Mass is far more important, and the ability to manipulate mass invaluable.

Green light flickers around my body as I boost my mas to an absurd level, raising my forearms and taking the swing head on. With my magnetic boots deactivated the impact sends me spinning back towards a raised exhaust vent. I downshift my mass immediately, hitting the steel with as much force as a feather hitting the ground.

The Krogan hesitates in surprise and I push off the steel, hurtling forward and delivering my own hammer-blow. Without biotics to negate the impact and magnetised boots holding him in place, the Krogan's torso armour cracks and a white vapour bursts out of the broken plating. The clone lunges forward, attempting to kill me before it suffocates, but its punch just pushes me away.

When it comes down to it, there's no difference between a punch and a push. Without weight, the only things holding you to the ground are the magnetic boots. If they are turned off, then any impact just pushes you, more or less. Instead of grabbing me, I push off the clumsy hand, watching the Krogan die as his air escapes through damaged armour. The push still ends me into a raised vent, and the impact sets my head ringing.

"Krogan's down," I report groggily. "Turns out they're weak to vacuum."

"Cut left around the gun," Shepard orders. "Garrus is pinned. Take them out."

I see a flash of Liara and Tali trading shots with two more Krogan, and one more clone corpse with a sniper round through its neck. That accounts for the Krogan, but the Geth are still a threat. Blue light shines, bouncing off the metal surfaces and glaring straight into my eyes. Kaidan and a Geth biotic are locked in a duel, both of them straining against the other's power. The machine has a clear advantage in power, but the L2 knows every trick in the book and the Geth is slowly losing.

"You ok, Garrus?" I ask, trying to take the three Geth pinning him by surprise. The synthetics picked their position well, using cover to hide them from Shepard's rifle. With the rest of the crew occupied, they went after the only one on his own. Not a bad plan, all considered.

"A little tight," he grunts back. "This thing really wasn't designed for Turians."

I shove the closest Geth away with a biotic push, and the android stumbles into his fellows, knocking two of them off balance. The third and final Geth moves forward and keeps firing, and with the assistance of Sovereign, manages to predict Garrus breaking out of cover. The Turian's eyes widen as his shield strength plummets, and he spins back into cover as Shepard places a sniper round through its head, shattering it completely. The two Geth I knocked over I pound into the ground, smashing them between the Citadel's Reaper-made steel and my biotic punches.

"I have a problem," Garrus breathes quickly, not moving from cover. With Shepard and Kaidan's assistance, Liara and Tali finish the last of the Krogan, and the battle is over.

Except for the crack in Garrus' left arm, a crack that despite him trying to cover it as best he can, air escapes deceptively quickly. Through his helmet I can see his eyes, wide and close to panic. Hell, I'd be freaking out. The fact that he's got the presence of mind to keep the air loss to a minimum, not use energy or any extraneous words is remarkable.

"Hold your breath," I order, and Garrus glares at me. He's probably been holding his breath ever since he noticed the leak. I patch the crack with Omni-gel, creating an airtight seal. The Turian lets out the breath he's been holding, and takes a few more for good measure.

The rest of the squad arrive as I finish, Shepard's face clouded with concern. "He alright?" Shepard asks hurriedly.

"Air reserves are a bit low," Garrus grunts. "I'll be fine unless we're out here for another half hour."

Shepard visibly relaxes in relief, and Tali lifts Garrus' arm, studying my patch intently. "It's not pretty," she says critically, "but it should hold. Try not to back your arm against anything, alright?" She raises her own omnitool, evening my rough work and smoothing it so it won't catch on his weapons and armour.

"We won't be another half hour," Shepard declares, leading us down a narrow path to an airlock, presumably for maintenance workers or Keepers.

Through the Turian's hack, I hear the Citadel shipmasters trying to co-ordinate a counterstroke. No, this is the open channel. Another message to the Citadel's defenders? "This is Captain Phrygia of the Hierarchy cruiser Skywrath. To all surviving C-Sec and resistance forces on the Citadel; we have been forced away from the Citadel by Geth forces. We are not in position to provide support of any kind. Repeat, we cannot provide support. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. You're on your own. Spirits protect you."

A response comes back almost immediately, a Salarian voice. "Fuck you, Skywrath. C-Sec is holding Tayseri Ward, barely. The Geth lost a lot to the fleet's intervention before. We need that kind of firepower."

Silence from the fleet. The Salarian curses, ordering any of his surviving Mantis gunships to keep the Geth away from refugees. "Tayseri Ward calling any other C-Sec forces. What is your status? Over."

The five wards of the Citadel. Tayseri, Zakera, Kithoi, Bachjert and Aroch. Of the four remaining, only Zakera manages to respond. Even from space, the magnitude of the fires is obvious; wide swathes of the wards are covered in blazing red, silhouetted perfectly by the infinite black of space. It would be beautiful if it wasn't so horrifying.

There's nothing we can do for them, apart from avenge them and kill Saren. I turn my back on the wards, and the airlock closes behind me.

As air once again surrounds us and gravity exerts its familiar tug, I take inventory. Medi-gel, down to one third. Whether the recurring effects of holding the Ilos gate open or injuries sustained on the Citadel, I don't know. Hell, I don't think I remember half of our mad scramble here, but that's not important. The rest of the crew is mostly uninjured, barring bruises and scrapes.

Sound returns, as well. I didn't really notice it in vacuum, but the sheer silence of space makes the Council chamber almost deafening.

Shepard kicks aside a ventilation grate, and one by one we drop down, finding ourselves at the entrance to the Council's audience chamber, a few steps away from the elevator. Fires crackle against the walls, consuming the decorative plants. The heat haze clouds the air, distorting the view of the room beyond. Alarms blare against the dull roar of the fire, emergency lighting flashing intermittently, in time with the wailing alarm. Corpses of Asari, Turians, Humans and Salarians litter the floor, blood pooling into a sticky brown layer, like treacle.

The viewing balconies are shattered, all but one, though whether by design or simple luck I don't know. Smoke fills the top of the grand hall, coloured a bloody scarlet by the flashing lights.

I can't really take the bloody smoke as an ill omen. After all, it saved my life.

A sniper's laser sight cut through the haze, a smoke shadow betraying its presence, originating from the lone unbroken platform. I leap aside, hearing the whine of the round as it cuts through the air beside my head. Shepard responds with her peerless speed, drawing, firing and killing the Geth sniper in less than a second.

"Looks like Saren kept a few back," Garrus grumbles.

"Looks like it," Shepard agrees, keeping her eyes glued to her scope. "Move up."

Weapons drawn and shields up, the six of us creep forward, the haze turning the place into a kind of maze. Liara unleashes a bolt of biotic force, the attack curving around and tricking a Geth crouched behind a cluster of rocks. Rifles instantly track the prone Geth, fingers squeezing triggers.

The Geth lifts a hand, blue power coalescing instantly around its body. Our gunfire bounces off, the Geth completely invulnerable to our attacks.

It used Stasis on itself.

Another flush of worry washes over me. Already, they're adapting. Improving. Copying our techniques and using them against us.

I don't really have time to worry, though. Not with another five biotic Geth appearing from behind their invisibility cloaks, the same kind of stealth technology the Geth hunters use.

As one, the five Geth gesture, each forming a singularity that draws us in. Against two or even three I might be able to make a difference, as long as Liara, Kaidan and I were all working in unison. Against five singularities? Not a chance. Competing gravatic forces pull me in perpendicular directions, eventually suspending me above the floor, arms and legs pulled inexorably outwards. I can barely turn my head, but everyone is caught.

Slowly, the Geth manipulate their singularities, drawing us all together until we're virtually touching. These Geth don't have guns, but I don't think they need them. I clench my teeth to keep from screaming, praying that my armour stops my shoulders from dislocating, my legs from snapping against the overwhelming force.

The first Geth unfreezes itself, and stands tall. I glows a royal blue, so bright and so vast I can barely see the metal beneath. With all the grandeur of an orchestra conductor, it raises its arms, and brings them down heavily.

I screamed. All the force that had been pulling and pushing us together was abruptly redirected downwards, smashing us into the unforgiving steel floor hard enough to leave dents. The force continued to grow, adding to the Citadel's ambient gravity and crushing us into the ground.

I've never heard of a biotic attack like this. I can't move, can barely think with the pressure being applied to my body. Cracks like gunshots fill my ears and my HUD flickers and dies, the accelerometer clocking 60G before it goes. The cracks, I realise, is my armour. Under the unimaginable pressure, my armour is breaking. The full weight of the Geth biotics hits me, and it feels like my brain is going to be pushed out my ears.

Is this it? Caught in a Geth ambush, suckered into an easy target? Neatly bagged, ready for processing.

Did I screw up? Was I meant to do something, be somewhere?

More cracks. Not that it really matters now, I guess.

Somehow, Garrus' comm system survives. Well, so far. I can even still hear it.

"This is Kithoi Ward gunship Delta-four! I'm hit! I can't hold it! I've lost all control. My ejection seat is jammed! Oh, spirits. I'm on a crash course with the Citadel Tower, someone, please-"

An explosion rips through the tower and the whole structure trembles as if hit by a giant's sledgehammer. The Geth stumble and the crushing pressure of their biotics abruptly vanishes.

I'm free.

I'd like to say that I was up in a second, trading hits and ripping their optics out with my bare hands. Sadly, that's not true. Instead of bounding straight to my feet, my first reaction to the cessation of being crushed is to roll over and say something approaching 'mrgl'.

Garrus, on the other hand, does manage to bound to his feet. He manages to get in close with the Geth and after Virmire he has the perfected version of Tali's Kinetic Strike Module equipped to his gauntlets. He does rip a Geth's optics out with his hands, hold his assault rifle and gun down a second Geth before any of them can recover.

Shepard makes it to her knees, drawing her combat knife and sending it spinning end over end, burying it in the sightless Geth's torso. It drops, body leaking white fluid. Four left. Tali, still on the ground, hacks the Geth closest to the wall, the only one able to retain a semblance of balance. On the orders of its new master, the biotic Geth turns and brings its foot down on its comrade's body, shattering it under its mass multiplied one hundredfold.

The last two Geth seem torn between helping their comrades and striking back and their moment of indecision is fatal. Liara smashes them together with her own biotics, holds one down while Kaidan kills the other. She opens fire at the hapless Geth from less than a metre way, collapsing its shield and chest in short order.

I finally stagger to my feet, and Tali winces as she rests her weight on her feet again. "No broken bones," she supplies. "But I'm in no hurry to do that again."

"Saren!" Shepard shouts, her voice echoing through the ruined audience chamber. "I'm here! Let's finish this!"

"Come closer and we will." The fallen Spectre's voice is soft and smooth as silk and deadly as knives in the dark.

Shepard steps closer, up to the holographic interface that must be the Citadel's hidden master control. Saren's little hover platform floats up to face us and Shepard fails to clamp down on a look of revulsion.

Saren's face is almost gone, the entire left side burned away to show tendons and bone. The right side is little better. Much of it is burned black and the unburned flesh droops and sags despite its natural metal content. I guess you don't just walk off a nuclear bomb.

The disgraced agent tosses a grenade, raising his pistol in his other hand. The six of us duck behind cover, vanishing from sight in a second. The grenade detonates, sending a concussive wave through the hall. My armour absorbs most of it, but some of it resonates through the cracks in my armour and my vision wavers and blurs.

"I didn't think you were going to make it, Shepard," Saren remarks casually, unaffected by the blast. How is he able to just shrug it off like that? He's not even wearing a helmet. Then it hits me.

"You let Sovereign implant you?!" I shout, risking a glance at the Turian's face. What I'd thought were tendons are actually wires, wires and motors to facilitate speech. His eyes glow, not with any sort of biotics like I'd assumed, but with LEDs.

"I was gravely injured after your raid, Shepard," Saren says, ignoring me completely. "Sovereign rebuilt me to save my life. Don't you see? I was right! The Reapers need us! We can be useful for them! Our eradication will be averted! I have no more doubts. I see things so much more clearly!"

"Are you insane?" Shepard roars back. "You're just a puppet for Sovereign now! Nothing left!"

"No!" Saren responds, sweeping his hand to the side in a grand gesture. "I am the next stage of organic evolution! A fusion of flesh and machine. The strengths of both! The weaknesses of neither. This is what we were made to be!"

"If you're now a perfect life form," I call, "does that mean that you think the Reapers can be beaten now? Surely you don't think your godliness would struggle against glorified computers, right?"

Saren hesitates, and I push more. "I mean, beating the Reapers would be better than serving under them, wouldn't it? And if you're so great and mighty, then you can beat Sovereign for us. Unless, of course, you really are a slave. A puppet. Indoctrinated."

"A traitor," Shepard growls.

Saren pauses for a long second, staring at his gun. "No. The Reapers cannot be defeated. I am sorry you could not see clearly enough to save our peoples, Shepard. But you've been a hindrance for too long. Now, I must kill you."

With that, he vanishes from sight.

Kaidan curses liberally. The Geth were difficult enough to face with their invisibility cloaks, Saren using it too is just icing on the cake. With all the heat haze, any distortion from the cloak is going to be impossible to identify and the blaring of alarms covers the sound of any steps Saren makes. Shepard rushes forward, heading for the control panel.

Of course. We don't necessarily need to kill Saren. The only thing we need to do is use Vigil's program to stop the Reapers from returning, until Joker and the Alliance fleets can arrive and destroy Sovereign. Tali moves up to help Shepard and with two of them, the program looks like it's going to get uploaded in a matter of seconds.

Tali steps adroitly to the side, driving her fist forward, connecting with the invisible Turian, revealing him as the cloak fails. "Learn to hide your body heat, bosh'tet," Tali advises, punching the surprised Turian again. Ribs break, Saren's eyes bulge.

There's a common misconception that Quarians are physically frail, due to their need to wear their sealed environment suits. Put simply, it's a fallacy. In terms of physical strength, Quarians are on par with humans and most of them work physical jobs and have military training. With Tali's perfected fist mod, she hits just as hard as I do, despite her petite stature.

Saren's breath explodes out of his lungs, a fine mist of blood with it. The traitor falls to one knee, utterly surprised by the suddenness and viciousness of the machinist's assault. I see doubt on his face, not doubt about his ability, but about his purpose. There's a subtle difference, but I've seen a lot of grief, a lot of doubt. To doubt your purpose, not just your ability, it's a completely different level. Whether that doubt made him hesitate, took his mind away from the fight, I don't know.

In the end, it's irrelevant. Kaidan and Garrus each deliver an overload, stripping shield and barrier alike. Liara and I hold him down with our biotics, sealing his movement. Shepard places her rifle over the crippled Turian's heart and pulls the trigger.

Saren slumps lifelessly to the ground. Gravity assists his fall, as a mixture of blood and hydraulic fluid seeps from the wound. The corpse slides off the ground and down to the lower level, crunching wetly as it hits the steel.

Nobody says a word.

I guess… I don't know. I expected it to be harder than that.

Logically, though, this is what should have happened, right? One against six, an enclosed area and the one recovering from surgery and the aftereffects of surviving a nuclear bomb.

Hell, even the first battle on Virmire happened after we were worn to the bone, most of us unable to fight. We didn't know what to expect, what Saren could do. This time, we prepared for it, caught him out on a mistake and sucker punched him.

Shepard doesn't spare the dead Turian a second glance, turning back to the console and uploading Vigil's program.

"Joker, you read me?" She asks, and the crippled pilot responds.

"Loud and clear, Commander. I've got Admiral Hackett with me. We've run into a snag, though. We can't get through the Widow Relay."

"I have control of the Council chambers," she says. "I'm uploading a program that will unlock the relay now. You're clear for entry into the combat zone. Be advised, the Citadel Fleet has been all but wiped out. The Destiny Ascension is lost. Do you copy?"

"Acknowledged, Commander," Admiral Hackett's gravelly voice says.

"Sir, we need all of our forces to go after Sovereign." A new voice. "We can't afford to detail an entire fleet to the Geth. Sovereign must be the priority!"

"Stand down, navigator." Hackett orders, voice carrying infinite calm.

"Sir, I've got an incoming message," Joker says, voice perplexed. "The sender is the Shadow Broker."

There's an intake of breath, but I don't know if it's on this end or that.

"It says that the Cerberus infiltrator on the Normandy is Pressley." Joker's voice is quiet, shocked.

Shepard finally looks up from her console, face clouded in shock, shame and regret.

"What?!" Pressley exclaims, voice angry. "Let me see that. It's ridiculous. A fabrication."

"Navigator, the Shadow Broker is many things, but incorrect is rarely one of them." Hackett's voice sounds mild, unchanged. "Manipulative, however, is a favourite tactic, so I understand. Your role in this battle is noncritical, navigator. Please leave the bridge before we enter firing range."

"With respect, sir, as a member of this crew I have more experience fighting Geth than anyone in the fleets. You will need my advice."

The admiral's voice takes on a hard quality for the first time. "Navigator, I didn't become an Admiral by listening to every voice in my ear. Return to your quarters or I will have you escorted to the brig."

"Don't you see what an opportunity you have?" Pressley retorts. "We could take the Citadel right now!" The navigator's voice is fast, bordering on panic. "Do it!"

"Navigator Pressley," Hackett says, voice as cold as the abyss. "Lower your weapon."

"Do it!" Pressley screams, overcome by panic.

For a second, silence. Then the sound of something hitting the floor.

"Joker?" Shepard asks tentatively. "Admiral?"

"Explain yourself, doctor." Hackett's voice carries the same amount of heat. That is, absolutely none.

"I stopped him," Chakwas replies calmly. "By severing his spinal column above the second vertebra. Assuming the bleeding is stopped he is in no danger of death. The wound is comparatively simple. We cannot risk such reactions before battle."

Hackett's voice softens, just a fraction. "You're correct. Next time, don't leave blood on the floor. Someone could slip in it. Commander Shepard, the Relay?"

"O-opening now," Shepard stammers, entering one final command. "What the fuck was that?" she blurts the second the connection is cut.

"He got greedy," I summarise simply.

Shepard rounds on me, fire in her eyes. "Is that all you can say? Wasn't he your crewmate?"

I shrug. "They were all my crewmates, Shepard. One of them was going to be the traitor." The decision seems obvious, at least to me. "Why get close if I might have to shoot them?"

My bluntness checks the commander's anger, and her face falls. "Just like that? That's… so sad."

For a second, I'm tempted to say it. Everything. That regardless, I'm never going to be one of the boys, never going to be buddy-buddy with people. I'm different, irrevocably, on more than one level. Reborn, homo rachni. I made my peace with it a while ago.

The Relay begins to spin, glowing a luminous blue. Ships begin to pour through the relay, their shapes reassuringly human. Dozens, scores of ships. The Citadel fleet was barely worthy of the name, stripped back to the absolute minimum to save credits. This, though - this is what Sovereign should have faced when it attacked the Citadel.

And then some.

"First, Third and Fifth Fleets in system." Hackett announces, voice completely calm. "Commence operation. Parameters are as follows. Save the surviving ships of the Citadel defense fleet. Second, complete obliteration of all Geth and Sovereign. Keep your formations tight and overlap your fields of fire. Clean and precise, men."

Garrus sighs, resting his weight on the railing. "I guess… It's over?"

"Kaidan, go check Saren for a pulse," Shepard says, flapping her hand. The L2 biotic shrugs, vaulting the rail and landing easily on the steel underlevel. "I guess it is. For us, at least."

The sound of bone shattering echoes through the hall.

"That's… impossible," Kaidan says weakly, suddenly falling silent. Shepard's face falls, and she dashes over to the rails. "Lieutenant!"

Kaidan's body hits the ground in two pieces.

Saren's corpse stands tall, bloodied talon holding the marine's neck. Cleansing fire sweeps through the cadaver, burning away flesh and blood. In seconds, all that's left is unfeeling metal, a hollow phantasm of life.

What's left of Saren Arterius leaps straight up, easily reaching the upper level, rolling mechanically to his- no, it's feet. "Annelise Shepard," Sovereign says. It can only be Sovereign, that voice, that hatred. "You have become an irritation."

Faster than thought, the corpse lunges at her. Sparks crackle around the lethally sharp sickle-talon, Shepard's shields trying to divert the blow. Mecha Saren's hand clenches, and Shepard's shield just bursts, shredded and destroyed. A second razor hand whips around, sharp enough to cut the very air. Liara pulls Shepard backwards but the claw still scores a line across her nose, cutting through her helmet as if it were no harder than paper.

I throw out a Stasis, ensnaring the Reaper creation, holding it in place. The construct's head swivels Exorcist-style, turning in a half-circle to see me. Biotic power erupts from the corpse's skeletal frame, shattering my stasis just as Wrex did on Virmire.

Sovereign crouches on all fours, lunging forward. Fighting this thing is more like fighting an animal than a thinking, rational being. I duck on instinct; no idea if it's the right thing to do. But my head stays attached to my shoulders, so I did something right. By now Garrus, Tali and everyone else has their guns out, but they can't shoot with me so close.

"Anomaly," Saren hisses. "Die."

"Well fuck you, too!" I scream, tapping into the rachni power. My birthright, part of me roars.

A much greater part says only one thing. Kill.

A pair of overloads slam into the mechanical enemy, jarring it for a second. It's enough. Wreathed in vibrant biotic energy, I throw Saren away from me. Without barriers to tank the impact, the creature is pushed back, monomolecular talons slashing through the steel floor as it goes.

"Press the attack!" Joker calls, his voice ignored until now.

Sovereign shrieks.

The true Sovereign, atop the Citadel Tower, its screams communicated perfectly through the tower's structure, and for just a moment its control over Saren's corpse falters. Shepard sights and fires, blowing half of Saren's metal skull away. Tali's shotgun takes another chunk out of its ribcage and spine, Garrus' assault rifle fire shatters its legs.

Liara's warp sends wracking waves through the skeleton, and I gather all the power I can, all the rage I can find.

Between the atrocities of the Reapers, the murderous urges of the psychopath beneath my skin and the racial fury of the Rachni, that rage gathers like a miniature sun in my hands.

"Burst."


The explosion knocks us off our feet, throws us unceremoniously against the walls.

I didn't think I put that much into it.

The tower shudders again, the detonations aren't coming from inside but from outside. My ears whine from the concussive blasts; but I begin to pick up pieces of speech.

"Keep it up. Sovereign is losing strength. Bring it into knife-fight range and swarm it with wolfpacks!"

"They're winning," I breathe, ecstatic. We did it. It's over. Sovereign is losing. Saren is dead. The First Fleet is wiping out the weakened Geth ships.

More explosions rock the tower, flames flickering and rising ever so slightly.

"Eat that, you son of a bitch!" Joker yells, before Hackett's calm voice takes over.

"All craft, watch for debris."

"You can see it from here," Liara calls, bringing my attention to the hall's view. I can see Tayseri Ward in the distance; see one of Sovereign's legs and a cluster of debris flying towards it, blown off by Alliance guns.

The leg strikes the ward along the damaged section, close to the base where the Turian cruiser shelled the Geth.

The entire Citadel shakes from the impact and my elation turns to horror. Suddenly, all I can feel is cold.

Liara pales, before turning and barely getting her helmet off before she empties the contents of her stomach on the floor.

"Spirits," Garrus curses, mouth hanging open.

Tears fall from Shepard's eyes.

Tali collapses to her knees, hands covering her face. "All those people," she whispers.

The debris strikes the weakened line with tremendous force, smashing into the unshielded interior of the wards. The force of impact buckles the entire structure and in torturous slow motion, in utter silence, the Ward breaks. No, it shatters.

Impartiality takes over. To face that much death, that much destruction; I can't do it. I can't.

Anyone at the impact site is dead. Given Tayseri Ward was the only Ward controlled by C-Sec forces, casualties from the impact alone, approximately two hundred thousand.

The first of many, many more.

The rush of air escaping into space is visible only by the detritus it sweeps along with it, no less deadly for its invisibility. With structural integrity compromised, there is no way the Citadel's systems can maintain environment anywhere on the ward. Vacuum and cold sweeps over the city, every living being dies in minutes.

Minimum death count, two million.

No, I remind myself, it's more than that. As the only C-Sec held area on the Citadel, any refugees would be there, hiding behind police lines.

Revised estimate; six million dead.

Six million lives, gone. Doctors, scientists, generals, teachers. Mothers, fathers, children. Infants.

Sovereign explodes; the grim silence of the Alliance pilots a stark contrast to their jubilant banter only moments ago. The top of the Citadel tower goes with it and this time, when a piece of Sovereign's broken body smashes into the tower, I welcome it.


A/N: Here it is. Not the last chapter of the story ever, but the conclusion of the main plot. It's done. I feel a bit strange, honestly. I certainly never thought I'd get this far, or that so many people would read and like my work. I hope you've enjoyed every minute of it and I hope nobody wants to eviscerate me over killing three main characters in one story.

As always, I owe monumental thanks to the extroverted recluse for her brilliant work editing each and every chapter without complaint. I couldn't have done it without you.

Please review, if you have a spare moment. It means the world to me, especially with such a pivotal chapter :)

So, onto the future. This isn't the final chapter of the story, of course. There's still the epilogue, so we're not completely done. As with all other chapters, it will be released in one weeks time. Thank you all for reading so far - all of you. I'll see you next week!